The group made their way into a clearing.
"So, you think this is it?" Fen asked.
"I can't see any better places for hiding eggs." Luke replied.
They stared up at a giant tree.
"Stop standing around," Zara interrupted. "Just staring at it isn't gonna get us back any quicker."
The others followed, not being able to think of a smart response.
"Can you spot any?" Fen asked as Luke used his binoculars.
"Yeah. There's a nest near the top. The real question is how do we get up there?"
They looked at the base of the tree, with no clear path leading upwards.
"The old-fashioned way, I guess." Fen walked up to it, trying to look for somewhere to grab onto.
Luke turned to Panzer.
"Yeah, sorry to say this when you came all the way out here, but I don't think you're going to be able to come with us up here."
The Barroth seemed dejected, but understood.
Fen had made some slow progress. Luke followed him, struggling slightly.
Something rapidly climbed past them. Both paused to see Zara, clinging onto Arachne's back.
"What's wrong with you two? Never climbed a tree before?"
Arachne continued to ascend as Zara retained her satisfied expression.
Before Luke could think of a response, Fen told him "Don't get mad. That'll be her victory."
The group slowly advanced. When they made their way high up enough, they finally found some solid ground to stand on.
Fen felt his back being stared as they walked.
"What is it?"
"Huh?" Luke stammered slightly "What's what?"
"You wanna ask something, right? It's pretty obvious."
"Seriously? Ok, fine. I was just wondering about your accelaxe. I've heard about them, but I've never seen one in action before."
"Oh, that's it? Then, here."
He took his weapon off his back and handed it over, much to Luke's shock.
"Wait, you're really just- is that ok?"
"It's not like I'm giving away, it's just a look. See, here's where you pull to accelerate, then it propels you from here-"
"Can't you do this some other time?" Zara asked.
"Don't be like that. You've got a pretty interesting weapon yourself, you should tell us how it works. What better place is there for education than twenty or thirty-something metres of the ground?"
"Now that I think about it, I really did never get to find out how that puppet works."
"I'm not really interested in explaining all the secrets of wirebug puppetry to you two, honestly. Now can we just get a move on?"
"Don't be like that."
She didn't bother responding, continuing on. Fen sighed and went to follow.
"We'll wrap up the lecture when we're back. Don't wanna keep such an impatient lady waiting."
Luke nodded.
They peered around a corner.
"Well, guess we found it."
They saw a nest on one of the branches, with a Rathian resting on top of it.
"So who's gonna go?" Zara asked.
"You're the lightest, why don't you?" Fen asked in response.
"If I wanted to be quiet, I'd have to leave Arachne behind. That means my puppet wouldn't be anywhere near me? Somehow, going up to a sleeping monster without any means of self-defence if it suddenly wakes up doesn't seem like the best idea to me."
"That's a surprisingly good point. Then…"
His eye turned to Luke.
"Yeah, fine. I kinda figured it was gonna end up like this from the start."
The gunner advanced with a pace that would attract the envy of snails everywhere. He crept through the nest, taking care not to stand on anything that looked like it would make too much noise.
Finally, part of the eggs appeared in his line of view. They were unfortunately directly below the Rathian's body. He looked over to the others for advice.
Zara just gave an apathetic shrug. Fen gave him a thumbs up. He glared back, before giving up and trying to reach it.
Calling it a struggle would have been an unbelievable understatement. He felt like he was struggling against the weight of the universe itself to safely get the egg away from the wyvern guarding over it.
But, with a slow effort, he made it. Luke yanked the egg free, lifting it above his head in joy. He then slowly opened his eyes once more, seeing the Rathian stare down at him, now awoken.
"I'm extremely sorry."
A roar shook the branch they stood on. Luke barely managed to avoid dropping the egg. As soon as he felt his senses return, he sprinted away at the top speed he could manage.
Fen launched himself between the two to interrupt the Rathian's attempt to bite him.
"Here, catch!"
"Don't throw it!" Zara yelled back.
Arachne went up to Luke, allowing Zara to take the egg off him. Luke then spun around and drew his gun, providing fire to cover Fen.
