Wazup y'all!
Welcome to the final chapter of Part 1. The other parts will not be posted as separate stories but rather make this fanfic a collection of all parts.
For now, enjoy chapter 10!
(Care's perspective)
We trekked through somewhat familiar forests. Probably from when we first woke up on the Island.
There weren't many dangerous creatures nearby, only a few Raptors and the occasional Rex.
We passed the more dense forest to cross a river into a thinner forest on grassy meadows like the one up north.
I then noticed we were directly at the doorstep of the red Obelisk.
We descended a hillside beside the edge of the ravine wall to the opening to enter the boss arena.
It wasn't much for a boss arena at all, there was barely any ground. Just a moat connecting to the ocean with a protruding rock where the beacon for the red Obelisk stood at the center.
"This is gonna be the Megapithecus fight all over again." Care thought aloud.
We walked up an incline hugging the wall of the ravine to a large stone ramp leading to the beacon.
"Before we begin," Mary started as she approached the beacon, "When the dragon lands, we must attack it from all sides, it will only attack one entity at a time, this will increase the life expectancy of most of our tames."
"Understood," Omni replied.
She nodded in confirmation and turned to the beacon.
Once she summoned the Dragon the same gong sound sounded like in the Megapithecus fight.
Slowly, a large red force field materialized above us.
Rocks from the sides of the beacon platform extended to the ravine walls, covering the moat.
Then, what seemed to be tall relic structures appeared around us like holograms.
Crystal prepared our flyers as we began to hear roars from below us.
Suddenly, from the ground below the newly formed boss arena burst forth the Dragon.
It flew high and circled around us, flapping its massive wings.
It then landed hard in front of us only to let out a loud roar.
"I want one…" I heard Mika whisper beside me.
As the Dragon charged, Omni cried out, "Everyone scatter!"
Everything went right or left to avoid the charge attack.
As it whipped around, it let out a fire blast toward us.
I instinctively shielded my face with my arms, but my Tek armor sheltered my body from the flames.
I made Snowflake use his courage roar as everything charged the Dragon from all directions.
I didn't really appreciate the fact that the Dragon was charging right for me, but I went with it.
I dodged the first snap of its jaws and countered with a slash to the face with Snowflake's claws.
The Theri's crowded the beast and began to tear away at it.
The Dragon pushed us back a few times but we kept coming back.
It gave up and took to the skies.
We all rushed to an Argy except for Mika who stayed on Arsenal, firing rounds upon rounds at the Dragon.
I mounted Blackbolt as the others mounted their respective Argy's.
I shot through the sky inside the force field toward my target with the rest in tow. Once we were directly behind its tail, I stood on the saddle and equipped my pike.
Blackbolt flew above the Dragon's back for me to descend.
I leaped off of Blackbolt with my pike held behind my head. I let out a war cry as I plummeted toward the Dragon's head for a death blow.
As I was making my descent, something tackled me from the side.
I then noticed a wild aggressive Pteradon snapping at me as I held onto its neck.
I switched from my pike to my sword to decapitate the creature.
Once the body went limp and began to plummet, I separated and flew back to Blackbolt with my jetpack in my Tek suit.
We maneuvered around Dimorphodons and Pteradons that riddled the skies, protecting their master.
I saw Omni and Ash behind me on Judge and Hawks fending off incoming projectiles.
I signaled to them to follow me. Once they both saw me, I dived back down to the Dragon, now approaching one of the tall ruin pillars.
I waved them over to the right side of the beast and told them all to push.
We all jumped off our Argy's and pushed the creature into the pillar, destroying it.
The Dragon bellowed in frustration, replying with a dive as we held on.
It slammed into the ground hard enough for us to lose grip and tumble in front of it.
It roared at us a released a volley of fire blasts.
The three of us stood during the attack only to be unscathed afterward.
The creature growled at this and charged.
The three of us dodged the attack, and as it began to slow down, the Theri's rushed it again. But before they reached the Dragon, it leaped up and hurdled over the wave of Theri's, only to charge us again.
Instinctively, I whipped out my Tek assault rifle and emptied a magazine into it as I slid to the right to avoid the charge.
The Dragon, now frustrated, let out a tail swipe toward us, knocking all three of us back.
As we hurdled backward, Mika charged in atop Arsenal. As she charged she spent everything she had, even from a Tek assault rifle she wielded herself at the Dragon before she intercepted its charge with her own.
Of course, no creature the size of a Carno could stop a creature the size of the Dragon in a dead sprint, but they were able to push it just enough so that it crashed into a stone wall. This of course sent Mika and Arsenal flying as well, so when I got back up from the impact I rushed over to them to see if they were ok.
"You good?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine, thanks." She replied in almost a wheeze.
Arsenal grunted in his metallic voice as he hefted himself up.
"Get back in the fight, we got this." She replied getting up herself.
"Yes ma'am," I replied.
I then thrusted upward into the cloud of Pteradons and Dimorphodons with Mary.
"Do you require assistance?" I asked amidst the squealing and cawing of the Dragon's minions we were slaughtering around us.
"That would be appreciated." She called back as she stabbed three Pteradons through with a throw of her pike.
We both sprayed bullets everywhere with our selective weapons, that is until the Dragon interrupted us.
It flew straight through the cloud with our Argy's and Crystal on her Griffen clawing at it in the process.
The Dragon had enough. It twirled around by doing half a barrel roll and grabbed Crystal on her Griffen.
Crystal jumped off immediately as the Dragon chomped down on Daenermu, killing it.
It tossed the mangled body to the ground where Crystal followed.
I then saw her put her hand up to the corpse as it magically reformed itself as it illuminated all the colors in the rainbow as all eeries do. I forgot! The power of the eerie Griffin is that it can revive itself!
