Post by Mariomasher on Feb 11, 2009 16:18:19 GMT -5
Chapter 8: Trip to the Shadow Marsh: Scrindou Mountains
MM, Bert, Sour, and David formed the Alpha Squad and assigned numbers. They entered a mysterious cave in which they found the guardian dead and a strange man named Spod. He summoned minions which were destroyed by a new member of the group, Gabe. This time they have to cross over the Scrindou Mountains. What will happen this time?
The squad made base camp at the exit of Blorgont's Cave. Dave and Bert went looking for resources, Sour went for firewood, and Gabe and MM stayed to set up camp. They chatted about adventures before they were reunited. After a few stories, they switched topics to Gabe's mutation.
"How did you become like this?" MM asked.
"I believe it happened when I was young. In fourth grade, maybe. I went to the doctors to get 'diagnosed' for the flu. When my parents wanted to come with me, the doctor told them that it might be too unstable for them and disallowed them to come. We went into the room and he told me to lie on a table. he told me it wouldn't hurt. He muttered to the nurse something about Radio-active acid. When it was retrieved, the doctor injected it into my bloodstream. Thereafter, i moved a lot quicker. Soon I controlled it and now I'm here." Gabe explained.
MM thought for a second," Fourth grade, right?"
"Yeah, why?" Gabe inquired.
"Well, when I was in fourth grade, I found an icy stone in the middle of June and..." MM told his story. "I never knew what had happened." The others returned from their gatherings. Bert had a few pails of water, David had a deer slung over his shoulder, and Sour had firewood in his hands. "Welcome back!"
"Glad to be back," Bert said," It's a mess out there. It's just as bad as or worse than the cave. There's barely any trees, it's hazy in the valley, it's just plain horrid."
"Sounds like Spod did a little more damage than what we've seen already." Gabe assumed.
"Ten times more damage!" Sour exclaimed.
"Tell us while we cook. I'd like to get out of here ASAP" MM said as he filleted the deer. The squad reported their findings. David said there were few trees. Because of this extreme deforestation, there were few deer. Sour agreed. He had cut down only one tree, used as much of it as he could and then planted all the seeds.
"It pained me to kill that deer. It seemed as if it was one of the last ones," David said." It also pained me to see all the damage out there. It is a black wasteland with fires burning dead corpses. It...It’s just ugly." MM peered into the valley. David was right. He saw an arid land. No life in site except for one or two trees. The mountains at the end of the valley were scorched as well. They had a pallid colored haze over the peak. The ground was tainted a deep purple color with splotches of red blood. He saw the burning corpses of deer, foxes, and birds.
MM shook his head in disgust. "If we don't get a move on, we'll be seeing this everywhere we go," MM stood up," You coming?"
"MM, we need to rest," Bert said. MM glared at him.
"I've had my rest! I've been wasting my time too much and soon it'll be too late. I won't be able to save her." MM looked at the ground in sadness. He looked up at his friends," Now, I'm done wasting my time and I'm going no matter what you have to say about it." MM began to walk off. Gabe followed as the others muttered to each other.
"MM, we all know that we need to keep moving, but you need to understand that we move as a group." Gabe stopped in front of MM.
"No, I might as well waste a day in front of a computer typing a fanfic!" MM said.
"One, so many people do that. Two, stay with the group!" Gabe was getting angry.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm scouting!" MM was also losing his temper.
"LIAR!" Gabe yelled. "Don't force me to take you back against your will!"
"Try," MM laughed. He continued past Gabe. Gabe was furious. He sped up to MM and punched him in the gut.
"You're staying with us!" he raged. MM returned the favor by kneeing Gabe in the face and then elbowing him to the ground."Oh, you're dead now!" he stood up. This once peaceful conversation now turned into an all out brawl.
"My Falco pwnz your Marth!" MM was playing SSBB.
"NEVER!" Gabe broke the wii.
"NO!" MM yelled. The two comrades began to fight. They had fought for well over an hour of kneeing, punching, and clawing. They both stopped.
"You put up a good fight," Gabe panted.
"Not bad yourself," MM wiped blood from his face. He glared at his companion with hate. "Why do you try to stop me?
"I don't want you to die off," Gabe began. "Many of our friends that I have ventured with have been killed. For instance, I went to Cape Cod with Jeff. We went on a fishing trip. It was the middle of the day, the sun was shining. Then it went dark. Hazy, cloudy, it was like I dozed into a nightmare. The sea thrashed the boat around. A strange creature came out of the water and crushed the boat. We both fell into the water, but for some reason, it was clear. I saw Jeff get ingested by the sea monster. I fled to shore. I looked back at the boats remains and saw a single dark, purple, and swirling cloud just in that spot. Everywhere else was normal. I've always had the feeling that the beast meant to eat me but Jeff got in the way." MM understood how he felt.
"I know how you feel about this," MM said," This whole expedition is because I lost someone who was the closest person to me in the world."
"Enough fighting. We need to move on," the two of them made up and glanced over at the mountains. The pallid haze covered most of the mountain. Then there was a large row that sped down the mountain at high speeds. "What is that?"
"I don't know, nor do i want to find out!" MM signaled for Gabe to return with him. The two ran back to camp. "BERT!"
"WHAT?!" Bert jumped. He didn't notice them run over.
