Pitch cracked his neck and knuckles as Anderson kept his gun trained on Abe's face and Ishwada fetched a Ritter Rifle of his own to also aim at Abe. Pitch dropped his mask and his shadowy mass went at high speed at Vance’s twisted form. As Anderson and Ishwada fired their weapons at Abe who had to dodge in a human form he wasn't used to.
Vance tried to run, but found himself lifted by the leg. His wings flapped but tendrils quickly wrapped around all his limbs. He struggled but couldn't free himself forcing him to shapeshift. His body turned to goop and dropped out of the tendrils before reforming into a humanoid shape once outside Pitch's grip. “Kinda hard to hold onto something that can become a liquid.” Vance teased. Meanwhile Abe was lashing out with tendrils that replaced his hands, missing Ishwada and Anderson despite his best efforts.
Abe shifted back into his true form but as soon as he did UV rounds were sent at him with some hitting him forcing Abe back into the human form. “They've got me in a stalemate, you're on your own, Chimera.” Vance grinned wickedly at Pitch. “I wonder how exactly my body will implement your Cryptobiology~ Your form isn't flesh like other Cryptids.” Pitch lashed at Vance with a limb like a whip, and although it seemed to hit him his body simply turned to goop in that area. Pitch let out a low growl trying to figure out exactly how he was going to kill Vance.
Anderson and Ishwada started tossing flashbangs at Abe, a weapon that uses two things that still affect Umbrans. Abe grabbed his ears and recoiled at the attack. Pitch leaped at Vance with his entire body, putting Vance inside a cloud of fine black sand-like particles that started swirling around the Chimera like a sandstorm tornado. Vance covered his eyes and tried to escape but he couldn't see no matter what kinda form he tried to take. Vance's goopy, rubbery flesh started to rip and break away. He screamed in pain but eventually the screaming died out and there was nothing left of the twisted hybrid.
While Pitch was ripping apart Vance, Anderson made a second trip to the Humvee pulling out a pet carrier that made a strange almost purr like sound as he moved it. This caused Abe to take a step back as his eyes widened. “You didn't- you wouldn't dare. You keep that abomination the hell away from me!” He pointed at the pet carrier angrily. Anderson made several tongue clicks and wiggled a full anger in the cage before opening it up.
Out of the carrier came a critter. Its main body was covered in pink fur with purple spots and it looked like a mix between a cat, a fox, and a ferret with small pointed ears and a short nose and whiskers.. Its size was comparable to that of a large house cat. It had a big fluffy tail, and a body that seemed to shift in length from short and stubby to longer but chubby. Another notable feature of the cute and fuzzy critter was the fact that it had six stubby little legs it waddled on.
Abe took several steps back. “You stay back, you foul demon. Abominable hellspawn.” Anderson smirked. “I think someone needs a hug~” He pointed at Abe. The small critter let out a yippee as it ran at high speeds and glomped Abe to the ground. It's little legs running against his body as it purred. Pitch's skin started to burn as he struggled to get the critter off of him. “Got it off. Get it off!!” He then started laughing, clearly against his will. “Make it stop. Make it stop!!”
Abe then swatted the critter off of his smoking body. It let out a yelp before going into the pet carrier causing it to skid some distance away. Ave pointed angrily at Anderson. “You'll pay for that Black Eagle scum! I'll make you face a fate worse than death before I devour you!” Anderson and Ishwada both pulled out Ritter guns and UV flashlights and started unloading on Abe as the pet carrier continued to shake and flip until it was a safe distance and in a bush before stopping and waiting for someone to pick it up that wasn't hostile.
Pitch turned his attention to Abe who was getting hit from both directions by bright UV flashlights as rounds from Ritter guns burned at his pseudo flesh. Abe looked over to see that Vance was gone and Pitch was still standing. “I really thought the Chimera would put up a better fight than that. Guess it's time to skedaddle.” Pitch’s mist-like body moved quickly, grabbing Abe's mask by the limbs and lifting him up. Ishwada and Anderson backed off for a moment.
