Book I: The Remnant of Gregory Fischer, Chapter III: Man On Fire

--- Gregory Fischer ---

(“Simple Parry.

Cost: 1 Blank Page.

Defensive.

A basic defensive maneuver that deflects an incoming strike, while hopefully leaving space for retaliation. A step further than blocking, but only the beginning of the defensive arts.

Reactive Read. Negate an incoming attack.

Checkout Renewal Fee: 1 Blank Page, for Scrappers and Infiltrators.”)

Once more he understood most of what was written down, but there were still words that he lacked context for no matter how familiar they were becoming. (It doesn’t matter. I’ve got enough to work with for now.)

Deciding it was best to hold onto the page, given how it was the thing the Library actually wanted him to collect, he moved to put it in his book for safekeeping. Only when he brought the page close to the book he began to feel a force trying to pull it out of his hand.

With a frown he tugged the page away from the book and felt the force stop before growing stronger as he brought it closer to the book. (They’re almost magnetic with each other…)

Figuring this was part of what the Library wanted him to see, he let the page go before watching it get sucked into the book where it seamlessly merged with the rest of the book, looking no different than any of the other skill pages he’d read within.

Just to check that he went back to his Current Story, and found that (yep, six marks for my… Skills? Equipment? Both?)

He shook his head as he closed the book, knowing that either he’d figure out what was going on with the book or he’d burn down the Library and the point would be moot. (Preferably the latter…)

With nothing else left to do here, he turned his attention back to the exit door hanging open while leading out into a void that he was even more reluctant to deal with than the overcrowded city that he lived in.

He pulled out one of his regular cigarettes, and found that the pack was almost empty. (If they gave infinite refills of these then I might’ve forgiven them for all of this shit.)

Still he lit up one of his cigarettes, more to calm his nerves than infuse himself with power, before stepping out into the void as confidently as he could. Ready to kill whatever he found on the other side.

Outside of the Library’s recreation of Toni’s workshop he found himself on an empty black street with a recreation of his city’s library in front of him. (If this was how the city was actually laid out it would make my life a hell of a lot easier…)

Not letting his guard down, his eyes instinctively searched the street for any hidden enemies as he crossed it, only to find the half-hearted recreation of the city to be apocalyptically empty. (Well, at least I don’t have to deal with people, small mercies I suppose…)

As he started up the stairs to the library he found his eyes drifting up to the sky above, before really wishing he hadn’t.

While the world around him was illuminated well enough to pass for the evening, the sky above him was an abyss of nothingness darker than black and emptier than the void. At least until you realized the abyss was moving.

A massive bloodshot eye opened, staring down at him before a maw full of fangs grinned at him.

“Nope.” He decided, running up the stairs two at a time so as to get some cover between him and the thing that could crush him like a roach.

He shoulder tackled the door to the library open, before slamming it shut behind him, and (really hoping that was just some kind of mind fucky illusion.)

With his luck he knew it wasn’t but…

He shook his head, and took in the library he was inside of noting how instead of being the actual Black Briar Library it was a recreation of itself made from pages scrawled in so much text that might as well be black.

Cautiously, he started forward until he was standing in the middle of the atrium over the insignia of a black rose. “Well, I’m here. I got your invitation. I’m playing your little game. What do you want to do now? More men in black to try and kill me?”

Silence was his only answer.

Finishing off his cigarette, he dropped it on the ground and put it out under his heel. “Fine, I’ll figure it out myself.”

Aware that the book had been the source of or answer to everything that had happened to him thus far, he pulled it out and began flipping through the pages until he once more found the ‘Working Draft’ section. (Okay, I survived Act 1, and I got the invitation from Act 2…) “So why isn’t the Library Burning for Act 3?”

He was missing something.

(Alright, so… Library, Book, Story, Chapters, Drafts, and Acts… Clearly there’s a theme to all of this… I survived death, thus beating Act 1: Depression. I got the invitation in Act 2 from those guys trying to kill me… Which tied Act 1 and 2 together… So to progress, I need to… continue the narrative?) “Which means burning the library down in vengeance.”

While he wasn’t one for book burning, he could happily make an exception in this case. (What’s more they didn’t take that particular option away from me either.)

He flipped his book open to the page depicting his Heated Fist with a smirk.

(“Heated Fist.

Cost: 1 Fantasy or Science Fiction Page.

Blunt Melee Fire.

