Chapter 6 – Welcome to the Darklands, Kid
"Where am I?" – he thought. "Who am I?"
Naver slowly opened his eyes and looked around. Night sky. Trees as far as the eye could see. They looked weird. He couldn't explain exactly how he knew they weren't normal, but something was definitely wrong with them. Maybe it was their freakish shape, their unnatural size, or the grotesque glowing green growths on them. A source of light was near him – a campfire. He looked up to the sky. The moon was shining brightly, but no stars.
"Oh yeah. Right. I'm Naver. And I'm in the middle of some sort of war. I'm starting to remember. What was this place again? I think he called this place the "Black Lands" or something like that?"
Then he just realized that he was with others before he passed out. He looked around. Only now he noticed the guy he was with earlier, sitting at the campfire. Lars.
"You're awake. Good. You're not hurt, are you?" – Lars asked. Naver sat up. He only just remembered that they were attacked earlier.
"I'm alright, I think. What happened just now? Memory is still fuzzy…"
"You're not having another, uuh… amnesia again, are you?"
"No, no, I remember you, and that other guy, Shala, I think. Yeah. But… What happened before I passed out?"
"Well, the three of us were being chased by a bunch of Triceraclopses. You know, monsters. We got to the edge that small canyon with the river. The thing is, me and you got pushed off. As you might remember, you were hurt pretty badly. I might have been a goner as well, because the monster fell into it along with us, but something stunned it and I was able to finish it off." – Lars explained.
"Stunned it?"
"Yeah, it was weird. I know it wasn't a Nano – I don't have any Stun ones on me."
"Weird." – Naver said. They sat in silence for a moment. "What… exactly is a Nano?"
"Oh, right, you wouldn't know, would you?" – Lars chuckled. "Alright, this is gonna be a bit hard to explain. Hmm... Where to start? So, there are these bad guys in charge of the monsters, called Fusions…"
"Oh, yeah, yeah, I know about the Fusions already, Shala told me."
"Right. That makes it a little easier. So, when you defeat the Fusions, you can use the stuff that was used to create them to create a Nano. Mostly Fusion Matter. That's what you need it for. And the Nanos themselves are like… this:"
Lars pressed one of the buttons on his watch. A small figure of a boy with a blonde bowl cut covering his eyes, wearing an orange hoodie appeared.
"That's Wallabee Beetles, AKA Numbuh Four!" – Naver exclaimed.
"Right, so you know him too, despite your amnesia?" – Lars raised his eyebrow.
"Yeah. I know, right? It weirds me out more than it does you, honestly, but I can't explain it."
"Alright then. So, Nanos all have different powers that can help you while fighting. Nano Numbuh Four here healed you when you were hurt earlier. Lucky I had a Heal one with me. I got this little guy when I defeated the Fusion of Numbuh Four over at the Dinosaur Graveyard."
"The Dinosaur Graveyard?" – Naver laughed. He imagined a large meadow, with long rows of gravestones that had pictures of dinosaurs engraved on them.
"That's what we call the Infected Zone near here, it's full of fossils. And that's where we're gonna go first thing in the morning, there's a small SACT – that's short for Special Alien Containment Team - outpost over there by the entrance warp, and I don't know about you, but for me it's better than camping out here in the woods. I was just about to tell you and Shala about it before we got attacked. I'm not sure if Shala's gonna head there though, it seems that he didn't know about it, I think he said he was heading towards the Fireswamps – that's the area that's to the north of here.
While Lars was talking, Naver couldn't help but stare at Lars' watch. Lars noticed.
"This?"
"What does that do? You use that to fight?"
"It's useful, yeah, but it sure ain't the Omnitrix. Heh. This right here" – and he held out his wrist for Naver to see better – "is called a NanoCom. Probably one of DexLabs' greatest inventions. Definitely the most useful one for the war. Besides letting me create and summon Nanos, it can also act as a mini-computer, a communicator, even a crypto-wallet and a bunch of other things. I think."
"Cool. Really cool." After a short pause, Naver asked "Hey, could you maybe, let me…"
"What, try it out? Sorry, but these things are biologically linked to their owners. If another human tries to wear it, the most they'll be able to do with it is tell the time or something. Maybe you have one of your own, but don't have it with you?"
