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THE CHRONICLES OF FINALGAMER The Legend of the FinalGamer

"Children don't ask how the sky is blue. They ask why the sky is blue." Postscript, Michael Crichton

Some people believe that if a butterfly flaps its wings in Norway, then a tidal wave will occur in China, as some sort of imbalance in the world or a metaphor on how every small action affects something else occurring in the world. But what happens when it's something bigger than a butterfly flapping wings, like say, a comet crashing on a hill? Or at the very least, one small flash of light occurring at the original site of said comet sometime in the very early morning of two days after its arrival. James awoke once more from the cold sleep he was suffering from his dimensional travelling with irritation, hoping it wouldn't happen again and yet it did. Shaking his head free of sleepiness, he looked around to find himself on a mountainous hill, high above the land with a pure blue sky stretching as far as the eye can see. Along with a soothing breeze, he also felt an unusually focused source of warmth nearby, in the form of a large crater-covered rock. Surprised at first, the raptor tried to step closer to it before finding the heat a little too intense and backed away from it again, looking out across the hill to see a nearby town. A friendly-looking place, with cars and houses of yellow, red and green. With such a colourful cheer to it, he hoped it kept up that impression as he gently scaled down the rocky hillside, leaping from the pathway that wound its way around the hill, to the bottom road itself, clutching his satchel. Thankfully there still remained very few medical supplies left, as well as his shiny crystal. Unsure of the local inhabitants and assuming it was a fully-human place he may be in, he ended up beside the town's library, hiding out of sight at first in the hope of not alarming anyone with his appearance. Sneaking towards a forest behind it, he felt he was in the clear so far, until a small boy spotted him from a treehouse.

Hearing the sound of small feet upon grass, the raptor saw two boys rush at him with a long piece of rope, but he easily evaded them with a leap to the right as they fell flat on their faces, turning around to face him once more. "Hah!" said one of the boys, "We gotcha now space invader!" "Wha?!" asked James incredulously. "What are you talking about?" "You came here to invade our world, right? Just like Ness told us last night with that comet! We saw ya just now, coming down from it!" "Woah woah woah, I may not be from around here bu-" "He said it! GRAB HIM!" They tried to lunge again but only to fall as James dodged once again. He wasn't going to hurt a bunch of over-active kids, but he certainly wasn't going to let himself be captured by anyone, deciding to play this cool. Since they were children, he felt he could be more truthful to them. "Look, listen to me. I am from another world, yes, but I am NOT, repeat, NOT, invading your planet. I just ended up here by accident!" "Oh yeah?! Why didya come from that comet then?!" "I dunno, I teleported here and it must have picked a nice high spot like the hill up there." He saw they weren't entirely believing him but he was glad at least they somehow accepted the idea of extra-terrestrials without going into sheer panic. "So...what do you mean invade?" "Hey, you think he really is one of them?" said one of the smaller boys to the other, "he dun look like 'em. Not shiny and human-looking." "Could be a disguise, I dun trust him, he looks shifty!" "But he's got no idea of what's happening...maybe...I mean he kinda looks like a dinosaur!" "Maybe they're gonna hide in the museum!" "Why wouldya do that!? Nobody's gonna hide in uhhh...a museum, that'd be stupid!" Enthralled by the little argument, the raptor did not notice another boy who was in the bushes behind him, sneaking around with his own bundle of rope. The two conspiring before him had him distracted, and he didn't realise someone soon leaping behind him with rope, pinning him to the ground and tying his arms up tightly, his claws unable to cut at them. At the same time, the two other boys dodged around the fallen raptor to bind his legs tightly. "NOW we gotcha, space invader! Take him to the secret hideout, we gotta lotta questions fer ya!" James merely grunted in annoyance and thought it best to play along with the kids. If anything, one of them would let slip about where he really was.