Fen swiftly retreated. The Rathian scanned her enemies, spotting the egg on Arachne's back. The group started to run.
"Why would you come over here?"
"Because there's no reason to fight her. You know, preservation of nature or whatever it was."
"But now you just led us over here, she's targeting Arachne now."
"Don't worry, she won't catch us."
The monster was catching up faster than the group could get away. Zara signalled irritation towards him.
"Got it, got it."
"We should probably provide a bit more of a distraction too." Luke suggested.
"Yeah." Zara leaned back. "Arachne, keep running. We'll catch up."
"Okay, on three." Luke reloaded. "One."
Fen tapped the accelerator. "Two."
Zara grabbed onto the strings connected to her puppet. "Three."
Zara hopped off Arachne's back and readied the puppet, pointing its blades towards the enemy. Luke halted his run, taking aim. Fen propelled himself into close-quarters.
"Let's dance for a bit."
The Rathian jumped off the ground and flew past them. The three of them froze up. Zara was the first to recover.
"Hey, I went through all this effort, you could at lea-"
She was interrupted by a fireball hurtling through the air towards where the three stood. It failed to directly hit any of them, but it destroyed where they were standing.
The trio went into a freefall, unable to grasp anything but air. The first thing that came to Luke's mind after processing his current state was the altitude. He immediately panicked.
With a yell, Fen swung his axe into the tree. He extended his arm, grabbing onto Luke, who grabbed onto Zara in turn.
All he did was slow their descent. Stopping completely with just the strength of his one arm alone was an impossibility. They needed something more. He wrapped his fingers around the accelerator.
The axe burst forward, dragging the group behind it. He grimaced, feeling like his limbs were about to be ripped off, but had no choice but to hold on.
They ascended once more, just barely escaping gravity's pull. But, they were unable to completely escape. Under the force of the axe slicing through it, part of the tree broke away.
"Damnit!"
Luke reached a point where he felt like he was about to pass out.
"Calm down already, you're being a pain." Zara told him.
"WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT ME TO DO!?"
"Watch."
She yanked at the strings she was still holding onto. The puppet split apart. Some strange, glowing insects emerged. The metal that was around them fell away, crashing down the side of the tree.
Zara swung the wires around, placing the wirebugs above them. Then she threw the wire to Fen.
"Pull us up!"
The three managed to get slightly further into the air using the wirebugs, but still fell short of the tree.
Arachne finally caught up. She climbed down the side of the tree, reaching just the right height for Fen to catch onto her. The others remained dangling in the air as she tried to climb back up.
They seemed to be at peace for a moment, until a greater threat was noticed. The Rathian glided towards them, eyes full of rage.
In desperation, Luke used the free hand from the arm Fen was holding onto to grab the first thing he could from his pouch. He lightly chucked it before checking what it was.
It barely moved into the air, but with the speed of the Rathian's descent, it was good enough. The flash bomb detonated.
The Rathian took the full brunt of it, becoming stunned and crashing into the tree. The rest felt pain in their eyes, but were able to bear with it.
Arachne finally reached flat ground again, allowing the rest to collapse to the ground.
"I really thought it was over." Luke sighed.
Fen looked over. "You've gotta warn us before you do stuff like throwing that."
"I didn't know it was coming either. Besides, none of that was planned. Like your axe thing and the wirebug thing… oh yeah."
Zara hadn't responded this entire time. She stared down emptily, with a strange smirk on her face.
"So it's over."
"Huh? What is?"
She looked back at Fen with unbelievable irritation.
"This expedition. For me, at least."
"You can just put it back together."
"That was a last resort. It's not meant to be repaired after that. Don't tell me to just get another one or to start using another weapon, I think those both have obvious enough answers."
Fen sighed.
"No, not really. I don't know anything about how that thing works, so they're not obvious to me."
Zara still seemed irritated, but her face softened slightly.
"Wirebug puppetry is a weird fighting style. You can tell that much at a glance. I doubt most blacksmiths would've even heard of it, even less would know how to build a puppet. So I'll have to leave here and head back home to get a new one."
"That's-" Luke wanted to say something, but had nothing to follow it up with.
