The Midnight Train to Nowhere

[Gossamer]

"Jail?!" Toby exclaimed, hunching over before letting out a discouraged sigh. "Oh, man." He scratched his wavy hair pondering how Orion's judicial system worked. "So, jail break?" A brief silence allowed the sounds of groaning to pass through, reminding them of the lingering threat surrounding them from the outside.

We know that two of your friends are in jail, the rest must be up north with Felicia. She mentioned finding a bunch of civilians.

The boy could only imagine the horrors an underwater abandoned cities jail cell could bring, and could only hope that his friends were holding out. He felt somewhat guilty to assume that it was probably one of the original hooded figures that were locked up, considering the fact that they were wanted crimin-

"oh god" Toby blurted out the words. They were all sort of wanted criminals now. Is that why they were locked up? Toby made sure to take note of his newfound criminal history and be a little cautious with the locals of Nowhere. It may have been a mistake to simply mention the green cloaks.

He cleared his throat as Madeline questioned Riley's hearing capabilities and listened as their options were announced. The moment his eyes laid on the bag of golf clubs Toby knew what course of action he wanted to take. Granted, Madeline was doubting their strength, which is fair. It didn't matter anyways, the boy was a firm believer in the phrase actions speak louder than words.

Listen, we might not look like much, but we've been through a lot. Take it from Toby, we're stronger than we look. You don't have to save us a second time, we'll look out for each other.

He grinned, and in one motion twirled his entire body, zooming towards the bag and snatching up three golf clubs for his friends. He had yet to consider if either of them would object to this idea.
"Guppy on the outside," The boy said as he handed a golf club to Niran with a genuine smile, "Tiger shark that knows karate on the inside"

With a golf club in both hands, Toby floated towards Inadi and extended the one in his right. "It's no Kain, but maybe if you close your eyes while fighting the zombies you can try to pretend?"

 

[Cephalogod]

Something told Sacha that their little shortcut was hardly going to be a walk in the park. That is, it was certainly going to be a literal walk in the park, but something was probably just waiting to jump out of that tangle of seaweed. Or maybe the fish would dart out from behind that mound of coral over there and then he's accidentally look into its eyes. The park looked exactly like one would expect a park to after some neglect- there were bits of broken coral scattered about, and seaweed grew in masses that could certainly tangle a fish if one got too close- meaning that there were more than enough places for an emotion stealing fish to hide.

He took a deep breath before he could worry himself into a panic. Everything was going to be just fine. His Gary senses weren't tingling yet so she was staying out of trouble for now, and everybody else he kinda maybe trusted to be able to take care of themselves. They'd just cut through the part without incident, and nothing would happen. He was too distracted trying to figure out if a certain clump of seaweed was swaying too much for the current to hear Olsen's question the first time and was about to ask the whale-man to repeat what he had said when a loud crash made him yelp, tentacles seizing up into a tight knot. His hopes that perhaps the fish hadn't heard the racket were immediately dashed by the answering groans in the distance. At least Numair had been able to free Leila from the cart, while the poor octopus only managed to free up two tentacles enough to follow everybody as they skedaddled out of there. He looked absolutely ridiculous hightailing it out of there but it worked surprisingly well. and that was all he cared about right now. Unfortunately Olson had remembered Leila's little question from before and had a question of his own.

"So, what exactly do a bunch of cooks want with the mayor's key, huh?"

"I, that's, um, pearl powder makes for great seasoning?" He offered up an answer meekly before shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but we're not actually cooks. We're looking for the black pear because- it's a long story, but it's really important that we find it. Did you say the mayor-"

"It looks like they're gathering around that building."

Everybody looked towards where Ast was pointing, and Sacha immediately spotted a head poking out of the doorway.

"It's C-" Did that mean the rest of C's group was trapped in there as well? "We need to get them out of there before the emotionless get them!"

 

[MixedUpGuy]

Inadi listened in to Madeline's explanation of the situation and the overall view of how the group was being handled away from their location. He heard Riley's growing agitation, Toby's chipper mindset about handling the fish outside their room, and Ran's defending of Riley after Madeline's outburst. Yet the only thing echoing in his head was that two of their colleagues were in a jail cell and the others were potentially getting hunted down by that fish bastard somewhere up north. Inadi didn't know who was in the cell and he could care less. His friends were in trouble and no moaning group of sardines was gonna keep him in this dinky little shack.

Inadi reached out and took the club from Toby, giving him a quick nod in response. "Thanks Toby. And while this ain't Kain," Inadi quickly spun the club in his hands like he did his old spear. It was a lot slower because of the water pressure hindering his movement, but it still generated a good amount of bubbles as it cut through the still water around them. Bringing the impromptu weapon in his hand to a stop he shot a grin back to the blond. "But it will do just fine I think." He chuckled as he turned over to Madeline.

"We leave now with no questions or regrets. If our friends are in danger, we intend to get them out of it. And no amount of those walking fish sticks out there are gonna stop us." Inadi told the woman as he quickly moved over to the blocked off door and began peeking out of one of the open spots the boarded up windows could not cover up. Eight on the right, five on the left, six in the middle. At least from the vantage point he had. Definitely a crowd to be sure. But they were spread out pretty widely. There was a path just waiting to be made, but it just depended on how they reacted to the sudden movement as they left the shack.

Looking back over to Madeline he motioned her to join him at the blockade. The woman swam up quickly as the two positioned themselves on the opposite sides of the bookshelf they had moved earlier. "So which direction is north from here exactly boss lady?" Inadi asked as he got a grip on the bookshelf as he prepared to move it.

The woman scoffed as she too grabbed it and prepared to lift. "It's to the right of us. We keep going that direction we should get there before too long." Inadi inwardly sighed to himself. Of course they were to the right. That's where all the fish seemed to be gathered at. Nothing could ever be simple in this stupid universe could it.

Turning his head over to the other humans in the room he gave them a nod. "When we move this, swim like hell!"

With that he began lifting the bookshelf and Madeline quickly followed as they threw it to the ground and the door seemed to burst open with an initial wave of the fish falling forward. Lucky for them the ones that were banging didn't have good balance. Quickly swimming over the top of the initial group, Inadi and Madeline began clearing the path and swung their clubs at the emotionless fish. The groups began to scatter and tried to avoid becoming a new hole in one for the two heads of the escapees. Madeline quickly took the lead as Inadi swung at the sides to try and create enough room for the others to file into.

Eventually he had a decent enough start to the pathway and turned back to see the others were not too far behind, but still not as close as he would like for them to be. "Hurry up back there! We need to move and we need to move now!" Inadi yelled as he continued swinging as one fish in particular almost got a grip on Inadi's tail. Noticing it at the last possible moment he swung his nose down which frightened the fish into swimming back a few steps. Inadi smiled at seeing his embarrassing feature was continuing to show its usefulness.

 

[Fox of Spades]

City of Orion - Group Three

"This is Madeline," she yelled into her radio. "We've left the carnival and are heading north. I repeat, we are heading north. I have four civilians with me and countless emotionless on our tail. Requesting backup if possible." The woman swung her golf club in an upward arc and the emotionless stumbled back, making way for the humans and their guide.

"Philip speaking. No back up is available at the moment. Get the emotionless off your tails and meet up with Olson's team ASAP."

Madeline scoffed then turned to look at the others. "For Celery's sake, don't look back!"

"I'm trying to keep them off our tails!" Riley countered, she was swimming backwards and swinging her golf club like crazy. "Ran! Ran!" A couple of emotionless were approaching their left flank. "Coming towards you at eight O'clock." Riley looked around her. For every emotionless that lost track of them, two more would come crawling out of a nearby structure. If this kept up, they would soon be overwhelmed by the sheer number of white-eyed fishes. "Madeline, where are these things coming from?"

"The more frightened we are, the more of an appetizing meal we become," their leader snapped. "They can sense emotion so just keep swimming and follow me." She motioned for the humans to follow and soon enough she was zipping ahead and swimming past their empty-eyed foes.

Riley pushed one of the zombies away with her golf club then swam as fast as she could.

