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Description
March 28, 2019; Bellwood

It wasn't many nights that she found herself in comfortable positions like this. Rare was the day she and Ruby could just pull up to a restaurant and sit down in the late night silence to just enjoy a moment together. But by god did she love these moments. It reminded her of the good old days back in Minneapolis, sitting on the porch with her mother and grandmother, just watching the stars and the city beneath them.

She heard a little bell ding above the restaurant door, and she turned to see Ruby walking out into the parking lot towards her with two drinks in hand. She smiled and passed one of them to Ava before sitting down on the hood of her car.

“Thanks Rubes,” Ava said, taking a sip of her smoothie.

“No prob, Champ. Gotta stay hydrated in these desert towns.”

“Are smoothies hydration?”

“Eh, probably.”

Ruby started gulping down her own drink as Ava simply chuckled.

“I like this town,” she said. “It's nice.”

“Yeah it's pretty cool. I don't get what all the fuss was about.”

“Fuss?”

“Yeah, you know.”

“No I don't.”

“I told you in Indy.”

“No. You came up to me and said ‘hey Ava we're taking a roadtrip to the Southwest’.”

“Oh.”

Ava simply laughed and shook her head. “Alright, spill. What did we get roped into this time, Rubes?”

“Alright so a little bit ago I got a call from the local Brotherhood, right?”

“Okay?”

“They said there's been some weird stuff going on lately. In this town specifically. Weird flashes, strange noises, that kind of thing. Which they said is odd because Bellwood is normally so dull that their entry sign literally says ‘Welcome to the most normal place on earth’.”

“Maybe it's aliens,” Ava laughed. “I mean hell, we aren't that far from Area 51.”

Ruby laughed. “I wish. But it does kinda sound like Piece of Eden activity.”

“Figures. You know what exactly we're keeping our eyes peeled for then?”

“Nah. I got Chels, Cathy, and Jess patrolling around town though. They'll be sure to call in if they see anything out of the ordinary.”

Ava nodded and took another sip of her smoothie. “Why do we always get stuck with the weird stuff?” she laughed.

Ruby laughed too. “Hey it could be worse,” she said. “We could be on recruitment duty.”

“How is that worse?”

“You ever been in recruitment duty?”

“No.”

“Don't ever go on recruitment duty. It. Is. Boring.”

Ava chuckled. “Alright fair enough. I guess I would rather take the magic space wizard technology over that stuff.”.

“Literally any day of the week.”

The two stuck their straws back into their mouths and went back to enjoying their smoothies, looking out onto the quiet empty roads of Bellwood. Ava took in the peace while she could. She knew it wouldn't last long, but by God she loved it. Such a tranquil feeling, like waking up an hour before the alarm clock goes off and realizing you've got that sweet moment of extra bliss still.

But, the alarm still has to go off at some point or another.

For Ava and Ruby, the wake-up call came in the form of a sudden burst of noise. They dropped their smoothies at the sound of it. It was loud and sudden, and seemingly came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The two of them stood up and frantically looked around for the source.

“The hell was that?” Ava asked.

It stopped for a brief moment, then suddenly it came again. It was such an odd sound, yet one Ava swore was unsettlingly familiar. The closet comparison she could make was the sound made when a box of glass shards gets crushed or tossed around. It kept sputtering on and off in the air, getting faster and faster while Ava and Ruby flicked out their hidden blades in preparation for something to bombard them with an attack.

Then suddenly, there was a flash of light near the mascot sign in front of the restaurant. Ava and Ruby shielded their eyes until their pupils adjusted enough to look up at the anomaly. Their eyes widened in surprise. Ava's senses were once again assaulted with something very familiar above them. It was a glowing ball of energy, one that looked like something out of Doctor Strange’s night terrors. The ball seemed to crack and bend as if made of some sort of shattered funhouse mirror, with an eerie golden light emanating out from between the cracks. Ava knew such a sight all too well, and she really wished she didn't.

“Is that…?” Ruby gasped.

“One of those isu portal thingies…” Ava confirmed.

