Neo Chronicles
Episode 21: Here's the Thing
Table of Contents
Yo, I know what you thinkin'. Why in the world are these crazy kids out in the middle of the snowiest part of Russia, deep underneath anything an' everything worth something? What are those black shadow looking animals crawlin' along the ground, surroundin' the crazy kids wit' they big glowin' yellow eyes? Why do I have a sword?
People think I'm crazy, but I know.
So here's the thing. Name's Nexus. Homie over there in tha green jacket an' grey shirt, shootin' fire outta his hands actin' like a fool is Kai. He hates this. He hates me. He probably hates everything right now. That's cool, though. He's still here, an' deep down inside—beneath the glasses, attitude, fire, an' junk—I bet he's havin' fun. I know I am.
The dude off to the side wherin' the scarf ova his black vest an' blue shirt doin' what he can with the ice that he's makin' is Noah. He's an oddball. Not quite sure what to make of him 'sides that. Dude is goofy, but he's got heart. Seems to be down with the insanity, an' for that, I gotsta respect him.
The pink headed white girl in dark blue an' purple sweater blouse thing is Lynn. I'm not sure what she's doin' here really. Before, I thought she was here as a favor to me, but now, it's like—I don't know, dawg. She's just—
Isn't she your best friend? Yeah, she is, an' that's why it's so weird. I mean, sho' this whole situation is crazy an' junk, but does that mean—Should probably give the recap. Who's the one tellin' the story?
A'ight, so here's the break down. We're all jus' some freshman high school kids—Noah's actually a sophomore—who, mindin' our own business, got arrested by this cop who ended up gettin' possessed by some spirit who was supposed to stop the apocalypse. I know that don't make no sense. Don't worry, it gets better. The possessed cop called himself Jabari, an' he told us that demons—that's what these black lil' shadow creatures we're fightin' right now are—were comin' outta Hell, an' we had to stop 'em. Then the cop said we was stupid lil' kids an' sent us home. Turns out the cop got killed by those demons, an' now we're out finishin' what he started.
You guys are gonna get killed, too. You know that, right? You're soundin' like Kai now. He's right, though. Yeah, I know. After what happened wit' dat poser Ian an' his—I guess you'd call him his brother—Will, I was ready to call it quits. How are demons related anyway?
We're not ready for this. See, the only reason I was really into this—an' yes, there're other reasons, but this is the only one that I actually cared about—was because my dawg DJ has gone missin'. This is the typa dude that only goes to like three places in the world: his house, my house, an' school. How's a dude like that gonna turn up gone an' there not be foul play involved? His mom an' sister have been destroyed over this. They like family to me, so I'm all upset about it, too.
So when I got to thinkin' about other weird things that've been happenin', the only thing my mind led me to was this demon madness. So's when I told these lames—Lynn, Kai, an' Noah—about it, they jumped on board an' now here we are.
You're looking for your friend DJ? Darius? Yeah, that's what I jus' said. And you think you'll find him by fighting demons? I don't know. Maybe. It was all I had goin'. This is a very bad idea. You don't think I know that? I told you, I was ready to go. I got it. We're kids. We're not cops, we're not demon hunters, we only got this far because of luck. I'm goin' crazy talkin' to some stupid voice in my head—You've been talkin' to me for as long as you can remember. Have you always been so annoying? And I think you're way past “going crazy.” I mean, seriously. What's your deal? I'm sure other people have little voices they listen to.
What are we doing here? I thought you were fighting demons. We were ready to leave. Why did Lynn—say she wanted to keep going? I dunno, maybe she wanted to keep her promise. She made a promise? You need to pay more attention to people. I remember the promise. She said even if it was just me an' her, we'd go look for DJ. But that don't mean die tryin'. Usually, she's the one to point out stuff like that. What's her deal?
So after those demons, Ian and Will, left—I said I'd be the one to tell it! After they left us in the desert, we were through. Everyone was shook. We were so close to dying right then, an' what's worse is that we all knew it. There was no way we shoulda made it out alive, but we did somehow. Lynn was doubting herself. She was doubting everything. All apologizing for not opening up that portal to send the demons back to Hell. She didn't cry, but it looked like she was about to.
