Author's Note

I need to clarify some things here with you readers.
This story is in an Alternate World, as the tag suggest. But don't worry, we'll see Equestria, eventually. Also, this story is not an Anthro, sorry for having the wrong tag. So Griffins are normal, like this.

Same is said with the ponies and and other races, sorry for the confusion.

On another note, with how the story categorising system works, I cannot add label of Comedy on this story. Since the story is an ADVENTURE and has some DARK tones, I can only have the either the COMEDY or RANDOM. And since my sense of humor and skills at comedy are "horrible" I'll have to stick with good old blue Randomness.

And lastly, I would like to know if the new story art is any better than the last? I personally like it much better, thus it was changed. Finally, what do ya think of this adorable thing? I'm thinking of making this guy as a side character for Spartan Gabe. Maybe you guys could possibly give this future Companion a name. No punny/pony names or names with strong Gs or that like. G is for Griffin after all. Maybe something kinda bug related like fireflies or something of that.

On another note, what do you think Gabe's notifications mean? Let my know what you guys and gals think in the comments below!

Chapter 3: And the Quest Begins [Edited]

Achievement Unlocked: Companionship
Gain a friendly and willing follower. No longer walk a lonely road.
20 Multiverse Tokens earned.

Wait... What was that last part?

827 Seconds Later

Once BRAIN.SYS finally reloaded back online, I decided to not care and or ever wonder about what “20 Multiverse Tokens” meant. Because my brain cannot deal with anymore of this world shattering shit. So said subject will be ficked with another day when I have more clarity in my mind. Before that time comes, I must find a place comfy shady place to sleep. Tavern? I don’t want to get ripped off with my gold wasted. Hotel? I bet that they aren’t even invented yet, including room service as well. So where was I going to sleep? Outside?

Yes, yes I was. Because I’m in an imagined set of power armor that derivatives from 3 different video games. After the arena I looked over my gear and I can confidently say that nothing short of god levels of power can really hurt me. Let alone taking any actual damage without my armor waking me up. Plus, I’m in an airtight Nanosuit, so no bugs, dirt, sounds or smells can bother me! Finally, I am impervious to all nuances that comes with camping! Truly, I am invincible!

…

…

…

Man, I am getting carried away again, but who could blame me? All this power, I could only dream of existing in my once-thought impossible fantasies. Now as of today, I have truly come to the conclusion; I have all of it. The power I now wield, strengths that only existed in fiction such as my super human abilities. Or even the greatest power of them all, knowledge, knowledge on many vast subjects. On top of all of this possessing the honed skills of a Hyper Lethal Vector defiantly gave me many advantages as well. And best of all, I can clearly recite each and every detail.

The longed for dreams, unbounded freedoms, the single wish, all of it has unfolded upon my very eyes.

Yet… I feel… Held back? By regret? Or is it shame?

I just realized something that should have been obvious to me by now, yet has seemingly eluded me from the start. I had left it all. Life, family, friends home, even my own humanity to a degree. And all that I have been blessed with, in turn gave up all on what I had previously made? Sure, it wasn't much. Lived life without a father, and raised by only a mother. Being the only child, I was my only friend. I never played outside, always alone in my books. Though I never got friends until becoming an adult. At least I got nearly average grades in high school. But after that, not much has truly happened to me. I’ve rented the same very small apartment and continued to work hard to make living in a grocery store with the offhand second job from time to time.

I had left my friends behind, and literally everyone on earth, to this unknown world. I don’t even know if there are any humans in this world.

Now as I ponder on all of this, I’m starting to feel… Cold? I feel Cold… And alone? I’m feeling very alone with a cold sore in my heart…

As I reconciled back and forth through all of this, I search for a good place to rest in what felt like an autopilot mode for my body. Once I found a secluded dark corner, I mentally powered down the armor only to realize that I can’t move. Why is this important? Because I’m stuck standing up in a default mannequin pose. Well, I might as well fall asleep, it’s not like I’m uncomfortable, if anything, this CryFibril tight suit feels perfect as a second skin. Glancing at my dimly lit Clock on my HUD, I noted that it was currently, 8:47 PM.

