Disclaimer: Arin's a joke – egoraptor 2013
"Speech"
"Thought"
Song lyrics
Day: 23(?)
Location: a forest on an alien planet
Time: 3:43 AM
Michael rests against a tree while the moon looms overhead; his laptop is in front of him recording his next diary entry. Amily is 2 feet to his right, sleeping peacefully on a pile of leaves. The sound of a music box playing a soothing tune can be heard from the iPod
"Okay…good news and bad news", Michael says into the camera, "Bad news first; you know the dragons that were in the last recording? Well…they're dead…actually three of them are dead, one of them is missing. The three that are dead are Frost, Flare, and Ascad; I don't know if Terra's dead or not, I didn't find her body."
Michael picks up the camera and points it towards Amily's sleeping form
"The good news is: the kid, Amily, has been travelling with me for about six days now, and we've exchanged a little information about our worlds while we travelled. I've told her a little bit about humanity, just some basic stuff like our anatomy, how to tell woman apart from men, the terms associated with both genders and such; I've also had to explain how our technology works, I told her I wasn't an expert but did the best that I could to explain anyway. From what she told me about this place is that it's called "Avalar" or something like that; she's told me that it's more peaceful natives are dragons, cheetahs (she didn't really elaborate on what they looked like), and apparently mole people. She also told me that dragons can manipulate elemental forces, meaning more than just fire, I was a little surprised when she told me this in confidence…but anything seems possible at this point."
Michael puts the camera back in its original place
"One of its more…dangerous inhabitants is a gorilla-like species that the natives simply call "apes"; and after a rather…bloody introduction I can see why the natives don't like'em. From what I could gather from my own personal encounter, along with Amily's; they're a warrior race of some-sort, they have a deep seated hatred for dragons, they're not too bright…well the ones I fought weren't the smartest, but they're strong and relentless. They're somewhat like wolves…only the wolves in this case are mentally challenged and smell like shit, and like wolves they have an alpha; the one I saw was bigger than the others and knew how to strategize, and spoke in coherent sentences…I didn't actually fight him though."
Michael takes Hades out and spins the cylinder, then puts back into its holster
"It would've been suicide to take him and his lackeys head on, so I took the easy way and ended that fight before it began. A little after that conflict I ran into a more feral creature; a reptile-canine hybrid of sorts, Amily calls it a "death-hound", it seemed like any kind of wild dog looking for a meal or defending its territory from invaders; given how bad it smelled, along with its appearance: death-hound is an appropriate name. She mentioned other kinds of creatures that were dangerous, but personally most of them didn't seem like they would pose a threat to me and by extension: her."
The sound of something moving catches Michael's attention; he pulls out Hades and inspects the surrounding area, then comes back after a few minutes
"False alarm, it was just Amily. Now…where was I again? Oh right; apparently some heavy shit went down seven years ago, like post-apocalyptic heavy, but given how everything seems fine now, I guess the natives must have resolved it…somehow. Speaking of apocalypse: Amily has been asking me some more…personal questions. She asked about my family, earth, and if everyone was like me, wearing this armor and carrying all these deadly weapons; I told her it was just too hard to explain, I could tell she wasn't satisfied with my answer. Which led her to asking me if I was a warrior of some sort, I simply told her I was a survivor; she was confused by my answer, but didn't press it any further."
Michael suddenly grips his head and groans in pain
"I've been-hngh…I've been having these sudden migraines ever since that encounter with the apes; I'm not sure what's causing it, all I know is Amily seems to be getting them too. They usually last about ten-to-twenty seconds, the longest one was a whole minute. I've got a couple of theories: 1. the apes hit my head hard enough to cause some brain trauma, but that doesn't really explain why Amily is experiencing them as well. 2. My body is so alien to this world that it is trying to adapt to a magic environment and Amily's brain can't process a form like mine."
He pauses and looks around; the feeling of someone watching him feels very strong
"Last theory is that…something or someone is causing it, after my fight with the apes I saw…someone watching from the tree-line; I couldn't make out any features aside from the color black. Just looking at it sent tremors through my brain until I had to look away, and now every-so-often I see something black in my peripheral just watching me a good few feet away, then me or Amily will experience a headache. I think it's probably some kind of guardian spirit of this world making sure I'm not some kind of world ending threat; or it's a just demon waiting for me to fall, and then use my body. All I really know is that it's some kind of Ghostwatching me."
