Chapter Text
Smoke.
That was the first thing Michael could smell when his conscious slowly returned to his body.
He doesn't know why he could smell smoke, or why he seemed to be laying in something, fleshy, for a lack of better words. The last thing he remembered was walking through the woods and those definitely had not smelled like smoke. Slowly, the paladin began opening his eyes, trying to get his bearings. As he did, something above him moved at the same time. It seemed to be some kind of ceiling, moving away and giving him a chance to get out of, whatever it was he was in. Without hesitation, he jumped out. Better out than stuck in whatever it was that had been holding him.
With blurry eyes, Mike turned a little, looking around a little while his senses finally came back to him. He seemed to be on some sort of ship.
A fleshy looking ship...
A Mind Flayer Ship.
Instantly, Mike was on guard, hand automatically going to the hilt of his longsword, looking around for any enemies. Despite the fact the ship was on fire and seemed quiet, he couldn't be too careful. Anyone could strike from the darkness while his back was turned. His eyes scanned around the room, taking in the empty pods, a burned mind flayer body nearby and an orange looking pool. So far, there were no enemies. For now it seemed like he was safe. He gave a soft sigh as he lowered his hands, letting himself relax for a moment. He needed to figure out what the hell happened and what caused him to end up here.
He closed his eyes, rubbing them a little to try and think of what happened but before he could, his head began throbbing as a sudden and sharp pain shot through his mind like a spear. He could feel something uncomfortably writhing behind his eye. Damn, seems like that tentacled freak left him with a parting present before he got burned alive. Great. First things first though. He has to find a way out of this ship before it crashes and burns somewhere, leaving him dead along with it.
Slowly, Mike opened his eyes again, glaring at his surroundings as he held his hand over his lower face, letting the pain pass for a moment before he'd continue. That feeling better not be a common occurrence or he was going to throw hands with the nearest enemy whether that was a smart plan or not. For now though, he'd focus on finding a way out and lucky for him, with no guards around he could just walk out of the door... Hopefully.
Approaching the 'door', the paladin looked around for a way to open the door, not seeing any obvious way to get out. However as he walked closer to the door, it suddenly opened, as if having detected his presence. Mike frowned and glared at the door for a moment. It unnerved him immensely how it just 'sensed' him. These mind flayers needed to learn the concept of handles manual labor.
As he entered the next room, Mike grimaced as he noticed a dead and eviscerated goblin next to him. Charming. Seems like the mind flayers did much more than just infect people with those damned tadpoles. He walked over, looking the goblin over for anything useful before his attention was drawn to an illithid record slate next to it. With slight hesitation, he reached out, touching it with a gloved hand. Images of Goblins, their habits, histories and weaknesses flashed into his mind as some weird memory before it disappeared again. It left him with a slight uncomfortable feeling, not liking the sensation of those memories forced into his mind. He had a feeling though that it was something that would likely happen again. These mind flayers loved their telekinesis mind powers.
He finally backed away from the goblin shaking his head slightly before the whole ship shook as a roar pierced through the previous silence. Looking to his left Mike noticed a large hole in the ship, dragons and imps flying by while trying to attack. Without hesitation he ran over, stopping just before the edge, looking out over the red landscape of what he assumed was Avernus. He was literally in one of the circles of hell right now. On one side, he was fascinated, only having read about this place in the books his sister kept, while on the other, he knew that this wasn't the time to sightsee right now. Not while there were dragons flying around trying to knock this thing out of the sky.
Suddenly he noticed a flash of silver from the corner of his eye. It was the only warning he got before a dagger was pressed against his throat, leaving him trapped on the edge of the ship. One wrong move and he'd fall backwards to his death. In front of him was an angry looking woman. She had wild ginger hair hidden underneath a hood and was dressed in dark leather armour. Her eyes held distrust as she pressed the dagger closer to Mike's throat, drawing the slightest bit of blood.
"Who are you?" She asked, her voice filled with annoyance and irritation. From the situation Mike gathered she had also been kidnapped by the mind flayers. He was about to explain that he was no threat to her but was stopped as the parasite made itself known again. The uncomfortable and painful feeling came back, making Mike reach for his head before noticing the woman was doing the same. Images flashed in his mind again, this time he saw a flash of wings, a silver knife before seeing himself through her eyes. That was definitely trippy. As the feeling faded the woman stepped away from him, looking at him with doubt but also curiosity.
"You... You're not a mindless fuck like those others on this ship are you?" She slowly asked, her blade still raised just in case Mike tried anything, and he didn't blame her. If their roles were reversed, he would be doing the same to her. He shook his head as he raised his hands slightly, hoping to appear as non threatening as he could.
