Chapter 1 : Allies By Trauma

Grumbling to himself as he walked to the "haunted" house, David could't help but wonder why he kept doing these stupid things for such little amounts of money. This time he was supposed to spend the night in a abandoned and supposedly haunted house with nothing but his phone, a sleeping bag, a large flashlight, and his survival knife. Course David could just cheat and say he went there but the last time he did that he came back only to find his friends had been waiting for him to go into the house so they could scare the crap out of him. Not that getting the crap scared at him sounded like such a wonderful idea, but they than dragged him back without anything and locked him inside. Great friends right?

Groaning to himself as he opened the large gate that stood in front of the house, David couldn't help but wince as he heard the large squeak. Perfect. The gate was rusted to near breakage and the house looked like a swift wind could tear it down, windows or what you could call windows were either shattered or gone, probably stolen. Opening the front door David decided he would make his bed on the first floor, so setting down his bag and light he had just gotten ready to explore the house, just in case his bastardly friends were laying in wait, when a loud scream of pain hit his ears, followed by a roar by something that could have been nothing but a monster. Grabbing his phone and holding it tightly in one hand, and his survival knife tightly in the other he made his way to the sounds, not knowing in the least what he was getting himself into.

-about 15 mins ago-

Holly Short sighed breathing through the helmets filtered air. A troll had broken through a weak pipe and made it into a mudmans house, fortunately it wasn't occupied at the moment, but if it decided to somehow let its family know, there could be a catastrophe. But Holly wasn't being sent to deal with that, no, she was just supposed to see how big the troll was, if there was still one, and if they couldn't just knock it out, cover the hole and move on. Zipping through one of the large busted windows Holly glanced curiously around the house, finding not many signs that their was a troll here. But than again the house might not have looked this bad before...

Flying into what may have been a living room at one point Holly made sure to glance around the entire room, the camera in her helmet capturing every second of it. She nodded and moved on, if not the sounds of destruction, the growls and the path of destruction telling her what to be prepared for, than the terrible scent of the troll would have. She found the male troll, normal height for them, 6 ft something, and with a very powerful body chewing on what looked like the remains of a raccoon. Holly winced momentarily picturing herself in the raccoon's position.

Glad she had her camouflage on she quickly glanced around the room, wanting with every fiber in her body just to fly away, but managing to stay true to her job. That's when the large squeak went through the house, fortunately it echoed and confused the troll, who was roaring at a wall trying to make it stop. Ok, ok this is fine, you have this under contro-that's when the front door, not even twenty feet away opened and a mudman entered grumbling in its native tongue. D'arvit! Holly Short tried to grab her gun but was knocked to the ground and stepped on as the troll charged, stopping to see a small fairy that seemed to have come out of nowhere. The camouflage had broke when the trolls stomped on Holly, as did her helmet which she quickly threw at it.

Cursed mudman! She thought trying to reach her gun when the troll grabbed her and roared into her face, one of its poison dripping tusks entering her chest. She screamed in pain despite her training and found her world spinning as the poison took affect. This is it...I didn't think I'd die on recon...

That's when the troll head seemed to spit woodchips at her, taking a second to force her brain to process Holly found the situation was worse than she thought as she stared at the madmen who held a broken table leg. Taking the second the troll gave her as it tried to process exactly what had hit it, Holly grabbed her (enter name of pistol because author has forgotten...:"() and fired off a quick shot at the trolls head. She knew she had only stunned it but it was the best that she could do so yanking free of the troll she ran at the mudman, grabbing his hand and yelling "We gotta go now!"
If it surprised David that a ...well midget it seemed with pointy ears was getting attacked by a large monster and than telling him to go, he didn't show it but rather threw his phone at the monster hoping to buy some time. Holly glanced behind them, but thought the troll was not stunned it now had a new and smaller yet more threatening enemy to destroy. David's phone. Though David hadn't known right then, he had bought them precious seconds that they were going to need if they were going to survive. Holly glanced up at the mudman curiously, not only had he tried to save her, but he seemed to know the trolls weaknesses...or maybe it was dumb luck and his own wish to survive, she thought her heart hardening.

"Do you have any bright lights or something VERY loud?" Holly watched the mudman as he glanced around before going to a large thing in the back. She watched him pull a disc out of his pocket and shove it in, than she watched as he handed her a large flashlight.

"It's pretty bright, guessing that monster thing doesn't like light much huh?" David turned the large stereo up all the way and pressed play. Septic Flesh - Lovecrafts Death played.

"It's a troll, a underground dweller, hates light and loud sounds." As she was saying this Holly was not only pulling the mud man back, but was trying to turn up the broken knob on her neutrino, going to have to tell Foaly to reinforce his gadgets, she thought. "Ugh, what is that awful tune?" Holly glanced up at the mud man, her ears begging her to destroy the stereo.

"Everybody's a critic." The mud man smiled at her. "Well just in case we do die, my names David."

Holly glanced up at David pondering whether or not to tell him hers. "My name is Holly Short," she reached out and shook his hand. Chances are he will just be mind-wiped anyway..."I don't plan on either of us dying, though if we do survive..."

"We will be allies by trauma" David finished her sentence with the only thing that seemed right, after all she had been trailing off. David turned around and without a word grabbed Holly and wrapped his body around her. Holly's first instinct was to throw the mud man off, but than her soldier side came into play. He wouldn't attack his only ally,Than, he didn't attack me off the back...and he's wrapping himself around me as if to-Realization hit Holly like a brick. D'arvit! she only barely managed to scream that in head when She and David flew, David cushioned the blow from the second troll, and the fall, though his weight falling on her had knocked her unconscious. Her last thought was allies by trauma? Try friends mudman. When Holly awoke she could still feel his heartbeat so he was alive, and she felt the small up's and down's of his chest as he breathed, though it was very shallow. So she was still with him?

Poking her head through the unconscious David's arms, Holly found herself staring at an unconscious troll. Glancing around she found out that she was not in the house anymore, but rather out on the lawn, and seeing as they weren't torn to little bits she surmised that David had somehow taken out the other troll as well. She glanced up noticed a mud man sized hole in the wall of the house, inside the hole still holding the large flashlight, lay the other troll, mostly likely unconscious by shock. The second troll was taken out by her neutrino, which she pulled from David's unconscious hand. She could hear the LEPrecon ship before it settled down behind her.

Commander Root came out and stared at the unconscious mud man and to Holly than back. "...Holly...explain to me why there is a mud man here..."

"Sir, he helped me out-" Holly started hoping she could at least explain.

"Helped you out?! When you found out you were in trouble you should have said right than and there!" Commander Root's Face was beet red...nothing new. "He is now getting mind wiped, and for your sake you had better have not made another mistake." Commander Root and Holly watched as the mind-wipe team came over to David, or mud man as far as Commander Root was concerned.

Friends by trauma...allies by trauma...Holly glanced back at the busted walls and than back, her decision was made.

"Sir, I have to object to his mindwipe." The mind wipe team stopped setting up and quickly backed away as Commander Root stomped over to Holly. "Sir...he helped me...I wouldn't be here if not for him." Holly stared determined, into Commander Roots eyes. His glare slowly softened and he pulled out a fungal cigar and lit it.

"...Fine. However," All the tech stared in surprise at there Commander, was he going soft? "If this comes back at us, it will not be only your badge on the line..." he paused disappearinginto a cloud of smoke before it disappeared to show his calm yet slightly sad face. "It may very well be all of our life's..."

Authors notes: Whew...there we go. Hope you all enjoy!