"Look at the mountain," Gabe demanded. The haze was moving too now, as if...it was alive.
“Crap! It’s the Scrin!” Bert exclaimed. “But why are they here?”
“Wait, what are the Scrin?” David asked.
“They are merciless creatures. They attack in huge hordes the one coming at us. The haze is a bunch of Scrin. They have a clawed mouth, bat wings, razor claws, raptor-like toes, and a few spikes jutting out from its back. You will notice that some of them look human. Well, they are, or used to be anyways. They have small drones in the horde that attack your main organs by latching on and biting through your skin, bone, and other tissues. Once the victim is dead, these drones inject a disease in the body. In a matter of seconds, the body turns into another Scrin. Watch out when we go into battle.” Bert briefly explained.
“You seem to know a lot… but why on the Scrindou Mountains?”Sour asked.
“Wait, Scrindou? ARGH! I’m such an idiot!” Bert got angry at himself.
“What?” MM questioned.
“Listen to the first syllable: Scrin” Bert said.
“Wow, that was pretty dumb,” Gabe teased.
“No time to make fun of each other. Here they come!” Sour got into a battling stance. The horde of Scrin reached the heroes. Sour hacked one in half. The top half of the marred body slashed Sour in the back of the leg. Sour fell to his knees. Aggravated at the Scrin, he smashed the creatures face with his fist. “Aw, this is brand new armor! Stupid mucus-covered Scrin!”
“Don’t let it stop you, 40,” MM ordered.
“Oh, so we’re back to numbers now?” Bert laughed. He teleported into the air and launched a Scrin into the horde. It obliterated about seven Scrin, excluding the one thrown. David shot an arrow through three Scrin, killing each one. MM hacked away but they didn’t stop coming. Not even Gabe was fast enough to hold them off.
“This is getting ridiculous!” Gabe yelled.
“You’re telling me. I’m not as fast as-” David was interrupted.
“RIDICULOUS!” Gabe screamed. MM chuckled at this old joke. He turned and cut a Scrin in half, but before he could block, he was tackled by a drone.
“Hey! Get off me!” The drone was tearing at his shirt. He closed his eyes tight and when he opened them again, the drone was frozen solid in ice. “What…”
MM! Get up!” Sour was attempting to hold off the horde of Scrin around MM. Dazed, MM got up and assisted Sour.
“There’s no way we’ll make it out alive at this rate!” Bert yelled as he constricted a Scrin in dark matter.
“I agree!” Gabe yelled from a distance. “There’s no end to this horde!” As Gabe and the others kept fighting, they migrated to the center of the horde (even though there is no way to tell).
“So, how’s it going, guys?” MM asked.
“Fine, if you cut out the ‘about to die’ part,” Sour said.
“Me? Well, life sucks!” Gabe exclaimed. MM laughed as they talked.
“I’d be fine if we weren’t so close to these things!” David shouted over the screeches of the Scrin. “I don’t do well close up!”
“Now’s when you learn,” Bert replied.
“Hey, Bert, you still haven’t answered me yet. How are you?” MM asked.
“Um, well, I’m already dead but I can still be killed. Overall, I feel fine.” Bert said.
“How in the world does that work?” Gabe inquired.
“Just don’t worry about it,” Bert reciprocated.
“But it doesn’t-” Sour began,
“DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT!” Bert screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Guys, look up!” MM ordered.
“Why?” David asked.
“Just look!” MM demanded. When the rest of the group looked up, there was a helicopter flying overhead.
“That reminds me. Why do we use medieval weapons?” David inquired.
“I don’t know. We just are,” Sour said. MM saw a figure in the helicopter. The figure shot something into the horde. It was a grenade. As soon as it made contact with the Scrin, it exploded, destroying at least forty of them.
“Holy @#%*!” Bert yelled.
“What?” Sour didn’t know what he said.
“Why did you just say ‘at number percent star’? Gabe asked.
“Just because,” Bert replied. Another grenade was shot into the area. A hole appeared in the horde. The Scrin now focused on the helicopter. They dove at the aircraft and grabbed onto it. The helicopter began to spin out of control. The gunner jumped out as the vehicle exploded into the horde. The mysterious man took out a shotgun and shot all the creatures that came within three feet of him. He was untouched.
“Okay, now I’m really confused as to why we use medieval weapons,” Gabe said. A Scrin slashed the shotgun in two. Both pieces became electronically charged. The man threw both into the horde and they exploded in a matter of seconds, destroying about 100 Scrin total. The gunner then whipped out dual pistols. He pointed then in opposite directions and shot rapidly into the horde. Sixty Scrin were annihilated. They overheated and had the same effect as the shotgun. He threw them into the horde and destroyed 46 Scrin total. He then took out an M16 next and shot at a bunch of Scrin.
“Where is he getting these?” MM exclaimed.
“I don’t know but you can tell that he is very discerning,” David said.
“VOCAB WORD!” MM yelled.
“Err…Ok?” Sour was a bit shocked at MM. The mysterious warrior took out 70 Scrin but saved one bullet. He then took out a S.P. Lazzr.
