Infestation (A.S, OPEN)

[Pink Moon Wolf]

It's easy to say "It started like any other day" or "Everything seemed so normal at first" whenever tragedy strikes, and Dimensional Island was certainly no stranger to tragedy. But something about this seemed... different. Yes, the morning started out calm enough, but therein laid the problem. Everything seemed... too calm. Disturbingly calm. As dawn slowly broke in the eastern sky, it was as if a hush had befallen the island, and even the most benign inhabitants could tell that something was on the horizon. Something unfathomable. Something terrible.

In the warm, golden glow of the morning sun, the atmosphere seemed thick with dread, the island's citizens waiting with bated breath for the coming storm to disrupt the calm.

The storm came all too soon...



It started out slowly, and yet it didn't feel that long at all. Those who looked to the sky saw a great, billowing cloud the color of rust steadily stretching out from the horizon. Under its cover, with all but the strongest rays from the sun blocked out, the blue and gold hues of the sunrise turned a sickly, burning red. The tension in the atmosphere only seemed to increase, growing thicker to the point where it was stifling and difficult to breathe with the smells of blood, filth and rust in the air. The cloud continued to creep across the sky for a good hour or so until it blanketed the island nearly in its entirety, then it seemed to settle, simply hanging above them like great, foreboding, potentially malevolent entity. It almost felt like it was biding its time, letting the hapless citizens stew in their own fears as they waited and wondered what this cloud was or what it could possibly be doing there.

Hours of waiting... of wondering... of gazing into the sky in panic and anticipation.

Finally, something started to rain from the cloud...

As they drew closer to the ground below, they appeared to be thin, three-foot, thread-like objects, flapping in the wind as they descended. It soon became clear, however, that these things had... teeth. And were... hissing.

Upon touching down, the creatures immediately sprung to life and began to sink their teeth into anything and everything around them. Some landed in the trees, where they proceeded to rapidly consume the leaves and branches like weed whackers. Some landed in the fields, where they dug themselves into the ground or latched onto the nearest animals they could find. Some landed in the streets... and those who had once stood there watching the skies soon found themselves at the mercy of the vicious beings raining down and swarming around them, chasing people through the city, burrowing their hooked mandibles into the flesh of those who drew too close...

And as the terror quickly mounted in the city, Swift stared out the window of the Summer Snow Apartment with wide eyes, practically choking on her own breath. "God..."

[ParamountKeymaster]

Evan slowly, shakily approached her from behind, eyes glued to the window and the gruesome scene taking place on the other side. These... These things... whatever they were... they were eating people. They were eating everything. And they just didn't seem to stop falling from the red cloud that had consumed the sky. The devastation was already catastrophic. At this rate, these things could easily overwhelm the island in nothing flat.

"Oh God..." Evan shuddered, echoing Swift. "Guys, we... we gotta do something about this!"

"Like what?!" Patrick yelped from the corner he had been cowering in. "Dude, they're falling right out of the sky! How're we supposed to stop that?!"

"I don't know!" Evan shakily admitted, drawing the Master Morning Star out of his strife deck in spite of himself. "But people are dying out there! The least we can do is try to slow down the invasion force that's already here! C'mon!"

Not wasting any time for fear of what would happen if he did, Evan bolted out the apartment door, scared out of his wits but ready to kill these pests regardless. "E-EVAN...!!!" Patrick scurried after him for lack of any other ideas. Besides, someone had to keep that empathetic lunatic safe.

[ThePopcornFairy]

As more and more of the snakelike creatures rained down from the blood red sky, those already on the ground started to make quick work of everything around them, digging their fangs into the nearest living things they could find. A few of them happened to land not too far from a human girl sleeping beneath a tree in the park, hastily swarming through the grass and striking her while she was unaware...

"KYAA!!!"

The moment one of them latched onto her arm, however, the young woman jolted awake, her eyes flashing an intense, bright blue and a pair of fiery blue wings bursting to life out of her back.

In a fit of panic, she grabbed the attacking creature, her hand charged with blue energy that almost instantly set it ablaze, leaving only its mandibles embedded in her skin and a small handful of popcorn littered on the ground. Panting heavily, she turned in time to see more of them lunging at her and struck each of them with more energy blasts, effectively burning them alive in small bursts of blue fire and popcorn.

