The Future of Tommorow

“Give me the damn brush.”

…

…

Zzzz…

What the hell is this asshole going on about? That book lets him control the world? Yeah right.

“Elusia looked annoyed with the constant narration that spewed from his mouth. She was still extremely confused about her current situation and in serious condition from her injuries.”

“Ok, that’s it!”

I had enough of this crap. I rummaged to get some spell cards out to kick his ass. Hmm? Ah, Crap! Did I drop them!? Shit!

“Having trouble?”

The plain asshole in front of me shrugged his shoulders theatrically as he smirked.

“Ok 2. What the hell’s going on! Explain, quickly with regular English!”

The asshole flipped the pages and shut the book.

“Well, I thought it would be obvious. It all started about three days ago, a while after you left that hidden room behind the statue. Well, I didn’t really know about any of that until much later. Anyway I’ll get to the point, I found the same room just after you. The book called to me like a moth to light. I couldn’t resist taking a look, and we’ll, I saw the universe.”

“…Are you crazy? Did you hit your head too much?”

“Honestly I’m not too sure about that. The book revealed to me the secrets of the past, present, and future. Inside is a record of everything that has been and will ever be.”

“…Wait the future? That’s not even possible!”

If it was something like that, why the hell would it be locked up in some dusty old room that nobody even knew about! And more importantly…what happens if you don’t do what it says?

“Of course it is. Though I wouldn’t have believed it was just a few days ago. This time contains the accumulated information of the entire world, no…the universe. From the lizards that once ruled to the firestorms that scorched the planet. From Earth to the numerous galaxies beyond. I open this book and all that knowledge is accessible to me. The power to rewrite and destroy worlds.”

“…You are insane.”

Does he think he’s a god or something?

“I’m completely cognizant…though 99% of psychotics would probably deny it, so who knows. Hahaha.”

Number 2 paces around the room with a spring in his step.

“So what are you gonna do? And what does it have to do with me?”

He suddenly stopped and looked at me with an annoying look on his face. Why am I not beating the crap out of this guy? Oh right, internal bleeding.

“…With this book, anything that has ever happened or could happen is at my disposal to manipulate and control. Just rip a few things out and put a little extra words in, and the worlds my oyster. Ah, I hope you enjoyed yourself in my little games. I needed a little test run for some practice.”

“That was you!?”

I don’t have time for this crap! I quickly got into a sprint and clenched my fist. For some reason, the asshole flipped open the book and tore out a page. Huh? He disappeared?! My fist ran into straight up air.

“What just happened?!”

“Tsk. You know, you have no patience for tradition. The hero is supposed to sit still while the villain monologues.”

“So aware that you’re a jackass? But I’m not the freakin hero in your messed up story.”

I turned to look at the source of the voice behind me. There he was, the prick, sitting crossed on the floor.

“What the hell did you do?”

“I just ripped out a few minutes of content. You see, this book isn’t just a record. Anything that you write in here is reality. So if I rip out a page that says you would have probably kicked my ass, it never happens.”

“Well fuck!”

The little prick got up and pranced around. There was nothing I could do to stop him and he fucking knew it. I have to find a way out of this place. Wait, I’m outside of the shadowlands now right? That means…Ok I just need to buy some time. Number two is still going on about whatever. I wonder what that old man and Amity are doing…

“…But that’s the limit of what I can accomplish with just the book you see. I don’t have exact control over any events that transpire or the ability to manipulate events that have already happened. The fact that you’re not out of the way yet is proof of that. I had hoped that those two girls would solve this issue, but it seems I underestimated your sister’s skill. That’s why I need that brush.”

“…Why? You seem to be doing well with just the book.”

“‘Doing well’ huh? You don’t seem to grasp the full intent of my plans. I don’t want to just change the world to my benefit, I’m going to rewrite the entire book.”

“What!? But that would mean…!”

“Yes, everyone and everything in this flawed universe will be erased. Not that much of it was worth keeping in the first place.”

“That’s bull! The world’s not perfect and it’s full of shitty crap, but ever everyone has something that’s important to them. Something that makes life feel…worth it.”

“Hah. The self gratifying pitiful delusions of idiots. The world is rotting away from the core, and a full reset is necessary. The brush will give me the power I need to write the storyline my way.”

