Zero percent... that's where his phone's battery currently was. No matter how many times he tried to turn it back on, it was dead. It seemed his acquaintance and only communication with his home world was gone. Silently, he swore as he walked over to the fridge. He was probably drinking that can of grape fizz too quickly, but he wasn't that concerned about it right then.
Céri eyed the books on the table. He supposed now was as good a time as any to return them. He had already gotten as much information out of them as his brain could handle. Setting his can near the sink, he put one hand in the pocket of his hoodie while grabbing the books under his other arm. His head hung low as he stepped out the door.
Sunny weather contrasted his current expression. He had lost ties with his real home.
---
"S-So... you're ready to give up-up-up? Good-ood."
"What the heck?" Céri Dylanson could barely get a word in edgewise.
Next thing he knew, some blue threads shot out of nowhere and tied up his arms and legs. He clenched his teeth against the sensation of burned ice against his skin. He yelped as his books fell out of reach. There was way too much happening, way too quickly. But a sporadic, distant laughing noise would have none of it.
As the threads lashed against his Adam's Apple and his private areas, something pulled him clear from the ground's gravity. Trees and houses flew underneath his view. In pain, he managed to exclaim as all color was suddenly stripped from his surroundings. All that was left was a black void and the neon blue threads that bound him.
He tried wriggling everything, but simultaneously hot-and-cold strings fought his every move. It even felt like they were digging into his chest and strapped against his heart somehow. While he was struggling, more of the threads sneaked their way into his pockets and pulled out all of his "keys". In flashes of white and black squares, more blue threads appeared. This time, they carried other unwilling passengers.
Céri gasped. "Kruger! Yosuke! Courtney! Yoko! Ezekiel! Redheart!"
Indeed, the multiple blue threads had taken the dreamwalker, Shadow, gun pony, fox demon, alien pony, and nurse pony as prisoners. As reactions varied from "What in the world?" to "Aw, hell...", a pair of footsteps echoed in the void. A shape appeared, accompanied by the sound of paper ripping. Yellow teeth smiled at the bottom of the black and blue skull. Red, fixated circles glowed with blue contaminants that could only imitate eyes.
"Well, well, w-w-well." Black and red sleeves moved around a yellow and blue body that was somehow attached to the eerie skull. "I was wondering why nobody bothered to-to-to trap their enemies on their first attack. Heh. I'm kidding-idding. I wasn't wondering that-taht-that at all."
Ezekiel simply blinked behind her glasses. "It appears this one has a speech impediment."
Yosuke grunted as his fingers twitched. "That's what you're focused on, Einstein?"
"Sh-sh-shut up!" A yellow finger pointed from the black and blue figure. "You dirty glitches are in no position to criti-cize me!"
Céri grunted as it felt like tiny thorns were digging into his skin from the threads. "And exactly who are you?"
"I'll tell-tell-tell you when I'm good and ready-ydaer-ready." White letters appeared in the middle of the air all over the talking skull and his jacket. They seemed to spell out the word "ERROR" over and over again. "Don't recognize me, Mr. Observant Pants? Or did you think I wasn't serious when I said you'd have plenty of time to pay me back in Tartarus?"
Céri's eyes opened wide. "You're the merchant?!"
"Let's see-ee-ee." 'Merchant' pulled one of the blue threads. "How about you pay me with the lives of your new friends... starting with the one you care about the most."
"What?" Céri frantically looked at the allies around him.
"Augh!" Shadow Yosuke yelped as his body was pulled into literal ribbons. Merchant's blue threads pulled out something from the center that resembled a yellow valentine. It shook in place for a bit before being ripped to shreds as well.
"NO!" cried Céri. The painful threads dug deeper into his being as he yelled.
"Heh-heh, heh-heh-heh, heh..." Merchant tapped his red shoes. "I could keep this up all day-yad-day."
Ezekiel was soon surrounded by several "ERROR"s all ramming into her along with the threads. Her mouth formed a bunch of syllables incomprehensibly. An Apple rainbow pin-wheel of doom popped up on her horn while a Windows blue screen of death yanked on her tail.
"Hmm." Yoko Kurama clenched his clawed fists. "It figures he would give himself a body with godlike powers of destruction."
"A puppeteer that can just erase lives without remorse?" wondered Freddy Kruger.
"Great..." Courtney sighed as his hat fell off. "As if alicorns weren't OP enough, now we've got this."
"I said-ed-ed shut up!" hollered Merchant.
The white anthro fox, the burned man, and the pegasus pony all yelped. It looked like ropes were twisting their limbs every which way. Ezekiel closed his eyes and mumbled some rapid syllables. Redheart whimpered. Céri watched helplessly, hanging in the air like his comrades.
