Immortal Misadventures: The Haunted Planet

## Characters

* Demacrix: An immortal forced to run from the homeworld and has taken to travelling across the universe.
* The Teller: Formerly known as the Worm, and the Chemist, a renegade immortal who has turned to becoming a story teller, spreading joy instead of chaos. Has taken to travelling with Demacrix to their annoyance.
* Governor Pryce: The Governor of the colony, fairly ineffectual since the Boogeymen and their master came.
* Former Sheriff Mathias Lincoln: Resigned because of the boogeymen, he now works as a miner.
## Location

* Optoris: A small planet in a constant summer, and windy weather, It is known for its abandunt energy crystals, which are mined by the local colony. The colony was actually made as an agricultural settlement before the discovery of the crystals, and boast the population of a large town. Architecture is Near Future style. The planet sports four moons and a nearby spatial anomaly that has recently appeared.
	+ Located around the town now are strange monuments, plunged into the ground with occular green screens

## Enemies

* Static Boogeymen: Hooded figures of static and shadow, seemingly living nightmares.
* The Victim/Controller: A renegade who specializes in hypnotizing people, he styles himself the controller, but is often mockingly called the Victim. A former associate of the Teller.

## Prologue

The stranger landed on his stomach, having been thrown there by the natives. Some wore basic garments of cloth and synthetic leather, while others, like the city guards wore full body suits. The stranger, a pudgy short thing with slimy black hair, and light brown skin, and darke yes, wore robes of grey and black, with a black sash around hsi shoulders with gold markings, circles filled with geometric patterns., and black leather gloves and boots.

"You'll regret this...!" he shouted as he got back up.

"Sure, sure...." said one of the guards in a dismissive tone as whe dusted his hands. "but take your coocoo cult and head elsewhere. This planet is filled with rationale people..."

"Rationale..." the stranger said as he got up, keeled over. "Everyone thinks they're rationale, until the fear comes, and it is coming....!" The guardsman placed his hand over his pistol, unclipping the holster opening. "Hold, hold, hold....!" the stranger said now standing up straight, and backing away with his arms up. "Never said 'I' was bringing the fear, okay, just...don't shoot the messenger..."

"Maybe the 'messenger' should watch his words, and his 'hands' when next he arrives at another colony...."

"Fair, fair...but my ride is the other direc-" The guard pulled out his pistol and aimed the blaster at him.

"The Governor has spoken, you're not coming back into this town, under pain of death. Do you understand these words?"

"Crystal, I'll just....walk around...I guess..."

"Emphasis on 'around."

"But I don't wanna..." the child said. The family sat at their table the TV on as the older sibling watched interstellar sports, and the father read the news feed on his tablet computer as he finished his breakfast with a cup of coffee.

"Honey, no, you have to eat your breakfast...or no ice cream today...." the mother replied. They sat sat picking at her eggs with a fork, eggs with chopped up spinnach in them.

"Daddy...." she went.

"Yeah, don't bring me into this..." he said raising his mostly transparent tablet.

"But daddy, I-" The interruption came in the form of quakes, quakes accompanied by the roaring sound of something falling at mock speeds, hitting the ground and making the ground tremble, catching everyone by surprise.

"Under the table, now!" the father shouted, and the family complied. As quickly as it happened it was over and they crawled out from under the table, and looked around.

Outside the townspeople came out of their homes in drove, as emergency sirens were blaring. They ignored these sounds, their attention was attracted to the objects that had fallen from the sky. They were spikes of a light grey metal topped with occular like structure from which shined a green glow.

"It's....it's like that weirdo said...." uttered someone in the crowd.

"Enough of that!" shouted the guardsmen. He pullled out his blaster and approached it slowly.

"Get back here...!" shouted his wife.

"Calm down!" he shouted back. He approached it, stretching out his hand to touch the object, when suddenly a hand grabbed his. He was fairly certain the figure in the black cloak was not there seconds ago, but it stood up, gaunt, black hand grabbing his arm, as it stood up. He struggled, he freaked out, he fired, one, two three shots, into stranger's chest, then its head, and finally blowing of its hand before he fell to the ground. His friends came and pulled him away, but they and every paused as the dark figure stood standing. Instead blood, its wounds sported a dark static, where the image of the wounds disappeared, even its hand was restored as it looked up and stared at them with glowing sinister green eyes.

## Part 1

"No..." he said annoyed. He sat at the pilot's seat, in the middle of the cockpit his hands on two glowing orbs, while the arms of the chair was slants sporting numerous touchcreen buttons and graphs. He sported dark hair, straight and tied back into a ponytail, a natural tan complexion, and brown eyes that edged onto being as dark as night. He wore black jacket that acted like a grey robe with black trims, black trousers, polished black shoes, and a navy blue shirt. He wore a black flared shoulder piece, Meanwhile around his neck was a necklace of a yellow metal with a glowing green oval.

"Oh come on..." said his companion. She sat at the edge, on the Chevron shaped bridge by the windows, where the blue rush of hyperspace could be seen. His companion was a woman, blonde in appearance, with long hair, and eyes hidden behind tinted goggles with bronze trims. She wore a grey lab coat with stains, some tearing and lots of pockets, over a simple shirt and denim jeans, and sporting sneakers. She had a leather sash from shoulder to hip with even more pockets. "If I cloned your ship, you wouldn't have to ferry me about!"

"As...wonderful as that sounds, I'm not going to trust you with the genetic code of a sentient starship."

"What's the worse I could do...?"

"Modify it and create a splinter, engineered race of living warships?"

"That sounds something 'you' would do...." she said raising an accusatory eyebrow.

"Indeed. I have some...expertise in how the minds of the infamous work..."

"Of course you do...." she said in a mocking tone. "What do you think....?" she said looking up. The ship hummed a melody, as only a living machine could.

"Yeah, that's a no..."

"You sure, because it sounds like your ship is saying it's getting low on fuel..." He squinted his eyes, shifting from a blank expression, to sour countenance. He took one of his hands off the orb and began working on the terminal on his chair arm,

"Oh..." he went with a raised eyebrow.

"What...?"

"We're detecting an emergency signal..."

"From whom....?" she got and moved to his side, as a holographic star map appeared in front of them. "Colonists...?"

"No, they don't got this deep into subspace. This is one of ours...." She turned to him in disbelief.

"What...?"

"We're not the only renegades out here. Besides it's using our people's code."

"But, that....that's...."

"Very stupid, if they are indeed a renegade. Yes....this code will eventually reach homeworld if not discontinued."

"Ah, well, we just need to avoid that, don't we...." she said walking away.

"Well...." She paused and turned around, annoyed "The signal is coming from a planet with energy crystals...." She sighed, removing her goggle for moment to rub her eyes. "Yes, no disgreements there, but we do need to refuel and....no other planets have the right conditions for energy crystals near here..."

"But we can..."

"All of those are very risky, you know that..." She put back on her goggles and took a deep breath, before turning around and shrieking in frustration.

"I'll take that as a yes..." he said. In response she turned around panting in annoyance, glaring at him. It was not the he couldn't figure it out even with her wearing tinted goggles. he just did not care. "Setting course for Optoris."

The ship translated back into real space, into the Optoris system. The system was....ordinary, mundane planets, there was the nebulae around them making paint the black void in pyschodelic colors, but that was to be expected, that had been seen before. There was nothing about these readings their intruments gave them that raised an eyebrow, suspicion, interest, as they looked over the data feeds from their sensors...that was until they noticed 'it'...

"An anomaly...?" she went, standing over the large joined singular console, the screen was a mix of holographic projection and grains of programmable matter rising up to take the proper shapes. "How stange...."

"They are by definition..." the pilot replied.

"Demacrix, stuff the dry humor and look at this..." He rolled his eyes, and inhaled, taking a deep breath. For a moment he seemed to be holding his breath, for a moment his dark brown eyes turned burning emerald green, twitching at eldritch paces, as computer screens, showing graphs, and information relating to the anomaly appeared, moved and disappeared from his view. Then came the exhale, and his eyes returned to their natural somber dark. "Well...?"

"An artificial rift..."

"How is it 'artificial' because normally a rift moves towards closing itself, the continuum's natural self repair process. This...is 'stable'. Matter cannot move through it, but data, energy is flowing through that rift."

"Wireless FTL transfer of energy...not even a subspace transciever, this...the mathematics..."

"...Are difficult, not impossible. Still not just anyone can solve them..."

"A mystery then...?"

"For another day..." she leaned on the console sighing "Seriously, you've been no fun since you got that face..."

"Yes, I've noticed..." she rolled her eyes "Ghost Field is being erected."

