Joe's Note: When I started this project, I intended to do only six chapters to keep from doing what was essentially a gameplay rewrite of Horizon Zero Dawn the way that far too many people try to rewrite entire books or seasons of shows as fan fiction. But as I worked on character designs and ideas, I realized that I could introduce a slightly larger selection of Marvel characters - and show more moments from Aloy's story - without reaching a 'total rewrite' level of coverage. Mostly because that game is easily a seventy-five to ninety hour adventure if you're thorough and after a completionist playthrough the way that I am. So without further ado? We pick back up with Aloy's exploration of the Grave-Hoard... where she meets not one but two blasts from Emma's past.
Dedications & Thanks: To Nicholas, Howard, Alexander, Tibor, Alonsis2, Daniel, Charles, Andrew, Morgan, Marc, Samuel, Crygon20, PbookR, Jason, Stephen, Subtle, Roofcrawler, Edward, Fablesrogue, Joseph, Christopher, Wil, Daniel, Chris, bloodylord, Jacky, Beverly, Devin, William, RileyWestfall, Jade, George, Ziryo, Leigh, Charles, Paul, Haematite, Mauday, Gavin, Lookshy, TheTenthAncestor, David, Warren, Jess, and Roman for sponsoring me on , and making it easier for me to spend more of my time writing.
Of course, given Aloy's luck, they couldn't go straight to the Grave-Hoard to continue their investigation after departing from Maker's End. They'd returned to Meridian briefly, undertaken a flurry of trading and bartering for new and improved supplies for their quest. From there, they'd moved on to helping out several different needy parties at - surprisingly enough - Emma's insistence, cleaned out a handful of bandit camps threatening the trade routes set up between various cities, and visited not one or two but three separate Cauldrons to expand both of their control over the various machines roaming their world. The last had been particularly challenging, forcing the pair to wade through a small army of Eclipse cultists before they could reach the core and override it.
Finally, though, her new girlfriend had deemed them ready to move on, and so they'd set out for the eastern mountains. Or as Emma had called them, the Rocky Mountains. Which was a perfectly foolish name in Aloy's opinion, because weren't all mountains made of rock? The Old Ones seemed to have a fondness for names that stated the obvious, the redhead was discovering. Like 'girlfriend' for a woman who you were intimate with but not yet betrothed or married. Obviously she was a girl, and if they were doing... that... then clearly they were friends at a minimum.
'If you can't even think the word 'sex', darling, then I'm not sure we should be having it.'
As they approached the ancient door that she'd just spent the better part of twenty minutes restoring power to, Aloy shot a reproachful look at Emma before focusing her mind the way the blonde had taught her to. 'You know, this is really unfair. You know every single thought I have, but I only get to know the ones you share with me.'
Emma offered a faint shrug in reply, sidling up on the redhead's left before reaching over to cop a feel of Aloy's ass. 'If you must know, I've been thinking about doing that the whole time you were scampering up and down those ladders. You have an ass you could bounce a Blazing Sun medallion off of.'
Scoffing, Aloy reached back to bat at the hand currently resting on her rear. "I get that you already know most of what Sylens and I are learning from me visiting these sites, but could you at least take me seriously even if you're not taking my journey seriously?"
"It's hard to take things seriously when your opponents have yet to discover how gunpowder works yet... but I'll do my best?" Emma slid her hand up to the small of Aloy's back and then around to rest on the redhead's hip as she gestured upward with her free hand. "And to answer one of your other unasked questions? They were named by the original inhabitants of this area, whose names for landmarks were exceedingly literal. As in, as-sin-wati meant 'when seen from across the prairies, they looked like a rocky mass' in native Algonquian. Personally, I think they sound far nicer in French - les montagnes Rocheuses - even if the meaning is the same. Then again, literally everything sounds classier in French if you ask me."
"So does that mean that you'd rather me call you la Reine Blanche, then?" Aloy whirled around in surprise at the unexpected voice, her hand hovering over her bow for a moment before opting for her spear instead. In the tight confines of the Grave-Hoard's narrow corridors, she reasoned, combat would likely be either melee or hand-to-hand. Absently, she realized that Emma seemed completely at ease even as she reacted, the blonde's arm remaining looped loosely around her waist, and then she spotted the intruder and understood why.
It was another Old One.
It had to be, given the way that she appeared in a shower of blue motes of light, bursting outward through flickering afterimages of herself as she... she almost seemed to be growing to full size? Despite the fact that her clothing had a distinctly Oseram vibe to them, she clearly wasn't; the fluttering bug wings emerging from her back was proof enough of that. And then Emma gave a throaty laugh. "Janet van Dyne. Nice of you to finally join us properly. You're looking very... native."
