Future-Shock: The world to the waves (Nu and The Grey)

Jardin had planned to rush out and attack the monster, but with the barrier up and the thing lost amidst the debris, he hesitated. He reacted to the sounds of snarling behind him, turning to defend himself. He only managed to take the blow head on...

The next thing he knew, his back was against the pink barrier and his head was swimming. He fell to all fours, vision blurring and ringing in the ears. He also felt like throwing up. Concussions were fun.

The young thief staggered to his feet. He saw a creature-shaped blob turning its attention toward a small girl-shaped mass. He also noticed his hands were empty. Where the hell was the torch?

His vision was gradually coming into focus and he spotted the flickering brand close by. As soon as he saw it, he was moving. He scooped up the torch and pitched at the creature. Hopefully, the fire would take to the things long fur.

If it took, good. If not, a good full-body tackle would be his best contingency plan.

I am really starting to not like you, he thougt at the creature.

The entire arena seemed to rumble as Nu’s kinetic blast rocked the ceiling of the chamber they were in. The blast was immediately followed up with a shrill cry from the invisible beast and a heavy downpour of brick and mortar, that bombarded the pink barrier that Nu had the common sense to protect her and her companions with. The destruction was quick and soon all seemed clear, but the young mute kept her barrier up as there were still no signs of the ghostly beast that the two had been fighting.

Just then amidst the silence, a familiar snarling stirred, followed by Nu’s companion being knocked to the side as he collided with the side of the protective barrier. Nu was quick to realize in that moment that the protective dome around them was void against their opponent. She let down the barrier just in time to finally get her first glimpse of the beast since the trio had entered the room. It was a mesh of mangy, stringy fur and horror, much akin to a walking nightmare, if such a thing were to exist.

After knocking the man aside, the large beast attempted to leap at Nu, giving her little time to do much except attempt to dodge. She leapt aside just narrowly avoiding, being pinned beneath the beasts claws, but the impact of its titanic swipe caused a sizeable shockwave. The resulting burst from the attack was enough to catch Nu mid leap and launch her into a nearby wall, causing her to let out a silent cry of pain. Despite being thrown across the room, Nu staggered to her feet as quickly as she could, before scanning the room for any signs of the beast, as it had quickly vanished after it had attacked her.

Well the torch didn't do much good, unfortunately while fire is in fact an abiotic thing, the wood itself was attached to is quite biotic. The fire did hurt the creature, it hurt it quite a bit in fact as it snarled and hissed before letting out a screech and a small motion spasm of flailing about before scampering off. Was it merely the fire that hurt it so much? The creature began to bounce around at the far end, looking at Corey as if he were now the biggest contender. It's first course of action was to ump to the ceiling before lunging forward and hitting the ground, staying stationary as it watched it's prey. Then it jumped to a wall and clung there sideways, still not moving forward, but making leaps and bounds as it jumped from surface to surface.

The creature remained quiet, and it twitched it's head to look at Nu every now and again, But Corey did something to warrant the majority of it's attention. But what exactly was that?

"God damn it!" Jardin cursed, glaring at the beast. "Why won't this thing just die?" Jardin was winded but more than that, he was annoyed.

The young thief began to run through the battle again. So far only rocks and fire had done anything to the beast. And fire seemed to really scare it.

Jardin scooped two hand fulls of stone and dust and began to formulate a plan. He began to shout his idea for the woman's sake. "I'm gonna try and get a hold of this thing. Use me to find it with the torch fires. Light us both up if you have to."

With that, he began to advance. He would look for a chance to lob debris into the things eyes, then use the chance to get onto the beast's back. Hopefully, he would avoid getting shredded until then...

Nu’s vision was still a bit blurry and her head stung a bit after she had collided with the wall of the arena. Her gaze moved about the room, trying to map out where everything was. It was then that her eyes began to track a small orange light through the sky, before it was followed up by the screams of the beast. Though the monster wasn’t making any vocal noises, Nu could still hear the beast leaping about the room, before it finally stopped moving. The silence in the room was finally broken when the man she was with, vocalized his new plan to combat the beast. She wasn’t quite sure how, but this man could see the beast for some reason, even when it remained invisible to her.

