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ask-chaos-kin · 3 years

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Slender Freaks Ch. 2

Welcome to the Game

“Chaos? Chaos! Chaos wake up!” Jester whispered with strangled breath, trying to shake the unconscious Freak awake. “Come on Chaos! Get up! We have to go!” They urged, constantly looking over their shoulder every few seconds as they struggled to wake Chaos up.

They didn’t know where they had ended up after being dragged into that ball of light, but they knew that whatever this place was, it wasn’t friendly in the slightest.

The chamber they were in was damp and dark, lit only by a few emergency lights hanging from the ceiling. Old tankards were lines against the walls, and crates of all kinds were scattered about, industrial materials spilling out of them.

“Pancakes? Do you hear anything?” Jester asked quietly, watching as the Scout Freak stared down one of the many darkened halls, his hammer at the ready.

“I swear to God, I heard something down there,” Pancakes wheezed, wringing his fingers around the hilt of his hammer repeatedly. “Will you hurry up and wake Chaos up already!?”

“I’m already up,” Chaos groaned, groggily rolling away from Jester and sitting up. “Ugh, where the Hell…?”

“We don’t know, all we know is that this place is Nightmare Fuel to the max.” Jester helped Chaos onto her feet. “And that Pancakes heard something down that hall.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Chaos scowled, reaching for her sword.

“Yeah, neither do I,” Pancakes gulped, his eyes glued to the hall. “Just...Back up. Slowly,” Pancakes said, shuffling backwards cautiously. Jester and Chaos stuck close by to him, carefully and painstakingly shuffling away from the hall and towards a different corridor that exited out into an area that vaguely resembled Turbine.

Once the hall was comfortably out of sight, the three Freaks allowed themselves to relax, if only slightly.

“I feel like we’re back inside Grave’s catacombs,” Pancakes gulped, lowering his hammer, but not holstering it. He ran a hand through his hair and exhaled sharply. “Where the Hell are we?”

“I’m not sure,” Jester said shakily, looking around. “Some kind of warehouse, I guess?”

“That hall kinda looked like a part of Hydro. But this looks like Turbine,” Chaos remarked. “But it's not. It just feels bad here.”

“Yeah, no kidding. Come on, let's try to find an exit,” Pancakes grunted, hoisting his hammer over his shoulder and starting down the hall.

“It’s not gonna be as easy as just finding the exit door,” Jester pointed out, stopping Pancakes. “We’re in another dimension. I can feel it. We’re gonna need a portal out of here, and judging by the entire vibe of this place, that’s not gonna be easy.”

Chaos nodded. After a moment of stretching and getting their bearings Chaos and Pancakes decided to scope out ahead and try and spot anything that could look like trouble. Chaos started with taking the higher ground of Turbine, searching for anything that seemed out of place. Pancakes took the underground route in his can to move the fastest he possibly could. Jester was left to search around on the ground level.

“Anything yet?” Jester called as they rounded one of the large engines on the ground floor.

“Nothing yet!” Pancakes called from below. “Nothing but dark halls and creepy shit!”

“Nothing up here, either!” Chaos added.

After a moment, Jester fell forwards, tripping on something heavy and full of liquids.

“GAH! What the-!?” Jester spun around to see what they had tripped over. It was a Jerry can, full to the brim with gasoline.

“What in the world?” Jester got up and picked the canister up. “Uh, found a gas can!” Jester shouted. “Not sure what it could be used for, though.”

After Jester picked up the canister, a loud, thunderous boom sound could be heard from the sky and the air became much thicker and full of dread.

“What the hell?” Jester gasped, tensing up. “Did you guys hear that?”

“Hard not too.” Chaos jumped down from the ledge she was previously standing, Pancakes emerged from a nearby basement door.

“What did you do?!”

“I just picked up this canister! I didn’t think it would summon Satan!” Jester cried, dropping the gasoline.

“What are you doing?!” an unknown voice from the shadows called. “We need those things to get out of here and you're just dropping them everywhere!”

The three Freaks jumped at the voice.

“Who said that? Who’s there!?” Jester shouted.

“Shh! Keep your head down! They’ll be here any minute now. Just pick that thing up and look for more, you’ll hear that boom every time someone picks up another can. Once eight booms have gone off, start running to the van.” The voice called out in a type of whisper yell.

Jester cautiously picked the canister back up, trembling. “Where are you?” They whispered, searching for the source of the voice.

“You’ll find me later, just get going! It’s not safe out in the open,”

The three Freaks nodded hurriedly and headed off, listening closely for any threats that could be lurking in the darkness.

“Just when I thought things couldn’t get any creepier,” Pancakes shuddered, glancing over his shoulder.

“What did she mean by ‘they?’ Who’s ‘they?’” Jester asked quietly, scanning the halls for any more gas cans. “What’s in here with us?”

“I don’t know and frankly, I don’t want to find out,” Chaos whispered sharply.

“You and me both,” Jester gulped. “Where’s that van she was talking about? I didn’t see a van when we came in.”

“It has to be parked outside. If this place is the same as Turbine, I should be able to get us to the exit,” Pancakes stated.

“Maybe. Once we get all the gas cans, we can head there. Well...As long as we don’t run into anything on the way…”

“This feels like Grave all over again,” Chaos hissed.

“No kidding. All we need are some shadow monsters to chase us and it’ll be just like old times…” Pancakes paused briefly, looking over his shoulder. “But I doubt we’ll have to wait long for that.”

The trio of Freaks ducked into a nearby vent shaft and followed it into what should have been the BLU team’s Intel Room. The bright blue suitcase that was stuffed with BLU’s files was nowhere to be found, however. Instead, another Jerry Can sat where the suitcase should have been.

Dropping down from the vent, Chaos trotted over and tentatively picked up the can, flinching at the thunderous drum that echoed through the facility. Folding it under her arm, Chaos waved for Jester and Pancakes to follow her, raising a finger to her mouth for them to remain silent.