Noah was tryna be all understanding an' actin' like it was okay. “They did say you were close,” he said. Which was true, she was. We all saw the portal open up. It was jus' super shaky—unstable. An' when Ian didn't wanna see it anymore, he broke it. Dude knows he was scared, too, but he played it off. But Lynn wasn't havin' it. As much as Noah tried to comfort her, she jus' shut it all out an' walked away for a bit.
So it was jus' us three guys left. Kai—bein' Kai—gave us the “I told you so” speech that he was oh-so ready to give from the get go. I swear to you, he had that junk rehearsed or somethin'—it was that long winded. But I didn't say a word about it.
See, the fact of the matter was—the negro was right. We weren't ready. This demon hunting thing was not somethin' for four high school students to do. This wasn't no TV show. This wasn't no movie. No cartoon or comic book that you could read on your lil' handhelds. This was—this is life, as crazy-fantastic as it seems, this is it. If we die, that's it. So I came out an' said it. I had to. I told him to his face that he was right, an' it was me—me, of all people, the one who said we needed to do this in the first place—to say we should pack it up an' head back to Next City. I guess everyone was completely took off guard by it, but they was all agreein'.
And it was then an' there that Lynn came back wit' some, “thanks for trying to spare my feelings, but we all know this came down to me not being able to pull my weight.” I looked at her with the most dumbfounded face like—it was jus'—wha? She went on, “If you guys are ready to go back, then we'll go back. Sorry I wasn't able to do you any good.”
Now you gotta understand. This was some crazy, emo, self-hatin' junk that Lynn has never been known for. She's the most confident person I know. I ain't neva heard her talk that crazy talk like that, before, an' I've known her for almost as long as DJ, an' that's goin' way back. My jaw was practically on the ground when I heard that.
Thankfully, Noah was smart enough to point out, “Aren't you the reason we're alive in the first place? We wouldn't've been able to even touch those two without your crazy mumbo jumbo magicky-ness. I know that for a fact. Just because you weren't able to do everything doesn't mean we blame you for this one bit.”
Then Kai had to add on, “Yeah, if anything, it's all Chris's fault for gettin' us in this in the first place.” He was right, though. Again, hate to admit it, but it was my fault. Still haven't got him to call you Nexus yet? Man, ain't nobody callin' me Nexus, yet. Noah tries to, but only when he remembers. This is why you shouldn't pick your own nick name. Shut up, poser! Your name is Christophe. Chris is already your nick name. Why're you trying to get another one?
So in spite of all that, Lynn wasn't hearin' it. She then came out an' said that she'd be the one goin' after these demons after she was through droppin' us off. Was startin' to think that she was possessed. Of course, Kai was bold enough to ask her straight up.
“No, I'm not possessed,” she said. “I just feel like this is something that I need to do.” Then she looked right at me—looked me in my eye, an' dawg, the face she looked with was the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life. It was—I don't even know—it was full of sorrow, regret, all them sad words an' adjectives they put in those sad songs an' books I don't read, an' she had the nerve to ask me, “You understand... right?”
“Uh, no.” I said. I said it a lil' louder to make sure there was no confusion. “No, Lynn. I don't. What the crud's wrong with you? It's okay. No one's mad. We'll go home, forget this ever happened. Pray an' be done with it.”
Then it looked like she was the one who was surprised. What'd she expect? Like I'd give her some sorta validation? Me? Who she think I am? She was actin' crazy, an' I flat out told her, like she told me all the many times I was actin' out.
Then it got real quiet like. We was jus' standin' there for a while. Noah was lookin' around not sure how to act. Kai was starin' off into the sky, an' me an' Lynn was lookin' right at each other. I didn't recognize her anymore. Sure, she had the same looks, but that was not the Lynn I knew, an' I think she was thinkin' the same about me. You'd think we did a body swap. Her talkin' all reckless, me bein' the sane one. You sane? That's funny. Don't I know it!
