Ch 40: The Crone's Secret

As Rufus and Ace work together to stall Zorus, Toshley confronts the witch. More than a little antisocial, she nevertheless loosens her tongue after he deals with her minions.

            Rushing through the streets of the Tinkerer’s Exchange, their way lighted by the city’s streetlights, Rufus and Ace followed after Violet, who was hot on Zorus’ trail. People stared and muttered as they saw the two of them following after her in her wispy orb form, and somewhat embarrassed, Rufus said, “I hope someone doesn’t call the city guard on us.” Ignoring the stares, Ace said, “We tell anybody our story and they’ll just say we’re completely nuts, so if they do arrest us, just come up with something clever.” Thinking a moment, Rufus said, “Hmm, how about we say we’re reporters in hot pursuit of a mysterious figure?” Rolling his eyes, Ace muttered, “Might as well say we’re walking our pet ghost!” 

Suddenly stopping, a panicked Violet said, “Be careful, he’s close! I can sense him nearby!” Coming to a halt, Ace and Rufus looked around, Rufus stuttering, “W-where?! Where is he?!” In uncertainty, Violet answered, “I… I don’t know... He’s close, but I can’t tell exactly where.” Spotting the nearby alleyway, Rufus rushed over to it and said, “I bet he’s hiding in here!” Following after him, Ace said, “Hold on, are you trying to get killed?!” As they followed after Rufus, Ace thought of something, and he asked Violet, “What does the guy even look like? He doesn’t look like you does he?” Hovering beside him, Violet said, “No, the witch restored his form with magic. He wears a purple and black cloak with a hood to hide the fact that he has no face.” 

Looking around with his hand ready to draw his EDE weapon, as he confirmed there wasn’t anyone but them in the alleyway, Rufus sighed and said, “I guess my reporter’s instincts were wrong after all…” Getting impatient, Ace called out to him, “There’s nobody in here! C’mon, we’re gonna lose him!” Just as he was turning to go, Rufus felt a bit of dust fall on him from above. Looking up to see where it came from, he saw a strange sight. Climbing up the side of the wall using his hands, a hooded person in black and purple clothes seemed to be staring through the window of a building. Seeming to notice he’d been spotted, the figure turned his head to look back at Rufus, and though it was too dark to see whether the figure had a face or not, Ian’s growl was all the proof Rufus needed. Drawing his EDE weapon, Rufus fired an energy bolt from it at Zorus, shouting, “I-it’s him!”

            Pushing off the side of the wall and leaping to the adjacent wall, Zorus evaded the energy bolt, which struck and exploded. The explosion blew a decent sized chunk out of the wall, and as dust and debris fell down at him, Rufus raised his arm to shield himself as he backed away quickly. Leaping off the wall to land before him, Zorus lunged at Rufus to strike, but leaping off Rufus’ hat with a hiss, Ian defended his master, pouncing onto Zorus’ head and affixing himself to his hood with his claws. Seeing Zorus struggling to remove Ian from his face, Rufus shouted, “Ian! Hold on, I’m coming!” Pushing him aside suddenly, Ace rushed through the alleyway at Zorus with his knife in hand. Finally extracting Ian and tossing him aside, Zorus dodged as Ace thrust the point of his blade at him, quickly withdrawing a pair of daggers. 

Ducking as Zorus countered with a horizontal slash from one of his daggers, Ace tried to trip him with a sweeping kick, but the fiend leaped back onto the side of the wall. Leaping off the wall into the air above Ace and coming down with a stomping kick, Zorus’ foot struck the cement, Ace rolling aside and onto his feet. Zorus rushed after him and began swiping with skillful swings of his daggers, and backing away from his strikes, Ace waited for an opening, thinking, “This guy’s good, but at least he doesn’t seem as dangerous as that Grave character.” As Zorus lunged at him with arms crossed and swung both daggers in a reckless horizontal swipe, Ace leaped straight up and flipped in the air, coming back down with a crushing dropkick to his face. Zorus fell back onto the cement from Ace’s strike, and as Ace himself fell back through the air after the kick, he hurled his knife into the air and caught himself by landing on both hands, doing a maneuver similar to a cartwheel to flip back to his feet. Catching his knife as it fell back down and twirling it in his hand, Ace bowed and smugly said, “Welcome to the circus!”

