Chapter Text
Two figures standing upon a slab of stone, looking below as the waving heat engulfs the wailing and the mournful. This world remains the same but isn’t quite right, well, at least for one of them. All he knows is that a distorted rip clawed from the sky and took him to, whatever this “place” is, looks like Kansas, but the town he was born in is nowhere to be seen, halting the advance of his mission and now starting back to square one.
He turns to the boy in white next to him, unfazed with his presence beside him, nor he cares of how he got there.
“I know what you’re thinking, you’re lost, stuck in a world that is and isn’t like yours. And here, a little weak boy is talking to you nonchalantly while the city down there is burning into shit”, the boy professes, not denying his lack of fear with his funny little Spanish accent.
Only silence fueled the noises of words, besides the crackling fire from below. Though, the more he thought about it, he realized he does have questions, but what could this boy stand next to him when he's aware of his capabilities?. Still, the boy in white continued his coercion.
“Look, I know you’re not one to talk much, but please hear me out.”, His request made the floating boy dip his hand in his pockets in humor of interest.
“The reason I know this, I’m also gifted, like you, and we’re not the only ones who've been dragged here as well. There are others like us, and we’ve been forming a group after this big “rift” for some time; we have proposed a plan that would meet all our goals if we do this right.”.
“And what goals would be achieved such as yours and mine? Won’t they clash as one goal would belittle another?”, the floating boy finally responded, his interest at its peak.
“Well, for my friends and I.”, he pauses a bit in embarrassment.
“Don’t you get tired of watching people live their life to the fullest? Growing in maturity and appearance as they undergo the stages of life, and eventually dying peaceful deaths? I know that sounds weird, especially coming from me since, you know, I’m a kid.”
“I’m here to take the world, and it also seems like you’re in need of leadership.”, he interrupted the near tender moment.
Shocked at the response and slightly grazed, he stuttered for a word to say,” Um, uh… okay , there’s one good and bad. That’s all I say”.
“Bad first, then-”.
“We already have a leader. Sorry, and for the good, we may have some way to align your goal with ours.”.
He scowled at the response, but was still interested nonetheless, “If you do have a plan to work things out? How am I not fit for a leader, you saw what I'm capable of doing”.
“See, a man of strength is a man without a plan. Our leader admits you're tougher, but how are you going to get us out besides breaking things and melting people?”, the question gave the floating boy a long pause.
“Exactly!! you may have the power to do something, but you lack the vision to back up your actions, you see? His vision is what gave us purpose, so whether we like it or not, he is indeed, the man who has the plan. Besides, he only wants to rule the underworld to punish sinners after we’re done. So you’re fine.”
“And if I refuse to join your little club?”
“Well we wouldn’t fight you because of course, not in the current state, but you would've been taken care of by this world’s protectors”.
The floating boy’s eyes lit like a lamp in intriguement of these “protectors” he’s now heard of. His hands clenched as he took a lumbering sigh over to the boy in white, wanting to know more.
“Who? Are. These. Protectors? Should they concern me in any way?”.
“Oh they’re a real threat to you, honest. They’ve fought an eldritch god, aliens, and all other types of villains that hang around this earth. Like, surely you know of the ghost boy in Amity Park right? Dan-”.
“I don’t care who they are. If they’re in my way they’re dead.”
“Nuh uh ah, we saw what they’re capable of, and as I said, you can’t gut or fry your way out of this one like in your world, not alone at least”. The boy white is then interrupted as multiple jets hover above them in a line.
The jets appear to be too shiny and slim to be military, nor are equipped to be one which caused the floating boy to tilt his head. They’re also in various colors which gray is supposed to camouflage the average jet in aerial combat.
The comms in one of the ships began blaring a screech before a voice then announced, “This is the psychonauts agency!! Drop your weapon and stand down, or we will use psychic force!! I repeat, stand down or we will use psychic force on you”. The order was confusing as well, military was one thing, but a psychic agency is something else and out of the norm.
“One, oh boy. And two, our enemy works with those guys.”, the boy in white noted.
The floating boy looked to one of the sides of the line and blitzed there, he immediately slammed himself into all of them to a big twisting cluster of metal before he ensnared it with a blazing beam that sprouted intensively from his sight; pieces of molten steel sheared off as they fell. As they crashed to a nearby shop, people began to skitter out the entrance before the cluster burst to flames, incinerating many nearby. He turned again to see the boy in white admiring the fiasco.
“Wow, even I gotta admit, that’s some handy work you did there, and the whole BANG! At the end. That’s pretty damn cool to have that type of power you have”.
“If they work for this agency, where are they? I’m just gonna kill them.”
The boy in white stood afront, “Hold your horses there bud!! We’re already at their base; getting another member for our club. We need you to exactly continue this kind of party to attract more of these psychic police, divert their focus from the main agenda, we’ll call you when we need to partner, if that's okay with you?”.
The floating boy gazed out beyond the area they’re surrounded in, listening to more people’s cry and panic that turned to laughter and joy from afar. It seems that not enough of the area has been leveled yet, and with more destruction in his wake, the more of a distraction he can pose.
He looks at the boy in white with one final glare to his black eyes, just realizing they never introduced themselves yet, “What’s your name? Partner?”
“SiegFried, and you?”
He thought about using his real name, but that boy was dead a long time ago as soon as he knew his purpose. Might as well be fitting to name himself the town he was raised in, “Call me Brightburn. If you signal to me, and I see our enemy, don’t stop me.”
“Oh we definitely won’t stop you, we’ll be more inclined to watch you tear them apart.”
Brightburn then levitates above the clouds, looking over the rest of the city past the block, straightening his divine stature, ready to commit an unholy act as he turns speeds to a blur, the sky begins to rain fire. Leaves of heat and flame bloomed across the city, scorching roots wormed their way into every crevice and onto the thousands of the mass. Bracing himself, he shoots through one of the buildings, causing it to collapse into a crowd. Then he breached into another building, and another.
Red petals flowered all over the streets and began to pour among the people; more buzzing of the hive swarm in their best stingers to pierce his impenetrable hide. Even with this military force being backed up by these psychic agents, in the end it doesn’t matter. This world may lack his hometown, but it’s a world he can take nevertheless, even with his newfound allies, who else is really going to stop him from getting what he wants? After all, he isn’t human to begin with.
And as more planes from both psychonaut and military began to patrol the area, StreigFried stretched himself a fanged smile across his face, slowly laughing as the red circus began to parade with the flesh of the lively innocents, and the rocks of ancient foundations. He jumped off the top, fleshed out his back wide, soaring out of the city’s reach, and into the black night, cackling for a flyby snack somewhere along the way.