CHAPTER FOUR: WHILE YOU WERE BUSY DOING THAT…

It’s dark. A black screen, with the distant hum of bugs and the slow cracking of tectonic plates. As the world begins to come into focus, we can see that we’re currently deep underground, beneath millions of tons of earth. 

And a young Carlos is sitting in the middle, curled into a fetal position. 

Cutting back to the present, we’re back at Magnolia Street, and Carlos has just hit Abigail with a question. 

“Are you hiring?” He asks, eyebrows perched in hesitance. 

Abigail’s eyebrows raise in turn. “...You wanna Freelance with me?” She asks, matching his hesitance. “You know that it’s, uh, not just finding ghosts and stuff right? It’s really dangerous.” 

Carlos sighs and slumps back into his seat. “Look, I’m aware that I seem crazy -”

“No, no, not at all, really, I’m just - I guess I’m just surprised.” Abigail interjects, unsure how to feel about this development. Here I was thinking he didn’t use his Calling anymore…If he’s willing to do that, though… “You’re gonna have to tell me what happened to you.” 

“Right. Right. So it starts the other day, when you came by the gift shop. I saw you leave and fly around that church. What was that?”

Abigail shrugs. “Just checking things out. There was a weird gate they’d attached to it - one that changed shape depending on how you approached it to make sure you can’t get in.” 

“Huh. Well, after you left, I just…kept staring at the church.” 

We flash back to the gift shop, where Carlos is staring at the Protestant Church across the street, and someone walks in - a man with unkempt red hair. At first, Carlos doesn’t notice him walking in, his attention solely across the street. 

Carlos’ narration hovers in the background. I was bored out of my mind, as I usually am when I work there. You’d given me something interesting to think about - but it was like getting a puzzle with like half of the pieces. I didn’t know what I was looking at, it was just fun to look.

Turns out I was looking the wrong way. 

“Excuse me?” A voice comes from the other side of the counter. 

Carlos snaps out of his fog and looks straight ahead - the man is about 5’7” with a slim frame, bushy red hair that seems to shoot in every direction, and an orange shawl sitting atop a collared jacket. The mismatched colors helped to distract from his eyes, which were hollow and sunken, his right a bright blue, and the left a forest green. “OH. I’m so sorry, welcome to Coastal Astoria Gift Shop! How can I help you?”

“Ah, I’m in town for the next couple weeks, just passin’ my way through. Figure someone working at a place like this would know of some fun stuff to do.” The man says, his voice soft and gentle. 

Carlos grins. “First off, get to the other side of town. This neck of the woods sucks.”

The man laughs. “I’ve seen worse. But I’ll take your word for it.” 

“Obviously, there’s a beach about twenty minutes east of here and another maybe 30 minutes south east. The closer one is easier to get in and out of and has a lot of good places to eat nearby, and the other is a bit less convenient but has a little theme park running through it. Both are pretty cool.” 

“Right on.” 

“But, if you’re looking to stay downtown, I’ll give you…” Carlos begins, pulling out a sticky note and writing the names of a few restaurants and bars on them. “This little list of places to check out while you’re here. When do you leave, by the way?”

The man looks up in thought for a moment. “I’m thinking in two weeks-ish.” 

“Oh, perfect! You’ll be around for the Jade Fest then! That’s something you gotta check out, a bunch of local places get together to make a huge market, there’s music and live performances and fireworks at the end of the night, it’s always sick.” 

“Hell yeah. Sounds awesome.” The man says, taking the list of restaurants from Carlos and putting it into his pocket. “Cheers, man. Appreciate you hooking me up. What’s your name?”

“Ah, Carlos Dumaresq, good sir.” 

“Pleasure.” The man says, nodding and taking his leave without giving his own name. 

“So you met a guy.” Abigail says, cutting us back to the present. 

“No, no, it - first off, not my type. Second off, that man gave off definite straight-single-man vibes. Third off, guy seemed like a tumbleweed. Not the type of person you ever expect to see again.” 

Abigail chuckles, and motions to Lea for another drink. “Fair enough. Not sure where this is going yet.” 

“I didn’t either. Until I went to Caballeros later for work.” 

“Which place is that again?”

“Bar off of 3rd. Sort of a Southwestern-y vibe? Shitty pre-made margs? Y’know?”

“No, sounds awful.”

Carlos is at Caballeros, behind yet another counter, this time pouring together different cocktails and grabbing appetizers from a kitchen behind the window. Caballeros is busy - Friday nights are great for any bar lucky enough to be on 3rd Street, if they can afford the rent to keep going. Caballeros, with its cheap drinks, loyal customer base, and penny-pinching management, was prime time 3rd Street material. 

