More of C's random novel excerpts

[King V]

Novel 1 - Mystio... need I say more


Catherine groaned. Her head spun like a merry-go-round, her throat was filled with sand, and most of all, she hurt everywhere. The girl pushed herself to a sitting position and clutched her head. What happened? She had been chasing Susan and company, and suddenly she had fallen into… a big hole? A hole in the ground? That was what had caused all of this?
“Ugh… when I get back home, I swear, the construction company that built that sidewalk is going to go bankrupt…” Catherine muttered to herself as she wobbled to her feet. She attempted to make out her surroundings, but wherever she was, it was pitch black. She couldn’t even see the hole where she fell down into. The girl reached out randomly with her hands, trying to find something to support herself. She pressed against a rocky wall a moment later, and quickly shuffled to the side as she steadied herself against the wall.
Several minutes passed before the girl had recovered enough to walk properly. She inspected her arms and legs, as well as her fingers and face for injuries. There were a few cuts on her legs, shallow enough that they wouldn’t kill her, but some of them definitely needed treatment. Her arms seemed to be fine, but a few of her nails were chipped. She had an ugly-feeling cut on her forehead as well, and blood was leaking from it all over her face. Nothing was broken, but Catherine was far from thankful.
The girl scowled, slowly trudging along the wall. She cursed with every breath, Susan, Susan’s friend, the white boy and goth girl with Susan, Susan’s parents, the school Susan attended… she kept cursing and cursing until she ran out of breath. How long had she been walking? It felt like hours. Where was a light when you needed one?
Then Catherine suddenly realized. She still had her phone with her.
Quickly, the girl rummaged through her pockets and brought out the latest brand name phone. She pressed on the screen and it lit up. Then she immediately called her father, but to her dismay, she had no bars. She cursed the phone company a few times before shining the screen’s light around.
She seemed to be in a very large tunnel, with no end in sight either way she looked. The walls were extremely tall, and didn’t look climbable. The floor was flat and dusty… suspicious. Had these tunnels been man-made?
Just as Catherine was pondering this, a deep voice cut through the darkness.
“Hey, is someone there?”
The girl immediately froze and shined her light in front. There she saw a black cloaked figure around 3 meters away, walking slowly towards her.
“Oh, so there is someone here,” the figure said. He paused for a moment. “And it’s a sweeper! Nice! I knew it was a good idea not to get involved with that sub-dimension agreement. Now I’ve got a sweeper all to myself… hehehe…”
“Who are you? What are you talking about?” Catherine asked, backing away from the figure.
“Oh, and it’s a girl too!” the figure perked up at the sound of Catherine’s voice. “How old are you? Must only be in high school from the looks of it. Oh man, I’ve never done it with a high schooler before… must be my lucky day.”
Catherine suddenly had an urge to vomit. She quickly shone her light in the opposite direction and ran, but suddenly the dirt below her turned to mud, catching her feet like quicksand.
“Oh no, you’re not going to escape,” the figure came into view again. “Can’t let a sweeper get away after looking around for so long. And a girl too… hmm… well, one time before we go would be fine right?”
The figure grabbed Catherine by the arm. The girl struggled to break free, but the figure’s grip was rock solid.
“Let me go you *******!” Catherine screamed. The figure responded by clamping a hand over Catherine’s mouth.
“Just be a good girl and don’t resist, ok? I’ll make sure it feels real-”
“Ew gross,” another voice suddenly sounded.
The figure holding Catherine down froze. “Who’s there?”
“Your mom,” the voice said, followed by an extremely satisfying SMACK. The hands on Catherine’s arm and mouth vanished, and another black cloaked figure stepped into the light.
He was a young man, in his twenties, with short brown hair and blue eyes. His hood was down, and he had a hand extended into the tunnel behind Catherine.
“Wh-who are you?” Catherine asked the newcomer.
“Who are you?” the man asked back.
“What- I asked you first!”
“But I asked you second.”
“Just- tell me who you are this instant!”
The man paused for a moment, as if considering whether or not to keep up with the back and forth. Then he relented. “My name’s Felix Mystio. You can call me Mystio. Or Felix. Doesn’t really matter to me.”
“You! Rift walker!” the figure from before suddenly appeared again. “That was a cheap shot! I already had that sweeper! She’s mine!”
“What? But you don’t have her now?” Mystio pointed at the figure, then at Catherine.
“Grrrrrr… just die, rift walker!” the figure thrust out a hand and spears of water materialized around him, instantly flying at Mystio.