“I think I know where another one of these might be,” Pancakes whispered. Entering his can, Pancakes bounced off towards one of the round doorways, Jester and Chaos following close behind. Coming out into a T-shaped hallway, Pancakes turned to head to a nearby door when Chaos snatched him out of the blue and ducked behind a wall, yanking Jester along with her.

“What are you doing?” Pancakes gasped, stifling a shout. Chaos gritted her teeth and made a sharp shushing sound. Hooking a thumb around the corner, she silently pointed out the lurking monster Pancakes had nearly waltzed right into.

At the end of the hall, a stark white creature stood, disturbingly humanoid in nature and bordering on anorexic. It was hunched over, its arms and legs extending out to an unnatural length. The long fingers of the monster were tipped with razor sharp claws, stained a dark red with dried blood. The creature's eyes were bright white and almost seemed to bulge out of the monster's head. It had no lips, and so the horrible maw of yellowed teeth jutted out for all to see, a viscous saliva dripping from the fangs and pooling out onto the floor into a silvery puddle.

“What the Hell is that thing?” Jester wheezed, their skin turning as pale as the monsters.

“Something we don’t want to mess with,” Chaos whispered, pulling Jester back behind the wall.

Stooping down, Chaos scooped up a small pebble from the floor. Palming it briefly, she wound up her arm and chucked it towards one of the rounded doorways. It bounced once, skidding into the Intel Room and making a low skittering sound as it flew.

The monster spun around when the pebble made contact with the floor, and with a hungry howl it sprinted down the hall in a headlong rush, salivating at the thought of prey.

With the beast distracted, Chaos shoved Pancakes and Jester off down the hall and towards the door, and once safely inside she threw the door shut behind them before barricading it with a metal shelf that had been standing next to the door.

With the door covered, Pancakes leapt out of his can and ran around the small room in search of a third Jerry Can.

“C’mon, c’mon...Aha!” Pancakes crouched next to the workbench in the center of the room and pulled yet another Jerry Can from beneath the table. Upon grabbing the can, a third boom sounded off, a more sinister air to it than before.

With the third can under their belt, the trio slowly crept out of the small chamber and turned to the metal shutter blocking the end of the hall. Chaos and Pancakes picked up the shutter from the bottom and hoisted it off the ground, carefully slipping underneath into another dimly lit hall that extended to the left. The narrow corridor funneled the three Freaks into a small room that was blocked off by a large board of the BLU teams insignia.

Pushing on the board, there was a slight give, indicating that the board wasn’t fully bolted to the wall.

“Pancakes, give me a hand here,” Chaos said, drawing her sword and slipping it into the narrow space between the wall and board. Pancakes pressed his palms against the board opposite to Chaos. Using their combined strength, they managed to pop the board slightly out of place. Jester slipped their hands to the bottom of the board and tentatively lifted it up and away from the wall, opening a path back into the main room of Turbine.

Pulling the board off the wall completely and pulling it into the small room, the three Freaks quietly clambered out, landing on the metal platform below that was elevated from the main floor. Glancing over to her left, Chaos noticed another Jerry Can sitting in the small windowed room that connected to the vents. Grabbing it, a fourth boom rang out, followed by a low, rumbling roar from somewhere in the halls they had entered from.

“That didn’t sound good,” Jester gulped.

As if on cue, the mysterious voice spoke up once again, a bespoke urgency in her voice. “It’s not good at all. Keep moving! There’s four more cans left!”

Moving with the same urgency, the trio of Freaks dropped down from the platform and briskly crossed the main room of Turbine, keeping close to the engines and carriers in the center of the room for cover.

Heading into RED Spawn, the Freaks quickly ducked inside the Spawn Room for a breather, and in doing so found a fifth Jerry Can hiding in one of the lockers.

Next up was the chamber where the RED Intel was being held. Just like the BLU base, the intel was replaced with a lone Jerry Can. Unfortunately, unlike the BLU base, another disjointed and warped creature stood over the can, crouched down and snarling.

“Great, just great,” Pancakes hissed, hiding behind the doorway separating the hall from the Intel Room.

“What do we do now? We can’t fight that thing!” Jester gasped, their eyes locked on the monster in morbid fear.

“We can’t. Maybe we can distract it like last time,” Chaos said briskly, scanning the floor for any stray pebbles.

“I don’t think this thing is gonna fall for that again.” Pancakes glanced into the chamber and winced at the monsters scathing roar. “Nope. Not gonna work this time.”

“Maybe I could lure it away,” Jester suggested, immediately regretting the suggestion as the creature let out another furious shriek.

“That could work. You can fly and your body works on cartoon physics. You get that thing away from the can and we’ll meet you in the vents.”

Jester swallowed hard and turned pale, giving a terrified glance at the monster.

“You owe me for this. Big time.”

Jester - begrudgingly - floated out into the open in full view of the monster, grimacing when the beast turned its steely gaze on them.

“H-hey! Ugly! Come on and chase me! You know you want to - CRAP!”

Jester could barely get their taunt out when the monster lunged at them, sprinting out of the Intel Room and barreling at the clown at breakneck speeds. Jester turned tail and ran, screaming in terror as the beast began hunting them down through the halls.

“WHY DID I AGREE TO THIIIIIIIIIIIS!?”

“Well, there’s that. Come on, before that thing gets back.”

Chaos and Pancakes wasted no time in picking up the Jerry Can and made their escape through the vents leading into the Intel Room. Crawling through the cramped space, they could hear Jester screaming below and cursing their names in terrified and exasperated frustration.

“I think they’re taking it well,” Pancakes said dryly.

Below, Jester was weaving in and out of the turbines in the center of the facility, huffing and puffing as they managed to stay just out of reach of the pale monster.

“THIS IS NOT HOW I WANTED TO SPEND MY DAY!” They shrieked, yelping and ducking down as the beast swiped at them, narrowly missing the bells on their hat. “I hope you guys are done over there!”

“Jester! Up here!” Chaos shouted from above, pulling the vent cover away from the shaft as she and Pancakes reached the main room, frantically waving for Jester. “Come on!”

