DC Next Proudly Presents:

The Linear Men

Issue Twenty:Family Reunion
Written by Dwright5252
Edited by Predaplant

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The Waverider
When she was growing up, Deirdre Harkness often thought about how things might’ve been different in her household if she had an older brother to take the brunt of her father’s attention. How her path through life could have been vastly different, her rap sheet a little more… non-existent.
Now that such a brother seemingly existed, albeit from another Earth altogether, she was starting to realize that maybe she was fine being an only child.
“Listen, this’ll go a lot faster if you stop being so obtuse, Deirdre,” Owen Mercer scowled, twirling one of his razor-sharp boomerangs deftly between his fingers as he paced the deck of the Waverider. Deirdre sat in the hot seat, the Linear Men staring at her on one side while her current and former romantic partners stood on the other. The multiversal children of Digger Harkness faced off in the middle, neither seeming to want to give any inch in their argument.
“Look, I’m just sayin’ I’d be able to find my friends better without some drongo stealing my schtick,” she responded casually, moving to take a boomerang of her own from her bandolier before remembering the new time cops had confiscated all her weapons. “Surely Jenny Sparks has someone better to send along.”
Was she being difficult? Absolutely. Was this petty argument preventing her from saving her missing teammates? Undoubtedly.
Did she want to take this pretender down a peg? You know it.
“Perhaps we can arrive at some kind of accord, beloved,” Ystin interjected, placing a hand on Deirdre’s shoulder. “I understand how jarring seeing this knave must be, but our comrades in arms are lost to time. Other priorities must take precedence.”
Sighing deeply, Deirdre fell back into the chair behind her, irked that this modified timeline removed all the progress she’d made in molding the chair to fit her form. She could see Liri wince at the force she had used to enter the chair, and felt a little bad about that.
God, she could be selfish sometimes.
“Fine. Fine, I’ll be a good sheila now. What is your plan, oh fearless brother o’ mine?” She felt the tension in the room let up slightly, and Ystin gave her a grateful smile.
Owen pulled out another boomerang of his and started pressing the buttons on it. A projection appeared, seemingly the timeline they were currently in. Biting back her instincts to make fun of her brother’s projecto-rang, she sat back and listened as he began to point at the timeline. “As you can see, this is the current stream that we’re in. You can see these discolorations,” he explained, pointing at the shades of red appearing in the mostly blue timeline, “that indicate the anomalies you’re normally after. Sure, they aren’t the best thing to have appear, but it’s within the Time Masters’ range of acceptable aberrations. From what Deirdre is saying, the kind of anomaly we’re looking for with this situation, with one team seemingly erased from time and another fully resurrected, should be lighting this up like a Christmas tree. That massive of a ripple effect from those changes would unmoor us into the Bleed, never to return.”
“But we’re clearly still here,” Rip Hunter said, scowling. “So you’re saying she’s full of it.”
“Not necessarily,” Owen replied, and Deirdre felt a slight pang in her chest as her brother came to her defense. He dialed in another setting and another hologram appeared, this time showing various circles floating around the timestream. “What do you know about time bubbles?”
Michael raised his hand, ever the teacher’s pet, apparently. “They’re basically pocket dimensions separated out from the timestream. The Time Masters use them sometimes to isolate threats to the stream or conduct experiments.”
“Gold star to you,” Owen said, and Deirdre rolled her eyes as Michael beamed. She missed Booster so much. “Yes, exactly that. So let’s say that these bubbles,” he circled a majority of them, “were made and accounted for. We’re left with a good dozen unsanctioned by the Time Masters.”
Deirdre’s hopes started to pick up before Rip dashed them. “But that’s also within parameters for a timestream. Nature abhors a vacuum and makes time bubbles naturally to fill in any blank spaces that appear. You’re grasping at straws.”
Owen turned toward the captain of the Waverider. “I’m sorry, did you want to run this presentation? I can go back to the Authority and leave y’all to your issues if you want.”
Before Rip could respond, Liri stepped in. “Rip, let the poor boy explain. You’re being an asshole.”
Deirdre blinked, surprised at Liri’s interjection. The AI she knew would never put the captain in his place like that. And even more shocking, she saw Rip pull back and motion for Owen to continue, clearly chastened by his crewmate.
Miracles did happen.
“You’re correct, the other bubbles not highlighted are indeed naturally occurring.” Owen pointed at them and expanded them. “But someone with enough access and know-how can commandeer these time bubbles and manipulate them for their own uses.”
Matthew Rider raised his hand. “So you’re saying our missing people could be inside these bubbles? But what about the damage to the timeline from removing them in the first place?”
“Good question. Like I said, this level of fuckery to the order of things should’ve made things completely unravel. That being said, it is possible for someone with a high degree of chronal knowledge and access to do it. It’d be damn risky, as one mistake could spell disaster. But… it's becoming more and more evident that whatever’s responsible for this isn’t an amateur.” Owen pulled up a blank file now, a glaring DATA NOT FOUND flashing in front of them. “You say you all saw Walker Gabriel vanish, and still have memories of him. He’s not in our databases anymore, and there’s not even a void left behind where he should be. This thing took him out and plastered over the timestream to remove any trace.”
Silence fell on the group as the idea of what they were up against sunk in. Deirdre pondered who or what could hate them enough to do something like this.
“So what’re our next steps?” Liri asked, typing away furiously at her datapad. “Should we search these time bubbles for our missing teammates?”
Deirdre smiled sadly as she heard Liri refer to her friends as teammates. This version didn’t even know these people, didn’t have any definitive proof that they even existed, and yet she took them in her heart as part of the team.
Owen shook his head. “That would take too long, and might tip off whatever’s doing this to our plan. We need more manpower for the search and a way to narrow down the field.” Roxy Rocket, who’d spent the entire conversation vlogging the control room with her camera, piped in. “Sciency stuff isn’t really my bag, but could you maybe look for people that interacted with these folks and trace them that way? Use their memories to bridge the gap or whatever?”
To Deirdre, it sounded like the kind of stupid thing that just might work. “I know someone that might be able to help us with that, and I can get some people together we could use.”
Hub City, Illinois
Something was wrong, of that Violet was certain.
Their journey had led them across the globe when they’d felt it happen, felt the universe attempting to steal another memory from them. Violet fought against the overwhelming vibrations that tried to steal the memory of their friend from them, using their powers to shield their mind and their heart. It took everything they had, rendering Violet unconscious for a day. But when they awoke, they still remembered Michael Jon Carter, Booster Gold. The first person in Violet’s memory that tried to help them.
It felt fitting, going from trying to discover their past to helping bring their friend back from oblivion.
The problem was, nothing was working.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Daniel Carter asserted, shifting on his crutches as he tried to close the door on Violet. They held their hand out to stop it, and felt fear trickle through Daniel’s aura.
“I do not mean to startle you, I am just trying to find some answers,” Violet explained, backing away from the door to give Daniel some space. “I know it sounds strange, but I am telling you only the truth.”
“Look, I wish you luck in… this whole thing you’ve got going,” Daniel said, “but I don’t have a clue about any future relatives of mine, whatever the hell that means. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get ready for a job interview.”
This time, Violet allowed him to slam the door in their face. It was no use. It seemed anyone they’d attempted to contact didn’t have any memories of their friend. Violet knew that if they could only use their aura to show Daniel the true way of things…
But no. That would be a trespass they were hesitant to employ. There had to be a way to bring Michael back without hurting anyone. They would find it, they were sure of it. “Well, if it isn’t the most colorful person I know,” a familiar voice said from behind them. Violet turned around to see Deirdre Harkness approaching them from across the street. Unconsciously adjusting their hijab, Violet ran towards their former teammate and enveloped her in a tight hug.
“You are truly a sight for sore eyes, Deirdre,” Violet said, tears running down their face as they took in their old friend’s presence. “I could really use a friendly ear at the moment. I feel as if I have gone insane.”
Deirdre pulled back from the hug to look Violet in the eye. After a moment of searching, she smiled. “You remember, don’t you?”
Violet’s eyes widened in shock and joy. “Tell me you are not humoring me. You truly remember our friend?”
A wave of relief washed over Violet, and it was all they could do to keep their aura in check as Deirdre spoke. “Not only do I remember Booster and Rip and the others, but I think I have a way to get them back.”
Radiance, Pennsylvania
Living in a mansion wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. For instance, the amount of upkeep required to keep it from becoming a dusty mountain of sadness was just completely unrealistic for one person to do. That meant hiring people to help maintain the grounds, sweep the floors, clean the bathrooms and bedrooms.
Mitch Shelley was not a fan of people.
“No, I said not to make the topiary look like a Soder Cola can,” Mitch insisted to his groundskeeper, an older man whose proximity to loud saws all his life made him hard of hearing. “It looks corny as fuck.”
The old man shook his head. “I think it looks fine, sir. Plus I know your corporate sponsors will appreciate it for that gala you’re holding next week.”
Goddammit. Mitch had been dreading that stupid party ever since he’d been asked to host it in honor of his latest sponsorship campaign for the Soder Cola company. Sure, he wasn’t too involved with the planning (at least, when he could dodge the phone calls and house visits of the party planner he’d hired) but it still took up way too much of his time. That wasn’t to mention the fact that he had to attend the thing.
In a suit.
Ugh.
“Maybe you’re right. Thanks, Joe,” Mitch said, handing the groundskeeper a generous tip. Joe was probably the most down-to-earth of his employees, and he wanted to make sure he was taken care of. Joe shook his hand appreciatively and walked out the door, brushing past a red haired woman dressed garishly in some sort of costume.
“You’re a week early for the gala, darlin’,” Mitch said, waving her away as he tried to escape to his theater room. “I’m sure whatever skill you have will be enough to entertain the suits coming to this shindig.”
“Har de har, asshole,” the woman said, her Australian accent giving him pause. What was an Aussie doing in Pennsylvania? “I’m actually here for Resurrection Man. Need his help.”
Mitch sighed, “Look, I’m sure whatever cat’s stuck in a tree will get itself out. If this is about Lazarus, tell that fucker he can come and face me himself rather than sending his new sidekick.”
The woman rolled her eyes. “Look, I know you. You’re a wild horse that can’t be reined in. You need adventure in your life, and I’m here to offer it. Ever time traveled before?”
Mitch stopped on the steps. “In a manner of speaking. What did you have in mind?” Maybe he’d hear this woman out. If anything it might last long enough to get him out of this fucking party.
Opal City
“Stargazer tipline, how can we help?” Jack Knight was surprised when the old phone line started to ring. Courtney had been right; most people used the app to ask for help. He’d almost forgotten the tipline was a thing, and it had startled him into dropping his tools as he worked on another upgrade to the Star Staff. His father’s laboratory made the ringing sound like it was coming from all over, so he’d almost missed the call when he couldn’t find the phone buried under all the schematics.
“Hello Starman, long time fan, first time caller,” a voice said from the receiver, the accent telling him this wasn’t an Opal citizen. “Need your assistance in a caper.” He was tempted to hang up the phone; no doubt this was some kind of crank call. “What’re the details of this… caper, ma’am?” He’d humor her for a little bit. Jennifer and Courtney had been on his case about crunch culture and making sure to take breaks, so maybe this could count as his allotted rest period.
“First off, I think I’m younger than you, so shove off with your ma’am,” the woman huffed. “Second, this isn’t a joke. Why don’t you come out of your little work shed and see what I mean.”
The line clicked, and Jack looked at the phone in confusion. What a weird call. There was no way anyone knew where he was at the moment, so he chalked it up to someone having a laugh at his expense. As he picked up his blowtorch to continue his welding, the intercom buzzed.
“Jack, can you please come up here and tell these yahoos to get their spaceship out of my backyard before they wreck my azaleas?” Jack heard his father’s voice resonate through the speaker. He jumped up to look at the outside cameras, and sure enough, there floated a spaceship of some sort.
He pulled out his phone and texted into the All Star Group Chat. “Hey, gang. Might need to be out of the city for a bit on a mission. I’ll keep you posted.”

You ever hear the sound of unearthly tourment?
Its loud, it echos. Peaple can here it from all around, so remember, if you think times are hard, if you think it cant get any worse, have you made the sound of unearthly tourment?
In a far away land, on a small pininsula, from the darkest doungeon in the greyest mountains. Came this sound.
It could be heard all around. The odd wolves in the forest looked up.
The fishing village miles away.
The capital of the kingdom.
Even in a different mine, where trolls played with their own shit. They could hear horrible screaming. The sound of pain. Agony. Heartbreak and horror.
That’s when I heard it.
It wasn’t the first time. It wouldn’t be the last. Id made it when my friends died. I made it when I was forced to kill my best friend and brother.
When my daughter died.
But that was long ago, I was a different man. I wont dump a lot of info on you now, just know for the purpose of this story you could call me red. Im old, very old. I don’t look old, but that’s a side affect of my fea blood.
Id been working with the with gallowglass for the better part of a thousand years now. And I was doing my faverite kind of job. One with near no rules. Magic, swords, guns, bombs. Nothing was restricted. And if that seems like an odd phrasing of words, id have to explain the rules…. No time, let me sum up the rules. Someplaces have facts, like rules of physics. Different lands iv been to, or planets, realities, you cant use certain things becouse they don’t work.
Where I was now? Hell, had my FAL, my 1911. And a dirk knife. Plus some extras.
I was with a small ragtag team who needed some money, so we where on a griffen hunt. Now that might seem mean and you might say ‘oh such beautiful creatures’
Not these ones. Mindless predators, steal small children, or mideam sized children and the odd adult. Plus we had a clint lines up who thought the big chickens tasted good and wanted to stock his kitchen for rich folk parties.
Anyway. I was laid out, cleaning my rifle on my bedroll.
A woman named kelso, dressed in safari like cloths and a chest rig and M4 was making her morning coffee, she had an addiction.
Rok; recon like me, exept instead of marines he was army. Kiowa, he was a wizard with a bow, but kept a MK18 just incase.
Who else? Mic, french legion. FAMAS rifle, few rifle grenades. Given what we where doing we where loaded almost too much. Griffens arent super huge, a well placed .308 round could down them. 5.56, enough of it will will bring them down.
But we where loungeing around our campsite. Trying to relax, the woods werent super dense. Kinda like a miles wide hammock. If you know your ecology terms. The odd clearning. Technicaly there were more gallowglass around, other hunters. It reminded me slightly of the old mountain man days, just a smaller rondeveu.
We where keeping out eyes out beouse the day before we had come across a few bandits, and we knew the wolves around here where…. Weird. Imagine if someone tried to make wolves from memory. Aggressive fuckers.
It started quite. Low, but it then got louder. More noticable. The yelling.
Mic looked up. “what is that?”
Kelso looked around. Moving her rifle to her lap. “someones screaming”
rok held a hand out. “no one move. Listen…. Its… far?”
I wiped my bolt down with my rag. “that? …. Is the sound of unerthly tourment. I know it well” my voice held sadness. I reassembled my rifle and slapped the bolt back in and popped the tackdown pins back.
I had just got back from my first tour in rhodesia. Jesus that makes me feel so old. But I was in my warming layers and the M81 patern camo. Given I wasn’t technicaly in the militry right now I had my sleeves rolled. While it wasn’t cold, it wasn’t exactly hot ither in these hills.
“whats that way rok?” I asked.
“that, old fort in the mountains. Use to be controlled by the kingdom of this region given what I got from the town we came thought. But its been rules by goblins for a few hundred years.”
I looked northwest into the mountains that walled this forested valley. Just across a river.
“you wanna check it out?” mic asked.
“who ever it is, they do seem to need help?” kelso thought. Checking her pack, making sure her med supplies where there.
I humphed. “its not everyday you hear someone make that noise. Im curius to meet the fella who reached that point. And im curius to the sons’o’bitches who brought him there. Cant be any good, for us or the locals”
Rok nodded. We packed up. I grabbed my pattern 83 chestrig and alice pack. We loaded for a stealth op. rok grabbed some more arrows and ammo. And we started beating the bush.
It was a couple miles to the mountains. We werent going to use horses or other pack animals, to loud. So we went old school and hoofed it. In that jungle warfare way of walking for a few minutes then stopping and listening.
We also knew enough to stay off the trails. But we did come across an old kingdom road. And a patrol of goblins heading toward the mountain fortress.
Id fought a lot of goblins in my time with the gallowglass. Somehow they got dimensional technology. The hell if I know where it came from. But they spread across the multiverse like a infection.
Theres two genis of goblin. There similair but at the same time they aint compatable. About as different as sheep and salmon. Sorry that might have been the ireland in me. But anyway. The ones you gotta worry about are the ‘male’ species. I say male becouse their just that. all male, capture other species to breed with. Making a goblin male, we call them ferrals in polite society. Aint smart, speak their own goblin language that defies our best lenguists and seems to differ from group to group. I heard once from some palentologist that they thing cavemen use to be similar. No once language, but from small band to small band, and caveman is a good way to discribe them. Rusted jaged weapons. Primitive, not all that smart.
Then there are the females. They actuelly talk about as well as a human. Smart enough. Hell we have a few back home at novel harmer. But again. All female species that breeds all female goblins. Great at costumer service or secretary jobs believe it or not.
But anyway. We didn’t want tp deal with any more of these fuckers then we had too. So one look at this patrol and we had to make a judgment call. Kill them now, or risk fighting them as backup later.
I looked at rok, hopped over and we whispered into each others ears.
“these guys are heading to the fort”
“ambush? Up the road a bit, hasty ambush”
I nodded. Kelso looked over, having her rifle tucked close to her. I motioned for her up and make a sign for ambush. Slapped mic and motioned for him to follow. We put some distance between us and the goblins. And we booked it. Trying to get ahead of them. There where quite a few of them and they where slow. Small team? Well rested with only light movment. We ran.
Im gunna be vugeu on this account becouse it was a long time ago. I don’t remember every little thing. But I can sort of remember running and feeling like the world was passing me more then I was passing it. Full gas. The ground was uneven. I remember reaching my fireing hand out and gripping a tree to help hook a turn twards my right and kept going. My rifle sling over my neck and my left hand on the barrel.
We came to a turn in the road a quarter mile from the patrol.
I looked around. Mic had an axe, he could fall a small tree into the road, no, too loud. To time comsuming.
Bushes. I flopped my ruck down off the road as keslo slid in behind me. Breathing heavy. I pulled out my claymore bag and the spare I kept in the same pouch. Tossing one to her and the clacker. Having two myself and the wire. Mic came in. “ok, im thinking this is the best spot, claymores on both sides, hide them in the bushes. Don’t have time for an L shaped, we’ll stay on the right hand side of the road.
Kelso looked aoround. Looked at the claymore in her hand and spooled the wire out. Mic and rok just set up. rok screwed a explosive charge on an arrow. But had his rifle close by. Shoot once and then go for guns.
“kelso, you good? Look like you’ve never fought like this before?” I asked.
“I havent.” She admited.
Rok gave a chuff. “ different times red. She’s from the information age, use to belt feds and drone strikes”
I smiled, fair enough. One of the things about our organization was we grabbed peaple from all over space and time. Kelso comes from what you might call the ‘modern’ age. Intel work. Guntrucks. What some of you readers might know as the 2010s. she was also the only one of us to pack nodds before we ran out of camp. They where always on her rig. And they clipped to her bump helmet.
Me and mic? Cold warriors. Fought without all that tech and gear. Through the 80s and 90s. hand and arm signals, ambushes triggered by explosives. Even prisonar snatches.
Rok? Rocks from the future. Roks killed aliens.
We covered the claymores and kelso hopped over a fallen tree off the trail. I handed her my wires and she wired all of them together. I wanted everyone on one side. Sure it might work better if kelso was on the other side but id tought this enough to hammer in the ‘no polish ambushes’ montra.
Mic slid by me, dropping off my ruck and I reached in and pulled out my only 30 round FAL mag. Then a slapped the only tracer mag on the ground right under the bend in the fallen tree. To keep good cover I figured shoot under it. Not over and expose yourself more then nessisary. Sure the goblins don’t have guns. But somethings are ingrained. Also they do have bows. Kelso had a quad stacked 60 rounder for her M4. It was nice, much better then what some of us had in the 80s, folding stock, ACOG scope, IR lazers and suppressers. Good ones. All I had was one for my 1911 at the moment. She always ran suppressed.
I would be the one to cover her, she’s cover me. And then behind some trees to our left rok and mic would cover each other. You gotta understand. This was a long time ago. Long before I was married. And kelso was smoking fucking hot. And she ran around in these shorts and long stockings to keep the bugs off of her. PT’d more then some marines I served with and had that button up blouse.
Ill honestly say I wanted to be in a foxhole with her more then the frenchman and roks mohawked ass.
We got all set up. and waited. Not too long until they came bumbling down the road. About 20 in all. Waiting for them to get in out killzone. I used my whisper radio to tell rok to hit their rear as we clack off the front. Looking over he gave me a ‘no shit’ look and then the finger.
Good guy, didn’t work with him near as much as I should have.
Their metal clanked and they jabbered away in their odd gobbo speech.
I placed a hand on kelsos shoulder and when the time was right gave it a squeeze.
She clicked the detonater three times and all three claymores shook the ground and send thousands of steel balls and concusive force in a wave slamming into the front end of the patrol. The big one. A hobgoblin if im saying that right took the brunt of it.
I was behind my rifle and using semi auto accurate fire to sweep them from one side to the other as kelso switched to her gun and went full auto as rok blew their rear.
We all carried grenades and mic lobbed one into their center as an extra fuck you.
Contrary to video games the famas actuelly has three fire modes. Semi, burst, and full. Everyone just copies halo.
And let me tell you. 7.62, or .308 will tear chunks out of those fucking goblins. Hit one in the shoulder and their be down. Its not the movies. Unless you have some serius loads it wont exolide, but the exit wounds are normaly larger then the entrance. And a lot of energy is transferred on impact.
All and all we only ended up using one mag per person. We cleaned up. and went to move out.
But we heard a noise.
We all looked around as we listned to the droning.
Finaly mic asked. “is that a car?”
A car, in a mideval reality. And we didn’t bring any becouse we like to keep our disterbing ass footprint small.
“everyone hide!” rok said coming to his senses first. We all jumped away and into the bushes. Crawling over to cover. We reloaded and I preped a grenade.
2 uparmoured land cruisers pulled up and stopped in the middle of our ambush sight.
Several dark skinned hairy men got out. Looking around.
I narrowed my eyes as they spoke.
“what is that?” kelso whisper asked. I put an hand over her to say ‘please be quite’
But clicked softly the answer without thinking. ‘greek’
They where in some pretty crappy gear to be honest. But still leaues and bounds better then goblins.
Plain jane bucket style kevlar helmets with arch rails screwed on them. They didn’t even have high cuts or peltors, just the rails. Some had wrap around peltors. It was daylight and a few where wearing their monocular night vision. Dressed in black. The worst camo. They looked like a bunch of airsofters. I couldn’t tell what their plate carriers or chest rigs where, condor mixed with 5.11? Jesus. Even their rifles. Equipted like a third world dictators personal guard. HK G3s with chopped shorty barrels and pinned and welded supressors. Some even managed to have pic rail and holosun sights. All had the colapsable stocks like an MP5.
If I seem agrivated for some reason. This story was years ago. I was only 3000 years old. I didn’t have time to train in every era yet. I didn’t know what some of this meant at the time. Kelso did. Now I do. And im mad.
They spoke for a bit. Nothing concearning. Everyone looked at me but I waved then to stay down. They loaded up not long after and drove off.
“what the hell was that?” mic asked.
“greeks.” I replaid. “they have more men ahead. They think their boys did this… the fort. They have the fort?” I was tryingto figure this out. We needed to radio camp. If these boys where out and about our guys needed to know.
“you speak greek?” kelso asked.
“not since thermopoly” I muttered. What I meant was not since a jelous bastard threw me out of my home dimension.
“what do we do now?” asked mic.
Now? Now we figure out what the hell is going on.
We followed behind the cars. Forded the river and made it into a smaller valley, past a lake, breaking slightly to eat some food, top off on water and make a plan. Rok had an old canvus map that showede barely anything but it was enough to know we werent that far from our target. We shed any unnessisary gear like out rucks and made a base locatoin. If we split up we would try to get to this grove and then make for the forest. Hopefully run into some gallowglass along the way. Even one extra of us loaded for bare can put some hurt. Kelso also radioed the situation. The boys where getting prepped but where also waiting for us to figure out just what the fuck was going on. If this was a cut and run type situatoin.
We went over what we had. I threaded my pistol supressor on and reholstered it. I didn’t have one for my rifle. But my Kbar was sharpe. And I has some other things hidden in the admin pouch of my rig.
Rok had his bow. Rifle, and a suppressed M9 berreta…. Something about that.. just urks me.
Anyway mic had his tomohawk, famas and a supressed smith and wesson 659.
Kelso had a supressed rifle. But her pistol, this odd plastic german gun with a red dot and a comp only made the thing louder at times. So she’s stay with the rifle. Great.
We went twards the narrow slot canyon.
The fortress was build into the side of the mountain itself. In centuries past it was suppose to control this mountain pass to the land where the goblins ruled in the north. But they’d had control of this place for years. And now as we crept over we found they had new tennents. There was a first line wall. Double doors, above that was space for gaurds to keep watch and fight this way. Behind that was a courtyard / parafe field. And past that was the fortress proper. Long high walls. 2 main tower turrents that came up like a pair of spines. And a large metal gate, closed. But on the other side was basicly hell on earth, or whatever this planet was called. Goblin land.
It was getting dark. The days around here where short. And we’d been hours getting this far. Id never been more glad then now for nightfall.
As we aproached the rear door. I was reminded of growing up in an age of castles and seiges. This place was build to keep out intruders from one side. And we werent on that side. There was big double doors. And a long wall from one side of the canyon to the other. With gaurds at the top. Human, and goblin.
And three humans by the door as a few goblins carried other goblins over to a pile. Stacked them then burned them. And both naked and dead humans and flayed goblins hung from the wall.
Just what the hell was going on here? The last thing of note. The goblins… their eyes. They glowed this odd…glowy blue. And non of them acted normal. Like in a trance.
But luckily another thing about living in the old’n days was I knew castles.and there was a ditch/ creek offshoot. Where they pumped water from what could have been a mine and sewage out of the castle.
We handed off out magic potions. Kelso wasn’t use to magic and looked at hers like a skunk with asbergers. We told her it was basicly a magical antibiotic before crawling into the goblin and greek sewer. Which… it was.
Luckily whoever build this made it big enough a smaller guy like man can low crouch and get in.
My fea eyes are great in the dark. I took point. As we came in we half expected to come out a trash shoot. Or worse. But we found what looked like a calapst wall. Leading into a new cave. This one we could stand in. I slung my FAL around and drew my pistol. Kelso had my six. And I was glad for it.
There where large steps, almost worn or bashed into the wall. Walking over I noticed it led into the floor of a building. I crawled up stealthily. Seeing a man lean against the wall smoking. He flicked his bud into the hole. Barely illuminating my shoes. I lined up the glow sights and took him high in the chest. Making him fall in the whole and land on his head at my feet.
Crawling in every one took a position.
“kelso, what do you see out there?”
This was some sort of guard building at one time. Left hand side of the parade field. But it was once on fire and the roof was gone.
Kelso was quiet and seemed off.
“you know those blue glowing eyes?” she asked.
“huh?”
“well there’s this big ass tusked troll out there with those blue eyes, eating another one. That looks like a gladiator. Its very dead.
We moved around and tried to get an idea on where to go.
There were goblins, humans everywhere. Spotlights. And an open parade field. Going off of my knowledge of castles the dungeon will be there, deep underground. And….
I was broken from my thoughts by the sound of metal squeaking. Looking over we all see a goblin walk out of a rusty metal door and look at us confused.
We blinked at him. Be balked at us.
I quickly reached into my rig and pulled out my throwing stars and brained him in-between the eyes.
To be fair I had been living in the year the ninja turtles had just released.
Walking over we triad to keep as quite as possible. Looking over where the bastard had come from we saw a stairwell down. And iron bars.
“this, looks like a jail.” Mic said.
Ok, so I’m wrong.
Pistols and suppressed rifle up and we went in. turning left we cleaned our corners. Contact shooting a couple gobbos. Down the hall kelso shot one in the brain before it could make any noise.
We heard yelling. We followed it. Creeping down the halls I found a goblin with his back to me, taking a leak. Pulling my razer sharpe Kbar I made quick work plunging my blade sideways into his neck and punching out.
“AAAAHHAGGHHAA!!” whoever was being tortured had a deep voice. And we needed to hurry.
We came across a moldy wooden door reinforced with rought iron.
Creeping up I peaked in. I saw a human, with a whip. A loud crack could be heard. Our boy was chained to he far wall in the shadows.
The lock wasn’t shit. But it was locked. There should be a guard here? Where they just going to call out till someone came?
I put my blade like a leaver to the lock and pipped the screws out. Tossing the door open the human turned. Confused. Raising his whip I caught it. Pulled him forward and plunged my blade into his gut. Pushing down and out spilling it over the floor.
I reached into my gear and pulled out a green chem light, like a big glowstick. Tossing it at our new friends’ feet.
And standing there? Was a minitour.
Part man, part American bison.
He was bleeding. Roughed up. bare hoofed, but in jorts of all things. And a cowboy style button up shirt.
“you in there stranger?”
The big bull heaved breath.
“who?... are you?”
English. And that accent.
“ill ask the questions. We heard you miles away… what makes a man yell like you”
I said man absentmindedly. But he looked up to me. Sad look in his eyes. He had hooked black horns. But a sad look in his eye.
“they… took me. The greeks. Burned by town. Killed folks. Im not human. They… wanted to make me suffer for it.”
I was getting this guy out of here. I stepped closer. “where you from stranger?”
“Wyoming”
Support and defend.
Foreign and domestic.
Something hit in me and those words echoed in my head. I know what I had to say.
Grabbed the keys off the deadman and stepped forward.
At the time I went by a lot of names, changed names all the time. Red was just what most agreed on. But I had one identity in use that I was starting to like.
“im corporal joe Allan, US marine corps. Im here to get out out” I said as I freed his shackles.
He fell into my arms. I could fell him shutter at my words.
“kelso, call camp. Tell them we have American’s in captivity. And get us a chopper evac”
About then the missing guard goblin rounded the corner and rushed rok. But mic just touched his barrel to his head and fired off an unsuppressed round.
It rang our ears. And ended out stealth mission.
We all went to out main guns.
“can you move?” I asked.
“give me a gun and I can fight”
“whats your name?”
“frank”
We stepped out and a human rounded the corner. I shot him and tossed his G3 to the minitour.
Once the radio call went out, we didn’t see it but the hunters in the woods. The ones who where former American military went apeshit. Fuck the stealth tactics.
We bedded down in that building as our boys rushed in. fireing at the main fortress wall and their inplaced guns. Someone somehow opened a portal and brought in the caverly. A few helicopter gunruns and they had time to fit a huey in.
“slicks are here. Lets go!” I called.
“wheres the troll?” kelso asked. I looked over and saw a man with a sawed off M79 grenade laucher and a CAR15 using the dead troll as cover. We hopped in and a goblin tried to hope with us. I touched tips with his forehead and my rifle and blew his head off. Flipping to full auto I pointed to the fortress as we lifted off. Everyone fading back into the woods. Back to the portal. We where getting out of there. We needed to regroup. It had happened so fast because the first words of someone breaking the rules and having a permanent presence here meant their lives and money where forfit. Everyone figured kill and steal their shit. But that’s gallowglass.
But as I looked out I saw one man on the battlements. One that made me almost hope off and go back. He had white hair. And glowing blue eyes. He reared a lightning bolt back but I pointed to the door gunner and at him. The onboard portal generator bringing us back to noval harmer.
Mission accomplished. That’s how I met my friend frank. And how I learned zues was still out there. And why I started hunting him again.

Is this true? If yes, then I'm shocked. If not, please let me know why.
**Unified Field Theory by Zhang Xiangqian - Concise Version** The text uses uppercase letters for vectors. 1. **Definition of Physics:** Physics is our description of the motion and changes in the geometric world. The geometric world is our description of objects and space. 2. **Definition of Particle:** To conveniently describe the motion of objects in space, we idealize objects as points, disregarding their shape and linear dimensions. These points are called particles. 3. **Composition of the Universe and Basic Principles of Unified Field Theory:** The universe is composed of particles and the surrounding space. There is no third entity coexisting with them. All physical phenomena are descriptions of the motion of particles and the motion of space itself. 4. **Definition of Matter:** Matter is composed of objects and space. It exists objectively and does not depend on the observer's description. 5. **Origin of Physical Concepts:** Except for particles and space, all other physical concepts such as displacement, time, field, mass, charge, velocity, speed of light, force, momentum, energy, heat, sound, color, etc., are properties described by observers based on the motion of particles in space and the motion of space itself. Their essence can be represented using displacement. 6. **Description of the Motion of Space Itself:** Dividing three-dimensional space into small blocks called geometric points or spatial points allows us to describe the motion of space itself. 7. **Observer Dependency in Describing Motion States in Physics:** Descriptions of motion states in physics cannot be separated from observers. The state of motion arises from the observer's description, oscillating between affirmation and negation. Without an observer or without specifying which observer, motion states do not exist, and the distinction between motion and rest is meaningless. 8. **Vertical Principle:** The physical world is our description of the geometric world. Thus, any geometric state can find a corresponding physical state. The three-dimensional vertical state in geometry is equivalent to a motion state in physics. 9. **Why is Space Three-Dimensional?:** Linear motion in space forms one-dimensional space, rotational motion in a plane forms two-dimensional space, and the extension of rotational motion in the perpendicular direction forms three-dimensional space. Space, relative to observers, continually moves in a cylindrical spiral motion, forming three-dimensional space. 10. **Spiral Law:** From electrons and protons to Earth, Moon, Sun, and the Milky Way, all freely existing particles in space move in a spiral motion, including the motion of space itself, which is in a cylindrical spiral motion. 11. **Parallel Principle:** Descriptions of parallel states in physics correspond to the mathematical proportionality property. Two mutually parallel physical quantities, if representable by line segments, are always in direct proportion. 12. **Geometric Symmetry Equivalent to Physical Conservation:** The conservation principles in physics are equivalent to geometric symmetry in mathematics. A conserved physical quantity, representable by line segments, exhibits line symmetry in geometric coordinates. If representable by area, it exhibits plane symmetry; if representable by volume, it exhibits solid symmetry. 13. **Space Can Infinitely Store Information:** Any space in the universe can infinitely store information, preserving all information about the universe—past, present, and future. 14. **Physical Definition of Time and Speed of Light:** Any object (including the human body) in the surrounding space moves with a vector speed of light C, in a cylindrical spiral motion centered around the observer. The perceived motion of space gives the observer a sense of time. The essence of time is the movement of space at the speed of light. The speed of light reflects the identity of space and time; the nature of time is the motion of space at the speed of light. The speed of light can be a vector with variable direction, but invariant magnitude; scalar speed of light remains constant. 15. **Three-Dimensional Spiral Spacetime Equation:** Establishing a coordinate system oxyz with the point o at the origin, any spatial point p at time t' = 0 moves from o, and its position at time t'' is represented by x, y, z. The displacement vector R is given by R(t) = Ct = (a sin ωt)J + (b cos ωt)L + Vt, where ω is the angular velocity, and J and L are unit vectors. When the point o is stationary, (a sin ωt)J = (b cos ωt)L = 0, and Vt = Ct. 16. **Spacetime Identity Equation:** Because the distance traveled by a point in space (r) is proportional to the distance traveled by a light beam (ct), we have R(t) = ct [r] = xi + yj + zk. If we consider the speed of light as a vector, then R(t) = Ct = xi + yj + zk, and r² = c²t² = x² + y² + z². 17. **Space Motion has Wavelike Characteristics:** ∂²∂x² + ∂²∂y² + ∂²∂z² = (∂²∂t²)/c². ∇² R = (∂²∂t²)/c². 18. **Definition of Field:** Relative to an observer, the displacement vector pointing from a particle to any point in surrounding space, changing with space position or time, is called a field or a physical force field. Different fields represent different degrees of motion of space displacement concerning space position or time. There are three forms of fields corresponding to different spatial distributions: 1) Three-dimensional distribution, 2) Two-dimensional distribution on a curved surface, 3) One-dimensional distribution on a curve. Gauss's divergence theorem characterizes the relationship between the distribution of a field in three-dimensional space and on a two-dimensional surface. Stokes' theorem characterizes the relationship between the distribution of a field on a two-dimensional surface and on a one-dimensional curve. The gradient theorem characterizes the relationship between the distribution of a field in three-dimensional space and on a one-dimensional curve. 19. **Gravitational Field and Geometric Definition of Mass:** Imagine a stationary particle o relative to an observer, and any point p in the surrounding space moving from o at the speed of light C. Let point o be at the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system oxyz. The gravitational field A produced by point o at point p is given by A = -kΔn[r]/Δs, where Δn is the number of points similar to p on the surface Δs. The mass definition equation for the object at point o is m = (k/g)Δn/Ω, where g is the acceleration due to gravity, and Ω is solid angle. The differential form is m = (k/g)dn/dΩ. 20. **Changing Gravitational Field Produces Electric Field:** When the gravitational field A = gk n Ω r³ changes with time, it produces an electric field E = gk[d(kn/Ω)/dt]Ωr³, where g = k'(dm/dt) and k' is a constant. 21. **Geometric Definition of Charge:** If the particle o defined above has a charge q, then q = 4πεk'g(dm /dt) = 4πεk'g[kd(n/Ω)/dt], where ε is the dielectric constant. 22. **Changing Electric Field Produces Magnetic Field:** When the charged particle o moves with velocity V relative to an observer, it causes a change in the electric field E in the direction perpendicular to V. The changing part is called the magnetic field B, where B = constant × (V × E), and the constant is c². 23. **Changing Gravitational Field Produces Nuclear Force Field:** The gravitational field A = gmr³ = gknΩr³, where R = Ct changes with time, producing a nuclear force field D = gm(ddt)/r³ = gmc/r³. 24. **Changing Magnetic Field Produces Surrounding Electric Field and Gravitational Field:** When the magnetic field B, perpendicular to the surface S, changes with time, it can produce surrounding electric field E and surrounding gravitational field A along the edge of S. dB/dt = A × E/c². 25. **Unified Field Theory Momentum Formula:** When an object is stationary, the surrounding space moves at the vector speed of light C. Therefore, it has a stationary momentum P' = m'C, where p' = m'c. When the object moves with velocity V, the momentum P = m(C - V), where P = mc√(1 - v²/c²) = p' = m'c. 26. **Definition of Force:** Force is the degree of change in the motion state of an object in space or the motion state of space around the object. 27. **Unified Field Theory Dynamics Equation:** F = dP/dt = Cdm/dt - Vdm/dt + mdC/dt - mdV/dt. The terms represent additional mass force (C-V), electric field force (Cdm/dt), magnetic field force (Vdm/dt), Newton's inertial force (mdV/dt), and nuclear force (mdC/dt). 28. **Definition of Energy:** Energy is the degree of motion of an object in space (relative to an observer) or the degree of motion of space around the object. 29. **Unified Field Theory Energy Equation:** m'c² = mc²√(1 - v²/c²). m'c² represents the stationary energy at point o, and mc²√(1 - v²/c²) represents the energy when point o moves at speed v. 30. **Photon Model:** Light results from the accelerated motion of a negative charge, creating an anti-gravity field that counteracts the static mass of nearby (or itself) electrons, causing them to enter an excited state and move at the speed of light in space. The motion of the electron is affected by the force F = Cdm/dt (electric field force) - Vdm/dt (magnetic field force), where C is the vector speed of light, and V is the electron's velocity. 32. **Principle of Alien UFO Flight:** Any object in the universe, when its mass is reduced to zero, will suddenly move at the speed of light. 33. **Main Applications of Unified Field Theory:** 1. Creating UFOs capable of traveling at the speed of light. 2. Large-scale use of cold welding in artificial fields. 3. Comprehensive treatment of any disease using artificial information fields. 4. Instantaneous disappearance and movement - Global Motion Network. 5. Global large-scale wire-free conduction of electricity. 6. Convergence of solar energy receivers. 7. Infinite compression of space for information processing. 8. Spacetime refrigerator. 9. Virtual construction and virtual human body. 10. Scanning and recording the consciousness information inside human brains using fields, enabling the integration of the human brain and computer.

No Pain was shaking a little as everyone sat around them. Hardix was looking down, away from No Pain. Bread, Iron, and Gale’s eyes were wide. Shard was holding their hands in their armpits. It was silent, until Iron chimed in. “Are you… okay? That sounds like a lot.”
No Pain nodded slowly. “I’ll be fine. It just brought back some… unpleasant memories.”
“You-you what?”
No Pain glared at Gale. “I’ve been alive for… more time than I care to keep track of, and you honestly thought a life that long would be pleasant all the time?”
“N-no, I just… it’s just weird seeing you scared… with everything I’ve heard…”
The Thunderstrider closed their eyes, and exhaled through their nose. Of course people would only see them that way…
Bread saw No Pain getting upset, held his fist to his mouth and cleared his throat. “Ah hehe… uh, you wanna talk about it?”
“Maybe another time.”
Gale fell silent and looked down as Bread nodded. Shard practically slammed both their palms on the coffee table.
“So… how do we stop her?”
“I’m… not sure.”
Most of the time, if they were facing a foe with regeneration on that level, Manticore could easily bypass it for them. But the Pixie’s abilities made it far too difficult to get in close. Their thoughts turned. On that topic… if she had that level of control over reality, and her goal was to make this dimension like her home, why didn’t she just change the laws and concepts? Surely she was a powerful enough reality warper to affect the entirety of the Base Narrative?
Hardix’s fists clenched in his lap. “I’m sorry Pain...”
Snapping back to reality, No Pain turned to him, and put their hand on his shoulder. “You did nothing wrong,” they said gently.
Hardix’s fingernails dug into his palm, leaving crescent indents on them. “But I did! I lost control, you had to deal with me and the Pixie, and we lost.”
No Pain opened their mouth… but nothing came out. “Hey,” Shard said. “It wasn’t your fault! You just didn’t plan properly.”
Iron nodded. “Yeah! I think I may have a plan for us this time.”
Hardix gave them an awkward half smile as No Pain perked up. “What do you have in mind?”
“I’m gonna make a huge, special mech to beat her! Just give me a little time.”
They let out an affectionate giggle. “Go ahead and start. I need to leave for a little while.”
They got off the couch and grabbed a denim jacket off the coat rack. “Where are you going?” Shard called after them.
No Pain put on the jacket before turning back to everyone else. “If anyone knows how to stop a Pixie, it’s S.C.U.D."
As they opened a portal, Bread spoke up. "...Hey, can-can I go?"
No Pain turned back to him, and shook their head. "No. It's too dangerous. And I want you to stay behind when we go to fight the Pixie again as well."
"But-"
"That's final."
Bread's eyes squeezed shut. No Pain turned back, and walked through the portal, leaving the others behind. Iron turned to Hardix, his eyes bright. "I'm gonna need some help with making this. Think you could help?"
Hardix nodded slowly. "Well…. it's the least I could do after messing up like that."
Gale held up her hand. "Hey um… can I help?"
"I'd like to help too!"
"Yeah, of course! Let's go to my lab!" Iron smiled.
Bread looked like he wanted to say something, but decided not too. As the others got up and left for Iron's lab, Shard looked back at Bread, who was hanging his head low. They went back over and sat beside him. "Hey, what's wrong?"
"It's just… I'm tired of not doing anything! All of you guys are out fighting, and I'm always sitting back." Bread said it quickly, as if he'd wanted to get this out for a while.
"They're just looking out for you. From what they told us, it might be better for you to stay back."
Bread let out a heavy sigh. "I know I'm not as strong as dad, but I wanna go and at least try to fight that Pixie."
For a minute, Shard looked like they were thinking hard. “Well… why not ask?”
Bread wildly shook his head. “No no no, I can’t, they’d get mad at me.”
Shard gave him an affectionate bump on his shoulder. “Come on, I’ll be with you! And if they get mad, I’ll give them a stern talking to!”
“But-”
“No buts!” Shard said, holding up their hand. “Tell your dad how you really feel!”
Bread stayed silent, thinking for a few moments before speaking. “O-okay… I will.”
At Iron’s lab, he was welding together pieces of steel with a blowtorch into two shapes that looked like a pair of feet, wearing a rectangular welding mask on his face. Gale was working on the other foot, albeit slowly. After Iron finished welding a toe on, he lifted his mask and looked at his partner. “Hey Gale, don’t you think you should be wearing a mask?”
Gale deactivated her blowtorch and looked up at him. “Don’t worry, I’m… fine.”
She didn’t sound “fine” at all. Iron raised an eyebrow, but decided not to press the issue. “Hardix?” He called. “You got any more parts?”
Hardix was over at the side, looking at a tall rusty metal shelf with all kinds of parts like wires, car batteries, computer chips. He turned back upon hearing Iron’s voice. “I need a little help. Can either of you give me a boost?”
Iron turned back to Gale and gestured with his head towards Hardix. “Go and help him, I’ll just keep working on this.”
Gale nodded, and went over to Hardix. “Okay, you’re looking for a silver block. Got it?”
“Sounds simple enough!”
The Exodichan bent down, and Gale climbed on top of him. It didn’t take long for her to find what she was looking for, and she gently lifted it off its place and climbed down. She looked at the silver block and sighed, unmoving.
“Hey um… you gonna take that to Iron?”
Gale rapidly shook her head and looked back at him. “Sorry, I’ll do that.”
Hardix’s eyes narrowed. “What’s bothering you?”
“Nothing, I’ll just…”
He shook his head. “I know that look. It’s what happened with No Pain, isn’t it?”
Gale looked down. “I’m sorry I offended them…”
“It’s not you. It’s like this… imagine if everyone you met didn’t see you as a person, just as some generic hero. All you’re known for is helping people, and outside of your family, people think that’s all you are: a solution to their problems.”
Gale’s mouth hung open. “Oh… I-I…”
Hardix smiled. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing personal. Just… try to see things their way, huh? You’re good at that.”
“I… I will,” Gale nodded slowly.
In a faraway universe, No Pain was in a large, circular loading dock, very reminiscent of a military base. People in armored vests were scurrying about, arming themselves and preparing vehicles. Standing on a balcony overlooking it all, No Pain saw who they were looking for. A hint of a smile formed at the corner of his lips upon seeing them.
“I was wondering when you’d arrive.”

