-= Cue Theme: Tool - Lateralus =-
Quote:
Opening the door to the cockpit, the simian leaped out of the machine's head and carefully climbed down the back of the body. Before he could reach the door to the engine compartment, however, the mech opened its mouth and let out a bestial roar. It twisted its torso rapidly, causing Icy to fly off the machine's back and into a nearby rock crag. With his simian reflexes, he managed to land on his feet at the edge of the escarpment.
"Nothing's as it seems in this world," Icy thought to himself. "I should have known better."
He had barely regained his balance when he saw the WoP's hammer coming towards him.
Black then
Icy leaped off the boulder just in time to avoid the descending hammer.
white are
The rock shattered under the force of the mech's blow.
all I see
The simian scrambled wildly away from the mech. "Dammit, I wish I still had my BFRG with me."
in my infancy.
The mech lifted up its other hand, preparing to strike.
red and yellow then came to be,
Looking behind him, Icy noticed that large amounts of smoke and steam were escaping from the cracks in the mech's armor. "Is it malfunctioning or something?"
reaching out to me.
The machine's other hand came down upon the monkey, who barely managed to escape between the WoP's outstretched fingers.
lets me see.
The impact of the arm with the mountain caused the mech's armor to crack.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
The armor broke off to reveal a flaming, clawed hand underneath.
drawn beyond the lines of reason.
"What the fuck?"
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
The mech - or whatever this thing was - grabbed a large boulder that was laying nearby. It stood still for a second, staring at the simian who was crouching on a crag several hundred feet away.
Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
"I'm beginning to doubt that this thing is even the WoP. But then... what is it?"
Withering my intuition, missing opportunities and I must
All of a sudden, the mech flung the giant boulder at Icy, disturbing his reverie and catching him off guard.
Feed my will to feel my moment drawing way outside the lines.
Icy barely managed to deflect the boulder by creating a wall of ice between him and it.
***
Black then white are all I see in my infancy.
The mech charged at him.
red and yellow then came to be, reaching out to me.
Icy leaped with simian grace from boulder to boulder, trying desperately to escape the mech.
lets me see
He searched desperately for somewhere to hide or a tunnel to escape through; he knew there was no way he could possibly outrun the mech.
there is so much more and beckons me to look through to these infinite possibilities.
Finding a thin crack within the mountain, Icy rushed into it, forcing himself through the crevice into a small cave.
As below, so above and beyond, I imagine
There he waited. The thing-he-had-thought-was-his-mech approached.
drawn outside the lines of reason.
He knew he couldn't stay here forever, and he knew the mech would eventually be able to force him out of here, but at least he had time now to figure out what was going on.
Push the envelope. Watch it bend.
The creature's face appeared outside the crevice. It looked inside with one of its eyes - eyes which were different than they had been minutes earlier. In place of the expressionless sensors of the WoP were what looked to be the fiery flaming eyes of a demon.
Over thinking, over analyzing separates the body from the mind.
"This thing was never my mech," Icy realized. "It was... something else. And now it's revealing itself."
Withering my intuition leaving all these opportunities behind.
"...Fold. Fold put that thing at the top of the pyramid where I found it. It was a decoy."
Feed my will to feel this moment urging me to cross the line.
The creature lifted up its still-mechanical hammer-wielding right arm.
Reaching out to embrace the random.
The hammer came down.
Reaching out to embrace whatever may come.
The walls, the ceiling, all the rock around Icy shattered. The monkey barely managed to dodge the hammer and the debris, flying out of the gaping hole created.
***
I embrace my desire to
feel the rhythm, to feel connected
Icy knew he wouldn't be able to run forever. He turned to face the creature. It grabbed him with its fiery hand.
enough to step aside and weep like a widow
The flames seared Icy's flesh. The monkey's powers both protected him and made him vulnerable to fire. He was more sensitive to it than the average human; however, because he had the ability to lower temperature, he could hold off more severe burning, at least temporarily. Nevertheless, the pain was indescribable.
to feel inspired,
With intense concentration, Icy managed to excude spikes of ice from his body, wounding the creature and causing it to drop the simian.
to fathom the power,
Something about the creature gave Icy a strange feeling. The feeling had been there, on some level, since he had first gotten into what he had thought was his mech, but it had only really risen to his consciousness just now, after being in direct contact with the beast.
to witness the beauty,
They were connected somehow.
to bathe in the fountain,
He had to destroy it.
to swing on the spiral
Giant spikes of ice rose up out of the rock beneath the creature, entwining together to trap it in a sort of cage. None of the spikes could pierce the fiery beast, however; they melted upon contact. It soon shattered its prison as well, with one swing of the hammer.
of our divinity
Suddenly, the creature sprouted wings of fire, as well as a long tail of flame. It now looked strange, to say the least. Half of it still resembled the Wrath of the Proletariat, but the other half appeared to be some sort of... fire demon.
and still be a human.