It was still pretty early - maybe 9pm or so. Night was young and the crowd was starting to grow. I was in the middle of making a few drinks when I turn around, and what the hell, it’s that dude from earlier, just sitting at my bar!

“Hey, you.” Carlos says, shaking his head as he places a couple drinks in front of guests around his bushy haired friend. “When I gave you that list of places to check out, I very pointedly did not include this one.” 

The man shoots him a smile. “What, you just work at every place in this city?” 

“Just about. Well, if you’re wasting your time here, might as well grab you a drink, what can I do for ya?” 

“Whatever house special type thing you’ve got going on is fine, and you can go ahead and close out the tab.” 

“Cheers to that, bud.” Carlos says. 

I go to make his drink and get distracted when I look into the food window - tons of food piling up, I figure I’ll start moving it around. Then my coworker nudges me in the arm. 

“Hey,” a short but stocky man says, subtly nudging his head towards the door. “See those two weirdos who just walked in?”

Carlos covertly takes a look back - two men have just entered the bar, both wearing dark hooded jackets, but completely different in appearance. One is large and muscular, arms bulging through the thin sleeves of the jacket, and the other is thin and lanky, almost snake-like in appearance. “Jesus. The hell is up with them?”

“I dunno, but they seem to be pals with the red-head.” 

Back at Magnolia, Abigail’s ear twitches. The red-head…? 

Carlos looks over his shoulder at Caballeros, and sees the two men sit down around the red-headed man. 

At first, I thought that maybe he just had some weird friends. But one look at his face, and you could tell that wasn’t it. He looked pissed. And I had no intention of getting involved. 

“Should we do something about them….?” Carlos’ co-worker asks. 

“Keep an eye out, if they do anything weird, we get Brock over here to kick em’ out.”

“Who’s Brock?” Abigail asks. 

“Oh, the bouncer there. Real cool guy, level headed, really likes table top games, tall, tattoos....” 

Abigail smiles. “Now that sounds like your type.” 

Carlos blushes. “Shut up. It’s about to get good.” 

“Copy that. But you’re taking their orders. I’m not messin’ with that.”

Carlos laughs. “Fine, fine. You owe me one.” He says, making his way over to the three strange men. “Hey, gentlemen, how are we doing - “

The bigger figure laughs. “Ah, finally! Come on, Arihiro, howzabout you treat us to a drink before we get outta here?” 

The thin figure nods in agreement. “It would only be right after what you took from us, don’t you think?”

The red-headed man, Arihiro, suddenly grows a wide smile. “Well, I couldn’t possibly get in the way of what’s right, can I?” He asks, looking up at Carlos. 

He seemed confident, but I could see something else in his eyes.

“Say, Carlos, three shots of your top shelf tequila, if you could. Salt and limes with ‘em.” Arihiro says. 

“Oh-ho-ho! Mighty big treat there, kid!” The bigger figure says. 

Carlos laughs along politely, and he turns to the back wall to find the most expensive tequila on the board, selecting a bottle in the shape of a mutated chupacabra and pouring a shot into three separate glasses, each lined with a thick layer of salt. He places a lime on each shot glass, and hands them to the men at the bar. “Enjoy,” he says, suddenly feeling his phone buzzing in his pocket. It’s buzzing incessantly, unlike any phone call or text message he’d received before - enough that he has to walk his way through the double doors behind the bar into the kitchen. 

I had a message on my phone that didn’t come from any phone number - it was just words on the screen. And it only said one word on it. RUN.

Carlos stares down at his phone, eyebrows furrowed, and hears a loud smashing back in the bar. He pushes the doors open to re-enter, but finds that chaos has erupted. 

Arihiro is halfway across the bar, and is surrounded by the two hooded figures, the snake-like one grabbing his own face in pain. Carlos takes a quick glance at the bar, seeing two smashed shot glasses and blood all over the counter. 

“Gentlemen,” a muscle-bound Brock says, “I’m going to have to ask all of you to leave.”

“Trust me,” Arihiro spits, “I wish I could.”

“You son of a bitch! You think you can hurt the Wyverns of Ryu-Djinn and get away with it?!”

Abigail gasps. “Wait, WHAT?!” She asks, spinning to face Carlos with her whole body. “What did you just say?!”

“Wha -? The Wyverns of Ryu-Djinn? I know, absolute lunatics - “

Abigail’s mouth is hanging open. There’s no way it was this simple. That he was this close. “Keep going.”

Carlos laughs. “Your face reminds me of the time I spoiled the ending of Contention for you.”

“Keep going.” Abigail quickly says. “So this guy, Arihiro, he’s fighting these Wyvern dudes.”