<< FIRST
< PREVIOUS
NEXT >
Hello, spacers!
On this episode, Kate is not a morning person, she is a mechanic/grease-monkey/tech-priest (whichever you prefer), and a both expected and unexpected arrival- …well… arrives.
…As always, I hope you enjoy. :)
——
<“Kate, you need to get up.”>
“Mmnnngh.”
<“J’Ffrane left for the medical center over an hour ago.”>
“Whoopdedoo. Good for them...”
<“Kate, we’re supposed to be there by 7. It’s already 6:45!”>
“No. S’warm in here…”
<“Kate…”>
“Mmmmnnmmnnnnnnghh fine… turn aroun’.”
<“Already am.”>
Kate finally sat up, got out of her sleeping bag and reluctantly, awkwardly began to change from her sleepwear to work clothes with her good arm as Y’ggdrasog faced away from her.
Before they left the ship, Kate had Y’ggdrasog print her a few new sets of clothes for various occasions. She was still partial to the jeans and t-shirt from her time before- …well, all of this- but she had to admit, the new artificial hybridized flannel-cashmere hoodie felt nice and cozy alongside the identical-material long underwear.
…She still wore the jeans though. If one was headed to a workshop, may as well wear something you don’t mind getting dirty, and she was years past that point with this particular pair of pants.
As she brushed her teeth, Y’ggdrasog grabbed a small pack of trail mix and a bag of salted peanuts from their bag of rations, purportedly scavenged from nearby stores and warehouses.
<“This is probably the only thing you’ll have time to eat until lunchtime, and you’ll have to eat them as we walk.”>
Kate winced as she finished brushing.
“Ah, man…”
<“I did set an alarm for a reason-”>
“And I ignored it for a reason, that being “It’s warm in here, cold and yucky out there, and I’m comfy.””
Y’ggdrasog smiled.
<“Well, I certainly can’t argue with that…”>
Kate shouldered on her coat, grabbed her water bottle and motioned towards the tent flaps.
“Alright, enough chit-chat. Mask up and let’s see what this workshop is about.”
As they exited the tent, Kate gazed around the parking lot the tent was situated in. All of the cars initially parked here on the day the bombs fell had long-since been converted into material for the assimilators to produce things like wagons, trolleys, shovels and other such tools. The raw materials had also been used to add to the defenses around the perimeter of the lot. Fences, gates topped with barbed wire and the occasional manned guard tower certainly didn’t hold up to a multiple-feet-thick stone wall, but it was reassuring nonetheless.
…Of course, this was of little comfort to those whose vehicles had been reduced to atoms, but given the circumstances they had far greater things to worry about.
They passed through the fort on their way to their destination on the other side of the walls, but the stone bricks did little to block the chill from the gusting winds coming from the river as they made their way towards the workshop. Y’ggdrasog glanced down to see Kate clutching her coat tighter to herself in the cold, her teeth chattering.
<“...Would you like me to fabricate a scarf for you later?”>
Kate went to nod, but paused, shivering- and not from the cold.
“No, I’m fine.”
<“…You’re sur-”>
“YES.” she snapped.
Y’ggdrasog glanced over in surprise at the unexpected hostility in her voice, but winced as he noticed her good arm clutching the cast, realizing too late his mistake. There was an awkward silence between them for a few moments as they walked.
“…I’m sor-”
<“…Apolog-”>
They both faltered, a small smile on both faces as they glanced at each other.
<“…Maybe you’ll be up for it later on down the road? As part of some exposure therapy or something…?”>
Kate shrugged.
“Maybe. We’ll see. …And I’m sorry.”
<“It’s ok. These last few weeks have been inconceivably hard on you.”>
“That’s still no excuse for treating you like my own personal verbal punching bag when you’re just trying to help. So again, I’m sorry.”
<“Apology accepted. …Now, let’s hurry up, shall we? It’s 6:58 already.”>
“Oh balls- yup, let’s move.”
<““...Balls?””>
“Nothing. I’ll explain lat- …actually, y’know what, scratch that, I won’t.”
<“…What?”>
“Nothing. Let’s just get going.”
Two minutes of half-walking, half-jogging later, they finally made it to the workshop. A large, temporary building, it resembled a warehouse or storage facility, and had clearly been constructed after the bombs fell. It was largely made of sheet metal, clashing with the old stonework and wooden architecture of the surrounding buildings.
As they dusted themselves off and opened the front door, they were immediately greeted with an assault on their senses. The smell of grease, motor oil and that indescribable scent of hot metal that lingered in the air whenever someone took a grinder to steel overwhelmed their olfactory systems. The cacophony of said grinding, metal impacting metal, and the sizzle of molten sparks as welding was performed by various people throughout the facility was almost deafening.
Kate winced, instinctively covering one ear with her good hand as Y’ggdrasog covered his own.
“They must have really good soundproofing in here to not deafen the camp!”
<“WHAT?”>
“I SAID- …oh, nevermind. Let’s just find someone in charge.”
<“…WHAT?”>
Kate ignored him and strode forward, sighing in relief as she spotted Migtryl, who waved them over. His words were barely audible to Kate as she approached.
<“7 o clock, on the dot! Marvelous.”>
<“WHAT?”> Y’ggdrasog helpfully contributed as he joined them.
Migtryl winced at the sudden outburst before his eyes widened in understanding, and he rummaged in one of his many bags for a moment.
<“Now where did I put the- ah, yes! Here you are.”>
With that, he held out two pairs of earplugs to the pair of them, which they both gratefully accepted. As they put them in, Migtryl tapped a button on a small device hanging from his neck, and to her surprise Kate heard his voice clearly despite the earplugs muffling the rest of the incoming audio of the surrounding environment.
<“Better?”>
She nodded.
“Much! …How are you…?”
<“Standard issue Collective tech. The plugs block out the vast majority of all noise in the surrounding environment, but the exterior have small microphones that are calibrated to filter for the unique vibrations of the voices of Collective species and much more recently, humans! Then, tiny speakers deliver said filtered audio directly to your ears with a delay of under a millisecond.
It was one of the thousands of technological gifts we were going to gift your species with, so we’ve had months to get it implemented correctly. From what I recall, it took one of our AIs several hundred hours to run it through all the languages, dialects, accents and so on. But it was very much worth it, as now we can communicate to each other with ease in dangerously noisy environments, without needing any troublesome ear surgeries later on!”>
Kate laughed at that last part.
“Yeah, I sure would like to avoid those if at all possible. …So, where do we start?”
<“Follow me; I’ll give you a walkthrough of the premises…”>
It was quite an extensive setup. In one corner they had an assimilator to process raw materials that the scavengers brought in daily. In another, they had a fabricator that was churning out whatever those materials needed to be transfigured into.
<“The vast majority of the work we’ve done in the past several days has been breaking down automobiles whose electronic systems were damaged beyond repair,”> Migtryl explained. <“Initially we were just using a single “tow truck” to bring them in. After we got enough raw material, we printed another truck to double the process, then two more after that, and so on. After a day, we had a dozen or so. Since then, we’ve switched to producing multipurpose vehicles that can operate on all manner of terrain to help the cleanup process, ferry cargo between camps, deliver messages, salvage the ruins of St. Paul, and so on.”>
“Just normal, human-style tow trucks and vehicles?”
<“For now. They are all electric rather than powered by fossil fuels that many of them had been previously, but otherwise we’ve settled on a design that most humans would be familiar with to avoid needing an extensive training process for your people in operating entirely new types of vehicle.
…Anyway, this portion of the shop is mostly used for cutting work to break down the vehicle components into small enough parts for the assimilators to process. While Y’ggdrasog can work here, most of the tools are things like two-handed grinders and the like, and you’ll obviously only be able to do so once that arm is healed, so you don’t have to worry about it yet.”>
“Roger that. …Where will I be then?”
Migtryl’s feathers puffed up a bit as he gestured towards another area of the facility.
<“Over yonder is a more “traditional” human workspace, focused on repairing the old as opposed to fabricating the new. You’ll be working on maintaining older fossil-fuel vehicles for the most part; the type that weren’t rendered inoperable via the EMP blasts due to their lack of dependence on more advanced electronics.”>
Kate nodded, smiling.
“Nice. It probably won’t be too different from troubleshooting our second hand tractor or fiddling around with our old beater pickup truck.”
<“Here’s hoping. …Anyway, most of the tools they use there are one-handed, but those working there know about your arm situation already so if two-handed work is required they’ll know to step in.”>
Kate’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Oh… I figured you’d need two hands for pretty much everything, and I’d just be left as the equivalent of the nurse passing the scalpels.”
Migtryl shook his head.
<“Heavens no. We need all hands, claws, wings, tendrils and whatever else on deck. …Even if, as in your case, only one is in proper condition.”>
“Understood. …So, who will I be working with?”
<“I believe you’ll be familiar with at least one.”>
To Kate’s surprise, the alien twisted his head around a full 180° as he called behind him.
<“JACK?”>
A mildly irritated voice replied from deeper in the facility.
“Senior Airman Jack. …And there’s no need to shout.”
<“Ah, right- …SOR- er, sorry!”>
Migtryl turned his head back towards Kate, who had only just barely managed to suppress her sniggering at witnessing the exchange.
<“Right this way, let’s go meet him.”>
As they rounded a corner, Kate was surprised to see Jack working underneath an old sedan that was propped up on a set of car jacks. He glanced up as they approached, and wheeled himself out from underneath.
“Hello. Kate, right?”
“That’s me. …What are you doing in this workshop?”
Jack got up and motioned over his shoulder to the car.
“This place needed anyone with any mechanical experience to pitch in, and I happened to qualify for that, even if my experience is obviously more focused on aircraft- and the occasional bicycle repair- than cars. …Still, I like to think I’m a quick learner.”
Kate cocked an eyebrow.
“Bicycle repair? …What good are bicycles on an Air Force base?”
“Hey, everyone needs a hobby. Mine was biking around in what little free time I had. …What about you?”
“…What about me?”
Jack smiled at her, a twinkle in his eye.
“What kinds of hobbies do you have, since you seem to enjoy judging the hobbies of others?”
“Uh- …reading weird books and watching stupid movies, I guess…?”
Jack’s smile widened.
“In that case, riddle me this: What good are those on a farm?”
Kate laughed.
“Alright, alright, fair enough. …So, what are you working on there?”
“Well, one of the scavvers said he’d been hearing a rattling noise when he was driving back from picking up supplies from a nearby department store. I was just checking to see if a pebble or something had gotten stuck in the- …undercarriage…”
Jack faltered as he saw Kate walk over, pop open the bonnet of the car and begin to fiddle around. Y’ggdrasog peered over her shoulder, curiously watching Kate pull out a small rod from within a component of the primitive engine and staring incredulously at a piece of black gunk stuck to the end of it.
<“What are you-”>
“JESUS! …When did they last change the oil, the Bronze Age?!”
Jack walked over, concerned.
“What?”
“This thing’s been burning oil for a while. Just- …hang on, let me get under there-”
Without warning, Kate grabbed a socket wrench, screwdriver and oil collection tin, and before anyone could react she had scrambled down under the vehicle. A few clicks from the turning of the socket wrench and scrapes of the screwdriver later, she let out an annoyed groan.
“Oh man, nothing in there is a liquid anymore, it’s all just tar! …That ticking noise was probably metal-on-metal- or as I prefer, the engine screaming in goddamn agony because it’s dying of goddamn THIRST!”
She poked her head out from underneath the vehicle, glancing up to see Jack peering down at her, bemused. Before he could speak, Kate piped up from below, her voice very irritated.
“Tell whoever this car belongs to that they’re a dumbass.”
Jack nodded, holding back laughter with some difficulty.
“Yes ma’am, I’ll, uh… get right on that.”
Kate shook her head in irritation as she slid back under the vehicle, muttering under her breath as she went.
“Fitting that it was ticking when this thing’s basically a damn time bomb at this point…”
Jack walked over to Migtryl, a wide smile on his face.
“Y’know, I think she’ll fit in just-”
From underneath the car came a muffled voice.
“Hey Yiggy, could you go see if there’s a spare oil filter compatible with this idiot’s car handy, or get the fabricators to print one? …I’m sure as hell not bothering to scrape this crud off to see if I can salvage this one, it looks like it’s the original that came with the damn car-”
“-fine,” Jack finished, not bothering to hold back his snickering any longer. “Juuuuust fine.”
Migtryl nodded in approval.
<“Good to hear. Just to be safe, I think I’ll stay and keep an eye on her for a few hours in case she changes her mind and wishes for reassignment.”>
Jack cocked an eyebrow.
“A few hours? I thought you had a busy schedule.”
<“Well, um… The arrival of the volunteers has lightened my workload a bit, yes! …Worry not, I’ll be fine.”>
“…Right then.”
As Jack walked away, Migtryl glanced down at his holo-tablet mode and smiled as he read a new message:
ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL: FOUR HOURS
<“Yes, I’ll be “juuuuuust fine…””>
——
The day passed quickly as Kate worked on one vehicle after the next. Most were relatively simple jobs, replacing flat tires being by far the most common. As it turns out, the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust is just a bit of a hostile environment to drive around in. She found nails, broken glass, screws, rivets, bolts, barbed wire, rebar- basically, if it existed and could feasibly puncture a tire, she had seen it.
Other jobs were slightly more… complicated.
“Look, can you fix it or not?” the scavenger said in an exasperated voice.
Kate shook her head in bewilderment at what was in front of her.
“Yeah, it shouldn't be too big of an issue, it’s just- …shall we say, unexpected. …How did you even-”
“I just didn’t see it in time before I ran it over, alright?!”
Kate laughed at the scavenger’s sheepish expression as she finally dislodged the stop sign that had somehow got itself embedded in the scavenger’s undercarriage.
“Y’know, I’m finding that a bit hard to believe. I mean- just- …how? How could you miss this lying in the street?”
The scavenger (a woman named Alex) let out an exasperated sigh.
“There was no “street!” That thing was buried under at least an inch of ash, powderized buildings, and god knows what else- …look, can you just swap out whatever’s busted and quit with the judging already?!”
“Yeah, yeah, just messing with you...”
She tapped the side of her visor and connected it to the earplug’s audio channel, selecting Y’ggdrasog’s particular frequency.
“Hey Yiggy, when you have a sec I need you to prep the fabricator for vehicle 12’s schematics; looks like we have a ruptured oil pan.”
It only took a moment for him to respond, and though he was across the warehouse, she heard him as though he were standing right next to her.
<“Copy that… aaaaand done!”>
“Copy that, thanks. …One anti-oil-pan-of-Theseus coming right up!”
There was a brief pause on the other end of the line.
<“…What?”>
“Nothing. I’ll explain later.”
It was Kate’s idea to have the fabricators take a couple hours to scan the older vehicles that were still in use by the fort’s scavengers, scouts, couriers and so on so the workshop could have the exact dimensions and specifications of every part within them.
…Sure, it probably violated a few patent laws or whatever, but being able to toss a broken part into the assimilator- no matter how many pieces said part was in- and have it come out the other side an atom-for-atom reconstruction of how the part looked when it was initially scanned expedited the repair process significantly. …Even if it meant that they were stuck perfectly replicating the state of wear and tear the older parts had at the time of scan.
Still, it was already paying off, given that Alex only made it about five miles before needing to be towed back.
15 minutes later, the aging automobile was once again ready to go. Alex looked impressed, but was still clearly mistrustful of the literally alien technology she had just witnessed in action.
“So, you’re sure this will hold up?”
“As long as you don’t run over any more stop signs.”
Alex gave Kate a wry smile.
“…You’re lucky I think hitting a cripple is beneath me.”
Kate just smiled back.
“And you’re lucky I’m crippled for the moment, else I might have chosen not to ignore that little comment.”
Alex laughed as she got back into the car.
“Fair enough.”
As she drove off, Kate heard Y’ggdrasog’s voice in her ear once more.
<“Is it typical among humans to threaten each other in jest so often?”>
“Only when we’re in a good mood. …The genuine threats usually only come when we’re not.”
His next sentence came from directly behind her, making her jump.
<“So, you are enjoying yourself thus far?”>
Kate turned around to see Y’ggdrasog giving her a playful grin, having used the background noise to cover his approach as he snuck up on her.
“Yes, Mr. Ninja, I have been. It’s nice to be useful for a change.”
His smile faded as he crossed his arms, chiding her in two simple reminding words.
<“Self-talk.”>
“Yeah, ok… it’s nice to be doing something familiar that I’m good at. Better?”
Y’ggdrasog’s smile returned.
<“Much.”>
He paused, looking over Kate’s shoulder behind her as Migtryl waved at the duo to get their attention, looking even happier than his usual chipper self as he pointed toward the opening garage door.
<“Next vehicle’s coming in.”>
Kate turned around, and upon seeing the vehicle pulling into her bay a smile to match Y’ggdrasog’s own appeared on her face.
“Damn, talk about familiarity! This’ll be real easy, that’s the exact model of pickup I’ve taken care of all this time.”
She turned back to Y’ggdrasog.
“Want to come see a master do her thing?”
Y’ggdrasog chuckled.
<“Oh, now this should be good…”>
As Kate walked over towards the now-parked pickup, she marveled at just how similar it was to the family truck. Same paint job, similar rust patterns on the hood, and the license plate-
Kate did a double take, her head whipping back towards the text she had just read, causing Y’ggdrasog to look down in curiosity.
MONTANA
TREASURE STATE
Kate’s blood ran cold, and not from the outside chill seeping in through the open garage door.
It was then that a voice- shaky, unsure of itself, and most of all, utterly horrifying in its familiarity- reached her ears.
“K- …Katherine…?”
Slowly, hesitantly, and terrified of what she would find, Kate raised her gaze to see the driver stepping out of the vehicle, their gaze locked on her, an expression of disbelief on their face.
Their hair was almost completely gray when it hadn’t even been salt and pepper before. They were staring at her in shock.
…And they had a splint on their- or rather, his- broken nose.

Respect Juggernaut

This won’t hurt me! Nothing can!
♫Theme
Cain Marko was the son of nuclear scientist Kurt Marko, who worked in Alamogordo, New Mexico with Brian Xavier. After Brian died in a lab accident, Kurt married Brian’s widow Sharon for her family’s money, resulting in Cain becoming the stepbrother of the Xavier’s son Charles, the eventual founder of the X-Men. Kurt proved to be an abusive father to both Cain and Charles, which combined with Cain’s jealousy over his brother’s telepathy, fostered a lasting resentment between the two of them. After Kurt died saving them from another lab accident, Charles and Cain would end up serving with the army together in Korea. During their service, Cain would stumble across a cave that had a temple dedicated to the powerful mystic being known as Cyttorak. Touching a crimson gem at the heart of the temple, Cain was transformed into Cyttorak’s avatar on Earth, an unstoppable human Juggernaut. Shortly after, the cave collapsed, with Xavier barely managing to escape. Years later Cain would dig his way out and seek revenge on Charles for the perceived slights he had inflicted upon him. In doing so, Cain would come into conflict with the X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, and many other superheroes before eventually burying the hatchet with his brother. However, despite joining the X-Men and later Thunderbolts, Cain would return to being a villain each time. Throughout his life and various goals and motivations, only one constant has remained for Cain Marko. No matter the obstacle, he will never stop.
This respect thread is abridged due to Juggernaut’s large number of appearances. A full version is available on the Juggernaut Mega Respect Thread, with links to the unabridged sections posted where appropriate.

Key and explanation of periods where Juggernaut was stronger or weaker than normal

• [50%] Briefly lost half of his power after Black Tom absorbed it
• [X] Was made weaker by Cyttorak after deciding not to do his bidding anymore
• [T] Was made weaker by Cyttorak after he was angered by Juggernaut temporarily becoming Captain Universe
• [Kuurth] Became possessed by one of the Serpent's Asgardian Worthy named Kuurth after picking up his hammer
• [Once and Future] Had his power completely removed by Cyttorak but regained it after taking the place of an alternate universe Cain Marko, though it began to fade
• [Unstoppable] Was given more power by Cyttorak than he had given anyone else

Strength

Unabridged Force Field and Advancing Sections

Force Field

• Needs his helmet to use his force field - Uncanny X-Men #32
• Transforms a metal gauntlet into a new helmet - Amazing Spider-Man #628
• Can summon his helmet and armor out of thin air - Venom: The Madness #1
• Pushes Professor X's wheelchair back with a wave of force - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Stops a 10 ton rolling steel barrel with a current of energy and rolls it back through a wall and into Beast hard enough to knock him out - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Shoots globules of sheer energy, with a single one powerful enough to break a tree in half - Uncanny X-Men #46

Advancing

• Exerts enough pressure to buckle and shatter a metal wall that had 50 times the tensile strength of battleship steel - Uncanny X-Men #12
• [Limits] Loses his footing after some stairs he was climbing are turned to ice by Iceman - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Shatters a concrete power station by running through it - Amazing Adventures #16
• His powers let him swim in water even though he should be heavy enough to sink - Amazing Adventures #16
• [Limits] Sinks in water after Colossus knocks him into it unexpectedly - Spider-Woman (1978) #38
• Knocks Hulk over a hill and shatters it with a single charge - Hulk #172
• Walks through a building while Spider-Man was trying to pull him back - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• [Limits] Sinks to bottom of a 40 foot foundation of wet cement - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• Walks through miles of bedrock and fractures the tectonic plates under Manhattan, which results in a catastrophic earthquake months later - Amazing Spider-Man #629, 628-629
• Holds onto Thor's hammer as it’s returning to him and tackles him through five boxcars and into a building hard enough to shatter part of it and knock him out - Thor #411
• Knocks down a uh... certain skyscraper by charging into it - Spider-Man (1990) #16
• Literally walks over Thunderstrike when he tries to push him back - Thunderstrike (1993) #2
• Makes footprints in concrete - Professor Xavier and the X-Men (1995) #13
• Charges into War Hulk and pushes him through hundreds of meters of rock, though Hulk is eventually able to stop his advance - Hulk #457
  • War Hulk was strong enough to lift and throw one of the pyramids of Giza - Hulk #456
• Rams his fellow Exemplar Stonecutter through a stone staircase - Juggernaut (1999) #1
• [X] Him and Sasquatch collide into each other hard enough to create a large crater in the ground, with Juggernaut being the first to recover - Uncanny X-Men #422
• [X] Climbs through a pile of wreckage and causes the ground the shake and knock cars into the air - New Excalibur (2006) #6-7
• Fights evenly with World War Hulk and pushes him back, undermining the foundation of the X-Mansion, though Hulk is able to knock him away by sidestepping him and adding to his momentum - World War Hulk: X-Men 3
  • World War Hulk was strong enough to prevent the crust of a planet from splitting by shifting tectonic plates - Hulk (2000) #102
• [T] A Raft scientist says he has endless kinetic energy and is unstoppable once he begins charging - Thunderbolts #144
• [T] Charges downwards through 1.3 kilometers of bedrock - Thunderbolts #149
• [Kuurth] The X-Men try at least 42 plans to stop him from walking towards San Francisco that all prove ineffective, including:
  • Face shooting him with a unique energy annihilation beam
  • Teleporting him to the bottom of the sea and the heart of the sun
  • Siryn combining her sound energy with Dazzler's sound-to-light powers to generate an extreme intensity laser
  • Gambit and Rockslide combining their explosion powers to create a detonation that nearly exhausted Cecilia Reyes from the effort of protecting civilians with her force shield
  • Magneto throwing an aircraft carrier into him - Uncanny X-Men #542
• Charges through a force wall government scientists couldn't find a way to penetrate - Dark Avengers #181-182
• D-Cel, a mutant that can slow down kinetic motion to the point objects stop falling, can't stop Juggernaut from advancing towards her - Juggernaut (2020) #1

Unabridged Striking and Lifting Sections

Striking

• Creates an earthquake across a valley that causes a cliff to collapse by slamming the ground - Uncanny X-Men #33
• Stuns Hulk with his blows - Hulk #172
• Backhands a 3 ton steel ball thrown at him by Spider-Man through a building, causing its side to collapse - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• Incapacitates the Thing in three hits - Secret Wars II #7
• Backhands Rogue across Edinburgh and through a stone wall - Uncanny X-Men #218
• Punches Captain Britain through hundreds of meters of ground and incapacitates him with two more strikes - Excalibur (1988) #3
• Knocks out Professor Hulk after a prolonged fight while not wearing his armor or helmet - Hulk #402
  • Professor Hulk was strong enough to punch through doors capable of withstanding a nuclear blast - Hulk #410
• Levels a building with a punch - Deadpool: The Circle Chase #2
• Splinters apart the God Machine and the glacier it was on top of in an exchange of blows with Stonecutter and overpowers him - Juggernaut (1999) #1
• [X] Punches Rhino into a concrete wall hard enough to shatter it - Uncanny X-Men #435
• [X] Causes World War Hulk spit blood with a punch - World War Hulk: X-Men #2
• Punches a force field hard enough to create earthquakes registered at magnitude 4.6 and 8.0 - Hulk #602
• [Kuurth] Destroys more than half of the Raft island prison with a strike - Fear Itself #2, Thunderbolts #158
• [Kuurth] Punches Moonstone miles away - Thunderbolts #160-161
• [Kuurth] Strikes the ground hard enough to create a massive crater and a tremor registered at magnitude 0.6 - Thunderbolts #160-161
• [Kuurth] Levels Salem Missouri with a strike - Fear Itself: The Home Front #3, Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #3
• [Once and Future] Makes Colossus spit blood with his punches and overpowers him - Amazing X-Men (2014) #17
• [Unstoppable] Slams the ground hard enough to create a massive crater - Amazing X-Men (2014) #19
• Knocks out Immortal Hulk after a prolonged fight with the help of D-Cel and a gamma radiation siphon - Juggernaut (2020) #1
• Shatters a metal vault door - Juggernaut (2020) #4

Lifting, pushing, pulling, throwing, grip, etc.

• Snaps a steel cable as if it were paper - Uncanny X-Men #12
• Sweeps the O5 X-Men aside - Uncanny X-Men #12
• Pulls Hulk's head from behind and starts to break his neck, though he overpowers him due to getting angry - Hulk #172
• Tears apart a solid concrete wall reinforced with steel - Spider-Woman (1978) #37
• Rips off and lifts the corner of a building - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• Lifts a tank by its turret and swings it onto another tank hard enough to wreck both of them - Marvel Team-Up #150
• [50%] Black Tom with half of his power suplexes a building - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Throws the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak into orbit - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Throws a boxcar into a weakened Thor hard enough to hurt him before lifting another one and ramming it into him - Thor #411
• Sends a pile of debris created from two boxcars getting thrown into him flying with a shrug - Thor #412
• Shatters a steel cocoon encasing him - Thor #412
• Sends tanks flying with a swipe of his arm - The All New Exiles (1995) #1
• Holds up a collapsing building - The All New Exiles (1995) #3
• Rips up a massive chunk of the street and throws it into a SWAT van hard enough to crumple it - Spider-Man (1990) #84
• Throws a truck through a building while weakened - Uncanny X-Men #361
• Rips off and swings the corner of a building while weakened - Uncanny X-Men #361
• Starts crushing Thor with a bear hug - Thor (1998) #17
• [X] Pushes a tank onto its back - X-Men (1991) #160
• [X] Flexes out of ice that was covering him - New Excalibur (2006) #2-3
• [X] Holds onto a metal beam with his fingers while being dragged underground until it snaps in half - New Excalibur (2006) #7
• [T] Pins down Luke Cage - Thunderbolts #150
• [Kuurth] Magneto can't stop his hammer after he throws it despite it being made of metal - Uncanny X-Men #541
• Rips off an icicle the size of a person and throws it through a Frost Giant - Punisher Kill Krew #3
• Swings an Asgardian dragon by the tail and into the ground hard enough to crater it - Savage Avengers (2019) #14

Unabridged Durability Section

Durability w/ Force Field/Armor

Blunt

• Only slowed down slightly by a continuous optic blast from Cyclops and a punch and kick from Angel - Uncanny X-Men #13
• [Limits] Angel is able to rip off his helmet after Beast loosens it - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Fine after Hulk strikes him in the back and tears up the rock under him - Hulk #172
• Fine after Colossus kicks him into a stone wall hard enough to make it collapse on them and knock Colossus out - Uncanny X-Men #102
• Started welding his helmet on with a laser torch, making it hard for Spider-Man to pull it off - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• [50%] Fine after Spider-Man yanks out a manhole cover he was standing on while he was stretching his webbing, so that it slingshots him into Black Tom hard enough to make a building collapse - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Started bolting on his helmet, making it hard for Colossus to rip it off - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Unharmed after getting struck with 1.37 kilotons of steel by Nimrod - Uncanny X-Men #194
• No-sells a punch from Rogue that shattered every window on a street - Uncanny X-Men #218
• His force field kills all of the momentum of Thor's hammer after he threw it at him - Thor #411
• Unharmed from Nova and Namorita throwing two boxcars into him - Thor #412
• No-sells a full force hammer strike from Thor - Thor #429
• Hurt but mostly unharmed after getting punched by Post-Crisis Superman - DC Versus Marvel #1
• Knocked out but quickly recovers after getting hurled from Canada to Hoboken by Onslaught - Uncanny X-Men #322
• Fine after War Hulk throws him from Giza to Cairo - Hulk #457
• Fine after getting punched through a concrete wall by War Hulk, though he's able to remove his helmet before he can get up - Hulk #457
• No-sells Spider-Man punching him with everything he had - Spider-Man (1990) #84
• Unharmed by a rain of blows from Thor that shatter the street around them - Thor (1998) #17
• Unharmed by a optic blast from Cyclops that he says had enough force to rip a small planet in half - Cyclops (2001) #1
• Fine after getting punched from Earth to Mars by Skaar - Hulk #602
• [T] Still able to fight after taking several attacks from Thor, Luke Cage, and Iron Man that make a large crater and shatter a cliff - Thunderbolts #150
• [Kuurth] Unharmed after Hope Summers with the powers of the X-Men flies into him hard enough to shatter a highway - Uncanny X-Men #541
• A non-Mjolnir Uru hammer shatters when Thor hits him with it - Thor (2018) #1
• [Limits] Thor makes him spit teeth by hitting him with a bigger Uru hammer, though Thor broke it and dozens more to knock him out - Thor (2018) #1
• Fine after getting punched into the sewers through part of a building and the street by Venom - Venom (2018) Annual #1
• Fine after getting punched through six stories of a building by Quicksand - Juggernaut (2020) #3
• His force field stops Swarm's bees from touching him - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #19

Piercing/Cutting

• No-sells a bazooka shell - Uncanny X-Men #33
• A spinning helicopter blade breaks upon hitting him - Uncanny X-Men #33
• Isn't cut by Wolverine's claws - Uncanny X-Men #102
• No-sells a concentrated barrage from assault rifles and rocket launchers that would reduce a house to splinters - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• No-sells a point blank tank round - Marvel Team-Up #150
• [Limits] Shatterstar's swords that were forged in a dimension of magic and science are able to cut through his flesh and helmet - Spider-Man (1990) #16, X-Force (1991) #4
• No-sells several tank rounds - The All New Exiles (1995) #1
• [X] No-sells assault rifle rounds - X-Men (1991) #160
• [X] Sabretooth's claws gouge but don't cut through his helmet - X-Men (1991) #162
• [X] No-sells bullets while a knife shatters upon hitting him - New Excalibur (2006) #14
• [X] Still able to fight after getting slashed across the chest and back with a sword by another Juggernaut, and catches the sword in his hand - New Excalibur (2006) #15
• [X] Fine after getting blasted through a concrete wall by some firearm - New Excalibur (2006) #16
• Unharmed from Skaar hitting him with his sword - Hulk #602
• Survives but is knocked out after getting hit by a giant Asgardian rocket launcher - Punisher Kill Krew #4

Sound

• Unharmed by a sonic scream from Banshee that shatters the stone floor under him - Uncanny X-Men #103
• Unharmed by a sonic scream from Siryn - X-Force (1991) #3
• Fine after getting hit by a sonic scream from Siryn that causes a building to collapse - Deadpool (1994) #3-4

Heat

• Unharmed by jets of chemical flame - Uncanny X-Men #13
• The Human Torch’s flames can't penetrate his force field - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Unharmed from a speeding tanker truck crashing into him and exploding - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• No-sells a microwave blast from Firestar that caused his armor to glow white hot - Thor #412
• Unharmed by Firestar melting a pile of steel girders surrounding him - Thor #412
• Unharmed from a vat of molten metal being poured on him - Deadpool (1994) #2
• Hurt but mostly unharmed after falling into molten steel while weakened - Juggernaut (1997) #1
• Rocked but doesn't fall after Inferno blasts him with enough sheer energy to vaporize countless tons of titanium steel in a split second - Avengers (1998) #24
• [X] Was supposedly fatally burned but still able to move briefly after taking the brunt of a flammable liquid explosion that destroyed part of a building - Uncanny X-Men #420
• [Kuurth] Unaffected by Adam-X igniting his blood - Uncanny X-Men #542
• Unharmed by Pyro's flames - Uncanny X-Men (2019) #16

Cold

• Unharmed after falling into a frozen lake - Cyclops (2001) #1
• [X] Fine after getting knocked through a stone wall by a stream of ice from Iceman - Uncanny X-Men #411
• [Kuurth] His helmet is only slightly cracked after Iceman lowers its temperature to absolute zero and Colossus punches it - Uncanny X-Men #541

Electricity

• Unharmed by a 20,000 volt electric fence - Amazing Adventures #16
• No-sells a lightning bolt from Storm - Uncanny X-Men #102
• No-sells a full strength venom blast from Spider-Woman - Spider-Woman (1978) #37
• Hurt but mostly fine after Storm and Spider-Woman blast him with enough electricity to cause a ship to explode - Spider-Woman (1978) #38, Amazing Spider-Man #229
• Unharmed from a million volts arcing over him - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• No-sells Thor calling down a lightning bolt on him - Thor #412
• Still conscious after Bishop channels enough volts of electricity to maintain the city of Hoboken through him while weakened - Uncanny X-Men #322
• Unharmed by electrical blasts from the Max Dillon and Francine Frye Electros - Sinister War #4

Light

• Recovers in minutes from a strobe effect created by Dazzler that she thought would stun him for an hour - Uncanny X-Men #217
• No-sells a photon blast from Dazzler that used all her power and that she says would've punched a hole through a mountain - Uncanny X-Men #217-218

Energy

• Fine after Nimrod knocks him through a concrete wall and into a construction site hard enough to make a crater with an energy blast - Uncanny X-Men #194
• A God-Blast from Thor that crumbles the concrete foundation he was standing on only pushes him back - Thor #412
• Tanks an energy blast from Frankie Raye Nova while weakened - Doctor Strange (1988) #44
• Unharmed after getting hit by an energy blast from Stellaris that created a massive hole in the road - Thunderstrike (1993) #2
• Walks through a continuous bio-energy blast from Chamber, though he's a hurt a little - Generation X (1994) #61
• No-sells an energy blast from Black Tom - Generation X (1994) #61
  • Black Tom's energy blasts can wreck a tank - Spider-Woman (1978) #38
• [X] Survives getting hit by a plasma blast from Havok that created a trench in the ground - X-Men (1991) #162-163
• [Kuurth] Unharmed after Hardball blasts him with a sphere of energy that destroys part of Las Vegas and helps cause an earthquake that collapses skyscrapers - Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #3-5
• Tanks a blast of the power cosmic from Cosmic Ghost Rider - Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #3

Chemical

• Unharmed by Night Thrasher's acid bombs - Thor #412

Adhesive

• His force field prevents Spider-Man's webbing from sticking to him - Amazing Spider-Man #229, Marvel Team-Up #150

Biological

• Still able to fight after his fellow Exemplar Conquest hits his pressure points - Juggernaut (1999) #1
• [T] Resists being mutated by the Terrigen Mists - Thunderbolts #146
• [Kuurth] Burns out nanites in his body designed to knock him out - Thunderbolts #145, 160
• [Kuurth] Starts dissolving Mercury after she fills his lungs with his internal fauna and antibodies - Uncanny X-Men #542
• Survives but is knocked out by a plant manipulator growing valerian inside of his body - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #17

Matter Manipulation

• Nimrod's disintegrator beam affects a steel I-beam he was holding but not him - Uncanny X-Men #194

Phasing

• Hurt but still able to fight after Vision briefly phases his hand into his head before increasing his density - Hulk #403
• Unharmed by Viv Vision phasing into him and becoming tangible - Deadpool (2018) #2

Magic

• [Limits] Thor is able to create a cone that negates all mystical energy and removes Juggernaut's force field by making his hammer spin around them - Thor #429
• Unharmed after hurling Stonecutter into the core of God Machine, causing it to explode and release enough mystical energy to destroy a glacier - Juggernaut (1999) #1, Avengers (1998) #24
• [T] Still able to fight after getting hit by cannon shot that had poltergeists smelted into it that emerge out of his shoulder - Thunderbolts #156-157
• Unharmed by the Scarlet Witch's hexes - Uncanny Avengers (2015) #29

Soul/Life Force

• Only has a headache after D'Spayre consumes enough of his soul/life essence to give most mortals a coronary rupture - Juggernaut (1997) #1
• [T] Quickly recovers after running through a human mutated by the Terrigen Mists that could drain life force with a touch - Thunderbolts #146-147
• [Kuurth] Casts out Ghost and Satana after the former combines his intangibility with the latter's magic to try and free his soul from Kuurth/the Serpent's control - Thunderbolts #160

Power Absorption/Nullification

• Rogue can only absorb a portion of his power - Uncanny X-Men #218
• [Kuurth] Rogue trying to absorb his powers incapacitates her - Uncanny X-Men #542
• Cut off his link to Cyttorak while keeping his powers by using the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to make a new armor - Juggernaut (2020) #3-4
• A power dampener doesn't work on him - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #14, 18
• The Human-Adaptoid can't use the Absorbing Man's powers to absorb Juggernaut's powers - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #17

Mental

• His helmet protects him from any mental attack - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Unaffected by Professor X's telepathy - Uncanny X-Men #12
• Unaffected by Rachel Summers telepathy - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Eventually made a smaller helmet from scraps of the original that also protects him from mental attack, which he wears underneath it - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Resists Dazzler using light to hypnotize him - Uncanny X-Men #217
• Psylocke manages to hurt him through his helmet with a psycho blast, though it only stuns him for a moment - Uncanny X-Men #218
• Fine after getting stabbed with Psylocke's psychic knife while weakened - Uncanny X-Men #322
• Resists his fellow Exemplar Bedlam's telepathy - Juggernaut (1999) #1
• Captain Universe can't read his mind - Amazing Spider-Man #629

Durability w/o Force Field/Armor

Blunt

• Fine after Hulk swings him around hard enough to rip off his helmet and send him flying into a cliff - Hulk #172
• Fine after getting tackled from behind and through a wall by Colossus - Uncanny X-Men #183
• Unharmed from a building collapsing on him - Uncanny X-Men #183
• Fine after Rogue absorbs some of his power and throws and flies into him hard enough to create a massive crater in a rail line - Uncanny X-Men #218
• Still able to fight after getting pummeled for nearly a minute by Thor - Thor #429
• [X] Fine after getting tackled through a house by Sasquatch - Uncanny X-Men #432-433
• [X] Unharmed from a double-decker bus crashing into him hard enough to total itself - New Excalibur (2006) #3
• [X] A continuous optic blast from Earth 6141 Cyclops doesn't even slow him down - New Excalibur (2006) #3
• Survives getting thrown to Earth from orbit by Captain Universe - Amazing Spider-Man #629, 627
• [T] King Hyperion hurts his hand punching Juggernaut in the head repeatedly - Thunderbolts #153
• [Kuurth] Tanks getting tackled through the deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge by Colossusnaut - Uncanny X-Men #543
• [Kuurth] Still able to fight after getting pummeled by Colossusnaut hard enough to collapse a building - Uncanny X-Men #543

Piercing/Cutting

• No-sells a tank round - Excalibur (1988) #3
• [X] Unharmed by minigun rounds - Uncanny X-Men #433
• [X] Still able to fight after getting stabbed in the abdomen by Rhino's horn - Uncanny X-Men #435

Sound

• [Limits] Incapacitated by tight beam ultra high frequency sonics from Nimrod - Uncanny X-Men #194
• [T] Still able to stand after Iron Man blasts him with enough localized sound to put down a whole regiment - Thunderbolts #150

Cold

• Unharmed from getting encased in ice by Iceman - Uncanny X-Men #33
• [X] Unharmed from getting covered in ice by Earth 6141 Iceman - New Excalibur (2006) #2-3
• [Once and Future] Tanks getting launched into the air by a stream of ice from Iceman - Amazing X-Men (2014) #17

Heat

• [T] Hurt but mostly fine after getting hit by King Hyperion’s atomic vision - Thunderbolts #153

Gravity

• [X] Survives getting sucked in by Xorn's black hole along with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and ending up in the Mojoverse, though they survived as well - X-Men (1991) #164, Uncanny X-Men #460

Light

• [X] Unharmed after getting launched far into the distance by a photon blast from Dazzler

Energy

• No-sells a continuous energy blast from Nimrod right after he used one to create a large hole in a concrete wall - Uncanny X-Men #194
• [X] Fine after getting knocked through a thick stone wall by an energy blast from the Shadow King - New Excalibur (2006) #3
• Unharmed after getting knocked through a concrete wall and from Upper Manhattan to the New Jersey Palisades by an energy blast from Captain Universe - Amazing Spider-Man #627-628

Chemical

• [X] Unharmed by Mammomax's stomach acid - X-Men (1991) #164

Biological

• [X] Possibly unaffected by Polaris trying to reverse his blood flow with magnetism to knock him out - Uncanny X-Men #426

Mental

• Manages to keep moving out of hatred after Professor X attacks him telepathically, though he's knocked out with a second attack - Uncanny X-Men #13
• [Kuurth] Emma Frost is incapacitated from trying to affect his mind - Uncanny X-Men #541-542
• [Unstoppable] Rachel Summers can't read his mind - Amazing X-Men (2014) #19

Unabridged Endurance, Speed, Skill, and Temporary Powers Sections

Endurance and Regeneration

• Barely slowed down by enough sleeping gas to stop a herd of elephants and a gas that causes loss of balance - Uncanny X-Men #12
• Doesn't get tired - Amazing Adventures #16
• Starts to age rapidly due to strange forces in a dimension Eternity cast him into, but is able to remain young as long as he feels hate - Doctor Strange #182, Amazing Adventures #16, Hulk #172
• Doesn't need air, food, or water - Amazing Spider-Man #230, 629
• Quickly regenerates after getting stabbed in the eye and cut several times by Shatterstar's swords - Spider-Man (1990) #16, X-Force (1991) #4
• Still able to move after D'Spayre absorbs most of his power and uses it to reduce him to a skeleton, and quickly regenerates after getting it restored - Juggernaut (1997) #1
• [X] Seems like he needed air after being weakened - Uncanny X-Men #412
• [X] Later walked from somewhere in the Yellow Sea to South Korea however - New Excalibur (2006) #13-14
• [T] Needs air - Thunderbolts #145
• [T] Still able to fight after King Hyperion breaks his knee - Thunderbolts #153

Speed

• Grabs Angel and shoves him into the path of Cyclops optic blast before he can redirect it - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Nearly as fast as Beast and ducks under a tree swung by him - Amazing Adventures #16
• Catches a girder slingshot at him by Spider-Man - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• Slaps Speedball out of the air - Thor #412
  • Speedball was fast enough to dodge gunmen at point blank range - Speedball #1
• Tags Spider-Man with a backhand after tearing off some webbing he sprayed in his eyes - X-Force (1991) #4
• Smashes through a wall to catch two people falling - The All New Exiles (1995) #2
• Fights evenly with Conquest, who was fast enough to grab Quicksilver on the run - Juggernaut (1999) #1, Avengers (1998) #25
• Dodges energy blasts from two Sentinels using some kind of hovercraft - X-Men Forever (2001) #5
• [Kuurth] Catches up to a speedster called Nonstop - Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #3
• [Kuurth] Colossusnaut says he's faster than him even as he runs into Kuurth and accelerates to 600 miles per hour - Uncanny X-Men #543
• [Once and Future] Tags Nightcrawler and Rachel Summers with backhands and knocks the former into Northstar despite Rachel warning them he would attack with her telepathy - Amazing X-Men (2014) #17

Skill

• [X] Fights well against someone with the full power of the Juggernaut using his skill and experience - Uncanny X-Men #436
• [X] Catches Dazzler after she blinded him by listening for her position - New Excalibur (2006) #19
• [T] Lets a Hand ninja get in close so he can grab him - Thunderbolts #148-149

Temporary Powers

Telepathy

• Somehow absorbed Professor X's telepathy after he tried to drain his powers with a machine - Uncanny X-Men #32
• Reads the O5 X-Men's minds to anticipate their moves - Uncanny X-Men #32
• Knocks out Jean Grey with a mental bolt - Uncanny X-Men #32
• Never used telepathy after this

Mystic Abilities

• Gained mystic abilities while trapped in the Crimson Cosmos - Uncanny X-Men #33, Doctor Strange #182
• Casts mystic spells that shrink Nightmare to his size and makes him collide into him when Nightmare was large enough to hold the Earth in his hands - Doctor Strange #182
• Him and Nightmare cast spells that shatter a chunk of rock and destroy bonds of cosmic force that held Eternity - Doctor Strange #180, 182
• Gave up his mystic abilities in exchange for having his youth restored - Hulk #172

Trion

• Became more powerful than ever after getting possessed by an evil spirit - X-Men (1991) #88
• Grows to giant size - X-Men (1991) #88, Uncanny X-Men #369
• Punches through the fabric of spacetime - X-Men (1991) #88

Captain Universe

• Became Captain Universe after being chosen by the Enigma Force - Amazing Spider-Man #629
• Traps Spider-Man in a force sphere and repairs fractures to the tectonic plates under Manhattan to prevent a catastrophic earthquake - Amazing Spider-Man #629

Kuurth

• Can fly - Thunderbolts #160-161
• Calls down lightning - Thunderbolts #158
• Colossus says his lightning could incinerate armies - Uncanny X-Men #543
• Possesses a man by touching him with his hammer - Uncanny X-Men #540
• Teleports back after Pixie teleports him to the bottom of sea, low Earth orbit, and the heart of the sun - Uncanny X-Men #542

Once upon a time, there was a man. A man who got everything he wanted. In the end it wasn’t enough. In truth, it could never be enough. No amount of power could change who he was. It could never quench his thirst for power. He was now and forever the Juggernaut. And he would never stop.

