They set off...four of them, walking since there were neither horses nor cars to carry them.
They headed north by east, away from the city of New Brunswick. The sun was slowly setting behind them as they made off, the twilight hour cooling the harsh desert heat. The winds were cool on their back, making the otherwise troublesome journey not as bad as it might have been.
After a while, the sun set, the moon, slowly, beginning to rise...
Dracos
"Funny how we haven't seen giant scorpions yet," Leets muttered to himself, sand spilling past his steps as he hiked along with the group. He pulled his goggles above his eyes to see better in the fading light. Thankfully, the desert air was cooling quickly with the sun no longer glaring down at their party.
"I can definitely pass on the giant scorpions," Clyde commented, removing his hat to wipe the sweat from his brow. "The heat is quite enough for me."
The stars slowly started to rise as they kept walking.
Dracos
"How much farther is New Reno?" Leets asked casually, looking in the distance for signs of the town. "You didn't really specify, Mister Smith."
"It's about three days travel." Jan responded. "But it usually isn't that bad."
Dracos
"Best if we hike all night, that way we don't stick around for any nasties that might be creeping about. We'll sleep during the day, when we can make sure the area's clear, and can see if anything pops up." So saying, Jan kept marching.
The best thing that could be said about the night was that it was pretty peaceful. It was a good time of year for travel. The stars rose above, scattered and disorganized, but pretty in their own way as they marched quietly.
Eventually, the moon started dipping beneath the horizon...
Dracos
"What are we looking for to set up camp? I'm no trail expert, but I'd imagine that we'd want at least some sort of shelter out here."
Other than sand dunes, there wasn't much in terms of cover out here.
Heck, it was so clear they could see the top of the tower to the north west, many many many miles away.
Dracos
"Well, there's not much choice out here for shelter," Leets pointed out, gazing at the tower in the distance. "And I don't think we'll make it there even if we did walk nonstop."
"Besides, this place is as good as any to set up camp, don't you think?" he asked, glancing at their position behind the dune. "Might give us some protection from the wind, and maybe a bit of shade for half the day."
Jan nodded and began setting up camp. "Yeah, the wastelands are just an over glorified deathtrap in the end, but the dunes do provide some measure of protection. Just don't set up too close to them."
Leets dropped his own satchel down, watching it depress into the sands slightly from its weight before digging for his compact tent out and joining Jan in the building of their camp.
In a short while their tents were set, and none too soon as they could already see the starting light coming over the edge of the horizon.
Dracos
"Anyone here know how to cook?" Leets asked jokingly as he finished straigtening the last pole of his tent.
"Or better yet, did anyone bring some kindling so we can actually cook?" He glanced around at the empty desert meaningfully.
"Don't look at me," Clyde replied with a grimace. "Terrible coffee is about the limit of my culinary abilities, unless you like your food burnt."
"Maybe we got something that doesn't need cooking," Leets replied hopefully, digging through his bag for whatever foods Jan had ordered them.
Jan was getting a fire started.
They had some nuts and dried fruits in the back, enough for a meal sure, but not the best of fare.
Dracos
"So, Professor Hornsby, what do you think of this... future so far?" Leets asked idly while looking over his stock again.
Jan tended to the fire every once in a while as he went about setting up camp. "My personal opinion is that it needs more meat." He shut his mouth as he stopped sticking his nose in.
Besides, he didn't want to get into the more crude and rude versions of what he wanted to say.
"A bit more desolate than I would have expected, or hoped for," Clyde said with a slight sigh. "I suppose there's not much I can do about that, though, so I'd best learn to survive here."
"I suppose we all need to," Leets said, gazing off towards the tower again. "Especially if there really is no way back."
"There's another choice, y'know. There's two places that haven't ever been really explored that might shed light on this world. A wall of mist to the south that hides something, and that there tower to the north. None have really ever tried to explore them, or haven't gotten very far."
"What's with the towers anyway? Does every city have them?"
"I only know about this one, since I travel frequently between Brunswick and New Reno. I've been meaning to explore it for a long time now, but I've never really had the support needed for it." Jan looked at the other three members of the group. "You three interested in assisting me solve this little enigma? What do you think you could add to the exploration team?"
"Well, I kind of have the knack of getting into places I'm not," Leets vaguely answered.
"Does that relate to that trick where you seemingly popped out of nowhere?"
Leets glanced at Jan oddly. "Been meaning to ask what the bloody hell do you mean by trick?"
"Back in the bar, you seemed to have appeared from out of nowhere all of a sudden. I didn't even hear Sally's old creaky door open when you came in, and *bam* - As soon as your sword hit the ground there you were; already at the table looking like you were there for a long time now." He shrugged.
"Speaking of which, does everyone on your world sling those bad boys around, or what? You're clothing isn't old, so do people on your world still fight with swords or something?" The negotiator looked at the sword that Leets had set aside curiously.
"I came in before you did though," Leets pointed out, frowning thoughtfully. "Sure it isn't a case of you just overlooking me?"
"This thing? I just found it when I was lost in the desert. Thought I could sell it or something."
"Nope. The table you were sitting at is my favorite, I always scan that one when I enter to see if anyone's at it. On top of that, my clients usually meet me there, so it's important that I know who's sitting there and when." Jan shook his head as he thought.
"And that sword isn't very valuable as is, you should get it patched up."
