A luminescent ribbon of golden fury ripped through the fog that hung over Locksmouth like a malaise, lighting up the sky in a cascading wave. Samantha Masterson's wide-open eyes witnessed it in its completion, feeling something familiar in it, but not quite knowing what. The jarring sensation of landing- or rather, of the person carrying her landing- snapped her back into focus.
When the dragon-esque creature from their previous battle on the train appeared, it had made its new appearance much... fatter than previous. The reason why became obvious when it opened its beak-like orifice and spewed not fire, but high-pressure blasts of sea water.
Jacent had proven too agile to fall victim to them even with his friend in tow. Still, as Sam glanced at a spot on the Fabricatory wall it had blasted, the appearance of base paint and constructive fibers sent chills down her spine. "Don't let it hit us!" she urged him, aware of how unhelpful the advice was and not caring.
Nevertheless, he didn't seem to hold appeals to the obvious against her. "I will try, but you must trust me!"
"Yes, of course, just do whatever you can!" The bat winced as a blast of hydro-pressure passed far too close to them for her liking.
Jacent bounced like a flea on an intercept course with the faux-dragon, staggering his advance in such a way as to frustrate any attempt to prematurely end the life of himself or the self-professed damsel-distressed he carried.
Before she knew quite entirely what was happening, Sam found herself seated... straddling the neck of the bloated draconic fiend. "J-J-Jacent, I don't want to be put down right here!" she fretted.
He looked up at her from behind the thing's tail. "This is the part where you trust me!" Leaning at an angle so acute only stunt cyclists could manage it, he boost-ran in a wide circle around to the front of the befuddled creature, catching its dumb, if dangerous attention. "Come on! Hit me!" He winced as it considered him for a moment, then began wondering just what was on its head.
"Uaaah! I'm trusting you, but you're making it hard!" Samantha wailed, clinging for dear life to the thing's neck, terrified.
"Just hang on!" he replied, paying back her earlier statement of the obvious. He looked around desperately, then finally, down at the pavement. Dropping to one knee, the costumed crime fighter pulled back his fist, drew upon his telekinetic energies and punched the street like it owed him a blood debt. A thunderous ~CRACK!~ loosed several large fragments of paving material that were just close enough to rocks to fit his purpose. He flung one of them at his faux-dragon friend, who took it on the chin and was, to put it lightly, not very happy.
The massive monster opened its gullet, let out one of its rock-band screech roars, and shot a devastating blast of brine Jacent's way. As ever, his only saving grace was speed. By the time the stream reached where he was, he wasn't, instead dashing toward it at top speed. The water blast was closing in on him as the monster's head angled downward, rogue strands of hair being painfully pulled by the incredible pressure.
Once he reached point-blank range, the attack was instant. He gave himself a leg-length to hop to a stop, landed in a standing position and delivered all of his bodily strength and momentum into one strike: the forbidden iron sand fist. Worthless for any opponent that wasn't dumb enough to stand completely still, the technique delivered an almost harmonic force that resonated through the faux-dragon's drum-tight belly and into its very bones. The concentrated water needle became a huge, uncontrolled splurge that soaked everything in front of it... including the very serious and very wet Jacent Danger, standing in the same striking position. In an incredible moment of inappropriate reaction, Samantha failed to stifle a giggle.
-
- -
-
In a dimly-lit basement, another girl rode a monster's head- at least, the closest thing it appeared to have to one. Staring out through Arus' eyes, Carrie slammed her fist into one of three gelatinous red jewels that stared back at her. It reeled back and reacted immediately, spinning its cylindrical head like a top. Cat held on tightly, sinking her claws into the chitinous flesh. When it realized its failure to dislodge her, one of its three mandible pairs clamped down onto her again, attempting to crush the small of her back along its jaw. Carrie took this as impetus to punch another eye, and the cycle began again.
Erwin witnessed the battle through Phactys' temporally-sensitive sight, the circular progression of the struggle almost infinitely more dizzying for the added perspective. Though with the better understanding, he found something interesting... the bugape- he had no other word for it- was careful to shut all three jaws before spinning its oddly-shaped cranium. And when he watched it in slow-motion, he knew why.
"Keep at it, I could do this all day!" she taunted the monster, then turned to Erwin. "... Hey, any ideas?! I can't do this all day!"
"Yes!" he answered in the affirmative, a thrill at his own cleverness shooting through him. "Shove your leg down his mouth! ... Er, one of them!"
"... Whatever." Feeling the jaw let go of her in its futile attempt to break her, Carrie quickly pulled back and snatched its folding mandibles in either hand. "Ah ha!" It didn't stop its head from spinning wildly, of course, but as she stared at the internal workings of its mouth, she knew that was her job. She jack-knifed her leg down its orifice and felt her foot jam itself into the cogs of its organic mechanisms instantly.
