User blog:BobTheDoctor27/Over Your Shoulder: Preview

Howdy folks! T'is I, your Evil and Twisted Overlord!

Well, lately, I'm afraid I've been super busy so, this month, I'm afraid I simply don't have the time to do a monthly blog update, and I won't next month either because I'll be off studying for my final exams. :/

But, I have been working hard on Over Your Shoulder, which I'm hoping to get done before I go off on study break again. At the moment... I've written a lot. XD Around 3 chapters have been written of the 7 I have planned. But, I just wrote part of Chapter 3 and realized... "damn... this is actually pretty good!" O.o I figured I might as well share it early, as a taster for what's still to come. :P

Basic Context

 * Basically, Tollubo is in disguise and puts on a Kanohi Komau in order to take Racasix out on a dinner date (that's right, they're going out now... just like I am in real life XD).
 * However, he gets attacked in an alleyway by two shadowy figures.
 * Fortunately, before they can finish him off, he is saved by a mysterious Good Samaritan, who disables both the attackers.
 * Tollubo recognizes the figure as Toa Thode, a renegade Toa of Plasma responsible for countless callous murders in the Deserts of Death Universe.

Sneak Preview
Tollubo could tell, as he returned to consciousness, that he’d been out a long time. He was in a pitch-black room, so he couldn’t check but, according to his body clock, it could have been anything between eighteen and twenty hours.

He ran his fingers over his body, assessing the damage. Every touch produced a sting but nothing seemed to be broken. And although his bruised stomach flared agonizingly every time he breathed, he didn’t think any of his ribs had snapped. All things considered, it could have been a lot worse.

''Then he remembered Toa Thode and his familiar face. ''

He might have caught it wrong. He’d only glimpsed the figure in the alley, he’d been thinking a lot about who this mysterious sixth surviving Toa was, and he hadn’t been at his most coherent at the time. Maybe he’d just noticed a similarity. Maybe it was just some Order of Mata Nui agent wearing a Miru. But in his heart he knew that was a bucket of Rahkshi-bile.

He got to his feet and almost fell down again as geysers of pain erupted all over. He thrust out an arm, found a wall and propped himself against it, breathing hard, letting his head clear, groaning softy.

“Awake at last” came a voice from the darkness. “I thought you would sleep forever.”

The Toa stiffened. It was Toa Thode’s voice but he couldn’t see him. Not even a vague outline.

Back in his universe, Thode hadn’t been a pleasant character. Originally from the same team as Kualus, Thode had abandoned his fellow Toa after having a disagreement with the local Turaga. For a brief period of time, there had been talk amongst the other Order of Mata Nui members about him being sent to the Pit for his crimes, which Tollubo had learnt about many centuries later. However, his rebellion was perfectly timed to coincide with the Time Slip and the Order had bigger Ruki to fry scattering an entire population of Matoran across the Universe.

The Toa of Plasma had slaughtered thousands.

Countless lost souls, Matoran and Makuta alike, had met their ends at Thode’s trigger finger. The renegade had moved to Stelt then started a fresh, new career for himself, offering his services up as a bounty hunter, priding himself with no moral restrictions and being able to deal with any opponent. Some said he’d never missed a target. Others said that he slept in a bed made of Makuta Icarax’s broken armor with The Shadowed One’s head mounted on his wall.

“Where are you?” he asked desperately.

“Around” replied the killer, and now the voice came from another spot. He was circling, silent, unseen, like a Takea Shark. “You saw me in the alley, didn’t you?” He sounded petulant, a dangerously irritable fluctuation in his cold, remorseless voice.

Tollubo gulped silently and felt it echo around the emptiness. He thought about lying but didn’t see the point. “Yes.”

“You know who I am? Who I was?”

Again, he considered lying but opted for the truth. “Yes.”

“I thought so.” This time the voice was closer.

With an unusual spark of courage, Tollubo stepped forwards, his hand reaching out but grabbing nothing. Nobody there. The room was full of shadows. The Toa’s head flicked left and right, not letting his guard drop.