Leets shrugged indifferently. "Isn't the first time I was overlooked, probably won't be the last either. Besides, it's handy when I want to go places sometimes."
"And yeah, but I need money to fix this thing up, which until I finish this job, I don't have much of."
Clyde cast an eye over the sword. "Doesn't look too bad, probably just needs to be cleaned and sharpened. A couple of hours with a whetstone will take care of most of that."
Jan finished getting everything ready. "So, how about you, Professor? How long have you been studying and such?"
"Hmm? Oh, beg pardon. I've been building machinery since I was fourteen - a bit over twenty years now. Steam engines always fascinated me ever since I first read about them in the newspaper, and that's when I built my first one. I've been trying to make them do all sorts of different things ever since, and I've learned quite a bit about other varieties of machinery along the way."
"Wow. Wish I could say I knew what I wanted to do from the start." Jan admitted, as he scratched at some light dusting of stubble he had gained over night.
"I used to be a simple security guard since I wasn't very good at much else, basically my last choice in life, but one day my partner convinced me that I had too much talent at dealing with people. I started saving up, and barely got into police academy, and well...here I am." He sat down near the fire.
Leets instinctively shuffled himself over to the fire, shrugging off his heavy jacket before sitting down with the others. "Sounds like you two had some interesting lives," he said with a bit of envy.
"How did you come to the Wasteland anyway, Mister Smith?"
"Hm? Well, I was on a simple hostage exchange. We'd gotten together an acceptable sum of money together to pay the gangsters who had kidnapped my client's daughter. One of the bills was a fake provided by the cops with a tracer in it. I was to get the girl out, and they'd get traced back to their hideout." Jan reached over to instinctually feel his chest as he gazed into the fire as the memories took hold on him.
"Things went bad when they shot me, though. Puts a crimp on your plans when you up and die."
Leets winced in sympathy, having seen a few gunshot wounds in his time. "You must have been lucky if they didn't hit any vitals."
Clyde winces at Jan's tale. "I have no idea how I ended up here. Our train was due to arrive in St. Louis, but somehow it ended up stopping somewhere in the wastes here. I met a dwarvish-looking fellow after I got off the train, then found myself in New Brunswick."
He gives Leets a wry grin. "And to be perfectly frank, I would not have minded a bit to have a less 'interesting' life. Working on ironclad warships was not what I had in mind when I took an interest in machinery."
Ryder silently took a seat at the fire, warming up after the exhausting walk.
"Frankly, I could've done with a life of negotiating between bitter divorcees too." He snapped out of his funk to nod at Leets.
"Still sounds a lot more interesting then mine, Professor." Leets sighed, laying back as he began his own brief introduction. "I have no memories from before I was 8, you see. You'd think I'd be able to remember a face or something like that, but as far as I know, I just woke up looking at the stars," Leets admitted, gazing upwards. "The sky here is so different from home, isn't it?"
"In any case, my own trip to Wasteland seemed like something out of Lewis Carroll. One night, a bunch of weird military blokes invade my neighborhood and start chasing me into the London Underground. The next thing I knew, the tunnel started growing feathers and I ran into the desert."
He hmph'ed, sprawling back onto the sand. "I wish it were last night. Everything made bloody sense then."
"Still... that sounds alot better than my trip..." Ryder muttered as he wrote some random words and phrases into the sand.
"That much I can sympathize with," Clyde agreed. "Last night I was headed back to Washington from Nevada after an engagement with the Sons of the Confederacy, and then I fell asleep on the train. Somehow I wish I'd managed to stay awake, now - although there's no telling if it would have made any difference whatsoever."
"How'd you get here, Ryder?" Jan questioned the spiky haired man sitting with them. May as well get him to open up a little, since he had been pretty quiet the whole trip. "And don't feel bad about the water, lots of people drink it by accident."
"Me... I remember dying. I remember being on a planet while the Aspects of Death and Order fought over the life of some girl. I remember being ripped apart Shi as he tried to destroyed the planet we were all on..." Ryder muttered. He really hated dying and remembering that fact sucks.
Jan blinked. "Well, yours is the most grand entrance yet, I believe." He shook his head.
Ryder looked up, an increasingly emo look on his face, "Yeah, I know. Can't beat having the planet blown up, and THEN having some being try and kill you by posing as your mother..."
Ryder sighed. What did he do to deserve THAT one?
"Do a lot of people die to get here?" Leets asked quietly, suppressing a shiver. "Is dying the only way to get here?"
"No," Ryder mentioned to Leets turning to him, "I didn't die... I don't think I did at least. I mean, yeah, I died again when Shi blew up Spira, but I think I fell through a portal... or I died, I don't know."
"Well, obviously not. Like I said, a lot of people just appeared here out of the blue. The professor here, for instance. Or you. Near death experiences are just one way of showing up here."
"Oh, good." Leets sighed in relief. "I'd hate to think my last moments alive was in a tunnel of chicken feathers."
"I don't believe I died, no," Clyde agrees. "The train was simply empty when it arrived at the platform."
"Well, after I was shot, I woke up to a dead city as well. No one was there, and the world seemed like a shell of its former glory. Even the sun looked about ready to go nova. I traveled to the mountains, and saw a lion there."
"A lion?" Clyde seemed curious. "Odd... I met a dwarf that gave me a carving of a lion. Bit of an odd coincidence - what did it do?"
