MISC: Shadow Shift #1

[Ryunosuke]

Josh heads home from school, his backpack hanging from one shoulder
and a hand buried in the pocket of his baggy jeans. He looks like a
pretty typical high schooler, with messy blonde hair, brown eyes, and
a thin build. Along with his jeans he wears a pair of comfortable
sneakers and his favorite t-shirt - black with a blue flame pattern.

It's a hot summer day in the suburban town of Silver Heights. There
isn't a cloud in the sky, and the thin trees that line the sidewalk
don't offer much shade. This is a residential area near Josh's house,
and most of the front lawns here are starting to turn brown from the
heat.

It's pretty quiet along this road - though, even in a crowded street,
the stranger walking on the opposite side of the road would have
probably caught Josh's eye. He's unnaturally tall, dressed in a heavy
black trenchcoat and a hat held low, so his face can't be seen. Josh's
first thought is to wonder how the man can stand the heat in that
outfit. Then he starts to wonder if this weirdo is following him...he
glances around. No cars. No other people. He walks a bit faster, and
the stranger makes no effort to keep up. Josh sighs quietly and
continues on his way.

Come to think of it, why is it so quiet anyway? Why aren't there any
people here? It isn't a very busy road, but it's odd to see it so
deserted. Josh shivers, goosebumps running along his arms. Wait a
second...is it getting colder? He looks up at the sky. Sunlight is
still shining down, but the sky looks strange, as if he's seeing it
from underwater. And the temperature is definitely dropping, getting
colder by the minute.

"What the hell - " He's cut off as a powerful hand wrapped around his
throat. He claws at the hand as his unseen assailant lifts him off his
feet. He struggles to scream, but his throat is held shut by the
merciless grip.

"Finally." rasps a voice behind him. "I haven't had a proper feeding
in weeks." Josh's vision swims, starting to grow dark. He's losing
strength...desperately, he sinks his fingernails into the hand holding
his neck. His assailant swears loudly, dropping him to the ground.
Josh collapses onto the concrete, then scrambles to his feet, gasping
for breath. He looks behind him to see who had attacked him, and
that's when he does scream.

The creature who had attacked him looks like some kind of demon, its
tall, pitch black body grotesquely emaciated. Bare ribs are sticking
out from its chest, and it has a pair of ragged wings and a thin tail.
The creature's skin is stretched tight over its horned skull, and red
flame blazes in its eye sockets. It snarls at Josh, clutching its hand
as black ooze drips from its wound. Behind it lays a discarded
trenchcoat and hat.

"Whelp! You weren't supposed to change so quickly!" it screeches at
him. Josh takes off running, not knowing or caring what the demon is
talking about. As long as he can get away from the twisted creature.

"Go on!" it shouts. "You won't last long here!" The demon's rasping
cackle echoes in Josh's ears as he runs as far away as he can.

Once he's put some distance between himself and the demonic creature,
he's finally able to stop and take a look at his surroundings. He is
still in a familiar part of town, but it's completely deserted here as
well. The familiar houses look run-down and abandoned, and a blue haze
has settled over everything, casting the area into dim twilight. Worse
yet, it's colder than ever, and he can even see a thin layer of frost
on the withered lawns. And every step he took seems to echo faintly,
as if he's in a gigantic empty room rather than the familiar streets
he's known all his life.

While he's still taking all this in, he realizes that something is
different about himself as well. Looking down at his hands, he sees
that his fingernails have started growing into claws. No wonder the
demon had dropped him. But...if he's changing, what is he changing
into?

"What...what the hell is going on!?" he shouts at the top of his
voice. It's finally starting to sink in. He's alone, in some kind of
bizarro world inhabited by demons or monsters or something.

"Hey, kid. Try not to make so much noise." buzzes a voice behind him.
Josh turns around to see a strange insectile creature approaching him,
looking like the fusion of a human and a mantis. It has a green
segmented body, and arms like folded scythes. It speaks through a set
of insect mandibles, watching him with its fragmented eyes.

Josh stumbles slightly as he backs away from the creature, defensively
brandishing his newfound claws. Not that they look like much compared
to the cruel blades the insect bears.

"Stay back! Get away from me!" he cries out. The creature lets out a
rattling buzz that might be a sigh.

"Listen to me. We don't have much time. A reaver pulled you through,
right? We have to find him, and we have to kill him. Right now."

Josh stammers as the mantis heads off in the direction Josh came from.
"W-wait, wha - kill it? Why? Who are you? Where am I?"

The mantis glares at him. "We don't have much time. You can call me
Abaddon, and if you wanna live you'll stick with me." He dashes off,
Josh following as well as he can manage. He can barely keep up with
the insectile creature, but he's glad to stay well behind. Maybe
Abaddon can even get him out of here...

As they approach the street where Josh was attacked, he hears another
voice, a rending shriek that almost hurts to listen to.

"Raum, you blithering idiot! I told you not to pull any more through!
And now look what you've done!"

It's not long before Josh gets a good look at the owner of the voice.
It's another monster, several feet taller than the one he saw before.
Its lower half resembles a black scorpion, with the torso of a four-
armed skeleton mounted where its head should be. Two fearsome
scimitars are crossed over its back. It glares down at the first demon
with the hateful red flames that serve as its eyes.

"I-I was starving, I thought he'd be an easy mark - "

Raum is sent flying as the skeleton's palm smashes into his body.

