"Ash? Can you hear me?"
Ah good, the signal's back… and it's a lot clearer too! How'd you do that?
"I caught a reaverbot by surprise… one of the refractor shards inside it was just the right size for the tracker, so I gave it a shot."
Good thinking! Was it another zakobon?
"Yeah, it was alone so it wasn't too much trouble."
Okay… just remember not to overuse the drill, yeah?
"Got it," The young man replied, smiling as he eyed the remains of the deactivated reaverbot in front of him. As always, his little sister was right on the money. The drill gun hanging from his belt also doubled as his grappling hook which was convenient enough—however, it also meant that if he wanted to get out of this place he needed it completely intact.
They had been exploring this particular ruin for several hours over the period of a few days, with today being the lengthiest expedition. As a matter of fact he had descended a little further into the ruins this day than they had the past few days put together, mostly because of the forty to fifty foot drops he needed to scale. If they didn't go back home soon though, Susan would probably start worrying… "I'm going to look around a little more and then head back. How are things looking from over there?"
Doesn't look like there are any other reaverbots around that area… well, other than the one you beat up. Still, be careful Bram.
"I will, don't worry Ash," the boy named Bram reassured, patting the dust off of his pants and fixing the safety helmet on his head before continuing on. For a girl who had just turned eleven yesterday, she was bright and clever, able to use most of the gadgets a good spotter needed during a dig without too much difficulty. Compare that to the digger, who was turning seventeen yet still found his sister's spotting equipment to be complicated.
However, that didn't mean he felt right leaving her outside the ruins on her own… at the same time, bringing her down with him would have been much worse. Needless to say Bram would sometimes feel guilty, giving his younger sister the heavy responsibility of watching out for his well-being during digs. But as selfish a thought as it might have seemed, she was the only person he trusted to be his spotter. Shifting his attention back to the matter at hand, he couldn't help but comment on the subterranean maze he was treading. "The red orbs on these walls look like eyes… it's creepy."
I wouldn't know… my over-protective big brother never lets me see stuff like that, even on my birthday.
"Maybe when you're older," Bram replied, chuckling. He could almost imagine the pout on his sister's face. Stopping at a small intersection in the technologically advanced ruin, he intensified the light on his helmet and examined each way. It seemed like the path to his left stretched on for quite a bit, while the paths in front of him and to his right hit a dead end after a couple dozen feet. The latter corridor was of particular interest because he could make out a chest at the end of it. "It looks like there's a chest at the end of the area to my right; I'm heading that way."
All righty, hope there's something good in there!
"Ditto," the boy spoke to the transceiver, getting more and more excited as he approached the chest. Even in unexplored ruins it was rare to come across any kind of chest, and this ruin was likely to have been explored by a few diggers already. However, it also branched out in many different areas so it was entirely possible that the path he had chosen was yet to be explored. He had also come across reaverbots which meant that the diggers either snuck past them or missed them completely, both of which were unlikely scenarios. Finally reaching the chest, the young digger carefully pulled the container open. He smiled widely at his discovery. "Ash, there are a couple of decently sized refractor shards in here."
Hah, I knew it! How big?
"Each about as big as my hand—these will definitely sell," Bram spoke as he excitedly stuffed the glowing pieces of crystallized energy into his bag. The chest's haul alone made today's dig completely worth it. Hopefully he would be able to make the trip to town soon… these pieces looked to be enough to feed the family for a couple days at least. Not to mention the fact that there would still be some money left over for other things, such as the doll Ashlynn had been eyeing but couldn't afford yesterday. "Looks like you're going to have the birthday celebration you deserve this year."
Awww that sounds awesome Bram! I'm excited alre—wait a minute… these readings are funny. The walls…
"The walls?"
Watch out, there are five heat signatures in the walls! The zakobon, they're right there with you… B-Bram…
"…Calm down kiddo, I promise I'll be all right. Talk to you in a bit okay?" The older sibling said affectionately, placing the transceiver in his pocket and slowly turning to look behind him. This was the first time he would ever encounter reaverbots in the walls—and the first time he would ever have to tangle with more than two zakobon. His little sister had reason to be worried, but the last thing he wanted to do was confirm the fact that he was in trouble. Besides, he still had some tricks up his sleeve. Straining to hear any sign of movement, the digger took a step forward. Everything was still quiet as a tomb, but that didn't mean he was going to dismiss Ashlynn's warning. Should I make a run for it…?