Crystal then mounted Daenermu and took to the skies once more.
Alongside Omni on Judge, I flew toward the Dragon again on Blackbolt.
This time I planned on attacking it where it can't attack us.
I jumped off and landed on its back with Omni following.
I took out my Pike and attempted to stab into its flesh, but it wouldn't go through.
With a quick turn and a slap of the wing, we were knocked back toward Mika.
"Dude, how thick are this thing's scales?" I asked Omni as we got up and returned to the skies with our jetpacks.
"It's a literal dragon and it's the biggest Guardian, what do you expect?" Mary retorted from her Argy beside us, only slightly laced with sarcasm.
"It's also supposed to be possible," Mika grumbled from below.
"Nothing is impossible, merely improbable." Omni quoted, from… somewhere.
"That doesn't exactly help build our confidence there, Omni." Crystal shouted as she was diving and twirling to avoid the majority of the Pteradons that seemed to literally come out of nowhere.
Looking up, I saw Mary leap off her Argy and streak down to the Dragon.
Suddenly there was a single massive boom. I looked at the Dragon who was seemingly slightly dazed.
"What was that?!" Mika shouted.
"Mary… just… broke the sound barrier… by punching a giant dragon… in mid-air." I clarified in shock.
"Well, I gotta see that, none of the Pteradons are in my range anyway," she answered as she used her jetpack to fly up to our level.
"Yo Omni, you're awfully silent over there, you alive?" I asked.
"He's probably just as shocked as you and I were." Mary offered.
"No, no, I'm alive, just thinking." Omni corrected.
"That's an awful lot of thinking then. Especially considering our current circumstances." Crystal remarked.
"Ok, guys, how's your armor?" Omni suddenly asked.
It wasn't exactly odd timing as we were in the midst of a battle, but the abruptness was odd, we all checked anyway and told him.
Mika happened to have the most and Crystal had the least, with me, Omni, and Mary being somewhere in between.
"Ok, guys, order your respective mounts to target all the Pteradons, but leave the Dragon alone," he told us.
"Why?" Crystal asked.
"Because… just trust me will you? I have an idea, and if it all goes well, the Dragon's dead, if it doesn't… well sorry Mika, but you're the most at risk."
"Uh… What!?"
"You can't just volunteer her like that," Ash exclaimed.
"Unless you have better armor she's the best candidate for the job," Omni answered.
"WHAT JOB?" Everyone shouted at the same time.
"Ok, fine, but if people start dying while I'm explaining don't get mad at me, Mary's super punch was the most effective thing, so I'm thinking, what if we chained the punches together?"
"How?" Crystal asked.
"By punching each other, with Mika at the end of the chain, the one punch that's actually gonna hit the Dragon, with the rest of us behind her, and Crystal you in the very back with the most compromised armor."
"And where does that leave me?" Ash asked.
"Could you snipe any Pteradons that might get in the way, like if one gets between any of us and the next person in line or between Mika and that Dragon?"
"Anything to help my sister in arms," Ash answered.
Surprisingly we all agreed to the plan, as no one could think of any others.
Soon we were all arranged in a line, flying with our jetpacks quite a ways above the Dragon.
As one we all turned off our jetpacks and let ourselves tip forward, then activated them again just to increase the force. Crystal rocket punched me, which I then carried over into Mary, who then passed the momentum to Omni, who launched it into Mika. Mika went throttling down toward the Dragon, each punch created a bang, with each one getting progressively louder. Finally, Mika's fist connected with the dragon's snout just as it looked up at us. I swear she punched it so hard the Island shook even though we were in the air. The Dragon immediately stopped flapping and plummeted, with Mika following after. We chased after her as she fell, finally Ash caught up to her using Crystal's Griffin to reach her before she hit the ground.
"Yo Mika, you ok?!" Crystal shouted.
"Damn, stop screaming, I feel like I was just hit by a truck…"
"I think you just hit with the force of like… a million trucks," I answered as I laughed.
"The heck you talking abo..." Mika grumbled, then she must have seen the immensely deformed face of the Dragon, when we landed we found it's upper jaw had been pushed clear through to the back of its head, crushing its brain and ruining its neck.
"Blunt force trauma…" Omni muttered in slight laughter.
"Not sure it'll make a good trophy mount now." Mary lamented.
"What do you mean? Who else can prove they crushed a dragon's face with nothing but 5 punches?" Crystal corrected.
"Technically it was one punch with the force of 5." Omni corrected further.
"So… essentially she's a one-punch woman." Crystal laughed.
After a moment, the boss arena began to revert back into its original form: the force field dissipated, the ruins were pulled back into the ground, and the ground itself retracted back to normal revealing the moat.
"So that's it." Care started, "We killed all three Guardians."
"Yes, we most certainly did," Omni replied with a wide smile.
As we exited the Obelisk area, Thug and Bria landed in front of us.
"So? Did everything go according to plan?" Bria asked.
Then Mika held up the deformed head of the Dragon she punched out of existence. Literally.
"Woah… What the hell did you do to it?"
"We'll explain on the way to base," I smirked.
…
Once we made it back to our base, Thug gathered us to the main table.
"Obviously our next move is to attack the Overseer. Once you guys left for the Dragon battle we decided to investigate the area around the gate to gather as much info as we could about him. At first, it seemed like a useless attempt considering we couldn't open the gate early, and that stupid Giga of yours spotted us when we were scouting." Thug started.
"Wait, Doomsday was there?" I asked.
"Wouldn't you guard yourself with your strongest asset?" Bria replied.
"As I was saying, at first it seemed useless, but then we found this."
He then stepped forward and tossed a few sheets of paper onto the table.
"What's this?" Omni asked.
