Episode 12: Knowing the Hunter

When we are imprisoned, we work and we learn. When we are at work, we can feel like we are in a prison learning about the hardship of life. When we are at school, working hard, we can feel like we are doing it to escape a certain kind of prison…

…but what we don’t know is that prison is either everywhere or nowhere…

Later on in the morning, the Dark Sky members were still at the hotel, sitting around a table and eating breakfast. Oddly enough, they were the only ones there...

“Awww…” Derpy Hooves bemoaned. “I wanted breakfast in bed…”

“Ha ha ha...” Dumb-bell laughed in a feigned manner. “And I want to be anywhere but in bed after this morning’s fiasco…”

“Please dude,” pleaded Hoops, “I said I was sorry. Can we not have this damper our morning?”

“I admit it,” interjected Ghost Rainbow Dash in a tone of sincere remorse, “I took that prank too far. Can we please forget about it now?”

“Sure…” Dumb-bell replied facetiously. “And we may as well forget about the next prank you’ll pull that will “go too far” while we’re at it, because it’s apparent you’re never going to change.”

“For fuck’s sake!” G.R.D. exclaimed defensively. “It was one prank!”

“...” Score silently pointed out that G.R.D. was wrong with a flashback to another prank she pulled just the night before when they checked in.

In the flashback, Derpy Hooves was eyeing the fridge they had in their room with interest, but before she could take out one of the cans of soda, Hoops intervened.

“Sorry Derpy, no.” he told her. “Those drinks are stupidly overpriced. I don’t want you wasting your money.”

As Hoops and Derpy trotted away from the fridge, she looked at the can of Coca-Cola she wanted from the transparent door and said in a crestfallen tone…

“I love Coke…”

All of a sudden, the music from that old Chef Boyardee commercial started playing as the fridge door opened by itself, and the can rolled towards Derpy. Feeling it bump against her back hooves, Derpy turned around and gasped with joy. But when she picked it up, G.R.D. came out of the can.

“That’ll be thirty-seven dollars.” G.R.D. taunted her.

Derpy gasped in horror...at the high price.

“Hoops, the economy is broken from the apocalypse!” she cried as she tossed the can aside and ran to Hoops.

“What, again?” he retorted.

After the flashback ended, Score silently explained the irony of the situation. The can Derpy threw was damaged from the impact, getting soda all over the carpet. The cost to clean the carpet would probably be the same amount of money the hotel had put on the soda. But in spite of his attempt to bring up what happened as an amusing anecdote, no one else seemed to find it funny...except G.R.D..

“Come on,” said G.R.D. nonchalantly, “you gotta agree with me, that was a pretty good gag.”

“It’s not a “PRETTY GOOD GAG” if you’re making it at our expense!” Dumb-bell exclaimed, growing more frustrated.

“Jesus Christ, man…” G.R.D. remarked, seeing Dumb-bell grow red in the face. “You look like you’re ready to crack over a joke about Coke.”

“Fuck this, I’m out!” Dumb-bell yelled as he left the table in a huff. “You want to laugh at everyone’s expenses so badly, you can laugh at the hotel bill!”

Dumb-bell began angrily muttering to himself as he went upstairs to pack his bags, while the rest of the gang didn’t know what else to do besides muse over what just happened.

“I just don’t get what he’s so upset about…” G.R.D. said in confusion, shrugging her shoulders. “He knows the way I am.”

“He’s probably just been really stressed recently because of you-know-what…” Hoops surmised, unaware that you-know-who was approaching. “It does get grating, Fluttershy treating us like her subjects when she’s supposed to be our friend. With all the shit that’s going on right now, she puts us at the kid’s table? Delivering a message? Really? I don’t feel any more motivated to complete this lame mission than he does.”

“Yeah!” Derpy interjected, trying to be cool, as the rest of the Dark Sky members went quiet upon seeing who was now standing over the breakfast table. “I say we take matters into our own hands and fight Noimman ourselves!”

“...” Score silently warned Derpy that now was as good a time as any to change her stance…
...because Noimman was looming over the breakfast table, wearing a malicious grin on her face. Derpy was now quiet too as she and the others began shaking in fear.

“Don’t worry…” she said sarcastically. “I’ll take care of the check. And then I’ll take care of you…”

Meanwhile, Dumb-bell was packing his things in a suitcase, still displeased with the current state of affairs.

“We’re going up against someone far more threatening than we ever thought possible and it’s all just a joke to everybody!” he muttered angrily. “First, Fluttershy bails on us. Says we should just “give the heroes a message” instead of joining them in battle because it’s NOT OUR BUSINESS YET. Then we find out that one of these heroes is getting into a street fight and taking people’s weapons as spoils of war? Gee, I just wish GOD of all beings would make things clear and simple for us!”