Trusting the man’s judgment and plan, Nu began to sprint across the room in an attempt to snatch up the torch, while her companion attempted to blind the beast with a handful of dirt. Within seconds Nu had grabbed the torch and was ready to toast the invisible monster the second the man could get a hold of the monster. She wasn’t entirely keen on following the man’s orders blindly, and began to formulate a contingency in the event that the man was unsuccessful in his endeavor. Nu’s grip tightened around the makeshift torch, as she waited in anticipation.

Corey's plan was only partially successful. Thoriwng rocks at the things eyes made it blink, but a metallic like thud could be heard as the makeshift throwing weapons collided around the region. Despite not being deterred, when Poltergeist leapt Corey was skilled enough to actually maneuver itself onto the massive creature's back. Contact had been made. The manner of invisibility to Jardin was no longer a problem, as Poltergeist began spinning himself around, arms going to try and get the man.

The Poltergeist was not one to follow logic very well, this was true. But what they didn't know was the fact that Poltergeist itself was once a man. A rather smart man. At this moment in time he'd probably have been thinking this move is akin to a child checking under the bed for monsters. What would the child do once they found them? What was Cory going to do now that he was attached to Poltergeist? Poltergeist was easily several times stronger than the one attached to him, and the man attaching himself to him was only going to make the monster even angrier.

With Cory on Poltergeist's back, the beast dropped to all fours and began sprinting around in circles, on occasion jumping through the air and preforming a barrel roll as he launched forward. Once he realized that was ineffective, Poltergeist began squirming and wiggling in a way one would have expected a child. A high pitched whine could be heard as if it were a dog, trying to get free of a leash. It had completely forgotten about Nu and their cartoonish comrade.

Jardin's plan had worked perfectly...well mostly perfectly. The thief now had and elbow wrapped around the monster's neck, just as he had planned. Now though, he felt the thing flail, flicking him around like a meat cape. Jardin felt himself fly with enough force, his toes had begun to feel heavy.

The young thief was not particulary weak. Though, unable to lift cars, Jardin was still around twenty pounds overweight and all of it in honed muscle. He managed to keep hold of the creature as it began experimenting with other ways to remove Jardin.

Then it started screaming. Jardin flinched at the sound. "Shove it," he shoted into the things ear.

While not specifically aware that the thing he clung to was human, Jardin could not help but view the 2-/4-legged monstrosity as humanoid. With one arm still across the things neck, Jardin positioned himself so that his wrist drove into the monster's jugular. With his other arm, he pulled his hand back wih his elbow. Jardin aimed to place the beast in a "sleeper hold," hoping to cut off blood flow to the brain. Hopefully that would slow it down enough for the Mute to set it on fire.

Jardin had little expectation of coming away unscathed...

Nu watched as Jardin managed to get a hold of the massive beast. It hadn’t bothered to reveal itself outright, but Nu was now able to track it’s movements with the man on its back. Her grip tightened more around the torch as every time she was about to throw it, the creature would change its direction unpredictably. Finally it seemed as though the monster had either tired out or was having some sort of fit of rage and it remained stationary for quite some time. This seemed like the perfect opportunity for Nu to tag the beast with the torch.

The young mute wanted to throw the troch in that moment, but remembered what happened the last time the torch was flung through the air. It was up to her to risk getting in close enough to drag the torch along the hidden terror’s fur coat. With a hard kick off the ground, Nu closed the gap between her and the beast, mistakenly running into it, since all she had to go on was Jardin’s position hovering slightly in the air, on what she assumed was its back. She immediately held the torch up assuming it was touching fur, and ran along its side, before tripping over its leg and falling face first into the ground. Upon impact with the ground, the torch jarred free of her grasp and rolled a few feet away from her.

Nu had leapt to her feet as fast as she had hit the ground and rubbed her head a bit before realizing she no longer held the torch in her hand. She quickly retrieved it once more before taking one more shot at the beast, this time running back up the way she came, alongside the beast, with the torch outstretched, hoping to catch some if not more of its fur on fire. With Jardin being on the monsters back it made it difficult for Nu to do anything further, except hope that the fire would do its job and that Jardin wouldn’t get severely hurt in the process.