Lynn was still on this, though. She wanted to—she really wanted to keep on with this demon hunting madness. Us guys looked at each other, an' after what seemed like a forever of silence, we agreed that no matter how this works out, we're all in this together. Jus' don't seem right leavin' one of us behind so,
“So, Lynn if you really wanna keep goin',” Noah said, “we'll be comin' with you.” As deadset against it Kai was, he agreed. As out of the ordinary it was for me, I agreed. As weirded out as he was, Noah agreed. It was all set. “But this time we're playin' it smart.” Noah continued, “we're only going to Hellgates where demons are escaping. You mentioned that it's easier for you to close a gate than it is to open and close one, so let's make sure you got that down. Secondly, no one's going to over exert themselves in anything. The second any of us looks like we're about to die an' not get saved, we drop everything, gather around, then head back home. Fellas, since Lynn's our ride that means her life's way more important than ours, so we gotta make sure she's safe first and foremost. We're a team now, so that means we're only as good as our weakest link—or is it sum of our parts—I always get that confused.”
We all agreed to the rules an' walked into that Axis Mundi thing—that weird white, negative space that's supposed to exist between worlds or some nonsense—an' ended up here, in some underground cave in the Russian Union, fightin' off these shadow creatures trying that're escaping from that Hellgate we see on the ceiling. The demons are exactly like the ones we ran into when Jabari was leadin' the group. Formless, shapeless, yet still beastly. They're fast moving, but I know a thing or two about speed. Thanks to Lynn's enchantment, we can actually cause these demons pain when we hit 'em—or slice 'em, in my case. Problem is, us hurtin' them isn't doin' a thing to actually stop 'em.
That's why we got Lynn workin' in the background. Us guys do our thing to protect each other an' to protect her. We attack in like a circle. There's always someone who's got their eyes on her. When that person leaves, another takes his place.
The demons are still pourin' in, but I see Lynn really work hard on that gate. Her hands are glowing all sorts of different colors. Whatever she's doin' it's causin' a lotta wind to pick up, too, which is cool, so I guess it's—
“It's done!” she shouts out.
We all stop fighting for a moment an' look at the ceiling to see the gate sorta fade out of existence. There's this huge light show that happens around where it was, an' some rocks from the ceiling fall down all over the place, but all an' all, we did good. The Hellgate is closed shut, and it is outta sight.
Problem is—Yeah, that looks like a pretty big problem—the demons that got through didn't leave with it.
Episode 21: Here's the Thing
Table of Contents
Yo, I know what you thinkin'. Why in the world are these crazy kids out in the middle of the snowiest part of Russia, deep underneath anything an' everything worth something? What are those black shadow looking animals crawlin' along the ground, surroundin' the crazy kids wit' they big glowin' yellow eyes? Why do I have a sword?
People think I'm crazy, but I know.
So here's the thing. Name's Nexus. Homie over there in tha green jacket an' grey shirt, shootin' fire outta his hands actin' like a fool is Kai. He hates this. He hates me. He probably hates everything right now. That's cool, though. He's still here, an' deep down inside—beneath the glasses, attitude, fire, an' junk—I bet he's havin' fun. I know I am.
The dude off to the side wherin' the scarf ova his black vest an' blue shirt doin' what he can with the ice that he's makin' is Noah. He's an oddball. Not quite sure what to make of him 'sides that. Dude is goofy, but he's got heart. Seems to be down with the insanity, an' for that, I gotsta respect him.
The pink headed white girl in dark blue an' purple sweater blouse thing is Lynn. I'm not sure what she's doin' here really. Before, I thought she was here as a favor to me, but now, it's like—I don't know, dawg. She's just—
Isn't she your best friend? Yeah, she is, an' that's why it's so weird. I mean, sho' this whole situation is crazy an' junk, but does that mean—Should probably give the recap. Who's the one tellin' the story?
A'ight, so here's the break down. We're all jus' some freshman high school kids—Noah's actually a sophomore—who, mindin' our own business, got arrested by this cop who ended up gettin' possessed by some spirit who was supposed to stop the apocalypse. I know that don't make no sense. Don't worry, it gets better. The possessed cop called himself Jabari, an' he told us that demons—that's what these black lil' shadow creatures we're fightin' right now are—were comin' outta Hell, an' we had to stop 'em. Then the cop said we was stupid lil' kids an' sent us home. Turns out the cop got killed by those demons, an' now we're out finishin' what he started.
