Roast chicken, lechon, queso de bola, BBQ, and various other meats and veggies are set on the table, beautifully and eloquently as possible, but the atmosphere was silent and felt suffocating.

"Well?" asked a younger Beatle, facing his family.

His Aunt looks distraught.

His mother looks heartbroken.

His father looks ashamed.

They all sat on the table, with the rest dumbfounded but with Beatle having a shaky breath.

Beatle just stares at them with disgust. "You idiots made me vote for him. That motherfucker."

"Why are you blaming us that you got cruci-?"

"SHUT UP!!!" roared Beatle. "Every Goddamned vote counts."

"It was 7 to 3."

"BECAUSE DAD CAMPAIGNED FOR HIM!!! That motherfucker was a bad apple since the beginning and look-..." He puts his finger through his hand into the holes in his palm. "-...WHERE THAT GOT ME!!!"

"You blame us for voting for the wrong leader?"

"I BLAME YOU FOR NEVER BEING ON MY SIDE IN THE FIRST PLACE!!! And you have the gall to ask me to have NOCHE BUENA WITH YOU!!!"

"We thought Dingdong Narciso was a good man," said his father. "There was a prophecy. They said, there was a prophecy."

"Jesus Christ, Dad," sighed Beatle.

"Joseph, please," said Mary, his mother.

"No, no! Let him finish! About that fake-ass Ilocano prophecy where if that MOTHERFUCKER wins, the Philippines will have some kinda big thing going on!"

"They said change will happen if he enters into such a position. That he'd change everything. He did. His death... did..."

"You're justifying WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO ME!?!? I WAS STABBED BY AURORA IN THE HEART!!! WITH A FUCKMOTHERING TRIDENT!!! I DIED, DAD!!!"

"Yeah. And now, you saved the day! Didn't you want that?"

"All I wanted was to make you proud, Dad! Make you LOVE ME... UNCONDITIONALLY!!!"

"I do love you! You're the Son of God!"

"You love me NOW because I'm the Son of God! Love me like I'M YOUR SON, ASSHOLE!!! The moment I didn't follow your conditions and I stepped out, you hated me. Didn't you? And now that I'm this BIG SHOT that you CARE!!!"

"Y'know, big talk for someone I paid his allowance for."

"You started paying only when I was in college."

His father walks away. "I'm gonna watch Television."

Beatle's eyes quiver with his heart quenching in pain...

Today...

Beatle stares at the bleak sky while they stay inside a jeepney bus trying to escape the harsh environment of Dystopian Philippines. "900 years of suffering because the people chose the wrong leader. Fuck."

Billy is asleep, arms crossed on his chest, and pale as the snow outside.

Prometheus smiled as he tapped the tips of the prongs of his fork on the skin of his baked milk-fed lechon. "This little piggy's name is Oliver. Milk-fed 'im myself! Now, he's readay for mah bellay!" he sneered, crushing the small lechon with his plate by slamming it into its back and biting its delicious hard skin and its flesh. "MMM!!! Eat lil piggy ain't no BIGGIE!!!"

"Will you PLEASE take this just a BIT more seriously, Mr. Mouthbreathing Sadist Pig Torturer!?!?" asked Beatle.

"I suggest you shut the fuck up, Beatle. I'm tryna enjoy my CHILD PIGGY MEAT!!!" roared Prometheus.

"That could cancel you outta context," said Beatle.

"Will you two shut up?" sighed Death Leopard, typing into the jeep's built-in laptop. "I'm getting a signal from more than 800 years ago."

"What signal?" asked Beatle.

Beatle and Prometheus checked out the laptop.

"There's signs of metaphysical dark matter exactly at our 12:00. It exudes a certain amount of quantum time-space forming a sort of hyperbolic chamber that creates a spatio-temporal fungus."

"I'm sorry, what the fuck?" asked Beatle.

"LAME MAN'S TERMS, PLEASE!!!" sighed Prometheus.

Death Leopard sighs. "In LAYMAN'S terms... There's a weird reality-warping uh... fungus field in front of us with the ability to ALMOST merge together space and time."

"So... in other words... gesundheit," said Beatle, as Prometheus laughs and high fives him.