Naver looked at his wrist. It was completely smooth. There was no sign that he had been wearing a watch before. So that ruled out the slim chance that he had one, but lost it. But then again, he had no idea how to even look for it even if he really had owned one.
"Oh, well. I say that sword of yours is enough of a weapon in your hands. You definitely have no idea where you learned how to use it, right?"
"Nope. Nothing. I don't even know how I used the sword, something in me just… worked on its own. My mind is completely blank. Well, except those odd details. I don't really know why would I need to know all these weird details about Dexter, or other people in the first place. My personal life, the things I've done myself… Well, I don't remember any of it."
"Heh. That's actually… kinda cool." – Lars muttered to himself.
"What's cool about that? I don't know anything about me!"
"No, let me explain-"
"I'm not even sure if my real name actually is Naver!"
"I just mean… There's a lot of people that would gladly forget the things they've done. Bad things. Forgetting who they are would be a completely clean slate. You can be whoever you want to be, do whatever you want to do. Not haunted by the past anymore. Free of your guilt."
"Well, I'm not too sure you'd say that if you were the one who had your mind wiped. You would be dead set on rediscovering who you were in the first place, right?" – Naver answered.
"Yeah. I guess… Still. Maybe you did some bad stuff before this. You'd be surprised at what someone can be capable of. There… There are some things I'd like to forget myself." – Lars said.
"Really? Like what?"
"Well, it's… stuff I'm not proud of. I'd rather not get into the details."
They both sat at the campfire for a bit, in silence. Lars was staring at the fire. Naver looked at the sky again and noticed the dark silhouette of Planet Fusion. He still couldn't explain the feeling he got while looking at it. He didn't even know why or how was this abomination of a planet causing these feelings in him in the first place. Terror. Disgust. Nostalgia…? But it was. Maybe this was another clue to his past.
"Hey man, you hungry?" – Lars asked.
Hungry?" – Naver repeated. Up until now, he had completely forgotten how hunger even felt like.
"Yeah, sure. I could eat something." Naver thought of all the foods and flavors that were out there, and he could not remember how of them actually tasted like. "Why is it that I remember some things, but other stuff I'm totally blanking on?"
Lars reached for his backpack. "So. You like… canned beans?" – He got a can and tossed it to Naver. He got another one for himself.
"No idea" – he answered. "Guess we'll find out. How am I supposed to open this thing?"
"Well, you got your sword there, don't you?"
Naver looked at the huge sword that Shala gave him earlier. Then he looked at the tiny can. Perplexed, he looked at Lars, who was trying not to laugh.
"Okay, okay, here." – Lars tossed him a can opener. "But I don't have another spoon. You're gonna have to, uh… drink it like coffee."
Naver opened the can and was about to press his mouth against it, imagining how gross it would feel, but Lars stopped him.
"Hold on, hold on. You probably don't want to eat those cold, right? I got an idea. Toss that here for a sec."
Naver tossed the can opener. Lars got up and picked up a thin, but rigid tree branch from the ground. Then he made holes in two opposite sides of the can lid and ran the stick through. He then held it over the fire.
"Voila! Canned beans, roasted on a spit, ala Lars! Here, you do the same" – said Lars and tossed the can opener back. Naver tried to do the same thing, but he made the holes too low and the bean juice started leaking out. Eventually he managed to get it right, but the branch he picked was too flexible so the can of beans kept sliding off. Lars was just watching him, laughing.
"Dammit dude, here. You can have mine" – and Lars handed him the can he was using, then he found another twig.
"So. While the beanshmallows are roasting. Can you tell me more about this place?" – Naver asked.
"What, Dinosaur Pass?"
"No, the whole place. We're on an… island, right?"
"Yeah, pretty much. A big one. The Darklands, unofficially known as the most dangerous place on earth. It's mostly due to the monster infestation, but honestly, I'm not sure if this island was any safer before the war. Well, almost no one has actually been here before it, but there is reason to believe that actual dinosaurs roamed the place not too long ago. I'm talking, a couple years, maybe a decade. My point is that it's not a place a lot of people would want to be at, at any point in time."
"Well, why are you here then? Why did anyone come here?" – Naver asked him. "Hell, why was I here in the first place?" – he thought.