"No, I don't seem to be. Though, I don't know what mindless things you're referring to. You're the first person I've come across since waking up here." He spoke, looking around a little as the redhead scoffed, a hollow smile on her face as she lowered her blade, putting it into her belt.
"Consider yourself lucky. I don't know how many thrall I have come across before you ran into my path. But now you're here. Together, we might just survive this hell hole." She spoke, humming a little to herself as she watched Mike, seemingly sizing him and his abilities up.
"What do you suggest?" Mike slowly asked, eyes narrowing ever so slightly as he watched her. The woman huffed a little, turning away from him and towards a room behind them. There, between the blood and corpses were three imps, eating to their hearts content. He watched them eat the mortals, a little disturbed by the scene. He didn't notice the woman turning back to him before she suddenly flicked his nose, effectively gaining his attention.
"First, let's get rid of those imps. It's not like there is much where you came from. Once they have been taken care of, we need to find the helm and get back to solid ground. If you want to work together in escaping this hell hole that is." She spoke, watching him with that slight glint of distrust. She was putting herself out there, offering to be allies for now.
"Sounds like a plan. I'm Mike by the way." He spoke, offering a little of himself as they both pulled out their weapons and approached the unsuspecting imps. The woman looked surprised at hearing him say his name but nodded a little as she pulled her hood back over her head.
"Call me Max." She spoke before turning all her attention to their enemies. It wasn't long before those imps noticed them, giving them a loud shriek and pulling their own weapons. Quickly assessing them all, Mike noticed two of them had melee weapons and the one further away with a crossbow. He shared a look with Max before sharing a nod and they began their attack.
Mike rushed to the imp on the left while Max took the one on the right. He swiftly swung his sword, slicing through the fiends wings and skin like it was butter. It didn't take much for it to fall to the ground dead, dropping its weapon and gold. Max wasn't as smooth, barely dodging her enemy's blade before stabbing the imp in it's throat. Blood covered her hand as she pulled back, taking her blade with her as the flying creature fell to the ground. Two down, one more to go.
Mike turned to the last creature, only to see it shoot a bolt at Max, hitting her right in the arm. She yelped in pain while Mike grabbed a hand axe from the ground and threw it at the imp. He wasn't very good at ranged attacks but by some miracle it hit the imps wing. It gave just enough of a distraction for Max to get her bearings again and rush over to the last imp, quickly and efficiently slicing it's throat and making it fall to the ground dead. Both of them panted a little before the redhead turned back to Mike, giving him a laugh.
"Guess you're not as bad as I thought you'd be Paladin. That was a good throw." She spoke, making Mike laugh a little too as he walked over to her, sheathing his sword back in it's holster. He picked up the hand axe again, putting it away for later. They were a good combo, and maybe they could use this move in another fight.
"You were not bad yourself. You literally zoomed past me to get that kill. Not a lot of people have skills like that." He commented before looking at the bolt sticking out of Max's arm. She noticed him looking and made a face before pulling it out, giving a small grimace and groan before dropping it to the ground.
"Don't worry too much about it. It's not the first and certainly won't be the last arrow sticking out of me. Now let's go. We won't get anywhere if we stay here." She commanded, giving Mike a look before walking away towards what seemed to be a way up. Giving one final look around, the man sighed a little before swiftly following after his new ally.
It didn't take long for the duo to make their way up and entered another room. Mike looked around, noticing unconscious people in some form of circle near a console. There were three buttons with some weird script above them. He narrowed his eyes a little, trying to read it but only able to decipher the last set of sigils.
"What does it say?" Max suddenly spoke up, startling Mike as he had forgotten she was there for a moment. He looked back at her, glaring at her smug look before shaking his head and motioning to the signs and sigils.
"I can only decipher the last one which says 'Annihilate'. My guess is it will kill the people on these tables. As for the others, I have no idea, and I think it's too dangerous to just randomly press them to see what they do." He explained, stepping back from the console and turning to Max. His attention however, was quickly stolen away as he noticed what seemed like a warded mind flayer pod with someone inside.
Pushing past Max, Mike walked towards the pod, earning himself a slight protest but he couldn't find it in himself to care right now. His attention was fully on the person inside the pod. It was presumably a man with brown hair. He was wearing scale mail armour covered by a purple cape with what looked like constellations on them. He could see that those were likely embroidered by hand. A neat little detail. Mike began looking around, looking for a way to let this man out while Max made a soft sound, finally walking over to him.
"What are you doing? We don't have time to help everyone we come across." She argued to which Mike shook his head and turned back to her with a serious look.
