Press Start [homestuck] (on hold)

Chapter Seven - Black Skies And Black Cats

A/N: Omg guys I have over 50 followers! :3 Thank you guys for reading my stories and voting on them, it means a lot to me! OK, I'm done being sentimental, here's a new chapter! :D

Eagle's POV

I switched off the chat log with Sara, because I had more important things to do right now. I looked around and realized that I had certainly made the transition to the other dimension. I stood up from where I had fallen to the floor, dusting myself off. My (recently prototyped) sprite was still nowhere to be seen, even though it should've already resurfaced. The lights were turned off and it was pitch dark in the room, because of course my electricity had to have been disabled. There was probably no power lines in this dimension, I thought with a groan. I felt around in the darkness until I found my chest of possessions, and reached in until I found the flashlight I stored in there. I flicked it on and surveyed the room.

I turned towards where the computer motherboard should be. The screen had gone dark, so I quickly made my way over to the emergency power source and booted it up. For a few moments, it seemed as if it wasn't going to work. Honestly, the prospect of not having a working computer was much more terrifying than anything this dimension had to offer. After several more nerve-racking seconds, the giant screen finally sprang to life. I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Hello, Master Eagle." Rang out the pleasant, robotic voice of the computer. "My apologies, I seem to have undergone a forceful shutdown. Would you like me to run a few tests to diagnose what caused the problem?"

"No, thank you, Computer." I said thankfully. "I already know the cause, so you can sit tight."

"I don't understand, sir. I am a computer, and thus, I cannot stand. Your concern is misplaced."

I laughed sharply. "It's an expression, Computer. Don't stress it."

With that, I headed back to the chest of possessions and began to captchalogue all the stuff I thought I would need. *For those of you who don't know what captchalogue means, you obviously haven't done your basic homestuck terms research.*  These included a few basic weapons, my spare notebook and a pencil, and night-vision goggles. Obviously night-vision goggles would be required, because as far as I could tell, this entire world was completely dark.

I started on my way out into the wilderness, which was currently a huge jungle surrounding my house. Before I went too far, I noticed that my entire house hadn't teleported with me, only a few rooms of it actually. The game's software must've had a limited range, I thought, cursing under my breath. I began making my way through the trees, eventually breaking free into a wide open space, a grassy field. Suddenly an ethereal glow came out of the ground in front of me, and a ghostly, glowing figure erupted into the cold, crisp air in front of my head. It floated back down until it was eye level with me, and it became clear that this was my Sprite.

In a moment, after all the ghost mist had cleared and the Sprite's image stabilized, the Sprite's identity also became clear. It was female, with flowing black hair and warm brown eyes, and her skin had the same pigment as mine, if you didn't take into account the blue glow that enveloped her. On closer inspection, I realized her body was composed mostly of pages, not unlike the ones I had ripped out from my journal. The very same pages, perhaps. I looked back up at her face and shined my flashlight at her, and realized this was none other than my mother. 

She smiled warmly at me, lifting her hand toward my face. "Welcome home, son. It's been so very long, my dear little Eagle." 

*Switch to Steven's POV*

I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration. It had been nearly a whole day since Jez's house had vanished, with her and Lilly inside it, and I still hadn't been able to contact either of them. Normally Jez would get back to me within seconds if I tryed to pester her. However, Lilly was the complete antitheses of that, being notoriously forgetful and difficult to contact. If I knew her, and I did, then she probably hadn't even BROUGHT her phone when she went to Jez's house to check up on her.

On last resort, I grabbed my cell phone and dialed Lilly's number. To my surprise, someone did pick up, and I got excited. "Hello, hello, this is Steve, is this Lilly? Lilly, are you there?"

"No, this is her sister, Lydia. Did you want to talk to her?" Came the reply.

"Yes, I did, and it's very important!" I demanded.

"Well, SoRry, but she's not here right now. She went to her friend Jez's house yesterday morning at around 9 o'clock, and she hasn't come back yet." Lydia told me.

"And you're sure there's no way to contact her?" I quizzed Lydia persistently.

"You could try calling Jez's home phone, genius. Seeing as that's probably where she is." Lydia said, as if it was perfectly obvious. "What's going on, anyway? Why are you acting so weird? Well, weirder than normal anyway." She corrected herself.

"Don't ask, I wouldn't be able to tell you." I said simply. "All right, I'm hanging up now, but if Lilly contacts you in any way, at any time, let me know."

"Wait, don't hang u-" Lydia started to say, before I hit end call. Well, that was helpful, I thought to myself. NOT!! I'm even more in the dark than I was before. My cat, Sly, came up to where I was collapsed on the couch,  laptop and phone at hand. Sly simply purred and curled up next to my head. I sat up and petted him behind the ears affectionately. "You don't get any of this, do you? Not a care in the world." I whispered quietly in his ear. His bright green eyes twitched at me, in a gesture that I assumed to be agreement.

"Actually, you might be surprised at what I do or don't understand." Said a myserious voice. Startled, I nearly fell off the couch, causing Sly to hiss in surprise and leap off of the couch and onto the coffee table. "Oh, so you're telling me you've never noticed?" Said the voice again. It sounded very....British.

"Come, now. Look at me when I'm speaking to you." Said the voice again, and it became clear that it was Sly from which the voice was coming from. Talking cats. Cats, talking. Talking...British cats?

All this was a bit much, and my subconsous made an exectutive desision. I started to go down, and my skull said hello to the table as I fell to the ground, blacking out.

*switch to Jez's POV*

After seeing the mysterious message written in the sand, I had decided to explore a bit more. Which may not have been the greatest idea, considering I had a terrible sense of direction. I didn't think I was exactly lost, considering I could always retrace my steps. After all, I WAS trudging through sand, so I should leave footsteps. While I was walking, I became aware that the wind had begun to blow. 

"Oh, crap." I muttered aloud. What if the wind started a sandstorm? That would get rid of all my footprints!