"Ew! EW! EWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEWEW...!" Once she was certain there weren't more of them coming after her, she scrambled to pluck the creature's teeth out of her skin, tossing them aside like they were bombs ready to detonate and warily clutching her arm. It took her a good, long while to regain her composure, but once she finally managed it, she took a good, long look at the sky, acknowledging with wide eyes that not only were more of those creatures descending from that red cloud, but she couldn't recognize any of her surroundings. "W-What the douche...??"

So many questions were spiraling through her head already. Where was she? How did she get here? Where was Sora? What were these things? Where did they come from?

...Was she going to have to do something about this? Given that she was here and very clearly had the power to kill these monsters, it quickly became painfully obvious that she would at least have to try.

Thus, with a hard gulp, setting the bigger questions aside for the time being, the blue-winged girl took to the sky, nervous beyond all belief but willing to deal with these pests in spite of it.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Aw, geez..." Ace anxiously gritted her teeth as her boyfriend bolted out the door after Swift's, the two girls exchanging nervous glances before she continued, "So this is happening now, huh?"

"Indeed it is." Swift's ears flattened, considering she had no idea what "it" was and was somewhat dreading to find out. Still, something clearly had to be done about it. "C'mon, let's make sure those two don't get themselves killed..."

Ace nodded in agreement as she and Swift rushed out into the hall, down the stairs, and into the outside world swarming with the ravenous worms, braced and ready for whatever hell awaited them.

While Swift raced to catch up with Evan and Patrick, Ace took to the air, seeking to kill this plague at the root right out the gate. As such, the fallen angel quickly ascended above the rooftops and the skyscrapers, rising and rising in an effort to get herself as close to that cloud as possible, using her powers to disintegrate any of the invading creatures within her sphere of influence all the while. Eventually she slowed to a halt, suspending herself in place as she charged up an intense amount of electricity. Once she had gathered enough, Ace fired the tremendous lightning bolt into the red cloud, white-hot beams shimmering within it as it seemed to effectively kill most of the worms still in or near it.

Having accomplished this, Ace quickly found herself greeted by a deep, angry rumbling within the cloud, one that clearly didn't sound like thunder.

"Oh boy."

In a hasty swerve, Ace flew away from the cloud as part of the thick red mist started to stretch towards her like a pseudopod seeking to engulf her. She managed to evade this with relative ease, at the very least, quickly making her way back towards the ground to deal with what was left of the invasion force.

In the meantime, Swift took to the streets alongside Evan, her first move being an energy-charged claw swipe at a group of the creatures directly above them. Each blade hit its mark, slicing the falling pests in half, and yet as soon as they landed, the bisected ends of the creatures still lunged at whatever they could potentially sink their teeth into as if nothing was wrong with them.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Swift barked as she slashed at a few of the half-worms that subsequently lunged at her. Cutting them up still seemed to do nothing, as the mandible tipped sections still pursued her and everyone around her while the severed middle sections just sort of writhed around aimlessly. "How're you supposed to kill these pricks?!"

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Believe me, I tried that!!!" Evan shouted, his keyblade in hand and a swarm of severed worm parts surrounding him as he quickly found himself back-to-back with Swift. "These things are hard enough to cut as it is, but they just keep coming even if you do manage to pierce 'em!"

Carefully aiming his blade, Evan swung at an attacking creature and managed to slice it in half vertically rather than horizontally. This didn't seem to have much effect either as the two pieces continued to writhe about, albeit with some difficulty and the obvious pitfall of not being able to bite quite as effectively.

Panting, already sweating, Evan looked up as lightning cracked through the cloud, ignited by the fallen angel flying above them. "I hope Ace knows what she's doing..."

"Of course she does!" Patrick insisted from where he stood a few yards away, firing off his own rounds of lightning at the encroaching pests. "Gotta slow these babies down somehow, right?!"

"I guess!" Evan wasn't sure what sort of effect electricity would have on these things, but if the steadily decreasing downfall was any indication, it seemed to be doing the trick well enough. "These creatures... They're like thread from the Pern series! I-I feel like I shouldn't be as surprised as I am, but-!"

