It was so bright outside. The sun was beating down on us and it felt like we had been walking around aimlessly for ages. It was also unbearably humid due to the weird fog that enveloped us. The place was odd, but there wasn't much time to state the obvious. It left such an ominous vibe and I couldn't help but want to get a closer look at the architecture as we passed by some of the buildings. My eyes kept jumping from one awkwardly placed skyscraper to the next and as we approached one that happened to be in our path, I shuddered and tried to imagine what exactly had taken place to leave these buildings in such disarray. There were scorch marks engraved into the material so deep that its original design was almost unrecognizable. The more buildings we passed, the more I realized that these markings were consistent with every last building. It was as if the town had gone up into flames so terrible that everything was beyond repair. Even the very ground we trudged on, its gravel felt brittle yet condensed, and was cracked like the desert of Death Valley. Every other step I took made me wince from an invisible agony. The crunch beneath my feet sounded ungodly, and the hairs on the back of my head were standing on high.
Nonetheless, Kara seemed to know where we were going despite having appeared here with me. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the sun looked much larger here than it did back at home, which led to a good question…
"Where the HELL are we?!" I cried out and fell to my knees, my stomach letting out a loud growl in response to how I was feeling on the inside.
We had been walking around for ages it seemed, and we hadn't encountered an ounce of life and there was no way for us to tell time so far. The sun didn't look as though it would dip anytime soon, and truthfully, I was falling into the pits of despair and I had only just gotten to this damned world. I pressed my hands against the burning gravel and hung my head low as I hunched over in exhaustion. Nothing had truly started yet and I felt like absolute shit.
"Man oh man, kid! Looks like ya seen better days!"
A familiar distorted voice called out to me and I held my head up just high enough to see the familiar floating skull. It wiggled around in the air and spun around, giving me more of a headache than the hunger pains I was having. "Wh-What? Came here to taunt me for being so weak right out the gates, huh? W-Well listen here--!" It cut me off and started jabbering its own nonsense before I could even finish my declaration.
"Anyway forgot to give ya this since ya fell so suddenly and all, but poof! Your very own starter pack, courtesy of me!" The skull emitted a dark purple smog from its own cloud, which took the shape of a bag and rested beside me. I looked at it and didn't think twice before lunging at it and digging through it.
I was mainly searching for food and didn't even stop to notice the other important goods that were inside. The more I dug around the more anxious I got before finally, I pulled out something that seemed to be in some type of wrapper and quickly unraveled the foil-like material. Inside of it was a burger, and it was still warm to the touch. I gasped and didn't hesitate to scarf it down completely, leaving not a single crumb left. I let out a satisfied huff and sat up with a grin, "Thank y–!"
"Perrin! Stay away from that thing!" I heard Kara cry out from behind me as the sound of rushing footsteps came closer. I raised an eyebrow, but my eyes grew large when I saw a kunai whiz right past my head and into the floating skull that was in front of me.
"Woah hey there! Ya got skills there girlie, but you're meant to gimme a head start, ya know? Lemme gather my bearings quickly." The skull rambled on frantically and rattled around. Kara didn't give it a second though and instead, she jumped up and threw two more kunai at it. One missed but the other pierced the hollow bit where the eye socket usually was. "Stay away from him, gaster! I won't hesitate to vanquish you!" Kara stood with kunai racked between each of her fingers and a glare in her eyes.
"Wait, Kara! That skull thing is fine! It was just bringing me some things to start with, so stop attacking it." I stood up and grabbed her arm gently to stop her aggression.
She looked up at me, and my blood ran cold. Her eyes weren't their usual beautiful dark brown, instead they were glowing a bright yellow and held so much malice. I had never seen her look so menacing before even though I had hardly seen much of her. It never crossed my mind that Kara could ever be capable of showing anything but kindness. It was most likely a result of being in this world, but still, something felt off but I couldn't place a finger on it.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed?! That thing is a gaster! They consume the souls of wandering humans like you!" She slowly approached the gaster with a growl and it made weird squeaky noises as it tried to float away, "He could've easily taken your soul while you were distracted, Perrin." She held her hand out and clenched it into a tight fist, "Catalyst: first configuration!"
