Chapter 21
“Thank you, Shayla,” Liz said as we came out of my memories, a happy look on her face.
“She looks happy,” Liles commented as he stood up, stretching his back. “Way happier than she was here.”
Liz stood up as well, moving to the kitchen, “I don’t know about you two, but I’m famished after that little trip down memory lane.”
“Make me something too,” Liles called after her, but she waved him off as she disappeared through the door. “She’ll make me something,” he chuckled, looking back at me as I sat there on the couch. “Hungry?”
“I could eat,” I replied as I stood up.
“Liz! Shayla wants something too!” he yelled towards the kitchen.
“Yeah!” she called back.
“Want to see the workshop?” he asked with a wide smile.
I just shrugged and stood up, “sure.”
He led me down a hallway to a dirty garage that was in absolute chaos, with spilled boxes of weapons parts everywhere. There’s no way anyone could navigate this mess.
“What do you think?” he asked with a wide smile.
“It’s…” I started, glancing around, “a mess.”
He laughed and nodded, “yeah, but I know where every item in this shop is, and that’s what counts.” With that he stepped over to a workbench with a disassembled gun on it and began to tinker with it.
Stepping up next to him, I watched him work.
“So,” I finally began after a minute, “do you guys know how i can get back to my home dimension?”
Liles turned and blinked at me a few times, seeming to rack his brain for an answer. “I’m sorry, kiddo. I don’t.”
“How’d my mom leave?”
“We don’t know, she never talked to us after she left. We only knew she left the dimension like her brother because a family friend had helped her at some point.”
“Where’s this family friend?” I asked, realizing this person would probably know.
“Dead,” he answered with a sigh. “Died during all the fighting.”
“Oh,” I said, lowering my head. Now what?
He reached over and patted my shoulder, “hey, cheer up! This is Frokinko, one of the largest cities on Eris! If someone could help you, they’d be here.”
“Okay, but this place is massive, where would I even start?”
“At the base of the tree, near Elevator eighty nine, there’s a large district called the Social District, it’s the only place where the rich folk come down and mingle with us poor folk. If anyone knows, they’d be there.”
New Quest! ‘Rank E: Go to the Social District.’
“How do I get there?” I asked, seeing Rosemary walk around the room examining things.
Liles chuckled, “getting there is easy, but actually getting in is hard. You need to get a VIP access card, or be invited in by someone already inside.” Sensing I was about to ask a question, he continued, “I’ll be honest with you, Shayla, getting a VIP access card is hard. They’re only given to merchants and people the rich folk like. The Social District may be the mingling point for the rich and poor, but it’s still fully controlled by the higher ups, so they keep out the… undesirables.”
“Don’t you guys have one? Or can get one, you’re store owners,” I offered, gesturing to the workshop around us.
“Shay, I don’t know if you’ve seen our shop, but we’re not exactly doing that well. Especially not good enough for a VIP access card,” he said with a frown. “The only way I can think of getting one is to either steal one or earn one through hard work.”
“Stealing is easy,” I said with a sly smirk.
“Maybe where you’re from, but an item like that would be kept in someone's Vacuole, and the only way to get it from there is to kill them or find someone able to reach into others Vacuole’s and steal it. Honestly, neither option is pleasant for the victim.”
“How do I earn one then?” I asked with a frown.
He just sighed at this, shaking his head, “not in a way you’d be comfortable with. It usually requires you to do some unsavory things for some rich pricks, and I highly suggest you avoid getting into debt with any of them.”
“Well, is there any other way you can think of? I need to get home…”
“Shayla,” he began, but saw the puppy dog eyes I was giving him. “I’ll look into it.”
New Quest! ‘Rank A: Gain Access to the Social District!”
Well this isn’t going to be as simple as I’d hoped it would be.
“We should get out there and do some looking of our own,” Rosemary suggested as she walked back over to me. “There’s no point just sitting around here and waiting for something to happen.”
I nod at her, as those were my thoughts exactly. “Thanks, I’m going to head out and check out the nearby city.”
“We may be safe in the city with the tree blocking out most of the night sky, but the Frokinko Lowercity is extremely dangerous after dark. The authorities don’t even police the Lowercity at night anymore, so it’s a free for all out there. So stay here till morning, for us. We’d worry too much if you were out there this late,” he warned as he looked at me with pleading eyes.
