THE BYGONE ERA series

Urth is hoping towards the giant, Melvin Whitewood. Overbearing monstrosity aside, this beast has been causing him nothing but pain and hardship, a struggle inside of another struggle that delves deep, rooted into something that is more human than anything anyone could understand.

They said they we're friends.

Until the very end.

Urth croaks with shades of confrontation. It's displaying a will to not back down, a determination to remain on the assault despite the massive size of his nemesis.

Nil is too preoccupied with an acute pain to his ribs as the impact of the fall delt more to his entire body then it realized.

The bullfrog seizes the moment by jumping on Melvin's body, taking the first real hit to the beast as it blasts a compressed wave of destructive air in one shot, down on the left side of its rib cage. Everyone sees this wave as some kind of uneven shaped ball, visible enough that they can see through the blurry mess of wind. It hits the torso of the beast at breakneck speeds.

Everyone except Alister has a hard time seeing that attack go from point A to B.

Melvin witnesses his ribs caving in as the hurt shoots upwards. It yells in gutheral rage at the damage received. The pain isn't enough to tie the monster to the ground.

"Watch out!" Screams Zephyr almost out of reflex.

Melvin gets up at a velocity a creature of its size should not be capable of. It leaps upwards with his two hands ready to crush the frog. Eylventh flies by and grabs Urth mid-air before both end up crushed out of existence.

Melvin, livid, falls on its two feet and turns around at the frog and the crocodile. It starts screaming at them both, performing a tantrum in front of its distraught crowd.

That crowd is composed of Zephyr, and Zephyr alone. Riley is still left dazed by Amy's assault and the cyborg is fighting Alister. The hunter is in a frenzy, charging ahead and forcing an opening to deal with the animals. Amy is, by natur,e calculated. No matter the strength or the speed of Alister, she finds an answer to his strikes. Expertise. She has technique, ability, and experience. She is the second fighter Alister faces in a week that challenges him. Absurd, the worst timing.

Zephyr is numb. Unable to move or to answer the call for battle, even if the road is wide open for him to run, he sits there, watching, afraid of what is going to happen. Zephyr cannot do anything, just like when Catherine left. Zephyr cannot do anything, just like when Lathe died of sickness.

Eylventh's strategy is to stay away from this thing and not come into conflict with the beast, very much attuned with its survival instincts more than anything else. Urth however, is following its heart and spitting from a distance more of these pressured balls of air. Melvin however is aware of the bullfrog's patterns and blocks it by placing its arms in front of its facial area, like a boxer guarding up.

This fight shifts from a surprise assault to a game of cat and mouse.

"ZEPHYR, YOU FUCK! DON'T JUST STAND THERE, DO SOMETHING!" Screams the assassin at the boy, struggling against the cyborg.

Almost as if she remembered and important factor that slipped off her mind, Amy's sight dart towards the boy in a split second. Zephyr panics, but this call-out gets him out of his head. He grimaces.

"Yeah well, not asking for much at this point." States the blacksmith, before dashing at the beast and the animals. Amy, without a second thought, lets the hunter go and runs towards Zephyr. She's faster than the blacksmith, by a landslide.

In that instance, she's tackled by Riley, bleeding from his forehead and using his booster pads to project himself forward, pushing her out of the kid's way.

"Go Zephyr! Don't worry about Amy, we got this under control!" Screams the scientist. Alister comes around to help the scientist hold her on the floor. Zephyr sees this as an opportunity. Now that his eyes are opened and he's back in the present moment, he moves towards the target. He never sprinted at that pace before. Never has he felt this dire need to catch up and save someone, in real life. Only in dreams did Zephyr felt that rush of adrenaline.

The game of cat and mouse is abruptly cut to an end as Melvin catches Urth and separate it from Eylventh. Melvin throws the bird towards the boy's direction. Zephyr realizes this and jumps up, propelling himself by cracking his arms and exploding upward, using his stomach as cushion for the reptilian bird to land on mid-air, catching him. The second Eylventh recognizes Zephyr, it smiles, with tears already leaking.

"I'll throw you back! Catch Urth while I make a distraction!" Decides the blacksmith. On such short notice, the flaws in the strategy are left behind, unconsidered. Eylventh nods with a cheerful grunt. And so, blacksmith boy grabs the bird with it's still hot and molten right hand and throws Eylventh with all the power he has towards Nil.

At first, finally with its prey in hand, Melvin looks satisfied enough although the anger is very much present.

As it progresses and the beast takes a better look at Urth, the emotion shifts to pity.

They have a stare down.

Urth is not used to using its powers to the extend it did. The bullfrog is fatigued. Eylventh flies at its direction.

More turrets proceed to claw their way out of the giant's body and starts to spray down a pack of boulders on Eylventh. It dodges them all to try and get closer to its rescue. It keeps barking and roaring at Urth's direction. The bullfrog, in its weakened state, barely able to keep it together, starts to imagine how Eylventh…How Florence must be feeling. "You idiot! I told you not to pick a fight with this thing and look where it took you! I don't want you to die! I love you!"

Imagination is powerful. And ignorance is but a bliss. 

Zephyr keeps using his arms to explode his way towards the monster, not realizing before long that they are reduced to ashes. Panicking, as he miscalculated the amount of times he could blow up separate body parts. Should he burst his whole body, to such an extent that it destroys this place? Maybe he can end it all…

Too much hesitation.

Melvin, no longer feeling like wasting time, decides to slowly close its hands on the bullfrog.

"Terrence. I never knew... I never knew how to tell you. And I still don't know how. Father keeps telling me they were going to find me weird down there for dating a boy younger than me."

Why... Why is Urth remembering this now?

"B-but I wanted to be with you! I wanted to save enough money! I wanted you to save some money as well so we could leave and go to Vancarther together! I wanted that, and now it's taken away from us! So screw the poetry, screw the right place and the right time, because I wouldn't be who I am today if it wasn't for you. I love you, Terrance! I'll love you even after I die! I promise!!"

Urth is tearing up. It's imagining the tears floating out of his dream girl as she holds her hands close to his face. He can remember it like it was yesterday. It's not that far from yesterday.

It sees Eylventh dashing, flying and dodging all of these bullets, just for it. Just for him.

Florence is doing this, just for Terrance.

Seeing a glimpse of the crocodile flying, Urth realizes his girlfriends is still in there.

Urth is smiling. Urth is content. Urth is crying.

Eylventh goes faster, getting reckless, trying to reach for the hands.

Urth closes his eyes and sneers, hoping the impact doesn't hurt too much.

Eylventh roars in pain, anticipating what is about to happen, refusing to accept it. It too cries, even extending its paw towards the one it loves.

Zephyr watches this as he's falling down. It's happening again, isn't it?

"...Doctor. You never erased anything from their past, didn't you." States Amy.

Alister looks at Riley, while they hold her hostage on the ground.

"What!? What is that supposed to mean!?" Asks Alister, bemused by what he's hearing.

"That was never even considered in my plans! Making them forget their memories would have been too much of a risk hazard on top of all the other conditions of successful experiments. I wouldn't have made a single resul-!" Let's out the doctor, taken aback by the statement.

The only two sounds following that statement, 

are the noise created by Melvin, crushing Urth in the palm of its hands...

The other sound.

Eylventh, Florence, crying the loss of her now deceased lover.

It is not just a cry.

It is a screech.

It borders on sounding human.