06-02-2015, 08:52 PM
(ONE AND A HALF DAYS AFTER THE EXTRACTION OF DR. GEARS)
Dr. McNinja followed Neinheart deeper into the forest. Neinheart was a short man, to say the least. He was possibly around 3 feet tall, giving Doc the impression that he was a chibi character. To support this argument, he was dressed like some sort of celestial librarian from an anime. Neinheart’s hair was the shade of a clear morning sky: light, blue, and thin. It was tied into a tight ponytail that moved surreally stationery through the entire journey. He was wearing similarly light blue robes that were lined with stems of gold which wrapped around the base of the robe. Over it, he wore a white cloak, similarly adorned with golden lines. Humorously enough, Neinheart donned a monocle. Dr. McNinja had never seen someone wear a monocle. It was a life-changing experience.
“You’re sure we’re going the right way?”
“Of course,” Neinheart said, “Ereve is just over here.”
“You realize we’re in the middle of nowhere?” Doc snapped, “This is literally just a forest. There is no way that a city as big as you described would-“
“Hush,” Neinheart whispered.
“Don’t tell me to-“
“Hush.”
Doc scowled. “Yeah,” he whispered, “Don’t do that.”
They stood in silence for a long while. McNinja had no idea why they had stopped. He couldn’t help but feel anxious. Slowly, he shifted his hand upwards. He cringed at the sound of his jacket shifting. Neinheart seemed to notice.
“I’m not going to attack you, you fool,” he snapped, “I’m listening for our ride.”
Doc didn’t relax his arm. His fingers brushed against the handle of his katana. "Our ride?" He tensed up again, and scanned their environment. There were plenty of trees he could use for jumping. The ground was scattered with dead leaves, so moving on the ground silently would be difficult. He was now gripping the handle very tightly.
”What exactly is our ri-"
A pile of leaves somewhere erupted. Doc instinctively yanked his katana out of its sheath. He gripped it tight, bent his knees and prepared himself for the bat-
“Oh, no, that’s cool," Doc muttered, returning the katana to its sheath, “Portals can be harmless. I’m cool."
Neinheart raised an eyebrow. The portal was an indistinct pool of blue and white light that shot up from the ground, spiraling into the sky. It shimmered waterfall noises through the entire forest. Neinheart gestured towards the portal.
“Shall we?”
”Well," Doc protested, ”Last time I jumped into one of these, I ended up in the tyrannical rule of the dinosaurs, then I ended up in this hellhole, so… No."
“Shall I push you in?”
”You can try," McNinja chuckled.
”Let me,” someone behind the doctor growled.
He felt a foot kick him from behind. Doc whirled around to look at the face of his attacker. Even in this weakened state, nobody should have been able to sneak up on him like that. Not unless-
Not unless they were another ninja.
Doc whirled behind him and saw another ninja, smirking.
”See you in Ereve,” he muttered as Dr. McNinja fell through the portal. The lights of the portal swallowed him, and burned his skin as if they were flames. Suddenly, he felt speed - pure speed, not the feeling of movement, but the abstract concept of it, embodied, physical. The concept of movement was dancing around Dr. McNinja. And around it, something red. Something yellow. Lightning bolts, in some deadly dance with each other.
Then everything went black. When Doc opened his eyes again, he was standing again, the portal directly behind him. Neinheart and the ninja were standing beside him. Neinheart smiled.
“Welcome to Ereve,” he said.
Dr. McNinja let in his surroundings. It was actually quiet beautiful. Songbirds were warbling peacefully somewhere. Next to him was a dome of marble strands, intertwined into a delicate net that seemed soft enough to sleep in. The dome itself was about the size of the dome of the White House, actually. It was completely open, and had less the appearance of a dome and more the appearance of a gazebo. Which was good, considering that inside it rested a humongous bird.
It was hard to pinpoint what kind of bird it was. It had a swan’s form, but its ruffled feathers and its beak resembled more of an ostrich. In fact, upon closer observation, the beak was actually flesh as well. To add to its bizarreness, McNinja observed, it was probably around 25 feet long, fully extended. It was also 10 feet tall. Doc wasn’t sure if this was a bird or a building.
