Scene 16: Pursuit

Stavikk and Ralph sat down by their fire in the scorching prairie, laughing and telling stories to each other, and eating a dead Catoblepas. A Catoblepas was a six legged, mammalian, bull-like creature that would occasionally wander the wastes and prairie-like biomes of Pharavanna, scrounging any plant life they could find, and so developed crushing-like teeth for breaking apart hard vines. They had incredibly thick, dark brown or black skin, and had no eyes, but rather had a very strong sense of smell and hearing that would always lead it in the direction of food or a mate. For defense, a Catoblepas has an extremely thick head with a bunch of smaller horns protruding from it, and five different tails with sharp tips, capable of cutting skin and flesh with ease. Stavikk, preferring dark meat himself, decided to eat the legs of the mostly cooked Catoblepas, while Ralph decided to eat the meat around the stomach and chest. As they talked around the campfire, the night slowly began to grow old, and they fell asleep within not too long of the eating.

In their dreams, the two of them once again saw the masked figure and on the same platform, sitting in the throne. Even though nor Ralph or Stavikk knew who he was, Victor appeared out of the darkness, a grudging look on his face, and pointed a handgun at the masked figure, saying: “Don’t you dare come for her, or I’ll blow your brains out just like what happened to your friend Dolph”. “No, come find me, I’m on Arborea!”, the masked figure retorted. Stavikk and Ralph looked back at Victor, with angry and disagreeing looks on their faces, but unsure what to do to stop him. “Fine, you want to be like that?” “You’ve just dug your own graves, idiots” said Victor. “Oh, looks like they’re almost here!” “I’ve heard they have a real bone to pick with you”. Ralph and Stavikk looked back to see flashing lights and loud motors in the distance, seeing bikes, and instantly knew they had to wake up. A portal appeared on the other end of the stairway, and the two of them ran through, waking up quickly and getting onto their motorbike, driving extremely fast down the highway, but being followed, chased, by an array of hover cars and motorbikes. Ralph shot back at them with his double-barreled shotgun while Stavikk drove away as quickly as he could, knowing the correct routes to take, and not before too long took a turn off of the highway, driving straight through the desolate prairie towards the farmhouse, the one place they would be truly safe.

They could see the farmhouse in the distance, as they constantly got closer to the cliff face, and its dim lights contrasting the midnight tint that was cast on the whole valley. They drove closer and closer, Ralph getting a lucky shot on one of the motorbikes, and causing it to go way off course and crashing into a boulder, causing a loud and fiery explosion. They were about halfway there when they noticed that there were bikes skidding out of control without Ralph having to shoot them. The hover cars behind them suffered no such obstacle, being able to pass over this terrain easily, because they could just float right over it. They were being shot at, Ralph could tell, but they weren’t going down as easily as the bikes were. Finally, they were close to the farmhouse, and the hover cars were being shot at over and over, until one of their engines exploded.

One of them remained, driving extremely quickly towards the motorbike, and bouncing slightly as it glided across the rocky flats to avoid crashing into the surface below. As Stavikk and Ralph got extremely close, the two large back doors of the farmhouse opened, and the two of them could see Olivia right behind an A.T.V, which Stavikk could see filled to the brim with explosives, in every cavity that wasn’t a fuel tank or engine. Olivia then tied a brick to the gas pedal of the vehicle, and then watched it go forward towards the hover car at an extremely fast speed, the pilots, though, not noticing. Luckily, Stavikk was quick enough to turn out of the way, but the hover car pilots were not so fortunate. As the two vehicles crashed together, an explosion erupted between the two, making a bright orange and yellow crashing against the midnight sky. Stavikk slowed down the motorbike to a stop, and the two of them getting out to walk into the farmhouse, but seeing Olivia with a look of dismay on her face as she held her sniper rifle horizontally across her stomach. “They took my boys”, she said. “In the night, and I haven’t a chance to get em’ back”.

Ralph and Stavikk dropped their heads in sadness after hearing this fact, and expressed their sympathies sincerely at this horrible loss. The three of them moved into the house, slowly, trying to make sense of it all, and getting some protection from the frigid night. They sat down inside, on chairs and the bed in the corner of the room, and discussed what to do next. “I’m assuming you all remember… the dreams”, Stavikk inquired. He figured his best bet was to follow what information the masked figure was giving them. She seemed to know so much. “Yeah, we were there”, Ralph responded, Olivia nodding her head in agreement. “I remember her saying she was on Arborea, but how the hell do we get there without being obliterated by Victor’s fleet?” Stavikk questioned. “I have no clue”, said Olivia, all of them being thwarted as of how to get to space. They needed more information going forward, but didn’t know where to go, and there were only three of them against the superpowers that were Nexactus and the red sickle. Unanimously, the group decided to lay low in Feronia, where the cover of the forest would easily protect them, and perhaps they could gain an advantage by waiting it out.