The attack was a success, however the creature being placed in a sleeper hold made it simply struggle even more, like a beast at the rodeo. The trick with the blood flow wasn't working, and now it was just flailing around in place. Though Nu had absolutely no issues causing the flame to catch the invisible beast. The fire lit a hair and the entire beast caught fire like it were made of gasoline. The creature made a suplexing motion before essentially attempting to throw the entirety of it's weight and strength back into the ground...with Jardin unable to truly react. He was, after all, willingly grappled in the terrible position.

As the creature went to suplex itself, and probably turn Jardin into a bloody puddle, the cartoon man jumped out of the drawer and with no problem at all, forced his arms to extend all the way out, two musical discs known as symbols appearing in each hand before slamming the together. The loud noise caused the creature to yelp, and vanish, leaving Jardin to simply drop to the ground with his own weight. At the next glimpse, it could be seen that the creature was once more running away, crawling lamely on the ceiling as it tried to burrow it's way through the ceiling...failing miserably.

With a little screech, the creature drop from the ceiling and smashed into the ground. It tried to stand, but soon collapsed before the fire extinguished, and the creatures invisibility faltered, leaving it apparent to all.

A rumbling could be felt in the building around them, the entire structure was shaking, as if it were about to crumble down. Pieces fell and the walls collapsed, and in an instant the rocks crumbled into ash, revealing a very strange area around them, the entire area they had been in now totally rearranged. The atmosphere was different, the appearance was different. Truthfully it didn't even feel as if they were in the same world any longer. They stood in the middle of an infinite cosmos, the stone beneath their feet turning to ash and blowing away. Beneath their feat was a glowing depiction. The very faces of Jardin, Nu and five others. Seven people posed differently, each one displaying their abilities slightly. The beast they had slain was nothing more than a metal husk now, revealing to be rather humanoid in shape, a human skeleton trapped within, though horrifically contorted and discolored.

Clashing of dancing lights and colors off in distant space, the darkness of the void around them combated with brilliant blues and several natural celestial wonders. But of all the strange oddities, the most notable were the small, luminescent creatures floating around. They had a body of smoke, though the head structure of a fox, and the eyes of an alligator. The small creature floated about like a snake through the air, free and a small mischievous and toothy smile permanently fixated upon its face. The creatures all flocked to Nu and nuzzled up against her, something about her silence attracted them, though the cartoonish one and Jardin were completely neglected.

The creatures let out happy little chitters, like a mixture of a cat and a guinea pig as they brushed against her, the smoke smelling of cherry blossoms and the color shimmering all colors of the rainbow as it floated. If one looked closely, the could see the large area they were standing on had begun to rearrange, the glowing glass breaking off and flying forward like sparks from a fire. The glass then began to formulate stairs up to a glowing light that was about thirty yards off. The stairs, however seemed to have a message written on them.

"I've been expecting you. Come forth. Be warned. Answers are not always as we'd like."

When the creature vanished, Jardin found himself falling.  Quickly, he turned his fall into an ukemi, throwing his body out to disperse the impact.  He easily rolled up to his feet and turned to watch as the monster died screaming.  The thief felt a knot in his gut; killing was not easy.

Then everything took an odd turn as reality fell away.  "You know," he said, directing the words toward the Mute who he still had no idea what to call.  "I'm generally immune to tripping balls but I imagine this might be close..."

Looking down, the young metahuman found himself standing on an ornate glass-like platform.  He counted seven stained glass figures, each in the likeness of a person.  One caught his eye more than he others: the image of a gray-hooded figure with a red glove...No.  The hand was red...not covered in red.  Raw red meat of a freshly grown hand.  "Is that...?" he questioned.  He didn't finish his sentence.  Another turned out to be his silent companion.

Then the crystal staircase took form. Jardin quickly read the message. Taking a glance behind him, he said, "Guess this is our chance..." He trailed off as he noticed the mass of wisps that had congregated about the Mute. He could not help but chuckle.

When it came time to head up, Jardin knew his first questions. "Who are the people shown in the floor?" It seemed important...

