The Amazing Digital Ocs au
[Sorry about the poster for this one. Mental health wasn't good but I've kept you waiting long enough]
[Minor gore warning for this chapter]
Cactina had retreated to the sanctuary of her room, collapsing into a nest of tangled ivy. Above her, the ceiling acted as a dark, distorted mirror, reflecting her silhouette against the gloom. The room was shrouded in shadow, save for the rhythmic, insistent knocking at her door.
She didn't need to guess who it was. She glanced to the door as the unlocked knob turned. Prickley stepped inside, his posture rigid, his movements heavy with a cautious, lingering tension. Cactina didn't move, her eyes drifted back to remain fixed on the ceiling.
"I don't have a problem with his adventures," she murmured, her voice hollow. "Why did they have to bring that up? All it did was upset him. I was fine."
She knew Prickley couldn't find the words to ask what was truly wrong, but she knew exactly why he had come.
"Itās alright to have problems, you cant control that." Prickley said softly, his voice trembling slightly as he searched for the words. He did his best to navigate the dark gloom of her bedroom.
Cactina stiffened, her frustration simmering. "They didn't have to upset Caine."
Prickley fell silent for a long moment, the air heavy between them. "Cactina... you know Caine would never hurt us, right?"
Cactinaās silence was sharp. "You don't know that."
Cactina snips "ai with full control over everything."
Prickley hesitated. He knew better than anyone the deep-seated terror she harbored toward men and Caine was no exception. It didint help. Slowly, he reached out, resting his hand over hers. Cactina glanced at him, her expression a fragile mix of exhaustion and raw, unfiltered fear. Prickley studied the lines of her face, his heart aching as he recognized the depth of her anxiety.
They locked eyes, the silence stretching thin. until Prickley decided to break the tension. He blinks, and suddenly, his eyes drifted in two completely different directions, in a way that mimicked a ridiculous meme they had once shared. It was a total derp.
Cactina blinked, then let out a startled, breathless giggle. She always forgot he could do that. Prickley blinked hard, snapping his pupils back into alignment, He felt a wave of relief wash over him. even a small victory was a victory.
"You wanna go howl at the moon?" he asked, his tone lighter now.
Cactina let out a small, weary smile. "Itās been a minute since we played wolf. Sure. I bet she misses us."
Prickley moved to help her out of her garden bed. His little red tail wagging behind him. He was glad he successfully got her feeling better.
Caine manifested in the center of the stage room. With a snap of his fingers, all cast members were summomed to him. His Teeth were in a grin. Arms splayed wide. "Gather round, gather round my little half baked hazelnuts." He boomed. His voice laced with theatrical enthusiasm.
"I was saving this for a diffrent day but seeing as the last one was so short, you folks get a BONUS ROUND adventure. its going to be a classic team based trial. To shake things up, I've decided to employ a wheel."
His eyes boggled as a comically large wheel dropped in. Each players name was on it in slots of colors. Caine motions to the wheel. "I'm going to spin the wheel three times and that will be team A. That should make it easy to split the cast in half."
Tiktak chuckled. "Sure hope you plan on putting us back in one piece."
Pezzo grunts in the invisible hold. "Didint we literally just finish-"
Caine let out a brassy, hollow laugh that echoed a beat to long. Cutting pezzo off. "Oh Tiktak-you're hilarious. Ill do my best to keep the pieces."
Tiktak returned the laugh. Theirs a bit more nervous. Caine spins the wheel.
The wheel spun with a cartoonish electric whine. The names blurring into flickers of color, before snapping into place. first name, was gabba. Gabba was placed on his feet and stepped aside. Next was Tiktak. Tiktak joined the other. Seems as the wheel spun the pair were hoping to complete the set and get pezzo. But the wheel had other plans. Cactina's name was spun.
Gabbas shoulders slumped. Reaching out a longing hand for pezzo as cactina was placed down and skipped over. Pezzo returned the gesture. "Sorry Lil buddy. Were on opposite teams-I'm gonna crush you." He was joking of course. Tiktak glanced to cactina. Testing the waters. She seemed to have completely dropped whatever was bothering her before. "Well. This isint so bad. What are your strengths?"
Cactina looks up at them. "Im experienced."
Tik tak nods. Pressing their lips as they realize having cactina might be a cheat code. She's a hardened veteran of caines cahos. "Hey um..about dinner. I-"
Cactina put up a gloved finger to silence them. "It's alright."
The ringmaster deleted the wheel with the snap of his fingers before confetti exploded up into the air behind the groups. A title card appearing above their heads.
"Alright. Here we have the A team, consisting of gabba, tiktak, and cactina! and the B team! Consisting of ms brown, Prickley, and pezzo!"
He rolled his hat down his arm, catching it in his hand in an act of theatrics. "Today's adventure is: Zombie tag!"
There was a collective reaction of uncomfort at this. All except cactina. Who apparently loved the sound of that. She started bouncing.
