Bubbles and a brisk coldness were the first things Hiro noticed, his vision blurred, everything murky and jaded.
“You’re awake? Good!” came that familiar voice again.
Bianca? Hiro thought, recalling the sixteen-year-old he had encountered in the catacombs beneath Central Park. he gasped as he realized that he was floating on his back, on his fuzzy pink shield, the tentacles of which were keeping him from drowning in the East River, water lashing at his arms and legs.
Barking drew his attention to his right, where he spotted Hachi swimming toward him. Hiro finally connected some of the dots. Somehow, I was transported to the East River alongside Hachi. But how does Bianca play into this?
“Swim, dammit, don’t make me hold all the weight!”
“How are you speaking to me?” Hiro asked Bianca as he sent his arms out and steading himself.
The shield floated up in front of him. “I have no idea. You were falling and I was suddenly falling with you, bro.”
“You don’t remember anything?”
“Not at all. How did you end up in the sky?” Bianca the shield asked.
“My friends and I were fighting a Survivor who hunts others, a lady in a raincoat. I think I told you about her. I jumped toward the fight, and I appeared here.”
“You have friends?”
“Is that all you took from that?”
“Ugh, this is all so fucked,” Bianca said as Hachiko reached them. “Ugh. Did I already say that? Ugh, again. Hey, at least you got a dog. It better not piss on me.”
Hiro tried to make sense of what he was seeing. “You’re really the shield?”
“No, I’m the East River. Of course, I’m the shield, the shield that you stole from me. Kidding,” Bianca said after a quick giggle, “I’m guessing I died and it was what was left of me, my soul or spirit or ghost or whatever was reborn into this shield. How spooky! How shitty. Now, we just need to find my body, although I don’t think it will work that way.”
“I buried you in Central Park.”
“Really? What the fuck?”
“It was better than leaving you out in the open,” he said as he continued to wade through the cold water toward the shoreline.
“Are you telling me that you tossed me in the hole with the piefuckers?”
“Is that a problem? Did you have somewhere else you would have rather been buried?”
“I guess that sort of makes sense. Anyway, you dropped your katana in the East River.”
“Great,” Hiro said as his hand instantly went to his sheath, confirming what she said.
“But don’t worry, like a good, cute little jellyfish, I’m going to swim down there and get it for you, Big Brother Hiro.”
“Are you sure?”
“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t sure. Get to the shoreline.” She pointed one of her fuzzy tentacles out of the water and aimed it at Manhattan. “I’ll meet you there.”
The pink shield dipped under the water and he turned to Hachi. “I know it’s strange. Come on,” he started to swim toward the shore, Hiro doing his best not to let any of the water into his mouth. “There you go,” he called to the dog as it swam ahead of him.
The demon pup was the first to reach the shoreline, yet he wasn’t able to pull himself onto a dock, which left Hachi wading there, increasingly confused.
Hiro came to a ladder and placed his foot on it. He glanced over to the struggling dog. “I can get you up there, but you can’t bite me if I do.”
As he had before, Hachi seemed to interpret what he was told. The dog reluctantly paddled closer to Hiro until he was able to wrap his arm around Hachi’s belly.
“Just hang tight,” Hiro said as carried the wet, sinewy shiba inu up the ladder. As soon as he could, Hachi squirmed out of Hiro’s arms and stood on the dock looking out at the East River, his tail wagging until it stopped.
“What is it, boy?” Hiro asked as he peered out at the water.
He all but expected to see Bianca surface like a buoy and swim to the dock, where she’d easily be able to pull herself up with her tentacles.
Instead, he saw the huge vertebrae of the giant crocodile monster that had once rested in Central Park, the backbones parting the waves as they swam toward the dock.
This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.
“Hachi, come on!”
Hiro rushed toward the end of the dock, the demon dog instantly catching up with him. As he had just moments ago, Hiro grabbed the dog and triggered {Bounce} which sent him flying horizontally just as the monster tore into the dock.
A great wave followed as Hiro hit the shoreline, where he bounced again to get away from the monstrosity. He held onto the dog and cast both {Kiss or Slap} and {Thoughts and Prayers} as the boney beast rose from the water, its hollowed eye sockets locked on Hiro.
Neither powers worked.
I don’t have anything that can take out a creature like this! Hiro thought as he glanced around. He was between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan Bridge, which meant he wasn’t very far from Battery Park.
An idea formulated.
He used {Bounce} to send himself in the direction of Brooklyn Bridge. The monster dove back beneath the waves and tracked him as Hiro continued along the shoreline.
If this works… Hiro cast these thoughts away as he saw a set of pink tendrils fling the shield out of the water. Bianca landed on the shoreline and bound forward, following Hiro, water flying all around her. He slowed for just a second for her to catch up.