“No thank you,” Mystio said, responding with a snap of his fingers. The water spears stopped in midair, then vanished after a moment. “By the way, you like little girls? That’s just gross. Creep. Pedophile. Stalker.”
“Th-that’s not… that’s none of your business anyway!” the figure shouted. “And she’s in high school! That’s not little!”
“So you admit you like high schoolers.”
“… Just shut up!” the figure made several violent gestures and swords of water materialized and flung themselves at Mystio.
The man waved, and all the swords stopped in midair again, then vanished.
“So, what did you say your name was?” Mystio asked Catherine.
“Uh… Catherine Reed,” Catherine replied. She looked between the figure and Mystio, and pointed between the two. “What’s… going on…?”
“Oh, we’re superheroes, we’ve got costumes and superpowers and we band together to fight crime and save the world,” Mystio said.
“No, seriously, what’s going on,” Catherine said, stressing every word.
“Real talk? That guy’s a creepy loner stalker who wants to rape you, but I’m a bounty hunter from a galaxy far far away who’s here to arrest him for all the children he’s made suffer.”
“… I’m going to punch you if you keep doing this.”
“No, but seriously, it’d take way too long to explain,” Mystio said, after blocking another several water swords. Now that it was clear throwing attacks randomly wouldn’t work, the figure drew a midnight black sword from his belt and charged at Mystio. Mystio turned around to face him. "Give me a second.”
In the span of a single second, Mystio drew a sword, parried the figure’s incoming attack, stepped around the figure in four different places, and slashed him with sixteen different strikes each, completely dismembering the black cloaked man. Catherine averted her eyes as the blood fell.
“Ah man, I got my sword all dirty,” Mystio said, sheathing the blade.
“How the… what…” Catherine tried, and failed, to form a coherent thought as she backed away from Mystio.
“Well, actually, I created sixty-five different seconds with different reactions and attacks converging on that guy,” Mystio said. “It’s a time manipulation thing, kind of hard to follow until you get the hang of it.”
“…who are you?”
“A superhero, duh.”
“… I’m being serious here.”
“A normal person infused with superdimensional energy that warps the laws of time and space allowing for travel between different dimensions and universes as well as various other kinds of supernatural abilities,” Mystio said. He pointed a thumb at the corpse behind him. “Oh yeah, he’s one too.”
Catherine just stared for a moment, unsure of what to think. Then she shook her head clear. “Ok… so why are you here?”
“To kill that creepy stalker, obviously.”
“Really?”
“Ahahahahaha… no, I’m actually here for you,” Mystio said. “Zero kinda just told me to take a stroll down here and rescue any sweepers I find. Probably because time got screwed up from before.”
“Wait… the time!” Catherine exclaimed. “You know about the whole time thing? Was it Susan’s fault? Tell me it was Susan’s fault.”
“It was Susan’s fault.”
“I knew it!”
“So, who’s Susan?”
Catherine stopped. Then she glared at Mystio. “Can you please take this seriously?”
“But I was serious?” Mystio said, apparently confused. “I seriously don’t know who Susan is. Please tell me.”
“She’s this girl I really hate. She thinks she’s better than me, even though she’s dirt poor. Ooooh I hate that girl so much-” Catherine started to seethe in anger, but paused. “Wait, why am I telling you this?”
Mystio shrugged. “Why not?”
“Wait… I’m not done with you yet! What was that guy from before talking about! What’s a ‘sweeper’?! How can you do that… thing you just did?!”
“I dunno.”
Catherine gaped at the man for a moment. Then she shook her head. “You’re lying.”
“No, I really don’t know what that guy from before was talking about,” Mystio said. “I thought he was just a creepy stalker.”
“What about the other things?” Catherine asked.
“Oh, sure I know about sweepers and stuff,” Mystio said. “We’re talking about brooms right?”
Catherine stomped her foot in anger. “Alright, I’ve had it with you! Why can’t you answer anything properly?! This is just stupid! I’m getting the hell out of here!”
The girl stormed off, but Mystio suddenly reappeared in front of her.
“Nope, can’t let you do that,” Mystio said. “I have to get you back to the academy.”
“Get me out of here first!” Catherine yelled.
“What’s all this racket coming from down here?” another voice suddenly sounded.
Mystio whipped around, hand hovering over his sword hilt.
“Eighteen of them, mostly eighth degree, two tenth degree… hmm, this’ll be tough…” Mystio muttered to himself. He hesitated for a second. “Yeah… we probably took too long here.”
“What’s going on now?” Catherine said with as much authority she could muster, but there was fear in her voice. The memory of the last black cloaked figure was still fresh in her mind. She shuddered reflexively.
