Void Guardian 2.2

Approach 2.2

After eating, we piled into Hannah’s Jeep and headed to the spot where this all started. Hannah and Amy shared a few looks during the ride, but the banter they had spouted so readily hours ago was absent this time. The silence was grim. I tried to ignore the feel in the air and spent the ride watching the sunset, hoping that this wouldn’t end as disastrously as the last time I drove down this highway.

It doesn’t take long for us to get there. Hannah takes the vehicle off road and drives us up a clear hill and behind a fenced off square. Green stripping woven between the chain links blocks any view into the little area, but also blocks the Jeep from view of the road.

Hannah favors us with a grim smile before throwing the Jeep into park and cranking the brake. “Alright. Time to go hunting. Lets avenge Krystal.”

I glance around briefly. We might be shielded from view of the road, but there was a row of houses over there - behind a wall but I can still see the second floor windows. “Should we really.. I mean, right here?” I question.

Amy pipes up. She’s been quiet, but it looks like getting her into her element has brought her back. “This spot’s fine. Not too many people can see us and if they do, they can’t make the connection anyway. It’s happened before, so we know this is a safe spot.”

She gives me a hairy eyeball before continuing in sharper tone. “Just keep a look out - we go one at a time so we can cover each other in case of a monster showing up at a bad time.”

She steps forward and calls out, loudly without shouting “Starlight transformation!”

There’s a flash and she’s covered in swirling lights, I stare for a moment before Hannah barks at me. “Eyes out, Maeve! We don’t want to get surprised.”

I jerk my head to the treeline, scrub brush that could hide anything, and try to ignore the pulsing lights that play over my shoulder and make my shadow jerk about. The lightshow stops pretty quickly, and I keep my eyes scanning the area when I hear another shout behind me, and a new set of lights plays across my back.

I’m still focused on the treeline when I’m tapped on the back and jump. Hannah, in a red bikini, a flame patterned cape hanging from her shoulders gives me a warm smile. She throws a sloppy salute with a curved saber and gives me a nod. “Your turn, Maeve.”

“Void beyond the deepest black, join with me to crush evil!” I shout. The comforting void comes rushing in to wrap around me and push everything back, my worries and fears washed away in a torrent of power and comforting emptiness. Song flares in my head, eager and barely restrained. I touch down to the ground and my glaive is in my hands, half-moon head reflecting the setting sun and giving it a bloody tinge. I should be scared. We’re going into combat, we’re searching out a monster that had at least one girl like us running scared. Instead my blood sings in my veins and the stars hum in my head.

I turn to face the other two girls and get a full grin and thumbs up from the scantily-clad Hannah. “Quick reminder - I’m Crimson Sunset Princess and Amy is Sparkling Starlight Lancer.” She jerks a thumb toward Amy, who’s wearing black and white combat fatigues and carrying a service rifle that glitters like the night sky. I get a tight smile and a nod.
I nod in return. “And I’m Quasar Black.” I feel the song radiate pride when I say my name.

We all move off into the woods, heading down the steep slope into the valley below. Our apparent destination is a compound of red stained buildings nestled in the bottom of the ravine, rusted out vehicles and machinery butting up against the unkempt structures. We stop briefly halfway down the side of the valley and survey the site. Starlight Lancer sweeps back and forth with the rifle, peering through the scope. It’s a long minute before she turns to Hannah and nods.
“Sunset, I’m pretty sure that’s it,” she spits. “The whole place is darker than it should be, and I can’t see anyone around at all. It has to be an intersection. I hope it’s just temporary. We didn’t know about this at all, and it’s so close to home.”
Sunset Princess scowls and nods, moving to head in.

I clear my throat. “Hey, ladies. Can we give the newbie a little context here?”

Starlight checks the compound through the scope on her rifle again and her voice is clipped and angry. “It looks like this area is a gateway to another dimension. We’re hoping it’s only temporary because none of us noticed it, and we’ve been here for over a year now. Monsters can come out of these things regularly so how many did we miss?”
I can’t tell if she’s angry at me, herself, or the circumstances.

Sunset grabs a branch and leans out, looking straight down the drop off to plan our route in. She’s no less angry, but she’s focused. “When we get down there, it’s going to be empty, so if you need to cut loose with powers, it should be fine to do with no collateral damage. Stick with one of us, we should be able to help cover you if something happens.”

The rest of the approach is made in silence, and the sun is all the way down by the time we get there. As we near the rusted buildings, I can feel it. The shadows are too deep and there’s a feel of… wrongness in the air. It’s a heavy, oppressive feeling, like a blanket weighing down on you while your hair stands on end. Something dangerous is here, and its very presence is enough to set your teeth on edge. The sun has set, and anemic floodlights and doorway lights are the only illumination I can see as we approach.

