Memebusters 29: Slender Man II

And so the story conti—

BANG!

GAH!!! My frigging knee!!! Ugh…Deadpool just walked back into the room with a mug of coffee and a plate of chimichangas, then shot me in the knee…not cool, dude. Deadpool sat back in the chair and replied, "Hey, I used to do that to you all the time in other stories and I don't remember hearing you complain," even though I DID complain about the pain! Multiple times!

He paused in recollection, then shrugged, lifting his mask just a little to sip his coffee, saying "Ah well, it's fun anyway. At any rate, let's get back to business! I bet all the fans out there are eager to hear what's happening to our heroes next, so let's not keep them waiting any longer...especially since it's PAST Halloween now."

The white text box responded with a sigh of annoyance, saying "And yet you took several weeks to get a cup of coffee and some chimichangas during that intermission."
Deadpool rolled his eyes and simply gestured for me to continue…ow…so let's get going…

789 was quick to notice the sudden re-activation of the cameras and the TV, then called up X via the team's communication system, saying, "Hey, X! Whatever you did out there, it worked…for both the cameras and the TV. What was the problem?"

No response. Raising an eyebrow, he attempted to contact him again. "X? Hello?"

More silence. 789 scratched his chin in thought at this strange behavior before finally hearing a response. "Don't really recall doing anything. Just kinda fixed itself. Coming back in."

789 paused in thought, curious as to what might have caused such strange phenomena…and why X took so long to respond… meanwhile, Frosti entered the room, wearing her Princess Daisy costume and crossing her arms in impatience. "So we all ready to go trick-or-treating, or what?"

Ramai shook her head, answering, "I've still got to help Helena figure out what costume she's going with…"

Frosti sighed and stood next to her sibling, tapping her foot as X eventually entered the room. Saur watched him enter and noticed that there was something…off…about him…something about the look in his eyes…

"If you're all so eager to get going, maybe some of us can get started and stop at a certain street and wait for the rest to catch up…sound good?" X proposed to the group, who glanced around at each other and nodded in agreement…save for Ramai, who tilted her head in response. Would X really go trick-or-treating without her?

X, noticing Ramai's confusion, paused and added, "I'll stay here with whoever's willing to wait…"

Ramai sighed in relief as the members thought about this decision. That's a bit more like the X she knew…still, there was definitely something different about him…Cocoa and Lova were the first to provide an answer, saying "I'll stay", and "I'll go", respectively, causing them to glance at each other in confusion.

Lova was the first to speak, asking "Wait, what? I thought you were so excited for this…"

Cocoa wasn't entirely sure why he made such a decision himself. Perhaps it had something to do with his subconscious curiosity as to how Helena would look in-costume…he decided to shrug in response, and answered, "Well some people still have to hang around here, right? Everyone else is probably gonna want to, you know…trick-or-treat and stuff. But you should go ahead and have fun, mi belleza."

Lova raised an eyebrow at this sudden decision to supposedly sacrifice himself for the sake of the group, but shrugged and smiled, saying "Alright, if you say so…see you soon…"

And so, the group separated into two groups, one that chose to remain stationed at the base until all members were truly ready to go and one that left to begin the hunt for sweets of all sorts, terrorizing the town…in a good way, that is. Little did they know, they wouldn't be the only ones spreading terror that night.

Let us begin with the travels of our trick-or-treaters, Saur, Shade, Lova, Dynomy, Frosti, Chaman, and Toon…who seemed to be having a bit more trouble than they should have maneuvering through the fog. Dynomy glanced around, raising an eyebrow as he asked, "So…I'm confused, where is the actual city? We've been wandering around the park for a while now…haven't really been getting anywhere…"

Frosti rolled her eyes in boredom and said, "You've gotta be kidding…did we seriously get lost in our own backyard?!! This is looking to be a PRETTY good Halloween…"

Chaman grumbled in annoyance and turned towards Frosti, saying "Well you certainly aren't helping you know…"

