Return of the Beast
Alaskan Wilderness, 6 am;
Out of no where the storm came, like the one that dropped Tina off only far stronger. The winds threatened to uproot trees and boulders, lightning bolts struck, and the storm spiraled, forming a funnel. A miniature tornado touched down and spun for a few minutes before it was lit up by a lightning bolt striking the ground within it. The storm, like the one that hit Nome, calmed instantly, the tornado disappearing. The dust from it quickly settled. The Outsider rose from the smoking crater created by the lightning strike and the twister. It looked over its surroundings. Snow and ice, it found this interesting but it wasn't completely unprepared for this, its hide was designed to protect it from far lower temperatures than this but if it was sleeping it could be plunged into a hibernation sleep since it was a reptile. It would have to create itself an area to sleep. That was a concern, self preservation, it was in the animal genetic code it was spawned from. It looked through the link and smiled. A small town full of people, easy pickings. Before it could think further, it was interrupted. It turned to see a grizzly rise from a nearby cave and roar. The storm must of awakened it, the Outsider didn't care much, this creature was not a target, if it attacked it would be a threat and then it would become a target. The Outsider stood its ground and waited to see what would happen. The bear charged at it, stopping in front of the Outsider. Once again, the genetic horror didn't move. Not even as the bear rose its claw to strike it. As the bear brought its claw down, only then did the Outsider react. Its left hand launched its hand up and caught the bear's claw easily. The Outsider's right metal claw extended and then it drove the weapon into the bear's skull, piercing skin and bone like tissue paper. The animal struck the ground dead. The Outsider looked at the blood on its claw before licking it off and retracting its weapons. This wasn't just a sadistic act, it had never encountered a bear before, it had to gain knowledge on this. It extended its claws and cut into the bear. Unlike the last victims, this was more like a dissection than just ripping its victim to shreds. It was learning about it, were the vitals were located for an easy kill, how powerful its muscles were, and anything else it could learn. It finished its dissection fifteen minutes later and heard footsteps, it smelled a human. It retreated into the darkness of the forest to watch.
A human hunter walked into its view in a couple minutes. He looked over the bear carcass. "What the-" the man was interrupted by a twig snapping behind him. He turned, his shotgun pointed in the direction of the noise. He heard another noise behind him and turned to look again, once again there was nothing. "Who is there? Show yourself!" He ordered. Suddenly, he was pulled to the ground and lifted upside down in front of the Outsider. The beast looked over the frightened man, its eyes locked on his gun. It identified it as an older model shot gun, not much of a threat. It roared and threw the man a good distance away. The man scrambled to his feet. He discharged his shot gun twice. The first shot struck the creature in the chest, doing nothing. The second shot struck it in the face, its head snapped backwards before it slowly brought its head back to focus on the hunter, then it simply cracked its neck and approached it prey. The man reloaded but the monster was in front of him too quickly. The Outsider's long tail whipped around and wrapped around the hunter's gun before pulling the gun from his grasp and throwing it away. The Outsider slammed its tail into the man, knocking him down a hill nearby. The man's head slammed into a rock on the way down and he rolled onto the ice covering a frozen lake. The Outsider approached its victim, extending its claws to finish the job. Its foot broke through the ice as it took the first step, it withdrew its foot quickly. One of the beast's weak points was its metal skeleton made it impossible for it to swim but it was forbidden from giving up prey. It looked for a few moments, calculating. It leapt over the ice and drove its claw into the man's chest before quickly jumping back to shore. The ice broke under the man and his body sank into the lake. The Outsider let out a victorious roar before it turned to the cave the bear came from, it would make a perfect lair, it had little time to waste, it had to sleep soon.
Nome, 6:30 am;
Tina shook Balto's shoulder, panic in her eyes. She felt the Outsider, it was there. She had one thing on her side, the sun was rising, the Outsider was nocturnal so it would have to sleep soon. "Please get up, we're in big trouble." said Tina.
Balto woke up and yawned, having no idea how grave the situation was. "What's up?" he asked before seeing how serious Tina was. "What's wrong?"
"You'll find out soon but you'll be wishing you hadn't.
It took them an hour to get Jenna and reach the spot of the Outsider's attack. Jenna looked at what was left of the bear in shock. A grizzly had nearly killed her and Balto so what on earth could do this? She felt sick, she' d barely ever been far from Nome except when she helped Balto on the serum run, she wasn't used to seeing death, to seeing blood and it made her feel like she was going to throw up. Balto was shocked at what happened to the bear but he wasn't sickened, he'd had to do a bit of scavenging before he saved Nome just to survive so he'd seen all manner of dead creatures. "Tina, no animal on earth could do this, not to a grizzly." said Jenna in some disbelief.
"Nothing was eaten, even if a predator could do this to a bear, it would of eaten something." said Balto, pointing out what he found odd.
"You're right, this thing is very selective about what it eats and no animal can do this but a monster on the other hand…" said Tina.
Balto would of laughed if Tina wasn't from the future and being so serious, there really was a monster out here. Then he remembered something Tina had said. "The Outsider, you said that earlier, is that what this thing is called?"
Tina chuckled. "Very observant, you're right, that is the monster's name." Tina looked through the link, the Outsider was sleeping, it was a very heavy sleeper. "I'll show you the creature, its asleep right now but you have to be quiet." Tina went into the cave before they could argue, they had to know whatever they could learn.
