With everything that had happened, it probably shouldn’t have been that surprising that I had already taken a couple steps toward the portal before abruptly halting. I came to a stop so suddenly I ended up being yanked forward another step by Paige, as she kept a grip on my hand. As soon as she felt that, the girl turned. “What-- Cassidy? Are you--”
“How-- what?” My eyes were snapping toward Irelyn. I’d already put my mask and helmet back on, but the surprise was probably obvious in my voice. “You just said-- I mean I know you saw-- but you weren’t surprised about-- I mean you were-- weren’t you-- how did you…?”
Irelyn, in turn, glanced toward Paige with a wince. “She… didn’t say anything?”
For her part, Paige was red-faced. “We were… distracted. I-- I’m sorry, Cassidy, I said-- back in that place, Irelyn and I were alone and I was…”
“She was upset about you,” Irelyn herself put in. “She was terrified about what Casura could be doing to you, and it… who you really were just came out. It was an accident. That’s how I knew who you were, before seeing you just now.”
Cringing visibly, Paige admitted, “I… I forgot she didn’t know already. I wasn’t thinking, I was-- I’m sorry.”
My head shook. “It’s okay. I mean, it’s your sister. I don’t… um… it’s okay. I don’t think I need to tell her about keeping it secret.” And given how upset I had been at the thought of anything happening to them, I couldn’t exactly throw stones about Paige forgetting what Irelyn did and didn’t know while she was in the midst of freaking out.
“After what I just walked in on,” Irelyn gently pointed out, “I think I should be the one reminding you about that. Anyone could’ve come through that portal to check on you. Just-- just be careful, both of you.”
With that settled, we went through the portal. As it turned out, the place that Caishen had set up for us to teleport to so I could explain what had happened with Casura was some sort of small comedy club theater in the back of an old restaurant on the outskirts of Phoenix. Apparently the place had been out of business for a few months, so the Ten Towers people had used it as a staging area to explain exactly what was going on right before they were sent into what was supposed to be the fight with Casura. Since they’d already put the work into making sure it was private, it made a good spot for this part too.
Irelyn-- or Flea as she was right now, explained all that in a whisper as she, Paige, and I stood at the back of the room. And I did my very best to really listen to everything she was saying instead of how it felt to have my hand so close to Paige’s. There was an electric tingle between us. That had to be real, right? I could practically hear it. If I just moved my fingers about an inch or so, they’d touch hers. I could touch Paige’s hand again, I could-- oh wait, shit, right, listening!
Giving me a brief look like she knew I’d been distracted, Irelyn shook her head before gesturing up toward the stage. “So, you head up there and explain what happened. Don’t worry about any other… distractions, Paintball. Just tell us everything you can, then we’ll go from there, okay?”
Swallowing hard, I gave a short nod. It was even more difficult not to take Paige’s hand in that moment, but somehow, I managed. What I did do, at least, was paint a smile on the front of my helmet. “You got it. Just, uh, make them promise to let me get through it before you all decide I’ve been replaced with some sort of evil doppelganger who likes making up ridiculous stories.”
Before I could head down the aisle between the seats and up to the stage, a hand found my shoulder. Paige, of course. She squeezed tightly before assuring me, “We’re all right here.”
A shiver ran through me, and for just a second, I found myself staring dumbly at her. It really was a good thing no one could see my face, cuz… well, it wouldn’t have been hard to tell I had feelings for Paige. On the other hand, if all these people could see my face, I’d have a lot more to worry about than them realizing that I was making goo-goo eyes at one of my teammates.
I really didn’t trust myself to say anything to Paige, knowing how much my voice would squeak. So, I just nodded before starting to head up to the stage. This wasn’t exactly a huge theater, just meant to hold about a hundred or so people. But about half of the seats that were available were in use. There was my entire team (aside from the Cuddles, who weren’t immediately visible), Pack, Eits, and Broadway, the Ten Towers Stars, Echo, That-A-Way and Raindrop, and about twenty or so other costumed figures, who were apparently the group of Touched Caishen had put together in the attempt to have a force that could at least try to do something about Casura. Not counting all the Prev soldiers, who apparently weren’t part of this.
Which meant I had roughly fifty people staring at me while I walked past all those seats and up the short set of stairs to the stage. Like almost every place like that these days, there was Touched-Tech built into it that would magnify my voice just like a microphone, without actually needing to hold one. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t have anything to hold onto and fidget with as I turned to face the expectant group out there. Seeing all of them staring like that, knowing how absurd what I was about to tell them would sound, I briefly froze. My throat felt painfully dry.
