Crappy Stories That Sometimes Rock

Gunsmith: powerless vigilante, primarily uses dual revolvers or pistols but is a skilled marksman in most firearms. Wears a bandana to cover the lower half of her face with a flame design and a wide brimmed white cowboy hat. Two cross chest bullet belts.

Walkman: powered vigilante. Can generate disks of concentrated energy from there wrists. Wears neon green rimmed sunglasses, large over ear headphones, bright multi color hoodie and pants.

The Kind Stranger: powerless vigilante. Fights primarily hand to hand wielding meat shredding claws, or with a baseball bat. Dressed with a full face mask and goggles, brown and black striped hoodie. Skilled in taking any object into his hand and using it as an effective weapon. Started it all.

King: powerless vigilante. A massive 7 feet tall man, completely ripped, wearing a full body bulletproof armor powered by an advanced hydraulics system designed to look similar to a stereotypical space marine. Voice is modulated to be very deep and bass boosted. To really describe SpaceKing think a mix of a space marine and a medieval knight. His armor is completely silver, no color at all, the headpiece resembling more of a knight’s helmet than a space marine. No one has seen him without the helmet on. He wields a war hammer powered by the same hydraulic system.

Senior Pastor Rodrick Tartalgia; powerless (?) villain. Mega church pastor, possible mind altering abilities. Turned his congregation into an armed, loyal blind faith militia before joining with the government. In charge of the Conditioning Department

Hitch: neutral villain. A serial killer who targets civilians cause it’s easy, and cops/soldiers cause it’s fun. Crosses paths with the heroes on occasion, never caught. Likes wearing wedding tuxedos. 

Private: Unknown. Appears to be a modern US Army Soldier, Private Rank. Face is completely covered in bloodstained bandages. Uniform shows fire damage and bullet wounds. Frequently seen before government labs are destroyed. Armed with a standard rifle (with bayonet), pistol, trench shovel, and combat knife. 

Franklin Zimmerman: Powered Villain. An immortal nazi scientist working in the US Government enhanced soldiers program. Working to create super powers

WallGuard: Powered Villain. First successful enhanced solider. Unbreakable skin and bones, super strength, and a blind loyalty to the government. Happy and willing to enforce the fascist regime.

Color Guard: powerless vigilante. She modified her rifle to be fully functional for fire, as well as enhanced to be used as a blunt weapon. Expert engineer, loves working to make new weapons and tech for crew. 

Dr Timothy Reeves and CAIN: Dr Reeves is the creator and moderator of the CAIN (Central Artificial Intelligence Network) an advanced sentient AI directing all intelligence gathering and military operations. Reeves either vetos or approves all CAIN decisions to avoid singularity

Alloy and Solomon: Alloy is a robot created by Reeves and CAIN modeled after the core heroes to duplicate their abilities and fighting styles. Solomon is a demon summed by Zimmerman and Pastor Rodrick to do the same.

Skippy: formerly powered hero, turned villain once the fascists were no longer in charge. Joined a criminal underworld with Jennifer Rockridge. Has two main abilities, near omnipotent senses and reflexes and teleportation. Only joined the heroes to kill fascists. Skippy has a very flashy fashion style. Usually wearing some designer sunglasses, a flowy and colorful overcoat, some kind of necklace, graphic T-shirt, big torn jeans(or patchwork jeans). He can teleport, but he still wants to be seen when he does.

Blue Queen: Real name(?) Jennifer Rockridge. a Omnitelemorph. Basically any mental power, she's got it. Mind reading, mind control, telekinesis, etc. Runs a criminal underground. Was unnoticed by the fascist government because of her abilities.

Adam: former grunt soldier. Kicked into a vat of expiramental nanomachines that assimilated his body, but was taken over by his mind. Body comprised by nanomachines allowing adaptive shifting and can control any machine. Grudge against Kind Stranger. It was the Kind Stranger who turned him into this abomination. So his base resting form resembles the Stranger, but it's a constant fluidity of the swarming machines.

