Story Notes:
Know that the story may not be the most descriptive story in the world, I tell you what you need to know and what is necessary. I'm just not trying to bore people with ridiculous amounts of description. PS: It's always good to know that "Acts" in this story is pretty much just one chapter broken up into normally 4, 5, or 6 parts, so think of one Act as one huge chapter that was just broken up. Hehe.
Part 2 - Priority Halt: Underground Malevolence
Act 1 - Part 2: Priority Halt - Underground Malevolence
Marshal's APC parked the near cave entrance of Mt. Coronet between the twin-mountain-individual-path at the end of Route 216. 3 single-person bridges were overhead, a small, run-down tree near him which he knocked down with the APC, and a sign that used to say "Route 216 - Mt. Coronet" but was crossed off and rewrote in red permanent marker, "I F TR T D".
Marshal ignored the sign because it was unrecognizable.
The rumble of the engine echoed through the cave, the headlights revealed the inside as far as about a few yards. The blizzard still raged on and the wave of Bell-206 helicopters continuously passed by, just so many helicopters, it was hard to watch so many people evacuate from Snowpoint all at once.
"We're here Charms." Marshal said as he gently stroked the head of his little Pikachu.
"Pikachu!" she squealed, wagging her tail excitedly.
"Now, we need to rendezvous with the Lieutenant Colonel." He said as he unstrapped his seatbelt then turned to the window once more: the face of Amanda he thought he saw was now melted from the heater which was turned on to 89 degrees Fahrenheit. Marshal rubbed the window while the whistles of bombs racing through the skies to reach their detonation-destination echoed through his mind.
"Chu?"
"I'm alright Charms," Marshal responded with his voice choking up when he said "Charms", he flicked her nose playfully then continued, "Disembark little soldier."
The engine halted to silence as it shut off, Marshal jumped out from the APC with Charms on his left shoulder. Eventually, the headlights shut off, cutting off all visibility of the inner-tunnel. No lighting, no Chemical light sticks, not even any torches were inside. It was obvious Marshal missed the Sinnoh Marine Corps battalion of 512 Marines led by Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Shainas. They were originally ordered to escort any lost refugees or Marines through Mt. Coronet due to its high level of hostile wild Pokemon.
The high-winds from the blizzard blew in Charms' face so Marshal jumped back in the APC to grab the sweater that Amanda knitted for her a few years ago. It took him a while to actually fully cloth Charms for she was squirming around because she thought Marshal was play-tickling her.
"Ahh... Chuuu!" she joyfully purred.
Marshal turned back to face the cave opening once more, took off the scuba-diving face-mask which he wore beyond the ski-mask, and looked into the cave without them on.
"Yeah, this isn't good at all, we missed the Lieutenant Colonel's battalion and we have no helicopter transportation." Marshal said in his thoughts.
The only reason he is not able to acquire helicopter transportation was the fact that he was transporting himself with an APC which implied he was not a lost Marine or a citizen. Also, as a decommissioned Sergeant of the Marine Corps, he was not permitted to operate an APC or any other military vehicles under any circumstances; he would be trialed for grand-theft-auto against the Marine Corps in Pastoria city, "Well, the only light we have are the headlights from the APC, Charms,"
Charms whimpered and backed away from the cave.
"It's alright; we'll just roll on through there, no worries, but first..."
First, Marshal needed to do some recon to figure out if he could even get the APC through the cave; he did not know if there were going to be sliver paths and/or one-person bridges along the way for he has never been in this mountain. He needed to prepare himself for the worst; there was no telling what enemies, besides the obvious enemy which was wild Pokemon, could be in there.
He packed up a bag of resources just incase the worse would happen to him. He opened up the back of the APC, grabbed the M16 rifle which was stored in a cabinet installed near the outside entrance. Inside were about 12 different types of rifles, 3 pistols, and 5 submachine guns; Marshal grabbed the rifle he needed, checked the clip, full, cocked it, installed the flashlight at the tip, put on his un-militaristic scuba-diving mask back on, strapped on his backpack, equipped his headset, and was ready to go. This was a serious operation, he could not just go in blindly with a rifle itself even if he was just going to go into the cave for a few minutes; he needed resources.
