“Hmm, so it might be, attracted to the oddity inside you.”
“Perhaps.”
“Interesting.”
Neri has her arms crossed, and is humming to herself. She arcs her neck back, looking up to the sky.
“Then, we’ve got a way to lure them out.”
“That seems potentially dangerous.”
“All this is dangerous.”
“You have a point.”
“Then, let’s continue looking for potential oddity hot spots, and try to also lure in the anti-oddity.”
“Is that it’s code name?”
“Cool right?”
“Eh, I guess.”
“Can you do better?”
“No.”
“Then no complaints.”
“Fair enough.”
“How about the normalizer?”
Lucifer says.
“That’s most certainly worse.”
“I think, it has a nice ring to it.”
“You would say that, about any name you came up with.”
“Indeed, I would, because I’m just that good.”
“What name did he come up with?”
“Normalizer.”
“Wow, that’s terrible.”
“Ah, my feelings, they have been shattered.”
“When you say it that way, you don’t sound very earnest. Even though, I know you are.”
Neri starts marching forward.
“Onward, to patrolling.”
The group travel to different locations, marking their general negative energy rates. Quinn seems a bit exasperated by the action.
“We really don’t cover much ground, doing this.”
“That’s fine, the primary goal has shifted, after all.”
“What do we do, if the anti-oddity doesn’t show up?”
“Uh…”
Neri glances away.
“You didn’t think about it.”
“We should be focused on what we do, once they do show up.”
“Okay, then what do we do then?”
“Uh…”
Neri glances the other way.
“You didn’t think about that either.”
“It’s best to react to things as they come. After all, an oddity could take any number of different shapes.”
Quinn thinks it over. “She says that; but there certainly are trends they follow. They are based on humanities misgivings, at the end of the day.”
“Yeah…”
Quinn looks over to the mist building up, once again.
“It’s getting misty again, already.”
“Hm, what mist?”
Quinn slowly turns to Neri, who is looking back at him, questioningly.
“You don’t, see it.”
“No.”
Quinn turns to Lucifer, who has a surprised expression. The man covers his mouth with his hand.
“I don’t, understand.”
“Neri, what type of oddity would cause mist?”
She gets a serious look.
“Anything based on the fear of the unknown, could cause it.”
“Fear, that means…”
“A dangerous oddity.”
Neri states clearly.
“That goes along with the idea, that is has a killing intent.”
“That doesn’t explain, why it would target oddities.”
“That’s a good point.”
Quinn turns around.
“Hey-”
Lucifer is gone.
“Tsk.”
“Did they vanish again?”
“Yes.”
“So, they are close.”
Neri looks around.
“Hm?”
“What?”
“I can see some mist rolling in now.”
Quinn looks to the mist. “More mist has rolled in. Can I see it, because of my better eyesight? Was this an overreaction. No, both times he disappeared, there was mist.”
Tap, tap, tap.
Footsteps draw closer. Neri is the first to notice. Quinn is alerted, by her change in demeanor. He turns to see the white-haired man from last night, walking down the street. When he does, he feels a panic quake through his body. Floating all around the man, are various glowing, odd creatures. They seem alien in nature. Not quite natural, not quite unnatural. As the man walks, they follow close behind. “Calm down.”
Quinn lowers his heart rate. As the man walks past them, the creatures float through Quinn and Neri. Quinn tries his best not to react to this; but Neri feeling the slightest change, reacts slightly. The man’s eye turns towards the girl.
“Hey, Miss, do you have the time?”
“Yeah, it’s one fifteen.”
“Thank you.”
He keeps walking, with the creatures following him. That is, except one. A large mass of a creature. Eyes, with pupils that expand and retract, dotted around. Large jagged teeth, protruding from a lengthy slit mouth. The creature opens its jaw up, slowly moving it towards Neri’s head. The girl, unable to see the creature, does not move. Quinn without hesitating, grabs Neri’s shoulders and jerks her to the side, before the creature clamps down. “What did I do?”
He gives a fearful look to Neri. “If those things passed through us before, then wouldn’t that one, have as well? Was this a trap, that I played straight into!?”
“Ah, do you have something important to say, grabbing me like this?”
Neri says, with a calm voice. Quinn looks up to the man, who isn’t looking back. “Save this, calm down.”
“Yeah, I did. I just wanted to let you know, that you can do this.”
“Thanks, I’m glad I told you about it. Though, you didn’t have to get so excited.”
“Ah, yeah, my bad. I got ahead of myself there.”
Quinn lets go. “I hope, if that was a trap, that we didn’t just activate it.”
They wait until the man is gone.
“I think, that’s about all we can do today.”
“Alright.”
They start walking back.
“Can we talk about what just happened?”
“I’m not sure.”
Neri looks over to the mist.
“Hey, let’s get away from it.”
She points at the mist.