“Please tell me that doesn't mean who I think it means…”

The ball pulsed harder and harder, faster and faster, causing the two Assassins to step back a little in fear of what it would do. And then, suddenly, it began to move. It began to bolt. It suddenly started surging down the road, leaving a tail of cracks and lights behind it like some sort of demonic comet. Ava and Ruby watched it go in shock, and then they immediately sprinted for their car.

Ruby slammed her door shut and shoved the keys into the ignition as soon as Ava was buckled in. Her foot slammed into the gas pedal and the wheels shrieked against the pavement. They immediately gave chase after the mysterious anomaly, which kept spinning around different corners and winding above the roads in a bizarre path that Ruby struggled to follow while still keeping up with it.

“Ava, call Chelsea!” Ruby said as her knuckles turned white on the wheel. “Tell her to track us and get down here asap!”

Ava nodded and immediately pulled out her phone to do just that.

“Y’ello,” Chelsea said on the other end after a couple rings.

“Chels we've got a lead!” Ava said. “Hurry up and get to us. Now!”

“On it. Hang tight! We'll be there soon!”

“Thanks.”

Ava clicked off the call and her eyes locked back onto the anomaly. She gripped her seat tight with every hard turn Ruby had to make and eeped a little when they hit a speed bump.

“Aw that's cute,” Ruby said in response without taking her eyes off their target.

“Shut up and drive,” Ava laughed.

“Aye aye!”

The chase continued. Ruby kept her foot pressed firmly against the gas pedal and her hands wrenching at the wheel. They barreled down on the anomaly, hardly making any ground on it but still keeping it in sight.

And then suddenly, they sped directly past it.

Ava and Ruby gasped as the information clicked in their brains and Ruby slammed on the breaks. She yanked the steering wheel to the left and forced her car into a 180 before finally jerking to a stop. They looked out the front windshield, and saw the anomaly just floating there, completely still aside from it's own pulsing. The girls looked at one another in utter bafflement.

“Um…?” Ruby asked.

“I don't…” Ava began to say. But then suddenly the anomaly cut her off. It began to grow, and pulse harder and harder. It spun in place, faster and faster as the girls stared in fear of what was happening. It pulsed, the chunks of shattered reality splintering off and evaporating back into the fabric of spacetime. The light got brighter and brighter, and Ava and Ruby had to shield their eyes. And then suddenly, in a turn of events that neither of them would have ever predicted, it exploded. Not with a bang; it simply shattered and vanished. No lights or cracks or nothing.

Instead there was a car.

Ava and Ruby watched in surprise as a green car fell onto the road from the spot the anomaly used to be. It's spinning tires screeched against the road as it landed with a bouncy thud, and then the vehicle began to speed off in the opposite direction of the Assassins.

The girls looked at one another in surprise, and then Ruby immediately shifted gears again and put the engine into full gear. Their car lunged down the road after the mysterious green one with it's parallel black stripes. They gained on it rather quickly, but whoever they were tailing seemed to realize very fast that they were being chased. The green car sped up, pulling away from Ava and Ruby as it's engines roared.

“I… am so confused right now,” Ava said as they barreled after the car down the different roads and streets.

“What, you're saying you've never gotten into a high speed chase with a car that spawned from the universe's butthole before?” Ruby laughed.

“You know Rubes, I really can't say I have,” Ava laughed back.

“Dang honey, you need to get out more than.”

“Yeah yeah.”

The car in front of them kept trying to lose the Assassins, swerving around as many street corners as it could to try to get their pursuers off their tail. But Ruby was hardly one without experience in reckless driving, and she kept up as best as she could. She managed to inch forward and bump the edge of the green car’s bumper, causing it to swerve out of control. The green car spun and tried to recover, turning into the parking lot of an old abandoned garage. But Ruby didn't give them that chance. She served into the parking lot as well, and as soon as the green car turned to speed back out the exit, Ruby rammed the front of her opponent with as hard as she could. The Assassins jerked forwards in their seats and the green car went spiraling into a pile of junkyard equipment. It skidded and screeched as it lost all control, before finally crashing back down on all four wheels and coming to a stop with its hood bent open and smoking.

Ava shook her head to recover her senses and rubbed her temple. “Someone needs to get your licence plate number,” she moaned to Ruby, who was also recovering.

“Eh, cops ain't gonna do anything,” Ruby chuckled. “Besides, I gotta train for the derby somehow.”