"Everyone here is fighting for the Earth, of course. Me as well, but… I also want to prove something to myself, that's all." – Lars said, and Naver realized this was nearing the thing Lars didn't want to talk about.
"So, the island. Monsters. Dinosaurs. Us. What else is around here?"
"Well, right now we are in the southeastern part of the island. The area north of the beach is called the Forsaken Valley. There is a giant airship hovering there, created by Mandark Industries. You know about Mandark, right?"
"Mandark. Height-"
"Okay, okay, that's enough. Anyway, the airship is the main contact that we have with the mainland. Well, until yesterday it was, anyway. Shala said that it disappeared without a trace."
"I take it, without it we're screwed?"
"Yep. We don't really have any other way to communicate with the mainland. Or any way to get there either. So, right now, we are a bit north from the Valley, at the Dinosaur Pass. It's essentially a passage to the northeastern part of the island – fiery fields of doom. Called the Fireswamps. It's just an endless field of fire, lava, magma, whatever."
"That's where Shala was going, yeah?"
"Yeah, I remember him saying something like that. There is an outpost by the organization called Providence. If the airship's gone, I think that outpost would be the safest place around here. I don't really go there often, though. Anyway, To the north-west from there is a passage over the mountain range that separates the eastern and western halves of the island. Over to the east, there's the Precipice, Dark Glade, Huntor's Crest, Hero's Hollow and Green Maw. There's the main SACT camp on Huntor's, there is a Plumber base on the Precipice… and there used to be an outpost on Hero's Hollow as well, but, well, uh… not anymore.
"Why, what happened there?"
"It used to be our forward base, in the heart of the Darklands. Dexter had an airship there just like Mandark's. But, well, the camp was destroyed. It was a monumental loss. One for the books. Almost nobody survived the attack, and those who managed to make it out alive… Well, none of us have been the same ever since."
Lars was silent for a moment, then he looked at the campfire again. "Hey, our beans are probably hot enough by now. Time to dig in."
"Alright, let's go. My first meal, ever" – said Naver as he opened the can. He even was excited for something as mundane as a can of beans. As soon as he smelled it, his stomach was hit with a feeling Naver immediately realized as hunger. "Drink it like coffee, then?" – Naver said with uncertainty.
"Unless you'd like to use my spoon after I'm done with it?" – Lars retorted with a smile and held out the spoon.
"Nah, I'm good." Naver opened the can and pressed his mouth against the top to drink it. He was immediately burned.
"Dammit, it's hot!"
Lars laughed again. "Yeah, what did you expect? You should have probably taken the spoon. Anyway, you'll be prepared in case you ever have to kiss a Lizard Queen. That's, uh, one of the monsters up in the Fireswamps."
"Oh yeah, I wanted to ask you about that. Whuh… what kind of monsters are usually around?"- Naver asked.
"Well, in the Valley and the Pass there are mostly the ones based on dinosaurs. You already met the Triceraclopses and the Frilled Fiends. Then there are the Terrordactyls and Horrordactyls, Fossil Crawlers, Triceraclaws… I'm pretty sure Lord Fuse designed all of them using actual dinosaur DNA. It's in abundance over at the Infected Zone."
"Designed them using actual dinosaur DNA?" – Naver repeated, surprised.
"Yeah. Generally, the Fusion Matter adapts to surrounding objects, sometimes absorbs them. Creates monsters with them. So using the DNA of some of the most dangerous animals known throughout time would make sense, right?"
"Uh… Well, if you say so…"
"Right. Anyway, the monsters you really need to watch out for here are the Dark Horntails. They roam Dinosaur Pass in packs, and if we run into them today, you just turn around and walk in the other direction as quetly as you can. We do NOT have the firepower to take those things down. Or the speed to outrun them if they see us coming."
"I don't know what they look like but I will keep that in mind."
"Good. Now, in the Fireswamps, there are a bunch of fire lizards, lava golems and tar creatures. All of them have fire spewing out of every hole so you should watch out for those."
"Alright, I'll keep that in mind too - fire bad."
"And then the monsters in the western part of the island… Honestly, I just wouldn't go there if I were you. Hell, I wouldn't go there if I were me. Which I am. The stuff I've seen the monsters do to people…" – Lars shook his head. "As I said, the battle of Hero's Hollow was not pretty."
