Unfortunate: Upside Down/Part Two

story
Mercy watched Lee hammer metal plating into shapes with a hammer, similar to a medieval blacksmith working on a weapon. In the past few hours, he'd placed tires on rims and begun work on a small engine. She'd ask him what he was doing, but it was pretty clear; he was building that motorcycle that occupied his thoughts.

"So... Uh, what do you do in your spare time?" Lee asked, breaking Mercy out of her silent observation of him.

"Spare time? I do not believe I understand…"

The Flynx stood up, setting the engine onto a frame and screwing it on. "When you aren't off helping people save their home or something."

Mercy blinked in confusion. "I… I've never had any."

"All you do is help people?" He responded, titling his head.

"Isn't that all you do?" She replied.

He held a finger up, putting it down after a second. "Touche."

Mercy went back to watching him.

He… really had changed. The way he carried himself, the significantly less stuttering; even the way he looked: this wasn’t the same teen who had fought Onyx. Time was strange that way, so much could happen and change in such a short time, and there wasn’t any way to predict it. Mercy even noticed changes in herself, up until two years ago, she was part of a very normal girl. Now, she was getting ready to assist someone in saving the world.

“Hey.” Lee said, waving to get her attention. “Just letting you know I’ll be ready soon. My bike’s fueling up, I just need a helmet.”

“That was… quick…” Mercy responded.

“Yeah, it was. Miscaculated the time I’d need; I still need to go talk to someone first.” The Flynx said, typing some things into a computer that was hooked up to several machines. When he finished typing, the machine to the left of him (which was holding a small glass container) began to whir. It filled the glass container with a light gray substance that moved and wriggled like a liquid. Lee picked up the glass container and set it next to the bike.

“Wait here, I'll be right back.” He told Mercy, walking out of the lab.

Back at home, Lee knocked on his brother’s door. “Hey, Link… you in there?”

"Come on in..." Link said from the other side of the door, followed up by some quick thuds and an angry shout.

Pushing the door open, Lee looked over at his brother. His scarf, gloves and boots were strewn about on the floor, while Link himself was in the back corner of the room. He was beating on a punching bag, but something was different about him. Link's stance was off, and his attacks seemed more furious than usual. In addition to this, there was a few cracks in the wall behind the bag.

"Um... are you ok?" Lee asked, taking in the view.

"I'm fine." Link growled. "What do you want."

"I wanted to tell you something, but I don't think it's the best time after all..."

Link turned, balling his hands into fists. "Spit. It. Out."

Lee shuddered. "I... I'm going to find something, and I don't know when I'll get back..."

"...even you, huh?" Link muttered, turning to the punching bag.

"...what?" Link's brother asked, at the same time as the bag exploded from impact and left bits of the contents all over the room.

Link didn't respond, just flopped onto his bed. Lee took this as a sign for him to leave.

Mercy was looking at some pictures Lee had in his lab, taken years or months apart. There was one of him and Lumi, obviously very old. Another had Lee, Link and Amber, and a more recent one featured the three from before, along with Cassie, Dee and Forge.

"You really do have a reason to fight, don't you." She smiled, setting it back down.

Mercy spun around, suddenly sensing a... Mind? It didn't feel right; less like a normal person's mind and more like... Amber..? She stepped back, the sheer strength of the mind's emotions shocking her. It felt like love, but corrupted somehow, resembling psychotic obsession. Mercy was both terrified and intrigued.

Wandering through the aisles of shelves, Mercy began searching for the mind. She pushed a box aside and uncovered a... tube.

"What in heaven are you?" She wondered aloud, wrapping her fingers around the tube and lifting it up. Two glass windows on either side of the metallic tube showed a churning red and black liquid that moved as if it were alive. The dual-colored fluid slowed, almost like it was watching her...

"I'd put that down if I were you." Lee said, suddenly coming from around the corner. "It's not very nice."

Mercy hurriedly put it back. "O-oh..." She turned to him. "Are we ready to go?"

Lee looked at his feet, thinking about something not in the building. She gathered this from his expression, Onyx refused to let her into Lee's head. Well, sort of. She could easily access his mind, even with Onyx fighting, but she was willing to respect his privacy.

"Not quite ready, I'm afraid." He responded, walking back to the main room of his lab and grabbing the jar of gray gel. Lee opened it, the contents morphing at his touch into a round plate. He placed the circular object on his left side and it began to melt back into gel.

"Just give me a sec, gotta find the door remote." Lee told Mercy, the gel stretching across his body like an organism attacking prey. Soon the material settled and started revealing features, such as a visor over his face and padded gloves on his hands. The gel had formed a motorcycle outfit.

