The mystery continues (after a long delay I'm sorry D:). People are coming together and the suspense is building! As always, a huge thank you to my reviewers (you guys are fantastic) and to those who are following this story. All the love for you. And now on to the story-constructive crit is always welcome, and please enjoy~!
Time Until the End of the Earth: 4 Days, 19 Hours, 01 Minutes
Scowling, Numbuh Five shoved her way through a bunch of low hanging palm fronds, holding them aside as Zigzag followed, Iggy draped across his shoulder. The tech savvy recruit had regained a little of his senses while they traveled, now at least partially able to walk on his own. This allowed Grey to focus on keeping an eye out for any more fusion monsters, and gave Numbuh Five the freedom to spend more time consulting a map so as to keep them moving in the right direction. Iggy still didn't seem together enough to handle any technology, however, and, despite his occasional weak protest, Numbuh Five refused to allow him to touch the communicator.
Since the incident with the Triceraclaw, the team had been much quieter and, Numbuh Five was pleased to note, much more attentive to the environment around them.
So they had learned something in the Academy after all.
Although, Numbuh Five felt that it shouldn't take a fusion monster attack to actually get the recruits to use their training, something she planned on mentioning as soon as she was back at Sector V.
Numbuh Five's thoughts were interrupted by a startled sound from the back of their formation. The seasoned K.N.D. operative struggled to hold back a sigh, knowing the source of the sound without looking.
While glad to see her team showing a little more vigilance, Numbuh Five had soon realized that, for one of their number, more vigilant wasn't necessarily more alert to actual danger. As she turned her attention to the jungle, the jumpiness that Angel had previously focused on her commanding officer suddenly found a much wider world by which to be constantly startled.
"Angel," Numbuh Five whispered, at this point beyond even looking over her shoulder, "you need to learn the natural sounds of your environment. Branches falling out of old trees ain't the sign of an enemy approach."
"Y-yes, Numbuh Five," Angel mumbled. She then jumped again, head swiveling backwards and forwards, searching for the source of another unfamiliar sound.
"It's the river," Grey muttered. Angel blinked at the taller girl.
"…Oh," she breathed. She then blushed, ducking her head. Grey knows the jungle's sounds, she thought, a little bitterly.
"That's right," Numbuh Five said. For a moment Angel thought her commander was agreeing with her thoughts, until she realized she was simply commenting on what Grey had said. "Can you tell how far the river is from us?"
Silence followed her question, the coherent members of the team glancing at one another and shrugging vaguely. Numbuh Five didn't need to see them to know what they were doing. She grinned, shifting her grip on her weapon.
"'Bout fifty feet to our right," she said. "It's always good to know where rivers are—they're a good spot to put a base."
"So, if we're lost, we should follow the river," Angel said. "That way we'll reach a base?"
"Not necessarily," Numbuh Five said. "Enemies tend to think the same thing. Maybe not Fuse," she added, "but most. Stay close, like us, but not close enough to be seen."
"How do you know you're traveling far enough away to avoid being seen?" Zigzag asked, grunting as he shifted his teammate's weight. He then stumbled, struggling not to drop Iggy when the shorter boy lost his footing.
"Experience," Numbuh Five said, grabbing Iggy's arm and steadying him. He mumbled something that might have been a 'thanks' as he regained his unsteady feet. "But a good rule of thumb? Far enough back that you can't see the river, and then a bit more. That way the river's noise covers the sound of you fumblin' through the trees." She gave Zigzag and Iggy a pointed look. Numbuh Five was surprised to note that Zigzag actually seemed to be trying not to scowl at her.
"If you're too far away to see the river," Zigzag paused, adjusting his grip on Iggy's belt, "then how do you follow it?" Numbuh Five smiled, tapping her ear.
"You listen," she said. "The girls got it figured out."
Frowning, Zigzag strained his ears, struggling to pick up on the sound everyone else seemed to have noticed without him. At first there was nothing, only the incessant insect calls permeating the trees. But then, after a bit of focusing, he noticed the faint gurgling sound. Narrowing his eyes as he listened harder, he guessed he could see why Numbuh Five said it was coming from the right. How she knew how far it was, however, was more than beyond him.
