Nightfall:The Merciful God

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Yuri, Nemo, Troy, Trent and Coty all appear at the wake motel, everyone having teleported from Arizona. The air becomes much colder here and everyone feels the rain falling down on them, the storm still going on in Cold Springs.

Yuri: He quickly walks up the small steps into the patio with everyone else. Trent, don't go inside yet. I need your help... I need to go to the Sunless. Like right now.

Trent: He looks at Yuri before looking to the side at Troy, feeling like he missed something. What's going on?

Coty: He narrows his eyes a little as he looks around the parking lot, then looking to Yuri.

Nemo: Lucas slipped into the Sunless, we need to get him back. He pushes his hand back through his blue hair, slicking it back.

Troy: You guys have a plan? Or are you just going to go stumbling through a world of monsters looking for him? He looks from Nemo to Yuri and shrugs slightly. There's concern in his voice, but at the same time he's being condescending about it.

Yuri: He looks at Troy. Why do we need a plan? We just need to find him and come back before one of those monsters finds him.

Trent: He looks back at Coty, thinking this is Yuri's fault. How did he "slip" into the Sunless?

Yuri: Does it matter? The longer we stay here talking about it the more time we're wasting. He walks up to Trent. Please, man. Just borrow my powers and take me there. I can't do it, it has to be you.

Troy: You're going to go by yourself? Is that wise?

Nemo: We're wasting time, I'll go-

Troy: You'll go? You're the one that needs to figure out how to kill a god, remember?

Nemo: Lucas is more important than killing a god. He glares at Troy.

Troy: He doesn't look very happy. Better get going then.

Trent: Explain to us what happened when we get back. He already has his hand on Yuri's shoulder, his eyes turning black as he speaks. Who am I taking?

Nemo: He grabs Yuri's hand. You two keep watch for Shane.

Coty: You don't have to tell me. He crosses his arms over his chest.

Troy: He's already heading back towards the office where all his equipment is.

Trent: Ready?

Yuri: He nods and quickly walks out into the parking lot where it's raining. He moved Chris's destroyed car to the side, away from the fight they had earlier. Do it over here.

Trent: He follows him into the rain, away from the bright patio lights.(edited)

Nemo: We find Lucas and get the hell out before anything terrible happens. That's the plan, alright?

Yuri: That's the plan.

Nemo: He looks to Trent. How are we going to get back? Can I teleport us out of there?

Trent: I can take us back. Three black chains rise out of the dark pavement under the three of them. They immediately wrap around Trent, Yuri and Nemo, tightly squeezing them so they don't fall off. Trent closes his eyes, concentrating for a moment before all three of them start to slowly sink into the ground. Take a deep breath, it'll feel like you can't breathe for a moment.

Nemo: He takes a deep breath, looking up at the storming sky as he sinks into the pool of darkness.

Rava: He's standing at the edges of the shadow, looking down at him with the strange glint in his eyes. Gonna take you for a ride... He smiles and dematerializes as Nemo's head sinks below the darkness.

Yuri: He holds his breath, his eyes closed for a moment before it feels like it's safe to breathe again. He opens his eyes, quickly looking around and seeing that Nemo and Trent made it with him.

The building behind them looks old, like it's been here for a very long time but most of the rooms still look intact. It looks like it could've been the Wake motel at some point but the old paint is a different color and there isn't any pavement or trees nearby. It's different than when Lucas was here.

Rava: He appears a little ways from them, looking around for a moment before looking to Nemo. Maybe you can be the one that gets crushed this time.

Nemo: He breaths deep, the air here feels different than the rainy air, but he's used to these transistions. How do we find him? Can you track him down somehow? He looks at Yuri.

Yuri: He should be around here... He looks towards the building behind them, his voice sounds a little quieter than usual like he's trying to avoid drawing attention. Let's look around.

Rava: He moves towards the old building, Nemo moving after him.

Nemo: You can't feel him or anything?

Rava: You're the one that has the spell that can track him.

Nemo: We need a lot of water for that spell.

Rava: Too bad it isn't raining here then. He looks into one of the windows, putting his face close to the glass.

The bedroom is missing all its furniture and it looks like there's only some piece of old trash inside, looks like an faded out chip bag

Yuri: He's at the other end of the long building, opening one of the doors and looking inside and seeing it's completely empty too. This one only has an old dusty rug inside, eerily similar to the ones from the wake motel.

Trent: He's still standing where they all showed up, keeping an eye on the horizon for the sunless monsters.

Nemo: He wouldn't have run off far. He says it to himself quietly as he's moved on to the next room. He forces the old door open, looking inside, whispering. Lucas?