"Whaddaya think?" Lee asked, the visor and helmet curling up to show his face.

She looked it over. "It's... Unique." Being an energy being, Mercy wasn't particularly good at forming opinions.

"I'll take that as a compliment." He chuckled. "Come on, let's get rolling, unless you'd prefer to fly."

"I think I'll ride?"

He sat down on the bike he'd been building, flashing her a thumbs up. "Then climb on."

She sat behind him, clinging tight to the suited teen. He stared at her for a moment, something clicking in his eyes; he shook his head, pulling out of his daze and gripped the handlebars of the sleek metal bike.

Lee tapped a small screen inbetween the bars, the door in front of them opened, the mid-day sun shining into the building. "Hold tight, Mercy." He said, putting the bike into drive and rolling forward, onto the street.

"How fast does this thing go?" Mercy asked.

While Lee's intentions were to go as fast as possible, the Mobotropolis highway traffic seemed to disagree with him. Cars were piled up in a jam that obviously wasn't going away anytime soon.

"I designed it to go at least 600 MPH..." He muttered.

"Hmm... Might I recommend a detour?" She said.

"What are you thinking?" Lee questioned and perked up.

She pointed to the railing that separated the road from the normal ground. Lee turned to the railing.

"Sounds like a plan." The bike turned that way, pulling off the road and rolling towards a break in the metal beams a few yards ahead. Sirens started blaring, lights flashing a few cars behind them. Apparently the less than legal movement of the bike had alerted some police.

"We seem to have attracted some attention."

"Ok then, time to run." Lee said, twisting the handles as hard as he could. The wheels lit up, energy surging through the rims. Lowering his body closer to the bike's body, he switched off the safety. "Give me directions."

The bike blasted away in a sudden flash of blinding blue light.

Raindrop knocked on the rusty, tin door, quickly knocking out a musical pattern (one of Raindrop's favorite classical songs.) She rolled on her heels, humming the same tune. She wore a medium blue sweater, shorts and a tan skirt around her waist. Her black, long hair flowed around, complimented by a blue streak that went through it and broke up the dark color.

The lock on the door clicked, opening. A light blue Dragoness pulled it towards herself, waving for Raindrop to come in. Her wings were folded neatly against her back, hidden under a sort of shawl that she wore. On either side of her head, a pair of crystal horns acted like a prism, bouncing light to and fro in the small entrance room.

Raindrop laughed at the effect, causing a slight giggle from the greeter. "So where's our resident edgelord?" She asked once the giggles were gone. "Or did he tell Emmie not to say... again?"

The Dragon punched Raindrop. "He's not in charge of me, and he's in the other room." She pointed to another door. "Mask-wearing spook."

The "Mask-wearing spook" they spoke of was Digit, the third member of the group, and by far, the scariest. Raindrop really only let him tag along because he'd gone up against the tyrant before. He... Didn't like to talk about it. Apparently something bad had happened on that day.

When the cold, lifeless city had first begun to fill with people from all over, a being claimed responsibility for the event. He called himself Zero, but the people called him the Tyrant. Several of the kidnapped citizens tried to fight Zero, instead being massacred by his enforcers, a strange breed of monster created just to keep everyone in line. Needless to say, the citizens quickly gave in and bowed before their new ruler.

And then came Digit: a well trained, clever teenager. He proved the beasts could be killed and inspired a rebellion against Zero, armed with his hook and chain as well as an army of citizens at his back. The rebellion made their way to the castle Zero resided in, crushing the beasts under the heel of their numbers. When it seemed they'd won, the Tyrant himself appeared, grabbing a now helpless Digit and vanishing. The beasts reformed, now in larger numbers and even stronger, pushing the rebellion back to the darkness.

Digit returned days later, wearing a mask he refused to take off. More importantly, something had snapped in the former leader. No hope echoed in his voice as before, he'd seen Zero's power firsthand, and it had broken him. But something new had been birthed in him, a bloodthirst for destroying Zero. Because of this, he'd joined Raindrop and Emmie as Team Collapse (Digit didn't care for the name, but he had still joined.) The Oracle... named Oracle, oddly enough, was the most recent addition to the team, and she brought a creepy amount of insight with her.

And then there was... Whatever was happening with Raindrop's body. Ever since entering this strange place, she'd been able to greatly increase her physical strength and speed, punching her way through any material she'd encountered.

There was also Emmie's fire, but Raindrop wasn't sure if that was new or something tied to her... Abnormality..?

Raindrop walked into the next room, the subtle feeling she'd just gone through massive exposition.

