04-30-2018, 07:25 AM
“Almost there,” Proto Man whispered beneath his breath as he shrugged off a slobbering half-goat, half-pirate darkling. A burst of energy silenced any rebuttal from the monster as the machine set his sights on the very large goal in front of them. With the others, he pressed forward as the army of twisted machine creatures routed. As the metaphorical sea parted in front of the group, they made their way through a final expanse of corridors and forge chambers before the factory yielded to the world around it.
They had reached the end of their journey through the twisted corruption that had befallen the Vasty Deep. A pool of water stained so thoroughly with oil, blood, and grease that it could have easily turned into a towering inferno wreathed a foreboding spire that spat smog from an assortment of pipes that jutted from its rusted obsidian hull.
The preteen machine scowled as the giant shark robot spoke about collecting their blood and using it to create perverted revenants of the Liberators. This was the creature responsible for the corruption of the Vasty Deep and the armies of twisted darklings that had overwhelmed Blue Fish Island and nearly razed the Saboady Archipelago. This was the source of the horde.
The arch demon.
A cursory scan revealed the entity to be something called a Metal Shark Player. There was a brief, fleeting moment where the preteen machine thought that to be a ridiculous moniker, and then he recalled the title given to him by his creators.
“Plan?” Cloud whispered as the group of Liberators steeled themselves against the anchor-wielding behemoth.
Proto Man lifted his arm canon and scowled. “Burn it down,” he muttered as he set his sights on the ‘Darkloid’ and the command spire he guarded. The files on the Liberator device indicated that the tower functioned as some type of link between this verse and where Nebula took shelter.
“Break the tower, break the link.” The red robot reiterated as he turned and looked up at his fellow machine. The Vision, who seemed to be running his own set of scans and subroutines, gave a soft nod before turning his focus to the courtyard.
“We have superior numbers,” the android intoned as he swept their surroundings. “Unless he is able to rally his underlings.” The Vision set his sights back on the enemy commander. “This is a wide-open space. We will be able to work together, but he will also have the room to maneuver with that weapon.”
“He won’t,” Proto Man replied as a blade of energy hummed to life from the mouth of his arm cannon. He turned to Cloud’s visage before shifting his focus to the mercenary soldier’s weapon. “Cloud and I will engage him up close. Try our best to prevent him from having the space to attack everyone… the rest of you can strike from range.”
“It won’t be that easy,” Cole muttered as Metal Shark Player, his toothy maw stained with gore and machine grease, suddenly jumped forward and vanished into the ground as if it were made of nothing.
“What the—” Someone said near to Proto Man, who found himself backing up as he tried to keep his eyes everywhere at once.
There!
Twenty yards out to the left, a corroded shape poked above the solid earth before slipping back beneath the soil.
“I think he’s traveling through the ground,” the machine shouted as he kept backpedaling from the group. “Split!” He barked as a fount of black earth erupted just a few feet before them. The Liberators, already slinking back, likewise shattered in different directions as the towering metal shark-monster and his massive anchor ran roughshod over the scene. One of the Liberators—Proto Man couldn’t see who—took a glancing blow and was sent bowling forward. The Vision, having taken to the sky, quickly processed the initial shock and retaliated.
A dazzling unibeam roared through the bleak sky down onto the head of Metal Shark Player, who dropped to a knee.
Proto Man moved forward to capitalize on the moment, but it took him a split-second too long to notice the play before it unfolded.
Lifting his head, Metal Shark Player flashed a toothy grin before lashing out with his anchor. The red robot summoned his shield as fast as he could, and even then, the metal bulwark crashed to piece as the unorthodox weapon tore him from his feet and threw him like the child-sized entity that he was. Standing up from beneath the continued heat and force of the unibeam, the Darkloid coiled his arm and swung.
The Vision winced, but the anchor never came close.
A gore-stained Buster Sword intercepted the would-be attack.
“I’m glad ye are all fearless in the face of ya certain destruction,” the shark beast boomed as bullets of Cole’s weaponry clanged against his chest and shoulder. “It will make your failure all the sweeter when I sch—”
The monster’s words were cut short by a wad of white webbing that smacked his tooth-filled snout and adhered like liquid cement.
Up in the sky, the Vision lowered his outstretched hand as he fly back and started to plot his next maneuvers. “We have moved passed the required quota of villainous banter.” The android declared somberly and without the slightest inclination of wit as his purple skin and green adornments all started to turn a shade of blue. Throwing his hands forward, he released a gust of frozen air at the Darkloid.
Unable to tear away the webbing with the threats around him, Metal Shark Player hurtled the anchor in the direction of Cole. With the gunslinger diving to the wayside, the titanic beast turned and lunged at Cloud, who angled to defend himself until the pouncing warrior slipped right under the ground. With quick reflexes, Cloud inverted the Buster Sword and thrust half of it down into the polluted earth of the courtyard.
Not even a heartbeat later, Proto Man saw the movement in the soil. “Behind you!” He barked to Cloud as he activated his own firearm and rushed forward.
Bursting up from the ground behind his sword-wielding adversary, the Metal Shark grabbed a fistful of the soldier’s spikey blonde hair. Bladed digits started to sink into the man’s skull, but a shotgun-shaped burst of energy and a pair of red gazerbeams fell upon the predatory fish-android. Wounds leaking some sort of greasy dark sludge, the Darkloid released his vice grip from Cloud and lunged backwards—his webbed snout barely concealing a smirk as he casually vanished back into the solid surface.
“You are at a disadvantage on the ground!” The Vision declared as he started to slowly rotate—his senses at their peak as he tried to deduce and properly anticipate the ambush tactics of their foe. “
“Do I look like I have wings?” Cloud barked as he wrenched his sword free. Fresh blood oozed down from the sides of the warrior’s scalp. “He can’t fight us all at once.”
