Chapter 45: Shifting Shadows and Melodic Ants

Chapter 45: Shifting Shadows and Melodic Ants

Having a quick bite to eat while waiting for the girls to come back, Alice went along with Rebecca for some reason. Taking this chance to examine the armors Elena had gotten off the goons, Braedon proceeded to mix and match various parts. Once fully equipped and surprisingly looking okay on him after ensuring the armor was practical, not a mishmash making sure there weren't edges poking into him through the cloak or scraping weld joints rubbing through the cloak, even if it was slightly large on him only to be pleasantly surprised as the cloak seemed to act like water and engulf the armor on him, fusing with it. No, rather it seemed to absorb the armor and make it part of itself. Now instead of metal armor parts protecting him, the steel feeling lighter and taking a dark sheen of metallic black to match the cloak. A large part over his chest, his left arm entirely encased in the now black metal and decorated with all manner of snarling demons and beasts, unfortunately unmovable, but he felt he could at least twist his body to swing it. His right seemingly like it was lighter but just as armored with images of what seemed like various angels on the metal parts with skeletons and reapers, a weird contract that oddly seemed to work. Thankfully, he could still easily bend and move his right without any difficulty, his legs even had some armor now even though it was light. His entire outfit a deep midnight black with gunmetal black highlights from the plates in it.

"God bless plot armor, at least this way I will have some protection and definitely better than the mix-matched armor parts of ridiculous colors," he mumbled to himself, pulling his dagger out seeing it also had a faint black line down its middle, the handle feeling better in his hand now, having changed to fit into his grip a bit better.

"We're all set! Let's head out! Ooooh, you also got kitted out! You look even better than normal, and that arm looks wicked!" Alice's excited voice ran out, her cheeks having a dusting of red, her usual blue and white outfit and "Mr. stabby stick" held firmly at her side, the armored Rebecca next to her with a helmet giving a really weird contrast to see.

"Then let's head out, Elena keep the place as safe as possible like before but make sure to put your and the other plants' safety as top priority. Now if you would kindly lead the way for us, Rebecca, and we can sort this mess. I really don't feel like dealing with waves of idiots before their boss finally comes or it gets messy with them contacting other groups making the situation worse, I really don't want to deal with that. So, let's do this, there's still a little light left, and it will probably be dark when we reach their base, hopefully we can use that to our advantage." He tells them, having Rebecca lead the way.

No one really spoke while they walked to their destination. Rebecca led well, Alice kept alert, a playful smile on her lips but her eyes giving away that she was fully focused on things around them, ready to react at a moment's notice. Braedon, though, didn't seem to care much, only taking note of the path they were taking and the destruction that had happened while they were gone. Buildings crumbled, destroyed or in some places just not there, just flat smooth ground which was extremely out of place and confusing but choosing to feel something had happened or some kind of skill or weapon was tested with that being the result.

Some creatures visible, not just shelbies and their predators, the fluff balls, but also various other creatures. There were Venus flytraps and pitcher plants with vines plucking the fluff balls of death up and dropping them into their respective mouths when they got too close with lightning-fast strikes. The weird flying rats swarming and flying around in large packs? Flocks? Well, whatever you would call a group of them were seemingly being shot out of the sky by a large mass of dog-sized pods embedded on the ground to the far side of us. It was unknown what was being fired or even how they could aim, but they seemed to be hitting almost all their shots. The rat birds that hit the ground were quickly collected and carried away by an entirely new creature. At first, they looked like large hand-sized ants, but they seemed to be made of hair changing hues depending on how the fading light caught them, buttons for eyes, and their mandibles cardboard. On their heads seemingly fused together with them were what seemed to be fingers acting as antennae. Slowly they would make an eerie almost silent melodic humming, their antennae twitching in tune. The fallen rat birds who were lucky to survive the shot and fall were quickly finished by the cardboard mandibles and loaded onto their backs, the treads coming alive and floating to wrap around and secure the larger creature to the ant's back showing that while their legs seemed weak and spindly they were, in fact, extremely strong. A patch of creeping grass seemed to grab a few ants, somehow springing off the ground to wrap a few before somehow quickly gliding away with its captive food.

All Braedon could think seeing all this was that reality had truly taken a strange turn into a world John would really enjoy but even so, he would need to get things set for his return because as great as he found this changed world, he was still worried that John wouldn't cope without a foothold of some sort being in place already. At the end of the day, even if he was an independent being residing in John's mind like the others it also meant they were tied to him. If John died so would all of them, the cost for choosing to bind themselves to him to experience physical sensations and a level of freedom, something they would forever thank John for, even if it wasn't something others around him could understand.