Letting out a groan, I shrug, “I guess. Where am I sleeping then?”
“We have a spare bedroom upstairs,” he said with a smile. “I’m sure Liz will set it up for you if you ask.”
“Stop volunteering me for things, you old man,” Liz said as she stepped into the workshop with three plates in her hands. She handed one to me and Liles, then sat down on a stool. “But I’ll help you get settled in, Shayla.”
“Thanks,” I said as I took the sandwich from the plate and took a bite. Shit, that’s got a weird but amazing taste to it! Fruity meat flavor.
“Don’t mention it,” she chuckled as she ate her own food.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Ready?” Scamp asked as Spark walked through the front door.
He had nothing on him but his saddlebags, “yep. Starlight is pissed, but she knows Shayla needs our help so she’s not going to stop me.”
“For real, thank you, Spark,” Mallogory said with a thankful smile on her face.
Spark just smiled at her and waved her off, “you guys are my family. I’d do anything for you all.”
Scamp walked over and gave him a quick hug before looking at Mallogory. “Let’s go get our daughter.”
With a nod, Mallogory raised the dagger and opened a portal, but before stepping through it, she looked at Scamp. “Bronwyn has not responded yet?”
Checking a communicator device, she just shook her head, “no. She must be busy or something. We’ll have to go without her.”
“I’d rather she be with us,” she said as she stepped through the portal, followed by the other two.
They found themselves in a very colorful void with nothing around them.
“Uh, Mallo? Is this the right place?” Scamp asked in confusion, looking around with a sour look on her face.
“It’s not,” she answered, just as confused. “I don’t know where we are…”
Without warning a strange being appeared in the middle of the three, a happy expression on its mask-like face.
“Oh shit!” Scamp yelped, dashing back and getting into a fighting stance, followed by the others.
But the colorful being didn’t react to them, just giggled and looked at Mallogory. “Ah, little Mallo returns home! I bet you had some fun out there, huh?”
Mallogory just blinked at her in confusion, “How do you know my name?”
The thing, which looked like a scarecrow, just smiled at her. “We’ve met before, but I wiped those memories from you, hon.”
“What is this?” Scamp asked, glaring at the scarecrow, looking ready to attack.
The colorful scarecrow turned to her and gave a little twirl. “Both parents? I’m assuming you’re both looking for little Shayla?”
“Where is she?!” Scamp yelled, not liking that this thing knew their daughter.
“She’s safe,” it assures them with a gleeful giggle.
“Where is she?!” Scamp repeated, taking a few steps towards the scarecrow..
Before she reached it, it spun around and disappeared, reappearing next to Spark. “You’re a strange one, hon. What’s this power I sense in you?”
Spark just smiled awkwardly, side stepping away from the colorful thing, not answering it.
This caused the thing to laugh, seeming to roll its eyes, “I’m not going to hurt ya’ll. I’m just making sure of your intentions. No need for this hostility.”
“Then start talking, where is our daughter?” Mallogory asked, cracking her knuckles.
“Frokinko, babe,” the scarecrow replied casually, causing Mallogory to frown. “It’s worse than you remember, hon. You’ve missed a lot since you’ve been gone.”
“Send us to Frokinko then,” Scamp demanded, but only got a giggle in response.
“I’m going to enjoy following your adventures,” the scarecrow remarked, then gestured to the dagger in Mallogory’s hand. “You’re not going to remember this, but this dimension is going into lockdown very soon. The Bossman is in one of his moods and is paranoid, so he’s turning off dimensional travel as a precaution. No idea when he’ll turn it back on though. So that won’t be of any use to you for a long while.”
“I don’t care, I just want to get to our daughter,” Scamp said, spitting onto the ground.
The scarecrow laughed at her actions, “I like you, hon. To bad you all won’t remember me, Vivi.”
In an instant the other two disappeared, leaving just Scamp and Vivi.
“Oh, you’re a very weird one, hon,” Vivi said, sliding up in front of Scamp. “I can’t erase your memories.”
“Good,” Scamp said with narrowed eyes.
