The Last Action Figure Hero
Chapter 1: Hell In Toys R' Us
By Dariusknight
[Author's Note]: Part of the Multi-World Project, this is my first fanfic in a very long time, so please do leave a review or PM to let me know what you think of it. A follow and/or favorite would also be nice.
It should have been a typical day for me, I was on my way home from class at university after a particularly vigorous practice in the amateur MMA (that's mixed martial arts by the way) club I joined. It had been cold but clear but by the time I left it had started snowing and the temperature had dropped considerably making the sidewalks precarious. That's probably why when I started running to catch the bus back to my student dorm, I slipped and fell into the road at the same time as a snow plow was coming. The last thing I thought of before I got hit and the lights went out was that, "Damn, guess I won't be losing my virginity in this life…"
The next thing I knew, I was sitting on the ground in the middle of a glowing circle that looked suspiciously like some sort of a magic circle and before I could even process what just happened to me, I heard the usual trope-y words of an isekai, "Greetings, Fighting Hero, you have been summoned to fight the Waves of Disaster. I am King Green Army Man of the Green Army Nation. I welcome you to my kingdom." The first thing I noticed was, well the King was actually one of those little green army men you get in the toy store. In fact, all the 'knights', 'clerics' and 'mages' were all some type of green army man toy. The other thing I noticed was, I was wearing a pair of bandages with a gem embedded in the right one, and strangely I couldn't take them off.
The King started to speak again, and said, "You should be able to look at your stats if you think STATUS to yourself." Once I concentrated, I was suddenly looking at a screen in front of me that reminded me of an RPG status screen that read:
Name: Derek North
Class: Fighting Hero
Level: 1
Equipment: Basic Hand Wraps (Cardinal Weapon)
Current Weapon Form: Basic Action Hero (Weapon Form Locked: +2 Attack)
Now that I was aware of it, all the info that you'd see on an RPG HUD was now visible in the periphery of my vision. Bars for my HP, MP and SP were transparent but all showed full. The King then spoke up, "There is also supposed to be a Help menu that will explain better about what your role is and other things, before we move on, please read it and then when you are done, we can speak more. I took his advice and found a menu that allowed me to access the Help screen and when I touched it, there were several topics that I wasn't able to access, but Cardinal Weapon Holder was and as I selected it, I was able to learn about the system I was now under the control of:
[Cardinal Weapon Holder]: Pillar of the world, uses a weapon that is more of a concept than strictly what it is. In your case, you are the Action Figure Hero and can use abilities that are intrinsic to action figures. Summoned to fight the Waves of Disaster, unable to return to previous world until all Waves have been cleared, fights with the Vassal Weapon Holders.
Well, ok, so clearly, I was some sort of legendary hero summoned to save the world, yadda yadda, bada bing, bada boom, etc. Vassal Weapon Holder and Waves of Disaster were then no longer greyed out and I immediately selected Waves of Disaster:
[Waves of Disaster]: A phenomenon where cracks form in the sky and monsters are released, waves are caused by [UNKNOWN] {Information is inaccessible due to limitations of Weapon Form}. Heroes must fight and defeat the Wave Boss to end the wave.
Well, that was a kick in the ass, the help wasn't so helpful there, maybe at some point it would update and I could learn more but at least I understood that I was to fight monsters and a "Boss" of some sort during the Waves to end them. I assumed seeing that I was Level 1 and had a weapon form that I would be able to level up by defeating monsters and the like, just like an RPG. After I finished reading, several more topics were accessible, but I chose to ignore the rest for now, so as to not keep the King waiting.
I said, "Your Majesty, I understand what I'm here for now, I guess I should introduce myself." I paused for a second and then tried to act a little more confident than I really felt, "I'm Derek North, and according to this, I'm the Action Figure Hero." I cringed inwardly as this made me sound so lame since action figures were a part of my childhood with my big brother who died when I was 12 and I inherited all his G.I. Joes and Transformers along with several other toys in that vein. The King nods and says, "I welcome you again Derek, now I would like for you to follow me, we need to get you registered with the Dragon Hourglass which is in a room behind the throne." There was a topic about Dragon Hourglasses in my Help menu and quickly reading it allowed me to understand that by registering, I would be able to be teleported to where the Wave would happen in this kingdom. It also let me know that there were many other Hourglasses where Waves would also happen.
The King took me around and behind his throne where there was an ornate door that when opened, led to a huge hourglass where the sand was almost all run out. The jewel on my hand wraps flashed and sent out a beam of light that connected with the jewel on the Hourglass. Immediately a message appeared in my vision: [Dragon Hourglass Registered] and a timer appeared in the top left corner of my vision: [Time to Wave]: 00:00:04:39. I blinked and turned to the King, "Uh, it says that I have less than 5 minutes before the wave?" The King smiled and looked relieved as he said, "Oh good, then we weren't too late… Good luck!" I blinked again and shouted, "Good luck?! Good luck?! You summoned me this close to the wave? I'm only level 1!" The time ticked down as I yelled at the King who simply dismissed me and kept smiling and telling me good luck.
[00:00:00:01]
[00:00:00:00]
[Wave Begins: Teleportation Activated]
I screamed in frustration as the wave timer counted down and then my vision went white and then suddenly, I was in a different place than the castle. I blinked as there were Green Army Men running away as the sky had turned red and strange looking cracks were forming in the sky. That was weird enough, what was weirder was that I was in the middle of what looked to be a toy store for giants and I was on a massive shelf where dozens of different Green Army Men were all huddled together. I didn't have time to really wonder what the hell was going on or why I was in some sort of massive Toys R' Us, because creatures started dropping from the cracks onto the shelf not too far away and they all looked like the sort of creatures you'd find in a D&D compendium. I wasn't sure what my Basic Hand Wraps could do, or how to fight as a Basic Action Figure, but clearly, I was going to have to learn on the job and pray that I didn't die even though I was only Level 1.
And there you go, a cliffhanger for my story, in the next episode, poor Derek will be overwhelmed trying to learn how to fight the wave spawn and leveling up and then have to struggle against the Wave Boss while being massively underpowered and underleveled. Will he survive, will he manage to learn that he can absorb materials from Wave monsters to power up? Find out in the next chapter.
Same Multi-World Time,
Same Multi-World Channel.
Happy New Year and hope you all had a very good holidays, I'll be trying to update this story at least once a week depending on my work schedule and my writer's block. Again, please do leave a review and if possible, a follow and favorite. It's much appreciated.