Menace in the Forest

I’ve lived in the Felarya for quite sometime now which is an accomplishment that not alot of people can say they’ve obtained. There’s no real system of education so you kind of just pick up info as you go along. And one thing I’ve noticed in all my years in Serenityland is that Predators don’t seem to be that organized. I mean, yeah, they sometimes form gangs to attack caravans and other harder to hit targets. But other than that, even with their nearly sentient intelligence, they don’t seem to organize the way humans do.

I’ve heard stories about an ancient civilization made up of Dridders along time ago that ruled the landscape. That seemed to odd to me; Dridders are pretty isolated as it is. If I happen to find one, they’re usually underground in a cave. Trapdoor Dridders and Jumping Dridders are probably the exception, being that they stay above ground alot of the time but still; they tend to hunt alone.

But I guess if predators do group together for whatever reason, they prefer to stick together in small groups of similar species. Humans are like that in a way; I myself didn’t really want to cooperate with Nekos and Elves when I first saw them. I guess it’s just an instinct or whatever.

Not too long ago, something happened somewhere in the Jungle, and the impact has caused a change in predator/prey roles. It was called the Unnatural Disaster, and since it occurred, predators as a whole have gotten quite a beating. So it really shouldn’t surprise me that such a smart, adaptive collection of species are beginning to take drastic measures to insure a steady influx of food. I just didn’t think I would ever see the day that I would come across Nagas and Fairies that fight under a flag.

But sure enough, I did see that day, and here’s how it began.

“Chrome! Wake up! Come on! Mr. K has a mission for us!” That shook me awake pretty quickly, mostly because whoever was saying it was yelling it and shaking me. Even though I was pretty much awoken, I still had trouble opening my eyes, but I could see that it was Sigil, who is standing by my bed with her hands on my shoulders. She’s looking very jittery, bouncing up and down as she spoke. “Let’s go! Put on your clothes and meet me at the Observatory!” She said before sprinting out of the room.

Now, Sigil, who is a fellow member of the Justice Guild which I am apart of, is normally known for being shy and soft spoken. But one thing that gets her very excited pretty quickly is whenever she gets a call from Mr. K to round up the rest of the Guild and come down to his shop. Now, in a place like Felarya, a simple scientist won’t do you any good. For one thing, Sigil is a scientist, well, was a scientist. But a normal seeker of the unknown sciences isn’t really ready to deal with the insanity of the Jungle.

So in order to counteract Felarya’s craziness, you need a Mad Scientist. That’s Mr. K. I know you may think the term is derogatory but it’s really not. And if you don’t believe me, you should see some of the stuff he invents. Pretty much every surviving humanoid city in Felarya has some Mad Scientists. The Kapital, the largest city in the Jungle, has a whole team of them keeping the city defenses up to date. Port Shield, even though it’s guarded by a Giantess, still needs Mad Scientists incase she comes down with a disease nobody can figure out how to cure. Normal medical practitioners couldn’t handle a Felaryan disease; I know that cause I’ve had a few.

But here at the Crown-of-Thorns, we have Mr. K. That’s our guy. His shop is located in the middle of Town and we are called there sometimes to help him test one of his inventions. Sigil loves it whenever we go over there, mainly because there’s so much to see. He sends out these small hovering drones in the Jungle which basically take video of random things and come back. Then he uses the videos to study life in the Jungle and writes it all down. He often doodles random figures and predators he sees in the videos on his notes. He’s a really good artist too; able to accurately draw a sketch of predator his drone only videoed for a second before hovering away.

He’s found things in the Jungle I’ve never even heard about. The other day, his Drones found this weird centaur-dryad hybrid that he’s taken to calling a “deerataur.” I’ve never seen one so I assume it’s in a whole other region, which makes me wonder just how far do these drones fly from the Crown-of-Thorns.

So anyway, I get suited up and grab my stuff. I take my backpack off the hook on the closet door and I pull a revolver out of my sock drawer, loading it with a few bullets I find in the piggy bank on top of the dresser. Then I head out. Sigil has already left the building, but it’s clear that I wasn’t her only stop while she was in the Inn. Coming out of her door just a few doors down was Orchard, another member of the Justice Guild. She’s not looking too good, and I’m not sure if it’s the fact that she’s sleepily stumbling around or if it’s the dead look in her face that gives me that idea.

She starts moving, only to have to stop herself with an outstretched arm as the nearly walks right into the wall. Then the neko’s dreary eyes glance up at me. “...what...did she want again? I was kinda in the middle...of sleeping…” She said.

“Mr. K wants us for something. Come on, I’ll help you over there.” I said. She didn’t protest when I slung my arm around her shoulder, and together we walked down the stairs and out the building. Once outside the front door, I am immediately greeted by the harsh felaryan humidity. Even though the settlement of the Crown-of-Thorns is protected by a massive dome made of huge, thorny branches with holes big enough to let light in but not predators, it would seem that the one thing it can’t keep out is the temperature.

Now in the open air, Orchard loosens up and can walk freely, but she’s still quite groggy. We both travel in the direction of the Hearth District where the Observatory is. On our way over, we meet up with Livewire who has already started off the morning by drinking. I know this because the second I see him turn the corner coming our way, he’s taking a swig of his shiny silver flask with the engraving of a naked neko posing on it. He recognizes us out of his buzzed haze and nods. We nod in return and he falls in step with our little gang. On the way there, he starts talking. “So that purple hair chick comes and wakes me up at the bar. Let me just tell you this; pissed me off like you wouldn’t believe.I wasn’t quite sure what she said because I was too busy picturing her getting eaten by as many predators that could come to mind. Kinda funny too, just thinking about that little prick rolling around in the mouth of a slug girl...ugh...yep. That combined with a pretty bad hangover doesn’t equal pleasant morning, I’ll tell you that.” He said.

