Mutated Ectoplasm

27. A Curse

"Where am I?" Karkat questioned between breaths, lungs feeling unusually sore. "Did Fright Knight escape? Where is he now?"

"Not that I actually care, but I'm pretty sure I said you need to calm down." Vriska formed a small block of ice in her hand, shoving it into his. "Cool off with this. Your face is really fucking red."

Karkat complied if only to get her to cooperate with him. The ice was almost a shock to his system, getting him to focus on that while the rocker ghost sat up, waving to somebody in the distance. It gave him enough time to realize where he was.

It looked like he had been transported to an island not far away from their original fighting spot. The place was barren like all the other islands, though he could see some small lairs out in the distance. Fright Knight was obviously very far gone at this point, though a lot of the people that joined them on their raid were still there. He could see Nepeta and Terezi separating from the pack, heading towards them.

"Well, looks like someone's awake." Terezi was trying to sound gentle, but her eyes kept switching from his face to where he got sliced. "Scary few minutes there, not gonna lie. Feeling any better?"

"No." As much as Karkat didn't want to rude, they were on a limited timetable right now and he couldn't afford mincing words. "I'm guessing Fright Knight got away in the confusion. Please tell me he didn't head towards the portal."

"You'll want to hear from Team B on this." Nepeta gave him his phone, along with a flask of purified ectoplasm. "Please drink this. If you're going to keep going, you need to be in better shape."

Karkat did as she asked, pulling up Ghostian. He saw some messages were waiting to be read, which set him on edge, but it looked like everyone was posting regularly.

CG: HEY, HOW'S EVERYTHING GOING AT THE PORTAL? IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT?

TA: fiinally you fuckiing an2wer! we heard you got 2tabbed!

AA: y0u've been 0n radi0 silence f0r nearly five minutes! is everything 0kay?

Five minutes? Shit, that wasn't good. A lot can happen in five minutes, especially with a ghost like Fright Knight running around.

CG: DRAINED, BUT FINE. HOW'S EVERYTHING ON YOUR END?

ML: WE'RE FINE! A LITTLE SHAKEN UP, BUT WE'RE OKAY.

LP: w3 m1ght h4v3 som3 b4d n3ws, though, l1ttl3 dud3.

HZ: 8=D We're afraid to report that Fright Knight might've escaped containment.

That little bit of news made it feel like an ice spike was shoved into his heart. Thankfully, before he could immediately change forms and head straight towards Amity Park, the chat was updated further.

HZ: 8=D That's the bad news. The good news is that he seems to be holding on attacking the town thus far.

TA: horu22 ha2 a drone followiing the guy around. 2o far, he'2 ju2t patrolliing the place.

ML: WE'RE SORRY! WE WERE READY TO HOLD HIM OFF, BUT HE CAUGHT US BY SURPRISE.

LP: w3 s3t up som3 d3f3ns3s, but h3 just bl3w th3m up. d1dn't 3v3n s33 wh3r3 h3 c4m3 from unt1l 4ft3r th3 wr3ck4g3 h1t.

AA: we d0n't kn0w h0w l0ng he's g0ing t0 keep flying ar0und, th0ugh. he might get tired 0f sc0ping things 0ut and attack s00n.

CG: THEN THAT MEANS WE HAVE SOME TIME. WAIT FOR SECOND.

Karkat took his eyes off his phone, switching his attention to Terezi. "Pyrope, that book you showed us earlier said that Doom Aspects were able to seal Fright Knight, right?"