“What? Are we in Halo 3 now?” Bert asked. The man fired it once and destroyed 37.978 (yes, 978 thousandths of one) Scrin. He muttered to himself some Scientific and mathematical terms and then took the rapid fire cartridge in the M16 out and put it in the S.P. Lazzr, transforming it into the S.P. Lazzr R.F. He shot the rapid fire lasers around the area and destroyed a lot of (as in OVER 9000!!!) Scrin.
“That was intelligent,” David said.
“Yes, but he’ll burn out faster,” Sour corrected. Sure enough the gun burnt out. He put it away and he took out a sniper rifle.
“Alright, that’s enough weapons for one guy!” MM said. The man sniped off 7 Scrin heads with an additional 24 kills. He ran out of ammo. He pulled out a small object that was blinking and beeping.
“Pipe bomb,” Bert muttered.
“What is it?” MM asked.
“The Scrin are attracted to blinking lights and loud noises. This bomb is meant to attract Scrin to it so they can be destroyed,” Bert explained.
“So…”Sour was still confused.
“Just watch!” Bert said, getting annoyed. The man threw the bomb and all of the Scrin rushed over to it. He took out his M16, still with one bullet, and aimed at the horde. He shot. The bullet came in direct contact with the bomb between the thousands of Scrin. BOOM! The explosion was so severe that it destroyed all the Scrin around it and blew back the user and the four heroes.
“Holy crap!” David yelled as he stood up. The man seemed to be out of ammo, not including his long belt of grenades. The man stood up and walked towards the others.
“I won’t need a ‘thank you’ from you,” He said to MM.
“I don’t care what you say. You deserve thanks! Thank you!” MM said.
“It’s my job. The name’s Kin,” Kin said.
“I’m David, Alpha 07, and I specialize in ranged attacks.
“Hello! I’m Bert, Alpha 62, and I’m a wraith, specializing in dark energy,” Bert introduced.
“I’m Sour, Alpha 40, and I specialize in swordplay,” Sour said.
“I’m Gabe, Alpha 72, and I use a staff but I’m extremely fast,” Gabe said.
“And I’m MM, Alpha 38, and I’m an all around battler,” MM explained. “Would you like to join our group?”
“Um, sure, but I’m mostly out of ammo so I should tell you that I also use--” Kin was interrupted by a brutal strike from a heavily-armed Scrin. “Ah! Blasted Tank!”
“You know, this kind of reminds me of Left 4 Dead, but I don’t know why,” Sour pondered this for a moment. “Next thing you know there’s going to be something like a--”
“WITCH!” Gabe called as he spotted a small girl who was crying. “Nobody get close to that thing.”
“Why? We should help her. She obviously is hurt.” David said.
“No, don’t--” Gabe warned but it was too late. David and Bert were approaching the small girl.
“Don’t cry,” David said as he sat next to the girl. She seemed to have grey skin and only rags for clothes. She had long black hair and she looked about seven years old. “It’ll be okay.” He then heard a loud growl. “Bert, look around for enemies. I heard a growl.”
“Guys--” MM was trying to tell them something when he was attacked by the Tank, who was now focusing on him.
“There are no enemies around except for that Tank,” Bert reported.
“Okay,” David then put his hand on her shoulder. The moment he made contact with her, she began to make growls that sounded like an older woman. She stood up and made loud screeching noises. “Holy $h1t!”
“What?” Bert asked.
“The writer censored,” David explained. “You never get to say what you want to, you know?”
“Yeah, I only have a small role in this,” the witch said.
“Sucks to be you,” Bert laughed.
“So, where are we?” Sour chimed in.
“Oh, I’m about to get mauled by the witch,” David said.
“Oh, yeah! I remember now! Let’s continue,” the witch said. She extended her long grey claws and ran at David. Then there was ringing.
“Hold on, cell phone,” David answered his phone. “Hello? Oh hi Parker. Yeah I’m at a mountain range. Yes. No, that hasn’t happened yet. No. Yeah, we’re at that part. Yup. I need to go on with the story now. Okay. Bye.” David hung up. “Sorry. Friend called.”
“No problem,” the witch continued to run at David. She was about to strike when more ringing occurred.
“Darn cell phone!” David yelled. “Hello? No, Grams, I don’t want to see you. No. Look, I’m trying to do something right now. What? EPIC SOUP! Where are you? You’re… right behind me?” David turned around to see his grandmother with epic soup. “Creepy but…YUSS! EPIC SOUP” The nine of them ate the soup (MM, David, Sour, Bert, Gabe, Kin, The Tank, The Witch, Grams). “Okay, we need to finish up. Thanks for the soup, Grams!” Grams left. “Continue.” David turned his phone off. The witch began clawing him. “Get it off me!” David yelled. The witch was ripping at his chest, leaving large and deep gashes in his chest. Bert ran over to the witch and teleported up into the air with her. Before Bert could throw her, she scratched him and incapacitated him as he fell to the ground.. Since there was nothing holding the witch, she also fell. Sour saw the perfect opportunity and ran under the witch. He stuck his sword up and the witch’s head fell directly onto the sword. Dark blood was spat from the grey mouth. The blood poured out of the lifeless body and onto the ground to create a pool of blood. The vicious claws became unclenched. Even though it was one attack, it took all of the energy and power Sour had. He panted. Two of his colleagues were severely hurt. He glanced over at MM and Kin, still dodging the tank. He looked back at the two injured.
