Into Dante's Inferno

[Doomguy]

Heaven or Hell, Lets Rock

A thunderous stampede rang out as the armored warden rushed forwards, claws at his side as he winded up for a swipe across my chest. I waited, the barrels of my chaingun spun to firing speed but I held my finger way from the trigger as I looked for an opening. As I predicted, it when for a horizontal strike to tear me in to, but I jumpped and rolled under his swing and was now behind him. Unfortunately, his backside was just as well armored as is front. The entire armor was built like a walking bunker. But I wasn't about to psyche myself out , and I unleashed a storm of bullets that raked across the metal hide, a rain of empty shells ejected onto the floor. He wasn't even annoyed by the firepower, and he made a quick spin and tried to catch me with a power roundhouse punch. I stepped back away from the claws, raised my chaingun just enough for it to not get in the way, then brought it back down and fired off another long burst to his helm. Bullets and sparks ricocheted off the armor, unable to penetrate the thick plates or any lucky hits through the eye pieces.

Siege rang out a laugh and followed through with a lunging attack, the sudden burst of speed from the otherwise clumsy looking armor caught me off guard and I felt the tips of the blades rip across my stomach as the powered claws went through my armor they it wasn't even there. The health number on my HUD dropped a few points, but I didn't need that to know that when I felt the skin across my abdomen start to flay apart and blood dripped down across it. the warden followed through with an attempt to run me through.

I turned my chaingun up and rammed the stock into the inside of his arm, the attack knocked away and I countered as I drove the hot barrels into Siege's face. Even in the impenetrable armor his reaction was to back off from the disorientating hit and I finally had some breathing room. I let the chaingun fall back its place and I pulled something with some real firepower from its spot.

The plasma gun. A technological wonder, death incarnate, the weapon that struck fear in the hearts of men. Even with just a glance at it one could hear the screams of pain and smell cooked flesh, and when I started to flood its firing chamber with energy from its cell a familiar, perhaps even reassuring, heat permeated across the hull of it. I was cooking with plasma, the sweet feel of heavy ordnance. And I leveled it at Siege's stupid armor. I held down to trigger, and a electric scream filled the air as rapid fire gobs of plasma slammed into his chest plate.

"Feel the heat" Oh com'on, I can come up with better than that "If you like pain so much, then let me give you a taste of it" Much better.

The superheated gas didn't so much slam as they did splashed once they hit their target and were no long effected by the magnetic field that held the rounds together. Bits of armored plates dropped down from the impact spots, heated from the plasma as it was absorbed into the nearest object. but a slight flickers of a forcefield integrated into the suit itself. I still held down the trigger in an attempt to reduce it to slag, but it only made Siege go into another laughing fit.

"Do you really think your weapons will-" I cut him off again as I fired a single shot into his face, his scream of surprise warmed my heart a little.

"Quip when you actually have the upper hand, loser" I shouted when the familiar, and maybe even assuring, warmth from the plasma gun turned into a painful, and definitely burning, hot potato in my hands and I had to let it go before I ruined it. I reached around my back for my rocket launcher, perhaps the concussive blast could get through that thick head of his, but the warden exploited that window of opportunity and loomed over me like a baron of hell with a chip on its shoulder.

He no long went with the giant, wild swing and instead went with shorter but faster strikes. He finally learned that trying to kill me in one blow wasn't going to work and I was beset under a whirlwind of quick blows, shards of my armor thrown from side to side as several near misses turned into honed in hits. With not much wiggle room to spare, I ripped my pistol from its holster and unloaded shots into the partly melted chest plate. I hoped that the structure of the armor had been compromised to get one lucky hit in, but even the one time I saw a squirt of blood dribble out from a crack it didn't slow him down. I felt more and more hits slice at my skin, one deep hit across my hit forced me back in the hope to get out of the way for the follow through.

But my back hit a console lined up against the wall, and I found myself pinned as the warden's power claws were rammed straight into both of my shoulders.

I let out a howl of pain through my clenched teeth, fists balled in response as I felt my bones jostle in ways they're not suppose to and my muscles split. He poked holes in my shoulder blades (and if you're ever broken a bone try to image breaking it four different places at the same time), and that was before he decided to twist them in the wound for added effect. He pulled hit arms to the side, and it felt like he was about to pull me apart. I kicked him repeatedly, but as you can imagine that had even less effect that the pistol. In response he made a quick jolt to the right, and I felt the same arm pop out of its socket. I ground my teeth together, my vision distorted as it started to swim from the pain, but I wasn't about to give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream.