A technique born by fusing Martial Might with Technology or Magic to infuse one’s fists with the power of the flame. The first true step to mastering the Fist of The Flame.”)

He clenched his fist and drew on the power of the heat that was always smoldering within him, be it real or a hallucination. The air around his right arm began to shimmer, the heat bending the light around it before eventually actual flames began to lick away at him.

Even if it wasn’t as much as he’d been hoping for, (there’s plenty of kindling here to make it work.) All he had to do was introduce the fire to the pages around him and-

He paused as he watched the shadows around him dance in the flame’s light, quickly realizing that something was wrong about them. (The angle is all wrong, as if the flame was coming from-)

With wide eyes he spun on his heel, and just barely managed to deflect a flaming fist before it could impact him. Not that that did anything to prevent the follow-up strike from hitting him in the chest and sending him flying with a trail of burning pages erupting behind him.

“Fuck!” He gasped as he hit the ground and bled the momentum to roll back onto his feet. “Alright, who the hell…”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

He couldn’t help but trail off as he saw the figure in front of him.

For before him stood a man whose flesh was covered in flames that slowly devoured him as his face was trapped in a richter of rage and hate that wanted little more than to burn the entire world around.

A face that he had worn once upon a time…

(His world was nothing but pain and rage as he lashed out at anything in arm’s reach, uncaring if they were friend or foe…)

A face that was his…

“So we’re doing more of this memory lane bullshit.” He swallowed before standing once more and taking a stance against his burning doppelganger, all the while trying very hard not to think about what had sent him into this particular rage.

Around him the library shifted and swirled as his doppelganger’s flames slowly devoured it all before leaving them standing on a burning street with bodies littering the ground unmoving.

Small bodies.

He flinched.

The Hellish Echo of who he was rushed forward with a fist full of flames, and all he could do was raise his guard to defend against the onslaught of strikes that devoured him. Unable to bring himself to do much more in the face of his… (failure.)

Another blow impacted his face, hard enough that he knew it should’ve broken something, but while he did feel the pain (I deserve) his body kept no damage as more and more pages burst from his body.

With every blow the flames consuming his doppelganger grew brighter and brighter, the heat building to a sweltering point he hadn’t felt in years.

As the flames began to flicker white, the Hellish Echo’s fist hit him once more, only this time instead of pages erupting from his form he felt his glasses crunch as the fist hit his face, filling him with a pain far more real than anything he’d felt since stepping foot into the Library.

The moment real heat touched him, instinct took over and twisted the flames away, minimizing how much of his flesh they could eat away at before he twisted to move via his Smoke. Only instead of the Smoke following his will, he found the world around him shifting with the fluttering of pages before finding himself behind his Hellish Echo with a trail of paper leading between them.

(W-what?) He blinked, regaining some lucidity as he found his Book once more in his hands.

One of the pages fluttered in front of him and he realized he recognized the page’s contents from within his own book.

(“Swift Dodge.

Cost: 1 Blank page.

Mobility.

The most important thing any combatant can learn is how to move to avoid being hit. Even better if they can do so swiftly.

Reactive Read. When attacked, move a short distance away.

Checkout Renewal Fee: 1 Blank Page, for Scrappers and Infiltrators.”)

He frowned as he read that, more so when the page faded into nothingness as it touched the ground. (That… that’s not what I thought that meant… That was almost like my Smoke Dash but… with paper…)

Paper was not something he could work with. At least not the way he could Fire and Smoke.

This… oddity was enough to have him reevaluating the world around him. A world that while extremely similar to one of his more traumatic memories, was also just off enough to remind him that this was all some kind of fucked up illusion from the Library messing with him, not the usual night terrors that he subjected himself to.

Something that just served to piss him off once more. (And I can work angry…)

With a growl he snapped his book shut before tossing it to the side, not really caring if it burned or not as he glared at the Hellish Echo whose right arm was wreathed in white flames that seemed to lash out at the very world around them.

He inhaled before exhaling as he once more took his stance. “Alright, let’s try this again.”

The Hellish Echo snarled a sound inhuman, before rushing forward with another Heat Fist from the blazing white arm.

Instead of letting it hit him this time, he parried the blow off with his own right arm before using an Opening Strike on the Echo’s solar plexus and following up with a flurry of body shots that ended with a hook to the Echo’s jaw.

The Hellish Echo stumbled back a step before swinging its arm with a clawing motion.

One that he more than recognized as he ducked under a wave of flames before delivering a Heat Fist infused uppercut of his own.