Ava simply shook her head and laughed. “Come on, let's go check that thing out.”

Ruby nodded. She suddenly reached behind her seat and rummaged around until a look of satisfaction sprung onto her face and she pulled from the mess two shining handguns. She handed one to Ava, who immediately checked her ammo, clicked the magazine back in, and cocked it, ready for battle.

“Got anything else hiding back there?” Ava joked as she opened up her door to step out.

“Yeah, I keep my fashion magazine stash down there next to my claymore,” Ruby joked back.

“Is it bad that I can't tell if you're joking or not?”

“Probably.”

Ava chuckled again, but she immediately dropped her smile as soon as she lifted her gun up and turned towards the green car wreck. Ruby followed suit, keeping her gun fixed on the doors of the wreck just waiting for anyone or anything to pop out.

“Hello?” Ava called to the car. “If anyone's in there, come on out.”

“Yeah,” Ruby called. “Just come on out. No one has to get hurt tonight.”

They inched towards the doors, taking cautious baby steps the entire way. They got closer, and closer, and closer.

And then suddenly one of the doors on the wreck sprang open. Ava and Ruby's immediate instinct was to tighten their grips on their guns, but that was quickly overridden when what first came out of the door was a huge, blinding flash of bright green light. Ava and Ruby shielded their eyes, keeping their guns as level as they could. The light blasted out from the car like a shining star, and there was a noise akin to arcade blips and twisting vines.

“What the hell?” Ava said, trying to see through the light as it began to fade.

Then suddenly a booming, nasally voice tore through the light. “I agree, no one has to get hurt tonight,” it declared.

The light died down, fading away into the center of a figure that was suddenly standing outside the car door. Ava and Ruby's eyes adjusted quickly to make out the shape of the figure. But they ended up gasping in surprise at what their eyes adjusted to see. It looked like a man, but much taller, and with skin seemingly made entirely out of moss and plant matter, with a ploom of fire-like pedals to adorn it's head. The monster stared them down, its eyes glowing bright green, and it finished its declaration to them:

“So I suggest you stand down now.”

Description
March 28, 2019; Bellwood

It wasn't many nights that she found herself in comfortable positions like this. Rare was the day she and Ruby could just pull up to a restaurant and sit down in the late night silence to just enjoy a moment together. But by god did she love these moments. It reminded her of the good old days back in Minneapolis, sitting on the porch with her mother and grandmother, just watching the stars and the city beneath them.

She heard a little bell ding above the restaurant door, and she turned to see Ruby walking out into the parking lot towards her with two drinks in hand. She smiled and passed one of them to Ava before sitting down on the hood of her car.

“Thanks Rubes,” Ava said, taking a sip of her smoothie.

“No prob, Champ. Gotta stay hydrated in these desert towns.”

“Are smoothies hydration?”

“Eh, probably.”

Ruby started gulping down her own drink as Ava simply chuckled.

“I like this town,” she said. “It's nice.”

“Yeah it's pretty cool. I don't get what all the fuss was about.”

“Fuss?”

“Yeah, you know.”

“No I don't.”

“I told you in Indy.”

“No. You came up to me and said ‘hey Ava we're taking a roadtrip to the Southwest’.”

“Oh.”

Ava simply laughed and shook her head. “Alright, spill. What did we get roped into this time, Rubes?”

“Alright so a little bit ago I got a call from the local Brotherhood, right?”

“Okay?”

“They said there's been some weird stuff going on lately. In this town specifically. Weird flashes, strange noises, that kind of thing. Which they said is odd because Bellwood is normally so dull that their entry sign literally says ‘Welcome to the most normal place on earth’.”

“Maybe it's aliens,” Ava laughed. “I mean hell, we aren't that far from Area 51.”

Ruby laughed. “I wish. But it does kinda sound like Piece of Eden activity.”

“Figures. You know what exactly we're keeping our eyes peeled for then?”

“Nah. I got Chels, Cathy, and Jess patrolling around town though. They'll be sure to call in if they see anything out of the ordinary.”

Ava nodded and took another sip of her smoothie. “Why do we always get stuck with the weird stuff?” she laughed.

