Monommy
Chapter 137: Injured
The helicopter finally landed and out of it stepped the monomasters Odette Cobb, Ember Sartor, and Kane Redwoods. They were accompanied by their Monommy pact partners: Warpmy, an Arcane-type Mom class, Bunpopmy, an Elemental-type Mommy class, and Virusmy, a Cyber-type Mom class born here on Earth.
They attached the communicator devices onto their ears as Tiffany instructed them to, and the helicopter took back off to the sky. Everyone had important missions today, from protecting settlements from invading Chaos-types, to rescuing innocent people from the changing world. But this team’s mission was the most important of all: get the ChronoKinmy Drop from within the chassis of the Monommy-turned-weapon Bestiemy.
They were chosen for this mission because of their history successfully obtaining them, but even they themselves had their doubts about how well suited they were to it. Still, ChronoKinmy chose them.
Death was something fresh on their minds. They had just received reports that several of the other monomasters, trusted allies they had only recently shared a roof with, were already slain. Takashi and Erin were both among the names they’d heard reported on the radio. The number of people on their side was dwindling, and it seemed like the Chaos-types only grew in number, no matter how many were destroyed by Monommy powers or human weapons.
“You hear us alright?” Od said into her communicator. “I know we’re keeping it on the hush-hush, but we’re gonna need the instructions to get to Bestiemy now.”
It took a moment for a response to come through, a moment that filled the team with anxiety. It wasn’t hard to be anxious with the world being what it was.
“Yeah, I hear you, Od,” Bytemy’s voice came through clear. She sounded shaky and tired.
“Everything alright back there?” Ember asked.
“W-we were attacked,” Bytemy replied, “We’ve left the safehouse behind.” Bytemy paused for a moment, considering if she should tell them about the death of Mason Cobb. They’re under enough distress as is. She’d keep it a secret for now. At least Monommy still could.
“Is everyone okay?” Od asked. Bytemy froze.
“The safehouse is destroyed but Glenn kept us safe,” she said after a long pause. Od could tell something was up. They all could.
“We need directions,” Od said after another pause. She could tell that Bytemy was withholding something, but she truly didn’t want to know. Not until they had the Drop at least.
“Right,” said Bytemy. “One second, we need to use Marcus’ phone. The computer was destroyed.”
Kane looked at Od with worry in his eyes. Od shook her head and waved her hand in the air as if to say ‘it’s nothing’, but Kane could feel her thoughts. He could tell she was as worried as he was.
“Go three blocks East and stop when you get to the construction site,” said Bytemy.
Ember looked around at the destroyed neighbourhood they were in. “It all looks like construction to me.”
“Sorry, look for a crane. It should be very visible,” Bytemy replied. The signal in their communicators seemed to be dropping in quality. This only added to their list of worries.
The three monomasters scanned the area, but there was no sign of a crane.
“It’s probably toppled over,” said Kane.
“Just keep walking, I’ll let you know when the gps lines up wi-” Bytemy’s words were cut off by a loud distorted noise. It sounded like an explosion.
“What was that?” Od asked, against her better judgment.
Marcus Lane’s voice came through the headsets: “There’s some anomalous activity happening over here. We’re a safe distance away though, don’t worry about us.”
“Oh cool, he’s still alive,” Virusmy remarked, rolling her eyes.
“Virusmy, c’mon,” Kane shook his head. Virusmy shrugged with a smirk.
They made their way to the area Bytemy had instructed them to go to, and found the base of a construction crane, confirming Kane’s theory.
“Right there,” Bytemy’s voice was even more distorted now, but still intelligible.
The three looked around the area, but still found no sign of Bestiemy.
“Bestiemy isn’t here, man,” Od said with a frustrated sigh.
“Hold on,” said Bytemy.
They waited.
And waited.
“Well?” said Od, clearly annoyed.
“The signal for Bestiemy’s magic frequency is coming from that exact spot. It should be right above you.”
The monomasters looked up at the sky. Apart from the small bloody gashes that plagued the spaces between the clouds, there was nothing out of the ordinary. It sickened them to realize that they were getting used to the world turning into a mess of gore.
