Chapter 65: Small But Aggressive

***Monolith***

I think I’ve changed my tune on potatoes. They are a truly blessed plant, Monolith thought as he devoured a plate of mashed potatoes and gravy.

Farmers hadn’t had quite enough time to harvest all their crops before packing everything up and hiding inside the city walls for high tide, and Monolith had been able to find half a field of potato plants and dig a couple up, boil them up and make gravy out of a powder mix.

Home-cooking out in the sticks.

As he ate, he stared out the farmstead’s window, eyeballing the distant shimmer that was Franklin City. miles and miles of forest and farmland separated him from his empire.

Somebody’s gonna die when I get back.

A very quiet part of Monolith knew his empire would be crumbling while he was gone, but the louder, angrier part of him ignored it.

He had a cracked bruise on the front of his glassy chest in the shape of a heart. Where that brat had marked him.

Monolith couldn’t exactly go after the kid with intent to kill, without Solaris turning him into ash, or Hexen, for that matter…but Monolith wasn’t gonna sit down and take it.

He was gonna get back and make that kid’s life a living hell…just as soon as he dealt with Breaker for letting him get away, and Locust for being a thorn in his side, and Barrel of Monkeys for letting him get thrown outside the city…

Monolith sat and stewed, chewing on his ever-expanding list of grudges, both real and imagined.

RRR

“Eh?”

A massive snout ruptured through the floorboards underneath Monolith’s feet, seizing his ankle and dragging him underground, the half-eaten bowl of mashed potatoes flinging out of his hands.

“You mother-“

***Perry***

New Quest!

Make it to Washington City Alive!

Rewards: 0-1500XP depending on condition of Train, Companions, and Self.

Failure: Death

“Hey, you can see my grampa’s farm from here,” Perry said, pointing out the stretch of land from their seat in the cafeteria as they ate breakfast.

The walls of the cafeteria had massive screens that were connected to outside cameras, allowing the people inside to observe nature from a safe distance as the train slowly devoured the distance between them and Washington City.

“Your grampa’s a farmer?” Natalie asked.

“Yeah, mostly soybeans and potatoes. I spent a lot of summers over there covered in mud and engine grease, having my grampa sass me with anachronisms dating back to world war two.”

“I thought you were a prince?”

“On the other side of my family yeah,” Perry said before pointing at the potato fields. “On that side of my family, I’m a potato goblin.”

Heather chuckled between spoonfuls of leek soup.

“I can kinda see why High tide causes an instant rise in the price of food,” Natalie said, surveying the fields of abandoned crops.

maybe 15% of crops had to be abandoned simply because they didn’t have enough time or the crops weren’t ripe and it was far too dangerous to hang around while monsters savaged the countryside.

“Aren’t those big guns to keep the farms safe during High Tide?” Natalie asked, pointing out the massive autoturrets that glittered above most of the farms.

“Nah, those are there to dissuade the local wildlife from getting too nosy around the crops during the regular season. There’s just too many monsters running around during High Tide. It’s a matter of quantity. There’s just too many of them. One of them will get through and then you’re a snack.”

“Megadeer!” Natalie exclaimed, pointing to an elk-like creature the size of a house plodding along through a field, nibbling at corn, giving the train a brief glance before it returned to its business.

It was a species long dead, resurrected and changed by the crazy, mixed up world they lived in. Perry didn’t know whether a normal deer mutated into the massive creature, or some mad scientist decided to bring the Irish Elk back from extinction and then make them even bigger, but there they were.

There was a flicker of motion to the left, and Perry glanced over in time to spot a lid made of compacted dirt laced with webbing fly away to reveal a spider about four stories tall, and brilliant shades of blue, yellow, teal, and magenta…

“Huh, it’s a Brazillian Jewel trapdoor spider.”

Shouldn’t that be in Brazil?

The creature reared forward and sunk its fangs into the car ahead of them, but Perry didn’t have time to process that, as a shout from behind them made him spin in his seat.

The other side of the train had a massive spider abdomen pressed up against it, directly outside their car.

For a breathless moment, nothing changed, but then the ceiling began to bulge, like a water leak only held back by a thick layer of paint.

“Move, Perry said, picking up Nat and putting her on the table.

An instant later the bubble burst, revealing acrid smelling venom that cascaded down unto an unlucky table of capes, pasting them before spreading across the floor, hissing and bubbling as it consumed organic and inorganic substances at the same time.

Acids weren’t supposed to do that, but the monster hadn’t gotten the memo.

