Bootleg Bros: A Specter Story.
******************
"Well, this is certainly not ideal..."
An injured overlord, Specter sat slumped down on a rockface of a cave opening. Gunvolt's 'wish' had destroyed everything, uprooting everyone from their departure from the tournament towards this newfound reality. Who survived? Did any but him make it? Wouldn't that be a cruel joke made by fate? Specter couldn't help but chuckle at the thought, blood trickling down his punctured shoulder.
"Heh...what an unfortunate predicament." Specter laughed in spite of himself. "Kei? Metal? Eggman? All gone. I'm not detecting the receiver on metal. Especially not through THAT..."
He looked dead ahead. Just outside of his cave opening, a swirling vortex of purple and pink clouds, rock, steel, and ground bashed against each other in a chaotic field of matter. Crusts of entire planets crashed into one another as cities and riverbeds flew past. He cringed as his outcrop shook after being impacted from a stray piece of an CRS Light frigate, one similar in tech design to the banished, yet not quite.
The air was bitter cold in the cave. The ape could see his breath in the air as he was sure it was around twenty degrees Fahrenheit. So he had dismantled what remained of his throne, having an inverted thruster active to keep him warm, set up like a campfire.
Survival. That's what he had to focus on. And so he did. Minutes passed, minutes turned into hours. Soon enough a full day had passed him by. As he begun to nod off from his exhaustion, he snapped awake, spotting a large mountain top fly towards him! He grit his teeth as he called on his psychic powers, lunging his body deeper into the cave right as the mountain hit.
*BAM!*
Where he rested before was completely destroyed, pulverized in a second as the entire cavern shook. The floor crumbled beneath Specter, as he was sent alongside a downpour of falling rocks deep inside the rest of the earthen structure. And just like that, everything went dark.
.
..
...
*Click...*
...
*Click click...*
...
*Fwoosh!*
Light came back, Specter taking off a panel of his helmet and a rock, setting fire to his torn cape. He was in a completely isolated chamber, only about ten feet tall and wide, rocks covering every surface. He was trapped. To make things worse, his legs were covered by a series of boulders at angles that trapped them, but didn't crush his nerves. Pain flooded his mind, yet no matter how hard he tried...he couldn't lift the Boulder psychically. His helmet sparked and sputtered as he experienced a flicker of his intelligence fading.
"No...it mustn't fail, it must hold firm- ack!"
The boulders covering his legs shifted, putting more pressure on him as they threaten to roll over and crush his entire body. Unable to pull out of his predicament, he felt that flicker again. If fate wished him dead, then it should at least give him the dignity of dying knowing who he was.
The situation looked grim. Not an ally in sight, nor a way out. A most certain death. He tried to keep his eyes open, but his body fought his very will. Blackness encroached upon his vision, rippling across his still open eyes as he lost consciousness, a painful slumber of the mind.
.
..
...
....
.....
......
"..."
"...How long is that going to take, gari?!"
"As long as it need to! His body was suffered extreme damages!"
"GROAAAAR!"
"Eh?? He's waking up, gari!"
Specter's vision had returned as he opened his eyes. He was in the medical ward, laying down on an examination table with his lower half of his body wrapped in tight bandages. His shoulder and right arm was wrapped in a tight cast, faintly red from the blood.
Surrounding his table were four figures. He recognized them from their voices alone. The Pipotrons, his valued commanders, had rescued him. Pipotron G, the hulking Gorrilla-esque member leaned over to feel Specter's heartbeat with their palm, pulling away when she felt it beating strong.
"It's...you four." Specter spoke, half awake. "But how...? I was surrounded by distortions and debris...no ship or signal could have lasted long-"
"No such field existed." A deep voice boomed.
Out from the shadows, the tall frame of the strongest Pipotron, Pipotron J emerged. His steel gray form crossed his arms as his amber eyes practically glowed from the shadows.
"You came before us within a shambled mass of rock, with not a single additional anomaly beside you."
Specter's eyes narrowed, trying to understand. "But how is that possible...?"
"Kekeke, it's true!" Pipotron Krak responded, adjusting his eyepiece. "We caught your signal on our sensors, and I transported you here. If not for us, you would have surely perished in space!"
"Noted..." Specter spoke, leaning up in an attempt to stand. "As positive as it is to be alive, this is no time for mucking around. There's something much bigger at play here...ngh!"
"D-Don't stress yourself, gari!" Pipotron Meta warned.
"Nevermind that, what is this bigger thing?!?" Krak hushed Meta.
