05-29-2016, 08:33 AM
Nice breeze.
About forty feet above the sea of sand that comprised the vast majority of the Endless Dunes, Proto Man enjoyed a nice view as he cruised toward the rendezvous point atop Rush. The canine companion, who he hadn’t seen since the Pale Moors, had been little more than a wireless signal away from him. With Rush at his disposal, the preteen machine could fly to the destination, rather than trudge his way through the shifting sands, and while the wind did occasionally kick some granules up into their faces, they both had cool visors to shield their vision.
“We’re almost there, aren’t we?” Proto Man asked as he leaned forward to try and get a clearer look at the landscape in front of them.
Rush replied with an enthusiastic series of barks as the dog-turned-hoverboard started to descend down toward the ground. Before they touched down, the red robot hopped from his companion and rolled to a stop about twenty yards away from the trio of jeeps. Behind Proto Man, Rush converted back into his quadrupedial form and trailed the preteen by a few paces.
When he was close enough, the android held out the little insignia for the caravan to spot. After a brief moment where he was certain the three vehicles were going to keep cruising on passed him, Proto Man smiled as they slowed to a stop next to him. One of the windows slid down to reveal a sweating man with a shallow wound across his forehead. “You’re the muscle they sent?” He spat as he looked up to see the shiny red dog sitting on its haunches a few yards back. “A boy and his dog?”
Proto Man smiled as he snapped his fingers. There was a pneumatic hiss of air as rocket launchers popped out from the sides of his metallic canine. “His bite is worse than his bark, I assure you.”
The driver didn’t seem sold on the idea, but he also didn’t appear to be in the mood to argue. “They’ll be here soon, Kid.” He shouted as he leaned into his car for a radio. “We’re going full-tilt to ‘Purr. The kid and the dog here are going to… delay the janissaries for us. Pedal to the floor, ladies! Out.” Throwing the device down to the floor of the vehicle, the driver glanced back to Proto Man. “Good luck… and thank you.”
With the trio of jeeps rushing passed him, the preteen machine offered up a little wave before turning to glance into the desert. Despite the pace at which they were moving, it didn’t seem like the convoy was being trailed too closely. After a few moments of staring out into the dunes, Proto Man spotted three dark shapes against the otherwise yellow and white backdrop. As the mounted figures drew closer, it became evident that there was far more than a triumvirate of riders.
Rush started to growl as the three shapes gradually turned into five, seven, and finally nine. The metal dog started to prime its other weapons as Proto Man took a few steps back and activated his buster gun. “Any idea what they are, Boy?” At this distance, the preteen machine couldn’t see any details, but he knew that his canine companion had vastly superior hearing and sight.
“Bark bark!” A beat later, Proto Man got a series of small notifications on the right side of his internal display. Automatically, one of them expanded into a small video feed as the preteen machine saw what Rush could see from this distance.
It took all of five seconds, but the red robot realized that the riders were familiar to him. They were warriors clad in heavy white robes that brandished large firearms fueled and powered by oversized and seemingly archaic power motors. Beneath the riders, their six-legged mounts were a mortifying fusion of camel, horse, and machinery. Wires and tubes adorned the sides of the beasts, and their eyes were little red fires that spoke volumes about the sinister, soulless creatures.
The only piece of good news was that the riders were without their leader. Had Cell Delta been riding at the forefront of the group of mounted warriors, Proto Man would have had his doubts about the outcome of this skirmish. The insane prime, who had taken Heat Man’s life and nearly ended that of the preteen machine, was menacingly powerful. During his last run-in with Cell Delta, Proto Man had been able to upset the maniac only by fusing with Mickey Mouse.
“Don’t kill any of them, Rush,” Proto Man instructed as the raiders started to close in on them. “We’re going to want to take them back to Nippur… they may be able to provide some vital information.” After receiving an enthusiastic response, the preteen machine turned to face the attackers and scowled. Why prey on these people? Surely there were other places in the Dunes where loot could be found, but Cell Delta and his cronies had to pick a beleaguered city for their hunting grounds.