Michael stretches and yawns
"We're within twenty miles of the beacon; we might reach it later today if it doesn't rain again." Michael yawns again, "This is Michael Santiago; signing off"
Michael reaches forward to hit the stop button, but the sound of something moving in the forest catches his attention again; he pulls out Hades once more and goes off to patrol the area. Next to the tree he was resting against stands a figure, their form is obscured by the night and their dark clothing; light reflects off of the area where their left eye is as they stare intently at the camera. They fade away in a reddish-black mist as Michael can be heard returning to camp.
"Fuckin' rabbits" Michael mutters as he returns to the laptop, "Hopefully I can get some sleep."
He hits the stop button, folds it, and puts it back into its bag
"Let lady luck be on my side and make the next day easy to endure." Michael says as he moves to his resting place, "Tactic and strength is one thing, but sometimes all you need is good lucky."
Michael remains vigilant as he goes to sleep, listening to the sounds of the forest for any kind of threat; several minutes pass until he finally falls asleep. A half hour passes in the silent camp; the sound of someone walking towards the camp is heard, they chuckle in the darkness when they reach the edge of the camp; they watch Michael and Amily sleeping on the ground. The figure claps, and a blanket materializes on Amily.
"Bravo Mr. Santiago, Bravo." The figure says with an amused tone, "You survived the locals; now let's see how long she can survive under your care."
5 hours later
Michael awakens feeling groggy and sore; he pulls out a rock from under him and grumbles as he tosses it away. He looks over to Amily, and sees she's still asleep; he notices a blanket but doesn't think anything of it.
Michael stands up and stretches, listening closely to his surroundings for any danger; he hears rustling and looks towards Amily as she awakens, looking a little surprised by the blanket.
"Did you put this on me?" she asked with a yawn as she stood up
"I don't think I did", was Michael's sleepy response, "Somebody must've snuck into the camp while we were sleeping and put it on you."
Michael chuckled at the last statement for a few seconds but quickly realized what he said and began panicking a little.
"Someone got into the camp…while we were asleep…" Amily said quietly, "They got close enough to put a blanket on me, and…"
"Let's just go before they come back." Michael said as he picked up the medical bag, "The fact that someone just walked in here gives us another reason to get out of this damned forest."
Amily begins doing some stretches as Michael gets the rest of his gear packed up, the sound of the forest creatures filling the morning air as she looked around
"Looks like the sky finally cleared up." She commented as she looked upward
Michael stopped loading the Red curtain as he looked up with an amused face
"Guess today might be a good day after all." He said as he finished loading, then face-palmed, "I probably just jinxed us."
"Hey we've been lucky so far without anything trying to kill us", Amily stated, "so far our only problem has been the rain, what's the worst that can happen today?"
"Why did you say that?!" Michael said under his palm, "Now something really bad is going to happen."
"Oh come now, I'm sure you can deal with whatever comes our way." Amily says in a sarcastic tone, "You big strong lady."
"And now something big and loud is gonna come out and…did you just call me a lady?!" Michael semi-shouted
"Yes…did I say it wrong?"
"No, you didn't say it wrong, but we've been over this already. I am a male, you are referring to me as the opposite gender and-"
"Are you sure you're a male?" Amily cut him off, "Because you sound as whiny as Frost."
Amily realized what she just said and hung her head in shame, being reminded of the tragedy that had occurred a week ago
"Oh shut up Dom…" Michael mumbled to himself, and then groaned in disappointment at what he said
The next few minutes were spent in an uncomfortable silence as Michael got his gear packed up and his weapons loaded
"All right", Michael said as he put his helmet on, "let's get moving."
"Shouldn't we take the blanket?"
"Why should we take the blanket?"
"Well…it seems rude to leave there in the dirt."
"What if the blanket…uh…has something to track us? Or it might be laced with diseases and stuff." Michael pointed out
"Well, if there was something to track us, I'm sure you'd find it; and why would someone give someone else a blanket with the intent on getting them sick?"
"In order to…to…uh…" Michael stammered, quickly realizing what he was referencing to, "Never mind, just get the blanket and let's get going."