“Now normally, I’d just send you away and not let you enter,” she started, causing a sneer to slowly appear on Scamp’s face. “But I want to see where this’ll go. So, good luck finding Shayla!”
Before she could respond, Scamp found herself suddenly standing in a dark forest of towering grass and rocks, with the other two looking around.
“There you are!” Mallogory said as she turned to face her wife. “We were worried you didn’t make it through the portal in time.”
“No, that scarecrow thing just held me up,” she said, getting confused looks from them. “Ah right, you don’t remember that apparently.”
“What?” Spark asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Don’t worry about it, it’s not important,” Scamp said, waving their concern off. “We need to go to Frokinko, that’s where Shayla is.”
“What? How do you know that?” Mallogory asked with a look of disbelief.
“Okay look, we got stopped by something I guess is the guardian of this dimension and they told us where Shayla was, but it then wiped your memories,” Scamp said, clearly not happy having to explain everything.
“But not yours?” Spark asked.
“Nope, apparently it couldn’t for whatever reason. Can we get going?”
Mallogory looked around and sighed, “we can, but I don’t even know where we are.” She then looked at Scamp and pointed up. “Fly up real quick and see if you can see a massive tree anywhere near us. And by massive, I mean massive.”
With a salute Scamp took to the air and flew up high above the tall grass, looking around the area. It was dark, but the moonlight above gave enough light to see a few large trees all around them in the distance. But one stuck out the most, as it towered above all else, even mountains. It was far away, its sheer size the only reason she could even see it. To make it worse, it was on the other side of what looked like an ocean. The only good news was that the landmass they were on was connected to the one the tree was on, and there seemed to be what looked like railroads lining the land.
Behind her, she saw what looked to be a massive and impressive city. It wasn’t that far away, just a few hours walk.
Her eyes caught a glimpse of the moon above her, causing her to look up and frown at the skull-like moon above them.
From what Mallogory said it hurts to look at, and you definitely shouldn’t keep looking at it. But just staring at it didn’t seem to bother Scamp, so she just stared at it with a raised eyebrow.
“Ugly thing,” she muttered, shuttering a bit as it looked like its gaze shifted to her.
Deciding to move on, she flew back down to her two companions and landed before them.
“So?” Mallgory asked expectantly.
“Yeah, I saw the tree. But it’s very far away. Like it’d take me a few days of flying just to get too,” Scamp said with a frown.
“Great, did you see any towns?”
Scamp gave a nod and pointed behind herself, “yeah, a big one right over there, it’s near the ocean.”
With a quick glance around, Mallogory gave a nod. “Okay, well we need to get moving. I don’t want to have to deal with any Rust or other unsavory things right now.”
“That moon is creepy,” Spark muttered, looking away from the moon he’d just been staring at and rubbing his nose, which was bleeding a bit.
“Yeah, don’t even look at it, Spark,” Mallogory warned. “It’s dangerous to look at.”
“Wait, I just stared at it, am I going to be okay?!” he asked with a touch of panic.
She just chuckled at him as she began to walk in the direction of the city Scamp had pointed out, “you’ll be fine. Just looking at it for a bit will just cause headaches, nose bleeds, feeling sick, and if you’re unlucky, mania. But you look fine, so don’t worry about it. Just avoid looking at it in the future.”
“Can do,” he said, following after her as Scamp took up the rear.
Scamp growled a bit as she thought to herself. That scarecrow could have put them closer to that tree. What kind of game was it playing? Acting caring but then doing something like this?
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Okay okay, we’re going,” Domitor said as he and Floria were pushed out the front doors and into the dark streets.
Floria just laughed as they were pushed outside, turning and giving them a bow. “Thank you for your hospitality!”
The man who had done most of the pushing just growled at them and slammed the doors to the Fun Palace.
Once they were alone, she turned to Domitor, giving him a happy smirk. “Have fun?”
He blinked at her then grined, “I did, till you got in a fight with the birthday boy.”
“What? He was being a brat, saying the big trampoline was reserved for just his friends. I had to put him in his place!” she protested, still smirking as she put her hands in her pockets.
“He was a child for one,” Domitor replied, chuckling at her shrug. “And two, it was his birthday. Coulda just let him have his day.”