Key and explanation of periods where Juggernaut was stronger or weaker than normal

• [50%] Briefly lost half of his power after Black Tom absorbed it
• [X] Was made weaker by Cyttorak after deciding not to do his bidding anymore
• [T] Was made weaker by Cyttorak after he was angered by Juggernaut temporarily becoming Captain Universe
• [Kuurth] Became possessed by one of the Serpent's Asgardian Worthy named Kuurth after picking up his hammer
• [Once and Future] Had his power completely removed by Cyttorak but regained it after taking the place of an alternate universe Cain Marko, though it began to fade
• [Unstoppable] Was given more power by Cyttorak than he had given anyone else

Durability w/ Force Field/Armor

Blunt

• Only slowed down slightly by a continuous optic blast from Cyclops and a punch and kick from Angel - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Cyclops is only able to kick him back a few feet while he's off balance - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Unharmed from Beast kicking him in the back - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Only knocked over after the Danger Room springs a moving propeller at his feet and hits him with a mechanical boxing glove - Uncanny X-Men #13
• [Limits] Angel is able to rip off his helmet after Beast loosens it - Uncanny X-Men #13
• No-sells Beast throwing a large chunk of ice into him - Uncanny X-Men #46
• No-sells Beast throwing a rock into him hard enough to shatter it - Amazing Adventures #16
• Only knocked down after Hulk charges into him from behind - Hulk #172
• Fine after Hulk strikes him in the back and tears up the rock under him - Hulk #172
• Tanks a backhand from Hulk - Hulk #172
• Fine after Colossus kicks him into a stone wall hard enough to make it collapse on them and knock Colossus out - Uncanny X-Men #102
• No-sells Spider-Man swing kicking him in the back - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• Unharmed from Spider-Man using his speed to grapple with him for five minutes - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• Started welding his helmet on with a laser torch, making it hard for Spider-Man to pull it off - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• [50%] Fine after Black Tom hits him into the street hard enough to crater it - Marvel Team-Up #150
• [50%] Fine after Spider-Man yanks out a manhole cover he was standing on while he was stretching his webbing, so that it slingshots him into Black Tom hard enough to make a building collapse - Marvel Team-Up #150
• [50%] Tanks a punch from Rogue after she absorbed half of his power - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Started bolting on his helmet, making it hard for Colossus to rip it off - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Unharmed after getting struck with 1.37 kilotons of steel by Nimrod - Uncanny X-Men #194
• No-sells a punch from Rogue that shattered every window on a street - Uncanny X-Men #218
• Unharmed from getting punched into a boxcar hard enough to shatter it by Thor - Thor #411
• His force field kills all of the momentum of Thor's hammer after he threw it at him - Thor #411
• Unharmed from Nova and Namorita throwing two boxcars into him - Thor #412
• No-sells a full force hammer strike from Thor - Thor #429
• Unharmed after getting tackled off the roof of a uh... certain skyscraper by Warpath - X-Force (1991) #3
• No-sells Cannonball charging into him with enough force to tear up the street under him, and sends him flying back at 137 miles per hour - Spider-Man (1990) #16
• No-sells Thunderstrike throwing his mace into his back - Thunderstrike (1993) #2
• Fine after getting punched through a brick wall and into the street hard enough to crater it by Venom - Venom: The Madness #2
• Hurt but mostly unharmed after getting punched by Post-Crisis Superman - DC Versus Marvel #1
• Knocked out but quickly recovers after getting hurled from Canada to Hoboken by Onslaught - Uncanny X-Men #322
• Severely hurt but still able to fight after the force of Cyttorak's punch "falls on him like a mountain" and knocks him through a stone pillar - X-Men Unlimited (1993) #12
• Fine after D'Spayre throws Spite into him hard enough to knock him through several stone and brick walls - Juggernaut (1997) #1
• Fine after War Hulk throws him from Giza to Cairo - Hulk #457
• Fine after getting punched through a concrete wall by War Hulk, though he's able to remove his helmet before he can get up - Hulk #457
• No-sells Spider-Man punching him with everything he had - Spider-Man (1990) #84
• Manages to get back up after Gambit makes him drop the corner of a building he was lifting while weakened, though he's knocked out with another attack - Uncanny X-Men #361
• Unharmed by a rain of blows from Thor that shatter the street around them - Thor (1998) #17
• Only loses his helmet after Stonecutter hits him with a kinetic burst on an "unimaginable scale" that causes the joints and river of his armor to seek to burst apart - Avengers (1998) #24
• Tanks a punch from Namor - Defenders (2001) #10
• Unharmed by a optic blast from Cyclops that he says had enough force to rip a small planet in half - Cyclops (2001) #1
• [X] Survives a generator exploding and causing a four story underground building to collapse on him - Identity Disc #3-5
• [X] Fine after Sage in a Captain Britain suit flies into him hard enough to create a trench in the ground - New Excalibur (2006) #22
• [X] Tanks two Shadow Captain Britains flying into him - New Excalibur (2006) #22
• Tanks a strike from World War Hulk that dents his helmet - World War Hulk: X-Men 3
• Tanks Hulk punching him in the head and back and swinging a tree into him hard enough to break it in half - Marvel 1985 #2
• Unharmed from Skaar throwing a diner into him - Hulk #602
• Fine after getting punched from Earth to Mars by Skaar - Hulk #602
• [T] No-sells a punch to the face from Mettle - Avengers Academy #4
• [T] Still able to fight after taking several attacks from Thor, Luke Cage, and Iron Man that make a large crater and shatter a cliff - Thunderbolts #150
• [T] Fine after a building sized monster sends him flying into rock hard enough to embed him in it with a tail strike - Thunderbolts #152-153
• [T] Had Mach-V make him a tougher helmet with better peripheral vision - Thunderbolts #155
• [Kuurth] Unharmed by a rain of concrete from Debrii and Rage trying to grapple with him - Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #3
• [Kuurth] No-sells an optic blast from Cyclops - Uncanny X-Men #541
• [Kuurth] Unharmed after Hope Summers with the powers of the X-Men flies into him hard enough to shatter a highway - Uncanny X-Men #541
• [Kuurth] Fine after getting driven through 60 miles of road and ground by Colossusnaut - Uncanny X-Men #543
• [Once and Future] Tanks getting thrown through a block of stone by Colossus - Amazing X-Men (2014) #17
• [Unstoppable] Colossus breaks his hands punching him - Amazing X-Men (2014) #19
• [Unstoppable] No-sells an optic blast from Cyclops - X-Men: Blue (2017) #1
• Fine after Iceman freezes the speed of light around him and punches him at relativistic speeds - Iceman (2017) #5
• Fine after getting punched through a car and concrete wall by Rogue - Uncanny Avengers (2015) #29
• No-sells another punch from Rogue when he's ready for it - Uncanny Avengers (2015) #29
• Unharmed from a cement truck crashing into him hard enough to total itself - Despicable Deadpool #298
• A non-Mjolnir Uru hammer shatters when Thor hits him with it - Thor (2018) #1
• [Limits] Thor makes him spit teeth by hitting him with a bigger Uru hammer, though Thor broke it and dozens more to knock him out - Thor (2018) #1
• No-sells Venom throwing police cars into him - Venom (2018) Annual #1
• Fine after Venom throws him through a brick wall and ceiling - Venom (2018) Annual #1
• Fine after getting punched into the sewers through part of a building and the street by Venom - Venom (2018) Annual #1
• Fine after getting punched through six stories of a building by Quicksand - Juggernaut (2020) #3
• Unharmed by Texas Twister's tornado - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #13
• Unharmed after being strapped to a rocket that crashes into a helicarrier and creates a massive explosion - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #15-16
• Quickly recovers after getting knocked through a metal wall by the Human-Adaptoid - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #16
• His force field stops Swarm's bees from touching him - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #19

Piercing/Cutting

• No-sells a bazooka shell - Uncanny X-Men #33
• A spinning helicopter blade breaks upon hitting him - Uncanny X-Men #33
• A spinning wind tunnel fan breaks when he's pulled into it, though it makes him groggy and temporarily disables his force field afterwards - Uncanny X-Men #33
• No-sells gunfire - Hulk #172
• Isn't cut by Wolverine's claws - Uncanny X-Men #102
• No-sells .45 caliber bullets - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• No-sells a concentrated barrage from assault rifles and rocket launchers that would reduce a house to splinters - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• No-sells a point blank tank round - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Unharmed by Longshot's throwing knives - Uncanny X-Men #218
• [Limits] Shatterstar's swords that were forged in a dimension of magic and science are able to cut through his flesh and helmet - Spider-Man (1990) #16, X-Force (1991) #4
• Tanks getting slashed by Wolverine and punched by Professor Hulk and Spider-Man - The Incredible Hulk: Mayhem at the Mount #1
• Hurt but mostly unharmed after getting slashed with Black Knight's photon sword - Hulk #404
• Unharmed from having a crate of knives and meat cleavers dropped on him and stepping on them - Deadpool (1994) #2
• Deadpool's swords shatter upon hitting him after he no-sells his gunfire and shurikens - Deadpool (1994) #3
• No-sells several tank rounds - The All New Exiles (1995) #1
• No-sells a barrage of assault rifle fire - Spider-Man (1990) #84
• Fine after his fellow Exemplar Carnivore slashes his armor with his claws - Juggernaut (1999) #1
• [X] Unharmed from Bullseye throwing toothpicks into him - Identity Disc #2
• [X] No-sells assault rifle rounds - X-Men (1991) #160
• [X] Sabretooth's claws gouge but don't cut through his helmet - X-Men (1991) #162
• [X] Hurt but not cut after a dragon-like alien bites him - New Excalibur (2006) #12
• [X] No-sells bullets while a knife shatters upon hitting him - New Excalibur (2006) #14
• [X] Still able to fight after getting slashed across the chest and back with a sword by another Juggernaut, and catches the sword in his hand - New Excalibur (2006) #15
• [X] Fine after getting blasted through a concrete wall by some firearm - New Excalibur (2006) #16
• [X] A sword swung by a Shadow Captain Britain breaks upon hitting him - New Excalibur (2006) #22
• Unharmed from Skaar hitting him with his sword - Hulk #602
• [T] Only annoyed by Hand ninjas hitting him with various bladed weapons - Thunderbolts #148-149
• [Kuurth] Unharmed by police machine gun fire - Uncanny X-Men #540
• No-sells pistol rounds - Iceman (2017) #5
• Survives but is knocked out after getting hit by a giant Asgardian rocket launcher - Punisher Kill Krew #4
• No-sells assault rifle fire - Uncanny X-Men (2019) #16
• Wolverine's claws scratch but don't cut through his helmet - Uncanny X-Men (2019) #16
• No-sells a punch from Sandman after he created spikes on his hand - Sinister War #4

Sound

• Unharmed by a sonic scream from Banshee that shatters the stone floor under him - Uncanny X-Men #103
• Unharmed by a sonic scream from Siryn - X-Force (1991) #3
• Fine after getting hit by a sonic scream from Siryn that causes a building to collapse - Deadpool (1994) #3-4

Heat

• Unharmed by jets of chemical flame - Uncanny X-Men #13
• The Human Torch’s flames can't penetrate his force field - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Hurt but mostly unharmed after Nightcrawler throws a brazier in his face - Uncanny X-Men #102
• Unharmed from a speeding tanker truck crashing into him and exploding - Amazing Spider-Man #230
• [50%] Feels, but is unharmed by a bus's gas tank exploding - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Unharmed by Firestar turning a boxcar he was lifting into molten slag with a microwave blast - Thor #411
• No-sells a microwave blast from Firestar that caused his armor to glow white hot - Thor #412
• Unharmed by Firestar melting a pile of steel girders surrounding him - Thor #412
• Unharmed from a vat of molten metal being poured on him - Deadpool (1994) #2
• Unharmed by a gas station exploding - X-Men Unlimited (1993) #13
• Hurt but mostly unharmed after falling into molten steel while weakened - Juggernaut (1997) #1
• Rocked but doesn't fall after Inferno blasts him with enough sheer energy to vaporize countless tons of titanium steel in a split second - Avengers (1998) #24
• [X] Was supposedly fatally burned but still able to move briefly after taking the brunt of a flammable liquid explosion that destroyed part of a building - Uncanny X-Men #420
• Unharmed after falling in lava - Hulk #602
• [Kuurth] Unaffected by Adam-X igniting his blood - Uncanny X-Men #542
• [Unstoppable] Unharmed by Angel shooting him with cosmic fire - X-Men: Blue (2017) #1
• Unharmed by Pyro's flames - Uncanny X-Men (2019) #16

Cold

• Unharmed after falling into a frozen lake - Cyclops (2001) #1
• [X] Fine after getting knocked through a stone wall by a stream of ice from Iceman - Uncanny X-Men #411
• [Kuurth] His helmet is only slightly cracked after Iceman lowers its temperature to absolute zero and Colossus punches it - Uncanny X-Men #541

Electricity

• Unharmed by an electrified fence - Uncanny X-Men #33
• Unharmed by a 20,000 volt electric fence - Amazing Adventures #16
• No-sells a lightning bolt from Storm - Uncanny X-Men #102
• No-sells a full strength venom blast from Spider-Woman - Spider-Woman (1978) #37
• Hurt but mostly fine after Storm and Spider-Woman blast him with enough electricity to cause a ship to explode - Spider-Woman (1978) #38, Amazing Spider-Man #229
• Unharmed from a million volts arcing over him - Amazing Spider-Man #229
• No-sells Thor calling down a lightning bolt on him - Thor #412
• Still conscious after Bishop channels enough volts of electricity to maintain the city of Hoboken through him while weakened - Uncanny X-Men #322
• No-sells a bolt of Thor's lightning - Thor (1998) #17
• [T] Hurt but still able to fight after getting blasted with lightning by Thor - Thunderbolts #150
• Only annoyed by the Wasp's stings - Uncanny Avengers (2015) #29
• Unharmed by electrical blasts from the Max Dillon and Francine Frye Electros - Sinister War #4

Light

• Recovers in minutes from a strobe effect created by Dazzler that she thought would stun him for an hour - Uncanny X-Men #217
• No-sells a photon blast from Dazzler that used all her power and that she says would've punched a hole through a mountain - Uncanny X-Men #217-218

Energy

• Fine after Nimrod knocks him through a concrete wall and into a construction site hard enough to make a crater with an energy blast - Uncanny X-Men #194
• A God-Blast from Thor that crumbles the concrete foundation he was standing on only pushes him back - Thor #412
• Tanks an energy blast from Frankie Raye Nova while weakened - Doctor Strange (1988) #44
• Unharmed after getting hit by an energy blast from Stellaris that created a massive hole in the road - Thunderstrike (1993) #2
• No-sells Gambit's charged playing cards - Uncanny X-Men #334
• Walks through a continuous bio-energy blast from Chamber, though he's a hurt a little - Generation X (1994) #61
• No-sells an energy blast from Black Tom - Generation X (1994) #61
  • Black Tom's energy blasts can wreck a tank - Spider-Woman (1978) #38
• [X] Survives getting hit by a plasma blast from Havok that created a trench in the ground - X-Men (1991) #162-163
• [Kuurth] Unharmed after Hardball blasts him with a sphere of energy that destroys part of Las Vegas and helps cause an earthquake that collapses skyscrapers - Fear Itself: Youth In Revolt #3-5
• [Kuurth] No-sells light and lightning blasts from Dazzler and Storm respectively - Uncanny X-Men #541
• Tanks a blast of the power cosmic from Cosmic Ghost Rider - Wolverine: Black, White & Blood #3

Chemical

• Unharmed by Night Thrasher's acid bombs - Thor #412

Adhesive

• His force field prevents Spider-Man's webbing from sticking to him - Amazing Spider-Man #229, Marvel Team-Up #150

Biological

• Still able to fight after his fellow Exemplar Conquest hits his pressure points - Juggernaut (1999) #1
• [T] Resists being mutated by the Terrigen Mists - Thunderbolts #146
• [Kuurth] Burns out nanites in his body designed to knock him out - Thunderbolts #145, 160
• [Kuurth] Starts dissolving Mercury after she fills his lungs with his internal fauna and antibodies - Uncanny X-Men #542
• Survives but is knocked out by a plant manipulator growing valerian inside of his body - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #17

Matter Manipulation

• Nimrod's disintegrator beam affects a steel I-beam he was holding but not him - Uncanny X-Men #194

Phasing

• Hurt but still able to fight after Vision briefly phases his hand into his head before increasing his density - Hulk #403
• Unharmed by Viv Vision phasing into him and becoming tangible - Deadpool (2018) #2

Magic

• [Limits] Thor is able to create a cone that negates all mystical energy and removes Juggernaut's force field by making his hammer spin around them - Thor #429
• Unharmed after hurling Stonecutter into the core of God Machine, causing it to explode and release enough mystical energy to destroy a glacier - Juggernaut (1999) #1, Avengers (1998) #24
• [T] Still able to fight after getting hit by cannon shot that had poltergeists smelted into it that emerge out of his shoulder - Thunderbolts #156-157
• [T] Fine after Satana shoots flames at him that feed on the mystic - Thunderbolts #157
• Unharmed by the Scarlet Witch's hexes - Uncanny Avengers (2015) #29

Soul/Life Force

• Only has a headache after D'Spayre consumes enough of his soul/life essence to give most mortals a coronary rupture - Juggernaut (1997) #1
• [T] Quickly recovers after running through a human mutated by the Terrigen Mists that could drain life force with a touch - Thunderbolts #146-147
• [Kuurth] Casts out Ghost and Satana after the former combines his intangibility with the latter's magic to try and free his soul from Kuurth/the Serpent's control - Thunderbolts #160

Power Absorption/Nullification

• Rogue can only absorb a portion of his power - Uncanny X-Men #218
• [Kuurth] Rogue trying to absorb his powers incapacitates her - Uncanny X-Men #542
• Cut off his link to Cyttorak while keeping his powers by using the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak to make a new armor - Juggernaut (2020) #3-4
• A power dampener doesn't work on him - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #14, 18
• The Human-Adaptoid can't use the Absorbing Man's powers to absorb Juggernaut's powers - X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #17

Mental

• His helmet protects him from any mental attack - Uncanny X-Men #13
• Unaffected by Professor X's telepathy - Uncanny X-Men #12
• Jean Grey manages to hurt him through his helmet with mental bolts, though he's able to fight through the pain - Uncanny X-Men #46
• Still able to fight after Nightmare uses some mystic attack on him - Doctor Strange #182
• Unaffected by Rachel Summers telepathy - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Eventually made a smaller helmet from scraps of the original that also protects him from mental attack, which he wears underneath it - Marvel Team-Up #150
• Resists Dazzler using light to hypnotize him - Uncanny X-Men #217
• Psylocke manages to hurt him through his helmet with a psycho blast, though it only stuns him for a moment - Uncanny X-Men #218
• Unaffected by the Controller's mind control disc - Captain America #366
• Fine after getting stabbed with Psylocke's psychic knife while weakened - Uncanny X-Men #322
• Resists his fellow Exemplar Bedlam's telepathy - Juggernaut (1999) #1
• Captain Universe can't read his mind - Amazing Spider-Man #629
• [Kuurth] Psylocke's psychic knife is ineffective against him - Uncanny X-Men #542
• Unaffected by Synapse's telepathy - Uncanny Avengers (2015) #29

Durability w/o Force Field/Armor

Blunt

• Only knocked down after getting kicked by Beast and rammed with a metal beam by Angel - Uncanny X-Men #33
• Survives getting pummeled by Beast while aging to death - Amazing Adventures #16
• Fine after Hulk swings him around hard enough to rip off his helmet and send him flying into a cliff - Hulk #172
• Tanks a punch to the face from Colossus - Uncanny X-Men #183
• Fine after getting tackled from behind and through a wall by Colossus - Uncanny X-Men #183
• Unharmed from a building collapsing on him - Uncanny X-Men #183
• Fine after Rogue absorbs some of his power and throws and flies into him hard enough to create a massive crater in a rail line - Uncanny X-Men #218
• Unharmed after getting punched in the face by Captain Britain and hit several more times by him - Excalibur (1988) #3
• Still able to fight after getting pummeled for nearly a minute by Thor - Thor #429
• Tanks a punch to the back of the head from Venom - Venom: The Madness #1
• [X] Quickly recovers after getting punched into the ground hard enough to embed him in it by a golem made from the earth - Uncanny X-Men #422
• [X] Tanks a punch to the face and chest from Sasquatch - Uncanny X-Men #422
• [X] Fine after Sasquatch swings a tree into him hard enough to splinter it - Uncanny X-Men #422
• [X] Fine after getting tackled through a house by Sasquatch - Uncanny X-Men #432-433
• [X] Tanks several punches from Guardian, though they draw blood - Uncanny X-Men #434
• [X] Still conscious after letting Sasquatch pummel him - Uncanny X-Men #434
• [X] Unharmed from a double-decker bus crashing into him hard enough to total itself - New Excalibur (2006) #3
• [X] A continuous optic blast from Earth 6141 Cyclops doesn't even slow him down - New Excalibur (2006) #3
• [X] Quickly recovers after getting punched into a rock wall hard enough to shatter it by Albion - New Excalibur (2006) #5
• [X] Gets back up after being pummeled by the Wrecking Crew - New Excalibur (2006) #13
• [X] Recovers after the Wrecking Crew pummel him some more and throw a bus into him - New Excalibur (2006) #13
• [X] Survives getting pummeled into a stone courtyard hard enough to shatter it by World War Hulk - World War Hulk: X-Men #2-3
• Survives getting thrown to Earth from orbit by Captain Universe - Amazing Spider-Man #629, 627
• [T] King Hyperion hurts his hand punching Juggernaut in the head repeatedly - Thunderbolts #153
• [Kuurth] Tanks getting tackled through the deck of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge by Colossusnaut - Uncanny X-Men #543
• [Kuurth] Still able to fight after getting pummeled by Colossusnaut hard enough to collapse a building - Uncanny X-Men #543

Piercing/Cutting

• No-sells a tank round - Excalibur (1988) #3
• [X] Unharmed by minigun rounds - Uncanny X-Men #433
• [X] Still able to fight after getting stabbed in the abdomen by Rhino's horn - Uncanny X-Men #435

Sound

• [Limits] Incapacitated by tight beam ultra high frequency sonics from Nimrod - Uncanny X-Men #194
• [T] Still able to stand after Iron Man blasts him with enough localized sound to put down a whole regiment - Thunderbolts #150

Cold

• Unharmed from getting encased in ice by Iceman - Uncanny X-Men #33
• [X] Unharmed from getting covered in ice by Earth 6141 Iceman - New Excalibur (2006) #2-3
• [Once and Future] Tanks getting launched into the air by a stream of ice from Iceman - Amazing X-Men (2014) #17

Heat

• [T] Hurt but mostly fine after getting hit by King Hyperion’s atomic vision - Thunderbolts #153

Gravity

• [X] Survives getting sucked in by Xorn's black hole along with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and ending up in the Mojoverse, though they survived as well - X-Men (1991) #164, Uncanny X-Men #460

Light

• [X] Unharmed after getting launched far into the distance by a photon blast from Dazzler

Energy

• No-sells a continuous energy blast from Nimrod right after he used one to create a large hole in a concrete wall - Uncanny X-Men #194
• Tanks an energy blast from the Stranger - X-Men Forever (2001) #6
• [X] Fine after getting knocked through a thick stone wall by an energy blast from the Shadow King - New Excalibur (2006) #3
• Unharmed after getting knocked through a concrete wall and from Upper Manhattan to the New Jersey Palisades by an energy blast from Captain Universe - Amazing Spider-Man #627-628

Chemical

• [X] Unharmed by Mammomax's stomach acid - X-Men (1991) #164

Biological

• [X] Possibly unaffected by Polaris trying to reverse his blood flow with magnetism to knock him out - Uncanny X-Men #426

Mental

• Manages to keep moving out of hatred after Professor X attacks him telepathically, though he's knocked out with a second attack - Uncanny X-Men #13
• [Kuurth] Emma Frost is incapacitated from trying to affect his mind - Uncanny X-Men #541-542
• [Unstoppable] Rachel Summers can't read his mind - Amazing X-Men (2014) #19
• Breaks free of a dream illusion Cyttorak put him in - X-Men: Black - Juggernaut #1

Chapter One
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Sixteen
CONTENT WARNING: This one contains some implied torture. Nothing explicit, but be aware.
United Launch Alliance main facility. Decatur, Alabama. Ten minutes before the DC attack.
Chao never thought she’d think this, but here she was, sitting at a table in a conference room which looked out into a giant assembly room holding multiple huge rockets in various stages of construction. She also was sitting next to an alien, one who was fast becoming a good friend, while talking in-depth about technical things. And yet she was bored out of her skull. It was now the sixth day of trying to somehow figure out how to best repair the Rithro. During the first day, the four engineers assigned by different companies to this task group were tripping over themselves getting to talk to an actual alien, while Grakosh had in turn quizzed them endlessly about how the rockets worked and even gotten a tour…shadowed by multiple Secret Service agents, of course. By now things had settled down to the task at hand.
Fortunately, the distant crippled ship contained a veritable army of drones capable of quite complex tasks, so manpower…or alien-power…was not the problem. The problem was more a matter of having the proper raw materials available, especially for the damaged hydrogen tanks. The latter used a specialized lightweight but low-permeability alloy; in order to have any patches hold, whatever metal the humans provided needed to be close enough to its properties to properly bond or weld to it. Chao was not a metallurgist, but she was getting a crash course in it thanks to the endless discussions between Grakosh and the four engineers.
Then there was the matter of hauling it up to the L5 point. Trying to carry the needed tonnage in the ship’s landing boats would be like trying to drink a lake dry using a straw. But humans, right now, didn’t have any single rocket capable of carrying such a payload into orbit.
She, Grakosh, and the four engineers were spread out around a small table set before a whiteboard; the latter was not quite yet full. Next to the doors into the conference room stood a pair of Secret Service agents; Chao felt a bit sorry for them having to stand on their feet for so long.
“So Falcon Heavy can do about 26 tons to geostationary,” said one of the engineers, a gray-haired balding man named Blake. He was a metallurgist from SpaceX. “That’s fully expendable, of course. We did look a while back at how much it could take in a trans-lunar injection, I think it was somewhere around 18 tons, but we’d need to go back and redo that math.” He turned to Chao. “Will TLI be close to the delta-vee needed to get to L5?”
Chao perked up, now grateful she had something to contribute. After a bit of tapping on her laptop, she nodded. “It’s not exactly the same, but for initial planning purposes using TLI figures can work.”
One of the ULA engineers, a young blonde woman named Clara, regarded the whiteboard with a thousand-yard stare. Chao knew that Clara was not really looking at it. “Vulcan can do…somewhere around five and a half tons to TLI, if you strap six solids to it. Less mass, but it does have a bigger fairing than the Heavy.” She grinned at Blake.
“So we’ll need multiple launches?” Grakosh, of course, did not have a laptop or chair, and instead sat coiled up next to Chao. “Hmmm. I’d like to have at least thirty tons of patch material, just to have a comfortable margin.”
“So two to three launches of Heavy, or five of Vulcan, or some mix.” Clara looked over at Ned, the other ULA engineer. “That’s a lot of rockets. Our pipeline isn’t set up to crank out that many, that quickly.”
Blake nodded in sympathy. “We’ve got similar issues with using Heavy. We can use side boosters that have been well-reused and are close to end-of-life, but the center core is another matter. We don’t have that many of them, just because we didn’t have that much demand. Now we’d have to spool up production on them. Not my area of expertise, but you’re talking many months.”
The man from Raytheon, a skinny guy named Dwight, tapped the table in absent thought. “We could try something else.”
“If you’re thinking of using SLS, forget it,” said Ned, the other ULA engineer. “It’s got a lot of throw, even out to lunar orbit, but way too slow of a manufacturing speed. Even if we do repurpose some of the Artemis launches, it’ll be at least a year or two.”
Dwight smiled beatifically. “Keep in mind, we’re not talking about sending up boutique billion-dollar satellites. It’s gonna be mostly metal plates, at least at first. We can afford to swing for the fences.” He leaned forward. “Sea Dragon.”
“Oh fuck no,” said Ned. “First off, the original design study is from the damned Sixties. The redesign and approval alone will take a year at best, unless you just want to slap something together and go for it and then have everything explode on you.”
“What is ‘Sea Dragon’?” asked Grakosh.
Dwight rose and walked to the whiteboard. He flipped it over to the as-yet unmarked side and began sketching. “A super heavy-lift vehicle proposed a while ago, back when we were still trying to get to the moon. It’s two stage, like Falcon and Vulcan, but a lot bigger. A LOT bigger.”
He sketched something that looked like a child’s first drawing of a rocket; a big stubby tube with a single huge engine bell at the bottom and a conical nose. Dwight then added a dimension along its height showing the scale of the thing: 150 meters.
Grakosh let out a little trill; Chao wasn’t quite sure what that vocalization meant. “Hmm, yes, that is quite large for a chemical-engined craft.”
Clara snorted. “Dwight, nobody has ever made a pressure-fed engine anywhere near that large. Damn thing’s a bomb, I mean, even more of a bomb than a normal fueled rocket.”
“Pressure-fed,” mused Grakosh. “Ah, you use high-pressure gas to push the fuel and oxidizer into the combustion chamber, instead of those ‘turbopumps’ you showed me earlier.”
Dwight nodded. “Exactly. The problem with pressure-fed engines is that the tanks need to be a lot thicker to take the pressure, which of course adds a lot of mass and reduces the available payload. But you make it big enough and it becomes more feasible. This thing was designed to be constructed at a shipyard out of steel, not out of any sort of aluminum or other fancy alloys. Then it would get floated out into the ocean and launched vertically from the water. Estimated total payload…five hundred and fifty tons into Low Earth Orbit.”
“Admit it, Dwight,” replied Blake with a smile. “Your inner nine-year old wants it built just to see the spectacle when they light the candle on that giant sonofabitch. Am I right?”
Dwight set the marker down with a chuckle. “You’re not wrong.” Then his smile faded. “But seriously, folks. Our industry is used to doing things onsey-twosey. Even our illustrious colleague from SpaceX will admit that. But now we need to get a lot of shit into orbit, and yesterday. We are so far behind the technological eight ball that it isn’t even funny. Now, yes, we hope that our new allies will help us out with gravitic drives and all sorts of other lovely tech…once the various countries stop yelling at each other about how exactly to do that. But Grakosh, let’s assume we snap our fingers and, poof, the Rithro is magically fixed. How long will it take for you to get back and bring support?”
“Well, we did leave relay drones at each system, so we’ll be able to report to them well before we get there physically, but to scramble a proper defense fleet…let’s say twelve to eighteen months before they arrive in-system. That’s assuming we head back, of course.”
“Why wouldn’t you?” asked Clara.
“Because once the Rithro is repaired, it will be the only ship in-system possibly able to fight a Breaker drone. We do not need to report in-person to the CEB; we only need to jump back to Barnard’s star to plant a relay drone and send our message. If we left to travel all the way back…well, humans would be defenseless. You have no orbital combat capability.”
Grakosh pondered the sketch. “At the moment, as impressive as that design is, it is theoretical. So. We need to have fewer launches…am I correct that if you go into low orbit, you can lift more?”
“Oh, yeah,” said Dwight. “Literally tons more.”
“Then perhaps we can do a hybrid solution. The landing boats are limited in their internal volume, but they have far more thrust capability. We were able to push our ship with them, at least for a while. If you loft the repair materials up inside a proper container, we might be able to tow them out to the Rithro using the boats. That way we don’t have any political problems with tech transfer.” He gestured with his single ‘tailhand’ in front of him, and a holographic display appeared. With great agility, he began tapping on nothing; a schematic of one of the landing boats appeared, with alien text on one side and below.
Every single engineer plus Chao looked at the display and a single thought ran through their minds.
I Want One.
Grakosh then switched to a schematic of the Earth-moon system and sketched out a rough transfer orbit out to a blinking dot at the trailing L5 point. “I do hope the visual translators are working properly. Unit conversion is such a pain in the tail. Chao, would you mind checking the math on this?”
The alien text then shimmered into readable figures. “Um sure!”
As she leaned over to examine the display, the two agents at the back of the room straightened up as one. Chao caught the movement out of the corner of her eye; by the time she glanced over both men already had pistols drawn.
One of the agents, a thin guy named Hanson, motioned towards the far corner of the room, away from the window and the door. “Everyone, please move over to there. Sit on the floor, and keep your heads down.”
Chao stuck out an arm, and Grakosh quickly coiled himself around it. Her heart started to beat faster, but she tried to remain outwardly calm. The engineers seated themselves as instructed with confused looks. She sat as well, and Grakosh unwrapped himself from her arm to sit in her lap. She tried to breathe slow, although by now she could practically feel her pulse. Hanson and the other agent backpedaled into the room; Hanson kept his pistol trained at the door, while the other agent went low and with impressive speed duck-walked to one edge of the room’s panorama out into the assembly area. He did a quick peek outside.
“Looks normal,” he said. Meanwhile Hanson was in the midst of muttering into his sleeve.
“What…what happened?” asked Chao.
“Not sure, ma’am,” replied Hanson. “There was some sort of attack in Washington, at Captain Sadaf’s speech. Some casualties, we don’t know details. There might be another attack in progress as well. The rest of the team is performing a sweep for any hostiles here.”
The other agent crouched again and gave Chao what he must have figured was a calming smile. “Just standard procedure, ma’am.”
Chao was not calmed. If the captain had been hurt, or worse…this was not going to go well.
Somehow Grakosh picked up on her inner turmoil. “Don’t worry, Chao,” he said quietly. “Captain Sadaf has the luck of the auhn’s Sacred Mothers. She’s seen us through worse.”
The engineers had finally picked up that there might be some physical danger coming their way, at least if the way the color left their faces was any indication.
Grakosh glanced at them all, again somehow intuiting that they needed something to get their minds off of the situation. “So!” he said brightly. “I believe we can solve the patching problem. I am more concerned about the damaged fusion engine. I did some remote surveying of the engine during our flight to Earth, and it is not going to be repairable with our on-board components. We’ll need to manufacture replacements here and ship them up.”
Clara made a pushing-away gesture with one hand. “Oh, no. That’s definite tech transfer, and we can’t be part of that…not yet, at least.” That was by far the biggest stipulation which had allowed the Rithro’s crew to remain on US soil. There was to be no transfer of alien technology to the USA; at the moment, most countries were in favor of setting up an international committee of scientists and engineers who would reverse-engineer what tech they could and hand out the blueprints to any country that asked.
But that didn’t satisfy everyone. Who would pay for the effort? What about countries with a smaller manufacturing base, who couldn’t properly take advantage of the new technology? For technologies with possible destructive applications, would they have to set up separate agencies to monitor and control their use? There was a lot of political and practical fiddly bits to get sorted, even among countries who were supposed allies.
Blake rubbed his bald spot. “I watched the UN debating the other day. First time ever. I have never seen so much said with so little actual content.”
Ned shrugged. “For once, I don’t envy the politicians. This whole thing is a hot potato.”
Grakosh looked with curiosity at Ned. “Hot potato?”
“Just a saying,” replied Dwight. “A potato is a starchy vegetable, you can make it a bunch of ways.”
“Ah, yes!” Grakosh perked up. “I have had mashed potatoes. Quite delicious.”
“Right, well you can also bake them whole. The notion is that after baking it’s really hot, so if you try to pick it up with bare hands…” Dwight now mimed juggling a potato back and forth. “Ow, ow, ow, too hot!”
“Interesting metaphor.”
Agent Hanson murmured into his sleeve again. “Confirm.” He kept his eyes fixed on the door. “Okay, folks, the sweep is almost over. Nobody here on campus who shouldn’t be here.”
“They might not have known I was here,” said Grakosh. “I am assuming this is an organized effort to kill me and my crew. Might be a bad assumption.”
“Could be,” said Chao. Now her guts went cold again, wondering if Sadaf or anyone else she knew were dead.
Both agents then stood, each touching their earpiece as if they didn’t quite believe what they were hearing. “No fuckin’ way,” said Hanson.
The other agent grinned, this time in true mirth. “Oh, that is too precious.” The two men looked at each other and chuckled, which Chao figured counted as a full-throated belly laugh for a Secret Service agent.
“Well?” asked Blake. “Care to let us in on the joke?”
Hanson shrugged. “It’s gonna be all over the news soon enough, reporters are already on the scene. We just got a report from the Decatur PD. About five miles from here, a delivery van was heading in this direction, well over the speed limit. The driver took a corner too fast and flipped the damn thing right onto its side. Slid into a few parked cars, but no bystanders hurt. Witnesses saw a bunch of dudes in black armor, toting rifles, un-ass out of the back of the thing and run off like headless chickens…in the other direction from here. Our guess is they were headed to this location, but we’re double-checking just to make sure none of ‘em made it to the campus. We all should be able to head out in ten minutes.”
“All head out?” asked Clara. “But we’re not a target.”
“That you know of,” replied Hanson. “Until we get this whole shitshow straightened out, right now y’all are considered potential targets. They might have some contingency in place.” He snickered. “I cannot believe that shit. You ever heard of anything like that?” he asked the other agent.
“Nah.” The man winked at the huddled people. “Important tip, folks. Never, ever let the FNG drive the car.”
“FNG?” asked Ned.
“Fuckin’ New Guy,” said Blake.
__________
Horace raised his head with a groan as he came to. Okay…check surroundings. Darkened room, with a single light from above illuminating the area around him. He was in a chair…no he was in a chair, with his wrists handcuffed to each arm and duct-tape around his ankles. He felt like he’d been on the wrong end of a few punches from Mike Tyson. Of course, all of his gear was gone. But he still wore clothes, at least.
In front of his chair, about five feet away, stretched a big oak table. Seated on the other side of the table was a man who put Horace in mind of a college professor. The man’s light-gray suit was impeccably pressed and didn’t have a speck of lint on it. His pale blue tie was neatly knotted at his neck. He had dark, slicked-back hair and wore wire-rimmed spectacles with round lenses. The spectacles sat perched on the end of his aquiline nose as he wrote with a flowing hand in a yellow legal pad in front of him. Two manila folders, each filled with multiple pages, lay neatly before him.
The man looked up as Horace let out a soft groan. “Ah, you’re awake!” His accent was British and quite proper. “Excellent. I fear my colleagues were a little over-enthusiastic in bringing you here. I do apologize.”
Horace probed his teeth with his tongue; one of his rear molars might be loose. “I want a lawyer. You can’t interrogate me without a lawyer present.”
The man leaned back and smiled. “Of course. Unfortunately, there are certain circumstances which have turned this from a simple matter of charging you with six homicides…of federal agents, no less…into something more of a, shall we say, existential crisis. I shall do my best to explain it to you, and if you need clarification at any time, please feel free to ask.”
Horace snorted. “So you must be good cop. Where’s bad cop? Waiting behind me with a rubber hose?”
“My colleague is on his way, he should arrive shortly. There was certain information he wanted me to see…information relevant to this interview.”
“Interview? I am a United States citizen. I have my rights.”
“Of course you do, Mister Bradshaw.” The man pulled the leftmost folder towards him and flipped it open, then began paging through its contents. “Horace Eugene Bradshaw. Graduated from high school with middling grades, applied to the Baltimore police academy. Was subsequently ‘kicked out’, as you say, after a rather unfortunate altercation with a superior officer. Held multiple jobs since; retail, some building maintenance. A few cases of assault, all involving alcohol. The profile of a bitter man without purpose. Exactly the type to wind up being taken under the wing of some radical group.”
“I want a lawyer present.”
“Patience, Mr. Bradshaw. As I said, I will explain. Now, as you may be aware, there were multiple attacks on the various locations where our alien guests were located. These attacks were coordinated, and appear to be well-funded. The attack in Washington, in particular, showed a quite high level of technical competence.”
He slid Horace’s file off to one side and pulled the other file towards him. “We did recover enough of the projectile to know it was a modified mortar round. Modified to have increased range, plus it had a quite ingenious home-made and fin-guided GPS system to ensure a precision strike with only one shot.”
The man then held up a picture showing a long tube, canted at an angle, sitting on a gravel rooftop. “We found the tube itself five kilometers from the site of the strike. Longer than the standard portable mortar barrel, again for increased range. It was rather foolish of your comrades not to take it with them; we suspect they were spooked and ran right after firing the round. Which is fortunate, I suppose. Multiple rounds might have resulted in a much greater number of casualties, including Captain Sadaf. Assuming you had more than one round, of course.”
“I want…”
“Yes, I know. Please, let me finish. Right now, the FBI is searching for who purchased the components of that mortar round; it should not take them long to track down the buyer or buyers. After all, you can’t purchase such things at one’s local shop.”
The man shut the folder and steepled his fingers. “I hope you can understand our dilemma. Putting this together with your attack on Camp David, we have a well-armed, technically competent group with inside help who is seeking to murder our alien guests and perhaps trigger a two-front war against humanity, with the Coalition on one side and some genocidal robots on the other. Where there are three attacks, there could be more planned, even as we speak. Of course, we are moving our guests to a new, secure location…a location which I will not reveal, of course…and there could be ambushes already planned. You see, even if this was a normal legal case you would not be necessarily entitled to a lawyer if there is a so-called ‘ticking clock’ involved.” He smiled ruefully. “And I fear that there is some almighty ticking going on.”
Horace shook his head. Why did everybody take them the aliens at their word that these so-called ‘Breakers’ even existed? He took in a breath to tell this posh bastard that, again, he wanted a lawyer, when a door behind him opened and flooded the room with light. As he blinked, the door shut again. A lean man strolled into view, wearing military fatigues and with a folder under one arm…oh, no. It was him.
“Hey, Little Buddy-O!” said the newcomer, grinning as he saw Horace flinch.
The man at the table rose and gravely shook the other’s hand. “Good to see you, Matthew.”
“Tristan,” replied Matt. “Looking sharp, as always.”
“Well, one must look smart even with such a distasteful job before us.” Tristan turned to face Horace. “I have just explained to Mr. Bradshaw the gravity of the situation, in particular the need to know as soon as possible if any other attacks are planned. Mr. Bradshaw, were there any points I covered which require clarification?”
Matt grinned as he leaned on one corner of the table. “Shithead probably doesn’t know anything.”
“Most likely not,” sighed Tristan as he seated himself again. “If they had any sense they’ll have a proper cell structure.”
“Oh, hey, check this out.” Matt dropped his folder onto the table next to Tristan, then continued his smiling at Horace. “You’ll get a kick out of it.”
With a raised eyebrow, Tristan began reading. “Hmm…ah, yes. very nice. I see our friends at the FBI have followed up on the leads from that mortar round with their usual zeal.”
“Yeah, they’re good at tracking unusual purchases. They love that shit. But flip past that, get to the good stuff.”
Tristan did so, and for the first time Horace saw a look of genuine shock on the man’s face. “They did what?”
Matt laughed. “Dumped the fuckin’ van on its side. Then they all piled out and took off like jackrabbits.”
Tristan let out a small, sensible chuckle. “Well. It seems I may have overestimated our opponents’ competence.”
Horace tried to look stoic, but inside he felt dread. The van must be the one for the ULA attack; it sounded like they had failed.
Matt shook a playful finger at Horace. “Aw, now. Don’t try to play all serious with me. I saw that look. You know what that means, don’t you? I think you know more than you let on.”
“I don’t have to tell you anything,” said Horace. “Not without a lawyer present.” He clung to the notion like a mantra, although he was now getting a sense of just how fucked he was.
Matt walked forward and squatted, putting himself below Horace’s eye-level. “Now, my Little Buddy-O. I get it, you’re committed to the cause. You’ve psyched yourself up for this, you promised yourself that you’d die rather than roll over on your comrades. But. Let’s be reasonable. At least tell us what you know about any raids planned, even if you don't know much. You might have overheard something that could help us. Help all of us. We’ll keep the questions all about that. You don’t have to say a word about anything else. We can wait to ask you about that when you have a lawyer present, and we’ll do it all legal and proper. But I gotta warn ya, pretty much any attorney worth anything is gonna tell you it doesn’t look good for y’all. We got you and your buddies nailed. We got ballistics matches with the rounds which killed the six agents, and you were interrupted in the act of trying to kill a bunch more people…which presumably included all of the aliens at Camp David.”
Horace said nothing. This was how they did it, he knew that much from his time in the academy. The worst thing a suspect could do was remain silent. The police had to get them talking, about anything. If he started talking they’d worm everything out of him…then probably drop him down a deep hole somewhere.
Tristan sighed and stood. “Well, it seems we will be here for a while. I fancy a cup of tea, even if it is an American brand. Matthew, would you care for something?”
Matthew rose as well. “Sure! Coffee, two creams and one sugar.” He pointed at Horace. “How about you? You want some coffee?”
Horace blinked in surprise. “Um, sure,” he said automatically. “Black, please.”
“Are you sure?” asked Matt. “If I’m honest, the coffee here is kinda meh at best.”
Upon Horace’s nod, Tristan walked with an even tread behind him. There was once again a bright, brief light as he exited the room.
Horace took a deep breath. This was it, this bastard was gonna start beating on him.
But instead Matt walked around the table and began flipping idly through the second file, the one on the mortar attack. His voice was mild. “I gotta say, you must have someone in your group with quite a bit of techie knowhow. I have seen some GPS-guided mortar rounds in action, but they’re not really what you would call man-portable. And built in somebody’s basement, no less.”
He continued flipping. “Interesting mix, though. Some very competent behavior, plus your gear was first-rate. You’ve got some funding and resources behind you. But man, when it comes to squad tactics you make the Keystone Kops look like fuckin’ Seal Team Six.”
Horace said nothing, waiting for the beating to start. But instead Matt just continued his casual perusal. After a long, long few minutes of silence, however, the room was once again briefly flooded with light as Tristan entered. He walked into view carrying a cardboard tray with three Styrofoam cups. He handed two of them to Matt. “Two cream, one sugar. And this is black, as the gentleman requested.” Tristan walked back around to his chair, and picked his own cup off of the tray. He blew on it a bit and grimaced. “I do wish you Americans would stop boiling your tea with the leaves in it. Tea needs to be encouraged, not bullied.”
Meanwhile, Matt set his own coffee down and walked towards Horace. The latter flinched as the man reached into a pocket with his free hand. But all that came out was a small key; with a deft touch Matt unlocked the cuff around Horace’s left sleeve and then pressed the cup into the now-freed hand. “It’s lukewarm, I’m afraid. Pot must be almost empty.”
Now that he saw the coffee in his hand, Horace wondered if something was slipped into it. It would be the ideal way to get him to drop his defenses without realizing.
Matt must have picked up on his trepidation and shrugged. “Hey, drink it or don’t. Pour it on your foot for all I care. I’ll swap, if you want.”
With a trembling hand, Horace took a sip. As Matthew had promised, it was bitter and barely hot. But it tasted like coffee.
“I don’t suppose Mr. Bradshaw spoke of anything while I was out?” asked Tristan.
“Nope. He’s gone full clam.”
“Unfortunate.”
Horace drank more coffee and said nothing.
“Yeah.” Matt sipped at his coffee and made a grimace of his own. “Jesus, this is almost cold. All right, I gotta go nuke this thing.”
“For the last time, you heathen, you ‘microwave’ something, not ‘nuke’ it.” Tristan began unbuttoning his suit jacket.
Matt chuckled as he strolled off. “Oh hey, they refilled the vending machine. You wanna cherry-cheese danish?”
With great care, Tristan hung his jacket on the back of the chair. “Good lord, no. Those things are revolting.” He unfastened his tie and with equal gravity laid it over the top of his jacket.
“Nah, all the preservatives give it that extra flavor.” With another bright slam, the pair were once again alone in the shadowed room.
Horace was, by now, thoroughly confused as Tristan unbuttoned his collar. The latter then took a careful sip of his tea. “Still too bloody hot,” he muttered. “Damned Yanks. Ah, Mr. Bradshaw, forgive me. On occasion I tend to slip into the vernacular, you might say.” He walked around the desk and gripped Horace’s coffee cup. The sudden physical contact with his fingers made Horace flinch. “May I?” He pulled the cup from Horace’s unresisting grasp and turned to place it on the table, then re-locked Horace’s left hand to the chair. As Tristan walked back towards his tea, he unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves to the elbow, then took off his spectacles and placed them on the table.
“What the fuck is going on?” snapped Horace. “This is bullshit, you’re just running around, going in and out, giving me coffee, taking it away. You’re trying to confuse me and make me say something. I know how this works.”
Tristan picked up his tea and returned to stand in front of the bound man. “No, Mr. Bradshaw, I fear you have completely mis-read the relationship between myself and my esteemed colleague.”
The man leaned forward as his face hardened into an emotionless mask. “You see, Matthew is the one who always plays good cop.”
With that, Tristan up-ended his scalding-hot tea right into Horace’s crotch.

