A/N: And here I am again! A special thank you to TheFieceDietyMask for once again proofreading my fic and a general thank you to everyone who reviewed last chapter! I hope you all enjoy this next chappie!
Matt stood on an endless grassy plain. The sky was a deep blue with puffy, white clouds drifting lazily across it. The sun was bright, but a pleasant breeze kept him comfortably cool and he could hear birds chirping somewhere nearby; all-in-all it was a beautiful day. Suddenly, a giant roast chicken wielding a BBQ-rib club appeared out of nowhere directly in front of him and attacked him. Matt stabbed the monster with his trusty fork and the meat fell to the ground, perfectly plated. Matt grabbed a leg, opened his watering mouth and…
A sudden banging at the room door caused Matt to jolt into a standing position next to his bed, sword in hand. Lance, who was on his way to open the door with a very disgruntled scowl, ducked under a wild swing and tripped Matt, causing the half-awake swordsman to fall back on the bed.
"This had better be damn important; the sun isn't even up yet. And I swear if it's someone playing a prank, I'm gonna glass this inn…" Lance grumbled running a hand through his messy red hair. Yanking the door wide open, and assuming it was some stupid kid, the gunner snarled a very irate, "It is five in the freaking morning; what the Hell do-" He cut off in surprise at the sight of a distressed Natalie holding NoLegs tightly in her arms, standing on the other side, "…Natalie? Is this something that can't wait until later, because I'd really like to go back to sleep." He frowned when she shook her head, and stepped aside with a sigh to let the girl in. Lance waved her over to a chair in the corner of the room by the window, and collapsed face-first back onto the bed.
Matt had almost drifted back to sleep, half-listening to Lance tear into whoever was at the door, but rolled over to look when he heard Natalie was the one knocking. He blinked sleepily at the mage and mumbled, "Wassup, Natz?"
"Anna's gone," Natalie said quietly.
Matt's brow furrowed as his brain muzzily attempted to figure out what that meant, "Maybe she woke up early and went to get some breakfast?"
Lance's chimed in, his voice muffled from the pillow he had his face buried in, "I think you're confusing her with yourself, Matt." He rolled his face sideways, but kept his eyes closed, "Did you ask the night desk person downstairs if they had seen her?" He gave a drowsy amused snort when Matt, who was slipping back asleep, mumbled something about watching out for the rotisserie.
Natalie nodded, even if Lance wasn't looking at her, "I did, but only because NoLegs woke me up with a note from her. She thanked us for escorting her through the Crystal Caverns and said that she's going to head out on her own. The desk-lady told me she asked some questions about recent happenings around 4:30, gave her that note to pass on, and then immediately left."
A few seconds passed as the information sank in and then both Matt and Lance popped off their pillows to stare at Natalie in shock and say simultaneously: "She, what!?" The mage handed Lance the brief note Anna had given to NoLegs. The gunner scanned the front of the piece of then turned it over to look at the blank back before he passed it to Matt. The blonde held the paper upside down for a few seconds and stared at the inverted writing blankly until he realized what was wrong, and turned it over.
"It doesn't say where she's going is or why she left so early," Matt stated in puzzlement.
Lance stood up and began pulling on his new fur armor over the loose black tank and baggy pants he had worn to bed, "Stupid girl, I bet she thinks she's sparing us from getting hurt. Never mind that we already have plenty of experience saving the world and would be able to help her, or that if she runs into that stupid, glowing Catgod, she'll get killed."
"Godcat," Matt corrected absently while watching Lance. He wondered briefly why his friend was so worked up about Anna leaving. "Are you sure we should follow her? I mean, she wants to go by herself," he asked.
Natalie glanced between them, "We're going after her now?"
"So you're just going to let her go get hurt?" Lance spat at the swordsman. He focused on lacing up his fur-lined boots, before looking back up at them, "I'm going. You two are welcome to come along, if you want; if not, I'll catch up to you later."
Matt's blue eyes held Lance's red ones in silence for a few seconds before the swordsman grinned and declared, "Like I'm going to let you get all the loots without me!" and began pulling on his own armor at record speed before leading the way out of the room.
Natalie caught Lance's arm as he passed, "It isn't like you to get so worked up." The mage had an idea of what had caused it, though.
The gunner flushed lightly, but turned to hide it and muttered, "I just don't want any party injuries or deaths on my conscience." He then followed after Matt.
Natalie grinned, and fell into step behind him, "Lance? Conscience? I think I might faint from shock." Her grin widened at his typical response of: "Don't get used to it".
They descended the stairs to find Matt already shoveling the last of his plate of bacon, sausage, and toast from the breakfast buffet into his mouth. Natalie grabbed some food and wolfed it down while Lance went up to the counter to try and find out where Anna had gone. The gunner snagged a couple of pieces of toast on his way over to them. He raised an eyebrow at Matt, who was already halfway through his second helping of breakfast.