In the secret hideout, which was the wooden shanty treehouse a few feet away clearly seen at the top of a tree separate from the forest itself, the raptor was bound by his legs with claws at his back in a corner. He was surprisingly well-tied up with boy-scout class knots, as the three boys began their interrogation. "Alright alien! What's yer secret plan?!" "I told you, I don't HAVE any secret plans! I'm just a traveller!" "HAH! No way, yer here around the same time all this is happening!" "All what's happening?" "You know what's happening! Animals going crazy, crime's on the rise, blue weirdos kidnapping people in Twoson an' I heard there's ZOMBIES in Threed!" The other two looked at their leader with surprise. "Wooooah, zombies?! No way!" "My cousin's in Threed, he told me all about it! Now, TALK! Or else!" "Or else what, yer gonna shoot me with a rubber dart? Go ahead, take yer best shot, I'm not afraid of some HUMANS!" The raptor thought this was half a game and half a mission, so he played it with half-seriousness for their amusement. Nothing wrong with entertaining the kids, a refreshing change from yesterday's brutality. "If you don't tell us whatcha know...we'll torture ya!" The boy then brought out of his pocket a long magnificent-looking feather, practically the pinion feather of a gull, curling the tip in his fingers. "Whatcha gonna do with that? Tickle me?" The raptor scoffed at the idea, but the look on their faces implied it was precisely that, and he became slightly nervous. The boys held his legs down, practically sitting on them to avoid the pebbly scaled soles with two vicious looking claws at the top and a more flexible-looking claw apart from them. He tried to struggle but they had him pinned well. They had done this before, he could tell. The leader stepped towards him armed with the feather. The raptor gasped in pretend fear at what his intentions were. "N-n-no! You wouldn't dare! This is inhuman! I demand to speak to your leader!" A little roleplay would open them up as his mock panic inspired them. After all, you're only young once, he could sympathise with that. He didn't LIKE to be tickled, but he'd been in far worse situations than this and couldn't complain. "I'M the boss round here," proclaimed the boy, "and it's only inhuman on a human...which yer not." And then he began to rub the scaly feet with the feather, softly at first, making the feet twitch and shudder. James tried to move away, but his captors made sure he couldn't. "N-NAHA! P-please..."

Half of this he enjoyed, half of this he didn't. On the one hand, playing with kids again made him go back to his younger self which while not so carefree had a lot more innocence. On the other hand, tickling wasn't fun. The boy tickled him more as the raptor wiggled his claws maddeningly and laughter began to ensue. In a way, it was quite a release for him after all that had happened in the past few months. "KHAHAHA...hahahahahahaa...HHHHAHAHAHAPLEASESTO-HO-HO-HO-HOPAHAHAHAHAHAA!" "Then tell us what yer plans are!" "N-N-NOAHAHAHAPLEAAAASE!" "Talk or I'm not stopping!" "ALRIGHT ALRI-HI-HI-HIGHT! JUST STOP PLEASE! Stooooooooop...ohhh...hhhhoh..." The tickling ceased at last. As the raptor slowly got his breath back, his eyes watery with tears of laughter, he decided to reward the boys for their tenacity with something that was somewhat true. "Hokay...okay. I...I'm a fugitive. I'm running from them." "Wha? Running from who?" "The aliens! You know, THEM! I betrayed them when I didn't agree with their plans and they did things to me, real bad stuff to me! But I escaped! And I came here, it was the nearest planet!" "But what's their plan?!? Tell us!" "They wanna take over the world! They wanna turn you all into their slaves, into nothing but ants forever working underneath them!" He had to exaggerate somehow with the most likely plan an alien would want for this planet. Admittedly it was cheesy but he kept with it. "OF COURSE!" cried out the leader. "I knew it! I knew it before Ness did, right guys!?!?" They nodded in excited agreement as the leader ordered his friends off of their captive's legs, the leader of the trio nodding solemnly with his proclamation. "Alright...yer free to go, BUT! You gotta do somethin' for us, an' you better do what we say or we turn ya in to the police! Got it?" "Yes, yes, thank you! Thank you!" The boys untied him and he waited patiently until they were done, gently stretching his arms and legs out as he softly stood up, before bumping his head on the treehouse and sitting back down again. He was certainly a strange creature to them, a raptor wearing jeans with a giant pair of scissors on his back. "So...what do you want me to do?" "Well, if ya wanna do something, you can always help us out with what the other aliens are doing to us, show 'em yer not afraid!" "Yes...yes I will! I'll do whatever it takes to stop their plans! Thank you, human child, you are truly a wise one." He patted the leader's head, but not in a patronising manner. "But uh...how am I gonna let people know I wanna help them?" "Well," began the boy leader, "if you really wanna help us..." "Yeah? What you have in mind?" "There's this wild pack of dogs that's been attacking everyone lately, they're real vicious an' they been gettin' worse the past buncha weeks! If you go and stop 'em at their hideout, then we'll trust ya!" "Hmmmm...very well, I will stop these dogs for you."

