2 Days ago
He couldn’t really complain, the weather was nice, no cloud in sight, it was warm, and the rays of sunlight dancing across his face were just the icing on the cake. This had to be his favorite day of being a Kamen Rider yet. Being sent to a festival to investigate strange activities was awesome, all the music, all the nice people, it was a delight, and best of all, nothing had really happened yet. If he was lucky, he might just reap the benefits without putting in any work at all, that sounded great.
But, on the other hand, if there really were a Corrupted under the attendees not acting on it would only lead to problems later. Dammit, and he thought if he left Ocean behind he wouldn’t have to deal with pesky stuff like moral questions and could simply relax. She really had rubbed off on him, couldn’t even enjoy a little sunbathing anymore without thinking about what was right. But, to be honest, until now, nothing had happened, and if something would really go south, he would hear it anyway. If he relaxed for half an hour more, no one would really complain, ok, maybe fifteen, ok, ok, ten and then he would play detective, as best as he could. Really glad Ocean wasn’t here to see him fail miserably at it. How was he supposed to find the Corrupted anyway? Until now trouble had more or less always found him, so should he just wait?
Right at that moment, something managed to snap him out of his thoughts in an instant as he heard his name, from a strangely familiar voice surprisingly enough. His eyes slowly opened with a loud groan as the light of the sun started to shin right into his eyes. The first thing he saw was the beautiful blue sky, but that sight was quickly overshadowed by a mess of pink hair, teeth that formed a bright grin and a pink face that had placed itself between him and the horizon. It took him a moment to realize what just happened, but then everything went by in mere moments. A loud scream filled the area around him, getting him a few confused looks as he scrambled away from the grinning face of terror before him on his back and crash right into his bike.
It took a few moments to calm down, his breath heavy and irregular, staring at the still grinning girl before him, then he stopped, he knew that face and that grin, especially that grin. “Pinkie? What on earth are you doing here?” was the first thing that came out of his mouth. “And never do that again, ever!”
The girl in question just looked at him confused and started to giggle. “Sorry, I didn’t want to startle you, but you looked so drained, and I thought a bit of excitement would get you back on your feet.” Phoenix stared at the girl for a few moments with open mouth, then simply shook his head and just rolled with it, would be far easier than to understand Pinkie, that much he knew.
“Yeah, maybe because I wanted to relax a bit?” He returned, trying to hide the annoyance in his voice as best as he could. Still, he sounded somewhat peeved by the whole ordeal. “What are you doing here anyway?”
At this moment he heard new shouting, again from voices that seemed oddly familiar. “Pinke? Pinkie? Where are you Pinkie?” Echoed over the rows of tents and campers that had planted themselves over the field. It was quite beautiful in its own way; everything was in so much chaos that it had taken on its own kind of order. But what really caught the eyes of everyone was the large stage that had been set up behind all the tents and campers, towering over the entire gathering. And he had to be honest, even if he never was that into music, what he had heard until now and the feeling everything just brought with it was indeed impressive.
But back in the now he was more worried about figuring out who was screaming for the pink goofball. The answer didn’t take long to answer really, who else could it be that her friends who came forth through the rows of tents before them, Sunset being the first to spot their overly energetic friend. “Pinkie! There you are. How did you even slip away so fast?” She cried out for her, worried and at least some annoyance in her voice.
The Pinkie quickly snapped her head around, staring right towards her friends, moved with her hand a bit and screamed back: “Hey girls! You won’t believe who I just found!” Her voice was almost so shrill that it almost burst his eardrums, almost.
As her friends approached, they all wore an expression of confusion on their faces that only grew stronger when they saw who Pinkie had started so much. “Phoenix? What are you doing here?” Was the first thing he heard from them, finally having gotten back on his legs, carefully trying to brush off the dirt from the ground.
“Besides being scared shitless by Pinkie you mean?” He chuckled back, letting out a loud groan afterward, stretching himself. “Could ask you the same really.”
“Oh, we? We are here to play for the festival! Pretty cool, right?” That was undoubtedly Rainbow who was speaking there, and to no one's surprise she stepped out from behind her friends, a smug grin decorating her lips as she walked closer to Phoenix.
“These girls must have a trouble magnet on them somewhere, so often they get to these monsters,” he mumbled to himself.
“Ahm, did you say anything Phoenix?” Rainbow asked, staring at him with a bewildered expression.