"Why...?"

"Let's call it a precaution."

The wind picked up. It swirled, it howled, it danced about on the landing bad as the ship shimmered into existence. The vessel's hide was a smooth, polished, leathery black with swirls of darkest crimson. Its main body was an egg of sorts, while three struts had morphed out of its hell, ridge biomechnical limbs. Beside the main egg were triangular jet wings whose shine had morphed from black polished leather to gunmetal grey bones. It was on a landing platform, a circular landing pad, one of several, for small vessels, anything smaller than a full on frigate.

The front of the ship, of its main body opened, its hull morphed open a hole, and the two travellers exited the corvette sized vessel on a small ramp before the ship closed back on itself. They looked around, the small colony, the town, was clearly just bustling with people. They could feel the eyes staring at them from the shadows, and the dropped parts, items, and paraphamelia dropped on the ground, in good condition. The metal panel walls were in good condition, too good to have been abandoned anytime soon, and there was the odd whisper in the air from someone talking too loud.

"Demacrix....what is this place....?" she asked. She wave her hand about, creating disturbances in an unseen energy field, blue ribbons appeared swirled around her hand and then disappearing just as fast. "Is this the...the energy crystals...?"

"No, Chemist..." He replied walking away. She immediately found herself and looked at him.

"It's 'Teller'...." he looked back and then away.

"Apologies, Teller. No, this is not the energy crystals. If it was this radiation were from the crystals it would be a bit much, maybe even for us....no, I believe it's this contraption..." he stopped at the object lodged into the ground between the landing platforms and the settlement proper. It was a spike in the ground, but on top of that was a large eye like structure. The hulls was a gunmetal grey, but around the optic, which shined a strange lightning green, were symbols, similar symbols, that he had seen before. On top of all of that, was a spike pointing into the sky, sometimes sparking with voltage.

"What is it...?" she asked walking up towards him. She began to circle it, pressing a button on the side of her helmet, cycling through selected types of vision.

"You tell me..." Demacrix replied.

"Hmmm...." she went "It's definitely producing hard light particles, photonic particles, but...it's also...receiving signals, through that projector....a transceiver...?"

"And...?" she looked at him, annoyed, obviously he knew the answer, now he was just testing him, like a child, it annoyed her. "And there's a big cluster of circuits in the middle of the damn thing! What?!"

"This is not a test, I know you know what this is. All those years in the tunnels couldn't have addled that brain of yours..." She grumbled.

"It's...." she paused, looking at it up and down. "What is this...it's generating a field , but also receiving input, from...us? No, anything, everything, everyone...That's impossible..."

"Come now, you and I are 'impossible', we really should know better than to use that word...still I think you've missed something very important..."

"Like what...?!"

"Their approach..." She turned around to a group of colonists armed with whatever they could find. For the one in front that meant a hunting blaster. He was a tall man with long, wild curly blonde hair, blue eyes and a goatee that was starting to grow into a full on beard. He, like the others, had bags under their eyes.

"Your ship...now!" he said as he aimed the blaster

"Why would they want our ship?" the Teller asked.

"Why else..." Demacrix replied "To leave...the question is from what?"

"No more question!" the man shouted

"Are you sure...?" Demacrix replied.

"That sounded like a question..." said the Teller. Demacrix looked at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Ever thought of changing your name to 'Captain Obvious'....?" She turned for just a moment and flashed a wide toothy grin. In return, he rolled his eyes.

"Enough!" the man shouted "We're taking your ship!"

"Uhm...no..." Demacrix replied. His head suddenly and at freakish speeds, titled to the side, dodging the energy bullet that exited the barrel of the man's gun. It whizzed past his head and continued on to strike the hull of their ship. The damage was...at worse cosmetic, but the ship did not care. It generated a grinding, screeching mechanical cry, as it began to shimmer, flickering away as the wind swirled around it, sucked into a vortex as suddenly their was a vaccum where something once was. "You know..." Demacrix let out in an unamused, but mocking tone "I said 'no' because you literally cannot pilot my ship, let's call it 'isomorphics'. but you triggering its emergency response, does make your attempt to take my ship even more...difficult...." The Teller could tell who Demacrix was angry at, the man for shooting his ship, or his ship for freaking out like that.

"No...no....NO!" the man shouted.

"Yes, yes, YES!" Demacrix shouted back "See how pointless shouting random words can be?" He aimed his gun at them again, specifically Demacrix.

"Don't mock me! This is all your fault, ever since your kind came here it's been nothing but horrors..."

"My kind...?" Demacrix asked, eyebrow raised and interest piqued.

"Yes, 'your' kind! You came here in the same manner, in the same dress as that controll bastard..." Demacrix's interest turned to annoyance, and the Teller sighed and rubbed her forehead.

"The Controller is here...?" they said together, Demacrix rubbing his eyes.

"Yes...!" the man shouted "He cam here with prophecies, and mad ravings, then these things came, and ever since then the shadows have stalked us!"

"Shadows...?" went the Teller. Demacrix could see it, their fear, their discomfort, boiling under the surface at the mere mention of their name,and they began to chant something under their breaths.

"No more, question!" the man shouted "Bring back your ship now...!"

"No..." said Demacrix, catching everyone, even the Teller, off-guard.

"Did you not hear me!?" the man shouted back, as Demacrix walked in front of the object, pulling the Teller along. Immediately the resolution to shoot faded from the man's face.

"I heard you, loud and clear, but you're not getting it right..."

"I said!"

"No! Try again, get it right this time!" The man looked confused, as were the rest of the colonists. For a moment, he was confused until.

"Please, we need your ship..." he said putting down the gun.

"There we go...also you lot should run now..." he said pointing past them. They all looked back. The blue energy was swirling up the road, only infar greater mass, and accompanied by black and white static that turned the blue energy purple and then black, as it clumped together, taking shapes, forms, hooded spectres with glowing green eyes. Immediately they scattered, running, panicking, the man tried to fire, but his bolts simply phased through them, as he fired repeatedly, desperately. "Teller..."

"Yeah..."

"Go save him..."

"Do I really..." He turned and gave her a look. She rolled her eyes and ran off, grabbing the man by the arm, and pulling him away and into an alleyway. This left Demacrix, who turned and rubbed the glowing surface of the device's optic, rubbing his fingers and smelling the tips before turning back around. A group of hooded being, ranging from skeletons, to zombies, most in varying but incomplete sets of armor stared at him. All of them bore hoodded cloaking, covering them in shadow.

"Hello..." Demacrix said with his monotone voice. One of them stepped forward, and let out a blood curdling shriek of electronic static.

## Part 2

"Hmmm...." went Demacrix, "not the sort of greeting I was expecting but then it's not this planet has been particularly welcoming..." It roared again. "I heard you the first time." He looked at them. Some of them had strange appendages, a tentacle a crab claw, some have visible guts and intestines, some had maggots crawling about the place, but all had shimmering static in their shadows. "Fascinating little things you are..." It roared again "But you are known. You are identified, so why don'g you go bother someone else who will fall for this trick...?" The creature pulled back while it showed no emotion, he could tell it was thinking, pondering. It then reachd into the darkness of its cloak and began pulling out a sword.

Demacrix out a device from his sleeve, l thin silver wand like device, with circuit lines and numerous boxes attached and wired together, while the tip was a green crysal. it had a small rectangular screen, a knob with a few more buttons around it. He immediately pointed it backwards, aiming at the device behind him. The shadow being stopped, and the others took an instinctive step back.

"So...." Demacrix went, almost smirking "even creatures of fear....know fear... Yes, I know what this is, which means I know what you are..." He bcame serious "I will say it again, you are known, you are identified, and without the shadow the unknown granting you fear from your prey....you are no longer predators, you're tricks. Be gone..." The shadow put away his blade and raised its chin with indignation, before turning and walking away, scattering, moving like the wind. The became insubstantial, spectres, moving about moving through solid objects. "Huh..." was his only response before he turned and continued to examine the objects.

The Teller continued running, dragging the man away through the alleyways, moving past people who were ducking back into their homes, throught the back doors. She could hear them, hear them all praying loudly as they huddled inside. "Venerate the Venerated, Venerate the Venerator..." over and over again. Till she stopped. The man fell onto his knees, panting, much more from fear that tiredness. He was on all fours, eyes filled with panic. She stooped down, arms wrapped around her knees.

"Hmmm, you're not much use like this..." she mused. She reached into her pocket and pulled out something, a red vial and she pulled out of the cork on top, below his nostrils. The scent knocked him on his backside, but it also knocked the fear out of him.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed.

