Chaos and Paranoia (1/1) (Snow)

[Midna]

"No!"

Callie sat straight up, gasping for breath. What, what had just happened?! The last thing she remembered was running. She was late, late to a meeting with someone... Who? She didn't remember. How could she not remember? It was important, she knew that.

Then there had been pain and screams, then nothing. And now this. Where was she?

Callie looked around, eyes wide. She was sitting on a curb, partially in the street. Well, at least she knew this place. She was about two blocks from the cafe, pretty close to an intersection. People were walking by, chatting amiably with each other and not paying any attention to her. It was like a normal day, like nothing had happened. But something had.

There was something in her lap. She looked down to see her purse, still shut. It looked like someone had dumped soda on it though. With a groan because now she'd have to clean it or replace it, she moved on to the other things. There were a couple of small pins. One was black with a white skull, the other had what looked like sparkles and graffiti on it. She'd never seen them before in her life, but she kept them anyway. Might as well. Lastly there was her phone. She pressed a button, and it lit up, showing a new message.

"Hello my dear players! While you don't know me yet, I plan on know you very well by the end of this week… if you survive. Mission for today, kill three noise somewhere in the UG. Fail, and face eraser. -M"

Was it spam? She didn't know, but Callie had a bad feeling about this. Whatever had happened, it had hurt. But she didn't have any injuries, and she felt fine. She stuck the pins on the bottom of her shirt and stood up. Maybe if she went to the cafe, whoever she'd been meeting would tell her? If they were still there that is.

That's when she heard it. Static behind her, and ribbits. It sounded like, frogs? She turned around, and spotted giant frogs with weird coloring and marks that looked like tattoos running towards her. Callie let out a startled cry and took a step back. What were those things?! They shouldn't exist! And they were moving straight towards her!

Why did nobody else seem to care that they were there?

She had to find shelter. And someone who could tell her what was going on! Callie spun around and ran, looking for anyone who saw them or locked eyes with her. "Somebody help! Please!"

[Snow]

Blayze gasped and suddenly shot forward, running on instinct like he'd been taught to do and had done many times before. But he wasn't in his house anymore. Where...? He remembered an ambush, and then... he was here. On the ground, in the middle of the street, without anyone paying attention.

There were two pins next to him. Trends like those made the young adult want to vomit. Kids these days. One pin was black with a white skull, and he pinned it to the inside of his army jacket. The other had what looked like the head of an angry, grey man with yellow eyes and blue and gold streamers coming from the man's head like hair. He pinned that to the outside of his jacket, right on his white collar, though he had no idea why he would. It looked cool, at least.

His phone beeped and he groaned, expecting an ache as he moved. But there was no ache. Contemplating and then deciding to ignore the strangeness, he read the message that had appeared on his phone.

"Hello my dear players! While you don't know me yet, I plan on know you very well by the end of this week… if you survive. Mission for today, kill three noise somewhere in the UG. Fail, and face eraser. -M"

He scoffed, deleting the message. What spam. He moved to put his phone away, but the message came back. What the hell was this? A virus? A static-y noise and what sounded like ribbits appeared behind him, and he choked on his own breath. These were not frogs.

Without even screaming, he began to slowly back away from the things. Army training was really paying off. He wanted to attack the things, he really did, and so when they noticed him he tried to attack them. All that happened was that he got hurt, because he couldn't touch them.

"Hey, what gives?" he grunted, jumping out of the way. And then he heard the voice.

"Somebody help! Please!" A girl? Glaring at the frogs to let them know that this wasn't over, Blayze "Shrike" Forrest whipped around and went running for the girl. He had been taught to help anyone in need, and this girl definitely sounded like she needed help. Maybe she was getting mugged?

"Hey!" he shouted, unable to see her. "Come on, I can't see you! Where are you?!"

[Midna]

Callie heard a voice, a man's voice she thought, and she turned direction to run towards him. "Over here and coming towards you!" Oh thank god, maybe he'd be able to help her! She turned a corner and stopped as she saw him, and the frogs following him. "More frogs! What's going on?"

