Master of Squirrel-fu
The Original
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The World Eater
Scrub stepped closer to Labyrinth's tower, and one of his explosions ripped through the air. Another followed shortly after, intersecting one area of altered road.
Like a gas in the air that had been ignited, the entire thing went up in a heartbeat. In an instant, it was a white void, as undefinable as Grue's darkness, perceivable by the edges, but with zero depth or dimension. He'd shunted out the entire structure, as well as everything that had altered on the ground, but nothing had come back.
The door had been kicked out of the frame.
To look at it, I'd almost expected a rush of wind as the void on the other side sucked everything into it, like the vacuum of space. There was only the sensation of a breeze as the air flowed into it.
Alexandria landed next to us, with enough force that I nearly lost my footing. Every set of eyes that wasn't on Echidna was on us, now.
"What did you do?"
"Made a hole," Tattletale said.
"Apparently. You didn't ask? You didn't consider the ramifications of this? Close it now."
"Who said we could close it?" Tattletale asked.
"You're a fool," Alexandria said. She set one hand around Tattletale's neck. She could have killed Tattletale with a squeeze, but she didn't. A threat.
A cape stepped closer, from the look on his face most likely to admonish Alexandria. His words aborted though as Tattletale's eyes widened in surprise. She jerked her head, as far as Alexandria's grip allowed, towards the newly made door. I turned as well, prepared either to fight or dodge what could have caused such a reaction. There was no apparent cause, the area looking no different to my eyes. For a moment I thought it was simply a ploy by Lisa to buy time or distract her harasser before a gauntletted hand burst out from the emptiness.
I couldn't see what it was attached to as the arm simply disappeared upon what I assumed was the edge of the effect. It grasped onto something that wasn't visible in an anchoring grip as another red clad hand emerged. There was a stillness before a person broke through, with great effort hauling herself out of the void until it was able to stand outside of it.
I stared. A cape?
No, while her outfit was odd it didn't appear to be a costume. At least not by the aesthetics you were used to, lacking even a mask and exposing her face and unnaturally bright red hair.
Well not just her face.
The only piece of clothing on her torso was a red leather bikini top. Her stomach and chest otherwise exposing generous amounts of creamy white skin. Oddly the rest of her body was fully covered, green leather sleeves and armor on her arms and tarnish baggy pants and stockings covered her legs. And on her hip was a long sword, larger than she was.
[Q] I live... Again!
Her mouth didn't move, at least so far as I could see, but the words still came clear. The girl began to giggle to herself before throwing her head back to laugh like a madwoman.
"What did you do?" Alexandria's voice was level and she stressed each word. Her grip on Lisa's throat tightened, "Who is she?"
"Don't know," Tattletale grunted out. Her grin was still missing and she looked just as lost as I was, "That little trick wasn't supposed to open a door to anywhere."
Alexandria's hand twitched and Tattletale winced.
"Explain."
"I'm serious, that opening shouldn't, couldn't, lead anywhere. It's not like a wall where there's something on the other side. Because there isn't another side. There wouldn't even be nothing there because there isn't even a there to begin with!"
"Then where did she come from?"
Lisa gave a much of a shrug as her awkward position allowed, "Honestly you're guess is as good as mine."
[Q] Hungry. Bored.
Any attempts to question her further were cut off by out new guest. Having tired marveling at her new surroundings after finishing her laugh she'd turned her eyes towards the on going fight not too far away. With a lazy gait she made her way towards the battle.
Alexandria scowled and withdrew her hand from Lisa's throat. She left the other the younger girl to fall as she quickly made her way towards the redhead.
"Stop," She grabbed the other girl's shoulder from behind, "You are not going anywhere."
The swordswoman stopped and craned her head back to look at Alexandria. For a moment she just stared at her, running her eyes up and down her form.
[Q] ...You look tasty.
For a moment my mind froze. Was she propositioning Alexandria? And then the she began to reach for her sword. Alexandria had no doubt noticed it too, being much closer and the younger girl making no attempts to hide the action, but she showed no sign of caring. Given her durability her confidence was not unfounded, though at least one person seemed to think otherwise.
"Move!" Came Tattletale's panicked shout.
To her credit the woman wasted not a moment, disengaging from the unknown girl to moment the warning came.
But not fast enough.
Alexandria's hand held at the wrist by girl, her sword held in the other in a lazy grip. Alexandria herself was standing over five yards away clutching a bleeding stump.
Too fast. The action was too fast to see, not even as a blur. One moment the woman was whole, the next the redhead was snatching her severed arm out of the air.
She took a few moments to inspect the bleeding appendage, not paying any attention to it's reluctant donator.
