Rifting Realities chapter: Generals in the ravine. Type adventure.
Chapter warning: Guns, death, murder ,"racism", blood, etc.
In the middle of the species war 2 generals and their armies meet on the battlefield in the world of the eeveelutions. The eeveelution general, an umbreon, finds herself with the human general's rifle to her head and a revine behind her. One of the eeveelution troops tries to attack the human from behind, but in his panic he misses. The blast from the missed attack breaks off the rock both generals are standing on, causing them both to fall into the ravine and get knocked out upon hitting the ground.
Julius, the human general, wakes up first, but by the time he grabs his gun off the ground the umbreon, named Forna, is also awake. "Good job, dumbass, now we're stuck down here" Forna says. Julius retorts "it was your troop who broke the rock." "And you were the one who got us over to the ledge." Forna responds. "I should just kill you right now" "same here" the human and umbreon get in position ready to fight, but they are cut off by a young glaceon. "Hello you 2 welcome, would you like to join us, we would recommend it, if you want to live that is." The glaceon says drawing the 2's attention. "Join your what, your revine club." Julius tells the teen. "Look child, this is a serious situation, I'll get you out after this, but be quiet, leave it to the adults, and don't make threats you can't keep." Forna says not taking her eyes of Julius, The small glaceon begins to laugh catching both generals off guard, "you will both regret that decision, I can keep my threat."
As the glaceon says that, from the darkness behind him many creatures step out eeveelution and human, many with weapons and some licking their lips. "Sorry it had to end like this, but look on the bright side, your supplies and bodies will be put to good use after we kill you." the young glaceon says while smirking. "What is with this kid?" Julius says. "If I was you I would run before taking any time to think about that, there are too many to fight." Forna blurts out before using dark Tendrils to grab and throw on her bags, and calibrates her feral gun cock, before running as fast as she can. The group from the darkness moves forward, "Shit" Julius mumbled before grabbing his backpack, putting his rifle in and running as fast as possible away, avoiding bullets all the while.
After running a while Julius hides in a cave, the chasers missing him. Inside the cave he sees a light, grabbing his rifle as he walks towards it. When he makes it he and Forna, who is sitting near a fire, they see each other, their eyes meeting, anger in both. "YOU!" They yell Simultaneously. Forna sighs, "Look I don't have time to deal with you, as much I hate to say it if either of us wants to make it out of here alive we should call a truce, no matter who won our fight we'll end of injured, and that will make us easy targets for those rogues." Julius thinks about it, as much as he wants to kill this umbreon in front of him, he knows it will take more than 1 bullet from this distance, giving her a chance to retaliate, so she's right, fighting her will likely end up with them both dead. Sighing as well he says, "fine, truce." Forna walks up to Julius, she sits down and extends her paw out, "shake on it." Hesitantly Julius shakes the paw. "Good glad you humans are capable of being sensible." The 2 generals walk to the exit of the cave, hiding behind a rock as they see the group of chasers running back in the direction they started from. Forna speaks first, "my guess would be that their base is that way, as much as I wish I could get as far away as possible from you, I am not going back that way, and I don't think you are stupid enough to go that way eaither, and with how narrow this place is we will likely run into each other, hopefully your kind is honorable enough not to stab me in the back before our truce is over." Julius knows Forna is right, it's likely their base is that way, and he wasn't going to go to the place where everyone wants to rip him apart, so they couldn't really avoid each other much, and he didn't want to prove her right by breaking their truce.
Forna moves first, going in the other direction from where the group that went after them came and returned. Julius soon leaves the cave and walks in the same direction. Eventually Julius finds Forna near a large door and wall "can't open the door can you?" He tells her. "Oh you think you can? Go ahead." Forna said. Julius takes up the challenge, and after seeing that the door was definitely locked, he slams into the door, but it doesn't budge in the slightest. He tried to pull the knob before slamming in, still nothing. He looks to the side and sees Forna sitting on a rock looking smugly, "Can't open the door can you?" Forna Mockingly says to Julius. "I am going to try to pick the lock" Julius says, trying to ignore Forna's mocking. "Don't waste your time, I already tried, there are 2 locks and they have to be opened at the same time, so you can't do each separately." Forna says. Julius doesn't believe her, and tries to pick the lock, he isn't able to do so for the same reason Forna says, each time he works on 1 lock the other would relock. "I know you think I'm stupid, but I am not so stupid that I wouldn't think of lock picking." After a moment of silence Julius speaks up, "so you can lock pick right?" "Yes I can" Forna responds. "Alright if we want to progress we need to make it pass this door, and if we can both get one lock and there are 2 total, our best bet is to try picking one lock each, I would rather not help you through, but I don't see any other option." Julius asks Forna. Forna thinks for a minute, " I wish I could come up with a solution where I didn't need your help, but same here I don't really see much in the way of another option." Forna jumps off the rock and both walk up to the door and each take out their lock picks, each taking one of the locks, both having experience they quickly get through. The 2 are both slightly impressed by the other's lock picking skills, but neither would say it out loud. "I say we need to get moving in case the door is bugged, it's here for a reason." Forna says after opening the door. "Yeah it's likely those creeps made the door to trap those who fall here to limit their needed search area." Julius adds. "And if it's not that then it's probably something else not good, so I'm not going to stand here talking, I am going in, there has got to be some way out of this place." Forna says as she runs through the now open door. Julius says, "smart, not great to wait around here." As he as well goes through the doorway.