“Nothing’s there, Bytemy,” said Kane.
“Then it must be below you,” said Bytemy.
“Shame we didn’t bring any shovels. What are we supposed to do, then? Are you sure your system even works? It’s not like you tested it,” Od complained.
“Wait!” Bytemy yelled over the mic.
Od stopped ranting and listened carefully. There’s a time and place for attitude.
“It just zipped off into the woods,” said Bytemy. “It’s moving again.”
Ember stomped in frustration. “How far? Which way?”
“West, about fourteen kilometers.”
“For the love of god,” Ember groaned.
“What’s she saying? How bad is it?” Bunpopmy asked as she grabbed at Ember’s headset. Ember smacked her hand out of the way.
“It’s fine,” said Od. “Warpmy, get a good view that-a-way.” She picked up her Monommy partner and placed her on Ember’s head, aiming Warpmy to the West.
“Why?” Ember asked, confused but letting her girlfriend go on with her plan.
“You’re the tallest one of us,” said Od matter-of-factly.
“What am I looking for?” Warpmy asked.
“How far away can you see? Estimated of course.”
“I don’t know? A fair bit, to the trees over there, I guess?” said Warpmy.
“Portal.”
“Ah, right.”
Warpmy waved her hands and a sparkly purple and blue portal swirled into existence before them. The group hopped through the portal and they were at the treeline.
“How close are we, Bytemy?” asked Od.
“She’s flying in an erratic pattern but its about ten kilometres away now,” Bytemy replied. The audio quality was getting worse and worse.
“Again!” Od declared, and with that, Warpmy opened another portal, they stepped through, and asked again.
“Six kilometSHH”
And again.
“Two SHHHH”
The connection to Bytemy fizzled out. Wanting to avoid overshooting the portal, they walked the rest of the way through the woods. Although it was daytime, the overcast weather and shade from the forest’s canopy created a very dark environment. It even seemed like the sun was somehow growing darker. Virusmy’s emissive components were the only source of ambient light.
“Od, what time is it?” Kane asked.
Od pulled out her phone. “2:00PM, why?”
“I’ve never seen it so dark this time of day.”
“Well, this is Canada,” said Ember, “Doesn’t it get darker up here earlier?”
“Not at 2, I don’t think,” said Kane.
“You’re right, this is unusual,” said Virusmy. “Weather data was always yummy, so I know it pretty well. We aren’t even north enough for significant day changes. We’re still pretty close to the US, you know.”
Warpmy looked up at the canopy. It looked like a normal amount of light was coming in, but when she returned her gaze to the front, it was very dark.
“Humans, please look up for a second,” she said with a sigh. She had a feeling she knew what they were about to say.
“Oh. Yeah, those are hands growing out of the trees,” said Od calmly. “That’s probably bad.”
That wasn’t what Warpmy thought she’d say, but it was close.
Kane got close to a birch tree as they passed it. The bark was not bark.
“The trees are corrupted,” Kane said, a slight whimper of fear in his voice.
“It’s fine,” Virusmy assured him. “Just don’t touch them.”
Before they could give the human trees much more thought, a blur of pink and green caught their eye. It was glowing brightly in the dark forest.
“-on it” Bytemy’s distorted voice came through on their communicators.
The blur whipped past them again, this time much closer.
“Bestiemy?” Bunpopmy called out. “We want to talk, if that’s okay!”
The blur whipped past again.
“Twin Star lost control of it. I don’t think she’s open to a discussion right now,” said Od.
“We should still try,” Bunpopmy insisted.
It whipped past again, this time pulverizing a tree, smashing right through it like it was nothing. Hard, wood-like masses of muscle and sinew splattered across the forest floor.
Then suddenly, the lights went out completely. Virusmy was the only light. They would look up and see nothing, just pitch black darkness.
Virusmy flew up to the canopy, her soft glow somewhat illuminating the fleshy, decayed ‘trees’. When she reached the peak, her light showed everyone that the canopy had sealed itself with a mass of fused fingers and palms. It was completely and utterly sealed.
“Fuck,” Od muttered under her breath.