Michael leaned against a tree as Amily went to get the blanket, she returned with the blanket in her mouth; Michael took the blanket and put it in the medical supply bag and they set off.
Half an hour passes as they walk, while listening closely to their surroundings and taking in the sun light of a great morning
"How about a little travelling music?" Michael suggested as he pulled out the iPod
"That would be nice." Amily said tiredly, then put on a serious face, "But please don't let it be that "screamo" stuff as you would call it."
Michael rolled his eyes as he began skipping through songs (should probably point out that he doesn't know the number combination to unlock the iPod, given it was Dom's. He can still change the music from the lock screen)
Michael skipped through songs as they continued walking, each one either being a guitar riff or techno beat
"Why did Dom leave the shuffle on? It's not helping me much." Michael mumbled as he continued skipping songs until he found one that he deemed worth playing, "finally."
[The Legend of Zelda: the wind waker- outset island]
Amily stopped for a moment to listen to the song, it made her feel relaxed for some reason; she couldn't tell why, but the tune of the song made her feel at home
"Is there a story to this song?" Amily asked as she resumed walking, "Like some of the other songs we listened to."
"Well…yes and no", Michael began, "the song itself doesn't have a story to it, but the song is a part of a story."
"Isn't that kind of the same thing?"
"Do you want to me to stop the music and explain it or do you want to keep walking and enjoy the music?"
"Can't you walk and tell me? You could just make the music quieter to make it easier." Amily pointed out
"Well it's a very long story." Was Michael's response, "and I don't want to bore you with details."
"Well…we do have a long walk ahead of us don't we?" Amily said nervously, "It'll be nice to hear a story."
"Am I really going to tell her the legend of Zelda story line? Do I want to? Do I want to hear her ask me about for the remainder of this trip?" Michael thought as he sighed
"It all begins in the sky era" Michael began, "during the 25th year celebration of a school in a city in the sky. Our hero is a boy named Link…"
8 hours later
Michael is carrying Amily at this point; her legs had gotten tired 2 hours ago
"…and the final blow was struck as the master-sword was thrust downward into the head of Gannondorf, not by the reincarnation of the hero of time; but by a boy who had enough courage to fight the forces of evil, he who carried the wind waker had done something that the hero of time could not do. He had defeated Gannondorf, and made his return impossible. The old king of Hyrule appeared before Link and Zelda and asked them to forgive him and his people for what they had done. The two of them are taken back to the surface and reunited with their friends; they would return to Outset Island to celebrate and Link is finally able to see his sister again."
"So he finally got to go home?"
"Yeah and there's a lot more to the story…but I don't know the rest of it."
"So the Hero of the Wind put a stop to Gannon once and for all?!" Amily asked as Michael had set her down, "He wasn't even part of some dumb prophecy, yet he still did so much simply because he felt like he had to."
"The spirit of the hero is eternal, it only takes courage to-", Michael stopped what he was saying when he felt the tracker vibrate, "Looks like we're close."
"We're close to the bacon?"
"Beacon"
"Whatever, how far are we?"
"We're", Michael said as he pulled out the tracker and hit the power button, "fifteen feet away. We shaved off two hours of the time I originally estimated it would take to get here, nice."
[Final fantasy VII- victory fanfare]
"Quiet you", Michael said as he paused the song, "Hopefully this beacon isn't in another fucking cave, I've had enough of caves."
The two of them resumed walking
"Maybe it's resting in a flower bed, and it's surrounded by a lot of bees." Amily suggested jokingly, "Or maybe it's in the water temple."
"Okay, the first seems like something I can deal with; I have body armor that pretty much prevents outside threats from getting into it." Michael then glared at her, "As for the second one: Why would you suggest something so terrible?!"
"I'm just joking, but really though what if it is in the water temple? What do you do then?"
"Stop talking about the water temple."
After a couple minutes of walking through the tree line they see where the beacon's signal is broadcasting from
"Of course it's a temple, why wouldn't it be a temple?! I couldn't just have been sitting on a rock." Michael complained, "Don't tell me I have to do some convoluted bullshit to open doors and find keys…"
Amily ignored Michael's ranting and began walking towards the temple
"It might be someone's home", She observed, "Although it seems to be empty right now, maybe whoever lives in there is out hunting; so we might run into them later."