After walking a while Julius sees Forna having hit another block. This part of the revine goes high up, too high to jump and the slope makes it nearly completely impossible to climb. Forna tried to hook the top, but the edge was too brittle and the hook broke the rock off. "Can't make it up the cliff eh." Julius says. "Don't think you could either" Forna says in response. "Touché" Julius coincided. After a moment of silence Julius said, "So your kind is capable of jumping quite high right?" Julius asks Forna. "Most definitely, I could likely hop over your head with enough time to get the jump ready." Forna responds with pride in her voice. "But as it's over twice my height you can't just jump up right?" Julius asks. Forna says "yes I already tried, where are you going with this?" Julius looks around and spots a rock that could be used as a platform "think you would be strong enough to pull me up if you were up there?" Julius asks Forna. "I could, why?" Forna says. "You at least seem able to keep your word, if I help you jump up there will you pull me up?" Julius says. Forna thinks for a second "we likely don't have a lot of time and this seems like our fastest option, so why not let's do it." Julius is strong and lifted the rock above himself. Forna jumps off the wall onto the rock onto the other wall and onto the top of the cliff. "Alright now pull me up" Julius said. "Alright, alright, I am doing it." A dark tendril comes up right next to Forna and goes down low enough for Julius to grab onto it where Forna has the tendril pull Julius up. After being pulled up Julius asks Forna, "if you could pull me up with those tendrils of yours, why didn't you just pull yourself up with them?" Forna says in response, "Oh that? It's the same reason we charge our long range attacks near us, our powers drop off exponentially with distance. Though with technology that can be easily negated quite a lot." That last part was a half truth, the tech was there but not as effective as she said it was, she just wanted to include that incase Julius decided to share this to his bosses. Unknown to either of the generals, they are being watched. One of the residents of the revine had noticed the door being opened, and was following them waiting to strike after reporting their location.
The 2 generals find themselves in a short and thin area, then seemingly out of nowhere a Crystal covered clamp comes flying at Forna and locks onto her left paw, restricting her powers. Before Julius can even register what happened a different clamp sticks his neck to the nearby wall. A tailless vaporeon appears, being the one who threw the clamps. He quickly knocks Forna down and pins her under his front paws. "Well well well, look what we have here thought you could get away did you, yeah no, I am going to kill you both right here and now." Julius takes out his rifle, but he knows he likely couldn't kill the vaporeon in one shot, and he would likely only get one before retaliation, but Forna would be able to shoot point blank. Putting trust in their truce and hoping the eeveelutions had some way to shoot a human gun, threw his rifle to Forna. The vaporeon chuckles and says, "what are you going to do with that?" Unknown to the vaporeon, Forna has a device on her right paw that is meant to help her fire a gun, her feral gun cock. It's not designed for human guns however she is able to attach it just well enough to fire at the vaporeon, the bullet pierces the brain stem the vaporeon instantly paralised falling on top of Forna before she throws him off and wiping the blood off her.
"Thanks for that" Forna says. "Your welcome I guess, now can you get me down?" Julius responds. Forna says "I need your help with 1 more thing first…" before having a shaking tenderal hand Julius back his rifle. Julius is surprised at this, he wasn't expecting Forna to give him back his gun so quickly and willingly he asks, "what would stop me from just shooting you right now?" Forna responds with "because then you would be stuck up there" Julius says, " touché what is it you want me to do?" Forna holds up her left paw showing the Crystal containing clamp on it before saying, "shoot right here, and be damn sure you hit the clamp, then I will get you down." Julius nods pointing his gun right at where Forna holds up the clamp. Firing at the clamp breaking it enough for Forna to get it off. Forna then has tendrils break the clamp keeping Julius stuck to the wall. Julius falls down from the wall. "We should get going there could be more of them" Forna says before turning around and walking forward. Julius just nods and walks forward as well.
Eventually they come to a gap, Forna tries to cross but nearly falls into the gap as the rope bridge connecting the 2 sides partly collapses but Julius pulls her back . "I think I can fix this, it will take me a minute though, could you watch our back?" Julius says, "fine fine" before turning around and walking a little away. Julius sits down on a rock and starts to think about the situation, he hated those eeveelutions with a burning passion, thinking they were completely Irredeemable. He didn't really like Forna but he has to admit she wasn't as bad as he thought she was going to be, she at least seemed to have a level of honor. Was he wrong, were the eeveelutions just like him, imperfect but not inherently evil? Was Forna an exception, or part of the rule? If she was so much less evil then the average, why would she be so high in their military, maybe she's just so much better at commanding… but is it really just that? All of a sudden he hears the click of a gun behind him. He tries to grab his rifle but a jolteon that only has 1 ear steals it away. "Looking for this,'' the jolteon says after throwing the rifle to the side too far away for Julius to quickly grab it. Julius turns around seeing a human with a pistol standing behind him, he tries to fight the other human but with disruptive electric shots from the jolteon he gets overpowered, the other human now has his pistol to Julius's head. Now getting a good look at the other human Julius recognizes him, " YOU! you went AWOL one day, what are you doing here?" The former soldier says, "Yes I didn't want to, but one of those rifts brought me here, and I wasn't stupid enough to resist those in control here, I didn't want it to end like this, but you made your choice. Goodbye general" Julius closes his eyes waiting to be shot, but the pistol didn't fire, instead the former soldier collapsed, a dark spike having pierced his spinal cord and Forna standing behind where the former soldier once was. "There now we're even." Forna says. The one eared jolteon now outnumbered, and with Julius picking up the pistol runs away before he can be caught. Forna walks back to finish her work on the bridge.