"I'm going to drop you into the epicenter of a hyper realistic, irradiated cityscape, post nuclear wasteland chic, if you will. Your objectives are simple. Infect, or cure. One team will be doctors, armed with dart guns of the cure to the zombie virus. The other team will be zombies. Their goal is to tag the doctors, infecting them. The team that converts the other entirely wins."
"Why can't we all be doctors..?" Ms brown asked. "This sounds...awful."
Caines eyes spun around in his head, locking onto the bear before his body turned around with them to face her. "I could use npc zombies. But that's just so...meaningless. real humans? Your friends. People you know and care about? That's where the drama is. It's so much more interesting to have emotional stakes involved rather just generic ol zombies."
Pezzo stares. "dont zombies usually bite to infect people..?"
Caine let out a hallow laugh. Tapping his walking stick on pezzos head a bit more aggressively then he usually does for cactina. "That's funny. I don't remember some of you having a mouth-! So shut up."
Caine flew up above the group. Gesturing with his hands. "don't worry. I've made sure the zombie virus and darts are realistically painful. Its going to be very life like."
He then leaned in. "Also important to Remember: this virus doesn't just change your appearance. It rewires your perception. Don't take it personally if your fellow human tries to take a chunk out of your shoulder.-they aren't themselves! Now have fun!"
With a snap of caines fingers, the cast was suddenly sucked up into a portal. On the other side, the teams found themselves in the ruins of a metropolis. Crumbling buildings choked the grey sky and radiated plants thrived on every surface, reclaiming the landscape. The humans looked to one another. Slowly gathering wich teams were what.
Cactina peered down at her body. Quickly recognizing the symptoms of root rot. Her skin was yellowing and wrinkling into an unhealthy shade of mushy green. The symptoms crept slowly up from her potted foot and up her leg.
Prickley shrieks. "ITS THE A TEAM-!" before he moved to flee. Ms brown jolts and moves to shuffle her way into the nearest building to hide. She was not a runner. Pezzo was rooted to the spot as he watches his friends turn.
Gabba started to panic seeing cactina slowly start to decay before their eyes. He clutched his own head as his paper skin grew damp and moldy, peeling like wet wallpaper in places. He could feel the infection clawing at his mind. In his terror, he punctured a large hole in the side of his own mushy head, his scream was Muted. But pezzo could see it in his eyes. Gabba looked to him, trembling as he could feel himself slipping.
Tik tak watched as their wooden limbs began cracking and sprouting moss. Fungi bloomed from select places on their body. Their expression remained strangely calm as they watch. A coping mechanism perhaps.
"Heh. Hey check it out. I'm gonna be a mushroom zombie."
Pezzo replied. Trying to lighten the scene a bit. "Thats...that real cool man. Hang in there, I'll fix you guys right up-"
Gabbas shoulders bounced slightly. He was chuckling. Tik tak was kinda getting the coolest zombie design. A small light in the morbid scene.
Pezzo then turned. Forcing himself to flee. He had to if he wanted to keep his word. Assuming the doctors had to find the cure within the city somewhere. seemed kinda unfair they didint spawn with it. But whatever.
Ms brown shuffles through a ruined lobby of a hotel. Looking around for any possible hiding spots. She fled to the stairwell. It may not be the best option, but she knew better then to trust any elevator made by caine. Even in a functioning city. The elderly woman managed to climb all the way to the second floor before the stairs showed to be cut off. Clogged in debris and missing steps. Stepping out of the stairwell and curiously scavenging the rooms, she wanderedthe halls. Mostly just poking her head just beyond the entrance of each room. Most doors hung by rusted hinges or lay completely broken. Some were stubbornly locked and could probably be kicked in. But she didint have the force for that. She wasn't sure what she was looking for, but surely caine had hidden guns or at least some form of self defense around this map. He did mention something about darts.
As much as it hurt her to pull a trigger, she couldn't imagine what the A team were going through. Was it painful? It had to be. She had to find some way to fix them and fast. Hopefully the others are doing better then she was.
Each room she visited was either empty or full of nothing but rubble and junk. Occasionally she found a stocked mini bar and examined them for anything of interest. Nothing stood out as anything important.
Ivy and moss choked part of the hall, having been completly besieged. She avoids this area, fearing the floor may be rotted.
Nearby, She found a room with a bed that had miraculously been untouched by time, and decided to take a rest. Laying down and catching her breath.
As she does this, her eyes wander to a wooden crate peeking out from behind the slightly ajar bathroom door. She gets up, opening the door and examining the crate.
The crate was large and sturdy, nailed shut.
She hatched an idea, moving to get behind the crate. Putting her wieght into pushing it. The wood inched across the carpet of the hotel room in a slow crawl. She was moving the crate to the next room, wich was missing part of the outer wall. Exposing the room to the outside.
She managed to heave the heavy crate twards the ledge. With a final, gutteral grunt, she sent it plumbitting. It struck the sidewalk below with a violent shattering into splinters, the sound echoing through the hallowed city like a gunshot.
The bear made her way back downstairs. Heading out to the open to retrieve her prize.
