Dododex

ARK: Survival Evolved & Ascended Companion

The Arks: Alternative Timeline

ACT 2: Devil's Advocate

This is a Helicoprion exclusive story.

You do not have to read TAOH to understand this story.

Chapter 4: Ben

Ben could feel a throbbing sensation pulsate all throughout his head. His vision felt blurry, and everything around him felt cold as ice. Wind flew around him, hitting him like bricks, and tickling his skin. The flapping of wings seemed to radiate throughout his ears. Feathers were present in his line of sight.

As Ben got accustomed to the sight, he looked around, and noticed the talons wrapped around his body. He let out a gasp and tried to pull away.

“Quit resisting,” a gruff voice shouted back.

Ben looked up and noticed a man wearing a green set of metal armor atop the tame. He had a green scarf wrapped around his neck, and when he gritted his teeth Ben noticed the silver tooth embedded into his gum.

“Where exactly are you taking me?” Ben asked. The large bird that was carrying him let out a cry like an eagle.

“Shut it. That’s not your concern, bum,” the man snapped back. Ben noticed the pistol that was on his belt, and decided to quit talking. For now, at least.

Ben noticed a large compound up ahead. There were giant stone walls acting as a perimeter around the base, and it was jutting out of the mountain like a sore thumb. A sparse amount of people were entering and exiting through a large gate near the bottom. Ben could see quite a load of beasts penned up nearby.

As the large bird got closer to the base, turrets located on the ceilings whirred to life and looked up. They beeped, and then lowered their guns. The large bird landed on some sort of landing dock, and the talons around Ben let go.

Ben fell to the cold metal ground, and he groaned as he got up. He still felt hungry as ever. Those berries he had eaten had only held him over for so long.

Before Ben can consider running away, his captor grabs him by the wrist and leads him along. Eventually they delve into the facility. A few troops carrying rifles are scattered about the hallways, each one saluting as Ben’s captor passes by.

“Good morning, Captain Pigeon,” a soldier says, bowing respectfully. Captain Pigeon nods his head in acknowledgement.

“Good morning.”

Soon, they reach the end of a corridor, and there’s a large set of metal doors waiting, rusting by the seams. Captain Pigeon reaches for his pocket and pulls out a key, placing it into the lock and twisting and turning.

Click.

The doors swing open, and Captain Pigeon drags Ben in roughly. Ben looks upward and notices the smell of sweat fill the room, and pained cries of torment. There’s cages everywhere, each one made of mere branches, yet there are at least a dozen prisoners in jumpsuits banging on the bars, begging to be let out.

“Please sir… end my misery,” One prisoner begs as he rushes forward. Pigeon is startled, stepping back for a moment. He almost reaches for his gun, but he decides not to. He shakes his head, and they continue moving forward.

They reach the end of the prison. One of the cages remains empty. Pigeon swings open the barred door, and then throws Ben in full force. Before Ben can rush out and attack him, Pigeon slams the door shut, and then swings the lock mechanism down. Pigeon walks to the opposite side of the room and opens up a set of drawers, and then takes out a set of orange cloth clothes. He tosses them in through the bars, and Ben catches them in his arms. At least he gets a fresh set of clothes.

As Ben slips them on, Pigeon takes out a walky-talky, clicks the button, and begins to speak in it.

“Hey General M. I’ve got two new workers for you. Hope you’re pleased.”

Pigeon walks out through the metal doors, leaving Ben to rot. Forever. Until the end of time.

Ben sighs, leaning back on his wooden cage.

“What a wonderful experience,” Ben says.

“I know right?”

“Huh?”

Ben turns his head to see a lady trapped in the cage next to him. She has her arms crossed, and seems to be biding her time. Something about her deep brown eyes makes her familiar to Ben, but he can’t place his finger on it.

“This game. A wonderful one,” she laughs.

“If only we could find a way to escape,” Ben sarcastically says. She turns her head, raising her eyebrow.

“You might be onto something. What’s your name?”

“Ben,” he replies truthfully. He never liked making up fake names. Her eyes seemed to sparkle for a moment.

“And I’m…”

Chapter 5: Will

Sharpened stick in hand, and blood matted across his hair, Will felt invincible at the moment. How had, in that small moment of time, Will taken down such a vicious and violent beast? Will looked down at his rough, coarse hands.

“If I can take down something like that,” Will realized with a devious grin, “Then, I can take down anything!”