Jester made a sharp turn and flew over the head of the monster, sucking in their breath upon seeing the flashing sheen of the creature's claws in their peripheral. Clearing the monster, Jester darted up to the vent and barreled into the open shaft, missing Chaos by a hair's breadth as she threw the vent cover back up as a flimsy barrier between them and the creature.

“Please tell me you got the can,” Jester wheezed, facedown in the vent.

“We did. That makes six,” Pancakes said.

“So we need two more,” Chaos added, climbing back down the vent. “That thing’s gonna be looking for us, though. We’ll need to wait until it calms down before we can go looking.”

“Sounds good,” Jester mumbled weakly, rolling onto their back.

“You won’t find the last two here. You’ll have to go back to Hydro,” The distant voice said faintly, a twinge of warning in her instructions.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Jester gulped.

“I think you’ve said that enough, Jess,” Pancakes remarked, crawling after Chaos, Jester slinking behind him.

The trio reached the main room and approached the door they had first entered from, which now seemed to yawn like the gaping mouth of a giant monster. A cold wind blew from within that carried the faint screaming of a distant beast, instilling the Freaks with an uneasy sense of déjà vu.

“I was having a good day. We were all having a good day before we got dragged into this,” Pancakes sighed, rubbing his eyes.

“Well, no time like the present,” Chaos said, pushing onward. “Come on, we survived Grave, we can survive this.”

Starting down the hall, the trio left the relative safety of Turbine and entered the unknown territory of the altered Hydro. Walking down the darkened hallways, Chaos judged that they were walking through the farthest west facility of Hydro. What she couldn’t judge was whether or not they could access the outer portions of Hydro, and if they could, if the remaining Jerry Cans would be scattered outside in the open or hidden inside and out of sight.

“Shit, it’s gonna take forever to find the cans like this,” Pancakes grumbled dryly, softly kicking a nearby box.

“They can’t be far. Most of the cans were close together in Turbine after all,” Jester replied, hoping to assure the sullen Freak beside them.

“Yeah, sure, but Turbine is a hell of a lot smaller than Hydro. Why do you think mercenaries hate fighting in it?”

“I think Mann Co. was gonna make a bigger version of Turbine and every team collectively lost their shit over it,” Chaos said with a dry lilt.

“Wait, they actually did that? I thought it was just a joke!”

“Nope. They actually did. I think Mann Co. was gonna call it Turrrrrrrrbine,” Pancakes explained, sounding slightly brittle.

“That’s dumb. They should have called it Longbine.”

“Doesn’t matter what they would have called it, Jess. The teams would have hated it regardless,” Chaos said, patting Jesters shoulder.

“My memory loss must be worse than I thought. I don’t remember ever hating Turbine when I was still a mercenary.”

“You worked at Sawmill. You were probably just never sent to Turbine-”

“Found one!” Pancakes hollered, running past the two Freaks and diving at a corner where a tankard sat next to several crates of unused machine parts, making a loud racket as he landed. Pancakes grunted and rose back to his feet, triumphantly hoisting up the seventh Jerry Can.

“Are you a bobcat or something?” Jester said in a perplexed tone. “How did you even see that?”

Pancakes grinned as he tossed the can to Jester. “Scout senses.”

“Oh please, you just saw the can before we did. It ain’t that amazing,” Chaos said with a teasing scoff.

“Yeah, ‘cause you two were talking up a storm about Turbine.”

“You started that discussion!”

“Yeah? Well...Nyeh.” Pancakes pouted, sticking his tongue out.

“Guys, shh, you hear that?” Jester said sharply, abruptly cutting Chaos and Pancakes off. The two Scouts fell deathly silent, suddenly reminded of where they were.

Jester cast their gaze across the gloomy halls ahead and summoned a small ball of light in their hands, tossing it forward into the corridor like a glowstick. When the light landed, it sputtered and sparked, seemingly struggling to stay alight, which sent a worrisome shudder down Jesters spine.

As the light began to go out, a low hum came from somewhere deep within the corridor, accompanied by the harsh thudding of footsteps against concrete. The three Freaks slowly backed away from the pitiful light as it gave up the last of its glow. In its final sparks, the light revealed the elongated face of a monster, cast in a cruel maroon light before the orb finally fizzled out, drawing a curtain of darkness as the three Freaks turned tail and fled, their mortified screams filling the halls as the horrible monster took chase.

The beast chased the trio of Freaks through the facilities of Hydro and forced them outside. Hydro was drenched in darkness, but it was wholly unlike the normal darkness of night. This was an oppressive darkness that blotted out anything and everything in the sky. It was like a thick curtain had been pulled over all of Hydro that kept everything inside its boundaries.

With the elongated monster licking at their heels, Chaos tried to form a fireball in her hands to chuck back at the raging creature like a hand grenade, but it fizzled out into embers before she even got the chance.

“What the hell’s going on!? My powers aren’t working!”

“Mine aren’t working either!” Jester gasped in terror, desperately trying to teleport the three Freaks away to no avail.

“We gotta head to the radar dish! We can lose this thing there!” Pancakes shouted, pushing to the front of the pack.

“I hope you’re right!” Chaos hissed, charging after Pancakes as he booked it up the rocky hill towards the old radar dish at the center of Hydro.

Reaching the radar, the trio of Freaks clambered up the side of the dish and slid down into it. Once inside, they frantically scaled the metal sheets that led up to the station in the center of the dish and kicked the sheets away once they were safely off the ground, leaving the monster without a way to reach them.

Hissing and snarling, the beast clawed and scratched at the scaffolding of the station the Freaks were precariously perched on, desperately trying to bring it crashing down to reach the terrified trio. It’s awful and putrid breath made Jester gag, and the rancid saliva it spilled onto the platform in its hungry flailing made Pancakes and Chaos recoil in disgust.

“Get the hell off!” Chaos screamed furiously, swinging her checkerboard sword at the beasts snout, scoring a deep gouge between its bulging eyes. With a sharp howl, the creature recoiled back and hissed, roaring in pain. Shaking its head, the monster fled from the radar dish, leaving a trickling trail of blood as it ran for cover in the shadows.

