After roughly an hour of patching ourselves up and setting ourselves in the Mountaineers base, we all took a few minutes to take count of the items we got from the box things. First thing I noticed was taht everyone was weirdly emotional about them. Which is what made me want to sit far away from Stefan and his jacket bearing anti-semetic symbolism. Now, I have seen this guy is kinda decent, but still. My parents were from Poland and I don't know how much that shows. God, a Polish Canadian. And here I thought a Chinese Canadian was weird for a story. Freaking Riodian. After Katlyn walks around and gives each of us... beer? Hey, you're only turn twenty-one once. Anyways, after she gives us our alchohol, I decide to be the first one to speak up.

"Alright, I think I speak for everyone when I say... Things got a little bit weird." I was trying to be funny to keep us up in our spirits. Of course, this is gets an annoyed groan from Alessandra of all people. I clear my throat before talking again, "But, one thing I do know is this. That trophy we have there is part of what we need to get out of here. Now, I know I said I know that's what it does, but it's the only theory we have so we're saying it's right. Secondly! Somehow, we all recieved something from our past that was near and dear to us. I have my Walkman with my own mixtape in it. Alessandra has the ball she played with her dad before he died, Katlyn got her sister's diary, Andre has his war helmet and Stefan has his... Nazi jacket. Does anyone have any idea what this means?"

They all look at each other for a second before Katlyn raises her hand, "Um, we do something amazing and get a proper reward for it?" I could tell that was more of a question than anything, but it sounded pretty decent for an answer. "I mean, I don't know what kind of reward it is, I mean my sister killed died holding this so..."

Alessadra comes in at this point, "And so did my father. He fell into the road trying to catch this after I threw it bad."

"Also," Andre points in, "this isn't actually my helmet, but my comanding officer. You can actually see the hole where he got shot." He points to a small hole on the side and then another on the opposite side. A clean through and through. To end this unnecessary expository exchange, we all look over to Stefan for his imput.

He looks up and turns to all of us. "What? I don't have any emotion baggage on zis one. It vas my uniform."

I finally decide to finish us off with this thing, "Still can't believe you were a Nazi. Also can't believe we're from different time periods. I mean, leader dingus is from the first World War," I point over to Andre, "Stefan, the second World War. Alessandra is from twenty-thirteen before eveything went completely tits up. Katlyn is... when are you from again?"

"My best understanding is the first Black Plaque outbreak. I... sort of introduced it to the environment and now the Leeches have some super plaque or something."

"Right. And I'm from twenty-seventeen. So, whatever brought here either has the ability of time travel or abducted us in our time periods, kept us locked in some type of universal time stasis, and put us all in at a random time with no idea what they were doing."

Everyone looks at me for a second before laughing at me. Alessandra is the first to stop and comes over to us and places a hand on my shoulder, "Greggory. That is the most idiotic thing I have every heard. I am a believer in random luck and fate. If anything, this is a fever dream or coma and none of you are real. Or, one of you is in a coma and I'm not real... Oh, damn, I think I just threw myself into a mini exponential crisis."

"Dude, Alessandra," I stop her, "please stop, because I already have a beer in my hand and I really don't want you to make it twenty and a night I will both regret and will not remember. But forgetting all of that, I have an idea." I figured it was about time to take a break of our dickitry and get serious. Forget one stupid theory that probably wouldn't matter and go to one that will matter. "Yesterday, I went up to the top of the volcano and I saw something. It was, like, a door kind of thing. I went to a thing that looked literally exactly like the pedestal and opened it, and do you know what I saw? Come on, any guess's?"

Andra raises his hand first, taking the Broodmother Trophy out and sets it on the table. "I am going to assume it's this thing?"

I snap and point at him, giving a slightly crazy grin, "Exactly, my dear Frenchie! It needed three trophies. A Broodmother Trophy, a Megapithicus Trophy, and, my personal favorite to look forward to, a Dragon Trophy. All of which, do not sound like real life creatures. Obviously, these trophy creatures which I am going to call Bosses, are of some fictional descent. Apparently, we are sent to the Bosses by putting the Artifact thingies into the pedestal thingies under the Obelisk thingies. Then, we put the trophy thingies into the pedestal thingie at the volcano door thingie. Got it?"

Stefan raises his hand. "Everything except for 'thingies'."

"Good, so everyone has everything. Now, let's get a few more explosives, some more Artifacts and start up a couple Boss fights! Who's with me?" I look around only to be met with a bunch of blank stares. I feel as though I was missing something here.

After exchanging glances, Andre puts down his beer and stands up. "Greggory. I don't know what you zink, but ze Artifacts are very, very, very difficult to obtain. Like, we lost a number of men and women to ze caverns in which zey were hidden. I had to kill a couple because of zeir super rabies would have killed zem slower." He walks over to a large map on the wall. It almost looked like a map of The Island. "You see, we are here," he points to a mountain at the top of the map, "and ze closest cavern is..." he traces his finger down the river and to the left, stopping at a small red pin they placed at a river curve, "here. It's called the Snow Cave. Simple, I know, but very dangerous. It took almost seven times to get to the Artifact. It is freezing cold, the creatures only appear at level one hundred and twenty or higher, and the water injures you as soon as you touch it."

