The group of three started making their way into the mall. Ravok took them to the thrift shop, knowing he had no money to shop in the more expensive clothing shops. Once inside, Ravok looked at the two. "Just pick out a set of clothing or two… so you two at least have more than just one."
Red excitedly started moving through the store, looking through the multiple pieces of clothing she could find, while Blue simply stood behind Ravok, waiting. Ravok gave her a look. "Not going to look for something?"
Blue simply shook her head and added, "Red will pick something out… she always does... I don't really care what I wear" as such, the duo simply watched Red go through all kinds of clothing until she finally managed to pick out two outfits for both herself and Blue.
The two sets she picked for herself were bold and revealing. One of the outfits was the same crop top she was wearing when she first met Ravok, and the other was a one-piece suit with a v-neckline that reached all the way below her chest, showing some sideboob. Sarah, at one point, wanted to buy one of these for her party outfit, but Ravok managed to convince her. Yet here, he had no power and just smiled at the choice.
The outfits she managed to pick for Blue were a lot more cutesy instead of sexy. One was a dress with a square pattern over it. She would have to wear a simple long-sleeved top. The other outfit was a lot less form-fitting, a baggy hoodie with simple pants below it. Blue simply smiled as she took the two and tried them on.
Red showed off when she got out of the changing room, asking Ravoks' opinion on how she looked, showing off different angles, and generally acting like a typical young adult of her age…. her age? Ravok wondered how old Red and Blue actually were. They looked like his age but seeing as they were not human, they might be far older than he actually realized. Blue simply walked out of the changing room, looking at Red, who nodded before stepping back in. She didn't ask or talk.
The total wasn't too high, only 25 dollars for the four outfits. It was a lot of his budget, but he could not let Red keep walking around in just his clothing. As he looked at the two, Red was smiling, explaining her choices to Blue, who nodded as she was listening.
The three made their way out of the shop, Ravok holding two bags while Red and Blue held one each. As they were making their way back to the car, Ravok noticed something, a creature shaped like a dog but dramatically larger than any dog he knew. Its fur was flowing, wisps of black coming from its back and legs, and it had eyes glowing red. Something about it felt… empty, like a void given shape as if it was sucking energy into it.
It was clear that Red and Blue also noticed the creature, dropping the bags and holding out their hands, readying themselves for a fight. Red was the first to attempt to make her ax appear, but the moment she did, both she and Blue disappeared, their energy coalescing into Ravok. "The f*ck?!?" Red exclaimed loudly in Ravoks mind, which once more was pounding from the sudden influx of energy. Swiftly Ravoks eyes turned the same red-blue they had been before, and his clothing again started adapting its power.
However, the creature noticed the change, and many other people simply passed by without even giving it a second thought. As it moved, it walked around the cars and other items in the parking lots, but right through the people that walked across its path as if it was a ghost that only the trio could see. At first, it moved methodically. Each step was slow and calculated, like a predator stalking its prey until it started coming close enough, breaking out in a full sprint.
Ravok hesitated while in his head Red was throwing out curses and insults at the situation. Blue calmly spoke through all the wilderness, "We must fight, through him, Red. Just focus.. we will figure out what is wrong later."
"Fine! Ravok, pull out the ax!" She said as she let her power flair out without restraint. Inside Ravok, Red and Blue were sitting down at this point, with the world's color suddenly being dominated by the bright red of Red's hair.
Ravok suddenly felt immense pain as he stumbled to the left as the creature lunged at him. Even with his newfound power and speed, he could barely dodge out of the way. His eyes felt like they were burning. In his pain, Ravok noticed the creature; however, as it opened its maw, it had a row of dog-like teeth that were white. Behind the row of dog-like teeth was a row of human teeth as if it had a second mouth inside of its first.
Blue looked over at Red and attempted to match the power she was giving, but it quickly became apparent that even with Blue going all out, she could not reach the raw power that Red was outputting. As she looked over, she could see the fury, irritation, and anger in her eyes, a power that she would be unable to match right now. "Red! Stop and match me!" She shouted, her calm demeanor breaking away for a moment, shocking Red out of her anger-filled battle lust.
"What!?! Why? We need to kill it, don't we? Just like before." She said as she tried to regain focus, picturing the ax she summoned cleaving through the creature. Guiding the heavy weapon with the grace of a swan.
