(Author's note: OK, five months later than I thought it'd be...but here's the next chapter!)
Cyborg took a deep breath of the fresh, moist air. The foggy air felt cool against the few areas of actual skin he still had. The gentle trickling of a tiny stream was less stressful than the silence. The tight squeeze from crawling through the last section of pipe to get out of what certainly felt like a subterranean labyrinth was more than a reasonable price to pay, in his mind.
The fog gave a wide, fuzzy ring to the full moon, but its location in the sky was still quite obvious. The small flow of water coming out of the same pipe he'd just been in, on the other hand, faded into gray obscurity sixty feet ahead. It flowed thinly over a gravelly streambed, with tall grasses lining each bank.
Putting a couple fingers against the side of his head, he activated the thermographic mode in his electronic eye. The imagery was grayscale, and some of the tints were decidedly out of place, but it worked: He saw the stream continue flowing onward for another fifty feet past where it melded into the fog, before it veered off to the left and behind the grass along its banks.
He pushed a button on his forearm, his electronic eye seeing varying levels of heat from the different materials that composed his body frame. "I'm clear," he whispered into the panel. "Where are you?"
"To the left," came Jinx's similarly whispered reply over both the panel and Cyborg's ears.
She was kneeling behind a tall, leafy bush; looking out over the edge of what seemed to be a small cliff. She was in the bush's shadow, so she was only lit indirectly; but as far as Cyborg's thermal vision was concerned, she might as well have glowed in the dark.
Cyborg crept over to the same bush, making a deliberate effort to mask his own visual exposure. "Can you see anything down there?" he asked in a hushed tone.
"No movement as far as I can see."
He gazed out past the bush himself, which was an easy task since he was too bulky to crouch as low as Jinx even if he had wanted to. The rock face was only about ten feet tall, he estimated, and the wide surface below was covered with smoothly trimmed grass.
Beyond normal visual range, his thermographic vision perceived the stream as it continued below, gently meandering into a nearby pond. A small foot bridge crossed over the stream, connecting the dirt paths on either side that formed a ring around the area. Scattered large, leafy trees dotted the view of the park.
Most significantly, a handful of white spots, child-shaped, were roaming off in the distance along the footpath. Their lumbering movement gave them away as more zombie kids, but they didn't appear to be heading anywhere in particular. Near as Cyborg could guess, they were simply patrolling the park, and had no idea that he or Jinx were anywhere near.
Far off, he guessed about two hundred feet away, a thick set of smaller trees suggested the edge of the park's area. The image appeared dull and mottled, however. He craned his neck to see the mottling pattern, and for a brief moment he was surprised to find the pattern originated in his own eye.
"Kids're out there," he whispered, "but I don't think they know we're here. Edge of the park's a couple hundred feet off, and that's the range limit on my thermograph. Fog must still be settling in, I didn't think I'd be able to see as far I am."
"Better get across before it finishes settling, then. Can we make it across without incapacitating any of them?"
Cyborg almost couldn't believe she said that. "You'd really consider doing that?"
"It's not on top of my list of things to do, but higher than standing around and waiting for them to call up whatever the pumpkin of the hour is. Now can we make it or not?"
He growled softly as he looked out again. There were only a few kids, not nearly enough to maintain full coverage. They all followed the path around the outside edges of the park, meaning the area in the middle was unwatched.
"Yeah, I think so. There ain't many, and they're all patrolling the outside edges, so we can sneak past them when there's a gap and get to the middle, then sneak out of the park when a gap opens up there."
"Alright. You take the lead, I'll follow."
He decided against making a comment about who was leading now, since he was sure she'd throw it right back at him as soon as the opportunity arose. And as appalling as her willingness to knock out little kids was, her nerves sure wouldn't fail anytime soon.
For a minute that felt like an eternity, he waited for the prime opportunity. Refusing to be nervous, he worked out the overall plan in detail in his mind: When the patrols were sufficiently distant, he'd descend to the ground level, and sneak over to the bridge. Crossing the bridge would give them access to the central area of the park, where he hadn't seen any patrols go through. Hiding amidst a few trees if necessary, they would wait until another patrol hole came up, and then make their way out of the park. Nice and easy.
He almost missed the gap he was looking for. "Let's do this," he whispered, before hopping down from the edge. The noise sounded very loud in his mind, but nervous glances in each direction showed no difference in the behavior of the kids.
Fighting the counterproductive urge to get this over with as quickly as possible, he deliberately focused his mind on each step he was making. He was perfectly aware that any number of things could go wrong: stepping on an unseen twig, or tripping over a rock, or even something as uncontrollable as scattered moonlight glinting off his frame and into the eyes of some poor kid.
Nonetheless, he and Jinx arrived at the bridge without incident, though Cyborg had to keep reminding himself that the normal sound of the stream would cover any sound of the grass or dirt beneath his feet. Crossing the bridge was a more questionable matter, as the wooden planks made more noticeable sounds, but once again the patrolling kids continued about their business in the distance, with not even a long pause to suggest they may have heard something.