The crate had disintegrated into pieces. Scattering it's cargo across the grit. Nestled amongst the splinters were a pair of guns to choose from. Aswell as darts that glowed with a radioactive neon green light.
As she looked each gun over, she had no clue how to work either of them. There was a double barrel shotgun, and a uzi. They were alien to her. And terrifyingly complicated for someone who has never even seen a gun. Buried beneath all the glowing darts was a ammo belt and a stark white lab coat. She carefully dug this out. Looking it over. A text window popped up as she does.
"This lab coat is both fashionable and serves as useful armor. If you get tagged while wearing it, take the coat off before the virus reaches your skin, its a second chance."
She frowned. Eyeing the coat over. It looked far to small for her plush frame. But she tries it on. the coat ripples and grows like a living thing, molding itself around her body as if tailored for her. A small comfort.
"Oh sweet, you found something we can use." Pezzo had approached from behind.
Ms brown jumps at this. Nearly dropping her shotgun. She hadn't even heard him approach. "-yes. But i got no clue how to use these." She stammered. Her voice small against the stillness of the street.
Pezzo didint hesitate. He snatched the shotgun from her grip and loads a few glowing darts into the breech with a metallic click. Handing it to her. "Here, its easy. Point it at your target, and pull the trigger when you wanna shoot."
He picked up the uzi for himself. Feeding a dart into the chamber. The darts seem to just, fit whatever gun model they seem to have. As if the guns were designed specifically to house the cure, a convenience that felt almost rushed on caines part. He may or may not have just given them various gun models and a one size fits all ammunition. Pezzo wasnt complaining. He can work with this easily.
He slung the belt on over his shoulder. Loading it up with as many spare darts as it could hold. Even after loading up, the darts still made a sizeable pile on the sidewalk. It hadn't gotten any smaller. He made note of that.
"Kay, stick to me. You're not safe on your own-"
He didn't see Ms. Brown testing the use of the trigger without the use of fingers. She had unitentionally aimed the gun at pezzo, shot pezzos head clean off. it detached with a smooth pop and skittered across the pavement like a stray hockey puck, spinning wildly before vanishing into a storm drain with a hollow, quiet thunk.
Ms. Brown let out a panicked cry, her fabric fur practically standing on end.
Pezzoās body didn't flinch. It remained standing, hands outstretched in a attempt at a soothing gesture, He carefully set his Uzi down, the movement fluid and rhythmic.
From deep within the dark, dripping abyss of the sewer, his voice drifted up, muffled, distant, and oddly calm. "Itās okay! Iām fine! Weāre cartoons, remember? Physics is just a suggestion here. Maybe I shouldāve been more detailed about the 'don't-shoot-your-teammates' part of gun safety..."
Ms. Brown was trembling. Pezzoās headless body gently took her paws, guiding her across the asphalt. The motion was surreal. he walked with a casual, jaunty gait, leading her by the grip of her oversized plush arm.
"Just... lead me to the nearest manhole," he directed, his voice now vibrating through the ground.
She scanned the street, her button eyes wide. She pressed a paw to her chest, trying to regulate her stitched-together breathing. She found a heavy iron grate set into the curb. "I-I don't know if you can hear me, but i think this is a way down. But I don't really haveā¦fingers," she squeaked, gesturing at her rounded, fabric palms.
She guided Pezzoās hand toward the edge of the grate. Even without eyes, his body moved with perfect spatial awareness. He gripped the iron bars, the metal groaning as he effortlessly hauled it aside. He sat on the edge of the curb, dangled his legs into the darkness, and gave her a small, headless wave before sliding down into the gloom to fetch himself.
Ms brown was waiting a moment before pezzo climbed back up wearing a set of maroon pants.
"Looks like you're not the only one with some fashion around here~" he got up and did a few poses.
Ms brown chuckls. Pezzo turned to look at himself in the cracked window of a building. Striking some poses. "Oh-ah~ mmm~" he looked at his behind for a second before walking away with a disappointed slouch.
"Still flat. Let's get going."
Pezzo found a trail of candy going into the entrance of a hospital. A neon lure against the pavement. The abandoned infrastructure was overrun with creeping plants and moss. Pezzo kept his gun close and sat Ms brown on an old rust eaten bench near the emergency entrance. The bear sat down with a tired huff. She was already ready for a nap.
"Wait here. I'll be right back. You see anything, you know how to shoot."
Pezzo gripped his uzi. His segmented fingers giving faint clicks. He tracked the candy trail inside, stepping into the entrance to a dilapidated waiting room. Plaster hung from the once stark white walls like peeling skin and vines choked the reception desk. But beams of speckled sunlight shined through the clouded windows highlighting a bit of beauty in the ruin.
Pezzo kept his mind sharp, not having time to linger and admire anything. He quietly stepped down the hall, his feet crunching on cracked ceramic tiles. Overturned vending machines served as obstacles, their glass shattered and guts spilled. Pezzo steps over these.