The raptor got up with as much formality as he could muster while bent over avoiding the ceiling, and gently walked out of the treehouse. Leaping from the top of the ladder to roll and land upon the grass with ease, he asked the boy up above: "Where's the dogs' lair?" "It's in the forest that way!" He pointed to the raptor's left, westwards. Nodding up at him, he went his way towards it. This won't be a problem, thought James to himself, just take down a few mangy mutts and earn their trust easily...but is this even Earth? I don't remember ever reading on alien invasions during...wait, what time period is this? The raptor looked around him as he flitted from cover to cover in order to not frighten any adults, who would be far more dangerous than children, hoping to find a newspaper. A trashcan nearby would give him some clues, slowly digging through it in the shadow of the local library. He could not find any newspapers, but he did find the remains of a bread packet with the expiry date reading as 11th May 1994. Now he was sure that this was not the Earth he knew. But then again he never learnt of history beyond a few world wars so who knows, this could have been the past beyond, back when it was only humans. Or maybe this is a parallel Earth, pondered the raptor as he reached the forest outskirts, walking in with no rush. The forest was typically deciduous, leaves grasping onto their father trees in the beginning boon of summertime. It was certainly pleasant, walking through rays of sunlight spreading through the canopy, the grass under his feet fresh and dry. He barely made it past 6 trees before he heard a vicious growling, and the sound of something circling around him.

His innate raptor senses aided in pinpointing where the dog was, but he waited, remaining perfectly still before he heard something leap behind him. Dodging to the left and smacking something hard with his tail, it landed with a yelp thanks to a little practice in what not to do when the boy had done the same earlier. A stray dog, just like the boys told him, mangy brown with wild eyes and snarling mouth. "Bad doggie...bad bad doggie." The raptor smiled and showed his teeth before it flew at his waist, strafing around it to rake the dog's leg hard, a yelp and a limping collapse signifying its defeat. He didn't want to kill them, not in such a pleasant-looking land. For all he knew, they could well be pet dogs charmed by the adventures of the wilderness who ran away from home. He'd rather just let them know he was boss. Of course if there were more of them and a death was unavoidable... James shook the thoughts from his head and walked further into the forest, sniffing out the scent of more stray dogs which he had picked up from the one that attacked him, and followed a path heading deeper within. The sunlight turned less frequent to the point of leaving his vision without the tint of brightness. Another dog out of nowhere suddenly leapt in front of him, the surprise knocking James on his back with the dog on top of him, trying to bite at his throat. But he slashed him across the face with his sharper claws and the dog backed off in pain. "PISS OFF! Hhhh...hope these mutts don't have rabies." He wiped the blood from his claws on a nearby tree and continued walking cautiously. Seeing a non-anthro dog for the first time in his life, when they were one of the most common anthros of his own world, was rather jarring. But he tried to ignore such things, wanting to focus on one thing before the next. Deeper he went, the scent of the hounds now stronger signifying he was getting closer. He also knew he was getting closer when two dogs jumped him at once to defend their lair more successfully. One at his side distracted him enough for the other to bite his tail hard, the raptor screeching in pain before he made a roundhouse kicking motion, his tail slipping from the dog's jaws as his claws raked across its snout. In turn, his rear bleeding appendage smacked the other hard across the face.

