Daedra was shown Scott's image. "Hmm, plain looking... Though, he sort of reminds me of someone I saw on D-Net recently."
"Hmm? Really? Who?"
"Just some blue haired guy one of the Ardent girls is dating," said Daedra.
"Ah. You mean that whole Legendary Blue Haired Boyfriend PR stunt the Origin group pulled to raise public interest in their dated intellectual property?" asked the Grand Emissary in a snarky tone.
"Yeah, no kidding. Like that ice queen bitch Origin could even get a boyfriend. I bet his dick would freeze off!" laughed Daedra gaily.
"No wonder the guy's hair was blue," said the Grand Emissary with a smirk.
After they had their laugh, the Emissary said, "Well, you have your assignment sister. Go see what makes that guy so interesting."
"Yes, Grand Emissary!" exclaimed Daedra before she balled her hands into fists and then placed them against the sides of her head above the brow. She quickly raised her index fingers upward in simultaneous fashion to give the appearance of horns and cried out, "Go Team Devil!"
The Grand Emissary performed the same two fingered salute. "Go Team Devil!"
*****
Preparations for departure had largely been made. Scott was now outside the mall seeking out suitable transportation. The cars out front would not work for his purpose as they were surrounded by corpses. Even if they were not, there was a lot of stuff to move and they were not exactly the sturdiest rides around. If they ran into a horde on the way to their destination, those cars would not stand a chance. At best they could only be a last resort.
Scott quietly slipped through the small shopping district a half mile from the mall. His target was a place further away, marked on his mini-map as a place of interest. There were four such places. One of them was the mall. The other was the end goal. The other two were at different points along the way. In a game, such a place marker would house something useful to the plot of the story. What it meant in this crazy world was anyone's guess.
There were not many zombies to fight during the trip. Scott had already killed off most of them in the immediate area since they majority of the nearby undead population had congregated near the mall.
He reviewed his map then changed his head to match where he needed to go. He was about a mile away at this point. Once he left the shopping area, he found that there was a river between him and his destination. It was not a particularly wide river, but he did not want to risk going for a swim. Who knew what lurked in those deceptively calm waters.
Scott looked one way and then the other. In the distance, on one side of the river, there was a waterfall. He could hear the gentle crashing of the water as it fell over the cliff. In the other direction he saw that there was a bridge that he could take. It was a bit out of the way, but it was a way to get across.
It took a while to navigate through the area, as he had to backtrack a bit to reach a road that went toward his destination. The riverbank was too shallow for him to feel safe using. The last thing he wanted was to fight zombies while flailing around in the water.
The bridge was littered with cars. A police barricade was set up on both sides, but at some point the barrier was breached. There were civilian cars left behind beyond the yellow plastic cones and barbed wire.
Scott cracked his knuckles and began to search the cars as best he could. He did not bother to loot much most of the time. His missions were typically short-term affairs that took place in various locations. Even if he did want to loot things the items could only go back with him if he put them into a foot locker, or something similar, and linked it to his home storage. Everything else would disappear in a poof of overly fanciful sparkles.
However, looting made more sense now. He was stuck on this world for up to three days. Whatever he took with him would have potential use until he was finished with his mission.
The cars proved to have been picked clean long ago. No mysterious treasures were found in glove compartments, though he did find a few bits and pieces of jewelry that he pocketed for possible future trade. Who knew what sort of worlds he might end up on? Jewelry did not take up much space, and he could easily stash it in his storage.
What Scott took the most notice of was the vehicles themselves. Specifically, the two black SWAT vans. Large, armored, and capable of handling a crowd. Those two vans would haul a lot of goods, or a good number of people.
"Damn," he muttered as he looked the vehicles over more carefully. The tires were flattened on one of the vans, and it looked like someone tried to hotwire the other one and failed miserably.
"You'd think one of these damned cars would have something to change a tire..." he muttered, before moving on to another self-imposed task. Scott began moving the cars out of the way.
Between his improved strength, and high-end endurance, pushing a few cars out of the way was a simple task. He did not even break a sweat in the process. Soon, the way was clear enough for vehicles to cross.
"So, we can go this far at least," he said after surveying the road.
He continued on toward his next destination afterward. The place of interest mentioned on his mini-map turned out to be a half-built apartment building.
"What's so special about this place?" asked Scott as he crossed through the barrier tape and entered the construction site. He walked around the area for a few minutes in search of something interesting.
Nothing on the ground interested him much. He decided to head inside.
The rooms were nowhere near completion. Many did not even have four walls and a roof. None of them had doors. He found a few tools here and there, but nothing too exciting. It was not until he reached the roof that he discovered something truly intriguing.
"The hell is this?" he asked as he saw a pillar of light appear before him near the unfinished edge of the roof. Curious he walked over to check it out.
Scott poked the light, but felt nothing. There was also nothing inside of it. A thought crossed his mind. "If it's a game..."
He stepped into the light then stood there for a moment. It disappeared not long after he stepped into the lit area, leaving him with nothing but questions. Nothing happened immediately, but just as he was about to turn away he saw another pillar of light rise up from a grate in the concrete slab below. "The sewer?"
