//------------------------------// // Level Sixteen: Regroup // Story: Delinquency // by Daemon McRae //------------------------------// Level Sixteen: Regroup When one reality encroaches on another, besides the obvious overlap, there are subtle changes in the atmosphere. Sometimes it becomes harder to breath. Sometimes gravity itself weakens or strengthens. It all depends on which reality has more presence, which laws contradict each other more drastically. The greater the difference, the greater the change. Such as the reality of the school, not to say anything about what may lay outside the doors. As the halls gave way to labyrinthine caverns of meat and hatred, sickly light and hungry flesh, so to did the air give way to something foul and assertive. The vastly changing space now filled with an unstable miasma, a fog of varying thickness that smelled of something hot and vile. Grey mist seeped out of nowhere and settled intrusively on the floor, until some places were so dense that one’s own feet would disappear. The golems had spread across the school now. Digging their way out of the walls, falling like corpses from gaping wounds in the ceiling. Hatching from the glowing pods like newborn monstrosities. They all, as soon as they reached their feet, marched towards the gym. With no eyes, no directions, they somehow navigated the shifting maze of alien corridors to their target. No doubt guided by an unseen hand (or other appendage). It was their drone-like marching that Rubble had taken to following. At first, at a distance, as he was quickly running out of things to ignite them with. Then closer, and closer, until he realized that they were paying him no mind. Even when he broke the glass on a fire ax case to retrieve the new, heavier, sturdier weapon. As an experiment, he lobbed off one of their arms, a single golem at the back of the pack, hoping that, if it decided to attack him, or call for help, he could manage a head start. Yet it didn’t. Its arm simply fell of its body as it was severed, falling lifeless to the floor. Still, the creature kept walking. So he lobbed the other arm off. Still no reaction. Whatever they were marching towards, it was a much greater purpose than the safety of one of their own. He cut off their heads, wondering aloud if they “Were just like horror movie zombies.” They were not. Onward it pressed, headless, armless, simply a stump on legs. It didn’t bleed, either. An inquisitive look down its neck revealed that there was little more than bloodless muscle under the single expanse of skin. Then he cut its legs off. The stump fell to the floor, the legs collapsing underneath it, with no balance or structure to keep them marching on. The pile of limbs lay scattered across what should have been linoleum, but was now more like the padding of a gym mat. If that mat were made of living tissue. Rubble did his best not to think about it. Instead, he reveled in his new discovery, and set about his work like a lumberjack in a forest of mindless meat. ------------------------- Finding the gym was proving to be much easier than any of them had thought. Spooks looked on, slightly amused, as Aria and Treble led the pack in burning rows of golems away, making sure to leave enough of them to follow to the other students. The rest of the girls seemed content to just sit back and let the two go to work, doing there level best not to freak out and take off for the hills. They wouldn’t like what they found there, anyway. “You know what I’m surprised he haven’t seen?” Sonata asked suddenly. Her sister didn’t even bother turning around. “What, Sonata?” Aria asked dryly, stomping out a particularly stubborn golem fire. “Cops. I mean, somebody somewhere has got to have called the popo by now, right??” Sonata reasoned, looking around the group for confirmation. Adagio tapped her chin lightly. “Surprisingly, she has a point. Where are the police at a time like this?” Treble startled her by answering with a loud laugh. “HA! Please! The cops in this town are worse than useless! Do you girls remember even ONE boy in blue in all the weird magical shenanigans you got up to? You’d think giant floating horsefish in the sky, students blowing holes in the school grounds, and tears in the fabric of time and space would ring in a siren or two, but nope. Only time I’ve ever seen a cop is when nobody needs them. Hell, that warg that got lose in the theater over the summer? I found a couple cops like a day later just leaning on their patrol car talking about how it was ‘animal control’s’ problem.” The girls looked around at each other in disappointed realization. “Wow,” Sunset said finally, “Way to make us all feel safe in our beds at night.” Spooks gave a small smile. