Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Agh! FUCK!” Josh Bell (aka Rage) shouts as the man hits him. In his mind’s eye, he can already see his countermove. He’ll use the momentum from being knocked back by the punch to spin himself around, send a kick flying into-

He stumbles and falls onto the ground, letting out a short cry of surprise.

The man produces a knife – from where, Josh can’t say – and holds it up, letting the sunlight glint off the cold metal blade. Josh lets out a totally, incredibly manly scream that in no manner whatsoever resembles that of a little girl and frantically crawls away.

“Hey now!” he shouts. “This isn’t how you’re supposed to do things! I mean, if you’re going to mug someone, you’re supposed to demand they give you money – that’s the entire bloody point! You don’t just pull a knife on them and hope they do what you want! You are the worst mugger I’ve ever-“ The man dashes forward, covering the distance between the two of them, and swings the knife downwards. “-AUGH!”

Josh lowers himself down to the ground on instinct, and the knife passes over his chest harmlessly. He somehow manages to scramble to his feet, and turns and runs. Or, well, he tries, but the other man sweeps a kick at his legs, and he’s tripped and falls to the ground again. Josh is a bit jealous. He wishes he could do stuff like that.

He can’t really see what’s going on at the moment, so he rolls over to his back, letting himself look up at his attacker. The man raises the knife once again.

“I mean, I just feel like this is a little excessive, you know?” Josh frantically says. “Cause, like, if you kill the guy you’re mugging, you can’t-“

His assailant brings the knife down, and Josh just barely rolls out of the way. He gets the feeling that maybe this guy isn’t a mugger. Just a possibility.

Josh looks at the man. He’s tall, a good bit taller than Josh himself, and his hair is way too long for any reasonable man to have. Really, he looks like some sort of bargain bin version of Sephiroth. Only… with a knife instead of a sword, and with brown hair, and with semi-reasonable dark green clothing, and with shorter (though still way too long!) hair, and nowhere near as handsome. OK, so maybe not quite like Sephiroth.

The mugger-slash-murderer-slash-attacker-slash-mysterious-bad-guy-slash-whatever prepares a strike with the knife once more, but Josh has a plan this time. He’ll kick the guy’s legs out from under him, then, as he falls down to the ground, he’ll twist the knife out of his hand while he’s surprised and fight him off with it. It’s a foolproof strategy.

Josh kicks at the attacker’s feet. It has no effect–

i_ bu_n_

–no effect whatsoever.

Oh, he thinks. Well, damn it. And… wait. What the hell was that thought?

Before Josh can think about it any more, a familiar voice rings out from somewhere nearby. “Uh… what the hell is going on here?”

The man turns to the person talking. Josh does the same, and his eyes widen in recognition.

“Hollow?!” he yells. (Josh does. Not the man. Just so it’s clear.)

“My name’s Aaron,” Hollow (or Aaron, whatever) grumbles. “But, seriously… what the hell’s happening here?”

The assailant hesitates for a moment, and then—

th_r___ _ h_le i_ h__ bo__ __d i_ bu_n_

—and then runs away.

Josh follows him with his gaze. “Yeah!” he yells. “Get destroyed!”

Hollow’s face falls, and a heavy sigh escapes his mouth.

|||

Cotton (aka Dyno, aka Dynosour, real name basically unknown) sits in his house (house, right? This guy is way too mysterious) in… uh… some Canadian city (I mean, they’re all the same anyway, with all their igloos and polar bears. And in any case, who even cares about Canada?) and absentmindedly does things on his computer. He considers the idea of going outside. The fact that someone who’s friends with Rage is even thinking about something like that is pretty close to heresy, but Dyno’s doing it anyway.

Then someone crashes through the freaking window and, before he can even react, tackles him to the ground.

“WHAT THE—"

It’s a woman, fairly short, her hair long and flowing. In her left hand she holds a knife, which Cotton can’t help but notice is raised above his neck. There’s a wild grin on her face.

“Oh, fuck,” Dyno spits out. He grabs at her hand before she can stab him, then makes a fist and punches her in the face. She flinches away and Cotton realizes he could probably use that moment to escape, but he’s not halfway experienced enough to know how, so he just hits her in the face again. This time she staggers away, and Dyno quickly gets to his feet.

“Oh, come on!” the woman says in a mockingly complaining voice, though the cheer never leaves her. “Don’t you know it’s rude to hit a girl?”

“I mean, I feel like… you sorta tried to murder me with a knife…” Cotton says.

“I was just going to let some of that blood out of your throat,” she explains, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. “Don’t you know it’s wrong to keep blood imprisoned? Shame on you, Dyno. Blood rights matter.”

“No, they don’t.” Cotton rejects her argument, weight in his words. He sounds like he’s debating something life-changing, and is way too assured of himself.

“Woooow,” she murmurs. “You’re a human supremacist, you know that?”

Dyno considers it for a moment. “Yeah.”

The girl clicks her tongue. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.” Her expression is like a strict schoolteacher when a student has just given a horribly incorrect answer. “Why would you ever say something like that?”

Cotton thinks about how he should respond to that for a few moments. As he’s doing so, something clicks in his brain, and he remembers the situation he’s currently in.

A strangled noise comes out of his throat, and he turns and runs.

“Blood rights still matter!” the girl shouts from behind him.

|||

Aaron facepalms. “Josh, what the hell?”

“I don’t know what you want from me!” Josh complains. “Clearly, the only explanation for this is that I’m at the center of some mysterious conspiracy and I’m getting too close to the truth, so they had to eliminate me!”

“Or maybe,” Aaron says, his voice heavy with annoyance, “someone was trying to mug you.”

“Muggers don’t try to stab you!” Josh protests, and it takes a few moments for his brain to catch up to his words.

“Well, I mean, they do,” he rushes to correct himself, “but not… I mean… you know what I mean! Muggers don’t just try to murder you!”

“…Which brings up a good point,” Aaron notes. “You just nearly died. Why the hell are you so calm?!”

“Well, I didn’t die, did I?” Josh defiantly says.

“Well, yeah, but… I…” A palm hits Aaron’s forehead. “Ugh. Never mind. We should report this to the police.”

“No! I’m telling you, Hollow, it’s a conspiracy!” Josh yells. “Why else would I be targeted? I’m tellin’ ya, it’s all connected!”

Hollow (or Aaron, whatever) sighs. “Maybe someone really hates your videos.”

Josh bristles at that, as if the very notion is heretical to him. “Excuse me,” he says, his voice cold. “My videos are excellent, thank you very much.”

“I’m not disputing that,” Aaron half-growls in frustration. “I’m just saying that maybe, just maybe, not everyone shares that opinion.”

“Well, they—” Josh stumbles. There’s a sudden pain in his chest. It’s like… like

there’s a hole in his body and it burns

Never mind that. It’s probably nothing.

—they should,” Josh says triumphantly.

Aaron doesn’t respond to that. He just sighs and says “Well, anyway, seriously? An ancient conspiracy is the best way you can think of to explain this?”

“I never said it was ancient,” Josh notes.

Once more, Aaron sighs. This time, it’s accompanied by a disgusted shake of his head. “Okay. Not ancient. Whatever. You really think a conspiracy makes the most sense?”

“Well, of course,” Josh says, as if Hollow’s being stupid to not get it.

It’s at roughly this moment that Aaron gives up hope. “Alright,” he says. “Whatever. I’m still going to talk to the police about this. You can go home or whatever, I guess.”

“Alright,” Josh concedes. “But I’m warning you, man: you’re messing with destiny here. Destiny.”

“That game was alright at best,” Aaron says, and turns and walks in a different direction. Josh just continues on the path to his house.

He has a great idea. When he gets home, he’ll get on his computer (a course of action so obvious it’s barely worth mentioning), and he’ll talk to Cotton. He’ll tell him all about what happened here. Surely he'll believe him, after all?

|||

As Aaron walks towards the police station, he notices something moving in the shadows.

Whatever. It’s probably nothing.

But… Josh was attacked today, just a few minutes ago. And now someone’s near him, and they’re trying to stay hidden. That can’t be a coincidence. Can it?

Yes. It can. The conspiracy idea is still stupid.

But just in case, Aaron discreetly keeps an eye out on the mysterious person dashing between the spots of darkness along the street. It can never hurt to be too careful, after all. Even if what Josh is saying doesn’t make any sense, it’s still entirely possible that this is also some sort of would-be mugger, just by coincidence. And besides, it IS a person – Aaron’s sure of that now – and no one without something to hide moves like that.

His caution pays off. When the person suddenly breaks off from the shadows and leaps at him at ridiculous speed, he’s ready, and he stumbles away and to the side. The man who’d jumped out at him – he can see it’s a man now – staggers as he lands. Clearly, he wasn’t ready for Aaron to dodge, and so he trips over himself and falls to the ground.

“Dude. What the hell?” Aaron asks.

The man scrambles up from the ground with unnatural litheness and snarls at him. There’s nothing human in that voice. He sounds like a beast who’s lost his mind. Aaron steps back in justified surprise.

“Uh. What?” Aaron settles into a fighting stance. Something tells him it might not be a good idea to anger this man, but he doesn’t exactly have a choice.

There’s a brief pause, maybe the length of a heartbeat, and Aaron gets a closer look at the man. He’s not quite bald, but he’s close, and what little hair remains on his head is a pale blond color. The guy’s built like a truck – tall, though not so much as Josh’s attacker, and bulky as all hell. His knuckles are scarred and his skin is bruised, like someone who’s seen his fair share of fights. And yet, his face… his face is oddly youthful, uncannily so – it doesn’t fit in with the rest of his body. More than anything, it looks like someone took a child’s face and stuck it onto the man. The only hint of the hardness that defines the rest of him in his face is in his eyes – they’re cold, narrow, firm and merciless.

And then the moment is over, and the man lets out that roar again and throws him at Aaron. Aaron, unlike literally everyone else in his friend group, actually works out, but he can tell that even he can’t match this guy. The man in front of him is way bigger, and looks far more muscular too. Plus, he looks like he’s got a hell of a lot of experience with this sort of thing.

Good thing he doesn’t need to match him. Aaron jumps to the side again, ducking to avoid the man’s left arm as it comes near him, and puts his foot out to trip the man. The impact sends a jolt of pain up Aaron’s leg, but it works perfectly – the man falls to the ground, an odd bellow rumbling from within his throat. Aaron takes his chance and turns and runs, getting the hell out of there.

He can’t believe he’s thinking this, but… he’s starting to think Josh might have a point.

|||

It’s been a little while since Dyno/Cotton had received Josh’s message about how he, too, had been attacked – thankfully, Dyno had taken his phone with him when he’d fled his house. Josh had claimed that the attack was part of some sort of conspiracy that wanted to eliminate him, and that he was probably the “chosen one” or something like that. Normally, Cotton wouldn’t have believed that for a second.

But there was that girl, the one who’d also tried to kill him. Back then, she didn’t seem to want anything from him or anything like that – it just seemed like she wanted to kill him. And he’s connected to Josh. One of them being attacked, he would’ve chalked up to coincidence, but both of them, at more or less the same time? He finds himself thinking that there might just be something going on here.

His phone makes a little sound again, and he pulls it out curiously. There’s another message – again, from Josh.

“Dude,” it reads. “Someone just attacked Hollow, too.”

Dyno’s eyes widen. Aaron, too? He doesn’t know Aaron that well – Aaron had worked with Josh too, yes, but that was before Cotton had stepped in – but he is still familiar with him. And if he’s been attacked, too…

“Is he alright?” Dyno asks of Josh over the phone.

“Yeah,” Josh texts back. “He’s fine.”

For a few moments, Cotton wonders whether he should tell Josh about the girl. But it’d be stupid not to, right? “That’s nice,” he types on his phone, and sends the message. “By the way, someone attacked me just now, too.”

Dyno waits a second, but there’s no response. He assumes Josh must be reeling from shock or something like that.

He doesn’t wait for his friend to collect himself before texting “…you don’t mind if I come over to where you are, do you?”

“Dude,” Josh replies. “Of course not. It’s all connected. We’ve got to stick together.”

Yeah, that’s basically what Cotton is thinking.

|||

Hollow sits on the couch in Rage’s house. He’d invited the guy over, because he figured this was something that needed to be talked about, and it’d be safer here than out in the open. Hollow had, reluctantly, agreed.

“OK,” Hollow says. “Let me just get one thing clear – I still don’t believe this “conspiracy” theory.”

“Well,” Josh smirks, “what else could it be?”

“Again - maybe someone just really hates our videos,” Hollow replies.

“Were you attacked by the same guy I was?” Josh asks, a note of satisfaction in his voice.

“Well, no, but-“ Hollow starts.

“Well then there you have it,” Josh says. “It’s not just someone who doesn’t like our videos.”

“Maybe it’s two people who don’t like our videos,” Hollow says, exasperated. “Maybe it’s one person who doesn’t like our videos and, I don’t know, some sort of hired thug or something.”

Josh grins. “Really? That’s what you think?”

Hollow facepalms. “Yes.”

“You’re gonna want to see this,” Josh replies, and shows the screen of his phone to Hollow. It’s displaying his conversation with Cotton.

For a few moments, Hollow reads it calmly, with an annoyed look on his face. Then his eyes widen, and he goes still. “Dyno, too?” he asks, his voice shocked.

“Exactly,” Josh says. “He’s in Canada. Canada. You think someone who just dislikes our videos would go all the way over there? It’s not even on the same continent. And besides, it’s Canada.”

Hollow is silent. “And now he’s coming over here,” he finally says. “Don’t you think that’s a bit of an overreaction?”

“Really? Are you still just like “this is fine”?” Josh asks.

He actually thinks about it for a second or two. “Well, okay, maybe not,” Hollow concedes. “I still feel like a conspiracy is a little farfetched. But yes, maybe there’s something going on.”

Josh grins. “See. Told y-“ He goes still.

“…Josh?” Aaron asks. Josh barely hears him. There’s someone in the corner. A man. And he recognizes him.

“Why are you here?” Josh asks in a shaking voice, staring at the man.

“…who?” Aaron says, confused. His eyes follow Josh’s gaze, and when he finds the man, he actually recoils in shock.

Standing right there is the man who had, not too long ago at all, attacked Josh.

|||

It hadn’t taken all too long to get a plane over to England. Now, Cotton sits on his flight, waiting for his arrival.

The boredom has already numbed his mind to the weirdness. He remembers what has happened, of course, but it’s no longer in the forefront of his mind. For now, he’s just sitting back in his chair, desperately hoping this flight will end soon. He probably should’ve brought something to pass time with, he recognizes, but it’s too late now.

Finally, after what feels like hours of forcing himself not to look, he takes the great risk of a single glance at the clock on his phone. His heart jumps into his throat as he dreads what he’ll find. If there’s still too much time left… he doesn’t know what he’ll do.

As he finds out, there’s still a few hours left in the flight. In fact, it’s only been a few minutes since he’d last checked.

His eyes go blank, and he slackens in his seat. Maybe he’ll just try and fall asleep. That seems like the best idea.

After who knows how long, he hears a voice from somewhere behind him. “Hey, Cotton!”

His bleary mind barely takes notice of it, but he still turns his head to the side and murmurs “Eh?”

And then he sees who it is, and his mind suddenly turns alert, and he jolts in his seat. Sitting on the plane, only a few seats away, is the very girl who had tried to murder him, smiling nonchalantly.

Then, he composes himself. It’s not as hard as it seems like it should be, and he manages to sit more or less calmly in his chair. “Why are you here…?” he asks.

“Just came to say hi,” she says, her voice perfectly sweet and innocent.

“Right,” he says with a roll of his eyes. “You’re not going to try anything, are you?” A few of the people around shoot the pair curious glances, but they don’t seem to make much of the exchange – they probably assume it’s just some small quarrel. Good. Dyno would prefer not to involve other people in this, if at all possible. At the very least, it’d be way too hard to explain.

“In here?” she asks, her voice disbelieving. “Of course not. Wouldn’t want to involve all these… innocent bystanders.”

“You involved me,” Cotton shoots back. He really should let this go – if she’s not going to hurt him, there’s no imminent danger – but he can’t just let her say whatever she wants.

“You’re not innocent!” she responds, scandalized. “You don’t think blood rights matter!”

A few snappy responses come to Dyno’s mind, but he bites back on them. He’d just decided not to involve other people, after all. As long as he’s in a public area, it’s best to talk as little as possible about the odd events recently. And it seems like the girl feels the same way.

Cotton sighs and leans against the back of his chair. He knows the girl’s going to follow him once he gets off the plane. He doubts he can do anything to stop her.

This is not going to be a good day.

|||

The man rushes forward. His movement is precise, calculated. Each step is quick and efficient. It’s a quick method of approach that wastes almost no energy, and he’s ready to attack at any moment.

Josh yelps and tries to leap backwards. He ends up toppling his chair and falling to the floor. Desperately, he scrambles to get up – he really doesn’t want to give that man another chance – but his panic just makes it harder, and he falls again.

Aaron, meanwhile, lunges at the man and tackles him.

Or, well, he tries. Without even looking, the man snaps out an elbow in Aaron’s direction, and he just barely manages to stop himself and lean back to dodge the attack. Again, Aaron tries to run at him, this time from the back. This time the man doesn’t seem to react at first, and excitement flutters in Josh’s heart – but it’s a trap. The instant before Aaron reaches him, the man’s elbow strikes once more, this time shooting out right behind him. But this time, Aaron’s far too close to dodge it. It strikes him in the stomach, and he staggers, winded.

All the time, the man hasn’t stopped his advance. He’s nearly upon Josh, now.

“Damn it…” Hollow snarls. Josh just stares up at the man with empty eyes.

With movements as fast as a striking snake, the man’s hand dips into his pocket and comes out with a knife. He kicks Josh in the side, drawing a yelp of pain and causing him to roll along the floor. Josh, oddly, doesn’t really feel scared. That’s probably the adrenaline. (Or maybe he’s just crazy enough to not feel fear.)

Unfortunately, fear or not, Josh can’t really see the man, having come out of his roll faced away from him. But he can’t just do nothing. Without even turning, he lashes out with his legs and feels them connect with something solid. There’s a grunt, more from surprise than pain – but even that’s still something, especially when the man literally hasn’t made a single vocalization up until now.

Using that brief moment, Josh refocuses upon his opponent once more. He lunges at the man’s legs, trying to topple him, but the man steps back and he grabs nothing but thin air. Still, it’s an opportunity, and he quickly scrambles to his feet before the man can attack again, retreating all the while.

He shoots a look to his side. Aaron appears to have recovered, and is facing the man with some sort of fighting stance. Now they’ve got the guy outnumbered, and at least one of them seems to know at least something about fighting.

But the man’s just standing there, knife in hand, eyes cold. Remembering what he knows from anime, Josh realizes what that means. The man can take on both of them easily, and he’s decided to do so.

Though, honestly, Josh would’ve believed that even if he hadn’t watched any anime.

The man goes for Rage first. He’s fast, and Josh sees that Hollow won’t get to him in time. Quickly, Josh stumbles backwards, but the man’s approaching.

Damn it, he thinks. Well, you won’t get me without a fight! Josh settles into a fighting stance, or at least what he figures is one. He throws a punch – he knows the man isn’t in range yet, but the demonstration makes him feel better – and…

there’s a hole in his body and it burns

Something courses through him.

His vision goes white. There’s energy going through him, something like electricity and yet not at all, something that exists and doesn’t exist at the same time, something fitting through his veins as naturally as the blood within…

The man doesn’t exist anymore, not to Josh. He can’t see the world anymore. He can barely remember it. All that exists, suddenly, is the energy. It’s not that it’s painful – it’s not even that it’s distracting. But for some reason, Josh can focus on nothing but that energy. He doesn’t have the slightest clue what it is, but he can feel it perfectly, feel how it’s travelling. Right now, it’s going to his hand, and it’s flowing out of it, and something’s happening to it, it’s turning into something…

Reality snaps back into place, and the man jumps backwards with a surprised gasp.

For a moment Josh is confused. The punch couldn’t have reached him no matter what. So why did he try to dodge it? He seemed to be way too skilled to just react that way on instinct. And what’s this weight in his hand…?