Then the horrible face spun into view, as if it were one of his nightmares come to life. The outlandish smile of the murderer’s Kanohi Miru grinned menacingly at him. He could only watch breathlessly as the face crept further into view. No body, just the head. It couldn’t just be a floating head, but he couldn’t shake the fear that this was some ghostly spirit come to haunt him.

Years of training evaporated. Tollubo froze, arms dropping, eyes widening. Thode’s Kanohi filled his vision. The entire island could’ve gone up in flames and he wouldn’t have noticed. There was only the head.

''The light snapped on. ''

The battered Komau-wearer had to close his eyes and shield them with a hand. He counted to twenty before opening them again. He was in a small, whitewashed room. Nothing in it apart from a tatty mattress he’d been lying on.

Just him and one of the most deadly bounty hunters ever to be spat out of Tren Krom’s backside.

Now that he saw the Toa of Plasma up close all doubt vanished. The years had barely touched him and he was exactly the same as he’d remembered from the Wanted posters that had littered his universe. He said nothing as the Toa of Light ran his incredulous eyes over him, taking in his lean, muscular frame, the slender, hooked fingers… the outlandish grin that should have been put on a Skakdi.

The monster spread his arms, his grin widening. “Got a hug for your dear ole drinking buddy?”

“This is a nightmare” groaned the Toa of Light, sliding down to his knees. He stared at the callous Toa, appalled.

“I see I have no need to introduce myself.” Toa Thode – as his savor most surely was – laughed. “Good. I hate formal introductions.”

“Why am I here?” gulped Tollubo. “Are you going to –”

“ – kill you?” finished the assassin. “No. I am not going to kill you.” He raised a hand and gestured towards a door. “I’ve had enough killing for one night.”

“Can I have that in writing?” The Komau-wearer’s chattering teeth made a mockery of the show of bravado.

“I will write it for you in blood if you so desire” chuckled the murderer. He offered his fellow Toa a hand. Tollubo refused it and struggled to his feet by himself.

“Where are we?” he asked, glancing up at the flickering lighting grid above their heads.

“A building” answered Thode vaguely. “One of my many places of work. You do not need to know more.”

“What do you want?”

“I want nothing, Tollubo” he replied smoothly, with a voice colder than most Toa of Ice. “I present myself to you as an ally.” The orange and white armored Toa rested a surprisingly cold hand on Tollubo’s shoulder. “You were looking for me. Asking questions, spreading rumors, searching for the mysterious sixth Toa in this desolate world. I’ve even heard natter that I’m being blamed for the death of Toa Helryx because of you!”

Tollubo wanted to kick himself.

“I could not stand for such slander. Normally, I would have put a quick end to your lies, but I became interested. I began following you… it’s not like you made it hard. You’ve been to the same casino every day for… what was it? Three weeks?”

''Silence. ''

“But don’t feel bad, of all the Toa in your petty little team, you were the hardest to follow.” It appeared the assassin was attempting to encourage him. “I keep tabs on all you Toa, making sure you don’t ask me to join your little band of losers.”

“Is that why you were outside the Golden Ruki when I was attacked?”

He pondered the question, then turned and beckoned for the Toa to follow, deciding on silence.

“What happened to the pair who harassed me?” he asked, shuffling after the bounty hunter, feeling like he was walking on a tightrope.

“They await our pleasure” he chuckled, sounding almost compassionate.

“They’re here?”

“I told you this was a place of work.”

Thode’s daunting fingers locked around the door handle, pulled it open and entered. It was another dark room. He didn’t turn on the light until the door was closed. When he did, Tollubo wished he’d left it off.

The two figures from the alley hung from chains from the ceiling. In the light, he could see they were both Vortixx, which made the situation marginally more pleasing. One of them hung upside down, the other horizontally.

The latter had been disemboweled and his guts trailed over his sides, like a long, grey, slimy mess that had been dumped there. His eyes had been gouged out and nailed to either side of his pelvis so he looked like some obscene creature that only walked out of Brotherhood experiment labs.

