I warped away, though I wasn't sure where to. I sort of just - how should I put it - took a step forward through dimensions to see where it would take me.
It took me right in front of a semi-truck. I leapt out of the way just in time as the vehicle blew past, horn blaring.
"Sorry!" I called out without a regard for the fact that they would not be able to hear me.
I looked around. This place felt familiar. It was a small town. Nothing special. There were no towers or skyscrapers. As a matter of fact, I was pretty sure that there wasn't a building in sight that had more than three or four floors. It was nighttime, so there were no other cars really to speak of, and it was cold. So those two facts put together helped a lot with traffic. There were Christmas lights strung around the lampposts so that would explain the chill in the air. It really made me feel like I had been here before though. Like I once lived here.
"Silky," I called. "Do you recognize this place?"
She appeared beside me and looked around. "Yeah," she said in a voice that was a barely audible whisper. "This is it."
"This is what?"
Just then, a loud crash echoed through the streets. I whipped around to see where it had come from to see one of the brick buildings that was a little on the larger end of the spectrum now had a hole in the wall and a man climbed out of it with blood on his face.
I jumped over to him and caught the fist he threw at my face.
"Calm yourself. I'm not here to fight you," I said. "What happened."
"Move!" He yelled.
I ducked as an unidentified flying object whizzed over my head.
I looked up again to see that it too, was a person. Ish.
It had vaguely human-like features, however it was clearly anything but, with long, almost tendril-like limbs that swayed independently of the body, almost like they had their own will. Its head was shaped like a cube, though I was fairly certain that that was not the intent of its creator, it was most likely an after-market addition.
It hissed. Though I wasn't sure what kind of hiss it was. Mechanical, or organic. Either way, it was not friendly.
One of its arms changed shape into a blade. But the blade was still moving in a whip like fashion. It swung its arm at us and I watched as it cut through the walls and extended toward us.
I pushed the guy beside me down and leapt over the arm before summoning a sword and launching myself at it.
It vanished from my line of sight, causing me to stop and turn around to see a massive ball of spikes rolling across the floor toward me. Crushing everything in its way.
I held my hand out and watched as red lightning singed and burned away my sleeve, revealing scales that had appeared on my arm. I pulled my hand back to beside my head and closed my fist, creating a javelin of red lightning. I threw it with all the force I could muster and watched it strike the ball dead center and the lightning arc from the tips of the spikes.
It stopped and smoked for a second but then continued its advance.
I grit my teeth. This was unusual. I knew what that bolt was capable of doing, I had experimented with it once and watched it create an explosion equivalent to an atomic bomb. Of course, that was when I wasn't holding back.
But despite that, this thing had just absorbed it like a sponge. I did have another attack that could be considered more powerful, but I couldn't use it here.
I grasped the ball by two spikes when it reached me. Then I planted my feet, clenched my teeth, and threw it straight up into the air. Smashing through the layers of building left between it and the open air.
I called forth the dragon's four wings, shredding my coat and shirt, and shot straight up, following it. I caught up to it as it started falling back to earth. I grabbed onto one of its spikes as I passed it and threw it even higher. When it was above me again, I held out my hand and felt a faint heat that grew steadily larger, and larger until I had to put scales on my arms to protect myself from this heat. I was holding a little sun. At least, that's what it felt like.
I fired it off with a grunt and watched as the clouds retreated from sight, felt the air warm up considerably and then made sure that there was nothing left of that weird thing. Not even ashes.
I dropped back down to the man in the building who had watched the fight.
"That was an impressive display," he admitted.
"I appreciate it, stranger," I said, recreating my clothes. " But what exactly was that?"
"I am not entirely sure myself," he admitted. "My name is Roland. And I am defender of this world, appointed so by Lord Terminus himself. He told me that this world's current hero is absent, and it needed a fill-in until he returned."
I stopped him with a raised hand. "While all of that is indeed fascinating, I have to wonder about what made you decide to go on a rant when I never asked."
He reeled a little. "Sorry, the thing that attacked is one of many that have appeared recently," he told me. "There was no warning, no early signs that they even existed, they simply appeared one day."
"How have you been dealing with them?"
"For the most part, they seem to leave the average person alone, as long as they don't engage first that is," Roland said. "So that is actually the first one to die. They follow me because they detect my elevated power level."
"Are the organic?" I asked. "Or mechanical?"
He shook his head. "I am not sure. They seem to have features that belong to both. I can't crush their heads, as you could probably tell. At least, not completely."
"I see," was my response. "They are powerful, though, that much is for sure."
"Yes," Roland admitted.
"Silky," I called.
She materialized. "Yeah?"
"What were you going to say earlier?"
"About where we are?"
"Yes."
"This is your home," she said.
I reeled a bit. I expected it. Or had a hunch rather, but it was still a little surprising.