The beast reacted horribly to this, crying out in surprise and objection. It lost its balance and crashed to the ground with a defeated groan, before two layers of perpendicular eyelids shut over its eyes.
Carrie slid off of its head triumphantly. "Hah! How'd ya figure it out, book worm??"
Erwin smiled proudly. "Biology. I figured if there was a spinning mechanism, its mouths couldn't have had any room to chew. When it opened one, I realized that the cog-like grooves inside its spinning head unit were what actually crushed up its food. Stop the teeth, stop the head- stop the bugape."
She laughed. "Nice work! Good name, too, I like that." The cat ruffled his hair and gave him an almost macho hug, despite it being full of lace, curls and breasts. "Hey. Sorry about yelling at you earlier. We had to take the sub trans out anyway, and you made that happen."
The ferret chuckled nervously, as was his way. "Aw, that's okay. We were all frustrated." Blushing, a grin crept up the corners of his mouth. "Besides, after last night's dream, I feel much better."
Carrie put her friend in a neck lock, laughing and holding him playfully. "You are such a perv, a skeeve, a creeper!"
He giggled. "So are you! That's why we get along so well." A moment passed between them. "You're a good alpha, too. Sam and I really needed that after... all this."
Releasing him gently, Carrie lifted her arm to hang around his shoulders instead. "Hey." Flashing one of her rare genuine smiles, she put a pointed finger on his chest. "I said I'd always protect you, didn't I? Even when we first added you to the pack. Natalie didn't think it was a good idea, but who ended up being right after all?"
He smirked, a little embarrassed. "You."
"Damn right," she affirmed. "You ended up being a good addition, a great friend, and an asset to the whole group... and that was before we learned you had a monster dick."
The ferret flushed. "Carrie!"
She cackled, grinning. "Sorry, I ran out of sappy sentiment. C'mon, let's get outta this dusty basem-" their PETs barked in unison. Still inked, she shrugged and answered. A shaky mouse man made himself visible. "Arus here, what's up?"
He seemed a bit disheveled. "O-Oh. You're not Echelon."
She chuckled. "I see you've spoken to my better half. Nah, I'm not Echelon, but we're all on the same team. What's goin' on?"
"W-Well, I'm Dr. Trevors, and I'm trapped in this building, a-and I was hoping maybe you nice, um, alien people could, ah, help me out? I-If that's alright..."
"Yeesh, take it easy, doc- you're makin' me nervous," Cat responded. "That broadcast wasn't bullshit, we actually are the good guys. Promise."
"I-It's just so hard to trust anything..." Wade admitted, confused and afraid.
"Ah, Phactys here. Perhaps it would be easier to trust us once we've helped you out of your predicament," Erwin suggested helpfully. "We seem to be on the basement level, where are you?"
The mouse put his brain to work. "I've tried to escape multiple times, but all the doors and windows are blocked by this... horrible tree-like organism. I've been chased by monsters back into this smelter control room on the fourth floor. It's very small, and I've run out of food."
"Fourth floor, got it," the ferret noted. "We'll be there as soon as we can, just sit tight."
He winced. "I can still hear the monsters skulking around outside... are you sure you can help me??"
Arus thumbed toward the unconscious bugape in the corner. "Y'see that guy? I shoved my foot down his throat and knocked him the fuck out."
He paused. "... You know, I didn't expect that to make me feel better, but it does."
-
- -
-
It was strange.
Natalie knew her friends' little ticks and habits. Carrie's impulse to look away when she returned a quip to indicate an unspoken surrender... Sam's little mouth twitch when she saw a hideous outfit but wished to remain polite... Max's various ways of walking depending on how he felt.
Yet despite all of this, she might not have physically understood the movements of anyone in the world as well she did those of Cedric Onyx. His facial tells, the way he clenched his fists a little too hard, his attack pattern of feinting after a failed push and relentlessly bashing at his opponent until he was forced away... it was almost distressing that on a base level, she probably knew Cedric better than anyone else, by sheer necessity. Was this how Jacent felt about his old foes?
The badger stepped in, rolled out, backstepped and circled to her expectations. It was almost like a dance- one that had been invigorated with the addition of his occasional magma burst. Even that was something she was beginning to recognize for belonging to his relentless style, however, and she was picking up the steps.
"Come on, hero! Think you've got what it takes?!" he goaded, prompting her attack, prompting his counter, her counter, and so on. Puddles of magma should have existed with how wantonly he threw them, but instead only growing holes pockmarked the roof.
"Don't you worry, I'm just getting warmed up!" she threw back at him, backstepping to switch to Jacent's powerset- she was getting good at that- and catching all of Cedric's blows as the red-haired hero had done the night previously to her.
The badger roared and flared in hideous rage mixed with ecstatic exhilaration, throwing his all against her until he finally just fell to his knees in exhaustion. "Y-... You did it, Natalie... each person only has so much energy to spare for their inkling... and you forced Emnas to use it all."