"Good..." went the Teller, putting away her potion. "Now, question...what is all of this...?"

"What...?" he asked truly confused.

"The 'Venerated' what is all that about...?"

"We...don't know...we just know that's what we say to make them leave us alone."

"Let me guess...the 'Controller' told you this...?" Her tone was one of annoyance.

"You sound familiar with him...."

"Same species..."

"So you are in league-" she smacked him across his face.

"No..." she said annoyed. "Same species. Once, maybe, I was in league with him, and his master...but I learned better. Now I'm with Demacrix, and we are no friends to his like..."

"Then....you know what's going on...?" asked, hungry for answers.

"If I knew that, I wouldn't be asking questions... Demacrix probably knows, my expertise is more in chemistry and metallurgy , ugh, should've paid attention in Space Geometry class..."

"None of that makes any sense..."

"Well we're not your brand of human, now are we...? Now what are those things...?"

"We are the night..." said a whispering, gaunt voice with an electronic echo. They looked around to see the spectres coming towards them, as the chanting got louder from the houses. "We are the call of the grave, and the terror of the dark...!" She grabbed him by his arm and took off, dragging him along. "We are your every waking nightmare, the chill in the night."

"That last part was redundant....!" she shouted back. One of them shrieked an electronic shrill as they continued to walk at a constant pace. They continued running, going through the back allies of the colony houses, over water heater, and ac units. They kept going, until they found themselves in a dead end. They turned around but there they were, reforming from a static filled miasma, blocking their exit.

"We are the night..." the continued "We are the call of the grave, and the terror in the dark, we are-"

"Very keen on repeating yourselves...." said the Teller. She reached into her pocket and threw a vial, that caused a small explosion. They were gone, for a moment, but before they could say anything they reformed again from the static filled black smoke.

"We are all that crawls in the depths of your hearts, we are immortal..."

"Aren't we all...shoot them...!" She looked back. He was on the ground, against the wall, curled up and whispering the same thing.

"Bow, and pray...!" they said.

"No thanks..." she said, still backing away. "**DEMACRIX!**"She went, her voice an inhuman below that made the standing shadows flicker and everyone nearby feel a chill run up their spines.

Back by the device, Demacrix stroked his chin as he examined it, his eyes glowing emerald green, as his mind worked at an inhuman capacity to figure out this puzzle. That was when he heard his name, the echoing voice moving like the wind, that held a single word that told him all he needed to know. He pulled out his device and, and the tip glowed, a bright auara that flickered and morphed, but he aimed it at the device and pressed the knob. The device's optic shined bright, a light matching that of Demacrix's device's.

"We are the chill-" They stopped. They began to wale about, clearly in great discomfort, or perhaps glitching as their static effect began to glow more evident. In the distance she saw it, the green glow. That was the direction they flowed, their bodies coming apart into static and dark miasma, flowing ribbons in the air.

The Teller ran out from the alleyway, dragging the man behind her. They were back at the town entrance, seeing Demacrix pointing his scientific wand at the device, the ribbons of dark energy coming from all over, and trapped and absorbed by the mass of light between his wand and the device. She immediately let go of the man, and ran over to him, as he stuggled to hold the field.

"Well?!" sh exclaimed.

"Amplify the antenna..." he responded, his eyes back to normal. She pulled out her wand. It was a thing of leather and bronze, and joined that extended out the telescoptic shaft, while her fingers were around a leather grib, just below sever buttons and a gear like kob. The shaft extended out a blue crystal, that glowed. The spike atop the device, arced even more, firing bolts of lighting up into the air, as the field of light started to very quickly get smaller and smaller until it was gone.

"They're...gone..." the man asked.

"For now..." said Demacrix, flipping his wand as the Teller put away hers. "They'll be back, just not any time soon."

"No..." he exclaimed, putting his hand on his head and turning away.

"What were they...?" asked the Telller.

"They are nightmares, horrors, demons!" the man shouted. The Teller looked at him and then back at Demacrix. By now the man's voice was begining to draw out the other colonists from their homes.

"He's not wrong...." the dark clad one said "He's not being very scientific right now, but....he's not wrong. Thought I would more call them 'boogeymen'..."

"Boogeymen...those imaginary horrors that scare children...?"

"Yes, though, they aren't imaginary anymore...actually no, they are very much still imaginary...but these devices make them....substantial..." The Teller and the man just looked at him confused, with the Teller sighed and face palmed.

"Can you just..." she said.

"Analyze..." Demacrix replied. She paused and took a deep breath. She was immobile for a moment, as more townsfolk approached cautiously.

"Oh..." she said.

"Yes..." he replied as he turned back to the device.

"Are either of you two going to explain what is going on...?!" the man exclaimed.

"Not without a cup of tea."

Demacrix blew on his tea, before putting it to his lips. Sitting beside him the Teller watchined, head resting against her palm, elbow on the table and hand on her hip, as he immediately and without so much of an emotional cue, open his mouth and allow the hot tea juice to flow back into the cup before putting it back on the plate and moving it away. He then wiped his lips with the tissue he had been provided and said nothing, but kept his countenance away from direction of the Teller's smirk.

They were in a conference room, in what was one of the largest buildings in the colony, it was one of the few that were not factory, refinery, or hydroponics. It was the town hall and they were attended by android butlers. That was when the doors slid open, and in she walked, a woman with black hair in a princess cut, wearing a red dress, but a burgandy vest with flared shoulders. Her sleeaves were form fitting, and around her brown eyes was platinum eye shadow. Behind her were guards with blaster pistols and the man from before,

"Governor Pryce I presume...." said Demacrix, blatantly ignoring the fuming expression she had.

"Who do you think you are?!" She asked with a roar.

"Do you want the long or short version...?" She slammed her hand onto the table as she leaned forward.

"Don't play games with me, offworlder!"

"I'm trying, but you're making it rather difficult..." Her eye twitched

"Do you know where you are?!"

"In a haunted colony..." Demacrix replied "Which I thought was going to be the point of this conversation, so what has you so miffed?!"

"Your little 'stunt' has people talking, worrying!"

"Ah, so it is the fear..."

"Fea- You know what is going on don't you?!"

"It didn't take long to figure out. You have electronic boogeymen, haunting your colony..."

"You know nothing..."

"They are...memes..." There was silence

"Excuse me...?"

"They are memes." said Telller.

"I heard him the first time."

"They are ideas, they are concepts, they are feelings cloaked in an image and sent out to harvest more of that emotion. Fear..." the Governor shook her head, arms crossed.

"You understand nothing..." she said defiantly

"Then 'you' tell me what they are..."

"I..." she said hesitating "I don't have to stand here and answer-"

"Okay, you don't know, so why are you talking?!"

"You pompous-"

"So...The Controller, strolled through here..."

"Yes... your 'friend'..." Demacrix chuckled. "Something funny...?"

"The idea that we're 'friends'..."

"He likes to be called the 'Controller' but back home we have another name for him..." said the Teller.

"What is that...?"

"The Victim..."

"Why...?" asked the man.

"Because he's so good at playing that role." she said with mocking amusement.

"Back on topic..." went Demacrix. "You lot have a faith field erected around the town, and had memes planted into your minds. The end result, the boogeymen."

"What do you mean 'end result'?" the man asked.

"They are fear, your fear, everyone's fear, but 'he' put the idea of them in your minds, gave them a shape to cling onto and move. Have you not noticed they only appear when you gather and speak of them, the idea of them rich in your minds, the fear, deep, it's almost like a ritual, a pre-programmed response from the field."

"Faith field..." the Governor said with disbelief.

"Not the strangest thing you'll see in the galaxy." said the Teller "A wireless psychic connection. The real question is why...."

"Why, what...?" asked the governor.

"Why go through all of this..." said Demacrix standing up. "This is not his modus operandi..."

"I don't know..." said the governor "I'm not a member of his species, why don't 'you' tell me why the Controller is doing this...?"

"The controller?" Demacrix went "Don't be daft, he's just a pawn. I'm talking about the 'Venerated' as he so loves to call himself. This is nothing like how he normally works. He finds a primitive group of people, set himself up as a god, using the faith field to turn their worship into power, and buggers off before the signals attract unwanted attention. This...isn't worship, it's harvesting fear..."

"I fail to see the difference, fear, worship, he gets his name called out..."

"Calling out the name of your god, isn't the same psychological response as bowing at an altar...besides it's not like that fool would even know how to reprogram the emitters."

"Well..." went the Governor "I've heard enough..."

"Really....?"

"Yes..."

The two sat in the prison cell somewhat bored,and annoyed.