“Them first,” he muttered to himself. He ran over to David, who was hurt far more than Bert. “Just a little scratched up.”
“A little? Look at this!” David pointed to his chest. 4 ribs were visible along with a beating heart. He patched up his wound. “Next time, warn me.”
“I tried to,” Gabe said as Sour ran to help Bert, “but you didn’t listen.” Sour saw that Bert had a deep cut on his neck. He was confused as to how she injured him. Nonetheless, Sour healed Bert. Then something flashed on the battlefield.
“Woot! Achievement!” Sour said. “Kill a witch with a single headshot.”
“Guys!” MM shouted as he dodged an attack from the muscular Scrin. “Celebrate later. Help us!” All four of them rushed over to MM and Kin’s location to assist. MM dodged the creature but the body hit MM and slid back 4 feet. MM stabbed the tank, Sour and Bert did as well, and David shot 3 arrows into it. It seemed to take little damage and didn’t even flinch.
“Dang, didn’t even flinch!” Bert said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll hand this.” Kin said. Mist appeared around Kin. The tank rushed at him but Kin was quicker. The mist became solid into the shape of a hammer and Kin smashed the tank’s head. It got angry and ran at him. He smirked and shot into the air. From MM’s point of view, it began to rain deathly silver energy. Kin had turned the silver energy into a large mass of bombs.
“Everyone get to cover!” Sour shouted. He, David, Bert, and Gabe all ran into a nearby cave. MM, on the other hand, didn’t move. A combination of awe and fear paralyzed him. The silver energy bombs were bombarding the tank and were slowly weakening it. MM, too, was getting hit.
“MM, get out of there!” Bert yelled. MM didn’t move. “I’m going in there after him!”
“Don’t! You may get incapacitated and then one of us will have to save you,” Gabe admonition. Bert ignored the comment and ran in there. He dodged the bombs but before he could reach MM, he had a bomb explode in his heart. He groaned as he tried to crawl out of the battle zone. Again, he wasn’t quick enough and was hit again.
“I’m going in there!” David said. He ran out and dodged the bombs. He pulled Bert out but wasn’t able to save MM. MM was being severely bombarded but didn’t even seem to notice. Gabe then ran over to MM to get him out. Gabe had an unwelcome meeting with an expelling force field around MM. The force seemed cold, like it was made of ice. Then the tank ran over to MM and whacked him. The field had a small crack appear. This broke MM’s concentration. He realized what was going on and he ran for the cave. The force field seemed to move with him. He ran into the cave and Gabe soon followed. The force field around MM dissipated. The tank then collapsed from exhaustion and injuries. Kin stopped the attack and landed on the ground.
“It works better on bigger hordes,” Kin said as his companions walked over to him. The mist disappeared.
“That was amazing!” Sour said. “But you almost hit MM. I wonder why you didn’t. Everyone turned to MM and Gabe.
“When I got to MM, he had some sort of force field around him. It was cold, kind of like ice,” Gabe explained.
“But how would it be ice?” Bert asked.
“The rock!” MM realized. “The rock has been at all the scenes that weird ice things have happened!” MM checked his pockets. There was nothing in them. “I can’t find it!” He took off his shirt and checked the inside pockets.
“MM,” Sour said.
“I can’t find it!” MM screamed.
“MM,” David said.
“Shut up and help me look for it!” MM demanded.
“MM!” Gabe yelled.
“WHAT?!” MM freaked out.
“Look,” Bert pointed to MM’s chest. On it was a symbol like a snowflake. It looked like this:
It glowed with bluish light. “My god,” MM said, “ The stone has become a part of me. It seemed to mutate me.”
“That explains the force field,” Kin said. MM extended his hand and a cool breeze rushed out. It touched a stone and it froze it instantly. “But I don’t think we should stick around much longer. I don’t want any more Scrin to come.” The group nodded in agreement. They were about to climb the mountain when Kin stopped them. “I think it’s cooled down enough.” Kin took out his S.P. Lazzr R.F.
“I thought it was out of ammo,” MM said.
“Lazzrs don’t have ammo limits, they just burn out. With enough time, they are able to be used again. After a burnout, it usually takes 72 hours.”
“Seventy-two hours? It has only been three since the burnout. That leaves 69 hours until we can use it again!” David yelled.
“MM can cool it,” Kin turned to MM.
“What?” MM asked. “If you think about it scientifically, the gun will just--”
“If you think about the rest of the story scientifically, nothing makes sense anyway,” Gabe said. MM laughed and then began the process of cooling the gun. After a minute, the gun was ready and MM was tired.
“I don’t know how to sustain my power yet,” MM gasped. “I get fatigued easily.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’ll get used to it,” Kin said, gripping the gun. He aimed at the mountain.
“What are you doing?” Sour asked.
“Being lazy,” Kin said as he released a frenzy of blasts on one spot. MM covered his eyes as the debris and dust flew by him. The dust cleared and in the mountain was a hole big enough for 4 elephants all on top of each other to fit through. “Let’s go.”
“We could have scaled the mountain, you know?” Bert said.
“I told you, I’m feeling lazy,” Kin replied. The group walked through the hole. On the other side was a lush but dark marsh.
“Gentlemen, welcome to The Shadow Marsh,” MM announced. They walked forward and heard a rustle in the bushes.
END CHAPTER!