Before the sparks could truly fly between the two of them, Shade stopped next to a tree, staring at it as he exclaimed, "Hey guys, come over here for a second…"
The group glanced over in surprise, Saur approaching the tree first to find a strange piece of paper attached to it. He took it off as the group gathered around him to look at this bizarre discovery. "What the…" he thought to himself as they stared at the odd etchings into the note, which appeared to be a skinny man in a suit without a face, surrounded by the word "NO" repeated over and over. There was definitely a supernatural feeling about this thing shared by the group, who exchanged glances with each other as they wondered what it was doing there, what it meant, and if it had something to do with what had been going on…

Back at the HQ, where X, Cocoa, Giral, 789, and Petal waited for Ramai to finish helping Helena with her costume, there was an odd quiet about the place. Petal didn't want to be too far from Dynomy on a night like this…but this night WAS Halloween. Even the plantlife she so loved could provide terror in the form of Jack o' Lanterns…it was difficult for her to feel safe. She figured it might be a bit better to hang out in the HQ just a little longer…Giral was intent on finishing his game of Slender. He didn't care if the ending itself was a bit lackluster; he just wanted to feel accomplished about actually managing to complete the hunt for notes. He managed to get one note already, which showed a sketch of the Slender one himself, surrounded by the word "NO" repeated over and over.

Elsewhere, Ramai was about finished working on Helena's costume, smiling at her handiwork as she had transformed her usual attire into that of a very traditional belly-dancer, with gold and jewels decorating her attire. She was a bit disappointed Helena didn't want more done, but she was content with the piece nonetheless.

"And you're done!" Ramai proudly exclaimed as Helena looked herself over in the mirror, happy with her new costume.

"Thanks, Ramai…sorry I had to make you guys wait for so long." She responded.

Ramai shrugged and said, "Oh, it's fine, really…now, you just wait here and I'm gonna let everyone else know that you're all set to go, ok?" Helena nodded and Ramai smiled, going off to find X first. As she walked past his room she noticed that the door was open ever so slightly and there was an eerie light in the room. Raising an eyebrow in curiosity, she peered into the room and noticed that all lights were off, save for X's personal TV which displayed only static. X was no longer in his Sonic costume and was staring at it from the opposite side of the room, holding something that looked like a white mask in one hand and his racket in the other. However, now the racket no longer seemed like a weapon to combat evil, but rather a tool of darkness itself, having been turned completely black in color with spikes along the side and a circle with an X going through it on the strings.

He didn't seem to notice her as she examined him with a look of concern, so she asked, "…X? Are you ok? You're not wearing your costume…"

X continued to stare at the static on the TV for a few seconds, then suddenly strapped on the mask, which had black eyes, black lips, and a large, crossed out circle in the center, and stood up, staring at Ramai. Before she could respond he leapt at her, racket raised in the air to attack. She gasped and quickly dodged out of the way, eyes widened in shock. Did X, the man she loved…just try to attack her?!!

"X, what's wrong? Why're you attacking me?!" she asked him, but he simply continued to stare in response before swinging at her with his racket again, chasing her down the hallway as she continued to dodge. What was going on here?!!

The members outside of the base were not exactly peaceful themselves. After a bit of wandering they found more pages, which Shade was examining to determine their true meaning. He definitely recognized them from somewhere…but something was keeping him from determining just where he had seen these sketches before…like some sort of mental block brought about by this bizarre fog. Suddenly the team heard some low growling nearby, making them realize that they were not alone in this bizarre realm.

Toon was the first to ask, with her tazer at the ready, "What was that?"

The rest of the team looked around for the source of the noise, weapons at the ready. Saur responded with "Whatever it is, I get the feeling it has something to do with whatever's keeping us from leaving this park…get ready!"

That's when they saw it. Crouched on the ground on all fours, walking out from behind one of the trees, was a pale, humanoid creature with two large, black eyes, a grin made of razor-sharp teeth, and long blades for fingers. Dynomy aimed his glove at the creature and asked, "What the heck is THAT thing?"