"Apparently, yesterday morning was when the Jewel was taken from here. A ton of tracks were found leading to a factory to the east, but they couldn't get past the door. I'm guessing that's where Anna's headed. The woman also told me that there are rumors that the last Wooly Mammoth has been spotted running around between here and the old factory. Not sure how true that is, since we're pretty far away from where we saw it on our way to Akron, but we should keep an eye out, just in case," Lance informed them in between bites of toast.
Awake, fed, and armed, the three friends left the inn and started east. The sun was just peaking over the evergreen trees surrounding Whitefall, painting the landscape a pale golden color. Fresh snow had fallen overnight and they could see a single track of footprints heading off in the same direction they were now heading. Anna had gotten a two hour head-start on them so they picked up the speed to a brisk walk and it wasn't long before they saw evidence that Anna was the owner of the tracks: a Giant Snow Slime lay dead with three arrows stuck in it. Ten minutes later, they found a cluster of white leaves scattered on top of the snow with a bunch of arrow scattered around them. Fifteen minutes after that, they heard the tell-tale trumpeting of a Wooly Mammoth.
No words were exchanged as the three friends broke into a run. They crested a large hill and saw a large building made of steel nestled in the valley below. The mammoth was stomping around in front of the structure, arrows snagged in its fur. Natalie saw a flicker of movement at one end of the building and pointed it out to the two guys. They watched as Anna clambered up a rope she had somehow gotten lodged in a ventilation fan that had frozen in the cold and slipped inside the factory. She pulled the rope in after her just as the mammoth slammed into the wall below.
"Peachy, not only did she run off this morning, but she ticked off a mammoth and left it for us to deal with," Lance grumbled to Matt.
His friend wasn't listening, "I bet mammoth tastes really good."
Natalie elbowed him in the side, "You just ate enough food to feed three people; how in the world are you still hungry enough to think about eating the last Wooly Mammoth?"
Lance waved a hand in front of Matt's face causing the swordsman to blink back to awareness. "He's Matt, what were you expecting?"
The mage sighed, "Well, we need to at least knock it out if we want figure out how to get into that factory." Suddenly her eyes brightened, "Wait, what if we do what we did last time?"
Lance caught onto what Natalie was saying, "You mean beat it up until it listens to us and have it open the way?" He nodded, "That might work, let's do it. Remember: fire's the best way to fight it."
They slid down the slope; Natalie immediately launched a fire ball spell at the creature's hind-legs. Lance and Matt spread out to either side of the mage as the animal squealed in pained surprise and whirled around to face the source of the magic. Lance fired a Flame Shot as the mammoth stampeded past him, causing the animal to stagger sideways right into the Fume Matt sent its way. The Mammoth turned to face Matt and its trunk lashed towards the swordsman. Matt brought his sword up to block and his arms trembled under the force of the trunk slamming into his guard. The mammoth's trunk wrapped around the swordsman and lifted him off the ground to fling him away.
Lance and Natalie winced as they watched Matt fly through the air, anticipating his crash. Luckily, his fall was broken by deep snow bank and the blond popped straight out again, charging back into the fight. He looked unharmed, but Natalie called over to be sure. Matt ignored the call and slashed at the mammoth with a wild light in his eyes. Lance and Natalie watched in awe as the swordsman rained blows down on the animal. With one final, vicious cry, the berserker slammed the mammoth and the animal swayed in place before toppling sideways to lie wounded on the ground. His two friends gaped at him as he stood panting over the fallen mammoth, blue eyes darting around for more foes to slay.
"Holy Hell, remind me not to get on his bad side ever again," Lance muttered to Natalie. The mage made a move to step forward, but froze when Matt whipped around at the noise to stare at her, his eyes still lit with a dangerous light. Lance stepped in front of her staring the swordsman down, "Calm down, Matt; the fight's over." He held the stare until the light faded and Matt sheathed his sword, smiling sheepishly.
Matt raised one hand to rub the back of his head, "Heh, sorry 'bout that, I guess I got a little carried away."
Natalie waved away the apology, "That was amazing! I've never seen you—or anyone, for that matter—take down a huge creature like that practically alone, before!"
Lance nodded in agreement, "It was impressive, and slightly terrifying. I've never seen you look like that before, either. You looked…" he paused, searching for the right word, "crazed, I suppose is the best word for it. Are you feeling okay?"
Matt shrugged and nodded, "I was really angry and felt stronger for a little while there, but it's passed now. Maybe it's an enchantment on the armor?"
Lance frowned, "Maybe, I never felt anything, but it could be a random-acting enchantment." He shrugged, "Whatever it was, you made mincemeat out of that mammoth, good work."
