Nathan's orders rang out clear around the camp "none of us have any pockets, so take the few clothes we can find and use them to hold any equipment we might find!" showing us what he meant, Nathan loosened his tie, wearing it instead as a bandolier… he took Cassidy's old jacket and gave it to her, he gave his skirt to Leonard which he used as a belt, and he gave her underwear to me, which I put on normally. "Right, if we find anything we need, we have somewhere to put it… now, gather anything that might be of use!" as the group rushed about picking up anything useful, I walked over to Nathan and asked "since when have you been an expert at this kind of thing?" he laughed, and said "one time, we at the history channel had a company bonding trip, where we had to play a survival game… you pick up things as you go…" The group assembled themselves in front of him, carrying an assortment of implements and supplies they had found… "alright, good going… now, we need to head to the south camp and meet up with the guys there… before, they were pushing us around, now, they are begging for our help… let's not make the same mistake they did!" the camp erupted into a roar of approval, and the remaining nine of us set off towards the southern camp.
We were not interrupted at all, the path was suspiciously clear of hazards, but as we drew close to the camp, we could smell freshly overturned earth on the air. The camp was bigger than our own, it was the place where the show's producers stayed… but there were several gigantic holes in the ground, as if the place had been ravaged by a giant mole. We crept down towards the camp… at the entrance to the largest hut, I noticed a figure beckoning us closer… it was late evening, and so it was too dark to distinguish what or who it was. It disappeared into the door, and we made our way up to it… looking inside, we saw a group of several humans working madly on the telephones and computers, talking in hushed voices… but in the middle of them was a dark figure. "Hello… who are you?" I asked, it spun it's head around… "great… the cavalry is finally here" before us stood what I recognised to be yet another hybrid… half human, half Umbereon. Apparently, she was female… she had quite a small bust, and wore nothing but an eye-patch over her left eye… she had quite thick fur, and was holding a pistol in her right hand. "I'm Cyclis, the one who runs this show… it was all my idea, and it was a huge success… however, our vehicles seem to have awoken what we believe to be a large nest of Onyx, and they are making their feelings known… so far we have had no casualties, but they have destroyed all but one of our trucks" we listened to her intently, as she had a great deal of charisma… however, Nathan responded "we followed your orders, and are assembled here… I don't think any of us have particularly good abilities for taking down Onyx though…" she laughed, and patted him on the shoulder "there'll be no need for that… we plan to get to the airport without them knowing, then escape on a plane… however, the only way to get there is by vehicle, and so we'll probably get their attention en-route…" Nathan put his hand to his chin in thought… "so what do you propose?" Cyclis stood in front of us again, clearing her throat, she said "it's only a matter of time until they come back and make Swiss cheese out of this camp, so we have to get moving soon… we'll stay here until the last minute, then head to the airport on the one remaining truck… when we get there, we will have approximately two hours until a plane arrives to pick us up, until then, we'll have to hold the Onyx off and stop them from harming the runway… I'm sorry it had to come to this, but I'll be glad to repay you guys in any way I can when this nightmare is over…" as her sentence ended, so did her air of authority… she sat down on one of the chairs and put her face in her palms… "this is… so hard… all I wanted was a TV show… now I'm running for my life from a load of monsters…" Leonard sat next to her, putting his arm around her and saying "come on now… this will all be over soon, we can easily deal with these things and get out of here…" she looked him in the eyes, and nodded "yeah… your right… oh god, I'm so sorry about what they did to you!" Leonard looked at her in an odd way "what are you talking about?" crying, she howled out "don't you know? They turned you into a Blaziken, even though I specifically told them not to!" he put his hand over her mouth and smiled, saying "it's okay… I'm still half human… and I'm kind of liking it as well…" she stifled her tears and nodded "okay then… alright… we're ready… lets go wait by the truck… I want all of you to get a weapon if you don't have powers of your own!"