            As Zorus struggled back onto his feet, Ace dropped into a battle stance, but then looking past Zorus down the alleyway, Ace grinned and quickly moved aside as he shouted, “Blast him Rufus!” Taking aim and firing, Rufus struck the recovering Zorus in the back with an energy bolt, the resulting blast sending him sailing out of the alley and into the side of a passing hover trolley. Getting up as the people of the city moved away from him in panic, as Zorus saw Rufus and Ace coming after him, Ian back on Rufus’ hat, he quickly boarded the hover trolley. As the terrified driver got out of his seat and fled the trolley, Zorus jumped into the driver’s seat and hit the accelerator. Rushing towards the trolley as it was starting to drive away, Ace exclaimed, “Does he even know how to drive that thing?!” Leaping up as the last car was passing by him, Ace grabbed hold of the railing and started to pull himself up over it, while the not quite as speedy Rufus began chasing after the trolley in futility. 

Finally giving up on catching the trolley, as Rufus took a moment to catch his breath, Violet flew up to him and said, “Oh no, I hope your friend can handle him alone.” Staring after the trolley, Rufus watched it head for an onramp up onto the hover vehicle highway, and remembering Toshley’s explanation, he quickly bolted towards the onramp with a grin, saying, “You can’t get rid of Rufus Lenscap that easily!” Nearing the onramp, Rufus saw what he was looking for. Nearby was a parking lot, filled with hover cars that the people of the city had parked there while they went about their business in the Tinkerer’s Exchange. Jumping into a red convertible with its roof down, Rufus placed Ian in his lap as Violet floated over to hover in the passenger seat. Briefly looking over the controls, Rufus rubbed his hands together and said, “Now then, the computer system seems similar to those back home. Let’s see if I can hotwire this baby!” Anxiously, Violet said, “We’re going to steal it?” Flashing a wink and a thumbs up, Rufus replied, “It’s borrowing, totally on the up and up! Commandeering transportation in the midst of an emergency investigation is the legitimate right of Ace Reporters everywhere!”

            Driving along the hover vehicle highway, the trolley a bit slow compared to the hover cars speeding past it, Zorus looked back to see Ace carefully jump over the gap between the last car and the next one up. Making his way to the other side of the car, Ace prepared to jump to the next one, thinking, “Where does he think he’s going?!” Suddenly the car shook, and struggling to steady himself, Ace grabbed hold of the railing. Seeing the next car up slowly pulling away from the car he was on, he thought in realization, “The b*****d detached the car!” It was already too late to leap to the next car, and seeing a sharp turn coming up on the highway, Ace muttered, “Aw crap…” Suddenly driving up to the side of the trolley car he was on in a red convertible, Rufus yelled, “Ace, hop in!” 

Leaping over the side of the railing, Ace landed in the back seat of the convertible just as they came to the sharp turn. With no one steering them, the detached cars from the trolley slammed into the railing around the highway, one car breaking through and dangling over the side. Driving past the crashed trolley cars, Rufus and Ace quickly sped after Zorus’ trolley. Seeing them coming, Zorus detached the remaining cars one by one in an attempt to hit them, but Rufus swerved around them effortlessly. Catching up to the trolley, Rufus offered his EDE weapon to Ace and said, “Aim for the back, just above the hookup for the cars! There’s a small hatch there, it’s gotta be a service panel for the hover engines!” Taking the EDE weapon, Ace said, “Gotcha!” Aiming carefully and pulling the trigger, Ace unleashed a bolt of EDE that hit the mark, blowing open the hatch and damaging the hover engine’s computer system. 

As the hover engines shut off, the trolley fell to the pavement with a thud and began sending sparks flying everywhere. Bringing the convertible to a stop, Rufus watched it skid as he said, “He’s not going anywhere now!” As the trolley crashed into the railing before coming to a halt, Ace wondered aloud, “Where was he going in the first place?” Hovering in the front passenger’s seat, Violet said, “He might be headed for an exit portal.” Looking over at Violet, Rufus said, “A what?” Explaining, Violet said, “He uses the witch’s magic portals to sneak into the city. If he reaches the exit portal, he can escape back into the ruins.” In an irritated tone, Ace said, “There anything else we should know? You know, BEFORE he turns us into dust with some kind of plasma beam?” Nervously, Violet replied, “I don’t know what it is, but I do know that Zorus wears his hood to hide his true power... The only time I ever heard him speak was when the witch asked him to remove it.” Not sure he wanted to know, Rufus hesitantly said, “What happened when he took it off?” Violet simply replied, “He didn’t... Despite the witch’s control over him, he refused.”

