Puffworks Fish Plant, Five Years Ago:

“You’re a fool, Puffs,” said Sean, lounging in the half-broken chair across from Mr. Puffs’ magnificent desk. “First you demolish half the town to build your fish plant, then you start pumping so much smog into the sky so we can barely see the sun, and now you’re wanting to drive people out of here? When does it end?”

“It ends when I say it ends, you rube,” said Mr. Puffs, barely paying attention to what Sean had to say on the matter. “You’re the Elder’s assistant, you should know that this town only has about two more years on it, give or take. It would’ve been that way even if I hadn’t shown up here. All I’m doing is making sure the great city of Ulthos has a financial foot to stand on.”

“Like hell you are!” Sean shouted, pounding his fist on Puffs’ extravagant desk. “You’re motivated by nothing but your own greed! Have you seen how run down this town has gotten since you overthrew the elder? You’re a damn parasite, you worthless coward!” Sean shouted. If he didn’t have regard for human life, he would’ve just ripped his necklace off and set the man’s entire gaudy office on fire. Unluckily for both of them, he valued life far more than he cared to admit, so he resisted.

“Now, now, there’s no need to get upset. I’m sure we can work something out. There has to be something that benefits both of us, no?” Puffs said, his fishy mouth contorting into what Sean could only assume was a twisted smile. “You’re not a violent person, I can tell. If you wanted to revolt, I’m sure you would’ve gathered your little militia and done that right away. So why don’t you just sit down, and let us work something out, hm?” Puffs smirked as he talked, watching Sean slowly return to his seat as he spoke.

“Fine,” Sean muttered, looking over at Puffs with a truly hateful expression.

“That’s a courteous boy. See? You can cooperate.” Puffs said, leaning over his desk, his expression shifting slightly, becoming more menacing. “So then. You want me to spare your town? Fine. I’ll spare this place as long as I can. In exchange, you can be my grunt worker. I can’t ever have enough of those, you know.” Puffs finished, leaning back in his chair.

“A grunt worker, huh?” Sean said. “What does that entail, exactly?”

“Nothing much. Basic work. I’ll need you to deliver fish, maintain the machines, go out on a few fishing trips, squash a few rebellions, the usual.” Puffs finished, pressing his hands together. “Do we have a deal?” He offered, before outstretching his hand towards Sean.

“Sure, whatever. I’ll do whatever you need from me, under one condition.” Sean responded, feeling all the confidence he had walking into this meeting slowly deflate out of him. Puffs wasn’t particularly strong, he knew that, but he felt so suffocatingly powerful that it was impossible not to get a little intimidated.

“And what would that be, hm?” Puffs said, keeping his hand outstretched. It would’ve been welcoming, coming from anyone else.”

“Jacques. You know him?” Sean said, avoiding the man’s wicked gaze.

“I believe so, yes. He’s the local priest, isn’t he? Does mechanical work on the side?” Puffs said, slightly confused.

“If you lay a finger on him, I’ll be back here, and I’ll make sure that your stupid face gets kicked in, mark my words,” Sean said, making direct eye contact with Puffs.

“Then it’s a deal,” Puffs said, watching as Sean quickly grabbed his hand and firmly shook it. The pufferfish’s eyes never once wavered, though a million thoughts were buzzing around within his head, all of which were about how much money he was about to make from the sucker at the other end of his hand.

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“Wait, wait!” Alicia protested, watching Sean and Miranda march toward the factory. Neither hell nor heaven could stop them at this point, and deep down, she knew that. She figured she should at least try, though. “Guys!! Let’s think about this!”

“There’s nothing to think about,” Sean muttered. “If you don’t want a part in this, we’re not forcing you to be involved. I’ve just got a score to settle.”

“I just wanna beat someone up,” Miranda said, shrugging. The two were walking as they spoke, making pretty good headway toward the factory. They were only a few minutes away from its great gates, so Alicia’s time was running out. She was trying desperately to think of something to say, but her brain refused to communicate with her mouth, and it was endlessly frustrating to her. As they approached the gates, Sean put his arms out to stop them from moving.