"I have… no intention of doing that. I'd rather just get somewhere… safer. So, which of these areas does Lord Fuse live in?"
"That's your idea of safer?"
"No, I just figured that if I know where he lives, the farther I get away from it, the safer I'll be."
"Yeah, that's good thinking. His stronghold lies on the north-west corner of the island. Nobody has really come back from there alive. There were a couple of missions to infiltrate it, scout it out, at least, lay out the general plan, but, that didn't go all that well either. You've got a point, I feel a lot more comfortable too, knowing that the Alpha Cephalopods are located way on the other side of the island." – said Lars.
"Heh. He agreed with me. Lars is cool… I guess this is what it's like to have a friend then…" Naver got lost in his thoughts again. Killer monsters, destroyed camps. Impending doom. And yet, friends. Maybe his situation wasn't as bad as he thought it was. But then again, would he even ever get actual friends?
"Hey." – Lars said suddenly. "I gotta take a nap for a couple hours before we get going. Do you mind standing guard? You can just wake me if you hear any monster or something. If the rest of the night goes by quietly, wake me up at around seven. Alright?"
"Really? You'd trust me to do that?"
"Yeah, sure. Why not? It's not like you're gonna kill me in your sleep, right?" – Lars laughed.
"Well, as you said, you never know. What if I was a serial killer? There I see you sleeping and without knowing it, I'm already chopping you up" – Naver let loose and smiled as well. Still, he found it weird that Lars would trust him. Guess this meant that they really were friends.
"Well, then let's hope that you kill me less painfully than you killed that bean can. Hah! Good night" – Lars said, put his head on his backpack as a pillow and closed his eyes.
"Hold on. How do I know when to wake you? I don't have a watch!" – Naver asked. "No way to tell the time."
Lars got up again and looked at his wrist. "Here. You can have my NanoCom for the night. I won't need it while I'm sleeping, and as I said, it will still tell you the time, even if you're not me." – he took off his NanoCom and tossed it to Naver.
"Whoa, thanks!" – Naver answered gleefully. He looked like a kid who had just gotten a new toy. He didn't put it on immediately, but started looking at it from all sides. All the different buttons… He looked at the time. 3:17. Then he lied down on his back with his hands behind his head went back to his thoughts while looking at planet Fusion. "Who? How? Why?" There were a lot of questions to be answered and he wasn't even sure if he'd ever be able to.
After a while, he noticed that the sky was getting lighter. Did this mean that it was the morning? Naver got up and climbed up a tree to get a good look at his first ever sunrise.
Shala heard a noise. He froze, dead in his tracks, and looked around slowly. No sign of any monsters, not that it was easy to spot any in the moonlight. No other noises, either. Must have been a critter. He kept walking. He couldn't hear the noise of the river flow anymore, which was good – it'd be easier to hear any incoming monsters. But at the same time, it would be easier for the monsters to hear him as well. He had crossed the river an hour ago. Only a couple more hours, Shala assumed, and he'd be out of the jungle. While heading north he thought about the guys he'd met – Naver and Lars. They fell into the river while fighting off Triceraclopses. Shala couldn't help them because he was being chased by another one of the creatures himself. By the time he fought it off he couldn't even find the spot where they fell over the cliff. Climbing down in this area would be hard – too steep and dangerous. Wet rocks, you see. So Shala assumed that if Naver and Lars survived, they would also head downstream – there, riverbank was less steep and a lot more climbable. What Shala didn't know was that there was another climbable area upstream – that's exactly where Naver and Lars headed. Or, rather, that's where Lars carried an unconscious Naver.
"Dammit. This would have gone a whole lot faster if I hadn't crashed that hovercar. I'd already be at the Providence outpost, sipping Radicola with Alice. But I guess they probably would't have Radicola over there anyway. It's like a hard-ass military camp. Dammit. I'm never gonna get any unless I find Tetrax's ship. Dammit again. Dammit a hundred times!" – he was muttering to himself.
"I probably won't be able to find Naver and Lars here. This forest's too big, and I can't waste any time. Although I do wonder how the amnesiac is doing. Where the hell is that SACT outpost here anyway?" – Shala looked at the minimap his NanoCom. "No signal. Yeah. Figures. No time to look for it either."