Specter didn't know where to start. His experience was hard to get all out on the table. So much happened, and the implications were even worse than that. So whilst strained, Specter poured out his time he spent in this...'Bootleg Brothers Tournament' to them, Master hand, the Nexus, and the disturbances.
"How curious..." J muttered.
"But h-how could that be, gari?!"
"That correlates with the readings I picked up the last few days!" Krak perked up. "Unknown readings all across the board, was so strange! With your sudden disappearance and these events happening, I thought it was only a matter of time before-"
"Krak." Specter interrupted, darting to look at him. "Those readings, quick, are you still receiving them?"
"Eh? Yeah but-"
"Then that shall be all I need to know." Specter stated, rising to dangle his feet over the edge of the medical table. "Send me a staff."
Krak obliged, his eyepiece glowing a vibrant purple. Suddenly, his optic manifested a staff, made from a black paint coated steel appeared before Specter, who grabbed it with his left hand. The simian hopped down to the ground, wincing and stumbling on the sudden pressure to his weakened limbs.
"W-What are you doing, gari?! Your legs! They were damaged!"
"Time waits for no one, no leader is given that luxury." Specter spoke, smirking at himself before cringing in pain once more. "I need create a list of commands I require each of you to accomplish-ngh!"
Putting his weight on the staff, he shakily rose to his feet, Pipotron G handing him a fresh new red cape, to which he acknowledged with a half-nod. Putting it around himself, he walked out of the room, walking right out towards a window that overlooked the earth below.
"I know for certain, this is not over. Not by a long-shot." Specter spoke, his gaze on the earth. "Whomever is responsible for this madness shall be punished for it. And that is exactly what I plan to do."
He examined a pad he had been given, the information on the anomalous readings of late projected on it. His commanders stood behind him, waiting for him to finish his thought.
"...My calculations confirm that within eight hours I shall be called back into the Anomaly."
Most of them were taken aback, looking to each other is a flurry of confusion and anxiety. J however focused squarely on Specter, his golden eyes becoming sharper.
"You must elaborate."
"These anomalous readings you have been detecting? They have been increasing in my body by the minute. It'll only be a matter of time before it becomes equivalent to the dimensional walls around us. Yet no entity but me has such a high concentration of these particles. I shall be called back to the tournament. I am sure of it."
A silence followed, a cold silence. Specter couldn't help but laugh, placing the tablet down on the observatory ledge.
"Ha...this atmosphere, like vultures waiting to pick apart the body of an unfortunate animal." Specter smirked. "I'm sure there is a part in you all that knows you would seize this opportunity to take my empire from me, like you have attempted to do in the past."
J's eyes narrowed. His reflection seen in the window Specter was facing. A looming presence over the overlord's smaller frame. The intent was clear, and the feeling was understood by both of them. Specter looked to J's reflection.
"But this is bigger than either of us. Without proper action, this threat would annihilate all of us with great prejudice. I shall dismantle this threat from inside the anomaly, and then...then we can continue to phase 2."
Pipotron Krak cocked his head. "And just what would that be?"
Specter touched the center of his helmet with his index finger, his fingertips glowing a vibrant verdant color before it tapped the tablet. Suddenly, his very thoughts were transferred to the tablet, walls of text and diagrams projecting onto it. Handing the tablet over to Krak, Specter turned to them.
"And THAT...is where you all come in."
Krak's eyepiece extended, whirred and recalled back in several times as he scanned the tablet's contents at extreme speeds. After a few seconds, the goblin like simian turned to J for approval. J thought it over, his stoic expression unchanging.
"These are extensive preparations for such a short time." J claimed. "You must be confident you can put an end to this activity."
"I am certain of it. And in doing so, the greatest opportunity for all simian kind shall open. Not just our world, but every world there is that exists shall be at our fingertips. Our potential will be maximized to previously unthinkable degrees! Surely you see the promise in such an idea?"
There was chatter amongst them, several nods in agreement. All of them seemed on board with such a plan, all except J nodded their heads. The tall grey pipotron raised their head.
"And if you do not return?" J questioned.
"Heh...then we shall play a game." Specter replied with a smirk. "If I return, we shall enact the plan exactly as I had instructed. And if not, then you carry on my legacy as the leader of the new empire!"
"Ha ha ha...! A bold move." J replied. "You play an interesting game, Specter. I accept."
"Then the game is on."
Specter snapped his fingers, projecting off shop movements, schematics for new heavy support tanks, amongst many stratagems and tactical assets nets appearing as holograms around them.
