#r: shove him down that sewer and see what happens

[follies-and-feuillys]

The fact that Thernardier was lurking in the sewer trying to rob dead revolutionaries implies that he thought the dead barricade boys would be put down the sewer once they were shot or stabbed.

[remmushound]

Part 7 of my Rise/bay crossover! Special thanks to @brightlotusmoon for the help with this chapter!! @errorfreak88

It took only a few minutes for Donnie to set the computer to work.

“It… it’s working to isolate any mutagenic pathogens around the globe— if it works right there should be seven down here and two in ADX Florence— that’s Bebop and Rocksteady. Any other strays would hopefully be our other turtles and dear old rat.”

“What about their April?”

“I— I can’t really track her using this, but with any luck she’s with one of them. It’ll take a few minutes since it… searching such a wide range.”

“That’s okay. At least we have a start.” Leo tried to smile but he was sure Donnie could see right through it. “Why don’t you go bring our uh… friend in there some food and water? Sure he’d appreciate it. And try to ask him more about his world if you can. So we know what to expect.”

When Donnie didn't immediately move, Leo gave him an encouraging shove toward the kitchen. Donnie stumbled off, looking back and making a ‘really bro?’ motion toward Leo. He scooped up the other-Donnie’s battle shell on the way over. Entering the kitchen brought him into what was almost like a whole other world— a loud one at that!

“Oh mi gOSH IS THAT A TATTOO?!” It was almost whiplashing hearing a voice so ectatic and yet so sarcastic-sounding at the same time. Donatello’s eyes were like stars as he looked at Mikey’s tattoo. “Ohhhhh! I soooo want one!”

Mikey was all too happy to flex his arm and show off the faded markings, “Oh you’d look so cool with a tattoo! Yeah, like maybe an airplane or like cat or something cool like that.” Mikey said quickly.

“Yeah, but Raph would kill me!” Donatello couldn’t help but poke at the tattoos, tracing his finger gently across the mark to get a better feel of the design. “Ohhhh that’s so cool!”

Donnie cleared his throat finally.

“Oh. Sah Donnie?” Mikey did a peace sign.

Donnie cleared and jiggled the battle shell he held pointedly.

Donatello gasped and shoved Mikey aside to run, arms outstretched, to his counterpart. “MY BABY!” He snatched the battle shell from Donnie’s hands and kissed it repeatedly. “Oh I’ll never let you go again— ack! Ew! Sewer taste!” He started to try and wipe the taste off his tongue, “Ohhhh nooo that just made it worse!”

“Ohhh I totally know how you feel! This one time, when we were going down the pipe, the water like totally went in my mouth.” Mikey waddled over to Donatello and leaned over the shorter turtle's shoulder, standing almost close enough to rest his chin on the softshell’s head.

Donatello didn't seem to notice nor care about the box turtle’s proximity as he flipped open one of the many pouches contained in his armor and pulled out a small device that looked almost like bottle caps, one blue and labeled L and one white and labeled R. Mikey watched curiously as Donatello popped the case open and gasped loudly when the turtle took one of the clear lenses on his finger and started the process of cleaning it. When Donatello pulled apart his eyelids to apply the contacts, however, Mikey recoiled, climbing on the counter to get further away and immediately starting to whine.

“Ewww! Ew ew ew ew, he’s touching his eye—“

“Mikey!” Donnie snapped, but Mikey didn't stop.

“Eww his eye’s gonna pop out dude I’m telling you it’s gonna pop out and fall on the floor and get all dirty and he’s gonna have to pick it up and put it back in!”

Donatello was unperturbed by the complaints and applied his contacts quickly. “Yes, yes. Gasp in your repugnance all you want. Alas, ‘tis all the better to see you with, dear Michael!” Donatello waved a hand as he turned to face Mikey. “Heyyy, you got freckles! Nice.”

Mikey’s disgust was almost immediately forgotten by curiosity as he crawled across the counter to get closer to Donatello, and then fell off. He got back up, shaking off the fall and strutting as if it never happened.

“Do they hurt?” Mikey gasped.

“Where did you get contact lenses anyway?” Donnie was just as in Donatello’s face as Mikey was. “I got glasses, but that was just by dumb luck.”

“Yeah!” Mikey started to poke at Donatello curiously, “And even then they’re always falling off and stuff. Super inconvenient!”

“Mikey, quit poking him!”

“I saw you poking him!” Mikey nudged the bridge of his shell against Donnie.

“Ow— that was just an exam!”

Donatello leaned against the wall and watched the altercation with the slightest grin. He let himself watch a moment longer before starting to put his battle shell back on, and at the click of the buckle Mikey perked up like a dog at a whistle. He shoved Donnie away and hurried to the softshell.

“Wanna hear more about my tattoos?”

Donatello gave the excitable box turtle a genuine smile. “I wanna hear about everything you want to tell me. Just give me a mo~”

Donatello walked confidently over to Donnie, took the mask and glasses off in a single motion and walked away before Donnie could stop him. It took the mutant another second to process the audacity before he ran after.

“Wha— hey— heyheyhey— that’s my stuff!” Donnie tried to take his things back, but Donatello’s spider arm held him back.

Donatello rooted through the drawers for a long moment before coming out with a pair of scissors.

“Hey— what are you doing with those?!” Donnie tried to stop him once more, growling as he tried to overpower the titanium arms.

Mikey twirled over to Donatello, the titanium arms letting him past while still restraining Donnie. Mikey landed with his palms down on the counter flexing his tattoo proudly.

“Okay, so like, that turtle in the middle is our family crest right? And I totally designed it— original Michelangelo art right here, first hand. I know, I’m amazing!”

Donatello continued his work through Mikey’s rant, nodding along to the enthusiasm.

“The inking was done by Donnie there in the purple, you already met him though so eh. And this is supposed to be the Brooklynn bridge— New York pride and everything.”

Though Donatello’s expression didn't change in the slightest, one of his spider arms made a fist and bounced over to Mikey for a fist bump, which the box turtle obliged.

“And this is supposed to be the knots are our masks, connects to the bridge— super cool. And these are just some spaceships cause spaceships are awesome. And this is a bat, cause bats are rad, and it’s on fire cause that’s also rad.”

“Mm. Very nice. Love the thought and detail. Ha! There!” Donatello finished his work and retracted his titanium arms so suddenly that Donnie stumbled and almost fell. Donatello un-creased the mask to the best of his ability and rolled it back onto Donnie’s head, fixing it comfortably for the other mutant before backing up with a smug smirk.

The only difference in the mask that had been taken and the mask that was returned were the glasses now fitted carefully into the eye holes; the handles went in between the cloth of the mask to hold the glasses securely in place.

“Now you won’t have to worry about dropping them.” Donatello said calmly, crossing his arms and nodded. “You’re welcome.”

Donnie touched his hand to the frames a moment in awe before laughing his snorting-laugh. “Oh my god— this is— this is genius!” He hurried over to look at his reflection in the fridge. “How did I never think about this?”

Donatello simply tapped his head in response and turned to return to Mikey before Donnie ran and grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Wait!” Donnie said quickly, “I have so many questions!”

[emo-space-tea]

Jealousy

NOT MY GIF

Chapter 3

~3rd Person POV~

The five losers got to the sewer and dropped their bikes. Well, except Stan, he put his on its kickstand.

"That's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy, and that's poison ivy." Stan said while pointing at three similar looking plants.

"Where? W..Where's the poison ivy?" Eddie asked, seeming slightly panicked.

"Nowhere! Not every fucking plant is poison ivy Stanley!" Richie exclaimed.

Bill, Richie and Ashton walked into the sewer while Eddie and Stan stayed just outside of it.

"Okay, well, I'm starting to get itchy...now, and I'm pretty sure this is not-" Eddie started until Richie cut him off.

"Do you use the same bathroom as your mother?" Richie asked.

"Sometimes, Yeah." Eddie responded honestly.

"Then you probably have crabs!" Richie said.

"That's so not funny." Eddie responded again.

Ashton and Bill had their flashlights and were searching the sewer for......well, anything really.

Richie turned around and looked at Eddie and Stan.

"Aren't you guys coming in?" Richie asked the two.

"Nu uh. It's grey water." Eddie stated while pointing at the dark water.

"What's Grey water?" Ashton asked, jumping in the conversation.

"It's basically.....piss and shit, that's all I'm telling you! You three are splashing around in....millions of gallons of 'Derry Pee'!" Eddie said, obviously worried about his health.

Richie dipped a stick he found in the water, and sniffed it.

"Jesus Rich!" Ashton exclaimed, grossed out.

"Are you serious, what are you-" Eddie was cut off again.

"Doesn't smell like caca to me senor~" Richie said in a horrible Spanish accent.

After that Eddie started ranting about infections, then Richie threw something. Ashton was paying closer attention to the real reason they were there. Then Ashton saw something in the water.

"Billy! Look." Ashton mumbled to Bill.

He picked up what she  was pointing at. It was a shoe. 

Bill turned around and shouted "Guys!". The rest of the losers quickly shut up, and stared at him. Then they noticed the shoe in his hand.

"Shit.....Don't tell me that's...." Stan said in a nervous voice.

"No." Ashton responded.

"G-G-Georgie wore galoshes." Bill continued as Richie walked up next to them.

"Who's sneaker is it?" Eddie asked quickly.

Ashton pointed the flashlight inside the shoe and Richie looked inside.

"It's Betty Ripsom's" Richie answered.

"...Shit...Oh..God..Oh Fuck!" Eddie exclaimed. "I don't like this." Eddie said.

"How do you think Betty feels....running around in these tunnels with only one freaking shoe!" Richie jokes while hopping on one foot.

"Not Now Rich." Ashton snapped, seriously.

"What if she's still here?" Stan asked, and Bill, Richie and Ashton all turned around to continue looking in the sewer.

"Eddie, come on!" Richie called out as we walked further.

"My mom will have an aneurysm, okay, if she finds out we're playing down here, I'm serious." Eddie said quickly, obviously panicking.

Bill was still looking in the sewer.

"Bill?" Eddie called out.

"If....If I was Betty Ripsom, I would want us to find her, G-G-Georgie too." Bill responded.

"What if I don't wanna find her." Eddie said. We all stared at him. "I mean, no offense Bill, but I don't wanna end up like Geo-" Eddie cut himself off to spare Bill's emotions.

 "I don't wanna go missing either" Eddie finished.

"He has a point." Stan spoke up. 

"You too, Stanny?" Ashton asked.

"It's summer, we're supposed to be having fun! This isn't fun, this is scary and disgusting." Stan said, looking down.

Suddenly, there was a splash from behind Eddie and Stan. They all went to see what it was, it was the new kid, all banged up and bleeding.

"Holy Shit, What happened to you?" Richie asked, leaving the sewer.

The new kid looked over at them, out of breath. Stan and Eddie rushed over to help him, shortly after so did Ashton.

They picked up the new kid and put him on Silver, Bill's bike, and got on their own bikes. They rushed to the Drugstore. While they were riding, Eddie kept ranting about "An AIDS epidemic" currently happening, but none of them really listened though.

They finally got there and dropped their bikes in the alleyway. Bill set the new kid down on a crate and told Richie to wait with him while they got the supplies.

The four losers rushed into the drug store. Eddie quickly grabbed what he needed, while the other 3 looked in their pockets for any money they had. The sum was $6.23.

"Can we afford all that?" Bill asked Eddie.

"That's all we got." Stan said with only a bit of cash and change in his hands.

"Are you kidding me?" Eddie asked with all the medical supplies in his small arms. He started biting with lip thinking.

"Wait, You have an account here, don't you?" Ashton asked.

"If my mom finds out I bought all this stuff for myself, I'm spending the whole rest of the weekend in the emergency room getting X-rayed." Eddie said, while shaking his head no.

A couple aisles over Beverly Marsh, the school's 'Slut', was looking at the Tampax, confused. She made up her mind and went to pay when she saw Greta Kenne walking down the aisle. She quickly went to the next one which wasn't any better.

Luckily, Ashton saw the box and quickly gestured for Beverly to hide it behind her back, and she did. The other three boys looked over and saw Beverly.

"Are you okay?" Bill asked her.

"I'm fine, what's wrong with you?" Beverly asked, seeing all the medical supplies in Eddie's arms.

"None of your business." Stan replied.

"There's a kid outside, looked like someone killed him." Eddie also responded. Ashton quickly slapped Eddie's arm, giving him a 'Really?!' look.

"We need some supplies but we don't have enough money." Ashton told Beverly.

Beverly thought for a second, before coming up with a plan and saying "I think I know what to do, but I'll need Ashton's help."

The two girls walked up the check out.

"We like your glasses, Mr. Kenne." Beverly started.

"You look just like Clark Kent." Ashton continued.

"Oh, well, I don't know about that." Mr. Kenne said while adjusting his glasses.

"Can we try them?" Beverly asked abruptly.

"Well, Sure." Mr. Kenne answered while taking off his glasses and handing them to Beverly.

Beverly put them on and looked at the pervert through her eyelashes.

"What do you think?" The redhead asked.

"Well, How bout that. You look just like Louis Lane." Mr. Kenne said while leaning in.

"Definitely." Ashton said while looking at Beverly.

Beverly then took off the glasses and handed them to Ashton. The petite girl put them on and looked at Beverly and Mr. Kenne.

"How do I look?" Ashton asked.

Little did she know that the boy with a stutter and his curly haired friend were staring at her. A light red blush grazing their cheeks.

"Perfect." Mr. Kenne said.

The small girl then took off the glasses and when handing them back to Mr. Kenne,  'accidentally' knocked over the small shelf of cigarettes behind the counter.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Ashton apologized in a sincere voice.

"It's okay. " Mr. Kenne said while putting on his glasses and bending down to clean up the fallen shelf.

While the pervert was cleaning, Ashton and Beverly looked back to see the 3 losers rushing to leave the store with their supplies. Bill accidentally shoved Eddie causing him to trip and knock over a few items before actually leaving.

Beverly saw a pack of cigarettes on the counter and quickly grabbed them and shoved them in her pocket.

Out in the alleyway the Losers were trying to help the new kid. 

"Can you go get me something?" Eddie asked, while trying to get the wound to stop bleeding.

"Jesus, what do you need?" Richie asked.

"Go get my bifocals. I hid them in my second fanny pack." Eddie said.

"Why do you have two fanny packs?" Stan asked.

Bill walked out of the alleyway to see Beverly walking towards him, wind blowing in her hair. Bill then pulled out a dollar from his pocket and showed it to Beverly.

"T-T-Thanks." Bill said.

"Even Steven." Beverly said while pulling out her new pack of cigarettes.

The two then heard Stan freaking out and looked to see what was going on. 

"Ben from Soc?" Beverly asked herself before going in the alley way.

Eddie and Richie were arguing and Ashton was sitting on a crate. 

"Are you okay? That looks like it hurts." Beverly said while walking up to the group.

"Oh, No, I'm good. I just fell." Ben said, smiling at the redhead.

"Yeah, right into Henry Bowers!" Richie exclaimed. 

"S-S-S-Shut up R-R-Richie." Bill said.

"Why? It's the truth." Richie said back.

"You sure they got the right stuff, to fix you up?" Beverly asked while Bill stared at her.

Ashton noticed this and started feeling a pain in her chest. Ashton then got up and shoved Richie out of the way and walked to her bike.

"Where the hell are you going?" Richie asked, seeing the small girl get her bike.

"Home." Ashton answered quickly.

"But-" Stan was cut off by Ashton.

"You guys know how Alex gets!" Ashton exclaimed while glaring at the group.

She then got on her bike and started riding out of the alleyway. 

"But It's not past-!" Stan yelled, but Ashton was already gone. "Your curfew yet."

 "Is she okay?" Beverly asked.

"Y-Y-Yeah, I'm sure." Bill lied.

"Okay, well maybe I'll see you around." Beverly said.

"We were thinking about going to the Q-Q-Quarry tomorrow, if you wanna come." Bill told Beverly.