“Ahm, I said something?” He returned rather confused, then it hit him like a truck. “Ahm, no, no, nothing important. Didn’t you say something about performing during the festival? That’s pretty neat,” stammering back he tried to look as innocent as possible.
The other girls looked at him somewhat strange, but Rainbow had bitten on. “Oh, yeah, and it is all because we are so cool, but primarily me,” That garnered a few raised eyebrows from her friends. “Ahm, you know, just a bit,” she sheepishly added. The other girls quickly started to laugh, Rainbow weakly joining in.
“Yeah, we are playing during the newcomers part right before the great final. One of the managers saw one of our concerts a while back and liked it so much he asked us to play here. It’s really something, isn’t it girls?” Sunset had continued, smiling at him like always.
“You have a band? What’s its name, I hear a lot of the local radio station, maybe I heard the name sometimes?” He returned, now sounding rather interested in the story of the girls.
“The name of our totally awesome band is ‘The Rainbooms’, we are being played on the radio constantly,” Rainbow started to brag again, her friends just chuckling at her, Phoenix decided to join in.
“Yeah, that name strikes a bell. Like your music, has a very relaxing and energetic feel to it, as strange as that sounds. So, when can I expect your performance ladies?” He snickered back.
“Last day of the festival, around twelve AM. The put us as the big final of the newcomers part, I’m so excited, I hope everyone home will see us,” Twilight joined in, squealing in nerdish delight. “Still, hope I don’t get stage fright before that,” she weakly chuckled.
“Oh, don’t worry Twilight, you will do fine. But I on the other hand…” Fluttershy returned, her calm and charming expression quickly fading towards panic and fear.
“Don’t worry darling, you will do great, like always. Don’t think about them as thousands of people watching every move you make,” Rarity tried to calm her down, in return, she received terrified screeching from Fluttershy who tried to hide behind Rainbow back. “Ahm, I was saying, just think of them as a group of your animal friends you are playing to. You don’t have any problem when you play for them, right?” Fluttershy returned from behind the back of Rainbow Dash and nodded with a weak smile. “See, you can do it darling. You are going to do great out there.”
“Yeah, don’t worry Fluttershy, they won’t even realize if you screw something up since they are all going to be focused on me,” Rainbow joined in, all while Fluttershy returned to her terrified state. All other girls were staring at her with looks of annoyance and exhaustion. “What?”
Phoenix just shook his head with a loud sigh and continued. “Well, you told me what you were doing here, and now I probably should tell you what I’m doing here. I just thought it sounded fun, not too far away and a few days of partying and away from the city would do me good. Was really relaxing until your friend there scared me nearly to death.” He pointed at Pinkie.
“Oh, yeah, I did find you. Next time you have to find me!” She gleefully returned much to the confusion of Phoenix and the other girls, but really, all of them had been around Pinkie long enough to just don’t question it, one of Phoenix's favorite strategies.
“Anyway. Glad to see you so healthy again Twilight, especially after what happened at the museum. How is Timber anyway?” Stretching himself while he spoke he continued.
“Oh, Timber? He is currently sleeping a bit in his tent. We asked him if he wanted to help us with the equipment, as in caring it around and getting it on the bus and he agreed. Nice of him, right? So now we have tow helpers, Aj’s brother and Timber,” Twilight smiled back at him.
“Huh, glad he is ok. Might look for him later, would like to talk with him a little bit. On that note, where exactly is your tent?” he asked, feeling rather strange in the process.
“Oh, we don’t sleep in a tent,” Rainbow dashed in, continuing with glee: “We have a bus! We don’t need on to sleep on the ground. Isn’t that great?” Her smile was layered with a bit of smugness, Phoenix merely sighed and chuckled a bit.
“Ahm,” came it from behind Rainbow.
“What?” Then she noticed who had actually spoken up and added: “Oh, well expect AJ here. She decided to use a tent, for some reason. I mean, come on, sleeping on a bus, how awesome is that? You get comfy seats, it’s not too hot or warm and best of all, no annoying sounds from campers around you. It’s perfect, what’s not to like, right?” Now she was eying Phoenix intensely, almost to the point where it got really uncomfortable.