He couldn’t tell the exact size of the beast, because it was wrapped around itself, seemingly sleeping. Its neck curled around so that its beak would be tucked under its breast, and its wings were covering the entire ground under the dome.
Clearly, the bird wasn’t asleep. At the approach of Dr. McNinja, it gently and serenely lifted one wing. A wing that big should have caused some sort of commotion at all, but nobody was scared, and nobody was blown back off their feet. It seemed this would have happened all the time. Doc could believe that. After all, there was a girl under that wing.
‘Young’ was probably the best word to describe this girl. She looked like she could be eight years old, at most. She wasn’t only young, but innocent. There was something untarnished, even… virginal. If there were any way to say that without sounding so creepy, Doc would probably have said it. She had long flowing blonde hair that was so light it was practically white. She wore a long blue dress that seemed to flow around here in tides of serenity.
“Dr. McNinja,” she addressed Doc as if the words danced on her breath, “I have been expecting you.”
Dr. McNinja cleared his throat. ”Um… Hi.
“I am Empress Cygnus,” the girl continued, “I am the ruler of the Maple World. We are… unfortunately, we are in need of assistance. I was hoping you could help me.”
”Well, your Majesty,” Doc grumbled, ”With all due respect, kicking someone’s toushy into a suspicious portal isn’t the best way to ask them to help you.”
Cygnus turned her head, causing her hair to shift slowly, as if her head was underwater. She glared at Neinheart.
“I thought I told you to be gentle.”
“Please, Empress,” Neinheart scoffed, “I am not one to kick anyone’s… toushy. The offender was Eckhart.”
Cygnus sighed.
“This is of little import,” she whispered, “Doctor, I have a task for you.”
”Okay,” Doc said, ”I hope you have medical insurance or something around here. These bills can get nast-“
“Medical?” Cygnus giggled. “No, doctor, we will need… your other skills.”
“With all due respect, er, Empress,” Doc stammered, “I do ninja work strictly for personal favors. And I don’t know any of you. I-I’ve never even heard of you. H-how can I trust you enough to-to-to lend you my sword?”
Cygnus frowned, her face infantile. She was clearly hurt by what Doc had said. McNinja wasn’t entirely sure how the young Empress was expected to rule a whole world if one denial from a complete stranger brought her nearly to tears.
“Because, doctor,” Cygnus replied, “It’s related to Darkseid. He has a bounty for you, you know.”
“Really, now?” Doc scowled. “I ran into him not so long ago, and I saw the official bounty board. I’m not on there.”
“Not officially,” Cygnus murmured, “But word travels fast underground.”
“You don’t seem like the ‘underground type’,” McNinja scoffed.
“Show respect to her Highness!” Neinheart snapped.
“It’s alright, Neinheart,” Cygnus said, “No, I am not. I have friends who are.”
“Such as..?”
A click of boots against tiles.
”Me.”
“Okay, that time, I heard you-"
Doc whirled around. In front of him stood five rather flashy-looking people.
“Okay,” Doc admitted, “Didn’t hear all of you."
To the very left stood a woman who was honestly a generic fantasy elf. She had green hair and what was practically a bikini made out of what seemed like cabbage. Regardless of the, shall we say, excessively flattering outfit, she held herself with a pride and with an honor that Doc had only read about in books about King Arthur. Slung around her shoulder was an elaborate vine that had been bent in the shape of a bow. It was tightly wound by a thin wire of silver, and the notch was replaced with an elaborate fan of gold. In other words, a generic elf.
Next to her was a maybe fourteen-year-old girl. Her scarlet hair matched the crimson cloak she wore, and a staff with a golden wreath wrapped around an orb of flame as if she held a miniature sun. Despite the menacing outfit and the impressive weapon, she seemed very bubbly. Her hair was ruffled and unbrushed. One end of the cloak was tucked away somewhere. And to top it off, she had cheerful green eyes and a childish grin.