“So why don’t you just come and take it? It’s just a hop and a skip away.”

The brush in my pocket felt like a loaded bombshell that was ticking away to the end. I put my hand in and pulled it out. It was emitting the same ominous air it had during my first encounter. Maybe it could sense the book nearby? I looked up to see 2 frowning.

“Would if I could my dear. Unfortunately it seems that the brush itself, and you by extension as it’s owner, are beyond the laws of causality that is enforced by the book. I can’t touch you, literally.”

“Awesome. Then what are we talking about here?”

“Well I can’t touch you, but everything else is fair game and there’s nothing stopping me from indirectly coming at you.”

He opened up the book and flipped to a certain page. He pulled out a pen from his pocket and started to write.

“Let’s see…’Elusia could only watch in horror as the mastermind wrote his awful story. Two tentacles burst out from behind her and latched her onto the walls’.”

“What!?”

The tentacles that came out from behind, coiled around me like a slimy restraint and slammed me onto the wall. Dammit! I struggled to break free as they squeezed tighter into my body.

“Now…’When Amity awoke, the world was consumed by fire, burning hot and searing her flesh. The mansion around her was collapsing and the hallway was completely destroyed and blocked by flaming debris.’”

“No!”

“‘The Detective was blown away by the blast and losing consciousness. The wounds from his fight were finally catching up to him. He mustered up whatever strength he had left to crawl towards safety but his escape was cut short by falling debris’.”

“Godddammit! Stop!”

“All you have to do is give me the brush.”

“Grrr…”

The tentacles were wrapping me tighter and the force was crushing me. I just needed a few more moments.

“…come on then. Here just take it…”

The prick smiled and strutted over…

“Glad we could come to a conclusion.”

“…TOX I need some help here!”

“…All systems online. Recharge successful. Activating laser cutters.

“What!?”

The black box on my back transformed into a disk like shape and several lights flickered out as it spun rapidly, cutting me down. I quickly took the brush into my hand and drew a magic circle pattern.

“Fire!”

A large amount of fire sprayed out from the ground onto the room.

“No! What are you doing?!”

“I’m not sure, but I think I’m going to kick your ass.”

I clenched my fists and clocked him right in the jaw.

“Gah!”

He flew back onto the floor, stunned with a stupid expression on his crappy face. I quickly made a dive for the book.

“Grah! Let go!”

“Not a chance!”

We wrestled for the book and rolled over into the hole in the floor.

“Hack!”

“Shut up!”

We landed in some kind of elevator room and we continued our struggle to tear apart the book from each other. I heard a ripping sound as I tore off a large portion of the grimoire and fell back onto the railing.

“No! No! No! What did you do?!”

“This!”

I quickly drew a fire pattern onto the wall and ducked down. I felt a large rush of heat flying over me and I rolled over to see the searing flames over me. I tossed the paper in my hand into the flames.

“NOOO!!!”

“Well that’ll probably put a wrench into your plans.”

“I’ll kill you!”

The asshole wasn’t about to give up that easy. He pulled out his pen and quickly scribbled something onto the remains of paper in his hand.

“If I can’t remake the world…I’ll just destroy it myself!”

There was a large flash of glowing red light that filled the room as the world shook.

“Damn! He’s going to take the whole place down!”

I didn’t have time to stand around here! I quickly looked for an exit, but the one I found was a bit…difficult. There was a large hole in the side of the wall that my spell created, but what was outside was about a 60 mile drop to the ground. But still, the secret to escaping death is usually doing something that doesn’t seem sane. I took a deep breath and took the dive.

“Aaaaaaahhhh!!!”

The wind rushed past me as I fell out through the air. Below me I could see the sprawling cityscape and the flying vehicles that flew past me as I continued my descent.

“TOX! I need wings!”

“What exactly are you expecting from me? I’m not a miracle worker.”

“But you’re a pretty great all purpose assistant right! Figure something out!”

“Yes. Yes. As you wish.”

I felt TOX shift and transform behind me as I saw the ground coming closer. I saw my life flash before my eyes. Training. Experiments. Reading with Amity. Eating on the Detective’s tab. On the toilet. Not exactly sure what was so special about that last one, but okay.

“Process complete. Hold on.”