Continuation of Caste System in India: Part 02 (Varna, Jati and Casta) (https://www.reddit.com/IndiaRWResources/comments/xy1krn/caste_system_in_india_part_02_varna_jati_and_casta/)

The modern caste system in India has its roots in

• Jati system: Practised by Indians at that time
• Taking the "Law of Manu" in a literal sense and using it for legal purposes by the company
• Racism
• English Feudal system: The social hierarchy in England where the aristocrats had an upper position in the society and were well respected among all people
• Colonial mentality: The need of Englishmen to maintain their emperor and secure its future
• Missionary activities: Converting native to the true religion
• Poverty: Due to Islamic invasions and company rule followed by industrialization in Europe

Benjamin states the importance of studying the Jati system in India

“Many other examples of its (Jati system) minor details we might produce; but what effect can these have had on our institutions? Surely, none; though the spirit which produced by its abuse these may also have affected them. It is the effects of this abstract spirit which we must notice, omitting all details, and confining ourselves to the broad features of the case. We shall, then, examine its effects as they have been seen.
First. On the Political, Military, and Civil Institutions of our Indian Empire.
Secondly. On its Social and Domestic Institutions.
Thirdly. On the Moral and Religious Character of the People.
Fourthly. We shall notice how it affects their Conversion to Christianity.
Lastly. We shall consider Its probable effects on the future destinies of that Empire.” ( The theory and practice of caste )

1. The law of Manu

As mentioned earlier, the authenticity of Manava dharmasastra could never be confirmed. There is also no evidence that it was ever implemented in a legal or civic form under any Indian kings. Moreover, Manava dharmasastra (Manusmriti) is one of the many Dharmasastras available under Smriti. When the British translated it for legal purposes and legislation, only a part of India was under British rule, making the legal and civic system that existed in other regions of the country obsolete.
Quoting Sir William Jones

“an intention to leave the natives of the Indian provinces in possession of their own Laws, at least on the titles of contrails and inheritances, we may humbly presume, that all future provisions, for the administration of justice and government in India, will be conformable, as far as the natives are affected by them, to the manners and opinions of the natives themselves; an object which cannot possibly be attained, until the manners and opinions can be fully and accurately known. These confederations, and a few others more immediately within my province, were my principal motives for wishing to know, and have induced me at length to publish, that system of duties, religious and civil, and of law in all its branches, which the Hindus firmly believe to have been promulged in the beginning of time by Menu, son or grandson of Brahma', or, in plain language, the first of created beings, and not the oldest only, but the holiest of legislators ; a system so comprehensive and so minutely exact, that it may be considered as the Institutes of Hindu Law, preparatory to the copious Digest, which has lately been compiled by Pandits of eminent learning, and introductory perhaps to a Code which may supply the many natural defects in the old jurisprudence of this country, and, without any deviation from its principles, accommodate it justly to the improvements of a commercial age” (Institutes of Hindu law, or, The ordinances of Menu)

Regarding the credibility of the “Law of Manu”

“Should a series of Brahmens omit, for three generations, the reading of Menu, their sacerdotal class, as all the Pandits allure me, would in strictness be forfeited ; but they must explain it only to their pupils of the three highest classes; and the Brahmen, who read it with me, requeued most earnestly, that his name might be concealed; nor would he have read it for any consideration on a forbidden day of the moon, or without the ceremonies prescribed in the second and fourth chapters for a lecture on the Veda : so great, indeed, is the idea of sanctity annexed to this book, that, when the chief native magistrate at Banares endeavoured, at my request, to procure a Persian translation of it, before I had a hope of being at any time able to understand the original, the Pandits of his court unanimously and positively refused to assist in the work ; nor Should I have procured it at all, if a wealthy Hindu at Gaya had not caused the version to be made by some of his dependants, at the desire of my friend Mr. Law. The Persian translation of Menu, like all others from the Sanskrit into that language, is a rude intermixture of the text, loosely rendered, with some old or new comment, and often with the crude notions of the translator ; and though it expresses the general sense of the original, yet it swarms with errors, imputable partly to haste, and partly to ignorance: thus where Menu says, that emissaries are the eyes of a prince, the Persian phrase makes him ascribe four eyes to the person of a king ; for the word char, which means an emissary in Sanskrit, signifies four in the popular dialect.” (Institutes of Hindu law, or the ordinances of Menu)

Here it’s clear that

• The credibility of the work (translation) itself is in question as the supporters were either morally corrupt, not ready to assist or the one who did assist was a dependent of the person requested for the help.

Sir Jones himself states the low quality of the text as a lawbook but he goes on to say that it must be accepted as legalisation due to the language and devotion present in the book.

“The work, now presented to the European world, contains abundance of curious matter extremely interesting both to speculative lawyers and antiquaries, with many beauties which need not be pointed out, and with many blemishes which cannot be justified or palliated. It is a system of despotism and priestcraft, both indeed limited by law, but artfully conspiring to give mutual support, though with mutual checks; it is filled with strange conceits in metaphysics and natural philosophy, with idle superfluities, and with a scheme of theology most obscurely figurative, and consequently liable to dangerous misconception; it abounds with minute and childish formalities, with ceremonies generally absurd and often ridiculous; the punishments are partial and fanciful; for some crimes, dreadfully cruel, for others, reprehensibly flight; and the very morals, though rigid enough on the whole, are in one or two instances (as in the cafe of light oaths and of pious perjury) unaccountably relaxed : nevertheless, a spirit of sublime devotion, of benevolence to mankind, and of amiable tenderness to all sentient creatures, pervades the whole work; the style of it has a certain austere majesty, that founds like the language of legislation, and extorts a respectful awe ; the sentiments of independence on all beings but God, and the harsh admonitions, even to kings, are truly noble; and the many panegyrics on the Gayatt'i, the Mother as it is called, of the Veda, prove the author to have adored (not the visible material fun, but) that divine and incomparably greater light, to use the words of the most venerable text in the Indian scripture, 'which illumines all, delights all, from which all proceed., to which all must return, and which alone can irradiate (not our visual organs merely, but our souls and) our intellects.”

He continues

“Whatever opinion in short may be formed of Menu and his laws, in a country happily enlightened by found philosophy and the only true revelation, it must be remembered, that those laws are actually revered, as the word of the Most High, by nations of great importance to the political and commercial interests of Europe, and particularly by many millions of Hindu subjects, whose well-directed industry would add largely to the wealth of Britain, and who ask no more in return than protection for their persons and places of abode, justice in their temporal concerns, indulgence to the prejudices of their old religion, and the benefit of the laws, which they have been taught to believe sacred, and which alone they can possibly comprehend.”

Below is another account of how deceptive the law of Manu was. But still, it was implemented.

“To this end Sir Wilham Jones, after an astonishing amount of persuasion, induced some of the most illustrious pundits of the day, to furnish him, notwithstanding their religious scruples on the point, with a translation of the Code of Menu, which was supposed, and which they averred, contained the legitimate regulations of Hindoo caste. What a deceptive picture of this institution is there given, we have before noticed. Such as it was, however, it was adopted, and in many particulars credited, by the government and literati\ of the day; and many of the orders of the Board of Directors in England, and Regulations of the Council in India, are careful that its spirit should not be wantonly offended.”* (The theory and practice of caste (p34)

Below is an account of how religiously the law of Manu was followed.

“The pretensions of Bramins, and the high respect which had been awarded to them from antiquity, were often regarded in points, in which they ill accorded with the preconceived ideas of Europeans, and in some cases were not neglected even in the courts of justice. The Kshatriyas, as a class, were extinct in the greater part of India, but the Rajpoots of Rajasthan claimed descent from them, and readily found occupation as sepoys, in our armies; whilst the lowest castes, such as Coolies, Maters, Choomars, Mullahs, &c., were for a long time studiously excluded. Bramins and men of high caste, as Vakeels, or native lawyers, and Moonsiffs or inferior judges, were occupied in the administration of justice; whilst little encouragement was given to the Sudra and the Ryot, to leave the cultivation of the soil, that occupation to which the Code of Menu had devoted him.”(The theory and practice of caste)
“When the policy of pleasing the natives was especially strong, under the administration of Lord Cornwallis, men of the lowest caste were, as we have remarked above, excluded from our army ; yet even among the higer classes there was the same exclusiveness as would have existed between men of the highest and lowest castes. It was unaccompanied, however, by that discontent which would have arisen, if the latter had been admitted. Even these regulations do not at present prevail. There is now no legal bar to the admission of even a Pariah into our Indian regiments, though such would be rejected, as any pro- motion which might happen to be granted them would be viewed with dissatisfaction by those of superior caste, who, in general, form the majority of a regiment. * (The theory and practice of caste)

In short

• From company times, utmost importance was given to the "Law of Manu" to protect British interests. The assumption was that implementing laws that are native to the region will help them with avoiding any dissension and eliminate any possible threat to their empire.

2. Coloniality

Benjamin states

“In one point of view there exists a remarkable difference between the history of Europeans and Asiatics. In that of Western nations it is the exploits of the people, that are, for the most part, described. We are made acquainted with their feelings and sentiments, and the impulse which these gave to their internal as well as external policy…If otherwise so remarkable that history for a time centres in their person, it is either because opposed to their people, or with dictatorial power heading their armies in or against foreign invasion.”
“With the East this is not the case. Their history is a narrative of the deeds of princes, not of the sentiments of nations. We read not so much of the constitutional struggles of myriads, as of the diplomacy, the treachery, the crimes, and the ambition of a few ; and history becomes most interesting when it enters most minutely into the personal habits and feelings of an illustrious monarch. This is especially the case with India. The Ramayana, the Mahabarat, and the Puranas, make us to a considerable extent acquainted with its history, fabulous or otherwise, from the earliest periods ; whilst Ferishta and Persian writers in abundance give us the events of more modern times. But upon what do they chiefly dwell ? The people are lost sight of, the deeds of princes are alone conspicuous. The whole is one mass of private feuds, of jealousy, of tyranny, of sudden rebellion, and of remorseless punishment ; of the rise of princes and of the fall of dynasties. Occasionally some Chandragupta, or Mahmoud, or Akbar, command our respect for their conquests or legislation.”
“We look in vain for a description of the effects of minor circumstances upon the feelings, the actions and institutions of the early invaders of Indostan. We know that then, as now, the same intricate rules of caste prevailed, yet we find little or no notice of its influence on the character of their policy ; though it must, in one form or other, have come in contact with every act of legislation. Strange as it may seem, its influence was so subtle and inscrutable, that, either from ignorance of its character, or from despair of accurately defining it, they have altogether neglected to notice even its existence. It may happen occasionally to have forced itself on their attention, when the overweening influence of some particular class may have produced a sudden political movement. As, for instance, when Khusru, the vizier of Mobarik K-hilji,f entirely surrounded himself with those of his own caste, by their means overthrew the power of his master, and exterminated the house of Khilji.”

Below are accounts of how colonial policers were conceptualized and implemented

“Consistent with this idea has been the policy of our government. Well aware that for many years (even if the same may not now be true) our empire was not founded upon the good-will of the people, or our own popular acts, but was an " empire of opinion," as it has been termed, that is, one founded upon a prevailing idea among oar subjects, that we are morally and physically their superiors, and that no power which they could exert against us will ever effect our removal. Well aware of this, the East India Company have made it a fundamental point in their policy, never to afford the people an opportunity of learning their strength by a sudden outbreak of popular fury. Hence the Directors have been especially careful that the prejudices of the natives should be respected.” (The theory and practice of caste)

​

The fact that the Hindoo law is to be learned chiefly from Sanscrit books, and the Mahometan law from Arabic books, has been much insisted on, but seems not to bear at all on the question. We are commanded by Parliament to ascertain and digest the laws of India. The assistance of a Law Commission has been given to us for that purpose. As soon as the Code is promulgated the Shasters and the Hedaya will be useless to a moonsiff or a Sudder Ameen. I hope and trust that, before the boys who are now entering at the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College have completed their studies, this great work will be finished. It would be manifestly absurd to educate the rising generation with a view to a state of things which we mean to alter before they reach manhood. (Macaulay minute)

​

In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern, --a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population. (Macaulay minute)

​

I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and Sanscrit books. I would abolish the Mudrassa and the Sanscrit College at Calcutta. Benares is the great seat of Brahminical learning, Delhi of Arabic learning. If we retain the Sanscrit College at Bonares and the Mahometan College at Delhi we do enough and much more than enough in my opinion, for the Eastern languages. If the Benares and Delhi Colleges should be retained, I would at least recommend that no stipends shall be given to any students who may hereafter repair thither, but that the people shall be left to make their own choice between the rival systems of education without being bribed by us to learn what they have no desire to know. The funds which would thus be placed at our disposal would enable us to give larger encouragement to the Hindoo College at Calcutta and establish in the principal cities throughout the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught. (Macaulay minute)

How Macaulay’s education policy affected the Hindus

The once Brahman, but now Christian editor of the Inquirer newspaper, who himself received his English education at the Government Hindu College, where no religion is taught, thus strongly testifies: —“The Hindu College, under the patronage of Government, has^ as indeed it must have, destroyed many a native’s belief in Hinduism. How could a boy continue to worship the sun, when he understood that this luminary was not a devatah, (a divinity) but a mass of inanimate matter? How could he believe in the injunctions of such Shasters as taught him lessons contrary to the principles inculcated by his lecturer in natural philosophy? The consequence was, that the castle of Hinduism was battered down. No Missionary ever taught us (meaning himself, the editor) to forsake the religion of our fathers; it was Government that did us this service.” (Vindication of the Church of Scotland's India missions)

​

“Are there any signs that Mission Higher Education is moving caste Hinduism \? We believe that there are. It is the universal opinion that caste feeling is no longer what it once was. We were everywhere told that caste was being slowly undermined. The mere contact with Western civilisation and British rule might account for part of this without the education in Christian truth received in Mission Colleges. But it is well to ask what Hindus, who are passionately attached to Hinduism, think about the matter. Hinduism is now seriously alarmed.* Hindus are arming in defence of Hinduism. They establish Hindu high schools, Hindu colleges. They write Hindu tracts and form Hindu associations.” (The India mission of the Free Church of Scotland 1888)

3. Racism

The British could never understand the peculiarity of Jati system. Following are a few examples of how complex the Jati system was when the British landed on the subcontinent.
Benjamin in his book states

“Suppose by way of illustration, that a gentleman of consequence engaged in making a purchase, feels thirsty. He asks the shop-boy for a glass of ale or water. If he drink it in the shop all is well; but if he go into the back room, and there drink his beverage, seating himself on one chair whilst the boy seated himself on another, he would be considered to have committed an impropriety. We understand the difference; but it would probably be impossible for a native of India to do so. He does not possess the turn of thought necessary for its comprehension. He would probably say, if the gentleman may quench his thirst in a tradesman's house, what possible difference can it make whether seated or standing, whether in one room or the other? This is precisely the same with us, in our attempts to understand many of the peculiarities of Hindoo customs. We have not the train of thought and association of ideas requisite; and we in equal astonishment ask, " If you eat bread ^ prepared by that man what possible difference can it make to eat boiled rice which he has cooked?" or, "You make no objection to such a person handling prepared pastry, how can his touch render impure another sort of food? "
“Such is the case with caste in India. To a stranger it is one mass of inconsistencies, to a native the most important feature of his society. The foundation of the whole matter rests on self-confidence, and a desire of exalting ourselves in society. This feeling is common to all mankind. Caste, as its offspring, affects all men more or less; but in India it has been carried to its furthest extent, and endued with all the respectability which religion and antiquity could confer.”

​
Below are other accounts of how complete the then-existing social system in India was

“People in this country, are ever apt to conceive of India, as if it were a mere Asiatic province of limited territorial extent, like some section of the Island of Great Britain. It is necessary, therefore, constantly to remind them that, in extent, India more resembles Europe than Britain: —and how much more than any mere section of the latter? Consequently, though the Brahmanical system, as elsewhere remarked, “may be said to preserve, through the wide extent of its baneful domination, a sort of universal identity in fundamental principles, yet in the practical development of these principles, it may exhibit modifications that are endlessly or even capriciously diversified. So that what may be strictly and literally true of the mental habitudes, the social and religious practices, of the people of one city or province, may require some qualification when predicated of the inhabitants of another.” From overlooking this essential circumstance, the statements of Missionaries situated in different parts of India, have sometimes been pronounced, erroneous, exaggerated, distorted, or, even contradictory. Whereas the truth may be, that each may all the while be conveying a scrupulously exact Report of his own individual findings, and local experience. (Vindication of the Church of Scotland's India missions)

​

“The student of sociology will thus find within the limits of a single Indian Province a complete series of the stages through which civilisation must everywhere progress. We start in the lowest grade with the Korwa, a mere savage, living on the roots or fruits which he can collect in the jungle or the animals which he can slay for food. Little higher is the Dom, whose only industry is a little rude work in bamboo, a loafer, a thief, a beggar, an eater of carrion, a collector of filth. Then we meet the Kanjar or Sansiya, a pure nomad who lives by hunting birds and animals, and will eat the lizard which has its home in the salt plains. A little higher is the Baheliya and Chiryamar, who catches birds for food and sale. Then comes the Pasi, who collects palm juice as an intoxicant ; the Bari, who makes leaf platters for use at fetes ; the Khairaha, who distils catechu from the acacia ; the Bansphor, who makes baskets out of canes or twigs. Then we have the wandering juggler and acrobat like the Nat; the nomad Lohar blacksmith ; the Bengah', an itinerant surgeon ; the Saikalgar, or peripatetic cutler. Another stage leads us to the Mallah and Kahar, who are boatmen, water-carriers, bearers of palanquins, fishermen, and collectors of tank produce. With the Gujar and Ahir we come upon the seminomad grazier and rearer of cattle, and the Gadariya whobreeds sheep and practises agriculture merely as a secondary occupation” (The North-Western Provinces of India; their history, ethnology, and administration)

​

“I'or my own part have always been much impressed by the difficulty of conveying to European readers who have no experience of India even an approximate idea of the extraordinary complexity of the social system which is involved in the word "caste." At the risk of being charged with frivolity I shall, therefore, venture on an illustration, based on one which I published in Blackwood's Magazine a good many years ago, of a caste expressed in terms of an English social group. Let us take an instance, and, in order to avoid the fumes of bewilderment that are thrown off by uncouth names, let us frame it on English lines. Let us imagine the great tribe of Smith, the " noun of multitude," as a famous headmaster used to call it, to be transformed by art magic into a caste organized on the Indian model, in which all the subtle nuances of social merit and demerit which Punch and the society papers love to chronicle should have been set and hardened into positive regulations affecting the intermarriage of families. The caste thus formed would trace its origin back to a mythical eponymous ancestor, the first Smith who converted the rough stone hatchet into the bronze battleaxe and took his name from the "smooth"\ weapons that he wrought for his tribe. Bound together by this tie of common descent, they would recognize as the cardinal doctrine of their community the rule that a Smith must always marry a Smith, and could by no possibility marry a Brown, a Jones, or a Robinson. But overand above this general canon threeother modes or principles of grouping within the caste would be conspicuous. First of all, the entire caste of Smith would be split up into an indefinite number of "in-marrying" clans based upon all sorts of trivial distinctions. Brewing Smiths and baking Smiths, hunting Smiths and shooting Smiths, temperance Smiths and licensed-victualler Smiths, Smiths with double-barrelled names and hyphens, Smiths with double-barrelled names without hyphens, Conservative Smiths, Radical Smiths, tinker Smiths, tailor Smiths, Smiths of Mercia, Smithsof Wessex—all these and all other imaginable varieties of the tribe Smith would be as it were crystallized by an inexorable law forbidding the members of any of these groups to marry beyond the circle marked out by the clan-name. Thus the Unionist Mr. Smith could only marry a Unionist Miss Smith, and might not think of a Home Rule damsel ; the free-trade Smiths would have nothing to say to the tariff reformers ; a hyphen-Smith could only marry a hyphen-Smith, and so on. Secondly, within each class enquiry would disclose a number of "out-marrying" groups, bearing distinctive names, and governed by the rule that a man of one group could in no circumstances marry a girl of the same group. In theory each group would be regarded as a circle of bloodkindred and would trace its descent from a mythical or historical ancestor like the Wayland-Smith of the Berkshire hills, the Captain Smith who married Pocahontas, or the Mr. W. H. Smith of the railway bookstalls. The name of each would usually suggest its origin, and marriages within the limits defined by the group-name would be deemed incestuous, however remote the actual relationship between the parties concerned. A Wayland could not marry a Wayland, though the two might come from opposite ends of the kingdom and be in no way related, but must seek his bride in the Pocahontas or bookstall circle, and so on. Thus the system, the converse o{ that just described, would effect in a cumbrous and imperfect fashion what is done for ourselves by the table of prohibited degrees at the end of the Prayer-book—cumbrous because it would forbid marriage between people who are in no sense relations, and imperfect because the group-name would descend in the male line and would of itself present no obstacle to a man marrying his grandmother. Thirdly, running through the entire series of clans we should find yet another principle at work breaking up each in-marrying clan into three or four smaller groups which would form a sort of ascending scale of social distinction. Thus the clan of hyphen-Smiths, which we take to be the cream of the caste—the Smiths who have attained to the crowning glory of double names securely welded together by hyphens—would be again divided into, let us say, Anglican, Dissenting, and Salvationist hyphen-Smiths, taking regular rank in that order. Now the rule of this series of groups would be that a man of the highest or Anglican group might marry a girl of his own group or of the two lower groups, that a man of the second or Dissenting group might take a Dissenting or Salvationist wife, while a Salvationist man would be restricted to his own group. A woman, it will be observed, could under no circumstances marry down into a group below her, and it would be thought eminently desirable for her to marry into a higher group. Other things being equal, it is clear that two-thirds of the Anglican girls would get no husbands, and two-thirds of the Salvationist men no wives. These are some of the restrictions which would control the process of match-making among the Smiths if they were organized in a caste of the Indian type. There would also be restrictions as to food. The different in-marrying clans would be precluded from dining together, and their possibilities of reciprocal entertainment would be limited to those products of the confectioner's shop into the composition of which water, the most fatal and effective vehicle of ceremonial impurity, had not entered. Water pollutes wholesale, but its power as a conductor of malign influence admits of being neutralized by a sufficient admixture of milk, curds, whey, or clarified butter in fact, of anything that comes from the sacred cow. It would follow from this that the members of our imaginary caste could eat chocolates and other forms of sweetmeats together, but could not drink tea or coffee, and could only partake of ices if they were made with cream and were served on metal, not porcelain, plates. I am sensible of having trenched on the limits of literary and scientific propriety in attempting to describe an ancient and famous institution in unduly vivacious language, but the parallel is as accurate as any parallel drawn from the other end of the world can well be, and it has the advantage of being presented in terms familiar to European readers. The illustration, indeed, may be carried a step further. If we suppose the various aggregates of persons bearing the two or three thousand commonest English surnames to be formed into separate castes and organized on the lines described above, so that no one could marry outside the caste-name and could only marry within that limit subject to the restrictions imposed by differences' of residence, occupation, religion, custom, social status, and the like—the mental picture thus formed will give a fairly adequate idea of the bewildering complexity of the Indian caste system.”* (The people of India)

Jones’s theory of Indo-European language gave way to so many racial theories including the "Aryan invasion" hypothesis. Since Sanskrit had a lot in common with other languages in Europe, a popular assumption prevailed that there was a common ancestral race that later moved towards India and Europe from central Asia and conquered the land by subjugating the natives.
Later such racial theories were brought to the mainstream by people like Herbert Hope Risley and other students of “scientific racism”
Following are a few examples of how anthropology promoted scientific racism and created certain prejudice against the idea of Jati and Varna.

“It is impossible here to discuss at length the wide and difficult question of the value of anthropometry as a test of race, on which controversy is still active. " Of late years," says Mr. O'Malley, "anthropometry as a test of race has begun to fall out of favour." \ Perhaps it may be safer to say that measurements collected in a haphazard fashion among the larger composite groups, like Brahmans, Rajputs, Nayars, or Vellalas, which include all sorts and conditions of men, must remain of doubtful value, unless it is certain that the individuals who have been examined belong to sub-castes or families which have not been contaminated by union with outsiders.”* (The people of India)

The below accounts mention how only a very few parameters were considered by Risley. Risley’s whole theory was built around the original “Casta system” how people with different skin colours and physical attributes could be treated as different races and how people can be classified based on the "purity of the blood".

“Secondly, it has been urged that Risley devoted too little attention to the influence of environment in modifying bodily structure. The views of Professor Franz Boas, who claims to have proved that the head-forms of immigrants to the United States rapidly become modified in their environment, have not been universally accepted. \ But the stress laid on these influences by Professor W. Ridgeway deserve more attention than they have hitherto received in India. It can hardly, it is urged, be possible that the differences of climate, soil, and food supplies throughout the Indian Peninsula fail to exert their influence 'on the physical characteristics of the population. The contrast between the deltas of the great rivers and regions like the Panjab, the Deccan, or the forest and hill tracts is obvious. Differences in the food supply equally deserve investigation, when we compare the races of Bengal or Madras, who mainly subsist on rice, with the people of the Deccan whose staple food is . millet, the Panjabi who eats wheat or barley, the jungle-dwellers who largely use the wild products of the forest.”* (The people of India)
“…, the views expressed 'in this work on the origin of the Rajputs, Jats, and Marathas have met with vigorous criticism. Accepting the fact that the people of Central Asia are of an uniform brachycephalic type, Risley argued that it was impossible to suppose that the long-headed Rajputs and Jats could be descended from races entering India from that region… As regards the Marathas, Risley suggested that they originated in bodies of Scythians, driven from the grazing-grounds of the Western Panjab towards the south, where they intermingled with the Dravidian type. There seems to be, however, no historical, or even traditional, evidence of a Scythian migration into the Deccan.” (The people of India)

​

“It is a familiar experience that the ordinary untravelled European, on first arriving in India, finds much difficulty in distinguishing one native of the country from another. To his untrained eye all Indians are black; all have the same cast of countenance; and all, except the " decently naked labouring classes, wear loose garments which revive dim memories of the attire of the Greeks and Romans. An observant man soon shakes off these illusions and realizes the extraordinary diversity of the types which are met with everywhere in India. The first step in his education is to learn to tell a Hindu from a Muhammadan. A further stage is reached when it dawns upon him that the upper classes of Hindus are much fairer than the lower and that their features are moulded on finer lines.”
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“For ethnological purposes physical characters may be said to be of two kinds indefinite characters which can only be described in more or less appropriate language, and definite characters which admit of being measured and reduced to numerical expression. The former class, usually called descriptive or secondary characters, includes such points as the colour and texture of the skin; the colour, form, and position of the eyes the colour and character of the hair; and the form of the face and features. Conspicuous as these traits are, the difficulty of observing, defining, and recording them is extreme. Colour, the most striking of them all, is perhaps the most evasive, and deserves fuller discussion as presenting a typical instance of the shortcomings of the descriptive method. Some forty years ago the French anthropologist Broca devised a chromatic scale consisting of twenty shades, regularly graduated and numbered, for registering the colour of the eyes, and thirty-four for the skin. The idea was that the observer would consult the scale and note the numbers of the shades which he found to correspond most closely with the colouring of his subjects.”
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“The proportions of the nose are determined on the same principle as those of the skull.. The length the nasal breadth are measured from certain specified points, and the latter dimension is expressed as a percentage of the former.- The nasal index, therefore, is simply the relation of the breadth of the nose to its length. If a man's nose is as broad as it is long—no infrequent case among the Dravidians—his index is loo…It thus represents very distinctly the personal impressions which a particular type conveys to the observer. The broad nose of the Negro or of the typical Dravidian is his most striking feature, and the index records its proportions with unimpeachable accuracy. Where races with different nasal proportions have intermixed, the index marks the degree of crossing that has taken place; it records a large range of variations ; and it enables us to group types in a serial order corresponding to that suggested by other characters.”

