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Word Play
Chapter 5

-VB-

I managed to sneak my way into the Trainyard, which confused me a little. Wasn’t it supposed to be the Merchant’s territory or something? Because no one else wanted it? However, when I got there, there was no one there.

Just my projection waiting patiently on me.

I waved it over, because apparently I wasn’t even in full control of my projections, and blinked intentionally. The Weeping Angel now stood in front of me with its eyes covered and … There was another one behind it? “Oh damn,” I muttered. “How fast do you reproduce? No, wait, does it count as losing my second body’s virginity when I fucked someone with my projection? … Probably not. I glared at it because apparently, it went and did shit I never imagined a projection to be doing! How else did Weeping Angels reproduce if not like everyone else?

I mean, it’s even possible that they used their own energy - the potential energy Weeping Angels fed on by sending people back in time and living off the energy they would have spent had they not been sent back in time - to grow their babies.

I tried to stop thinking about that right then and there because I knew that I would be delving into how the Weeping Angels worked in real life - from how my power interpreted my memories of them to Weeping Angel sex for a race that can’t even touch each other (because of how observation works) - would be to consign myself into a rabbit hole.

An endless rabbit hole that involved the likes of Azathoth and When Day Breaks.

Stop. Stop. Stop thinking about them!

I took a deep breath in.

Okay.

So I was on the north side of this big building, which shielded me from the rest of the city if they ever came through this way. I could become a T.Rex for all I wanted and it would still cover me.

Another power came in, but I ignored it in favor of actually testing out a combination between Horrify 4’s Changer in combination with Better 3’s Brute. That’s what I was here for, and that’s what I would test.

I closed my eyes and concentrated on the image of the horror that I had chosen prior to coming here.

Of something unstoppable and monstrous.

Of something that almost all those who’ve encountered and heard of it fear.

As my body grew, a tail sprouted from my tailbone, scales grew from my pores, my face stretched painfully to adapt a more draconian appearance, and a hooked spike adorning shell tore out from under the skin of my back.

Bigger and bigger and bigger-!

Until I nearly stood as tall as the building I thought to hide behind. My reddish-brown shell and light brown scales stood out like a sore thumb

Because I had changed into a Tarrasque.

Sure, I wasn’t taller than the three-story building, but that may have been part of the limitations of the Horrify 4’s Changer power.

I giggled, but it came out as an absurdly loud crackle that sounded more like thunder and boulder meeting together for a one-night stand.

Then I felt Better 3 begin to work its magic on me.

I felt myself grow even bigger. Soon, I eclipsed the former railway administration building and then stopped growing.

I was nowhere near as big as a real Tarrasque would be, but being ten yards tall was no mean feat.

As for strength and durability…

I reached out with my tarrasque claws and touched the building. It gave away as if a wrecking ball hit it. My durability also got checked at the same time when a section of the wall gave away - and this was no regular brick wall but something sturdier and thicker and heavier - and fell on top of me. I barely felt it.

Well, the experiment was done. Time to go back to my motel room after transforming back to myself.

-VB-

Five.

There were five of them, not three.

Armsmaster gritted his teeth and kept his lips sealed as another adrenaline injection jabbed into him while medical-grade containment foam sprayed at the torn stump of his left arm.

He had his eyes on this one, but he only looked at its feet. His camera was off, too.

He activated the recorder in his helmet with specific moves with his eyes. When he saw the blinking red light at the top right corner of his visor, he began speaking.

"Stone Angels possess immense strength, capable of tearing apart Brute 5 graded tinkertech armor and the underlying body part in a single pull. While this level of strength has been speculated, it is now confirmed," he bit out as he slowly backed away. “I am currently missing my left arm.”

Grrr.

He glanced to the side while keeping the first Angel still within his sight.

“This is Armsmaster. I am pinned inside Medhall Floor 9 by five Stone Angels. I am requesting back up."

And then the ceiling lights began to flicker.

He glanced up as the flickering got worse. What made the situation worse was that it was currently nighttime.

His eyes narrowed as his own suit's visor lights flickered as well.

"... the Stone Angels may be shakers. I repeat, they may be shakers. All lights in the room are flickering. Soon, I will lose sight of them."

There wasn't a need to explain further.

He clicked his halberd's flashlight, but that too flickered.

"The fully charged flashlight built into my halberd is also malfunctioning. This is as good as confirmation for a shaker power."

All lights shut off for an instant.

When the lights flickered back on, the five angels in the room with him all stared off to the side… towards a box that hadn't been there a moment ago on top of the patient's chest.

The music box, no bigger than the average palm of the hand, began to churn out tingling music box lullaby.

"Sleep sleep sleep
Don't come too close to the shadows.
Things dwell there like which you've never seen.

"Sleep sleep sleep
Our king awakes from his slumber
And he brings back the creatures of the night.

"Hush hush hush
Only the Silence can save you now
But the Silence is already dead."

The lights flickered again, and this time, all of the Stone Angels disappeared from Mr. Kemmington's room.

Lights stopped flickering.

Armsmaster finally allowed himself to slide down listless against the wall.

"{...krrr….krrr…. -ster…. Krrr… -smaster respond!}"

Ah. They affected radio waves, too. How unfair.

Colin tried in pain to keep his eyelids from closing but he couldn’t. Instead, he blinked multiple times to activate the radio through his visor’s UI. "... saved Clockblocker's… father. Room 441. Safe,” he muttered, and then finally lost control and fell unconscious.

He did not see the small palm-sized music box open up, and eight hairy legs, each longer than a man’s arm, cautiously creep out from within.