Chapter 23 Imagined Flight Part 2

“Defying gravity

Launch into universe

At escape velocity”

Despite all the decades spent fighting goblins, much of how they function remains a mystery. While the process to create a hobgoblin is known, how the base goblin reproduces is completely unknown. Goblins do not possess sexual organs of any kind, each completely genderless and to this day, none have observed goblin copulation or one being ‘born’. The currently accepted theory is that they spontaneously manifest fully formed from nothing, however, there is no proof to support this.

Despite no one knowing how goblins come to be, where they end up appearing is extensively studied. Statistical analysis shows that goblins can theoretically appear anywhere, regardless of any known factor, each location will experience a goblin event at least once every eight years and that new goblin appearances will significantly increase in probability for twenty-two days after extermination if there has been a goblin active for more than a week in the area.

When first appearing in a location, only packs of one to two will appear. This number will linearly increase at a rate of approximately one per week the infestation is not completely annihilated. If a new infestation occurs in a location that has previously had an infestation, the number of appearing goblins can range from one to half the number of whatever the largest previous infestation was in that location. Most notably, however, is that there is usually no sign that a Gate has opened in these locations, and certainly not from the goblin’s home dimension of Arcadia.

Generally, there is at least a week before an initial infestation can be considered ‘dangerous’, goblins seem to manifest completely unarmed and require time to build up their contrivances. This is considered the ideal time to eliminate an infestation, as unarmed they pose a combat capability no higher than an untrained child of eight years old.

Due to these factors, it is standard procedure to monitor the location of a goblin manifestation for thirty days after the manifestation had been exterminated. Locations where goblin manifestations have gone up to twenty or more are inspected for activity monthly. Fifty and more are inspected weekly.

Locations, where hordes have risen to a hundred or more, are under constant surveillance and are only one dial away from a ranged artillery barrage or high-level Nuker metahuman should initial containment and extermination fail.

The Radio Gaga incident, where the abandoned factory district saw one goblin manifestation that was dealt with by an unnamed civilian, had no previous history of goblin manifestations. Statements given by the civilian on the effectiveness of the goblin’s contrived firearms and further investigation of the area pegged the infestation as only a solo event. Combined with the fact the military police was short-handed due to the city simultaneously experiencing a Necrada Gate, along with one completely new Gate that had not been recorded up till now, only a single military policeman was stationed, equipped with standard crowd kill equipment for an abandoned area.

The crowd kill equipment was intended to be in case another Necrade Gate opened at his location, not for goblin extermination, as his captain had remarked it would be ‘overkill’ as at best he would only need to fend with two goblins with no time to contrive. Investigations found no fault with the commanding captain as all her actions had been procedure. At most, only one or two goblins should’ve appeared at the location in the case of a secondary infestation.

As such, the Radio Gaga incident where over thirty fully equipped goblins appeared is considered a significant anomaly.

It was the chatter that gave it away.

Aiden’s ears had healed quickly, quickly enough the ringing went away, and he heard the low, but barely perceptible chatter as he neared the bridge.

His breath stilled, the beating of his heart slowed as he focused on the sound.

Hidden between the buildings was chatter, goblin chatter.

He changed his tattoos as he moved, checking his sleeve, making sure the tattoo went onto his clothing before he went around. Sticking to the wall as he came behind the alleyways.

Before him, were half a dozen goblins, staring at the main street leading to the bridge, past them he could see another group on the other side, also watching the main street.

With their weapons drawn in ambush.

He took a single step back, but one of their heads shot backwards.

Aiden froze as the goblin’s eyes passed him, seeing only piles of abandoned trash in the alleyway.

It turned back around, and Aiden slowly edged his way around the corner. The tattoos which he had covered on all of his skin and clothes shifted colours, temporarily revealing their true nature.

Octopuses, squids and cuttlefish.

Their active camouflage turned brighter as the sun shone on them, standing still, Aiden was once again completely blended with his environment.

But he couldn’t stay still.

His steps slow and silent, he moved till he was what he considered a safe distance away. Moving into an abandoned office building that had its windows shattered, he carefully moved upstairs. Checking every room for opponents, finding none, he moved to the topmost floor.

He had already been planning his next move from the moment he took a step away from the poorly disguised ambush. Only a single bridge connected this district over the river to the city, further out only led to more wilderness. It was guarded and while it might’ve been possible for him to sneak past with his adaptive camouflage, he needed a backup plan if he didn’t make it.

