I vomit, and my insides feel like they have been scrambled as I open my eyes and see luminous moss illuminating the walls of a dark cave. The gloom doesn’t hide the fact that I’m not alone, and as I see the figure dressed in black armour, the helmet hooded above a mask that resembles a skull. If they realise that I’m awake, isn’t obvious, but a vile smell akin to burning ozone radiates off them as they use a laser to sharpen the edges of the axe like spade placed across their knees. Getting up, I take a step back, the movement causing the figure to stop their weapon maintenance.
"If I was going to kill you, even harm you, I’d have done it while you were unconscious." The figure states, voice filters in their mask doing enough to hide if they are male or female.
"Then why drag me down to your lair, are you some kind of serial killer, one of those people who locks me in a maze and hunts me down? Who are you?!" I ask, making a rubbish attempt to hide the fact that I am terrified of this person and almost any answer I’m going to receive.
"This isn’t my lair, I didn’t plan to go down here, but one of the CBTF agents accompanying me suffered a panic attack and tried to level the place with grenades, the ground gave way, and I was able to grab you before you fell down there." The figure states as they gesture with the laser to what appears to be a wall. Hesitantly I walk over and look down into a narrow pit with stakes arranged at the bottom, the wood rotting and stained a jet black. "As for who I am." They continue as I here a hiss and turn to see the figure remove their helmet and hood to reveal cropped blonde hair, Cupid bow lips, and grey eyes. "I’m August."
"Joanna." I reply as I see August give a small half smile. "So do you have a cool Carrier name, is August your Carrier name?" I ask as August gets to her feet, attaching the spade to a strap running over her shoulder and down her back.
"This isn’t the Age of Heroes, that ended a long time ago, Joanna." August replies as she walks over to where the moss is at its brightest. "I’m just trying to make life a little easier for everyone, I’m not a hero." She adds before shining the laser down a crevice in the wall, one just about big enough to squeeze through. "You can’t by any chance teleport or bend the earth to make this a little easier?" She asks, her words catching me off guard.
"How did you..." I mentally kick myself as I start my answer, August seems like a decent person, but she works for the CBTF and they are the last people I want to know that I’m a Carrier. "I can make road-signs happen, but only for a short time." I finish, a dejected tone entering my voice, knowing that I have screwed myself over.
"Then it’s the old-fashioned way." August states, still smiling as she swings the laser across the crevice. "Let’s start by getting through here." She announced as she slipped into the gap and began to pull herself through. I nod and wait for her to get through to the other side, before entering myself, groaning and grunting as I squeeze through the gap and into another cave.
"Okay, so we want to keep talking, I think I know what’s down here, and she generally tries to stay away from people." August tells me as she illuminates the arm panels of her armour, casting light around the small cave, stakes driven into the walls, and two tunnels leading away from where we had just crawled through. "If she does come to find us, we stand our ground, be polite, and apologise for intruding down here." I nod and August takes my hand and walks to the split between the two tunnels, the light illuminating the drawings on the two walls. The one on the right is decorated with paintings of skulls, blue flames, and black waves, the left tunnel seems more light-hearted, complete with human figures painted in brightly coloured hues.
"Which path?" I whisper.
"I don’t know." August replies in a far louder voice. "Lady Phobia has always been complex, I recognise some of the figures in this left passage." She continues as she points to a figure in blue and silver with almost fish like figures. "See, this is Diver, and that is the Quoll." She adds before pointing to a large rat like figure. "Oh, and these little guys are the Kinetics Club," She continues before stopping, her face screwed up into a look of confusion, "or was it Klub, it was something like that."
"These are the heroes, then!" I gasp as we walk into the tunnel, and August stops as she sees a figure in blue and black, his hair streaming out as if whipped by an invisible wind.
"Winduster." August sighs as she places her hand on the figure. "My old friend, I could use your powers now." She laments before turning to walk to the end of the blocked tunnel, where a large female figure with flowing blonde hair dressed in black executing a bound and broken figure with a massive dagger dripping with black blood.
"Peacekeeper, betrayer, and murderer." August growls before turning to look back down the tunnel, the cave paintings warping into the same murderous scene. "This is not the right tunnel." She states as she passes me and walks back into the main chamber. Hesitating, I follow her out and see her measuring the distance to the back of the tunnel with the laser.