Rage looks down, and all of a sudden, shock, joy and confusion course through him in equal measure.

In his outstretched hand – the one which he’d punched with – is something that could, debatably, be called a sword. The enormous thing is bigger than his whole body, and he can barely wrap his fingers around the handle – how he’s actually holding it is a mystery even to him. The blade’s bulk is intimidating, but its edge is razor-sharp, too, and it’s made of stainless steel, a few pipes running alongside it. On the back of the blade, those pipes connect to – seriously – a freaking jet engine, one that would theoretically activate when the blade was swung and boost its speed. And this whole beast of a greatsword is in Josh Bell’s hand. That was what the man had leapt back from.

He grins as he pulls the blade back. “Oh, hell yes.”

Chapter Text

Before any coherent thoughts can even form in his head Josh lunges, the enormous greatsword swinging through the air far too easily for its massive bulk. But even that doesn’t quite compensate for Josh’s sheer inability to fight. He swings at the man’s neck, but it’s a telegraphed attack, and the man just ducks down. Josh tries to stop himself, but he’s got too much momentum for that already, and he stumbles right next to where the man is crouched.

Still, he’s past worrying now. He’s got a bloody rocket powered greatsword in real life. He’s not going to be-

A fist hits Josh in the chin, breaking his grip on the greatsword and sending him backwards. As he stumbles he catches sight of the greatsword, and he sees it dissipate almost immediately after it’s left his hand – and then he trips, and falls to the ground.

Hollow watches from the side, his eyes wide. “…what was that?”

“Rocket powered greatsword, man,” Josh says confidently.

“Hhh…” A sound like a creaking frog escapes Hollow’s throat. “You should not be so calm after that happened.”

“Well, why not?” Josh’s voice turns defensive. “I’ve got a freaking rocket powered greatsword now!”

“Well… yeah, but…!” Hollow stammers. “You can’t just- I mean, how did that even happen?!”

“I don-“

The man raises his foot above Josh’s head.

Oh, yeah, Josh remembers. That’s still happening.

He rolls out of the way desperately, but at the last moment, the man’s stomp turns into a kick, and he grunts in pain as the foot hits his side. Hollow grits his teeth and runs at the man again, but he spins around, grabs Hollow by the arm, and sends him to the floor before turning right back to Josh.

Right. It was his right arm that made the sword, so maybe he can use it again. He isn’t even sure what it can do, exactly, but it’d be great if, he doesn’t know, some sort of energy blast blew the man away.

Well, it’s not like he has any choice. And besides, he’s curious. He thrusts his right hand forward.

Something rushes through him again. He can feel it, just like last time, but it’s not quite so distracting anymore. He can still see the outside world even as this odd energy is flooding through him. It goes to his hand, like before, and he curls his fingers in preparation for whatever it’ll make.

Again, an odd weight appears in his hand. Before Josh can even look at what it is, something shoots at the man, drawing out a scream and blowing him away. He flies all the way to the wall, hits it, and bounces off, falling onto the floor.

Josh looks at the thing in his hand. It’s a gun, that much is for sure, but not like any Josh has ever seen before. It looks almost like it was cobbled together from whatever was on hand. The thing is big and bulky, and a coat of yellow paint covers the barrel. The, uh, hole at the end (Josh isn’t sure what it’s called) is shaped sort of like a shotgun’s, but even to Josh, it’s clear this gun doesn’t fire any normal bullets. And there’s a strange chain hanging from the end of it, too…

He grins. Maybe it’s not like any gun Josh has ever seen before in real life. But when he thinks about it, he’s certainly seen this thing before.

Hollow groans as he gets up from the floor, and then, he freezes as he looks at Josh’s hand. “I’m sorry,” he says, “…is that the Scrap Gun?”

Rage grins. “Oh, yes it is.”

“How did you…” Hollow’s words seem to fail him for a moment. “How did you even get that…?”

“I don’t know, man!” Josh responds. “It’s weird. It’s like there’s this… thing… flowing inside me…”

Hollow frowns.

|||

“I don’t know, man!” Josh responds. “It’s weird. It’s like there’s this… thing… flowing inside me…”

Aaron frowns. Okay, even considering all the things that have been happening today, that still sounds stupid.

But… he can’t help but be curious. Just to quench that little curiosity, and not really expecting to find anything, he… well… focuses, he supposes. He’s not really sure what he’s supposed to do, but he tries his best to concentrate on himself, whatever exactly that means.

And he feels something.

Something flowing through his body, taking all the same paths his blood takes. But there’s something in it. There’s some sort of energy, and he can feel it. He can feel how it flows through him, how it roams around in his body. It’s an indescribable sensation, but perhaps the best comparison would be to say it feels like heat moving through him.

Damn it. He doesn’t want to admit it. But… it seems like Josh may have just obtained actual, honest-to-god, magic powers.

And judging by the fact that he feels this energy too, so has he.

Now, how the hell does he use it?

Well, he’s not going to find out unless he tries. Aaron closes his eyes and focuses on the energy. He’s not really sure what he’s doing, but he wills it to go towards his fingertips, not really expecting a response…

The energy flows towards his fingertips.

Holy shit.

It’s only at about this point that it really gets through to him that, holy shit, he’s got magic powers. His mind races. Josh summoned the Wyvern Ignition (that’s the rocket powered greatsword), and the Scrap Gun – so at the very least, he knows this magic can summon things. But what sort of limitations are there?

Time to find out. Aaron sends the magic to his hand, an image of a sword inside his head. The magic goes to his palm, starts flowing out, but… he feels it try to assemble, and he feels something off. It doesn’t surprise him when it fizzles out and flows back into his body.

Right, then. So he can’t make a sword. Then what can he make?

Wait a moment.

Josh made the Wyvern Ignition, and he plays Monster Hunter World almost religiously. He summoned the Scrap Gun, and he used to main Roadhog, back when he played Overwatch regularly.

An idea hits Aaron. He sort of hopes it’s wrong, because if that’s really how this magic works, then that’s stupid beyond belief.

But. He’s got to try.

A game comes to mind. An image forms in his head, the first symbol of that game that comes to mind, and he sends the magic out once more.

This time, he can tell even before it starts forming that it’s perfect.

Slowly, a handle forms in his hand, and he grabs it. Only then does he finally open his eyes and look at what he’s got in his hand. The handle of the weapon is long, like that of a scythe, and at the end of it, there’s a sawlike blade. It curls backwards, running back along the weapon’s length and reaching almost to the start of the handle, leaving a small space between itself and the handle so Hollow can grab it. Like this, it’s a short, nimble weapon – but Hollow knows that were he to flick it, the blade would snap outwards and transform this weapon into something not too unlike a twisted longsword or halberd.

Aaron looks up. “Hey, Josh,” he says.

“What?” Josh says, almost mockingly, and looks at Aaron. His eyes widen a bit, and then he looks down, dismayed.

“Well that’s just not fair,” Josh complains.

“What isn’t fair?” Aaron says with a grin.

“You got magic powers too,” Josh pouts. “You can’t get magic powers.”

Aaron smiles. “Clearly, I can.”

Josh starts saying a response, but there’s a movement in the corner of Aaron’s eye, and he stops listening. The man’s standing back up.

“Um, Josh,” Aaron says, indicating the man.

“What?” Josh says, an eyebrow raised, and turns to where Aaron’s pointing. “Oh,” he says, and readies his Scrap Gun once again. (Though, now that it’s in the real world, Aaron really feels like it shouldn’t be capitalized anymore.)

The man stares at the two of them for a moment, seemingly considering his options, and then dives through the window and runs away.

“Hah!” Josh laughs.

“Well then,” Aaron murmurs.

There’s silence for a while. Aaron tries to figure out what the hell to say, and he suspects Josh is doing the same.

He settles for a timeless classic. “So, this is happening now,” he says.

“Yeah,” Josh responds. “I guess it is.” There’s finally a bit of uncomfortableness in his voice, like you’d expect there to be after so many weird things happened in such quick succession.

“I… guess we have magic,” Aaron says. It still feels oh-so-silly when he says it out loud, but it’s undeniably true. “And… it appears to be magic based on the games we’ve played.”

Josh frowns. “Really, man? You only discovered this after I did, and you’re going to lecture me about it? You’re a show-off.”

Aaron shrugs. “I mean… doesn’t it seem like it is to you?”

“Well, obviously it is,” Josh says. “You didn’t need to explain that.”

“Knowing you, that’s quite unexpected,” Aaron snarks.

“Oh, come on,” Josh mutters.

“You know I’m right.”

“No you’re not.”

“You can’t be relied on to remember what you were doing a second ago, much less to figure out how some weird magic stuff works.”

“I DO NOT HAVE A BAD MEMORY!” Josh snaps. “Wait, um… I mean, that’s weird for you to say. Why would you say that?”

“Feeling a bit defensive there, are you?” Aaron asks.

“NO!”

Aaron shrugs. “Alright, whatever. Point is, we apparently have magic, and it’s based on the games we’ve played.”

Josh thinks about that for a moment. “Cotton got attacked, too. You think he’s going to get magic?”

“How should I know?” Aaron asks. “I mean, sure, we both got attacked by mysterious people, but that doesn’t mean that’s the reason we got these powers, or that we got attacked because we had the powers. It’s possible it’s a coincidence.”

“Really, Aaron?” Josh asks.

Aaron considers that. “…No, you’re right. It’s probably not.”

“See? I’m always right,” Josh smiles arrogantly.

“So far, you’ve been right about these sorts of things exactly once,” Aaron responds.

“And how many times have other people been right about these sorts of things?” he asks. “That’s right. Zero.”

Aaron sighs. There’s just no winning with Josh. “Frankly, you can’t be trusted with superpowers.”

“Oh yeah? Well, you’re a…” Josh fumbles his words. “Um…”

“You don’t even know how to respond to that, do you?” Aaron’s face lights up.

“Well… shut up!” Josh cleverly retorts, showing his insurmountable wit and cleverness and intelligence and cleverness and… cleverness.

For whatever reason, Aaron is not impressed by his reply.

|||

Much to his chagrin, Dyno was right.

The plane had arrived and he’d gotten off by now, and, much as he’d expected she would, the girl is following him. She’s trying to be subtle about it, but from what Cotton’s seeing, subtle and this girl are two things that just do not go together. He gives her a pointed look as he walks, and she catches his eye, smiles an adorable smile, and waves at him.

Cotton resists the urge to sigh.

He’s sticking to the populated areas. From what the girl had said, she apparently doesn’t want to involve other people, and while Dyno doesn’t have the first idea why – considering the fact that she tried to knife him to death – he’s willing to use that. Ever since he got off the plane, he’s been going by the assumption that if he sticks to large crowds, he should be safe. So far, it seems to be holding true.

Seriously, this is weird. This girl doesn’t seem like a killer, and she certainly doesn’t seem like she has any vendetta against him. So why is she following him around like this, and why did she try to kill him? He has to assume that, if she gets the opportunity, she’ll try again, but… why? None of this makes sense.

And if Josh and Aaron had been attacked, too… Cotton really feels like there’s something going on. He’s not quite as willing to accept the idea of some mysterious conspiracy being after them as Josh is, but by this point, he’s seriously considering it.

Well, he’s here for a reason. He’s here because he wants to see Josh and to try and figure out what the hell’s going on. With that in mind, he heads towards Josh’s house.

After a decently long time, he reaches it, the girl still trailing him. He turns towards her, his expression agitated.

“Okay, seriously,” he says, “stop following me.”

“Why?” she asks, confused. For a murderer, she looks way too cute. “I haven’t done anything to you.”

“You tried to kill me,” he reminds her.

“That was a long time ago!” she replies. “I mean, bygones, right?”

“That’s not the sort of thing you forget,” Dyno says.

“Awww,” the girl frowns, looking disappointed. “Why not?”

Cotton sighs. “I could’ve died!”

“Well, you didn’t, right?” she asks. “See – nothing done.”

“And how do I know you won’t try to do it again the moment you’ve got a chance?” he asks her.

“Why would I?” she asks back.

“I don’t know!” Dyno says. “For whatever reason you tried to do it the first time!”

She sighs. “Alright, alright, fine,” she says. “You don’t want me to follow you? Okay. I can go away for now. Have a nice day, Cotton! …or is it Dyno?” And with that, she spins to face away from him and leaves.

Cotton blinks. Okay, he’d definitely never told this girl who he is. Then again… he’s really not surprised.

Well, regardless, at least she’s not going to be bothering him for now. Dyno feels like she’s telling the truth, so he doesn’t have to be too worried. He knocks on Josh’s door.

It swings open. Josh is standing on the other side. “Oh, hey, man,” he smiles.

“Hello,” Cotton replies, and steps into the house. He looks around. There’s someone he hadn’t expected to see. “…Aaron’s here?”

“Yep,” Aaron says.

Dyno shrugs. Well, fair enough. He had gotten attacked too. Cotton walks over to the couch and sits down.

“Hey, Cotton,” Josh grins as he steps in front of him. “Check this out.” Dyno looks at Josh curiously.

Josh opens his right hand, and…

Cotton blinks, doubting his own eyes. But the thing that must be an illusion doesn’t go away.

Flowing out of Josh’s hand, there’s a stream of… something light and blueish. It’s like a gas, but Dyno can tell that’s not really what it is – it’s more like some sort of energy. It starts forming into something, quickly, and before Cotton’s even sure what to make of all this, there’s something solid in Josh’s hand.

Again, Dyno blinks.

The bloody rocket powered greatsword – the real goddamn thing, straight out of Monster Hunter World – is in Josh’s hand.

“…I’m sorry, what?” Cotton asks.

“It’s exactly what it looks like,” Josh grins, lifting the greatsword with way more ease than should be possible and hefting it over his shoulder.

Dyno’s mouth falls agape. “What… did you just… do…?”

“Magic,” Josh smiles.

Cotton stares at him for five full seconds.

Finally, Dyno lifts up a finger. “Now hold on a moment,” he says.

“Okay, I know this is going to sound absurd,” Aaron says from beside him, “but… I can corroborate his story.”

Cotton blinks in shock. “…what…?”

Josh’s right hand twitches slightly, and the greatsword dissolves into nothingness. Dyno stares at it with wide eyes.

“I can also do… this,” Josh says, and opens his hand again. Something starts forming again, just like last time, but… it’s something different now. It’s an odd shape, almost like a gun, and…

The thing forms, and Cotton recognizes Roadhog’s Scrap Gun. Right out of Overwatch.                    

As a demonstration, Josh pulls the trigger, and with a loud sound that makes both Dyno and Aaron flinch, pellets of scrap embed themselves into the wall.

“Be careful with that thing!” Aaron chides.

“Dude, I have magic powers,” Josh says. “I’m not going to be careful.”

Cotton puts his face in his palm. “…what is going on here?”

Aaron sighs and stands up. “By the way, Dyno…”

“Yes, Aaron?” Dyno says and turns to look at him.

With another sigh, Aaron stands up and, just like Josh did, opens his hand. That energy flows forth, and Cotton freezes. In Aaron’s hand, the energy coalesces into what is unmistakably the Saw Cleaver.

“Come on!” Dyno yells. “You got magic powers, too?”

“Apparently,” Aaron sighs.

“I don’t really feel like this is fair!” Cotton complains. “I mean, you both get magic powers, and I don’t?”

“I mean… we don’t know you didn’t get them too,” Aaron says. “I didn’t realize at first either.”

“Oh,” Dyno says. A little flutter of excitement flares up in his heart, though the prospect of him actually getting magic is almost too unbelievable to even be happy about. “So… how do we figure it out?”

“Ugh,” Aaron grunts. “Yeah, about that… Look, I’m really not sure how to explain it. You, like… focus on yourself, I guess? That’s the best way I can put it. You should feel it if it’s there.”

“Wait, what?” Josh asks, an eyebrow raised. “I never did anything like that. It just… sorta happened.”

“Well, maybe I’m just more methodical than you,” Aaron says, arms crossed. “You should try it, too, Dyno, I guess.”

Cotton shrugs, still not really believing it, and closes his eyes. He tries to concentrate on himself – whatever that means. He imagines the shape of his body, thinks about the blood flowing through him, brings to mind-

Holy shit.

All of a sudden, he realizes he can feel… something, something pulsing through him like blood through his veins. In fact, it is, quite literally, going through his veins alongside his blood. He can’t quite tell what it is, but he knows it’s something ethereal, something that almost doesn’t really exist – and, somehow, he knows it’s the same sort of energy Josh and Aaron used.

“Whoa,” he whispers.

“Well, guess you got them, too,” Aaron says. Dyno barely hears him – he’s too busy with this energy. “You can feel it, right?”

“Yeah,” Cotton mutters. Experimentally, he directs it to his hand. Because the other two had created stuff from games they’d played, the image that subconsciously forms in his head is something like that, too, and as he feels the energy rushing out of his palm and forming into something in his hand. The instant it turns solid, he can tell – it’s almost like someone flipping a switch in his head – and his fingers curl around the thing as it forms.

He opens his eyes and looks down at it in wonder.

The thing in his hand is a fancy bow, unmistakably the one he uses in Monster Hunter World.

“Well, shit,” Dyno says.

“Yeah,” Josh grins. Cotton looks up at him to see him holding the rocket powered greatsword in his hand once more, and he gives it an experimental swing. Somehow, it sails through the air smoothly, despite the fact that its weight must be massive. Dyno flinches back instinctively, and so does Aaron.

“Careful with that thing, too,” Cotton mutters.

“No,” Josh smirks back.

Dyno sighs. “Well, at least we know one thing now.”

“What’s that?” Josh asks.

“You really do like dressing up as a woman and hitting things with a big sword.”

Josh blinks. “I’m not dressed up as a woman.”

“I mean, could’ve fooled me,” Cotton grins.

Chapter Text

Aaron walks absentmindedly around the streets of England, pondering something. His head’s low, and he isn’t really paying attention to his surroundings. He does just seem to be absolutely lost in thought.

Well, that’s because he is. And, frankly, “absentmindedly” may be the wrong word to use here. He seems absentminded at first glance, because he doesn’t seem to care where he’s going or what’s happening around him. But really, his mind’s sharp and focused, and it’s thinking about one specific thing.

Namely: what the hell is going on?

It’s been a couple of hours since their encounter with the man in dark green back at Josh’s house. Since then, Aaron’s been practicing his… well, he supposes it really can’t be called anything other than magic, even though that feels wrong to think… a fair bit (though, of course, never in public – out of all the things he doesn’t want to have to try and explain, his newfound powers are definitely number one, and it isn’t a short list), and so far, what he’s found seems consistent with what he’d figured out before. The magic allows them to summon an object from a game they’ve played, and that appears to really be just about it. Of course, that’s far from a weak power, but… it’s confusing. For one, how the hell does it know what games they’ve played? Aaron had tried, but he couldn’t summon anything from a game he hadn’t actually played, which means this magic has some sort of odd restriction on it. But – again – how the hell does it know?

And that isn’t the end of it. Besides that, there’s also, of course, the question of where this had come from in the first place. After all, it’s magic – and Aaron isn’t willing to believe it had just appeared out of nowhere. There’s something behind this… but what? And how are the people hunting them related to this?

Speaking of those people, Aaron hasn’t seen them in a while. He supposes he should be glad of that, but… he can’t help but be curious. And it’s a curiosity that he can’t exactly satiate unless he has some sort of clues – and as such, he can’t help but hope he runs into one of them again. If he follows one of them around, maybe he can finally actually find something out about all this. Recognizing them won’t be a problem – he’s seen two of them in person, and before leaving Josh’s house, he had Dyno describe the one who’d attacked him. So he should know if he sees one of them.

And right as if on cue, a bit of movement in the corner of his eye catches his attention.

There’s a young woman standing there, a bit on the short side, her hair spilling out in a long curtain behind her head. There’s a goofy smile on her face, and her hands are in her pockets. But inside one of those pockets, Aaron swears he can see the glint of light on metal – as if she’s carrying, say, some sort of knife.

He refuses to believe this is a coincidence. As far as he’s concerned, this woman is the one who attacked Cotton.

So, even though he knows it’s probably a bad idea, he pauses there for a moment, trying to look inconspicuous. He’s trying to keep an eye on the girl without tipping her off – and, preferably, without everyone around him thinking he’s a creep.

