Into Dante's Inferno

[Doomguy]

Underneath the surface of the ocean, everything grew dark, and cold, and still. I could barely hear the churn of the waves above me, and the lower I sunk into the inky blackness the less that I could hear anything, left as only a white noise at the edge of my hearing. Once I was down far enough, I finally turned the little engine in my hands on and I was pulled through the water like a torpedo. Down I went, deeper into the nothingness that stole my sight from me, left only with a constant pressure as the water tried desperately to invade the sealed suit I wore and take my breath as well. I was surrounded by a hostile atmosphere and protected by about half an inch of rubber. Nothing I hadn't handled before, space is a far more fatal place and I managed to survive it in the middle of a war. But there was still always that thought that this might be it. It wasn't fear, the prospect of death had been dulled to me sometime ago, but it was an ever present niggling that I could only squish and continue on into the night.

With only a set of light amp visors to reveal my path, I soldiered on through the ocean. Nothing came close, although my HUD told me that I has surrounded by life. It seemed at first that they avoided me, as a stranger of the deep. But out of the corners of my eyes I saw black silhouettes in the farthest reaches of my sight. Massive shapes and eyes that reflected the little moonlight that reached this far, stared and circled around me until then finally noticed that I had spotted them and sunk back from where I couldn't see them. Either they saw me as not worth the risk or just waited for a better opportunity to strike, but they didn't have the chance before I reached my first barrier.

A net hung loosely in the expanse around the prison, long chains interwoven together with barely enough room between the intersections for an arm to fit through, let alone a whole human being. Bubbling around the chains themselves revealed that this was not just simply a simple 'stay out" warning but electric death to anyone who touches it. I was going the right way. I reached into my bag of tricks, pulled out a bolt cutter, and sniped the links at one interception to make a hole big enough for me to wriggle through. The thick rubber and lead padding of the suit let me pull myself and my equipment through and I sailed onto the next challenge. Not everything from beyond this point would be as easy, however, and I knew it.

Further inside the defenses seemed far more still. The enemy detector made not a bleep, creep, or sweep compared to before's constant activity. As I swooped down closer to the sea floor I saw why: where there had once been a vibrant landscape of plant life was now nothing but the skeletons of coral and a thick cover of white powder in every direction. Even the corpses of fish I unearthed when I passed by them with the propeller seemed untouched by the usual scavengers. A shiver ran down my spine, as I wondered what could have caused this. It seemed obvious that this was the effect of the Empire's presence, but the cause seemed to have not leave any trace to it's identity other than the destruction it left. What could do this, I wondered...

Then I realized the chill in my spine never left.

I quickly spun around, to try and get eyes on the haunted presence. I spotted it, and soon many others, nearing my flanks in a hungry wave of ghostly light. Specters, dressed in torn, body obscuring, black ropes, advanced towards me with outreached finger bones. That was enough of a reason to get the hell out of there and not deal with that shit. I turned the DPV to max and zoomed away as quickly as the little propeller allowed and from the ghosts. Not exactly the most intimidating thing to a man who's face demons, nor when you've out sped them with a little diver's toy, but now I went on with a constant sweep, vigilant (and very paranoid) for more of them. I had no intentions to find out what they would have done if they caught me.

What felt like hours floated by, the vast expanse between the outer rim of the prison to the installation proper stretched on for what may very well have been a mile. Although life did slowly filter back in to the area the further I got away from the barren wastelands of the specters, but there was definitely a harder breed of sea creatures around here, many predators and what has managed to survive them. If they thought of me as a potential snack then they weren't quick to jump at the me, but they didn't stray far from me either. The two of us kept our distance from each other, and I continued on my way until I metaphorically hit a wall.

Which was also a literal wall.

A unnatural sheen cut through the water, a slight bend that cornered inwards around a cylindrical structure I could barely see in the distance. That was my destination, but I had to deal with this new problem before I could get there. It looked like a glass panel that circled the whole place, but I doubted that it was something so pathetic as that. More likely that it was hooked to something else that would vaporize me or unleash undead sharks or something that would have killed me horrible and/or put the prison's guard on alert. I needed a way through, but not put myself under the backlash I would get if I just broke through.

I glanced around the area for any kind of opening, or perhaps some other weakness. There was a patch of the same material over another section nearby, which meant that it wasn't indestructible. I just needed a big weapon, or an explosive.

Or a battering ram.

I looked back towards the group of fish behind me, which has left me alone in my thoughts. I scoped out the biggest, meanest looking motherfucker of the bunch. An armored beast lizard like in shape with its four legs and long neck, with webbed hands, large wing like fins, and tall but thin tail, gunned after its less than formidable prey. It certainly looked like it could stand a few hits. I tracked its movement, raised my little assistant propeller up, jammed the accelerator, and let it fly on collision course with the apex predator. It aimmed true, as moments before the beast could rear its massive head and chomp on the swimming dinner the machine slammed into the side of the face, the beast whirling around at the sudden attack and the food swam away. It finally found the source of the projectile, and starred at me in beastly rage.

"Yeah, how do you like me now!?" I taunted the creature, two middle fingers waved around for added stress relief. If it understood was beyond me, but it did look pissed and it lunged at me. I only had one shot at this, otherwise I'd find myself back at the Nexus with a really embaressing story. As it got in range, it opened its massive toothy jaw, large enough to swallow me whole and more teeth than my chainsaw.

I pushed myself through the water as hard as I can, now just facing the side of that dreaded mouth instead of getting chomped down the middle. With one last desperate effort, I swung a punch with my entire body, and it connected with the head. It wouldn't have hurt it, but it had the desired effect of that it pushed me just enough away that all limps were left accounted as the vice grip of a jaw missed, but close enough that I could reach onto the fins across the head, and ride the monster's necks.

It inevitable tried to buck me off, a titanic struggle as I gripped with all my strange while it thrashed and writhed in anger. With one tug of one side of the fins I could get it to turn, though getting it to go straight like was a pain. Not that I need to work for long, as I eventually managed to wrangle it at the see-through barrier. With one final boot to the jaw, I got it to shoot forward in another attempt to throw me off, only for it to shortly ram head first into the dome.

It shattered, only a brief moment of possible doubt as the beast's head was pushed back at first but the wall could not hold against such power and weight and rage. I could hear the thump as the forces met, and soon after felt it rattle through my bones, but I still held on for dear life. Pieces few everywhere, momentum cleared it away and pushed me through. Not a few seconds later angry red beams of lights shot into every direction to try to kill my temporary steed. I managed to avoid lazer death, but a random glance hit the tail of the dragon fish and sheared a huge chunk of it off.

That did not discourage it. If only made it angrier.

It bolted away from the weapons (with a little directional help from me), and we both rushed to the last obstacle in my way: the physical wall of Impel Down that separated me from my goal. My HUD beeped, the auto mapper signaling the tracking device I handed to Jones. He did pull through after all. I decided when this was done, I'll mail him a fruit basket. Assuming he was still alive at this point. A few more directional changed and I aimed my living siege weapon at my target.

I clutched myself around the neck of the sea monster and braced for impact just before we smashed through the wall of Impel Down.