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 Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:32 pm
"Rep... RE-Achoo- REP wait! Allan said- Oh, hell." Jerry had barely summoned Roar to handle the shadow creature when Rep suddenly was off after what ever those things had been. Clearly they were creatures, but just following them blindly? "We should go get reinforcements before we- REP COME BACK!" Jerry groaned, sneezing again before blowing his nose on his scarf and stuffing it into his coat pocket before hurrying after him.
His leg twinged, but thankfully the brush seemed to slow the red-head down enough for Jerry and his limp to catch up. "What if they're going back to like... a nest of them! You're going to get us all ki- kiiii-CHOO!!" The last ended on Rep's back wetly.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 12:10 am
Rep only paused in his hacking to growl at Jerry, curling his lip in disgust at being sneezed on. "You think you can't handle it? We got given those ******** runic weapons for a reason. THIS is that reason. Besides, if they were ******** badass enough, they'd have come after us, and not run away."
Another swipe of the foliage. "If you aren't man enough to follow orders." he snorted"Then run back to base. Otherwise, I could use you and Roar here."
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 5:27 am
"Rep, what - ? We were instructed to eliminate only what was inside the spirit path!" s**t, s**t, s**t. Jordan followed, frowning. They'd been told specifically to stay inside the barrier; that implied that anything outside was off limits, possibly because it was too strong for a trainee group. Or.
Rep was barking at Jerry now, and Jordan waited only until he was done speaking to put in, "It could be a test of your ability to follow orders."
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 9:09 am
"Or my ability to adapt them as needed for the task in hand." he remembered the horrible famine lair mission. But this was different!
Even Jordan got a desperate glare. "This is my call, and I made it, awright?"
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:02 am
Suddenly their group was off charging after unknowns and it worried the hell out of Rin, after Jerry was scolded she gave the man an apologetic frown, seriously - it was a legit concern.
"William, seriously, is this the best ******** idea?" she grumbled irritably at him. Following. But not happy for it.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:12 am
The shadowlings had been few and weak enough that he let the Suns (and Rin) go at it, while Harrison puzzled through his lunchbox and chewed on the different colorful slabs of vegetable.
He spooned up rice chunks with his chopsticks, pointing occasionally when something small slipped past.
No exploding lava, no deathtraps, no cracking ice. Just a nice area and some little guys. At least until a couple of lizard guys stumbled over the path. Harrison clapped the box shut, hurriedly stuffing it in his pocket and summoning B0nez.
He looked back, once, uneasy at the path. The path they weren't supposed to leave. The path he didn't know how to get back to. Except...
He caught up to Rep's side quickly, putting himself at Rep's elbow as everybody reaffirmed that maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
"We can follow the black s**t back if we have to," he said. "...We got their trail. We don't need to rush. Jungle's so thick we could head right into some Rambo-level s**t, so...stick close. Somebody should be watching our flank."
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:29 am
His anger was hairtrigger at the best of times, having his judgement questioned at every turn simply made him all the more determined to stick to what he'd decided. He didn't flip flop, he was a decisive leader.
Another vicious hack at the undergrowth as he kept going. "Don't you ******** worry if its the best idea, this is my ******** mission, I know what I'm doing."
Harrison at least got his approval. He didn't question his orders, but actually added to them, made them safer. The only flaw in the moon's logic was that on this occasion he intended to be the Rambo in this jungle.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:30 am
Rep's mission, his call. Jordan nodded, swallowing further protests, his lips pressing into a thin line. He'd voiced his objection. You couldn't always expect things to go as planned. "I'll watch our tail," he said.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 1:16 pm
The two odd creatures - things really- had, outside the trail of rather obvious black ichor that continued to lead steadily in one direction, also cleared a very messy path through the dense foliage. It was almost painfully easy to follow, as if they were leading the trainees forward-
- Or perhaps those creatures had not been fighters and warriors. The basket of simple herbs and flowers they had spilled perhaps confirmed what each of the trainees refused yet to believe.
Finally, the trail broke off into a steep incline, a natural cliff formation decorated by moss and a shallow waterfall. That was it, there were no other visual cues of where the two Halloween creatures could have gone.