"Okay Charms, you can come with me after I recon the area," Marshal informed as he picked Charms up, opened the driver's door, then put her inside, "Now, I'll be back, don't worry." He reassured, after that, he was off into the cave with the headlights lighting up only the first straight path which switched to a right turn, then another right turn revealed one more straight path which led to a large set of stairs, large enough to fit the APC through.
Marshal then ran back to get the APC into the area up to the stairs then do a bit more recon afterwards, but once he got near the words, "Incoming GTAMs!" were yelled when he turned on his headset. There was one loud explosion from above, lighting up the area all around the twin-mountains with metallic bits falling from the sky. Marshal knew exactly what type it was just by the sound of the explosion: an LFK NG.
"No, no, no, Charms!" Marshal yelled before another ground-to-air missile IF another ground-to-air missile was fired.
Too late; the helicopter impacted with the cave itself, causing a small avalanche of snow and rocks down in front of the entrance/exit which blocked Marshal from escaping. The light from the APC had vanished but not from his flashlight. Marshal slid to a stop on the snow and instantly began to dig through the snow with his bare hands but with no effect he could not get passed the boulders which blocked his path.
"CHARMS!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, "CHAAAARMS!" he started beating on the boulders with all of his might, "God damn it, I have a promise to keep!" he took a rifle attachment from his pocket, it looked like a 1 foot metal short-sword sheath (try saying that 3 times fast) until he stuck it on his rifle and activated it. The sheath began to burn intensely until the short-sword shot out of it, steaming red, "Charms!" Marshal yelled as he began to cut through the boulder with the burning knife but it was no use, he could not hope to cut more that small sections of the boulder. He sheathed the sword and gave up with that plan.
"And me without any explosives..." he growled, his teeth grinding against each other.
He stared off into the darkness.
"Let's make this quick, I need to find another path out of here so I can get the APC back." He said in his thoughts, "Charms, I'll be back, just stay calm!" he yelled as he ran as fast as he could through the area in which he has already finished his recon.
He hopped over the stairs and landed with a thud, ran straight to the left then finally noticed the steam which blinded his vision; zero visibility. It was an underground hot spring due to contact with magma. It was bright enough to see down here so he was able to deactivate his flashlight; it was the steam that was his only problem now. Marshal was cautious with his rifle close at hand, aimed at whatever caught his eye, "Damn it, I'm in a hurry here!" he grumbled as he slowly marched along the path that supposedly led to the exit of this room.
This part of the Mt. Coronet underground zone had a sliver isthmus to it surrounded by the heated water. It seemed that the isthmus was the only way to get to the other side of the room. Marshal had no options.
"Hey, wait!!" a male voice yelled originating somewhere from the hot spring. To Marshal's surprise, it was a Continental Alliance Marine stranded on a small island right in the middle of the body of water, a CAM. He wore a gasmask like every other CAM complimented with a small air-tank in his backpack just for air that could not be properly filtered through the mask, a black bullet-proof vest, and everything else he wore were just common Marine attire except all in black, "Please, get me out of this!" he pleaded; this was a young man, most likely in his 20s by the almost girlish tone of voice. His breath was uneasy from the gasmask.
"Well, we have definite variations here, what makes you think an SMC Imperial will assist a CAM?"
"Come on, you know where just trying to stop the infestation, cut me some slack!"
"You people destroyed my home, my family, and my country, now..."
Before Marshal could finish, there was an ominous rumbling coming from underwater, bubbles began firing up. There was a moment of silence between the two, they both waited to see if it was just a natural force... or something else.
"Please... just..." the CAM gulped, "Get me out of here!" then, with the sharp, piercing noise as something jolted out of the water. It was a Gyarados. A Gyarados just flew out of the water with an abominable screech of ferociousness, its worm-like body ascended in a straight line, swallowed the CAM with his screams of fear lowering and lowering in volume as he slid down the throat, and dove back into the water all in the blink of an eye; leaving Marshal temporarily speechless.
He gasped and choked for a few moments then finally, "Oh my God..." he uttered as he backed off a bit, "Okay, I'm starting to deny my own logic here, since when did Gyarados live in heated waters? And earlier, why was that Onix, a friggin' rock Pokemon, in the blizzard? ... Could this have something to do with the Pl...?" before Marshal finished there was that ominous rumbling at an identical magnitude.