Will looked around the beach. There were fat, chunky dodos roaming the beach, oblivious to Will’s presence. Will’s stomach grumbled. He was hungry. And he needed food. Will licked his lips.

“This will do,” Will thought, as he walked up to a dodo and plunged his stick into the body of one of them. It instantly collapsed, and the rest of the dodos let out squawks and hobbled away slowly. Will retracted his spear, and the energy and high coursing through his veins suddenly surged all throughout his arms and legs.

“Eh? What’s this power?” Will asked himself. The implant embedded inside his wrist began to glow. An interface popped up in front of his face. Will’s eyes glistened. Multiple stats and symbols lay out in front of him, each one glowing with fervor and begging to be upgraded.

“YOU HAVE 9 LEVELS AVAILABLE.”

“Hmm, shouldn’t this be obvious?” Will thought with a smirk, looking at the STRENGTH stat. Will smashed his fist into the icon, and as he held it there, all the energy that was in his body exploded out into his fists and arms. Will looked on in awe as his arms’ muscle mass began to swell and balloon.

“YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 10!”

“Heh, look at these guns!” Will grinned, flexing his biceps.

Will noticed something was off though. It was more quiet than usual. As he looked around, he noticed that all of the dodos had fled. Will scoffed, looking down at the only dodo corpse left by his wake.

“I’ll just eat this.”

Will picked up the dodo, looking at it carefully. He was not so sure how it worked, but surely eating raw flesh wasn’t so bad? After all, Will did not even know how to start a fire.

Will bit into the dodo’s breast, and blood gushed out into his mouth. Instead of wincing and pulling away, Will only dug his teeth further into the flesh, his appetite rising. Will tore a chunk off, chewing voraciously and then swallowing once he was finished. Blood red began to fill his vision and his stomach churned.

“That’s absolutely DELICIOUS,” Will licked his lips, dropping the corpse to the ground.

The bushes rustled, and Will’s ears perked up, hungry for a kill. Will turned around, stick in hand, noticing two men approaching him. They were both riding purple lions, and each one had a different random outfit. One of them wore red armor of leaves, the other a gray fur jacket and fedora.

“Look what we have here! Another beach bob for the picking,” the red one chuckled. The gray one nudged his shoulder.

“Dude, look! That guy just ate-”

“Yoo, that’s nasty!” The red one gagged. Will felt his aggression rise. They were clearly not friendly or willing to help him. The purple lions waited patiently for their masters’ orders. Will smiled.

“Let’s get this party,” Will muttered, then he howled, “STARTED!”

Will rushed forward and plunged his stick spear into the purple lion the red one was riding. The stick instantly inserted itself into the purple lion’s head, and the purple lion let out a howl, before inevitably collapsing to the ground. The red guy let out a shocked gasp as he tumbled to the sand. The gray one instantly pulled out a pistol and fired at Will.

BAM!

Will let out a pained scream as the bullet hit his shoulder. Will stumbled backwards. More energy coursed through his veins, the killing of the purple lion set.

“YOU HAVE 5 LEVELS AVAILABLE.”

The interface popped up for Will, and Will smashed his hand on the STRENGTH attribute once more. One level flowed through Will’s arms, but Will knew that he needed more than strength. With the remaining ounce of his strength, he allocated two points to HP and two to SPEED.

“YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 15!”

The gray one tugged on his reins, and the purple lion dashed forward. Will immediately dashed to the side, clenching his fists. That spear was definitely a goner, he’d have to fight them one on one.

Before Will could react to anymore attacks, someone grabbed him by the waist, rose him up into the air, and then slammed him into the sand.

BAM!

It was the red one. He let out a grin, and then elbowed him in the nose.

WHAM!

Will let out a groan as blood spilled out of his nostrils, his vision disoriented. The red one rose from the ground, and him and the gray one looked at Will, standing in victory.

“What a freak! Allocating all your points into STRENGTH? Who does that?” the gray one scoffed, pointing his gun at Will’s face.

“I know right? Only a noob would. What good is STRENGTH when guns are leagues above?”

Will grinned.

“Sure, sure,” Will thought, “That might be the case, but, there’s one thing you can’t level up in this game.”

Intelligence.

Will dug into the sand, found a heavy rock, and with all of his strength, lunged up and bashed it into the gray one’s head.

BOOF!

The gray one collapsed to the ground, dropping his gun into the sand. Will instantly snatched up the gun, but before he could get a shot in, the red one whistled, and the other purple lion lunged at Will and scratched him in the face. SLASH! Will held onto the gun as tightly as possible, firing back blindly. None of the shots seemed to be able to make.