"Autumn was smart, she figured out the reason people were disappearing too. So she helped us."
"This… wait, how did she find out about the Overseer battle and what it even looks like, and then leave this outside the gate? I thought if you went in you weren't coming out?" Omni asked.
"That remains a mystery to us as well, but I'm thankful all the same," Bria replied.
Omni kept reading until he shared it with us.
" 'The Overseer looks like your implant, that diamond shape. It's very similar to the Enforcer as it is literally made of Tek, it changes forms constantly. It summons Tek creatures to its aid during the attack. Bring at least 7 Rex's. It also spawns drones that fire at you while airborne, bring weaponry or tames with ranged attacks, the Tek Carno would be exceptional in this fight.
This is all I can share with you now, study this dossier carefully and leave it for the next. Farewell and good luck to you all.
Autumn.' "
"Wish she could've shared more." I thought aloud.
"It's enough for us to prepare properly. Let's gather our Rex's and Grimlock, we should bring Arsenal as well." Ash replied.
"Agreed, I'll bring my Tek Sabre."
"You guys will need my monkeys out there. Kong has saved my life countless times."
"Bring Kong and Yeti, leave the others here. We need as much tame space as possible." Omni replied.
"Fair enough," I replied sadly.
"Oh and one more thing." Thug started, "Bring the heads of the killed bosses, we need them to open the gate."
"You got it," Mika replied.
"Before we split up to prepare," I started, "Maybe we should bring all our tames with us, we're going to be leaving them behind anyway."
"And what good would that serve us?" Omni asked.
"The Enforcer or raiders might show up, I don't know if we can pull off another Broodmother tame."
"A what?" Bria asked.
"Omni kinda tamed the Broodmother to essentially massacre Blue, Penny, and Crow."
"The Broodmother… as in the Broodmother Lystrix..?" Thug clarified.
"Umm… yeah, I used the Immune artifact. Similar to how Care tamed Yeti." Omni answered.
"Wish I could've seen that." Crystal smirked.
"Well, considering this is among our last moments on this island or… alive… I say we bring all our tames. At least we can let them go free as a thanks for protecting us." I reiterated.
"Yes, and can we raid a couple of our enemies on the way?" Crystal asked with a devilish grin.
"Let's leave them be, if anything I'd give them my tames, that would be more of a curse than a gift," Omni replied.
"Well, I'm going to saddle up our rides. Thug, Bria, and Mary can go get their tames while we do so." I stated as I slowly stood from the table, "Since this is the last time we have a meeting here, I think we should all leave something behind."
Without a word, Omni took out an obsidian dagger and slammed the blade into the tabletop.
Crystal took out a cutlass and did the same.
Bria, a modified Tek pistol. Thug, an assault rifle. Mary, a shocking staff. Mika, a rocket launcher. Ash, a modified spear with a feather below the blade.
And finally, I put down my trusty pump-action shotgun that Thug gave me on the day we woke up on the Island.
We then all put our old helmets down beside our weapons like we were knights of the round table, and took in the moment together.
The last moment we have on the Island, whether we live or die.
All of us have been here for a while, whether it was a year for me and Omni, or however much longer Thug, Bria, and Mary were here. Then again, who knows exactly how much time passes here anyway. For all we know we could've been here anywhere from 5 months to 5 years.
Right now is the moment we have all been waiting for. To get off this rock and back to where we came from… If this even still is Earth.
We left the house without a word. Thug, Bria, and Mary took to the skies with their jetpacks and Omni left on foot to his cave with the tames he brought to the Dragon fight. Our plan was to meet north of the Redwoods near the volcano.
I took one last look at everything. Our tames, our base, this Island. I never really took a moment to admire the beauty of the seemingly endless ocean.
I approached our water tames at the beach.
Even though they probably wouldn't understand, I took this moment to tell them that they were free now and that they served us well.
Without me even needing to unclaim the Mosa's Angler's and Dunkleo's, they roared and shot into the depths.
I smiled and turned back toward our land tames and saddled them up.
Kong and the other monkeys greeted me when I entered their pen.
I greeted them in return with my modified gorilla sign language by putting my fist up to their chests.
They learned from it and did the same.
I looked at Kong, one of my first tames. One of my best friends.
"Thank you." I choked out. This may be the last conversation I have with him. He's saved me countless times.
Sasquatch approached me and pointed to the others saddling up our other tames.
"Yes, we're all going," I replied.
She then turned to me and started to grunt wildly gesturing that she was scared.
"Don't worry," I said as I calmed her down, "This isn't a death sentence, everyone is coming to protect each other. I just wish you could come with us to the other side."
She then got on one knee and held her palm up to me in a bow. I recognize this pose, it's an act of respect.
Beginning to remember, I dragged my palm across hers as an act of recognition and acceptance.
She then retracted her hand and got up.
"Thank all of you for protecting me. Now it's time for you to protect each other."
I then brought them all out of the pen and toward the metal battlement with Mika and Ash leading all of our other tames, from our six mighty Giga's to little ol' Speedy who's been here since the beginning.
I equipped my assault rifle with my horde of monkeys surrounding me as the gate opened.
I cocked it like a shotgun and walked out of our base one last time.
…
We met in a field near the volcano. Thug and Bria rode Mt. Olympus leading an army of Sabre's and Allo's with other miscellaneous creatures. Mary rode Maria leading an army of mutated Theri's and other random eerie creatures.
And finally, Omni rode Caustic leading an army of bats, spiders, scorpions, snakes, Megalo's, and even a few Troodons, all surrounded by countless Arthro's.
"Now this… Is my entire army." He said with his arms spread wide.
"If only you still had the Broodmother to complete it." I mocked jokingly.
"That would've been handy…" He remarked.