Vaquero Muerte: Powered Hero. Appeared when the fascist government attempted an invasion on Mexico, showed up in Texas. Dressed in a black wedding tuxedo decorated with neon candy skull iconography. His hat is a black flat top cowboy hat with a ring of bones around the brim. For special occasions he wears a typical black, red, and god mariachi uniform with a flat brimmed white hat with silvler tassels across the whole brim. All skin covered in skeleton makeup that has candy skull colors. In the dark this paint glows brightly.Necromancer. He’s got enhanced strength and speed, may or may not actually already be dead. Bilingual. Can summon and revive dead people, as well as have complete control over them. Used his undead army to stop the invasion of Mexico. He's got a skeleton friend who's always with him named Nacho who's got a full head of perfect jet black hair in a pompadour that he constantly maintains.  He wears a white t-shirt and blue jeans, and snakeskin boots. Nacho is purely a comedic character.

MVP: genetic experiment to create the perfect propaganda tool. A "perfect athlete" made to excel in any sport for America. Genetic code weakness turned him into an undead remnant. Dressed in football pads, football helmet with hokey goalie helmet underneath. Strong, fast, using sports equipment.

Colt Wesson: powered villain. Calls himself a Gun mage. Can summon and control firearms and ammunition. Runs a firearm manufacturing business and rose to power during the fascist government’s take over. Kept his business and power after the fall, supports the Blue Queen.

Blitz: powered villain. Formerly a fascist experiment, given super speed by government scientists, happily employed as a government weapon. Status after fascist fall is unknown

The Demon Waves: a group of three villainous demons who exist/control Radio Waves, Television Waves, and the Internet. They do not like each other. 

Radio: Harlan F.M.

TV: Fox Direct

Internet: Bing P.N.

The Three Men: The Hat Man, The Dream Man, and The Smiling Man. Three otherworldly entities with unknown allegiance and power. Based on their known folklore equivalents.

Johnny Lynch: Real name Simon Billows. Hero.  Resurrected Lynch victim given the ability to control ropes, trees, fire, and summon various lynch mob weapons (bats, pitchforks, etc.) Wears the noose around his neck as a forever symbol for his victims (racists and sundown town members) remember why he’s hunting them. 

Pastor: a Pastor gets killed by government agents. He dies with so much rage that his soul goes to a pocket dimension where he makes a pair of gloves that give him the ability to go beat up the Devil and God for making his life hell. resurrects himself and joins the heroes. Gloves have turned his arms (up to the elbow) and legs (up to the knee) gold. even his clothes have the gold coloring. 

Hunger: a young woman with long, sharp and hard claws, a mouth full of sharp teeth, incredible strength, speed and inability to feel pain. Woke up one morning with a deep hunger, ate her family. On the run with The Beast

The Beast: a young man with robotic claw hands, mouth and jaw replaced with a robotic mouth and jaw with sharp teeth. Incredibly strong, fast, and brutal. Created in a lab, escaped and on the run with The Hunger.

"It wasn't log after the inauguration that the marches began. People I was raised to believe were the worst of the worst proudly gathered together and overtaking the streets of the city I call home. I can't just sit back and watch, if I do it would only get worse." - The Kind Stranger, recounting how his heroism began

It felt like it was as fast as one day to the next. Peaceful living, simple life problems, to bigots overtaking the country. Proud Boys and Nazis marched the streets without opposition from the authorities, until they became the authorities.

For some this didn't change much. For the lucky few they were unaffected, because they looked the same and they kept their head down. Aaron Trent was not one of those people.

Aaron Trent was not anyone special. He was a normal man, married with one child in the midst of a rocky separation working a basic office job. What he had was a heart for his fellow people.

"Citizenship documents at the ready!" An ICE Officer barks out outside the transit station. The cultural cleansing had been going on for months, these status check points were unnecessary. This was the final straw.

There was only three ICE Officers, their uniforms adorned with the US Flag, the ICE department logo, and on their wrists were red and white arm bands, and the easily identifiable red symbol of their hatred bold and center. Only three, Trent was one guy, one normal guy, but he had to do something.

The Officer's hadn't seen him yet, so his opportunity was ripe. Tucking around a corner he gets ready. Adorning black gloves, a full face mask, goggles, and hoodie to protect his identity he prepares to start what cannot be stopped. Revolution.

