This is a weird one. It didn't end how I thought it would. And it isn't what I planned at all. So, it may or may not stand as part of whatever the hell this story is turning into. I dunno, but the imagery in my head while it was being written were... intense. So I had to roll with it.
"I'm telling you, I'm going to kill the bitch."
"Yeah, right. People have been trying to nail him for years, and he keeps dancing right out of it. Dude is untouchable. Hell, he'll fuck your shit up and not even be there when a fight starts. He's some kind of psychic or something."
"No way. Rebound has gone up against him, and nothing psy came off Eternus at all. If he's anything like that, it's passive, just seeing the future or something because he never pings at all, not to anyone.
"Fine, then how are you going to take him out? You're good in a scrap, and probably a better shot than he is, but you got nothing nobody else has thrown at them."
"I've been thinking about this shit. Whatever he does, he knows what you're gong to do before you do it. I been doing some intensive meditation shit. No-mind. Flow state. If I don't know what I'm going to do next, how can he?. Plus, I got me some Boost hidden in my cheek."
"You really are a fucking idiot. Boost mutates you permanent, and you can't predict ... Oh. I see what you're getting at. Won't work, but I don't think anyone has tried it yet. Not during a fight with him."
"Then how do you know it won't work, asshole?"
"Watch how you speak to me, or you might miss your own finale, Finale."
"Don't try to be witty, you don't have the brain for it. Besides, you called me an idiot first. Answer me. Why do you think it won't work?"
"Because he's fucking Eternus. He just fucking shows up, loaded with shit in his guns that is exactly what works. I think that's his power, no matter what he said on TV. He creates ammo. The rest is just hyper reflexes, or some kind of psychic shit, or maybe he slows time, I don't fucking know. But nobody can just have the exact perfect ammo for everything without a power making it."
"You think small, Titan."
"Har, fucking, har. Fine. Fifty bucks says you not only fail, but you spend the weekend recovering from bullet wounds in the fed lockup."
"You're on!"
Jesus fucking christ, I'm gonna be out fifty bucks. He's fucking walking, and I can't hit him. Time for the fucking Boost.
Oh damn. Oh, fuck me! Hell fucking yes! Fucker's standing still now!
Ow! It's like hitting a rock! Is time frozen? Shit yeah, the dust is just hanging.
Okay, okay, breathe into it. Only have one dose, don't waste it. Some kind of time freezing shit. Can't hurt him directly, let's set some shit up. Throw a rock, see what happens.
"What the fuck did you just do, Finale?"
What the fuck?! He's loose! Hit him! Holy fuck! He's down! I knocked Eternus the fuck out!
"That's right, motherfucker, I'm your finale this time!"
Ow! The fuck?!
"When did you get time powers Finale?"
There's two of him! Is that how he does his shit? Multiples?
"That's for you to die trying to figure out." Stab the fucker in the throat! Yeah! Bleed and die, bitch!
Aaaaaahhhhrrrgghhhhh!"
"You stabbed me in the throat you cheap fuck. That's your kidney stabbed. You keep fucking with me, I'm cutting your balls off before I kill you. Now, how the fuck are you doing this?"
Three of him! No! He's a time fucker! That's how he does his shit, he's a time fucker! Oh fuck, are people gonna shit bricks when I tell them about this!
"Fuck you Eternus, cheap ass time fucker. Ima kill your ass a dozen times before this shit runs out!" Cut the bitch! Ha! Three down! Finale for the motherfucking...
"Gaaaaghhh! my fucking balls! Ah, you fuck, you stabbed my fucking balls!"
"I told you. Now, you wanna tell me how the fuck you're doing this? You never showed this kind of power before. Low grade pyrotechnics, with the occasional flash of bigger bangs. Someone graft powers onto you?"
Fuck this asshole! Cut his fucking balls...
"My ass! You stabbed me in the asshole!" Two of him alive? What the fuck is this guy?
"Yeah, Finale, you really need to stop trying to kill us and answer the fucking question."
"I'll take that."
