Chapter 119 – Unexpected

  “No, I don’t know if I will get sick from eating chocolate in my werewolf form. Who would even ask that question? Besides you, obviously. Why are you asking me and not Kurt anyway?” – Gus to Val while they waited to enter the rift.

  “Looks like a boulder field.” Kurt said while charging his rifle and looking at the assembled team. “Jade, take Gem squad and push perimeter left and rear. I will push front to right.”

  “Where do I go?” Anna asked, raising a shaky hand.

  Val pulled her in close. “Just stick behind me and try not to point your muzzle at my back.”

  Anna was wearing a set of Order fatigues and armor but was using the rifle Val was first using before Kurt had helped her build a dedicated one in Six Max. The longer barrel with the heavier bullet delivered increased downrange performance compared to the 5.56x45 cartridge that his other guns were chambered in.

  One last look around and nod from Jade had Kurt pushing through the rift and moving off to the one o’clock position. Jade was hot on his heels and immediately went to the left, covering the far side as her troops flowed out behind her.

  As expected, nothing happened. Their little deployment order wasn’t even really needed as the boulder field only extended ten yards before becoming a cliff face going up on the left and one going down on the right. They had deployed on a narrow, twenty-yard-wide ledge that ran along what seemed to be a mountain side. The air was appropriately cold and dry for a mountain as well, not quite freezing but definitely not pleasant.

  “Well, this is… new.” Kurt commented while surveying the area they found themselves in. He didn’t really have any choices in ways to proceed either since they could only go forward along the ledge. There was a normal sky in this rift, bright blue and clearly visible due to there being absolutely nothing past the edge of the path they landed on. The only thing he could see past the edge was blue sky and more mountain side until it faded into a light fog. There was the vague sense of the core somewhere up and to his left but beyond that, he couldn’t really comprehend any more details about the rift.

  Having nothing else to do, Kurt got his teams moving. They formed a staggered column, moving along the ledge with Val casting an illusion from the middle of the column. She said they could move at a walking pace but no faster or they would risk breaking the illusion with so many people.

  After a few hundred yards of walking along the ledge, they reached a sort of end to the mostly level pathway. To the left was a large fissure that opened up, leading into the mountainside with another boulder field within. Ahead was a different story but it allowed them to see more of the rift. They were on the side of a mountain to be sure, just this one was a little… active.

  “It’s a mother fucking volcano.” Jade muttered under her breath as she joined Kurt in looking up the rocky slope that the ledge ended on.

  “Yeah.” Kurt agreed. The steam rising from the top into the chilly air made it so he couldn’t think of any other possibilities.

  “And we have to go inside…”

  “Yeah.”

  “There is usually lava and toxic gas inside volcanoes.”

  “Mhm. Don’t forget about super-heated chemical water and mud so hot it can give second degree burns from the briefest exposure.” Kurt said in his most helpful tone.

  Jade just looked bewildered for a few moments before turning on her heel to deliver the bad news to her squad. Kurt sighed and turned away from the steaming, boulder strewn slope before him. He was not looking forward to going inside the centerpiece of this particular rift.

  ”She doesn’t seem thrilled with the idea, and I will admit, I am not all that excited either.” Val said via the implant.

  “Neither am I.” Kurt responded.

  “But it has to be done regardless of how we feel.” Kristi added while moving to follow Kurt.

  They continued the private mental conversation as the teams pushed into the gaping opening into the seemingly active volcano. He had expected the air to slowly transition from cold to hot as they entered but that was not the case. Half way down the crevasse they crossed a seemingly invisible line and the temperature suddenly shot up to what felt like the high eighties or low nineties. It was a sudden and jarring experience that made them all pause and catch their breath in the suddenly hot and humid air.

  Other than the heat and humidity, the air was otherwise still breathable and didn’t have any distinct smell to it other than ‘odeur de’ cave’ as Val put it. He didn’t think that was proper French, but he also didn’t speak the language and just chuckled a little at the punny quip.

  They continued on for another minute until the light from outside could barely reach them. The slight dimming allowed them to see a faint glow ahead. Kurt halted the column and called Val up. She cast a stronger illusion to cover just the two of them as they advanced down the chasm, using the boulders as cover.

  After another several dozen yards, they had reached a point where the natural passage seemed to turn and shrink, forming something that looked more like a lava tube than what they had previously been in. On the walls of that tube were patches of glowing green moss that cast a strange illumination over the dark tunnel.

