2 Days Later
“Finally! We’re here!”
“Hey, Siyuakén, wait–!” Kevérin started, but the Electrotechnic had
leaped out of the air transport before he could finish, using her new set of
swinging gear to lower herself to the floor of the dense forest.
“Wow. She’s impatient,” Christeané mused, and then nodded at the
Transfer Captain. “See you ground-side.”
“What–?” the Pyrotechnic stuttered as the Master Lieutenant casually
jumped from the transport, followed almost immediately by Davídrius. Kevérin
stared on, speechless, as Kaoné stepped up beside him, shrugged, and jumped
down herself. The Transfer Captain sighed irately, signaled to the transport
pilot to leave, and then jumped from the vehicle himself, using carefully timed
bursts of flame to slow his descent. He prepared himself to begin leading Hero
Machina through the undergrowth of the Hazard Islands, but by the time he
reached the ground there was already another conversation going on.
“Hey, calm down.”
“’Calm down’? It’s been two days since they crashed here! At
least two days! Who knows what could’ve happened to the research team
in the time you were screwing around in Soughcé!”
“We were hardly ‘screwin’ around’,” Davídrius cut in harshly, “If
nothing else, we were busier yesterday than usual. And that’s
sayin’ somethin’!”
“Yes, it’s saying that you need to be less incompetent with your
weapons!” Siyuakén snapped.
“As if it’s my fault every fucking blade on Nimalia is
made like shit. I’m not the only one at fault here, either, you know! You broke
your own goddamn gear on Sunova!”
“Hey, hey, calm down,” Christeané stepped in between Davídrius and
Siyuakén.
“I can’t,” the Electrotechnic bristled, “The research team is still out
there. And you know who’s with them? My best friend. And because of the two of
you, she’s spent at least one day longer on this god-forsaken island than she’s
had to!”
“I’m sure she can take care of herself,” Christeané insisted, “Besides,
there’s a reason the Hazard Islands are named ‘Hazard’. It
would’ve been suicide to rush here unprepared. And Davídrius is right, you
don’t have much room to take pot shots at him for needing new Sword Boxes when
you needed new swinging gear yourself.”
“What’s going on?” Kevérin questioned as he approached the three
Chaotics.
“We took too long to get here,” Siyuakén scowled.
“Maybe we could’ve gotten here faster, but Christeané is right,” Kaoné
spoke up, “Rushing here would’ve been just as bad.”
“I mean, Rebehka’s a Cyrotechnic, right? I’m sure she’s fine on her
own,” Christeané declared, “…unless you don’t actually trust her skills.”
“What? No, I… well…” the Electrotechnic frowned, “…alright, fine, you
have a point. But even then, she can only last so long.”
“Cryotechnics are usually pretty hardy,” Kaoné offered.
“Yeah…” Siyuakén muttered before closing her eyes and taking several
deep breaths. “Okay,” she glanced back at Christeané before turning her
attention to Kevérin, “Alright. I think… I think I’m fine now. But I’d still
like to find the research team as fast as possible.”
“We have one day…” Kevérin commented, “That’s one day until the
transport comes back and we need to pull out, regardless of whether we found
anything or not.”
“Then what’re we waitin’ for?” Davídrius replied, “Shouldn’t we be
lookin’?”
“We need to be careful though,” the Transfer Captain insisted,
“These are the Hazard Islands. They say the local wildlife can
even take out unprepared Chaostechnics… so splitting up isn’t an option.”
“Maybe, if we’re lucky, one of us’ll unlock our overdrive,” Christeané
quipped.
“I wouldn’t call that lucky,” Siyuakén frowned.
“And it doesn’t matter anyways!” Kevérin cut in, “Stick together and
watch your surroundings. According to the distress beacon data, the research
team should’ve crash-landed about ten kilometers inland… so we have a lot of
ground to cover.”
“And it’s already past noon,” Davídrius remarked, whirling around on
his heel, “Let’s move… out…? …Hah…?”
At the same moment the Superspeed Introtechnic turned around, a
monkey-like creature dropped down in front of him, hanging upside-down from the
tree branches above by its tail. It stared at Davídrius for a moment before
opening its mouth – and then flying off into the distance after Christeané
slammed his Battlehammer into it from below.
“You’ve got worse reflexes than a Superstrength Introtechnic?”
the Master Lieutenant smirked.
“Sh… shush,” Davídrius muttered, “I’ve never had to deal with animals
before.”
“Well it’s best to assume everything’s hostile here, because
everything is hostile,” Christeané commented, “Like that
little fucker I just whacked across the island. That was a Deathtail. It can
whip its tail around with enough force to shatter Introtechnic skulls.”
“Its tail was still hanging from the branch…”
“It can also shoot poison barbs from its mouth.”
