Author's Note: Nothing to say right now. Sorry. Read, Review, Favorite and Enjoy!
Chapter 65: The Defender of the Enchanted Forest
Apple woke back up inside of a cave, which one she understood immediately from the vast swath of shed snake skin she had inadvertently been using as a bed, which meant that Howard had brought her back to his cave. Indeed as she got up Apple could make out the silhouette of one of the monstrous snake heads blocking out the light leading into the cave and narrowing a glare at her. She could also see the clouds of poison that the other heads were spewing off in the distance.
"So you're not going to let me out of here are you?" The head shook in the negative. "And you're not going to stop attacking my friends out of your own initiative?" Again the heads shook in the negative. "Then you leave me no choice." On that note Apple started to walk away deeper into the cave. "You have too choices, either follow me as I go to the back way out, or continue as you were." Howard's response was to reach over and pick Apple up by her shirt in their mouth as if saying that they were going with option three. "You need some mouth wash but maybe this will do for now." On that note, Apple took out a small spray bottle from her pocket and squirted it directly into Howard's eye. The Dragon snake froze as his eyes went red, they dropped Apple and she barely got away in time for the snake to start thrashing around in pain smacking his head against the ceiling and walls. "Never thought I'd actually use this."
Apple's mother had insisted on Apple carrying around with her the means for self defense, after much debate they settle on a spray made from the Neverland Ghost Pepper. For arguments sake Apple has never been in a situation that she would say she had to use it before, this snake being the first instance she could recall, and it was supposedly under her mother's control. And now it was blocking the already narrow section of tunnel and with it the only way out, lovely.
"Well I do know the back way out in any case." Saying that Apple slipped on a pair of sneakers as she began walking down the caves.
The ever Industrious dwarfs carved tunnels like this all over the country and promptly abandoned them once their usefulness expired. They were only ever really concerned with their underground city after all, and would only ever expand back into the abandoned tunnels when their numbers started to go up. It also meant that she would have a direct line to dwemor that she could use to get help from the royal army in subduing the other heads. Though considering those clouds of poison earlier she may have to send for medics instead.
"RawrgRR!"
Half a mile away a forty foot long wolf was locked in pitched combat against three of the Hydra's heads. Ramona had her jaws around one of the beast's necks when she used her back legs to kick the head that was trying to sneak up on her hard enough to draw blood. The one that she was currently hanging off by her jaws rose up and prepared to slam her into the ground. Ramona however let go in time to instead be flung across the clearing, again the Hydra heads loosed it's poison gas in the direction of the Big Bad Wolf. And again Ramona turned the air currents to her favor directing all of the mist into the stick lodged into the ground not ten feet away. All of the heads wanted to snap that thing in two, feeding off them like a parasite and castrating their efforts to kill this blasted dog.
Then they felt it. The numbness of one of their limbs falling asleep, the head they left to watch the princess had been rendered unconscious, and the others couldn't help but snort in amusement. Perhaps the Princess was related to her mother after all. But they could no longer play with this little doggy.
"Aroo?" Ramona was mildly confused as the heads left for elsewhere and turned to her mid transformation. "Where are you going?" Another time perhaps Howard could dine upon this little doggy's flesh, but for now there were more important matters to tend to.
Across the forest the other group of heads was having a similar train of thought, course unlike their counterparts who were fighting Ramona they did not have the satisfaction of a meal waiting for them. Indeed Ramona and Cleo were both students of the school of wind magic, but Cleo's fighting style was vastly different. Ramona was all power, compressing air into tight balls and smashing them into the Hydra's face, picking up rocks and logs in her mouth before spitting them at her enemy with a mass of compressed air in her stomach and lungs, smacking aside the poison clouds like she was parrying a blade and finally throwing herself in the air and slamming down with all the force of a 40 foot long one tonne wolf on the hunt could muster.
Compare and contrast Cleo, zipping around the battle field, spearing out the eyes of the Hydra with whatever sharp implement she could find, pinning his mouth down with makeshift spears fired from mini-hurricanes and all the while giving off the impression that this was nothing more than a game to her. The Hydra had to rip off it's own heads several times already just because Cleo had managed to make them un-salvageable through nothing more than repeatedly stabbing at their weak points. Then they lost feeling in one of their heads yet more signs that life as a domesticated pet had made them soft, they'd need to convince the mistress to take them hunting, and soon. For now though the caves that ran under Ever After were weak with over mining and rot, and if their guess was correct then the Mistress's daughter was now lost in them.