Tank:
Witch:
MM, Bert, Sour, and David formed the Alpha Squad and assigned numbers. They entered a mysterious cave in which they found the guardian dead and a strange man named Spod. He summoned minions which were destroyed by a new member of the group, Gabe. This time they have to cross over the Scrindou Mountains. What will happen this time?
The squad made base camp at the exit of Blorgont's Cave. Dave and Bert went looking for resources, Sour went for firewood, and Gabe and MM stayed to set up camp. They chatted about adventures before they were reunited. After a few stories, they switched topics to Gabe's mutation.
"How did you become like this?" MM asked.
"I believe it happened when I was young. In fourth grade, maybe. I went to the doctors to get 'diagnosed' for the flu. When my parents wanted to come with me, the doctor told them that it might be too unstable for them and disallowed them to come. We went into the room and he told me to lie on a table. he told me it wouldn't hurt. He muttered to the nurse something about Radio-active acid. When it was retrieved, the doctor injected it into my bloodstream. Thereafter, i moved a lot quicker. Soon I controlled it and now I'm here." Gabe explained.
MM thought for a second," Fourth grade, right?"
"Yeah, why?" Gabe inquired.
"Well, when I was in fourth grade, I found an icy stone in the middle of June and..." MM told his story. "I never knew what had happened." The others returned from their gatherings. Bert had a few pails of water, David had a deer slung over his shoulder, and Sour had firewood in his hands. "Welcome back!"
"Glad to be back," Bert said," It's a mess out there. It's just as bad as or worse than the cave. There's barely any trees, it's hazy in the valley, it's just plain horrid."
"Sounds like Spod did a little more damage than what we've seen already." Gabe assumed.
"Ten times more damage!" Sour exclaimed.
"Tell us while we cook. I'd like to get out of here ASAP" MM said as he filleted the deer. The squad reported their findings. David said there were few trees. Because of this extreme deforestation, there were few deer. Sour agreed. He had cut down only one tree, used as much of it as he could and then planted all the seeds.
"It pained me to kill that deer. It seemed as if it was one of the last ones," David said." It also pained me to see all the damage out there. It is a black wasteland with fires burning dead corpses. It...It’s just ugly." MM peered into the valley. David was right. He saw an arid land. No life in site except for one or two trees. The mountains at the end of the valley were scorched as well. They had a pallid colored haze over the peak. The ground was tainted a deep purple color with splotches of red blood. He saw the burning corpses of deer, foxes, and birds.
MM shook his head in disgust. "If we don't get a move on, we'll be seeing this everywhere we go," MM stood up," You coming?"
"MM, we need to rest," Bert said. MM glared at him.
"I've had my rest! I've been wasting my time too much and soon it'll be too late. I won't be able to save her." MM looked at the ground in sadness. He looked up at his friends," Now, I'm done wasting my time and I'm going no matter what you have to say about it." MM began to walk off. Gabe followed as the others muttered to each other.
"MM, we all know that we need to keep moving, but you need to understand that we move as a group." Gabe stopped in front of MM.
"No, I might as well waste a day in front of a computer typing a fanfic!" MM said.
"One, so many people do that. Two, stay with the group!" Gabe was getting angry.
"If it makes you feel any better, I'm scouting!" MM was also losing his temper.
"LIAR!" Gabe yelled. "Don't force me to take you back against your will!"
"Try," MM laughed. He continued past Gabe. Gabe was furious. He sped up to MM and punched him in the gut.
"You're staying with us!" he raged. MM returned the favor by kneeing Gabe in the face and then elbowing him to the ground."Oh, you're dead now!" he stood up. This once peaceful conversation now turned into an all out brawl.
"My Falco pwnz your Marth!" MM was playing SSBB.
"NEVER!" Gabe broke the wii.
"NO!" MM yelled. The two comrades began to fight. They had fought for well over an hour of kneeing, punching, and clawing. They both stopped.
"You put up a good fight," Gabe panted.
"Not bad yourself," MM wiped blood from his face. He glared at his companion with hate. "Why do you try to stop me?
"I don't want you to die off," Gabe began. "Many of our friends that I have ventured with have been killed. For instance, I went to Cape Cod with Jeff. We went on a fishing trip. It was the middle of the day, the sun was shining. Then it went dark. Hazy, cloudy, it was like I dozed into a nightmare. The sea thrashed the boat around. A strange creature came out of the water and crushed the boat. We both fell into the water, but for some reason, it was clear. I saw Jeff get ingested by the sea monster. I fled to shore. I looked back at the boats remains and saw a single dark, purple, and swirling cloud just in that spot. Everywhere else was normal. I've always had the feeling that the beast meant to eat me but Jeff got in the way." MM understood how he felt.
"I know how you feel about this," MM said," This whole expedition is because I lost someone who was the closest person to me in the world."
"Enough fighting. We need to move on," the two of them made up and glanced over at the mountains. The pallid haze covered most of the mountain. Then there was a large row that sped down the mountain at high speeds. "What is that?"
"I don't know, nor do i want to find out!" MM signaled for Gabe to return with him. The two ran back to camp. "BERT!"
"WHAT?!" Bert jumped. He didn't notice them run over.
"Look at the mountain," Gabe demanded. The haze was moving too now, as if...it was alive.