To know how scientific racism was implemented and how it impacted the 1901 census and the British policies, please read “The people of India” and about the "contribution" of Risley.
If anyone thinks that racism was not prevalent in Europe at that time, please read the following account

“There is likewise a male orphan asylum, where the boys are brought up to different trades. If such establishments are wanted anywhere, it is in India, where the numbers of half-caste, and therefore (if 1 may use the expression), half-parented children, exceed what one could imagine. I cannot but think it a cruelty to send children of colour to Europe, where their complexion must subject them to perpetual mortification. Here, being in their own country, and associating with those in the same situation with themselves, they have a better chance of being happy.” (Journal of a residence in India)

The ungodly wind turned the fates to Joshua which then moved Weisser Wolf nearly on his back and a bullet fired from the fiery temper of Joshua from a 1911 pistol, fighting through the hindering pain, severed through Weisser Wolf’s neck and up the right side of the face, spooning out Weisser Wolf’s right eye, leaving a gory canyon of his face. His mind and head was then exposed to the hordes of surreal power and unquestionably evil nature come forth from Hell, laughter be then heard to his eyes that rang in howling pain of the first fracture of his mind as a scream of desperation to run from such frighting sights, screaming at the site of demons and the cruel grin of the Fallen.
<You shalt be mine, fate of man teased by thee.>
But still he lived while gasping through the pouring of his blood and trying to sit up, with his face receiving some burn marks and frost as this site of a man's face terrified the allied soldiers. Several bullets went into Dossin Schmitt's lower abdomen and arms, but also not slaying him, and he fell to the floor, book in hand, Weisser Wolf then picked him up as he still bleeds across the floor and what he said to Schmitt was mouthed by both the banshees’ nose and his deformed face
[“Come. Let us make haste to a good retreat. I will handle you myself, Herr Schmitt. Yes, yes, yes, come for this exacting defeat may not doom us. What have I just bared witness to, what terrible horror?”]
His voice seemed to drag to gross silence with those last words barely audible. Schmitt did not reply but signed with what wrong was done and looked back as a portal opened whilst he and Weisser Wolf went to what seemed a solid stone while with a string attached, sticking out barley, Weisser Wolf lite it and the stone exploded outward to revel the Sine and a motorboat waiting like a parked chariot. Behind them, Joshua saw the retreating men but did not pursue seeing the battle was won with the hope that Schmitt would die from his wounds, and suddenly cracks formed from where the circles of nine, taking their place.
From within that fiery column, a shape of a man so came to fruition but not a man was it but soon a tall thing of metal in the form of the knights of old that overshadowed Joshua now griped of this villainous aurora now in the presence of him or more likely he to it, darkened and bleak, with its hide was clothing upward like flat thorns, with the fingers of claws, the feet like sharped points, the chest had the metal overlap similar to a suit of plate armor fused to whatever this thing is, and its head was nearly inhuman for it was shaped in the image of a dark tear with the same flattened thorns but has the tear has a point from when it first formed, this point was of metal and now features of a face is seen on this thing, no windows to the soul, no ears to listen to sweet melodies, no mouth to spake about for fine poetry, nor a nose to smell the nectar of flowers in the cool summer breeze. What is this monstrosity of humanity, perverted and paradoxical thing brought forth from the pit, this Creature?
Schmitt awoke to see himself strapped to the motorboat, rushing out of Paris utilizing the Sine. Weisser Wolf drove while wrapping around his injured face with the blood still leaking through with medical bandages while muttering barely above a whisper
[“Damn her... Damn that woman… Damn Schmitt as well. This war is lost. Yes? No? What? The book, the book may save us, or damnation.”]
Dossin Schmitt looked back to Notre Dame, firing and illuminating the Seine river while the fiery light moved faster and faster as if it would explode with great destruction. He muttered with great respect and worry with his chosen words
[“What have I done?”]
As they moved farther away. Back beneath Notre Dame, the Creature fell into the grasp of Joshua for it had not the strength yet to stand as a man who said to his remaining men twenty men, yes that many full-grown were required to move the Creature
“Help me carry this thing because we need to get off here now!”
The soldiers were hesitant at first with fear, but Joshua’s words remanded this and they along with this Creature, giving great weight for ye men to carry through the corridors and up to the now on fire cathedral, with the stone crumbling into a gelatinous liquid while the gold and iron evaporated and the wood-burning nearly instantly. The once well-crafted bells fell in the toll of demise from the precipices and giving one final gong to Joshua and his men, struggling to convey this body to one of the troop transport trucks, as the others slowly boiled to compromise the stone cobbled street, that ripped ever so slowly at their sinew and mind. They still carried the Creature outside with their strength seemingly dissipating as they conveyed it onto the military truck while whistling to the tanks coming around again to retreat. Joshua turned on the engine and rode down the streets of Paris, now catching on fire, and wails from the people can be heard as a choir of unmediated sorrow while he rushed through it all, pushing back cars and small decorum. Joshua rammed down the acceleration pedal while sweating and his wound stinging from it while the Creature was placed where young men used to sit to be brought to death and the remaining two watched with early looks of looming terror. The truck was able to reach just in time the near end of the city southward from Notre Dame, but Joshua did not care in that hour when and where he was, but that they were now safe.
The column of light then fluctuated and arched around with sparks of energy frying entire houses and people. A scream of incomprehensible nature shot forth and encapsulated the entire population of the city of Paris in a state of panic and anarchy of the soul as it shilled, the building’s shivered in fear as the people quaked in unison. Then with one great surge brought forth onto the world of mortal man, it boomed with unparalleled thunder and the explosion could be heard for miles and the light created by it nearly caused a nightmarish day to appear, engulfing much of the surrounding city and as fast it appeared to any, it vanished with a flicker and flash. Any men, women, and child still alive first noticed the flash of burning radiance and the sudden lack of sound for this explosion was occurring at the speed of light, eyes seared into their skull with then the wave of heat slowly cooking them. First their hair and clothing ignites with the skin and oily fat boiling within the body as the nerve ends sing out in pain unimaginable with the people of Paris quickly becoming flayed versions of themselves. Then the sinew turns to disgusting ash and breaks with the sound of popping and crackling still heard by the person with the exposed bone dyed and fracturing to shivered pieces, their brains still comprehending the events in as much detail as possible. Next came the base chemicals and resources that make up any living being dismantled and reduced to the next level and so on of the fundamental elements of creation that fed the flames as the buildings and all things once held in regard and built by man turned to ash as woman held their children that dissipated around them and men to their wives. Screams reaped from them as the air turned to super-heated plasma for the event was something like the fusion reactions within a star as the water that so made the seine became dancing flames on the outer peripheries of the city. The cataclysmic explosion left behind a crater where much of the city once stood and the river Seine flooded it though much was turned in tearful drops of burning rain that became black in both the horrid light and nature deformed, falling to any survivors. Joshua then noted with the remaining twenty men that committed themselves to the vigil of this Creature, was a glass shattering sonic boom was heard that broke the engine block just as they reached the outer border of the once great city of Paris. The tires shattering as the vehicle dragged itself through the uplifted soil, nearly killing Joshua as he was ground to a halt with the sudden sound and acceleration, breaking his right hand and arm. Joshua had received several more injures along with the twenty men. This is the beginning of the tragedy that stretches many years and many lands, brought forth many woes but also graces onto the individuals and people experiencing it and doneth, this is the Seminal Tragedy.
Lo, within the horror of veined vanity with a simple ruinous order to curl one's soul, Hell, the realm of such woven interred power of a being long before the first ascribe of light in the Universe to the gates of Heavens. They so sought to aspire to such glory only to bring forth damnation, as the one whom foolishly set the road to them was the fallen son of Mettaleeus. Within the throne room of the lord of Hell, set bequeathed of unloved coil, a darkness within shadow that shrouded Satan in timidness. The darkness of the encapsulated dimension of space that made bold a throne of protruding bone and crimson velvet with ribs forming the arm rests and depth outlined his silhouette. This throne was the betwixt point where rust-colored drapes of blood flowed out and covered a court that was illuminated by two grand windows that exhibited a style of a stain glass masterpiece of cascading falls of entrapped cadavers intermingled with their own gore howling out in anguish. The light that exposed the floor came from the luminance of descending and ascending fragments of flames that shrieked in ghoulish tones as tempests of alighted gore. The drapes formed the curtains that seemed more alike wrought steel and bleached bone as great thunderous flames made fury outside where the realm of Hell was Beholden to fully petrified yet astonished in its abstract and incomprehensible reveal. The great rivers of such a twisted plane of thought came forth of the palace, which I will describe later, with tributaries of magma and alien fluids of differing color and consistency also drenched the rivers with their produce. The ground for which made the floor was akin to shattered blades and mighty steel led to rest on one another with certain focuses on the floor of the court establishing a mesmerizing display that can cut flesh from the mere gaze. Besmirched were the walls with of macabre ornamentation that cataloged the weeping and devastation to the Universe when the E’Heron were belittled to nothing as their fallen brothers and sisters withheld the mantle of responsibility to inflict undesirable suffering with no sense of care for continued adoring braze. Great ambient candles were bereft of warm heat and proper illumination, but rather a pestilence of slowly purchasing itself to a lesser observer to boil the sinew and organs underneath whatever skin or hide the person may have. They were proliferated amongst the ceiling of spiked spiraling buttresses of a dry dead color and the sides of the court. Such a gothic array of decoration was currently empty of any company, with the only muffled audio of newly acquired souls to be drafted to machines of accursed design to scream for an average of twenty million years. A minor collection of souls that suddenly surged into Hell that numbered over two million that objected in their new penance of why God abandoned them to this realm, what a boast that was retorted with laughter and more infliction.
<And so, I see that my Creator remains vigil in his power, no longer can rely on avatars or others I gaze upon as unique. I find well that the City of Paris hath been sundered to disgusting ash, yet on how greatly doth not amuse me nor captivate my presence. Charon has doth not committed, yet his work remains to thwart the proper Death of he and his long-dispersed children. That German must follow mine command, or I shall send forth a demon to shred his mind, this obstruction to me plan is detrimental to the securing of the freedom I long crave.>
The Fallen then looked down his empty court that drifted velvet dust and nothingness as an abrasive ambience of activity and odor occurred across his domain. Such strange divination would happen with laminate ease if everyone were to gaze onto the power presented in even the simplest morsel of matter, if one would not instantly erupt in implosive nature.
He then stared upon his great doors of his court that appeared to be the only item highly ornate in detail within the entire court of The Fallen.
The doors, or rather great gate that was twenty feet in height and sixty feet in width that was exactly ten inches in thickness, that allowed entrance into the aura of the Forced Lord that was devoted to malice steel that embalmed a scene that was spilled in twine of the doors. This scene was pressed within the very steel of pure adamantine that was engraved with chaotic thew of a cupped being of handsome light that fell to an earth that shaped around him with a wane light standing above the sight that represented a glimpse. A faint tender yet sour memory of Heaven and he, The Fallen, descending alike a fiery meteor with no predicable trajectory, whips of energy made vapor exhumed that a moved almost alive like.
These doors then amplified a knock that meet with the cacophony of agony as then an amplitude of entities that worked among arcane halls ways that were littered with candlelight. All were of alien design and corrupted with the ones that were armored in great metal and weaponry were the Sentinels of Hell that stood post for their Lord.
The Sentinels stood daunting like with a height of thirteen feet with thick planted armor that glistened with sulfur mixed with freshly spilled blood as the helms, which had vertical slits and deathly gray chain mail dressing to ward off an attack from their eyes, protruded twin spikes twined with dissevering Hellish metal that dripped down from the half halo of metal that was part of the helm, akin to a solid fan inscribed with perfidious blasphemy.
The two parallel spikes ran down to become embedded within the main breastplate with sharp connections and rough surface that contained interlocking shards of differing size that lessened in size and thickness past the bosom till refracted thickness appeared in the back intact that the lower body followed in design though upward blades of metal enveloping one another acted. The sabaton were unusually dense in metal with sloped triangle was at the front of the foot, the back of the sentinels were cloaked in sweltering drags of flowing forged darkness as the outline of shredded starlight lite aflame any who dared to draw near with ill intent.
The weapon that they welded but were currently not cutting chunks of armies to smithereens was a glade of an elongated blade with a sharp pyramid point that was stained with a burning odor of flesh and pagan drowns as terrible inscriptions rendered the blade and the handle. The handle was wrapped in a risqué of coarse crimson and pungent yellow cloth that exhumed the power and rank of the individual in the sentinel hood. The gantlets were decorated with deep spikes as interlocking plats produced a visage of a secondary weapon that can rip away flesh whilst acting was wards for the Sentinels had claw like hands that became bladed at the tips. Brazen jewels of fiery ruby and emertin (A crystal forged from the corona’s radiation and essence made manifest, expelling energy that takes the appearance of blackened light, eating away at an assailant energy till they are naught disheveled fundamental particles.) dazzled the armor in a sweeping wave pattern that twirled down the shoulders and thighs. Whilst making well the vigil for the Lord of Hell, a singular entity, erect in posture, quitted the crowd of flesh and diminished soul that consisted of the ‘citizens’ of Hell.
As this figure enrolled into his master's court, the light of external sources such as roaring pits of flame and blazes with a hooked cage to contain the flame glinted alike dust into the court till the gate was shut, slinking the lesser to the aura of the greater. The figure was draped in a heavy threaded oily black cloak that was matched sewn chains of gilded jutted bone across its form. It moved akin to a presence of that was of great stature and complexity of his design of his being, hidden by such a guise with hoofed feet of stained solid gore smeared down from his main body. Pellucid of coned tendrils of skin from grayed pestilence formed its protruding snot that sniffed and was humbled by the air of his master.
Blustered was its speech in fear of punishment far weaker thew, but could level entire hosts of armadas, know well his master that he dares not read upon his patience.
[“Lo to Forgive mine failure, oh great Lord, you beckoned your lowly servant to meet within your most honorable air to discuss how this mortal has escaped my charge.”]
His hands exited his cloak, acting as if they assisted to convey his apology. The hand was closer to thick bone sharpened to ivory claws, the size of a man’s lower leg, that were besmirched with blackened blood and experiential dirt.
< I shall not so mercifully forget such gross disobedience, Convqusien, >
Convqusien prostrated his form near the bladed floor in shame with the flames outside casting a shackled shadow to the gate, but his facial features dared not to exhibit such concern whilst emoting begging for pardon. The sound of licking tongue on coarse hide was noted by the Fallen, for the servant lacked proper cheeks with his tongue coiling out of his mouth, an annoying feature of the servant's former race.
<, As hath failed to prevent my prized mortal who spat me and mine own father, refusing such power of his denial in grief of my power of vengeance. He fascinated me as the Hellish was poured forth onto his soul that screamed in pain of such fickle moment to I, but to him was equal to decimation of one’s mental state. In the garden of Ghana, where he was presented with chains of Angelic design, how did he escape?>
Spoke the inquisitive Fallen, who’s air strengthened and slowly developed into a solid obstacle as to strangle the failed servant. Convqusien noticed his progressively difficulty to grasp breath yet strived to answer the question already published to Satan, answer and all.
[“Www…eee...lll I believe that the Book of Humanatie was utilized to overtax the energy field emitted by the chains to summon your favorite subject to the land of the living. And seeing the large fallacious number of dead that have are flowing through the gate, the ritual was poorly executed, thus not a Humanatie for they would have had the necessary precautions to mount a proper containment.”]
The Fallen, though his appearance was obstructed by the molded shadows, a smile of grotesque twist of muscles to uplift the hide surrounding the mouth came in being. A quaking low, nay, a laugh was induced into the air of the court of such a cause of the loss of his garden sight.
<So, that is thine answer of the disappearance, that a book of such ancient age to the mortals, hidden well and reduced to legend even amongst his children. ’Tis silly, quest not to pose blame to them, you still should have insisted on the security of any portals or teleportation that could force suffering on my palace, incurring away any or implanting. You imbecile, a punishment must always be done for such inept abilities.>
In an instant, the voice of his master changed to one of vexation and Convqusien was thrown by an invisible hand across the room. Each impact shattering bone and tearing into the flesh that would have killed one of the living a litany number of strikes. Convqusien was dragged across a parabola line through the court, impacting the stain glass windows and the ceiling. When Convqusien was arrested to the spiked buttress of the ceiling that pierced him as pieces of gore remained on the spikes till falling to the court floor, a flood of acidic purple blood peeled from Convqusien, in the gallons as then he was plucked from that position. Then the invisible hand brought him to the floor near the step of the throne of the Lord of Hell, bleeding and mashed is His skull with choking breath as blades of hideous magenta enfolded the bone that protruded from his cloak. The sudden acceleration of the punishment splintered more of the bone and snapped Convqusien vertebrae, spraying more of his flesh to the floor, sundering it to semi coagulated soup. With reverberating sounds that took familiar to words then were choired to his master as the blood pooled beneath him, abducting temporary his physical presentation as seen to his master.
[“My...most gracious...master...forgive this insolence of my making. I shall strengthen the… walls of thine great realm. “]
The invisible hand relished its grasp of the servant with Convqusien, squirming and bereft of much of his water of life. Unrelenting was the punishment for insubordination yet will not kill this disgusting entity.
[“, I shall also take care of… the Nighmereon, Ishfarsict, and his vagabond Band that roam your land …. without sanction these ten trillion years hence. I request… I mean, beseech thee for ten regiments of serf and infantry to secure the border and to begin to hunt Ishfarsict.”]
The influence of the temporal face of the fallen was not seen, yet was made felt to the lowly servant, but a smile could be derived from the movement within the weaved and webbed shadow. A reply came forth that exerted no anger masterfully, caring not the lives beneath his forcefully bestowed post
<Thy shall command that necessary force, but do not fail to thwart such a thing once more or to the gall winds you be banished for a hundred millennium as hooked talons of Harpies strike flesh in heaps frometh you. Do reclaim the Nighmereon to mine throne whence completed.>
At last, the hand relinquished its hold, penance be done. Convqusien felt and enjoyed the release as he shelved his appearance, whilst uttering underneath his air, incantations of healing onto himself, the teared tendons and fragmented bone and pooling blood returning to his steadily repairing body.
[“I thank thee, O master. Thy word now set int stone of the fate of such accursed roamers. I shall now take my leave.”]
He spoke, seeking to no longer belabor the audience and ear of his master any longer, Convqusien left with blood still curdling in his arms as he struggled to gain purchase of the floor with weakened bone and spilling blood. His lack of pride not soiled for his respect and thrall rank to his master did not sow seeds of discontent for this was living man once, one that was conceived and born but did not perish for he sold his soul for servitude to escape the tumultuous violent Time of the purge by Nighmere. As he quitted the court, he entered the chamber that had an ark buttress, following a similar but lower in sprawling greatness That was still filled with scolding chandeliers of crimson red casting radiance in the chamber of an evil light fear not the power of God, but for it was beyond the grasp of life.
A multitude of other Demons of corrupted body and lack of soul strived through the chamber, passing by committing other duties of heinous acts of depravity and satisfaction. Even though for all eternity to be but slaves and mere soldiers under the standard banner of Hell. And so the Fallen observed on that dominating throne he made bold, employing the stained-glass windows as he saw and heard screaming carnage sounds of worried souls as they were sent to the excruciating moments of torture. The light originating from outside his palace continued to lick and whip against the windows, creating a perverted beauty in their dance, the dance of infernal flame. Beheld hath you dear reader been to a land we shall return to when desperation to know one's past colliding with a strange alliance of ten billion years.
We shall return to the land of the living, more specifically, north-eastern France that was removed from the now destroyed Paris by one hundred and thirty-eight miles. The spectacle of the blooming cloud that stretched forth alike a small sun that briefly radiated light to the surrounding area could be seen even in this quiet rural village as it licked the heavens with its bountiful ascension. This simple village was situated near an ancient forest with remnants and scattered fragments of a once fine castle that could overlook the eld grove to behold a lake of such perfect stillness and a choir of chill air dancing about the bosom of the water. The castle once host of a lord, a daughter, and a now wayward son hath been left to fester with grass supplanting once great carpets to make way for herded sheep to rescind the glory to naught but wrought forgetfulness. The village was silent, stirring in their boon of rest, within cottages and low built residential buildings not that far removed from when their ancestors’ abode within with exception to plumbing and a few electrical lambs as beacons of light in the midnight dreary, then made promiscuous disruption of the mural of the night. The screams of the dead seemed to be conveyed by the display, through the emptied corridors and principles long ago made ruins, sung the whimpers and terror of the deadly night. It for the explosion that occurred not moments ago, that awkward and frighted the villagers, believing that they were being beset, though no lord nor soldiers were there to ward off danger. An effluvium of panic rang through as peasants and farmers bared arms to notice the besmirched sight just at the horizon.
Primitive adrift roads from long disrepair were dispersed amongst the village's small borders with the main scattered road once made of stone of Roman origin, being the central spine for movement in the village still after generations of constant use and battering. Faux was the concern of a few as they gazed upon the scarping fire, till this attitude was quickly disposed of the sheer horror they descried. Though all but an old man of moderate design with a withering physicality, of one and seventy or three and seventy, dressed in rough sheep felt and donned with a worn charcoal tweed hat cared not what was now the worrying gossip of his small village. For he was taking the advantage of the cover of night to search well the forest for the perfect fishing pond and rumors of hidden artifacts from centuries past dwelling beneath the loose dirt. Quiet was a whistle sung through his dry lips of age, jovial air exhumed from him to search through the forest he once searched through as a boy and a lover as to profit from his midnight excursion. He brought a small shovel with fishing equipment that consisted of a container of worms and other required bait as boots made of rubber squeaked in his blazing path.
As he searched about using the stars and familiar landmarks, the glimpse of the bright scorching site of the remains of Paris was hidden by the overgrowth with whispers and strange ambience permeated the air as he descended further, growing in intensity and variety.
The old man scoffed at such things, believing that it was his aging mind that produced such an illusion of sound and presence. Then within a blink of an eye, he looked about and saw that he was firmly lost. It was as if the forest itself, made disturbing and mysterious in the night as diaphanous rays of the moon before it was shattered shone forth to induce concern, that enveloped his sense of direction whilst many fauna and flora twisted and contorted to obscure any attempt to escape. Unbeknownst to his thwarted escape, the old man persisted in his deeper excursion into the forest, with cold air beginning to taint his air, spiteful sprites work their crimes, undeterred by the obstacles placed as he now hastily made through the forest. A howl echoed behind him, for which the old man gazed backwards to glimpse for any true signs of wolves wishing to feast upon him. In the moment of not choosing was the next step to take, the old man lost purchase of the solid littered ground of leaves, branches and shut flora.
The old man fell six feet for a hidden slope led to him impacting the orderly ornate pebbles worn by Time and waves of the lake. This minor formation of rock in circled the entire lake which measured in five hundred in diameter, not a living thing stirred beneath its cold blue bosom. The depth, the old man defined as he hissed with slight bruising on his legs and left arm almost bewitched by the perfect entropy beauty, was both shallow to mere puddles at the edges to an unfathomable depth of the abyssal lair of the old ways, recluse to hid frometh the world of man. Not a single whisper now could be heard, except the now pursuing rush of energy and perplexing music that was played by the branches of the forest, every cavern, craves, and formation either it is of rock or of the life that formed the forest. The old man’s eyes lite aflame as a sudden movement was detected in the water, perhaps denoting the scurrying of fish to be harvested. The old man ignored his injures to then drag his still intact equipment that fell by his right side. With a single heave of strength, the old man placed them near the water but still on the uniform pebbles. He cackled to himself with the thoughts filled with the excitement of this tranquil pool, the night presenting the shining stars and moon beams of soft radiance, and the air cool and mellow.
{“Starve no more this fine week, break the fast and by this blessed water bring forth a great feast for me.”}
His decried lips smacked in jolting movements as the old man made bold a patch of the smooth pebbles near his equipment on the left-hand side and began to assemble the lure on his fishing pole. He smiled during the process, taking quick glimpses at the water, to be sure that the fish remained, and his age was not bewitched, now bringing forth delusions before him. Just as the old man was to cast the fishing line into the then alien quietude of the water, the sound of a vehicle was heard screaming through the forest, seemingly out of nowhere, with a bright pair of headlights that scanned through the now disrupted tranquility. On the upper left of the old man’s vision, an automobile of bulky frame with a royal reddish hue being its color with a motor mascot of a weeping angle forged of a bright silver. The automobile followed a similar design to a Cadillac series 75. The deviation began with the hubcaps of the wheels were painted black with the windows tinted to a beatific brown. It grasped the attention of the old man who then saw a giant of a man with deep sowed scars seen just above a mask that concealed the heavily scared face was the giant was dressed in all black chauffeur livery with leather gloves of equally depth of color.
The motor cap had a hardened leather beak that seemed to be an anathema in the shade of the trees, an adverse effect that illuminated the passenger door, for which he opened, where a sequestered aura perched on the felted cotton seat. This entity with eyes of lustrous bronze with spectacles that seemed to dim such power that exhibited through the windows of the soul. A cane of indented bone that disperse the loose dirt and leaves from the ground, it being wrapped in platinum vines and shattered palladium at the end of the cane, the vines then consolidated to form the handle. The entity fully retired from the automobile, reveling a man of great stature with twilight hair while the eyes were of the fresh new sharp flower of the lake, though ever so diminished from a mixing of lower born blood. His face was chiseled and refined with a clean-shaven presentation as a constitution of superior construction built his already tall form to a daunting presence. His cloth was of a three-piece tuxedo with a hue of Burgundian wine that matched his wing tipped shoes. The spectacles were relishing in the moon light of thin moonstone wafers that were transparent enough for utilization in dimming brightness.
[“Good evening.”]
The man declared whence he took notice to the pale little old man that took solace near the border of the lake as his chauffeur shut the passenger door. The old man’s fishing rode stood stationary as the hook weaved and tossed in the air, awaiting usage as the old man felt agape in the air of this strange gentleman. So, he returned the gesture, though his voice seemed to have weakened of being found in this little haven he had located and strange subtraction of will lingered in the air as this man trodden closer
[“Eh...good evening to you, monsieur. What brings you to the village of …? A man of such exorbitant display of wealth here in such poor country where sheep are our most valued commodity is …”]
[“Suspicious and insidious for perhaps congregating with a lover?”]
The mysteries man finished the old man’s sentence with a hint of amusing this lesser class of man to his question, jaundiced in sight of this old man’s occupation of the lake. The old man responded in a flush of panic of being seen as rude
[“No monsieur, no! I was not insinuating that you are young man searching for pleasure of the flesh! Though the night is nice with trails that mimic the aurora of myriad colors that shine with rainbow hues and a vapor, no, mist shrouds the forest for a still visible stride.”]
The mysterious man smiled, reveling teeth of pure white, though it seemed to cede forth sense of worry within the old man, as if a beast as ready to consummate the killing of his prey in the cold air. The mysteries man doth spoke with an insincere foolishness constructing his tone and choice of words as he rendered down the slope of soil of stark rock with the shimmering blue water reflecting off his spectacles, fearing to remain as he’s eyes warded away such magical pellucidity a lesser force trading presence to a far greater one, his can all but used to support his stride as it brushed aside meddling debris that obstructed his way
[“Forgive my insolence and rudeness, I have not designated mine own identity to the village. I am Elegin, my actual name is Thierry Artois. I have just come from the town of Grindelwald in Switzerland. Why are you alone, it is not wise to enter without a watcher in this forest, I have heard that wolves prowl the interior and are not afraid of man and his mechanical marvels nor activity.”]
The old man still sat on the edge of the pebbled edge, though now physically opposed by this
Elegin Thierry’s presence that was brought to full view as he came closer to the old man in small steps as the water rescinded ever so slightly if a step came at the border of the water. The old man’s throat held down a scream but still showed beads of panic and fear upon his wrinkled and toughened face when the words of Elegin Thierry brought concern. So, with great reluctance and a dwindling strength as the sharpened teeth of the mysteries man was discerned in the darkness illuminated by the stars and clear blue water as the remains of Paris continued to ascend and aglow, beautifying the overall experience of several million men, women, children, and other organisms turned to particles of super-heated gas and light. The old man soon heard of muffled voices entering his ears, of fears and terror, though he could not slave other such details as his own life could be endangered from this one encounter. So, the old man decided to speak in a high tone as to thwart the locomotion of Elegin Thierry that had refused to swear fealty to the quelling of the nightly gaze, ears twitching and hearing the voices in far greater clarity and reveling in such prayers and chaos

This is the second part. See part 1 here - https://www.reddit.com/ParanoiaRPG/comments/s4enp1/zrk_the_undiscovered_sector_part_1/.

...
2. The walls: The walls are grey and painted with a Red stripe at chest level, but otherwise fairly featureless. Mounted along the walls at regular intervals are prominent warning signs, displaying the radiation symbol, which read, "WARNING! THIS COMPNODE CONTAINS LEVEL 4 RADIATION! CITIZENS LACKING PROPER PROTECTION SHOULD LEAVE IMMEDIATELY!"
That doesn't sound very nice, does it? In truth, there is lethal radiation present in this Compnode, but it is being emitted in such low amounts that the clones present will die from it in about 40 yearcycles or so. Of course, they won't be around that long, but hopefully this will make them nervous. Any calls to the Computer (ie: Compnode 567) regarding the radiation will receive a confirmation that the radiation is present, but nothing more.
3. The pipes: Literally hundreds of pipes wind their way about in this area. Troubleshooters with itchy trigger fingers (ie: most of them) are highly likely to damage and/or destroy a number of them, especially if they miss their targets. If you have the Random Pipe Contents Table from the "DOA Sector Travelogue", feel free to use it here. Otherwise, pipes could contain anything from experimental brands of Bouncy Bubble Beverage to PL&C forms being whisked to processing centres via vacuum tubes. Keep in mind that ruptured pipes will spill their contents into the area, making a mess (and giving the scrubots from corridor F something to do, if they have been activated). Slippery or sticky substances might make combat a little difficult, too, if it is spread all over the floor.
4. Lighting: Although the Troubleshooters should not be interested in the Compnode's lighting system, they should (if they have encountered grues before, in which case the following should apply to the survivors of those encounters) be a little concerned by the fact that it flickers a lot. Periods during which there is no light at all could last several minutecycles - long enough for the dutiful clones to hear the shuffling of large, clawed feet approaching them from the darkened corridors, and hear their retreat when the lights turn on again. If you play your cards right, one or more Troubleshooters will be watching the lights warily, praying that they don't fail for a prolonged period before Trans-I-STR-5 arrives. This should keep those pitiful clones on their toes.
As a side note, if (when) a firefight erupts around the Compnode, you might wish to allow a certain chance that any shots that miss their targets might, instead of hitting a pipe, destroy one of the lights. Let's say that, in the junction area itself, there are ten lights overhead. Imagine what a prolonged firefight would do...
5. Compnode 567: Although the entire junction is named Compnode 567, that name more properly refers to the building in the middle of that junction. The Blue doors leading into it, which are powered (and open only when the proper 20-digit code is entered into a keypad just to the left of them - a code known only by Trans-I-STR-5, oddly enough), are the only means of entering the small facility. The walls are made of an extremely advanced, highly-classified alloy which can withstand almost anything short of a tacnuke.
Although the Troubleshooters may never enter the facility proper, it's probably a good idea to describe briefly what lies inside. Basically, the interior of the facility (Indigo clearance - even the lighting in Indigo-tinted) is home to the actual machinery that makes up Compnode 567 - the minicomputer, the power supply, and the connections (via a private electronic network) to the other 99 Compnodes in this system, and to the loudspeakers spread around this area. The minicomputer stands about two metres tall, and is essentially a large glass tube filled with blinking lights, hoses, wiring, and unidentifiable components. Situated in front of the minicomputer is a keyboard and flat-screen monitor mounted on a pedestal. It is from this workstation that manual commands can be given to this Compnode.
Needless to say, all of this circuitry is very fragile, and highly sensitive to electromagnetic pulses (such as those from ECM shells and the like). A firefight in here, or even loud explosions outside, could also damage Compnode 567.
Waiting for Trans-I-STR-5:
So, if you have done your job as a good Paranoia GM, the Troubleshooters should be getting very nervous by now. They are all alone in a remote part of ZRK Sector, exposed to lethal radiation, and surrounded by nasty critters who fear light - but the lights themselves look like they might fail at any minute. Throw a secret society mission or two on top of that, and you have a classic case of paranoia....
Let your players suffer, let them whine, let them plead for mercy - refuse to give them any satisfaction! For all you know, Trans-I-STR might not arrive for hourcycles to come. Then, just when despair reaches a critical point...he arrives.
Trans-I is not much to look at - his jumpsuit, though well-tailored, is plain, and numerous pockets containing pens, notepads, and other bureaucratic tools bulge all over the place. His greying hair is unkempt, and he walks with a shuffling gait. Upon noticing the Troubleshooters, he makes his way towards them in an unconcerned manner (as though he owns the place), and in a quiet voice asks them for item 23.34/AA.
Gee, the Troubleshooters better have it on hand, shouldn't they? Hopefully they remembered to pick it up, or Trans-I will be a very unhappy Citizen indeed! Being of high clearance is bad enough; belonging to CPU makes matters even worse. If the Troubleshooters do not have the aforementioned item, he will quickly notice this fact, whip out his ComUnit, and radio The Computer to report their incompetence. Fortunately for the Troubleshooters, Compnode 567 will respond instead, and after a few literal interpretations of his requests to sentence the Troubleshooters to a slow and painful termination, he will curse in frustration, and radio his private detachment of Green Vulture goons. These will arrive in an inconveniently short time, and make short work of the Troubleshooters - new clones for everyone, and redeploy to the Compnode - with item 23.34/AA in possession.
If the Troubleshooters do have the item, he will take it from them (in a rather rough manner), and walk to the Compnode facility entrance, where he will enter the 20-digit code (23456098456789012345), and slip inside. Unless the Troubleshooters act quickly (ie: they tell you right away that they are going to follow Trans-I into the facility), none of them will be able to react quickly enough to enter as well before the security door slams shut. If you think this is unfair, then allow each Troubleshooter who wishes to follow him to make a quartered Agility roll. If any of them fail, they get smacked by the crushing force of the closing door (damage column 14), and will be immobilised until Trans-I has finished his testing - or someone presses the Red button next to the door on the inside of the facility. To make things even more interesting, if more than one of them try to follow him, then force them to make competing quartered Agility rolls - the lowest roll makes it; all others are crushed.
Do the Troubleshooters remember that they are not supposed to watch the testing of item 23.34/AA? Are any of them loyal Citizens? You might wish to "encourage" the Loyalty Officer (or any loyal/opportunistic Troubleshooter) to take down the names of those who violate this order; or you could have the whole thing descend into a typical Paranoia bloodbath.
One final note - if, for whatever reason, the Troubleshooters decide to reduce Trans-I to a fine mist, they will have to contend with his Emergency Distress Beacon (EDB) - a handy, almost undetectable device given to many high-clearance Citizens working in CPU or R&D. Whenever Trans-I takes damage that results in an incapacitation or death (but not vapourisation), the EDB will set off a signal that alerts his Vulture guards, who will then arrive on the scene to waste the evil commie traitors who are attacking him. Redeploy the next clones as mentioned above, possibly with Trans-I-STR-6.
What Is Item 23.34/AA?:
You're probably wondering, "Just what is item 23.34/AA, anyway, and why is it so important that the Troubleshooters have to guard it so closely, without knowing what it does?" Good question - that's why you're the GM, and your players aren't. Briefly, item 23.34/AA is a portable anti-ECM field - by pressing the button, it will envelop the operator, and everything else within 3 metres, in an energy field that will insulate the occupants from an electromagnetic pulses (such as those from ECM slugs and shells). Ideally, this would protect bots (and more importantly, The Computer) from such attacks. Unfortunately, as with many R&D devices, it does not function as intended - it does an excellent job repelling lasers (it functions as L15 armour for the occupants of the field), but it does nothing against electromagnetic attacks.
Due to the nature of this item, it is classified Ultraviolet (wouldn't your players be surprised to know that their Troubleshooters were playing with an extremely high-clearance item?) - not even Trans-I knows exactly what the item is supposed to do! He was told to take it into the facility, activate it near the Compnode, and fire an ECM slug at the Compnode itself. He was then to write out his observations, and to send the Troubleshooters back to ZRK Sector R&D with his report. The only important detail he was told, was that the Compnode should not be damaged as a result of the test...
...Unfortunately, Trans-I is an active member of PURGE. When he does test the item, the resulting incapacitation of the Compnode (because item 23.34/AA does not function as intended) will not go unnoticed. He will falsify the report to indicate that the Compnode was not damaged, so that item 23.34/AA might be deployed all over Alpha Complex to protect sensitive portions of The Computer's network. He will also let PURGE know about the test, so that they will be able to target these locations, where, they hope, security will become lax (since everyone will think the item works). Then, they will be able to overthrow the Digital Dictator once and for all!
Testing Item 23.34/AA:
Whether or not any Troubleshooters make it into the facility to watch the testing, the mission can continue as described below; the Troubleshooters may jump to conclusions sooner if some or all of them manage to watch the test (this is assuming that they are not terminated by their fellow Troubleshooters, or Trans-I himself, for being the craven, sneaky traitors that they are).
The facility itself has very thick walls - the Troubleshooters, if they are outside, will not hear the whirring noises made by item 23.34/AA when it is activated, or the crackling made by the glowing, red-tinged energy field generated by it. They will not hear Trans-I's pocket slugthrower firing at Compnode 567, and the smell of fried circuitry, and the sounds of the Compnode encountering a system failure for the first time, will be unknown to them.
Once Trans-I leaves the facility (which now reeks of fried circuitry, and is possibly littered with dead Troubleshooters if any of them managed to enter it, and did not leave before he noticed them), he will hand the now-deactivated item 23.34/AA to the nearest Troubleshooter, and toss a sealed Indigo envelope (containing his test observations) to the Team Leader. Without another word, he will walk down tunnel B, and never be seen again.
Chapter 4 - Returning to Civilisation - Now What Are We Supposed To Do?:
So, Trans-I-STR-5 has left the Troubleshooters with an Indigo envelope, containing a falsified report which states that item 23.34/AA does, in fact, perform as intended. Since it is unlikely that the Troubleshooters managed to enter the facility to observe the testing (no doubt being the loyal and paranoid Citizens that they are), they are unlikely to have any idea that they have in their possession something which could, ultimately, destroy The Computer! Savour the irony - you've earned it.
Even if they did not observe Trans-I's treasonous behaviour, there are some telltale signs that all is not well at Compnode 567. For one thing, any attempts to contact "The Computer" (ie: Compnode 567 itself) will be unsuccessful; faint static is all that will be heard on their ComUnits. Another sign that something is amiss is that, as Compnode 567 controlled the flow of power to this portion of ZRK Sector, the lighting will begin to fluctuate wildly, and those little arrows on the pressure gauges mounted on the surrounding pipes will begin to make their way towards the "red zone".
If the Troubleshooters are standing around, wondering what to do (assuming they take the time to try and contact "The Computer", and find out something is wrong), have one or two pipes explode from the no-longer-regulated pressure within them - spilling their contents all over the place (use the Random Pipe Contents Table if you have it). If that doesn't work, perhaps having one or two lights crackle and die (plunging the Troubleshooters into even deeper gloom) might spur them into action. The grues are still out there, and they are just waiting for the lights to go out so they can enjoy a tasty snack.
Returning to Civilisation II - Let's Get Out of Here!!:
If you have done your job as GM, the Troubleshooters should be starting to panic about now. Do they remember how they got here? Probably not. That means yet another trek through the wilds of ZRK Sector - except this time they have an Indigo report to carry back. Stress to them that this is a Very Important Document, something that is worth more to The Computer than their own miserable selves. You may also wish to stress that, as the envelope is of much higher security clearance than they are, and they lack the proper security authorisation forms to possess an item of higher clearance, if they are caught with it in their possession, they will likely be terminated for treason.
Let the Troubleshooters come up with all sorts of crazy ideas to bring the report back with them - no need to tell them that the documentation requirements were waived by the Computer itself (to make it easier for item 23.34/AA to circulate throughout Alpha Complex - which might prove to be its downfall, depending on how things turn out). They wouldn't be paranoid otherwise, and we can't have that, can we? As they travel back to ZRK Sector proper, just toss in the odd comment, about how passing Citizens seem to glance at the Troubleshooters strangely, as though examining them, and how security cameras seem to focus on them for prolonged periods - longer than usual, anyway.
Assuming the Troubleshooters do finally get their act together and try to leave the area of Compnode 567, consult the random encounter table below, or simply select the encounter you wish, as many times as you like:
Yet Another ZRK Sector Random Encounter Table:
1-2 The overhead lighting suddenly goes out! Unless the Troubleshooters are carrying their own light sources, they will become grue-food very quickly.
3-4 A nearby pipe bursts open, spilling its contents (a large amount of translucent jelly) into the tunnel through which the Troubleshooters are moving. The jelly then starts to slither towards them, with the intention of enveloping (skill 13) and digesting (F6 damage per round) them. This critter is in fact a type of giant amoeba that escaped from DND Sector R&D some time ago.
5-6 The Troubleshooters encounter a band of seven ragged clones, dressed in faded and worn Red jumpsuits. Seeing the player characters, the other clones attack them with knives (skill 9, I7 damage), or improvised clubs made from bot arms (skill 8, I6 damage). If the attacking clones win, they will pillage the corpses for working laser weapons and other supplies, and be gone before the clone replacements arrive. These poor souls are remnants of a Troubleshooter team that was sent in to ZRK Sector several weeks ago, and have since become lost. They have nothing of value.
7-8 While wandering amongst the many twists and turns of ZRK Sector, the Troubleshooters enter a cavernous chamber, dominated by what appears to be a reservoir and dam. On the nearest side of the dam is a plaque, reading "Flood Control Dam #3". The door leading into what appears to be the control room has been welded shut. A path leads over the top of the dam into ZRK Sector once more.
9-10 The Troubleshooters find themselves in a long-forgotten maze of cubicles. Empty water coolers lie wrecked on the floor, surrounded by skeletons dressed in uniforms of various security clearances.
11-12 While meandering through the tunnels, the Troubleshooters encounter a party of six Commie traitors, wearing kevlar armour (P3) and armed with automatic slugthrowers, loaded with solid slugs (P7, skill 10). Upon seeing the Troubleshooters they will try to annihilate them. If the Troubleshooters win, they will be able to salvage any intact suit of armour, as well as weapons and unspent ammunition.
13-14 The ground begins to tremble, and pieces of the ceiling rain down (make three halved Agility rolls to avoid falling debris - taking I9 damage for each failed roll).
15-16 While walking through a dim tunnel, the Troubleshooters' progress is hindered by the presence of a large pile of debris, which blocks the passage completely. You may allow the Troubleshooters the option of trying to dig their way through, if you wish.
17 The Troubleshooters find themselves in a twisty maze of passages - all alike (Hah! Thought they'd escaped that, didn't they?).
18 While passing through a dark corridor, a whispering voice utters the word, "plugh" behind them. They will see no one else in the corridor, but if any clone says "plugh" aloud, they will be teleported to a square, featureless room, with the word "Y2" scrawled on one wall, and which possesses one exit. Leaving the room, they will find themselves in another section of ZRK Sector's maze of tunnels - but alone, unless anyone else said the word, too. Travelling alone can be dangerous, you know...
19 While passing through a brightly-lit corridor, the Troubleshooters notice that the walls are festooned with grafitti. If they take the time to read it, they will see such messages as, "XYZZY", "Frobozz was here", "Aimfiz the rich!", "Born to frotz", and "Grues drool". Incidentally, if any of the clones speaks these phrases aloud, only saying "XYZZY" will produce any effect - a hollow voice booms overhead, "Fool! That command has not been implemented! Use another!" Alternatively, if you have kept them wandering around ZRK Sector for quite some time, you may allow the utterance of the word "XYZZY" to teleport the clone in question out of the tunnels and into the inhabited portion of ZRK Sector - and the next section of the mission.
20 Anything you want to happen, happens. Or just roll again.
Once you think the Troubleshooters have suffered enough, bring them back to ZRK Sector R&D - so that the real hose job can begin!
The Long Road Home:
Provided that things have gone as they should (and as Supreme Roleplaying Dictator, you can make things happen in the manner you desire - you're the GM, after all), the Troubleshooters should be a little frayed about the edges, a little short in the clone department, and a little low on ammunition and supplies. They have seen Things No Clone Was Meant To See, and they have witnessed high treason (though they likely do not know about that - yet); all that remains is to push them over the edge. Just a little nudge is all it should take, and your players will (we hope) descend into a veritable bloodbath of accusations, treachery, and plotting.
There are, of course, many ways that treason (especially accusations thereof) may raise its ugly head:

1. The Portable Multi-Dimensional Container, for example, could shift one (or more) of its contents (especially some clone's treasure - preferably not the clone who signed for the "sack") into another dimension - never to be seen again. Imagine that clone's surprise when he or she asks the sack-bearer to retrieve that item, only to find it is not in there! Accusations of theft, and laser perforations, are the least of that clone's problems, and accusations of treason can crop up later on - during the debriefing.
   
2. The Self-Contained Portable Light Source could choose in inappropriate moment to flare up, and possibly explode (treat as a grenade for range and damage, but the flaming fuel acts as napalm). Who knows, maybe the user (not necessarily the clone who signed for the SCPLS) turned the knob too far, and opened the fuel well a little too far. Needless to say, lots of valuable (and expensive) equipment might be destroyed or damaged if that happened - and the SCPLS owner will probably be blamed during the debriefing for misuse of R&D equipment, destruction of Computer property, and a host of other ills. If he or she survives, that is.
   
3. The Experimental Self-Articulated Cutting Implement, since it glows in the presence of anything warmer than 10 degrees Celsius, will always be glowing as long as it is held by someone. Other clones may see this as sabotage of Computer-issued R&D equipment, since, if the item is supposed to glow in the presence of Commie traitors, that would indicate that they are traitors themselves. The sword's owner could also argue that, since the item was always glowing, there were traitors everywhere - including his or her teammates! This could be interesting during a debriefing...
   
4. Secret society missions should come into play. Depending on which society they serve, the Troubleshooters may have orders to kill other teammates, conduct acts of sabotage - possibly against item 23.34/AA, or other nefarious acts. Although a staple of any Paranoia mission, this should always be kept in mind. Service group missions apply here, as well.
   
5. The Indigo folder containing the test results for item 23.34/AA presents another temptation to commit treason. Secret society or service group missions might come into play here, too; although no true Troubleshooter is worthy of the name if they are not tempted to take a quick peek at what Trans-I-STR wrote. If they do, they will read that the test was successful. How little they know, if none of them witnessed the test...even so, ripping open the Indigo envelope and reading the Indigo-coloured sheet of paper, is high treason in and of itself. None of the players should need prompting here.
   