You guys are gonna get killed, too. You know that, right? You're soundin' like Kai now. He's right, though. Yeah, I know. After what happened wit' dat poser Ian an' his—I guess you'd call him his brother—Will, I was ready to call it quits. How are demons related anyway?
We're not ready for this. See, the only reason I was really into this—an' yes, there're other reasons, but this is the only one that I actually cared about—was because my dawg DJ has gone missin'. This is the typa dude that only goes to like three places in the world: his house, my house, an' school. How's a dude like that gonna turn up gone an' there not be foul play involved? His mom an' sister have been destroyed over this. They like family to me, so I'm all upset about it, too.
So when I got to thinkin' about other weird things that've been happenin', the only thing my mind led me to was this demon madness. So's when I told these lames—Lynn, Kai, an' Noah—about it, they jumped on board an' now here we are.
You're looking for your friend DJ? Darius? Yeah, that's what I jus' said. And you think you'll find him by fighting demons? I don't know. Maybe. It was all I had goin'. This is a very bad idea. You don't think I know that? I told you, I was ready to go. I got it. We're kids. We're not cops, we're not demon hunters, we only got this far because of luck. I'm goin' crazy talkin' to some stupid voice in my head—You've been talkin' to me for as long as you can remember. Have you always been so annoying? And I think you're way past “going crazy.” I mean, seriously. What's your deal? I'm sure other people have little voices they listen to.
What are we doing here? I thought you were fighting demons. We were ready to leave. Why did Lynn—say she wanted to keep going? I dunno, maybe she wanted to keep her promise. She made a promise? You need to pay more attention to people. I remember the promise. She said even if it was just me an' her, we'd go look for DJ. But that don't mean die tryin'. Usually, she's the one to point out stuff like that. What's her deal?
So after those demons, Ian and Will, left—I said I'd be the one to tell it! After they left us in the desert, we were through. Everyone was shook. We were so close to dying right then, an' what's worse is that we all knew it. There was no way we shoulda made it out alive, but we did somehow. Lynn was doubting herself. She was doubting everything. All apologizing for not opening up that portal to send the demons back to Hell. She didn't cry, but it looked like she was about to.
Noah was tryna be all understanding an' actin' like it was okay. “They did say you were close,” he said. Which was true, she was. We all saw the portal open up. It was jus' super shaky—unstable. An' when Ian didn't wanna see it anymore, he broke it. Dude knows he was scared, too, but he played it off. But Lynn wasn't havin' it. As much as Noah tried to comfort her, she jus' shut it all out an' walked away for a bit.
So it was jus' us three guys left. Kai—bein' Kai—gave us the “I told you so” speech that he was oh-so ready to give from the get go. I swear to you, he had that junk rehearsed or somethin'—it was that long winded. But I didn't say a word about it.
See, the fact of the matter was—the negro was right. We weren't ready. This demon hunting thing was not somethin' for four high school students to do. This wasn't no TV show. This wasn't no movie. No cartoon or comic book that you could read on your lil' handhelds. This was—this is life, as crazy-fantastic as it seems, this is it. If we die, that's it. So I came out an' said it. I had to. I told him to his face that he was right, an' it was me—me, of all people, the one who said we needed to do this in the first place—to say we should pack it up an' head back to Next City. I guess everyone was completely took off guard by it, but they was all agreein'.
And it was then an' there that Lynn came back wit' some, “thanks for trying to spare my feelings, but we all know this came down to me not being able to pull my weight.” I looked at her with the most dumbfounded face like—it was jus'—wha? She went on, “If you guys are ready to go back, then we'll go back. Sorry I wasn't able to do you any good.”
Now you gotta understand. This was some crazy, emo, self-hatin' junk that Lynn has never been known for. She's the most confident person I know. I ain't neva heard her talk that crazy talk like that, before, an' I've known her for almost as long as DJ, an' that's goin' way back. My jaw was practically on the ground when I heard that.
Thankfully, Noah was smart enough to point out, “Aren't you the reason we're alive in the first place? We wouldn't've been able to even touch those two without your crazy mumbo jumbo magicky-ness. I know that for a fact. Just because you weren't able to do everything doesn't mean we blame you for this one bit.”