“...what were you doing sleeping at the bar?” Orchard asked. Livewire just shrugged and took another sip of his flask. I personally didn’t have anything to say on the matter, so we just silently continued on to our destination which we reached not long afterwards.

Now, The Observatory, like most buildings in town, is a rag-tag structure composed of all kinds of materials jury-rigged together. So you get different kinds of lumber banded together to make walls reinforced with a steel frame and a few blinking neon signs to add decorative taste. But one thing that did make it stand out was that the roof was a dome made up of different size pieces of glass melted together. I guess that’s so Mr. K can observe the stars at night, because other than that, it’s just tacky.

So we approach the door but before I am in range to open it, it swings open and out comes this little flying contraption that looks like an old fashion projector built into the frame of a quadrotor. It buzzes forward and then takes off into the sky, disappearing once outside of the Thorn dome. I check to make sure that there are no more leaving and then step inside.

Now, the first thing to note about Mr. K’s place is that it’s filled to the brim with junk. Boxes, cabinets, cages, strong-boxes, crates, safes, and other containers are just stacked up all over the place, leaking wires and metal scrap. The walls are covered floor to ceiling with notes scribbled on papers tacked to the wooden interior. There is one space clear though; in the middle of the room is a white square of clean carpet. At one end of the carpet there is a wooden pedestal which held up an odd looking sort of energy weapon. It was pointing at a space on the wall that wasn’t covered in paper but instead a large red target crudely painted not too long ago.

Sigil is already there, just seeping with childlike excitement. She looks over her shoulder at us once we are inside the house and says “There you guys are! Come on, I hear this is going to be pretty cool!” She said.

“Where’s Conelrad? Shouldn’t he be here too?” Orchard said, referencing the fifth member of the Guild.

“He’s already at the docking station with the Slayer Mechs. We’ll get to him shortly.” She said. Then she turned around and called out. “Mr. K! We’re here!” Nearby, there’s a door. I can hear some sounds behind it and then it opens up, allowing two figures to step out. Now, they are both dressed in long, white lab coats. The one on the left is Mr. K’s wife, Chrys. She’s quite attractive; she has long blond hair and deep greenish blue eyes. Very nice girl, that’s for sure.

Now, Mr. K is on the left but I can’t see his face, mostly because he’s wearing a thick scarf and a pair of foggy goggles as well as a workingman’s cap which covered the top of his head. He’s wearing boots with long legs so I can’t see his legs and thick welder’s gloves so I can’t see his hands. To be honest, I’ve never seen Mr. K’s face or any part of his body, so I can’t quite say I know the guy that well.

“Ah, so you have arrived. Welcome Justice Guild, I am glad you’ve come.” He said, his voice and thick accent muffled by the scarf.

“Yeah, we’re here. So what’s this mission you’ve got for us?” I said.

“Yes, yes, the ‘mission.’ You see, I have a desire to learn more about the creatures attempting to eat us everyday. I want to learn more about them, but I can’t get up close without one...eating me. What makes them dangerous though is mainly their size, so if I had a miniature ‘safe’ version of one, I could perform more studies with safer conditions. But I need adult predators, and in order to get what I need, I have designed this weapon right here.” He explained.

He walked up to the pedestal and waved his hands over the weapon. “This device right here is the answer. I have dubbed it ‘le pistolet de retraction.’ It’s a shrink ray.” He said.

“A shrink ray? No way. You may be a mad scientist, Mr. K, but your insanity it getting to your head. A shrink ray is nothing short of a mythical weapon everybody wants but nobody could ever possibly get.” Orchard pointed out. Mr. K lifted his chin, so I assumed he was smiling smugly, since I couldn’t see his face. He turned and faced his fiance. “Chrys, would you be dear and stand in front of that weapon?” He asked. She nodded and stepped in front of the target on the wall.

“Now, Chrome, could you please activate that device and fire it at my wife? It works like any simple weapon. Make sure the safety is off.” he explained. I nodded and stepped up, not quite sure if this was a good idea. If this weapon didn’t actually work, or malfunctioned in anyway, I couldn’t assume that Chrys would be fine. But they both seemed confident so I went along with it.

So I put one hand on the lever of the device and one hand on the grip to steady it. Then I pulled the lever once I had lined the sights up with Chrys’ abdomen. The gun began to vibrate and make a noise like water flowing through a spinning turbine. It shot out a stream of spiraling green cubes, each of which were translucent and seemed to fly right through Chrys’ petite body.  But astonishingly enough, as the cubes of energy passed through her, she began to change. It felt so weird to watch, but Chrys began to diminish; her scale was decreasing and before I knew it, I could no longer see her in the ironsights.

I let go of the lever and the looked over the machine to see where she went. Sure enough, right there in the middle of the floor, standing in carpet that was up to her ankles, was the blond haired girl who used to be almost taller than I was. I wasn’t the only person who was shocked speechless. Orchard and Sigil were staring wide-eyed at her. Livewire had frozen up with his flask to his lips like he was about to take a sip.

