Chapter 4: Launching Rockets Are We?
Luis after getting out of sewers finds himself at a sewer entrance to what the sign says is a launch facility. What was a launch facility doing in NY anyway and what were the intentions of the gloobas with this facility? Luis was going to be on his own here as he the only one of the group to find this facility.
Luis takes out a couple of salamander troopers standing guard. Luis moves deeper into the hallway until he sees a force field blocking his way, he sees no switch to deactivate it, so he needed to either another way around or backtrack and look for the switch. There was an enclove on top of the waterfall but Luis didn't dare touch the toxic water. Then he finds a secret compartment door on the wall which contained a pair of boots. These boots were specially designed to withstand the toxicity levels and prevent the user from getting burned. However these boots had a limit on how much they could withstand till they ran out. So Luis puts the boots on and activates a switch in the enclove. He sees the force field is gone and he is able to proceed.
He proceeds to a hallway with a large ramp leading to a security room and a couple of pathways with force fields. Luis says "Better check the security room first." However he trips the alarm then a combination of troopers and boars come out. Luis while running towards the ramp shoots and kills a few gloobas along the way. As Luis goes up the ramp he sees a strange looking alien looking thing pop out of the ceiling and it begins shooting it. Luis says "That's a strange and ugly looking turret, I'm sure they're going to be more of these things." Luis tries to shoot it and the turret spins around out of control. Then shoots it again and it falls down, Luis doesn't bother studying the turret since he knew very little about circuitry and more enemies were arriving. Luis finally gets to the top and sees the door to the security room was locked, he also sees a set of four buttons probably used to open the door. Luis says in a frustrated tone "Oh great another one of these stupid puzzles!" Luis attempts to solve the puzzle but is approached by flying troopers he takes them down. Luis has a hard time solving the puzzle because he has to alternate between solving the puzzle and taking the enemies out. He finds the right combination 1-in, 2-in, 3 out and 4 - in. The door opens then he sees a trooper, Luis shoots it but it teleports out of the way. Luis says "Oh the disappearing act again, where did you go?" Luis is in a ready position. The trooper pops up in front of him; Luis tries to tackle but the trooper teleports again. The trooper teleports back this time lands on Luis's back, Luis takes the trooper and throws is down, but the trooper also has a jetpack there it rises back to Luis's level. The trooper and Luis go at it for about 5 minutes until Luis sees the trooper reappearing and shoots it when it appears. The trooper then falls down to the bottom. Luis finds 2 buttons which he assumes deactivates the force fields; however one is broken and unable to be used. So Luis presses the switch that does work and heads for hallway 3 which the force field had been deactivated.
Luis deals with some boar cops and says "Bacon Bacon and more Bacon!" Then he approaches a big green room with several enemies he easily takes care of them. A teleporting salamander trooper pops up but Luis shoots it right away saying "No not this time buddy I've caught on to this little game." Luis goes upstairs deals with a couple of teleporting troopers with a bit of difficulty but eventually kills them. He finds a blue keypad reading "For Launch Pad Access". He peeks through the window and a rocket is shown getting set to launch. He says "Looks this is not even a rocket is a missile and its set for NYC crap better get moving!" Luis goes back down uses the key card to open the door leading to the launch pad. Then an alarm goes off and an automated voice repeats in a loop "Warning 5 minutes until missile launch all authorized staff head for the missile shelter."
