DisturbNotTheBeast - ASprigganFanfiction

By KatWarrior

Rating: PG-13 for violence

Based mostly on the movie. The only manga element is the character Tia Flatt.

Spriggan (c) Minagawa and Takashige

Random characters are property of ECH (AKA KatWarrior). DO NOT USE WITHOUT MY PERMISSION

Chapter Eleven: Becoming the Island

"Jean?"

The face, skin tone, and hair color certainly belonged to the French Spriggan that Yu associated them with, but many other features did not. His eyes, though still frosty in color had no pupil that he could see – they were entirely glowing blue. "Jean's" height and muscle mass seemed to have increased as well, and his hair had at least doubled in length. His nails had grown thick and claw-like. The statue was nowhere to be seen, but the runes that had been carved into its surface covered Jean's naked body in the color of his blood. The blade that had been embedded in his chest was gone.

Yu couldn't move. With his eyes as they were it was nearly impossible to tell where Jean was looking. At him? No, not at him. Jean began to walk, steadily and deliberately past Yu. His destination was Little Boy, who was squawking with displeasure about what had become of the stone dog. Yu craned his neck to see, and just in time to witness Little Boy charging towards the greatly altered Jean Jacques-Mondo. Common sense told Ominae to assist his comrade, but instinct insisted that he only observe. Instinct won.

"Where's the idol?!" the cyborg screeched, one mechanically enhanced hand snapping out and gripping Jean's muscular neck. Jean did not move for a moment, letting Little Boy try to choke him. And then the French Spriggan's arm snapped out planted itself atop the cyborg's head. The palm alone almost covered the scalp entirely. Before Yu could figure out what Jean was doing, Little boy began to scream and paw futilely at the straining, large hand. His cries were cut off with a sickening crunching sound followed by a pathetic gurgle. His body fell, the skull crushed in on itself, including the metal parts.

A voice came from the Frenchman's lips, but it was not his own. It sounded like many voices of varying ages, genders, and backgrounds.

"Your flesh is not fit to rot upon my body."

There was silence then, an eerie sort, and then rumbling. Yu tensed his legs, bracing himself, but Jean continued to stand rigid. And then, from every opening possible, they came. Insects of every size, shape, and color that Yu could imagine. They flocked in countless numbers to the remains of the cyborg's body. Ominae had expected to feel tiny feet crawling over him, but a glance at the floor revealed that every single creature that came near him stayed at least six inches from him on all sides. When he looked up at Jean, still as motionless as a rock, he witnessed the same phenomenon.

In seconds the half-metal corpse was covered with the insects, and mere seconds after that the little creatures dissipated, leaving only chunks of polished metal behind. As quickly as they had appeared, the bugs departed. As they left, Jean began to move again, this time towards Yu. The Japanese Spriggan gripped his knife's handle cautiously, but did not raise it to his comrade.

"Your friend is still here," the voices told him with Jean's mouth. "I am only using him for a short time. I have saved his life in exchange for his help."

"Who.. who are you?" Ominae ventured, finally finding his voice again.

"I am Cráneo. The island."

--

Adam's job was made more difficult with the increasing ferocity of the storm. The island was pissed and he honestly couldn't blame it. He'd failed to keep the Machine Corp soldiers out of the village and so wasn't exactly pleased himself. But surely there couldn't be many soldiers left. Jean and Yu had no doubt taken out most of them, and Adam had added another nine to the death toll.

The British Spriggan had followed the woman's scream to a hut very near to the village's surrounding fence. Thankful for his super-human abilities, Adam had made it to the hut's encircling deck with a single jump. The sound of his boots making contact with the wood drew the attention of a soldier inside the house. A family of three – a woman, man, and child, were huddled in the corner of their hut, their faces momentarily made visible by a flash of lighting. At least, Adam hoped that was the whole family. The glow hadn't lasted long enough for him to scan the home for a body.

It did, however, last long enough for Adam to see exactly where his enemy was and fire off a careful shot. It didn't kill the man – Adam had other plans. When the world was dark again he stepped carefully into the hut until he reached the groaning figure on the floor.

"Are you all alright?" he asked into the darkness.

"Yes," a man's voice answered, "We are fine."

"Good," Adam sighed, thoroughly relieved. His attention turned to the wounded Machine Corp soldier. "How many of you are there?" He hissed, gripping the front of the man's uniform. His captive didn't speak – only groaned. Adam, not in the mood for sympathy threw his captive to the floor and placed the barrel of his gun against his crotch. "How many?!" he demanded again.

"F-forty!" the man stuttered pathetically. "There were forty of us! I... I don't know how many there are now!"

"I hope you're telling the truth," Adam growled before rising and walking out of the hut, dragging the bleeding soldier behind him. "It just made your death a lot less painful." The British Spriggan claimed the man's life with a single shot to the head before pushing the body off the balcony. Another cry of distress filled his ears. Thirty-one more men. With a resigned sigh, Adam leaped off the balcony himself and followed the other shouts of distress.

--

"My children are in danger."

That was all that Cráneo in Jean's body had said before bolting past Yu and towards the temple's exit. It satisfied the Japanese Spriggan to see that Jean was still moving at full speed despite all the strange things that had befallen him in the past twenty minutes. Either Cráneo had adapted to him well, or enough of Jean's mind was left to push his body to the limits he knew it was capable of.