“Nah, that’s not as fun,” she said with a wide smile that quickly faded as she looked past him, seeing Lenrick walking towards them.
“There you two are, I was starting to wonder if you’d run off to fuck or something,” he said crudely, winking at Floria. She just frowned back at him and turned her gaze to Domitor.
“Finally done?” Domitor asked, turning to face his friend.
“Oh yeah,” the man laughed with a wide smile. “This place is amazing, that’s for sure.” Then he let out a very loud yawn as he stretched his arms up, “now, we need to find a place to sleep, because these Kejtdra sure take a lot of you. You can just keep on pumping and they’ll-”
“That’s enough info,” Domitor interrupted, causing the man to laugh again. “I guess we can find an alley way or something.”
“Seriously?” Floria asked, rolling her eyes. “I’m right here and you’re talking about sleeping in an alleyway?”
“Why? Do you have a place of your own?” Lenrick asked, smirking at her.
She looked at him and raised her hand, flipping him off, “yep, sure do, creepy fuck.”
This only caused him to howl with laughter as he slapped his knee, “I like you even more now! You know how to pick ‘em, Dom!”
“Geez,” Domitor groaned, shaking his head with a frown.
Returning her hand to her pocket she spun around and began walking down the street at a leisure pace. “Well, come on you two.”
Lenrick leaned down and whispered into Domitor’s ear, “hey kid, are you interested in her at all?”
“No,” Domitor groaned, hating having to answer this question over and over again.
“Good, mind if I fuck her tonight?” he asked, a wide grin on his face.
“I don’t think she’s up for that,” Domitor replied.
This didn’t remove the man’s gleeful look, “they always come around, kid. Thanks for the permission.”
“I didn’t give you permission, I think she has to be the one to give that,” Domitor said, his eye twitching a bit for some reason.
But Lenrick just laughed and slapped his back as he stood up and followed after her.
This interaction didn’t sit well with Domitor, but he wasn’t sure how to react to it, or how to process it. So he just pushed it to the back of his mind and followed after his two friends.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Don’t judge the mess,” Floria said as they walked down the hallway, walking past other apartment doors. She came to a stop in front of one that had spray painted designs all over it, mostly angry smiling faces with their tongues sticking out.
She pushed the door open and walked in, throwing her arms out wide. “Welcome to my little slice of paradise!”
Domitor frowned as he stepped into the apartment, stepping over a lot of soda cans, bottles, and food cartons. The apartment was a complete mess, with trash piled up in the corners and all kinds of junk scattered across the floor.
“Damn girl, you live like this?” Lenrick exclaimed, kicking a pile of clothes and trash over.
“Yeah, I gots issues,” she laughed, moving to the couch, which had clothes and trash on it as well. She knocked it all off and waved for them to sit down.
“I did not expect this…” Domitor muttered as he and Lenrick walked over and sat down on the couch as she moved back to the kitchen.
“Hungry?” She asked, opening a fridge, which Domitor could see was basically empty.
“I’m good,” they both said at the same time, causing her to roll her eyes.
Lenrick leaned down and whispered to Domitor again, “this bitch is crazy. She said she has issues, and I wholeheartedly agree with her.”
“Be nice,” Domitor whispered, watching her go through her food, sniffing at it and frowning at it, dumping it into the sink.
“Well, I’m still going to try and score,” Lenrick said, causing Domitor to sigh.
“Okay, so I don’t actually have any edible food, so I can head out and grab some,” she said as she walked back over to them.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lenrick said as he opened his pocket dimension and pulled out a bag. “I’ll cover dinner tonight.” He tossed the bag to her, causing her to raise an eyebrow as she opened it and revealed all kinds of foods within it.
“Oh wow… I’ve never seen food like this before,” she said in awe, shifting through the packaged food items.
The man leaned back and smirked at her reaction, “yep, I guess that’d be considered exotic food for someone like you. It’s all instant, so just squeeze and shake it, and it’ll cook in a minute.”
She threw the bag down on the messy coffee table in front of the couch and began pulling out all kinds of foods, squeezing and shaking them all as she went. Each package began to smoke a bit as it cooked the contents.