* * *
​

"Damn, I can't believe we made it." Madeline tucked a strand of hair behind her ear then gave the humans a broad grin. "Y'know, I guess I misjudged you guys, you're not half bad." She gave Riley and Ran a nod of approval then tapped Toby on the shoulder. "Kid, maybe you do have some tiger shark blood in you, though I'm not too sure about the karate part."

"Do you hear that, Toby?" Riley laughed then gave Madeline a smile. "First impressions aside, you're not so bad either."

"Ha, and Inadi, you're quick on your fins. I can appreciate that."

"So, Madeline?" Riley asked. "Are we getting close."

The woman eyed the empty abandoned houses and empty streets. "Yeah, actually we're getting pretty close—"

"ADRIAN! GOSH DARN IT, ADRIAN!"

"Get down," Madeline mumbled. "No sudden noises."

"Gods...Adrian, where the hell are you?" A young merman swam past them, he had a flashlight clutched to his chest, the poor boy was as pale as a sheet.
​

Riley was about to call out, but before she could say anything Madeline clamped a hand over her mouth. "Quiet," the woman hissed.

"He needs help," Riley looked at her friends and hoped they felt the same way. They couldn't leave him on his own, the boy was practically shaking like a leaf. If they allowed him to leave, there was a possibility the emotionless or something worse would catch him.

"Something is following him..."

Not long after Madeline had said the words, a soft blue glow emanated from one of the houses. There was creak followed by a spine-chilling growl.

Travis turned around and the sight before him made his lower lip quiver.
​

The merman screamed and the fish began its chase.​

♠ ♠ ♠

City of Orion - Group One and Two

"Wait, what? No, you can't just ask for the city..." Adrian facepalmed, but he lit up when Ace agreed to help. "Anyways, thank you. I really, really, appreciate it." Ace asked if he was trying to use them and he blushed severely. "No, of course not! What I mean is, I'm not a fighter. I wouldn't just leave you guys hanging." He looked hurt, but then Ace laughed and he just shook his head. "Okay, yeah, let's get out of here? Hey, where are your friends?"

While Adrian and Ace were talking, C had dragged Gary along with her. They were by the front door, heads tilted back so they could stare at the circling emotionless above them. "There are a lot of them," she mumbled slowly. "Gary, do you have a plan?" The pink-haired hobbit could be violent from time to time, but C trusted her to come up with a smart plan. Gary always pulled through when they needed her.

"There you guys are. What..." Adrian looked postively frightened. "What are you doing?

"Thinking," C shrugged before she waved at the figures in the distance. She couldn't make out who they were, but there was a tough looking whale, well, she thought it was a whale.
​

"Yeah, the mayor, and you don't have to explain yourselves to good ol' Olson—C?" The whale finally noticed what Sacha was staring at and he cursed. "There are civilians down there, oh Celery."

"Civilians?" Harper swam up to where Sacha and Olson were and he felt his blood run cold. Their friends were trapped in a battered building and they were surrounded by so many of the emotionless too. "Sacha is right! What can we do to help?" If he had to charge through them or act as bait to save his friends then he would!

"Slow down, we can't go charging in head first, alright?" Olson sighed then hissed when he noticed C waving.

Soon enough the emotionless were upon them, C shut the door just in time but the zombies started banging on it and soon enough the rest of the emotionless were making a beeline for the doors and windows.

"Crud..."

"Olson!" Felicia's voice was alarming.

"Not now, we need to get to those civilians ASAP."

"Olson!" This time it was Ast's voice.

"I'm thinking!"

"OLSON!" Both his teammates yelled at the same time and the whale man spun around.

Hurtling towards them was a young merman and the fish itself.

​

The situation was suddenly a hundred times worse. "Get down dammit!" He swam in front of the humans and stuck out his hands. "Down, go, go, go, and don't let it catch you! Felicia, Ast, try to get those civilians out of the building!"

Felicia looked at the lost souls. "Olson is going to need backup!"

Harper didn't waste any time, he swam past Felicia and nodded numbly. "Please save our friends."

"We'll do our best." The fish woman stared at the remaining humans. "Let's go."




​

 

[Warden]

"Nah. Totes not worth the trouble. If we kidnap him, he's gonna scream his head off. Then I might have to break his jaw to shut him up," Gary replied in a very cheerful manner to whether they should use the merman as a hostage. She even lifted her pole as if to emphasize her point. Poor Adrian. If the evil fish doesn't get him, either C or Gary will.

Unlike the morbid conversation the two Hooded Figures were having, Victoria and Ace seemed to be agreeing on a number of logical points. "Ugh, we should just steal it off the mayor. I doubt any of them little fishies could stop me," the nobody muttered under her breath as she crossed her arms over her chest. Like the other redhead in the group, she thought that obtaining the pearl under illegal means was the better option. They were already renowned criminals- or at least associated with creatures of that reputation- and nabbing yet another object was just another gold coin in a treasure trove. Ah, but they had now signed on to the straight and narrow path…

"No, I don't think this kid would be of further use. Look at him. He's going to start shrieking "persecution!" if I so much as raise a finger," Victoria shook her head and sneered at Adrian when she heard Ace's suggestion. Everything about the boy said that he was one of those so-called 'screamers' who cranked their vocal chords up to the highest level when faced with a threat, no matter how minor. He'd bring the whole house down on them within minutes. "Right, let's go up and leave out a window." However, before any of the three could make a move, C caught the attention of the emotionless milling about outside and now they were all rapping on the windows like angry neighbors.

"A plan? I got a plan. It involves Hot Momma. Whiny Boy's not gonna like it though, but it's going to be real cool, C. Promise!" Gary's pea green eyes lit up in excitement. She turned around, swam up to the ceiling where Victoria was about to swim through the gaping hole, and hurriedly explained in loud whispers...

"Was that C!?"

After preventing so many bouts of infighting from breaking apart the Hooded Figures, Numair knew enough of his friends' facial features to recognize them even from far away. Plus, who the fudge pokes her head out from a safe zone just to wave at a couple of bystanders? More importantly… What was she doing inside that place? They already discussed "How To Make Sure You Can't Be Cornered By Bunny Guards 101" and a building like that was one of the no-nos!

"Right. Harper, next time you leave the heroics to the muscular people, okay? Okay. Let's go, quickly!" Numair whistled and dove towards the building. He didn't know what to do. Frankly, he was stuck between "try to help C" and "go down and then break in the structure through a window or an alternative exit". He said as much to his two companions as they neared the smattering of zombie fishies getting mad at the walls. "Sacha, Leila? Any ideas?"

Before either of the two could propose an idea, several of the fishfolk were pushed back from the door. Gary and Victoria emerged, the former grinning in a way that made Numair sigh and realize something was about to go down while the latter cracked her knuckles. Some random dude was screeching something along the lines of "Nooooo!" behind them.

Gary's plan was apparently have Hot Momma a.k.a Victoria mow through the civilians.

It worked. Most, if not all, of the emotionless were KO'ed within a moment. Seriously, untrained zombies against an ex-dragoon slash bounty huntress? Pfft. Now if only Adrian stopped shrieking. At least she didn't stab them with a shard of glass.

"Numair, Leila, Sach- oh. Oh! Get in the building, now!"

The two groups almost collided with each other, but Victoria spied the mega fish trailing after some poor sap in the distance and did a complete 180. She pushed Gary and C back into the room, slapped Adrian (softly) to stop him from whining, and told Ace to make sure neither of the three do anything stupid. With that errand done the nobody zipped past Numair's group to help Olson and Harper.

"Okay, let's lose that thing! First things first, let's get out of this place and go into the other houses further in. It can probably break down walls so we gotta go fast, though!" the surfer shouted as they all swum into the living room. Right, where to go from here? "Ace, I'll take flank. You lead us!"