“Crap! It’s the Scrin!” Bert exclaimed. “But why are they here?”
“Wait, what are the Scrin?” David asked.
“They are merciless creatures. They attack in huge hordes the one coming at us. The haze is a bunch of Scrin. They have a clawed mouth, bat wings, razor claws, raptor-like toes, and a few spikes jutting out from its back. You will notice that some of them look human. Well, they are, or used to be anyways. They have small drones in the horde that attack your main organs by latching on and biting through your skin, bone, and other tissues. Once the victim is dead, these drones inject a disease in the body. In a matter of seconds, the body turns into another Scrin. Watch out when we go into battle.” Bert briefly explained.
“You seem to know a lot… but why on the Scrindou Mountains?”Sour asked.
“Wait, Scrindou? ARGH! I’m such an idiot!” Bert got angry at himself.
“What?” MM questioned.
“Listen to the first syllable: Scrin” Bert said.
“Wow, that was pretty dumb,” Gabe teased.
“No time to make fun of each other. Here they come!” Sour got into a battling stance. The horde of Scrin reached the heroes. Sour hacked one in half. The top half of the marred body slashed Sour in the back of the leg. Sour fell to his knees. Aggravated at the Scrin, he smashed the creatures face with his fist. “Aw, this is brand new armor! Stupid mucus-covered Scrin!”
“Don’t let it stop you, 40,” MM ordered.
“Oh, so we’re back to numbers now?” Bert laughed. He teleported into the air and launched a Scrin into the horde. It obliterated about seven Scrin, excluding the one thrown. David shot an arrow through three Scrin, killing each one. MM hacked away but they didn’t stop coming. Not even Gabe was fast enough to hold them off.
“This is getting ridiculous!” Gabe yelled.
“You’re telling me. I’m not as fast as-” David was interrupted.
“RIDICULOUS!” Gabe screamed. MM chuckled at this old joke. He turned and cut a Scrin in half, but before he could block, he was tackled by a drone.
“Hey! Get off me!” The drone was tearing at his shirt. He closed his eyes tight and when he opened them again, the drone was frozen solid in ice. “What…”
MM! Get up!” Sour was attempting to hold off the horde of Scrin around MM. Dazed, MM got up and assisted Sour.
“There’s no way we’ll make it out alive at this rate!” Bert yelled as he constricted a Scrin in dark matter.
“I agree!” Gabe yelled from a distance. “There’s no end to this horde!” As Gabe and the others kept fighting, they migrated to the center of the horde (even though there is no way to tell).
“So, how’s it going, guys?” MM asked.
“Fine, if you cut out the ‘about to die’ part,” Sour said.
“Me? Well, life sucks!” Gabe exclaimed. MM laughed as they talked.
“I’d be fine if we weren’t so close to these things!” David shouted over the screeches of the Scrin. “I don’t do well close up!”
“Now’s when you learn,” Bert replied.
“Hey, Bert, you still haven’t answered me yet. How are you?” MM asked.
“Um, well, I’m already dead but I can still be killed. Overall, I feel fine.” Bert said.
“How in the world does that work?” Gabe inquired.
“Just don’t worry about it,” Bert reciprocated.
“But it doesn’t-” Sour began,
“DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT!” Bert screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Guys, look up!” MM ordered.
“Why?” David asked.
“Just look!” MM demanded. When the rest of the group looked up, there was a helicopter flying overhead.
“That reminds me. Why do we use medieval weapons?” David inquired.
“I don’t know. We just are,” Sour said. MM saw a figure in the helicopter. The figure shot something into the horde. It was a grenade. As soon as it made contact with the Scrin, it exploded, destroying at least forty of them.
“Holy @#%*!” Bert yelled.
“What?” Sour didn’t know what he said.
“Why did you just say ‘at number percent star’? Gabe asked.
“Just because,” Bert replied. Another grenade was shot into the area. A hole appeared in the horde. The Scrin now focused on the helicopter. They dove at the aircraft and grabbed onto it. The helicopter began to spin out of control. The gunner jumped out as the vehicle exploded into the horde. The mysterious man took out a shotgun and shot all the creatures that came within three feet of him. He was untouched.
“Okay, now I’m really confused as to why we use medieval weapons,” Gabe said. A Scrin slashed the shotgun in two. Both pieces became electronically charged. The man threw both into the horde and they exploded in a matter of seconds, destroying about 100 Scrin total. The gunner then whipped out dual pistols. He pointed then in opposite directions and shot rapidly into the horde. Sixty Scrin were annihilated. They overheated and had the same effect as the shotgun. He threw them into the horde and destroyed 46 Scrin total. He then took out an M16 next and shot at a bunch of Scrin.
“Where is he getting these?” MM exclaimed.
“I don’t know but you can tell that he is very discerning,” David said.
“VOCAB WORD!” MM yelled.
“Err…Ok?” Sour was a bit shocked at MM. The mysterious warrior took out 70 Scrin but saved one bullet. He then took out a S.P. Lazzr.
“What? Are we in Halo 3 now?” Bert asked. The man fired it once and destroyed 37.978 (yes, 978 thousandths of one) Scrin. He muttered to himself some Scientific and mathematical terms and then took the rapid fire cartridge in the M16 out and put it in the S.P. Lazzr, transforming it into the S.P. Lazzr R.F. He shot the rapid fire lasers around the area and destroyed a lot of (as in OVER 9000!!!) Scrin.
