Arc 2; Friends on the Other Side: Chapter 6, Hollow Shades

        The walk towards the train station had been largely uneventful, asides from hearing that mysterious women shout more death threats. As soon as we bought the ticket we made our way onto the train and sat down, waiting for it to move.

        Flare looked over at me, “Jeez... You look tired.”

        “I feel tired a-” I stretched out my arms in a yawn, “as shit.”

        “I know the feeling,” Flare yawned, ‘Kinda reminds me of a cat...’ “Well... I’m going to get some shut eye.”

        “Same here... Night.”

        She curled up, “Night...”

        I sighed and leaned back in the seat, allowing my eyes to close and sleep to take me.

(Nightmare theme)

        I was standing in an empty hallway that seemed to stretch on for miles, there were doors on both sides of the walls. On one end of the hall I could see nothing but darkness, but on the other I could see a faint light from far away. A faint clanging noise came from the darkness, "It's okay... Everything's fine."

        The sound came again, closer this time. "it's okay it's okay it's okay."

        "Michael~ Come and play." A distorted voice came from somewhere far away and I shivered. The voice suddenly screamed, "COME AND PLAY!" I ran as fast as I could.

        The voice came from behind me, echoing throughout the hall. “You can’t run forever Michael!” I willed my legs to run faster, hoping to escape. A nagging feeling told me to duck, doing so, a door flew over my head and embedded itself in the wall to my right. “Come back here!”

        As I got closer to the light I could see a doorway leading into a lit room, I ran through it and slammed the door closed. I pressed myself against it panting heavily. Something slammed into the door, screeching like a million bees and banging quicker than a drum. I sat in front of the door pressing my hands to my ears hoping to quiet the infernal screeching. Eventually, the banging stopped and I listened for a minute before slumping over.

        A few rusty chains suddenly burst through the door above me, causing splinters to explode outwards. I scrambled away as the door was torn off it’s hinges, revealing the monster. It looked like a deformed version of me, it’s face was partly melted and leaking what appeared to be lava along with his right arm. It looked at me and smiled, “Found you~” I didn’t even have time to scream before he lunged at me.

        I awoke with a gasp, my hand traveling to my chest. I sighed in relief as my head hit the backboard, “God damn it all.” Turning around I could see Flare curled up in a ball, snoring softly. ‘I think my heart imploded.’

        A conductor opened the car door and his voice rang out, “Next stop, Hollow Shades!”

        Flare groaned and rolled over onto her back, one of her legs kicking like a cat. “Mhmm.”

        ‘Oh. My. God. Diabeetus to the Nth degree.’ I sat there and started playing with my thumbs before the train slowly came to a stop. Looking out the window I saw that the sun was completely blocked off by trees, and a small town was just beyond the station.

        I moved over and poked Flare gently, “Hey... Get up, we’re here.”

        She groaned and whacked my hand, “No... go away.”

        I sighed and poked her again, “Get up.”

        She whacked me again, “No.”

        “Fine then.” I placed my hands under her and started to pick her up.

        She squealed and flew out of my hands, “COLD, TOO COLD!” She glared at me, “Really!? I was having a very good dream.”

        “Well we’re here.” I pointed out the window, “Come on.”

        She grumbled, “Fine...” She kicked my leg as she trotted by, “Hurry up Mr. Impatient.”

        We slowly left the train and managed to get a better look at our location. The entire town was surrounded by trees, casting it in shadow. And there was a small area that seemed to let in the sunlight.

        Looking closer at the town I could hardly see anyone at all, it almost looked like they simply got up and left.

        Flare shivered, “Something’s wrong...”

        I looked, “Yeah...”

        “That’s because they were taken.” We turned around and Death was standing there, “Whatever is spawning these sentiments is taking the townsfolk. I have reason to believe that they are being killed and raised again as the sentiments.”

        I scowled, “That's... Why the hell would anyone kill innocents!?”

        “For many reasons, but your job is to stop it.” He started walking and we followed him in silence.

        As we walked closer to the town Death spoke up, “Because of the danger you both face I’ve decided to bring in a couple wraiths to help you in this task.” He waved his hand and a woman in her twenties appeared next to him. She had glowing purple eyes and long black hair, and she wore a blue jacket with a grey T-Shirt. “The other is waiting for you deeper in the town, good luck.” He vanished in thin air.

        The girl smiled, “Hi!” ‘Oh goody! She’s Australian.’ “My name’s Beth, Beth Jades.”

        I nodded, “Michael Fritz, the pony is Flare Dancer...”

        I trailed off as Beth picked up Flare and started hugging her, “So CUTE!”

        Flare stared at me, “Help...”

        Beth gasped and hugged tighter, “She talks too! I’ll love you forever!”

        I looked at them with a small smile, “Beth, let go please. You can hug her later all you want.”