"So..." went the Teller "think she's in on it...?"

"Hmmm, hard to say..." Demacrix replied. He was twiddling his fingers, thinking about something "It makes little sense for her to be in on this plan, not unless she's some megalomaniac with who cut a deal, but while she is clearly a control freak, I suspect her irrationale behavior is no less that....irrationale."

"Makes sense then, she's the leader of this town of irrationale people..."

"Oh we are all irrationale when we are scared, unless we're being brave..." he said standing up. He approached the bars and waved his hand in front of it, but voltage arced between the metal bars.

"Not a lot of braves in this town then....is that why he came here...?"

"Who knows. I would like to think they plotted, schemed, and did psychological profiles before choosing their target, but knowing those two fools they likely choose they place at random."

"This place...is this the only place they're doing this...." He turned around at a breakneck speed. Concern was painted on his face as he slowly turned back around. He hadn't thought about that, but it was a real possibility.

"Why, fear...?" He mused aloud.

"What....?"

"Why fear. The Venerated, he uses the psychic eminations of worship to empower himself. That has always been his methods, but fear? He can't use that, it's a negative emotion."

"Why fear indeed...we have the Controller setting the stage, the Faith Fields, everything is a run of the mil operation for them..." said the Teller. She leaned back her head and crossed her legs and arms, as she pondered "but those boogeymen, born of fear, feeding on fear...but when they not summoned...where is that fear going...?"

"With the rest of it..." he said "Into the wormhole..."

"Huh, wait...how...?"

"How could he, of all beings, be able to create a stable wormhole? The Venerated is a one trick pony, set up a Faith Field, collect worship, move on. He makes cults, not....this...this...there is something we're not seeing..."

"Maybe they've changed their tactics..." he looked back, raising an eyebrow. "Okay stupid statement but if it's those two, what of it?"

"If it was those two, we would've won by now...No...there is something else...something in the shadows, moving, scheming... We are blind to its movements..."

"But not the waves it makes...."

"Hmmm...."

The governor closed the door behind her as she entered into her office. Even the window behind her desk looking out to the colony became tinted, blocking all light. She sat at her desk and a portion of it slipped out and transformed into a laptop, where she entered a code. The small computer flattened out as the screen became a holographic projector. It took a moment but eventually there it was, in blue and grey of most uncolored holograms. He was a pudgy man with hair tied back in a long ponytail, a goatee, a goblet in his hand. He wore robes similar to the Controller's but even on the holographic version of black and white TV it was clear how colorful his garment to had to be with various hues of blue.

"What...is it..." the figure said "You know what I told you before..."

"Yes, sir..." she replied "but there is a situation...they're here...Demacrix and the Worm...they could ruin everything, they could, they could..."

"Calm yourself...this time we can finish..." The Venerated paused and turned to the side. He was clearly listening to someone else. He was not happy with what he was hearing...but... "I see..." he turned back to the governor "I want the Teller brought to me."

"The Teller?! Why that little wretch?"

"Before she callled herself 'Teller', she was the Chemist, indulging in experiments few on the homeworld would indulge in. Before that, she was the Worm, tunneling into our world's secrets. She is useful to our plans, maybe more than that."

"And Demacrix...?"

"He is a threat." he said before taking a swing at his drink "As great his knowledge may be, he would never willingly help us, and actively fights us. The Teller is a child, she can be put to work..."

"I do not know master, she was never that compliant in our little group."

"I have given my orders, Controller see to it, that they are done."

"Yes, my master..." The connection ended.

In a dark gothic room, the Venerated turned around, his clothes, many colors, but the most common were the red body suit, and gold trimming of his multi-colored coat. He was a blonde, with dark eyes, and turned to a figure in the dark as he stepped off the platform showing the Controller in his governor disguise. The figure was in the dark, in the shadow, a cloaked being not unlike the boogeymen with a metallic mask sporting green optics, and a metallic clawed right hand. His garments, the cloak and the rags, were all black, or dark grey.

"Why do we need her of all things...?"

"That....should be obvious..." said the dark one "especially to you, who sets up so many false religions around you..."

"Watch your words..."

"Words are the point. She is the 'Teller' now, and words are her domain, stories, a string of words to put hope...or fear, into people's souls..."

"We have the Controller for that..."

"The Victim is of little use beyond getting sympathy, look how little we harvest from that world. With her, and her voice apotheosis would be so much closer, so much faster..."

"Hmmm, a fair point... On that point, I would not trust Controller to get her."

"I have an idea..."

"Oh..." he took another swing of wine, before going for bottle on the edge of the platform.

"The field flows both ways..."

## Part 3

The two guards came before the cell, armed with rifles. One aimed their gun at the two prisoners and the other went to the control terminal beside it.

"Don't move..." said the one aiming his gun. The two offworlders looked at each other and then turned back to the guards. The voltage died down, and the shifted to the side clumped together.

"We're free to go...?" asked Demacrix.

"No, the Governor wants 'her'." The two looked at each other for a moment.

"You girl, up...!"

"Yeah, I'm good where I am..." was her response. A defiant tone steeped in doubt.

"I am not going to ask again!" the guard barked.

"You know you really should do that thing..." said Demacrix turning to the Teller.

"What thing...?" she replied.

"That thing I keep telling you not to do."

"So why would I do it now...?"

"Because it's a very good, and justified time to do it..."

"What are you two on about...?!" the guard shouted "I gave an order!"

"Yeah, in a minute..." Demacrix said giving him attention for jus a second. "You really should do it."

"Ugh...fine..." she went.

"You say it like that, but we both know you're dying to do it..."

"What are you talking about?!" the guard shouted. The two prisoners looked at them, and the Teller's ribcage expanded as she inhaled.

"**Stop**." she went. Her voice was silent thunder, deep, bellowing, but a whisper. The two guards stopped, now seemingly passengers in their own bodies. "**Back up.**" They backed away, out of the cell, and the two exited. "**Now. Follow us...**"

The 'governor' walked out of the elevator, to the security department. Immediately the guards and staff were in a hussle to be presentable. 'She' ignored them, heading directly to the head of security's office, an older man with a noticable thick mustache.

"Where is the prisoner I called for..." the Controller asked with his arms crossed.

"Uh...prisoner...?" the older man said, a bit confused.

"Did I not send two guards down stairs into the cells to bring the offworlder girl to me?"

"Well, you did send to guards down, but..."

"But they are not answering their com badges..."

"Computer..." the man went "Where are officers Jim, and Billy-bob?"

"The two officers are directly outside the town hall, they have not moved for several minutes...." the feminine computer voice.

Within minutes, the two and few other guardsmen were outside where the two were just standing there. It was the two who came to the cell, just in a daze. The other guards tried to shake them but, nothing. That was until the Controller clapped his hands together, jumping them, and knocking them out of their trance. They looked around, confused, their brains trying to figure out where they were, and how they got there.

"Where...is...the...prisoner....?" The 'Governor' said.

"The....prisoner..." one of them asked.

"Don't make me repeat myself, the girl, the Teller..."

"We...." said the other one "We were there, to escort her. The two were talking and then...there was..."

"A voice..." said the other one. The controller fumed.

"They cannot have gotten far, find them, I want the girl brought to me!"

"What, why...?" said another guard. The Controller stepped towards him.

"Don't question me, do it!" Their 'governor' shouted. The men scrambled about as the Controller turned to the colony. "They can't have gotten far."

"Thanks..." said the Teller as the door closed behind them. It was the man, the same one who had nearly fired upon them, the same one who was with them in the Town Hall. Now he lead them into his home.

"No, I should thank you..." he said "For getting rid of those things." The two off worlders paused, something the man noticed. "What...?" They looked at each other.

"We have to tell him..." said Demacrix.

"Yeah..." she replied

"Tell me what...?" was his question.

"We've stopped them now...." said Demacrix, "but the mechanism which allows their appearance is still there, still working. They can, they will possibly return until that is dealt with..." The man straightened his back

"How..." was his only question.

"You've already seen the devices, encompassing your town..." He was not even surprised.

"Honey...!" said a woman's voice "Who are you talking to?"

"Just some friends..." he replied. The woman popped her head out of the doorway to the kitchen, along with a little girl who looked just like her. She had long dark blonde hair, and blue eyes. She wore the typical colony attire of grey and another color but also sported an apron and gloves. The little girl was similarly dressed, but her 'apron' was pink, frilly and clear meant for ovens that were made of plastic.

"Friends...?" she asked, as if the concept was alien. Then she looked embarressd. "Oh, oh, why didn't you tell me we had guests coming over!" she said flustered.

