Darkness Redux

[Candy Man]

Karde held up one finger in somber wisdom. "In my experience, rich people wear too tall of hats and think they have the biggest shoes."

He couldn't help but crack another grin as he gauged Alemn's reaction.

 

[Stavvy]

"My you are a cheerful one aren't you?" Kristine's eyes twinkled. So much of her old friends in this one. "I can promise you that the sooner you learn to trust the better El." Her condescending familiarity slightly less playful than she intended. "I've seen people die with attitude." She chugged the drink bitterly.

"Thirsty?" She asked both of them as she tossed the bottle behind her and it disappeared.

Ellis had thought about Kristine's words. He didn't like to just give people his trust, it went against that which he knew. That which told him to stay alive. Every instinct told him to watch his back at all times. To trust no one. To keep moving, to stay alive. She was right though, a man who fought with someone and simultaneously against him was making unnecessary enemies. Having to keep one eye on his opponents and one on his ally is splitting attention to things that he shouldn't concern him.

Kristine had turned her attention away from him, to the girl. Kristine had offered him a drink, but it'd have to wait. "Kristine," He said, authoritatively, "You said that Evil was taking over worlds. Destroying them or what have you. And that we're to fight them, correct? Enough of these pleasantries. What are we do to in each world? Is there some person to kill, some government to overthrow? What?"

 

[Thor.]

Kristine turned to El, a little pissed that he picked now to talk after the silent treatment. As he spoke she almost tuned him out as she focused on the spot where his eyes were cloaked. They were an interesting grey shade, she could barely make them out as she stared hard. However he did make a good point. They were wasting time.
“I’m afraid our friend here is quite right.” Kristine said her voice raised so that it reached everyone in the room. “We are wasting time, and you should be going. There is someone waiting for you on the first world and I would hate to have her die because we were so enjoying eachothers’ company.” She walked into the middle of the room to further gather attention. “ Sebastian over here will be accompanying you. I, however, will not be. On the bright side, all you need to do is reach out to me mentally and I’ll pick up the signal. The White Room amplifies my power enough that I’ll hear you and be able to talk to you from anywhere.” She closed her eyes and began focusing. “Now without further ado…”

~~

The White Room went black. Alemn had the unpleasant sensation that he was being broken into thousands of pieces and spun around inside of a cyclone. He would have been dizzy if he’d had a head.
With a lurch he was lying on a dirty wood floor in a dark room. Rapid gunfire rang in his ears. His vision was blurry, but he sat up anyway. At the window there was someone mounting a turret spraying bullets down into the street and laughing loudly. His shadow aura went up immeadiately and he leapt to his feet.
It was a girl. She was wearing an over-large sweater with thick black and white stripes and her hair was up in pigtails. On closer inspection her hair was not black as it seemed but it had lines of red and purple and other colors running through it. She wore skull-pattern gloves and a rather short skirt.
What in Hel was going on?

 

[<3]

Lori was pleased with the welcoming she received from both Kristine and Vince, they appeared to be very nice and polite. She appreciated people with those qualities. "Please, the pleasure is all mine. And thank you, Kristine." Her voice was quiet, though it still sounded confident.

The boy next to Kristine spoke up which Lori reacted in a slight flinch, she had never met people so intimidating before, and what he had asked didn't make her impression of him any better. "Over throw governments?" Lori sounded legitimately shocked. "But governments are to be respected, not attacked."

It happened, after Kristine's sudden farewell Lori found herself in bitch blackness, falling in a swirling sensation. Feeling ill, she silently begged it to be over, and almost instantly found herself collapsing on a grim splattered wooden floor. Her hands quickly covered her ears as the loud bangs resounded through her ears. It was a sound she had never once experienced before.

"What on earth is going on!?" She screamed over the noise, hoping anyone would respond with a logical answer. Lori noticed the odd dressed girl standing outside the window on an ever odder looking machine. "Who is she?"

 

[Mr. Crowley]

Vince watched as the room changed around him. He crashed to the ground. Reeling from the pain, he looked upwards. There was a woman firing a turret. It was then his senses returned to him. The bullets rang out around him. Vince raised his hand to his ears and curled up on the floor. Not another battle field he thought to himself.

"Whats going on?!" he yelled over the sound of the bullets. His heart began to race. The fear in him was rising. He now, more than ever, wished he was home again.

 

[Drollive]

Sebastian blinked a couple times as he adjusted his eyes to the light, and his ears to the noise. He glanced briefly at the Chosen, still dazed, and approached the girl on the turret. He proceeded to yell over the gunfire. "Excuse me Penny! Would you mind taking a break from that? The new Chosen have arrived. Penny!"

