05-16-2015, 03:20 AM
So there's a benefit to being internet famous, and that is that there's people who aren't just basement dwellers who'll recognize you and want to be your friend. And keep you from getting beat up by angry sailors, which is a huge plus in my book. Once the muscle bound deckhand had vouched for my credibility, I was off the hook from getting my shit pushed in. After that, though, a few of the others who had been previously taking point to ignore me in silent contempt had now become buddy buddy, as if I was actual famous and not just some dick head that yelled at someone on the tubes. Well, at least they offered me some drinks, and I wasn't about to turn down free booze. Once the alcohol started to flow and a feeling of inebriation started to take hold on my pickled brain, we did what any military personnel did when buzzed and feeling in a half decent mode: tell war stories and trade battle scars.
We swapped words between glugs of beer, man of the men being sailor from their past world and kept doing what they did best, others were like myself and had been travelers of the stars and found what was a close an experience as they could find. Few just took the job they could get. The older man who confronted me first had actually been the captain of a Spanish ship from the time of the conquistadors, and had adapted to his new environment fairly well, or in his opinion at least Once you get past the salty and crusty exterior, you find a interior that's still a great deal of crust and salt but they're still people. People who swear a lot and like grog.
I personally did well with my own stories, kept to the more lighthearted one rather than what I've done in combat and keeping as far away from the Phobos incident or of Hell's invasion. You know, nothing that'll mentally traumatize someone.
"So then my CO, blithering jackass that he was," I was in the middle of a story, much of which I've cut out here for the sake of shortness "said 'you're going to be cleaning toilets for a year if you drop my out of this shuttle!'. And, well, when you got someone by their throats and the sound of engines coming in through the open back door, you can't really hear someone like that, and I just kicked him out the back. He was screaming his head off as he plummet down to the ground, which stopped rather suddenly because, unlike what I told him before, we were only 4 feet off the tarmac and he spent the rest of the day yelling at me with only a bruised behind"
Laughing erupted across the bar, some more enthusiastic than other, but everyone agreed to take another sip of their drink of choice. I have had at least some success not making a complete monster of myself, although some of the more awkward chuckles and worried glances didn't completely dispelled the idea that I was a stone cold killer. A reputation I myself had intentionally cultivated in the past, but had for some time tried to distance myself from. Poorly, as it seemed.
"So what have you been doing since getting here?" one asked, which I answered with only a shrug as a short hand for "not much". Although that wasn't quite an honest answer.
"Are you exited for Dante's Abyss?" another attempted some small talk, but I was just staring at the man with eyebrows raised and an "uhhhh" escaping my mouth.
"What the Hell is that?"
"Oh you've really been living under a rock, haven't you" the man gave me a very quick summery of the 'event' that some rich and eccentric cock sucker had been promoting while I was busy with not dying, a blood sport that Primes would be in to try an kill each other to the last "It's be good to see those Primes get slaughtered for once"
While the sailor was sating his sadistic streak, he had actually given me the chance that I was looking for. As much as I detested the idea of what was basically a modern spin on the roman Colosseum, Choprot wanted a proof that I could handle myself in a fight, and if this was going to be as public as it was advertised then I could show the Ork was I was made of. Sure, I would blow the fact that I was a Prime to everyone, but if I landed myself on top of the heap of dead bodies I didn't think anyone would say anything against it. I mean, would YOU argue with a psychopath knee deep in the dead? Not that I'm a psycho, or anything.
"Well, I'll certainly keep an eye on it" I underplayed my interest and turned to my PDA. A quick scroll through the numerous articles and blog posts pointed me out to the nearest recruiting booth, and even a few of the other primes who I would be fighting. Nothing from Lopunny, though, who had not made a peep since that last time I saw her. A bit of a disappointment, but perhaps once this slug fest was over with I could catch up her and Kito and Villers.
Unfortunately, what I had thought was a harmless encounter was then to bring the consequences of my recklessness down on my head.