Currently, he was carrying his school bag, with the dented cleaver, several workbooks and his pencil case. A combat knife was strapped to his leg and he hid four sewing needles on his body that he had prepared for using venomous creatures.

He tore out the workbook paper, despite his lost hand, he worked quickly, folding several pages together into the shape of a bird.

“Pigeon that returns home,” he murmured, the three concepts disappearing from his mind.

Grey covered the origami creation, he quickly wrote a message, his left hand still unused to writing, but it was readable enough.

Tying it to the bird’s leg, he made sure it was tight but easy to undo.

Even a crow could do it.

“Go,” he said, letting it fly from the window.

Ranpo would call for backup, this goblin infestation was abnormal. There were too many, over twenty at least, with the dozen that were waiting in ambush and the few that attacked them earlier. Some of them died in the explosion but…

His hand clenched, the cop made sure there wasn’t a body left to be turned into a hobgoblin, that much was already a blessing.

More worryingly, the goblins that were here were employing actual tactics. Aiming for phones, ambushes, surprises attacks and using remotely detonated explosives. With the number of enemy combatants being completely unknown, the smart move would be to avoid direct encounters.

Suddenly, the pigeon that he was watching fly in the air was shot down.

It was due to a whim.

A completely random whim by the goblin that shot down the pigeon. For by all appearances, that pigeon was a completely normal one up until closer inspection.

But upon closer inspection, the group of three goblins found the abnormality of the creature, and the piece of paper tied to its leg.

Aiden turned around, seeing the blood trail that had been dripping from the back of his head.

It had already scabbed over, but until then it had been bleeding small, tiny drops of blood.

“Goddamnit,” he murmured, his hand on his face.

When he took his hand off, Aiden changed.

As he watched the three goblins close in on his location, his face was completely calm.

“I have to profess a certain curiosity,” he said to no one in particular. “I know I have a good power, but how do I stack up against the things that go bump in the night?”

The three scooters stopped beside the building.

“Time to find out I guess.”

Ranpo looked around the empty apartment.

No sign of Aiden anywhere.

Was he out? That was likely, but the school was empty as well.

Aiden shouldn’t have had anything else planned for the day.

The recycling centre perhaps? He did want to get that broken cleaver sold.

Flapping his wings, Ranpo flew off.

Three goblins squinted into the darkness,

“Kula kula gin,” the second of them said, gesturing inside. “Tatta tatta.”

Following its orders, they stepped over the shattered glass.

They passed by a long withered potted plant, a welcoming desk in front of them, and a display rack covered in dirty grey blankets. The drips of blood lead upstairs.

The third of them pointed their gun at the stairs, “Yaut yaut.”

The second nodded, and all three began to move upstairs before the third knocked the butt of its gun on the first goblin’s head.

“Yara yara!”

The first snarled at it before the second pointed the barrel. Backing off slightly, it snarled again before nodding in agreement.

The second and third goblins went upstairs, while the first stood guard downstairs. Kicking stones and grumbling in anger.

The goblin then noticed a strange, white rock on the ground. It was large and cone-shaped, the colour of it almost milky, with a reddish-brown pattern. The goblin kicked the thing in curiosity.

Only to feel a sharp prick on its foot, falling to the ground, the goblin felt its muscle seize and go numb. A great pain coursed through its body. Its vision grew hazy as it gasped for breath.

It was then Aiden opened his eyes. Unnoticed by the goblin, he watched it die as it spasmed on the ground.

“Mala mala!?” a yell came from upstairs.

Both goblins came rushing down. They saw their companion dead on the ground, green heads quickly darting over the scene. The dirty yellow blankets, the desk,

And they saw the glowing yellow eyes right behind the dead plant.

“Dakka dakka!” one of them yelled, but both were already unloading their clips, their combined fire obliterating the plant and the wall behind, throwing up dust and obscuring vision.

It was then the dirty grey blankets shifted strangely, as a humanoid shape covered in the same colour and texture stepped out. His steps were silent in the gunfire, Aiden stepped behind both goblins. His one available hand turned to a serpent with two sowing needles as fangs, and the other stump into an electric eel.

Both goblins slumped to the ground.

Aiden made sure all of them were dead before he stepped towards the broken pot. Drawn on the wall behind it was a tattoo of eyes.

“Looks like I’m not that bad,” he murmured.

