October 31st
6:00 PM
Robert Tofflemire awoke to the sound of a heart monitor. Sitting next to him, half-asleep, was his partner. He had somehow gone from being flung against the wall to being in Site-87's infirmary. "Alice?" He asked. His words brought pain.
She flung awake. "Hey! D-don't talk." She put a hand on his shoulder. "You're fine. Thank god."
"Feels like I broke a rib…" He winced.
"Yeah. I… kind of broke it giving you CPR. Sorry." She let out an uneasy laugh.
"How long was I out for?" He sat up, grunting in pain.
"Listen."
Robert heard the sound of bass echoing through the site.
"Party's started?" He asked.
"Yeah," she confirmed. "It's gonna be going on for a while longer— Liao says that you should be okay if I take you up in a wheelchair." She held up a backpack. "I brought your costume."
"…did you break into my apartment?" He asked.
"Of course not. I found the keys that were on you."
After a few minutes, she was wheeling Robert through the halls of Site-87, to the barracks.
"So, what happened?"
"Well…"
2:30 AM
The Goatman's axe stopped short of Alison Carol's head. The tension in the air had vanished. Beneath her, Robert sprang to life with a gasp, sitting up, screaming in pain, and immediately falling back down.
Up in the projection booth, Alison heard her radio squawk to life. She took the one off of Robert. "This is Agent Carol, calling command."
«Agent Carol, what did you do?» Harold March sounded furious on the other end. «Tofflemire's life signs just spiked back on screen.»
"I—" she swallowed. "I just gave him CPR and an adrenaline injection, sir." It was the truth. "He- he's unconscious again. We need medivac."
«That's all?» Command asked. «No anomalous activity?»
"Negative. But I think he has a cracked rib."
«All right. We're sending agents in now.»
"4040-Omega is in the Projector Corridor on the second floor. It's… well, it's a two-toed sloth." She panted, and looked up at the Goatman. "What does this mean?"
The Goatman scowled, and looked down at his hooves. "To be honest? I have no clue. This entire street should have been swallowed up by what you just did."
Alison looked at the projector once more. "But that wouldn't make for a good story, would it?"
The Goatman looked up with her. "I hope he's worth it."
"Trust me. He is."
The doors to the theater opened again. Alison's attention was drawn towards the agents pouring in and evacuating the civilians. When she looked back, the Goatman was gone.
7:00 AM
"What do you mean, it's gotten bigger?"
Nina Weiss was in the middle of a very unpleasant video call. On the other end, Philip Verhoten, head of the Department of Nexology, showed her a map.
"This is the approximate range of the Sloth's Pit Nexus Zone as of September 2018. The red square is Site-87."
"And this is the approximate range as of yesterday morning."
"That's… almost double the area."
"It's over double the area." Verhoten frowned. "Whatever this… Pit Sloth did to the town affected it in ways that are immeasurable for the time being." He licked his lips. "Talking of, the status of 4040—"
"It's still there. It's shrunk back down to 100 feet— we had Ryan Melbourne monitor it in person."
"So, the Pit Sloth is just a normal sloth, and yet, Sloth's Pit is bigger." He looked over the second map again. "The zone is getting close to Lake Superior. God knows how that's going to affect the wildlife there."
"And there's an entire portion of the Latian river that's not covered by the zone." Weiss leaned back in her seat."We live in interesting times."
"Talking of… the loop, has it ceased?"
"Moment of truth?"
"Yeah."
Edward Valentine put his car into gear. Laura Ashbrooke was sitting in the passenger's seat, and they were driving down Main Street. Last time they had tried this, they got looped back to the other end of town the instant they hit the end of League. Now, they were about to try to cross over it.
Laura was on her phone, trying to choose between their favorite restaurants in Superior. "Sclavi's or Breakwater?"
Edward stared. "Those are both expensive, are you sure—"
Laura showed him the screen on her phone. It was a bank statement. "The check went through."
"Holy hell." Edward whistled.
"So. I've always wanted to go to London…"
"Sounds like something to do next summer." He leaned over to kiss her. "Happy birthday, love."
They drove past League Street and into the forest, bound for the big city. A truck drove behind them, transporting a two-toed sloth towards the zoo in Duluth.
Jasper Phineas Sloth walked over forbidden ground.
For one-hundred and twenty-seven years, the buck had stopped just north of Grey Lake. Now, he was watching the melting snow start to flood the Latian river. The sound of Lake Superior gulls echoed in the distance.
Further north, he found himself at a place that was local landmark, but not something that was part of the town— the Five Fingers. A series of rivers that flowed from Lake Superior, going into underground rivers. It was said— but never proven— that the rivers didn't exist, and the water flowed into a bottomless pit.
Behind him, a woman walked up, her left eye missing, her hair red, and her body clad in gear advertising the Incubi. "And they say nothing exciting ever happens around here."
"Who says that?" The Goatman looked down at Sinning Jessie.
"Dumbass kids from the town." She looked down into one of the five fingers. "The danse is happening tonight, yeah?"
"Of course."
Jessie leaned against the Goatman. "This whole month has been a clusterfuck."