The trio caught their breath once the monster fled, giving them a brief reprieve from running and screaming like beheaded chickens. Jester, thoroughly ran through, laid on the floor of the station facedown to catch their breath. When their face hit the ground, they saw a brief flash of red in the corner of their eye. With a jerk, Jester lifted their head and gasped with a mix of shock and relief.

The last Jerry Can was right next to them!

“HAHA! That’s the last one!” They whooped, lifting the can up with elated glee.

Upon grabbing the can, one last thunderous boom sounded out across the facility. When the sound settled, an eerie silence fell over all of Hydro, leaving the three Freaks alone in the unnatural hush.

Jester’s elation died away and their smile faded. They held the Jerry Can to their chest and glanced around, the hair on their neck slowly standing on end. The same uneasiness fell over Chaos and Pancakes and they slowly stepped away from the edges of the platform, the deafening silence pricking at their nerves like a malicious ice pick, their labored breathing being the only thing that broke the hush.

“Fuck me, I prefer the monster over this,” Pancakes quavered, a shiver running up his spine.

“Ok, we’ve got the cans, what now?” Jester shuddered, slipping the can into their cape for safe keeping.

“Get to the other side of Hydro, quickly! We have the car waiting!” The disembodied voice spoke out with a dire stress. “Come on, we have to go!”

“No need to tell me twice!” Pancakes leapt off the edge of the platform and started sprinting to the eastern side of Hydro with a desperate zeal, followed closely by an equally terrified Chaos and Jester.

Above them, the silence of Hydro was broken by an ear splitting shriek. From the roof of the base that overlooked the path to the edge of Hydro, a pale humanoid leapt down in front of the Freaks, drenched in a black and viscous liquid. The creature's face was horrifically disfigured with teeth jutting out of its mouth, and it’s eyes were solid white and sunken deep into its skull.

“Wait! STOP!” The voice shouted, the cold terror of her voice bringing the trio of Freaks toa screeching halt in front of the monster. “Don’t. Make. A. Sound,” She urged, her voice dropping to a barely audible whisper. “Back away from that thing. Slowly.”

“I hate this, I hate this,” Pancakes whisper-screamed, trembling as he and his friends haltingly followed the voices orders, taking quaking and trembling steps away from the ghastly creature.

“What is that thing!?” Jester whined, matching Pancake’s whispering tone.

“Shut up, shut up,” Chaos snapped hushedly, grabbing Pancake and Jester by the arm. She gritted her teeth at the monsters huffing and snarling and squeezed Jesters arm instinctively. Jester quickly placed their hand over Chaos’, a fleeting comfort in the face of a hideous monster.

Backing up towards the dish, the trio watched the beast from the very edge of the radar. The ghoul stooped down and sniffed the air, having calmed down now that the Freaks had put distance between them. The ghoul wheezed and snorted and sluggishly shambled towards the dish, its sunken eyes rolling in its skull. Jester sucked in a sharp breath, Pancakes braced himself, and Chaos’ free hand snapped to the hilt of her sword, her mismatched eyes locked on the creature, silently daring it to come closer.

A small and unnoticeable speck flew through the air past the monster and landed somewhere off to its right, causing a small clatter of stones to rattle through the air. The beast snapped its head to the noise and stalked towards it, leaving the Freaks behind in favor of investigating the pebble. The three Freaks looked on in a kind of shocked stupor, both befuddled and relieved that the mysterious stone had caught the monsters attention.

Out of the corner of her eye, Chaos caught sight of someone standing at the end of the path out of Hydro, waving to the Freaks and beckoning them over. The figure was slender and had a similar frame to Chaos. She wore a RED Flapjack, orange Hot Heels, and a red and black Troublemaker's Tossle cap. Her hair was long and curly and seemed to be cut in the exact same style as Chaos’ hair and she wielded what looked like a RED Atomizer bat.

Seizing her chance, Chaos shoved Jester and Pancakes towards the figure while the monster was distracted.

“Come on, I have the car ready! I just need the gas!” The figure ran towards a cement blockade and leapt over it, sprinting down a paved path where a lone camper van was parked. “Come on, come on! Dump the gas in, we don’t have much time!”

Reaching the van, Jester clumsily took their cape off and dumped the eight Jerry Cans out, and the three Freaks scrambled to dump the contents of all eight into the van. They spilled much of the gasoline onto the ground in their hustle, but enough got inside the van to count.

“Alright, that’s it! Now get inside before they come after us!” The woman shouted. Throwing open the drivers side door, she leapt into the van and cranked the car with haste. The engine roared to life, its headlights flashing and lighting the road ahead up in a stark yellow glare.

Jester, Chaos, and Pancakes all piled into the van as fast as they could, shouting over each other as the sounds of the monster started to grow closer. Jester grabbed the passengers' side door and slammed it shut once they were inside and let out a startled gasp.

“OK DRIVE!” They screeched, scrambling to get to the front seat. The woman drove her heel into the gas pedal and the car lurched forward, unceremoniously throwing Jester back onto Pancakes.

Speeding along the paved road, the screams of the monster behind them echoed in the dark, growing more and more distant as the van left it in the dust until the screams finally receded into the distance, nothing more than a shallow whisper in the wind.

With distance put between the monster and the Freaks, Jester laid their face on the dashboard and let out a heavy sigh of relief. Chaos and Pancakes simply collapsed in the back seat, catching their breath.

“Holy shit,” Chaos gulped, her breath coming in sharp gasps. “Thanks,” She managed to get out.

“Don’t thank me yet,” The woman replied sternly, still on edge. “Who are you guys anyways? I don’t recognize any of you.”

“I don’t think we’re from around here,” Jester answered quietly, tilting their head towards the woman.

“...Oh, shit. Then you have no idea what’s going on here.”

“Yeah no shit! Monsters were chasing us every five seconds and we had to collect gas cans like it was a fucking treasure hunt!” Pancakes cried.

“Those gas cans were your only ticket out of here,” The woman replied with a startling calm. “Now just calm down. If you guys aren’t from around here, then that spells bad news for you.”

“What do you mean? What are you talking about?” Chaos urged, leaning forward in her seat.