"Found it?" Numbuh Five asked. She was smiling at him, having seen the way his expression changed when he caught the sound. Zigzag nodded slowly. "Good. Keep an eye on it, or ear, whatever. You'll know if we're getting' closer or further away cause it'll get louder or go quiet."
"Uh-huh," Zigzag breathed, still focused on the gurgling sound. Numbuh Five rolled her eyes at him, and silence fell once more as they continued moving, her recruits now actively listening for the jungle's sounds.
It was really just dumb luck that Zigzag was so focused on the river's noise, and that they hadn't been relying on smells to alert them.
"Pst," he hissed, coming to a stop. Numbuh Five turned to him, about to tell him off for not using the proper commands for signaling a halt, when something in his expression stopped her. His gaze was unfocused, head tilted to one side. He was listening, picking up something he'd deemed important enough to bring everyone to a stop.
Not that Numbuh Five put much weight in that.
"What is it?" Angel started to ask, but Zigzag cut her off with a hiss, holding up his hand for silence. He frowned and then looked up, meeting his commanding officer's gaze. The usually lax boy was now taught with energy, and Numbuh Five found herself wondering at the change in the lazy kid who she'd first been assigned.
"What do you hear?" she whispered. Concentration furrowed Zigzag's brow as he struggled to make sense of the signals his more alert senses were sending him.
"I…I think it's proof that you were right," he said slowly.
"About what?" she asked.
Even as the question left her lips, Numbuh Five got the sinking feeling she knew exactly what her recruit was going to say, and it was with a shaken expression that Zigzag answered her.
"About rivers," he said, "and the fact that the enemy tends to put their bases there too."
Wind whipped against the side of the DexLabs ship, tossing Juniper's hair about her face as she peered down at the blotch of green below that she was about to parachute into.
"Are you ready to jump?" one of the pilots asked. He had to shout to be heard over the wind.
"You're kidding, right?" Juniper shouted back. The technician at the computer beside the door grinned.
"When you joined the war, didn't you think this was what you were signing up for?"
"I didn't join, I was drafted," she barked, even as she bent her knees, preparing to spring. "I don't fight aliens!"
The last word trailed after her as she dove from the ship, the technician's laughter quickly fading into the roar of the wind.
A 'Whoohoo!' and a 'Yippee!' followed after her, letting her know Numbuhs Four and Three had jumped right behind her. They soon appeared beside her, Numbuh Three with her arms and legs spread wide, laughing like crazy, and Numbuh Four completely vertical as he tried to fall even faster.
"You're nuts!" Juniper shouted, the wind whipping the words away. Numbuh Four, hearing the words over his radio, just ginned.
Juniper was the first to pull her chute, Numbuh Three right behind her, leaving both girls to roll their eyes as Numbuh Four continued to let himself tumble. At the very last minute he too popped his chute, cheering self congratulations as he drifted to the ground ahead of his female teammates.
"Numbuh Four," Juniper said, pawing the communicator around her neck, "do you read me?"
"Loud and clear," Numbuh Four responded. "What's up?"
"I don't want us trying to land in those thick trees," she said, eyeing the unbroken carpeting of green below her feet. Searching for a moment, she eventually spotted a thin strip of blue-grey cutting through the jungle. "Do you see the river down there?"She rummaged in her pocket for a moment, producing a compass. "It's just…" she trailed off, staring at the compass, "east of you."
"Uh…yeah, I see it," Numbuh Four said, his parachute angling as he turned to spot the river.
"Good. Let's land there."
"In the river?" Numbuh Four asked. His parachute skewed to one side for a moment, presumably as the boy sent an incredulous look Juniper's way.
"Just aim for a soft spot." A crackle of static indicated Numbuh Four's sarcastic snort.
Radio silence fell after that, as the three man team placed all of their focus into the task at hand. A bit of tricky maneuvering lined Juniper up with her target, which was gaining distance on her with every second. Eyeing the river, she was pleased to note that it looked, at least from the sky, fairly smooth. At least she hadn't tried to drop her team into raging rapids.
Numbuh Four was the first to splash down, his chute spreading serenely across the surface as he vanished below. Aiming herself for the center of the river, where she hoped it would be the deepest, Juniper caught one final glance of her teammate—a blonde head, sputtering and complaining as it broke the surface—and then she was crashing through the water herself.
