The Wastes

Chapter Two of the Cel Story Arc
Cel walked carefully through the Wasteyard, looking around for any more of those huge flying monsters. There were metal scraps lying everywhere, all coated with a sick mixture of ash and dust. Grey fog filled the air, obscuring vision and allowing only a view of a few feet. Cel strained to see where he was going, but he could make out huge shapes on either side of him. Strange metal shells with two giant wheels on each side of them. Some of them had strange skeletal shapes inside of them, some hanging slightly out of the broken windows.

"What is all of this...?" Cel said to himself while squinting his eyes at one of the corpses. There was a crunching sound of something walking, and Cel stopped moving immediately and took a quick look around. Something darted just out of view and hid somewhere behind one of the huge metal things. It was about the same size as him. Cel readied his blade and approached where the thing had moved. Before he got close enough, something lunged out at him and tackled him to the ground and then fled to somewhere else. Cel jumped up and peered around.

A stone hit him in the back of the head and knocked him over. When he got up and turned around, he saw the thing that had attacked him clearly for the first time. It was sprinting toward him with a spear upraised to slash at Cel. It had a strange glass bubble over it's shriveled up face and had a length of grey tube for a left arm. Cel held up his blade in defense just in time as the thing swung it's spear-of-an-arm at him. It bounced back off of Cel's blade and stood just far enough away to be partially invisible in the mist.

"Why don't you submit?!" it shouted in a twisted mechanical voice that would give chills to any who heard. Cel just stared without saying a word. The thing frowned and then said, "I will have to kill you th-then." it stuttered the last word as sparks flew from somewhere inside of it's head. Cel turned away and ran as the hostile thing pursued him. He leapt over and dodged broken bits of machines as he sprinted through the ruins. Shouts occasionally rang out from his pursuant, although Cel couldn't tell what he had said. He couldn't keep running forever. The gears in his legs were beginning to get hot from all the use and could soon jam if he didn't stop running.

He ran behind a tire that lie in his path and ran off in a different direction out of view of his pursuant and hid under one of the huge metal things. It worked, for the thing that was chasing him kept running in the same direction, thinking Cel was still somewhere ahead of him. Cel took in his new surroundings. There was nothing special except for a small pile of scrap metal. There was what appeared to be a head, although a mask was tightly drawn to it's face, two arms, one of which had some sort of gun attached to it, a thick metal box with wires sticking out and a rubbery plate attached to one side and a cape to the other, and two similar legs.

Cel approached this mess and began to see what he could do. He began by dragging what appeared to be the abdomen out into a wider area and then carried over the two arms. Sure enough, both of the arms locked almost perfectly into place with the two upper sockets of the abdomen, although the one holding the gun was slightly loose. Next he brought over the head and attached it to the top of the body. Almost immediately there was a bright flash as sparks flew from the sockets of the head and arms.

"Where a-a-am I-I?" a voice rang out from the head as it looked around. Cel fell back, clearly surprised by the sudden movement and voice of the machine.

"Who are you?!" Cel shouted.

The head on the body snapped over to look at Cel. It tried to get up, only to see that no legs were attached. "Where are my legs?! Who are you?!" it shouted.

"I'm Cel. Who are you?" Cel asked once again.

The legless thing was silent for a few moments before saying, "I remember nothing but my own name. I am 674 Emergence, but I feel like I was called something else..."

"Can you remember anything else?" Cel asked.

"I remember that I was once called... Mur... Murdantis...? Yes, it was M-Murdantis. I remember I was torn apart by... something... and... It was huge, that thing was. It had no legs, just dozens of cut wires hanging from it's waist.." Murdantis began, "And speaking of legs... May I have mine, please?"

Cel nodded quickly and pulled over both of the legs. "Are these them?" he asked.

"I... I think so." Murdantis nodded in approval. Cel put each of the legs into a socket, and with each leg came a flurry of sparks and a sharp scream of pain from Murdantis. It was worth it though, since she stood up almost immediately after getting her legs back. She was unsteady at first and nearly fell over several times.

"I remember something else." she said.

"What would that be?" Cel asked.

"I remember what tore me apart and why I was fighting it... It's called 000 Emergence, and it wants to destroy every Emergence who might be a threat to it and rule over everything left of the world... It sends out giant search drones to capture any unknown or enemy Emergence to bring back and be destroyed..." Murdantis explained.

Cel was silent. Could that huge thing that attacked him earlier have been one of 000 Emergence's drones? "I only awakened a few hours ago... And as soon as I did, I was attacked by a huge monster with four wings and a single red glowing eye. It made a loud alarm noise and chased after me..." he finally said.

"WHAT?!" Murdantis shouted, "We have to get as far away from here as possible!! It's only a matter of time before 000 Emergence sends reinforcements!" She turned around and pointed off in the distance toward a larger mound of rubble that stood out from the others. "We have to go there. I remember something about that mound. I think it's safe... but I could be mistaken."