“To put it as blunt as possible: You guys have just landed yourselves in another dimension. The Slender Realm. A dimension filled with monsters that you have to play around in order to survive. It’s a game, really. These creatures force us to always stay on our toes or we die. They take us to places like this and force us to play a game of demented scavenger hunt to find random items that we can use to escape and move on.”

“...Fuck,” Chaos swore, collapsing in her seat.

“Exactly. And you three have just entered the game as fresh blood. You want to survive and get out? You follow my lead.”

“How do we even GET out?” Jester shuddered. “Look, I have reality bending powers, ok? I’m supposed to be able to tear holes in reality in order to travel between dimensions. I haven’t been able to do that once since we’ve been here! Barely any of my powers have been working!”

“You can blame the Slender Realm for that,” She sighed, sounding utterly exhausted. “This place...It doesn’t like ‘cheating.’ If you have powers of abilities that it thinks will give you an edge against the monsters, it takes it away.”

“That would explain why I can barely do anything. I tried to create a light ball and it extinguished a minute later. My magic doesn’t just go out like that.”

“And I haven’t been able to cast fire spells since we got here,” Chaos lamented, staring sullenly at her hands.

“I can’t even Ubercharge myself anymore,” Pancakes sighed, pressing his face against the back of Jesters seat.

“You guys are Freaks, right? You come from the Outer Realm?” The woman inquired, looking over her shoulder at Chaos and Pancakes.

“Uh...Yeah, we’re Freaks. I don’t know what the ‘Outer Realm’ is though,” Chaos replied, a bit perplexed.

“That explains where the portal leads…” She mumbled.

“Portal? What portal?” Jester queried, almost pleadingly.

“The way out.” The woman sat up and her face stiffened. “It’s a portal at the end of a labyrinth. A lot of people thought it was a myth, but me and my brother found it a few days ago. We were this close to making it out, and…” She grimaced, pursing her lips in anger. “We were stopped by the monsters. Slenderman in particular.”

“Hold the fuck up, SLENDERMAN is REAL!?” Pancakes squawked, wide eyed as he jolted upright in his seat.

“So at least you know about him. He’s one of the most dangerous monsters around here,” The woman continued, shrugging off Pancakes surprised outburst. “He stopped us from leaving this place and...He must have messed with the portal himself. That’s the only way I can imagine that you three managed to get pulled into this place.”

“Do you think more people could have been pulled in?”

“Highly likely. The monsters like to mess with other dimensions when they get bored with us.”

“So maybe other people we know are trapped here,” Chaos suggested. “Other Freaks.”

“Maybe. Maybe…” Jester nodded, reeling from all the information.

“Anyways, I know the portal exists. I know there’s a way out of here. Maybe we can get out of this hellhole together.”

“Yeah. Together sounds nice. Anything sounds nice in a place like this,” Pancakes sighed.

“Where are we heading now?” Jester queried, watching as the dark road flew by in the window.

“The closest thing to a base I have. Me, my brother, and two other people live there. It’s safe. Relatively speaking. Once we get there, you guys can eat and rest for a bit, ok? Then we have to head out if we wanna find the portal again.”

The three Freaks nodded in agreement. “Thanks again for helping us. If any of our friends got dragged in, I can’t imagine how they must be faring out here without the help of someone like you,” Jester said, unquestionably grateful for the woman’s help. “Uh...I’m Count Jester, by the way. Jester for short. Nonbinary, I use they/them pronouns.”

“I’m Ass Pancakes. Yes, you can laugh at the name.”

“And I’m Chaos Kin. Jesters God-Niece.”

“Nice to meet you,” She smiled, pulling the van towards a sheltered gravel road. “I’m Roseflame.”

#Slender Fortress #FF2 #Chaos Kin #count jester #Ass Pancakes #Roseflame #Slender Freaks

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ask-chaos-kin · 3 years

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Slender Freaks Ch.1

Fortress Beyond Our Belief

“Keep going! We’re almost there!” A girl cried, shoving her brother forward through the leaden halls.

“We’re not going to make it!” The boy shouted, jumping as a creature tried to snag at his heels.

“We will make it! Just keep going!” The girl gasped, fighting to stay ahead of the monster that chased them down through the corridors. She and her brother turned a sharp corner, and they both gasped in shock. “There! There’s the exit! Come on, we’re so close!”

“We might make it! We actually might escape this!” The brother chuckled as the two rushed towards a portal upon a mighty altar.

But as they advanced, the altar began to grow faded and blurry, and a distinct ringing noise filled the ears of the two would be escapees. They skidded to a halt and backed away from the altar in terror as a tall, slender figure emerged from the static surrounding the portal. He bore no face, and wore a black suit with a red tie. His skin was as pale as death, and shadows gathered at his back.

“Slenderman!” The two runaways gasped, recoiling away from the imposing figure. But stepping back, the two were aggressively reminded of their pursuer. A shriek made them turn on their heels, and the color drained from their faces at the realization that they were caught between two of the most infamous monsters in this nightmarish world; The Rake, and the feared Slenderman.

“Oh shit,” The brother swore, frantically looking around for an escape. “There goes our chance.”

The sister looked past her brother and saw an open vent shaft in the wall. With their escape attempt thwarted again, their only recourse left was to get out of the monster’s territory, and that shaft would at the very least give them reprieve from Slenderman and the Rake.

“Come on, we can try again later!” The sister shouted, shoving her brother towards the vent, sprinting as fast as their legs could carry them as the Rake barreled towards them.

The two soon to be escapees managed to climb into the vents just in the nick of time to avoid the emaciated monster behind them, and the sister pulled the vent covering up to hold it off from following them.

“Move! Move! This thing won't hold for very long!” She barked, pushing her brother through the shaft until the two of them were out of sight from the monsters.

However, as they fled, they deprived themselves of bearing witness to a truly inhuman display, even for a monster as infamous as the Slenderman. The tall figure watched the escapees flee, and stared blankly as the Rake gave up its mindless chase and stalked away from the vent. Slenderman tilted his head to the emaciated monster, as if to ask it a question, but the infamous creature just continued on its way.