 

[Stavvy]

He hadn't meant for his comment to come out as rude, but nevertheless Kristine seemed to agree. Good. She said a few more words and then the room went black. It was not that his vision went black, but the room itself. He felt like every inch of him was being pulled in different directions at the same time. His head was going left and right, up and down at the same time, it was disorientating at best. He felt like his body had melted into a puddle and formed again in a different shape only to be melted down again and reshaped until some twisted being felt satisfied with his form. His ears rang and he concentrated to keep from the feeling the the blood might drain out of them. He enveloped himself in the soundless void from earlier. His thoughts echoed as the feeling of being ripped apart and put back together ebbed away. So, my power must be sound? Strange. . .

He heard a faint noise, like a constant barrage of hail scraping on a shield. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but he let his soundless area fade away. He immediately heard, "Excuse me Penny! Would you mind taking a break from that? The new Chosen have arrived."

He stood to see Sebastian talking to a girl in front of some machinery. It looked more advanced than what he had seen on his world. He waited to see what would happen.

 

[Candy Man]

Karde held his head as his vision came back slowly. His hearing came back quicker. Sound came rushing in loud and pleasantly familiar. Metal scraped against itself at speeds the eyes couldn't see as flashing fire sent it forward with the force of a grenade. It was relentless and rhythmic. and it was fast.

His vision came back sharply as he found what he was searching for, a turret being fired straight into a street. The thought of a dream came to him when he saw who wielded it. Her hair was dark with lines of bright peppered color, tied up on the back of her head. Everything about her seemed impossiblely attractive, right down to the way she could handle a heavy gun in a tiny room.

 

[Thor.]

Penny was happy. Which wasn’t really a surprise, she was doing what she loved. There is an undeniable fulfillment in doing something useful and enjoying the Hell out of it all at the same time. The clockwork soldier were torn apart so satisfyingly by the gatling gun. It was true that this way was dangerous and impersonal but at the same time…He laughed out loud. One was trying to crawl without it’s legs!
A familiar voice called out behind her. She dropped the gun and spun on her heels. “UNCLE SEBASTION!” She hugged him, impossibly peppy as she looked around the room. Not letting go her excitement faded. “So are these the scrubs?” she smiled. Winking at the big muscular one in the armor. And sticking her toungue out at the guy in the cloak. It just seemed the right thing to do.


~~


Alemn released his aura as it became apparent that the girl was on...he supposed what was his side. He sighed. This girl was going to make him so uncomfortable.

 

[<3]

"Uncle?" Lori asked surprising as she released her ears and watched the peppy girl hug Sebastion. She thanked whatever God watched over this planet that the noise had stopped. At least one of her questions had been answered. Looking down the street, it looked nothing like her home world, but she would try to adapt.

Getting to her feet, she brushed off the dirt on her blue dress and refixed her hair and ballet slippers, she had to look somewhat proper when meeting new people.

 

[Drollive]

Sebastian smiled. "Hello Penny. These are the new recruits. They're not super familiar with their powers yet, and I don't know how well they can fight, but we're here to assist you." His smile left as he turned back to the Chosen. "Everyone, welcome to Aeton, your first assignment. This is Penny. She's been protecting this world for a little while now." He walked over to the window and looked out over the carnage. "Well, Penny, what's the situation?"

 

[Mr. Crowley]

Vince thought he heard voices. He couldn't make out what they were saying. Vince had never been a fan of the sound guns make. His own brother, Tylius, had met his end thanks to a gun. And after being teleported and crashing to the floor, a big loud gun was not the first thing that he wanted to encounter. Vince knew the gun had already stopped, but he couldn't bring himself to remove his hand from his ears. He layed on the floor shivering, hyper-ventilating. This is why Vince had no soldier buddies. They openly mocked him about his fear of guns and his own father was ashamed because of it. Vince struggled as best he could to listen as the voices became a little more clearer. He made no effort to pick himself off the ground.

 

[<3]

Lori took notice of Sebastion's introduction of his niece, however noticed Vince not coping with the situation. She quietly walked over and knelled down beside him. He was shaking, and she smiled at the familiar reaction. She rested her hand on his shoulder and quietly soothed him. "It'll be alright, Vince." Hoping he didn't mind her approach she kept her hand on his shoulder, begging him to recuperate from the sudden shock he was experiencing. Lori was so used to comforting people, animals, any living thing. It was nice to do something is was accustom too.

 

[Thor.]

