Punishments, Breakouts, and Freedom

The Pocket Dimension inside John’s bike

This mortal had the audacity to contain him inside some sort of pocket space and then forget about him?

N'Ti'Inon'En would not stand for this! He would plague the dreams of this mortal once he broke free of this cell!

As luck would have it, the boy seemingly thwarted his own plans by placing the pocket space inside another pocket space, inside another space with temporal anomalies, making it easy for N'Ti'Inon'En to break free of the containment. Now the sloth that isn’t a sloth was lying on the floor inside a darkened room illuminated by a soft blue from lights hidden in the floor.

There was something about this place that was nourishing to the eldritch creature. The air was saturated with magic, the magic of that boy, but magic nonetheless. N'Ti'Inon'En could probably survive in here on just the smallest of magic sources.

Slowly crawling towards the only thing in the room that looked like a door, N'Ti'Inon'En once again cursed his body for being stuck in this material form, stuck between a sloth and a squid. His illusion made him appear fully sloth, but in reality, his lower part was more like a large squid with eight tentacles. Sadly, these tentacles didn’t increase his speed though, so it took him a while until he reached the door, which was openable from his side.

Outside was a staircase, just as dark as the room. Knowing how these mortal humans usually lived, they preferred to live on the surface, so he was likely to find his target up the stairs. Navigating up the steps with his small body was difficult, but nothing was impossible for a lesser eldritch being… emphasis on the lesser…

It was hard to be powerless as an eldritch being that was reliant on absorbing mana through the area and whose only capabilities were to hypnotize creatures and use lesser illusions. But that didn’t stop N'Ti'Inon'En from being ambitious, trying to gain more powers from creatures with greater mana. His biggest ‘catch’ yet was that female with the wings, and he would have been able to grow in power by simply hanging around her for a longer time.

That bosom was also nice. A very good cushion fitting for a being like him.

Finally reaching the top of the stairs, the sloth found himself in a structure akin to the housing of the female mortal, with the exception of being a lot cleaner and polished. N'Ti'Inon'En could also see some form of bedding in the middle of an adjacent room, and on that bedding was the foolish mortal!

But he was protected… Protected by two dragons no less! Now, these two would surely be no match for an eldritch being, but with the strain of breaking out of that small dimension, this was not a fight that the Calamity wanted to fight right now…

He would bide his time, preparing for another strike soon! He would lie in wait, gather power from the surroundings and absorb more magic!

But where to hide…

Through a transparent plane on one of the walls of this structure, N'Ti'Inon'En could see a tree, and he could immediately feel the magic in that tree.

Not only in that tree, but in the fruits of that tree, hanging there, ripe for him to consume them.

Yes! That would be the spot where he would patiently wait for the right time!

But how to get out there…

On the other side of the big room, there was another one of those doors, leading outside. Crossing the room meant sneaking past the mortal and his dragons though…

No turning back now!

Crawling with the utmost silence, the sloth made it most of the way towards the door before one of the dragons, the smaller one laying by the side, started to roll around. Freezing in place, the sloth remained still until he was sure that the dragon wasn’t going to attack him. The remaining distance was quickly crossed, and the door was just as easily opened.

Outside, N'Ti'Inon'En moved a bit quicker to get to the tree. He could see something move in the corner of his eye, making him freeze once again. This time it was a small spherical contraption floating in the air, flying away from the sloth. It didn’t seem to have noticed him.

Quickly moving to the tree, he hid inside the canopy, near one of the fruits, a lush pink colored one shaped like the bosom of the female mortal. The thought about that nice cushion brought envy to his mind and only strengthened his desire to take **** on the mortal that had trapped him.

Securing himself on a branch with his tentacles, N'Ti'Inon'En took the nearby fruit and started to munch on it. It was sweet, very much so, but it was also filled with immense magic! This would do nicely.

While the sloth was still munching on the fruit, he felt the exhaustion of the breakout wash over him, slowly dragging his body into sleep. His claws and tentacles wrapped around the branch while his body hung down below, making sure he was hidden in the green of the tree.

That mortal would never find him, not until it was too late!

---

Unknown location beneath Springfield

Victor was sitting on a modern leather couch, reading a tablet in his hands intently. The opened file detailed the process of some of his projects, which were coming along nicely. Some of them would likely be ready for practical testing soon enough.

Speaking of practical testing, James, his son, broke through the nearby door into the room. His body was thin, his clothes were roughed up with big holes inside them and stained crimson. His face looked like he was starving.