"We need to output… similar… power for it to work…." Blue simply looked over as she tried to keep up with the energy output.
Red was only getting increasingly irritated and angry. Still, as she looked at Blue her eyes, she could notice a hint of pain and struggle, a touch of her being overwhelmed by Red's anger that immediately made Red lower her output, matching that of Blue.
Ravok, in this time, has kept attempting to dodge the creatures' attacks, he only heard what went on inside of him, but the pounding headaches continued until now. His mind finally cleared as he focused on the creature attacking him. There were more deformities that he could notice. One of its claws occasionally had a human arm reaching out, trying to grab him out of sync with the leg of the beast. The growls and snarls occasionally had a human echo throughout the noise. Whatever it was, it wasn't always like this, or at least so, Ravok thought as he finally heard a voice come back through his head. "Ravok, we figured it out.. this is our first time fighting… a null beast should not be too difficult to battle." Blue's voice calmly explained, giving the creature in front of him a name that felt accurate enough as each time the beast leaped around him, he could feel and see some of the colors slowly leech towards it.
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"Just attempt to summon an ax… you have our memories… the technique should feel familiar to you" It was like having an AI in your head that told you what you would have to do as if you were playing some kind of video game. Ravok held his hands forward, flashes of memories from both Red and Blue's perspectives. They held out their hands and let the energy collect near them, manipulating pure energy around them by allowing their own energy to interact with it. The Red and Blue power started to coalesce in front of him, the power swirling as if being sucked into a whirlpool in the palm of his hands, the color sparking through the area as the ax attempted to form.
But something went wrong. As the two colors tried to mix and form one united being, something shattered in his hands as the beast took this opportunity to leap forward with one of its claws stretched ahead. This time Ravok was too distracted with getting the weapon to form to dodge, its claw tearing into his shoulder, scraping away the skin and flesh to reveal his blood flowing out. To Ravoks' surprise, his blood wasn't the usual dark deep red he was used to. Instead, the liquid flowed out of him in separate streams of red and blue as if it was pure paint flowing through his veins.
"What is wrong?" Blue simply asked while Red yelled it at Ravok simultaneously as they exchanged a look. Their bodies were fine, and they felt none of the pain as if it was an actual wound, but the two of them could register that Ravok was wounded like it was their own body that got hurt.
Ravok looked at his hands for a moment as he jumped backward, putting some distance between him and the creature. "I don't know. It didn't work... I did it like you guys did, and the powers refused to… mix," He exclaimed out loud as he looked around for a spot to take cover, only to quickly realize two things, the creature would easily catch up to him either way and hiding would only put him in a more vulnerable position. People around him started looking at him in confusion and worry. It was strange as how they looked at him was the same way you would look at a crazy person. He was jumping around and fighting things that, to their perspective, weren't there, yet the questions if he was okay made it clear to him that the wounds he was sustaining were visible to the rest of the world. It made him think how much the people around him could see him. Could they see his eyes being the strange blue-red color? Could they see his clothing in the same Red and Blue, or was it the same black and white that he usually wore?
Red and Blue looked at each other in confusion. This had never happened to either of them before. Each time they manifested their weapons or powers, they simply appeared. While sure it took concentration at first, it never felt like there was some form of breaking.
Ravok held his hands outwards again, trying to focus on his hands on letting his own energy connect to the world around it to form the blade, trying to focus on the memories of Red and Blue doing the same not so long ago. But each time, the energy leaves his control and dissipates into the air, while other times, the beast he was facing would leap at him with hunger. Every time it managed to get close, he would notice that the red and blue blood streaming from his shoulder would evaporate into the air, turning into some form of gas slowly flowing towards and into the beast in front of him.
At this point, Ravok could only retreat, jumping backward with all his strength, leaping off the ground with immense force, and landing on the mall's roof. Shocked at his own power, he looked at his legs. Realized that whatever this power was, it came from Red and Blue. It never came to his mind to ask what they usually experienced, but he never expected superhuman levels like this.
"What the f*ck do we do?" Ravok asks as the creature he was fighting leaped after him, making the jump with the same ease that Ravok did. He clenched his fist, there was no point in attempting the weapon again, and he could not stay on the defensive forever. As he did, lines of color started flowing between his fingers, red on his left and blue on his left, these strands of color flickering and moving like flames in a fire.