"Oh, I'll enjoy this, you piece of shit" I could only imagine Siege saying this with a wide grin, as he stood over me like a doctor over a helpless patient "And when I'm done with this break out, I'll spike you to the wall as a warning to everyone else"

But I wasn't without one last ace in the hole.

With my one good arm left, I reached down to the black pack at my side, and pulled out the syringe filled with the volatile cocktail of combat stimms known by those in the Marines as Bezerk. Before Siege could react, I plunged the needle into my neck, and pushed down the plunger down. I felt the sludge dissolved into my blood, and in the next instant my sight turned blood red. The burning pain across my body dulled until it was merely an absent reminder of the real world, my heart beat with the force of a bass drum and a feeling of invincibility washed over my mind.

All that wouldn't have meant anything to my drug addled mind, long pretty words that would have distracted from the single minded goal.

Crush him.

I threw the empty syringe into the floor where it shattered, and I grabbed onto the gauntlet of the armor. I fingers wrapped around the edge like a vise and I pushed. Squeaks started in the servos of the arm as my new found strength overpowered the warden's powered armor. I heard the scraping of metal on metal as the claws were pulled out the controls I was previously pinned to, and with another burst of strength I had it out. Siege lost his words as he found his armor being pushed back, and he doubled his attempt to skewer me. But I held firm, grinding gears the herald of my victory, and I drove both feet into his chest.

He fell back, his plate sported a new crack down the middle, and I was free from his grip. He hesitate to attack again, which gave me the time to grab my useless right arm and pop it back into place.

"Who...WHAT are you?!" Siege couldn't comprehend the world of hurt he out himself in.

"Me? I'm bad. I'm super bad. I'm 12 on a 10 point scale of badness. That's really bad" I can only imagine what Siege's face looked like when I started to sprout like the rage induced space marine I was. "I broke the mold when they made me. Too many mes would break the world. Just like I'm about to break you"

The armored moron brought down another fist in some fleeting hope that I could be brought down. I brought my own up and we hit each other's strike. Something shattered as the two forces collided, and Siege pulled his hand back as he found his fingers mangled and bent. I could see my own knuckles bloodied, but it was no more a pain than a knock on a door, and I kept on knocking.

"Dig the capacity for violence, unbridled fury married with a man that can't be stopped. I got more lives than a cat, certainly more than you" Another haymaker to his chest "I'm the real mean, lean, fighting machine. You should ask the cyberdemon a few tips on how to fight me. Or you could if I didn't tear him apart!" he tried for a side swipe, but I glanced it above my head and grabbed the offending limb, pulled it to the side to keep him off balance, and then ripped of his shoulder pad. And smashed it over his head.

"Shut up!" Siege managed to choke out between the punches. He pulled his arm back, but I didn't relent as I landed a blow to him helmet. He went through the motion and caught my arm with a long gash. But it felt more like some had run a razor over my skin rather than the deep wound that it was. I kept up the assault, his chest plate imprinted the the blood on my fists but now the armor fell away into shards.

"I like the way you think" I reached out for his helmet and in a single stoke ripped it off and left his frightened face for the world to see. I threw a hook right for it, but he managed to get both arms into a cross block to take the blow. But I grabbed onto the arm in the back, the powered blades singed the skin where they touched, and I pulled them forward to reveal his face unprotected. I swung again, the fist connected with the jaw and shattered with a snap.

He held back the pain well, but his words turned into garble with half of his mouth hung uselessly. He backed off, terror clenched his heart, but you can't stop me.

"Here comes the night train! Chugga chugga chugga BOOGIE!" I let lose one last full powered straight punch to his chest and the armor there crumbled as it could no long weather the assault, and his torso was left unexposed. He shot his powered claws at me to try and impale again, but I grabbed his hands and held him in place. With the advantage over him, I twisted his arms upwards until he found himself unable to get himself out of the hold. Then with a yank, metal twisted and wires snapped as I pulled of his gauntlets and his only means of attack.

In desperation he threw a punch, a pointless hit that was like egg to a brick wall, and I swung back with a gut punch that knocked the wind out of him. I dove for the kill, my hands had an iron grip on his rips and I pulled. Screams filled the air at the snap of his bone, another as I pulled again and heard the tear of flesh, and with one last tug the warden was free of the armor.

Without his arms or legs.

