A/N; I'm reposting this chapter because the first one got review-spammed with bots. Whilst it might inflate my ego it's also very annoying to try and find actual criticism and genuine advice in a sea of what I assume to be bible passages.
As the dark, cold waters slammed into the holes in the tortured man's suit, his vision slowly fading as he tried desperately to swim back up, to reach the surface of the water once more, to destroy those coloured soldiers and reclaim his own humanity.
He was the shell of a tortured soldier controlled by a fiend who thought of nothing but himself, and he would bring back the digital hope of Metastability, even if he was a shell, a parrot of Sigma's truth and hope made and molded into a perfect puppet, a killing machine beyond any regard.
With that thought in mind, despite the freezing water filling his lungs and freezing his body, the shards of ice still floating around near him, He tried to climb this insufferable mountain of pressure, incapable of breathing, driven only by the goal of another.. A tortured soul, but not by another, no.
This man was not tortured by pain, nor a human. He had been forsaken, left behind by the Artificial Intelligence who had intended to use him to become human itself.
"Warrior." A shimmering light enveloped his back as a hand far larger than the (rather tall) man grasped the man's hand, looking more like a twisted, sharp version of a knight's gauntlet, filling this shell with a strange feeling, as if a king had just gave them praise. He could still feel himself dying, yet.. He could breathe. He was going to die from the cold, not the suffocation? The voice once again boomed, visibly disturbing the water and shattering the ice that floated near him. "Hear mine words and respond; not with your faltering speech, but with thy mind, with thy ideals. I will take you from this place. From this barren planet, this cold rock orbiting nothing, yet orbiting everything. I will allow you to revisit life."
The 'warrior' was disturbed, not responding as his limbs began to slow as they kicked up and forward, trying to send the 'warrior's body above the surface of the ice-cold water. Letting out a low growl, surprised that he was even able to do so, considering the water was definitely inside his suit, and had filled his helmet. "I see." The voice replied, quickly saying "Brilliant! Wonderful! I am afraid I cannot specify mine terms as of yet, brave warrior- No, thy name is known to this simple king. Out of respect, I will use thy code name; I do not expect thee to remember thine name, so I will make it simple. Agent Maine, brutal warrior of the fiercest caliber. Awake in a new realm, and become my subject. Rejoice! Thy have been graced by me!" It let out a cold chuckle, as if the strange being had been told an amazing joke.
Soon after, the light grew larger and larger, and it was soon the only thing Agent Maine could see. He tried to look down but only saw more of the strange light, the entirety of the water had now been blocked out. Maine let out a soft grin, finding himself thinking; "Perhaps, this is my saving grace..?" matching the previous being's cold chuckle, although raspier and filled with occasional growls.
He closed his eyes, awaiting the inevitable darkness, assuming the being had simply left him to die. It wasn't the first time but, considering the circumstances, it would probably be the last time. But, eventually, he felt something at his back. A surprising feeling, given he had been submerged in water for a large period of time after the being had apparently left him in the now light-enveloped frozen cold waters of the planet Sidewinder.
His armour rustled as the water in his helmet began draining... "What in the world..?" questioned Maine in his mind, slowly opening his eyes to a black sky and tall trees surrounding him. He brought himself up with minor struggle, barely able to stand. Almost immediately after, He fell onto his knees, only able to stay in that position because he held himself up through putting his hands into the grass. Letting out a low snarl as he forced off his helmet, coughing raspily whilst spitting up water. The air was cold, something that did not bode well with Maine, due to the status of his armour; still colder than the air.
One thing that surprised him was the absence in his mind. When he didn't think, it was silent. When he thought, it was his own words plastered in that mind of his. The A.I were gone, and he no longer had the overwhelming urge to get them back. Was it truly his saving grace? He pondered for a moment, going for his helmet again and putting it back on his bald head, noticing that head felt a bit softer, and he could swear he felt a bit of hair. Ignoring it as a trick of his albeit A.I absent mind, He cracked his knuckles, standing up at his full height. It might as well have been nothing compared to the height of the trees, but- A snarl quickly caught his attention, and it didn't originate from him.
He glanced around everything that was in his current view, taking a step back closer to the middle of the clearing, hearing faint footfalls at the back of him. Red eyes were focused on him, the eyes of predators locked onto their target. He grinned once more, clenching his fist as he took a combat position; one foot forward, his guard up, and the other foot backward.
The creatures with red, piercing eyes made themselves known; exactly five facing him, possibly more behind him. As he took another step back, observing the large wolf-like monstrosities that stood, yes, stood, before him, strange white masks on their face almost resembling bone. That very same bone was visible on other parts of their body, such as the claws or otherwise.
Dragging his right foot back, He was surprised by the collision of this foot with the back of another's ankle as the two were standing back to back. From the way the other's back crashed against his own like metal against metal, He could assume they were wearing the same MJOLNIR-inspired armour. Glancing behind him, He saw a more advanced version of the idiot from the simulation trooper Blue team. He didn't catch his name, but when they fought on Sidewinder, he was pretty close to Maine's strength, albeit unrefined and more of a berserker than an actual fighter capable of standing up to the Meta.