"Hey!" A shout from behind startles him, with a quick turn of his heel Trent swings a punch, connecting solidly with the jaw of the Officer that followed him. CRACK the officer goes down to the floor hard. It's begun.

Trent rushes out of the corner to the other two officers, in the middle of cuffing an innocent man while his family begs for his release. He runs in with a jumping punch, knocking the nearest officer to the ground.

Acting fast, the man in cuffs spins out of the officers grip and take his own swing, knocking his assailant back. Trent jumps in, wrapping the officer in a tight hold.

"Get him now!" Trent shouts at the man who happily obliges, swinging with all his might until the officer is out cold.

"Who are you?" The man asks as Trent tosses the lifeless body to the side.

"I'm uh...just a kind stranger. Here to make sure people like this return to being scared to be proud and people like you live free. I'm just trying to spread some kindness. "

"Thanks man. Kind stranger."

"Get home with your family safe okay? I'm sure more will be coming soon if these bigots don't check in."

The man nods, rushing off with his family.

Trent looks down at the unconscious officers by his feet, running through the actions in his head again.

The soft beeps of the monitoring equipment fills the otherwise silent room. Denim and Tress lay upon the cushioned medical beds, tubes and wires attached to their graphically glitched bodies monitoring their fluctuating vitals. Liz stands by Denim’s bed, her hand resting on his shoulder.

“I may not fully understand what's going on with you two, and I don't think Hood does either this time…which knowing my husband with practically infinite knowledge of all reality is clueless is not helping my anxiety…” she sighs looking down at the two young boys she welcomed into her home.

Beth, walks into the room with Tracey close behind her. The three sisters share a silent nod.

“How are they doing?” Tracey asks.

Liz frowns “their condition is…as stable as it can be I guess…how are Justin and Stephan doing with finding their source universe?”

“They are struggling, finding a completely different universe outside our own multiverse with no real direction is a bigger challenge than Hood or Aaron realized. Getting into a video game universe is easy in comparison to a completely different reality.”

“Hm, okay maybe it’s a bit of a long shot cause I don’t really get all the multiverse stuff like you two do cause…well Aaron’s not that kind of hero, but would it be possible to find the universe by trying to find their ‘Hood’?” Beth pipes in.

“That….might work actually. “ Liz gently squeezes Denim’s shoulder “My husband should be able to detect a….him…in another multiverse if it exists, and that should help the boys make a device to send them there.”

“M…mom?” Denim grumbles “I. I feel something…”

Liz furrows her brow in worry “what? What do you feel?”

Denim turns to face her, his eyes filled with a deep blue, with strange white symbols floating through “someone….coming in…”

Liz takes a step back slowly “Beth, go run and tell Hood your idea…now…”

Tracey steps up to the bed, her eyes dark. “Liz, go ahead and go with her. I’ll keep an eye on these two”

Liz looks up as shadows slowly fill the room, her sister’s powers taking affect “right. I trust you. Beth, let’s go”

Beth nods “Hood and Aaron are currently at the Thrift Shop, that big one that kinda just popped up when the world reset, I know a quick way to get there.”

“Good, lead the way sis.”

“Stay safe you two” Tracey speaks from the side of her mouth, her gaze fully focused on the boys.

“You too” Beth sends the final word as she and Liz leave. Tracey steps closer to Denim, her expression blank and serene with her eyes of complete darkness.

“So, who do you think you are? Trying to overtake my nephews?”

Tress laughs, in a voice that is not his own. His voice was deep, echoed and littered with static “oh mother of darkness, what comes is not anything anyone in this reality could be prepared for. I have no name yet for I have no identity. I am but an error upon the fabric of this reality. A misplaced line of code in what you know as existence. And I am only going to spread until my line is complete”

“Hm. Yeah alright, I don’t think so. Sorry boys, it’s going to be lights out for a while”

….

“What do you mean you cant get the door open? None of your magic works on it?” Aaron and Hood stood outside the medical room. Small whisps of dark shadows seep from under the door frame.