A cold chill raced passed his spine.
"Okay, okay, okay. Stay calm Marshal..." he murmured, breathing hard and quickly with his rifle carefully aimed forward with his finger prepared to pull the trigger, "Stay..."
The same screech from earlier rattled Marshal at his feet, he dove out of the from the incoming Gyarados with his fingers squeezing the crap out of the trigger, random bullets hitting everything in all directions except the Gyarados. As it crashed down against the isthmus, it completely destroyed the land and stranded Marshal from the only exit he had.
The intense temperatures were starting to get to him for he still wore blizzard-appropriate clothes.
"He just took an entire isthmus of land with a body slam..." he thought in awe and hopelessness. He unloaded his current clip which he wasted completely, grabbed a new one, stuck it in the slot, cocked the rifle and yelled, "Die, you ugly son of a bitch!" Marshal unleashed a full clip into the Gyarados which had little-to-no effect. The Gyarados' scaly skin was deflecting the bullets; physical violence from the M16 was apparently going to be useless.
Marshal jumped behind a boulder near the destruction site of the Gyarados' little contact with the land, and used it as cover; from there he was able to see the cliff edge that overlooked the hot spring. By that time, something was already happening over there. In came 5 Marines from above in a recon formation, one straight line forward with a sniper in the middle of their five-man squad. "This is the site Marines, open fire!" the leading Marine yelled. They followed their orders and unleashed whatever they carried against the Gyarados. Of course, there was little-to-no effect especially because they were blindly firing in the water without having proper information of its exact location.
Marshal stayed quiet and kept his hiding spot, he knew he COULD take those men on in a full-out firefight, but that would be highly unethical at a time like this. Normally, Marshal was the most reckless Marine the SMC Imperials had to offer, he was known for accomplishing over 53 Lone-Wolf missions; if this was the past version of himself, he would have just attacked that squad without any fear of fatal injuries, but Marshal just was not the same now as he was before.
Finally, the imbeciles ceased fire, but it was not because they got the clue that they may not have even hit their target once, it was because they ran out of ammo, coincidentally, all at the same time.
Like in a Pokemon video game, one side unleashed their attack and needed to fall back to recharge, now, it was the Gyarados' turn: It revealed its head with, of course, the exact same expression as before and all of the time, its mouth and eyes as wide open as they could get. A blast of water fired out of its mouth in an almost rotating perpendicular motion: A Hydro Pump, which was able to blast every single Marine off of the cliff and into the steaming waters. The Gyarados disappeared underwater to retrieve all of its prey. This was Marshal's chance to use one of the many utilities he carried in his backpack. He pulled out a lengthy rope and two claws. Time was of the essence so he had to work fast.
Adrenaline rush had begun.
First, he tied one side of the rope to the first claw and jammed it under the boulder, making sure it would not break off if not acted on by a powerful outside force, next, he tied the other claw to the other tip of the rope just like the previous, swung it overhead 4 times, then threw it to the other side where it conveniently caught itself between a cluster of 1 foot high stones. Marshal pulled at the rope 3 times just to make sure it was sturdy; finally he jumped on and began climbing to the other side with no knowledge of how long the Gyarados was going to take devouring those 5 Marines.
Right down the middle climbing the robe, a Marine ascended to the surface of the water and reached his hands out into the air, his gasmask was torn off which revealed that his eyes were gauged out, blood staining his cheeks like red tears. He let out a scream of agony, the kind of scream that cannot be duplicated anywhere else by even the greatest actors in the world, this was pure horror. He was dunked back under in an instant, blood from the 5 Marines converting the clear water into dark red.
Marshal just kept climbing along until he finally neared the edge by just a few feet, that is when the Gyarados had finished snacking on the Marines, flew out of the water, bit onto the rope, and attempted to drag Marshal down with him, but Marshal let go just at the right time to escape the Gyarados but his feet missed the edge. He was only able to grab it with his fingers, changed the grip to his palms, and finally he pulled himself up before the Gyarados came back for another attack.
It was too late for that.
