Chapter Text
[ _____ ]
She was just trying to take out a loan for her college. There was so much she needed to do and get done with her life and so little time. So little resources, too, and she dreaded the mountains of debt she’d need to pay off after she got her major in biochemistry. But of course, of course she just had to go there the one day someone tried to rob the bank.
She froze, but for some reason she thought she could fight the robber. Become a hero. It was what everyone dreamed of, but she couldn’t bring herself to fight them until they pulled a gun out of their back pocket and aimed a gun at a child.
No matter her self-preservation, she ran to tackle them. It went about as well as you’d expect.
It was such, such a terrible way to die.
When the barrel of the gun was pointed at you.
When the scenarios from all those movies became real.
The last thing she remembers hearing is the wail of the child behind her. The robber looking down at her like she was scum. Filth. A necessary casualty for whatever they had needed to do.
She died, her eyes still wide open.
…
Yet the void she woke up(?) to was… unexpected.
It wasn’t dark, like many forms of art and literature had led her to believe– no, it was blindingly, jarringly white, and frighteningly cold. There was nothing and everything around her, and she could swear she felt as if she was cupped in the palm of a pair of enormous hands.
But perhaps she’d come to expect the pearly gates standing in front of her, or maybe a fiery hell. She wasn’t really religious, but her family was all Catholic. Speaking of her family…
I’m dead. They– they should not grieve me. What did I ever even do for them? Maybe in another life, I could have been someone. Maybe I could have helped my family. Anyone. I don’t even know if that child survived, or if me dying changed nothing.
She looked down at her stupid, useless hands that were slowly growing numb from the cold.
Suddenly, a voice pierced through the light.
“You wish for… another chance?” It boomed. Huh? Who’s there? She swiveled her head around, desperately searching for that voice in the light.
“You will not find me. I am the manifestation of this land, little one. I am this “void”, as you prefer to call me.”
“Is there a way I can get back to my life?” She pleaded desperately. “I– I don’t want to die being nothing.”
“No. What is done is done. I may, however, transfer you to another world.” Void? Yeah, sure, Void’s its name now– stated. She gaped. “Like an isekai.” Void only chuckled. Could it even chuckle? What was that about? She could swear it grew colder at the laugh, too.
“If that is what you prefer to call it, little one.”
“I may let you… ah, choose a “boon”. That is what all of your… fanfictions called it, no?” She flushed in embarrassment despite herself. “What do you wish for?”
“I… I suppose I’d like to be naturally talented at everything. Like, if someone just taught me something a few minutes ago, I’d have it down pat easy. And I’d like to be able to surpass that initial teaching, too. Is that good?”
“An unusual choice, but a choice nonetheless. I hope you may do whatever you desire in this new world.”
And then she was falling, falling down deeper and sinking and turning and flying and falling until she hit a floor made of bricks.
—
What the hell.
Wait, no.
What the fuck.
She was in some sort of alleyway between two small buildings underneath a wooden ceiling covered in vines. The place smelled like shit, and the colors of all the buildings in the alleyway and outside of it assaulted her eyes.
She raised her hands almost instinctively. Okay, this is fucking insane. She was white.
No, not Caucasian– white. As pale as snow. Finally lived up to those beauty standards, she supposed.
She had claws, too, which scraped against the floor as she hauled herself up. Assessing her surroundings, she couldn’t help but notice a red blur, heading… straight towards her.
WHAM!
And it all
went
black.
_________________________________________________________________________
[Skateboard]
Shitshitshitshitshitshitshitshit!! He screamed to himself in his head, carefully turning over the body– no, the inphernal he just rammed straight into.
Digging for his phone from his pocket, he quickly called
“COIL!”
“What is it, Skate? Need a hand? Got yourself in trouble?” Coil snickered.
“No! I mean– yeah, but uh– do you got my location? Can you come?”
“Alright, alright, I’ll go. But you owe me some snacks later.”
“Like you don’t already mooch off of me…”
—
“Huh. Yeah, you fucked up, Skate.” Coil yawned. “So how do you want me to help, again?” Skate looked up at Coil, eyes full of both worry and annoyance at the same time. “I’as hoping you could regen tether to ‘em,” Skateboard sighed.
“Aaaand..?”
“Fine, I need you to help me carry them back to my place.”
“Skate! You hiding a body?!” Coil acted shocked, completely ignoring the fact he broke into Blackrock on a regular basis.
“Shut up and get a move on.”
They both lifted the unconscious inphernal up, and hauled them over to Skate’s place. “How’d this even happen?” Coil asked.
“I was being stupid.”
“HAH!” He barked, clearly very amused at this whole situation.
They arrived at Skateboard’s house relatively quickly, a mess of dirty clothes and random fragments of crystals scattered across the floor from Coil’s experiments. There was graffiti on the door that was probably there from some random chump, and it reeked of the smell that fresh graffiti got.
“Guess we just put them on the sofa for now…” Skateboard sighed.
_________________________________________________________________________
[ ______ ]
Her eyes groggily opened to a rundown wall, covered in random shit (well, not literally) like cracks and graffiti that was filling the air with its smell and… was that blood? She whipped her head around frantically. Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck did I get kidnapped??? I just got dropped in this place! I have to– her train of thought SLAMMED the brakes as she noticed fucking Skateboard walk in.