"Good to know, Thanks. Oh and, Who's Alex?" Beverly asked.

"H-H-He's Ashton's Ste-" Bill was cut off by Eddie.

"None of your business." Eddie answered.

"E-E-Eddie." Bill said sternly.

"No, he's right. It took Ash four years to tell us. Why should she know?" Stan defended.

Bill tried to think of a reason, but nothing came out. There was silence for a couple of minutes.

"If you wanna know, go and ask her. She lives on 29 oaks street." Richie said.

"Okay then, Thanks anyways." Beverly said before walking out to the alleyway.

"Nice going bringing up Bowers in front of her." Stan said to Richie.

"Yeah you heard what she did." Eddie said, agreeing.

"What'd she do?" Ben asked.

"More like who'd she do! From what I hear the list is longer than my wang." Richie answered, grabbing his crotch. 

"That's not saying much." Stan said.

"There j-j-j-j-just rumors." Bill said defending the redhead

"Anyway, Bill had her back in the third grade. They kissed in the school play. Reviews said you can't fake that sort of passion." Richie told Ben.

"Now!" Richie clapped his hands. "Pip Pip and tally ho my good fellows! I do believe this chap required our utmost attention, get in there Doctor K, come on, fix him up." Richie said in a horrible British accent.

"Why don't you shut to fuck up Einstein, because I know what I'm doing and I don't want you doing the British guy with me right now." Eddie responded.

"Suck the wound. Get in there." Richie Exclaimed.

Even though Ashton didn't say it, Richie and Eddie knew she was filled with Jealousy.

*•~Emo-Gay-Tea~•*

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[clarkeysbog]

Protective!Losers Club x Original Female Character

Chapter 3 - The Barrens

As Bill and Brandi were walking to back to Bill's house after they got off his bike a block away from his place, Bill started reciting the tongue-twister he uses to try and lessen his stuttering. Which it almost never does.

"He thrusts his fists against the p-p-p-post...He thrusts his fists ag-against the p-p-p-p-p-p-p- SHIT!" He exclaimed, forgetting the young child was next to him, and quickly apologised.

As they arrived to his house, Brandi ran into the house to tell Bill's mom all about her day, whereas Bill went into the garage to see if his dad needed any help.

"Need some help?" Bill asked his dad.

"Bill, I thought we agreed." His dad scolded, which made Bill glance at his sculpture of the sewer system of Derry.

"Before you say anything-" He was cut off by his dad saying.

"Bill-" "Just let me sh-show you something." Bill stated.

He put an action figure labelled 'Georgie' down a tube, turned on the hose, which swept 'Georgie' to an opening with a carton under it labelled 'Barrens'. "Th-the Barrens, it's the only place that Georgie c-could be." "He's gone Bill.." His dad stated heartlessly. "But if the storm s-swept Georgie i-in, w-we should h-have gone-" Bill said, being cut off by his dad saying.

"He's gone! He's dead! He's dead, there's nothing we can do! Now clean this up before your mother and Brandi see this." His dad scolded, raising his voice.

Bill was tearing up, slightly heartbroken by what his dad said. Deep down, Bill knew Georgie wasn't dead, and in a few months time he will be proven right.

His dad took down the map and said, "Next time you want to take something from my office. Ask."

-

Brandi was playing with her dollhouse with Bill until she heard Georgie's voice behind her.

She was suspicious at first and said, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

"Brandi!" 'Georgie' called on her.

She followed the voice, and went into the basement.

"You could've come with me...that day of the storm. You could've come with me instead of staying to look after Bill..but if you come with me right now, you'll float too."

Brandi was confused, until 'Georgie' kept on repeating the words "you'll float too" his voice becoming more and more demonic.

Brandi saw a clown, mouthing the same words as 'Georgie' was saying, and she rushed up the stairs the clown following her, tripping over it's two left feet and fell at the bottom of the steps.

Bill saw the girl running from the basement, and she told him what she saw, and luckily for her he saw it too when he went to go check.

He hugged the young girl protectively, she slept in his bed that night, too afraid to sleep in her own.

"I can't get to sleep, Billy..." She said, rubbing her eyes and frowned.

"I-It's okay, Br-Brandi...that cl-clown won't hur-hurt y-you, I've g-got you." He reassured her.

-

"Take everything but the Delicious Deals guys, my mom loves those." Eddie ordered, and turned to Bill saying, "Hey! First you said the Barrens, and now you're saying the sewers? What if we get caught?" "We won't Eds." Bill laughed, "Th-the sewers are pub-public w-works. We're the public aren't we?"

Brandi nodded in agreement, "Yeah, Eddie! So, we won't get caught!" The three boys smiled down at the smiling girl.

As Richie opened up a cupboard, he saw there were pill bottles, upon pill bottles (A/N The gazebos aka the bullshit). He smirked and taunted Eddie by saying, "Hey, Eddie, are these your birth control pills?" And before he could stop himself, Eddie responded with, "Yeah, and I'm saving them for your sister. This is private stuff!" "Ew, you'd use birth control on Brandi?" Richie gagged, and the younger girl scrunched up her nose.

"No. I'm not a pedophile!" Eddie shouted.

"But you said you'd use birth control on my sister, Brandi's practically that." He gagged again.

"You two are disgusting!" The young girl said, her nose scrunched up in disgust, and that made the three boys laugh.

As they were leaving Eddie's mom, Sonia, called on him saying, "Eddie Bear, where are you kids off to in such a rush?" "Oh, they're taking me to the park!" Brandi said, but that was not what they were really doing.

"Okay.." Sonia started, but continued, "Oh, and sweetie, don't go rolling around on the grass. Especially if it's just been cut. You know how bad your allergies can get." "Yes mom. Let's go." Eddie nodded, and was about to leave before his mom said.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" And she looked to Brandi and said, "You too, Brandi."

And the young girl and the smaller, but older, boy went over to the boy's mother and the woman gave the small girl a hug and Eddie gave the woman a kiss on the cheek.

And Richie obviously had to remark by saying, "You want one from me too Mrs. K?" Bill and Eddie shoved Richie out the door, Brandi shaking her head at the door and Eddie said, "Sorry, mommy."

Brandi saw that outside Stan had gotten her a new bike, her favourite colour, violet, she couldn't believe it so she asked, "Is that for me?" "Well, yeah..." Stan smiled, "It's yours little bird."

She smiled, and hopped on the bike, the four boys trying to teach her how to ride a bike, since she's only ever ran or gone on one of their bikes.

And she did it, she rode her bike on the fourth try.

"Now y-y-you can r-r-ride with us." Bill smiled, and said, "Instead of g-g-getting on one of ou-ou-our bikes, y-y-you have your own."

"Slow down!" Richie called on Bill.

"Hi-ho Silver! Away!" Bill shouted.

"Your bike's too fast for us to keep up!" Brandi called, she was far behind the others, since she had only started riding today.

-

When the group arrived at the Barrens, Stan was pointing out what he thought was poison ivy.

"Where? Where's the poison ivy?" Eddie asked, holding the young girl close to him afraid of her touching the plant.

"No where, not every fucking plant is poison ivy, Stanley. You're making Eddie scare Brandi." Richie exclaimed.

"Yeah, well, I'm starting to get itchy now.." Eddie stated.

"Do you use the same bathroom as your mother?" Richie asked, Stan covering Brandi's ears so she wouldn't hear.

"Sometimes, yeah." Eddie shrugged.

"Then you probably have crabs!" Richie laughed.

Stan uncovered the small girl's ears as Eddie said, "That's so not funny."

"Aren't you guys coming in?" Richie asked the two pussy-ass boys, the little girl nodded but Eddie pulled her back gently.

"No, Brandi, don't go in. It's grey water." Eddie spoke to her softly.

"What's grey water?" Brandi asked, confused as to what the smaller, yet older boy meant.

"It's pee and poop." Eddie described, refraining himself from swearing in front of the little girl and turned to Richie and said, "You guys are splashing around in millions of gallons of Derry pee."

Richie picked up a stick and sniffed it saying, "Doesn't smell like caca to me señor."

"Okay, I can smell that from here!" Eddie exclaimed.

"Probably just your breath wafting back to your face!" Richie taunted.

Eddie scoffed, waving his hand in annoyance, "Have you ever heard of a staph infection?"

"I'll show you a staph infection!" Richie smirked, picking up a piece of floating cloth in the water.

"This is so unsanitary! This is literally like swimming inside of a toilet bowl right now!" Eddie exclaimed, annoyed with Richie, "Have you ever heard of Listeria?"

"You're retarded!" Richie exclaimed.

Bill called on the group, after picking up a shoe saying, "Guys!"

"Oh no, don't tell me that's..." Stan stammered.

"No, Georgie wore galoshes." Brandi shook her head, whispering her words but loud enough for the boys to hear. She missed her best friend greatly.

"Who's sneaker is it then?" Eddie asked.

Richie shone the flashlight on the shoe and it read 'Ripsom'.

"It's Betty Ripsom's.." Richie told the group.

"Oh no, oh god...I don't like this..." Eddie stated.

"How do you think Betty feels?" Richie started, "Running around these tunnels with only one fricking shoe." Brandi shook her head at the boy.

A boy the same age as the older kids fell in the river water, and Richie said, "Holy shit, what happened to you?"

[rainbows-fanfics]

Two Dearest Friends (Chapter 13)

Summary:

Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town, meets Sally, a ragdoll created by Dr. Finklestein. A friendship blossoms between them as he introduces her to the world outside of her tower. Sally is falling for him as their relationship grows into something more, and Jack finds the same is happening to him.

A story where the Christmas incident never happens, and Jack and Sally find their happiness on their own.

Pairings: Jack Skellington/Sally

"HALLOWEEN CELEBRATION IN ONLY AN HOUR! HEAD TO THE TOWNSQUARE TO ACQUIRE YOUR POSITIONS FOR THIS EVENING!" The Mayor's booming voice comes through the kitchen window. Sally peeks her head out and finds his hearse traveling down the hills. Halloween was here already? She's been trying to get on the Doctor's good side for so long that she completely forgot about it! He's been much easier on her now that she's been kind, so her job was nearly done. All that was left was to test her limits. She glances out of the kitchen momentarily and finds him passing by her direction. "Doctor!" She calls. She rushes out of the room. The Doctor stops what he has been doing and turns to face her. Nothing looks different about his features. It's hard to tell whether he is in a good or bad mood. While she observes his face, Finklestein taps his finger on his cheek. "I hope this isn't going to be about that announcement outside?" Her lips press into a thin line. She's been caught already. "Well, actually-" "-Then I don't want to hear it." He waves his hand in the air. "Get me my dinner, Sally. I'm rather famished tonight." He doesn't even wait for her response before leaving back to the lab. She stands there and watches him in shock. Here she was actually thinking he'd understand! If he was going to be like this, then there is no other choice. She turns to walk back into the kitchen, opening her cabinet and reluctantly pulling out the bottle filled with deadly nightshade. She takes one last glance out of the door before dumping its contents into the soup. ------------------------------------- Halloween Town is a lot darker than she remembers. After she spikes the Doctor's dinner and covers him with a blanket, she is wandering aimlessly into the streets. For some reason, everything appears to be nearly pitch-black, even the smallest of the noises sounding deafening. The wind brushing along her clothed skin sends unpleasant goosebumps up her arms. Growing a little uneasy, she steps to the side and places a tired hand on the wall. It feels as if she's been wandering for hours. She doesn't recognize the area at all. She tries to backtrack and recollect the way she went. This really is awful...being lost in the town she ever so deeply wanted to be apart of... She hears some whispering behind her, the words incomprehensible. She turns around but finds no one there. The whispers come again and she frantically turns in their direction. There is still no one in sight. A cold feeling climbs the back of her dress, as if a gust of wind was going through her. "Who's there!?" She demands. When she is met with silence, Sally continues on her way, her pace much faster with an occasional glance behind her shoulder. She can't tell what are shadows and what are walls. Every sewer gate she passes makes a gargling noise. There is an unsteady beating in her chest as her eyes dart back and forth. Her hair suddenly lifts from the back of her dress, the cold draft reaching her skin and causing her to squeak in surprise. Before she can turn around, a hand grips her hair steadily. She attempts to fight back but feels the grip loosen as the presence leaves. When she turns around, she hears an eerie voice whisper into her ear.