[Q] Kinda scrawny, but I guess this'll do.
That time she did open her mouth, though not to speak. Instead she shoved the hand into her open mouth and bit down. With a disgusting crunch she bit off the entire lengths of the fingers. It's the work of less than a minute to consume the entire limb.
[Q] Bleh, tough and bland.
She tried to wipe her face using her sleeve but only succeeded in smearing the blood across her face. She then turned and began walking again towards where Echidna was throwing herself against walls of ice and stone. She didn't spare the paling form of Alexandria a second glance.
Shit, she's loosing a lot of blood. I really did not want to help her. Given her actions and recent revelations I doubted anyone present would. But for various reasons I simply couldn't just ignore her, not the least of which being that I couldn't watch someone bleed to death in front of me and do nothing.
I hurried towards her. She didn't look any better up close and her breathing sounded awful. I pulled out a few cords of spider silk, not wasting time cutting them down to length, and handed them to the woman. Quick on the uptake she placed one end in her mouth then wrapped the other around her arm as tight as she could. Thankfully it seemed to have worked unhindered by her durability as the blood slowed to a drip. Her breathing began to even out and her color returned however slowly.
A purple gloved hand fell on my shoulder.
"You might want to think twice about confronting mysterious strangers from outside time and space in the future. Well, unless you want her even that out for you a bit."
Despite her face being hidden behind the polished black metal helm I could tell that the woman was trying to glare daggers through my teammate's head. Dammit Tattletale, this is not the time.
Faultline followed behind her, alternating glares between Alexandria and Tattletale.
"You," The black clad cape growled, "Do you have any idea what've done. You've put all of us, this world, at risk with your scheming and released some unknown-"
"Traitor!" someone shouted from the sidelines, cutting her off.
Alexandria turned her head to try and identify the culprit. I got the impression she wasn't used to people insulting her. There were more capes nearby. Miss Militia had backed up, but was keeping her eyes on the spot where Echidna was trapped. A few yards away, closer towards where the portal stood, Gregor the Snail escorted a bound Sundancer and Ballistic to the periphery of the area.
Faultline turned to Tattletale to speak.
"I hate to interrupt," Chevalier said, jogging forward, "But our guest is getting a bit too close to the action and I'm not sure if that's a good thing."
Indeed, the girl had made more progress than expected while we were distracted. Already she had reached the front lines, those that had seen her display making room and those who hadn't following their lead. I turned to tattletale, also concerned about her close proximity to the rampaging pseudo-endbringer.
"I have no idea," She shrugged, "She's powerful, very powerful, and I have a hunch there's more to her than what we just saw. She's at least a potent Striker, 7 or 8, as well as a Brute to resist Alexandria's manhandling, and very fast. I doubt our little monster over there will be able to snatch her up. I'm think she will be able to hurt Echidna, possibly more than anyone else here.
"Besides, she won't listen to us and no one here can restrain her."
Given the ease of which the girl had maimed the nigh-invincible Alexandria with her sword I didn't doubt that assessment.
The girl bypassed the frontline and marched up to Echidna's prison, ignoring blasts raining down. A few of the capes eased off before noticing she wasn't effected by the few stray shots that clipped her. Definitely a Brute.
"And if she's captured?" Chevalier questioned.
"Well..."
As if sensing the cape Echidna's monstrous form burst through the blockade between her and the girl. The response from the nearby capes was fast, but not as fast as before, and the onslaught of blasts were focused on her exposed flesh. She was pushed back but not before a tendril limb snaked forward and grabbed the redhead and pulled her into the mass of flesh.
"Shit," Despite the very terrible thing that had just happened Lisa sounded like she'd simply forgotten her cell phone, "I think it might be a good idea to back away now."
This... This was bad. The little bit of headway that had been made, with Echidna kept constrained and the fight entering a sort of rhythm had been broken. It had been a slowly losing battle holding her back, and now she'd gained the upper hand, snatching up a cape that could easily tip the scales in her favor.
"Tattletale?" I hoped she would have a decent idea of what to expect. Absently I helped Alexandria to her feet, having still been somewhat shaky from the blood loss.
"It's not as bad as you're thinking," Was her answer, "But it won't be pleasant."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Faultline growled.
"She said she was hungry."
There wasn't time to ponder that cryptic response. A screeching horrible sound came from Echidna, so strong it almost felt like a physical blow when it hit. She was screaming, from every mouth on her misshapen body. It was low and guttural, high and keening, a sound that could be felt in the bones and like a pick being stabbed into the ears, and it resonated in a vile sort of harmony.