Jenna was scared, whatever killed the bear was very dangerous. Tina wanted them to see it, it must be important. Balto to was scared but he kept it hidden so not to make Jenna more frightened. They walked into a rather large chamber, a shaft of light illuminated the creature, it stood in a pool of hot water, sleeping with its arms crossed over its chest. The water came from a hole in the wall that was pouring it out. Jenna grimaced and got out of the cave, Balto couldn't blame her, the monster gave off a fearful feeling, Balto would of left as well if Tina wasn't taking it so seriously, she wanted at least one of them to get a good look at this thing. Then he realized another reason Jenna might of left. The water was from a hot spring so the room stank of sulfur and Balto also detected the stench of rotten meat, he couldn't tell from where. Jenna had already been feeling ill from seeing the bear, that smell couldn't of helped it. Balto put his paw over his nose, the smell made his eyes water. He looked at Tina, she barely even flinched, she was ether too serious to care about the smell or she was somehow used to it. Anyway he was glad when they got out of the cave. Jenna was sitting nearby, gagging. She was surprised she hadn't thrown up. "I'm sorry for leaving, I was already feeling sick and that smell, I've never smelled anything so awful." said Jenna.
"I know. Tina what was that thing?" asked Balto.
"Its not safe to tell you here, lets get back to town and I'll tell you there." said Tina as they turned back to town.
The three of them set in the boiler room. Tina made sure no one was around. "Ok, the creature you saw was created in 2008 by the US military. It's code name is OXCOM2 but it is commonly called the Outsider by humans. It is the second such monster to be given the code name OXCOM, thus the two." explained Tina.
"Wait, there's another one of those things in the future?" asked Balto, surprised.
"No, that creature was created in the 80s and there was at least one other, just called the Outsider. Some sources indicated as many as four such creatures were created, all destroyed after escaping and going on murderous rampages."
"Sorry I asked."
"You are lucky in that you live in a time of relative peace, in my time the US is at war on terrorists sects in another country. The war is becoming very costly in terms of human lives so the government was beginning to lose face. They needed soldiers that were effective, reliable, and most importantly, expendable. So my former owner General Damien, dug up the project from the 80s and updated it to create this monster. The Outsider is what's called a super soldier, it is powerful enough to take out entire squads of soldiers in seconds and it is almost invincible to firearms of any kind. Even if one is killed, they could just make ten more, making it expendable. The previous creatures were all linked to Golden Retrievers named Einstein who ended up helping slay the beast in the end."
"Where is this one's 'Einstein'?"
Tina put her head down, somewhat ashamed. "Lets just say they thought a husky would be less friendly than a Golden Retriever."
Balto and Jenna gasped. "You're linked to that thing?" asked Jenna, shocked.
"Yes but I didn't want to bring that monster here, I thought it might have been dead but it wasn't it was trapped in the time stream. In addition to the link, I was altered to be smarter than most humans."
Jenna was scared, not for herself but for her owner. She couldn't bring herself to ask but Balto could. "What will happen if it comes here?" he asked, pretty certain of the answer.
Tina sighed and looked grim. "I won't lie or sugarcoat this. If the Outsider reaches town, everyone will die. The Outsider has no remorse or mercy, it's a monster bent on murder. It doesn't see civilians or soldiers, it doesn't see men, women and children, it only see humans as targets that need to be exterminated. If it saw Rosy, it wouldn't see a little girl, it would see a target to be slaughtered"
Jenna almost cried at the thought of that, Rosy had been her friend her entire life. Balto could only think of one thing. "How do we stop it?" he asked.
"I likely wasn't completely blindsided by this. I thought it might return so I made two possible, though extremely dangerous and life threatening, plans. Both plans involve you Balto."
"Why Balto?" asked Jenna, concerned and confused.
"Simple, he is the only dog in town strong enough and knows the area well enough to do it, well there is Steele but he's probably not in the most helpful mood."
"She's right Jenna, alright, what are the plans?" asked Balto.
"Plan A, you guide me out into the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, the Outsider will follow and try to kill us, it has the advantage out there by the way, its programmed that way. Once out there, we find a way to freeze it and keep it frozen, if it keeps moving its fine in the cold but if it can't move it will become immobile, that's because it's a reptile."
"That's why it made its lair like that, to keep it warm."
"And plan B?" asked Jenna.
"We stand and fight. Not easy consider its strength is enormous and its main weapons are its nine inch metal claws, together it can use them to rip through a foot of solid metal like its tissue paper."
"But you said it was invincible." said Balto.
"No, I said almost invincible. Its hide is resistant to guns and heat but its not unbeatable. This is the prototype version, its not compete, it has weaknesses. I don't know them all but I know it can be destroyed. Both plans may result in our deaths but we need to think of the alternative, we do nothing and everyone you care about dies. I didn't want to drag you into this but there is no choice, I can't turn to anyone else. You don't have to choose now, it won't attack for three days, in three day a blizzard is supposed to hit it knows that from weather charts I looked up, it will use that for cover for its attack. Balto, I'd suggest you stay with Jenna and I'll stay close by, its safer for all of us if we're together."
"Alright, I'll think about it some." said Balto, he was confused. He could die ether way but if he did nothing, like Tina said, everyone would die. "Has it killed anyone here yet?"
Tina nodded grimly. "A hunter, I see its murders through the link. I've seen so many horrible things, things no one should ever see." Tina cried some, the things she'd seen troubled her deeply. Balto and Jenna put their paws on Tina's back in comforting gestures, they couldn't think of anything to say…
Well the Outsider is here and Balto, Jenna, and Tina have their paws full. See you next time!