  “What is this?” Kurt wondered as he approached and got a better look down the now much narrower tunnel. “Kristi, bring them up.” He said after establishing that they still hadn’t found anything resembling life in this rift.

  Gem squad trooped up with Kristi taking her place beside Kurt and Val, Anna trailing a couple steps behind her. “What’s the deal, sire?” Jade whispered while casting a suspicious glance down the tunnel.

  “Just wondering if this tunnel full of glowing moss looks off to you.” Kurt said, pointing to the well-lit tunnel.

  Jade and Kristi studied it for a few moments before Kristi suddenly perked up. “It’s straight.”

  “And I think it makes a perfect right angle bend to the left at the far end.” Jade added while using her hand to gesture what she meant.

  Kurt nodded. He had the same thoughts as they did apparently. It was Anna that chimed in with a little extra fact. “Also, the moss stuff is not what is glowing.” She said, pointing to the clump of green moss.

  “Huh?” Kurt asked. It looked like it was glowing to him.

  Anna stood up and crossed the lava tube to the far wall where a clump of vegetation was clinging to the wall. Gently, standing on tip toes and using just the tip of her rifle barrel, she poked the clump, then lifted. The moss was drawn up like a curtain to reveal a pale-yellow stone behind it that glowed much brighter than with its clumpy covering.

  The little fey let the moss back down and picked up a bit that had fallen before trotting back over to them. “Here.” She handed the palm sized scrap to Kurt, and he inspected it.

  The clump of moss wasn’t green but more of a light blue in color that seemed to glow on its own. As he watched, he swore he saw it dim slightly and had to hold the sample up to compare the one on the wall to it. Sure enough, the light was slightly fading, and the moss was becoming a darker blue in color.

  “Like those little, glow-in-the-dark stars kids put on their ceiling.” Jade commented.

  “Oh, yeah!” Kurt whispered back as it clicked in his mind why it felt familiar. “Just a slightly different color.”

  “Yeah, super cool.” Val said blithely. “One issue. Who put the moss up there?”

  “Oh…yeah…” Kurt muttered as he dropped the moss. His sudden nostalgia was crushed by remembering there were likely things that wanted to kill him in this place.

  “Let’s push on then.” He said a moment later.

  They got back into formation, this time with Val at the front and casting an illusion over the face of their column to make it look like an empty tunnel. As they entered, they did notice that the glowing rock provided plenty of illumination, even covered as they were.

  The tunnel itself was both narrower and shorter than the fissure that they had entered through. Its ceiling was at most ten feet above them with the width being around sixteen wide. The surface of the tunnel was a blackened and jagged stone that looked like it had been melted judging by the slightly uneven undulations on the surface.

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  Upon reaching the corner, Val peeked her head around while holding up a hand to signal the rest of the group to stop. Kurt saw her face suddenly frown, eyebrows scrunching together before suddenly rising in surprise as she backed around.

  “You have got to see this shit.” She broadcast across the implants and waived up Jade and Anna.

  Curiosity mounting, Kurt, Jade, Kristi and Anna all poked their heads around the corner, each one taking a different elevation and presenting the appearance of an odd totem pole with sideways faces. As one, the confusion hit them then the odd surprise of what they were seeing just before they all popped back around the corner.

  “Well… shit.” Kurt muttered.

  When they looked around the corner, they did see the inside of a volcano, at least partly. The issue was that it wasn’t exactly an active volcano in the geothermal sense. It was active in the ‘strange bullshit living inside it’ sense.

  “What exactly are we looking at?” Kristi asked after they had backed down the tunnel a fair distance.

  “I can’t tell if they are amphibians or bats.” Jade said. “They have flight membranes and stuff, but the quills are messing with me.”

  Kurt didn’t know how to describe the trio of creatures they saw just inside the caldera but spiky, flying frogmen was a pretty close description. Their faces had two large, black eyes with no discernable pupil, and short faces that ended in triangular snouts. He wasn’t sure if the three examples he saw were a good representation of all the creatures, but it was at least setting the tone.

  Each of the creatures stood around four feet tall with hunched backs and broad shoulders as they leaned on their staffs. Their skin was a mottled green color with purple rings spaced evenly across the surface. The strange part came in the vibrant pink membranes under their arms that were folded like a paper fan. Stranger than even the idea of flying frog men, was the foot long spines that that protruded from their heads, slicked back like hair but rattling slightly as they moved.

  “I don’t think I have to mention the potential for poison.” Kurt said, looking to each of them. “Just going by the colors and how things work in nature.”