"I am the wind blowing through your hair.." She screams. Then she scrambles to her feet, running as fast and far as she can. She turns her head to see if anyone is following her, but then she comes into contact with something hard. She's sent to the ground as her back lands harshly on the floor. She looks up hazily and finds a blurry sight of red above her. "Dolly?" She blinks once or twice, steadying her vision. A grotesque face looks down at her in surprise. She lets out a yelp and crawls backwards. The figure offers her a hand but she smacks it before it can touch her. James, the one who offered her his hand, steps back in caution. The rest of his band members, John and Jimmy, lean from beside him to peer at the ragdoll. She is still on the ground shaking, her eyes watering. Her dress is ruffled and her hair is tangled in knots. James turns to shrug, motioning to her weakly. "She came right at me!" He defends. In Sally's ears, all she can hear are mumbles. She shuts her eyes and tries to protect herself by holding her arms in front of her. She can't recognize the voices or the figures. All she can hear is the pounding in her chest and the numb feeling in her leaves. John studies her intently. After awhile, he comments, "I think she's scared." His assumption is confirmed when she jumps at his voice. James rubs his chin excitedly. "Hey, 's great! Who scared ya', Dolly? Was it Jack? I hear he's on a roll tonight, an' it ain't even celebratin' time yet!" She scrambles backwards again. The three exchange confused looks, watching her in silence until things click together in their minds. "Oh! 'S her first Halloween, boys." James announces to them. "She wasn't here last year, remember?" "Ohhh." They reply in unison, nodding at their leader. They glance back at their friend and find that she still hasn't moved, but is starting to peek out from her arms. She blinks a few times before smiling, opening her mouth to apologize. She feels another breeze climb her shoulders and rushes behind them, hiding in the small space between their figures and the wall. James looks behind them and blinks. "Uh...what 'r ya' doin', Doll?" "It's so frightening out there! I just want to feel safe..." "But Hallowen Town's th' safest place around!" He replies. "Nothin's gonna' kill ya'. At least...not here." His consolation doesn't help. She makes a surprised noise and conceals herself again. When Jimmy smacks James' arm, the leader shrugs and mouths: 'It's true!' "You can stay like that as long as you'd like." John assures her, gently strumming his bass. "We ain't going anywhere." She sighs in relief, staying behind them. They really are such great friends to let her hide like this. She doesn't understand why she was so scared. It felt as if her life was at stake and being out in the open meant something horrible. It was...scary. But after calming down, she emerges from the spot. She stands in front of them and tugs at a strand of her hair, wondering just what to say. She finds them smiling at her and flinches. Their faces are scary, too, but they belong to her friends. She can't be scared of them like she was with...whoever was back there. "I'm sorry," She apologizes. "I wasn't expecting things to feel so...different tonight." "Bone Daddy says tonight 'll be th' scariest ever. Guess he's right 'bout that." James chuckles. "Don't know what he has planned. Doesn't let us know 'bout it 'til it happens." Sally unconsciously smiles at the mention of Jack. She almost forgot asking them about him. They are his friends as well, and they seem really familiar with him since no one else used such a nickname. She clears her throat and avoids eye contact with the three, shyly approaching the topic. "I was wondering if you three can tell me more about Jack?" She asks. All of their jaws open wide. James nudges Jimmy's arm while John gives him a smug look. The accordion player looks away from them and scoffs. The other two erupt into laughter, James slapping his knee repeatedly. "Doesn't mean anything." Jimmy mutters. "What doesn't?" The ragdoll asks. "Oh, nothin', nothin'." James waves it off. "What do ya' wanna' know 'bout 'im, Dolly?" "Everything." She blurts out. Their eyes widen again before the three think of what to say. John and Jimmy eventually look at James, waiting for his response. He catches their looks and clears his throat. "-Well, Bone Daddy likes ta' take walks, fer' one. He usually goes 'round th' Outskirts late at night. Don't know what he does exactly, but sometimes he'll be out there fer' hours. We find that he usually ends up at th' Graveyard." "Oh, yes. I've met him there." "Not many ghouls know this, but..." James looks around before leaning forward. "Bone Daddy doesn't like th' fawnin' n' attention. I'm guessin' he gets overwhelmed. Every year th' ghouls n creatures praise him, n' it's all fun n' games...but we always see him leave fer' th' Graveyard after. Ain't a good sign." She gawks in surprise. "But all I ever see are the citizens praising him..." "Trust me, I'm guessin' at one point he enjoyed it. But...let's say ya' get called horrible everyday. After awhile, it really loses its touch, ya' know?" She furrows her eyebrows in thought. She had no idea that it overwhelmed him...it looked like he coped with it just fine. He didn't mention it with her at the Graveyard. Oh, she hopes she hasn't added onto that for him... Jimmy slowly starts to play his accordion, passing a look in her direction. "I'm a little surprised." "Surprised about what?" "He likes to stay alone," He explains. "Keeps himself at home and only goes to the graveyard to be by himself. Whenever anyone offers him some company, he always says no. I'm surprised he invited you with him." James looks over at the tall member and shoves his arm. Jimmy quiets down. Sally is still taking this new information in. Jack didn't like company, but he...enjoyed hers? Was she the exception? She wasn't used to being special for anything. The thought makes her feel warm. "....Really?..." The smile keeps growing on her face. James nods. "Yeah, 's right. But, 'stead of askin' us...ya' should go n' ask him yerself." She grins and nods. He's right. She has a whole evening with him coming up at the Graveyard, and she certainly won't go and waste the time when it comes. The four of them hear a round of chatter come in the direction of the Town Square. Sally decides to take her leave and waves to her friends as she goes. They play a tune for her as she walks away. ------------------ She's relieved to find the gates open and monsters about. She doesn't feel scared in the lighter atmosphere here. The monsters are either pumping themselves with preparation or were chatting with one another as she passes by. She finds a crowd near the fountain surrounding the Mayor's hearse. He's standing atop of it with a long paper in his hands, directing monsters to their proper places. She isn't familiar with many of the people here. They all look terribly scary. But seeing them being so enthusiastic only makes her view them in a better light. All these people truly are friendly. Jack was right about them! Wait, where IS Jack? She wonders. She looks around in the crowds but can't find him until she hears a familiar voice call for her. "Hey, Sally! Over here!" When she looks, she finds the Hanging Tree waiting for her. He and the Hanging Men are waving her over. She nods slightly as she pushes her way through the crowds. Once she gets to him, he pats an empty spot, to which she sits down and flattens down her dress. "Hello, Hanging Tree." She greets. "Hello, Sally! I was surprised to see you here!" He responds. "And on Halloween Night, no less." "What's going on? Why is everyone here?" The Hanging Tree looks down at her in surprise, taken aback at such a question. One of the Hanging Men realizes their tree is stunned and takes the obligation of telling her. "-Well, Miss, Halloween is the most important night of the year! We sing our song about it! Right now, we're all waiting for our roles." "I see." That explains why there's so many huddling around the Mayor's hearse. "-And where is Jack?" "Our Pumpkin King!" Another Hanging Man cheers. "Tonight, we worship him, as he's the King of Halloween! He comes at the end of the celebration to deliver his performance. The most exciting moment of the night!" "But I thought he doesn't like worship?" She inquires. The Hanging Tree finally snaps back into reality and hums lowly in response. "We're only allowed to do it tonight. He accepts praises every other day, but Halloween is the exception for everything, you know! Such a humble yet terrifying man, if I'd say so myself." She lets out a soft 'oh' in response. She continues to observe the scene until a thought suddenly comes to her. Jack said she was a citizen now, and the Doctor couldn't prove otherwise, so...does that mean she had a role in Halloween? "Do you know where I go in the song?" She asks the tree. He places a hand to his face in thought. "I don't believe I heard your name. But it'd be best to check with the Mayor, just to make sure and all." He points over to the crowd with a sharp finger. She nods and carefully removes herself from her seat. She attempts to find some sort of line. Apparently, there is none. Everyone seems to be standing around, hoping to get called on and directed somewhere. She decides to stick to the back and patiently waits for something to happen. The Mayor is currently waving his hand in front of a crowd. He doesn't look stressed, rather, happy, as he is checking names left-and-right off of his list. It takes awhile until everyone is assigned and there's only Sally left. When the Mayor's finger lands on her, his face changes. "Oh, dear. It doesn't say your name anywhere here, Mrs. Finklestein..." He climbs through the papers. Still finding nothing, he let them go limp on the floor. "Then where do I go?" His face shifts to his happier side. "You can sit to sit to the side and watch! It's such a horrible experience either way." He climbs down the ladder and lands on the floor loudly. He grabs his megaphone and that's when she decides to take her leave, making her way to the side and resting against a wall. She happens to do so just in time, for the Mayor's voice begins to echo through the town. "Remember, everyone, wait for your signal so you may all get into position! Please take timing into consideration. I'd like for this Halloween to be as orderly as the last! With that said, I'll be rewarding the prizes after the celebration! Have fun, everybody!" Everyone waits a bit before something comes through the gates. A black figure quickly goes around and rids the flames of nearby candles. Whenever it passes by a lamppost, the light goes off. The only thing illuminating the area right now is the bright, green water from the fountain. She hears startled screams and laughter emerge from the darkness. Figures rush past her. She lays completely flat against the wall as to not be taken with them. Soon the screams, laughs, and voices fall. She's left standing in silence. A moment passes before the lamps slowly light up again. The town square is nearly empty, save for monsters like Sally scrambling to the sides and watching. She is too scared to break the silence. Suddenly, ghosts fly around and peek through the fences, dancing on the walls.   "Boys and girls of every age Wouldn't you like to see something strange? Come with us and you will see This, our town of Halloween This is Halloween, this is Halloween Pumpkins scream in the dead of night" This is Halloween, everybody make a scene Trick or treat till the neighbors gonna die of fright It's our town, everybody scream In this town of Halloween I am the one hiding under your bed Teeth ground sharp and eyes glowing red I am the one hiding under your stairs Fingers like snakes and spiders in my hair This is Halloween, this is Halloween Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!"</i> The Vampire Brothers from afar emerge from their house. It sounds like the song is growing closer to her. They turn around and extend their wings, singing: "In this town we call home Everyone hail to the pumpkin song" The Mayor, proudly standing on top of his hears, begins to sing. She gawks at his voice - having not imagined him being so good, even better than her! He spins around while performing his lines: "In this town, don't we love it now? Everybody's waiting for the next surprise" Other citizens start jumping out from different spots. They continue to sing: "'Round that corner, man hiding in the trash can Something's waiting no to pounce, and how you'll Scream! This is Halloween Red 'n' black, and slimy green Aren't you scared? Well, that's just fine Say it once, say it twice Take a chance and roll the dice Ride with the moon in the dead of night Everybody scream, everybody scream In our town of Halloween! I am the clown with the tear-away face Here in a flash and gone without a trace I am the "who" when you call, "Who's there?" I am the wind blowing through your hair" Every part of her gets chills hearing those last lines. A voice comes above her, urging her to look into the night sky. She finds a familiar figure singing from...the moon? "I am the shadow on the moon at night Filling your dreams to the brim with fright This is Halloween, this is Halloween Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween! Halloween!" The children gather around their toys. She smiles as they sing their parts, joined by their parents soon after. "Tender lumplings everywhere Life's no fun without a good scare That's our job, but we're not mean In our town of Halloween In this town Don't we love it now? Everybody's waiting for the next surprise" The Behemoth comes out through the gates. He is lugging the straw horse behind him, the same one the Doctor has been working on for weeks. Some sort of scarecrow is sitting on top of it, with the welcoming sign of Halloween Town attached to its back. It has a pumpkin for a head and seems to be completely inanimate. She obverses it from a distance. A small, purple scattered-up vest is buttoned on its body. The rest is completely straw save for the stick-like arms, its limbs encircled with rope. All of the citizens rush to gather around it and sing while it passes by. One of them is carrying a torch, which is suddenly taken by the scarecrow. "Skeleton Jack might catch you in the back And scream like a banshee Make you jump out of your skin This is Halloween, everybody scream Won't ya please make way for a very special guy Our man Jack is King of the Pumpkin patch Everyone hail to the Pumpkin King, now!" The scarecrow swallows the torch hole, engulfing its body into flames. It jumps off of the horse and becomes completely animate, dancing around the square and shooting some fire out from its mouth. Sally jumps when flames find their way in her direction. The scarecrow turns and leaps into the fountain, performing a few flips expertly before landing into the water successfully. She watches it in awe, waiting for the moment it will rise out of the water. Her eyes focus and tries to find the orange peek out from the green liquid. But instead, a white skull emerges out slowly, two eye sockets opening slowly as the rest of its body follows suit. The citizens around her cheer as Jack steps onto the statue of the fountain, spreading out in arms to receive their praise. She is completely dumbfounded that nothing leaves her mouth. "What a horrible Halloween, everybody!" The Mayor exclaims from his hearse. Everyone's heads turn to watch him as he joins Jack. The skeleton steps down from the fountain and chuckles in response. "Yes, certainly one of our best to come!" The Pumpkin King agrees. "Everyone did horribly!" "But nothing compared to YOU, Jack!" The Mayor points at him. "Your leadership is what MAKES Halloween!" He opens his mouth to thank him, but is interrupted by someone screaming from the crowd. "You make sparks fly, Jack!" Someone else joins in. "You make oil boil!" More voices sound out in the crowd. She loses track hearing all of them at once. "You're a witch's scream!" "You make flesh crawl!" "-And wounds suppurate!" "You're such a scream!" Everyone is cheering and agreeing with the compliments being yelled out. The ragdoll keeps smiling and nodding as she hears them. They are all right - Jack is all of those things. She places two hands to her chest in excitement, unable to stop herself from blurting out a compliment of her own. "You're an inspiration!" She realizes what she said a second too late and slaps a hand over her mouth. The others clap to agree, though many are looking around in search for the new voice. Even he is a bit startled, judging by the way he's looking with them. She feels embarrassed and lowers her head, standing behind the largest person nearby so she wouldn't be seen. "An inspiration?" Jack Skellington echoes. "I loved that. Who said it?" She feels tingly and grins brightly. He loves it? She slowly rises from the crowds to claim it, but someone else blurts out an agreement before she can. "Yes! You're an inspiration to everybody!" Another round of applause ensues. She reluctantly joins in, a little jealous of being overshadowed. He finally holds up a skeletal hand, making everyone goes quiet. He turns to the Mayor and motions for him to begin calling out to the people. "Oh, yes!" Her grabs his list. "And now, the prizes!" She listens as the Mayor rewards people, giving them things she thought a little odd to praise. One monster gets a trophy for how many bats they made scream and another gets an honorable mention for the most 'claw marks in town'. She's confused, but she enjoys it. As soon as everything is handed out, the Mayor shoves his list to the side. Jack takes a step onto his hearse and sits himself on the top, towering over everyone. They all flock to him, surrounding the area and craning their necks up just to see him. Some even reach for any of his limbs that happen to be hanging loose. A witch manages to cling onto his arm, to which he politely nudges her off. "Well, everyone, I think this Halloween went horribly! But it is time to discuss what we can improve on." He passes the Mayor a smile. "If you'll do the honors, Mr. Mayor?" The Mayor nods his head and joins Jack from below, getting a paper out as well as a feathered pen. Sally stands firmly where she is, unsure of what to do. The monsters shove themselves forward to get as close to Jack while others talk to the Mayor. Many of the ghouls and witches are fluttering their eyes and attempting to touch him, some even succeeding. The ragdoll frowns and drops her arms to her side in defeat. Before she can leave, she feels someone's stare on the back of her head. She turns around and find Jack's eye sockets locked with her black pupils. He begins to wave at her, to which she blushes and returns. She sees him open his mouth to say something, but is interrupted by the sea gal launching herself onto his arm and nearly tipping the skeleton over the hearse. He gets pulled into the crowd, and that's the last Sally sees of him. She thinks now is the best time to take her leave. -------------------- The band is playing a melody that she now realizes was used for the song. She briefly talks to them, telling her that her first Hallwoeen as "horrible" and things alike before continuing on her way. She doesn't want to return to the tower, but she'd rather be there than staying around and watching Jack be pampered by women. When she reaches the front door, she pulls on the handle in expectation it'll open. But it doesn't. The result is the same when she tries again. She climbs down the stairs and attempts the back entrance, which she also finds locked. She looks up and finds the lights of the tower turned off, the Outskirts completely silent. She recalls the last time Finklestein locked the door. The time when she was with Jack, who went with her to bring her back in. She takes a deep breath and knocks on the surface heartily a few times. She waits a few minutes before realizing that no one is coming. "Oh, no..." She says to herself. "What am I going to do?" When she looks around, she finds the paths getting darker and the lights getting dimmer. She goes in the only direction she knows by heart - to the Graveyard. She sighs in relief when the gates come into view and goes right through them. Both the graveyard and the spiral hill are empty. She slowly walks around and tries to comfort herself in the silence of the crickets. She passes by Zero's grave and momentarily decides whether or not to wake him up. She decides not to bother him and climbs over to a few empty graves. One spot in particular is steep enough for her to lay down in. She bites her lip as she slowly lays down in it, attempting her best to get comfortable. She ends up having to go into a fetal position to stay warm. She tries not to think too badly of sleeping on the ground. Instead, she closes her eyes and thinks of Halloween instead. She thinks of the singing, the wonderful cheers, and especially Jack....Once her thoughts come to him, they never leave. Thinking about him makes her warm enough to fall asleep, dreaming of a better world. ----------------- The rest of the night goes by with little noise. In the midst of her sleep, she feels something warm encircle her. The ground beneath her feels smoother, and a breeze passes through her hair. She's too comfortable to move and decides to relish in this new warmth. A few more noises come but she can't remember them. They aren't loud enough to stir her from her dream. She is placed into her bed and wrapped comfortably in her blankets. She spends the last few hours of the night nestled into the bed, only to awake once she hears the sound of a rooster crowing.        

[phoenixthemenace]

'That My Days Have Been A Dream' Day 3

DAY 3 Title:Swinger of Birches (R. Frost) Prompt: Say Goodbye S2e12 'Helpful'

When Hank was ten, he was sent to live with his aunt Gladys in the country while his mother was in the final months of a difficult pregnancy. His childless aunt and uncle spoiled him, but not to the point of wretchedness. He was given chores around the farm and expected to do them. During that stay, he came to love his aunt and uncle very much, and was far and above their favorite of all the nieces and nephews.

He and his aunt shared a secret. Every morning, after his uncle was in the barn or on his way to town for coffee with the boys, his aunt took Hank's hand in one of hers and a large metal pail in the other. She always had a hidden sack of sweet feed- corn and oats with a little molasses- in her garden shed. She'd fill the pail and they'd slip down a secret path to a little gove where a small herd of deer waited for them.

They were skittish. They always were. But they were used to his aunt, and eventually grew accustomed to his presence. One day, one cherished day, a young one, not yet a year, but no longer covered in spots, approached him and carefully nibbled the grain from his extended hand.

It was that same feeling, he realized, the day that he saw John Gage finally decide to trust him. Sure, he was still skittish, there was always something like that little wild fawn in Johnny, but he trusted Hank. He recognized what a rare gift that was, and in time came to love Johnny like a son.

True, he regarded the entire crew as his family, but his youngest crew member endeared himself to Hank. When he heard that Johnny was nearly swept away in that sewer, and saw the odd edge his paramedics had the rest of the day, he kept close watch.

Sleep eluded him that night, so he heard Johnny thrashing before he fell out of his bunk, and Roy's sob as he woke. He listened to the soft voices, hearing the nightmares and reassurances. He shuddered, grateful that neither scenario happened. He watched as the pair passed his bunk, hands firmly clasped and smiled. He'd wait a few minutes before checking in.