I suddenly felt something latch around my waist and arms. There was a brief large jerk and the ground seemed to be slowing down. A large burst came from behind me and I was flung through the air.

“What happened?! Am I alive?!”

“Calm down. Yes, you are obviously not deceased. Per your request I have morphed into a suitable device for keeping you in the air. I used archived data to reconstruct an appropriate device and then modified it to your specifications. I believe that they called it a ‘jet-pack’.”

“Seriously?! Awesome!”

I looked behind me to see what appeared to be large black wings, made of numerous floating metal shards that were being held together by an invisible force.

“I am using my natural levitation functions to support and suspend you in air and help direct your movements. However this form is currently operating on heavy duty power. My internal energy supply can only sustain this form for approximately 3 minutes.”

“Shit! That’s not long!”

Suddenly there was a large explosion from the tower as a large plume of smoke burst out from behind me.

“Elusia! Time to die!”

“Oh shit!”

I quickly rolled over in the air to dodge the incoming attack.

“…number 2?!”

Ahead of me was a large robotic creature, that would probably be best described as a freakin mech! It had large metallic white wings bursting with blue fire and accents holding up a humanoid armored suit with large glowing energy swords, armed to the teeth with auxiliary artillery.

“You can’t run from me! I may not be able to kill you myself, but with this, it’s a totally different story.”

“Wow, talk about overkill much.”

“Now, DIE!”

I quickly took off into the air with as much speed as possible. The mech was quickly gaining towards me. Suddenly, he took a swing at me with his energy weapons.

“Gah! TOX! Can’t you go faster?!”

“As previously stated, I’m not a miracle worker. Try to outmaneuver him.”

“Ok!”

I quickly switched gears from running to dodging. I swiftly pulled down into the city and started flying through the labyrinthine streets.

“You think that will stop me!?”

The mech glowed with red light and there was a large explosion as he fired his auxiliary weapons into the city.

“Damn! This guy really doesn’t give a crap about collateral damage does he!?”

I ducked in and out through alleyways, underneath abandoned roads, and even through building windows, but he was still on my tail. Large blasts of energy flew past and around me as he fired onto the ground, trying to hit me.

“We’re not getting anywhere just dodging him! Do you have any weaponry?!”

“Not an option in my current state. You will have to think of something. Warning: 2 minutes to complete shutdown.”

“Crap!”

What do I do?! Arghhh! I can’t think of anything other than not getting hit by bullet hell! Magic? But what kind?! That armor looks like it could block almost anything. Urgh, what would Amity do? Oh wait…yeah I remember her using thata lot. I just need to buy some more time!

“Hey dick! Come on! What are you waiting for?”

“Arghhhhh!!!!!”

The mech picked up a burst of speed and was tailing me by a hair. I sped up as fast as I could and headed straight towards my target. Quickly I pull up and flew into the air, leaving my pursuer to continue flying uncontrollably into the tower walls.

“Hah! Gotcha!”

I quickly flew into the opening created by the impact and landed on the ground. Ahead of me the mech was getting back up without a scratch and dusting off debris. I quickly pulled out my brush and started drawing a new magic circle pattern.

“…Did you really believe that would stop me? I designed this suit with the express purpose of defending myself against any kind of attack, magical or otherwise. There is nothing you can do. Just get over here and DIE like the rat you are!”

“Not gonna happen. You know something, you arrogant prick? You talk too much.”

I put the finishing touches on the magical circle that I had recalled from my memory, and picked up a piece of rubble. I slammed my hand.

“Shift! Number 2’s head!”

There was a small popping sound from the mech, and the lights coming from it started to dim.

“Hah…it doesn’t matter how much defense you have, when you can teleport.”

I walked over to the deactivated mech and drew a large magical circle pattern for water onto the body. A large hole appeared and a flood of water flowed out onto the ground. Inside I saw number 2’s body, lifeless and grotesquely disfigured. I pulled out the corpse and searched it for the pieces of paper that had started all this. As I held the pages in my hand, I thought of all they had caused and the power they held. I wrote a few things onto the paper and started working on a new magic circle. I activated the fire element spell and burned the entire thing. Nothing good could come by using it more than necessary.

“Are you sure that was wise?”

“Yeah I’m sure. You mind calling some medical help? I feel like crap.”

Then the world went black as I fainted.