Chapter 49 : A life in the slums (Patreon)

Mark and Jeffrey, the lizardman and ratkin duo that had accompanied Soluble through all these years, through thick and thin, through Sickler hordes, through Patchee hunts, through Wicked Witchcraft's mad rampages...

And yet here they were. Just the two of them. Alone in a great dark room that looked like the seat of power of some dark cult. No Soluble in sight.

They had decided to sit on the ground, not trusting the seats around the round table and out of fear they might anger someone if they did use them. They just sat there, each one laying his back against the dark bricks of a wall, their gaze vacant.

Time had no meaning to them. They didn't know how long they stayed in this silence. Minutes? Hours? Days? Frankly, neither cared. How could they?

"Did you... Did you ever think..."

"It would end thisss way? Sssometimes. When I didn't believe in anything. When I felt down. But it lasted for a sssmall inssstant. Because then we'd all be together. Why would Sssoluble harm usss? We're friends after all. Ah, how ssstupid I was."

"Why did they..."

"They probably never cared, Jeffrey. We were jussst... The two blokesss who were willing to hang out with them. Their fellow failuresss."

"Please don't say that Mark..."

"Why not? It'sss all true. We're the leftoversss, the trash of the ssslumsss. Even Barry and Larry handle thingsss better than we do."

"But..."

"We were born better than humansss, and yet sssome elf and dwarf kidsss handed up causing usss ssso much trouble."

"..."

"..."

"Do you remember the day we met?"

"..."

"..."

"Yesss..."

"Do you think they do?"

"I don't know. I'm not them. That'sss the only good thing about me."

"You're a great guy, Mark."

"Great guys don't end up like thisss, Jeffrey."

"Of course they do, we're here after all."

"Humf."

"..."

"..."

"Thank you, Mark. For trying."

"Someone has to be positive, and that's my job, right? I'm the funny goofball after all."

"Eh, you better not change..."

_____

Soluble was lost. They were alone, floating in a great black void. Nothing around. No sound. No smell. No taste.

They were just there, their transparent grey goo in a humanoid shape hanging on their good old black skeleton. There was an odd sensation spread throughout their being, as well as an odd cold deep within, but otherwise, they were fine. Handling things better than they thought they would after... Whatever that shadowy thing had done to them.

"Look at the poor little thing. Lost in its own lies. How pitiful."

"How stupid."

"Weak."

"Pathetic."

"WHO SAID THAT?"

Soluble tried to turn around, fighting against the great apathy of the black void surrounding them, but no matter where they looked there was no one there.

"You poor thing. Trying to find what they never could."

"How predictable."

"WHO ARE YOU? SHOW YOURSELVES!"

"Why should we? This isn't show-and-tell dearie."

"I'M GOING TO MELT YOUR FACES OFF!"

"Is the little thing trying to pick a fight so soon after getting obliterated?"

"I'd it has guts, but it's apparent it doesn't."

"All bark, no bite. Always the same thing with you."

"What are you talking about, you idiots?!"

"Do you truly think of yourself as a predator, dear?"

"You are a slime. You're a bottom feeder. The occasional specimen may become more, but at the core, you're nothing more than a glorified worm."

"I'M NOT A WORM!"

"Oh oh oh, of course not."

"Worms fulfill an important role in the ecosystem. You do not."

"Worms have a plethora of uses outside of their nature-granted one. You do not."

"Worms live simple and happy lives. You do not."

"STOP IT! DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"

"Oh, we do."

"Soluble, the failure."

"Soluble, the little nobody who thought they'd make it big."

"Soluble, the one who failed to hunt a shadow."

"Soluble, the monster who tried to kill their friends."

The last one. The last one hit something within Soluble.

"They... They were abandoning me. They betrayed me. THEY AREN'T MY FRIENDS!"

"Oh, my."

"Filthy liar."

"Friend killer."

"You're the one who dragged them into a dangerous dark abyss."

"You're the one who cast them aside in search of vengeance."

"You're the one who threatened to kill them if they left."

"You're the one who abandoned them."

"You're the one who tried to kill them."

"They aren't my friends! Just... Just two idiots who knew they should obey me! I don't need anyone!"

"Oh, is that a fact?"

"Or your last tactic to cloud your mind?

"A vain attempt at justifying your actions."