He dozed off before he had the chance.

The dream started innocently enough. He was back on the path to the leafy glade, the sun sparkling through dancing tree limbs as a warm breeze passed by. His deer was there waiting, and stepped forward eagerly when it caught sight of him. Hank smiled in his sleep. If a deer could have facial expressions, this one would have a huge crooked grin.

Suddenly, he wasn't alone as strangers crowded in. A cold hatchet faced woman he didn't recognize approached him and the fawn, who stood by his side. His mind said 'Aunt Gladys', but his heart cried no.

"Hank." Her voice was cold, sharp. "It's time to say goodbye now."

She tried to shove a rifle into his hands.

"What?" He cried, refusing to grasp the weapon.

"It's time to say goodbye." She pointed the gun at the deer.

"No!" Hank said, stepping in front of the animal.

In front of his friend.

"Yes. It's all he's good for."

Hank turned to the deer, and looked into eyes full of a grim resignation.

"You're wrong." He turned back to the woman and found himself instead behind a pulpit, before which a flag draped coffin waited. Beyond that, a congregation.

"It's time to say goodbye Hank." The woman- now in ministerial garb, growled sternly.

"What?" Hank mumbled. His gaze drifted over the congregation. He recognized no one, though his mind told him they were fellow firefighters, staff from Rampart and various police officers. And far in the back, tucked away where no one but Hank could see, a man with red hair wept inconsolably.

"No!" He cried.

Someone was shaking him.

His eyes flew open with a gasp. Roy had his hand on Hank's shoulder.

"John?" Hank asked.

"I'd like to take him to Rampart.'

"Sure Pal. Sure." Roy straightened up and Hank scrambled from his bunk. "Where is he?"

Roy gestured to the bay and followed his captain. Johnny was already in the squad, his head tilted against the door, lightly dozing. Hank reached in and squeezed his shoulder. Johnny opened his eyes and Hank was transported back to that glen from long ago.

"Take good care of him, Roy." He said gruffly. "And John, you listen to him, Son."

Johnny smiled at Hank like he'd just been given a rare and precious gift. Roy looked at Johnny like he was the rare and precious gift.

Hank just patted Johnny’s shoulder again, and went to notify LA the squad was out of service.

[richietozierluv]

it was final - (richie tozier) part 3 of 5

part 1 / part 2 / part 4 / part 5

Pairing: Richie Tozier x Reader / Eddie x Reader? kinda

Summary: Apparently, after everything you and your friends had been through, it wasn’t enough. Now you were alone in Derry, and the very thing you thought had an ending, was coming back.

Author’s Note: this is kinda in eddie’s pov but i thought that would help considering richie and the reader aren’t in the same place also i hope someone out there is proud because i persevered even with writer’s block 

Word Count: 1,967

Warnings: Swearing

When you had first become friends with Eddie, you would spend every waking moment with him. Even on a far too rainy day, you’d talk to him for hours on the home phone, much to the displeasure of both of your mothers (and Richie).

“Eddie dear, do you know how many germs there are on a telephone? Eddie? There’s more germs than on the seat of a toilet!”

“Y/n, you’re racking up the phone bill! Can’t you stop talking to your friends for one minute?”

In fact, he had been the one to introduce the idea of sneaking into your bedroom, and was the main reason you were terrified of the dark. On one particularly boring Thursday when the phone lines had been cut due to a storm, the tapping on your window had you almost pissing your pants. You thought it was the neighbour’s cat again, trying to paw at a moth, but you became doubly frightened when the curtains opened to show a very much human face rather than a cat’s.

“Eds, what the hell are you doing? My mom is literally in the other room,” you whispered, as you slid open the window to invite him in. If anyone else had called him ‘Eds’ he’d be scowling and throwing fake punches, although whenever you did, his stomach felt sick, but in a good way. The only downside to this, was that Richie had caught on too, and had tried sneaking in a few ‘Eds’ here and there himself. He was met with a, “fuck you Trashmouth,” or the occasional middle finger.

You knew deep down, that Eddie would die for you if he really, really, had to. So it was only by instinct that you had called him first after seeing the clown.

-

“Y/n? Y-you thuh-thuh-thuh-there?” Bill called, after hearing the phone supposedly fall from your grasp. You kept your eyes on the person or… thing standing outside and fumbled hastily to pick up the phone.

“Uh- yeah sorry Bill, I- I think I have to go, I was supposed to do some ch-ch-chores after school-“

“Y/n, is ev- is everyth-thing oh-okay?”

“Huh? Yeah of course don’t worry,”

“I-I mean, I know tha-that yuh-you and R-Richie had b-broken up, b-but,”

“Yeah Bill that sounds great, I’ll call you soon, okay?” you hung up the phone, still locking eyes with who- or what you had believed to be dead. It had been almost six months since you last saw IT, and that whole ritual had seemed so final, so either you were going crazy, or you were staring death quite literally in the face.

You took a step forward, then looked around to make sure there was nothing behind you, but as you looked back outside the kitchen window, IT was gone. In the few moments it had taken you to bite down your scream, and feel your heart pumping again, you had subconsciously dialled the number for Eddie’s new phone. You hadn’t spoken to him since he’d left, and when his father had passed the phone to him, you almost jumped at the sound of his voice.

“Hello-“

“Jesus please us, Eds! Your voice! Have you started doing impressions now or have your balls finally dropped?” just hearing him laugh in reply was enough to make you forget about your current situation. But not totally enough.

“The first thing you say to me in almost five months offends me, you’re unbelievable.” There was a soft silence that followed, comfortable, as if you both hadn’t gone through hell and back. “Hey, I really missed you,”

And then you were crying. Dear god why am I crying? “I miss you too Eds, you have no idea what it’s been like since-“

“No yeah I know, do you need to catch me up on anything other than Romeo and Juliet’s breakup? Have any of you died yet?”

“Oh fuck Eds, haven’t you heard? Romeo’s skipped town, and apparently Juliet’s gone insane, seeing clowns and shit-“

“What?”

“Richie’s moved-“

“No, I know that. What was that about ‘seeing clowns and shit’?” you could hear the concern in his voice, it was even more prominent as you heard him take a pump from his puffer.

“Oh yeah- that’s what I was calling you about, I was on the phone to Bill, and I just turn around and I see fucking IT outside my window,” now you were twirling the phone cord as if you were gossiping about boys, and makeup, and what Tiffany was wearing last Tuesday; and not discussing the very thing that had almost killed you and your friends numerous times.

“Okay, have you called Richie? He’s moved to this town like an hour from you- I wasn’t supposed to saying anything but-“

“I’m not calling him.”

“What? But he could just ask his parents-“

“Eddie, I don’t wanna get into it. I called you, now what do I do?”

“I dunno, I’m not exactly Big Bill intuitive,”

“If you throw around the word ‘intuitive’ at our age, I’d think you’re pretty close to ‘Big Bill intuitive’. You got us out of that place without a map Eds, just… tell me if I need to… just tell me what to do. I trust you.”

-

“You have to tell him that you like him!” Eddie’s heart hurt as he said this, but he saw the way Richie looked at you, and as your best friend, it was Eddie’s job to pressure you into doing things you didn’t think you were ready for. “If you don’t do it, I will,” he made a gesture of cupping his hands over his mouth to call Richie over, and laughed as you basically tackled him to the ground.

“I swear to God, Eddie Kaspbrak, you will do no such thing, or I’ll be shoving that middle finger you like so much up-“

“Woah, okay, okay!” he blushed, noticing how close you were, and how you were basically sitting on him. “My mom wouldn’t be so happy with that idea, she’d be disinfecting me for weeks,” and tried to cover his red cheeks with a mock look of horror.

“Eds, what if he doesn’t even like me back?” you sat yourself up, and looked at Richie doing somersaults in the water. You giggled as he came up for air, his hair plastered to his face and his glasses.

“Are you fucking kidding me Y/n?” now he sat up, looking at you in disbelief, “how could anyone not like you?”

“Well for starters-“

“Okay shut up before I do something that not even you would be proud of,” his blush returned at having made you laugh, “but- okay he made us swear not to tell you-“

“Tell me what?”

“Well… everything? He can’t stop talking about you, I’m surprised you haven’t even noticed the flirting. You’ve known him longer than any of us!”

“Oh please, Eds, he talks to me the same way you do,” Ouch. Eddie could feel the butterflies in his stomach attacking each other, a mixture of sadness and guilt of not having made his feelings more obvious to you before it was too late.

-

The second you had hung up the phone, Eddie’s fingers flipped through the yellow legal pad on the kitchen counter, looking for an answer. He found Bill, which was just as good. Eddie had reassured you that you probably hadn’t seen anything, reminded you what you had all gone through to kill IT.

“Hello, Zack Denbrough speaking,”

“Hi sir, this is Eddie Kaspbrak, I need to-“

“Bill’s already been on the phone today, he’s eating dinner,”

“Please sir, this is important-“

“Honey, food’s getting cold!” his wife called from the dining room.

“But Mr Denbrough,” Eddie couldn’t so much as fit in another word when he heard the phone line ‘beep’ in showing that adults really do not care about anything. He groaned, calling the others one by one but being turned down by mothers and fathers alike. Mike’s at the movies, oh she’s doing her homework, Stan can’t come to the phone right now. Eddie hesitated before calling the last person on the list. He was sure that he’d be willing to help, but unsure that you would want it.

He sighed with relief as he heard Maggie Tozier call her son to the phone.

“Hey Eds, long time no see, seenyor,”

“Just because I am physically unable to punch you, doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about it Tozier,” there was an unspoken tension between the two boys. Whether it was the oncoming fact that you were in danger, or just plain missing each other, they were unable to tell. Both feelings made them sick, as there seemed there was no way to fix any of it.

“If you’re calling about what I did to Y/n-“

“What did you do to her? She called me and – no, it’s not about that,” Eddie could hear Richie’s intake of breath, as if he had just breached out of water for the first time in ten minutes. Or as if he were in the middle of sobbing.

“Eddie, I don’t know how to help her, I did everything I could to make sure she wouldn’t get the fucking barrel,”

“The barrel?”

“Of the gun! Could you not feel it? There was nothing final about what happened when we thought we killed IT. Don’t you think there’d be some sort of explosion, or I dunno, something big?”

“Rich-“

“It’s like Bill said, Derry is IT, and IT is Derry. And Derry, in case you hadn’t noticed, is perfectly fine, which is not perfectly fine-“

“What the hell are you talking about? Derry isn’t a thing, we can’t kill Derry,”

“If we don’t find a way Eddie, Derry’s going to kill Y/n.”

-

As easy as it was to get out of Derry, no one had given it a thought. It was as if by some other force, the town needed its people, as if it survived off of them. But by the end of 1985, there was a brief period in which that thought had crossed everybody’s mind, like they had woken up from a coma and finally realised how shitty of a town Derry was. Sure, it had its charm, with the town library, and the enormous Paul Bunyan statue, but it wasn’t until now people begun to notice the smell. You couldn’t escape the smell of the sewer. If it weren’t coming from the drains or gutters, the Kenduskeag stream would happily supply its aroma of runoff grey-water. Beverly Marsh was the first of many to leave, and perhaps her leaving had been the one to wake up everybody else. Or maybe it had something to do with the eight kids that had gone into the sewers without much of a notice.

But now the situation had changed, and those very kids that had started the farewell party, wanted to come back. And as hard as the task seemed, to convince their parents to go back to Derry, Bev, Eddie, Bill, and Richie, were already on their way.

-

You sat on the edge of the sidewalk in front of your house with a cigarette gripped between your teeth, daring Mr Arnold to yell at you to put it out. But despite the exaggerated drags and coughs, he hadn’t even given you a glance, as if you weren’t there at all. You stepped on the cigarette to put it out as you stood up, and as you turned to say, “It was fun hanging out with you, sir!” your feet had hit the curb and sent you falling backwards onto your ass. Mr Arnold seemed to be hanging from his porch light, yet there was no rope.

He looked as if he were floating.

AN: i kept on rewriting the last few hundred words over and over again but i finally! came up with something im somewhat happy with, and i hope you guys are too!!!!

tagged: @riverdalerebel @johnsonxstilinski @littlepaperaeroplanes @tn22220-blog

[pcstilnt]

“Always.” [triad verse iwai to cyra, where their organisations are affiliated]

« sentence starters  // closed !! 「 ♡ 」 ━ *┊ @temporalobjects ft: iwai 

always  , such a strong word he spoke to her under the mists of a raid and chaos  .  tricked , lured into a trap with    false    pretenses , amaranthine should have seen it but she had been blind .  she didn’t notice the subtle traits of deceit until it was too late and now ; her back is pressed against the wall as the sound of gunfire and yells echo just on the other side of the wall . keen ears picking up the radio frequency of the police officers .  they had a rat , a snitch that had turned on them --- now from which side that would be hard to discover in the middle of a war so it’s a thought that amara pushes back as she ducks her head a bit ; the   cry    of the glass window above them shattering as pieces fell down above them .  scrapes go unnoticed and uncared for as her adrenaline courses through her veins at a high pace , the high she needed as green eyes glance around their  current location before she finds herself crawling towards one of the bodies of their fallen members .  no time to   m o u r n    any losses as hisses emitted from her tiers at the sensation of broken glass cutting at flesh as she turned the body over to pull out the guns that had not had a chance to be disarmed .

 ❛  how about , you save the foreboding always for when we get out , hmm ?  ❜  it’s a muffled    dry    chuckle that parts from her tiers as she finds herself back against the fall , hunched over as she passes one of the two handguns over to iwai .  yells still continuing just beyond them as she could hear the panic and frustration their men had against the well armed swat team  . she didn’t need to peek over to know that their side was taking a big hit as amara releases the magazine to count her bullets . 17 , that seems to be enough , between both of them ; amara was sure they could get out of this    mess . ❛  the lower floor is probably swarmed right now with cops , but there’s a secret passageway in the second floor , in one of the gun rooms .  if we get to there , then we get to the basement , where we can use the sewer system to escape .  if they have the layout of the housing , they won’t know about the hidden basement  but if there’s a rat among one of my men ,  then we just have to see what happens when we get down there . ❜ she whispers to him , shoving the magazine back into place as she then removes the safety of her weapon .  there’s no hiding the   gleam    of excitement that clouded her hues at the thought of a bloodbath .  

❛  so what do you say , darlin’ .  you gonna wait here or you gonna come with me ? ❜

[emiijay]

Chapter Six- Finding yourself in Time (Rick Sanchez and Reader)

I do not own Rick and Morty

You are completely surrounded by darkness.

You go to open your eyes but there seems to be something obstructing your vision. You start to panic a little when you realise that your arms and legs are bound to some type of object. You can only presume you are lying in a bed as there is a softness that overwhelms your entire body.

You begin to feel warm tender kisses on your neck, slowly beginning to trail down your slender figure. As they go further and further south, you begin to feel the impact of this strangers notions on your body. The wetness that is beginning to pool down in your nether reigns begins to feel uncomfortable. You try to squeeze your legs together but the restraints only let you go so far.

You jump slightly as you now feel them at your thighs. They begin to be slowly pry them apart, earning a small gasp of shock from your mouth. The sensation of their fingers sliding over your entrance sends shivers all over your body. You can’t help but moan as you feel their hot breath close to you.

“Stop this, please. Who are you?” you manage to get out through shaky breaths.

You don’t get a response, but instead the persons tongue runs up the outer lips of your privates. You whimper and plea for this stranger to stop what they are doing to you.

You hear them chuckle as they continue their antics. Suddenly a finger is penetrated into your pussy, pumping in and out of you at a fast pace. Soon enough a second then a third finger is entered into you, fulfilling your desire to feel full.

You feel a pressure on your clit as you realise they are now sucking and nipping at your sensitive bud. All you can hear in the room is your moans as they reverberate throughout the space.

“I knew you would be the verbal type.”