"Sir?" Roland asked, confusion lacing his voice.
"Who is this world's current defender?" I asked.
"They never told me," Roland said. "They only said that there was a vacancy, and a substitute was needed."
I turned to him. "Thank you for your acts of bravery and selflessness," I said. "I, the Scribe, defender of this world, hereby relieve you of this duty. Return to Elysium and tell them that I have returned."
He nodded, saluted, and warped away.
-
I leapt down out of the building and landed on the sidewalk. All of the snow that had been on the ground and rooftops nearby had melted from my flames, so water was flowing freely down the street. It would freeze over again soon, as cold as it was.
I stood there for a moment, waiting for sirens to start wailing, but they never came. I started away from the building, not in any particular direction for any particular reason. I was racking my brain trying to remember where my house was.
I sat down a nearby bench and thought for a good twenty minutes, but to no avail. I decided I needed to rest at least. I couldn't remember the last time I had slept, and my body was feeling it.
I snapped my fingers and a flame appeared in front of me on the sidewalk, burning on nothing. I then pulled my coat around me tight, summoned a blanket around me and Silky who was sitting next to me, and went to sleep.
-
I awoke the next morning to a very bright day. The sun was out and with there still being some snow, it was quite blinding.
Silky, who was now leaning on my shoulder, shifted, but did not wake up.
People walking down the sidewalk had mixed reactions; some of them were amused, some of them were annoyed by this apparent public display of affection. I couldn't blame them, I didn't much care for PDA either.
My flame had disappeared. Which was exactly what it was supposed to do.
I pulled the blanket away from myself and Silky, we had work to do.
She roused, and then yawned. "Good morning."
"Good morning," I returned. "Wait until there is no one around before you vanish," I told her.
"Well, duh!"
I turned away. I still couldn't remember where my house was for the life of me. But I did know that whatever those android things had been were bad news.
I figured they would be coming for me next since I should have had the highest level of power on the planet. In preparation for that, I started away from town. We didn't need to get any civilians involved.
Just as I started walking away from the bench, I saw what looked like a man, about twenty feet in front of me, draw a long blade from his sleeve and thrusted straight at me.
My first thought was, "no way that's hitting me." Then my second thought was, "oh crap, that blade is growing. My third thought was something along the lines of "hnngn." As I strained to avoid the attack.
People screamed as the humanoid thing dropped its coat to reveal four long, tendril-like arms.
I grabbed the bench behind me, yelled at Silky to run, and threw the bench at the creature hard enough to break the bench to pieces on impact.
Yes, I realize that that was useless as an attack, however, I was looking to gather information, when the bench struck the creature, it opened up the false skin it had, and I saw that it was, without a doubt, an android.
I summoned a weapon, it looked similar to a gun, like a pistol, but I knew what it was.
I aimed at the creature and pulled the trigger. Two long wires shot out from the end of the gun and attached themselves to the android's chest.
It went to scrape them off, but I pulled the trigger again and it froze. I watched the lines I had fired hum with electricity, as it was pulled from the enemy.
The android fell to the ground, a useless heap. I pressed a small button on the side of the gun and the wires retracted.
I stood up straight and walked over to the thing, just like I had with the dragon, and held out my hand. A small ball of white light floated up from the corpse. I took it in my hand and absorbed it, feeling the abilities of the creature enter my mind.
I could use them.
I turned and scanned for Silky.
"Silky?" I called.
"Here," she answered from somewhere to my left.
"Good job," I said. "Used the chaos to vanish, did you?"
"Yeah," she confirmed.
I nodded. "Good job," I repeated.
"So, every time I've ever seen you defeat an enemy, as long as it still has a corpse, you always hold your hand over it and that weird ball of light comes up from them and you take it," Silky recalled. "What exactly is happening there?"
I held up my hand and looked at it, debating on how much to tell her.
"It has to do with my calling," I stated simply, deciding to leave it at that.
I turned and began walking out of town again.
"That's all you're going to say?" Silky asked. "You aren't going to explain any further?"
"Maybe when you grow up a little up here," I told her, pointing at my head.
She didn't answer and I enjoyed the brief moment of silence.
"Rick?"
I stopped in my tracks. That voice was so very familiar, and that name, it meant something. It wasn't my name, no. But I knew who's it was.
I turned around and looked at the woman behind me with a blank face.
"I'm not your husband, Carrie," I told her.
She looked so disappointed when she saw who I really was. She was an older woman with gray hair done in a bun. I knew who she was, she was actually very kind. "I'm sorry, Scribe," she said. "But you have come to resemble him so much."
"You shouldn't be here, Carrie."
"I know," she replied. "There are more of those, aren't there?"
I nodded.
"Well, when you are finished, you know where to find me," she said, and then turned and walked away.
"Who was that?" Silky asked.
"An old friend," I said. "Now let's go, we need to get as far from town as possible."