Zapdos

Mystery of the Key - a Collaborative Writing Story

“Yeah,” Arthur responded. In fact, they were getting louder. It was almost as if they were right next to them, the amnesiac thought.

And then the pair saw them: a huge throng of regular frogs, surrounding them and the cabin on all sides. It was as if all of the grass on the ground had turned into a different type of green, this kind being one that ribbited constantly.

However, even this phenomenon didn’t last, as the entire amphibian assembly started jumping at Arthur! Normal frogs by themselves lacked much in the way of offensive capability against a creature much larger than itself, but the man had no idea what hundreds of them could do to him.

Not that he intended to find out; the amnesiac drew his sword and started stabbing them, slaying the amphibians as quickly as possible. He even used his feet to kick some of them away, which gave Clark the idea to exit the cabin and do the same. And like Roland yesterday, the impact of his foot sent these frogs flying. They creatures didn’t look out of the ordinary at all, so neither of the two was sure why these amphibians were doing this, but at least their defense against it seemed to be working.

That is, until a much larger and more familiar frog lunged down from one of the nearby trees, slamming Arthur into the ground.

“No!” Clark exclaimed, both alarmed at the damage his friend took and in fear of the ex-convict right next to him. And the frog did not waste any time; he immediately flicked his tongue out at the cricket, grabbing him with it. Unfortunately for the criminal though, Arthur did not either; he had landed with his back to the ground, so he was easily able to use his sword to stab the frog’s right leg. This clearly wasn’t something that the enemy was expecting, as the frog screamed in pain in response. Clark took the opportunity to jump away from the creature’s tongue and onto his back.

“Get off of my friend!” the cricket commanded with tears in his eyes as he assaulted the frog with a series of kicks, holding onto the amphibian’s skin with his hands in the meantime. Clark was absolutely terrified of being eaten by this frog, but the thought of Arthur being killed scared him even more.

“Do it now!” the frog raged in response before jumping off of Arthur with Clark holding on for dear life. Both amnesiac and cricket were wondering what “it” was until the man saw a silver ball zooming right towards him. Roland - it had to be Roland.

Arthur couldn’t compact himself into a ball, but when he saw the small fat man attempting to strike him, he knew what to do; the amnesiac rolled himself out of the way, just narrowly avoiding a spiked ball of pain. Fortunately, Roland had bounced off of the ground and landed a little further away from where he was, so Arthur had time to get up and take a defensive stance while he evaluated the situation. He knew Gordon had to be close by if his associate was there, he just didn’t know where he was yet. More worrisome than that, the amnesiac didn’t know where Clark and the frog had gone either.

----

“Get off of me, you stupid bug!” the frog yelled as he continued jumping, leading both of them away from the cabin back in the direction of Irris. As much as he hated to admit it, the cricket’s kicks were getting painful at this point and the amphibian knew his arms wouldn’t be able to reach either.

“No! Leave us alone!” Clark countered. He knew he couldn’t hold on forever though, as his arms were already in a great deal of pain just from holding on as long as this. He’d have to find a way to - wait, maybe he should listen to the creature trying to kill him, just this once.

The cricket knew he wasn’t much of a fighter, but jumping, he definitely knew how to do that. And landing was an important part of jumping, so he knew he could do that too. Adding another part to that process wouldn’t be too hard, then. So with as much grace as was possible in this situation, Clark let go of the frog once he was halfway to the apex of one of his jumps and kicked the amphibian’s stabbed leg with as much force as he could muster on his way to the ground. And like every other jump of his he could remember, the cricket made it to the ground perfectly.

“Son of a toad!” the frog screamed in pain. He had clearly not expected this, as his jump turned from something typical of his species to something much less skillful as he convulsed in pain. And instead of landing on his legs like he normally would, the frog landed head-first, indenting the creature’s dome in the process.

The cricket stood there in shock for a few moments. This was not what he expected to happen. Clark thought maybe the amphibian would be stunned in pain for a few moments at the most, but the creature was not moving at all. Not moving from a splayed position with his head facing the ground and bleeding. Yeah, that confirmed it - the frog had croaked. Somehow, he had won.

The cricket felt awful, both because of what had happened and because of the fact that Arthur was probably still in danger. Despite his exhaustion, Clark began jumping back towards his friend as quickly as he could, hoping he wasn’t in too much trouble.

Looking for More Writers for a Superhero RP

@Clever Hans I saw your like, so I wanted to let you know that the RP is on hiatus. You can submit a CS if you'd like, but idk when or if we'll be able to resume the RP.

Rise of the New Heroes

Unfortunately, I have to pause this RP until further notice. Details are in the Discord server. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the writing here!

Looking for More Writers for a Superhero RP

@Lurking Shadow that makes sense, send me a PM when you can and we can discuss it.

Looking for More Writers for a Superhero RP

@Lurking Shadow the way you have the regeneration set up could be reasonable on the surface, but I suppose it would depend on how it integrates with her powers as a whole. Does that make sense? Besides plot reasons, the reason behind "no healers" is so someone can't just heal their way out of any conflict, so that's something to keep in mind (I did see you said it didn't make her hard to kill, so I could just be being redundant).