As the two Spriggan ran, Yu noticed the bushes around them rustling violently and the calls of several birds flying over-head. Animals of varying species would appear from the undergrowth and run along side them for as long as they could keep up, and even when they passed them the beasts continued in their determined journey towards the village.

Yu thought back to the temple, and how the insects had gathered to do Cráneo's bidding. It was a nice thought to have extra assistance, but how well would jaguars and tapirs fare against machine guns and grenades? The likely outcome wasn't a positive one.

While the rain had ceased and the thunder silenced, the heavy gray clouds continued to lay over the sky. Distressed cries were ringing out from within the village's fence. Some black smoke was rising to meet the cloud-cover. While Cráneo remained silent, Yu cursed fervently. Surely they could still save the village, but how many lives had been lost while they were arriving?

With an impressive leap (but one fitting of a Spriggan), Jean's body landed atop the fence. Yu followed, his brow furrowed in concern. The smoke he had seen was coming from a single hut – the large one nestled in the tree at the village's center. A tight lump formed in the Japanese Spriggan's throat. That was the chief's hut.

--

Adam had clasped a hand over his mouth to keep the smoke from invading his lungs. Under those conditions it was difficult to call Mino's name, but he couldn't leave the boy there. Even if the child was dead (which he shuddered to think of), Mino's body had to be returned to his father. At last the British Spriggan gave up on covering his face and instead used his hands to amplify his voice by cupping them on either side of his mouth.

"Mino!"

Internally, he cursed the Machine Corp for throwing fire-lit branches into this hut. Why did they insist upon harming these people?! They had done nothing to them! Was it just to get the attention of the Spriggan? If they hadn't come at all, would the people of Cráneo had been left alone?

But this was not the time for placing blame. Again, Adam called the child's name. This time a small cough reached his ears above the crackling flames and the commotion beyond the walls. He followed the sound of the coughing, but his steps grew more confident when he heard a small, weak voice calling back at him. Mino was huddled under a table, his knees held to his chest. Tears were running down his dark face, leaving clean streaks through the thick soot on his skin.

"Come on, Mino. We need to get out of here."

The child took Adam's offered hand.

"Where is Father?"

"Outside"

And that was all the more specific Adam could be. The chief had come down from the hut, and when Adam had seen him and asked about Mino's whereabouts, the older man had informed him that the boy had been told to stay in the hut where he would be safe. So much for that.

Adam did not want to believe his eyes when he turned to the doorway with Mino in his arms just in time to see a grenade bounce through the opening. Cursing heavily and hoping that Mino would not pick up on any of his words later, Adam dashed to the back window, slipped out of it, and then took a hopeful leap off of the balcony.

The explosion rumbled behind them. Heat licked at Adam's back as they descended. Debris flew at them, the wood chunks extending like horrible claws intent on piercing them. While Mino was held to Adam's front and was therefore not harmed, several pieces of the hut struck the British Spriggan, who grunted loudly just before landing shakily on the ground.

--

The state within the walls was pure chaos. Villagers were running and screaming, Machine Corp soldiers were opening fire on citizens and setting flame to various huts. Tropical birds had begun to dive and screech at the soldiers, and jaguars and boars were attacking them from the ground. Yu winced each time one of the animals was wounded by enemy bullets or worse – killed.

After firing several rounds into a group of soldiers, Yu searched the strange battle-field for his two comrades.

Adam was still alive an in motion, even after his traumatic landing from the exploding hut. Mino was in his arms and being held close to his chest as the British Spriggan both ran and fired at his enemies. It was likely that he was going to try and hide Mino from harm so that he could really get back into the battle, despite his recent injuries.

When his eyes fell upon Jean (well, Cráneo using Jean's body), the blond was still, his body tensed. The Machine Corp soldiers were unnerved by his glowing eyes and body, as well as his intimidating demeanor. A few tried to shoot him, but the bullets never reached him. They would stop mere inches away from actually hitting him and then fall uselessly to the ground. How was Cráneo doing that?

For this first time since his body had been "borrowed", Jean's face was showing some form of emotion. It was concern and sorrow, but most of all rage. The expression held as his eyes began to glow more fiercely and the seemingly constant current of air around him grew more violent, as was made evident by his long hair whipping around his face, shoulders, and torso. His thin, pale lips were moving, but no sound that Yu could detect was being emitted.

The animals, perhaps the only ones able to hear him, began to retreat (or at least those that were still living). A few of the soldiers were perplexed and when the villagers witnessed the beasts' reactions, they pulled back as well. Yu's brow furrowed. Did he need to run? Honestly, unless there was good reason (such as Adam's had been), a Spriggan did not run away.

While Yu was contemplating this (naturally while still firing and dodging return fire from the enemy), there was a brief pocket of time in which sound seemed to be sucked away. Though it lasted barely a second, it was impossible not to notice the sudden lack of noise from any of the guns, the lack of cries from the battle, and the absence of the fire eating away at the chief's hut. Not even the long-lasting thunder dared to strike. And then sound returned, brining only a mighty "WHOOSH" with it.

As it had before, a blinding glow came to surround Jean, but unlike before it was of brilliance and brought a mighty, invisible force with it like a powerful wind. This wave spread out wide and fast, knocking down soldiers, snapping the weak branches from trees, and bringing an intense heat with it. Yu found himself on the ground, facing way from Cráneo and covering his face with his arms. Though he couldn't confirm it, the faintest hint of screams reached his ears above the overwhelming sound.