Slowly but surely, black cloaked figures began filling up the space in the tunnel. First five, then ten, then twelve, then fifteen, then seventeen… as the last figure appeared in the dim lighting, Catherine grew nauseous again.
“So there was still a sweeper left, huh?” one of the figures said.
“Seems like Jafel didn’t get all of them when he betrayed us,” another figure commented. “One got caught by the sinkhole trap.”
“Hey, Marcus betrayed us too, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, that’s right, they were probably in cahoots.”
“No way, we made sure the doors were completely random, it couldn’t have been true.”
“Yeah, plus some of us even saw that sweeper running through our rooms.”
“Jafel probably lost control of one of them and they escaped. Still, he’s definitely a traitor either way.”
“Ahem,” one of the figures cleared their throat, immediately silencing the rest. “We shouldn’t be discussing our failed plan right now. Instead, let’s decide who gets this one.”
“Hey, but isn’t there a rift walker here too?”
“No problem, we’ve got a huge numbers advantage. He won’t stand a chance.”
“I’m right here, you know?” Mystio said. Then much softer. “When I say run, run the other way as fast as you can. I’ll come and get you after I’m done.”
“What? What are you going to do?” Catherine asked.
“Kill them all, obviously,” Mystio said. “Now, run!”
Catherine quickly darted off into the tunnel, but she stopped for a brief moment to take a glance back. She almost stopped completely.
Mystio had split into ten, each of them drawing swords and dashing towards the enemies. Meanwhile the black cloaked figures seemed to be frozen in slow motion as they made exaggerated gestures, bright flashes of light slowly forming at their fingertips. Then her feet carried Catherine deeper into the tunnel and the darkness swallowed up the scene of battle.
Catherine ran and ran and ran, until her breathing was reduced to a ragged wheeze, until the soles of her feet were filled with blisters, until she crashed into a rocky cavern wall and was forced to stop running. How far had she gone? Far enough to outrun the insanity behind her? No, not until she got home, lay down on her bed, and had a nice relaxing nap, would she believe that this was reality. The girl fell to the ground, gasping for breath. Her previous wounds bled freely now, and the pain heightened enormously. Blood nearly covered her entire face now, all from that stupid forehead cut. Catherine tried to move an arm to wipe off the blood, but her limbs were too numb to even move. She just stayed there for a while, panting and gasping to herself.
After a few minutes, the girl picked herself up and stood. She looked back in the direction the battle had come. Was Mystio really going to come back for her? Had he even survived that onslaught?
And yet, just as she was thinking this, Mystio reappeared in her line of sight.
“Whew, that was tough,” the man said. He was completely covered in blood, sword and all. There were quite a few slashes in his cloak, and he looked extremely tired. Nevertheless, he quickly trudged up to Catherine.
“You’re back,” Catherine said. Then she quickly added, “Not that I wanted you to make it back.”
“Well, I’m back anyway,” Mystio said. He gestured to the side and a rift opened. “Let’s get going now.”
“What the heck is that thing?” Catherine asked, stepping away from the rift.
“Doesn’t matter, let’s just go,” Mystio said, grabbing Catherine by the arm.
“Wait a minute, don’t touch me!” Catherine tugged her arm free.
Mystio looked annoyed, and reached out to grab her again, but suddenly he melted. Catherine stared at the pool of red sludge at her feet. Then she vomited.
“Whoops, I cut that guy a little too much,” Mystio reappeared from the tunnel. He put a hand on his hip, and sheathed his sword with his other hand. “But that’s what you get for impersonating me.”
Catherine, wiped the vomit from her mouth and looked up at Mystio, who was perfectly fine. “That was… an imposter…?”
“A really bad one,” Mystio added.
The girl was silent for a moment. Then she noticed. “Hey, you’re not hurt at all.”
“Of course not,” Mystio said. “Those guys were pushovers. The only two competent guys ran away as soon as the fight started. Lazy bums.”
Catherine sighed. “Okay, so can I go home now? I’m tired of this.”
“Nope, but you can go to the academy,” Mystio said. He snapped his fingers and a rift opened underneath the girl. “Express trip, overnight delivery, and no extra shipping and handling!”
“Wait what are you doiiiiiiiiiii-” Catherine’s voice dissipated as she fell into the rift. Mystio snapped his fingers again and the rift closed.
“Alright, that’s all for today, I think I’ll go to sleep when I get back,” Mystio said, opening another rift behind himself.


(Random Note: I wanted to add "the only person who could possibly impersonate me is Seadrias" when they're talking about the impostors, but I felt like that was going a little too far)