“Alright alright. It’s straight to business with you isn’t it Sebby?” She walked over to the window and placed a hand on the turret. Her words coming out at a mile a minute. “Things have gotten worse. The Council of Nine has gotten really intense about this class war thing and- You know Sebastian I never get to see you and last time you were here I didn’t even get to talk to you much because Severin wouldn’t just shut his big mean fun-hating piehole for ONE second to let me talk to you and-“ Penny cleared her throat. “Right. Anyway. After that revolt we tried to prevent? The Nine started a purge…” She winced. “Which for you newbies, is basically a systematic killing of everybody in a district, in this case of course it’s the Fifth or, again for you newbies, the slums.” She stole a glance at Sebastian. “Severin can be pretty mean to me y’know and I expect an apology you can just tell him that if he-“ She sighed. “Technically the purge is just exile but as you may have noticed by the way the whole world is rocking beneath your feet…this is a mobile city. It has to be because this whole damned planet is dying and there’s nothing to eat, the animals that are left are mostly big ugly lizards and the only places that grow food are picked clean by the city before the Exiles can get to it.” She patted the machine. “So me and old Deadpool here have been shooting all the toy soldiers the big kids up on the council send before they can grab anyone.” She lowered her head in shame. “They’ve gotten a few though.”

 

[Stavvy]

Ellis spoke for the first time since getting here. "So what do you want us to do exactly?" He said walking cautiously to a window to look at the surroundings. Taking in places where he could evade to, should someone attack. Places to run, places to possibly hide. Places where he could use for his advantage. He memorized this area, this room, should they ever need to return. For all he knew, this was the only place they could leave this world, once they finished what they needed to do. He turned to the girl, one eye revealed slightly from a sunbeam.

 

[Mr. Crowley]

Vince flinched a little when he felt Lori's touch. He then snapped back into reality. His breathing slowed down and he wiped the sweat off of his forehead. He felt ashamed of himself. He was the only one in the room who had reacted the way he did. He looked to the ground and shook his head in disappointment. Maybe dad's right he thought to himself Maybe I am useless. He turned to look at Lori.

"Thanks. . ." he said softly,"I. . .uh. . .I don't like the sound of gun shots."

He felt pathetic saying it out loud. Especially considering that he had a gun with him. He sighed and shook his head again.

 

[<3]

"Gun shots?" Lori puzzled. Her eyes narrowed and she stared at the machine Penny had been using before. "Is that what it was?" She picked up the end of Penny explanation of the current situation, it wasn't pleasant to Lori's ears, in fact, it hurt more than the gun shots from earlier. Her hands shot to cup themselves on her chest.

"Dead? They're all dead?" Her voice was loud but broke in several places. "How could someone be so cruel?"

 

[Drollive]

Sebastian sighed and turned away from the window. "Penny, you know how Severin is. He means well. He just...goes to extreme measures. And if you'd like an apology, you're welcome to try and get one out of him. At the moment, though, he is quiet, so I'd take this opportunity to talk to me. As for everyone else," He walked to the middle of the room, "I hope you like politics, because this world has plenty."

~~~
Do you really expect an apology?

Of course not, but I thought I'd offer--

Because she's not going to get one. I stand by my earlier statements.

If it comes up, you're welcome to take over. Just don't do anything stupid.
~~~

 

[Thor.]

“Well…” Penny said slowly. “If you ask me we should go bash the heads of The Nine in with a baseball bat and the proceed to do filthy filthy things to their corpses.” She said with a grin. “But…Sebastian says it isn’t that simple. I was under express order to just protect the people and hold the fort until you guys got here. Hopefully NOW we can kill and subsequently desecrate the pricks that did this.” The last comment was obviously directed over her shoulder at Sebastian.

She spun again and flung herself at Sebastian holding both of his hands. "All right but he was wrong..AND the baseball bat is a PERFECTLY legitimate weapon!"

Penny whipped around again barely pausing in her speaking. "Well isn't that just the cutest." She said to Lori "I can. I can be so cruel."
~~

The girl was completely insane. Not to mention irritating. He couldn’t believe that she was some kind of inter-dimensional chosen one. In face he could hardly believe she was allowed to walk around on a day to day basis without supervision. His eyes trailed to a darkly stained baseball bat in the corner. He kept his shadows on the ready. No telling what this girl would do.

 

[Mr. Crowley]

Vince tried his best to compose himself, hoping everyone would forget about his "fit."

"So, we don't have to fight anyone, right?" Vince asked directing the question at Sebastion and Penny. He hoped to the Gods that they would say yes. If they could save the world without using any violence, he would be happy. And, he might not have to embarass himself again in front of the others.