“Firstly, it’s not magic you know that. Secondly my UNIVERSAL GALACTIC powers currently have no affect on this darkness. Tracey is doing something in there that I can’t even comprehend. The darkness has reached a metaphysical state”

“Nerd. So what do we do?”

“Well…we go by Beth’s plan for now. I try and find myself in the boy’s source universe and Justine and Stephan make a portal there for us.”

“Man, still can’t believe you can’t just blast the door open”

“Oh shut up, why don’t you just claw it open then?”

“Oh! Oh let me try!”

“Wait no”

Before Hood could stop him, Aaron rushes at the door and slashes, only to get blasted back by a wall of darkness.

“Ow.”

---

Feels good to be back

Denim and Tress belong to @gkatte

It was a rain filled Tuesday night. Hood sat on his front porch, out looking his forest home. The sounds of the native animals of the woods, among some other, less natural creatures filling the night. He sighs, he knows he is meant to be inside with his wife, sleeping.

"What are you doing bro?" Aaron walks up to the front porch and takes a seat next to him.

"I'm thinking Aaron. About how our lives got to how they are. And if we even deserved it. I know we both love what we became. But do we deserve it. Don't we deserve to grow up with our brothers. To live normal lives?"

"You tell me Hood. You have seen the infinite multiverse. There must be worlds were we are normal. What are they like?"

"In those worlds, we are dead. In most versions everyone is. The World needs us like this. It needs a Hood, and a God Killer. "

"And our brothers?"

"You already know the answer to that. They never change. In those worlds were we die, they don't. I've seen one were they become us. Stephan takes my hood, Justin allows himself to become you. Fur and all."

Aaron chuckles "He's such a furry"

"Yup. And my little bro is apparently an edge lord"

Aaron laughs. "I miss the little guys. They are seventeen now right?"

"Yup. Tracey threw a huge party for there birthday last month. Where were you again?"

"Budapest. A Group 100 training facility was found so me, Hero, and Kujo took it down."

"You did get Justin something when you got back right?"

"I gave him the main general's coat from that training facility, blood stains, badges and all. He loved it, Tracey did not"

Hood laughs "Typical. I got Stephan a brand new science kit. The boys are trying to use science to open multidimensional portals. They refuse to use their magic to do it"

"Well look at me, I was made from science. You from magic. It's only natural for them to master both"

"And at some point they will" Hood removes his hood, his yellow eyes shining in the night. Aaron shakes some water off of his fur

"Damn rain. Why is it always either raining or super foggy here?"

Hood smirks "I made it that way. Helps keep it hidden."

Aaron rolls his eyes "Except for when people notice it's always raining and foggy."

"When they do, and they won't, I'm not afraid. You never found this place, I had to show you"

“Well ladies, gentlemen, and all other beautiful listeners it seems we are back online. Such insane events like the world ending and restarting in between the span of an hour is just the life we live in a world of heroes. Welcome back to 103.3 JJBA Radio, I’m your host, the One of Many Names and it’s another beautiful day”

The radio continues to softly play in the background as Curly enters his forest home. He raises an eyebrow, he doesn’t remember leaving the radio on when he left. That eyebrow and the other quickly raise as he hears a can fall in the kitchen.

He walks as softly and quietly as a man of his size could towards the kitchen, carefully taking his axe out of its holster on his back and brandishing it as he slowly enters the kitchen.

Standing, no no more like crouching in his kitchen eating a ham and cheese sandwich was a girl, with messy brown hair, brown cat ears and tail, wearing a dirty little blue sundress with a beautiful yellow flower design. She had no shoes and was showing her fuzzy cat feat and claws. She looks up to him midbite.

“Uhm…” Curly looks down at her confused “so the hell are you?”

“Oh well big guy, what’s it to yah?” Replied the little gremlin cat girl.

“Girl this is my house. How did you even get in here?”

“Door was unlocked”

“Damn it. Who are you?”

“Names Stacey. And what’s your name mr tree guy?”

“Tree guy”

“Dude you are as big as a tree. Yeah I’m calling you tree guy”

Curly sighs, putting his axe back in its holster “my name is Curly”

“Ohhhh really now?” She croons “So Curly, you single?”