“Alright, you two. We’re heading into a dangerous place. Now’s your last chance to back out, alright? I don’t want you guys getting hurt.” Sean said, kneeling down to be on eye level with the two girls.

“I’m going,” Miranda said. Alicia was a bit taken aback by how fast she answered, but she shouldn’t have been surprised.

“If she’s going, then so am I.” Alicia followed, looking at Sean. Her hands were brushing along her necklace now, nervously toying with the gemstone in the middle. If it came to a ride-or-die scenario, she hoped she’d be able to use her soul.

“Alright. Then it’s settled.” Sean said, still kneeling down. He looked over at Miranda, seemingly interested in her lack of a necklace. “Do you have soul abilities?” He asked. Miranda shook her head after a brief pause, trying not to think about her necklace’s gem turning black on stage.

“I don’t, no,” Miranda said, sighing. “It’s a rarity these days, isn’t it?”

“Well, yeah. But we need all the help we can get.” Sean responded. His hand found its way to his delivery bag, and he drew a knife from its depths, placing it in Miranda’s hands. “Take this, then. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing, right? I’ve used this puppy for self-defense for years, anyways. It’ll treat you well.” Sean finished. Miranda clutched the knife in one hand, lifting her hand up and down to test the weight. By her expression, it was clear she liked it.

“Thank you.” She said, beaming.

“You know how to use one, right?” Sean asked, trying to make sure that Miranda didn’t cut herself to ribbons before she was able to stab Puffs.

“You got it.” She said, putting the knife in her belt. “I’ve been using a hunting knife like this since I was five years old.” Sean let out a smile at that, happy that it was going to someone with good training.

“Alright then.” He said, putting his hands on the factory’s great doors. “Let’s go.” The two girls nodded, watching as Sean slowly pushed open the great doors to the factory. They yawned as he opened them as if the main entrance hadn’t been used in years. As they walked in, the overwhelming smell of oil, something that had been so prevalent in the town, became significantly more potent, mixing with the smell of fish guts, both fresh and rotten. The inside of the factory, in stark contrast to the outside, was messy and loud, with exhausted-looking workers scrambling around like ants in the nest between the great conveyor belts. A few people stopped to look, but the majority of them didn’t seem to notice that anything was different. Instead, they were too absorbed with their own factory work, burying their head in the sand for their corporate overlord. As Sean made his way through the factory, making sure Alicia and Miranda were still trailing behind, he eventually made his way to a great oaken door near the back of the factory floor. With one swift nod, he lifted his leg and kicked it, full force to the lock, watching as it popped open with a loud crack.

“What the?!-” Puffs exclaimed, looking over at his door in horror. “That door cost me ten thousand dollars, you Brobdingnagian! You’ll need to work for that!” He continued to shout. As Sean walked in, Puffs’ face deflated a bit, seemingly terrified of the huge man that was storming into his office, practically steaming.

“I’m not working for anything, Puffs. I’m here to terminate my employment.” Sean exclaimed, cracking his knuckles into his palm.

“What is the meaning of this, you oaf?! Did we not strike a deal?” Puffs asked, standing up from his chair and backing up against the wall.

“You broke our deal, Puffs. You broke it over and over and over again.” Sean started, resting his hands on the desk. “You polluted our water, you took the sun away, you put nearly everyone in town at risk, and worst of all…” Sean was physically steaming at this point. His hand grabbed his necklace and tore it off, slamming his other hand onto Puffs’ hand-carved wooden desk. “You hurt MY HUSBAND!” He shouted as the desk burst into flames under his hands. Puffs let out an audible yelp at the fire, trying his hardest to blow it out, all the while inflating to great size, before quickly exhaling, watching the flames dance under his breath.

“SECURITY!!!” Puffs shrieked, the fire alarm overhead blaring its head out, the rarely used sprinkler system roaring to life, spraying water everywhere.