Blue simply replied as she was holding out her left arm. "That… we focussed some of our power in your hands… you should be able to fight like this.." There was no doubt in her voice, no worry for his safety. "Just beat the sh*t out of it," Reds voice cheered while she was holding out her Red, like she was confident in Ravoks abilities or perhaps she was just excited to see some action, Ravok was not able to make out the difference at this time.
The beast snarled and growled, slowly approaching like a warrior wary of the opponent's blade, seemingly noticing that Ravok now had a weapon and was no longer defenseless. In one swift movement, it ran to the left, trying to flank Ravok before jumping in from the side, claws stretched out with wisps of black energy occasionally flickering off them.
Ravok moved his body to the left. Now that his head was no longer pounding, he could focus on the fight, the creature moved faster than anyone he had ever fought, but somehow it felt slow, sluggish even, now that his powers had balanced out and stabilized. The creature flew past him, and as it passed, Ravok pulled back his arm with the Red energy, slamming it into the creature's belly. As the blow connected, the beast flew to the side, hitting the rough stone ground multiple times before stopping.
For a moment, Ravok could only feel shocked. The punch he just landed made the creature fly. While he had knocked someone out before, this was the first time that he actually made something fly from just the force. The creature gasped for air. Its legs panicked as two arms attempted to reach out from its side, stretching to grasp the air, making wild flailing movements.
Inside Ravok, Red and Blue exchanged a look, nodding as they looked back up. Two large screen-like objects floating in the sky, showing precisely what Ravok saw with each eye as if they were sitting in a movie theater, watching his life go by. "I think I am starting to get the hang of this," Red exclaimed as she looked around the room, the red and blue that made up the sky flowing in equal amounts with the occasional sliver of purple floating through where the lines touched. She held out her right arm, the same red lines emanating from her fist. She punched forward with the same motion that Ravok did as he hit, cheering out excitingly once the punch connected. "It is like one of those video games!"
Blue only shook her head as she noticed Red moving and getting excited. She knew her well enough that once the fighting happened, she would enjoy herself either way and did not feel the need to tell her that she did not actually need to mimic the movements for their abilities to work. She focused on her power, letting it flow out of her evenly except for her fist, concentrating it there as she closed her eyes. The only thing she visualized was the floating energy out of hand, blue lines swerving and flowing calmly as opposed to Red, who let the power lash out wildly and passionately. The two points flow like fire and water, working right next.
Ravok took a couple of steps towards the beast, noticing that some of its energy was slowly being pulled away, the wisps of black pulling into some form of small pen-sized gaps in the air. Something inside of him told him to stop, the fight was already over, and there would be no point in actually dealing with the beast besides mercy. Yet the actual voices in his head told him otherwise "Kill it! Before it stands back up!" Red yelled, only to have Blue simply confirm the suggestion. "It is a dangerous beast… before the mechanized people show up… we need to take care of it and put it out of its misery."
Yet as Ravok looked at the beast's eyes, he could no longer see the same fury it was attacking with. Instead, the eyes were filled with fear as they looked at the small gaps behind it. It couldn't move its legs or stand up, but even without being able to do so, the arms sticking out of its body were attempting to pull it away from Ravok without much success.
Blue's voice popped up again. "We don't know much about them.. they are from the void… or so we think… but we cannot let them stay here…" Blue says as suddenly memories flow back into Ravoks view, another one of these creatures in a slightly different shape, wandering around, looking or searching for something. Blue was trying to rush forward, attempting to kill it. There were tens of people that it walked through without noticing a thing, but one of these people, a child that could not be any older than twelve, was actively running away from it, screaming and crying for the monster to get away. The beast, however, was faster than Blue expected, walking right through the child. As it did so, the child evaporated into it, the same way that Ravoks blood did once it managed to get close to the creature. The image faded again once the beast turned to strike back at Blue. "They eat people… We don't know how it chooses who to eat… but they eat people, Ravok" There was a crack in her neutrality, a hint of sadness as she spoke.
"Fine…" Ravok said with a sigh, slamming his right fist right into the creature's face as it managed to go through it. As it did, the beast dissipated into the small holes behind it in seconds. There was something behind the creature, the void that was moving, that Ravok couldn't quite understand. A curiosity sparked inside of him.