The blue idiot turned to me, his usual dumbstruck tone a bit muffled due to both the water in Maine's ears and the fact they weren't using open communication. "Gasp! It's Meto.. something many people may not remember.." Maine sighed at that, letting out a low growl. He thought inwardly; "God damn it. It's you.I'd be more at ease with Carolina at my back.." The idiot let out a giggle at the growl.. Could he..? No, It was a fluke that Wash understood him. Him being able to understand me would just be an idiotic coincidence.
"I don't think Carolina would, um, appreciate being attached to your back." The idiot responded. It confirmed the taller's doubts; he definitely understood him. "Whatever." Maine growled, "Let's just kill these things and get out of here." Maine took a more aggressive posture, clenching both of his fists as the idiot behind him muttered "right." under his breath and attempted to match Maine's own stance, ending up as a weird mix of defensive and offensive.
As five made themselves known and exited the bushes, Maine heard the idiot mutter; "Weird doggies? So cute!" before relaxing himself a bit. Maine grumbled and put a foot forward before rushing toward the five 'weird doggies.' One attempted to slice Maine with it's long claws and almost lanky arms, where Maine simply grabbed onto one of the creature's claws, slowly ripping the entire claw apart. The ex-freelancer grinned, enjoying the blood slapping onto his gauntlets.
"This will be fun.." Maine thought to himself, his grip on the claw that was now split into three sections at the forearm not wavering as he suddenly swung his weight to the left, lifting the creature off it's legs and flying through the air. Maine grinned again, swinging it around and around until he let go and it's body was flung into another creature. The white-armoured man glanced over at the idiot he know he heard the name of somewhere, but for the life of him, couldn't remember. The blue-armoured moron was handling himself well, considering.. He had apparently punched one of the black creatures into a tree. Another, he broke the arm off of by wrapping his left arm around the creature's, then grabbed it by the wrist with his right and pushed with full force downward, afterwards, He then wrenched it off by repeating the process, albeit lifting the arm up and down.
The blue one then jumped out of the way of the creature's right, causing it to stab itself in the left arm. Maine let out a snort at that before being pushed back by the punch of what looked like a bear, with similar white armour to the mutant wolves. Bringing up his guard just in time, He dug his feet into the grass before rushing toward the bear creature again, rolling back his arm and punching the bear back into a tree, similar to what the blue idiot had done. Two more of the black creatures rushed Maine, who sweeped the leg of one and grabbed that leg, smashing it against the second creature. He slammed his fist straight through one of the two creatures that laid on the ground, then did the same to the other. As the bear creature groggily arose, it's eyes laid on the now dissipating forms of two of the smaller, wolf creatures.
Several Feet Away, Moron's Perspective
The apparently unnamed blue idiot slammed the arm of one of the meanie creatures into another. So mean! They just showed up out of nowhere and randomly started attacking him and that weird guy, Metal. Blue swore, He could remember Marsh from somewhere, but he couldn't think! It wasn't much of a problem, he rarely thought about things beforehand. Speaking of hands, Blue took a stance as if he held a javelin, forcing open the hand of the creature and pointing it's sharp fingers out, preparing to throw it like a javelin. He stomped his feet, dragging them around; His right foot back, his left forward. He threw it with all his force, sounding like a rather low-powered pistol firing a round off rather than the slightly dissipating arm of the creature that it was. It slammed into where the abdomen of one of the wolf creature's would be, had it biology more akin to a human's. Both the arm and the other creature began turning to mist, which sort of surprised Blue.
Blue turned to the remaining creature, who growled and rushed the blue-armoured idiot. Blue lowered his arm, but prepared to punch. He slammed his fist into the creature's 'gut,' causing a visible disturbance in it as it was blown black a few feet before the left side of it's head was the only part of it that wasn't in the ground; Blue had thrown another punch, closing the distance in hardly a second before slamming his fist into the creature's head, slamming it into the dirt. It slowly dissipated as Blue turned to look at White- no, Mara. Mega? Moon? Fuck it, White.
White was around five or seven feet away, slamming his fists into a bear creature repeatedly. Around him were the still-dissipating corpses of three of the wolf creatures. White then let out a harrowing growl, which caused Blue to tense up before he smiled under his blue, weirdly clunky helmet. "Neat." He muttered, walking over to White. Blue noticed his trusty rifle near White, and approached it, picking it up, which caused White to tense up, turning to face Blue. Blue continued his smile, unfortunately masked by his trademark blue helmet, then stowed his rifle onto his back.
"What's your name, then?" growled White, which was met with Blue putting his hands to his hips and slightly tilting up his head; "Michael! Michael J Caboose. You can call me Caboose." Blue had no malice in his voice. It was if he was absent of negativity as he looked at White happily.
"... call me Maine."