After a few seconds of staring at the growling creature, Saur began to recognize it and said, "That's…that's the Rake! It's a CreepyPasta meme that tends to hang around…"
His voice trailed off as he began to put the pieces together. The power disturbances, the fog, the notes, the presence of the Rake…it could only mean one thing…before he could relate his discovery to the others, the monster leapt at them, slashing wildly. Saur and Chaman parried the initial assault with their own bladed weapons as Dynomy leapt above it, preparing to fire at it with his glove from midair. This creature was fast, however, and quickly leapt up to sink its teeth into Dynomy's leg, causing him to shout in pain as he was tossed into the first two to attack, knocking them back. Shade swung his frying pan at it, but it blocked with one hand and slashed his stomach with the other, causing him to fall back, holding his scarred stomach. Toon stuck her tazer into it from behind, stunning it long enough for Lova to hit it in the side with her hammer, knocking the creature into a tree.

Lova went to Dynomy, kneeling next to him and looking at his bleeding leg, then asking,
"Are you ok?" Dynomy slowly nodded, then his eyes widened as he saw the creature rising to its feet again and leaping over to Lova, preparing to bite into her neck.

"LOOK OUT!!!" He shouted as he blasted the creature in the face, knocking it back. However, its claws grazed Lova's back in the process, making her wince in pain. Saur quickly got up as the other members continued to fight against the creature, which seemed to have a knack of using the team's moves against them, such as dodging Frosti's arrows so they'd go into a member behind him. This wasn't going to end well if they didn't think of a good plan and work together…but X wasn't here. Somebody had to pull them together…

He couldn't wait any longer. He had to pull them together himself. As soon as the Rake paused in its assault, he shouted "HEY!!! Everyone, calm down…I have a plan to take this thing down, but I need you guys to trust me and follow my commands to the letter…got it?"

Frosti's eye twitched in irritation as she spoke up, saying "Fine, but this plan of yours had better be good!" The rest of the teammates took a moment to look amongst themselves and eventually conceded with following Saur's instructions…just in time to, for the Rake began to attack again, leaping at Saur.

As Saur blocked the creature's claws with his katanas, he shouted "Frosti and Dynomy, use your long-ranged weaponry to keep that thing confined in a small area…don't aim directly at it, aim at the ground just ahead of it!"

He kicked the Rake back and it immediately began to dash towards Lova, only to be stopped by a blast from Dynomy's glove getting between the two. Dynomy smirked, saying "Not gonna let you hurt one of my friends again," which made Lova blush a bit at his nobility and provoked the creature into dashing towards him, only to be stopped by Frosti's arrows landing in the ground in front of it.

It was slowly but surely being corralled into one spot, with its back against a tree, growling. Saur smirked as the creature leapt for the only conceivable way to escape, straight forward into Saur and Chaman. A nod from Saur was all it took to help Chaman determine what the plan was, and she helped him to parry the claws of the creature, pushing it back to the tree.

Saur shouted "Now, Lova, Shade, and Toon! Land a finishing blow all at once, now that he's got nowhere to run!" The three of them smirked, then dashed forward, Toon jabbing it in the stomach with her tazer, Shade swinging the frying pan into its head, and Lova swinging her hammer into where its unmentionables would be. The creature roared in pain and fell to the ground, eventually disintegrating into dust.

The team panted, holding their bleeding wounds, and Chaman smiled at Saur, saying "Nice plan…"

Saur blushed, scratching the back of his head and saying "Thanks…I'm just glad it worked…"

Dynomy looked around, then asked "So…is that it? Cuz I'd really like to go get some medical attention right now…I'd rather have fake blood when I'm out trick-or-treating, thank you very much."

Saur was about to speak about his discovery once again, but was interrupted by the sound of groans. He raised an eyebrow and looked behind one of the trees to find a teen passed out, deep slash marks in his back. "Not yet…but first things first, let's get this guy some help…"

They helped the teen inside the base, only to find many of the members scattered across the living room, furniture tossed about and both the members and most objects in the room showing signs of battle damage. Not only that, there was various cryptic symbols painted in blood on the walls, mostly consisting of circles with X's going through them.

Saur's eyes widened as he asked the group, "What the heck happened here?!!"

