Hotguy and Poultry Man [Hermitcraft AU]

Prologue

He rolled swiftly to the side, the laser just barely missing him, and took his shot. His arrow flew true, right toward the knee...

And then Mumbo narrowed his eyes and red energy shimmered across the entire surface of the mech, the arrow bouncing off and clattering to the floor.

Hotguy stared, confused. "What..."

"Forcefield technology!" Mumbo declared, stepping forward and kicking the arrow aside. "Designed to protect from bullets, shrapnel, even lessen the impact of explosions. Your arrows? You might as well be throwing rocks at a tank."

"Wait, hold on now." Hotguy backed up as Mumbo advanced on him, getting another arrow. This one was charged, designed to unleash a vicious shock on whatever it hit. He fired it at the mech's chest, hoping to disable the shield. But though it struck and stuck for a moment, the red energy only seemed to grow brighter, and Mumbo laughed as he yanked the arrow out and threw it out of the way.

"Thanks for the recharge. What are you going to do now, Hotguy?" Mumbo crowed. "You might be the best archer alive, but what do you do when your arrows can't even hit your target anymore?"

Desperate, Hotguy loosed an explosive arrow at him. The blast didn't even make Mumbo stumble. He just waited, unimpressed, while the smoke cleared.

"Well," Hotguy said, lowering his bow. He reached to his side, to his radio. "Then this is the point where I call for backup." He sprinted back for cover while he pressed the talk button, waiting a moment and then shouting, "Doc, he's got a forcefield, over!"

"A forcefield? Do you know what's powering it?"

Hotguy shook his head and yelled, "No idea, just get in here, none of my arrows can get through it! Over!"

"Aw, inviting a friend over?" Mumbo asked as he followed, tossing tables out of the way and grabbing for Hotguy, who ran through a door and out into a hallway, looking around before running for another room to hide in. He stopped to catch his breath, then winced as he heard the crunching of Mumbo simply breaking through the walls between them. "That's nice, maybe we can all have a spot of tea later."

"Oh you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Hotguy shot back, then yelped and kept running when Mumbo burst into the room, showering him in debris. He groaned as he felt a pain in his side; he was getting too old for this. He was only in his early forties but it wasn't as easy as it was when he was a spry, eager new hero in his twenties. Maybe if he sweet-talked real nice, Mumbo would allow him a week of vacation. Or maybe a month. Or a year...

"Doc!" Hotguy shouted desperately into the radio again.

"Coming, coming. Mein Gott. You have no idea how big this place is."

"I think I have a pretty good idea!" Hotguy found himself in a large room filled with various scientific instruments he couldn't begin to guess the function of, along with several desks with computers and books on them.

There were no windows, and when he ran to another door, he found that it led only into a storage room filled with chemicals. He squinted at the various labels, then sighed and turned around, wondering if he could make it back out to the hallway.

Then Mumbo crashed through the wall, laughing. "Always making me chase you around, Hotguy. But this time, I've got you. Nowhere else to run."

Hotguy swallowed, backing up. His arrows were useless, but maybe he could dodge long enough for Doc to get here and disable the forcefield. There was movement in the corner of his eye and he glanced over to see the computers floating up from their desks, Mumbo's eyes glazing over as he read the data off them, and he yanked the cords from their sockets as he pulled the monitors over to float eerily above him.