"The fire mage. That thing has the fire crystal inside it. Fuck!"
***
With my feet upon the ground I lose myself between the sounds
The creature was still several hundred feet away. Icy concentrated he examined it thoroughly.
and open wide to suck it in, I feel it move across my skin.
He could feel it. He could feel the crystal inside it.
I'm reaching up and reaching out,
He leaped toward the creature. No, running wouldn't help anymore.
I'm reaching for the random or
The firebeast and he met in the middle. Icy leaped up onto the creature's leg.
what ever will bewilder me.
The ladder leading up the monster's leg to the back and into the cockpit was still intact.
And following
He clambered swiftly up the rungs and into the cockpit.
our will and wind
The cockpit was sweltering hot. Icy could barely stand it. He pushed every single button he could find, pulled every lever, tried to initiate the self-destruct mechanism, all to no avail.
we may just go
Icy continued to weaken. The cockpit must have been over 150 degrees Fahrenheit. However, something inside him still clung to life.
where no one's been.
It was the crystal. He could feel it pulsating deep within his chest. He knew his destiny. He had read the scrolls. He knew what he had to do. He had to destroy the fire demon, and the fire demon had to destroy him.
We'll ride the spiral to the end
He hadn't thought it would end this way. He thought Fold would have the fire crystal. He thought he could have a shot at Fold. He thought he could fulfill his destiny and avenge his fallen expatriates in one action. He didn't want this. He didn't want it to end this way. But it had to. He was not in charge of his fate; his watcher was. He had accepted this. It was the way of things. The end had come, and he must fulfill his role, his purpose.
and may just go
He clawed at his chest. The pulsing of the crystal was now too much for him. It seemed to be forcing its way out... out of his body. It left a gaping wound in his heart. Suddenly, it popped out of his chest and into his hands.
where no one's been.
His body fell lifelessly to the ground. His mind was no longer in the simian husk that was still clutching feebly to the crystal; his consciousness had been transferred to the gemstone itself. Without a body to trouble him, he could simply concentrate on destroying the beast with pure magical energy.
Frost slowly accumulated around the crystal, condensing and crystallizing despite the excruciating heat of the surrounding environment. The growth of the ice around it was hardly noticeable at first, but the large, hailstone-like formation began to expand with increasing rapidity. After several minutes it took up the entire cockpit.
Spiral out.
The ice slowly spread outside. To the creature's dismay, frost began to flow across its face, down its neck, onto its shoulders. Fire and the ice fought upon the creature's body.
Keep going.
Meanwhile, a crack appeared in the armor of the beast's chest, caused by the ice. The frost seemed to be tunneling, cutting through the mech-doppelganger's torso. It was seeking something.
Spiral out.
The doppelganger's chest ripped wide open, revealing the red crystal buried deep inside its heart. The frost enveloped the firestone.
Keep going.
At the moment the ice came into contact with the fire gem, Icy could feel it. His mind was buried deep within the ice stone now, and he could not see, hear, smell, or taste anything, but still he could feel the crystal's firey presence even in the darkness.
Spiral out.
Now it was there, enveloping him, and he it. Fire and ice. Hot and cold. White and black. Yang and Yin. Evil and good. Hell and Heaven. Dionysian and Appolinian. The two forces in tension. This was not a battle between hostile enemies so much as mutual annihilation, a kind of cancelling out of opposite energies.
Keep going...
Icy felt his consciousness fading. His incredibly complex mind was disassembling slowly, starting with his higher faculties and working its way down. He lost his mathematical precision, his calculating abilities. He lost his scientific knowledge. He lost his literary wisdom. His memories slowly faded, became less defined, less vivid. His consciousness descended down from its superhuman heights into the human, and then subhuman level. His mind reverted to the simplicity of its former simian state.
This was, in the end, all he had really wanted: to go back to his natural state, before the hyperspace experiments, when he was a simple simian. His intelligence was a burden. He was never meant to have it. However, even this blissful state of animal innocence would not last for long. The last remnants of his mind continued to dissolve into darkness.
Spiral out, keep going...
In the end, he was left with only the vague memory of two people, Rand and Fold, the two men whose fates had occupied his mind almost since this road trip (if one could still call it that) began, though for drastically different reasons. Then, finally, there was only darkness. Death. IcyMonkey was gone.