Several capes sustained heavy damage to their feet before others copied Perry and got on top of the tables.

“Plug it!” Perry shouted, pointing at the ceiling.

A cape with blue hyperweave with a white bolt on the front grunted and sent a powerful arc of lightning up into the dark hole in the ceiling, the light revealing the two man-sized fangs wiggling as they disgorged more acidic venom.

The spider reared back in pain, while another super with an iron cube on their hyperweave patched the hole in the ceiling by manifesting an organic-looking segment of raw iron.

“You ever play the floor is lava?!” Perry shouted over the sirens, glancing at the hissing and bubbling floor beneath them. The table was slowly sinking into the ground.

“I am the queen of the floor is lava,” Heather said, stretching up to grab the ceiling before lowering down and taking Nat off his hands.

“Who needs a ride to the exit?” A flying cape asked, swinging by Perry.

Perry shook his head and motioned for the flier to help others trapped on their own little island of safety.

The iron woman was making temporary bridges from place to place, allowing other supers to safely move between tables. She was on the other side of the room from Perry, dealing with her own problems, and not a viable method of escape.

One guy was carrying an industrial sized pot of potato and leek soup, still steaming. It was clutched in a single oversized fist, bigger than a man. Fister, I think his name was.

Gotta have priorities, ya know? Perry thought, making a running leap to the next table. Perry sailed through the air with precision and grace. The table, on the other hand, had other plans.

The front legs snapped off, dropping Perry onto his back and creating a slide into the bubbling goo.

Perry whipped his hand behind him and caught the edge of the table before he was dumped into the spider venom.

“You okay!?” Heather asked as Nat stifled a cry of fear.

“Oh yeah, this is completely under control,” Perry lied, his muscles protesting where his arm was trying to pull itself out of its socket.

He fished around in his pocket and pulled out one of his temporary tattoos of Bargand’s Favor.

Perry licked the back and slapped the temporary tattoo down under his shirt.

Suddenly, Perry wasn’t terrified. He was pissed. The adrenaline redoubled, and it erred towards fight.

“Gah!” Perry planted both feet on the sloped table and let go of the edge, propelling himself forward with everything he had.

Perry sailed through the air, grabbed the edge of the next table and hauled himself forward before gravity had a chance to decide what to do with him.

A quick sprint across the table and another jump, and Perry was outside the pool of spreading venom, racing for the door. Perry finally had an opportunity to look at the alarm.

The color combination indicated hazardous areas, and the flashing red lights indicated which ones.

Needless to say, Perry and co. were smack dab in the middle of one.

“Armory?” Heather asked.

“There’s nothing to fight,” Perry said, shaking his head. Other tinkers would likely think the same as Heather, and Perry didn’t want to get caught in a stampede. An armory unfolding would only happen if there was some kind of boarding action, or if the enemy outside was so overwhelming that all hands were needed.

They should just consider themselves lucky that the bulkheads weren’t sealed, trapping them in there with the acid.

Sure enough, the spiders were killed or driven back into their homes in a matter of minutes, but the damage had been done.

“Shit, is that our dorm wing?” Heather asked, pointing.

Perry’s brow raised as he realized that the hazardous area warning was indeed blinking on their sleeping area of the train.

“Let’s check it out. I wanna see how bad the damage is.”

When they made it to their room, a shiver of fear raised the hair on the back of their necks.

Their room, specifically, had unleashed a flood of acidic spider venom into the hall.

There was a smoking hole in the ceiling above their beds, and the entire room had been slagged, including all of their luggage.

“My laptop!” Natalie said, sinking to her knees.

“My music!” Heather exclaimed.

“Oh, hey, my T-shirt.” Perry said, tugging his partially melted backpack open to reveal the novelty T-shirt he’d bought on the way in.

I nearly died on the inter-city Train

and all I got was this stupid T-shirt!

“Obviously I wasn’t gonna wear it until we arrived in Washington City,” Perry defended himself as his crew stared at him.

“Dude, I think you’ve got a problem.” Heather muttered, giving him a sour look.

“It’s only clinical if it affects my daily life.” Perry said. “And I think the important thing is that we weren’t in here asleep when it dumped acid on our heads.”

“Now, who wants to take over Jerry’s ‘office’?” Perry asked, raising his hand.

The armory was the most convenient place for a Tinker to store their weapons and armor, but Perry was a bit leery of putting all his eggs in one basket.

Perry wanted to make Jerry’s office into a fall-back. Somewhere they could go if the armory was compromised.

