AN: So this happened... Ha ha haha

Chapter 8: Go Team Devil

The shopping mall, symbol of capitalist power and influence, had come alive with the spirit of communism. After Father Harrison had been drawn back from the brink of death, the people in the mall had become far more pliant in their willingness to listen to the mysterious stranger who had come into their lives.

Currently, the people in the mall were busy raiding every nook and cranny for usable items. Scott was on the roof clearing out zombies. Their numbers had not increased significantly while he discussed the situation with Mr. Mustache and crew. Mostly slow, and stupid, they staggered around in short bursts of movement and moaned every time they heard a noise. Of course, this meant a constant chorus of moans due to the fact that none of the rotten bastards would be silent long enough for the rest to calm down.

Scott looked at the handful of large special zombies and frowned. Why hadn't they beaten the doors in, yet? They were no doubt strong enough to do so.

His weapon's cool down period ended, and he began firing once more. At this point it was ridiculously simple to kill off nine or ten zombies before he needed to reload. Every time he fired, they moaned at him and reached up for that sweet man candy that they desired so much.

Every now and then he would shoot one of the big bastards in the head to make them go crazy. Dozens of zombies fell in the process whenever that happened. Scott even received experience points for the kills that were made since he started the process.

It was the best way to spend the next few hours as far as he was concerned. Only a handful of zombies trickled in at a time. There were thousands of the hungry bastards in the parking lot, but none of them could get inside the building or up onto the roof. In short, he had been served experience points on a platter. All he had to do was enjoy his meal.

Most of the rotting creatures were slaughtered within the first half hour. In fact, he would be surprised if more than one hundred of them still staggered around in the parking lot. At that point he began to take lengthy breaks, while he waited for the zombies to come to him. They would keep coming as long as there was food and noise in the area.

Mr. Mustache came to see him after a few hours had passed. "Why's it so quiet?"

Scott waved him over and pointed down at the carnage below. Jed blinked slowly as his eyes swept over the hellish scene. Corpses littered the area as far as the eye could see. A handful of zombies in the distance staggered toward the mall, but all else was quiet.

"You... You did all this?" asked Jed, shocked by the scene.

Scott nodded then shot a zombie straggler that came within range. "Killing time until your people are packed and ready. Figured, I'd clear out most of them before I went to find proper transport."

"Transport, right. We damn sure can't walk." said Jed.

The slightly bored zombie-slayer frowned as another zombie staggered into range. A plasma round shot out and neatly burst the monster's head apart like a piñata.

"Damn, you make it look easy..." said Jed in a low, slow, whistle. "That had to be a few hundred yards away..."

"Not a big deal for someone like me." said Scott without a hint of hubris in his tone. It was a matter-of-fact statement made by a man with maximized human eye-hand coordination and a weapon that could simply hit close enough and still tear a rotting head apart.

Jed nodded his head slowly. "I see." He looked to Scott then asked, "How long you been doing this...?"

Scott laughed a little then sighed. "If I count the actual days, not long at all. It feels like years, though."

"Same here. All this, it's only been going on for a few months but it seems like it was all a lifetime ago." said Jed.

"I'm sorry that this happened to your people." said Scott softly, while he gazed out at the approaching stragglers.

Jed did not answer for a moment. There was a lot to process. When he did speak again, it was to ask, "Is there anything you can do?"

"If I've given you the idea that I'm in charge of anything, I apologize." said Scott. He looked over to Jed. "At the moment, the only thing I can do for your people is what I'm doing now."

Jed looked to the corpses littering the parking lot. He could not argue with results, even if he had hoped for a chance to regain the old world.

"At the moment...?" asked Jed, as he realized more of what Scott had said.

Scott nodded. "Have to see how things go."

Silence reigned for a time as the men watched the continuing struggles of the zombies straggling into the area. They never gave up in their attempt to find that sweet, sweet, meat. The survivors would need to become the same in their desire to remain alive and human.

**

The sights and sounds of city life were a comfort for many people. Humanity, in all its circus sideshow glory and inherent insanity, would stroll through the well-structured streets. Largely hairless apes that skittered through the shadows of their own monolithic structures, they never knew that they were being watched by beings of far greater power and even more definitive insanity.

Viewing screens, flat panels that operated like television sets, floated in the air before a being who looked much like a man. On most of the screens, he viewed the Earth that was currently in dispute. On the few remaining panels he had many different sets of statistics flowing in a constant stream of data.