Gravel crunches under my feet and my mind races as the buildings loom closer and closer. Why the fuck are we doing this at night? I don’t have any special night vision, and the rifle might have some kind of night vision or starlight scope, but it’s going to be useless if we engage at melee range - and that’s the sort of weapon the princess and I are packing. We’re going to get ambushed, because we can’t see shit. What the fuck is here that sends a girl running like Krystal did? She was sprinting away blindly, right into the road, right into my car. And these girls have been around for a year! Why am I even with them? I’m less than a day into this shit! We’re at the edge of the compound, and we throw our backs against the wall of a rusty building with a corrugated roof. I keep my movements in line with my two allies, but inside I am a nervous, jittery wreck.

“Quasar, your power is gravity, right?” Starlight’s comment breaks the silence and I nearly jump out of my skin. Looking at her, it’s clear that she’s not feeling great about our odds either. Her eyes dart from side to side, her breathing is quick and she licks her lips nervously. “Can you give me a boost to the roof? I need better sightlines.”

I eyeball the roof and glance around the darkness again. “I, uh, can give it a shot.”

I try to ignore the creeping feel of dread in the air and focus on her. I can feel her in my senses, a tiny well at the bottom of a pit. I concentrate on the feeling of the heavens singing, recapturing the moment when I leapt the fence, when I transformed. With power thrumming in me I take that pit we’re in and pull it up, not all the way, but - the effort is trivial. I feel it instantly, both the tug internally on my magic, and physically, as the feel of my body’s weight on my feet sharply decreases.

I plant my glaive in the dirt and crouch, lacing my fingers together, palms up. Starlight puts a foot into my hands and I mouth a count at her. At ‘three’ I heave, and she jumps, and she sails thirty feet up and onto the roof gracefully. I relax as I retrieve my weapon and the feeling of lightness fades.

Sunset brandishes her saber and motions for us to move into the open yard between the buildings. Emboldened by my success with magic, I follow, blade held low and right in a modified tail position prepared for a wide slash.

The central yard is a large area, spread over two levels, dotted with rusting hulks of construction equipment and trucks that might just be on the edge of running. No lights illuminate the yard, its equipment lies in the shadows of the wan yellow bulbs on the edges of the buildings. I follow along behind my scantily clad partner, trying my best to scan the shadowed hulks for anything strange.

I spot something as we cross into the middle of the yard. I jab my companion in the back with the butt of my weapon and gesture to the approaching circle of light that flashes back and forth on the ground. “I thought you said the place was deserted,” I hiss. “Who’s coming over with a flashlight?”

She starts in confusion and waves over to the roof of the building we just came from, exaggerated flailing motions that speak of confusion and a need to know what’s going on. It’s answered by a red laser dot on the machine next to us, which wobbles around. I peek over the bulldozer we’re behind to get a look at the security guard who shouldn’t exist.

I immediately regret this decision.

There is no night watchman. An eight foot tall creature out of someone’s deep sea nightmare stalks across the open lot on four legs. Its distended head is an abyssal horror show; unseeing milky eyes, oversized translucent fangs and unhealthy looking black skin that’s somewhere between chitin plating and armadillo hide. Its sides are dotted with tiny yellow lights that move like a flock of fireflies when it strides. In its breast burns a sickly yellow light, casting a beam we took for a flashlight. It sniffs the air with nostrils that aren’t more than holes in its skull, and plants itself. It raises up on its back legs and I note in horrified fascination that all four of its limbs resemble human arms, if incredibly long and distended. It cries, a keening, warbling howl that sends the ribbons on my costume vibrating with the force of it and the world swims.

And there’s a sudden and deep primal /need/ to run and /run/ and /run away/ from /this place/ and the /horror/ and the /horrible evil utter alien wrongness/ of the /thing/ and as I turn to do so I dimly realize that my partner is already /running,/ out toward the building we came in past and /away/ and I am two steps into chasing her as she /leaves/ me behind when the heavens burst in my head, flaring and angry, starsong and light roaring in my brain.

The spike of primal fear is replaced by rage as I realize that the fear is not my own. I whip my head back in time to see the creature leap onto and over the bulldozer and myself, ignoring me as it makes speed for Sunset Princess as it gallops after her fleeing form. I’m not about to let her be a second Krystal.

I pull at my magic and it comes easier now. This time as I focus on its galloping form, instead of the pit pulling up, I shove down hard, dimpling space-time around the monster. It crashes to the ground, mid-leap, and I hold the change in place, crushing it under increased gravity. I grin savagely and push harder, pulling its weight down on it as hard as I can. My efforts are rewarded by a keening wail as it scrabbles to get its feet under it.