"It's... likely that the Splooge creates a room it stays in for the Aswang blood to multiply infinitely by bending space-time. It amplifies its properties and it also expands its existence indefinitely, creating a highly concentrated fuel AND mutagen known as the Splooge. The fuel this world uses right now... The blood of our enemies... it's just... shrooms that amplify the magical properties of the blood," said Death Leopard. "Zero-point energy. Temporal flux. It literally allows anyone who has this mutated blood to have the ability to bend reality itself, while also creating enough energy to fuel a planet. A drop from this stuff is... significant."

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"In other words, that stuff is very precious and it's made by killing Aswangs."

"Don't you understand?" asked Death Leopard. "This blood is significant to save EVERY single world from the fuel crisis and Aurora, your ex, has it all to herself. Like sea shells hidden in an island to keep its rarity strong. This is the most precious material in the uni-... No... MULTIVERSE!!! We could use it to save infinite amounts of lives!!!"

"My adoptive grandson, who is my own variant, IS an Aswang. Their agenda is to kill him and use his body to manufacture the Splooge."

"So why won't you? Kidding, of course-..." asked Death Leopard, as Prometheus punched Death Leopard in the face.

Death Leopard tries fighting back but is trapped in a Death Leopard-shaped bubble.

Prometheus stares at Death Leopard with seething rage while he slowly suffocates.

"Prometheus. He was trying to make a joke. You know how Tyrone works, right?" asked Beatle.

Black Sabbath, Panthera, and Green Day just stare while Beatle tries to calm Prometheus down.

"Prometheus? PRO!!!"

Prometheus deactivates the bubble.

Prometheus grabs Death Leopard by the neck. "I always wanted you dead. You're annoying jabberings... Your inability to accept my existence... And now you dare threaten my-?"

"Death Leopard w-w-was only trying to help," said Green Day. "Please. Calm down."

"SHUT UP, JED!!!" roared Prometheus, using his original name.

Panthera, who was driving, opens his mouth.

"I SWEAR TO GOD, CHRIS!!!" Prometheus turned to him.

"I know you hate us because we're the closest versions to the ones who betrayed you but please, Prometheus," said Black Sabbath, sternly. "Do you want me to apologize to you for what I did with Tyrone? HUH!?!?" asked Black Sabbath, as Beatle facepalmed and looked away.

"You're not Anne," said Prometheus, walking away and letting go.

Prometheus sits at the back of the jeep. "Why do you put up with these people, Beatle? Jedan and Chris betrayed you by abandoning you that night in Prom while you were beaten to near death by Tyrone. AND SHE... FUCKED TYRONE WHILE YOU WERE TRAPPED IN THE CLOSET!!! FORCED TO HEAR ALL OF IT!!! WHY DO YOU STILL CARE!?!? BECAUSE THAT'S YOUR PURPOSE!?!? No, Beatle. NO!!! NO, NO, NO!!! No... You... Aren't... anything... They should be NOTHING to you!"

"We could've been Aurora, Pro," said Beatle. "Would you rather that you became her instead?"

Prometheus scoffs and teleports outside, standing on the roof. "FUCK!!!" He falls to his knees and grumbles angrily.

"Look... We can all just calm-..." The jeep slams its headlights head-on as Panthera screams girlishly. "HOLY SHIT!!! HOLY SHIT, I JUST KILLED A GUY!!!"

Green Day smacks the shit outta him. "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, MAN!!!"

"Yeah. Because you two idiots are checking it out," said Black Sabbath.

"WHAT!?!?"

"Shotgun and driver's seat. Go on, jerks," said Death Leopard. Death Leopard then whispers something into Beatle's ear, while Beatle nods. Prometheus senses something vexing and walks away.

The pair walks out into the cold and shivering snow. The pair wore their leathery snow boots and furry snow hats with silly cute little stickers stuck onto Panthera's bag casing. They see a dead person in a blighted wild cornfield with various fungi growing about.

"Hey... Wake up," said Green Day. "Yo. Dude?"

Panthera panics. "What the HELL are we going to do!?!?"

"CALM THE SHIT DOWN!!! The person who runs this damned nation is a tyrant. She won't ca-! OH SHIT!!!"

The man stands right back up and is revealed to have a strange fungus growing out of his head. He vomits strange spores all over the ground as the pair run back into the jeep.

"Ghouls," said Prometheus.

Gabrielle's eyes widen. "Ghouls..."