A light popped on in her head. "Ah! I get it! So now that you have Parthal in your exhausted body, she can't summon anymore monsters!"
He nodded, panting. "I could never be your friend. But I figured, maybe I could still help... if I was your enemy."
She just looked at him, the smirk never leaving either of them. "I don't know what it says about me as a person, but I prefer you as a nemesis."
Cedric only laughed hoarsely. "Well, the feeling's mutual. Now get outta here... I'm gonna... take a little nap." And with that, he collapsed, passing out.
Natalie let Echelon recede for a moment, catching her breath and allowing her inkling the rest. She'd not even had to ask- she just felt somehow that she was getting tired. "A nap sounds pretty good right now, actually..."
"Hey, Natalie!" Max called, poking his head out from a large hole that Cedric had created in the roof with one of his many magma blasts. "I found a way in! Follow me!"
-
- -
-
Samantha Masterson was getting antsy. Of course, this was most notably because riding on the neck of a horrid dragon-monster was not her idea of a good time. "Jacent! I would like to be just about anywhere else right now!"
The costumed vigilante dodged slow, deliberate swipes of monstrous limbs in earnest. "It's the only place that's safe!"
Sam shook her head. "Oh, fie on this!" With exactly no hesitation, she pulled off her top and spread her arms wide as if to form a 'Y' for some song and dance routine. Flexing some tiny clasp-like muscles up her sides, her ordinarily small, banner-esque wings fanned out hugely. Flapping the membranous things, she quickly took flight, lifting well above the draconic beast's reach.
"... Oh," Jacent realized a bit dumbly. "Right, or you could do that. Wait, Sam, look out!"
The creature that had terrorized Samantha on the train was now flapping its own wings, ascending toward her with hungry intent.
"Ah! H-Help!" she cried. It was no exaggeration to say that Sam took the gift of flight for granted. Such an act fell under athletics, of which she had only a spectator's interest. As a result, her own endurance for all that flapping and posture was minimal at best before she had a big metal leg to carry around... and she wasn't about to break any records for flight speed. Nevertheless, the beast attempting to swallow her up like a tiny morsel was more than enough motivation to make the extra effort.
The monster's jaw champed shut much too closely for comfort. She flapped harder and streamlined her body as much as possible, her entire frame wire-tight with mortal terror. Never before had she felt the fear of being pursued by a predator like this, panic fueling her frantic attempts to escape. She hazarded a glance over her shoulder...
~CRUNCH!!~
Jacent slammed into the airborne creature like a thunderbolt, caving in its underside and launching it much higher than it or Sam had climbed. Intuiting that it was the same creature they'd faced on the train, his strike landed directly in its already injured ribs- a blow which crippled the beast and sent it falling toward the earth below.
"Grab my legs!" Sam urged her compatriot as the monster he rode now began to plummet. Jacent fixed his grip over the bat's smooth calves and kicked off of the sinking fiend. "Awp!" Sam shuddered under the additional weight, flapping frantically before simply spreading her wings as far as she could.
The monstrous water-blasting creature hit the ground like it had started the trip from orbit, buckling pavement beneath it and letting out strangled sounds of pain. It quickly became apparent to Jacent that he was far too heavy for Sam to glide down with safely, and let go, much to the bat's distress. He accelerated, spreading his force shield in as broad as possible. Upon impact, his air cushion made a compressed whooshing sound, his toe touched ground for just a moment, and he sailed back into the air at about half the height he'd fallen from. This happened again and again, halving his ascent each time, as one might have expected a rubber bouncy ball to. He could easily have spammed down and let the shield crack the pavement just as he monster had, protected by his air cushion... but he didn't expect that people in this time appreciated property damage any more than they did in his own.
Exhausted from her flight and attempt to carry Jacent, Sam let out a small swoon and dropped the last fifteen feet of her descent... right into Jacent's arms. "Ah! Oh... oh my." She panted tiredly. "My hero," she half-whispered to him, smiling.
Jacent smiled in return, gently setting his friend down in a patch of grass. "Rest a moment." His gaze turned to the monster, which laid on its back weakly, and began pacing toward it. "As for you, beast..." He saw it snap at him out of range, heard its angry cries, and raised a finger. "If you try to injure one more innocent..." His boot slammed into the pavement, shaking the foundation enough for even the faux-dragon to feel. "You will release The Dragon! And it is something to be feared." He took another step, and it roared at him again, frantically. "Do not trifle with me!"
"Jacent, wait!" Sam called from behind him, walking up. "I think... I think that it's afraid..."
"What??" he queried. "How can you tell?"
Shaking her head, the bat slowly walked toward the monster. "I don't know. Something about its body language or... well, it didn't choose to be here- that was Parthal's doing. And then you critically injured it..."
"Sam, don't get any closer!" he warned.