Then Kai had to add on, “Yeah, if anything, it's all Chris's fault for gettin' us in this in the first place.” He was right, though. Again, hate to admit it, but it was my fault. Still haven't got him to call you Nexus yet? Man, ain't nobody callin' me Nexus, yet. Noah tries to, but only when he remembers. This is why you shouldn't pick your own nick name. Shut up, poser! Your name is Christophe. Chris is already your nick name. Why're you trying to get another one?
So in spite of all that, Lynn wasn't hearin' it. She then came out an' said that she'd be the one goin' after these demons after she was through droppin' us off. Was startin' to think that she was possessed. Of course, Kai was bold enough to ask her straight up.
“No, I'm not possessed,” she said. “I just feel like this is something that I need to do.” Then she looked right at me—looked me in my eye, an' dawg, the face she looked with was the saddest thing I've ever seen in my life. It was—I don't even know—it was full of sorrow, regret, all them sad words an' adjectives they put in those sad songs an' books I don't read, an' she had the nerve to ask me, “You understand... right?”
“Uh, no.” I said. I said it a lil' louder to make sure there was no confusion. “No, Lynn. I don't. What the crud's wrong with you? It's okay. No one's mad. We'll go home, forget this ever happened. Pray an' be done with it.”
Then it looked like she was the one who was surprised. What'd she expect? Like I'd give her some sorta validation? Me? Who she think I am? She was actin' crazy, an' I flat out told her, like she told me all the many times I was actin' out.
Then it got real quiet like. We was jus' standin' there for a while. Noah was lookin' around not sure how to act. Kai was starin' off into the sky, an' me an' Lynn was lookin' right at each other. I didn't recognize her anymore. Sure, she had the same looks, but that was not the Lynn I knew, an' I think she was thinkin' the same about me. You'd think we did a body swap. Her talkin' all reckless, me bein' the sane one. You sane? That's funny. Don't I know it!
Lynn was still on this, though. She wanted to—she really wanted to keep on with this demon hunting madness. Us guys looked at each other, an' after what seemed like a forever of silence, we agreed that no matter how this works out, we're all in this together. Jus' don't seem right leavin' one of us behind so,
“So, Lynn if you really wanna keep goin',” Noah said, “we'll be comin' with you.” As deadset against it Kai was, he agreed. As out of the ordinary it was for me, I agreed. As weirded out as he was, Noah agreed. It was all set. “But this time we're playin' it smart.” Noah continued, “we're only going to Hellgates where demons are escaping. You mentioned that it's easier for you to close a gate than it is to open and close one, so let's make sure you got that down. Secondly, no one's going to over exert themselves in anything. The second any of us looks like we're about to die an' not get saved, we drop everything, gather around, then head back home. Fellas, since Lynn's our ride that means her life's way more important than ours, so we gotta make sure she's safe first and foremost. We're a team now, so that means we're only as good as our weakest link—or is it sum of our parts—I always get that confused.”
We all agreed to the rules an' walked into that Axis Mundi thing—that weird white, negative space that's supposed to exist between worlds or some nonsense—an' ended up here, in some underground cave in the Russian Union, fightin' off these shadow creatures trying that're escaping from that Hellgate we see on the ceiling. The demons are exactly like the ones we ran into when Jabari was leadin' the group. Formless, shapeless, yet still beastly. They're fast moving, but I know a thing or two about speed. Thanks to Lynn's enchantment, we can actually cause these demons pain when we hit 'em—or slice 'em, in my case. Problem is, us hurtin' them isn't doin' a thing to actually stop 'em.
That's why we got Lynn workin' in the background. Us guys do our thing to protect each other an' to protect her. We attack in like a circle. There's always someone who's got their eyes on her. When that person leaves, another takes his place.
The demons are still pourin' in, but I see Lynn really work hard on that gate. Her hands are glowing all sorts of different colors. Whatever she's doin' it's causin' a lotta wind to pick up, too, which is cool, so I guess it's—
“It's done!” she shouts out.
We all stop fighting for a moment an' look at the ceiling to see the gate sorta fade out of existence. There's this huge light show that happens around where it was, an' some rocks from the ceiling fall down all over the place, but all an' all, we did good. The Hellgate is closed shut, and it is outta sight.
Problem is—Yeah, that looks like a pretty big problem—the demons that got through didn't leave with it.
