Book 2: The First Fallen Human

Tattered Wares

Code hummed as he glitched from timeline to timeline. He was searching for Glitch. "H0pe he d0esn't think he can hide fr0m me again... that went p00rly last time..." He recalled with a soft giggle. He'd lost track of the black skeleton, unsure why. He practically had a tracker on the other.

He paused, drifting midair in the Omega Timeline. His head was pounding and he held it, screwing his eyes shut. He'd learned not to fight his heavy migraines. Code was about to settle down and wait it out when another portal opened below him.

Code stared down. Out of the portal came four, gold-tinted tentacles. They gripped the edges of the portal before pulling the rest of the body through. Code blinked. That wasn't this world's Nightmare. He'd seen the goopy black skeleton of negativity before. Whoever this one was, it seemed just like him. A gold eye was lit up on its face, including a haunting smile.

Code peered closer and noticed the crown. It was black, just like the rest of the creature's body, but it was there. Code twitched giving a quiet inhale of breath. He'd never thought he would be able to see Shattered Dream. He'd learned about it from this world's Ink. Wasn't Shattered Dream supposed to be contained somewhere?

He drifted above the other monster silently. Far above him. He jumped as another portal opened in front of Shattered Dream and a pool of dark red liquid was pushed from it, out onto the white floor. Something ducked its way through the portal. It was shaped like a human female, but with drifting, glowing red hair and glowing eyes. Its entire body, including its clothes were red.

Code was more focused on what was behind it. As the portal closed, the human-creature slowly stretched out twisted-looking, vulture-like red wings from its back. Code jumped as Shattered Dream squealed.

"Friend!! Friend, look at you!! Beautiful!!" The gold-tinted monster said, grinning. The human-creature gurgled. It folded its wings behind it as Shattered Dream circled it, studying its wings. It didn't even flinch when Shattered Dream used his tentacles to stretch out one of its wings. He giggled.

Oh, Code's attention was captured now. He knew about Shattered Dream, but WHAT was that human-creature?? He continued to watch them from the air, far above. He flinched at another pounding sensation, having briefly been able to fully ignore it when watching the two.

He hated it. Slowly, Code's body crunched up into a ball as he drifted in the air, holding his head. He didn't dare make a noise. He was shaking. Instead of making noise, the skeleton allowed his body to glitch wildly. His eyes were screwed shut.

Slowly, Code turned himself over to watch the pair again. They'd began to move down the Timeline. Both of them left trails. The human-creature left a wide, dark trail of blood, while Shattered Dream left a shoulder-width, dark trail of thick, black goop. His trail seemed to clean itself up, the goo shriveling away into nothing.

The human-creature's blood trail remained. It was ghastly sight. Code waited until he couldn't see them anymore before another heavy pound made him shake and he opened his mouth. Code cried, glitching, blue tears slowly escaping down his face. No one besides Glitch had ever seen him cry.

He let out a silent wail, holding his head. He shook violently. He would never understand why it hurt so bad. Or why it even happened in the first place. His skeletal fingers curled into the side of his head. He hated it. He flinched as he felt his body practically exploding into pixels.

He shrieked, his vision going black as he felt hands on his shoulders. When he came to, he was on the ground. Code sat up, furrowing his brow. He was panting. "What...?" He held his head. The pounding was gone. In fact, he felt refreshed. He blinked and looked around, freezing as he saw Paint.

Paint was sitting crisscross, his back to the other. Code blinked. Why was he here? Why was Code on the ground?? He tried to push himself to his feet, but his body glitched and he fell back, catching Paint's attention. The other turned to him. "Ink, h0w did...?" Code was completely clueless.

Paint blinked. "You were glitching the hell out so I tried to get your attention, but when I touched you, you suddenly blacked out. I caught you cuz you started falling to the floor. It turns out, your entire body was rebooting." The other explained with a passive, bored-sounding tone.

Code stared at him. "I... I reb00ted??" He asked in shock. The other nodded. He'd seen Glitch do it quite a few times, but he'd never done it himself. He rubbed his head. He noticed Paint still staring and raised a brow.

"Oh... you were crying... and you had dug scratch marks into the sides of your skull with your fingers." Paint said. Instantly, Code lifted his hands to the sides of his head and Paint shook his. "I already fixed them. But why the hell were you spazzing out??"

Code blinked. "Migraines." The answer actually seemed to surprise Paint, who's brows shot up. He stared at Code. "I kn0w it isn't supp0sed t0 happen t0 a skelet0n, but it is. And they get... CRAZY painful..." He twitched, rubbing one of his eye sockets. He suddenly remembered the creature pair from earlier and glanced to the side to see the now-dried trail of blood.

He quickly scooted himself away from it. Paint blinked. "Did you see it too?" The other skeleton's question made Code whip around to face him. Paint was dead serious. "The human-creature. The bleeder." Code nodded, continuing to nod as he turned back to look at the trail.

Code briefly was struck by how appropriate the word 'bleeder' fit the creature. "What is it??" He asked with wide eyes. Paint shrugged.

"This world's Ink says it's a huge threat and it's been causing a crisis here. He said to avoid it if we could." Paint relayed the information to the other. Code glitched to his feet immediately, making the other jump a bit.

"That s0unds like fun!! S000000 much m0re interesting than a wild g00se chase with three 0utcasts, right?!" Code exclaimed, smiling.