He kept walking to the north until he noticed the sky getting ligher. "Oh hey." – Shala said to himself. "Sunrise."
"Fusion War Journal, entry 695. May 12th, 05:03 AM. On Huntor's Crest, heading towards the Fireswamps. As expected, Demongo already took off. Don't have a lot of info on his whereabouts, all I know is one of the Agents saw him head south. I think he's heading to that place in Forsaken… Asked around for this Shala as well. It seems that after meeting Demongo, he returned a rented hoverboard and took a Monkey Skyway Agent to Forsaken Valley. I find him, he might lead me to Demongo. Finding him should be easy, but there's something else that worries me. Comms are down. Something happened to the airship. So where will Shala be if not there? Need to find him. Time is running out."
Jay paused. "Today was the day it was supposed to happen. And yet, I'm still here. The whole island's still here. I don't know if the Darklands really were destroyed in the original timeline or not, but we, here, are still standing. That's a good sign. But, I suspect the airship's disappearance has something to do with the supposed destruction of the island. Comms are down, and either way, as far as I know this is also the day a massive attack was launched in the Wilds, so the mainland has its hands full to check up on us. For the time being, we are on our own."
Jay stopped talking into his NanoCom and looked around. He was sitting on a tree branch with his back against the trunk, so he had a wide view of the forest around him. He could see between the leaves that the sky was dark, but there was a light ahead of him. It was the fires from the Firepits. He tried to get up, but his body wouldn't give. He'd been following the tachyon signal for almost 30 hours now, uninterrupted, without any rest or sleep.
"Dammit. There's no way around it, I'll have to take a break. Well, least this way I won't collapse in the middle of a firefight."
Jay leaned back and looked up. Through the leaves, he could still see the night sky. The sky is always dark in Huntor's Crest, so Jay had no way of knowing it, but it was dawn.
Lars felt a metal, spoon-shaped object hit his forehead. "Cephapholo… cephalopho… celaphopho… alright, 'm up, I'm up."
"It's just me. You told me to wake you up at seven, right?" – Naver was standing over his head.
"Okay, heh. Alright, let's go. Just pick those two cans back up, I kinda don't want to, uh… pollute the nature if I can avoid it."
"At least you're not the one dumping green goo everywhere." – Naver laughed. "So, this Dinosaur Graveyard. Is it far?"
"Nah, not really. Should just be a couple hours from here, in… that direction" – he pointed towards the especially weird looking mutated tree – Naver realized that's the one he climbed last night. "We would have gone last night, but you were out cold. And also, wet. Well, let's get going."
After just a couple minutes of running, Naver realized that his wrist felt weird. Then he remembered. "Oh yeah, your NanoCom." – he said as he took it off and handed it to Lars.
"Right. Thanks. My wrist kinda felt empty without it. Hopefully when we're done with this whole "missing airship" business we can get you back on the mainland where you can enroll in the Academy. That's where you'll get your own. Who knows, maybe Dexter or someone else there will help you with your amnesia problem as well."
"Yeah, sure. The Academy" – Naver thought, but after all he heard about this war, he'd rather be safely evacuated to anywhere but the battleground.
Before they continued running west, Lars summoned another Nano. Not Numbuh Four, this time it was a purple monster. "Eduardo, that's an Imaginary Friend" – Naver thought to himself.
"Ed's power lets me track nearby monsters so we don't run into any" – Lars explained. "I can see them in my vicinity on the map on my NanoCom. Although, the map itself is not working very well right now, we can still see those monsters, like a radar".
Along the road, Naver noticed giant bones laying around from time to time. These were probably the fossils Lars mentioned. He also noticed that the forest slowly getting thinner. Suddenly, Lars stopped him.
"Stop. Radar says there are monsters ahead."
Naver looked ahead, but he couldn't see any monsters.
"The monsters aren't just on the ground, you know. Look up!"
Now Naver could see them - a bunch of flying monsters in the sky, flying closer and closer.
"I take it these are the Terrordactyls?"
"Worse. Horrordactyls." – Lars answered while drawing his gun. "Faster, more vicious. I've been tracking them all day yesterday, and believe me, they are not a pushover."