        She nodded, “Okay.” She dropped Flare and looked at me, “Where to?”

        “Deeper into the town, we need to find the other guy.”

        We walked towards the town in silence, occasionally stopping to look around. The entire town had signs of a struggle and multiple stalls were turned over or destroyed. We eventually reached a small mining building with a guy standing in in front of it. He wore an all black cloak that covered his entire body with a hood that obscured his face. He also wore black gloves, black pants, and black boots. In his hands, was a staff with swords on both ends. He turned around, and nodded, acknowledging my presence.

        I nodded back, “Hello.”

        Beth waved, “HI!”

        The man froze as he stared at Beth, before he shook his head and pointed at the building.

        I nodded, “That’s definitely where we need to go...” I walked up and opened the door, leaning into the darkness. “Yep, come on.” Beth and Flare nodded and the man silently walked past me.

        We walked in silence for a couple minutes before Flare spoke up, “So... Beth. How exactly did you... Kick the bucket?”

        Beth sighed, “I was diving off the great barrier reef and a box jelly stung my leg. Hurt like shit for minutes before the poison stopped my heart.”

        Flare flinched, “Oh... What about you mystery man?”

        The man turned, but said nothing. All that could be seen was the black void that the hood produced.

        “Um... Nevermind.” She looked at me, “You never did say how you died, just that you did.”

        I sighed, “Don’t eat improperly cooked food.”

        Beth blinked, “You died by food poisoning!?”

        “Yeah.” I looked at her, “Oysters...”

        She snorted before laughing, “Oh...Oh god. You died by food poisoning!”

        Flare stifled her chuckles and the guy quickly turned and leveled his blade staff at us, “Enough.” His voice deep, somewhat old, maybe middle-aged, and sounded wise.

        They both shut up and Beth looked at me, “Sorry, didn’t mean to insult you.”

        “It’s fine...” I sighed as I saw a light up ahead, “Get ready, we’re nearly there.”

        The guy prepped his blade staff and Beth pulled out... ‘Is, is that a lance?’

(OST)

        The guy then rushed forward, and clashed with a heavily muscled man in a pair of coveralls with glowing grey eyes wielding an axe. Beth raised her lance and blocked an overhead swing from a woman wearing a kimono and wielding a shortsword.

        The hooded man blocked the shortsword easily, and kicked him in the stomach, sending him back. Beth blocked the axe and pushed her away. The hooded man then rammed one of his double bladed scimitars into the large mans stomach. The large man then punched him away and sent him a few feet away.

        I rushed forward and helped him up, and smashed my hammer into the mans face. I heard a crack, and blood squirted from the nose like a hose. The hooded man nodded and ran to Beth, who jabbed her lance into the woman in a kimono, running her through. I dodged a swing from a swing from the muscle-mans short sword, and countered, “Midnight smash!” Dark energy covered my hammer and it slammed into the giants ribcage, making a loud snapping noise. He dropped to the ground, and dissolved completely into a purple orb.

        Mr. Hood’s blade staff glowed purple as he disappeared from sight. The woman in the kimono suddenly became covered in a multiple cuts. She screamed in pain, and Mr. Hood appeared again. With a single swing, he severed her head, making her dissolve into a silver orb.

        I walked over and picked up the orbs before holding them in front of me, “Hmm...” I looked at them both. “Congratulations! You just beat your first sentiment, once you beat them you can eat their soul and gain their strength.”

        Flare looked somewhat sick, “Ugh... Even though you told me earlier, I still feel sick when you talk about it.”

        Beth blinked, “We eat souls?”

        Mr. Hood shrugged, “Only sustenance. No choice.” He held his hand out, “Purple.”

        I handed him the soul as I gave the silver one to Beth, “Looks like you get silver.”

        She shrugged, “It’s okay.” She popped it in her mouth before shivering... She looks like she just came.... ‘Okay then!’

        Mr.Hood looked at the soul, and then the rest of us. He shrugged, and then brought his hands to his hood and lowered it, revealing his face. It was the face of a middle aged man, with short black hair and light purple eyes.

        I nodded, “Hmm. Nice to see that you trust us enough to show yourself.”

        “You helped in the fight. Enough for me.” He said simply as he ate the soul. Surprisingly, he had no reaction. All of a sudden, his arms glowed a light purple, and immediately died down. Mr.Hood looks at his arms in curiosity and brings the sleeves up, revealing a pair of black bracers with holes near the wrists. He looked at them, and then smiled. He whipped his hands to his sides, and purple knives appeared in his hands and he then threw them at a nearby building. as soon as they stuck the wall, the wall was then turned into rubble. His smile widened slightly.

        Flare’s mouth dropped open, “How did you?...”

        Beth oohed, “Cool!”

