—Chapter 6—

—Pestbyter—

Kellan shoved his .45 into Mavis’s hands and then shoved her away before Sen could give him any commands. “Shoot the little boy,” Kellan shouted, practically tripping over his words in his haste to speak.

He didn’t blame Mavis for answering him with an incredulous stare. Last they were together, Kellan had raved about stalkers. Why trust his assessment of the situation when he could be a paranoid lunatic?

Sen glowered at the exchange. “Restrain the woman!” he commanded.

Kellan’s body twitched into action and so did the two puppets as though they were synchronized to Sen’s commands. Kellan stepped forward, against his will, but he fought against each movement, slowing his body.

Sen said the worms died to help me heal, Kellan reasoned. It should be easier to resist since they just mended my broken legs.

Sure enough, he could stop himself from moving if he focused hard enough.

The other two puppets weren’t resisting, however.

Mavis leapt back and held the gun with all the familiarity a US soldier could bring. Her expression twisted in disgust at the sight of the puppets when they drew near—the exposed wet flesh dangling out the holes of their body could churn even the hardest of stomachs.

She shot them both once in the head—the bang of the gun louder than the arguments Sen and Husker had been wrapped up in. When that didn’t stop the puppets, Mavis shot twice more at their legs, blowing out one kneecap each.

Fantastic aim.

Kellan had to take a moment to admire that—but also took note of the fact the damage boxes didn’t appear whenever someone else attacked. His eyes were just… normal eyes in those situations.

The puppets fell to the ground, one leg useless, but that didn’t stop them. They crawled forward, faster than Mavis had been expecting, like speedy zombies hungry for ankles. She aimed for their chest and pulled the trigger, but the gun only answered with a weak click.

Kellan’s magazine had been half-empty when he had handed it over.

Thankfully, Mavis was a soldier at heart. She tossed the useless gun to the side and then withdrew a Ka-Bar from a hidden pocket on the inside of her jeans. The Ka-Bar was a standard issue U.S. Navy utility knife, seven inches of sharp steel that had never let Kellan down when he had used it.

When the puppets scuttled close, Mavis stabbed down into one’s neck. The knife cut through their fake flesh and inner workings. The puppet-man made a hissing noise as it grabbed her ankle. Mavis stabbed again, and that time it was enough. The doll stopped functioning.

The second one grabbed her weak ankle and bit down.

Mavis growled a curse under her breath before whipped around and stabbing the puppet multiple times. Unlike before, her aim had decreased. She just stabbed wilding, creating puncture wounds across the mannequin’s body. It didn’t take long before it stopped functioning.

“Fascinating,” Husker growled. “You brought two warriors.”

Sen huffed. “Quiet you. I’ll handle this.” He glared at Kellan. “I said restrain the woman.”

For some reason, the command struck Kellan hard. He lunged forward and grabbed Mavis by the shoulders. She stared up at him, her eyes wide, the Ka-Bar in her tight in her hand.

“Stab me,” Kellan said, knowing he’d be “fixed” by the worms afterward. “And then run! You need to get out of here.”

He tried to throw her to ground—well, he didn’t. Kellan didn’t want to comply, which made the fight clumsy. Mavis’s injured ankle and weak leg only added to the awkwardness. She refused to stab him, and instead, Kellan and Mavis circled around the street, struggling to knock the other over.

“Kellan,” Mavis muttered between strained pants. “What’s… going on?”

Through gritted teeth, he replied, “You can’t trust me. Just escape.”

“I’m not… leaving you behind.”

Something about the way Mavis spoke reminded Kellan of “his incident.” Both Greer and Jones had been adamant about never leaving anyone behind. Just remembering them… It caused Kellan to lose focus.

The worms forced him to trip Mavis and then slam her on the pavement. Winded, Kellan easily took the knife from her hand and then pressed it against her throat. He then knelt on her—his knee trapping her arms against her chest.

“He’s controlling you?” Mavis whispered, her gaze searching Kellan’s. “Is that… Is that what’s going on?”

Although Kellan couldn’t nod, he could at least reply with, “Yes. You should’ve run.”

“How is this even…?”

“You should’ve shot the boy when you had the chance.”

“No one is shooting me,” Sen said, flouncing over to his “dead” puppets. He stared at them for a long time, his lips pressed so tightly together they had become a single white line.

Then he turned his attention to the discarded handgun. With a sneer, Sen picked it up with his forefinger and thumb, like it was something disgusting. “Didn’t you say you wanted to go home? That won’t be happening without me.”

“Finish this,” Husker stated. “We’re already late, and your sister wouldn’t tolerate this dithering.”

Sen glowered at the handgun. “Finish what?”

“Order our warrior to kill the woman.”

Kellan held his breath, mentally ready to resist whatever command Sen sent his way. He wouldn’t kill Mavis. He just wouldn’t.

“You think too small, Husker.” Sen tucked the handgun into his gigantic robes. Somehow, the weapon disappeared into the folds of his oversized outfit. “Outsiders are commonplace during the Conflux. We don’t need to kill the woman. She’s also a warrior.”