"I'll lead Doomsday and the Enforcer down here, we should be able to take them out in a couple of minutes, tops." He replied as he took to the skies with his jetpack.
After a few moments, Thug came back.
"Get ready, he's packing this time."
"Oh, fun," Mika replied sarcastically.
A very large Tek cloud pooled over the edge of the volcano and plummeted toward us like a metal landslide.
Once it reached us, it materialized into countless Tek creatures, from Raptors to Rex's.
Then, from behind them dashed Doomsday, with its stupidly annoying rider.
"Greetings, survivors. We meet agai-"
"Oh shut up already." Care exclaimed, "We have endangered your master and the ecosystem blah blah blah. Just let us pass and we'll be out of your hair."
"I am the Guardian of my master. I must protect him."
"So I assume the alliance has been officially disassembled?"
"Correct."
"Great!" I replied as I sniped him.
"You little-" He muttered before he ordered everything he had to charge.
We replied in kind.
This was the biggest battle this Island has ever seen. Literally thousands of creatures from both sides were clashing into each other at once like we were in an ancient Roman war but with robot dinosaurs.
Obviously, with our numbers and tame diversity, we were gaining the upper hand. That is until they pushed us back and made every single Tek Rex use its roar ability.
I want you to imagine for a moment the loudest sound you've ever heard, maybe it was an airplane, loud speakers in a concert, maybe a blue whale. Now I want you to multiply that by a thousand. That level of sound can't even compare to what I just heard.
If it weren't for our Tek helmets, we would have been deaf or even gotten brain damage from how loud that was.
Somehow, that did not happen to our tames. But they were still extremely dazed.
Instead of making the Rex's rush us, the Enforcer created new creatures.
Ten Tek Giganotosaurus.
"You've got to be kidding me," I muttered.
"Chill out man! We got a Titano!" Bria called on top of Mt. Olympus as they charged and crushed two of the Tek Giga's in one pound of his massive front feet.
Bria then rushed through the crowd of enemy Tek creatures as if they weren't there, right toward the Enforcer atop Doomsday.
They attempted to stomp onto him, but he evaded the attacks. The Enforcer even created a Tek hindering boot for the Titano, making it unable to move.
Bria replied with a tail slap which knocked Doomsday and Enforcer clear off the ground.
As they both crashed and tumbled toward me I called Blackbolt and picked up the Enforcer.
I attempted to throw him away from the battle, but he created a small energy field which caused Blackbolt to drop him.
He activated a jetpack in his back and shot toward Doomsday.
Once he was about to get to him, Mika appeared atop Arsenal and opened fire on him.
Once one of the missiles hit him, the force shot him across the battlefield, away from Doomsday.
I dove toward the unconscious Doomsday afterward, and once I dismounted and ran toward him, Omni tossed me something.
"What's this?" I asked amongst the roaring and gunfire around us.
"A hacking tool! Maybe we can disable his Tek components and regain control!" He replied at a higher volume so I could hear.
I examined his hacking tool and walked up to Doomsday.
Without a second thought, I plunged it into one of his metal components while he was still on his side.
Doomsday woke immediately with his eyes slowly beginning to turn from bright yellow to blue.
"He's fighting it!" Omni exclaimed as he rushed over on Stan.
Stan's coloring turned purple as he jabbed Doomsday in the flesh with his tail prong.
Doomsday calmed down a little bit but he was still trying to fight it.
I looked to my right to see the Enforcer on another Tek Giga, throwing Sabre's and other creatures out of his way, with Doomsday being his destination.
"We are about to cut off control from the Enforcer, once that happens you need to mount him immediately." Omni directed.
"Why?" I asked.
"He won't be completely freed from his control until you basically tame him a second time by wrangling him like a cowboy on a bull in a rodeo, only then will he fight back against the Enforcer mentally."
"How do you even know all of this?"
"Normal Tek creatures are the same way with my hacking tool, it's how I tamed some of my other Tek scorpions which I never showed you. Considering you already tamed Doomsday before he was stolen, my prediction is you will have less difficulty regaining control."
"Thanks, Omni."
"No problem, now go get back your Giga."
I turned back to Doomsday who was now back on his feet, thrashing around randomly trying to mentally fight the effects of the hacking tool.
I jumped up his leg onto his back and examined the situation.
The hacking tool revealed a screen similar to our inventory menu, showing all the codes it was rewriting and deleting from Doomsday's system.
I didn't understand most of it, but one code kept appearing: 'Ark1E exe'. (1)
Ark 1?
The tool kept wiping that code from Doomsday, so I assumed that was the Enforcer or some extension of him.
I then walked carefully on his back toward his saddle and mounted him.
I waited for my opportunity.
Once Doomsday stopped thrashing, his eyes glowed yellow again.
He saw me and began to thrash around even more wildly.
"He's disconnected from the Enforcer! Now he's in rage mode! If he tries to attack something other than you, just try to aim it at the enemy!" Omni called out behind me.
"You got it!" I replied.
Bria could be occasionally seen flying above the battlefield dropping bombs and rockets on the enemy from the safety of her jetpack.
Doomsday began to attack literally everything, whether it be our tames or enemy Tek creatures. I tried to redirect him to the enemy but I couldn't stop him every time.
As time passed, our forces began to gain the upper hand against the Enforcer again.
As this happened, Doomsday was beginning to settle down.
I tried to keep him away from the enemy so they wouldn't attack him and rekindle his rage.
Eventually, Doomsday stopped, panting heavily.
I dismounted and whistled to my monkeys to protect us. They dismounted from atop one of the Tek Giga's they were pummeling and rushed over to us.
I approached the huffing Giga before me and examined him. His eyes were dimming from their typical glowing yellow to a bright blue like other Tek creatures.