"No, wait." She gestured for him to stop. Slowly as she could, Samantha walked toward it, despite its stance of distrust. "I'm going to try to heal it."
"Sam, you can't! It's a soldier for the other side."
"I don't think it has an inkling..." she admitted. "I think they're just using its aggressive nature to their own ends. Easy, there..." The faux-dragon let off uneasy sounds of warning and fear. "I'm not going to hurt you. Just wait- awp!" It snapped at her, but she reflexively kicked its head away with her prosthetic leg. It yelped, whined and cowered. "None of that, now!" She looked back at Jacent, who seemed ready to spring into action at a moment's notice, and gestured that it was alright. "Hm. Let me try something different." She stroked her hair demurely, summoning Mhend over her flesh. Now vibrant pink, she gestured at the fallen creature and smiled, a comforting pinkish aura extending around her. It calmed herself, it soothed the beast... it even made Jacent relax. She walked right over and stroked its long beak-like snout. It let out a soft, mournful sound and its elongated eyes pushed in slightly, as if wincing in discomfort. "Shh, it'll be fine, I'll make everything better."
Jacent, through a haze of fuzzy pink happiness, looked on at the spectacle with confusion. "What's wrong with it?"
Samantha gazed back at him smartly. "You should know- you were the one pounding on its broken ribs."
"It attacked us," he responded maybe too quickly.
"Yes, yes it did," she agreed patiently, spreading dollops of pink along the injured creature like butter, melting into healthy, structured flesh. "Because it was terrified. And frankly, I don't blame it."
"I had to do something!" Jacent insisted.
Sam slowly looked over her shoulder at him. "... I was about to say that I don't blame it because Parthal scooped it up from its resting place in the ocean."
"Nnh." He bore his words with regret. "I'm sorry, I just..." He fumbled a few moments. "Accusation is an old acquaintance of mine. Sometimes I wish I could be the warm, fuzzy healer."
"That's perhaps your most useful experience to us of all," the bat replaced her top, ink fading from her. "It isn't just fighting we need to understand- it's how to gain others' trust from this strange position, so that we don't seem like..." She patted the faux-dragon's head. "Well. Monsters."
-
- -
-
"Come on! Who's next?!" Carrie bellowed, sucker-punching a shuffler in its nondescript face, lifting it by the scruff of its neck and headbutting it to devastating effect. She laughed like a vainglorious warlord as its unconscious body thumped percussively on the floor.
Backing down the cluttered hallway, Erwin quite literally tangled with a crawler that tried its best to reach his liquid face. Struggling to push it away, he reached for a fire extinguisher and shoved its blunt end in the thing's open maw. A few bashes against the wall and it fell, squeaking in protest. Feeling a familiar twinge, he ran back to the safety of Carrie, who was busy slamming together the faces of two shufflers whose arms she'd bent the wrong way. "Carrie! The elevator!"
Cat looked back toward the elevator, which opened to flood the hallway with crawlers, shufflers, bigmouths and smaller versions of the bugape, which must have been its brood. "Come on, gimme a break!" She ran toward the crowd, set her feet, slammed her hands into each wall and lowered her head. "Let's do this!" The tide of monsters hit like the audience at a Death Disco concert, pitting their strength against her own. They pushed and slapped and struck against her, pushing her like a rubber band, but failing to break through. "Hit harder, fuck face!" She slammed a knee into a bugape's gut, then drove her foot into a bigmouth's namesake, twisting her foot until something crunched. "I... don't... gnrgh..." The monster squad slid her along the floor by inches, bits of wall crumbling around her fingers as she was forced back.
Erwin watched with growing anxiety, mind working a million miles a minute, scrambling for a solution. "More time, I need more time... ah!" He focused, and unseen quantum gears showed themselves in his periphery. The struggle slowed down, Arus' white form glowing in the focused darkness. Unblinking horrors flowed in a mob-like miasma against her in an ocean of malevolence. Constructive plastics and display skein fell from the wall around her fingers like snowflakes of destruction. The elevator doors began to close at a glacial pace.
Ah ha!
Tucking the fire extinguisher under the tool apron of his pants, Erwin made a break for it. He ran toward the conflict, shoes struggling to gain enough traction to keep up with his pace. When he closed in on Carrie, he didn't pull her away or join in the fight; he stepped on her. Holding her arms, the ferret hoisted himself up by stepping on her upper back and standing on her shoulders. Not stopping there, he stepped on the face of a shuffler, the back of a bugape's neck, another shuffler's shoulder, and a janitor's floor machine, all but the last contorting with the sudden effort of supporting him. His feet hit the ground and he made a mad dash for the elevator, now half closed. It taunted him with its closing gap as he closed in, now just a few feet away and far beyond the point where any normal person would attempt to board. He threw himself toward it, twisting sidelong in midair, sliding through the double doors with nary a moment to spare...