Then, the girl turns and walks away. And Aaron, giving in to his curiosity, follows her.

|||

Josh is doing what he does best. That is, being a couch potato.

He’s at home, of course. The outside’s a scary place. It requires doing things like... (he shudders) like… walking. That’s not something he could EVER bring himself to subject himself to.

With a wave of his hand, he gives the rocket powered greatsword he’s holding another test swing. He can’t help it. He might have a problem, but he’s really having a lot of fun swinging this greatsword around right now. The thought of collateral damage, it appears, did not cross his mind – though fortunately, it seems Lady Luck is seeing fit to smile on him, as so far, he’s managed to avoid destroying anything.

Then there’s a sound like wood splintering, and for a moment, the breath catches in Josh’s throat. Did he break something? But no – looking around, he sees nothing out of place in the room. Breathing a sigh of relief, Josh feels his heart resume beating once more.

And then there’s footsteps, and Josh flinches a bit and turns to look at his room’s entrance, and sees someone coming through. The person’s huge and muscular, but his face is odd – like someone stuck a child’s head on his body. There’s only a few, wispy strands of hair on his head, and his features look… almost like those of a baby.

Purely out of instinct, Josh lets out a (totally manly) scream, falls of the couch (in a totally manly manner), and wildly (but very manlily) swings the greatsword in the newcomer’s general direction. Course, he’s nowhere near within range yet, and the blade passes harmlessly through the air. Still, the guy seems unafraid of this display, and rushes forward to approach Josh.

The cogs start turning in Josh’s head. He knows who attacked him, and thanks to Dyno telling Aaron – and thus also him – he knows who attacked Cotton. But that still leaves one person unaccounted for, which means that most likely, this is the guy who attacked Hollow.

Well, that makes sense. He certainly looks like someone who’d be involved in something like this.

With what’s meant to be an intimidating battle cry but ends up being a high-pitched yell, Josh scrambles up from the floor and swings the rocket powered greatsword at the man. Before he hits, though, a fist hits him in the chest, sending him backwards.

“AAAGH!” he cries, moments before hitting the table and collapsing to the floor. “Ow… I think I broke my everything… oooww…”

Some more pained moans coming out of his mouth, Josh lets go of the rocket powered greatsword and lets it fade away. He’s sorry to cheat on it like this, but it’s just not the tool for this situation. Instead, he opens his hand once more and creates something else. This time, it’s the Scrap Gun (or, well, scrap gun – it probably shouldn’t be capitalized anymore) he’d used to blow his original attacked away.

He looks up, and sees the man rushing at him. Surprised by the guy’s astonishing speed, Josh squeals and flinches. The man’s almost gotten to him already. But, with desperate, adrenaline-fuelled movements, Josh brings the gun up and fires, blasting the guy across the room.

The man hits the wall and falls back to the floor, landing on his feet with just a small stumble. He looks at Josh sternly, as if deciding what to do with him, and then turns and walks towards the exit of the room.

“Hey!” Josh yells, pushing himself to his feet. “Don’t just bloody leave!” He runs after the man.

As he goes, the man picks up speed, and Josh – letting the gun disappear so he isn’t carrying as much weight – follows him.

|||

Dyno walks through the streets. He hadn’t really planned this out that well, and so, he doesn’t actually have any sort of place to stay in the UK. So, for now, he’s just wandering around, looking at the sights around him as he goes. So far, he’s taking a fairly carefree attitude to whatever’s going on. Having magic powers is nice, he must say, and he supposes the people going around attacking the three of them are something he should be worried about. But the way he sees it, he’ll just do something about it when they show up again, and for now… for now, he’ll just relax for a while.

He leans against a building and closes his eyes, taking a moment to breathe in the air. It’s not exactly fresh, but it’s not bad, either. Even though he’s decided to just relax for now, he still takes a moment to wonder about what’s going on. But he supposes he’ll find everything out soon enough. No point thinking about it right now.

And then there’s a whooshing of wind, and then a sound catches his attention. He opens his eyes, startled. Right beside him, there’s a knife stuck in the building, point-first. It’s buried up to its hilt in the brick wall, which is damn impressive.

Cotton flinches away from it. Well, shit. If he’d been standing just a bit to the right, that would’ve killed him. He looks around quickly, looking for whoever might’ve thrown it. There’s only one person anywhere nearby – a man with long hair, his clothes a dark green, an expression of professional disinterest on his face.

“Um, hey!” Dyno calls out to him. There’s no reply. The man just narrows his eyes and throws another knife, and Cotton desperately hops out of the way. The knife misses him, just barely, and impales itself into the building once again.

Dyno opens his hand. “Alright then.” The familiar bow – though one he’s very unused to seeing in real life – forms on his palm, and he clutches onto it. With his other hand, he creates an arrow and prepares to shoot.

Now, Cotton isn’t very good at archery. In fact, he doesn’t have the first clue how to shoot a bow. If he were to try, the arrow would probably fall on the ground, and that’s if he got lucky. Honestly, he’s so bad at archery that there’s a good chance that, if he tried to shoot the man now, he’d somehow end up shooting himself.

But. That’s just going by what’s normal. And there’s nothing normal about what’s happening now.

Knowledge – no, more like instinct – floods into Dyno, going from the bow into his brain. Hours upon hours of virtual practice, his character’s virtual skill and virtual capabilities with the bow… they all turn into real practice, into real skill, into real capabilities. Cotton nocks the arrow and, with a frighteningly swift motion, fires the arrow right at the man. The deadly projectile is moving at speeds so high it’s barely visible to the human eye. There’s no hope of escape – there’s no hope of defense. The moment Dyno had loosed the shot, the man was doomed.

Yet with a single motion even more skillful than Cotton’s shot was, the man swings a third knife that he’d gotten from somewhere, batting the arrow away easily. In complete defiance to normal logic, the killing shot falls to the ground harmlessly.

Even after that, though, something spurs Dyno onwards. He nocks another arrow, shooting it at the man once more. Again, the man blocks it with his knife easily and responds by throwing the knife. Cotton dashes out of the way, shooting another arrow as he moves. The man steps to the side and runs behind a corner.

Dyno grits his teeth. And, deciding to finish this now, he rushes forwards to chase the man.

|||

Aaron’s been pursuing the girl for a while now. He’d expected it to be difficult – to have to sneak around to make sure she doesn’t catch on, to have to be as discreet as possible. But it wasn’t. Despite being the person who’d attacked Cotton, despite clearly being involved with whatever’s going on, the girl didn’t even seem to suspect he was following her. Hell, from what he’d seen, she didn’t seem like a skilled killer or anything like that – she just sort of seemed… incompetent.

But now, she’s disappeared.

Seriously. That’s not an exaggeration. Well, no, it is – but it might as well not be. Tracking her was easy up until now… but now, all of a sudden, Aaron can’t find her anywhere. There’s no clues to indicate to him where she went. All he’s got is the realization that… well… he’s lost her, and he has no idea how she managed to get away from him so quickly and flawlessly.

It seems she isn’t as incompetent as she seemed before. But Aaron expected that.

He doesn’t plan to try and find her again. It’d be a fool’s errand – there’s no way he could find her once more if she’d managed to disappear so seamlessly. And besides, there’s something else he needs to do.

The place he’s found himself is in the middle of a forest. He’s standing in a medium-sized clearing, and around it, there are trees on all sides. The soil’s covered in grass, but he can tell that beneath it, the ground here is unusually hard – maybe rocky or something like that? Well, it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that the girl waited until now to shake him off her trail. Which means that, more than likely, he was led here intentionally.

And that means this is almost certainly some sort of trap.

Aaron turns and runs.

|||

Josh runs after the man, shoving aside confused citizens as he goes. The man’s going fast, but Josh is managing to keep up. Frankly, he’s more surprised at that than anyone else, but he’s more than willing to accept it. As long as it lets him figure out more about what’s going on here, it’s welcome.

And so it is that Josh chases the man all the way to the edge of some sort of forest.

By this point, he’s pretty caught up in the thrill of the chase. In particular, he can’t help but feel proud of how long he’s managed to stay on the mysterious man’s trail. Hell yeah, he thinks. I’ll show these guys who they’re dealing with!

And that’s why several things don’t occur to him. First, it doesn’t occur to him that this man isn’t running anywhere near as fast as he was moving before, back when he was attacking Josh. Second, it doesn’t occur to him that, thinking logically and judging by the first fact, the man’s probably letting Josh follow him intentionally.

And third, it doesn’t occur to him that maybe, just maybe, he’s being led into a trap.

Since none of those things occur to him, Josh rushes into the forest after the man, determined to catch him. He expects it to be trickier here – after all, there aren’t any organized streets in a forest, and there’s a bunch of obstructions. But, surprisingly enough (to him), it doesn’t get any harder to follow the man. He doesn’t try to duck behind a tree or anything like that – he just keeps running along, letting Josh follow him all the while.

Soon enough, the two of them get to a clearing, and-

-and Josh looks around.

The man’s gone. The man, who had been so easy to chase until now, is now nowhere to be seen. He vanished, just like a ghost, and Josh can’t see any sign of him anywhere.

And there’s one more interesting thing here.

“Aaron?!” Josh yells in surprise.

Aaron turns to him, his eyes wide.

|||

Cotton rushes after the man, firing arrows as he goes. None of his shots work – the man keeps batting his arrows away, or just dodging them – but he keeps going. The man’s bound to get tired sometime.

For his part, the man’s doing his thing too. All the while this chase has been going on, Dyno’s constantly having to dodge knives that the man’s throwing at him. It comes easily to him, almost naturally – that, he assumes, must also be something he got from his character. Though, to be fair, the man’s throws aren’t exactly unpredictable, either. They’re quick and scary, but he does it almost the same way each time, and Cotton can pretty clearly see him reach for a knife each time. It’s really not difficult for him to predict when to dodge.

Of course, the two of them stop attacking whenever they get to a populated area. But the chase – or perhaps the running battle – continues, the man still not letting up or getting tired. Dyno feels like maybe some other weapon would be a better choice here, but he doesn’t dare switch, not right now. If he focused on something other than the battle, even for a moment, it was likely he would be killed. And that would be bad.

And so, the two of them continue, neither one making any progress. Eventually, they get to the less developed parts of the city – where houses merely dot the landscape rather than creating walls of buildings on all sides, and there are actually fields and grass to be seen. Even then, they keep going, the man running to who-knows-where, Cotton chasing after him.

Soon, they get to some sort of dense forest. The man rushes into it, and Dyno stops for a moment to consider his options. It’ll be harder to fight there, and the man most likely knows the terrain better than he does. There’s no guarantee he’ll be able to get a clean shot in the forest, or that he’ll be able to dodge the man’s knives without hitting a tree.

Cotton sighs. Sadly, it seems like the man got away for now. He’ll resolve this later.

And so, Dyno turns and walks awa-

Light glints in the air, and Cotton throws himself to the side.

The man’s standing there, and he throws another knife at Dyno. Cotton dodges again, and the man rushes after him. With their roles now reversed, Dyno doesn’t have any choice but to run into the forest. The man chases him down, constantly throwing knives, constantly controlling the direction Cotton needs to go. Soon enough Dyno finds himself in a clearing, which is odd. The man effectively forced him to go here – but why would he be led to a clearing? After all, now that he’s got a bit of space, he can dodge around more effectively…

And then the man vanishes.

Cotton just barely sees a glimpse of him dashing into the forest, and then… that’s it. He’s simply no longer there anymore. Dyno looks around for him for a few moments, but he’s nowhere to be seen. At that, he breathes a sigh of relief. He’d have liked to actually beat the man, of course, but the way things stood, he’s not sure the battle would’ve gone his way if it’d continued. The man choosing to retreat now is probably for the best.

And then, Dyno turns around, and sees two other people in the clearing.

“Josh? Aaron?”

|||

“Damn it,” Aaron snarls. He knows what this means. Every single one of them is here, now. He doesn’t know exactly what happened, of course, but he’s willing to bet they were all led here.

Which means that, for sure, this is…

|||

Josh looks around in confusion. But even he can’t miss what’s obviously happening. The guy wasn’t actually slow enough that Josh could chase him – he was just faking it, because he wanted Josh to follow him.

And if the other two are here too, then this is…

|||

Cotton’s eyes widen. The man chased him here, to the same place his friends were – but why? Well, if the other two are here too, they’ve been chased here too. Which makes it obvious.

If they were all chased here, then this is…

|||

A trap.

The thought hits the three of them at the exact same moment.

But it’s too late.

With a thunderous shaking of the earth, stone rises out of the ground, forming a crude wall around the clearing. There’s only one, small opening which someone could use to exit or enter.

And from that opening, a man in a black cloak and hood steps through.

Chapter Text

“Ohhh… fuck,” Josh moans to himself quietly, watching the cloaked man approach.

The guy walking towards them chuckles in satisfaction, and Josh catches a glimpse of a smirk under his hood. He stops only a few steps away from the edge of the clearing, and takes a moment to look over the three of them.

Josh hears a sound from Hollow’s direction and turns towards him on instinct. In Hollow’s hand, there’s the Saw Cleaver, the same weapons he’d summoned back at Josh’s house. Seeing that, Josh realizes it’s best to prepare himself too, and creates his rocket powered greatsword in his hand. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Dyno’s hand tighten around his bow, too.

“Well, well, well,” the man says. “Hello, old friends. I see gathering you all in one place wasn’t too hard, though I should’ve expected as much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Hollow growls.

“I’m saying you’re stupid,” the man says, dropping the pretense.

“Yeah, I figured,” Hollow says.

The man smiles. Not that any of them can see his face, of course, but they can just feel that he’s smiling cockily right now. “What? Haven’t you got any clever rebuttals?”

“Well, I would, but I did sort of follow her all the way here too, so…” Hollow admits.

“Heh,” the man chuckles. “Well, never mind that. I see you’ve discovered your powers, then? Unfortunate. But, again, never mind that. All that means is that… well… it’s about time to end this.”

“Goddammit…” Cotton snarls under his breath. Hollow settles into a fighting stance, and Josh hefts his rocket powered greatsword.

The man… simply extends his hand.

And the earth under their feet begins shaking.

Josh stumbles, barely managing to keep hold of his rocket powered greatsword, and falls to the ground. He tries to stand up, but he doesn’t get far before collapsing right back down, the shaking of the ground foiling his attempts to push himself up. He looks around him, checking on the other two. Dyno doesn’t seem to be doing much better than Josh himself, though at least he managed to fall onto his back. Hollow, meanwhile, is actually staying on his feet, though it’s clear he’s not exactly steady.

But for all that the earth’s shaking a ridiculous amount right now, the man doesn’t seem to be bothered. He’s standing on his feet, perfectly firm, as if he’s completely unaffected by the earthquake he himself just created. Josh… really isn’t surprised.

Then, the man gestures upwards, and there’s a loud noise like something massive crumbling. The soil splits, the ground cracking and breaking, and three huge chunks of rock float upwards from the earth. They hover in midair for a few moments, giving Josh enough time for a sudden surge of dread to fill his heart, and then, with a gesture from the cloaked man, one of them flies at each of the three.

Josh really has no idea what to do. He really doubts he can dodge, at least like this, and he’s just going to freaking die if that rock hits him. So, he does the only thing he can do: he squeezes his eyes shut and puts the biggest thing around between him and the rock.

With a loud noise, the chunk of rock strikes the rocket powered greatsword, and Josh is sent skidding backwards along the ground. But the rock falls to the ground harmlessly, its energy seemingly spent from the impact – and when Josh cracks open his eyes, he sees that there’s barely even a scratch in the greatsword.

Whoa. He… really didn’t expect that to work as well as it did.

He looks around quickly, more out of curiosity than concern. Cotton, it seems, somehow managed to just barely roll out of the way, though a bit of his clothes got trapped under the rock, restricting his movement. Meanwhile, Hollow apparently just jumped to the side, letting the projectile go right past him – and, somehow, even managed to stay upright after doing so.

The shaking of the earth dies down slowly, and Josh staggers to his feet. Dyno’s still trying to get himself free, which Josh finds mildly amusing. Hollow, meanwhile, instantly takes the chance to run at the man with his Saw Cleaver.

|||

Aaron sees his opportunity, and he takes it.

From what he’s seen so far, it seems this guy, whoever he is, also has some sort of magic – but he seems to be much more like what you think of when you think of a mage than the trio are. It seems he’s got powerful long-range attacks, and could probably easily keep them pinned down if the arena were bigger. But the fact is, the clearing they’re fighting in, while not tiny, isn’t exactly huge either. And that exposes the one, major vulnerability of a mage like him – if any of the common ideas in fiction apply here, those sorts of mages are weak in close combat. All Aaron needed to do, from the start, was get close to him.

But until now, that was impossible because of the earthquake the man had caused. Even if he managed to keep his footing, he couldn’t run in an earthquake like that – he’d fall almost immediately. Yet now, the earthquake’s gone, and while Aaron’s not sure why – perhaps the man just couldn’t maintain it anymore – he’s glad to take his chance. He rushes at the man, Saw Cleaver in hand.

The man looks straight at him from beneath his hood, and gestures with his hand. Small spikes of rock fly out of the ground, heading right for Aaron. But he expected something like this. He hops to the side, letting the projectiles pass him by, and continues his advance.

As he nears, it becomes tempting to flick his wrist and transform the Saw Cleaver – to snap the blade outwards and use its longer reach to slice at the man. But that would be stupid. If he slashes now, even if he does it with the transformed Saw Cleaver, the man’s still going to be able to just jump back and attack him while he’s recovering from the swing. No – he needs to attack only when he’s close enough that the man can’t escape.

With another gesture from the cloaked man, a wall of stone starts to rise from the ground. But Aaron’s nearly close enough already. He leaps over the wall as it’s forming and brings the Cleaver down on the man’s head, but the man hops back, just barely dodging the attack. Aaron expected this, though, and steps forward, swinging at the man again. The man steps back in response…

…and Aaron flicks his wrist, extending the blade to its full length in the middle of his swing.

Aaron sees the man stumble and step to the side, delaying the moment of impact slightly. But that won’t be enough to avert it. In a moment more, the blade will catch him.

Or at least, that’s what common sense dictates. But Aaron knows better. This man doesn’t seem like the sort to go down that easily.

So when a wall of rock rises up from the ground at the last possible instant and blocks his blade, he isn’t surprised. He recovers from the impact quickly, stepping back to be in less danger from a potential counterattack, and flips the Saw Cleaver’s blade back, turning it into its smaller, more nimble form.

The man takes a few more steps back, seemingly a little shaken by what’s just happened. Aaron feels a little tinge of satisfaction at that. He doesn’t know who this guy it, but he’s not going to just let him get his way. And if he managed to unbalance him like that already, the prospect of Aaron actually managing to defeat the man doesn’t seem particularly unlikely anymore.

With a gesture from the man, the wall breaks apart into four parts, each one flying at Aaron. He deflects the first one with a swing from the Cleaver, but the impact sends him reeling anyway, so he decides to dodge the remaining three instead. He dashes to the side, letting the chunks of rock slam against the ground behind him.

Aaron grins. Alright. Now it’s on.

|||

Cotton finally managed to get himself free from the rock at roughly the same time Aaron had dodged those chunks of rock. Now, Dyno can’t help but feel a bit upset at how well Aaron’s doing. But he’s not just going to let that guy outperform him.

As before, Cotton readies his bow and takes an arrow from his quiver. He keeps an eye on the battle as he does, seeing Aaron narrowly dodge another volley of rocks and approach the man once more. But the man steps back and creates a wall of rock in front of himself.

Good. The man’s focused on the battle with Aaron, then. That means Dyno’s got the chance to make his move. But he doesn’t nock the arrow immediately. Rather, he slides the tip along the ground, a grinding sound punctuating the motion. The noise draws the man’s attention, and he turns towards Cotton just as he nocks the arrow. As the bowstring is pulled back, yellow sparks fly from the arrow, exuding a feeling of unmistakable power. And as the shot is released…

“Dragon Piercer!”

The shout isn’t really necessary, but Dyno just can’t not.