…Wait a second. You know that voice.

Rick?

Your head is too clouded with desire to think straight. You can feel yourself on the edge of an orgasm.

“Rick! Rick I’m going to…” You plead, earning a pleased sound from Rick.

Knock Knock Knock.

You bolt upright suddenly in a cold sweat. You instantly squeeze your thighs together as you can feel how wet you are.

“Hey! Can you –urp- hear me? It’s time to get up lazy ass, its past midday.”

As you hear Ricks voice, you let out a little squeak and self-consciously pull the covers up over your body. You know that he can’t see you but you can’t help but feel embarrassed and guilty about the dream you just had. It felt so real. All of it is just too bizarre. You sigh before addressing the man on the other side of the door.

“Yeah. Okay I hear you. Now go away.”

You hear him grumble and mutter something before walking away down the hallway.

You slump back down onto the bed hiding your face as you groan into your hands.

“I can’t believe that just happened”

A few days later

It has been three agonizing days since you had that dream about Rick. Avoiding him has been easy enough, since he hasn’t been around for a while. Even Morty doesn’t know where he has been.

Today just feels like your average normal day, the sun is shining and everyone is gone from the house, except for Rick of course. As you walk down the stairs already dressed, you hear Rick making a commotion from the garage.

You go over to the garage door to check out why he is making such a fuss. When you open the door you come face to face with Rick.

He stops talking to himself and glares at you.

“What are you doing in here Rick?” you ask, eyeing him strangely.

You begin to follow him as he walks out the door.

“Wow. They even made you convincing as well.”

You have no idea what he is on about as you listen to him ramble on.

“Ok Rick. Sure. Whatever you say, crazy old fool.”

You turn to leave him to his own devices when he grabs your arm and pulls you back towards him. You are inches away from his face, the smell of alcohol on his breath. He is staring down at you, examining your features.

You can’t help it when a small blush stains your cheeks.

“What are you looking at?” You ask him as you look away in embarrassment.

“Nothing. Follow me.”

He leaves you alone in the garage as he vacates the premises, leaving you staring after him confused at his antics. You stand there for a minute deciding whether to follow him or go back inside and have a relaxing day. You can’t help but feel a little intrigued as to what crazy adventure Rick is on now, so you end up following him to the direction of the school.

After following Rick through the streets you finally catch up to him.

“Hey get back here! You can’t just wander around here like some creep.”

Rick peers into one of the classroom windows as you crouch behind him.

“Interesting…”

“What is?” you say as you look up at him.

“Concentrated dark matter.”

“Say what now?”

Rick leaves you behind again as you are left questioning what he is on about.

You scramble up after him when you find yourself scouring the hallways in search of Rick. You really must learn to look which way that man runs off too.

As you are walking through the hallways of the school you can’t help but notice how empty it all seems. All the classrooms you have passed up till this point look like they have been completely abandoned, not a single person in sight.

You wrap your arms around your small frame as your body is overcome with a cold shiver. You slowly rub your hands up and down your arms approaching the hallway where Mortys class is. As you round the corner you are greeted by the sight of Rick, who is now gripping on to Mortys arm as Rick and Mr Goldenfold play tug of war with his body.

“If Morty leaves now, I’m giving him an F!”

“He doesn’t care. Let’s go Morty!”

You see them running down the hallway towards you. You are about to ask what is going on when Rick forcefully grabs your arm and drags you along with them.

Rick leads you both to the boys’ locker room, an odd choice if you think about it.

All of a sudden you hear Rick exclaim “Both of you take a shower with me.”

You look at him in horror.

“There is absolutely no way I am doing that!” you say as you fold your arms over your chest in protest.

“Listen to me, the both of you. Get your clothes off and get in the shower. Now.”

You avert your eyes as Rick begins to strip.

“Y-y-y-you got to trust me, Morty. You too.” Rick says as he looks at you while he takes the last article of his clothing off. You try your hardest to not stare at Rick’s member, but your eyes look down anyway. He sees you looking and smirks at you, his eyes dancing playfully over you.

You see from the corner of your eye that Morty is following Rick’s instructions but not without a few complaints himself.

Rick is now standing under the stream of water naked with an equally naked Morty.

Rick turns to you, giving you a look indicating that he is waiting for you to start stripping. You look over to Morty who is averting his eyes. You let out an audible sigh as you reach for the bottom of your tank top and hoist it over the top of your head and off your body onto the floor.

“Hurry up would you. They are listening and I need everyone naked so they can’t overhear.”

What Rick says makes absolutely no sense but the way he is glaring daggers at you makes you not question him any further.

“Can you at least both turn around and not look at me?”

You wait for them to do as you ask before taking off your shorts and underwear.

“Ugh! I’m gonna get an F in class, Rick.”

“Morty, that’s not class. T-t-t-that wasn’t your teacher. This isn’t your school. This entire world is not the world. We’re inside a huge simulation chamber on an alien spaceship!”

“WHAT!?” you hear Morty exclaim the same time you do.

You have now made your way over to the two boys, backing up slowly towards them. You don’t really want to show them your naked body so you do your best by just showing them your ass.

Rick spins you around suddenly causing your head to spin. You let out a small shriek as you dart to cover yourself up with your hands.

Rick pulls them away from your body before rambling on again.

“It’s fake –urrp- all of it. Nanobotic renderings, a bunch of….crazy, fake nonsense, Morty! I couldn’t say anything until we all got in the shower. They won’t monitor us in here.”

“We’re being monitored!?” you exclaim out loud, hunching to the ground so you can cover yourself completely.

“They’re Zigerion Scammers. They are the galaxy’s most ambitious, least successful con artists. Luckily for us they’re also really uncomfortable with nudity.”

You look up at Rick like he is insane, the stream of water hitting your face. You move your head away to look over at Morty who is now talking.

“Aww, come on, Rick. At least let me be the insane one with Jessica today.”

“I can’t let you do that, Morty.”

Rick proceeds to grab Mortys and your clothes, as well as his own, before attempting to walk out.

“R-Rick, get back here.”

You watch as Rick and Morty start fighting over the clothes. You sigh at their childishness before standing up, the shower wall blocking your figure from view.

Before you know it, Rick has won the battle and is now running out of the building, Morty not too far off his trail.

“Fuck me” you sigh before heading off after them down the street.            

You eventually catch up to them, your hand covering your snatch and the other arm covering your breasts. You can’t believe what you see next. Rick is sniffing your panties!  He glances around, his eyes landing on you. Caught in the act he delivers you his signature smirk, before he proceeds to shove the clothes down into the sewers.

“Rick! What do you think you are doing!?” you march over to Rick shoving him a little.

“Woah princess. Clam down would you.” Rick says this as he unashamedly stares at your body.

You go to cover up again before he protests out loud.

“Uhp, uhp, uhp! Keep your hands off the merchandise would you. Same for you Morty, hands off your ding-dong! It’s the only way we can all speak freely around here. I mean come on, does any of this scream real to any of you? You’d have to be an idiot not to notice –urrp- all the sloppy details.”

You look around to see what Rick is babbling on about. You notice that there is a guy placing a bun between two hot dogs, that’s not so weird, some people may like that shit. You look across the street and see an old lady walking a cat. Ok. Not that common but still. The last one leaves you completely puzzled. You see a Poptart walk out of a toaster house and into a toaster car before it drives away.

“I bet you haven’t seen that one before Morty?”

“N-no. I haven’t. I-I-I mean, why would a Poptart wanna live inside a toaster Rick? I mean, that would be, like, the scariest place for them to live. You know what I mean?”

“That’s completely beside the point Morty. Why would he drive a smaller toaster with wheels? I mean, does your car look like a smaller version of your house? No, it –urrp- doesn’t.”

You look between Rick and Morty still unclear as to why this is even happening, the situation of your nakedness thrown into the back of your mind.

“So why are they doing this Rick? What do they want?”  You say as the cool breeze from the wind dances around your body making you shiver.

It looks like Rick is about to explain when an ambulance appears up to you with their siren wailing. The back doors burst open and a paramedic begins shouting towards Rick.

“We got the president in here! We need 10cc of concentrated dark matter, stat, or he’ll die!”

Concentrated dark matter? That’s what Rick was going on about back at the school. Slowly you begin to piece two and two together. They are after this stuff from Rick. You walk towards the ambulance door and slam it shut.

“Don’t worry Rick we won’t let them get their hands on any concentrated dark matter.”

He looks down at you smirking.

“Playing the hero are we princess?”

You huff at Rick glaring at him in the process. He doesn’t back down from smirking at you either, tension slowly building between you.

You hear Morty clear his throat. “They were talking about that in class Rick. W-what is it?”

The question doesn’t faze Rick out of his staring contest with you. Instead he inches forward while answering Mortys question.

“It’s a special fuel I invented to travel through space faster than anybody else. They have always been trying to scam me out of my secrets, but they made a big mistake this time. They dragged you both into this and now they are going to pay.”

The seriousness in Rick’s voice shocks you and turns you on at the same time. No, now is not the time to be thinking of Rick in that way. You turn away from him trying to focus on anything else. Mortys second question does just that.

“Wait. Wha, w-w-what are we gonna do?”

“We’ll scam the scammers, Morty and we are going to take them for everything they’ve got.”

2 hours later

You find yourself backstage with Rick and Morty, clothes finally back on but dishevelled and decked out in thick, gold chains.

“Aww, jeez Rick. I-I don’t know if I like this plan, you know?”

“Morty just relax. It’s just a bunch of 1s and 0s out there. You’re going to be fine.

You try to listen to the pep talk that Rick has just given to Morty.  You try to get your nerves under control, you know those people aren’t real.

You are brought out of your daze by Rick coming up to you and placing a purple cap on your head.

“Just follow my lead ok?” He walks away from you and towards the curtain.

“Yo, Dj, drop that beat.”

Rick walks onstage, followed by Morty then yourself. The crowd begins to start cheering loudly as they see you all onstage.

“Uh-oh. This crowd looks too small for one of our famous rap concerts.”

“You got that right Rick” you look to Morty as he says this, obviously putting his nerves behind him.

Taking a few deep breaths you manage to control your shakes a bit. You wave your hand up above your head copying Rick and Morty.

“I don’t think we can perform our song ‘The Recipe for Concentrated Dark Matter’ for a crowd this tiny.” You say gaining confidence quickly, overcoming your stage fear.

“She’s got that right” Rick looks over to you and gives you a thumbs up.  

Rick proceeds to give out ridiculous commands, making the simulated audience go out of whack. Some are spinning in circles, some jumping up and down all of them glitching in the simulation.

“Yo, everyone whose first name begins with an “L” who isn’t Hispanic, walk in a circle the same number of times as the square root of your age times ten!”

All of a sudden the simulation freezes. Rick commands you and Morty to run before the system reboots.

“Oh, man Rick! W-w-w-where are we running to?”

You manage to keep up with Rick and his long legs, Morty only slightly lagging behind. You try to hear Rick explaining where we are going but the sound of your heavy breathing is getting in the way.  

All of a sudden you hear Rick tell you both to jump. You look in front of you and see an edge.

“Holy shit” you say through shaky breaths.

Morty and you jump at the same time. Being the clumsy person you are, you don’t stick the landing. Instead you stumble forward and land on the front of your stomach. Your lungs are aching, your breath coming in short, shallow gasps. Your face is flushed red and sweat is beading on your forehead. You raise a single finger from where you are on the floor.

“I’ll just be a minute.”

Morty is looking down at you with concern.

“A-are you okay?”

“Yeah, I will be.  Man I need to get out and excercise more.” Your breathing slowly comes back to normal as you get up off the floor.

“Come on you two. We need to get to the central processing room!”

Morty grabs your wrist and starts to pull the both of you after Rick. You look down at him gently and smile. He is such a sweet boy.

After walking through the corridors you break the silence.

“So Rick. Why do these aliens keep coming after you, if you’re so much smarter than them?”

“It’s an obsession for them at this point. The Zigerions have been trying to outsmart me for years. Every time they do, I’m one step ahead of them.” Rick looks around the corner, before telling us it’s safe to continue.

“Aha! Here we go. Grab as many processors as you can carry. These guys aren’t good at much, but they’re really good at making these chips.”

You enter the room after Rick and Morty. They are already collecting so many chips that they have to keep a hold of them with their shirts.

“Look at, look at this Rick. Oops. I dropped one.”

You turn around to look at the boys. You stifle a little giggle as you see them playfully throwing chips at each other. You shake your head a smile to yourself as you go back to the task at hand.

After collecting what Rick thinks is satisfactory we make our way to the escape pod. We only encountered two guards which were easy to get past. A little too easy if you ask me. Morty manages to say exactly what you are thinking.

“Wow Rick. What do you know? Huh. That was easy.”

“Tote malotes, dawg.”

“Just kind of hard to believe, you know?”

“Believe it Morty. We are flying away with everything we can carry, and the Zigerions got nothing of mine.”

We land back home safely, entering the garage to put the chips in Ricks safe.

“I’m gonna be able to use these processors to make some real important science stuff… Huh I thought I entered the code right.”

You watch on as Rick tries to enter the code in again but it fails. Suddenly the room around you vanishes and you find yourself back on the spaceship. You and Morty fall on your backsides why Rick graciously lands on his feet.

You hear the door open up behind you. You look over to see three Zigerions entering the room. You aren’t too sure how dangerous they are so you hide yourself behind Rick.

The alien that looks like he is in charge begins to say something when a smaller, chubbier one comes up to the trio.

“Sir, the, uh doctor’s appointment to examine the discoloration on your butthole flaps was-“

“Too loud, Cynthia. Too loud and too specific.”

You giggle at how uncomfortable Rick becomes with the information that was just shared to the room. He turns and looks down at you, his eyebrow raised in question.

“We’ve known how to make concentrated dark matter for a long time. Now we also have the code to your fabled safe and access to all your most valuable secrets!

At this point Rick is still looking at you. He smirks while giving them attitude.

“Uh, yeah, until I get home before you and change the combination, you bunch of idiots!”

“That’s why you are never getting home. After them!”

At the aliens outburst the guards come after us. Rick manages to escape the guard’s clutches and pulls Mortys pants down. You cover your eyes to avoid looking at Mortys wiener.

“Run!”

Rick grabs your hand and starts to pull you with him. Morty is following closely behind, pulling up his pants on the way. You begin running through the spacecraft when you reach a corridor. More guards come from the left so you have to right.

You run a bit ahead of Rick when you feel his hands wrap around your waist and pull you back.

“Woah slow down. You do not want to fall down that thing”

He lets go of you and types on a computer pad on the wall. You look at Rick flustered and shaking from your near death experience. Suddenly a walkway appears granting you passage to cross to the middle safely.

The three of you make it to the middle, but there isn’t anywhere to go. It’s a dead end! The guards are starting to gain on you, you look over to Rick and Morty frightened.

Rick thinks quickly and goes over to the gravity control. He wraps his arm around your waist pulling you tight against him and grabbing Morty by the wrist with his other hand. You begin to ascend upwards the feeling of being weightless feels amazing. You notice Morty begin to struggle a bit in Ricks grasp. You look down and see that he is kicking off one of the guards from his leg.

You can’t help but let out a little shriek. Rick looks at you and smirks.

“Its ok princess. He’s not there anymore.”

You glare at him, your cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

You reach the top safely and Rick makes you grab onto a pillar while letting go of Morty. He manoeuvres himself to the gravity switch and turns it back on. All of us are safe, but the same can’t be said for the Zigerion guards.

You get up off the floor and follow Rick and Morty down the spaceship corridor.  You enter a giant empty room just like the one you were in when you learned you were in a simulation the second time.  You see a person sitting on the floor.

“Dad!”

“Jerry? Why are you dressed like a waiter? You know what. No time for that we have to go.”

You leave the room through the door on the other side of the room. You find yourself having to run through the halls again, this time following the signs to the escape pods. Rick takes a shortcut through a door on the right and you all make it through the door in one piece.