Most of the other’s face had been sliced away and a long iron stake had been driven into his groin, which was chained tightly to his arms, driving it deeper in every time he quivered.

Both were still alive.

Tollubo turned aside and retched. Thode laughed and warned him not to vomit on his feet. When he’d recovered he asked who they were.

“That was my first question too” replied the Miru-wearer. “Tell me, did you really escort a female Vortixx to a restaurant?”

The Toa nodded wearily. “Yeah… so?”

“So these two fine, Xian jerks were there and took it as a personal insult. By chance they left before you then hung around and tried to, as one of them so poetically phrased it before I removed his tongue – ‘teach that damn Toa-scumbag some respect for his betters’.”

“So they had nothing to do with the Cult of Darkness?”

“Nothing” grunted the assassin, sounding almost as disappointed as the Toa of Light felt. “Still, I thought it too good to be true. Life is rarely that simple.”

The Vortixx with no face groaned and twitched in his chains. Something – it may have been the remains of his nose – slipped from his face and landed in a pool of dark blood with a gentle plop.

“For Mata Nui’s sake, will you make an end of those two?” moaned the Komau-wearing Toa.

“I have grown rather fond of them. I was thinking of keeping them on.”

“Just kill them!” yelled Tollubo, fire in his eyes.

Thode regarded him coolly. “Do not adopt such tones when addressing your savior. I have some spare chains left over and a short temper for the youth of today’s Toa. Remember, Tollubo, I have been a hero for far longer than you. I am your elder, and you are never too old to receive a spanking.”

“Please” he muttered sickly. “They’re of no use to us and I can’t stand looking at them like that anymore.” He felt fresh bile rising in his throat.

Thode produced a knife and held it out, holding the tip. “Care to do the honors?” The Toa of Light stared at the blade, then the Vortixx, then shook his head. “Why not? You have killed before. Why shy away now?”

“I killed when I needed to, when there was reason. This is… torture. They’ve suffered enough.”

“You will be putting them out of their misery. Is that not good reasoning?”

“They were a pair of fools but they don’t deserve to be – ”

Thode spun the knife around and reholstered it in the twinkling of an eye. “Then make no further entreaties of me. If you are incapable of dealing the final blow, I shall do so in my own time. One must never expect another to extend the hand of mercy on his behalf.”

He strolled past the sicken pair – they sensed his presence and started groaning and writhing anew – towards a door set in the far wall of the room. He followed, steering as far clear of the anguished captives as he could. He found himself in a room with a wooden desk and two leathery chairs, one on either side.

“Sit” instructed the callous killer, taking his place at the far side of the desk. Tollubo was glad to rest but his sense of relief vanished when Thode produced a firearm and aimed it at him. “I will use this if provoked. I will not shoot to kill – it should be obvious by now that I do not wish to harm you – but I will disable you without a second’s hesitation.”

The Toa just glared at the Miru-wearer contemptuously. “How many Matoran have you killed?” Thode must have seen the threat in his tone because his expression darkened.

“I am not the villain in this piece,” he muttered dismissively, “neither in this universe or yours. If you seek vengeance, seek the architect, not the hired gun. Do not waste your hatred on a mere messenger – which is all I am essentially.”

“How can I trust you?” growled the Toa of Light.

The Miru-wearing bounty hunter laughed loudly and lowered the gun. “I said you interested me, Toa Tollubo. You never irritated me. If you had, you’d be lying face-down in some drain in Ga-Metru. You may enquire after me further if you wish, but I would not recommend it.”

Sensing he had outstayed his welcome, Tollubo slowly rose to his feet again and stared down at the assassin. It was only then that he realized he had been towering over the Toa of Plasma the whole time.

“Count to fifty as you leave” grunted the renegade, a sly smile creeping onto his devilish Kanohi. “And, Tollubo?”

“Yes?”

“Count slow.”

The Toa turned around and snorted as he stormed out, hating himself because he knew he was about to subconsciously start the slowest countdown of his life.