The man steps back in shock, and another wall of rock rises in front of him, blocking the arrow’s way. But instead of simply bouncing off, the arrow drills into the rock, sparks flying as it meets the barrier. Slowly, a crater appears in the wall, more and more chunks of rock falling to the ground, and…

…the arrow falls to the ground, its power spent a moment before it could penetrate the wall.

Cotton looks on in shock. It seems like he shouldn’t be surprised, not really – it seems like common sense that an arrow can’t go through stone. But something about the scene just now changes that. For some reason, it seemed obvious that the arrow would go through the rock. Seeing the actual result, even the mysterious man is shocked, surprised at the power of his own wall.

But it lasts only an instant before the battle resumes. The wall shatters, chunks of rock flying at Dyno, but he dashes to the side and looses several more arrows – normal ones, this time, but still deadly. They’re stopped by a second wall as it rises up from the ground, blocking off Cotton’s view of the man.

|||

In the time Dyno’s failed Dragon Piercer bought, Aaron moved to the side, where there wouldn’t be a wall in front of him. Now, he looks at the cloaked man, Saw Cleaver in hand. The man is still distracted from Cotton’s assault, so Aaron won’t get a better chance.

He rushes forward, closing the distance between himself and the man in an instant, and swings the Saw Cleaver. Its deadly descent is a flash of light in the air, a guillotine descending on the man’s head. There is no hope of defense, not now – especially not when the man still doesn’t realize Aaron’s even attacking. The blow will strike its target and defeat the enemy. A part of Aaron is tempted to think that it can’t be this easy, but that’s not how the real world works, and cold logic tells him this: this is the end.

But the fatal blow never finds its target.

The ground shifts under Aaron’s feet, causing him to stumble, and the blow misses its mark. Aaron doesn’t know where this is leading, but he doesn’t want to find out. He steps back just before the ground disappears out from under his feet, just barely managing to avoid being dropped into the hole that has just revealed itself. A moment later, the hole closes up, so perfectly that it’s as if it hasn’t ever been there in the first place.

The man turns toward Aaron. “This is getting quite annoying,” he comments.

“Not sure if that’s the word I’d use,” Aaron responds. “I mean, I nearly chopped your head in half there. I wouldn’t call that “annoying.””

“Hah hah hah…” the man laughs. “You really think this is all I’m capable of? You fool… you still haven’t seen even a bit of my true power.”

“Oh, you’re one of those villains,” Aaron says, rolling his eyes.

“Hmph. Maybe I am,” the man admits. “But nevertheless, it is the truth. You do not know my true power yet. The moment I reveal it, this battle will be over.”

“Alright, sure, man,” Aaron says in a manner that is completely, definitely not sarcastic at all. “Go ahead, then. What’s this “true power” of yours?”

“Oh, you don’t deserve to see it,” the man says in response, his voice cruel.

Aaron shrugs. “Alright then,” he says. “But mate… how about this, then?”

He opens his left hand. So far, he’s used his right hand for all his creating, and the other two have done the same – well, except Dyno’s quiver, but it’s debatable if that counts, what with it being close to a necessary part of his bow. But logically, there’s no reason he shouldn’t be able to use his left hand to make a second weapon, too.

Energy rushes through him, going through his veins and running into his hand. It flows into the air in front of his palm, taking shape, becoming material. A wooden grip touches the palm of his hand, and Aaron wraps his fingers around it.

A simple blunderbuss, from the same world that the Saw Cleaver came from. Perfect to complete the image of a Hunter. (Now he just needs that cool coat and hat… maybe he’ll consider trying to create those later. There are more important things to worry about right now.)

Before the gun has even finished materializing, Aaron raises his arm. The instant the barrel finishes coming into existence, he pulls the trigger, and gunfire sounds across the clearing.

A wall rises up from the earth in an instant, blocking the bullets. “Oh, that’s just cheating,” Aaron mutters.

The wall drops. “I should’ve expected nothing less from you, Hollow,” the man says with what Aaron just knows is a smirk on his face.

He should be surprised that the man knows who he is. Hell, more than that, he should be surprised that the man both knows and cares that he has a Youtube channel. But honestly, at this point, he’d have been more surprised if either of those weren’t true.

“Yeah,” Aaron agrees, charging forward. The man leaps back in response, creating a wall in front of him as he goes and stopping Aaron’s advance once again.

Aaron grits his teeth. Bloody hell. On more or less all counts, he’d have the man dead to rights by now… if not for these walls. He’s sure that if he searches through his memories some more, he’ll be able to find something that’ll get him through them, but right now, his mind’s coming up blank. And if he takes the time to think about it, that gives the man time to retaliate.

So for now, it looks like his best hope is just to keep pressuring the man while hoping to come up with a way through the walls. If he figures out what he could use to do that, the fight’s more or less over. It’s just a matter of delaying until then.

Aaron steps around the wall, willing his brain to work, to come up with something he could use to get past this man’s defense. And then…

“BY FIRE BE PURGED!”

A great light shines over the clearing, and Aaron looks up in disbelief. There, standing next to Josh, is an enormous swirling mass of fire formed into the shape of the top half of a man, metallic armor somehow clinging to it. Its head looks like cracked stone, gaps in the rock creating a fearsome visage, and two great horns of fire sprout from that head. In its hand, the thing holds an enormous mace, seemingly also made of metal with various odd, glowing patterns drawn across it.

Aaron’s eyes widen as he looks up at the form of Ragnaros the Firelord.

|||

Josh grins in uncontained joy, looking up at the towering Firelord. His gaze slowly goes downwards as he looks at the fire elemental in wonder, until finally, he looks at the ground, where the column of fire that makes up Ragnaros comes to its base.

There, barely visible underneath the mass of raging flame, lies a Hearthstone card, created and thrown down by Josh a few seconds ago.

“DIE, INSECT!” Ragnaros screams, swinging his mace in a heavy overhead strike. A large ball of fire forms in the air as he strikes, its glow almost as blinding as that of Ragnaros himself, and flies at the cloaked man. With a quick motion and a step back, the man commands walls of rock to rise in front of him one after another, a multilayered defense of formidable power.

But in front of Ragnaros’ attack, something like that is meaningless.

The ball of fire blasts through the layers of rock, each impact shattering stone and bringing it closer to the man. In response, the man retreats, putting more and more walls of rock in front of himself. Each is smashed in turn, all-consuming flames – no, rather, simple power – tearing the walls apart with ease in their ceaseless approach. Even as the orb of flame grows a tiny bit smaller, some of its power spent, its glow remains just as blinding as it rockets toward its target.

|||

In awe, the man stares at the death approaching him. He knew that they had awakened their powers, but… one of their number can summon something like HIM already? That is… absurd. That’s the only way to describe it. It’s been less than a day, at the most, since they learned about their powers. How could they be already running around summoning things like that?!

It doesn’t matter. Ragnaros’ attack rushes towards the man, overwhelming in its simple power. There’s no time to dodge or to try any strategies. The only option left is to face the deadly second sun head on.

To this situation, there is only one response.

A wall of stone rises from the ground, one last, desperate defense. The man pours his energy into it, filling it with power. More stone rises around it, making the wall thicker, stronger, tougher. The preparation lasts only half a second, but in that short time, the wall becomes so much greater than any of the previous ones that it is hardly even comparable.

And an instant later, fire meets earth.

|||

The impact is an unstoppable force against an immovable object.

Light blazes, trails of fire blazing backwards from the great fireball as parts of the enormous comet grind off against the wall. The wall chars, cracks, burns as a crater slowly appears, the ball of fire pushing against it with greater and greater force. There is a thunderous noise, consuming everything in its sheer volume, the sound of an enormous clash. Slowly, the giant orb of fire pushes forward, its progress slow and steady as it tears its way through the wall of stone. But the earth is unyielding, and as the fireball grinds against it, it gets smaller, less bright. Forced to spend its power, Ragnaros’ attack still batters against the wall. There is only one question remaining – which one will run out of power first?

As the last vestiges of its power slip away, the fireball explodes.

The sound is deafening, making the noise of the clash before seem like barely more than the buzzing of an ant. Josh and the rest are flung back, the kinetic force more than enough to affect them even from a distance. Faced with that last, great burst of force, the wall shatters, and the man is flung away by the force. The deadly flames of the expanding explosion rush after him, eager to consume him.

But they never make it. Before it reaches the man, the explosion dies down, a crater and a plume of smoke left behind in its wake. Parts of the man’s cloak are burned away by the heat, and even a bit of his face is charred. But mostly, he seems unharmed.

Josh stumbles to his feet, looking at the man. There’s an odd feeling in his mind. He feels like he should be feeling some sort of emotion right now – maybe frustration and disbelief that the man managed to block that, maybe satisfaction and joy from knowing he won’t be able to do it again. But he doesn’t. It’s like his brain is full of cotton (not that kind). His mind’s oddly hazy, and he can’t focus enough to think properly.

But there’s a definite feeling, somewhere deep in his chest. Like there’s a black hole where his heart should be, pulling his insides into it.

there’s a hole in his body and it burns

It feels painful, but not as painful as it seems like it should. It’s like the pain’s… muted, somehow. Like Josh is seeing it through a dirty glass screen.

Ragnaros raises his great mace. “DIE, INSE-“

“AAAAAAAARGH!”

Josh collapses to the ground, sudden pain coursing through him from that hole where his heart should be. Hot agony fills his mind, and for an instant, he can’t think of anything but the pain. It hurts.

As if commanded by the scream, Ragnaros disappears, and the pain and the odd feeling vanishes with him.

Once more, Josh stumbles to his feet.

“I see,” the man says vaguely. “You are powerful enough to summon creations of such power… but not powerful enough to maintain them for long. That one ball of fire must have taken much out of you already.”

“Goddammit…” Josh mutters.

“Regardless, this outcome has been unexpected,” the man admits. “In that case, I suppose I must let you go, for now. Of course, my allies will still pursue you. But until then… let me show you a glimpse of my true power.”

The man thrusts his hand forward, palm outstretched. The earth begins to shake, and, too exhausted to resist, Josh falls to the ground instantly. He looks up, more curious than he’d like to admit about what it is, exactly, that the man plans to do.

Stone rises from the earth, forming what looks, at first glance, like some sort of spike. But as more of it emerges, Josh sees that isn’t right. It’s more like an elongated face, a huge, toothy mouth set into it. A long neck comes out after it, and then, a huge body stretching out behind it rises up, carrying the man up into the air. And attached to that huge body are what are, unmistakably, two wings.

Josh doesn’t need to see the rest of it to know what it is, but he looks on in amazement anyway. Its legs come out last, and as the whole creation rises into the air, it changes. Stone turns to flesh and membrane and scale, the transformation starting at the head and swiftly moving through the whole body. Soon, the beast that had been made of stone just a second or two ago looks like a living, flesh-and-blood thing.

The dragon rises into the air, the man on its back, and flies from the clearing, the beats of its wings creating gusts of wind that shove Josh down to the ground.

There’s silence for a moment, as the three of them take in what they’ve just seen.

And then, there’s the sound of stone breaking, and Josh looks around. All around them, the walls surrounding the clearing have fallen, turned into nothing more than rubble.

“Finally,” Hollow mutters.

Chapter Text

“So…” Aaron wonders aloud, “why are we here, Josh?”

It’s been a day or so since that encounter with the weird cloaked man, who Josh has since decided to name “Cloak”. Aaron can’t say he likes it, but he didn’t manage to come up with anything better, so he’s willing to accept it. Besides, it is a decent description…

Anyway, since then, they’ve had surprisingly few problems. The people who Cloak promised would hunt them had yet to show up, and none of them really feel threatened at the moment. Maybe that’s a mistake, Aaron admits to himself, but it’s hard to feel paranoid when nothing’s really going on. Hell, Josh actually managed to put up a normal video yesterday, which Aaron finds… a little unbelievable, to put it mildly. But in either case, the fact is, since that one fight, they basically haven’t had any issues yet.

Now, Josh has called the three of them to his house, completely refusing to explain himself. Aaron’s not sure why Josh is doing that, but he figures it’s probably just Josh being Josh as usual – which is, frankly, a state so unique that Aaron can’t find any words to describe it other than “Josh being Josh”. But with Josh, it’s normal.

Point is, Aaron and Cotton both decided that, well, they didn’t really have anything better to do anyway. After all, whatever Josh planned to do, they sure as hell wouldn’t be making any videos until this was all done with. So, they decided to just listen to Josh and show up.

“Well I’m glad you asked, Hollow!” Josh says excitedly. “See, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, and I think I’ve got a great idea-“

“Yeah,” Dyno sarcastically interrupts. “That’s believable.”

“Hey!” Josh exclaims in response. “I have plenty of great ideas!”

“Polar bear game show,” Dyno responds drily, his voice effectively the audible equivalent of a smirk.

“What?” Aaron inquires, an eyebrow raised.

“That was an excellent idea!” Josh protests.

“What is this game show…?” Aaron asks, starting to think he doesn’t want to know the answer.

“NOTHING,” Josh responds.

“Well, it’s this idea Josh had for a game show where-“ Cotton starts.

“NOTHING HAPPENS.”

“Where you take death row prisoners, right, and you-“

“DO NOTHING WITH THEM,” Josh says firmly. “I DID NOT COME UP WITH A GAME SHOW INVOLVING LOCKING CONDEMNED PRISONERS INTO SHOWERS IN THE ARCTIC WITH POLAR BEARS WAITING OUTSIDE.”

Aaron’s eyes widen, and he takes a few moments to process what he’d just heard. “Ooookaaay…”

“AND I DO NOT FANTASIZE ABOUT PARTICIPATING IN THIS GAME SHOW WHILE SHOWERING,” Josh continues, completely unaware of the metaphorical hole he is digging under his own feet.

“Yeah, that’s why his showers are, like, 5 hours long,” Dyno remarks. “You know, in case you were wondering.”

To be frank, Aaron was, in fact, wondering. Emphasis on was.

“…and you came up with this idea how?” Aaron inquires.

“I DID NOT,” Josh says.

“Yeah, okay, mate,” Aaron says, rolling his eyes.

“I DID NOT,” Josh says again, firmer this time. “Seriously.”

“Suuuure,” Aaron says, placatingly. Well, for a given interpretation of that word, anyway.

“Seriously. I didn’t.”

“Okay. I get it. You didn’t.”

“No but really, I didn’t.”

“Actually, yeah, he sort of did,” Cotton interjects.

“Lies and slander,” Josh responds.

“No, I’m quite sure you came up with it,” Dyno says. “I mean, Aaron, you’ve known him for a while – you should know that that sounds exactly like Josh, right?”

Aaron gets up and leaves the room.

|||

When he dares to peek back in, about 45 minutes later (he felt compelled to wait at least that long – anything less would be unsafe), the room seems to be in the closing stages of some sort of argument. He doesn’t know what it is, and frankly, he prefers it that way.

Anyway, while the two of them are still chatting about something completely irrelevant, the chatter at least seems to be dying down. This is better than Aaron expected, but he still doesn’t dare go in while they’re still talking. He withdraws again, and only comes in when there’s no more sound coming from the room.

“Alright,” he immediately says as he steps through the door. “So, would you like to get to the important stuff now?”

“Yes, thank you,” Cotton says, sounding almost as relieved as Aaron is.

“No, but-!” Josh yells.

“Shut up, Josh,” Aaron says.

“I’M JUST SAYING, BEAR-BASED TRAINS MADE OF FRESH MEAT ARE CLEARLY A GREAT METHOD OF TRANSPORTATION AND YOU WOULD HAVE TO BE FOOLISH TO DISAGREE!” Josh shouts back.

“No, a boat made of ducks is the clearly superior option!” Dyno responds.

“I said-“ Aaron starts, intending to tell them to shut up once more. Of course, it’s in vain.

“Look,” Josh says, “clearly, a bear-based train made of meat would offer great benefits to us all! First off-“

“I mean, first off, it would smell horrible,” Cotton interrupts. “And second, a boat is MUCH more useful!”

Aaron clears his throat meaningfully, opens his palm, and summons the Saw Cleaver.

All eyes turn to him.

He flicks his wrist, transforming the weapon into its longer form.

“Are we clear on what we are to do right now?” he asks.

“Uh, yes,” Josh hastily says.

“Good,” Aaron says, his psychotic-looking smile twitching as he talks. “Let’s discuss the important stuff now, okay?”

“Yeeah, suuure…” Josh says. “Uhh… could you put that thing away…?”

“No, I don’t think I will,” Aaron responds, and sits down on the couch, Saw Cleaver still in hand.

“Oooookay…” Josh murmurs.

“Aaron,” Dyno says in an exasperated voice, “put that thing away.”

“Fine,” Aaron concedes. He lets go of the handle, letting the Saw Cleaver fall, and it dematerializes in less than half a second.

“Anyway, Josh called us here to talk about something,” Aaron reminds them. “What was it, Josh?”

“Alright, so here’s the thing,” Josh says, talking excitedly. “We’ve got these cool new powers, right?”

“Riiight…” Aaron says, doubtfully. He already doesn’t like where this is heading.

“Well, here’s what I’ve been thinking about,” Josh says. “If we’ve got these powers… it’d be a waste not to use them, right?”

“Well, we’re going to use them one way or another,” Aaron points out. “People trying to kill us, remember?”

“Well, yeah,” Josh admits. “But once that’s done with, are we really just going to let these powers go to waste?”

Aaron grimaces. “Look, Josh… I don’t know what you’re planning, but stop. Just stop.”

“No, no, it’s nothing bad!” Josh protests.

Aaron’s eyes narrow. Out of all the unbelievable things that have happened in the past day or so, that statement actually being true would be the most unbelievable.

“Here’s what I was thinking,” Josh says. “We can create anything we want, right? Well, as long as it’s from a game we’ve played-“

“-which makes no sense, but I guess that’s how it works-“ Aaron interjects.

“-well, yeah, but anyway,” Josh continues, “just think about how well we could do if we sold these things!”

A heartbeat passes.

Aaron’s face sinks into his palm. “So let me get this straight,” he mutters. “You want to give random people powerful weapons with potent magic powers?”

“Sure,” Josh shrugs.

“And you’re sure this won’t go poorly,” Aaron says.

“Well… yeah,” Josh says. “Everyone’s happy.”

There are no words. Aaron just sighs deeply. “Josh… you may, legitimately, be the stupidest person I have ever heard of.”

“No, it’s a good idea!” Josh protests. “I mean, imagine how many people would want these things! All we’d need to do is reveal our powers to the world, right, and then even if we don’t start selling them, people will pour in to try and get some anyway!”

“Yes, and that’s the issue,” Aaron mutters. “Do you seriously think giving random people weapons with this sort of power is a good idea? The human race would wipe itself out.”

“Well then, maybe they deserve it!” Josh yells.

…

…

…

…

Aaron’s mind shuts down.

“Cotton,” he asks, “is this the only thing Josh wants from us?”

“Yeah, probably,” Dyno shrugs.

“Alright then,” Aaron says as he stands up from the couch. He turns and walks towards the door.

“Hold on, Hollow!” Josh yells behind him.

“What.”

“I mean, if you’re that concerned about humanity going extinct,” Josh says, making it sound as if Aaron’s concern is unreasonable, “we could just dematerialize the weapons after we sell them! That’s still a thing, remember?”

“Josh, that’s scamming people,” Aaron growls.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is,” Cotton says, backing him up.

“Well, so what?” Josh says. “I mean, the alternative is humanity going extinct. Shouldn’t you be fine with this?”

“No, the alternative is not doing the idiotic shit you keep telling us to do,” Aaron says, his voice carrying that unmistakable tone of I am so done with your bullshit. “Seriously, Josh. Half the ideas you have are idiotic, and that’s a low estimate.”

“Yeeeah,” Dyno agrees, “I’d say it’s more like seventy percent at least.”

“Mmm,” Aaron murmurs. “Maybe seventy-five.”

“Why is it just getting worse?!” Josh protests.

“Honestly, it might be eighty,” Cotton says.

“Maybe ninety,” Aaron nods along.

“Hell, ninety-five, even.”

“Ninety-nine.”

“Point five.”

“Yeah. Hear that, Josh?” Aaron asks. “Ninety-nine point five of your ideas are stupid.”