With that question still circling around in his metallic skull, Proto Man dropped back as the first bolts of crackling energy stitched through the sand in front of him. It didn’t surprise him that they’d fire on someone who looked like a child without asking any questions. It certainly had to surprise them when the robed youth released a sparkling burst of yellow energy from his right hand. The concussive blast hit the lead rider square in the chest and threw him from his mount.
The eight other mounted warriors immediately veered off to the flanks as they started to shower laser fire against the boy and his dog. Rush growled as he hopped back and launched a pair of rocket’s from his side-mounted holders. The pair of red projectiles glimmered in the abundant sunlight as they hissed out in opposite directions and found their marks—blasting apart their intended targets. With their homunculi shot out underneath them, the riders crashed into the sands. For the moment, they were removed from the equation, and Proto Man could shift his focus to the right flank trying to swing around him.
The preteen machine managed to take out one of the riders before a concentrated bolt of energy crashed against his shoulder, sending him crashing down to the sands. Red warning lights flared along the edges of the android’s HUD as he scrambled forward on hands and knees to avoid the bursts that ate into the ground behind him. Clenching his jaw, Proto Man dug his hands into the sand until his metal fingertips gripped something solid. A beat later, he flung himself forward, granting himself enough time to make it to his feet and summon his shield. With the bulwark at his disposal, Proto Man could easily turn away the oncoming bursts, and after the initial pounding subsided, he charged his aggressors.
Shots continued to pepper the shield, but the preteen machine held the momentum. His buster arm flashed as bolts of yellow energy crashed against his assailants. Within moments, they were down on the ground—their barely organic mounts fleeing into the dunes. Proto Man had a moment to recalibrate his surroundings before they jumped upon him, brandishing electrostatic truncheons and whirling servo-blades. The strikes came fast and heavy, but after the initial burst, there was clear monotony to his adversaries’ maneuvers.
Dropping the shield, the red robot dashed forward and ducked beneath a high swing of a crackling club. A solid jab to the marauder’s ribcage doubled him over in pain just as one of his peers lunged at Proto Man. The preteen machine stumbled back but didn’t go down despite the cloaked warrior’s best effort. With a smile, the android brought his elbow down onto the top of his foe’s head and stepped aside as he dropped like a sack of sandy potatoes.
Behind him, Proto Man heard the whirr of engines that preceded a sputtering cacophony of energy blasts. Craning his neck, he watched as his canine companion downed his remaining attackers with energized gunfire from a peppercorn barrel mounted on one of his front paws. Although many of them were bleeding or smoldering, the marauders were all still alive, even if death was a more pleasant alternative.
“Is that all of them?” Proto Man shouted to Rush as the preteen machine jogged to meet his friend. With only a solid yip, the metal dog converted into a jet and took to the air to screen their surroundings.
As Rush ascended to get a better view, the red robot minimized the video feed from the dog and turned to deal with their foiled assailants. Two of them had managed to crawl up to their feet and start into the desert, and while Rush immediately wanted to engage, Proto Man told the canine to stand down unless fresh foes appeared.
“They can’t hurt anyone, Boy. That’s what’s important.”
After another visual and thermal sweep from forty feet up revealed nothing lurking in the sands, Rush started his descent. Although he had absorbed enough blows to feel some stiffness in his joints, Proto Man wasn’t slowed down as he worked to drag the unconscious riders into a central location. Summoning some cables, the android and his canine companion worked to bind the seven men before lashing them together into one long chain.
“We’ll take them back to Nippur,” Proto Man instructed as he clicked the hook at the end of the cable to a bracket that projected up from between Rush’s shoulder blades. “You’re good with the weight, right?”
With a bark, Rush started to jog back toward the desert town without the slightest hint that he was too encumbered by the grown men dragging through the sand behind him. Although a few of the warrior regained consciousness along the way, they were quickly disabled with a soft punch in the gut or a smack to the side of the head.
It took the twosome a little longer to return to Nippur, but they made it intact to the same gate through which they’d made their exodus a few hours earlier. The preteen machine was greeted by a line of soldiers and a few of the Gold Cross volunteers. At first glance, everyone seemed uplifted by the appearance of the boy and his robot dog, but when they noticed that he was dragging a line of half-conscious marauders from the desert, their smiles started to melt.
“Who are they?” One of the guardsmen barked as he stepped forward to cut off Proto Man’s path.