Thanks to my mask I couldn't cover my ears no mater how I tried, and I had to swallow bile that was building in the back of my throat. Everyone else was suffering similarly, many of those on the front lines having collapsed. A few even fell from the the sky.
Thankfully the break in defenses was not taken advantage of. Echinda was throwing herself wildly against the barriers still standing, all her limbs and tendrils clawing at her own flesh but ironically brought low by the same regeneration that had aided her before.
The clones that she had called before also seemed to have suffered from whatever was affecting her, as group by group they began to scream in pain before collapsing. Dead.
And as quickly as it had started the screaming just as abruptly stopped. In an almost comical scene Echinda's stilled form began to deflate, collapsing in on itself like a rotten gourd. And there there was silence.
No one was quite sure how to react to the sudden end of hostilities, most simply just focusing on recovering from the assault.
There was a squelching sound. It wasn't loud, but in the stressful silence is didn't need to be. Everyone's guard went back up, the front line scrambling to their feet, most to stand ready but a few to flee. The wet sound came again.
It was a body, someone struggling out from underneath the mountain of disfigured flesh. One of the clones? The blasters stood ready, poised to unleash a flood of firepower at the slightest trigger. The figure was small, small and blonde. With shaky legs she began to try and stand up, failing several times before being able to balance herself. She stood on two wobbly legs and lifted her head.
Noel. I had no idea how to respond. From top to bottom she looked... normal. Her monstrous lower half disappeared, and a look of confused fright resting on her face. She took an unsteady step forward.
There was a meaty thunk, and she stared down at her stomach uncomprehendingly. Staring down at the five feet of black metal protruding from her as if she could not grasp it. Her legs failed her and she slid from the blade. Behind her stood redheaded girl, soaked to the bone in blood and gore.
[Q] Augh, you tasted like shit!
She glared at everyone around her absently flicking her sword to remove the bits of flesh.
[Q] Seriously that was a terrible sacrifice, what sort of lame ass Evil God do you crapsacks take me for?
[Q] I have half a mind to slaughter all of you and deface your corpses as punishment. But that sounds kinda tedious.
She lifted the blade and pointed it at the surrounding capes, many backing off for obvious reasons.
[Q] Eeny Meeny Miney... You! Yes the flying green glowing wizard, your new god commands you to make her a sandwich!
=============================
My mind goes to the strangest fucking places when sleepy.
Scrub stepped closer to Labyrinth's tower, and one of his explosions ripped through the air. Another followed shortly after, intersecting one area of altered road.
Like a gas in the air that had been ignited, the entire thing went up in a heartbeat. In an instant, it was a white void, as undefinable as Grue's darkness, perceivable by the edges, but with zero depth or dimension. He'd shunted out the entire structure, as well as everything that had altered on the ground, but nothing had come back.
The door had been kicked out of the frame.
To look at it, I'd almost expected a rush of wind as the void on the other side sucked everything into it, like the vacuum of space. There was only the sensation of a breeze as the air flowed into it.
Alexandria landed next to us, with enough force that I nearly lost my footing. Every set of eyes that wasn't on Echidna was on us, now.
"What did you do?"
"Made a hole," Tattletale said.
"Apparently. You didn't ask? You didn't consider the ramifications of this? Close it now."
"Who said we could close it?" Tattletale asked.
"You're a fool," Alexandria said. She set one hand around Tattletale's neck. She could have killed Tattletale with a squeeze, but she didn't. A threat.
A cape stepped closer, from the look on his face most likely to admonish Alexandria. His words aborted though as Tattletale's eyes widened in surprise. She jerked her head, as far as Alexandria's grip allowed, towards the newly made door. I turned as well, prepared either to fight or dodge what could have caused such a reaction. There was no apparent cause, the area looking no different to my eyes. For a moment I thought it was simply a ploy by Lisa to buy time or distract her harasser before a gauntletted hand burst out from the emptiness.
I couldn't see what it was attached to as the arm simply disappeared upon what I assumed was the edge of the effect. It grasped onto something that wasn't visible in an anchoring grip as another red clad hand emerged. There was a stillness before a person broke through, with great effort hauling herself out of the void until it was able to stand outside of it.
I stared. A cape?
No, while her outfit was odd it didn't appear to be a costume. At least not by the aesthetics you were used to, lacking even a mask and exposing her face and unnaturally bright red hair.
Well not just her face.
The only piece of clothing on her torso was a red leather bikini top. Her stomach and chest otherwise exposing generous amounts of creamy white skin. Oddly the rest of her body was fully covered, green leather sleeves and armor on her arms and tarnish baggy pants and stockings covered her legs. And on her hip was a long sword, larger than she was.