A blow that touched nothing but smoke as the Hellish Echo Smoke Dashed away, before entering a boxing stance and punching out a series of crimson fireballs in his direction.

More on returning instinct than anything else, he pulled on his own power to use Smoke Dash, only to instead use the odd Swift Dodge again to avoid the spell series that detonated behind him as he closed the distance between him and the Echo.

Reappearing in front of the Hellish Echo he slipped one of his Chem Smokes into his mouth before ducking under a sloppy hook from the Echo and taking it a step further by twisting its flames to light his own cigarette.

Inhaling deeply, he felt the power of the Smoke flood his body as he firmed his footing on the ground before delivering another Heat Fist to the Hellish Echo’s stomach, the flames blooming twice as far as any of his previous blows.

The Hellish Echo skidded back on its heels, not being sent flying like he himself had, before turning a snarling glare upon him.

“What? Getting tired?” He asked in between rough breaths of his own as took note of the slowly spreading patches of burned flesh on his doppelganger.

This question seemed to only enrage the Hellish Echo further if that was possible, as it took a stance he recognized even if he hadn’t used it in years. The doppelganger drawing its blazing arm back with its right leg as the flames dancing around it began to circle around the echo.

He couldn’t help but scoff, even as phantom pains began to eat away at his body, “Trust me, when I say…you really don’t want to do that…”

Rather than heeding his warning, his doppelganger’s arm grew even brighter, enough so that he couldn’t look at it directly as he rushed forward, knowing that he could not let that spell hit him.

The Hellish Echo punched, causing the entire world to flash a blinding white as a destructive white flame devoured everything in front of his doppelganger rendering everything it touched nothing but ash.

Something that he was quite content to not witness again as he dropped to the ground and dove through the far less dangerous red flames that had gathered around the Echo’s feet. Even if he could still feel them burning him as he worked his magic to keep the white flames as far away from him as possible.

When the light finally died down he found himself lying on the ground in a world much darker than before as all but the most stubborn of cinders had been snuffed out by the white flame that had for a moment devoured all the air on the street, leaving it hard for anything to breathe.

Next to him his Hellish Echo fell to its knees, all of its fire having been consumed by the Morningstar it had unleashed.

With what strength he had left he forced himself onto his own knees so that he could get a better look at the damage.

The massive crater filled with embers stretching down half the street was something he’d expected, as was the fact that Hellish Echo was now down an arm.

“Warned you, you didn’t want to do that.” He sighed, looking at his right arm. Something he hadn’t been expecting to get a page in his book even if he really should’ve.

(Toni’s Prosthetic Arm

Cost: 1 Science Fiction Page.

Tech Equipment (Arm).

A simple creation of a technological genius. The mere beginnings of what she could create, only held back due to fear of burning what remained of her friend.

Restriction Read: This Page may only be equipped to a Cyberpunk unit with an (Arm) equipped or an ability equipping an (Arm).

If this unit has any Heat stacks, increase the power of their Melee attacks and abilities by that amount.)

With a wistful sigh he lowered his metal limb before climbing back to his feet and looking down at his Hellish Echo. The doppelganger no longer consumed by rage or fire, looked completely and utterly burned out a mere husk of what it had been a few moments prior.

He lit one of his last two cigarettes before offering the last one to his doppelganger, knowing that if it felt anything like he did then he couldn’t hurt it anymore than it already was. (My anger always did burn hot and fast I suppose…)

To his surprise the doppelganger actually took the cigarette and put it to its lips before struggling to light the flame, something he always did with-

He gripped the end of the Echo’s cigarette and snapped the fingers of his right hand, lighting it.

They both just sat there for a moment, watching ash drift through the air, the only remnant of the things that had gotten them into this fight in the first place.

“Do… do we… quit burning?” His younger self asked, sounding as lost as he had for years.

Which is why he actually thought about it for a moment, perhaps for the first moment even.

He didn’t think about the events that burned him out until he became little more than a husk of himself, because he thought about those daily. But rather he thought about where he was, where he’d been since the day he burned.

The way he just went through the motions of it all, waking up, pretending for Toni’s sake, working so that she could live as she wished in spite of him holding her back, drowning himself in stories so he wouldn’t have to think about his own.

He stared into the cherry glowing at the end of his cigarette for another moment, before telling his younger self,

[]- “Yes.” (It has to…)

[]- “No.” (It won’t…)