SKATEBOARD?! Oh, for fuck’s sake! I’m in Phighting?! Void wasn’t kidding when it said “like those fanfictions…”
“Er… how’re you doing? Hope I didn’t hit you too hard there.” Skate chuckled nervously.
“I’m– I, uh. I’m doing. Fine.” She stammered, awestruck and horrified at the thought of being in Phighting, and having the luck to be in the same room as Skateboard. Her favorite character, and her main. But I guess it would be pretty weird to mention that I mained him in a videogame, heh.
“You’re…” It should be fine to mention I know his name, right? “Skateboard?” To her unfortunate surprise, Skateboard looked baffled by this.
“How’d you know?” He questioned.
Shitshitshit “I’ve seen you around, helping other inphernals here and there.” Thank fucking god– gods?-- I’ve scrolled on the wiki page for so long.
Coil sauntered into the room just before Skate had any time to question how in the world she saw him when he was essentially going at mach 20.
“Oh? You’re awake? Mind tellin’ us your name then?”
“Er– my name is…” I don’t know my gear.
Think, Arctic, think! Wait. Arctic? Sure, I’ll go with that.
She took in a deep breath before finally letting out “My name’s Arctic.” “Glad to meet you, Arctic,” Coil whistled, “My name’s Coil. Glad to know we’re both on a first-gear basis now.”
Of course, she already knew that– but decided to not say anything.
“And I heard you know Skate already, huh?”
“Yeah.” She smiled– well, tried to smile– and was met with a similar grin from Coil. “Boombox should be coming soon!” Skate announced out of nowhere. “Oh– right, you don’t know Boombox yet, Arctic. He’s really chill.”
While they were waiting for the green-horned Inphernal, she took some time to scan her surroundings (Just in case she had to leave suddenly.) There was a window, looking into a shadowed rickety house that seemed to have been empty for a while. But– it wasn’t night yet, she was sure of that from how it wasn’t dark enough, but then how–? Oh.
A giant island, looming over Craterdust like her mom would loom over her life– stop it, you’re not there anymore, she repeated to herself like a mantra. Splintered Skies. Of course.
“Reminicisng?”
A jolt ran down her spine as Coil strutted next to her, gazing up at the island. “I don’t remember much from up there. It’s been a while.
“Don’t bring it up to Skate or Boom, ‘kay? Bit of a sore subject for them.”
“Yeah, thanks for telling me.”
“So, how’d you get kicked outta Splintered Skies? Me personally, it was ‘cause I was just too powerful for that motherfuckin’ Windforce to stand.”
“Uh, I… would prefer not to talk about it.”
“Makes sense.”
I do need to make up a backstory. Hell, I don’t even know what my gear is.
“I’m gonna take a walk,” she said. Coil looked at her quizzically, and when she didn’t say anything, he asked “Doesn’t your head hurt? I mean, Skateboard crashed right into you.”
“Oh! Yeah, I’ll be fine.”
“If you say so.”
—
As soon as she got out of there, Arctic ducked into the nearest alley she could find. It was covered in graffiti of a mysterious-looking rainbow messenger and seemed EXTREMELY decrepit, but it would do.
I need to make a backstory. How do I even summon my gear..? She cupped her hands and imagined light pooling into them, which was suddenly replaced by a sharp chill as a bit of ice started swirling around her and chipping at her skin. Warily, she opened her eyes to see a majestic blue fowl perched on the edge of her hands.
“Huh.” I guess this makes things a lot simpler. I can just say I flew down from Splintered Skies on my gear. Honestly, why hasn’t anyone done that already?
The bird looked close to what she imagined a phoenix would always look like– besides being based more on frost rather than flame. It was regal, of course, and had long, swooping tail feathers that were covered in chunks of ice at the ends. Its eyes were a magnificent azure that she swore were glowing and its wings– god, the wings. They were unfathomably beautiful, powerful and more than large enough to support both the bird itself and a rider.
Now with the safety of her gear, she started to walk around a bit, with her fowl following.
She could hear the yells of perhaps some inphernals fighting– or Phighting, heh– beneath all of the canopy of semi-sparse trees and smaller, miscellaneous plants that grew like mint in the ground brushing against her feet in this true concrete jungle. I mean, it’s probably nowhere near Thieves’ Den, but there’s so much more foliage compared to, say, Boston.
Despite the complete anarchy and gang violence prevalent in Craterdust, it was quite a beautiful place.
There was a certain rugged charm to it in the knowledge that all these inphernals managed to defy all odds and start a new life, despite all they have gone through. Leaves crackled under her feet, the chilly wind brushed over her, and the trees rustled behind her.
…
Wait.
She knew better than to whip her head around– no matter how much she wanted to– as it would just allow whoever might be following her to know she was aware of their presence. Nevertheless, she pretended to check the time by looking at the sun’s position (a futile effort, but an effort nonetheless) and walked speedily in a random direction, hopefully back to Skate’s place.
Just as she was about to realize she was hopelessly lost, she found it. Somehow. The smell of fresh graffiti reeking throughout the air and the messenger who now looked like a savior in her eyes marked the spot where Skateboard’s house should be.
Arctic took one glance behind her, seeing a glimpse of… yellow? Green? It was hard to tell– some color similar to that– before she slammed the door to Skateboard's house closed.