I held the dying above my head like a prized boar by a hunter, and when I pulled my arms apart he was torn into two pieces, his screams of pain ceased as his insides were let loose onto the room. Blood and guts splattered across my helmet and shoulders, warm viscera spread across everything and painted my armor a deep red. I dropped the piece to the floor below me, and still fueled by the bezerk I roared a guttural laugh as I saw my enemy finally ended in little more than a pile of entrails. The corpse of Siege offered no comment nor threat, and the only sound his armor made was a slight hum as its power pack kept on making energy without any master.

I rushed over to the windows, not done just yet. The morning mist was still thick, but you could still see the silhouette of the ships that blockaded our way out. I reach behind me and hefted the holy grail of weaponry into my hands. The Big Gun. The BFG 9000. It was always a blessing when I had the chance to use this weapon, although I knew the target would never feel that way. But it would be a short lived experience for them. I spotted the largest ship within the fleet, stationed right in front of the main gate into the dock of this artificial island, and I aimed the BFG's targeter right at its deck. With a slight adjustment to pierce straight down into the inside I pulled down the trigger.

The iconic charge as plasma flooded the inside of the BFG was like the sound of angels, and when the fire light sounded off I unleashed its payload onto the unsuspecting Empire toadies.

The massive green plasma ball soared through the air, majestic in its path if not quite in shape, faster than such a massive projectile had any right to be, then slammed into the ship for the force of an angry god.

A miniature green sun went of in the middle of the deck as the magnetic field collapsed and unleashed the plasma into the surrounding terrain. The initial explosion decimated everyone it touched. The secon, bigger explosion was from the magazine of the ship as it was breached by the plasma and the ship was torn in two. Men and equipment were thrown overboard, the superstructure of the bridge went up like a fireworks launcher, and smoke billowed out of the whole thing as it sunk down to Davy Jones' locker.

In an instant the thunder of ship cannons went off as the other navy boats fired back straight at the tower I was no longer hidden in. I would have been pulverized by the artillery when it hit, but I reached down to the dagger on my belt and held in tightly. The world slowed down, the shells of the ship cannons barely a few feet away from the castle's wall, and I had little time to avoid destruction. Running down the stairs would not have been enough time, as even if I got away from the initial impact the building would have crumbled down on my head. The only "safe" way out was to jump. I pelted full speed in the frozen time frame and out the window I went, glass shattered away from me before it was once again trapped in a singular moment while I fell down to the ramparts below.

Even if the high-impact boot and still under at least some effect of bezerk, it was a long fall to go. When I finally hit the floor the pain was like lightning up my shins and knees and I collapsed onto my ass. I was behind two unsuspecting troopers, still time stopped, and I rolled over as close to the wall as possible.

Time restarted just before I hit the ground, explosions above me sent bricks and mortar onto everyone below. the two guard in front of me were belted by broken bricks and then crushed by a particularly large piece, and I only avoided the same as I crawled into a small alcove.

In the next few seconds, a lot happened.

The tower was not the only thing that got shelled. Either in fear that Impel Down was taken by the inmates or just under orders to make sure nothing escaped, the entire surface was bombarded by artillery. Caught in the friendly fire, the stormtroopers inside broke rank and tried to get to cover even as the floor below them started to break.

Out from the elevator the prisoners finally caught up to me, the mob swarmed of the building the secret passage was hidden in and the soldiers found themselves assaulted from both sides as the criminals fought their way to the docks.

And over the din of everything, of the fighting and the explosions, I heard a single noise raise over everything:


"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

Out from the mist came a all too familiar rust bucket ram straight into a smaller support boat's side and split it in two. Cannons rang as the ork captain surprised the Empire Navy, whom were too busy trying to knock the prison over to see the pirate up in their face. Normally equipped for long combat, an enemy ship right in their grill was an unwelcome guest. When the pirate ship pulled up next to a bigger ship that its big guns couldn't hand, even from this distance I could see the green galoot charged over as his crew boarded. The ship split off and reduced the front gate into splinters. It headed inside, and now we had our way out.

I dove over the side of the ruins of the castle and landed next to the docks to fight my way through. There wasn't much in the way, and the stormtroopers that did see me bolted in the other direction when they saw my armor's new paint job. I joined up with the prisoner, confirmed that Jen'lak was still with them (after I nearly shook Larenzo to death), and we burst through the last door that separate us from freedom. The stormtropers didn't both to fight us, already trying to fend off pirates, and they just scattered into the winds rather than get hit from both sides. We piled on board, those who didn't just fuck off on their own, and I had a certain first mate walk up to me.