Petal, who was already in the process of tending to some injuries amongst the group, looked up at them, gasping in shock at their own wounds before answering "I…I don't know…we were just waiting for Ramai to tell X that we were ready to go when…we were attacked by someone with a mask all of a sudden…" she trailed off as she saw Dynomy's bleeding scars, rushing over to him and examining his wounds, saying "Dynomy…what…what did this to you?"

Lova's eye twitched slightly as Dynomy recounted what had happened to her, then glanced towards the teen they had found, saying "We've also got an innocent here…he's been hurt pretty badly too…" He smiled at her in a comforting manner and added, "Don't worry about me…I've had worse."

Petal paused for a few seconds, looking back and forth between the boy and Dynomy, then nodded and went to tend to the strange teen's wounds. Shade began putting the pieces together himself, scratching his chin in thought. He turned to Saur and asked, "…what were you saying this was all being caused by earlier?"

Saur looked over all of the destruction throughout the base, then sighed, answering "…Not too many candidates for an attack like this. With the Rake roaming around, these symbols showing up everywhere, our technology failing on us…and now an attack by a masked man? By someone who would have access to the HQ? This can only be the work of one creature…a CreepyPasta like no other…the Slenderman."

Some of the members gasped in shock, while others looked at each other in confusion, wondering just what this creature might be. Saur told them of the nightmarish creature's reputation, his deadly tendrils, his apparent invincibility, and the ominous mystery behind his true motives and abilities. Ramai looked at the ground, worried for the safety of the team's leader, not to mention her love…

Eventually she spoke up, saying, "X…I think that meme did something to X…he was the one with the mask, last time I saw him…"

Stunned silence filled the room. The team wasn't sure what to think. Their own leader turning against them? Corrupted by the very memes they had been brought together to defeat? It couldn't be true…but in their heart, they couldn't help but accept the truth themselves. Who else could use a racket the way X could?

Giral gulped and asked, "So…what now? X…our leader is…" The other members were unsure of what to say themselves. It's not often that they were actually FORCED to fight one of their own…and one who helped them get through so many difficult battles, no less.

Eventually Chaman put an end to the silence and said, "…Saur…do you have any idea how to stop this thing?"

Dynomy blinked, then looked up at Saur, saying, "Hey, that's right…you knew just how we needed to work together to take down that clawed psycho…"

Saur blinked in response, eyebrow raised in surprise. "Hey, wait a sec…what exactly are you guys getting at?"

The team stared at Saur, a glimmer of hope returning to their eyes. Feeling on the spot, Saur turned away, scratching the back of his head and saying "I…I…just give me a second to think about this…"

"Think about what?" The group was surprised at the new voice and turned to look at the guest, who was now sitting up and groaning.

"Come to think of it…just who are you and what are you doing here, anyway?" Cocoa questioned him. The teen scratched his head, as if he was straining to remember.

"My…my name is Cryptid1339, but you can just call me Crypt…I can't really remember how I got into that park…but I remember being attacked by that thing," he paused, then looked at his strange-looking glove and continued, "Then it accidentally hit this button on my glove…and suddenly, I…I suddenly grew four robotic arms on my back and shot lazers from my mouth…it was weird…"

Saur's eyes widened and he turned back to the group, walking over to him and asking, "Wait…so are you saying…you actually turned into Doctor Octagonapus? A meme?!!"

Crypt nodded in response and Shade walked over, examining the glove thoroughly. "Fascinating…would you mind if I took a look at this, figure out just how it works?" Crypt looked over the group for a few moments in a bit of suspicion, but eventually relaxed and nodded. These people saved his life, after all…though he knew not what was going on or how he got there, he felt he could trust them.

As Shade took out some equipment to analyze the technology behind the device, 789 joining him shortly afterwards, Saur scratched his chin in thought…then smirked as he got an idea…a brilliant idea. He got a wonderful, brilliant idea...

Saur finally spoke, saying "Ok…Ok, I've got it…everyone, listen up…because I have a plan."