 

[Capt. Blu]

So C and Gary were completely useless in this situation. Adrian was still freaking out. Well, at least Victoria was able to gets some points across. Man, being the responsible one was tough. "I mean we can always steal it and take out zombie leader. That way, we can get two rewards." Was she really having a logical debate about how to steal the pearl and get a prize? It seemed so, and once more Adrian was in mild panic. Their debating didn't last long. Gary decided that she had a plan, which made Ace simply raise an eyebrow. "You're really going to listen to her Vicky? Huh, don't tell me you're getting as crazy as she is." Ace simply shook her head and grabbed Adrian. He was proving to be a lost cause, and pretty unuseful, but she wasn't going to leave him in the building. "Come on C, keep up. I've got slow poke here."

She swam through their new exit, right behind Gary and Victoria, only for moments later to have Victoria knock out most of the emotionless fish around them. "No fair... Everyone else gets the fun jobs..." While Adrian shrieked in fear that Vicky could've killed them, Ace's hand went over his mouth and she swam full speed after the others, and almost into the other group. Literally. She almost ran into Ast. She really needed to learn how to brake properly. "Leila! Hi, how's it going? Ooh, that doesn't look very good." A rather large fish was in the distance. She turned quickly when Vicky ordered them back to the building. "Aye aye Captain! Come on you guys, back to the building!" Then she realized she was in charge of a bunch of crazy people and the big baby. "Alright you heard the woman! I'm in charge! C, Pinkie, take the octopus and make sure he doesn't get all tangled up while he swims! Adrian, you stay close to fish one and two, they look like they're fast enough to keep up. Surfer boy, well, you make sure no one lags behind got it? Good!" Mentioning fish one and two, she pointed over to Felicia and Ast. She didn't know there names, but it wasn't time for introductions at the moment. She didn't wait for them to listen. At this point, she was now in charge and the zombie overlord was too close for comfort. Now even Numair suggested she was leader!

"Leila, since you float and don't really swim all that fast, you'll be with me, okay?" Ace gave a reassuring thumbs up and grinned. "Just, hang on as tight as you can and don't freak out." She let Leila decide how she was going to hang on for dear life, whether it was holding her hand or holding on piggy back style. When everyone was ready she signalled for them to go, before darting through the back doors of the building. Like Numair suggested, she went through multiple buildings, taking a crazy trail through windows, up steps, through broken side doors, and other places where only they could fit through. The trail was confusing to watch, much less follow clearly. Despite the dire situation, Ace was having fun. It was like free running, but swimming! And with someone holding on to her! And also with something chasing them! The adrenaline rush was fantastic!

"Guys! Whatever you do, don't look back! If you look back you'll probably run into something forward! That and you might get zombified!" Because she was a certified leader, Ace did occasionally glance back to the others to make sure they weren't too far behind. Numair was doing a good job at that, and everyone else seemed to be doing fine as well. She also put C and Gary in charge of Sacha, knowing despite how crazy they were, they would never leave a friend behind... It was something she could admit to having in common with them.

Ace wasn't sure if they lost the zombie overlord or not, but it was probably a good time to ask for important information too. "Fish one and two! Two important questions! One-" She had to pause in order to duck under a beam in a house. "Which way is the mayor's house- I mean, city hall! Two-" Through a large broken window. "Do you two happen to know where another group of fish are? We need to get them too!"

 

[four]

"Don't electrocute me."

"I - I'm really incapable of doing that but I'm not sure if you should - "

Vision partly obscured by the dust that was kicked up, Leila tried hard not to panic as Numair started flipping through the heap of destroyed kitchenware. She wanted to pull back, but she had already made that mistake once.

A pulse ran up one of her unseen tentacles as cells fired upon contact with what she presumed to be Numair. In trepidation she shifted left and right, futilely trying to see clearly what Numair was doing even though she knew that there wasn't really anything she could do if things went wrong.

"That wasn't as bad as I expected!" Numair.

Leila looked over her shoulder to see several ominous-looking, shifting figures at the edge of the landscape, then at Numair. Then there was the growl in the background.

How bad exactly did you expect things to become?

* * * *​

Within the next minute or so matters complicated themselves exponentially.


"Just, hang on as tight as you can and don't freak out." Ace.

"-okay."

There was only one "okay" because Leila wasn't sure she could manage the second part.

Those cornered pulled a daring exit from the building. Regrouped, the lot now found themselves between the handful of emotionless shuffling near the empty building that were bound to turn upon them once they've recovered; and this mammoth of what seemed to be some sort of angler fish rampaging behind them.

Leila clasped her hands tight around Ace's arm and pulled the leafs of her body as close together as possible so as to not cause too much drag, and Ace swam at an impressive speed even with all of her mass in tow.

Despite Ace's reminders, though, Leila found herself unable to resist turning her head to glance at what was behind her; disregarding the warning that a look into the fish's eyes might -
-where exactly were that thing's eyes?

Besides from the dangling light, the only thing left that distinguished the angler fish-esque monstrosity from an indistinct grey blob with maws composed of absurdly long teeth were the dozens of variously coloured, cloudy hemispheres attached to the top of its head.

Leila succeeding in not finding out whether some or all or any of them were the eyes through experiment.

She let out a short yell before tucking her head down, narrowly avoiding the protruding edge of glass that she noticed just in time. Some faces of her lower body scratched the jagged edges , but the two of them made it through the narrow window and the others followed.

"Two important questions! -" Ace yelled, and it was only barely audible as they shot through the water.

"City hall - uh!" Leila responded, only managing to get part of the answer through before she felt the sudden jerk on both of her arms, which was surely also felt by Ace, as the speed at which they moved through the water decreased considerably. Leila reacted fast enough to have pulled her jellyfish body downwards enough so that the two merpeople didn't crash into the mess of tendrils exposed.

It wasn't a great time to make the trivial observation that a mass of jellyfish unintentionally expanded made very effective airbrakes. She apologized quickly.

At the same time, slightly to the left of their course and some distance away, the contours of a building could be made out - rising taller than the rubble that surrounded it, with elegant pillars supporting its front, on which - barely discernable - were inscribed the letters that designated the purpose of the structure.

 

[Fox of Hearts]

Crash, crash, creak. The barricade bulged under the weight of the bodies pressing in from the outside. Ran suppressed his current bout of wallowing and tried to keep alert. That creaking sound coming from the door didn't bode well for them. Gladly he accepted the club from the blonde kiddo with a smile. Clutching the club in his hand, the man braced himself for the mad dash through the soulless crowd. Urgh! Imagine someone was asking him about the zombie apocalypse the other day. Was it a friend? A colleague? He can't remember.

Barricade gone…

Door opening…​

RUN! RUN RUN!​

En masse the group shifted into 3 gear and sped through the crowd. An occasional swift jab of the handle (quite by accident) or a poke with the weighted head were barely enough to keep the small radius of protection round them. Determined the hoomans followed their spunky leader while trying, and in Ran's case, to keep their emotions under the lid. He wanted to scream, yell, shout and rage at the same time. This was the definitely the second worst day since boarding the Train.

"C-c-celebrity! Macaroon and honey fudge cake." He panted.

The plan was a success! He merely nodded in thanks as he surveyed their new surroundings. Somehow he felt even less secure being in the vicinity of a deserted neighborhood. There was simply no telling whom they might run into. These huge houses were always the first place the desperate and the mercenary would flock to in times of despair almost like in one of those horror games. Instinctively he moved a little closer to the kids with his back facing them. Someone had to keep a watch in case som-

"ADRIAN! GOSH DARN IT, ADRIAN!" yelled a lone figure wandering the empty streets.

Ran didn't need to be told twice before he compiled with Madeline's rushed orders. Surviving the mad carni was more than enough to convince him that this lady should be trusted. He bit his lip as he watched the boy no older than the kids in his group calling out in desperation. His compassion side was quickly overpowered by his more logically side and he gripped Riley's wrist. "Madeline's right. He's attracting too much attention."

As bad as it sounded, this was their own survival that was on the line. If they helped the boy there was no telling what may happen. He wanted to drive the point home when a loud shriek tore through the silence enveloping the rest of the street. There was bright glow then a terrified scream. A huge, illuminated boogie-giant-thing flashed passed and that was it. Ran blinked back the tears in his eyes as his mind tried to comprehend what he saw – another, more deadly angler fish. The mermaid's voice was disappearing into the distance when Madeline told them to more their sorry asses. He pulled back.