Rick tries to break the control panel by the door so they can’t get past it.It doesn’t work. The Zigerions manage to pry it open and begin firing. Rick pushes you out of the way just in time to dodge one of their lasers.

You begin sprinting through an experimentation room and several different simulated scenarios before arriving in a warehouse full of smaller ships. Rick races ahead and knocks over the alien guard that is standing watch, making it safe for us to board.

Jerry, Morty and yourself a breathing hard, trying to catch your breaths. Rick sits behind the wheel and starts up the ship. He gives out orders telling Jerry to man up so he can work the lasers.

“Anything you need me to do Rick?” you ask him with seriousness.

“You can come up here by the wheel with me while Morty checks the engine room.”

“Yeah okay. I can do that.”

You take over from Morty who nods at you on the way past.

“They are hot on our trail Rick!” you look at the sonar device for their location.

“Morty I need you to check for cesium, Plutonic quarks and bottled water.”

Morty comes back a few minutes later with his hands full.

“Whoa! It’s all here, Rick!”

“Wow, Morty. Lucky break. Grab that bucket. Okay, two parts Plutonic quarks, one part cesium. Now empty the water bottle into the bucket and pour it all into the fuel tank… What are you doing, Morty!? There’s no time!”

You look back at Morty and he suddenly freezes. Your surrounding begins to flicker and Morty disappears.

“What the fuck is happening!?” You ask Rick as he comes over to help you off the ground.

Rick keeps you safe in his arms as the Zigerions come in laughing.

“My god Rick. How dumb are you? You’re inside a simulation of a simulation….inside another giant simulation! We never had to recipe for concentrated dark matter. But we do now sucka!”

The nerve of this guy. His twisted nature causes you to lash out.

“Fuck you! Who do you think you are, fucking screwing with our minds like that!” you push out of Ricks grasp and move your way over to the pink freaks.

“Woah Rick. Control your bitch.”

“Oh that is it.” You go to swing your fist at the leader when Rick grabs you around the waist and pulls you back.

“Woah easy there tiger.”

Rick pushes you behind him.

“You simulated my grandson’s genitalia!? Y-y-you bunch of diabolical sons of bitches!”

You are too engrossed with anger that you aren’t paying attention to anybody anymore. These, shitty aliens have been screwing over Rick all day and you got dragged along with it. Not that you mind all the attention that Rick is showing you.  

You are pulled out of your daze by Rick dragging you along by the hand, Jerry slightly ahead of the both of you.  You reach a shuttle and climb aboard. You sit in the first chair you see and lay back lazily, today has really worn you out physically and mentally.  You tune in to the conversation that Jerry and Rick seem to be having.

“Hey Jerry, don’t worry about it. So what if the most meaningful day of your life was a simulatuion.”

“You know what Rick? Those guys took you for a ride, too.”

You can’t help but pitch in your thoughts about those ugly bastards.

“Yeah, well let’s just hope we never have to deal with those fucking, thieving worms again.”

As you are saying this you hear what sounds like an explosion as the shuttle rocks from impact. You rush over to the window and see the Zigerions spaceship has been obliterated.

“What the actual fuck?” You look over your shoulder at Rick who has a drink in hand.

“Yup.” Was all Rick says as he takes a swig of his drink and takes you back to the Smith’s house.

Later that evening you are in your bedroom getting ready to unwind and go to sleep. You are drying off your hair as you’ve just had your shower. You bend over to plug your phone in to charge when you hear the bedroom door fly open.

“I’ve come to-urrp- check on yo- wow that ass.”

You let out a small shriek as you turn around and try your hardest to cover up. The thin white singlet and your cream coloured panties aren’t covering much, it doesn’t help that the cold draft coming in from the hallway is causing your nipples to go stiff.

You and Rick both look down at your breasts at the same time, you try your hardest to cover them with your hands. You look back to Rick and notice his eyes are kind of glazed over, his breathing is getting heavier and he is staring all over your body. He pushes the door shut with his foot and makes his way over to you.

He grasps your wrists and lightly forces them away from your breasts while he slowly moves you closer towards the bed. He gently pushes you backwards onto the mattress and straddles your hips. You can feel his dick pushed up against your inner thigh. You blush with embarrassment as he starts to examine your body with his eyes then with his hands.

He grips your waist softly, resting his hands on your pelvic bones. He looks down at your stomach, your singlet has risen up past you belly button. He uses his thumb and traces your scar that goes from your belly button down to the side of your hip. You are mesmerized by the look of concentration he has on his face.

“You know I can get rid of this for you.” Rick says as he face gets closer to yours.

The smell of alcohol is strong coming off his breath but you don’t mind. You’ve noticed that Rick only shows his feelings or any type of emotion for that matter, when he is inebriated.

“It’s ok. I like my scars. They are a part of me, a part of who I am. Even if I can’t remember how they got there in the first place.” Your voice comes out as a whisper.

Rick is now smirking and staring into your eyes, like he is trying to read something in them.

“Good answer princess.”

All of a sudden his lips are pressed against yours and you aren’t even mad about it.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter I know I enjoyed writing it

Until next time xx

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

okay I’m STILL not done the book yet because #life(tm) but some follow up reactions

The entire scene where Calypso and Apollo were trying to escape on the slow kiddy train at the Zoo had me in stitches holy shit

Apollo frantically hitting the gas and Calypso is just leisurely walking next to it while glaring at him??? And the guards? omfg I was dying

Meg’s entrance was dramatic and awesome good for her

Why the fuck is this 12 year old so good at sword fighting she can keep up with one of the deadliest swordfighters of the ancient world(tm)

When Lit threatened Leo and Calypso essentially morphed into the knife emoji on spot. A plus.

I mean I’m just saying: I feel like a pregnant griffin isn’t more important than helping a tortured seven year old girl. But I still love Britomartis so I guess it’s whatever

I love how Lit was going on like he has a score to settle with Leo because ‘he and his friends’ fucked him up in Oklahoma but like....Leo didn’t contribute to that at all like Jason literally did everything during that fight??? That was kinda like important to Jason’s development and shit??? Leo and Piper were golden statues and Hedge was outside eating grass??? Shouldn’t Lit’s anger be focused on Jason??? lol

Idk I just found it funny (I want to see Jason Grace again)

Calypso managing to shove out some magic yeah girl!!!!

MEG AND APOLLO HUGGING EACH OTHER FOR DEAR LIFE WHILE SOBBING: MY ENTIRE AESTHETIC

Leo meeting Meg was way too fucking funny omfg “so I understand you can like...control him?” and when Apollo tried denying it she makes him slap himself??? 😂

How did we fucking segue from lighthearted banter directly into Apollo having a vivid flashback of the time he had to murder the love of his life with his bare hands

Like I??? Was sobbing??? So hard???? Because a batshit insane Roman empire was getting killed by someone who loved him bc it was necessary for the world and the lover couldn’t stand to see anyone else hurt him??? Fuck me???? Rick Riordan ain’t real

“I couldn’t bare to look into the water without seeing my beloved’s betrayed face starring back” or whatever the fuck the line was but FUCK

Jo was a teenage girl crossdressing to fuck around with gangsters in the 1920′s before Artemis found her and honestly??? Goals

Also the scene where she was helping Apollo after his flashback was very sweet

Can’t believe the nerd spent like six hours playing soothing music just to get a griffin to lay an egg

Leo and Calypso better be whispering amongst themselves what I think they’re whispering

Leo seems a lot more...subdued than usual in this book? I don’t know if that’s just because we aren’t reading from his POV, or if it’s like a “I literally died and came back and then spent six months getting attacked every single day while trying to find home and now I’m stuck on another dangerous quest I’m fucking stressed” type thing, or if it could be from the relationship problems he’s having with Calypso, but either way he seems a little off and I’m worried about him

The Dread Pirate Valdez...leave.

How was that joke never made once on the Argo tho??? lol

The speed at which Leo seems to have emotionally adopted Meg is astounding and also #relatable

Meg’s far from my favorite character tbh but like??? I will probably punch everyone who’s ever frowned in her general direction in the face. Holy shit give this kid a break

She thinks Nero is scared of the mystery third emperor on the West Coast??? So....Caligula, probably? Laying my bets down on him now

“I triggered the First Law of Percy Jackson” I had to put the book down bc I was laughing so hard I think that lines gonna end up on my gravestone or as the afterword in my autobiography omfg

“I’ve always had a phobia of snakes, especially if you included my step-mother Hera. BOOM!” I choked.

I like that half the time Apollo is able to figure out what to do to win because he has a general understanding of science

Like he knew his burst of godly voice power would only help so much, but he also knew if he stood in the right spot and yelled in the right frequency it would reverberate and knock over the bricks and shit??? NICE

How long were these kids wadding through a sewer how do none of them have hypothermia

Leo: *sets himself on fire* “Gather round, children.”

Like first off someone saying ‘gather round children’ is always going to make me laugh for some reason that’s just a fact but human torching it up really added to the effect lmao

Like okay I understand the set up of the room so that no one would look in the canal and see them but like...how the fuck did no one realize they were there that just felt too easy I’m sorry

Chia Girl

When they found the prisoners was horrifying omfg???

The two fucked up boys on a hunger strike???

“...Hunter the Hunter?” “Yeah, I’ve never heard that before.”

Tall, Dark and Jamie.

Apollo babe you’re on a rescue mission with a time crunch please you can check out Jamie later holy shit

Georgie made me wanna cry get her back to her Combat Moms immediately

The entire sequence of Apollo getting the door open: S C I E N C E  B I T C H

“Lemme just fill up some syringes with ammonia just in case”

Alright I’ll admit when Meg started insisting she had a feeling they needed to go through the door: I was really worried she was about to double cross him.

Glad I was wrong but tbh that whole arena dress rehearsal bullshit was STRESSFULL

S T R E S S F U L L

First of all: Apollo’s out here constantly complaining about his puny mortal body but manages to fight and climb and run with a heavy ass chair strapped to his back: okay,

Second of all: why did no one warn me about Livia the elephant I was on the verge of tears every time he mentioned her

Third of all: Monsters, ostriches, race cars, basketballs, football, human mercenaries, animals, like...what even the fuck else SO MUCH WAS GOING ON I would’ve died in ten seconds flat???

Fourth of all: let’s just SET THE FUCKING GRAIN SPIRIT ON FIRE WHY THE FUCK NOT. HOW DID MEG EVEN MANAGE TO GET HIM DOWN. HOW DID APOLLO AND LIVIA MANAGE TO CRASH COMMODUS’ CAR TO THAT DEGREE AND HE NOT ONLY SURVIVED BUT THREW THE WRECKAGE AWAY FROM HIM

Fifth of all: THE FUCKING HUNTERS SHOW UP AND CAUSE EVEN M O R E CHAOS. Truly I don’t know how any of the main heroes survived that there was just too much.

The entire time I was reading it I was like “This feels like a giant fight at the climax of the book how the fuck are there more pages left what else is going to happen???” AND IM STILL WONDERING THAT LIKE

Thalia Grace has been returned to me.

Apollo’s strong urge to save Lit??? Okay I guess. It’s nice to see him being compassionate and shit but. I was kinda with Leo on that one lol

“Thalia Grace slid behind me on the elephant, which fulfilled one of the fantasies I’d had about the Hunter, although I never quite imagined it playing out like this” M E

What was his elephant-involved fantasy with Thalia I need a complete play by play lmao

Also the scene where Commodus dropped his composure for a sec and had a full-blown Angry Ex moment (which...he’s definitely entitled to). That was good and also I was highkey worried he might just try to kill my nerd then and there

Also that he’s not just mad that Apollo killed him but like. All their fucking history together. Shit’s intense.

Apollo loves this elephant so much after only like 15 minutes the first thing he’s gonna do when he’s immortal again is bless her or some shit

Also I’m glad they got that awful chainmail off her

The Hunters apparently just have a magical energy drink with mercury in it okay

Honestly??? I’m a little mad Artemis has been ordered not to contact him THE BOY JUST WANTS TO SEE HIS SISTER HOLY SHIT

Aaaaaand that’s about where I left off. Hoping to finish it all together the next time I get a chance. Hoping all the losers are alright. LOVING this book so far. Waiting to see an official reunion between Georgie and her Combat Moms. The Headless Ghost’s cryptic warning has me worried. Until next time...

[lesbrarians]

Junkrat/Roadhog: Voyages Ch 12

Title: Voyages

Characters: Junkrat, Roadhog

Rating: R

Summary:  After a rocky start and some ups and downs, Junkrat and Roadhog are officially partners, even if things haven’t progressed quite as far as Junkrat would like. With his treasure at the heart of their grandiose plans, they take their adventures overseas and leave their mark on the world, for better or worse. (Mostly for worse. They’re criminals.) Sequel to “Origins.”

---

The Underground City entrance was, indeed, blocked off. It was in one of the more dilapidated areas of the city, and Junkrat wouldn’t have thought anything of it had he been walking past it on the street -- it was simply a discoloured patch of wall, a bricked-in doorway so insignificant that a pile of crates had been discarded in front of it.

Junkrat shoved aside the crates to get a better look at what he had to work with. It was still pouring, and his hair was flopping down in front of his face and obscuring his vision. He flipped it back. “I mean, I can definitely blow through it, no worries on that front.”

“Yeah, but you can’t do it quietly.”

“‘Course not! Explosions wouldn’t be any fun if they were quiet.” He tapped his chin with his index finger. “But that’s a bit of a problem here, ain’t it?”

“Just a bit.” There was one entrance, and it was on a street with several other dingy shops. Even if they were able to hide a hole in the wall with the crates, there was no way they could muffle the sound of an explosion.

Junkrat unzipped the pink duffel bag they used for storage and pulled out a mine, drumming his fingers against the metal casing. He was cold and wet, and if they were going to hatch a devious plan, they needed somewhere to do it that wasn’t the middle of the streets. A concrete plan would be useless if they blew their cover when attempting to unearth their hideout, however.

Their surroundings flashed white for a fraction of a second, a massive crack of thunder boomed out above them, and Junkrat all but jumped out of his skin. “Sonova--” he gasped, then inspiration struck him. He whooped with laughter, flinging his arms around Roadhog. “She’s back!” he crowed. “Lady Luck!” He grabbed his mine and, as he attached it to the lower part of the wall, began counting off the seconds between each flash of lightning and the thunder that followed.

They cleared the area. “Tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock tick-tock,” Junkrat chanted. He pressed the button of his detonator on the final tock, just as another crack of thunder sounded overhead, louder and closer than ever. It masked the kaboom of the explosion, and when the smoke cleared, they could see the large hole that had been blasted through the brick wall. Junkrat clawed away some of the bricks that still hung on, and with the crates and rubbish stacked in front of it, it made for an acceptable secret entrance. As long as no one moved the crates, but given the general state of the area, the chances of that happening were slim -- and the chances of anyone crawling inside the musty, pitch black hole in the wall were even lower.

Junkrat ducked inside first. He took a step forward into the unknown, brazenly assuming that there would be ground beneath his feet, and found emptiness. He yelped as he promptly fell down a flight of stairs.

Roadhog flicked on the torch to illuminate their surroundings and shone it on Junkrat, who was in a crumpled heap against the heavy metal door that was at the base of the landing. “You okay?”

“Fuckin’-- who’s brilliant idea was this?” Junkrat spluttered as he gathered his bearings and bounded to his feet.

Roadhog snickered. “Gotta get below ground somehow.” The metal door that led to the underground city wasn’t locked, which was less surprising when Junkrat remembered that the entrances were all sealed up and, for people who weren’t demolition experts, a solid wall made out of brick and concrete tended to be more of a foolproof barrier than a simple locked door.

Inside, the ground squelched beneath Junkrat’s boot. He looked down to find white mould growing on the concrete floor and gingerly stepped out of it. The light from the torch cut a beam through the pitch black darkness, and Roadhog swung it from side to side as they entered the depths of the subterranean bomb shelter.