I heard the bar doors swing in, the same creak of the rusted hinges and steam of light that announced my arrival did that same to the two creatures that walked in. One was an oversized blue frog of sort that came up to my knees with a cloud like shroud around it's neck. The other was a foot taller than his companion, an orange weasel with two tails and what looks like a yellow flotation device that circled its sides. I payed them no mind at first, more interested in 'Dante's Abyss' and being half way towards completely plastered. Everyone else was the same, and didn't give them the same cold welcome that I got but chose to ignore them all the same. Yet something niggled at the back of my head, that ever present paranoia crying out in desperation like a pounding in my ears that something was just not right. Maybe it was the way they would glance at me from time to time, or that they they seem obsessed with the watch one of them kept on their person, or that they weren't ordering anything even when the bartender addressed them directly. But I smothered that caution with more alcohol and thought that that could be normal. And I had long already made the decision that I wasn't about to get into any more fights today. Not that fate ever gave me such the choice.
"Hey, you know, we never got your name" One sailor eventually pointed out, and in my sloshed state I was too quick to say it.
"It's Doomguy"
That's when the two animals finally snapped into action. They moved away from the both that they had been occupying and now put themselves in the middle of the room. Between the bar and the door. Me and my weapons.
"THE Doomguy?" The frog asked, which seemed innocent enough at the time.
"Yeah, unless there was some other dumbass with that name running around" I gave a chuckle with a bit of drunken glee.
"Then I shall make this quick" The frog said, the creature had kept a very calm and collected voice even as things made a turn for the worse " I represent the PLF" the entire room dropped dead silent, the room still enough that you could hear the lapping of waves underneath the dock the bar was sitting on. My brain was trying to slog information to the relevant parts that would have told me to shoot both of them on the spot, but beer was my enemy at that point. But it was slowly dawned on me that things were about to go horribly awry.
"Good, then our reputation proceeds us. We have surrounded your little shack, and you know your deaths are forthcoming. But we're willing to postpone your demise if you hand over him. Even we can be sensible " the frog bastard pointed me out, and I reached down for my pistol as everything finally clicked. But the taller weasel stepped up, barred its teeth which glowed and grew an icy sheen, and was ready the pounce. It had the jump on me, and if I attacked then I was jeopardizing everyone here. If I let them take me, then I could at least fight with worrying about collateral damage or casualties aside from my own.
"Why do you even want me?" I asked, still a little too talkative while drunk. I can't help myself, I have a lot to say an very little time to say it. "What the hell did I do to you?"
"You are a corrupting force on Pokemon kind" frogger answered, the tiniest bit of indignation surfacing across his stoic tone" You will be punished, and made an example of to the rest" Well, that explained what the P stood for in PLF.
"What?! All I did was talked to her!" Suddenly the plan to play along was thrown away as rage flared up in my heart and a will to rip and tear them apart compelled me stand up, inch forward and imagine painful fantasies that I would rain upon them. Was this really over Lopunny?
"Exactly" the answer was just as calm as usual, the frog pokemon took my outburst with the same reaction as one would to a tantruming child. He had already decided that I was not going to come quietly, but his rodent friend was there to keep me in check while he redirected his contempt back at the other patrons "So then? Will you turn him over"
His answer was in the form of the bartender behind me raising a double barreled shotgun up from under the bar and aimed it at the frog's head.
"Get the fuck out of my bar!" She yelled, and every man inside the building grabbed anything and everything in arm's reach that would be used as a weapon, and simultaneously decided that the plan was to rush them and get to the bin of weapons on the other side of the two furry fucks. I finally pulled out my pistol, leveling it down at the frog, only hesitated in misguided chance to let them turn tail and run.
I wouldn't have enough time to even yell out a threat as all hell broke loose and the pier below us broke away.
Something of considering mass and strength went through one of the poles holding the dock up, the sound unmistakable sound of a tree surrendered to the storm the same here, expect now instead of the worry of a rogue branch hitting your car there was something actively trying to kill us. The force rumbled across the entire floor, which knocked a few to the ground and sent my helmet skidding off to the side. The sailors here were used to the buckle of the sea on their ship and kept themselves up, but there was a degree of difficulty in that they were also addled by the alcohol in their veins. Not by much, since they were also used to that, but it was enough when the first deckhand who tried to charge through was cut down by a flurry of star like projectiles from the orange fucker.