Then the quantum cogs set to spinning again, throwing him to the ground and shutting the doors. "Argh! Ow!" The pain of slamming his head against the elevator door at full speed made him wobble as he rose, but he pressed his clenched fist against the 'open door' button all the same. "Carrie!" he called through the opening elevator. "Get in!"
Cat momentarily wondered exactly how her ferret friend had gotten onto the other side of the monster mob so quickly, but swatted it away in favor of far more pressing concerns. She raised her feet, pressed against the chest of a shuffler and pushed off, landing a few feet away from the group. Spotting a skiff trolley, Carrie grinned at the sadistic possibilities. The pugilistic feline grabbed the cart and swung it in a wide arc, throwing several monsters sprawling. "Beep beep, outta my way!" She hunkered down and ran straight through the rest of her foes, plowing them aside as she made a break for the elevator.
A wayward bugape spawn got caught on the other end of the hell trolley, getting smacked against the elevator wall. Enraged, it lifted Erwin and slammed his head into the ceiling. Carrie took this personally, backing up to slam the hover cart into its lower body over and over again. As soon as it dropped Erwin, Cat lifted the trolley over her head, grimaced a mouth full of rage and threw it into its face. The bugape dropped like a bag of rocks, prompting her to kick its ugly ass out of said elevator.
As the doors closed, breath was caught and they started moving, Carrie knelt next to Erwin. "Hey, you okay, bookworm?"
"Nnh, yeah. Just caught one too many knocks to the head." He tried to stand up, but something disagreed with him. "Argh..."
"Hey, hey. Take it easy." Cat sat sidelong and turned, propping the ferret's head up against her thighs. "We can't afford to damage that big bulgy brain of yours. Not like with me- I can take hits to the head all day, no risk there."
Erwin laughed softly. "I'll be fine. I just got a little dizzy."
"That was gutsy, crowd surfing that bunch of assholes. That was a huge number of creeps, wasn't it??"
He smiled slowly. "... It was a monster mash."
They both laughed as the elevator crawled upward, obviously malfunctioning. Carrie stood up and got a call, from which Max and Natalie appeared in holographic form. "Boobiecakes? You're inked too, huh?"
She smiled and shifted her weight from one leg to another. "Hey, Sugarbutt. Yeah, we've had a fuck of a time down here." She stopped to relay what they'd seen and done, receiving much the same. "You faring any better?"
"I wish I could say 'yes,' but this place is overgrown with tree. What isn't blocked by plants or monsters is covered up by trashed experiments. I don't wanna say it, but getting to Dr. Trevors may take longer than we thought."
Carrie thought about it a moment. "Hey, you know this place pretty well, right?"
"Like the back of my hand," Nat affirmed. "I used to annoy Mom by coming to bother her at work."
"Well, we're on like the... fifth floor. Is that guy anywhere near us?"
"Actually, yeah! That's the smelter level. If you can get to the stairwell, he should be somewhere on the next few floors up!"
"Smelter?" Erwin clarified. "Like metal? Isn't that dangerous?"
"Nah," Nat waved him off. "I've been there a hundred times, it's fine."
The elevator stopped suddenly. "Welp, the cord just snapped." Carrie grunted in the affirmative. "Looks like this is our stop." She hit the door open button, which revealed a bunch of shaft wall and about a foot of open air, at the top of the doorway. "Hey, look, Erwin, it's got even more shaft than you."
"Ugh, Carrie!"
"What would life be if I didn't tease you, dorkmonster?" The cat braced the palm of one hand against the top of the elevator door, and one against the floor they were trying to reach. With audible effort, she slowly pushed until roughly two thirds of the door was open to them... and the elevator shuddered.
"Okay, that's far enough!" Erwin determined, crawling up to the open area.
Carrie only laughed. "Scaredy cat."
-
- -
-
"Come on, Max, it should be just a little further!" Natalie urged her reptilian friend. "Can you see the exit just ahead??"
Maximum Tangent looked up from his crawling position in the service duct. He tilted his head left, right and downward, but all he managed to see were shoes, black fur and Natalie's prodigious hindquarters. "Nnnot really."
"What?? C'mon, it's like ten feet out!"
"Lobo chica, your booty's bigger than mine, and Erwin calls me Mr. Bubbles for a reason."
She snort-laughed. "Does he actually??"
Max nodded, grinning. "And I call him Dig-Dug!"
She shook her head, smiling and turning around to position her feet to the access panel. "Sorry, Max, that one flew over me. Your Old World Kung-Fu is stronger than mine."
"Only for now! Soon you will be a master!"
She grinned. "Yeah, I don't think so." With a kick, the access panel flew off, and the wolf girl landed gracefully on the floor of a large workshop. Nozzles, wings, fuselages and other random mechanical components littered the place. Projects sat in varied states of completion, prototypes on display and mind-bending equations scrawled all over the flickering walls, which struggled to stay on.