And that's when an idea struck him. Sure, there were some notable differences between these monsters and the thread from Dragonriders of Pern, but there were also plenty of similarities. And if cutting them up wasn't going to do the trick, maybe...

"Patrick! Hit me with a Fire Shield!"

"You got it, buddy!" Patrick hollered as he hit Evan with a blast of green mana, immediately surrounding both him and his keyblade with a fiery aura.

Taking on a bold smile and hoping for the best, Evan swung at one of the creatures. This time, not only did the blade slice it in half, but the flames leaped onto the two severed ends, engulfing the screeching and painfully writhing worm until it was completely consumed and rendered little more than a shriveled black mass.

"ALRIGHT, NOW WE'RE TALKING!"

[ThePopcornFairy]

The blue-winged girl quickly made her way towards the city, flying above the buildings and blasting the creatures with starlight as they descended. She surveyed the ground below, taking note of how they seemed to ignore the buildings themselves and instead set their sights on more organic things like discarded food, plants, animals... and to her mortification, people. Clearly the citizens had caught onto this, as those who were incapable of properly combating the creatures had retreated into the metal, brick and mortar buildings for safety.

She looked up, noticing the lightning coursing through the red cloud. She wasn't sure what was going on there at first, but as soon as she spotted what appeared to be a black-winged angel firing the lightning into the sky Thor-style, she started to catch on. If her starlight was enough to burn these monsters to a crisp, hopefully electricity would have similar effects.

As the angel started making her way towards the ground, the blue-winged girl followed suit, seeing as how the downpour of creatures had significantly lessened after that direct attack on the cloud. She lowered herself to near ground level, zooming through the streets and firing concentrated energy bursts at every snake she could find. She shot them out of the trees, she set the trash they feasted on ablaze, she even grabbed onto a few of the creatures that had latched onto the people unfortunate enough to still be outside, burning the attackers alive as they wriggled in her grasp.

After making quick work of a decent-sized horde on one block, she turned around to find that the popcorn she had expelled in her energy blasts had attracted more of the hungry beasts. She quickly took advantage of this, rising up above the rooftops and hitting the block with one massive burst of starlight, killing every worm within her reach and releasing another shower of popcorn.

"Okay... Okay, this is going... alright... I think..."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Fire, huh?" Swift shrugged. "Well, makes as much sense as anything else, I guess! PAT, HIT ME TOO!"

After receiving her own fire shield from the mage, Swift whipped around just as one of the snakes lunged at her, grabbing it with her bare hand and letting the flames that surrounded her eat away at the squirming, squealing pest. Pleased by this development, Swift tried her hands at a claw attack again, swinging her arm and releasing a barrage of fiery yoki blades at a swarm of them in a nearby tree.

Of course, while this did successfully incinerate the creatures, it also had the unfortunate side effect of setting the tree on fire. "Whoops."

After slowly backing away from the flaming brush, Swift turned around and dashed down the street. "Okay, so we know how to kill these things! Let's split up!"

"Right!" Ace called as she flew by overhead.

"Good job slowing 'em down, Ace!"

"Much obliged!" With a salute, the fallen angel sped off down the next street over. In her flight, she targeted any and every worm she could find and made quick work of them, be it disintegrating them on the spot or telekinetically yanking them off of bystanders, then disintegrating them.

Likewise, Swift raced through the city, raking her fire-tipped claws at every worm in her way. She still flung her claw blades whenever she encountered a group of them, but at least she was showing a little more caution with her flames now.

She paused, however, when she noticed bursts of blue light a few blocks away. Swift had figured that more people would try to fight these things, so this didn't seem like anything out of the ordinary. But then she noticed the smell of popcorn in the air.

"WHAT."

[ParamountKeymaster]

"Good idea!" Evan responded as he made his way down the adjacent street while Patrick sprinted in the opposite direction, shooting Ace a wide grin and a thumbs-up all the while.

"Alright, ya dirt scrapers, COME AT ME!" Patrick hollered as he dove headlong into the swarm, fire dancing all around his form, drawing the vermin in and burning them into ash like flies to a zapper. Now that they knew what they were doing, they seemed to be taking these things down with ease, but even without the constant onslaught from above, there were still so many of them. For miles and miles, Patrick could hear the horrid screeches of the little monsters, a clear sign that they were only putting a dent in this force.