Trent: Find anything? He sounds like he's getting impatient.

The room is almost the same size as Troy's equipment room. At the very end of the room Nemo can see Chris laying on the floor where Lucas left him, still unconcious.

Nemo: He calls out. I found a buff naked guy. He holds up his hand and it ignites. It's Chris. His eyes narrow and the flame grows brighter and more powerful.

Rava: He's suddenly leaning against the wall, looking at Nemo. Maybe he knows what happened to Lucas.

Nemo: He looks at Rava and lets out a long sigh.

Yuri: Chris? He runs across the dirt and heads into room he saw Nemo walk into, the air in there feels a little fresher than the barren wasteland outside. It's noticable but the air still smells old. This... this is one of those rooms. He looks back towards the doorway, the three of them can see it's pitch black outside like the darkness is being kept out by some invisible shield. Lucas must've dragged him in here.(edited)

Rava: One of you can wake him up, since you're into naked guys. He's not even looking in Chris's direction.

Yuri: He ignores Rava's comment and slowly walks up to him, a little cautious because Chris was trying to kill them all an hour ago. He places his hand on his shoulder and tries shaking him awake.

Chris: He opens his eyes and looks at Yuri, their strange off-green giving him a piercing gaze. His hand immediately shoots up and grabs Yuri's throat. Where the hell am I?!

Rava: Easy there cowboy. He has an oversized cowboy hat and a piece of hay in his mouth as he still leans back against the wall.

Nemo: You let go of him or you're my next pair of boots. A beam of pink-tinged flame screams over Chris's head, cutting into the wall and leaving a burned hole there.

Chris: He looks over at Nemo. As he does he realizes he's not wearing an clothes, but more importantly, he's not transforming. He slowly lets go of Yuri, his grip was still quite powerful even in human form.(edited)

Yuri: He rubs his neck a little, coughing a little before he tries talking again to Chris. Lucas brought you in here, no one else on this world would've saved you. Where is he?

Chris: He looks around the room as he sits up. I only remember voices. He spoke with someone. That's all I know.

Yuri: He keeps staring at Chris, though it looks like he's not even looking at him like he was in shock.

Nemo: Who? What did he sound like?

Chis: Can I get some clothes? You two are making me uncomfortable, staring me up and down like that. He looks at Yuri.

Nemo: ANSWER THE QUESTION!

Chris: Some guy, I barely remember. He stands up. He spoke some words in another language maybe, hell if I fucking know who it was.

Yuri: He turns around without saying anything and walks outside.

Nemo: Yuri? He turns and quickly follows him. Do you know who he's talking about?

Yuri: He keeps walking for a long time until he finally stops and looks in the direction of the Hat Man's home, even though he's so far away he seems to know exactly which direction it is. Michael...

Meanwhile...

Michael: He walks down the long staircase and into the large attaic. Without saying anything he walks up to the large door at the end of the wall and opens it, Lucas is on the floor curled up. It looks like he's just waking up, he feels incredibly lightheaded and strange. The bearded man looks down at him and spot beside him, there's shadowy outline of a body where Ricky used to be.

Lucas: As he opens his eyes they slowly look around the room in a dizzy motion. ...Ricky?

Michael: He slowly looks from the shadowy spot back to Lucas. I'm sorry...

Lucas: He looks at the shadowed outline, his expression changing from confusion to a look of shock. He uncurls himself and rolls to the side, his right arm coming down and grabing at the spot. He was with me! I saw him! He was right here in my arms!

Michael: The kind of pain you experience after losing someone, it almost doesn't feel real at first. He takes a few steps closer to Lucas and looks down at him. But once you realize how much you've lost, the feeling is quite breathtaking.

Lucas: He drags his hand over the shadowy spot, his fingers making quiet scratching sounds as he does. ...I had him... I felt him... He was there...

Michael: The higher one wanted your last moments to feel warm and safe before he took everything away from you. This is exactly how he wanted your life to end.

Lucas: After a long pause he murmurs. ...Your "god"... He stares at the spot Ricky's head would be, an image of him looking back at him materializing in his mind. With Yuri's face... He moves his hand up, as if to run it along Ricky's chin and jawline. ...Your fake god... With my brother's fake face...(edited)

Michael: He continues to look down at him. A god has no reason to lie to you. His voice starts changing as he speaks. I have no reason to lie to you, lil bro.

Lucas: The image of Ricky vanishes, and his hand falls softly to the floor. Just kill me.

Michael: No.

Lucas: He traces his hand along the darkness. ...You're pathetic... His eyes dart back and forth a little, seeing glimpses of Ricky in his mind. Memories mostly.