Her staff proceeded to arm themselves with an assortment of pistols, tranquilliser rifles and stun grenades that were originally there as wild pokemon containment precautions… but now, the indigenous creatures were far beyond containing. Garrus, me, Cassidy and Leonard were not armed, as we could look after ourselves anyway… we crept silently out of the building, Nathan and Cyclis heading us up. We reached the truck, which was just big enough to carry us and the crew of staff… and we waited. The clearing was eerily silent, no-one dared to make a sound… for a brief second, I contemplated if this was all some kind of joke. Then, that very second, I jumped as a loud rumbling echoed about… the floor below the camp began to churn and warp as several Onyx burst from underneath and smashed at the buildings. "Come on, drive! Now!" yelled Cyclis as the truck came to life and accelerated away from the scene of utter destruction. We were driving at great speed through the jungle, the rumbling seemed to pass into the distance, and I sighed with relief… however, it began to creep back into earshot, as I noticed that a long distance down the road we were travelling on, there was a bump in the ground following us… one of the Onyx was in pursuit!
"Cyclops! There's one behind us!" yelled one of the staff members… "yeah, funny nickname, jackass, now keep driving before I take out your eye and call you that name!" with her threat ringing in his ears, the drivers slammed his foot down on the accelerator, and we seemed to gain some speed… the airport was visible in the distance, it's tower silhouetted against the moonlit sky. "Leonard… please stay safe" I said, as I put my hand on his leg, he looked at me and smiled, saying "for you, I'll come out without a scratch" Gerald tutted at his words, muttering "love-birds" as he fiddled with his pistol, being careful not to touch the trigger. We pulled up next to the airport, and leapt out of the truck… sprinting towards the main building, we looked behind us to see the truck being smashed to pieces by an enraged Onyx… they were already here! "Okay, everyone inside!" yelled Cyclis, opening the door and ushering us in… once inside, we headed straight to the roof, overlooking the runway. Nathan stepped forward and said "alright then, we all need to make sure the Onyx don't attach the runway or us, use everything at your disposal to keep them at bay until the plane arrives… this is perhaps our only hope of escaping this place" we nodded grimly, minds focused on the task at hand. Thanks to the destruction of the truck, most of the Onyx had left, thinking that was the end of us, but two remained, slithering about the forest, always keeping a vigilant eye on us. One of them began to move towards the runway, and it reared up, a sure sign of it's destructive intentions… "give it all you got!" yelled out Garrus as the gun users opened fire. The thing's stony hide seemed to be impervious to the bullets, and it drew ever closer, only seconds away from smashing our only escape route… "everybody shield your eyes!" yelled out Cyclis, throwing one of the stun grenades at it… the creature examined the object closely as it's timer counted down. The resulting flash caused it to scream, rearing up… it's senses completely scrambled, it fell face first onto the concrete of the runway, knocking it out. "ohh crap, that thing is blocking the landing strip! Okay, Leonard, Carol and Cassidy, move that thing off the runway, we'll keep you covered!" said Nathan, still aiming at the downed Onyx with his comically oversized pistol, which he had to hold with both hands.
We climbed back down the stairs… holding my breath, I ran out of the building, followed by Leonard and Cassidy… we reached the Onyx, and began to slide it's unconscious body off the runway. We had just about shifted it entirely when the second Onyx burst from the ground… it shot towards us, picking up Cassidy in it's coils and lifting her high into the air. She yelled out "don't shoot!" as the creature held her aloft… suddenly, an idea hit me… "Leonard, I need you to shoot fire into the air above her on the count of three!" he nodded, and I began to count down… concentrating, I formed a mass of snow above its head, which began to slowly drift down… "one… two… THREE!" he shot up a blast at the snow, causing it to melt into water… the water splashed over both Cassidy and the Onyx, soaking them both. Cassidy shouted out "neat plan!" and screwed her eyes shut… there was a burst of brilliant light as she unleashed a huge current of electricity into the creature… it screamed out just as it's kin had done, then fell to the ground, out cold. We pushed it's knocked-out body to the side as well, looking to the east, we saw the sun beginning to rise… and silhouetted against it was the shape of a plane. A cheer erupted from our group, and they ran down to congratulate us… "you three were amazing… I'm so sorry for putting you guys through this… I will pay you back any way I can" said Cyclis, as she bowed before me. Taking off the underwear I had been given to 'store gear in', I replied to her "well… normally I'd say there's no need, but as it happens, my house could do with a little clearing up… fancy staying at my place and doing odd jobs?" She grinned, and said "that's perfect… as it happens I lived here… until they trashed my house… so a home would be welcome!" we stepped on board the plane, and I sighed with relief as it slowly gained height and flew aloft over the jungle canopy… safety at last. We had risked our lives to save complete strangers, we had made new friends… Nathan… Cassidy… Cyclis… this was the start of something new… and something that I was looking forward to.