Now that we've got that out of the way, we can turn our attention to the Troubleshooters' triumphant return to the civilised portion of ZRK Sector - to a sector embroiled in SSR alert! Remember that little...quirk...about ZRK Sector? That all those R&D experiments have made it somewhat dimensionally unstable? Guess what happened while the Troubleshooters were at the Compnode?
Chapter 5 - Back to ZRK Sector R&D:
The Troubleshooters emerge from the last partially-ruined sewer, expecting to see the glowing towers of ZRK Sector R&D before them. Instead, they see a roughly circular clear area - presumably the area of effect of some explosion - covered with weird, tall Green things, apparently made of some material similar to algae (a field of tall grass has materialised where R&D used to be, but the Troubleshooters would not know that). Occupying the middle of this redeveloped zone is what appears to be a group of strangely armoured clones, sitting atop experimental personal transbots. They appear to be carrying long poles, some of which have pieces of fabric dangling from them. Surrounding this bizarre tableau is a ring of Armed Forces goons, called in to deal with the problem (which IntSec figures is not the result of Commie sabotage, and therefore is not their responsibility).
Before the Troubleshooters can do anything, they are accosted by a group of 14 Red-level Armed Forces goons, led by two Orange platoon leaders, Belb-O-ZZZ-2 and Disp-O-ZZZ-4. All of the Red troopers are armed with laser rifles (skill 10, damage L9), while Belb-O and Disp-O are armed with sonic rifles (skill 12, damage E8). Belb-O has been designated senior platoon leader, and as a result Disp-O will say nothing to the Troubleshooters - she is too busy polishing her rifle with a manic gleam in her eyes.
"You! What are you clones doing here?!? This is a restricted area!" screams Belb-O, levelling his rifle at the nearest Troubleshooter.
Look meaningfully at a random player (whose Troubleshooter is closest to Belb-O). If he or she says or does nothing within a few seconds, Belb-O shoots that clone for not responding appropriately to a higher-clearance Citizen. More than likely, a firefight could result from this, and even more than likely, replacement clones will be needed. Continue this scenario when they arrive, with Belb-O terrorising the fresh clones and refusing to let them go. If your unlucky player is able to make a response before their time is up, what happens next depends on what they say. Some ideas are below:

1. Act deferential and explain the Troubleshooter team's mission: Belb-O was told to apprehend anyone approaching the disaster site, and take them in for questioning, but to execute any suspected traitors. He's been having a bad day, so guess what he's inclined to do? If the Troubleshooter's story is not boring, reasonably short, and peppered with respectful phrases, roll a bootlicking check for the players in question. If the check succeeds, Belb-O is sufficiently impressed, and lets the Troubleshooters go. If not, refer above to the bit on what happens if the player says nothing.
   
2. Act aggressive and demand to get through, or try to run away: Refer above to the sentence explaining what happens when the Troubleshooters die.
   
3. Act evasive: Have the player make a halved fast talk roll. If successful, Belb-O will let the Troubleshooters go; if not, Belb-O will introduce the Troubleshooters to his sonic rifle, just as the Reds with him will introduce them to their laser rifles. Time for some fresh clones.
   

If the Troubleshooters do manage to get on Belb-O's good side, he explains to them what happened:
"Alright, then. Looks like you clones can go through, but be warned! ZRK Sector is under SSR Alert; no one goes anywhere without proper authorisation from Fro-B-OZZ-3. Things have been crazy for the past hourcycle, trying to restore order, rescuing those R&D crazies, and keeping any more of those foreign mutant scum (he gestures at the strange clones riding those weird transbots) from escaping the area and doing more damage. Now move along!"
Smart Troubleshooters should take this as a good cue to leave the area and try to locate any surviving R&D personnel. If they move towards the strange clones, Belb-O and his troops will prevent them, using extreme measures (it's a matter of domestic security, don't you know). If they ask about survivors, Belb-O will tell them that there is an emergency research facility located about one kilometre "that way" (pointing towards the portion of ZRK Sector that borders on DND Sector).
Well, it finally looks like the Troubleshooters are out of the proverbial woods, doesn't it? They survived the horrors of ZRK Sector, they have the results of the testing of item 23.34/AA, and they (hopefully) made it past Belb-O and his goons with at least one clone apiece. It seems that they are well and truly safe now. Don't count on it. In the meantime, let the players feel that they are, at last, safe. Tell them that the accoutrements of civilised Alpha Complex life begin to abound; confession booths are visible once more, video cameras and lights appear to be working, Citizens can be seen walking about in the distance, beyond the cordoned-off area. Let them see, as well, the ZRK Sector R&D Emergency Research Facility (the Computer frowns upon Its research being halted for any reason - even dimensional instabilities or reactor meltdowns are not acceptable reasons), already crackling and glowing in radioactive effluvium. Let them also see those strange mounted clones approaching them quickly from the rear, followed by straggling remnants of Belb-O's troops.
Well now! This sounds a little unpleasant, doesn't it? Here is what really happened: A bunch of knights, transported through a dimensional rift created by an R&D experiment gone awry, found themselves in a strange land filled with oddly-dressed people armed with weapons capable of mass destruction. About half of them were vapourised after trying to speak with the locals, and the remainder fled to the interior of the plain (upon which they had been riding before being teleported here). For the past hour, the knights (12 in all) have been trying to figure out a way to escape the cordoned-off area, until the arrival of the Troubleshooters provided them with an opportunity to attack some of the guards (Belb-O's troops, who found the Troubleshooters more interesting than guard duty, and continued to watch them after they left), and thus gain escape. Now, the Troubleshooters will have to face 12 angry knights.
How the battle turns out will be up to the Troubleshooters. The most prudent response would be to get out of the way and hide - possibly in that tall Green stuff (which could result in execution later on), or down one of the ever-present side corridors of Alpha Complex. The knights' main priority is to escape from this strange place, and any enemy who tries to evade them will be unharmed. Troubleshooters who bravely stand between the knights and their desire for freedom will face being trampled by the horses (skill 13, I11 damage) or being impaled on a lance (skill 14, I12 damage) or slashed by a sword (skill 13, I9 damage). The knights are wearing plate armour (I3), and their horses have plate barding (I3). Should the Troubleshooters decide to stand and fight, their best chance is to try to fire off as many shots at the knights or horses as they can. At galloping speed, the horses are able close the distance between the Troubleshooters and themselves in six rounds - then they will be literally on top of the clones. If the Troubleshooters manage to incapacitate or kill a horse, it will fall to the ground, and the knight will be dismounted, and forced to use his sword. If this happens, the nearest mounted knight will try to rescue his companion, and help him onto his own horse. Once the Troubleshooters have been shaken up a bit, and the remnants of Belb-O's troops catch up (this takes as long as you want), the knights ride down a wide corridor into the darkness, never to be seen again. It would not be a good idea for the Troubleshooters to hang around for much longer, since Belb-O's troops look battered, and angry - on to R&D...
ZRK Sector R&D - At Long Last:
As the Troubleshooters make their merry (they'd better be merry - give a couple of treason points to anyone who isn't) way to the ZRK Sector R&D Emergency Research Facility, subtly note to your players how the levels of security seem to increase. Well armed guards become more visible (and more menacing), and hastily-erected automated security lasers can be seen everywhere. Do the Troubleshooters still have the Indigo envelope containing item 23.34/AA's test results? Are they trying to hide it? Probably. If so, the guards (there is a squad of eight blocking the main entrance to the Emergency Research Facility) have a 50% chance (or 10 in 20, if you are using a d20 to determine probability) of noticing that the Troubleshooters are acting furtively, which means they have something to hide. The guards, being what they are, will likely want to question the Troubleshooters about their activities, and the envelope. How the situation unfolds is up to the players, but you should roleplay the guards as being hard cases - clones who enforce Alpha Complex regulations to the strictest degree possible, and who are not afraid to blast anyone who seems out of place. Their statistics and relevant skills are in the NPC roster at the end of this adventure, but for quick reference, all of them are armed with automatic slugthrowers loaded with solid slugs (skill 10, P7 damage).
Provided the Troubleshooters are able to weasel their way past the guards, whether by bribery (50 credits per guard - minimum), fast talking, or some other means, they are now free to enter R&D proper. It should be noted that, even if they do make it past the guards, a squad of six will follow them as long as they remain inside the facility - not too closely, but they will definitely make their presence known.

So Having recently accepted the fact that there are in fact supernatural occurrences in our world because I had encountered a number of them in my backwoods town and more importantly on my very property, having seen truly indescribable things, enough was enough and it was long overdue that I dealt with everything and take back my life, and I am going to start with my property and Sam. I called up Carter to help me with it. I cannot legally posses any firearms but he can, and on top of that he has some experience with the supernatural and cryptids. He doesn’t know what it is but is certain he’s got the tools to deal with it.
On the day Carter showed up to help me he brought along his girlfriend Ashley. This was the first time she had ever been on my property and her first response was to panic, grab Carter and declare “There really is something her. It’s smaller but it is still probably dangerous.” (Man she’s a strange one) We calmed her down and walked over to the house on my property to let Carl and Lacey know that we would be hunting in the back. Carl, ever so helpful volunteered himself to join and help us. With that Carl, Carter, and Ashley (a shock sight, I had taken her for such a girly girl) readied there rifles and all four of us went into the woods to hunt down that damned thing, Sam.
We found a few new big, deep, rectangular holes in the woods but that really isn’t worth nothing around here, and found absolutely nothing for hours. But the entire time we felt like we were being watched, and never heard a thing. It was unsettling, there should have been birds or other wildlife making noise out this far in the woods but other than us, absolute silence. We all felt as if we were prey, being stalked by a yet unseen force. Sam?
Near dark on the way back Ashley lunged to the front with lightning fast speed, dropped to a knee and readied her rifle before declaring “It’s there”. We all readied our weapons and waited. Eventually Carl declared there was nothing but was cut off sharply by Ashley “No… it’s coming.” We waited some more and as I was about to second that there was nothing there when a black blur darted from somewhere to behind a tree. I pointed to its location we all waited.
It’s tail slapped out on the right side of the tree and as we took aim it darted on the the left of the tree and took cover even closer to us behind another tree. It was fast but there was no mistaking it. It was Sam. Carter informed us he was going to move ahead to flank it. After he was about five yards from us, and right before he had it in his view it’s tail slapped out toward Carter, we aimed expecting it to be faking us out with its tail again, but it charged at Carter, lounged, and before we knew it was wrestling with him on the ground. Scratching and snapping at him as he did everything he could to keep it from landing any fatal damage. We couldn’t line up a shot so I charged in with a knife but was put on my ass by a whip of its tail (felt like I was hit with a brick). I knew I was about to loose my friend… my best friend. One of the few lights of my life since I moved back to this town, I don’t think I could take it after what happened to Jack. I watched in horror as it’s head jerked and snapped past all Carters defense and bit down somewhere on his head or neck region, then ripped back, and blood flew through the air.
I could barely make out what happened next, it was so fast, and I have to assume the trauma distorted the memory but this is what I remember. Ashley darted in in blinding speed and grabbed Sam by the torso in one hand (not physically possible, it couldn’t fit in her hand, it’s too big and her hand is, well, a hand) lift Sam overhead and spike it down into the ground in an arc motion. It began to run away but was clearly disheveled or hurt and disappeared in the distance. Ashley was on top of Carter… licking(?) His head or neck region (not reaching in, but it looked as if her tongue was extending down to him, like a foot away, all not possible, not sure what I actually saw). I climbed to all fours and crawled towards my dead friend, breaking into tears. When I got near him Ashley pulled him up into a hug, she held him tightly as his blood soaked and stained her blonde haired. Carl approached and got down to check on him.
Carter screamed out “FUCKING SHIT DUDE!’ and embraced her. Somehow he was still alive. Time suddenly sped up and before I knew it the three were on their feet and checking on me. They got me to my feet and checked to make sure I was alright. As if I and not Carter had taken the brunt and of the attack. I stared at my friend, he was covered in blood, his face and neck had many small scratches but nothing anywhere near as bad as I thought I had seen. And we raced to the house to clean our wounds.
Carter looked as if a small house cat had attacked him but was fine. My head was still spinning and I couldn’t make sense of what I thought I had seen and reality. He assured me he was fine and that “in the heat of battle” my mind had been playing tricks on me. Before they left, Carter told me “Sorry I couldn’t help you bro, but I know just the people to help us with that damn thing. I’ll make a call when I get home. Later.” and with that they left.
Carl walked me to my bungalow from the house, half way there we heard something that sounded like really loud panting in the distance, out in the woods. Or maybe, laughing? Was Sam mocking us?
We talked about the attack and he told me “I saw it rip out his throat! I don’t understand how that boy is still alive and only has a little paper cut.” We agreed that we had seen it had gotten his throat and couldn’t understand how he was still alive.
He got me home and pretty much tucked me into bed before going back home. I laid in bed thinking of the day’s events. Trying to make sense of everything. And right as I was nodding off, as if right on cue, Sam started scratching in the attic.
Okay, need to vent and recap all the events that led to the shit show that was the past about to occur. I inherited some property in this podunk town, I am starting to think the way that I inherited this property might have been more sinister than previously thought (more on that later). I had been living in a bungalow up on some cylinder blocks that has been a hard times fallback for my family that I thought I could rent. When I tried to rent it a creature I call Sam killed my tenant Al’s dog and then stalked the poor man and drove him insane, he now lives in a nursing home. Trying to fix it up (on Halloween) after the poor guy trashed it I experienced a number of supernatural occurrences and found myself going insane myself, I trying to murder a lamp under the delusion I was in a relationship with a chair that was cheating on me with said lamp. Got locked up in Fort winds mental facility, went broke, and finding myself on hard times had to move into said bungalow.
While living in this town I have witnessed a few supernatural events on Honey hallow road. Attempted to summon a demon at my friend Carters house (I am starting to think it may have worked). Had the fishing trip from hell. Found my dead childhood best friend working at one of the local liquor stores and I think I may have somehow killed him (not the first time he died). And finally my friends and I attempted to hunt that damned thing I call Sam and nearly lost my current best friend Carter, and may have seen more supernatural occurrences but those also might have been a concussion. And this whole time that god damned thing Sam has been stalking me, leaving dead animal at my front door (which feels very threatening), scratching at night and never letting me HAVE A GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP!
So it came down to me having to hire some self proclaimed cryptid hunters that Carter knows and claimed to have hired at some point. All the hell that I have been through failed to prepare me for this.
I was visiting Carl at the house and asking for his permission to ask if I could marry Stacy, he gave me his blessing and we made plans to celebrate later. We were interrupted by a large truck pulling up to my bungalow and went out to greet the alleged cryptid hunters. Two men got out, I still cannot believe these guys even exist, they are like poorly written characters from a comic, one was tall and had a very lean muscular build, wore a pair really tight jean shorts, an even tighter wife beater (the spitting image of white trash) that I could actually see his 8 pack through, a backwards cap, and boots. He called himself Clint Cleatus, he spoke undeservingly confident in some sort of extremely fast broken version of English, like if he wanted to me a nascar announcer but received any sort of education, not even grade school. The second guy looked like a short, burly, roided up gorilla that slouched forward and had extremely long, muscular arms, pale skin, and his head had shoulder length unkempt blonde hair that he continuously had to shake away from his eyes, and a bushy blonde beard that I feel like he never as much as trimmed. Basically the second guys head looked like a yellow tumble weed. He spoke in a low yet shockingly loud voice and in a manner that makes me think he is… well, touched in the head… and called himself Otis Hickey… like I said, poorly written characters that I cannot believe exist.
We met halfway between the house and bungalow and began talking about the job. After I gave them the rundown about Sam they turned to their right and Clint asked “So whacha think it his Toby” I turned to notice an extremely tall, extremely muscular man wearing nothing but some sort of loose black skirt thing had suddenly appeared (had he been laying in the truck bed? Where did he come from and how didn’t we notice this giant of a man approaching?). He was clean shaven and had long black hair, hair that flowed in a way that mesmerized me in some weird way that I just can’t explain. I looked to Carl and he seemed as shocked as I was to see the man. “My name is…” Toby began before Clint cut him off “Yeah we know Kunta Kinte, what’s hit?” Clint snapped. I could feel everyone including me having a burning desire to punch Clint in his face. “It is unknown to us…familiar” Toby sternly declared while staring at me, or perhaps, through me. “Wha? Ya know wha hit is or not? Clint asked. There was an awkward silence and we all just stood there nervously for a while, with the exception of Toby who stood stern, staring through me with a piercing gaze.
The silence was broken by Carter and his Girlfriend Ashley pulling up. Carter got out, covered in bandaids, and said with a big smile “So you met the hunters.” He exchanged some weird handshake with Clint and Otis while gave Toby a wave while blatantly avoiding him (clearly afraid of him). And as Ashley came around the truck to greet everyone, Clint uttered “sits her” (I assume that’s his way of saying “shit it’s her”) andhe took some weird pose as if he was mocking karate, Otis took and actually karate pose, and even Toby changed his stern pose as if he was preparing to fend off an attack. Carter calmed everyone down but they clearly remained Leary of this small blonde girl dressed in pink. (They clearly had some sort of negative history) “Back ta business, ya wanna buy some werewolf urine N tuff o hare to ward focker off or ya wan us ta kill et?” asked Toby (his speech is torture to my ears). “It needs to die” I declared. Carter insisted he wanted it dead as well and would be joining the hunt.
We devised some plans and broke up into teams. Toby was with Carl, Clint with Carter and Ashley (I felt really bad for them but if I was stuck with him I very well might end up hurting Clint), and I was with Otis. We each got some “bait” that was supposedly from something that I don’t think Clint actually knew how to pronounce and went into three sections of the woods, Carters team took the side closest to the bungalow, Toby’s team was the furthest point out, and Otis and I took the mid section of the woods.
Surprise! We found more rectangular grave like wholes. Other than that nothing out of the normal occurred for the first hour. On the second hour we got the feeling there was something watching us. We decided to put out our bait and wait. The feeling of being watched was getting to me. I began having flashbacks of Carter being attacked by Sam. Envisioning Carter dead, decapitated, with Sam feasting on his body, Sam smiling, proud of the kill. And when I hit my lowest mental point, as if right on cue as always, we saw Sam darting from tree to tree, sneakily heading towards the bait.
When he got to the bait Otis took a shot but Sam somehow dodged and began to close in on us, using trees for cover. It lunged at Otis but he grabbed it with one of his freakishly long powerful arms and flipped it over himself and into a tree. I was to horrified to even move but luckily Otis is a total badass. He kept taking different martial art posses and deploying expertly applied tosses and throws never allowing Sam to lay a scratch on him. He masterfully sidestepped Sam’s long powerful tail with ease, only exerting the minimal effort. If I wasn’t scared stiff I may have thought that it would be entertaining to watch this with some popcorn but images of the dead Rottweiler and Carter kept seeping into my mind, paralyzing me with fear. Eventually I noticed Otis’s eyes under his hair and realized he was terrified and despite how easy he made it look, he was afraid and fighting for his life, waiting for me to help him. But I couldn’t bring my self to do anything. He began to show fatigue, labored breathing, and I, crippled by fear, was powerless to save him.
A shot rang out, and a pink blur flashed past and hit Sam for a home run right into a tree, it was stunned. The pink blur was Ashley, and her bat was her rifle. She took aim at the dazed Sam but his tail slapped her rifle and she missed the shot. It lunged at her but again in mid air, Otis grabbed his tail. He had caught his breath and regained his composure, he began whipping Sam around by his tail, occasionally slamming him on the ground or into a tree. On one of his slams to the ground Ashley stomped on his back and held him down. She took am right at the back of Sam’s head. Sam looked right at me and smiled, then tugged Otis into Ashley with his tail, knocking both down, and darted for me.
One hand around his neck and the other pushing away his body I struggled. Sam snapping at me, slashing my arms and face with his claws I did all I could to fend off his savage flurry. I saw Otis stand up and start to approach only to barrel over as if something had knocked him down. Sam’s tail without a doubt. Sam missed a snap at me but I felt his cold wet nose touching mine with the miss. I powered him back with all my might but had no way to fight back. Suddenly a giant black thing grabbed Sam in its jaws. A giant black dog, no not a dog, a massive black wolf. It whipped Sam around with its teeth tearing into Sam as he let out a loud hissing sound. It carried him into the darkness of the woods, Sam’s tail and the wolfs long black mane seemingly hypnotized me. Ashley helped Otis up to his shock and horror. I began to work my way up to my feet and the hissing stopped. I heard an animal rushing at my side. Sam? The wolf? I began to turn my head to see what awaited me but suddenly I felt pressure on my chest and my body was lifted upright into the air. I found no monster but Toby putting me on my feet.
We needed to regroup and get a handle of the situation so we ran back to the house, Ashley up front, followed by Otis, then me, and Toby took the rear. When we left the woods the wolf raced past me and right past the others and right past the trucks and disappeared. Carl, Carter, and Clint were calling us over. When I made it to them I looked back for Toby but he was nowhere to be seen. “Is everyone alright” Toby’s voice echoed behind me (how did he get past me? Did he pass by me as I turned to look for him?).
We went over the events and Clint declared he had a “strat orgey” and insisted that we leave the rest to the three hunters. Seeing how both Carter and I both almost died on encounters with that damned thing and the three’s reluctance to even be near Ashley we felt we had no choice but to agree.
That night, the scratching finally stopped. In the morning, no dead animals. I knew it was over. Late in the day Carter called me up to meet with the hunters. We met them inside a pair of stacked double wide trailers outside the trailer park. As in someone welded 2 trailers together, one ontop of the other (super ghetto). Clint, Otis and an old man with some sort of accent were inside with the massive black wolf I had seen on the hunt. “So we caught cha crit are.” Proclaimed Clint. “Wait you didn’t kill it?!” I responded. “Ask Toby.” Clint said and pointed to the wolf. I began to contort and change its shape, when it finished Toby stood before me.
I looked to the others and everyone including Carter was calm and completely unfazed at the fact that an actual fucking werewolf was in the room with us. I was to shocked to say anything or even move.
“It’s Tobias.” Proclaimed the massive werewolf who was standing there naked. “The thing called Sam is a familiar, the house has wards upon it, and I believe you have been hexed.” He said. I was still frozen in shock and struggling with what I had heard and seen. Eventually I murmured “what?”
It took a while for them to get me to come out of shock and get a grasp of everything that was happening.
“But my fiancé and her family live there.” I said trying to make sense of the situation. “Ya gurlz a witch” blurted out Clint. “What! No!” I insisted. That man was a warlock.” Proclaimed Tobias. “An dat dare is dare famil or.” Clint said while pointing out the window at something.
Outside in a cage was Sam. Sitting dead center with his arms crossed looking like a spoiled child in time out. I couldn’t believe any of this. It was utter madness. They couldn’t be witches. None of this made any sense.
Carter tried to talk me down, “I don’t know about the witch thing but everything else makes sense. Look at everything that’s happened since they moved into that house, something isn’t right man. Everything was fine and all of a sudden your uncle croaked, everyone that moves in gets scared off or loses their minds. That Damned thing suddenly appeared. Think about it. They are trying to make them reliant on them, they want your property.’
“NO!” I shouted. I struggled to find words or make sense of everything. “They have a plan to prove it, and if they are wrong it won’t have any consequences. Just hear them out.” Carter explained. We talked things over and decided to try to expose them if they really were witches. I also needed a way to catch them if they really did want my property. They shaved Sam so they could give me a rug made from him, had me hold off on posting 2 of my recounts of events online, and had Tobias search the property for any evidence.
When I was leaving Clint pulled me aside and tried to warn me “Dat blonde isa de man, wash her.” “Umm what?” I replied. Then Ottis seemingly thunderously burped out “DEMON!” And Carter shouted out “DUDE DONT TALK ABOUT MY GIRL!” Having heard him. Carter pulled me away before I could question them or they could elaborate.
Tobias did in fact find something. Some of those herbs Carl was growing were more than just pot, and they could potentially have effects like the ones I experienced on Halloween. They believe they used it to drive me crazy that night. And he even found where Carl and Lacey had been preforming midnight mass and rituals, they even had me sneak out and watch them preform one.
Tobias and Clint went into hiding and called in a few favors to help with the plan. Otis showed up and acted all sad in front of Stacy and give me the rug from Sam’s fur. I have noticed that she seems almost affectionate towards that rug but she couldn’t be connected to this. Not my angel.
We continued with life as normal and even planned another double date on Honey hallow road.
Carter, Ashley, Stacy and I met up after work and went to a really old cemetery on the road. We found that the driveway connecting it to the road had been erased from existence, trees had fallen on top of it, vegetation had been growing on it for some time, and there was no signs of anyone or thing using it in over a decade. The only way we could even notice it was a crumbling stack of stones around the cemetery. The grave stones were all leaning if not already have fallen over and were completely illegible from being worn down by the weather, most had moss and were faded. Carter gave us a rundown of the facts he could find out about the site and those occupying it. Nothing spooky really happened though.
It was after dark when we finally got bored an decided to head to the local bar. On our way Ashley got panicked and demanded we pulled over about a hundred feet from a house. I don’t know what it is but she really seems to have some sort of sixth sense, and at this point we all realized it and didn’t question her in the slightest. She told me to turn off the vehicle and had us follow her out of the vehicle.
I was definitely creeped out but really had no idea why. Ashley guided us towards the home. About 50 feet away she told us to stop and told us “No sudden movements, they aren’t here for us.” Stacy panicked “What!? Who!?” Ashley hushed her and pointed to the edge of the woods of the property. At first we saw nothing, but after a while we noticed glowing green eyes, easily over a dozen pairs. I turned back to Carter but before I could say anything I noticed that there were glowing green eyes on our side, they were closer and I could make out that they were an odd rectangular shape. I looked all around us and found that they had completely surrounded us.
I pointed them out to Carter and suddenly found Stacy holding me tightly, she was quivering with fear. We watched them move around us and descend upon the house. “Call an ambulance” Ashley sharply ordered while trying to keep her voice down. There’s never any service in this town but we all gave our phones a try. I wondered what we would tell them if we could get service. We watched them inch closer to the house and noticed they were all different sizes. The closest to the house began to, climb(?), it. Once they all reached the house they all seemed to disappear at once. “Oh shit” declared Ashley. A moment passed in silence and then they all suddenly reappeared and began charging away from the house in all directions.
“Get down!” Ashley ordered. We complied and huddled together on the ground while the things with glowing green eyes stampeded off into the darkness. When they were gone Ashley demanded we find service and call 911 as she ran to the house, I followed her. She began slamming at the door trying to get someone insides attention. When I reached the house I found I had a signal and called 911. Ashley took the phone from me and begged for a welfare check on the house. Stacy approached and tried to calm her. She said something to her that sent chills up my spine, “There was nothing we could do. They have already taken his soul.”
We pulled the car up to the driveway and waited for the state troopers for the welfare check. Ashley came up with a story about hearing someone screaming for help inside. They went in and found an old man dead in his bed on the second story. They took our statements, called to have the body taken away, and had us leave the premises. We would later find out later he had died of “natural causes”.
As we slowly drove down the road Intending to ho home noticed a big glowing white light in the sky and pulled over. “Ash?” I asked. “I have absolutely no idea.” She replied as we all watched this glowing round white light slowly move towards us until it was right above us. Suddenly a blindingly bright light shot down from it. It was as if we were standing in a white pillar of light, it only lasted a few seconds and it seemed to have paralyzed my body. I thought for sure we were about to be abducted and I silently prayed they didn’t probe us, but nothing happened. When it was over the white thing in the sky quickly accelerated up and away as if it was flying to outer space. We checked the time and we hadn’t lost any. I found myself somehow feeling almost rejected.
“Well that was fucking different.” Carter said. “No one will believe any of this.” I replied. I started up the car and began to drive us home. “I think we should keep this to ourselves.” Stacy declared. We all agreed. After all, it’s hard enough to get people to believe that you experienced one supernatural event. No one would ever believe we had witnessed a supernatural event and a possible extraterrestrial encounter on the same night. Not even in this backwoods town, not even on Honey hollow road.
The next day I approached Stacy and Carter and demanded they let me in on what was going on. “Look, remember that night we tried to summon a demon?” Said Carter. “Well it worked and we got a few to come through to our dimension, I doubt they were demons but definitely not of our world. Clint and the others helped me deal with them after you left and we found her out in the woods. She was running from someone and I ended up taking her in. Clint thinks it’s weird that we found her where we did, when we did but she’s just a human girl in a bad situation.”
Something didn’t add up and he was clearly in denial. I asked him to get us some beers so we could relax a bit, when he was gone I asked her directly “What’s up with your tongue?” “I saved your life” she quietly snapped. That’s wasn’t a rope, it was “that wasn’t a rope, it was your tongue, I saw it.” I said quietly so Carter wouldn’t hear us. As Carter returned with the beers he read the room and a dejected look appeared on his face as he put his hands over his face.
“I am just trying to make sense of everything.” I said looking at him. As I stared at him a long tentacle reached up to the six pack he had, wrapped around them and pulled them away from him and across the room, setting them down on the table, and then retracted back into Ashley’s mouth. She cracked one open and asked “we are friends right? Does any of this really matter?” While extending a can to me. “She saved your life, she saved my life when that damned thing ripped out my throat.”
There was a few seconds of silence but I reached out and took the beer. “You are my friends and I really need you guys. Both of you.” I said and cracked open my can. “So how about I order us up some pizzas and the three of us spend a night in?” And so we did, and we had a great time.
The time had come and I was beginning to realize that when I had said Stacy had me under a spell that maybe I had been right. We moved so fast and literally before I knew it we were married. As in we went out one night and got married, and I don’t remember it at all. The hunters had gotten everything else right. It was all making sense.
We would use Sam as leverage and the hunters took preparations for dealing with witches and keeping me safe. They found a place nearby to hide me and an officer that owed Clint a favor faked my death. Clint actually worked with Ashley (like hell froze over) and arranged to lure some of these things with the glowing eyes to my property to make it really look like I had past on. We watched them for a while and then came the day I confronted them.
Stacy actually posted using my account that I had passed. To keep a paper trail we confronted her through edits other post. Two different IPs in on the same account in two different locations.the following is taken from the account
“”Stacy: If you have read the stories posted by this account then you have heard of me, I am called Stacy in the stories posted. My husband who has posted on her a number of times has passed. He was truly a good man but had some mental issues that over took him in his final days. He began to believe the things he wrote and read on places like this were in fact real and became extremely paranoid and depressed. Ranting and raving about monsters, ghosts, aliens, demons, and serial killers hiding in plain sight in our small little backwoods town. Near the end I could barely recognize him physically or his personality.
I will never forget meeting him, my parents had him over for dinner, there was this large, strong man sitting on the front steps with my dad talking about something. He had the saddest sunken eyes, while forcing a smile, a man clearly on hard times, trying to keep appearances. As I approach my father gave me a wave and the man that I would marry shortly after first noticed me, his eyes lit up a bit and his forced smile changed and seemed more real, and he slightly blushed. Throughout the evening he tried to be charming in his own awkward little way, and in his at it worked. I felt as if I had found at the least, my new best friend. From then on I was always eager to see him, and things grew and escalated quite fast.
But now he is gone, and I am making funeral plans. At least he left me with many great memories and the property that my family and I live on. I will truly miss him. If you, like him, find yourself believe the stories on sites like this please remember that they are nothing but stories. If you ever feel like the world is closing in on you, that you can never do anything right, that people or things are out to get you, please remember there are people that love and care about you. There are people that will be glad listen to you and help you. Reach out the those people or please call the suicide hotline 1 800-273-8255. Help is just one phone call or text away.
Me: You play the part of a grieving widow very well Stacy. But here I am alive and well. Like I sent you in the text, reply on here. And if you need proof of it being me, how’s this? His name was Jason, we chose Oddesa, and on the fishing trip there wasn’t a rope. You remember those personal moments and I have not posted the details of the fishing trip anywhere.””
I texted her once to look at the post, told her to edit in her response and ignored her for a bit until she posted online. Some of that won’t make sense to you because they are personal things nobody online would understand and two of them reference the events that we had been through and I had not put anywhere online.
“”Stacy: why won’t you answer my calls? I need to hear your voice. Answer me. Call me. Please. This is crazy. Have you stopped taking your meds? You need help. Tell me where you are. I thought you were dead. I have something important to tell you, I am pregnant, I can’t do this alone.””
I couldn’t believe what I had read but Clint and Carter did their best to convince me it was a manipulation. I couldn’t resist and gave her a brief call just to confirm what she had wrote. Then redacted the part about the pregnancy before continuing.
“”Me: All replies here from this point on. I am nearby. And I am not alone and have all the help I need. My death notification was a favor owed to Clint. He’s alive, and so is that other hunter Tobias, I am sure you or your parents noticed him stalking MY property in his wolf form by now. And with their help we lured those things with the glowing eyes to the property to fool your family into thinking I was dead. Oh, and we have your little pet Sam, alive and well. Although he looks a bit goofy since we had to shave him to make that little rug for you.
Stacy: This is insane. You are scaring me. Look at the stuff that you are writing and how you are acting. Let me help you. Where are you?
Me: I am not crazy. We know what those herbs your family are growing are and that your family drugged me with them that Halloween. And that you have probably been dosing me with them regularly. With this conversation online for people to see I will expose your family and prove I am not crazy. We WILL expose you for what you are. Tobias figured it out when he saw the house and first saw Sam. We still don’t know what he is but he was able to figure out Sam is a familiar.
Stacy: This is crazy! That’s all just pot. And you know that. This is all Carter screwing up your head with his and his friends conspiracy theories and obsession with cult crap. Where are you. I love you.
Me: Tell me dear wife, Clint tells me if you hammer a nail into a witch’s footprint that it’s just like actual hammering it directly into the witches foot, he says it has something to do with a pact they make for power early during their training. If I take this nail in my hand and hammer it into this footprint you so carelessly left in the snow, will it hurt?””
(I redacted part of this for personal reasons but it involves out family and some extremely personal things I am obvious attempt to manipulate me)
I had enough and decided to follow through. I walked out to a spot she had carelessly left a footprint and thought to myself that maybe I was crazy. Maybe my friends were a bad influence on me. Nothing will happen if I do this. She isn’t a witch. She is my angel. Carter told me “if you do it and nothing happens than we were wrong, no harm no foul and you can work this out.” I took a deep breath and drove the nail into the print. Off in the distance I heard her scream in pain.
“”Stacy: I can’t believe you did that. THAT HURT YOU ASSHOLE! You win, what do you want?
Me: Wow, that sounded painful, WE heard you scream from here.
Stacy: yes I am a witch. And my parents did things to you in an attempt to keep the property. Sam is our familiar, please don’t hurt him. What do you want? Can we talk this out, please?
Me: Answers. The truth of how I inherited my family property. What actually happened on Halloween. Why you want my family property so bad, and why your family keep digging those holes? Did you want me dead or just insane? It’s time to come clean. Meet me inside the church. I have my friends with me and I think you know how powerful some of them are by now so no tricks. You can feel free to bring your family. And if you aren’t here in the next 30 minutes I’ll put another nail in your footprint, I have a whole box of them with me.
Stacy: I am on my way, please don’t use the nails again or hurt Sam, he’s just a cub. I am begging you. (My name), I really do love you. And I know you still love me. We can work this out. I’ll be there soon.””
She showed up with Lacey. She was walking with a limp and was given me a scowl. Lacey approached and began to explain “look this is a misunderstanding between you two. Carl and I didn’t want you to build in the clearing, and hallow was just our attempt to stop you. Stacy had both to do with it”
“And Sam?” I questioned. “He’s really territorial and it’s not exactly easy to normalize him with regular folks. We haven’t done anything to you since you two got together.” Lacey replied. “Because I love you and wouldn’t let them do anything to you Bobby.” Stacy blurted out on the verge of tears.
To those reading this, Please respect our privacy and don’t try to contact us. I don’t want to go into what else happened but we worked things out. We are living out our lives in private. I will occasionally post some of the strange going ons in our backwoods town but, I think my story is complete. Maybe I’ll let Carter or Clint use my account to detail their eccentric exploits into the supernatural.
Everything is fine, everyone gets along, and everyone has gotten a happy ending. The way I inherited the property was not sinister. Stacy and I are happily married, and remain a happy couple, with our first little one on the way. I am on positive terms with the in-laws again and Carl is helping me build a house in the clearing for our blooming family. I was also able to negotiate a lucrative business deal between them and Clint. Don’t worry about the holes, that’s a private personal matter.
Carter is forever bound to Ashley who he worships (I suspect that is all literal) and they regularly still check out supposedly supernatural stuff. They remain our closest friends.
The former tenant Al in the old folks home is actually really happy their and we gave him the rug made from Sam’s fur to give him some closer.
Sam is still around and has grown his fur back, he is a very friend pet now that he has been introduced to everyone (except Tobias), comparable to a cat or dog really. I negotiated a business arrangement with the cryptid hunters and my in-laws and keep in regular contact with Clint and Otis, but haven’t seen Tobias in a while.
Speaking of Clint, if you ever are driving around in a backwoods town in the Northeast, and see 2 stacked double wide trailers on the outside of a trailer park, please stop by. He sells all sorts of cryptid trophies from his hunts, all different cryptid baits and repellents, and now he can even arranged actual hexes and wards for a price. Tell them Jack sent you and they’ll even have a little surprise gift for you. So please stop on by.
life in a backwoods town (part 1)

