The Hugoverse

[WP] They fear the light. [ Link to post .] A golden streak coursed through a field filled with hundreds of walking skeletons. The red sky drowned out the sun, but Dread ran confidently. She ignored the skeletons to focus on her objective. As she moved, the skeletons cowered away from her brilliant aura. She reached  Ballisea 's altar; her ticket off that Earth. A glowing ball of red energy, the size of a beach ball, hovered above a large decorative silver and gold ring. Purple crystals rose from the stone floor to support the shiny metallic ring. Dread smiled to herself and touched the red ball. Its energy flowed into her hand, up her arm, and into her brain. Then, a small black dot appeared in the air next to her, like an empty space in reality. It grew larger and somehow darker until it was tall enough for Dread to step through it. She jumped in without hesitation.  On the other side of the black hole Dread found another blood red sky, another world overrun by skeleto...

[CW] Flash Fiction Challenge! Location: A Birthday Party | Object: A Radio "Are you sure about this?" Posie asked his wife. She carried their daughter, Threnody, while they walked into a large, black portal floating in their living room. Two men awaited them in the dust covered wasteland on the other side. The tall one wore a polka dot party hat on his wavy, golden mane. The short one wore his party hat to the side of his bright blue mohawk. Its top tips barely reached the tall man’s armpits. "Relax, honey. It'll be fun," Robin reassured her husband. She set Threnody on the ground and the toddler bolted to the short man. "Besides, it's her birthday and she wanted to." " VEGAS !" the little girl yelled with glee. The short man knelt, ignoring the dirt, to give the little girl a hug. "Threnny!" Vegas smiled and lifted the orange eyed girl to swing her around. "How's the birthday girl?" "I...

[WP] "Excellent choice, we shall transport you immediately," the voice says as you step back from the console labelled PERSONAL UNIVERSE RELOCATOR.[ Link to post .] "Hey, you hear that? I made an excellent choice," Ricky  said. He looked at the other occupants of the small room. His best friend, Hector, and two people he met six months ago for the first time. A short man with a tall blue mohawk who called himself Vegas , and a woman with short spikey black hair and golden arms named Jenny . "It's a recording. It says that no matter what you pick," Jenny said. Hector chuckled "Yeah man," he said while still laughing. "Besides, you don't even know what universe you picked. You just pressed buttons randomly." "Traversing in 3," the console began a countdown. The lights dimmed, then Ricky and Hector took a step closer to Vegas and Jenny. "Why are we using this? I thought you guys could do it without the equ...

You have the power to age or de-age people by stealing seconds,minutes,hour,day or years from others lifespan and than giving that time to someone else. This ability has made you wealthy. You give seconds chances to those if they tell you a good story. Today, you hear the most unbelievably one. [ Link to post .] "Your next appointment is here, Mr. Tyler," Charlene's voice notified me through the intercom. I pressed a black button the base to reply. "Send him in." I stood up and walked around the desk, preferring to meet all visitors on equal footing. A man much younger than my normal visitors walked in. He appeared to be in his early 20's with a full head of long, silky golden hair on his head. He also sported a well groomed, thin golden beard on his face that matched his head. His hair style resembled a lion's mane. He extended his hand and I accepted his greeting. "Hello Mr. Tyler, my name is Regal . Thank you for seeing me." He smile...

You have an ability where you can see people's aura telling how successful they will be in life. Today you saw a guy in rags having the strongest aura yet. [ Link to post .] "NO!" I slapped the side of the beige PC tower. "C'mon!" Nothing happened. The PC was on its last legs a year ago, but the timing of the failure could not have been worse. I walked out of my room to look for my mother. "Mom? Where are you?" I said as soon as I stepped out into the hallway. "In the kitchen!" She replied. The smell of her meatloaf should have tipped me off, it was my favorite meal. I smiled when I stepped into the kitchen. Her aura sparkled like a cloud of silver glitter floating around her. She did not know that I could see her success, but she was happy that I smiled every time I saw her. "Can I use your laptop? I need to take a test, but my PC finally gave up." "Sorry hon, left it at work today. Why don't you try the li...

“You’re a man now son.” Dad leaned in whispering. “Your mother doesn’t know about this drawer.” He opened the drawer of mysteries. [ Link to post .] "You mean mom doesn't know about the whole saving the universe thing?" Regal  asked. His father took the day off work, and they were both down in the basement while Regal's mother was at work. His dad showed him a secret drawer hidden by boxes he thought were full of clothes and childhood toys. The boxes were completely empty and moved out of the way with ease. "Are you crazy? Your mom starts worrying when you're even five minutes late from school. I can't tell her you're destined to save the universe, do you know dangerous that is?" Regal's father let loose a belly laugh and patted his son on the back. "No way, this is our secret. But now that you believe me, it's time." Regal glanced in the drawer and saw a tattoo gun along with several small colored jars; he assumed they wer...

