Tales From Crashdown: Beowulf

Chapter 13: Loyal Customer

After being kicked out of the restaurant due to Beo's own obnoxious eating, the girls had a race down the open street. They felt the wind blow through their hair as they dashed beneath the stars.

Beo thought it would be an easy victory, but was surprised to see just how quick Frey was. Frey was no longer running on only her legs, now using her long arms to move like a chimp. She used her knuckles, making her move far quicker than she had before. Beo only realized what had happened when Frey leaped over her and had taken the lead.
Beo was amazed, seeing what was once someone unable to walk for a few hours was now running, smiling, laughing.

Frey almost made it to the movie theater first, but Beo actually started to actually care about winning and swiftly breezed past Frey at the last moment.

"Ha! I win! Nice try hun, but I'M the fastest thing around." Beo boasted.

Frey answered with a few huffs and puffs between some words, "You're also the most self-centered thing around. I almost got you there, dear."

Beo waved her hand, "Nah! I would've won no matter what!"

Frey laughed, "Keep telling yourself that."

Beo sauntered into the movie theater, confinement in her speed, but she poked her head out of the door. She said, "Head to the end. They have an outdoor theater.

Frey nodded, "Do you know which of these films you'd like to see?" She asked as she pointed to the outdoor posters around the doors.

"Yup! We're gonna watch Darkland Night! It's a dark fantasy film set in the old days of the 1970s." Beo answered.

Frey looked at the posters, "Uh.....that movie isn't out here."

Beo came back out and looked at the dozen or so film posters, "Damn it! They must have rotated out this afternoon."

Frey patted Beo on the back, "Hey, it's fine. I don't care what we see, Beo. Just pick out a different movie."

Beo started to graze over the posters, nothing really speaking to her. That was, until she got to one poster in particular.

It was the image of a monsterous salamander, crawling on top of a massive church. The words "Salafire 3: Crucifixion" spread across the bottom of the image.

Beo turned to Freydís, "Oh my dead gods! You wanna see Salafire‽"

"Oh? What's it about?" Frey asked, fully aware of how Beo would react to this question.

Beo's jaw dropped, "You HAVE to see this! It's about this salamander that was resurrected by an ancient deity from The Democratic Republic Hawai'i. The salamander goes on a rampage throughout the islands and-!"

Frey stood there for a solid 10 minutes listening to Beo's description of the film. She didn't care about hearing the film's explanation, but she found it cute to see Beo jumping in place and flapping her hands about. It made Frey happy to see Beo so excited over something that wasn't combat.

"Alright, alright. Clearly you know what you'd like." said Frey just before she went around the building to the outdoor viewing center.

No more than 5 minutes later, Beo came out the back of the building, holding 6 large buckets of popcorn, 18 boxes of candy, 8 extra large drinks, 4 novelty popcorn buckets shaped like Salafire's tail and 2 plastic Salafire face masks.

"I have a feeling you enjoy these films a bit more than most." Frey said.

A cracking, scratchy voice yelled from the back door of the building, "She's the ONLY one who likes them! She buys so much merchandise that they can release sequels!"

The film began as Beo passed half of the stuff to Freydís. She barely had enough room in her lap for all of the goodies. The glasses and the mask didn't even fit on her at all, so the mask went over her long, Pinocchio-like nose. The glasses went over the eyes of the mask.

The film was very obviously low budget. It boiled down to an orange, rubber lizard suit smacking against a yellow, latex mantis suit.

Beo kept side-eyeing Frey, making sure she was enjoying the movie and getting excited at the right parts.

Frey didn't like it, she was bored and confused by the nonsensical slapstick. Though, she smiled through it.

Soon, the film came to its climax, with identical twin robot suits standing in defiance of the monsters. Beo was bouncing in her seat, but Frey secretly wanted it to just be over at this point.

Then, something began to happen. The robots on the outdoor screen began to darken, but they didn't stop. The shadows on the robots began to grow, and move on their own. One of them appeared a fraction the size of one robot and the other completely enveloped it and then some.

Frey and Beo both looked at each other and then back to the projector, but nothing seemed to be out of order. That was, until an electronic voice was heard.
"The stage is yours!" Shouted a synthetic voice from behind the screen.

There was a split second of confusion from Frey, soon followed by a strange taste of steel in her mouth as she was sent flying back, crashing into the back of the stone building.
Two figures tore through the paper of the screen.

One of the figures stood taller than Beo, even with her heels. Its body was steel, with a thin frame. Its face was incredibly human, nearly perfectly replicating humanity's distinct eyes. It had a paint job of white, highlighted by dark reds.

The second was far larger than its companion, larger than Freydís. Its body was barrel shaped, with cylindrical limbs. Its head resembled a hounskull style of helmet, with a knowing visor where the eyes of a human would see out. It was a near black colour, only broken up by white highlights.

Freydís yelled to Beo, "What ARE these things‽"

Beo turned back to Frey, "These are the Wedding Knights!"