New Beginning 24: Begin Again

[The Junkyard Cat]

Upon arriving in their new location they both fell to the ground their heads hurting as their past started to fade from their memories...


ENSURING CONTINUED EXISTENSE.... MEMORIES REMOVED 4 OF THE FRAGMENTS HAVE GONE UNDER MEMORY REWRITE...  

DEPLOYING SUPPORT BOT TO STABALIZE CORRUPTED FRAGMENTS.


In their blurred vision the two saw a flash of light as a creepy mechanical looking skeleton gives them strong blows to the head...

Waking up sometime later dressed in New store with weapons and powers that felt familiar. It takes a moment to remember who they now are. "Umbrage... We didn't sleep for long did we?"  the girl stands up and shakes her head to inform him. "Good well our contractor said targets should be here... Split up and find them." they both leave as they wear porcelain masks to scour the city for the penultimate and the subject named Marv.

[The Narrator]

*Pulling out his phone to check everyone's place Narrator thinks aloud*  Well I guess I'll chill out in New Bern until I'm summoned.....

*He returned to his home town and sat watching Steven Universe*

[Philote]

He had noticed me, I think? Well he had given an apology, but he did not seem to have been overly concerned about bowling over a ghost. Then again, he was going awfully fast, almost inhuman.

I decide that it is worth investigating and follow after them a bit and luckily enough they do not race much further ahead for me to lose them. The second of the goons was busy shaking a door off its hinges until he was able to run inside.

Creeping forward, I peer around the edge of where the door used to be and watch the scene inside.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

The Penultimate, what kind of name was that? A title? An Alias? It certainly wasn't the name he was born with and in Marv's book, anyone feeling the need to conceal their true name was the dangerous sort.

Marv frowns to himself. This guy was strange and not in a good way. He was powered, that was certain at this point. So at least Marv had confirmation he wasn't alone in that department. But did this man know that? His remark about having the power to find out certainly suggested as much. Then again he could be referring to some other power, as brute force didn't really seem like it would work all too well on him.

Marv sighed quietly. This was certainly a mess and he was down to only a few options if he wanted to get away clean. He might as well get a few answers.

"I'm not really up to date on current music. I've been incarcerated for the last few years. But somehow, I think you knew that already. Which begs the question...How do you know me? I don't recall ever having met you."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Nor do I recall ever having met you, but I don't think that means I haven't met you. I think not remembering, simply means we don't remember." The Penultimate realized he was babbling, and attempted to clarify, "That is to say, we perhaps knew one another before. Some level of 'before' that is now inaccessible to us? It doesn't matter, at any rate. I'm willing to start from this point, if for no other reason than that it'd be nice to have a friend I wouldn't have to worry about accidentally obliterating with a sneeze.You might have noticed, my capabilities lie a bit beyond what we humans deem 'normal'."

The song ended, and changed to Rihanna's new song, S&M.

From the first note, most of the clutter and loose junk rose into mid-air, as though the warehouse had lost all gravity, and pulsed about in perfect rhythm of the song. The Penultimate rose, too, and hopped from one big hunk of metal, to one huge swath of drywall, repeating the lyrics to perfection, but by all accounts off-key.

"♫Sticks and stones may break my bones, but♪--sorry, Marv, but I'm not stopping until you come out and tell me face to face--♪I like it, like it, come on, come on!♫"

And he was back to dancing like no one was watching, and singing like he wasn't awful at it.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

He's insane. He must be. The thought occurred to Marv almost instantly after The Penultimate's confession. No rational person wants a known criminal as a friend. Or maybe it was a trick. Some kind of ruse to get Marv to lower his guard.  There was no way of knowing. This man was clearly powerful and quite possibly out of his mind. A bad combination and not something Marv wanted to deal with if he could avoid it.

But he couldn't avoid it. He was out of options.There was nothing left to do but confront the Penultimate.

Marv stood up from his hiding place, which he was now almost certain had been entirely pointless in the first place. He turned to face the strange man and held up his hands in surrender.

