Home Alone On The Wiki 2, The Cure, Chapter 5: Peculiar Crackdown
Listen to the ‘HAOTW 2 Theme’ before reading the story: https://www.indiesound.com/track/95610
Listen to ‘Cold Entry’ when reading this section: https://www.indiesound.com/track/106048
The crew had arrived at the entrance of the R.R.S’s hideout after a hard and dangerous journey to the peak.
“Well, here it is…” Azure remarked. “Just what we’ve been looking for.”
“The journey is almost done, once we get the cure, we can leave this horrid place and live life like normal again,” Esper said. “I didn’t want to cause the shadow infection.. but he told me to do it. My mind was weak, I never saw him again.”
“What do you mean?” Ayrna said. “Who is ‘he’?”
“I don’t know,” Esper replied. “All I remember is his peculiar mustache and top hat.”
Camp cleared his throat and started talking.
“What we’re about to do is extremely dangerous,” Camp said. “I’ll require the attention of you all if we want to get the cure, and just survive today.”
“Anything to see my family again!” Detective Bardon blurted.
“Anyway, we’ll make our way down to the main hideout area, where they’re currently hiding. I’ll fight off the leaders of the R.R.S, and you guys can grab the cure and run out.” Camp said.
“We can go straight down this hallway in front of us,” Weslyn said. “I don’t know where it’ll lead us, but we have no real choice.”
The narrow hallway was lit by torches, mold growing everywhere, it seemed as if the walls hadn’t even been touched in years. The crew crept slowly down the hallway, aware that making too much noise would alert of their presence.
Eventually, they came to a dead end. The path in front of them was covered by rocks, seemingly placed on purpose.
“What are we supposed to do?” Trenton said. “The path is blocked off, we can’t turn back now, we’ve wasted all this time just to get here!”
Suddenly, the way back to the entrance got blocked off too. Large rocks seemingly collapsed from the roof.
“Great,” Ayrna said. “Now we can’t go back.”
Camp tried using his sword to break the rocks open, but it was no use.
“If we die of thirst here, then at least we tried,” Severino said hopelessly.
*BOOM*
A loud explosion had taken place, and it had completely wiped out the rocks that were standing in their way. What remained was a man… but he was no ordinary man.
“Oy,” the man said. “Seems as if ye got yourself into a bubble. Consider ye’-selfs lucky that I brought some of m’ dynamite.”
“Who are you?” Esper said. “And what happened to you? None of the shadows I’ve seen so far have been so unique…”
“Me name’s Magnus!” the man said. “I’m what these folk call ‘Demi-Shadows’, half-shadow — half-man. Luckily, I can control myself enough to keep the shadowed part of me sane.”
“How is this even possible?” Ryden said. “When I was once a shadow, the disease simply took over me. I had no control.”
“It was a gift given to me by my lord,” Magnus said. “It was back when I was working for the notorious monsters, I couldn’t escape. Though, when Esper lost control of the shadows, it gave me a chance to finally leave and be free. I haven’t seen the lord since.”
“Let’s get a move on!” Trithel said. “We don’t have much time to stop the R.R.S.”
“Follow my lead,” Magnus said. “I know the ins and outs of this place, I can help you defeat them.”
For the past minute, Sisay’s head started to hurt. Then, darkness…
Listen to ‘Unreal’ when reading this section: https://www.indiesound.com/track/106049
When he woke up, he saw himself surrounded by a dark void, and he was standing on a small platform. Then, he appeared…
“Hello,” ??? said. “Your mind has gone weak once again, I’m not too surprised anymore.”
“I- I did the deal, I killed Chevlin,” Sisay said. “Now, leave me alone. End the shadow plague!”
“I’m here to inform you that Chevlin is still alive, so your deal is now invalid.” ??? said.
“That’s impossible!” Sisay said. “I stabbed him multiple times, we even dragged him to the attic.”
“One of your friends saved him,” ??? said. “Who they are is none of your business, though.”
“You look familiar,” Sisay said. “It’s almost as if I’ve seen you before…”
“Alas, it is true,” ??? said. “Go ahead, guess who I am!”
