Tendou

This is joint-written. Glide, Niqi, and Ambree search Tendou for clues, and come up with a theory.

 

“Quit it!” Ambree hissed, pulling her gas mask back for maybe the twentieth time.

Niqi ignored her. “We splitting up again?”

“Is that all you had to ask? Really?” Ambree stared at her, incredulous.

Niqi made a face at her.

“Would you two stop being stupid?” Glide muttered, rubbing his temples. “Niqi, you don’t even really need air. And no, we’re not splitting up this time.”

“I need it to talk,” Niqi muttered. “Freaking gas.”

“Yeah, great idea to waste your air stating the obvious, then,” Ambree responded, rolling her eyes.

“Both of you, please, shut up.” Glide growled. “Niqi, go search the bazaar. Ambree, take the old hotel we stayed in while we were here.”

Niqi stalked off to her destination wordlessly, probably because she was out of air.

Ambree nodded, pausing before heading for the hotel. “Where are you searching?” she asked Glide.

Glide grinned. “Where am I searching... Where else? The nearest bar.”

 

…

 

“Found some bodies, some dust, some more bodies, and some more dust,” Ambree said when she’d met up with Glide again. “You?”

Glide nodded. “Pretty much the same thing. Oh, I did find this.” Grinning, he held up a mask that resembled the top half of a demon’s skull. “Didn’t get to search the basement, though.”

Ambree looked at the item Glide had found. “Seems interesting. So anyways, no long-lost friends turning up this time?” She grinned.

Glide put the mask on, then shook his head. “Not unless they’re in the basement. Y’know, this thing is just like my dad’s old skull mask...”

“Your demon dad?” Ambree asked, glancing around. “Sure there were no long-lost enemies, either?”

“Absolutely sure.” Glide replied. “I know his scent. Granted it’s all over this mask, but on the planet itself... I don’t think he’s been here for years.”

“So there’s no chance he could’ve done this, right?” Ambree asked. “But then…why would his mask be here?”

Glide shrugged. “How the f**k should I know? He probably got hammered and left it here a few years ago.”

Ambree grinned and shook her head. “That’s so strange.”

Niqi finally joined the two of them, running from the direction of the bazaar.

“Late again,” Ambree commented, grinning. “Took your sweet time. Find anything interesting?”

Niqi shook her head instead of taking air to say something.

“What, finally decide my survival is more important than your useless talking?” Ambree asked.

Niqi simply blinked.

Ambree sighed. “Fine, give the silent treatment.” She turned to Glide. “What do you think we should do now? Are there any other places where we could potentially find clues on this planet?”

Glide didn’t respond for a few moments, staring at Niqi. He snapped his fingers about an inch from her face. “... Speak, pup.”

Niqi stared at Glide, confused, as if to say, “Why?”

“Speak!” Glide commanded, drawing his blade. “Or I’ll be wearing a wolf-skin jacket in a few minutes.”

Niqi opened her mouth, but no sound came out.

“What the hell are you trying to do?” Ambree asked. “Steal my air, for f**k’s sake.”

Glide waited, tapping his foot impatiently. “Your time’s running out. Speak or die, it’s that simple.”

Niqi started to look nervous.

Ambree glanced at Glide. “Is it really necessary to kill her if she’s just being stubborn?”

“Yes.” Glide responded. “You’d better draw if you have any plans to see the sunrise tomorrow, pup.”

Niqi glanced down at herself and felt her sides, and then pulled back her coat slightly, drawing her luces from where they were attached to her hips. She stared at the weapons, turning them around a couple times.

Ambree took a few steps back from Niqi, staring at her. “Uh, right…” she mumbled, utterly confused.

“Good pup.” Glide smirked, tucking his right arm behind his back and brandishing Magus with his left. “Come on, then, let’s see about that wolf-skin jacket you owe me.”

Niqi lunged at Glide, seeming a bit confused as to how to use the weapons.

Glide sidestepped the attack, tapping the pommel of his sword against the back of Niqi’s neck.

Niqi took a step backwards, holding both luces out in front of her. It was apparent that she was breathing heavy and shaking.

Glide twirled his blade, grinning as he circled Niqi, all the while gathering energy in his right paw. “Come on, stop trying to hit me and hit me.”

Niqi swallowed and lunged at him again.

Once again, Glide sidestepped, swinging his paw forward and slamming it into Niqi’s stomach, the energy he had gathered exploding as soon as he hit. “Shotgun blast.”