"Leaving so soon?" The heads shot Cleo a scathing glare before slithering off. "Well that was fun. Now than how to get back to civilization?" As Cleo was thinking about that she spotted a huge bird up in the air flying towards them.
Raven was sat on the back of a transformed Duchess as they looked down at the forest looking for any sign of the others.
"I don't like it. Apple should've forced me down by now." Duchess's voice wrung from the beak of the bird.
"I don't see this snake anywhere either." Sparrow stated, the rifle he was using to demolish the rest of the old Chem lab still resting on his shoulder as his keen eyes looked for any sign of the creature in question. "Did Ramona already beat it?"
"That would be preferable." Laura stated as she flew next to the group with her wings, carrying with her the alien dragon that was born in these very woods.
"AAARRROOOOOO!" The distinct howl of a Gigan accompanied by a huge burst of wind was coming off of the forest.
"Looks like Ramona sees us." Sparrow commented as his keen eyes spotted where the disturbance in the wind was coming from.
"I hear Cleo's voice too, but she's in a different direction right now." Laura stated as she turned her attention in the opposite direction of the suped up werewolf.
"Then it's settled. Me, Laura and the Squid head will go find this Cleo person while you and bird Brain track down Ramona." Sparrow stated while he stood up and walked over on Duchess's wing.
"And how are you planning on doing tha-HYAH!?" Sparrow jumped off of Duchess and grabbed Laura around her ankle, who was now flapping desperately to stay airborne.
"If you can't fly then glide. If you keep your wings out straight then we'll slowly fall to the ground." Sparrow's lessons with the parachute were not wasted it seemed.
Chem he may suck at, but he knew his engineering. That said the three of them looked like they had a rough landing from what Raven could see, but we'll get to that momentarily. Duchess flew down where they saw Ramona's morning breath blowing through the woods, Clawdeen was on the ground putting someone's body parts into a bag she had been carrying with her. The Green skin and smell of Formaldehyde told her who it was but it was better to ask.
"What happened to Frankie?" Raven asked legitimately concerned, even her mother can't put someone back together if their head gets turned into paste.
"That Hydra threw a rock at me is what happened!" Raven looked to the forest to see Frankie. Her head hadn't been crushed but it was in bad shape, part of her face had been caved in and bits of her flesh had been torn off from one of her ear's all the way to her jaw. In short, she was 'alive' but barely.
"Well... I'm sorry Frankie but..."
"There's nothing you can do I figured. No big I'll just go back to the school and scrap a one of the Dragon Newt shells for parts." Frankie stated talking about her body like she was swapping out parts on her bicycle.
"I'll... get Mom to have a look at you." Raven stated while her mind calmed itself down, knowing that Frankie was fine and believing it was two entirely separate things.
"I'd appreciate it. But for now the four of you should focus on getting the princess back." Raven magicked Ramona's staff, still full of a massive quantity of the Hydra's poison, into a flying spear which she then tied to the bag. The poison would act to support Frankie's continued existence and help repair some of the damage done to her while it flies back to Riordan. Now they could get down to business.
"What happened to Apple?"
"She fainted after she saw Frankie pulling bits of herself off and the Hydra snatched her up." Clawdeen explained prompting a sigh from Raven.
"Alright lets focus." Raven clapped her cheeks as she got to work. "If I know Sparrow he'll be going to look for the Hydra. Which way did it go?"
"Back to it's layer probably." Ramona stated eyeing the paths the snake Dragon carved through the forest with it's huge body. "That's where Apple is we think. We still don't know why it left."
"Maybe Apple got away from it?" Clawdeen offered helpfully.
"Either way we have a handful of pretty good noses on our side, so lets focus on finding Apple." On that note Raven led the girls in picking up Apple's trail.
Thus we turn our attention to a certain trio who found themselves stuck up a tree.
"I blame you for this." Laura stated directing a scathing glare at Sparrow.
"It worked didn't it?" Sparrow stated as he tried to cut the vines the three of them were caught up in with his pocket knife.
"These vines are too thick for that, and they keep healing themselves." Just to prove her point Laura chewed on one of the vines with jaws that could bend a steel pipe and she could barely get her teeth through, even then as soon as her incisors were out the vines mended themselves.