Except their weapons could feel it. A low thrum that ebbed and flowed in waves, steadily loud and then soft. A heartbeat created by Fear.
It traced right into the cliff. And, as the Hunters neared closer, just a little closer to the dead end, the entire illusion of the cliff shuddered-
- And then shattered entirely. Instead, right in front of the trainees was a small village, cleared of any canopy. It seemed quiet, peaceful, a small cobbled path leading to a series of huts that emitted a soft smoke.
The trail of ichor lead directly into the main hut ahead.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 3:04 pm
Rep felt like a hunter. A proper hunter in the truest sense of the world as they followed the trail through the jungle. A clumsy trail at best, clearly they'd got the jump on them.
At the end of the trail, he paused, heart hammering with the thrill of the trail. He refused to ******** lose them here, but they'd somehow fallen off the scent, none of the ichor trail to be seen. He frowned, gaze darting frantically around, hunting for any sign of where they went, frustration building rapidly.
He looked puzzled, what exactly did that even mean?
He without a word did curiously as he was asked, following along to the dead end to see if there was a secret door or some other overlooked entrance. What he wasn't expecting was the entire ******** cliff face to waver. And then VANISH.
He leapt back about a foot in fear, blinking a couple of times to assert that yes. That did just happen.
And then he smirked. They'd found their ******** BASE. Their ******** home base. This would be too ******** easy, targets eliminated. Carrying Tracey slung over his shoulder, he sauntered arrogantly straight into the village, the orange glowing trap gun in his free hand.
"Don't need to ******** say it but proceed with caution. Looks like our ******** new friends thought they could outsmart us."
Once again, he hardly waited for his team, apparently off in his own little ego tripping world, assuming they'd be hard on his heels. It wasn't his job to find the facts here, his job was to ******** exterminate things, that was probably why Allan'd sent them here in the first place.
He marched right into the main hut.
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Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2012 10:44 pm
Harrison was on alert, examining every chopped branch and felled tree with suspicion. If they got too far from the trail, he'd say something.
The path came to a stop at a tall cliff.
It was kind of idyllic, if they weren't following a black trail of blood through a ton of poisonous snakes, spiders, and who knew whatever the hell else, with low visibility and the constant threat of being in an area that was off-limits.
B0nez had been able to sense something wasstrange about the cliff, but Harrison felt a ripple of admiration as Rep pressed forward and the whole thing faltered, revealing a hidden village. After getting over his initial reaction, which was that the jungle was collapsing and that he was going to play a round of Temple Run.
Harrison looked towards the town center, checking for corpses strung up over a fire.
B0nez said something menacing in spanish.
"Stick close," Harrison echoed, tracking where Rin was and hoping it was close enough to Jordan. She'd wasn't in his division, but she knew how to defend when it came to it. It was better than nothing. "********, I wish we had a Death guy for this recon s**t." He muttered to Rep, "...Going in blind's not helping my nerves any,"
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Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 11:51 am
A hidden base. Or town. This didn't look like a military outpost or a lair; the illusion seemed to be the only layer of defense, unless there were hidden traps. Ferros could sense the Fear here, the illusion that lay over the town like a veil and the lifesigns of creatures inside, but even charged and agitated as he was, he was reacting to Jordan's unease, not yet pushing and demanding to flame.
Jordan hung back, motioning for the others to go ahead of him. This was not their assigned mission. Discovering a hidden base - surely that was a good thing. A nest could be wiped out without undue loss of life. But the peaceful quiet of the area made him cautious, distrustful. He was inclined to suspect one of two things: either it was a trap, and they were walking straight into it, or this was a non-hostile settlement, unlikely as that seemed.
Ferros's agitation was clouding his thoughts, making it difficult to think logically or come up with any way to stop this, to buy time to pull back and consider options, survey the area or contact Deus. Rep was walking straight in. Jordan swallowed a ball of simmering anger and helpless frustration. Reckless. s**t. Why did this have to happen on this mission? He gritted his teeth and followed the others, his spine prickling with nerves.
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Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 6:08 pm
Rin still wanted to head back, she wanted to head back so bad. What the hell were they even doing? Staring at a rock, a dead end... and yet it wasn't.
I don't like it either but... he's the leader now, and he's my ******** friend too - he wants me to have faith in him...
