Ash Through Time Part 12
By Kasady Voorhees
Ash looked around in a panic. He knew where he was, but had no idea why he was here, or how. He found himself standing above a table, a body chained to it. He was holding a chainsaw in his hands. It was revving. He looked down and noticed something odd- he had two hands. His right hand was attached to his arm. Not the metal prosthetic he had grown used to, but his real hand. He realized where he was now. It was still that night that the evil had awoke. he had linda strapped to the table to dismember her. She was possessed and could not be saved. He stood there wondering what was going on. Had the loss of his hand, the trips to the past, the more recent invasion, and his current trip through space and time been nothing more than a dream brought on by the horrors of the night? Or worse, a premonition? Whatever it was, he knew what he had to do. He would not let things happen again. He lowered the saw to his dead girlfriend's body, and as the saw dug in, destroying the pendant which had stopped him once before, a loud noise interrupted him. It sounded like a heavy stomping mixed with gunfire and screaming. He went to the shed door to investigate.
As he opened the door, he felt someone grab him. "Mr. Ash, wake up! this is no time to daydream!" a voice called as he was shaken. It was Robo. They were standing in a snowy field surrounded by some mountains. The large creature Gaspar had shown them was only about ten feet from him, distracted by the others. "Wh...what's going on?" he asked the robot. "Well," Robo started," we found the creature. We have had no luck in even injuring the thing". The creature was worse than even the image made it to be. It was literally a nightmare. The armor plating was too thick to cut through. It had Vulcan gatling gun cannons, missile launchers, lasers, and the ability to fire large spikes and lava blasts from the shell on its brain, and had been using the gaping covered eye on its face to open gates pulling creatures through. "All right, where are we? And who's winning?" he demanded. Ash knew the answers before robo even spoke. "We're in the dark ages, and we're having no luck" Robo answered, knowing full well that Ash knew. "We had to attack it immediately. It was sending creatures to 1000 AD too fast. We couldn't get to Lucca's house. Right now we're tring to injure it so we can have a clearing to get to the duplicator Lucca had worked on" Robo explained. Ash remembered the duplicator. it was their only hope. He needed more of those arrows. finding his metal hand attached, he decided to put his current arrows to use. Flipping the crossbow into position, he loaded one of the small poison darts. Carefully aiming at one of the eyes, the only seemingly vulnerable spot, he fired. It stuck. He loaded another and hit the other eye before the thing had a chance to air him out with its guns. It screamed in pain. It was tripping over monster corpses as it tried to pull the arrows out with it's stuby arms.
The creature was in pain, but nowhere near death. It opened the eye casing on its face, opening a gate large enough to sneak through. It left, leaving the few small monsters to die. They would have to hunt it down, but right now wasn't the time. All that was left were two imps, a zombie, a deadite, and a flying skeleton. It was a cross between the flying ghosts, and a Revenant. Armed with a scythe and dual launchers, it was the most dangerous. Robo ran to the others. "No time for them right now. We need to go!" he ordered. They agreed. Frog, Marle, and Lucca jumped in Epoch. Crono, Magus, and Robo took the first gate key and used the gate. Ash was left with the second key. He held it, stood at the gate, and nothing happened. "Oh, this is f***ing great!" he screamed. The flying skeleton was floating towards him. He was too confused. As he stumbled back, the gate key touched the gate, and it opened, and Ash fell right in, not noticing it had opened. the gate closed only a split second before a missile passed by the area, just missing following Ash in.
.
End of Time
Ash fell to the ground. "Thank you for leaving me the key which I didn't know how to use!" he said angrily. Robo ran to him. "I know I should have gone helped you" he said apologetically. Ash stood up. he picked up the arrow case, and opened it, finding only one hadn't broken when he landed. "Okay, no time. We need to get to that duplicator and hope it works. if it doesn't we're dead. Who's coming with me?" he asked. Lucca and Robo stepped forward.
.
Leene Square 1,002 A.D.
The three stepped from the gate. The zombies had cleared out, for now. As they walked pass the broken telepods, Ash slipped on something, landing on his back, hard. As he stood up, he found what he had slipped on. It was a lone shotgun shell. Unfired and still fresh. He cracked a smile that no one else saw. "We need to use these telepods. All I need to do is adjust them so they will duplicate rather than transport" she explained. Robo and Ash nodded. They ran to lucca's house to grab the tools.
.
Lucca's house 1,002 A.D.
Lucca had gathered the tools and research papers she needed. As she was headed for the door, Ash stopped her. "Hey, what about the walking tin can? He still needs a new arm!" he reminded her. Lucca saw no point in an argument. He was right and he was also not in the mood. They went to a cabinet of parts. Ash grabbed several parts, ranging from motors, tubes, primitive lasers, and gears. They started assembling them into a large arm resembling a laser cannon. "I saw this on one of those big robots I've been working with", he commented on the laser design. They held it to Robo's left shoulder attachment, and wired it together, sealing the joints. Robo pointed it at a small can and fired, burning a hole through it. "Groovy" Ash commented.
.
Leene Square 1,002 A.D.
Lucca had been workking on modifying the pods. Ash and Robo kept guard, taking out the wandering zombies. Ash had almost run the nail gun dry. At least Robo's new laser was holding out. "Okay, I think I'm done. I need a test" Lucca broke in with. As wasn't about to risk his last arrow or shell, and didn't want another clone, so he took a nail from the nail gun's clip and placed it on the pod. Lucca and Robo took their places at each pod. They started the energy transfer. After a few seconds of bright energy flashes, a new nail materialized on the other pod. Ash walked up to it. He gently reached in and picked up the nail. He took it away from the pod, tapped it on the side, and examined it. "It's real" he told them. He took both nails from the pods, threw them and the other nails from the clip onto the first pod, and threw the switch. He did this until he had a full clip. he then took the loaded nailgun, and cloned it. He did this until he had a gun for each of them, and several full clips extra. Then he cloned the shell until he had about thrity. Before loading up, he loaded one of the cloned shells into his gun, and fired it, risking attracted attention. "I had to make sure they worked. If that thing couldn't clone anything but solid pieces, then these would be useless" he explained. Lucca took the arrow pouch and started with the arrow.
As she turned the machine on, a small group of zombies started towards them. Ash suddenly remembered the rifle he took from the one. He forgot to bring it with him to clone bullets. Too late. Ash pointed the nailgun at one, but before he could fire, a sword sliced the head off. The same happened with all of them. An army of soldiers from Guardia castle had formed to take out the zombies and deadites. The captain ran towards Ash. "We are here by order of King Guardia the XXXIII to aide you in your quest!" he told the team. "Good," Ash answered," you can help us by killing any zombie you come across, and then cutting them up and burning each one of them!"
.