Zelda : 404 File Not Found [7/?]
Link woke to the muffled roar of a crowd. The iron metal walls of the small, windowless room trembled. Dust fell through the cracks in the ceiling, contaminating the already filthy air. Light filtered in between metal bars, the caged door behind him rusted and red-just like the rest of the shit holding the place up. Smoke irritated his lungs and his limbs felt as though he’d been tossed around like a rag doll.
The teen eased himself up on his haunches and delicately patted down his sides. Everything was where he left it-except for his now missing favorite synthetic leather jacket, which will inevitably invoke some large amount of rage later-including the modular shiv against his thigh, and Navi on his left wrist. His instincts tingled as the roar outside deafened, causing the walls to tremor violently and force chunks of plaster to dislodge from the ceiling.
Link nimbly rolled out of the way as a particularly large piece of debris buckled, fell, and then obliterated the corner he previously occupied. While silently waiting out the rumbles, he dug around in his back pockets for a spare bandana to cover his nose and mouth.
With that task done, he stepped up to the bars and tightened the straps of his fingerless synthetic leather gloves. Down the hall, the screech of metal on metal, followed by heavy systematic thumping, informed him that someone-or something-approached. He backed away, pressing up against the side wall, as a hideous monstrosity lurched its way to his caged door. Steam blasted from tiny valves and black oil seeped from tiny bullet holes, each blob hissing loudly with every plop against the cold rusted floor.
Only one beady eye stared at him, the other was a glassy marble filled with red colored smoke. Metal cogs whirled as the iron giant spoke: “Come.”
As the rusted locks opened and the metal bars moved against the floor, throwing out sparks as it scraped to the side, a crazy idea popped into Link’s head-he could run. But Link quickly dismissed the plan as too insane, once he remembered the rumors that the Gorons could roll up into spherical shapes and run down anyone that outran them.
With that happy thought in mind, he followed the iron giant down the narrow hall. He winced as the Goron’s shoulders scraped against the sides of the tiny exit and sent sparks into the air. Before he could follow through, an enormous iron hand, all angles and solid iron, wrapped around his neck and flung him from the hall into open acrid air.
Link spiraled out of control and crashed shoulder-first into dirt covered ground. The teen skidded to a slow stop, his ears ringing from the silence until suddenly… The roar of the crowd boomed, rattling his very core and nearly shaking the life out of him. Without another thought, Link jumped to his feet and switched Navi over to his right wrist. He grasped the modular shiv in his left hand as he analyzed the new problem.
Fuck, he sighed as he acknowledged the sinking feeling in his gut. Fear and adrenaline pumped into his system as he recognized the horizontal pit, nearly fifty feet wide with twenty foot high chain-linked fencing all around. He’d heard of The Pit, and the matches the Gorons threw, but he never thought…
“BROTHERS!” A mechanical voice proclaimed out of buzzing speakers all around the arena seats, the very building trembling under the sound. Reddish dust and smoke clouded the air, yet the noise was so loud Link wondered if the structure would crumble without the shit in the air to dampen the sounds marginally.
“TONIGHT WE FEATURE A MATCH BETWEEN THE EX-SOLDIER AND THE ESCAPED HUMAN FIREWALL!”
Escaped Human Firewall? Link asked himself as he slowly turned and activated the shiv. He squeezes the handle hard enough to activate Level Two, short-sword mode.
“THE WINNER OF THIS BATTLE WILL EARN THE TITLE OF BROTHER AMONG US, DESCENDANTS OF THE RUDANIA CLAN!”
Link heard the hiss of steam blasting out of pipes, tubes expanding and contrasting under the pressure of pumped oil, before he realized another door to his far right shuttered open above The Pit. He spun on his heel in time to watch a shirtless man with bulging muscles and blue wirework that glowed under his skin get tossed like a bag of mindless cables into The Pit.
I’m screwed, he realized as his shiv automatically extended a few more inches and hummed with energy.
“Navi, analyze target,” he whispered as he slowly backed away, shiv raised and held loosely between him and his opponent.
-Ex-Soldier Rank 5A, Elite Class Corporal Coren Romani, age thirty four. Court Marshaled under assassination attempt on Gerudo Corporation Head of Security. Escaped four days, seventeen hours, twenty three minutes ago. Broadcast on Gemini wave reports negative, manhunt cancelled- Navi translated directly to his system. He nodded slightly as he hopped back and forth on his heels, loosening his limbs.