“Well, goodnight lucky fool.” I monologue out loud, soon mentally relaxing myself to sleep.

“It ain't even six in the morning and I’ve been robbed, chopped, and shot up on the block.”

“How? Bow-wow? I don’t even know foe.”

“At least that’s what I think, while being six feet in the deep.”

“Because I’ve been left coughing, resting dead and alive inside of dis Coffin.”

“By my mixtape, suck this, and get raped!”

Man, I am such white trash at this. Beside my inner homie wanting out, I actually knew little as of what was going on. Well, it was actually more to as of what I don’t understand. Yet what I do know is that I am held inside of some box. A thick wooden crate is to be more precise actually. I’ve been stolen, or rather they THINK they stole my armor. How did they come to that conclusion? Apparently, the place I had chosen to sleep was right next to the ‘secret’ brothel. How did this relate to anything?

Well, apparently the thieves reasoned that I got out of my armor and left it here. Why? Because they THINK I got hella laid with bitches and was spending all my money on hardcore drugs in said establishment. Because what else would a Gladiator do after stealing the show and winning a high bounty worth in gold? That’s their words, not mine and obviously NOT what I did. It is what these Dummkopfs actually assumed and concluded to in their group talk right next to me.

The amount of times I had to stop myself from face palming is damn to high.

At least, that is what I could make of the audio recordings my armor made. I’m starting to wonder if I have a lesser level AI on me or not by that fact alone. Besides all of that and to make things even better, they actually struggled hard putting me in this crate and moving me. And not the simple kind either, more on the levels of Dumb and Dumber type of struggle. So, who the hell are these assholes on full retard? So far, I’ve counted up to three lowly griffin minions, one hungry Diamond Dogo, and finally the grand griffin mastermind, otherwise ironically known as BOSS.

“Griff, I wonder. How does that Ghost guy even move in this armor? It literally ways a ton!” Said the griffin minion known as Tinny the talkative. No joke, real title.

“More like half a ton if the carriage weight limit is anything to say about it.” Said the guy who has been dubbed ‘Egghead’.

“Shut it Egghead.” Said the most uncreative name for a griffin. Seriously, who were his parents?

“That’s not my name.” The nerd replied.

“Your right, it’s what you are! HAHA!” Griff mocked like an uncreative child.

“Enough Griff. The Egghead has a point, you know. We went through the first two carriages like butter in an oven trying to tow it. Good thing we have Egghead with us or we wouldn’t have gotten the right carriage. Having big brains with us helps weather you like to admit it or not.” The “Boss” defended, gaining what sounded like resentment from Griff.

“How much you wanna guess boss?” A Gruff voice presumably belonging to a Diamond Dog.

“Guess on what, dog?” The Boss confirming my statement.

“How much we’re gonna make off on fancy metal? The now rightfully dubbed Gruff replied

“You mean selling it here? On the border of Empire territory? Not even enough from what we can make from it.” Boss stated.

“Were taking a long journey back to the Capital. Trust me, the rich royals at Heaven Rock will be bidding gold in the amounts of the armor’s weight just to have it.” the Boss concluded to his fellow would be thieves.

“Fancy metal won’t fit griffins. Why buy?” Gruff questioned.

“Yeah, he gots a point. Why would they buy something like armor if it doesn't fit them?” Griff replied.

“Really Griff? Really Griff? I thought you were smarter to understand my plan. It is actually simple. We will tell the locals it is one of the long lost treasures left undiscovered from time. They are a religious flock, they will eat out of our talons once they see the how detailed and strange looking this armor really is. I am willing to be bet 10 solid silver that there will be a small fight over ‘who should rightly own it’ after the bidding!” The four followers laughed with their boss.