Scott went toward the light, though that sort of thing rarely worked out well for people in real life. He opened the grate then looked down into the depths of the sewer below. With a shrug of his shoulders, he climbed down the metal ladder and moved into the new area.
He wandered the sewer for a few minutes then noticed that the water began to move faster. Soon, he came to a larger area with a whirlpool swirling at the center. "Weird. Is this how a sewer works?"
"I suppose this is interesting but..." Why was it marked on his map?
He tried to see if there was anything worth scavenging in the area, but nothing came readily in to view. Once again, it was not until he was about to leave that something made its presence known. A slight gleam from the far side of the river of shit caught his attention.
Scott almost left it where it was, as he did not see anything before when he was on that side of the room. The only way to cross was a small metal grate walkway with no rails, a catwalk as some might call it.
He crossed the walkway once more, passing over the whirlpool below. Briefly, he wondered how a sewer system would continue to work when the water was shut off to the city, but he'd seen stranger things in recent days.
The item turned out to be a strange copper coin. Its color was a slight reddish-brown that bordered on pink, and it had not been tarnished with time or age. "How the hell did I miss this?" asked Scott as he turned the bottle cap sized coin over in his hand. On one side there was a large number one engraved into the metal. On the other side he saw a stylized mushroom.
He shrugged his shoulders then pocketed the coin before starting back to the other side. Halfway across the catwalk he heard a sudden terrifying noise. The support
struts for the catwalk groaned loudly. He tried to move forward, but to his horror the supposedly solid metal anchors snapped off abruptly. With a loud cry, he plummeted toward the whirlpool below.
Scott screamed and gurgled between mouthfuls of sewer water that contained things he would prefer not to think about had he the time to think. He struggled against the water current, but it was impossible for even his enhanced strength to compete with that terrible aquatic force.
Like the world's most terrified turd, Scott was drawn down into the darkness of whirling depths. He desperately tried to swim to the surface, but there was no hope. However, just as he was about to lose consciousness a strangely clear, if bizarre, sound reached his ears.
[Ta-droo. Ta-droo. Ta-droo.]
Suddenly, light flared all around him and another sound was heard. It was a sound he heard once before when he fell through the warp zone to Bounty Star. It was reminiscent of a midi-style 16-bit era plunger sound effect in a certain video game series.
"Warp Zone Unlocked!" cried the same cheerful feminine voice from before. "Now entering, Imperial Garden."
Scott screamed excitedly as he suddenly appeared in mid-air above a field of wildflowers. He continued to scream as he, and the sewer water that traveled with him, showered down upon the vibrantly colored landscape below. He hit the ground with a meaty thwack and did not move for a time.
Once he regained enough of his senses to try and get up, he lifted his head then blinked. He blinked a second time while trying to process what the hell it was that he was seeing. "Is... That flower dancing?"
In front of Scott a small sunflower with a smiley face on the front was wiggling its green stalk for all it was worth. Its green leaves waved up and down as its stalk bowed inward to make it look like it was shaking a non-existent floral booty.
He sat up and looked around. Various other types of plants were shaking their equally non-exist groove thangs. After a brief moment passed he became aware of a subtle sound that his brain soon recognized as synthesized music like what an old school videogame might have played in the background.
The world was suffused with sound and color. The landscape was supremely alive. "Whoa..." said Scott as he looked around at the glorious world around him. He had never seen anything so colorful and lively.
Due to his surprise at the sheer colorfulness of nature, he did not see the massive flying ship that floated silent through the area. He also did not see it when the bay doors on the bottom of the hull opened up. He certainly did not see it when four massive mechanical monstrosities dropped downward and fell toward the ground below.
Scott did notice it when those monstrosities crashed to the ground with a mighty roar. "Holy fuck!" he cried in absolute surprise.
In front of him now stood four twenty foot tall bio-mechanical devices that bore a strong resemblance to a bipedal turtle. The amalgamations of flesh and steel leveled oversized lances toward him. The one in the center cried out. "For the glory of the empire!" just before the massive technological nightmares ran toward him with thundering steps.
He did not even pretend to try and reason with them. Scott whipped out his firearm and unloaded several quick shots. His trusty plasma rounds plinked harmlessly off of their armored torsos, much to his shock and growing despair.
Eyes wide, he hurled himself sideways in an attempt to avoid a devastating piercing strike from the closest turtle lancer. Unfortunately for the interdimensional champion these opponents were not mindless fools. The lancer immediately spun sideways with a sharp slash that caught the man across the chest. The lance tore through his chest armor like it was made of paper and cut a thin line in his flesh.
Scott did not even want to conceive of the number of hit points he had just casually lost if his armor could not stop the attack. He was forced back twice in a bid to avoid being skewered by the overpowered turtle terrors. While the lead turtle-borg thing kept him busy, the other three moved in different directions in order to surround him.
Once he was surrounded, the attacks stopped. "The empress wants any humans to be brought to her alive."