            Stepping into a room deep in the dark halls of the mountain ruins, the top of his staff reconfigured into a flashlight, as Toshley swept the light across the room, he saw he was in a large circular tomb with stone coffins lining the walls. Not seeing an open coffin that could have been Zorus’, he muttered, “Oh, confound it all! I’ll just have to keep looking…” Sweeping his light over the room again just to be sure, he noticed that across the room from where he’d entered was another open door. Walking through the room towards it, he wondered aloud, “Could it be in here?” Suddenly the door before him closed, as did the one he’d entered from. Making a sour face, Toshley called out, “Of all the… You’ve been peeping on me this whole time, haven’t you miss witch?” Myrtle’s voice echoed through the chamber, “These ruins are my domain! Who do you think you are to set foot in here?” 

Toshley simply replied, “It’s hardly good manners to demand my name without introducing yourself first! Honestly, if this is your home, you could stand to show your guests a bit more hospitality!” Sounding slightly irritated, the witch replied, “If you desire hospitality, my servants will be more than willing to show you all the hospitality you deserve!” The stone coffins along the walls began to shake, and their stone doors fell forward onto the floor to reveal the entombed skeletons within. One by one, the eye sockets of the skeletons started to light up with a faint red glow, and they began to step out of their coffins carrying all manner of blades in their skeletal hands. Pressing a button on his staff, as it made loud clanking and whirring sounds, the top end of Toshley’s staff reconfigured itself into a large spinning blade like that of a buzz saw. Twirling his new weapon in his hand a moment, Toshley took a battle stance and said, “It will take more than a pile of bones to thwart someone of my ingenuity!”

            One of the skeletons charging at him with a cutlass in hand, Toshley swung his saw-staff in an upwards strike, cutting it in half vertically. Another coming up behind him, without even looking back Toshley used the other end of his staff to knock its skull from its shoulders and then spun with a horizontal strike to cut it in half at the bottom of its spine. Twirling his staff about, with quick spinning strikes Toshley cut down two more as they came at him from both sides. Then as he poured EDE into the staff, the saw blade began to crackle with blue electricity, and with pinpoint aim he fired blue lightning bolts to blow apart the two remaining skeletons before they could attack him. Resting his staff on his shoulder, Toshley sighed and said, “I’d be more entertained by a coloring book.” With a faint hint of concern, Myrtle’s voice said, “Who are you old man?” 

Becoming quite irritated, Toshley exclaimed, “Did you not hear me?! You should first have the decency to introduce yourself!” After a moment, the witch said, “Fine, I suppose you’ve earned that much. I am known as Myrtle the Crone, and as you seem to already know, I am a witch. I was slain thousands of years ago, but now that I have returned, I will control this mountain and the secret within it!” Raising an eyebrow, Toshley said, “Secret? The gold? If you think it’s a secret that there was gold here, I’d certainly be interested to know what you thought those construction workers you had murdered in their sleep were doing here!” Quickly Myrtle’s eerie, evil laughter filled the room, and as she finally stopped laughing, she said, “Gold?! No you fool, I came to this mountain for something far more valuable than gold!” Puffing up in indignation, Toshley said, “Who are you calling a fool?! If you aren’t here for the gold, just what is it that you’re after?!” As the door before him suddenly slid open, Myrtle’s voice called out, “Come see for yourself… if you dare…”

            Stepping through the door, Toshley found himself at the top of a staircase leading down into a very large room, skeletons lying strewn about the floor. Multicolored light was shining down into the room from above, and looking up for the source of the light, as he saw what it was coming from, Toshley whispered in awe, “By Spraggle’s sprockets! What in the world is this?” Sticking out of the solid rock of the mountain itself, having pushed through the roof of the ruins, enormous crystal formations glowing with a rainbow of colors hung from above. Calling out from where she was seated in a stone throne upon a raised platform all the way on the other side of the room, Myrtle said, “Long ago, a world existed other than the world we know today. These crystals are leftover pieces of that world, the remnants of the magic that once comprised the very form of the world having clung to and mixed together with the hearts of the ancient beings that lived upon it. Together, they have solidified into a timeless material called aeternium!” 