The bartender fired the shotgun, the resounding boom of both barrels going off deafened me as I was standing right next to her, but rumble of the floor threw off her aim and rather than turning the pokemon into a bloody mound the wall behind them was decorated with a few more holes in it, and the frog countered with a water cannon from it's mouth that sent the bartender flying back into a shelf of bottles, the force broke her and she crumpled to the floor of her station.
I steadied my aim against the rattling and worsening lean in the building as each support was destroyed, but before I could pull the trigger another calamity added to my problems: the light bulbs above us exploded in a shower of glass. With the waning sun half under the horizon since the time spent wasted her, we were plunged into sunset darkness. I fired off anyway, a bright flash from the pistol's barrel lit up the room only for a moment before I was left with only basic shapes and poor silhouettes of my targets and allies. A scream and ripping flesh was the only warning that there Pokemon were not as hindered by the terrible conditions.
"Do you give up, human? I'll only kill a few of them if you stop" I head the frog's neutral voice even as I head it slam some poor schmuck's head into a wall. But anger and and the fact that they've proven to not be reasonable kept me in the fight
"Might makes light. And I feel mighty" I answered back, and I unleashed several shots into the ceiling, the light of the muzzle flash gave me enough time to see where the weapon bin was sliding to. The shotgun, the plasma rifle, hell, the chainsaw. Anything could have tipped this fight in our direction. I dived for the container, but the force of another jet of water hit me square in the stomach and I was sent skipping across the floor the inclined floor into the backroom.
I cursed as back wall caught me, my shoulders impacting into the wood paneling and caught in the web of trusts, piping, and wires while my legs managed to grab the counter top. I growled mostly in rage than in pain, but I should have considered myself lucky as I missed hitting appliances or the counter, either of which I could have broken my spine on, or the window that would have sent me falling into the ocean. Which, after I glanced outside to see a shark fin, was probably the aim but the rapidly deterioration of the foundations actually swung in my favor for once.
As I tried to pick myself up without twisting a rib, another sailor rushed past me, cutting across the kitchen straight to a metal box on the wall that opened up to the circuit breakers. Before he could flip the switch an inhuman, almost synthetic and electronic, laugh came from the box and a thunderbolt shot out. The other man jolt and squirmed in painful spasms, sparks danced across their skin as their insides cook before he collapsed on the floor in a charred heap. An almost ghost like wisp of plasma appeared from the circuits and laughed again at the corpse.
And wasn't paying attention to how I was about to ruin it's day.
With it's seemingly ethereal body, my pistol would have had the effect of a stick of butter, but while it was still inside the circuit breakers then I thought that I could still effect the environment it made itself a part of. I reached towards the sink, grabbed a glass that had been soaking in the water, and tossed it at the breakers and held my pistol out in case my plan didn't work out as I hoped.
Thankfully, the electrical pyrotechnics and the scream like a dying amp pierced my ears confirmed that I hair-brained idea wasn't as stupid as it could have been. The spirit prickled into a spike ball then rocketed off and ricocheted across the room, bouncing from wood panel to would panel until it hit the metal chimney of the stove and conducted up and out of the roof.
That was one piece of shit out of the picture, but when I felt the floor under me buckle and snap and the corner of the building sunk into the sea, I was reminded that I still had to deal with the other two. I spun around to get back into the fight, and almost had my stomach ripped out when that fucking rodent nearly had me. I backed up with what little room I had left, but I was now corned against the kitchen's oven and the only way was through.
Just the way I like it.
"How does it feel to know you'll die by my hands, you worthless pest?" The weasel asked, and I gave an amused grin and a single finger salute back.
"Disappointing, didn't think I'd die to a furry's inflatable fuck toy"
The Pokemon roared at the insult and charged right at me, faster that i'd expect a three foot tall rodent could, but I jumped and pulled myself in the rafters over the wrathful charge and heard a loud CLANG as it rammed head first into the oven I had my back to a moment ago. I swung forward and recovered fast enough to face my opponent again as it wobbled back to it's feet. It held onto it head, turned around as it tried to push through the concussion I just gave it, and then had enough time to look wide eyed as I kicked it in the face and smashed it into the appliance again.