"Because of that..." her husband mumbled under his breath.

"What was that...?"

"Nothing...!" he replied, instinctively stepping back. Before anything else could be said she was in the front room.

"Please, welcome, welcome! I am. I am Mrs. Lincoln, Josephine, my friends call me! You know my husband, Mathias, and this is our beloved bundle of joy, Lily." Their beloved bundle of joy was hidding behind her mother's leg, holding it tight, as she looked at the two strangers, scared.. Demacrix knelt down and looked at the girl.

"You know it's not nice thinking we're weird...." he said "After all 'weird' is relative...." Her eyes opened wide.

"Are you...a mind reader..." she asked reluctantly.

"Why would I need to read your mind, when I can read your face...?" he asked tilting his head and giving a little smirk. The little girl pouted.

"Oh..." said Josephine "Your father knows how to deal with children." Demacrix nearly fell over, before he caught himself, and stood up, while the Teller was snickering.

"I am not her father...."

"You are old-" said the Teller. Immediately he was in her personal space scowling.

"I am nowhere, near 'that' old..." he said annoyed. She just looked away, barely able to stop the laughter from escaping her mouth. Then came the banging of the doors.

## Part 4

Time seemed to have stopped as everyone's attention turned to the doors. They banged on the door again. Demacrix grabbed the Teller by the shoulder and pulled her back as he pulled out his wand and started waving it about. The family was a bit confused until the banging continued. The husband turned and moved to the door, moving his hand to the keypad to open it, when the door slid open on its own. There were several guards there, one taking his keycard out of the control terminal , and another facing the husband directly.

"Hi..." the husband said. The guard pushed past him and forced his way into the house. "Hey!" He was again ignored, as the guards looked about. They saw only the house, the wife and her daughter who she held tightly, and...nothing else.

"Where are they....?"

"Who...?" The guard grabbed him by the collar.

"The offworlders!"

"How should I know?"

"Useless...!" the guard shoved him away and turned and left. The door closed behind them.

"What was that about...?" Josephine asked. "And where....?" Mathias turned to her and put his finger on his lips. He waited and listened for the sound of their footsteps, as they walked away, before walking deeper into the house, clsoer to his family.

"What is going on...?"

"Oh that's simple..." said the Teller. Her disembodied voice sounded like it was there, next to them, but the two offworlders were gone. Then it happened. Static appeared, as they shimmered their forms appearing out of nowhere, both holding their wands.

"Magic...!" went Lily.

"Close enough..." went Demacrix.

"How...?" Mathias asked.

"You town is flooded with a psycho-photonic field, it's a simple trick of holograms..."

"On that note..." said the Teller, concerned.

"Yes, the through had crossed my mind."

"What...'thought'...?" went Mathias "And what is this psycho...whatever..."

"Psycho-photonic field..." went the Teller as Demacrix turned, and went into his calculative mode. "A machine is producing a synthetic psychic field around your town, but more than that, it's tied to a field of photonic particles, hard light, the stuff holograms are made out of..." Mathias raised an eyebrow in confusion. The Teller simply sighed. "What do you think you get, when you mix a psychic field, and a holographic field, mixed together, working together...?" Mathias paused for a moment, until his eyes opened wide with revelation and he clapped his hands together. "Yes...."

"The boogeymen..."

"Which really isn't that big of a revelation all things considered, but now you get why they appear."

"Because we call them..." said Josephine concerned.

"Because you fear them..." said Demacrix "They are memes, ideas, ideas tied to an emotion; fear. Or at least, that's what they should be but..."

"But they stalk the colony, the roads and the allies, at night." said the wife.

"That's not..." went Teller. She turned to Demacrix. "How...?"

"How indeed...because they were summoned."

"By who?" She turned back to the wife "They don't appear unless there is fear, and not just a bit, a lot, a whole lot, it took a group of your together in one place to summon them. Or perhaps the system is just programmed to summon them, at a certain time, the end result is the same..."

"Worship..."

"No...and yes..."

"What are you two saying..." asked Mathias.

"Someone..." said Demacrix "Someone is using your colony, your town, your planet, to harvest...fear..."

"That's not his way..."

"The Controller...?" asked Mathias

"No, his master, the Venerated. Another renegade from our planet, one with a god complex..."

"Makes sense to me...." said Josephine "We're all praying to him when they come...."

"But you aren't..." said the Teller "Not really. You just know that phrase will hold them off, while they stand there, absorbing your fear through the same system that manifests them." It was then Demacrix looked down at Lily and noticed how scared she was. His eyes opened wide.

"Oh..." he said "We are fools..."

"Why do you say that...?" asked the Teller.

"We've been talking about boogeymen in front of a little girl." The two offworlders looked at each other, and immediately turned around pulling out their technological wands, aiming them at the singular boogeyman that was forming on the other side of the room. The black mass flew forward slamming into a forcefield that the two had erected with their wands.

"Venerate the Venerator..." went Josephine. "Venerate-"

"We don't need a chant...." said Demacrix "We need a story..."

"They, are ours..." said the boogeyman, now growing another head.

"Is that what you've fed them...such petty little lies. Teller, illuminate the child..."

"With what...?!" she said.

"What is your name...?" he asked her rhetorically and annoyed. She turned to the family cowering in the corner, and she gave her wand to Demacrix as she broke off from the shield to deal with them. She knelt down, looking thinking, and turning to the child. 'Of course' she thought, the 'fear of a child', pure unblocked by years of maturity. It may be the strongest, but it flows the fastest, the swiftest.

"Afraid..."

"I'm not afraid...!" the child said, in the way children did when they were upset and didn't want to admit it.

"Good, that's good..." The Teller said, putting a hand on her shoulder "Do you want to know a secret....about 'them'" The way she motioned her head backwards, made it clear who she was talking about.

"No...!" she said burying her face into her mother.

"No, no, it's a good secret, good for us, bad for them..." She pulled her face away, just a bit. "Do you know why they scare us...?"

"Because they're scary...!" The Teller chuckled.

"That's just what they want you to think. They want you to be scared, because in truth, monsters, like them...fear is all they have. That's why they're so scared of us."

"Scared of us...?"

"No!" howled the boogeyman "We are the chill of the night, the waking nightmare, the-" Demacrix fiddled with the knob of his wand, making the shield block both the particle matter but also sound.

"You heard it, all the scary things it says..." said the Teller 'because it needs to be scary. Monsters, only know fear. They feed on fear, they exist because of fear, they exist in fear. It's all they know, it's all they want from us, it's why they're afraid of us..."

"Us...?" Lily asked.

"Of course, we're not just fear, we're laughter, sadness, anger, joy, fear and...courage. With us, fear can make you faster, can make you stronger, we all know fear, it's there warning of us of danger, a challenge to overcome. Because of fear we can brave, we can be heroes....and they're afraid of heroes. To them fear is just their food, the ocean the swim in, and heroes come along, without fear, it all just evaporates, all the fear they need. All of us can be heroes...that's why they're so afraid of us."

"Even me...."

"Everyone. Look at it...look how it's snarling, and screaming, so desperate to scare us, to scare you...because when you're no longer afraid of it....what does it have...." She moved aside, to let Lily see. Where once the dread voice and scratching would've terrified her, slowly but sure its movements began to look...desperate.

"Oh..." went Demacrix "That's right..."

"What is....?" asked his friend. Demacrix looked back.

"We don't need these..." The shield came down and the boogeyman, now a hydra of a beast, with many heads and many arms, flowed forward like a deluge towards the family and the Teller. They cringed, and then it stopped, as if something had grabbed it head from behind. It winced and cringed, and convulsed about in pain, the black aura around it evaporating like smoke. Its extra limbs and heads, were gone, so quickly. Demacrix walked up behind it, his sleeves together, and looked it at it. It tried to run away, but his stare was upon it, a commanding steer.

"Of course..." Went the Teller "Psycho-photonic field..."

"Meaning...?" asked Mathias

"What is courage..." said Demacrix "but fear conquered. What is a beast of terror in the face of a brave..." The boogeyman sneered and snarled, but it was quickly becoming gaunt. It was weakening, and it turned to the family. They were no longer crouching, no longer cowering in the corner, they were standing, all three of them looking at him, not as a demon, or terror, or spook, just as a curiousity, and curiosity gave him no power.

"I am the chill of the night..." he said with a dry, crackly voice of static.

"Yes...so we heard..." said the Teller. Then came a knock on the door, and the boogeyman started chuckling. Demacrix raised an eyebrow, before pointing his wand at it. The spook immediately found itself consumed in the light of the wand's tip, before Demacrix pointed it at the door. Said door opened, the guards had returned due to the commotion, and before they could fire, or do anything he fired the boogeyman out of his wand like a spray of black static filled miasma.