“Yeah, okay.”
They head towards a bus stop, and then board the next bus. Once they sit down, Neri eventually asks a question.
“Are you alright?”
“Mh?”
Quinn looks at the girl, deliberating over the question, for a moment.
“Yeah, I think I’m fine. Are you alright?”
“I think so. Though, I don’t think I know what’s going on, yet.”
“Yeah.”
Eventually, the window above the two comes down. Quinn and Neri look up to it.
“Hello there, bus goer.”
Lucifer is sticking his head in through the window, hanging on outside the bus. Quinn just gives an exasperated look to this.
“Not even a funny remark? I worked hard, for this visual gag.”
Lucifer kicks off the wall of the bus, and uses his momentum to slip through the glass, and land in the aisle.
“I’d give that dismount a seven.”
“Harsh judges this year.”
“I take it, we are out of the oddities range now?”
Neri asks.
“Yes girl, that is correct.”
He points at her.
“Good thinking, trying to get away from the mist.”
“So, it is the mist then?”
“Nope.”
“Okay, then what?”
“Come on.”
He gives a disappointed look.
“Did you not see something, that sticks out in memory?”
“Oh, so it is the man?”
“No idea, I was hiding. If there was a particularly odd man though, I would bet on them being involved.”
“Well, he does look odd.”
“Did he int
eract with you?”
“He asked for the time.”
“Menacingly?”
“No, not really.”
“So, it was a random drifter?”
“I guess, I should explain from the top.”
Quinn goes into detail on what he saw, and the fact he saw the man before.
“If you saw him twice, it’s obviously him!”
Lucifer says in a huff.
“How and why, did you not mention seeing this guy before?”
“I mean, he didn’t really stick out when I saw him. It’s like he almost was supposed to be there.”
“That is even more suspicious.”
“So, is he controlling the creatures, or are they controlling him?”
Neri asks.
Quinn and Lucifer look at the girl.
“I got nada.”
“I don’t really know.”
“It’s possible, this mist is eating up oddities, and turning them into puppets. Perhaps the man, is a humanoid oddity, that was eaten. Whereas, those creatures are a mass of an oddity, that got absorbed.”
“Do you think that’s what it is?”
“I’m not really sure. Honestly, it feels like we aren’t taking something obvious, into account.”
“Something obvious…”
Quinn thinks on this idea.
“I would like to stick around and help; but it seems this is my stop.”
Lucifer says.
“Are we getting closer to the mist again.”
“It would appear so. Best for me to stay away from it, entirely.”
“Okay.”
“…Hey.”
“Yes?”
“Keep in mind, humans are far more unpredictable, then oddities.”
“What do you-”
Lucifer disappears. The two get off the bus, near Neri’s place.
“Sorry about all this.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, this whole thing is kind of my fault. And-”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Huh?”
“You couldn’t even imagine, how ecstatic I have been.”
She gives a big smile, and continues.
“I finally have a way, to find and interact with oddities.”
Quinn takes these words in. “Oh, yeah, this is something she actually wants.”
“I know you’re not as interested in them as I am, and you’re mostly doing this to keep things from getting to chaotic.”
Quinn questions her statement. “Am I just doing this, to keep things from getting bad? I don’t really… know. I also don’t get, being interested in these things. Though, I guess, they are interesting.”
“It’s because of you, that I can do this at all. So, thanks!”
Quinn is lightly taken aback.
“I guess, in a way, you’re welcome.”
“That’s almost the spirit.”
The two-part ways. “It’ll be a while, before Lucifer is back out. That’s fine, at least now we have narrowed down the possibilities. Though, it still feels like, he knows something I don’t. In a way, he always does. Now though, he’s had a couple of strange comments. Why would I have to worry about a human? Could that mist guy, be controlling the oddity? If that was the case, then I guess this would be more complicated, then what we have dealt with thus far.”
Quinn stops in his tracks. He looks around, unable to see hardly anything, through the thick mist. “What the…”
Tap, tap, tap.
Quinn hears something, coming from outside of his view, coming from within the mist. The white-haired man, steps into view. The two stare each other down. Quinn takes a step back. “I need to get out of here.”
As he is about to turn and run, smoke spews forth from the man’s mouth, wrapping around Quinn, trapping him in place. “What- what is this?”
The man starts to walk forward.
“Stop.”
Lucifer appears between the two. The man stops walking. He then speaks, with a voice that matches his appearance, though while still being clearly masculine, it’s notably higher pitched.
“You were the right target. I’m unsure if this was expected, or unexpected.”
He looks up and down Lucifer.
“With that said, I certainly was not expecting an oddity of your caliber, to be here. Especially, with the rumors going around.”
“Thought I was dead?”
“Not really, I don’t put much stock in such rumors.”
He pulls out a cigarette.
“That is to say, if I hadn’t seen proof of one of them, first hand recently.”