“That was intelligent,” David said.
“Yes, but he’ll burn out faster,” Sour corrected. Sure enough the gun burnt out. He put it away and he took out a sniper rifle.
“Alright, that’s enough weapons for one guy!” MM said. The man sniped off 7 Scrin heads with an additional 24 kills. He ran out of ammo. He pulled out a small object that was blinking and beeping.
“Pipe bomb,” Bert muttered.
“What is it?” MM asked.
“The Scrin are attracted to blinking lights and loud noises. This bomb is meant to attract Scrin to it so they can be destroyed,” Bert explained.
“So…”Sour was still confused.
“Just watch!” Bert said, getting annoyed. The man threw the bomb and all of the Scrin rushed over to it. He took out his M16, still with one bullet, and aimed at the horde. He shot. The bullet came in direct contact with the bomb between the thousands of Scrin. BOOM! The explosion was so severe that it destroyed all the Scrin around it and blew back the user and the four heroes.
“Holy crap!” David yelled as he stood up. The man seemed to be out of ammo, not including his long belt of grenades. The man stood up and walked towards the others.
“I won’t need a ‘thank you’ from you,” He said to MM.
“I don’t care what you say. You deserve thanks! Thank you!” MM said.
“It’s my job. The name’s Kin,” Kin said.
“I’m David, Alpha 07, and I specialize in ranged attacks.
“Hello! I’m Bert, Alpha 62, and I’m a wraith, specializing in dark energy,” Bert introduced.
“I’m Sour, Alpha 40, and I specialize in swordplay,” Sour said.
“I’m Gabe, Alpha 72, and I use a staff but I’m extremely fast,” Gabe said.
“And I’m MM, Alpha 38, and I’m an all around battler,” MM explained. “Would you like to join our group?”
“Um, sure, but I’m mostly out of ammo so I should tell you that I also use--” Kin was interrupted by a brutal strike from a heavily-armed Scrin. “Ah! Blasted Tank!”
“You know, this kind of reminds me of Left 4 Dead, but I don’t know why,” Sour pondered this for a moment. “Next thing you know there’s going to be something like a--”
“WITCH!” Gabe called as he spotted a small girl who was crying. “Nobody get close to that thing.”
“Why? We should help her. She obviously is hurt.” David said.
“No, don’t--” Gabe warned but it was too late. David and Bert were approaching the small girl.
“Don’t cry,” David said as he sat next to the girl. She seemed to have grey skin and only rags for clothes. She had long black hair and she looked about seven years old. “It’ll be okay.” He then heard a loud growl. “Bert, look around for enemies. I heard a growl.”
“Guys--” MM was trying to tell them something when he was attacked by the Tank, who was now focusing on him.
“There are no enemies around except for that Tank,” Bert reported.
“Okay,” David then put his hand on her shoulder. The moment he made contact with her, she began to make growls that sounded like an older woman. She stood up and made loud screeching noises. “Holy $h1t!”
“What?” Bert asked.
“The writer censored,” David explained. “You never get to say what you want to, you know?”
“Yeah, I only have a small role in this,” the witch said.
“Sucks to be you,” Bert laughed.
“So, where are we?” Sour chimed in.
“Oh, I’m about to get mauled by the witch,” David said.
“Oh, yeah! I remember now! Let’s continue,” the witch said. She extended her long grey claws and ran at David. Then there was ringing.
“Hold on, cell phone,” David answered his phone. “Hello? Oh hi Parker. Yeah I’m at a mountain range. Yes. No, that hasn’t happened yet. No. Yeah, we’re at that part. Yup. I need to go on with the story now. Okay. Bye.” David hung up. “Sorry. Friend called.”
“No problem,” the witch continued to run at David. She was about to strike when more ringing occurred.
“Darn cell phone!” David yelled. “Hello? No, Grams, I don’t want to see you. No. Look, I’m trying to do something right now. What? EPIC SOUP! Where are you? You’re… right behind me?” David turned around to see his grandmother with epic soup. “Creepy but…YUSS! EPIC SOUP” The nine of them ate the soup (MM, David, Sour, Bert, Gabe, Kin, The Tank, The Witch, Grams). “Okay, we need to finish up. Thanks for the soup, Grams!” Grams left. “Continue.” David turned his phone off. The witch began clawing him. “Get it off me!” David yelled. The witch was ripping at his chest, leaving large and deep gashes in his chest. Bert ran over to the witch and teleported up into the air with her. Before Bert could throw her, she scratched him and incapacitated him as he fell to the ground.. Since there was nothing holding the witch, she also fell. Sour saw the perfect opportunity and ran under the witch. He stuck his sword up and the witch’s head fell directly onto the sword. Dark blood was spat from the grey mouth. The blood poured out of the lifeless body and onto the ground to create a pool of blood. The vicious claws became unclenched. Even though it was one attack, it took all of the energy and power Sour had. He panted. Two of his colleagues were severely hurt. He glanced over at MM and Kin, still dodging the tank. He looked back at the two injured.
“Them first,” he muttered to himself. He ran over to David, who was hurt far more than Bert. “Just a little scratched up.”
