Spiral Knights - (Fanfic) Out of Energy: Important notice as of 2/5/13

(Fanfic) Out of Energy: Important notice as of 2/5/13

12 replies [Last post]

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 14:43

Xenonguard

Here, is a fanfiction from me at long last. I've decided to take a break from my usually dark and dreary writing and make something humorous and light hearted, yet be plot driven to a certain extent. This will be updated somewhat frequently, possibly once a week. Without any further ado, here is Out of Energy.

Out of Energy

Arcade: Below the observation decks

“Chainsaw,”
“Check!” reported the second gremlin, rummaging through the supply pack.
“Pliers,” the first gremlin requested, keeping an eye out for the sentries
“Check!” the second gremlin replied cautiously as he threw the tools over his shoulder.
“Wire cutters?”
“Check!”
“Fitting oxymoron?”
“Uh.... Check!”.
“Good,” the ghostmane stalker said nonchalantly, “anything unaccounted for?”.

The second stalker reached into the leather case and pulled out a teddy wolver and smirked, “What would the most feared spy in the Clockworks, Umbra, be doing with a children’s toy?”.

Snarling, Umbra grabbed his signature weapon, an Umbra Driver and fired off a shot towards the other gremlin. The bullet tore through his hand, leaving him kneeling on the ground clutching his furry paw.

“Maybe that will teach you to hold your tongue, Tarsier” Umbra replied, still in that indifferent tone. Tarsier bit his lip to stop the tears coming out. He could only watch as Umbra strode over and picked up the toy wolver, still clutching it affectionately as he deposited it into the pack.

“If you have recovered from that warning shot maybe we should get onto the task at hand”. Grabbing a buzzsaw shuriken from his pouch, he threw three of them towards the elevator cables.

All around the Arcade, this was happening to all the elevators. Pairs of elite ghostmane stalkers climbed the elevator shaft and destroyed the cables. Then they slid back down the shaft back to the Great Colony. All of them, except one.

Tarsier grabbed his safety harness and hooked it to the vent. “Aren’t you coming back to the Colony Umbra?”. “Not me,” Umbra replied, grabbing a sniper rifle, “I have a lieutenant to kill”.

Haven: The Lab

“Are you sure this cannon is safe?” Sopwith asked, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.
“I’m 100% sure. Get in and clean it” Punch growled, shaking his wrench in the direction of the cannon.

Sopwith, or Soapy as his friends liked to call him, warily watched sparks flying out of the base.

“It doesn’t look very stable to me,” he whimpered, trying to stall the inevitable, “Are those wires meant to be hanging out like that?”.

Punch’s eyes widened as he noticed the sparking bundle. He hurriedly closed the panel.

“What wires?” he responded, “It’s safe, I’m 90% sure”. Remembering what he asked Soapy here for,

“Go on!” he said brusquely, “That rust inside isn’t going to clean itself!”.

Soapy looked at Punch miserably, “It’s a death trap. I know it is. I’m sure you’d be really sad if I get killed by the cannon!”.

Punch laughed and retorted, “And so, I’m sure, will this 5,000 crowns tip that you’d get if you jump into that cannon right now!”.

Soapy sighed, “If you say so Punch”, and crawled into the cannon, clutching his cleaning equipment.

“It’s Mr. Punch to you”, Punch smirked, as he went back to his cashier to sell the unique variant tickets.

Soapy coughed as he squirted disinfectant into the cannon’s barrel. It sure is dusty in here, he thought. Unbeknownst to him, a small amount of sulphur was getting dangerously close to the overheating wires...

By the anvil, Punch muttered to himself as he hammered (or wrenched) a lump of volatile thermite to a recruit’s Calibur. Should be safe he thought, I’m 80% sure.

“Strange,” Soapy said out loud, “what's that sizzling sound?”. Then, there was a bright flash and Soapy was blasted into the air.

“Heeeeeeeeeelp!” Soapy screamed as he flew through the air. Clouds, trees and snipes rushed past him as he was launched over the Town Square. Looking down, he noticed the fountain would be about where he landed.

