[VIII] Fuel
The Grimm would lead them across the entire island. Within the dropship, Nickelas's wounds had already healed and, with his mind clear of pain, he reflected on the encounter. A lot had occurred in a short amount of time, but what haunted him most was that the Grimm hadn't made a single noise. It had been utterly silent the entire fight. This creature was unnatural, even for Grimm standards.
"Hey, Nick!" Stick yelled urgently, "Nick, pay attention! I lost sight of it!"
Nickelas shook his head and peered out over the edge of the ramp. He searched the ground with his Semblence. A shape moved with incredible speed across the ground, and avoided pine trees with ease, even as it sped forward.
"Left!" He yelled over the howling wind. The dropship leaned to the left
"Straight ahead!" The dropship responded.
"Left, again!" The dropship tilted. Stick saw a glimpse of black through the pine canopy.
"I have visual!" Stick yelled. Nickelas stopped calling out commands, but kept his focus on the Grimm's movements. For something missing a third of its legs, when it used all of them to run, the beast was fast.
The pursuit had lasted nearly ten minutes when Nickelas began to wonder if the Grimm would even lead them somewhere, or if it were merely running desperately for its life. That behaviour, fleeing, was unlike most creatures of Grimm. Then his Semblence picked up something. Two somethings. Nickelas noticed the pine forest was gradually thinning, and oddly enough, the trees began to slant, seeming to grow diagonally, getting progressively lower to the ground as they got closer. Then two large shapes dominated the scene.
"Is anyone else seeing what I am?" Thyst called out from the the front of the dropship. Nickelas looked downwards at the ground.
"If you're looking at a pair of crashed airships…" Nickelas said. "Then yeah, we're seeing the same thing."
The Grimm stood still amongst the wreckage of two formerly fleet-worthy airships. The first airship was split raggedly down the center, separating the bow and the stern. Between the two halves of this airship, was the second airship, as if it had split its twin like an axe splits a log.
This axe of an airship was in comparatively better condition, save for the massive hole near its bow. Both airships bore a slight resemblance to the modern Atlesian navy, but weren't quite the long and angled ships Stick, or the rest of the team for that matter, were familiar with. The similarities to Atlas ended at the wing structure. Oddly enough, as Magnolia and Nickelas both noted, the ships' hulls shared a striking similarity to the sharp keeled designs of Mistral's own airships.
"You think it just led us to it's lair?" Thyst said.
"Maybe it thinks it will have an advantage, here." Magnolia suggested.
Thyst scoffed. "It didn't consider that it was fighting a pair of flying guns." He said, "Stick, end it."
"Gladly." Stick responded, pressing down on the chainguns' dual triggers.
Silence.
Nothing happened.
Stick slammed his fist against the dashboard.
"Damnit, Reed!" He yelled. "That greedy son of bitch…"
"What's the matter?" Magnolia asked
"The dropship doesn't have a weapons system. He fucking removed it!" Stick exclaimed.
"Maybe you should have a little talk with your friend when we're done here, Stick." Thyst said.
"Oh, I plan to…" Stick muttered.
The team approached the injured Grimm cautiously. Either it hadn't noticed them, or the Grimm was waiting for them. Crouched behind a fallen tree, Thyst and Nickelas readied themselves. Nickelas placed a hand on the bark of the wide tree, readying to peek out from behind cover. He was distracted when he felt a soft object under his hand. He lifted his hand and revealed a thin, black vine. He followed the plant and saw it was wrapped around the exposed root of the fallen tree. Some kind of lichen, no doubt. He admired the fact that even somewhere cold like this, life found a way.
A few steps to the left, Magnolia and Stick prepared, crouched behind a stray shard of wreckage. Thyst watched Stick reload Death Rattle. They peered out from behind cover and watched the oddly stagnant Grimm. Thyst was in the middle of formulating a plan when he was cut off by a howl. His head snapped to the injured Grimm, then he turned to Nickelas.
"That wasn't him." Nickelas answered the unvoiced question.