They followed a long, branching corridor with a high, arched ceiling and countless twists and turns. They reminded Junkrat of pipes, pipes that apparently wound beneath the surface of Beijing, a network of tunnels and chambers that created a secret city that had been lost to the annals of time.

He felt more like a sewer rat than ever.

The walls of the corridor must have been white, once upon a time, but now they were a dingy grey, all peeling paint and corroded concrete. Roadhog shone his light on a solitary piece of cloth tacked to one of the walls. Neither of them could read the Chinese characters painted on it. They passed it by.

“Shouldn’t go in too far,” Roadhog muttered.

Junkrat envisioned getting lost in a maze of tunnels that must have covered thousands of square kilometres. He shivered. “Yeah, no complaints here.” It was a fine line to tread: far enough away where they could be sure of privacy, should anyone choose to poke their head in the crumbling wall, but not so far that they couldn’t remember the way back.

At first, Junkrat thought that the first chamber they entered was empty, nothing but debris as far as he could see. As good a spot as any. Then Roadhog scanned the room with the torchlight. It landed on a solid figure.

A single, solitary wooden chair stood in the centre of the room. Its presence was inexplicably ominous, and Junkrat glanced up at the ceiling, half expecting to find a noose there. “Well, that’s not creepy at all,” he said, laughing nervously. There was a chalkboard on one of the walls: a classroom, maybe, for a city that never existed? “Nope. Definitely not,” he said. “This place gives me the willies. Let’s find another room.”

The second room was empty: Junkrat made sure of that, hiding behind Roadhog as he swept the floor with the beam of light. Satisfied that there was no stray furniture to scare him shitless, he left Roadhog’s side. He didn’t consider himself a coward, far from it, he had too much bravery for his own good -- but he was twitchy by nature, and seeing unexpected objects while wandering through a dark, damp abandoned bomb shelter was enough to make anyone jump.

Roadhog adjusted the light so it was aimed straight ahead of them instead of at the floor.

Junkrat found himself staring directly into a pair of soulless eyes, and that was most certainly a human face looking back at him.

He screamed in spite of himself, staggering back and tripping on a piece of rubble. The sound echoed hollowly in the chamber, and he screwed his eyes shut and clamped his hands over his ears to avoid having to hear the reverberations and face whatever had met his gaze.

Roadhog gently pulled his hands away from his head.

“Leave me alone!” Junkrat shouted, stubbornly resisting Roadhog’s efforts in his panic-fueled state.

“It’s a poster,” he heard once Roadhog had succeeded in prising his hands partway off his ears.

Junkrat dropped his arms and opened his eyes. He found himself facing a worn poster of the man who was responsible for the decrepit labyrinth they found themselves in, Chairman Mao. He reached out and touched the brittle paper, just to confirm that it was, in fact, only a picture. The century-old paper crumbled easily, its image preserved only by the lack of light underground.

Junkrat looked around the rest of the chamber. It was like another universe, a moment frozen in time from a hundred years ago, with propaganda stencilled directly on the walls and the occasional poster that showed just how dated the room really was.

He rubbed the back of his neck, a little sheepish now that his heart had stopped pounding wildly. “Well, then. Feelin’ a bit silly now.”

Roadhog patted his head in wordless reassurance.

They turned to leave the room without even discussing it. Junkrat would not have been able to sleep with Mao’s eyes on him, and he was fairly certain Roadhog felt the same, even if he hadn’t reacted quite as violently as Junkrat had.

“Wait,” Junkrat said. He backtracked and ripped the crumbling poster off the wall and destroyed it. It was partly an act of defiance, an anarchist’s revolt against a symbol of authority, and partly a petulant form of revenge for making a fool out of him.

“That’s better,” he said, satisfied. “Still don’t wanna sleep here, mind you, but least his ugly mug’s gone.”

The third time was the charm. It had to be; neither of them wanted to stray much further from the entrance, which was now well out of sight. Like the others, the chamber was still moist, eerie, and in utter disrepair, but it didn’t give Junkrat a near heart attack, and he considered that a win. The walls were mercifully void of portraits, and he had been prepared to find furniture in there: a bicycle, an iron bed frame, and a dresser with its drawers ajar. It wasn’t quite as unsettling as the solitary chair, for some reason.

It was better than sleeping out in the rain, at least.

---

Junkrat had hoped that his first mission with Lee would be similar to the one that they had spoiled. The thought of kidnapping an omnic, or simply bullying it into going along with whatever the Boss had in mind was a strangely compelling thought. His hopes were dashed, however, when he found out that their day’s agenda wasn’t quite as exciting.

They had left early to allow themselves plenty of time to find their way to the designated meeting point, but Lee had still beaten them there and was waiting impatiently, arms folded across her chest. She led them to a storage complex, a gated-in yard filled with large cargo containers.

Junkrat scratched his head. “What--”

“Shhh.” The shushing noise needed no translation. Lee unlocked one of the containers, tossed in an electromagnetic pulse device, and slammed the door shut once more. When she opened it again, Junkrat saw dozens of omnics slumped on the floor, and a grin spread across his face.

Junkrat was no doctor, but he was sure Ava would agree that extracting robotic parts was nothing like performing organ removal surgery on a human. Any idiot with a manual and half a brain could do it -- like Roadhog, a comparison Junkrat lovingly informed his partner of -- and he was a genius. Digging around in mechanical objects was his specialty, and he took a sick sort of pleasure in opening up an omnic’s stomach to expose the mass of internal wiring.

He abandoned his station to peek at Roadhog’s and Lee’s. A few of the other triad members had shown up with cold metal tables for them to work on and plenty of equipment. White cloths were spread over the surfaces of the tables to catch any oil drippings, gloves were donned to avoid fingerprints, and they were each assigned an omnic to dissect. Junkrat was curious to see the insides of the other bots before they were mutilated. Roadhog’s omnic’s chest plate was removed, exposing a central core and twin purifying filters, one of which could, allegedly, be removed and implanted without harming the donor.

Lee’s omnic’s head was split wide open, and Junkrat was more than a little freaked out by the skeleton and unblinking eyeballs that lay beneath its face plate. The skull itself was thickly encased to protect the delicate hardware within.

“Get back to work, rat,” Lee said as she worked to open up the skull further. It was clear that this omnic was not going to be one of the lucky ones that survived the ordeal -- if becoming forced labor was, in fact, lucky. He was going to be losing an essential piece of equipment. “If dirt is blown in there because you left him open too long, and he can’t work properly as a result, the Boss will have your head.”

“I’d like to see him try,” Junkrat scoffed, but he returned to his own station to extract the wires he was ordered to retrieve. Seeing the insides of the robots only hammered in just how inhuman they were. He saw nothing akin to a soul, no pulsing heart or brain to feel and think with, just metallic approximations of organs. Deluded pieces of machinery, that’s all they were.

Wrist deep in robot guts, it occurred to him just how easy it would be to kill the omnic and make it look like an accident. He wanted to -- oh, how he wanted to -- but he begrudgingly exercised a rare modicum of self-control. Looking at the internal workings of their test subjects had gotten him thinking, and he didn’t want to turn an entire gang of organised criminals against him at this stage in the planning process. They could prove useful.

“All patched up,” Junkrat announced once he’d sealed up the comatose omnic after removing and packaging the requisite body parts. “Think it’ll even notice something’s missin’?”

“Nah,” Roadhog said. He held up his extracted purifying filter and jerked a thumb at its former owner. “He might, though.” They both laughed raucously until Lee swore out loud.

They looked over at her. “What?”

She held up a dented, rectangular chunk of hardware. “His brain’s useless. It’s been knocked around too many times. He must have fallen when he passed out just now and that did him in.” She glanced down at its open chest, where the core had stopped pistoning. “And he’s dead.”

“Huh.” Junkrat leaned in to Roadhog. “What happens to dead omnics?”

“Why do you care?”

“I got an idea. Well, part of one. It’s still cookin’. But I got a feeling it’s gonna be a real humdinger. Anyway, dead omnics. I ain’t never seen one in a junkyard before -- don’t tell me they bury them.”

“They probably don’t.” Roadhog gave a thoughtful hum. “Never thought about it before. Too busy killing them to think about where they go after. Why don’t they just boot ‘em up again?”

Junkrat frowned, pondering. This was too much philosophical thinking for this early in the day. “Yeah, why not? S’not like they got souls, they just pretend they do. Like yeah, some sap like that Mondatta who took a bullet to the head, or this bastard who’s gone and got his head all banged up, I get that causing irreparable damage to their…their processing units? Whatever makes ‘em go. But the rest of them? Haven’t got an earthly.” Junkrat raised his voice so that Lee’s translator could detect it. “Oi, Lee! Whaddya do with dead bots like that?”

“Go get another omnic,” Lee replied.

They obliged and set up another station, the two living omnics set aside and replaced by a fresh set of cold metal bodies. Junkrat looked at the sheet to see what he’d be taking from this sucker -- non-essential thermo-regulating pads -- then looked at Lee expectantly. He still wanted an answer.

“This one will be repurposed,” Lee told him, once she was satisfied that they both had resumed working. “Melted down and recycled. Found him alone on the street, he couldn’t even remember his name.”

“So y’were doin’ him a favor, really.”

“Exactly. That’s what happens when you find a dead, nameless omnic with no apparent kin. I think others can be cremated with their express wishes. Some humans keep their dead omnics in the basement as a memorial.” Junkrat could not imagine why a human would ever want to welcome an omnic into their family, let alone keep it around after it died. “Most others are interred.”

This got Junkrat’s attention. “So, wait, yer telling me there’s an omnic graveyard out there?” he asked, standing up a little straighter.

“Sure. Get back to work.”

Roadhog cocked his head questioningly at Junkrat.

Junkrat grinned and lowered his voice. “Roadhog, mate. We’re goin’ graverobbing.”

[doublenuzlocke]

Entry #9: Code: Lyoko au part 2

Mod note: this one doesn’t count for the contest since we’re working with one shots BUT i think you guys are going to enjoy anyway

(So I came up with a cool mic drop moment and had to write the next part of this AU. I’m gonna end up writing an entire fic gdi)

  After the day they’d had, it was only natural to celebrate. Blue had a whole room to herself (because of course she did), so the team had planned a meet up for the night. Sneaking around the staff was Gold’s forte and damned if he wasn’t proud of that.

  “To the downfall of M2!” Blue cheered, raising her cup high. Crys, Gold, Kotone, and Green raised their cups in response, sitting in a sort of circle on the floor. At least Gold and Crys could enjoy the joke. Green was smiling, too, quite the rare sight. Before Gold could point that out, Blue dropped back down in her seat and slung an arm around Green’s shoulders. “If only we’d been there to see that cool thing Crys did, hm, Green?”

  She winked over at Crys, sipping from her cup. Green’s smile faded as he accepted his fate. Crys chuckled uneasily. “I guess?”

  “Everyone should have the capacity to evolve.” Silver said from his seat at Blue’s desk. “Even you, Red.”

  His laptop was open to include Red in their party. Red’s eyes practically sparkled. “You mean it? Then I could battle on my own, right?”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, you’ll just cause problems for the rest of us.” Green scowled, gently pushing Blue off his shoulders. Gold laughed, prompting Blue, Kotone, and Red to follow along. Green huffed. “I’m serious here.”

  “Silver.” Crys interjected, her tone calm but probing. “Do you know why I was the first to go through the evolution process? Or how it even ocurred?”

  Gold and Blue quieted to pay attention. Kotone elbowed Crys’s side lightly and half-whispered, “Gonna do some research and experimenting on all of us, are you?”

  “N-No, no.” Crys, flustered, shoved Kotone’s elbow away. “It’s just. It’s good to know in case future trips lead to more surprising events.”

  Kotone giggled and sat back, satisfied for the moment. Silver stared down at the keys of his laptop, tapping them lightly as he turned the thoughts over in his mind. After a few tense seconds, Silver closed his eyes and shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  Crys deflated. “Oh.” She perked back up, pulling out a notepad and a pencil from her bag. “That’s okay, we can come up with several hypotheses as to why it happened and teast each of them out when we get the chance. If we can figure it out, who knows?”

  Green leaned over slightly, trying to get a look at Crys’ notes. “Add to that how we’re not even sure if the evolution’s permanent or not. Can you switch between them or are you stuck as one or the other?”

  “Maybe it works like my javelins and how Silver has to load more in when I run out.” Blue hummed, looking up to the ceiling. “Or, at least load the new form in.”

  “It would’ve really come in handy when Gold doused you that one time, right?”

  Kotone winked over at Gold, he grinned automatically in response. They were doing their nerd thing, so he’d tuned them out a while ago. Crys groaned at the memory while Red laughed. Silver studied the laptop screen for a minute, then stood. “It’s late.”

  “All ready?” Blue whined, shooting up to her feet. “We haven’t had the proper time to celebrate!”

  “You’re perfectly capable of that without me.” Silver crossed the room to the door, undeterred. “Make sure to return my laptop in the morning.”

  Blue and Kotone continued to protest, but Silver left the room. That guy was a machine. Gold sometimes wondered if that was how he could be so dang pretty. Crys stood, stretching her arms over her head. “I need to turn in for the night, too.”

  “Yeah, you should rest.” Kotone nodded, hopping over to give Crys a quick hug. “Have a good sleep!”

  “Thanks.”

  Crys hugged Kotone back, then waved and left the room. She seemed eager to leave. Maybe they had a test tomorrow Gold had forgotten about? But their excursions into Johto always left them tired. And it wasn’t like Silver to just leave his laptop, Red’s place in the party or not.

  Gold grimaced and stood. He was putting way too much thought into this. Kotone, of course, noticed immediately. “Party’s no fun without Crys here, right?”

  “How could it be fun with that crazy bitch around?” Gold shook his head, his tone surprisingly monotone. He must’ve been more tired than he thought. “I just need to sleep after that shit.”

  “Following them?”

  Green kept his gaze on the wall, away from anyone else. Probably had the most judging expression and that was why the avoidance. Blue and Kotone looked confused before both snapping to realisation and grinning at Gold. Their grins were a little too eager, too frightening. Gold laughed nervously, backing up towards the door, his one exit out of this shark’s den. “All right, see you guys tomorrow bye!”

  Blue and Kotone squealed as Gold ran out the door. Green was really something else (and definitely rubbing off on Kotone in all the wrong ways). All those girls were crazy. Gold heaved out a breath and headed down the dorm hall, towards his room.

  Out of the corner of his eyes, he noticed Crys’ bright hair bobbing down the hall. And then the rest of Crys, for that matter. It made Gold pause, drawn to the sight. Her room wasn’t down this way. And it especially wasn’t outside. Which was where she was headed.

  Gold took a moment to think about this. On the one hand, he really was tired and wanted to pass out on his bed. On the other hand, he’d totally be down to meet up with Crys and Silver in the middle of the night for an illicit affair. Of course, they’d include Kotone, too, because she’d hate to get left out.

  Either way, Gold found himself following after Crys before he could properly weigh his options. He smirked to himself and slipped out the door, into the night and the now empty campus of their boarding school. Crys was out there, though pretty damn well hidden among the bushes and trees and greenery of their school. Gold jogged to catch up with her. She turned to look over his way, probably from the noise, right as he drew up behind her. He raised a hand in greeting, grinning. “This doesn’t look like your room.”

  “Gold!” She squeaked, her expression absolutely mortified (and cute as heck). Flustered, she stuttered and sputtered cutely, too. “What are you – I-I’m just – shut up!”

  She grabbed his arm and pulled him further into the bushes with her, slapping a hand over his mouth before he could ask what the hell she was doing. She kept her gaze trained on something further ahead for a pensive half-minute before finally releasing him. He tried to keep up an upset act as much as possible. “What the–”

  “Quiet.” She shushed his shout, still looking off in the distance. “I noticed Silver heading out of the dorms after we left. I didn’t really want to follow him, but…”

  “You kinda just did.” Gold deflated. No fantasy three-way make out for him. At least, not tonight. “And now we’re in it.”