Without a word, Orchard bent down, scooped up the doll sized Chrys, and held her in her open palm for us to see better. We each stepped in the get a better look, and to prove to our own minds that this wasn’t an optical illusion. Chrys was clearly amused by our amazement. “...wow...instant Tiny maker...with a machine like this, you could feed the nekos of the Crown-of-Thorns for years!” Orchard said. Had I not been awestruck by what I just saw, I might have said something about that. But I just sorta nodded.

Sigil was the first to go from shocked to excited. “Mr. K! You did it! You actually created a shrink ray! If we had a model of this for each of the guardsmen, no predator would want to mess with the Crown anymore! Neither would the Raiders, or Indigo Island for that matter.” she said.

“I wish that was the case but sadly, no. That device is powered by Oblivium, which is practically not existent in Felarya. I found some in my basement though, which is probably a one-in-a-trillion chance. But I found it, and now I need you guys to apply what I have discovered and bring me back a live, shrunken, specimen!” Mr. K explained. He took the gun and explained how it worked. It uses percentage as a factor for shrinkage, which meant it made Chrys 5% of her original size. He reset it to shrink a creature to .5% of it’s size so that it would shrink predators to a similar size. Then he took it and returned his fiance to her normal size.

After that, we said our farewells and left the building with what I could only describe as a Felaryan superweapon in our hands. “I must say, Mr. K. has outdone himself today.” Livewire said before taking another swig. I examined the device in my hand. It was like a water gun built into the frame of an old fashion lever-action rifle, decorated with blinking lights and covered in wires of all colors. It was clear that this model was a prototype, and probably the only one to ever be created. Sigil had her own thoughts on the matter.

“I sure hope we get to keep it. This thing would make our lives so much easier. In fact, it might even make living conditions in this city better! Think about it; if someone commits a crime, we won’t have to kill them. We can just shrink them, lock em’ up, and give them some time to cool off. That way, they aren’t a danger to our society and we don’t have to shoot them...which is what we normally do…” she said.

“Aw...but I like shooting crooks, that’s one of my favorite parts about this job…” Orchard said.

We traveled across the city and located Conelrad at the warehouse we where we store our machines. It took a moment to convince the hardened veteran of the Jungle to believe that this jury-rigged contraption actually had the ability to turn the towering behemoths on the outside of the walls into living dolls. He still wasn’t convinced even after Sigil’s detailed description. “Whatever, I’m not going to be the one to fire it. Chrome, you lost the windshield on your Slayer during our last skirmish with the Neko Slavers up river so why don’t you be the one to test it out if we run across any predators. Come on, let’s suit up.” He said.

So we did. We each got into our separate Slayer Mechs. Now if you’re not familiar with a Slayer Mech, basically it’s a full sized, fully armed mechanical walker designed to bring us to eye level with the predators. The downside is that the suits need constant maintenance and often require parts we don’t have. So what you get after the 5 years I’ve been doing this is several towering collections of scrap loosely bolted together and wrapped with cables. My Slayer has no windshield, the left rocket pack on Orchard’s mech doesn’t work, and often times the engine on Livewire’s mech will begin pumping out thick black smoke for no reason. Not what you would call “optimal protection” but I still prefer them to going out on foot with a shoulder mounted rocket launcher.

After all 5 of us are in our Mechs, we head out of the main Gate and into the dark expanse of the Jungle. The Crown-of-Thorns is built on the ground, with the top just barely peeking over the canopy, and surrounded on all sides by dense, packed forest so everytime we walk into it, it’s just darkness and creepy looking foliage all around us. The only way you could possibly know it was daytime was to walk back inside and look through the gaps in the branches that make up the dome. It’s never very pleasant, and it’s one of the reasons why there aren’t alot of people in the Justice Guild; no one is really that willing to head into the Woods.

We continued on through the dark area though, alert as possible and ready to fire at any possible targets lurking in the shadows. We eventually came to a part of the Jungle with a thinner canopy overhead so that light was pouring through. “Hey, what kind of predators are we looking for exactly?” Conelrad said through the intercom system.

“Mr. K wanted humanoid predators. Something like a naga or a fairy. I’m not sure your typical felaryan fauna is going to work.” I said, keeping an eye on a pack of blue haired wolves that were glaring at us through the foliage, keeping their distance.

“You’d think we would see more of them out here. All I’ve seen so far are these man-eating plants and bright colored birds up in the canopy. It must be too early in the freaking morning, we should have waiting until lunch time for this stuff.” Livewire said.

We continued on through the forest, not much action. There was a lone Kensha beast just sort of wandering around, wounded from the looks of it. If a pack of 4 or 5had been there, we would have had some trouble, but in this case, a couple of rockets took it down pretty quickly, leading to a relished victory. There were a pack of howlers which Orchard took pleasure in stomping into the ground. Besides that, most creatures kept their distance.

We did manage to locate a usable specimen, though. We came across a clearing where in the middle, we spotted a lone naga. She couldn’t see us though because we were hidden in the darker foliage, and she was busy messing around with the flowers that littered the ground in the circle of light that leaked in through the canopy. She had hair the color of the inside of an orange, and her skin held light coffee accents. Her eyes were dark green and sharp like rock candy. At her side was a holster where a short sword would be if it was present, and on her face was a look of peaceful calmness that so many predators wear, never aware of the dangers they think they’re are above.

