"Un. Believable."
Prince Noctis sighed, exasperated. They had pushed the Regalia, the King's royal vehicle on loaner for the trip, for at least the past hour. Given that the sun was beginning to drop steadily closer to the horizon, and the air was (thankfully) beginning to cool, they had to have made some decent progress. Yet the Hammerhead outpost (or at least some form of civilization, if not that) was still a distant spec up ahead.
Gladiolus scoffed. "Not exactly the fairy-tale beginning, huh?" his voice strained, muscles flexing as he pushed against the trunk.
"We let ourselves get carried away." Ignis piped up from the driver's seat. He ran a gloved hand through his mousy-brown hair and checked the rear-view mirror for approaching traffic, but all he could see was the top of Gladiolus's black shag and a very barren road. He continued to steer the wheel so the car would go straight.
Prompto's shock of blonde hair shook from outside the passenger's side door. "Look, these things happen!" he grumbled in protest.
"Maybe this is some kind of omen," Gladiolus remarked sarcastically from behind the car.
"Hey, Gladio," Noctis chimed in. "You wanna do me a favor?"
"What's up, Noct?"
"Push this thing by yourself."
"Hah, all by myself?"
"You wont even notice if we just let go," Prompto added
Gladio shot imaginary daggers at the back of Prompto's head in response. "Prompto, don't even think about it."
Ignis sighed at the friendly banter, knowing it was doing nothing to help their situation. He checked the rear-view again; nothing. "Save some breath for pushing."
"Iggy, c'mon it's time to switch," Groaned Noctis, silently cursing the combination of a black car and afternoon sun.
"Nuh-uh!" Gladio's breath was starting to strain. "We just switched back there!"
"And it's my turn, Noct," Prompto added.
Ignis sighed to himself, slightly annoyed with the childishness in their conversation. Though he was Noctis's senior by only a couple of years, he felt like a caretaker to elementary school kids at times with their constant nitpicking and teasing. He sipped his canned coffee and adjusted his leather driving gloves. "Your "turn"?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow to Prompto.
He rolled his eyes at Ignis in response and kept pushing the car, though his muscles screamed for him to stop. Why couldn't they break down a bit closer to the mechanic? In actuality it probably wasn't that far away at all, perhaps a few minutes in motor-vehicle speed, however three-men-pushing-a-gargantuous-black-convertible-in-neutral speed? They would be lucky to make it before the sunset, just in time for the daemons to come out...
Noctis leaned in slightly to speak to Ignis. "Hey, Ignis. Have you tried to start it up again?" He asked, nodding to the ignition switch.
Ignis shook his head. "Why bother causing unnecessary stress to the engine? The vehicle is dead and needs to be serviced. The Hammerhead outpost is not far, if we keep going we should make it in time -"
"Oh just give it another go, Iggy," Gladio insisted, sweat beading across his forehead and down his tattooed biceps. "Couldn't hurt either way."
Not wanting to argue any further, Ignis turned the key in the ignition. Sure enough, nothing happened.
But then, a weak and very unhealthy chug-chug-chug of the engine stuttered, giving way to promise as the vehicle shuddered and the engine engaged completely, the dashboard lighting up again as the care came back to life.
Prompto grinned wildly. "Hoooorah!" He cheered, clapping as he hopped into the front passenger's seat, Noctis and Gladio following suit as they jumped into the back.
Ignis turned back to Noctis from the front seat. "Looks like we're back in business, Noct," he declared. "Though I would suggest we stop at the service station regardless. We could have caused some wear on the engine, and we'll also need to refuel and stock up on curatives."
"Yeah yeah, sure thing," Noctis dismissed, just happy to have the car running again. He checked the time on his phone then leaned back and closed his eyes as the Regalia began to accelerate faster. His breathing slowed from pushing the vehicle and he took a moment to enjoy the warm sun against his eyelids. He thought about Luna, his childhood friend and now fiancee, 'chosen by the stars' as it was told. He couldn't wait to see her again. It had been many years since the Empire invaded Tenebrae and they were separated, but they had kept in touch through writing back and forth. Luna's dog, Umbra had helped with delivering their messages to one another, but nothing he could write would show how he felt about meeting her once more.