“Well, I would jump for that opportunity any day, but if Applejack doesn’t want to, you can’t really force her now can you. She is just a different kind of weird than you,” he chuckled, the girls, however, remained silent and just stared at him. His chuckle slowly weakened, until it sounded extremely uncomfortable, his eyes quickly shifting from one girl to the next. “Hehe, did I say anything wrong?” Was all he could bring out, slowly starting to sweet. “Ok, sorry, I’ll take it back.” That was the moment they all started laughing, much to the confusion of poor Phoenix. “Ok, you lost me.”
“Oh, don’t worry, you are right. It’s because we are all such a special case of weird that we are actually are friends in all honesty;” Sunset returned, under heavy giggling, but she answered.
“Yeah, if we weren’t that way Ah wouldn’t really be friends with them. We are like a good apple pie, if you put in different kinds of apples you get the best result.”
“True that, wouldn’t have put it that way, but I agree. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be friends with Ocean, now would I?” While he spoke, his gaze started to drift towards the sky.
“Yeah, ‘friends’, I see,” snickered Rainbow, holding her hand before her lips, hiding a devilish smile.
“Oh, come on, you as well. I thought I would escape these jokes for a while if I go to this festival, but apparently that is not the case,” sighing he slumped down to the floor, all while the girls laughed at him. It didn’t take long till even he joined in.
Just a few meters away, however, someone was listening to their little conversation. “I think I’m going to puke. All that friendship bollox they are talking about, thinking they are so all and might. Think they are better than us,” a girl in a purple with a pink jacket said. Her long cruelly orange hair was waving in the wind. Her skin had a yellow color and if looks could kill she would have killed the entire festival so venomous was her look.
“But aren’t they? They did beat us,” A cheery and bubbly voice said from behind. In an instant, the girls spun around and stared at the other girl, her hair cyan, and dark blue had been tied back into a ponytail, she wore a purple jacket and pink mini rock. Her complexion was a very light blue, and she looked at the girls with an innocent and happy smile.
“Shut up Sonata, I don’t want to hear it. It won’t matter anyway in a few days. Then these little worms will squirm beneath our feet, and after that, we can finally deal with that last one, this stupid princess,” she growled, Sonata taking a few steps back as the girls let her anger out on her.
“Sonata, how many times did I tell you to not get on Adagio’s nerves? It never ends well, for either of us,” a third girl sighed, the expression on her face showing that she had seen this conversation play out time and time again. Her purple and cyan hair hang to her side in two massive pigtails. Over her light purple skin, she wore an outfit that was raged with cyan and bright purple.
“Oh, right Aria, I totally forgot,” Sonata returned in her bubbly voice, Aria merely sighing in return and bracing herself for what was to come.
“Sonata, sometimes I could just strangle you. You just don’t know when to say something, wait, you don’t know what you are saying period! Why did I need to be cursed with such a stupid sister anyway,” Adagio continued her voice only picking up, and slowly they were starting to garner some attention.
“Ahm, Adagio?” Aria started to whisper but was promptly ignored by her sister.
“And don’t forget you damned appetite, we don’t have much money, but no, miss little Sonata here needs her extra rations. I’m so sick of it, always the ‘That looks so fun.’ ‘Oh, that smells good.’ ‘Can I have it?’ I’m sick and tired of it!” She continued her barrage, more and more people starting to look their way.
“Adagio!” Aria repeated, but this time louder. Meanwhile, Sonata was more and more frightened by her sister, trying to step away from her, but Adagio just followed after her.
“And don’t even get me started on your stupidity. You know how often you got us into trouble with the damned cops? Over twenty times, I counted! Seriously, I should just…”
“Adagio!” Aria finally shouted, this getting her sisters attention.
“What?!” She shouted back, but as she did, she realized that everyone around them was staring directly at her.
“The people are looking already, calm down, I get that you are angry, but not here and not now, or do you want to blow our cover?” She hissed back, her sister merely grumbling in return.
“Fine, but this isn’t over Sonata,” she pointed her finger at her sister and walked off, Sonata staring after her. She was however quickly grabbed by Aria and dragged behind her, following their sister to what they could call their tent. A brown, old, tattered and smelly excuse of a tent, but it was all they had, damned Rainbooms.