"We can't just leave him Max. If you were in a pod like this, I wouldn't just walk past, whether I knew you or not. This tadpole, it's a death sentence. But it doesn't have to be. Besides, he seems like a useful person to have with us. We need all the allies we can get." He argued, giving Max a sharp look. It caused her to sigh and deflate slightly before shaking her head.
"If we crash cause we helped this straggler, I am coming back just to kill you." She warned, making Mike laugh ever so slightly before giving her a mock salute. She wasn't bad company and Mike almost started to like her. Not that he would admit that to her.
He walked over to the console next to the pod, noticing the runes were connected to it. However, as he was not a spellcaster, he couldn't make out what kind of runes they were. He glanced over to Max, who for her part just gave him a shrug. That was very useful. Mike turned back to the console, moving a hand over it before noticing a socket. An empty socket. He turned back to Max, who immediately noticed the question in his eyes.
"What do you need?" She asked, sounding slightly exasperated to which Mike gave a soft chuckle as he rubbed the back of his neck.
"There is an empty socket here. I think it houses some kind of rune stone, but it's missing." He began, to which Max nodded and looked around at both the unconscious and dead Thrall around. She knew exactly what he was asking of her.
"Give me a moment, and don't move." She spoke, pointing her dagger at him for a moment, emphasising her point before going around the room, checking the pockets of the dead before moving over to the unconscious. Mike knew she couldn't disturb them too much, unless she wanted to wake them, and let her do her own thing. Before long, she pulled out an eldritch rune out of the pockets and holding it up for Mike to see before throwing it over to him. He smiled at her and held out his hands, easily catching it.
He turned back to the console, putting the rune into it's socket. For a moment, nothing happened. Was this the wrong rune? He turned back to Max, who shrugged before her eyes widened as the console suddenly hummed to live. The paladin turned back, looking over the now powered up console. Slowly, he placed his hand over it but as he did, the parasite came to life, squirming behind his eye and making his head pound uncomfortably. Fuck... Shaking his head, Mike pushed past the discomfort and another feeling took over his mind. One of Authority.
Slowly, Mike took a breath, getting used to this, new odd feeling before looking over at the pod. He wanted it open. His hand twitched as he commanded the pod to open in his head. He could feel it as the console processed the command before following the order. The pod opened and the man was released. However, as he was still unconscious, he fell out. Without hesitation and quick reflexes, Mike quickly caught the man as he noticed Max walking over.
"Nice job Paladin. Now what? We cannot just drag him along with us." She commented, a little miffed with the new stowaway, mostly cause he was unconscious. It didn't take long for him to wake up though, squirming a little in Mike's arms before opening his eyes. Hazel locked with onyx and before Mike could say anything the man scrambled out of his hold and away from them, looking terrified.
"W-What? Who are you? Where am I? What the hell is going on?!" He freaked out slightly, for which Mike didn't blame him. He had his own freak out earlier, and Max probably had one before as well.
Mike held up his hands, showing the man that he didn't mean harm before their parasites connected them, the uncomfortable squirming loud in his ears. The dark eyed man groaned softly, hearing Max and the other man do the same as images flashed by again. It didn't take long before the feeling faded again, leaving them all in a slight state of disorientation. Mike sighed, hoping that this wouldn't happen again within the hour before noticing the man was now looking at him with a slightly softer face, still looking terrified but also, a little more at ease. Mike slowly got up, dusting off his armour slightly before holding out his hand to the man, offering him some help.
"I'm Michael, or Mike for short." He introduced himself, hoping the man wouldn't ignore his hand. That would be embarrassing and he just knew it was something Max would latch onto and tease him for. She definitely seemed like the type. Luckily for him, the man hummed softly before grabbing his hand, helping himself up and looking at him with a soft smile.
"I'm Will, short for William... But please just call me Will." He spoke before looking past Mike and over to Max. Mike looked back at her as well, knowing that Will probably wanted her to introduce herself, if she wished. Mike hadn't done so for her as it was her choice if she wanted Will to know her name or not.
"Max." She spoke curtly, giving Will a firm nod, which he seemed to accept. He pulled his hand back and instantly Mike could feel the cold, even through the glove. He shook it away however as he looked at his two new companions, giving them a smile.
"Now, shall we try and get off of this ship? As much fun as it is to try and survive, I'd rather be back at solid ground and not a hundred feet up in the air." He spoke, motioning for them to start to move again. He noticed Will following him as Max shook her head, muttering a quiet 'finally' but following him nonetheless.
Now it was finally time to find a way out of this damned ship.