Oh sieg heil no! I ain't being sold off as some relic! I’ll burn their feather off for that!

Deciding to make myself known, I punched my fist through the wood, startling the wannabe thieves. Barging out of the crate like the kool aid man, I managed to get off on the ground and onto my feet rather quickly. I felt the carriage come to a screeching halt as the reinforced axle of the carriage cried out in protest at the sudden movement and distribution of weight. A many things quickly happened once I had visual of my surroundings. First thing was noticing the utter shock and horrified expressions that the crew had. Next was my surroundings; in the same forest and on dirt road. The time? It was either very early morning or very late night based on the darkened sky. Only things giving visibility was the starry night. And lastly realized what had truly horrified the group stiff.

My fist.

Apparently, when I busted out of the crate, I busted my right fist into one of the griffins. Said fist was specifically elbow deep in said griffin’s anus, completely graphic and disturbing as it sounds. Comparative to my size, it looked like he was no more than a puppet with a death shocked expression. Oh did I mention that it was very gruesome? Because it was. As the ripped and torn organs quickly leaked gore down the rest of my arm. Overall, the entire scene made me look like a real life horror film monster. And honestly I was more startled to these turn of events then horrified or shocked as I should be. I am definitely no longer normal.

“This… This is some Mortal Kombat shit. Disgusting.” I flinched, pulling my fist out of the corpse, scraping the entangled entrails and mushed guts off my armored forearm. My mind tempted to turn demented on these fools, I turned my head and I look directly at the still fear frozen.

“Who’s next?” And the banshee’s symphony begun. The unmanly pitched screams were definitely real as they scrambled and scattered into the wilderness. Not headless chicken kind of panic, but the absolutely terrified type if the looks on their faces said anything about it. Deciding that I had my amusement with them, I let them go screeching and focused back on the task at hand. I ripped some of the cloth that made up the cart’s canopy, I cleaned off my armored hands and arm. As I finished scraping and cleaning the fine details, the metal carriage sized cart finally gave out under my weight. Specifically the axle bent and snapped, rendering the cart completely useless. Stepping off from the back, I realized something.

If all five of the dumbasses ran, then who was pulling the cart?

Abiding to my curiosity, I walked around to find who was pulling this damned thing. And to my surprise, they were… Donkeys? Hun, I guess I was suspecting something more strange or… Magical perhaps?

“We beg, please don’t hurt us! We are just slaves, we do as we told. Please don’t fist us!” One of the two Donkeys pleaded, bowing down.

Slavery, why would I expect anything better from a technology primitive world?

“Worry not, I bring no harm upon you. Though, I have woken up... Misplaced as it seems. You two know the way back to the city? I have an appointment and job with the local lord of said city.” I spoke heroically, trying my best as to not seem threatening to these mules. Obviously, I was going to struggle with making that concept after leaving a dead mess of a griffin.

“The city is 3 to 4 miles straight back down the road.” The other, less fearful mule replied.

“Much obliged, and now as of what to do with you two…” As I approached them, I drew my heavy duty Kukri from it’s seath. Predictably, they flinched and closed their eyes, as if expecting to be slaughtered. This only deepened my frown under my helmet. Making quick ease with cutting the straps, I undid the burdening harness and continued with doing the same for the other.

“What?” The less fearful one muttered, opening his eyes to find his bonds shredded and no longer burdened with the slave harness. Once his friend finally came to realize that he wasn't meeting his end, he too looked shocked, gazing at my actions.

“I bid thee farewell. And heed my advice, if you start running now, you’ll be long gone before those griffin return. If they ever that is.” I nodded and pointed said road, their eyes following my direction.

“Overwise, good luck.” And with that, I took off back down the hill and sprinted. Quickly gaining speed I found that the trees were quickly passed by and the road below my feet now a blur.

Holy shit! How fast am I going?!