“SAYS WHO?!” Josh protests.

“Me,” Aaron says.

“And me,” Dyno says, echoing him.

“God damn it, Hollow!” Josh shouts.

“Look, man, it’s true,” Aaron sighs as if resigned to that fact.

Josh sputters indignantly for a moment, and then sits down on the spot on the couch where Aaron had been sitting previously. “Fine,” he spits. “See if I give you any of the money. Either of you.”

Aaron’s eyes meet Cotton’s. They exchange a glance. In that brief instant, there’s a clear message communicated.

The Saw Cleaver appears in Aaron’s hand. Dyno’s bow appears in his.

“Alright, Josh,” Aaron sighs, “this needs to stop. Now.”

|||

Cotton draws an arrow from his quiver, ready for the worst. It wouldn’t be all that surprising if it were to come to pass, so it’s best to expect it.

Josh’s eyes dart between the two of them. Dyno’s breathing is unnaturally calm. It’s a tense atmosphere. If something happens, he needs to be ready.

Slowly, with a dramatic flair befitting an anime villain – or at least, someone who’s trying way too hard to look like one – Josh stands up from the couch. He opens his hand, and the Wyvern Ignition materializes within.

“Okay, that’s stupid even for you,” Aaron chastises. “You realize there’s two of us, right?”

“Yeah,” Josh says, coldly. “But you know what you don’t have?”

He looks at Cotton. “A weapon,” he says, “that has “great” in its name.”

Josh rushes at Dyno. Cotton looks at him calmly. He opens his hand, and the bow disappears.

“Actually,” Dyno says, watching Josh run towards him (or, well, do the closest approximation to “running” that he can while wielding that massive thing)…

“I sort of do.”

A mirror image of Josh’s sword appears in Cotton’s hand. Josh’s eyes widen for a moment, but he swings his blade, and Dyno raises his own in response. The two Wyvern Ignitions, two rocket powered greatswords that are perfect copies of each other, slam into each other and create a loud noise of impact that resounds through the room to punctuate their clash.

“I used this thing too, you know,” Cotton grins.

“Excuse me,” Josh says, a note of irritation in his voice. “That’s my weapon.” Josh pushes down, and a great force is exerted on Dyno’s arms.

“Not really,” Cotton smirks, holding up his sword. “I mean, sure, maybe you can create it better. But that doesn’t matter. You’re still not going to break another copy of it.”

Josh pulls his arm back, stepping away to avoid Dyno’s sword as it sails forth, now freed from the clash. There’s a wild grin on his face, and he swings his Wyvern Ignition once more. Cotton swings his own sword to meet the enemy’s attack-

-and Josh’s strike shatters Dyno’s sword like it’s made of glass.

“Oh come on,” Cotton grumbles as he staggers backwards from the impact. “That’s bullshit.”

“You don’t get to use my sword,” Josh says, bringing the Wyvern Ignition back once more. He swings it at Dyno…

…and a chain tipped with what looks like some sort of sword wraps around the blade of the greatsword. It pulls back, and Josh’s swing is stopped short.

Josh turns around. Behind him is Hollow, and around his wrist, a chain is wrapped. It’s shooting outwards towards Josh to wind around his sword, the fiery blade at the end of the chain hanging down limply.

Of course, Josh knows where this is from, and he recognizes it. The chain wrapped around Hollow’s arm, the sword at the end… a Blade of Chaos.

“Stop, Josh,” Hollow admonishes.

“God damn it,” Josh mutters. The rocket powered greatsword dematerializes in his hand, and he gathers energy once again-

“Okay, seriously, you can stop now,” Cotton says. Josh glances at him. He’s holding his bow in his hand once more, the arrow already nocked and pointing at Josh. The bowstring’s taut, Dyno having already readied himself to shoot at a moment’s notice.

The two stare at each other for a few moments.

“Look, I’ll fucking do it,” Cotton says.

 Josh sighs and sits back down on the couch, and the other two let their weapons fade. “You just don’t see the great potential in my plan,” he mutters.

“I do see the great potential in it,” Hollow parries. “I see the great potential it has to bring about the destruction of humanity. Seriously, we got our hands on these powers, what, a day ago? And we’ve already nearly murdered each other. You think other people will fare any better?”

“Well, so what if humanity goes extinct?!” Josh yells. “I think we should all have the freedom to decide what we want, okay! And if that means that the rest of us gotta die, well that’s sad but a sacrifice is a sacrifice, and goddammit, I’m not going to let you infringe on my freedoms like this!”

“Josh, there’s this law about murder…” Hollow murmurs.

“Well, I’m not going to be killing anyone!” Josh replies. “…at least, not personally!”

“I’m pretty sure there’s also a law about inciting murder,” Dyno says.

“I’m not inciting anything! I’m just giving people stuff!” Josh shoots back.

“Stuff they can use to commit murder!” Cotton responds. “While being aware that they’re probably going to commit murder with it!”

“It’s not illegal,” Josh says.

“I’m pretty sure it is,” Dyno replies. “And in either case, that’s not the issue here!”

Cotton pauses for a moment. “…and besides, I’m pretty sure everyone here knows you don’t care about money anyway! So I’m pretty damn sure there’s something else going on here!”

“Really now?” Josh asks. “Like what?”

“Oh, I didn’t say this earlier cause I thought it was self-explanatory,” Hollow interjects, “but I’m, like, ninety-nine percent sure this is the beginning of a scheme to take over the world.” He ponders it for a moment. “Or maybe exterminating humanity was his goal from the start. I honestly have no idea.”

“LIES!” Josh shouts back, a little too defensively. “Um, I mean, wh-what are you talking about? I would never try to conquer the world…”

“Mm-hmm,” Hollow nods, clearly not convinced. “Suuure, you wouldn’t.”

“I would never…” Josh says.

“Josh, you totally would,” Dyno says.

“Yeah, he would,” Hollow says, siding with Cotton for some mysterious and totally incomprehensible reason. “I’m pretty sure this plan of his is really just a way for him to get a private army.”

“Whaaat… that’s sooo unreasonable…” Josh murmurs. But in his mind, he’s thinking something else: How in the world could Hollow have possibly figured it out when I hid it so well…?

“Look, Josh,” Hollow mutters in that “so done with your shit” voice that’s really familiar to Josh, “no world domination. Okay?”

“Yeeeeah… of course…” Josh murmurs noncommittally.

Hollow purses his lips and looks at Dyno. “Hey, Cotton,” he says. “You’re with me here, right?”

“Yeah,” Dyno nods. “I’ll help you stop him.”

Josh stares down at the floor.

“Dammit…” he mutters. “So, my genius plan to deceive you has failed?”

“Define genius,” Aaron says. Josh ignores him.

“Alright then,” Josh barks, rising from the couch. “Well, I don’t need your cooperation anyways, alright? And I'm not going to be stopped by you two... uh... people. You know why?”

Aaron sighs, an eyebrow raised. “Alright. I’ll bite. Why?”

“Well, follow me,” Josh says, walking towards the door. The other two share a brief glance, shrug, and follow him. Because honestly, why not?

They emerge in Josh’s backyard. Josh steps in front of the two of them and turns around to face them, a grin on his face. “Now then… behold!” he yells. “My secret weapon!”

He whirls around once again, concentrating on the empty space in front of him. Energy rushes to his fingertips as his hands shoot forwards, and his mind focuses on his task. This isn’t like what he’s done before. But judging by what he has done before, it should be possible. All that’s left is actually doing it…

Power courses through his body, more powerful and grander than anything he’s ever worked with before. The only thing that was even slightly comparable was that card he used to summon Ragnaros, but even then, this is on another level entirely. It feels like the insides of his blood vessels are being burned by the rushing magic, like his very body is burning like an engine at full blast. The torrent of energy inside him feels like a deadly river of lava, flowing at deadly speeds through his veins and smashing into their walls like a hurricane tearing through his insides. Molten power runs to his hands, the raging energy making its way to his fingertips under the control of his mind. And then… it shoots out.

This isn’t like before. The energy doesn’t concentrate in his palm – it flies outward, streams of blue running through the air. A beam of energy shoots from each of his fingers, but they all converge, gathering to one spot. It’s a good few meters in front of him, floating at about eye level above the grass, and Josh can feel the heat it’s giving off on his face.

With a mental command, he gives the untamed power shape.

Even as more power rushes from his body to reinforce the already insane amount hanging in the air, even as his veins burn with the heat of the molten rock rushing through them, the energy transforms. Gone is the small, yet bright as the sun orb floating in midair. The magic explodes outwards, forming itself into what is in Josh’s mind. He keeps the image in the forefront of his thoughts as the power flows. If he messes up now, who knows what will happen?

But the image stays in place, and the power takes shape to accommodate it. Four huge legs, a torso like that of some enormous beast, a great neck carrying a proud, reptilian head. Two more limbs form, these ones with a membrane stretching out behind them – two massive wings to carry the grand creature they belong to. The blue light takes on a solid form, and its texture changes, becoming bone and flesh and scale in front of Josh’s eyes.

As the beast’s exterior takes on a golden sheen and its fiery eyes open, Josh gasps and collapses to the ground, his work done. He lands on his hands and knees and looks up, admiring his creation.

The great horned golden dragon, spines running down its back and an ominous purple glow in its maw, looks back at him.

He grins. He did it.

“Um, Josh,” Cotton’s worried voice comes from behind him. “Can you… control that thing…?”

…

Shit.

Shagaru Magala roars at him, a deafening sound that shakes the earth, and unfurls its wings and takes off without a second thought for its creator.

Chapter Text

Kill.

That’s the only thing in the beast’s mind as it flies through the air, a great glowing comet shooting through the sky. It’s unaware of the people underneath, staring up at it in wonder, awe and shock. It’ll kill them later. It’s unaware of how they scramble to react, though what that means is different for each person – some run and hide, others quickly try and snap pictures of the giant thing, still others simply stare up at it in disbelief.

But that does not matter to Shagaru Magala.

It knows what to do. It has known what to do from the start.

This is its territory. And it must be protected from invaders. It must be protected from everyone who would try to exploit it, lest they steal the Magala’s food.

Kill.

It comes to a stop just outside an odd, transparent rectangle, flapping its wings every so often to remain in the air. The rectangle is embedded in a huge thing rising from the ground. Shagaru Magala can see into the thing, and it sees humans inside. Which means humans have most likely built this great peak.

Impressive. But that doesn’t matter.

A quick, forceful blast of the Frenzy Virus from its mouth shatters the transparent thing, and the Shagaru Magala flies inside the huge human nest.

Kill.

|||

“Josh… what the fuck have you done?”

It’s a question Aaron asks himself a lot. This time, he’s muttering it under his breath while leaning against a telephone pole, his arms crossed and his gaze downcast. Since that… incident… happened, Aaron’s taken the time to read up about the Monster Hunter games and find out what he could about the monster Josh has summoned into this world. Apparently, it’s a huge dragon – no surprise there – which is incredibly aggressive – again, no surprise there – and carries something called the Frenzy Virus, which causes any animals near it to go insane and die. Or, well, in the case of humans, it just causes them to die. So that’s nice.

Shit. He really doesn’t know what to do.

Any of his low-power stuff – you know, swords and shields, the Saw Cleaver, stuff like that – wouldn’t work against the Shagaru Magala. To fight it, he’d need to pull out some more powerful things. But he’s seen what happened to Josh back when he summoned Ragnaros from a card back in the fight against Cloak. It’s clear that none of them can handle creating the really powerful stuff quite yet, at least not for a long time – and Aaron doesn’t trust himself to take the beast out in the few seconds he’d be able to maintain a powerful creation.

Fortunately, finding it won’t be difficult, at least. Surely, news stations and newspapers and… well… news in general will be talking about this thing for a while. And while that’s really not good – he has no idea what’s going to happen if the general populace finds out about magic stuff – it’s better than them having no way to track Shagaru Magala. This way, they at least know where to go when they’re ready for the big fight.

But there’s something else bothering Aaron. He hasn’t seen Josh recently. For that matter, he hasn’t heard from Josh recently. Nor has Dyno, from what he knows. It seems like, in the aftermath of Shagaru Magala’s summoning, Josh has just… disappeared. And honestly, that’s almost more worrying than the huge dragon itself, for several reasons.

First off, and least pressingly, Josh being missing means he can’t answer any of the many questions Aaron has. How is Shagaru Magala even still in this world if Ragnaros disappeared only seconds after being summoned? Why hasn’t Josh just dematerialized it yet? Admittedly, those are really the only two questions, but they’re pretty important ones. It doesn’t make sense. This Shagaru Magala breaks all the rules that have seemingly been established regarding their powers.

Second, though, and significantly more dangerous, is the fact that if Josh is missing, they can’t keep an eye on what he’s doing. And if Josh is allowed to do whatever he feels like… Aaron can barely imagine the sort of damage that might be caused. World domination seems likely, but that’s probably only going to be his first step… and who knows what twisted scheme he might come up with afterwards. The only reason he hasn’t done anything of that nature so far is because… well, really, because he hasn’t had enough time yet, but also because they were there to stop him. Now that he’s somewhere out there, without Aaron and Cotton’s supervision… things could get really bad, really quickly.

Honestly, he’s really not sure which should take priority. Kill the massive death dragon? Or stop Josh from… doing whatever it is he’s doing?

Aaron sighs. Whichever one he chooses, it’s pretty clear what’s happening here. Josh has ruined everything.

That’s… really not surprising.

|||

Cloak – not wearing his cloak, of course, but rather wearing normal clothes so as to blend in with the city’s citizens – looks up at the sky in blank wonder. The three people he’s sent to hunt down Rage’s team are standing behind him.

“…you see that, right?” he asks. It’s a rhetorical question, obviously.

“Yup,” the girl says from behind him. “Looks like our buddy Josh’s made a new friend!”

“I’m pretty sure it’d eat him as readily as anything else,” Cloak murmurs. “But in either case… I’m impressed. Both by the fact that one of them was actually able to summon something like this, and by the fact that that person was stupid enough to actually decide to do it.”

“What do you mean, “one of them”?” the long-haired man asks Cloak. “It’s obvious it’s Bell who’s responsible.”

“I know,” Cloak snaps. “I’m just keeping an open mind.”

The long-haired man noncommittally mutters something under his breath.

“In either case, this is good,” Cloak says. “I thought we’d have to hunt down Rage and the others ourselves, but… if they’re doing things like this already, we might not even need to get involved. After all, there’s every chance now that they decide to try and stop it too…” He smiles.

“Uh, boss…” the girl says hesitantly, “if they do try and stop it, and they fail… well, that’s nice and all, cause, you know, they’re dead, but… what do we do? I mean, we can’t just leave it to rampage around the place, and as awesome as the three of us are, I’m not sure how we’d do against something like that…”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that,” Cloak replies. “I’ll handle it, if it comes to that.”

|||

“Right, so it’s big and strong and fast, but that’s nothing new,” Cotton mutters as he shoots an arrow from his bow. Yes, he’s got the skills from his in-game character, so he’s already quite a good shot, but… extra practice never hurt anyone, did it? “That Frenzy thing’s going to be annoying, but I guess I just can’t get caught in the purple. What do I do if it takes off, though? This isn’t Monster Hunter, it’s not just going to come back down after a while. I’d have to cripple its wings, but… can this bow even do that?”

Thud. Another arrow lands in the wall.

“Well, then again, I guess I don’t just have this bow,” Dyno says, the very thing he’s just said bringing the realization to his mind. “I’m sure if I think about it for a moment, there’s some other stuff I could use that’d do more damage. Something from Overwatch, maybe, but that wouldn’t be that powerful… and besides, a lot of that takes good aim and stuff like that, and I’ve never been as comfortable with those weapons as I am with this bow. So… hmm…”

A thought hits him, and he smiles. Actually, he does have quite a few things he can use to do a lot of damage to the beast, and they’re all even from the same source. Aiming with them is going to be difficult, and he’s probably not going to be able to fight too well with them in general, but at least they’ll be good for sheer power. And sheer power is something he sort of needs when fighting something like this.

Thud. The wall splits open, the point of an arrow buried inside the small hole.

The only real issue is energy. He saw what happened to Josh back when he tried to summon Ragnaros with a Hearthstone card. What he’s thinking of using shouldn’t be that powerful, but he still might have some issues maintaining it, so that’s something he needs to keep in mind. Well, he can do most of his fighting with the bow – he’ll just have to use these special weapons for a few attacks. So it shouldn’t be that much of a problem.

Well, of course, all of that still leaves one problem. Where’s Josh?

Probably off plotting world domination or something like that.

Thud.

Ah well. Honestly, he doesn’t care too much about that. Josh can do what he feels like – Cotton’s concern, right now, is the big dragon flying through the skies.

Time to go fight it, then.

|||

Aaron sits in his chair, his teeth gritted, annoyance on his face. He really has no clue what to do. If he goes off to fight Shagaru Magala, that gives Josh time to do whatever it is he’s plotting, and besides, there’s no guarantee he’ll win. If he tries to search for Josh, then that frees the massive dragon to wreak havoc, and he doesn’t even know if he’ll be able to find Josh in time to do anything. There’s pros and cons to each option, and Aaron really doesn’t know which one to choose.

Still, it’s probably better to focus on the Magala first. True, Josh is a big problem, and he’s a much bigger problem if given time to prepare – but the fact is, any search for him isn’t even guaranteed to bear fruit right now. Meanwhile, while Shagaru Magala will definitely be hard to take down, Aaron’s at least pretty confident in his ability to find it – so if he goes to fight it as soon as he thinks he has a good chance of winning, he’s probably going to be able to put an end to at least one of their problems. On the other hand, if he goes after Josh, there’s a good chance that he’ll end up just wasting time with nothing to show for it. So, probably best to go for the Magala.

And besides, there’s one more reason he has for making that choice. A while ago, he sent a message to Dyno, asking him if he had any plans on what to do about this situation. Cotton’s response? A short, vague text telling Aaron that he was busy at the moment, and to not worry; Dyno apparently had a plan already.

That told Aaron all he needed to know. Though, in this case, it was more what he really DIDN’T need to know.

Cotton went off to fight Shagaru Magala on his own.

It was a monumentally stupid move. But it’s a move Dyno made, and Aaron needs to live with it.

And even if he sort of deserves it for being that stupid, Aaron would still prefer it if Cotton didn’t die just yet. Besides, they’ve got a better chance of bringing it down if they both attack at once anyway.

So, while there’s a bunch of stuff he’d have preferred to do first, it looks like his hand’s being forced. He’s going to have to go fight Shagaru Magala.

Now.

Aaron sighs deeply. Why the hell did the two other people to get superpowers have to be so monumentally stupid…?

|||

A muscular shoulder slams into Dyno, sending him stumbling backwards. It would’ve sent him sprawling on the ground, but he saw it coming at the last second and managed to brace himself.

Standing in front of him is a dog.

Well. Calling it that is a little generous.

It looks like a dog, sure. Oh, it’s pretty damn huge for a dog, but big dogs exist. There’s nothing wrong there. The issue is how it feels.

There’s an unmistakable killing intent radiating from the animal. Its face is twisted in feral rage, its eyes full of death. The way it’s glaring at Cotton, it’s clear that it wants to kill him. Not because it wants to eat him, or because he’s intruding on its territory. It just wants to kill him, with no rhyme or reason behind it.

Right. The Frenzy Virus. Just because it doesn’t drive humans insane doesn’t mean there aren’t things around for it to drive insane, Dyno reminds himself.

He conjures up his bow. “Sorry, Fido,” he mutters, “but it looks like I’ll have to put you down.”

An arrow is nocked, and with perfect accuracy, a single arrow flies through the dog’s brain.

Or at least, that’s what should’ve happened.

But the next charge is deadly, and powerful, and faster than Cotton could’ve possibly imagined. He just barely manages to throw himself to the side before the massive mass of muscle slams into him, letting him dodge the blow – but after such a desperate dodge, a counterattack is obviously impossible. Dyno quickly gets back on his feet, staring down the insane dog. It feels a little wrong now, thinking of it as a dog. The insane beast, maybe? Sure, that sounds better.

The beast roars at him. No, seriously – it roars. The dog roars.