“Well don’t eat it all,” Lenrick said as he leaned forward and grabbed a few packages for himself.
“Thanks, Lenrick,” Domitor said as he too took some food for himself.
“I got you guys,” Lenrick said, giving a wink to Floria.
She just sighed and ripped open a package once it stopped smoking, dumping the food into her mouth. “WOW!” she exclaimed with wide eyes as she dumped the rest into her mouth greedily. “This tastes so much better than takeout!”
“I’d hope so,” Lenrick laughed, using his fingers to shovel food into his own mouth. “This shit is hard to come by nowadays. The dimension they come from was destroyed by my boss.”
This didn’t seem to set well with Floria, but she held her tongue, as she had something else she wanted to ask and didn’t want to anger him yet. “So, that little pocket dimension you have, got anything cool inside it?”
“Why, want something?” he asked, a wide smile on his face as he looked at her.
She rolled her eyes, opening another package and eating the contents. “Not if you’re going to be creepy about it.”
“Fine,” he conceded, raising a hand.
“Do you have any cool books?” she asked carefully.
“Books?” he asked with a raised eyebrow, then started laughing. “I don’t carry books around with me! What are you? Some kinda nerd?”
A small sigh escaped her lips as she finished off her food and moved to the next one. “Just wondering is all.”
Domitor bumped his elbow against Lenrick, shaking his head at him.
Rolling his eyes, Lenrick opened the pocket dimension, “Okay, I’m sorry, that was rude of me, I guess. Want me to make it up to you?”
“You can try,” she replied, not even looking at him anymore.
“If you’re going to roll with us, I guess you need a real weapon,” he said, grabbing the edges of his pocket dimension and pulling them open wider as he reached in and pulled out a little device and tossed it onto the table before them. “Go ahead and pick something out.”
Floria looked at the device with a suspicious look as she grabbed it and looked at it. The screen seemed to display all kinds of weapons and their descriptions. “Oh… what?”
“Cool, huh?” he asked, smirking slyly at her reaction as she began to scroll through it.
She didn’t respond as she stared in awe at the device, scrolling slowly as she read each entry.
Lenrick bumped Domitor to get his attention. When he looked at his friend, the man made a vulgar gesture with his hands then pointed to the entranced Kejtdra woman.
This only made Domitor feel weird, as he didn’t like the way his friend was acting towards his other friend.
“Please stop that,” Domitor said in a low tone, causing the man to raise an eyebrow, then shrug.
“Sure, buddy.”
“This one,” she suddenly said, tossing the device back to Lenrick, who caught it and flipped it to face himself.
“What? This one? It’s way too big for you,” he said, shaking his head.
“Nah, its perfect,” she said confidently, putting her hands behind her head.
“It’s like over half your size though,” he countered, but she just shrugged. A smile appeared on his face, “so the lady likes them big?”
She made a finger gun gesture at him, smirking as she did so.
“Alright then,” he laughed, reaching into his pocket dimension and pulled out a rather large weapon, causing Domitor’s eyes to widen.
This thing was intimidating to look at. It didn’t have a stock like a normal rifle, but it had an enclosed space around the handle, allowing the user to spin it around their hand if they wanted to for whatever reason. The gun itself was large, with six power cells running down both sides of it. It was a bit bulky, and heavy looking. The barrel itself stuck a few inches out of the handguard, and looked pretty large, making it look like either a shotgun or cannon.
“Good ol’ Ego Blaster. This thing is unbonded, so you’re lucky, since it’ll bond with you perfectly. Just know, this thing packs a punch, and if you fire it at full power it’ll throw you all over the place,” he said, giving it a twirl and tossing it to her.
She caught it and smiled widely, taking it by the grip and spinning it, surprising Lenrick.
“That thing is heavy, and you’re just tossing it around like I would,” he said in awe, watching her get a feel for the gun.
“Yep, I’m pretty strong for my size,” she remarked, racking the slide and looking into the chamber. “Got the ammo for this thing?”