"So have the past two years." Jasper dipped a hoof in the stream. "Lot of new territory available, now."
"I'm not saying it."
The Goatman chuckled. "But you do it so well!"
"I hate that accent!"
"Well then." From seemingly nowhere, Jasper produced a bag full of Butterfingers.
"Where did you get those?!"
"Swiped 'em from a gas station on the way out here. They'd never seen anything like me." He opened the bag.
"Oh, fine." Sinning Jessie laughed, and broke into an Irish brogue. "Oh brave new world, and all the things in't."
The Goatman threw her a Butterfinger. The walk back to town was long, and full of conversation.
Currently
"Are you sure you're able to walk?"
"I'll be fine!" Robert emerged from around the corner, supported by a cane with an 8-ball on the top. "I got this for a reason!"
He adjusted his fez, and looked Alison over. She was going for the more traditional Inter-Dimensional Corn Chip look, as opposed to a blonde person with an eyepatch. Size had to be sacrificed for mobility— no more would Bill Cipher be twice the size of an average human. Her head was concealed beneath a top hat, and her sleeves from her shoulders to her elbows were yellow; below that, it was black. At her chest, a single eye stood.
"C'mon, Fez-head!" Alison spoke in a near-perfect impersonation of Bill Cipher.
"That is creepy. I love it!" Robert took her arm for support and made his way to the elevators.
The two agents went unaccosted for no more than three minutes until the music stopped and the lights came up. Tristan Bailey was the DJ, returned just this morning. In the guise of Booker DeWitt, he placed his prop skyhook down and directed the spotlights onto them.
"I'd like to give a great big shout-out to the man and woman of the hour: Bob Tofflemire and Alice Carol!"
"It's Alis—" She began, and then she was drowned out by cheers. "Forget it."
When the music resumed, they skirted past Dr. Partridge as he came to have another helping of punch. She looked at Robert, and whispered, "Did he really shotgun punch last year?"
"Yeah." He looked himself over. "Okay, be honest with me."
"What?"
"Did I—" the music suddenly picked up in volume, and his question went unanswered for several minutes. "Dammit, Bailey!"
"Did you what?"
"Did I die, Alice?"
Alison's opened the flap in the tophat and took a long drink of punch. "You did, yeah. Only for a few minutes."
"And you didn't do anything weird to get me back?"
She tilted her head. "Like I said, CPR and adrenaline to the heart. Why?"
Robert made his way over to the windows. From his pocket, he produced a portable Narrative Fluctuation Detector, and waved it over himself. It lit up, showing there was malignant narrative on him.
Alison looked at the wand oddly— it was produced from his costume. The pockets on the jacket were barely large enough to stick his hands into. "How did you fit that in there? Hole in the lining?"
"I didn't." He placed the detector back into his pocket, and turned them out. They were empty.
Alison looked at this display, stunned. She checked up his sleeves— he wasn't palming or concealing it. He opened his jacket, and she felt along his lining. There was no sign of it. "That's… not good."
He dug into his pockets again, and produced a 100 Grand Bar. "I'm bribing you so you don't say anything tonight."
"Okay." She took the candy. "But first thing in the morning, you tell Weiss about this."
"Agreed." He realized something, and chuckled.
"What?"
"You're going as a demon who can warp reality and create matter from nothing, and yet I'm the Type-Green here." He started walking back into the crowd. "Like snow in June."
"So glad you didn't say 'rain on your wedding day'." She walked back from the window. "Glad we didn't get any rain tonight. Would've sucked for the trick-or-treaters."
The instant the words left her mouth, lightning flashed outside, and what would be the worst downpour Sloth's Pit would see that year began.
Robert and Alison stared at each other. A single word was on their lips. "Uh-oh."
November 1st
Early Morning
With the horror film festival concluded, a janitor was busy taking down the posters from the marquee out front. When he got to the one for Rise of the Pit Sloth, he paused. There was another poster beneath it, one he didn't recognize.
He took the poster down, carefully rolling it up. Beneath it, the poster showed a city shrouded in darkness, blood dripping from the top of its tallest skyscraper. The poster read:
He tilted his head, and started taking down other posters. Beneath the poster for the Holders movie showed a bucolic town on the coast. A biohazard sign hung in smoke above it. This poster read:
HARKNESS: PLAGUE CITY
Other titles were under the rest of the posters. All of them depicted a city in chaos, and all of them had a release date of 2019. Among the titles were:
"What the hell?" The janitor frowned. He scratched his head, not sure what to make of it.
Event Description: Several Nexus locations were displayed as movie posters on the Select 8 Cinema in Sloth's Pit, Wisconsin. The genres of these films are invariably horror. One of these posters, reading "INVICTA: COLD COMFORT", does not correspond to any known Nexus.
Location of Occurrence: Sloth's Pit, Wisconsin
Date of Occurrence: 1/11/2018
Follow-Up Actions Taken: The Nexuses in question are to be put under monitoring until October 31st, 2019, the release date for all films listed. It is believed that the Nexus known as Invicta is located somewhere in Alaska; Foundation operatives are currently investigating, but no such town is known to exist..