Husker groaned. He ran a clawed hand up his long canine snout and then back down again, ruffling his red fur. “An enemy warrior. You don’t understand. They’ll be trouble for us. Mark my words.”

“No, they won’t.” Sen turned his attention to Kellan and smiled. “Give the woman our worms.”

At first, Kellan wasn’t even sure what Sen was asking. Yeah, he had worms. But how was he supposed to—

His stomach twisted and lurched. Kellan grabbed at his sides, almost cutting Mavis’s throat with his jerked movements. She stared up at him, her lip curling in disgust.

“Are you about to vomit?” Mavis whispered. “Please tell me you’re not going to—”

Kellan wanted to apologize in advance—he really did—but his mouth went dry, and the contents of his stomach came before he knew what to do with them. Just like he had seen in the parking lot outside of Nino’s Place, Kellan vomited up yellow worms. They spewed out his mouth like half-digested spaghetti, writhing and moving the entire way.

They landed on Mavis’s neck and collarbone, and she jerked her chin up to avoid anything getting near her mouth. It didn’t matter, though. Kellan knew they had entered his body through his arm—they were definitely going to enter Mavis’s body through her neck.

It was a weird day, to say the least.

“You rely too heavily on those worms,” Husker said with a growl. “Don’t you know the stories? They say you can’t control them forever. The queen gets too big.”

“Those are fairy tales!” Sen walked back to the werewolf man and patted his side like a good little puppy. “They didn’t give me the title of Puppetmaster because I fail at controlling my puppets. This will be fine. Look.” He pointed at the two puppets on the street. “She destroyed them. Those two together counted as a single teammate for the Nexus Games—now she can take their place.”

Husker pushed Sen away, almost causing him to fall to the ground. “Don’t be a fool. Those pieces of wood you called people could’ve been used in set off traps or help us with puzzles. Now we’ve lost that advantage.” He huffed and turned away, his fangs visible as he clenched his wolf-like jaw.

Kellan wished he could’ve seen more of the werewolf’s face. The canine’s hood remained mostly up, covering his eyes and ears. Kellan couldn’t fully determine his mood outside of the werewolf’s blatant anger.

After wiping the worm juice from his chin, Kellan finally regained the ability to act on his own. He stood, allowing Mavis to get up, and then tried to clean his shirt.

Mavis leapt to her feet and half-stumbled when she put weight on her weak ankle. Then she straightened herself and felt around her neck. The worms were gone—buried into her deep.

“What’s going on?” she asked.

“I’ll explain in a second,” Kellan said as he took hold of her arm. He pulled her close and then glanced down the streets. “But there is a robot nearby. A sphere-robot. It’s called a Pestbyter. It must’ve heard the gunfire. We’ve got to avoid it at all costs.”

Husker’s canine ears twitched. He turned to face Kellan. “You know what it’s called?”

“Yeah,” Kellan said. “My eyeballs haven’t lied to me yet. If they say it’s called a Pestbyter, I’m sure it is.”

“You can see its name?” The werewolf’s fur stood on end. He whipped his attention to Sen, his fangs bared. “There’s a Pestbyter nearby?”

Before Sen could answer one way or the other, a terrible sound of humming filled the empty streets. Kellan’s heart sank as he turned his attention to the half-ton spherical robot. It floated around a corner and turned its camera on them in an instant. The eyes glowed a sinister red.

“You are not authorized to be here,” the Pestbyter said, its sweet-little-girl voice disturbing Kellan to his core. “Outsiders, and outsider mages, must present themselves to the Arbiter. All those found in restricted areas will be punished.”

Kellan grabbed Mavis’s hand and whispered, “We need to go. The damn thing is going to steal our organs.”

“Wait, what?” Mavis asked.

“Trust me. We have to go.”

He backed away, never taking his eyes off the enemy. Kellan didn’t know what it was capable of, but his vision seemed to have some sort of magical, or technological, scanning abilities, and Kellan intended to make full use of that.

Husker also backed away, his head lowered, and his fur still on-end. “A Pestbyter shouldn’t be here.”

The floating machine advanced forward, faster than it had moved with the dog. The hanging cords gently tapped along the ground, and Kellan briefly wondered what the machine was searching for. When it was ten feet from Kellan, the Pestbyter stopped and maintained a slow hover, stirring the papers on the ground.

Sen stepped forward. “We’re here for the Nexus Games. We will present ourselves to the Arbiter as soon as our team has assembled.”

“Outsider mages are not permitted here,” the Pestbyter said. “As punishment, you will be eliminated.”

The machine sphere opened itself up, as though splitting in half. It revealed a glowing red crystal, no bigger than a finger, connected to wires and mounted to the interior of the machine. The crystal pulsed in rhythm, similar to a heartbeat.

Then the machine revved. It turned to angle itself toward Kellan—and he didn’t need any further warning. He shoved Mavis aside, and attempted to dodge, but the Pestbyter was too accurate. A red beam—some sort of laser—shot out in an instant, power crackling from the blast as it scorched the very air.