"It woke me up after I had passed out. Had an odd glowing stone around its neck, though. Shaped like a shooting star."
"Probably mere coincidence," Clyde shrugged. "I doubt one has anything to do with the other.
"Out of curiosity, though. What do you know about that tower you mentioned earlier? I fear I wasn't paying all that much attention at the time."
"Well, from what most people tell me, it's probably *not* coincedence." Jan frowned. "Everyone I've talked to told me that they were alone when they arrived. You and I actually met other people when we were crossing over, Leets was being chased, and Ryder- something was actually going to kill you in the form of your mother." He looked disgusted with that. Jan hated it when the weak tried such underhanded tactics.
"It... was more than that. The enemy took my memories... they made something out of my past, something that in one life, might have been my future. They tried to trap me and kill me without my knowledge of anything." Ryder added to Jan's explanation.
"Well, there was something I sort of left out myself," Leets admitted as well. "After I found this sword, I sort of passed out from wandering. Then this weird traveller with a pack full of maps helped me to New Brunswick."
"...bloody bastard stole half my food too," he muttered irritably to himself.
"Hm. Leets, did he see you right off the bat?" Jan asked the boy, even as he turned a curious eyebrow at Ryder.
"The tower is basically a big mystery. No one but a scant few want to explore it, and even less have returned from it. The ones that do usually wind up like poor Farnham. He's said he's been in it before, but not that many believed him, since he used to be something of a coward before."
"Yeah, he did," Leets said, eyeing Jan warily. "First thing he said was I shouldn't sleep out in the sun."
"Well, that was because you had passed out. Anyway, we've pretty much hit a dry spot with the conversation right now. Let's eat up and get ready to go to bed."
Food was promptly devoured as they all hit the hay.
And so they slept... Leets being the first to rise as moonlight was shining upon them.
Dracos
Leets yawned, stretching a bit to get the blood flowing in his limbs again. He was temporarily startled at the dark ceiling above him until he remembered the events of the previous few days.
"Bugger... not back in London now, am I?" he muttered balefully to the tent. "At least it's warm 'ere."
He sighed and got out, watching at the moonlite desert and the still sleeping camp. Shrugging, he began meticulously packing the tent away and idly grabbing a piece of dried fruit out of his bag to chew on.
Jan fitfully woke up, shook his head, and started getting ready to head out. He made his way about waking up the other two as well as he made himself pretty. "Time's a wasting. It's best if we get moving now."
"Righty-o then," Leets said, stuffing his tent back into his satchel and going to wake the others up.
The camp was soon packed and the group continued marching onward.
Heading out, they soon came to a conundrum...
Several large scorpions, the size of big dogs, were making their way across the landscape before them, moving over in the night.
Dracos
Leets stared, baffled. "...guess he wasn't lying about the scorpions."
"My votes for running. How about you guys?" he asked, nervously studying the approaching swarm for an avenue of escape.
"Yes. It's for the best to avoid confrontation." Jan started leading some of the people in their group away from the scorpions and the long way around.
They moved around, taking more time as they moved away from the tower. In the distance, they could sort of spot something green as they continued on towards New Reno, the scorpions not rushing after them.
Dracos
"What do you suppose that is?" Leets squinted in an attempt to fix his view.
"It isn't that far off our path. We should go check it out." Jan started towards the green spot.
As they approached, they could see in the far distance...a tree.
Dracos
Jan blinked. Hard. "This...that shouldn't be possible!" He quickly made his way towards the tree, careful to be aware of his surroundings regardless. It wouldn't do to fall into a pit and die, or trip over a scorpion in a mad rush to see if the tree was real or not.
There seemed to be another tree next to it in fact.
Though it'd take a good rest of the night to get there.
Dracos
"I take it trees aren't common around here," Leets surmised needlessly based on Jan's reaction, and increaded his pace to keep up with their guide.
The night moved fast as by morning they found themselves pretty near the forest edge. It seemed dark and gloomy inside.
Dracos
Leets stopped at the edge of the forest, straining his senses to peer into the darkness. Still, all he was sure that he could see was the gloomy interior. "Well, at least this forest looks more inviting then those scorpions did."
"And a bit of shade in this desert can't be all that bad," he commented, stepping into the woods as the sun was rising. He waited by a tree for the others.
The woods were thick as Leets stepped in, a sort of ghostly chill about them. He was rather tired from the night of walking but at the same time strangely thankful it wasn't night yet. There didn't seem to be much of a path from here, if they chose to go deeper in.
Dracos
A chill ran along his spine, and Leets subconsciously rubbed his arm in response. Leaving seemed like a good idea, but it felt like he was drawn to go deeper into the woods. Slowly, he went deeper into the forest, not checking to see if the others were still behind, though he did absently hear the crunching of leaves keeping pace.
"Hey, wait up. You shouldn't go in there alone, who knows what might be lurking in there." Jan lead the others after the boy so he wouldn't run into another scorpion or something.
Leets froze, snapping out of his dazed stupor before backing away from the shadows. "Right... don't know what came over me..."
He rejoined the group.
Heading in, there was an unearthily chill about the area, a ghostly fog filtering through the trees as the sun began to rise. The tired group didn't see many good paths as they traveled into the forest, but could make their way through.
Dracos
"This shouldn't be here in the first place. I've never seen anything alive on the path to New Reno *ever*."
"Well, you have dog-sized mutant scorpions. What's so odd about trees popping out of thin air then?"
