Chapter Text
You had one mission: hop in, grab as much as you can, and hop out.
You've been low on food and desperately need money. You’ve been waiting for a new job for about a week, but no one has called your number. Your name used to be in the top 20 on the leaderboard, but ever since the incident with delivering a package, you’ve dropped down like a fly.
It wasn’t your fault that the traffic was terrible that day! Why was the time limit so short anyway? They expected you to make a two-day trip from one section of the galaxy to another in under 15 hours. Insane! Absolutely insane! You were furious about the news since that delivery could have earned you 100,000 pixels—enough to feed you for half a year! In fact, it might have even given you the chance to take a holiday.
Fortunately, you can still sell trinkets on the side. You're not really in the mood to deal with bounties right now, considering the risks of getting involved in a physical altercation. Sure, you can shoot like an average joe could, but your melee skills could use some work.
You just wanted to survive. Is that too hard to ask?
While traveling on your small ship, you asked around and eventually met a creature who shared information about the planet you were currently on. It explained that the planet had been abandoned, and only a few species now inhabited it. If you were fortunate enough to discover a good area, you might find some interesting trinkets.
Good, good! It's nice and all, but you didn't have all day. You only had so much energy, so you hoped that wherever you landed, it was worth a shot to look around.
Your eyes scan the dark rock below you, shoes scraping while you take your first steps into the cave you have found. You've walked for quite a while, already feeling the hunger pains in your gut while swiveling your head around the piles of rubble. You could make out some neon blue plants and leaves that grow along the cracks of the terrain around you, multiplying the deeper you walk in. The planet you've arrived on has various cool colors. Blue, purple, pink, black, any shade of those colors was what decorated this isolated planet you set foot on.
You started to question if it was worth going into this area, especially knowing that you may be one of the only people within this place. Was this planet filled with wildlife, or was this rocky terrain and blue flowers the only ones left here? The idea makes you shiver, imagining your species disappearing slowly, one by one until you were the only living, breathing thing left of its kind.
Shoot, maybe you're overthinking it, and you're just really really hungry right now! Yeah, you needed to focus on waving your little flashlight in your hands. If you start to think of deep stuff like that, especially when you're alone in a dark, damp cave, you're probably going to lose track of──.
A sudden, strong force pushed you to the side. It felt like someone had physically pushed you with cold hands, followed by an icy breeze. You flash the light to your right, trying to lock your shoes into the rough ground below to try to figure out what the hell that could be. There wasn't anything besides the sound of distant thumping right on the wall where you were looking at.
Cracks from the bottom of the wall squiggle, bend, and break apart like a tree branch, ending above your head. You could hear your heartbeat thump harshly against your chest as you held in a lungful of air. Did you hear something besides that thud?
It sounds like grunting, mixed with guttural growls. Wait, actually? The grunting is softer, but the growling is louder, animalistic.
You can't help but feel your own body scrunch up slightly from the distant noise. Shoulders slightly hunched up and your teeth grit. Shoot, is there something on the other side that's trying to come in? Whatever that thing is, it sounds angry that you're here. You tried your best to not assume, brushing the ”what if” questions to the side to focus on trying to turn around.
Shit, you really needed to find some trinkets, and looking inside this cave was probably not the best idea. What if that creature were to bust down the walls? What would it even do? Maybe it's hungry like you are──
You slapped your cheeks to snap out of the returning thoughts. Get it together! You need to keep looking. If you hear it again, then you should turn around. Its noises seemed to be distant as you continued to walk, finding yourself in an area where it looked to be a fork in the cave…?
Huh, you didn't think it would have directions like that. Kinda funny to think about. Maybe this area was inhabited by other creatures after all? You made your way to your right, still shining the light as you tried to keep an eye on piles of rubble. Some of them were big indigo chunks of rock that were chipped off from the wall, while others were violet. There was one white one, which caught your eyes for a moment, but seeing that it may be another rock, you guessed it wasn't that important──
Wait. That's not a rock, is it? You planted your shoes on the ground as you continued to hold the flashlight onto the object. Your knees bend as you lean forward, one hand on your hip while the other swirls the flashlight around the pearl colored…thing.
It looked chipped and had two holes, actually three. Two of them were round while one of them looked like someone caved it in with a sledgehammer. You could feel yourself growing uneasy as you decided to fully squat closer to the object.
A skull? What's this doing here? It reminds you of a species that you cannot remember the name of, something about having skulls and bones with flames. Its eye sockets weren't fully round; if anything, they looked… closed.
You had a moment to think about how easier it would be if you were to pick it up, but a section of your brain told you that it may not be a good idea. What if this was part of a real corpse? You didn't know how long this skull has been here.
Hmmm, but maybe this could be worth something too.