The Pokemon gave a pained "bluh" as its brain was squished between my boot and stainless steel. It dropped down to the floor, both hands held the creature's head as it tired to handle the pain. But I wasn't done. I grabbed the scruff of neck and threw the rodent across the floor, where it landed right at the foot of the refrigerator. By the time it managed to pull itself together enough to get back on it's feet, I had wretched the machine from it's spot and let it fall. A satisfying CRUNCH spelled the end of the Pokemon, or maybe that was the floor that went out along with it. There was enough time to see a few more aquatic animals, looking down where the fridge sunk into the deep, before I crawled through the serving window back into the main room.
What I came to was a horrid state of affairs, a gory scene that had would make most turn away in nausea but I had to push through. Most of the people who I had a friendly chat with were now corpses scattered across in the floor, one had managed to find a hiding spot behind the bar in a fetal position, and the only thing now standing up against the frog Pokemon was the captain would had originally confronted me. He got his hand on a cutlass and was doing a decent job at fighting the frog, who was sporting several cuts and a deep wound across the head.
It was a short lived advantage, as the frog opened his mouth and let loose a vile gob of purple gunk, at the captain's face. He was not quite quick enough, and once the glob hit him he let loose a blood curling scream and collapsed to the ground, scratching at his eyes as the poison entered his system. The frog pokemon watched the man thrash in pain with an emotionless look, uncaring of what he's done. I wanted to reach out and choke all life out of his slimy body, but as I dropped down behind the bar I bumped into something much better: the weapon bin. I grabbed the first weapon and jumped over the bar, stood proudly, and was ready to rain hell fire on the little monster.
"Frog legs for everyone! Your remains will be decorating the wall, but at least you'll taste good." I leveled the weapon down at the frog, and immediate regretted that as I saw what I grabbed in my rush: the rocket launcher. Frogger saw this as well, and the tiniest smirk managed to sneak onto his face.
"Your kind might be stupid, but not mindless. You wouldn't harm yourself just to get m-"
I made him eat his words as I fired, the rocket slammed into the floor right in front of both of us and we were sent scattering to the ground. my vision blurred and an awful ringing told me I just went through a pressure wave, and my entire body was in agony over my attack. What little I could make out was that frogger was in the same place, his body bloodied from shrapnel and burns, clutching his stomach as the near miss rocket still pulped his insides. He glanced over to me, looking sick and angry, and before I I could fire another round he tossed some item to the floor and a puff of smoke obscured my vision. He was gone, I was in pain, and as I stained to keep myself from unconsciousness I saw the faces of the bodies that laid before me.
The PLF had the last laugh. Although they ran with these that could fight on land now either dead or severely wounded, it would take hours before medical personnel were allowed in as the stromtroopers had to clean and call the area safe. I lived, a stimm to the neck doing wonders to keep you fighting if not comfortable. I was only one of three, however. Of those that didn't die immediately either bled out from their wounds or died from shock. The bartender spine was broken by her slam into the wall, and I had the misfortune to hear her jagged breath end. The man who hid behind the bar left largely unscathed, though he would probably suffer survivor's guilt to the end of his days. The captain lived, but the poisonous attack took his sight, and I remember him crying as he proclaimed his life ruined. I heard him blame me as he was carted away into the ambulance while I stood on the concrete, wounded but ultimately still as intact as I always was.
The stormtrooper squad that was sent to investigate was Tina's, who then stood before me with a mix of worry and false stoicism. She occasionally glanced from me to the ruins behind me, not sure what happened but that a lot of people died and I didn't. There was a long moment of silence, probably as her previous feelings for me fought with the new one. Pity? No. You don't pity someone who's managed to fight their way through terrorist and survive. Maybe it was fear.
"Lieutentant is going to want to hear what happened here. We should bring you in and-" I stopped that line of thought as I pushed past her, and the hatred came back in force "What the fuck!?"
"Tell your CO that the PLF attacked, that's all that's needed" I raised up the PDA and looked at the cracked screen to see my destination. Dante's Abyss.