“You can’t be serious right now?”

“Tree guy im very serious. No way I’m gonna pass you up, you’re huge and could probably just carry me everywhere with ease. You’d be a perfect boyfriend”

“Get the hell out of my house”

“Make me” she teases with a smirk and sticking her tongue out.

He narrows his eyes and steps towards her. She lunges at him and quickly climbs onto his back and clings on tightly. He sighs and reaches around, grabbing the back of her dress, she responds by clinging tighter, digging her claws into his back. He sighs again.

“Mine” she says, giving him a light smooch on his cheek.

He rolls his eyes “fine whatever. Do I still have enough ham and cheese to make myself a sandwich?”

“Yeah, but don’t worry I’ll make one for you. Carry me to the fridge”

“Please.”

“Ugh fine, please carry me to the fridge”

“Better” he smirks, walking over to the fridge. She lets go and hops off his back “just ham and cheese?”

“What all do I have in there? It’s been a while and I’ve forgotten what I’ve got in my fridge”

“Uh….I see a couple cooked steaks, some other cheeses that I have never even heard of, a head of lettuce, some tomatoes, cucumbers, sliced roast beef, mushrooms, and it looks like a hot link”

“Yes.” Curly simply replies.

“Yes? To what?”

“All of it.”

“Make you a sandwich…with everything?”

“Yes please. You can have one too”

“I just met you and I think I’m in love”

“Don’t push it Stacey “

….

Professor and Detective walked the streets of Salsburg Square, a city they’ve only seen glimpses of in the mindscape, but now were in fully.

“So Doc, you ever thought this day would come?”

“What? That we would be here, or that this world would ever be brought back at all?”

“Well” Detective stops to ponder “both I guess “

“No. No to both. I anticipated that this world would be forgotten forever, left to the realm of forgotten works under Andrew’s watch deep in the archives, I’m thankfully wrong”

The duo stops as Uncle Sam, the patriotic eagle robot approaches them. It grins and waves kindly “ah! You two must be Detective and Professor. Vet told me about you two, he was very impressed with your skills and teamwork. I’m Uncle Sam! One of his robotic creations.”

“You are probably the most horrifyingly American thing I’ve ever seen” Professor grimaces.

“Oh! Yeah Vet was trying to get back into a friendly relationship with the US government after he absolutely demolished Florida’s orange harvest one year, so he made me as like an American hero or something. In the end I ended up staying this way cause I liked the theme.”

“Uh huh. What can we do for you bud?” Detective asks, getting bored with the conversation.

“Oh! Well more what I can do for you two! Vet wants me to give you two a tour of this world. The important parts at least. He thinks you guys, uh egos right? You guys are gonna be important to this world so you should know where everything is!”

“Hm. Fair enough. Thank you.” Professor replies “when do we start?”

“We can start now if you’d like?”

“Yes please” Detective quickly answers.

“Awesome, let’s go!”

Sam grabs both of them by the back of their jackets and launches off into the sky, to the absolute despair of the duo. Their world adventure just begun.

———

————

“Alright Aaron take my hand” Hood reaches out his hand.

“No homo right?” Aaron smirks.

“Ah don’t worry about it, our story never got popular enough for people to ship us” Stalin interjects.

Hood narrows his eyes at Satlin “thanks for that I guess, now shut up Aaron and just take my hand. It can be full homo of it means you just shut up and do it”

Aaron laughs “ok ok, full homo lets do this” and takes Hood’s hands.

“Our wives are gonna kill us” Hood groans as his scar glows “alright. Let’s take a look at our home”

To the outside perspective, Hood and Aaron stood there, motionless with glowing eyes, hands tightly intertwined, but the duo were actually scanning through the entire world in an instant. They traversed every mountain range, took count of every living and nonliving entities that now populated their reality, visited locations new and old. Suddenly Hood’s eyes flashed back to normal and with a gasp he lets go of Aaron.

“The boys! Denim! Tress!” Hood shouts, snapping Aaron out of the trance “they...you two!” He points to Satlin and Nitishino “what’s wrong with them?!”

