12-09-2017, 09:11 AM
They came, they saw, they were conquered.
The snarling darklings—their inebriation fading as adrenaline surged through their corrupted bloodstreams—swarmed the Vision and Proto Man. Despite his initial remarks, the other android had stood his ground and fought alongside the preteen machine. He had shrugged off Vision’s quips, because the other machine likely failed to understand the nature of this problem. After all, would his rhetoric remain the same if they were pinned to their backs in Costa del Sol? When you deal with a plague, you trace it to the core and set fire to everything.
In the Moors, that had been Scylla. Out here in the Deep, Proto Man wasn’t quite sure what form the focal point of the infestation would take, but he had no doubt that these drunken pirate monsters were defending it. Despite their differences in philosophical approaches to a world full of vice and misery, the pair of machines played the part of stalwart warriors when the situation called for it. Never more than a few yards from one another, they played an eloquent dance of lasers, fists, and adaptoid attacks with the crowd of darkling pirates.
Somewhere in the distance, there was a thunderous crash. Proto Man swiveled his head in the direction of the skull-shaped cliff face, but a trio of attackers was on him before he could decipher what exactly the sound had been.
A sword sliced across the crown of his helmet, but the blade wasn’t sharp enough to slash through the ceratanium. Angling the Proto Buster, the preteen machine punched a sizzling, fist-shaped hole into his assailant’s chest. The other two pirates lunged and tackled him to the ground, but before they could land an attack, both were thrown backwards by a dazzling cone of yellow and blue light. The red robot swiveled his head back to the Vision, whose chest faded back to its normal appearance.
The other machine looked as if he was going to say something, but before he could find the words, Proto Man had aimed his arm cannon in his general direction. The Vision flinched as a beam went sizzling passed his head and tore apart a darkling on the verge of slashing into the other machine. After verifying his would-be ambusher’s presence, the Vision gave a quick nod before he had to deal with more adversaries.
“The others have pressed on,” Proto Man shouted as he rolled away from a cutlass swipe. He scrambled to his feet only to dive almost immediately as a musket discharged in his direction. Rather than land prone, he crashed onto his hands and knees before shoving up from the corrupted earth. Reforming the Proto Buster, he charged a blast, but the trio of pirates scattered at the sight of the barrel shuddering with yellow plasma.
They haven’t ever retreated.
Something shifted up at the top of the android’s field of vision. He glanced up to see a group of pirates at the top of a nearby public house. They had pushed what seemed to be a ship’s cannon up to the edge of the structure, and as one of them stepped aside, Proto Man saw that the wick on the vintage weapon had already burned down to the root.
Eyes wide, Proto Man summoned his shield and slammed it down into the earth just as the cannonball came belching forth from the barrel of the weapon. The shield held, although there were enough fissures on its surface to indicate that it wouldn’t survive a second attack, but fortunately, the preteen machine didn’t intend to give the pirates artillerists a second chance. Dropping his shield, he hoisted the Proto Buster and grinned as he discharged the powered shot. Aiming low, he watched as it punched through the building itself just below the location of the pirates, who grinned at what they perceived as a near miss on the part of the young prime.
As the darklings moved to reload, they must have felt the rooftop shift beneath their feet. One of them went so far as to glance down and shout before the roof of the building collapsed, swallowing them up in a giant cloud of smoke and wood chips. With that threat dispatched, Proto Man turned and watched the Vision sidestep a pirate before promptly leveling the drunken creature with a hammer blow to the back of the skull.
“Vision, we need to move!” Proto Man shouted as the other android discarded his weapon, which seemed to evaporate into binary. After taking a split-second to assess the situation himself, the machine nodded his head and moved to catch up to the smaller prime.
With the Vision behind him, Proto Man turned back to the skull-faced cliff. He had stolen glimpses of Cloud and Blink, who had to already been inside or near enough to have confronted the core of their ‘issues’ here on the island.
Getting closer to the source of the infection…
Once they had the source, they would be able to burn it out and let this place start on the long road to recovery.
