My gods, you guys. This chapter kicked my ASS - spent upwards of sixteen hours working on it throughout the past week, if my math is to be trusted. I had the first section just about ready, but the fight scenes and transitions just weren't happening. Still, I'm pretty happy with the finished product! I hope you enjoy!
"You don't seem all that surprised by the existence of alien life." -Gwen notes, following the Troll named Blinkous closely.
"Ah! Well, Trollkind has had some form of contact or another with creatures beyond this world over the eons." -the Troll says. "In fact, one might argue that we are aliens, ourselves, at least in origin."
Gwen tilts her head, trying to ignore the glares and fearful glances the inhabitants of Trollmarket shoot her way. "How so?"
"Trolls are not native to Earth. Our ancestors were born to a world of perpetual twilight, free from solar tyranny - a perfect place for Trollkind to develop and thrive. Its name has been lost to the ages, but what is known is that it was not the same planet as Midgard - what humans call planet Earth."
"I thought Trolls came from the Darklands, though?" -Toby points out.
"Modern Trolls, yes." -Blinky agrees. "But Gunmar's dark, corrupted realm was our ancestors' second home - and a less than ideal one, at that. I know not what circumstances pushed our elder Trolls to seek refuge in the Darklands beneath Earth's mantle, but the sparsity of its resources is, indeed, what pushed our kind towards the surface - and regrettably, into conflict with ancient humans."
"They fought over food?" -Julie asks.
Claire winces. "They fought with the food."
Gwen shivers. "Yikes."
"Indeed." -he says, gravely. "But rest assured, my dear; our man-eating ways have long since faded into obscurity."
The group reaches a massive gate - wide enough to accommodate several Trolls, and seemingly tall enough to qualify as a skyscraper. There's a large button with an imprint of a hand next to it, which Blinkous presses.
"Ah, here we are! The Hero's Fo- " -he presents before he's suddenly interrupted by a large net seemingly made of purple energy, pinning him to the ground. The teens immediately take cover at either side of the Forge's gate, bringing their weapons to bear.
"You ok, Blinky?" -Toby asks, a worried look on his face.
"Just fine, Tobias!" -the Troll reassures him. "Rock is a rather poor conductor, no matter how magical - I hardly even feel the zap!"
There's few Trolls around the Forge, but those that can be found immediately shy away from the action, grumbling at the strange phenomenon. Gwen's eyes blaze violet, and she manifests a slightly concave shield ahead of her, leading the charge. To their credit, the Trollhunters fall in behind her and Julie without a word, their skill and experience immediately apparent. A hail of energy bolts pelts her protection, but it holds long enough for the group to enter the arena, where they find SixSix, perched upon a stone statue in the middle of the battleground, depicting the head of a very angry six-eyed Troll. Dozens of other statues surround the arena on at least half a dozen levels, except for the open area directly ahead, which leads to a vast, shadowed chasm.
"Bounty hunter! Step away from the Soothscryer." -Claire orders, brandishing her staff.
"Hmm. No, I don't think I will." -SixSix's translator hisses. "Drop the shield, and I'll grant you all a swift death."
"Hard pass." -Gwen says. "You're surrounded, trapped, and out of options. Surrender and we'll convince Hala not to execute you."
SixSix snickers. "The female I maimed seems...uninclined to grant me that same mercy, Anodite."
The redhead glances at Julie, whom very much seems to agree with the alien. "Besides, the Accuser wouldn't dare enact her so-called justice upon a member of the Hunter's Guild. I know Krabb still lives, the sentimental fool - we are far too useful for the Empire to incur our wrath."
Julie's robotic arm trembles. "Just shut up, already. I don't even want you dead, I want you gone. I'm so tired of you self-important jackasses." -she growls. "None of us asked for this crap."
"Truly, I feel for you." -SixSix says, synthesized voice dripping with sarcasm. "Best get used to it, human. As long as the Omnitrix remains on your mate's wrist, we will never stop hunting you."
"You're really not helping your chances here, dude." -Toby shakes his head. "Maybe they don't want to eighty-six you, but we've been smashing Trolls to bits for years, now. If anything, an alien bounty hunter is just good for our cred."
"Spare me the threats, human. The only one here I even have to bother with is the Anodite. The rest of you are nothing but marginally developed apes." -he says, disgusted. "Even the backwards creatures living down here seem to have better access to decent technology."
Claire frowns. "What are you talking about?"