Warm water rushed over her as she tucked her arms and legs close, sinking rapidly through the water. Her plummet ended abruptly as her chute, spread wide across the surface, was reflected by the water's tension. Juniper knew it wouldn't stay up long though, and hurriedly began kicking for the surface.
She broke the surface with a gasp, hands pawing at the buckles of her harness. She slipped free of the tangle of ropes and straps just as her parachute began to sink below the water, the river's faint current beginning to carry it away. Kicking off in the other direction, so as not to tangle in the trailing lines, Juniper made her way towards the shore. She could already see Numbuh Four waiting there, wringing out the hood of his sweatshirt, while Numbuh Three was just finishing shedding her own jump gear.
"Well, that was fun," Numbuh Four said, grinning at Juniper as she clambered ashore.
"Sure," she said, shaking her hair out. "If you say so."
"I do say so," Numbuh Four responded, crossing his dripping arms over his equally damp chest.
"Mhmm," Juniper hummed, only half paying attention to the boy as she reached out hand to Numbuh Three, helping the younger girl out of the river.
"So," Numbuh Four drawled, shrugging his pack from his shoulder and beginning to paw through its contents, "what do we do now?"
"When did I become this team's leader?" Juniper asked, frowning at the boy. He tugged a damp wad of paper from his bag that looked to have once been a map, pulling a face as he eyed what was supposed to be a waterproof seem along the bottom of his pack.
"What?" he asked, looking up suddenly. Juniper stared at him for a long moment before simply shaking her head, her question answered.
"Never mind," she said, while Numbuh Three giggled into her sleeve covered hand. "Anyway," she continued, pulling out her compass once more. She frowned at the water splattered glass, rubbing it against her jeans to try and clear it. Her frown deepened when she realized she'd only smeared the glass even more. Squinting, she was just able to make out the little letters on the compass's face.
"Numbuh Five and her team were heading south, southwest when they made last contact," she explained as she angled the compass into position. "If we head that way, we should eventually reach them, since they're probably either already heading this way or still at the crash site."
"What if we don't meet them and they're not at the crash site?" Numbuh Four asked. Juniper raised an eyebrow.
"You know, you could at least pretend to have a positive attitude."
"I have a great attitude," Numbuh Four reported. He paused, then added, "And you didn't answer my question." Juniper sighed.
"How about we cross that bridge when we get there," she offered. "If we get there."
"Works for me," Numbuh Three announced.
With an accepting shrug and nod, Numbuh Four shouldered his pack, having rummaged out the Null-Void gun he'd been searching it for. Checking to make sure it hadn't suffered the same water-logged fate as his map, he used it to point in the direction he was assuming was south, southwest. "Onward team!" he commanded, before beginning to march off into the trees.
Juniper blinked, staring after Numbuh Four's retreating back. "Is he always like this?" she asked, glancing over to Numbuh Three.
"Oh yeah," Numbuh Three nodded, and then shrugged and began following after her teammate, leaving Juniper still standing at the riverbank. Her grin seemed an odd mix of naive and all knowing as she added, "You get used to it."
"So, you're just going to blindly follow him?" Juniper asked, not so easily convinced. Numbuh Three's response was a laugh and a dismissive wave of her sleeve.
"No, silly," she said. "I wouldn't follow him if I didn't know where he was going."
Unsure if Numbuh Three's words were a profound statement of teamwork or just simple air-headedness, Juniper chose to just not over think it at all as she followed after the two KND, letting them lead the way into the dense jungle ahead.
Two sets of eyes peered out through a thick spray of giant ferns, one pair blue, the other hidden in the shadow of a red cap. Together they watched in fascinated horror a flurry of activity that, according to all reports and previous recon missions, wasn't supposed to even exist.
Rising out of the ground right along the river's edge was a low building, all metal walls and dark windows, its roof an array of dishes, antennae, and radio towers. A massive satellite dish rose from the roof's center, towering over all of the other gizmos and turning in slow, constant circles.
