What the fucking shit Adam.
Pete had a beautiful view of the town being crushed like it was made from toothpicks from his window. Sure, Adam was pretty far away, so Pete was pretty sure his mancave wouldn’t also be his grave, but those tentacles were pretty damn long… His mother and father hadn’t been home ever since it happened, they hadn’t even called, but even so, Pete had still (somehow) found the time to brew himself a cup of chai tea to watch the clusterfuck with.
Man, to think that porn-star in training was his friend… It was an odd thought, even to Pete, but still. For a while, he had just watched his friend stand there, wondering when Adam would shed his human tendencies and become a real kaiju. Probably never.
When the magical girls showed up, Pete couldn’t honestly say he didn’t want to be closer. How did he know it was magical girls and not flying multi-coloured jaguars? Well, for one, the former is more plausible than the latter, and secondly, he was a biased source.
The battle lasted about an hour, and Pete couldn’t even see most of it. After he realized he wouldn’t be able to see it well anyways, he instead tuned into a Livestream of the event. Apparently, one insane motherfucker had actually approached it all, phone in hand, and started streaming. What an absolute madlad.
The Livestream cut a bit short though since the madlad in question was seemingly crushed by a random tentacle. Weak. So, with a lack of on-site footage, Pete reluctantly watched the rest of the battle from his window. It wasn’t much to see, and after a while, Adam just sort of disappeared. Very anticlimactic, but, then again, early battles with the main guy shouldn’t end with the main baddie dying. That’s just basic storytelling. You don’t kill Azathoth in the first chapter, dummy.
Still, Pete did recognize what Adam’s sudden disappearance might/would mean. The last time Adam went big and fucked some shit up only to disappear, he’d gone small, and his second stop was Pete’s Lair. So, in respect of what Adam might do next, Pete took a walk. A long, long walk of about three hours.
When he came back home, he was greeted by his parents at the door (with a big hug and a few tears), and up in his room, exactly nobody. Just that musty old well-used body pillow smell he had created all by himself. Pete was very happy with this, and went to sleep with a smile upon his face. No Adam, no worries.
When he woke up, there were many worries to be had. It was a Sunday, so he didn’t have school or anything, but according to the Pristine High website, classes would be suspended until further notice. At first, Pete thought that this was very neat. No school meant more time to catch up on the latest episodes of Mahou Shoujo Adventure Pippa. Sweet. However, as it turns out, he couldn’t keep himself from the news.
The main street was entirely decimated. The shops that hadn’t been completely crushed or destroyed had been left so wrecked that restoring them might just be impossible. But this wasn’t the worst of it. How many lives had been lost? How many had yet to be killed? So far, dozens of corpses had been hauled out of collapsed buildings, but with the destruction, the fatalities were suspected to lie in the hundreds or thousands. Attempts to rescue captured and injured civilians had lasted throughout the night and were still going on, with firefighters and professionals being swapped out for international assistance and volunteer workers.
It was a disaster upon Humbugg unrivalled by, well, anything that had happened to it, ever. This wasn’t the kind of place that got caught up in terrible earthquakes or hurricanes or tsunamis. This was a place spared from the wrath of mother nature. Until now.
Councils and parliaments had collected, questions being raised and asked and proposed. What was this creature? Was it the same as the one that had loomed heavy only days before? What was the connection between this creature and all the lesser monsters that had appeared? Furthermore, who were those few brave magically bestowed souls battling them?
The officers present at the very scene of the battle had all attested to their helplessness and how they had only survived because of the magical individuals at the scene. Together with reports of similar individuals and beasts appearing not only all over the country but all over the world as well, a general idea was quickly formed, and it was not one that people liked agreeing to.
The world was becoming magical.
This is what the evening news stated.
Some cheered, some cried, some speculated what this might mean. There wasn’t much research done yet, but so far, it was clear that there were too few “magically bestowed people” to defeat all of the monsters that popped up. So, in order to keep the public safe and secure, it was decided that every police force in the country would be assigned with a half a dozen or so soldiers, well educated and ready to fire. The troops would be stretched thin, but it would have to do.
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After that, Pete sort of zoned out. All he knew was that the world now had monsters and magical girls to fight them, and that was all he had to know. Apparently nobody knew what to call the monsters and magical girls, but Pete didn’t really care about what they thought anyway.
But what truly made his day, what made him want to do something that wasn’t just sitting around and watching anime, was the rumours. People were whispering, saying they saw monsters in the night, and even better, people fighting them! Magical girls fighting monsters…!!
Needless to say, Pete did not sleep that night. No, he spent it hunting for magical girls. He would be damned if he didn’t get a first-hand view this time…! Sure, his chances of dying were just as good, and he did meet armed patrol once or twice, all of which pointed guns at him and asked him why he wasn’t at home. It was only the next day that they installed a curfew, but did Pete care? Of course not!
He also happened upon a fair few rescue workers and ambulance, but those were best left ignored.
Two days went by, and his nightly walks became ordinary for him. The patrolling officers and military men became only more common, but as they increased, Pete only got better at sneaking and hiding. Maybe they noticed him but overlooked him since he was human, but either way, he succeeded in walking around, unnoticed and unarrested.