"Wait, you can't be serious! We're not following that thing?"

Maybe one or two looked at him, but no one responded, because one by one they took off after Riley who had shot away first. Gummy Bears! Didn't the kids realize that this wasn't a joke? They were up against a huge thing that moved even faster than that beast in the forest. No they were actually following behind a potential predator. Celery have mercy! He should have agreed to stay behind with Lesley. No all of them should have stayed home. Looks like Lesley was really the lucky one to be down with food poisoning this morning.

The gloomy shadows cast by the taller buildings made the smaller ones look almost menacing. Rows of windows lined the lower levels. Only one of two were half barricaded. It certainly looked like one of those hellish scenes in the games. A battered traffic light to their left flicked wearily between the red and green light. There was no indication where the fish went. The poor lad was a goner by now.

"I have no idea what we're looking for."

His eyes immediately followed the lone finger pointing ahead. He stared at the strangest migration he had ever seen. A medium sized horde of zombies were shuffling towards something found along the next street. Before he can do the "adult thing" and remind the kids it wasn't too late to hide, they were gone again. This time towards the place those dead-eyed fish were congregating. Ran sighed. There's no stopping them. He rounded the corner and nearly walked into Toby. Just in front of them stood a whale of sorts flanked by HARPER!

"Harper!" Ran called out excitedly as he waved energetically. His excitement was the last thing they needed in a zombie-infested area. The man tried to pipe down, but it was too late. Several of the straggling zombies were now shuffling towards the group.

 

[MixedUpGuy]

While the praises were being sent around after the successful escape from the carnival, Inadi couldn't help but feel worried. All they had done really was swim away from the mess of trouble they had gotten themselves into. Now they were swimming into a whole new kind of problem potentially with the emotion stealing fish just around the corner potentially. And that made his smile stay hidden away behind his glare as he scouted around them.

The empty houses would have been worse if there had been some kind of slow wind to blow by and whistle through his ears. Luckily underwater, that was impossible. Yet still the sight was not at all a pleasant one. So many places emptied out it looked like and here he was standing with the others just waiting to join the masses as brain dead fish searching for some kind of emotion to make them whole again. Turning over to Toby he just shook his head. "None of this looks good. I don't know how fast this fish works but he clearly got a lot of these people already. We need to stay on our..."

Inadi was quickly silenced by a screaming fish in the distance. A merman by the looks of it. Inadi quickly dived to the ground and watched as the stranger continued to scream out, looking for a friend by the looks of it. And just when Inadi was about to call out for the merman's attention, that was when he caught site of the light in the distance. An angler fish. And a nasty one at that it seemed. Seeing Madeline prepare the group to move out and hearing Ran's protest he grabbed his shoulder. "It's cold, shameful and heartless, yes. But he just provided the distraction we need to get to the others. We know where it is now and we have an idea of what it can do. The others need us to get to them so we can let them know exactly how to attack this thing," Inadi told him as he watched the others start swimming off in the direction Madeline was starting to take them to.

Turning back to Ran, he gave a disappointed look in himself. "You either take opportunities as they present themselves or you die. No other way about it Ran. Now come on!" He said with a determined voice as he began kicking himself hard against the water to catch up with the others. Sticking close to the group as they began the search for some familiar faces in the dead town only made Inadi grow more weary of the place. It was so dark and miserable one had to imagine that the whole event would be better off forgotten once the fish was gone. Memories like this only lead to hardship later on down the road of rebuilding. While digging through his thoughts he heard a sudden happy Ran nearby scream out a familiar name.

Hearing and seeing that Harper was nearby made Inadi both happy and fearful. Happy in the sense that friends were still around after all in this ocean. Fearful because now the heard of emotionless were now coming their way. Giving Ran a quick elbow and chuckle, he smiled up at him while bringing his club up to his shoulder. "Couldn't have just given an apathetic wave to him, huh? Now's no time to start having a tell." Inadi joked as he began swimming towards the group of straggling zombies that were on their way. Inadi quickly began swinging his club, making the fish step back in fear and made some even swim in retreat. "Get to Harper and the others. I'll try to hold them off for a bit so we can regroup!" Inadi yelled as he continued swinging, hoping he wouldn't be alone for too much longer on this dumb idea he decided on.

 

[Cephalogod]

"Down, go, go, go, and don't let it catch you! Felicia, Ast, try to get those civilians out of the building!"

Was it- No, It couldn't be. But it was, wasn't it? That giant colorful angler fish chasing down that poor fish boy was the emotion-stealing fish they were trying to avoid. It was an awful situation-they needed to help that poor soul being chased down by the fish, and yet Gary's group was still stuck inside that building that the zombie mermen were surrounding. Surprisingly Harper volunteered to try to stop the fish, and Sacha shot the boy a worried glance before chasing after Numair and Leila who were swimming towards the building the others were trapped in.

It turned out that they didn't end up needing much help as the zombie citizens were knocked out within seconds by Victoria, leaving them safe for the moment. He was all but shoved inside of the building with the others as Victoria darted after the giant angler, intent on aiding Harper and Olson with- what were they even going to do with the fish? Beat it into submission? Even with Victoria there it seemed quite a stretch- hopefully they were just going to distract the thing so the person it was chasing could get away.

"Alright you heard the woman! I'm in charge! C, Pinkie, take the octopus and make sure he doesn't get all tangled up while he swims!"

"H-hey..." He gave a weak protest at this, but it was rather true. He really didn't want to get stuck in a chair or something else that would slow him down significantly, especially if the fish decided to come after them instead. What did worry him was how Gary would try to attempt to keep him untangled. "I'm good for now," He nervously gathered up his multitude of legs except for two like before, maneuvering them like one would legs. It had worked well earlier, he could only hope that it would work just as well right now.

Their group swam as fast as they could and Sacha didn't dare look back in fear of meeting the large monstrous fish's eyes. He squeezed through the broken window miraculously not scratching himself on the broken glass and continued to gallop forward, or at least until Ac and Leila screeched to a halt in front of him. He barreled straight into Leila, but thanks to her quick reaction was able to avoid the mass of stinging tentacles from getting to him. Apologies were quickly stammered out but he had lost control over his limbs in the collision and now they were all over the place, grabbing on whatever they could reach including other limbs, reducing the guy into a tangled knot. He gave a small defeated groan, but as at least something had gone right- to their left was a sign and although it was missing a few letters it was pretty obvious where they were.

Against all odds they had somehow found city hall.

"I think they said something about a prison if we're looking for the others," He tried to pick himself up off the ground but to no avail and instead turned pleading eyes to anyone who might be willing to help untangle the mess.

 

[Fox of Spades]

"Sacha, Leila, we've got you. Don't worry." Together, C and Gary managed to untangle the mess that was Sacha's and Leila's tentacles. That was one mess down, but there were still so many things to deal with, and they were all happening at the same time. The predicament made C angry and she thought about smashing a rock through one of the emotionless fish's eyes.

The others were still outside. They couldn't just leave...

"I think they said something about a prison if we're looking for the others,"

"Prison?" Adrian had learned his lesson and instead of screeching, he whispered wildly. The boy looked around then noticed what Sacha was staring at, he gave Ace an uncertain expression. "It's city hall."

"Good," Ast tried to sound brave. "Head to city hall and go get help, Felicia and I are going back for the others, we'll catch up."

There was a loud crash followed by the sound of shattering glass. Someone cursed and then screamed before loud and angry growls echoed throughout the seafloor. They couldn't see what was going on, but C had an idea, and if she was right, then she really, really didn't want to stick around for much longer. "City hall." The girl pulled Sacha along and the group took a hard left while Ast and Felicia turned back.

Adrian pushed Ace and Leila along before he too disappeared.

City hall had lost whatever grandeur it had, the doors were thrown open and file cabinets and papers were scattered all across the floor. It looked like a whirlpool had passed through the room. The mayor wasn't anywhere in sight, but thankfully, two tall mermen with tridents stood by the door.