"Plan B then." Sparrow said taking out his lighter and prepared to set the tree on fire.
"Would you mind not setting the tree on fire?" Luckily for them Cthulu hopped off before the duo's bickering got them stuck in a tree and it found Cleo who led her back here.
"Lets see here, that tree over there looks like it got a few of it's branches snapped off as you were passing by..." Cleo stated as she seemed to make a frame with her hands.
"What are you doing Cleo?" Laura asked fearfully.
"Figuring out the most efficient way to get you out of that tree." Having reached a satisfactory conclusion Cleo wound up a gust of air and promptly shot the two back out the way they came in.
"Thanks Cleo." Laura's landing was more graceful fluttering to the ground, that wasn't to say that Sparrow's wasn't impressive as well as he back flipped through the air and made a three point landing. Shame he was already on the Dragon team, he would make for a excellent Fear Leader. But onto the main point.
"And how did you two get up there?"
"This idiot used me as a parachute!" Laura snapped indignant.
"That explains absolutely nothing." Cleo stated shaking her head in dismay. "Is there any legitimately useful information that you want to share with me?"
"We think Apple's been taken out of the picture." Sparrow stated as he was now checking his rifle. "Possibly dead we don't know. What's the situation with the Hydra?"
"Still slithering around here somewhere no doubt about that, but it's lost all interest in me. Which considering the fact that I managed to piss it off bad enough that it wanted to kill me until a couple of seconds ago I'm going to assume means that is a bad thing." Cleo stated shrugging her shoulders with indifference. "What was the plan to deal with it anyway?"
"We haven't agreed on that part yet. Me and Duchess wanted to rip off six of it's heads and high tail it out of there before they regenerated. Raven and the bat Queen here want to use squid head over here to try and negotiate with the bugger." Actually Sparrow wanted to kill it but considering the fact that the Hydra was legitimately one of Ever After's biggest war assets and they have a potential alien invasion to deal with Raven was able to convince him that Killing the Hydra was unwise.
"Of course both of these plans require that we find it first. But seeing as how we have both the warrior and the negotiator perhaps we should focus on dealing with the Hydra while the other group tracks down Apple." Cleo explained arms cross and eyes cocked suspiciously.
"Don't need to tell me twice." Saying that Sparrow also started to walk on the overly convenient paths carved through the forest by the Hydra's retreat. Thus both sides were promptly drawn to the same area of the forest.
Apple had been walking on foot for some time, luckily the Hydra either didn't think to take or didn't know about her Mirror phone which was providing a convenient source of light as she navigated the underground tunnels. Sadly Apple didn't have any bars in the underground maze which kept her from doing convenient things like looking up a map or calling for help from her parents or classmates still she eventually found a large cross section of tunnels.
"This looks strange though." The markings on the walls were different now, one set she understood came from the pick axes and shovels that were used to carve out these tunnels in the name of sheer greed, the other looked like the stone had run off like liquid and was now frozen in place. Looking down at the tracks carved through the ground to convenience the use of mine cars Apple could also see that the metal rails had been melted too.
"Oh no..."
Apple didn't even have enough time to scream before a wet webbed hand was around her mouth. Delivering various kicks and muffed screams as the Lithilid was dragging her back to their leviathan that had just appeared from another dimension. And yet her blind flailing had managed to attract help all the same. The clouds of purple smoke filled up the caves as Apple made a effort to stifle her breathing to keep from inhaling the stuff, fully aware of what that stuff does to exposed flesh. However it was largely unnessary as the Alien had created a reflector field around himself that had only barely protected Apple, the Leviathan on the other hand was not so lucky. The Poison entered it even as it shifted itself into another dimension to try and save itself, even then it was unlikely that would save it from the poison that it had already breathed in, but for now there were bigger issues to deal with.
The two group's found one of Howard's heads outside of the cave, still with the welts Apple gave it when it was pepper sprayed earlier.
"Well that's convenient." Sparrow stated his hat in his hand as he wiped sweat from his face. "Oi diplomat, do your thing."
Cthulu walked up to the unconscious head and began reading it's mind. It became quickly apparent that the Hydra heads could see through each other's eyes, which was convenient but the revelation was drowned out by what the alien saw. Another of it's kin, the 'Masters' as they call themselves for their ability to control their lesser. And now this one was aware of Cthulu's existence. Immediately the Alien dumped all the relevant information into the other's heads, including where they thought Apple currently was, before repeatedly banging their own head off of the ground until they fell unconscious.
