User:Beastazoid/Fanon Con Normal Writing Competition

THIS IS MY HOME: A Short Story by Beast
The world is not a nice place. MY world is not a nice place. My family and I have been settlers and farmers here for so many solar cycles that I've lost count. Keeping track wasn't doing me any good anyway. My mate was right when she said keeping track of numbers every hour of every cycle would drive me mad.

Some people call this place Hell. I feel like that's a little extreme. The Plumbers know of us, but they still call this place the Null Void.

My family calls it home. It's the only name that sounds right.

My children Gham and Rodin were out processing our Ground and Crystal Root, and my mate Lup walked alongside me, Drek, as we carried along the Blood Root in a basket back to our village. Yes, there were lots of roots. But in our Home, we must take advantage of what we can. I never meant for my family to end up here, farming roots and tending to fields. But life, for quite possibly every being in the universe, is tricky like that. And sometimes-

“Drek, my love. Snap out of those deep thoughts of yours and talk to me!”

Lup always brings me back down to Earth after such a deep contemplation. I'm quite fortunate to have her. We talked for the rest of the trek back from our fields, across the boulders that float, static in the air. Deeper red skies here in our Home signify that the evening has arrived, and this evening proved to be special. A special guest that has come to visit our village more and more lately has told our chief of a holiday called “Giving Thanks?” Or was it “Thanks Giving?” Ah, no matter. Our chiefs decided we had enough resources for a celebratory feast, and this holiday was excitedly brought to their attention to the foreigner. So a decree was made that every family would harvest a small portion of their crop and join in the center for a rousing supper. Smiles wouldn’t leave our faces as hurried through the entrance of our village towards our chief’s tent. But Gham and Rodin came running our way, smiles replaced with grimaces of fear. Something was wrong.

“Father! Mother! Criminals have escaped from the prison!” Gham yelled from down the road.

Lup and I dropped our harvest and all 4 of us ran for the village. “Rodin, when did this start?!” I yelled over to my other sun. His breath was quickened and he panted through each word. “Not...too...long...ago! They must’ve...saw us bringing in all of this food...and decided to try and take it for themselves!” We finally made it to our village, only to find it utterly ransacked. The huts our eyes met were of Alpha Section and were devastated all around us, crumbled to pieces by flames, physical attacks, viscous slimes, and other means. I saw no fellow villagers, but this could’ve been good or bad. I signaled my family to head east, towards the Beta Section huts. From the looks of it, those huts, along with ours, hadn’t been touched. We quickly reached our abode, frantically unearthing our weapons from hidden holes all around. It was not much. A simple farming scythe from our living room, two blades from a decorative vase, and two dense irrigation pipes, one for both of my sons. It broke my heart seeing my family arm themselves, each taking off their work hats one by one. Truthfully, we are a peaceful race. We fight when we must, but it is a risk every time. We are farmers, not warriors. But our village is unified. Men, women and children alike would take up arms to protect the village, its resources and its elders and infants. Though we are all not related, the bond sewn throughout this village is strong, and we will never leave one another behind.

My family and I hurried outside, and I pressed my forehead to each of theirs. I stepped back, looking into each of their eyes and made a fist to my chest. “I love you all. Be safe. Stay alive.” They made the same fist back and responded back to me. “We love you. Be safe. Stay alive.”

Suddenly a curious sound made itself apparent, and we all turned back to back, weapons at the ready. Amongst the sound of wreckage and fire farther in the center were...the sounds of beating wings. And maniacal, terrifying laughter. Looking to the skies, we all laid eyes on a squadron of 6-8 Lepidopterrans, buzzing about in a triangle formation. One in the front released a piercing screech, and each began to fire bullet after bullet of acidic spit. “BACK IN THE HOUSE!”, I yelled to my family, and all 4 of us pushed into the door. Falling to the floor, I covered all three of them as the attack pelted our roof. Dust and bits of stone crumbled down until the attack had stopped. A putrid smell had begun to overtake our senses, and a glance upwards saw the house’s structural integrity being melted by the lethal substance. We all stood and ran for the back entrance, pushing out into the alley and coughing violently. Our hut was in ruins, disintegrating into nothingness before us, but we had to keep moving. I pulled them up one by one, and pushed them to get going in the alley. “We stay together!!!”, I yelled to them.

We all began to head for the center, going the long way and weaving in between houses as to avoid the Lepidopterrans. The buzzing was heard again, along with that loud screech. No time to think. I pushed Lup and Rodin to the side, and grabbed Gham as we fell to either side of the alley, underneath the thin shade of two hut roofs. Just barely shielded enough to avoid the attack, another wave of acid ripped up the gravel of the road we traveled on. I nodded to Lup and Rodin, who gave a nod back. I pulled Gham up and we all continued on as the Lepidopterrans began to pull up for another circle back. “Can we keep holding them off like this?”, Rodin yelled to me. I couldn’t answer back; I wasn’t certain myself. We kept traveling under the rooftops until we made it to the edge of Alpha Section, where just a quick scaling up a wall would lead us into the main section, where our village was containing most of the fighting. But with a squadron of Lepidopterrans trying to kill us, staying in plain sight wasn’t the best idea.