"There were two of them, both in green cloaks. They were digging through the file cabinets."

"Damn thieves, now's not the time for this. Do you think they stole anything."

"Beats me," merman number two shrugged. "Phillip caught them, so I'm sure it'll be okay."

"You have to help us!" Adrian was yelling again.

Both soldiers spun around and stared at the large group.

"Emotion stealing fish." As soon as C had said the words, their eyes grew wide and they swam up and began looking around. There were clouds of dust in the distance, but they couldn't hear Olson screaming from where they stood.

"Olson!"

That idiot had actually tried to wrestle the emotion stealing fish! Madeline's heart was racing, the whale man was easily knocked back into a brick wall, and now, he was lying unconscious beneath a pile of rubble.

"What are you doing?" She was screaming at the remaining humans and Travis. "Get the hell out of here! We'll handle it." Ast and Felicia were distracting the fish, but it was far too fast and soon one of them would get caught. "Get out now!" She lowered her voice and stared at Vicky. "Make sure the kids get out safe."

"You heard her," Victoria nodded. "Let's go."

As much as Riley hated to admit, Madeline and Vicky were right, they had to leave now. "Inadi!" She yelled as loudly as she could and the emotionless that were surrounding the boy turned away to look at her. "Now, go!" She had created an opening and the empty-eyed fishes had began following after her. "Through the same building they used!"

"Good idea," Travis motioned for Ran and Inadi to follow before he grabbed onto Toby's hand and began swimming.

Harper froze up, the thought of leaving the guides behind, he couldn't bare it. They left Avian behind, they left Japhet, Est and Breeze behind, and now they were going to do it all over again. Riley grabbed him by the hand and continued swimming.

Vicky followed after them barking orders on where to go.

"Rocks for brains!" Madeline sounded like she was crying. The emotionless sensed that and got off Riley's trail. "Don't look back, okay?"

"There's too many of them!" Ast screamed.

There was another loud thump followed by a pained groan. The fish was sending everyone flying quite easily and soon it was on their trail.

"Swim!" It was Madeline's voice. "Swim!"

And swim they did, Riley practically crashed through a window as she yelled frantically at the others to follow.

"Y-You're bleeding." Harper looked catatonic.

"Just keep swimming," was all she mumbled in response.

They crashed through another window before finding themselves in front of city hall. A look of relief appeared on their friends' faces, but there was another loud crash and soon their expressions turned into one of horror.

The wall behind Toby and Travis caved in and the guards (who had seemed strong and capable only moments ago) fell to the ground like broken marionettes.

"Don't look," C wished she had something smarter to say, but those were the only words she managed to utter.

This fish snapped its jaws shut and charged.

♠ ♠ ♠
​

Prison:​

​

"If you let us out, I'll give you some of Mr. Cuddle's tarts, what do you say?"

Phillip was tired of their shenanigans. First, Luke had tackled the metal door. It didn't work and he ended up on the ground, groaning and whining about how it had hurt. After that, he tried to kick the door open, and of course, it didn't work either. Now, he was trying to bribe Phillip, but the offers weren't anything good.

"I said quiet down, you should take a page from your companion's book and sit down."

Jasper had stopped trying, each silly thing Luke did only made Phillip angrier. If they wanted to get out, they had to act civil. "I think we should stop."

"Huh? Okay, yeah, sure...I'm kind of aching all over now."

The albino let out a relieved sigh. Now, they just had to prove that they weren't a threat.​

​

"Phillip! Phillip!"

The guard sprang out of his seat and grabbed his radio.

"Get to city hall. This is Madeline. Get to city hall now."

Madeline was crying. Phillip's heart leaped into his throat and he found it difficult to speak. "What's the situation?"

"Civilians...fish. Olson is unconscious, we need help."

The guard began fumbling around for the jail cell key. "Your friends are in trouble."​

 

[Capt. Blu]

In asking for directions, Ace didn't expect to not only get an answer from Leila, but for her to also cause them both to brake to a sudden halt. When that happened Leila had let go and the force sent Ace tumbling upside down and drifting to a stop. "Hah! Good job Leila! That's a pretty effective brake there! Would've missed the building!" Soon, things started to turn for the worse. Her adrenaline died down and she looked at the others. Felicia and Ast planned to turn back to get the others. They were still behind with the emotion stealing fish. Ace couldn't protest their decision. They were going to save the others. "Don't get caught." It was all she could say, before giving a nod and swimming into city hall with the others. There wasn't much time to look around and notice that the place was a pitiful mess and Adrian and C's pleas for help seemed to scare the guards there even more. "Bah, worthless fish. We've got to do this ourselves!" As soon as she said such a thing, the rest of the group crashed in. "Ah, nice entrance. Good, we're all-" Ace looked around, counting out each person. "We're missing Jasper and Luke. They must be the ones stuck in prison-"

She whirled around as the sound of the wall crashing got her attention. Before she could get a full look, Ace immediately turned to the others. "Don't look! Just go! Scared or not we're going to get out of here! We've got no time to worry about everything else. Grab the slower ones and move!" Ace barked out the order, mainly to grab everyone's attention before they started to panic and freeze up. Ace decided to take up the back of the group. While everyone started to swim to safety or just away from them all, Ace began pushing over the file cabinets and bookcases that were still standing so they'd cause enough trouble to slow the fish down. At least for a few seconds...because sometimes a few seconds was all that was needed. When that was done, Ace turned and quickly went to catch up with the others. "Time to go, time to go." She swam away as fast as she could after the group.

It was someone's bright idea to swim through city hall instead of getting out of the building. Then she remembered they still had to find that pearl. As she swam after the group, with the fish barreling through the overturned metal file cabinets and wooden bookcases, she whistled to them. "We have to find that pearl still! Just to throw that out there!" Being the reckless little fish -and person- she was, Ace dived downwards to start scavenging through thing while the others went ahead. It could've been a moment of brave self sacrifice- Ace hoped without the sacrificing part, but either way she was sure the others could handle themselves. They had the two best leaders she knew! Harper and Inadi would figure out something, and then the others would easily succeed. Ace was 100% sure about it, without a doubt. There were times when they lost people, but she refused to let the losses deter her faith in them. So while Ace strayed away from the group, though not entirely too far, she scavenged and looked to see if by any chance the key was around. But she was almost sure the mayor might have had it close to him, unfortunately.

 

[Gossamer]

​

Horrified, Toby watched as the most menacing sea-creature he had ever laid eyes upon swimming through the water, his face illuminated by the fish's lure. In it's sights was some kid, who looked no younger than he did, shouting helplessly for somebody named Adrian. The kid screamed, which sent shivers down Toby's spine.

The threat of losing ones emotions vanished in his mind and every part of him wanted dash forward and save the poor kid regardless of what Madeline had to say. The only thing stopping him from doing so was Inadi's hand, firmly gripped on his shoulder. The boy stared into the eyes of his sword nosed club wielding crooked glasses wearing friend, half of him in shock and the other half determined to keep that fish from ever hurting anyone again.
​

It's cold, shameful and heartless, yes. But he just provided the distraction we need to get to the others. We know where it is now and we have an idea of what it can do. The others need us to get to them so we can let them know exactly how to attack this thing​

"D-distraction?" The word tumbled around aimlessly in the boy's head. That helpless kid was quite literally as human as the rest of them at the moment, not simply a tool for their benefit.

As much as Toby wanted to argue, he couldn't, and for several reasons. Part of him agreed with Inadi, he had no idea how to even combat a fish so atrocious, and he was still partly in shock from simply looking at the creature. Soon enough the lot of them began to move in the direction the merman had swam off to.
​

HARPER!​

He looked up just in time to watch as the emotion stealing fish rammed itself into a whale man, who proceeded to collide into a brick wall. The situation was chaos, everyone was swimming frantically, away from the angler. Toby only caught a glimpse of Harper and Victoria before a hand gripped his and pulled him along with the herd.