Doomsday closed his eyes, and opened them, revealing his blue eyes indicating his rage has ceased.
I put my hand up to his snout. He purred in a low register in return.
My joy was immeasurable.
I mounted my Tek-infused Giga as he roared at the Enforcer hovering above the crowd.
I saw Omni ahead throw another hacking tool at the Enforcer. It shocked him, but his firewalls were much more advanced so he wasn't corrupted.
The Enforcer, annoyed by that, charged back at Omni atop Stan.
He fired on the way toward him with his arm cannon and smashed into the ground, but Omni dodged every attack.
Then Stan's glow turned a greyish white and he stabbed the Enforcer as a counter. Considering the Enforcer was a machine and didn't have a bloodstream for the poison to intoxicate, I didn't fully understand Omni's intentions, but somehow the stamina-draining poison seemed to affect the evil robot.
Once he began to back away slightly dazed, Doomsday then began to do something that's a little hard to explain. He closed his eyes and grimaced like he was pushing a heavy object with his mind.
Then suddenly, the blue glow from within his Tek components began to brighten slightly as electricity crackled through him.
The glow within the Enforcer began to do the same thing.
I then noticed that the other Tek creatures began to slow down and stopped fighting back.
"What… are you doing?" I asked, knowing I wouldn't get a response from a dinosaur.
"Is he… hacking the Enforcer?" Omni asked.
"How is that even possible?"
"All Tek creatures have an ability, maybe the Tek Giga's is hacking?" Omni presumed.
"He's not technically a full-on Tek Giga y'know."
"He's close enough to it I guess." He replied.
Once the Tek creatures were all eliminated, I approached the Enforcer alongside my other 7 tribemates.
"You did your best," I started, "But we won. We beat your stupid challenge. You put up a good fight, but I guess we're just better at surviving than you are at enforcing." I remarked, referencing him constantly calling us 'survivors'.
"Well… played." He responded in a glitchy voice.
I then sent the point of my pike through his face.
He then dematerialized into his cloud form and dispersed in all directions away from us, with the Tek from the corpses of his army doing the same.
Omni then approached the tames we weren't taking to the Overseer battle.
"I have a mission for you all," he spoke to the army of bugs, Sabre's, and other creatures. "I want you all to hunt down Crow, Blue, and Penny with the goal of releasing any person they wrongly enslaved or any creature they wrongly treated. Do not rest until your mission is complete. Only then will you be able to return to your natural habitat and live the rest of your lives in peace."
"So you're telling me you're about to send an army of almost every creature in existence including a Titanosaur on a bounty hunt against three raiders?" I whispered to Omni.
"You got a problem with that?"
"Nope, just making sure I had it right for when we tell our grandkids."
"Whoever said my gremlin self would ever have any?" He joked right back.
We then gathered what we would take to the battle and said goodbye to those we had to leave behind. Kong, Yeti, 7 Rex's from each of us including Drago and Grimlock, two mutated Theri's, Arsenal, Stan, Caustic, Snowflake, Weaver, Nova, Nymeria, and two other wolves followed us up the spiraled path around the volcano toward the peak.
"I can't believe this is really it," I mused atop Kong, "We're finally going home after this."
"Or about to die horrible deaths, but it's good you're staying optimistic," Omni replied.
"Thanks for that," I muttered.
"Do we even know what home is though?" Bria wondered aloud thoughtfully.
No one really had an answer for her.
Once we made it to the peak and navigated around the small lava streams, we approached the large metal gate.
It had three medium dents with ten small dents below them.
"Give me the Guardian's heads." Thug demanded.
We each handed them over.
Thug them implanted each head in the three medium dents or slots. Mika laughed a little when she saw the deformed face of the Dragon again.
Then Thug pulled out a sack of several different… artifacts.
"Wait… How did-?" Omni started.
"I have my ways."
He began to put every artifact in their unique slots, once he took out the Hunter artifact Omni spoke up again.
"How did you get that? When did you ever enter my cave without me or anything else seeing you?"
"As I said, I have my ways."
Once all the artifacts were set in, Thug approached a terminal to the right of the gate.
Then the gong sounded and the gate opened, revealing a dark cave sloping downward to the right.
As we walked through, I noticed Thug leaving Autumn's dossier in a chest beside the console behind us.
We led the creatures through the cave of lava pools and Tek pillars.
"That must be a good sign," I said referring to the branching pillars.
"How so?" Mika asked.
"Well the Overseer is made of Tek… maybe that indicates we're close?"
"I hope so, this cave is such a maze," Crystal muttered.
Kong huffed beside me looking back.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't bring all of you. But I'm sure you'll see them again when this is over." I replied.
"So you're saying he's gonna die and he's gonna see the other monkeys in monkey heaven?" Crystal asked.
"No, but maybe he can go back outside once the battle is over," I replied.
"I don't know man, how is he gonna navigate this on his own? Kong is the smartest of the tames and his favorite activity is sniffing rocks." Omni quipped.
Kong growled a little at that.
"Yet he's smart enough to understand that insult."
"It wasn't an insult, it's a fact." He replied jokingly as he walked on.
We encountered several random creatures in the cave, Purlovia, Terror Birds, Allo's, even Yuty's.
"Are these typical cave creatures? Because I thought otherwise before now." I asked.
"Your knowledge was correct, but considering this does lead to the 'final boss' of the Island then it makes sense," Omni replied.
We walked for a while before Crystal spoke up again.
"We passed this lavafall already, we're going in circles."
"Lavafall?" Mika asked.
"A waterfall but lava. Y'know, lava… Falling… Nevermind."
"Let me lead, I'm good at mazes." Thug interjected.
"By all means," Omni replied.
Thug looked behind us, ahead of us, and after about 30 seconds of staring into space said, "I got it, follow me."