Scene 17: Camouflage:

The three fugitives arrived in a remote area in the forest, stopping at the side of a sandy-brown gravel road, with lush trees to either side. It was raining at the time, as it would typically in Feronia, but seemed unusual to Stavikk, Ralph, and Olivia, since they were used to the arid deserts of northern Phaethon. They got off the relatively crowded motorbike and headed into the lush rainforest a little bit too quickly and obviously, perhaps, and ventured out, looking for food, shelter, and allies. None of them had an optimal sense of how to get around or survive in the rainforest, and so the three of them relied on their instincts from their time in the burning badlands to discern the right path in Feronia.

After a few weeks of camping and living off the land, the group arrived at another camp, which seemed very quiet, almost abandoned by whoever seemed to live there. There was a singular tent there, barely recognizable, as it had been covered with shrubs to help it disguise with the surroundings. There was a central fire pit, surrounded by rocks that were covered in a strange, lime green moss. It was eerily quiet there, with no signs of any population in sight. Stavikk decided to investigate the main tent of the camp, pulling the flap open to reveal a slim, frail-looking man with a scraggly white beard, and tattered, green clothing. The man was wielding a submachine gun and was wide-eyed at the sight of Smokecutter. Stavikk put his hands up, a move that the man did not expect, and said calmly: “I’m not here to hurt you”, before backing away. As the panic quickly drained from the man’s face, he said: “Oh, thank god”. “I thought you were some sort of creature, but judging from your footsteps, it seems you aren’t too adept in the ways of Feronia”. The man walked out of his tent, switched his gun safety on, and put it in his satchel, before sitting on a rock, and beginning to talk. “Allow me to introduce myself”. “I am Layne Pontiff, but I have no idea who the heck you three are”.

Layne was an older man, and seemed to be rather savvy with how to survive in the wilderness of Feronia. His clothing seemed rather tattered, and he had a wide hat painted with multiple shades of green. Layne wore multiple necklaces, each with bizarre teeth: some serrated and some straight, but usually sharp and yellowed. He was a man of European descent, but had been exposed to a lot of sunlight in his lifetime. He had light blue eyes and white hair, along with his thin white beard and moustache that gave him a relatively grizzled appearance. “So, why exactly are you here?”, he asked. If they were here to murder him and steal his belongings, at least he would be aware of it now. “Laying low”, Stavikk responded. “That’s our plan for the time being, but eventually we’ll need a way to get to Arborea…”, Stavikk explained.

“Well, then I’ve got some really good news, and some really bad news”, Layne said. “The good news is that I happen to know a launch base that can get you right into space”. “The bad news”, Layne said, “is that getting close to the base means certain death”. “The base is taken over completely by the sickle, and surrounded by their camps as well”. “I’ve scouted the area for months”. “Trust me, you don’t want to get close”. “Now, before you act all tough and say you’ve faced more dangerous fights, trust me, you haven’t”. “Not in Feronia”, Layne said. “So, what do we do?”, asked Ralph as he tilted his helmet visor up. “Here’s what you do”, said Layne. “You stay with me”. “You train, with me”. “You learn everything about the forest of Feronia, because you’ll need every possible advantage you can get your hands on if you want the slightest hope of staying alive”. “Look, you don’t have any reason to trust me, I get that”. “But if you want to get to space before being turned into crimson mist, you’ll need to stay with me”.

The group, led and mentored by Layne, took part with him daily, learning how to know their location and that of their enemy, how to use every tree, rock, and crevasse to its absolute advantage, what plants are poison, and which are boon. They learned about how to hide, move silently, and climb almost any surface with absolute ease. They trained constantly and consistently, until everything that they needed was instinct to them. Finally, after three months of strict training, the group of three was ready to take on the red sickle in this type of warfare, and finally have a chance to get to Arborea. Layne, while wise and full of knowledge, was far too old to be able to survive against opponents wielding firearms. The group set out, hardly noticeable under the canopy of the forest, to find the launch station to achieve their ultimate goal. They needed to find out who that masked figure was, and after three months they were finally prepared.