After a moment, the silver haired man placed a finger to his chin then directed the latest data set to reverse course. His eyes widened slightly, followed by a thin smile. "So, one of them has managed to achieve more than one hundred followers. He even has thirty-five citations of favorite status."

Most of the new crop of champions had not garnered the interest of the masses. Humans from a standard world were not particularly powerful protagonists. Yet, after only one week there was at least one champion who had achieved a small following. He was not alone of course. Several thousand other champions had come close to the milestone of one hundred followers.

He tapped a button on his command console and an image of the man in question came into view. "So, what about you has garnered interest from the viewership..."

Little happened for a while. The man on screen, a Scott Davidson sat in the bushes across from a retail establishment. "This is human entertainment worthy of following? I see neither breasts nor explosions." asked the watcher.

The obvious Michael Bay fan continued to eye-fuck Scott for a time. He sized him up carefully. His stats were nearly maxed out for a human. He had unlocked a few things, and seemed willing to at least do the job he had agreed to perform.

After nearly half an hour of watching Scott tip-toe around the edge of a mall parking lot like a poor man's Solid Snake, the silver haired being sighed. "Seriously? I don't have time for this."

"Daedra!" called the watcher. A brilliant column of light rose up from the floor in front of his ordinary office desk. Within the confines of that light a beautiful girl with the wings of a bat and a long slender tail appeared.

The gorgeous creature knelt down then placed one hand atop her knee and lowered her eyes. "I have come to serve you, Grand Emissary."

The Grand Emissary blinked at the kneeling girl then sighed. "Seriously? You're still on that whole Milord thing?"

"I am but your humble vassal, to be used as you desire." said Daedra impassively.

"You're my little sister, and you're creeping me the fuck out with this brocon stuff. Get a boyfriend already." said the Emissary with another sigh.

"As the Grand Emissary wishes..." said Daedra before she began to disrobe.

"Not me!" He waved his hands spastically in the air. "Seriously... What's wrong with you?"

"I'm a succubus... we do naughty things." she said reasonably.

"Since when are you a succubus?" he asked curiously.

Finally, she broke character and sighed loudly. "Come on... Can't you just play along a little?"

"I'm busy running an interdimensional gaming empire." he eyed her for a moment. "Something you should be helping me with instead of distracting me."

Daedra pouted at him slightly then pushed her hot pink hair out of her face. "Am I not helping? I do run around checking on champion status and the like. I do a lot in the public relations department as well."

"Yes, I know that you are quite popular in the public relations department." said the Grand Emissary in a sour tone of voice.

"Why, is my Grand Emissary-poo jealous?" asked Daedra.

"No." he said flatly. "Annoyed is more like it. Our family has a reputation to uphold! If we want to keep those self-righteous idiots in the Divine City from having a monopoly on the interdimensional gaming industry, we'll need to step up our game."

Daedra groaned. "Yeah, no kidding. All they do is go on and on about their prime directive of not harming humanity in its natural state."

"Exactly. They would rather watch humanity suffer endlessly or die off rather than interfere." said the Grand Emissary.

They chatted amiably for a moment, mostly about how much cooler they were than the feebs in the Divine City, before the Emissary got back to business. "Daedra. I want you to follow this guy around and see what's so interesting about him."

Daedra was shown Scott's image. "Hmm, plain looking... Though, he sort of reminds me of someone I saw on D-Net recently."

"Hmm? Really? Who?"

"Just some blue haired guy one of the Ardent girls is dating." said Daedra.

"Ah, you mean that whole Legendary Blue Haired Boyfriend PR stunt the Origin group pulled to raise public interest in their dated intellectual property?" asked the Grand Emissary in a snarky tone.

"Yeah, no kidding. Like that ice queen bitch Origin could even get a boyfriend. I bet his dick would freeze off!" laughed Daedra gaily.

"No wonder the guy's hair was blue." said the Grand Emissary with a smirk.

After they had their laugh, the Emissary said, "Well, you have your assignment sister. Go see what makes that guy so interesting."

"Yes, Grand Emissary!" exclaimed Daedra before she balled her hands into fists then placed the knuckles against the sides of her head above the brow. She quickly raised her index fingers in simultaneous fashion to give the appearance of horns then cried out, "Go Team Devil!"