After hearing the alarm Luis realizes he doesn't have much time before NYC is blasted to pieces. The blast doors to the missile out side were locked; Luis went to the security area and blasted the boar pigs guarding the area. He logs on the computer tries to scrub the missile launch but the computer says it cannot be done here it has to be done at the main computer. Then he sees password which shows him the password to access the main computer which says “Lithium505”. Then he sees the option to open the blast door, the doors open slowly. The automated voice said that there were only 3 minutes until the missile launch. Luis says “Come on door open I gotta stop this missile from launching before it inflicts damage that could be too much to reverse!” An army of boar cops guard the area he grabs one boar and uses it as a human shield then takes the rest of the boars out. He goes to the shelter and finds the switch to control the missile is there; the switches have three options 1- launch 2- scrub 3- scrub and destroy. The switches are locked though instructions read “Launch sequence already in progress, password needs to be entered on main computer to override system.” Luis is running out of time he sees an elevator however it’s anyone’s guess where it leads to or if it even leads to the main computer. The automated voice says “Two minutes remaining!” Luis finds the main computer is up there, he enters the password that he got from the slave computer downstairs. He opens the switches in the shelter, then he hears that he has only one minute till missile launch, the missile begins to ignite. Luis says “Come on elevator you can’t go any faster, looks like I’m going to have to jump to make time!” Automated voice says “30 seconds remaining!” Luis runs for the shelter but the doors are closing so Luis slid in head first right into the shelter before the doors close. Besides a headache Luis was okay. The automated voice started the count down from 10 seconds going down. Luis says “Why just scrub the missile, lets destroy it at the same time!” At about 2 seconds to launch Luis presses the button and the launch sequence is stopped then a loud boom was heard.
The shelter doors then open and the missile isn’t there in fact only the rubble of what was a missile is seen. Luis then takes the elevator going down the elevator begins its descent then it abruptly stops. Luis says “Hmm why did it stop, hope I’m not stuck here I always hated elevators.” Luis tries to jump on it hoping it would move but the elevator doesn’t budge. After a minute a boom sounds when rubble crashes down and it forces the elevator to start moving. However the elevator is moving very fast until it makes a crash landing…
The elevator goes down with such force that it makes a loud crashing voice. Then the remaining rubble comes crashing down to the area around the elevator. The situation looks very bad but is the situation as bad as it looks. Luis was able to break the rules of nature when he fell from the window back in death row, so perhaps he had survived another big fall that would usually kill a normal human. Five minutes pass and still no sign of Luis anywhere. Has it happened has Luis become a victim of this nightmarish virtual world?
It’s a miracle Luis slowly but surely is able to get up and recover. However he takes 15 minutes for him to regain his equilibrium and get up again fully. He continues into another control room and outside a window he sees a sewer system. He has to deal with a teleporting salamander trooper in the control room and due to Luis’s weakened state the trooper gets the upper hand at first. The trooper takes Luis down pulls a laser sword out ready to finish Luis off. Luis is able to gather the little bit of energy he had left in him and punches the trooper then cuts him with his own laser sword. Luis still worn down decides to take another 15 minute break then gets up to continue his journey. In the control room window he sees some troopers and poisonpus’s waiting. Luis then finds remote controlled explosives used for controlled explosions when sewer work is being done. However he decided to use them to blow up the enemies, he plants one by the door and carefully throws a second one to the hall leading to the sewers. He gets away from the bombs and he detonates the bombs. When he goes back to look all of the gloobas were dead, he sees the sewers waters are riding west at a fast place. Luckily Luis still had the protective boots on so he was able to ride out the wave until the next platform. Then Luis takes yet another break to gather his thoughts. What Luis sees at the end of the sewer is a set of large and small mountains. Then he seen a sign in bad shape but was still legible it read “Welcome to the Mohawk Indian reservation” Luis says “Looks like I made it to the reservation, now to find the others.”
Luis was able to prevent a missile from being launched into NYC, although weakened Luis survived at least for now. Little does Luis knows Maria has also made it to the reservation as well. Meanwhile did Dayvon survive the fall of the huge waterfall? Angel and Quentin were still missing in action hopefully the whirlpool took them somewhere around the reservation lest they are dead already. What secrets did this reservation hide or would show our heroes? If any of the residents were alive and well, would they be friendly to the cause or hinder our heroes. Most importantly was the anti-matter ball going to be found here and what was that loud roar Maria heard, was it the leader or a powerful beast. While the skies cleared, the situation was about to become thicker.