Second Chances Aren't for Everyone
An explosion tore open the hull of the large freighter ship, letting water pour into the rooms below and drown the surviving civilians; women, children and elderly. The ship began to slowly sink as it filled with water and the remaining passengers who managed to escape the destruction made it onto the deck. The crew, they found to their horror, had other priorities in mind. A helicopter had approached in the several minutes that had passed since the explosion, and the crewmembers were busy securing cables on a large box with clear labels on the sides: Explosives. The passengers realized in that moment that they were going to die, and panic broke out.
The helicopter began to rise, taking with it supplies for the war effort. It would have continued to rise if not for the ball of fire slamming into the crate, knocking it free of the cables. It plummeted toward the ship, flames consuming every inch of the box. As soon as it landed on the deck, its contents torched off, blowing the ship out of the water and removing all signs of life inside of it.
That was the last battle of the Australian-Canadian war, won by Australia because of the actions committed by the Alchemist, who was still considered one of the worst criminals alive.
The Australians never forgot his actions.
Throughout the dark and gloomy halls of the prison, a tune played, to the annoyance of the prisoners trapped and forgotten inside. It was a tune that had survived over a hundred years, despite many attempts to have it banned by almost every country in the world, many of which succeeded once it was used by the Alchemist in every operation he took part in. Those that struggled quickly gave in when they heard of how the Alchemist was to be put down. A public execution by firing squad would remove not just the infamous Alchemist, but also four other infamous criminals.
When said war criminal caught wind of his execution, he demanded his final request to be bound by some strange magic that everyone involved refused to explain: As long as his heart beat, the song he loved so much would play. Grinning at his success, he was escorted back to his cell to wait out the next few days before his execution was planned.
After the song had played for a little over twenty minutes, he found out his execution had been bumped up to right then, and he was escorted out into the courtyard, where he found his four other comrades in death, hands bound behind their backs, their backs to the walls. The Alchemist recognized every face, and silently went over their names in his head. Or what he called them; few had actually told him their names.
There was Catherine, a young girl who was maybe fifteen. When she was younger, her schoolteacher had supposedly tried to rape her, setting off her ability and revealing her special talent of disintegration. She decided to show her new talent off by wiping out all life in a fifty mile radius. Accidentally, of course. She showed remorse for the deaths, and as he had seen upon his sessions of "attempted rehabilitation," she had taken many more accidentally when taming her ability. A valuable ally simply because she shows remorse, the Alchemist thought over in his head, as though he believed he was going to survive an execution. Her dirty brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail, showing off her fair features. The bags under her eyes from her sleep deprivation brought on by nightmares, her tear-stained cheeks from the times when she had failed, the scratches in her palms from when she tried to focus. The pain in her sea green eyes as she watched the Alchemist pass, as though she understood that he understood her remorse.
Next to her was that hooded woman whose name he couldn't remember for whatever reason. Maybe it was because he could see her face when she told him. When she saw her "rehabilitation" during his own, which generally consisted of watching other sessions, he made a point to focus on her appearance, not her personal details. Another possible ally, even if I can't remember why she even deserves to die. Most couldn't remember, but either way people were happy to see someone who was stronger than them die. When he tried to recall what he usually called her, nothing came to mind.
Which brought the Alchemist to his next observation: Milton aka Mindfuck, a telepathic psycho. His kill count was fairly high even before the lives taken by people under his control. He showed zero remorse for any of his actions. In fact, he seemed eager to be a part of the execution, a wide grin on his hard features. Numerous scars lined his face, from what the Alchemist couldn't guess, but they did the job of making him look psychotic. He had a thick ginger beard and hard hazel eyes that focused on the peculiar pyro with an accusing glare.
Finally came Fade, also known as Ferdinand or some stupid shit. He was a confusing one, rarely spoke of his actions but seemed proud of them when mentioned. His actions, as they were, were large. Mass kidnappings (more than twenty people at a time) vandalism, theft, assault, battery, torture, sexual assault... the list was longer than the Alchemist had time to go over. He could change his form to resemble just about anything, and used that to get close to his victims. He could make a person see anything he willed, and tended to stalk his victims openly for some time before an attack, much like the Slenderman of legends who he modeled himself after. Fade and Milton are two to watch out for. While powerful, the Alchemist reasoned that their psychotic natures weren't worth the risk.
Together, the five were lined up against the prison wall of the fairly sparse courtyard, and watched as several thousand people (despite the rescheduling) filed in, cheering as the people they hated so much were going to die, or so they thought. The Alchemist had the sense of mind to shoot anyone waving an Australian flag a look that would make Chuck Norris cower in his robotic boots.