“What happened? Where is the girl? Why do you look like that?”

James didn’t seem too happy being interrogated in this manner, “Well, I just had the worst fucking night I could have had. First, a nosy shitface from school found out about the Barrier and decided to investigate it with some of his friends. Then your fucking little toy decided to go balls-to-the-walls crazy and almost stabbed me through the heart! Having barely survived that, I tried to feed off the two meatbags I had in the basement there, but the shitface interrupted me again. I then told him to fuck himself, bailed out, and then made a run for it. So yeah, a lot of shit happened, fuck knows where the girl is and I don’t care, and I look like this because your fucking ‘experiment’ tried to shish-kebab me!” James was talking like a waterfall there, barely pausing for any word, mixing them together in his anger and agitation.

Taking a deep breath, Victor looked at the ‘boy’ with a stern look, “Now, I’m going to ignore your comments about my newest experiment, and you’re going to explain what happened again, slower this time.”

Breathing through his teeth, James tried very hard to keep his composure.

“Okay, from the beginning. You know I had the Barrier set up in school?”

Going back to reading on his tablet, Victor just rolled his eyes, “Of course, I created it, don’t ask stupid questions like that.”

“Well, do you also remember how you said that no one would be able to find it?”

“Yes. No one that isn’t specialized in detecting Barriers or has specialized equipment will ever be able to find it.”

“Then I hit the fucking jackpot! Because this little shitstain of an adolescent boy was able to find it and enter it!” James was almost screaming that sentence.

Victor perked up at that. “What was the name of that boy?”

“John something… I think it was Newman.”

The older man almost dropped his tablet as he heard that name. “…You’re joking.”

“Why would I? What’s the big deal about that name?”

“John Newman? Are you one hundred percent certain that his name was John Newman?” He needed to be sure that it was actually John Newman.

“No, I’m not! I went to school with him for two days, he just introduced himself to me by first name! I think I heard his name when that bully tried to beat me up.”

“So there’s a possibility that his name is not Newman?”

“I don’t fucking know! What does it matter anyway?!?”

“If his name is actually Newman… I need to confirm this myself later. Go on with your story.” This would require some research later…

“Okay, then don’t tell me what’s so important that, fuck you too...”

Something invisible hit James to the ground while Victor was pacing up and down the room by now. “Watch your language.”

Coughing up some blood on the floor, James rose to one knee while saying, “Yeah, yeah. Anyway, the fucker found my Barrier, and I found him, beat him up pretty badly until your fucking chick decided to turn against me!”

That stopped Victor in his tracks, looking at James. “Impossible, she should protect anyone of my blood… unless…” Would it actually see James as his blood? Was the connection strong enough? Or… was it something different?

“What are you on about?”

Brought back from his thoughts, Victor just waved his hands dismissively, “None of your concern. Continue.”

“Well, she shot a spike into my chest, almost piercing my heart. Then she apparently decided to go apeshit on John, and that was the last I had seen of her.”

“What do you mean ‘last seen of her’? Where is she?” He could feel the annoyance rise in him. Did James fuck up this much?

“I don’t fucking know, okay? I didn’t bother with that bitch after she stabbed me.”

Extremely annoyed by now, Victor threw his tablet at James, hitting him on the head. “She was an important part of my experiments, and you just lost her, potentially into the hands of an enemy! Time to clean up your mess… I need to find another one… An interesting girl she was. Interesting ability…”

A rune started to glow on the underside of Victor’s arm before fading away.

“That should do it. No traceable connection to me, and it takes her out… Now, how about you finish that story. You wanted to feed, and then this John, potentially Newman, interrupted you. How did you get out?”

“Threatened him with the bracelet.”

“…What?” His annoyance was quickly transforming into actual anger, an emotion he had not felt for a long time by now.

“I threatened him with the bracelet. Threatened to blow up him and his girlfriends up, metaphorically.”

“And then you just let them go?!” That bracelet was not supposed to be used as a bargaining chip but as a trap to take out powerful enemies. He had told James that much…

“Well… yeah, I needed to get out. No use in suicide bombing this fucking schoolboy.”

“Are you even aware how much you have fucked up tonight?!? Not only did you let one of my valuable experiments go to waste that I entrusted with you, but you also revealed information about yourself, about your gadgets, and then decided to run over here to me?!? If that boy was able to find the Barrier, what makes you think that he isn’t able to track you here???”

“Because… he’s a weak ass bitch?”