The Gyarados began pounding on the cliff itself, trying to cause a rockslide so Marshal would fall in the water. It pounded on the wall 4 times but did not break the cliff apart; it just rattled Marshal off with his rifle in hand. Marshal yelled as he was in freefall then, as he plunged into the waters, felt his skin curl up and he yelled in pain. The water was too hot for him to handle. Out of luck, he was able to see the Gyarados charging for him, even with all of the pain he was enduring, he mustered up enough power to raise and fire his rifle above the water at one last desperate attempt at survival.
Something happened.
The Gyarados stopped in its tracks, flung its head back, and let out a roar of pain. Upon closer examination, it would seem that Marshal had shot the Gyarados right in the cornea of its right eye.
Marshal pulled himself up out of the water after strapping his rifle to his back and desperately climbed up the 90 degree angle cliff by shoving his pocket knife in the wall, pulling himself up, letting himself go for just .20 of a second to shove the knife up higher, then pulling up again. It was all he could do as a last resort.
By this time, Marshal was at a fainting stage of dehydration, it was a miracle that this was not affecting him, he may feel slight fainting flashes, but he just kept going, already out-of-breath as he reached the middle of the cliff.
The Gyarados in the background whipped objects with its tail, rammed into walls, crashed into the ceiling; it was just going insane with pain; blood drowning out the blue-ish color around his eyes.
"Come on Marshal, this isn't a fairy-tale, real life doesn't always have happy endings, you could die right here, right now, without having even gotten near Pastoria, come on!" he encouraged himself to put everything he had into getting up while the Gyarados was still recovering itself from its eye-wound.
Panting, soaked, and exhausted, Marshal climbed up to the top with the sound of the Gyarados' screeching growing on him. He coughed up salt from the steamed water, emptied out his scuba-diving mask, and reached for the M16 on his back, but he felt nothing, just the backpack on strapped around his shoulders. Somehow, he had lost his rifle in the climbing process, maybe he just did not strap it on correctly.
The Gyarados straightened out its spine and roared furiously, its right eye still closed from its wound, "Crap, no time to worry about the rifle!" Marshal said in his mind as he sprinted through the hole in the wall where the CAMs came from, more of a C4 detonation site if you were to ask Marshal.
The next room was almost identical to the previous in every way, but on the other side there was a slim isthmus that led to nothing, it was just an empty room with no entrance or exit until the CAMs blew a hole in it. The Gyarados burst through the walls with a Headbutt attack and landed in the hot spring in the current room with a big splash while Marshal found the second detonation area where the CAMs busted their way through.
He just hoped this path would NOT lead him to his APC, if it did, that means the CAMs must have already taken Charms along with his only means of transportation. He just prayed that was not the case as he continued his survival "game" against the Gyarados.
Again, Marshal found another room that looked identical to the previous and the previous before that, "You've got to be shitting me." Marshal muttered in disbelief, "Am I going in circles?" right at that moment, the Gyarados rammed its way into the current room, plopped in the hot spring, and just followed and waited to catch Marshal in a dead-end.
Marshal headed for the next detonation spot which was, of course, straight ahead, but this time, the Gyarados aborted from its plan of catching him in a dead-end and was now planning on destroying the extremely sliver area of the pathway Marshal ran across.
"Oh no." he muttered, realizing what exactly was going on when the Gyarados dunked its head underwater, lifted its tail up to full length while Marshal was right on its target, and swiped down, "Move Marshal, move!" he yelled aloud as he dove forward and completed a barrel roll, evading the Tail Whip.
Marshal shook his head and whispered, "I can't keep dodging this thing forever, if only I could..." he cut short when he saw what lied before him; it was a section in the mountain with huge stalagmites and stalactites, big enough to kill the Gyarados. Marshal ran back to the Gyarados near the edge of the separated path and yelled, "You're mom slept with a Primeape!" of course that did not offend the Gyarados in any way because it did not speak English, but it did catch his attention.
Marshal stood erect with no gun in hand, watching the Gyarados break through the wall which led into the room, but it rammed into the wall too quickly and went straight to the next wall, smashed through it, and disappeared revealing light and snow from the outside while water from all 3 hot springs leaked out through all of the holes the Gyarados made and flowed outside.
"Well, that's not really what I expected to happen, but life's full of surprises and it had the same outcome so... I'll take it."
