Dead Zone - Weeping Wastes
Lvl 14 Ms Fortune (108/140) Lvl 9 Goldlewis (61/90) Lvl 7 Sandalphon (36/70) Lvl 3 Grimm (19/30)
Midna, Junior, Rika & Edward’s @DracoLunaris Blazermate, Sectonia & Roland’s @Archmage MC Geralt, Zenkichi & Edelgard’s @MULTI_MEDIA_MAN Ace Cadet, Pit, Primrose & Therion’s @Yankee Juri’s @Zoey Boey Roxas, Ganondorf, & Captain Falcon’s @Double Venom Snake’s @DisturbedSpec the Witch’s @Drifting Pollen
Word Count: 3166
After witnessing the horrors of war firsthand, and experiencing all that life had to throw at him, Goldlewis Dickinson was not easily frightened. And yet, as he lay half-immersed in eldritch tar and dragged by the legs in the deathgrip of a half-dozen ghouls, the veteran found himself grasped by terror as well. He’d fought heroically against those ink-black cadavers as they welled up from the stygian netherworld below, pitting every ounce of his prodigious strength against them for the sake of everyone’s lives, but by now the veteran knew a losing battle when he saw one. The nightmares snatched and pulled at his limbs and clothes as if desperate to claw themselves back from the afterlife, weighing the man’s massive frame down in the muck, and the pit was loath to give back even one inch that it had taken. Goldlewis grit his teeth, and BB Luigi wept, as his slog grew slower and slower, until finally he’d fallen over backward and could struggle no more.
Then he was whisked away. Violently tugged, yanked, and jolted from side to side as he slid through what had once been solid ground. The filth that coated his clothes spattered his face and glasses, like it wasn’t hard enough to see already. In an instant he’d been removed from the SFE’s safe zone, only moments before the sophisticated device smashed against the earth, and only his personal shield sheltered him from the timefall. What terrified Goldlewis most of all, though, was his own helplessness–that no matter how much experience or strength he achieved, it could all be for naught in the face of some unknown adversary. Right now he could do nothing but cry out in despair, joining the infant strapped to his chest in despondent chorus, but Goldlewis fought back his instincts and kept calm. If the BTs had him at their mercy, but he wasn’t dead, this clearly wasn’t over just yet. Something else must have to happen first, which meant that he and the others had another chance. With that thought in mind, Goldlewis did not struggle in vain, but instead conserved his strength.
After a few moments, his wild ride came to an end. From the rippling expanse of tar that now blanketed the earth, the true threat emerged in all its loathsome glory. When it roared, rapid flashes of brilliant white light spilled out from the rift in its chiralium death mask, their unnatural radiance filtered through the pouring rain. Was that the antimatter that would spell out the heroes’ annihilation, encapsulated in that leonine body? Neither Goldlewis nor his allies intended to find out. The moment they gained their freedom, whether before or after being dragged through the tar, the Seekers took action. Some followed in Grimm’s footsteps and took off in a mad dash for the Qliphoth, while others rounded on the Catcher in an attempt to fight it. Most importantly, though, Zenkichi cast his speed-enhancing Sukukaja spell, which Primrose then spread to everyone else with Sealticge’s Seduction. That one tactic turned what would’ve otherwise seemed like an unwinnable scenario on its head, giving everyone the agility necessary to fight and run for their lives.
Not everyone intended to run, though. As she stood up from the tar, Sandalphon narrowed her eyes at the Catcher. Down in the ravine, and indeed throughout the trip so far, her fledgeling heart had been dominated by fear. That fear could not be quelled completely, but after the incident with the Hell Razer another feeling had been ignited. She felt angry, a little at Zenkichi for not trusting her, but mostly at herself for her weakness. Her very rough treatment at the hands of the BTs after they finally caught her only exacerbated her anger, and now, in a state of tranquil fury, the archangel would not hesitate. Blue mana surrounded her, carving geometric furrows through the tar at her feet. “I refuse to be a liability,” she pronounced. The next second she vanished, replaced by a column of blue light they shot up through the rainstorm and faded among the clouds. Sandalphon had returned to the Avenger.