Both Victoria and Madeline were shouting directions, a scream could be heard in the distance, there were still zombies in the area groaning in unison, and to top it off the emotion stealing fish was growling horrifically behind them all. It was maddening.


Toby released Travis' hand and used his arms to shield his face as the two swam straight into one of the windows, shattering the glass and falling to the ground with a thud. For a very, very short moment, it was quiet. Or at least quieter than it was a few moments ago. The boy slowly lowered his red arms from his face to reveal a rather tall and handsome young man.

"Sacha!" He shouted as happiness suddenly flourished within him. Slowly he began to sit up, for the moment he was dazed from having crashed through a window and it took a bit for him to notice his friends surrounding the lanky human. "Ace, Gary!" Tiny bits of glass fell off the boy's arm as he rubbed his eye with a smile. Every second his dizziness faded and the rest of his friends came into vision. "You guys!"

Their excruciatingly brief reunion was intruded by the sound of a loud crash. One by one the other's expressions turned fearful. Their faces slowly turning the color blue. Toby turned around just in time to see the emotion stealing fish hurling itself towards them all, bellowing a ferocious growl.

Without question or hesitation the boy threw himself onto Travis, his back towards the wall as bricks upon bricks caved in on eachother, tumbling to the ground all around them. Debris showered onto Toby's back. He painfully bit into his lip as to keep himself from hollering in pain and attracting the fish' attention. Both his hands were set firmly on the floor as he shielded Travis from falling concrete.

As the debris died down Toby gripped Travis' forearm and bolted farther into city hall along with the others, maneuvering past filing cabinets and bookcases just moments before Ace began to knock them down, too caught up in the mayhem to notice she was staying behind.

"How do we fight it?!" He said to nobody in particular, showing no effort to hide the agitation in his voice, "Uh, I don't like to kill things," The boy announced as the sound of cabinets and shelves hitting the floor could be heard in the distance, "but that thing is making it really hard for other things to be alive y'know, so I think it shouldn't be alive, I think it should die."
​

 

[Fox of Hearts]

Collab by Ryver Rhine and Fox of Spades

​

​

​

Loud crashes echoed throughout city hall as the emotion stealing fish crashed into walls and furniture. It was gaining on them, and if they didn't find an exit quickly, they would eventually be caught. Riley glanced around and noticed that a certain redhead was no longer with them. "Ace," she sounded breathless. "What the hell, Ace? Swim!"

The fish crashed into one of the file cabinets, and while it had slowed down for a fraction of a second, it was still chraging towards Ace at a frightening speed.

If she didn't do something soon, it'd reach her friend. There wasn't much time to think things through, so Riley shot upward and began waving like mad. "Here!" This wasn't going to end well, was it? "Here! Come and get me, UGLY!" It wasn't exactly a bright idea, but the fish took its eyes off Ace and changed its course. It was going after her now.

"Riley! Don't do that." Ran yelled as he swam back, completely ignoring Harper's warning. His head swivelled around desperately as he tried to think of something fast, not realizing he managed to catch up with his slower moving 'cousin'. For 3 flabbergasting seconds he stood there paralyzed with the huge, translucent yellow tail fanning out in front of him. This was the only chance he had before the fish was out of his grasp. "Riley, Toby! And you, sir! Get out of the way!"

Yelling like a mad man, Ran scrambled up the slippery tail and dug his fingers into the rough surface of the fish's skin. He struggled towards the dorsal fin and grabbed jagged edge. Bloody trails streamed from his hand as the spiny edge cut through the skin of his palms. Ran winced in pain, but immediately grabbed the next bit of the fin and moved forward. Right now all he cared about were the two soon-to-be-doomed hoomans. Despite the danger, a familiar blonde face was still gazing up at the fish with wide innocent eyes.

"Toby! GET THE STICKING CELERY OUT OF THERE NOW!" He yelled for a second time. "This isn't the time to stare at the light."

Niran let go off the dorsal fin and lunged for the light stalk. However given that he wasn't a math genius like Lelia, and the fact that he overestimated the speed of the fish, he soon found himself clinging to the nose like slit all fishes have and staring into two very big, cloudy pupil-less eyes. He believed the fish was now staring at him instead of the tasty trio within reach. "Rils, Tobs, if I turn around and you're still there, I'm gonna ground you the moment we get back to base. That's final! (though I'd probably be a soulless zombie before that happens)"

The fish let out a monstrous groan, it didn't like that a human was clinging to it's face and while Ran would have made a tasty meal, there were several other fishes that were just in reach. The emotionless fish began twisting and turning in an attempt to get Ran off, but it didn't work and the giant angler fish ended up crashing into two shelves.

There was a thud and soon books and folders were sent flying off the shelves, the fish let out what sounded like a pained groan, and for a moment, it was still. But that moment of peace was over in a flash and the soft blue glow that emanted from its light stalk turned an angry red.

Ran had been tossed off in the struggle but the fish was focused on him and only him. It snapped its jaws hungrily then began to approach. The artist groaned a little as he pushed away the crushing pile of bulging files and seahorse hide covers. He drew his hand up to shield his eyes from the harsh red light. Oh wait! He was an angler too! Niran scrunched his eyes up as he thought of the brightest thing possible - a camera flash. All the lights in his body dimmed. He held his breath...3... 2..FLASH! An eye-tearing bright light lit up the entire area. It was so bright that even the ugly soul stealer reared in pain. As it thrashed about, it knocked several more shelves over. Soon there was a pile up of smashed up shelves, books and pottery,but no Ran in sight. Omniously the water surrounding the bookshelves had a faint pinkish tinge which smelled like blood.

"Blood..." Toby's question would have to wait, at the moment, escape seemed like their only chance at surviving. "We can't kill it," C stared numbly at the chaos but was snapped out of thoughts by a loud yell.

"Ran!" Riley was not too far from the emotion stealing fish, a piece of plywood held tightly in her shaking arms. She was going to help him, she really, really was, but it looked like she was far too late. "Shit, Ran." There was no response. "No, no, NO! HELL NO!" She smashed the board against the emotionless fish's side and the giant and angry angler turned to look at her. Riley could have sworn she heard C yell something about getting away, but she couldn't process what was happening and there was so much blood in the water...

The fish's eyes shone a bright yellow and Riley crumpled to ground, eyes blank.

"RILEY!" Ran yelled in anguish as he tumbled out of his temporary prison. Darting for the girl, he grabbed his now soulless friend and tried to swim to safety while clutching Riley's now lifeless wrist.

The fish had lost interest in the duo and now it's bright eyes were focused on the cluster of humans nearby.

"Grab her and go," C ordered. They could mourn for their friend later, but if they didn't leave now, they would all suffer the same fate. "Victoria, lead us out of here."

 

[Warden]

The group cleared a warpath through the buildings they passed, tackling and pushing away furniture or throwing themselves through glass windows in an effort to lose the angler fish. Though it was pretty difficult to squeeze in narrow passages with the pole, Gary had help from Numair who kept his position at the rear of the group. The surfer often helped his fellow Hooded Figures get over obstacles- especially the pink-haired girl since sea horses weren't meant for speed racing- which meant that he often lagged behind. "Go faster!" Numair trilled as his heart did a flip in his chest when the thunderous booming behind them got closer. Hell, if that evil fish thing caught up, he'd be first blood! Dying underwater was just… No! No way!

"Why is everyone panicking!? At least you don't have my tail! It's so hard to move!" Gary used her pole as a battering ram to knock down a door. It was effective probably because the door was broken to begin with, and the humans + nobodies filed in for a mini conference. The city hall was just nearby and they were supposed to split up; the two random fishes, both of whom she didn't notice were with them until now, wanted to go back to their friends. She would do the same thing too if there was a weird monster on the loose, but only if her friends weren't stupid enough to, like, call it over. "Sure. Have fun?"

The city hall was a mess and the black pearl could literally be everywhere, but at least their friends were able to catch up. Though the group was almost complete, the tall human knew that sifting through the scattered documents on the floor- dry paper underwater- would consume time that they did not have, but he had no idea what else to do. That was why they went here, after all! "Gary, pearl! The black pearl, remember!?" Numair exclaimed just as they heard the sound of a wall crumpling down. Wonderful! The ugly fish was just as annoying as a L4D Tank! "Piss off, Nemo!" he snarled under his breath as he went to Ace's aid in pushing over cabinets and shelves to block the path.

