Chapter 7: The Fall of Vans Colter
The group sets sail out over the open sea, it's a beautiful day with hardly a cloud in sight. Rik never really knew how big the ocean really is, but it seemed to stretch forever. He watches as the sky city in the distance disappears from view, suddenly the sun is snuffed out by clouds.
"Wow, seems like we've ran into a rogue storm" says Captain Grayson.
"This storm seems unnatural," Tox says, "it appeared seemingly out of nowhere."
"Ooo, spooky," said Rik.
"Spooky indeed!" said Grayson, "we are awfully close to the Dead Man's Drink."
"That sounds clique," said Nate, "but what is it, a sea graveyard?"
"Pretty much," said Grayson, "some say it is haunted due to all the weird storms and claims of ghost ships."
"Can we just fly above the clouds?" asked Rik, "seems much safer up there."
"There is hardly any air up there" said Nate, "so no we can't." Just as the storm began to strengthen, a ship materialized from seemingly nothing rising from the sea. It harbored a skeletal crew armed with cutlasses and glowed eerily green.
"Funny," said Tox, "we were just speaking of ghost ships and here is one."
"Ha ha," said Nate, "if you couldn't tell that was bitter laughter."
"I was aware of it" Tox said. The skeletal crew then jumped aboard Grayson"s ship and began to attack.
"Their nothin but bone!" said Rik, "I got this!" Rik then slides toward a skeleton and grabs his leg bone. The skeleton comedically falls flailing. Nate meanwhile disarm one about to attack and slashes it down with his (or her?) own sword. Tox breaths sky and flings bones everywhere. Meanwhile Grayson is ducking behind the wheel hoping to be unseen. A skeleton pirate grabs him, and he frighteningly kicks the skeleton away, and the skeleton falls to pieces. They fought until the ghost ship dipped down and into the sea. Soon the clouds dissipated into the beautiful blue sky once again. The deck however was still littered with bones.
"Wait are these real bones?" Rik asks as he picks one up and gnaws on it. "It's salty but definitely a bone alright" he says.
"Strange seeing how they were quite ghostly" said Grayson.
"Yeah, it's a little weird" Rik agrees. They continued sailing on the open sea. Dolphins leapt from beneath the waves and a whale surfaces and then sinks back below.
"Well," said Nate, "should be smooth sailing here on ou-" then suddenly the ship began to cough and sputter.
"Oh dear," said Grayson, "not again, we will have to make an emergency landing to the water." The ship is steered gently to ride the ocean waves.
"Um, you were saying Nate?" Rik asks.
"Not now Rik" Nate replies, "just bad timing, nothing to do with me, I don't believe in jinxing."
"Even if it was coincidence you should have just said nothing" said Tox. Grayson spent the next several hours fixing the ship's problem, Nate tried to help out as best he could. Eventually they were able to get the ship running again but at this point dusk was near. Grayson agreed to fly until he could not see anymore before landing in the water again and throwing the anchor. Grayson finally docks the ship when he can see no more and calls it a night. Hours later Rik is laying hands folded behind his head on the top bunk while Tox lies on the bottom. Rik hangs upside down from his bunk and says,
"Hey Tox, whatcha reading?"
"It's a book about how these airships work" Tox says. "It is quite fascinating how magic is used as a form of power to help ignite the steam engines as well as power multiple light sources and devices on the airship" he claims reading on.
"Oh, cool I guess," Rik said.
"You should stop hanging from the bunk like that," Tox says. "You are going to fall down."
"What nah, I have good grip" Rik says. And then as if on cue Rik fall onto the quarters floor.
"Ow, my snout!" Rik said holding his muzzle.
"Can't say I didn't warn you," Tox said with a amused smile.
"I did it to be funny" Rik said, "seriously just wanted to uh, make you laugh, yeah."
"I'm sure you did, Rik" Tox said, "we should get some rest, tomorrow is going to be quite the day I'm sure." The night passes and the morning comes, Rik wakes up and notices it's quite late in the morning.
"Felt like I slept longer than I have in over a year now" Rik says to himself getting up. Rik walks onto the deck and sees Tox looking off into the distance on the side of the ship.
"Good mornin Tox" Rik says.