A bunch of red arcs suddenly flashed against the dark surroundings. Lights that looked like floating red "9"s briefly popped up. Immediately afterward, the blue threads vanished. Céri and his allies fell toward the invisible floor. Grunting, he grabbed his necklace out of the air and took on the form of the orange pony. Her four legs shook a little upon landing but remained intact.
"What-tahw-what?" Merchant actually took a couple steps back. "What's going on?"
"I'd say you're a smiley trashbag, but that would be an insult to smiles and trash everywhere."
Everyone looked toward the source of the new voice. Brown sneakers walked with the motion of black jeans. A hand held a glowing knife while the other was in the pocket of a green hoodie. A thin line formed a smile on the newcomer's face. He glanced over at Céri.
"A red hoodie, huh?" The teen shrugged. "I kind of prefer green myself, but that's cool too."
"Uh... thanks?" Céri scratched the exposed hairs of her blonde mane. "But, who exactly are you?"
Merchant's yell sounded like it was being chopped up by several filters and video feeds at once.
The green hood turned his back while spinning his knife around. "Tell you what? We can get more intimate if we both survive this. Okay, sweetie?"
"Deal! ... I reckon?" She pulled out a hoof full of cards.
Several blue threads launched through the air at once. Four arcs of red danced in place in front of the green hooded teen. His knife glowed all the way until the end of the fourth arc. The shade hid his eyes... until two vertical lines of red glowed in the darkness. A black-and-red "9" briefly glowed as each red arc took out a handful of the blue threads. He thinly smiled.
"Lovely evening isn't it? Crickets are chirping, moon lilies open up... On nights like this, you want to kiss the girl."
More of Merchant's threads yanked at Courtney's sides. He gasped as the tugging forced his weapons to open fire. Céri let out a whinny and galloped out of the way. The green-hooded teen grunted and ducked under the bullets. Kruger crouched down and covered Redheart. Bullets rammed against his backside. When the spray took a few seconds to pause, Kruger fell face-down into the nonexistent dirt. Yoko lashed out with his rose whips, severing the blue strings from the misused weapons. Another browser opened up by Ezekiel's left ear, saying that she required an immediate reboot. Her presence faded from the void entirely.
"But I have to ask a con artist like you... when the power becomes just too much... are you really in control?"
"Delete!" Merchant held up his hands and conjured two monstrous faces. Each was littered with white "ERROR"s like himself. It looked like some blackish-red light was building into orbs within the mouths of the dragon skulls.
"Ride! Blaster Dark 'Diablo'!"
Céri's dark-armored Vanguard appeared. At the same time, the green hood conjured a floating ring composed of red knives. The rest of the team moved behind Céri and their newest ally. Merchant launched his double-blast attack. The two waves of crimson red slammed against Blaster Dark's sword and the floating ring. The teen and the Vanguard unit were being pushed back.
A mere second later, some of the first blast seemed to phase through the weapon and collided directly with Blaster Dark's chest. He cried out as he was sent flying onto his back. His appearance shook a lot until the golden bits seemed to fade from his armor. Meanwhile, the green hood angled his ring of knives slightly. The blast aimed at him went sky high... at least whatever counted as sky high in the indeterminate void.
"Anakin!" Céri ran over to her Vanguard's side.
"Don't... sound... so... worried..." Anakin said between heavy breaths.
The current human swished his knife around and formed several arcs before launching them forward. One of Merchant's blasters got sliced into dust. The other blaster flew around the slicing attack. It charged its mouth with another eerie orb.
"Not this time!" Courtney pointed his guns and fired both shots.
Scattered bullet spray lodged itself all over the blaster. Its orb of light shrunk before exploding inside of the skull. Merchant's eye went wide. During the explosion, the teen had managed to run up to his face. He sliced across the discolored skeleton's chest twice.
"Heh...Eh-heh-heh, eh-heh-heh, eh-heh-heh, eh-heh-heh!"
A single blue thread jumped out of nowhere and whipped around the green hood's left ankle. With a single index finger, Merchant guided the thread to swing the ankle and its owner through the air and slam him against the ground several feet away.
"Did you really think-ink-ink that you could beat me with only two-owt-two measly attacks?" He shook his skull and laughed. "I'm not your average bonehead. I'm more real than they could ev-could ev-could ever hope to be."
"Moonlight Witch, Vaha! Call!"
Céri held up another card. The unit summoned was a witch with an oversized cap. At the same time, red roots appeared to grow out of Yoko Kurama's left sleeve. A giant salivating mouth bloomed from this unnaturally fast-growing tree. As Vaha cast forth a spell of blue energy at the Merchant, the tree's mouth followed and raced towards the same target.
"No ch-ch-chance." If Merchant wasn't already smiling, he would have done so right then.
"What?!" Céri looked on in worry.
As the short error-ridden skeleton raised his arms, a row of rose-colored bones popped out of the ground. These bones deflected the spell and tore through the tree's mouth. Merchant twitched his fingers. New blue threads sprung out of the aether and ensnared the witch. She grunted and screamed before being turned into a spray of light particles.