"Let us go back and watch, why don't we."

Suddenly the world around Soluble shifted. Gone was the black void, instead they were inside an old abandoned house of red bricks. A little no-good shelter in the middle of the slums with holes in its roof from where the rain fell to the wooden boards of the floor as a storm raged on in the sky, deafening thunder crackling and lightning bolts flashing, the only source of light in the night.

"Is that..."

A small grey blob, barely the size of a kitten, with a black core the size of a fingernail in its center shuddered under a table, its wobbling mass shaking in fear whenever the lightning struck.

A loud noise echoed through the house. The unmistakable sound of the front door opening and closing, followed by heavy steps on wood. They quickly approached the small room the slime was hidden in, and soon enough the door was opened-

"Gooby? Where are you?"

And in walked an old scientist. The man had to be in his eighties, with a long thick white beard. He had broad shoulders and a bald head, a pair of round glasses on his bulbous nose. His pale skin and the bags under his eyes were a clear indicator that the man wasn't getting enough rest.

At the sight of the man, the little slime did the same thing as always.

"Gloo!"

It jumped from its hiding spot and landed on the scientist's chest, straight on his white lab coat's chest pocket, and used the opening to secure itself into place as it nuzzled the man.

"Gooby! Why were you hiding under the table?"

The slime ignored the man, only focusing on his fingers as he began to pat and pet and scratch the odd lifeform.

"The storm, eh?"

He looked at the roof and stared at the wrathful sky through its many holes.

"And Marley thinks it's a good idea to test his stupid machine today..."

Hearing the cynism in the man's voice, the slime put a halt to its petting time and tried to cheer him up, forming small little nubs to pat him in turn. Seeing the adorable little grey blob's efforts made him chuckle and brought a smile to his face.

"Thank you, Gooby."

The man approached his desk, the piece of furniture being the only thing in his office that wasn't in an excessive state of disrepair, and carefully began to draw with his finger on its surface. A two. A sheep. A ship. A six. A cat. A smile. A sphinx. A circle.

As he finished the last one the desk began to glow blue, its light spreading to the rest of the office before soon enough it disappeared, leaving the man and his little slime in a different room, a blue and green high tech lab that would have looked more at home on a spaceship than in a random broken house in the slums, filled with dozens of strange contraptions that would have never fit in the building they were supposed to be in.

The scientist took a small violet shard out of one of his coat's pockets and dropped it in a receptacle in one of the many devices, an odd thing with a thousand arms all constantly moving seemingly with no pattern and yet never colliding with each other. A screen lit up in the air, showcasing data and analysis of the weather and the strange shard.

"Everything indicates this mad man's attempt will fail... And potentially destroy this entire city. Even without this shard. I can't let him do this."

The man pressed a button on another device - a simple printer - and took in his hands the dozens of pages of data the machine had just finished a second later. He returned to his wooden desk, the only thing that hadn't changed with the room, and began to draw patterns once more. An eight. An apple. An elephant. An airplane. An octagon.

The blue light shined once more and they back to the old broken house. The scientist was ready to run outside when a little something made itself known by patting his chest.

"Gooby..."

The man carefully scooped the little slime out of his pocket and knelt to put it on the ground, petting its head to keep it in place as it tried to climb back on him.

"Gooby, daddy has to go back to work."

"Gloo!"

"I know, I just came back, but there is something important I have to do. Don't worry, I'll be back soon. Keep the house safe for me, alright?"

The little grey wobbled.

"I won't be long, I promise."

The man left, and Gooby was left alone. Thunder roared and Gooby rushed back to its hiding place under the broken table. It began to wait.

It waited as the rain continued to fall.

It waited as the storm raged on.

It waited as the sky turned red.

It waited as the weather cleared.

It waited as the sun rose.

It waited as the sun fell.

It waited as snow fell.

It waited as flowers blossomed.

It waited as the sun shined.

It waited as the leaves fell.

It waited.

_____

Soluble snapped out of his trance, back to a black void, far away from the memories of the past.

"What did you-"

"Looks like you needed someone, Soluble.

"Poor little Gooby. Daddy never came home. I wonder why."

"Look where you ended up without him. You're nothing more than a pet abandoned on the side of the road. One who grew up to become a nuisance.

"I... I don't need... Anyone..."

"Oh, are you sure of that?"