“So do I…” Noimman said ominously from behind, frightening Dumb-bell, who stumbled back and fell on the bed in shock. “Oh dear, don’t tempt me. When I see someone trembling so anxiously on a bed, I can’t help but feel...ecstatic.”

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO THE OTHERS?!” Dumb-bell bellowed.

“I stored them safely inside the compartment of this arm…” Noimman explained as she held out her left arm. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t put you in another place that’s more comfortable for me…”

“RRRAAAHHH!” Dumb-bell cried as he tried to grab Noimman’s arm and tear it off. In response, however, Noimman pulled her left arm back in time and grabbed Dumb-bell’s front hooves, squeezing them tightly.

“Grrrr…” Dumb-bell grunted, struggling. “You’re not taking off my forelegs…”

But before he knew it, Dumb-bell felt something else get taken off as Noimman held something in front of him that was dripping with blood in her right fist.

“Why do I feel so much agony…” he remarked, his voice growing weaker. “It feels like a pack of bees are stinging my brain...yet it also feels so cold down there…”

Dumb-bell then gasped when he saw Noimman open her fist and reveal to him the penis she had ripped off his body. It was only seconds later that he saw her crush it in her hand. Fainting from the shock, he collapsed on the bed, where Noimman cruelly poured the blood and testicular fluid that was left in her hand on his face. Cheerfully scattering the remains of the flesh, she looked at the massive wound that was left from his torn penis.

“Fear not.” she said, in a facetious manner as always, reaching into her pants. “I’ll be sure to patch up that hole...with another hole…”

When Dumb-bell awoke later, he found himself inside of a pitch-black darkness.

“Hello?!” he called out. “Score?! Derpy?! Hoops?! Dash?! Where are you?!”

Then he remembered what Noimman said about putting him in another place...and what she did to his penis…

“No…” he said as he looked down at his former manhood and was terrified to see that in its place...was a vagina.

“NNNNNOOOOO!” he bellowed.

Noimman cackled evilly to herself, hearing him scream inside of her as she left the hotel…

“What a weakling.” she scoffed at him. “I went easy on him and his friends because they were the children of God. There truly is no greater punishment than that.”

She said this as she passed by a window in a store and stopped to look at her reflection.

“Now if they were my children…” she said in a demonic voice as she saw the reflection change to show her in the form of pure darkness, holding strings in one hand that she held out in front, and in the other hand that she held out from behind, which were connected to four other forms of pure darkness.

“...this would’ve gotten a lot darker…” she finished as she walked away from the mysterious silhouettes of four men.

Meanwhile, at the school, Adrian and Felix Bruce pushed open the double doors to the school and entered. What laid ahead of them was a long hall, with many people on both sides looking through their lockers. While Adrian and Felix hoped everyone would be too preoccupied to notice their entrance, a sizable crowd of young adults were standing in front of them, shooting them unwelcoming glares.

“Oh boy…” Felix nervously mumbled to himself, still holding the door he had opened. “I think it would be wise to shut this door as quietly as possible…”

Though he gently put his door back in its place, Adrian slammed hers as hard as she could and pressed her right fist into her other hand.

“I hope you mooks just have poor social skills…” Adrian remarked as she made her gesture that she was ready to fight if she had to. “...because there’s no way in hell we’re putting up with any freshman hazing…”

After she said that, however, she, Felix, and the people blocking their way all heard the sound of two jingle bells ringing. Before long, a pool of pure darkness suddenly appeared on the white, tiled floor. The darkness that came out of it materialized into a woman that shared Noimman’s uniform and body structure. Adrian and Felix were surprised by how much she looked like Noimman, almost mistaking her for the aforementioned at first, but quickly noticed the differences in her clothing, hairstyle, and skin tone. This woman’s shirt was red rather than blue, her hair was black and long with spiky bangs, and her skin was gray. Discounting that, however, as Adrian and Felix saw that she even wore glasses, which were black, they knew her similar physical appearance was not a coincidence.

“Hey, hey, hold your horses.” she told them as she jingled her silver bells, one of which had the insignia of a six-headed serpent, and the other, the insignia of a judge with a white hat and a pen. “These guys aren’t looking for a fight.”

“We’re not?” one guy with red, blue-streaked hair in the crowd blocking the way responded in a mechanical tone of voice.

“I don’t like your tone…” the woman said as she began to jingle the bells again.

“We’re not!” the guy exclaimed as he and the rest of the crowd walked away.