In the corners, black mold bloomed in patterns acrosd the walls like ink spills, smelling of wet earth and musk.
He fallowed the candy into the deeper bowls of the hospital. The deeper he went, the more the natural light died. Replaced by a claustrophobic, suffocating darkness.
Pezzo kept track of each piece as he fallows the trail deeper into the pitch black. The building had no power in wich to light the halls. Although the lights themselves didint seem in the best shape anyways. Most were clouded over in greenery or broken.
The dim green light provided by the darts on his belt provided the bare minimum necessary to see outlines. It wasn't ideal. Pezzo froze as a flicker coming from a janitors closet caught his eye. He moved to investigate, finding an old red flashlight on the floor.
He snatched it up. It's bulb dim and protesting with unsteady flickers. He gave the casing a sharp smack on his hand, and the light flaired to life. Casting a still somewhat dim beam that sliced through the darkness.
"Cool. Complimentary horror game flashlight..."
He wasn't sure who he was joking with. He was just talking to himself.
Guided by the light, He ventures back into the halls, the flashlight now cutting through the darkness and allowing him to keep track of the trail. He saw that it led into a surgery room.
Natural light seeped in from the doorway into the dark hallway. Pezzo readied his gun. Taking a deep breath to steady himself.
He steps into the room. Looking around. There were missing windows on the back wall leading to a courtyard wich allowed a riot of overgrown plant life to thrive inside the room. But the candy trail had ended abruptly. Pezzo picked up the final piece. Looking it over. It was a lone strawberry bomba. But where was gabba..?
Pezzo freezes as he felt a soft thud against his shoulder. A butterscotch disk. Pezzos breath hitched. His attention slowly climbing upwards, fallowing the arc of the candy. Gabba was perched up on a rusted surgical lamp. Staring down at him with cold, dead eyes.
Pezzo didint think. He panicked. He squeezed the trigger, unleashing a spray of darts. The uzi spitting shots every wich way as pezzo has woefully miscalculated the power of his gun. Gabba vaulted from the lamp with terrifying unnatural agility, managing to dodge every bullet. Jumping off the hospital bed only to flee out the glass free windows into the courtyard. Vanishing in the overgrown brush.
Once pezzo had drained his magazine of cure darts he stood there clicking the empty gun. He stood breathless. That was less then ideal. He fumbled with his belt and moved to feed darts into the uzi. Ensuring it was enough to where even with his admittedly dog aim, a dart might graze Gabba. He couldn't afford a loss like that again. It took almost his entire belt to fill the gun.
He looked out into the courtyard. A jungle of plant life encased by four tall walls of the building.
"Gabbo...where you at bro..." his tone was growing fearful. he could see gabba could have gotten back inside through various other missing windows in the enclosed courtyard. He carefully moved to check for any candy to hint at where the other went. Stepping out into the tall unkempt grass.
Gabba pounced at pezzos legs like a predator. Bringing the other to the ground. He let's out a startled yelp and quickly shoots gabba before the other could crawl up any further. The dart embedding deep in gabbas forehead.
As gabba fell limp, pezzo was quick to try and wiggle out from under him. But he was to late to try and remove his armor. The infection had touched his exposed feet. Gabba woke up on his side, fully healed, to a panicked pezzo.
"Uh-dude. I know we just got each other back but I think you should start running-"
He could see his body turning as the effects were slowly trailing up to his head. Gabba got off the other as he sees this. Taking pezzos gun from him.
Pezzo was freaking out. Laying on his side in the grass as he could feel the infection taking hold. "Oh the darkness-its closing in. I'm so cold-!"
Gabba then Gave the other a deadpan look before shooting pezzo with a few darts. Reverting the effects before the other fully turned. Pezzo realizes he may have been a tiny bit dramatic.
"...welcome back you colorful smartass."
The parking garage was a tomb of rusted rebar and crumbling concrete. High up on the third level, the structural integrity of the building was as fragile as their nerves. Old lighting fictures hung like broken teeth from the ceiling by dead wires, the eerie lines of abandoned vehicles stood in frozen rows. Choked by creeping vines and debris.
Sunlight barely bled through the open walls in thin, sickly shafts. Illuminating dancing dust motes that only highlighted the void of life.
Ms brown and pezzo walked back to back. Pezzos respirations were shallow. Focused. Every instinct honed by years of first person shooters. He was calculated, and waiting. Meanwhile Ms brown was more so nervous. Keeping an eye out between each car for anything that may pop out. They had seen something come in here. And they intended to find wichever zombie was hiding here. Gabba wasn't far, searching for his own weapon.
The silence was shattered. A distant, echoing wail echoed through the concrete labyrinth, a sound of raw, infantile misery.
Pezzo took Ms browns hand, putting his gun away and brandishing his flashlight. Ms brown kept her gun in her other hand as they fallowed the sound into the darker part of the parking garage.
Through concrete pillars, and dead vehicles. They rounded a corner. The dim beam of Pezzos flashlight cutting through the darkness to reveal a huddled shape at the far end of the lane.