Natalie had wandered over to the wounded beast and was healing it. She backed away and made herself as non-threatening as possible when creature let out a snuffling sound and heaved itself upright. NoLegs bounced over from where he'd been sitting out of the way of the fight and made a series of meowing noises at the Mammoth. The large animal trumpeted once in response before turning to the factory door and began slamming its trunk against it. With each hit, the door bent inward until the hinges gave in, and with a low groaning sound the door collapsed inward with a loud bang. The mammoth then turned to Matt, trumpeted one last time, and disappeared in a shower of pale-blue sparkles.
"It looks like the mammoth has recognized your strength, Matt; you can summon him now!" Natalie told the stunned swordsman with a smile.
Lance chuckled, "That, or it's sick of getting beat up by him and has decided better friends than foes." He turned to the now-open factory, "Let's go find Anna."
The three stepped inside the ruined doorway to find that inside wasn't any warmer than outside. Matt grumbled under his breath about how next time, they were going to adventure someplace warm. Natalie sneezed in agreement. There were massive icicles hanging from the pipes on the ceiling and frost covered the walls, machinery, and parts of the floor and the adventurers' breath hung in clouds in the air. In the middle of one of the frosty patches was a short track of footprints leading down the hall, deeper into the factory. A pile of metal and still-sparking wires riddled with pale yellow arrows lay off to the side.
"Well Anna can't be too far ahead," Natalie sighed. "She seems to be doing okay on her own."
Lance knelt down to sift through the metal, "This is just a reconnaissance drone. She should have snuck past it, there's probably a whole troop of combat-ready 'bots after her now." As soon as he said that, an explosion echoed down the hall.
They're heads whipped around to at the noise. Lance leapt up and dashed down the hall, leaving Matt and Natalie to sprint after him. They caught up to the gunner just before he rounded a corner leading to a set of double doors; the loud retort of a rifle sounded from the other side of them followed by a scream of pain. Bursting through the doors, the three found themselves standing behind three cloaked figures in a massive room covered in large pipes. The figures turned at their sudden entrance revealing them to be robots. The robots' cloaks covered any weapons they might be wielding, but the one floating in the middle had an ammo cartridge wedged in its hat while the other two had miniature swords stuck through theirs. The Gunslinger had three sparking arrows stuck in its chest. Anna could be seen lying on the floor just past them; her Thor's Hammer still clutched in her hand. Matt, Natalie and Lance forced themselves to ignore her for the moment, and concentrated on their enemies.
Lance frowned, "I don't see any rifles, but I know I heard one. My money's on the one in the middle having one under that cloak. Natz, try some lightning. Matt, we'll keep their attention; see if you can't get onto the other side of them for a flank." He lowered an aiming visor over on eye and fired a Sniper Shot into the face of the Gunslinger. It tore through the robot causing it to twitch sporadically, but not go down.
Matt lunged forward with blinding speed straight through the three robots, throwing a few slashes on all of them as he passed. Bits of their cloaks were shredded off to drift to the ground only to incinerate as a Thunderbolt from Natali crackled down on one of the Swordslingers. There was a strange static sound as it collapsed to the floor in a sparking heap.
The remaining Swordslinger turned towards Matt and dashed forward to attempt to impale him on the large numbers of blades that appeared from its chest, forcing the concealing cloak out of the way. Matt leapt backwards with a yelp but had only sustained a few scraps on his off-arm. The Gunslinger's cloak pushed aside to allow a large gun to pop out, aimed at Natalie.
"Sniper-cannon, hit the deck, Natalie!" Lance shouted. He watched as the mage threw herself to the floor just as the gun fired. Natalie's hair tossed as the air was displaced just over her back by the bullet's passing and an explosion rocked the room from whatever had been hit instead.
Lance fired a Plasma Shot at the Gunslinger, finally taking the menace down. Matt ran the second Swordslinger through and a Holy Blade Dropped down, finishing the fight. There was no celebrating this time as Lance sprinted over to where Anna lay on the floor, ominously silent, with Natalie and Matt close behind him.
Dropping to his knees next to the prone ranger, Lance placed two fingers on Anna's neck, feeling for her pulse. Matt and Natalie watched tensely, waiting until Lance confirmed the ranger was still alive before releasing the breaths they hadn't been aware they were holding. Natalie raised her staff as Lance carefully rolled Anna onto her back to reveal a bloodied tear just above her hip in the fur armor she wore; her unconscious face was set in a grimace of pain. A few seconds later and the hole in the armor as well as the blood were gone.