Marshal finally realized how exhausted he was after the adrenaline rush had ceased but he could not stop just yet, he needed to see if Charms was still in the APC, activate the drill in the vehicle which he did not use because he did not think he was going to need it, then get through these mountains and on to Pastoria city...
Marshal's APC parked the near cave entrance of Mt. Coronet between the twin-mountain-individual-path at the end of Route 216. 3 single-person bridges were overhead, a small, run-down tree near him which he knocked down with the APC, and a sign that used to say "Route 216 - Mt. Coronet" but was crossed off and rewrote in red permanent marker, "I F TR T D".
Marshal ignored the sign because it was unrecognizable.
The rumble of the engine echoed through the cave, the headlights revealed the inside as far as about a few yards. The blizzard still raged on and the wave of Bell-206 helicopters continuously passed by, just so many helicopters, it was hard to watch so many people evacuate from Snowpoint all at once.
"We're here Charms." Marshal said as he gently stroked the head of his little Pikachu.
"Pikachu!" she squealed, wagging her tail excitedly.
"Now, we need to rendezvous with the Lieutenant Colonel." He said as he unstrapped his seatbelt then turned to the window once more: the face of Amanda he thought he saw was now melted from the heater which was turned on to 89 degrees Fahrenheit. Marshal rubbed the window while the whistles of bombs racing through the skies to reach their detonation-destination echoed through his mind.
"Chu?"
"I'm alright Charms," Marshal responded with his voice choking up when he said "Charms", he flicked her nose playfully then continued, "Disembark little soldier."
The engine halted to silence as it shut off, Marshal jumped out from the APC with Charms on his left shoulder. Eventually, the headlights shut off, cutting off all visibility of the inner-tunnel. No lighting, no Chemical light sticks, not even any torches were inside. It was obvious Marshal missed the Sinnoh Marine Corps battalion of 512 Marines led by Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Shainas. They were originally ordered to escort any lost refugees or Marines through Mt. Coronet due to its high level of hostile wild Pokemon.
The high-winds from the blizzard blew in Charms' face so Marshal jumped back in the APC to grab the sweater that Amanda knitted for her a few years ago. It took him a while to actually fully cloth Charms for she was squirming around because she thought Marshal was play-tickling her.
"Ahh... Chuuu!" she joyfully purred.
Marshal turned back to face the cave opening once more, took off the scuba-diving face-mask which he wore beyond the ski-mask, and looked into the cave without them on.
"Yeah, this isn't good at all, we missed the Lieutenant Colonel's battalion and we have no helicopter transportation." Marshal said in his thoughts.
The only reason he is not able to acquire helicopter transportation was the fact that he was transporting himself with an APC which implied he was not a lost Marine or a citizen. Also, as a decommissioned Sergeant of the Marine Corps, he was not permitted to operate an APC or any other military vehicles under any circumstances; he would be trialed for grand-theft-auto against the Marine Corps in Pastoria city, "Well, the only light we have are the headlights from the APC, Charms,"
Charms whimpered and backed away from the cave.
"It's alright; we'll just roll on through there, no worries, but first..."
First, Marshal needed to do some recon to figure out if he could even get the APC through the cave; he did not know if there were going to be sliver paths and/or one-person bridges along the way for he has never been in this mountain. He needed to prepare himself for the worst; there was no telling what enemies, besides the obvious enemy which was wild Pokemon, could be in there.
He packed up a bag of resources just incase the worse would happen to him. He opened up the back of the APC, grabbed the M16 rifle which was stored in a cabinet installed near the outside entrance. Inside were about 12 different types of rifles, 3 pistols, and 5 submachine guns; Marshal grabbed the rifle he needed, checked the clip, full, cocked it, installed the flashlight at the tip, put on his un-militaristic scuba-diving mask back on, strapped on his backpack, equipped his headset, and was ready to go. This was a serious operation, he could not just go in blindly with a rifle itself even if he was just going to go into the cave for a few minutes; he needed resources.
"Okay Charms, you can come with me after I recon the area," Marshal informed as he picked Charms up, opened the driver's door, then put her inside, "Now, I'll be back, don't worry." He reassured, after that, he was off into the cave with the headlights lighting up only the first straight path which switched to a right turn, then another right turn revealed one more straight path which led to a large set of stairs, large enough to fit the APC through.