“Yeah. And it’s freaking. CRAZY.” 

This guy was unlike anything I’d ever seen. If he had a Calling, he wasn’t using it - he was ducking and weaving and slapping around those wackjobs. 

Arihiro, indeed, was moving around like he was made of air. His feet barely touched the ground as he leapt between each of the Roku’kus, landing quick but effective blows on each of them as he swapped from target to target. 

It was like he knew the exact critical points to hit - every shot was knocking them back, taking their breath away. But these dues were strong, too. 

“You’re pretty quick on your feet, little hatchling,” The big figure says, cracking his back as his shoulders start to separate and double on his back, “But you don’t have Our Lord’s Blessing.” A large set of wings grow on the larger man’s back, and as he spreads them apart, a series of dragon’s mouths form on the inside of the wing’s membranes, each powering up a blast of fire. 

“I thought Wyverns didn’t have wings?” Arihiro asks.
“You’re cute.” The large man responds. “I’ll make this simple for ya. Either surrender and come with us, or I’ll blow this entire bar to smithereens.”

“Ah, that’s right. It’s Wyrms that don’t have wings.” Arihiro says with a sigh, loosening his position and raising his arms. “Fine, I surr- “ 

He’s met with a volley of flames and explosions smashing into him anyway, as the large man’s wings shoot forward and concentrate all their fire on him - the smoke clears, and Arihiro falls to the ground, out cold. 

The two guys grabbed Arihiro, and knocked Brock out cold in one hit when he tried to stop them from leaving. I saw them get into a van, and drive away. 

Carlos is staring at where Arihiro and the Rokukus once were, eyes welling up with tears. 

“Bro, what the hell just happened?” Carlos’ coworker asks. 

Carlos remains silent. 

At that moment, I could feel myself at a crossroads. I knew that there were only two options…but…when I thought about it, I knew there was only one thing to do. I kept thinking about you, Abigail, and how if you were there, you would’ve gone after them, guns blazing. 

“Carlos? You okay?”

“Hey Jackson?” Carlos finally says. 

“Yeah bro?”

And I guess I wanted to see how hot my guns could get, too. 

“Tell Mark I quit.” Carlos says, tearing off his apron and putting his hands together. He closes his eyes, and the loud music and general calamity of the room go silent as he disappears into the floor, leaving a puddle of earth in the spot where he stood. 

“Oh, HELL YES, Carlos!” Abigail shouts, slapping him on the back. “You used your Calling!”

Carlos grins back at her. “Yeah. First time in a long while.” He says, looking down at his hands. “It felt good to be back in the Earth again.” 

Outside the church on Oleander, now a smoldering crater,  a van comes to a sudden, screeching halt. The two Roku’kus run out of the car, and stand in front of the gate, finding that the entire church is gone. 

Across the street, the sidewalk begins to bubble as the top half of Carlos’ head rises from the Earth. Dirt drips off of his face like water, melting back into the concrete below him.

CARLOS DUMARESQ

CALLING: LIQUID EARTH

“No…this isn’t possible…” The larger figure says, hands landing behind his head in anguish. 

The snake-like man grunts. “Get in the van. I can summon the Wandering Flames myself, we just have to pray to Ryu-Djinn that we can make it before the Executioning.” 

“You sure you can do it?”

“Get in the van.” 

The two hop back into the van and immediately speed off, and Carlos sinks back into the Earth. 

I wasn’t sure what a ‘Wandering Flame’ was, but that didn’t matter. All I could think about was how to save Arihiro. 

Carlos chases after the van inconspicuously, able to swim at incredible speeds underneath the Earth, only coming to the surface occasionally for air. He continues getting closer as the van speeds up, and manages to equalize his speed with the vehicle, popping up routinely directly underneath the car. He follows them until they begin to leave the city, and he notices a small flickering of flames starting to surround the vehicle. 

Oh, he thinks. That must be a ‘Wandering Flame’. The flames grow in intensity, and after a moment of hesitation, he grabs hold of the bottom of the van - right as the flames surround him entirely, and he feels himself being ripped from the earth and yanked across space. The intensity is too much, and before he knows it, he’s passed out. 

Everything was dark. I felt us land, but I wasn’t sure what was happening - as I was coming to, there was already a lot of commotion coming from the van. 

Carlos lifts his head, and finds that he’s still under the van - but it’s rocking back and forth, until it flips completely over and he watches the bigger Rokuku fly out from the roof. Arihiro isn’t far behind, moving with a quiet fury as he charges forward, trading blows with the large Rokuku, and then the snake one as well as he jumps out of the car, hooded jacket now gone and revealing a malformed body of dragon scales and the beginnings of limbs growing from his abdomen. 

