The pass the army of combined creatures went down ended by a small straight of water. Rex shaded his eyes and jumped off Wolf's back, staring intently into the water. "Do you see that, Wolf?" He asked the tall hybrid. Wolf lowered his muzzle almost to the water, uttered a little yip, then sprang. He landed around knee-deep in the water. Rex smiled - he had suspected there was a sand bar connecting the two islands. For a moment, he wondered if it were high or low tide. Depending, the sand bar might rise out of the water of drop low enough to be of no use to them. He frowned, looking at Wolf. The wolf-cougar flattened his ears, then splashed his way across the bar to the second island. Rex nodded. "You're right. We've got to cross. Come on, you lot." He removed his boots and splashed across himself. Even if the tide went out, at least his Lobsox and Wolf could swim.
On the western shore was an outpost - about what Rex had learned to expect. A workshop, some towers - though on closer inspection there was some sort of rotating screen on top, not the loudspeaker of a soundbeam tower - and this one had a genetic amplifier. But more interesting was the rows of spikes grown in front of the entrance.
"Interesting." Rex said over the radio. "They're using bramble fences, a tough- and fast- growing plant species. In Africa, they've used bramble fences for thousands of years. Keeps the lions at bay. Listen, there's some sort of new tower here - want to come check it out?"
"On my way." She clicked the radio off.
"None of you bring down those towers yet." Rex called. This shouldn't be a problem as neither tower appeared to be firing anything at his creatures.
As the workshop fell Rex felt sure he heard sounds behind them. Turning, he saw a small army heading towards them. Led by a huge bulky figure on striped hindlegs, Rex wasn't sure what he was seeing until it got closer. It was a zebra-gorilla, flanked by rangy cheetah bodies with oversized reptile heads. Rex stared, caught between horror and fascination - right up until the point one of the felines stopped and fired a long reptilian tongue at him.
"Yaah!" Rex hit the ground. His own army surged up, the Lobsox charging and the Oxine firing waves of quills, tripping the muscular figure of the gorilla-zebra. Wolf paused beside Rex, who used the hybrid's shaggy chest fur to help pull himself up. With a grateful pat, he keep an eye on the battle, turning towards the shoreline where Lucy was jogging up flanked by two more Oxine. Rex had these join the fight, which as usual they were winning, though one of his Lobsox had been surrounded and killed. Rex directed Lucy to the crumbling outpost to inspect the two towers. He frowned as the last enemy cheetah-lizard fell. Some nagging sixth sense told him there were more enemy creatures nearby, but he couldn't see anything else approaching...
Wolf uttered a loud snarl, crouched down, and sprang into the air. A stone clattered off the rocks beside Rex and he ducked to the side, avoiding two more high-speed stone missiles. Wolf made a second wild leap, and a raucous cry like that of an agitated monkey made Rex realize what was happening.
"This appears to be a really powerful anti-air tower that discharges an electrical charge into the air." Lucy called from the base. Rex raised his rifle in readiness. "Great - we could sure use it." Into his sights swooped a winged chimpanzee, clutching a rock in its front paws, eagle wings working furiously to keep it in the air. Rex fired and it plunged earthward, but there were more arriving in its wake.
"Lobsox, fall back!" He roared. "Oxine, form a semi-circle! Fire at those things!"
The quills flew. Rex was astounded by their accuracy - nearly every quill thrown hit home. A chimp-eagle with three quills embedded in its wing like arrows hit the ground a few feet away. With one remorseless growl Wolf pounced and gripped the creature around its neck, but Rex saw no blood as the feline-canine cross held onto the creature's windpipe. Wolf slowly started to drag the body away from the main group. Rex was confused.
"Wolf?"
Wolf quietly dropped his hold. Rex could see the winged beast's chest moving shallowly, but he seemed to have fallen unconscious, its head lolling loosely. Wolf stood over it, gazing steadily at Rex with his sightless white he understood. His stomach gave a small unpleasant jolt, but Rex had experienced the wild before. He'd seen lions eating zebras not quite dead yet, cheetahs running down their impala prey. This was the way of the wild - and Wolf was simply following the instincts that Rex himself had given him.
Rex nodded permission to Wolf, who dragged the chimp-eagle a little further off, than settled down to feed.
Knowing he could take care of himself, Rex called the rest of the army to him and followed the natural slope of the island northwards. He has discovered the Lobsox's claws allowed them to attack bramble fencing without taking damage, and of course his Oxine could simply fire over the top, so as they came upon a second bramble fence he quickly arranged his troops. Several puny-looking baboon-giraffes charged them but their ape-paws did little against unforgiving lobster armour.