To the very right was the ninja that had kicked Dr. McNinja into the portal earlier. Neinheart had said his name was “Eckhart.” It was as if adding “heart” to the end of your name was very popular in Ereve. Eckhart stood menacingly, as if he was doing his absolute best to not be noticed while introducing himself. His face was mostly covered with a mask, the design of which was an amalgamation of the two drama masks into one. On his wrists were impressive-looking gauntlets, adorned with a round gem the color of red wine. Attached to his jet-black battle armor were several chains, each holding a bottle of some potion or other. This was all cloaked by an elaborate sable cape outlined with white fur.
The second to the left was a… well, a pirate, clearly. He was an extremely tanned man with orange hair. The hat he wore was an almost cliché buccaneer hat, skull-and-bones and everything, except it was blue. The rest of his outfit seemed to match the “blue pirate" theme. He was wearing a cocky grin, and his eyes seemed to be constantly scanning you, sizing you up, like a martial artist… No, more like a boxer. He was even wearing knuckles with extremely sharp spikes on them. He brandished them as if he were challenging Doc in his mind.
In the center stood a blond man in literally shining white armor. He was wearing headgear that had wings sticking out of the temples. He had a sword sheathed by his waist, laced with gold and rubies. His face was considerably noble. Everything about him screamed chivalry, and his shrill blue eyes looked as if they were willing you to surrender. This was a man you did not want to anger. Not only because he looked like he could kill you by unsheathing his sword, but because if this man did not approve of your actions, you had failed some moral test.
“That was me,” the noble one chuckled, “My boots are quite heavy. Pleasure to meet you, Doctor. My name is Mihile.”
He held out his hand. Doc tentatively shook it. The pirate then punched him boisterously in the shoulder. Despite the deadly spikes, it actually didn’t hurt.
“Ahoy! They call me Hawkeye,” he shouted.
“Uh… ahoy,” Doc mumbled, rubbing his arm.
“I’m Oz!” the girl in red chirped, “It’s really nice to meet you!”
“Uh, you too.”
“Irena,” the elf in green hummed, “Pleasure.”
"Uh, right.”
Everyone turned to Eckhart, who shrugged.
“What?” he grumbled, “We’ve met.”
“You’re going to start this up again?” Mihile hissed, "With our guest?!”
“Uh, Mihile, please calm down-“ Oz mumbled.
“No!” Mihile roared, “I have had it up to here with this shadowy knave!”
”Calling each other names now, are we?”
”At least I do it to their face, you backstabbing-“
Neinheart cleared his throat. The two immediately stopped bickering and turned heads.
“Thank God,” Irena muttered ‘under her breath’, “I was about to slip on all the testosterone around here."
Tension bubbled uncomfortably around the five. Hawkeye winced and mouthed ‘Sorry!’ to McNinja. Doc smiled awkwardly, eyes squinted nervously.
“Uh, nice to meet you all too!” he replied. “I’m uh… Doctor McNinja. Which I'm... sure... you knew. Sorry, what was that about me being a guest?”
“Well,” Cygnus chimed, “You surely would stay, at least the night?”
Everyone watched him carefully. Doc managed to give an awkward grin.
“ImaybeuhIdontknowletstalkaboutsomethingelsek?”
Cygnus frowned briefly, confused. “Pardon?”
Doc looked around him. These people actually looked pretty genuine. They needed his help for something and, for all knew, they were not only benevolent, but cartoonishly so. It certainly didn’t help that they were all half his height. It was like being approached by Munchkin soldiers.
And plus, they seemed to be going up against Darkseid. Or so Cygnus said.
“They may just be collecting the bounty,” the inner voice told him.
“Then I’d kick their munchkin toushies,” Doc replied.
“Five people in heavy armor just snuck up on you. Their munchkin toushies would kick you."
“Actually, you know what? I’d be glad to help,” Dr. McNinja belted out.
Almost instantly, everyone started cheering. Even Neinheart seemed to relax a little. The only person who looked unhappy was Eckhart.
“But!” Doc interrupted. Everyone grew silent again. “But, I would like to know what I’d be doing here first.”
Cygnus grinned.
“Well, that’s a simple question,” she said, “We want to make you a Cygnus Knight."