“Implants?” he whispered.
-Searching Medical Records… some mention of strength enhancement, sight enhancement, reaction time modifications. Violet skin and artery discoloration side effects from blood transfusion treated with still-in-testing liquefied chemical mixture code-named Blue Potion. No noticeable longstanding internal injuries, weaknesses, or advantageous targets-
The ground rumbled as Link adjusted his grip and locked eyes with the ex-solider. Ashen blond hair, squared jaw with a large, rounded nose and black, angry eyes. A closer look revealed to Link that the man was bleeding from several shallow injuries that must have been dealt very recently. He considered this fact for a moment, and came to the conclusion that this was not Coren’s first match in The Pit.
And suddenly he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Deafening yet exhilarating heavy music blasted out of the speakers. Coren’s fists rose as he took a steady step towards Link. The teen adjusted the grip on his shiv and shook the wrist that held Navi.
“This is going to suck,” he groaned.
“Try aiming for the jugular,” Navi replied sardonically.
“…gee, thanks.”
Then Coren was in his face, his fist buried in Link’s gut. A series of clicks and cheers echoed from the audience before the teen registered the hit. His body flew backwards, collided with the chain-link fence, and then slammed into the dirt. He gasped behind his cloth mask as multiple emergency devices embedded in his abdomen switched on. Combat modifications Level One and Two emptied an unregulated dose of chemical enhancements into his system. His fingers curled, tightly gripping red dirt as he struggled to swallow air through his cheap cloth mask.
“What’s this?” Coren’s deep voice reverberated through the air, “The great Link down from a simple punch?”
Link paid him no mind as he struggled from the intensifying burn in his veins. He wasn’t used to this shit; it had been years since he needed to resort to the barbaric method of pumping as many chemicals into his bloodstream as he could handle. The steady beat of his quickened heart rang in his ears and he clenched his eyes shut against the extreme pressure behind them. Pain pierced his lungs after a boot rammed his side, his body tossed sideways.
“Get up, hero. I expected more!”
The immediate side effects of the chemicals slowly ebbed away just as the ex-soldier grabbed him by the hair and roughly yanked his head off the ground, attempting to knee him in the face. Link’s eyes shot open, one hand catching him by the shin. He slammed a fist between Coren’s legs, sending him to the floor.
The teen jerked to his feet and leapt back, falling into a fighting stance with the shiv still in his hands, and tuned out the fire in his veins as best as he could. Even so, a trickle of blood dripped from the corner of his mouth, down his chin and past the cloth to the already reddened dirt.
“Don’t lose control,” Navi beeped. The reminder irritated him. He was already struggling to keep his mind in check; the soft scent of blood curled around his senses and tensed his nerves.
“I know,” he hissed as Coren got up and lunged at him.
Knuckles skimmed his cheek, knocking the flimsy cloth mask away as Link dodged. The crowd’s roar shook the ground as Link slashed diagonally with the sword. The blade caught Coren’s retreating chest, leaving a shallow gash from hip to opposite shoulder. Blue blood sprayed into the air. The teen’s stomach rolled.
“I don’t want to kill you,” Link shouted.
“Don’t got a choice, kid.” Coren hissed.
In the blink of an eye Coren was inside his guard, shoulder to the gut and throwing him into the nearest fence, again. This time Link kept his balance and used the added momentum to give more power to his own hits. He parried a punch and nailed Coren with his own, sending the man back. But to his surprise, the ex-soldier began to laugh.
“How did it feel when you found out just who died after they made you take that medical system offline?” The man asked, facing Link with one blue covered hand over his chest as he straightened. Link felt his left eye twitch once, and his mind spun. He sucked in one shuddering breath and slammed shut the mental floodgates before he could let his emotions take hold.
“Forty three children, listed as collateral damage,” a mechanical voice vaguely resembling his own replied plainly. The ex-soldier flinched, as though struck across the face from the unexpected reaction. Then a sly smile slid over his features as he began to walk slowly to the right.
“I see they didn’t succeed in the attempted memory wipe.”
It was Link’s turn to smile, though the look didn’t reach his eyes and only served to make him appear more mechanical and less human. In turn, he absently circled his opponent as well, mimicking the movement.