By the time Goldlewis got up, coffin at the ready, he could see that no weapon or power seemed to be affecting the Catcher. It simply ignored everything thrown its way in order to hunt whatever it pleased, which made distracting it a risky proposition. His allies would need to present themselves as prey, then avoid its vicious savagery as long as possible until someone else happened to catch his attention. Goldlewis did not like his odds, so he turned to make a break for it. Of course, even with his speed boosted he knew he’d be likely to lag behind. When the veteran spotted a white whale in the sea of pitch, and heard Junior’s invitation amidst the cacophonous downpour, he barreled that way.
Between the Seekers and the Qliphoth, a miniature city block seemed to be taking shape. Structures from Redgraccoon City, leveled by the voidout, were rising from the tar like long-dead fossils. Though intimidating at first glance, this was good, actually. If it had been a straight shot through this sticky bog, it might be impossible to escape the massive Catcher even with Sukukaja. Those buildings could break line of sight and provide shelter. Still, the knowledge that just one person’s death could end them all made the veteran’s heart pound. He boarded the white whale, hoisted his coffin onto his shoulder, and cracked the lid. Alien technology flared to life, and a towering energy shield of tessellated hexagons. Laid flat, it provided a much larger canopy than Junior’s iron umbrella, so the kids could focus on other things. With most of the others on their way already, those on the whale couldn’t wait any longer. “Let’s move!”
Compared to Goldlewis, Nadia kept a much less level head. Right on the cusp of escaping the tar pool, a BT had managed to snag her foot and yank it clean off. “Dammit, dammit!” Not thinking straight, she only limped another step or two farther through the quagmire before more of the specters glommed on, pulling her apart pieces by piece. By the time Nadia finally capitulated, only her head and one arm remained attached to her upper torso, and the feral knew she wasn’t getting anywhere like that. One terrifying tar trip later, her pieces were dumped in the sludge only a few dozen feet away from where the Catcher burst forth.
“...Tar-riffic.” Nadia reassembled herself as fast as physically possible, joining her segments together with spools of stretched-out muscle fiber, then took off running while some allies tried to keep the Catcher busy. With her natural agility she knew that she’d probably be a good candidate for distraction, but right now Nadia couldn’t think far beyond herself, and the catgirl had plenty to worry about. She quickly found out that her usual method of running on all fours would only get her stuck twice as often, so the feral elected to flee bipedally. Knowing that she’d be screwed if another stuck limb came off instead of out, she leaped at her first chance to scramble up one of the destroyed city buildings, not bothering to question how such a thing came to be. After another moment she stood atop the tilted tower, where she took a second to catch her breath. The chill of the deluge on her raincoat helped to clear her head as much as wash off mud, but she knew by the flickering of her bubble shield that she couldn’t breathe easy.
In that moment, though, she spotted Ace on a nearby building. Nadia couldn’t tell if he’d seen her as well, and she couldn’t waste time getting his attention, but it heartened her to know that he’d made it this far too. It even looked like he was in a place to help others, which was very like him. She just hoped that he’d remember to save himself. As for her, she had places to be. At the sound of an otherworldly roar, she looked back to see the Catcher split open its face and unleash a glittering gold-black laser. It raked across the landscape, convincing the last few brave souls on decoy duty to flee. Now the chase was really on.
As Rika’s white whale swam around the base of the feral’s perch, speeding its passengers toward safety, Nadia remembered that she had a helper or two of her own. She took a deep breath and willed the Harbor Water Demon into existence. The enormous Abyssal woman appeared without her ordnance platform, knelt upon the roof of the building. Instantly her weight began to tilt the structure even farther forward, but before it could fall the striker balled Nadia up in her giant mitts and hurled the feral like a fastball. “NYAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” Much to her chagrin, unfortunately, the Harbor Demon did not have a good throwing arm. Nadia plopped down only about halfway through the tarry maze, and after extracting herself from the mire she clambered onto a half-submerged bus. From there she could climb, jump, and Charge her way between the buildings as they rose and fell, staying out of the gunk and ahead of the Catcher.