“Go ahead, there’s your girl. Take the shot.” Conelrad said, making sure to shut off the outside speakers on the Slayer mech so that she didn’t hear him. Now, while I was driving, I made sure to keep the gun in between my legs because the jerkoff who first built the Slayer didn’t bother to install a glove box. It was uncomfortable as hell, but when I saw the opportunity, I was glad to pull it out and aim it. There was a rustle in the foliage somewhere behind us. She shot up and turned around, her sharp elven ears perking up, eyes alert. The Shrink Ray made the strange noise it had made before, and the beam almost immediately struck the naga. She covered her face and bent over, but it didn’t seem to stop the reduction of size she was experiencing.

She pulled her hands away from her face, but she held her look of pure shock and terror as she glanced down and saw the flowers get closer to her, and moderately larger. The frightened naga continued to shrink until she actually disappeared among the forest of bright blue and white petals that, not but a few moments ago, were at the lowest of her tail. A moment ago, there was a towering man-eating predator standing right there in the middle of the clearing and now...it was like she no longer existed. Orchard, Sigil, and I dismounted from our Slayers and ran to the scene. Livewire and Conelrad kept guard to make sure we weren’t jumped by anything, but they were also eager to see if it worked as well.

I wasn’t quite sure if I had really done it myself; I was worried I had shrunken her into oblivion. It was difficult to find her two considering that the flowers to us at least were like cornstalks. But we found our way to the heart of the patch of flowers where the area was flattened from where the Naga had been standing on it with her massive snake tail. It took a second to spot her, but then I caught a glimpse of her golden orange hair reflecting light in the middle of the patch. She had to push the bits of green, crushed foliage off of her to see what was going on. When her little green eyes glanced up, I could see her pupils shrink with utter fear.

Orchard pounced on her, cutting off any possibility of escape. “Caught ya!” she exclaimed cheerfully. She then picked up the naga, holding her tightly around the waist with her long snaketail dropping. “Hey! Let go of me! This...this isn’t supposed to happen!” The naga cried.
Orchard only got more playful. “Really? I dunno...seems right to me. Actually, I’m starting to feel rather hungry. How about I go ahead and follow that hunter’s instinct, huh?” She gripped the naga by the tail, lifted her up, held her upside down, and opened her mouth wide, dangling the frightened creature above her open mawl. The Naga yelped and struggled, but it was clear she had no way of stopping it. Sure enough, Orchard’s tongue shot out and proceeded to lap at the naga. Meanwhile, Sigil and I are just watching this situation, totally aware that this kind of thing would be our nightmares as well. Though, in a way, it’s kinda neat to see the ironic revenge taking place. But I decide I need to step in and stop her before she gets carried away.

“Alright...alright, you’ve enjoyed yourself enough. Now quit teasing her.” I said. She took one last long tongue drag up the Naga’s naked body and tail before subsiding. “I wouldn’t call what I’m doing ‘teasing’ really. It’s more like ‘torturing.’ Serves her right. How many of our good men have been swallowed whole by bastards like this one? She should be glad we don’t boil her alive and serve her with rice.” Orchard said, shaking the naga in her hand. Sigil stepped up and took the creature out of the Neko’s hands. She then held her right side up in both hands.

“Wow...she’s so...small! I can’t believe it! You know...when they’re huge, they’re pretty scary, but when their not a threat at all...they’re so cute!” She said.

Bewildered, distressful, anxious, all these emotions were clear in the sweating face of the naga. Though, it was probably a combination sweat and Orchard’s saliva, but that’s a minor detail. She glances back at me and says “...what...what do you want from me? You’re not going to let your neko friend eat me? Well then what’s going to happen to me?!” She gave me those extra sad puppy dog eyes you see alot when people subliminally beg for their lives, and I can’t say I didn’t blame her, but I still lacked sympathy.

“Alright, here’s the good news, Snaketail. We won’t kill you. The bad news is that we’re not letting you go either. So for now, just sit tight and…” I was saying before I heard a sudden eruption of sounds. I looked up to see a volley of missiles shoot into the canopy and explode into bright puffs of red and grey among the green and blue. We all rush out of the patch of flowers to figure out what just happened. “Conelrad! What was that all about!?” I say into my headset.

He comes back with “We spotted this fairy hanging out in the canopy, watching you guys. I thought he was planning on jumping you. He dashed off before we managed to shoot him down though.” The grizzled veteran said back. Apparently, the Naga heard that because her response was “It must have been a Scout. He’ll be heading back to my Colony to tell them what happened to me. They’ll come for me, you’ll see. And when they do, expect pain and lots of it.” The Naga snapped.

“Yeah? Do you really think a bunch of Nagas are going to be trouble for us? We’ll just do the same thing to them that we did to you! And I’ll probably get to eat those ones since we only need one shrunken subject.” Orchard replied.

“Yeah but...Conelrad saw a fairy, not a naga. Typically fairies and nagas don’t form colonies together…” Sigil pointed out. The shrunken Naga opened her mouth to spout off some more but Sigil covered the bottom part of her face with her index finger, resulting in the sound of muffled cries of anger.

“Naw, I doubt that Fairy was from her Colony, she’s trying to psyche us out. Let’s load up and start heading home; Sigil you can carry her with you since I don’t trust Orchard alone with a Tiny sized Naga.” I explained. Sigil agrees and scurries away with the Captive in her hands. Orchard and I return to our Slayers and everybody gets suited back up to head out. The Shrink Ray was just where I had left it, lying on my seat in the cockpit so I had to adjust myself so that it was back in between my legs again. After that, we began to move.

