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codenamehazard · 1 year ago

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.:The Boogieman Cometh:.

Chapter 14: The Boogieman Cometh

Hey guys! Holy hell this took me a lot of time and rereading and blasting music to get this to look right. I hope it looks for you guys too!

I hope you guys are ready to see what the hell those sirens are wailing on about! Here's chapter 14!

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The sirens wail and holler as we make it to the outskirts of Droptown, where I see Mako, Pangolin and Dove opening up the HEMTT, revealing that it is basically a moving forward operating base. With a plant filled triage in one trailer and a supply depot in another, all ready to go should the need arise.

Holy shit. No wonder they're nomadic, they have everything they need right there.

Pangolin slowly starts to gather the others. I turn to look towards the horizon to see what exactly we’re facing, looks like a supersized throng of those Warped I faced in the mines. A lot of them are those starving “Shamblers” I remember clearly, but some of them look… Healthy… Well, healthy for a zombie, I guess.

The thing that truly caught my eye was this… Creature, looks to be about the size of a semi-truck yet it moves faster than should be possible for a beast that size. I squint my eyes to see if I can make out any more details, but the bastard’s too far away to see more.

I spot Kestrel out of the corner of my eyes, drawing my attention from… Whatever the fuck that thing is running around with the horde. I turn to look at her and see she’s walking up to Pangolin with the missile launcher in hand. She tries to put on a confident front, but I can see in her eyes there was a certain level of nervousness to it.

“Here she is.” Kestrel states with a smile. I can see Pangolin's expression turn to relief as he takes the gun, but he seems to pick up on her hesitation.

“You sure it’s ready?” He asks as he looks at the Gunsmith, her expression looking less sure at the prompting. The exchange of words echoing in my head from a time long since past. I can’t help but to quietly mouth the words that came out of Kestrel’s mouth next.

“Uhh… I sure hope so…” She hands the gun over to Pangolin, but in my head two different people stood in their places. Zeke and myself when he gave me the Amp for the first time. That memory stung my heart like a cold knife. Of all the ways that exchange could have happened, why like that?

I touch my eyes and I feel a dampness before I shake my head with a sneer. Come on Cole! Get it together! There’s a whole swarm of things rushing towards you and the others; bound and determined to make you their breakfast. This isn’t the time, nor the place to feel sorry for yourself and bitch about your lot in life.

You made your choice, you live it… Not like anyone would give a shit anyways.

With the exchange complete and Pangolin checking how the gun handles, Kestrel dashes over to one of the trailers and starts getting into the boxes… Hm, must be their armory. The bird pulls out some new toys and…

Okay, those are some really kickass weapons.

For Mako, a rapier and twin pistols were given. For Dove, an SMG and a hatchet. For Pangolin, he was given something that looked like the bastard child of a buzz-saw and an ax. For the bird herself, she equips two six-shooters to her hips and a bigass hammer on her back. I make a mental note to ask about some of those later.

I look back at my Amp and sigh. It really needs some serious work if it’s going to last any longer, but put a pin in the thought. Not the time to worry now.

While everyone is getting ready, I look over to see what else is going on. I see other groups of Conduits rushing out with weapons of their own to take on some of the faster straggler groups. That’s good, shows that this town don’t give up without a fight. My eyes are quickly drawn back to the biggest horde as I spot them making the beeline for the Misfits and I, the creature leading the charge and…

Oh dear god, what the hell is that thing?!

That monstrosity… Words fail to truly capture how hideous the fucker was. It looks like some skinned gorilla-raccoon thing with a giant mouth, clawed hands and… Hooves?? God, it was like a fucked up teratoma was turned inside out and given the ability to move and eat, damn near genetic nonsense. The thing most repulsive about this monster? Where the second set of arms are on the thing’s back… I think I could see what remains of a person. Their screaming expression merging with their ribcage to make a second mouth and that those extra arms were once their arms.

I can feel my stomach curdle, it makes Bertrand's giant cockroach form look adorable.

“Alright, jackasses! Gather ‘round” I hear Pangolin bark out, prompting the others to gather around, I hang back some. He’s rallying up his team, I have no part of it. The Brick Spartan looks over at me and beckons me over. “You too, MacGrath. You’re gonna wanna hear this.” I roll my eyes in annoyance, but I walk over. Looking on the bright side, it’s refreshing to not be the one giving orders.

“Everyone, that bastard monster and its posse are coming, we need a plan to get that thing to open wide for the most explosive jawbreaker known to man, any ideas?” Pangolin’s voice booms over the team.