My knife! Three? Fuck! Four of him?!
"Okay, okay, it was Boost! Just stop stabbing me!"
"Are you fucking stupid? Do you know what Boost does to your genes? The cancer rate from a single use is worse than fifty years of smoking."
"What he said. Well, what I said. You're a moron Finale, but I never thought you were that stupid."
"Only way I could think to get you." Jesus, how many of him are there? They keep popping in!
"Well, you sure fucked up. Nobody else with time powers ever caused this. I think you're causing a loop that's making timelines fracture. Every me that would have been in your little bubble depending on how I died spawning in."
"That's what you do? You fucking die and come back?"
"Close enough. The real problem is what happens when your bubble ends. If it ends. You're bleeding, so some degree of time is passing for you. When the boost wears off you better fucking hope there's only one of me left."
"What now?"
"Well, Finale, the only reason you aren't dead already is that I, we, don't know what will happen if we kill you."
The fucker's looking around at himselves and they're all nodding. I am so fucked. Oh shit. They're all staring at me. What did they think of?
"Ah, Eternus, don't do anything crazy man. I'll go quiet, no more fighting, nothing. You can cuff me with a power dampener, it's cool man, I'm done."
"Yeah, Finale, you are. You know I can't let you live. You assholes seeing that interview was bad enough. No way can I let this get out."
"I won't say nothing man, nothing! Ever! I swear! Aaaaaarrrrrggghhhggglllgllugle..."
"No, you won't."
POP
"What the hell was that, Eternus?"
"General?"
"That storm around you and Finale. What the hell was that?"
"Not here. I'll explain later. We're still reeling, and we don't want anyone to hear."
"We? Who's we?"
"Me. We think it'll pass."
5 Comments
Vicinus@piefed.zip · 5 pts · 18d
Haha. I liked it. Thanks for sharing another chapter :)
ComicalMayhem@literature.cafe · 2 pts · 14d
Thanks again for sharing!
To my understanding, what happened was that because Finale decided to try randomness in order to beat Eternus, the result was numerous different timelines where things went differently, so a bunch of different versions of him from all those different universes spawned in the same area? And then they persisted? Not quite sure how I feel about that outcome just yet. Other than that, the writing is quite good as usual, and it's always nice to get more Eternus content.
MaelGuerra@literature.cafe · 1 pts · 14d
Well, Finale thought that by eliminating predictably that he could bypass Eternus' power. But he was so completely wrong about the power that, until he used a drug to up the stakes, Eternus was essentially yawning at him.
The "boost" gave Finale a random power boost. There's been things like that in comics a good bit, and to interesting effect, so I figured that somebody would eventually try something like that.
The power he got out of it was a time slowing ability.
That bubble of almost frozen time meant that Eternus couldn't actually recycle. Not until that bubble was gone. But because the inside was its own reality to an extent, every attempt to kill him just spawned a "new" him. Basically, every variation of him recycled at once, and at the instant the bubble started. Once started, the process went off the rails and possible versions of him were cycled in. One for every variant where Finale killed one of him, even if it didn't actually happen.
At least, that's where my head was going while I tried to wrangle what I was seeing in my head onto the screen. Sometimes the process of writing is work, craft, where I build words out of an idea and shape them into a story.
Then there's this kind of thing where an idea sorta takes over, and I'm getting flashes of things, images or bits of action. This kind can go off the rails because I'm usually struggling to get it out of my head before I lose the whole thing. It's like when you wake from an intense dream that's fading with every blink, and you want to remember it, but if you don't get it written down or told in time, it just fades into nothing.
I hope that's less confusing than it feels lol
ComicalMayhem@literature.cafe · 1 pts · 13d
Ah, that explains it. Certainly a direction. Do you plan on writing more? Curious to see where you take it.
MaelGuerra@literature.cafe · 2 pts · 13d
I do have a couple more ideas. They're kinda bubbling beneath the surface, waiting for the right time and headspace to work out.
It's enough to give a decent ending to it at least, with some bits in between.