Cactina. Her neurotic, rotting back was turned to them. Her frame shuddering with rhythmic, gutteral sobs.
"I don't wanna do this anymore...-I want my mama..."
The voice was a wet, raspy scrape. Distorted by rot.
Ms browns resolve shattered. Motherly instinct, or perhaps A lapse of jugement overrode every red flag. She handed her gun to pezzo. Moving to go to cactina, but pezzo snared her wrist. He shook his head sharply.
The bear pulled her hand from his grasp, turning to continue to the zombie. "Sweetheart, I'm here. Its alright. Just calm down. We can fix you."
Pezzo struggled to aim with his gun. He had shaky hands as he watches the scene play out. He kept the flashlight somewhat on the two to keep his eye on them. But he couldn't get a clear shot with Ms brown standing between him and cactina.
The realization hit him a microsecond before the horror unfolded. Cactinas cries stopped abruptly. She shifted. And she moved to lunge at Ms brown with predatory speed.
Pezzo acted on pure reflex. He grabbed a chunk of concrete and hurled it over ms brown. The heavy rubble connected with a sickening thud. Catching cactina mid leap. Her head, a pulpy, Thorn coated mess, was missing a chunk. Her body collapses, limbs twitching erratically against the cold floor.
Ms browns startled Shriek pierced the garage. But pezzo didint grant her a moment to process. He grabbed her, hauling her stuffed body over his shoulder at a dead sprint. Behind them, cactinas body felt around for her missing piece. Setting it back in place as the sounds of wet, squelching adhesive filled the air. Viscous threads of slime mold surged from the wound like webbing, stitching her head back into place and leaving behind only soft, rotten flesh.
Pezzos eye darted upwards as he ran toward the exit. Perched on the cieling, hanging with the impossible grace of some bug, was prickley. His silhouette loomed over the cahos on a high ceiling area of the parking garage. It was a spot where the next floor had crumbled away, making that area twice as tall. And littering the ground in that area with obstacles of broken concrete. Pezzo jumped and dodged as he ran.
"GET YOUR FRICKIN GIRL PRICK-!" He roared. His lungs burning.
Prickley remained unmoved. He checked the ammo on his rifle. "She don't bite."
"YES SHE DO-" pezzo shrieked. Bolting for the stairwell as cactina was finally stumbling after them.
She stopped. Looking up at prickley with big dead eyes.
Prickly chambered a round. "Hello sweetheart. Stay still for me."
Cactina didint offer the courtesy. With a sound like dry leaves in a wood chipper, she began to flee on all fours, right into the stairwell.
Prickley crawled down the wall, away from the safety of the unreachable ceiling. He was gonna have to pursue her.
He opened the door and cautiously ducked under the door frame. Stepping through. The stairs that led to the forth floor had steps missing, cactinas little legs wouldn't be able to use thoes. So she must have went down after the others.
His thought was interrupted as the cactus sprung out from behind the door. Hugging him around his mid section.
Prickly jumps at this, letting out a short static filled yelp. But as cactina looked up to him with that little rotten smile, he sighs. He's been got. At least this little hug was relatively painless. Her skin was so mushy her quills couldn't really pierce anything. She was cold.
He could see the zombie effects start to consume him, seeding from her touch. Prickley decided to pat her head in his final moments of consciousness. "Sorry-"
He then retrieved a dart straight from his belt, stabbing her in the side of her head. Cactina fell off him, seizing on the floor as Prickley went back into the garage, closing the door behind him and starting to run away as he could feel himself slipping. He had seconds. As he ran, he sheds his gear in a breadcrumb trail behind him.
Once cactina came to, the fog in her mind lifted. One moment, she was a mindless, shuffling thing. Driven by digital need to touch and corrupt. The next, she was shivering on a cold concrete stairwell with no memory of how she came to be there.
Cactina sat up. Her small frame trembling. Her terracotta foot scraped against the grit concrete as she gets up. She opened the door to the parking garage curiously peeking inside the floor. Immediately she spots gear left behind.
Glowing green darts, a three point belt that held more of the darts. And a sleek, heavy gun.
One by one, she gathered them. As the belt slid over her head and rested on her shoulder, it cinched tight. Too tight for a second. Before calibrating to fit her small body.
She had taken up the role of doctor flawlessly. She was no longer a monster, now she was prey.
The parking garage only grew darker as the sun was setting on the city. Trapping the building in the shadow of skyscrapers.
As she looks around, she only sees abandoned husks of cars. Lining the lot like soldiers, giving plenty of spaces for something to hide.
The only light in the dim concrete maze came from her. The ammunition casting a radioactive green glow that turned every shadow into a grasping hand.
On one hand, being able to see was necessary. On the other. She had made herself a easily seen target. And she knew this.
She kept her eyes locked on the darkness between the support pillars. Then, she heard it.
Static. Faint. Like a radio caught between stations.
The voice echoes. It was Ms brown. She sounded exhausted. Her voice cracking at the edges. "Are you there? Please...come here."