Proto Man unhooked the cable from Rush and let it drop to the ground next to him. “They were attacking the Gold Cross convoy. I figured that maybe it’d be useful to interrogate them? Possibly discover where they’re hiding? You’d be able to plan against these raids in the future with some intel, right?”
The Gold Cross volunteers still seemed happy, but the guards weren’t sold on the idea. One of them stepped forward and crouched next to one of the unconscious figures. As if he were handling nuclear waste, the citizen-turned-soldier pushed away part of the beaten marauder’s cloak to reveal a face that was more machine than man. The outstretched digits instantly recoiled as the guard glanced up at his superior and then to Proto Man. “What… what were they riding?”
“Oh, I know who they’re with,” the red robot replied nonchalantly as he stooped down across from the guard. “They’re with Cell Delta. They ride around those creatures with all the tubes and metal.”
Without a pause in his step, the officer in charge of the little guard squad moved forward and brought his club down heavily against the skull of the unconscious marauder. Amid the bursts of electricity and the crunch of broken steel, there was still the discernable noise of shattering bone and the ooze of ruptured brain. Proto Man felt his nonexistent stomach twist in a knot as the guard attempted to deliver a similar blow to the next prisoner. There wasn’t a second thought as the red robot fired a low-intensity bolt of energy into the soldier’s chest and sent him doubling down to the ground in pain.
“What was tha—”
Manic eyes glanced up at the preteen machine as the guard fumbled for his club. “You’re an imbecile for bringing those things here!”
Before Proto Man could beg for some clarity, one of the formerly bound marauders sat up off the ground. The half-man, half-machine warrior sneered as he ripped away his cloak to reveal that his chest was one large explosive device. “Tsartan akbar!”
There was a brilliant flash of light that stole away the world.
The preteen machine was scooped up into the air by the blast and carried twenty feet before he slammed into part of the wall. Before he had a chance to gain his bearings, the initial explosion triggered the suicide devices implanted into the remainder of the raiders. As if struck down by a furious god, the West Gate of Nippur was swallowed up in a rapid succession of fiery yellow blossoms.
About forty feet above the sea of sand that comprised the vast majority of the Endless Dunes, Proto Man enjoyed a nice view as he cruised toward the rendezvous point atop Rush. The canine companion, who he hadn’t seen since the Pale Moors, had been little more than a wireless signal away from him. With Rush at his disposal, the preteen machine could fly to the destination, rather than trudge his way through the shifting sands, and while the wind did occasionally kick some granules up into their faces, they both had cool visors to shield their vision.
“We’re almost there, aren’t we?” Proto Man asked as he leaned forward to try and get a clearer look at the landscape in front of them.
Rush replied with an enthusiastic series of barks as the dog-turned-hoverboard started to descend down toward the ground. Before they touched down, the red robot hopped from his companion and rolled to a stop about twenty yards away from the trio of jeeps. Behind Proto Man, Rush converted back into his quadrupedial form and trailed the preteen by a few paces.
When he was close enough, the android held out the little insignia for the caravan to spot. After a brief moment where he was certain the three vehicles were going to keep cruising on passed him, Proto Man smiled as they slowed to a stop next to him. One of the windows slid down to reveal a sweating man with a shallow wound across his forehead. “You’re the muscle they sent?” He spat as he looked up to see the shiny red dog sitting on its haunches a few yards back. “A boy and his dog?”
Proto Man smiled as he snapped his fingers. There was a pneumatic hiss of air as rocket launchers popped out from the sides of his metallic canine. “His bite is worse than his bark, I assure you.”
The driver didn’t seem sold on the idea, but he also didn’t appear to be in the mood to argue. “They’ll be here soon, Kid.” He shouted as he leaned into his car for a radio. “We’re going full-tilt to ‘Purr. The kid and the dog here are going to… delay the janissaries for us. Pedal to the floor, ladies! Out.” Throwing the device down to the floor of the vehicle, the driver glanced back to Proto Man. “Good luck… and thank you.”