"Did anyone else see that?" Raven asked as she regained her balance from having Cthulu intrude on her mind.
"You mean the alien bugger that was holding Apple Hostage and piss match he got into with the Hydra? Yeah I think I noticed that." Ramona stated as she started checking something on her phone.
"What are you doing with that?" Cleo asked suspiciously.
"Finding a short cut. Hey Sparrow how many explosives do you have on you?" Ramona asked looking at her cousin suspiciously.
"Not as many as I can make up in a few minuets." As they were saying that a Fiend emerged from the bush, clearing a way through for other interested parties to show up, namely a contingent of dwarf commandos and a Queen who was looking rather annoyed.
"Would one of the eight of you mind explaining what's going on?" Weiss asked looking severely unamused.
Apple would not go quietly. That was one thing she had already decided on. If she was protected by the reflector field that meant she was already inside of it, and if she was inside of the field then that meant that her attack's unlike Howard's would go through to the alien. Thus Apple took out a small bottle from her purse and prepared to hit the alien in the face with it. The Lithilid Master caught on fast and grabbed hold of the bottle first crushing the pitiful weapon in it's grip to prove just how worthless to him it really was, and was rewarded by it's contents spraying all over his face.
"RRREEEAAAGGGRRR!"
Pepper spray was not something that people like getting squirted in their eyes with, no matter what species you were. The Alien's concentration was broken and Apple took full advantage. The Poison was starting to get through and Apple figured that if she could get out of the cave before the barrier went up again she could get away with nothing worst than what the Army doctors could fix, Howard seem to disagree as one of the heads stretched over and grabbed her by the scruff of her shirt and took her out of the cave. At that time explosives started to go off above everyone and rocks fell down from above, the Lithilid master got the barrier back up in time for the rocks to bounce off into the sky like a reverse meteor storm though what came next was mildly concerning. Dwarf's lined the walls of the hole they had made, guns cocked and pointed down at the Alien who had been threatening Apple, lightning arcing to and fro as the enchantment on the weapons worked, all of them led there by the information that Cthulu had given them before rendering itself unconscious. Laura flew through that mess, for the second time that day she had been used as a makeshift parachute, if this was going to become habit then she needed to invest in some protective padding of some kind, perhaps she could ask her passenger, Ever After's Queen, about where she got her's as it was surprisingly lightweight. Regardless the vampire and queen landed in the tunnel where Howard had taken Apple.
"I'm just gonna take the rest of the night off guys." Even if they did start out in the evening with protective charms sown into her cloak walking around in broad daylight was exhausting for the vampiress, though more pressing matters had taken priority.
"Can you suck the poison out of her?" Weiss asked her concerned tones clear.
"I'm not an undead, and even if I was I don't think you want your daughter ending up like this." Laura stated holding out her wings making the weak virus capable of turning another into a vampire clear.
"Right." Weiss prepared the needle full of antidote to Howard's poison and injected it into Apple's arm. The Antidote entered her body and proceeded to cure Howard's poison, it was then followed up with a second injection of healing potion. For now that would be enough until this pest can be killed. "Howard your poison fog seems to have died down a little. Could you reapply it?" You could see the snake smiling at Weiss like a child who was given free reign of a candy store. At once the six heads began spitting out their poison smog and covered the entire area in a layer of the stuff.
"Masks on and move in!" The Dwarf's donned gas masks which together with the full body armor protected them from the poison, shortly there after they repelled down into the fog and readied their bayonet mounted guns to stick into the alien.
"Do not plunge your weapons directly into the alien. Observe the smoke clouds to learn the edge of his barrier, thrust forward and pull back at the last moment, let the alien's own barrier do him in." Weiss shouted as the dwarf's circled around the Lithilid master sharp pointy things drawn and ready to stab. "Howard you may assist if you wish, the same instructions apply to you." If the snake heads were smiling before then they were loosing full blown grins with all their teeth showing now.