The screeches emanating from the beast as it bounced around the room were loud enough to cause Nu to freeze in place and cover her ears. Ni still couldn’t see it, at least that was the case till the massive beast plummeted from the ceiling and slammed into the ground with a mighty crash. The beast came into view and it was evident to Nu, that it was dead. Having never killed anything before in her life, she wasn’t quite sure how to react. A few tears streaked down her face as she covered her mouth trying to understand what had just occurred, but her feelings of remorse turned to confusion as the arena like room began to transform around them.

The walls faded around them and soon the floor followed, this left Nu with an acute sense of vertigo as her perception was thrown off by the sudden vastness of the room. The mosaic that appeared beneath their feet was just another thing to get used to as her eyes instantly singled out both a depiction of her, and the man she was traveling with. The two were surrounded by five people whom the young mute had never seen before.

Whatever the reason for the mosaic was, her attention was once again influenced by the ever constant shifting within the room. Just then she felt a slight nudging feeling against her body. Several wisp like creatures had appeared in the room, and began to nestle up against her, while letting out small chirps kind of like a kittens purr. They seemed to be ignorant of the presence of Jardin or the cartoon, which raised some questions of its own, but the thoughts were drowned out by Nu’s delight in the tiny unique looking creatures all gathered around her.

There was sudden movement within the room once more, this time a pair of translucent stairs appeared before them. The young girl noticed her companion moving on towards the stairs and began to follow. The tiny wisps following close behind her. They were finally going to get some answers, though the message written on the stairs had caught her curiosity. Why wouldn’t they like the answers to their questions, she wondered, as she Gave Jardin a thumbs up as she approached him on the stairs.

The floor illuminated as they walked away, though soon the stairs turned to ash and feel behind them. There was no place to go but up into the light. As they finally traversed the good distance they stepped through the light, the light fading as fumes and trapping them on the otherside of...wherever they were.

The cosmos outside seemed to change in appearance. They had scaled quite some distance actually, as they were now standing over what appeared to be the very earth they had once been on. Though for some reason the space they were currently occupying had air. Was this a hallucination? Was this something else altogether? The mystery was cut quite short by the shifting of the sun, revealing a tall, lanky black cloak with the hood up. The wispy creatures went from Nu to the tall figure and brushed against him affectionately before beginning to draw things out in the air.

The smoke trail left behind the creatures singed the air, leaving burning embers through the air, as if they had sliced into the very fabric of reality itself.

You have not moved on. Is it too much to hope... can... can you see me? the words were spelled out in a torn, cracked up English writing.

Jardin studied the shifting vision around him.  The construct was fascinating, but ultimately irrelevant.  He assumed it was a shared dreamscape.  Full stop.  Next problem.

The thief remained close to Nu, part for the sense of mutual security but also so he could read the texts she had to use to communicate.

A shift in the light revealed an odd shade, coming closer.  It seemed to have a bond with the wisp creatures.  But beyond that, Jardin could not tell anything about figure beyond the obvious.  When the shades wrote a message in smoke and fire, the thief took a glance toward the silent girl, guaging her reactions.  Then he said, "Yes.  I see you," in answer to the question.

Trying to peer under the hood of the stranger, Jardin continued.  "Who are you?" he asked.  Glancing back the way they had come, he realized he had lost the stairs and the area before.  Looking back to the shadow, he also asked, "And why were we among those other five down there..."

At some point, Jardin had whispered to the mute, saying, "Just show me any questions you want to ask and I will relay them."

Nu’s eye’s had wandered about as they climbed the stairs, occasionally taking the time to lock eyes with the strange wisps that continued to follow her. Through the vibrant colors and smoke like trails they left behind, Nu noticed that the stairs were vanishing from behind them as they continued their climb towards the top. The small band of beings eventually passed through a heavily illuminated door, into yet another vast room.

The young mute was less impressed by the view of Earth that sat below their feet, but rather to the appearance of a shadowy hooded figure. The wisps rushed past Nu and immediately began to circle around the mysterious figure before nestling up against them, as they had been doing to Nu. The wisps then dispersed and began to write out a message in thin air.