“Also, Nat, I want you to put one of these on,” Perry said, handing Nat a Bargand’s Favor.

“What’s it do?” She asked.

“It taps into a war-god’s power to provide a bit of magical protection which allowed warriors to fight nearly naked.”

“So it’s a magical protection spell…” Natalie said, inspecting it.

“Basically.” Perry said, nodding.

Natalie wetted it under a drinking fountain and applied it to her belly.

“It may also cause-“

“Hell yeah!” Natalie shouted, pumping her fists. “We’re gonna go over to Jerry’s, Tinker up some weapons and lay waste to anything that stands in our way! Outta the way sweet cheeks!” she said, slapping Heather’s bottom as she strode past, eliciting a squeak from the redhead.

“Increased aggression.” Perry finished as Natalie marched away, her aura causing the other supers in the hall to stumble out of the 4’9” girl’s way without knowing exactly why.

Heather raised a brow at him, volumes of unspoken words transferred in that single look.

“I only tested it on myself, and in hindsight…I may be a bit resistant to the mental side-effects. Although you can’t say that aggression isn’t useful in a fight.”

Heather cocked her head.

“After you, Sweet Cheeks.” Perry said, motioning.

“What are you waiting for, hot stuff!? Going to Jerry’s was your idea!” Natalie called over her shoulder.

“After you, Hot Stuff.” Heather said, motioning.

Heather and Perry trotted to catch up with Nat, watching in fascination as she parted the crowd like the prow of a ship. Or a cow-catcher.

“God, that’s inspiring,” Heather whispered to him, her eyes locked on the tiny ball of fire ahead of them. “I may want one of those for…recreational use.”

Perry wordlessly handed Heather another Bargand’s Favor. The redhead slipped it into her pocket.

“How many of these do you have?”

“Five in my pocket, fifty in my backpack, and two hundred in the armory. They’re really easy to make.”

Heather made grabby motions, and Perry sighed, handing the rest over as Natalie kicked the door to the maintenance area open.

“Use performance enhancing spells responsibly, alright?” Perry said.

***later that day***

Hardcase’s gatling gun kept spinning up, the high-pitched whine nearly interrupting Lieutenant Clark’s orders as the harried officer tried to wrangle the supers.

“She’s not usually like this,” Perry apologized at the lieutenant’s sour look.

“I’ve dealt with worse.” Clark said with a shrug before continuing over Hardcase’s dry firing.

“Wraith, Paradox, take either flank and pace the car about a hundred feet out, keep your eyes open for threats.”

Paradox and Wraith nodded.

“Bolt and Hardcase, you’ll provide heavy fire. Support the scouts and wipe anything out before it can reach the train.”

“Aw man, I wanted to get up close and personal. I wanna split some monster in half and wear it on top of my armor like a hat.” Hardcase’s modulated voice sounded like a serial killer’s.

Perry cleared his throat.

“Fister, you’re the blocker. If anything gets close, use your hands to shove it away.

“Ma’am,” Fister said, nodding.

“Hey Bolt,” Hardcase said, addressing the lighting Energy user.

“Eh?”

“I bet I get more kills than you, you freaking wuss.”

“Oh, it’s on,” Bolt said with a grin.

“When did you say this would expire?” Heather whispered next to Perry’s helmet.

“I’unno,” Perry said with a shrug. “Worst case scenario we’ll have to hold her down and scrub the paint off. It should come off in the shower, though.”

Paradox and Heather broke off towards either side of the train car, while the other three stood on the back of the slowly cruising train, keeping their eyes peeled for attack.

“Hey, Wraith,” Perry said over his comms, glancing at the distant manta-ray figure of Heather gliding along beside the train. She’d vastly improved her flying game, and rarely had to touch down.

“Yeah?”

“I was thinking about the spider attack earlier today.”

“Yeah?”

“Wasn’t it weird that they all attacked at once?” Perry asked.

“Could’ve been a pack of em?” Heather asked.

“Spiders are notoriously asocial,” Perry said. “And trapdoor spiders? No way.”

“So what do you think happened?” Heather asked.

“Normally the first traincar to pass one of their doors would’ve gotten hit, and then we would’ve known about the rest, but they all hit at once. So maybe something was keeping them from attacking until we were deep in their territory. Feels deliberate.”

Perry shrugged in his armor. “or…they were pack-hunting trapdoor spiders.”