Janet took a moment to regard Emma warily before her lips curled upward in a smile, the smaller woman edging around Aloy so that she could pull Emma into a hug. "Janet Pym, actually. Hank and I reconciled before the end. He's currently using his ants to sneak his latest delving trophies out past Eclipse. Who... given that you're with 'The Red-Hair', I'm assuming are the reason why you're here?"
Keeping one arm firmly wrapped around Aloy's waist, Emma used the other to envelop the newcomer and keep Janet pulled tight against herself and Aloy, patting her on the back a few times before letting her hand drift down to... rest on the Oseram's ass? "After a fashion. Sylens-"
"Is that fucker still alive? He pissed Hank off a year or so ago and took a size hundred boot from here to a nearby peak."
"While both that and your survival are stories that I have every intention of either hearing or stealing from your mind? Yes." Emma nodded in Aloy's direction before leaning in to rest her cheek on the redhead's shoulder, her right arm remaining wrapped around Aloy's waist even as her left hand remained firmly planted on Janet's ass. "He got it in his head to try and use Aloy as his errand girl by dangling her connection to Elisabet Sobeck out there in front of her an incentive. I've been allowing it because I still haven't located all the things he stole from Malmstrom, and he can't pay for the rest of his sins before he pays for that one."
There were a few seconds of companionable silence, and then Janet peered back over her shoulder. "I can't help but notice that your hand is on my ass."
Aloy couldn't help but snicker at Janet's petulant tone; despite the fact that it was her girlfriend touching another woman, she was still able see the humor in the situation. "She does that. A lot."
"Here we are in the year of our Lord 3040, Emma, and you still can't accept that I'm straight?"
"In the incredibly profound words of one of my students... so is spaghetti until you get it wet."
That earned the blonde a groan of disgust from Janet, the smaller Oseram woman looking to Aloy in askance before shaking her head in resignation. "You're not going to be any help. Given that she doesn't even touch people casually unless she really likes them, you're evidently crazy enough to be involved with her."
"She's dating someone who's been marked for death by a killer AI, so I'd like to think that it's mutual craziness on both our parts." Aloy's words elicited a disgruntled noise from Emma, who tried to escape only to be pulled back in as Aloy reciprocated with an arm around the blonde's waist. "In all seriousness, I'm assuming that you and this 'Hank' of yours are... special... like Emma is? Would you be willing to help us clean Eclipse out of the Grave-Hoard?"
Wriggling out of Emma's grasp, Janet nodded excitedly as she rubbed her hands together, sending little crackles of yellow energy dancing over her fingertips. "Thought you'd never ask. As long as you don't mind me joining your fellowship, I figure I'll stick around until Hank signals me that he's done. Whatever you guys are up to has to be more exciting than herding ants."
That was the second mention involving Hank and ants, which was one of the precious few organic - one of the many concepts that she'd learned from Emma - creatures that she knew much about outside of the prey animals that the Nora hunted and trapped. Given how small they were, what could Janet and Hank be using them for when it came to moving... anything? And how did one herd them? Aloy shook her head again; she would just have to accept for now that she was in the presence of yet another Old One whose life experiences and abilities were simply outside of her ability to comprehend. Guiding Emma forward, she activated the door that she'd worked so hard to restore power to and then stepped through, frowning as a cacophony of noise washed over her. "Tools being used. And voices. More Eclipse. Must be another way in."
From behind Aloy came a faint popping noise followed by a soft gust of wind, and then Janet... a tiny version of Janet, but most certainly Janet... was landing on Emma's bare shoulder. "Wow, I thought you'd replaced Jean in your life but she's really more of a Steve. She's got that 'authoritatively stating the obvious' thing down pat."
"You get used to it after a while, and then it becomes strangely endearing. Like dating a video game protagonist who has to vocalize all her inner thoughts for the sake of exposition." The trio passed through a short corridor that had been almost completely reclaimed by natural stalagmites and stalactites, emerging into a massive cavern lit by both natural light and man-made torches. And the glowing red eyes of at least one corrupted Scrapper, which promised to make the coming battle even more interesting for them. "Aloy? For the sake of the non-telepath in the room, call your shots."