Satlin takes on a puzzled expression momentarily before realization takes hold “they weren’t from the original Tenaria, they were guests. “

Nitishino turns to Hood “what? Whats wrong with them?”

Hood turns to the furry God with a furious rage in his eyes “what’s wrong with them? Oh buddy, ask me that again” Hood snaps his fingers and summons the two young boys before them. Denim and Tress, the two adopted sons of both Hood and Aaron, visitors from another reality who found themselves suddenly under the care of the two greatest heroes this reality knows. They now stood before their guardians, old and new, haggard and worn. Their colorful outfits dull, their bodies covered in seemingly graphical glitches. They looked unstable, ill, and tired.

Nitishino gasps “Satlin what the hell happened to them and how do we fix it?”

Satlin sighs “like I was explaining…. They were never natives to our reality, so when it was deleted and now rebooted...they got...corrupted. WE can’t fix them because the solution requires traveling to their source reality and collecting a sample of their unique core to fix the corruption. The two of us can’t go, like the rest of the Old Gods we are bound to this place now, this Headscape. But you two” He points to Hood and Aaron, “You two can visit their reality and get that core”

Hood nods “alright, fair enough. Will there be versions of us already there?”

“Likely. These two came to our world because of the connection to our creators. You guys might already be there”

Curly steps into the group “so will you two head out now to this…other reality?”

Hood sighs “honestly I don’t even know HOW to get there. I’ve traveled to other universes in our own multiverse, but never left our multiverse.”

Satlin raises a smug eyebrow “not you exactly, but there existed a version of you and Aaron who traveled outside our multiverse to a game called Undertale. With Justin and Stephan’s help”

Hood and Aaron immediately turn to look at Justin and Stephan. The young brothers looking confused before Justin sighs “alright fine we’ll see what we can make. Can we just go home and say hi to our mom and Hail first?”

“Well, yeah of course” Aaron replies “we’re busy, not monsters”

———

“Wait wait, the rest of the cast?” Justin asks, obvious confusion with a hint of aggravation in his voice “what rest of the cast?” He steps closer to the Old God who had already turned away and started to wander off, looking up to the towers. He turns back with a raised eyebrow and light smirk.

“Oh come on kid, you know your creation history. The Old Gods were a pretty big group, I’m only one of them. And uh...look around bud this world is pretty damn empty. So, what the hell do you think I mean by rest of the cast?”

“Be nice Mildred” Ausham walks into view from the dust, his mask adding to the smoke in the air.. He sighs as he approaches and drops his cricket bat. “Listen carefully boys, I don’t have much time here before my replacement takes over okay? They are nice and all, but this change is out of our control.”

Justin and Stephan carefully approach the Old God of Creativity. He sighs, the smoke from his mask stopping, and snowflakes instead begin to fall out.

“Oh look, it’s beginning” Ausham groans “look, your world is being...rebooted. Reborn. The Glitch Angel? Yeah that’s a story arc for later, you all have some rebuilding to do first. All us Old Gods will come back, and change, our replacements taking over. They’ll still be the Old Gods, and some...will be faces you recognize so be ready. Tenaria, this whole world is being put into a new realm. It won’t be stand alone anymore. Boys, welcome to the Mindscape. Soon the Thrift Shop will appear in this world, then the Studio, the Factory, the Carnival and the Wall will all be here, spread across your world. Be ready, some new threats are coming with all this as well.”

Justin nods, steely determination in his eyes. Stephan nods as well, anxiety and worry filling his expression.

Snow begins to fall around Ausham, soon a little lantern lit by a single candle and adorned with holly and wreath appears beside him, floating in the air. Ausham lets out a content sigh “I must say, my replacement? They remind me of good memories.”

With a flurry of snow and a distinct smell of pine and nutmeg Ausham disappears, in hs place stands Carol, dressed in a dark blue and silver pinstripe jacket, silver waistcoat, dark blue shirt gold tie and dark blue and silver pinstripe pants with dark blue shoes. Utop their head was a dark blue top hat with a silver band and three gold snowflakes adorning the side and in their hand a dark blue umbrella with a silver hook handle. They smile kindly as their mere presence brings color back to the drab world.