The Grand Emissary performed the same two fingered salute. "Go Team Devil!"

**

Preparations for departure had largely been made. Scott was now outside the mall seeking out suitable transportation. The cars out front would not work for his purpose as they were surrounded by corpses, and even if they were not, there was a lot of stuff to move and they were not exactly the sturdiest rides around. If they ran into a horde on the way to their destination, those cars would not stand a chance. They would be considered as a last resort, but nothing more.

Scott quietly slipped through the small shopping district a half mile from the mall. His target was a place further away, marked on his mini-map as a place of interest. There were four such places. One of them was the mall. The other was the end goal. The other two were at different points along the way. In a game, such a place marker would house something useful to the plot of the story. What it meant in this crazy world was anyone's guess.

There were not many zombies to fight along the way. Scott had killed off most of them in the immediate area since they had congregated near the mall.

He reviewed his map then changed his head to match where he needed to go. He was about a mile away at this point.

Once he left the shopping area, he found that there was a river between him and his destination. It was not a particularly wide river, but he did not want to risk going for a swim. Who knew what lurked in those deceptively calm waters.

Scott looked one way and then the other. In the distance, on one side of the river, there was a waterfall. He could hear the gentle crashing of the water as it fell over the cliff. In the other direction he saw that there was a bridge that he could take. It was a bit out of the way, but it was a way to get across.

It took a while to navigate through the area, as he had to backtrack a bit to reach a road that went toward his destination. The riverbank was too shallow for him to feel safe using, and the last thing he wanted was to fight zombies while flailing around in the water.

The bridge, once he reached it, was littered with cars. A police barricade had been set up on both sides, but at some point it had been breached as there were civilian cars left behind beyond the yellow plastic cones and barbed wire.

Scott cracked his knuckles and began to search the cars as best he could. He did not bother to loot much, most of the time as the items could only go back with him if he put them into a foot locker or something similar and linked it to his home storage. Everything else would disappear in a poof of overly fanciful sparkles.

However, looting made more sense now. He was stuck on this world for up to three days. Whatever he took with him would have potential use until he was finished with his mission.

The cars proved to have been picked clean long ago. No mysterious treasures were found in glove compartments, though he did find a few bits and pieces of jewelry that he pocketed for possible future trade. Who knew what sort of worlds he might end up on? Jewelry did not take up much space, and he could easily stash it in his storage.

What Scott took the most notice of was the vehicles themselves. Specifically, the two black SWAT vans. Large, armored, and capable of handling a crowd. Those two vans would haul a lot of goods, or a good number of people.

"Damn." he muttered as he looked the vehicles over more carefully. The tires were flattened on one of the vans, and it looked like someone had tried to hotwire the other one and failed miserably.

"You'd think one of these damned cars would have something to change a tire..." he muttered, before moving on to another self-imposed task. Scott began moving the cars out of the way.

Between his improved strength and high-end endurance, pushing a few cars out of the way was a simple task. He did not even break a sweat in the process. Soon, the way was clear enough for vehicles to cross.

"So, we can go this far at least." he said after surveying the road.

He continued on toward his next destination afterward. The place of interest mentioned on his mini-map turned out to be a half-built apartment building.

"What's so special about this place?" asked Scott as he crossed through the barrier tape and entered the construction site. He walked around the area for a few minutes in search of something interesting.

Nothing on the ground interested him much. He decided to head inside.

The rooms were nowhere near completion. Many did not even have four walls and a roof. None of them had doors. He found a few tools here and there, but nothing too exciting. It was not until he reached the roof that he discovered something truly intriguing.

"The hell is this?" he asked as he saw a pillar of light appear before him near the unfinished edge of the roof. Curious he walked over to check it out.

Scott poked the light, but felt nothing. There was also nothing inside of it. A thought crossed his mind. "If it's a game..."

He stepped into the light then stood there for a moment. It disappeared not long after he stepped into the lit area, leaving him with nothing but questions. Nothing happened immediately, but just as he was about to turn away he saw another pillar of light rise up from a grate in the concrete slab below. "The sewer?"

Scott went toward the light, though that sort of thing rarely worked out well for people in real life. He opened the grate then looked down into the depths of the sewer below. With a shrug of his shoulders, he climbed down the metal ladder and moved into the new area.

