***

“Holy sh--” was all Maddie could mutter, as a wave of wreckage was thrusted towards her and the various crowds.

The force knocked the wind out of her body, and a metal pipe had to hit her in her braced arm in the process. But her mind, once it was done being caught off guard, proved to be sharp.

Using siVis to plant as well strengthen her legs—she managed to land with a thud and grind as the wave continued to push her back. She lurched over, her head cocked away from blast as much as she can, using her core as well to maintain balance, arms raised, hands into fists, at her side.

Even with her senses, all she gathered that the air being forced to become typhoon, the rumbling of Shift-protected buildings being broken apart, and the sound was just overwhelming white noise that consumed what would’ve been—should’ve been---screaming, destruction and chaos.

And as she turned her head back forward, her eyes trying to scan what the fuck is going on, all she saw was a series of cars coming for her.

Using her legs, she bolted upwards, practically jumping meters in the air, and craned to her side where a street lamp was there, causing her to scramble for it so that she could escape whatever was happening. She grabbed for it, winced and shouted as it was her still-fucked arm, and still perched up it regardless.

There, she could see it all turn to shit.

The line of cars crashed into the building to her left. As black smog lifted into the air, it was buzzing with the screeching of people in despair. So many people, mostly people who was too afraid to go to Steppe Ave to get possible supplies here at Luminous Hills, had their absolute nightmare unfold before their eyes.

Maddie looked across and down the hillside area, many people scrambling across it’s unique white roads and crimson sidewalks, running up the hill on foot despite how infamously steep it can be, as the fancy pants Victorian + urban look: theatres to bouquets, were literally being torn apart due to the damage.

“THEY’RE HERE--!”

Maddie turned her head towards the screaming man, eyes bugging out of his head as he clutched it running.

“ALL THE TRENDS ARE HERE, THEY’RE TAKIN’ OVER!”

Her heart sunk so fast at that statement, she instantly looked around to hear any conflicting information.

All she got was how crazy everyone was getting.

“THOSE KIDS ARE TRYING TO GET NATHAN—ALL THIS IS FOR ATTENTION!”

“THEY’RE TRYING TO SINK THE ISLAND, THEY’RE TAKING US WITH THEM!”

And that was it, crowds of people trying to storm their way upwards, away from the wreckage. It nearly became a crush at points, but they didn’t have the self-control for it not turning into a stampede, as Maddie watched many people trampled over one another, even cases where the fallen pulled people down, like crabs in a boiling pot of water.

The scariest part of it all were the people that didn’t move at all and let the crowds bowl over them. The ones that weren’t so “lucky”, just twitched or cried or spaced out or jibbering with laughter.

“WE SHOULDN’T HAVE COME HERE, DAMN IT!”

Maddie turned her head to a father, on his hands and knees, tucked away from the manic crowds in an alley. Clearly some people gathered with him weren’t his family, but he continued, “I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN, I KNEW IT AND THERE’S NOTHING WE CAN DO--!”

Maddie’s head turned to the cars, as one of the passengers were left behind in the wreck as the other people in the car hubbled away in panic. Maddie could hear as the person shivered within it, only babbling because they’re in so much pain.

Then, she turned her head to the sound of crying. A child, wandering in the streets back and forth, face smothered with tears.

“Mooooommmi….!” the small boy cried out. “Where’s Moooommmiiiii…!?”

“fuck this,” Maddie could barely voice due to the lump that formed within it.

She jumped down from the streetlight, and ran down the hill. She darted away from the running people, weaving around because of her senses being on high alert naturally, and her using her awareness to gleam something, anything that’s happening.

“WHERE IS TABBY?!” a voice she darted by. “THEY’VE KILLED HER IN THE HOSPITAL AND COMING FOR DAVENPORT NEXT!”

That was the thing, with these accusations. They’re all stupid, but plausible and at least one of them had to be right.

“REGAN! REGAN, GET BACK FROM THERE!”

“Yo, you seeing this shit, Crystal?! That man is in a fucking crater!”

Maddie’s eyes trained forward, so wide open that they were becoming irritated by the exposure, tears forming.

There was astonishing number of people huddled around what she could guess where the crater was, within the side of the hill near the bottom, into the streets. They bustled despite standing in place, they all had their arms raised with phones in her hands, bobbing and weaving to get their shots. And there were a slew of dwindling on lookers who were a foot or three behind them, ready to flee.

“That bastard-thing is still alive!” Maddie heard another voice, trying to peer through the tight-knit crowd, also hearing the awe and gasps and limited words that just boiled down to, “he’s moving”.

“…Oh no,” the voice she heard first sounded panicked. “Crystal—run—run, Crystal, I’m sorry—”

Maddie could barely catch the thing jumping forward, right into the air like she just done. She cursed her eyes and quickly locked onto the blur as another one jumped towards the other.