They watched as a Beowolf, emerged from the bowels of the bisected airship. Much like the injured Grimm, it's outline was hazy, and looked almost as if it were made of the same smoke. Otherwise, this Grimm appeared normal. Magnolia made a quiet sound of thinking, little more than a 'hm'.
"He has a friend." she declared, a moment before the Beowolf bared it's fangs at the injured Grimm. Snarling, it lowered itself on it's back legs. The injured Grimm remained silent and motionless. In a flash of motion and haze, the Beowolf leapt at the injured Grimm. With only a slight visible shift, the injured Grimm caught the lunging Beowolf with it's two remaining front arms. Smoke seeped from the various wounds on it forearms as it held the smaller Beowolf by both the throat and the arm. In a quick motion, it tore the Beowolf's arm off, and slammed the rest of the lesser Grimm's body into the ground, claws still wrapped tightly around the smaller Grimm's throat. The tearing of flesh was audible, but still, the larger Grimm made no sound. With the now amputated Beowolf on the ground, the larger Grimm cracked it's own neck backwards, then dove forward, biting down on the Beowolf's exposed neck. With a jerk, that Beowolf lost it's head.
The Hunstmen watched in stunned silence at the Grimm now feasting on the rapidly dissipating corpse of the Beowolf.
"He doesn't have a friend." Magnolia corrected herself.
To the members of team TSNM, it looked as if the the remaining Grimm was breathing deeply of the vanishing corpse. As it did, the wounds on it's body began to close, the fuming slashes closing and returning the Grimm to a more stable, and solid state. To their horror as they watched in confusion, two gouts of smoke erupted from where it's missing limbs were. Within seconds, they had taken shape and all six of the Grimm's limbs were restored.
"Well that's new." Nickelas said
"Any thoughts on how to beat it?" Thyst asked.
"It's just a more dangerous type of Beowolf, if you look at it. Aside from being able to turn into whatever kind of smoke it turns into, just by fighting it I can tell it's fundamentally the same type of Grimm..." Nickelas began.
"Give me the synopsis, Nick." Thyst said. Nickelas caught his breath.
"It's just a matter of wearing it down. If it can keep healing like that, by absorbing other Grimm, then we need to make sure it stays isolated. Otherwise I don't know if it would be possible to wear it down. It's a difficult opponent Thyst. I don't think there's a plan to be made to defeat it." Nickelas said.
A few feet away, Stick stood up and walked out from behind cover. The Grimm sensed him and its eyes snapped onto the Huntsman as he raised his rifle.
"Then we wing it." Stick said.
The Grimm exploded forward as a pillar of smoke, writhing across the snowy ground. Stick followed it with his rifle as it closed the distance between them. It came closer, and Stick readied to pull the trigger. At the last moment, the smoke accelerated and slipped past him. The large Grimm reconstituted behind him and raised its claws to attack.
Stick flipped Death Rattle and gripped the end of the barrel. He spun around and swung the firearm like a bat. The weighted stock connected with the side of the Grimm's head. There was a flash of turquoise between the rifle and the Grimm's white, masked head. The Grimm went down into the snow, and faintly glowing cracks appeared on the side of its face.
Magnolia refused to let something as mundane as the cold stop her. With her Aura restored, the cold no longer bothered her as much as it had earlier. She leapt over the makeshift cover and ran at the recovering Grimm. Her large knives, the paired kyoketsu shoge, opened into fans, whose thin metal reflected the sunlight more than the snow.
The Grimm clutched its face as it rose to its feet. Smoke poured from the cracks in its mask. It readied to swipe at Stick, but Magnolia caught the downward strike with one fan and cast it's attack aside. As she sidestepped the follow-up attack directed at her, a crack of lightning hit the Grimm. Thyst stood beside Magnolia, Indra buried in the Grimm's upper arm. It shrugged off the weapon's blade and back handed Thyst, sending him through the air. It sunk down into smoke and shot across the ground to where Thyst would land. It sprung back up, but when it went to slash at the Huntsman, it found nothing. There was a crackle behind the Grimm, and Thyst came out of electric form right behind the it, wedging Garuda between two of its armored spinal plates. The Grimm's back arched away from the strike in pain, but it made no cry. The Grimm spun and bucked Thyst from its back, exposing it's chest.