“First things first, we have to get those Shamblers and Runners thinned out.” Mako points out. “It doesn’t matter what we do to that thing, it’s not gonna stick if the bastard eats the little minions and that’s not including how much of a nuisance they would be if they ganged up on us or got in the way.” Sharp as always, Mako is.

“So from I understand, thin out the herd and then focus on ugly?” Dove pipes up, first time I heard him speak in a long time. Mako and Pangolin nod. ”Sounds like a plan.” Kestrel nod in agreement and I give a grunt.

“Let’s kick ass!” Kestrel shouts before everyone nods and gets into position, looks like I’m getting roped into this too.

Not that I mind, a good chance to get some payback on these shambling fucks.

With the swarm fast approaching, Pangolin and Mako armor up and the rest ready up before the Spartan gives the signal in the form of charging forward and turning himself into a human boulder. The spiked plating crushing and spearing the weaklings. Dove sets up what I can only amount to a launchpad under the brick-ball to send him flying into the air so he can play the role of a meteorite and crash down into another group. With Pango flying high, Dove flits about on air-bursts while letting the SMG rip through the crowd.

Kestrel darts around in the horde like the flighty bird she is, popping slag-bursts before firing off her six shooters into the heads of the Shamblers, turning their brains into a red and purple mist. Mako set plenty of shark-traps to immobilize and joined in with Kestrel in the gunslinging fun with her pistols. Slag-shards and bone-shards flying and spearing zombies left, right and center before switching to the melees when they got too close. Kes smacking them around like the biggest game of watch-a-mole while Mako channels her inner Zorro and makes mincemeat of the zombies, her shark skin rendering the bites and scratches useless.

Me? Well, I sure as hell ain’t gonna miss out on the fun. Black and crimson Skull bolts fly from my hands as I start to “run and gun” so to speak. When those sparks nailed a Warped in the head, I’m rewarded with a lightshow as the fuckers explode with a shower of sparks that took out their little friends. Tossed in a few Cluster ‘nades to keep things popping. Hell, I even found little ways I could help the others. Blasting airbornes with shockwaves and popping bastards when they try to sneak up on the others.

They weren’t making it easy, that’s for damn sure. They were relentless and were giving everyone problems and they were taking hits. They were especially persistent in trying to maul me to death. These things must have it out for me because they keep coming after me. Even that big-ass ugly son of a bitch keeps lunging at me! With the crowds constantly trying to box me in, I couldn’t be as aggressive as I wanted. Those healthier looking bastards even get a few good hits on me, leaving nasty gashes on my body. Thank god my Beast powers up my healing or I would have to be hightailing it to the HEMTT to charge back up!

The beast keeps lunging and I have to keep dodging while using blasts to give myself some breathing room. It was maddening! I wanted to blast this thing to kingdom-come but with all the little things swarming around like flies to shit, I couldn’t just stand still. Especially with how grab and bite happy they were.

With the ugly skinned gorilla-tumor focused on me, Kestrel spots an opening to take. With an air-boost from Dove, I can see her go flying skywards, Hammer raised high before dropping hard onto the head. I brace myself as the shockwave pushes me back. I could hear the hammer impact the head with a sickening crack. The bastard roars in pain from the head-trama and I quickly get out of the way knowing what’s about to happen next.

When the team hears the roar, Mako and Dove focus on getting the zombies away from Pangolin as he takes aim straight for the monster’s roaring maw. Kestrel dashes away seconds before the Spartan pulls the trigger.

The mother of all bricks whistles out of the barrel and flies straight to the thing’s screaming mouth, hitting it right in the uvula! The sound of the impact makes me hold my own throat in pain at the thought… Then the brick explodes. Masonry shrapnel rips the beast’s jaw apart. I thought for sure that would take it out, as did everyone else.

But it didn’t.

The thing gurgles with a shredded throat as it looks dead at Pangolin, he goes to fire off another shot when the weapon overloads and explodes in his hand. I look at him in utter shock before looking at Kestrel, as did everyone else.

“Kestrel, what the fuck?!” Pangolin bellows in fear and anger. “I thought you said it was ready!!” He looks like he’s about to blow a gasket as the bird is trying to avoid being hit.

“”Hoped so!”” Kestrel shouts back. “I said “hoped so!!”” Pangolin looks as if he’s about to rip into her when the teratoma-thing does that for him. With a mighty swipe to the girl, it sends Kestrel flying with the mother of all bitch-slaps. Thinking on his feet, Dove darts off and up to catch her in mid-air before she goes off too far.

The gorilla roars and more of those zombies show up to join the party, causing the fighting to begin anew. Pangolin pulls out his buzz-axe and starts hacking into bodies as the Shamblers break teeth on the brick armor, but the beast charges and backhands the Spartan in rage, breaking pieces of the armor off and sending him sliding off. Mako fires off round after round of bone-bullets to keep the creatures at bay as she goes to help Pangolin up.