"SHUT UP! I have no time for your excuses. We need to find that little
whelp and take care of him..." That's when it spots Josh and Abaddon.
It chuckles and draws its blades. "Well, well. In a hurry to meet your
end, worm?" it says as he approaches them.

Abaddon backs away, unfolding his own scythes. "I wasn't expecting to
see Oriax here...kid, you gotta run for it. I can hold this guy off,
but not for long." He speaks quickly and quietly as Oriax gets closer.
"The manhole at 32nd street, in front of the Mexican restaurant.
That's the closest way out. One more thing: shadowveil.tld. They key
is masterflight. Raijin will explain everything. Now RUN!"

Abaddon charges forward, and Josh breaks into a run, heading in the
opposite direction as fast as he can. He hears the clang of metal
hitting concrete, and looks behind him just long enough to see Abaddon
leaping onto Oriax's back.

"Get off me, whelp!" the demon shouts. "RAUM! Catch that worm, or I'll
tear your goddamn head off!" Oh shit. Josh pushes himself to run
faster, his sneakers pounding on the pavement as he flees for his
life. Raum's own heavy footfalls echo behind him, spurring him on to
keep running even as he starts to tire. He soon reaches 32nd Street,
kneeling down in front of the manhole cover. No time to waste...he
pries the cover free and shoves it aside. Beneath it is absolute
blackness - there isn't even a ladder. He looks up and catches sight
of Raum running toward him. His hesitation evaporates in an instant
and he jumps into the abyss before him. The reaver chasing after him
curses loudly as he disappears.

He falls down into the pit, farther than he would've thought possible.
The opening above becomes a pinprick of light, then nothing. He's
falling too fast...how will he survive a fall like this? Is there even
a bottom to this -

THUD

His body jerks, as if awaking from a nightmare. Warm pavement under
him...sunlight overhead, and the chirping of birds. Did he...pass out?
He gets to his feet and picks up his backpack. He looks around. This
is...right where he was when the demon grabbed him. He looks at his
fingernails. All normal...he shakes his head. "What the hell..." He
sighs and hurries home.

Looks like his dad isn't home yet. Awesome. He heads upstairs to his
room, casually dumping his backpack onto the floor. He's got a pretty
sweet setup here - a TV, the latest video game consoles, a computer...

Wait...that's right. Feeling a sudden jolt of urgency, he sits down at
his computer and opens up his web browser. He types in
'shadowveil.tld' and presses enter.

He's met with a totally black page...except for a prompt for username
and password in the center. No way. He thinks for a moment, then types
'Pyralis' into the username box. And for password...'masterflight'. He
presses enter.

A few moments later, a new page flashes onto the screen. It looks like
a chat window, with the connected users shown on a panel to the right.
Pyralis...and Raijin.

> Raijin: Yo. Newb. Who sent you?

Hands shaking, Josh types out an answer.

> Pyralis: Abaddon. He said you'd explain everything.
> Raijin: Yeah, sure. I'm guessing he didn't tell you much himself, did he?
> Pyralis: No.
> Pyralis: We ran into a thing called Oriax. I had to run.
> Raijin: Shit. Okay, look. The thing is, you're still in danger.
> Raijin: You probably know already, but reavers can reach through into our world.
> Pyralis: Our world? Then what world was I in?
> Raijin: That's not important now. The thing is, you're a threat to them now. We all are.
> Raijin: They know who you are. They're gonna hunt you down now. I'm one of the few who's safe...Abaddon's pretty much always on the other side.
> Raijin: See, being over there makes you change. We're not sure why. But it only affects you over there. Unless you got a rocket launcher, you're kinda helpless here.
> Raijin: The police can't protect you. They won't even believe you, and if they did, what would they do? We're on our own here. And if you don't listen to us, you're gonna die.
> Pyralis: I didn't ask for this...
> Raijin: Hey, neither did I. Sucks, huh?
> Raijin: You're gonna be pretty vulnerable until the changes kick in. But you have to go back there. It won't be long before they know who you are and where you live. They're good at this stuff.
> Pyralis: I had claws...
> Raijin: You did? Wow, damn. Maybe this'll be easier than I thought.
> Raijin: Anyway, here's the plan. Meet me by the park fountain tomorrow, as early as possible. I'll be carrying a black umbrella.
> Pyralis: It's not going to rain tomorrow.
> Raijin: Black parasol, whatever. Just do it, okay?
> Pyralis: ...I don't want to go back.
> Raijin: Your funeral.
> Raijin: No seriously.
> Raijin: They're gonna kill you.
> Pyralis: Okay! I get it. Park fountain, tomorrow morning. I'll be there.
> Raijin: Cool. Oh, and don't use real names. You're Pyralis, and I'm Raijin. Don't forget.
> Pyralis: I won't.
> Raijin: Good. See ya there, Newb.

Josh closes the page, his whole body shaking. He takes a deep breath
and tries to put this all out of his mind. He fishes his homework out
of his backpack and gets to work - anything to put this nightmare out
of his mind. Before he knows it, he hears his dad calling him down for
dinner.

He heads down to the kitchen, sitting down to a dinner of a baked
potato and green beans. Sitting across from him is his father, a thin,
cheerful-looking bespectacled man. He's a pretty good cook, which is
fortunate since he's been cooking ever since mom left.

"Hey there. How was school?"
Josh shrugs, idly picking at his dinner. "Fine."
"Keeping up with homework?"
Josh nods.
"...everything going alright?"
Josh nods.
"...alright, then."

Josh doesn't speak up again, and they continue eating in silence.