“Huh...you know, maybe it was just the hangover that was making me cynical, but I didn’t think that gun would work on a full-sized Snaketail. I guess Mr. K knows what he’s doing.” Livewire commented over his intercom system.

“The man’s a genius, have alittle faith. We could use more like him.” I heard Conelrad say through the speakers.

“Maybe if we find more of that Oblivium stuff, we could-” Sigil began to say before she was interrupted by the Naga in her cockpit.

“Listen, you pests, you won’t get away with this. My Husband is the Chief of the Colony, and once word gets back to him, he will stop at nothing to retrieve me! Do you hear me, humanoids? I said-” The Naga prattled before Sigil blocked her off again.

“Wow, even at 5 inches tall, that Snaketail’s got some bite. Anyway, we probably should keep a lookout for anymore predators just incase. We could also run into a raider camp, so we should keep vigilant.” Orchard noted.

“Keep vigilant? I can barely see the controls in my ride, I’m so buzzed. But if I see a blur or two in the Jungle darkness, I’ll keep ya covered.” Livewire pointed out. So we continued on the path back to the Crown-of-Thorns. Sigil didn’t bother keeping the Captive contained though; she continued to prattle on.

“My Colony is huge! Too many warriors for your little corp of mechanical walkers to take on. Diversity of talents and traits keep us strong, and organization keeps us on top of the rest of the Colonies in the area.” She explained. I personally didn’t feel like acknowledging her, but for some reason Sigil was interested.

“Really? What’s this Colony called?” She asked.

“What’s it called? Well, for as long as I can remembered it was called ‘Wormwood.’”
“Tell me about it…” Sigil murmured. And the Naga was happy to do so.

“It hasn’t been around for too long. The Colony was born when a great space rock fell from the sky and landed in the middle of the forest. Slowly, groups of Predators began to form around it, for it was still warm even after a week of rain storms. The leaders of the group decided to organize and join forces in order to maximize the effectiveness of the strategic point. So now we are the Envy of this side of the forest!” She said.

“Oh please, I really don’t believe that a Meteor fell out of the sky and Predators just built their homes around it.” I said.

“It’s true, foolish human. Predators thought it was a magical stone at first. Succubi, Fairies, and Giant Elves flocked to it almost at once to try and obtain it’s mana. Naga families took up homes in the burnt holes in the trunks of the trees surrounding it. Harpies used the scorched branches in the canopy as a lookout for prey wandering the Jungle. Within a month, species of all kinds had settled there around the Stone, and around that point those groups merged and became ‘Wormwood.’” She explained.

“Sigil, will you shut that little pest up? I’m listening to her talk nonsense into my ear and I can’t find the button on the console to shut her off.” Livewire said. Next thing I heard was the sound of the Naga’s voice being muffled by what I imagined to be Sigil’s finger again.

Now, for most of the trip things were pretty calm, but I’ve just come to understand that it’s always calm before the storm. We didn’t see any signs of that storm until we were on the path that ran next to the river Passion. It’s a very wide river to a human, but for a predator it was just a creek that you could probably cross over in a moment or two if you fought the current. Now, on the other side of the river were some more woods, and I could see a shape or two moving around behind the trees. “Hey, Conelrad, watch your 9. Looks like there are some Preds planning on…” I began saying. I was cut short when the first arrow struck my Slayer’s waist.

The cockpit shook violently, and just in case the Machine though I didn’t feel it, a picture of the Slayer with the waist flashing red popped up on the screen to my left. “We got contact! Archers!” Conelrad called. Orchard and I immediately began to fire missiles across the river. Those that had been running around behind the trees quickly took cover to avoid the hellfire. The flash from the blasts illuminated their faces, so I got a quick glimpse of our enemy. I spotted several nagas hanging out in the branches above, wielding bows and arrows. Along the ground there were fairies with shields and swords. So I figured it was just an ambush party, meant to attack random groups passing this particular part of the forest.

But as I got a couple of more suppressive shots in, I could see that they weren’t wearing your standard raider armor. What they were wearing was polished, thick, and made for them. It wasn’t patchwork, jury-rigged armor made from dead Slayers. It was leather and steel fatigues that were made up of segments for easy movement and overlapping plates to absorb shock. I give credit where credit is due; Predators are alot smarter than we normally think, but this wasn’t what a small raiding party could come up with.

“Ugh! ...careful, those guys are really precise with their arrows.” Orchard said before pulling an arrow out of the shoulder blade of her mech. Livewire stepped up and let fly a volley of shots at random.

“Come on out, punks! I wanna see you when I kill you.” Livewire exclaimed through the outside speakers. I’m not sure if they heard him or not, but they came out alright. Two predators; a tough looking male fairy and a Giant, came out of the woodwork and began making their way across the river. They wore even heavier, thicker armor, and our explosive shots just blew up against the outside of their suits without stopping them, or even slowing them down. The whole time they trecked across the Passion, naga archers rained down from above. three or four fairies and giant elves ran up with huge, all metal shields and began to move across the Passion too with their buddies close behind, using the shields as cover.

“Holy...this pricks aren’t just strategic...they’re organized! Fall back!” Conelrad exclaimed. So we did; we turned and headed farther up the path. Retreating wasn’t something we did often, but now was as good a time as ever. So we continued up the path, and just when we thought we lost them, we turned the corner and found ourselves back in the line of fire. Up on an elevated ridge overlooking the Passion was a team of armored Predators of all species. Now, I couldn’t see the weapons they were wielding quite yet, but all I could see were several puffs of smoke dotting across the ridge, and slayer missiles flying straight towards us.