"Alright, turn off the damn music and you get what you want. Let's chat."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Just a few seconds longer, and the song died of its own accord. The Penultimate let all the floating junk clatter to the ground for the useless clutter it was, and alighted on the highest-situated piece.

"Y'know, the world has always been a strange place. It's getting ever stranger, though. You're aware we passed a would-be ghost on the way here, right? He's only the first of many who will converge with us. Here." With a deep sigh, the Penultimate continued, "Don't ask me how I know, but I do. I feel them. They're friends on the way to our shared birthday. They even bring gifts, in that they are superhumanly gifted. Aside from ol' Casper out there, I got a tree-dweller, a storyteller...a lizard 'feller'. And the boy who cried Wulf--that'd be you--makes at least four new friends for me! Did you get all that?"

Wulf. The Penultimate could feel the spelling on his tongue, even the capital 'Wuh' as it escaped him.

                 Not Wolf.
                                   Wulf.
He liked that name...
                                     ...It tasted like root beer...
                ...He would keep it...

[The Narrator]

"You know," Narrator said, pausing the TV show, "I feel inclined to tell you a story."  He clears his throat.  "Gotta make sure my octave is right so you'll hear me clearly."

"Way back when, I being the overzealous scamp I was, didn't realize the power I had."  He got up and paced the room.  "I mean I could literally do anything I want, but no!  The Narrator, a foolish boy, imposed limits on that power!"  He rolled his eyes.  

I ran into a group of beings who were attempting to overtake the world.  Three beings who also were foolishly gifted with power:

One who called himself the Snatcher--He could apparently overtake someone's body, possessing it.  

And then there was Mrs. Burrgess.  Who would mess with magic thinking themselves wise?  Trying to outsmart an enemy, she cursed a wig, a ugly at that, and got trapped within the astral plane.  Now anyone who don's the accursed thing, is doomed to have their persona overrun by her, suppressing their will.  I mean it was a novel idea, yet not making herself immune to her own curse was one of eight mistakes she made......

This telepath called August.  The most aggravating of them all.  Always whining and complaining, making people kowtow to him, believe his tall tales, and see him as this victim. 

Yet the fourth of their group, had potential.  He just needed a boost.

Anyway, this team of four wanted to exploit a little known fact within the magical realm.  Doppelgangers weren't just some being that tried to over take your life, it was a sort of principle.  All living beings, both immortal and mortal, had a double of sorts.  A being that was their opposite, their balance.  There were legends spread eons ago about a way to unify the two halves to become a whole.  Now while this does seem pointless, one has to know that if you wanted to really "fix" your life, truly find what makes you happy, it would make sense to get this from this ritual, making sure that the initiator would be mentally in charge.  

These four went on that quest, and of course the Narrator decided to handle it...."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"You're insane. I figured it out. You're absolutely bat shit crazy!"

Marv backed away from The Penultimate slowly.

"You're rambling like some kind of psycho about friends and birthdays and superpowers like its all just run-of-the-mill. Well, count me out of whatever insane cult thing you're trying to form. Okay? I don't need this particular flavor of crazy in my life right now. I've got enough to deal with being a goddamn escapee!"

Small crystals began to form in the palm of Marv's clenched fist. He was readying himself in case things went south or if he needed a quick exit.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Things were not going anywhere near as planned. However hard he tried, the Penultimate made himself seem more and more strange to this Marv character. They were getting off on the wrong foot and that simply would not do. If he failed to act quickly, the Penultimate knew for certain that Marv--what? What was that?

The Penultimate paused mid-thought, to think about the new thing he felt, that new stuff he sensed. Whatever it was he smelled at the moment, the Penultimate was sure he'd seen it before. Some sort of crystal--beryl, ruby, sapphire? Jadeite? Certainly not diamond.