“If it were partly successful,” Link iterated, “It’s reasonable to assume that I would not know about it.”
Coren laughed, then shot across the small gap between them, and punched high. Link parried, and slashed horizontally. The ex-soldier back-flipped, feet kicking up dirt and dust into the polluted air as he landed.
“Why are you goading me?” Link asked.
Coren replied with a hoarse, choked laugh: “Let’s call it a death wish.”
The ex-soldier lunged in again, and the teen’s world went dark as dirt flew in his eyes. Half a second passed, and then his shiv flew out of his hand. A kick caught him just under the jaw. His throat nearly collapsed as he flew back to the ground, crashing heavily to the dirt. A foot slammed into his chest. His hands immediately clenched around the ankle, trying to resolve the pressure, to no success.
“Fuck…” he hissed.
“Tell me, Link… do you remember the look on your mother’s face when she crossed the boundary to Lower Grounds?”
It was like time froze once the words took their full effect on his mind. Something snapped. The sounds dulled to a muted hum. Pain became a far and distant concept. The ankle bones in his hands collapsed beneath his rage. Something rang as he forced the person to the ground. Hands squeezed flesh beneath army cargo pants. Deep inside, he savored the soft crack as bone and muscle bent then crumbled. Vaguely, he could feel a stabbing pain in his right wrist and an annoying voice.
-Hey!-
He crawled over the man’s body. A fist smashed into Link’s face. He flinched. Then a knee cracked his abdomen, over bruises he almost felt. He grabbed the ex-soldier, hauled him to his knees with hands wrapped around a blue tinted neck. Link stared blankly at a black, bloodshot glare. Then suddenly red blood sprayed into the air. He heard a crunch, and an intense pressure blossom between his eyes as his head snapped backwards. Still, he didn’t loosen his grip.
-Stop!-
Link held the ex-soldier steady with his left hand and pulled his right hand back. The crunch of bone and skin to skin contact echoed loudly in his ringing ears. The man’s entire body shuddered violently in his grip, nearly propelled out of his fingers from the force of the blow.
-LINK!-
Pain. Electricity shot through his system. Screams from the crowd spiraled into instant attention. The beating of his heart pulsed in his ears. His eyes lost their focus. Reality fell into place. Link released the man and jumped to his feet, stumbling wildly over himself as he took several steps back.
Everything seemed to hit him at once as the extended side effects of the diminished drugs rushed to leave his system. His hands immediately curled around his ribs as he bent at the waist and hurled.
“You… bitch,” he gasped between convulses, still gagging though his stomach was surely empty.
-You are welcome, idiot- Navi replied.
Chunks of cement fell into The Pit, a result of the outstanding roars of the crowd magnified from the fight. Link uncurled from standing fetal position and approached Coren’s prone body. Blue dripped from the man’s mouth, mingling with the reddened ground. Black eyes stared at him warily. For reasons unknown to Link, he wrapped his arms around the soldier’s upper shoulders and just held him.
“They called it a… discoloration… but it was really more like a… a contamination,” the ex-soldier murmured. Somewhere in the midst of the aches in his chest, he felt a twinge of pity for the man. So, Link reached forward to grasp his hand, a small hope forming that maybe they could call this shit a draw and both be brothers, maybe. Maybe. His gloved hand lifted the blue-tinged fingers off the dirt.
BANG cut through the roar of the crowd. The music, the screams, everything-instantly silenced. Link could not move. He was covered in blue. So much blue. Everywhere.
The mangled body fell back to the ground, spilling blue into the dirt like a bottle of coolant with its top popped.
Link stared at the mess sprawled out and bleeding over dust, disconnected. Numbed. His world trembled while the crowd, as one, stomped the arena floors. Walls buckled. Chain-linked fence curved inwards as the surge of the crowd pushed up against the metal that was unbreakable to him, yet as flimsy as paper to the Gorons.
A huge fleshed hand that resembled brown stone wrapped around his waist and pulled him away from blue. The ex-soldier’s hand fell from his grasp. He reached halfheartedly, stretching his fingers out towards the ground. Yet… Link knew the Goron would not let go. And why should he? The blue on the ground had no head. No head at all.
“WELCOME TO THE FAMILY, BROTHER LINK!”
The crowd cheered.
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