“Hit the deck! We’ve got ‘busters heading our way!” I shouted. We each took cover behind a tree or a rock in order to avoid the volley of missiles. Even after the first wave past, more kept coming. I managed to peek around the tree to see what was going on. The Predators weren’t just attacking, they were standing on the ridge without cover, triumphant and aggressive. In their hands were weapons that looked oddly familiar. Long mechanical devices with metal barrels and clips which held Bolt 50 missiles, same as we did.

“They’ve got guns! Where the hell did they did guns?!” Orchard exclaimed.

“Looks like they made them from Slayer and Caravan Runner parts. How they figured out how to do that is anybody’s guess. Those things are firing Predbusters at us! This is a real gunfight right here!” Conelrad pointed out. The whole time, more and more missiles blew up all around us. The bits of sharp shrapnel were bouncing off the moist bark of the trees and getting stuck in our slayers. I already had a small piece sticking out of my arm from where it shot through the open cockpit. Taking a chance, I left cover to lay down some more fire. My shots were at random, and I only managed to knock down one naga.

Sigil and Conelrad got the idea; they left cover for just a second to return some fire too. Though everybody knew that an arrow to the leg was one thing, but a Bolt 50 missile would do alot more damage to a Slayer. As I periodically left cover to brave the storm, I could actually see that the predators were divided into different classes. The ones up front, along the top of the Ridge had more armor and were wielding more compact guns that fired several shots at one time like SMGs. They were like Pusher units meant to keep us suppressed. Over to the left, hiding among the foliage, were the predators with longer barreled guns, like snipers, picking the right moment to make a shot. I even spotted off to the side a Giant neko who didn’t have a weapon; she just had a piece of cloth tied to the end of a long branch which she waved proudly as the fight went on.

After a couple more glimpses, I actually made out what was on the cloth. It was blue with the design of a tattered leaf splashed in the middle. A flag. Since when do Predators bring flags into battle? Or divide their raiding parties into classes? It occurred to me after that that maybe these weren’t your typical felaryan monsters. Like Conelrad said, they were organized.

“I must say...this is probably the toughest team of predators...we’ve faced in a while…” Conelrad said.

“They’ve never brought projectile weapons like this to a fight. They’re using our ammunition against us!” Sigil exclaimed.

“Calm down guys, we can do this. We kill these gargantuan meatheads all the time. Orchard, you and I are going to lay down suppressive fire on the Ridge. Sigil, Conelrad, Livewire, you three head through the thicket and give them fire from the side up the ridge. We can’t let them pin us down.” I said. Conelrad and Livewire rogered that and began to move towards the Thicket. Immediately, Orchard and I left cover and let loose a burst of unaimed missiles straight towards the Ridge. The projectiles painted the scene with elegant puffs of reddish grey clouds mixed with flashes of yellow, and it wasn’t until a moment after they exploded, from which three or so predators collapsed and rolled off the Ridge and into the Passion, that I saw the result of mine and Orchard’s work.

Two Bruisers stepped up onto the Ridge carrying heavier weapons with packs for extra Missiles stuck to the side. They begin firing off a continuous stream of projectiles in our direction, fanning out in a cone shape. Between finding cover and avoiding the shots, Orchard and I tried to return fire. Several of our missiles almost hit them, but before they could make contact, a translucent purple disk just suddenly appeared in front of both of them and blocked the shots. I glanced over to see a Succubus dressed in long clothes, several necklaces, a thick scarf and holding a bronze septer. So these guys had a Mage too. I’m not sure why I didn’t see that coming.

Even though we couldn’t shoot through the two shields protecting those guys, they could shoot through them at us. So we had to get behind cover and stay there in order to avoid getting hit. We were just barely dodging them as it is. Several times a missile flew right by the cockpit and the smoke from the tail drifted into my open cockpit and knocked me into a coughing fit.

Luckily for us, the other three managed to swoop around and attack from the side. Farther up the River, Conelrad, Livewire, and Sigil crept out of the forest and sent a volley of shells their way. The Succubus Mage caught two in the shoulder and collapsed, along with several other Fairies and Nagas hiding out in the woodwork. The shields went down, and we took advantage of the Bruiser’s shock by dropping both of them with a few well placed missiles. After that, the Flagbearer turned around and headed back into the forest. Several other Predators turned around as well and fled.

“Looks like they can’t handle this anymore, man! We’re doing it! Let’s fry ‘em!” Livewire exclaimed. Now, I can’t say it had been too easy, but even with what they had just put us through, I still didn’t think this was over. And it wasn’t.

I hear some predator in the distance shout “make way for Barabas!”

“...Did you hear what that guy just said? Who the hell is Barabas?” Orchard asked. The mini-naga, who had been quiet for the time being, finally chimed up.

“My husband! He has arrived to show you heathens the error of your ways!” She exclaimed into the Intercom. I wasn’t sure just how tough he would be though, and at first I wasn’t scared. I was half expecting this enraged naga warrior to just show up and try and take us on, only to face his fate at the end of one or more of our missiles. I actually felt a small rise of sadness for the mini-Naga that she would see her husband die before her eyes. Unfortunately, as he got closer, and the thumping footsteps got louder, I started to reconsider the possibility.