Whatever this universe was going to throw at me, whatever twisted plans Omni had in store, and however I was to get to the silhouetted god, it wasn't like this. I felt so weak, and I knew that the captain was right: I failed to protect them when I should have destroyed the enemy. I decided that I could no longer hold back and hope that I wound just find my way. I had to take everything with the same fire that took me through the bowels of Hell. I had to know that I was the same man who was the bane of demons and the the savior of Earth. I had to be him once again.
"And what the hell are you going to do?!"
"Prove myself"
We swapped words between glugs of beer, man of the men being sailor from their past world and kept doing what they did best, others were like myself and had been travelers of the stars and found what was a close an experience as they could find. Few just took the job they could get. The older man who confronted me first had actually been the captain of a Spanish ship from the time of the conquistadors, and had adapted to his new environment fairly well, or in his opinion at least Once you get past the salty and crusty exterior, you find a interior that's still a great deal of crust and salt but they're still people. People who swear a lot and like grog.
I personally did well with my own stories, kept to the more lighthearted one rather than what I've done in combat and keeping as far away from the Phobos incident or of Hell's invasion. You know, nothing that'll mentally traumatize someone.
"So then my CO, blithering jackass that he was," I was in the middle of a story, much of which I've cut out here for the sake of shortness "said 'you're going to be cleaning toilets for a year if you drop my out of this shuttle!'. And, well, when you got someone by their throats and the sound of engines coming in through the open back door, you can't really hear someone like that, and I just kicked him out the back. He was screaming his head off as he plummet down to the ground, which stopped rather suddenly because, unlike what I told him before, we were only 4 feet off the tarmac and he spent the rest of the day yelling at me with only a bruised behind"
Laughing erupted across the bar, some more enthusiastic than other, but everyone agreed to take another sip of their drink of choice. I have had at least some success not making a complete monster of myself, although some of the more awkward chuckles and worried glances didn't completely dispelled the idea that I was a stone cold killer. A reputation I myself had intentionally cultivated in the past, but had for some time tried to distance myself from. Poorly, as it seemed.
"So what have you been doing since getting here?" one asked, which I answered with only a shrug as a short hand for "not much". Although that wasn't quite an honest answer.
"Are you exited for Dante's Abyss?" another attempted some small talk, but I was just staring at the man with eyebrows raised and an "uhhhh" escaping my mouth.
"What the Hell is that?"
"Oh you've really been living under a rock, haven't you" the man gave me a very quick summery of the 'event' that some rich and eccentric cock sucker had been promoting while I was busy with not dying, a blood sport that Primes would be in to try an kill each other to the last "It's be good to see those Primes get slaughtered for once"
While the sailor was sating his sadistic streak, he had actually given me the chance that I was looking for. As much as I detested the idea of what was basically a modern spin on the roman Colosseum, Choprot wanted a proof that I could handle myself in a fight, and if this was going to be as public as it was advertised then I could show the Ork was I was made of. Sure, I would blow the fact that I was a Prime to everyone, but if I landed myself on top of the heap of dead bodies I didn't think anyone would say anything against it. I mean, would YOU argue with a psychopath knee deep in the dead? Not that I'm a psycho, or anything.
"Well, I'll certainly keep an eye on it" I underplayed my interest and turned to my PDA. A quick scroll through the numerous articles and blog posts pointed me out to the nearest recruiting booth, and even a few of the other primes who I would be fighting. Nothing from Lopunny, though, who had not made a peep since that last time I saw her. A bit of a disappointment, but perhaps once this slug fest was over with I could catch up her and Kito and Villers.
Unfortunately, what I had thought was a harmless encounter was then to bring the consequences of my recklessness down on my head.
Quote:--♫--
I heard the bar doors swing in, the same creak of the rusted hinges and steam of light that announced my arrival did that same to the two creatures that walked in. One was an oversized blue frog of sort that came up to my knees with a cloud like shroud around it's neck. The other was a foot taller than his companion, an orange weasel with two tails and what looks like a yellow flotation device that circled its sides. I payed them no mind at first, more interested in 'Dante's Abyss' and being half way towards completely plastered. Everyone else was the same, and didn't give them the same cold welcome that I got but chose to ignore them all the same. Yet something niggled at the back of my head, that ever present paranoia crying out in desperation like a pounding in my ears that something was just not right. Maybe it was the way they would glance at me from time to time, or that they they seem obsessed with the watch one of them kept on their person, or that they weren't ordering anything even when the bartender addressed them directly. But I smothered that caution with more alcohol and thought that that could be normal. And I had long already made the decision that I wasn't about to get into any more fights today. Not that fate ever gave me such the choice.