So Having recently accepted the fact that there are in fact supernatural occurrences in our world because I had encountered a number of them in my backwoods town and more importantly on my very property, having seen truly indescribable things, enough was enough and it was long overdue that I dealt with everything and take back my life, and I am going to start with my property and Sam. I called up Carter to help me with it. I cannot legally posses any firearms but he can, and on top of that he has some experience with the supernatural and cryptids. He doesn’t know what it is but is certain he’s got the tools to deal with it.
On the day Carter showed up to help me he brought along his girlfriend Ashley. This was the first time she had ever been on my property and her first response was to panic, grab Carter and declare “There really is something her. It’s smaller but it is still probably dangerous.” (Man she’s a strange one) We calmed her down and walked over to the house on my property to let Carl and Lacey know that we would be hunting in the back. Carl, ever so helpful volunteered himself to join and help us. With that Carl, Carter, and Ashley (a shock sight, I had taken her for such a girly girl) readied there rifles and all four of us went into the woods to hunt down that damned thing, Sam.
We found a few new big, deep, rectangular holes in the woods but that really isn’t worth nothing around here, and found absolutely nothing for hours. But the entire time we felt like we were being watched, and never heard a thing. It was unsettling, there should have been birds or other wildlife making noise out this far in the woods but other than us, absolute silence. We all felt as if we were prey, being stalked by a yet unseen force. Sam?
Near dark on the way back Ashley lunged to the front with lightning fast speed, dropped to a knee and readied her rifle before declaring “It’s there”. We all readied our weapons and waited. Eventually Carl declared there was nothing but was cut off sharply by Ashley “No… it’s coming.” We waited some more and as I was about to second that there was nothing there when a black blur darted from somewhere to behind a tree. I pointed to its location we all waited.
It’s tail slapped out on the right side of the tree and as we took aim it darted on the the left of the tree and took cover even closer to us behind another tree. It was fast but there was no mistaking it. It was Sam. Carter informed us he was going to move ahead to flank it. After he was about five yards from us, and right before he had it in his view it’s tail slapped out toward Carter, we aimed expecting it to be faking us out with its tail again, but it charged at Carter, lounged, and before we knew it was wrestling with him on the ground. Scratching and snapping at him as he did everything he could to keep it from landing any fatal damage. We couldn’t line up a shot so I charged in with a knife but was put on my ass by a whip of its tail (felt like I was hit with a brick). I knew I was about to loose my friend… my best friend. One of the few lights of my life since I moved back to this town, I don’t think I could take it after what happened to Jack. I watched in horror as it’s head jerked and snapped past all Carters defense and bit down somewhere on his head or neck region, then ripped back, and blood flew through the air.
I could barely make out what happened next, it was so fast, and I have to assume the trauma distorted the memory but this is what I remember. Ashley darted in in blinding speed and grabbed Sam by the torso in one hand (not physically possible, it couldn’t fit in her hand, it’s too big and her hand is, well, a hand) lift Sam overhead and spike it down into the ground in an arc motion. It began to run away but was clearly disheveled or hurt and disappeared in the distance. Ashley was on top of Carter… licking(?) His head or neck region (not reaching in, but it looked as if her tongue was extending down to him, like a foot away, all not possible, not sure what I actually saw). I climbed to all fours and crawled towards my dead friend, breaking into tears. When I got near him Ashley pulled him up into a hug, she held him tightly as his blood soaked and stained her blonde haired. Carl approached and got down to check on him.
Carter screamed out “FUCKING SHIT DUDE!’ and embraced her. Somehow he was still alive. Time suddenly sped up and before I knew it the three were on their feet and checking on me. They got me to my feet and checked to make sure I was alright. As if I and not Carter had taken the brunt and of the attack. I stared at my friend, he was covered in blood, his face and neck had many small scratches but nothing anywhere near as bad as I thought I had seen. And we raced to the house to clean our wounds.
Carter looked as if a small house cat had attacked him but was fine. My head was still spinning and I couldn’t make sense of what I thought I had seen and reality. He assured me he was fine and that “in the heat of battle” my mind had been playing tricks on me. Before they left, Carter told me “Sorry I couldn’t help you bro, but I know just the people to help us with that damn thing. I’ll make a call when I get home. Later.” and with that they left.
Carl walked me to my bungalow from the house, half way there we heard something that sounded like really loud panting in the distance, out in the woods. Or maybe, laughing? Was Sam mocking us?
We talked about the attack and he told me “I saw it rip out his throat! I don’t understand how that boy is still alive and only has a little paper cut.” We agreed that we had seen it had gotten his throat and couldn’t understand how he was still alive.
He got me home and pretty much tucked me into bed before going back home. I laid in bed thinking of the day’s events. Trying to make sense of everything. And right as I was nodding off, as if right on cue, Sam started scratching in the attic.
Okay, need to vent and recap all the events that led to the shit show that was the past about to occur. I inherited some property in this podunk town, I am starting to think the way that I inherited this property might have been more sinister than previously thought (more on that later). I had been living in a bungalow up on some cylinder blocks that has been a hard times fallback for my family that I thought I could rent. When I tried to rent it a creature I call Sam killed my tenant Al’s dog and then stalked the poor man and drove him insane, he now lives in a nursing home. Trying to fix it up (on Halloween) after the poor guy trashed it I experienced a number of supernatural occurrences and found myself going insane myself, I trying to murder a lamp under the delusion I was in a relationship with a chair that was cheating on me with said lamp. Got locked up in Fort winds mental facility, went broke, and finding myself on hard times had to move into said bungalow.
While living in this town I have witnessed a few supernatural events on Honey hallow road. Attempted to summon a demon at my friend Carters house (I am starting to think it may have worked). Had the fishing trip from hell. Found my dead childhood best friend working at one of the local liquor stores and I think I may have somehow killed him (not the first time he died). And finally my friends and I attempted to hunt that damned thing I call Sam and nearly lost my current best friend Carter, and may have seen more supernatural occurrences but those also might have been a concussion. And this whole time that god damned thing Sam has been stalking me, leaving dead animal at my front door (which feels very threatening), scratching at night and never letting me HAVE A GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP!
So it came down to me having to hire some self proclaimed cryptid hunters that Carter knows and claimed to have hired at some point. All the hell that I have been through failed to prepare me for this.
I was visiting Carl at the house and asking for his permission to ask if I could marry Stacy, he gave me his blessing and we made plans to celebrate later. We were interrupted by a large truck pulling up to my bungalow and went out to greet the alleged cryptid hunters. Two men got out, I still cannot believe these guys even exist, they are like poorly written characters from a comic, one was tall and had a very lean muscular build, wore a pair really tight jean shorts, an even tighter wife beater (the spitting image of white trash) that I could actually see his 8 pack through, a backwards cap, and boots. He called himself Clint Cleatus, he spoke undeservingly confident in some sort of extremely fast broken version of English, like if he wanted to me a nascar announcer but received any sort of education, not even grade school. The second guy looked like a short, burly, roided up gorilla that slouched forward and had extremely long, muscular arms, pale skin, and his head had shoulder length unkempt blonde hair that he continuously had to shake away from his eyes, and a bushy blonde beard that I feel like he never as much as trimmed. Basically the second guys head looked like a yellow tumble weed. He spoke in a low yet shockingly loud voice and in a manner that makes me think he is… well, touched in the head… and called himself Otis Hickey… like I said, poorly written characters that I cannot believe exist.
We met halfway between the house and bungalow and began talking about the job. After I gave them the rundown about Sam they turned to their right and Clint asked “So whacha think it his Toby” I turned to notice an extremely tall, extremely muscular man wearing nothing but some sort of loose black skirt thing had suddenly appeared (had he been laying in the truck bed? Where did he come from and how didn’t we notice this giant of a man approaching?). He was clean shaven and had long black hair, hair that flowed in a way that mesmerized me in some weird way that I just can’t explain. I looked to Carl and he seemed as shocked as I was to see the man. “My name is…” Toby began before Clint cut him off “Yeah we know Kunta Kinte, what’s hit?” Clint snapped. I could feel everyone including me having a burning desire to punch Clint in his face. “It is unknown to us…familiar” Toby sternly declared while staring at me, or perhaps, through me. “Wha? Ya know wha hit is or not? Clint asked. There was an awkward silence and we all just stood there nervously for a while, with the exception of Toby who stood stern, staring through me with a piercing gaze.
The silence was broken by Carter and his Girlfriend Ashley pulling up. Carter got out, covered in bandaids, and said with a big smile “So you met the hunters.” He exchanged some weird handshake with Clint and Otis while gave Toby a wave while blatantly avoiding him (clearly afraid of him). And as Ashley came around the truck to greet everyone, Clint uttered “sits her” (I assume that’s his way of saying “shit it’s her”) andhe took some weird pose as if he was mocking karate, Otis took and actually karate pose, and even Toby changed his stern pose as if he was preparing to fend off an attack. Carter calmed everyone down but they clearly remained Leary of this small blonde girl dressed in pink. (They clearly had some sort of negative history) “Back ta business, ya wanna buy some werewolf urine N tuff o hare to ward focker off or ya wan us ta kill et?” asked Toby (his speech is torture to my ears). “It needs to die” I declared. Carter insisted he wanted it dead as well and would be joining the hunt.
We devised some plans and broke up into teams. Toby was with Carl, Clint with Carter and Ashley (I felt really bad for them but if I was stuck with him I very well might end up hurting Clint), and I was with Otis. We each got some “bait” that was supposedly from something that I don’t think Clint actually knew how to pronounce and went into three sections of the woods, Carters team took the side closest to the bungalow, Toby’s team was the furthest point out, and Otis and I took the mid section of the woods.
Surprise! We found more rectangular grave like wholes. Other than that nothing out of the normal occurred for the first hour. On the second hour we got the feeling there was something watching us. We decided to put out our bait and wait. The feeling of being watched was getting to me. I began having flashbacks of Carter being attacked by Sam. Envisioning Carter dead, decapitated, with Sam feasting on his body, Sam smiling, proud of the kill. And when I hit my lowest mental point, as if right on cue as always, we saw Sam darting from tree to tree, sneakily heading towards the bait.
When he got to the bait Otis took a shot but Sam somehow dodged and began to close in on us, using trees for cover. It lunged at Otis but he grabbed it with one of his freakishly long powerful arms and flipped it over himself and into a tree. I was to horrified to even move but luckily Otis is a total badass. He kept taking different martial art posses and deploying expertly applied tosses and throws never allowing Sam to lay a scratch on him. He masterfully sidestepped Sam’s long powerful tail with ease, only exerting the minimal effort. If I wasn’t scared stiff I may have thought that it would be entertaining to watch this with some popcorn but images of the dead Rottweiler and Carter kept seeping into my mind, paralyzing me with fear. Eventually I noticed Otis’s eyes under his hair and realized he was terrified and despite how easy he made it look, he was afraid and fighting for his life, waiting for me to help him. But I couldn’t bring my self to do anything. He began to show fatigue, labored breathing, and I, crippled by fear, was powerless to save him.
A shot rang out, and a pink blur flashed past and hit Sam for a home run right into a tree, it was stunned. The pink blur was Ashley, and her bat was her rifle. She took aim at the dazed Sam but his tail slapped her rifle and she missed the shot. It lunged at her but again in mid air, Otis grabbed his tail. He had caught his breath and regained his composure, he began whipping Sam around by his tail, occasionally slamming him on the ground or into a tree. On one of his slams to the ground Ashley stomped on his back and held him down. She took am right at the back of Sam’s head. Sam looked right at me and smiled, then tugged Otis into Ashley with his tail, knocking both down, and darted for me.
One hand around his neck and the other pushing away his body I struggled. Sam snapping at me, slashing my arms and face with his claws I did all I could to fend off his savage flurry. I saw Otis stand up and start to approach only to barrel over as if something had knocked him down. Sam’s tail without a doubt. Sam missed a snap at me but I felt his cold wet nose touching mine with the miss. I powered him back with all my might but had no way to fight back. Suddenly a giant black thing grabbed Sam in its jaws. A giant black dog, no not a dog, a massive black wolf. It whipped Sam around with its teeth tearing into Sam as he let out a loud hissing sound. It carried him into the darkness of the woods, Sam’s tail and the wolfs long black mane seemingly hypnotized me. Ashley helped Otis up to his shock and horror. I began to work my way up to my feet and the hissing stopped. I heard an animal rushing at my side. Sam? The wolf? I began to turn my head to see what awaited me but suddenly I felt pressure on my chest and my body was lifted upright into the air. I found no monster but Toby putting me on my feet.
We needed to regroup and get a handle of the situation so we ran back to the house, Ashley up front, followed by Otis, then me, and Toby took the rear. When we left the woods the wolf raced past me and right past the others and right past the trucks and disappeared. Carl, Carter, and Clint were calling us over. When I made it to them I looked back for Toby but he was nowhere to be seen. “Is everyone alright” Toby’s voice echoed behind me (how did he get past me? Did he pass by me as I turned to look for him?).
We went over the events and Clint declared he had a “strat orgey” and insisted that we leave the rest to the three hunters. Seeing how both Carter and I both almost died on encounters with that damned thing and the three’s reluctance to even be near Ashley we felt we had no choice but to agree.
That night, the scratching finally stopped. In the morning, no dead animals. I knew it was over. Late in the day Carter called me up to meet with the hunters. We met them inside a pair of stacked double wide trailers outside the trailer park. As in someone welded 2 trailers together, one ontop of the other (super ghetto). Clint, Otis and an old man with some sort of accent were inside with the massive black wolf I had seen on the hunt. “So we caught cha crit are.” Proclaimed Clint. “Wait you didn’t kill it?!” I responded. “Ask Toby.” Clint said and pointed to the wolf. I began to contort and change its shape, when it finished Toby stood before me.
I looked to the others and everyone including Carter was calm and completely unfazed at the fact that an actual fucking werewolf was in the room with us. I was to shocked to say anything or even move.
“It’s Tobias.” Proclaimed the massive werewolf who was standing there naked. “The thing called Sam is a familiar, the house has wards upon it, and I believe you have been hexed.” He said. I was still frozen in shock and struggling with what I had heard and seen. Eventually I murmured “what?”
It took a while for them to get me to come out of shock and get a grasp of everything that was happening.
“But my fiancé and her family live there.” I said trying to make sense of the situation. “Ya gurlz a witch” blurted out Clint. “What! No!” I insisted. That man was a warlock.” Proclaimed Tobias. “An dat dare is dare famil or.” Clint said while pointing out the window at something.
Outside in a cage was Sam. Sitting dead center with his arms crossed looking like a spoiled child in time out. I couldn’t believe any of this. It was utter madness. They couldn’t be witches. None of this made any sense.
Carter tried to talk me down, “I don’t know about the witch thing but everything else makes sense. Look at everything that’s happened since they moved into that house, something isn’t right man. Everything was fine and all of a sudden your uncle croaked, everyone that moves in gets scared off or loses their minds. That Damned thing suddenly appeared. Think about it. They are trying to make them reliant on them, they want your property.’
“NO!” I shouted. I struggled to find words or make sense of everything. “They have a plan to prove it, and if they are wrong it won’t have any consequences. Just hear them out.” Carter explained. We talked things over and decided to try to expose them if they really were witches. I also needed a way to catch them if they really did want my property. They shaved Sam so they could give me a rug made from him, had me hold off on posting 2 of my recounts of events online, and had Tobias search the property for any evidence.
When I was leaving Clint pulled me aside and tried to warn me “Dat blonde isa de man, wash her.” “Umm what?” I replied. Then Ottis seemingly thunderously burped out “DEMON!” And Carter shouted out “DUDE DONT TALK ABOUT MY GIRL!” Having heard him. Carter pulled me away before I could question them or they could elaborate.
Tobias did in fact find something. Some of those herbs Carl was growing were more than just pot, and they could potentially have effects like the ones I experienced on Halloween. They believe they used it to drive me crazy that night. And he even found where Carl and Lacey had been preforming midnight mass and rituals, they even had me sneak out and watch them preform one.
Tobias and Clint went into hiding and called in a few favors to help with the plan. Otis showed up and acted all sad in front of Stacy and give me the rug from Sam’s fur. I have noticed that she seems almost affectionate towards that rug but she couldn’t be connected to this. Not my angel.
We continued with life as normal and even planned another double date on Honey hallow road.
Carter, Ashley, Stacy and I met up after work and went to a really old cemetery on the road. We found that the driveway connecting it to the road had been erased from existence, trees had fallen on top of it, vegetation had been growing on it for some time, and there was no signs of anyone or thing using it in over a decade. The only way we could even notice it was a crumbling stack of stones around the cemetery. The grave stones were all leaning if not already have fallen over and were completely illegible from being worn down by the weather, most had moss and were faded. Carter gave us a rundown of the facts he could find out about the site and those occupying it. Nothing spooky really happened though.
It was after dark when we finally got bored an decided to head to the local bar. On our way Ashley got panicked and demanded we pulled over about a hundred feet from a house. I don’t know what it is but she really seems to have some sort of sixth sense, and at this point we all realized it and didn’t question her in the slightest. She told me to turn off the vehicle and had us follow her out of the vehicle.
I was definitely creeped out but really had no idea why. Ashley guided us towards the home. About 50 feet away she told us to stop and told us “No sudden movements, they aren’t here for us.” Stacy panicked “What!? Who!?” Ashley hushed her and pointed to the edge of the woods of the property. At first we saw nothing, but after a while we noticed glowing green eyes, easily over a dozen pairs. I turned back to Carter but before I could say anything I noticed that there were glowing green eyes on our side, they were closer and I could make out that they were an odd rectangular shape. I looked all around us and found that they had completely surrounded us.
I pointed them out to Carter and suddenly found Stacy holding me tightly, she was quivering with fear. We watched them move around us and descend upon the house. “Call an ambulance” Ashley sharply ordered while trying to keep her voice down. There’s never any service in this town but we all gave our phones a try. I wondered what we would tell them if we could get service. We watched them inch closer to the house and noticed they were all different sizes. The closest to the house began to, climb(?), it. Once they all reached the house they all seemed to disappear at once. “Oh shit” declared Ashley. A moment passed in silence and then they all suddenly reappeared and began charging away from the house in all directions.
“Get down!” Ashley ordered. We complied and huddled together on the ground while the things with glowing green eyes stampeded off into the darkness. When they were gone Ashley demanded we find service and call 911 as she ran to the house, I followed her. She began slamming at the door trying to get someone insides attention. When I reached the house I found I had a signal and called 911. Ashley took the phone from me and begged for a welfare check on the house. Stacy approached and tried to calm her. She said something to her that sent chills up my spine, “There was nothing we could do. They have already taken his soul.”
We pulled the car up to the driveway and waited for the state troopers for the welfare check. Ashley came up with a story about hearing someone screaming for help inside. They went in and found an old man dead in his bed on the second story. They took our statements, called to have the body taken away, and had us leave the premises. We would later find out later he had died of “natural causes”.
As we slowly drove down the road Intending to ho home noticed a big glowing white light in the sky and pulled over. “Ash?” I asked. “I have absolutely no idea.” She replied as we all watched this glowing round white light slowly move towards us until it was right above us. Suddenly a blindingly bright light shot down from it. It was as if we were standing in a white pillar of light, it only lasted a few seconds and it seemed to have paralyzed my body. I thought for sure we were about to be abducted and I silently prayed they didn’t probe us, but nothing happened. When it was over the white thing in the sky quickly accelerated up and away as if it was flying to outer space. We checked the time and we hadn’t lost any. I found myself somehow feeling almost rejected.
“Well that was fucking different.” Carter said. “No one will believe any of this.” I replied. I started up the car and began to drive us home. “I think we should keep this to ourselves.” Stacy declared. We all agreed. After all, it’s hard enough to get people to believe that you experienced one supernatural event. No one would ever believe we had witnessed a supernatural event and a possible extraterrestrial encounter on the same night. Not even in this backwoods town, not even on Honey hollow road.
The next day I approached Stacy and Carter and demanded they let me in on what was going on. “Look, remember that night we tried to summon a demon?” Said Carter. “Well it worked and we got a few to come through to our dimension, I doubt they were demons but definitely not of our world. Clint and the others helped me deal with them after you left and we found her out in the woods. She was running from someone and I ended up taking her in. Clint thinks it’s weird that we found her where we did, when we did but she’s just a human girl in a bad situation.”
Something didn’t add up and he was clearly in denial. I asked him to get us some beers so we could relax a bit, when he was gone I asked her directly “What’s up with your tongue?” “I saved your life” she quietly snapped. That’s wasn’t a rope, it was “that wasn’t a rope, it was your tongue, I saw it.” I said quietly so Carter wouldn’t hear us. As Carter returned with the beers he read the room and a dejected look appeared on his face as he put his hands over his face.
“I am just trying to make sense of everything.” I said looking at him. As I stared at him a long tentacle reached up to the six pack he had, wrapped around them and pulled them away from him and across the room, setting them down on the table, and then retracted back into Ashley’s mouth. She cracked one open and asked “we are friends right? Does any of this really matter?” While extending a can to me. “She saved your life, she saved my life when that damned thing ripped out my throat.”
There was a few seconds of silence but I reached out and took the beer. “You are my friends and I really need you guys. Both of you.” I said and cracked open my can. “So how about I order us up some pizzas and the three of us spend a night in?” And so we did, and we had a great time.
The time had come and I was beginning to realize that when I had said Stacy had me under a spell that maybe I had been right. We moved so fast and literally before I knew it we were married. As in we went out one night and got married, and I don’t remember it at all. The hunters had gotten everything else right. It was all making sense.
We would use Sam as leverage and the hunters took preparations for dealing with witches and keeping me safe. They found a place nearby to hide me and an officer that owed Clint a favor faked my death. Clint actually worked with Ashley (like hell froze over) and arranged to lure some of these things with the glowing eyes to my property to make it really look like I had past on. We watched them for a while and then came the day I confronted them.
Stacy actually posted using my account that I had passed. To keep a paper trail we confronted her through edits other post. Two different IPs in on the same account in two different locations.the following is taken from the account
“”Stacy: If you have read the stories posted by this account then you have heard of me, I am called Stacy in the stories posted. My husband who has posted on her a number of times has passed. He was truly a good man but had some mental issues that over took him in his final days. He began to believe the things he wrote and read on places like this were in fact real and became extremely paranoid and depressed. Ranting and raving about monsters, ghosts, aliens, demons, and serial killers hiding in plain sight in our small little backwoods town. Near the end I could barely recognize him physically or his personality.
I will never forget meeting him, my parents had him over for dinner, there was this large, strong man sitting on the front steps with my dad talking about something. He had the saddest sunken eyes, while forcing a smile, a man clearly on hard times, trying to keep appearances. As I approach my father gave me a wave and the man that I would marry shortly after first noticed me, his eyes lit up a bit and his forced smile changed and seemed more real, and he slightly blushed. Throughout the evening he tried to be charming in his own awkward little way, and in his at it worked. I felt as if I had found at the least, my new best friend. From then on I was always eager to see him, and things grew and escalated quite fast.
But now he is gone, and I am making funeral plans. At least he left me with many great memories and the property that my family and I live on. I will truly miss him. If you, like him, find yourself believe the stories on sites like this please remember that they are nothing but stories. If you ever feel like the world is closing in on you, that you can never do anything right, that people or things are out to get you, please remember there are people that love and care about you. There are people that will be glad listen to you and help you. Reach out the those people or please call the suicide hotline 1 800-273-8255. Help is just one phone call or text away.
Me: You play the part of a grieving widow very well Stacy. But here I am alive and well. Like I sent you in the text, reply on here. And if you need proof of it being me, how’s this? His name was Jason, we chose Oddesa, and on the fishing trip there wasn’t a rope. You remember those personal moments and I have not posted the details of the fishing trip anywhere.””
I texted her once to look at the post, told her to edit in her response and ignored her for a bit until she posted online. Some of that won’t make sense to you because they are personal things nobody online would understand and two of them reference the events that we had been through and I had not put anywhere online.
“”Stacy: why won’t you answer my calls? I need to hear your voice. Answer me. Call me. Please. This is crazy. Have you stopped taking your meds? You need help. Tell me where you are. I thought you were dead. I have something important to tell you, I am pregnant, I can’t do this alone.””
I couldn’t believe what I had read but Clint and Carter did their best to convince me it was a manipulation. I couldn’t resist and gave her a brief call just to confirm what she had wrote. Then redacted the part about the pregnancy before continuing.
“”Me: All replies here from this point on. I am nearby. And I am not alone and have all the help I need. My death notification was a favor owed to Clint. He’s alive, and so is that other hunter Tobias, I am sure you or your parents noticed him stalking MY property in his wolf form by now. And with their help we lured those things with the glowing eyes to the property to fool your family into thinking I was dead. Oh, and we have your little pet Sam, alive and well. Although he looks a bit goofy since we had to shave him to make that little rug for you.
Stacy: This is insane. You are scaring me. Look at the stuff that you are writing and how you are acting. Let me help you. Where are you?
Me: I am not crazy. We know what those herbs your family are growing are and that your family drugged me with them that Halloween. And that you have probably been dosing me with them regularly. With this conversation online for people to see I will expose your family and prove I am not crazy. We WILL expose you for what you are. Tobias figured it out when he saw the house and first saw Sam. We still don’t know what he is but he was able to figure out Sam is a familiar.
Stacy: This is crazy! That’s all just pot. And you know that. This is all Carter screwing up your head with his and his friends conspiracy theories and obsession with cult crap. Where are you. I love you.
Me: Tell me dear wife, Clint tells me if you hammer a nail into a witch’s footprint that it’s just like actual hammering it directly into the witches foot, he says it has something to do with a pact they make for power early during their training. If I take this nail in my hand and hammer it into this footprint you so carelessly left in the snow, will it hurt?””
(I redacted part of this for personal reasons but it involves out family and some extremely personal things I am obvious attempt to manipulate me)
I had enough and decided to follow through. I walked out to a spot she had carelessly left a footprint and thought to myself that maybe I was crazy. Maybe my friends were a bad influence on me. Nothing will happen if I do this. She isn’t a witch. She is my angel. Carter told me “if you do it and nothing happens than we were wrong, no harm no foul and you can work this out.” I took a deep breath and drove the nail into the print. Off in the distance I heard her scream in pain.
“”Stacy: I can’t believe you did that. THAT HURT YOU ASSHOLE! You win, what do you want?
Me: Wow, that sounded painful, WE heard you scream from here.
Stacy: yes I am a witch. And my parents did things to you in an attempt to keep the property. Sam is our familiar, please don’t hurt him. What do you want? Can we talk this out, please?
Me: Answers. The truth of how I inherited my family property. What actually happened on Halloween. Why you want my family property so bad, and why your family keep digging those holes? Did you want me dead or just insane? It’s time to come clean. Meet me inside the church. I have my friends with me and I think you know how powerful some of them are by now so no tricks. You can feel free to bring your family. And if you aren’t here in the next 30 minutes I’ll put another nail in your footprint, I have a whole box of them with me.
Stacy: I am on my way, please don’t use the nails again or hurt Sam, he’s just a cub. I am begging you. (My name), I really do love you. And I know you still love me. We can work this out. I’ll be there soon.””
She showed up with Lacey. She was walking with a limp and was given me a scowl. Lacey approached and began to explain “look this is a misunderstanding between you two. Carl and I didn’t want you to build in the clearing, and hallow was just our attempt to stop you. Stacy had both to do with it”
“And Sam?” I questioned. “He’s really territorial and it’s not exactly easy to normalize him with regular folks. We haven’t done anything to you since you two got together.” Lacey replied. “Because I love you and wouldn’t let them do anything to you Bobby.” Stacy blurted out on the verge of tears.
To those reading this, Please respect our privacy and don’t try to contact us. I don’t want to go into what else happened but we worked things out. We are living out our lives in private. I will occasionally post some of the strange going ons in our backwoods town but, I think my story is complete. Maybe I’ll let Carter or Clint use my account to detail their eccentric exploits into the supernatural.
Everything is fine, everyone gets along, and everyone has gotten a happy ending. The way I inherited the property was not sinister. Stacy and I are happily married, and remain a happy couple, with our first little one on the way. I am on positive terms with the in-laws again and Carl is helping me build a house in the clearing for our blooming family. I was also able to negotiate a lucrative business deal between them and Clint. Don’t worry about the holes, that’s a private personal matter.
Carter is forever bound to Ashley who he worships (I suspect that is all literal) and they regularly still check out supposedly supernatural stuff. They remain our closest friends.
The former tenant Al in the old folks home is actually really happy their and we gave him the rug made from Sam’s fur to give him some closer.
Sam is still around and has grown his fur back, he is a very friend pet now that he has been introduced to everyone (except Tobias), comparable to a cat or dog really. I negotiated a business arrangement with the cryptid hunters and my in-laws and keep in regular contact with Clint and Otis, but haven’t seen Tobias in a while.
Speaking of Clint, if you ever are driving around in a backwoods town in the Northeast, and see 2 stacked double wide trailers on the outside of a trailer park, please stop by. He sells all sorts of cryptid trophies from his hunts, all different cryptid baits and repellents, and now he can even arranged actual hexes and wards for a price. Tell them Jack sent you and they’ll even have a little surprise gift for you. So please stop on by.
life in a backwoods town (part 1)

So Having recently accepted the fact that there are in fact supernatural occurrences in our world because I had encountered a number of them in my backwoods town and more importantly on my very property, having seen truly indescribable things, enough was enough and it was long overdue that I dealt with everything and take back my life, and I am going to start with my property and Sam. I called up Carter to help me with it. I cannot legally posses any firearms but he can, and on top of that he has some experience with the supernatural and cryptids. He doesn’t know what it is but is certain he’s got the tools to deal with it.
On the day Carter showed up to help me he brought along his girlfriend Ashley. This was the first time she had ever been on my property and her first response was to panic, grab Carter and declare “There really is something her. It’s smaller but it is still probably dangerous.” (Man she’s a strange one) We calmed her down and walked over to the house on my property to let Carl and Lacey know that we would be hunting in the back. Carl, ever so helpful volunteered himself to join and help us. With that Carl, Carter, and Ashley (a shock sight, I had taken her for such a girly girl) readied there rifles and all four of us went into the woods to hunt down that damned thing, Sam.
We found a few new big, deep, rectangular holes in the woods but that really isn’t worth nothing around here, and found absolutely nothing for hours. But the entire time we felt like we were being watched, and never heard a thing. It was unsettling, there should have been birds or other wildlife making noise out this far in the woods but other than us, absolute silence. We all felt as if we were prey, being stalked by a yet unseen force. Sam?
Near dark on the way back Ashley lunged to the front with lightning fast speed, dropped to a knee and readied her rifle before declaring “It’s there”. We all readied our weapons and waited. Eventually Carl declared there was nothing but was cut off sharply by Ashley “No… it’s coming.” We waited some more and as I was about to second that there was nothing there when a black blur darted from somewhere to behind a tree. I pointed to its location we all waited.
It’s tail slapped out on the right side of the tree and as we took aim it darted on the the left of the tree and took cover even closer to us behind another tree. It was fast but there was no mistaking it. It was Sam. Carter informed us he was going to move ahead to flank it. After he was about five yards from us, and right before he had it in his view it’s tail slapped out toward Carter, we aimed expecting it to be faking us out with its tail again, but it charged at Carter, lounged, and before we knew it was wrestling with him on the ground. Scratching and snapping at him as he did everything he could to keep it from landing any fatal damage. We couldn’t line up a shot so I charged in with a knife but was put on my ass by a whip of its tail (felt like I was hit with a brick). I knew I was about to loose my friend… my best friend. One of the few lights of my life since I moved back to this town, I don’t think I could take it after what happened to Jack. I watched in horror as it’s head jerked and snapped past all Carters defense and bit down somewhere on his head or neck region, then ripped back, and blood flew through the air.
I could barely make out what happened next, it was so fast, and I have to assume the trauma distorted the memory but this is what I remember. Ashley darted in in blinding speed and grabbed Sam by the torso in one hand (not physically possible, it couldn’t fit in her hand, it’s too big and her hand is, well, a hand) lift Sam overhead and spike it down into the ground in an arc motion. It began to run away but was clearly disheveled or hurt and disappeared in the distance. Ashley was on top of Carter… licking(?) His head or neck region (not reaching in, but it looked as if her tongue was extending down to him, like a foot away, all not possible, not sure what I actually saw). I climbed to all fours and crawled towards my dead friend, breaking into tears. When I got near him Ashley pulled him up into a hug, she held him tightly as his blood soaked and stained her blonde haired. Carl approached and got down to check on him.
Carter screamed out “FUCKING SHIT DUDE!’ and embraced her. Somehow he was still alive. Time suddenly sped up and before I knew it the three were on their feet and checking on me. They got me to my feet and checked to make sure I was alright. As if I and not Carter had taken the brunt and of the attack. I stared at my friend, he was covered in blood, his face and neck had many small scratches but nothing anywhere near as bad as I thought I had seen. And we raced to the house to clean our wounds.
Carter looked as if a small house cat had attacked him but was fine. My head was still spinning and I couldn’t make sense of what I thought I had seen and reality. He assured me he was fine and that “in the heat of battle” my mind had been playing tricks on me. Before they left, Carter told me “Sorry I couldn’t help you bro, but I know just the people to help us with that damn thing. I’ll make a call when I get home. Later.” and with that they left.
Carl walked me to my bungalow from the house, half way there we heard something that sounded like really loud panting in the distance, out in the woods. Or maybe, laughing? Was Sam mocking us?
We talked about the attack and he told me “I saw it rip out his throat! I don’t understand how that boy is still alive and only has a little paper cut.” We agreed that we had seen it had gotten his throat and couldn’t understand how he was still alive.
He got me home and pretty much tucked me into bed before going back home. I laid in bed thinking of the day’s events. Trying to make sense of everything. And right as I was nodding off, as if right on cue, Sam started scratching in the attic.
Okay, need to vent and recap all the events that led to the shit show that was the past about to occur. I inherited some property in this podunk town, I am starting to think the way that I inherited this property might have been more sinister than previously thought (more on that later). I had been living in a bungalow up on some cylinder blocks that has been a hard times fallback for my family that I thought I could rent. When I tried to rent it a creature I call Sam killed my tenant Al’s dog and then stalked the poor man and drove him insane, he now lives in a nursing home. Trying to fix it up (on Halloween) after the poor guy trashed it I experienced a number of supernatural occurrences and found myself going insane myself, I trying to murder a lamp under the delusion I was in a relationship with a chair that was cheating on me with said lamp. Got locked up in Fort winds mental facility, went broke, and finding myself on hard times had to move into said bungalow.
While living in this town I have witnessed a few supernatural events on Honey hallow road. Attempted to summon a demon at my friend Carters house (I am starting to think it may have worked). Had the fishing trip from hell. Found my dead childhood best friend working at one of the local liquor stores and I think I may have somehow killed him (not the first time he died). And finally my friends and I attempted to hunt that damned thing I call Sam and nearly lost my current best friend Carter, and may have seen more supernatural occurrences but those also might have been a concussion. And this whole time that god damned thing Sam has been stalking me, leaving dead animal at my front door (which feels very threatening), scratching at night and never letting me HAVE A GOOD NIGHTS SLEEP!
So it came down to me having to hire some self proclaimed cryptid hunters that Carter knows and claimed to have hired at some point. All the hell that I have been through failed to prepare me for this.
I was visiting Carl at the house and asking for his permission to ask if I could marry Stacy, he gave me his blessing and we made plans to celebrate later. We were interrupted by a large truck pulling up to my bungalow and went out to greet the alleged cryptid hunters. Two men got out, I still cannot believe these guys even exist, they are like poorly written characters from a comic, one was tall and had a very lean muscular build, wore a pair really tight jean shorts, an even tighter wife beater (the spitting image of white trash) that I could actually see his 8 pack through, a backwards cap, and boots. He called himself Clint Cleatus, he spoke undeservingly confident in some sort of extremely fast broken version of English, like if he wanted to me a nascar announcer but received any sort of education, not even grade school. The second guy looked like a short, burly, roided up gorilla that slouched forward and had extremely long, muscular arms, pale skin, and his head had shoulder length unkempt blonde hair that he continuously had to shake away from his eyes, and a bushy blonde beard that I feel like he never as much as trimmed. Basically the second guys head looked like a yellow tumble weed. He spoke in a low yet shockingly loud voice and in a manner that makes me think he is… well, touched in the head… and called himself Otis Hickey… like I said, poorly written characters that I cannot believe exist.
We met halfway between the house and bungalow and began talking about the job. After I gave them the rundown about Sam they turned to their right and Clint asked “So whacha think it his Toby” I turned to notice an extremely tall, extremely muscular man wearing nothing but some sort of loose black skirt thing had suddenly appeared (had he been laying in the truck bed? Where did he come from and how didn’t we notice this giant of a man approaching?). He was clean shaven and had long black hair, hair that flowed in a way that mesmerized me in some weird way that I just can’t explain. I looked to Carl and he seemed as shocked as I was to see the man. “My name is…” Toby began before Clint cut him off “Yeah we know Kunta Kinte, what’s hit?” Clint snapped. I could feel everyone including me having a burning desire to punch Clint in his face. “It is unknown to us…familiar” Toby sternly declared while staring at me, or perhaps, through me. “Wha? Ya know wha hit is or not? Clint asked. There was an awkward silence and we all just stood there nervously for a while, with the exception of Toby who stood stern, staring through me with a piercing gaze.
The silence was broken by Carter and his Girlfriend Ashley pulling up. Carter got out, covered in bandaids, and said with a big smile “So you met the hunters.” He exchanged some weird handshake with Clint and Otis while gave Toby a wave while blatantly avoiding him (clearly afraid of him). And as Ashley came around the truck to greet everyone, Clint uttered “sits her” (I assume that’s his way of saying “shit it’s her”) andhe took some weird pose as if he was mocking karate, Otis took and actually karate pose, and even Toby changed his stern pose as if he was preparing to fend off an attack. Carter calmed everyone down but they clearly remained Leary of this small blonde girl dressed in pink. (They clearly had some sort of negative history) “Back ta business, ya wanna buy some werewolf urine N tuff o hare to ward focker off or ya wan us ta kill et?” asked Toby (his speech is torture to my ears). “It needs to die” I declared. Carter insisted he wanted it dead as well and would be joining the hunt.
We devised some plans and broke up into teams. Toby was with Carl, Clint with Carter and Ashley (I felt really bad for them but if I was stuck with him I very well might end up hurting Clint), and I was with Otis. We each got some “bait” that was supposedly from something that I don’t think Clint actually knew how to pronounce and went into three sections of the woods, Carters team took the side closest to the bungalow, Toby’s team was the furthest point out, and Otis and I took the mid section of the woods.
Surprise! We found more rectangular grave like wholes. Other than that nothing out of the normal occurred for the first hour. On the second hour we got the feeling there was something watching us. We decided to put out our bait and wait. The feeling of being watched was getting to me. I began having flashbacks of Carter being attacked by Sam. Envisioning Carter dead, decapitated, with Sam feasting on his body, Sam smiling, proud of the kill. And when I hit my lowest mental point, as if right on cue as always, we saw Sam darting from tree to tree, sneakily heading towards the bait.
When he got to the bait Otis took a shot but Sam somehow dodged and began to close in on us, using trees for cover. It lunged at Otis but he grabbed it with one of his freakishly long powerful arms and flipped it over himself and into a tree. I was to horrified to even move but luckily Otis is a total badass. He kept taking different martial art posses and deploying expertly applied tosses and throws never allowing Sam to lay a scratch on him. He masterfully sidestepped Sam’s long powerful tail with ease, only exerting the minimal effort. If I wasn’t scared stiff I may have thought that it would be entertaining to watch this with some popcorn but images of the dead Rottweiler and Carter kept seeping into my mind, paralyzing me with fear. Eventually I noticed Otis’s eyes under his hair and realized he was terrified and despite how easy he made it look, he was afraid and fighting for his life, waiting for me to help him. But I couldn’t bring my self to do anything. He began to show fatigue, labored breathing, and I, crippled by fear, was powerless to save him.
A shot rang out, and a pink blur flashed past and hit Sam for a home run right into a tree, it was stunned. The pink blur was Ashley, and her bat was her rifle. She took aim at the dazed Sam but his tail slapped her rifle and she missed the shot. It lunged at her but again in mid air, Otis grabbed his tail. He had caught his breath and regained his composure, he began whipping Sam around by his tail, occasionally slamming him on the ground or into a tree. On one of his slams to the ground Ashley stomped on his back and held him down. She took am right at the back of Sam’s head. Sam looked right at me and smiled, then tugged Otis into Ashley with his tail, knocking both down, and darted for me.
One hand around his neck and the other pushing away his body I struggled. Sam snapping at me, slashing my arms and face with his claws I did all I could to fend off his savage flurry. I saw Otis stand up and start to approach only to barrel over as if something had knocked him down. Sam’s tail without a doubt. Sam missed a snap at me but I felt his cold wet nose touching mine with the miss. I powered him back with all my might but had no way to fight back. Suddenly a giant black thing grabbed Sam in its jaws. A giant black dog, no not a dog, a massive black wolf. It whipped Sam around with its teeth tearing into Sam as he let out a loud hissing sound. It carried him into the darkness of the woods, Sam’s tail and the wolfs long black mane seemingly hypnotized me. Ashley helped Otis up to his shock and horror. I began to work my way up to my feet and the hissing stopped. I heard an animal rushing at my side. Sam? The wolf? I began to turn my head to see what awaited me but suddenly I felt pressure on my chest and my body was lifted upright into the air. I found no monster but Toby putting me on my feet.
We needed to regroup and get a handle of the situation so we ran back to the house, Ashley up front, followed by Otis, then me, and Toby took the rear. When we left the woods the wolf raced past me and right past the others and right past the trucks and disappeared. Carl, Carter, and Clint were calling us over. When I made it to them I looked back for Toby but he was nowhere to be seen. “Is everyone alright” Toby’s voice echoed behind me (how did he get past me? Did he pass by me as I turned to look for him?).
We went over the events and Clint declared he had a “strat orgey” and insisted that we leave the rest to the three hunters. Seeing how both Carter and I both almost died on encounters with that damned thing and the three’s reluctance to even be near Ashley we felt we had no choice but to agree.
That night, the scratching finally stopped. In the morning, no dead animals. I knew it was over. Late in the day Carter called me up to meet with the hunters. We met them inside a pair of stacked double wide trailers outside the trailer park. As in someone welded 2 trailers together, one ontop of the other (super ghetto). Clint, Otis and an old man with some sort of accent were inside with the massive black wolf I had seen on the hunt. “So we caught cha crit are.” Proclaimed Clint. “Wait you didn’t kill it?!” I responded. “Ask Toby.” Clint said and pointed to the wolf. I began to contort and change its shape, when it finished Toby stood before me.
I looked to the others and everyone including Carter was calm and completely unfazed at the fact that an actual fucking werewolf was in the room with us. I was to shocked to say anything or even move.
“It’s Tobias.” Proclaimed the massive werewolf who was standing there naked. “The thing called Sam is a familiar, the house has wards upon it, and I believe you have been hexed.” He said. I was still frozen in shock and struggling with what I had heard and seen. Eventually I murmured “what?”
It took a while for them to get me to come out of shock and get a grasp of everything that was happening.
“But my fiancé and her family live there.” I said trying to make sense of the situation. “Ya gurlz a witch” blurted out Clint. “What! No!” I insisted. That man was a warlock.” Proclaimed Tobias. “An dat dare is dare famil or.” Clint said while pointing out the window at something.
Outside in a cage was Sam. Sitting dead center with his arms crossed looking like a spoiled child in time out. I couldn’t believe any of this. It was utter madness. They couldn’t be witches. None of this made any sense.
Carter tried to talk me down, “I don’t know about the witch thing but everything else makes sense. Look at everything that’s happened since they moved into that house, something isn’t right man. Everything was fine and all of a sudden your uncle croaked, everyone that moves in gets scared off or loses their minds. That Damned thing suddenly appeared. Think about it. They are trying to make them reliant on them, they want your property.’
“NO!” I shouted. I struggled to find words or make sense of everything. “They have a plan to prove it, and if they are wrong it won’t have any consequences. Just hear them out.” Carter explained. We talked things over and decided to try to expose them if they really were witches. I also needed a way to catch them if they really did want my property. They shaved Sam so they could give me a rug made from him, had me hold off on posting 2 of my recounts of events online, and had Tobias search the property for any evidence.
When I was leaving Clint pulled me aside and tried to warn me “Dat blonde isa de man, wash her.” “Umm what?” I replied. Then Ottis seemingly thunderously burped out “DEMON!” And Carter shouted out “DUDE DONT TALK ABOUT MY GIRL!” Having heard him. Carter pulled me away before I could question them or they could elaborate.
Tobias did in fact find something. Some of those herbs Carl was growing were more than just pot, and they could potentially have effects like the ones I experienced on Halloween. They believe they used it to drive me crazy that night. And he even found where Carl and Lacey had been preforming midnight mass and rituals, they even had me sneak out and watch them preform one.
Tobias and Clint went into hiding and called in a few favors to help with the plan. Otis showed up and acted all sad in front of Stacy and give me the rug from Sam’s fur. I have noticed that she seems almost affectionate towards that rug but she couldn’t be connected to this. Not my angel.
We continued with life as normal and even planned another double date on Honey hallow road.
Carter, Ashley, Stacy and I met up after work and went to a really old cemetery on the road. We found that the driveway connecting it to the road had been erased from existence, trees had fallen on top of it, vegetation had been growing on it for some time, and there was no signs of anyone or thing using it in over a decade. The only way we could even notice it was a crumbling stack of stones around the cemetery. The grave stones were all leaning if not already have fallen over and were completely illegible from being worn down by the weather, most had moss and were faded. Carter gave us a rundown of the facts he could find out about the site and those occupying it. Nothing spooky really happened though.
It was after dark when we finally got bored an decided to head to the local bar. On our way Ashley got panicked and demanded we pulled over about a hundred feet from a house. I don’t know what it is but she really seems to have some sort of sixth sense, and at this point we all realized it and didn’t question her in the slightest. She told me to turn off the vehicle and had us follow her out of the vehicle.
I was definitely creeped out but really had no idea why. Ashley guided us towards the home. About 50 feet away she told us to stop and told us “No sudden movements, they aren’t here for us.” Stacy panicked “What!? Who!?” Ashley hushed her and pointed to the edge of the woods of the property. At first we saw nothing, but after a while we noticed glowing green eyes, easily over a dozen pairs. I turned back to Carter but before I could say anything I noticed that there were glowing green eyes on our side, they were closer and I could make out that they were an odd rectangular shape. I looked all around us and found that they had completely surrounded us.
I pointed them out to Carter and suddenly found Stacy holding me tightly, she was quivering with fear. We watched them move around us and descend upon the house. “Call an ambulance” Ashley sharply ordered while trying to keep her voice down. There’s never any service in this town but we all gave our phones a try. I wondered what we would tell them if we could get service. We watched them inch closer to the house and noticed they were all different sizes. The closest to the house began to, climb(?), it. Once they all reached the house they all seemed to disappear at once. “Oh shit” declared Ashley. A moment passed in silence and then they all suddenly reappeared and began charging away from the house in all directions.
“Get down!” Ashley ordered. We complied and huddled together on the ground while the things with glowing green eyes stampeded off into the darkness. When they were gone Ashley demanded we find service and call 911 as she ran to the house, I followed her. She began slamming at the door trying to get someone insides attention. When I reached the house I found I had a signal and called 911. Ashley took the phone from me and begged for a welfare check on the house. Stacy approached and tried to calm her. She said something to her that sent chills up my spine, “There was nothing we could do. They have already taken his soul.”
We pulled the car up to the driveway and waited for the state troopers for the welfare check. Ashley came up with a story about hearing someone screaming for help inside. They went in and found an old man dead in his bed on the second story. They took our statements, called to have the body taken away, and had us leave the premises. We would later find out later he had died of “natural causes”.
As we slowly drove down the road Intending to ho home noticed a big glowing white light in the sky and pulled over. “Ash?” I asked. “I have absolutely no idea.” She replied as we all watched this glowing round white light slowly move towards us until it was right above us. Suddenly a blindingly bright light shot down from it. It was as if we were standing in a white pillar of light, it only lasted a few seconds and it seemed to have paralyzed my body. I thought for sure we were about to be abducted and I silently prayed they didn’t probe us, but nothing happened. When it was over the white thing in the sky quickly accelerated up and away as if it was flying to outer space. We checked the time and we hadn’t lost any. I found myself somehow feeling almost rejected.
“Well that was fucking different.” Carter said. “No one will believe any of this.” I replied. I started up the car and began to drive us home. “I think we should keep this to ourselves.” Stacy declared. We all agreed. After all, it’s hard enough to get people to believe that you experienced one supernatural event. No one would ever believe we had witnessed a supernatural event and a possible extraterrestrial encounter on the same night. Not even in this backwoods town, not even on Honey hollow road.
The next day I approached Stacy and Carter and demanded they let me in on what was going on. “Look, remember that night we tried to summon a demon?” Said Carter. “Well it worked and we got a few to come through to our dimension, I doubt they were demons but definitely not of our world. Clint and the others helped me deal with them after you left and we found her out in the woods. She was running from someone and I ended up taking her in. Clint thinks it’s weird that we found her where we did, when we did but she’s just a human girl in a bad situation.”
Something didn’t add up and he was clearly in denial. I asked him to get us some beers so we could relax a bit, when he was gone I asked her directly “What’s up with your tongue?” “I saved your life” she quietly snapped. That’s wasn’t a rope, it was “that wasn’t a rope, it was your tongue, I saw it.” I said quietly so Carter wouldn’t hear us. As Carter returned with the beers he read the room and a dejected look appeared on his face as he put his hands over his face.
“I am just trying to make sense of everything.” I said looking at him. As I stared at him a long tentacle reached up to the six pack he had, wrapped around them and pulled them away from him and across the room, setting them down on the table, and then retracted back into Ashley’s mouth. She cracked one open and asked “we are friends right? Does any of this really matter?” While extending a can to me. “She saved your life, she saved my life when that damned thing ripped out my throat.”
There was a few seconds of silence but I reached out and took the beer. “You are my friends and I really need you guys. Both of you.” I said and cracked open my can. “So how about I order us up some pizzas and the three of us spend a night in?” And so we did, and we had a great time.
The time had come and I was beginning to realize that when I had said Stacy had me under a spell that maybe I had been right. We moved so fast and literally before I knew it we were married. As in we went out one night and got married, and I don’t remember it at all. The hunters had gotten everything else right. It was all making sense.
We would use Sam as leverage and the hunters took preparations for dealing with witches and keeping me safe. They found a place nearby to hide me and an officer that owed Clint a favor faked my death. Clint actually worked with Ashley (like hell froze over) and arranged to lure some of these things with the glowing eyes to my property to make it really look like I had past on. We watched them for a while and then came the day I confronted them.
Stacy actually posted using my account that I had passed. To keep a paper trail we confronted her through edits other post. Two different IPs in on the same account in two different locations.the following is taken from the account
“”Stacy: If you have read the stories posted by this account then you have heard of me, I am called Stacy in the stories posted. My husband who has posted on her a number of times has passed. He was truly a good man but had some mental issues that over took him in his final days. He began to believe the things he wrote and read on places like this were in fact real and became extremely paranoid and depressed. Ranting and raving about monsters, ghosts, aliens, demons, and serial killers hiding in plain sight in our small little backwoods town. Near the end I could barely recognize him physically or his personality.
I will never forget meeting him, my parents had him over for dinner, there was this large, strong man sitting on the front steps with my dad talking about something. He had the saddest sunken eyes, while forcing a smile, a man clearly on hard times, trying to keep appearances. As I approach my father gave me a wave and the man that I would marry shortly after first noticed me, his eyes lit up a bit and his forced smile changed and seemed more real, and he slightly blushed. Throughout the evening he tried to be charming in his own awkward little way, and in his at it worked. I felt as if I had found at the least, my new best friend. From then on I was always eager to see him, and things grew and escalated quite fast.
But now he is gone, and I am making funeral plans. At least he left me with many great memories and the property that my family and I live on. I will truly miss him. If you, like him, find yourself believe the stories on sites like this please remember that they are nothing but stories. If you ever feel like the world is closing in on you, that you can never do anything right, that people or things are out to get you, please remember there are people that love and care about you. There are people that will be glad listen to you and help you. Reach out the those people or please call the suicide hotline 1 800-273-8255. Help is just one phone call or text away.
Me: You play the part of a grieving widow very well Stacy. But here I am alive and well. Like I sent you in the text, reply on here. And if you need proof of it being me, how’s this? His name was Jason, we chose Oddesa, and on the fishing trip there wasn’t a rope. You remember those personal moments and I have not posted the details of the fishing trip anywhere.””
I texted her once to look at the post, told her to edit in her response and ignored her for a bit until she posted online. Some of that won’t make sense to you because they are personal things nobody online would understand and two of them reference the events that we had been through and I had not put anywhere online.
“”Stacy: why won’t you answer my calls? I need to hear your voice. Answer me. Call me. Please. This is crazy. Have you stopped taking your meds? You need help. Tell me where you are. I thought you were dead. I have something important to tell you, I am pregnant, I can’t do this alone.””
I couldn’t believe what I had read but Clint and Carter did their best to convince me it was a manipulation. I couldn’t resist and gave her a brief call just to confirm what she had wrote. Then redacted the part about the pregnancy before continuing.
“”Me: All replies here from this point on. I am nearby. And I am not alone and have all the help I need. My death notification was a favor owed to Clint. He’s alive, and so is that other hunter Tobias, I am sure you or your parents noticed him stalking MY property in his wolf form by now. And with their help we lured those things with the glowing eyes to the property to fool your family into thinking I was dead. Oh, and we have your little pet Sam, alive and well. Although he looks a bit goofy since we had to shave him to make that little rug for you.
Stacy: This is insane. You are scaring me. Look at the stuff that you are writing and how you are acting. Let me help you. Where are you?
Me: I am not crazy. We know what those herbs your family are growing are and that your family drugged me with them that Halloween. And that you have probably been dosing me with them regularly. With this conversation online for people to see I will expose your family and prove I am not crazy. We WILL expose you for what you are. Tobias figured it out when he saw the house and first saw Sam. We still don’t know what he is but he was able to figure out Sam is a familiar.
Stacy: This is crazy! That’s all just pot. And you know that. This is all Carter screwing up your head with his and his friends conspiracy theories and obsession with cult crap. Where are you. I love you.
Me: Tell me dear wife, Clint tells me if you hammer a nail into a witch’s footprint that it’s just like actual hammering it directly into the witches foot, he says it has something to do with a pact they make for power early during their training. If I take this nail in my hand and hammer it into this footprint you so carelessly left in the snow, will it hurt?””
(I redacted part of this for personal reasons but it involves out family and some extremely personal things I am obvious attempt to manipulate me)
I had enough and decided to follow through. I walked out to a spot she had carelessly left a footprint and thought to myself that maybe I was crazy. Maybe my friends were a bad influence on me. Nothing will happen if I do this. She isn’t a witch. She is my angel. Carter told me “if you do it and nothing happens than we were wrong, no harm no foul and you can work this out.” I took a deep breath and drove the nail into the print. Off in the distance I heard her scream in pain.
“”Stacy: I can’t believe you did that. THAT HURT YOU ASSHOLE! You win, what do you want?
Me: Wow, that sounded painful, WE heard you scream from here.
Stacy: yes I am a witch. And my parents did things to you in an attempt to keep the property. Sam is our familiar, please don’t hurt him. What do you want? Can we talk this out, please?
Me: Answers. The truth of how I inherited my family property. What actually happened on Halloween. Why you want my family property so bad, and why your family keep digging those holes? Did you want me dead or just insane? It’s time to come clean. Meet me inside the church. I have my friends with me and I think you know how powerful some of them are by now so no tricks. You can feel free to bring your family. And if you aren’t here in the next 30 minutes I’ll put another nail in your footprint, I have a whole box of them with me.
Stacy: I am on my way, please don’t use the nails again or hurt Sam, he’s just a cub. I am begging you. (My name), I really do love you. And I know you still love me. We can work this out. I’ll be there soon.””
She showed up with Lacey. She was walking with a limp and was given me a scowl. Lacey approached and began to explain “look this is a misunderstanding between you two. Carl and I didn’t want you to build in the clearing, and hallow was just our attempt to stop you. Stacy had both to do with it”
“And Sam?” I questioned. “He’s really territorial and it’s not exactly easy to normalize him with regular folks. We haven’t done anything to you since you two got together.” Lacey replied. “Because I love you and wouldn’t let them do anything to you Bobby.” Stacy blurted out on the verge of tears.
To those reading this, Please respect our privacy and don’t try to contact us. I don’t want to go into what else happened but we worked things out. We are living out our lives in private. I will occasionally post some of the strange going ons in our backwoods town but, I think my story is complete. Maybe I’ll let Carter or Clint use my account to detail their eccentric exploits into the supernatural.
Everything is fine, everyone gets along, and everyone has gotten a happy ending. The way I inherited the property was not sinister. Stacy and I are happily married, and remain a happy couple, with our first little one on the way. I am on positive terms with the in-laws again and Carl is helping me build a house in the clearing for our blooming family. I was also able to negotiate a lucrative business deal between them and Clint. Don’t worry about the holes, that’s a private personal matter.
Carter is forever bound to Ashley who he worships (I suspect that is all literal) and they regularly still check out supposedly supernatural stuff. They remain our closest friends.
The former tenant Al in the old folks home is actually really happy their and we gave him the rug made from Sam’s fur to give him some closer.
Sam is still around and has grown his fur back, he is a very friend pet now that he has been introduced to everyone (except Tobias), comparable to a cat or dog really. I negotiated a business arrangement with the cryptid hunters and my in-laws and keep in regular contact with Clint and Otis, but haven’t seen Tobias in a while.
Speaking of Clint, if you ever are driving around in a backwoods town in the Northeast, and see 2 stacked double wide trailers on the outside of a trailer park, please stop by. He sells all sorts of cryptid trophies from his hunts, all different cryptid baits and repellents, and now he can even arranged actual hexes and wards for a price. Tell them Jack sent you and they’ll even have a little surprise gift for you. So please stop on by.
life in a backwoods town (part 1)

