Got 'im to wake up.
“What's your name?” I demanded.
“What?” he asked.
“What is a silly name!” I snapped
at him. “Give me your real name!”
“I- I'm Sam,” he said.
“Liar!” I said.
“How do you know he's lying?” Kord
asked.
“I don't need to read minds to know,”
I said. “Who are you!?”
“My... my name is Jerard,” he said.
“Good,” I said. “Now, explain to
me why I can't read your mind.”
“Nolla Row,” he said.
“Who's that?” I said.
“She is our captain,” he said. “The
woman who brought us all together.”
“Brought you all together, huh?” I
asked. “So, how does she project mental barriers?”
“I don't know,” he said. “I don't
understand her power.”
I took a break to look through Kord's
mind some. He thinks he can keep me out, and to an extent he can. But
not completely. I found what I was looking for. Something he ad
overheard one of Camazotz' cohorts saying.
“A Lateral Megalith Hems,” I said.
“All Hail The Game Master, right?”
“How do you know that!?” he gasped.
“My IQ is approximately 3 times that
of the presumed maximum,” I said. “Figuring out a simple anagram
like that is simple for someone like me. Now, I wanna know what you
numbskulls have to do with the Game Master.”
“You're Isaac O'Zalia, aren't you!?”
he asked.
“You've heard of me?” I asked.
“You're like us!” he said. “The
Game Master gave you a gift when you were a child, right!?”
“Possible,” I said. “I delve into
the minds of others, but I rarely care enough to look into my own. It
is possible that he's responsible for my intelligence, but I don't
care much either way. From what you said, it would be safe to assume
he granted an Emissary power to each of you. Am I correct?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Yet the other Fears claimed you as
there servants before h could return and recruit you, correct?” I
asked.
“How did you know?” he asked me.
“You're a Prowler,” I said. “I
can tell by your hair and eye color. I knew a man who was taken by
the Convocation before the Game Master could come for him, and it
seems Camazotz was in a similar scenario.”
“Yes,” he said. “Nolla Row
tracked us all down. We joined her, in search of others like us. She
spoke of you, the Slender Proxy capable of reading minds.”
“My powers go beyond that,” I said.
“Now, tell me Nolla Row's plan.”
“I don't know what she intends to do
once she finds all the Emissary's that were taken by the Fears,” he
said. “But I believe she wishes to join our true master.”
“I see,” I said. “And who all has
she recruited so far?”
“Me, Camazotz, Balor, and Asmodian,”
he said.
“And what are their powers?” I
asked. “They all have gifts from Playful Bill, don't they?”
“I don't know what they're all
capable of,” he said. “I only joined recently.”
“And what's your thing?” I asked.
“Bear,” he said.
“What?” I asked but I soon saw what
he was talking about.
His body expanded rapidly, tearing
through the ropes binding him in place. He had turned into some kind
of bear-person hybrid. If only there was some pig involved, then I
could make a South Park joke. He raised a paw and swiped at me. I
ducked his attack and slashed at him with my glave. I got him in the
shoulder, but he barely flinched. Kord sent out this sonic screech,
which threw him off balance. He grabbed a nearby chair and threw it
at Kord. It hit him, knocking him over.
“ Crocodile!” he said, and he
morphed into a croc man with black scales.
I jumped back before he could chomp me.
I'm well aware of what a crocodile's jaws are capable of. He turned
sharply and swung his tail at me. I sliced it some with my glave. He
cried out in pain and bull rushed me. Literally. He turned into a
bull. And he punched me in the ribs. It hurt. He charged and broke
through the door to the warehouse we were in. I was about to yell at
Kord to get up and fight, when I noticed something.
There were a few people in the area,
but they all seemed to be going about their own business. Except one.
One of them had been masking her thoughts to make herself seem like a
normal person. I could have seen through her disguise earlier if I
had been paying attention to the random people in the area, but I had
been focusing on our hostage.
“Raven!” Jerard cried, turning into
a bird man.