Scott backed toward the center of the encirclement. The impossible to defeat opposition moved in steadily for the kill. Scott could not fight them with his weapon, and there was nothing around that he could use. He lacked even sufficient cover to hide behind in that field.
It was then that the world suddenly went still. The color faded to black and white tones briefly before shifting into shades of gray. A shockingly blue window screen appeared before Scott.
[Mission Briefing]
You have unlocked a new world-setting [Imperial Garden]. Your previous mission is suspended until your new mandatory introductory mission ends. Your current mission is to reach the city of [Yellow Blossom] and inform the mayor that soldiers of the [Empire] have been seen in the area.
Difficulty: E-4
World: Imperial Garden
World Type: Platform Hopping/Epic Fantasy
Force Response Authorization: Solo Mission
Primary Goal: Reach the mayor in the city of Yellow Blossom on World 3-2, yellow district.
Reward: 200 EXP
[—]
"Shit." muttered Scott as he turned his head left and right. He was surrounded. The enemy was slowly closing in, if he did not find a solution, there was no way that he would survive.
The answer came to him in a form that he would never have guessed. He felt a tiny little tug at his boots. Scott glanced down then blinked. One of the little sunflower dancers waved a leaf at him then smiled brightly. "Eat me!"
"The... hell?" asked Scott.
The little flower looked up at him, its fake circular eyes wide and its smile wider still. "Eat me and you can win!"
"Captain, is that a Gravitas Flower?" asked one of the other cyborg-turtles.
"Damn! Take him down before he eats it!" snarled the captain, before he rushed forward with his spear at the ready.
The world seemed to move in slow motion as Scott reached down and snatched the chatty little flower from the ground and did as it asked. It cried out ecstatically as he began chewing frantically on its petal-clad goodness.
"So happy!" cried the flower before its voice was muffled by rapid chewing.
The captain's spear rocketed toward Scott's chest, but the moment that the champion swallowed his happy little flower friend the tide turned. Scott gasped loudly as a wave of force erupted from his body. The world slowed down even further. He could see everything. The spear moving toward him was aimed with deadly intent, but his mind raced at a blisteringly fast speed.
"Jump!" cried the voice of the flower that he had swallowed. Unable to think clearly, Scott followed the command of the helpful creature. Scott jumped.
The simple action of jumping no longer led to the same result as the ordinary jump of a normal man. Scott rocketed into the air at an incredible speed. The spear-wielding turtle thing continued forward with its strike. He barely had time to realize that his opponent had moved before Scott came crashing down atop it with brutal force.
The turtle was pressed down by a tremendous force that crushed its shell. A weird Ba-Boing sound echoed through the air as Scott followed the instruction of the flower once more and jumped again.
Scott used the captain's back as a springboard and leapt high into the air once more. Like a meteor streaking down from the heavens, he crashed down atop another turtle well and crushed it into the dirt. The furious assault formed a crater below his target from the force of his blow.
Scott shot into the air and then came down once, and then once again, to defeat the last two turtle things. His chest heaved. He panted heavily as the flower power raged through his body.
After a moment, he was surprised by the sudden hiss of a hydraulic lock opening. The ruined shell of one of the turtles lifted away and a short mostly naked man crawled out. He looked as though he would only stand as tall as Scott's chest and his only clothing was a helmet shaped like a mushroom cap.
"We won't forget this you bastard!" cried the short man before he turned and fled the scene.
Scott stared at the man as he fled. Soon the same thing happened three more times. Short naked men rose up out of their turtle shells and tried to make their escape. This time Scott gave chase. He nearly caught up, but he slid to a stop as he came to the edge of a precipice.
The four turtle mushroom guys had leapt off the edge by the time he arrived. Their mushroom caps opened up and little parachutes popped out. They held on for dear life as they floated through the air.
Scott looked down, shocked. There was nothing directly below him. Instead, he saw several platform like structures with forests, ponds, or grasslands that floated in the air a short distance away. He was on some sort of floating flower garden platform that hovered in the air.
The naked guys floated down at an angle toward a small forest platform. Once they landed, one of them looked back up at him and shouted. "Hey! Fuck you, guy!"
Annoyed at the little bastard's antics, Scott fired at him without taking the time to aim. His shot narrowly missed the little bastard, but the quartet got the point. Shrill high-pitched screams echoed back toward Scott as they turned and ran away with their hands up in air.
Scott held the bridge of his nose for a moment then sighed. "Seriously? The hell man..." Until now he'd believed that he'd seen crazy before, but this place was a special sort of crazy.
Chapter 10: Don't Leave Me, Wiggle!
Scott spent quite some time kneeling on the edge of forever. He gazed down at the floating landscape beneath him in an attempt to try and understand the nature of is current existence. Once he managed to come to terms with his strange new reality, he crawled away from what he could only consider to be a bottomless drop.
For the first time he had into the face of a potentially insurmountable challenge. He could not shoot his way out of a bottomless abyss, not with a pistol at least. One misstep and he would die. Maximum human stats would do nothing for him if he fell.
Galactic Fist of Legend Page 15
