Miss Fortune shot the last mindless puppet and then paused, cool baby blue eyes calmly inspecting the vast scenery ahead of her. Lively green plains stretching widely as far as the eye could see, small blocky pixilated clouds moving across the sky raining down glitter on any unlucky pedestrian that would happen to pass by, square images vaguely resembling of trees, rocks and weird exotic flowers were carelessly dumped all over the place completing the bizarre scenery. Nothing new or even remotely interesting really, the scenery hadn't even changed a bit since the redhead's last inspection almost two weeks ago.
This world seemed static, mundane even, a complete and utter wasteland filled with lifeless minion-dolls disguised as enemies. The very land itself was almost giving off the vibe of a failed experiment carried out by some peculiar deity, as if said god had used this world while trying to create new life forms and then abandoned the whole project after he inevitably screwed everything up and his peers deemed the project a failure.
It was ok for a first attempt and Sarah would even give the clearly inexperienced deity a passing grade if not for the repeating themes continuously occurring all around her.
The sun was always up in the sky all day long, most hilltops and plains looked the same and the bounty hunter was in fact pretty sure that all if not most of the enemies that she had fought and defeated so far were the exact same dolls baring the same vacant faces and bored expressions for example. The whole thing seemed… Lacking.
There were endless green hills as far as the eye could see filled with peculiar unmoving grass blades, odd caricatures of living creatures roaming the land carrying tiny swords and magical wands spiting odd pixilated fireballs and undrinkable rivers filled with stone like, static water, their blue flickering waves vibrating lazily as if frozen in time. And Sarah didn't really know the real purpose behind all those shiny golden altars popping all over the place, but she was actually pretty sure that the giant neon letters floating above the ancient constructions wouldn't actually SAVE her life if the need arise.
Were those ruins serving any real purpose at all or were they in fact just some kind of homage to the lazy deity and its horrible creations? The young woman couldn't really tell but she was inclined to believe the latter. Sarah Fortune wasn't a religious person after all, but she had yet to meet any influential figure or person of importance for that matter that didn't seem to carry an ego the size of an ancient sea-king kraken.
The bounty hunter sighs, she kicks the corpse of the last minion-doll she has slain and then puts her guns back into their holsters, her gaze staying on their alien forms for a few more seconds before traveling back to the ever shining sun and the greenery laying beneath it.
Alien, that was one way to put it, the guns that were now resting in her holsters were another oddity, a mystery like the existence of this fake world and its mindless residents. The material of the pistols' vibrant pink handles felt wrong under her touch, hard and yet fragile completely unlike wood or metal or any known material the red haired bounty huntress had ever heard of.
Was it some new kind of alloy constructed in Piltover and if that was really the case why were the guns just laying next to her when she had came to in this godforsaken wasteland? Was perhaps this world some kind of training facility? A lifeless realm not created by a sinister god or demon but the vanity of man and his never-ending quest for knowledge?
That would at least explain the absence of humans and other intelligent life forms in this plane of existence. Or maybe they could be hiding, either way Sarah hadn't encountered a single yordle or even voidling thus far.
Well at least the pistols seemed to be as good as any at slaying minion-dolls and pixilated monsters, and they also seemed to be able to fire nearly endless barrages of colorful projectiles without the need to reload. Apparently whoever sent her here wanted her to be equipped accordingly.
Well, Sarah missed the hard wooden grip of her favorite ornate pistols, but these hexguns would have to do for now and she at least wouldn't have to worry about finding more ammunition in the near future.
The bounty hunter sighs, tired melancholic eyes scanning the vast hillsides and the giant golden coins hovering around her, it seems that wherever she killed one of those minion-dolls a golden coin would appear in its place as if to reward her for participating in some kind of dull, monotonous hunting game. Sarah didn't really pay too much attention at the spinning currency, money was important yes living in the cruel ports of Bilgewater had tough her that the hard way, but wealth and treasures were useless when you were stuck inside an inhabitable moving painting.
And yet it wasn't as if Sarah hadn't tried escaping this hellish place, oh no the young bounty hunter had tried, running for hours upon hours under the intense smiling visage of the golden sun and the moving and yet somehow still frozen pixilated clouds. Tirelessly moving forward until she had encountered some kind of invisible wall barring her way.