"Things like this don't just spontaneously happen. The scorpions were your average everyday thing before they got turned into that by radiation, but this can't be explained as easily." Jan started past Leets into the forest.
"Certainly doesn't fit at all with the wasteland we just left, that's for certain." Clyde kept a cautious eye out as the group proceeded through the gloomy forest.
Heading on in, after many hours, the quite exhausted crew found themselves stepping into the borders of what, to all appearances, was a ghost town. Completely there, though not a single sign of human life about. It was an old village, the buildings made of wood and a wood arch visible a little to their left as an official entrance.
Dracos
Leets glanced around the dead, yet unmarred town, feeling an ominous chill in down in his bones.
"What do you supposed happened here?"
Ryder looked like Hell... of course, he could say that since he's seen it. Quite pleasant, not at all like the lakes of fire and the demonic torment like most people think. No, the torment comes from 24 millenia marathons of Barney, who is actually a Grand Demon Level 3, only behind Satan and his son Mammon in rank amonst the Interdimentional Demonic Society. Ryder took great joy in putting a cap in him, but unfortunately, Barney survived to cause more eternal torment for the wicked in life. He did end up with quite the headache... So did 30,000,000 residents of Hell when he sang more off-key than normal.
Regardless of all that, Ryder still looked like Hell, and he muttered out sarcastically, "Gee... we must have just missed the party."
His question was answered with a bone-chilling howl. Probably from a wolf.
Dracos
Leets gulped and turned slowly to Jan. "Do you have normal wolves here or only the mutated kinds?"
"I've never seen a wolf here before. And it's probably a good thing, considering the state of the town." Jan wondered if there were such things as mutated wolves.
As they were talking, they began to see them heading out... first one...then four more...eight now looking on from around the town before them. They were large wolves, not huge, but big and fearsome looking with shaggy gray hides and sharp teeth.
Dracos
Ryder blanched at the pack looking them over. "Leets... next time you think of predicting something or asking if something exists... don't."
"All of you, get to a building. Now. I'll cover you." Jan loosened his collar a bit as he stared down the pack, even as he began to draw upon something just beyond his consciousness.
Ryder nods to Jan. "You got it boss..." He then looks around for a building to rush into.
"I think that's the best suggestion I've heard all day," Clyde replied, reaching inside his coat and withdrawing a long item, which he extended to about four feet long with a snap of his wrist. Keeping an eye on the wolves, he heads for the nearest building.
Leets snapped out of his stupor upon Jan's orders and joined Clyde in rushing to the nearest hopefully unlocked building.
Four of the wolves promptly growled, running swiftly towards them to cut them off from the buildings.
Dracos
For the sake of not letting himself get killed, Ryder followed Clyde and Leets.
This was, of course, not the first time Ryder's been in such a situation... But then again, running from the flat-footed Sloggroths in Alpha Centurai just because he had running shoes on in the Temple of Athelete's Foot. Thankfully, they never caught him.
The trembling earth, thickening of the air, and an unholy roar of an explosions were more than enough to show the fleeing trio that events had suddenly taken a dramatic turn as they saw from the sides of their eyes wolves yelping as they were thrown into the air as the earth erupted underneath them.
A faint hissing was detected as they entered a nearby building, and the image of a dark hulking form squaring off with the rest of the wolf pack.
Clyde grimaced. "Damnation," he muttered quietly. "I hope this is still good." Pointing the long rod out at arm's length - now distinguishable as a billiards cue - he pressed a button on the side of the device, a small projectile flying from its tip towards the nearest of the wolves.
The wolves were launced up and yelped, one getting clipped by Clyde's shot, though seeming to shrug the poison off as they landed and growled fearsomely, charging towards them with only a few seconds reprieve.
Dracos
Leets didn't spare a glance backwards during the chase, years of dodging capture having honed his escaping skills a smidgen. Once he was safely inside the building, he slid behind the door, ready to slam it shut as soon as the rest of the group have joined him.
The others barely made it in, leaving Jan alone with eight angry wolves that quickly circled him.
Dracos
The dust and steam cleared, revealing a gun metal humanoid figure standing casually in a small crater, left fist embedded into the ground and a gleaming white piston slowly rising out from inside that arm.
Devoid of any features, it was a sleek form, with only that piston and a small shield bolted on its right forearm. The golem raised his unblinking red eyes to the wolves surrounding it as it withdrew its left arm from the ground with a loud crack, stone crumbling off its fist, which hissed slightly at the wolves from three small vents between the knuckles.
It took one thundering step forward before it suddenly lashed out with its arms at a nearby wolf, the disproportionately long limbs flying at a suprisingly fast speed at the animal.
"Will you hurry it up already, Smi-YEARGH!" Leets refexively slammed the door on the nose of the lunging missile of fur, muscle and teeth. He listened to the wolf yelp in pain with some satisfation before realizing "Bloody hell, I just shut Smith out!"
He rushed to the nearest window, checking to see if Jan made it to another building.
Leets:
Outside you see no sign of Jan. Only a large humanoid mass of steel striking out against the wolves.
Jan:
The blow landed, sending one wolf flying off with a yelp as four others dove in, biting and gnawing at the metal.
Dracos
The giant dug its feet into the ground as it turned from side to side to try and shake off the wolves. Even as it did that, it tried to keep others from trying to latch on as well by swiping at them.