Michael: ...I'm a merciful god. He places his hand on Lucas's shoulder. I'm giving it all back to you, your whole life and all of your friends.

Lucas: You take, to give... He remembers walking up to Ricky, seeing him sitting on the curb in the school parking lot, all alone. Inflict misery to bring happiness... He remembers sitting at the arcade, the two of them eating through all of his quarters. ...That's not mercy...(edited)

Michael: It's the only way to live in my world, lil bro. You continue living, having all those happy moments with your friends and loved ones until something goes wrong. You have to feel happy today in order to suffer tomorrow... that's just how life is.

Lucas: You're wrong... Because now everything is just... He remembers how he freaked out in some parking lot in vegas after Ricky kissed him, a memory that's played trough his head hundreds of times. Every time he remembers it he feels embaressed and can't help but smile a little. Every time except this time. Apathy.

Michael: He smiles. Why do you think I'm giving everything back? You won't remember any of this. You will literally live out your entire life again and again and again until you can't take it anymore. He shoves Lucas forward into the old carpet, though it feels softer than it was a few seconds ago. Really soft, it causes him to rub his face against the pillow he's sleeping on. Lucas feels like he could stay asleep all morning until something loud interrupts his rest.(edited)

There's an extremely loud knock on their bedroom door that borders on pounding. It jars Lucas awake almost immediately, but the pounding keeps persisting.

Meanwhile...

A loud unnatural scream echoes throughout the dark wasteland, it causes Trent, Yuri, Nemo and Rava to close their ears.

Trent: He lowers his hands and looks around, seeing a large deformed black mass heading in their direction. We have to go... Now!
Yuri: We still haven't found Lucas. I'm not leaving without him!

Nemo: Where is he then, Yuri?!

Chris: Anyone want to tell me why I'm stuck as a human?

Rava: Maybe mommy has forsaken you. He smiles creepily.

Chris: He looks at Rava with a strange stare.

Nemo: Yuri?!

Trent: You're a lot stronger here than anyone else, Yuri. Stop relying on everyone else to help you and just figure out where he is already.

Yuri: What do you think I've been trying to do?! I can't feel where he is! You need to do it!

Trent: He almost wants to shake his head, knowing even though Yuri is a powerful guy he holds himself back all the time. We have less than a minute before an unstoppable monster shows up and tries killing all of us. Now stop fucking around and do something already before we're all dead!

Yuri: He narrows his eyes, feeling more ashamed than angry. ...Fuck you, Trent. He looks in the direction of the monster before he closes his eyes and concentrates. Nemo appears in his head, clouding his ability to look for Lucas. He closes his eyes tighter, concentrating more. He looks around the world around him suddenly, like a third eye. He has vision of the entire area, for miles around him. No matter where he looks he can't see Lucas anywhere but he does see more of those monsters coming towards the group. His vision shifts and speeds off in another direction a unimaginable speeds. He suddenly is looking up at the Hat Man's house. He feels Lucas inside, he can feel him trapped in there.

A massive dark monster, covered in crevices full of poisonous gas crawls up towards the group. It's using hundreds of human arms to quickly drag its large mass across the dirt towards the group.

Trent: Yuri!

Yuri: He still has his eyes closed. I'm still looking!

Nemo: He takes a deep breath. Can we actually kill anything here? His hands ignite with blue flames.

The large round monster moves towards Nemo and the others, many of it's arms somehow traveling up its dark skin and reaching out towards the group. If anyone gets grabbed, they'll have hundreds of hands to fight off. The large monster goes for Nemo first, it's many mouth-like crevices spewing a thick poisonous gas as it gets excited by the smell of fresh meat.(edited)

Nemo: He throws both his hands forward and beams of blue fire tear from his fingertips, slicing deeply into the creature. After a moment his body turns dark, and his skeleton glows with power from within, the skeletal parts of his arms taking on a pinkish hue as the beams turn to crimson hellfire that glitter with golden pinpoints within.

The arms hit by the hellfire immediately burn up into brittle bone and charred meat before falling apart. As the monster gurgles in agony its other arms suddenly move away from the hellfire, somehow sliding over the sunless monster's dark skin. Without warning, five arms tear through the ground around Nemo and grab at his arms and wrist. They force him to point his laser away from the monster before trying to break his arms.

Nemo: He yells out as they grip him tightly. YURI!? His form suddenly ignites as an aura of blue flames radiates outwards from him. It quickly turns pinkish with a bit of hellfire after a second. HURRY UP!

Yuri: He opens his eyes and runs up to his brother, helping him pull the arms off of him. The ones he can't grab onto he wraps in chains and pulls them down into the ground away from Nemo. Nemo, get back inside the room with Chris!