They all fell to the ground in panic and fear, having had little nightmares sprayed upon them and the Teller and Demacrix made their escape, taking off. Immediately they started the chant as they curled up in the fetal position, and the boogeyman form and vigor returned to it. That was until it heard the door closed. Mathias was standing outside, staring at it. The figure reached for him, grabbing him by the throat, but he stood up, holding down his fear, subjugating his fear. Were once superhuman hands gripped his throat, he stood up as the spector began to shrink, it took off, fading away.

"Mathias..." said one of the guards. "What did you just do...?" Mathias put forward his hand. "I conquered fear...."

"Where to next...?" The Teller asked as they moved through the alleyways. Demacrix was fiddling with his wand as they moved.

"You know where to."

"No, I don't...?"

"Teller, you're an Immortal of Kerbos, same as me..."

"Yeah, but I'm not 15,00 solar cycles old..."

"It's 1,500! And my point still stands. Obviously the Controller is parading as the Governor. Obvious this field, is a 'field' in the agricultural sense, they are harvesting fear, but where, how would they send it where it needs to go."

"We know how, the wormhole in orbit..."

"Yes, but how is it being transmitted there?!"

"I...oh..."

"Exactly..."

"The same way he got here..." She know realized he was using his wand to navigate their path to their target.

Their target,,.looked like a house. Except it was the wrong type of house. Everything in this colony, from the simplest of shacks, to the town hall, the platforms for the space port, all of it, was made of metal. Yet in front of them was a yellow cottage of plastor and timber, with a tiled red roof, two triangular sides, and three windows out front covered by white curtains. The door was a burgandy curved arch, with a white picket fence, a short path of stepping stones, and grass, green grass....despite being covered by the shadows of the two buildings beside it.

It was in the middle of a minitarure junkyard, where old parts and pieces of equipment had found themselves thrown away, or collected and dumped here. Yet in this small field of rust, there it was.

"Why...?" was the Teller's only question.

"Probably an error in its chameleon Matrix..." Demacrix replied "As for why a yellow cottage...I do not know...but I was correct, this is the node."

"You're sure..." she looked up. Between her eyes and the equipment installed in her goggles, she could see the wormhole. "Huh, didn't realize it was in geosynchronous orbit...that's..."

"Those are calculations far above either of their heads..." he said putting away his wand in his coat. He approached it, examining it, the Teller behind him.

"You know, I once tried to make one of these on my own...." said the Teller.

"Oh...is that what caused that explosion?" Her face turned red as he jiggled the door.

"I'll take that as a yes...Huh, was so sure he would've left this unlocked from what I've heard of him..."

"You've never really met have you..."

"We have...just never in any...meaningful capacity..."

"Try boobs..." Demacrix looked back at her. "I know him, his password, is likely going to be boobs, the bigger the more accurate..."

"You weren't..."

"No...." she said with a quick tone of disgust and annoyance "Dispite his attempts..."

"Wait...you mean....that's why he put so much effort into learning hypnosis?!" She nodded and Demacrix, Demacrix smirked...then he chuckled almost uncontrollably. "So you were a member of the goblin circle..."

"Is that what you upper classmen called us..." she said annoyed with her hands crossed.

"I was not at the academy at that time, but yes, I heard of you."

"Ugh..." she said face palming. Demacrix stood up, putting his hand on the door, and closed his eyes, imagining and projecting the image of the 'password' to the bioship in front of them. The 'door' opened, not like a wooden door would, it opened in that the image opened in a circular shape, causing Demacrix to fall into and then immediately closing. The Teller moved but it was too late.

Inside, was a flight of stairs, it was the same dark grey metal bone texture of his ship, but compressed to fit the shape of the house it mimiced. Up the flight of stairs was a closed door, an arch door with symbols embolned on it, in pompous gold. In front of that, in a fetal position was a familiar sight, an image that was tattered and ill kept compared what he was more familiar with. It was the governor, and she looked up, startled, and then relieved.

"You....you're not that weirdo..." she went. There was banging on the door.

"Demacrix, get out here!" The Telller shouted "They're here, the boogeymen!" Outside they were forming in mass around her, a wall of dark ghosts of shadows and static forming an enclosing circle. She pulled out her wand and pointed at them, before point it into the air, forming a dome shield of energy around her and the ship.

"Let me go..." Demacrix said.

"I don't..." the Governor went confused.

"Let me go, this is wrong..." He was looking about, but it was only in the response that governor understood who he was talking to. The ship made a growl, a noise, a haggared, cough of an engine roar, emitted in a melodic manner that implied speech. "Don't give me that! You know this is wrong. They didn't build you for this, the feed on the suffering of others..." It roared, and its sound could be heard outside. "Oh..." Demacrix went, surprised. "Well now....how about this..."

"Demacrix...!" shouted the Teller. Demacrix rolled his eyes and moved to the door.

"Teller!"

"Help...!"

"You don't need my help! Remember you words, and remember where you are, what 'they' are."

"But we didn't summon them..."

"They are just a defense mechanism, put there to scare of anyone..."

"They are talking, they say they want me...!"

"Why do they want her...?" The ship grumbled, and Demacrix put up his nose in disgust. "Pfft, like that'll happen. Alright, Teller..."

"What...?"

"They are hunting you..."

"Oh, thanks...!" she said sarcastically and franticly

"Oh I would come out and smack you. They are holograms!" The Teller who was now crouched in front of the door, paused.

"Oh...." she went. She pointed her wand forward, and the shield became a wave of energy tearing apart the bonds that held them together in a deluge of black static moving away from her and dissolving. "Problem solved..."

"She's brillian you know..." Demacrix said, turning back to the governor "But inexperienced. Now, how about you let us out..." The ship grumbled again. "Really now...he treats you like this and you're still loyal. I don't think he would return the favor..."

"Who are you talking to...?!" the governor asked exasperated.

"The ship...it's alive you know. Bioships. Don't ask me why its disguised as a wooden cottage..." The ship grumbled again "Seriously and the lazy bum couldn't be bothered to fix that?! Look, you're being forced to channel all the fear, and suffering of these people to....whoever is behind all of this. That's not healthy, it's not even remotely healthy for you, especially considered the nature of the link between ship and pilot. There is a Lady of Kerbos outside, who doesnt have a ship...one who is not a friend of your 'master' one who would treat you infinitely better." It grumbled again, and Demacrax paused for a moment, thinking. "I know what you want! Freedom, freedom from the pain, you want to sail the stars, not endure this pain for someone who doesn't care. You deserve, better I just need to do...one thing..."

The Teller was keeled over, panting, tired. The ghouls of static kept trying to reform and she kept banishing them. Somehow the use of her wand tired her out, with its frequent use. She looked up at 'them' the 'governor', and his posse of guards. The guards came and aimed their blaster rifles at her, surrounding her in a semi-circle. In repsonse the Teller raised her device.

"Don't try it..." said the Controll "You're weak, you can't-"

"You sound like you know how this device works...." said the Teller. The Controller paused.

"I can draw a conclusion..."

"What, that I'm tired and I can used this device. That's not really a conclusion you can just 'guess' unless you watched first hand, and I know you lot just got here. I am curious though, how did you find me..."

"We had a good informer..."

"That is vague..."

"It is the answer you'll get..."

"Or the answer you'll share? In front of them..."

"Enought, surrender or be cut down..."

"I doubt that...you need me, for something."

"You are not that important..." The controller said with a scowl

"So you admit it...?!" The controller realized his mistake and looked around at the guards, who were a bit confused by what was going on.

"Enough games, you cannot do anything here...!"

"Oh, I can do so much, so much more than you, I've always been able to do so much more, that's why you've hated me for so long, isn't it?!"

"Pompous brat..."

"At least next to you, what do you have? Hypnosis...? Who can't do that, and do it better?" The controller's eyes began twitching, his fingers also, as he tried in vain to hold in his rage.

"Do not test me brat!"

"You say that..." said Demacrix's voice "But she is not the one so easily miffed." Demecrix stepped out of the bioship, holding the governor in his arms.

"What...?!" went one of the guards "What is going on...?!"

"It's an imposter...!" shouted the controller "Shoot them!" The guards did nothing more than look about confused. "I said shoot them!"

"How about no...." They looked back to see Mathias holding a blaster rifle.

"Mathias, why are you here, your badge was taken already, you have no right..."

"Thing is..." said Demacrix "The actual governor didn't take his badge, you did."

