Five years, sixty four days and three hours.
That was how long he had been left in this hellhole of a reality.
Random spurts of acid came from the ground as he stepped over the uneven terrain. Each step sank slightly into the purple moss that covered the ground for miles; there were no large plants in this region of reality 982-3Beta. This was a wasteland that had been created after the detonation of several high yield chemical weapons, creating an inhospitable area that went on for miles and miles. Only acid rain falling from a deep purple sky and monsters lived in this area making it nearly impossible to survive.
He chose to come here after his tracking device had gone off. He had carefully monitored the device day and night to show him when the quantum portal was in use again. He knew that the device wouldn’t necessarily choose this reality, but having encountered three separate groups from the LGC, he was fairly certain that the LGC would return as they had the last few years.
Unfortunately, each time that he had been able to track the beacon to its source, the portal had already closed yet again and left him stranded here. This time would be different. He was ready this time and would be ready to make it through that portal.
Each time the portal had come it had opened in a different portion of the wasteland, but he had made sure to mark where each portal had appeared. He had been able to triangulate the approximate location of the next portal location and would situate himself near enough to the estimated location to allow time for him to adjust to any miscalculations.
A writhing green light twinkled in his eyes and he fought to keep his power down. There was no sense in letting his acidic powers out again since he and his teammates had destroyed this area nearly six years ago. His second power, indestructibility, allowed him to traverse this terrain without hurting himself, but his teammates had not been so lucky that day.
His mind shifted back to that day five years ago unbidden. He had been with a team of six and they had made it through two rounds of the psychotic “challenges” as the LGC called them. His original team of six had been whittled down to four due to the nature of the previous challenges and he still remembered the screams of his squadmates being eaten by a stone colossus.
That day there had only been four other teams left; the rest of the teams had either been eliminated or had chosen to end their career with the LGC and return to their original reality. Cowards! He had called after them as they left to enjoy their newfound powers. You’re so afraid of what you might become that you’re leaving now! Don’t you want to know what real power feels like?
No one had answered him as they left and he and his team had entered the portal shortly after. They had found themselves in the middle of a war zone between two factions vying for control of the area. He and his team had been tasked with making it through the middle of the fighting to the far side of the war zone where the power stones sat. They had thought that it would have been easy, especially with him taking point due to his invulnerability.
Attempts had been made to request passage from either side of the conflict, but inevitably, they had just been declared as spies for the opposing team and had been treated with suspicion. His teammate Rocky had come up with the brilliant plan to just brute force their way through the various trenches and tunnels that had lined the war zone and having no better ideas, the team had decided that was the best option, especially under the two day time limit that they had.
It had gone fairly well until Rocky, having gotten irritated with his leadership, decided to take half the team and scout a tunnel that led directly to the power stone. He had watched Rocky get skewered through the neck by a hidden booby trap where blades flew out of the wall. Rocky hadn’t even gotten a chance to use his rock shield ability that had earned his nickname.
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Estrella had fallen next. She was taken out by an enemy bayonet when she turned a corner in the following trench. The soldier had heard Rocky set off the trap and had come to investigate and just so happened to have his rifle out and at the ready as Estrella turned the corner. He had watched the bayonet pierce her heart and she died quickly, but not before gurgling out “We… should have… listened.”
The last straw had been when Francis had died. He cursed himself for not noticing the blinking mine as he had passed it previously in the tunnel. Francis had stepped on the mine after he had passed it and there had been nothing left after the mine blew. He had been thrown back several meters and knocked out for a few days.
By then, the portal had closed, the power stone was gone, and he was trapped in this reality. He couldn’t really say what happened, but he felt like his anger had tapped into some primal part of his powers that he had been unable to access previously. He had previously only been able to send out spurts of acidic globules that burned through nearly anything, but that day he had sent out a massive concussive wave of acid, destroying everything and everyone around him for kilometers.
That blast had destroyed the ecosystem of the war zone and mingled with the various chemicals and pollutants that were already in the war zone and had created the inhospitable area that he was now in. The two warring factions had been almost completely destroyed and he had spent the next several months hunting and killing the remaining soldiers for what they had done to his team.
Soldier by soldier he had sought them out and killed each one, finding that as he did so, with each soldier that he killed, he enjoyed himself a bit more. Soon, the soldiers were all gone and he was left with an empty wasteland devoid of life. That was when he had begun searching the nearby cities and towns for people and had started to recruit for his new empire.
It had started slowly, with only a few people here and there joining him, but after he had displayed his powers, he was quickly joined by local thugs, thieves and other hard cases. He had built an empire of crime at the edge of the wasteland, watching the toxic sludge slowly congeal into an inhospitable bog of acid and mutated creatures. They would escape into this toxic wasteland to get away from the local authorities, but he had never really been concerned with them as he had been able to gain better control of his powers.
With each authority squad that he killed, he reminded himself that the LGC were the real villains in this story. They were the ones who had sent him and his team into the middle of a warzone. They were the ones who had not come back to look for him. They were the ones over the years who had continued to send people into this toxic dump for more of those power stones.
Tried as he might, he could not find any trace of the power stones while the portals were closed. They seemed to be tied to the energy of the portals and would only appear when the portals were open. Residual energy was left after the portals had closed where the stones had rested, but for whatever reason the portals were inexplicably tied to the power stones.
He had begun to fashion a tracking device with the limited technology that he could scrounge in his world after the first portal had opened nearly a year after he had been trapped in this reality. He had not had it finished by the time that the second portal opened, but by the third portal, he had created a working tracker.
Each time the portal had opened, he had come closer and closer to his goal of returning to his original reality and destroying the LGC for trapping him here for so long. This time though, he would make it; he could feel it in his bones.
He didn’t turn his head when he heard squishing footsteps behind him. He knew who it was and had been waiting for his second in command to come.
“What news ya got for me Scratch?” He asked in a deep, basso voice.
“The men have the area scouted out and have set up a three kilometer perimeter like you asked, boss. If that portal thingy appears, we’ll know about it,” Scratch replied in his reedy voice. Scratch was thin and wiry like a starved wolf, and his looks belied how dangerous he was.
“Good work Scratch,” he replied. “We’ll know soon enough if this is another team or just a probe by the LGC.”
Scratch knew better than to question his leader’s hatred of the LGC. The last second in command had done so when Scratch was new to the organization and he remembered seeing the corpse of the man fly off the catwalk, still sizzling with the acid that had been thrown at him by their leader. Their leader was tough, and made his decisions well, but any mention of the LGC sent him into a blind rage. Scratch knew enough to not mention them.
“You doin’ ok boss?” Scratch asked tentatively.
A soft chuckle emanated from the man. “Oh yes, Scratch. I’m doin’ ok. Soon I’ll be able to have my revenge on the LGC and they’ll remember the day that they left Caustic Cannonball to rot in this hell hole.”