Ghost in the Machine

October 28, 2023

Cole appears with his gloves and M50 gas mask on. "Right, I think my nerves are calm enough to head back to that place."

Cole heads up the stairs and looks over the railing.

The sun is starting to set, the trees become a much vibrant red as the sky slowly darkens. It's rather cold later in the day now. Cole vaults the railing and rolls as he hits the ground, going back to Trotston again using the picture of the map as a reference.

The woods are slowly becoming darker as he reaches a more dense area of the trees. He can hear crickets growing quieter as the temperature is dropping more.

Cole's eyes shift to a light blue as he groans, "Fuckin cold out here " Cole continues heading towards the town. Soon he hears nothing. No bugs or animals make a sound. Even the wind leaves the trees absolutely still. Something feels wrong.

"...This isn't right, that usually means there's a predator..." Cole quickly puts his head on a swivel, "Fuckin bear or something, right?"

He faintly spots something drift between the trees. It's partially in the air at eye level but makes no sound.Cole snaps to staring at the drifting object. "A bird? What the fuck is in this forest with me..." Cole reaches into his jacket as he grips his knife tightly. It drifts behind some trees and bushes.

Cole stares at the trees and bushes it drifted behind. "I swear to god if this is some random animal, I'm gonna tear it apart."

Suddenly it moves towards him a bit quicker than expected for no sound. Cole's vision switches to heat vision as he quickly moves backwards, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING?!"

With heat vision he sees nothing. Just as it's supposed to hit him, he feels nothing. But he now hears the tiniest sound of something moving around him and a gentle breeze.

Cole switches off of heat vision as his eyes audibly click and shine a blue light as he quickly looks around him. "This is some fucking BULLSHIT, what the fuck is this thing?"

Moving around his head is a large group of yellow moths, now going for the light. "Fucking MOTHS." Cole starts swatting at the air, in an attempt to get the moths away.

He's busy swatting at them a bit as they back off some. Then he hears it again. A scream breaks the silence, now closer than before. The same scream as the other week but more enraged and rash. It almost sounds painful.

"...Oh fuck, oh fuck-" Cole quickly puts his head on a swivel as he starts to get nervous. He can see more of the same type of moth dancing between the trees making other movements harder to notice. "CAN THESE MOTHS FUCK OFF?!" Cole groans as his eyes shift to a bright pink, making the light also shift to pink.

He hears leaves crunch off to his left. A strong feeling of bad luck starts to set in. "Shit, shit, shit," Cole snaps while looking at his left as he draws his knife. Barely lit up the pink light, he sees a kitsune style mask staring back.

Something fades into view a few inches over Cole's head, much like a halo. It's green decorated crown with depictions of skulls. Black, red, blue, and green crystals are embedded into the faces of Cole's crown.

"Oh fuck... " Cole white knuckle grips his knife handle as he stares at the mask with slight fear.

The mask keeps its gaze locked onto Cole as it very steadily moves forward. A few leaves crunch in the darkness underneath it. An eye from behind the mask peers out at him with thin slits for pupils.

"We can talk this out, right?" The bright pink vanishes, returning Cole's eyes to hazel brown.

A low growling rises from the mask as it moves closer. The feeling of bad luck is almost sickening. It feels like a pit or a knot in his chest.

Cole starts backing up quickly, "Look, I'm sure I can offer you something- money? food? weapons?"

A large pocket knife is moved into view as they step closer.

Cole looks slightly less scared, "...that's a fuckin pocket knife."

She steps into the light. Cole now sees a short brown and orange fox nonferal that stands at 5 feet with a kitsune mask. She wears a nearly black tank top and faded navy shorts, both torn from scratches. Her fur is partly matted with wounds scattered across her. She looks to have won a few fights lately.

"..." Cole stares at her, "So are you gonna try and kill me now?"

The mask moves as if it were alive, its muzzle scrunches up to snarl and it shows a layer of golden teeth. The ghost lunges at Cole. Aiming a stab directly for the center of his chest.

Cole is caught off guard and is stabbed in the ribs as he groans and winces, the bone seems unnaturally strong as he quickly aims a grab at her wrist, "Fucker."

Her arm is freezing cold. She keeps a grip on the knife while trying to ram it in deeper and goes to bite into his arm.