Still, the Seekers’ pursuer was relentless. Nadia lost time as she parkoured around, taking shelter where she could to recharge her shield, and she could feel the horror at her back. “For a fellow cat, you’re really doggin’ my heels,” she hissed. That was when she saw it: a building dead ahead that seemed hauntingly familiar, its formidable facade embellished with an acronym that Nadia wouldn’t soon forget. “No way,” she muttered, her eyes widening. It looked just like that police station–the one where she’d been trapped for half a week along with a handful of survivors, where she first happened to meet the Seekers. It had been annihilated like the rest of that diseased city, and yet here it was. While she didn’t exactly feel nostalgic for such an awful place, the sight of it gave her an idea. That Catcher could climb up and jump between buildings as well as she could, but could it navigate the station’s interior? Its layout had been burned into her memory, so she could use it as a shortcut to the Qliphoth, hidden from the Catcher’s gaze. With her shield generator low and only her coat between her and the timefall, Nadia couldn’t be choosy. She blitzed through the rain with Charge and charged inside.
Without having to worry about the timefall or the BT, Nadia made quick progress. At least, until the entire police station began to sink. She only realized when tar began to seep through the cracks in the floor, quickly covering it. All the relief that the feral felt quickly turned to panic as she realized that the ceiling was descending toward her. Based on her mental map, if she took the winding back hall, she’d be crushed well before reaching an exit. Changing plans, she raced up the lobby stairs three at a time, barely one step ahead of the rising tide. Upon reaching the top she took off at a dead sprint, her hood falling back as she rushed forward. Not a moment too late she threw herself through the rear windows and into the downpour. The sensation of raindrops on her ears and hair prompted her to reach back and pull her hood up, her heart pounding as she worried about how much damage had been done. At the sound of the Catcher’s roar, however, she forgot all about her appearance and took off running. The ground beneath her feet felt firmer now, and the Qliphoth loomed before her.
Meanwhile, the crew of the white whale had a couple close calls. They proved to be a tempting target for the Catcher, especially with its ability to dive into and re-emerge from the tar below, but thanks to its abilities Rika’s summon was in its element. Goldlewis kept them dry, pivoting his shield backward when necessary to defend against a chiral laser, as the cetacean slid through tarry makeshift streets. Once a convenience store rose directly beneath them, but under Rika’s guidance the whale ramped off the roof and splashed back down, its crew excited but none the worse for wear. All around, the other Seekers pushed forward as well. With all the adrenaline in play it felt like ages before the Catcher finally started to lose interest. As its prey gained ground, nearing the Qliphoth, the masked monstrosity made one final pass. It burst through the wall of a highrise overlooking the home stretch with a thunderous crash and hurtled down toward the white whale.
Goldlewis, who’d just been thinking that things had gotten a little two quiet, acted fast. “UMA!” He slammed the side of his coffin, and the Wall of Light went down. From within the cosmic blue arms of the cryptid reached out to grab hold of Rika and Junior. “Hold on, kids! HrrrrrrrAH!” With a mighty heave he hurled his coffin at the Qliphoth, taking both Junior and Rika with it. As they sailed away, the Catcher slammed down atop the whale in an explosion of stony dust and tar.
Nadia, who’d only just slid to a stop by the Qliphoth herself, stared with mouth agape. “Goldlewis!?”
From the cloud of debris, the Secretary of Absolute Defense appeared, flying with the aid of his ’Mothman’ airborne railcannon. With the help of its propulsion Goldlewis soared the last few hundred feet. The thrust ran out as he drew near, and he landed heavily among the rest of the Seekers. Thanks to his Wall of Light, his bubble shield had evidently recharged to full, allowing him to weather the timefall. After a moment, he let his breath out, doubling over from the stress. “Haaaaaah. Whoo-wie, that…was a close one, heh.”
