In the amount of time it took Callan to notice the giant spear soaring over her head, the eye scorpion had turned to face her. There was no time to react. For the second time that night, she was batted away. She felt the air abandon her lungs as the stinger collided with her gut-- sending her spiraling off towards her comrades. With a hard thud, she awkwardly skidded to a landing on her shoulders with her chin against her chest and legs up against the inside of the trench, leaving a decent divot in the earth where she'd crashed.
"
Augh... ow," she grunted breathlessly before opening her eyes to see her teammates-- plus a new addition it seemed. She'd touch base with them in a second....
Callan folded herself over-- essentially rolling into an upright position. Through grit teeth, she got to her feet and gripped the edge of the trench, pulling herself up. Maybe the eye scorpion still got trampled.... "
What the shit," she muttered with a slightly aggravated sigh. The quadruped was dead-- very dead. That spear had made quick work of it. Oh well... she wasn't sure who had thrown it, but she'd have to thank them later. Her plan hadn't quite gone the way she'd envisioned, but one out of the two monsters was dead so it couldn't have been a total failure. She only hoped the greater of the two threats had been eliminated.
Marcus jolted when Lily yelled at him; he would have stammered out some sort of apology, but by the time he found the right words to say, she had transferred the injury, and Grant had thrown the fishbomb. All thoughts of apology shot from his mind when the bomb exploded, his heart jumping in surprise and him instictively ducking. Once again, his ears rung, but not as much as they had the first time around. He could feel little pieces patter against the ground, and he was hestiant to guess what they were. More important than the little pieces, however, was the big thing that came hurtling into the hole; causing Marcus to once again jump and ready his aim.
"Oh hey Cal, how'd it go?" he said, lowering his pistol. His question would probably be lost under the roar of another creature; a roar which struck ice into his chest at this point. He slowly peeked his head over the side of the trench, ready to see an angry beetleman standing by and waiting to kill them. Fortunately, that was not the case; a fact which allowed Marcus to breathe a huge sigh of relief. The beetleman, while not dead, was pretty much out of comission. The only thing left was for someone to go over and put it out of its misery. Which meant the only enemy remaining was the wierd scorpion thing.
Grant slid lid down the dirt that he leaned on, his back pressed up against it. Once he hit the dirt below him, he shut his eyes tightly, hearing what he can only assume was the fish bomb that he threw at the beetle man. He would check to see if it had worked, but he barely had the energy to hold himself up at the time. His eyes opened back up, seeing the feet of a person hit the ground in front of him. Looking up, it was their so-called "leader." He shut his eyes again, focusing on regaining his energy, not bothering to greet her as Marcus did.
Lily heard the explosion and was about to jump up to her feet to peer over the edge of the trench when suddenly, everything became deathly silent. There were no more monster roars, no screams of pain, no chatter about what to do next. There were no people around and Lily found herself on her back and staring up at the night sky.
Am I... dead? She tried remembering what had just happened.
A grenade crammed into a dead fish's mouth and a gunshot to her knee. She remembered the pain quite clearly just as she did the absence of it when she had transferred it. And then the explosion... Did she somehow get caught up in the explosion? Did the beetleman bat it back towards them? What of her team mates? And Emma from red team?
She looked around. Stars. A million of them all around her. They were twinkling at her from everywhere...up, down, left and right. She looked around her and realized that she was no longer in the ditch Grant made but was actually floating in...
Space? How did I get here? She looked around in the darkness again, waving her hand and feet, trying to grab onto something. But there was nothing to hold onto, there was only the empty space filled with tiny slivers of light from the multitude of stars. Nothing... but at the same time something... Something boundless, something infinite...something that was so immense and incomprehensible that she found herself reaching out, her hands seeking to part the darkness like a curtain and see what was beyond. She felt that desire to understand, to catch even a brief glimpse of what it was that seemed to be beckoning at her.
Her fingers touched touched nothing but the idea that something was there just beyond her reach prompted her to try and reach out more.
Just a bit more...just a bit more. Maybe if I... She stretched her arm and tried to reach her hand farther, wiggling her fingers, wanting to reach whatever it was that she was sure was there but couldn't really see.
Just a little. Bit. More. But then there was a sudden burst of light as the stars seemed to coalesce together. Lily averted her gaze from the intense brightness, closing her eyes as she did. When she opened it again, she saw a
crystal of pure light hovering in front of her.
Lily stared at the crystal and at that moment, she knew with certainty that it was meant for her. Only her.