It looked as though it would strike Kellan through the chest, but then a shimmer appeared around him. A barrier? The beam of crackling red struck him in the chest and sent him to the ground, his skin burned enough that it smelled like BBQ. The notification that flashed across his eyes was tinted red.

[Sun Sen] uses Shield Ally on [Alex Kellan], reducing the next attack’s damage by 90%.

[Pestbyter #32] uses Arbiter’s Breath on [Alex Kellan], dealing an automatic 50 damage.

[Alex Kellan] suffers 5 damage.

[Tyranny Worms] restore [Alex Kellan] for 1 damage a round.

Kellan rolled to his side, unable to breathe. His hands shook as he attempted to stand. Everything was blurry, even when Mavis hustled over and offered her hand.

“Holy shit,” she muttered, though it was hard for Kellan to hear. “What’s going on?”

He glanced down at his body. A hole—more like a divot—had been carved into his chest. Writhing worms squirmed around his insides. Before his eyes, and in a matter of six seconds, the worms melted into his flesh, becoming muscle, skin, and bones like Tetris pieces falling into place and then becoming solid.

Although blood wept onto the asphalt, it wasn’t long before Kellan’s thoughts returned to normal. He could move again. He stood on shaky legs, his thoughts more frantic than his pounding heart.

50 damage? So far, the creature with the highest health had been the Pestbyter itself, and it only had 20.

If I hadn’t had that shield—could the worms have even saved me? Can they put me back together when I’m literally nothing?

Exhaust and steam wafted off the Pestbyter. Its red crystal pulsed a little slower, and the cords hanging from the underside of the sphere grew limp.

“As punishment, you will be eliminated,” the Pestbyter said, its little girl voice a harsh juxtaposition to the situation.

“Wait,” Sen said, his hand up. “We’re participants! You shouldn’t be attacking us.”

Without warning, the Pestbyter shot another red laser, so bright it hurt Kellan’s eyes. He shielded his gaze, fearful he’d been targeted a second time. Fortunately, he wasn’t. No notifications flashed in his mind or across his eyes.

Instead, the Pestbyter had targeted Sen.

A shimmering shield shot up in front of Sen, but the laser practically blew through his barrier and then through his little body, leaving a smoking hole the size of a quarter right through his lower torso. Sen hit the asphalt and collapsed, his arm wrapped over his stomach, covering the wound in his body.

“Damn the eternal void,” Husker growled.

He rushed forward, using his hand as feet, like a four-legged dog. The clink of chains followed him like a second shadow. He scooped up Sen and hefted him over his massive shoulder.

The Pestbyter’s red crystal dimmed. Then it descended a few inches, as though its hovering could no longer sustain its weight. The machine was losing power.

Kellan saw an opening.

“C’mon!”

He yanked Mavis and ran for the broken buildings. Husker carried Sen and followed, his movement fast due to his large size. Together, they ran into an empty alleyway between buildings. The Pestbyter fired a third time, damaging a corner of the apartment building in an attempt to kill them.

Kellan dodged a downpour of falling bricks, and once they had settled, he scooped Mavis up into his arms and held her close to his chest. Husker dashed ahead, easily leaping over a dumpster while keeping Sen on his shoulder the entire time. He seemed to move with superhuman strength and speed—and Kellan took note of the werewolf’s stamina.

When they reached the exit of the alleyway, Husker darted to the left and made his way down the road. Kellan went right, and the moment he could duck into another alleyway, he did.

Goodbye, Puppetmaster.

The foul fog lingered in the air, making everything hazy. Kellan knew that he shouldn’t run recklessly into enemy territory, but he didn’t have many other options.

He couldn’t return to his apartment. Sen knew where he lived, and he could control Kellan through commands. Sen had even demonstrated the ability to control him through thoughts and Kellan didn’t want any part of that. He’d find his own way home.

Kellan glanced at his chest. The injury was gone—all thanks to the Tyranny Worms. Mavis leaned her head on his collarbone, and he offered her a confident smile.

She returned it.

Together, they exited the alleyway and ran along a broken road toward Nexus-Fayetteville.

If this were every reality mixed together, surely someone else could return Kellan home…

He stepped up onto the broken sidewalk, and then headed north, to a part of the city with a small parking lot and a landscaping business, complete with a flower shop. He still hadn’t seen anyone else—no humans or other races. It was just him and Mavis.

Kellan wasn’t sure why. Surely there were other people around?

Then he heard the terrible hum of another Pestbyter.

His heart seized up as he realized Pestbyter #32 wasn’t going to be the only one.

The hovering mechanical sphere floated out from around the other side of the flower shop. Its cords hung low, and its eye camera titled and swirled until it landed on Kellan and Mavis.

“There are more?” Mavis whispered, her grip tightening on Kellan’s shirt.

“Hello,” the Presbyter said, its voice the exact same as the last. “Who are you?"