"Duuude," Max marveled as he climbed down the wall. "Where are we??"
She looked around. "Eighth floor, Aeronautics. They make verniers and other space navigational stuff here. This is where Dr. Trevors works, actually- I would've expected to see him here."
"Hey, isn't he your mom's friend?" the iguana queried, examining a half-built gadget with several move-y parts which fascinated him.
"More than that," Natalie assured him. "He was Mom and Dad's packmate when we still lived on the Ring; he was like an uncle to me. When Mom and I moved down to Earth, Dr. Trevors was the only one who followed her, despite the fact that his work was so much harder to do inside the atmosphere."
Max cocked a brow as he and Gropey looked over some oily ring clasp mechanism. "Wow, it sounds like he cares about your mom a lot."
Nat examined a door that had been barricaded with chairs and other large objects. "More than she probably even understands. He wants to be with her really badly, but he keeps waiting for her to make the first move, out of respect for Dad." She took a deep breath and shook her head. "I wish one of them would just have the guts to take the next step; she's always so much happier when he's around."
A grunt of pain following a loud thump made them aware of a man coming out from under a table. There stood a mouse who looked to be in his 30s, wearing a torn labcoat and his signature bowtie. He stared at the inkling known as Echelon with big, honest, almost sad eyes. "Natalie...?"
"Guh!" she blurted out. "Uh! I don't... know what you mean! I'm Echelon! And I'm, uh, the..." she sighed, realizing quickly that he wasn't buying it. "Crap! Secret identities are hard..." she commiserated with Max, who nodded in earnest.
For his part, the scientist only shook his head in disbelief. "Natalie, is that really you?"
"Yeah, it's me, Dr. Trevors," she admitted. "Look, I'm gonna need you to keep this a secret, alright? ... Even if I haven't been really good with it."
"Of course, Natalie," he agreed. "I'd do anything for you or Lorrie. You know that."
She shot him a pink smile. "Thanks. Um... actually, I may just take you up on that. See, I have a friend who wants to build a machine, and he needs to make a couple of really big, um, power couplings, I think? Do you know where we could do that?"
"Oh sure, that'd be... Laser Tech. One floor below us. They get all the good fabricating equipment."
"Great! Thanks." Nat pointed at the pile of junk up against the door. "Max, clear away this rubble, please! With any luck, we'll meet Carrie and Erwin on their way up."
"It's good. As. Lickinated."
The iguana set to work clearing the way, but the mouse man still seemed troubled. "Natalie... did you mean that, earlier? What you said?"
"About you and Mom?" she intuited. "Well... yeah. I mean, isn't it obvious by this point?"
"Well. I just..." Wade Trevors frowned. "The truth is, I just wanted to be respectful. Not just of Lorrie, but... I mean, I'm not your father, and I didn't want you to think I'd ever try to-"
"Dr. Trevors." Natalie creased her brows. "It's been years since Dad passed away. Since I was still small, you and Mom have done everything together. You watch movies, you go to the park, you come over for dinner, you talk for hours, and you go upstairs and get really loud."
Wade winced. "S-... Sorry if we're that obvious about it.
"Heh, why do you think I sleep downstairs when you're over?" She gave a big, over-dramatic shrug. "You make Mom happy, that's what Dad would want. You don't need his or my permission to do that." She overturned the last chair and opened the door. "But you might need a magic lamp to see her again if I can't save her from Osoth."
Dr. Trevors twitched. "I knew there was something wrong. What happened? I want to know everything."
The doctor's reflection stared back at him in Echelon's solid pink eyes. "Then come with me."
-
- -
-
"Whoa! Watch it! Ohmigod, hold on!"
Erwin wasn't sure exactly how he'd ended up exactly where he was. Riding in the front of a utility trolley as it sped up and down the warped walkway of the overheated Smelting Chamber like a demented roller coaster was not his idea of a good time.
"We're coming up on a rough spot!" Cat called out from behind him, holding onto the back and pushing/steering with her feet. "It's about to get bumpy!"
"Oh, great!" Erwin remarked miserably. They pumped up an incline that nearly hit the roof of the transparent steel walkway tube, then dropped down a steep slope that came dangerously close to the pool of molten metal beneath them. On an unlucky dip, the hovering trolley splashed in a puddle of the hot liquid and spilled onto the inside wall of the trolley. The ferret winced as the deadly-hot splurge of metallurgy oozed down the cart before him. He pulled out the fire extinguisher from between his legs, armed it and turned the front of the trolley solid white with all of the chemical cold released onto it. For its part, the liquid metal curled up and plunked down at his feet.
"Easy, buddy, we're home free!" Carrie skid to a stop in front of the stairwell access, the cart turning over with a now sprawled out Erwin in it. "Woohoo! what a wild ride, huh?'"