Clicking his tongue, a snake slithered out from underneath the desk. He reabsorbed the eyes, then the cone on the ground, and finally the snake, the memories returning to him. Cat eyes, cone snail and death adder.

“Strange,” he murmured as he realised something was missing.

He glanced at the first goblin killed, running by the memories in his head, and he realised he didn’t know how the cone snail killed it.

But upon closer examination, he found the coloured needle stuck in its foot. Touching the end of it, Aiden reabsorbed the memory of a cone snail’s venomous harpoon.

“That’s inconvenient,” he murmured. One of his creations losing a part of itself meant it was separated from the whole, maybe even lost. If he didn’t notice how he didn’t know how the cone snail killed, he would’ve lost a valuable asset.

Slinging his bag onto his back, then picked up one of the ‘guns’.

Nothing even when he pulled the trigger.

Tossing it, Aiden stepped out of the building, leaving the corpses behind him.

“That’s three.”

Outside, there were three electric scooters, he almost passed them, but something was strange about them.

Goblin ‘tech’ was highly chaotic by its nature, the three non-functioning guns behind him were all built in different ways and had noticeably different designs. Appearing like something a child cobbled up from playing in the scrap yard.

Not the scooters, all three of them were sleek and uniformly designed, they actually looked like scooters as Aiden would recognise them, and not some contrived mess of trash can parts.

Gingerly, he stepped beside one and gingerly held the handle, holding down the acceleration.

The scooter sped out of his hand, accelerating into a wall as Aiden lost his grip on it.

“Hey Jun!” Ranpo called out, finally catching up to the panting teen.

“Huff… huff… Hey Ran Ran…” she panted, wiping sweat from her brow, “Did I outrun them?”

“The flies? Most certainly,” the crow answered as he landed beside her. “Could you do me a favour?”

“Sure,whaddyaneed?” Jun answered, quickly recovering.

“Call Aiden for me will you?”

“Idon’thavehisphonenumber.”

“It’s fine, I have it memorised,” Ranpo said, relaying the number to her.

She nodded, quickly typing it in her own phone.

And they waited.

And waited.

There were two pieces of good news and two pieces of bad news.

The good news was that his mobile card had survived the phone getting decimated, so Aiden didn’t need to buy a new one.

The bad news was the pigeon was dead.

The good news was that Aiden learned he could still retrieve his memories from the corpse, hence why he knew it was a pigeon that died, and the concepts of ‘return’ and ‘home’.

The bad news was that the memory was damaged, every subsequent recreation of a pigeon resulted in nothing but an unmoving body, even when he repaired its physical body with the bilateral symmetry trick. And he wasn’t sure if something was missing from his concept of ‘home’.

Oh, and he was getting shot at.

Did he mention there were three pieces of bad news?

He grabbed the trash lid, a turtle tattoo flashing over it in an instant as dozens of bullets slammed into it. Aiden rolled with the hit, letting it push him down and under cover of a dumpster as more bullets flew overhead.

The lid was dripping blood, even as he reabsorbed it, he made peace with the fact that the turtle was definitely dead now, regardless of any bilateral symmetry bullshit he tried to repair it with. All memories of the creature’s life cycle, behaviours and habitats were gone from his mind.

He felt sorry, though he didn’t know why, so resolved to ignore it as he reapplied the tattoo.

The scooter had drawn some attention, and while he wafted around retrieving the pigeon, goblins had closed in on him. Three bleeding spots on his right arm had taught Aiden bulletproof was not the same as bullet immunity. Causing him to opt for the turtle lid instead.

Now it was a stalemate, a stalemate Aiden would lose. Every moment he spent holed up behind a dumpster in this alleyway was another moment more goblins were closing in. Bastard pack animals.

He drew his knife, holding it with his mouth. Electric eels have worked handily for his right arm thus far- ‘Handily! Am I developing a sense of humour?’ -and his left hand held the lid.

Aiden jumped out from behind the dumpster, coming into full sight of the four goblins firing upon him.

This time he stood his ground as the faux shield absorbed the initial bursts of fire, bullets ricocheting off the shell. It was a good thing goblins didn’t learn to alternate fire as all four began reloading then, cartridges dropping to the ground.

It was at that moment Aiden threw the lid.

The lid crashing into the centremost one, knocking it down, drawing all of their eyes for a single moment, before the standing three turned back onto their opponent.

Only to find no one there.