Another blur. They heard the sound of a tree being obliterated. Then another, and another. Each becoming louder, and closer.
SMASH!
Another tree exploded, the bloody shrapnel of it slicing Od’s face, leaving a huge wound on her right cheek.
“Agh, fuck!” she screamed, putting her hand over the wound instinctively.
“Are you okay?” said Ember as she crouched down.
As she did, Kane could see the glowing rings of Bestiemy approaching them head-on. He leapt forward and screamed at the top of his lungs, “Gigabyte Cruncher!”
A massive set of neon green jaws manifested as pixels uniting in the air in front of Kane’s hand, with a row of razor sharp glowing teeth. The jaws slammed down as Kane clenched his hand into a fist, chomping into Bestiemy mid-air.
A wave of glitchy stuttering and multicoloured pixels burst out from the impact as the jaws vanished and Bestiemy slammed into the ground.
Then, Bestiemy’s lights went out. Virusmy’s lights went out. It was suddenly so dark nobody could see their hands in front of their face.
“Ahhs aarg ggnash leahm,” Ember tried to speak but it was like her mouth wouldn’t cooperate with what she was thinking. Like it was on a delay, but her tongue and lips would move wrong even when they eventually caught up to the thought.
Od and Kane tried to speak as well, but just like Ember, they couldn’t.
“What’s happeennnghhh” Warpmy’s speech was beginning to go as well. Bunpopmy tried to speak, but no matter what she tried, it all just came out as a dull whistle.
BOOM!
A screeching wave of incredibly loud static filled their ears. It rose in pitch and became louder with each passing moment, until they couldn’t hear their own thoughts or the thoughts of each other.
Then suddenly, their bodies grew limp, and they collapsed to the ground. The Monommy were still standing, but the humans seemed almost dead. The Monommy reached out to feel for their human partners, but couldn’t find them.
Virusmy’s frustration grew more and more, then finally she screamed at the top of her tiny lungs, and a massive wave of pixel-interlaced energy ripped through the air, burning through the darkness like a raging flame, spreading in all directions at an ever-increasing speed.
Light!
Sound!
Human and Monommy alike instantaneously experienced the worst migraine of their lives, their vision clouded by glitches and pixels. Then, just as quickly as it arrived, the migraine stopped. Virusmy stopped screaming.
They could all see, hear, and move just fine. Bestiemy was nowhere to be seen.
“What the fuck was that,” said Od.
Virusmy collapsed into Kane’s arms.
“I hit the undo button,” Virusmy said weakly as she closed her eyes.
Bytemy’s voice was suddenly much clearer as it came through the communicator’s speakers. “I just detected a huge cyber magic spell, was that you, Virusmy?”
“Bytemy wants to know if you just cast a huge spell,” said Kane. Then he realized what he had just said, and what he just witnessed. “Yeah, that was her.”
“Her spell just… deleted an anomalous wave that was breaking the laws of physics,” said Bytemy, dumbfounded.
“She’s pretty good at cyber spells,” said Kane with a smile. Virusmy opened one eye and gave him a thumbs up.
“No, you don’t understand,” now the voice coming from the communicator was Marcus Lane. “She shouldn’t be able to do that.”
Od scoffed. “So Virusmy broke the laws of physics, big deal, Monommy break thermodynamics every ten minutes, have you seen the shit magic can do?”
“I don’t see you doing it,” Virusmy mumbled, her eyes still closed. Kane giggled.
“No, you don’t get it,” Marcus whined. “Cyber magic can’t undo the anomalous properties of Reklauzolth, only Divine magic can. That’s why FIREFIGHT needed a Divine-type for its base, to seal the sky wounds and kill Reklauzolth.”
“You think that justifies what you did to Guardiamy?” Ember spat.
“Frankly, yes,” said Dr.Lane. “I admit it was horrific, and I wouldn’t have done it that way if I had the choice, but it was necessary.”
Ember took a breath in, about to verbally shred the cold hearted man to pieces.
“Bestiemy vanished,” Kane spoke up to keep the group focused on the objective. “Where did she go?”
“Right,” said Bytemy. “She’s… right where you are. Again.”
They looked up, and this time, Bestiemy was there, staring down at them.