“Your sword,” she said as one of the tentacles handed him the blade. “But it looks like we have other problems. Heh. I guess no one swims in the East River for a reason.”
Hiro hastily sheathed his katana and then motioned to his back, ignoring the fact he was sopping wet, cold, and that he was being pursued by an insanely large monster. “Come on.”
“What about dinosaur Godzilla?” she asked as the monster began to rise from the water again.
“I’ve got a plan for that motherfucker.” Hachi still tucked under his arm, and only after Bianca was securely on his back, Hiro took off toward Battery Park.
“If you’re trying to outrun the thing, you’re going in the wrong direction!”
“Aware,” he said as he reached the bridge and bounced past it, Hiro now able to use its height to reach some buildings.
He waited for just a moment until he saw the skeletal monster again, which pressed out of the water fully and opened its mouth like it was about to spit a fireball.
Instead, it spewed a volley of bones and water that tore through everything they touched as Hiro leaped out of the way.
“That thing is crazy!”
“How are you seeing this?” Hiro shouted to Bianca.
“What do you mean?” she asked him as he jumped to another building, just as the monster fired another shot of bones. It was like a catapult releasing pillar-sized spears, the bones breaking through glass, brick, bending steel, each bone easily strong enough to one-shot Hiro and then some.
He ignored Bianca as he rushed ahead, the map of Manhattan flashing across his mind’s eye. Hiro knew if he stayed the course, if he could keep the monster tracking him, he would reach Battery Park.
And when I do… He tensed as he prepared to bounce to the next building. There really was no telling if this would work.
“Watch out!” Bianca fired tentacles off his back that wrapped around one of the projectiles and slammed it down. “Hell yeah, even if I’m a stupid fat pink shield, I got skills!”
Hiro kept on, moving at his top pace as he jumped from building to building.
The monster tried for him several times and seemed to be getting increasingly agitated with the way that Hiro kept dodging. The beast was close enough to the shore that it finally decided to leave the water. It rushed onto the pier and charged after Hiro, smashing through anything it came into contact with.
Finally, Hiro saw it—Battery Park was just ahead.
“You still haven’t told me what you are doing!” Bianca said as Hiro landed in the park and peered out at the water, at the Statue of Liberty. “Wait. Wait a fucking minute. Didn’t you say the Statue of Liberty attacked you?”
“Yup.” Hiro landed in Battery Park and started to wave his hands at the statue. As it had last time, the Statue of Liberty came down from her pedestal and prepared her crown. She was just about to toss at Hiro when her chin shifted slightly to the incoming monster.
“That’s your plan!?” Bianca asked as if her jaw had just dropped.
“Please work, please work, please work,” Hiro said as Hachi started to whine and squirm. “Please fucking working…”
Suddenly angered, and now with her eyes tracking the monster, the Statue of Liberty hurtled her crown at the enormous skeletal creature, just as it was fifty feet away from Hiro.
Her crown bashed through its head, killing the monster instantly and causing a huge salty wave to lash against the shore.
[A Revenant has fallen.]
“That was badass!” Bianca said.
You have new followers!
Hiro placed Hachi down. Soul Essence poured into him as he read the description of a new skill:
{Stan}
Rank: A
Type: Transformation/Utility
Upgrade: N/A
Description: Here are some fun tips to create your very own Stan.
Tip #1: Matching Speech.
The next time you find yourself with German Scientist Otto Loewi—famous for isolating two still-beating frog hearts in separate vessels filled with a saline solutions, stimulating one of the frog's vagus nerve to slow down the heart beat, and then pouring the saline solution over the second frog heart, which slowed down it's heartbeat as well—try to speak in the same even pace as the famed researcher.
If he speaks rapidly, match his patterns. If he speaks slowly, do the same.
Tip #2: Matching Posture.
When the Americans stormed Baghdad in 2003 and set up shop in one of Saddam Hussein's bougiest palaces, they turned a marble-floored conference room the size of a gym to serve as the mess hall. Because many of the servers were Muslim, Johnny Halliburton, the Texan running the kitchen, refused to eat pork out of solidarity for the servers, most of whom were third country nationals from Pakistan and India.
In this way, Halliburton was able to develop rapport with the staff that led to better cooperation.
Tip #3: Using this Skill.
If you don't have time to build a relationship with an enemy you plan to kill, use this skill to fast forward that very difficult process.
Stan will allow you to command an enemy and force them to fight for you. If you’re smart enough, they can explore an area and report back. They can even suck you off if you're that kind of Survivor. The enemy must have a lower ranked MIND than you, which in Survivor terms means the Stan skill is best used on weak enemies.
Try to Stan a stronger enemy and you will regret it…
“So I can puppeteer someone now.” Hiro looked back out to the water to see the Statue of Liberty removing her crown once again. He glanced to Hachi and whistled for him to follow. “We better get going!”