He emerged, standing defiantly at the top of the ridge, looking down on us like a War Hero. Just from his stance, I know he was a force to be reckoned with. For one thing, he was an Elemental. One that was made of complete sandstone from the looks of it. Besides that, he had two pairs of arms, meaning four incredibly buff arms to match an equally athletically physique body. His skin was orangy yellow, his eyes were bright red, and his flowing, barbarically long hair was crimson salmon, like the outline of the setting sun.

He roared, opened up his mouth which was rich with jagged, pearly white teeth and flying saliva. His four hands beat his chest furiously, and his brown cloth tunic waved in the wind. Orchard and I immediately gave this guy our opinion on his brave stance by releasing another volley towards him. Several exploded across his chest and forearms, sending up clouds of sandy dust, but when the smoke cleared, he was still there, upright and enraged. “Dang it! My pack’s all out of missiles. I’ll have to step back for now, something tells me I don’t want to tango with this guy upclose.” Orchard said.

Barabas jumped off of the Ridge and landed in the Passion with a splash that would have devastated entire buildings back in my homeworld. He began to make his way across the river, fighting the currents while the whole time our three men further up the river gave him fire. Like before, each round that hit him came and went with a bang but didn’t seem to stop him. His berserked cherry-red eyes stayed locked on me, and considering that I didn’t have a windshield in between me and him, I could almost feel the heat of his hate. Around that time, a new team of Predators rolled up along the Ridge to fire at us. “Turn around! Let’s get out of here! Escape into the Jungle!” I ordered. So we retreated once again, and I was sure that the punks at the bar back home would mock us for being such cowards later that day. But I was just focused on living long enough to make it to that bar.

So all five of us turn around and head into the Woods, using the trucks and foliage as cover from the missiles flying towards us. It was unsurprisingly easy to outrun Barabas, and soon we could no longer hear the gunfire of the Predators behind us. Eventually we made it to a clearing where overhead, the canopy opened up to reveal a big bright blue sky. “Alright, I think we’ve outrun them.” I mentioned.

“Yeah, and we still got our little captive. Isn’t that right, cutie?” Sigil asked.

“Gah! Don’t touch me, human!” the Mini-Naga shouted. I glance back up at the sky that was just a second ago clear and blue, and I see a flock of Harpies. Not your renegade, naked, unbathed, mulching harpies either. They wore dark brown uniforms, wielded gloves with artificial steel claws at the ends of their wings, and were flying straight down towards us with the intent to kill clearly visible in their faces. “Dive bombers! Watch it!” Conelrad shouted, stepping out of the way just as they swooped down and nearly sliced the arm off his Slayer. We did our best to avoid them by ducking and dashing, but it was difficult to look straight up when our cockpits are built into the torso of the Mech.

After each of the enemy Harpies had gotten a chance to dive bomb, they got back in formation and began circling around Conelrad, Orchard, and Sigil. The two who still had rounds began to fire at them, not hitting a single one of the 8 or so that were flying out of the ring around them at random to take swipes at the three. Livewire and I concentrated fire on the Ring around them, but as the harpies easily evaded our shots, we just nearly missed the three people we weren’t try to hit.

In the midst of this chaos, I turn around to see that emerging from the Woods is the behemoth that we saw before, just as pissed off but now wet from the Passion. “Oh yeah, Mr. Big Four Arm Guy is back again. Don’t worry, I can take him. He may have four arms and is impervious to heavy duty explosives, but he’s dealing with two steel fists of fury right here.” Livewire said, going straight for him.

“What are you doing?!” I shouted out into the intercom system. I’m pretty sure it was the alcohol, because normally his ego isn’t big enough to where he’ll rush a full sized Stone Elemental with melee force. But before I can stop him, he’s charging Barabas with the left arm of the Slayer raised to strike. “You hungry, Pred? Eat some of this!” Livewire shouted through the outside speakers before taking a shot.
Or he tried to atleast. Barabas simply grabbed the arm he was about to punch with and ripped it clean off the side of the Slayer. Then, before Livewire had time to respond, he reached over with another arm and ripped off the Slayer’s other arm. The upper two grabbed the shoulders of the Mech and it one motion, he turned the Slayer around so that Livewire was facing me. The four hands grip the Slayer tightly, and I can now see that the Elemental is using my Teammate as a body shield just incase I was thinking about wasting anymore missile rounds on him.

The Harpies dispersed and flew away, none of them suffering any casualties. Orchard, Conelrad, and Sigil were relieved that they were no longer dealing with a storm of slicers, but the mood sunk once again when they saw that Livewire was in the hands of Barabas. They were about to deliver a barrage of missiles on impulse, but they decided that it would be in Livewire’s best interest not too. Realising he had us at a disadvantage here, Barabas took the opportunity to show he meant business by squeezing the Slayer. His arms barely flexed and the entire form bent slightly out of shape, a huge crack formed in the glass windshield, and there was an audible cry of fear coming through the Intercom.

I felt like I needed to do something, but I couldn’t shoot at Barabas while Livewire was being used as a shield, and I couldn’t charge him because it only took two hands to hold Livewire captive, he technically had two other ones free. The whole time he stared right at me, his Crimson eyes glowing with fury. “Is this enough for you Human!? Have you enjoyed the hell you have brought upon yourself!?” He bellowed. He moved his hands slightly, easily twisting the frame of the Slayer. Livewire grunted painfully in my ear, and I was tempted to take the headphones off so I didn’t have to hear it. I couldn’t even really bare to see it.