During one of those nights, he actually got to see a monster. Not a live one, a very dead one, and it were from afar, but still. It was about the size of three grown men stacked atop each other, and it looked sort of like a giant sheet of crumpled paper, with antennae and two arms being the only somewhat creature like parts. It was surrounded by officers and soldiers, but even so, Pete could see that they hadn’t killed it themselves. No, something else had. Something that had torn into it, biting and clawing at it like it was nobody’s business. On the walkie-talkies, they reported in hushed, tired tones how they hadn’t caught it yet. Pete didn’t wonder what it was since he didn’t care for it. He just wanted to see a magical girl, yo.
And then, one night, he got to see “it.”
Somewhere far off, rubble clattered and cleared the path to save a person Pete didn’t know. The moon was full and fat, jeering at the futility of it all. Not a star was visible, despite the sky being clear and cloudless. Darkness shrouded the alleys and crushed buildings and lost, yet-to-be-found lives.
Pete stuck to the edges of the sidewalk, his ears honed in on the familiar sound of unrhythmic, uneven footsteps, all clustered together. It was either a cluster of rescue workers, or a bundle of soldiers, and Pete wouldn’t want to find out. Some of his fellow nightstalkers had told him the soldiers operated on a shoot-on-sight method. Pete didn’t much believe it, but the mere idea made it so much thrilling. He felt like a masked hero, prowling the streets of some dystopian nightmare city, where he was the enemy they sought.
The mere idea made him chuckle, his eyes briefly turning downwards to look at his feet. Nothing much to see. Glancing back up, he stalled to a complete stop. There was someone in front of him. Ten meters away, facing him. A broken street lamp buzzed beside him, sparking wires illuminating only the man’s back. Pete gulped.
It wasn’t a group of soldiers. It wasn’t a lone rescue worker, either. He lacked the gear and equipment. No, this man was instead wearing what seemed to be jeans and a normal t-shirt. Almost too normal, for this situation. Pete couldn’t see his face. It was dark, and Pete hoped the man couldn’t see his face either.
The man took a step forwards. If Pete had decided to run, this is when he would have done it. But that wasn’t what he did. He stood his ground. Perhaps out of bravery, perhaps out of fear. Either way, the man came closer.
Details came into view. Blond hair, square jaw, and jeans-blue, sleepless eyes. The second their eyes met, equally tired, the man opened his mouth.
“ADAM?!?!? IS THAT YOU BR-,” Pete rushed forward, slamming his hand over the tall, buff man’s mouth.
“SHHHHHH!!!” Pete hissed, ignoring the man’s pleading gaze. Instead, Pete glanced up and down the sidewalk, his now frantic and lively eyes searching desperately for movement, something that might tip-off that their location had been compromised. Nothing. Not a movement, not a buzz of a walkie-talkie. A tap on his hand brought Pete’s attention back to the man. In a faint whisper, Pete said: “if you so much as scream for help, I’ll throw you into the mud, you hear me??”
The man nodded, his eyes showing absolutely no fear of Pete. Considering that Pete was about a feet shorter than him, this wasn’t too strange. Still, why did Pete feel so insulted…? With a sigh, Pete released his grip on the man.
“Bro, have you seen my friend Adam, he’s like J tall and-,” the man said in a normal speaking tone, what Pete could only assume is how this man whispers. But that’s not what catches his attention. No, the man had said Adam. A common name, yes, but how many Adams around here had disappeared as of late? Okay, bad question, probably a lot considering the destruction, but… Still! Something didn’t sit quite right with Pete.
“No, I haven’t seen your lost buffoon,” Pete snorted at his own joke, before realizing something, “you haven't happened to see a monster, have you? Or an adorably dressed girl? Frilly dress, preferably?” The man stared at him as if he had asked what shape the moon had.
“Uhhh, round? No, wait, sorry, no, I haven’t. Sorry, bro,” the man said, looking genuinely sad. Why, it might have just broken Pete’s heart if he had any. “Oh, also, I’m Chad!”
Pete looked “Chad” up and down. Yeah, he was a chad alright. Buff, handsome, stupid… a chad to a tee. What a fitting name. Reminded him of the only other Chad Pete had ever known. Pete wished he hadn’t known that Chad. And then Pete realized it was his turn to speak. “Oh, um, I’m… you can call me Shadow-Stalker. And don’t forget the hyphen.”
Chad squinted and furrowed his brows for a second, before laughing heartily, sliding in next to Pete to walk next to him. Pete accepted the gesture somewhat reluctantly but gave Chad a sidelong stare for the laughter. “Oh! Sorry, it’s just, bro, like, that’s what Spider-man always says, but it’s a cool name! Can I call you Stalky, bro?”
Something told Pete that Chad would be referring to him more as “bro” than as “Shadow-Stalker”. But, at this time of night, in this part of Humbugg, localized entirely on the sidewalk, he really didn’t have the energy to correct him. “Sure, whatever. You read his comics or something, dork?”
Chad smiled. “Nope! Well, like, none of his stand-alone comics, but in the comics where he features together with the Hulk, he sometimes says it!” Chad said with a grin, his mind anywhere but right there.
They started walking, searching together for no other reason than for the sake of it. Pete couldn’t help but crack a smile together with Chad.
“Heh, dork.”