Message #791370

[Gaffit]

Chapter 11:

Rief traveled through the yellow tunnel of light, which stretched endlessly before him. Not really flying, but more floating comfortably. Rief had been pulled through the beam for what felt like half an hour before finally being spat out on solid ground. Rief landing sloppily, stumbling, missing and smashing the ground with his head.

Crawling to his feet through the disorientation, Rief stood up with extreme effort and attempted to vainly to get some semblance of bearings. It was night, and that was about all Rief was able to understand while looking at the site that stood before him. Massive, gleaming, metal buildings filled his view. Rief looked up to the obstructed sky to see metal vehicles ferrying passengers through the air. Taking it all in with a glance, Rief calmly took another.

“Alright,” Rief muttered to himself, “I obviously hit my head way harder than I though. I think the best option right now would be to find Thaum’s friend and get the hell out of here.”

Rief turned around to face what appeared to be the largest building in the city, towering over the ground at odd angles, the building appeared to be located at the edge of the city. A large sign made out of lights spelled out “Gamma Corp.” across the building’s face.

After coming to a decision based both on his thief training and the clear fact that he was certainly out of place, Rief concluded that the front door would not be the prime point of entry and settled for the roof instead.

Using his shoes, Rief hurtled himself into the air, flying high above the other buildings in the city beneath his feet before passing through a cloud and finally passing over top the Gamma Corp. building.

Rief let himself glide to the ground gently, but as son as he made contact with the roof, a ringing siren filled his ears as obnoxious red lights flashed through the building. A hole appeared on the roof next to Rief as a lift carrying several armed shining metal beings emerged from the complex. One of the being approached the confused Rief and said through a static buzz, “Please identify yourself.”

Rief looked the odd creature up and down in a second. The body was thin and the creature was too tall for a human to fit inside, Rief concluded that the being must have been entirely composed out of metal. Rief saw that the rifle it held was far more a advanced than what Thaum had used, which meant it was probably more deadly as well.

“Please identify yourself.” The metal man buzzed again after a moment.

“I guess you can call me Rief.”

An audible whir emanated from the being for a couple of seconds before it snapped back to attention and said, “That name is not in my memory stores. You are neither an employee or a guest. All intruders are to be apprehended on sight.”

The creature lunged for Rief with a mechanical quickness, but Rief was faster. Unsheathing his dagger, Rief slammed the blade into the machine’s head, causing sparks to fly as the blade went through. The other machines hesitated only a second as they took in this site before opening fire just as Rief activated his hyper-state. The rifles had fired a yellow glowing energy that was now slowly crawling towards him. Rief unsheathed his other dagger and struck the slow moving rounds, causing the energy bullets to fly back at the machines that fired them.

Deactivating his hyper state, the redirected ammunition tore through the metal guards, rendering them scrap metal. Stepping through the remains, Rief made for the lift. Unfamiliar with the controls, Rief cut a hole in the lift with surprising ease, using his dagger before jumping down into the shaft.

Rief stopped himself mid-fall and pried open a door leading into the facility, which appeared to be entirely devoid of life, both normal and metal.

“Those machines couldn’t have been the only people here,” Rief muttered to himself.

“Those machines couldn’t have been the only people here,” came his own voice from behind him.

Rief did an about face his put his dagger against the neck of what turned out to be himself. Before Rief stood another perfect copy of himself.

“What’s the matter?” The other Rief chided with a suddenly feminine voice, “Never look in a mirror before?” The other Rief threw a punch at Rief, when the arm suddenly multiplied itself, sending five punches into Rief at once. Rief was sent flying into a nearby wall with an incredible force. Looking up, Rief saw the copy of himself in front of him, now with 5 arms coming out on shoulder socket.

Rief activated his hyper-state and flew behind the other Rief, kicking him in the back hard enough to send hurtling through the wall he had hit a moment before.

“Son of a *****!” Came the female voice as the other Rief emerged from the hole, changing in appearance in front of Rief’s eyes into a young woman with pale green skin, flowing green hair, and covered with plant life for clothing, “That hurt!” She shouted at him.

“Who are you?” Rief asked threateningly.

“Whom am I? Who the hell are you? You’re the intruder here!” A barbed sword appeared in the green girl’s hands as she swiped at Rief, who could barely block the blow with his dagger.

“What’s up with the get up anyway? You trying to be some kind of modern day ninja or something stupid like that?’ The green woman taunted as she fired barbed thorns from her fingers. Rief dodged the thorns by launching himself to the ceiling and firing two arrows into the woman, causing her to scream in pain.

“What’s with my get up? You’re the one here that considers foliage to be normal wear. And what’s with your skin? It’s starting to make me nauseous,” Rief retorted as the woman tore the arrows out of her shoulders where they had landed and suddenly morphed into a tiger before Rief’s eyes. The tiger pounced on top of Rief as Rief brought a knife under it’s belly. The beast’s jaws were around Rief’s neck as his dagger was an inch away from piercing it’s heart. The two stood in stalemate.

Much to Rief’s shock, the tiger suddenly burst into a shower of leaves, which turned into ants as each one touched the ground. The swarm of ants moved to the other side of the room and piled on top of itself to take on the form of the green woman, brandishing her barbed sword and ready to attack. Rief launched himself to his feet and readied his daggers to defend himself, expecting anything.

A smile appeared on the green woman’s lips as her sword disappeared back into her arm. A hand came down hard on his shoulder as a friendly voice from behind his said, “Well, that was fun to watch, but would one of you please tell me what’s going on here?”