My HUD brought me up the answer with a notification. Wait… 35 MILES?!

Oh shit, I forgot how ficking superhuman spartans are in the lore. I wonder...

MAXIMUM SPEED ACTIVATED

“OH MY BLACK JEWISH GOD I’M A BLAZING WHITE LAMBORGHINI!!!”

I cranked my speed from a steady superhuman 35 miles an hour to an outrageous fast 175 miles an hour in 5 seconds. I remembered that I made the Nanosuit 3.0 ‘Maximum Dives’ increases everything by a factor of five. I was literally skipping my way to said city, except every step was a mighty blow to the ground, accelerating my body beyond human levels. To put it in much simpler terms, I was going roughly ¼ the speed of sound, while weighing a total of 1,000 pounds…

While I was relishing over the grand momentum I’ve reached, I forgot that I soon need to show down, right now. Panicking, I latched onto a nearby tree, only to completely rip it apart and strafed through the wilderness like a stray cannon ball. In mere split second, I mentally activated my overshields, Maximum Armor, and locked up my armor. Time sped back up for as I continued crashing through tree trunks like twigs. Eventually, my pinball body smashing came to an end with my armor holding up. Well, first of all, my four overshields are completely broken and took a lot of the damage. The Nanosuit did hold up and kept my armor intact. To my own amazement, nothing was broken or dislocated! I was only suffering large bruising both externally and internally after clearing through a football field’s worth of trees. My body began to regenerate and heal my wounds while my body was locked in a fetal position.

“I definitely overdid that. Never will I Sanic. Never again.” I groaned as the internal bruising were lessened and healed, soon allowing me to unlock all of the joints in my armor. I’m just glad I didn’t completely tear my achilles tendon after that stunt... Wait, didn’t the Chief do that once? While letting those thoughts wander off, I got on my feet while shaking off all the pine, wood, and dirt I had accumulated. But once I glanced at my surrounding, I saw that I was around 20 meters from the General’s carriage and armored escorts.

“Oh, hi. Am I late?” I asked, kind of surprised that I ended up this close to them. Of course, I was meant with their still shocked silence. I nearly cringed after hearing few of the trees behind me give way and collapse. Thankfully, Theek broke the awkward silence.

“Wow. How are you that fast? Did you use magic?”

“No magic needed, I’m fast as fuk boi.”

“What happened?” Lord Huntseeker asked, emerging out of his carriage. The look he wore was of worried, concern, and shock. I stepped out of the mini crater and up to him, while continually dusting myself off.

“Few things, actually.” I replied, giving a small bow to the scar baring griffin.

“First off, a band of idiots decided to steal my armor and sell it off somewhere, unknowing of that I was just asleep in it. So I dealt with their foolishness by paying them in full with terror. Second, I found out that slavery is a thing in these lands, should have seen this before honestly. And lastly, since out time of meeting was nearly due, I decided to run as fast as I could. Obviously you can see what happened.”

“So you tripped?” He asked. I lowered and leaned in closer, whispering my answer.

“No, I stepped on a Lego.” His facial expression was the definition of ‘unamused’ as a face with a beak can get.

“Well, since you’re somehow not crippled for life, you are still fit for protecting me? Right?”

“Yes, I can still kick ass.” I replied a bit more seriously.

“Good, we have a long way to Heaven Rock.*Cough-ack*” Starting to hack like a cat, he quickly grabbed a pocket flask and downed its content.

“Let go, I don’t have any wasted time!” And with that we were off, and the notification rang on my HUD, signifying the start my quest.

Quest Added: A Rock on Heaven
Mission: Escort General Huntseeker to Heaven Rock
Mission Reward: 1000 Gold Del
~M~ Rewards: 300 Multiverse Tokens, 1 Weapon Upgrades, 1 Armor Upgrades, Forerunner Kit Mk1

“Oh boy, another one. What the hell does all of this even mean? It’s not like this is all a game…”