Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Over Heaven (by Ben)

Chapter 46: Identity

Original Post Date: Apr 1, 2024

Note: Story starts in Wyvern, Aerial ABC backwards filter and has a Prologue. Last chapter in Eurypterid, next chapter in Ichthyosaurus.

~

It was the day of graduation. Soon Loki and all his peers of Terran High would be graduating and becoming true adults. They’d create their own identity, their own destiny. And Mr. Mo and Aurora were standing on the stage ahead, Aurora already had finished her speech. Now a countdown had begun, signaling the end of their schoolhood.

“TEN! NINE! EIGHT!”

The soon-to-be adults began to chant the countdown along with Mr. Mo. Loki joined along too, a smile growing on his face as he pumped his fist in the air and grabbed his graduation cap with his other hand.

“SEVEN! SIX! FIVE!”

The screaming grew louder and louder to the point that Loki’s ears began to hurt.

“FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE-”

Suddenly Mr. Mo let out a loud gasp of pain, as he fell to his knees, clutching his wrist. Everyone stopped the countdown, and whispers began to radiate throughout the crowd.

“Uh oh. What happened to him?” someone asked. Loki’s eyes turned to the mysterious boy. He was wearing a hiker’s outfit and a straw hat, and had a worried look on his face. With him were three other people with different outfits. One wore a black leather jacket and blue jeans, another was wearing an apron and black dress shirt with tan khakis, and the last wore a white sleeveless jacket with a red shirt underneath and blue shorts. For some reason these four didn’t have graduation robes on.

“That doesn’t matter! We need to find Ben so we can surprise him! He’s gotta be somewhere in this crowd,” the one with the white jacket exclaimed while having his eyes dart around the crowd.

That didn’t matter to Loki. Mr. Mo had become hurt. Loki began to rush past the crowd and to the stage.

“Mr. Mo!” Loki cried out. With no warning a jolt of pain began to reverberate throughout his left wrist. Loki let out a cry of pain, and soon the rest of his peers began to follow.

The sky above them suddenly began to generate clouds, and the Sun began to move around the sky at an alarming rate. The sky seemed to be generating streaks of red, blue, and green, spinning around in a triangle and aiming right down at them.

Loki could feel his mind slip away and his consciousness fade, as everything turned to black.

And then he woke up on the cold, cold snow…

“Woah,” Loki whispered as his eyes shot open. He was back in his bunk bed, and light poured in from the open doorway into the living quarters. Everyone was gone from bed, presumably outside doing menial tasks for the settlement. He rubbed his green eyes a bit, and sighed. Once again that haunting memory of graduation had come to his dreams. He hated that memory.

“Too much was going on then,” Loki whispered. He clenched his fist, “And why did Mr. Mo fall first? What did any of that mean? Why are we here? Who were those guys without the graduation robes?”

Just then someone walked into the home. Loki turned to see someone unfamiliar to him standing at the doorway. She had a muscular build, and seemed at least six feet tall. She also had a deep tan and bronze hair in the form of a bob cut that shined under the light of the torch.

“Loki, you’re finally awake,” he said. It was Chloe, “Breakfast is being served. Mr. Mo’s found quite the hunt today.”

Loki sat up and looked at Chloe.

“So you’re Chloe?”

“Yep. That’s me.”

Loki stretched his arms and let out a yawn, throwing the blanket off him and climbing down the bunk bed’s ladder. He walked up to Chloe, and the two began to walk off to the pavilion.

“So what’s for breakfast today?” Loki asked as he began to fix his long, black hair.

“Carnotaurus,” Chloe responded with a grin, “A pack of three were spotted in the area before you had woken up. And you aren’t gonna believe what happened next; Mr. Mo just walked out the gates, and a few moments later he walked right back in tugging them along like they were dead dogs!”

“What?! Seriously? So you’re saying he killed them all by himself and just dragged it in like it was nothing?”

“That’s right. Y’know he’s stronger than he lets on. And I managed to catch a glimpse of how he did it… He seems to really know his stuff. Not a single one managed to maim him. It was as if he’d done this many times.”

“Well that is surprising,” Loki added, “But what’s weird is the Carnotaurus. You said they were in a pack of three?”

“Yeah. They were.”