Lee's bike blasted through the desert, unleashing immense winds behind him that formed a sort of cyclone surrounding the high tech motorcycle. The wheels glowed, altering the air beneath them in a way that caused Lee to go at insane speeds without any friction problems.

The ride itself was fairly uneventful, conversation made difficult by the winds. They swapped a few sentences using telepathy, but it was mostly about directions or minor questions.

"You sensing that?" Lee asked, by causing the question to bounce around in his mind. He felt a signature similar to the beast from the waterfront, but much stronger.

"Indeed I am. In fact, I've been sensing it for the past hour." Mercy answered. "You haven't practiced much with Onyx's senses, have you. "

"He prefers to be stubborn and use his, Lee's like that for some reason." Onyx added.

"Onyx, please stop." Both Lee and Mercy said at the same time, causing them to blink and stare at each other for a few seconds.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

"Please give us some peace, Onyx..." Lee requested from his soulmate.

"OK, fine, whatever."

Another hour passed, the signature growing stronger and more potent, allowing Lee and Onyx to track it down with more precision.

Suddenly, there it was.

It... Was hard to describe. It seemed almost like a mirage, just a distortion of light amidst an ocean of sandy waves. But when closer, something was definitely there. The very fabric of reality in front of them shifted and moved, twisting and turning in a way definitely not right. Every alarm in Lee and Onyx's shared mind was going off, telling them to get away from this... Abomination. His eyes burnt, his body locked up and a headache formed.

"Lee... are you ok..?" Mercy hurriedly asked with worry in her eyes.

"Y-yeah... It's just... Aggressive? I can feel it... lashing out..."

"If that's true, then I believe Zero knows we are here and we've lost the element of surprise."

Lee was no stranger to excruciating pain, and he started pushing back against his primal urges to run and seek home. He gritted his teeth and stepped onto the sand. "Then I guess it's time to stomp some beasts."

Since it seemed that Lee wouldn't stop coming, the blast of sense-searing pain stopped.

"Huh... I guess he was just trying to dissuade me." Lee said, taking a much more relaxed step. "I'm leaving the bike here, so it doesn't get broken." He added, turning to Mercy. "You coming or am I flying solo?"

"I'm coming, since I don't believe you have a way to expel Justice from Zero." She responded.

Lee nodded. "Then let's go." He reached out to touch the distortion, the shimmering space reacting by reaching back. The Flynx blinked in curiosity at the effect, watching it creep up his arm. "That's... Wait, it--" Lee managed to say, before the distortion forcefully pulled him and Mercy in.

Raindrop walked into the main room of Team Collapse's base, powering up just enough to launch herself like a furry missile onto the worn, brown couch that sat in the center of the cold, cement room. The couch, despite having tears and rips in it, was both the most colorful and newest decor in the area, something testifying to the small budget of Team Collapse in the strange economy here in this hellscape.

The structure was something of a secret, somehow Zero hadn't found them, even after doubling the amount of beasts present. Either that or he was toying with them.

Digit was on the other end of the couch, turning to look at the sudden Raindrop. "Do you have to act like a child?" He asked.

"I'm not!" She shouted back, raising her voice to a volume that would most certainly break noise ordinance. "I'm just --"

"immature?"

She growled, baring her tiny cat fangs, an effort that looked more cute than frightening.

"Immature." Digit repeated, the mask shifting slightly in what Raindrop could tell was a grin. He chuckled, looking at the wall the couch faced.

"Raindrop, I need to speak with you." Oracle said, having slipped in like a ghost; a trait of hers that everyone found unnerving. Her dress shifted and jangled, the tiny bells and pieces of metal rubbing against each other. The gold from her dress flowed with the light brown and tan fur that covered the tall Bushdog, giving Oracle the appearance of what resembled a fortune-teller.

"Hmm?" The small Lynx wondered.

"Someone new has come into the city." The Bushdog said.

"...so? I doubt they'll need saving, Zero will probably just send them to a home like everyone else..."

Oracle gazed at Raindrop, her frighteningly yellow eyes boring into her soul. "I believe you'll want to get your hands on this one. He's... Unusual."

Raindrop shuddered. "D-Digit... Get Emmie... We're going out."

Lee grabbed his head, babbling something to himself. He tried to get up, stumbling a few feet before falling back down. The area was dark, almost like a nighttime version of the waterfront from hours ago, with a handful of lamps barely lighting the scene. He waited a couple seconds, then tried it again; this time, it worked, Lee standing upright and starting to take the surrounding area in.

Mercy was spread out on the ground next to him, very little activity coming from her.