Her ears picked up the sound of the frogs who'd been chasing her. They were getting closer, she glanced over her shoulder, biting her lip. She couldn't stay here for long or they'd catch her.

[Snow]

He skidded to a stop beside her, growling. "I don't know. You can't touch those things, I tried to fight them." Blayze glanced down at the Pin on his collar. "Maybe it has something to do with these pins. Did you wake up with pins too?"

The frogs were getting closer; he growled under his breath. They didn't have enough time...

[Midna]

By now her mind had switched from panic mode into its regular determined mindset. There had to be some way to defeat these things. She could do this. She had to, or she'd never get back to...

Someone.

"Maybe the pins could help us fight them? We should attack them at the same time. Work together. Yeah, I did." She touched the pins on her shirt and turned slightly to face the Noise.

[Snow]

Blayze nodded slowly, facing the other way. "Work together. Got it." His black pin with the white skull glowed briefly, but that didn't matter to him at the moment.

Fight, his instincts screamed. Kill.

So he did. Without thinking about it, he touched his pin and sent a wave of fire towards the frogs closest to him, burning them... well, not "alive", right?

But who was keeping track, anyway?

[Midna]

Callie felt the white skull pin grow warm under her hand, and she pulled it away to see that it was glowing blue. Then the light faded. She knew something had changed though. Hoping this strange guy would be able to take care of his own frogs, she faced the ones who had followed her. Almost automatically, she touched her pin and focused her eyes on them.

A large meteor slammed into one of the frogs, and it fell over, squirming on the ground. Then another hit it, and it fizzled out of existence.

She didn't have time to stop and think about what had just happened. Another frog was approaching. It jumped at her and she took a step back. Most of the other frogs were fleeing though, she noticed. This was the only one who had stayed to attack her. Maybe the others were fleeing as well?

[Snow]

The frogs fighting Blayze would have run away if they could. As it was, two escaped, but the third had been completely obliterated. Now wary of the girl, he spun to face her, eyes narrowed.

"Who are you?" he growled, his paranoia taking over. What if she attacked him? Well, he reasoned, he could fight back and destroy her. While he wasn't usually this merciless, something had changed about him. He was prepared to show nothing but blank indifference, maybe rage, if she tried to hurt him.

Being in the military wasn't all fun and games.

[Midna]

Callie heard the growl, but she couldn't respond just yet. A meteor smashed the leaping frog to the ground, and there was static as it ceased to exist. She was panting, both exhilarated and stunned from the fight. Callie still had no idea what was going on, but at least no more frogs were coming at them. It was just them, surrounded by people. People who were ignoring them and walking right through them at the same time.

Turning to face her ally, she crossed her arms, a frown making its way onto her face. "No need to get so defensive. I'm Callie, Callie Blackthorn. I'm also confused and very late for a meeting with someone important to me." If only she could remember who they were, or why they were important.

[Snow]

"..." Blayze narrowed his eyes. "Blayze. Blayze Forrest. You can call me Shrike if you want to. As for that meeting... considering that people don't seem to see or hear us, I daresay that meeting isn't very important anymore." Blayze frowned, starign at the ground. "In fact, I remember getting shot with a bullet before waking up here, but I don't have any wounds on me."

The ex-veteran grabbed at the pin on his jacket and stared at it, red eyes narrowed. What was this place? It looked like Metro City but everything was different. And the powers this pin had held... Had he died? Or was this all just a weird dream?

[Midna]

Callie bit her lip, and looked around again. He seemed to be right. Nobody else seemed to see them, and nobody else had panicked because of the frogs. But why were they here? Why was this all happening?

When Shrike, as she decided to call him, mentioned getting shot, she looked over at him as something clicked in her head. "I think... I got hit by a car." Were they dead now? Was that why they were here? She didn't feel like a ghost. "I hope we can get back to normal, somehow," she said quietly.

Complete!