What followed caused reality to not accept it happening.

An implosion, that started to suck everything forward, before engulfing the whole space into an oppressive, white fuzz and flickering.

Jittering forward, and then backward, and then forward again—as everything around her started to collapse around her in various ways—before jittering forward, then sideways, and then back, and jumping forward as it continues it’s motion, before cutting back to before it happened.

“Oh my lord---!” Maddie was able to croak out, shielding her eyes using both her arms as she continues to flicker in and out of motion.

There was no time to think, there was no time to think or fear or even feel pain… It didn’t let her. She didn’t have space as this force is smothering her so ever presently, she couldn’t compilate her own existence.

But she felt her legs beginning to snap, and that awareness give her a second and only a second, to do what she needed to do.

She used siVis everywhere, on everything on her body, something that felt weird but she needed to do something, damn it.

She flickered in and out of the use, getting jerked around one moment and then standing still the moment later, and then her legs continued to buckle, but stopped before damage could be done.

At some point, her use of siVis won out, as she braced herself for the whiteness to completely color and destroy the landscape, as she could only brace herself.

The sun itself began to drown within the void. A white iridescence.

As soon as it faded, Maddie lowered her arms, gasping as the very air was forced out of her, soon cough seconds later as she hunched over, covering her mouth. But as soon as she rose…

She couldn’t believe her eyes. Even if she wanted to. Even if she knew this was real.

Various people were trapped within the air, flickering and resetting as they screamed out in fear and agony. The unique buildings that were built into the sideways ground, were uprooted and twisted into various positions, screws and knots. Cars, stores and people were swallowed up within the tar-lite streets and now there’s a static haze that danced about in the air.

Maddie heard the shattering out glass, with a shrill screaming of “help”, as a businessman threw a desk out of the window, as their building was perched within the sky now. No way out when they wanted to. She glanced at the windows of the other buildings, and many were trying to attempt the same thing, but can’t, as the buildings were too mangled with other debris that protected the windows.

But she still heard a crackling sound, for some reason. A sound that seemed to echo, echo over the panicked noise.

She looked down and she got her answer.

She saw cracks forming within her forearm. Starting from the inside, out.

“… Perfect,” she spat. “Literally got that fucking info to set up my session with that jerk, and it looks like I didn’t need to. Fucking grand.”

She lurched forward, trying to mitigate it in some fashion by using siVis, which in turn caused her arm to twitch and tremble in response. As if it’s fighting just as hard against this.

“I—I’m running outta time…” she lamented, coughing right after.

She held her arm with her other, and stared at the brace again.

Amidst her coughing fit, she forced herself to stop, gritting her teeth. She stumbled forward and began to run.

“If it’s breaking down, might as well use it while I can—”

Maddie then took off in a sprint. Her form, her movement, none of it was calculated or refined. It was full blown panic, not unlike the people that became obstacles.

But the thing was. The thing was that, in a strange twist of fate, that’s what she’s been in this whole time—as much as she wouldn’t admit it.

So tense, so aware, she managed to weave and carene from the crush of people everywhere, managed to gain traction on the uneven terrain of what was once some street, jumping over stranded and submerged vehicles.

Then she got to the crater. Ground zero, at least for her.

What she saw stopped her cold.

It was the same shadow-y, goop-like mess from the hospital… There was residue, still writhing within the hole.

She immediately turned to her left, and screamed—moving out of the way of a black slime creature that was set to grab her.

Scanning the area, there were nothing but slime creatures, wailing in agony to remind her that these are people being trapped in their literal worst nightmares.

There just wasn’t time left.

She bolted again, feeling the pod of monsters try to grab at her back, being way too nimble and freaked out to catch.

She saw her path, the surrounding street, rose up into jagged spikes and cliff sides, blocking the way.

“Fuck you!” she said at everything, everyone. “Fuck this!”

She used her legs again, jumping up and then scaling the structures back and forth. As her foot landed on a spike’s base, she catapulted herself rhythmically to dart across the once-landscape. No time to pay attention to the ache that resulted into doing this, or how pain is starting to accrue overall.

For once in her fucked, useless, life, she’s going to be the one that saves herself this time.

She jumped out of the mess and landed right back on solid ground again. It took her seconds to sprint forward again, despite being hunched over and legs in pain.

She cut through alleys, ignored the activity on busier streets, went behind buildings and jumped over fancing.

There was nothing else in her mind, nothing in her mind but her way to get back from “Lum Hills” to Splinterbush. The way where she didn’t have to spend credits riding anywhere, the way that took her there regardless of where she needed to end up in. She couldn’t afford to think of anything else.