The alien glances at the chasm that surrounds the arena. "I have yet to find it." -he admits. "But there are traces here of elements used only in the most powerful of modern weaponry - perhaps even the work of the lightfolk of Akiridion V. Something, I wager, that could prove very valuable to the right people."
SixSix laughs, raising his pistols again. "The Omnitrix, the traitorous Accuser, and now this? I'll be drowning in credits!"
Claire rolls her eyes, her staff becoming charged with dark energy. "Fascinating as this seems, I think we've heard about enough of it." -she says, then creates a portal beneath Toby, who appears above SixSix and brings the warhammer down on the bounty hunter, batting him aside with a resounding clang.
Sparks fly as the alien tumbles along the arena, only for him to sink his claws into rock, stabilizing into a squat position. SixSix grabs a few orbs from his utility belt, priming them and tossing them at the teens, but Claire swiftly creates a portal for the grenades to sink into, and deposits them right behind the bounty hunter, who barely manages to blast off far enough to survive the plasma bath, but can't evade another swing from Toby's massive weapon, forcing him to summon a small, buckler-type shield from the back of his gauntlet.
Locked in place, SixSix growls, using his free hand to tap a panel on his waist. Upon activation, two identical figures to SixSix spawn right beside him, grabbing onto Toby's shoulders and dragging him away with their thrusters. The bounty hunter turns to face the other teens, just in time for him to take a staff swipe from Claire the the side of his helmet, followed by a jab to his midsection, and a blast of dark power to the solar plexus, sending him careening once more. This time, he takes to the air, unleashing a barrage of small missiles from the blister-like compartments on his shoulders upon the whole arena with a defiant roar.
Claire's eyes become a dark purple, and black tears stream down her cheeks as she unleashes her magic, the shadows in the room congealing ahead of them and turning jagged, becoming a wave of blades that slices at the incoming firepower, rendering most of the missiles inert. Gwen covers up for the few she misses by forming a screen ahead of them, then taking a cue from Claire's performance to split the shield into blades, which she launches at SixSix. The alien gives the pink scythes a wide berth, coming to a stop by hanging onto the statue of an armored Troll, some three stories up. Toby finally manages to shrug off the doppelgangers thanks to Julie's intervention, but they swiftly join SixSix's side.
"I'm impressed." -SixSix grudgingly admits. "And annoyed. You're not my real quarries - you're only savages in my way. Thankfully, this arena seems to be equipped to deal with pests like you." -he says, sadistically. A sort of long, mounted rifle deploys over his right shoulder, and he shoots a single crimson bolt, which comically overshoots all of them.
Julie is about to tease the terrible shot, but Claire curses under her breath, and it doesn't take long to figure out why; the floor rumbles under their feet and parts, shifting to reveal massive mechanisms that transform the completely flat grounds into a tower of sorts, with the Soothscryer at its peak, and a vast array of moving platforms, gears, and sophisticated pulleys. Toby and Claire instantly get moving, hopping from platform to platform in an effort to keep safe, but Julie and Gwen have no such luck, desperately trying to cling to a single slab of stone - it's all they can do to avoid falling into and getting ground up into paste by the mechanism underneath.
"Alright." -Julie grudgingly admits, holding onto the shifting rock by her cybernetic hand, and onto Gwen with her regular one. "It might be time to call in the reinforcements."
Arcadia Oaks has never been on S.H.I.E.L.D.'s radar, and Phil Coulson can't, for the life of him, figure out why.
"You sure you're up to this, Phil?" -Maria Hill gently asks him. She's in the driver's seat of their unmarked government spook-mobile, having just pulled up to the designated rendezvous spot. They're surrounded on all sides by similarly anonymous vehicles, a little over half an hour into the hour-long process of setting up the prefab base in the outskirts of the tiny, southern California town.
Phil designed the procedure. He's very proud.
"You've asked." -he points out with a wry smile. "I'm good, Hill."
Hill purses her lips, rather uncharacteristically. "Y'know, Doctor Streiten recommended at least six months of leave. You've barely been away for a month."
Coulson gives her a half shrug. "I feel just fine. Whatever mojo S.H.I.E.L.D. worked on me worked wonders."
She offers a knowing smirk. "Yeah, well. Probably has nothing on a three week vacation to Tahiti, huh?"
"It's a magical place." -he agrees. "But I mean it, I'm good to go."
