The atmosphere of the Trash planet is to put it ironically, trash.
In every sense of the metaphorical and literal word.
Thanks to the copious amounts of trash dumped onto this floating rock courtesy of the Maginum Kingdom's dumpers, with no small amount of chemicals mixed in with the trash, the atmosphere was toxic to the point that it was near impossible to roam outside without a respirator unless you wanted to die an early death.
Not that it would be an easy death either with how unpredictably the chemicals and carcinogens in the air would react with the blood of a living person.
An extension of the atmosphere is the weather borne from it. And because of it being born from an unforgiving atmosphere, the weather was similarly harsh.
Ester was currently feeling this truth with his body as he slowly climbed down the building.
'Architects this was not a good idea.'
The outside of it.
Digging his right hand into one of the numerous cracks running along the surface of the megastructure, Ester glanced around as winds tainted with lung eating smog blasted against his body.
Far off in the distance that strange purplish tornado was still spinning quite rapidly despite the number of days it had been since Ester had first spotted it.
Most probably due to the super large rockets in the North that had torn holes in the ozone layer before spontaneously combusting the atmosphere in the same moment.
Much closer than the purplish tornado wrecking havoc on whatever was unlucky enough to be at that point in the horizon though was the pitter patter of rain drops falling against his hood, running down the plastic coating in rivulets.
If he wasn't cold before, he certainly was now thanks to the greenish fluid raining down from above.
Shivering in the cold, Ester loosened his grip on the crack in the wall as he continued to make his way down this difficult and slippery road.
Ester could have taken the stairways or even the elevators down to the ground floor where Eva and that Corrupted were no doubt at, but despite there being a problem called the Corrupted downstairs, the Beforetimes unfortunately weren't panicked enough to leave the ways up and down unguarded.
And since the other paths up and down, namely the holes in between floors were either mostly kept secrets that circulated within the populace or guarded by animals, insects and plants that didn't take to kindly to their territories being infringed upon, Ester had two choices.
Fight his way down, or climb his way down.
He chose the second option.
It may have a significantly high chance of death, but doesn't everything?
So here he was.
Clinging to the side of Junk bunk with only a screwdriver to his name and a prayer to the Architects on his lips while dodging windows that may or may not have inhabitants that wouldn't take kindly to his existence.
Honestly speaking, he had no idea what to do with this screwdriver he impulsively nicked from that woman carrying boxes but hopefully he would find a use for it.
Ester glanced downwards where a drop from this height would turn him into unrecognizable paste
'Hopefully before I die.'
---
'Oh the rain is dying down.'
Looking up at the sky as the rate of which the sound of pitter patters decreased, Ester returned to descending down the outside of the megastructure the size of multiple Ash Town's.
Throwing a chunk of rock gathered from the many cracks in the building onto the concrete outcropping below, after several moments passed without anything reacting to the rock that shattered against the outcropping, Ester leapt down onto the distended piece of concrete with a thud.
Gathering some more rocks with his hands as he searched for the next distended piece of concrete to leap down on, Ester couldn't help but think.
'It's eerily quiet.'
Of course Ester wasn't talking about the Corrupted or the rain, that thing was still making a ton of noise down below as its laugh echoed from within the megastructure's innards, and the rain despite dying in intensity, was still making its presence known.
To rephrase his earlier thoughts in a better way...
'It's to easy.'
As one of the few mostly habitable places where the creatures of the Trash Planet could take shelter from the elements, it was no doubt teeming with animals, insects and plants of all kinds.
Animals, insects and plants that all shared the trait of not taking kindly to others that infringed on their territory, more likely than not exiling them to the outsides of the building most exposed to the elements.
And because of that, Ester was expecting to make several long detours down the side of the building since he wasn't the most effective at fighting with only several centimeters of foot space to work with.
The thing was, he hadn't even made a single detour as of yet.
The first ten floors he climbed down could be excused as the Beforetimes being competent in their job, with the next few being down to dumb luck.