Slenderman glowered for but a moment, then turned his attention to the portal the two siblings had attempted to escape from. A portal out of this nightmarish realm and out into the real world.

Slenderman extended a pale hand out to the portal. What a strange realm, this world was. Monsters like and unlike himself roamed, but not freely and not without consequence. This was not a world of hunting and surviving. It was organized and relatively stable. There were so many people out in this world, people who were fully unaware of this realm's existence. People who would make the perfect victims of this neverending nightmare.

Extending his tendrils into the portal, Slenderman altered the state of this rift between realms. He forced open tears into the real world, opening up the promise of more victims to hunt. Who would be the first to fall victim to these portals? Who would be the first of the unfortunate souls to be trapped here? Who would join the hordes of runaways in their futile attempts to escape this dangerous game?

***

“One paddle, paddle, paddle, two paddle, paddle, paddle…” Spyper yawned listlessly, watching as the ball repeatedly hit the paddleboard. He was lounged back lazily on a couch, sitting across from Intelligent Heavy as he deconstructed an N64 console that Jester had given them.

The two Freaks were four months into their house arrest, only a few days away from finally being let off the hook. Both Freaks wore heavy bands around their ankles, anchors to keep them inside at all times that would alert HECU if either of them so much as stepped foot out the door.

“I’m bored,” Spyper sighed heavily, finally letting his paddle streak end as his arms fell to his sides. “I never knew how boring it could be just staying home, but now I do, and I want it to be over!”

“It’ll be over in a few days,” Intelligent assured, smiling at his friend.

“Why can’t it be over now?” Spyper groaned, slouching further into the sofa. He sighed and slid off the couch. “I’m getting a drink.”

“Bring me the leftover pizza while you’re in there,” Intelligent called. Spyper nodded and gave the Heavy a thumbs up as he headed for the kitchen.

A knock at the door suddenly drew the attention of the two Freaks. Intelligent set aside the dismantled N64 and headed for the door.

“Who is it?”

“It’s us!” Jester's cheery voice called out. “We brought cake!”

“They dragged me along since I really had nothing better to do,” Pancakes called out.

Intelligent opened the door to see Jester, Pancakes, and Chaos standing at the door. He smiled and let the three inside.

“So, how’s house arrest working for ya guys?” Jester asked, setting the cake they were carrying on a nearby table.

Spyper let out a loud groan and hung his head back.

“That bad?” Chaos questioned as she walked into the kitchen.

“I got lucky. I mean, it sucked being restricted to my can in RED Spawn for a month. But on the bright side, Painis doesn’t really bother with the can unless meals are scarce.” Pancakes stretched.

“Hey, at least you guys are off the hook in a few days, right?” Jester asked, hacking off a slice of the cake and handing it to Intelligent.

“Mhm. One more week of this, and we’ll be free to go.”

“That’s good to hear!” Jester smiled. “Did you guys like the console I sent you?”

“Well…” Intelligent glanced over to the deconstructed N64. “In a way: Yes.”

While the rest of the group was talking, Pancakes let his eyes wander for a moment before noticing a small light in the house.

“Yo intelligent, when did you make a teleporter like that?” Pancakes pointed it out.

“Huh? I didn’t…” Intelligent looked at the glowing orb.

“Than… what is it doing here?” Chaos started to approach the ball of light.

“What even is it?” Jester quizzed, floating after Chaos.

“Do I look like an expert on random glowing objects?” Chaos bit.

“I don’t think you three should be getting that close to it,” Intelligent warned.

“It’s not like some-” Before Pancakes could finish his sentence a large black tendril shot out from the ball of light and wrapped around his arm.

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” He screamed. He grabbed the tendril and tried to pry it off to no avail. “GET IT OFF!”

Before Chaos and Jester could jump in to help, two more tendrils burst from the light, grabbing the two Freaks.

“What the hell!?” Chaos gasped with strain.

“Intelligent! Spyper! Help!” Jester cried, struggling in the tendrils grip.

The three Freaks screamed as the tendrils lifted them into the air, and the ball of light they came from expanded outward rapidly. In a blinding flash of light, it engulfed the Freaks and snapped out of existence with a sharp cry, taking the Freaks with it.

As the light faded, panic filled the two Freaks left standing there to witness their friends being dragged away by another force.

“Oh fuck oh fuck oh FUCK!” Spyper screamed, staring and gesticulating wildly at where the Freaks had just been. “What the fuck just happened - Intelligent!?”

“Don’t look at me!” Intelligent explained, just as baffled as Spyper.

“Oh god, what do we do!? They just got nabbed by tentacles from another dimension!” Spyper cried, throwing up in hands in panic.

“We need help for this,” Intelligent gulped. He threw aside his cake and ran for the door, causing Spyper to stumble after him.

“Woah - WOAH! What are you doing!?”

“Getting HECU’s attention! Now move!” Intelligent grunted. He pushed his friend outside and marched out the door. He flinched as soon as he was out the door, as the band around his ankle began beeping loudly and flashing, alerting HECU that the detained Freaks were breaking their house arrest.

“This can only end badly,” Spyper fretted, staring at his friend in shock and alarm.

“I really hope HECU knows how to help us,” Intelligent gulped, watching for HECU vehicles to start coming down the road.

“And what if they can’t?” Spyper implored earnestly.

“Let's hope they do.”

“Yeah, cause that’s reassuring.” He glanced down at his own band and sighed. “Oh well. We’ve already broken the law. What’s one more?” He muttered, joining his friend outside.

***

“Only a couple more months… If only those months came faster.” RED groaned laying on his back looking up in his prison cell.

“We’ll get through it, RED,” Pure assured, sitting in a cell across from RED. “We’ve made it this far.”

“I know. At least the food here is good, just really boring.”

“It’s better than whatever Brutal cooks,” Pure shrugged.

“I honestly thought this place would be a million times worse. Who knew that prison for Freaks was just Rehab level 2.”

“Yeah, I really wasn’t expecting the rehab part,” Pure said, looking down the hall.

