To the readers
I appreciate any comments on the story.
Notes
[] are used to indicate stage directions
All dialogue follows a "Speaker: dialogue" format
{} are used for author comments.
CONTINUE
Ai: [after she jumps over] Why are we running? Why can't you just fight through them?
Korey: Oh they're not just monsters. They're alien zombie plague machines that burrow into your chest and take over your body.
Ai: OH NO! None of that please. Why are you afraid? You guys aren't actually here?
Ethan and all Team EXO: Mission 7, The library, Rocket Flood!
Korey: Have you played Halo?
Ai: I've barely played any games before today. Unless you count all of this.
Korey: Okay later we're 4 player co-op run of all the Halo campaigns.
Ai: Really?! Awesome.
Korey: We're skipping The Library though
Disc: YES! What do we do about the tower?
Ethan: [far off] I'm not going near those things!
Ai: Let's just go around the long way.
Disc: There's was no way to reach the tower on that side.
Ai: [mischievous. Finger raised] Not yet.
Ethan: [far off] Where are the rest of them? They should be back by now.
Korey: They can't respawn. Do you know how?
Ai: No, I could figure it out if I had time, but [laser destroys Disc in front of her]
[Another hummingbird-tarantula flight team is flying toward the remaining two on the path.]
Ethan: Is this a video game or a bird sanctuary? [sighs] Do I have to do everything myself!?
[He shoots the hummingbird with a tarantula riding on its back.
KOW
One turbine explodes. The vibrating bird is unsteady but swirls around to attack him. The tarantula shoots.
KOW
The projectiles destroy each other mid air. The bird U turns away from the sniper nest.]
Ethan: You think you can get away from ME?!
[Ethan sets down a foot bomb, gets a running start, and then jumps over the footbomb just as it explodes to boost him to the hummingbird.]
Ethan: IN-TE-GRA- [latches onto the bird's talon] TION!
[He absorbs the hummingbird causing the tarantula and him to fall. Instead of arms he has the bird's wings with turbines in each arm boosting him forward. The tarantula tries to shoot him mid air.
PHCKSHII-SLAM
He uses the ignition of his plasma sword from his foot to force a stab and bring himself closer to the tarantula so he can wrap its muzzle with his wings.]
Ethan: What do you think you're doing my little ammunition box. INTEGRATION!
[Just before he hits the ground, there's a flash. He soars back up. On his back he has one sniper rifle and he is carrying the one he got from the second tarantula in his mouth. Zooms over to the tower. Sees the last two hummingbirds, one riderless.]
Ethan: Ha, you're dead. [realization] No you're not! {your mouth doesn't create the sound when you talk in a virtual world, so his speech isn't muffled.}
[They fire back. Ethan yelps and dives down and back to the valley. The two hummingbirds follow him. Ethan yeets the sniper rifles down to Korey and Ai down on the pillar.]
Ethan: I can't shoot while I have wings. You. Idiot. Guard the idiot while I destroy those idiots.
[They continue down the path until they reach the closest point to the large pillar in the middle of the valley with the tower on top. The paths continues along the valley, but there's no bridge to reach across to the tower. That's only on the other side with the kankrelots.
Ethan is flying around trying to get the last flying pair's attention.]
Ethan: Fire!
[Korey shoot at it with the sniper Ethan gave them. It sort of just pops into his hands while the master rifle they were holding teleports on their back.
KOW
Complete miss
Meanwhile Ai claps her hands together and a song voice fills the air. A bridge starts to form across the gap.]
Ai LP: 80 - 40
Ai: This should take a while.
[A bird snaps it's attention away from Ethan and launches itself into dive bombing toward Ai while she's channeling creativity.]
Ai: I can't stop now. Do you have the shot? [looking at Korey with the sniper rifle]
[Cut to real life where Korey is checking their phone.]
Korey: Hmm?
[Ethan dives and spears the bird to the side. They crash into the valley below the two.
THUMP
The tarantula jumped off the bird before Ethan hit and lands in front of Ai. Ai snatches the sniper rifle out off Korey's avatar's hands.]