Forna calls Julius back over from watch when she finishes. While the 2 walk over the bridge Julius asks Forna, "why didn't you just leave me to die?" Forna says, "oh that? We still have use for each other, and it was the honorable thing to do after that rifle save and to a lesser extent the gap save" The 2 make it over the gap and after walking for a while longer they find the revine getting thin. Forna says "looks like we will not be able to just walk out of here…" she sees a bunch of Rocky outcroppings on both sides of the ravine and looks up at Julius. She then says "remember the cliff, are you thinking what I am thinking?" Julius looking up says, "Your thinking of jumping aren't you, are you sure you want to do that, those are a lot of jumps, none being super easy, and those outcroppings are quite sharp." Forna says, "aww cute you care." Julius says, "NO, I mean, I was just pointing out the issues with that plan." Forna says, "Do you have a better idea?" Julius goes Silent for a second before sighing and saying, "no, not really." Forna says, "ok then, let's go." Before tightening her pack so it will not fall off. Julius picks up a large rock with a fairly flat top Forna than jumps from the wall to the rock Julius is holding onto one of the outcroppings. Forna jumps from outcropping to outcropping, but the jumps aren't easy and the outcroppings are often sharp, leading her to cut herself on some of them, the bleeding cuts causing pain that makes the later jumps harder. Some of the outcroppings were even brittle and break off when Forna jumps off of them, Julius has to steep out of the way of the falling rocks. After lots of jumps and effort Forna finally makes it out of the revine.
Back at the revine's bottom Julius, not having seen Forna after a while, thinks she just left him here. Julius mumbles to himself, "of course she would abandon me once she didn't need me, anym…" before Julius can even finish 2 metal spikes strike into the ground below him, a rope ladder attached. "Never mind then" Julius says while grabbing on and starting to climb the ladder. After a while of climbing Julius can see the surface even see Forna looking down, while getting excited about finally leaving this place, he feels a sharp slashing pain in his leg, looking down Julius sees the teen glaceon he meet at the start of this situation, a little blood on his paw. The glaceon screams at Julius, "OH NO YOU DON'T, I WILL NOT LET EITHER OF YOU GET OUT OF HERE ALIVE AFTER WHAT YOU HAVE DONE!" Julius says to himself, "how are you even climbing this?" As the glaceon climbs further into view Julius can see cyan tendrils helping the glaceon to climb despite his body shape. A little louder Julius says, "oh right I forgot all of you bastards have those things." Looking up again Julius sees Forna with a throwing knife, he thinks, "of course she would throw me under to save herself." With one of her tendrils Forna throws the knife, it flying right under Julius cutting off all of the bridge below him sending the glaceon falling back down into the ravine. Julius then finishes climbing out, surprised that Forna would go through the effort to help him, and slightly impressed by the effectiveness of her knife throw
The 2 generals now looking at each other for the first time outside the revine since they were trying to kill each other, are silent for a second before Forna breaks the silence saying, "ok we are out now, so as soon as we walk away from here our truce is over." Julius responds with, "right" before they both turn around and walk away from each other, looking back at each other one last time before leaving the other's sight. Both army's are currently unsure what to do, they don't know if the fall was survivable, or if it would be safe to do a rescue mission, both armies are excited to see their generals alive and order is quickly restored, it was fairly late though, so everyone on both sides settle in to rest and prepare.
The next day both armies meet one again. Julius and Forna at the front of each army, staring into the other's eyes. The generals look back at their troops, ready to kill, before looking back at the other army. They both then look at the battlefield, the ground being quite uneven, they both have enough experience to know that whoever makes the first push will be in a huge Disadvantageous position. Because of this and seeing the other general both are hesitant to call for a push. They both get an idea before grabbing their Communicators. They send in a message to their higher ups saying that they are in a Disadvantageous position and request retreat. With how experienced both are, their requests are granted. The armies both look confused as the retreat is called but follow behind their generals as they both turn around and walk away from each other.
The 2 each ask to be reassigned to civil duties, and their reassignment was accepted. The 2 were still dedicated to their world's cause, they put down any decent, disbanding protests seen as problematic, stopping riots by any means necessary, etc. but they can't forget what happened back in that revine, the actions of their fellow general make them subconsciously question the propaganda of their government. They push the idea to the back of their mind, but they can't get rid of it. If something changes in the war it may come back to the surface.