Bram took another step forward when the tell-tale beep of a reaverbot blasted through the corridor as part of the wall to his left crumbled, and a zakobon leapt through. The reaverbot turned to face him as more zakobon followed suit, crashing through the wall and completely blocking his path. The young digger quickly pulled his drill gun from his belt, but before he could aim it at anything at all the reaverbot in front of him suddenly fell backwards—which could only mean one thing. "…!"
Quickly turning around and hissing out a breath, Bram ran towards the chest and leapt behind it as the reaverbot shot out an explosive the size of his head from its underbelly. It impacted with the large metal container and detonated, blowing out some bits of the chest and causing a small crater on the ground. Pulling his bandana up to protect himself from the smoke, he waited until the reaverbot fell toward its robotic appendages, an action he wisely took as his cue. Coming out of his ruined cover, the digger flicked a switch on the drill gun to initiate grappling mode and aimed at the ceiling right above the second to the last zakobon.
"Let this work…!" Pulling the trigger, the drilling end of the gun shot toward the ceiling and latched itself like a hook, the drill still connected to the tool with a black cord. Clutching onto the drill gun for dear life and holding down a button right below the handle, the gun started to quickly pull the digger off of the ground and toward the ceiling. About half-way through, Bram suddenly let go of the button and brought his weight forward, causing him to swing towards the intersection and behind all the zakobon. At the apex of his jump, he flicked the switch back to digging mode which caused the metallic hooks around the drill to retract and slip off the ceiling.
"Ngh!" The digger grunted as he landed hard on his left side, managing to ignore the pain of falling from a dozen or so feet due to the shooting adrenaline. Getting up as fast as he could, he looked over to find the reaverbots already facing him, but that was all part of the plan. Wasting no more time, he quickly turned the knob on the side of his safety helmet all the way. The result was a wide beam of light that shot from the front of his helmet, forcing the young digger to shut his eyes. The three zakobon whose robotic lens had been exposed to the blinding light flickered, before malfunctioning and deactivating completely. Turning the knob back to its original position, Bram opened his eyes to see that the area was almost pitch black saved for the very faint glow of the eyes on the wall—and the fierce light coming from the eyes of the two zakobon who had not been completely exposed to his helmet's 'disruptor'.
That's another refractor wasted… Knowing he would not be able to navigate himself out of the ruins without any light, he quickly snatched the last of the small special refractors he had on his belt and pushed down a button on his helmet. The glass containing the source of light slid open, causing a small plume of white smoke to escape from where the refractor powering it had been. Tossing the final refractor into his helmet and pressing the button one more time, the container closed and quickly made use of the crystal's energy. Bram's specialized helmet once again had a working light, and now it was time to get away while the two remaining zakobon were still blocked by their disabled brethren.
Breaking into a sprint toward the direction where he had originally entered as far as his legs could take him, it wasn't long before he heard an explosion from where he encountered the zakobon. After a few seconds another explosion rocked the corridors and with wide eyes he realized that the reaverbots were destroying the malfunctioned zakobon to make way. He had managed to get some distance between himself and that area, but he knew how fast those types of reaverbots could go once it started hovering off the ground.
Bram! The last one's coming for you, and it's very fast!
"Just one left huh," The digger said quietly, having heard his sister's desperate warning from the transceiver in his pocket. One of the zakobon had probably gotten destroyed while they were clearing the way… those things never were very smart. While it was fortunate that there was only one left, it was heading towards him at an incredible speed, which meant that he wouldn't survive a head-on collision. The corridor no longer broke off to different directions which narrowed his options, but there was a sharp turn to the left ahead. Going through every scenario he could piece together in his head, an idea came to him and his eyes brightened with resolve. Got it!
Flicking the switch on his gun back to grappling mode and making the left turn, Bram skid to a stop and pointed the gun behind him. He hugged the wall to the right and shot forward, the drilling end piercing the wall right across him—putting the cord in the zakobon's way right before it would make the turn. Now all he had to do was hold on as hard as he possibly could. In mere seconds the reaverbot zoomed in with a much stronger force than he expected; the digger was almost instantly pulled to ground when his target met the cord. Fortunately, the cord had succeeded in tripping the zakobon, making it collide head first with the wall in front of it and bouncing it off another wall violently before it finally crashed on the ground.
"Is it over…?" Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding, Bram stood up slowly and fixed the cord back into the drill gun, the whole event registering into his mind. After several seconds he came to the baffling realization that if he hadn't been pulled down by the cord the zakobon would've smashed into him as it bounced, proof of it being the cracks littering the wall he had stood against just moments earlier. Staring at what was left of the zakobon, he spotted the small exposed refractor shards in its broken frame and proceeded to remove it in calm silence. Off-handedly, he wondered if he would ever get used to brushes of death like that.