Soapy sighed with relief, at least his landing would be relatively comfortable. Hang on! he thought, as he realised who was sitting on the bench, leaning back into the fountain, Is that Feron?!. His iconic outfit was unmistakeable. Please don’t hit him. Please don’t hit him he prayed, clasping his hands together mid-air.

Just as he was about to smack into Feron, he heard a shout, “Sniper!”. Soapy turned to look to where the cry came from and saw a gremlin holding a sniper rifle on the roof of the Auction House.

The impact was painful. Soapy slammed into Feron, knocking him off the bench and onto the ground. Just as they fell to the ground he heard a bullet whizzing past his ear. Feron stood up, clutching his ribs. “You... You just...” he croaked.

“I’m sorry Sir!” Soapy squealed, “I didn’t mean to get shot into you! Please don’t punish me!”.

Feron laughed heartily, considering the circumstances, “Punish you?” he said, “I should be rewarding you! You just saved my life!”.

“What about the sniper?”, Soapy asked.

Feron frowned, as if he only just remembered. “Oh yeah, the sniper,” he said absentmindedly, “go get him boys!”.

Several Vanguards rushed towards the gremlin, who was surrounded, and handcuffed him and dragged him over to Feron.

“You can’t stop us”, the gremlin said, “You won’t be able to follow us”.

“You think that I mind?” Feron replied, still clutching his ribs, “What’s your name criminal?”.

“Umbra”.

Later, in the Arcade

“Well, I know he’s in prison now,” Feron commented, “but what do you think Umbra meant by us not being able to follow them?”.

Soapy shrugged, scarcely being able to comprehend what happened over the past few minutes. Being shot out of a cannon and saving a lieutenant.

“Hang on!” Feron said, “I don’t even know what your name is solider!”.

“Oh,” Soapy said, “it's Sopwith”.

Just as he said that, all the lights started to come off and knights everywhere began to panic.

“What happened?” Feron shouted amid the chaos. “What happened to the backup generators?”. He pointed to his assistant. “Julia! What happened?”.

Julia checked her phone, and replied, “They aren’t working, because there’s no mist energy left. We only have crystal energy and that’s in limited supply”.

“Drat.” Feron said, “We need someone to investigate”.

He looked over to Soapy. “You! You’ll be perfect!”.

Soapy squirmed, “But sir, with all due respect, I’m only a cleaner”.

“Nonsense!” Feron replied. “You saved my life didn’t you? I’m sure you’ll be fine!”.

“Go to the mercenary department,” Feron continued, “Wegner will take you there”.

As Soapy happily ran over to Wegner, Feron turned to Julia.

“Am I drunk, or do you think he’ll actually have a chance?”.

Julia replied, “You’re drunk sir”.

Wed, 04/03/2013 - 14:48

Arcsolus

I like the idea!

It adds so much realism to the world of Spiral Knights...phones, cleaning men. It's actually a very good concept.

Sat, 04/20/2013 - 01:40

Xenonguard

Bump!

Never fear, it's a justified one. Chapter 2 will be coming soon, but for now read Chapter 1 if you haven't.

EDIT 001: Chapters will come every Saturday from next Saturday so keep on checking weekly!

Tue, 04/16/2013 - 14:51

Xenonguard

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

“Let’s see,” Wegner muttered, rifling through some folders, “Mercenaries...”.

“Did you find any?” Soapy asked, leaning forwards expectantly.

“Huh, that’s odd” Wegner said.

Soapy was concerned as it was his first adventure. He didn’t want anything to go wrong. “What is it?” he asked.

“Only about 10 mercenaries are still in service. The rest are either dead or retired. I wonder why that could be...”.

“Yeah,” Soapy responded sarcastically despite the situation, “It’s not like risking life and limb for a few measly crowns is a bad job or anything”.

Wegner nodded absentmindedly, completely missing the cynicism in Soapy’s voice. “Let’s see where the mercs are at. Vanaduke, Vanaduke, Leg’s broken, Vanaduke, Vanaduke, Royal Jelly, Vanaduke, and the rest are all just Vanaduke. Oh, except for one. You don’t want him though”.

“Who?” Soapy replied, fairly concerned with the lack of results, “I’ll take anyone I can get”.

“They call him Poker.”

“They?”

“His enemies”.