"You know who this is...?" asked Mathias now aiming his rifle at the imposter.

"Of course, why else would that security system stop. The owner is here, Victim..."

"It's Controller....!" He shouted, before covering his mouth.

"Still so...childish...." The Controller touched his risk, the illusion fading in an aura of prismatic static, as he revealed his true form, and a device on his wrist, a circular disc on a strap.

"Oh you think you're so clever..." the Controller growl.

"You make it sound like that's an accomplishment against you..." The Controller growled

"How is she...?" asked the Teller

"Starving, she needs medical attention but she'll be fine. I suspect the fool forgot to feed her."

"So he hasn't been in this position long then..." Said the Telller.

"Stop ignoring me! I am companion to powers beyond your understanding!"

"Child..." went Demacrix 'The only reason you're brains or not going to be blown out, is because we have to question you."

"What? You think you can hold me?!"

"Us, no, them..." The Controller turned around only to be smacked in the face but the butt of Mathias' rifle, getting knocked out.

"I so wanted to do that..." went the Teller.

"Give it time..." Demacrix went.

## Part 5

"Pathetic..." went the Dark One, he and Venerated looked at the monitor, the control terminal was made of varnished wood, treated, quilted leather, wires, and buttons that belonged on a typewriter, but the screen was an oval thing, massive and looming over them, as they stood in a room of dark stone, and gothic statues of the Venerated with a heroic body build, holding weapons in various threatening poses. The two were watching from a bird's eye view of the planet, as the Controller was arrested, and the two immortals and their group proceeded on their way back to the town hall.

"Give him a moment, he'll pull through..." said the Venerated again drinking wine.

"Will he now?! I don't know where you gain such confidence in the fool, but he is outmatched. He is no match the Worm, and he is certainly no match for the Abomination."

"Abomination...?" The dark one stepped forward and began to work on the terminal, typing in commands.

"What are you doing...?"

"All that matters, is the Worm, or the 'Teller' as she likes to style herself now. With her power this operation would be complete, in what, days? Who knows, maybe minutes. Such is the power she has in manipulating emotions through the power of words!"

"I asked you a question..." The Venerated growled.

"You presume incorrectly that I should...care..."

"What, you dare?!" He moved forward, as if planning to throttle the hooded figure, but he simply looked back and pointed his metal arm at the Venerated. The immortal, stopped grabbing his chest before convulsing in pain and dropping to the floor. The goblet dropped to the floor, erect, nothing spilled.

"You really are a glutton..." the figure turned and leered over him. "I was worried if you would taste the nanites in your wine, but you...you never cared, just so long as you could scarf down anything edible down your mouth." He raised his metal arm, and the Venerated found himself hoisted up onto his two feet by some force in his chest. "Pathetic. You actually think I came here to serve you, 'you', of all our kind, of all our brothers and sisters in exile, you? The most pathetic save the Victim. Venerated? You are simplt a fool, Crassus..."

"You dare call me by that name?!" Crassus shrieked in pain.

"Yes. You have no power here, not anymore and I will not risk this operation because whatever asanine alligence you two buffons hold to each other!"

"If...if this operation...is not to my glory..."

"You have no glory..."

"Then what is this for...?" The dark one was silent for a moment, before chuckling, seconds after that he was breaking into cackling laughter.

"Wake up...!" The Teller went, slapping the Controller across his face. He was tied to a chair, and blind folded, and woke up with a scream.

"What, who, where?!" he went.

"It's called a blindfold..." said Demacrix "It's us, and you're back in the Town Hall, only this time, where you belong, as a prisoner..."

"Heh, so what...?" The Controller went "You can't do me anything, what, you two are going to call homeworld to get me...?!" he chuckled, and there was silence. "What, no answer...?"

"No..." went Teller 'We simply convinced the locals 'not' to execute you for your crimes because we need information from you. Honestly if we had any hope of convincing them not to kill you after that, it would be on the idea we would take you to be punished by our people..." One of the guards cocked their blaster rifle.

"Oh..." he went, suddenly contracting in, meek and terrified.

"Yes..." said the Teller "So do yourself a favor, and tell us....everything..."

"What...what is there to say...you know how we work. We set up religions and feed on the energy so that we may one day become giants again...."

"Giants...?" went a guard.

"A long story, not worth explaining." Demacrix, before he turned back to the Victim. "However, this town....is all wrong. This is not a cult, this is not some primitive planet, this is world with a full developed civilization, a part of a large space faring species. You didn't come here for worship, you came here for fear..."

"What's the difference...?!"

"Everything!" Went the Teller "Fear and adoration are practically anethema to each other. You have them praying to Venerated, but that's just a safe word, they don't know your master, and they've no reason to love him, if he forced these horrors on them! What is really going on?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about..." the Victim replied in childish defiance "I'm just a lackey, sent to-" She slapped him again "Stop doing that...?!" he shouted with a whimper.

"Then stop trying to spoon feed us trash...." the Teller replied as she flicked her hand about to combat the sting.

"Sorry..." he said whimpering. "I just, I'm just..."

"If you start crying..." went Demacrix "She is going to start beating you. You're called 'Victim' for a reason. We don't care for you 'crocodile tears', and these people certainly don't have a reason to feel sorry for you after the suffering you assisted in laying upon them. Now, for the last time, who is helping Crassus..." The Victim was silent for a moment.

"You...you know his name..." he said ominously.

"No, we don't..." said Teller ready to slap him again.

"Not 'you', 'he' knows his name. He came to us in our fortress, and proposed this plan. I advised against it, but my master was suckered in by his honey words..."

"I can't tell if you're warping the truth..." said Demacrix "or if you're truly sour about being outplayed in the game of sycophancy..."

"Mock me all you want, but 'you' should've recognized the archetype we used, 'he' used. I can't believe my master never saw how egotistical that wretch is, to create an army of monsters based on his own likeness...." Demacrix inhaled, a quirk fueld by revelation and fury, as he turned around.

"Dema...?" The Teller went.

"Dark Hold..." Demacrix grumbled.

"Exactly..." said the Victim chuckling.

"Who is that...?" asked the Teller.

"A wretch, a supplanter, a-"

"He is another Immortal, like us..." went Demacrix, turning around with a most serious expression "He is far above this fool, and his incompetent master in terms of danger..."

"Oi, we are-"

"**Shut it!**" Demacrix growled "You are a pair of idiots, withs so far up your own arses you let yourselves be duped by him of beings! You seriously thought what, he wanted to replace you, as Crassus' number one boot licker? He is insidious, and he will stop at nothing short of the complete domination of the universe! And you two fools gave him access to all your equipment!"

"Dema..." went Teller "What is he harvesting all this fear for..." Demacrix stepped back away from the Victim and inhaled as he rubbed his eyes.

"I don't know..." he said solemnly.

"And...what does he want me for...?"

"If I had to guess, he wants to use you to create more fear..."

"Fear....?"

"This idiot could only plant a few memes in this population before getting thrown out."

"HEY!"

"The machine did the rest, but that fear is limited, very limited to what it could potentially be..."

"So that's it?" she said crossing her arms "A haunted house attraction; that's all I am to them...?" her tone was most annoyed.

"They are what they are, and you are what you are, nothing they do can hamper your glory my friend..."

"Thanks...so can I beat him till he regenerates?"

"Heh..." went the Victim "You think it's that easy? By now my master would have sent the signal..."

"For what...?"

"The Final Ultimatum, if ever I was truly in danger, all the power of the system would rise up to defend me...!" Everyone looked around, and a guard looked out of the window and looked back shaking his head.

"Yeah...they haven't done anything..." As if in response, it appeared, a mass of black static with a prismatic shimmer appeared between the two immortals and the Victim. The phenomenon condensed and formed into the shape of...

"Dark Hold..." said Demacrix.

"Abomination, my old friend, how are you...?" Dark Hold asked with a mocking tone. The guards recoiled away and aimed their guns at him.

"What are you upto now...?"

"Oh the same old..."

"Hah, see...!" went the Victim 'I told you-"

"I don't care about you..."

"Wha...what?! But the Venerated..."

"Is no longer in control of this fortress, this world and all its resources....are mine."

"No...!"

"And 'you'..." he said pointing to Teller 'Will be mine!"

"I am no one's...." she replied back.

"Your compliance is irrelevant. Your power of words will be put to use to finish the Grand Operation!"

"What is that...?"

"You'll find out...now Demacrix, surrender the girl, or this colony dies!"

"What....?" Demacrix said with an Imperious tone.