As they were walking away, the guy caught sight of a woman he found attractive standing by an open locker, looking inside. The woman had a bleach white skin color and a pompadour hairstyle that showed off the crazy combination of green, pink, and blue colors in her hair. For clothing, she wore black parachute pants and a brown leather jacket that she wore over a black suspender vest that also acted as a bra. With nothing under it, the guy was intrigued to see the woman’s large breasts hanging...before he saw her smile evilly in the mirror of the locker door...

“Sorry about that,” apologized the mysterious woman who emerged from the darkness, “it unfortunately happens a lot here, newcomers being given a cold welcome. My name is Akame. I’m the vice principal of this establishment, Hardnox Institute. What are your names?”

“...I’m Adrian and this is Felix.” Adrian answered, gesturing to herself and Felix. She only provided her with their first names, hesitant to give anyone their full names out of distrust.

“So I guess you’re like me,” joked Akame, “no last name. Makes sense. I always knew Bruce was a first name…”

“Damn!” Adrian thought. “How did she-”

“I told you the truth.” Akame said in an assuring tone. “I’m the vice principal of this school and I’m filling in for the regular principal, Noimman, in her absence. She’s told me all about you two, and I must say, I’m fascinated by your potential. Otherwise, Noimman would never have granted you the prestigious opportunity that she has...”

Akame rang her bells again, and with that, another pool of darkness emerged from the floor. Putting her bells away in her shirt pocket, she crouched down and pulled a green duffel bag out, the pool disappearing behind it. Opening it, she got out two red cans that looked like soda cans.

“Why don’t we drink to celebrate your accomplishment?” she offered as she handed the two cans she got out to the puzzled Adrian and Felix, who took them in hand, accepting the offer as to not make a scene.

Suddenly, however, just as Akame was about to get a drink for herself out of the bag, a deafening shriek of terror could be heard from down the hallway.

“YYYYYAAAAAHHHHH!” the guy who took notice of the woman earlier screamed after having his eyes gouged out. “MY EYES!”

“MWA HA HA HA HA!” the woman laughed loudly in a cartoonish manner, sounding like a man imitating the stereotypical, suave accent of a lady of the upper class. “Now you can’t see them…”

She said this as she dropped the eyes in between her breasts, and then squished her breasts together to crush his eyes into a bloody pulp.

“Now you can’t see with them ever again!” she declared. “Don’t lay your eyes on the prize if it’s a booby prize!”

Everyone who witnessed this awful scene groaned in disgust…

“Self-awareness is not automatically funny!” the woman abruptly shouted. “Look at me, I’m yelling! I’m yelling about yelling! I’m yelling about yelling about yelling! Now I’m trapped in an infinite loop! Don’t you see? Insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result! That’s what self-awareness is, insanity! You’re insane if you know you’re insane!”

“Aw shit…” Akame grumbled, putting her hand on her face. “She’s at it again. That’s Crazy Celes, pulling her usual stunts.”

“It’s usual for her to gouge a dude’s eyes out?!” Felix exclaimed. “How has she not been expelled yet?!”

“Don’t you know?” Akame retorted. “This isn’t just a school. It’s a prison work school, a secret experiment Noimman is conducting to test the capabilities of the inhabitants of this world that were put here after the apocalypse that took place in the Transcending project. Because this world is now highly underpopulated, it was extremely easy to gather every prisoner, worker, and student here all under one roof. The government wants to see how all of said faction of human society would react to having to live together in prison as one. Obviously, you should still keep your distance from people like Crazy Celes. Nobody likes them.”

“Transcending project?” Felix asked in confusion. “I didn’t even know there was an apocalypse…”

“Not just that,” interjected Adrian, having a hard time taking any of this seriously, “but we’re not prisoners, we’ve never worked for an actual business, and Felix and I were homeschooled. What purpose do we have for being here if we don’t meet the government’s criteria?”

“Because you’re not here for the same purpose as all the other “riff-raff”, Noimman likes to say.” Akame explained. “You have a special mission. It should have been explained on the paper your parents got. Didn’t they ever show it to you?”

“...Son of a bitch…” Adrian and Felix said in frustration to themselves as they realized that their parents deliberately concealed important information from them.