"Remind me never to listen to you again," he complained. "We could've walked that!"
Cat shook her head, smirking. "C'mon, smartypants, no way you really believe that. Any more than a couple of seconds around all that steam and you would've been rotisserie-broiled. Even I felt like it might burn my ass off."
They climbed the stairs together, Erwin complaining of the physical strain of the past few days, Carrie admonishing him with tough love. Finally they reached the next floor, and the ferret reached for the door handle.
"Hey, hold on, I got a note from Natalie," Cat announced. "She found the doc! He's on floor seven. C'mon, let's get up there!" she urged as Erwin only groaned.
Unseen to them, the door they had left behind opened, by way of a blue hand.
-
- -
-
"Dr. Trevors, watch out!"
"Uh?!" The mousy scientist turned around to stare at a top-heavy insectoid that was not Shelly Iverson. Triangulated eyes spun, blinked and widened in rage as its jaws opened threateningly.
Natalie boost-skipped over and shoved Dr. Trevors aside. "Het-sat-SIEYAH!!" A high-low-mid punch combination forced it to stumble back, and she quickly seized the opportunity to roundhouse the lumbering creature so suddenly that it shook the floor as it hit. It tried getting up again, but Max spit onto the floor under it and she sumo butt-slammed it into the sticky puddle like a piece of overlarge flypaper.
"... Where did you learn to fight like that??" Wade marveled.
"In school, where everybody told me not to," Nat answered simply, helping the doctor up and walking further down the hall until they reached the stairs.
"You must feel pretty vindicated," he chuckled.
She cast a rather sullen gaze, descending the steps ahead of him. "I'd rather be back in the Principal's office, knowing my Mom is coming to pick me up."
Dr. Trevors frowned. "Natalie... your mom believes in you. And... so do I! I know you can do whatever you set your mind to. You'll get her back."
She took a breath and opened the door to the seventh floor. "Everyone seems so sure of that except me..." The three of them stepped out and immediately came face-to-face with Erwin and Carrie. "You guys!" She rushed forward and hugged Cat.
Carrie laughed and squeezed back. "We were only gone for a half-hour, sheesh." She met her lips in a kiss, chuckling.
Then one end of the hallway exploded.
High-pressure water and sunlight flooded in. Jacent and Sam sat on the neck of the dragon-creature from the train. "What the-!"
"It's okay, Natalie, dear!" Sam assured her, sliding off of the creature's head. "Nozzle won't hurt you."
"'Nozzle??'" The wolf girl cocked her head.
"Indeed," Jacent confirmed. "It is... apparently a little too dumb for an inkling."
"But dumb in a warm, lovable way; isn't that right, Nozzle dear?" The bat stroked the faux-dragon's head gently as its other passenger disembarked, eliciting a creaky, gurgling sound of happiness from it.
"'Oh, Natalie, please don't let her keep that! It'll be so dreadful!'" Max mocked the bat girl smugly, Gropey looking down at her as if somehow from a high-horse.
"Shush," Samantha hissed, ears swiveling back.
Wade walked forward. "Erwin? I'm Dr. Trevors. I've heard about this invention you're building. I want to help. Please, come with me to the parts fabrication room."
"Great!" But we're going to need someone to help with lifting some of these parts now that the power's so dodgy."
"Lift heavy shit, huh?" Carrie chuckled. "That's my cue. I'll go help the mathemagicians; see you in a bit." She leaned over, kissed Natalie and headed into the side room to assist.
"I would like to see this device being built as well," Sam admitted.
"Yeah, me too!" Max agreed excitedly.
"Go on ahead, guys. I'll stand guard out here." Natalie thought about this for a moment as the rest of her friends went inside. They were standing guard, anywhere they went, weren't they? Remembering back to the school, it wasn't difficult to recall when standing around was something that made her feel vulnerable. She was alone, then, trying to find somebody to help, somebody to give her answers. Even somebody she could help made her feel better. But by herself? That way lay terror.
She knew her friends had to be thinking that she was having the time of her life- that some childish wish had been granted in this disaster she had become determined to play the role of hero in. But the truth was, as with a child who got to be an astronaut or police officer for a day... it was too much.
She longed for the simplicity of foiling the schemes of someone whose master ambition was to wedgie others or steal their lunch. She liked the ability to come home to the same place and know there was food in the pantry. She missed the promise of safety outside of the glorified battles with her schoolyard nemesis.
But things could never return to the way they were. Not now. Her home town had become a locked down quarantine zone, parts of the beautiful cityscape destroyed. Her smart, wisecracking but loving mother was host to the murderous god-queen of an alien race of extradimensional beings. And even if she managed to make all that right, if she were able to set the clock back to when things were alright again... she wasn't Natalie Grayswift anymore. Not Natalie Grayswift, the girl that everyone in school knew from somewhere on the tip of their tongue. Not Natalie Grayswift, the C student with an aptitude for physical ed. She was Natalie Grayswift, host to Echelon, and holder of a secret that, she now realized, was almost impossible to keep.