Naver was just standing there, looking up. The Horrordactyls bent their wings and dived towards them, descending quickly.
"What are you doing? Get ready!" – Lars shouted at Naver. "Oh, right" - He quickly drew his sword. "Ready" – he added, although he definitely wasn't feeling ready. Lars started shooting at the Horrordactyls, which were getting extremely close. Near to the ground, they spread their wings again and flew with full speed towards the guys. Naver took a step back, Lars shot it in the head before it got near enough and it exploded into green goop. However, the other two were quickly behind it.
"I need to reload!" – Lars shouted and dived behind a tree, but all Naver managed to do was stumble and fall on the ground. The monsters flew over him, so he somehow managed to get out unscathed. He got up as the monsters were getting ready for a second dive.
"What happened, dude?" – Lars asked.
"I don't know, I told you I'm new at this!"
"Then how did you manage to do all that last night?"
"I'll be ready this time, okay?"
The monsters were getting close again. Lars managed to kill another one, but only shot the wing off of the third remaining one. It fell on the ground beakfirst, then got up, shrugged, gave an unearthly screech and started running towards them on its massive two legs.
"These things don't give up, do they?" – Naver asked.
"Nope. And neither will you" – Lars answered as he took a couple steps back.
"What are you doing?!" – Naver shouted, as it was clear he was the Horrordactyl's target now.
"You're gonna have to face that thing on your own this time. You can do it, Naver, I've seen you do shit that I can't even do, you got this!"
Naver held his sword tighter. He looked at the incoming Horrordactyl in fear. When it would come near, he would swing it. That's it. He was gonna swing. Three, two…
But the Horrordactyl started flapping its remaining wing wildly and that immediately threw off whatever flimsy attack plan Naver would have had. He stumbled back as the monster attacked with the beak, and all Naver managed to do was press the flat side of the blade sideways against the monster's neck so it couldn't come any closer. The Horrordactyl was now trying to beak him, but its head couldn't reach, and Naver had no idea what to do. All he could do was avoid the wild head swings and beak attacks and stare the monster down face to face. They were in a stalemate, their strength evenly matched, so it was gonna take something else to defeat the monster. Naver had to think of something, anything, but just then, the monster exploded right in front of him. Fusion Matter splattered all over his face and clothes. It burned. Naver fell down facefirst onto the ground, into more green goo.
"Alright, that was enough" – Lars said and put his gun away. His watch absorbed all the Fusion Matter, and then he summoned Nano Numbuh Four to Naver's his burns.
"Dude, what the hell was that?" – Naver asked while getting up.
"I could ask you the same thing, you know."
"You totally left me defenseless back there with a vicious beast! I could have died!"
"Naver, come on. Vicious beast? It was a wingless fucking Hororrdactyl, that's practically just a giant turkey! It's about the safest training run you could ask for in the Darklands!"
"Yeah, but why the hell did I need to do a test run on my own?"
Lars wiped the sweat down from his face. "I saw how you fought last night. Doing flips, chopping up Triceraclopses. And now I saw how you stumbled and fell at the first sign of danger today. It's bloody obvious that you are not able to consistently utilize the, uh… for the lack of a better term, warrior within you."
"Dude, I told you earlier. I don't really know how I fought so well last time. My body worked on its own."
"Yeah, that's my point exactly. Obviously you used to be this… badass fighter before you lost your memory. We just need to find it in you again. Your courage, your fighting spirit. Whatever you wanna call it. You need to be able to fight like you did last night, fight like some sort of super ninja every single time you come across a monster. Else…"
Naver stared at him. "Or else what?" He thought it was gonna be something like, or else Naver would die and Lars wouldn't be able to live with it or something.
"Nevermind. Let's just go. But we'll have to do this again, until you can find your courage. Just… Just keep that in mind. Come on." – said Lars and kept on running. Naver reluctantly followed. He knew Lars was right, he knew that deep down, he was a fighter, but even despite that… the great expectations Lars had for him were scarier than any monster he'd come across so far.
After a bit of silence, Naver still felt uneasy.
"Yo, Naver" – Lars said, suddenly.
"Yeah?"