[Q] I live... Again!
Her mouth didn't move, at least so far as I could see, but the words still came clear. The girl began to giggle to herself before throwing her head back to laugh like a madwoman.
"What did you do?" Alexandria's voice was level and she stressed each word. Her grip on Lisa's throat tightened, "Who is she?"
"Don't know," Tattletale grunted out. Her grin was still missing and she looked just as lost as I was, "That little trick wasn't supposed to open a door to anywhere."
Alexandria's hand twitched and Tattletale winced.
"Explain."
"I'm serious, that opening shouldn't, couldn't, lead anywhere. It's not like a wall where there's something on the other side. Because there isn't another side. There wouldn't even be nothing there because there isn't even a there to begin with!"
"Then where did she come from?"
Lisa gave a much of a shrug as her awkward position allowed, "Honestly you're guess is as good as mine."
[Q] Hungry. Bored.
Any attempts to question her further were cut off by out new guest. Having tired marveling at her new surroundings after finishing her laugh she'd turned her eyes towards the on going fight not too far away. With a lazy gait she made her way towards the battle.
Alexandria scowled and withdrew her hand from Lisa's throat. She left the other the younger girl to fall as she quickly made her way towards the redhead.
"Stop," She grabbed the other girl's shoulder from behind, "You are not going anywhere."
The swordswoman stopped and craned her head back to look at Alexandria. For a moment she just stared at her, running her eyes up and down her form.
[Q] ...You look tasty.
For a moment my mind froze. Was she propositioning Alexandria? And then the she began to reach for her sword. Alexandria had no doubt noticed it too, being much closer and the younger girl making no attempts to hide the action, but she showed no sign of caring. Given her durability her confidence was not unfounded, though at least one person seemed to think otherwise.
"Move!" Came Tattletale's panicked shout.
To her credit the woman wasted not a moment, disengaging from the unknown girl to moment the warning came.
But not fast enough.
Alexandria's hand held at the wrist by girl, her sword held in the other in a lazy grip. Alexandria herself was standing over five yards away clutching a bleeding stump.
Too fast. The action was too fast to see, not even as a blur. One moment the woman was whole, the next the redhead was snatching her severed arm out of the air.
She took a few moments to inspect the bleeding appendage, not paying any attention to it's reluctant donator.
[Q] Kinda scrawny, but I guess this'll do.
That time she did open her mouth, though not to speak. Instead she shoved the hand into her open mouth and bit down. With a disgusting crunch she bit off the entire lengths of the fingers. It's the work of less than a minute to consume the entire limb.
[Q] Bleh, tough and bland.
She tried to wipe her face using her sleeve but only succeeded in smearing the blood across her face. She then turned and began walking again towards where Echidna was throwing herself against walls of ice and stone. She didn't spare the paling form of Alexandria a second glance.
Shit, she's loosing a lot of blood. I really did not want to help her. Given her actions and recent revelations I doubted anyone present would. But for various reasons I simply couldn't just ignore her, not the least of which being that I couldn't watch someone bleed to death in front of me and do nothing.
I hurried towards her. She didn't look any better up close and her breathing sounded awful. I pulled out a few cords of spider silk, not wasting time cutting them down to length, and handed them to the woman. Quick on the uptake she placed one end in her mouth then wrapped the other around her arm as tight as she could. Thankfully it seemed to have worked unhindered by her durability as the blood slowed to a drip. Her breathing began to even out and her color returned however slowly.
A purple gloved hand fell on my shoulder.
"You might want to think twice about confronting mysterious strangers from outside time and space in the future. Well, unless you want her even that out for you a bit."
Despite her face being hidden behind the polished black metal helm I could tell that the woman was trying to glare daggers through my teammate's head. Dammit Tattletale, this is not the time.
Faultline followed behind her, alternating glares between Alexandria and Tattletale.
"You," The black clad cape growled, "Do you have any idea what've done. You've put all of us, this world, at risk with your scheming and released some unknown-"
"Traitor!" someone shouted from the sidelines, cutting her off.
Alexandria turned her head to try and identify the culprit. I got the impression she wasn't used to people insulting her. There were more capes nearby. Miss Militia had backed up, but was keeping her eyes on the spot where Echidna was trapped. A few yards away, closer towards where the portal stood, Gregor the Snail escorted a bound Sundancer and Ballistic to the periphery of the area.
Faultline turned to Tattletale to speak.
"I hate to interrupt," Chevalier said, jogging forward, "But our guest is getting a bit too close to the action and I'm not sure if that's a good thing."