I look to the building. Is Starlight Lancer still backing me up? Or is she running too, out toward the highway? No gunfire comes from the roof, so maybe? Maybe she’s got a broken ankle on the other side, jumping off without my help.
I turn back toward the creature for a nasty surprise. Despite its vast bulk weighing even more, it’s back on its feet, moving with slow care, but it notices me now. It stalks toward me, approaching the edge of my effect.

This is almost worse than the cry - it’s not purely terrifying, but it’s stalking approach is oozing /threat/, and everything about it still screams wrongness to my senses. Its milky orbs don’t focus, but its head flicks left and right, regarding me side to side like a bird. Its mouth hangs open, drooling viscous fluid down its jaw and over its fangs. I HAVE more power, I just can’t put anything else into this gravity well, and this thing is still moving despite being held by the kind of force that would slam an average person’s ears into his ankles. It’s almost to the edge of the field and I’m about to despair that I can’t do anything when I realize it.

The song hasn’t faded.

I’ve got something stronger than this.

I can do more than this.

I raise my glaive over my right shoulder, take a half-step forward with my left foot and the stance feels right. The creature hesitates for a moment, seeing my fear bleed away.

I grin savagely as I swing the blade, eyes shut, focused entirely on slamming ever more magic into the attack as my weapon falls to point right at the creature in a strike I know will kill it. My voice echoes with power and authority as I shout, “Singularity Seed!”

In my gravitic sense a deep, pencil thin shaft rams downward, deeper, far deeper than the shallow depression I’d made to try and hurt it earlier. It punches down, down, impossibly deep and I feel a sharp wind tear by me toward it. I open my eyes to see a featureless black sphere shredding the landscape around it, the corner of the building and a nearby truck peeling away in streamers to spin and fall into the impossibly deep gravity well I’ve punched into the fabric of space-time right on top of the creature. After moments of watching the the hole in realty eat the nearby scenery I feel my well of power run dry and the black sphere destabilizes in a burst of violet light. I have to turn away from the powerful gust of gritty wind that I can only assume is the compressed material being blasted back out.

I’m exhausted, physically and magically. I can feel some power and stamina returning at a trickle pace, but I don’t think I could accomplish that again. I brace myself on my glaive haft and hobble over to the wreckage of my attack. There’s a dimpled crater in the ground, and everything is warped or shredded in a fairly large radius around the point itself. I don’t see any sign of the creature.

Hah. So much for the big scary monster that made my ‘experienced’ colleagues shit their pants and run. “Eat your heart out, Sailor Moon.” I wheeze and plonk my tired ass onto the ground. That was considerably scarier than any anime. Why didn’t I get to fight goofy, weird looking women instead of deep-sea fear-monsters?

A Caterpillar groans in the yard behind me. And I start to turn. A shuddering hiss of breath turns my blood to ice. I glance to my right, back into the yard and the creature is there, right side mangled and wet, black ichor gleaming under the yellow light. For all the damage it is alive and menacing. It lets off a shuddering growl and begins to stalk toward me.

Fuck me sideways. Closing my eyes to concentrate on getting the magic right. What a fucking mistake. My strength and power is trickling back but it’s too slow. I can’t do that again, I can barely move at a normal pace. I jam my glaive into the ground and lever myself up, half stumbling away from the yard and the monster. I can hear it chasing me, irregular wet footfalls heralding its wounded movement. It’s hurt, it’s not as fast as it could be, but it’s still far faster than I am.
I don’t make it far before the realization sets in. I can’t outrun this thing. At all. I look over my shoulder as it stalks around the side of the building and moves toward me. If only Starlight Lancer was still up there to give me some back up. Maybe I wouldn't be so fucked. Wait. That’s it! I might not have the power left to actually fight it, but I think I can manage one last-ditch exit strategy.

It starts a loping gallop toward me, and I swallow hard. I hope to god I have the juice for this. I repeat my earlier trick and dial the area way down, lowering my personal gravity to nothing, my hair and ribbons floating up. As it barrels down on me I silently hope it attacks like the gorilla it seems like, or even this isn’t going to work. It closes with me rapidly, it rears up, both fists coming at me in a rising attack and hope blossoms. I throw my arm and the glaive across my body and try to push off hard in a rapid jump to roll with the blow but even then its bony plated fists hit me impossibly hard. I feel bones crack in my arm, jagged shards of my forearm poking through the skin, and my glaive spins off into the night. My world is pain, but I’m still rocketing away from it faster than it can follow. I burn the last of my remaining power to punch a shallow gravity well behind and above me, yanking me up and away even faster.

I spin wildly in the air and grit my teeth as the bones in my arm shift and tear at my skin, but I’m on track to make the bridge spanning the ravine. Then I realize that I don’t have anything left for course corrections or landing and my stomach drops. This is going to suck so hard, even if it’s better than being monster chow.

Movement on the bridge. What's...?

Oh fuck. That’s a car.