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It was late, and the black sky was striped with ragged orange clouds. The city seemed just like any ordinary human city, with bright lights, cars, buses, and swarms of people filling the streets. One odd detail, however: none of the people had faces. Just flesh-colored blurs where their faces should have been. They milled around the small group like shoals of fish, murmuring in a language that only they understood.
Pluto squinted at the people, wondering if she was seeing alright or if there was just an enormous smudge on her glasses that kept her from seeing everyone's faces. "Are you guys seeing the weird faceless people too?"
If Mike had had hackles, they would have been raised. "Yeah. Tons of 'em. They don't seem to know we're here, though. Are they dangerous?"
"Not usually," Kaiser said from up ahead. "Then again, I've only ventured here once personally, and most of my knowledge of this realm comes from the old texts. So don't take my word as gospel on anything."
Pluto frowned. The language they were speaking in sounded oddly familiar, but she couldn't quite place it. "I think I've heard their language before. Maybe someone was reading a passage on them in the archives or something."
One of the passing figures turned and looked at Pluto, its face flickering oddly. For a moment its words made sense, and it spoke in a soft rush. "Me, me, pick me, I'll change this, don't go away, I'll show you what's behind you…." Then it passed by and its voice faded into nonsense once more.
Pluto's eyes widened. "Hey guys, I think I might be hallucinating."
Kaiser glanced over sharply. "What happened?"
(I gotta mow the lawn real quick so I'll be gone for a few)
(k) "One of the faceless guys started talking, but I could understand it. It said 'me me, pick me, I'l change this, don't go away, I'll show you what's behind you.'"
Kaiser paused, then shook his head. "I wouldn't pay it any mind. The air here is bad, it's tainted with chaotic energy. 'A will try to unsettle you in any way it can, so the best thing is to just ignore it and don't react."
"Okay, good to know." She frowned. Suddenly, realization crossed her face. "They sound like Samandriel's servants! That's where I've heard it before."
Mike furrowed his brow. "That's….possibly not good, considering our current relationship with Old Sammy. I hope–" He stopped and stared at something on the other side of the street, his expression changing.
"Yeah, the Ladies are…What're you looking at?"
He came to a halt, seeming lost for words. After a few moments, he started to slowly step off the sidewalk and into the street, his eyes riveted on something in the distance.
"Hey hey hey, come back here! It's an illusion you idiot!" Pluto said, chasing after him
Asura rolled his eyes. "Didn't we just go over this?" He said.
Mike snapped out of it just before a bus nearly killed him. He blinked and looked around, looking confused and somehow upset. "What the–oh. Shoot." He backed up and returned to the others, not making eye contact. "Sorry. That was stupid of me." There was something odd about his voice as he said it, and he kept glancing behind them as they walked.
"What the hell did you even see?"
Mike didn't answer for a minute. Then he said shortly, "I just saw my sister. She killed herself when I was fourteen."
Pluto's frown softened. "Oh."
Asura gave him a sympathetic look. "It's not real, Mike. It might look like her, and you might want to see her again, but that's not your sister."
"I know. " For some reason, Mike did not seem comforted by this fact. "Sorry to get distracted like that. Let's keep going."
"The illusions are getting more unsettling now," Kaiser muttered to himself. "We've caught 'A's attention. We'll have to pick up the pace."
"I haven't seen any yet," Asura said, looking around.
Pluto kept her head down. She had far too many bad experiences that this 'A' could use against her, so she resolved to staring at the ground
So of course, that was when the sound came, a great whistling scream that dropped in pitch and rose in volume, corresponding with a small, bright pinprick in the sky that was falling steadily closer…..
The crowd around them cried out like the shriek of wind. "Raid!" they wailed, scattering. "Bombs!"
Pluto's head snapped up. One moment she was staring at the ground, and the next she was watching the bombs drop on her home town. She gasped quietly, putting a hand over her mouth. Her eyes were wide and panic-stricken, and she froze in sheer terror. She couldn't move, couldn't breath right, was helpless to stop any of it. And that's when she saw the living corpse of her brother limping towards her. She let out a strangled scream, gagging a little around her panic