Fish
-
Frozen City:
| |: Translated from Finnish
The two travelers emerged in a cave, far from the same as Fish's home. A mix of turquoise, lilac and tangerine hues sparkle with the crystals sticking from the ground and walls. All around them large cobwebs stuck them, slowing their movement.
Then the ambiance was heard. Thousands of skitters emanating from the depths of the caverns. Crystallized spiders rushed at them with malicious intent, trying to bite them, to poison them. Fish and Rogue gunned them down, receiving only a few bites. In the deeper parts of the cave, there was a sudden low hum. It grew louder, and louder, and louder...
"-Outta the way!-" Fish shouted, rolling and pushing Rogue out of the way. At that moment, a bright red beam pierced through the dark and disintegrated a spider behind the group. The two got up and commenced shooting at the source, a group of large, levitating, orange crystals.
More I.D.P.D. came out of another blue portal; this time, it was a tall soldier with an eye symbol on their helmet. Suddenly, the travelers felt a force pulling towards the I.D.P.D. member. "-So this guy has Eyes's telekinesis, -" Fish realized.
After that was dealt with, another wormhole materialized.
Same thing, different location.
The next destination was a frozen metropolis; the ground covered in ice and snow, the wind chilling the travelers to the bone.
Mechanical noises filled the area. Rogue took a moment to peek from a corner. She saw a horde of tall robots that almost look muscular, robotic wolves with guns on their backs and rolling about, colossal tanks prone to enemy movement, and even more bandits and I.D.P.D. soldiers.
"-Okay,-" the human began, "-there's a lot of robots that could explode in our faces. Keep your distance.-"
Fish nodded, gunning the bots down; the tanks exploded along with the surrounding enemies. The "muscular" drones set their sights on Fish and dashed at him at an incredible speed. However, Rogue shot at them just as they reached him. Thanks to Gamma Guts, Fish only suffered minor injuries.
Just as everything is defeated, Rogue searched the remains of the machines, taking a couple of parts from each. She muttered something in the same language as the I.D.P.D. in a tone of curiosity and discovery, and began to construct some small device out of the scrap. Fish looked over her shoulder to see what was going on.
Many hours pass...
"-It's finished!-" Rogue almost screamed with excitement. "Here." She handed the device to Fish.
It was tiny, almost taking the appearance of a hearing aid. At the center of the device, there was a speaker.
Fish took it. "-Uhh, thanks. What do I do with this?-" She responded, "Put it behind her ear."
He did as instructed. Rogue spoke again only in a different language, and surprisingly, he understood it! It was like she was speaking in English, and yet it didn't sound that way from her accent!
"|So, does it work?|" Rogue asked. Fish removed it; he was astounded. "-Wow, what language is this?-" The human reverted to Trashtalk. "-Finnish. That's the only language that this machine will understand.-"
Huh. To think, I.D.P.D. speak in a language that still exists. To be frank, he thought that a new "super-language" similar to Trashtalk was created, since everything is so peaceful there...
The travelers journeyed more through the frozen land. They found more traces of human life, now extinct.
After much stealth, they've finally found another...
Another Proto Statue... However, it's surrounded by a multitude of robots, tanks, wolves, and bandits.
"-I'm gonna need that Crown," Fish said. For what is a Throne sitter, a king of the Wasteland, without a Crown?
"-Sounds like a bad idea.-" Rogue pointed out. "-Seems like suicide. I mean, look!-"
"-I don't care.-" Fish rolled out of cover and began assaulting the mechanized enemies, at times shooting the Proto Statue. Rogue followed suit. The machines' rads dropped and were then absorbed into the structure.
As soon as the structure was activated and later fully charged, a massive swarm of I.D.P.D. come storming and rolling out of that same blue wormhole. "|HALT!|" One of them screeched. All soldiers pointed their weapons at the two. "|Drop your weapon and come with us calmly. This doesn't need to end with death.|"
All triggers were so close to being pressed.
Fish and Rogue slowly lowered their weapons, and raised their arms just above their heads. They seemed to have no hope; that is until Rogue whispered. "-Psst, I have an idea. Keep hitting the statue while I take care of this.-"
"|Hey!|" Another officer blared. "|Anything suspicious, and we will not hesitate to shoot.|"
Rogue took a deep breath, and readied her Portal Strike; her green visor instantly covering her eyes and detonator in hand. Before the Strike exploded, a few I.D.P.D. shot at them, wounded the two severely. Meanwhile, Fish kept whacking at the Proto Statue, hoping it would do something.
After much anxiousness and pain, the structure crumbles and a toxic green portal materialized from the rubble, just as more I.D.P.D. forces arrived. Without any hesitation, the two entered the maelstrom.
The portal led them to the inside of some sort of temple. There were a few number of torches scattered around, each of them spouting a lime green flame, each flame giving off slight radiation. The floor and the walls were a wooden brown, sometimes covered in fuzzy moss.
They had found the Crown Vault.
Severely wounded and running low on ammo, they were still astounded at the sight around them. The floor below them was strange, having different tiles spread across, and different of images placed at random.
Maybe they were telling the story of the Apocalypse.
Maybe they meant nothing.
Who knows?
Much time passes as the two delve deeper into the Vault. Searching around, they found the center of the temple, surrounded by 4 L-shaped pillars and in the middle was a glowing platform.
On top of it, a Crown remained there, ready for the taking.
Fish felt ecstatic, he had found a way to lengthen and secure his journey to the Throne. Behind him, Rogue stood still confused at what was happening. "-Wait, this is what we came here for? This dainty little thing?-"
Fish turned to her and nodded with confidence, and motioned her to come closer. He turned back to the Crown and slowly tried to cup it with his hands. Just as he was almost grabbed it, the Crown shone brightly almost, blinding them, and a slew of different Crowns were displayed, each with different abilities; more medkit chests but no medkits by themselves, more guns but no ammo boxes, more curses, an extra mutation but all future choices are limited to one, more items but they fade faster, and more risks for pickups. All of them seemed so tempting, but Fish needed to think rationally.
After a few minutes of pondering, Fish chose a Crown:
the Crown of Destiny.
Immediately, Fish felt something deep inside of him. He felt as if he needed to plead for help.
He knelt down, clasped his hands together, and prayed to whoever or whatever was up there. He prayed for strength to continue. He prayed for the will to reach the Throne. He prayed for the safety of his friends. He prayed for a Last Wish.
At that moment, Fish and Rogue's wounds were fully healed and an amount of their ammo was replenished.
Another green portal appeared, sending the travelers back to the Frozen City.
The chilled air greeted them once again. The area around them was separated from the commotion of machinery, but still connected by a pathway. Fish and Rogue wandered around, exploring the world around them, trying to find any signs of danger.
In the far distance, another noise was heard, one that was louder than the machines. A crisp sounding noise, almost sounding like and engine and fire. The noise sounded like it was rising, but also approaching.
In an instant, both Fish and Rogue felt a searing heat land in front of them, and covered their faces immediately. When Fish opened his eyes again, he saw a stumpy blue and black humanoid figure, carrying a large glass container that's filled with what appears to be toxic waste. Below the container, was a never-ending stream of blue flames. The figure also had 3 red glowing light, which could be its eyes, and a mask on its mouth, connected to the container, pumping the sickly green liquid into the figure.
Before anything else was done, the figure laughed maniacally, and began shooting erratically at the two travelers. Fish rolled to cover as if by instinct, and readied his minigun.