Carlos manages to pull himself to his feet, watching the carnage go down from a small distance - the large Rokuku seems to notice him, but can’t do much about it, as he grows wings to defend himself from a flurry of blows from Arihiro, whose arms have started moving too fast for Carlos to keep up with. He watches as Arihiro takes a leap backwards, preparing some sort of energy around him, when he hears the large Rokuku speak. 

“My dearest Ryudos”, he says, a soft sorrow in his voice, “Spread your wings and fly from here, to spread Ryu’Djinn’s flames anew. ” 

The other Rokuku seems to understand the weight of these words, and immediately vanishes from sight as the large Rokuku bolts forward, entire body ignited in flame, and grabs Arihiro in a bear hug before self-destructing in a massive explosion. 

As I saw the dust settle from the explosion, I must’ve instinctually guarded myself with a wall of earth, because I was fine - or maybe Arihiro knew I was there, and somehow stopped the explosion from hitting me. Either way, I felt empty. I came all this way, to the middle of nowhere, trying to play hero…and just watched this guy get blown up in front of me. 

Carlos falls to his knees, and runs his hand through his dreads. 

But the smoke in front of him shifts, and a bloody, barely-breathing Arihiro stumbles out from the cloud of dust and ash. 

“Oh my god! You’re alive!” Carlos shouts, the earth beneath his feet sliding him forward towards Arihiro. “Oh my god, you’re hurt. We need to get you - “

“No…” Arihiro mumbles, pushing Carlos aside and slowly shuffling forward. “Over there…they need help…”

Carlos looks where Arihiro is looking, but gets distracted by a loud cracking sound, followed by a pillar of lightning and flame shooting up into the sky. 

Arihiro gasps. “No…I was too late…” He says, still trying to walk forward, but falling to his knees and coughing up blood. The two can hear the echoes of a man shouting, and the sky erupts as a massive dragon breaks through the skyline, careening into the distance. 

Arihiro screams into the night. 

That’s when I saw it. 

The world turned purple. 

It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen in my entire life.

And when I saw that…

Somehow…

I knew everything was going to be okay. 

“Because that was you, wasn’t it, Abigail?” Carlos asks, and we’re back at Magnolia Street. “That shade of purple…I’ve only ever seen it come from your flames before. That was you, right? That’s how your arm got all busted up?”

Abigail doesn’t know how to respond. She just stares at Carlos for a moment, and then slowly nods. “What happened after that?”

Carlos takes a moment to decide how to respond. “Arihiro ended up passing out, and I spent the night taking us across the Deep Woods and back to some form of civilization. Once we could hop on some transit to get home, I let him stay at my place for the day, but he seemed really embarrassed about it. He left early the next morning, and I haven’t seen him since.” 

“Damn.” 

“What? Hoping he was still around?”

Abigail laughs. “I kinda wanted to offer him a job.” 

“Well, Jade Fest is only a week away, right?”

“Uh huh?”

“And he said he was gonna check it out.”

Abigail nods. “Right, you did say that. I guess we’ll have to hold off until then.”

“Hold off on what, exactly?”

Abigail smiles back at Carlos. “Celebrating your new job. Hopefully we’ll -”

“Wait, wait, wait. My new job? WE’LL? Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

“Welcome to the team, Mr. Dumaresq. It’ll be a pleasure to have you on board.” Abigail says, lifting a hand to shake Carlos’, which he immediately does. 

“Oh my god! Abigail! This is so exciting - really, thank you, for giving me a chance -”

“Hey, you’re doing me a favor, really. You know what this guy looks like…”

—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Back at the remains of the Roku’ku compound, Ian and Maya are looking around the crater left from the Rokuku’s self-destruction. Maya has a small device in her hand, adorned with a small arm on top that’s laying limp until she gets closer to the crater, causing the arm to light up and stiffen. “Hmm. Readings here are high.” 

“That’s about what I expected.”

“So you think he was here?”

Ian nods, and pulls a laser scalpel from his pocket to cut out a small sliver of the crater, then putting it into a small container. “Yeah, he was definitely here.” 

“Shit. What’s the next move then?”

Ian sighs, and looks up to the sky. “He must’ve been in Coastal Astoria, and got brought here by the Rokuku’s. So our best bet is to start there.” 

“You think he went back?” 

“I hope so.”

“Think we’ll get him this time?”

Ian nods, and motions for Maya to follow as he heads towards a small jet. 

“Get Michael on the line and let him know to meet us at the coast. And tell him that within the next week…we will finally kill that wretched science experiment.”