While the kids being on the far half of the park was helpful for crossing the bridge, that far half of the park was also the exit out of the park. There were two large trees, with wide trunks, a short ways ahead; Cyborg chose that as the next destination. He walked slowly, trying to keep himself in the shadow of the tree on the right. After glancing around to see if the coast was clear, and seeing nothing but an eerily silent Jinx, he stepped around the edge of the tree to see where the kids were on their patrol route.
Instead, he saw a large pumpkin raise itself up from the ground to float in front of his face, vines dangling.
For a split second, the thing just stood—or more accurately, hovered—there. Then it floated off to the side without so much as swinging a vine at him, much to Cyborg's surprise.
The surprise was almost enough for him to miss the quadruped charging at him. Almost. He swung a fist at the aggressor to keep it off guard while he evaluated the situation further. It responded by rearing up on its hind legs, reaching as high as Cyborg's own height, before lunging forward with a paw. The display had given Cyborg time to ready another punch to intercept the attack, and the force of the impact knocked the thing back a couple feet.
Cyborg finally had a chance to get a good look at the thing. Its shape was distinctly ursine, but it was like no bear he'd ever seen. For one thing, most animals produce heat; this one was "dark" in his thermograph. Even that pumpkin produced a noticeable "glow" in his thermal view. His organic eye picked up that its fur bore a texture more in line with bristles than with actual fur, each rigid black fiber bearing a silver tip.
The bear thing didn't stay still for long. It lunged forward with a deep, reverberating growl; its claw ripping into the outer surface of Cyborg's framework. With another forceful step forward it tried to topple him; however it had no hope against Cyborg's considerable mass. Its momentum nullified, it set its hind legs against the ground and tried to push Cyborg over with musculature. This was slightly more effective, until Cyborg rotated his chest and the thing slid off against the now-angled body.
Cyborg's smirk was extremely short-lived; instead of hitting the grass flat, the bear rammed its front paws against the ground with enough force to propel back to a standing position. He wasn't surprised enough to forgo the opportunity for another punch; this one added to the motion and knocked the thing over backwards. As soon as it hit the ground with a satisfying thump, it quickly rolled over and pushed itself back to a standing position; meanwhile Cyborg was stepping back, as he readied his sonic cannon.
Both sets of eyes were drawn to an abrupt set of purple flashes, which quickly lead to a splattering of bloody pumpkin pulp. Cyborg had almost forgotten about the pumpkin floating there, and was glad that Jinx had made it into a non-issue.
The bear, meanwhile, roared in her general direction, before turning to face her with both hind paws together and stretching its front paws to either side of it. This ritualized movement was quickly followed by a high hiss, and some sort of ball that managed to glow black streaked away from its chest. It impacted Jinx's midsection, and she screamed in pain as her limbs visibly stiffened before she unceremoniously toppled to the ground, her face contorted in agony.
Then it turned back to Cyborg.
One does not last long at the H.I.V.E. Academy without having, or acquiring, a tolerance of pain. It was simply that type of environment, where every mistake was another bludgeon and a success might simply hurt less.
Nonetheless, Jinx was wholly unprepared for the sudden conflagration of agony that was now searing several of her joints from the inside. Gritting her teeth and clenching her eyes shut was all she could do to withstand the torment; the instinctive scream had been utterly useless in that regard, and tactically unsound besides.
One ear dimly noted sounds of Cyborg's sonic cannon firing, over the sound of painful pressure that flooded her hearing. The other picked up low vibrations of footfalls, more through tactile means than auditory. She eventually realized that Cyborg was the only thing keeping that damned ursine...thing...from flaying or fileting her.
Unhappy with her odds, she clenched her teeth with firm determination as she slowly forced herself off the ground with one arm. Her fingers and wrist moved freely, and she could feel the cool blades of moist grass against her palm. The elbow and shoulder, however, resisted the slow movements. Until enough pressure was applied and the joints jerked in the desired direction, and the relatively dull heat in them flared up to volcanic again with a pair of sickening creaks.
The short whimper sounded pathetic to her own ears, despite being muffled by the altercation taking place far too close for her liking. She held firm in spite of the instinct to recoil, on the assumption that letting her arm drop back down an inch would be just as painful as getting it where it was. A few seconds and a couple deep breaths later, the pain had reduced enough that she could think somewhat clearly.
In what may not have been the most thought-out move, she shoved her hand against the ground with all the might she could muster. While she had expected it to hurt horribly, she wasn't prepared for the sound of cracking coming from her joints and sending gruesome vibrations throughout the surrounding muscle. She was unaware of anything outside her own body for the next several seconds.
When she finally opened her eyes, quite thankful that her neck wasn't affected by the same malady as her elbow and shoulder, she saw that she'd done it: She had gotten off of the ground enough to look around. The rigid position of her arm and elbow was far from comfortable, but there was no sign of any sort of breakage, and compared to what her shoulder had just gone through she was hardly bothered by ordinary muscle strain.