The rest of them though?
There was still nothing.
It should've been a good thing to not spend more time then needed to get closer to Eva.
The problem was that it was way. to. easy.
And he had three- no, four theories as to why.
The first theory Ester had concerned the second phase of Void Buffer that had occurred two weeks ago.
The first firing of the Super rocket was bad enough according to Z of the radio, punching a hole through the ozone layer before releasing a wave of high temperatures that triggered a series of chain reactions, the very air itself ignited, melting anything unfortunate enough to be caught in its wake.
And with the first phase of Void Buffer as an example, when the second phase rolled around two weeks ago, Ester wouldn't be surprised if the inhabitants scarred and charred from both events were to afraid to linger on the periphery
The second theory Ester concocted he was just strangely lucky in his venture downwards, in which case if he ran out of luck he would eventually have to make a detour.
But seeing as nothing had reacted yet to the spattering of rocks he tossed onto the exposed ledges he would find himself on, it seemed that there wouldn't be any detours yet.
The third working theory Ester had concerned the rain falling from the sky being something that the animals and insects would want to avoid hence their lack of presence.
It was a theory that didn't hold much water since it didn't account for Fisherman's reeds and other plants, especially since it wasn't even strong enough to take shelter from.
The fourth and final theory he had was that was that there was some sort of apex predator that had scared off all of its competition hence the lack of encounters he had to make-
*SCREEEEECCCHHHH
'-Detours around.'
It seemed that the fourth theory was the correct one.
Feeling a chill crawl up the back of his neck, Ester locked his fingers into the wall as his head snapped towards the source of the loud screech that shook him to the bones.
Scanning the black clouds for the source of the bone chilling screech, no matter where he looked, there was... nothing?
Ester furrowed his brows.
'How could there be nothing? Did I hallucinate that?' Ester snapped his fingers besides his ears and heard a crisp snap. 'No I couldn't have.'
'So... What the void was that?'
Eyeing the sky with a suspicious gaze as the rain continued to fall on his goggles, another screech filled the air, this one from much farther away now.
*SCREEECCCHH
'So I'm not hallucinating, got it.'
Adjusting his posture to be able to jump down to the extended platform he saw a bit earlier, Ester kept his head on a swivel.
Catching something move from the corner of his vision, he snapped his head to the side where he saw the flash of movement, seeing that there was... still nothing.
'...This is getting creepy.'
*SCREEEEEECCHHHHH
Punctuating the already dim darkness of the night as if to assert his point, Ester winced when the sound blasted out in full force, as if right beside him.
'Wait.'
Instinctively diving backwards to where he recalled the platform was, the back of his neck tingled as a gust of wind rushed against his face in that same moment.
Eyes widening as they took in whatever the void Theory number 4 looked like, four murky red eyes briefly glared at him as its large bat like body angled away from the building, two claws covered in four dangerous looking talons grasping uselessly at where he previously was.
Covered in pitch black skin that served to camoflauge the creature underneath the darkness of the Trash Planet's skies, large wings covered in leather flapped powerfully as it soon disappeared back into the darkness, visible only thanks to the rain being interrupted by its body.
'What the Void is that thing-!?' Ester cursed before he felt a sharp pain interrupt his thoughts with a forceful reminder of something he briefly forgot.
He was still falling on the outside of Junk Bunk's walls.
Monster danger aside, if he didn't immediately grab onto something, he would become a particle pressed plate.
And Ester really didn't want to become a particle pressed plate.
Twisting his body round before he could fall off of the concrete block he just slammed into, Ester ignored the pain as his fingers struggled to find purchase against the slippery block of concrete.
*SCREEEEEEEECCCCCHHHH
Whilst he was doing this however, the bat monster let out a second scream as it twisted around in the air, diving towards him yet again.
"OH JUST FUCK OFF!"