“Ah, hello boys! Let’s return this world to its former glory shall we?” Carol winks and holds out their hand “come, take my hand”

Stephan and Justin look at each other pensively before reaching out and grabbing Carol’s hand. Carol smiles wide as a massive flurry of snow bursts forth, and spreads across the world, returning the life to the barren and empty world. Slowly around them, the Old Gods returned and changed into their new forms.

The Bridge of Two watched in wonder as the Old Gods came and changed, the Golden Angel becoming a grizzled Detective with a fire of justice in his hear, the neon DJ becoming a four armed Chef, and most notably the hooded man in the black suit becoming a familiar face, the giant lumberjack with the black and white afro they called brother, and…

“CURLY???” Justin and Stephan, in typical Justin and Stephan fashion shout out Curly’s name together and rush over, clinging to their large tree felling friend with tight hugs. Curly looks down, shock and awe fill his face, as well as tears as he scoops the duo up into his arms and squeezes “boys! Oh boys you are okay! Wait, how are you….I’m back! You two were always fine but I’m finally back!”

“Yes you are” Hood replies walking in from the blizzard surrounding them with Aaron at his side. They looked different from before they left. Hood’s hair was longer, his sharp teeth all golden and his hood was ragged, with leather straps wrapped around both his arms. Aaron no longer had any jacket and was completely shirtless, his chest and arms covered in more new scars and his metal bone hands no longer wrapped in bandages, his hair also longer.

Justin and Stephan look at their weary, life torn brothers with melancholic love. Curly slowly sets Justin and Stephan down and looks at the two former world heroes, remembering the long journey they faced when Tenaria was deleted before reaching the Mindscape and joining the Egos.

“Ah! You two made it!” Carol smiles “good, there is something important you two need to do to complete this world.”

“Hm? Yeah what?” Aaron asks, stretching for no real reason.

“Well, you two were very important characters in this world, but you are Old Gods now...but this world still needs Hood and Aaron.” Carol begins to explain.

“Yeah we’re still Hood and Aaron” Hood replies.

“Uhm...heres the thing. You can’t be.” Carol looks a bit pensive to explain, “you can’t be both Old Gods and World Heroes. You need to remake yourselves, make a new Hood and Aaron.”

“Or!” Aaron interjects “we just make ourselves again from before Tenaria got deleted. Like, duplicate ourselves. “

“Ok, but what will happen to us? There can’t just be two Hood’s running around and I’d rather not be known as a God named Johnathan. “

“Well, how about our last names? Satlin and Nitishino.” Nitishino, formerly known as Aaron, replies.

“Uhm...yeah that's better I guess.” Satlin, formerly known as Hood answers.

Carol smiles “excellent! I’m almost done bringing this world back to it’s proper orientation, I’ve dropped in the Thrift Shop, Carnival, Studio, Factory, and Wall into their places, uh returned the little pocket dimensions Tenaira and the Underworld as they were all that’s left is you two.”

Satlin nods, and closes his eyes, his face scar begins to glow as glowing symbols form on his and Nitishino’s body before slowly peeling off and fluttering before them, condensing and grouping together into two humanoid forms before solidifying into Hood and Aaron, the heroes of Tenaria.

“Uhm..wow that was..” Hood blinks a few times before looking and seeing Satlin and Nitishino before him, and Aaron at his side. “Uh….”

“Wow! We look like shit!” Aaron shouts without any hesitation.

“Ha! Damn right we do!” Nitishino replies.

“Nitishino no.” Satlin rolls his eyes.

“Yup, it’s you two alright. Except now it’s four” Curly groans and shakes his head. Alright, now what?”

“Now?” Carol smiles “these two,” they point at Hood and Aaron, “need to go and make sure their world is as it should be. Whatever’s out of place or different they can let us know!”

“World survey?” Hood asks “that’s what we got to do first? What about the Glitch Angel? The coming destruction??”

“Buddy, it came and went” Satlin replies.

Hood stares at Satlin for a few moments, “right, you are proof.”