"You what?" I asked.
"I know where to go."
"How exactly? You just sat there staring at the wall for 30 seconds."
"I... just trust me, I'm good at mazes."
We followed him for a couple of minutes killing a few Rex's along the way before we reached a terrain bridge toward a large Tek doorway of sorts leading into a massive Tek laced tunnel.
"How did you..?" I started.
"I have an eidetic memory, I memorized all paths we took and did the process of elimination. That all took about 30 seconds."
"Dang…" Mika replied.
"I really wish I had Doomsday right now," I muttered gazing at what guarded the massive doorway.
Three Giga's, four Terror birds, three Allo's, and a Yuty stood in a defensive stance against us.
"We can't afford to get our tames too injured, try to make quick work of them," I suggested.
Thug immediately charged toward a Giga with his jetpack and punched it in the face from its left with enough force to make it tumble into the massive river of lava to our right.
"That's one way of doing it." I chuckled.
Grimlock then let out his stun roar as the enemy charged, slightly dazing them.
While they were dazed, Snowflake let out her fear roar, causing them to stop in their tracks.
Then Arsenal stepped forward and lit up the smaller creatures with ammunition, killing all the Terror Birds and one of the Allo's leaving the other two injured.
The Rex's and Theri's then charged and killed the Allo's almost instantly.
To keep the Giga's from pushing our tames into the lava, all seven of us distracted it by taking turns punching them in the face. I then pulled out a rocket launcher after Mika fired a punch making the Giga become enraged.
It roared at me as I fired into its mouth, causing it to explode from the inside as our Rex's pushed the other Giga into the river.
As our tames feasted on the Giga's corpse, I noticed there was a hexagonal force field that laced the walls beside the tunnel and covered the entrance.
"The heck?" I muttered aloud as I reached my hand toward the constantly fluctuating field.
I was able to pass through without harm.
"What's the purpose of this thing?" I asked.
"Maybe to prevent some things from entering?" Mika suggested.
"That would make sense, good thing we didn't bring a Giga or anything," Ash replied.
Our tames passed through the force field behind us without any problem.
We passed through the curving tunnel. It had a blue illuminated floor with Tek branching over it and the walls. It then led to a large room with small puddles in it. There was a sloped spiral path to the right leading to a higher level with some sort of console at the top. The area the console was on had an orange illuminated circle embedded in the floor, similar to the previous tunnel's blue pathway.
We all walked up the path toward the console as Omni examined it.
"It says we need to… teleport somewhere."
"Where? Where else is there to go?" Mika asked.
"The Overseer's chambers. Of course it isn't on the ground or else people could get to him easily." Mary replied.
"Alright, this is it," Omni said as he pressed a button on the terminal.
A large blue screen appeared above the console saying, 'ALL CREATURES MUST BE WITHIN THE DOME'.
We rushed about ensuring all our creatures were inside the currently forming dome, checking several times each. I'm fairly certain I saw Bria quadruple checking. We were all shouting at each other, asking who needed ammo and what dinos were being difficult in fitting into the dome. And the timer that floated above the button did nothing to calm our fraught nerves.
Then, the countdown reached zero and the orange dome completed forming. Then with a few sparks to the area beyond the dome and a blinding flash of light, the scenery was gone.
Suddenly, everything in my vision turned white and we all fell to our knees.
My head is pounding.
"I feel like my insides got flipped upside down." Mika groaned.
"Me too…" Crystal replied in the same fashion.
"And I thought the Unicorn excrement was dizzying..." Bria mumbled.
None of us commented on it as we were focusing on our own mind that was threatening to tear itself apart.
I opened my eyes to see that we were in an entirely new area, one with Tek walls leading to a path toward a large room.
Behind us however, were three large windows each with a terminal in front of them. Each window depicted the boss arenas below each Obelisk, with the terminals showing a small hologram of the respective Guardians.
"Has he been… watching us?" Mika asked.
"Makes sense, he was studying our ability to fight." I replied.
We walked down the tunnel, still dazed by the teleportation.
As we walked, I noticed another hologram to my right.
It was Earth. I could tell by the green land and blue water.
On our left, adjacent from the hologram was a window to some sort of Tek replicator.
Inside depicted the outline of a Trike, with the circular walls around it fluctuating constantly, then the Trike turned into a Spino.
"This must be where the dino's are made." Bria observed.
As we walked we past two more holograms in the hallway, both of Earth. But each hologram we passed depicted a more barren version of Earth, with less green and more pale sandy colours.
"What… happened?" Omni muttered as he examined the last hologram.
I then looked to my right adjacent from that hologram to see another replicator through a window, this time instead of creatures… It was humans.
We gazed at it for a moment, all in utter shock, and continued down the pathway without a word.
We walked down the tunnel into a large room, the floor was mostly glass, where we saw the Island below covered in a massive dome.
I looked around the room to see supply drops firing from us to the Island.
We walked down the pathway to the glass floor and gazed at what we just couldn't comprehend.
I continued through a doorway to an even larger square room to see a massive hologram depicting the Island. The Obelisks were all highlighted red and blue pop ups of survivors kept appearing throughout the landscape.
"This must be how the Obelisks respawn us." Mika presumed.
The windows on the far side of the room showed space… and other Islands.
Once we walked down the staircase toward the hologram, it suddenly dispersed into a small cloud of orange particles. It then contracted into a ball near the ceiling and dispersed into a diamond figure on the far side of the room. The diamond flashed to life in its orange glow and began to levitate.
The Overseer.
Particles then dashed around us materializing into four Tek pillars around us.
The diamond hovered in place until its booming voice began to speak.