He could knock them around something fierce, but it didn't seem to matter, even crushing blows getting shrugged off after a bit as the wolves rose back to their feet and leaped at him while he stood trying to fight them off. On the upside, they couldn't do much damage besides leaving little scratches all over him.
Dracos
Leets shied away from the window, staring at the humanoid creature outside. He could almost feel the power behind it as it launched the wolves into the air one-by-one. "Hope he's on our side," he muttered, his limbs feeling week as the adrenaline left him.
Slumping a bit to the floor, he tried to pass the time until he could feel his legs again by looking over the interior of the house.
The golem suddenly stopped all together as it realized that the situation as it was had hit a level of pointlessness. An eternal standoff at this rate. So thinking, the golem began making its way to protect the house from the wolves instead.
The house leets was in wasn't terribly large. There was a counter covered in dust spanning the whole width about three fourths in, plenty of open space before it. The place looked pretty bare, though there were marks as if things had been torn off the walls or scratched against them. In the back there were some storage cabinents.
Dracos
Leets sighed, sparing a glance at the others who were catching their breaths after their close encounter of the toothy kind. He stretched a bit, feeling the numbness leave him, and stood up. Sparing another glance at the room, he reflexively made his way to the cabinents and opened them.
Opening them he found a few rusted shards of metal, lots of scratch marks around the edges of the cabinents and nothing else. All of them were bare.
Dracos
Leets picked one of the shards up, scrutinizing it closely.
Ryder takes a seat in the corner, seeming to meditate...
Of course, to those that know him, Ryder was actually going emo, thinking of all the crap that he's been through and all the memories that he thinks he may have lost.
Jan:
The wolves circled Jan, not leaving him be as he stood there, leaping at him and slashing.
Leets:
It was a broken ring of metal. Not like the type that was worn on a finger, so much as the type that was used to make chain meshes or mail.
Dracos
Jan swiped back at the wolves, trying to drag them in to try and hold them down in a hug or something. They were still small, despite their supernatural endurance, so maybe they could be dealt with that way.
Leets absently pocketted the scraps of metal and tried to find something else that could be salvaged.
Jan:
Jan did manage to catch one after a bit, the wolf snarling and struggling in it's arms, biting at him.
Dracos
Leets:
Nothing else, unless he was going to walk off with the attached to the wall furniture. Heck, the scraps looked like they were barely salvagable as is.
Dracos
Leets frowned at the lack of raidable goods and went to check the windows to see if the giant or the wolves have left yet.
Leets:
They were locked in brutally mortal combat outside the door.
Dracos
"Just our luck to stumble into Wolf Monster territory," Leets grumbled, slumping against the window and yawning; tiredly watching the battle between beast and machine.
Jan attempted to catch another, even as he tried to pack the first wolf underneath enough dirt and debris to keep it firmly pinned down and out of his hair.
Unfortunately, in trying to bury the wolf, the wolf got purchase on the ground again, seeming to slip into it and out of his hands and circling about.
Dracos
The golem gave a curious quirk of the head before trying to collect all the wolves in his arms. Maybe the others could get by then, or he could simply chuck them all out into the woods. Was there a lake out there?
He tried to recall the route.
They did pass a lake on their journey here, but that wasn't going to be an issue as he couldn't manage to get a hold of three of them, much less all eight.
Dracos
The golem thundered its way towards the house that Leets and the others were in...and shook his head in a 'no go' sort of fashion. He turned and started stomping his way through town to see what the hell kind of odds they were facing.
Bad enough there were already eight of them.
As he walked around the town, the eight wolves continued hounding him, trying to bring him down.
Dracos
"Good lord, are there enough of them out there?" Clyde muttered. Pushing his already-protesting muscles, he began to look around the house to see if he can find anything that might be usable to help even the odds a bit.
Clyde:
Much as leets found, the place was pretty darn bare.
Dracos
The golem reached over and promptly begun digging out a pit in the center of town to drop the wolves into. Once finished, he began trying to drop the wolves inside.
Jan dug and he dug and he dug, hollowing out a pit and tossing the wolves into it. The sun crossed the horizon as he worked, already steady into descent as he tossed the wolves in, howling angrily and digging rapidly at the walls, trying to scale them. He had a sense that this would not hold them very long, even if he was currently free of them.
Dracos
The golem nodded in appreciation as it slowly shambled towards the forest in search of a big enough rock to cover the pit with, exhausation at having kept this form up aslong as he had starting to affect the man within, if not the actual body.
Well, he found one, and a good fourty minutes later, the pit was mostly sealed in.
Dracos
The golem slumped over as soon as its work was done, the twin rows of bolts along its back and the ones along its arms suddenly falling off its frame. Blasts of steam erupted out from within the body to silhouette its form as it snuck into the ground.
Moments later a man burst from within the steam and began making his way woozily to the house where the others were staying. Time for him to have a nice rest.
Arriving at the door, Jan knocked twice. "Let me in guys."
Clyde had been watching the goings on, letting the others get some rest. "Thank god - are you all right?" He quickly opens the door to let Jan come inside.
"Mm..more or less." Jan hummed as he entered the room, looking worn down as hell, suit frayed and tattered, but still in one piece. "It should hold them down there for a while. I want to catch my second wind and we'll explore the town now that they're out of the picture."