Just as the Regalia started to reach cruising speed, Noctis grabbed his head in his palms, hissing through his teeth. From beside him, Gladio leaned in closer. "Noct, what's wrong?" He asked, as Prompto turned around from the passenger's seat while Ignis eyed him from the mirror.
Noctis buckled forward, his gut starting to bunch up inside of him. It felt like someone had stuck a vacuum nozzle down his throat and was trying to suck his internal organs out.
Suddenly Gladio was doubled over in pain as well, cursing and grabbing his torso as the wind was knocked from him. In the same second, Prompto gasped and whined out, no doubt for the same reason as the other two. Ignis had barely applied the brakes when the wave of nausea and same vacuum-like feeling hit him as well, and he nearly veered off the road from the immediate onset of symptoms.
The Regalia's engine choked, the car starting to jolt out of it's usual fluid motion and the wheels locked up. The tires skid abruptly as it slowed to a stop. Barely a second later, the Regalia and it's occupants were swallowed from thin air and disappeared from known existence.
Within the same heartbeat, the void that engulfed their vehicle and surrounded them with the darkest and deepest black space possible had exploded with light, and the Regalia was dropped several feet, slamming into the earth with a harsh impact that no doubt had caused considerable damage.
The four friends looked up at one another, the malady that ailed them mere seconds before gone entirely, but something else was very wrong. They were no longer on the road to the Hammerhead station, or any road for that matter; chunks of asphalt lay in ruins next to their vehicle, amid several other jagged rocks and exposed rebar. This was not the terrain they were driving on previously.
Prompto looked around, his eyes wide and expression apprehensive. "What the hell was that?!" His voice cracked as he squint his eyes in the harsh sunlight. "And...W-Where ARE we?!"
The Regalia had settled on a destroyed street between two tall buildings, visibly decrepit and missing walls and windows in some sections. Old lamp posts lay bent at extreme angles, rusted and without power, benches sun-bleached and in several pieces. More cause for attention was the multitude of blood spatters and assortment of definitely human remains decorating the ground around the car, along with a sprinkling of bullet casings from what was easily a very large gun.
Several feet to the right side of the Regalia, a lone figure stood, holding said large gun in their gloved hands.
Noctis studied the figure, trying to determine if it was friend or foe. It was of obvious humanoid build, but something seemed off. It looked like it was either wearing thick armor or was not an actual human at all. "Is that some kind of robot?" He asked, wondering if he should get out and approach it. "Magitek perhaps?"
Gladio beat him to it and hopped out from the Regalia, Ignis joining close behind him. The figure stood silent and still, it's head tilted to the side as if to study the four strangers. It did not lower the hefty machine gun, but at the same time didn't seem like it was thinking about firing it anytime soon.
Behind the lone figure, a damaged white building loomed from which the sun was starting to pass behind. Near the top, a man stood on the balcony cradling a strange rifle in his arms. "Hey!" He called down to the newcomers. "Where did you come from?"
Gladio waved to the man as he walked closer towards the unknown figure, who had yet to move or acknowledge them. He blocked the sun from his eyes and shouted back to the man on the balcony. "Where are we?"
Before the man on the balcony could respond, and before Gladio and Ignis could reach the strange being in front of them, a deafening crack thundered out from behind them in the distance, the sound of metal reverberating between the buildings. Ignis caught sight of a steel, disc-shaped object as it catapulted through the air and smacked into the side of an abandoned grocery store. From back in the car, Noctis and Prompto were first to see what threw the metal object.
And how they wish they hadn't. Said metal object was an old sewer grate, and the thing that had ripped it from the ground and tossed it through the air without any difficulty..could only be described as a monster.
Noctis had seen plenty depictions of beasts and daemons in his twenty years. Nothing before this had made him truly fear for his life.