Dr. McNinja followed Neinheart deeper into the forest. Neinheart was a short man, to say the least. He was possibly around 3 feet tall, giving Doc the impression that he was a chibi character. To support this argument, he was dressed like some sort of celestial librarian from an anime. Neinheart’s hair was the shade of a clear morning sky: light, blue, and thin. It was tied into a tight ponytail that moved surreally stationery through the entire journey. He was wearing similarly light blue robes that were lined with stems of gold which wrapped around the base of the robe. Over it, he wore a white cloak, similarly adorned with golden lines. Humorously enough, Neinheart donned a monocle. Dr. McNinja had never seen someone wear a monocle. It was a life-changing experience.
“You’re sure we’re going the right way?”
“Of course,” Neinheart said, “Ereve is just over here.”
“You realize we’re in the middle of nowhere?” Doc snapped, “This is literally just a forest. There is no way that a city as big as you described would-“
“Hush,” Neinheart whispered.
“Don’t tell me to-“
“Hush.”
Doc scowled. “Yeah,” he whispered, “Don’t do that.”
They stood in silence for a long while. McNinja had no idea why they had stopped. He couldn’t help but feel anxious. Slowly, he shifted his hand upwards. He cringed at the sound of his jacket shifting. Neinheart seemed to notice.
“I’m not going to attack you, you fool,” he snapped, “I’m listening for our ride.”
Doc didn’t relax his arm. His fingers brushed against the handle of his katana. "Our ride?" He tensed up again, and scanned their environment. There were plenty of trees he could use for jumping. The ground was scattered with dead leaves, so moving on the ground silently would be difficult. He was now gripping the handle very tightly.
”What exactly is our ri-"
A pile of leaves somewhere erupted. Doc instinctively yanked his katana out of its sheath. He gripped it tight, bent his knees and prepared himself for the bat-
“Oh, no, that’s cool," Doc muttered, returning the katana to its sheath, “Portals can be harmless. I’m cool."
Neinheart raised an eyebrow. The portal was an indistinct pool of blue and white light that shot up from the ground, spiraling into the sky. It shimmered waterfall noises through the entire forest. Neinheart gestured towards the portal.
“Shall we?”
”Well," Doc protested, ”Last time I jumped into one of these, I ended up in the tyrannical rule of the dinosaurs, then I ended up in this hellhole, so… No."
“Shall I push you in?”
”You can try," McNinja chuckled.
”Let me,” someone behind the doctor growled.
He felt a foot kick him from behind. Doc whirled around to look at the face of his attacker. Even in this weakened state, nobody should have been able to sneak up on him like that. Not unless-
Not unless they were another ninja.
Doc whirled behind him and saw another ninja, smirking.
”See you in Ereve,” he muttered as Dr. McNinja fell through the portal. The lights of the portal swallowed him, and burned his skin as if they were flames. Suddenly, he felt speed - pure speed, not the feeling of movement, but the abstract concept of it, embodied, physical. The concept of movement was dancing around Dr. McNinja. And around it, something red. Something yellow. Lightning bolts, in some deadly dance with each other.
Then everything went black. When Doc opened his eyes again, he was standing again, the portal directly behind him. Neinheart and the ninja were standing beside him. Neinheart smiled.
“Welcome to Ereve,” he said.
Dr. McNinja let in his surroundings. It was actually quiet beautiful. Songbirds were warbling peacefully somewhere. Next to him was a dome of marble strands, intertwined into a delicate net that seemed soft enough to sleep in. The dome itself was about the size of the dome of the White House, actually. It was completely open, and had less the appearance of a dome and more the appearance of a gazebo. Which was good, considering that inside it rested a humongous bird.
It was hard to pinpoint what kind of bird it was. It had a swan’s form, but its ruffled feathers and its beak resembled more of an ostrich. In fact, upon closer observation, the beak was actually flesh as well. To add to its bizarreness, McNinja observed, it was probably around 25 feet long, fully extended. It was also 10 feet tall. Doc wasn’t sure if this was a bird or a building.
He couldn’t tell the exact size of the beast, because it was wrapped around itself, seemingly sleeping. Its neck curled around so that its beak would be tucked under its breast, and its wings were covering the entire ground under the dome.