The pair exit the SUV, taking in the sight of the nearly completed outpost - people are already getting to work, surveying the area and checking for the first results of their equipment's scans.
"I guess you could do a lot worse than this place as a 'welcome back' mission. There's, what, a couple thousand people living here?"
"If that." -Coulson says. "You never know, though. Puente Antiguo was even tinier, and the Norse god of thunder crash-landed in there."
Hill nods, conceding the point. "At least there's no magic hammers so far."
"No, but the reports are concerning." -Coulson says. "Unexplained lights in the sky, earth-shaking explosions...and the ones from a few years back? Have you seen the pictures?"
"I try not to." -she says, sardonic. "Seen too many fakes in my career to even consider the latest Bigfoot knock-off."
"Same here, but…" -he trails off, staring at the datapad between his hands, which shows a very blurry image of a looming, dark shadow with multiple spike-like protrusions and glowing red eyes staring at the photographer. "My gut tells me there's something to it. It's not just pictures or minor earthquakes, either; people have gone missing, never to be seen again, and the wildlife around Arcadia is surprisingly sparse."
"This is Chupacabras territory." -Hill says, sarcastic.
An agent jogs up to them. "Sirs, you should see this." -he says. In his hands, he holds a clear, standard issue S.H.I.E.L.D. hazardous material container, within which can be found a shard of jagged, scarlet metal. "Some kind of debris. Eggheads say it's non-human in nature."
Phil grabs the container, staring closely at the metallic fragment, clearly bent and warped beyond specifications - likely from an explosion, judging by the carbon scoring along its edges - and then back at Hill, who already looks utterly annoyed by this development. "Sorry, Hill." -he says, only slightly smug. "But I don't think we're dealing with folklore this time."
Ben is about to tell Abigail just what he thinks of her plan to bench him, when he gets a bunch of text messages. He frowns, bringing up his phone, and blanches as the first one, a terribly blurry photo from Gwen of SixSix staring down at them from some kind of rocky perch, pops into view. Julie's barely visible too, apparently holding Gwen up as she takes the photo.
"What is it?" -Kevin asks.
Ben wordlessly shows them the photograph. Abigail scowls, Stuart whimpers at the sight of the bounty hunter, and Kevin's eyes widen. "Where?" -he asks.
"Doesn't say." -Ben mutters. "Her other texts say 'help', 'go here', and then one from an unknown number that's just an address - but it's for a house in the outskirts, close to the canal. It looks like Gwen and Julie are in a...cave of some kind."
"So, let's go."
Abigail scoffs. "With S.H.I.E.L.D. out there? You should be laying low, not gallivanting into trouble again."
"They need our help." -Ben says, simply, leaving no room for discussion. "If you can run interference with S.H.I.E.L.D., I'd appreciate it. Otherwise, we need to go."
She sighs. "I'll see what I can do, Ben." -she says. "But if you get caught, understand that my hands are tied. At least try not to let people see you in alien form, okay?"
Upgrade stares back at her after a flash of green light. "No promises." -they drone. They make a fist, which separates from their arm into a miniature Mechamorph. Upgrade looks at an awe-struck Stuart. "Take the extrusion, ask it to camouflage your van. The police will probably be looking for it."
They then turn to Kevin. "Come on. Let's go."
Kevin shakes his head, sprinting towards his car. Upgrade's form is large and unwieldy, but as soon as they get close to the vehicle, they're overcome with a need to fuse with it, their body becoming fluid-like and engulfing the vintage car. In an instant, they're aware of every single part that makes up the machine, down to the hex bolts, cables, and springs. Their fusion automatically works to improve every single aspect of the car's performance, far beyond what Earthly means could possibly achieve.
"Hop in." -they say over the speakers, opening a door for Kevin.
The black haired teen glowers at the nearly unrecognizable Dodge Challenger. "You better leave my car exactly as you found it, Tennyson." -he says, entering the upgraded automobile.
"Yeah, yeah." -Upgrade says, as they start hovering above Grandpa Max's house, enabling the active camouflage as they clear the treeline. "Hold on tight!"
Kevin barely has a chance to strap in before they blast off, covering dozens of feet per second - so even though they're pretty much on the other side of town, they make the whole trip in about five minutes, coming up to a stop in a little cul-de-sac neither of them have ever been to before. Upgrade drops the camo, then unfuses from the car and reforms in the passenger seat, transforming back to Ben with a flash of crimson light. The Omnitrix almost immediately chimes ready, since he barely used it.
