EarthBound
201X-Rise of the Star Faction
Chapter 0
The year is 201X…
The location is south-central Eagleland…
Peridot, a quiet town on a small
mountain northwest of Sapphirenia, a sprawling,
extensively populated city…
The time is 8:00 PM on Friday, April 20, 201X
Outside a geothermal power plant in Peridot…
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The skies darken over mankind’s land
The Nema-Beast’s rise from the shattered rock
Sings of the Black Reign of the Angel of Death
As she kisses the world into a terrible sleep
The Kiss of Death revives the Men of the Stars
They serve the Beast, his throne on the rock
The night subsides, unanswered by day
The Star-Men roam forth, defenders of the devils
Metal boots met the ground outside the power plant. Imperium,
as his comrades called him, removed his armor helmet and glanced around,
looking for a way to get in unnoticed. In his left hand was a sealed vial
filled with a purple fluid, in which floated a small, dark speck of DNA.
Spotting an opening above him, he fired the rockets in his boots and floated up
to it.
“Heh heh heh, there it is!” he chuckled malevolently. “Just what I’m looking for! That turbine over there will be
perfect for this thing!”
Imperium jetted over to the turbine he saw. He
examined the entire thing, looking for a spot where there was enough energy for
the DNA to react. Pipes led out of the turbine and downwards into the floor,
continuing for many miles until it reached the hot rock below. Imperium punched a hole in the pipe, causing steam to rush
out. He positioned the vial in the hole and fastened it there with metal pieces
attached to it.
“Hey!” a voice called behind him. He turned around to see a security guard.
“What are you doing here?!” the guard demanded, drawing a .45 and aiming it
at Imperium.
“Just a little experiment here,” laughed Imperium,
reaching for a large, mechanical weapon clipped to his armor suit. He pointed
his railgun at the guard and put his helmet back on
with his free hand.
The guard’s eyes widened drastically. He removed a walkie-talkie from his
belt and called for other guards.
“Guards! Security breach in Sector 39-Z! Main Turbine Room!”
Other guards showed up in the turbine room, prompting Imperium
to fire. A white, beamlike projectile darted out of his railgun
at the guards, but missed, burning a hole in the ground in front of them.
The guards returned fire, some of their bullets hitting Imperium’s
armor, which kept him well shielded. He fired his jet boots and aimed at the
guards again. His next shot hit the ground closer to the guards, sending some
of them flying.
When the guards in the room were out of commission, Imperium
landed and checked up on the vial. The DNA was reacting to the presence of the
energy, and had replicated until it had filled the entire vial. Imperium smiled menacingly.
The rest of the guards at the facility had showed up, and were opening fire
before Imperium could react. He counterattacked with
his railgun, despite the fact that he was low on
ammo.
“Use your PSI! Take him down!” one of the guards ordered. Soon, various
castings of PSI Fire, Thunder, and Freeze were racing at Imperium
from all directions. He utilized his jet boots to weave his way between the
energy blasts. Below him, the reaction in the broken tube was almost complete.
“Why leave so soon, boys?” Imperium taunted. “I’d
like you to meet my little friend Nema!”
Immediately after Imperium said
that, the turbine below him exploded from underneath. A massive mushroom
cloud shot straight up and tore through the roof. The lights went out, alarms
rang, and the fire cloud subsided to reveal a strange, tall creature. It looked
somewhat like a Starman, except it had dark purple
skin which was scaly and reptile-like. It had thin horns coming up out of its
head, and had enormous, purple, metallic-looking eyes.
The guards fired at the beast, only to anger it. It screeched terribly and
attacked with a white energy beam that knocked some guards away. It glared
sinisterly and uttered a single word: “Foe.”
The remaining guards tried to attack it with PSI. So many blasts came at it
at once that it could not avoid all of them. Suddenly, Imperium
appeared in front of it and shielded off the blasts. The creature observed
this.
“Friend.”
Imperium used the rest of his firepower on the
guards, until none of them were left.
“Friend,” the reptile repeated, staring at Imperium.
“Correct! I have big plans for you, Nema!”
“Nema.” The beast said its own name
for the first time.
“I plan to rid this planet of everyone in my way.” Imperium
declared. “They are against me, Nema, and against
you.”
“Foe.”
“No matter though. Some are with me, and as your ‘friend,’ they are with you
too. They are good people.”
“Good people.” Nema repeated.
“Heh heh, that’s right!
They are the Star Faction, which I command. They are on your side.”