"Good morning Rik." says Tox, "you slept pretty well."
"Yeah, it's been awhile since I had a rest for that long" Rik says.
"Clearly, we should be almost at our destination now" Tox said.
"Already?" asks Rik, "better get ready to go then." Rik then says good morning to Grayson and Nate and Nate states his plan,
"We are gonna go in there and make sure we do not harm any scientists and then force Vans to surrender."
"Great plan" Rik says a bit sarcastic, "too bad it's a blind stab in the dark at just what we will be up against."
"I'm sure we will be fine," Nate says, "after all I am unstoppable."
"Yeah," says Grayson, "sure hope that holds true cause I am about as durable as a crumblin danish pastry!" Eventually they arrive at the island, the three of them exit but Grayson stayed.
"I am sorry boys" Grayson said, "but this vessel is all I got left, I refuse to leave her side."
"It's alright we understand" said Nate.
"I do not blame him," Tox said, "it is not like he asked to get tied up in our affairs."
"Still" said Rik, "we are at a deserted island no one knows about, I think he's just too afraid."
"Perhaps," Nate said, "but if he doesn't want to go we can't just force him".
They make their way along the beach of the island. Nate looked trying to see just where the secret entrance could be.
"Found it yet?" asked Rik, shaking a crab that has latched on his tail off.
"Nope, working on it though," Nate replies. He walked down the cliff face and eventually comes across some rock that looked a bit out of place. He hits a secret switch and the entrance opens up.
"Found it" Nate said, "stay alert everyone." They walked down the eerily lit passage and eventually come across a trolley system.
"Oh hey," said Rik, "this place has one of them fancy cart rides the city had."
"Well, yeah" Nate said "considering how far under the facility must be it's not too surprising." They ride the trolley into the depths and eventually the underwater hideout is visible, a lot of it was glass for ocean viewing. Tox sees a robotic man in the distance slink out of sight as they arrive.
"We might be expected" Tox says, "one of them saw us arriving".
"Good" said Nate, "let them try to stop us." They enter out of the trolley docking and take a nearby elevator down to a division of the laboratory. They exit the elevator and into a facility of scientists tuning up Robotic Men.
"All of you!" shouted Nate, "we are here for Vans, we would like to talk to him, where is he?"
"I am right here" said Vans, "you have quite the audacity to intrude my lab".
"We're just here for the amulet, said Nate, "just give that to us we will leave and never return."
"A tempting offer" said Vans "but I feel it would be more satisfactory to dissect you and your little friends." Then suddenly a Robotic Man came to life behind Nate and hit him across the room. Before Rik had a chance to react Vans threw something emitting gas and before Rik knew it he was unconscious. Rik woke up, and he was floating,
"What where am I?" Rik asked bewildered. He was in space and before him he saw floating chunks of world and relics from seemingly other worlds. He looks behind him to see a vast number of universes stretching before his eye and then it all begins to fade away. Rik wakes up again this time in reality bound to what seemed be an operating table. And in the room there was two robotic men standing as guards and Dr. Vans Colter himself.
"I have a bad feeling about this" Rik says.
"As you should my specimen" Vans says.
"Yeah and why is that?" Rik asks.
"Because," said Vans, "you are going to be my very first robotic beast."
"Yeah I don't think so" Rik says.
"Resist all you like," said Vans, "but your fate.. is sealed".
Rik looks around trying to think of a way to possibly escape. He notices that the room has a lot of equipment that seems out of place for the time period.
"Er, what is the weird lookin stuff you have here?" Rik asks.
"Well," said Vans, "no harm in telling you since I will soon be purging you of all your memories." Vans continues, "I am actually from the future." "I came to the past with my advanced robotics knowledge and improved steam engineering with futuristic modifications." "And by introducing these creations to the public I will earn their trust and when they least expect it take over the world with my cyborg army!" If Rik could keep him blabbering he may have time to figure out a way to escape.
"How did you get to the past then?" asked Rik.
"Simple" said Vans, "I found one of the legend tears of the universe." "Using my technology I created a device to open a rift between worlds aiding my soon to be domination of this planet."
"So how's that been going?" Rik asks.
"According to plan so far," said Vans. "With the mayor's trust I have been able t- wait, you are just making me stall at this point."
"Uh, stalling?" said Rik playing dumb.
"Yes," said Vans, "you are stalling, delaying the inevitable."
"So…" said Rik, "you say I… am stalling?"
"Stalling! Yes you irritable flea bitten canine!" yelled Vans, "I know you cannot be that much of an imbecile!"
"Yes doctor?" said Dr. Enbisel standing nearby.
"Oh hey, it's you again," said Rik, "sup?".
"You shut up! And you, I did not call you!" Vans screeched, "the games end now! And your operation.. begins!"
Suddenly there is commotion outside the door.
"What is that?" asks Vans. Nate bursts through the door holding what looked to Rik two fast shooting guns. Nate crosses his arms upon entering and shoots up both of the robotic men guarding. They fall to the floor and Nate drops the weapons and draws his sword towards Vans.
"Wha- how?" asked Vans shocked, "I sent you to the future!"
"You are not the only one with time manipulation" says Nate. "It's the end of the road, surrender!" Vans drops a smoke bomb and makes a mad dash before Nate could finish him.
"He's getting away!" Rik shouted.
"Forget him for now, we still need to find Tox" Nate says. Then suddenly Tox appears in front of Nate.
"There you two are." Tox says.
"Tox, where have you been?" asks Nate.
"Lost, this place is quite large" Tox replies, "and it did not help with every location looking the same."
"Well I'm glad you found us," said Rik, "that sure made things a bit easier." Rik looks at his bound hands,
"Uh, anyone gonna help me out here?"
"Oh, right" said Nate, he stabs the electronic looking device on the table and Rik is freed from the crude looking table.
"Uh, what about me?" said Dr. Enbisel, "I'm free to go right?"
"Yeah" said Nate, "whatever just get out of here." They exit the room and search for the mad doctor. The corridor was filled with terrified scientists fleeing, and Robotic Men charging to stop the trio.
"Alright," said Nate, "I will handle the ones with chain gun mounted arms".
"Sounds good, I will focus on the guys with just fists then" Rik says.
"I can help with either" says Tox.
"Okay let's do this!" Nate shouts as he takes out two pistols and began to open fire. Rik throws knifes and occasionally throws some electrically charged ones that chain, it's quite effective. Tox teleports literally every couple of seconds attacking with elements of fire since the last thing he ate had a little bit of spice. Nate eventually starts slashing with his sword when a Robotic Man charged him. Rik ended up face to face with one dodging punches. He gets behind him and starts stabbing at what looked to be an important piece of machine on the back of him. The Robot Man collapses, Rik looks over at Tox and sees he is about to get blindsided,
"Tox behind you!" he shouts chucking a knife. It hits and stuns the machine man long enough for Tox to blast him.
"Thank you Rik" Tox says as the battle begins to end Nate pushes a Robot Man off his sword with his foot.
"Okay, that wasn't too bad," Nate said, "let's continue on." They enter the next room to see a Robotic Man with a hand mounted device.
"That one has a rocket launcher!" said Nate, "get down now!" Rik was not going to ask questions and he did as Nate said. The rocket flies over head and explodes the glass allowing water to flood the room.
"Water breach detected" said a robotic voice from seemingly nowhere. The doors were beginning to seal, and realizing this they made a mad dash for the exit. Rik noticed that the water essentially killed the Robot Man. Eventually they find the Vans Colter in what looked like a main control room.
"Alright Vans this has gone on long enough." Nate said. "Just give us the amulet and we will leave."
"Uh, we can't just leave if he gives it up" said Rik. "He literally told me he is trying to take over the world."
"I know" said Nate in a low whisper. "I just want to make sure we get the amulet before we try anything." Vans Colter takes out to what looked to Rik a bigger version of a fast shooting gun and shouts,
"The Colter family never surrenders and I do not intend to be the first!" Vans opens fire and Rik and Nate takes cover while Tox just teleports. Nate jumps out of cover emitting a shield from his bracer blocking the firing projectiles. He rushes and slashes at Vans with his blade. Vans counter-reacts with a knife and pushed Nate back and threw some more of the obnoxious gas. Rik blacked out and when he regained his consciousness Nate was finishing off a robot man with Tox behind him ready to finish off Vans.