Abe dissolved his mask and the two shadowy masses clashed like a storm, with small sparks of purple electricity coming off the two as they blended together like two black sandstorms trying to while one another out. Anderson ran over to the wreckage of the Humvee and sifted through it. He found an intact metal box with a barrel and two super soakers inside. He rolled out the barrel and stood it up, handing Ishwada a soaker. “I grabbed these since holy water works on most Cryptids. Good thing I kept it in a hard box.”
The two loaded up the super soakers and fired at the ragging mass. Smoke coming off it as a voice groaned in pain. Ishwada chuckled. “The holy water only hurts Abe, giving Pitch the leg up.” The masses eventually stopped raging and sending out sparks. Anderson fired a shot of holy water into the mass with no noticeable effect. The shadow mass then formed a human body. Pitch had been victorious.
However, he didn't exactly look happy about it. “I'm… the only thing like me now. The last of my kind.” He looked at his hands with a melancholy expression. “I'm fully and truly unique, but that also means I'm alone.” Ishwada scoffed. “What are you talking about, you have Kathryn waiting at home. So what if you're the last Umbran. This is a victory. Not one but two really bad Cryptids are no more.” Pitch looked up at Ishwada with a sad expression on his face. “He ate them, his own kind, for power. And now I've done the same. I probably won't need to eat for a full month now and I've likely gained some new power or at least mass.”
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Ishwada sighed as he fetched the pet carrier. “I've got the Cryptid known as Cuddle Bug or Tickle Monster. You look like you need it.” Pitch nodded as he took the critter, petting and nuzzling it as it purred. The fatigue in his body from the fight seemingly mending as if by magic. “I've won but for some reason it feels bittersweet. Vance was the last bit of family I had even if he was an awful person and if you think about it Abe was family too. I guess maybe that's why this doesn't feel like a win. I just killed the last two semblances of family that I had. Even if they were evil bastards. After all, who am I to judge? I eat people for fucks sake.”
Ishwada put a hand on Pitch's shoulder. “Out of necessity, they enjoyed it. Even if you still feel bad about it, that's only more evidence of your humanity. That you feel for the people you kill even when they're criminals, murderers, and rapists.” Anderson called in for a clean up crew then addressed Pitch. “Look, I may have had my issues and doubts, hell to be honest I still do. But for today you can consider me an ally. You did good and even if you are a monster you reduced the number of monsters by two. As long as you keep helping and don't turn on us I guess I can live with working with you.”
Pitch let out a long sigh. “Yeah, okay. I kinda just want to go home and take a nap now.” Ishwada let out a chuckle and lightly slapped at Pitch's shoulder a few times. “We've already got a pick up on the way.” When the cleanup crew finally came in they also brought in a new Humvee for Ishwada who loaded Tickle Monster into a carrier and put it in the trunk. “Your hour is up, any longer and it can start having a detrimental effect or the critter gets a little too excited about cuddling up and tickling a person.”
He then got in the driver's seat followed by Anderson and Pitch getting in and he started to drive. Taking Pitch back to the parking lot where he left his jeep first. Pitch had sat in the back seat, the images that flashed through his mind while he was eating Abe still lingering. “(I didn't just consume Abe, he's a part of me now. Some of his memories are now mine. The cannibalism, the human victims, him going from mindless monster to actively sadistic and sapient.)”
Pitch then spoke out loud. “Abe became a sadistic sociopath as soon as he gained sapience. He gained his sapience from his interaction with me when we fought and exchanged memories. What does that say about me?” Ishwada tapped at the steering wheel. “That we all have a darkness inside of us. Each and every one of us has a shadow that's always lurking. The dark primal impulses left behind from an ancient version of ourselves, or perhaps with how Cryptid stuff works, we each have a little bit of an anomaly. But either way, everyone has it to some extent. For some it's buried very deep, but for others they embrace it. It's all about choices, Pitch.”
