Cryptids & Cursed Images (C&CI)

Prologue: Story Time

Alexis was leading the march towards the well kept house, Vance, Cory, and Ellie followed behind her, Cory spoke up.

"Are you sure you even know where you're going? We've been walking for 20 minutes, Alexis!" He whines, walking with a dog by his side, Alexis looks back at the small group.

"My dad said this is where the house was, he said how it was a while from the city, you guys should have known we were gonna be walking this far on foot," She says, shrugging with a smile, the others grumble among themselves, "And besides, even if I didn't know where I was going, THIS little guy does!" She takes something out of her pocket and holds it into the air, it's a sleeping chick which begins to stir due to the sudden brightness, as it stands it puts on some sunglasses and puts a talon on the Tech-Deck which it had put so much wear and tear into. "This is the place, right Tony Bawk?" Alexis questions the chick which rides down her arm, kick flips and lands, retaining it's speed it rides towards the house.

"Guess you were right, I suppose trusting the one with the chicken may prove to be a good idea," Vance says as he starts to jog after the chick, Alexis runs beside him. Cory and Ellie follow behind the two now leading them closer and closer to the house which as they get closer seems in slight disrepair, walls are beginning to get overgrown with vines, a back lawn with unruly grass, growing as it pleases, the group slows down as Tony Bawk waits for them on a cobblestone patio.

"Uh, this place look like its even inhabited, maybe we're in the wrong place...?" Alexis questions with a frown, she looks down at Tony Bawk who's shaking his head, and using a wing points to a door which leads into a sun porch, Ellie begins to speak.

"He wants us to go IN? Even if no one lives here this feels really wrong to just barge in...we don't know what's in there, the person our parents mentions could very well be dead by now," She says, looking around the group, "I mean, they did say that the last they saw of this person was when they were fighting in the large scale battle." She looks away, trying to think, Vance shakes his head and looks the house over.

"We can only hope they're still in there, and just don't come out often, I'm willing to go in, if you guys wanna wait out here that's fine, but I'm exploring," He claims as he walks up the steps and grabs the door. A noise freezes everyone in their places, Ellie looks at Vance.

"Was that you, Vance?" She asks, Vance turns around.

"I just grabbed the handle, it sounded like it came from above us, the roof," he says softly, backing away from the door and glancing up at the slanted roof of the sun porch, the group stands there looking up but they see nothing, although they hear it again, Cory takes a step back, his dog standing close to him, it glances up at him.

"It's okay Droop Snoot...it's gonna be fine..." He whispers as he pets the dogs head, Ellie swallows and looks towards Alexis.

"If one of us gets hurt we'll have to leave, I'm not sticking around here to wait for help-" She just barely manages to get the sentence out before Vance speaks again, looking down at his phone.

"Either way I have no signal out here, we'd be on our own anyways," he explains as he pockets his phone and goes to the door, grabbing it again, "Let's go" he says boldly, opening the door. The temperature of the house pushes against the humid air they've been standing in for a while now, chilling their surroundings greatly, they look amongst themselves and all head into the house, a voice from the roof softly speaks.

"Alright King...I guess it's time we entertain our guests..." The voice says. The kids, now standing on the sun porch look around, the inside is surprisingly clean, the door from the sun porch into the house is cracked ever so slightly, Ellie walks over to it and lightly pushes it open which opens up to a kitchen, Tony Bawk skates past her leg and over the tile floor of the kitchen, they look around, Alexis speaks softly.

"It's a really old house...I'm kind of surprised it's still standing, it survived an apocalypse too, this place is sturdy I guess," she rambles, looking down at her pet, "Tony Bawk come here, don't go too far please," she narrows her eyes on the chicken who turns around and begins to skate back towards the group. Suddenly a white dog jumps from the darkness of a hallway connected to the kitchen, snarling and snapping it's teeth, Tony Bawk turns and swerves his board to the side, dodging the dog as it lands next to him, he gets back to Alexis who quickly picks him up. The dog stands up and begins to growl, each teen is taken back for a moment as they see the dog has eight legs and is mainly a head, Vance takes a step back as he starts talking aloud.

"Hey you speak animal right? does that also count for dog?!" He exclaims, a fish pokes it's head out of his pocket and looks towards the eight legged dog.

"No, I can only speak to anything that's water related, I'm a fish, not a translator!" The fish yells, Vance rolls his eyes focuses back on the dog.

"How my mom was able to work with you confuses me! You're literally a fish holding a floss!" He replies, the fish glares up at him.

"Well duh! That's how I got my name, Floss Fish, and don't be rude to me, your mom will be pissed!" He returns, Ellie balls her hands and closes her eyes.

"Will you stop arguing with your pet!? We could be attacked right now and you're yelling at a fish!" She yells, her face turning slightly red, a voice barks from behind them.

"King, yield!" it snaps, the eight legged dog listens and sits down, looking at the group who now turn to see who owns the voice who commanded the dog. Behind them stands a figure in a black cloak with an emblem on the breast which contains the letters "HG", their face is obscured by shadows too dark to see through, the figure stands with a readied sword and shield, both covered in a horrific pulsating black sludge like material. They wear white work gloves, a heavy looking black coat, sweatpants and steel toe boots under the cloak, the teens watch as the figure sheathes their blade slowly, Alexis opens her mouth to speak but is immediately shut up by the figure.

"Who are you people, and what are you doing here?" The figure questions, they notice Tony Bawk sitting in Alexis' hands and suddenly stop, staring at the chick, "And where did you find that bird...?"

"I'm Alexis, these are my friends Vance, Cory, and Ellie," She says as she points to each one who wave or nod when called on, "And this bird was my dad's...he said it helped him through some tough times in the apocalypse and he wanted me to have it," Alexis looks down at Tony Bawk as she says this, "We came here after our parents had mentioned a 'Hunter' I think they said who helped them overcome the end of the world...is that...you?" She asks, tilting her head slightly. The figure nods slowly as he steps into the kitchen, walking past the group.

"Yes, that is me, but why did you want to come find me?" they ask, looking down at King, "Up, to the living room," King stands and trots towards the living room, Vance starts to speak.

"We just wanted to know what happened, our parents said you'd be a good person to ask since...they mentioned you saw it all start?" He says, raising an eyebrow, the figure nods slowly.

"They'd be right...the name's Kenny Osbourne, follow me to the living room please, we'll start when you're all settled down," He says walking down a hallway, turning on a light switch, the group follows Kenny into a living room where they spot a few items foreign to them. On a wall to the left of the door way into the living room hangs a hammer with bright glowing spikes, they flash three different colors, the main color being a dark green, on another wall is a large group of swords, all different shapes, sizes and forms, one being very similar to the one Kenny was holding. In a small display case there's a few grenades, a small note beside the case says "DO NOT TOUCH, FRAGILE AND DANGEROUS!" In big bold and red letters the group stands in the middle of the room looking over all the items, a small display catches Ellie's attention.

"What is this?" She asks, walking over to a skull, suspended in the air by a small stand, its hollow eye sockets staring back at Ellie's own eyes, Kenny shifts his vision towards her.

"That would be an item of a very important nature, it's not alive, but I do ask you refrain from tapping on the glass," Kenny requests, Ellie gives him a nod and steps away from the skull. The teens walk over to the middle of the room and sit down on the carpeted floor, Kenny grabs a large book from a small shelf and sits on the couch with it on his lap. "What you four are about to hear is the story of when the world almost came to an untimely end at the hands of a very sinister creature which was super powerful," He explains, opening the book to the first few pages, "This is the story of Cryptids and Cursed Images," Kenny says lowly.