With an angry tug, she pulled closed the tent behind her and let out a loud sigh. “Stupid mortals, Stupid Raoinbooms and stupid world in general. I’m sick and tired of hiding from them, all of them. I thought with the return of magic we could finally turn the tides, but no, stupid equestrians followed us even here,” Adagio spat out in a low voice, her anger that was just recently directed at her sister Sonata was now directed at everyone else, primarily those dreaded Rainbooms.
“But we’ll get them, right?” Sonata gleefully returned, a devious smile crossing her innocent looking expression for just a split second.
“Oh, we will, and no one is going to stop us this time, no equestrian, no Rainbooms and no magic of friendship. This time they are going down, and they will be powerless to stop us,” Adagio returned, an insane glee crossing her face as she eagerly rubbed her hands together.
“Ahm, but couldn’t these Kamen Rider guys be a problem? They have beaten up quite a few monsters, didn’t they,” Sonata added, a nervous undertone in her voice as she carefully looked over to her two sisters.
“Who?” Was all she got from Aria who looked at her like she had just said the stupidest thing to ever come out of a sirens mouth… again.
“You know, the Kamen Riders? These super cool bug-eyed people in these awesome suits?” Again, no reaction from her sister beyond a simple shrug. “Oh come on, they are constantly on the news!”
“Oh, these idiots,” she finally said dismissively, shrugging again.
“Even if these do-gooders would decide to come here, and come on what are the odds, they are only active in Canterlot City, they would not stand a chance against us and our soon to be ‘friends’,” Adagio replied, her devilish smile only increasing in wickedness.
“Yeah, you are right sis; they stand no chance against us!” Aria joined in with a satisfied expression on her face.
Sonata however just nodded doubtfully and said: “Yeah, you are right.”
“See, don’t worry about them and think about our revenge! Sleep well Rainbooms, it will be the last peaceful night you will ever have!” Aria and Sonata started to snicker in cackling delight, Sonata joining them after staring at them with increasing worry with her own snickering, just more awkward and worried. “Let’s get to work ladies!”
>-------<A>-------<
The rest of the day had been quite peaceful for Phoenix; he had started to dig around for anything out of the ordinary, started conversations with music enthusiasts and the like, meat some of band members that would eventually be playing on the big stage and a few people that didn’t really know what to do with their time. But ultimately he came up empty, well that was wrong, he heard a bit about the missing license, nothing new really, just that they all had been eager to play and would never let something like this go to waste. The theories ranged from a government conspiracy to aliens and even to ancient monsters out of Fleece legend. It said enough about his life and this world that the last one was the most plausible actually.
However, as the evening had set in he had returned to his tent, graciously provided by Ocean. It wasn’t much, just as bare bones as you could get it, really, the MRG could be surprisingly cheap at times, but it was sufficient for a good night sleep. Well, it would be if it weren’t for the people around him. Surprisingly, people that visited a music festival weren’t quite the quiet type, but instead much more geared towards massive parties and he really couldn’t blame them. A better opportunity wouldn’t really provide itself, right?
Still, he needed his sleep, and while he was up for a good party if the opportunity would present itself, he was right now far more interested in a good night of sleep. At least the music was good, but that also wasn’t a surprise, they were at a music festival, of course, the music would be good. Currently, three girls were performing with almost enchanting voices, they hit every note perfectly, and the crowd loved them, the only thing he was not a fan of what was the lyrics of the song, oh they sounded good, but the message kinda sucked. Following someone blindly, giving up agency and playing the loyal little lapdog, all in all, to become a complete toll sounded awful. Still, he wasn’t about to start a fight because he disliked the lyrics of a song, now would he and at least it sounded nice.
It didn’t really take too long till he had fallen asleep and the music was all but forgotten, well that was what he had hopped anyway, it almost felt like he could still hear it, even in his sleep, no matter how horrific the nightmare became. From having his identity reviled to the entire city, losing to a monster or seeing his friends die one after the other. And that wasn’t even the last one, there was one of a purple butterfly with the world slowly breaking apart around it, one with demonic purple eyes setting him ablaze and last a mirror, showing him in his rider form attacking civilians, but one thing was consistent, the song was still there.
It was already around twelve o’clock when he snapped out of his latest nightmare. Sweat was running down his entire body, and he was breathing heavy. The worst part, however, was the fact that he didn’t feel like he had slept for even a second, more so that he had been awake for the entire night, or at least a majority of it. He merely put it to the bad dreams he had, with all that time wasted he had no time to dwell on it for any longer really and even if he really didn’t want to drag himself out of his sleep sack and after a small breakfast headed out for a little bit more investigating.