Her mind wandered to Jacent as she sat against the wall. She had spent her childhood thinking that she wanted to be Captain Comet. But it wasn't true. In her fantasies, she was a friend to Jacent, who sacrificed everything to save the day. And she would help! But after the villain of the day was beaten, her mother would call her for lunch, which she would hungrily eat, and then take a nap on her soft, warm bed.
Jacent didn't get those things. He didn't get the peanut butter sandwich or the comfy sheets. He didn't get the caring friends or the safe home. He had chosen this life that she idolized... but now that she had it, even with his own tutelage... she didn't want it.
She didn't want to be Captain Comet, and it terrified her to admit it. Well, of course it did! She couldn't admit it now, it was too late. Everyone was depending on her. Reality had spitefully granted her deepest wish, and now that she realized what a mistake that was, it was determined to continue to punish her, all the way to the finish. It made her sick to her stomach. She shook, clutching herself. What was she supposed to do? Admit this to her friends? What good would it do? Would it become a choice between admitting she wasn't cut out to do the thing she'd dragged them all into... or holding this secret inside until she finally... possibly failed?
"What do I do now?"
-(_/
-(_/\_)-
\_)-
"Natalie..."
"Natalie."
"Mmrh."
Eyelids held heavy, slow, as if having forgotten how to open. Light was absent in all ways, before slowly making itself known once more. Shades of black became greyer and greyer, committing no more to the stygian darkness that held so firmly. The light showed itself to be a shape- a rounded rectangle, tauntingly familiar yet just out of memory's reach.
The rectangle drew back, opening more and more of this luminescent world to her. Mechanically sliding out of place and out of the way, swinging and popping and shifting open.
"Natalie."
A smiling face greeted her. It was her mother.
"... Mom?" She quivered. Her voice seemed smaller, somehow.
"Are you alright, sweetie? I hope you aren't sore." The weary but diligent woman smiled softly, sitting in a chair beside her.
"But... how can you be... here?" Natalie slowly rose and looked around the room, wondering where exactly 'here' was.
"Oh, honey, it's okay. I'm here. And you'll... you're gonna be alright." When Lorna pulled her into a hug, she felt... larger, somehow. Her hug encompassed all of Natalie, wrapping around her protectively and cradling her head to her.
Natalie needed the hug, and pressed into it, enjoying her mother's soft, familiar warmth. She opened her eyes after a few moments and pulled away gently. "I don't understand. Did I fall asleep or something? How did you come back?" And why did she sound so squeaky? "D-... Did we win?"
Lorna took a breath as if to say something, then bit her lip, too many emotions on her face to read. "Yes, Natalie, we won. You're safe, you're here with me... and... you're my little girl, I'd never let anything happen to you. So don't worry. Everything's alright."
Natalie shook her head slowly, unable to understand. "All... Alright."
Lorna looked aside and gave a small, imperceptible nod. "Listen, sweetie, just stay here for a bit, okay?" She gestured to a big stuffed octopus in the corner of the room. "There's Mr. Squiggle, maybe he'd like a hug?"
Natalie looked at the toy and laughed a little. "Mom, I haven't played with Mr. Squiggle since I was a kid."
Lorna took a deep breath, but again held herself back, instead just smiling. "Of course." With that, she left the room, shutting the door gently.
Natalie shook her head, unsure why her mother looked so tall or... what the strange black bed in the middle of the room was for. It felt familiar, though. So... familiar...
-
- -
-
A bespectacled, middle-aged owl sat on a stool, observing a one-way window as Lorna came in, holding back tears.
"Th-... That was harder than I thought..." She shuddered.
"It's hard, I know, Ms. Grayswift," the owl acknowledged in a deep but quiet baritone, thick with Germanic accent. "But this is a landmark day for Natalie."
"What... why today?" Lorna asked. "What happened?"
He nodded, acknowledging her confusion. "She began to really think about it, and the world began to terrify her. It started out as comfort, but when it stopped fulfilling this role..." He gestured at her. "Her fantasy world collapsed in on itself."
The wolf woman was wracked with nerves. "Should I not have lied to her? I-I wasn't thinking straight."
The old owl chuckled, a small smile crossing his face. "I wouldn't have let you in if I thought things were that delicate. All that matters is that you are there to reestablish the bond of parent to child. Natalie's going through a very hard time right now. As far as she knows, she is still on her adventure and just waking up from a nap. She will need you to be there for her during this... very difficult time."
Lorna swallowed and looked in the room at her 10 year old daughter, staring at the bullet she'd just gotten out of with curious confusion, and nodded slowly. "Thank you, Dr. Mauzer. I... I hope I'm up to the task."
-
- -
-