While that wasn’t at all funny, Nadia couldn’t help but laugh, and the tension was broken. Her calico hair had gotten a little whiter, and her ears looked a little gray, but her own exposure hadn’t been too bad. When she looked around, she found only more good news. “We all seriously made it? Hell yeah! We qli-fought the good fight, eh?”
Among all her listeners, Grimm was perhaps the least amused. The Troupe Master had made it here in one piece, with no sign of aging, though at some point he’d lost his coat. Right now, his scarlet eyes peered the direction Goldlewis came from. After the dust settled, he could see no sign of the Catcher, and with its departure the rain seemed a little less heavy, somehow. Those strange buildings had all receded, and the tar drained away into the earth. Once more he could see nothing but a rain-soaked waste. Hopefully none of them would need to worry about going back the way they came.
Just then, a blur pillar of light announced the return of Sandalphon. During the others’ chase sequence she’d apparently found time to send her mud-covered clothes into the Avenger’s washroom, as now she wore her black slacks and blue two-piece collared shirt. Her silhouette seemed strange without her white coat. With a quick look around she confirmed that everyone was present, though it stood to reason that if anyone hadn’t made it, there wouldn’t be anyone left to warp in on. “Well done, everyone,” she told them, focusing only on results. “Now that we’re here, we need only make an entrance.”
She turned toward the Qliphoth’s exterior, scanning for superficial weaknesses. It seemed that the demon tree managed to sustain itself despite the timefall by continuously regenerating layers of tissue to replace the flesh that aged and sloughed off, accomplished via the reabsorption of that decaying matter. If the team stood here for much longer, falling slabs of rotten Qliphoth flesh could very well become a problem. Then again, they wouldn’t be here for long. Sandalphon spun up her gunstaff and opened fire on a weak spot, prompting the others to join in. She hoped that going to town on the Qliphoth’s exterior to break in would provide the others, especially those foul of temper, with some form of catharsis. It sure did for Nadia, who gleefully sharpened her claws and went to town, followed by Grimm in kind. Even Goldlewis joined in, taking up his railcannon to fire off a laser that did heavy damage to the trunk at the cost of the cannon itself. Before long, the Seekers had their way in.
Few could have anticipated what awaited them inside. Within the Qliphoth lay a bizarre environment. It was like nothing Sandalphon had ever seen, but she could tell at a glance that something was very wrong. In its natural state, as quaint a term as that might be, the interior resembled a cross between a tower and an anthill, with both vast atriums and intricate cave systems of pink, black, and red, unmistakably organic and internally inconsistent, but governed by some sort of evolutionary logic that lent its natural lattices and ribcage-like walkways some semblance of alien beauty. It was still stolen blood that pulsed through its veins, some of them big enough to fit a person inside, but the problems went much deeper than the Qliphoth’s purpose. Sandalphon could see some sort of fleshy blight parasitizing the demon tree, in some areas so widespread that entire areas of the Qliphoth had been completed consumed. Like a body fighting back against a virulent disease, this place was a volatile war zone, and where the lines were drawn and the distinction between host and invader became meaningless, the terrain looked the strangest of all.
Given their mission, everyone was on high alert for any sign of the Guardian, but that was not what they encountered first. Instead, the Seekers’ intrusion stirred the Qliphoth’s vile denizens into action. Just as with Redgraccoon City itself prior to the voidout, this place was home to countless Empusa, the twisted insectoid worker bugs of the demon tree. This time they had staunch competition, however, in the form of cadaverous horrors and infested nightmares, many of which seemed to be freakishly mutated humans, animals, or demons themselves, and the parasites seemed to be winning. As soon as the first few wretched sentinels got the scent of fresh meat, the minions of the Floodfestation began to pour in.