She continued looking over the temple for signs of danger; nothing seemed to say there was any kind of threats evident.
"Wait…why would anyone live out here in the middle of nowhere?" she thought to herself while Michael began checking his guns, "eh, maybe it's empty and I'm just being a little paranoid."
She began walking back towards Michael, then cast a look at the temple one more time and saw something darted back into the shadows of the temple's top. It caught her off guard, but she didn't think anything of it; playing it off as a product of her paranoia.
"Temple looks Mayan or is it Aztec…they both look kinda the same, whatever. Unlike a Mayan temple, it doesn't have a large flight of stairs on two sides leading to the highest point. Several doorways suggest that the path of ascension is inside, most likely sets of stairs leading upward. Beacon is on ground level inside the structure, most likely sitting under rubble. Should be an easy grab, but it never hurts to be prepared now does it?"
Michael pulls out the Red curtain and set down the electronics bag.
"Tight corridors means close range combat; a shotgun is an ideal weapon." He puts Maria and Hades into their respective holsters, "The axe will be secondary in case I need to reload. Hopefully the beacon is Dom's rifle."
"Michael…I've been meaning to ask", Amily said as she neared Michael, "why do you want to retrieve the rest of those weapons? I mean, you've already got enough of them to keep yourself safe; why do you want to get them if it means going to the middle of nowhere?"
"It's a little hard to explain", Michael said with a sigh, "Let's just say they've got sentimental value."
"You've already told me enough about your world, so why is it so hard to tell me why they're so important to you?"
"I'm not very keen about sharing my past with some kid I haven't even known for a week." Michael said, anger very evident in his voice, "and to be honest, you haven't told me about yourself since we met."
Amily shrank under his gaze, she could tell he was glaring at her even with his face was covered by his helmet; she already knew what he was capable of, and opted against pressing the subject any further
Michael began walking towards the temple, Amily followed reluctantly
"You don't have to go in here with me y'know", Michael stated, "a couple minutes apart will do us some good right now. It'll be quick; I'll go into the temple and grab whatever the signal is broadcasting from, okay."
Michael looked over his shoulder as he walked and saw that Amily didn't think over his suggestion and continued to follow him with her head hung low, most likely moping
"Really, are we gonna play this game now?"
As the two of them entered the temple, they couldn't shake this oppressive feeling; like something was breathing down their necks
"This is an evil place" Michael said in a rather monotonous tone
Amily couldn't help but stare at Michael for his sudden change of tone, he sounded as if someone forced him to say that. Something about his stance changed as well, like something was constricting him and making sure he stayed standing.
"Gah, Spider!" Michael shouted as he snapped out of dazed state, and proceeded to stomp on a rather large spider, "Diediediediediediediedie! Fuck you spawn of Satan!"
"Michael I think you've killed it already…" Amily said as Michael continued to stomp the spider into paste, "Michael? Michael?! MICHAEL?!"
"*huff* Fuck *pant* you spider bitch." Michael continued to stomp on the spider until the sound of his boot hitting the temple floor was heard, "Fucking *huff* spiders, can't go *huff* anywhere without one of them *pant* popping up."
After calming down, Michael resumed walking as if nothing had happened. Amily recovered from her own stupor and followed close behind
"Uh…Michael…"
"What?"
"Who's…uhh…who's Satan?"
Michael stopped on the spot and just stood there, as if waiting for someone to attack them. He groaned as he put his hand to the face of his helmet.
"I'm not in the mood to talk about religion right now." He said flatly
Michael continued walking before Amily could ask another question. Another couple of minutes pass as they walk deeper into the temple, finally coming across a rather large room; there were pillars in the room, obviously supporting the ceiling. Vines and cobwebs littered the area; in the center of the room was a podium.
"Is that…"Michael mumbled as he began walking towards the podium, axe at the ready to cut the vines around the podium
"Michael…" Amily began, but her words fell on deaf ears as Michael began hacking away at the vines that had wrapped around the podium
"Hello, little brother." Michael said in a quietly as he grabbed the rifle from the podium, "It's been too long."
Amily began looking around the room while Michael inspected the rifle for any problems. She noticed two other doors that lead into this room, but saw they were blocked off by rocks and other assorted debris.
