Hey everyone, I'm back! Now let's get this hunt underway!
Darkness and Light, Into the Chaos!
I smiled as we touched down. According to my objective marker, the lab was north of us, but it was one of those area waypoints so I couldn't just bring us right to the lab. The flight over here had been rather uneventful, but I did have that talk with Neo. She promised no castrating people for calling me a "slutty cat" as Ilia told it. I checked the minimap and sighed. "The lab is this way...relatively speaking." I informed, waving everyone forward. "Neo, Ilia, Treetops. Mark the path back." I added, my teammates vanishing into the greenery above us.
It was a good hour before we ran into any trouble...in the form of two beowolves the size of ursai. Must be alphas...or Merlot's failures. I heard more rustling and smirked. "Kill em all!" I ordered, drawing Sekiryuki. Two more beowolves came from the bushes, trying to ambush me. Heh. Two loud bangs knocked the pair off and their claws barely grazed me as I changed my grip. "Sword Stance: Swallow Tail." I called, swinging in the familiar katana form to cut the mutant I was targeting. And it bounced off the thick bone-armor. Shit. The beowolf roared in anger before taking a swing at me, which I managed to dodge but not by much. "Tiger Tail Trap!" I snapped, aiming to capture the beast and slit its throat. Yeah, apparently it knew what I was planning cause it dodged my attack and knocked my back with a backhand(backpaw?) swipe. I cursed quietly before changing my grip on my sword. This was gonna be a long day.
Neo's POV
Let me just start by saying I'm used to fighting people, not grimm, even if I have had to handle a few in my life. That being said, I was managing to keep out of the beowolf that had chosen me as its opponent's attack range rather well. It tried to skewer me with its massive claws, but I ducked under and deployed the blade in my umbrella, noticing a gap in the armor. I smirked as I drove my weapon straight for the opening. Wow, I was lucky my blade was small enough to fit through the gap. I breathed a sigh of relief before taking notice of my team. Allie was doing okay, despite her rather defensive fighting.
Ilia seemed to be getting the hang of Rainbow Fang, as she was using its whip form to keep her beowolf at bay and when it got inside sword range, the whip snapped back to sword form and slashed, causing it to back up again.
The new girl was the one struggling. Seemed like her shotgun couldn't pierce the thick armor of her beowolf, so she had converted Silico Shot into spear mode and was fending her opponent off, if only barely. I absently wondered why she wasn't calling lightning or something as I ran in, smirking as I let my instincts take hold. I saw the perfect point to stab at, guaranteeing a painful death. I wondered if it would do something akin to a scream? That would be fun to hear. I plunged the blade into it, and like I had hoped, it let out an ear-splitting screech of pain. Tara cringed, I grinned. The grimm faded, and I turned to my teammate. 'Why no sparks?' I asked.
"Didn't think it was necessary." Tara replied with a shrug. "I'll help Ilia." she volunteered, shooting the beowolf that had tried to sneak up on the chameleon. Figuring I'd help my girlfriend, my grin returned at double strength and I dashed in.
It was only a few seconds after that that the grimm that had appeared had been killed. "Well that was fun." Allie declared, smiling. "Let's go." She took two steps then fell forward. I was at her side instantly, checking for wounds even when I knew there wouldn't be any. She probably just exhausted herself, and needs some rest. Or some of her mana potions. I would have gone for them, but we heard growling. Great, more bad guys.
...
Well, that took way longer than I would have liked. And Allie hasn't woken up yet even though our fighting was rather loud I turned to get back to my kitten, only to hear the other two call out to me. Turning again, I saw a giant Ursa right on top of me. Berating myself for my clumsiness, knowing I couldn't get out of the way, I waited for the pain as it brought its claw down with a roar.
BANG!
The Ursa's head freaking exploded! Wait, who shot that? I looked to Tara, but her weapon was still in spear mode. I know Ilia didn't have any guns on her sword so...I turned to see Allie, awake and holding a smoking pistol in her hand, grinning. "That was awesome." she declared, letting her hand fall to the ground. I rushed to her side as she drank a couple potions.
'Since when do you carry a gun?' I asked, helping her to her feet.
"Since the Nevermore incident." she replied. I shivered at the memory. Please, I'm begging you, don't ask. We waited a couple minutes before Allie looked around. "Looks clear, let's go! Nya~"
Allie's POV
Well, I guess I know what people mean when they say "Run yourself into the ground." That was not an experience I'd like to repeat. Need to make sure I don't use up all my mana this time, even if it is to reinforce my legs to move even faster. Oh yeah, I can use reinforcement magic now. I also had a vehicle set up for if Merlot threw a dragon at us. Ooh! I wonder if Merlot will throw a dragon at us? That'll be fun! Anyway, we continued through the forest, killing a few beowolves and the occasional ursa. They were hard to handle on account of the mutations granting some serious defensive powers. And attacking powers. And some speed powers. Yeah. Anyway, we eventually found the lab, but it was heavily guarded. And by heavily guarded I mean there were three deathstalkers the size of two or three of my Lancelot.