Marshal then ran back to get the APC into the area up to the stairs then do a bit more recon afterwards, but once he got near the words, "Incoming GTAMs!" were yelled when he turned on his headset. There was one loud explosion from above, lighting up the area all around the twin-mountains with metallic bits falling from the sky. Marshal knew exactly what type it was just by the sound of the explosion: an LFK NG.
"No, no, no, Charms!" Marshal yelled before another ground-to-air missile IF another ground-to-air missile was fired.
Too late; the helicopter impacted with the cave itself, causing a small avalanche of snow and rocks down in front of the entrance/exit which blocked Marshal from escaping. The light from the APC had vanished but not from his flashlight. Marshal slid to a stop on the snow and instantly began to dig through the snow with his bare hands but with no effect he could not get passed the boulders which blocked his path.
"CHARMS!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, "CHAAAARMS!" he started beating on the boulders with all of his might, "God damn it, I have a promise to keep!" he took a rifle attachment from his pocket, it looked like a 1 foot metal short-sword sheath (try saying that 3 times fast) until he stuck it on his rifle and activated it. The sheath began to burn intensely until the short-sword shot out of it, steaming red, "Charms!" Marshal yelled as he began to cut through the boulder with the burning knife but it was no use, he could not hope to cut more that small sections of the boulder. He sheathed the sword and gave up with that plan.
"And me without any explosives..." he growled, his teeth grinding against each other.
He stared off into the darkness.
"Let's make this quick, I need to find another path out of here so I can get the APC back." He said in his thoughts, "Charms, I'll be back, just stay calm!" he yelled as he ran as fast as he could through the area in which he has already finished his recon.
He hopped over the stairs and landed with a thud, ran straight to the left then finally noticed the steam which blinded his vision; zero visibility. It was an underground hot spring due to contact with magma. It was bright enough to see down here so he was able to deactivate his flashlight; it was the steam that was his only problem now. Marshal was cautious with his rifle close at hand, aimed at whatever caught his eye, "Damn it, I'm in a hurry here!" he grumbled as he slowly marched along the path that supposedly led to the exit of this room.
This part of the Mt. Coronet underground zone had a sliver isthmus to it surrounded by the heated water. It seemed that the isthmus was the only way to get to the other side of the room. Marshal had no options.
"Hey, wait!!" a male voice yelled originating somewhere from the hot spring. To Marshal's surprise, it was a Continental Alliance Marine stranded on a small island right in the middle of the body of water, a CAM. He wore a gasmask like every other CAM complimented with a small air-tank in his backpack just for air that could not be properly filtered through the mask, a black bullet-proof vest, and everything else he wore were just common Marine attire except all in black, "Please, get me out of this!" he pleaded; this was a young man, most likely in his 20s by the almost girlish tone of voice. His breath was uneasy from the gasmask.
"Well, we have definite variations here, what makes you think an SMC Imperial will assist a CAM?"
"Come on, you know where just trying to stop the infestation, cut me some slack!"
"You people destroyed my home, my family, and my country, now..."
Before Marshal could finish, there was an ominous rumbling coming from underwater, bubbles began firing up. There was a moment of silence between the two, they both waited to see if it was just a natural force... or something else.
"Please... just..." the CAM gulped, "Get me out of here!" then, with the sharp, piercing noise as something jolted out of the water. It was a Gyarados. A Gyarados just flew out of the water with an abominable screech of ferociousness, its worm-like body ascended in a straight line, swallowed the CAM with his screams of fear lowering and lowering in volume as he slid down the throat, and dove back into the water all in the blink of an eye; leaving Marshal temporarily speechless.
He gasped and choked for a few moments then finally, "Oh my God..." he uttered as he backed off a bit, "Okay, I'm starting to deny my own logic here, since when did Gyarados live in heated waters? And earlier, why was that Onix, a friggin' rock Pokemon, in the blizzard? ... Could this have something to do with the Pl...?" before Marshal finished there was that ominous rumbling at an identical magnitude.
A cold chill raced passed his spine.
"Okay, okay, okay. Stay calm Marshal..." he murmured, breathing hard and quickly with his rifle carefully aimed forward with his finger prepared to pull the trigger, "Stay..."