He flew into the air, but was knocked
down by the girl I had picked up with my telepathy. She landed before
him and shot a fireball from her mouth. It hit him, burning most of
his feathers. He reverted to his human form. Camazotz suddenly
appeared from no where and placed a hand on Jerard's shoulder. Kord
saw him and charged out the door. I noticed that neither Camazotz or
Jerard were moving. They weren't even breathing. I tried to tell Kord
to stop, but he ignored me and continued charging, but he simply
passed through them. They flickered and disappeared.
“What just happened!?” Kord
Demanded.
“They teleported,” the woman
explained. He was wearing a gray shirt with blue jeans, and had blue
hair pulled back into a braid. Her eyes were pink.
“It's more complex than that,” I
said. “He factored in some form of light manipulation.”
“What do you mean?” Kord said.
“His power is that he can teleport
without passing through other domains or layers, like the Game
Master's Cards can,” I explained.
“And what does light have to do with
that?” he asked.
“We can see things because of the
light refracting off of them,” I explained. “Camazotz' power
seems to allow him to make the light continue to refract off of the
empty space he was in after he vanishes.”
“Meaning?” Kord asked.
“Meaning, that thing you attacked
wasn't them,” I said. “It was air that looked like them. He can
leave behind after images.”
“You could have just said that to
begin with!” he said. “You don't have to complicate things!”
“Yes I do, because I'm a dick,” I
said.
“And who's this chick!” he
demanded.
“Don't call me a chick!” she
snapped.
“Her name is Valerie Keeyes,” I
said. “Or, as the other Emissaries called her, Wildfire.”
“She's an Emissary?” he asked.
“I used to be,” she said. “Until
this man killed my master.”
“You killed the Game Master?” he
asked me.
“Yes,” I said.
“I need to speak to you,” she said
to me.
“No point,” I said. “I know what
you're thinking. You want me to help you bring down the Intended
Emissaries. The answer's no.”
“But what about Camazotz!?” Kord
said. “We have to go after them!”
“No, we don't,” I said.
“But I thought we were planning-”
he started to say, but I cut him off.
“My plan is to protect runners, not go
looking for trouble,” I said. “That's why I recruited you. You
have the potential to help me keep people safe.”
“Then why did you squeeze all of that
information out of him!?” he demanded.
“So that I'll know what they can do
if they try to fuck with us!” I snapped back.
“They'll come after you,” she said.
“You're an Intended Emissary, just like them.”
“Maybe I am, maybe I'm not,” I
said.
“It's not a matter of 'maybe',” she
said. “You are an Emissary. Just look at your hair!”
“What about his hair?” Kord asked.
“You mean that he dyes it?”
“It's not dyed,” she said. “His
body rejected his powers at first, altering his appearance. Just like
me, but not quite as drastic.”
“What does it matter?” I said. “I
care little about my own past. This isn't important to me.”
“It should be!” she said. “If
they can't recruit you, they'll try to kill you! If we don't work
together, we won't stand a chance, but if we team up, we can fight
them!”
“How do you know?” I demanded. “You
know nothing more about them than I do.”
“Please!” she said. “At least let
me join you! Even if you don't go to them, they'll come to you. Then
you'll have no choice but to help me fight them!”
“You have it in your head that you'll
follow me even if I say no,” I said. “I could just erase your
memory of this encounter.”
“We should fight,” Kord said.
“Camazotz is a monster. Are you seriously telling me that you don't
believe he deserves to die?”
“Even if he does, I'm not gonna go
attacking someone my powers won't work against,” I said.
“Your powers aren't limited to
telepathy!” Wildfire said. “You destroyed the Game Master by
tearing reality apart!”
“Each time I do that, it shortens my
life,” I said. “It's a double edged sword.”
“Come on!” Kord yelled.
“Ugh, fine!” I said. “But we
leave the other runners out of this. I don't want them getting hurt.
The point of this operation is to protect them.”
“Alright,” Kord said.
“Good, so we're agreed?” Wildfire
asked.
“Yeah, sure,” I said.
So, yeah. That happened.