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s our job now.” “A-fuckin’-men,” Treble agreed, kicking over a golem in his way and giving it a short burst from his flamethrower. Short in that it released a stream of flame, then stopped, making a clicking sound. “Shit. Out of ammo.” Aria punched him in the shoulder, chastising him for being to liberal with his munitions, as they turned a corner into a familiar-looking corridor. They’d finally found the gym. Though, like the rest of the school, it was not as they’d left it. The hallway leading up to the double doors had adopted the same motif as the rest of the skin labyrinth. The decorations had hung on for dear life, party streamers and bright colored letters beset by grey tendrils of muscle tissue, giving them an almost web-like appearance. The bulletin board on the wall had been overgrown like a scab, until all they could see was a veiny square of wall that stuck out slightly from the rest of it. Even the balloons had met an unfortunate fate, having been popped and assimilated into the encroaching growth. The only evidence of their existence was a single scrap of blue rubber hanging from the ceiling, and the threads they’d been attached to that now reached taut into the walls. Of course, the most distracting addition was the mass of several dozen golems trying to push forward through the locked double doors, which somehow had maintained their steely nature. “Ex-CUSE ME?!” Pinkie Pie bellowed. “NOBODY RUINS MY DECORATIONS!” The group took several well-advised steps back as she took out a rather large jawbreaker from her pocket, which lit, not with the standard pink glow, but an intense radiance that only seemed to get brighter. “EVERYBODY DOWN!” Aria yelled, as all but Pinkie Pie hit the floor some feet behind her. She pitched the jawbreaker like she was going for a record, and it made a beeline between several of the golems, finally stopping as it hit one in the back of the head. Then it exploded. The shockwave came first, then the sound. The teens felt the immense pressure of air escaping the space wash over their bodies a split second before a deafening roar filled the air, followed shortly by meaty bits raining from the ceiling. Pinkie stood defiantly in the debris, glaring angrily at the now-annihilated group of meat puppets that had bore the entirety of her sugary wrath. After the last bits of golem fell to the ground, the rest of the group got to there feet, brushing off pieces of muscle and skin away. Treble looked forlornly at his suit. “Man, I knew this thing wasn’t gonna survive the night.” He gave his torso a few brush-offs, as the last bits fell from his jacket. “Then why did you wear it?” Spooks asked dryly. “Excuse me for wanting to look good on a day I might die,” DT retorted in a low growl. He felt a hand on his chest as Adagio shooed away a small piece he’d missed off his coat pocket. “Well, I think you look just fine,” she crooned, resting her head on his shoulder. Treble opened his mouth to say something, only to be interrupted by the door creaking open. Dusty and Applejack looked out at the crowd, eyes wide. “Uhhh… did ya get ‘im?” AJ asked, dumbfounded. “No, we missed,” Pinkie Pie deadpanned, marching past them into the gym. Her hair had since deflated, now full of monster bits. The rest of the group followed suit, murmuring to each other and exchanging general greetings with their friends. Spooks took up the rear, raising his eyebrows as he got a good look at the gym as a whole. Those who had stayed behind when things got bad had huddled into a large crowd near the stage, where Rainbow Dash was standing vigil with a fire ax and a flamethrower. The far wall, where the windows had once been, was now boarded up, with small slits of space where there hadn’t been enough wood. He could see more golems pressing in from the outside, not making much progress. The thought that muscle seemed to trump wood in this situation crossed his mind, until he noticed Rarity standing nearby, focusing intently. Closer inspection of their barricade revealed a pale blue glow on the other side of the barred windows, where her barriers seemed to be holding fast. Below the windows, and across the floor, there were all kinds of burnt Blank Slates. Scorch marks on the floor, large piles of ash, and the occasional limb or two littered the once-pristine dance space. Although, amidst all of this, the weirdest thing he saw that night sat in the far corner from the windows, guarding a side entrance to the gym that had also been boarded over. Spooks blinked. Fluttershy had gone for help, alright. The far side of the gym was currently occupied by a small pack of wolves, wild dogs, a bear, and, somehow, a giant tiger. “Wh..what the fuck?” he mused quietly. The sirens, and Treble followed his gaze, and their jaws dropped. “What… what the hell?!” Treble exclaimed, gesturing wildly at the zoo of teeth and claws. “Where’d she get a tiger?!” Applejack sighed. “Way she tells it, she found the wild dogs first. That