The Shadows of the Ancients.
Theo takes a deep breath as he drives towards his friend, Alex, house to pick him up for the cosplay/video game convention they planned on going to for months. Under his cosplay Theo began to feel hot and sweaty in the thick wool and leather strap cosplay outfit of Edward Kenway from Assassin's Creed Black Flag. Personally the best assassin behind Ezio. Naturally he reached over to crank up the A.C. a bit higher to help keep him cool in the thick overcoat and end summer weather. He had Edward's hair color and style after dyeing it a bit but it's still a natural color and very close to his natural color. He also possessed a similar face to Kenway but less toned. Sadly he could never find a pair of hidden blades to go with the outfit.
Alex, is ironically cosplaying as Alex Mercer, the protagonist from the game Prototype. Dressed in the three layer clothing consisting of a thin cotton shirt, a slightly thicker sweater, then a leather jacket with a cloth hoodie stitched on and the tribal marking on the back near the shoulder blades PAINSTAKINGLY painted form both concept art and the actual game cutscenes that are surprisingly high quality for the generation of gaming it came out in, today. I die in the heat. Where the fucking hell is he?
A trio of honks which is Theo’s signature for 'Get your ass out here'. So he wants me to get my ass out there? Fine.
“Ah. There he is. I hope he has AC going full because if he doesn't Alex is going to die!~” Alex walks out of the apartment he lives in alone, locking the door, then RUNNING to Theo’s car BACKWARDS so to me it's a funny little joke that I can laugh at and be confused about. I reach behind me, opening the door, walking in butt first.
“Sup and nice cosplay.” Theo smiled and put the car into drive. “Stoked for the con?”
Alex mentally sighs sad that there was no confusion so he nods and quickly hogs the AC all for himself like the greedy bastard he is, “You know Alex Mercer and Desmond is a widely accepted crackship?”
“I didn’t actually know that.” Theo says as he oh so casually changed the radio channel immediately switching topics. “Why must the Internet be weird?”
“Its the internet. If it wasn't then it wouldn't be the internet.” Alex bask in the beauty of the invention called air fucking conditioning. Leather is winter wear.
Theo noticed and smiled as he understood what his friend was going through since his costume consisted of heavy cotton along with buckles and straps a tad bit uncortable.
Alex laughs relaxing in the cold car, “Know what we should do JUST to fuck with people?
“Hmm?” Theo said as he pulled into the parking lot search for the nearest parking spot to the convention.
“Walk in holding hands and looking like a couple for the sole reason to look like the ship.” Alex laughs, “I can imagine the stares! They probably beg us to kiss for a picture.”
Theo looks away as he parked to hide a small blush “S-sure...”
Alex laughs more dreading the walk to the sweet, air conditioned doors, “Come on, sooner we walk in sooner we get the wonders of our blessed AC back. I mean really? REALLY SUN?!?” Alex gets out of the car motion to his friend to hurry.
Theo gets out of the grabbing his phone and then locks the car. He makes a mad dash to the con’s doors. “What time is it?”
Alex follows his friend through the rec convention doors open showing thee convention started but only the early showers are here., “Early enough for it not to be in full swing but late enough for it to be open and AC!!!”
Theo reaches for his friends hand and holds it “Let’s get this over with.” They walk in Alex with a confident step and chuckling at his friends slight shyness and reluctance.
They walk around the convention the holding hands part a one time deal as they're too busy checking out everything the convention had to offer from food, the cosplayers, all the way to the stalls selling merchandise and trinkets from obscure fandoms. They soon stumble upon an man wearing ll concealing robes and a table hosting items from every show, game, anime, and other ideas that come to mind but what catches Alex’s eye is the high detailed Blade power form the prototype series that seems would fit him perfectly, “How much for the Blade?”
The creepy looking man answered “34 dollar’s.”
Alex laughs knowing it cost much, much more and was willing to pay much, much more. He takes out his wallet from the jeans pocket taking out 50 dollars putting it on the table, “It cost much more. Not sure but this is much more fair.” He leaves the table grabbing the blade and sliding it on his arm loving how sung and built for him it seems but a pair of hidden blades are also on the table. He takes out another 50, puts it down and takes them too then goes to search for his friend.
Theo was looking around the table when something on the end caught his eye. He walked down there noticing the mannequin with two leather straps that had 8 gun holsters with actual looking guns in them not to mention the british style swords. “How much?
