“Alright… Cut down the middle slowly… That’s it… Alright, I got them!”
Arksi was using his telekinisis to keep the unconscious pilot off the ground, while Ct’Era and Verlais pulled away the remaining goo from their body. Behind them, Kindyna was keeping twenty very sleepy, very scared beings awake, by trying to explain what was going on.
The pilot, a long-necked dinosaur-like creature wearing clothes, blinked as they came to.
“What the fu-”
“Everything is okay!” Kindyna immediately interrupted, trying to hold the monopoly on swearing.
The pilot still looked confused. “Uh… everything clearly is not okay… What happened to my ship?”
Kindyna was about to explain, when Verlais interrupted her, using a more calm, reasonable voice.
“As far as we know, your ship was pulled out of the sky, crash landed, had the insides pulled out and anyone who survived the crash was put inside these horrible sacks to feed some gigantic organic mass that’s currently surrounding the ship as we speak.”
The other passengers, a collection of varied races but mostly Thanatians and Vrekans, took the news badly. With a concentrated thought, Arksi managed make them all calm again, but he knew it wouldn’t last.
“So, uh, my name is Casey…” the pilot muttered. “How do we get out of here?”
“We are still working on that,” Arksi admitted. “We have ideas, we are testing them ou-AAAAAAAAAAH!”
A hole opened up beneath Arksi, Ct’Era, Kindyna and Verlais, sucking them downwards. The victims above them could only look down as their would-be saviours disappeared into darkness.
…
After what felt like an eternity of falling, the four beings finally hit the ground, only to find that it was soft and cushiony, enough to stop their fall. All around them was white. White walls. White ceiling. White everything.
“What the fuck?” Kindyna shouted. “Seriously what the fuck! Fuck this stupid non-euclidean space! Fuck that stupid thing! Fuck everything!”
Verlais rolled his eyes, then scrambled to his feet to look around. Ct’Era found that her horns were stuck in the ground, and it took a good bit of help from Arksi to get her free.
“What IS happening though?” Arksi finally asked, before abruptly pausing. Kindyna also suddenly stopped cursing.
“T-there is s-someone in here… watching us…”
The four beings spun around, feeling a draught behind them. The still air suddenly turned into a whirlwind, but with no dust or anything to blow around, it just made them feel more worried.
“What the…”
The wind picked up, getting harsher and stronger, pushing them down to the ground. Finally, the wind stopped, revealing a small opening, a glowing, hole of light. Something stepped out of the light and it snapped shut.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”
The creature was nothing like the four beings had ever seen before. It was clearly Thrope-like, humanoid in appearance, with strange, pink skin, its chest and groin areas wrapped in a light, silky cloth. On its back were six pairs on white, feathered wings and floating above its head was a ring of glowing, gold light.
“What the fuck are you?” Kindyna cursed, not sure what else she could say.
The creature was grinning. Its teeth were as pure as its wings.
“I am God.”
“No you’re not!” Verlais suddenly blurted out. “There is no such thing as God!”
God did not seem amused by Verlais’s outcry. “Clearly there is. I am standing right here.”
“Did you capture our ship? Leave us for dead? Feed the other people on our ship to that tentacle monster?” Verlais shouted, his hands screwed tightly into fists.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
God shrugged. “I found a collection of unusual beings that could threaten the safety of my followers and potentially my people as well, so I decided to… look into them.”
“By feeding us to a horrible organic mass?” Verlais’s voice got louder. “You are no god!”
“Are you sure you want to be provoking him?” Ct’Era muttered. Verlais though took no heed of the Banikan’s warning.
“You, whatever you are, are not a god of any sort!” Verlais growled. “Gods to not exist. You may be a god-like being but you are no god!”
God crossed his arms. He had all the time in the world, so he was happy to listen to Verlais’s argument as he worked out what to do with these four beings. He did not know how they had escaped his tenta-data collector, but that was a question for later.
“Fine. Tell me how I am not God.”
“According to Vrekan philosophy, a true god is impossible. The definition of a god is an all-powerful, all-knowing, all-good being. I very much doubt that you are any of those!”
God tutted. “What if I believe I am all-powerful, all-knowing and all-good? My followers believe that. And who are you to judge that I am not the above?”
Verlais thought for a moment, not sure how to answer.
“You don’t know who we are or why we’re here?” Ct’Era suggested.
“Exactly!” Kindyna jumped in. “You don’t know who we, or our respective races are, so you aren’t all-knowing!”
“That invalidates your claim of being God!” Verlais smiled. “Not to mention the fact that I very much doubt that you are all-good, considering how you were using all those innocent beings up there!”
God started walking towards the beings, focused entirely on Verlais. How dare this… ugly, pitiful being accuse him of not being God.
“Hideous being, your whole definition is flawed. If my followers determine me to be a god, then I am a god.”
“The definition of a god is the definition of perfection!” Verlais countered. “Perfection is impossible, as are gods! And I can stand here and believe I’m a Rethavok until the aggelads come home, that doesn’t mean I’m a Rethavok, I’ll always be a Vrekan… No offense, Arksi… Wait, where’s Arksi?”
“Your kind are clearly pathetic and cowardly!” God sneered. “Unable to come up with a proper argument past a flawed definition!”
God suddenly gurgled. Arksi had his claw around God’s throat. Weirdly, the smell of burning flesh began to fill the air.
“Let them all go, and I’ll let you go. Understood?” Arksi growled, his grip tightening.
“H-h-how a-are y-you h-hurt-ting m-me?” God whimpered.
“Arksi, your touching his skin is burning him!” Kindyna exclaimed. She rushed forward and grabbed God by the arm. “Oh hey, turns out me touching him hurts him too!”
Arksi threw God down to the ground, then stamped on his chest, pinning him down. “Let us go.”
God started blubbering. “I-I d-didn’t know you w-were s-silverbloods! P-please d-don’t kill me! I-I’m not r-really G-God, that’s j-just my name! I’m j-just a l-little Deitic w-with a f-following I w-want t-to protect, l-leave me alone!”
“Do as we say, send us all back home and leave us alone, and we’ll leave you alone,” Ct’Era leaned over God menacingly. The smell of burning flesh was making her hungry, and she’d never eaten Deitic meat before. God sensed what the Banikan wanted to do.
“Of course! Of course!”
God snapped his fingers, and all the passengers from the ship appeared behind them, all of them incredibly confused.
“Now send them home!” Arksi demanded.
“And us too!” Kindyna added. “Actually, teleport us all back to the port in Portalia City. Including yourself.”
God hesitated, prompting Arksi to press harder on his chest.
“FINE!”
The white walls slowly started to fade away, being replaced with a more normal world. The view of the Portalia City space port began to bloom into view. Beings around them stopped what they were doing to see what was going on. Security forces of various races came along to see if everyone was alright.
“There. Your fellow passengers are safe!” God grunted. “Now let me go.”
Arksi did as he was asked and stepped off the Deitic. But as he did so, God smiled menacingly.
“I may not be able to deal with you, but I know someone who will.”
Ct’Era grabbed God by the head and smashed him into the ground.
“We’ll see about that!”
“We shall see…” God spluttered one last time, before disappearing in a cloud of white smoke and bright lights. “We shall see…”