Cactina, keeping an eye out. Moved towards the sound. Her pot hitting the ground with a rhythmic click.
She heard the static again.
Cactina stopped. Ahead of her, a doorway sat like a black mouth. She couldn't see anything but the frame. It was a car entrance with a ramp leading down into the maw.
"Brown? Come to the light."
"I'm here, sweetheart." The voice responded. This time cactina caught it. That didint sound like Ms brown. It sounded like a recording of her.
Cactinas needled prickled with a sudden chill.
She felt the overwhelming urge to bolt. But her directive as doctor flaired in her. Prickley was in there. He had to be a zombie. And she had the cure. She just had to avoid being tagged.
"Prickley." She said. Her voice dropping to a stern, terrified tone. "Come out. Now."
The static grew a bit louder. It echoed around the space, becoming mobile. She kept her eyes on the entrance.
She then realized the static wasn't coming from the doorway anymore. Her head peered to the walls, the green light of her ammo highlighted a shape on the ceiling. Several spider like appendages suspended a massive prickley shaped silhouette.
Cactina shrieks. A high pitched, piercing sound that tore the silence. She turned and scrambled back the way she came from, moments before prickley dropped from above and took chase.
She wasn't a fast runner. Between her potted foot and low stamina, she was as good as doomed. She could hear him growing closer from behind.
She turned around and started peppering the darkness with shot after shot. Darts streaked through the air like glowsticks being thrown around at a rave. She couldn't aim. She had no time. In pure panic, she was splashing the void in her mad dash in a desperate need to hit anything. She couldn't see, she only knew he was for sure going to catch her.
A distorted howl of pain erupted behind her. One of the darts had found its mark.
In her rush, not looking where she was going, cactina ran into a crumbling ledge wall. She ran into it with a grunt, the ledge crumbled and gave way, causing her to fall from the fourth floor. for a fleeting moment, it was only cool night air as the ledge once holding her receded downwards with her. In the moment she was plumbitting, she could only hope fall damage was not a feature.
Of course, that hope was immediately shattered upon impact with the ground of rubble and rebarb.
She hit the rubble pile several stories below. A rusted piece of rebar, jutting upwards like a spear, tore through her soft middle.
Her terracotta pot detonated upon impact, sending soil and shards of red clay everywhere. Her throat, aswell as her chest, had a large, deep split almost the entire way through her. spurting green liquid down her skin. Her right arm was missing. Somewhere in the pile. It was like dropping a watermelon when getting it out of the car. Painful Cracks littered all over her body from such a hard impact.
A scream, wet and strangled caught in her throat. But sounded loud enough to be heard.
Above, prickley felt the virus leave him. Cured. But he scrambled to the edge upon hearing cactinas scream of agony. He could see what had happened immediately.
He descended the outer wall of the building, getting down the fastest way he could.
When he reached the ground, he recoiled. Cactina was breathing in shallow, ragged gasps through sobs. Her missing arm was lulled a few feet away in a heap of concrete bits. He can't even imagine the pain she must be in right now.
He moved to help her off the rebar, cactina choked out.
"D-dont-touch.-youll hurt-yourself" she gasped. Her voice thin, vibrating wire. She was shaking.
"I don't care." Prickley hissed, his own hands were shaking. This was graphic.
"It's finE-ITS FINE!" she shrieked, her voice cracking between pitches as the pain spiked. "I'll be fINE"
Prickley removed his bandanna, wraping it around the dismembered arm to retrieve it. It felt wrong, cold and heavy in his hands. "Do I just-put this on ice??"
Cactina wheezed. "It's ok...just press it back."
Her eyes squeezed shut. "Just, put it how it belongs-hold it."
As he lined up and pressed the severed limb against the jagged stump of her shoulder, the two parts fused back together. Leaving a thick, raised, brown callous ring along the break line that looked like a permanent scar.
Prickley then braced her as he wrapped one hand with his bandanna and put it under her legs, using his other hand to grab her upper body by the belt at her shoulders. Doing his best not to touch her bare thorns. He lifted her off the rebar, the sound of rusted metal sliding out of her body was enough to make them both gag. Cactina let out a pained whimper at the movement. As she stood, supported by him taking her gloved hands, her wounds began to seal. They didint dissapear. They left behind thoes brown, hardened patches of callous. A map of the trauma she had just endured.
Cactina squeezed his hands in her hold. Her small frame still rattling with tremors. The adrenaline was fading, leaving only the dull, throbbing ache of a body that had been broken and forced back together.
Prickleys voice was quiet. Trying to comfort her. "You did good."
She hissed through her teeth as she wiped some tears away. "Wow, caine really went all out with the realism."
Ms brown approaches the two, having heard the screaming. "Oh thank goodness-" she then stopped abruptly upon seeing cactinas state. Horrified to see cactinas pot broken and her body covered in callous. Ms brown was fimilliar with the brown markings. Cactina must have gotten very hurt. She clasped her paws over her muzzle.