  “Agreed, I don’t want to risk any of us getting poked.” Val said then amended her statement. “But you werewolves and dragons will probably be fine.”

  “Yeah… let’s not test that.” Kristi immediately squashed any ideas floating in Kurt’s head about trying to test the toxins on the spines.

  “How do you want to handle this one?” Jade asked, bringing their little powwow back on track.

  “Quiet as we can.” Kurt nodded to Val as both of them pulled out suppressed rifles. “Let’s see if we can get a foot hold.”

  Once again, Kurt and Val crept forward and looked around the corner. The trio of frogs were still there and still mostly facing to the left where the space seemed to open up. ”I will take center and left.” Kurt sent mentally and got an affirmative from Val as she shifted slightly.

  Pop-pop-thwack. Kurt fired two rounds at the center frogman. The first hit it where neck met shoulder and the second took it just above and behind its large glassy eye. He didn’t watch his shots and immediately switched targets, letting the recoil carry his reticle over the next frog while he felt Val shifting next to him. Pop-thwack. The second frog fell strangely as the bullet hit it behind its eye.

  That strange fall turned into a forward leap as it sprung away only to land in a heap of thrashing limbs just at the edge of the tunnel mouth. He looked up in time to see Val’s frog make a similar movement except in reverse, falling on its back before kicking itself along the ground and into the tunnel wall.

  They both sat and watched, muzzles trained on the entrance of the tunnel as they waited for anything to come investigate the sudden disturbance. It was a good thing they did, as a few moments later, they heard a leathery slapping noise followed by another two frogmen half hoping, half gliding into the tunnel mouth.

  Both of the creatures pointed their short spears strangely, holding them level with their chests and pointed outward. Their throats bulged like they were about to croak but they didn’t make any noise other than the sound of feet slapping on stone. Kurt told Val to take the one on the right again as the creatures began walking down the tunnel toward them.

  Pop-pop-thwack-thwack. They both fired in unison and took the frogs in their inflated throats. There was a slight hiss of air as one frog just collapsed in a heap while the other had a little bit of life in it and brought the staff up to its snout.

  Blowgun. Of all the things for Kurt to not recognize. And it was so obvious! The tribes in the amazon rainforest were known for using blowguns with poisoned darts. They had already suspected toxins and he just didn’t put the two together.

  The throat sack of the frog suddenly deflated, and he heard a zipping noise before a ‘tink’ sound just as he pulled the trigger again and put a round through the monster’s head.

  “Are you ok?” Val suddenly hissed, pulling at his shoulder.

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Why?” Kurt asked, bewildered at why she was frantically looking him over.

  Val stopped her visual inspection as she suddenly bent down and came up with a stick. “It shot a dart at you.”

  Kurt realized what the zipping noise had been and looked down to see a faint smudge on his armor from where the dart had impacted just above his heart. “Well, that was close.”

  “And this is why you wear armor.” Kristi muttered as she advanced up to the opening of the cave, poked her head around the corner and stopped. “Umm, this is not what I expected.”

  Kurt followed Val and they both stepped around the corner to see what Kristi was looking at. It was inside of a volcano but not an active one. This one was filled with a hot, humid swamp which seemed to explain the temperature shift from the entrance.

  They stood on a small ledge above a long shallow slope that was overlooking a massive caldera that was, by Kurt’s best guess, a couple miles across. Below was damp and sodden plane of large puddles under trees with sprawling canopies. Vines and moss hung in large clumps from the branches and swayed on a non-existent breeze while plumes of mist and steam rose up to the small circle of sky above.

  The floor of the caldera was host to more movements than just the frog men. Below, Kurt saw a few patrols of them but also some other life forms. There was something that looked like an alligator but had a longer and more slender body between its two sets of stubby legs. On one of the trees he thought he saw a squirrel, but it was hard to say as the creature was a mess of shadow and fur in a vague squirrel shape.

  “Back, we need another squad at least.” Kurt said and quickly stooped to grab one of the frog men by and ankle and begin to drag it back. Kristi grabbed its arms and helped to lift the small creature. It was surprisingly difficult to carry, not because of weight but because the spines and neither of them wanting to get poked.

  Jade trotted over to him after assigning two of her people to watch the rear and cover their withdrawal. “Is this normal? I thought we would be clearing this today.”

  “I have no doubt that we could do it, but at what cost. Penny said this rift has another eighty hours before we have to worry and it will go faster with more people.” Kurt explained his logic. “Plus, I want to see if this has any value to anyone, namely Sam.” He shook the corpse a little to show what he was talking about.

