So, this is a cross with a new puzzle/platformer game called Giga Wrecker. Saw it, made by Game Freak, barely thought about it just bought it, the second I saw it. Outside a few grammar bits here and there, the game has not disappointed me, not really. Frustrated me with rubble-puzzles, yes, but not disappointed. No knowledge of Giga Wrecker is needed, because I'll be starting mostly fresh, though like other worm fics with cannon, I will be ripping the main plot and reusing it here, with a few, alterations to fit for this universe/my plans.
But the Prologue here is to set up the world, and the next chapter to show a little of what Taylor can do, and the one after really shows what she's up against here.
With any luck, I'll do the Grimdark thing right here: start dark and depressing, becoming lighter as she gets more skilled/powerful, and end on a high note.
At first, there was nothing to be heard but a steady beep, nothing to see for her eyes were still closed. Then Taylor opened her eyes and there was porous, pockmarked concrete that glowed faintly to her sight. A sight she didn't remember. What did she remember?
...she remembered... nothing. Not where she was, not how she got there, not who she was with, and not why she wasn't panicking.
"Doing all right there?" A soft female voice called out. She tried to move her head to see, but couldn't quite muster the energy to do so. Instead, she tried to speak. That held more results.
"Who are you?" Taylor asked of the voice in the darkness.
"I am the idiot that decided to save your life." The musical voice said simply, with no small amount of bitterness. "Whoever did this left you for dead. Horrible. And you'll get your payback for that if you want it, but that's not why I'm here." A quiet rattling sound of metal on metal filled the air, not ominously, just filling the silence. Taylor was too mentally exhausted to respond, or to decipher the sound, to see if it matched anything in her foggy memory. "See, for whatever reason, some sort of rift in a world parallel to mine opened up, sucking me in and spitting me out amongst carnage. I had no clue what was going on before I got knocked out, and when I woke up the city was already burning. Alongside myself, and the robots, a wave of nanomachines covering everything came through the portal, and I suspect those nanomachines are part of the start, part of the reasong the whole thing started out in the first place. Some kind of robotic invasion, definitely hostile, especially if the corpses I saw around me when I woke up are any indication." The rattle was a little louder now, more easily identifiable as a wheelchair with squeaky wheels in not-quite best repair rolling along and around things. A table was bumped, causing the rattling of a few bits of metal hitting concrete floor and some cursing from that same female voice for a moment. Then she continued, Taylor still without the strength to respond. "I know that you were kicked in the head by a small shoe, presumably female, maybe high heels, even if I don't know why, and I know you've been in a coma, for a very long time. I assume the girl is dead by now, and given what little I know of the situation, that makes you our last hope."
"Why do you think that?" Taylor spoke up, already exhausted with darkness creeping in again, just from that.
"Because they broke Armsmaster's spine. Because most of the local Protectorate is dead, and all the other heroes have been put to work to death as well. Because they have your mom. Because they think she's the key to the whole thing. Because I have you, but I can't do anything at all." The rattling stopped and a pale face came into view, regally structured with brown eyebrows, jet black hair streaked with white and eyes a deep dark red, almost ruby or burgundy or blood-colored in this light. She smiled, visibly tired but happy that Taylor survived, whatever she did. "Hey. How ya feeling?"
"Like I should be in pain." Taylor said candidly, voice barely pushing past her exhaustion, though she was trying push past it, trying to find out more. Her whole body felt incredibly numb with exhaustion, like she was just an observer in a play featuring her. "Who are you? Where- what did you do to me, specifically?"
The woman's smile faltered a little, before she sighed. "Yeah, I saved your life. Mad scientist style, turning you from straight human to a cyborg, using technologies I don't fully understand. As for why, well, I kinda ended up in a spot where I had to make a choice, pick something to focus everything I was, on. What I ended up with was..." She paused, visibly unsure, then closed her eyes and gathered courage. "Was lack of justice. Right and wrong, guilty versus innocent. From what I could see, you were innocent, and you were dying. I couldn't just let you die." There was a beat as she let Taylor absorb that. Then her expression hardened. "And I needed a weapon. I didn't want to do it, but without a warrior, we've already lost. Everywhere."
Already lost? Everywhere? ...how long had she been out? How long had it been since Emma had ordered her dead, getting toughs to slam her head against a dumpster? "So you're a hero then?"
"Well, for a certain definition of hero, that's for sure." The woman whispered. "War hero? Maybe. Superhero? By DC Comics standards, I am no more a hero than the Batman. I've made bad choices because they were the only ones I could see, and I've made a few monsters that no one should ever have to deal with." Whoever this Batman guy was, he was obviously evil. "For a Mad Scientist, who is also the daughter of a Mad Scientist? I've been lucky. Extraordinarily lucky." She shook her head, clearing it of whatever thoughts plagued her. "But that is neither here nor there. You asked who I was, so here's... a name. I was born Roxxanne. I've pretended to be many people, but you?" She smiled, a little lopsided and self-deprecating. "You may call me Doc. Now go to sleep. We have much work to do, if we're to find out how to beat them that came through. Step one, is getting you capable of standing on your own two feet. Even if they aren't the ones you were born with."
Before Taylor's slowed mind could ask anything else, the world faded to black, and blessed darkness came along for a sleepover party.
She looked down at this young woman, and sighed all the more heavily.
Who gives a shit about the ability to subsist on nothing but photosynthesis and sugar when the world has turned so joyless.
Who gives a shit about why one woman saves another, only to make the child a weapon?
She scoffed. Weak and useless thoughts for a weak and useless person. Best save those thoughts for when they might be of some relevance, like when Lung yells at her for messing with her daughter, or the next time Dragon calls.
She shook her head. Back to work. Those Yakshi won't rebuild themselves, after all.