Cactina replied wearily. "I fell..."
Ms brown looked up with wide eyes. Her attention locking onto the missing piece of the concrete ledge up on the fourth floor.
"Wait here." She turned to hurry down the block. Cactina looked up at prickley. Nervously commenting.
"You know...you were a pretty scary zombie."
Prickley only gave a nervous chuckle. He was sure that was accurate considering how big he was compared to her. He'd be scared too.
They were waiting a while when they saw Ms brown hurrying back with a blanket from the hotel. She was out of breath and panting. Prickley went to hold her steady but she waved a dismissive hand. Acting fine after a few seconds. She wrapped the stained blanket around cactina. Covering her thorns.
"Here, pick her up." Prickley stared. She waves him over. Muttering something in her native tongue as she grew impatient. "Come here and hold your mahal na asawa-!"
Prickley rushed over and moved to pick up cactina. Ms brown guided his hands to the right places.
Cactina didint fight it as she was lifted, she was tired from all that healing. And running. Yet she still insists through a rasp. "I can walk..."
Ms brown shakes her head. "You are not walking with a broken foot. Now relax."
Prickley seems confused, but he goes along with this. Walking down the sidewalk with Ms brown leading the way to go find the others.
Cactina smiles up at prickley from in her blanket. He looked down at her, curious.
"You think the others are doing ok?"
Prickley thinks a minute, looking up at the street signs as to not loose their way. "Maybe. Who knows what tik tak is like."
Meanwhile, gabba and pezzo ventured into the heart of the city. A park, unkempt and overgrown. Benches and rusted swing sets strangled in flora. The air hung thick with the scent of decay.
Pezzo moved with a stiff, segemted clicking. Besides him, gabbas rope tail twitched nervously at each sound.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, the only light in the suffocating gloom came from the luminescent green darts housed on their belts. Pezzo produced his flashlight to scan the area. "Tiktaks gotta be here...I can smell em."
Gabba gripped their newly acquired Tommy gun. Pezzo had swapped out his uzi for a pair of pistols. Though he had grown attached to the submachine gun, he wasn't married to it. He needed something with more control. The pair had scavenged the weapons from a old fast food restaurant while looking for Tiktak. A lucky find alongside some surprisingly well preserved food. As tempting as it would've been to dare each other to eat it, the pair had to focus.
There was still one zombie left.
A sharp snap was heard from behind them. They caught a blur of movement. Another sound. This one by the swings.
Gabba tugged pezzos arm as he sees tik tak emerge from the shadows. Pezzo fallows gabbas eyes. Pointing his flashlight towards the zombie. Their friend was almost unrecognizable.
Tiktak had grown into a tall, slender nightmare. A frame with cracked wooden limbs webbed with a few colorful fungi. Their porcelain face looked loose on their clay like skin. A mane of matted, dark hair framed a tattered purple shirt. dry rotted and hanging from them in tatters.
The creature moved on all fours. Moving with a Predatory. stop motion stutter.
Before the pair could react, tiktak lunged.
Gabba wasted no time. The Tommy gun roared, spitting lines of darts like fireflies.
Pezzo fallowed suit. Ditching the flashlight and quickly drawing both firearms. Their pistols barking with precise rhythmic cracks.
Miraculously not a single shot seemed to land. Not on tik tak nor each other.
Pezzo looked around at the park. Realizing the stray darts had illuminated the area like dim lanterns.
Pezzo fired a few more darts into the periphery to brighten the zone. He then moved to reload. "Reloading, keep close."
Gabba stepped over. Keeping his gun level.
No sooner then pezzo was finished, he spotted tik taks porcelain face reflecting the green light of the darts. It was unnerving.
Tiktak darted once more. Limbs elongated and crackling like the sound of a branch. Gabba dove out of the way just barely as tiktaks clawed hand raked the air where the pinata had been standing.
Gabba spins around to shoot, only for tiktak to practically teleport away. Leaving pezzo in the line of fire. He takes a few darts before gabba releases the trigger. His shoulders tensed as he realized his friendly fire.
Pezzo discarded the darts that were embedded in his chest, keeping his eye peeled for this...thing. thankfully the darts didint seem to have an effect on the uninfected.
It wasn't long before tiktak tried again. This time, pezzo fired straight at their face. The impact didint shatter the ceramic, the mask knocks free.
The silence that fallowed was heavy. Tiktak stopped dead. Head down. Very close to pezzo.
Pezzo froze. tiktak rises to stand. Their full zombie size was gigantic. The reveal was horrific. What laid beneath the mask wasn't a face anymore. If there ever was one. Pezzo had never seen the other without their mask. What was there was malformed, melted features of clay. Eyes and teeth scattered in the wrong places. Lumps of shapes. The sight was so fundamentally wrong pezzo was rooted to the spot.
Suddenly, Tiktak began to thrash, their movements turning from predatory strikes, to wild, destructive convulsions.
Gabba emptied the remainder of their magazine directly into the back of the slender, horrifying monster.