"I hope you don't think about me as an asshole or anything like that, I'm just trying to… break you in into this war. If I have your back all the time, then the first time you go into a battle alone… Or hell, maybe even before that happens… If you're not ready, you're just gonna die on me. And that's if you're lucky. If you're not, well…" – Lars' voice started cracking up. "If you're not, I'm gonna die on you. And you will never be able to face yourself after that because of your own guilt. So just…"
"Hey, man, I get it. I'll try to do better next time. And you are not an asshole either. An asshole would have left me in that river. You're the best friend I could meet in monster infested woods after an amnesia attack."
Lars smiled and raised his fist. Naver stared at it, with no idea what it meant. "Come on, dude, don't leave me hangin'. Don't tell me that you forgot about fist bumps?"
It immediately hit Naver. "Oh, right. Sorry, I totally blanked out." But before he raised the fist, he heard something.
"Hold that thought" – Naver said, as he drew the sword, a bit more surely this time. Lars got his gun out as well. A shadow flew over them – more Horrordactyls. But that wasn't all. They saw a couple of trees get toppled over in front of them – Naver thought it was more Triceraclopses, but it was actually Triceraclaws. And before the thought of turning back could even flash through his mind, he heard noises from behind as well – Frilled Fiends were blocking the way. They were surrounded. This was no mere monster encounter, this was a full-out ambush! So many monsters… Naver was terrified.
The creatures on the ground were slowly coming in closer. The Horrordactyls were flying overhead in circles. Somehow, it didn't seem that they were too eager to attack.
"Naver. Remember what I said earlier about finding the warrior within?"
"Yeah?"
"Just so you know, you can forget it if you want. I'm gonna distract the monsters, and when you see an opening, run as fast as you can."
"Yeah, b-but-"
"But if you decide to stay and fight, I think we might pull it off. Together. So, what will it be?"
Naver weighed his options. Obviously, he wanted to run and hide, but his body wasn't moving. Maybe it was frozen in fear, but Naver chose to believe that it was him actually deciding to fight.
"Alright, let's kick some alien monster dinosaur butt!" – Naver said, trying to convince himself that that sounded cooler than it did.
"Hmph. I knew you had it in you." – said Lars and summoned a new Nano - a blue cat. "Gumball Watterson" – Naver thought to himself. Lars got his Nano to attack one of the Triceraclaws, while he started shooting at another one. Naver was still stuck in place, unsure what he was supposed to do. Then it hit him – all he had to do was charge at the monsters and swing his blade. Swing it real good. He ran up to the Frilled Fiends, but instead of swinging he held it in front of him like a lance and just stabbed one of them as deep as he could. His first real kill! But instead of dissolving, the monster just started shrieking wildly, and now other Frilled Fiends were circling around him. Meanwhile, the Aerial Slicer, Naver's only weapon, was still stuck in the injured Frilled Fiend, which was now bleeding Fusion Matter and having a seizure on the ground. Naver grabbed it by the hilt and tried to pull it out. No use. This was it, the Frilled Fiends would now tear him to pieces, but… They weren't approaching? Before Naver had time to process this, one of the Horrodactyls swooped in, grabbed him by his shoulders with its legs and started flying up. Naver was still holding on to his sword, now with both hands, and the Frilled Fiend was still stuck on the sword, writhing and screeching uncontrollably. The Horrordactyl was barely strong enough to pull both of them up, so the sword (and the monster) were getting dragged along the ground. They broke the circle of all the other Frilled Fiends, who were now just standing by, watching. Slowly, the Horrordactyl was rising, and the Frilled Fiend finally got lifted off the ground. "It can't go on like this" – Naver thought. He tried to swing the sword. The sword and the monster barely moved. He tried again – it started slightly swinging left and right. With all his strength, he swung his sword and hit it against the nearest tree as he passed it. This finally did the trick – the Frilled Fiend finally died, started dissolving and the sword was free, but now the Horrordactyl was finally able to properly lift Naver up. Quickly, he swung the sword over his head and sliced the monster's head off. Nearly took his own head with it. The Horrordactyl started dissolving into Fusion Matter as well and Naver fell on the ground. "Alright, that was… something I'm gonna have to keep in mind NOT to do again. Ever." – Naver thought, as he picked his sword up and got ready to fend off (or at least try to) the remaining Frilled Fiends.