Then I saw Paige again, standing at the back of the room next to Irelyn. She raised her hand like she was waving. But no, it wasn’t just a wave. As soon as she saw me looking, the girl lowered her hand, brushing it over the side of her head, then down to touch her chest. Her heart. She touched her ear, then her heart. She was… oh, she was saying she could hear my heart. That sent a new tingle through me, and it was all I could do to avoid giggling like an idiot. Which, given my voice would’ve been amplified for everyone to hear, wasn’t the best way to start.
It did help me feel better, though. I straightened up and took a breath, letting it out before starting. “Hi. Um, yeah, this is gonna take a bit to explain, so I’ll just start from the beginning. I mean… I’ll tell you everything I can that doesn’t involve secret identities or-- yeah, I’ll get into as much as I can. Starting back when Casura abducted two of my teammates.”
Obviously, there was no way I could give them all the details. Like, mentioning that the whole reason we’d even started investigating those rings in the first place was because the two teammates Casura abducted happened to be Biolems felt like a bad idea. Fortunately, I’d already given a little bit of thought, over these past couple days, to how I might explain as much of it as possible. It had felt like a good thing to think about on the off chance we actually got out of it alive. And hey, here we were, alive and mostly in one piece. Miracles really could happen.
I started out by explaining that we thought there was something odd about the guy who had been carrying the LEAT game rings past us that day, so I had gone to investigate. Leaving it that vague almost certainly meant they knew there was more to it, but nobody called me out on that.
So, I kept going, getting into how I couldn’t tell exactly what was wrong with the ring, but that it had to be something important. Then I’d found out Casura had abducted my teammates while I was busy, and explained about her calling me and giving me the rules of her little game. I could try to stop her, but I couldn’t tell anyone about it, or not only would my teammates die, but Flea and Echo would too. My voice actually did noticeably crack a little there, but I pushed right on through it.
From there, I gave as safe of a summary as I could about how the next few days had gone, including the fact that the rest of my team found out what was happening by secretly eavesdropping when they realized something was wrong with me. Naturally, I left out exactly how they managed that eavesdropping. And I didn’t mention the Cuddles at all. They’d been seen by a few of these people back there, but I wasn’t sure how public they wanted their presence to be. Especially since they weren’t here in the room right now. At least, not as far as I could see.
I did, of course, tell them about Nqobile being part of the whole thing. Though I also pointed out that it would’ve been hard for her to say no to Casura, or even risk exposing her. And I mentioned that it was her contact who had actually done as much as he could to fix the rings before it was too late. Sure, he hadn’t been able to get to all of them, and Nqobile had only brought him in because I essentially threatened her into it. But still, they felt like relevant points. In the end, the court could figure out just how culpable she really was for the whole thing.
Once everyone was caught up on as much as I could tell them about everything that had led to today, and after answering a few quick questions from random Stars in the audience, I was finally up to the main event. This was where they would probably start trying to decide if they should have me drug tested. But hey, what else could I do but get right into it? It wasn’t like there was much I could say that would prepare them for just how absurd this would sound.
Here went nothing. I recounted my perspective of how the award ceremony started, and how it had gone wrong so quickly, from the moment I’d spotted Flea with the gem that was controlling her. I told them about how I’d realized what it meant, and immediately tried to teleport myself to her just as she started to disappear. Which led to me being dragged through the transport.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
So far, so good. They knew all that had happened, of course. They’d seen the videos of it by now. But at this point, we were into the part they hadn’t seen. The part they had to take my word on.
They were definitely paying attention now. Everyone was hanging on my every word. What I’d said leading up to this was old news for some of them, and somewhat useful background info for others. But it was obvious that this moment was what they were actually here for. They all wanted to know what the hell had happened after I was dragged along through that teleport.
So, I told them. I started out by explaining how I’d woken up in that dump. Which really threw everyone for a loop. Several hands went up, along with a few blurted questions. But Caishen waved them all off, shushing the whole group with a word before gesturing for me to keep going.
Still, I paused briefly, feeling my stomach flip a bit before announcing, “I know what you’re about to hear is gonna be hard to believe. I know how it’s gonna sound. But just-- uh, bear with me, okay? And remember that powers can be really weird. Which goes double, or even triple, for someone like Casura. I just-- yeah, trust me, I know. This is all gonna sound pretty absurd.”