 But it was our only chance, lest we take the main road back completely exposed. I turned to my family and placed my fist on my chest again, and they did the same. They knew the risk, but it had to be done. I lifted my hands and counted on my fingers.

 Three…

Two…

One!

All 4 of us scrambled for the rock wall, with Lup and I stopping to make footholds for our children. Gham and Rodin leaped up off of our hands, and scrambled up as the criminals up above reached the top of our swoop. I ran over to Lup and helped her up just as fast, making sure she made it up before I made my attempt. I latched onto the wall quickly and began to hastily scale up, but the horrid sounds of beating wings and strained screeching shot panic through my heart, with me only halfway up. “Run! Go, now!” I yelled up to my mate and sons. “Father, no! We won’t leave you!” Gham yelled down, reaching for my hands. He was just out of reach. I waved back up at them. “THAT’S NOT UP FOR DISCUSSION! YOU ALL LEAVE, NOW!” Lup pulled my sons by their shoulders with tears in her eyes, and I watched them disappear behind the cliff face. I turned back to the sound of acid hitting stone, and watched in terror as the squadron sped towards me. I clenched the stone in my hands and shut my eyes tight, waiting for the inevitable. I wished for my family’s safety, keeping their faces in my thoughts as the criminals flew closer and closer.

 But a deeper, more powerful screech forced my eyes open, and I bared witness to the most amazing sight I’ve ever seen in my life.

Null Guardians had arrived.

From past the cliff face, 4 of the grey, many toothed angels, all side by side, began to fire blazing hot beams of energy that completely wiped out every Lepidopterran in their path. My attackers were completely incinerated, leaving me stunned. I took a breath, and continued up the wall to see my mate and sons, hidden in the wreckage of another hut. We all embraced in a tearful group hug, holding each other in the tightest grips we could provide. The Guardians circled around, and as they approached, we could see...riders. Other beings in brown cloth robes had tamed these amazing beasts, and one of them extended his hand as they pulled around next to us.

“Is everyone okay? I’m sorry for the trouble, this Thanksgiving isn’t turning out as good as I wanted it too. We won’t leave you here to fend for yourselves. Hop on, we have a mess to clean up.”

 

Gham, Rodin, Lup and I all took hold of the waists of a rider, holding on tight as the Guardians pulled up and into the sky. The way they worked was astounding, with each rider gripping reins inserted into each of the creatures’ mouths. They instantly set to work as we all dived down, tentacles reaching and gripping up criminals of of all species. Pyronites, Incurseans, Sotoraggians, and countless other were snared up my their hands, with what must’ve been such punishing strength that the cries of each criminal rang out from below us. Once every Guardian had as much as they could carry, they began to lift up, up and up until we reached a large building set into another floating boulder, bigger than any of the other ones around. Upon closer inspection, a large hole had been blown through one of it’s main walls, but it had since received attention from numerous Plumbers and prison wardens, clad in white armor and toting their blasters to make sure more breakouts would not happen. The Guardians flew low, dropping each criminal down into the path of several guards, who gave the four cloaked riders a collective cheer before turning their focus back to the convicts. All 8 of us began to fly back towards the village. Gham and Rodin brought a smile to my face, as they were abuzz with excitement, gushing to their riders about how amazing the whole thing was. Lup looked at me with a relieved face as we made it back to Section A. We quickly landed, and my family gathered to watch as these riders hopped off of their guardians. Villagers all around had been tending to the injured of our ranks, but from the looks of it, no one died. I held my family close as our chief walked up, bruised, but not hurt beyond that. He and one of the riders shook hands, and began to talk.''' '''

“We’re sorry. This Thanksgiving feast has gone completely south, hasn’t it? My team and I will stay and help to get your village cleared up, Chief.”

“All that matters is that there were no deaths today, thanks to you all. You’ve already been such an incredible help keeping watch over our village for the past few cycles. I must ask. What are your names?”

All of the riders finally took off their hoods.

“This is Manny Armstrong, Helen and Pierce Wheels, and usually these three call me The Wrench. But if you and your village can keep tight lips, you can call me Max.”

The two shook hands as we all looked on.

“Now what do you say about us seeing what we can salvage from the crop we’ve all gathered? I’ll be the first to tell you that you’re gonna LOVE my new recipe I’ve brought along: pink pygmy squishers, raw and still squishing! Enough for everybody!” The chief began to walk with Max towards more people in the center while his team followed behind them, all wearing disgusted, yet accepting faces, prompting chuckles out of my family. I hugged Lup, Rodin and Gham tight and smiled.

 The world is not a nice place. MY world is not a nice place. But as long as there are beings like Max and his riders watching over us, I couldn’t think of a better place to live.

It might not have been my first choice, but this is our Home; this is MY Home.