The thick humid air mingled with the smell of gasoline and blood.
Ace, against his better judgement, ran away from the formation near Fenton, and to Oz. He grabbed him by the shoulder and spoke to him in Ionadian.
“Who are you,” Ace asked.
Oz looked completely taken aback and confused.
“Answer me!”
“I don’t know what you’re saying. You know C-Chips can’t translate…that,” Oz replied.
“Why are you speaking a language you don’t even understand,” Ace asked.
Oz tried to answer, but he faltered and lost his concentration. The moment he lost his concentration, the egg’s crack widened and out spilled its children. Snakes, lizards, all sorts of reptiles spilled out around their feet, covered in slime.
“Gods above and below, what is this,” Ace said in disgust.
They crawled across the streets and pavement, leaving a pink substance in their wake. People screamed in fear and agony as they crawled all over the buildings, into their hair, up clothes.
“No more trouble,” Sasha muttered.
Ace groaned in disgust when Sasha picked up a snake from a nearby puddle of pink slime. His eyes flashed dark blue, and he spoke to the snake, hissing to it gently. It left, to the others, and Sasha followed.
He whispered to them gently, softly, taming them, and one by one they stopped harassing everyone on the street, following their pied piper instead.
“Is the Empire’s plan to terrorize us with lizards,” Oz scoffed. “They’re gonna have to do more than that.”
A giant screech emanated from the egg, forming more cracks in it’s already weak shell. Everyone flinched, the loud screech seemingly permeating their skulls, rattling their nerves. It echoed, shattering the windows of the nearby hospital.
Oz bit his pinkie finger with as much force as he could and then used the blood to draw a circle around his belly button. Ace winced, as if his own finger had been bitten, and then took a few steps back when Oz began his weird spellwork again.
“Seal of-“
A giant, monstrous head pushed itself out the top of the egg, sending more pieces of shell into the sky, propelling them across the town. The giant reptilian beast let out another shriek, causing people to run for cover inside the hospital.
“Sasha, do something,” Oz shouted. “Get it to stop!”
Sasha pointed his finger at the beast emerging from its shell, ordering the reptiles to attack, but they refused to move. He whispered more intelligible noise under his breath, guiding them, pushing them to his will.
They refused, and Sasha was dumbstruck. No animal had ever told him no. Their hisses became angry, their tails shook, and their fangs protruded. The pied piper’s song had ended, and Sasha was now in danger.
“Not working,” Sasha cried out. “Help!”
Ace blinked over and rescued him and Oz, then brought them back to the formation near Fenton. Their first attempt in battle had been a failure, but all wasn’t lost.
“What now,” Sasha asked Fenton.
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Fenton looked at Johnny.
“IT IS TIME FOR THE RETURN OF THE GREAT, J-OH,” Johnny shouted.
“You got him started again,” Tetsuya groaned.
“I’LL PROTECT THE HOSPITAL! EVERYONE, GET ON! I’LL PUT YOU ON TOP HERE!”
Reluctantly they all put their hands on Johnny’s shoulder, wary of what would happen. The last time Johnny “got big”, he accidentally crushed many buildings and lost his clothes. Thankfully his powersuit grew along with him, and this time the entire town would be spared the sight of Johnny’s family jewels.
He took a giant gulp of air and then held his breath. He held his nose with his right hand, and covered his mouth with his other hand, the bigger he got, trying to become even bigger than last time.
At first his growth wasn’t noticeable.
It was him getting taller, and a little more muscular.
Awkward laughs came from them when Johnny was about eight feet tall. The taller he got, the redder his face became, and a weird crinkling noise came out of his body. At twenty they could all ride his shoulders, and nonchalantly, like they rode an escalator, they jumped onto a rooftop when Johnny was 30 feet tall.
Cheers erupted when he became as tall as the nearby office buildings, at 75 feet tall. Johnny joined in, basking in the glory, and opened his mouth.
He covered his mouth, immediately, whispered an oh fuck , that could be heard across the tri-state area, because once he started breathing again, he stopped growing. Johnny was only about 96 feet tall, the same size of the egg, when his goal was to be at least twice its size.
Everyone watched, anxious, holding their breaths as Johnny rammed into the giant lizard, halfway stuck in its egg. Pieces of it haphazardly flew out everywhere, scarring the roads, destroying the sidewalks. A few landed on stray pedestrians, crushing them.
Looking down on the city from an apartment rooftop, Fenton covered his face and remembered how much Johnny had destroyed the last time he became the great J-OH.
“I don’t think there’s going to be much left of the city at this rate,” Fenton lamented.
“Rebuild,” Sasha replied. “Always tomorrow.”
Fenton feared if they would even make it to tomorrow as he watched in horror.
Johnny, grunting and groaning, tried to push the giant lizard back into it’s egg. Instead, thousands of smaller reptiles burst out, covering the street, and Johnny in pink slime. Now that he was wet all over, it was impossible to grab it. It made it’s final break free from him, smacking him sideways with it’s tail.
A giant, thwock, sent Johnny flying to the left, falling on top of a bistro next to an art supply store. Cement went flying upwards, covered in some of the slime, raining down on the city. The lizard then opened its filthy jaws, making everyone wince from the smell. They covered their ears, expecting another shriek, but instead what they heard was much worse.
“Where are the monsters? I require their blood,” Hurio asked.
Hurio’s drooling mouth did not move up and down, but simply opened when it spoke. Drool fell onto the streets below in large, heavy splashes, covering the corpses beneath it’s feet. It was if a malicious speaker emitted from it’s smelly mouth. It’s yellow teeth rattled when it spoke, and it’s red eyes glowed in the dark, rarely blinking.
“I want the blue-eyed monster first,” Hurio announced. “I will spare all of you if you give it to me.”
Everyone who heard the angry god’s ironic request were more than happy to oblige.
Fenton turned to the other’s on the roof top, as he had become their defacto leader at this point and tried to come up with a plan.
“Let’s just give it what it wants, and he’ll spare the hospital. Johnny’s struggling,” Fenton reasoned.
“Where would we even find a blue-eyed monster,” Ace asked.
“I know,” Amy announced.
They all raised their eyebrows in surprise when she pointed at Ace. Ace scoffed and bristled at the thought of being sacrificed to some Eldritch demon.
“You bi-“
“You have blue eyes, and we all saw that fucked up noise he screamed out of his mouth on that boat,” Amy shouted. “I have seen you turn into other things, and then back again!”
“Well you can’t… I mean you can’t just…”
Ace faltered when he tried to come up with an argument other than Amy disliking him.
“He’s not a monster, Amy,” Fenton argued. “He’s our comrade.”
“He’s always involved in this weird shit though,” Amy shouted. “Are you-“
A giant shockwave threw them up a few inches into the air, and back down again. Johnny had come back for his revenge, ramming his entire body into Hurio. Johnny slammed him so hard, a few of it’s iridescent, blue scales came off.
Hurio was knocked to the ground and Johnny took his chance.
He grabbed it by it’s tail, intending to drag it towards the ocean, but pulled it with such monstrous force that it’s entire end of it’s tail was ripped off. Blue blood sprayed upwards into the sky, and everyone’s heads slowly turned upwards at the ominous mist above them.
“Oh no,” Tetsuya said quietly.
Like a summer storm, it came crashing down, quick, hot and heavy. Everyone stood in disbelief as they were baptized in the blood of an angry god.