Maybe after this he WILL?
what?
Rin looked ahead just as the others seemed to feel it too - and broke the facade. It wasn't a trap though, it was a village... a small miserable village and Rep was marching straight into it. His stance called for something... very different from mercy, "William please, let's just go back."
It was a feeble plea but one that came from deep within. Nothing good was going to come from that stance he had.
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Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 7:29 pm
The largest hut, like all the others, had no door, simply a modest curtain covering made of beads. There were noises, panicked whispers and then the sound of pliant wood scraping just as the trainees burst in-
-To find a person standing up against a crude wooden counter. A human, from her lack of Fear to her humble, almost decrepit appearance, greying hair tied in a loose bun, wearing on top of simple dirtied khakis a fraying white apron. She looked old, more so than any of the Hunters on the Island.
And now, she nervously washed her hands in a basin, steel- blue eyes clouded with anxiety, though she hid it well in her expression, a calm steady smile. "You do not look like those from around," She began, making no motion to exit,"Is there anything I can help you ah, travellers? Perhaps you could tell me your reason for such a visit, as you seem uninjured."
The human, one of them gestured to the surroundings in the hut, a small open roof, herbs and flowers laid out to dry in the sun. On the counter where she was standing, almost too still, was only simple ornaments made out of bone and simple metal. "As you can see, this is a hospice, a place for respite and those who need to be taken care of only."
And yet their weapons easily sensed it: the feeling of Fear ebbing from somewhere. From the large counter. Fresh black ichor decorated the counter handle.
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Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:29 pm
Stress. Stress wasn't something he enjoyed on missions. It was so much easier to just follow other people's orders and kill what they were ordered to do. But here and now, he was completely ******** off-road, off the track, out of his comfort zone. If he stopped moving that feeling of lost uncertainty would catch up to him, he would lose his momentum, he'd hesitate. He couldn't afford that, he had made his decision and he intended to drag it kicking and screaming to its bloody conclusion. There was no room to let stress overwhelm him.
Tracey, still thrumming with a charge by his side steeled his nerves, they didn't know what they were dealing with, they didn't know people in this team had helped destroy an entire race. They had saved the world. They were powerful. Adrenaline laced his veins and danced hand in hand with ego. He was a leader. He would make Simon and Allan so ******** proud. Show them he was more than worthy, show them he had value. He was indispensable, who else would not only do a mission but improve upon it? There'd been mistakes in his past but they were all as speed bumps on the way to this moment.
This was when he showed them he wasn't falling, that he could fly.
He stalked through the curtains like a tiger, the old familiar predatory instincts a rush like the drugs he'd left behind. He wasn't the little downtrodden rookie of the island here, the guy who couldn't win a spar. He was the grand b*****d from back home, Rep fae Glesga, radiating arrogance and aggression as he looked over the "woman" in the hut. He didn't trust her for a ******** moment. This b***h didn't know he'd almost been killed by decoy kids at the famine lair, didn't know her confident disguise was transparent to him. He had information. Even Julie had been fake, dangled in front of their noses to make them careful and docile, easy to defeat. The ******** creatures were never above puppeting and mimicking humans to get their way. And it only made sense that when picking shapes, they would choose something sympathetic, like a vulnerable old lady.
He flashed her a toothy smile.
"Our reason." he said, his accent thicker than usual, words ragged and guttural, "Is to find two monsters who ran this way." He hefted Tracey in his arms, shifting his weight, and turned his gaze lazily on the counter, just to establish to her that yes, he had spotted their trail.
There was a mad delight in his gaze he looked back to her, playing, savouring the power of the situation.
"Now I'm going to be really ******** nice." he purred "I'm going to give you the chance to admit you are harbouring ******** heinous scaly abominations here right? You should tell the truth."
He gestured over his shoulder with the trap gun. "Or me and my friends are going to ******** prove you are a liar and then make you painfully regret lying to us."
He wanted her to lie. He wanted her to dare. Even if she told the truth, it wouldn't matter, it didn't matter, he wouldn't fall for that trick again.
He didn't even consider for a second the others might object. As far as he was concerned, he was the leader, they and their weapons, for this mission were merely tools for him to use. They would obey.
Or they would get the ******** out of his way.
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