Well... at least this wasn't too difficult. At least, not as difficult as Patrick had anticipated. If they kept this up, who knew? As long as there were other fighters out there cleaning up the place where they couldn't reach, they could be rid of these things by...

"EEP!!!"

Patrick froze, only barely managing to maintain a wall of fire around him when he noticed an especially large snake creature, easily five or six feet long, coiled around a bloodied human corpse, one end burrowed deep into the body to consume it, the other pointed his way and emitting a threatening hiss.

"OKAY... NOW IT JUST GOT FRIGGIN' SCARY."

All the while, as Evan raced through the streets, slicing and burning the worms that lined them, he had to wonder what this spontaneous invasion force really was. Were these really just strange, vicious yet mindless animals looking for food, or was there something more to it? There had been no forewarning of their arrival and no indication that there was something worse on the horizon, so really, he was willing to believe either.

More importantly, though... even if they got rid of every one of these things, would that really get rid of them entirely? That cloud looked like it hadn't moved an inch since it initially showed up. Ace might've cut off the flow for the moment, but was there anything else up there?

Of course, he didn't have a lot of time or energy to ponder these things too deeply as Evan committed his energy to killing the creatures on the ground, swinging his flaming keyblade at every one of them that drew too close.

He flinched when he heard what sounded like an explosion, looking up in time to see a blue light just as it faded away, shortly followed by a shower of popcorn.

Despite the severity of the situation, Evan couldn't help but smile with pure ecstasy. "NO FRIGGIN' WAY..."

[ThePopcornFairy]

Darting from street to street, doing her best to focus on fighting and ignore her rapidly-growing anxiety, Natalie continued to charge up star blast after star blast and incinerate these snake... worm... things off the face of the earth. After clearing out a large section of the city, she paused to hover in place and take a look around. She had no way of knowing how much ground these creatures had covered. No way of knowing whether or not she could get rid of every single one of them. And the more she thought about this, the more freaked out she became.

She shook herself off and took a deep breath. She was already knee-deep in this mess. Fretting about it now wasn't going to help.

Besides, judging by the flames flying a few blocks down, it seemed like she wasn't alone in combating this invasion. Either that or the creatures had caused enough damage to start a fire, but the flames seemed a little too erratic and inconsistent for that to be the case.

Still, out of curiosity, Natalie flew towards the scene to check it out, figuring that she could move onto another part of town once she was sure that whoever was there could handle the situation without her.

She momentarily touched down on a roof, looking down at the street below to see a wolf hanyo with an aura of flame swiping at the creatures with her claws.

"SWIFT...??"

After doing a double-take at the sight of her friend, she scrambled away in a panic, ran to the other side of the roof and peaked over the side again. From there, she spotted a young man in a cutoff hoodie wielding a flaming, key-shaped sword.

"EVAN...?!"

Natalie dejectedly stared into space, eyes wide, body trembling, terrible thoughts tumbling around in her head once more. "Ohhh nooo..."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Swift's ear perked before she briskly turned around and stared up at the roof of a nearby building, quickly catching a glimpse of brown hair and blue, plasma-like butterfly wings. A wide smile spread across her face. "NAT!!!"

Excited as she was to see her old friend, let alone fight alongside her again, Swift opted to leave her be for the moment and get back to the task at hand. Natalie had more than enough power to handle herself in this battle, and they'd have plenty of time to catch up once these pests were all burned to a crisp. As such, she charged down the street once more, claws swiping through the air and unleashing waves of fire, slicing through worms and setting them ablaze.

Ace, meanwhile, surveyed the city from the air. They were making good progress, she had to admit, but she had to wonder if the dwindling number of worms in the city was entirely a result of their extermination efforts. Though she couldn't see it for herself, she had to wonder how many of them were simply retreating from the fire and the concrete jungle to seek out a more natural environment to feed off of.

With a sharp breath, she started flying eastward towards the edge of the city. Clearing the most heavily civilized area of the island was certainly a priority, but she dreaded to imagine what would happen if too many slipped past their radar.