"I remember! I'll try to find it!" Gary shouted back over the din and swam off to part unknown to scavenge for the key. With the pole angled downwards and scraping through the floor like a broom, overturned files and objects were quickly pushed away… but it wasn't there! It wasn't even in the places where she expected keys were placed on! With a snarl of dismay the girl tore away from the hunt when the angler fish roared too close for comfort and escaped after the team. She caught up just in time to hear Toby's questions, but before she could even answer…

Victoria's voice broke through the fog that blanketed both Numair and Gary's minds. Each and every time she had been thrown away like a doll and suffered minor injuries in her attempts to slow down the creature, but now it was clear that she had to plan a defensive maneuver. The thing is, they were in a small room and the fish took up majority of the space. Trying to get past it to the door on the left was going to be tricky, not to mention they don't know anything about the layout of the area.

"Abandon the mission. We'll look for that blasted pearl later. Swim through that door on my signal," Victoria's eyes shifted from Ran and the zombified Riley to the monstrous fish that was eerily still in front of them. It was like trying to guess when your enemy would draw his gun and shoot you. "Now!" she snapped, turned tail and tore through the door. "We need to get to a bigger space if we want to escape that thing!" She could wax poetry later about what she felt seeing a child get her emotions sapped out of her, but right now, she had the urge to sink her nails into an enemy unit.

The next room at the end of the hallway she led them through was a lounge, apparently. "Numair, keep it off our tails!" Victoria yelled over her shoulder and the surfer nodded vigorously before he started toppling various objects. She knew it was dangerous to leave someone behind, but such was the way of a general. She wouldn't have trusted him to play decoy if she thought he couldn't catch up or-

"Say "aaah!", Mr. Sunshine!"

The fish's roar reverberated within the hallway, intensifying in volume as it neared the lounge where Victoria and the humans were already filing out of. It might have gotten delayed thanks to Numair throwing a chair immediately followed by a vase at its open mouth. The surfer's yells could be heard even as they swam further away. "Yeah, you hate me, I know!" then something shattered and "Whoops!" The angler fish got angrier, as evidenced by the yowls echoing through the room.

When she looked over her shoulder, she could see the outline of the enemy fish inside the lounge. "Oh, Numnums!" Is he dead? No…!

Numair rocketed out the room and threw something round and shiny at the fish, then slammed the door behind him. Nemo growled again, getting more and more pissed at the surfer. You would be too after getting several vases slammed at your head.

"Oh man, OHHH MAN THAT WAS TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT! SCREW THIS!" Oh good, he isn't.

Gary guarded the back of the group now, and she helped Ran with Riley. "At least you're not dead," she muttered to the adult after staring at his injuries with a critical eye, "and she isn't either, so please don't be sad. Sad is useless. Anyway!" They were heading up, but Victoria was slowing down. She didn't look too hot.... but nobody would after getting into a brawl with that big ass sea creature. She probably intended for them to crash out the second floor's window and transfer to another building, since the city hall was, frankly, pretty useless for these sorts of chase scenes.

 

[Fox of Spades]

"Oh...God," Harper felt sick to his stomach and it took all his willpower to stop himself from throwing up. "C-Can you keep going?" He hissed out as his eyes flitted from Ran to Vicky. "Are you okay?" Will she be okay? His last question never left his mouth, frankly, the possible answers scared him witless. He shot upward and did a quick headcount. Good. No one was missing, BUT ONE OF THEM WAS NOW A ZOMBIE.

Harper brought his hands to his face and realized he was shaking. "Let's see if we can find an exit." If he focused on a goal, the fear would be tolerable. They could still here soft growls coming from the other room, but it looked like the fish had lost interest in them for now.

"Numair," C swam up beside him and gave him a soft pat on the back. "Good job." She didn't say anything else, she just grabbed Sacha by the arm and started looking around. "Search." And search they did, there wasn't anything of interest on the first floor, but there was a marble staircase that lead to a hallway filled with old oil paintings. "We can rest?" C looked Vicky and waited for some sort of response, "or we can leave."

Harper stuck to the back of the group with Gary and Ran. "We should leave, then we can rest, that thing is still down there and if it finds us again." His eyebrows furrowed in worry. "We might not survive another attack." He eyed his zombified friend then swam off towards the nearest open room. It was a rather spacious office filled with file cabinets and a fancy looking Mahogany desk. "There are windows here. We can swim out."

"Gragh..." Riley's limp body jolted forward, and the girl attempted to grab at both Ran and Gary.

C bit down on her lip. "Do you think...do you think she'll attract more?"

"If we swim fast enough, it won't matter." Harper eyed his friends worriedly. "Is everyone still good to go?" He couldn't take his eyes off Ran's bleeding hand. "We could always use the buddy system?" Stepping up scared him, but not being able to do anything for his friends, that scared him a lot more. He looked at Victoria for confirmation, she had saved them so many times now and he valued her input greatly. "What do you think?"

 

[Capt. Blu]

"Yeah, yeah! I know! Just keep going, I got it!" Ace yelled over her shoulder as she shuffled through a desk. Hearing Riley start distracting the fish, she turned quickly. "No you idiot! Keep going!' But it was too late. The angler- Nemo as Numair called it, had already began charging at Riley. Ace didn't leave Numair's aid though. He was still shuffling through things with her. Unfortunately, their plan to block the fish didn't work out too well, which ended up causing Ace to go after the others. "Numair, come on!" As she turned around, she saw Riley get zapped into zombie mode. But, she didn't have time to react to it. They had to swim out, and swim out fast.

"Abandon the mission. We'll look for the blasted pearl later."

Ace had caught up with the others and nodded, waiting for the signal. As soon as she was given the signal, she darted off after making sure everyone else managed to keep up. Of course, she decided to easily swim beside and pull one of them along. As fast as she was going, she had no time to tell who it was. First they were in a hallway, but they couldn't stop there even if Numair slammed the door shut. It would only be a matter of time before the zombie leader found them again, so once more, she darted off until they were all in a more spacious room. "Geez..." Ace took a deep breath and sighed. The redhead stopped moving for a few moments and simply floated in one spot. "Everyone's here. Except for Luke and Jasper. But wherever they are, they're safer there." She forced herself to relax, reminding herself that everything would be fine and everything would get back to normal- or at least their level of normal. Once they ended the fish, the zombie curse would be lifted. Ace wasn't going to be told otherwise- not unless it was proven.

Speaking of said curse, she turned and swam over to Riley, eyeing the lifeless girl. "You numbskull...You were suppose to keep going." She flicked Riley's forehead and crossed her arms. "I could've gotten out easy." Ace shook her head and turned when all she got was a weird growling noises. Looking at C, she shook her head. "The zombies out there aren't our problem. The most they can do is crowd. And Vicky can barrel through them easy. It's the leader we need to worry about." She spoke with a matter fact tone before nodding to Ran. "Good job. You managed to slow the zombie leader and save Riley." She smiled and put a thumbs up before swimming past Harper and putting a reassuring hand on his shoulder. The fear was obvious on him, but just as always, she thought of him as a good leader. "The buddy system would be good if we have to scatter. After all, the bigger the group, the more emotions around. Easier to catch. And the buddy system helps who ever needs to keep up..."

As she put her input in, Ace swam to the windows Harper mentioned and opened one. She peeked her head out, looking left and right. There was no one out, save for a random zombie fish here and there. "It's all clear for the moment. I suggest any decisions made, should be made fast. You know, before there is a sudden need to escape." Ace proceeded to open the other windows in order to have more opportunity to escape. "Rule one from the Boss: Always have an escape plan." She mused before taking the liberty to barricade the door with some of the file cabinets that she could move. "And this is for juuusst in case."