"Hey, you know, we never got your name" One sailor eventually pointed out, and in my sloshed state I was too quick to say it.
"It's Doomguy"
That's when the two animals finally snapped into action. They moved away from the both that they had been occupying and now put themselves in the middle of the room. Between the bar and the door. Me and my weapons.
"THE Doomguy?" The frog asked, which seemed innocent enough at the time.
"Yeah, unless there was some other dumbass with that name running around" I gave a chuckle with a bit of drunken glee.
"Then I shall make this quick" The frog said, the creature had kept a very calm and collected voice even as things made a turn for the worse " I represent the PLF" the entire room dropped dead silent, the room still enough that you could hear the lapping of waves underneath the dock the bar was sitting on. My brain was trying to slog information to the relevant parts that would have told me to shoot both of them on the spot, but beer was my enemy at that point. But it was slowly dawned on me that things were about to go horribly awry.
"Good, then our reputation proceeds us. We have surrounded your little shack, and you know your deaths are forthcoming. But we're willing to postpone your demise if you hand over him. Even we can be sensible " the frog bastard pointed me out, and I reached down for my pistol as everything finally clicked. But the taller weasel stepped up, barred its teeth which glowed and grew an icy sheen, and was ready the pounce. It had the jump on me, and if I attacked then I was jeopardizing everyone here. If I let them take me, then I could at least fight with worrying about collateral damage or casualties aside from my own.
"Why do you even want me?" I asked, still a little too talkative while drunk. I can't help myself, I have a lot to say an very little time to say it. "What the hell did I do to you?"
"You are a corrupting force on Pokemon kind" frogger answered, the tiniest bit of indignation surfacing across his stoic tone" You will be punished, and made an example of to the rest" Well, that explained what the P stood for in PLF.
"What?! All I did was talked to her!" Suddenly the plan to play along was thrown away as rage flared up in my heart and a will to rip and tear them apart compelled me stand up, inch forward and imagine painful fantasies that I would rain upon them. Was this really over Lopunny?
"Exactly" the answer was just as calm as usual, the frog pokemon took my outburst with the same reaction as one would to a tantruming child. He had already decided that I was not going to come quietly, but his rodent friend was there to keep me in check while he redirected his contempt back at the other patrons "So then? Will you turn him over"
His answer was in the form of the bartender behind me raising a double barreled shotgun up from under the bar and aimed it at the frog's head.
"Get the fuck out of my bar!" She yelled, and every man inside the building grabbed anything and everything in arm's reach that would be used as a weapon, and simultaneously decided that the plan was to rush them and get to the bin of weapons on the other side of the two furry fucks. I finally pulled out my pistol, leveling it down at the frog, only hesitated in misguided chance to let them turn tail and run.
I wouldn't have enough time to even yell out a threat as all hell broke loose and the pier below us broke away.
Something of considering mass and strength went through one of the poles holding the dock up, the sound unmistakable sound of a tree surrendered to the storm the same here, expect now instead of the worry of a rogue branch hitting your car there was something actively trying to kill us. The force rumbled across the entire floor, which knocked a few to the ground and sent my helmet skidding off to the side. The sailors here were used to the buckle of the sea on their ship and kept themselves up, but there was a degree of difficulty in that they were also addled by the alcohol in their veins. Not by much, since they were also used to that, but it was enough when the first deckhand who tried to charge through was cut down by a flurry of star like projectiles from the orange fucker.
The bartender fired the shotgun, the resounding boom of both barrels going off deafened me as I was standing right next to her, but rumble of the floor threw off her aim and rather than turning the pokemon into a bloody mound the wall behind them was decorated with a few more holes in it, and the frog countered with a water cannon from it's mouth that sent the bartender flying back into a shelf of bottles, the force broke her and she crumpled to the floor of her station.
