Kahli struggled against the icy bondage of the cuffs constraining her to her seat in Agent 42's pod as they drove inside the F.I.N.G.E.R. facility, and he tried (and failed) to assuage her nerves with the insistence that, in all actuality, he was not holding her captive.
"You see, Kahli, this is really for your own safety," Agent 42 continued unconvincingly. "The main reason that I've got you chained in such an icy way, other than the fact of course that I am an ice elemental and it is an ideal usage of my elementality, is because there are so many things in this facility that can absolutely, pardon my Crenzhe, but absolutely fucking murder the shit out of you."
Pardon my Crenzhe was a bit of a tongue in cheek reference to the nation of Crenzah, which was a land renowned for its food, libations, and language. The saying was a bit of a jab at the Crenzhe people, who it was said sometimes sounded like they were swearing when they were speaking - although this was often contested and debated ad nauseam.
"Oh, really?" said Kahli, unconvinced. "Like what? What could kill me? The ability to escape from you is deadly, now?"
"Yes, yes, do you have any idea where we're even driving through right now?"
Kahli looked around through the semiopaque walls of the pod. It was fairly dark, save for grim, white lighted orbs that hung in the air several paces above a spatter of nondescript, green tents. She saw no sign of life outside, just tents. "Um, I'm not really sure. Not much of anything."
"That's where you're wrong, Kahli. Right now we're passing by the emulsification chambers of cluster C soulshredding organisms. Do you understand exactly what I'm saying here?"
Kahli shook her head, and Sahdi - much to Kahli's chagrin - just tussled her hair. Kahli did a double take, and then she realized that Sahdi's arms were frozen up near her hair. This must've been because Sahdi had been, predictably, tussling her hair when Agent 42 had initiated use of his elemental [skill]. But, for better or worse, this meant that Sahdi wasn't necessarily tussling her hair out of absentmindedness, and indeed it may also have been due to the fact that she had to. Still, she wouldn't have to if she hadn't been tussling it in the first place. The score was settled here, in Kahli's mind - Sahdi was stuck tussling her hair due to her own hubris.
"That's what I thought," said Agent 42 snidely. "Well, I'm happy to explain. See, we agents of F.I.N.G.E.R. find ourselves up against all manner of strange and obscure oddities and threats. That is the nature of our line of work, you see, and it always has been. There has to be somebody who is keeping a handle on all the crazy shit happening on Nomachiato - because, may I mind you, it seems that the existence of life on a planet, apparently even an admittedly low powered as our own, makes it prone to strange happenings." But Agent 42 was only telling Kahli and Sahdi one theory of the cause of special phenomena in Nomachiato - one of many.
There was another specific theory, in fact this other theory was one Kahli had heard herself when she was younger, that had in many areas of the world been slowly gaining clout after a long period of being ignored and detesed for being patently absurd. These negative effects were, in many if not all cases, tied to the fact that this was lumped in with the ideology that included the existence of Quantimidas.
See, this theory hypothesized that the real reason so many strange things happened around Nomachiato - and it was indeed said that strange things happened, more often than not, around Nomachiato - was because the planet laid at the apex of what was in many cases considered a universal fault line.
Universal fault lines were lines in the sand of reality itself, as explained by one of Kahli's theoretical physics professors. Now, understanding that fully required an understanding of what the sand of reality was, which was no easy task - however, the simplest explanation was that Nomachiatan scientists described the smallest 'building block' of reality, the smallest point of the smallest speck that could presently be observed and recorded upon, as universal sand. The thing about universal sand was that it was much like normal sand, except on a bit of a macro level - which was ironic, considering it was infinitesimally smaller than normal sand. See, the macro implications of universal sand acting much as normal sand was that it could separate and crack, much like artificial cliffs of sand cracking and splitting under a person's foot (whether that foot be large and covered in living wood or not).
