twenty three | blues drive monster

[strike_you_out]

[Following this incident]

[The remains of what had once been Josephine lay scattered in broken heaps, still smoking from the impact of whatever had happened here. Had the mech been bombed? Or had it malfunctioned so badly that it blew itself asunder? It didn't matter. What mattered was the whereabouts of its operator.

Standing motionless amidst the

Comments

[birthclod]

... You don't look like a zombie, Mr. Monster.

[Clod appears before Slugger and looks high up at his monstrous form with not a single sliver of fear. Being out of the loop for so long, she hasn't noticed what happened with Pokey or Josephine. She is curious, of course, whether he's doing all right, but she thought up until now that he's capable of taking care of himself.

The monster is clearly a resident given how the common trend at the moment is the undead. It may not have the means to harm the invulnerable girl.]

[strike_you_out]

[A gold blur accompanied by the low whoosh of a massive, metal object rending the air swoops over Clod's head to tear the roof off of a delivery truck just behind her. Slugger peers down into the truck, totally unmoved by Clod's presence, then turns to move on. Evidently, he's very caught up in something that does not involve dining on the flesh of other residents.]

[birthclod]

[Clod has no reaction to Slugger's sudden strike. The bat, clothing, and skates suddenly start looking familiar. He has met the boy twice, hasn't she? It seems he wasn't human after all.]

Did something happen, Mr. Monster? You can tell me.

[strike_you_out]

[No piece of his apparel is different, expect, like the rest of him, it has grown to accommodate his new size. Even his bat has grown. Slugger acknowledges Clod's question with a low growl but his attention is on a small group of zombies he's just sighted coming this way.

Before they can come any closer, he attacks and squashes them like bugs with a few rapid downward swings of his bat, chopping up the sidewalk as he does so. Despite the monstrous growth spurt, he's still frightfully quick.]

[deaths_heritor]

[That was new. Susan pauses in her thankless task of zombie-slaying to observe the creature thundering its way up the street; flickering out of 'sight' out of a sort of vague instinct of self-preservation. Unless whatever ailment 'zombie-ism' counted as had rapidly mutated, it didn't seem that this could be a result of the ongoing plague. As a matter of fact...

She was fairly sure she know exactly who this was. Golden skates weren't exactly ubiquitous.

So the rampaging beast, if it has enough sense to see, will find a black-cloaked woman standing in its path with her arms crossed and an expression of severe annoyance on her features.]

[strike_you_out]

[The thunderous sound rapidly draws closer until it's nearly on top of her, before it comes to a complete and sudden halt. It's perhaps a little amazing how something so massive can stop on a dime. For a silent three seconds, he peers down at Susan, who is now engulfed entirely in his shadow.

Then he completes a 90 degree turn and continues.

If she intends to stop him in his tracks for good, she will have to do better than that.]

[deaths_heritor]

[The things she does for this boy.

With a snap of her fingers, both Susan and the Slugger-beast are hovering fifty feet in the air out past Makeout Point. It's an excellent view of the town.]

Slugger.

Would you like to tell me what this tantrum is about?

[strike_you_out]

[Problem children, what can you do?

The areal view is helpful to his quest and he immediately uses it to search what he can of the landscape below. However, as Susan begins to drill him with questioning, Slugger expresses his displeasure with a harsh roar. Unlike the rest of him, his teenage voice hasn't changed. He's reluctant to comply with a more detailed answer in part because of his deformed facial structure and because CAN'T SHE SEE HE'S BUSY HERE?]

[miss_enma_ai]

[Ai's seen stranger things in her life...sadly. Yo Slugger. On top of the telephone pole.]

What are you looking for?

[strike_you_out]

[At the sound of Ai's voice, Slugger pauses briefly to glance up. Speaking is difficult with a mouth full of overgrown teeth, so to get his point across, the monster smashes an oncoming pack of zombies and drags his bat in the shape of a P with their remains on the pavement. An O will follow and then a K if she doesn't guess by then.]

[miss_enma_ai]

[She nods.]

I'll help you look.

[strike_you_out]

[The monster returns her nod and continues searching. He can't tell her now, but he is endlessly thankful.]

[hintcoinplz]

[Luke zips past on sawfoot, glancing over to-

Oh god what is that thing.

Skidding to a stop, he looks up at the monster. First zombies, and now this?]

[strike_you_out]

[The monster turns from crushing a zombie and the sidewalk beneath it under his bent, golden bat to stare right back at Luke. He appears almost equally perplexed by Luke as Luke is of him. To be exact, he's wondering what exactly Luke is wearing on his feet.]

[hintcoinplz]

[The bat...the bat looks familiar. Luke swallows hard as this could be who he thinks it is.

The hum of the sawfoot motor is still there, but stops as soon as Luke turns to study Slugger.]

...hello?

[He figures if Slugger attacks him, he can use sawfoot to escape at least.]

[strike_you_out]

[Or so he thinks. Fortunately, Slugger isn't interested in attacking Luke and redirects his gaze over his "brother's" head altogether. He is, however, interested in attacking a pair of zombies that are approaching behind Luke's back.

Slugger reaches easily over Luke to crush them under his bat. One is instantly killed but the other escapes a direct blow and is trapped instead. Though crushed from the waist down, it still makes a pathetic reach for one of Luke's feet.]

[godisachild]

[Oh don't mind him. He's not really in plain sight. See, after his encounter with Black Mage and all that, Pokey's hid in the best place he could.

A garbage can.

He's been telling himself he'll get out of it soon, when an opening becomes available. But one hasn't shown itself yet.

Even less, he wasn't expecting the freaky monster creature. The fact that it has so much of Slugger's apparel isn't obvious to him at the moment. He just sees monster.

And that causes him to foolish scream and, in a blind haste, accidentally knock the can over, toppling to the ground with him trying to scuttle out of it and get to safety.

Oh God, please don't eat him....]

[strike_you_out]

[As expected of Pokey's luck, this draws the creature's attention directly to him. Slugger blinks once, not trusting his eerily glowing eyes for a moment. Was this really Pokey or was it merely his zombie? Seeking a better position to make this judgement, he glides on massive skates to block Pokey's escape. The equally enormous bat in his hand isn't raised, but it's ready to smash the next zombie like a bug even if that zombie happens to have been his friend.]

[godisachild]

[Pokey puts his arms in front of him, as if thinking that'd stop any kind of blow the monster could deliver, head turned to the side in fear. His body is shivering, scared, tired, and in a way? Thinking he probably deserves it if he gets killed here.

He'd failed all the friends he'd made here in one way or another before, and now he'd failed the one thing he actually owned. His pet, and his home, and his oldest friend.

So he guesses he deserves this, though he doesn't say it as he just cowers in the monsters presence.]

[strike_you_out]

[A silent moment passes in which nothing happens. Not even the undead can be heard stirring in the distance. Slowly, the monster straightens to full height, his grip on the bat loosening. The all encompassing shadow at his feet begins to shrink smaller and smaller like rapidly melting ice until it's a mere eighth of its former size. As it does so, Pokey may sense a lifting of darkness.

Child-sized once again, Slugger rolls a step closer.]

Pokey.