Why is it that all disasters happen in April? The Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Hitler’s birthday, the sinking of the Titanic, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, all happened in April. I can remember the day my life changed forever. April 13, 2006. I was a structural engineer and safety inspector for the Army Corps of Engineers. I joined after my time in Iraq. I was lucky enough, or maybe unlucky, depending on how you look at it, to find myself being sent to explore an old bunker discovered by construction workers trying to dig a new utility access tunnel.
“Let’s crack this bad boy open!” said Sherman.
“You might need some of these, just in case you come across another obstacle further on.” Said a demo guy, as he handed Daniels a stick of C4 and a detonator. He looked at us confused, as if to ask
“What do I do? Should I take it?”
“Just take it, Daniels.” I said aloud. The demolition team blew open the heavy steel hatch. Beyond lay the “Entry Level”, as it was labeled on the map hanging on the wall just beyond the door. Beneath the map, there was a plaque which read “Military Site 17, Constructed May 4th, 1939”
“huh, that’s weird.” Said Daniels.
“What?” I said.
“This part of the subway was constructed in the early 1920s, and closed in the 1930s. Plus, this wall is original to the rest. So, how is this bunker even here?” said Daniels.
“you’re right, something’s off…” said Sherman.
“let’s keep moving.” I said.
We proceeded to explore the entry level. It was mostly empty and almost entirely devoid of furniture. All of the doors had been removed from their hinges, leaving gaping maws filled with darkness dotting the single corridor that made up the entry level. At the end of the corridor was a doorway marked “stairs”
“let’s go. There’s got to be some documentation about this place on a lower floor.” I said.
“well, if this floor was any indication, then we’re screwed.” Said Sherman.
We went down the stairs to the next level of the bunker. We came upon yet another map, which labeled this floor “level 1 – Staff Quarters”. The doors to this floor were welded shut, and heavily dented from the inside.
“Jesus… let’s hope we don’t run into whatever made these.” Said Sherman as he gestured to the dents with his rifle.
“you can say that again.” I said while getting out my cutting torch. I cut the door open, I set the torch down, and we went inside.
Upon entering, we were overwhelmed by the stench of decay. It was so strong; I could almost taste it. This was punctuated by Daniels gagging. But underneath, there was something else… a sense of uneasiness, foreboding…
The first room we came upon was around the corner from the stairs, a security office. On the wall were the American and British flags. Something was off with them… wrong colors… wrong numbers of stripes. On the desk was a still loaded m1911a1, and dripping from the ceiling, a black, viscous, metallic smelling liquid, forming a puddle on the floor.
Behind the desk, laying in pieces on the floor, were the remains of a wooden desk chair, splattered with the same black sludge from the ceiling, and marred by deep claw marks. On the wall behind there were splatters of a reddish-brown liquid, crusted and dried long ago.
“Guys,” I said, “I hope this isn’t what I think it is.”.
“I don’t like this. Something bad happened here.” Said Daniels.
“well no shit!” exclaimed Sherman.
“Just keep moving. The faster we can find some documentation about this place, the faster we can leave it.” I said. We then proceeded down the hall. We came upon an office. Specifically, the office of Dr. Henry Sherman.
“huh,” I said, “kind of creepy.”
“yeah, this guy had the same name as me!” said Sherman.
“yeah, bet you he looked like you, too!” Daniels laughed as he picked up a framed photo from the desk. Daniels, still chuckling, looked down at the photo. His face drained of all its color, for there, in the center of the grainy, seventy plus year old, water damaged photo, was Sherman’s face.
“What?” said Sherman. Daniels turned the photo for us to see. The first thing we saw was his face.
Sherman said “No… wait… that can’t be right…” as he took the photo from Daniels. He scrubbed the dust and dirt from the glass of the frame, revealing an even more horrifying discovery. Sherman’s face wasn’t alone. It was part of a group. Among the faces, we were all able to pick out our own.
“Is that my face?!” said a voice from behind us. We all turned, the beams of our flashlights falling on the face of Zack Thompson, an old friend who was supposed to join us.
“Thompson! Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me! I thought you weren’t coming because you were ill!” said Sherman.
“What are you talking about? I’ve been with you guys the whole time!” said Thompson.
“where’s all you gear? And how did you find us without a flashlight?” asked Sherman.
BANG! Thompson fell limply to the floor as smoke coiled from the barrel of Daniels’ rifle.
“What the hell, Daniels?!” I exclaimed.
“That wasn’t Thompson.” Said Daniels.
“What do you mean that ‘wasn’t Thompson’?!” exclaimed Sherman. At that exact moment, Thompson’s body began to bubble and smoke, melting into a black, metallic smelling sludge.
We started running to the door. We were almost to the corner, when I heard Sherman screaming in agony from behind me. I turned to see Sherman being pulled down by black, human looking hands gripping his legs. As they pulled him down into the floor, his legs melted into black sludge. Then, his torso, and then, his chest. His screams were reduced to gurgling, as he began to vomit his own esophagus, which had mostly melted. Finally, the gurgling gave way to the sound of bubbling, as Sherman’s terrified and agonized face slipped into the inky pulp. Then, his arms did the same. All that remained of him was a puddle of black, his tags, and his wedding ring.
“Jesus Christ! I think I’m going to be sick!” said Daniels while choking back bile and tears.
“We need to get out of here, now!” I exclaimed. We rounded the corner, only to find that the door was sealed, the welds still glowing. On the other side, we heard the muffled voice of Thompson as he chuckled.
We barricaded ourselves in the security office using the desk and the remains of the chair. It honestly did nothing but give us a false sense of security, as whatever the hell took Sherman was obviously not from this world, or at least, not anymore.
“I just realized something.” Daniels said.
“what?” I responded.
“The black goo dripping from the ceiling and splattering that old chair was once a person…” Daniels said.
“what are you getting at, Daniels?” I said.
“Miller, whatever these creatures are, when they take someone, they cause them to shed all of their physical matter.” Daniels responded.
Daniels then pulled out a strange looking device that looked almost like a Geiger counter.
“What on god’s green earth is that thing?” I said.
“It’s called a Hume detector. It measures the ‘Humes’, or the amount of reality in a given area. Yes, I know it sounds like heebie-jeebie bullshit, but there is some truth to it. This device in my hand is the result of countless hours of research, and what it actually detects is the force of the laws of physics in a given area.” Daniels said.
“Sounds really advanced. Think we could use it to get the hell out of here?” I asked while lighting a cigarette.
“I thought you quit months ago?” Daniels said, as he switched on the Hume detector.
“Yeah, but that was before I saw my friends melt, one as a clone and one for real.” I responded.
I reached up onto the table behind me, and grabbed the 1911. I ejected the magazine, and racked the slide to clear the gun so I could clean it. That’s when I noticed that the bullets weren’t just regular .45 cartridges. They looked like they had a plug in the middle of the projectile, almost like they were filled with something.
“Why didn’t we shoot the thing that was pulling Sherman into the floor?” I asked.
“Well, for one, I doubt our bullets would have any effect on those things. Secondly, Sherman was already half gone by the time we were ready. There’s no way he would have survived.” Daniels responded.
At that moment, one of those things poked its head out of the puddle of black. Daniels and I both pointed our rifles at the thing. The moment the beams of our attached flashlights hit the thing’s face, it shrieked and covered its eyes.
“Was that Sherman?” I asked.
“Was being the key word.” Daniels responded.
“We can’t stay locked up in here forever. It looks like they’re hurt by light. Do you think we should try to bring power back to the bunker? Most places I’ve been to like this usually have some sort of generator. I just hope the generator is close.” I said.
“Well, we can’t exactly get out of here. One of those things welded the door shut. Looks like It’s our only option.” Said Daniels.I finished cleaning the 1911 and loaded it. I slipped it into my pocket.
“Alright Daniels, help me move this desk. The longer we wait, the more likely it is that we get gooified.” I said. Daniels reluctantly got up to help.
“Alright, once we get out that door, we haul ass to the office. We barricade ourselves in there. We look through as much documentation as possible so we can learn as much as possible about this place. If we get lucky, we might find the blueprints of this godforsaken bunker so we can get the hell out. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like dying in Satan’s asshole! Remember, we are doing this for us, for Sherman!” I said.
“So, is operation get the hell out a go?” I asked.
“Yes, sir!” Daniels responded. With that, we moved the barricade and exited the office.
I slung my M4 over my shoulder and pulled out the 1911. Together, we ran to the office just down the hall. Along the way, one of those things popped out of the wall and tried to grab me.
“Fuck you! I’m not becoming shit soup today!” I said as I capped that fucker with 45 calibers of freedom. The creature shrieked it’s last as it exploded in a flash of white light… and a spray of black slime. We got to the office and pushed the desk in front of the door.
“Christ, I think some of it got in my mouth!” I said as I retched and gagged.
“Tastes like Kentucky fried shit!” I said, still gagging. It took me a minute to recover. Once I did, I took out my canteen and rinsed my mouth, careful to use the minimum amount of water. Then, I took a drink.
“Well, at least we know that it isn’t incendiary-round proof” Daniels said. Then, Daniels and I started digging through the moldy and crumbling papers in the filing cabinets and on the floor. Most were unreadable, except for these:
Military Experimental Technology Agency Project A.G.O.M.E.G. May 30, 1939
The basis of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. is the research of Dr. Hermann Brunnlitz. Brunnlitz sold his research to the United States Army after the German Wehrmacht turned his research away, on account of practicality. Project A.G.O.M.E.G., which stands for Anti-Gravity Opposing Magnetic Energy Generator, aims to produce a working levitation device from the research and experiments of Dr. Brunnlitz. Project A.G.O.M.E.G. will take place in an underground research facility in a closed section of the New York Subway System. The facility has finished construction as of May 4, 1939. Dr. Henry Sherman will oversee the progress and completion of Project A.G.O.M.E.G.
The results of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. will remain classified until the product has served its military purpose and become obsolete. Once the product has become obsolete, and it has been deemed safe for civilian use, it will be declassified and released to the general public. M.E.T.A. and other scientific branches of the military will work in unison on Project A.G.O.M.E.G. until it is completed.
Daniel McPherson Daniel McPherson M.E.T.A. Director
Military Experimental Technology Agency Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II August 13, 1943
Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II (Anti-Gravity Opposing Magnetic Energy Generator II) is hoped to produce a device for levitation to improve military and civilian transportation. The basis of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. is the research of Dr. Hermann Brunnlitz. Brunnlitz theorized that by conducting electricity through two spinning cylinders of mercury, an opposing magnetic field could be created, causing the device to levitate. This Device was built and tested in Project A.G.O.M.E.G. I. The device was found to work. However, the device needed major improvements in order to become practical and efficient, including adding a way to control the power of the device and the direction of travel.
The findings and shortcomings of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. I have led directly to the launch of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II. It is hoped that Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II will produce a practical, effective, and efficient levitation device.
Daniel McPherson Daniel McPherson M.E.T.A. Director
“They were building levitation machines in the 1940s?” I asked.
“Our government has done so many things that will never see the light of day. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me. From the way these documents describe this machine, it’s not impossible that it worked.” Daniels responded.
“Okay, if they were trying to make a levitation device, then how the hell do we have those things that can travel between dimensions?” I asked.
“Something must’ve went wrong. An unintended result of the machine, maybe. I’ll take these documents and put them in my bag.” Daniels said. We continued to dig through the remains of papers scattered everywhere.
After what felt like hours, we finally found what we were looking for. The blueprints of the bunker. One of my worst fears was confirmed. The generator room was on the far end of the floor… four floors below on the bottom level. There was a utility room on the far end of the second level.
“Hey,” I said. “look at this.”
“what?” said Daniels.
“It looks like there is a utility room on the far end of the second floor. Maybe there are some tools there we can use to get out.” I responded.
“That sounds like a bad idea. Let’s just stick with the plan. We go to the generator room, turn the power back on, and use the elevator to get out. Those things are smart, but I doubt they welded the elevator doors shut!” Daniels said.
“That’s if the elevator still works.” I responded.
“We better get a move on if we want to get out of here. I think the mold in here is starting to get to me.” Daniels said.
We moved the desk out from in front of the door. As we did, something metal fell out of the desk and clattered to the floor. It was a couple of extra magazines for the 1911.
“Lucky!” I said. From somewhere deep inside the bunker, we heard the unholy shrieking of those things.
“We’re probably going to need those… You know, there are times I wish I never joined. This is one of them.” Said Daniels.
“Yeah… tell me about it. If they don’t give me a medal of honor after this shit… anyway, let’s get going.” I said.
We made our way slowly and carefully to the stairwell. When we were trying to get to the door, we were running, not really paying attention to our surroundings, and only focused on one goal; the door. That’s why they got Sherman. I never pointed this out to Daniels, but I think he realized it too. We got to the second level, and we were met by more black puddles. This time they were surrounded by empty casings, .45 and 30-06 by the looks, empty Garand clips and 1911 mags, as well as the guns themselves, all splattered with the black slimy remains of those who held them.
“Jesus. one… two… three… I see at least ten puddles here, ten people… all wiped out by those things…” Daniels said.
We made our way down the hall, stepping over and around the human puddles on the floor. When we got to the utility room, we found the door was locked. We kicked the door in, the rotting wood easily giving way. Inside we found a tool cabinet (and I MEAN a tool cabinet. The thing took up an entire wall!), a lathe, a milling machine, a welding and cutting torch, a basic workbench, as well as a shelf with metal stock of all shapes and sizes, including gear stock.
“Jesus! They could fix anything in this bunker with all this!” Daniels said.
“Yeah, except themselves.” I said as my flashlight landed on a skeleton still dressed in a tattered, moldy uniform, with only small spots of green remaining, the rest blacked out by mold, with a 1911 in one hand, and a note in the other. I picked up the note and began reading, picking out the words through the blood stains.
To anyone who finds this:
My friends are all dead. I heard them begging for their mothers, begging for god to make it stop as those things took them. I fought them, and fought them hard. I used all of my rifle rounds, and all but one of my pistol rounds. I’m saving it for myself. I am not going to allow myself to be taken and made into one of those abominations. I go out by my own hand, not the devil’s. May god forgive me for what I am about to do. My dearest Mary, I’m sorry for leaving you.
Private Lucas Daniels
“This just got a whole lot weirder.” I said as I handed the note to Daniels. He read the note, and, as with the photo, all color drained from his face.
“Sherman died after we found that scientist’s office. Does that mean that I die next because we found this note? Damn it!” Daniels said.
“You’re not going to die, not if I can help it.” I responded.
“What the fuck is going on?!” Daniels interrogated.
“What do I know?” I asked.
“I don’t know, what do you know? How do I know you are really you? If those things could impersonate Thompson, who was never even here, who’s to say they can’t impersonate you?!” Daniels retorted.
“Hey guys! We found a way out!”, “Yeah! Follow us!” said Thompson and Sherman from the darkness in the hallway.
“You know what? I’m tired of this shit! Let’s whoop some interdimensional ass!” Daniels said as he picked up the 1911 out of the skeleton’s hand. He stuck his hand out, and I handed him one of the magazines. In one swift motion, he loaded the magazine and racked the slide of the pistol. He ran into the hallway with a battle cry. A fraction of a second later, there were three loud bangs accompanied by bright white flashes, and hellish shrieking.
A few seconds later, he came back into the room, covered in splatters of black.
“I’m done. Let’s get the fuck out of here!” he said. We booked it to the end of the hallway, not even bothering to avoid the human puddles this time, almost slipping as we ran. We got to the stairs and began descending them. Five times, those fuckers tried grabbing us from the walls, and the landings in the stairwell. Each and every time, either me, Daniels, or both of us capped those hellish abominations right in the dome, and each and every time, they exploded into white flashes of light and splatters of black inky pulp.
We didn’t even bother exploring the other two floors. At one point, one of those pieces of shit tried grabbing us from the open doorway of one of the levels, level 4 I think. I tried using my rifle on it, but it did nothing. Daniels came up behind me and shot it right through the forehead. We descended the last flight of stairs. The door to level five stood before us like the gates to a prison. Ominous and intimidating. Next to the door was a gun cabinet with various guns, including 1911s and M1 Garands, as well as magazines and clips for each, all loaded with incendiary rounds. We loaded up, each grabbing rifles and stuffing as many magazines and clips as we could fit in the various pockets and pouches that adorned our combat uniforms and utility belt. Once we were done, Daniels said:
“Let’s go wage and win a war!”
With that, we were off. They fucked with the wrong guys. I don’t know how many rounds we fired, probably about a metric ton. We laid waste to them. By the end, not one was left standing. We marched our way past the laboratory. Through the door, we could see the machine that brought them into being in all of its rusty, horrifying glory. Daniels stopped at the door, turned and looked at me, then pulled out a stick of C4. He went inside and placed it on the machine. We continued down the corridor, finally reaching the generator room. I filled up the generator with the cans of diesel fuel that sat nearby. I pulled the starting cord, and, miraculously, it started up. All the lights in the facility turned on. I turned to Daniels and silently nodded. He pulled out the remote detonator and squeezed. We heard the explosion from down the hall, the lights flickering as it happened.
We got on the elevator. Daniels pressed “Level 1”.
“What are you doing?” I asked. The elevator doors opened on level one. He exited the elevator, turned, and said
“Wait here. I have one last stop to make.”. He walked down the corridor, flashlight and pistol in hand. He came back a few seconds later with Sherman’s tags and wedding ring in hand. We rode the elevator up to the entry level and got off. Once we were off, Daniels reached his hand inside and pressed the button for level 5. Once the needle above the door indicated that the elevator had reached level 5, we smashed the panel. We walked out of the entry level into the work lights from the construction crews. Some construction workers ran up to us, asking us “what the hell happened?” and “what are you splattered with?” and “where is the other guy?”. I simply said
“You don’t want to know. Don’t build here. Cover this bunker with concrete and forget it even existed.”

Chapter 1
Why is it that all disasters happen in April? The Chernobyl nuclear disaster, Hitler’s birthday, the sinking of the Titanic, the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, all happened in April. I can remember the day my life changed forever. April 13, 2006. I was a structural engineer and safety inspector for the Army Corps of Engineers. I joined after my time in Iraq. I was lucky enough, or maybe unlucky, depending on how you look at it, to find myself being sent to explore an old bunker discovered by construction workers trying to dig a new utility access tunnel.
“Let’s crack this bad boy open!” said Sherman.
“You might need some of these, just in case you come across another obstacle further on.” Said a demo guy, as he handed Daniels a stick of C4 and a detonator. He looked at us confused, as if to ask
“What do I do? Should I take it?”
“Just take it, Daniels.” I said aloud. The demolition team blew open the heavy steel hatch. Beyond lay the “Entry Level”, as it was labeled on the map hanging on the wall just beyond the door. Beneath the map, there was a plaque which read “Military Site 17, Constructed May 4th, 1939”
“huh, that’s weird.” Said Daniels.
“What?” I said.
“This part of the subway was constructed in the early 1920s, and closed in the 1930s. Plus, this wall is original to the rest. So, how is this bunker even here?” said Daniels.
“you’re right, something’s off…” said Sherman.
“let’s keep moving.” I said.
We proceeded to explore the entry level. It was mostly empty and almost entirely devoid of furniture. All of the doors had been removed from their hinges, leaving gaping maws filled with darkness dotting the single corridor that made up the entry level. At the end of the corridor was a doorway marked “stairs”
“let’s go. There’s got to be some documentation about this place on a lower floor.” I said.
“well, if this floor was any indication, then we’re screwed.” Said Sherman.
We went down the stairs to the next level of the bunker. We came upon yet another map, which labeled this floor “level 1 – Staff Quarters”. The doors to this floor were welded shut, and heavily dented from the inside.
“Jesus… let’s hope we don’t run into whatever made these.” Said Sherman as he gestured to the dents with his rifle.
“you can say that again.” I said while getting out my cutting torch. I cut the door open, I set the torch down, and we went inside.
Upon entering, we were overwhelmed by the stench of decay. It was so strong; I could almost taste it. This was punctuated by Daniels gagging. But underneath, there was something else… a sense of uneasiness, foreboding…
The first room we came upon was around the corner from the stairs, a security office. On the wall were the American and British flags. Something was off with them… wrong colors… wrong numbers of stripes. On the desk was a still loaded m1911a1, and dripping from the ceiling, a black, viscous, metallic smelling liquid, forming a puddle on the floor.
Behind the desk, laying in pieces on the floor, were the remains of a wooden desk chair, splattered with the same black sludge from the ceiling, and marred by deep claw marks. On the wall behind there were splatters of a reddish-brown liquid, crusted and dried long ago.
“Guys,” I said, “I hope this isn’t what I think it is.”.
“I don’t like this. Something bad happened here.” Said Daniels.
“well no shit!” exclaimed Sherman.
“Just keep moving. The faster we can find some documentation about this place, the faster we can leave it.” I said. We then proceeded down the hall. We came upon an office. Specifically, the office of Dr. Henry Sherman.
“huh,” I said, “kind of creepy.”
“yeah, this guy had the same name as me!” said Sherman.
“yeah, bet you he looked like you, too!” Daniels laughed as he picked up a framed photo from the desk. Daniels, still chuckling, looked down at the photo. His face drained of all its color, for there, in the center of the grainy, seventy plus year old, water damaged photo, was Sherman’s face.
“What?” said Sherman. Daniels turned the photo for us to see. The first thing we saw was his face.
Sherman said “No… wait… that can’t be right…” as he took the photo from Daniels. He scrubbed the dust and dirt from the glass of the frame, revealing an even more horrifying discovery. Sherman’s face wasn’t alone. It was part of a group. Among the faces, we were all able to pick out our own.
“Is that my face?!” said a voice from behind us. We all turned, the beams of our flashlights falling on the face of Zack Thompson, an old friend who was supposed to join us.
“Thompson! Jesus Christ! You scared the shit out of me! I thought you weren’t coming because you were ill!” said Sherman.
“What are you talking about? I’ve been with you guys the whole time!” said Thompson.
“where’s all you gear? And how did you find us without a flashlight?” asked Sherman.
BANG! Thompson fell limply to the floor as smoke coiled from the barrel of Daniels’ rifle.
“What the hell, Daniels?!” I exclaimed.
“That wasn’t Thompson.” Said Daniels.
“What do you mean that ‘wasn’t Thompson’?!” exclaimed Sherman. At that exact moment, Thompson’s body began to bubble and smoke, melting into a black, metallic smelling sludge.
We started running to the door. We were almost to the corner, when I heard Sherman screaming in agony from behind me. I turned to see Sherman being pulled down by black, human looking hands gripping his legs. As they pulled him down into the floor, his legs melted into black sludge. Then, his torso, and then, his chest. His screams were reduced to gurgling, as he began to vomit his own esophagus, which had mostly melted. Finally, the gurgling gave way to the sound of bubbling, as Sherman’s terrified and agonized face slipped into the inky pulp. Then, his arms did the same. All that remained of him was a puddle of black, his tags, and his wedding ring.
“Jesus Christ! I think I’m going to be sick!” said Daniels while choking back bile and tears.
“We need to get out of here, now!” I exclaimed. We rounded the corner, only to find that the door was sealed, the welds still glowing. On the other side, we heard the muffled voice of Thompson as he chuckled.
Chapter 2
We barricaded ourselves in the security office using the desk and the remains of the chair. It honestly did nothing but give us a false sense of security, as whatever the hell took Sherman was obviously not from this world, or at least, not anymore.
“I just realized something.” Daniels said.
“what?” I responded.
“The black goo dripping from the ceiling and splattering that old chair was once a person…” Daniels said.
“what are you getting at, Daniels?” I said.
“Miller, whatever these creatures are, when they take someone, they cause them to shed all of their physical matter.” Daniels responded.
Daniels then pulled out a strange looking device that looked almost like a Geiger counter.
“What on god’s green earth is that thing?” I said.
“It’s called a Hume detector. It measures the ‘Humes’, or the amount of reality in a given area. Yes, I know it sounds like heebie-jeebie bullshit, but there is some truth to it. This device in my hand is the result of countless hours of research, and what it actually detects is the force of the laws of physics in a given area.” Daniels said.
“Sounds really advanced. Think we could use it to get the hell out of here?” I asked while lighting a cigarette.
“I thought you quit months ago?” Daniels said, as he switched on the Hume detector.
“Yeah, but that was before I saw my friends melt, one as a clone and one for real.” I responded.
I reached up onto the table behind me, and grabbed the 1911. I ejected the magazine, and racked the slide to clear the gun so I could clean it. That’s when I noticed that the bullets weren’t just regular .45 cartridges. They looked like they had a plug in the middle of the projectile, almost like they were filled with something.
“Why didn’t we shoot the thing that was pulling Sherman into the floor?” I asked.
“Well, for one, I doubt our bullets would have any effect on those things. Secondly, Sherman was already half gone by the time we were ready. There’s no way he would have survived.” Daniels responded.
At that moment, one of those things poked its head out of the puddle of black. Daniels and I both pointed our rifles at the thing. The moment the beams of our attached flashlights hit the thing’s face, it shrieked and covered its eyes.
“Was that Sherman?” I asked.
“Was being the key word.” Daniels responded.
“We can’t stay locked up in here forever. It looks like they’re hurt by light. Do you think we should try to bring power back to the bunker? Most places I’ve been to like this usually have some sort of generator. I just hope the generator is close.” I said.
“Well, we can’t exactly get out of here. One of those things welded the door shut. Looks like It’s our only option.” Said Daniels.I finished cleaning the 1911 and loaded it. I slipped it into my pocket.
“Alright Daniels, help me move this desk. The longer we wait, the more likely it is that we get gooified.” I said. Daniels reluctantly got up to help.
“Alright, once we get out that door, we haul ass to the office. We barricade ourselves in there. We look through as much documentation as possible so we can learn as much as possible about this place. If we get lucky, we might find the blueprints of this godforsaken bunker so we can get the hell out. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like dying in Satan’s asshole! Remember, we are doing this for us, for Sherman!” I said.
“So, is operation get the hell out a go?” I asked.
“Yes, sir!” Daniels responded. With that, we moved the barricade and exited the office.
I slung my M4 over my shoulder and pulled out the 1911. Together, we ran to the office just down the hall. Along the way, one of those things popped out of the wall and tried to grab me.
“Fuck you! I’m not becoming shit soup today!” I said as I capped that fucker with 45 calibers of freedom. The creature shrieked it’s last as it exploded in a flash of white light… and a spray of black slime. We got to the office and pushed the desk in front of the door.
“Christ, I think some of it got in my mouth!” I said as I retched and gagged.
“Tastes like Kentucky fried shit!” I said, still gagging. It took me a minute to recover. Once I did, I took out my canteen and rinsed my mouth, careful to use the minimum amount of water. Then, I took a drink.
“Well, at least we know that it isn’t incendiary-round proof” Daniels said. Then, Daniels and I started digging through the moldy and crumbling papers in the filing cabinets and on the floor. Most were unreadable, except for these:
Military Experimental Technology Agency Project A.G.O.M.E.G. May 30, 1939
The basis of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. is the research of Dr. Hermann Brunnlitz. Brunnlitz sold his research to the United States Army after the German Wehrmacht turned his research away, on account of practicality. Project A.G.O.M.E.G., which stands for Anti-Gravity Opposing Magnetic Energy Generator, aims to produce a working levitation device from the research and experiments of Dr. Brunnlitz. Project A.G.O.M.E.G. will take place in an underground research facility in a closed section of the New York Subway System. The facility has finished construction as of May 4, 1939. Dr. Henry Sherman will oversee the progress and completion of Project A.G.O.M.E.G.
The results of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. will remain classified until the product has served its military purpose and become obsolete. Once the product has become obsolete, and it has been deemed safe for civilian use, it will be declassified and released to the general public. M.E.T.A. and other scientific branches of the military will work in unison on Project A.G.O.M.E.G. until it is completed.
Daniel McPherson Daniel McPherson M.E.T.A. Director
Military Experimental Technology Agency Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II August 13, 1943
Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II (Anti-Gravity Opposing Magnetic Energy Generator II) is hoped to produce a device for levitation to improve military and civilian transportation. The basis of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. is the research of Dr. Hermann Brunnlitz. Brunnlitz theorized that by conducting electricity through two spinning cylinders of mercury, an opposing magnetic field could be created, causing the device to levitate. This Device was built and tested in Project A.G.O.M.E.G. I. The device was found to work. However, the device needed major improvements in order to become practical and efficient, including adding a way to control the power of the device and the direction of travel.
The findings and shortcomings of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. I have led directly to the launch of Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II. It is hoped that Project A.G.O.M.E.G. II will produce a practical, effective, and efficient levitation device.
Daniel McPherson Daniel McPherson M.E.T.A. Director
“They were building levitation machines in the 1940s?” I asked.
“Our government has done so many things that will never see the light of day. It honestly wouldn’t surprise me. From the way these documents describe this machine, it’s not impossible that it worked.” Daniels responded.
“Okay, if they were trying to make a levitation device, then how the hell do we have those things that can travel between dimensions?” I asked.
“Something must’ve went wrong. An unintended result of the machine, maybe. I’ll take these documents and put them in my bag.” Daniels said. We continued to dig through the remains of papers scattered everywhere.
After what felt like hours, we finally found what we were looking for. The blueprints of the bunker. One of my worst fears was confirmed. The generator room was on the far end of the floor… four floors below on the bottom level. There was a utility room on the far end of the second level.
“Hey,” I said. “look at this.”
“what?” said Daniels.
“It looks like there is a utility room on the far end of the second floor. Maybe there are some tools there we can use to get out.” I responded.
“That sounds like a bad idea. Let’s just stick with the plan. We go to the generator room, turn the power back on, and use the elevator to get out. Those things are smart, but I doubt they welded the elevator doors shut!” Daniels said.
“That’s if the elevator still works.” I responded.
“We better get a move on if we want to get out of here. I think the mold in here is starting to get to me.” Daniels said.
We moved the desk out from in front of the door. As we did, something metal fell out of the desk and clattered to the floor. It was a couple of extra magazines for the 1911.
“Lucky!” I said. From somewhere deep inside the bunker, we heard the unholy shrieking of those things.
“We’re probably going to need those… You know, there are times I wish I never joined. This is one of them.” Said Daniels.
“Yeah… tell me about it. If they don’t give me a medal of honor after this shit… anyway, let’s get going.” I said.
We made our way slowly and carefully to the stairwell. When we were trying to get to the door, we were running, not really paying attention to our surroundings, and only focused on one goal; the door. That’s why they got Sherman. I never pointed this out to Daniels, but I think he realized it too. We got to the second level, and we were met by more black puddles. This time they were surrounded by empty casings, .45 and 30-06 by the looks, empty Garand clips and 1911 mags, as well as the guns themselves, all splattered with the black slimy remains of those who held them.
“Jesus. one… two… three… I see at least ten puddles here, ten people… all wiped out by those things…” Daniels said.
Chapter 3
We made our way down the hall, stepping over and around the human puddles on the floor. When we got to the utility room, we found the door was locked. We kicked the door in, the rotting wood easily giving way. Inside we found a tool cabinet (and I MEAN a tool cabinet. The thing took up an entire wall!), a lathe, a milling machine, a welding and cutting torch, a basic workbench, as well as a shelf with metal stock of all shapes and sizes, including gear stock.
“Jesus! They could fix anything in this bunker with all this!” Daniels said.
“Yeah, except themselves.” I said as my flashlight landed on a skeleton still dressed in a tattered, moldy uniform, with only small spots of green remaining, the rest blacked out by mold, with a 1911 in one hand, and a note in the other. I picked up the note and began reading, picking out the words through the blood stains.
To anyone who finds this:
My friends are all dead. I heard them begging for their mothers, begging for god to make it stop as those things took them. I fought them, and fought them hard. I used all of my rifle rounds, and all but one of my pistol rounds. I’m saving it for myself. I am not going to allow myself to be taken and made into one of those abominations. I go out by my own hand, not the devil’s. May god forgive me for what I am about to do. My dearest Mary, I’m sorry for leaving you.
Private Lucas Daniels
“This just got a whole lot weirder.” I said as I handed the note to Daniels. He read the note, and, as with the photo, all color drained from his face.
“Sherman died after we found that scientist’s office. Does that mean that I die next because we found this note? Damn it!” Daniels said.
“You’re not going to die, not if I can help it.” I responded.
“What the fuck is going on?!” Daniels interrogated.
“What do I know?” I asked.
“I don’t know, what do you know? How do I know you are really you? If those things could impersonate Thompson, who was never even here, who’s to say they can’t impersonate you?!” Daniels retorted.
“Hey guys! We found a way out!”, “Yeah! Follow us!” said Thompson and Sherman from the darkness in the hallway.
“You know what? I’m tired of this shit! Let’s whoop some interdimensional ass!” Daniels said as he picked up the 1911 out of the skeleton’s hand. He stuck his hand out, and I handed him one of the magazines. In one swift motion, he loaded the magazine and racked the slide of the pistol. He ran into the hallway with a battle cry. A fraction of a second later, there were three loud bangs accompanied by bright white flashes, and hellish shrieking.
A few seconds later, he came back into the room, covered in splatters of black.
“I’m done. Let’s get the fuck out of here!” he said. We booked it to the end of the hallway, not even bothering to avoid the human puddles this time, almost slipping as we ran. We got to the stairs and began descending them. Five times, those fuckers tried grabbing us from the walls, and the landings in the stairwell. Each and every time, either me, Daniels, or both of us capped those hellish abominations right in the dome, and each and every time, they exploded into white flashes of light and splatters of black inky pulp.
We didn’t even bother exploring the other two floors. At one point, one of those pieces of shit tried grabbing us from the open doorway of one of the levels, level 4 I think. I tried using my rifle on it, but it did nothing. Daniels came up behind me and shot it right through the forehead. We descended the last flight of stairs. The door to level five stood before us like the gates to a prison. Ominous and intimidating. Next to the door was a gun cabinet with various guns, including 1911s and M1 Garands, as well as magazines and clips for each, all loaded with incendiary rounds. We loaded up, each grabbing rifles and stuffing as many magazines and clips as we could fit in the various pockets and pouches that adorned our combat uniforms and utility belt. Once we were done, Daniels said:
“Let’s go wage and win a war!”
With that, we were off. They fucked with the wrong guys. I don’t know how many rounds we fired, probably about a metric ton. We laid waste to them. By the end, not one was left standing. We marched our way past the laboratory. Through the door, we could see the machine that brought them into being in all of its rusty, horrifying glory. Daniels stopped at the door, turned and looked at me, then pulled out a stick of C4. He went inside and placed it on the machine. We continued down the corridor, finally reaching the generator room. I filled up the generator with the cans of diesel fuel that sat nearby. I pulled the starting cord, and, miraculously, it started up. All the lights in the facility turned on. I turned to Daniels and silently nodded. He pulled out the remote detonator and squeezed. We heard the explosion from down the hall, the lights flickering as it happened.
We got on the elevator. Daniels pressed “Level 1”.
“What are you doing?” I asked. The elevator doors opened on level one. He exited the elevator, turned, and said
“Wait here. I have one last stop to make.”. He walked down the corridor, flashlight and pistol in hand. He came back a few seconds later with Sherman’s tags and wedding ring in hand. We rode the elevator up to the entry level and got off. Once we were off, Daniels reached his hand inside and pressed the button for level 5. Once the needle above the door indicated that the elevator had reached level 5, we smashed the panel. We walked out of the entry level into the work lights from the construction crews. Some construction workers ran up to us, asking us “what the hell happened?” and “what are you splattered with?” and “where is the other guy?”. I simply said
“You don’t want to know. Don’t build here. Cover this bunker with concrete and forget it even existed.”