Magnolia pounced on the opening, and collapsed both fans. She thrust them into the chest of the Grimm, then opened them once more from inside the Grimm. They sprung open and tore two wounds into it's body. The Grimm reached to grab her, but she let go of her weapons and flipped backwards through the air. Sturdy, but thin chains connected her to her weapons, and she took them in her hands. Magnolia spun the chains in the air and around the extended arms of the Grimm. They wrapped tightly around its wrists, and Magnolia pulled on the chain. The hooks held firmly in the Grimm's chest, deep in its flesh.
The chains carried her forward and she spun in the air. Her armored tail swung, but passed through nothing. Before her feet touched the snow covered ground, she knew the Grimm had sublimed and evaded her attack.
The void of its presence swept along the ground. It was heading straight for Stick, who readied to swing Death Rattle. Magnolia wondered why this Grimm's had such an obsession with Stick.
When the Grimm rose from the smoky mass on the ground, Stick was ready. The Grimm raised an arm to swipe, but Stick swung his rifle.
The Grimm caught Death Rattle in one hand, and took Stick by the throat with another. Stick struggled in vain to wrest himself free as the Grimm cast Death Rattle aside. It carried him, taking three strides towards the front half of the destroyed airship. Up close, Stick noticed that the wounds on the Grimm's chest were already closing. The Grimm lifted Stick into the air, and slammed him into the metal of hull, which dented slightly under the force.
Nickelas ran for the Grimm, Argent's blades humming with energy. The Grimm's feet shifted as Nickelas brought his swords down. Without turning to face Nickelas, the Grimm swung Stick's struggling body into him, swatting Nickelas away like an insect. The Grimm slammed Stick against the hull again, and readied a set of claws. Beneath him, the metal groaned and began to cave in.
Stick took hold of the glossed wood grip of the handgun he had jammed through his belt. He raised the long barreled pistol with a shaking hand. Before he could fire off any shots, the Grimm pinned his wrist to the metal, and brought it's claws down.
With his free hand, Stick undid the latch on one of Death Rattles cartridges. He smacked the claws away with his fist closed tightly around the rectangular cartridge. He spun the geared wheel in the cartridge twice and tossed it into the air. In the brief instant that the cartridge flipped through the air, Stick tensed his left hand. And swung at the Grimm. Four glowing lines appeared on it's neck, and reared it's head back in reaction. Stick held his hand out in front of his face, claws extended. The Grimm bared its fangs at the resisting prey, and opened its maw to snap down onto the hand that struck it. A moment before it bit down, Stick caught the falling cartridge. It hummed violently in his hand as the Grimm's mouth closed around it, a moment before the it exploded.
Stick's body was fired like a projectile through the ship's hull, the force of the explosion causing the metal to crumple under him. He felt the Aura leaving his body, and a sharp pain in his abdomen. Then for a little while, he felt nothing at all.
Back outside of the crashed ship, Nickelas heard a bang, and felt a rush of heat. He stood up and staggered as his vision focused. He saw the Grimm. It was stumbling backwards, clutching its face. For the first time, it made a sound, and the sound was a long, guttural cry of agony. While it was stunned, all three remaining members of TSNM charged the Grimm. As it turned to them, Nickelas caught a glimpse of it's face. The mask was blown in two, much like the ship next to him. Smoke erupted in thrashing tendrils from the right side of it's head. It fought all three of them off savagely, swinging its claws wildly in every direction.