Billy slowly opens his eyes. "What's... happening... exactly...? WHOA!!!"

The Ghoul slams its head over and over in front of fthe bulletproof glass of the armored jeep. It squeals and shrieks like an animal, licking its tongue as strange maggot-like critters leave his gaping orifice of a mouth.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS!?!?" asked Billy.

Beatle hugs her. "You're ALIVE!!!" he sobbed, only for the Ghoul to screech outside.

Prometheus, who is outside, creates a bubble gauntlet and blows up his head with a single punch. Prometheus, on the hood of the armored jeep, turns to them and roars. "DRIVE!!!"

Prometheus backflips to the roof and Panthera floors it.

"WHY ARE WE DRIVING!?!?" asked Panthera.

"Trust Prometheus," said Beatle. "Drive when he tells you..."

"Sir, yes sir," said Panthera, as Beatle opens a bubble portal and lands next to Prometheus.

The Ghouls didn't have eyes, and needed to make clicking noises in the dark to navigate. They have mushroom tops for heads and have fangs. They crawl on all fours and have bat wings on their backs, with monkey's tails, and their animalistic instincts causing them to crouch like apes and screech like them as well. They have claws and grotesque wrinkly skin, with yellowish butter-like puss for sweat each puffing up like spores. They scream and shake their heads as they crawl around chasing toward the jeep.

"Oh... That's why," said Panthera.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE THINGS!??" asked Billy.

"Ghouls," said Death Leopard. "They have a variant of the Heaven's Truffle Strain experimented on by Aurora's Singaporean Bioweapons team meant to create the perfect Splooge variant. Instead, Aurora turned them into her perfect... distractions... for Omegas like us..."

Black Sabbath prepared spreading her wings.

"Mom, NO!!!" yelled Gabrielle.

Black Sabbath kisses her forehead. "I'll just look around and guide the bus, okay? Don't worry. I can still kill those things."

"What are they?" asked Billy.

"Humans. Imperfectly mutated by the Proto Splooge, AKA AB-Strain-X12. Turned them into Aswangs instead of Mutants like us."

"ACTIVATE YOUR HIMALA, BEATLE!!!" roared Prometheus.

"Wait..." said Beatle, as he points his blasters and kills several of the Ghouls.

"You still on with that dumbass weakness of yours!?"

"The more I use it the less human I become in that form," growled Beatle.

"All the better," said Prometheus, as he blasted bubbles out and they exploded each, killing the critters.

"And what? Become like you?" asked Beatle.

Prometheus smirks. "Best course of events, Beatz."

The Ghouls begin crawling up as Beatle shoots them dead with his Cainmaker.

The Ghouls screech and growl at Prometheus who kicks them dead.

They click as they crawl up the jeep, charging, only for them to decide to hide back in the cornfield.

"Fuck..." said Beatle. "Sabbath?"

Black Sabbath lands next to Beatle. "Their hive mind is strategizing..."

They each do rhythmic clicking and croaking heard across the entire cornfield.

The Group then sees a tsunami horde of disgusting Ghouls.

"It's the Ghoul Hive," said Beatle, as the Mushrooms left their heads, flying like fungal wasps, burrowing down to the cold snowy soil, and be seen infecting corpses buried deep underground, each of the corpses regenerating and turning violent.

"KEEP DRIVING, BEFORE FUEL GETS INFECTED!!!" roared Beatle. "I don't want another damned cleansing in this GODDAMNED team!!!"

Beatle keeps on blasting them dead, one by one tearing their bodies to pieces.

Prometheus yells. "DO IT NOW!!!"

Suddenly, they see a gigantic pulsating brain-like creature flying above them. Its tentacles loomed the night sky like black veins, dancing like worms and ribbons.

"Alright..." said Beatle, as he prepared the Hell Fire technique.

"HERU... FAIYA!!!"

And with a deadly flaming blast, the night sky burned and the giant pulsating Queen evaporated in the night sky.

Beatle and Prometheus climbed back down.

"Thank Death Leopard," said Beatle. "It was his idea."

Prometheus turns to Death Leopard, with pure annoyance. He sighs. "Thanks."

Beatle hammers the back of his head. "Babatukan pa kita, e. Mean it."

"I'm sorry... for my rudeness. That was clever," said Prometheus.