Chapter 1: Tenaria Falls

It seems just like a minute ago the heroes were gathering to fight the big threat to reality, and now the world is empty. Justin and Stephan are the only lives left in an empty world.

“Bro...what happened?” Justin asks, shrugging a dusty support beam off his shoulder

“Not sure, as far as I remember we were in our lab looking up how to defeat the Glitch Angel and now, it’s just us” Stephan replies.

“Stephan...where is our world? Our life, and family?”

“I...I don’t know”

They stood, in the middle of Salsburg Square, the trees of the garden park all a dull dying orange. The tall buildings surrounding, formerly bright and shining, now dull and ruined, as if a wall of dust had crashed against them all. Truly most disconcerting to the boys was the lack of a big glass enclosure meant to be in the center of the square.

“Justin, this...is impossible. Where’s Vet? Clearly, some sort of world-ending event happened, but I don’t see Vet in his trap. That’s impossible.” Stephan’s voice trembled in fear “where is everyone?”

“They’re all gone.” a voice, distant and muffled calls out to them, “this project has been discontinued”

Justin and Stephan turn to face the source of the voice and see a figure approach them. It appeared to be a lifesize drawing mannequin being moved by some unknown source. As it got closer, Justin and Stephan witnessed details being magically drawn onto the figure, transforming it from a mannequin to a man with half of his face a simple sketch and parts of his body erased. His leather jacket covered in patches, and his hair a mess to match his tired eyes.

“Parsure?” Justin asks “wait, you are an Old God, does this mean you guys failed to defeat the Glitch Angel?”

“No, this...all this...was not from the Glitch Angel” Parsure replies, the Old God sighs “this project, Tenaria, was canceled. “

“Canceled? What are we in a TV show?” Stephan asks, scratching his head.

“What? No. This is just a mediocre story online.” Parsure replies “not many even read it”

“What? What does this mean then? Will we cease to exist?” Stephan asks again, panic definitely setting in.

“Well...no I don’t think so? I mean if you were to do that it would have happened already. Uhm...look I don’t have much time here anymore, this world, this project is getting a reboot, changes are coming and you won’t quite understand them at first but just trust me, it’ll probably maybe make sense” Parsure steps back, the erasures over his body spreading and covering him completely until he reverts back into the mannequin form. Then, like magic a new form takes place.

The Old God that stood before the duo stood slouched lightly, with chestnut brown hair, shaved at the sides and the top swooped to the side and long, it had a thick bushy mustache and brown glasses and wore a white tshirt with the emblem of two axes crossed in black. In its hand was a bottle of whiskey and its eyes looked even more tired than before.

“P...Parsure?” Justin steps forward.

“Nah. Names Mildred, I’m the replacement. Don’t worry, the rest of the cast is coming.”

————

It seems just like a minute ago the heroes were gathering to fight the big threat to reality, and now the world is empty. Justin and Stephan are the only lives left in an empty world.

“Bro...what happened?” Justin asks, shrugging a dusty support beam off his shoulder

“Not sure, as far as I remember we were in our lab looking up how to defeat the Glitch Angel and now, it’s just us” Stephan replies.

“Stephan...where is our world? Our life, and family?”

Deep in the Tenaria Forest exists the legend of the Tall Spirit, a mysterious ghostly entity who protects all creatures of the forests, from the tall trees to the smallest mouse. Because Curly spends all his time in the forest, many ask if he’s seen the specter, how he’s managed to cut down trees without invoking it’s wrath. 

Curly would entertain their questions but be adamant that there is no creature like that in the woods. He'd do his best to explain and prove it, but no one would believe him. He appreciated it, because he was the Tall Spirit. It was this very forest where he got his strength, and so it would be this forest he’d protect. 

French to English translation“Can I suggest this? Otherwise, feel free to ignore it. But I thought what would happen if instead of Justin and Stephan, Issabel met Curly? How would that be with the basically unlimited power of Curly and all?”

CRASH

Another bookshelf tumbles over as Mildred chases after the mysterious little being WHOS been harassing the egos for weeks now.

“I swear I’ll catch you!”