Side mission
N/A: Coraline the book is a book I really should read, anyway, thanks to Youtube I now Know that there´s a possible Lovecraftian creature in there that even the Other Mom is afraid...and well, My imagination is wild here. This creature is LK´s kid. But IT won´t show up until later. This is a side mission, set before the big plan.
Climbing the small hill is not a problem, per se, the problem is to make sure your companions aren´t drawing attention to the few people (the gardener and real state agent, who was here to cut her loses in this project) as no one needs to know cats and dogs are magical creatures or even, are representation of Outer Gods, so, Kitty did ask for Jupiter and Cosmo to act as normal cat and dog, and, well...no tentacles so far.
The gardener looks somewhat impressed to see a cat climbing on a dog´s back whilst the other is bemused by the action. The real state agent greets Kitty for a moment(she leaves with the garner as well as they work together), but, the woman is more focused on her job than in politeness and is quick to excuse herself to answer the phone.
"So, why are we here again?" Jupiter hissed in good humour as Cosmo sits down and prompts Jupiter to climb to his head to get a better balance. Once the gardener is out of the view, Jupiter lets his tentacles to be free.
"You know why. This is a mission lord smelly fish given to us, well, me...you guys could have waited for me back home" Kitty explained and Cosmo shakes his head.
"Sorry, Kitty, you´re stuck with us now." Cosmo states as he blows the Jupiter´s tentacle away "and you, do you want to stop brushing your tentacles in my face?"
"Nah, pass, you´re jelly cause I have tentacles" Jupiter explained amused to his reaction, but, has time to speaks with Kitty too. "Cosmo is right, Kitten, we´re in this together. If lord smelly fish gave you a mission, then, he gave us all a mission"
"Why I would be jelly of your tentacles? I have my own" and used his free tentacle to show off to Jupiter. Kitty has to laugh at this exchange, at their lovely banter because is one of the few things that ground Kitty to sanity.
Her hands caress her friends´ head with care. "I have two hands, you know," she says as the two companions gentle as their tentacles leave. "And thank you for being here."
"Anytime, Kitty/Kitten," they said unison. No more tentacles for now.
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Once the garner is back to greet Kitty Pryde properly, the real state agent was resolving some problems regards others houses, the man gives a short resume of what´s to expect of the Pink Palace. "To be as brief as possible, this building was supposed to house families, but, for some reason, no family stay here too long. I guess is the name, really, who wants to stay in a Pink Palace?! Anyway, why are you making those questions?" the garner asked a bit noisy and borderline rude.
Cosmo and Jupiter didn´t like his tone, but, Kitty ignores it, for now, and answers that she wants to explore the house to see if is worth buying. The garner somehow does not believe, but, does not care either.
"As if anyway would want to live here, look, Miss, no one wants to live here. This Pink Palace was built in 1897 and is hidden away from the city, have you noticed that?" he belittle Kitty again who is not too happy with his tone. "No, you haven´t...rich celebrity as you must´ve noticed, this house here is isolated and frankly, at night, is even worse. It would be just you and the house...and the house hates company"
"You really need to improve your marketing strategy, lucky for me, I´m always a Scooby-Doo fan" Kitty replied and the garner didn´t reply, either he does not know Scooby-Doo or deem Kitty as a lost cause.
Either way, is not his problem.
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"Ok, this house already starts with a good start" Kitty jokes "old garners saying she´s cursed. The real state agent saying how is difficult to sell this house and the townsfolk ignoring the existence of the said house, yep, good start" Kitty concludes.
"There´s the well" Cosmo´s head looks to the left side, where, indeed, there´s an old well there. Jupiter´s ears lift slightly for a moment and confirm that is indeed something wrong in that old well.
"Well, now is official, there´s something really spooky with this house, do you guys know any details about the house?" Kitty asked and Jupiter, still on Cosmo´s back, speaks now looking at the well.
"Is...something connecting to another plane of existence" Jupiter speaks and told is only that he can say.
"There´s chaotic energy coming from that well, but, it also connects with the house. Who built this house?" Cosmo asked now stopping looking at the well to gaze at Kitty who is, in turn, gazing at the Pink Palace.
"Glad you asked because I did a research on this area, and turns out that this house is owned by the family Roshell" Kitty states without hesitation. "The family Roshell does still exist, while, well...uhm, let´s say they like the ''purity blood'' too much"
"Inbreeds" Jupiter and Cosmo speak once again together and Kitty nods.
"Anyway, I asked for a friend of mine, Jen aka the sensational She-Hulk" Kitty flexes her arms as if there´s an emcee to actually do the introduction of She-Hulk. " To analyse the contract and documents of this house, and would you know, is perfectly legal, now, she manages to give me some families names and...guess what? The Pink Palace has a high rate of death/missing cases here, the last one, Coraline Jones, wasn´t a happy story neither has a happy ending"
"Your point?" they asked as Kitty drop the smile.
"This house has something to do with IT. Hence why Dagon hates and fears this house so much, so, Jupiter do you know anything about this house?"
"Not really, the forever alone has several, several and I mean, several plans and not always it's needed for its presence, so, this could be a side project IT forget and move on, I guess, the Forever alone is not very communicative" Jupiter explains and looks at Cosmo as waiting for him to say something, maybe, something about his Outer God or this plan of his.
"I see, Gaia is different, she tells what she will do, but, whatever you like or not, she´ll do it" Cosmo gives a long-suffering sigh that is greeted with a gentle pet in his head by Kitty.