The translucent sphere that had helped us before appeared again but was much smaller and encased the floating skull. I frowned and quickly picked up the bag that he had left me and held it up, "No, Kara look! He left me this hero starter pack! He was the one who sent me down here. I don't think he's who you think he is." I shook my head and dropped the opened bag to reveal its contents to her.
"Yeah yeah! What he said! Whatta scary lady haha-! It's high time for me to skidaddle though so catch ya on the flip side! Good luck!" The gaster spoke frantically as it spun around in Kara's sphere before completely evaporating into a puff of smoke. She released the sphere and scoffed at the rising puff of purple smoke before turning her glowing eyes on me.
I jolted and laughed nervously before averting my gaze down to the bag on the ground and crouching down to sift through it. I saw her bare feet approach me and stop just in front of the bag and I dared to look up at her, only to see her eyes were back to their warm dark brown.
"S-So… The bag has a few things," I started as I pulled out and pointed out some of the items, "Like this cloak? I guess I can't wear my hoodie around, huh…" I muttered before sliding it off and dropping it beside me, revealing my blue t-shirt underneath, "What else, what else… A smaller sack of… money! Oh great, we can start with this!" I shook the sack of coins around and grinned at the sound. "A couple books… Oh sweet!" I pulled out a somewhat cylindrical container that had a hilt at the end and pumped my fist in the air.
I pulled the hilt out and grinned widely at the shiny blade. Sure it wasn't as long as a standard katana, but it was definitely made with the style in mind. I squeezed the hilt of it and sighed with satisfaction at the feeling. It was amazing; holding an actual sword that could cut things up and that closely resembled a katana was nothing short but a dream come true. I placed it back in its sheath and sat it aside for now to continue looking through the bag of goodies.
"Perrin, are you done yet?" Kara asked impatiently as she tapped her foot with her hands resting on her hips.
Minutes had passed and I had finally gone through all the items in the bag. The books turned out to be guide books on the world we were in and other useful stuff. I had a new change of clothes which I assumed were meant for me to fit in more to whatever society was left. The dark purple cloak was wrapped around my shoulders and underneath I had a comfy black tunic and some brown slacks with a cool purple utility belt for whatever reason. I still kept my dirty gray sneakers on from back before I had entered this world, and to complete the look, I threw the bag on my back and grinned.
"Now I'm done!" I grinned and gave Kara a thumbs up, to which she rolled her eyes and huffed at. "Good, because I think I have an idea as to where all the people of this town went." She grabbed my wrist and tugged, "Let's go, now."
I could tell she had put up with more than enough of my bullshit for a day and if I were her, I'd be fed up as well. I let her pull me around and couldn't help but smile while watching her, still baffled by the fact that it was really her. It was my Kara. The one I talked to almost every day. The one that would send me weird memes. The one that would tease me with her nicknames and comments. The one… that showed me nothing but love and kindness from the beginning. My heart jumped in my chest and my face darkened slightly from the fluttering feeling it left.
What was that…?
"H-Hey Kara… Aren't your feet sore? Do you need me to find you shoes?" I asked with a concerned look on my face, trying to shake off the thoughts I had previously about her. She kept walking ahead of me, but I watched her shake her head in response, "No, I think it's better this way." She mumbled softly before remaining silent the rest of the way.
Seeing her bare feet collide with the gravel path sent chills down my spine. I couldn't imagine what that feeling would be like 24/7, but she was planning on managing somehow. Besides her feet though, I noticed a pair of golden bands near her ankles. I wanted to question her about them, but decided it would probably be for the best if I didn't bother her about her attire. Instead, I turned to a more beneficial question.