“That’s definitely weird. From what I’ve seen, they’re solitary. Not pack hunters.”

As they reached the pavilion, they sat down at a table and Chloe began to rub her hands together quickly.

“Listen, Loki. This place doesn’t exactly follow the rules of nature,” Chloe stated, “So maybe you’ve seen Carnotaurus alone, but it won’t always go that way, right? Besides, I think there was something off about them. They had glowing orange eyes.”

“Woah…”

Snow crunched behind them, and Loki turned around to see Mr. Mo walking up to them. Chloe looked over at a few girls who were talking about something. They all had different colored hair. One even had magenta. Chloe nudged Loki.

“Hey. I gotta bounce. You have fun with Mr. Mo, alright?”

Chloe got up from his seat and began to walk over to the girls and sat next to them. Talking to them about something. They nodded in affirmation.

“Sup Mr. Mo,” Loki said as Mr. Mo took a seat. He was carrying two pieces of cooked meat, the smell drifting to Loki’s nose and making his mouth water. The meat was still right on the bones. Mr. Mo gave him a meat stick, and Mr. Mo took a gargantuan bite out of his meat.

“Morning. How was your sleep?” Mr. Mo asked Loki, “I hope the… situation that happened yesterday didn’t ruin it.”

“It actually went alright,” Loki said, “it wasn’t that bad. I mean, it reeked but I got used to it.”

“Heh, nice,” Mr. Mo replied softly. He rubbed the scar across his left eye. Then, he grumbled in annoyance and took another bite out of his meal.

“So, uh, I heard what you did back there. Pretty impressive being able to do it all on your own!” Loki chuckled. Loki continued to stare at the scar. It looked much more gruesome up close. And a lot bigger too.

“Ya know it’s rude to stare,” Mr. Mo grumbled as his eyes darted to Loki. Loki looked away, a bead of sweat dripping down his face.

“Sorry Mr. Mo.”

Mr. Mo sighed.

“That’s not my real name,” he eerily answered, “It’s Danny Walker. My father named me after himself… the stubborn coward.”

“So, uh, should I call you just Mr. Walker then?”

“Absolutely not,” he sternly replied, “Call me Mr. Ma. After my mother’s maiden name. At least she cared about me enough to try to, to try to-”

Mr. Ma stopped and prevented himself from speaking any further. He let out a deep breath and continued to speak.

“My father ain’t a good guy, Loki. He put me through something similar like this. Out in the wilderness with no one to help me except myself. And all in the name for his freak project. His stupid book that can burn,” Mr. Ma exclaimed with hatred in his voice, “He’s the reason my wife-”

Mr. Ma stopped and shook his head.

“He put me through that test three times. Once in middle school, the second time in high school, and the third time as a teacher. I tried everything I could to escape the cycle. Fighting back, running, but here we are.”

Mr. Ma continued.

“It’s how I got my scar. The first time, I was being chased by a Raptor with a red glow. It was stronger than usual. It pounced on me and- I cried out for help. For someone to stop the pain, to stop the beast. But nobody came. Not even my father. And I’ll always hate him for that.”

Loki couldn’t help but frown at Mr. Ma’s story. He had been through so much… and still Mr. Ma took the time to support some hooligans who couldn’t even bother helping him out.

“I’m so sorry for what you’ve been through, Mr. Ma.”

“No. You shouldn’t be,” Mr. Ma replied earnestly. He looked up at the sky, “My father should be for putting me through this.”

Just then, Dr. Aston approached. The bags under his eyes were beginning to fade away, but he still had that daze on his face that made him look drowsy.

“Mr. Mo, the Parasaur turrets have detected a massive target approaching our settlement. I think we should investigate it right now.”

Loki’s face turned white.

“What if- What if it’s those Knowers that hail from the river near the Redwoods?”

Mr. Ma got up from his seat.

“Let’s go check it out.”

Mr. Ma and Loki headed to the border of the settlement and saw the target Dr. Aston was talking about. A Tyrannosaurus frolicking through the snow, its dark white skin blended in with the rest of the environment.

“A Tyrannosaurus…” Mr. Ma said with a smirk, “This is a good opportunity for a new, powerful tame.”

Mr. Ma turned to Loki.

“What do you say? Let’s tame this bad boy up!”