While the one that got clawed moved away, the one who got smacked leapt again at the new enemy, who dodged once more to slice deeply into the dog's gut, a deathly whimper signifying he killed it. The other dog fled in panic into the woods as the raptor looked down at the creature he killed. Guilt started to well up in him slightly. He knew about pets as one of those pieces of historical lore of mankind before his time, even if the idea of owning an animal did not exist in his time. At least, not in this sense. "Ohhh...fuck...you better not be someone's pet, I swear to god I'm not taking responsibility for that, that was totally self-defence." He reassured himself with the idea it wasn't, as there was no dog collar on it. Wiping his claws again, he ventured further in. Eventually, the sunlight returned in a brighter area, accompanied by the overpowering scent of canine when he finally reached the entrance of a cave, where bones of various woodland animals laid all around. None of them seemed to be human. He made his way in carefully, keeping his senses alert for any more attacks. The cave went into darkness quite quickly, so dark he could barely see his own hands. He became hesitant. "I wish I had a light or something." He went back outside and found a good sized piece of wood for a torch, thick and a foot long before finding another piece of wood to rub it against. He was never in the cub scouts, but Sarah had taught him a few things from a book she had once read, some old wilderness guide that only told you how to make fire and what smores were and why singing Kumbayah to bears was not a good idea. Whatever the hell Kumbayah even was he did not know. He tried vigorously to create enough friction for the fire to spark, but nothing came, not even smoke. After several minutes, he became frustrated, focusing harder in his mind to get some fire, wanting the fire badly to appear. Suddenly he felt his claws turn hot, not burning hot but a little too past the side of warm as small blue flickers appeared at the ends of his claws. Suddenly they sparked, and burst flames unto the wood.

"WOAH!" He backed off from the wood in fear of being burnt and looked at his claws, the blue flickers of light soon fading away to leave behind a stick on fire, now a torch. "D-...did I just...that didn't happen before." The way the fire had started, and the mysterious blue sparks from his own fingers made him wonder if it would work again, curious to know what just happened. He found another stick, a thinner 9-inch one, holding it up before his face in one hand with his other hand tensing up. With all three claws pointing towards it, he began wishing hard, focusing to make fire. Doing the same as before, he wished fire to come to him, to appear suddenly before him. Once more came his surprise again, when he saw the blue flickering lights at his fingertips, gathering softly like fireflies, before they shuddered excitably. Fire burst from them to the tip of the stick, now another torch. "Is...is this..." He could only whisper at the revelation of his newfound powers. "H-holy shit, what did they do to me?" He felt a little scared yet also a little giddy with power, wondering what else he could do. He thought to blow out the stick, but then decided no, maybe he could conjure up water itself from the air and douse the flame. He put his clawtips towards the burning end again and focused hard to make water. Thinking on water, a nice big sea of it, his eyes squinted at trying to keep the picture. A grand sea like the one he had sailed upon with the Kremlings, where marlins thrashed upon harpoons. Again the little blue lights came to his clawtips, but this time they seemed to slowly wave across them and gather moisture in the air. At first they looked like icy mist gathering around his fingers, feeling the cold shoot through his claws and making him gasp suddenly. The mist became more solid, into water to pour outwards onto the flame, a sizzling coming afterwards, leaving him with a wet stick and a wet hand. Dropping it to shake his hand dry, he rubbed his eyes with the wettened hand and tried to wrap his head around this discovery. "Oh my god this is some fucking superhero shit," he muttered to himself, now a little more scared at his strange elemental abilities.