"What? Wouldn't all of us going back be worse? I'm the only one who needs something like that, so I'm the only one who should suffer cause it's broken."
Fen rubbed his chin.
"What if we just made a new one?"
"Huh?"
"Don't go huh. I am this group's blacksmith, in case you forgot."
"But you've got no idea how they work."
"Yeah. But that doesn't mean I can't learn. Besides, I've got someone with plenty of experience right in front of me. So I figure I can pick up on it."
"I don't know how they work for sure."
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting it. But we can just fill in the gaps with some improvising until it works right."
"That seems very unlikely."
"I'm just a bit of a genius, it'll be no sweat."
"How humble."
"Anyway." He looked over to Luke "You wanna join in too? You look like you know at least a few things about building weapons."
"Heh? I mean, not really that much. I've looked into it a little, but it's still just-"
"Ok. So you in?"
"Y-yes."
Fen smiled.
"Then the best possible team for this is assembled. So are you gonna let us try? Or just give up without doing anything?"
Zara sighed.
"You're so creepy."
Fen shifted to a shocked expression as Zara got back on Arachne's back.
"So is that a no?"
"I never said that. Come on, let's go find the parts that fell off the tree already."
"So a yes?"
"Never said that either."
They made their way down the tree and scouted around the area to collect the scattered parts of the puppet, before heading back to the outpost.
Fen and Luke studied the insides with great curiosity.
"It's so much more complex than it looks on the outside."
"Yeah, you said it."
"What did you expect?" Zara asked the two of them "It's a weird weapon, it's not just going to be hollow on the inside."
"Yeah, I knew that." Luke replied "But this is just so much more."
Fen and Luke stared at the parts with a glint in their eyes.
"Usually the wirebugs enter here. When I pull the strings, they move around, which sets off various parts. Like when they hit these ones the blades activate. Oh, I think the button fell off when it hit the ground. But you get the idea."
"So the bugs are just trapped in there?" Luke asked "Seems kinda messed up."
"No, of course not. They'd starve. I usually let them out when I get back."
"Then how come you broke it when getting them out earlier?"
"Oh, I completely forgot! How silly of me, I just slipped up and destroyed my weapon when the choice was right there. What a klutz I am. For real." She paused. "It's normally locked to prevent them from floating out, undoing the locks takes a minute and you have to have it right next to you to do it. Happy now?"
"...You could've just answered it without all that at the start."
"You could've just not asked stupid questions."
"You really do have a thing for insects, huh?" Fen tried to interrupt this conversation before it got any worse. "Between Arachne and these two."
Before Zara could reply, Luke cut in.
"Temnocerans aren't insects. They're like arachnids, that's completely different."
"But they're kinda similar."
"No they're not."
"Okay." Fen smiled, while thinking "Why does he care so much about that?"
They continued studying it for a while longer.
"Ok, I think that's everything."
Luke had drawn out the design on paper.
"This is surprisingly good." Fen told him.
"It's not- I'm just drawing what's in front of me, it's not that big of a deal."
Zara sighed.
"So can you make it or not?"
Fen smirked.
"No."
The other two went silent.
Zara walked to the door and lightly slammed it behind her.
She turned as Fen opened it again.
"Wait, at least react in a funny way!"
"I don't really want to. Can I just get going or are you going to waste more of my time?"
"No, no. I can totally fix it, it's just we don't have the materials right now."
She stared at him for a solid moment, before her face turned to one of incredible irritation once more.
"Then start with that."
"But I had the perfect setup. I'd say no, then you'd both act shocked, then I'd reveal what I really meant, then it'd be a great relief. You know, a whole emotional rollercoaster."
"I don't want an emotional rollercoaster, I just want a weapon."
"I get that. I'll write up what we need."
Zara headed back inside after him.
As she returned, Luke was staring at the list. "So we mostly just need metal. That makes sense."
"Don't forget the pelts, though. Without those it'll probably fall apart."
"Hm. I think we can get most of this stuff if we just head west."
"Yeah, probably."
Fen picked up his accelaxe, heading for the door. Luke followed behind him, before turning around.
"Are you not coming too?"
"Huh?"
