Hello, and welcome to A Man Out Of This World! I'm your host, SomethingHarmless, and together, we shall embark on a journey filled with adventure, excitement, and more! Before we head off, I would just like to inform you about some formatting. Italics are used to show inner thoughts of characters, and (...) is used to transition between settings and character focus. And with that, lets get this show on the road!
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Buck asked apprehensively. "I mean, shouldn't we test this thing out on something else first?"
"We ain't got nothing to test this baby on, nor do we have the time" Sturges replied. "If you really wanna do this, we're gonna have to make this work the first time."
Buck Rogers sighed inwardly. Did he really want to do this? Use an untested piece of technology put together with nothing but scrap metal and two hundred year old circuit boards? It was supposed to get him into the Institute, but what if it malfunctioned, and he was teleported into a nest of deathclaws? Or into outer space? Or what if he didn't reform at all, and was just atomized entirely, no one quite knowing what had happened or where he had gone? What if-
Shaun. He had to find Shaun. He had lost his baby, his son. He couldn't let his fear get ahold of him. He had to find him, no matter the risks, no matter where he was. Buck rolled his shoulders, testing the servos in his power armor. If he was going to meet the institute head on, he wouldn't let them get the drop on him, and he knew it was considerably harder to get the drop on someone wearing a full suit of power armor.
"I'm ready"
"You sure?...O.K.. Well, your part's easy, just stand on the platform in the center."
The machine hummed as the massive tesla coil sparked to life above him. It was quite a spectacle, and Buck considered that he may have found the light show entertaining, if it weren't for the fact that he was standing right in the center of it.
Suddenly, the hum of the machine increased, and the platform started to rattle. There was a loud clang, and Buck heard hissing from one of the supports of the teleporter. "Uh oh… Uh… We better hurry. Don't worry about that tubing wiggling around. It's… just there for decoration…" Sturges called out with a hint of panic in his voice.
"Sturges, is this thing going to kill me?" the sole survivor shouted.
"No, probably not. I'll start scanning for the institute signal."
Dogmeat whined and lay his head on the ground, watching his master. He didn't like the big sparky machine one bit, and he had tried to make that perfectly clear to his master and best friend. Unfortunately, being a dog, he was unable to voice his concerns about the metal monster, and instead watched from the side, hoping that the nice man would step off of the platform soon so they could go find more bad smelly people to hunt.
"Tracking RF and… got it!" Sturges finally exclaimed. "Alright, sending you off in three… two… and… what the hell?"
"What the hell what? Sturges?"
Dogmeat heard the fear in master's voice, immediately springing up. If master was scared, he had to be there to protect him! With that single thought in mind, he bounded up to the platform just as Buck started to turn blue. "What the- Dogmeat, no!"
But it was too late. The teleporter activated, and with a final blinding flash, the sole survivor and his trusty canine partner vanished.
(…)
"Sir, he's not here."
"What do you mean, 'he's not here'?"
"Their teleporter worked, but he's not in the receiving area."
"If he's not here, where is he?"
"Unknown… wait…"
"What is it?"
"I'm picking up another signal. It's faint, but it's there."
"Do we know where this new signal leads to?"
"Unknown."
"…"
"Find him. I don't care what it takes, just find him."
"Of course, Father."
(…)
Buck awoke feeling sick to his stomach. It felt like all of his internal organs were being pushed up into his throat. He tried to sit up, but found there was nothing to sit up on. Opening his eyes, he found himself surrounded by blue skies. He again tried to sit up, with the same results as before. Taking a moment, he looked over his shoulder to the ground. Why was it so green? And why did it look like he was zooming in towards it?
That's when it hit him. He was falling.
"Ohshitohshitohshitohshit" Buck shouted. He had never been afraid of heights, as he had jumped out of his fair share of airplanes as a soldier. However, this was usually with some form of parachute being attached to his back, and last he remembered, power armor didn't come with complementary parachutes. He knew that the servos in his power armor were supposed to let him survive any fall, but he never really wanted to test out that theory if he didn't have to.
As he contemplated his predicament, he heard a series of quick, frightened yaps and yowls coming from his right. As he turned his head, he saw a certain German shepherd flailing around in the air.
"DOGMEAT!"
As quick as he could, Buck splayed out his arms and legs, and angled himself over to the panicked canine, latching onto him with a bear hug the moment he was within arm's reach. "Dogmeat, I told you to stay put!" Dogmeat's only response was more yowling, and panicked glances downward, before he started aggressively growling and barking at something below them. Buck turned his attention back to the ground, and saw what looked like a forest rising up towards them. In its center lay what he perceived to be a massive blue and purple lake.