“Guys, keep ‘em busy! I’ll handle the fish!” Sean shouted, gesturing towards the door. Alicia and Miranda nodded and sprinted out, only able to catch Puffs shouting;

“I’m not a FISH, you IDIOT”, before hearing the unmistakable noise of a fish getting punched in the face. It was a very specific sound.

“You think we can take ‘em, Allie?” Miranda asked, watching as guards ran towards them across the factory floor, trying as hard as they could to make it into Puffs’ office.

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“Well… we’ll try!” Allie shouted back, raising her fists to prepare for battle. She wasn’t exactly the strongest girl in the world, but she sure was gonna try. The sprinklers overhead roared to life, shooting down pressurized little pellets of water to the ground. As the guards approached, Miranda wasted no time, sprinting over to one and smacking him in the head with the butt of her knife, watching his body crumble to the floor in a heap. She let out a grin and proceeded to do that with any other guard that tried to cross her path. Alicia, on the other hand, found herself tangling with just the one, throwing several weak punches toward the guard, desperately trying to avoid the sword he had clutched in his hand. She was supremely outmatched, but she decided to keep on fighting as best she could.

“Hey!!! Out of the way!!” Sean yelled out from the office. Alicia turned to look, only to see Puffs, completely inflated like a balloon, launching his way out of the office, deflating as he did.

“What the?!-” Alicia exclaimed, before quickly hitting the ground, watching the pufferfish soar over both her and the mess of his security team. The guard she was fighting, seeing this as a perfect opportunity, took his sword and almost instantly tried to slash downwards, in a desperate attempt to behead Alicia. His sword was already on the move, before his eyes went completely white, and his body crumbled to the ground along with the others. As Alicia looked up, Miranda’s arm was outstretched and her knife was clutched in her hand.

“Can you stand, Allie?” She asked, looking down with concern. Alicia nodded and grabbed Miranda’s arm, using it to hoist herself up. After helping her friend up, Miranda turned to Sean. “I thought you said you’d take care of him!” Miranda shouted, watching as Puffs tried to get away.

“I tried!” Sean exclaimed. “He pulled a trick on me, hence why I couldn’t really warn you in time.” Sean just sighed, looking at his hand. It was covered in blood, and several spines were sticking out of it at weird angles. It was pretty clear that he was punching Puffs rather aimlessly.

“So, he can just inflate himself and launch around like a balloon?” Miranda asked.

“Looks like it,” Sean responded, trying to wipe the blood on his shirt. “So, now what?”

“It’s obvious! We go after him!” Miranda shouted, gesturing at Puffs.

“Oh, right!” Sean said, launching into action. He quickly sprinted after the pufferfish, watching as he began to panic. With just a quick inhale of air, he was already off the ground, launching himself at one of the many airborne conveyor belts. Sean groaned as he saw this, before booking it down to one of the lower conveyors, trying as hard as he could to navigate the jungle gym of factory equipment that awaited him. Puffs’ blood, it seems, was already beginning to fade, and his wounds were starting to heal. Miranda was seconds away from bolting towards Sean, only for Alicia to grab the back of her robe to stop her.

“Allie, what the hell?-” She protested, looking at Alicia with disgust.

“Miranda, look!” Alicia said, pointing at Puffs, hoping she saw the same thing she was seeing.

“What? He’s ugly? We know that.” Miranda responded, causing Alicia to roll her eyes.

“No! His wounds, they’re already healing. You heard how hard Sean was hitting him, there’s no way they’d heal that fast.” Alicia theorized, trying to think of some sort of explanation.

“Hey… you’re right,” Miranda said, stopping her flailing around for a few seconds and looking at Puffs. “So… what’s causing that?” Of course, this was the part that was causing Alicia to struggle. As she watched Sean make his way up through the conveyor belts, running around like a complete fool as Puffs launched his way across the different belts, causing Sean to groan loudly and stumble around. He clearly wasn’t doing all that well, but they had other things to worry about. The only thing Alicia could focus on was the obnoxious sound of the sprinklers as they shot out water, completely disrupting her train of thought.