With the trio of jeeps rushing passed him, the preteen machine offered up a little wave before turning to glance into the desert. Despite the pace at which they were moving, it didn’t seem like the convoy was being trailed too closely. After a few moments of staring out into the dunes, Proto Man spotted three dark shapes against the otherwise yellow and white backdrop. As the mounted figures drew closer, it became evident that there was far more than a triumvirate of riders.
Rush started to growl as the three shapes gradually turned into five, seven, and finally nine. The metal dog started to prime its other weapons as Proto Man took a few steps back and activated his buster gun. “Any idea what they are, Boy?” At this distance, the preteen machine couldn’t see any details, but he knew that his canine companion had vastly superior hearing and sight.
“Bark bark!” A beat later, Proto Man got a series of small notifications on the right side of his internal display. Automatically, one of them expanded into a small video feed as the preteen machine saw what Rush could see from this distance.
It took all of five seconds, but the red robot realized that the riders were familiar to him. They were warriors clad in heavy white robes that brandished large firearms fueled and powered by oversized and seemingly archaic power motors. Beneath the riders, their six-legged mounts were a mortifying fusion of camel, horse, and machinery. Wires and tubes adorned the sides of the beasts, and their eyes were little red fires that spoke volumes about the sinister, soulless creatures.
The only piece of good news was that the riders were without their leader. Had Cell Delta been riding at the forefront of the group of mounted warriors, Proto Man would have had his doubts about the outcome of this skirmish. The insane prime, who had taken Heat Man’s life and nearly ended that of the preteen machine, was menacingly powerful. During his last run-in with Cell Delta, Proto Man had been able to upset the maniac only by fusing with Mickey Mouse.
“Don’t kill any of them, Rush,” Proto Man instructed as the raiders started to close in on them. “We’re going to want to take them back to Nippur… they may be able to provide some vital information.” After receiving an enthusiastic response, the preteen machine turned to face the attackers and scowled. Why prey on these people? Surely there were other places in the Dunes where loot could be found, but Cell Delta and his cronies had to pick a beleaguered city for their hunting grounds.
With that question still circling around in his metallic skull, Proto Man dropped back as the first bolts of crackling energy stitched through the sand in front of him. It didn’t surprise him that they’d fire on someone who looked like a child without asking any questions. It certainly had to surprise them when the robed youth released a sparkling burst of yellow energy from his right hand. The concussive blast hit the lead rider square in the chest and threw him from his mount.
The eight other mounted warriors immediately veered off to the flanks as they started to shower laser fire against the boy and his dog. Rush growled as he hopped back and launched a pair of rocket’s from his side-mounted holders. The pair of red projectiles glimmered in the abundant sunlight as they hissed out in opposite directions and found their marks—blasting apart their intended targets. With their homunculi shot out underneath them, the riders crashed into the sands. For the moment, they were removed from the equation, and Proto Man could shift his focus to the right flank trying to swing around him.
The preteen machine managed to take out one of the riders before a concentrated bolt of energy crashed against his shoulder, sending him crashing down to the sands. Red warning lights flared along the edges of the android’s HUD as he scrambled forward on hands and knees to avoid the bursts that ate into the ground behind him. Clenching his jaw, Proto Man dug his hands into the sand until his metal fingertips gripped something solid. A beat later, he flung himself forward, granting himself enough time to make it to his feet and summon his shield. With the bulwark at his disposal, Proto Man could easily turn away the oncoming bursts, and after the initial pounding subsided, he charged his aggressors.
Shots continued to pepper the shield, but the preteen machine held the momentum. His buster arm flashed as bolts of yellow energy crashed against his assailants. Within moments, they were down on the ground—their barely organic mounts fleeing into the dunes. Proto Man had a moment to recalibrate his surroundings before they jumped upon him, brandishing electrostatic truncheons and whirling servo-blades. The strikes came fast and heavy, but after the initial burst, there was clear monotony to his adversaries’ maneuvers.
Dropping the shield, the red robot dashed forward and ducked beneath a high swing of a crackling club. A solid jab to the marauder’s ribcage doubled him over in pain just as one of his peers lunged at Proto Man. The preteen machine stumbled back but didn’t go down despite the cloaked warrior’s best effort. With a smile, the android brought his elbow down onto the top of his foe’s head and stepped aside as he dropped like a sack of sandy potatoes.