"What are we supposed to do here?" -Kevin asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Not sure." -Ben mutters. "Mystery number didn't say."
"Probably should've asked before we left." -Kevin notes.
"Oh, shut up. You would've done the same." -Ben blushes.
He shrugs. "I'm here, aren't I? Let's knock, see what we've gotten into now."
The pair exit the vehicle. It's a nice place, a two story-house with a quaint little porch and a sizeable garage off to the left that's currently open, a recent-ish model black sedan sitting inside. Ben climbs the couple of steps up to the porch and knocks on the door.
"Coming!" -a woman's voice sounds from somewhere within. Ben and Kevin look at each other, frowning with confusion.
The door opens to an auburn-haired, forty-something year-old woman wearing a white doctor's coat and blue scrubs underneath. She looks tired, some heavy bruising from a very obvious, and worrisome lack of sleep framing the underside of her blue eyes. "Oh, hello." -she says, tilting her head, clearly not expecting them.
"Ben Tennyson." -he introduces himself.
"Kevin." -the other nods.
"Right. I'm Doctor Barbara Lake." -she says. "What can I do for you boys?"
Something about the doctor's name tickles the back of Ben's mind. It's probably just the fact that she's one of a handful of medical professionals in town - he must've read or heard about her in the news, sometime. Ben brings up his phone, and shows her the message from the unknown number, along with her address. "We were told to come here by this person. We don't know who it is, but we're pretty sure they're with my girlfriend and cousin, and that they're in danger."
Doctor Lake frowns, donning the glasses hanging from her neckline, and reading the message. Her expression darkens as she does. "Yeah, that sounds like Claire and Toby." -she sighs. "Come on in, I think I know what she wants from me."
The teens look at each other before they follow her in. The inside is fairly cozy, but also...unkempt, in a way. There's no, like, garbage on the floor, or anything, but it's pretty clear from the look of the place that Doctor Lake doesn't spend a whole lot of time at home. There's a living room immediately to their right, and some stairs up to the second floor to their left. Up ahead, Ben can see a small dining room and the door to a kitchen, as well as a door to the left that likely leads to the garage. Interestingly enough, there's some furniture missing - like, for example, a center table in the living room, as well as the railing on the stairs - and it looks like someone's patched up - however poorly, Max would never approve - some damage to the walls of the hallway running through the house.
It almost looks like a fight happened here.
"Please don't mind the dust." -she says, somewhat absent-minded. "I'm not home much, what with the hospital and everything."
Ben feels immediate concern - the woman's voice sounds hollow, like she's not all there. "It's alright. I live by myself, and I'm, uh...not the most dutiful housekeeper."
She offers a small smile, then leads them into the kitchen. A bunch of plates sit, unwashed, in the sink, bits of dried up food stuck to them. There's more than a few takeout boxes, too - Doctor Lake doesn't seem like much of a cook. She dives into the pantry, searching for something in the lowers shelves. "So...how old are you, Ben?"
He purses his lips. "Um, fifteen."
She turns, and gives him an appraising look. "And you're not with Claire? Y'know...a Trollhunter?" -she asks, all but hissing.
Kevin snorts. "A what?"
"A Trollhunter." -she repeats, nonchalant, like she's talking about the weather. "Y'know, battling monsters by night, keeping a double life from your parents, that kind of thing."
Ben blinks. "I...I've never heard of any Trollhunters, sorry."
She looks like she doesn't buy it. "Okay. But you do have some sort of extracurriculars, don't you?" -she presses.
"Why do you ask?" -Kevin crosses his arms, suspicious.
"Because you remind me of my son, Jim." -she says, sadly. "And of his friends, too. You all have this...look, I guess. Some kind of gleam in your eye - a level of determination no teenager should have." -she explains. "I didn't realize what it was back then, but it seems incredibly obvious to me now."
From the tone of her voice, Ben fears the worst. "Is he...?"
She shakes her head, vehemently. "No. Not yet, I'm sure of it. My son, he's always been strong, and...well, I like to think I'd know, if that happened. But he can't come back from where he's at. I don't understand it, but he's trapped, somehow - has been for the past three years."
Somehow, she doesn't start crying - Ben knows he would, if they swapped places. "I'm so sorry." -he says. "Maybe we can help, somehow?"
"That's sweet of you, but it doesn't work like that. Like I said, most of it goes over my head, but I do know that something is keeping him prisoner where he is. We can't help from the outside, we can only wait and hope he frees himself." -she says, pained. "Believe me, I've asked, multiple times."