 

[Gossamer]

​

The whole situation truly felt like a nightmare.​

​

The sound of bookcases and filing cabinets slamming into the ground and on the walls echoed in the distance. Each slam and thud could be heard louder and louder as the chaos began to close in on the crowd of humans and nobodies. City Hall looked eerie enough before Ace and Numair began to trash the place in an attempt to slow down the monstrous angler.

Every time a piece of furniture slammed into the ground Toby felt his heart jump, every thud a chaotic reminder of how close they were to losing their emotions.

What kind of monster steals emotions?! The boy thought to himself. You mine as well be dead if you're incapable of feeling. That's like stealing a persons soul.

Not only was it a fate worse than death, but it was a fate that was roaming the very halls they found themselves trapped in.
​

Toby! GET THE STICKING CELERY OUT OF THERE NOW! This isn't the time to stare at the light!​

Every muscle in his body refused to move. His mind began to tear itself apart thinking of a way to help but was to fogged by the thoughts of losing a friend and too paralyzed by the fear of losing his own emotions. Toby remained still as the monstrous angler continued to close the distance between itself and the two lost souls. All he could do was pray with all his feeble might that some divine power would somehow become aware of how badly he wanted to keep his friend safe and grant him the power to do so.

The next thing he knew, the fish had veered from it's course and collided into a pair of shelves. Toby flinched as a couple of books were sent flying his way, then scanned amongst the wreckage in search of his friend.

"Haven't you done enough?!" He snarled at the fish, as if it were even capable of contemplating it's own actions. "Ran, please! Please get away from that thing!" Toby swam towards the fallen shelves, hoping to pull Niran up and away from emotion stealer, when suddenly he was blinded by the brightest flash of light he had ever seen.

Reeling backwards he shielded his eyes in agony. For a brief moment there was only white. The sound of all the shelves falling amongst eachother was deafening. Toby's body tensed as he expected to be crushed by the wreckage. Slowly his vision began to return, along with the faint scent of blood. For a moment the world looked as if it had turned at a ninety degree angle. Toby's right cheek was cold, and he could scarcely hear the sound of Riley's voice shouting Niran's name.
​

Ran! Shit, Ran?​

The flash had disoriented him, he hadn't even realized that he was now lying on the floor, his cheek pressed on the cold City Hall cement, a chair lay on his chest. "Ran?" he said weakly, pushing the wooden chair off of himself.

The entire room was riddled with broken furniture and fallen shelves piled upon eachother. Even through the dim lighting and water Toby could see the pink tint surrounding the fallen shelves.

"Ran..." he said once more, his voice raspy, ".....Ran?" The boy's face contorted in pain. Not physical pain, but emotional.
​

No, no, NO! HELL NO!​

"Stop yelling like that!" He cried out at Riley, "Everything is going to be okay! Everything is fine!" tears were flowing down the boy's cheeks as he shouted the words at Riley, who was now holding a wooden plank in her hands, ready to attack the monster. "Put that down Riley! Everything is fine! Ran is okay! He's OKAY!" The boy was sobbing as he spoke, and did nothing to prevent Riley from attacking the angler with her wooden plank.

Another flash, this time from the angler. Riley fell to the floor, emotionless.

Toby's heart sank to his stomach. He stared silently at Riley's lifeless body until Niran emerged from the wreckage and darted for the red-head, pulling her towards C and the others. The boy looked up to see the fish, who was now fixated on the others, then turned and followed Niran.

Numair was able to keep the fish at bay long enough for the rest of them to speed through City Hall like they were participating in some sort of demented version of pac-man. Soon enough they were out of the fish's sights and were more or less safe, for the moment.

As they all began to search for an exit, Toby quietly observed Riley. He was no longer crying, however, one would be able to notice the glimmer of dried tears on his cheeks. As Riley lunged for Niran and Gary, Toby grabbed the red-head's wrist tightly.

"Riley, stop. You're not one of those things, so cut it out. None of us are going to believe you're a zombie so quit pretending. It's really stupid and it's wasting our time." He spoke angrily, and was only met with groaning noises in return.

"Fine. Go ahead and keep pretending." His eye's began to water as he released Riley's wrist. He turned to Niran, not looking the adult in the eyes as he spoke. "You're stupid too, y'know. Why would you scare everybody like that? It's really not nice to scare people at all and you were terrifying me. I think it was the meanest thing you ever did and I don't think we can be friends anymore." The boy had been speaking in a serious manner, but the last few words came out somewhat hoarse.

Toby immediately turned away from Niran and approached one of the many open windows before turning around to face everybody with a blank expression. "I'm going to go find Madeline and we're gonna kill the fish. You guys can come if you want,"

With that, the boy placed his hand on the window sill and began to climb out.​

 

[four]

Leila would have believed it was she who was under the influence of the emotion devouring fish, if it were not for the one remaining overwhelming emotion, which was fear.

Not the pressing kind of fear towards an imminent threat - the monster was, for now, trapped downstairs and is capable of bringing little immediate danger. What was here was another variation - the persisting kind of fear that wasn't coupled with an adrenaline rush and therefore doesn't fade with it. And this felt much worse.

Leila stayed at a corner of the room and stared blankly at Riley.

She didn't really look much unnatural. Battered, tired just as the rest of them were, but still alive.

"Fine. Go ahead and keep pretending." Toby.

And it was almost reasonable to believe that Riley was pretending. She was certainly one to pull that sort of prank - it was almost reasonable to believe that somewhere down their trip, some time later when they all believed and accepted, she'll suddenly spring back to life and act disappointed at how quickly everyone got over her faked death and they would all have a good laugh out of it.

Yet, as the many times that reality has verified this pattern, Leila could tell when she was persuading herself to believe something contrary to what she knew was otherwise the rational conclusion.

The rest of the abandoned office only remained silent.

"Is everyone still good to go?" Harper.

Leila nodded in his direction, establishing the she was okay so that their attention could be directed to the others who were injured and might be in need of help. She watched as Ace started barricading the door, but couldn't gather enough strength to do anything of help.

"I'm going to go find Madeline and we're gonna kill the fish. You guys can come if you want."

"Toby wait, we're not - Toby -"

Making any attempt to confront the fish under these conditions was outrageously dangerous and Toby must have overlooked something to incorrectly assert otherwise. Yet Toby had already slipped out through the empty frame by the time Leila got to the window.

Knowing that she couldn't possibly catch up with Toby's swimming speed, Leila stopped at the window and turned around.

"...Numair - Ace?"

In her anxiety she found herself unable to articulate all the things that clogged her mind, and only managed to address those names. The worried look she wore and the look she then shot back through the window at Toby's distancing figure, however, should be sufficient to convey her concerns.

 

[Fox of Spades]

​

"Our friends are in trouble?" Luke laughed. "Yeah, they're always in trouble, but how do you know it's them?"

Phillip shook his head and sighed. "Green cloaks just like yours." Talking to Luke was proving to be a challenge so he turned to look at Jasper instead. "It's them isn't it? They're in trouble. It's bad, and my friends are in trouble too. I'm going to let you out of this cell..."

Luke blinked slowly. "Really?" He was curious, why the sudden change in attitude?

"Yes, on one condition," Phillip's eyes were focused on Jasper. "I'll need all the help I can get. I'll help you save your friends, if you help me save mine. Jasper and Luke, right? What do you say? If we work together, we'll have a better chance at saving everyone." He waited for an answer and unlocked their cell door. It swung open with a soft creek and Phillip turned around to grab his radio and his silver trident.

The young man didn't like how heavy the atmosphere was, so he turned to look at Jasper and forced a smile. "I say we do it!" Luke slammed a fist into his open palm and nodded his head rapidly. "We've dealt with witches and things far worse than this, so don't you worry, Phillip!"

The merman laughed. "I like your enthusiasm, kid, but don't go making decisions for your partner, this isn't a game."

Luke's expression shifted from one of confidence to one of confusion. "It is to her."

Phillip arched an eyebrow. It was clear the boy had a few screws loose, so he just opened the door and walked outside. If Jasper and Luke wanted to help, they could follow after him on their own, he wasn't going to ask them again.

​