Will could feel his breath getting more ragged. He had to get out of there. He turned around and began to make a run for it into the deep dense jungle. He didn’t hear footsteps behind him, the other guy must have stayed behind to help his friend out.

When Will thought it was safe, he stopped to take a breather. He was exhausted, and it felt like he was about to pass out any moment, especially in the humidity of the jungle.

“Who were those guys? How did they domesticate those purple lions? I didn’t know that was possible…”

Will stumbled forward. They had talked about how only noobs leveled up in STRENGTH, and Will understood why. In a world with guns and tameable dinosaurs, your own fists and weapons were obsolete.

“I’ll have to figure out how to tame a dinosaur… woah,” Will gasped, “What is this place?”

Nestled in the jungle was a small stone structure, with a downed turret at the top. There were deep footprints in the mud, and the door jarred open.

Will didn’t mind checking it out.

Chapter 6: Karma

Karma treaded through the beaches, feeling a heavy sense of responsibility for the task ahead: killing and bringing an end to the two men who had taken away innocent Gerald’s life. Karma clenched her fists at the thought of it. He was the only one who had given hospitality on this server, and now he was gone forever?

The two men, Austin and Sloth, mentioned that this was a hardcore world. You could only live your life once. If that were the case, Karma would only need to land one blow on each of them, and they’d be dead-

Fast footsteps pounded across the sand.

Karma whipped around and saw a mechanical raptor bolting for her. Karma unsheathed her sword and then swung it at the mechanical raptor. The mechanical raptor bursted with electricity, and it let out a whir as the blade enveloped in electricity. Karma dug the blade further into the mechanical raptor’s neck, until finally it collapsed to the ground. Oil spilled out onto the sand, bolts everywhere.

“A mechanical dinosaur?” Karma said, raising her eyebrow, “This is interesting.”

More fast footsteps.

Karma turned around to see a pack of three raptors emerge from the shadows, staring at her. Karma groaned. She reached for her rifle, and then aimed at one of them. She fired, and it hit the raptor right in the head. The raptor collapsed to the ground.

The other two were still hot on her though. The two ran at her, and Karma fumbled to reload the rifle in time. Karma dropped her rifle, drawing her sword. This would be bloody. As the Raptor lashed out at Karma, Karma weaved to the side and stabbed it right in the heart. The raptor swung its claws at Karma, but Karma simply kept her distance. The other raptor slowly began to back away, as Karma pulled out her sword and then slashed at its neck, decapitating it.

As the raptor head fell to the ground, Karma felt energy surge through her veins. Karma already felt out of breath and tired from that excursion. She looked at the other raptor. Would it try going for her?

The raptor didn’t budge, but it seemed to have some sort of fondness for Karma. It chittered at her, and Karma looked at it peculiarly. Karma did not sheathe her sword. She needed to experiment something.

The two men who had murdered Gerald managed to tame and master those two purple lions. Could Karma do the same?

She turned her back on the raptor. But it made no move. Karma grinned. This was perfect.

Karma turned around, approaching the raptor. Still, it made no move. Karma patted the Raptor on the leg.

“What should I name you?” Karma thought, pondering. She observed the black scales and purple plumage. She smirked, “I guess Jira will do.”

Karma’s implant suddenly glowed. An interface popped up.

“YOU HAVE 7 LEVELS AVAILABLE.”

Karma observed each stat carefully. She reflected on her battle with the raptors. She had grown easily tired and worn out only after a few minutes of fighting, though she fared well against the Raptors in terms of speed and strength due to her weapons. She needed to upgrade her STAMINA stat to the max.

She pressed her finger into the STAMINA stat, and power surged into her lungs and legs.

“YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 8.”

Karma looked up, Jira following closely behind. There was a trail of blood that dotted the sand. A dead dodo laid on the ground, and a multitude of footsteps, both beastly and human. They scattered and diverged. Karma had a feeling who.

“One set goes into the jungle, where Gerald’s house is,” Karma observed, “Another goes all the way up there.”

Karma looked up at the mountain range.

“Idiots. I know exactly where you are now.”

Karma knew where their base was situated. Now if she was correct, those guys would definitely have better equipment and stats than her. She could not rush in there, after all, she only had one chance.

She’d have to bide her time. Level up, both her and her tame. Get some more beasts on her side. Only then, would Karma come for them all.