Tungsten City: Blaze Pepper Saloon

“Come on, just one more drink”.

“Sir, you’ve already downed our entire stock of cocktails”.

“So? I’m still paying aren’t I?”.

“No, you’re not. You ran out of money ages ago, and frankly I’m beginning to doubt you have the millions you claimed to. How could you earn so much from finding a “lucky stash” of crystal energy?!”.

“Leave it out. I came here to get a beer, not a lecture. If I wanted that, I’d get a real job”.

“You need help Poker, professional help”.

“Shut up!” Poker snapped, cradling his bottle protectively. The barkeep sighed and went back to cleaning the glass mugs that Poker hadn’t broken yet.

A lazy-eyed ex-veteran looked up from his bottle, a rare occurrence in these parts.
“Keep it down you!” he roared, “Some people are trying to enjoy their drink!”.

If the very reason the ex-veteran wasn’t in the Order today hadn’t been his bad eyesight, he would have seen the dangerous glint in Poker’s eyes from a mile off. He hadn’t, and began lumbering towards the mercenary.

“You looking for a fight?” Poker drawled, still in a drunken stupor but his hands already reaching for his Nova Driver.

The ex-veteran was huge, his muscular form looming over Poker menacingly as he pulled out a Sudaruska. Poker gritted his teeth. He was big, but the bigger they were, the harder they fell. The bartender cowered behind his table. Not wanting to get involved or even know the outcome of the fight.

The veteran swung his Sudaruska in a wide arc towards Poker’s head, a swing with so much power that if it connected, it would probably knock his head clean off, but it didn’t. In the few seconds it took for the situation to escalate, Poker’s survival instincts kicked in and he was already rolling behind a table and firing a few shots in the behemoth’s general direction.

Due to his large size, most of the bullets hit but they ricocheted off the hulk’s shield.
The giant lifted up his sword with remarkable ease and brought it down on the table Poker was hiding behind, breaking it into splinters.

Despite his precarious situation, Poker continued to fire towards the lumbering oaf. The colossus grunted as the orbs of alchemical power dissipated against the large slab of stone that was his guard.

Gritting his teeth as the gorilla like knight stomped forwards, he decided to try a new strategy. He loosened off a bolt of energy towards the wooden beam next to the ape. The giant roared with laughter. “Is that the best you can do?” he jeered, “You missed me by a long sho-”. His chuckling stopped abruptly as the bullet hit him in the back, having ricocheted off the walls. He then promptly slumped over, unconscious.

Poker strode over to the fallen giant and grabbed a wallet of crowns. He tossed it towards the barkeep, who was at this point glad to be alive. “There’s my payment”, Poker said, walking out the door to the busy marketplace outside.

Tue, 04/16/2013 - 15:16

Shear-Force

yay i like it

when do spiral knights drink

Tue, 04/16/2013 - 15:16

Shotjeer

bwahahaha

good chapter and story.

Wed, 04/17/2013 - 07:38

Snowdusk

Looking good so far!

Thu, 04/25/2013 - 23:56

Xenonguard

Important Notice

My computer charger isn't working, so I won't posting on the forums or on here until it is fixed.

Fri, 04/26/2013 - 21:37

Hearthstone

Nice :) That's all I can say, all my other adjectives are failing me =_="

Sat, 04/27/2013 - 12:32

Xenonguard

Hurray!

My charger has returned to full-ish functionality! Chapters will return soon. For now, here's my new signature.

We are the Legion (Of one)

We do not forgive (Not reading chapters >:c )

We do not forget (to make chapters. Actually on second thought...)

Expect Us

Sun, 04/28/2013 - 03:18

#10

Xenonguard

Chapter 3

The Haven Line

“Find Poker, he’ll know what to do”.

That was all Wegner said. No teary goodbyes, no waving from the platform, nothing. Nothing, except maybe a phone call to the Moorcraft Manor funeral parlour. Soapy sighed, he was alone again. Alone on a train to Tungsten. Where he would finally find some answers. Or not. Wegner said that Poker was likely to be uncooperative. He was a rogue after all.