Looking for More Writers for a Superhero RP

@Clever Hans and @Lurking Shadow, today I remembered you aren't automatically subscribed to threads you post yourself! :P Yes, we're still open, feel free to ask any questions you may have or submit a character if you want!

Rise of the New Heroes

@Exodia Relent that's cool!

Well, removing the immature portion of it means it isn't Fart Rocket.

In any case, I suspect you'll be able to think of something. Inspiration is funny though, you never know where it'll come from. Good luck to you!

Rise of the New Heroes

@Exodia Relent yeah, we're still open. I guess it's a good thing we've been slow with posts lately :P As long as you don't mind that, then that's cool!

As for how out there to go? It's subjective, but I guess "interesting and creative, not stupid and/or random for its own sake" is the criteria. E.g. pun control is unique and original, while Fart Rocket is immature and has been done already. Not to say you can't use a more straightforward super power like flight in an interesting way, I'm talking more specifically about "different" super powers.

If you have any other questions, let me know. I appreciate the interest in our RP!

Mystery of the Key - a Collaborative Writing Story

@Stuzzie you are next!

Mystery of the Key - a Collaborative Writing Story

“We’re here,” Clark said, “Irris city limits.” The northwestern border gate of Irris was a fairly simple barrier for the size of the city it protected. It was a large wooden fence approximately 18 feet tall, built like a log cabin, with the entrance and exit from Irris being a large square in the middle wide enough for a half dozen horses to fit in side-by-side. As far as either of the two could see, the only things of note right outside the city were a windy cobblestone road and a great deal of pine trees; this structure was clearly not built for defense, as it didn’t seem there was much that needed to be defended against.

“Right,” Arthur replied, “and if we take the fourth dirt road on the right in these woods, we’ll be on our way to The Black Cairn?”

“Indeed. Are you nervous?” Arthur knew that Clark already knew the answer to that question, but also that the insect wouldn’t ask something like that for laughs, so there must have been a good reason behind it.

“Yeah. Are you?”

“Definitely. This is a big step, even if this area looks nicer than Irris. Not like an actual big step, ‘cause my feet are the same size they’ve always been, just like this is something new that I haven’t done before.”

Even though he was still concerned for his friend, Arthur couldn’t help smiling a little at his friend’s explanation of an obvious expression. “We could go to Fletcherville or something if you’d like, you know. We don’t have to do this.”

“Not literally, but I feel like I must. These keys unlock something important, and they may help you with your memory.” Clark noticed Arthur start to feel guilty, so he added “plus, like I said, this should be interesting. Are you okay with all this?”

“Yeah. I think a lot of it is just nerves, that and I feel bad leaving Morris and Marissa. They’ve been good to us.”

“They’re great people and they helped us out a lot. They wouldn’t have done that if they didn’t know we’d be okay here. We should move forward and make sure their efforts weren’t in vain.”

“Right.” After saying this, Arthur adjusted his helmet slightly. It was a simple steel helmet that lacked any fancy ornamentation, but still covered the back and top of his head effectively. “Let’s go to this Cairn.”

-----

The night before Arthur and Clark’s departure from Irris, Marissa walked into her husband’s forge, watching him make armor for the amnesiac.

“You know, if you keep this up, you won’t have any energy for tomorrow’s dinner rush,” she teased.

“I could say the same about your journey in the publishing field,” Morris retorted as he took a break from his work. More sorrowfully now, he continued. “Those two, though, this journey of theirs reminds me so much of Marvin’s. I feel like if I helped our boy more before he left-”

His wife cut him off, enveloping him in a hug. “Don’t blame yourself, dear. It all happened so fast we couldn’t even meet the people he was with. I’m sure wherever Marv is, he feels the same way.”

“I know,” the big man agreed, returning Marissa’s gesture. His voice still contained sadness, but there was a small hint of acceptance as well. “It’s still hard though.”

“I know, dear. I miss him too.” After a few moments of holding each other, the husband and wife separated, with Morris returning to his crafting and the woman returning to their restaurant, finding more items to pack for the amnesiac and cricket.

-----

In the early afternoon after Arthur and Clark left Irris, three individuals were having a conversation in the vestibule of an old, disused jail building in the city. Gordon, Roland and the Chief didn’t want anyone to disturb them, so this was the perfect place to talk.

“...and our boss has agreed to create a story for his escape,” Gordon concluded.

“I am grateful; please tell Edgar his generosity is appreciated” the Chief responded.

“Of course,” the tall man said with a nod of his head. “This benefits us both, after all.”

“Certainly. Just be sure to kill those two. I don’t care about the keys, but nobody makes a fool out of me in my city,” the City Guard’s leader said as he opened the door. The lockup was empty, save for one cell, and it was that cell’s door that the Chief proceeded to unlock as he spoke to the prisoner.

“Remember, if you hurt anyone besides Arthur and Clark, this deal is off. We can’t have people asking questions.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah” the prisoner replied, sounding more bored than anything else. He then turned his attention to Edgar’s men and continued speaking, this time much more eagerly. “Remember, I don’t care how you end Arthur, but the cricket is mine. I’ve been looking forward to that snack.” The frog menacingly licked his lips, looking forward to his gruesome fare.