Fic: "Stage 5 - Maturation 4/?? ¤Blues/Rockman, ¤ PG-13 ¤ Romance. Humor.
Part 2 - continued from here (chappie was too long for LJ to handle)
They dashed through the corrupted space, not slowing once - not when Rockman stumbled, blind with his tears. Not when Axl began to scream and kick in his arms, slashing his arm uselessly towards the sloshing tide that had swallowed his father, screaming Sonic Boom! Sonic Boom! Sonic Boom!Sonic Boom!Sonicboomsinicboomsonicboom! Not when Roll’s hand slipped from Rockman’s own, and she began to run after him on her own, sobbing softly as she went. Not ever.
They ran, and ran, and ran, and the squeamish creatures gave chase, sneering like horrible jesters. More of that slimy substance began to appear, some of it sprouting in oily polls underfoot, some more dripping in fat rivulets from above.
The air got steadily darker as they went, colder but also scarcer, like it happens on the summit of the highest mountains. The creatures multiplied by the tens, creeping out from everywhere and anywhere, ahead and behind and above and underneath them, even; reaching for the three escapees with dripping little talons.
All of a sudden, a poll of slime gushed out of the ground right under their feet, and Rockman was forced backwards. He fired his buster at the approaching fiends, hissing in enraged shock when they liquefied and reconstructed themselves under his attack. As he lowered his weapon to refill it with energy, a wave of that greasy darkness reared up between himself and Roll. Reaching out, he barely managed to thrust Axl into her arms, and then the same tentacles that had taken Blues were around him, clutching him, choking him, pulling him down, down. Down.
“Rockman!”
“Papa! Papa! Papa!”
Axl reached forward with both arms, wailed when Roll leapt back from the slime before it could twine around his wrists.
“Roll, go!” Rockman shouted, eyes meeting hers - and then more tentacles rose, twined around his arm, clogged his weapon, and forced it down. The remaining creatures came together, melting in a tidal wave twice Rockman’s height. It reared up, stilling for an impossible moment over his head before crashing down with a triumphant cry.
Roll leaped backwards. When she refocused her eyes, she saw that the slime had stilled unnaturally fast into a poll as dark and shiny as crude oil. For a moment, there was no trace left of either Rock of his attacker: only a gently-rippled poll, black like pitch but glimmering like metal. Then the slime began to bubble over, and more creatures emerged from its depths, hissing in their malicious language.
She fled. What other option did she have?
Clutching Axl to her chest, Roll ran as fast as she could, until she saw, barely there, a portion of uncorrupted space, an area from which they could hopefully log out and away from that nightmare. She took one single, easier breath, her relief so thick she could almost taste it in her mouth, and then she tripped and fell. She turned frantically, eyes widening when she saw one of those tentacles wrapped firmly around her ankle, drawing both her strength and the very warmth of her core.
As she whipped back around, she saw that Axl had rolled a little ahead of her and was huddled on himself, too shocked to do anything more than sobbing quietly.
“Axl, honey,” she began, and her face was determined and sweet and beautiful, as was her smile. “I want you to run now. To run towards that light, and teleport back home. All right?”
Axl shook his head frantically, curling tighter into himself.
“Axl,” she repeated, sternly now, as the tendrils streamed further up her leg. “Roll-Oneesan has to stay back for a while. But you must go.”
“No!” he looked up sharply, reaching forward with both hands. “Roll-Oneesan!” he wailed. “Roll-Oneesan!”
“Stand back!” she shouted, and Axl recoiled, making himself small. She smiled again then, a little pained smile, but still sweet. “Please?” she coaxed. “For me? And for Daddy and Papa. Go get Netto and Enzan. They will know what to do. They-” and she hated herself even as she said the lie “-will get your parents back, I promise.”
Axl looked up, tears clinging to his eyelashes, and nodded once, slowly, picking himself up like a clumsy colt.
“Good Axl. Now go.” She winced. “And don’t turn back. Promise?”
Axl nodded meekly, and did as he’d been told. Behind him, the black wave rose, rolled soundlessly over Roll and she too was gone.
Axl ran.
And ran.
And ran.
But the patch of clearer digital space didn’t seem to come any closer. It seemed to elude him, to taunt him, to move back just as he moved forward, preventing Axl from ever reaching it. He panted and cried and ran. Ran. Ran.
And then, the black wave was upon him as well.
Axl shrieked when then cold tide slammed into his body. He was whisked off his feet, flung up and backwards, curled on himself, rolling and spiralling across the slimy substance. The digital space about him shattered like glass, the shards glinting like wicked eyes, and he found himself falling down, down, in a darkly brilliant chasm, broken data rushing all around him, corrupted files streaming through the void like falling stars.
Just then, a light the likes of which he’d never seen before, a light that wasn’t light at all but was darkness, red-hued and cold, slashed through the blobs surrounding him. A hand gripped his wrist, halting his fall.
A cold, but oddly familiar voice came to him through the void, then. A murmur like rushing waters, low yet harsh like glass shattering.
“It’s you, then,” the voice said. “The child of those fools.”
And then Axl fainted, and knew no more.
- Scene 4 cleared.
NOW LOADING…