Barbara shakes her head. "I know Jim will be back soon. I've made my peace with the wait." -she says, though Ben hears the slightest bit of doubt in her voice. "But I still wish he'd said something at the time. Maybe I could've helped. And hell, even if I made things worse, at least I'd know what was going on."
She looks at Ben. "Do your parents know?"
They don't, of course, but they're never around for him to have even considered telling them - and besides, Max has taken over those duties for a very long time. "Kind of." -he settles on. He figures Max probably knows he's got the Omnitrix, if all these bounty hunters do.
Barbara evaluates his expression for a moment, before nodding approvingly. "Claire most likely sent you for this." -she says, pulling out what looks like a big, dark orange gemstone attached to a metal hilt of sorts. There's a note taped to the side, which reads 'in case you wanna visit'. "It's a Horngazel. A key to Trollmarket."
"What's that?"
She sighs. "Some kind of city under Arcadia, where Trolls live. You'll probably find your friends there. I'd explain how to get in, but...well, I never could bring myself to read that note." -she says.
Ben grabs the object, which is strangely warm to the touch. He unfurls the note, which has a rough but fairly simply description of how to operate the key. "Got it." -he says, then pops up the dial on the Omnitrix. "You, uh…might wanna sit down for this one." -he advises.
Barbara stands her ground, simply raising an eyebrow. Ben shrugs, turns the dial, and presses down on it. A flash of emerald light later, XLR8 stands tall in Doctor Lake's kitchen, hissing out his name. Barbara's eyes widen at the alien creature in their midst, but to her credit, her footing never wavers.
He hands over the Horngazel to Kevin. "This is gonna be a rough one." -he warns him. "You're gonna want to hang on tight."
Kevin stammers. "Wait, what? What about my- " -he manages to say, before XLR8 grabs his lower back, and the back of his head, and books it towards the canal.
It takes almost two seconds.
Kevin looks like he's just gone on every rollercoaster on Earth, simultaneously. "...car." -he gasps out, dropping to all fours. The Horngazel rolls to XLR8's feet, and he picks it up between his claws.
"Sorry, Kev." -he says, mostly unapologetic. "Fastest way to get here."
Kevin just flips him off, still gasping as he shakily rises to his feet.
XLR8 immediately draws the arc into the slanted side of the canal, and presses a claw into the center of the half oval. Blue cracks appear all over, breaking the stone into chunks that get subsequently absorbed by a brief vortex that turns into a passage into the underground tunnel. Cyan crystal steps go down in a spiral as far as they can see. "Ready for round two?" -he teases.
Kevin shoves him aside. "I'll take the stairs, jackass."
XLR8 chuckles. "Have it your way." -he says, then darts past Kevin, down into this 'Trollmarket'.
Kevin shakes his head, chagrined. "Have it your way', he says. 'Fastest way to get here', he says. Can't even top sixty in the car or he'll puke his guts out, and now this? I swear, the minute Gwen's safe, I'm kicking his ass."
He grumbles further as he jogs down into the tunnel, the entrance sealing behind him, as if it had never been there.
"Interesting." -Coulson says, looking through binoculars as the portal under the bridge seals back up. "Just where are you off to, kids?"
As always, thank you for your attention! Make sure to comment or message me if you have any questions about this story. Look me up on Twitter as Darthkvzn or Tumblr as darthkvznblogs if you'd like - and on Ko-fi, as Darthkvzn, if you like what I do and have a coffee's worth of money to spare. I also started a sort of show on Tumblr called Darth's Book Club, a lil' somethin' in which I talk about media I love in the span of a whole Tumblr post. Currently talking about every RWBY episode, from beginning to end. It's fun, come read!
Some fun references to be found in this chapter! I based Claire's shadow blades on Pride's MO from Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, which I just watched for the first time a month or so ago. SixSix's gear is detecting the Akiridion vault, down in The Deep - not that he'd ever find it, should he choose to look for it. And obviously, some cool nods to Agents of SHIELD continuity, when it comes to Phil's resurrection. The timetable on it is actually completely wrong here - he spends months recuperating in canon, not just 3 weeks or so - but I just...really love Coulson, you guys. He *had* to be here for this.
Getting down to the wire with this story! I calculate 3 - 5 chapters left in total. We'll see how carried away I get. Hope you enjoyed!
Until next time!