Playing Open-Handed

Chapter 4: The Greatest Great X-Scape

Five days. The note was dated to five days ago. X read it over again with disbelief. If he'd found it earlier, maybe he could have saved Cub, but no. No such luck. He sighed. He was supposed to be the admin. It was his duty to protect the Hermits from any threat, and this 'Aboleth' definitely seemed to be one.

He read the note over once more, and then grit his teeth. He got out his most powerful sword, bow and trident, got together a set of good armour, and set off for Impulse's base. He'd save them. He had to.

The note fluttered to the ground, forgotten.

-Trademark Joker-

X carefully slipped into the underwater area, constantly watching over his shoulder and where he was going. The rooms seemed fairly normal for a hidden bunker, at least going off of his experiences in Demise. Maybe Cub was just wrong, and had forgotten to pick up the note. X was so deep in thought, he forgot to watch anywhere, and bumped into someone: Impulse.

"Hey, X." Impulse greeted, smiling a weird smile. "What brings you here?"

"I just wanted to check up on you. Nobody's seen you in ages. I'm supposed to look out for everyone, you know." X explained. He left out the bit about Cub and the note. Either Impulse already knew, or didn't need to.

"Well, why don't I show you around?" Impulse grabbed X's wrist. X quickly twisted out of the grip, and a very non-Impulse expression flashed across Impulse's face. Well. That answered X's question about whether the problem was real or not. X quickly bolted, and Impulse took off after him. X ran, and kept running, until-

"Tango!?" He yelped. Tango was sat, crumpled in a cell, cradling his right arm to his chest and breathing heavily. His face was stained with tears.

"X...?" Tango gasped in reply. He weakly stood up, bracing himself against the wall with his left arm. And then X was rather abruptly pinned to the wall by Impulse. "XISUMA!" Tango screamed. X quickly threw Impulse off, although he was still careful not to hurt him. X rushed over to the cell and, too hurried to try and open the door normally, kicked down the iron door. Tango rushed out, as X was pinned to the wall again. Tango moved to help, but X shook his head sadly, struggling against Impulse.

"Run." X urged him, and so Tango did. And X relaxed a little, even as he was fighting a losing battle against one of his own friends, even as he was dragged away, even as he felt himself being taken over, that he'd at least managed to save someone.

-Trademark Joker, Ace of Spades, King of Spades-

"Awww, Jellie, what's wrong?" Scar asked his cat as she paced irritably about. She paused, glared at him pointedly, and went back to pacing. He sighed, and went back to trying to develop a mental picture of the area he was about to terraform. He was shaken out of his thoughts, however, by the sound of something crashing into some kind of tree or bush. Scar quickly ran over to see what was up.

When he got there, he saw Tango on the ground, trying to get his frantic gasping under control. Tango looked up at him and gasped, scuttling back, dragging himself mostly by his left arm. Scar's expression softened, and he offered Tango a hand. Tango locked eyes with him, paused for a second, then tentatively took it. 

Scar helped him stand, despite Tango seemingly barely having the strength to do so. He looked Tango over, and saw that the guy was covered in small bruises and scratches, like from an out-of-control flight, but more importantly, was holding his right arm like it was fractured. In other words, the guy needed medical attention, STAT.

Soon, Scar had set up a makeshift medical area. Tango was sat on a bed, his broken bone set and his arm in a sling while Scar brewed up a batch of regen potions for him. The moment they were done, Scar passed the first one to Tango, who clumsily chugged it left-handed, wincing slightly as his wounds closed noticeably fast, as opposed to their usual subtle kind of fast.

"What even happened to you?" Scar asked, passing Tango another potion. "You look like you've been through the wars!"

"Etho." Tango replied, downing said potion. "He can be brutal if something forcibly puts his mind to it."

"He- what. Wait- what?" Scar stammered, fumbling the third potion, causing it to fall to the ground. Thankfully, the bottle didn't break.

"Ever heard of an Aboleth?" Tango asked. Scar paused, thinking back to some research he did for Area 77, then nodded. Then he paused, and thought for a second. Then all of the colour drained out of his face.

"HERE!?" He half-gasped, half-shouted. He coughed, regaining his composure. "We have to tell someone! Tell Xisuma!"

"No." Tango gasped. "No, no no no no. Not Xisuma."

"...Why not?" Scar asked. Tango just shook his head, eyes glazed over. The conversation quickly died, and Scar just finished patching up Tango's wounds in amicable silence.

-King of Spades, Ace of Hearts-

Around midnight, Scar decided that he couldn't rest with this weighing on him. He had to warn everyone, starting with X. He slipped out of bed, sneaking past where Tango was sleeping. He winced, noticing that Tango's eyes were wide open. The guy let out a snore, however, and Scar was convinced that the guy was sleeping like a brick. Deciding not to push his luck, however, he whispered a quick apology, and slipped out.

"X?" Scar called out as he landed in Xisuma's base. "X, you there?"

"Oh! Hey Scar!" Xisuma suddenly appeared behind him, causing Scar to let out a little yelp of surprise.

"X, you startled me!" Scar gasped, turning around. X chuckled, tilting his head slightly, and Scar was very suddenly aware of the fact that he couldn't see X's expression. He didn't understand why he was just noticing it now, just that when before it had been 'just an X thing', it was now incredibly creepy. Still, he shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind. He had more important things to worry about.

"You need something?" Xisuma asked, shrugging.

"Oh! Yeah-um, right. I'm worried about a threat to the server, and, well, you're the admin, so I figured you ought to know." Scar paused for breath, briefly wondering why he was so nervous all of a sudden. "See, there's this thing called an Aboleth, it's like a fish-monster that can do mind control, and Tango says he just barely escaped from one..." Scar trailed off.

"Oh. That." X laughed. "Don't worry, Scar." He gently rested one hand on Scar's shoulder. "I already know about it." He paced around behind Scar. "I'm working to fix all the problems." He pulled out a cloth and a lingering potion of sleep from his inventory, and poured one onto the other. "And everything will soon be under control." He suddenly grabbed Scar's shoulder tighter.

"X- what- what are you-" Scar protested incoherently, before the realisation hit him like a brick to the head. Tango told him to stay away because he knew that X had been got. Tango was trying to keep him safe, even as he didn't want to admit what had happened to himself. Scar should have listened.

X clamped the cloth over Scar's nose and mouth. Scar screamed, desperate for someone to hear, for someone to come help. It was muffled by X's hand, but he hoped it would be enough. He struggled in X's grip, trying his best to wriggle free. But in the end, his scream died in his throat, his movements became sluggish and heavy, and his eyelids slowly drooped shut as he slipped into unconsciousness.

"Everything will soon be under control." X assured Scar again. "Starting with you."

-Ace of Hearts, Trademark Joker-