"I see you've been busy. Can you not destroy anything you make contact?" Perry askes as he threw me a towel

"Perry! Good to see you" I tried my best to hold back in innate comment I would have normally said while on the combat stimms, since I still kinda needed their ship. The rather unamused look told me he didn't believe what I said. Fair enough, I didn't either "Lets pick up your dumbass boss and lets get out of here before we're up to our assholes in Empire reinforcements"

We zoomed out the broken gate and passed by the boarded ship on our way out. We didn't even slow down, instead Choprot and his crew simply jumped back over with whatever loot they could carry in their arms (which is a lot for orks, apparently). Almost instantly the flash git saw me and grew a big smile. I felt in my bones what he was going to say next, and I just let out a preemptive sigh.

"Doomy!"

"GODDAMN IT, WILL EVERYONE STOP CALLING ME THAT!?"

----

We did slip out of the combat zone without any troop following us. Between the fog and the vast number of primes with varied powers, it was easy to slip out from under the radar and towards someplace away from Empire space. Once we were safe, a fair decent amount of the prisoners fucked off, either summoned their own vehicles or left under their own power. Many still stayed, but it was hard to tell who did so willingly and those who just didn't have the OM to do it.

I crashed hard after the bezerk wore off. As one would expect from getting in a fist fight with someone in power armor I broke both my hands, knuckles ruined and the skin split across my fingers. My arms didn't want to move with my shoulders as they were, their were more cuts across my body than I remember and far deeper than I first thought, and the wound on my leg during the initial break in reopened from the long jump off the control tower. I was stuck in bed rest for a while, swimming between consciousness for the first day or two, and the next week I just didn't want to get up. I was visited fairly often by everyone, even if only to check on my condition, but at least it was some company.

Still, I had a lot of time to think about what I've done so far. Despite a far great focus on working with people and one hundred percent less demons, my mind couldn't help but slip back to what had happened to the Phobos base, even if they were a little fuzzy. I had fought my way through tough enemies and made it through, closer to home than ever before, but a nagging in the back of my head wouldn't stop and I asked the same questions I did after I killed the bruiser brothers and walked into the hell portal: Once you beat the big badasses and clean out the enemy base, you're supposed to win, aren't you? Where the fat reward and the ticket home? Was I really finding an escape or was I about to find myself on the shores of Hell yet again? Unfortunately, I had about much answers as I did last time, and my only solution was to go through. If it didn't turn out the way I wanted, then I'll just find a different way.

Choprot did eventually visit me so we could catch up, and share a few new battle scars over some of his fungus beer. This time I didn't bother to fake it and just told him no thinks. He didn't care, more for him.

"Ya got the fight in ya, oomie" Choprot bellowed, which didn't really feel like a compliment when I was basically trapped in my bed until the prime healing factor did its job "Didn't fink ya could do it, but now ya 'ere and even brought some of me crew back! Next time ya ask a favor, I'll jump right on it"

"I don't think there'll be a next time, but thanks anyway" I told him, sipping on some bottled water I summoned minutes ago " How the hell did you get your ship back? Last time I saw it, it was stuck on a sand bar in a thousand pieces" Up close, it even looked better than before, but I could still seem someone the places where the sea beast had torn it to shreds"

"OH! A prime 'elped put it back together. 'E could ben stuff together with 'is 'ands, and fix me ship on da spot! Generally don't like weirdboyz, but he was go in a fight too. Yellow 'air, red coat, kinda short git. Named Edward. 'Ave you 'eard of 'im?" I shook my head at that. I never met a prime named Edward, but I decided if I did I would have to thank him. He did save my life, even if indirectly.

"Everyone is kinda short compared to you, Choprot" And he let out an uproarious laugh that echoed across the room.

"Dat's true!" He agreed and took another gulp of his beer "So, where ya headin' from 'ere"

"Blue Flame Island. I have some unfinished business to attend to" I glanced over to the otherside of the room where Jem'lak was sitting. Mostly because I ordered her to, but then I expected her to not listen. Thankfully she had been on the ball for the most part.

"We'z headin dere anyway, so you'ze in luck. Take us a few more days before we get to land, enough time for ya to get your sea legs back" he chuckled, and I nodded in response.

"Good. Thanks for visiting, but" I held up my PDA which now had a pair of ear buds dangly from it "I'd like to get some use out of my much deserved R'n'R" The captain nodded with a big toothy grin and left to go back to his job.

I pluged the buds in, turned Iron Maiden up to max, and I drifted off into the closest I've been to rest in what felt like a year.