Dove and Kestrel glide into the fray and dive down together to create a fire-filled shockwave before dashing back to the others. I pull out the Gigawatt blades and start tearing into those who get too close, but that seems to piss the gorilla off more as he calls for reinforcements again. It’s clear that somebody needs to find a way to shut that thing up so it stops calling its friends if we’re gonna get another opening.

Thankfully it seems like Pango’s on the ball. With all of us keeping the horde preoccupied, the Brickhouse uses his powers to create a thick brick wall above the creature’s head and when it goes to roar again, Pango drops the wall on top of the thing. Silencing it and stunning it.

Now it’s my turn to break some teeth.

My eyes glow red and black veins begin to appear on my skin as I charge up an Alpha Rocket with raw Beast power to triple its power and damage. A favorite tactic of mine for getting rid of the straggling Ice-Titans and Devourers before I left New Marias, made short work of those fucks. Should do the same for this bastard. With the charge done, I turn the Rocket loose, straight for the head. A blinding flash and cacophony of crashing thunder and electricity disorients everyone as the Super-Rocket crashes into the tumor’s face.

When the smoke clears and our senses return, we all look to see what should be the smoldering corpse of that thing…

Only to see it was not only still standing… It is… Healing!!

All the work everyone did, The bricks, both wall and missile, Kes’ hammer crash… All of it damn near undone. The Misfits stare to pure dismay and horror as they watch the jaw heal. Kestrel turns to look at me as my face drains of color.

“What did you do?!?” I could barely hear the Gunsmith utter in disbelief as the monster approaches me, a long and disgusting looking tongue licking its chomps as I back away. How? How?! How did that heal the bastard?!? Nothing like this has happened before!!!

Fear grips my heart and seems to freeze me in place as I’m racking my brain, trying to figure out what did what when I see the monster raise its massive, clawed hand, readying to swipe at my head.

Oh Shit…

[To Be Continued…]

#infamous #infamous 2 #cole macgrath #demon of empire city #infamous: no man's land #xeno writes #caper #blast shard caper #Mako #Pangolin #Dove #the warped #Zombies #Y'all have no idea how much time this took #Some much time and typing #Also #sorry for being a dick with the cliff-hanger!#conduit ocs

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codenamehazard · 1 year ago

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.:Blinding Light:.

Chapter 13: Blinding Light

Hey guys! I don't know if this came sooner than the last chapter or not, but who cares! I'm writing and I'm having fun! Hopefully it isn't too short and it's fun read for you guys as it was for me to write!

Bonus points if you listen to some Skyrim OST stuff while reading, hehehehe.

Without delay, here's Chapter 13!

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I leap off of the wire and glide gently down, landing smoothly with a roll. A grin plastered ear to ear. I arrived at Kestrel's workshop and to my surprise, found it empty. I frown at this sight, did she close up shop? I walk over to one of the windows and can't help but to scoff at the closed sign.

“Figures…” I mutter to myself. The bird must have closed up shop so she could focus on the project that has her so worked up, she’s been acting like an idiot. Though with seeing the Warped and what they can do, I’m starting to cut the girl a little more slack. If this project’s connected to dealing with those fuckers? Well, the idiototic behavior could be excused… Not by much though.

Not like a sign's gonna stop me from coming in. I wanted to see what’s so special about the girl and her guns, what does she do to make it so that Conduits can channel their powers through these firearms. I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t mind having a spectator around to watch her work, right? After all, I am going to be one of her clients. Gotta make sure her craftsmanship is up to scratch!

…And to make sure I know what her work quality is, I don’t want her screwing me over.

I jiggle the doorknob on the door to find that it’s locked. I give a small “Tch” before breaking the door itself. I’m nearly knocked back off of my feet at the massive wave of pure RFE that slammed into me. My mouth instantly waters and my stomach gnaws. What in the absolute hell is going on in there that’s producing so much energy?? God, it’s like I was back in the mines!

Whatever it was… I wanted it.

I charge into the back, following the energy’s call. My teeth are itching as I get closer, knocking over displays and signs as I barrel through the workshop proper to see what kind of goodies the bird is hiding from me. I charge through the forge doors, ready to take my prize.

What greets my ears isn’t the rock music that I remember Kestrel playing from my first time around, but something else, something sounding ancient and primal. Deep drums that reverberate through the chest. However, the thing that truly grabs my attention is the woman standing in front of the forge… And what is coming from her back. Long, shining appendages growing from the ghastly scar, glimmering like blued metal in the light of the forge.

