Franky started regretting his decision to leave Deep Cut as he traversed through the alleyways of Splatsville, doubting his thoughts of them putting up an act, as his only allies in this new world, he thought to himself how rude he was being.
"Grrr, I'm such an idiot.." Franky told himself. He turned around, heading back where he came from, when he realized, throughout the maze of buildings, he was lost again.
"Damn it." Franky said. One more point to the idiot counter, he thought. He headed in a random direction, ducking and weaving through the jungle that was Splatsville's back alleys. They found him once he thought, they'll find him again.
The Deep Cut gang returned to their apartment complex after a few hours, Frye, exhausted from work, went into her apartment to check on the human staying there, and to work out where he should sleep. When she got to her bedroom, she found her window open and the human gone.
"The human is gone!" Frye shouted as she ran into Shiver's apartment.
"What?!" Shiver yelled in response.
"The window was open, I think he escaped!" Frye explained.
"Ugh.. he doesn't stand a chance out there.. I guess we'll have to find him again." Shiver said. "Get Big Man, we'll figure out what to do."
Franky found his way out of the city by mistake. He was frustrated and exhausted, but he pressed on, he was about to turn around when he spotted something in the desert. A blinking light.
... - ...
"SOS.." Franky whispered. Maybe he wasn't the last human left.
After traversing through the desert towards the light, Franky reached a cave, as he entered he picked up the flashlight that was sending the distress signal. He looked around in the dark cave.
"Hello?" Franky yelled.
No response.
Franky stepped into the cave, as he did, he heard something behind him.
"Hey there.." a raspy voice spoke. The source of the voice stepped out of the darkness, revealing a bald human who looked like he was in his late 30s. He was wearing black pants with suspenders, a purple shirt and a long black coat.
Despite his off-putting appearance, Franky was happy to finally see a fellow human.
"Holy.. you're real right?" Franky asked, dumbfounded.
"Heh. Call me Bertram. Follow me, I have something to show you.
Franky walked through the cave with Bertram, as they made their way through, Bertram spoke up again.
"How do you feel about joining something bigger than yourself?" He said.
"What do you mean?" Franky asked.
"Well, I was a scientist before the war. After I awoke from my vault, I've spent months researching cell multiplication, how I can create life without the need of procreation.
After 6 months of work, I've finally made a breakthrough.." Bertram explained.
"Okay?" Franky said, wanting to hear more.
"I've discovered that I can bring back humanity through cloning. The only thing I need, is cells from two hosts. So, if you join me, you can help me make the world a better place. What do you say?" said Bertram.
Franky thought about this, the prospect of humanity returning was promising for sure.
"Yeah, ok." Franky answered.
"Good, you're making a good decision, we just need to do one thing first." Bertram said. They made their way through the cave until they came out on the other side, finding themselves in a big crater, in the center, Franky saw a big rocket with 8 large metal containers strapped near the top of it. A large wreak towered over their heads. It looked familiar.
"Is that the Eiffel tower?!" Franky shouted.
"Newsflash kid, the world's gone to shit." Bertram responded. "But, we, the last of our kind, will fix it. He said. Bertram threw his arms up toward the rocket. "With this! We will correct the balance of the earth, and purge the evil that has infected it!"
That sounded off, Franky thought. "Wait.. Bertram, what do you mean?"
"You see those containers up on the rocket? Once I launch the rocket, it will rain down acid and cleanse the earth." Bertram explained.
"WHAT?!" Franky screamed. Realizing that this plan wasn't as good as he thought it was.
Bertram changed his tone. "We're getting rid of those ugly cruel creatures to make room for humanity's resurgence. Don't you see? This is what you wanted."
"I didn't want mass genocide, no." Franky said. He thought about what to do next. "Listen Bertram, you don't have to do this, we can live in peace with this new species, alright? I already befriended three of them. They're not as bad as you think."
"You TRAITOR!" Bertram barked. "I have spent SIX MONTHS planning this, and I'm not going to have some goody two shoes conservationist take it all away!" Bertram threw Franky off the walkway into the crater. Franky hit the slope, sliding to the bottom, he hit the launch pad, only to have it open, dropping him down even further. Falling down into the abyss.
Deep Cut searched high and low around the city, but as the sun set, they gave up and headed back to their apartments. When they got back, they were frustrated.
"Humans are weird.. we were nice to him and he still left." Shiver said.
"Aay. (Yeah, well I'm sure he'll turn up eventually.) Big Man Ay-ed.
Frye was taking it harder than her two friends. "We're going to look for him tomorrow right?
"I don't know, we're really busy this week. We don't really have time to look for some fossil." Shiver explained.
Frye reluctantly agreed. As Big Man said, he'll turn up. Maybe.
The three of them went into their separate apartments, Frye, lying in her bed couldn't sleep, worrying about Franky, if he was safe or in trouble, or worse. After 30 minutes of lying there she couldn't take it anymore. She got up and ran out of her apartment, she was going to find the human herself, no matter what.
Franky was lying unconscious in the snow. He slowly awoke and sat up finding himself in a large, dark dome with some islands in the distance and rubble scattered everywhere, with a large damaged rocket in the middle. He stood up and limped to a big sign next to what looked like a moai statue. The sign read,
"ALTERNA"
Franky limped through the ruins of Alterna. While he struggled through the snow, he found a few generators. Surprisingly, they were still operational. He switched them on, turning on a few spotlights, he could see a bit better now at least. He stumbled through Alterna discovering many things, a first aid kit thank god, vinyl records, various belongings like shoes and notebooks, as he looked around he made a realization.
"Oh my god this was a human colony." Franky said.
He realized that he needed to get out of this place to stop Bertram from destroying the world. But the only way out was a hole in the dome, but how was he supposed to get there?
His thoughts were interrupted when he saw something in one of the spotlights, he walked up to it to find a metal box, opening it, he found two brass frames with a metal pad on the bottom, they were shaped as if they were supposed to go onto a shoe. Sure enough, they fit perfectly onto Franky's shoes. A light started glowing on the top of the frames.
"JUMP BOOTS ACTIVATED, STAND BY FOR CALIBRATION."
Franky's foot lifted up by itself and slammed down on the ground, causing him to launch high into the air.
"AAAUGH!" Franky screamed as he rocketed 50 feet into the air. As he started falling back down he prepared for the worst.
SLAM*
"CALIBRATION COMPLETE"
Franky opened his eyes to find himself safely on the ground. Barely feeling any force upon landing. He got an idea. He slammed his foot down again, jumping towards the island with the rocket. He landed on top of the space center and looked up, turns out the hole in the dome has closed. He looked around for a way to open it finding a lever. Pulling it, a loud screech came out of the speakers next to him.
"O.R.C.A. ONLINE, SKYDOME ONLINE, SKY HATCH OPEN, WEATHER SIMULATION ONLINE."
The dome lit up bright blinding Franky, when his vision returned, he saw the dome take the appearance of the sky.
"Woah." Franky whispered. But he didn't have time to gawk at the sights, he needed to stop Bertram. He slammed his foot down again, jumping through the hatch in the dome to return to the surface.