Anna's face relaxed and she let out a quiet sigh of relief before her face twitched and her eyes flickered open. She stared blankly at the icicle-covered ceiling for a few seconds until her eyes filled with alarm and she shot into a sitting position looking around wildly for the robot that had shot her. Her alarm turned to confusion as she spotted the three robots that had attacked her in mangled heaps upon the floor. Anna's shoulders stiffened as she realized what must have happened and she finally turned reluctantly to the three who had come after her with a guilty look on her face. The other three watched her with varying expressions. Matt was grinning at her. Natalie smiled in relief that she was okay, albeit there was a gleam in her eyes that betrayed her annoyance at Anna's disappearing act. Lance looked ready to finish the job the robots had started.
"What the Hell were you thinking, running off without telling us?" Lance snarled, his red eyes narrowed to slits as he glared at her.
Anna flinched back involuntarily at the gunner's wrath. "I didn't want to get you guys involved any further in this hunt for the Jewels. It isn't your mess to clean up," Anna explained quietly.
"We would have told you right away if we didn't want anything more to do with your quest, Anna, and I doubt could have forced us. If this is about what happened in the Crystal Caverns, I already told you we don't blame you for that," Natalie said.
Anna looked away, "You guys could get hurt again. Godcat could have easily killed all of us in the Crystal Caverns, if she had wanted to. I've only known you guys for a few days, but you're already some of the best friends I've ever had; I don't want you to get hurt, or killed."
Lance's scowl deepened and he scoffed, "And so you thought you'd go retrieve the Jewels by yourself? You can't stop Her on your own; I don't think anyone can. As for us getting hurt or killed, what do you think will happen if Godcat decides to destroy humanity?"
Matt spoke up, "Let us help, Anna. You're a part of the team, now. We can get through this factory, and whatever else, if we work together." He grinned, "Besides, we already have plenty of experience in saving the world."
Natalie could see Anna's resolve wavering "Please? Otherwise, these two will drag me back to looting stores again." She ignored the indignant looks Matt and Lance sent her way, focusing instead on the smile forming on Anna's face.
"And we wouldn't want that." Anna chewed on her lip before she smiled up at them, "Okay, you guys win; we're in this together-no more running off." Lance stood and offered Anna a hand to help her up. She grasped it and was hauled onto her feet and steadied until her head-rush passed, before admitting, "I'm impressed you guys caught up so fast; I left super early, I thought that would be enough of a head-start."
Matt grinned, "NoLegs woke Natz up after stealing the note you left with the inn keeper and she came to get us immediately."
Natalie nodded, "He kept meowing outside the door until I got irritated enough to open it for him, that's when I saw the letter in his mouth." She glanced sideways at Lance with a mischievous smile tugging at the corners of her mouth, "Lance is the reason we left so quickly, though."
Anna blinked in surprise and turned to the blushing gunner, "Really? I thought for sure you'd be happy to see me go." Lance looked off to the side in embarrassment; his cheeks were a light pink, but he didn't say anything.
Natalie's grin widened, "Yup, he was all worked up and ready to charge out after you, with or without help. It was kinda sweet, actually."
Lance's blush deepened while Anna stared wide-eyed at him, "I was worried, that's all, okay? Besides, Matt's the one who so quickly took out the Mammoth you left for us to deal with." He scowled at Natalie, who continued to grin at him, "Anyway, don't we have a crazy god to stop? Let's cut the chatter and get moving." With that said he briskly walked to wait by the door to the next hall; Matt followed close behind him.
Anna turned to face Natalie with her own cheeks stained a light pink. "Did he really make that big of a deal out of me going off on my own?" She asked in wonder.
Natalie nodded, "I was actually rather surprised; Lance may spend half his free time looking at scantily clad women in magazines, but he's never bothered too much with any of the girls we've come across on our journey. He also doesn't usually care when people get into stupid situations of their own making, but he was in a huge rush to catch up to you." She smiled at the blushing Anna, "I dunno what it is about you, or what you did, but you've caught his eye. I don't know whether to say 'congrats' or wish you luck."
Anna stared past Natalie to where Lance was leaning against the wall and talking with Matt, his blush finally under control. She turned back to Natalie, "I've never had any guy seriously interested in me like that before; most of the one back in Greenwood were content to stay at home and farm or be lazy." Her face took on a slightly pleading look, "I need to think about all of this, let's focus on Godcat for now. Can you please not tease Lance anymore; it'll make things way too awkward for both of us."
Natalie blinked at the unsure look on Anna's face before nodding. The archer sighed in relief and jogged over to where Lance and Matt were waiting. Natalie smiled and though wistfully, "I wish Matt thought about me like Lance does about Anna." Sighing, she joined the other three and together they made their way deeper into the factory.
A/N: I had way too much fun writing the start of this chapter. Originally, it was just going to be Natalie pounding on the door, but then I thought of what their reactions to be, which led to thinking that Matt and Lance would be asleep, and, well, the end result was much funnier. The mammoth fight, while short, was a lot of fun to write. Now, they are in the factory, and Anna is not going to run off anymore. let me know what you all think of this chapter, and I'll see you all next time!