“For all? 128 dollars.”
Knowing that he was gonna get paid next week, he took out his wallet and shelled out the cash “You have a deal.”
The man hands him the merchandise as Theo hears his friend, “Hey! Catch!”
Theo turns around and catches what my friend was throwing me. In his hand are a pair of dual hidden assassin blades made seemingly form materials they had back in the pirate age.
“Payed 50 for them and this bad boy.” Alex shows of the threatening looking blade that seems to gleam in the light as pulsing tendrils wrap up his arm vanishing into the leather jacket.
Theo stared in utter shock “Uhh…”
“Badass I know, you can thank me later in the bedroom.” Alex gives a little bow flourishing the blade straight out as the comeback was almost instant with utterly no hesitation.
A black vortex made of black sand appeared under the both of them catching them completely off guard instally capturing and sinking them into the once carpeted floor.
Theo yelled out” Why me!”
The sand vortex drops the duo on top of a spire of a castle overlooking a beautiful and vast forest, “Theo?“
Theo answers “Over here” he’s stuck in some sort of chimney.
Alex stares and begins to laugh doubling over on habit as he usually has laughing fits to the point of tears and abdominal pain, “Why did you try to pull a saint nick?” His laughter grows louder.
Theo manages to pull himself out of the chimney. “It was the portals fault, anyways at least I didn’t land in bird shit.”
Alex laughs harder slowly calming himself down and stands up, “Portal huh?” Alex sighs, “The artricture is definitely not anything I’ve seen, we might not be on Earth anymore.”
Theo looks around but all he sees is forest for miles around. “I agree.”
Alex laughs looking down, “How will we get off here?” He laughs harder kneeling over a bit and losses balance falling off the tower.
Theo walks to the edge and drops down grabbing the edge of the roof and He started to climb down.
Theo sees his friend Alex seemingly gliding on the wind like a fucking majestic bird and simply turns coming at him and he begins to scream, “No no no ohhh this is going to hurt like hell!” Alex collides with the tower shaking it slightly then digs his fingers into the marble breaking it creating holes in it the size of his fingers which began to morph into razor sharp claws holding him there, “Hi?”
Theo just shakes his head “Hi yourself.” He sees a hay bale and goes for a leap of faith.
Alex watches in slight shock as Theo does a little flip WHILE flipping him the bird but not one to be showed up Alex leaps off the ivory marble tower gliding for a moment then makes his body as linear to the ground then a moment before he would of face planted in the concrete, rights himself and a massive shockwave throws back everything near him even snapping limbs off trees near by. To tidy it all up Alex returns the bird with two of them.
Theo flips both birds and uses his hidden blades to flip him off back once more. “Show off.”
“Hey you decided to go la fancy and flip into a damn hay stack.”
“I know but it was faster for to that then to climb down.”
“Naturally I have to be better then you.” Alex puts the hoodie over his head showing only the ice blue eyes and prideful smirk.
Theo puts his hood up also concealing most of face except for the lower part of my mouth “Shall we hide?”
Alex nods looking for a place to hide and casually walks out of the castle grounds where a small town is centered around the castle.
Theo on the other hand crouched down and walked through the bushes keeping himself concealed.
Alex disappears down alleyway and a girl walks out smiling and winks at Theo.
Theo sighs and keeps hidden. He looks around for a good place to blend in with a crowd so the guards don’t notice him.
The girl walks to the bushes and kneels by it as if picking flowers, “I just killed someone.” Her voice is calm and collected but the hands are shaking with excitement, “Sneaked up behind her, ripped out her throat and instinct took over next. “Dude I'm Alex fucking Mercer.”
Theo nods and runs past him joining a crowd and he goes grey.
Alex follows smiling waving and following the same habit as the poor girl he killed and basically ate.
Theo looks around for another group to blend in with “Damn it I’m running out of people to blend in with.”
Alex in the form of the girl smiles kindly at him, “Sir do you want to go...grab a coffee?” Her voice cracks as she looks away blushing a deep scarlet and all attention is on them.
Theo nods and walks over to Alex in disguise. “Yes.”
She squeals grabbing his hand and makes them run down a street to a house and the cheerful smile is dropped faster than Skrilax bass, “This is soooo fucking useful.”
Theo smiles and nods “Is this her house?” He looks around at the basic thatch cottage seemingly cookie cut from every other one around them.