Light came out of the wall in a single beam. The room was blurry, and dark particles floated through the singular beam of light. Someone needed to clean in here, there was a lot of dust in the air. And not the cool elemental kind for that matter. The surface underneath him was hard. Was he in a bed? A figure loomed over him. A woman. Not his mother though. He had a headache, and there was a sharp pain in his stomach. Was he sick? He must be, and this woman was taking care of him. He must be sure to thank her later. The woman above him let out a deep groan. He closed his eyes and laid back. This bed really wasn't that soft. The woman let out a shriek.
Stick opened his eyes and snapped back to reality. The woman threw herself wildly at him, screeching. He tried to raise his arms in defense, but only his right arm came up. His mind was racing when he resorted to kicking upwards defensively. The woman fell on her back a short distance away, and Stick looked down at his left arm. When he tried to move his left hand, it was numb. The glove was in pieces, as was the sleeve, which was to be expected after what had just happened. The web of black tendrils slowly wrapping themselves around his arm, however, was not. He summoned his remaining strength and tried to wrench his arm from the tendrils' grasp. To his surprise, they gave way almost immediately. With his hand free but still unresponsive, Stick rolled to the side and brought himself to a kneeling position, pain shooting up his abdomen as he did so. Even though the motion and the pain, Stick was able to get a good look at the woman attacking him.. Frankly, he couldn't really call the figure that was slowly getting to its feet a woman anymore. Her skin was matte black, and her face was covered without any pattern in small chunks of what looked like bone shards. Her body was contorted, and her leg was clearly broken but she stood on it anyway. Her arms were tense, and moved in sharp angles. She walked liked a puppet whose strings had been knotted together.
Stick looked down at his hands, as the twisted woman shambled slowly toward him. Then he looked at his right hand, it worked, in fact, he still had a pistol tightly in his grip. The woman shrieked again and lunged at him. He rolled out of the way, pain once more shooting through his abdomen. The woman landed where he had been kneeling a moment before. Her back arched, and she lurched upwards. Stick raised his handgun. The woman opened her mouth, and thick black smoke poured from it. She began her bloodcurdling shriek once more, but it was cut short by a single pistol report. Her head erupted into a black cloud. It dissipated slowly, as Stick stood up, and tried to catch his breath. It was difficult. Pain shot through Sticks upper body again. He looked down.
"Well that explains it.." Stick muttered.
A bloodied shard of metal poked out from just below his ribcage. Stick placed his pistol by his foot, and took a deep breath, before patting down his back. He breathed out. There it was. Stick breathed in again. He felt the wider end of the metal in his hand. He breathed out. Stick took a firm grasp of the shard of metal, and took a deep breath in. He held his breath, and yanked the shard of metal out of his body.
Stick felt the sudden urge to cough.
The metal dropped with a clang. Stick reached his hand up, taking hold of his gas mask, and tearing it off from over his mouth, before coughing violently. The snow at his feet was stained a bright red. He took a deep breath, in and out, disturbing the black particles in the air. Stick knelt down to pick up his pistol and noticed the walls. Black tendrils hugged tightly to every surface around him. He didn't have much time to take it in, as he heard the rush of footfalls, and animal-like cries, deeper into the dark bowels of the ship's remains.
Thyst was firing bullet after bullet, point blank at the Grimm, the gunshots echoing across the artificial valley between the two crashed ships. He was about to fire another, when the Grimm slammed down with all four of it's front legs into the snow, knocking the three Huntsmen away. As they recovered, it took off running into the woods, leaving no footprints. Nickelas looked up from the ground, and watched it go. There was no way he would be able to keep up with it. Thyst however, stood up a few feet to his left, and without a word, pursued the fleeing Grimm. Nickelas hung his head and breathed heavily. Then he saw a pair of bare feet in front of him.
Nickelas looked up and saw Magnolia's hand extended outward. He took it graciously, and Magnolia helped him up. The two were left alone in the now eerily calm crash site. Magnolia turned to Nickelas and uttered a single word.
"Stick."