Weird, but sure. For you to know if it costs anything, you gotta scan it. You dug your fingers down, trying your best to be generous and lightly shift the ice-cold skull around. It was enough to see more details, to notice the unusually large jaw and strange aura surrounding it. It has a hue, the same color as what you'd see the word “atomic” could be. Bright green, and holding it lightly with one hand somehow gives your back an uncomfortable chill down your spine.
You mumbled under your breath about how creepy this all was before finally raising the device with your other hand. You had to tap it a few times with the side of your hip, knowing that the scanner you had at the moment was due for an upgrade. It flickered a lot and sometimes it took forever just to have it scan something. Jeez, whatever the price of this thing is, you hope it's enough to replace your scanner too!
“The fuck are you doing.”
The voice was laced with annoyance, and it sounded very close. Looking around, your eyebrows crease as you try to find the source of the voice. You take a look behind yourself, only being greeted with an infinity tunnel of neon blue flowers and dark blue rocks. You huffed out of your nose, staring for a few seconds, focusing back on your scanner. Maybe you're so hungry that you're having auditory hallucinations. It sounds funny to think about, and you can't help but give a little giggle about it.
“Hey! Dickhead! I'm talking to YOU!”.
Booming now, enough to echo the very section of the cave you were in, Your eyes immediately dart back to the skull. You didn't expect to have heard of it but…
Oh, it's emoting, moving his jaw around as his eyebrow line curls down to a scowl.
Wait.
Oh Trinity, it's ALIVE.
You let out a sudden yelp as you fumbled the skull in your hands, eyes wide and leaning your upper torso as far from the thing as possible── shoot! Don't drop it! You don't want to accidentally let the skull shatter into pieces, so your grip remains. There was a flash of something green, it erupted from the biggest hole in the skull and developed a shape similar to a Mohawk. Or was it a pompadour?
The skull in your hands lets out a relaxing sigh, smirking and looking up with its triangular line pupils, “That's more like it.”
You finally broke out of your startled state, stammering, “How are you moving?”
The head gave a quick, “Huh?” and looked at you as if you had said two plus two equaled fifteen, “I'm osteon, you dumbass! You're telling me you've been digging around this cave and you've never heard of ‘em before?”
Ohhh, that adds up. You have never met the species in person, but you've seen them during your travels. It completely crossed your mind that there were living skeletal creatures out there. Maybe you were just so used to seeing flesh and blood, it was hard to remember. Jeez, you really need to be more careful, you almost sold this poor guy.
You apologized, now comfortable enough to hold the skull closer to your body. You saw the flickering flames bend and weave, trying your best not to have them touch your hair or clothes. Just holding this head makes you feel like you're right next to a campfire.
“So, if you're osteon,” you dragged your eyes around, lifting the skull into the air for a moment as you looked at the rubble below, “then where is your body?”
“Grrrah.” The head grunts out, rolling his eyes. His annoyed expression is still there, but there's some softness to his eyes, “Fuckin’ was fighting some damn thing and woke up here.”
He sounded embarrassed to deliver that. What's he so mad about? Whatever it was, it could be something big.
Oh.
“There's more than just us here? In this cave?” Your eyes went round at the thought of that, staring down at the other, “Shoot, you have to be joking, right? How dangerous is it? How far is it?”
Yeah, maybe it is a good idea to leave this shitty planet. It sounds like a great idea. You just hope you can retrace your steps before whatever-the-hell thing could find you.
“I have no fuckin' clue, you think I'd know where it could be? If I did, I wouldn't be here, now would I!”, the skull hollered, which caused the sage flames to burst, equal to the osteon's frustration.
“Alright, alright!” you flinched from the sudden yelling. The cave echoed with the screams, bouncing off and making your skin develop goosebumps. You noticed that the flames from the osteon 's skull has been illuminating the area, way more than your little dumb flashlight. This guy could be your temporary light for now.
You bend down to gently set him on the ground as you shoved your belongings into a sack. He seemed a little pissed about that, stuttering, “What── Oi! The fuck do you think you're goin’!”
“Taking you with me,” you were annoyed with his gravely, obnoxious tone, focusing on adjusting the other objects in your bag, “We're gonna find your body, just hush and don't make too much noise. This cave is really echoey, and we gotta keep it down if we don't wanna get caught.”
You turn your eyes up, speaking in a monotone voice, “Unless you wanna get your ass kicked by it again?”
There's a soft “eep” that escaped from the skull, which you didn't really expect. Is this guy all bark and no bite? His eyes were round, swirling over to the side as he gave out a weak chuckle, “No no no! Please! Let me come!”
You replied with a hum as you zipped up the backpack, hoisting it around. You knew that this walk was gonna be a while. Maybe you could take a trip back to your ship with the osteon’s skull and come up with a plan. His body can't be that far from here right?
You heard a familiar roar, this time it didn't sound like it was too far.
It definitely wasn't behind a wall either.
You scooped the head into your arms, running to the opposite direction of the sound.
“Shit! We gotta go!”
This osteon better get used to being held like this, you're gonna be running for a while.