All three opened fire anyway, cause goblins weren’t trained on fire discipline. Instantly shredding all stray pieces of garbage and finally obliterating the only cover, the dumpster in sustained fire.

It was the wrong move, for Aiden was already on the wall above them.

Octopus suction cups were replaced by hard scales and chitin as Aiden dropped down. His freed hand holding a knife, it fell true, jamming itself into the skull of the backmost goblin, the sheer weight pushing the knife through the skull and halfway through the monster’s rib cage. Aiden tried to wrest it out, wasting precious seconds as the standing two turned around.

The knife was stuck, abandoning it, Aiden jumped forward. A stray bullet slamming into his left shoulder, rocking him back, but still, his right arm struck out, touching the rightmost goblin and delivering over five hundred volts, killing the monster instantly.

The last standing one tried to fire, only for the clip to come up empty as Aiden reached into his pocket and threw a folded origami creature at it.

The gold-coloured origami landed on the goblin’s face.

The last goblin finally pushed off the trash lid, rising to face Aiden, only to be met with a kick that slammed directly into its face, throwing it into the alley wall. Something crack and it didn’t get back up.

The final goblin still standing had the golden-origami on its face. Its expression was slack, and soon the rest of the body followed as the golden poison dart frog paralysed all its muscles.

“Seven,” he breathed out. Only now hearing the rapid beating of his own heart. Adrenaline, makes sense, given that that was the most intense few seconds he’s had in his lifetime.

Dropping down, he grabbed the lid, blood was sprayed all over it, some his own. It had cleaned dusty top somewhat, and it was slightly reflective-

The lid clanged to the ground as Aiden grabbed his face.

Feeling the contours of his jaw, the brief moment where his mouth was still in the same shape.

He was smiling.

He was smiling.

It washed off his face quickly, replaced by a shock he couldn’t quite understand, but he did understand something else. Aiden slammed his fist into the wall. “No!”

His teeth strained as they gritted together, threatening to grind themself into dust.

‘I did not enjoy that!’ his mind screamed.

Aiden bit his thumb, his teeth clattering as he mumbled, “No no no no no no no no no no no nononononononononononononono…”

Blood flowed from his thumb as he chewed past the nail, raw skin and flesh falling from the gaps of teeth and onto the ground, adding to the pooling blood and gore around him.

But he could only sense the smell of alcohol, the sharp and dull tunes of pain. Not making a single sound or reaction because that only seemed to egg him on.

“I am not some fucker who enjoys violence!” he screamed as kicked the corpse of a goblin, sending it flying.

He breathed out.

“There’s a logical explanation for this,” he muttered, pacing back and forth.

“This isn’t my body, not really. It must be a reflex- like me automatically saying my name is Bu instead of Lu. Yes… this is a teenager’s body, it might be due to hormones… yes… higher testosterone means more physical aggression, couple that with a still undeveloped brain! Yes! That must be it! It has to be it!”

Aiden Lu can’t be like that.

He can’t be just like him.

So it must’ve been the body, not him, it wasn’t his fault.

“There’s no other-”

The wall in front of him burst apart. Bricks, mortar and concrete went flying as a figure ran through the wall.

Tall, muscular, its body built lean like a marathon runner, strange lime coloured liquids dripped from its nose and countless screws and strange mechanical contraptions poked out of its flesh. The two of them were almost a dozen metres apart, the creature turned and they met eye to eye, both of them of near equal height.

Several things happened at once, Aiden kicked the lid into the air, grabbing it as the figure jumped, instantly clearing the distance between them and throwing a fist.

The shield dented and broke as a fist punctured through it, slamming Aiden in the shoulder with reduced force, but still enough to launch him out of the alleyway, out into the main street, landing rolling onto the road and crashing into the road railings on the opposite side, his school bag just barely breaking the landing.

Aiden gasped, vomit escaping his mouth, he tried to breathe, but his chest refused to contract fully. He was winded. His shoulder felt numb. His glasses were gone. His vision was blurry. His chest hurt. He wanted to breathe.

In front of him, the olive coloured figure took another step forward.

Minimum class threat, D+,

Hobgoblin.

“Are you sure he’s in danger?” Jun asked.

“Everywhere in the city is fucked, I think it’s statistically likely he is in some form of trouble.”

“Idunno,” she replied, “he struck me as the sensible type who would hide in a shelter.”

“Can we just look for him?” Ranpo answered, slightly irritated.

“Sure.”