Bram? Bram are you there? Are you okay?
Hearing the frantic voice of his little sister calling out to him broke the young digger from his stunned silence, and he picked the transceiver up from his pocket. "Yeah… I made it, somehow."
Oh thank goodness… are you hurt?
"Huh? Not really… well, a little banged up I guess," Bram mumbled, finally taking the time to check himself for injuries as he slowly regained his composure. He could barely move his right arm—he had his crazy plan to thank for that. His left ankle and knee also seemed to ache from the big fall he suffered earlier. He would probably need to rest a few days before he could start digging again, but that was just fine. At this point he was just looking forward to getting out with his head intact. "I'll be okay."
Huh… well you know you shouldn't scare me like that, especially right after my birthday!
The young digger shook his head as he slightly limped his way back, a small smile curling on his lips. Leave it to Ashlynn to calm him down. She wasn't the only who had gotten scared—they were both so easily freaked out in crazy situations like this, though Bram would probably never openly admit it. In a lot of ways he depended on his little sister to keep him focused on priorities, especially now that things were hard on Susan. The junk store wasn't selling like it used to, and hard times seemed inevitable. Fortunately, this haul would keep them comfortable for a while. "You're not gonna stop using your birthday to torment me are you?"
Nope. Blame your unlucky stars!
"Oh why must the world be so cruel…!" Bram said in an over-dramatic tone, playing along and simply enjoying these rare moments with his sister. Having had more than his fair share of close calls to last a lifetime, his perspective on life seemed to change almost every time he went down on a dig.
Oh that's easy Bram! It's because the world hates you—wanna know why?
The boy couldn't help but raise an amused brow at that one… she was getting wittier every single day. "Why?"
Because you're my best friend, and it's jealous of course!
Several seconds passed without any reply.
Bram? Hello? Did the signal get cut off again?
"No no, I'm around," The elder sibling sighed, taken aback by Ashlynn's words. He normally wasn't a very emotional person in general as it often got in the way of the tasks at hand, but leave it to his little sister make him feel like the best big brother in the world. There was absolutely no way he was ever going to let her down; the very thought simply wasn't plausible to him. "And you know I'll always be around."
…You promise?
"I promise," Bram replied, a soft smile gracing his features. He could vaguely remember promising her something similar to this a couple of times in the past, but who kept count anyway? What mattered was how they felt now, and he was glad that nothing had changed. Despite everything that had happened to them—or perhaps because of it—their relationship had only grown stronger.
Feeling like he needed to give his little sister a big hug when he got back, Bram stopped in front of one of the steep climbs he had needed to descend to continue on the ruins and pointed his drill gun up toward the opening. After this, the cave formations would become more and more common as he made his way back to the surface. "Anyways, I'm entering the confusing part of this place again… let me know if I'm going the right direction okay?"
Sure! Hah, your sense of direction is terrible as always Bram…
"It's okay, my cooking makes up for it."
Just barely!
ROCKMAN DASH SIDE STORY: スペランカーの伝説! (LEGEND OF THE SPELUNKER, SUPERANKĀ NO DENSETSU) – PROLOGUE END
A/N: Hello, how is everybody? Just thought I'd write down an entirely new adventure in one of my favorite video-game universes: Rockman Dash. As you've read, the prologue features only part of a dig and introduces two of the lead characters, but they will be fleshed out in Chapter one along with details and locations (for example, none of Ashlynn's physical features were described because she's just a voice in the prologue).
Also, I'm very busy so I might not be able to write this down as often as I would like… but I'm determined to try my very best with this story. I've doodled some concept art for the characters which I will upload in the near future to help everyone's imagination. Another note is that the actual chapters will be much longer than this one (maybe around six to eight thousand words)—just a heads up for those who have trouble with long chapters.
I wrote this because I wanted to experience again the grand and innocent adventure portrayed in the old Rockman Dash games. This time, it will be in a different light because the ordinary digger (with albeit some useful gadgets which will be explained in detail further into the story) is not nearly as durable or powerful as everyone's favorite blue boy.
Of course, Bram is a lot more durable than the iconic character I based him off of (hint: title)…
Anyways, liked it? Hated it? Don't hesitate to tell me what you think yeah?
May the world covered in endless water continue to cover ours in endless adventure =).