What bothered her was that Cyborg wasn't doing well. She didn't need Cyborg's infrared eye to see the many spots where his metal surface had been torn into. Nor to notice that the bear creature was agile enough to evade Cyborg's wide swings, and that it stayed close enough to keep him from aiming his sonic cannon at it. A rather impressive set of feats, but this wasn't the time for a performance appraisal.
Breathing heavily, partly to recover from all the exertion but mostly because the feel of cool moist air in her lungs was the most pleasant thing she'd come across all damn night, she took a couple seconds to evaluate her options. Cyborg's endurance was significant but not unlimited, and she'd be in no state to defend herself if he was felled by attrition. The time concern cut off most of her options, her own severely reduced mobility cut off the rest...
Suddenly it dawned on her. She flexed her fingers, with no ill effects. Then, with a deep breath, she turned her open palm against the ground, turned her hand onto its side without any significant movement to her elbow. And she waited for the right moment, trying not to be distracted by the much smaller portion of her palm supporting the same amount of weight.
Cyborg, likely suspecting he'd gotten predictable, suddenly changed his routine of horizontal swings with an uppercut. The bear straightened to its full height and leaned back slightly, dodging Cyborg's blow. Snarling, it raised a claw above its head, preparing a vertical strike of its own.
That was Jinx's cue. With a hiss, she quickly flattened her palm against the ground, not needing to guess why the grass was briefly lit with a violet glow. The bear's snarl ended with a yelp as the ground under its feet suddenly collapsed a couple of inches, and it flailed its paws around to maintain its balance. Its limbs so occupied, it had no chance to defend against Cyborg's point-blank cannon shot.
Whatever the bear thing actually was, it separated into a cloud of short shadowy strands, as though Cyborg's attack had instantly destroyed what was holding it together and sent the remnants flying. Jinx didn't see much more, as the dull heat in her joints abruptly turned into a frigid chill and she collapsed back to the ground. She couldn't miss the sound, though: a loud growl echoing all around, somewhat higher pitched than the thing's previous noises, slowly fading into silence over the course of several seconds.
She was discovering that the pain in her joints was now gone, when Cyborg ran up to her.
"Yo, what was—Are you OK?" he cut himself off as he offered a hand to help her up.
The scene reminded her of a similar one with "Stone" back at the H.I.V.E. Academy, but although she was sure she was supposed to be mad, she found that she wasn't. Still, she got back on her feet without his help, primarily so she could find the answer to his question for herself.
"Apparently," she said while exaggerating the action of stretching her arms; perfectly normal response on the part of her elbows. "I don't get why, but I'm not complaining. What happened after you destroyed it, I didn't see."
"Umm...all its hair blow away, but it like faded out of existence instead of making a mess on the ground. Do you have any idea what that thing was, or how it could be bossed around by a pumpkin?"
"How the hell would I—No. I don't remember reading about anything like it. Hell, I don't even know enough about it to try researching it." She arched an eyebrow. "Why do you think it was being ordered around, anyway?"
"The pumpkin was right in front of me, then it just floated off so the bear thing could attack. The muscle's usually the one given orders, right? Can't imagine Mammoth ever bossing you around."
"Makes sense." It'd been years since Mammoth learned better than to try.
Her attention was instantly drawn by the sound of a deep bark echoing through the line of trees marking the park's edge. It was loud enough that she was sure its source would be nearby, but it sounded far away; there was no recognizable difference in how the sound hit each ear, the way it would be if it were remotely close. It also didn't sound canine, it sounded...a lot like that bear thing's roar, though with a lower pitch.
Cyborg quickly starting interacting with something on his arm, a bewildered look in his eye. "Did you hear that," he asked, "'cause my sonic analyzer is telling me I'm hearing things."
She was about to answer in the affirmative when another bark rang out. This one came from the side, but it was still too far to be close, and its pitch was similar to the last one, but varying in subtle ways. Like distinct voices. She looked in its direction, but didn't see anything as far as the fog let her see.
Cyborg started pressing buttons on his arm frantically. "Yeah that! My ears are hearing it just fine, but my analyzer only caught silence. It's picking up my voice just fine, so it ain't broke..."
But her mind was distracted by the implications of the fog. "Where are those kids?"
"What?" he exclaimed as he looked all around, presumably probing the fog with his thermal vision. "They're...just standing there, on the road." he stated with some disbelief.
"So the kids are being bossed around too."
Whatever Cyborg was about to say in response, he was preempted by a repeat of the first bark.
Jinx shook her head. "Whatever's going on, standing here isn't going to help if they're still here. We need to get moving."
The second bark came again, and Cyborg straightened his posture. "Looks like they agree, the kids are coming towards us." Cyborg said with slight nervousness.
She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Then lead on." He was still the one with who could see farthest through fog. "No use sneaking if they already know where we are."
"Good point," Cyborg agreed as he broke off into a run. "We can't hide, but we can sure outrun 'em."
"Works for me," she replied as she followed, quite pleased that the fiasco hadn't done any long-term damage to her mobility.