The duo ran towards the gaping hole in the side of the broken ship, and were about to enter when they heard a short series of three gun shots. they paused, thinking it might be Thyst, but then Magnolia realized they were not the same sound as Thyst's dual barreled arm cannon of gun. These were quieter pops. A handgun. Stick's handgun, from the pumping station. Normally gunshots were a bad sign, but these ones filled her with hope. It meant he was alive. They got more proof he was alive a moment later, when he tumbled out of the hole, and landed in the snow. Nickelas noticed he was bleeding from the abdomen. Considering the circumstances, things could be worse.
"Stick, you're bleeding! Are you alright?" Nickelas asked, as Magnolia helped Stick up.
"Run." He said, lifting Death Rattle up off the ground, and slinging it over his shoulder.
"What?" Nickelas asked, but as he did a shriek came from inside the ship's body, and Stick looked Nickelas in the eyes.
"Run!" He said, louder, pushing them both, as the first figure stumbled out of the hole behind him. They didn't ask any questions, and started running for their dropship. Nickelas looked back, as more and more of these figures were spilling from the ship, stumbling mindlessly over each other. They were pitch black, for the most part, and their bodies were pockmarked with pieces of white, just like Grimm. But they moved like, and were distinctly, humanoid creatures. The shamblers, wearing what looked like the tattered remains of military uniforms, stumbled forward on contorted limbs, and let out animalistic cries. It was as if the crew of the fallen ship had come back as a pack of vengeful spirits.
"Are those… people?" Magnolia asked as she ran. Stick stumbled through the snow in front of her, clutching his wound with his right hand. His left arm was limp.
"If they were people, they sure as hell aren't anymore." He said, clambering up the elevated ramp and into the dropship. The mass of shrieking figures weren't far from the dropship now.
Stick tossed himself into the pilot's chair and went through the process of starting the dropship's engines. The horde of humanoid Grimm surged forward. They weren't going to lift off in time. Stick pointed Magnolia towards a hatch on the wall behind his seat.
"Open it!" He said, and without hesitation, she went for the simple solution, kicking the complex latch holding the hatch closed. The hatch fell open and revealed the container inside. She pulled a container out from the hatch and tossed it to Nickelas. He caught it and looked at it.
"Is this our extra fuel?"
"Yes." Magnolia said as Stick stood up from the pilot's seat behind her.
"Now throw it." Stick said. Nickelas looked at container. He shrugged and tossed it out of the dropship. It buried itself in the snow, a few feet from the shrieking masses. A gunshot sounded behind Nickelas, and he watched as the container erupted into a ball of purple and orange flame.
The ball of fire spread into a temporary barrier, and the first row of shamblers fell into it, catching fire and collapsing after a few steps. The remaining horde stopped and watched the first row burn. As mindless as they seemed, they appeared to have a modicum of survival instinct. But they quickly realized they could simply go around the flames, and surged forward once more. But by then, the dropship had lifted off and soared away.
Magnolia smacked Stick on the head.
"What are you, suicidal?" she asked in an annoyed tone. Stick chuckled quietly. He lifted his hand and pressed his index finger to his thumb.
"Maybe just a little." he said, then started coughing. Flecks of blood landed on the dashboard, and Magnolia sighed.
"You might not make it next time…" she muttered as she sat down in the co-pilot's seat.
They found Thyst standing in a clearing in the woods. Unfortunately, he explained to his team, he had lost track of the Grimm. At first he was surprised to see the dropship overhead, with Stick behind the controls, but if he he had learned anything over the course of the past three years, it was to not questioning how his team did exactly what they did.
As the dropship took off a second time, a familiar wispy black form slipped away from the edge of the treeline.
Stick tapped the fuel gauge. The needle was dangerously close to the bright red E. He turned to his team, a dull ache filling his midsection as he did.
"What a surprise." He said sarcastically. "We're low on fuel." Thyst leaned over his shoulder and looked at at the fuel gauge.
"Think you can get us to Mantle?" Thyst asked.
"No." Stick answered plainly, as he looked at the slowly approaching shore of mainland Solitas. He coughed. "But I know a place."