Even after becoming part machine, the man was the subject of numerous jokes, along with your mother.
The Alchemist made a point to look away from Canadians, though staring up at the blaring speakers brought him little comfort, as he couldn't see the looks on peoples' faces as they cringed and looked up at the offending sound producers.
Oh Eduard, how much I love you and your brilliance. If he was going to die, he made a point to make the people watching suffer alongside him. After the Australians turned him over to the UN for his “crimes”—which, by the way, the Australians waited until after the war to complain about—he ceased to care for the people down under.
Then, like something out of a movie, everyone in the crowd went silent, leaving the music unchallenged to reach everyone's ears. The Alchemist blew his long, dirty hair out of his eyes, frowning as he saw the firing squad walk out, fifteen men with assault rifles. Three men for each criminal, it seemed. Not sure how firing squads work, but doesn't that seem like overkill? They turned towards the convicts, pointing their guns straight at the people.
The Alchemist leaned forward, looking down the line of people and seeing differing expressions: Catherine was sobbing, the forgettable woman's face was covered by her hood so people could remember that she was there, Fade's jaw was locked, and Milton... Milton was still smiling, but he was whispering something.
The Alchemist watched as the members of the firing squad started looking at one another suspiciously, before one of them turned the gun on the guy next to him, putting several rounds in the side of his head and hitting one of the people in the crowd. Suddenly, it was mass hysteria. People charged the squad and prisoners, intent on making sure none of them walked away alive.
Which they didn't. They didn't need to walk because instead, they teleported.
The Alchemist opened his eyes, surprised to find that instead of the inky blackness of death, or the grey of the concrete floor, he was staring at orange rock. He lifted his head and found his hands were free, so he leaned on his arms and took a look at his surroundings. He was on a cliff overlooking what looked like a massive apple orchard. It spanned an entire valley, although he noted what looked to be a large path cutting through it. Place doesn't exactly look modern, although I can't be sure of that just yet.
Because that teleportation had been no accident. No, when he saw just what Milton was doing, he acted, expelling every ounce of his energy into a spell, consuming all five of them in a blast of light and throwing them into the nearest occupied space that he knew wouldn't kill them the very second they arrived. Of course, that place happened to be uncharted territory for even him, so whether they were killed in the following moments was left up to fate. He rolled onto his back, staring into the cloudy sky above him. He looked around him and saw more cliff, along with four awaiting faces.
He grinned, nodding. "Right, I bet you all have questions." Three heads shook, but Fade made a point to raise a hand.
He stood, taking a few steps forward and pointing at the orchard. "Where are we, Gerard?"
"Sorry, are we on first names now? Because I don't remember being all buddy buddy with you. You're lucky I saved your life. I could have left you and Mindfuck over there to die." Gerard pointed a finger at Milton, nodding. "Only reason I didn't is for one single reason: I believe everyone deserves second chances. Wouldn't be fair if I got one but you didn't. And before you say anything, what happened in the prison was hardly a second chance." Fade and Milton both seemed surprised by the idea of fairness, but neither refuted his point and he continued. "Now, have any of you gone to see if there are locals nearby? That orchard looks pretty well cared for." Four heads shook. "Right. In that case, I'll go do it. Not like I just wasted most of my energy on a difficult spell to save all your lives, so I'll go alone." Use guilt to get some company, that'll work on a bunch of convicts.
Of course, he was hardly surprised to hear the quiet footsteps of a teenage girl behind him. They walked without a word until they were out of earshot, when Gerard decided to test the waters. "So, Catherine... Why you? You hate all of us."
There was silence for several moments, long enough for the Alchemist to decide she wasn't answering, when she surprised him. "I hate you the least." Curiouser and curiouser... Although, I suppose there is a logic to the choice. He looked back and saw she was watching him while trailing a few feet behind him.
"Why is that? I've killed more innocent people than all of you combined. Just because I regret it doesn't make me a good person." Wise words, old one. The thirty-four year old was surprised to see Catherine shake her head, a smile growing on her face.
"I don't care if you regret it, it's the fact that you can tell the difference between innocent and guilty. Milton and Ferdinand don't care who they kill, they just like to see dead people."
Gerard nodded in a sage manner. "Right, right. Too bad they don't have a sixth sense, that would sort of solve having to kill people to see them dead, huh?" The pair shared a laugh, but one thought crawled to the forefront of Gerard's mind. "You've never been quite so talkative. I would have expected you to shut down after everything that's happened." They finished walking down a slope and turned to start walking towards the orchard, and what appeared to be train tracks.