The world shifted once more, back to the old broken house of red bricks.

The slime had grown, now the size of a large dog, as well as its core, now the size of a bowling ball. It roamed through the old house, taking on a weird shambling quadrupedal shape, walking on thin yet resilient tendrils of grey slime it had formed. It guarded the house, keeping it safe, for it was still waiting.

The sound of shattered glass echoed somewhere in the house. Gooby ran on its thin wobbly legs towards the sound had come from, seeing someone rummaging through a dresser next to the bed its father slept in when he stayed for the night. It didn't need to think. It pounced on them, spreading their transparent grey mass on their body in a flash. They didn't even have time to scream before they were entirely engulfed in the slime, eyes gone wide as they opened their mouth, only offering more offices for Gooby to fill. It only made sure to form a separate orb of slime to keep its core safe.

Before long Gobby had turned its acidity to the maximum, quickly burning away the skin of the intruder. The red flesh and muscles beneath took more effort, but Gooby had all its time. It had already waited for years.

A few hours later only a skeleton was left of the intruder. Every organ, nerve, and tissue had been turned burned away, only leaving white bones behind. The slime began to play with its meal to pass the time, hitting bones together to make music and clacking the skull's teeth like castanets. As it played, an idea formed in its mind. Forming limbs was always so hard, why not use the skeleton's? It moved its mass around, using the bones as a basis to form a humanoid shape and storing its core in the ribcage. Before long it had succeeded, standing up in a macabrely hilarious wobble on its two new plantigrade legs. It had no balance and had to keep its hands on the wall to avoid falling, but it could even walk!

Its new game of "pretend to be human" kept it entertained for months. It slowly got better and better, no longer needing to rely on the wall to stay balanced, mimicking gestures it had seen its father do and even the few people it saw through the windows of the house. As time passed, its core began to shrink as the skeleton darkened and smoothened, some bones even fusing or melting away. After a year had passed, Gooby's core had fully been integrated into the intruder's skeleton that had become black.

One day, as it was cleaning the old house of red bricks, it heard an odd thing. A new sound it had never experienced before. Sobbing. Gooby searched throughout the house until at last, it found them. From the broken window of the bedroom, it could see two small humanoid creatures, a ratkin and a lizardman, both laying on their side and crying as three humans kicked them in the chest.

Gooby stood there and watched, curious about the odd phenomenon. It had never had the chance to interact with any human outside of its father and intruders, and those last ones were to be destroyed. Witnessing a social ritual was a new experience, one they greatly enjoyed.

"Come on, you freaks! Ain't you gonna defend yourselves?"

"Please... leave us alone..."

"Hear that guys? I think we ain't kicking them hard enough!"

"Ssstop..."

"Humf. It ain't even fun anymore. Wanna break into that house and steal the stuff inside?"

"Ain't that the one where things go missing all the time?"

"Why, you gonna chicken out?"

"Bwak bwak!"

"I ain't no chicken! Come on, let's-"

Gooby didn't let them finish. As nice as seeing this social interaction was it wouldn't let intruders into its father's house. It jumped out the window and engulfed the closest human, locking his limbs into place with its own skeletal ones, quickly rising its degree of acidity and burning away his flesh.

"Greg!"

"What the hell is that thing?"

Its first victim sufficiently wounded, Gooby pounced from him to the nearest human, the man screaming as he thought to get the slime off of him - with no success. Seeing the state of his friends the third one ran away, madly screaming all the while. Once Gooby felt like its second victim had sustained enough damage it dislodged itself from his body, the man gasping for breath through his hole-ridden throat, his red exposed flesh leaking blood before soon enough he let out his final breath.

Gooby stood up and examined the two little humanoids the trio had been interacting with. Were they friends? They had done nothing during the attack. In fact, it appeared they had been hurt by the trio. Were these two intruders or not?

The lizard looked at Gooby in fear, but the rat rose on his feet as he spoke.

"Thank... Thank you."

Gooby kept on staring. He had thanked him? Then they must not have been with the intruders.

"What's your name? I'm Jeffrey, and this is Mark."

"Gooby."

"Goo... Gooby? That's an odd name."

"Father chose. Good name."

"Oh, yes! I wasn't saying it's bad!"

"Good. Intruders?"

"Oh, no, we... We were just passing by after getting some bread and... Guess they wanted bread too..."