Lee tapped her shoulder. "Mercy, you up?"

Lee's guide didn't respond, unless you counted her eyes tightening shut.

"I'll take that as a no..." He lifted her up like a knight out of a generic fairy tale, and started walking to find a place to settle down.

The streets were surprisingly empty and quiet. One would even expect a tumbleweed or two, filling their titular role of tumbling. The surrounding structures looked like a mixture of multiple styles, with some buildings looking completely different from the ones right next to it.There were noises coming from the buildings, but even those were sporadic. Nonetheless, Lee still moved as quietly as he could, hoping to avoid any combat while Mercy remained out of it. While it was quiet, he knew that more beasts could be around.

At one point, he did see a beast patrol, but managed to distract them with a SolTech doppelganger, so that wasn't much of a problem.

He walked for a while, checking for places to duck in and hide. Eventually, Lee came across an open shed that had a bag of sod on the ground. He laid Mercy on it, hoping it was soft enough to keep the pseudo armadillo comfy til she woke up.

"Rest up, Guardian of the Cosmos or whatever." Lee stood up, closing the door whilst standing guard.

"Oog... Lee, where are we..?"

Lee grinned, strained by rising exhaustion. "In the distortion. Mercy's out cold... Or whatever the spirit version of unconscious is." He said, glad he wasn't totally alone. Lee stood for several minutes, but after a while, he laid his back against the shed.

The pair was quiet for a moment, Lee breaking it by speaking aloud. "So... Do you miss being bad..?"

"I don't."

Lee sighed. "Good."

"I can take the first watch, you're falling asleep."

"That sounds nice... Wake me in a couple hours... Or if something happens." With that, the organic half of the Dryden faded out of consciousness, leaving only Onyx to watch.

---

With Oracle guiding the team through the city, the group jumped, ran and snuck past street after street. The night covered them, at least until they inevitably had to fight a beast guard, but thankfully none had appeared yet. Raindrop was powering up her legs, increasing her speed to super human levels, Emmie was flying and Digit was doing a good job at playing ninja. Oracle just seemed to appear in places ahead of the team, yet another mystery about her.

"So who is this guy?" Raindrop asked Oracle, catching sight of her for a moment. "He's gotta be pretty important if we're running out in the middle of the night."

Oracle jumped off a building to Raindrop's right, landing softly next to her. "It's difficult to explain... Just know that in this timeline, he'll make a great ally for your little team, Ria -- I mean, Raindrop."

"Who's Ria?"

"Don't worry about it." Oracle said, holding her hand out to stop the team. "We're here."

Raindrop looked down, seeing a... shed? Wait, there was someone there. They looked dead, actually. "Are they even alive?"

"Yes, he is."

Digit was suddenly next to them. "Then what are we waiting for?" He pulled his gun-metal gray hook out of the bag on his back, throwing it across the space to where it caught onto the side of another building. He handed the hook to Raindrop. "Well, fearless leader, shall we?"

The small Lynx gripped the metal weapon, jumping off the roof she had been perched on and flying towards the ground. She laughed, swinging around like a comic book super hero that had overcome gravity. The glee turned to panic when she realized she was going to smack into the other building. Raindrop clenched her eyes shut, getting ready to cushion the impact, knowing she couldn't power up enough to protect herself.

The impact never came.

The stranger was holding her. With heavy breathing and a tight grip, he held her up, giving Raindrop a good look at his dark blue eyes. Something about them felt familiar, safe... Friendly. His helmet fully melted away, now showing his entire face.

"You, uh, ok there?" Lee asked, setting her down to get a good look at his catch. She was actually really short, her nose sitting level with his upper torso.

Raindrop blushed, her head reeling. In less than thirty seconds, she had almost hit a wall and now... A boy had caught her. She blushed more, lots of thoughts happening at once. "He's cute but I just met him, I don't even know his name. Chill out, Raindrop, you got this, just... Oh no he's looking at meeee!"

Lee tilted his head, watching this girl just stand there and blink rapidly. He wasn't sure what to do to get her attention. Girls... Really weren't his area of expertise.

Emmie landed next to Raindrop, her wings folding around her like a cloak, and began staring at her. "Uh... Thanks for catching her, I guess..." She said.

Lee looked at Emmie. "You're welcome." He rubbed his eyes, double checking that there was indeed a Dragon in front of him. Yeah, it was real. He stepped back, really unsure of what was happening.

Digit and Oracle arrived last, standing behind the short-circuiting Raindrop.

Digit's mask seemed to worry Lee, but he shrugged it off. "This the one?" The hook-user asked Oracle, pointing at Lee. The mask managed to look even more unsettling in dim light, its horns seeming much larger and more menacing than normal.

