Another chapter yaa. I am looking for beta readers. Just message me about it. Reviews are welcomed, good or bad. Any pointers to help improve the story are also welcomed. I will most likely be trying to upload a chapter weekly. Just a reminder, I don't own FFX, just this OC.
Wet. That was only feeling that came into Max's mind as he woke up. Quickly looking around, he spotted Tidus on a slab of rock. As he swam towards the rock, Tidus woke up.
"Anybody there?" Tidus quickly shouted. Max sent a splash of water towards Tidus to notify him to look left. Seeing Max, Tidus looked relieve that his best friend somehow managed to land in the same area, wherever they were.
Then he noticed that Auron wasn't with them and shout out, "Auron!"
Seeing no reply, he gave a frustrated shout out loud, scaring the bird that was in front of him. As the bird flew away, both teenagers followed its flight path with their eyes and saw an old building in the distance. Figuring that they needed shelter, both of them decided to swim towards it. As they were swimming, Tidus noticed how that there were ruins below them, theorizing that at one point it was dry land before. Max took note of some letters that were on their rights. Quickly scaling up to the words, he saw what was written on it.
'Eh dra myht frana pumdc uv mekrd emmisehyda dra pmylgacd hekrd. Fedr Sylymyhey pareht dra vuindr bemmyn oui cekrd Muug hud uh dra mavd pid uh dra nekrd.'
As Tidus followed close by and saw the letters, he looked at it quizzically and shrugged.
"Nope, can't read it. This language familiar to you Max?" Tidus asked.
"No. I've never seen this dialect before. Better take a photo of it just in case I guess," said Max lifted his arm guard towards it. Sadly, due to excess water exposure as well as damage from the travels, it didn't load up.
"Dammit. I better fix this when I get the chance and put in better water protection as well as durability," he grumbled as he put it down and reached into his utility belt. Luckily, the belt had survived and was waterproof. He took a piece of paper and pen and wrote down the words, hoping to find out what they meant. As he put the paper away, he noticed something terribly wrong.
"Where are my guns?" as he frantically searched around his body before looking around the ruins. Tidus only then noticed that he didn't have his sword with him either.
"Great. The only gift from my old man and I lose it within the hour," Tidus griped.
"At least you can get another sword from somewhere easily. I have to rebuild my guns again!"bellyached Max "The only good thing is I suppose I can finally incorporate my new designs I had planned for my guns. At least my ammunition packs I was carrying are safe. Don't think I'll be able to head back home to get more anytime soon."
As the two traveled further towards the temple they got out of the water and onto the land. Max mused out loud, "I seem to be in a love/hate relationship with the floor. At one point I like it, and another it causes me terrible pain." As they went further in, both noticed a narrow bridge that seemed to be crumpling. Underneath them was a large pool of water. Not really wanting to debate about it, the two quickly tried to cross the bridge. Suddenly, something struck the land behind them, causing the bridge to collapse.
As they were falling, Max screamed out, "I HATE YOU FLOOR!"
As the two sunk down to the water, Tidus quickly scanned around and found saw a shoreline to swim to. Tidus signaled Max to follow and swam towards it. As they were swimming, both boys noticed something was wrong. The currents had suddenly changed in a still lake of water. As both boys ducked down to see, they instantly panicked. In the lake was a massive fish with two protruding fins and a fat belly that seemed to carry nothing as there were many holes through it. Tidus quickly noticed a hole for them to swim to and motioned Max to swim towards it. Since Tidus was an active blitzball player, he swam faster than Max and reached the hole first. As Max was kicking as hard he could, the fish was gaining on him. Tidus could see its mouth about to swallow Max as he swam towards the hole. With a femtosecond left, Max managed to reach the hole before the fish bashed its mouth into it. The force caused both Tidus and Max to flip in the water while being shot forward. As soon as both were finally able to stop the world from whirling around them, they noticed they were inside the building.
Max looked around and noticed that it was actually some sort of temple. The statues seemed to signify some importance, but the decay had set in, making them unrecognizable. The surrounding areas seem to be in ruins, signifying that this temple had lost its purpose and people for a long time. Tidus saw the remains of the campfire and only had one thing in mind: warmth.
"We should get a fire going on. It's freezing in here," said Tidus as his teeth chattered.
Max acknowledged and set out to find some fuel. Tidus went into one of the rooms to discover a set of flint rocks. As he went back out, he saw Max already putting a withered bouquet on. He had also grabbed all the flowers in the surrounding area before laying them in a separate pile.
"This pile of flowers is wet from the surrounding moisture. I was lucky to even find one that was still dry. Hopefully, we can use these if we put them near the fire to dry out for more fuel," explained Max.
Tidus concurred and pulled out the flint rocks that he managed to find. Using the rocks, they were able to start a fire.
As they quickly huddled around the fire, Max decided to quickly go through his inventory in his belt. He sighed in relief as he saw that most of his items were still there and working. His tool kit, ammo pack, hookshot, a pouch full of gils, binoculars, and wires he had forgotten to take out was still in there. He found a short sheath that he had packed and tossed one to Tidus. With a quick flick, an expandable stun baton came out that Max had made. Its voltage was modified to go up to at least 50,000 volts when stabbed. It wasn't the perfect weapon, but it was sturdy enough and would provide at least some form of weapon for them to have. Tidus turned to Max to ask about his weapon when Max merely pointed to his greaves and gestured that he could still kick.