“Better than normal prison at least.”

“How do you think the others are fairing?” Pure asked, leaning forward on his bed. “I hope none of them have gotten into trouble since we were arrested.”

“Well, Brutal and Gentle are in Rehab 1.0, So there’s the two trouble makers out of the picture.”

“And I’m sure Polite, Spyper, and Intelligent are abiding by their house arrest. Pancakes...I’m holding out hope for him, but I’m not entirely convinced he’s stayed in his can for that long.”

“And we don’t have to worry about Jester and Chaos,” RED grunted as he stretched. “At least, I hope we don’t.”

“Chaos just found out that she still has a living family and the remainder of her team is still alive. I’m sure that someone is looking after her,” Pure remarked pointedly, pressing his hands together.

“I’m not too worried about Jester. They’re too busy with piecing together their past,” RED yawned, reclining on his bed. “And they’ve learned a lot in the time since being released. They and Chaos will be fine.”

As RED reclined, Pure happened to notice a ball of light appear next to the bed.

“What in the world?”

“Huh?” RED lifted his head. “What is it?”

“There’s this...Light next to your bed,” Pure said hesitantly, squinting at the shimmer. “Don’t get close to it. I don’t know what that thing is-”

A shrill scream tore through the relative silence of the cells and Pure leapt from his bed in shock, a pale dread overtaking his face as he watched black tendrils erupt from RED’s bed and ensnare him, locking him tightly in place as it slowly dragged him down.

Muffled screams escaped from the tendrils as they engulfed him and dragged him into the small light, terror filling the very air around them.

“RED!” Pure screamed, throwing himself against the glass screen of his cell. “Guards! GUARDS! HELP! Something’s happened to RED!” He cried desperately. He frantically looked about his cell for anything to use to get himself out, but he barely had time to search his nightstand when another set of tendrils burst from the ground beneath him and wrapped around his legs, immobilizing him. Pure gasped in terror as the tendrils dragged him downward, and his terrified cries for help echoed through the halls as he was violently pulled into a small light.

As the light disappeared, a small camera focused on the spot where the two spies were taken. On the other side of the lens, on a monitor in HECU, a young intern sat baffled and mortified by the events her bright green eyes had just seen. She swallowed hard and leaned back in her chair, stricken pale. She brushed a strand of her brown, curling locks aside, a strand of purple bleeding into her natural hair color. Then she frantically snatched up her pager and started running for the door, quickly turning the channel on the pager to that of Commander Rudra.

“Commander! Commander, come in! We have a security breach, I repeat we have a security breach! Christian Pure Spy and RED Spy have just disappeared into thin air! We need backup here!” She gasped, fumbling with the doorknob. “Black tendrils just came out of nowhere and grabbed them, then dragged them to who knows where! Please, Rudra, we need some help here! We’re dealing with something supernatural here!”

The intern flew out of the security room and started sprinting through the halls, weaving between guards and officers in her panicked sprint to Rudra’s office.

However, she didn’t have to run far before she collided with the commander herself, receiving a facefull of metal plating from Rudra’s heavy armor before staggering back, nearly falling squarely on her rear end and no doubt receiving a bruise or two from the collision.

“Now what’s going on?” Rudra asked sternly, lowering her pager. “What’s this about a security breach?”

“There were these long black tendrils that emerged from this ball of light in their cell that dragged RED and Pure into it! It was like something from a horror game!” The intern exclaimed, tripping over her own words in her frantic retelling of the events.

“Slow down, Ash,” Rudra said cooly, raising a hand to Ashley. “Did anyone else see this?”

“Everyone else is out on break,” She wheezed, her breaths still forced and panicked.

“The one time we don’t need them on break,” Rudra whispered under her breath. “And you managed to get it on camera?”

“Yeah, everything’s been recorded,” Ashley gulped.

“Good. We can look over the footage and see what happened. We could be dealing with something interdimensional here. I’ll give Jester a call if that’s the case.”

Before Rudra could get her phone out to call Jester, Ash screamed as something grabbed her. The black tendrils she had described suddenly wrapped around her legs and chest, immobilizing her and rooting her to the spot.

“AH! Rudra, HELP!” Ash screamed, thrashing to free herself from their grip.

“Hold still!” Rudra barked. She drew her flaming sword and grabbed ahold of the thick tendrils around Ash’s abdomen and began slicing, fighting to keep the lashing appendages still as she cut them down.

Ash’s screaming and the hiss of Rudra’s sword drew the attention of nearby officers and like clockwork, several guards jumped to tear Ash free of the lashing vines.

“Come on, come on! What are these things made out of!?” Rudra hissed through gritted teeth, struggling to tear the tendrils away from Ash.

One of the tendrils grabbed a Soldier and dragged them forwards and into a much larger light. Many of the officers swiftly jumped to keep the Soldier from being dragged into the light, but the tendrils were far too strong to overcome, and the Soldier was swiftly swallowed whole by the orb.

This set off a chain reaction of several of the officers, soldiers, guards, and interns around being dragged screaming into the light, all the while Rudra held fast to Ash, tearing and slicing at the tendrils in her attempts to keep the woman out of the lights grasp.

“What’s going on!?” Ash screamed, thrashing about in her binds.

“I don’t know!” Rudra exclaimed. “Just don’t let go of me!”

“I can’t! I’m slipping!” Ash gasped, trying to dig her heels into the floor to no avail.

Around the corner, Noir has finally made it to the scene when Ash fully lost her footing, only being held back by Rudra’s strength alone.

“Noir! Help me here!” Rudra shouted, holding tight to Ash.

“Hang in there, I’m coming!” Noir cried, sprinting over to the two and grabbing a hold of Ash. “Don’t worry, we’re gonna get you out of this!” She strained, digging her heels into the floor. “Jesus, what is this thing!?”

“We don’t know! Whatever it is, it's not going to give up easily!”

“No shit it’s not giving up!” Noir wrapped an arm around Ash and tried to strong arm her out of the monster's grip.

“I can’t hold on for much longer!” Ash screamed, digging her nails into Rudra’s armor.