“Stop!” I shout through the outside speakers.

“Stop? Is that what you desire, you wretched cretins?! You capture my wife, decrease her size with your dark human magic, and now you expect me to stop just because your friend right here is about to have his body crunched between the metal form of his own contraption?” I stopped for a second, just a second, to analyse the situation. He was talking to me, not smashing Livewire without hesitation. My allies over in the middle of the clearing weren’t doing anything, so I had to figure out something to do. Maybe I could reason with him.

“Listen...we’re at an impasse. You have a member of our team, we have your wife. Maybe we can switch and walk away from this…” I said. His grip only tightened more, and his stare intensified.

“What makes you think I can’t simply break open each and every one of your Suits, crushing you all in my grip before retrieving my wife from the empty carcasses of your steel boxes?!” He shouted, spit flying at of his mouth at each word.

“Cause if you kill that Elf, we kill your wife.” I said. I knew Sigil wouldn’t do that, but she was smart enough to not say it outloud. This definitely caught the attention of Barabas, who didn’t know that himself. He thought alittle bit more about it.

“You...you heathens have slayed several of my fierce soldiers. Nothing you can do will ever repay the debt you owe our Colony…” He muttered.

“That’s not the point, right now your wife is still alive. But if we don’t get back our teammate, she won’t be for long…” I replied. Basically I was in a game of barter roulette with an unpredictable behemoth made or stone. But if he was the chief of the Colony, like the Naga said, he would cut his losses and settle for keeping the life of his wife over avenging the deaths of his fallen comrades. Though, this was only a theory. I was still being stared down by an invidious, savage, leader of an army of man-eaters. So there was no telling which way it would go.

Just before I was afraid he would finalize the deal by crushing Livewire’s Slayer into ball like a wad of paper, his grip relaxed. A sigh, or atleast I think it was a sigh, blew out of his slightly opened mouth like hot steam. “...I want to see her. Right now…” He muttered. Sigil acted almost immediately. She got out of the Slayer and carried the captive Naga out to the midpoint between me and Barabas, setting her down gently before dashing away. Around that time, several other predators had appeared behind him, looking ready to strike.

“One more thing. If we give you back your wife, full sized, how do we know you and your soldiers won’t just open fire on us as we try to escape?” I asked.

“...You have our word. As long as my wife lives and is safely in my arms, you can walk away from this. All of you…” He replied. It didn’t feel like a legitimate agreement, but it was all I had to go on, so I just gave him the shadow of a doubt that he would keep him word, and I lifted up the Shrink Ray, prepping it to fire. It took a moment to spot the bright orange hair of the Naga in the grass on the floor of the clearing, but once I spotted it, I switched it back to “100%” of the original size and fired it at her. Immediately, she began to increase in size, not stopping until she was eye level with her fiance.

For a moment, it looked like she was about to take off to Barabas, but I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. “Remember the deal, Barabas. Our man first.” I said.

He simply grunted and released hold of Livewire, giving him an extra shove in the back as he scampered away. The poor Elf’s Mech was armless, beat-up, bent out of frame, and smoking in the engine, so it was clear that he wouldn’t be able to handle anymore abuse. Slightly satisfied by this, I release my hold of the Naga’s arm, and she quickly slithered back to her beloved husband who threw his arms open to meet her embrace. They collided and held each other like lovers, momentary shutting out the world to enjoy each other’s reunion.

After their moment of happiness, the Naga wrapped her arms around Barabas’ torso and the mighty Chief placed his icy gaze back on me. “This is over...for now Human. But it is clear that you and your fellow fighters have left a mark on the Colony of Wormwood. One that will not simply be washed off. Make no mistake; you shall pay for what you have done to those whose lives were lost today. But for now, return to your homes, for we shall return to ours…” He declared. After giving us each an extra cold stare to show he meant what he had said, he turned around and the two walked back into the Jungle. The other Predators stayed, ready to attack if we made any sudden movements. But seeing that we got the picture, they too dispersed and disappeared.

By then, we all knew it was over. So we turned around and began heading back to the Crown-Of-Thorns. Orchard helped Livewire stay on the path, since he was tending to wander off to the left for whatever reason. We were all quiet for awhile, but then Sigil spoke.

“...I guess we don’t have a Predator to take back to Mr. K…” She murmured sadly into her intercom.

“Naw, we can just hunt down a Tiny and capture that instead; bring it back and tell him we shrunk a Giant…” Orchard said.

“Well, we barely have time to do that. We’ll have to try again for tomorrow. Hopefully we’ll shrink a predator that isn’t tethered to any kind of ‘predator super-alliance.’” Conelrad muttered.

I wasn’t so sure though. To them, it seemed that this threat wasn’t that big a deal. But I for one was anxious already. This was a new kind of threat. We had enough trouble dealing with opportunistic predators who hunted in packs. But this was a new faction; one that was trained and ready to defend their land. Ready to seek revenge on fallen comrades. Wormwood; the Colony born of a meteor. Now that’s a title you don’t soon forget.

They had ranged weapons that utilized our tech. They wore heavy uniforms. They had a flagbearer. They were serious. And I’m not looking forward to our next encounter, even though I have a feeling I’ll see them again soon enough. But I know that if they do come back, I’ll have the Shrink Ray right here; waiting for them.