  “Sam?” Jade sounded like she wanted him to explain.

  “Yeah, the changeling vamp from the Tacoma team. She is an alchemist and likes to experiment. That reminds me…” Kurt stopped mid explanation and moved over to grab a clump of moss from one of the glowing spots on the wall. He then summoned a pickaxe and assembled it. After breaking out a large section of the glowing rock, he put it in his ring along with the moss and tools.

  Jade watched in confusion as he grabbed the frogman again and began carrying it out. “Why don’t you put it in the ring like the other stuff?”

  Kurt sighed. “There seems to be a limit on how big something can be to go in the rings. About two feet in diameter is the maximum. This little bastard is just slightly too wide, and I don’t want to ruin the corpse any more to make it fit.”

  “How about this…” Jade suggested and pulled out a rope from her backpack. It was a bundle of cord that was about as thick around as his thumb and clearly meant for climbing.

  Stopping, Kurt and Kristi watched as Jade carefully wrapped the rope around the shoulders of the creature, avoiding the spines as she did. After getting the length around, she tied a few loops and ran the free end between them before pulling on the rope.

  In a sudden and disgusting display of mechanical leverage, Jade used the rope like a ratchet strap to compress the frogman into a narrower shape. She repeated this around the hips, using the flexible nature of the monster to her advantage as she rolled it up into a thin, slimy, spiky frogman burrito.

  “That was gross.” Kristi said as she touched the corpse and stored it in her ring. “But effective.”

  “Nice. Up top!” Kurt said and held up a hand for a high five. He regretted it as Jades hand, still coated in slime and blood, smacked his palm and splattered out a fan of yuck on their faces.

  “Pe-tah. That was gross.” Jade commented after spitting and using her sleeve to wipe her eyes.

  “Idiots.” Kristi grumbled as she walked past, also trying to wipe her face without spreading it around.

  Kurt couldn’t help but agree with her as he shrugged at Jade and went to get them moving again. It was a quick walk out and along the ridge to get back to the portal. The transition from steamy interior to chilly mountainside was just as jarring as it had been going in but they survived.

  When they emerged from the portal and into the hub, Penny could be seen through the doorway typing on her computer while holding her phone to her ear.

  “… go it. They just walked in so I will… ok, alright. Call you right back.” She then hung up the phone and looked to Kurt. “Done? Please tell me you are done.”

  “Umm, no it was huge, I came to get more troops.” Kurt answered, sharing a look with the girls at Penny’s clipped tone.

  “That’s not going to happen.” Penny immediately said and picked up her phone. “We are scrambling to assist a team in Australia right now. They are about to have a rift inversion if they don’t clear it in the next… eighteen hours.” She looked at her computer for a moment to get the time. “Everything just suddenly went to shit, and all the other field offices are already committed to abnormally large rifts. I think there is something else going on here.”

  Val suddenly cursed. “Fuck. We won’t be close to done by then.”

  “Yeah. There is the problem.”

  Kurt frowned. This didn’t sound right, and he wondered what was going on. “Why can’t other field offices go assist?”

  “All the other offices are on other rifts or on recovery from injuries. Only teams available are ours and the new ones aren’t ready yet.” Penny answered putting a little extra emphasis on the ‘all’ part of her answer. “I think Jay is going to have to send the rest of the wolves to back up this Aussie team. None of ours can go either as we are all on a rift or a mission.”

  “Ra?”

  “No, he is off world. We have to send Justin and the merc squad. Plus, whatever other Order assets we can wrangle up.”

  “Well, shit.” Kurt said then turned to the gathered wolves behind him. “Turn it around folks. We are doing this one on our own.”

  Kristi walked over to Penny and produced a body bag which they then put the frogman in. “This is the common enemy. Can you get it analyzed to see if Sam would want it?”

  “Can do. Venom or other toxins?” Penny asked.

  “Yeah, we think so.” Kurt said after Jade had taken her people back into the rift. “Here are some moss and local rock that might be interesting too.” He dropped his collected samples and trotted through the portal to huddle with Jade and Val.

  “What’s the plan?” Val asked.

  “Hit it Hard. Loud and fast just in case.” Kurt said.

  “And if that doesn’t work?” Jade pushed his idea.

  “Then we can figure it the fuck out then.” Kurt answered. “Let’s go, we got a rift to close.” And with that, they all began to jog toward the tunnel.