When something's strange, in the neighbourhood

Who you gonna call?

YOUR MUDDA-


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…
Varvara charged her spear again and swung it. The blade end stroke right at the side of the giant balloon, into the nose of its angry face, only to bounce away. The balloon itself, on the other hand, hopped into the air, and landed right into the nearby bush.
Flora quickly positioned herself nearby and shot a row of arrows right at the spherical monster. All of them bounced away from its shell, raining down harmlessly all over the ground.
“Keep attacking it!” Flora shouted. Varvara heard Zamarad say “desperate” in her head.
“Okay!” she replied. “But I think it doesn’t work.”
She charged her spear and threw it like a javelin. Similar reaction happened, with it bouncing off and discharging lightning at the Torque, before digging its tip into the ground. The accursed balloon simply rolled a bit further, however.
“Well, there HAS to be some sort of weak spot, maybe!?”
Varvara shrugged her shoulder. Her gaze then turned up into the sky, as she wondered what Zamarad might have thought.
<The young lady is not wrong,> Zamarad answered, <but I believe that->
“Whoops!!!” Flora yelped, as she fell.
“Fl-Er, ROSE! THE ROSEY ARCHWOMAN! ARE YOU OKAY?” Varvara enunciated loudly and clearly, to her friend and Mr. Mouton. The crow-man shimmied away uncomfortably from her stare, which was dead locked on him. Happy regardless, Varvara then dashed to her friend.
As she helped the latter to her feet, Flora whispered, “I think I slipped.” As she regained balance, it once again nearly slipped as soon as she put her foot out. “Oh c’mon!”
The elder crow watched the two stumble over the icy puddle, acting less like a pair of heroes and more like, well, children. Rather odd to think how they managed to rope themselves into this. Even more so how he himself became part of this. Soon enough, the green one said,
“Wait, I think I have an idea!”
“Hmm?” the pink grumbled, rubbing her backside now on steadier grass.
The green one moved to grab her spear and quickly returned. She brought her spear up, and in matter of seconds, the shaft became coursing with electricity, which she held as you would a common wet stick. And just like with one, she brought it over her head and batted the balloon creature’s side. That thing then began rolling down the field, steadily and slowly.
“Let’s push it away until it’s too far to hurt him!” the green warrior suggested with glee. “Since it doesn’t want to get out, we just push him, like dung beetles do!”
“Great idea! Minus the dung beetle part…”
The two then followed the balloon. The last thing he saw was both of them striking, shooting and kicking the gigantic monster ball further into the empty fields, until he only could barely make out their forms
“I need to call her.” Mr. Mouton breathed in and out. “I need to call her, and tell her what they found out.”
He turned around and once again dashed towards the town.
He took a small break after ten steps.
Then continued into his jog, planning his visit to the gym.
“Let’s hope you can help us out, golden girl,” he uttered in between breaths.
…
Chester held his eyes closed.
The wind was cold and stung quite a bit while he was lying. There was a floor under him, he noticed, but had no clue where it came from. It was good that there was one, though. He still felt that he was inside that dark, cold void.
“Open your eyes.”
The young hedgehog recognized the voice. He waited a bit on that. Then the voices of others began to ring in his ears. They were walking around, shouting something about the “view” and the “school”. He then realized that someone was still standing over him, waiting for him to get up. Finally, he opened his eyes, blinded a bit by the shining grey surroundings.
He was in the sky.
That was how he wanted to describe what he first saw. He checked on his left and right, and all he saw were the shining surfaces of clouds surrounding him. The surface he sat on was the same color, although it almost reminded him of an old couch he saw once. He looked up to Kage, whose dark figure stood out especially against the light, and behind him was Fotia and Russell, with his gang. They were busy looking over, what seemed to be, and edge.
“Where…is this place...?”
“See it yourself.” Kage pointed in their direction.
Chester raised his eyebrow. Slowly, he got up to standing, and nearly lost balance doing so. The ground, while stable, was incredibly soft. It also felt like, he wasn’t entirely connected to it, for some reason. As he focused on making the first step, another thought came to his mind.
“How did you find us?” He looked at Kage. “I mean, all the way here?”
“Trivial matter.” Kage did not even look at him. Somehow, Chester expected that answer. “I have’t called others because I realized you were going to get hurt. So I followed first,” he then explained. This Chester found unexpected.
“Wait, is Tom alright?” Chester remembered him falling through the trapdoor. Same one they all went in later.
“Shaken, but unharmed. He is in control of this body, mind, to which I lent my voice.”