What else could he create? Ice? Lava? Lightning even? Deciding not to get too ahead of himself, especially in the middle of a forest, he picked up the other torch left at the entrance of the cave that was still lit, and headed into the darkness. Armed with natural light and a frightening new knowledge of himself, he wondered what "the Armee" gave him, and where the hell he really was. The cave echoed tedious casual melodies of water drops throughout. Some fell onto crystals and tinkled, while others fell onto solid rock pits and made bass echoes. The cave was surprisingly larger than he expected, seeing it went deeper thanks to a natural staircase of stone platforms, gently stepping down in case they were slippery. The smell of the dogs turned stronger, bones in piles all over the place. Eventually he heard growls from the deepest part of the cave, seeing a more well-lit area and keeping his torch at hand. On top of a rock, looking over a whole pack of dogs, was a coyote. A well-groomed creature who stood like a statue on all four paws, pristine and out of place among mutts. What was more surprising was its voice, clear cut and intelligent. "So...you are the intruder of my sanctuary." A strange smile came from the canine, one that was almost human. James confronted it with: "If you call this shithole in the ground a sanctuary then yes I am." "Why do you come here, strange creature?" "Oh, just here to stop you menacing the town nearby by any means necessary, nothing much." "Arrogance won't help you here, when the useless earthlings shall soon learn the errors of their resistance." He made a smug chuckle, tail wagging slowly behind him. "What error's that?" "Enough talk. If you want to prove you stand a chance against us, then face me in battle. Be warned, I am more than some mangy canine." "Then come here doggie, so I can whip yer ass!"

The dogs all stepped away from the two to let their leader face the intruder. The raptor let the coyote charge at him and easily sidestepped like with the other dogs to slash at his rump. The leader yelped, but turned around to bite down on the raptor's arm with surprising speed. Punching his snout with the other arm which held the torch to make him let go, the raptor backed off with a bleeding arm, dragging slightly. Sidestepping around the coyote, he swung the torch back and forth before the canine's eyes, hoping that even with a voice and intelligence, it was still a canine and afraid of fire. But it merely replied: "I'm surprised, are you a dinosaur or a caveman?" "Either way you gonna be my pet you little bitch!" Lunging with fire torch gripped like a spear, the raptor was surprised when the coyote dodged to one side casually, and tried to bite at James' other arm, but he turned fast enough to let him grab the torch instead. Wrenching the handle away from him, he forced the flame close to his face, the canine howling in agony with half a burning face it scrabbled at. "HAH, that's what you get for being a bad doggie, right?!" "ENOUGH! You are pathetic to still believe I am just a pathetic dog! I warned you before, and you still did not listen. Now, you shall suffer." Suddenly the coyote focused his eyes hard at the raptor with a subhuman growl of rage, one that resonated within James' inner body. What came after was a shockingly hard blast to both body and mind, sending him flying against the cave wall and dropping his torch, as if he'd been slammed by a log out of thin air. Trying to recover, it wasn't over as the coyote made his eyes somewhat blank out before the raptor felt a strong force slam into his side. It was like a hard slap across the face, pushing him against the wall bleeding.