"So, whenever you use your um… Catalyst, you call out the versions. Are there different modes to Catalyst that you're able to utilize?" I asked as I started walking beside her instead of behind her, my eyebrows furrowed curiously. She shrugged a bit and pointed a finger at the sky.
"Well, as far as I know, my Catalyst Eclipse has thirteen configurations. I only know how to access three of them and I know the thirteenth configuration is forbidden for… some reason, I have no idea though." Kara explained as she waved her finger around and I nodded along, "Could you show me the configurations you do know?" I smiled a bit and I could tell she was smiling as well.
"Catalyst: first configuration." She uttered the words and placed her finger on my chest gently. The sphere from before formed around me and I was swept off my feet. "This is Catalyst Orb, and is used for several things." Kara started to push the orb that still contained me inside of it. I rolled around inside of it and scrambled to my feet as quickly as possible, moving around in the ball like a hamster trapped in its own sphere.
"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" I groaned at the sound of her laughter. "Well you did ask to see the configurations I know. The fault is solely on you." She giggled and continued pushing me around effortlessly.
"You're so unfair to me…" I grumbled and continued walking in place to move the sphere on my own accord. "Hey, if we ever encounter an enemy, I'll show you the other Catalyst configurations." She sounded sincere this time but regardless, I looked onward and didn't bother responding.
Approaching gradually from the horizon was what looked to be a large dark tunnel. I pressed my face against the sphere and tried to get a better look but couldn't because of the lack of transparency. "Can I get out please?" I cocked my head back to gaze at Kara and she simply nodded and in a matter of seconds, the bubble surrounding me was gone. I stumbled on my feet at first but quickly found my footing just short of the entrance to the pitch-black darkness.
"This is where we're meant to go? What even is this, Kara?" I poked my head into the tunnel and tried to look around, but everything was shrouded in darkness.
"It's civilization, Perrin. Come on." Kara shook her head and started walking through the tunnel, her hand outstretched and her glowing Catalyst illuminating our surroundings. I followed behind her reluctantly and tried to get a better look around with the help of the light she was giving off.
We walked forward for some time before approaching a decline. I hesitated at the sound of rushing water but watched Kara continue on without a second thought and followed behind her reluctantly. "Are you sure people are down here? This just seems like one big… sewer…" I trailed off as we approached another large opening that flooded the area in front of us with light.
Kara dismissed her Catalyst and smiled, "We've arrived at Coronis Metro: The Underground City." She gestured to the large opening and I gawked, walking towards it to get a better look.
It was huge, bigger than anything I would have ever imagined, and it really did look like a massive city that had been built underground. It was probably even bigger than the city on the surface, and that was hard to fathom. I followed behind Kara since she appeared to know where to go and continued marveling at all the skyscrapers that had been built underground, so surface scrapers huh? There were plenty of houses both residential and apartment homes. The one thing this place lacked were cars; and instead had carriages or transportation by foot. Compared to the real world, this was something new entirely. It was different, and just a breath of fresh air. Escaping to somewhere new like this took some imaginary pain off my chest and for once, since I had gotten here, I felt… free.
I heard a weird crunch sound and turned my head on a swivel to find the source. My list of regrets and desires flew into my hands, the words appearing once again before me. I looked down at it and furrowed my brow curiously, trying to see what was up with it when I noticed something different. Somewhere in the middle of the somewhat long list, I watched as a moving ink avatar ate the words of the line it was on, just like how Pac-Man ate the pellets. It looked just like the skull, the gaster, that had brought me here. After eating the words, it burned a check mark to the left of the page, and the once blank spot showed up as words with a line straight through them. I squinted my eyes to try and read them, and determined that they said 'I want a moment in time where I feel relieved of any stress, even if it is very brief'. I grinned and folded the list up once again, shaking my head while doing so.
Yeah, I really do feel stress-free down here.