Now that she was still, they could see that she was very different from what they’d seen online.
Her hands were completely missing, a mass of twisting tendrils in their place, extending out from her torso chassis. They twisted and braided into thick appendages, tipped by a solid bone sword and shield, not unlike the metal set Guardiamy wielded. Small, splashing wings of blood were suspended in the air behind her, and her ring, which kept her from reincarnating upon death, no longer floated in the air around her, but was instead held up by the entwining flesh.
Bestiemy’s glowing eyes were transfixed on Virusmy and Kane.
Kane stared at Bestiemy. There it was, he thought. A horrible union of Monommy, Twin Star, and now Reklauzolth. An angel. A weapon. A monster.
The wind blew through the trees, carrying the distinct smell of blood.
Nobody said a word.
But they thought.
“I’m going to open a portal behind it, with the other side above it,” Od spoke telepathically.
“I’ll scream into the portal behind it. That should shove it into the ground,” Ember continued the thought.
“I’ll snap it in half like a bear trap,” Kane completed the thought.
“Now.”
The portals opened, Bestiemy turned. Ember screeched as loud as she could, the sonic waves going through the portal along with Bestiemy, slamming its chassis into the ground. As soon as it made impact, Kane thrust his free hand up, and massive glowing green teeth erupted from the now-pixelated earth, slamming into Bestiemy just as planned.
Bestiemy let out a cry that sounded more like a beautiful song than one of pain. The light on her chest faded, and a hidden locking mechanism opened up.
The inside of Bestiemy’s chassis was revolting. Guardiamy’s body had decayed and festered inside. Amidst her ribcage was a sad, shivering, silver drop with swirling purple and red energy covering one half of its tiny body.
Warpmy and Bunpopmy were stunned. They’d never seen their human partners coordinate like that before. It was like they were one entity. In a way, they were.
Kane reached inside Bestiemy’s chassis to retrieve the ChronoKinmy Drop.
The red tendrils that made up Bestiemy’s new limbs lashed towards Kane, but Bunpopmy and Warpmy dashed in front of him to take the full force of the attack. Warpmy was sent flying by the bone shield, but Bunpopmy was able to grab hold of the blade, twisting it and planting it into the ground. She held it down with a scream.
Ember unleashed her sonic attack on the shield arm, pinning it to the ground as well. Od ran to Warpmy and scooped her up in her arms. Warpmy was a good Monommy, but not a good fighter. She couldn’t take much physical abuse and Od knew that.
“You did good, buddy,” Od said, holding Warpmy close to her chest.
“Yeah, I’m great. We got work to do!” Warpmy opened a portal underneath them, and Od fell through it, landing hard on Bestiemy’s head, slamming it down into the ground.
“Ouch.”
Kane reached back inside the chassis and this time successfully pulled the Drop out. Right as he affixed its Drop Charm to his bracelet and it retreated into its charm, bloody intestines burst out of Bestiemy’s torso and coiled themselves around Kane.
Bestiemy unleashed a blast of blood from within itself, knocking the other monomasters and Monommy away from it. It squeezed tightly onto Kane and took to the skies. Virusmy held herself close to Kane and rebalanced herself, restoring some of her lost energy.
Ember aimed up at Bestiemy and unleashed another sonic scream, sending Bestiemy spiralling away.
It regained its control over its flight and flew away, once again becoming a blur of green and pink.
“Fuck, FUCK!” Od shouted. She slapped her finger over her earpiece. “Bytemy, where is Bestiemy headed?”
“She’s travelling incredibly fast. She’s going south east… She’s past the Canadian border,” Bytemy replied.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Od groaned, kicking a rock only to see it had an eye underneath it.
“Can we intercept it somehow? Portal up to it?” Ember asked.
“We need to see or have a vivid memory of the location to put a portal there,” said Warpmy. “Unless they pass by somewhere we’ve been, we can’t do it.”
“Keep us updated on where she is,” Od shouted into the microphone. “She’s got Kane and Virusmy.”
“I can see that,” Bytemy replied, “Come back to Wisconsin, she’s here.”