The same screech from earlier rattled Marshal at his feet, he dove out of the from the incoming Gyarados with his fingers squeezing the crap out of the trigger, random bullets hitting everything in all directions except the Gyarados. As it crashed down against the isthmus, it completely destroyed the land and stranded Marshal from the only exit he had.
The intense temperatures were starting to get to him for he still wore blizzard-appropriate clothes.
"He just took an entire isthmus of land with a body slam..." he thought in awe and hopelessness. He unloaded his current clip which he wasted completely, grabbed a new one, stuck it in the slot, cocked the rifle and yelled, "Die, you ugly son of a bitch!" Marshal unleashed a full clip into the Gyarados which had little-to-no effect. The Gyarados' scaly skin was deflecting the bullets; physical violence from the M16 was apparently going to be useless.
Marshal jumped behind a boulder near the destruction site of the Gyarados' little contact with the land, and used it as cover; from there he was able to see the cliff edge that overlooked the hot spring. By that time, something was already happening over there. In came 5 Marines from above in a recon formation, one straight line forward with a sniper in the middle of their five-man squad. "This is the site Marines, open fire!" the leading Marine yelled. They followed their orders and unleashed whatever they carried against the Gyarados. Of course, there was little-to-no effect especially because they were blindly firing in the water without having proper information of its exact location.
Marshal stayed quiet and kept his hiding spot, he knew he COULD take those men on in a full-out firefight, but that would be highly unethical at a time like this. Normally, Marshal was the most reckless Marine the SMC Imperials had to offer, he was known for accomplishing over 53 Lone-Wolf missions; if this was the past version of himself, he would have just attacked that squad without any fear of fatal injuries, but Marshal just was not the same now as he was before.
Finally, the imbeciles ceased fire, but it was not because they got the clue that they may not have even hit their target once, it was because they ran out of ammo, coincidentally, all at the same time.
Like in a Pokemon video game, one side unleashed their attack and needed to fall back to recharge, now, it was the Gyarados' turn: It revealed its head with, of course, the exact same expression as before and all of the time, its mouth and eyes as wide open as they could get. A blast of water fired out of its mouth in an almost rotating perpendicular motion: A Hydro Pump, which was able to blast every single Marine off of the cliff and into the steaming waters. The Gyarados disappeared underwater to retrieve all of its prey. This was Marshal's chance to use one of the many utilities he carried in his backpack. He pulled out a lengthy rope and two claws. Time was of the essence so he had to work fast.
Adrenaline rush had begun.
First, he tied one side of the rope to the first claw and jammed it under the boulder, making sure it would not break off if not acted on by a powerful outside force, next, he tied the other claw to the other tip of the rope just like the previous, swung it overhead 4 times, then threw it to the other side where it conveniently caught itself between a cluster of 1 foot high stones. Marshal pulled at the rope 3 times just to make sure it was sturdy; finally he jumped on and began climbing to the other side with no knowledge of how long the Gyarados was going to take devouring those 5 Marines.
Right down the middle climbing the robe, a Marine ascended to the surface of the water and reached his hands out into the air, his gasmask was torn off which revealed that his eyes were gauged out, blood staining his cheeks like red tears. He let out a scream of agony, the kind of scream that cannot be duplicated anywhere else by even the greatest actors in the world, this was pure horror. He was dunked back under in an instant, blood from the 5 Marines converting the clear water into dark red.
Marshal just kept climbing along until he finally neared the edge by just a few feet, that is when the Gyarados had finished snacking on the Marines, flew out of the water, bit onto the rope, and attempted to drag Marshal down with him, but Marshal let go just at the right time to escape the Gyarados but his feet missed the edge. He was only able to grab it with his fingers, changed the grip to his palms, and finally he pulled himself up before the Gyarados came back for another attack.
It was too late for that.
The Gyarados began pounding on the cliff itself, trying to cause a rockslide so Marshal would fall in the water. It pounded on the wall 4 times but did not break the cliff apart; it just rattled Marshal off with his rifle in hand. Marshal yelled as he was in freefall then, as he plunged into the waters, felt his skin curl up and he yelled in pain. The water was too hot for him to handle. Out of luck, he was able to see the Gyarados charging for him, even with all of the pain he was enduring, he mustered up enough power to raise and fire his rifle above the water at one last desperate attempt at survival.
