“I killed them so I get dibbs.” Said Myles Endeavour invoking the most ancient of laws.
“I’m not here to argue Mr. Endeavour, I’m here to tell you how it is. All of this base material now belongs to Sweetbright. You Mr. Endeavour, belong to Sweetbright.”
Myles, a man used to keeping his head down, surviving by going unnoticed suddenly felt very seen and he did not like it one bit. There was something the man’s gaze, an absolute certainty in the words he spoke. Cerulean Sweet was not some puffed up narcissist sacrificing humans for fairy sex or whatever it was cults like that did, he seemed lucid and full of purpose. More worryingly, Myles’ instincts told him this was a man who was perfectly sane. But Myles did not need to keep his head down anymore, he did not need to be quiet.
00:06
“Hey, easy now. How about you go fu…” Myles began but was cut short when he found himself flying backwards and slamming into a metal post on the side of the mini golf course. He noticed the blood, there was a lot. He couldn’t have been this badly injured by one attack could he?
“You seem to have gotten Dave all over you. Pity, he was a good worker.” said Cerulean Sweet as matter-of-factly as if he was discussing quarterly earnings.
Myles looked around as far as his very sore back would allow. The fussy little man was no more, he felt Dave’s arms drop from his shoulders into his lap. behind him, nothing but sticky viscera in business casual wear. Myles’ blood ran cold. His childhood in Stonebridge had left him no stranger to the gruesome. He still remembered his maimed classmates and their thousand yard stares. But today, the fussy little man had been killed as part of a fight Myles was part of, it was his own body that was the weapon that killed him. Myles fought back the urge to vomit, he could not afford the armour to disengage now. Then Myles realised, the armour should have disengaged, all the fae were gone, the only one here was… Cerulean Sweet.
“You noticed. Maybe that blow knocked some sense into you after all. It isn’t what you think though, nothing going on here but history in the making, I have simply learned how to adapt. to be more. Allow me to demonstrate.” said Cerulean Sweet. He was on Myles in moments fist pummelling Myles’ face.
Blow after blow landed, cracks spread through the faceplate like roots. Before he could adjust and get his bearing Myles was hauled up and flung in the air, hitting the concrete ceiling before crashing back down and landing badly on the novelty windmill of hole nine.
00:05
“I don’t get to cut loose very often. Your kind has a way of banding together if s big fish rears its head, and I’m the biggest fish in the pond so I keep my heads down, only take what I can get away with.” Said Cerulean Sweet. “But you, you are too new for anyone to care about, and no one will think twice if a freshly minted Fairy Trigger dies on the job. The trouble maker might prove a problem, but not won’t be able to get back for weeks he has a reputation of crying wolf.”
Cerulean Sweet removed his suit jacket and rolled up his sleeve as Myles tried to gather himself atop hole nine. Myles felt like the walls were caving in on him. Cerulean Sweet’s thick gorilla like arms were much bigger than a man his age should possess. Inlaid in his forearm were raised metal disks. Lights on those disks flashed different colours with no discernible pattern.
00:04
The old man picked Myles up by the ankle and slammed him into the ground, stepping on his back.
“You maybe have been wondering if I’m still human. It may surprise you but I very much am, just better. better than you, better than the shit stain fairies on the other side.” Boasted Cerulean Sweet.
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More kicks and stomps caused the suit to disengage. Myles struggled to get up, but a boot to the gut lifted him feet into the air and took the air from his lungs. The vomit he had been holding back rushed out. Myles was struggling to hold the panic back. The old man was stronger than any single thing he had faced thus far, maybe the genius loco was stronger but that things power was more abstract, Cerulean Sweet’s strength was a very physical power.
“Look at you! helpless now your suit has gone. My power is always on and I don’t need to play dress up like an absolute tit. I’m not forced to fight, I’m in control. I have made you all obsolete.”
As the foot came down again like a hammer dropping, Myles barely rolled out of the way. The foot cracking the ground he had previously occupied. Cerulean Sweet ambled casual after Myles stomping and kicking, sometimes connecting other times Myles managing to move his increasingly injured body out of the way. The old was was chuckling to himself enjoying seeing Myles struggle.