Mine. She echoed the thought in her head as her hand automatically reach out to it.
Her hand paused as it came within a few inches of the crystal. There was something moving and pulsating just beneath the smooth surface of the gem. And it whispered to her of power beyond her imagination. She reached out to bridge the small gap between her hands and the crystal and as she touched it, she felt that terrible desire to make them feel pain...her pain...magnified two folds...no...three folds. She wanted them to suffer, to writhe in agony, to cry out in anguish. The crystal slowly sank into her hand, cold and hot at the same time, the light in it pulsating and turning into an angry shade of red. A realization struck Lily.
Tainted. It was tainted.But despite the realization, Lily didn't pull her hand away, her eyes glued to the remaining half of the crystal jutting out of her hand. The red glow pulsated, whatever was inside roiled underneath the surface, disturbing the fading light and finally turning the crystal black.
She was tainted.When the blackened crystal completely disappeared into her had, Lily stared at it. She stared at it for the longest time until she heard a loud thud to her left. She blinked and then turned her head. She was back in the trench and was staring at the Callan.
Everyone seems to be fond of just dropping in... she thought idly as her mind tried making sense of what the vision meant.
"Hi," she greeted Callan just like the way she greeted Emma earlier.
An emerald flash in the sky seemed to confirm his analysis, and the eerie green fog that swept the ground froze him for a second. It was at this moment that Marcus felt his stomach flop once more, and the world seemed to spin ever so slightly. He pulled his shirt over his nose to try and protect against what he could only assume was the eyescorpion's attack, but the effects had already settled in.
Lily looked up at the sky as it flashed green. Slowly, she stood up and peered over the edge, her eyes on the green fog as it rapidly swept towards them.
"What--- Ugh." The fog surrounded her even before she could finish what she was saying. She felt nauseous and sick. She looked towards Marcus and tried covering her nose and mouth the same way he was.
Grant's eyes shot open, his head feeling light, numb. His surroundings twisted and turned around him. He tried to gulp down that lump in his throat, but it refused to go down. Padma's knife clattered back onto the ground beside him as he pressed a hand against his stomach, and then another against his mouth. He glanced around once more, noticing his other team mates seeming to be going through the same thing he was going through. Nausea and exhaustion mixed together, and his mind was clouded by dizziness. Slumping against the dirt, his eyes narrowed, trying to focus on his surroundings that blurred together. A mixture of green and brown was what dominated his vision.
Emma followed the others' example, trying her best to avoid inhaling the green fog. Despite her efforts she felt the same effects as the others, teetering slightly in place. Her head spun, threatening to send her off balance. A hand against the side of the trench helped her right herself, glancing across the others for some sort of signal about what to do next.
As Callan lowered herself down, she caught the tail end of Marcus' question, but before she could respond an intense green fog spread across the field at breakneck speed. With it, she felt a touch of nausea, but nothing she couldn't handle. The others didn't seem to be fairing as well. Given the color, she could only assume this was the attack that ugly eye ball had been charging.
"
Hang in there, guys-- just one more left, right?"
"Ehhhhh, basically." Marcus said, giving a quick jab towards the crawling husk of beetleman. He waited a moment for his vision to steady and his lunch to settle before continuing.
"Fish flinger's still alive, but only barely. I can finish him off; if that thing punted you over here, then he can probably kick my scrawny ass in half, and I'd really not appreciate that." He shrugged ever so slightly, his grin hidden underneath the makeshift mask.
Callan smirked, shaking her head, "
So far everything's been hitting harder than I thought it would. Be careful."
He fully stood up in the trench, tottering a bit as his vision blurred once more, and hefting himself out of it.
"Trust me, I'm not going to take any risks here." He avoided taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, instead just focusing on the half-dead monster in front of them, rather than the churning of his gut. With a quick peek behind him and a reassuring glance, he cautiously made his way over to the dying creature.
Callan's eyes followed Marcus warily before she turned back to the others. She needed to figure out what she had to work with and fast. Grant looked pretty wiped and according to what Lily had told her on the truck, she wasn't going to be much help... unless....
"
Lily, could you--" she started, not meeting her eyes, "
...uh... watch his back?" She flicked her head towards where Marcus had gone.
Lily was waving her hand around in a useless attempt to fan away the fog that surrounded them all. She looked toward Callan when she was addressed and then looked towards Marcus, who was making his way to the injured beetleeman. She coughed out and swayed a bit on her feet, still feeling nauseous from the fog but gave Callan a small nod nevertheless. Without wasting time, she obediently pulled herself out of the trench and followed after Marcus.