As Tidus laid out on the floor to relax, Max went to work on trying to fix his arm computer. As the minutes passed, both of them started to feel hunger setting in.
"I need food," lamented Tidus. Max merely grunted in acknowledgment while replacing some of the wiring in his computers with the new wires.
"Get some rest Tidus,"called out Max. "We're gonna need our energy for whatever outs here. I'll take first watch since I still need to work on my computer to get it working again."
Tidus acceded and started to fall asleep. He had a dream about a memory two years ago. The Jecht memorial cup was going full tide, but the Abe's had lost their chance thanks to Tidus's anger. Every year on that day, he would always be resentful to everyone, but this time it had finally affected his game and team.
Flashback begins
As Tidus walked angrily around his home, Auron came in to visit.
"What do you want?" demanded Tidus.
"It was a bad call," replied Auron, "Your team lost because of you."
"You came in just to say that?" Tidus scowled.
Max entered in silently and just sat on the couch.
Auron continued to walk forward with barely a change in his expression. "Its been ten years," said Auron. He looked at Tidus with a small smirk, "I thought you'd be crying."
"Who, me?" as Tidus gestured impatiently. Max merely raised an eyebrow as he had seen Tidus actually cry in the locker rooms after the game, but decided to hold his tongue.
As Auron walked away, the same boy with a purple hood suddenly appeared with swirling blue/green lights.
"You cried."
Flashback ends
Tidus woke up as Max ushered him awake. The fire was still going strong, but their supply of fuel was quickly dwindling down.
"It's your turn to watch, I need to get some shut-eye," yawned Max.
Suddenly, as lightning flashed, there was a fiend on the wall. Its eyes glowed red as it snapped its front claws. The four-legged fiend seem to have blades as legs instead. It started to scuttle around the walls in a circle before leaping forward towards them. Tidus and Max both got into fighting positions and tried to surround the fiend. Tidus struck first, narrowly dodging the fiends claws. Max came from behind and tried to kick the fiend . The fiend's tail whipped out and caught Max in the stomach. After being tossed out, Max sluggishly pulled himself up. Both men were hungry, but Max was more tired than Tidus since he hadn't been able to take a nap yet.
As it seemed like doom for the both of them, the doors in the temple suddenly blew open. Tidus took a glance and saw four strangely dressed men pointing guns at both the fiend and them. The blitzer quickly covered Max just in case they weren't trigger happy. Max glanced at the guns before frowning.
'Those rifles seems to be single shot and incredibly inefficient,' he pondered, 'Maybe they have better penetration than the ones I build? Doesn't seem like it though.'
A female with blonde hair came from behind the four men and seemed to assert herself as the leader of the group. Wearing a tan wet suit that clearly defined her curves, she had red armor that seemed to cover various parts of her body, including her arms, outer legs, and head. She wore a green leather belt and had goggles. She approached the two teenagers, seemingly analyzing them. Max noted that she seemed to be slightly younger than them, perhaps still a girl but almost reaching womanhood. He slightly blushed at the thought of the girl becoming a woman. He noticed that the girl had grabbed something from her belt before tossing it towards the fiend.
It was a small green object that bounced before landing underneath the fiend. Tidus frowned before recognizing it as some sort of projectile.
Max widened his eyes and yelled out "Grenade! Get Down!"
Tidus, recognizing that signal, quickly pulled Max back with him as the grenade exploded. The fiend burst into swirling lights after being hit by the explosion.
"Whew. That was close," said Tidus cheerfully as the girl had taken her goggles off, showing her green eyes.
Upon closer inspection, Max noticed that there seemed to be some sort of swirl in them. Both was hoping that these newcomers were friendly. Regrettably, that didn't seem to be the case. The four men quickly surrounded Tidus and Max and grabbed Tidus by the hair. The blitzer made a yelp, "Hey, let me go," as he dropped the baton. The engineer was pinned down to the floor by another with a gun to his head. Max decided to remain quit, letting Tidus do the talking. They pointed their guns at the duo, causing Tidus to stop moving.
'Great,' Max sarcastically congratulated himself, 'If we aren't going to be eaten, then we're going to be shot at instead.'
"Fryd ec drec?" questioned one of the men in a harsh tone.
Tidus frowned as he couldn't understand what was being said. Max was busy trying to analyze what they were trying to say by their tone of voice as he didn't recognize the language either.
"Y Fiend!" replied another man holding Max down, "Eh risyh teckieca!" He didn't notice Max and grabbed the baton and sheathed it, hiding it beneath his body and into his clothes.
"Oac! Ed ec cu!" The last man yelled out as he took out a knife, ready to slit Tidus's throat. "Fa gemm ed?"
"Fyed!" shouted the girl urgently, "Fryd ey ed ec risyh?"
The knife wielder impatiently replied, "Drao yna dra cysa eh tadyr."
The girl shook her head and used a tone that allowed for no argument, "E vunpt ed! Fa pnehk ed fedr ic."
Max took note of the argument, hoping that the men were listening to the girl as she seemed to be their best hope of getting out of here alive. The man released Tidus's hair as the girl closed in on Tidus.
As she walked forward and put her mouth close to Tidus's ear, Max heard the girl say, "Cunno."
Before he realized it, the girl had punched Tidus in the stomach hard. Max tried to get up, but a hand shot out and slammed him into the floor.
As darkness took over both of them, Max's last thoughts were, 'I so hate the floor right now.'