"Sounds like an excellent plan to me," Clyde replied. "Send one of the others to take over here and I'll probably join you - it's been a long evening."
Changing out of big form, Jan is hit with the fact that he's been on his feet for nearly two days now, swaying a bit on his feet as he walks past Clyde.
Dracos
"Let's rest up for now first. I'll go wake Leets." And so they went to bed after Leets took guard duty, tired and stressed out from the encounter with those odd wolves.
Rumbling was heard on leets watch as he looked on, soon shaking Clyde awake.
Dracos
"Mmf," Clyde mumbled as he was awakened. "What is it?"
"The wolves are getting free." he said quickly.
Dracos
"Oh, damn," Clyde replied, waking up rather quickly. He goes to check on Jan, since there seems to be no other resources readily available for anyone else to do anything about the wolves.
Jan was leisurely snoring away as he leaned back on a nearby dresser.
Clyde shook Jan gently. "Jan, we may need your help again. The wolves are apparently escaping."
Jan slowly opened his eyes. "Huh? Already?" He shook his head to clear the fog out of it. Slowly making his way to his feet, he began walking towards the exit.
Jan could see the wolves struggling, burrowing out through the ground and howling as they slowly were freeing themselves. They had time still, but not a lot of it.
Dracos
"Coffee packet." Jan held out a hand towards Leets.
Leets blinked. "um, okay." He checked his bag, getting out the packet of caffine and giving it to Jan.
Dracos
Jan opened it up and poured the contents into his mouth, following it up with a swig of a water cateen nearby. "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup..." He sing songed with a wince as the caffeine kickstarted his brain as he stepped outside, light gathering around his form as the golem's silhouette began to appear superimposed on his form.
He continued walking towards the pit and the wolves inside before the earth erupted underneath him, the cloud of dirt and rocks falling back to the ground, and revealing the scratched golem once again.
It started jogging/dashing the rest of the way to the pit as it pulled back its left arm, the piston imbedded in it drawing back as well...before the golem brought the fist down at an angle. The earth roared as the pressure housed within the arm was released in an eruption, sending more rock and debris to cover the pit and the wolves within.
The wolves were buried under the explosion of dirt and rocks, for the moment obscuring them entirely from view.
Dracos
The golem paused for a moment to see if anything was going to be popping out to see what its next plan would be.
Well they didn't seem to be ripping through the ground right away. Maybe they were buried under it for a while.
Dracos
From Jan:
The golem decided that enough was enough. Holding up an open hand in a 'Stop' sign, he gestured to itself, then the houses. He was going to go check them out by himself, just in case more wolves popped up.
He started towards the largest house in town first.
Heading there he found it had a single wood door entryway, easy to break, though a bit small for his frame of current to slip through, even if he opened it.
Dracos
From Jan:
The golem reached over and lightly pushed on it, knocking the door down, before turning into good ol' Jan. He strolled on in.
Strolling in, he found himself in a midsized entry/greeting room. It would be kind of homely if it wasn't for the fact it was completely bereft of furniture that wasn't nailed to the wall. Two doors, one to the north and one to the west greeted him.
Dracos
Jan went north. The better to put more distance between him and the wolves. "I wonder how long it's been since there's been people here." He looked to see signs of looting, like drag marks on the ground from where people would be hurriedly hauling furniture out. Scratches or tears on the walls from where things had been pulled down hard.
Stuff like that.
Plenty of those sorts of signs around. Checking inside the next room he found three doors, one to the north, one to what appeared to be a storage closet, and one to the east.
There was a single table in this room, attached to the floor, old and well used.
Dracos
Since he had no reason to give up now, Jan went north again!
It was a dead end. There was old dried blood stains along a carpet in the middle of the room. A few heavy bookshelves pushed over around it. It looked like some violence had occured here.
Dracos
Jan frowned as he moved the book shelves aside as best he could. Maybe one of these books could show what the situation was here.
Nope, just bare wall beneath them. No sign of why there was bloodshed in this room.
Dracos
Jan frowned, and left the room, crossing the supply closet as he checked out the other path to the left.
Leets watched Jan wander from house to house, yawning tiredly as the excitement from earlier wore off. He glanced at the shadows spreading, trying to estimate the time that passed. After a rough estimate, he shrugged and quietly slipped towards Ryder.
"Mister Hakubi, you're turn to take watch," he mumbled, shaking the taller man.
Ryder jolted awake as if he had discovered The Question in his sleep. Thankfully for all, he did not, but still it was quite a jolt.
After regaining his senses, Ryder nodded, "Alright Leets, go ahead and get some sleep. And call me Ryder, ok?"
Heading into the other room, he found what seemed to be the remains of a master bedroom. Pillaged in a like manner to the others.
Dracos
Leets nodded sleepily as he slipped off to his own corner to catch a quick nap.
"What the heck happened here? Seems like something slaughtered everyone in town just to rob them blind. Must've happened fairly recently since the blood stains are still back there, but I wonder what happened to the bodies." Jan hummed as he continued exploring.
Heading around, the house was empty. He'd explored everything but the storage closet he passed earlier.
Dracos
Jan decided to check out the closet.
It is locked. It is in fact, the only locked door in the house.
Dracos
Jan blinked, looking around for anything he could use to break the door down. He didn't want to burn his energies in transforming unnecessarily.
He could try to shoulder ram it. Or smash the table and try and use that. Or call the others.
Dracos
He used the table to try and smash the door down.