Clearly, the bird wasn’t asleep. At the approach of Dr. McNinja, it gently and serenely lifted one wing. A wing that big should have caused some sort of commotion at all, but nobody was scared, and nobody was blown back off their feet. It seemed this would have happened all the time. Doc could believe that. After all, there was a girl under that wing.
‘Young’ was probably the best word to describe this girl. She looked like she could be eight years old, at most. She wasn’t only young, but innocent. There was something untarnished, even… virginal. If there were any way to say that without sounding so creepy, Doc would probably have said it. She had long flowing blonde hair that was so light it was practically white. She wore a long blue dress that seemed to flow around here in tides of serenity.
“Dr. McNinja,” she addressed Doc as if the words danced on her breath, “I have been expecting you.”
Dr. McNinja cleared his throat. ”Um… Hi.
“I am Empress Cygnus,” the girl continued, “I am the ruler of the Maple World. We are… unfortunately, we are in need of assistance. I was hoping you could help me.”
”Well, your Majesty,” Doc grumbled, ”With all due respect, kicking someone’s toushy into a suspicious portal isn’t the best way to ask them to help you.”
Cygnus turned her head, causing her hair to shift slowly, as if her head was underwater. She glared at Neinheart.
“I thought I told you to be gentle.”
“Please, Empress,” Neinheart scoffed, “I am not one to kick anyone’s… toushy. The offender was Eckhart.”
Cygnus sighed.
“This is of little import,” she whispered, “Doctor, I have a task for you.”
”Okay,” Doc said, ”I hope you have medical insurance or something around here. These bills can get nast-“
“Medical?” Cygnus giggled. “No, doctor, we will need… your other skills.”
“With all due respect, er, Empress,” Doc stammered, “I do ninja work strictly for personal favors. And I don’t know any of you. I-I’ve never even heard of you. H-how can I trust you enough to-to-to lend you my sword?”
Cygnus frowned, her face infantile. She was clearly hurt by what Doc had said. McNinja wasn’t entirely sure how the young Empress was expected to rule a whole world if one denial from a complete stranger brought her nearly to tears.
“Because, doctor,” Cygnus replied, “It’s related to Darkseid. He has a bounty for you, you know.”
“Really, now?” Doc scowled. “I ran into him not so long ago, and I saw the official bounty board. I’m not on there.”
“Not officially,” Cygnus murmured, “But word travels fast underground.”
“You don’t seem like the ‘underground type’,” McNinja scoffed.
“Show respect to her Highness!” Neinheart snapped.
“It’s alright, Neinheart,” Cygnus said, “No, I am not. I have friends who are.”
“Such as..?”
A click of boots against tiles.
”Me.”
“Okay, that time, I heard you-"
Doc whirled around. In front of him stood five rather flashy-looking people.
“Okay,” Doc admitted, “Didn’t hear all of you."
To the very left stood a woman who was honestly a generic fantasy elf. She had green hair and what was practically a bikini made out of what seemed like cabbage. Regardless of the, shall we say, excessively flattering outfit, she held herself with a pride and with an honor that Doc had only read about in books about King Arthur. Slung around her shoulder was an elaborate vine that had been bent in the shape of a bow. It was tightly wound by a thin wire of silver, and the notch was replaced with an elaborate fan of gold. In other words, a generic elf.
Next to her was a maybe fourteen-year-old girl. Her scarlet hair matched the crimson cloak she wore, and a staff with a golden wreath wrapped around an orb of flame as if she held a miniature sun. Despite the menacing outfit and the impressive weapon, she seemed very bubbly. Her hair was ruffled and unbrushed. One end of the cloak was tucked away somewhere. And to top it off, she had cheerful green eyes and a childish grin.
To the very right was the ninja that had kicked Dr. McNinja into the portal earlier. Neinheart had said his name was “Eckhart.” It was as if adding “heart” to the end of your name was very popular in Ereve. Eckhart stood menacingly, as if he was doing his absolute best to not be noticed while introducing himself. His face was mostly covered with a mask, the design of which was an amalgamation of the two drama masks into one. On his wrists were impressive-looking gauntlets, adorned with a round gem the color of red wine. Attached to his jet-black battle armor were several chains, each holding a bottle of some potion or other. This was all cloaked by an elaborate sable cape outlined with white fur.