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Regardless, the general idea was that this universal fault line might just open up reality itself to warps, to distortion, to a spacetime turbulence that kept everything from acting exactly in the way it might be expected. This theory was beloved by physicists, because with it, they could easily handwave any and all inconsistencies in the logic behind the laws of physics or really the laws of science at all. If everything that the universe ran on was constantly changing and reshaping, then of course their theories would never exactly line up. Especially, physicists following this theory also posited, if something referred to commonly as a universe quake took place. Universe quakes were much like Nomachiato quakes in that they more often than not fell along fault lines - whether those fault lines sections of the universe or the moving and shifting heat bubbles that made up the ground surface of Nomachiato.
And so it was that Kahli spent all her time musing over these theories, and not one moment listening to Agent 42 tell her about all of the awful things that cluster C soulshredding organisms could do. She did not hear about how they could conjure up strange forms and shapes that nobody would identify as the same. Or about how they could take control of peoples' bodies, or indeed control of their minds. She did not hear about how they could consume a person whole, like a juicy morsel, leaving not even the bones without so much as doing more than pointing a finger. She did not hear about how cluster C soulshredding organisms could get into your head and talk to you in your mind, as if their thoughts were in tune with your own in a kind of thought speak. She did not hear about how they could rip all your skin off with their thoughts, or how they liked to torture tauman beings and make them suffer in order to feast off the negative energy. She did not hear of their many different forms, of their different evolutions, nor did she ever glean the fact that every single little green tent in this thronging, seemingly endless facility room that Agent 42's pod was curretly whirring through contained yet another cluster C soulshredding organism. Even if she had heard that last bit, it would only have had much impact if she'd been listening to everything else, which of course Kahli hadn't. And soon enough, the pod was leaving the room and passing under a dark tunnel, and Agent 42 had finished droning on and on about these horrible entities.
"And so that is why I froze your arms." Agent 42 gave a stiff, wooden smile. "Trust me, I only did it for your own protection, which is undoubtedly evident now that I've clearly explained how dangerous those awful things are. Now, there are many other terribly dangerous things in this facility, but really those things are the worst. It's a good thing that you now know about them, I suggest you keep your eyes peeled and watch out for them - can never be too safe. Usually we neutralize them before any harm comes to pass, of course, as is our station - but nobody is perfect, and knowledge is power. That being said, don't go around telling folks about this - in order to prevent mass hysteria, we at F.I.N.G.E.R. have established protective machinery that propagates specific, consciously imperceptible sound waves that make it collectively difficult, if not impossible, to accept the existence of such fringe creatures as these that I've just described. That is to say, don't tell people, or they'll just think you're crazy. There's pretty much nothing, save of destroying all our technology, that could ever disband these frequencies from taking effect. You'll notice that even you may have doubts, when all of this blows over - and believe you me, Kahli, it will blow over. Regardless, I can thankfully say now that we've covered our bases and that's the worst of what we have down here at F.I.N.G.E.R. facility Phi Kappa Kapp, and with that, we're quickly approaching the headquarters. With that, as a show of trust, as well as an admission of your present safety, I'll happily remove your bindings."
Kahli wasn't certain of what all Agent 42 had been talking about, and indeed she'd had trouble focusing on it all because he just loved to move his mouth over and over again, but she was happy to watch as the ice holding her wrists at bay melted away quickly. They were still dreadfully cold, and for a second it made her wish that her old mentor Omar, that fiery flame elemental, hadn't gotten eaten up by a mega dragon - he doubtlessly would've been able to heat her hands up quickly.
That said, as soon as Kahli could feel her fingers again, she tried to stand up and then started slamming her fists into the walls of the pod, trying again and again to escape to no avail.
"What are you doing?" Agent 42 asked incredulously.
"Getting the fuck away from you, you freak show!" said Kahli. She was over this. Froufrou squelched for emphasis, and it stunk up the whole pod.
"Oh my gods, that reeks!" cried Sahdi.
"Leave Froufrou alone, Sahdi!" spat Kahli.
Agent 42 just started laughing, and laughing, and laughing his absolute face off. "You're not going anywhere until I say so, Kahli."
"Oh really?" Kahli summoned up a boulder by her big left foot. It was time to kick shit up a notch. "We'll see about that."