And with that, I launched right into it. I told them about meeting Mingle and Bloodfall as separate people, finding out the place was, in reality, some sort of mental construct, or pocket world inside of Bloodfall’s body, or… something to that effect. Again, Caishen had to shake her head at people who immediately tried to ask questions or interject. I just pushed on. It wasn’t like this was going to sound any less absurd as it continued, so the best move was probably just to get through it.
Once I told them about the grayscale zombies that were copies of all the people whose blood Casura had taken, and how we took the car to drive through the city to get to the building with the control room, Caishen finally asked a question of her own. A very surprising one. “Was this one of the mental palace constructs that works with all senses, or just vision and sound?”
That made me blink, before I painted a confused smiley face on the front of my helmet. “Wait, what? What do you mean, ‘one of the mental palace constructs?’ You’ve seen that before?”
She, in turn, gave a soft chuckle before nodding. “Twice, since I Touched. One was the kind you could only see and hear things, and the area inside was pretty small, just a bit bigger than the house it was imitating. The second one was the construct of an entire mall, and it included all the senses. But you’re saying this was an entire city. A pretty big city from the sound of it.”
Others spoke up, and it turned out Caishen wasn’t the only one who had experienced a place like that. There were two others amongst this group, both strangers I’d never seen before, who had actually been in one of those mental palaces themselves, and a few more who hadn’t seen it for themselves, but had heard about it. So, apparently it wasn’t going to be as difficult to convince them I wasn’t on drugs as I’d thought. At least, not when it came to this part of it.
Well, that was a bit of a load off my shoulders. But the story wasn’t over yet. I pushed on, trying to sort of glide right over the part where I drove the car off the parking garage. That, of course, didn’t exactly fly. A few people quickly called out questions, wanting to know why I was the one driving, and if I’d really just said I was driving off the roof of the garage. Caishen shushed them once more, yet looked at me as though waiting for some actual clarification on that point herself.
Shrugging, I replied, “It was a mental construct inside Casura, wouldn’t you guys wanna drive the car yourselves? And yeah, I had to get into the building to stop her from killing my friends.”
Stick raised his hand and spoke easily. “I’m still confused on that point. Who was even in the building? You had Bloodfall and Mingle right there with you. Was it a trick or…” The man shrugged a bit helplessly, clearly recognizing how weird it would be for me to not realize Bloodfall was the real threat, but was unable to figure out any other possible interpretation.
“Well, it uhh, see, the threat wasn’t actually Bloodfall. It was-- I mean--” Hesitating, I gave a low whistle. “Okay, here goes. I’ll get into the actual details about what she actually was in a minute, when we get to it. But basically, Casura isn’t Bloodfall. And she isn’t Bloodfall and Mingle together. I mean she sort of was, in a way, but not-- sorry, we’ll get there. The point is, it’s complicated, but both Mingle and Bloodfall were stuck in this mental construct, and someone else was running things. So, we had to get into that building to stop her from killing my friends. Because if you’re in that building, you can control what the body can do. Uh, did I lose you?”
It looked like Caishen was going to say one thing, but stopped herself and held a hand out to stop anyone else from cutting in. “Go ahead, I’m sure you’ve got plenty more to get through.”
Translation, she knew this was going to get even more absurd before it was over, and she wanted me to just push on and get through it. So, I did. I jumped right back to talking about taking the jump off that parking garage, over the street full of zombies that were trying to stop us from getting any closer, and through the middle of that other building. Somehow, the only people in the audience who seemed at all surprised by that were the ones who didn’t actually spend any time in Detroit. My team and the Ten Towers people very clearly weren’t phased by it at all. I caught a glimpse of one of the strangers leaning forward to whisper something to Bunglebotch, who replied with something I didn’t really catch all of, but included the words, “That’s Paintball.”
I quickly moved on, telling them about checking the window to make sure my friends were still alive, and seeing that Casura couldn’t actually kill them. As soon as I said that, Sierra and the others all started to nod, and there was a brief diversion as they confirmed that it really had been that abrupt. One second she had clearly been toying with them like a cat with a handful of mice, clearly just stretching out the punishment before she would’ve put an end to them. And the next, she clearly couldn’t do it. She was missing with every attack, pulling her punches just enough to leave them bruised but not dead, and obviously getting more and more frustrated by all that.