“You’re… Mustache Man! From the desert, but…”
“It is a lot to take in,” ??? said. “You thought I was trying to help you went I lent my tractor, eh?”
“Why did you give us your tractor?” Sisay said. “It helped us stop Esper, it seemed like a nice deed you did.”
“I was trying to lead you into a trap,” ??? said. “You see, I had told Esper to start the shadow plague, and when I gave you my tractor, you were supposed to get right into his lair and get shadowed. Unfortunately, Esper got weak and gave up fairly easily. Now, I must get revenge on him…”
“Do you know why I got shadowed?” Sisay asked. “It seemed so sudden, I was coughing dark smoke before I got shadowed.”
“…I shadowed you,” ??? said. “Do you not remember the deal we made back then? You had declined it. You seemed to have forgotten about it.”
“I can’t believe you’d do such a thing!” Sisay said. “But… how did I turn back to normal?”
“I had decided to give you a second chance to accept my offer,” ??? said. “You accepted it this time around. Though, with him still being alive, I must punish you again.”
“No!” Sisay replied.
“Oh, don’t be so silly,” ??? said. “I’m not going to physically punish you, I’m going to mentally punish you! I will be sure to shadow the people you care about most.”
“Stop, leave them alone!” Sisay said. “They’ve done nothing wrong.”
“Your friends are trying to stop me. If anything, they should be executed.” ??? said.
“So what? Can’t you just get rid of Chevlin yourself?” Sisay asked. “You have all this fancy power, yet you can’t even do something as simple as killing.”
“His mind is strong,” ??? said. “He will not let me inside to torment him.”
“What’s your name anyway?” Sisay asked.
“Why yes, I should at least properly introduce myself,” ??? said. “My name is Kr-”
Sisay had suddenly gained consciousness. He was inside a peculiar lab that he did not recognize.
(Okay, let’s go back in time, we must explain why and how we got here.)
*Right after Magnus’s quote…*
Sisay got unconscious, so Severino carried him on his back. The crew continued walking down the dark hallway, being sure to do everything Magnus said to do. Eventually, they reached an obstacle.
It was a huge river, it was green and presumably made up of toxic waste and other nasty stuff.
“Ye better get th’ gas masks,’ Magnus said. “Here, all of ye can enjoy these beauties ‘till we get ‘cross the river.”
“Give a gas mask to Preslee too!” Noah said. “She’s still knocked out from Esper’s punch, it’s our only hope. It’s depressing having to carry her around on my back.”
“Sorry mate, all out,” Magnus said. “I wish her well, though.”
“Okay, so how the hell do we even cross the river?” Ella said. “I see nothing that could help us.”
While the crew was trying to figure out a way across, Severino discovered a note tucked in the corner.
“I was a loner, I was afraid. Then I met a person from beyond, he gave me a gift to protect myself, then I tried to leave. He did not take that too kindly, he left me to rot and convinced someone to start this plague. Now I am wandering without purpose, bringing part of this disease with me. Curse, you, K!”
- Anonymous
“Who could this be written by?” Severino thought to himself. “And who is ‘K’?”
Meanwhile…
“We could use the pipes to drain the water out,” Camp said. “But who knows how long that’ll take, we need a better plan.”
“Doesn’t Kitjo have magical powers?” Loko asked. “Maybe he could use his power of light to evaporate the river.”
“I don’t know,” Kitjo said. “I’ve used this power a lot to help you back at the snowy mountains, I may simply die if I use it again.”
Detective Bardon suddenly turned to Kitjo.
“I know how hard this is for you,” Detective Bardon said. “But life is all about taking risks, it’s to help the people around us.”
“You’re right,” Kitjo said. “Even though I may die from using my power, It’s for the better.”
Afterward, everyone started getting ready for the huge blast.
“Are you ready?” Erica called nervously.
“I was born ready,” Kitjo replied.
*KABOOM*
A huge explosion had suddenly taken place, entirely evaporating the river. Kitjo then collapsed on the ground, he had died.