They did a lot of damage. Perry had personally witnessed a few supers get creamed, which would make their defenses just a little bit tighter going forward. Perry’s team had gotten some of their free time stricken down to accommodate. And that made him uneasy.

Perry glanced back along the length of the train, which consisted of hundreds of cars, 99% of them were for moving massive amounts of cargo. The entire thing snaked through the surrounding countryside, winding into the distance further than Perry could see.

There was a possibility that the train hadn’t even fully left Franklin City yet. Unlikely, but it felt that way.

Feeding an entire city on a single train-trip wasn’t a simple task.

Guarding car four meant they were actually very close to the action. Almost the very front.

It wasn’t an hour later, as they were approaching an area of thick forest, when the next action came to them.

Perry inhaled a breath through his teeth as massive creatures waddled out of the forest, snarling at the intrusion into their territory.

“Mustelidae.”

AKA Badgers, skunks, weasels and wolverines. Creatures whose claim to fame was raw aggression and smelling awful.

Perry wasn’t sure of the exact species since they’d obviously mutated. Their snouts appeared to be made of living steel that faded into a natural pelt.

They charged toward the train from both sides of the forest, flooding in from every direction.

What, did we interrupt a badger convention? Perry thought as he selected the size of his disintegration beams.

XSDisintigration.EXE

The hexagonal crystals stored in his forearm were snapped into thumbnail sized chunks before being drawn into the firing chamber, where resonant frequency and electricity were applied, unleashing the tainted light, which was focused into a tight beam, hitting the closest badger directly in the forehead.

Half the creature’s head turned to ash, and it slumped in place, but hundreds more took its place.

This could be problematic, Perry thought as he shot target after target as quickly as he could, only slowing down when he began missing from haste.

The ones who made it past Perry’s blistering fire along with Bolt’s deafening lightning strikes got cshoved backwards by hands the size of houses.

Fister winced in pain as a large portion of the feral animals latched onto the offending limbs and began savaging them with their metallic snouts and shiny claws that had gouged into the reinforced train.

The super flicked the creatures off like water droplets but not before he took some damage.

In between shots, Perry scanned the train, spotting vicious animals tearing the outer hull and brutalizing the occasional super too slow or too weak to avoid them.

“No freaking way this is a natural occurrence.” Perry muttered to himself before getting back to work.

Wraith, on the other side, was having trouble executing the monstrous snarling, monsters, whose ultra-durable and loose skin allowed the blades she made out of her arms simply slide off, before they turned on her and tried to eat her face.

A constant stream of cursing over the Comms was the only hint that Heather was alive. Perry was up to his ears in badger.

The support fire that Perry received dwindled as Bolt realized that Heather’s kill-speed didn’t match Perry’s, and turned the other direction to add his lightning to the mix on the other side of the train.

It might have only lasted five minutes, but it felt like hours. When the vicious animals finally stopped, the train looked…a little worse for wear. Some supers were missing entirely, other had wounds ranging from serious to scratches.

Perry landed on the train and collapsed. Despite flying for the entire exchange, he felt like he’d run a marathon.

“Don’t drop your guard, Paradox. Get back in the air.” Liuetenant Clark’s voice came over Perry’s comm’s.

“Yes Ma’am,” Perry said, lifting back off and getting into position.

I’m not getting that full 1500XP, Perry thought as he studied the train from the air. It was mostly cosmetic damage to the external armor plating, easily patched, but it was telling.

The train was starting to accumulate damage.

Perry checked his disintegration.

He still had about 60% remaining. He would have to reload from his ammo crate in the armory when he got back in.

***Conductor Walthers***

“They’re softening us up,” Walthers said, turning over the replicator-tech a passenger had found in the spider den. A technopath had informed him it was designed to keep the spider in forced hibernation until a specific instant.

“I’d bet my left nut the badgers had something similar causing them to congregate around the tracks.”

“Sir.” Commander Vern said, nodding. “Should we send a diplomat and detach a few cargo cars?”

That usually got them to leave the train alone.

Walthers considered it.

“They’ve never softened us up quite like this before. I believe their intention is to take the entire train. We can’t afford to lose any of our cargo space, either.”

Walthers glanced up at Vern.

“You want your family to starve?”

“No sir.” Vern said.

“Put us on high alert. Double shifts. Brief the lieutenants, and get the Tinkers working on patching up the damage. Unfold the armory. Break out the big guns.”

“Yessir,” Vern said, marching off to make Walther’s orders happen.

Walther’s gaze went back to the faintly glowing tech in his hand.

“This is gonna be a tough one,” He muttered.