Od and Ember shared a confused look. Od waved her hand and a portal appeared behind Ember. Od walked through the portal, grabbing Ember by the waist and kissing her as they passed through.
Warpmy opened a second portal next to the one Od and Ember went through. “I’m not using that, care to join me?”
Bunpopmy chuckled and hopped through, followed closely by Warpmy.
They returned to the remains of the safehouse, shocked to see the area filled with blood, flesh, and a raging fire. The sound of a helicopter’s blades was in the distance.
They quickly escaped the destroyed remains of Glenn’s home.
Od couldn’t help but notice her dad’s jacket was among the remains. She tried to shake off the thought, but Ember was thinking it too.
They emerged from the rubble and saw Bestiemy thrashing about in the air, struggling to fly normally.
Then, a massive set of glowing green jaws appeared over its body, and clamped down, holding it in place.
“Now!” they heard Kane’s voice echo. Virusmy flew off of Kane’s back and swooped around underneath it, latching herself onto Bestiemy’s blade arm and biting the blade off. It fell to the ground, planting itself firmly in the grassy hill that overlooked Glenn’s neighbourhood.
Od and Ember cheered for Kane and Virusmy as they dismantled the weapon bit by bit, bite by bite, until it started to descend, no longer able to fly.
Ember and Bunpopmy sang a gentle song, creating a wide pulse of soft music that caught Kane as he fell out of the sky, allowing for him to land on the ground gently.
“Alright, let’s get the Drop to Maia and end this!” Od said excitedly. They were really about to do it!
“Wait,” said Kane as he got to his feet. He ran over to the crashed Bestiemy.
“What do you mean, wait?!” Ember screamed, accidentally blowing up a chunk of earth.
Virusmy leapt off of Kane’s shoulder and positioned herself in front of Bestiemy’s chest. The head was heavily damaged, and the eye LEDs were out. Kane grabbed hold of either side of Bestiemy’s chest plate and pried it open. Guardiamy’s remains were still there.
Virusmy held out her hands and gnashed the glowing teeth on her palms. “Deleting now…” she said solemnly.
A gentle wave of blue and green energy lit up the gory remnants of the tortured angel. Bit by bit, piece by piece, Guardiamy’s body was dissolved into nothing.
Kane got up, took a step forward, picked up a chunk of concrete, and smashed it over the Soul Restraint Ring.
When Virusmy’s spell was finished, she gently floated up to Kane’s head and hugged his cheek. Kane cupped his hand around Virusmy and nuzzled into her.
The two friends took a deep breath, dusted themselves off, and returned to the others.
“Maia. ChronoKinmy Drop. Now,” demanded Ember.
“Of course,” said Kane. As they climbed to the top of the hill to get a better view of the area, Od asked “Why the hell did it fly you guys back here anyways?”
“It wanted to go into orbit,” said Virusmy. “I didn’t want to go into orbit.”
“I see,” said Od with a chuckle. “Nice.”
They made it to the top of the hill and looked over Glenn’s neighbourhood. Most of the buildings were destroyed now. Scarier than that were the incredibly huge toothed tentacles, gently swaying in the wind.
“Nice job!” said Bytemy over comms. “Look north! And up!”
They looked up and saw a helicopter hovering far above, much higher than any of the toothed tentacles could reach.
“I’m so glad you’re not hurt,” Glenn’s voice was shaky, then confident. “The kids say hi!”
“You’re gonna have to portal up here. It’s too dangerous to be on the ground right now, these things keep popping up out of the ground,” said Marcus Lane.
“It’s the same helicopter you rode on yesterday Od, can you portal up here?” Bytemy asked.
“Yeah, I can manage that,” said Od. She looked up at the helicopter and waved her hand, creating another portal.
Before anyone could even think to step through it, a horrifically violent earthquake knocked the team over, and a massive fissure split itself across the ground, coming from the east.
A huge explosion blasted up through the ground, and an anomalous lifeform burst forth from the earth, with a body so gargantuan that it slammed into the high flying helicopter, sending it careening to the trees below. Blood flooded through Od’s portal and washed away the ground team in a crimson deluge.
Their connected minds grew quieter.