The snarling darklings—their inebriation fading as adrenaline surged through their corrupted bloodstreams—swarmed the Vision and Proto Man. Despite his initial remarks, the other android had stood his ground and fought alongside the preteen machine. He had shrugged off Vision’s quips, because the other machine likely failed to understand the nature of this problem. After all, would his rhetoric remain the same if they were pinned to their backs in Costa del Sol? When you deal with a plague, you trace it to the core and set fire to everything.
In the Moors, that had been Scylla. Out here in the Deep, Proto Man wasn’t quite sure what form the focal point of the infestation would take, but he had no doubt that these drunken pirate monsters were defending it. Despite their differences in philosophical approaches to a world full of vice and misery, the pair of machines played the part of stalwart warriors when the situation called for it. Never more than a few yards from one another, they played an eloquent dance of lasers, fists, and adaptoid attacks with the crowd of darkling pirates.
Somewhere in the distance, there was a thunderous crash. Proto Man swiveled his head in the direction of the skull-shaped cliff face, but a trio of attackers was on him before he could decipher what exactly the sound had been.
A sword sliced across the crown of his helmet, but the blade wasn’t sharp enough to slash through the ceratanium. Angling the Proto Buster, the preteen machine punched a sizzling, fist-shaped hole into his assailant’s chest. The other two pirates lunged and tackled him to the ground, but before they could land an attack, both were thrown backwards by a dazzling cone of yellow and blue light. The red robot swiveled his head back to the Vision, whose chest faded back to its normal appearance.
The other machine looked as if he was going to say something, but before he could find the words, Proto Man had aimed his arm cannon in his general direction. The Vision flinched as a beam went sizzling passed his head and tore apart a darkling on the verge of slashing into the other machine. After verifying his would-be ambusher’s presence, the Vision gave a quick nod before he had to deal with more adversaries.
“The others have pressed on,” Proto Man shouted as he rolled away from a cutlass swipe. He scrambled to his feet only to dive almost immediately as a musket discharged in his direction. Rather than land prone, he crashed onto his hands and knees before shoving up from the corrupted earth. Reforming the Proto Buster, he charged a blast, but the trio of pirates scattered at the sight of the barrel shuddering with yellow plasma.
They haven’t ever retreated.
Something shifted up at the top of the android’s field of vision. He glanced up to see a group of pirates at the top of a nearby public house. They had pushed what seemed to be a ship’s cannon up to the edge of the structure, and as one of them stepped aside, Proto Man saw that the wick on the vintage weapon had already burned down to the root.
Eyes wide, Proto Man summoned his shield and slammed it down into the earth just as the cannonball came belching forth from the barrel of the weapon. The shield held, although there were enough fissures on its surface to indicate that it wouldn’t survive a second attack, but fortunately, the preteen machine didn’t intend to give the pirates artillerists a second chance. Dropping his shield, he hoisted the Proto Buster and grinned as he discharged the powered shot. Aiming low, he watched as it punched through the building itself just below the location of the pirates, who grinned at what they perceived as a near miss on the part of the young prime.
As the darklings moved to reload, they must have felt the rooftop shift beneath their feet. One of them went so far as to glance down and shout before the roof of the building collapsed, swallowing them up in a giant cloud of smoke and wood chips. With that threat dispatched, Proto Man turned and watched the Vision sidestep a pirate before promptly leveling the drunken creature with a hammer blow to the back of the skull.
“Vision, we need to move!” Proto Man shouted as the other android discarded his weapon, which seemed to evaporate into binary. After taking a split-second to assess the situation himself, the machine nodded his head and moved to catch up to the smaller prime.
With the Vision behind him, Proto Man turned back to the skull-faced cliff. He had stolen glimpses of Cloud and Blink, who had to already been inside or near enough to have confronted the core of their ‘issues’ here on the island.
Getting closer to the source of the infection…
Once they had the source, they would be able to burn it out and let this place start on the long road to recovery.