The monster was blocking Jack’s path. He had nowhere to run. Jack had been repairing a door to one of the outside gates of the city. The gate was a small side access that had very little traffic. The gate had been malfunctioning on and off again, and multiple mechanics who had gone to repair it couldn’t find the issue.
Was it smart enough to mess with the door hoping that eventually I would come?
It had been months since the beast was seen. He had really hoped he would never see it again. But now he could see it more clearly than ever before. It was grotesque. The monster appeared to be made of different people’s body parts and a bunch of machinery. The beast was the size of a horse. It had two large red gems that were its eyes. It had approximately 5 legs. Or more appropriately they should be called appendages. A couple of the limbs being used as legs were human arms. It had been so long since any sighting of the beast that they had stopped following Jack around. But he still had the device to ring for emergencies, so he pushed it. But he knew that would take them some time to get to where he was.
shit shit shit shit. Jack was panicking as he looked around wildly. Come on, anything. Is there anything that can help me out of this? The monster was staring right at him. It wasn’t moving. It seemed to just be sitting still watching him. Jack could clearly see both its eyes and the entire monster.
He couldn’t help but look over the nauseating body and attempt to count the different parts. He counted at least seven. The beast didn’t seem to have a mouth. It was a blob with just two big eyes. It seemed to be examining him. It slowly tilted to the side as it stared intently at Jack. It seemed as if it was staring at his leg. The exact spot he had absorbed the core. But it was hard to tell. Jack figured he was just imagining it. Movement behind the monster grabbed his attention. It was the human silhouette he had seen before. The human was standing safely behind the monstrosity. Jack just stood still. He didn’t want to make any sudden moves.
Fuck this. I’m not going down without a fight. He slowly started to create as much electricity as he could. He had been training his electricity control non-stop, and there was no way he was going to let this monster ruin his plans. The beast was still curiously examining him, it had gotten a little closer and it definitely seemed to be interested in his right leg. He stopped paying attention to anything and just continued to build electricity. His entire body started to burn, and his muscles trembled. his vision was going dark, and he could feel blood dripping from his nose. He had pushed himself to the limit a lot over the last couple of months and he had gotten pretty good at being able to tell when he was about to pass out. Just before he hit that mark, he let it out. Jack still didn’t have much control over his electricity, but fortunately, the beast had gotten nice and close, so he didn’t have to control it much.
He released the energy with a sigh as he dropped to one knee. The sound was so loud it instantly blew his eardrums. After that, it was silent, except for a ringing sound. Jack slowly lifted his head to see what his last stand had been able to achieve. The beast had been blown back straight into the human figure. Dust was swirling everywhere. the static electricity was still very high and tiny sparks would zap through the air pebble to pebble.
The monster had been blown back down the corridor from where it had come, but it slowly started to gather its wits. Jack still couldn’t hear anything, but it felt like everything was vibrating. His hands felt numb. The monster looked up at Jack and one of its eyes had clearly been destroyed. That’s when he finally saw its mouth. Oh god, the mouth. It was horrific. The entire side of the creature opened its side in a giant mechanical and fleshy maw. The teeth were mostly terrifying machine parts, while there was some sort of fat short tongue further in the mouth. Jack just stared in horror at the most disgusting thing he had ever seen. The abomination slowly rose on its limbs and started to scuttle toward Jack at an alarming rate. One eye looked shattered, but the other somehow looked angry. Jack tried to stand, but his legs were jelly. He just couldn’t get his weight under him. He was on one knee and just couldn’t stand up. He watched helplessly as the beast approached him. It was charging fast and didn’t seem interested in keeping him alive anymore. He started to just go limp. Fuck it, what’s the point. He felt himself start to give up the fight. He had survived and fought, night after night on the street, and he was exhausted. He didn’t want to fight anymore. Surprisingly then he thought of Gant. Gant had changed his life. He had helped him and taught him like a parent figure. fuck this. Jack got mad. He had lost his temper a couple of times throughout his life. Each one had ended poorly.
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But Jack didn’t care. He was pissed. Why me? He was working his butt off, and this monster was trying to hurt him. For no reason. The monster had been ruining his sleep, it had been giving him nightmares, Jack felt all his rage from a life of suffering. The rage engulfed him. He still couldn’t hear anything, but he could feel it. His entire body started emitting electricity. He was covered head to toe in a thick electric aura. Jack didn’t hold back, he felt the non-ending pit of despair and hopelessness he had been fighting against day and day again and he harnessed it with anger. He looked towards the abomination. It was only a few meters away and was about to be on him. Jack was screaming but he didn’t know it. All he knew was he wanted to destroy. The electricity screamed across the gap and into the beast. It shot forward in a perfectly straight beam. When it hit the monster it didn’t just stop, the beam melted through the flesh and metal, leaving a gaping cut in the beast.
The monster recoiled and flailed. It thrashed around in pain. Jack was still furious at it, but the blast he had sent out was way above and beyond anything, he should have been able to do. Still, he somehow felt some electricity left within him. Jack reached towards it and pointed towards the beast. He was about to shoot again when he saw the human figure, it was stumbling towards Jack. In surprise Jack misfired. His last shot veered off into the wall. Then he collapsed. His eyes lost focus as he saw the feet approaching him.
He awoke in a hospital bed. He slowly opened his eyes. For a moment Jack thought everything had just been a dream. He thought he was all the way back in Carcas and had just woken up from the alley. But then he noticed the smaller details of the room signaling it was the academy. He huffed a slow breath out as he tried to relax. Somehow, he had survived. The last thing he remembered was the incredibly disgusting abomination probably about to eat him.
A little while later a person came to check on him. It was Ms. Posie herself. “oh child, how are you?”
“The monster, I saw it. It was disgusting.”
“Oh, yes, a couple of people saw it. Maybe not as well as you but…. The descriptions that have been used are not pretty. What happened down there?”
“uh, I don’t really know. It had me cornered and was like examining me. I blasted it with everything I had. But… it didn’t seem to do much.”
“Well. I think I know the blast you’re talking about. You shorted a couple of blocks of the city, they are still working on fixing that. The blast you created was able to draw attention to your location. A couple of mechanics were nearby doing maintenance and quickly ran to the scene. Drewfus was the first one and he saw the monster. It was crawling toward your body when he started blasting it. After that, it fled down some tunnels. Somehow it keeps evading everyone.”
“What are we going to do about the monster?”
“Well…about that.”
“What?”
“While you were asleep Harriet Griffith woke up. It turns out she wasn’t attacked by the monster as we thought.”
“What?! What attacked her?” Jack asked confused.
“While hunting the beast she stumbled upon some mysterious figures underneath the city. Some people think it was Galan preparing for a coup. So, for the time being, it looks like the monster hunt will be put on hold. You won’t be getting any more maintenance shifts, but they won’t be giving you a guard either. They don’t have any to spare now with the threat of a coup.” Looking at Ms. Posie Jack could see the worry in her eyes. She looked like she had lost sleep and was exhausted. But then it was gone. She smiled and all the worry faded from her face. “Don’t you worry about a thing. I want you to rest up for now.” With that, she left. Eventually, Jack was let out of the hospital.