"GUH! Wh-what the fuck are you?" "Typical earthlings, never listening to their senses. With all the warnings there, still you plunge headlong into danger itself. We have come here to conquer your undeveloped world as revenge!" "Revenge?! For what?!" So this thing's not of this world either, he finally realised. He had to admit the voice should have told him something was wrong but he never assumed the coyote was an actual alien. "Yes...for an act many years ago of your insulting us. And for that we shall never forget. In the name of Giygas, we shall defeat you all, and you should consider yourself lucky that you only have to fall at the paws of Psiyote!" "Psiwhat?! Wait...psychic?!?" "Indeed it is, and you learnt too LATE!" As his eyes blanked out once more, James tried hard to think of a way to protect himself from the psychic attack. But he was unable to fight against something he could not see or feel. Barraged by psychic attacks, smashed to and fro like a ragdoll, bleeding profusely from the snout with a swollen eye, when he slammed against the cave wall once again. "Fff...fuck...come on...gotta be a way..." He tried to think of something, anything to fight psychic powers, he wanted to have something to even the playing field, something to protect him. Soon he felt his claws tingle, and an idea came to his mind. Something flickered in his mind...something somehow tangible. He had no idea what he was going to do. It was crazy but he had to try. Light...screen? F-fine, let's hope this works. The little blue lights swirled before his head, trying to imagine a screen of light, an image seemingly random that his mind had jumped to quickly. The lights slowly moved away from his hands, spreading out almost into a barely-visible rectangle. Soon he felt something shimmer before him. Not see, but feel. Psiyote was confused but he did not let it distract him. "What trickery is this!? Do not toy with me Earthling!" It howled in rage before sending another blast of psychic power at James, but all it did was merely shimmer before James. He was now shielded somehow, the attack rendered useless. "WHAT IS THIS!?! ACCEPT YOUR FATE YOU INSOLENT FOOL!" "Shut up, freak."

The raptor's confidence grew, wondering how much power he now realised he had, as he tried to wish he could shoot out psychic power back at the creature. Focusing into his head, he found nothing coming out, growling as he tried to push SOMETHING from his mind. But all he ended up with was a strange whining sound that made him stop and clutch his head, feeling woozy. Dammit, thought James, plan B then. The Psiyote tried to fire another psychic blast at him, repelled yet again by the invisible barrier. He took the chance at the Psiyote's moment of recovery from attacking, leaping past the rock and kicking him hard across the head, standing before him firmly as he summoned fire into his fingers once more. "You know what works on things from outer space?! FIRE, MOTHERFUCKER!" With a blast from his hand at the stunned Psiyote, he unleashed a terrible burning flamethrower unto the beast, forced to take scorching blow after blow as his entire fur was consumed by the fire. Screeching and howling with an unearthly tone, it writhed and twisted as its fur blackened and smouldered to ashen strands. Soon it laid still, the fires burning away as they sank into the flesh, the dogs watching with primal fear at their leader's remains, its eyes staring vengefully up at the raptor before the body itself suddenly began to convulse. James panicked and backed off as the corpse spasmed and faded into a strange purple wave of light, that it soon immersed in, blinding the raptor. Only a burn mark remained on the cave floor. "...is that it?" was the raptor's only comment of cockiness from winning.

Then he heard another strange noise from behind him, turning to see one of the dogs start to glow a different colour. One of them amongst the pack started to transform, slowly. Ears pointed out a little more, snout turning thinner, coat turning lighter as its legs stretched slightly before it appeared to be a coyote. He was examined by the other dogs, who responded with joy, wagging tails and licking him all over. They then went over to the raptor to lick and nuzzle him in a thankful gesture. "Hey hey hey, what's this, you guys are friendly all of a sudden!" He started to ponder on what had just happened, slowly realising. "...ohhh...so...if that was an alien...and he's your leader..." It all made sense now. The dogs were being tricked or were under oppression from an alien in disguise who hid their leader among them. He smiled at the friendly strays knowing they would not bother anyone anymore...but then he remembered the one he killed, letting the dogs smell the scent on his claws. "Listen...I...I'm really sorry about your friend..." The dogs looked at each other and the leader in a sort of conferring manner, before the leader stepped forwards himself and nuzzled against the raptor, a friendly gesture of forgiveness. James smiled and stroked the coyote's muzzle. "Thanks...you're a good guy too." At that point the raptor was starting to feel dizzy, gently taking steps slowly out of the cave with torch in hand and back out to the forest, summoning up some water to extinguish the fire. Dousing it in a splash from his fingertips, he shivered before dropping the wet stick. He now felt more dizzy as he began to leave the forest back to civilisation, pleased at his victory but confused at what was happening to him. His hands felt unlike his own, either warmed by fire or wettened by water, looking at them as if they were alien artifacts. All he could do was slowly stumble through the woods, making his way back to the tree house.