"I've lived my life from the age of eight with the realization that I'm going to die. Every day I spent being taught subjects that I knew I would never need to know. I was taught to use an ability that could kill people. Maybe you're right, we all deserve a second chance. I want to take advantage of that, and unlike you I've had half the day to think about it."
Gerard raised an eyebrow. "I was out half the day?" He looked up and saw that it was indeed well after noon. They came to the train tracks just as a train approached, a coal run locomotive by the look of it. "Really? Damn, the people in this place must be technologically impaired."
They waited for a minute or so as the passenger train passed, in silence until they saw the end of the train approaching.
"Finally, now we'll be able to cross and get some..." He trailed off when the train passed, revealing several dozen buffalo and horses, pegasi and unicorns. "...Answers?"
One of them stepped ahead of the others, a beige horse with a dirty blonde mane wearing a vest with a sheriff's badge and wearing a stetson. He nodded, before he opened his mouth to say, "Now what are ya'll doin' out here in Appleloosa?"
Author's Note
And CLIFFHANGER. So, opinions?
Please thank the wonderful whatmustido for pointing out how terrible this first chapter actually is.
"Well, you see..." Gerard began, rubbing the back of his neck with a hand. "Well, we... I mean..." Finding no words to accompany his thoughts, he just stared with his mouth opening and closing repeatedly for several moments.
The pony in the hat and badge looked from the stunned Alchemist to the slightly perplexed Catherine with a look of confusion mixed with concern. When Gerard began to stammer and make otherwise unreadable noises, he pointed a hoof at him. "Uhh... Did we break him?"
Catherine started to shake her head, but stopped partway through. She prodded him in the side experimentally with a finger, garnering no response. Looking back at the pony, she just shrugged. "I hope not, he's the only guy I don't completely hate. I think he's just trying to deal with all this in his own way, but now that we're on the topic of things to deal with..."
The pony tilted his head, a soft smile on his face. "Yes?"
"Well, you're hors--" She was cut off by the awakening Gerard, who jumped forward, pointing accusingly at the pony
"You're talking!"
"So are you! Now, would you mind--"
"You're a horse."
"Earth Pony, yes. Now please--"
"You are a talking horse! How are you talking!?"
"With my mouth, same as you. Did you bump your head on the way here, mister?" The pony seemed to be taking the sight of the two humans fairly well, maybe there were other humans around? As the thought hit Gerard, another one struck him. Did I hit my head? He wasn't sure, but it was possible.
Gerard turned to Catherine. "Catherine."
"Yes?" She replied, smirking and looking at the ponies the Alchemist was trying very hard to believe didn't exist.
"Are there ponies and buffalo staring at us?"
"Yes."
"So you can see them too."
"Yes."
"Right! So, listen..." He started, turning to the herd across the tracks. "Can you take us to the nearest town and help us out while we get things settled?" Catherine shot him a curious look, but didn't have words to go with it.
The hat and badge wearing pony raised an eyebrow. "Now hold on just a minute, I can't just bring creatures into town where they could hurt other ponies, no matter how..." He paused, eyes looking over the two bipeds, "... friendly you might seem."
Gerard nodded, stepping on the railroad tracks that separated him from the hooved animals. "I understand I haven't given you much reason to believe me, but neither of us want to hurt you. There are three more of us, two of them will most likely try to hurt you if they see you, unless we have a chance to convince them of otherwise. The first step towards that is getting some water and food, so they aren't hungry, dehydrated and pissed off worse than a hippo." Hippos are fucking deadly, man.
The pony admired the Alchemist's determination and seemed ready to agree, a smirk on his face, when one of the buffalo stepped forward. "But... How can we trust him?" The other buffalo agreed, maybe he was a leader of sorts. "I mean, we hardly know this guy. He could be dangerous."
"Look, as long as I'm not behind bars again you have nothing to worry about from me." Gerard joked, raising his hands passively.
The buffalo obviously noticed his slip up and pressed forward. "Ha! You see, he was a criminal!" The pony with the badge shot him a concerned look.
"Are you alright? Maybe we should get somepony to check on you."
The buffalo shook his head, lowering his horns to the human. "No, I am fine. Nobody needs to check on me... Braeburn." He added the name as an afterthought.