“Faction,” Nema muttered, “on my side?”
“Yeah! Heh heh, man, you’re learning fast!” Imperium
answered boldly. “And you, Nema, are destined to
dominate over all mankind.”
“Destined to dominate,” Nema kept repeating
Imperium’s words, “over all mankind.”
“Freeze! Don’t move!”
“What?!” Imperium
exclaimed. “I thought all the guards were gone!”
A team of SWAT officers had arrived in the turbine room, taking aim at Imperium and Nema. Imperium tried to fire, but his ammo was depleted. Nema used its signature energy attack on the officers, but
it only worked on a fraction.
“Foe!” Nema
roared.
“Nema!” Imperium
ordered. “Do something! Do away with them immediately!”
Nema glared at a group of unconscious security
guards and raised a scaly, three-fingered hand at them. “Foe,” it said,
“…Friend.”
The guards stood up, but instead of attacking Imperium
and Nema, they went after the surprised SWAT officers
instead. Soon, an intense battle was underway, as the SWAT officers and the
possessed guards exchanged fire. Within less than a minute, and after several
drastic castings of PSI from both sides, the guards were victorious, and the
defeated SWAT officers lay lifeless on the floor. Nema
lowered its hand, and the guards fell to the floor, unconscious again.
“Y-y-you can possess people?” stuttered Imperium
when the fighting stopped. “You really are tough! No one can stop you!”
“None can stop me.” Nema repeated
inaccurately.
“Yeah, whatever. Close enough.”
Nema remained silent.
“Here’s the plan. There’s a submarine south of here, in the gulf. I can
still fly there, but I can’t get you there as fast. I want you to get to the
gulf any way you can, but I don’t want anybody to notice you, okay? And anyone
who resists you, kill them!”
“Anyone who resists, I kill them.” Nema understood
Imperium’s directions perfectly.
“Good. Now go!” With that, Imperium blasted off,
flying away from the burning wreckage of the power plant.
Nema stalked out of the plant, making sure nobody
saw it. Except for paramedics and firefighters going in to rescue people, it
encountered nobody. It successfully escaped the power plant undetected and
headed west into the thick forests of
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8:30 PM
In a forest closer to the town of
Giygas had seen the whole thing, from watching the
strange armor-clad man enter, to the explosion, to witnessing the monster use
its powers. He knew exactly what was happening. It was the same thing that had
happened to him.
He was running away from the plant now, disguised as a fox. He could morph
into different forms, except that there’d be an unusual swirl somewhere on his
body. This was useful for him, because his original form would render him
immobile on the Earth’s surface.
He remembered Nema. He remembered Pokey Minch. And
he also remembered what a terror Pokey was. After Pokey had treated him like a
tool and forced him to unwillingly fight against the people he was meant to
defend, he wanted that sick pig gone once and for all.
Giygas’ daydream was interrupted by movement in
some bushes in front of him. Before he knew it, a wolverine, possessed by Nema’s influence, was stalking him. He snarled at it,
warning it not to approach him.
The animal bounded at him, hissing and growling like it had rabies. Giygas met the wolverine head on, and flung the giant
creature away from him. It went flipping through the air and hit its head on a
tree branch, and then became tame and scampered away.
Several more wolverines had showed up, ready to gang up on Giygas. One by one, they attacked, but Giygas
picked them off, only to face an entire row of them waiting to take a bite out
of him. The swirl on his fur glowed red.
“PSI Fire Alpha!” shouted Giygas.
Orange flames spurted out of his chest and spread apart, taking out the
whole row. There was an arc along the ground that was singed from the blast. Giygas took a deep breath of relief.
His relief was short lived, cut short by more commotion to his left. He
slunk over there, and saw a human figure being accosted by a pack of multiple
wolverines. As one of them leapt for the human’s face, Giygas
rushed directly at it and tackled it into the forest floor, knocking it out
instantaneously.
The rest of the pack began to pounce on Giygas,
but he swatted them all away, desperate to protect the human. He positioned
himself between the boy and the wolverines, which besieged them both. The boy
looked too weak to fight back.
Giygas counterattacked, tearing into the pack.
Wolverines flew in all directions as he bit at them and threw them around with
his teeth. Other wolverines smashed into the brambly ground, defeated, upon
being smacked down by Giygas’ mighty paws. After the
fighting stopped Giygas stood amidst the heap of
motionless wolverines around him. He turned around and his eyes met that of the
human…
To be continued…