Everyone is knocked out besides Axel. Axel's eyes are darting around looking for an escape route. Just as he begins to move…
Frosch: [distorted] There are two controlling this body. It's trying to kill you? The Men in Black have almost found you. They have their own world.
Axel: Wait? What? I thought I had more time?
Frosch: [eyes go from the Annex eye to blank] Yargh
Axel: Who is that? Why did you betray me?
[The lightning in his hands turns purple. He opens his mouth and emits a deep growl filled with static.]
Axel: Where did you go? I thought you were going to help me.
[Now Frosch has XANA eyes]
[Ines arrives in the lab. There she goes down to scanner. There's a controller handing down that's plugged in the terminal. When she passes through the room, there's no one else there.]
Post it note: "Ines, I set up virtualize. You'll spawn on Ai's location. just hit A button."
[The controller is dangling right by the scanner. Ines steps into the scanner, grabs the controller, hits the button and lets it swing out of the scanner as the doors close.]
[Back on the Inner Zone of Plasma Throne, Ai creates a bridge between the buildings so they can reach the tower with the red aura. Kanrelots by the tower are trying to shoot her while she's using creativity. They hit and devirtualize the Korey, still frozen, who Ai is hiding behind. The tarantula is rearing up on its hind legs to fire down on Ai.
DMG is virtualized and falls down next to Ai. Blocks lasers with guillotine.]
DMG: Out of the frying pan dot dot dot.
[Ines spatial spikes the tarantula's arm in the air. It puts its other front leg up to the spike-
PHLEW
-and destroys it with a laser. Looks back to see DMG ready to bash it. It slams her against the wall with its arm, then lasers her.
DMG LP: 100 -95 -75
KOW KOW
The tarantula turns back to Ai just in time to catch three bullets: one blows its arm off, another in its lower abdomen-
KOW Click
-until the final bullet pierces on the outer ring of the XANA eye.
BOOM
Ai tosses the sniper to the side.]
Ai: Glad you're here. We need to get over to the tower over there.
DMG: With those roachster monsters?
Ai: The notes call them kankrelots, and the boys call them The Flood but yeah
DMG: Why's the bridge out?
[Ai points at the last hummingbird circling the tower.]
DMG: Weird vibrating drone hover frame? I'll see what I can do.
[DMG squeezes the handle. The center hollow swirls with energy and some is launched out the hollow end of the box but that's about it. It immediately dissipates.]
DMG: What do these do?
[Takes the handle with both hands and clicks two buttons on either side of the handle at once.
FUMP DOOMSH
Something goes flying off the weapon. The hummingbird takes notice, but the projectile isn't going anywhere near it.
What had been ejected was the cap on the lower half of the weapon. The circular hole on it was actually just a window to reveal the much wider source of energy inside. The handle was just a mount for two appendages. They had a joint half way down so they could bend out which they did now that they were no longer held straight by the outer cap. They ended in two points that matched the same spikes that the outer cap had had on the end.
She pulled the trigger again and the purple energy swirled between the two prongs leaking out the open end though not as focused and much more blurry.]
DMG: Is that it? No, it bends.
[She places the spikes on the metal floor and pushes down on the handle. The whole thing bowed outward changing the shape of the inner area.]
DMG: If I get close I can execute a big one. But why does it look like there are multiple...
[She pulls up on the handle and the segments of the bending appendages telescoped out, increasing its height.]
DMG: OH. I get it.
[She detaches it from the floor and aims it at the wall. She pulls one of the buttons that ejected the cap and the two appendages shoot out and attached to the wall by the spikes on their ends, the arm segments pulled out to their full length. She clicks the other side button and the arms detach and pull back into the tight frame.
DMG: Be right back.
[She walks up the side of the pillar forming the valley wall with her spatial spike greaves. Ai looks up at her bewildered. DMG takes two of her cards out of her sleeve, holds them in mouth, retracts the spikes, and backflips off the wall. She spits out the cards and lands on top of them with the spikes from each greave. She stands there mid air staring down the hummingbird with her guillotine. It's throat glows and it fires a projectile from it's beak.
DMG: Click. [pulls trigger]
SLICK
[The purple energy spirals across the frame. The railgun slug hits the purple field and disappears.