The redhead was baffled at first, eyeing the invisible obstacle curiously before reluctantly shooting at it with one of her hextech pistols only for the light rounds to harmlessly pass through the wall as if it wasn't even there.
Sarah wouldn't just surrender so easily of course, the redhead had just sighed, an annoyed expression minutely appearing on her beautiful face before grudgingly moving away from the wall, calmly walking in the opposite direction.
It didn't make much of a difference. The world was still a parody of real life, the rivers were still flowing endlessly carrying fake static water, the sky was bright and the sun hadn't even moved an inch since she had started her journey. Countless minion dolls fell under the endless neon beams of her hextech pistols but he bounty hunter just kept marching forward until she suddenly stumbled into another transparent wall exactly like the previous one she had encountered.
The redhead had grunted, her currently annoyed expression slowly turning into one of despair as she started walking by the invisible obstacle, tired blue eyes staring at the distant foothills and the fake trees, one hand grasping her pistol the other one dragging against the unnatural chilling surface of the invisible obstacle.
The situation wasn't weird or annoying anymore, it was dangerous almost hopeless and Sarah tried to push the thought away, but somewhere deep inside Sarah had already drawn her conclusions about the invisible wall restraining her movements and unfortunately enough every slow tired step she took just seemed to confirm the redhead's suspicions. But the unnerved bounty hunter just grit her teeth and kept marching forward even as her heart boomed and clenched inside her ribcage, because what choice did she have really?
So Sarah took a step forward and then another one and at least ten or twelve more after that, her desperate tired gaze dragging along her own shaky feet, following her future footsteps. An endless amount of footsteps later and she was still feeling the invisible obstacle, the sun was shining brightly and her heart was thundering against her chest, her numb palm still sliding against the dreadful transparent window blocking her way. Sarah already knew the futility of her actions by now, but she just kept walking forward, what choice did she have really?
Step
Thirsty she was starting to feel thirsty and the sun hadn't even moved an inch.
Step
Her throat was dry, her feet somehow kept stumbling against the grass carrying her forward and yet the scenery still looked the same. Another step and then another one…
Step
Sarah couldn't even feel her right hand anymore, but she somehow knew that the barrier was still there, still mocking her, still tormenting her very existence.
Step
Another step, the sun is shining, the coins are spinning, the bloody barrier is still there.
Step
Another step, her throat hurts, she needs some water but the fake rivers are frozen, her fingers stop before they even reach the static water's surface.
Step
Step, step, how many steps have she taken thus far, everything around her still looks the same.
Step
Her feet are killing her, she will have to take a break at some point, but she can't rest yet, not until she finds a way out of this nightmarish place.
Step
Step, the despair is now overwhelming her, her eyes are watering and the damn wall is still there.
Step
Step
Step
Step
Step
A few lifetimes later and Sarah notices something that makes her heart stop. Footsteps, familiar footsteps and crashed grass blades leading away from her, vanishing into the horizon. She is back at where she started.
Step? No, not anymore, why even bother at this point.
The wall is still here, still invisible and unfortunately still blocking her way and it is at this particular moment that Sarah just breaks down and collapses on her knees and starts screaming her lungs out, curling into a ball as the minion-dolls start approaching her, waving their tiny swords and wands at her menacingly. Because Sarah has finally realized the truth. This isn't an empty world or a failed experiment, not even some kind of bizarre training facility in the heart of Piltover. No, it is some higher being's toy box and she is trapped inside it.
Sarah would soon learn that not even death would allow her to escape this hellish place because as luck would have it she had once carelessly approached one of the scattered save stations.
Author's note: I really like the idea of the arcade universe and all the possibilities that come with it, it let's characters interact in a completely new way and gives a new perspective to them much like the Project skins.
I saw the splash art for arcade Ahri and the vibrant background kind of inspired me to write an arcade story. It was either this one or a story about Riven defeating the bad dragon in the arcade world and then nursing Shyvana back to health, becoming friends with her or even starting a romance, but I wanted to write something simpler than that and so here you have this story. Feel free to use this or any plots I have ever mentioned if it inspires you to write something.