“Yea, poor girl. Wrong place wrong time. I saw her alone, instinct took over and before I could stop or even think I had her trachea and vocal cords in my hand and I was already consuming her. In this body it's best to listen to what it's telling you. I think I have mental control over it though."
Theo thinks about something “We should start calling ourselves by our characters names.” He mulls this thought over for a second. “I think we should.”
Alex laughs slight, "Alex Mercer sounds MUCH more threatening than Alex Jones. But they have magic here, also Angels, and regular humanish. They awkwardly call themselves Unicorns, Pegasus, and Earth ponies. Silly ponies you're human." In the blink of an eye Alex is back to his normal looking self.
Theo smiles “Edward Kenway sounds better than Theo Harris” Edward looks at the front door “Open the door Alex.”
Immediately he's back in the girl body, "It's Summer Skies silly!" She walks to it opening it a bit looking outside with wide innocent eyes, "Yes?"
The guards look at the pair “Identification cards!” The pair of guards wait impatiently at the door forcing it open as Alex looks scared and shakingly goes through her pockets getting the papers and hands it to them.
“W-what did I do?”
“It’s procedure, we do random checks every month.”
She nods looking down, “M-may I have my papers back?”
They give them back and look at Edward holding out their hands. Edward watches in slight horror as his best friend slices off the heads of the guards. The claws going through the armour like butter as feeder tendrils break down the bodies leaving the armour, "Edward put it on. Your name is Iron Shell and I’m Steel Spear."
Edward watches and shakes his head “No let me stay in the shadows or you can make it look like that you arrested me.”
"You sure? I mean i have no problems with killing. Apparently." Alex shrugs, "Can you?"
Edward shrugs “I’m not ready to kill a innocent.” He said with a smile.
Alex chuckles, "Grab me and cut my cheek. Make it seem like a struggle."
Edward smiles and punches Alex really hard “I’ll do more if you do not give me access.” The pair put on a show for the growing crowd. They struggle before Alex seemingly gets the upper hand pinning him and handcuffing him.
“BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE CROWN YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!” Alex gives Edward a small kick to the chest making sure he makes the show even farther bevliable. He picks him up roughly and begins to escort him to the Sister’s Castle.
Edward struggles but not because he has to but once again to give the ponies a show. “Walk faster Alex.”
Alex pushes him forward slightly making them both walk faster till they arrive in the throne room where two beautiful women are sitting on the throne side by side. Impressive racks on them sizing in the double D’s, “Princess’s! I found one of the sources of the magical disturbance upon your bedchambers Princess Luna!”
Luna smiles “Thank thee guard, now you can report to thy barracks.” She smiles and waves her hand dismissively.
Alex smiles grows and widens to a full blown manic smile snapping the chains on Edward chains shifting back to his normal form but a strange armour coats his body and the blade shines in the light menacingly.
“I'm curious. How would an Alicorn genetic structure look?”
Edward looks at his friend “Alex no, these are the rulers and the nation would riot for our deaths if we killed one.”
,But...Foodddd.” Alex looks down the armour strangely flexible but extremely heavy.
Edward shakes his head no, “We can see if we get you some food later.”
Alex sighs, “I need live biomass."
The Princesses look at the two of them argue like true friends but Luna speaks up “Sister should they be detained and be interrogated?”
Celestia sighs looking at her younger sibling, "Let them argue. We may gain information if we listen."
“The one in the blue seems to be the reasonable of the two.” Luna said with a smile.
Celestia giggles at her sister, "The armoured one is the brawns. From what we have seen it has shapeshifting powers. Changeling like but completely biology."
Luna giggled also “Indeed but they are still a threat to our country dear sister.”
Celestia sighs, “Activate the stone rune in the ceiling. But Slowly, we are unaware of their abilities.”
Luna nods and cast the spell to activate the rune but slowly. “Yes sister we shall.”
Celestia channels bits of her magic into the rune till it has enough energy, “Fire.” A column of magic hits the two arguing friends who both look to the princesses flipping the bird while saying,
“Dick move.”
The two friends see no way out of the magic trap so they do the best thing they could do. Trying to show the other one up by posing in the most badass pose they could. Edward gets his hidden blades to deploy and position them in a way to look like he's pouncing from the roof tops.
Alex brands his blade in full armor in a position seeming to about to strike and cleave someone in half with one strike while his other hand forms into a claw giving off the best one fingered salute he could.