Nemo: He releases a ball of flames into the mass of monster once he's free, and then turns and runs into the room, looking back to his brother as he cracks his wrist. Since his skeleton is visible Chris can actually see his wrist pop back into the place it's supposed to be in. Yuri?

Yuri: As he tries to follow Nemo, one of the hands grabs ankle. He falls forward and looks back at his leg, trying to kick the arm away before he stabs it with one of his chains and forces it off. He quickly gets back to his feet and runs into the room, looking behind him and seeing that there's even more human arms coming out of the ground. If it wasn't for the safe house here, they would've been surrounded. He looks around the shelter, seeing everyone's inside already. Let's get the fuck out of here... The world around them becomes black. After a few seconds, light and color starts appearing around them again. The group reappears in Troy's equipment room all at once.

Troy: ...Hey, you're back. He' says it in monotone, and doesn't even bother looking back at them as he writes something down on his notepad and goes back to tuning his stereo.

Shane: Nemo! He runs up and grabs the dark, skeletal, silhouette of his boyfriend, clutching him close.

Nemo: He grabs onto Shane. We didn't find him...

Shane: Who?

Nemo: Lucas... He looks over Shane's shoulder at Yuri. What happened, Yuri?
Arbi - Yesterday at 11:43 PM
Yuri: He shakes his head slowly, remembering his vision as the monster shook him up a little. The Hat Man has him... I think he's trapped inside his house.

Trent: He looks down, more mad than anything that someone else is going through that again. Tell us what happened.

Yuri: He sighs out of frustration. I was fighting Chris and I got scared... I tried pulling him into the Sunless to end the fight fast and Lucas got pulled inside with him.

Trent: He narrows his eyes at Yuri before looking towards Chris. And who are you?
Omniance - Yesterday at 11:51 PM
Coty: That's my old co-captain of the football team. What's up man? Look good.

Chris: He looks over at Coty. What the hell, these shit-kickers got you into this too? He pulls a blanket off of one of the beds and wraps himself with it.

Coty: They can't live without me.

Troy: You've absolutely no talents and have been entirely useless. He tunes the static on his radio and writes something else down.

Coty: That's not what your mom said last night.

Troy: I'm an orphan, so I wouldn't know. He lowers his glasses and looks back at everyone else.

Chris: Troy's here, Nemo's here, Twins are here, Coty, Shane. It's a regular old high school reunion...

Nemo: He looks to Trent as he stands up. Chris is an old... Associate of mine. His mother is a giant snake.

Trent: That doesn't explain why he's here.

Chris: One of these two did something to my mom. He motions to Nemo and Yuri. Turned her into a real life stepford housewife or somethin.

Trent: We're trying to stop some dark god from a dead world from killing everyone and your biggest problem right now is that your mom is acting weird?

Chris: Mom happens to be one of the reasons multiple things from other worlds don't kill everyone, so yeah, it's a real big fuck'n concern.

Yuri: It was me. He looks at Chris.

Chris: Well how about you get started on fuck'n fix'n it then?

Yuri: That dark god that Trent just mentioned, I asked him to do it. I almost asked him to hurt her but I wanted to do something else. I wanted her to feel happy so she would never bother us again. I had to do it... she was never going to leave us alone.

Chris: Of course she was never going to leave you shit-kickers alone. You're constantly making pacts with demons, fallen angels, DARK GODS and who knows what else. He motions to Nemo. This guy regularly kills people to get what he wants, and you- He looks to Yuri. -just murder your friends apparently.

Yuri: Everyone out...

Yuri: I said get out!

Omniance - Today at 12:12 AM
Shane: He looks at Nemo strangely and then moves for the door, pulling Nemo with him by the hand.

Coty: He rolls his eyes and walks passed Yuri, follow his brother out into the storm.

Troy: He writes one last thing down and then stands up, walking out as he takes off his reading glasses.(edited)

Trent: He looks at Chris before he turns and follows the rest of them out, letting the door close behind him as he just stands outside.
Yuri: ...If we stop that dark god then your mom will go back to normal. My only question is, are you going to let her come after me and my friends again?

Chris: I think you have a very shallow understanding of how my mother thinks. He stares at Yuri for a moment, looking him up and down. ...But if you undo whatever the hell you did to her, let's say I'll call this damn thing even, and I'll do my damnedest to tell her how much of an asset you are to keep around. He takes a deep breath and looks away, thinking for a split second. My question to you is, since stopping the end of the world sorta falls into the purview of my line of work... What can I do to help you achieve these ends without us try'n to kill one another again.(edited)

Yuri: He remembers the incredibly expensive liquid sunlight that Nemo mentioned before and smiles a little.