“You’re bullshitting,” Davídrius countered uneasily.
“I could be,” Christeané smirked grimly before turning around and
moving cautiously through the undergrowth, “Or, I could just have experience
with this kinda thing. Now try to be quiet once we get to the thick underbrush.
You could accidentally awaken a Thrallbear, or a Chaos Tisan.”
“Wha… what’re those–?”
“Shh! …I think I hear another Deathtail…”
“What? Where?!”
“Shit, behind you!”
“Agh!” Davídrius unsheathed a saber and whipped it through the air as
he spun around, only to see nothing but tree branches and shrubbery. “…You’re
fucking with me, aren’t you,” he scowled.
“Christeané, cut the bullshit,” Kevérin sighed.
“Alright, alright,” the Master Lieutenant smirked, “…but actually, try
to be quiet. You never know what nasty surprises this island has in store…”
*
* *
5 Hours Later
“Alright, this ain’t workin’.”
“Huh?...” Kaoné questioned as the Introtechnic stopped at the edge of a
small clearing.
“This whole not-splitting-up thing,” Davídrius scowled, “We’ve all got
vastly different movement speeds and styles, yet we’re forced to move at the
speed of the lowest common denominator?”
“Hey…” Kaoné frowned.
“That was rude,” Siyuakén pointed out.
“And it’s totally true,” Davídrius insisted, “On my own I could’ve
zigzagged the entire island about ten times by now, at least! And you can swing
through the trees pretty well, if your skill with that gear is even half of
what I saw back on Sunova. And then Christeané has that insane hammer-momentum-flight
bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit, it totally makes physical sense,” Christeané
replied defensively.
“So what’s your point, Davídrius?” Kevérin crossed his arms, “You want
to split up, then? How will we contact each other once we’re apart?”
“Uuuhh…” the Introtechnic frowned, “…oh hey, there’s no relays here…”
“You only just noticed the lack of an info feed?”
Christeané replied incredulously.
“Hey, I’ve been more focused on the ‘super-deadly fauna’ than I’ve been
on my glasses,” Davídrius scowled, “And on that note, you made the islands
sound like the depths of animal hell, but we’ve only come across, like, five
Deathtails! And I took care of all of them with no issue.”
“You know, that’s actually worrying…” Siyuakén muttered.
“What, that I’ve got no issue with killing an animal called a fucking
‘Deathtail’?”
“No, that we’ve only seen five of them, and no other animals,” the
Electrotechnic countered, “this is nothing like what I’ve heard about these
islands. Where are all the deathtraps?”
“You’re complaining about the lack of deathtraps?”
Kevérin deadpanned.
“Yes!” Christeané butted in, “And you should be, too! Because something had
to have taken out all of the animals.”
“Maybe… all the stories about the islands are just exaggerated?” Kaoné
suggested.
“Hah! I wish they were,” Christeané scoffed, “As an East Nimaliakian
I’ve heard tons of present-day stories that have all been
substantiated by both East Nimalikian and Riveranian intel. …Though, now that I
think about it, those stories did suddenly stop flooding in
about a year ago…”
“Sounds like something you should’ve told us earlier,” Davídrius
bristled.
“I’ve never thought about the Hazard Islands this much until two days
ago,” the Master Lieutenant retorted, “Give me a break.”
“Alright, alright, let’s calm down…” Kevérin spoke up, “So it looks
like we have two objectives now: find the research team, and look for whatever
cleaned up all of the island’s traps.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, hold on there!” Davídrius countered, “You want to
go look for the thing?!”
“Someone has to figure out what’s going on here,” the
Transfer Captain reasoned.
“We should really find the research team first,” Siyuakén insisted, “If
there really is something extra-dangerous out here, well…
Rebehka’s good, but she’s only so
good.”
“Relax,” Christeané waved her off, “She can always just do that
freeze-yourself-in-an-ice-block thing, right?”
“That’s a last resort and you know it,” Siyuakén argued, “Only another
Cyrotechnic or a very skilled Pyrotechnic can clear out the
ice and, no offense, Kevérin, but I don’t consider you skilled enough to
properly melt down an ice prison.”
“No offense taken. I don’t think I’d trust myself to
melt down an ice prison.”
“What about Materiatechnics?” Kaoné offered, “I think I could help in
that situation.”
“Maybe…” Siyuakén frowned, “Temperature is a factor, though. Not just
the ice itself…”
“Even then, this is all just a goddamn hypothetical scenario,”
Davídrius cut in, “What isn’t hypothetical is that somethin’ weird
seems to be goin’ on here, and I’d like to get off this island as soon as
fuckin’ possible. Furthermore,” he glanced up at the cloudy sky, “…not only is
it about one hour from sunset, I think we’re about to be rained
on. Man, this is just great.”