"Mika, survivor 454. Ash, survivor 455. Thug, survivor 130. Bria, survivor 132. Mary, survivor 110. Crystal, survivor 570. Care, survivor 755. Omni, survivor 756. You have all proven yourselves worthy of facing me, the Overseer of the Island. Now, you must face the final challenge. Prove yourselves to be true survivors, or to be unworthy of the title." It monotoned, "Should you and your company be worthy, you will be transported one step closer to your goal, the next challenge."
"The next cha- what?" I asked.
He didn't respond.
Then, part of him turned into his cloud form and spawned in several Tek Rex's.
They all charged without hesitation.
We did the same.
We all charged side by side, Omni, Crystal, and Mary on my right and Thug, Bria, Mika, and Ash on my left with every creature closely behind.
I deployed my assault rifle as Kong advanced behind me.
We began to dash toward one of the charging Rex's as I slid under it, emptying a magazine into its underbelly.
Kong jumped onto its face and began to smash into it as the Rex tried to shake him off.
I jumped onto its tail and ran up its back. Then I deployed my pike and shoved it through the back of its neck. Then I turned it with enough force to sever its head from the body.
Kong smashed the head one more time out of rage and moved on to the next with Yeti beside him.
Our Rex's we pushing back these Rex's for now, with the two Theri's aiding them.
Once the drones spawned in, Arsenal opened fire, killing them almost instantly. But they kept coming.
Then I noticed the Overseer changing shape… into a Tek version of the Broodmother Lystrix.
"Heads up!" I called out.
Using my jetpack, I flew over to intercept it without realizing Thug was doing the same.
He looked at me mid-flight and asked, "You ready?"
"You better believe it."
We both rocket punched the Broodmother backward.
It screeched at us in a metallic echo. It attempted a leg slap at Thug, but he dodged it and countered with a rocket punch.
It backed up and charged me. Once it made a forward attack, I dodged it and slid over to its right and rocket punched it behind me.
It squealed at us and turned to our tames.
I whistled to Kong and Yeti immediately.
They then leaped up from the pile of creatures and smashed into the Overseer turned Broodmother.
Then Omni appeared with Caustic and sprayed acid over it just as my monkeys got out of the way.
It got aggravated and retreated into its cloud form, creating an impenetrable force field around it and deploying a new creature.
This creature walked on four legs, but its upper half had arms. It had a sloped back that became its head.
An army of 7 charged us with decent speed.
I took out my pike and swung it around like a double-bladed lightsaber, and with the momentum, I knocked one in the chin making it look like it was checking the ceiling for spiders. Then I turned, swinging the pike so that when I turned back forward the tip of my pike went straight through its abdomen.
I ripped my pike back and dropped the body to the floor.
I then took out its implant and read that the creature is called a Defense unit. Huh, very creative name.
The rest targeted our tames, but they were fended off easily.
Once they were finished off, the Overseer returned to the battle, but in the form of the Megapithecus.
It ripped out huge chunks of Tek and threw them at our army. Grimlock took a line shot to the face but was only dazed for a couple of seconds before he returned to the charge.
Mika stood atop Arsenal on his saddle and leaped up from it toward the Mega when they were close enough.
She held her pike high as she plummeted toward him ready to attack, but she got backhanded away by it.
She tumbled for a bit but suddenly came upright on one knee as she slid from the momentum. Then she jumped high with the aid of her jetpack and hooked her pike around its neck as it fought our army.
She pulled back with her thrusters letting the Rexes tear away at the Mega's chest and front.
Then once it was far back enough, she flipped the massive metal monkey backward in front of her.
It retreated again creating its force field and turned back into its original form, releasing more minions in the process.
Ash leaped atop Arsenal in place of Mika as she began to rain bullets and explosions upon the drones and defense units that were swarming beneath the bellies of all our Rexes. Finally, the Overseer, looking like an implant god rushed towards her. It stopped but Ash didn't, she and Arsenal went flying back from some invisible force. Arsenal stood up and the two went all hail mary on the giant sentient implant the two ran forward towards it as it was being pelted by bullets. And just as they reached it, it dispersed into a cloud of Tek, bursting around the two as it moved past them.
Then, once we vanquished the rest of the current rexes, The Overseer spawned a new wave of Tek Rexes.
Mary, Bria, and Crystal then stepped forward.
Crystal charged first, with a cutlass in hand. She leaped up to a Rex and slashed it at the throat.
It didn't kill it but it was very injured after it tumbled. Crystal then ran back to the Rex's side and sliced a line through the Rex's entire left side. Once she made it to the neck she forced her sword a little deeper so that she sliced open its skull, finishing the job.
Mary then charged another Rex with a shocking staff deployed.
The Rex went for an immediate chomp but Mary dodged it by sliding on her back under the Rex, shocking its underside in the process.
The Rex stiffened and collapsed, but got up again and roared at Mary.
Mary then charged with a different weapon, it seemed to be some Tek two-sided pike with blades on either side.
As the Rex roared, she leaped up to its mouth and got the staff caught between its jaws vertically, a fair way into its mouth.
Then she clicked a button on the side of the staff and two energy blasts from both prongs of the pike fired through the Rex's head, one through the bottom jaw, the other through its skull.
The Rex fell to the ground lifeless as Mary walked out unharmed and her two-pronged rifle staff turned back into a two-pronged pike.
Bria then charged another Rex with an assault rifle in her hands. She leaped over the Rex with the aid of her jetpack and emptied a magazine into the Rex's back in the process.
The Rex ran to where she would land and tail slapped her into a nearby wall.
The Rex roared at her in an intimidating stance.
Bria then pulled out a large pistol and fired it into its mouth. As she turned away the Rex exploded from the inside. An augmented grenade launcher, impressive.
The Overseer then approached in the form of the mighty Dragon.
"This is it, people! The last boss!" I called out.