It took some doing but he chucked the table, putting a huge dent in it.
Dracos
Jan tried to use the table again. If it was too bad to use, he'd start shoulder ramming it.
A few blows and the table was shattered, but the door had holes in it, enough that a good strong blow would carry him through it, and he could see the dirt floor on the other side.
A cold wind blew from within.
Dracos
Jan started smashing his shoulder into the closet for a minute before he broke in, wincing at how sore his shoulder was now. Shaking his head, he made his way inside.
"Wonder why those bandits or whatever didn't raid this place."
The place was bitter cold as he entered. A sort of cave. There's more than a few corpses scattered about, with lots of bite and claw marks on them.
Dracos
"Well, seems I found where they stay. Wonder if they have a back entrance down below." Jan started making his way deeper into the cave, prepped to transform if needed.
There were stairs a bit in, leading down into the depths. It was chilly without being really cold. More of a sort of sense that human life did not tresspass here.
Dracos
Jan shrugged the feeling off for now and continued down the steps. He had to find out what was going on in this town and why a massacre seemingly happened here.
He eventually came to a large open underground cave. A sort of supernatural soft light illuminated it only slightly, coming from a large crystal floating at the end of it.
'Man...when'd my life turn into one of those stories that the old man tells the children?' He mentally groused as he carefully approached the crystal, looking this way and that for anything that might jump him.
Inside there was a purple box, small and shut. The crystal was about three times it's size, completely covering it.
Dracos
Jan blinked, and carefully reached out to grab it.
It didn't zap him, though it was a bit frigid to the touch. Not ice though. The crystal continued to glow.
Dracos
"Brr. Is this frozen entree what they were after?" The negotiator wondered as he pulled it down from where it was casually defying the laws of gravity. He placed it in his backpack.
Without the crystal, the room was practically pitch black.
Dracos
"Huh. Guess you double as a night light too." Jan pulled out the crystal and used it to light his way as he returned.
Those above ground:
You hear a bone chilling howl of rage as the ground seems to rumble, the wolves practically bursting forth, tearing rabidly through the ground in rage.
Dracos
Leets snapped to attention at the terribly howling, eyes wide as he rushed to wake Clyde up.
"So much for being normal wolves," he growled as he shook Clyde. "Wake up, Professor. We're about to get visitors."
He spared a glance to Ryder before headed over to gather his things: slinging his bag over his shoulder and raising the rusted blade up unsteadily. It might not do much but at least he wasn't unarmed.
Jan:
]
Jan, just starting on the stairs, heard a bone chilling howl.
Dracos
"Oh great. They're pissed off now." Jan broke a dash towards the entrance of the house, slapping the crystal into his pack as he moved to go help the others before they were overwhelmed.
Even as he moved, he concentrated on the spirit within, preparing himself to awaken his other self at a moment's notice.
Two of them were already free, sniffing quickly and charging at the house with them in it.
Dracos
"Hey! Come get me, I'm the one that has the crystal and the box inside it!" Jan yelled as he ran towards the wolves to cut them off, already glowing with the strength of the spirit within as the silhouette began to form around him.
Leets relaxed upon hearing Jan calling the wolves away, but still remained tensed incase whatever was being planned failed.
As Jan cleared the front door, six very angry wolves leaped forward, charging at him and focusing on him, hungrily rushing as fast as they could at him.
Dracos
"I'm sorry about what happened to you all, and I could only imagine how long you must have been here protecting the crystal. However, I will not allow you to kill us!" Jan's roared as his body brilliantly shone, the earth exploding right underneath as the worn, but fully functional golem rose once again in a boxer's stance.
It swung its arms in front of it in an arc to catch the wolves and send them up into the air.
That, of course, left two wolves still charging at the awakening group, smashing against the wood door with a hard thud and scratching claws.
Dracos
"Ah hell," Leets muttered, rushing to push the dresser in front of the door as a barricade.
"Bloody hell," Clyde muttered, scrambling up from his place of repose to help Leets with the door. "Can you hold them for a minute? I'll see if I can't find something to wedge the door with."
Leets nodded, gritting his teeth as he combined his miniscule weight and the dresser to brace the door shut.
The wolves slammed against it ferally.
Dracos
Clyde quickly withdrew a small hatchet from his bag of tools, taking a couple of boards out of one of the inside walls and paring down one side to make a wedge for the door. That done, he hammers the two wedges in at the bottom of the door with the back of the hatchet, then assists Leets in bracing the dresser against the door. "Hopefully that will hold them, if the door can stand up to their attack."
Leets squad:
The three of them could hear the wolves slamming ferciously against the door, not breaking it, but smashing at it with no respect for life or limb.
Dracos
Jan:
three were sent flying as two bite onto the arm, clawing at it as best they could.
Dracos
"Bloody...!" Leets winced, feeling the force of each blow behind his back. "D'ya think you can hold the fort while I look for another way out, Professor?" he asked as the wolves slammed against the door again. "Don't think they'll be giving up just because we won't let them in."
He left Hornsby to keep the door shut while he checked the windows opposite the door.
There were no windows opposite the door, but there were ones to the side. They also could be broken and were large enough to dive through.
Dracos
Leets checked the windows to make sure everything was clear outside and to see if they could escape before the wolves stop ramming the door to come chase them.
There was a clear route to run for the trees fron the window.