But this again was rather fruitless, however, instead of hearing some information he had already known, everyone seemed to be way more rude and unfriendly than the day before. Instead of the friendly answers and information, he was greeted with rude remarks and ordered to piss off. Couldn’t be the weather, the sun was shining down on them just like yesterday. After what seemed like the twentieth person had rudely told him to bother someone else he had finally enough if no one was willing to help he would have just need to get help somewhere else and he knew exactly where to find it, hopefully.
It took him a few more minutes to finally find what he was looking for, a cyan tour bus with rainbows plastered all over it, parked in the section of the festival that was reserved for the bands that would be playing on the big stage. Leaning against the colorful vehicle was Timber, seemingly dosing of as Phoenix approached the young man. “Hey Timber, how is it going?” The teenager immediately jumped up, looking at him as if he was out of his mind, probably was just the shock. So that was how it felt from the other side, nice to know.
“Don’t do this again, ever. Do you know how this feels?” He stammered out, clutching his chest, all while breathing heavily.
“Oh, I do, Pinkie did the same thing to me yesterday, almost jumped out of my skin,” he chuckled back with a smile on his lips, approaching the young man as he was starting to calm down again.
“Oh, and why then do it to me?” He huffed back, crossing his arms and glaring at Phoenix.
“Ok, I got a really bad day, everyone at this damnd festival has suddenly decided to become an asshole, and I didn’t want to wait till you wake up, sorry. And even if I would have waited, staring at a teenager until he wakes up is defiantly considered wired, now is it?” He sighed back, his voice sounding exhausted.
“Oh, ok, if you really say so. What do you need and what are you doing here anyway? If it is about your secret, don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone about it,” he continued, his voice sounding more and more worried with every word he spoke.
“No, that is not it. Come a bit closer,” he said, gesturing him to step closer. After Timber reluctantly moved over to him, Phoenix continued: “Well, there have been reports of bands going missing and all four were attending this festival, or at least should. I was sent here to find out if there is something supernatural going on, but until now I haven’t found anything, so I wanted to ask you if you know anything about that, or if you have seen anything fishy at least.” He whispered into his ears, Timber slowly nodding.
“Oh, so this is not going to be peaceful get away with Twilight I expected, but no, I don’t know anything about these missing bands, maybe one of their replacements did it? I don’t know, I only know that everyone suddenly turned extremely rude overnight, they won’t even laugh at my jokes anymore, and they did that,” Timber returned, sighing in annoyance.
“So, you noticed it too? Yesterday everyone was having the time of his life, and today everyone just turned into Pinecone,” Timber looked at him with a raised eyebrow and confused expression. “Oh, right, you don’t know him, a grump who runs a shrine or something like that in the forest. Really unpleasant guy, but he has his moments, anyway, any idea why everyone suddenly turned into an asshole all of a sudden?” He merely shrugged, carefully looking around trying to spot anything suspicious, without much success.
“How are the girls? Are they affected?”
“No, Twilight and her friends are just as friendly as usual, well besides Rarity having a little shouting match with one of the other guests, but that was totally his fault, and she calmed down rather quickly after that. So, I would say they are fine.”
“Well, at least that, but if this is not just a unanimously shitty day that everyone agreed on, but just failed to notify us, I have the feeling that shit is going to hit the fan really, really soon, just a hunch though,” Phoenix sighed, let his body slam against the wall with a loud sigh and looked over to Timber with an exhausted expression. “So, any suggestions Timber? Right now I’m open to pretty much everything.”
He was about to answer when he heard someone screams across the crowd. “Where are the rest?” He looked up and saw a muscular man walking towards him, complete with short orange hair and pale skin. No, after a second look it seemed more like he was heading straight for him with a really bad temper, so nothing really that new when it came for today.
“Hey, Big Mac, how is it going? They said they wanted to wander around a bit, nothing unusual, did something happen?” Timber returned with a smile that quickly vanished as Big Mac grabbed him by the color and lifted him off the ground.
“Where are the girls?” He growled again, a distinct purple glare now showing in his eyes.
“Phoenix?” Timber quietly said in return, staring in shock at the farm boy that was currently holding just above the ground. Before he could get anything else out, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stomach, realizing Timber and staggering back a few steps.