"Why are you talkin' funny?" Braeburn asked, eyes squinting with suspicion
The buffalo looked from Gerard to Braeburn and back again, before glaring at the Alchemist and shouting at the top of his lungs, turning and charging the herd. "LEEEEEEROOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIINS!" He barreled through the assorted buffalo and ponies, knocking many of them aside before he was tackled by Braeburn, who was in turn picked up by Gerard, who had gone into survival mode upon realizing what was happening. Catherine ran to follow, not looking back she began to hear screams.
Gerard shouted a single word over his shoulder as he ran, "RUN!"
--- Meanwhile...
Fade watched wide eyed as the herd of hooved animals seemed to talk to the pair of perplexed people like equals. "Milton, get over here." He heard the man approach from behind and without waiting for a response continued. "Get in the head of one of those buffalo. We need to know what they're talking about."
“Talking? Shit, you don’t think that those things can talk, do you?” He looked down, watching as one of the horses, it seemed to be the leader, pointed a hoof at Gerard. “What could animals have to talk about? Fucking and eating?”
Fade chuckled, “Well, I don’t know about you, but I expected something like this when Gerard whisked us away to some magical fucking land of whatever this is. Talking to him, he made it pretty clear that wherever we ended up, things might not be the same.”
“Still. How? Why horses and buffalo?”
“So you can’t do it, is what you’re saying?” Fade chuckled, looking down at the display before them. “Shame, I had expected you to be more useful. If you can’t get in the head of some retard animal, then why should I keep you around?”
Milton growled, dropping to his knees. “Are you not confident that you can take ‘em without me?”
“If I did this alone, there would be a greater number of still bodies and fewer moving ones to play with. Now, hurry along. See if we can attain some intel.”
"Whatever you say, Ferdinand." He replied coldly, dropping to his knees and focusing his attention on the buffalo, slipping into a trance as he began his assault.
It was a simple matter, getting into the mind. The "rehabilitation process" they were put through was designed to "curb the urges" to use the ability for criminal activities...
Of course, all they did was give Milton the keys to a mind. Getting into the mind of the buffalo was child's play compared to most humans, to Milton's surprise. However, he quickly realized where the true challenge was: The final barrier. In all minds, there are three basic barriers: Physical, Mental and Emotional. The physical barrier was generally the easiest to pass through, because it simply required a focus on their physical bodies. Mental was harder, as it required establishing a mental link to the target. The final was emotional. For humans, it was one of the easier to pass through, especially when someone was in anger.
But for the buffalo, it was almost impossible. Milton stared down the barrier in anger, feeling for any signs of weakness in the door between himself and total control. For what felt like several hours, Milton stared at the wall. It was a simple wall of dirt, but the force behind it...
Fuck it. Milton took all the force he could and forced control over the animal's mind, gaining absolute power over the beast. Suddenly, he saw the scene with the clarity attributed to being in front of the humans.
"...help us out while we get things settled?" Milton heard Gerard ask hopefully, shooting a look to his left, and when he looked he saw a pony wearing a funny hat and a badge, maybe a sheriff or a deputy of some kind.
The hat and badge wearing pony raised an eyebrow. "Now hold on just a minute, I can't just bring creatures into town where they could hurt other ponies, no matter how... friendly you might seem."
Gerard took a few steps forward, nodding at him. "I understand I haven't given you much reason to believe me, but neither of us want to hurt you. There are three more of us, two of them will most likely try to hurt you if they see you, unless we have a chance to convince them of otherwise. The first step towards that is getting some water and food, so they aren't hungry, dehydrated and pissed off worse than a hippo." Traitorous cunt.
"But... How can we trust him?" He heard behind him the mutterings of agreement behind him and after rifling through some of his distant memories he realized he was the leader of the group behind him. Nice, let's do this. "I mean, we hardly know this guy. He could be dangerous"
Suddenly, a wave of power slammed against him like a river against a damn, knocking him backwards and fighting for control of the body.
"... behind bars..."
"Ha...!"
"... you alright?"
"... Braeburn..."
The fight was hard, his control was slipping, Milton had one last shot to deal some sort of blow. He did the only thing he could think of.
"LEEEEEEEROOOOOOOOY!!!" He spun on his hind legs and charged as the last of his control slipped.
Milton opened his eyes, staring down at the scene and quickly realizing three things.
1.) Fade was gone
2.) Gerard and Catherine were gone, having betrayed them
3.) That one chick nobody can fucking remember left at some point
He took a stock of his mind and found everything was as he left it, although his madness had gone slightly out of alignment, and now he wanted to fuck a horse for whatever ungodly reason. Fucking hell, the damn buffalo... He decided to find out how inter species relationships were looked upon here. Not that it would matter, because he was horny for some damn horses, but so he could kick the buffalo's ass if it was weird.