"Now...let's get to work."
******************
"Well, this is certainly not ideal..."
An injured overlord, Specter sat slumped down on a rockface of a cave opening. Gunvolt's 'wish' had destroyed everything, uprooting everyone from their departure from the tournament towards this newfound reality. Who survived? Did any but him make it? Wouldn't that be a cruel joke made by fate? Specter couldn't help but chuckle at the thought, blood trickling down his punctured shoulder.
"Heh...what an unfortunate predicament." Specter laughed in spite of himself. "Kei? Metal? Eggman? All gone. I'm not detecting the receiver on metal. Especially not through THAT..."
He looked dead ahead. Just outside of his cave opening, a swirling vortex of purple and pink clouds, rock, steel, and ground bashed against each other in a chaotic field of matter. Crusts of entire planets crashed into one another as cities and riverbeds flew past. He cringed as his outcrop shook after being impacted from a stray piece of an CRS Light frigate, one similar in tech design to the banished, yet not quite.
The air was bitter cold in the cave. The ape could see his breath in the air as he was sure it was around twenty degrees Fahrenheit. So he had dismantled what remained of his throne, having an inverted thruster active to keep him warm, set up like a campfire.
Survival. That's what he had to focus on. And so he did. Minutes passed, minutes turned into hours. Soon enough a full day had passed him by. As he begun to nod off from his exhaustion, he snapped awake, spotting a large mountain top fly towards him! He grit his teeth as he called on his psychic powers, lunging his body deeper into the cave right as the mountain hit.
*BAM!*
Where he rested before was completely destroyed, pulverized in a second as the entire cavern shook. The floor crumbled beneath Specter, as he was sent alongside a downpour of falling rocks deep inside the rest of the earthen structure. And just like that, everything went dark.
.
..
...
*Click...*
...
*Click click...*
...
*Fwoosh!*
Light came back, Specter taking off a panel of his helmet and a rock, setting fire to his torn cape. He was in a completely isolated chamber, only about ten feet tall and wide, rocks covering every surface. He was trapped. To make things worse, his legs were covered by a series of boulders at angles that trapped them, but didn't crush his nerves. Pain flooded his mind, yet no matter how hard he tried...he couldn't lift the Boulder psychically. His helmet sparked and sputtered as he experienced a flicker of his intelligence fading.
"No...it mustn't fail, it must hold firm- ack!"
The boulders covering his legs shifted, putting more pressure on him as they threaten to roll over and crush his entire body. Unable to pull out of his predicament, he felt that flicker again. If fate wished him dead, then it should at least give him the dignity of dying knowing who he was.
The situation looked grim. Not an ally in sight, nor a way out. A most certain death. He tried to keep his eyes open, but his body fought his very will. Blackness encroached upon his vision, rippling across his still open eyes as he lost consciousness, a painful slumber of the mind.
.
..
...
....
.....
......
"..."
"...How long is that going to take, gari?!"
"As long as it need to! His body was suffered extreme damages!"
"GROAAAAR!"
"Eh?? He's waking up, gari!"
Specter's vision had returned as he opened his eyes. He was in the medical ward, laying down on an examination table with his lower half of his body wrapped in tight bandages. His shoulder and right arm was wrapped in a tight cast, faintly red from the blood.
Surrounding his table were four figures. He recognized them from their voices alone. The Pipotrons, his valued commanders, had rescued him. Pipotron G, the hulking Gorrilla-esque member leaned over to feel Specter's heartbeat with their palm, pulling away when she felt it beating strong.
"It's...you four." Specter spoke, half awake. "But how...? I was surrounded by distortions and debris...no ship or signal could have lasted long-"
"No such field existed." A deep voice boomed.
Out from the shadows, the tall frame of the strongest Pipotron, Pipotron J emerged. His steel gray form crossed his arms as his amber eyes practically glowed from the shadows.
"You came before us within a shambled mass of rock, with not a single additional anomaly beside you."
Specter's eyes narrowed, trying to understand. "But how is that possible...?"
"Kekeke, it's true!" Pipotron Krak responded, adjusting his eyepiece. "We caught your signal on our sensors, and I transported you here. If not for us, you would have surely perished in space!"
"Noted..." Specter spoke, leaning up in an attempt to stand. "As positive as it is to be alive, this is no time for mucking around. There's something much bigger at play here...ngh!"
"D-Don't stress yourself, gari!" Pipotron Meta warned.
"Nevermind that, what is this bigger thing?!?" Krak hushed Meta.