LATER

Crypt sat next to one of the trees and gulped. He hated this plan. Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to trust these guys after all…but what choice did he have? He sighed and continued waiting for the faceless wonder, glancing at each of the hiding places of the members, now out of costume for better maneuverability and flexibility. He didn't know how some pieces of paper with that crossed out circle on it would keep that thing from finding them right away, but Shade seemed fairly confident it would work after having thoroughly researched this meme. He closed his eyes for just a moment as he suddenly sneezed – it was pretty cold out there that night, after all – and when he opened them, they were standing just in front of him. Masky, the fiend that had once been the noble leader of the Memebusters, and the Slenderman, the tall, faceless creature that could've easily been mistaken for one of the dead trees from a distance. He tried to avoid looking directly at the pale head of the creature, lest the strange, unnatural fear take hold of him as it did to X.

The masked X looked around, holding his spiked racket at the ready as dark tendrils began to rise from Slenderman's back, creeping towards Crypt as he quickly stood up. It was now or never…he quickly activated his glove, transforming into…(pause)…oh, so THAT'S why he insisted on doing the intro to the story…

"WAAAAZZZZUUUUUUUP?!!!" Yes, Crypt had transformed into the Anti-Hero for Hire, the Regenerating Degenerate, the Merc with a Mouth…Deadpool. Smirking confidently beneath his mask, he pointed his two favorite guns at the faceless one's head and opened fire. The Slenderman merely teleported out of the way, however, and Masky leapt at the Merc, his racket at the ready.

Deadpool swiftly kicked him out of the way, saying "Yeah, yeah, I'll get to you in a minute, I've gotta dance with your boss first, dude." He put the guns away and dashed towards Slenderman, pulling out his katanas and swinging them at him, only for the meme to deflect each attack with its tendrils. "Bet you're wondering why I'm not going super crazy from your mindf@#$ powers, huh? Well, in case you couldn't tell…I'm already crazy! Not much you can change. So I'm gonna be super distracting for ya, K?"

As Masky got back up, the team revealed themselves, leaping out of their hiding places to surround their leader. Ramai quickly wrapped her whip around his arms while Helena wrapped her veil around his legs, binding him, and Dynomy knocked the racket out of his hand with his glove. Masky struggled, but Lova and Cocoa helped to keep a hold of him (Lova helping Ramai and Cocoa helping Helena)…for the moment, at least.

Saur was quick to issue commands, saying "Ok, I'll see what I can do about X…Everyone but Ramai, Lova, Helena, and Chaman, we need to see just what can or can't hurt Slenderman, preferably before that transformation ends…" He then turned to Ramai, Lova, Cocoa, and Helena, continuing "You four are gonna make sure X doesn't get loose while I put this plan into action…" He finally turned to Chaman and said, "If something happens to me in the process, Chaman…can I count on you to help me regain my senses?"

She slowly nodded and said "Of course…just…be careful, ok?"

Saur presented her with a comforting smile, giving her a thumbs-up, then turned to the rest of the group and said "Ok…let's go!" The members nodded in agreement and went to do their perspective tasks. As the majority of the team members surrounded the battle of the memes, Saur paused, looking at the masked man glaring up at him, then sighed. It was either now, or never…if his plan didn't work, they might not survive the encounter…

Saur placed a hand on X's forehead and closed his eyes. He was going to use the power of meme energy – hopefully his level of energy would be enough for such a task – to enter X's mind, find what was corrupting him, and take it down…if he can. When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a dark void of sorts. No light to be seen around him, but he was definitely standing on something so he wasn't floating in the middle of nowhere…just what sort of realm was this? His thoughts were interrupted as he heard sinister chuckling somewhere in the shadows…chuckling that sounded very familiar…

Saur held his katanas at the ready, looking around with caution, and asked, "Who's there? Who do I have to kick out of the head of my friend today? Show yourself!" As if on cue, a figure began to take shape in front of him…and a very unusual shape at that…Saur's eyes widened as he saw…himself…however, this doppelganger had a black and white color scheme, though the shades on his outfit were reversed and the pupils of his eyes were crimson red. A devilish smirk was on his face as he approached him.

"You kick people out of their recently acquired homes often? Because that's a bad HABIT, little rabbit…"