And then, it lunges once more. This time, its mouth is open wide, and it’s aiming right for Cotton’s throat.

The sane thing to do here would be to leap backwards and to the side – trying to get yourself out of the way, and if that fails, at least putting a little distance between you and the sharp teeth trying to end your life. Alternatively, crouching would also be an alternative – the dog would still probably hit you, and it would hurt like hell, but at least it would definitely miss your throat. Being injured is better than being dead. Whichever one of those you choose, there’s really only one reasonable option here – try to minimize the damage from the attack and wait for a good opportunity to strike back. That’s the only way a human can fight a beast like this.

But Dyno isn’t exactly a normal human at the moment.

And while he’s not half as crazy as Josh is, one would still be hard-pressed to call him “sane”, either.

With insane speed that isn’t his own, Cotton nocks an arrow into his bow. Fortunately, he drew it from the quiver before the beast leapt – otherwise, there was no way he could possibly do this. The beast will reach him in about a second – probably slightly less. No human, whatever supernatural powers they possess, would be able to draw, nock, AND fire an arrow in that time.

But, as said before, Dyno already had his arrow drawn. So he has an advantage.

He draws the bowstring back. Not much power is necessary, because the arrow won’t be flying very far. But he still needs a bit, just to make the shot at all.

The beast’s jaws start closing in anticipation, its teeth on a collision course right for his teeth.

Since he’s decided on this course of action, he has to kill the beast instantly with this one shot. Anything else will not do. This means that he requires the maximum amount of power he can possibly get. In this situation, that’s not much, which only increases the urgency.

But he can’t try for too much power. If he delays for even an instant too long, the beast will be too close to shoot at.

Time slows down. Or at least, that’s what it feels like.

Cotton draws the bowstring back just a little bit more.

The beast approaches.

It’s near his neck already.

His arrow is still pointed at it.

One shot.

If this fails, that’s it.

But this won’t fail. Dyno never considered that a possibility from the start.

The string is loosed, and the impact throws the beast back. It’s dead before it hits the ground. The arrow went through its open mouth and penetrated its brain, sticking out of the other side of its head. It lies motionless, not a bit of motion in its lifeless corpse.

Cotton lowers his bow. That was relatively easy. But he’s realized something now. If Shagaru Magala converted that dog…

Another roar sounds from behind him. Somewhere to the side, there’s a growl. From the other side, something like a hiss.

Dyno sighs. Of course. When is it ever easy?

|||

Aaron rushes forward.

He realized a while ago that it’s only a small mercy that Shagaru Magala’s Frenzy Virus doesn’t drive humans insane. After all, sure, it’s a good thing that they’re not being assaulted by crazy people every step of the way – but there’s plenty of animals around here. And that means plenty of things to strike at them, whether or not humans are affected.

And Cotton has just rushed off to fight the Magala, probably without even slightly thinking about the issue of the animals. Of course, Dyno will be able to fight them off – it’d honestly be embarrassing for someone to lose to a horde of animals when they have these sorts of powers, even if the animals are crazy and empowered. But doing so by himself will exhaust him, especially if he insists on fighting all of them rather than just trying to run – and knowing Cotton, Aaron feels like that’s pretty likely.

Honestly, Aaron’s not sure about Dyno’s chances against the Magala at the best of times. But a tired, exhausted Cotton will definitely lose against it. Which means that Aaron needs to do one of two things – either kill the Magala before Dyno even reaches it, or find Cotton and help out against the horde of animals.

The first option is stupid. Aaron can see that much immediately. Shagaru Magala isn’t a small threat, and it’s not something to be trifled with. Aaron might – might – be able to kill it on his own, but it’d be one hell of a fight even if everything went his way, and he’s just not willing to risk something like that. It would be much smarter to attack it as a group and effectively double their power.

Which means the second option is the better one. If Aaron can jump in and rescue Dyno, they can both go to fight Shagaru Magala, and together, there’s a very reasonable chance that they will win. And dragging him out of a horde of Frenzied animals shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

There’s only one issue left. Aaron has no idea where Cotton is.

|||

Dash. Shoot.

Dyno takes the briefest of glances at his target – just to make sure he hit it – before continuing on.

Dash. Shoot.

He withdraws, retreating from the horde even as he looses arrow after arrow into it. The beasts follow him, the Virus robbing them of what little reason they had. That makes them easier targets.

Dash. Shoot.

Another arrow finds its mark.

Dash. Shoot.

The only hard part was getting out of that first ambush, when three animals surrounded him. But he managed to dash out of there quickly enough, and from there, this was all it’s been. Dash away and shoot.

It’s almost disappointing. But Cotton has to admit it’s satisfying.

Dash. Sho-

Something sharp hits his leg from the side, causing him to yelp and stumble, fumbling his shot.

He looks around. A cat’s biting into his leg, so he grabs it, tears it off, and throws it away. And then… he looks around again.

At this moment, he realizes something.

Insane beasts approach him from many sides, forming a semicircle around him and cutting off all avenues of escape except backwards. But that shouldn’t be a problem. Dyno should just be able to dash away and keep shooting.

One issue, though: His back’s up against a building.

The numberless horde approaches, seemingly endless snarling fangs coming to corner him. There’s nowhere to run. He can’t move away again, not when he’s in this position, so his bow’s going to be basically useless – it’ll get him through the first few seconds at most. The only thing he can do is stand and fight, right here.

Cotton grits his teeth. He’d have preferred to stick with the bow until he got to Shagaru Magala itself, just for the sake of conserving energy.

But… it seems he’ll have to pull out a different trick.

The bow disperses, and something else begins forming in his hand. Magical energy flows forth, turning into something long, something like a handle. Dyno grasps the weapon even before it truly exists, his hand already awaiting the moment it’ll form-

There’s a sound, and his concentration breaks, and the weapon fades away.

In the distance, something’s cutting through the crowd of beasts, ducking and dodging and dancing past them like a god of war as it slashes them to pieces. Cotton’s eyes make out Aaron’s figure through the carnage, and he just barely sees the sword in his hand – though from here, it looks more like an occasional flash of light than anything else.

The horde falls to Aaron’s assault, cutting a path straight to Dyno.

“Dark Souls, bitch,” he murmurs.

“Hi, Aaron,” Cotton says, a bit incredulous. "You know, I was doing something..."

“Hey there, Dyno,” Aaron responds.

"It was going to be really cool..." Cotton murmurs.

“You know, on second thought," Aaron says, "finding you wasn’t as hard as I thought it’d be. It got sort of obvious once I spotted the massive horde.”

“Yeah,” Dyno nods. “Yeah, I can see how that’d give it away a bit.”

“Well, anyway…” Aaron says, “enough of this. I’ll cut a path. Let’s go fight a giant dragon.”

Chapter Text

Okay, so here’s the first thing Aaron and Dyno realize when coming face-to-face with Shagaru Magala: it doesn’t matter what powers you have or what your actual chance of victory is… a giant dragon is intimidating as hell.

The impression is magnified by the fact that, as they look at it, the Magala isn’t flying that high up. It’s low enough to the ground that they can get a good estimate of its size, and holy hell, it’s huge. An elephant’s got nothing on this thing. (Of course, that should’ve been expected. And it was expected. They just didn’t realize just how big it was going to be.)

“Holy shit,” Aaron murmurs.

“Ooo-ho-ho…” Cotton breathes.

“So… any idea how to get it down here?” Aaron asks, going back to logical mode surprisingly quickly. The question has merit – the Magala, even flying as low as it is, is definitely out of reach of any of their melee weapons.

Dyno grins. “See, I’ve actually been planning for this,” he says. “I didn’t want to use up this amount of energy before, but…”

He opens his palm. A handle takes shape, and out of it grows what looks like the barrel of a long gun. It’s a simple, black thing, with no real frills or decorations to speak of except for a few bits of glowing orange.

“You sure that’ll work?” Aaron asks, a bit worried.

“Yeah, it will,” Cotton says. “See, I played this game called Stick Fight with Josh and the others…” A smile appears on his face as he points the gun upwards.

Aaron’s eyes widen. He’s heard of that game, and if it’s anything like what he’s heard about it…

“Alright,” Aaron murmurs. “I’m going to run now…”

Aaron takes a few large steps back as Dyno aims.

The trigger is squeezed.

And an enormous fucking gout of lava spews out of the barrel of the gun like a huge laser, melting a circular hole in Shagaru Magala’s wing as it flies up into the air and impacts the monster. The monster roars in sudden pain and tries to control its descent, and even kind of succeeds – it only crashes into a couple of buildings on its way down. It lands on the ground in front of them, gets to its feet, and stares at them with angry eyes.

The huge dragon roars, and the force of it is enough to send Cotton stumbling.

|||

Aaron takes a moment to analyze the situation.

Good news: Shagaru Magala is now on the ground. And it’s sure as hell not going back up into the air anytime soon.

Bad news: They now definitely have its attention.

Bad news 2: Dyno appears not to have really thought about the consequences of firing a lava gun into the air.

“For fuck’s sake…” he murmurs, his voice frantic. “Cotton! Get the hell over here!”

“What?” Dyno asks, confused.

“JUST GET OVER HERE!” Aaron yells, and a very confused Cotton starts running over to Aaron as the lava comes back down.

The Shagaru Magala feels the heat above it – or at least, that’s what it seems like – and rushes out of the way just before the lava hits it. Unfortunately, the buildings and the ground aren’t so lucky. The molten rock melts the asphalt around it, turning a huge line in the city into a charred mess. It starts flowing, slowly, and both the two guys and the Elder Dragon back away in response. Aaron could swear he can hear screaming from a few buildings where the lava hit the ceiling, and… yep, that’s the roof of a huge skyscraper collapsing that he’s seeing. The lava drips onto the walls of the skyscraper, starting to melt them too – and the floor’s going down in flames, too. Somehow, Aaron has a feeling that building won’t last long. Nor will any of the others in the lava’s path.

“Oh,” Dyno says in an "oh, right..." tone of voice. “That’s bad, isn’t it.”

Aaron shakes his head. “Goddammit, Cotton.” He sighs, deeply.

Even Shagaru Magala glances at him strangely, as if to show commiseration. For a dragon that shouldn’t even be capable of comprehending the thing that just happened, it’s looking really fed up with Dyno’s stupidity.

Then, it roars at the two of them, and charges forward.

“Cotton… we’ll talk about this later,” Aaron says, conjuring a longsword in his hand. He rushes forward, facing the huge dragon head-on.

It swipes at him, a huge paw trying to strike him in the ribs and shatter his bones. Aaron rolls forward, getting past the attack and ending up under the Magala’s stomach. He slices upwards, drawing a thin line of red on the enemy before the Magala leaps away, easily getting out of his range. It opens its mouth and spews a glob of something purple at him.

Aaron knows what it is, of course. The Frenzy Virus. It’s in a pretty big ball, and it’s moving towards him quickly. He’s not sure if he can dodge it – at least, he certainly can’t dodge it easily. Especially considering the fact that it’s going to splatter when it hits the ground… even if Aaron starts running to the side right now, he’s probably not going to be able to get out of this unharmed.

There’s a card he’s got up sleeve, though. See, his other hand is still free, ready for him to summon something into it. And as it turns out, with these powers, having played Dark Souls means you get access to a lot of various stuff… and it’s not just weapons.

Aaron’s arm shoots out in front of him, as if to guard against the oncoming Frenzy Virus. And in his open palm, a grip takes form, and connected to it is something large and rectangular. It’s as tall as Aaron himself, and tough and heavy enough that he can’t do much with it other than hold it out in front of him. But as luck would have it, that’s exactly what it’s designed for.

The blob of Frenzy Virus splatters against the tower shield in Aaron’s hand, little globules of purple stuff splattering on the shield’s surface and flying down to the ground.

He charges.

His shield’s still held in front of him, but he knows that just holding it in front of him won’t protect him from everything. As if to demonstrate, the Shagaru Magala swipes at him from the side as he runs towards it, trying to catch him where he’s unguarded. But that’s a simple enough attack to avoid. Aaron simply turns the shield, letting the Magala’s paw slam into the cold metal.

The impact’s still pretty heavy, but Aaron still runs onwards without pause. If anything, it seems like it hurt Shagaru Magala more; it quickly pulls its paw back as if in pain, and its eyes gain a new tinge of anger.

But the shield does its job. Aaron’s now underneath Shagaru Magala once more, and he’s unharmed. Now, he’s got a good, clean shot at it. But it’s clear that trying to take it out with just the sword won’t work.

Aaron’s right hand opens, and the sword falls and vanishes. Something new starts appearing in its place, an axe that would look relatively plain were it not for the runes and patterns engraved into it – but there’s an unmistakable cold emanating from the blade.

The axe slams upwards, burying itself in Shagaru Magala’s underbelly, and around it, a patch of flesh and skin and scale freezes over.

Shagaru Magala rears back in shock and sudden pain, startled, and Aaron uses the opportunity to get away. He leaves the Leviathan Axe behind and runs out from beneath it, ending up on the opposite side of the beast from Dyno. The Magala turns its heard towards him in confusion, eyeing him suspiciously. And at that moment…

|||

Cotton pulls the trigger.

In his hand is a shotgun, its barrel a pitch black, its handle made out of fine wood with an odd pattern in silver. A spray of bullets shoots out the front with a burst of darkness, striking the Magala in the side of its face. It flinches back from the impact, a few of its scales dented from the blast.

Dyno opens his other hand, and an identical shotgun materializes within.

He advances, shadows wrapping around him like a cloak, and fires at Shagaru Magala again. Its huge bulk doesn’t move much under the rain of bullets, but Cotton can see the effect it’s having. The Magala flinches with every shot, its scales becoming dented and warped under the withering hail. Dyno advances further, pulling the twin triggers over and over again.

It doesn’t even need to be said, of course, what these shotguns are. The Hellfire Shotguns, borrowed from a character edgy enough to actually call himself “Reaper”.

And at that moment, a blast of the Frenzy Virus flies from Shagaru Magala’s open mouth.

Dyno’s eyes widen, and he throws himself backwards. But he’s been advancing too recklessly, and now, just jumping back isn’t enough to get him out of trouble entirely. The ball of Frenzy hits him, knocking him away and splattering him with the purple substance. He tries to get up, already feeling something odd within him.

“Shit,” he mutters. “Anyone have a…”

An idea hits him.

He opens his hands, and both of the Shotguns fall out. Fortunately, that lava gun back then didn’t take as much energy to create as he’d expected – it took quite a bit, sure, but he still has a good bit left. Which means he can still create the thing he needs right now.

A small berry appears in his palm. It’s a weird, blue color, but he eats it without hesitation.

So, nice thing about these powers: They’re not just limited to creating weapons. And while Cotton knew that already, the most non-weapony thing anyone’s created with them so far was that shield, or maybe Josh’s Hearthstone card. But that doesn’t mean they can’t be used to create something completely different.

Such as, for instance, a Nulberry.

Dyno feels it take effect instantly. It doesn’t purge the Virus’s effects from him completely, but he can feel how much it’s just slowed the Virus’s onset. So even if it didn’t actually stop the Virus, he’s more than happy with what it did for him.

Besides, he’s done his research. He knows how this Virus works. Cotton creates the Hellfire Shotguns in his hands once more and runs at Shagaru Magala, blasting away all the time. The beast still can’t help but flinch away under the assault as even its massive bulk and tough scales fail to protect it completely from the raining bullets, and its scales become more and more dented and damaged as Dyno fires.

Unfortunately, Cotton’s beginning to feel the strain. It’s like an odd pressure on his heart-

__er___ _ ho__ in hi_ b__y __d i_ ___rn_

-and he figures it’s probably the cost of overusing his powers. Of course, he’s been able to use them for longer before, but that was back when he wasn’t creating anything more than a bow and arrows – a far cry from a lava gun and a pair of shotguns. It’s really no surprise that he’s having a bit of an issue with his powers now.

Ah well. He doesn’t need to do enough damage to kill it, not right now. There’s just one thing he needs to do.

He rushes forward.

|||

Aaron sees Dyno’s charge, and he knows what’s coming. And as much as he’s still upset at him over the lava gun incident… he has to admit, if Cotton’s planning what Aaron thinks he is, he might have just regained a bit of respect in Aaron’s eyes.

Well, in that case, Aaron won’t interfere too much. But at the very least, he’ll distract the beastie for a little while.

Unfortunately, the little patch of frost on its underbelly seems to have stopped bothering it a while ago. But that doesn’t really matter – it’s not like Aaron expected it to do much in the first place. And now that it’s stopped doing anything, there’s no reason for Aaron to keep his axe there.

He opens his palm, and, as if commanded by some force, the axe flies back to him, the handle fitting neatly into his hand as he curls his fingers around it. Shagaru Magala howls as the axe tears itself out, more out of surprise than actual pain.

Now, to execute his plan.

The Magala turns towards him. Aaron grins and runs forward.

He jumps. And as he does, he opens his left palm, and energy flows through him.

He visualizes something… old. Something older than when he played God of War, or Monster Hunter, or any of that stuff. Something that was the first thing that really gave him fame – something that was the first thing Josh, at least, ever did on Youtube. It’s not normally something Aaron likes thinking back to, but… in this case, it should give him the tools he needs.

Two things materialize at the point where he’s about to land.

One is an odd, cubic thing. Most of it looks like it was made out of some sort of stone, and it looks cracked and worn – but the very top is made of rather nice wood, and it has an almost… mechanical look to it. The second, materializing right on top of the first object, is another cubic object like the first – but this one is an odd, sickly green, and it looks like it has two layers, the first one being transparent to reveal the smaller one beneath.

And just before Aaron lands on the green thing, one more thing materializes, right next to the stone object. This one is what looks to be some sort of oddly rectangular torch stuck into the ground, but instead of a normal, bright, yellow flame, it’s burning with a dull, otherworldly red light.

Once more, Aaron smirks. And the whole contraption activates.

The redstone torch activates the piston. The piston extends in response to the redstone signal. And as it extends, it pushes the slime block upwards. And as that happens, the slime block collides with Aaron’s feet and pushes him upwards, sending him high into the sky.

With a wave of Aaron’s hand, the contraption dematerializes, a moment before he lands on Shagaru Magala’s back.

Aaron’s got to admit… of all the sources for creations he could’ve used in a battle like this, Minecraft hasn’t crossed his mind until just now. But damn, it worked well.

“Well, I think I’m supposed to use some sort of knife or something now,” he grunts as he lands, satisfied with himself. “Buuuuut...” The axe cuts an arc across Shagaru Magala’s back, rending its scales and flesh and leaving a trail of frost behind it for just a moment, only for the freezing to dissipate as the axe moves along.

The Magala roars and shakes itself, trying to get Aaron off. But he holds on, and slices again. Two arcs, and three, and four…

|||

Dyno leaps.

His Shotguns are in his hands. Shadows curl around him as he moves, covering him so thickly that his silhouette is barely visible. Aaron’s distracting the monster, which is nice… though admittedly, Cotton would’ve preferred to do this on his own.

With one jump, he raises himself all the way to Shagaru Magala’s flank. And once he’s there…

“DIE!”

He begins spinning, his Shotguns firing in all directions. At first glance, it’s nothing more than that. But really, that’s not true. It only takes a bit of paying attention to notice that, A, the shadows around Dyno are way thicker than they were before, and B, the Shotguns are firing far faster than they really should be able to.

“DIE!”

The air near Shagaru Magala becomes a hail of bullets, small holes being poked into buildings and asphalt as stray fire from the Hellfire Shotguns slams into the surroundings. But the Magala is suffering more damage than anything else. The bullets pierce its scales, even its armor not able to withstand the sheer volume of firepower, and they tear into its flesh, spilling blood as wounds appear in Shagaru Magala’s body. It flinches back, unable to do any more.

“DIE!”

The Death Blossom reaches its crescendo.

Bullets sing in the air. Bullets tear through the beast’s hide and rush past its massive bulk, coming out the other side. Bullets roar through the skies, the smell of gunpowder and the smoke of guns and the swirling shadows surrounding Cotton so thickly he’s barely visible. For just this one moment, he is an avatar of death, a grim whirlwind of darkness that does naught but destroy any who get near. And right now, Shagaru Magala is very near.