He wandered the sewer for a few minutes then noticed that the water began to move faster. Soon, he came to a larger area with a whirlpool swirling at the center. "Weird. Is this how a sewer works?"

"I suppose this is interesting but..." Why had this been marked on his map?

He tried to see if there was anything worth scavenging in the area, but nothing came readily in to sight. Once again, it was not until he was about to leave that something made its presence known. A slight gleam from the far side of the river of shit caught his attention.

Scott almost left it where it was, as he had not seen anything before when he was on that side of the room. The only way to cross was a small metal grate walkway with no rails, a catwalk as some might call it.

He crossed the walkway once more, passing over the whirlpool below. Briefly, he wondered at how a sewer system would continue to work when the water was shut off to the city, but he had seen stranger things in recent days.

The item turned out to be a strange copper coin. Its color was a slight reddish-brown that bordered on pink, and it had not been tarnished with time or age. "How the hell did I miss this?" asked Scott as he turned the bottle cap sized coin over in his hand. On one side there was a large number one engraved into the metal. On the other side he saw a stylized mushroom.

He shrugged his shoulders then pocketed the coin before starting back to the other side. Halfway across the catwalk he heard a sudden terrifying noise. The support struts for the catwalk were groaning. He tried to move forward, but to his horror the supposedly solid metal anchors snapped off and he plummeted toward the whirlpool below.

Scott screamed and gurgled between mouthfuls of water that contained things he would prefer not to think about, not that he had time to think. He struggled against the current of the water, but it was impossible for even his enhanced strength to compete with that terrible aquatic force.

Like the world's most terrified turd, Scott was drawn down into the darkness of whirling depths. He desperately tried to swim to the surface, but there was no hope. However, just as he was about to lose consciousness a strangely clear, if bizarre, sound reached his ears.

Ta-droo. Ta-droo. Ta-droo.

Suddenly, light flared all around him and another sound was heard. It was a sound he had heard only once before when he had gone to Bounty Star. It was a sound reminiscent of a midi-style 16-bit era plunger sound effect in a video game.

"Warp Zone Unlocked!" cried the same cheerful feminine voice from before. "Now entering, Imperial Garden."

Scott screamed excitedly as he suddenly appeared in mid-air above a field of wildflowers. He continued to scream as he and the sewer water that had come with him showered down upon the vibrantly colored landscape below. He hit with a meaty thwack and did not move for a time.

Once he regained enough of his senses to try and get up, he lifted his head then blinked. He blinked a second time while trying to process what the hell it was that he was seeing. "Is... That flower dancing?"

In front of Scott a small sunflower with a smiley face on the front was wiggling its green stalk for all it was worth. Its green leaves waved up and down as its stalk bowed inward to make it look like it was shaking a non-existent booty.

He sat up and looked around. Various other types of plants were shaking their non-exist groove thangs. After a brief moment passed he became aware of a subtle sound that his brain soon recognized as synthesized music like what an old school videogame might have played in the background.

The world was suffused with sound and color. The landscape was supremely alive. "Whoa..." said Scott as he looked around. He had never seen anything so colorful and lively.

Due to his surprise at the sheer colorfulness of nature he did not see the massive flying ship that floated silent toward the area. He also did not see it when the bay doors on the bottom opened outward. He certainly did not see it when four massive mechanical monstrosities dropped from the bottom.

Scott did notice it when those monstrosities crashed to the ground with a mighty roar. "Holy fuck!"

In front of him now stood four twenty foot tall bio-mechanical devices that had had a strong resemblance to bipedal turtles. The amalgamations of flesh and steel leveled oversized lances toward him. The one in the center cried out. "For the glory of the empire!" just before the oversized technological nightmares ran toward him with thundering steps.

He did not even pretend to try and reason with them. Scott whipped out his firearm and unloaded several quick shots. His trusty plasma rounds plinked harmlessly off of their armored torsos, much to his shock.

Eyes wide, he hurled himself sideways in an attempt to avoid a devastating pierce from the closest turtle lancer. Unfortunately for the interdimensional champion these opponents were not mindless fools. The lancer immediately spun sideways with a sharp slash that caught the man across the chest. The lance tore through his chest armor like it was made of paper and cut a thin line across his chest.