Indeed, the girl had made more progress than expected while we were distracted. Already she had reached the front lines, those that had seen her display making room and those who hadn't following their lead. I turned to tattletale, also concerned about her close proximity to the rampaging pseudo-endbringer.
"I have no idea," She shrugged, "She's powerful, very powerful, and I have a hunch there's more to her than what we just saw. She's at least a potent Striker, 7 or 8, as well as a Brute to resist Alexandria's manhandling, and very fast. I doubt our little monster over there will be able to snatch her up. I'm think she will be able to hurt Echidna, possibly more than anyone else here.
"Besides, she won't listen to us and no one here can restrain her."
Given the ease of which the girl had maimed the nigh-invincible Alexandria with her sword I didn't doubt that assessment.
The girl bypassed the frontline and marched up to Echidna's prison, ignoring blasts raining down. A few of the capes eased off before noticing she wasn't effected by the few stray shots that clipped her. Definitely a Brute.
"And if she's captured?" Chevalier questioned.
"Well..."
As if sensing the cape Echidna's monstrous form burst through the blockade between her and the girl. The response from the nearby capes was fast, but not as fast as before, and the onslaught of blasts were focused on her exposed flesh. She was pushed back but not before a tendril limb snaked forward and grabbed the redhead and pulled her into the mass of flesh.
"Shit," Despite the very terrible thing that had just happened Lisa sounded like she'd simply forgotten her cell phone, "I think it might be a good idea to back away now."
This... This was bad. The little bit of headway that had been made, with Echidna kept constrained and the fight entering a sort of rhythm had been broken. It had been a slowly losing battle holding her back, and now she'd gained the upper hand, snatching up a cape that could easily tip the scales in her favor.
"Tattletale?" I hoped she would have a decent idea of what to expect. Absently I helped Alexandria to her feet, having still been somewhat shaky from the blood loss.
"It's not as bad as you're thinking," Was her answer, "But it won't be pleasant."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Faultline growled.
"She said she was hungry."
There wasn't time to ponder that cryptic response. A screeching horrible sound came from Echidna, so strong it almost felt like a physical blow when it hit. She was screaming, from every mouth on her misshapen body. It was low and guttural, high and keening, a sound that could be felt in the bones and like a pick being stabbed into the ears, and it resonated in a vile sort of harmony.
Thanks to my mask I couldn't cover my ears no mater how I tried, and I had to swallow bile that was building in the back of my throat. Everyone else was suffering similarly, many of those on the front lines having collapsed. A few even fell from the the sky.
Thankfully the break in defenses was not taken advantage of. Echinda was throwing herself wildly against the barriers still standing, all her limbs and tendrils clawing at her own flesh but ironically brought low by the same regeneration that had aided her before.
The clones that she had called before also seemed to have suffered from whatever was affecting her, as group by group they began to scream in pain before collapsing. Dead.
And as quickly as it had started the screaming just as abruptly stopped. In an almost comical scene Echinda's stilled form began to deflate, collapsing in on itself like a rotten gourd. And there there was silence.
No one was quite sure how to react to the sudden end of hostilities, most simply just focusing on recovering from the assault.
There was a squelching sound. It wasn't loud, but in the stressful silence is didn't need to be. Everyone's guard went back up, the front line scrambling to their feet, most to stand ready but a few to flee. The wet sound came again.
It was a body, someone struggling out from underneath the mountain of disfigured flesh. One of the clones? The blasters stood ready, poised to unleash a flood of firepower at the slightest trigger. The figure was small, small and blonde. With shaky legs she began to try and stand up, failing several times before being able to balance herself. She stood on two wobbly legs and lifted her head.
Noel. I had no idea how to respond. From top to bottom she looked... normal. Her monstrous lower half disappeared, and a look of confused fright resting on her face. She took an unsteady step forward.
There was a meaty thunk, and she stared down at her stomach uncomprehendingly. Staring down at the five feet of black metal protruding from her as if she could not grasp it. Her legs failed her and she slid from the blade. Behind her stood redheaded girl, soaked to the bone in blood and gore.
[Q] Augh, you tasted like shit!
She glared at everyone around her absently flicking her sword to remove the bits of flesh.
[Q] Seriously that was a terrible sacrifice, what sort of lame ass Evil God do you crapsacks take me for?
[Q] I have half a mind to slaughter all of you and deface your corpses as punishment. But that sounds kinda tedious.
She lifted the blade and pointed it at the surrounding capes, many backing off for obvious reasons.
[Q] Eeny Meeny Miney... You! Yes the flying green glowing wizard, your new god commands you to make her a sandwich!
=============================
My mind goes to the strangest fucking places when sleepy.