Dracos
Leets looked for trees with branches low enough for him to climb on but high enough to avoid the wolves' reach.
The trees near the town were tall and strong with plenty of branches for climbing on.
Dracos
"Guys, can I ask you to take care of my stuff for a moment?" Leets asked, dropping the extra weight and kneeling down to tighten his shoelaces.
"Be very careful," Clyde stressed. "If you're being followed too closely, head back this way and I'll unwedge the door for you - should only take a minute."
"Thanks," Leets nodded gratefully, shrugging off his jacket and unlatching the window. He quietly slipped out and ran a few paces away from the house so the wolves could see him.
"Hey you ugly mutts! Do you like your meal to go?!" he taunted to catch then attention, ready to sprint to the trees.
The two wolves turned, rushing for him. He could see Jan still trying to stroll his way through the wolf pack in front of the other building. That was unimportant. What was important was those wolves looked hungry.
Dracos
Leets immediately turned tail and ran towards the forest, hopefully leading the two wolves away from the others.
...do mutant wolves know how to climb? he wondered as he scrambled his way up the closest tree branch out of reach from the hungry canines after him.
He barely managed to scramble into the tree, the teeth biting sharpely, barely missing his feet.
He was left sitting in the branches, just out of reach as the wolves circled angrily.
Dracos
"Well this is a fine mess you got yourself into," Leets grumbled, glaring at the snapping jaws as he relaxed a bit. He hoped the others could now come up with a better plan since they no longer have to worry about the door being broken into.
The golem suddenly smashed its fist down into the ground, the pressure within releasing into the earth as the piston came down with a mighty hiss. The area around them suddenly erupted as the wolves were sent up into the air, where it batted them deep into the woods with mighty backhands.
For the moment, the mighty Jan had garnered them freedom in the village. They were kings of the hill.
Dracos
The golem thundered its way towards the house, and gestured at Ryder to exit with the professor.
Clyde wasted no time in obeying the command. "I think we should vacate this area completely before the wolves make it back here."
The golem looked over the group, then quirked its head as if to wonder where the missing kid was.
Ryder nodded, almost vacantly walking out of the house behind the professor, looking at his gun woefully.
Ryder blinked at the question. "He's uh, up in the tree." He turned and pointed, where a bit aways, two wolves were circling a tree hungrily.
Dracos
The golem quickly began thundering towards the tree, hopefully scaring the wolves off. If they didn't want to play, he'd just send them flying towards the woods with their friends.
Well, for values of scaring off equal to them turning, sniffing, and charging right at him, Jan managed to get them away from the tree.
Dracos
The golem slid to a stop, sending dirt right at the wolves' faces as it drew his arms back and swiped at them to try and throw them off in the same direction it had done with the rest.
His arm launched out with another piston attack, sending them flying.
The group was now alone.
At least for a short while anyway.
Dracos
"Thanks," Leets said gratefully, dropping out of the tree. "Can we get out of here now?"
The golem suddenly crashed to one knee as it slowly shimmered in and out of existence, the form of Jan being revealed each time it faded out in the same position. The flip flopping eventually slowed to a crawl, then stopped entirely on Jan.
"Dammit. Ugh." He passed out with a grunt of annoyance.
"Smith? Smith!" Leets hurried over to the unconscious man, checking his pulse and breathing. He sighed with relief as it seemed the negotiator was simply exhausted.
He slung Jan's arm over his shoulder awkwardly as the older man was almost a foot taller and began dragging him back towards the village.
The others picked up Jan from Leets hold, carring him more easily.
Dracos
Leets retrieved his belongings from Hornsby, making sure everything was accounted for. "Let's get out of here before those wolves decide to get some friends."
"Amen to that," Clyde agreed. Shouldering most of Jan's weight, he begins to lead the way back along the trail the group entered the area on, moving as quickly as he can with his burden.
OOC: Grawr
IC:
They began off through the forest, the moon rising as they moved. The howl of wolves heard mere minutes later into the walk. The hunt clearly having already begun.
Dracos
"Oh bloody hell," Leets growled, helping Clyde support Jan's weight so they can move faster. "Don't they ever give up?" he asked rhetorically as they ran faster.
They were getting nearer as the edge of the forest approached...another howl...from in front of them? The trees were still thick and tall around them.
Dracos
Leets cursed. "Only one place to go now." He released Jan and started climbing up a tree with low branches, then knelt down and helped pull Jan up with him. "Get climbing folks."
Struggling to keep Jan from slipping, he waited for Clyde to join him so they can drag Jan to safety.
Clyde grasped one of the lower branches and slowly managed to haul himself into the tree. "I'm far too old for this," he grumbled, helping to support Jan's weight once he managed to get himself securely situated in the branches.
And so the night passed, the wolves nipping at their heels, running around, and howling angrily.
When they awoke in their uncomfortable branches, the sun was already up and the wolves were gone.
Dracos
Leets woke with a grimace, feeling stiff from spending the night in a tree. He gingerly nudged the others to wake them up. "I think they finally left," he said, about to climb down..
Ryder nodded, waking the others up and getting them down to the ground.
Dracos
Yay for GM/Player syndrome.
"Come on. New Reno should be that tower we saw a few days ago," Leets said as he helped Clyde carry Jan; the group making their way out of the forest and back to the desert.
It wasn't long until they saw the sprawling metropolis that was... New Reno in the distance.
Dracos