A messenger of death itself emerged from the sewers, two thick and hellish horns curved downwards from its scaled head, spikes along its rigid spine, covered in a mar of scales and rough, scabrous skin. At the end of each impressively sized hand it wielded five enormous claws. Two calculating white eyes studied the onlookers, it's head twitched before letting out a blood-chilling roar.
The man from the balcony hollered to them from above. "DEATHCLAW! RUN!"
On que, the monster broke into a full sprint towards the Regalia, its teeth snarled and it's breath huffing and grunting as it barreled closer, it's thick muscular legs pistoning faster as it gained speed. Noctis grabbed Prompto by the collar, who was visibly frozen in shock, and hopped over the side of the car and joined Ignis and Gladio just in time.
It gave no moment of pause as the deathclaw reached the Regalia and it's massive talons swiped upwards furiously at the vehicle, shredding the metal trim as it ripped off the driver's side door in one motion. The screeching metal against razor sounds made Noctis wince as he watched his father's car be destroyed by this beast. "What the hell is going on?!" He turned to question the strange figure from before, but it was no longer behind them.
Ignis noticed as well. "Did that machine abandon us?" he questioned, his daggers out and ready to take the defense. Gladio had his great sword drawn as well, the pair instinctively moving in front to protect the prince as they could only stare in bewilderment, watching the deathclaw slash at the leather upholstery as if it were innards.
A whimper escaped Prompto's lips. "I-It killed the car," he said, voice hoarse, watching with a pained expression as it separated the steering wheel from the dash, tossing it aside.
"Exactly how do we take this thing on?" Gladio desperately questioned the group.
WHAM!
A beam of red light slammed into the deathclaw from behind them. The monster reeled from the impact and wailed, but was not gravely injured. Noctis swiveled his head back to see the guy on the balcony had fired a round from his rifle, and was readying for a second. He delivered another hard blow to the deathclaw, but it wasn't enough to down the beast.
From the left broadside of the building and closest to the deathclaw, the lone figure from before emerged carting its massive machine gun, it's footfalls thundering one after the other. It hoisted the machine gun up as the chassis started to turn. The muzzle grew red hot as it suddenly unloaded utter devastation onto the deathclaw, it's body jerking from the impact as hundreds of bullets pummeled into it. Within seconds the beast let out a gargled cry before it fell backwards into the Regalia, dead.
Seconds passed as the four of them stood in impressed silence, the man from the balcony cheering from above. "Nice one, that went better than expected!" he claimed. "Come back inside, we need to discuss some things. Oh and uhh, you lot," he motioned to the group of four, standing silently in confusion. "Feel free to join us if you'd like."
The robotic-like figure passed the group in steady stride, it's head turned to silently inspect the four of them, strange dark windows where the eyes should be. It looked like a mechanical human wearing a gas mask. It stopped at the foot of the stairs to the building where the man in the balcony was and dropped the machine gun, flexing it's armored fingers in relief. Gladio turned to the rest of the group. "Noct, what should we do? Do you want to check this place out more or see what these people are about?"
Noctis glanced around to their surroundings once more. This was not any place he could recognize; it was straight out of an apocalyptic graphic novel he had read many years ago, but something else was off. The air was thick, and though necessary to breathe it felt wrong somehow. It looked like they didn't have a choice either way; they wanted answers and this was an opportunity to get them. "I say we ask for directions and then figure out where to get a tow, the car's wrecked," Noctis suggested, frowning as he eyed the slashed-up remains of the Regalia as it ominously cradled the deathclaw's ruined body.
A whooshing sound caught their attention and they turned back to face the armored figure once more. The back hatch of the figure unlocked, a crank popping up and every limb unbuckled as a person backed out from inside.
It was small, female and wearing a skin-tight blue suit with bright yellow piping, the number 111 stitched onto the back. Her brown hair danced around her face in the warm wind as she turned around to face them. She approached quickly, a startled expression on her pale face. "So who can explain to me exactly how you just did that?" she asked, gesturing to the Regalia behind them.
Gladio coughed. "Excuse me?" he asked callously.
The woman's green eyes narrowed, her eyebrows knit together. "How did you appear out of thin air?"
