//------------------------------// // Prologue The Second: ... It All Begins // Story: He Who Walks The Graves // by The Zealot //------------------------------// He Who Walks The Graves By: The Zealot Prologue The Second: … It All Begins You ever tried to sit in a car with two rifles and a shotgun strapped to your back? It’s not easy, let me tell you, uncomfortable as all hell too. They weren't real, of course, just some models I’d taken the time to make. An Anti Materiel Rifle from Fallout New Vegas, a Colt M16A1, and a M90 Close Assault Weapon from Halo: CE. The last one may not match the others, but come on, it’s badass. Now, you might be wondering why I was carrying around models of guns, well, I was going to a convention. Not anything specific really, just an in-general games thing. I was dressed up in some armor that was made from a mish-mash of character’s outfits from different games; New Vegas, Devil May Cry, Metal Gear, [Prototype], and then my own spin on things. All in all it looked pretty badass, took forever to find a way to make the lenses of the helmet glow red, but it was worth it. It also took forever to make the bandanna plate, seriously, Dead Space is cool and all but that folding thing that shit does in there is hard to recreate. I looked over to my friends whom I was riding with, there were four of us in total. Tony was wearing some Enclave Remnants armor from NV, Jack was dressed up as Richtofen from Zombies, Marie was going as Faith from Mirrors Edge, and then there was me, in my mish-mash that I've already told you about. We were an odd group, yes, but all the costumes were well made, and we all looked, well, badass. Perhaps I use that word too much, but it works so well for everything! Anyway, I looked out the windows from my thoughts to see we were pulling into the lot of the building the convention was in. A few minutes later we all piled out of the car and walked to the doors. The others were waved through but I had to stop and talk to the guy at the front, explain to him that the guns I had were all just models, and that the knives had been blunted. Didn’t tell you about the knives? Oh, well then, just a heavy khukri and two 12” Nightstalker Force Recon Bowies, nothing much. Stepping inside after that I found my friends waiting for me, that was when I looked around. Now, the building had looked big, but it was fucking huge inside, and it was all full of booths and stuff, with people selling all kinds of things. Truly it was amazing, and it was the reason I had six hundred in cash on me. “Well folks, looks like we made it. Let’s go do some stuff, yeah?” Tony said, his voice muffled from his helmet. “Indeed, every man for himself, or are we staying together?” I asked, slinging the M16 into my hands, gotta look cool, dontcha know. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m gonna go see if they have anything from Mirror’s Edge around here, ciao.” Marie said, before walking off into the throng of people, disappearing from sight. “Yes, I believe I shall follow her example, also I need time to make this accent work.” Jack said, trying to sound like Richtofen, keyword: trying. “Cool, cool, I’m gonna see if they have some stuff from anything I like, might find something from Dishonored or something.” I said, waving a gloved hand at my friends before walking off in a random direction. [2016 A.D. 2:56pm] ***** ‘Twas glorious, glorious indeed! Everywhere the eye could look, such candy as weaponry or armors, recreations from the greats! My enthusiasm aside, it was truly amazing, all the things that were laid out before me. I was standing at a small corner booth, the teeth across my chestplate jingling together as I looked over the table. Upon it where recreations of trinkets and accessories from many a game and movie, I could name few, but I knew what they were. There was a set of glasses, such as the ones of Agent Smith from The Matrix, some sort of amulet thing, silver head of a unicorn and a set of wings, in which was set a blood red stone. There was a set of gloves, not unlike the ones my friend Marie was wearing. And even a staff leaned against the table! But one thing in particular drew my attention, it was a tooth. Large and sharp, like a crooked fang, it had a hole bored through it so as to attach to a necklace. “How much for this, my good madame?” I asked, holding up the tooth between my thumb and forefinger. “Well, normally I'd sell something like that for, oh, two hundred bucks. I've never seen anything like it, you know. But, well, your costume really goes with it, so I’ll knock it down to a hundred n’ sixty.” She must have been talking about the rows of teeth that went across my chest, ones taken from most every predator on earth. Wolves to foxes, sharks to barracuda, and so on. Took a damn long time to get them all. “You have yourself a deal madame! Thank you so very much.” I said with glee in my voice, handing over the cash to her I grabbed the tooth and placed it in a pocket of my coat. I walked from the booth and over to a corner of the building that wasn't so crowded. I removed my coat, draping it over a nearby bench, and took off one of the many necklaces I was wearing. I want to say bandoleer, as that goes across ones chest, but it usually holds things, while what I wore were simply lengths of silver chain that I used to hold the teeth on. I had some difficulties undoing the clasp of the chain, but I managed, I removed some of the teeth until I had about half left, then on went the new tooth I had bought. Returning the others to the chain I re clasped it and put it back across my chest, the new tooth hanging in the middle of the others. [2016 A.D. 3:14pm] ***** A few hours later found me with several new items I had bought, three Black Hats from Black Ops 2, now attached to my belt. A silver Dr. Who pocket watch, now inside my coat breast pocket. And a full set of silver claws, perhaps I should explain. They’re basically like the finger bits of gauntlets, they covered from the knuckles to the end of the fingers, ending in a claw. Engraved with golden leaf, I must say they looked badass. It was as I was walking through the convention, still on the lookout for more cool stuff, when suddenly I wasn't. [2016 A.D. 3:20pm] ***** I was in a void- no, a void is empty and quite- this was some kind of unreality, a mishmash of colors and sounds, and I was in the midst of it, floating. I looked around, or tried to, everywhere was the same, everything was different. Noises, laughter and crying, screaming and shouting. Colors, blood red and sky blue, forest green and sunshine yellow. Deepest purple and lightest pink. A kaleidoscope of colors and shapes, patterns and waves. Then I fell. I left suddenly as I had entered, found myself hurtling down. Turning in the air I was met with the sight of a forest, far below. I could do nothing, I tried my best to slow my fall, my duster helped with air resistance, but I would still hit hard. At the last moment I turned again, falling on my armored back. Then, I blacked out. ***** “Oh dear Lord whyyyyyy?” I groaned out, standing up from the ground and rubbing my back. “Where the- where the fuck am I!?” I asked the wind, I looked around and found that I was in the middle of a forest. “Oh you have got to be FUCKING KIDDING ME!” I shouted to the trees around, if I had taken the time I would have noticed my voice was deeper than it was before, but I was in no mood for reason or thought then. I had been… taken, taken and thrown somewhere away from where I was. This looked like no forest I had ever seen, nothing looked right. Everything was there, trees and grass, shrubbery and flowers, but it all looked off. Just a bit, what’s the word? Cartooney, that was it! Everything looked too bright, too crisp! Just as I was thinking this over I heard a loud roar behind me, turning around I found myself looking at a…. creature, some kind of hybrid of a lion, scorpion, and bat, running towards me it’s mouth open. I didn't act, but my body moved. I pulled the AMR from my back and brought it to my eye lens, lining up a shot through the scope. Why was I doing this, I thought, these were simply models, nothing real. But apparently that wasn't the case, for when I pulled the trigger I was knocked over with a loud bang, looking up saw the beast missing most of it’s face. I stood up from the ground and looked down at the rifle in my arms with shock, for multiple reasons. Firstly, that I had just killed something. Secondly, that my model rifle now worked. And thirdly, that I was in some new world that I had never seen before. The last one may be a bit presumptuous, but I had never seen any kind of documentation about lion-bat-scorpion hybrids before, have you? It didn't matter then, I needed to think. Night was coming, perhaps I could sleep this off, see the world tomorrow with a clear head. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. [1189 Y.R.S.]