So, that much backed up my story, at least. I pushed on, telling them about going up through the building alongside the other two, getting cut off from them by the zombies, and ending up in the main control room. And then… then I told them about the real Casura, and what she truly was. I told them about how everyone was wrong about Casura’s power being Mingle’s plus Bloodfall’s, because it was really Bloodfall after she had a Second Touch, and that Casura was created as a tiebreaker between her and Mingle at that time. A tiebreaker who ended up taking over entirely.
Everyone had gone completely silent by that point. They were staring at me intently, like they didn’t want to miss anything. Maybe they were mentally calculating how hard it would be to convince me to take a blood test. Either way, I kept going. I went through all of it, the whole story. Except I didn’t mention Mingle and Bloodfall’s whole… relationship thing. I figured that wasn’t for me to say anything about. I just told them that Mingle had decided to stay in there to help by playing the angel on Bloodfall’s shoulder, and that I really believed they intended to be better now that the so-called tiebreaker wasn’t in control.
When I was done with all that, everyone… well, they just kept staring at me. It was actually kind of uncomfortable, especially after the first few seconds. I squirmed under the attention, fidgeting a bit before my eyes shifted to find the nearest window. How bad would it be if I jumped out of it?
Before I could come to a decision on that point, Sierra spoke up. “So, you just helped change the mental city into a nice, cozy ski lodge and then they sent you back out to the real world and left?”
My head bobbed quickly. “Ayup, that’s what happened. I know, it sounds weird. I mean, it was weird. It was really freaking weird. But here we are. We’re alive. You guys are all alive. I’m back, and… Bloodfall, or whatever she’s gonna call herself now, left. She said she wouldn’t be a hero or anything like that, but that she’d cool it on the rampant murder of innocents, and she’d try to find a better outlet for her anger. Whatever that last part means, I’m pretty sure we’ll find out soon enough. She’s-- they’re off doing their own thing right now. Bloodfall is back in control.”
“And that’s supposed to be a good thing?” That was another one of the strangers, a woman in a tight gray bodysuit with black swirly lines through it, and a full head-covering black metal helmet with no visible visor or anything else. It was just a flat metal surface all the way around. “I mean, sure, Casura was awful. But is Bloodfall being back in control of herself that much of an upgrade? Do we actually believe this bit about not killing innocent people anymore? How long will that last? Also, can I just point out that Bloodfall was a nasty piece of shit before Casura happened. She still deserves to be brought to justice, not left to run around free as a bird.”
“Are you gonna be the one to stop her?” That was Paige, calling out from the back before Irelyn could stop her. “Because I feel like the very best and quickest way to make her go back on that ‘not killing innocent people’ thing is by attacking her right now. Yeah, it sucks when people who did evil things get to walk around free. But going after someone like that, right when she just agreed to try to be better, is the wrong move. All you’ll do is antagonize her. Which, if she has Mingle on one shoulder and this Casura being on the other, is just gonna make her start listening to the latter.”
Caishen spoke up, cutting off half a dozen others who had started to talk. “She’s right. I don’t have the ultimate authority on this, of course. The ultimate decision when it comes to what to do about that whole situation is way over my paygrade. But as far as I’m concerned, we should leave it at ‘wait and see.’ And in any case, she’s obviously not an immediate threat. Thanks to all of you for showing up, and for sticking around to see how this went. Especially after you found out what the real threat was.”
“Hey,” one of the other strangers put in, “I’m just glad everyone’s alive. Err, everyone is alive, right?”
Flea spoke up, confirming that. Then Caishen took over again to send everyone out of the room, promising to get in touch with them later. She shot a look back my way, adding that she needed to talk to me alone in a few minutes, but that she’d give us a chance to catch up first.
Then she left, along with all her people, and the other Stars who had come to help. All of them kept looking at me on their way out, and whispering amongst themselves. But eventually, it was just me, my team, Izzy and Amber, and the three La Casa people. Even Flea and Echo stepped out for the moment. I stepped down from the stage, standing there as everyone else stared at me.
“So…” I started slowly, offering a hesitant shrug.
“How was your guys’ day?”
Joke Tags: It Is Convenient When The People You’re Trying To Explain Weird Shit To Have Experienced Plenty Of Their Own Weird Shit