The bone barely budges as he groans and Cole aims a swift kick directly into her muzzle, hoping to stop her from biting. "Good luck with piercing my bone with a knife."

There's a whine as she's kicked in the face. She lets go and stumbles some. The ghost tries to yank her wrist away from him while mumbling something to herself. Her voice has a very subtle Southern accent and sounds scratchy, like her vocal chords had been through a shredder, "I can't take them back. Cry for the moon."

Cole has a tight grip on her wrist, "Can't take who back?"

Cole flips his knife around so it's facing the sky as he presses the blade against her arm.

The ghost snickers some as she stares back at him. Her eyes staring back are wide and give a slightly dazed expression, "They creak in my thoughts as they walk." She almost instantly grabs Cole's arm that is holding her wrist for more support as she kicks both of her legs at his gut.

Cole is kicked in the gut as he groans and stumbles back, letting go of her wrist, "You CUNT."

The ghost gets out a second pocket knife from her shorts as she starts breathing heavily. Her head and ear twitch slightly as she mumbles in a more monotone voice as if reading something to herself, "System error. Out of range. Pinging location."

"...You're the pylon," Cole mutters to himself as he lunges forward, aiming to grab her muzzle.

Her muzzle is grabbed as she tries to thrust the second pocket knife at his side.

Cole is stabbed in the side as blood and coolant leak out of the wound, "FUCK." Cole quickly aims a stab at the arm that stabbed him.

The ghost's arm is stabbed as she whines in pain. Rather than blood coming out there's a small electrical spark from the cut.

Cole closes his right eye as he starts scrambling the radio frequency she is using, "You have electronics, same as me." Cole's remaining eye is darting near the arm he stabbed to see if there's a seam.

The radio frequency is scrambled and he can see a faint tear in her fur where a seam may be. Her other arm grabs onto the arm Cole is using to hold her muzzle as she tries to kick at his gut with both legs again. On holding the mask's muzzle long enough, Cole can tell it's made of a dense paper mache.

Cole keeps his grip as he groans and winces from the gut kick, his closed eye almost reopening as it quickly shuts again, "OW, YOU BASTARD." Cole yanks his knife out of the arm and aims a chop at the faint tear.

The fabric on her arm is torn, revealing a black carbon fiber casing. The ghost then pulls more on his arm to support her weight. She runs her legs up his chest and kicks Cole's throat. She growls as he kicks, still sounding a bit out of her mind, "My tool will reflect my actions."

Cole coughs and chokes as he stumbles off of her, "-Augh, fuck my god damn throat-" Cole holds his throat as he stares at her, waiting for her next move.

The mask moves with her words as she talks and she twitches some again, "Will you adhere to them?... Several feedback loops have been detected." She looks like she's about to jump at him as she draws a butterfly knife with some blood stains from her pocket.

"RUN PYLON LOOP-" Cole braces himself to get stabbed again, continuing to scramble the signal she's using.

She jumps at Cole with precision, wedging the blade towards the joint of his elbow. The ghost speaks again, "Command prompted, In range false, connection lost. Command denied, deactivating adaptive locomotion-"

Cole is stabbed in the joint of his elbow

"THAT'S NOT A GOOD IDE-'' There's a massive spark that cuts Cole off as 120v is sent through the knife. The ghost gets electrocuted as her muscles tense up and both of her arms go limp.

Cole's arm is locked in place as he groans

"Son of a BITCH." Cole takes this chance to quickly tear at the paper mache mask with his still functioning arm.

The mask is torn off with a bit of force as she stumbles back some. Her face is nor.al for a nonferal fox with brown messy hair and almost gray blue eyes. Her pupils are still slits and it's dark under her eyes. She looks to be a mixture of frustrated, exhausted, and upset. Sge stands ready to fight again despite her arms being unable to move. She snarls at him, "Partial to haunted frames. You're pathetic." It's hard to tell if her insanity is coming from a lack of sleep or something else.

Cole stares her down as he groans, "You need a fuckin nap." Cole charges forward and aims a punch at her temple with his functioning arm, hoping to knock her out.

She flinches but doesn't react in time to do anything. She's knocked out and slams into a tree before rolling out onto the grass.

Cole huffs as he rips the pocket knife out of his elbow, "I found the fucking pylon, but at the cost of MY GOD DAMN ELBOW SERVO." Cole's arm is limp as he scoops her up with his remaining arm and disappears.