  “No.” Crys shook her head, turning to face Gold. “We’re going to stop being suspicious jerks and head to bed. Hopefully–”

  “Isn’t that the direction of the factory?”

  Gold pointed the way Crys had been staring. She gave an exasperated exhale. “Technically, yes, but–”

  “Then we should go check it out.”

  Gold darted off through the bushes and towards their secret passageway. Crys, of course, followed in hot pursuit. She looked upset, but really, she had to be as curious as he was. What would Silver need back at the factory?

  They went down into the sewers, skated to the entrance to the old abandoned factory. They’d made good time, too, considering they nearly ran into Silver and blew their cover. But, mercifully, Silver didn’t notice and went inside the factory, all the way down to the computer room. Crys lead the way down the stairs (“I didn’t even know these existed!” Gold had remarked) and they stopped just above the computer room. More halfway in the ceiling than in the room. Silver sat at the computer, a different screen pulled up on the monitor.

  “That’s the logo for the Rockets!” Crys hissed, pointing down into the room. Gold assumed she was talking about the red ‘R’ displayed on the screen. More surprising to Gold was that this computer did other things than process the virtual world. Crys pulled back, apprehensive. “They’re a crime organisation based in Italy. Why would there be a link to them here?”

  Gold frowned, unable to think up a response. Silver, below them, gave a soft sigh before speaking. “I’m here. With today’s report. Father.”

[jaciiio]

As the thundering footfalls at his back began to fade, the escapee heaves a sigh of relief, yet he dare not move quite yet. No, he is smarter than that. For all he knew, it may be a trap, some crudely-crafted plan by his pursuers to lure him into a false net of security before taking their opportunity to pounce. It is hardly a far stretch. Hunters were good at that sort of thing, as he’d learned over the years, and - truth be told, were he in their position, that is precisely what he would do, so it is undoubtedly in his better interests to stay put, relatively safe and sound in the shadowed alcove off the main tunnel line. Not the best location. He hates it down there, but for his own sake, there is little choice. To craft his lair elsewhere - a haven true to the name, not the apartment he now owns, which serves only to further the ‘human’ masquerade he plays - would be foolish endeavor, for anyone might stumble upon it, on the discarded skin and flesh, stained clothing, and possessions left behind by those unfortunate enough to garner his interest. Such things do not bode well for one like himself, thus a little discomfort is well-worth it; at least, until that uncomfortable sanctuary is breached by a pair of hunters dead set on destroying him.

They shared the same goal, he and them. One of his own was stirring up trouble, killing humans one-by-one, night after night, for no other purpose than its own sadistic pleasure. Two separate news stations reported the incidents, and each one shared one similarity: the alleged culprit was elsewhere that evening, with a rock-solid alibi to back him/her up, and yet their face appeared on security footage, or their unmistakable DNA was found at the scene. In theory, no one is capable of being two places at once, or so it’s said. Suppose that the ones enforcing that thought were unaware of the creatures sharing the streets, creatures who could indeed make such things possible - so, of course it caught his attention, for one reason and one reason alone. A few murdered humans are hardly a concern; where six die, fifteen more take their places, so it is isn’t like they’re a dying breed. No, instead, it is the baggage that comes along with six dead humans. The police, the media, and most importantly, the hunters. Hearing a story like that one on the news is bound to attract attention and send the bastards flooding into the city. They know what they’re searching for - a shapeshifter, but that is generally the extent of their concerns. Kill a shapeshifter, kill a couple of them, and maybe luck will eliminate the problematic one. Or, maybe it will send a message to said one, and the killings will stop. At the very least, it’s a reason to needlessly slaughter his kin, and Markus will have none of that. Most of those he’s met are benign, or civil if nothing else, entirely undeserving of such a fate. What a shame it is that one bad apple can spoil the bunch.

So, that’s where he steps in. While a majority of the hunters he has found are hell-bent on destroying any and all monsters they find, a few can be reasoned with. A few are able to see that eliminating a problem at its heart is time and effort better spent, and if they’re willing to strike a deal - usually involving their immediate and peaceful departure after the troublesome shifter falls - then he is willing to lend a hand in the job, dropping leads where he can, standing at their side as back-up during the final confrontation, things of that nature. It has happened a few times, which in turn spared numerous others like himself their untimely demise. All it took was a little cooperation, and that is the one thing the hunters previously on HIS tail were unwilling to offer. They seemed to take his mimicry of the local traffic cop as reason to fire at will and pursue when the shifter turned tail to flee; no potential deal with worth the trouble, he realized, as a bullet grazed his shoulder and burned like hell . Silver, he assumed, and it was unlikely that many shots to follow would miss like that one had, so he took off with two of the four in hot pursuit. He’d lost them now, apparently, but that was a close call. Now, it’s in his best interests to lay low.

They had gotten a good view of this form which, unfortunately, meant he shouldn’t keep it. If they saw him on the street, it would lead to this same scenario all over again, and Mark isn’t entirely sure he can lose them so easily a second time, so it leaves one valid choice. His preferred form is one relatively well-known to the general populace of this area, which would make it ten times easier to blend in and pass unnoticed when one is ‘just another guy’ among his peers. And, if that failed, numerous friends, family, family friends, and the like lived nearby, if his bearings were correct, so he’d have some shelter and someone to vouch for him, if push came to shove. So, that settled it; he’d shift, as quickly and as quietly as possible.

Bearing that in mind, he works quickly, all but tearing at the buttons of the uniform shirt until he’s able to drop it to the ground. Next comes the white shirt beneath it and all the rest, kicked aside for use later when he made the final leg of his escape. Both hands come to rest on the grimy brick beside him, fingertips curling against the rugged surface. Blunt nails began to break from his flesh, scraped away by the friction, with trails of blood in their wake. The hing of his jaw cracks as his mouth opens wide, teeth popping from their sockets with a wet, sickening click and dropping to the dingy puddle beneath his feet. His body shudders, bones twisting and morphing beneath layers of muscle and skin, stretching from the lean frame of the officer to his own broader physique; it nearly wrenches a cry from his throat, but self-preservation is a hell of a motivator. Any sound to leave his lips could draw the very attention he’s looking to lose, so it surfaces as nothing but a pitched growl under his breath, audible only just over the crack of joints. Almost done, almost…

It’s the final piece he dreads, the last few moments of agony drawn out as skin stretches and cracks, tears in places and falls off where it is stretched the tightest. Bloodied fingers reach to touch a slit above his ear, grazing the torn edge before sinking deep and pulling hard so the flesh gives way. Breaks off at the start of his shoulder and is thrown to the ground. The next patch tears off his chest, then the opposite side of his reborn face, and down, down, down…By the end of it, he trembles from the combination of pain, exertion, and effort required to keep his agonized cries to a himself. Naked and cold, blue eyes find the puddle he’d stood in, its waters tinged red and littered with disintegrating teeth, but he finds what he sought nonetheless; his reflection. The short black hair, square jaw, and broad shoulders he wore with confidence. It is a face familiar not only to him but to others who would, in a few minutes, surround him, thus it would be his safest bet. The man in the reflection is just that - a man. Not a monster, not a creature capable of peeling skin and changing bones, but a mere man, the youngest son of a businessman, as well-known as the rest of his family to neighbors and citizens sharing their grand city. And that’s his best chance at safety.

So, once nerves have calmed and his tremors ceased, Markus gathers the discarded clothing; pants and shoes, and only the undershirt, as those can pass as casual clothing when worn alone. If he opted to keep the uniform as is, it’d give him away in a heartbeat. Any fool could see that, so he leaves the over-shirt beside the pile of gore left behind by his transformation. That, the hunters would undoubtedly stumble across in time, but he would be long, long gone, if he had any say in the matter. Dressing as quickly as he can, he slips from the alcove, keeping to the ledge right beside the dirty walls to avoid the countless puddles of water littering the center of the sewer tunnels (at least, he thinks - hopes it’s just water). With a few minutes of wandering, he stumbles upon a ladder attached to the brick, leading to a manhole cover which would then bring him to the the streets above. Precisely where, he’s not sure, but anything is better than this. A quick check around him for movement or the flash of lights, and he’s up the rungs, carefully easing the cover aside with one hand to peer out the gap created.

Clear. Or, rather, clear enough that he’s willing to shove the cast iron entirely out of the way and haul himself up with haste. Before any passersby can happen to notice the scene, he has everything back in place, and is out on the street, integrating with the flow of foot traffic to pass as the average citizen. No sign of his pursuers as of yet, so he just might have lost them completely. Even so, he best head home. The less he’s on in public eye, the less likely it is that they’ll track him down. Besides, he could use a little R&R. The night had gone to hell so quickly, it seemed the perfect time to pop that bottle of Scotch, and plan his next move.

[jaciio-blog]

As the thundering footfalls at his back began to fade, the escapee heaves a sigh of relief, yet he dare not move quite yet.  No, he is smarter than that.  For all he knew, it may be a trap, some crudely-crafted plan by his pursuers to lure him into a false net of security before taking their opportunity to pounce.  It is hardly a far stretch.  Hunters were good at that sort of thing, as he'd learned over the years, and -- truth be told, were he in their position, that is precisely what he would do, so it is undoubtedly in his better interests to stay put, relatively safe and sound in the shadowed alcove off the main tunnel line.  Not the best location.  He hates it down there, but for his own sake, there is little choice.  To craft his lair elsewhere -- a haven true to the name, not the apartment he now owns, which serves only to further the 'human' masquerade he plays -- would be foolish endeavor, for anyone might stumble upon it, on the discarded skin and flesh, stained clothing, and possessions left behind by those unfortunate enough to garner his interest.  Such things do not bode well for one like himself, thus a little discomfort is well-worth it; at least, until that uncomfortable sanctuary is breached by a pair of hunters dead set on destroying him. They shared the same goal, he and them.  One of his own was stirring up trouble, killing humans one-by-one, night after night, for no other purpose than its own sadistic pleasure.  Two separate news stations reported the incidents, and each one shared one similarity:  the alleged culprit was elsewhere that evening, with a rock-solid alibi to back him/her up, and yet their face appeared on security footage, or their unmistakable DNA was found at the scene.  In theory, no one is capable of being two places at once, or so it's said.  Suppose that the ones enforcing that thought were unaware of the creatures sharing the streets, creatures who could indeed make such things possible -- so, of course it caught his attention, for one reason and one reason alone.  A few murdered humans are hardly a concern; where six die, fifteen more take their places, so it is isn't like they're a dying breed.  No, instead, it is the baggage that comes along with six dead humans.  The police, the media, and most importantly, the hunters.  Hearing a story like that one on the news is bound to attract attention and send the bastards flooding into the city.  They know what they're searching for -- a shapeshifter, but that is generally the extent of their concerns.  Kill a shapeshifter, kill a couple of them, and maybe luck will eliminate the problematic one.  Or, maybe it will send a message to said one, and the killings will stop.  At the very least, it's a reason to needlessly slaughter his kin, and Markus will have none of that.  Most of those he's met are benign, or civil if nothing else, entirely undeserving of such a fate.  What a shame it is that one bad apple can spoil the bunch. So, that's where he steps in.  While a majority of the hunters he has found are hell-bent on destroying any and all monsters they find, a few can be reasoned with.  A few are able to see that eliminating a problem at its heart is time and effort better spent, and if they're willing to strike a deal -- usually involving their immediate and peaceful departure after the troublesome shifter falls -- then he is willing to lend a hand in the job, dropping leads where he can, standing at their side as back-up during the final confrontation, things of that nature.  It has happened a few times, which in turn spared numerous others like himself their untimely demise.  All it took was a little cooperation, and that is the one thing the hunters previously on his tail were unwilling to offer.  They seemed to take  his mimicry of the local traffic cop as reason to fire at will and pursue when the shifter turned tail to flee; no potential deal with worth the trouble, he realized, as a bullet grazed his shoulder and burned like hell .  Silver, he assumed, and it was unlikely that many shots to follow would miss like that one had, so he took off with two of the four in hot pursuit.  He'd lost them now, apparently, but that was a close call.  Now, it's in his best interests to lay low. They had gotten a good view of this form which, unfortunately, meant he shouldn't keep it.  If they saw him on the street, it would lead to this same scenario all over again, and Mark isn't entirely sure he can lose them so easily a second time, so it leaves one valid choice.  His preferred form is one relatively well-known to the general populace of this area, which would make it ten times easier to blend in and pass unnoticed when one is 'just another guy' among his peers.  And, if that failed, numerous friends, family, family friends, and the like lived nearby, if his bearings were correct, so he'd have some shelter and someone to vouch for him, if push came to shove.  So, that settled it; he'd shift, as quickly and as quietly as possible.   Bearing that in mind, he works quickly, all but tearing at the buttons of the uniform shirt until he's able to drop it to the ground.  Next comes the white shirt beneath it and all the rest, kicked aside for use later when he made the final leg of his escape.  Both hands come to rest on the grimy brick beside him, fingertips curling against the rugged surface.  Blunt nails began to break from his flesh, scraped away by the friction, with trails of blood in their wake.  The hing of his jaw cracks as his mouth opens wide, teeth popping from their sockets with a wet, sickening click and dropping to the dingy puddle beneath his feet.  His body shudders, bones twisting and morphing beneath layers of muscle and skin, stretching from the lean frame of the officer to his own broader physique; it nearly wrenches a cry from his throat, but self-preservation is a hell of a motivator.  Any sound to leave his lips could draw the very attention he's looking to lose, so it surfaces as nothing but a pitched growl under his breath, audible only just over the crack of joints.  Almost done, almost… It's the final piece he dreads, the last few moments of agony drawn out as skin stretches and cracks, tears in places and falls off where it is stretched the tightest.  Bloodied fingers reach to touch a slit above his ear, grazing the torn edge before sinking deep and pulling hard so the flesh gives way.  Breaks off at the start of his shoulder and is thrown to the ground.  The next patch tears off his chest, then the opposite side of his reborn face, and down, down, down…By the end of it, he trembles from the combination of pain, exertion, and effort required to keep his agonized cries to a himself.  Naked and cold, blue eyes find the puddle he'd stood in, its waters tinged red  and littered with disintegrating teeth, but he finds what he sought nonetheless; his reflection.  The short black hair, square jaw, and broad shoulders he wore with confidence.  It is a face familiar not only to him but to others who would, in a few minutes, surround him, thus it would be his safest bet.  The man in the reflection is just that -- a man.  Not a monster, not a creature capable of peeling skin and changing bones, but a mere man, the youngest son of a businessman, as well-known as the rest of his family to neighbors and citizens sharing their grand city.    And that's his best chance at safety. So, once nerves have calmed and his tremors ceased, Markus gathers the discarded clothing; pants and shoes, and only the undershirt, as those can pass as casual clothing when worn alone.  If he opted to keep the uniform as is, it'd give him away in a heartbeat.  Any fool could see that, so he leaves the over-shirt beside the pile of gore left behind by his transformation.  That, the hunters would undoubtedly stumble across in time, but he would be long, long gone, if he had any say in the matter.  Dressing as quickly as he can, he slips from the alcove, keeping to the ledge right beside the dirty walls to avoid the countless puddles of water littering the center of the sewer tunnels (at least, he thinks -- hopes it's just water).  With a few minutes of wandering, he stumbles upon a ladder attached to the brick, leading to a manhole cover which would then bring him to the the streets above.  Precisely where, he's not sure, but anything is better than this.  A quick check around him for movement or the flash of lights, and he's up the rungs, carefully easing the cover aside with one hand to peer out the gap created. Clear.  Or, rather, clear enough that he's willing to shove the cast iron entirely out of the way and haul himself up with haste.  Before any passersby can happen to notice the scene, he has everything back in place, and is out on the street, integrating with the flow of foot traffic to pass as the average citizen.  No sign of his pursuers as of yet, so he just might have lost them completely.  Even so, he best head home.  The less he's on in public eye, the less likely it is that they'll track him down.  Besides, he could use a little R&R.  The night had gone to hell so quickly, it seemed the perfect time to pop that bottle of Scotch, and plan his next move.