"Was that… was that Lady Phobia’s power changing the paintings?" I ask as August turns the laser off and looks back at the crevice, we crawled through to get into here. "You said she would leave us along, but if she changed the paintings to mess with us..." August raises her hand, her movement causing me to stop. Then she sits down cross legged and gestures for me to join her.
"Maybe, Lady Phobia, you have to understand, she’s not a villain, she’s a victim. There’s a reason why Peacekeeper is seen as a villain despite all she did to protect Indigo City, and that was because she ripped out the cities heart." August explains, as I begin to turn around, only for August to shake her head. "There was a woman called Torres, she was afraid…afraid of who she was, what she was, but then Peacekeeper stole her heart and gave Torres her own. But Peacekeeper was a traitor, the heart she gave was stolen and rotten, fit only to contain the cruelties and nothing good."
"Is she…"
"She is, focus on me, she simply wants to listen too." August tells me as I catch a glimpse of something with a skull like face in the corner of my eyes. "When the end came, Peacekeeper destroyed the hearts she had stolen, her true colours revealed as she saved the Earth and killed it at the same time. Torres, consumed by what she thought was love was corrupted, the fear she had, consumed her and warping the world around her. But she still knew love, and so she hid herself away where her fear couldn’t harm anyone else." She stopped and turned her head, causing me to follow her gaze to where the emaciated woman with long dark black hair and skeletal wings with black feather sat. "We only want to leave, we don’t mean you any more distress than what you currently are in." August explained as the woman turned to look at me, my adrenaline spiking as I began to hyperventilate.
"Tell her what you are afraid of!" August yells as she shuffles over to me and hold my hands together. "She isn’t in control of her powers, tell her what frightens you, overcome it."
"They are going to take me away and experiment on me!" I blurt out as I look over to Lady Phobia, only noticing that she’s crying, that she seems to be either in pain or fear or maybe both. "The CBTF are going to take me away and experiment on me, and my work…they say we can’t leave, so I can’t run away."
"What do you mean you can’t run away?" August asks as she keeps her eyes focused on me, even as I begin to feel like I’m going to throw up.
"I’m here illegally, my employer says that we’re not allowed to go home because of the Great Impact, the Blight Wars…because we’re the only people disposable enough to clean up…" I double over and begin coughing, but my stomach is empty, and all I can do is wretch painfully. As I do I feel a cold hand touch my cheek, I see Lady Phobia wiping away one of my tears, "…they took my passport, I haven’t been able to call my parents…I…I…"
"Who took your passport?" August asks as Lady Phobia runs her cold hand through my hair.
"Griffon." I stammer as Lady Phobia walks away, her body seemingly dissolving into darkness. As she does, I breathe a sigh of relief and take a few deep breaths to try and calm myself down.
"There isn’t anything allowing Griffon…I assume Griffon Extra-Terrestrial Salvage…from keeping you here, and as for the CBTF, you would be granted citizenship because of your Carrier powers, but at this point there is probably nothing they haven’t seen before, let alone need to extract from you." August explains as she gets to her feet and looks down the tunnels, the colourful cavalcade of heroes had returned. "If Griffon is doing anything you have told me, I will make sure they pay. The CBTF will make sure they pay. Now how about getting out of here."
I nod and get to my feet, before following August into the left-hand tunnel until we come to a stop at the image of Windduster again.
"It’s not a sign, but maybe…maybe you can get us out of here." August suggests as she points at Windduster. "Use your power, try and bring him to life." She suggests, as I look at the heroic looking figure, and take a deep breath and place my hand on his chest.
"Okay, come on." I whisper as I feel a sickness grip my body, pinpricks of pain running up my arms and a sudden wave of adrenaline washing through me. Removing my hand, I see that the image of Windduster is still in the same place, unmoving and inert.
"Try again." August implores me as I place my hand back on the figure, the same odd sensations flowing through me, but this time I feel more. I feel cold, I feel distress and I feel like lamenting, almost as if the image is suffering. Looking up, I see Windduster move across the cave wall before coming to a stop where he had been.
"My old friend, we need your power to get out of here." August tells the figure as he looks up at her, a smile forming on his face. All of a sudden, the world turns and I feel like I’m caught in the eye of a hurricane before falling, the world slowing down to reveal trees, grass, and a statue of Windduster standing silhouetted by the setting sun.
"He did it." I whisper before turning to see August as she replaced the helmet over her face.
"You did it." August tells me as she walks away from me. "I will get to the bottom of your accusations, and I will see you soon." She adds as she heads down the path out of the park and stops before turning and having one last look before walking off into the sunset.
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