Meanwhile, Lars was barely surviving against the Triceraclaws. One tried ramming him – he had to roll to the side. Another one incoming, and he barely had enough time to recover. Definitely no time to shoot at them. He rolled to the side again. So far, Nano Gumball was doing all of the fighting for him.
"This definitely can't last like this. The Nano will get tired." – Lars thought. He jumped for a low hanging tree branch and climbed as quickly as he could. As one of the Triceraclaws ran towards it to knock it over, he jumped down on its back. A moment to catch his breath, even if it was on top of a rampaging behemoth. He shot at the other Triceraclaws from up there to get their attention, and it worked - they all charged towards the one Lars was riding. Quickly, before the moment of collision, Lars jumped from one monster to another, as the former got trampled and dissolved into goo. "One down, at least". He repeated this a couple of times successfully, but soon the monsters realized this wasn't working and took a different strategy – the others stayed back while the one Lars was riding charged towards a tree to knock him off. Lars had to quickly jump off its back and onto another tree branch, and used the moment while the Triceraclaw was stunned to finish it off with his Omega Outlaw gun. He looked around – there were three Triceraclaws left, but that wasn't the worst part. Now that it was clear Triceraclaws were getting nowhere, the Horrordactyls started swooping in. Lars was shooting at them, but every time a Triceraclaw on the ground rammed the tree, his aim was getting thrown off. And if he got off the tree, the Triceraclaws would trample him. And it kept going from bad to worse. From the top of the tree, he noticed that there were more monsters – bigger, badder, brutal-er, approaching them. They'd get here in a matter of minutes. Lars looked over to Naver – he was still struggling with the Frilled Fiends. "How was he able to pull off those moves yesterday when Shala and I were in danger? What was the… Wait, I get it! He saw us in danger! THAT'S IT! I'm gonna have to have him rescue me again." Lars looked around, saw where Naver was and where all the monsters were. "But what if he doesn't make it? Fuck. If he fails, I'm gonna die. I die and he's gonna blame himself for my death. He'll be pursued by his guilt. Like I am now." – Lars got so deep into his train of thought that for a moment he forgot he was on a tree branch getting rammed and clawed. A loud THUD, and the tree started falling over. Lars barely jumped off at the last second, but still landed badly. He summoned Nano Numbuh Four to heal himself, then back to Nano Gumball. He started firing at the Triceraclaws again, but his mind was still on Naver.
"If I die, I die. But he has to try. Unless he tries in a real, dangerous situation, he's never gonna be able to use his damn skills. And if I die... Naver will have to manage to get over it, he'll make it out stronger. So if I die… I die. At least this way, I'll be good for something…" – he thought. Now he had to throw himself in a dangerous situation. He decided, he had to do it. He threw his gun to his side and hung off of a tree branch. "This is suicide. This is suicide. This is suicide" – these words kept buzzing in his brain. "NAVER, HELP!" – he yelled. "This is suicide. This is suicide. And yet… I'm fine with it."
As soon as Naver saw Lars in danger, a rush of adrenaline came over him. Before he knew what he was doing, he changed his grip on the sword, straightened his stance and with a few swift slices he defeated one – two – three – four Frilled Fiends, then ran towards Lars. The Triceraclopses were ramming the tree Lars was hanging on, and the Horrordactyls tried to grab Naver by his shoulders again and fly with him. He was aready prepared for this – he dodged one, two, bent down and sliced the third in half, all of this while in motion towards Lars. THUD. The tree, with loud cracks and snaps, started falling over. This was the first time in his very short – as much as he remembered – life that Naver realized he might not make it. The tree was gonna fall on Lars, but he was still hanging on with a steel grip. Breaking the barriers of his physical capabilities, a burst of force rushed out of Naver's mind, holding the tree steady – it was working, the tree was held in place, tilted to its side, but then a Triceraclops rammed it again and whatever force Naver was using to hold the tree shattered and backfired. Naver's head, stunned, shook rapidly, while Lars got crushed under the tree. Naver fell down on his knees.
This was it. Not even 24 hours in and he already failed. Big time. He had a friend who was counting on him, and look how that turned out. He didn't care that now he was all alone. He didn't even care about the powers he'd just displayed. He failed his friend. And he couldn't imagine a single thing that could have made him feel worse.
End of Chapter 6.