“A little? Look at this!” David pointed to his chest. 4 ribs were visible along with a beating heart. He patched up his wound. “Next time, warn me.”
“I tried to,” Gabe said as Sour ran to help Bert, “but you didn’t listen.” Sour saw that Bert had a deep cut on his neck. He was confused as to how she injured him. Nonetheless, Sour healed Bert. Then something flashed on the battlefield.
“Woot! Achievement!” Sour said. “Kill a witch with a single headshot.”
“Guys!” MM shouted as he dodged an attack from the muscular Scrin. “Celebrate later. Help us!” All four of them rushed over to MM and Kin’s location to assist. MM dodged the creature but the body hit MM and slid back 4 feet. MM stabbed the tank, Sour and Bert did as well, and David shot 3 arrows into it. It seemed to take little damage and didn’t even flinch.
“Dang, didn’t even flinch!” Bert said.
“Don’t worry, I’ll hand this.” Kin said. Mist appeared around Kin. The tank rushed at him but Kin was quicker. The mist became solid into the shape of a hammer and Kin smashed the tank’s head. It got angry and ran at him. He smirked and shot into the air. From MM’s point of view, it began to rain deathly silver energy. Kin had turned the silver energy into a large mass of bombs.
“Everyone get to cover!” Sour shouted. He, David, Bert, and Gabe all ran into a nearby cave. MM, on the other hand, didn’t move. A combination of awe and fear paralyzed him. The silver energy bombs were bombarding the tank and were slowly weakening it. MM, too, was getting hit.
“MM, get out of there!” Bert yelled. MM didn’t move. “I’m going in there after him!”
“Don’t! You may get incapacitated and then one of us will have to save you,” Gabe admonition. Bert ignored the comment and ran in there. He dodged the bombs but before he could reach MM, he had a bomb explode in his heart. He groaned as he tried to crawl out of the battle zone. Again, he wasn’t quick enough and was hit again.
“I’m going in there!” David said. He ran out and dodged the bombs. He pulled Bert out but wasn’t able to save MM. MM was being severely bombarded but didn’t even seem to notice. Gabe then ran over to MM to get him out. Gabe had an unwelcome meeting with an expelling force field around MM. The force seemed cold, like it was made of ice. Then the tank ran over to MM and whacked him. The field had a small crack appear. This broke MM’s concentration. He realized what was going on and he ran for the cave. The force field seemed to move with him. He ran into the cave and Gabe soon followed. The force field around MM dissipated. The tank then collapsed from exhaustion and injuries. Kin stopped the attack and landed on the ground.
“It works better on bigger hordes,” Kin said as his companions walked over to him. The mist disappeared.
“That was amazing!” Sour said. “But you almost hit MM. I wonder why you didn’t. Everyone turned to MM and Gabe.
“When I got to MM, he had some sort of force field around him. It was cold, kind of like ice,” Gabe explained.
“But how would it be ice?” Bert asked.
“The rock!” MM realized. “The rock has been at all the scenes that weird ice things have happened!” MM checked his pockets. There was nothing in them. “I can’t find it!” He took off his shirt and checked the inside pockets.
“MM,” Sour said.
“I can’t find it!” MM screamed.
“MM,” David said.
“Shut up and help me look for it!” MM demanded.
“MM!” Gabe yelled.
“WHAT?!” MM freaked out.
“Look,” Bert pointed to MM’s chest. On it was a symbol like a snowflake. It looked like this:
It glowed with bluish light. “My god,” MM said, “ The stone has become a part of me. It seemed to mutate me.”
“That explains the force field,” Kin said. MM extended his hand and a cool breeze rushed out. It touched a stone and it froze it instantly. “But I don’t think we should stick around much longer. I don’t want any more Scrin to come.” The group nodded in agreement. They were about to climb the mountain when Kin stopped them. “I think it’s cooled down enough.” Kin took out his S.P. Lazzr R.F.
“I thought it was out of ammo,” MM said.
“Lazzrs don’t have ammo limits, they just burn out. With enough time, they are able to be used again. After a burnout, it usually takes 72 hours.”
“Seventy-two hours? It has only been three since the burnout. That leaves 69 hours until we can use it again!” David yelled.
“MM can cool it,” Kin turned to MM.
“What?” MM asked. “If you think about it scientifically, the gun will just--”
“If you think about the rest of the story scientifically, nothing makes sense anyway,” Gabe said. MM laughed and then began the process of cooling the gun. After a minute, the gun was ready and MM was tired.
“I don’t know how to sustain my power yet,” MM gasped. “I get fatigued easily.”
“Doesn’t matter. You’ll get used to it,” Kin said, gripping the gun. He aimed at the mountain.
“What are you doing?” Sour asked.
“Being lazy,” Kin said as he released a frenzy of blasts on one spot. MM covered his eyes as the debris and dust flew by him. The dust cleared and in the mountain was a hole big enough for 4 elephants all on top of each other to fit through. “Let’s go.”
“We could have scaled the mountain, you know?” Bert said.
“I told you, I’m feeling lazy,” Kin replied. The group walked through the hole. On the other side was a lush but dark marsh.
“Gentlemen, welcome to The Shadow Marsh,” MM announced. They walked forward and heard a rustle in the bushes.
END CHAPTER!
Tank:
Witch:
