Chapter Text
Charlie has his automatic pistol drawn, his eyes squinted and his sights firmly aimed on the Shadowcaster’s mouth. He powers through the piercing gazes the eyes have fixed onto him, squeezing the trigger despite the odds. However, someone blows him away with a shot to the abdomen.
The shot has much more power than a bullet should have, blasting him across the tiled ground and causing him to drop his prized newfangled sidearm off the void. At least it didn’t leave a gaping bullet wound.
He grabs the edge of the strange tile flooring in a last ditch attempt to keep himself from falling into the endless abyss, but his knuckles are cracked and his grip falters, causing him to plunge into the deep.
A silver lining to this is that not long after, he sees his firearm not too far below him. He reaches out, grabbing his pistol and safely placing it into his inventory where it hopefully won’t fall into another endless abyss.
Well, what now? He’s endlessly falling through a grey and black void, awaiting a rescue that may not ever come if his allies fail without him. Hope begins to run dry as-
Wait.
Did you smell that?
Charlie cranes his head in confusion, reorienting himself, taking another whiff of the scent he could have swore was an illusion.
But no, it was clear as day. It smelled like.. burnt cheese and evil? Did evil have a smell? Whatever it was, it sure reminded him of the shadow pockets he spent hours of his time closing up. Either someone burnt a grilled cheese sandwich unimaginably horribly, or that something weird was going on under the battlefield.
Having nothing better to do with his time, he attempts to ‘swim’ through the air, albeit making very little progress.
It’ll take him a while to get there.
Lues clenches her fists as she watches the ‘president’ continue with the fruitless endeavour of activating the portal. She steadily approaches with a haunting and power hungry thought in her mind, but her steps are unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you ask,) interrupted by someone ploughing into her, knocking her straight off the edge with no opportunity to grasp and save herself.
She takes a brief glimpse at her assailant before falling out of view, seeing a woman with long black hair and the same cursed fedora she had worn for the past 6 days. She seems familiar.
Actually, she’s not just familiar. It’s literally herself!
Well, that doesn’t really matter anymore, does it? She’s falling through the same endless and incredibly boring grey and black void-
She’d suddenly glance around. Where was that smell coming from? Her hair fluttered as air rushed past it, and the stench of burnt cheese only got more and more intense before she realises the source of the stench is coming right at her. Lues shifts herself upright as she attempts to get her shadow boots working to avoid the stinky projectile from colliding with her, only for something rocket-like to whizz past her head, mere centimetres from a collision.
The smell fades a little as the rocket flies off into the distance, but never fully dissipates.
When she turns back to face forwards, Lues comes face to face with a short-haired, blonde woman.
Uh oh.
“P- please, I’m telling you! I’ll- I will do anything, okay? Just please stop Margare- the woman at the controls!” Kirstie’s pleas fall on deaf ears. Or eyes, considering the thing she’s talking to is simply just a mass of eyes and mouths. The Shadowcaster just ignores her, its eyes giving her a literal armour-piercing stare.
A voice breaks the silence formed after her begs towards the Shadowcaster.
“Hey, hey. Turn around. Just.. turn around.”
That’s.. her voice.
She initially thought it was coming from the Shadowcaster as a form of mockery, before realising it was coming from behind her. Doing as she was told, she turns around to see a woman with short blonde hair and a worried expression.
Her blood froze. She was staring at herself. The woman was pointing the same wand she had thought she’d never use in combat at her. “You need to walk off the edge. This- this is important.” The copy’s mannerisms were also scarily identical.
Kirstie, knowing the extent of her abilities and how things would turn out for her if they were used against her, complied with the copy’s demands, backing away one step at a time.
Eventually, her feet wouldn’t land on solid ground, and she fell down into the void.
She is now falling through the admittedly unnerving grey and black void, with nothing-
She smells something familiar, a scent associated with the shadow rifts, shadow pockets, shadow food, everything shadow-related. Having nowhere else to go, she’d summon a small cheese rocket with a flick of her wrist to propel herself across the void towards the source of the smell.
Lues and Kirstie stare at each other in the void for a good half-minute, both confused at the thought that somehow, someone else was falling through the void with them.
“Who are-” Kirstie’s question is immediately interrupted by Lues’ own question, being:
“Who the hell are you? ”
“Uh-” Kirstie pauses, being caught off-guard by the sudden interruption.
“My name’s Kirstie Carys. The reason why I’m here is because I need to stop the president from ending the world- I mean, summoning the Shadowcaster into the world, and also to find and save my aunt.”
Lues stares at Kirstie, dumbfounded.
“What president? You mean that Margaret?”
“Y- yeah?”
“..How?” Lues hadn't seen this woman before, never in her journey towards government valley, and definitely not during her confrontation with the president. Judging from how long it took for Kirstie to get here, the president would have already activated the portal.
“What? What do you-”
“I mean it as in, how did you even encounter her? She was and probably still is right above me, and you just swoop in from possibly miles away and then claim that you also saw her?”
“But I did, though!”
She'd mumble something rude under her breath. “Well, ookay, if you did see the damn president from so far away then how about you try and prove it! Go ahead and describe her for our dear old Lues right he-”
Lues would be interrupted with a “ HEEY! OVER ‘ERE! ” coming from behind her. She turns her head, gazing towards the source of the voice and seeing yet another person falling through the void like her. The man was wearing a fedora not too unlike her own, although coloured white instead of black. The man was quickly waving, and attempting to swim through the air with very little efficiency.
“Will you gals stop bickerin’ and look down for once!?” He shouts, frantically gesturing below him. Lues looks down to find an actual floor to the not-so-endless void. This would be somewhat good, if they weren’t falling down to it at terminal velocity.
Lues, thinking fast, quickly orients herself upright. She attempts to get her shadow boots working again , intending to use them to cushion her fall down onto the hard surface. Something is emitted out of her boots, allowing her to slow her fall to a safe speed.
“Wha- WAIT! What about me here?!” The man yells towards Lues—now above him. He had no way of safely slowing himself down and was understandably, very panicked about this. Kirstie on the other hand, grabbed her crescent wand in her right arm and extended her left towards the man, shouting.
“Hold- grab my hand! Just- just trust me!”
With no way of saving himself on his own, the man reaches over and grabs Kirstie’s hand after a couple of attempts. She tightens her grip onto the man, then looks up. “Mozzembrella!” With a wave of her wrench- I mean wand, a large and cheesy parachute-like formation manifests and attaches itself to her wand, letting air resistance do all the legwork. The both of them slow down to a safe speed.
“Holy-” The man takes a moment to catch his breath. “Holy shit.”
Kirstie glances downwards to the man and the slowly-approaching floor below. “Are you okay?”
“I- yeah. ‘M doing just fine.”
Kirstie doesn’t respond, awkwardly looking up and down every once in a while.
“It’s Charlie Flint, by the by.” Charlie breaks the silence. “Who was that girl that emitted some kind o’ shadow gas out of ‘er shoes?”
“I honestly don’t know.”