Giving no hint to Marv just what he was doing, he sent out a small, intangible telepathic pulse. That tone. Its resonance. A psychic energy conductor? Yep, that there was--

"Quartz. Fascinating choice, Marv." the Penultimate quipped, "Somehow, I knew that you'd choose it, you know. There's a lot I don't know that I know about you, I'm fairly sure of that. As for a cult? Why, no, my faith remains unchanged since I've become empowered. What's changed is merely that I've become empowered. Knowledge is power, and I know plenty, even if I don't know it yet, or even if I don't know I know it. And you know just as much, even if you don't know you know it. All it takes is--"

Before Marv had time to respond, the Penultimate made a gesture (a flick of the wrist), which would have been innocuous, if not for the undulating wave of telekinetic force it bore along with it--

"--all it takes, sometimes, is a push."

[The Narrator]

"...And handle it he did!" He paused, "or should I say I....getting confused between third and first person...

Anyhow, Narrator stopped them and went on to claim fame as a hero. But of course I had another title to claim.  The Griote, the keeper of the stories. It's a great position, and once of high importance—the Griote is the holder of all stories, creative, legend and lore, myth, all of what most call fictitious. That power though can come with a heavy price.  That price will be explained later."

He continued to pace. He went to his dryer and grabbed his Spiderman shirt. 

"This is too perfect!  I shall wear this to meet them."

"The middle is the beginning, the beginning is the now end!"

--

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Marv was thrown from his feet by the force of the telekinetic wave and was sent sprawling on the rubble strewn floor of the warehouse. Even as he landed, images flashed through Marv's mind. Memories half forgotten like shadows shifted in his mind, dislodged by the blast. One memory, stronger than any other, burst into the forefront of his mind, pushing out all other thought.

A horrible memory...



Nealry paralyzed with fear, Marv shook his head, trying to rid himself of the terrifying images. He discarded them as tricks, illusions cast from the Penultimate. Just bad dreams. Fear was soon replaced with angry as he turned to face The Penultimate.

"You'll pay dearly for that..."

Crystals erupted from the palm of Marv's hand; a deadly volley of sharp pointed projectiles.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

Crystals whizzed past, one only just missing his ear, and the Penultimate felt himself do a double-take.

"You--you must have forgotten!" Pleasantry left the Penultimate's voice in the briefest instant, and now his face was a mask of astonishment and outrage, "Just that quick, I introduce myself, and you must have already forgotten."

Looking back to the broken shards, he counted one less than the number Marv had first shot. Turning to his left and his right, there he spotted it--the final piece lay just inches from him. His subconscious did the playback. At the sight of Marv's hostility, the Penultimate had not even noticed that one of the crystals had indeed hit his chest, stopped only by instinctive telekinetic riposte.

"I came to make a friend, to provoke what already lay within you, to help you see." The Penultimate narrowed his eyes and turned his face a bit, like a father disappointed in his boy, "But if you're so hell-bent on making trouble...I'll give you trouble."

All at once, his mind's force extended out like a wave. It was unlike before, not merely a current that might sweep one over like wading out too deep at the beach...the Penultimate had let forth a tidal wave--with his body effortlessly afloat at the epicenter--and soon all the warehouse would be awash. If Marv did not think quick to counteract the building pressure of the coming deluge, he was sure to drown.

[The Narrator]

"You should know," he said continuing to address the audience, "these
shadows, doppelgängers mind you, are symbolic of who we could be, if the
right events arose.

We all are fighting opposition, some times from several plus one
directions..."

He looked at himself in the mirror. He glanced at his reflection....  "This
isn't how I'd prefer to appear, but it will do.  He looked at his clock.  8
minutes till the top of the hour.  I wonder who I'll pop to see first. So
many to chose from."  He thought at bit, and smiled, "I'll do this in true
Narrator fashion."

He cleared his throat. "As I snapped my fingers and disappeared, I appeared
alongside whomever posts next...."

He snapped his fingers, and disappears enveloped in a gray octagram.


--

[Marvelous Miscreant]

As the air around him began to bend and pulse with the force of the oncoming torrent of telekinetic force, Marv threw up his hands instinctively, seeking to protect himself from the blast. The quartz reacted as if drawn by Marv's unconscious desire for his own safety, quickly flowing from his every pore and encasing him in a thick sheath of opaque rosy crystal.