“Wait! It’s the water!” Alicia said, looking up at the sprinklers, before looking back over at Puffs.

“What?!” Miranda asked, seemingly as confused as she was.

“Look at his face, Miranda! He has the soul of the Ocean! The water must be healing him!” Alicia exclaimed, looking at Sean desperately. Sean was running on the wrong side of a conveyor belt, holding onto some of the pipes for dear life, his legs moving wildly to avoid incoming fish guts. “Sean!!!” Alicia shouted. “Block up the water!!! The water gives him strength!!!” Sean turned towards Alicia’s voice for a second, taking in the information, his eyes going wide. He gave a quick thumbs-up, before pivoting his attention from Puffs over to the sprinklers in the ceiling.

“Hey!!! How’d you figure that out, street rat?!” Puffs shouted, shifting his focus to Alicia. He lept down from the top conveyor belt and began to move towards her, a scowl quickly forming on his fishy face. Alicia turned to face him, balling her fists up.

“You’re not too hard to figure out, Puffs,” Alicia said, her gaze turning cold. The pufferfish laughed his horrible, cold laugh, beginning to circle around Alicia. Miranda drew her blade in defense, looking Puffs in the eye.

“Oho! Little miss stabby’s going to try and hurt me!” He exclaimed, pretending to be afraid. “What a shame!!!” He said, his face morphing into a twisted grin. “As long as I’m in the water, you can barely lay a scratch on me. My soul will just keep healing my body, over and over and over again. So by all means, missy, stab me all you’d like. There’s nothing you can do but give up.” He finished, outstretching his arms and cackling. “Sean! Once we’re done with this altercation, I’ll make sure I kill your precious little husband, understand?!”

“Shut it!” Miranda said, keeping her blade pointed at Puffs’ face, despite his obvious apathy towards her. “You’re not gonna be killing anybody, fish face!” Miranda shouted, brushing her soaked hair away from her face with her other hand. The artificial rain continued to storm down from above, and Alicia was getting worried. Were they in over their head? If Puffs could keep healing himself when he was near water, would they ever be able to beat him? After a moment of silence, she looked over at Puffs and raised her fists.

“It doesn’t matter what you’re gonna do, we’ll never let it happen!” Alicia shouted, newfound confidence soaring through her veins. Puffs laughed again, taking a step towards Alicia, his cackly laugh echoing throughout the factory.

“I’m afraid you’ve got no choice, young lady. I work with the Ulthos military. If you beat me, they’ll come and kill you themselves. There’s no way you can hold off an entire army with just your fists, can you?” Puffs said, his lips forming a sly smile as he took another step toward Alicia. “Let it go now, and I’ll make sure you can continue on your little Pilgrimage. Mistwood’s right around the corner, you know.”

“Don’t listen to him, Allie! He’s spouting lies!” Miranda shouted before her voice was drowned out by the devouring void of nothingness. Puffs continued to laugh, before slowly stopping, realizing that his gentle trickle of rainfall was slowly beginning to stop. Looking up, he realized the source of the problem.

“Yeah, Alicia! There’s nothing this guy’s better at than lying!” Sean shouted, his entire hand on the sprinkler, his body dangling from a pipe. All the sprinklers in the factory were covered in a thick layer of frost, and the pipes were starting to bulge with excess water that couldn’t go anywhere, though they were so thick they had practically no risk of breaking.

“What the?!-” Puffs attempted to shout, before being crushed by Sean’s falling body, his hideous form being flattened to the ground. Sean stood up and brushed off his hands, taking out one of Puffs’ spines.

“Should’ve been paying attention, stupid,” Sean said, watching in semi-horror as Puffs began to get up.

“Damn it! Why won’t you die?!” Miranda shouted, getting progressively more frustrated.