Behind him, Proto Man heard the whirr of engines that preceded a sputtering cacophony of energy blasts. Craning his neck, he watched as his canine companion downed his remaining attackers with energized gunfire from a peppercorn barrel mounted on one of his front paws. Although many of them were bleeding or smoldering, the marauders were all still alive, even if death was a more pleasant alternative.
“Is that all of them?” Proto Man shouted to Rush as the preteen machine jogged to meet his friend. With only a solid yip, the metal dog converted into a jet and took to the air to screen their surroundings.
As Rush ascended to get a better view, the red robot minimized the video feed from the dog and turned to deal with their foiled assailants. Two of them had managed to crawl up to their feet and start into the desert, and while Rush immediately wanted to engage, Proto Man told the canine to stand down unless fresh foes appeared.
“They can’t hurt anyone, Boy. That’s what’s important.”
After another visual and thermal sweep from forty feet up revealed nothing lurking in the sands, Rush started his descent. Although he had absorbed enough blows to feel some stiffness in his joints, Proto Man wasn’t slowed down as he worked to drag the unconscious riders into a central location. Summoning some cables, the android and his canine companion worked to bind the seven men before lashing them together into one long chain.
“We’ll take them back to Nippur,” Proto Man instructed as he clicked the hook at the end of the cable to a bracket that projected up from between Rush’s shoulder blades. “You’re good with the weight, right?”
With a bark, Rush started to jog back toward the desert town without the slightest hint that he was too encumbered by the grown men dragging through the sand behind him. Although a few of the warrior regained consciousness along the way, they were quickly disabled with a soft punch in the gut or a smack to the side of the head.
It took the twosome a little longer to return to Nippur, but they made it intact to the same gate through which they’d made their exodus a few hours earlier. The preteen machine was greeted by a line of soldiers and a few of the Gold Cross volunteers. At first glance, everyone seemed uplifted by the appearance of the boy and his robot dog, but when they noticed that he was dragging a line of half-conscious marauders from the desert, their smiles started to melt.
“Who are they?” One of the guardsmen barked as he stepped forward to cut off Proto Man’s path.
Proto Man unhooked the cable from Rush and let it drop to the ground next to him. “They were attacking the Gold Cross convoy. I figured that maybe it’d be useful to interrogate them? Possibly discover where they’re hiding? You’d be able to plan against these raids in the future with some intel, right?”
The Gold Cross volunteers still seemed happy, but the guards weren’t sold on the idea. One of them stepped forward and crouched next to one of the unconscious figures. As if he were handling nuclear waste, the citizen-turned-soldier pushed away part of the beaten marauder’s cloak to reveal a face that was more machine than man. The outstretched digits instantly recoiled as the guard glanced up at his superior and then to Proto Man. “What… what were they riding?”
“Oh, I know who they’re with,” the red robot replied nonchalantly as he stooped down across from the guard. “They’re with Cell Delta. They ride around those creatures with all the tubes and metal.”
Without a pause in his step, the officer in charge of the little guard squad moved forward and brought his club down heavily against the skull of the unconscious marauder. Amid the bursts of electricity and the crunch of broken steel, there was still the discernable noise of shattering bone and the ooze of ruptured brain. Proto Man felt his nonexistent stomach twist in a knot as the guard attempted to deliver a similar blow to the next prisoner. There wasn’t a second thought as the red robot fired a low-intensity bolt of energy into the soldier’s chest and sent him doubling down to the ground in pain.
“What was tha—”
Manic eyes glanced up at the preteen machine as the guard fumbled for his club. “You’re an imbecile for bringing those things here!”
Before Proto Man could beg for some clarity, one of the formerly bound marauders sat up off the ground. The half-man, half-machine warrior sneered as he ripped away his cloak to reveal that his chest was one large explosive device. “Tsartan akbar!”
There was a brilliant flash of light that stole away the world.
The preteen machine was scooped up into the air by the blast and carried twenty feet before he slammed into part of the wall. Before he had a chance to gain his bearings, the initial explosion triggered the suicide devices implanted into the remainder of the raiders. As if struck down by a furious god, the West Gate of Nippur was swallowed up in a rapid succession of fiery yellow blossoms.