Kevérin glanced upwards himself and sighed. “Let’s try pushing on a
little longer, then we can have Kaoné make us a shelter for the night–?!”
The Transfer Captain was interrupted as an intense tremor suddenly
rumbled through the forest, shaking the underbrush ferociously and even
toppling several of the trees. Kaoné quickly created a small steel dome to
protect Hero Machina from falling debris until the tremors subsided.
CRACK!
“The hell…?” Davídrius scowled just as the tremors stopped, “…that was
a really loud crack…”
“What is there to crack?” Kevérin questioned as Kaoné
slowly and cautiously dissolved the protective dome, “We’re on islands… there
aren’t even any nearby fault lines. Any solid rock should be far below ground…”
“That didn’t sound like rock,” Siyuakén commented, “It sounded more like...”
“Ice.”
The rest of Hero Machina turned to look at Kaoné.
“Ice?” Christeané questioned.
“Yeah… it was definitely ice,” Kaoné nodded resolutely, “I can tell
from the ground density… there’s a huge mass of ice just east of here.”
“How far east?” Siyuakén questioned urgently.
“…Less than a kilometer?”
“Hey, wait–!” Kevérin immediately spoke up as the Electrotechnic spun
around and launched herself into the trees, swinging gear in full use.
“Siyuakén! …Damn it! Everyone, after her! And be careful–!”
The Transfer Captain was interrupted as Davídrius blasted off into the
underbrush and Christeané whipped his hammer – and shortly after, himself –
through the air. “Those three…” Kevérin scowled, “they’re going to get
themselves into a lot of trouble one day…”
“Well there’s only one thing for us to do now,” Kaoné replied as she
crafted a stone platform and then lifted it into the air, “Go after them and
make sure they don’t get hurt.”
“Tch,” the Pyrotechnic snorted as he watched her take off on her own.
He sighed irately before launching himself above the tree-tops with a single
fire burst and then entering flight by igniting continuous fire blasts under
his palms and feet. As he wasn’t sure about the full breadth of threats
presented by the islands, he remained fairly low to the tree-tops, though still
high enough to be able to react to any sudden projectiles thrown his way – and
from this height, after a mere couple minutes he could see what appeared to be
a long gap in the forest. Less than a minute later he caught a glimpse of a
reflective surface, which he fully recognized as ice once he had cleared the
forest and began hovering over the huge mass. He looked down and found
Davídrius and Christeané standing just beside the ice; the Transfer Captain
carefully lowered himself down to the ground next to the two Introtechnics just
as Siyuakén and Kaoné burst out of the trees themselves.
“This is… quite something,” Davídrius mused, “A huge crevice, filled
with ice…”
“No… it’s not just ice,” Kaoné countered as she ventured a step onto
the surface, “At the very bottom of the crevice, under all of the ice… it’s the
wreck.”
* * * * *
==================== End of Chapter 17 ====================
* * * * *
Data Entry: Hazard Islands
The Hazard Islands are a group of islands in Northeastern Nimalia, east of East Nimaliaka and north of Riverana. The islands are historically notorious for being remarkably dangerous locations, even for Chaotics. The local flora and fauna – though especially the fauna – are hostile to everything at all times. Even herbivores possess lethal defenses, and some animals even have multiple methods of quickly executing prey, predators, or both. In a straight-up one-on-one fight, most Chaotics would be able to survive and usually kill any of the Hazard Island animals, but the majority of the deadliness of the islands lies in the thick forest and underbrush in which all of the vicious fauna live. Several Chaotics, including Chaostechnics, Materiatechnics, and Navitastechnics, have died to hostile native life simply because they had no idea the animal was present until too late. There was a point in history that the islands were used as a sort of “ultimate Chaotic training”, meant to unlock a Chaotic’s Overdrive for use in later battles, but it very quickly became evident that the islands were too dangerous to be taken so lightly. That doesn’t stop the occasional Chaotic from venturing to the islands and attempting to cross the landmasses in a sort of survival challenge, though the mortality rate from such absurd treks is close to 99%.
While the Hazard Islands have possessed their deadly reputation for millennia, recently the islands have been gaining a second reputation, akin to the Earthian “Bermuda Triangle” myth. Many transport pilots and naval ship captains have reported odd and untraceable abnormalities in their navigation equipment when passing within about a hundred kilometers of the islands, and crash-landings have been occurring with higher frequency than ever before. Some Magnetechnics claim that they feel uncomfortable near the islands, and several Anima- and Chlorotechnics have reported an increase in aggression amongst the islands’ native life. However, military-grade survey ships have scanned the Hazard Islands from both orbit and low atmosphere, only to find nothing suspicious; as a result the mysterious “rise in aggression” is now largely a popular legend as most reputable scientists and high-level Chaotics shrug off the claim – or simply avoid the Hazard Islands altogether.
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