“Hey, how about you stop that? I know everyone is somewhat pissed of today, for whatever reason, but there is no need to assault Timber here. He doesn’t know where the girls are and to be frank, if you are going to be in such a mood then I don’t think telling you where they are would be any good at all,” Phoenix casually returned, all while loosening his fist.
Big Mac merely growled at him and was consumed by bright blue. Seconds later it revealed what looked like a blue fisherman covered in turquoise armor and very large purple eyes.
The monster stomped towards Timber who let out a terrified scream: “Phoenix?” But as he looked over to where the man had just stood, he was nowhere to be seen. “Oh, right. Dammit,” he merely cursed and started to run in the opposite direction of the monster that was now chasing him.
What was weird was that the people didn’t seem bothered at all to get out of the way of the raging monster behind him, or at least for him, he had to drag himself through the ocean of people before him. Only when they could clearly see the beast that was chasing after him and after he had already passed did the finally decide to get out of the bloody way. However, the moment he diverted his attention from what was going on before him to look over his shoulder to see what the horrible monster was doing that someone placed his foot right there where he was going, with obvious results.
The moment he realized what was going on and where he was the Corrupted had already caught up to him. Turning around he could barely see how the Corrupted started to grab him again, or at least tried, because at this moment a crimson red foot kicked him right in the face, sending the beast flying right into a nearby tent which quickly collapsed on top of him.
“Hey, Glubschi, how about you stop this right here, give up and tell us what you did to the bands?” Alchemy was standing right before him, smugly pointing at the Corrupted while casually walking closer to the remains of the tent. “Sorry about the tent by the way,” he sheepishly added.
Meanwhile, Big Mac was getting up again and with a loud ear-bursting screech rushed towards Alchemy. He merely sighed, muttered something about this never working and headed for the impact. The moment the Corrupted was about to hit him head first in the stomach, he just stepped out of the way, caught the fin of the beast and with a quick tug pulled the monster back, right into a swift kick in the back.
“Ok, fight it is. Really, you have to be a bit better than this if you want to win here. It almost feels like that thing turned you into a monster… ahm, I mean one without a mind.” After he had finished, the Corrupted only screeched louder and began to claw at Alchemy like a wild animal, the Rider easily dodging every attack he threw at him.
After Big Mac had staggered forward after one particularly strong attack, Alchemy had used the opportunity to finally go the offensive, delivering a very well placed punch into the stomach of the monster. Not wanting to let the opportunity of the Corrupted staggering back go to waste h followed this up with a barrage of punches and kicks, slowly pushing him further and further back and with one last punch knocking him off his two feet and landing rather unceremoniously on his back.
“Well, that was easy, didn’t even put up much of a fight. Oh well, who cares really, I’m not complaining. So, let's finish’ this. Glubschi, you used the powers that were bestowed upon you to attack others and attacked four bands. By the magic that was bestowed upon me, I deem you unworthy of your powers and will now take them from you!”
\ Flame Disc Maximum Power! /
His leg started to glow in a bright red as he jumped up into the air, turned, so he faced the monster and shot down towards it, all while a flaming whirlwind of destruction quickly covered his form.
“Flaming Whirlwind Kick!”
After making impact with the Corrupted a massive explosion consumed the beast, just barely not scorching the bystanders that were surprisingly close to the action instead of doing the sensible thing and running like Tartarus. Big Mac was completely out of it and simply lying on the floor, but strangely there was no artifact to be found, maybe in his pocket or something.
“So, that should take care of that. You can move on, nothing more to see here.” But instead of following his orders the people just looked at him in total silence and with an unnerving expression on their faces. “Uhm, everything ok?” That was when the shouting started, loud boo shouts and complaining about the Rider, Timber quickly being shoved towards the middle of the crowd. “Oh, this does not bow well,” he sighed with a very nervous undertone in his voice.
“Couldn’t agree more,” Timber returned, now completely frighten by what was transpiring right before his eyes.
And then the worst part happened, all the eyes of the crowd started to glow a dark purple, the screaming only increased in volume, and they started to pour in on them. But it got even worse, a few in the crowd started to glow in dark blue light and within seconds at least ten more Corrupted, looking exactly like Big Mac had looked just a minute ago, were closing in on them.
Alchemy put it best with a simple, quiet: “Fuck!”