Murdantis began to walk toward it, and Cel followed without question. The mist quickly thickened. It would have been easy to become separated in such dense fog. But even with the intense fog, the giant mound in the distance was still faintly visible. Every now and then Murdantis would glance over her shoulder to make certain that Cel was still following closely behind. Cel noticed that the number 674 was imprinted on the back of her head.

"I still don't remember much aside from 000 Emergence, my name, and that mound in the distance... I think it's all still coming back to me." Murdantis suddenly said.

"Do you remember what this, eh, 000 Emergence looked like?" Cel asked.

"Vaguely. He's like... a huge mess of wires up to what you could say is his waist. Then... there's a sort of metal frame with a hideous, eyeless face with gaping mechanical jaws on it. I don't think the jaws ever closed, but there was still somehow a voice. One of his hands is a magnet, and the other is a big claw. There's a big light on a wire on his head, right next to a hand on another wire... Strange, really." Murdantis explained.

"He sounds... scary." Cel whispered. Murdantis nodded as they kept walking. Cel couldn't help the feeling he was being watched, and every once in a while he would see something move out of the corner of his eye and hear a rustling sound. He tried to ignore it, but it wasn't easy.

"Murdantis?" he said.

"Yes?"

"Do you feel like something is watching you?"

Murdantis was quiet before saying, "Do you feel it too?"

"Yes... What do you think it is?" Cel asked.

"It could be anything... Keep your guard up." warned Murdantis.

There was the sound again. Louder. Louder. Louder. All but suddenly a huge figure burst from the scraps and tackled Murdantis and Cel.

"Did you r-really think y-y-you could escape that easily, puny Emergences?! Hahaha!!" the monster belched out in a twisted voice, "I heard the a-alarm of that 301 Emergence that you destroyed! After that, it was a cinch to track you down! And what l-luck! I've got two v-victims now!" It squinted it's reptillian eyes and smiled, or at least did something close to a smile, since it's lower jaws extended far past it's upper jaws into three huge points. Two huge wheels sat on it's shoulders and it had huge electric-blue colored spines lining it's back.

Murdantis saw this as an opening to attack and jabbed her spear into the monster's face, which only caused it to take a few steps back and become furious.

"A feisty o-one, aren't you, little Emergence? Ha! S-still no chance against m-me!" every time the beast stuttered, sparks would fly out from one of it's joints or gears. "With just a few drops of this special corrosive f-fluid in my spine, you'll be nothing but m-melted metal!"

Murdantis took no heed to the beast's warning and went in for another attack, this time slashing at the monster's left arm. The beast quickly retaliated by simply kicking over Murdantis. Cel finally built up the courage to attack the monster and charged clumsily, holding out his rounded blade far in front of him. The blade connected directly with one of the monster's legs, knocking it over.

"You little b-b-b-bast-" it didn't get a chance to finish cursing at Cel because Murdantis took advantage of this and stabbed her spear into the monster's face again. It screamed horribly before leaping up and backing up a small distance. It was at this time that Cel saw the number 533 imprinted near it's head.

"It doesn't matter that you s-scared me off! I'll j-j-just report your p-presence t-t-t-t-t-t-to master 000 Emergence, and h-h-he'll take c-c-care of you little pe-pests!" it shouted angrily as many sparks flew from the huge gash in it's face. It then bounded away into the mist.

"We have to stop him! He's going to-" Cel began.

"It doesn't matter. Nothing can be done. Right now we should just focus on getting far away from here before we get caught. Come on." Murdantis said. They ran through the ruins this time, not taking the chance of being seen again. In time, they reached a gaping hole in the ground that blocked their path.

"Now what?" Cel asked worriedly. Murdantis quickly scanned their surroundings and pointed to a broken pipe extending almost all the way across the hole.

"We'll have to use that pipe to get across." she said.

"Don't you think that's dangerous?!" Cel shouted.

"Of course it's dangerous. But we have no other choice, Cel. We have to go across." Murdantis urged. She walked along the edge of the hole until she reached the pipe. She took a single step onto it, testing it's strength, then nodded in approval.

"I think it will hold." she said. Cel carefully approached the pipe and followed closely behind Murdantis. The pipe swayed in the slight breeze and it was hard to stay balanced, but Murdantis seemed unfazed and steadily made her way across. There was a creaking sound, and a cracking sound followed.

"What's that?!" Murdantis yelled as she looked back at the base of the pipe embedded in the ground. The pipe broke, sending both Cel and Murdantis plummeting to the bottom of the pit. It was all a blur for Cel, and the next thing he knew he was underwater. He instinctively swam to the surface and searched for Murdantis. She soon emerged from the water too, looking around confusedly.

"We're in a sewer, I think." she said. The water was a murky grey color, and the walls of the place were a dingy brownish green color.

Next chapter: Sunken Tunnels