The darts sank in, tiktak let out a sound like a splintering, falling tree. Their body stiffening as the neon green hue spread through the jet black clay like ink in water. The creature crumbled. The irratic Jerky movements smoothing out. Tiktak hit the ground with a dull, final thud.
Gabba hurried to pezzos side as tiktak slowly reverted to their original state. The fog of hunger lifting from their mind.
No sooner then they gained consciousness, the city was suddenly alight with sparkling, spore like particles. Digital fireworks shot up into the sky over the city. In celebratory fashion. Exploding into the words
The city was no longer dark and desolate, the plants wich overtook everything started becoming bioluminecent with lively green. A beautiful scenery bloomed before the characters eyes as the clouds cleared from the sky to give way to stars.
Tiktak sat up. Looking around. Now that they were normal again, pezzo averted their eye out of respect. Fully believing the other may be deformed under their usual mask. But they caught a glimpse of a perfectly normal face. Tiktak had one eye in the middle of his face on dark clay skin.
"Hey man...we won." He mumbled.
Gabba sat down in the now glowing moss to look at the stars. His eyes sparkling. Tiktak looks around with wide eyes. What did they miss with such a pretty map?
Moments later, the rest of the group arrived. Ms brown with prickley fallowing behind, the latter cradling a half asleep cactina.
Ms brown nearly stumbled as she rushed to scoop all three into a hug. Tiktak grunts in the squeeze, But returns it with a chuckle. Pezzo, in the middle, is engulfed in fur. Gabba hung out the side. Ms brown showered them each with kisses. Gabba flinches away before she gave him a few extra pecks, Holding him close for trying to get away. She was glad her boys were alright. Boys and child? She wasn't entirely sure how to refer to tiktak.
Prickley sat down near the group. Keeping the bundle of blankets containing cactina in his lap. As she stirred, her eyes caught the scenery, and they began to sparkle.
She wriggled free, moving to carefully collect plant pieces. Scooping up a chunk of moss, a piece of glowing vines, a few bits of flowering weeds.
Ms brown scoffs at this. "Young lady you get back in your blanket this instant-!"
Cactina ignored her, clutching her treasures to her chest and shedding her ammo belt before vanishing into the tall grass. completely vanishing amongst the green. The small girl blended in very well.
The bear huffs. Getting up off the trio to hunt her down. "Cactina-if you take root here who knows how big you'll get-!"
Tiktak glanced to the others confused. "Anybody know what she's talking about..?"
Pezzo nods. "Yeah, cactina grows to fit the size of her container. The one on her foot. So, by that logic, if her rooted foot takes root in open ground-"
Almost as if on cue, cactinas head popped out the top of the leaves of a nearby tree. She had expanded to the size of a three story house. Looking like Alice in wonderland after far to much cake. Ms brown easily found her now. "Oh-now look what's happened!"
Tiktak jumps at this. "Yeowzers-!"
Pezzo snorts. His shock quickly dissolving into laughter. Gabbas shoulders bounced to show he was also chuckling.
"Yeowzers-!" Pezzo mocked.
Tiktak looked sheepish. Turning away as their mask pops back into place.
Pezzo clapped a hand to tik taks back. "No shame dude, just-caught me off guard. You're not allowed to be funnier then us."
Tiktak gave a small chuckle. "So....does cactina choose to be small?"
Pezzo shrugs. "I think caine only gives her one size of pot."
Tiktak sighs. "That's stupid. Why give her the ability to grow if she doesn't get the tools to do that?"
Gabba thinks as he looks to the stars. There's probably symbolism in there somewhere. He just can't seem to figure it out.
A shimmering portal pulsed in the distance. The way back to the circus. Gabba looked to the others. Silently gauging their intrest in staying. Nobody seemed in a rush to leave the beautiful scenery. So they laid down and looked at the stars.
Tiktak seems relaxed. The distant sounds of Ms brown struggling to find a way to get cactina to shrink back down got them thinking.
"...you think we can find a few containers to take back for her? I mean, there's probably a store in a city. "
Pezzo thinks. Tilting his head.
"Maybe. What's got you wanting to get on crazy plant girls good side..?"
"Nothing in particular. Just. She seems like she could use some human friends...maybe shes not as crazy as she seems?"
Pezzo glanced to gabba. His face looking almost tired. Gabba returned the look.
"Hmmm Kay. We can take a walk later. Let's just enjoy the quiet for now. I'm sure caines waiting with the usual dinner spread anyway."
Gabba sat up. Suddenly remembering the fast food place. Pezzo picks up on this. "Oh. Actually. Better idea. Let's go explore now-i bet theres plenty of stuff to bring back for ourselves. "
Tiktak hummed, content. "I like the stars."
"We can see the stars while we walk." Pezzo promised.
Prickley belongs to @cactibytes
Gabba belongs to @pendingintheairfryer
Ms brown belongs to @kaibi-bear
Tiktak belongs to @zenn135
Cactina belongs to @teathepumpkinmoth