Chester then finally noticed Kage’s stance. Whenever he saw him as a spirit, he seemed imposing and untouchable. Standing straight, feet and arms together with the body making them hard to see, he was literally shadow itself. Now, however, his knees were buckled, kind of shaking too, and palms of his hand spread around him to make sure the balance is maintained. Which was always how he looked like when Tom was using him.
“I see. Actually, now that you mention it,” Chester assumed his own intimidating stance, by crossing his arms, “you were the one who told me earlier to open the trapdoor, didn’t you? And got us out once we fell into it, right?”
“Yes.” Kage’s answers were to the point.
“Okay. Question one, why not earlier though? The walls started closing in, and Tom even got out of the way for you to transform. What gives?”
“He would see me.”
“…He?” Chester tilted his head.
“The one behind all this.”
“Alright…” Chester looked around again. In some ways, whoever “he” was talking about, sounded really enigmatic. “Then second question: how did you send your message to me? I mean, we aren’t connected, so how?”
“You could speak with us.”
Chester eyes focused on him.
“Since when?”
“From the beginning.”
Chester shook his head in bewilderment. What did that mean? He could hear other spirit’s talk? No way, if that were true, he could have done so way earlier. He probably is lying…Which Azure says he’d likely do.
But Chester, for one reason or another, didn’t feel like pushing him to answer anymore questions. At least, not now.
He began making his way to others. Every step had to be with intent, he soon found out, so even moving forward was a hassle. It felt like he would loose his footing just by simply lifting his leg. In some ways, what he was trying to do was less keeping himself from falling down, and more so that he kept his feet stuck to the ground.
“Try sliding,” Kage suggested.
Chester, looked at him with a cross of “Duh, of course!” expression, while hiding his another “Duh of course” one aimed at himself. He was able to find balance and so, his pace quickened.
As soon as he got there, he crouched down next to Fotia.
“Ah, you’re awake!” Fotia smiled through his beak. He then pointed to Kage, to which Chester nodded. Funny enough, he just realized that after all this time, Kage didn’t really move himself. Tom’s probably too scared.
He pulled himself over the edge and gazed towards it’s “abyss”. And all he could see, was more shining, grey sky. Jutting his head out more, he finally was able to make out something else, not too far in the distance. And that right below that edge, was their school.
“Where the heck is this?” Chester uttered.
Kage spoke right next to him, “My suggestion is that it is a cube.”
Chester shook a bit, nearly loosing footing there. Then as if he got hit by a crazy version of vertigo, he felt like was about to fall backwards, causing him to grip on the edge. He was promptly pushed back down by Kage’s swift hand.
“W-W-What?” Chester checked all over. He couldn’t figure out what nearly happened to him.
“We are standing on its side.” Kage pointed to a direction behind their backs. Chester took a while to focus, but realized that behind them was the top of their town. Slowly a picture finally formed in his mind.
“So this is, like a giant cube, and we got magnetised to its side…” he muttered under breath.
“What an unusual opponent.” Fotia was sitting on the edge, looking lackadaisical despite the situation. “Any suggestions, then?”
Neither Chester or Kage answered. Their next step was obvious, to get out, but what was making this whole thing happen? Where are they doing it from? And most importantly, what should happen if they get found by them?
And then, somebody made an odd hissing sound. Chester looked at Kage and Fotia, but neither looked like they did it.
“I…think I’m getting sick…” the weasel exclaimed. He was on all fours, and started to make more weird sounds.
“Hey, dude, don’t start vomiting all over here!” Russell grumbled. “If you do, I might…” the bear stopped himself from finishing.
The weasel looked worse by the second.
“Lie him down and let him breathe,” Fotia spoke to Russell.
The bear turned to him and asked in an objecting tone, “Who asked you?”
“Your friend needs your help, doesn’t he? He’d much appreciate if you could help.”
Russell didn’t say anything back. He just lumbered over, carefully and gently, to his friend, and then pushed him down on his back.
“Now gently press his wrists and tell him to breathe,” Fotia continued.
Russell followed the instruction as told. His bigger arm held the wiggling weasel in place by the wrist. AS he ordered his friend to breathe, the latter did and soon enough, seemed to have calmed down.
“Do not forget to tell him that all will be fine!”
“Do I have to?” The bear whined.
“You will thank me.”
And so, he proceeded to do just that. Chester was a bit perturbed, hearing someone like Russell talk supportively to his friend.
“I am going after your spirit.” Chester turned to Kage, who began walking away. “Afterwards, we’ll talk further.”
Chester nodded.
Chester hasn’t noticed yet, that Russell saw him talking to the clad-in-dark spirit. It wasn’t as if the bully got the wrong idea, but it did make the bear wonder what was going on. In grand scheme of things, though, it wasn’t that important.
At least, for now…
…