Omni stepped forward with Thug nearby.
The Dragon roared and charged on foot.
Omni dodged the first one without countering.
The Dragon became enraged by this and charged him again. Omni then dashed to the right and grabbed its folded wing.
He climbed toward its back before it began to take flight.
As Omni was clinging to the base of its wing, Arsenal began to open fire on the belly of the beast.
The Dragon began swooping downward, firing a volley of blue fire toward our army. It killed three Rex's.
Thug flew up to it and began to distract it by occasionally punching it in the face. It was effective for a while until the Dragon slapped Thug away with its wing. The wing slap aimed for Thug also dislodged Omni, he would have simply crashed into the ground and probably been crushed by one of the creatures stampeding around if it weren't for a little spider that leaped off the wall. He found himself in Weaver's saddle and soon took control to jump from Rex to Rex trying to get back to the Dragon. Soon, they arrived just below it and I sniped the Rex they stood on to entice him into roaring in agony, my plan worked because the rex lifted its head and bellowed, giving Omni just enough height to pierce the Dragon's belly with his pike and climb up to its back.
Omni then deployed a long gun, but not his typical sniper rifle or even his Tek railgun. This seemed augmented.
He then stood on the back of the Dragon and aimed for the back of the head.
But before he could shoot, the Dragon did a barrel roll to shake him off.
As he fell, the Dragon caught him in his jaws and threw him upward to swallow.
As Omni was mid-air, he aimed his gun down the Dragon's throat. I heard him say two words in his descent.
"Say goodnight."
Then he opened fire and a barrage of green acid fired directly into the core of the Tek Dragon.
Omni moved out of the way with his jetpack as the Dragon plummeted, trying to take anything down with it in a desperate attempt to survive. But it was hopeless.
As the Dragon melted inside atop the glass floor, we approached it and watched as it slowly turned into a molten silver puddle.
"We did it." I muttered aloud, "That's it, we beat the challenge. We can go home!"
Then suddenly behind us, a hologram appeared. It depicted the entire solar system. I recognized Venus and Mars, but Earth looked different.
The hologram then increased, maximizing our vision on the pale sandy planet.
"Is this… Earth?" Ash asked.
I looked at the hologram wondering the same question.
"And are these… satellites?" Bria asked, referring to three-pronged satellites surrounding Earth's atmosphere.
"I'm not sure if that is Earth though, its geography looks different," Omni noted.
I then noticed one of the 'satellites' was blinking red.
"Where are we?" Thug asked, not noticing.
"Here. We're here." I said pointing to the blinking satellite.
"We're on a satellite?" Crystal asked.
"How else would you explain that we can see space below us?" I asked sarcastically.
"He has a point…" Mary trailed off.
"So you're telling me… we've been on a giant spaceship this entire time?" Crystal clarified.
"Seems like it…" Omni responded.
"And I've mentioned several times that it's aliens right?"
"Several times…" I replied.
"Then should I even bother repeating myself?"
"I mean it would explain the fact that this place has quite obviously surgically implanted… well implants, Tek, dinosaurs, eerie, alpha and Tek creatures; things only a person's screwed up mind could come up with. And the artifacts almost seem to work as keys or something." Omni replied.
"Let's keep that a mystery for now and figure out what to do next," Mary suggested.
Then suddenly, all of our inventory menus opened forcibly in unison.
It gave us each a list of all our tames, with a '0/7' at the top.
I clicked on Kong's name and the numbers changed to '1/7'.
"You guys seeing this?" I asked.
"Yeah… what is it making us pick our tames for?" Ash asked.
"...The next challenge…" Omni muttered under his breath.
"What?" I asked.
"That's what the Overseer meant, maybe this isn't the end yet. Maybe this is where we move to the next challenge and it's letting us each take 7 tames."
"So that's… 35 creatures?" Bria asked.
"That's enough." Thug monotoned as he quickly skimmed through his options.
"I'm only bringing four that I want, so if anybody needs to bring an extra three…" Omni suggested.
"Please." I interrupted, raising my hand immediately as if I was a kindergartener.
I wanted to bring all my monkeys which amounted to 6 in total.
I then got Omni to choose Drago, Doomsday, and Blackbolt along with his creatures which were Caustic, Weaver, Stan, and Nova.
"I can't find Doomsday in here," Omni replied.
"What? Why?" I asked.
"Maybe because it's a hybrid Tek Giga." Crystal replied, "Of course they won't let you bring that, you'd be unstoppable."
"Well… it let me bring both Nova and Stan." Omni mused.
"And I could bring my Yeti's too, they technically aren't even tameable," I added.
"Maybe it's the fact that Doomsday shouldn't even exist. A Tek hybrid shouldn't be able to continue because the Overseer himself doesn't even fully understand it." Thug replied.
I looked down to the Island depressingly, thinking of Doomsday being there just out of my reach.
"Pick Snowflake instead," I told Omni somberly.
"Don't worry, I'll bring Arsenal," Mika replied to try to lighten the mood.
Once we all picked out 7 tames, the gong sounded again, and a large dome appeared above us similar to when we were teleported to the Overseer arena.
Then my vision turned white, and the next thing I knew I was shooting through space at the speed of light.
I saw the Island below as it drifted out of view, I looked around to see my other seven friends blasting through space alongside me.
I looked at my arm and pushed on my implant. It released a small array of lights and sparks as my hand began to pixelate. As we sped through space around Earth, the planet below began to show a hexagonal grid on its surface, with one hexagon being red. We all then plummeted toward it.
The next challenge.
(1) This was written with a period between the 'E' and 'exe' but fanfic thinks its a link to a website or something so it was removed from the doc, instead it will be written as 'Ark1E exe'
Stay tuned for Part 2!