Ruby laughed too. “Hey it could be worse,” she said. “We could be on recruitment duty.”

“How is that worse?”

“You ever been in recruitment duty?”

“No.”

“Don't ever go on recruitment duty. It. Is. Boring.”

Ava chuckled. “Alright fair enough. I guess I would rather take the magic space wizard technology over that stuff.”.

“Literally any day of the week.”

The two stuck their straws back into their mouths and went back to enjoying their smoothies, looking out onto the quiet empty roads of Bellwood. Ava took in the peace while she could. She knew it wouldn't last long, but by God she loved it. Such a tranquil feeling, like waking up an hour before the alarm clock goes off and realizing you've got that sweet moment of extra bliss still.

But, the alarm still has to go off at some point or another.

For Ava and Ruby, the wake-up call came in the form of a sudden burst of noise. They dropped their smoothies at the sound of it. It was loud and sudden, and seemingly came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. The two of them stood up and frantically looked around for the source.

“The hell was that?” Ava asked.

It stopped for a brief moment, then suddenly it came again. It was such an odd sound, yet one Ava swore was unsettlingly familiar. The closet comparison she could make was the sound made when a box of glass shards gets crushed or tossed around. It kept sputtering on and off in the air, getting faster and faster while Ava and Ruby flicked out their hidden blades in preparation for something to bombard them with an attack.

Then suddenly, there was a flash of light near the mascot sign in front of the restaurant. Ava and Ruby shielded their eyes until their pupils adjusted enough to look up at the anomaly. Their eyes widened in surprise. Ava's senses were once again assaulted with something very familiar above them. It was a glowing ball of energy, one that looked like something out of Doctor Strange’s night terrors. The ball seemed to crack and bend as if made of some sort of shattered funhouse mirror, with an eerie golden light emanating out from between the cracks. Ava knew such a sight all too well, and she really wished she didn't.

“Is that…?” Ruby gasped.

“One of those isu portal thingies…” Ava confirmed.

“Please tell me that doesn't mean who I think it means…”

The ball pulsed harder and harder, faster and faster, causing the two Assassins to step back a little in fear of what it would do. And then, suddenly, it began to move. It began to bolt. It suddenly started surging down the road, leaving a tail of cracks and lights behind it like some sort of demonic comet. Ava and Ruby watched it go in shock, and then they immediately sprinted for their car.

Ruby slammed her door shut and shoved the keys into the ignition as soon as Ava was buckled in. Her foot slammed into the gas pedal and the wheels shrieked against the pavement. They immediately gave chase after the mysterious anomaly, which kept spinning around different corners and winding above the roads in a bizarre path that Ruby struggled to follow while still keeping up with it.

“Ava, call Chelsea!” Ruby said as her knuckles turned white on the wheel. “Tell her to track us and get down here asap!”

Ava nodded and immediately pulled out her phone to do just that.

“Y’ello,” Chelsea said on the other end after a couple rings.

“Chels we've got a lead!” Ava said. “Hurry up and get to us. Now!”

“On it. Hang tight! We'll be there soon!”

“Thanks.”

Ava clicked off the call and her eyes locked back onto the anomaly. She gripped her seat tight with every hard turn Ruby had to make and eeped a little when they hit a speed bump.

“Aw that's cute,” Ruby said in response without taking her eyes off their target.

“Shut up and drive,” Ava laughed.

“Aye aye!”

The chase continued. Ruby kept her foot pressed firmly against the gas pedal and her hands wrenching at the wheel. They barreled down on the anomaly, hardly making any ground on it but still keeping it in sight.

And then suddenly, they sped directly past it.

Ava and Ruby gasped as the information clicked in their brains and Ruby slammed on the breaks. She yanked the steering wheel to the left and forced her car into a 180 before finally jerking to a stop. They looked out the front windshield, and saw the anomaly just floating there, completely still aside from it's own pulsing. The girls looked at one another in utter bafflement.

“Um…?” Ruby asked.

“I don't…” Ava began to say. But then suddenly the anomaly cut her off. It began to grow, and pulse harder and harder. It spun in place, faster and faster as the girls stared in fear of what was happening. It pulsed, the chunks of shattered reality splintering off and evaporating back into the fabric of spacetime. The light got brighter and brighter, and Ava and Ruby had to shield their eyes. And then suddenly, in a turn of events that neither of them would have ever predicted, it exploded. Not with a bang; it simply shattered and vanished. No lights or cracks or nothing.