What usually was a thirty-minute walk was fifteen minutes of just running. But either way, she got there. She got back home.

Maddie used what little of her strength left to bash down the door, repeatedly ramming into it, before Frank rushed towards the door, opening it, and catching his goddaughter in his arms and potbelly, holding her tight.

“Jesus Christ—” he fumbled out in a hush.

“It’s bad—” Maddie begun. “Super bad, they’re going at it, two Trends or whatever are fighting and they’re legit going at it—it was insane, Frank, they’re tearing reality apart every time they throw hands at each other, I barely got out, we gotta go—”

She gently pushed off of her godfather, and began tumbling forward towards Monty’s room.

She huffed at the heartbreaking sight of him, just staring—not moving. His senses and instincts being literally stunned. She laboriously opened the gate, going over to him while she dragged her legs, bending down and pushing him across the room as he reacted not once to it. Struggling to put him into his massive, but portable dog crate—panting as she finished, she saw Frank come up behind her with phone in hand.

“They’re saying something about unlocking some tunnel system, so we can get to the ferries down the port,” Frank rattled off.

“Then we gotta tell people to go in—” Maddie grunted herself up on her wabbling legs. “Text, call—nah, fuck that, just scream it to everyone as we go down the street, we gotta make this quick…”

“How the hell are you okay with this…?” Frank muttered. “Or still standing?”

Maddie turned to him.

“I finally got it,” she answered. “This is finally the time where I’m not some fuck up. I’m scared and my head’s pounding in a way that it’s just aches… And I don’t give a fuck, y’know? Like, it doesn’t matter right now. What’s important is getting you all outta here, because I saw what happens when people got no where to run and I would fucking die before letting that shit happen to any of you. So fuck my wellbeing right now. Get your stuff and wheel Monty out of here.”

Frank just stared and then nodded, still a bit shaken.

Maddie bolted out of the door, running down the colorful but browning streets of her neighborhood.

“EVERYONE GET YOUR SHIT, WHAT YOU CAN CARRY, THEY’RE OPENING UP A TUNNEL, WE CAN GET OUT BEFORE SOMETHING HAPPENS HERE, MOVE PEOPLE MOVE!”

After going through the shit she’s been through: scaling up rising streets, running from N’atural—it’s easy to do this again and again, Maddie figured to herself as she continued to yell. She’s exhausted, hurt, and is literally crackling into pieces—but she can keep going because she did it in the past. She just failed those few times because she didn’t know anything. Now she can’t ever forget those things.

She saw families, people around the block, even people she couldn’t fucking stand, come out and listened to her, as she makes her way down to the point of getting to Mrs. Goddard’s house.

And sure enough, there she was, still behind the screen door.

“Ready to get the fuck outta here, Grandma?!” Maddie asked.

“I ain’t going nowhere—” she responded. “Spent way too many years here and pouring my damn soul into this place. It’s all I was ever good for, so I ain’t going nowhere.”

“Are we really doing this--?!” Maddie yelled out, before she could catch it.

“Yes! I am!” Mrs. Goddard. “They’ve been tryna have any excuse to ‘fix’ this place and that means it getting destroyed in the other way. I ain’t gonna be alive and see that happen, point blank and simple. I’m dying here, then I’m dying here.”

Maddie glanced back, seeing the crowd of her people looking in confusion and expectancy. They didn’t want Mrs. Goddard gone either.

But also, she knew that they were waiting. To see which dog was going to win out, in this back and forth, and follow their lead.

She couldn’t believe what she was about to do.

She marched towards her house, climbing her stairs, and jerked the door open.

“…Girl,” Mrs. Goddard warned. “Don’t think you getting siVis means a damn thing to me.”

“I know it doesn’t, and I know you’re gonna beat me blue if I touch you know. But I got no other choice. You mean a lot to us, grandma. And if there’s someone that can battle bullshit and keep us fucking sane, it’s you.”

The woman only looked at her braced arm. “And you think you’re in the condition to be helping anyone besides yourself?”

Maddie shrugged and felt her chest twinge in pain.

“It’s like you said to me. All those years when Marigold died. I either get hard against the world or it was going to break me—and I was already weak and breaking. And that means that I have to go hard against it right now, when it’s breaking apart. I learned my lesson and I need to learn more from you. Everyone does.”

Mrs. Goddard sucked her barely-there teeth in angry, turning her head and mumbling under her breath.

And soon, she got up with her cane.

“At least help me down the stars, girl.”

Maddie smirked and grabbed her free arm.

And soon enough, the street begun to open up, revealing Extant Enforcers coming out before the crowds.

“SPLINTERBUSH, THIS IS YOUR ROUTE TO THE PORTS! PLEASE FOLLOW US IN A ORDELY FASHION, WE WILL PROTECT YOU!”

***