Fen leaned in. "It's your weapon, you should at least put some work in for it."
Luke then pushed him out of the way. "That's not the point."
"It's already been established that I can't do much without it. What would it add?"
"Better than being stuck here, right? Besides, it's mostly gathering."
She sighed.
"Let's go, then."
Wirebug puppetry will always inherently be an obsolete style. Compared to any conventional weapon, it's far too complicated and unwieldy.
There is only one advantage it offers. Those unable to use any conventional weapon can make use of it.
Those able to do otherwise will never choose it. There's no reason to when they can achieve the same results with far less effort. In total, the number of practitioners throughout the style's history most likely hasn't broken triple digits.
What drove those few?
An unrelenting, feverish desire to never give up. For the weak who wanted to defeat the strong, this was the only path.
Zara too found herself on that path. She felt nothing but envy. For all those who had everything.
Her reason for being a hunter was commonplace. She lost everything when she was young. Through some chance, she continued on regardless. She was unable to see anything else. The only thing that made her different was her lack of strength.
"I'm unable to even hold a sword, yet I can't be satisfied with a normal life. Funny, isn't it? I'm sure I'd find it laughable if I wasn't stuck living it. I hate the strong. I detest the gifted. I despise the people with all the ability in the world who let it all go to waste. But that's nothing more than my self-centred whining."
"For so long, I despaired. I accepted that there was nothing that I could do in this life. Until he showed me wirebug puppetry, telling me that he knew full well the feelings of frustration and powerlessness. I guess I owe more than anything to that man."
"That's what saved me, I suppose. My few hopes in this world are those wires connected to my fingers, and the monster which fights alongside me."
A few days passed, with multiple failed attempts. After having disappeared into his workshop for a few hours, Fen emerged with a grin on his face.
"Come on up."
Luke gasped, looking down at the puppet on the table.
"Don't act impressed when it hasn't been tested yet." Fen turned his head "I'll let you do the honours."
Zara nodded silently. She set it up in the same way as before, wearing her usual gloves. Everything seemed fine.
She stepped back and extended her fingers. The wirebugs moved, lifting the hunk of metal off the ground.
The group moved outside, giving her some more space. She went through all those motions she'd burnt into her own mind. It didn't feel identical. But it felt functional.
"For the longest time, I've been sure of that fact. I can't say that my views on the world have changed much now. If life experiences were so easy to shake off then they wouldn't be worth anything. I don't believe that my way of viewing the world has changed since I gained these strings, but I can't say with any certainty that it won't."
Fen got Luke's attention. "Look, she's totally smiling over it."
"I wasn't. Stop making shit up."
"Wait, I didn't see."
"Cause it didn't happen."
"You should've been quicker, these things are once in a lifetime. Now you're gonna die without seeing it."
"Oh, okay."
"Really, you didn't miss anything. Because nothing happened."
"Well, there's still something new you haven't seen yet. Maybe that'll get you to admit that you like it. Close both your hands."
"Uh, sure."
As she nonchalantly followed the instructions, the puppet dramatically transformed. A cannon emerged from the chest, firing instantly.
Zara and Luke's eyes widened in shock as it exploded a short distance away.
"Cool, right? When I was looking through the designs I just felt like it was missing some punch, so I threw that in. It can only store one cannonball at a time right now, but it's good as a trump card."
"It's it's…"
Zara took in a deep breath.
"Completely wrong! I thought it felt slower, I didn't think you put in something this stupid!"
"It's still a little cool." Luke muttered, going unheard.
"How can you call it stupid? Do you really think it'd be better to just leave it as it was? Open your mind up more."
"Yeah, that's exactly what I thought would be better. This isn't my style at all, don't just throw in whatever! Just take it out."
She continued to squabble with those strong she so hated for a while longer.
TO BE CONTINUED
This marks the end of the promised 13 chapters. Though chapter 14 isn't that far off from being done, but that'll probably be a few days.
It's worth noting that the scene where the puppet is done is the hardest I've fought in my life to not quote the rocky horror picture show, which is pretty messed up when I've never even watched that.
I don't think there's anything else to add. Chapters should be monthly from after the next one but who knows for sure?