I steadied my aim against the rattling and worsening lean in the building as each support was destroyed, but before I could pull the trigger another calamity added to my problems: the light bulbs above us exploded in a shower of glass. With the waning sun half under the horizon since the time spent wasted her, we were plunged into sunset darkness. I fired off anyway, a bright flash from the pistol's barrel lit up the room only for a moment before I was left with only basic shapes and poor silhouettes of my targets and allies. A scream and ripping flesh was the only warning that there Pokemon were not as hindered by the terrible conditions.
"Do you give up, human? I'll only kill a few of them if you stop" I head the frog's neutral voice even as I head it slam some poor schmuck's head into a wall. But anger and and the fact that they've proven to not be reasonable kept me in the fight
"Might makes light. And I feel mighty" I answered back, and I unleashed several shots into the ceiling, the light of the muzzle flash gave me enough time to see where the weapon bin was sliding to. The shotgun, the plasma rifle, hell, the chainsaw. Anything could have tipped this fight in our direction. I dived for the container, but the force of another jet of water hit me square in the stomach and I was sent skipping across the floor the inclined floor into the backroom.
I cursed as back wall caught me, my shoulders impacting into the wood paneling and caught in the web of trusts, piping, and wires while my legs managed to grab the counter top. I growled mostly in rage than in pain, but I should have considered myself lucky as I missed hitting appliances or the counter, either of which I could have broken my spine on, or the window that would have sent me falling into the ocean. Which, after I glanced outside to see a shark fin, was probably the aim but the rapidly deterioration of the foundations actually swung in my favor for once.
As I tried to pick myself up without twisting a rib, another sailor rushed past me, cutting across the kitchen straight to a metal box on the wall that opened up to the circuit breakers. Before he could flip the switch an inhuman, almost synthetic and electronic, laugh came from the box and a thunderbolt shot out. The other man jolt and squirmed in painful spasms, sparks danced across their skin as their insides cook before he collapsed on the floor in a charred heap. An almost ghost like wisp of plasma appeared from the circuits and laughed again at the corpse.
And wasn't paying attention to how I was about to ruin it's day.
With it's seemingly ethereal body, my pistol would have had the effect of a stick of butter, but while it was still inside the circuit breakers then I thought that I could still effect the environment it made itself a part of. I reached towards the sink, grabbed a glass that had been soaking in the water, and tossed it at the breakers and held my pistol out in case my plan didn't work out as I hoped.
Thankfully, the electrical pyrotechnics and the scream like a dying amp pierced my ears confirmed that I hair-brained idea wasn't as stupid as it could have been. The spirit prickled into a spike ball then rocketed off and ricocheted across the room, bouncing from wood panel to would panel until it hit the metal chimney of the stove and conducted up and out of the roof.
That was one piece of shit out of the picture, but when I felt the floor under me buckle and snap and the corner of the building sunk into the sea, I was reminded that I still had to deal with the other two. I spun around to get back into the fight, and almost had my stomach ripped out when that fucking rodent nearly had me. I backed up with what little room I had left, but I was now corned against the kitchen's oven and the only way was through.
Just the way I like it.
"How does it feel to know you'll die by my hands, you worthless pest?" The weasel asked, and I gave an amused grin and a single finger salute back.
"Disappointing, didn't think I'd die to a furry's inflatable fuck toy"
The Pokemon roared at the insult and charged right at me, faster that i'd expect a three foot tall rodent could, but I jumped and pulled myself in the rafters over the wrathful charge and heard a loud CLANG as it rammed head first into the oven I had my back to a moment ago. I swung forward and recovered fast enough to face my opponent again as it wobbled back to it's feet. It held onto it head, turned around as it tried to push through the concussion I just gave it, and then had enough time to look wide eyed as I kicked it in the face and smashed it into the appliance again.
The Pokemon gave a pained "bluh" as its brain was squished between my boot and stainless steel. It dropped down to the floor, both hands held the creature's head as it tired to handle the pain. But I wasn't done. I grabbed the scruff of neck and threw the rodent across the floor, where it landed right at the foot of the refrigerator. By the time it managed to pull itself together enough to get back on it's feet, I had wretched the machine from it's spot and let it fall. A satisfying CRUNCH spelled the end of the Pokemon, or maybe that was the floor that went out along with it. There was enough time to see a few more aquatic animals, looking down where the fridge sunk into the deep, before I crawled through the serving window back into the main room.