What had its father said was the name of younger creatures of the same species? Children? Yes, that was the word.

"Do... So you want some? Mark hid a small loaf under his shirt, I would have done it but I always get fur everywhere."

"Bread?"

"Yes, bread."

"No."

"Oh. Uh, would you mind... If we slept here tonight? I don't think we'll manage to get back home before the night after getting kicked like that."

"No intruders!"

"Oh, no, we're not intruders! If you don't want us to enter we can just stay outside!"

Gooby thought. Its father had said to keep the house safe. If they weren't inside the house, then it should have still been safe, no?

"Ok."

"Oh, thank you... Gooby. Oh, will your father be alright with this?"

"Ask when he comes back."

"Oh, do you know when?"

"No."

"How... How long has it been?"

"Don't know."

"... More than a week?"

"Yes."

"A month?"

"Yes."

"A year? The four seasons?"

"Yes."

"Are you... Alone, in there?"

"Yes."

"Gooby... Do you know what an orphan is?"

"No."

"It'sss when your parents die or leave you to die."

"Mark!"

"Can't coddle them, Jeffrey. Besidesss, look at them. At what they did to those guys. They're strong enough to handle it."

"Father... no... come back?"

"Yesss, 'Gooby'. Father ain't gonna come back home."

"But... He promised..."

"Maybe Mark is wrong and he'll come back! If you want to, we could wait for him with you for a little bit."

"... Yes."

"I... I don't need anyone."

"Poor little Gooby."

"Poor little Soluble."

"Not a human cursed with an acidic nature."

"But a slime who thought he could be a person."

"A killer from the start."

"Look where you ended up without your father."

"You don't need them, you say?"

"But they needed you."

"And you betrayed them."

"I... GET OUT OF MY HEAD!"

"But why?"

"Is it because we are the will of the thing you thought?"

"Maybe the personification of its mental assault on your psyche?"

"But maybe we are your thoughts, finally given voice and the chance to act."

"Or just demons who want to have some fun."

"Does it matter, when you aren't listening?"

"STOP IT!"

And thus Soluble screamed in the black void. Alone.

_____

Finally, a figure entered the room where Mark and Jeffrey waited. One they had both been expecting, but fearing the visit.

"Mark, Jeffrey."

"Missster..."

"Silhouette."

"Uh, guess Soluble wasn't that far off."

"Yes, they weren't. Now, we need to talk about your future."

"We're sorry about Barry and Larry."

"And Sssoluble."

"Oh, do not worry. I am not petty enough to blame you two. So, here is my offer. You two work for me, 200 Xerins each every week. You get to become Larry and Barry's bodyguards or assist in the various tasks that will soon come in this lair. What do you say?"

"Without Soluble..."

"Without a home..."

"Yes."

"We're in."

"Good. As for Soluble, they are currently experimenting the effects of a prototype weapon. They may live, they may not, they may be the same person when it's done, they may not. I wanted you to know, to not be surprised if they never appear again - or if they do."

"Uh, thank you?"

"Yes, yes. Now, the first order of business for you two... Neither of you would happen to be an electrician?"

"No?"

"Ah well, it was to be expected. Interrogation?"

"That was more Sssoluble'sss thing. You know, with the whole acid body thing."

"Uhm, yes. Well, I suppose you have no knowledge of magic or technology?"

"Yeah, no."

"Negotiations?"

"Somewhat?"

"Relations?"

"Ah! That we can do!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, we know Guy. And Guy knowsss lotsss of folksss."

"Oh! We also know some of the factionless guys who hang around the Black Block! Maybe they'd like a job too?"

"I suppose it will have to do. Now then, I will let your new superiors fill you in on what they expect from you. In the meantime, I have to handle the repairs of the entrance, which your little raid party had a wonderful time exploding."

"Uh, sorry?"

Silhouette didn't bother to answer as he left the room, only saying one last thing as he passed the doorway, letting the thin wall of black bricks open.

"Larry, Barry, they're yours now."

Two new figures entered the room as Silhouette disappeared, though these newcomers were much more familiar to the animalistic duo. One tall thin man and one small broad one.

"How the turntables, uh Larry?"

"Didn't that already happen when the boss beat them the first time?"

"Just let me gloat."

"Okie Dokie Barry!"