Charlie Montoya was created by Mr Rucker. He was given most of his power and durability, but not more than half just in case. They became best friends, and Mr Rucker didn't want to let Charlie die by natural means. He was perfect.
Mr Rucker had retired from MBMS, like he said, and Charlie was in high school. It was the first day of summer. Charlie played Fortnite and Fall Guys and went surfing during the summer. Without Mr Rucker, he was sad, alone. He knew his family was not actually real, and they were just artificially created by Mr Rucker. He was the only person Charlie could actually talk to and know that he was sincere.
Sometimes all Charlie wanted was a real family. A real family. But he soon learned that would be his biggest mistake.
Charlie Montoya sat up on his bed. A few days before, he had created a family of ink monsters from his Seterra blade, and he was forced to kill them. He had been reflecting for a while, unable to sleep. But now it was time to act.
Charlie walked back into the kitchen and fetched his sword, holding it up again to see the reflection of himself as a black gooey mess of a monster. He sighed and walked over to his backyard. It was trashed from the monster’s attack a few days ago.
Charlie picked up his tire swing which had been ripped in half and threw it at the wall. He was going to create a real family.
As the days, weeks, and months passed, Charlie continued to work. He tested hypotheses after hypothesis, ending up nowhere. Every time he let the monter out, it tried to attack him. But, he was quick to trap it back in the sword. Over time, his mind crumbled and collapsed under the torturous experience of seeing his family turn into monsters and try to hurt him. He was planning to give up soon.
One day, Charlie tried placing the sword in a glass box and left it there overnight. When he woke up the next morning, the sword had been sucked dry of its goo and the case was shattered. The goo was gone.
Charlie entered the sewers and found no trace of the goo. He walked down for miles of tunnels until he found them. A trail of rat skeletons, their flesh sucked off until only the bones were left, with small bits of the goo still clinging on.
Charlie was terrified. He ran over and picked up the skeleton, inspecting it. He wiped off some of the goo with his finger and stared at it. It stood still for a moment before it leaped off his finger and down into the sewer water. That was when he realized the water was now pitch black, sparkes of light flickering off of it but instantaneously getting consumed by the darkness.
Charlie had been looking in the wrong place the entire time… the goo was everywhere.
Suddenly, the goo sprang up, latching all over the walls, two wrapping around Charlie’s arm and neck. He tried to fight back, but remembered he had left his Seterra blade back in the case at home. He was dragged into the water by the tendrils, turning everything to black.
Charlie woke up illuminated by one flood light above him. He sat up and peered around. He was in an endless void, the ground soaking him in an inch deep layer of goo. He sprung up, surprised that the goo didn’t try to take him back in. It was lifeless.
Charlie looked around again, before reaching a certain point where he saw a light in the distance. It sparkled, yet didn’t brighten up anything around it. Charlie ran. He ran for the light.
When Charlie reached it, he saw the Seterra blade stabbed into the ground, the blade wrapped by tendrils coming from the floor. He suddenly felt the urge to grab the sword. He reached out, and once he grabbed it, the tendrils soaked into the blade. He held it up, but this time he saw his own reflection, not one of a monster. And, his reflection seemed to be in a white void, rather than the black he was trapped in. He dropped the sword in confusion, but gasped.
Blocked previously by the sword was the same figure he had seen in his reflection. It looked like him, just made of goo, and his eyes glowing pure white. It had no mouth, no nose, just eyes. Just eyes.
Charlie reached out, and so the creature. They touched fingers. Charlie was confused, for some reason this thing that looked kind of like him was copying him. Charlie, just to test if he was looking into some sort of goo mirror, jabbed his fist forward. However, all the power was stopped when his fist hit his goo version’s fist.
Then, the creatures grabbed his fist, then with the other hand grabbed his neck, and threw him onto the ground. It was no mirror. The creature stood over him, like it was taunting him with his stupidity.
Charlie reached for the Seterra blade, but the creature stomped on his fist and grabbed it itself. It raised it high in the air, ready to bring it down. But Charlie was prepared.
He rolled ro the right, tripping the creature and causing it to sink into the goo. Charlie got up and looked down at the creature. It was gone, and so was the Seterra blade.
However, white eyes lit up in a dome around him, all staring. Just staring. Charlie was too terrified to fight back. Suddenly, the dome around him began to shrink, soon to crush him inside. His ear began to ring, and the sound pained him so much that he could do nothing but grasp his ears as the walls came closer…and closer… and closer until…
The ringing stopped. He opened his eyes… and he was back in his room. He was sitting on his bed, just like he had been after sucking up his ink family. But, something was wrong. The Seterra blade was stabbed into his bed between his feet. It had turned from a steel white to a flickering black. It just sat there.
Waiting.
I remember SETERA...