What I came to was a horrid state of affairs, a gory scene that had would make most turn away in nausea but I had to push through. Most of the people who I had a friendly chat with were now corpses scattered across in the floor, one had managed to find a hiding spot behind the bar in a fetal position, and the only thing now standing up against the frog Pokemon was the captain would had originally confronted me. He got his hand on a cutlass and was doing a decent job at fighting the frog, who was sporting several cuts and a deep wound across the head.
It was a short lived advantage, as the frog opened his mouth and let loose a vile gob of purple gunk, at the captain's face. He was not quite quick enough, and once the glob hit him he let loose a blood curling scream and collapsed to the ground, scratching at his eyes as the poison entered his system. The frog pokemon watched the man thrash in pain with an emotionless look, uncaring of what he's done. I wanted to reach out and choke all life out of his slimy body, but as I dropped down behind the bar I bumped into something much better: the weapon bin. I grabbed the first weapon and jumped over the bar, stood proudly, and was ready to rain hell fire on the little monster.
"Frog legs for everyone! Your remains will be decorating the wall, but at least you'll taste good." I leveled the weapon down at the frog, and immediate regretted that as I saw what I grabbed in my rush: the rocket launcher. Frogger saw this as well, and the tiniest smirk managed to sneak onto his face.
"Your kind might be stupid, but not mindless. You wouldn't harm yourself just to get m-"
I made him eat his words as I fired, the rocket slammed into the floor right in front of both of us and we were sent scattering to the ground. my vision blurred and an awful ringing told me I just went through a pressure wave, and my entire body was in agony over my attack. What little I could make out was that frogger was in the same place, his body bloodied from shrapnel and burns, clutching his stomach as the near miss rocket still pulped his insides. He glanced over to me, looking sick and angry, and before I I could fire another round he tossed some item to the floor and a puff of smoke obscured my vision. He was gone, I was in pain, and as I stained to keep myself from unconsciousness I saw the faces of the bodies that laid before me.
----
The PLF had the last laugh. Although they ran with these that could fight on land now either dead or severely wounded, it would take hours before medical personnel were allowed in as the stromtroopers had to clean and call the area safe. I lived, a stimm to the neck doing wonders to keep you fighting if not comfortable. I was only one of three, however. Of those that didn't die immediately either bled out from their wounds or died from shock. The bartender spine was broken by her slam into the wall, and I had the misfortune to hear her jagged breath end. The man who hid behind the bar left largely unscathed, though he would probably suffer survivor's guilt to the end of his days. The captain lived, but the poisonous attack took his sight, and I remember him crying as he proclaimed his life ruined. I heard him blame me as he was carted away into the ambulance while I stood on the concrete, wounded but ultimately still as intact as I always was.
The stormtrooper squad that was sent to investigate was Tina's, who then stood before me with a mix of worry and false stoicism. She occasionally glanced from me to the ruins behind me, not sure what happened but that a lot of people died and I didn't. There was a long moment of silence, probably as her previous feelings for me fought with the new one. Pity? No. You don't pity someone who's managed to fight their way through terrorist and survive. Maybe it was fear.
"Lieutentant is going to want to hear what happened here. We should bring you in and-" I stopped that line of thought as I pushed past her, and the hatred came back in force "What the fuck!?"
"Tell your CO that the PLF attacked, that's all that's needed" I raised up the PDA and looked at the cracked screen to see my destination. Dante's Abyss.
Whatever this universe was going to throw at me, whatever twisted plans Omni had in store, and however I was to get to the silhouetted god, it wasn't like this. I felt so weak, and I knew that the captain was right: I failed to protect them when I should have destroyed the enemy. I decided that I could no longer hold back and hope that I wound just find my way. I had to take everything with the same fire that took me through the bowels of Hell. I had to know that I was the same man who was the bane of demons and the the savior of Earth. I had to be him once again.
"And what the hell are you going to do?!"
"Prove myself"
![[Image: oGzCtPC.png]](http://i.imgur.com/oGzCtPC.png)