“Excuse me for skipping the toast,” said Akame as she got out a first aid kit from the duffel bag instead of her drink, “but I’ve got a patient to treat. It’s part of my job to help these students out when they get hurt after things get too wild…”

As Akame walked back over to the injured student, she got a chill down her spine when she felt the unpleasant presence of another dangerous student who was strolling around the hall. It was Yata, a man with short and wavy black hair, black pants, and a black shirt that had the symbol of the sun on it. He always had a creepy grin etched on his face, and even more unsettling were the three syringes, the kind used in abortions, stuck in his head. One was on his forehead, the other two were on his cheeks, one for each side. All of them were oozing out a purple aura of dark, oppressive energy, which kept most from wanting to go anywhere near him. Akame became especially uncomfortable when he turned to her and started saying in a chilling tone of voice…

“My brothers...I know what happened to my brothers…”

Akame shivered and started walking by really slowly as to not accidentally sound the bells that were in her shirt pocket.

“Poor kids…” Yata said in thought as he saw Adrian drinking the beverage Akame gave her, while Felix was pouring his into a beaker with a stick embedded on the side. “Akame’s found herself a nice couple of pawns to kill the king…”

Yata then looked over at Akame putting a pair of robotic eyes into the student’s empty sockets and snickered when he noticed that Celes had disappeared from her spot.

“Test results show…” Felix said as he observed the stick on the beaker, which turned out to be an electronic reader. “...no toxins of any variety. I guess she really did just want to have a drink with us.”

“I’m weirdly disappointed.” Adrian interjected as she finished her drink. “I was hoping to show off my body’s resistance to poison. Oh well…”

Adrian crumpled up the can and tossed it on the floor, which caught the eye of Crazy Celes.

“HEY!” she screamed. “YOU CAN’T JUST THROW TRASH ON THE FLOOR! THAT’S A $500 PARKING TICKET RIGHT THERE! WHAT IF THE HANDICAPPED WANTED THAT SPACE OF THE FLOOR?!”

“If you can commit acts of violence without consequence, what’s so bad about me littering?” Adrian asked.

“THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN SHOT FOR LITTERING!” Celes continued shouting. “POLICE BRUTALITY IS REALER THAN YOU, SPONGEBOOBS! PAY ME THE FINE OR ELSE I’LL MAKE YOU PAY!”

“Whoa hoa hoa, that sounds like a threat to me…” Adrian retorted as she pulled out her knife. “And I reserve the right to defend myself…”

But Celes didn’t assault Adrian or try to rob her in a tussle. Instead, she waved her right hand, which was glowing with a white aura around it, and Adrian’s wallet left her front left pocket, floating right into Celes’ hand.

“Ha!” Celes taunted Adrian as she buried the wallet in between her breasts. “I don’t care about actually fighting for anything, so long as I get paid!”

Adrian just smirked as she cut the two strings that held up Celes’ suspender vest with a swift stroke of her knife, making a slash on the upper area of her chest above her breasts. The vest fell off, and Adrian’s wallet fell to the floor, along with the remains of the guy’s eyes. Adrian’s confident smile turned to a frown of disgust when she grabbed the wallet out of the bloody pulp.

“Serves you right for giving me such unnecessary exposure!” Celes boasted, even with her chest bleeding, the blood dripping down to her breasts hanging in the air. “All you get in the end is blood money!”

“No…” Adrian said in frustration through her teeth. “The greatest satisfaction is getting to mop the FLOOR WITH YOU!”

She then tripped Celes on her front side with a sweep kick to her legs, put her leg on her back, and sent her sliding across the hall. The blood from her chest tracked all across the floor before she finally crashed into a door headfirst. Everyone besides Yata and Akame was now giving Adrian and Felix a blank stare. Having no idea how to react, Felix just quietly hid the beverage Akame gave him in his coat and bristled the hair on the back of his neck. Adrian, surprised by her greater strength than normal of how she kicked Celes all that way, decided to just play along with it…

“If any of you ever try to fuck with us, you’ll get what she got!” she proclaimed in a brazen tone of voice. “Comprendes?!”

Meanwhile, Yata and Akame were more interested in the power Adrian displayed as they looked over at Celes.

“Incredible power…” Yata admired the situation in thought. “But it’s not enough for Noimman or even a lower-ranked demon god for that matter, hee hee ha…”

“I can see it’s already starting to take effect…” Akame happily said to herself as the student she finished fixing up opened his new robotic eyes ominously.

Adrian and Felix were looking at Celes too, only with concern. But as Celes pulled herself off the ground with ease, only feeling dizzy from the damage, their concern turned to shock.

“Ooooohhhhh…” Celes grumbled as she put her hand to her bleeding forehead. “I have such a headache. I guess that’s what happens though when you get smashed!”

Adrian and Felix were slack-jawed. What in the world was up with these people?! As they pondered that, the piece of paper that was fluttering outside earlier found itself stuck on one of the classroom windows. One could see that the paper was actually a “WANTED” poster…

...with Noimman’s face on it…