Cursing loudly as he struggled to keep an eye on the creature visible only thanks to the green colored rain outlining its body, Ester dug his fingers into the cracks of the concrete and pulled himself upwards just as the bat monster's claws raked against the place where his legs were just dangling.
Heartbeat roaring in his ears as it arced away from the building, Ester hurriedly glanced at his surroundings for anything that may help him.
'The windows? To small. Rebar? To stuck. Not enough room to move... Shit! Think Ester think! What can you do!? That can't be all the ideas you can think of!'
*SCREEEEEEEECCCCCHHHH
A loud screech punctuated the darkness as he caught sight of the bat monster diving towards him, its two clawed legs extended forwards in anticipation of puncturing the soft sweet flesh.
An insane idea popped up into Ester's head as he instantly executed it.
Firmly planting his legs against what little ground he had, Ester flexed his fingers, his breaths harsh and fast as the fear of this desperate plan failing filled his heart with adrenaline.
Watching its outline rapidly close in on his position, Ester let out a curse in his mind as he leapt forwards.
*SCREEEEEEECCCCCCCHHHH
The good news? The plan worked.
The bad news? Ester didn't plan ahead and now he had to deal with an incredibly pissed off bat monster not to happy that its prey was using it as a ride.
'Oh this is baaaAAAAD!!!'
Letting a mental scream as the Bat monster twisted and turned in the air in an attempt to get rid of the person currently clinging to its body, he clung tightly to its furred body.
Twisting its head around, murky eyes colored red with rage glared at him as it opened up its mouth to reveal several sharp teeth.
Widening his eyes as he realized how close he had landed to its head, Ester hurriedly released the fur held in his right hand as he followed it up by allowing the blade to slip out.
Swiftly raising his arm and striking before the large set of ivory colored teeth could use his skull as a chew toy, his blade met flesh as a pain filled screech vibrated his entire body.
'!?'
Blanking out momentarily when the bat monster let out that devastatingly loud scream, when he came to, he came to the realization that to much was also a bad thing.
Staring blankly at the wildly flopping around bat monster head connected to its body only by a chunk of meat, Ester soon came to another realization.
They were falling in a wild spin.
'ARE YOU KIDDING ME!???'
Letting loose several choice curse words as the now dead bat monster brought the both of them closer and closer to the ground at a speed that would turn them both into particle pressed plates, Ester hurriedly tried to retract the blade in his arm.
Failing in this endeavor, Ester turned to look at the cause only to realize that in the process of cutting the monster's neck, it had jammed the blade the mechanism in his arm.
Feeling his eye twitch, Ester gave up on pulling the blade back into his arm as he instead opted for using it as an anchor to hold him in place.
Stabbing his arm blade deep into the bat monster's falling carcass, Ester reached out at one of the wings currently flapping madly.
Using his legs to reach out for the wing opposite of the one that his arm was reaching for, Ester pushed forcefully, sweat soaking the parts of his clothes that hadn't already been soaked by the rain falling from the sky.
'JUST. GET. DOWN ALREADY!!!'
Screaming mentally as he forcefully pulled down the wings forced upwards by the forces of wind resistance, after what seemed like an eternity, the wings finally leveled out somewhat, forcefully bringing the bat monster level to the ground.
The problem with that?
The Megastructure was in its way.
Staring at the sight of Junk Bunk rapidly getting closer, Ester thought.
'...I should've just fought against those gangsters.'
Everything went white.
---
25 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRST FIRED ITS FLAMES
13 DAYS SINCE PROJECT VOID BUFFER FIRED ITS FLAMES THE SECOND TIME
13 DAYS SINCE THE CORRUPTED OF C-POINT BEGAN 'HER' HUNT
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Very sorry for not uploading a chapter, but apparently this tree's cousin OD'd on anti-depressants and it was this whole thing.
On a less depressing note, a fun fact about the author!
Apparently when this tree was a lot younger, they had a near death experience by pulling on the tail of a kangaroo.