New World Order (TNE) [Original]

Chapter 17 - The Bargain

There was a dull and light hum that echoed through the dark wasteland that was once considered a city. The asphalt ground experienced low shifts and shivers as worms and other burrowing creatures crawled through it. The ground had become an ocean tide for the creatures still living underground, it had it's daily shifts of moving across the plates of the planet that had been shifted by the teeth constantly munching on the dirt causing numerous quakes and cave-ins. Landfills were uncovered consistently and daily with the unreliable ground levels. Even underneath Forestville, deeper still there lay dormant a long forgotten dump of waste and other products of a different time that had been left to rot, laying to eventually be unearthed. The Unknown caused a disturbance not too dissimilar to these earthquakes with their tentacles as they struck a nearby tree and broke it in two. Shortly after, they constructed the tree into a table and chairs, setting it out for the search party and themselves.

"A deal?" Martin questioned asking the pitch black darkness that had enveloped what was once their campsite after the fire had began to burn out. The druid was tempted to add some more logs and fuel to the fire but the fear that The Unknown had inspired deep in her chest left her stationary.

"Yes, a deal dear Martin. I have a trade where you perform one simple task for me and I repay you in return," The Unknown responded with their tongue curling up inside their grey gooey body like a scorpion stuck in a riptide. The dull hum was slowly getting louder, but nobody seemed to notice.

"Your the being who brought me and Marissa to our home in Forestville, correct?"

"Exactly, see I already provided you with so much, which should make holding up your side of the bargain even easier. Just simply stay out of the business of the government, we don't even have Marissa anyways,"

As The Unknown let out the last word their voice began to shrink, feeling embarrassed about the whole scenario and the arguments between The Chief and themselves. The whole search party was in utter disbelief, even those who didn't know about who Marissa was as a person knew greatly of Martin's relationship to the lady as it was a small town and news spread quickly. To hear that this whole journey may have been in vain and that they weren't even with the government left them in shock and disappointment. They thought didn't have too much time to grow though, as The Unknown was quick to explain after seeing their faces. After all, The Unknown could see perfectly clear with their glowing eyes even in the harsh darkness.

"One of my coworkers took off with her and we've been unable to track her ever since. If I had to guess she probably took off on a plane, train or boat to get away from here," The Unknown elaborated. The hum began to grow into a noisy sound of blades spinning it seemed to be exponentially increasing in noise. Possibly coming from multiple sources, although it was difficult to tell. The druid feeling disappointed with the discovery grabbed some firewood used her staff and lit a fire anew.

"You were able to develop technology that could transform the majority of us into monsters and many of us even forgot the language we once knew and cherished. But, your telling me that you don't have any way of tracking that coworker lady of yours!" Timothy abruptly bursted out saying. He was so flustered at this discovery that he threw off his backpack in denial. Then, without thinking The Unknown let out a grin; the grin only lasted for a few short moments but for those who caught it in the crowd it was clear there was more than what The Unknown let on.

"About that transformation toxin-" The Unknown began ignoring the previous question Timothy had pestered them about. The Unknown tried to hide their grin and continued. "I've actually come here to talk to you all about an antidote that I discovered with my team of scientists."

The Unknown suddenly pulled out a syringe that was filled up with a mucky green and brown substance that seemed to bubble and move in an alarming fashion inside the container. Hearing news of an antidote for their transformations was immediately surprising to hear after for the group after what Plum had taught them about the government's plans on the way over. Plum especially, looked at The Unknown with utter confusion to the entire revelation and tried to hide her judgement from the creature that currently had the solution to many of their problems. The Unknown took the syringe and stabbed it into one of their right tentacles, all of a sudden what stood before the group was not a mysterious creature at all it looked like an ordinary human.

All the search party could see now was a regular looking human man with short brown hair and deep brown eyes who looked to be in his mid-30's and was surprisingly not built and weak for the previously displayed strength. He was wearing a lab coat that was stained with many stains from previous chemical experiments and even had some burn marks that had torn through it. Instead of tentacles, the man had simple stubby pale arms that ended with regular fingers with 5 of them still holding the syringe. He took in a deep breath and looked at the group with a quiet satisfaction. The search party wasn't sure what to think, seeing a sudden transformation that was even more abrupt than the transformation toxin itself back into a human was alarming to say the least.

"Didn't Geoff say that the government had cages that reversed the effects too?" Martin mentioned. He had been called over by the druid to help with the fire and had missed the transformation itself. When he looked back at the darkness he was confused and bewildered to no longer see The Unknown standing in front of him.

"Yes, we have cages and many other forms of this medicine. Pills, juice, sandwiches whatever you want. We were originally going to charge money for these reversions but if you simply stay out of the government's business you can turn back into your previous self free of charge," What was once The Unknown explained. The crowd was clearly interested and a line began forming, the transformations had become helpful in some ways but hindered others such as the worm creatures, being unable to grab things or even open lids. Even for Martin, his obsidian armour had become mostly a handicap for his everyday activities back in Forestville. He was still used to his typical young boy sized body and constantly bumped into things. Slowly, over many minutes those with transformations formed a line in front of The Unknown and those with no transformations stood back by the campfire.

The humming got louder to a point that it could no longer be ignored and the chopping blades erupted into view. Helicopters with cages were hanging above the search party. The cages were quickly dropped on all of those with transformations who had formed a line. The Unknown reformed back into their grey tentacle state and started walking away with a hearty grin. The plan had worked perfectly. The Unknown's monster transformation had allowed them to actually transform at will into whatever they wanted although they found that anything besides their typical grey state left them exhausted after a few minutes. Soon York teleported back to The Unknown and threw Geoff into one of the cages too. He was the only transformed one the search party had left back at Forestville after all. Or at least, the only one the government knew of...