Her leg was throbbing like hell. Callan probably wouldn't be able to get a good hit off on that eye scorpion like this, but... she couldn't bring herself to ask. They'd find another way. Besides, she didn't feel good sending Marcus off on his own. And then there was this other girl. She could-- wait. What could she do again? What was her name?
"
Sorry, but... who are you?" Callan asked bluntly. She couldn't remember if the girl had even been on the truck with them or not. "
Must've hit my head harder than I thought."
Emma glanced at the girl,
Pretty hair, she thought to herself. She mustered up her smile.
โIโm Emmaโฆ or Em is fine. Iโm on the other team,โ she said, gesturing to where towards where the red X once hung over the battlefield. She
hoped that the girl would give her some indication of what to do, because she was entirely unsure of where she was needed.
"
Cool-- some good news for once. I'm Callan," she nodded, "
So-- whatcha got?"
For a moment Emma gave Callan a blank look.
What have I got? A look of understanding crossed her face.
โOh, my powerโฆโ Without a word Determination and Devotion appeared next to her.
โI can summon two of them and tell them what to do. They have different powers. Uh, the armored one is really strong, the other one can create a, er, sticky sludge that will slow enemies down.โ She decided to abstain from explaining what the others could do- she didnโt relish having to explain that her power wasnโt fully working because she was having a bad day.
As the shadow creatures appeared, Callan had to subdue the sudden urge to step back. They were eerily similar in form to her shadow monster, but-- Emma could tell hers what to do. She could fully
control them. "
That's... so awesome!" she said with a toothy grin-- and she meant it. If she could control her power like that, maybe Callan could control hers. Someday. She'd certainly felt like she was in control when that arm reached out and killed that bird head, but... the thought of willfully trying to summon it again still terrified her. Besides, if everything went as planned, she shouldn't have to use it at all.
"
Grant, can you... move?"
Just one one look at Grant, it was fairly obvious that he was not having a good time dealing with the exhaustion of his power and the nausea of the fog at the same time. To put it bluntly, he felt like shit. He turned his face up only a bit, his eyes willing open as he looked up at Callan with a somewhat unamused look. He lowered his hand from his mouth as he spoke his answer in a tone that matched his state. Tired.
"...Depends on what I'm moving for..." He'd answer, his hand gripping onto the material of his shirt, around the area of his stomach, which unpleasantly felt like it was twisting and turning.
"
Uh... nevermind," Cal winced, "
I think we got this." Yep-- wiped. The guy looked like he could use a breather anyway.
Callan turned back to Emma. "
So I'm thinkin' we should flank it. Me and your... shadow... things. Its only got one eye, right? At least one of us is bound to hit it if we all aim for the eye," she said decisively. She lifted herself out of the trench, inhaling sharply through her teeth as she accidentally led with the wrong leg.
"
Ready?" she exhaled, waiting. She tightened her grip on the broken katana.
Emma nodded.
"Follow Callan's lead," she commanded.
Callan raised an eyebrow at Emma's command. Did that mean she could give them orders? "
Er-- one of you attack the eyepion's right side and the other attack its left. Aim for the eye and attack at the same time... go!" She took off, squinting through the fog at the figure of the eye scorpion while still trying to keep tabs on Emma's creatures in her peripheral so she could match their speed. Hopefully they wouldn't out run her.
Marcus meanwhile, had placed himself near the monster, readying the killing shot. He was about two arm's lengths away at this point, having inched ever so slightly closer as he tried to compensate for the fog's effects. He stared hard at the creature before him, taking a step backwards as it continued to pull itself forward.
Normally, this is when the hero would say some snappy one-liner, before executing his foe; but this was not the action movies he'd grown up watching - this was a battlefield. This was just a scared boy with a weapon he barely knew how to use, killing a monstrosity from someone else's nightmare.
He tried not to think about that too hard as he forced his vision to converge on one spot and pulled the trigger. Two shots to the head, followed by one more, just to be safe.
Lily almost felt sorry for the injured creature Marcus came to finish off. She wondered why it was created. Was killing its sole purpose? And was dying its ultimate fate? She looked at it and thought about how the injuries she had transferred to it helped in bringing it down and a surge of glee came over her again. It wanted to kill them but instead of doing that, it had gone down and felt her pain. And suddenly all sympathetic thoughts she may have had for the monster dissipated into thin air. She swayed on her feet as she stood a few feet behind her team mate. She watched Marcus aim and then pull the trigger.
Dervish