My eyes trail from the metallic snakes to the object in front of her, a crucible of hot metal that glows with the signature color of Rayacite. Moving slowly and deliberately, Kestrel pulls out a single Blast Shard from her backpack before carefully lowering it into the glowing pool.

As the shard melts, I watch the tendrils sway. Sometimes one of them would move to remove the skin of waste and slag from the top of the pool and absorb it. Now Kestrel’s powers made sense. She’s a Slag Conduit, but that hardly matters as I continue to watch in awe at the scene playing out.

It’s like something from a fantasy novel.

The process repeats, slag forms on the top of the pool, the tentacles remove it. The more this process happens, the stronger the energy’s strength grows. She is refining the metal, purifying it. I didn’t even know such a thing was possible and it made me wonder how much power could be absorbed from purified Rayacite sources.

It isn’t long until no more slag could be harvested from the metal. With the impurities gone, Kestrel nods before taking the clamps and grabbing the vessel. She walks over to a spherical mold that is on stand-by before pouring the molten Blast Shards inside, taking care not to spill a single drop of liquid power.

With the mold filled, the bird takes it over to a cooling trough and quickly submerges it. The water hisses and spits as steam erupts from the contact, but Kestrel seems unfazed by it.

“Take it.” I feel my vices whisper. “She’s completely clueless and those metal tentacles are a one way ticket to her spinal cord. Hell, I bet if you grabbed onto one of them, you could drain her without hassle. Drain her, get rid of her and take the super-core for yourself. Imagine all that pure energy. It’d be like taking candy from a baby.” The impulses make my lips salivate, the hunger for power roiling like the water in the trough. Yet, in this moment my mind’s too fixated by the strange sight before me. I want to see what happens next and I won’t know that if I act on my impulses now.

Killing her for that core? It would be a waste. If this is what she can do with Blast Shards… I can only imagine what she could do with a Blast Core, that thought made my mouth water even more. A purified Blast Core? That would be a prize worth taking. She’s becoming more useful to me alive then dead, even with her being an absolute thorn in my side.

Besides… She still owes me a shotgun. A deal’s a deal after all.

The water’s rage settles and the metal cools solid. The Gunsmith pulls out the mold and frees the spherical core, still glowing with power. With the ball cradled in shining threads, the missile launcher shell is grabbed and pulled towards her. Hands open the chamber made to house the newly formed power-source and tendrils rush inside, the shimmering snakes seeming to be hellbound to fill any gap it could find while the core is being lowered down. The snakes break off and fuse themselves to the gun and the core, pulling it inside. The energy of the power source changes from radiating to focused, like the once writhing slag snakes became the wiring that would channel the core’s energy and by extension, a Conduit’s power. With the source set and merged into the shell, Kestrel closes the compartment and seals it shut.

With the weapon completed. She looks it over, tendrils swarming over it and feeling for any defects or any other kinks that could hinder its functioning. Looking at how thorough she is, I can see why she got her title.

I step closer and begin to speak, but the sound startles the girl. She screams out in panic as her tendrils thrash around before retracting back into her body. The sudden hit from the event causes her to yelp in pain. She turns her head and looks me dead in the eyes before growling at me. I put up my hands.

“Woah there-” Is all I could get out before the bird snarls.

“What in the actual FUCK, MacGrath?! Didn’t you read the fu-” Her rage is cut short by a loud revving buzz that rose into a deafening mechanical wail. No doubt about what it is, the tell-tale scream of a tornado siren. I’m about to ask what was going on, but one look at Kestrel’s face and I knew. I have never seen someone lose the color in their face so quickly before, it makes the way her face drained when she learned I was the Beast look slow.

“They’re coming…” I could barely hear Kestrel over the distorted wailing of the siren. Fear, pure fear. I would be lying if I said that the emotion isn’t spreading. I can feel the terror gripping my chest like a vice, remembering the horde of Warped that came after me in the mine. This must be the “they” she’s talking about.

There was no time for questions as the girl leaps out of the window with gun in tow. Her panicked voice howling “They’re coming” over and over again as she charges though the blaring streets. I’m not far behind as I chase after her. She’s most likely rushing to meet up with the others. Fear starts to mix with adrenaline as I think of what might come. This time it might actually be a fun fight with more allies around. Who knows.

All I know is that it’s about time to see if the Warped are as dangerous out in the open as everyone is saying they are.

#infamous #infamous 2 #cole macgrath #demon of empire city #infamous: no man's land #xeno writes #caper #Kestrel Morrison #Blast Shard Caper #Conduit OC #The Warped

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