        I smiled, “Thats... pretty awesome I must admit.”

        “Indeed.” He said simply before turning to us and stuck his hand out to me, “Johnny.”

        I shook it, “A pleasure, the name’s Michael.”

        He nodded and turned to walk further into the building, “Come, we still have a mission.”

        I nodded and turned to the others, “Come on.” I started walking after him.

        We followed him in relative silence, the only sound being our steps. We soon reached a somewhat large cavern with a giant cage against the wall, a few ponies were looking out of it. A chuckle came from the other end, “So... You killed my sentiments.”

        I looked over and blinked at the sight of an old chinese man with white hair in an all white suit, his silver eyes regarding us with boredom. “I do have to admit... You do show good drive.” He looked at Johnny, “Oh... What a surprise! I expected you to move on to something else Achcauhtli.”

        Johnny’s eyes narrowed as kinetic knives appeared between his fingers, “Want to tell me who you are?”

        He bowed curtly, “I think it’s only fair... My name is Lǎohǔ de Jìngzi. A pleasure.”

        My eyes widened, “Tiger of the Mirror.”

        Johnny’s eyes hardened as he readied his blade staff, “I’ll give you ten seconds to walk your ugly ass back into a mirror...”

        He laughed, “Oh I wish I could return my dear fellow,” he pointed at the ponies. “that’s why I’m here! They hold the secret to my return! However they’ve been... Stubborn.” He waved his hand and some ponies came out from the side, “So I’ve had to fix that.”

        Flare glared at him, “What did you do!?”

        He smiled, “Just made them more compliant.”

        Johnny snapped, “So you’ve basically fried their brains to the point of making them your compliant little bitches. I’m not surprised with how much you’ve faded into history.”

        He frowned, “Messing with minds is extremely messy, I prefer to do something simpler... Say, removing the soul.” He turned to the ponies and pointed at one, “Jìngzi línghún bǔzhuō.” The pony screamed as it’s soul was ripped from it’s body and put into a small mirror hanging on the cells.

        Beth growled, “You’re a monster....”

        He smiled, “Thank you.”

        “Mayan Rush!” A swarm of kinetic knives suddenly impaled the man and exploded, “Shut up.”

        The smoke that was kicked up showed the man standing there with a frown. “Killjoy.” He flicked his hand, causing Johnny to fly into the ceiling before crashing into the ground.

        Beth drew her lance and charged, only to end up joining Johnny on the floor.

        Johnny quickly got up and disappeared, “Rebel’s Grace!” He then proceeded to cut at Tiger, creating deep gashes.

        Tiger grabbed Johnny’s arm before twisting it backwards with a snap, “Sīkǎo ēncì.” He glowed purple before grinning, “Hmm... Kinetic energy. Nice.” He blasted Johnny away into the wall.

        I glared at him, “You don’t even fight... You hide and cower.”

        He stopped and snarled, “Oh really?”

        “Kinetic Wave!” A purple wave of energy suddenly blasted into him, sending Tiger into a wall. Johnny got up and growled, “Bastard.”

        Tiger growled, “You’re getting on my nerves you insolent gnat.”

        Johnny smirked, “What’s wrong, can’t get rid of little old me you pussy cat? Come on, shouldn’t you be stronger?” he then jumped into the air, four kinetic knives in his hand, “Kinetic Pillar!” The first knife erupted at Tigers feet, sending him into the next pillars, and into a wall.

        Tiger appeared in front of Johnny and punched him in to face, “Shénshèng zhī jī!” Johnny screamed as he was blasted up into the ceiling via a pillar of silver energy... And kept going.

        Beth thrust her hand towards him, “Dirty Gambit!” A ripple flew through the air drawing a bunch of metal before hitting Tiger in the chest, sending him flying.

        Tiger growled, “If I kill you now then Death would hunt me... I’m not that retarded.” He started fading away. “Goodbye... useless gnats.” He faded completely, leaving the mindless ponies as evidence he was there.

        I ran over and helped Johnny up, “Jesus man... You need help?”

        Johnny growled, “Always hated that son of a bitch... I’ll be damned if I let him run loose again...”

        I stared at where he had been, “We have worse on our hands... If he finds a way to open the Mirror Realm he can kill trillions of innocents.”

        Johnny glared at me, “I know that. There’s only one person that can help us.”

        “The Yellow King... Isn’t he dead though?”

        He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “Come on kid, use that brain of yours. What other prominent figure is related to the color yellow?”

        I paused and thought about it... ‘Who has yellow... Oh, oh my god.... He’s high.’ I looked at him, “The Man in Yellow!?”

        He laughed, “At least you know better than to say his name. Yeah, him. He’s actually pretty nice once you get past the fact you’ll go rather insane if you stare at his true form.”

        “B-but Old Ones are myths! Like wendigos and vampires!” I was lost, utterly lost.