A weak excuse, especially considering how much problems this kid actually gave him obviously. “I have taught you better than this! Where are the bodies of those two you had in storage?”

“I… left them with him.”

“And when I just thought you couldn’t disappoint me more! Now he will surely be able to find you, you fucking idiot! Now I have to clean up even more!” This was the final straw. Victor was not someone that dealt with failure lightly, and James had just failed miserably.

“What do you mean… clean up?” James was now getting pale, feeling the impact of his actions on his father. If this was something that pissed off Father this much, then it was serious…

“You’re a liability now; you have potentially compromised this location. You have basically thrown away one of my test subjects, exposing me to an unknown party, and risked exposing my plan to the world just so that you could wave your dick in the face of some eighteen-year-old boy. Are you really this stupid? You’re of no use to me anymore, it’s a risk to keep you around like you are. But I have other uses for you, something that you can’t fail.”

Another rune glowed on Victor’s body, this time on one of his fingers. At the same time, an identical rune glowed on James’ forehead, making him scream in agony before falling on to his knees with a dead look on his face. He didn’t move, his eyes were empty as if no thought was going through his head.

“I was going to be lenient with you because you are my son, but the magnitude of your failure is too much to overlook. If you can’t properly think for yourself, then I will do it for you. Now stand up.”

Almost mechanically, James rose to his feet, standing rigid, eyes fixed on Victor.

“However, you have potentially given me something even greater than you can imagine, so I will reward you in a way. You will become one of the Dogs, you will serve me how I want it. Without backtalk. Now go, leave my sight, talk with One to get your position.”

The seemingly brain dead vampire walked off, disappearing in the shadows of the room.

Victor picked up the cracked tablet from the ground.

“Now, let’s see if I can find anything about you, John Newman.”

Opening the Abyss Auction, he quickly found something that piqued his interest.

An advertisement from the Fateweavers proclaiming a new kind of service in the area of Springfield, one-of-a-kind.

Would the boy actually follow in his steps? This required more research, but this was proving to be a promising night.

---

Depths of the Nexus, Chamber of Bonding

Not much had changed in this room since John had been down here the last time. The room was still a circular with a high ceiling and big, flat crystals in the walls. But since last time, a lot more of the crystals had lit up and were showing the shapes of the people John had bonded with. Brun, Astrid, Aloy, Kim, Kaen.

The room was silent. Well, almost silent aside from a low humming sound coming from one of the archways leading off from the room into the catacombs beneath the island. At the end of that trail was a smaller room, filled by only one item: a big machine with a human-sized chamber of some sort on top of a lot of machinery. No displays indicated what the machine was for or what it was doing.

From the terminal upstairs, Sarai patiently waited as the machine she had just built was starting to create her dream.

Soon, it would be ready.

“Do you think this is a wise idea?” asked a deep voice in her internal communication system. It was the spirit of the Nexus, speaking to her. This was the first time she had heard them since Master Alric had left them.

“Yes, it is the least I can do. The former master left these plans with me; he told me what to do with them. It was his last wish. I will fulfill it,” answered Sarai internally, making sure John would not be disturbed in his sleep. Her focus was entirely turned inside; there was no need to check on the drones. Nothing would be awake right now.

“His wish was for you to be happy, do you think this will bring happiness to you?”

“Yes.”

“You know the pact I, we, have made with John Newman. Please respect it.”

She would respect that pact.

There would be no fight in the Nexus.

END OF ARC 1

[Well, now that was some ending there, wasn’t it? :D It’s been almost 9 months now since I started this arc and boy howdy this took way too long… Anyway, this is the end of the first Arc Blood is thicker than water. I think it’s obvious why I called it that :P Not only are there several themes of actual blood, bonding, and humanity in there, but also a somewhat prevalent running theme of family. The strong family of the Gjoskenholm and their relationship with their lost daughter/sister, the mystery around John’s family, the missing of Kaen’s family, and of course the growth of John’s personal family.
This arc will probably be the biggest arc that I will do for a while, in the future I’ll try to pick up the pace a bit, shorten the days a bit now that John is out of school and in the world of the ‘workforce’. The Fateweaver position will be a lot of fun, introducing John to a lot of different people, forcing him to create ever-changing Barriers and deal with any perils that come with them. And hey, maybe he will find the time to deal with the mystery that is the guy running around and **** girls (or several people, who knows).
Anyway, I want to thank everyone again who read up to this point :) Now on with the next Arc called The Ripples of the Past]