[ParamountKeymaster]

Sure enough, Evan also spotted the familiar face on the roof, excitedly grinning up at her after dicing a few more worms. "Hey, Nat!!!"

After calling out to her, though, he noticed that she seemed... distressed about something. Of course, this quickly served to remind him that the city was still under attack and this wasn't exactly the best time for a reunion. Bearing that in mind, Evan shouted, "Hey, we'll talk later, okay?! Gotta kill these things!" Then he charged into the fray again, finishing off a wave of the creatures in one sweeping motion of his fiery keyblade.

"NONONONONONONONO!!!" One powerful, concentrated burst of lightning later, the six-foot snake and the corpse it was feeding off of were charred and burned beyond recognition. Patrick stood there petrified for a moment, genuinely feeling bad for that poor victim, then he spastically shook himself off and zapped a few more creatures still lingering about.

He looked to the sky, noticing that Ace was headed east. He wasn't sure how far she was intending to go, but he figured he should head that way regardless. Sure, they were trying to divide and conquer, but he still wanted to be relatively close to her to watch her back should she need it.

[ThePopcornFairy]

Up until that point, it had taken a great amount of effort for Natalie to conceal her rattled nerves. Now her fears were plainly evident on her face. Seeing Evan and Swift made it abundantly clear where she was. She wanted to be happy to see them, even in light of the tragedy going on around them, but all she could think about was the crushing reality of this situation...

If she was here... on Dimensional Island... then what was going on back home? Without the Blue Star, her universe was...

"OHHHHH... NOOOOO...!!!"

Natalie rocketed into the sky in panic, starlight coursing through and around her as she frantically resumed shooting at every worm she eagle-eyed. Now more than ever, she was desperate to end this madness. It was too late for her to leave without seeing this through. She had to kill these pests, she had to do it NOW, and then she had to GET THE HECK OUT OF HERE!!!

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Hm. She's worked up," Swift muttered to herself, not that this was anything new. "Well, if she just got here, I guess this is a lot to process."

Again putting that aside for the time being, Swift jumped back into the fight, hardly deterred, fired up in more ways than one, and ready to cut through as many of these worms that were thrown at her.

----------

An hour passed. Then another. To some it felt dreadfully longer. To Swift, it barely felt like any time at all. But by the time high noon had reached the island, things FINALLY started to calm down. The shrill echoes of the angry creatures and the cries of the terrified public had grown silent. As she surveyed the streets, Swift found no sign of any stragglers. It had taken a great deal of effort, but at long last, it seemed like the worms were gone.

With a deep breath, Swift made her way out into the Plaza. Happy as she was to help, she was honestly glad that it was over. Not to mention that it was completed rather quickly and cleanly if she did say so herself. Given how horrible things started out, that could've been a LOT worse.

"Okay... So that's a thing that just happened," she sighed, looking up and nervously taking note of the red cloud still lingering above them.

[ParamountKeymaster]

"WHEW..."

Sweaty and exhausted, Evan trudged over to the Plaza to meet up with Swift. He too looked grateful that the action had finally wrapped up, but very much aware that this didn't mean it was over. He looked up, then down, then at Swift, panting all the while. "Yeah. That was, uh... That was intense..."

Placing the Master Morning Star back in his strife deck, Evan rubbed his arm where he had taken a pretty nasty bite and said, "I would've thought I'd be used to sudden, unexpected threats rearing their ugly heads without warning, especially on this island, but that was... I don't know what that was. Not only did that come completely out of nowhere, but... I don't think I've ever dealt with anything quite like it."

He looked up again, smirking at the blue light descending upon them. "And speaking of coming out of nowhere..."

[ThePopcornFairy]

"GUYS!!!"

Natalie swooped in and landed in front of Evan and Swift, stumbling for a minute before she regained her footing. Up close, it was clear that she was greatly disheveled and exhausted, not to mention on the cusp of completely losing her mind. Before either of her companions had the chance to speak up, she hastily beat them to it, stammering in her usual manner whenever she tried to speak quickly or for extended periods of time...

"Guys, okay, i-it's not that I'm not happy to see you, 'cause I am. I-I have NO idea WHAT those things are or WHY I'm here, a-and I'm happy to help you guys, but seriously, H-HOW DO I GET HOME?!"