There was a creature chamber just beyond the fence. Rex let the Lobsox rip down a soundbeam tower while Oxine brought down some more winged enemy creatures that appeared overhead. Rex stayed to the rear of the army with Lucy. He knew that there must be a special chamber producing flying chambers and he needed Lucy to steal any technology for it, but the instant she had he wanted her back at the base, out of harm's way.
Sure enough Rex was proved right. On a nearby hill was a strange, altered chamber clearly designed to create aerial creatures. It was positioned perfectly, so that a new creature could catch the wind and soar down the hill to the battlefield, Rex noticed. Checking the wind direction, he kept his rifle ready as Lucy ventured closer. Rex wished Wolf were present to send with her. His nerves were shot having Lucy on the battlefield. He was surprised to find he couldn't imagine being without her. His thoughts distracted him so much he didn't react right away as the air chamber hissed and discharged a flying chimpanzee into the air. Hastily he snapped back into the present and tracked the creature with his rifle, firing at it before it started throwing rocks at Lucy.
He sent the Oxine up to guard the foot of the hill as she collected the technology they needed. He was just in time, as a flock of bat-winged piranhas flew from the north. Without a ranged attack they had to swoop in close to snap at Rex's creatures. The Oxine fired steadily, and the Lobsox used their claws to snatch at the swift flying fish as they neared, teeth bared.
"If we want to build air creatures we can use the design of his chamber." Lucy emerged from the structure with a load of files under her arm. Rex nodded.
"Great. Head back to check on the base, and get the henchman to put up a few of those air towers. I don't want Velika trying to attack the lab while my attention is elsewhere."
"Good idea. Take care."
"You too. Take some Oxine - you and you, go with Lucy, please." The spiked beasts grunted affirmatively and went with Lucy back to the sand bar.
"Rest of you, we've still got a job to do. Let's fine this base!" Rex ordered, and they surged further northward. Rex got a bad feeling when he saw they had to travel up another pass to get to the base he knew would be on the highest hill. His suspicion was confirmed when a soundbeam tower on either side started firing upon his animals. They were on top of the surrounding hills, blocked off by rocky ridges. Velika had set another trap for them. There was no way his creatures could get to the towers - the Lobsox that usually tore through the towers were powerless. Rex acted quickly.
"Lobsox, straight through and attack whatever you find at the end! Oxine, two teams, fire on those towers! You three with us!" Rex lowered his head, squared his shoulders and charged down the pass. He knew there was no escaping casualties this time. His Lobsox would regen their damage as they ran the gauntlet, but the lower-defense Oxine would suffer as they stood throwing their quills at the towers.
Rex went with the Lobsox and found two chambers, a land and an air, guarded by a whole host of different creatures. He and the three Oxine he'd brought with him concentrated on the flock (school?) of bat-piranhas while the Lobsox started dismantling the structures and ground defenses. It was a difficult battle. Rex grabbed for his radio.
"Lucy, are you back at base?"
"Yes, I just arrived."
"I need backup here, whatever you've got and whatever you can build - and make it fast!"
They fought on bitterly. The two chambers at the end of the pass weren't the only ones producing creatures. More kept leaping downhill from the main base Rex knew was just around the corner. His forces held ground but lost numbers until Lucy's reinforcements arrived, just as his half-army were bringing down the generator and the lightning rods beyond.
The new creatures, having had a benefit of the pass after it had been cleared of soundbeam towers, were fit and ready to go. Knowing he couldn't let Velika take the time to build up more base defenses, Rex charged in recklessly.
Another small army raced up to meet them. Rex nearly tripped over his own feet when he saw a new beast amidst the gorilla-zebras and cheetah-lizards. He could see a spotted hyena body, but the balloon-sized insect eyes were those of a dragonfly. A large one. There was a reason insects had been made small, he thought to himself.
Regaining his senses, he took the first one down with a tranquilizer dart. He set the Lobsox on the many soundbeam towers while he and the Oxine handled the enemy creatures. They had definitely left the influence of the snowy islands behind - Velika's creatures were more tropical and savannah roaming varieties.
He was forced to split up his army. Towers peppered them from a lower beach, yet another higher hilltop, and their own hill. Rex wiped sweat form his forehead and hastily reloaded his gun. There were more aerial creatures slinging rocks and darting overhead with piranhas teeth. One of the latter had made it close enough to Rex to snap at him, and there was a bleeding gash along his cheek. The first creature not to fall right away when he tranked it was a truly enormous hippopotamus-zebra. The huge body looked crazy on the slender zebra legs. Rex didn't know how it could walk, and it certainly was slow - but powerful. Rex knew hippo jaws were something to respect on a regular hippo, let alone a Sigma hippo. The dart had hit home - Rex saw it embed itself in the huge right foreleg - but it just didn't fall. A Lobsox and a few Oxine soon took care of the problem.