On the ground Triceraclaws lumbered all about, their satellite dishes constantly spinning and twisting as the robotic dinosaurs searched the air for signals. Frilled, lizard like monsters, "Frilled Fiends," Numbuh Five hissed, loitered about near the trees. Their design made them ill-suited for combined sending and receiving of messages, so they simply hung back, hissing and snapping at one another as they waited for some unsuspecting intruder to wander into their territory.
This is seriously intense, Zigzag thought, just as one of the Frilled Fiends standing near to their location decided to stop putting up with the smaller dinosaur currently snapping at its heels.
With an angered roar, the Fiend launched its self at the smaller fusion, tackling it to the ground. The second fusion screeched in fury, flailing wildly at its opponent. When its kicking failed to dislodge the first fusion, the Fiend lunged for its attacker's frill. Metal sheets groaned, buckling under the fusion's strong bite and ripping teeth.
And then suddenly both fusions' eyes flashed green and they screamed in pain, quickly stumbling away from one another. They crouched against the tree line, groaning and pawing at their heads in distress.
A loud shriek from above jerked both KND operatives' attentions upwards as a Pterodactyl type fusion suddenly swooped into view. Its eyes glowed the same green color that had briefly overtaken the Frilled Fiends as it banked to the side, gliding towards where the two soldiers hid.
For a brief, terrifying moment, Zigzag was convinced they'd been spotted. His next immediate thought was to run far, fast, and now. Before he could even finish collecting the thought, Numbuh Five's hand appeared on his arm, steadying him.
And with perfect timing, as the fusion simply soared on past their hiding place, seemingly ignorant of the pair's existence. It passed over the two Frilled Fiends twice before settling among the nearby treetops.
It wasn't until the flying fusion had completely finished making its self comfortable and the Frilled Fiends had shuffled off that Numbuh Five gave Zigzag's arm a light squeeze. He jumped slightly, eyes wide as he looked at his commanding officer. Her shadowed expression revealed nothing of her own thoughts on the situation as she motioned with a jerk of her head that they retreat.
It wasn't until they'd put a significant distance between the enemy base and themselves that Numbuh Five let her commander's mask drop, a shaky breath escaping her as she slumped back against a damp tree trunk.
"What—" Zigzag swallowed hard, trying to collect his thoughts, "what the heck was that?"
"Some kind of fusion base," Numbuh Five stated matter-of-factly. "Looks like a communications hub."
"I thought this jungle was supposed to be free of fusions!" Zigzag cried.
"So did I," his commander snapped back. "We're not so stupid e'd bring recruits into serious fusion territory." She sighed, rubbing her forehead. "No fusions are supposed to be here. A fusion base sure as hell isn't supposed to be here."
"So…what do we do?" Numbuh Five raised an eyebrow.
"You got some kind of plan in case of emergency fusion base discovery?" she asked. "Because I don't."
This succeeded in tempering Zigzag's frightened annoyance, if not completely eliminating it. Silence followed Numbuh Five's words, Zigzag ruminating on what he'd seen.
The question was on his lips and out of his mouth before he'd realized he was asking it, and, for once, Abigail Lincoln was pleased to see her recruit was actually doing some real thinking.
"What happened to those fusion monsters," Zigzag blurted, "the ones that had been fighting?" Immediately he felt silly for asking—what was he expecting, that Numbuh Five was some kind of fusion monster encyclopedia—which was why he was so surprised when his commanding officer nodded appreciatively.
"A good soldier notes any weird behavior," she said. "Usually bad guys are just weird anyway, but you never know what's gonna be important. As for the fusions…" She shrugged, giving him an unsure look. "Who knows?"
While pleased by the compliment, Zigzag was slightly deflated by Numbuh Five's lack of all-knowingness. But she quickly derailed his thoughts when she suddenly straightened, commanding tone back in place as she snapped,
"All this sittin' around thinking ain't helping anyone right now. Let's get back to camp, we can be confused by whatever Lord Fuse thinks he's doing later."
Nodding, Zigzag started following Numbuh Five as she started back towards their little, make-shift camp. He allowed himself one final look back, unable to see the strange fusion base in the distance but still keenly aware of its existence.
Swallowing hard, he tugged on one of his grenade loaded sashes, unable to hold back the thought that, of all the things the Academy prepared young recruits for, this kind of crazy was something they somehow managed to miss.