“Don’t you dare let go!” Noir barked, straining her entire body to keep Ash afloat.

“Come on, come on!” Rudra hissed through gritted teeth. Her metal sollerets screeched across the floor as she and Ash were slowly dragged towards the light, leaving noticeable white scars in the ground.

As the three women fought against the otherworldly force that threatened to drag them all into its clutches, two stray tendrils emerged from the light and snaked along the floor, wrapping themselves like spiders around Rudra’s legs. With one powerful tug, the tendrils threw the angel off balance. Noir was sent collapsing to the floor as Ash and Rudra were yanked out of her grasp, and a deafening scream tore through her throat as the small light engulfed the intern and her wife in the blink of an eye.

“NO! RUDRA!” Noir shrieked. She leapt to her feet and scrambled to where the light had been, frantically searching for that shimmering rift between worlds. However, just like Rudra and Ash, the light had vanished into thin air, leaving nothing behind but the white streaks in the tile floor.

“Oh god, oh god. Tyson! TYSON! SOUND THE ALARM! RUDRA’S GONE! SHE’S BEEN TAKEN! SHE’S GONE!” She cried in blind and hysterical panic, sprinting down the hall in terror.

Within minutes, all of HECU had been sent into chaos. A commander had been dragged into some kind of interdimensional rift, along with countless HECU employees. Alarms were sounded as news of the disappearance spread, and the news that Freaks had vanished thanks to this same anomaly only furthered the madness HECU was spiralling in.

However, things only got worse when two of the most infamous Freaks vanished from HECU’s containment facility.

***

Deep below ground, in a heavily fortified cell, Gentlespy and Christian Brutal Sniper sat in their respective lounging chairs, cables and wires hooked up to every part of them like some kind of battery. These cables and wires kept them in their seats, restricting their movement and ensuring the safety of all who stepped into their chambers. A small white table and chair were sat across from them, along with a straightlaced doctor who calmly tapped a pen against his clipboard.

This doctor had been assigned to the two Freaks when they had first been sent in for institutionalization, and it was this man's job to shape Brutal and Gentle into law-abiding Freaks like Madic. However, for all this man's training, he had hit several brick walls in regards to the Freaks in front of him. Brutal and Gentle clearly wanted nothing to do with institutionalization and stubbornly resisted the doctors attempts at changing their perspective or altering their homicidal tendencies, and had driven this doctor to the point of exhaustion with their bullheaded resistance.

“Take number 273, You two have murdered hundreds of mercenary and non-mercenaries alike. We at HECU would like to offer you an alternative to your murderous ways,” The doctor started, already seeing the bored and annoyed expressions on their faces.

“You aren’t leaving this room until you comply or the higher ups agree to let you go. So are you going to rot down here or actually have a chance of leaving here?”

“I’d prefer to break down that door and get back to my old life,” Brutal scowled, tugging on the cables around him to make a point.

“You go back to your old life, and you’ll be sent straight to prison. Would you rather at least try to be better, or would you rather be locked up somewhere?”

“Oh gee, lets see....Eenie meenie miney…Neither. You aren’t gonna magically change us. You haven’t been able to change our minds the last 272 times, what makes you think we’ll listen this time?”

“I was hoping you would have changed your perspective-”

Brutal interrupted him with a hearty laugh. “You’re fun. Annoying, but fun.”

“This isn’t a game, you two,” The doctor groaned incredulously.

“It is. A game of endurance,” Gentle chuckled, examining the quicks of his nails.

“If I were not here to try and help you two, I’d smack you both,” The doctor bit.

“Can’t help people who don’t want it,” Gentle cajoled jeeringly.

“Then what’s the point of me trying to help you?”

“That’s what we’ve been asking since we got here,” Brutal grumbled, shuffling in his seat. “Got a smoke?”

“We don’t bring cigars in here,” The doctor scowled, rubbing his eyes.

“Figures,” Brutal sighed.

The three swiftly turned their attention to the blaring alarm outside, and the Institution Center was filled with bright, flashing red lights as the intercom flared to life.

Warning: Interdimensional rifts discovered in HECU Headquarters and Evo City. Several Freaks and personnel have vanished into these rifts. All non militant employees are to gather in the courtyard. Everyone else: Please make your way to the Engineering Department.

“Well...Shit,” Brutal groaned. “Interdimensional rifts that are stealing people. This is what, only four months after Grave?”

“We have a habit of getting the short end of the stick,” Gentle sighed, rubbing his temples.

The doctor stood and headed for the door. “You two stay here. I need to find Dr. Liss.”

“Don’t worry, it's not like we can go anywhere,” Brutal jeered incredulously, holding up all the cables that held him back and shaking them around.

While the two sat there, a light appeared behind Gentle. It was dull and small, hardly noticeable even if the two Freaks could look back to see it.

“Hey, Gentle, you have a smoke?” Brutal asked listlessly, cracking his neck.

“For the last time; They took my cigar case,” Gentle groused, rolling his eyes.

“Would have thought you’d have stolen it back by now.”

“It’s hard to steal anything when I’m wrapped up in these - WHAT THE FUCK!?” Gentles jeer warped into a shrill scream as writhing tendrils of shadow erupted from behind his chair and ensnared him, tangling around the cables and wires that held him in place. Brutal jumped to his friends aid, but another set of twitching vines reached out and grabbed him, too.

“What the fuck is this!?” Brutal gasped with strangled breath, the tendrils wrapping around his chest and neck and violently pulling him back against his chair.

Gentle tried to struggle out of the grasp, only to be pulled into the light as the wires were ripped off the machines. Brutal followed behind him, dragged into the gaping maw that the tendrils had emerged from. It was like hell itself was pulling them in.

And when the doctor returned upon hearing their screams, the alarm that Christian Brutal Sniper and Gentlespy were gone sounded, joining the panic that had engulfed HECU.

#Slender Freaks #Chaos Kin #Count Jester #christian brutal sniper #Christian pure spy #FF2 Ass Pancakes #FF2 #Slender Fortress #Rudra #Lady Noir #Spyper #Intelligent Heavy

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