Oracle nodded. "Much younger than the last time I saw him, but yes... Team Collapse, meet the Dryden."

Emmie turned. "The Dryden? Isn't that a tree spirit or something?"

Lee relaxed his form, just confused about everything happening. "Could someone please tell me what's going on... And if she's ok or not." He glanced at Raindrop.

Raindrop suddenly returned to life, looking down, then up, then straight at Lee, then down again.

"She's fine, just weird." Digit answered. "Welcome to the worst place in existence. I'm Digit, the little one is Raindrop, the Dragon is Emmie and that's Oracle."

"I'm Lee, and Mercy is in there asleep." The Flynx responded, motioning to the shed. "You... Came here for me?"

Digit looked him over. "You sure this is the guy?"

"Yes, Digit, this is him." Oracle repeated. "We should move, a patrol is nearby." She added, turning to face the street that the shed sat nearby. Like she'd said, a series of stomping, growling and roars emanated from the specified area.

"Alright, new guy, you're with us." Digit ordered, his shawl swishing like a cape.. "Raindrop, get your head in the game. Emmie, sco-"

A blast of goop knocked Digit away, shoving over several boxes of gardening materials. Everyone turned to where the blast's point of origin. Several patrols, at least a dozen beasts, sat there. A few more sat on the rooftops, prohibiting exit. Away from the security of the base, Zero had sprung a trap.

"Oh crud..." Emmie said, charging up a fire blast. Team Collapse wasn't going down without a fight. Digit stood up, reclaiming his hook and a now-focused Raindrop powered up.

Lee stepped in front of them, a blue glow now emanating from his fur. "Grab the girl in the shed and run, I'll handle these things." He told Emmie, trying to put as much confidence into his voice as possible in the terrible circumstances.

The first set of beasts stormed into the space, their stone gray fists slamming into the ground just like the previous one. Unlike the first one, these ones were completely solid, not glitching and shifting. That meant these things were probably tougher.

That didn't matter, the strategy was still the same. Lee moved way quicker than usual, suddenly making his presence known by throwing the first beast onto its back. It flailed around, unable to right itself. The two others stopped to watch their teammate, and didn't notice Lee flying towards them. Using the first as a distraction worked great and Lee was able to pierce their armor and blow them to pieces before they could even run, throwing... Stone chunks? As for the first one, he just hit it in its underside, shattering it completely. He grabbed a piece and pocketed it.

"Three down, ten to go!" He shouted in triumph, launching himself at the rooftop beasts. Like some kind of deadly virus, he would break the target and bounce to another. Each punch or kick he delivered was covered in Nanites that took the density of high quality steel, so he basically had jackhammers for limbs. Perfect for smashing stone beings.

While he massacred the monsters, Digit opened the shed door, looking at the glowing female inside. He didn't know much about Lee, but hey, he was keeping the patrols off their back. The masked teen lifted the glowing female up, running for cover. Emmie and Oracle followed him, but Raindrop stood her ground.

She wanted to be a hero, and that meant she wasn't abandoning the bouncing Lee. Raindrop ran forward, throwing a charged kick at a beast. It trembled, vibrating like some sort of blender, then blew up as crackling energy surrounded it. Stone dust rained from the night sky, Raindrop doing a victory dance.

"I won! I won! I'm bad!" She giggled, continuing to dance. Her dress flopped around as she jumped and smiled and threw her arms around like a tube man. She turned, gasping at another monster that was right there. It raised its fist to smash the Lynx, only for Lee to zip past, grabbing Raindrop out of harm's way and setting her safely on a roof.

The beast, the only one left, actually, roared at the loss of its prey.

"Hang tight for a moment." Lee said, diving off the roof. An impact sound echoed, and more stone dust rained.

She crawled to the edge to look. He was standing there, looking over the piles of stone for something. Apparently not finding whatever he was looking for, he jumped back to the roof. He walked over to her, gently placing a hand on her head.

"You hurt?"

Raindrop checked herself, finding a gash on her leg from the stone explosion. She tried to get up, but screamed and fell into Lee's arms. "My... My leg is bleeding..." She told him, blushing at coming this close again.

He placed a hand under her legs, where her knees bent specifically, and his other hand went on her back. The one touching her leg felt cold, almost icy. She shuddered. Since she was situated, Lee stood upright and looked down at her. "Mind telling me where your home is? I can't just leave you here after busting you up."

She nodded. "Head right..." In her head, something told her she was safe, that this guy was a hero. Raindrop curled up in his grip, holding her leg.