The Penultimate's wave of power swept across the warehouse floor in a blink of an eye, throwing discarded pallets, empty barrels, and old machinery into the air as if they were feathers caught in a hurricane. The sweeping wall of force smashed relentlessly into the statued Marv, propelling him backwards with the rest of the accumulated debris into the warehouse's back wall. The impact cracked the quartz surrounding Marv but did not break as he was pinned to the wall by the sheer force of the power flowing from the Penultimate.

There was a sharp crack, as the pressure grew, a thin fracture in the wall appeared. Another crack and the fracture grew. One final, deafening crunch as the wall gave way and Marv, along with tons of smashed debris, came spilling out of the wall and into the alley beyond.

Marv lay face down in the rubble, encased in cracked quartz and stunned out of his wits. Such raw power, it baffled him. He feared to move, to react. What could he do to counter such overwhelming force? A small noise of desperation escaped his lips.

His arms slowly began to move, shards of crystal falling, broken from his joints. He propped himself up on one hand, trying to right himself. His breath was labored and heavy.

[The Narrator]

Appearing right beside the fellow on the floor, he bent down and reached out a hand, "Let me help you my good sir!  This fray is interesting, but I think we should stop. I know if I felt this level of power and distirbance, anyone else could....

Why don't I introduce myself?  I call myself the Narrator!" 

The eight letters appear sparklingly and emitting various octaves of noise and light!

"I see you're a crystal gem, I guess....

Who are you two?"

--

[Philote]

It was like watching a train wreck. Things were quickly getting worse, but I was unable to take my eyes off the building conflict. In stunned awe I watched until a wild tidal surge rushed around me, ending my role as bystander. The water throws me against the adjacent brick wall and holds me there with the building pressure. Shouldn't I be feeling pain from this? I dwell on briefly. Pushing myself up above the waves, I let out a drowned "STOOOP!"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

The warehouse wall had given way, and now from the subsiding deluge, the Penultimate alighted on the ground to see more than just Marv picking himself up off the ground. There was the strange phantasmal fellow he had met before--the briefest psychic glimpse had pegged him as Phil something?--and another Black fellow, with dreadlocked hair and a quizzical look on his face.

A ragged sigh escaped the Penultimate. Such power was unfamiliar to him; he had mostly postured as a bluff. Though, he ignored the shaky feeling building in his legs, and called out to each of the figures that stood before him.

"Well, now you've done it, Marv." he huffed, growing annoyed, "You wanted to keep away from me, but now you've another problem on your hands. If these two are ordinary civilians, we're likely to be exposed to the world as freaks. If they're super, like us, we have to know whether they're friend or foe. Tell me you, at least, trust me enough to solve that little issue."

A familiar unpleasant noise sounded in the Penultimate's ear, amid the tense silence as he waited for Marv's answer. There would not be much time to spare. Perhaps the noise had tipped them off, or they might have been spotted from some unseen onlooker. Either way, the blaring police sirens in the distance--less than two blocks away--was unmistakable.

[Marvelous Miscreant]

Marv heaved himself up from the rubble where he lay, dusting himself off quickly, all the while his ear cocked to the side as he listened nervously to the approaching sirens.He turned to the Penultimate, glaring directly into his eyes. If only he hadn't shown up everything would have gone according to plan. Marv let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine, you've got my hands tied. We'll do it your way for now. But not here. In case you forgot, I'm a wanted felon and those siren are too close for my liking. I say we move this somewhere less conspicuous as soon as possible."

[The Narrator]

"I too don't desire to be caught anytime soon", he said aloud, "If you all desire, I can take you to the Narrator's Sanctum, a haven if you will that can't be found by conventional means."  

A web of energy swirled around in the air, behind him.  The portal cracked and wooshed the air.  

"Follow me if you want, but waiting here any longer would be simply foolish..." He listened knowing the sirens were sounding louder.

"It's spacious enough, just step through...."

He walked through the portal, and disappeared.