As if on cue, Proto Man’s sensors picked up lifeforms all around the periphery of the courtyard.
“Of flipping course,” he muttered, channeling his inner mouse.
They had reached the end of their journey through the twisted corruption that had befallen the Vasty Deep. A pool of water stained so thoroughly with oil, blood, and grease that it could have easily turned into a towering inferno wreathed a foreboding spire that spat smog from an assortment of pipes that jutted from its rusted obsidian hull.
The preteen machine scowled as the giant shark robot spoke about collecting their blood and using it to create perverted revenants of the Liberators. This was the creature responsible for the corruption of the Vasty Deep and the armies of twisted darklings that had overwhelmed Blue Fish Island and nearly razed the Saboady Archipelago. This was the source of the horde.
The arch demon.
A cursory scan revealed the entity to be something called a Metal Shark Player. There was a brief, fleeting moment where the preteen machine thought that to be a ridiculous moniker, and then he recalled the title given to him by his creators.
“Plan?” Cloud whispered as the group of Liberators steeled themselves against the anchor-wielding behemoth.
Proto Man lifted his arm canon and scowled. “Burn it down,” he muttered as he set his sights on the ‘Darkloid’ and the command spire he guarded. The files on the Liberator device indicated that the tower functioned as some type of link between this verse and where Nebula took shelter.
“Break the tower, break the link.” The red robot reiterated as he turned and looked up at his fellow machine. The Vision, who seemed to be running his own set of scans and subroutines, gave a soft nod before turning his focus to the courtyard.
“We have superior numbers,” the android intoned as he swept their surroundings. “Unless he is able to rally his underlings.” The Vision set his sights back on the enemy commander. “This is a wide-open space. We will be able to work together, but he will also have the room to maneuver with that weapon.”
“He won’t,” Proto Man replied as a blade of energy hummed to life from the mouth of his arm cannon. He turned to Cloud’s visage before shifting his focus to the mercenary soldier’s weapon. “Cloud and I will engage him up close. Try our best to prevent him from having the space to attack everyone… the rest of you can strike from range.”
“It won’t be that easy,” Cole muttered as Metal Shark Player, his toothy maw stained with gore and machine grease, suddenly jumped forward and vanished into the ground as if it were made of nothing.
“What the—” Someone said near to Proto Man, who found himself backing up as he tried to keep his eyes everywhere at once.
There!
Twenty yards out to the left, a corroded shape poked above the solid earth before slipping back beneath the soil.
“I think he’s traveling through the ground,” the machine shouted as he kept backpedaling from the group. “Split!” He barked as a fount of black earth erupted just a few feet before them. The Liberators, already slinking back, likewise shattered in different directions as the towering metal shark-monster and his massive anchor ran roughshod over the scene. One of the Liberators—Proto Man couldn’t see who—took a glancing blow and was sent bowling forward. The Vision, having taken to the sky, quickly processed the initial shock and retaliated.
A dazzling unibeam roared through the bleak sky down onto the head of Metal Shark Player, who dropped to a knee.
Proto Man moved forward to capitalize on the moment, but it took him a split-second too long to notice the play before it unfolded.
Lifting his head, Metal Shark Player flashed a toothy grin before lashing out with his anchor. The red robot summoned his shield as fast as he could, and even then, the metal bulwark crashed to piece as the unorthodox weapon tore him from his feet and threw him like the child-sized entity that he was. Standing up from beneath the continued heat and force of the unibeam, the Darkloid coiled his arm and swung.
The Vision winced, but the anchor never came close.
A gore-stained Buster Sword intercepted the would-be attack.
“I’m glad ye are all fearless in the face of ya certain destruction,” the shark beast boomed as bullets of Cole’s weaponry clanged against his chest and shoulder. “It will make your failure all the sweeter when I sch—”
The monster’s words were cut short by a wad of white webbing that smacked his tooth-filled snout and adhered like liquid cement.
Up in the sky, the Vision lowered his outstretched hand as he fly back and started to plot his next maneuvers. “We have moved passed the required quota of villainous banter.” The android declared somberly and without the slightest inclination of wit as his purple skin and green adornments all started to turn a shade of blue. Throwing his hands forward, he released a gust of frozen air at the Darkloid.
Unable to tear away the webbing with the threats around him, Metal Shark Player hurtled the anchor in the direction of Cole. With the gunslinger diving to the wayside, the titanic beast turned and lunged at Cloud, who angled to defend himself until the pouncing warrior slipped right under the ground. With quick reflexes, Cloud inverted the Buster Sword and thrust half of it down into the polluted earth of the courtyard.
Not even a heartbeat later, Proto Man saw the movement in the soil. “Behind you!” He barked to Cloud as he activated his own firearm and rushed forward.
Bursting up from the ground behind his sword-wielding adversary, the Metal Shark grabbed a fistful of the soldier’s spikey blonde hair. Bladed digits started to sink into the man’s skull, but a shotgun-shaped burst of energy and a pair of red gazerbeams fell upon the predatory fish-android. Wounds leaking some sort of greasy dark sludge, the Darkloid released his vice grip from Cloud and lunged backwards—his webbed snout barely concealing a smirk as he casually vanished back into the solid surface.
“You are at a disadvantage on the ground!” The Vision declared as he started to slowly rotate—his senses at their peak as he tried to deduce and properly anticipate the ambush tactics of their foe. “
“Do I look like I have wings?” Cloud barked as he wrenched his sword free. Fresh blood oozed down from the sides of the warrior’s scalp. “He can’t fight us all at once.”
As if on cue, Proto Man’s sensors picked up lifeforms all around the periphery of the courtyard.
“Of flipping course,” he muttered, channeling his inner mouse.