big-ol Great Dane gave her a ride into the forest, where she found the bear and wolves. Then they went to the zoo,” she explained. “The zoo,” Adagio said simply. “Yup.” Adagio sighed, throwing up her hands in exasperation. “Of course she did. Why the hell not.” “Um, question,” Sonata said, raising a finger. Her sisters looked at her suspiciously, then Aria sighed. “Why not. You’re one for one so far. Shoot.” “Why aren’t the tiger and doggies and bear all like, horrible monsters? Shouldn’t the outside be like, all meaty and gross and stuff too?” the youngest siren asked. The other sisters exchanged strange glances, not sure how to answer that. Neither, it seemed, did Spooks. “That makes no sense,” he said pointedly. Sunset glared at him, the only Rainboom who had stayed behind instead of convening with the rest of her friends. Pinkie had joined Fluttershy by the animals, and Twilight was providing Rarity some structural support by reinforcing the wood with her telekinesis. “Makes no sense?! THIS WHOLE NIGHT MAKES NO SENSE! Please, PLEASE inform me what part of this, this nightmare makes no sense to you!” “The part where it stops at the school,” he deadpanned, unimpressed by her tantrum. -------------------------- Rubble was having a surprisingly good day. He hadn’t died yet, which was a plus. He’d given himself poor odds on making it past the first hour or two. He’d found a new hobby in dismantling the series of golems that he’d come across on his march to the gym. In fact, he was rather close, given the trail of burnt corpses he’d started following, obviously the work of his friends. When he doubted which way to follow the trail, he settled for the direction that was still smoking. This decision was reinforced with the sound of a rather large explosion. He had looked better, all things considered. Still bearing the cuts and bruises from his fight with the horribly misguided cult figures, he had since accrued a rather gruesome layer of grime and offal in his Stephen King-like procession down the halls, hacking apart puppet after puppet, not bothering to clean much more than the blade of his axe. He’d tried his daggers, but they didn’t cut deep enough fast enough. It was more effort than it was worth to use the smaller weapons when the fire axe seemed to prove most useful. He could do without the horrible surroundings, mind. The hallways, even as easy to follow as they were now, with a series of burning breadcrumbs to trace, were still rather unsavory to look at. Not to mention all the ducking and weaving he’d been doing to avoid the strange growths and mutations that he’d learned not to touch. Part of him felt terrible about what he’d done to that one cultist, but in all fairness, the guy had been trying to kill him. There was also the slight ease on his conscience that he’d heard the rabid scrambling and shouts of the other cultists crying to “Cut him out!” He felt better about that. It also helped that Aria had let him grab her butt earlier. Well, less ‘let him’ and more ‘not cold-cocked him once he had’. He rounded the corner to the hallway leading to the gym, and stopped in awe. The absolute mess of exploded golems and destroyed party supplies might as well have rearranged themselves into the words ‘Pinkie Pie was here’. He whistled appreciatively as he marched up to the secured gym door, making a mental note to ask exactly why it was still made of steel, and knocked with the blade of his axe. There was a pregnant pause as he waited, then the door eased open slightly. “Yellow?” Spooks asked quietly. “Green. Lemme in,” he answered. The door swung open, and Spooks stepped forward to greet his friend, stopping short. “Dude, you look like a serial killer. The fuck?” Rubble marched past his friend, into the gym, where the majority of its occupancy gave him much the same startled look. Some of the crowd huddled together on the far side of the room caught sight of him, their eyes widening as the scooted away. Treble looked ready to ask much the same question Spooks had, when Rubble volunteered, “Turns out you CAN cut them into tiny pieces.” There was a whoosh of air as Rainbow Dash joined the group, followed shortly by Pinkie Pie. “Dude?! What did you do?!” Rubble opted simply for a wide smile, and marched over to stand vigil with Twilight and Rarity, just in case the barrier gave out. Sunset stopped him with a hand on his chest. "That's like, the most horrible idea right now. If Rarity saw you like that she'd pass out, and the barrier would fall." His smile faded slightly. "Hmmm, that's suboptimal." Aria gave him a sideways glance, with a hint of a smile. "Well, you could always wait in the hallway for more golems." Dash rolled her eyes. "Oh right, and come back with ANOTHER layer of yuck all over him?" She looked around, but Rubble had already left the room, his smile coming back in full force. "Goddammit."