Slime-Cycle (Humble Beginnings)

14. The start of a rough week

The bustling crowd of times Square was loud, really loud. It was so packed Quackity had trouble watching rewind.

He was leaned against a nearby street pole, a cigarette in his mouth. He had a blue jacket on, with multiple white stripes across the arms. He wore a beanie over his black mullet, the signature las nevadas text emoji embroidered on the rim. He stared off into the crowd, watching the hero on patrol. Rewind was walking through the crowd, patrolling the street and doing his job, unaware of the secret admirer.

He brought his cigar up, holding it between his fingers, his hand covered in a golden glove. He took another breath through his cigar, watching as a small kid walked up to rewind with a look of wonder in their eyes. They stopped and looked up at him as rewind turned to look at them, a smile appearing on his face as he crouched down to their level.

Quackity continued to watch. Rewind talked to the child for a moment before they handed him what looked like a small handmade card. Rewind gave the kid a pat on the head as they ran off. It was kind of sweet.

Quackity found it annoying. What's the point, rewind didnt do anything to deserve such admiration. Now believe me, quackity wasn't saying rewind was a bad hero, In fact he thought quite the opposite. But the reality is, the hero force just isn't all that reliable.

Quackity Continued to watch him. He loved his outfit, his light fluffy hair and his bueatiful smile. He missed the last time he had someone so special. But that was a long time ago, and he'd moved on since then.

Karl was amazing. Quackity sighed, exhaling a large plume of smoke from his nose. He could never quiet get him out of his mind.

Just as he looked back at rewind however, he felt something.

He heard a quiet shimmering ding as something hit the back of his head. But he knew what it was. All of a sudden, he heard the voice.

"I found him. I've found the Banished..." the message played out in his mind. The voice of the watcher echoed through his brain as his eyes grew wide. What he said caught his attention, but hed have to think about that later. Because if that message reached him, then the watcher could too. And boy he didnt want to think about what would happen if he was found.

Quackity started to panic. Even if he had a hiding spell, the watcher could have followed the message to him, breaking the shield from his sight. His best chance was to run away and cast a new one before the watcher found him. But it could already be too late.

"Aye cabron..!" quackity cursed under his breath. He snuffed out his cigar on his golden metal glove, tossing it to the ground as he got ready to run.

He took one final look at Rewind. He was standing in the middle of times Square greeting people and smiling obliviously. He sighed, taking a step away as he darted off.

He pushed through the crowd of people, attempting to look as inconspicuous as possible as he ran very suspiciously down the sidewalk. He at least tried to look like he was rushing to get to some important thing, instead of running from an inter-dimentional demi god with a lust for his suffering.

He ran through the crowd and pushed past as many people as he had to until he reached some sort of alley. It wasn't some dingey alley that you could get mugged in, more like a path shoved between two buildings. Either way he took it. Turning and rushing down the alley.

He ran through it, passing a couple of people who gave him suspicious looks. It didn't matter though. They'd forget about him by the end of the day. He reached a small indent, turning and taking it as he attempted to hide as best as possible. Once he was sure there were as few people around as there could be, he transformed.