“Because this town needs me!!! The fates won’t allow me to die!” Puffs shrieked, laughing hysterically. “My water might be gone, but I can still obliterate you with nothing but my bare hands!” After he finished, he launched himself at Sean, tackling him to the floor and wrapping his hands around his neck.

“G-get off!!!” Sean shouted, punching Puffs’ side repeatedly, trying to get the man off. Puffs just kept laughing, his pufferfish head swelling up more and more with air. As Miranda ran towards the scene, Puffs’ head got ever closer to his face, before pricking him ever so gently on the cheek with one of his spines.

“I’m shocked you managed to survive my spines before, Sean. Your lumbering body absorbs more than you give it credit for, I’ll give you that. One of these girls could only take one little jab of my poison before their body gave out.” Puffs said, watching as Sean began to drift in and out of consciousness. “All your little stunts just sped up the process, didn’t they?”

“Sean!” Miranda shouted, rushing over to his side. “I know first aid, I’ll-”

“Out of the way, stupid girl!” Puffs shouted, swiftly kicking her aside. Miranda coughed as her body flew into a nearby pipe, crumbling down in a heap. “You’re both horrible, you know. You saw him bleeding, did you not? Aren’t you aware that pufferfish are poisonous? He was bound to collapse soon, anyways. I just sped up the process.” Puffs stated, moving closer to Alicia.

“You’re horrible!” Alicia shouted, looking at Puffs with dismay. She knew she couldn’t fight him. She didn’t have the temperature-controlling powers that Sean did, nor did she have Miranda’s knife skills. As Puffs continued to advance, she only managed to back up further and further, eventually pushing against the wall.

“Any last words, girl?” Puffs said, getting closer and closer, his head inflating with more and more air as he did so.

“I-... I…” Alicia stammered, trying desperately to think of something, anything to say. She was freaking out, her whole body starting to shake violently out of fear.

“Alicia…” Sean stammered, coughing and hacking. She turned her gaze towards Sean, looking at his crumbled mess of a body, covered in blood and thoroughly soaked with poison. “You have… a necklace, Alicia…” He said.

“Sean… I don’t… I don’t know how to use it! I can’t!” She shouted, Puffs getting ever closer now.

“It doesn’t… it doesn’t matter. Alicia, all you need to do right now is survive. Plant your feet, stare Puffs dead in the eyes… and fight! Fight Alicia!!! FIGHT!” He screamed, using the last little bit of energy he had left. Alicia could feel herself beginning to space out, but remained focused, looking at the pufferfish that was walking towards her, preparing to poison her.

“I won’t let myself die this pathetically!” She shouted, making sure Sean heard her. She’d barely been doing anything but talking the entire time her friends were fighting, and she was hellbent on changing that. “Great Gods above!!! Make sure… I SURVIVE!!!” She shouted, before grabbing her necklace with her right hand and yanking it as hard as physically possible, feeling it almost instantly give way. Puffs stumbled back as he watched her do it, before getting even more concerned as she plunged her hand directly into her chest. Her body was running on pure instinct, the soul’s powers overriding her own. Ever since she got it, it was dormant, but now it was active, bursting at the seams with more information than she could ever possibly use. Alicia let out a guttural scream and wrapped her hand around something within the void inside her chest. As she quickly began to pull it out, she realized exactly what it was, almost before it properly left her chest. From her chest emerged a brilliant sword, smithed from the light of the heavens above, and forged in the pools of magma that rested in the world’s core. She was panting heavily, holding onto this sword as though it was the only thing she’s ever done in her entire life, before throwing herself at Puffs, screaming the entire time she was moving. With one quick stab, she plunged the sword into his stomach, before collapsing onto the ground, her necklace reappearing around her neck.

“I… won’t… die…” She stammered, before collapsing onto the ground, wheezing and panting, the world growing fuzzy around her. As she began to pass out, she looked over at Sean, almost as a way to show off, as a way for her to say, “I did it.”

She couldn’t see it, but he was smiling.