Scott did not even want to conceive of the number of hit points he had just lost if his armor could not stop the attack. He was forced back twice in a bid to avoid being skewered by the overpowered turtle terrors. While the lead turtle-borg thing kept him busy, the other three moved in different directions in order to surround him.

Once he was surrounded, the attacks stopped. "The empress wants any humans to be brought to her alive."

Scott backed toward the center of the encirclement. The impossible to defeat opposition moved in steadily for the kill. Scott could not fight them with his weapon, and there was nothing around that he could use. He lacked ever sufficient cover to hide behind in that field.

It was then that the world suddenly went still. The color faded to black and white tones then only shades of gray. A shockingly blue window screen appeared before Scott.

Mission Briefing

You have unlocked a new world-setting [Imperial Garden]. Your previous mission is suspended until your new mandatory mission ends. Your current mission is to reach the city of Yellow Blossom and inform the mayor that soldiers of the [Empire] have been seen in the area.

Difficulty: E-4

World: Imperial Garden

World Type: Platform Hopping/Epic Fantasy

Force Response Authorization: Solo Mission

Primary Goal: Reach the mayor in the city of Yellow Blossom on World 3-2, yellow district.

Reward: 200 EXP

[—]

"Shit." muttered Scott as he turned his head left and right. He was surrounded and the enemy was slowly closing in, if he did not find a solution, there was no way that he would survive.

The answer came to him in a form that he would never have guess. He felt a tiny little tug at his boots. Scott glanced down then blinked. One of the little sunflower dancers waved a leaf at him then smiled brightly. "Eat me!"

"The... hell?" asked Scott.

The little flower looked up at him, its fake circular eyes wide and its smile wider still. "Eat me and you can win!"

"Captain, is that a Gravitas Flower?" asked one of the other cyborg-turtles.

"Damn! Take him down before he eats it!" snarled the captain, before he rushed forward spear at the ready.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as Scott reached down and snatched the chatty little flower from the ground and did as it asked. It cried out ecstatically as he began chewing frantically on its petal-clad goodness. "So happy!" cried the flower before its voice was muffled by rapid chewing.

The captain's spear rocketed toward Scott's chest, but the moment that the champion swallowed his happy little flower friend, the tide turned. Scott gasped loudly as a wave of force erupted from his body. The world slowed down even further. He could see everything. The spear moving toward him was aimed with deadly intent, but his mind raced at a blisteringly fast speed.

"Jump!" cried the voice of the flower that he had swallowed. Unable to think clearly, Scott followed the command of the helpful creature. Scott jumped.

The simple action of jumping was no longer the same as the ordinary jump of a normal man. Scott rocketed into the air at an incredible speed. The spear-wielding turtle thing continued forward with its strike. He barely had time to realize that his opponent had moved before Scott came crashing down atop it.

The turtle was pressed down by an incredible force that crushed its shell. A weird Ba-Boing sound echoed through the air as Scott followed the instruction of the flower once more and jumped again, this time directly off the captain's back. This time he landed atop another turtle, and crushed it down into the dirt as well. Like a meteor streaking down from the heavens, a crater was formed below his target from the force of his blow.

Scott shot into the air and then came down once, and then once again to defeat the last two turtle things. His chest heaved. He panted heavily as the flower power raged through his body.

After a moment, he was surprised by the sudden hiss of a hydraulic lock opening. The ruined shell of one of the turtles lifted away and a short mostly naked man crawled out. He looked as though he would only stand as tall as Scott's chest and his only clothing was a helmet shaped like a mushroom cap.

"We won't forget this you bastard!" cried the short man before he turned and fled the scene.

Scott stared at the man as he fled. Soon the same thing happened three more times. Short naked men rose up out of their turtle shells and tried to make their escape. This time Scott gave chase. He nearly caught up, but he slid to a stop as he came to the edge of a precipice.

The four turtle mushroom guys leapt off the edge. Their mushroom caps popped hope and little parachutes popped out. They held on for dear life as they floated through the air. Scott looked down, shocked. There was nothing directly below him. Instead he saw several platform like structures with forests, or ponds. He was on some sort of floating flower garden platform that hovered in the air.

The naked guys floated down at an angle toward a small forest platform. Once they landed, one of them looked back up at him and shouted. "Fuck you, guy!"

Scott held the bridge of his nose for a moment then sighed. "Seriously? The hell man..." He had thought that he had seen crazy before, but this place was a special sort of crazy.