Earlier...
Fade slipped away as Milton dropped to his knees, deciding in that moment that he really could care less what they were talking about, following the tracks in the reddish orange sand down towards the tracks, until he was just out of view of the others. Then, he grinned and focused all of his thoughts into a pool of nothingness within his mind, his skin growing pale, his features receding into his face. He grew taller, his arms extended till they were just shy of the ground. His prison jumpsuit was replaced with a black suit, and the transformation was complete.
Then a thought hit him: This place might not know about Slendy, and suits are sort of a old thing... The simple black suit became an extravagant silk suit with a marvelous red tie, completed with a brand new fedora and cane. The length of his arms shortened enough to warrant a cane, though still unnaturally long, and to balance out the hat he created a black mist that was expelled from his pant legs. His familiar black tendrils wormed themselves out of the area around his back, extending outward in the fashion of a spider, but free flowing.
Well now, time to shine. He stepped out into the open, focusing his energy into creating a black fog around the area of the train tracks and found things were already happening. The two other humans were running, and a group of the ponies and buffalo were in a dog pile (pony pile?). One of them noticed Fade and screamed, pointing a hoof at him in horror. Another did the same, crying out something that sounded like Slendermane or something. So he does exist here. Good, play off their fears. He stared into the pony's eyes without a pair of his own, creating the mental image of static in any watching as he blinked forward, moving closer and closer to the animals, who dispersed and tried to flee in a futile attempt of survival.
One of them made the mistake of charging Fade, and paid for it quickly as four tendrils grabbed each of his hooves and yanked him into the air, each one pulling in different directions, eliciting a scream of pain. The biped pulled harder, relishing the sounds of hurt and agony. He jerked hard, breaking all four of the animal's legs and causing even more screams to his absolute delight. The others watched on in silent fear, unable to flee as they watched a friend die. After a few more moments, however, Fade grew bored and, with a final, swift motion pulled it apart, tearing apart the equine from the joints before tossing it and its parts aside, blood painting the observers as a sign of death.
Without missing a beat, he laughed hollowly, a static twinge to his voice.
Fade and Milton approached the town, nearing the end of the path leaving the apple orchard that bordered the small city. After the slaughter they had caused, they were in high spirits.
"It's nice to be free, eh Ferdinand?" Milton laughed, hopping ahead and doing a front flip.
Fade shot the mind reader a glare at the use of his full name, but couldn't hold it and chuckled himself. "Sure is! Would be nice to know where we are, but I can make do." He looked around and noticed that the light breeze that had been around, had stopped. The clouds that had been moving were no longer doing so, and the one sound he didn't expect to hear after the slaughter: silence.
If not for the metal man landing hard on the ground a few feet in front of him, he would have thought it was strange. He stepped back and smirked, nodding in realization. "A golem, this asshole made a goddamned golem."
“So... why are we doin’ this again?” asked Applejack as she pulled a cart full of barrels over to another cart, full of various farming tools. Catherine stood beside that cart, rifling through them and removing seemingly random tools.
She looked over at Gerard, who was hard at work with a wooden pole, drawing a large circle in the dirt. “I think he has a plan. He isn’t one to tell others what he’s thinking, though.”
Applejack looked surprised by that, “From what I’ve seen, y’all seem like decent folk... but Braeburn seems to think ya could be involved with whatever that was y’all was runnin’ from. Is he right?”
Catherine stopped what she had been doing and turned to reply, but Gerard took the opportunity from her. “In a way, yes. A business agreement, I suppose. One I would like to end. You have nothing to fear from her, however, so any other questions should wait until after we’ve dealt with the situation at hand. This what I need?” He poked one of the barrels, and Applejack nodded. “Good. I’ll be fine from here.”
“Wait!” Applejack called out to him, and he turned towards her. “Ya said I shouldn’t fear her? What about you?” He thought it over for a second... and shrugged, before focusing on the task ahead of him. “Okay then... What do ya need with all that milk?”
He set the barrel down next to the circle and pulled the top off, looking down at the deep lines he had drawn in the dirt. “Milk’s good for ya!” He tipped the barrel over, letting the white fluid cascade from its wooden protection into the ridges, filling them like water in a canyon. “High in calcium. Good for your bones.”
Author's Note
Thanks to Skeeter for the assistance with this one, and the future chapters of this crap! Commend him for going through this.