DMG: ComeonComeon. You know you want to hit me. Come on right here.
[The hummingbird jets straight toward her. DMG is just doing the "gimme gimee" gesture with both hands with a look of gleeful anticipation on her face. Just as it gets close, DMG straightens her hold on the guillotine in both hands and fires.
The appendages shoot out.
The cyborg bird banks to the side and the appendages narrowly miss.]
DMG: Classic misdirection.
[She pivots off one of the cards, still standing on one in the sky, and nails the bird in the throat with her spiked heel. It stops dead in the air, unable to move. The card she had been standing on flutters down.]
DMG: Clear enough of a target?
Ethan: Plenty
KOW
[The sniper bullet takes the bird through the bottom of its head and out the eye on top. The sniper barrel aimed at the scene in the sky comes into focus. Ethan's on his back, the wings discarded next to him peering down the sights.]
Ethan: Now, where were we?
[Show the hummingbird Ethan crashed into. He sheered off its wings and tail so all it can do is roll around.]
Ethan: Oh right. I was teaching you the meaning of disrespect. And your friend is going to help me. [flips the tarantula sniper around to grab it by the barrel] FORE! [Perfect golfing stance.]
WACK
DMG looks around, then throws down more cards and walks on them with her spikes to cross the empty space to the tower.
[Axel slams her way through a door into the back room of a currently closed electronics store. He immediately throws down a shelf in front of the door. He has the device he's been working on in his hand. It's a wired game controller with metal wire wrapped around it. The wired cord for the controller is split open with its cables splayed. Axel has duct tape sticking off the wires. Something huge and powerful is pounding on the door.]
Axel: COME ONE COME ON! Why do they never have the one battery you need.
[He finishes twisting the wires from the cable and the conductive wire and wrapping them in duct tape. Axel finds the battery pack he needs, tears it open, gets the battery and slams the duct tape with wires on it.]
Axel: Come on Sherlock, think. You can MacGyver your way out of this.
[Axel notices the noises from the door stop. Then the speaker on the counter beeps on.
"Device Connected"
Axel checks his phone. The Bluetooth reads "not connected". He stares at the speaker in horror.]
"It's what your hearing, listen … It's what your hearing, listen … It's what your hearing, listen ….."
[XANA Frosch bursts through the wall and Axel scrambles back on hands and knees screaming.]
Axel: AAAAAH AHAHH!
["DMX - X Gon' Give It to Ya" starts playing]
"-X gon give it to ya, WHA-"
[Axel flings his controller at Frosch. Tries to brush it away, but gets electrocuted. Form misting and blurring before solidifying. Axel yanks the cord back.]
Axel: You "are" weak to electricity.
[He hurls the weapon again trying to wrap it around the possessed Frosch body. Frosch holds out his hand and the weapon stops mid air.
CLENCH
Metal wire wrapped weapon explodes and the cord Axel's holding drops to the floor.]
Axel: Did you just explode a taser with your mind?
"-Damn right and I'll do it again!"
[Cut to Ethan beating up the hummingbird cyborg. Kicking it while it's struggling limbless on the ground.]
[Frosch shoots lighting straight into Axel. Axel is fine.]
Frosch: [Grunts in confusion.]
[Frosch looks at Axel's rubber boots. Axel runs behind a shelf. Frosch's arm smashes through the shelf Axel is hiding behind and grabs his neck. He picks up Axel and choke slams him onto another table.]
Axel: [choking] For real?
"For real, First we gonna rock-"
[Axel is just laying on top of the table groaning. Frosch punches up through the table and launches Axel through the form ceiling tiles and then comes crashing back down through them against the far wall. Frosch picks up some of the batteries with electrokinesis and shoots them at Axel. He's pelted against the wall.]
[Ethan firing his pistol on some enemies that come to get him while he's propping up the bird against the wall at an angle.]
"Non-stop pop pop of stainless steel" {The batteries and shots impacts match the rhythm of the song.}
[Ethan turns back to stomp the monster in dead center. It only slightly dents the carapace. He keeps stomping.]
[Frosch approaches him. Axel looks up and punches Frosch's face in pure panic.]
SNAP
Axel: AHHHHHHHHH!
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