"If there's more than one way in…why block off two of the entrances?" Amily thought as she inspected the room, "Something happened here, something that needed only one way in and one way out."
She continued looking around as Michael loaded his newly acquired weapon; starting with inspecting one of the doors she saw that it had several webs within the rubble, like they were holding them together. The dust and grime in this place suggested that it has been abandoned for some time now, but for some reason it still looked like someone kept this place clean. She couldn't explain why she suddenly felt cold, like one of Frost's attacks.
"Amily", she heard Michael say hoarsely
"What…" Her words died in her mouth when she Michael with his rifle at the ready
"RUN!" Michael shouted as he fired at the temple's ceiling
[Resident evil 5 - flying nightmare]
She was paralyzed with fear after the initial gunshot, but looked at the ceiling to see what Michael was firing at
"Sp-spiders…" she whimpered at the sight of at least a dozen giant (think frostbite spiders from Skyrim) spiders began descending from the ceiling. She started running as another shot rang out
"Kinda wish I had Jason's flamethrower right now." Michael said as he pulled the Red curtain from its holster and proceeded to run after Amily, "Just keep running Amily, I'll see you outside!"
Michael reached the entrance to the room as a spider jumped at him; it was immediately shot as it reached the highest point of its jump (3 or 4 feet off the ground)
"Of course they jump…" Michael mumbled as he kicked another spider to his left onto its back, and followed up with a buckshot to its abdomen
He continued running and killing any spiders that got within his range
"Amily, You okay?!" he shouted ahead, a chill ran through his body when he heard Amily scream in response, "HOLD ON! I'M COMING!"
"We should've just left as soon as I got this damned rifle." He thought as he ran
He rounded another corner and saw Amily being pinned down by a big spider while smaller spiders wrapped webs around her.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Michael shouted as he pulled out Hades and fired several shots at the larger spider's abdomen, then began grabbing and throwing the smaller spiders at the walls
"Hey, hey, hey; calm down I've got you." Michael said as he began ripping the webbing off of her struggling form
"Come lets-", Michael was cut off as a spider onto his back, "Get off me you fuck!"
The spider made several attempts at biting into Michael, but they couldn't penetrate his armor. After the spider's 9th attempt they finally penetrated the armor and got the tip of their fangs into Michael's skin.
"I Said: get off me you eight legged freak!" Michael shouted as he pushed the spider off him, and then shot its abdomen, he reached for the area it bit into, "Bastard actually got through."
Before Michael or Amily could do anything, more spiders pinned the two down and began webbing them
"No, NO! Get the fuck off of me!" Michael yelled, panic clear in his voice, "GET THE FUCK OFF OF ME!"
"Michael, Michael!" Amily shouted, "HELP ME! Please!"
As Michael struggled, his limbs began to feel numb as his vision begins to get fuzzy.
"Venom…"
He still tried to fight the spiders, but could not put enough force into his strikes as the webbing got thicker and thicker.
As Amily cried out for help, Michael's vision was taken…elsewhere; he found himself in a familiar hardware store in Texas, the feeling of rope wrapping around him. The spiders were replaced with people of varying ages and ethnicities, a hungry look on their faces as he was tied up. To his left he saw Paul and Ivan, both unconscious from an earlier fight. The screams of the young dragoness were replaced with that of his younger brother; he looked in the direction where the young one was being dragged off to.
"DOM", Michael shouted desperately, rage evident in his voice, "DOM LOOK AT ME!"
"M-Michael w-who's…", "Dom" baffled fearfully
"DOM LOOK AT ME! We're going to be okay!" Michael shouted deliriously, "I'm going to get us out of here okay!"
"Michael what…", "Dom was cut off as "rope" was wrapped around his head
"I'LL FIND YOU; WE'LL GET OUT OF THIS! ALL OF US!" Michael shouted as "Dom" was dragged away by "Big-smiley"
Michael continued to struggle against the "ropes" until his body was finally wrapped up completely
"Never…eat…me…" Michael mumbled as he faded into unconsciousness
The spiders began to carry Michael to their egg cluster, hoping to use him as food for the spiders that will hatch soon
SPIDERS 8^(
Michael has reclaimed: Dom's Vengeance (formerly known as "The Long Eye")
Amily's equipment: still empty