If you're about to kill someone you see what the world would be like without them. As a hitman you think you've seen everything, but this kill surprises you. [ Link to post .] I aimed through the scope to center his blond head in my crosshairs, then held my breath. I waited patiently for the Warning. Over the years I’d been able to nail the timing down. It happened the moment I decided to pull the trigger, but before I actually did. I learned to stay undecided until it was time. The target seemed like a decent guy. I’d been burned once and never took dossiers at face value anymore. I did my own research before I took a job. At 18 he was the youngest target I’d accepted, but the money was worth it. If it wasn’t his 18th birthday, I wouldn’t have accepted. I didn’t feel great about it, but I managed to stay within my own shitty code of honor. The kid didn’t seem to be anything special or important. Average grades in school, he lived in a stable home with both pare...

There is no time left for explanations. You must destroy your city using one penny and you only have 24 hours left. [ link to post ] “Hurry, Vegas!” Regal yelled at me. “24 hour limit, but I know you can do it faster.” He held Jenny’s corpse in two pieces. Her body over his shoulder and her head in his hand. His hand glowed red to keep Jenny’s head alive. I trusted Regal. He asked me to destroy the city, so I did. I pulled a penny from my pocket and tossed it casually at a cat. The cat bolted off the trashcan lid, toppling it over. The trashcan rolled out into the street causing a car to swerve. “Alright, it’s done. Wanna tell me why?” The power went out. Regal opened a black portal and stepped through it. I joined him on a hill overlooking the city. Regal was wise, powerful, and easily entertained. He liked watching my work in action. A water tower toppled over. “The Demon Queen survived. Jenny weakened her immensely, but we couldn’t finish the job,” Regal’s head fell a bit...

A criminal sits in solitary, reflecting on the path that brought them there. [ Link to post ] “I wonder what Lauren’s doing,” Vegas said aloud to himself. Talking aloud was his only company in the box. Lauren was his only friend in any universe. He stared at the tattoo on his hands, and remembered the night he met Lauren. The tattoo was of a golden beer bottle. The first tattoo he got at 15. When he turned 25 he decided he liked the number and tattooed “25” onto the beer bottle, like a label. After he got the tattoo, an old woman he looked up to told him he needed to be in Las Vegas the next day. He spent all his money on the tattoo and tried to rob Lauren. She talked him out of it. They were Inseparable for years, then one night an older man, in his early 40s maybe, called Vegas a “drunk”. “You’re him! You’re El Borracho!” The man said, while excitedly sizing him up and down. “Sorry pal, you’re mistaken. I don’t drink,” Vegas said. He wrapped his arm around Lauren and turne...

A pandemic "illness" sweeps across the world in which its victims all have superpowers. You don't know what yours is. [ link to post I met a strange, amazing, and wonderful man when I was 15. I changed the world at 17. I was stupid at 16. He came from another world, but knew more about my world than I did. He taught me how to speak my own words. I said “portal” without having to catch the word. He knew so many words, and he put them together in the most amazing stories about the things he’d seen and done. I loved him like a father and he talked about Jenny like a daughter. She was not his actual daughter, but he felt a deep connection to her. He told me about how proud he was of her. “Words are power here.” Regal told me while we walked through the forest. “Those words that you hunt are magic words. Somehow your people started to believe that they could not speak unless they caught the right words, and no one tries anymore. When children try to speak parents shus...

Words are like animals. In order to speak a certain word you need to hunt it first. Most people have only a small vocabulary but one day you meet an old man who knows more words than you have ever heard of. [ link to post ] “Sarah!” My mom yelled my name to get my attention. I had one foot out the door, anxious to go play. I looked at her she gestured for me to “be careful”. I nodded at her and ran off to play by the stream. Stream was my first word. My parents took me on a picnic by the side of the stream when I was five years old. My parent’s house was deep within the heart of our city, and wild words were never found around people. There were plenty for sale, but my parents could not afford any of the good ones. My mother refused to let me use any of the cheap curse words, even though my dad made a case about their flexibility in conversation. That day I sat on the side of the stream with my feet dipped in the cool running water, and something shining and sparkling with...