Pitch sighed as he laid down in the back seat. “I thought I would feel better after those two were gone, like a weight had been lifted or something. But instead I just feel… empty. Like there's now a big void in my life. How fucked up is that? It's almost like I already miss the chaos and constant threat to my life.” Ishwada chuckled. “Well… Boogieman is still a potential threat, so you have that to look forward to. Considering how ancient and powerful he is there's definitely a risk of death.” Pitch shifted a bit in the seat. “I think… that a part of me wants that.”
Anderson looked back at Pitch, realizing what he had just said. Admitting that there was a part of him that actively wants to die. Whether it be because he feels like the world would be better off without him, or because he wants to be spared some grim fate that awaited him was still unknown. Pitch closed his eyes but then forced them open. Everytime he closed his eyes the images of Abe's life haunted him. Eventually, they arrived at Pitch's jeep. He gave a half-hearted wave goodbye as before getting in and made the drive home. Pitch entered the house and went straight to the bedroom.
The house was empty at the time Pitch got home since Kathryn was still at work, he simply collapsed into the bed with a thud and quickly dozed off into a dream with his mask still up. He had a number of visions from the memories of Abe just like the last time the two had fought. This time the visions went back, back to before Abe had even come to earth. He was just wandering aimlessly among other ancient Cryptids, in the fear layer of the Otherside. When suddenly and without warning a strange swirling vortex had appeared, drawing them in and spitting them out into the surface layer of the world that we know.
The world was in the middle of some sort of apocalyptic cataclysm. There was a total solar eclipse creating a blood red halo in the sky, turning day into night, but the moon was somehow also there as a large and full blood-red circle on the other side of the sky. There were tsunamis and flooding destroying a once immaculate and artistic looking city that had caught fire as people were running in a crazed panic all the while Cryptids had started coming through these vortex-like tears in reality and attacking the already panicked people.
The city looked like a mix of different cultures from around the world, made of stone and decorated with precious metals and gemstone. A mixture of white marble, tan to red baked sandstone, yellow limestone, and decorative terracottas. There were vases of clay, porcelain, and even glass of various colors. There even seemed to be decorative volcanic glasses including but not limited to obsidian and artistic pieces made of what looked to be jade. There were even decorative cloth sashes and banners that were once hanging from the buildings. The people were dressed in something that resembled the artistic robes of different cultures including the Greek and Japanese. With one main colored clothes accented with patterns and a decorative sash also accented with patterns. All this beauty and art was being destroyed however as the city was rocked by water and fire and monsters entered the world through rifts.
All kinds of things from swarms of small insects to twisted abominations of flesh came through the vortexes. Abe himself did not hesitate to start praying on and pulling apart the scared people that tried to run, having never known hunger until this moment. The fear baked into the air of the Otherside was enough to satiate him beforehand, but now he knew both hunger and gluttony as there was an overabundance of food to eat and a motivation to eat while it was still available.
Pitch witnessed as people evacuated and the city was destroyed and sank. Although the vortexes had stopped, the eclipse did not. Wherever the sun went it was eclipsed with the permanently blood red moon continuing through its phases separately from this dark eclipse. Days passed, months, years even. That time passed with Abe having moved to the mainland and hunting primitive humans. It seemed as if the sun didn't rise properly for what must have been a small eternity. Hundreds or perhaps even thousands of years had passed before the strange eclipse and seemingly eternal night finally ended and the sky returned to its normal state.
Pitch woke a few hours after falling asleep. He rubbed his face and eyes hard, letting out a groan of exasperation and frustration. “Was that the destruction of the precursor civilization? The Atlanteans or whatever you want to call them.” He slowly and shakily got up and moved himself into the bathroom, washing his face in the sink for a moment before looking at his pale reflection in the mirror. “I look like shit.” He spoke out loud to no one in particular. “Feel like it too.” He then looked at the tub in the corner of his eye, and started thinking about having a soak after the vivid nightmare he just witnessed.