Something happened.
The Gyarados stopped in its tracks, flung its head back, and let out a roar of pain. Upon closer examination, it would seem that Marshal had shot the Gyarados right in the cornea of its right eye.
Marshal pulled himself up out of the water after strapping his rifle to his back and desperately climbed up the 90 degree angle cliff by shoving his pocket knife in the wall, pulling himself up, letting himself go for just .20 of a second to shove the knife up higher, then pulling up again. It was all he could do as a last resort.
By this time, Marshal was at a fainting stage of dehydration, it was a miracle that this was not affecting him, he may feel slight fainting flashes, but he just kept going, already out-of-breath as he reached the middle of the cliff.
The Gyarados in the background whipped objects with its tail, rammed into walls, crashed into the ceiling; it was just going insane with pain; blood drowning out the blue-ish color around his eyes.
"Come on Marshal, this isn't a fairy-tale, real life doesn't always have happy endings, you could die right here, right now, without having even gotten near Pastoria, come on!" he encouraged himself to put everything he had into getting up while the Gyarados was still recovering itself from its eye-wound.
Panting, soaked, and exhausted, Marshal climbed up to the top with the sound of the Gyarados' screeching growing on him. He coughed up salt from the steamed water, emptied out his scuba-diving mask, and reached for the M16 on his back, but he felt nothing, just the backpack on strapped around his shoulders. Somehow, he had lost his rifle in the climbing process, maybe he just did not strap it on correctly.
The Gyarados straightened out its spine and roared furiously, its right eye still closed from its wound, "Crap, no time to worry about the rifle!" Marshal said in his mind as he sprinted through the hole in the wall where the CAMs came from, more of a C4 detonation site if you were to ask Marshal.
The next room was almost identical to the previous in every way, but on the other side there was a slim isthmus that led to nothing, it was just an empty room with no entrance or exit until the CAMs blew a hole in it. The Gyarados burst through the walls with a Headbutt attack and landed in the hot spring in the current room with a big splash while Marshal found the second detonation area where the CAMs busted their way through.
He just hoped this path would NOT lead him to his APC, if it did, that means the CAMs must have already taken Charms along with his only means of transportation. He just prayed that was not the case as he continued his survival "game" against the Gyarados.
Again, Marshal found another room that looked identical to the previous and the previous before that, "You've got to be shitting me." Marshal muttered in disbelief, "Am I going in circles?" right at that moment, the Gyarados rammed its way into the current room, plopped in the hot spring, and just followed and waited to catch Marshal in a dead-end.
Marshal headed for the next detonation spot which was, of course, straight ahead, but this time, the Gyarados aborted from its plan of catching him in a dead-end and was now planning on destroying the extremely sliver area of the pathway Marshal ran across.
"Oh no." he muttered, realizing what exactly was going on when the Gyarados dunked its head underwater, lifted its tail up to full length while Marshal was right on its target, and swiped down, "Move Marshal, move!" he yelled aloud as he dove forward and completed a barrel roll, evading the Tail Whip.
Marshal shook his head and whispered, "I can't keep dodging this thing forever, if only I could..." he cut short when he saw what lied before him; it was a section in the mountain with huge stalagmites and stalactites, big enough to kill the Gyarados. Marshal ran back to the Gyarados near the edge of the separated path and yelled, "You're mom slept with a Primeape!" of course that did not offend the Gyarados in any way because it did not speak English, but it did catch his attention.
Marshal stood erect with no gun in hand, watching the Gyarados break through the wall which led into the room, but it rammed into the wall too quickly and went straight to the next wall, smashed through it, and disappeared revealing light and snow from the outside while water from all 3 hot springs leaked out through all of the holes the Gyarados made and flowed outside.
"Well, that's not really what I expected to happen, but life's full of surprises and it had the same outcome so... I'll take it."
Marshal finally realized how exhausted he was after the adrenaline rush had ceased but he could not stop just yet, he needed to see if Charms was still in the APC, activate the drill in the vehicle which he did not use because he did not think he was going to need it, then get through these mountains and on to Pastoria city...