The first of the strikes using the unfamiliar tactic failed, others were having better luck as they found themselves shot forward like a rocket aimed at the alien. Still their small bodies had no control of the situation and the alien was able to dodge their blows with some difficulty. These alien buggers may be powerful but they were not use to close quarters combat, the only experience they had was being smacked around by Corvo back in the monster realm. Still in comparison to a high class undead these little men were more like children playing at being warriors.
"Get out of the way!" As the Lithilid Master was thinking this one of the heads came at them and slammed into their body hard enough to send them flying with a mass of broken bones. Then came the blood coming out of his mouth tentacles, the poison.
"Grr." Growling angrily the Lithilid prepared another big attack, gathering and creating plasma from the air between two hands and preparing to chuck it at the dwarfs before that is it suddenly dissipated into thin air.
"Never thought I would be using this to diffuse a explosion instead." Sparrow commented from the top of the hole, hand held out straight as he used his own knack to take the bite out of the alien's attacks.
"RRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" The alien's frustrated cries would be comical if he wasn't so obviously pissed off. Seemingly unable to do anything else he resorted to childishly stomping his feet, and when they realized it was throwing everyone off balance kept doing it. "The bugger's temper tantrum is gonna start a Earth Quake!" Or a cave in as the case maybe, as the ground around Sparrow started to crumble and fall apart. All of Ever After would be sunk into the black void carved out from underneath their feet if this was allowed to continue any longer.
"RRRAAAWWWRRR!" Cue Cthulu running up to them and jumping down into the pit bouncing off of the walls several times as he went before landing in front of their fellow alien.
"Obey!" The Lithilid Master snapped trying to make Cthulu buckle, unfortunately for them they weren't the only ones with the power of control here.
"If you plan to help then keep that thing occupied!" Weiss also had influence over them, and given the option between one of the alien monsters that had forcibly transformed them and the queen who had legitimately earned their loyalty they'd go with the latter.
Luckily the fact that before they were a half alien monster they were a half Manticore monster with the ability to drain poison and weaponize it, which is exactly what the former Dracorex was doing now, taking in Howard's poison into his own body and storing it inside of poison glands in his feet. Now fully prepared the Manticore jumped at the Lithilid Master, only to be pushed aside. It seemed that the Lithilid had heard Weiss's instructions for the Dwarfs and made some adjustments. Instead of a barrier that reversed the flow of attacks the new one constantly rotated around him like a twister, no more cheap pulled punches now it would seem. Of course it didn't last very long, the Master was still poisoned and Sparrow was still neutering his attacks and in the end the battle ended with their anti-climatic death. As soon as everyone was sure the bugger was dead, specifically after the Queen had the Squid's head parted from it's body, Sparrow found himself zipping up the alien's body in a bag and carrying it out of the mine.
"Now then are you certain you are okay?" Weiss asked directing her attention down at Apple.
"Yes Mother." Apple stated apologetically.
"Are you certain? Perhaps we should have your head examined. That way it might reveal what possessed you to lead a group of foreigners through the Enchanted forest." Oh Apple was in trouble now. "You were under the impression that Howard was behaving strangely earlier yes? Allow me to clarify: they were behaving in the manner they are suppose to." Oh boy. "A bunch of foreigners in one of the area's that serve as a keystone in our countries defense, one that happens to rely on a hoard of rare and exotic animals, is just begging for trouble!"
"But I was there so..." Apple started again but found her argument shut down immediately.
"It's because you were there that Howard had been acting so aggressively!" Weiss snapped again. "If a invader wanted to cut out one of our top defense points in anticipation of a invasion then the most logical thing to do is grab the most vulnerable member of the royal family, you by the way, and have them cut it out for them! In which case Howard was instructed to separate you from them and eliminate them." Weiss snapped again prompting a look of 'oh crud' on Apple's face.
"Who comes up with stuff like this?" Sparrow felt compelled to ask over hearing the overly paranoid rant that Weiss was making in the process.
"I spent too much time chasing after Morgan as a kid. So after she put the fear of death into me I assembled together a task force of the most paranoid people in the country and told them to shore up our defenses." Weiss stated before letting out a sigh and continued. "You and I are going to have a long conversation when this is over." Weiss stated as she dragged Apple out of the tunnels.
Author's Note:
Starlord Master: Thank you. So in other words slightly above average? Ow. They don't really have one. There are plenty of people in the world who lack real direction in their lives, especially when they are young. If I had to list one I would say that their goal is to live.
Chimatigon: You're forgiven.