For more than obvious reasons Nu stood in silence after reading the poorly worded message, as the man she was with began to ask the hooded figure a series of questions. When Jardin leaned in to whisper to Nu, she just gave him a slight head nod. For the time being he had asked all the questions she had been thinking about so there wasn’t much more to do but anxiously await the figures response. She would make sure to take full advantage of her companions offer, if any further questions popped into her mind.

Jardin spoke, he knows he spoke...but nothing was said. His mouth moved, and he could feel the breath leave his lungs, but all rang silent. No manner of screaming, shouting or whispering could be heard. There was absolutely no way for them to talk, nor communicate with one and other at this moment. Though in Jardin's silence of voice, there was a slightly chaotic noise. The voice of Nu could be heard or rather the voice of Nu as she would have envisioned her voice sounding. Her voice echoed in the room, the questions Jardin asked, the affirmation that those were all the questions she had. To this, the black cloaked man's head bobbed and two glowing white orbs appeared.

So you can!!! Oh- don't bother. Your voice will not work here...though if you can see me. Then...you are...No... you are not him, nor you her. You are here, and you can see me... The voice was a low whisper, and with every word it sounded like a chorus of winds were echoing his words in a rather strained, deathly sounding rasp.

You are not supposed to be here... The man hissed, his eyes flashing different colors before he suddenly vanished, reappearing and towering over both Nu and Jardin. His face was finally in perfect view, and it was rather disturbing. His face appeared to be some kind of bone, though it was sleek and covered the entire head, unjointed or fractured as if it were flesh. White pupils floated in the black eye sockets and the mouth region was home to broken teeth, though the inhuman smile that the skull-like face was warped into was perhaps the most jarring feature. The nine foot tall being bent over, his face uncomfortably close to Jardin and Nu as his pupils seemed to pierce through them.

Oh, who I am is of little importance. But let us move forward to the next question, as we can solve multiple mysteries and service multiple questions with one topic... What is the expression.... kill two birds with one stone? The creepy man said before standing back at his full 9 foot height. Those people are the people who were foreseen to come to this time. People from the past, whom were worthy to meet with The King.... though statistically you were the low values. The fact you are here now means that actions have already shifted, and this timeline will be greatly affected. I fear the future is still far darker... Alas none can hear my warnings. I had hoped to speak with...well...a different person, though I suppose the message will simply be placed along....unto thee, of course.

You see, time is simply perception, because you are not of this time you are not of this perception... though because you are not of ALL time, nor above time you see things out of perspective. Alas, poor I, this will mean nothing more than a short meeting. You're perception over the current reality will soon become acclimated; as such I will fade from your perceptions...and your memories. Similar to being in darkness and then turning on the light. While you will not remember me, however, you will remember what you have learned! The man said, racing through his words as quickly as he could as the wisp-creatures began to look worried, and began to dance around through the air with hues of a sorrowful blue. The King is not to be trifled with. You must stop his birth in your timeline at any cost, and you must not allow The Matrix to fall into the wrong hands, nor must Dr.Dressler be allowed to roam free! The very destiny of mankind and metakind alike hand within the balance. Even universes besides our own are in horrible danger should you fail in preventing The King from becoming a reality in your time... I-I am not long for your perception. I will answer whatever I have time for, but please! It would behoove you to ask with urgency!

At first, Jardin was confused.  He knew there was air in the room; he knew there was air in his lungs.  So why did his speak not transfer into the world?  Just another trippy moment among a glut of trips.  Thankfully the Mute could speak here.  Again, trippy.

At the mention that the figure had been waiting for another, Jardin was uncertain how to react. Were the two travellers just a pair of contingency plans meant to fix the world? Could they even do what was needed? Or were they just messengers for the real hero...

Of course, all these questions were moot. They did not even know who this "King" was. Jardin decided to borrow the Mute's phone, using it in a manner similar to how she had when their situations had been reversed.

"Sorry," he typed. "Only way to communcate right now." He offered an apologetic shrug. "Who or what exactly is this 'King'? Is he the ruler of these wastelands? What exactly are we expected to do to stop him? Wnd when?"