"His 'Final Ultimatum' is mine. A program in the sytem to convert the majority of the Photonic particle mass to defending him, a larger expansion of the security sytem around his ship. At a moment's notice, I can turn this on, everyone in the colony will be slaughtered!"

"No..." went Demacrix, "If you lay a finger on their heads, I-"

"I will go..." said the Teller. Everyone immediately turned towards her. Demacrix's eyes opened wide.

"No, you can't..."

"Am I a child, or am I an adult..." Demacrix sighed.

"You are an adult. You have been for some time, but you are also my friend,"

"I will be fine."

"Yeeeesss..." Went Dark Hold. He raised his hand, and before him the particles of light gathered and swirled and morphed into a portal.

"A pocket dimension foring a short cut across space." went Demacrix.

"Yes, a wormhole, or 'Stellar Spanner' if you want to be technical." Went the Dark One. The Teller stepped forward and disappeared into it. Then it was gone. "Now there is only you."

"Ah yes, you sudden but obviously betrayal...."

"Do not speak as if you know me..."

"You threatened to kill the colonists if she didn't surrender herself....but I was never part of that bargain..."

"I take it back...you simply listen..." the dark one said amused. "Now run...!" there was silence. "I said RUN!!!" Demacrix scowled.

"I will find you..."

"Doubtful..." Demacrix turned and ran out of the room, leaving the others confused.

"Uhm..." went the Victim. The dark one just raised an eyebrow, before ending the transmission. Demacrix moved as fast as his robes would allow him, which he took as a good hint as to why he should wear robes if he was going to run so often. Going through the halls the first of them appeared in mass. The static phenomenon appeared, clumping together and forming the mismatched dopplegangers of their master. He pointed his wand, and their mass swirled into ribbons of grey prismatic static that wrapped itself around the crystal tip of his wand. He made his way into the elevator, hitting the button for the top floor.

It worked until it got half way there, stopping at two floors away, and the doors opened to a hallway filled with more boogeymen. They screeched and charged and he pointed his device, unleashing a wave, a torrent that swept them up, turning them into a swirl of oscilating ribbons of energy, before flying out through the window. He was about to press again, when he heard them above and jumped out, rolling just before the elevator dropped down, the cable having been cut. Down they crawled, hiss and screeching.

"What, no more of the pontificating?" Demacrix asked. They screeched eve louder as he backed away. "Ah, auto-pilot, or should I say, a specific program is running. I wonder, how are you tracking me..." He looked up for a moment "Then again, how else...?" He took off and they chased. He fiddled with his wand, and pointed at the ceiling. The lights shined bright, much brighter than they were meant to, somehow creating a screen of light that repelled them with a shock, before he got the end of the hallway and opened the door to the stair well.

Up he went, until he got to the top. and locked the elevator doors. Tired, he made his way onto the roof and took a deep breath.

"Oh, why do I wear this bloody thing....?!" he mused aloud as he started to take off his coat.

It was moments later, when they forced their way through the door, their combined mass breaking through allowing them to spill out onto the roof like a deluge, circling Demacrix like a school of sharks, snarling, swiping at him, as he looked around seemingly trapped, holding tightly to his robes.

"You have nowhere left to go..." they said "nowhere left to run. All you have left is the end...."

"Really, that's how you want to play it..." went Demacrix. "For boogeymen, you're not good at this scaring thing, are you...?"

"We are fear itself...!"

"No what you are is a construct of hard light, and programming facilitating the transfer of telepathic energy. The more the emotion is based on your form, the better the energy transfer. A whole town of energy, of fear, maybe several towns, all for what?"

"Our numbers will darken the sky of every world...!"

"Well duh, you have her, the Teller, a teller of tales, better tales...because this little setup, it only goes so far. You can't really just scare any planet. Sure a world of colonists, not the brightest folk, nice enough but not the brightest. None of them realized how easy it is to get rid of you lot."

"Then why haven't you done it...?"

"Ah, interaction, I presume some rudimentary A.I. to better sell the scare..."

"We feel your fear, you are stalling..." Demacrix raised his nose in annoyance.

"Am I now...well maybe, maybe...maybe I've just been so wrapped up in the mystery. Maybe my old mine has finally gotten the better of me...I don't suppose it matters anymore, not now..."

"Now we come to..." the mass stopped. They paused, seemingly waiting on something. "Where is...the fear, why are you not afraid...?!"

"That's the thing about fear...is there a reason to feel it, when I've won...?" He asked with a shrug.

"You have not won, you are nothing...!"

"Yeah...."

"What...?"

"Do you know what you are? You're hard light....but you're a program, one I know. You programmer is from the same planet as me. So how hard do you think it is to take a scan of myself, and put it on the system."

"Impossible, we would know...you..."

"...Are an exact replica of my creator, all the easier for telepathic energy to flow between and give me a sense of being alive, for your programming to detect the emotions...here instead off...." 'Demacrix' looked up and so did the horde, to the top of tower where the real Demacrix was on the railing, clearly tinkering with something on the control box, and lacking his coat. Some of the horde tried to crawl up, other slash at the hologram of Demacrix, only stabbing his coat.

"Hmph..." he went before pressing the button on his wand, aimed at the box. The horde immediately stopped, seemingly evaporating before he jumped, down, the tiles cracking as he stood up.

"Impossible, we are...we are..." the horde tried to say, as Demacrix fixed his vest and pulled down the sleeves on his shirt.

"You are under the effects of a counter signals interferring with your photon particles' attempts to bond with each other. By the time the others arrived on the roof, they were in time to watch the last of the horde evaporate.

"What happened asked one of the gunmen as Demacrix walked past with his robe hanging from his shoulder.

"Counter signal, I'm stopping them from turning 'on'. Now...where is the Victim...?"

"Uhm...he escaped...."

"Hmmm, no he hasn't....

## Part 6-Epilogue

"Open damn you...!" shouted the Victim as he tried in vain to get the front door of his spaceship to open. It was still locked in the form of a cottage. "Open damn you!"

"Going somewhere...?" He turned to see Demacrix. His coat was missing and his hands were in his pants pockets, dark grey things, to contrast the light grey shirt and greyish purple vest.

"Oh Demacrix, old buddy old pal..." He said nervous looking behind him for any guards. "Just thought..."

"That what, you'd go back to the master that abandoned you...?" he asked still walking towards him, slowly.

"My 'master' didn't abandon me..." The Victim said sourly, angrily "That wretched runt he allowed into his graces did..."

"I would say we both know who is in charge, but you two are dumb enough to not know that, from what I've seen of you..."

"And what do you know of us? You who was the apple of everyone's eye."

"I fought your forces during the crusade..."

"Where....?"

"On the front line. Lead the charge when you fools tried to take what wasn't yours."

"Is that where this judgement comes from, 'an old enemy'?" Demacrix laughed, and his laughter was disturbing, a chuckling chorus of different voices echoing into each other, each as mad as the other and all together echoing. Then he stopped, like a runner dead stopping mid sprint, suddenly he was serious again.

"You? An 'enemy', 'my' enemy? They say judge a man by his enemies; do not insult me." Demacrix stopped by the gate, as the Victim was agaist the front door.

"What are you...?" Victim asked. "I know why the Worm was banished, little troublemaker like her, but you, 'you' , what did you do that you were banished?" He walked forward, slamming his hand against the door beside his head.

"Are you going to help me, or not...?"

"Help you, help 'you'?! Are you mad? Why would I help you...I'm as immortal as you are!"

"Immortal...is just a word that means you need to try harder. Do not test me. You don't have the skills or the brains. You're the 'Victim'..."

"I am the Controller!"

"Continue to test me and I will make 'my' victim...!" The Victim was silent, as Demacrix walked back. "Controller...what ever you ever controlled, you can't even control your self. You're somebody else's whipping boy. You need your master, the only who actually gives you attention. Bah. You've only ever been 'controlled' why now be any different."

"I am the controller. I controlled this colony, I control this ship..."!

"Oh, yes the ship. My word, do you not know how to maintain these things...?!"

"It's a ship..." Demacrix was mute with silent judgement as his eyes spoke of great annoyance.

"It's alive, you imbecile. When was the last time you refueled it? When did you last get replacement parts, feed it, nurture it?"

"What do you know about my ship?!"

"I know the telepathic circuits really haven't been refueld in so long, which made it really easy to convince it to switch sides."

"What...?!" The 'door' opened, not as doors do, but a whole formed in its mass which the Victim fell through. He immediately tried to crawl up the stairs but found himself choking on his collar.

"I think not." Said Demacrix, boot down on the tail of the Victim's coat. "My friend is in trouble, and if you will not help me save her...well....if you won't help, willingly...I can work around that....