The second to the left was a… well, a pirate, clearly. He was an extremely tanned man with orange hair. The hat he wore was an almost cliché buccaneer hat, skull-and-bones and everything, except it was blue. The rest of his outfit seemed to match the “blue pirate" theme. He was wearing a cocky grin, and his eyes seemed to be constantly scanning you, sizing you up, like a martial artist… No, more like a boxer. He was even wearing knuckles with extremely sharp spikes on them. He brandished them as if he were challenging Doc in his mind.
In the center stood a blond man in literally shining white armor. He was wearing headgear that had wings sticking out of the temples. He had a sword sheathed by his waist, laced with gold and rubies. His face was considerably noble. Everything about him screamed chivalry, and his shrill blue eyes looked as if they were willing you to surrender. This was a man you did not want to anger. Not only because he looked like he could kill you by unsheathing his sword, but because if this man did not approve of your actions, you had failed some moral test.
“That was me,” the noble one chuckled, “My boots are quite heavy. Pleasure to meet you, Doctor. My name is Mihile.”
He held out his hand. Doc tentatively shook it. The pirate then punched him boisterously in the shoulder. Despite the deadly spikes, it actually didn’t hurt.
“Ahoy! They call me Hawkeye,” he shouted.
“Uh… ahoy,” Doc mumbled, rubbing his arm.
“I’m Oz!” the girl in red chirped, “It’s really nice to meet you!”
“Uh, you too.”
“Irena,” the elf in green hummed, “Pleasure.”
"Uh, right.”
Everyone turned to Eckhart, who shrugged.
“What?” he grumbled, “We’ve met.”
“You’re going to start this up again?” Mihile hissed, "With our guest?!”
“Uh, Mihile, please calm down-“ Oz mumbled.
“No!” Mihile roared, “I have had it up to here with this shadowy knave!”
”Calling each other names now, are we?”
”At least I do it to their face, you backstabbing-“
Neinheart cleared his throat. The two immediately stopped bickering and turned heads.
“Thank God,” Irena muttered ‘under her breath’, “I was about to slip on all the testosterone around here."
Tension bubbled uncomfortably around the five. Hawkeye winced and mouthed ‘Sorry!’ to McNinja. Doc smiled awkwardly, eyes squinted nervously.
“Uh, nice to meet you all too!” he replied. “I’m uh… Doctor McNinja. Which I'm... sure... you knew. Sorry, what was that about me being a guest?”
“Well,” Cygnus chimed, “You surely would stay, at least the night?”
Everyone watched him carefully. Doc managed to give an awkward grin.
“ImaybeuhIdontknowletstalkaboutsomethingelsek?”
Cygnus frowned briefly, confused. “Pardon?”
Doc looked around him. These people actually looked pretty genuine. They needed his help for something and, for all knew, they were not only benevolent, but cartoonishly so. It certainly didn’t help that they were all half his height. It was like being approached by Munchkin soldiers.
And plus, they seemed to be going up against Darkseid. Or so Cygnus said.
“They may just be collecting the bounty,” the inner voice told him.
“Then I’d kick their munchkin toushies,” Doc replied.
“Five people in heavy armor just snuck up on you. Their munchkin toushies would kick you."
“Actually, you know what? I’d be glad to help,” Dr. McNinja belted out.
Almost instantly, everyone started cheering. Even Neinheart seemed to relax a little. The only person who looked unhappy was Eckhart.
“But!” Doc interrupted. Everyone grew silent again. “But, I would like to know what I’d be doing here first.”
Cygnus grinned.
“Well, that’s a simple question,” she said, “We want to make you a Cygnus Knight."
![[Image: 665000_mcninja_by_cavenglok-dch0qt5.jpg]](https://orig00.deviantart.net/3590/f/2018/193/c/8/665000_mcninja_by_cavenglok-dch0qt5.jpg)
Odd hours. Call for appointment.