Instead there was a car.

Ava and Ruby watched in surprise as a green car fell onto the road from the spot the anomaly used to be. It's spinning tires screeched against the road as it landed with a bouncy thud, and then the vehicle began to speed off in the opposite direction of the Assassins.

The girls looked at one another in surprise, and then Ruby immediately shifted gears again and put the engine into full gear. Their car lunged down the road after the mysterious green one with it's parallel black stripes. They gained on it rather quickly, but whoever they were tailing seemed to realize very fast that they were being chased. The green car sped up, pulling away from Ava and Ruby as it's engines roared.

“I… am so confused right now,” Ava said as they barreled after the car down the different roads and streets.

“What, you're saying you've never gotten into a high speed chase with a car that spawned from the universe's butthole before?” Ruby laughed.

“You know Rubes, I really can't say I have,” Ava laughed back.

“Dang honey, you need to get out more than.”

“Yeah yeah.”

The car in front of them kept trying to lose the Assassins, swerving around as many street corners as it could to try to get their pursuers off their tail. But Ruby was hardly one without experience in reckless driving, and she kept up as best as she could. She managed to inch forward and bump the edge of the green car’s bumper, causing it to swerve out of control. The green car spun and tried to recover, turning into the parking lot of an old abandoned garage. But Ruby didn't give them that chance. She served into the parking lot as well, and as soon as the green car turned to speed back out the exit, Ruby rammed the front of her opponent with as hard as she could. The Assassins jerked forwards in their seats and the green car went spiraling into a pile of junkyard equipment. It skidded and screeched as it lost all control, before finally crashing back down on all four wheels and coming to a stop with its hood bent open and smoking.

Ava shook her head to recover her senses and rubbed her temple. “Someone needs to get your licence plate number,” she moaned to Ruby, who was also recovering.

“Eh, cops ain't gonna do anything,” Ruby chuckled. “Besides, I gotta train for the derby somehow.”

Ava simply shook her head and laughed. “Come on, let's go check that thing out.”

Ruby nodded. She suddenly reached behind her seat and rummaged around until a look of satisfaction sprung onto her face and she pulled from the mess two shining handguns. She handed one to Ava, who immediately checked her ammo, clicked the magazine back in, and cocked it, ready for battle.

“Got anything else hiding back there?” Ava joked as she opened up her door to step out.

“Yeah, I keep my fashion magazine stash down there next to my claymore,” Ruby joked back.

“Is it bad that I can't tell if you're joking or not?”

“Probably.”

Ava chuckled again, but she immediately dropped her smile as soon as she lifted her gun up and turned towards the green car wreck. Ruby followed suit, keeping her gun fixed on the doors of the wreck just waiting for anyone or anything to pop out.

“Hello?” Ava called to the car. “If anyone's in there, come on out.”

“Yeah,” Ruby called. “Just come on out. No one has to get hurt tonight.”

They inched towards the doors, taking cautious baby steps the entire way. They got closer, and closer, and closer.

And then suddenly one of the doors on the wreck sprang open. Ava and Ruby's immediate instinct was to tighten their grips on their guns, but that was quickly overridden when what first came out of the door was a huge, blinding flash of bright green light. Ava and Ruby shielded their eyes, keeping their guns as level as they could. The light blasted out from the car like a shining star, and there was a noise akin to arcade blips and twisting vines.

“What the hell?” Ava said, trying to see through the light as it began to fade.

Then suddenly a booming, nasally voice tore through the light. “I agree, no one has to get hurt tonight,” it declared.

The light died down, fading away into the center of a figure that was suddenly standing outside the car door. Ava and Ruby's eyes adjusted quickly to make out the shape of the figure. But they ended up gasping in surprise at what their eyes adjusted to see. It looked like a man, but much taller, and with skin seemingly made entirely out of moss and plant matter, with a ploom of fire-like pedals to adorn it's head. The monster stared them down, its eyes glowing bright green, and it finished its declaration to them:

“So I suggest you stand down now.”