He lights it and lets a puff out. Quinn going over things in his head over and over, eventually he slows his mind down, and starts to concentrate.
“Ah, so you can control your heart rate.”
Quinn looks at the man, talking to him, unsure on what to say. The man turns his attention back to Lucifer.
“Sheesh, If I had known that it was such a problematic oddity, I would have taken my time.
He scratches the back of his head.
“It’s not too late for that. Perhaps, you leave, we pretend this didn’t happen, and you try again later.”
“Hehe, that honestly wouldn’t be a bad option; but there are just too many things I don’t understand, to do that.”
“Who are you?”
Quinn asks directly.
“Me? Oh, I wasn’t expecting an introduction.”
He takes his cigarette, and puts it out.
“I’m Cresswell, this areas oddity specialist.”
Quinn’s eyes widen.
“That means, you were taking care of oddities, because you’re a specialist.”
“That would be correct.”
Quinn glances to Lucifer. “Then, in our case, is he a friend or foe? How can I deduce that?”
“You see, I came around here, to investigate the unnatural spike of oddities, in this area. I try not to have expectations, a good trait in this line of work, even still, this was unexpected.”
He looks back and forth between the two men in front of him.
“What to do now?”
He crouches down. “He’s thinking about something, to many different possibilities to figure it out. Then, maybe I can aim at something else?”
“I was just a regular kid until just a couple months ago, so forgive me if I’m asking an obvious question. Those glowing creatures from before, they are a type of oddity, right? If that’s the case, then there are situations where specialists and oddities work together?”
He stares a Quinn.
“A civilian, I see, I see. Yes, that definitely narrows things down. To answer your question, a specialist blurs the lines between human and oddity. Which-”
He points at Quinn.
“Given that you can see oddities, you have also blurred that line, already.”
He stands up and cracks his neck. Then he gives a look, that sends a chill down Quinn’s spine.
“I should be clear, just so you know what exactly I am deliberating over. I’m trying to decide if you should die right now, or later.”
Lucifer puts his hands in his pockets.
“Confident you can beat me?”
“Normally, of course not. I’m not sure any singular specialist could. Though, right now, with you already knocking at deaths door, I wouldn’t have to sacrifice too much, to do it.”
“Then, shall we see who can sacrifice more?”
Lucifer’s grin spreads across his face, in an unnatural way, his black eyes expanding out. An energy is emitted from him, as blackness starts stretching over his face.
“What’s the difference between you using oddities, and me using oddities?”
Quinn asks calmly. Lucifer stops his action, looking back at the boy.
“The difference? I’m not sure I understand the question fully?”
“I have been using Lucifer’s help, in order to subdue oddities, for a while now. You do the same
right? I might not be trained, or have abilities like you, and my oddity might be on the strange side; but we are still helping people at the end of the day.”
Cresswell takes his time pondering this question. He takes a deep breath in, when he does, the smoke restraining Quinn is sucked away.
“There’s a massive difference, between you and I. Don’t get me wrong, I am not arrogant enough to believe I am something special. Nor am I pride full enough, to not acknowledge that outsiders sometime help handle oddities, from time to time.”
He pulls out a thin, metal object, that has two pointed cones, connected by a central pole.
“Things aren’t even close to simple, when dealing with these things.”
He balances the object on his finger.
“You threaten the precarious balance, the world is in. Either side you fall on, that balance will shift. If it goes too much one way, or another, the world will fall into chaos.”
The object spins towards Lucifer, then spins to Quinn.
“You see, even with bad intentions, or good ones, the main threat you hold, is your great ability to shake the balance of things. Outside of the context of what has and hasn’t happened. If all the specialists got together, to discuss if they should magically have the devil start operating on our side or not, we wouldn’t be able to come to a consensus. At least, not until the sun burns out. Like it or not, that man serves a role in the current natural order of things. There’s one simple reason for it. No matter the major changes we make, as long as humans manifest desire, there can never be peace.”
He looks up, as if he is thinking about something.
“Ah, yes. Think about it this way. You might not like a foreign power; but you can’t just show up and kill their leader and say job well done. You would throw that country into pandemonium. Best case, a bloody war over the empty seat of power. Worst case, you start world war III, and cause a nuclear fallout that destroys all life on Earth. Do you understand, what I am saying?”
“Yes…”
Quinn clenches his fist.
“But even with that being the case, I have to do something! I’m no were near smart enough to figure out how to fix the world; however, I can’t sit by and watch as my actions cause harm to others!”
The man stairs at the boy, not quite sure what to say, perhaps a little embarrassed.
“Hehehe.”
Lucifer let’s out a laugh.
“You see that. This boy has the best intentions possible, at least by your type’s standards. Practically born to get me some sympathy.”
“You’re letting your true colors out, too easily.”
Oddity Specialist: Purgatory Page 2