00:03
“You were never going to win here you know. Even if Barrington hadn’t shut the gates dow nearly. We still had several years worth of materials handed right to us and if you survived, well I’m here and if I wasn’t… well that would have been bad news for your whole town.” said Cerulean Sweet, who paused to look around at the stuff he claimed as his prize. “You know, that last contingency would likely net us even more materials and make a mockery of Barrington’s sacrifice. Congratulations Myles you have convinced me to destroy your town.”
“And send up a big red flag to the community, you wouldn’t dare.” Said Myles hoping to call Cerulean Sweet’s bluff.
“The community won’t notice, why do you think we built a harvesting site here, it's so close to the other side, things get blurry, it makes it exponentially more efficient to bring them over to us, as a side benefit this place turns the world away from us.”
“What the fuck are you talking about.” Asked Myles
“Mr. Endeavour… let me ask you one thing. What is the name of this town.”
00:02
Myles began to answer the old man’s clearly stupid question just to move the conversation along and get him to the point… But he couldn’t. He searched his memories, where the town should be there was a big fat nothing. A town shaped hole.
“See, you can’t. The same fae bullshit that prevents mortals from remembering them, that makes them excuse the existence of nightmares, it has soaked into this place, the air, the rocks. This town has a foot in the others side and it puts people on a sort of auto pilot, never remembering, never thinking too hard about things. The miasma is so thick it even effects people of the community. Maybe not as badly, I’m sure if they sat and really thought about it cracks would show.”
Myles stared in horror, he had been here for years now, had he been oblivious this whole time. Was this why the place felt similar to Stonebridge in someways. His thoughts were disrupted by a punch to the face, cracking his head against the concrete.
00:01
The limp form Myles endeavour was hoisted up and thrown hard into what remained of Dave. Myles Endeavour was tired. He ached. He hurt. What he was not however was ready to give up. Cerulean Sweet was in no hurry, clearly confident in his own power. Myles would put that hubris t good use. He summoned his Trigger to his hand and as Cerulean Sweet saw what he was doing and charged forward…
“HARMLESS LITTLE BUNNY LEAPS FOR THE STARS, THAT'S NO ORDINARY RABBIT!”
The superhuman fist of Cerulean Sweet met red electric thunder and stopped dead in its tracks. Unlike the fae from before the old man was not flung backwards like a rag doll. He stood firm, the ground underneath him cracking and spitting up dust. Unluckily for Cerulean Sweet Myles had little interest in fighting with honour or ‘like a man’. So as soon as the punch had been blocked by the right Knuckle Buster Myles was ducking and punching Cerulean Sweet square in his family jewels with the left Knuckle Buster. Red lightning and kinetic force connected with very human testicles. It was the old man’s turn to be lifted off the ground. The powerful old man hit the mini golf course with a thud roaring in agony the whole while. The right Knuckle Buster was cracked and useless now so Myles recalled it to his inventory for repair. The old man rose to his feet, murderous intent plain for the world to see.
“I will fucking kill you for that.” snarled Cerulean Sweet
00:00 - Neon Thunder Spear completed.
Cerulean Sweet leapt towards Myles faster than anything a biological entity should be able to manage, his face a mask of pain and rage. Hands outstretched ready to tear limb from limb. But Myles had done a similar dance before, something in motion and in the air can do very little to manoeuvre or change direction.
“Surprise motherfucker!” said Myles, pulling out the Neon Thunder Spear. The Blade was much bigger than he had been expecting, closer to a Glaive, but bright red and cracking with his signature lightning. The slash connected severing through left mid-forearm and biting hard enough into the right to leave it dangling from threads of flesh. The surprise action left Cerulean Sweet crashing headlong into the concrete outer rim of the mini golf course.
Myles picked up the severed arm. He had managed to cut through one of the metal disks, leaving a whole one still blinking. Deciding that if the suit was recognising Cerulean Sweet as a fae entity despite his protestation of humanity then he should be compatible with his inventory. The guess proved right as severed hand and whatever technology was inside it disappeared into sub-space storage. Cerulean Sweet stood up, his right eye swollen shut from the impact. his left forearm gone and the right hanging off by skin and muscle tissue. The fury Myles saw on him now was cold. it was not the hot reactive anger that needs to lash out. This was an anger of malicious calculation. With eyes that would not have been out of place on a shark Cerulean Sweet spoke.
“Winner protocol activate.”
There was no other warning as the room went white.