It falls onto its side. Even something as massive as an Elder Dragon cannot possibly withstand the hell Dyno has just unleashed.

But that’s only for a moment.

The shadows recede, and Cotton falls to the ground, the Hellfire Shotguns dissipating in his hands. He feels tired as hell, which, he supposes, is to be expected when using an ability outright called an “ultimate”. Right now, he probably can’t summon anything else. Maybe something simple, like just a sword or his bow or something, but… even that would be far from certain.

That said, it’s not like this attack was useless. The Magala’s heavily wounded, now, and stunned to boot. Aaron could easily deliver a finishing blow, though Dyno was a bit sad he wouldn’t get to kill it himself. Ah well. Aaron doing it is good enough too, he supposes.

And also, there’s the matter of the Frenzy Virus from earlier. He’s read up on it, and he knows how it works. If someone can “master” the Virus, can dish out enough damage to sate it, they will overcome it – they’ll lose the negative effects of the Virus, and remain with only the positives in a state known as the “Apex State”. And that just now was definitely enough damage.

Unfortunately, the Apex State is temporary in humans, and Cotton’s a bit too tired now to actually make use of it. But at least he’s not going to die horribly. That’s always nice.

|||

Aaron flies through the sky, the Leviathan Axe no longer in his hand. He jumped off the moment the Magala started collapsing, and he let his axe vanish at the same moment. Now, for just a moment, Shagaru Magala is vulnerable – so Aaron needs to deal the most damage he can possibly do in this one instant.

He opens his palm, and something appears inside. It looks like somewhat like a very odd sword – it’s completely white, and its shape is strange too. The handle is normal enough, but the blade itself is far more triangular than a normal sword’s, starting off far wider than the handle at the base before tapering down to a point at the tip. And there’s an odd swirl of patterns running along its length.

Now that Aaron looks at it, he really has no idea why it’s called a “nail”.

But that doesn’t matter. It’s a blade that originally belonged to someone known simply as the Knight, a bug that had delved deep into the kingdom of Hallownest to take the place of the Hollow Knight of old. But then again… that doesn’t matter, either.

The reason Aaron created this weapon isn’t because of the weapon itself. In fact, if it were to be recreated completely faithfully, he probably wouldn’t even be able to wield it – after all, the Knight’s a bug, which means his nail would probably be far too small for any human. Fortunately, it seems whatever magic is powering this has decided that that’s something it can overlook and allowed the nail to be created in human scale, so Aaron can actually wield it like a sword. But he doesn’t really intend to do that.

No, there’s another reason he created a weapon so simple at this pivotal moment. If Dyno’s example is anything to go by, it seems the weapons themselves aren’t the only things they can recreate – they can also use the abilities of the characters that originally possessed them, at least to a certain point. So now that Aaron has the Knight’s weapon, and now that he’s above the Magala’s head…

Strange energy begins gathering around him.

This isn’t the same sort of energy as the three of them used to create their weaponry. This is different – it’s an odd energy, an energy from another world. This is SOUL, a sort of energy that came from Hallownest, an energy that could be used for the magic that came from that world.

Aaron descends. And the energy descends with him.

Like a meteor, propelled by the SOUL pushing him onwards, Aaron slams down onto the Magala’s head. It roars in pain, the impact creating a huge dent in its scales and yet leaving Aaron completely unharmed. One of its eyes is crushed by the attack, blood and… whatever the hell destroyed eyes leak… spilling from it. Aaron really doesn’t want to look at that, so he jumps off the Magala’s head right after the impact.

But that’s a fatal blow. Even Shagaru Magala won’t be able to recover from that. Most likely, a good part of its skull just got crushed. There’s no way it can fight anymore, and even if it can, it sure as hell can’t pose a serious threat to them anymore.

Aaron smirks. “Alright, take that!”

And then, something drops down onto Aaron’s face. He flinches back in shock, and grabs at the thing. It’s… weird, and its feet tickle his skin oddly, but he quickly grabs it, pulls it away from himself, and throws it to the ground. Just to make sure it stays down, he gives it a quick kick, and it stops moving.

Well, that was a weird distraction, he thinks. Now to get back to… Shagaru… Magala…

Which isn’t there anymore.

In the all of two seconds Aaron has been fighting that weird thing, Shagaru Magala has mysteriously disappeared. “Uh… the hell?” he mutters, and looks down at the thing once more. And what he sees explains everything.

The little beastie he just killed looks… somewhat like a spider, albeit way bigger. But it’s an odd coloration, a pitch black with red stripes all over it. And at the back end of its body is something that looks suspiciously like the tail of a fish.

In an instant, he realizes. He’s not sure how he’s been doing it, but he knows what Josh has been doing all this time. And he knows that however the hell he did it, it was Josh who made Shagaru Magala disappear like that, which… honestly, that’s enough of an explanation for Aaron. And he knows that all of a sudden, Josh has just become a huge threat.

“Dammit, Josh…” he murmurs.

At his feet is a dead fish-spider.

Chapter Text

The man’s hands are folded in front of his face. He sits in a dark room, the dull light barely illuminating the sides of his hands and reflecting off his glasses, giving him a menacing image. There is no hint to his expression or to his thoughts as he sits in front of the table, the darkness concealing his features.

“So. How is it going?” the man says. And that voice…

Well, let’s be honest here. No matter how hard he tries to sound like a good evil genius, no matter how much he tries to make his voice deep and menacing like a proper villain’s… no one could ever mistake that voice for anything else. No, rather, when he tries to hide it, it tends to only make it more obvious. This is, of course, Josh Bell, aka Rage.

“Sir,” the other man in the room responds. This man’s face, unlike Josh’s, is illuminated by the light, revealing a rather plain man whose features are nevertheless sharp and defined. “The augmentation is proceeding as planned. Shagaru Magala is no longer at any risk of death, and total loyalty is roughly 95% certain. The implementation of additional capabilities is proving to be more difficult, but we should be able to do it, given time.”

“See to it that it’s done by the end of the week,” Josh says in what’s supposed to be a menacing voice. Really, it’s… it’s… well, the guy’s trying his best. Don’t blame him, okay? “Otherwise, well… we might have issues.”

As anyone with half a brain really should’ve expected, the man doesn’t seem intimidated by Josh. He simply smartly snaps off a salute and says “I will do all I can.” And with that, he walks out of the room.

Rage sighs. When the idea to do this first came to him, he was unbelievably excited. After all, before this all happened, he’d never even considered that he’d ever be able to form Fishspider Industries in real life. (Though… can it really be called “Industries” if it’s a secret organization that nobody but him even knows about? Actually, yes it can. Those are just words, after all. Who cares about those?) Unfortunately, as it turns out, managing a secret organization aimed at making oneself an evil genius with the capabilities of conquering the world really is not as easy as it seems. Not at all.

After all, just recently, Rage issued the order to have Hollow and Dyno delivered to him. And they didn’t do it. How dare they? They made up some excuses like “Sir, getting Shagaru Magala back alive already took everything we had…” and “Sir, you know, you should really just be happy we managed to get you Shagaru Magala when they were all watching it…”, but Rage wouldn’t accept it. They’re his minions, damn it, and they would do as he said!

Anyway, there’s still one thing Rage is quite happy about, as far as managing Fishspider Industries goes. He’s not a big fan of walking, but unfortunately, it’ll be required to go see what he wants to see, so he gets up from his chair with a heavy heart and a newfound desire to create some method of transportation around the building that’ll allow him to move around without standing up. But for now, there’s nothing like that, so he goes to the elevator, presses a button, waits for a bit, walks out the doors when they open, and goes over to the huge tank that dominates the room he just stepped into. It’s surrounded by several scientists, all of whom nod to Josh absently as he comes in.

And inside the tank are a multitude of fish-spiders, each one genetically engineered to serve him with the utmost loyalty.

Rage smirks.

|||

Aaron collapses into his chair. “My fucking god,” he mutters.

“Uh, what is it?” Cotton asks. He’s still got no place to stay, so Aaron decided to let him come over to his house for a while.

“It’s just… the fucking madman actually did it,” Aaron says. “Like… you know the sort of stuff Josh did earlier on Youtube, right? The Minecraft stuff?”

“Yeah,” Dyno nods.

“Well, he just went and formed Fishspider Industries in real life,” Aaron growls, annoyance on his face and disbelief in his words. He sighs. “The bloody bastard actually did it.”

“Ah,” Cotton says. “Wait, how?!”

“I don’t know!” Aaron yells back. “It’s Josh. That should really be enough of an explanation for you.”

“Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense,” Dyno concedes.

“So now we basically know for sure that Josh is planning to take over the world,” Aaron sighs in frustration, “as if that wasn’t obvious enough before. And we’ve got cloak-man and his lackeys to deal with, wherever they are. And Josh took Shagaru Magala away so he can brainwash and augment it and use it as a weapon.”

“Wait, that’s what happened to it?” Cotton asks. “How do you know?”

“It’s Josh, that’s how I know,” Aaron grunts. “That’s what he’d do.”

“…yeah, sounds right,” Dyno says. “The way he thinks, I’m pretty sure we’ll have to face a freaking rocket powered Shagaru Magala next.”

“Please don’t give fate ideas,” Aaron murmurs. “Though, yeah, probably.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Cotton asks. “I guess we can just leave him alone and wait until he self-destructs or something, but…”

“Look, the thing is, we’ve still got those four guys to deal with,” Aaron replies. “And Josh… look, as much as Josh is… well, Josh, at least we can sort of reason with him, and for whatever reason, I can’t help but imagine that Fishspider Industries is powerful as hell already. So we might still be able to get him on our side, at least for now, and then we can take out those four together.”

“And then we take Josh down?” Dyno asks.

“Yeah, I guess we have to,” Aaron says, and sighs exaggeratedly. “That’ll be a thing on its own…”

“So… find Josh, then?” Cotton asks. “I mean, if we want to team up with him, that seems like it would be the first step.”

Aaron takes a moment to process the sheer stupidity of the situation. “I can’t believe I’m saying this – hell, I can’t believe I’m saying anything remotely similar to this – but… yes. We need to find Josh so we can team up with him and his evil genius laboratory slash company so we can join forces to defeat a wizard and his three servants who, knowing our luck, are probably also all wizards.”

“That’s very specific,” Dyno comments.

“Look, I can barely believe the shit that’s going on as it is,” Aaron says. “You’ll have to forgive me if I point out the absurdity of the situation once in a while. Anyway, let’s go, I guess.”

“Sure,” Cotton shrugs and stands up from his seat. Aaron stands up too and starts walking towards the door, and Dyno follows him.

And so, Aaron opens the door, stepping outside in search of Josh-

-who is standing literally right outside the doorway right at this moment.

He’s wearing a hilariously-poorly fitting lab coat and glasses that look like they’re… trying… to be menacing.

Aaron sighs, and his shoulders slump. “Hello, Josh.”

“Oh, hi there, Aaron,” he says, his voice like a cat about to catch its prey. “And you, Cotton, I guess… no one cares about you, though.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dyno mutters offhandedly.

“Why are you here?” Aaron asks. “Seriously, we were just about to go look for you, and you just come here all on your own. I mean, thanks, I guess…?”

“Well, I just thought you should know something,” Josh says, a smirk on his face. It would’ve been suspicious and worrying, if not for the fact that Aaron and Cotton both already know what he’s so excited about. “See, while I’ve been… away, I’ve been busy. And you know what I’ve done?”

“Formed Fishspider Industries in real life?”

There’s silence.

It’s because of the thing Aaron just said, of course. Josh stands in the doorway, perfectly frozen. Dyno reaches out and pushes him, and he falls to the ground like a wooden plank, his eyes blank and unseeing.

There’s silence.

…

There’s silence.

…

…

…

Okay, this is getting painful now.

“Yeah, we sort of already figured it out,” Cotton helpfully states.

…

No reaction.

“I know I said we should team up with him, but actually, should we just take him out while he’s like this?” Aaron asks. “It’ll save us a lot of headache later.”

“Yeah, probably. You got any handcuffs or something?” Dyno asks. “I’ll watch him and make sure he doesn’t try anything.”

“No, that won’t be enough,” Aaron says. “I’m pretty sure this magic will work even if we handcuff him.”

“Well… can’t we just kill him or something, then?” Cotton shrugs.

Aaron shakes his head gravely. “Yeah, it seems like that’s the only option.” He raises his hand, and a sword materializes within. “Sorry about this…!”

“Hey, fuck off!”

Josh springs up from the ground and blocks the blow with his rocket powered greatsword.

“There we go,” Aaron sighs. “Well, at least you’re not in a coma anymore.”

“I WAS NOT IN A COMA!” Josh protests. “I was just surprised! And you just tried to kill me!”

“What’s a bit of murder between friends?” Aaron murmurs nonchalantly. “And can you drop the sword, please?”

“NO! You just tried to murder me!” Josh yells back.

“I mean, he’s got a point,” Dyno – again, very helpfully – points out. “Well… actually, he’s got two. The one he just made and the one on that big sword which is probably going to cut you in half soon.”

“Oh, shut up,” Josh groans.

“Anyway, never mind that,” Aaron dismissively says. “Getting to the heart of the matter: Josh, what the fuck?”

“What what the fuck?” Josh indignantly asks. “I got superpowers, so I made Fishspider Industries! You got a problem with that?”

“First off, how?!” Aaron asks. “The word “Industries” implies you’ve got people actually working for you, so how the hell did that happen?!”

Josh shrugs, as if it’s completely obvious. “I… hired people…? I’m not sure what you want from me.”

“But- that doesn’t even- I mean, you’d have to- they wouldn’t even-“ Aaron sputters in anger. “You know what? Never mind. I’m just going to file this away under “things Josh did” and not think about it any more than I have to, cause I’m pretty sure I’ll give myself an aneurysm otherwise.”

“Alright, fine,” Josh says, shaking his head. “How did you even figure it out, anyway?”

“Well, a fishspider dropped on my face while I was fighting Shagaru Magala,” Aaron notes. “Hard not to figure something out when that happens.”

“Ugh…” Josh groans. “Couldn’t those operatives I sent to capture you have done anything right?”

Aaron blinks. “Wait, hold on. You sent people to capture us?”

“Well, duh! I mean, obviously you-“ Suddenly, some sort of expression quickly passes over Josh’s face, and he catches himself mid-sentence. “I-I mean, what are you talking about? Obviously, that was just a joke! I would never try to capture any of you guys, heh heh… heh...”

“Dammit, Josh…” Aaron mutters, putting his face in his hand. “Oh, and by the way, before you try to do another big reveal, we also already know you’re the one who took Shagaru Magala away, and we know you’re planning to use it as a weapon.”

“Oh, come on!” Josh yells. “That’s just bullsh- I, I mean, what are you talking about? How would I have even gotten that thing out of there…? Ahaha…”

“Look, you’re Josh, I’m not going to question how you do things,” Aaron says. “But you did get it out of there, didn’t you?”

He sighs in response. “Yes. Yes, I guess I did. Dammit, Aaron, you’re making this way less fun.”

““Fun” isn’t the issue here, Josh,” Aaron sternly says. “This is serious, you idiot, and while I have no idea how the hell you did what you did, I don’t think anything good’s going to come from it.”

“And why not?” Josh protests. “Just because I’m the one doing it doesn’t mean it can’t be good!”

Aaron folds his arms and sighs at Josh. “Josh… you’re still planning to conquer the world, aren’t you?”

Josh freezes, a vein on his forehead starting to pop. Finally, he stomps the ground and shouts in rage. “DAMMIT! HOW THE HELL DO YOU KNOW ALL THIS SHIT?!”

“Josh, the moment we got these powers, I already figured out you were going to use them to try and take over the world,” Aaron says. “Everything you’ve done since then hasn’t helped your case.”

“OKAY! FINE! I’M PLANNING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD!” Josh yells. “But c’mon, guys! There’s still four people trying to kill you, and at least one of them has magic powers, and you should be worried about that too, dammit! And maybe I’m planning to take over the world at some point, but look, how’s this: You two get out of my bloody hair, and I’ll help you take care of that stuff, alright?!”

“Fine,” Aaron says with a sigh. “That’s what I was originally planning on, anyway. Just don’t get in our way.”

Josh sighs. “Dammit, guys…”

|||

Rage sits on Hollow’s couch, discontented. If it was up to him, he’d have brought them to the Fishspider Industries headquarters, but noooo, Aaron insisted on them staying here. The argument ended up lasting around 30 minutes and involved the topics of child murder, the finer points of what a “phobia” is, the differences between a fishspider and a fusion of a fish and a spider, and corporate greed and amorality. Eventually, Rage just gave up. Hollow was just being too unreasonable.

Anyway, it’s happened now, so they’re meeting in this random house rather than in the headquarters of the start of Rage’s great empire. “You know, this meeting could’ve been so much better,” he points out.

“Shut up, Josh,” Hollow says. “Anyway, where were we, then?”

“I’m pretty sure we were figuring out how to, you know, not die,” Cotton says.

“Right,” Hollow says. “We sort of forgot all about it in the confusion, but there’s still those three guys out there, and they still sorta want to kill us. And that’s… well… bad.”

“Thanks, Hollow,” Rage says with a shake of his head. He clucks in disapproval. “Any other amazing things you want to tell us? Like maybe that the sky is blue? Cause that would be unbelievable.”

“No one cares about your sarcasm, Josh,” Hollow dismissively sighs. “Do you have anything to actually contribute or are you just going to sit there making bad jokes? Cause we can still kick you out if that’s the case.”

“No, wait, you’re not allowed to do that!” Rage protests. “Or else you’ll be hearing from my lawyers! Which I have now!”

“Right,” Hollow says, exasperated. “Anyway, back to the point.”

“Yeah,” Dyno nods. “We’ve got to figure out how to stop the four guys. Or, well… three guys, one girl. Whatever.”

“Exactly,” Hollow replies, clearly glad to change the topic. “First off, obviously, that means we need to find them. Or maybe wait for them to find us, but that doesn’t seem like a good idea.”

“Well, yeah, but… I feel like we don’t actually have any way to find them…” Cotton notes.

“Good point,” Hollow says. “Yeah, you’re right. We really have no way to track them, unfortunately.”

“Wait, what?” Rage asks. “I can easily track them down!”

There’s silence in the room for a moment, and then Hollow turns to him. “Uh… how?”

“Well, I’ve got Fishspider Industries, don’t I?” Rage says. “All I need to do is send my fishspiders out into the city and have them report back to me if they find anything!”

“Can they do that?” Dyno asks. “I feel like that’s a little too convenient…”

“Of course they can do that!” Rage says. “They’re my fishspiders, after all!”

Hollow considers it for a moment. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but… alright, sure. Go for it. Just remember to keep them out of sight, would you? We don’t need everyone freaking out.”

Rage sighs. “Alright, fine,” he says, shaking his head. “I’ll tell you when I’ve got something, I guess?”

“Yeah, I guess,” Cotton says. “Just… don’t try to do anything on your own, okay? I’m worried about what’s going to happen if you try something like that.”

“Okay, okay…” Rage nods with a groan.

“So it’s settled, then?” Hollow asks. “We get Josh to scan the city with his fishspiders to track down the four people, and then we attack them.”

“I guess,” Dyno says. “Though, I can’t help but notice that we still don’t have any plan as to how we’re going to attack them. I feel like that’s sort of important.”

“Yeah, it is,” Hollow agrees. “That’s the next thing we’ve got to discuss.”

“Wait, there’s more?!” Rage shouts.

“Of course there’s more!” Hollow says. “As Cotton said, we still haven’t actually discussed how we’re going to attack them!”

“I didn’t know we were going to talk about that now!” Rage yells. “Just how long do you plan to keep me here?!”

Dyno shrugs. “I mean, you’re free to leave if you feel like having no idea what’s going on.”

“Alright, fine!” Rage says, and stands up and starts walking towards the door.

“OK, bye, Josh, I guess,” Hollow says from behind him. “Anyway, so the plan I’ve been thinking of is…”

Rage stops. Hollow’s gaze turns towards him.

“Weren’t you going to leave?” he asks, an eyebrow raised in mock confusion and a wicked smile on his face.

He was. He was going to leave. But if he leaves now, he’s not going to know what the plan is, and he can’t help but be curious, and...