Niqi stumbled and fell to the ground, and then struggled to get up again.

Just as she was preparing to lunge once more, another Niqi came sprinting from a random direction. She already had her luces out, and she took the original by surprise, slashing it down the back and then spearing it onto the spike at the end of one luz before it could turn around. She lifted the other Niqi over her head, tossing her aside. The wounded Niqi gurgled loudly.

“It’s about time you got here...” Glide muttered. “I was getting pretty goddamn bored with this imposter.”

Niqi stole Ambree’s air for a moment. “F*****g b***h tied my hands, put me in a bag, and tossed me down a flight of stairs before I could react. I think she was some sort of mutant that survived the toxic gas.” She paused to get more air. “She’s fast, I’ll give her that. I mostly had trouble finding my way back here, though. Too many goddamn passageways down there.” She glanced over at the imposter, who was trying to get up again. She shoved a luz through its skull, pulling up brains on the return. She shook them off, and then sheathed both her weapons.

“I guess that means you didn’t have time to check out the bazaar, like I asked.” Glide smirked, sheathing Magus. “To give you the long and short of it, neither of us found much, except bodies and layers of dust.”

Niqi rolled her eyes and stole more air. “Oh, I had time. Like, a grand total of fifteen f****n’ seconds. Pretty much the same thing there, anyway.”

“We should keep searching, then.” Glide said. “Maybe Senshi’s fortress is where it started here.”

Niqi nodded. “Let’s go.”

 

…

 

“Well, that’s definitely not good...” Glide murmured, nudging a dead Barghest with his foot. “This stuff even kills them.”

“Senshi sees no-one!” Ambree yelled at the Barghest, “Because he’s f*****g dead! And so are you, now.” She grinned, then took a moment to look around at the place. “I wonder what happened to this place when we left. Y’know, before the gas. We didn’t exactly stick around to find out.”

“Couldn’t’ve been too much worse than what was happening when we got here.” Glide replied, shoving the doors to Senshi’s throne room open.

“True,” Ambree said. “Can’t really go much further downhill.”

Niqi stole some air once again, and then pointed at a patch of blood on the floor. “Resistance. You were right, it started here.”

“Guess that means it’s not just the gas that’s doing this.” Glide muttered, searching the throne room. “Why would it make just them bleed, and not the others? Something must’ve cleaned house first, so nobody would be here to stop whatever spread the fumes.”

Niqi stole more air. “And they always pick the place with the most authority…trying to hit where it hurts first, so the rest of the population is helpless.”

“Whoever did this knows what they’re doing,” Ambree concluded.

Glide nodded. “This has ‘shadow bodysnatcher’ written all over it. I swear to god, when I find that dude, I’m gonna shank him with my Nexus key.”

“Why would he do that?” Ambree asked, nudging a nearby body. “Just got pissed off that you weren’t going to try to destroy the omniverse, so he decided to kill off what we’d saved?”

“I get the feeling this is only the beginning – an ultimatum.” Glide responded. “Somethin’ along the lines of ‘look how easily I could do this, join me or it happens to every other planet’.”

Niqi stole air yet again. “You would know, you had him in your head for a decent amount of time.”

Glide sighed, rubbing his temples. “Don’t friggin’ remind me...”

“C’mon, nothing left to see,” Niqi responded with her remaining air, turning to leave.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.” Glide said. “We’ve got one more planet to check, and I think we might need back-up for that one.”

“What for?” Ambree asked.

Glide raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean, ‘what for’? Don't you remember how fucked up that place was before this happened? I wouldn’t be surprised if nothin’ actually f*****g died when the gas hit.”

“Didn’t think of that,” Ambree mumbled. “Do you think there are still Kalma there? I didn’t really consider that option after you killed the original.”

“... Technically, he’s not dead.” Glide replied. “But, even if he was, there was a lot more than just Kalma to worry about before, so who knows what’s there now.”

“He’s not dead? But after you…through his skull…and…” Ambree trailed off.

Niqi caught Ambree by surprise, snatching her mask when she wasn’t prepared. “Do you two want to stay here and discuss the finer points of death, or are we going to leave this place sometime today?”

“Shut the f**k up,” Glide muttered, pulling the Nexus key from his pocket, “we’re goin’.”

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[KEi]

"What do you mean, 'what for'? Don't you remember how fucked up that place was before this happened? I wouldn't be surprised if nothin' actually f*****g died when the gas hit."
rofl Glide.