Aloy's fingers came up to brush against her Focus, enveloping the world in blazing light. There was the Scrapper that was impossible to miss, along with... one two three four five six seven... eight Eclipse cultists in their immediate vicinity. Along two unknown items; based on their time in the Grave-Hoard so far, they were probably surviving computers struggling to connect with her Focus but the possibility also existed that they were stashes of what her Focus deemed salvageable components. "I'm going to go up the left side. There's one person in the nearest office along with something of interest to my Focus. Janet, do you and Emma want to go up the middle? There's five cultists and the Scrapper will probably respond pretty quickly from the rear office, but I think Emma can protect you if you get overwhe-"
"The fuck you say?" Leaping off of Emma's shoulder, Janet returned to her full size in another shower of blue sparkles before vaulting over the handrail separating them from a drop down to the cavern floor. But she didn't drop to the floor as Aloy expected, instead continuing to grow taller and taller until she rivaled a Thunderjaw in size. "Hey! Assholes! Put up your dukes!"
Aloy cringed as Janet drove a massive fist into the ground, pulping the body of the brave - or more accurately, suicidal - cultist who actually rushed to engage her first. Sometimes, she wished that she could experience the world of the Old Ones that Emma was showing her more and more glimpses of. Times like this? Not so much.
Standing over the console in the briefing room, Aloy stared down uncertainly at the handprint reader on the console in front of her. Or at least that's what Emma had called the one they discovered in what she was internally calling the Map Room. how anyone or anything could read a hand when it didn't have any writing on it, the redhead had no idea. But after battling through more Eclipse than she could count, along with a fully functional and mobile Deathbringer? Even if the battles had been made significantly easier with Janet's help? It still seemed like a bit of a let down as a reward for all her effort.
But as Emma was fond of reminding her when she complained that the Banuk was keeping hugely important secrets from her, the blonde was a 'hand up, not a hand out'. If Aloy wanted the answers to the mysteries swirling around her existence, then Emma expected her to put in her fair share of effort. And so the redhead pressed her hand against the palm reader, waiting for the light to sweep back and forth over her skin before stepping back so she could get a better view of the multiple holographic figures that sprang to life. "Thank you, Doctor Sobeck. You can take a seat."
"Hah! You're going to thank her?! After what she just said?!"
"Doctor Sobeck has made the situation very clear, General... and given us an option. We should all be thanking her."
Aloy watched with a critical eye as the scene played out, watching as long dead men argued over Elisabet's plan to save them from extinction. She had to agree with the one man; intentionally sending untrained people to die - especially for a lie - was a horrific act. But clearly it had worked out in their favor, because Elisabet had come through with... whatever Zero Dawn was. Clearly. Because Aloy was standing there to listen to the recording. Right?
Her mind whirled as she led Emma and Janet out of the briefing room and then up the escape elevator's shaft into the sunlight, leaving Aloy only peripherally aware of the conversations going on around her. Emma and Sylens seemed to agree that continuing to follow in Elisabet's footsteps to the Orbital Launch Base was essential... except those footsteps would take them into the underside of the Citadel at Sunfall. But while the Old Ones were confident that their abilities would allow them to see Aloy safely through the Shadow Carja stronghold to her destination, Sylens seemed far less certain of their success. Something about a 'network' of Focuses connecting Eclipse members to HADES. She idly vocalized that she didn't know what a network does. Sylens responded. And then Aloy knew what her next step was. "All right. So there's this 'vast invisible web' of signals connecting Eclipse members and that's why they're a threat. Well what do you to when a spider moves in somewhere that you don't want it? You cut its web down."
That earned Aloy an approving look from both Emma and Janet... and at some point they'd picked up an Oseram man as well. Who was sitting astride a giant ant that someone had lashed a mixture of armor and storage containers to. She was going to assume it was Janet's previously mentioned husband Hank because... Old One dressed as an Oseram while riding an ant? Who else could it be? Sylens spared a moment to shoot a nervous look over at Hank before returning his attention to Aloy with an appraising look on his face. "Hmm. Crash the network. Audacious." After a few seconds, he nodded decisively. "Yes, there is a way. A weak point in the network."
There. They had a course of action now, rather than standing around arguing about her capabilities. "Good. Point the way."
"Heh. I'll send the location data to your Focus." Sylens waved an arm, clearly manipulating his own Focus as he spoke with Aloy. "Head there, and I'll be in touch when you're close with more directions." And then he rippled and disappeared, returning to... whatever he'd been working on all afternoon while Aloy risked her life for the answers he sought.
From atop his insectoid steed, Hank cleared his throat before reaching up to adjust the utterly alien, bug-like metal helmet that he wore. "If I could offer a word of advice? We may not know each other, Aloy, but I do know that Sylens is a conniving, manipulative, dishonorable son of a bitch. If you're going to be trying to crash a network being monitored by an AI... then I think that you might want to come meet my son first."