“Alright, fine,” Rage says and sits back down on the couch. “I’ll stay around. But you’d best not take too long!”

Hollow smiles sadly and shakes his head. “Anyway, as I was saying, I’ve been thinking of a plan. First off, there’s a few things we need to take into account. For one, there’s Cloak, who we know for sure has magical powers too, though his don’t seem to be the same kind as ours. From what I’ve seen him do, it looks like his powers are basically based around manipulating the earth, right?”

“Yeah,” Cotton nods.

“Now, here’s the thing we need to consider: Why would someone like that hang out with three perfectly ordinary people?” Hollow wonders aloud. “It’s probably because they aren’t ordinary at all, right? I feel like the other three people he’s got with him probably also have magic powers.”

“Huh. Yeah, I guess,” Dyno says. “I haven’t seen any of them do anything like that, though…”

“Just because they haven’t used their powers so far doesn’t mean they don’t have them,” Hollow says. “Maybe they were just keeping them hidden or something. In either case, we can’t just attack them head-on, not when there’s that risk that those three people also have special powers and we have no idea what those powers could be.”

“So… we should try and figure that out first?” Cotton asks. “I feel like that’s going to be a bit hard to do, though…”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Hollow admits. “It’d be great if we knew what sort of powers the other three have, since then we could actually plan ahead. But it feel like that sort of information might be a bit hard to obtain…”

“Well, where’ve we gotten, then?!” Rage asks. “You know what, never mind! I’m leaving. You get back to me if you’ve actually got a plan!”

Hollow takes an incredulous look at him and shrugs. “…alright, I guess. Bye, Josh.”

Rage stands up from the couch. “Bye, Hollow!” he shouts and stomps towards the door. He throws it open.

And on the other side, a familiar girl is standing.

“Hey there, guys!” she cheerfully says. “You guys said you wanted to know what sort of powers we’ve got?”

Chapter Text

“AH!” Rage flinches back in what is totally a manly way and not at all a sign of him being scared by this girl, shut up.

“Uh… what is it, Josh?” Hollow says from the living room.

“It’s her!” Rage yells back in a totally not panicked (SHUT UP, OKAY?! YOU’D BE SURPRISED TOO.) voice. “She’s here!”

There’s no sound for a moment, and then Hollow quickly says “I’m coming.” A few moments later, Hollow and Dyno appear by Josh’s side, holding a Saw Cleaver and a bow respectively. Rage looks at them, realizes he should probably get a weapon too, and summons his rocket powered greatsword.

The girl throws her hands up into the air. “Hey, hey, hey!” she yells. “Aren’t you being a bit hasty here?!”

“You tried to murder Cotton,” Hollow points out. “Sorry for being a bit suspicious of you after that.”

“Look, I just came here for a nice chat and a bit of tea!” she says. “And now you’re doing this! You’re terrible hosts, you know?”

“Honestly, I’m not surprised,” Cotton murmurs.

“Yeah… bullshit,” Hollow says, and he swings the Saw Cleaver down.

The girl hops away with practiced speed, and with a blur of motion, she draws a weapon from somewhere on her person. It looks like… a wooden sword? But Rage can feel something, some sort of energy, flowing off of it.

The girl grins. “Damn, you got me. What gave it away?”

“The fact that you tried to attack us twice before!” Hollow yells. “That doesn’t exactly make it believable when you come in and say you just want to talk!”

“Alright, thanks,” the girl says, giving Hollow a quick nod. “I’ll make sure to keep that in mind next time. Anyway… yeah, you’re right, I’m here to kill you guys. So, anything you wanna say before we begin or…?”

“Yeah. There’s three of us,” Rage points out. “And we’ve all got powers. You should probably just give up now.”

She smiles. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t stand much of a chance.” With a few quick movements, she settles into a fighting stance. “But… eh. Might as well try, right?”

The moment she says that, before Rage or Dyno can even begin to do something – hell, before they can even realize the battle’s begun now – Hollow swings his Saw Cleaver down once again. But the girl blocks the blow with her wooden sword, shoves the Cleaver away, and swings at Hollow’s torso. He hops back before the sword can hit him.

“Aw, why’re you running away?” the girl sadly asks. “Come on, it’s just a wooden sword. It won’t hurt that badly, I promise!”

“Yeah, somehow I don’t believe that,” Hollow sardonically states. Rage can see why he’d feel that way.

Anyway, there’s an opening now, so Rage makes use of it at roughly the same time Cotton does. But she bats away the arrow Dyno just fired at her, and she ducks underneath Rage’s attack with his rocket powered greatsword.

“Whoa, careful with that thing!” she admonishes. “You could hurt somebody, you know!”

“Oh, really now?” Rage asks as he swings again, vertically this time. But she steps away and swipes at his side with her wooden sword. All of a sudden, Josh realizes he’s too off-balance to defend or dodge, and a sudden feeling of Oh, shit… passes through his mind. But… well, she was right, wasn’t she…? It was a wooden sword, right…? So whatever sort of magic was on it, it probably wouldn’t be that deadly… heh… heh heh… right…?

The wooden sword bites into Rage’s side just like a metal one would, and he stumbles away as he quickly manages to pull back his rocket powered greatsword, clutching his wound. Okay, he blearily thinks through the pain. So she definitely was lying, then.

“Yeah, it does that,” she smiles happily. “Did I forget to tell you about that? Oh, sorry, guys. I keep forgetting these things…” She puts a hand to her forehead as if admonishing herself for her carelessness.

“Well,” she says, “I guess I can make it up to you by telling you some other cool facts.  For example, Josh, did you know there’s a guy behind you with a knife who’s just about to stab you?”

Rage’s eyes widen and he turns quickly, dematerializing the greatsword in a panic and swinging his fist wildly at the space behind him with a totally manly screech. He feels more than sees it when his fist collides with something, and the man behind him staggers away.

This guy is that first guy who attacked Rage way back when, the tall guy with long brown hair and dark green clothes. And, more importantly in this particular situation, with a knife.

He recovers quickly and stabs at Rage again, and Rage quickly steps back and trips over his own feet and falls to the ground.

“Hollow!” he calls. “Hollow, help me!”

“Ugh…” Hollow grunts in response. “Cotton, handle the girl!” And with that, he turns and swipes the Saw Cleaver at the guy with the knife, forcing him to step back.

Knife guy retreats a bit, assessing the situation, and shoots a disapproving look at the girl. She shrugs slightly, as if to apologize. Yeah, sorry I gave you away.

Rage stands up quickly and scrambles away. Look, it’s not that he’s being a coward, it’s just that Dyno’s fighting the girl and Hollow’s fighting knife guy and Rage doesn’t want to get in the way. That’s all it is. He’s definitely not trying to avoid the fighting. That definitely has nothing to do with why he’s rapidly backpedaling away.

|||

Cotton nocks an arrow and shoots the girl as she turns her attention away from Aaron and to him. He doesn’t really figure it’s going to do much, but he might as well try.

Sadly, his prediction ends up being accurate. She bats it out of the air with a quick swipe and approaches Dyno, and swipes at him with a flick of her wrist. He grunts with effort and catches the blow with his bow and shoves her away.

Right, the bow’s not going to do in close quarters like this. But he doesn’t dare just dematerialize it while she’s right there, so he opens his other hand instead and creates one of his pair of… weird drill things… from that other Monster Hunter game. When he’s confident that it’s fully formed and ready to defend him if need be, then he lets the bow fade and creates the other one.

Good thing, too, because before the second one’s fully formed, she comes at him with a thrust to the head. He steps back, quickly lifts his arm, and just barely manages to catch the tip of the wooden sword before it smashed into his forehead. The drill’s spinning surface twists the sword to the side and sends it away from Cotton, giving him a moment in which to try and smash the other drill into the girl’s gut. Unfortunately, she quickly hops away and parries the drill with her sword, causing it to just barely sail past her as she takes another step back.

She takes another look at him, a bit curiously, as if appraising him. It seems she doesn’t quite know what to make of him, and there’s a bit of hesitation in her movements.

Dyno uses that.

In that moment when she’s a bit nervous about engaging him again, he dashes to the side, around her, and thrusts at her side with one of the drills. She blocks it with her wooden sword, only to be forced to awkwardly twist her body to evade Cotton’s other drill as it shoots for her chest. She retreats under Dyno’s assault, forced to take a few steps back just to give herself a moment to breathe.

At that, Cotton smiles. At least maybe they can take out one of the enemies right here and now. He rushes at her again and swipes the drill at her face…

…only for her to take a smaller wooden weapon – this one is a dagger rather than a sword – from her pocket and use that to bat the drill away.

“Okay,” she gasps, a smile on her face. “You’re pretty fun.”

“Alright, I guess,” Dyno shrugs. “I mean, I’m going to kill you, but…”

He stabs with the other drill, aiming for the opening she left when she blocked the first drill. But before his drill can make it, her wooden sword moves with almost preternatural speed and bats it aside as the wooden dagger thrusts towards his face, forcing him to step back. This time, it’s his turn to quickly jump away, trying to get a moment to breathe.

Okay, Cotton thinks. She definitely wasn’t that fast before.

If he had a bit more space to move, he’d throw away these drills and use a ranged weapon instead. If, say, they were in the open, he would be willing to bet the lava laser he used against Shagaru Magala would work wonders here. But that would be a horrible idea here for obvious reasons, and for less obvious reasons too – he has a feeling that, at this range, if he tried to swap weapons, he’d be killed before he could even finish creating the new weapon.

Which means Dyno has to work with what he has.

That’s okay as far as he’s concerned.

She rushes at him again, her twin weapons held at the ready. But when she approaches, she doesn’t strike at him, as he’d expected. Instead, she jumps, sailing over his head as he starts forward to block what he thought would be her attacks. She lands behind him, and instinct tells Cotton to turn and try to block – but he knows that she wouldn’t have done that in the first place if she wasn’t expecting to get something out of it. In other words, she’s likely about to attack fast enough that Dyno won’t have time to just turn and block.

So instead, he runs forward. And just an instant later, he hears the whoosh of the girl’s weapons swinging through the air behind him as they strike at where he was a moment before, and only then does he turn around.

“Okay, that’s pretty clever,” he admits.

“You too,” she smiles. “Knew I’d be too fast to just block, eh? I like people like that. You can think on your feet. That’s a very admirable quality, you know?”

“Thanks, I guess,” he says. “I mean, really, I’d prefer if you were to stop trying to kill me…”

“Aww, where would be the fun in that?” the girl asks. And with that, she runs at him again.

Cotton sighs and readies his weapons. But this time, the girl’s faster. He manages to block, but just barely, and he can’t possibly counterattack before she strikes again. Her blows pound his defense again, and again, and again. It seems she’s been holding back at first – or maybe she was just disadvantaged by the fact that she only had one weapon against Dyno’s two. In any case, that handicap’s gone now, and Cotton really realizes that there’s a huge difference in skill between them.

Brown blurs swing through the air as her twin wooden swords attack and attack and attack again, not giving Dyno even a moment to breathe as he’s forced to retreat and desperately guard with his twin drills. There’s no time to go on the offense, much less even think about swapping weapons. It’s a minor miracle Cotton can even keep up with the girl’s assault, and even then, his arms are beginning to feel the strain. Each impact sends a tremor through his whole body, but he’s forced to just keep guarding, the two wooden swords slashing at him again and again.

There’s now no question about it. If nothing changes, the girl will be the winner of this fight.

|||

Two flashes of steel – one long and wide, one short and small – swipe through the air and collide, bouncing off each other with a metallic clang. They swing again, and again, and again. The man with no armament but a knife defends impeccably well against Aaron’s assault, blocking every single swing of the Saw Cleaver without even being forced to step back.

However, that doesn’t mean Aaron doesn’t have a chance. Even if none of his attacks have hit yet, the man clearly can’t go on the offensive, not as long as Aaron keeps attacking. Therefore, all he has to do is keep up a relentless offense until the man tires out.

That said, it’s not like he doesn’t have some other tricks up his sleeve too.

The Cleaver sweeps through the air time and time again, aiming for the man’s chest, his neck, his head. Every strike is parried, and with each parry, the man attempts to get in closer, get to a range he’ll be better in. But every time he does, Aaron jumps back, forces him back with a quick swing, and hops right back to where he was before, forcing the battle into a stalemate.

Aaron opens his free hand, the one not holding the Saw Cleaver. Still focusing on the battle, still striking at the enemy, Aaron begins forming a second weapon. From the same world that the Saw Cleaver came from, he summons a simple pistol, and with a quick swing of his arm, he raises it and points it at the man. The man’s eyes widen, and he hops to the side, but Aaron forces him back with the Saw Cleaver and his finger squeezes on the trigger…

…and something hits him from behind, sending him stumbling and throwing off his aim, sending the bullet into the ceiling.

Aaron hastily stumbles to the side, getting away from the fighting before his sudden disorientation can be taken advantage of. He looks to both sides. On one side, still holding the knife and seemingly unfazed by everything that has just happened, stands the man he was just fighting. And on the other side… stands that same man, exactly the same as the first in every way except that he isn’t holding a knife.

For just a moment, Aaron’s mouth falls open in shock and his eyes widen, and then he realizes what he’s looking at. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” he mutters. “That’s your power? Really?”

The two men – or rather, one man and his clone (or actually, now that Aaron thinks about it, wouldn’t it make more sense for them both to be clones?) – turn to look at him. “That’s such bull…” Aaron murmurs under his breath.

And then, he quickly raises his pistol and snaps off a shot at the one with the knife just as the two men begin closing in on him. He’s fast enough for it to work, but just barely. The man falls to the ground, a bullet wound in his forehead, his blood staining the floor – and, a moment later, he fades away, as does the blood on the floor. With one of them down, Aaron backpedals away from the entrance hallway and goes into one of the rooms in the house, trying to get himself more space to fight in.

Not even an instant later, the other clone smashes into his side, sending him reeling. Before he can recover, the clone punches him in the face, sending him to the ground and making him drop both his weapons. He tries to create something else, a new weapon to defend himself with, but before he can, the clone stomps on his ribs, and the sudden spike of pain forces him to stop.

Instead, he chooses a somewhat more physical option.

He grabs the man’s leg and, with a grunt of effort, shoves it aside. With that, he quickly rolls to his feet and stands to face the man, but it’s only for a second – the moment he finishes creating a new copy of the Saw Cleaver in his hand, he rushes the man and swings to slice him in half. The man, without a knife with which to block the attack, is forced to jump back, but Aaron runs in again and slices again. The man ducks under the blow and punches at his gut, but this time, it’s Aaron who leaps back and dodges the blow. In that instant, as the man’s attack misses, Aaron swings down, severing the man’s arm at the elbow. With another swing, the man’s head topples from his shoulders.

But, of course, just a moment later, both the man himself and his severed body parts fade from existence.

Aaron sighs in frustration and looks around himself, already knowing what he’ll find. Surrounding him are three clones of that same man, each one prepared to fight.

Right. Okay. Aaron’s not too proud to admit when he can’t fight something. Especially when it’s something this ridiculous.

He darts to the side, aiming for the gap between two of them. With the Saw Cleaver, he fends off one of the clones as he approaches, only to be forced to step to the side as one of the others swings a fist at him. But Aaron manages to get by just before the punch connects, and he runs out of the circle…

…only to see, right in front of him, the opponent he'd left behind before.

He swings his Saw Cleaver at the girl moments before she delivers a fatal blow to Dyno, pushing her away from him. She turns to face him quickly, a shocked expression on her face. “Hey, you’re interrupting!” she chastises. “Don’t you know that’s rude?”

Aaron sighs. Apparently, their fight ended up also taking them out of the hallway and into this room... and he's pretty sure he knows who's losing at the moment. So now, he’s not going to just have to save Josh, he’s going to have to rescue Cotton too.

Well, okay. No choice, then.

He raises the pistol again and fires, but the girl steps out of the way – somehow, he just knew that would happen – and swipes at him with her twin swords. That part was a bit less expected, but he blocks with his Saw Cleaver and moves towards her. She hops back and attacks again, this time forcing Aaron to jump back a little, unable to parry both swords without doing so.

“Okay, sure, I guess I can play with you too,” she smiles. “Besides, I feel like this'll actually be a bit more fun than with that last guy. Let’s go, then!”

|||

Dyno stumbles away, far more grateful than he’s ever going to admit that Aaron just saved him. He takes a quick look around. Josh appears to have run away entirely, which is annoying, but not unexpected. Meanwhile, on the other side of the room is what Aaron was apparently running from – three copies of that man with the knife who attacked Josh and started this whole mess.

“Okay, that’s bullshit,” he says, and lets his twin drills disperse. The three men run toward Aaron, but while they’re fast, they’ve got a lot of distance to travel, and that gives Cotton time.

In a split second, the bow appears in his hand and an arrow in the other hand, and more quickly than any normal human possibly could, he nocks the arrow and shoots at one of the men. But he hops backwards, dodging it narrowly, and the three of them continue on their way to Aaron.

Dyno dashes in front of Aaron, standing between the three men and Aaron as he fights the girl. He holds his bow in his hand, an arrow held at the ready in his offhand. The three men don’t stop, so Cotton shoots again.

But this time, he’s even faster. And it seems like such a freaking bullshit power has a price – each of the clones isn’t quite as physically powerful as the girl. So the next arrow, fired from right in front of the three, skewers one of them through the head. He fades into nothingness before he hits the ground.

The other two men rush towards Dyno, both punching at him at the same time. He catches one blow with his bow and stabs an arrow through the hand of the other one, though that one’s punch still goes through and hits him in the gut, sending him reeling. As he staggers, though, he rips out the arrow form the man’s hand and stabs it at him again, aiming for his head. The man ducks and avoids it, and the other one punches at Cotton again, but he backpedals a bit and smashes the bow into the man’s throat, dropping him to the ground. With a quick shot, that man dies too, and only the one who ducked that first blow is left. He punches as he rises, going for a quick uppercut, and it hits Dyno on the chin and throws him backwards. But as he hits the ground, he rolls and shoots again, this time right at the man’s chest. He tries to duck, but all that does is make the arrow hit him in the head instead, and he topples to the ground and vanishes.

Catching his breath, Cotton walks away from Aaron and the girl’s battle. Sure, he could help them, but if he’s right about what’s going to happen next….

Four clones of that same man from before appear around Dyno.

He sighs. Just as expected.

|||

Rage has, by now, gone into an entirely different room and is staying there, eyes darting around wildly. It’s not because he’s a coward or anything. Definitely not. In fact, if he were a coward, why would he still be in a room instead of having left the house entirely? So see, he’s definitely not scared, and he’s got a perfectly good reason for not helping out at all. He might just need a few more minutes to figure out what that good reason is. But come on, it exists!

He’s currently holding the rocket powered greatsword at the ready, prepared to use it to strike down anyone who tries to get to him. And by “strike down”, he really probably means “swing wildly at and completely miss”,  but… let the guy believe what he wants, okay?

Unfortunately, when an attack does come, it’s from right behind him.

A huge fist hits Rage in the back of the head, eliciting a sudden squeal of pain mixed in with something that’s definitely not fear, shut up, and sending him tumbling to the floor. Rage’s eyes widen and he scrambles to his feet, looking at the guy who just hit him.

The man is basically a huge, human-shaped chunk of muscle. He’s nearly bald, except for a few strands of pale blond hair, and he’s so freaking enormous it’s a miracle he didn’t kill Rage with that first punch. But for someone so huge and intimidating, his face is strangely… childlike, almost. Almost like a baby…

Rage doesn’t have time to contemplate that, because suddenly, the man opens his mouth. Without even thinking about what he’s doing, Rage puts his rocket powered greatsword in front of him, trying to defend himself from whatever’s about to happen – and it’s a good thing he decides to do that, because a huge red beam suddenly shoots out of the man’s mouth and splatters against the greatsword, just the sheer force of it pushing Rage back.

“JESUS CHRIST!” Rage yells in shock, still sliding back along the floor. But the beam’s not going anymore, so he lowers his greatsword and settles into a proper fighting stance. Well… proper-ish. As proper as Rage can manage, which really isn’t that proper.

The man roars like a wild beast and charges at him.