Walking down the stairs and into the center of the room, Toshley said, “Do you honestly mean to say that this mountain is filled with pieces of the Old God’s existence?! Don’t tell me these ruins were part of the previous existence as well?!” Looking slightly surprised at his apparent knowledge of the subject, Myrtle replied, “No, this is what’s left of a tomb for a legendary clan of assassins, the Inferus Brotherhood. It’s actually rather ironic that neither they nor the looters who have come and gone through these halls over the years had any idea what was within the mountain just beyond these walls. Few people understand what it really is, but aeternium can be used to augment a person’s magical power greatly. In the past before magic was replaced by technology,  there were those who would pay a fortune for a piece no bigger than the size of your fist!” 

Remembering what Violet had told them, Toshley asked, “Hold on, was it through the power of a piece of aeternium that Archon was able to bring you back to life?!” Now clearly surprised, Myrtle got up and said, “How do you know that man?! The piece of aeternium in his staff was unlike anything I’ve ever encountered! The color was a unique hue, and I could feel the power radiating from it!” Just as eager for some answers, Toshley asked, “Just what did Archon want with a necromancer like you anyway?” Glowering at him, Myrtle crossed her arms and shouted, “I’ve told you a great deal already! You could stand to show some manners yourself!” 

Gesturing for her to calm herself, Toshley said, “Honestly, there’s no need to shout! Just answer one last question! After that, I swear by my lucky wrench here that I’ll regale you with my complete biography!” Still glaring at him, Myrtle said, “My expertise regarding aeternium and its uses were well known among the black market during my time. He knew far more than I did though. It wasn’t my expertise he wanted, he was interested in information on any strange pieces of aeternium I had come across. He didn’t care who owned them, he simply wanted me to describe them in detail. The shape, the weight, the color… I found it bizarre, but I told him what I could. After that, he simply left.”

            Feeling certain he understood what Archon wanted with such information, as Toshley stood there in silent thought, Myrtle impatiently said, “If my response was adequate, I believe it’s time you explain yourself! Who are you and what do you want?!” Grinning widely, Toshley said, “I am known as Toshley the Gear Shifter, and also as the Observer of Invention! And before you ask, I’m afraid I don’t do autographs.” Greatly surprised, Myrtle said, “An Observer?! I’d only heard vague rumors of your existence. What could a being who holds himself above the matters of this world want with me?” Raising his staff at her and waving it around angrily, Toshley said, “Don’t jump to assumptions! I for one find great importance in the matters of the world, particularly the plight of a young girl whose body you have stolen!” 

Narrowing her eyes in irritation, Myrtle walked down the stairs of the platform as she muttered, “That bothersome girl again?” Raising her own staff, magical energies surrounded Myrtle as she said, “When I cast that spell, I honestly didn’t expect for her spirit to hang around like it did. Zorus’ body was to the point where it wouldn’t have held up even if I’d reanimated it, and without their leader, the others wouldn’t heed my call. So what if I stole her body? It’s her own fault for being such a naïve fool!” Striking the bottom of her staff on the ground, Myrtle chanted, “Murum Praestigiae!” Pouring out from the bejeweled pendant Myrtle wore around her neck, what looked like a storm of ghosts swirled around her to create a barrier of wailing spirits. 

Turning his staff in his hand, Toshley aimed the bottom end of it at Myrtle and pressed a button on the staff. In a blur of shifting machinery, the bottom end of his staff reconfigured into a cannon barrel, and with the press of another button Toshley opened fire with a barrage of blue lightning EDE shells. Fired in rapid succession, the shells exploded against the barrier harmlessly, and Myrtle let out a cackle as she said, “Even an Observer shouldn’t be able to defeat me here! The amount of aeternium in this room is enough to enhance my spells just by being close to them!” Then she raised her staff and chanted, “Vocant De Gravi!” Rising from the grave all around Toshley, the skeletons that had laid strewn about the room began to surround him.