The train rattled and clanked over the arid desert. Soapy’s thoughts drifted to outside the train carriage. It was just sand and cacti. He noticed a small cloud of dust in the horizon, except it was growing. He squinted out of the window, but all he could see was a small hunk of metal with a brown blob on it. Actually, now that Soapy looked at it, it became three hunks of metal with three furry creatures on them, coming closer. And then, it hit him.
They were Scuttle-cycles.

Scuttle-cycles were a new brand of Scuttlebots, founded when Seerus accidentally left his rocket hammer attached to a Scuttlebot he was building. The rest is fairly self-explanatory. They were capable of going at very high speeds, and could carry gremlin mounts.

These particular Scuttle-cycles were carrying gremlins, but they were wearing strange masks. They were like Seerus’, except without the crimson symbol. The closest gremlin was quite familiar, and it took Soapy a while to place him. It was the sniper. Somehow, he had escaped from Spiral HQ’s prison. It didn’t matter how he did it, but that he did. Umbra reached for his Pulsar, as did the gremlin to his right. They began firing orbs at the thin metal rods supporting the train tracks, the only thing stopping Soapy and the other passengers from falling into the chasm.

The train shuddered as Soapy’s carriage tipped precariously over the massive gorge. Soapy was about to reach for a weapon when he remembered that cleaners didn’t carry weapons. Where he had expected to see a Brandish was a bottle of detergent. He realised that his best course of action would be going out through the other side. He began to make his way to the back end of the train when he heard a loud sawing sound.

He looked up and saw a bright red line in the shape of a circle appear on the ceiling of the train carriage. The disc-shaped piece of metal dropped down in front of him, along with the three Gremlin snipers.

“It’s the end of the line for you Sopwith” Umbra said, smirking at his own pun. The other gremlins were stony-faced. Umbra turned to them.

“Why aren’t you laughing?” he asked, his voice eerily calm yet tense.

The gremlins tittered nervously, not wanting to feel his wrath.

Umbra, wasn’t pleased. “You aren’t laughing hard enough” he said. “Why aren’t you laughing harder?!”.

He pulled out a gremlin pistol and shot one of the gremlins through his face, leaving a fist sized hole.

“That’s what people who are bad at laughing get” he growled to the remaining gremlin. “Is that clear?”.

The other gremlin nodded furtively, “Yes sir”.

“Now,” Umbra said, turning to Soapy, “It’s time to deal with you. My spies have told me you’re investigating the case of the energy. I don’t have time to deal with you messing up my master’s plans, no matter how fun it may be for me. That’s why, I’m ending your life now. Kneel down”.

Soapy looked down obediently. This was the end for him. He made a silent goodbye to his friends, family, Feron and even Wegner.

Umbra motioned to his companion.

“Ready,” the gremlin cocked his rifle.

“Aim,” the gremlin looked down at Soapy through his scope, though the risk of missing was very low.

“Fire!” the gremlin was shot through the head.

Confused, Umbra turned his head to where the bullet came from. Behind him, a knight in cowboy sash crashed through the window and held a Sentenza to Umbra’s head.

“They always fall for the ‘ol ricochet trick”, the stranger said, a cigar between his lips.

Umbra made a grab for the other gremlin’s sniper rifle but the cowboy was faster and blasted a Sentenza bolt into his leg. As the stranger tied the moaning Umbra up, he nodded to Soapy.

“Get up,” he grunted, “we’ve got work to do”.

The cowboy half-carried half-dragged Umbra to the part where the train began to tip into the gorge. He dumped the gremlin into the far end of the carriage and tossed a Winmillion to Soapy.

“Cut him loose” the cowboy said gruffly.

Obediently, Soapy began sawing away at the metal bars with the sword while the stranger kept watch for any other gremlins.

After a few minutes, half of the train fell down into the chasm, with Umbra still in it.

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of him any longer”.

Soapy looked at the cowboy, “What’s your name?” he asked.

The cowboy turned to him and looked at him oddly. After a few moments, he answered,

“Poker”.

Wed, 05/01/2013 - 23:52

#11

Xenonguard

Unfortunately, chapter making will have to be postponed as I'm currently working on an entry to Tevokkia's contest.

Thu, 05/02/2013 - 00:40

#12

Hearthstone

You too huh?

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(Fanfic) Out of Energy: Important notice as of 2/5/13