I checked the area. Should be big enough, but I wanted to try something first. Pulling a handheld computer not unlike Ami's from Sailor Moon, I hacked into the sound system of the lab. "Dr. Merlot, my name is Allison N. Rouge, but you can call me Allie if that's easier." I introduced. I heard snickers behind me, but ignored them as I continued. "Right now, my team and I are supposed to find out what's causing the mutant grimm to run rampant through this area. Now I don't want to kill you, but I will be rolling in with a really big toy I put together cause those things are just violent. So, I suggest getting into a very sturdy room if you don't wanna die. Hope to talk to you soon! Nya~" I put the computer away, turning to my team. "So, here's the thing."
…
I grinned as we wheeled my toy into the clearing. I activated the megaphone and spoke. "I hope you found somewhere safe, Merlot. Cause now it's Grimm vs Huntsman...vs," my Badassasaurus roared flames. "Giant god-damned metal T-rex!" I finished with a cackle.
"You are insane." Tara said deadpan.
"That a complaint?" I asked, pushing the Badassasurus forward.
"No." the Maiden replied, firing her set of rockets. Now let me explain, this thing is almost twice the size of the one in Borderlands 2, so I kinda maybe added a lot more weapons, but I also need four people to pilot the damn thing. I had movements and the mouth flamethrower, Tara had the left forward rockets, Ilia the right, and Neo was in back with the controls of what I like to call the "Rain of Fire." I grinned as the deathstalkers came scuttling toward us. "Here they come, girls. Let's have some fun!" I laughed, launching a fireball from my toy's mouth.
I knew everyone was smiling, not that I could blame them. We had a rocket-shooting, fire-spitting giant metal t-rex to send against three oversized scorpions. It was a no-brainer how that was gonna go down. Our rockets pierced the armor and the flames made the giants crumble to dust. I think it was just as we finished the third one when the sirens and bright red lights flashed. Then the dragon, or maybe it was a seriously mutated chimera, took flight. "Neo, if you would." I requested, leaning the dinosaur segment forward so she had a clean shot.
Neo's POV
Okay, this has to be Allie's best one yet. And as icing on the cake, she gave me the most destructive part to control! My girlfriend is the best! As the dino portion leaned forward, my targeting screen came online, calculating trajectory and locking onto the giant flyer. I knew I was grinning ferally as my hand hovered over the big red button, but hey...psycho. The targeting completed and I slammed my hand down. Missile volley after Missile volley came from the frame and the creature was lost in a fiery explosion. 'Tengo down.' I informed, sending the text to everyone's scroll. Mine pinged after a few seconds.
Good job sweetheart. Allie had replied. The others sent me smiley emojis. I giggled slightly. After using the Badassasaurus' radar to see if there were any other grimm in the area(there weren't), we all got out of the doomsday machine and Allie sent it back to the Vault. Turning to the door, she grinned and pulled her pistol, aiming it at the door and pulling the trigger.
The door exploded and Allie called, "Knock Knock Bitches! Open up!" before dashing inside. The three of us shared a laugh at our leader's enthusiasm, and use of Brick quotes, before chasing after her. "Hey Merlot! You still alive in here?" Allie called out, seeming to genuinely expect an answer.
I don't know who was more surprised when an old man with a robotic, glowing red eye, a robotic right arm with red inner circuits, disheveled gray hair, a matching mustache and beard, and prominent eyebrows appeared. He was wearing a gray jacket with a high collar and a red shirt underneath I could just make out. "I suppose I have the lot of you to thank for the destruction of my test subjects." he grumbled, glaring at us.
"Well I that's kinda why I wanted to talk to you." Allie admitted, one hand on Sekiryuki. "The simple fact is your experiments are putting too many people in danger. Isn't the whole point of these things to help humanity?"
"Well what do you suggest? My island lab was destroyed, so it's not as if I can just hide in the middle of the ocean!" Merlot argued.
"I have a place." Allie replied easily. Guess she was really gonna go through with this. "It will give you all the grimm you could ask for, as well as zero-chance of harming the villages nearby. So Merlot, I'm going to offer you a choice." Allie extended her hand. "You can die here, or you can live for me." Everyone waited, wondering what the scientist's answer would be.
And done! Well, I'm just gonna say that this took way too long to finish and I apologize, but hey, life's kept me busy. Anyway, what did you guys think? Good? Bad? Somewhere in between? Leave a review telling what you thought and I'll see you all next time!