"No, Vaha!" Anakin dug his sword into the ground, struggling to stand up.
"Look at yourselves-selves-selves." Merchant closed one eye. "Aren't you all feeling completely use-use-useless? Just drop dead. It'll make my job a whole lot easier."
"Kiss my butt, connie!" The ensnared teen spat.
"Hmph." The glitching skeleton looked around. "What about you-you-you, Nurse? Don't you find this violence pointless? Surrender and I might just consider sparing your life."
The pale pony whimpered as she slowly walked forward.
Céri gasped. "Redheart, what are you doing? Stay back!"
Redheart wiped her eyes with a hoof and shook her head. "No."
She held a fierce glare and pointed her hoof in the direction of Merchant. The teen was busy trying to pull the blue string off his leg. Kruger was down for the count. Courtney was out of ammunition and he was flying in a zigzag to avoid some of the threads that were dancing around the air. But the threads were slowing down and Courtney looked down at the development on the void's floor.
"Just who do you think you are, demanding all of these persons to drop dead?" Despite the shape of Redheart's hoof, she was somehow crushing her hat in her grip. "The will to live is special, and isn't something to be thrown away for the convenience of some jerk with a god-complex!"
A light flashed from the hat itself. Those that could still move their front limbs moved to cover their eyes. Merchant's smile straightened out. His blue-yellow irises shrunk down to white dots. The light split into two pieces. Each piece floated down to Redheart's grasp as a card.
Céri peeked out from under her hood. "Holy ma sandwich with pa on top... and a side helping of son."
"Whatever trials you've fixed, however many lives you've taken... these are not your toys." Redheart held both cards up. "Healers beyond, lend your strength to free these souls for their quest to survive. Wisdom Celestial, Jibril! Freedom Celestial, Zaphkiel! A Legion!"
Two angels flew forth from the light. One had white hair, wore light garments, held a blue-jeweled staff in one hand and an orb that seemed to contain time itself. The other angel had black hair, wore the dress of a female fighter, and wielded a blade made light, held together by some unseen might to herself.
"H-H-Hacks! I call Hacks!" Merchant turned around and ran.
He conjured a bunch of red bones and blue threads to cover his escape. Zephkiel flew forth and slashed through all of the incoming obstacles with her sword. Jibril raised her staff and orb, unleashing light upon the entirety of the void. The red marks that were on Merchant's chest glowed white as he screamed into a tunnel of static. His "ERROR"s exploded into a spray of "1"s and "0"s. He fell on his face before fading from view entirely.
---
Sunlight shined down upon what had resulted from the Legion's healing rays. Birds sang, flowers blossomed, and buildings popped back into existence exactly where they had been left. Kruger vanished from sight. Yoko simply nodded before a rose exploded and took him back to his Equestria. Courtney smiled before he vanished to the clicking sound of an empty gun.
Redheart sat on her haunches and hung her head low. She took a deep breath and exhaled. Céri trotted over and patted Redheart's back gently. The nurse pony turned and gave a hug, to the red hooded pony's surprise. Anakin shined purple before floating into Céri's pocket as a card.
Meanwhile, a green hood stood back up. "I'll finish this."
He walked over to the darkened skeleton. At some point, Merchant had been turned onto his back. The teen held a glowing knife high above the chest area. He struck down, expecting a final exhale of pain before the madman died.
"Heh... heh..." Merchant's exposed teeth smiled again. "You think... this is... really the end? Buddy... you really are... an idiot."
The green hood frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Yellow and black bones chattered. "I may have... no HP left... but that... doesn't mean... you've seen... the last... of me." A singular eye stared through the skull's eye socket. "There are... millions of... universes... each one... carrying... a sap I tricked. Don't you think... I'd have... contingencies... in case... one of me... died?"
"You don't mean..." Céri's eyes went wide.
Redheart softly whispered, "Oh no."
"It took... eight of you... just to... wear me down." Merchant chuckled and coughed. "Yet defeating me here... now... has done nothing. You can't... beat... all of... me."
"Go to hell." The green hood yanked up his knife forcefully.
Drops of red squirted out of the pierced bone marrow. The glow in this merchant's eye slowly faded to black. The body blew away into a trail of dust on the wind. An upside-down valentine hung just above the spot. Then, it too shattered into pieces of dust.
...
The green hood sighed and shook the dust off his knife. "I need chocolate milk. What say we get something together, ladies? I'm buying." He smiled gently while wiggling his eyebrows.
Céri had a weird expression on her face. "So... your first instinct after killing a crazy guy, who just told us that there are more of him just as powerful as he is across the multi-verse... is to find a drink... and hit on two girls you just met?"
"Come on." He shrugged. "We could all use something pleasant after that whole mess."
The transformed pony closed her eyes and softly replied, "Yeah, okay."
---