        Beth smacked the back of my head, “I don’t like being called a myth.”

        I blinked at stared at her, “You’re... You’re a vampire?” She nodded. “T-that’s... pretty cool.”

        She frowned, “Not really... I mean we are commonly feared.”

        Johnny sighed, “I’m also an immortal Mayan warrior.”

        My eye twitched, “Then how did you die!?”

        Johnny raised an eyebrow, “I only had the immortality in terms of age, not invulnerability.”

        “Oh...” My eye twitched again, “Of course... You know what, I’m not going to question it! We have ponies to free.”

        Johnny shrugged, “You should also know that every supernatural thing you can think of is real. Like gods, werewolves, ghosts, and even demons.”

        I just walked over to the cages and smashed open the locks, “Like mages and necromancers?” I said jokingly.

        “Yup.”

        “God damn it all.” I looked at the small mirrors on the cage door. “If this is anything like InuYasha then....” I smashed my hammer on the mirrors, causing the souls to fly into the ponies proper bodies. “Just as I thought.”

        Johnny clapped a hand on my shoulder, “Nice work, you just saved the lives of ponies by releasing their souls from being used like condoms.”

        I blinked, “That’s... I- Really!?”

        He smiled, “Welcome to the world of hunters, where nothing is sacred.”

        I just sighed and looked at Flare as she rounded the ponies out of the cave. “So... Now what?”

        “We find Death and ask him to let us contact Hasty. From there, we try to find where his current domain is on earth.” Johnny said simply.

        “Brilliant,” I started walking out with the ponies, “let’s do it outside. Better reception that way.”

        Johnny groaned, “Don’t quit your day job kid...”

        “Lucky me, I was a student.”

        We walked out of the mining building and spotted Death near the exit. He nodded, “I see you were successful.”

        I frowned, “Yeah, but we have a problem.”

        Death frowned, “What?”

        Johnny sighed, “That bastard from the mirror is free, and we need to contact The Man in Yellow to put his ugly ass back in.”

        Death sighed, “Damn it all... I was hoping we would have at least another thousand years before he was free again. However, time doesn’t seem to like working for us.” he turned to Johnny, “I’ll try to contact him and tell him the situation. I’ll tell him to come to you and we’ll have to go from there.”

        Beth walked up, “He said something about the secret to opening the mirrors was here in this world.” She pointed at the ponies, “I think he may have gotten a clue from them.”

        Death’s eyes narrowed, “Then the situation is more serious than previously thought... Have you been hearing the banging of weapons near any reflective surfaces?”

        I shook my head, “There were small mirrors in there holding souls, no noise came out.”

        Death nodded, “Then we have plenty of time. If I know Hastur, he’ll get here as fast as he can to deal with the upstart. Johnny, you should feel more than relieved to work with your old possessor.”

        Johnny laughed, “Never did agree with anything, but damn if it wasn’t fun. Yeah, it’ll be fun to talk to him again.”

        Beth spoke up, “Umm... I have a question. You did say Dean was here, where exactly?”

        Death sighed, “He’s in a town called Ponyville. I will advise that you... try to go easy on him. He’s been dealing with conflicted emotions as of late.”

        She smiled sadly, “I will... I told him that I still loved him so I’m not going to pressure him into something he doesn’t want.”

        Death shook his head, “Quite the contrary. For the past few days, you’ve been on his mind. I have to say, you really must have smitten him if even after so long he still holds you in such regard.”

        She frowned, “I admit... He’s moved on, but I’ll still be his friend.”

        Death smiled, “I think you’ll be quite surprised when you see him.”

        I looked at them both, “So we get to travel to Ponyville then?”

        Death nodded, “That would preferable. I’ll tell Hastur to head into the town when I contact him.”

        I nodded and turned to Flare, “So... I’m guessing you’re needing a break?”

        She nodded, “You just show up out of nowhere and fight insanely powerful beings as a job.” She looked at the other ponies, “I’ll stay here and keep them safe.”

        I nodded and turned to Beth, “Well then.” I looked at the sky, noticing the moon was rising. “Want to go to sleep before we head off?”

        She nodded, “Yeah... Feels weird being tired at night.”

        Johnny laughed as he was setting kinetic knives around the area we were resting, “I wouldn’t worry about it, it’ll pass in time.”

        Beth yawned and laid on the ground, “Just... night.” I looked at her for a couple seconds before I heard soft snores.

        I blinked, “... Wow, that was fast.”

        Johnny chuckled, “Dean told me about how she’s a heavy sleeper. I’m honestly surprised that she would go this far just to be with him.”

        I looked at him as I laid down, “Huh... I think that I’ll get some sleep.” I closed my eyes, “Night.”

        I didn't hear his reply before I had fallen into the depths of sleep.