Without answer, he reached into pocket dimension and pulled out a weird device that had a few large shotgun style shells sticking out of it. “Sure do. This is a replicator, and makes an infinite amount of whatever you put in it. This bullet,” he said, pointing to one of the shells, “is a one of a kind. It’s an Ego Shell created by some guy, and he put his entire Soul into it, so now it’s got all kinds of properties to it. Downside is there is only one, hence why it’s in this Replicator. Do not take the original out of this thing, or it’ll fall apart.”
He tossed it to her and she caught it, smiling at the device she now held. A jelly like substance covered it, causing it to disappear into her Vacuole. She then flipped the gun over and began to slap her hand against the chamber, seeming to load shells into it as she pulled them from her Vacuole.
With a loud rack, she pumped the Ego Blaster, putting a round in the chamber. “Oh this is badass,” she said with a wide smile as she continued to flip the gun around her hand, enjoying herself.
“Careful, damn it,” Lenrick said in annoyance as the gun’s barrel spun in his direction the most.
She stopped, and sat down, the Ego Blaster disappearing into her Vacuole as well. Without a word of thanks, she went back to eating.
“If you pull the trigger, it’ll fire normally,” he said, shaking his head at her. “If you hold down the trigger, you can charge up a more powerful shot. But it’ll throw your tiny self all over the place.”
“I got it,” she said, finishing her food.
Domitor finished his food as well, a bit happy his two friends seemed to be getting along at least somewhat.
“So, where we sleeping tonight?” Lenrick asked suddenly, staring at her.
“You’re sleeping out here,” she said to Lenrick, nodding her head to the couch.
This brought a frown to his face, but he didn’t protest.
“And me?” Domitor asked, looking at the floor as he started to consider just going back out and finding an alleyway instead. He didn’t like the idea of sleeping down there on the dirty floor.
“I got a special place for you,” she laughed as she stood up and walked over to a pile of clothes and pulled out a blanket and pillow. With a grunt, she tossed them at Lenrick, who caught them and shook his head.
“I have my own, thank you,” he said, pulling his own blankets and pillows out of his pocket dimension.
She walked past the couch and opened a door that lead into another room. “Come on, Dom.”
Reluctantly, he stood up and followed her, finding himself in her bed room.
Just like the living room and kitchen, it was a mess. However there was no food in this room. Just all kinds of other junk and personal supplies.
Floria stepped over to the bed and cleared off some of her clothes and stuff. She then patted the bed, waving for him to come over.
“I… don’t feel comfortable sleeping in the same bed,” he said carefully, causing her to roll her eyes.
“We’re not sleeping in the same bed, dumb dumb,” she said as she grabbed one of the pillows off the bed and tossed it onto a couch that sat across from the bed. “I’m sleeping on the couch, and you’re in the bed.”
“And I’m not taking your bed from you,” he added, shaking his head.
“Shut up and let me be nice,” she grunted, moving to the couch and setting it up to sleep on.
He didn’t like this, as he felt like burden all of a sudden. “I’m okay sleeping on the couch.”
“So am I, so bleh!” she said, walking past him and out into the living room. “You done for the night, Lenrick?”
“I guess so,” was his response as she returned back into the bedroom and closed the door.
“I don’t know about you, Dom,” she said, her jacket disappearing as she put it away in her Vacuole, along with her shoes and pants. “But I’m beat. See you in the morning.”
Domitor looked away from her, as she only had on underwear, and frowned. “Couldn’t you’ve waited to get undressed when I wasn’t looking?”
“I don’t care,” she laughed, jumping on the couch and pulling up a blanket. “So are you a loud sleeper?”
“A what” he asked, moving to the bed and leaning down to sniff it, hoping it didn’t smell bad. Luckily, it didn’t smell as bad as he had thought it would, so he removed his bags and carefully climbed into bed.
“You know, snoring and all that shit? Do you sleep walk?” she asked, putting her hands behind her head.
“No?” he replied, staring up at the light above them, as it was still on.
“Good, because I’d hate to have to smother you to keep you quiet,” she said casually. After a moment she laughed, “I’m joking, by the way.”
“I figured,” he replied.
She raised her hand and threw a shoe at the wall, hitting the light switch and turning it off.
“Classy,” Domitor muttered, rolling over onto his side as he tried to get comfortable.
He had to admit, this was probably the most interesting place he’s ever had to sleep. And he’d just been in the house of a dead family the night before.