Wait a minute, Buck thought to himself, water isn't purple. And why is it moving? What in the… oh, he thought as comprehension began to dawn on him. It wasn't the color of water because it wasn't water, and it was moving because…
It's alive
(…)
Riven was exhausted.
There were many reasons for this. First and foremost was that the current match had dragged on into its fourth hour, and her muscles had started to strain around the second. Throughout those four hours, she had sliced, diced and dodged almost everything that had come her way.
Almost, she thought to herself bitterly, glancing down at the fairly large gash that was torn into her shoulder. God dammit Kha, this shit still hurts, she thought bitterly, placing a hand over her wound. The fact that she had beaten Kha'zix to a near pulp in response didn't make the pain go away, but it did make her feel a little better. A nagging voice in the back of her head told her that Kha had probably survived the ordeal, and had just gone back to tearing the throats out of all the little woodland creatures to fuel his desire to "evolve and overcome", but she paid that voice no mind for now.
She did, however, pay attention to the monstrosity swaying to and fro in front of her. Baron Nashor was a monster to end all other monsters. Erupting from the earth, the massive purple worm stood at around 50 feet tall, and his extra tentacles and acid only added to his monstrous image. And they want me to face this thing alone, Riven thought to herself. The match had started to go sour at around the third hour, and the rest of her team was busy distracting the enemy, giving her the window of opportunity she needed to kill the beast unhindered. Destroying this monster and receiving the blessing was the only way her team could come out ahead. She knew all this, she understood the reason she was here alone. That didn't mean she had to like it, but there wasn't much she could do about it.
On the bright side, the gigantic worm was starting to weaken. Massive cuts and gashes could be seen throughout its body, and its heads were starting to droop. Through many strikes and dodges, she had managed to nearly kill the massive beast. Riven couldn't help but feel proud of herself for a moment, but she quickly snapped out of her reverie. This was no time for daydreaming. In fact, this was the most dangerous moment. With Baron in such a poor state, it would be easy for any opponent to swoop in and kill the thing themselves, wasting all of her hard work and acid burns. She would be the one to land the killing blow, and if anything else got in her way, she would pulverize it in an instant. Though, in her weakened state, she might not have the strength to.
As if to answer her thoughts, something flickered quickly in and out of existence for a moment. It was only for a second, but Riven had seen him.
Kha'zix, you fucking piece of shit bug. I swear, if you try and take this from me, I will disembowel you, tear off your stupid wings and claws, and beat you to death with your own fucking skull. I will shit on everything you have ever loved, and I will find my way to the void, find your family, take my sword, and shove it-
She didn't get the chance to finish that thought, as within the next 3 seconds, several interesting events occurred.
In the first second, Kha'zix leaped out of the bush, right into swiping range of Baron Nashor. No you fucking don't.
In the second second, Riven's runic blade formed up to its full length, as Riven prepared her counter attack. I'm not going to make it.
Wait
What's that whistling noise?
But the third second was the most interesting of all the three seconds. For in that third second, the ground beneath her shook as a colossal roar erupted from right in front of her, and a gigantic smoke cloud and shockwave emerged from where Baron Nashor was standing. Both champions stopped to stare at where Baron Nashor was standing only a moment ago.
What the hell is that?
In Baron's place was a massive metal man. It looked to be around 7 feet tall, was heavily built out of red metal, and appeared to be carrying an assortment of guns and melee weapons on its back. In the middle of its rounded shoulders was an avian looking helmet, and in its arms, it cradled a dog.
(…)
I'm in trouble.
Buck knew he was in trouble. Granted, it was considerably less trouble than a couple of seconds ago, but he was still in trouble even now after he had made it to solid ground. He could see he was in many types of trouble. For one, he was in a heavily wooded area, with clean (according to his Geiger counter) water. He didn't know any place in the commonwealth that still had green forests and clean water, so that meant one thing.
He was lost
The second point of trouble were the locals. Apart from the gigantic worm, (which didn't look like it would be much of a problem anymore due to the fact that he was standing on its caved in skull), there appeared to be two locals staring right at him, and both of them looked very dangerous. One was a white haired woman carrying a massive green glowing sword. The other was perhaps the oddest mutant he had ever seen. It looked like a scarab beetle, but it was green, with long legs and massive purple glowing scythes for hands.
The third problem was that his legs hurt. A lot. He supposed that could have had something to do with the landing, but this was not a problem for long as his suit quickly administered stimpacks to the injured areas. Relief surged up from his legs as his bones re-mended themselves, and the drugs went to work on his muscles. With that little problem solved, he then turned to his intrepid canine companion, administering one of his stimpacks to the whimpering animal. Soon enough, Dogmeat was back on his feet, growling at the gigantic mutated bug.
"Dogmeat, I've a feeling we're not in the Commonwealth anymore."