Specter didn't know where to start. His experience was hard to get all out on the table. So much happened, and the implications were even worse than that. So whilst strained, Specter poured out his time he spent in this...'Bootleg Brothers Tournament' to them, Master hand, the Nexus, and the disturbances.
"How curious..." J muttered.
"But h-how could that be, gari?!"
"That correlates with the readings I picked up the last few days!" Krak perked up. "Unknown readings all across the board, was so strange! With your sudden disappearance and these events happening, I thought it was only a matter of time before-"
"Krak." Specter interrupted, darting to look at him. "Those readings, quick, are you still receiving them?"
"Eh? Yeah but-"
"Then that shall be all I need to know." Specter stated, rising to dangle his feet over the edge of the medical table. "Send me a staff."
Krak obliged, his eyepiece glowing a vibrant purple. Suddenly, his optic manifested a staff, made from a black paint coated steel appeared before Specter, who grabbed it with his left hand. The simian hopped down to the ground, wincing and stumbling on the sudden pressure to his weakened limbs.
"W-What are you doing, gari?! Your legs! They were damaged!"
"Time waits for no one, no leader is given that luxury." Specter spoke, smirking at himself before cringing in pain once more. "I need create a list of commands I require each of you to accomplish-ngh!"
Putting his weight on the staff, he shakily rose to his feet, Pipotron G handing him a fresh new red cape, to which he acknowledged with a half-nod. Putting it around himself, he walked out of the room, walking right out towards a window that overlooked the earth below.
"I know for certain, this is not over. Not by a long-shot." Specter spoke, his gaze on the earth. "Whomever is responsible for this madness shall be punished for it. And that is exactly what I plan to do."
He examined a pad he had been given, the information on the anomalous readings of late projected on it. His commanders stood behind him, waiting for him to finish his thought.
"...My calculations confirm that within eight hours I shall be called back into the Anomaly."
Most of them were taken aback, looking to each other is a flurry of confusion and anxiety. J however focused squarely on Specter, his golden eyes becoming sharper.
"You must elaborate."
"These anomalous readings you have been detecting? They have been increasing in my body by the minute. It'll only be a matter of time before it becomes equivalent to the dimensional walls around us. Yet no entity but me has such a high concentration of these particles. I shall be called back to the tournament. I am sure of it."
A silence followed, a cold silence. Specter couldn't help but laugh, placing the tablet down on the observatory ledge.
"Ha...this atmosphere, like vultures waiting to pick apart the body of an unfortunate animal." Specter smirked. "I'm sure there is a part in you all that knows you would seize this opportunity to take my empire from me, like you have attempted to do in the past."
J's eyes narrowed. His reflection seen in the window Specter was facing. A looming presence over the overlord's smaller frame. The intent was clear, and the feeling was understood by both of them. Specter looked to J's reflection.
"But this is bigger than either of us. Without proper action, this threat would annihilate all of us with great prejudice. I shall dismantle this threat from inside the anomaly, and then...then we can continue to phase 2."
Pipotron Krak cocked his head. "And just what would that be?"
Specter touched the center of his helmet with his index finger, his fingertips glowing a vibrant verdant color before it tapped the tablet. Suddenly, his very thoughts were transferred to the tablet, walls of text and diagrams projecting onto it. Handing the tablet over to Krak, Specter turned to them.
"And THAT...is where you all come in."
Krak's eyepiece extended, whirred and recalled back in several times as he scanned the tablet's contents at extreme speeds. After a few seconds, the goblin like simian turned to J for approval. J thought it over, his stoic expression unchanging.
"These are extensive preparations for such a short time." J claimed. "You must be confident you can put an end to this activity."
"I am certain of it. And in doing so, the greatest opportunity for all simian kind shall open. Not just our world, but every world there is that exists shall be at our fingertips. Our potential will be maximized to previously unthinkable degrees! Surely you see the promise in such an idea?"
There was chatter amongst them, several nods in agreement. All of them seemed on board with such a plan, all except J nodded their heads. The tall grey pipotron raised their head.
"And if you do not return?" J questioned.
"Heh...then we shall play a game." Specter replied with a smirk. "If I return, we shall enact the plan exactly as I had instructed. And if not, then you carry on my legacy as the leader of the new empire!"
"Ha ha ha...! A bold move." J replied. "You play an interesting game, Specter. I accept."
"Then the game is on."
Specter snapped his fingers, projecting off shop movements, schematics for new heavy support tanks, amongst many stratagems and tactical assets nets appearing as holograms around them.
"Now...let's get to work."