"Our mission now is to stop whatever is terrorizing Dagon"
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Getting inside the house was no problem, the real state agent provide a copy of the key, but, it wasn´t necessary. The woman is back to her phone and will be outside of the house to deal with some problems, but, Kitty is free to explore the house.
The inside of the Pink Palace is not pink, but, has a bleak interior cover in black and hues of dark blue. And Kitty only sighs, a bit as Cosmo did back then, and phases through the dimension where this house truly is, or to be more precise, where the thing truly is.
Jupiter watches amazed that Kitty can do that, but, he never remember teaching her travelling so deep into the dark realms.
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Now, they are in a place, is the only word they can all agree, that is boiling heat to the point Cosmo had to resort in hover in the air as his pawns/tentacles didn´t handle the heat and Jupiter is still on Cosmo´s back not enjoying the weather as well.
"There´s something very old and slowly waking. Something wants to be free" Kitty states calmly noticing the walls that are slowly coming closer to where she is. Kitty is not afraid, instead, she phases even deeper in the dark realm ignoring the lullabies that resemble of her mother(her mother is not here, but, is a good trick, a perfect trick to lure small kids)
And Jupiter and Cosmo follow along, again, the cat wonders when Kitty gets so good in travelling through dark realms as not even Jupiter, himself, can do it.
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They are in the heart, so to speak, of this realm, the feeling of someone or something watching them, the heat is still present and now Kitty can feel breathing touching her neck. Something is here. Something old and slowly waking. Something old and hungry.
"Something old lives here. Something old is waking and is hungry" Kitty states to herself and looks up to see a pair of crimson eyes, too similar of a snake gazing upon her.
There are darkness and the crimson eyes that only stares at Kitty, no pupil, no iris, only red, and still, Kitty is not afraid. "You´re one of IT´s kids?"
The creature does not respond, but, the eyes are closer of Kitty and her companion, still, not an ounce of fear. "Fine, be that way" and with that fire emerges out of nowhere incinerating the webs that were invisible with easy.
Jupiter notices that the fire is...blue.
And now, the shape of the creature is revealed. A giant serpent can be seen as its tongue flicks nervously at the scene present to it. The serpent´s web is being destroyed and all the serpent´s minions are in flame and the serpent, with its aloofness or good pretence, can hear the being called "other mother" scream in fear until there´s only silence.
"You´re different. You´ve my attention" the serpent said looking to the fire and to Kitty. "What you want, mortal vessel?"
Mortal vessel? Oh, right, a talking serpent...is just like how Jupiter says the word mate instead of a girlfriend.
"I´m here, against my will, on behalf of Dagon" Kitty speaks with no real feeling "to make sure you stop scaring him so much."
The serpent would laugh, maybe, but the fire and the presence of Cosmo prevent the serpent of laughing. "I should refuse, but, tell me the truth... what you would do if I refuse?"
"I can burn this for all the eternity." those words come so strongly from her mouth and she didn´t even realize, in fact, she didn´t even think about it. It cames naturally.
"Then, I´m listening. You truly want me to leave Dagon in peace? I shall do it, but, only if is something you truly desire" the serpent speaks and while serpents can´t smile. Kitty has the impression this one is smiling.
"Again, I´m here against my will, so, unless you can swallow Dagon and all of his followers and leave my parents unharmed..." she trails off and the serpent shakes his head.
If he could...the serpent would eat anything. Is what the Black Pharaoh would want, but, this mortal vessel does not wish for that.
"So, how about a compromise?" Kitty suggests and the serpent listen carefully "you tone down whatever you´re doing to scare Dagon, and, I won´t have to burn you to ashes" Kitty concludes in a friendly tone.
"Oh, IT would be proud, yes, he would, right, Jupiter?" How does the serpent know Jupiter´s name? Well, Kitty does not want to ask, but, Jupiter is not impressed. "You´ll have leverage against Dagon and IT loves manipulations, very well, I shall follow your plan, Mortal Vessel, let be know, that I honour this deal, now, would be so kind to stop your holy fire?"
And Kitty gazes at her fire, blue and primordial, suffocating the kingdom easily and could set everything else in the fire. Kitty, for a brief moment, did wonder if she could touch this holy fire, but, she has other things on her mind as well.
The fire ceased. The serpent does not attack, does not look friendly either, but, does not attack. "We´ll see each other again, mortal vessel, tell Dagon I won´t bother him...nor my servants, as you can see, I have to rebuild"
And with that, Kitty and her friends, leave.
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Cosmo returns to that place when Kitty is busy talking with the real state agent and give plausible excuses(Jupiter looks Cosmo leave with wary eyes. Cosmo is enacting his plot? ) and is facing the giant serpent once again.
"You know, don´t you?" Cosmo speaks and the serpent only nods, not pleased by this fact.
"Is impossible to not know...the fire is a pretty clear, dog"
"Then keep with your mouth shut or I´ll devour you again" Cosmo threats the giant serpent who is not pleased with all.
"I´m making many deals today. You don´t want my father to know about this until is the right time?" the serpent asked knowing the answer already "very well, I´ll keep my mouth shut dog, but, I don´t want to see any mutt in my kingdom"
"Not a problem, snake"
And Cosmo leaves the kingdom being followed by a small portion of that blue fire. The primordial fire.
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LK watches. Lately, this all he´s doing watching her. Watching her. Watching her. Something is different here.
"Herald, what do you have about Kitty Pryde?" IT asked not caring much for the serpent or his deals.
The newest Herald gulps and repeats the same information that LK knows. IT is not pleased. "The dogs are against you knowing anything else about Kitty Pryde and the cats are supporting this..."
LK is not pleased. He goes back to watch her. Watch her. Watch her. Who is Kitty Pryde.