Then came a familiar growl and nudge at his arm that nearly bowled him over. Wolf paused only to greet his master, then charged off into the fray.
His appearance signalled the turn of the tide. They were forcing their way up into the topmost part of the hillside, tearing down structures as they went. Rex saw the lab come into view. It was large, immobile... clearly a permanent structure, unlike their own flying one.
"Bring it down!" Rex ordered, and tightening his grip on his rifle for the final assault.
He got a nasty surprise when the lab was around half-destroyed. Six zebra-archerfish crosses attacked the flank of his forces, killing three Oxine that had been firing on the base from further down the hill. It left just two in that area, both badly injured form the splash of the artillery attack, and Rex called them further up, so the natural slope would help offer them some protection. It was easier to fire down on enemies than it was to fire up at them, he had learned. Clearly he must have missed a water chamber hiding somewhere. He resolved not to make the same mistake again.
He stepped back when the lab fell, wincing. The sound of twisting metal felt like it was echoing inside his head, it was so loud. Wolf didn't help matters when he threw back his head and howled their victory to the stars. As usual, the entire army joined in, their voices much harsher than the powerful wolfsong.
"Good job!" He called over the racket. "Come on, Wolf. Let's go home."
As the cougar's limbs sped swiftly over the landscape, Rex didn't even realize that for the first time, he had referred to Lucy's lab as home. In his heart, it was what it had become.
Lucy met them outside the lab. "You were right to tell us to build that." She indicated a new anti-air tower standing beside the creature chamber. "We were attacked by a nasty little collection of piranhas on wings."
"Encountered some of those myself. Everyone okay?"
"Unharmed. Wait til you see these towers in action... Rex, what happened to your cheek?" She was staring at the gash on the side of his face. It had stopped bleeding and Rex had all but forgotten it.
"Oh. That was the flying piranha encounter. Let it get a little too close." He explained. Lucy disappeared into the lab and returned with still-hot boiled water and iodine disinfectant. "Sit down there and hold still." She instructed, pointing to the lab platform. Rex waved a hand. "Oh, it's ok, I don't need-"
"Sit down." Her tone was forceful enough that not only Rex but Wolf too, quickly sat.
Lucy carefully bathed Rex's wound, ignoring his twitches and muttered 'ows' of protest. It was quite a nasty wound - once the blood had been washed away, Lucy could actually make out the teeth marks - but luckily it wasn't deep. She tipped a little of the iodine onto a gauze pad.
"Now, this is probably going to sting a little..." She was close enough to see the apprehension in his brown eyes. She almost laughed - big, tough Rex, who charged fearlessly into battle with genetically altered animals, afraid of a little disinfectant.
Though for his part, Rex certainly wasn't protesting anymore. There was something to be said at having a beautiful woman tend to him after a-
"ARGH!" Rex shot sideways as she dabbed at his face with the iodine. She stared after him, exasperated, as he glared up at her, lying on his back after having rolled twice to take him out of her reach. "A little?" He demanded, indignantly. Lucy rolled her eyes. "Oh, don't be so dramatic."
Wolf's warning growl signalled the approaching of a noisy flying object. Rex hastily got to his feet, glad to have an excuse for Lucy not to stick any more of that stuff on his face. Velika, keeping her flying machine out of range of the anti-air tower, called down to them.
"Well my dears, it had been a lovely soiree but I must fly away!" She did just that, her noisy, buzzing aircraft sailing off over the ocean.
"The wicked witch gets away again." Lucy scowled darkly.
Rex had, as usual, been thinking straitcally. "Sure would be handy to have one of those little flying machines for ourselves. If we follow her, we might be able to, uh, 'accuire' it." He grinned suggestively at Lucy. She smiled back, waving Wolf on board the lab.
"Excellent idea, Rex!"
A/N
These diary/landing dates are hopeless. From here on out I'm going to simply adjust the diary to the releivant date.
Also, anyone still reading this who wants to see completely kickass fanart, featuring the wonderful Wolf, could check out this fantastic piece by C.T. Elder!
.com/art/Leader-of-the-Pack-119917932 ...Clearly I'm unsure of linking. if you copy that bit and put c-t-elder, a dot, deviantart and connect them, you'll see it :P