‘Bravo young man,” Magnus said. “You’ve done us a huge favor.”
“…I-I’m i-injured,” Detective Bardon said. ‘I-I can bar-rely m-move…”
Everyone else emerged just fine, it seemed as if Detective Bardon had gotten too close to the blast.
“I’ll hold you on my back, Bardon,” Ayrna said. “I feel like I should pay you back for all the good deeds you did for me back when Mason was a threat. And guys, don’t ship me and Bardon, or you’ll seriously feel the negative effects.”
‘I hear chatter just beyond the path,” Esper said. “It’s time we confront them… it’s time we end this plague.”
Listen to ‘Confrontation’ when reading this section: https://www.indiesound.com/track/106051
Camp pushed the heavy door open, and they were finally inside. They were met with an interesting scene. It looked oddly like a mansion, with two staircases leading to another doorway, black walls with dark red flooring, and some lighting. There were weird symbols on the walls that the crew couldn’t make out.
“Well, well, well,” ??? said. “It seems as if you finally caught up. After all this time, I honestly expected it to take longer.”
“Where are my siblings?” Detective Bardon said. “I know you monsters trapped them somewhere in here.”
“I don’t know,” another man said. “We haven’t even seen them.”
“You take your funny business elsewhere,” ??? said. “I have no interest in fighting you people, I’d win by a landslide.”
“Why would you do such a thing to society?” Detective Bardon said. “You’ve destroyed the land of many, turned innocent people to some of your own.”
“When you’ve had such a bad past like me, it does nothing but influence the future,” ??? said. “There are a lot of things you don’t understand about the cruel world, and probably never will.”
Out of anger, Ella leaped at ???, but he used a dark forcefield to not only block her attack, but downright shadow her.
Ella walked over to Ayrna and hit her.
“OW,” Ayrna shouted. Nothing bad seemed to happen, though.
??? continued to talk.
“As I’ve said, there are many things you don’t understand.” ??? said.
The battle had just begun. Everyone then panicked. Some went up the two staircases, and some stayed behind with Camp.
“Hello, K,” Magnus said. “I’ve come to get my revenge on you, to bring justice to all.”
“We’ll have to see about that!” ??? said. “Lorgon! Attack!”
Then, someone looking similar to ??? used their power to try and shadow the group. Camp blocks the shot with his sword, and they start to duel. Eventually, after what seemed like a long time, Lorgon gave up. This gave Camp an advantage to stab Lorgon with his sword, and so he did.
“ACK!” Lorgon screamed. Soon after, he collapsed.
“ENOUGH!” ??? said. “Looks like I’ll have to deal with you myself.”
??? then decided to summon a giant orb of darkness, presumably made of shadow. Camp then decides to summon an orb of light using his magical sword.
The two orbs then collided with each other, and a HUGE explosion took place.
Listen to ‘Dust Settles’ when reading this section: https://www.indiesound.com/track/106052
When the smoke cleared, Camp was lucky to be alive. ??? seemed to have died from the impact.
“I know this is only temporary,” Camp whispered to himself. “One day, he’ll rise again. Causing even more destruction and grief, he’s just fueling up right now.”
Camp then decided to go up the staircase, which the rest of the crew already did.
“Hello, Camp,” Loko said. “We found this lab at the top of these staircases. We’re going to be looking for the cure here.”
“This is it…” Esper said. “We’ve reached the end, the end of a miserable era.”
Preslee suddenly woke up from her coma, the one that she got when Esper punched her in the Snowy Mountains.
“I remember everything,” Preslee said. It seemed as if Preslee could still see things in her coma, but not physically respond.
Suddenly, helicopters noises could be heard.
“What’s going on?” Weslyn asked. “Who’s coming?”
The helicopter crashed through the roof, just barely missing the crew. Not long after, someone familiar came out of it.
“I made it just in time!” Teapot said.
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE FINALE!
…
Thanks so much for reading! The finale will be coming next, and will unfortunately be the last HAOTW chapter.
I posted a BONUS HAOTW song here: https://www.indiesound.com/track/106053
Until next time!