"Oh..." I am able to let out, taking in the realization of the dangers. But, it's only one cave. Surely they can't all be that terrible. "Well, are there any that isn't instant death for me? I mean, I'm only, like, level thirty-seven. That Boss gave me quite a lot of levels, but I still feel that is bad for me in there?"

"Exactly. It is horrible. If we want to get out of here, we all have to go where our levels and abilities are equal to zose inside..." He takes a second to look over the map before pointing to a green pin right next to the center, next to the volcano, "Ze Center Cave seems like a decent fit for you right now, Greggory. We can lend you some better armor, a bit of more reliable weaponry. You can make it down, grab ze Artifact of ze Clever, and get back up in roughly an hour."

I am about to say something but am interrupted by Alessandra turning to the Frenchman. "Excuse me? More reliable weaponry? Are you saying my Mastercraft Pistol is not a reliable weapon?"

"Well, in comparison to our Ascendant Assault Rifles, it is barely anything of use." He responds, giving a smug look at her, and pulling out his gun. "I mean, you have to admit I did do ze most amount of damage to ze Broodmozer prior to Greggory blowing her up."

"Oh really now? Are you forgetting who literally slit it's throat and cut her way out of it's head? I mean, sure it wasn't the most damage but I was the most extravagant and badass of the battle. Also, I was the most distracting so idiota over here could land the killing blow. In my opinion, also known as the only opinion that matters, I was the most important in the fight."

Is... is this a dick measuring contest right now? Am I really watching these two go against who was better in a battle that came out of nowhere? I decide to step back in and add a little bit of humor do descend the argument. "You know, Andre, if you are literally having a dick measuring contest with a woman, you must of been born with the worlds cruelest of handicaps." This is met with loud laughter from everyone, and even a small chuckle from Andre himself. "But, seriously. I would appreciate any weapons or armor or creatures or anything that can get me-I mean, us out of here. I saw there were a few extra giant boars outside if you're willing to part?" I ask, wanting to get something minus all the work so I could get to the fun stuff.

The Mountaineers look at each other before Stefan sighs and stands up, stepping outside and waving to me, "Come on, ve can part vith somezing right nov." I quickly stand up and rush outside with him, still holding and drinking the beer. When I get outside I look around and go behind the Russian. He is kneeling over a small and hairy creature that almost looks like... "You may have an Otter. Believe me, zey are most useful at vhere you are nov."

"An... Otter." I say a little halfheartedly, secretly wishing for something bigger and/or more badass. "That's great. Cute little things, I guess. So, I just... pick one?"

"Yes, go ahead! Ve have many more zan ve need anyvay!"

I nod and look over the small, slender creatures. They are awfully cute, too cute for something on this Island to live. When we get our way home, I am taking one of these little things with me. I eventually come across one that had a fairly interesting color pattern that caught my eye. It had an almost black coat with a slight... I almsot want to say blue stripe going down it's back with two paler blue stripes along those. One thing that I noticed the most was that one of his eyes were completely milky white with a small scar across it.

"I'll take this little guy," I say, reaching out and petting the Otter on the head. He let's out a quiet purring noise and nuzzles into my hand. "Oh, I think the he likes me."

"Looks like it. Put that Pego off your shoulders and pick him up, he has one really cool thing only an Otter can do."

I look at him for a second before setting Thief onto the ground and reach for the black and blue water creature. Almost instantly, the Otter climbs onto my arm and settles himself in between my neck and shoulders. I immediately felt a wave of warmth flow through my body as he nuzzled into me. "Oh my God, this is freaking amazing. I love this creature so much right now. Can I please have him?"

He laughs and pats me on the back, almost throwing me across the base. Dude was strong. "Of course you can, Gregg! I vouldn't have brought you out here if I vouldn't let you. So, I take it you vant Ol' Blue?"

"Ol' Blue? That is a nice name, and yes please!" I nod and he smirks, petting the Otter on the head and stepping back into the recreational part of the base, to which I follow. When I enter I am... honestly, not that surprised at what I see. "Sweet Black fucking Sabbath. What is wrong with you people?"

Alessandra was standing over Katlyn, holding her pistol by the barrel and yelling something in Italian. I couldn't make much of it our but I'm pretty sure I heard 'bitch', 'better', and 'reliable.' Meanwhile, Andre was holding the woman's arm back with a upside down beer mug in his other hand trying to hit her over the head. He was still going on about how Ascendant is better than Masterclass and she was being outrageous over a small differentiation between the two blueprints. Katlyn, while still under Alessandra, was shouting something about she'll infect all of us and not afraid to go all 'British discovering Africa, on her. This whole situation is a cluster fuck of idiocy and, if I was a betting man, total scene of pure comic relief.