"Aw man," Rik said, "why does smokey things always put me down and out?"
"Rik, I'm glad to see you are okay" Tox says. Suddenly Vans hits a switch on a nearby panel and throws down some smoke to escape,
"Self-destruct in 3 minutes" The robotic voice says. Vans shouted as he ran,
"I always asked myself why I bothered installing a self-destruct, and now I know why!" "I will be out of here in an escape pod while you all die!"
"We need to move quick!" Nate says.
"Don't need to tell me twice!" Rik says. They all run as the place counts down to self-destruct.
"For an old scientist he runs quite quickly" Tox remarks as they ran. When they get to the escape pods Vans is already gone and there were tons of scientists.
"Come on!" shouted Nate, "everyone climb in one quickly now!" He helps nearly all of them escape meanwhile Rik is keeping an ear out for the countdown. Finally with less than 30 seconds Rik shouts,
"Guys time to go, now!" The trio climb into a pod with other scientists and escapes as the whole laboratory explodes.
"Whoa," said Rik, watching the place explode and crumble. "That was kinda cool, I hope everyone was able to escape."
"Same here", said Nate, "Vans will have nowhere to run and hide once we get back up there." They emerge on the surface and there are now dozens of scientist strewn about on the beach.
"Where is Vans?" Nate asked. Then they heard Captain Grayson screaming,
"Ah! What are you doing?! Leave me alone!" The trio runs to see that Vans Colter in a last ditch effort was trying to hijack the airship.
"Okay," said Nate, "now it's over just give up will ya?" Vans pinned Grayson's arm behind his back and points a gun to his head.
"Of course he would do that" Tox says.
"Now" Vans said, "make a move and I blow his head off!" Rik was unsure what to do, he did not dare to move. However Nate looks at Tox and nods, they both teleport behind Vans. Nate grabs at the gun while Tox teleports back to Rik's side bringing Grayson to safety. Nate wrestles with Vans trying to point the gun towards him as Vans wrestles to shoot Nate. They eventually fall over the side of the airship and into the water. Soon after a moment Nate emerges from the water amulet in hand.
"Where is Vans?" asked Rik. "Did ya finished him?"
"Yeah," said Nate, "it's over let's go."
"Thank goodness" said Grayson, "and look at these science fellows, we should give them a ride back huh?"
"It's better than leaving them here." said Nate. And so after loading up all of the refugee scientists, they set sail back to Skyhaven. Upon their arrival the mayor is waiting to meet them. Upon hearing of Vans Colter's intentions the mayor was happy to hear he has met his end. They celebrated as the people of the city claim them to be heros.
"You hear that Tox? We're heros!" said Rik.
"I am no hero Rik, I could never even consider it." Tox replies.
"Aw don't be like that," Rik said, "what you done is in the past now, you should stop thinkin about it."
"Perhaps," Tox says, "but you know what they say about those who forget the past."
"Uhm, right", Rik said, "let's just eat some food already, I'm starving!" After a lovely celebration they bid everyone goodbye and thanked Captain Grayson for his services. They teleport in a ball of light back to the Underworld Dimension. It was the same routine as last time. Doom Slayer does what he does and rips and tears the demons and they go up to the gate. The sigil on the amulet matches with the seal perfectly and another one is broke.
"We are half-way now," said Nate. "This is going better than I thought it would."
Rik feels weird vibrations coming from the gem again but ignores it for the moment. "Alright everyone" Nate says, "hold on to your tails we are going to the next world." They teleport away in a ball of light and before Rik knew it he was in yet another world. He still cannot get used to that strange sensation of teleporting as he trains to focus his eyes. He looks around and the first thing he sees is a giant carrot with big googly eyes hopping around.
"Where are we?" Rik asks.
"Right now we are in Spiral Mountain" Nate says. Some bear and bird lives here as well as a witch, at least she used too I think." The mentioned bear and bird approach, they must have seen the flashing light out their window.
"Well speaking of which" Tox said, "there they are…"
End of Chapter 7
Chapter 8: Somewhere in the Multiverse
Available now