Chapter 17
Stone walls and aberrant forms: introduction
“Halt!” The purifier on the left called out. E4 immediately recognized the weapon in his hand.
“That’s an F1 flamethrower. It fires a three second long stream of fuel up to 15 meters and refills every three seconds. That tank on its back usually holds about 30 shots and takes forever to replace.” E4 whispered. “He’s wearing Mark 1 Purifier armor, it can resist heats up to 800 degrees Celsius for up to 5 seconds, and they are trained to get it off in half that should they get sprayed with their own napalm. Those six barreled revolvers on their hips are called Red eyes, and 9 times out of 10 they’re loaded with Cherry rounds. They burn red hot. Judging by the fact he’s got a bronze colored mask and very little etching on his armor I’d say he’s rank and file.”
“This mistress is impressed, you are quite knowledgeable about them.” E4 shot a surprised look at Vienna who, despite being 5 meters away, both heard her and replied in such a way it sounded like she was whispering in E4’s ear.
“Howdy, Regulators Vienna and Imnad Marked.” Imnad spoke up, producing his card as if via a magic trick. “These here are Marissa and Marcus Eagle-Wood, and a maid they’re bringing fer, for some reason.”
The two purifiers looked at one another.
“Brother, what’s a regulator?” One asked the other.
“By the purifying flame brother, they’re the guys who kill monsters.” The other replied. “Weren’t you listening to the morning briefing?” The other replied. He made a gesture and a small door opened in the large black metal gates behind them. “Go on in single file, the doc will have to scan you for illness.”
“You dare?” Vienna exclaimed, and Imnad shook his head. “We are regulators in good standing, you would dare deny us entrance?”
“Don’t be a Karen lady, we’re in the middle of a plague of undead. We scan everyone.”
“Is this going to be a problem?” Marcus whispered.
“Not as long as you’re not running a fever.” E4 replied, touching her horns before adjusting her hair to try and hide them. A little telekinesis to hold it in place did quite a bit, and a few bone pins made using flesh fabrication made it look like she had put her hair up while also giving her a few handy projectiles for throwing. “For me, maybe. I run a little hot, and if they find my horns I might have to answer some pointed questions.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask about those.”
“I’ve noticed.” Marissa said at the exact same time, earning her a glance from her half brother. “Do they discriminate against race?”
“Officially no.”
Vienna and Imnad went through the door first, and nothing unexpected happened. Marcus went next, followed by Marissa. As she waited, E4 took a moment to scan her surroundings. Outside the wall was the usual grassland she had come to expect within the distant shores. The wall before her, however, was different. It appeared to be made from solid stone, a single solid stone with no sign of tool marks save for where the gate was. The gate was an odd black metal with several wires that occasionally sparked. Above the gate the name Stone-Weaver shone in silver, a symbol mountain crossed by knitting needles shone beneath it. In addition to the two purifiers she noted a pair statues crafted from granite into the shape of a man in a stylish longcoat and a woman in a sensible dress. Both wore a blank mask as if the carver crafted everything but the face. As she watched the male statue turned to look at her, surprising her and allowing E4 to see that behind its mask the eyes rolled with Myst as if it were a Myst Cursed1. She quickly faced forwards and waited her turn.
Finally one of the purifiers waved her forwards. Nervously, E4 stepped forwards The door opening before her and closing behind with a low click. The room was approximately a meter long and half that wide with a metal sliding door on each side. To the right was an oblong box made from metal riveted together and bearing three glass lenses. On Earth the device would have been made from plastic, but despite its change in construction E4 recognized the purifier issue plague scanner. The device pointed at her, scanning from the top of her head to her chin, before making a loud metal sound and retracting. E4 immediately realized something was wrong. For one, the scanner was meant to scan from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet, to ensure no hostile parasitic organism or pathogen was hiding within the host. She hadn’t been on the committee that designed the things, but as a member of the WHO and later the Bleeding Heart Society she had certainly learned how to use them. The scanner would project rays on one side onto the receiver at the other side, which E4 immediately realized was missing. E4’s heart picked up again. If they weren’t actually scanning anything that meant their criteria for who could and could not enter was entirely based on the prejudice of whoever was watching. Was it based on how wealthy they looked, or if they looked sick? Did she look sick? Would they lock her up and use some pregenerated image to justify it? Would they even bother?
With a low whoosh the door opened. E4 practically shot through, only for Marissa to catch her arm. “Hey there, where’s the fire?”
[[Notice: Innate human mimicry has been proven to evade this matter of scanner, even if the scanner is set up correctly. You worry too much.-Red Queen]]
“Sorry, scans make me nervous.” E4 replied. “Back home every time you walked through a scanner there was a chance you’d get locked up for additional tests, and perhaps a bullet.” She took a deep breath and straightened. “Did you notice that scanner wasn’t set up properly? It didn’t even have a receiver.”
“I’m going to remind you that plastic isn’t very common in The Distant Shores and computers aren’t a thing outside of Los London either.” Marcus spoke up. “If it’s something that relies on either of those, it probably doesn’t work or they got it from the standing stones and it’s using Myst to work. They probably don’t understand it unless an Aether Blessed or Myst Cursed is actively running it.” He made a gesture. “Though that does bring us to our next issue.”
The town was infested with purifiers. Immediately E4 noted three patrols lead by purifiers wearing full riot gear, though they carried the huge four barreled shotguns they favored rather than flamethrowers. Each one wore a bronze mask as a symbol of rank, and to filter the air. Each patrol consisted of one purifier and two or three others wearing cloth masks bearing the crossed scalpels and flame of The Purifiers, though they wore leather armor bearing the symbol of the city. Standing right next to the Regulator guild hall stood a set of full Purifier power armor. The suit was 3 meters tall, done in white with gold accents and a blank gold mask with two small cameras where the eyes should be. Two enormous tanks, larger than E4 expected, sat upon its back. In its right hand it held an axe with a rounded blade half a meter in radius and bearing a fuel tank of its own in the handle.
“Where did they get a FOG suit?” Marissa asked. “Those aren’t supposed to appear unless there’s a tier 4 threat at least. They’re always a bundle of trouble.”
“From all the branding I think he has the same Company Man skill Donovan did, it gives him better equipment that has the seal of his patron on it. As for the suit itself, it’s the Iron Golem Mk 1 suit. An earlier model, but it was still in service when I left Earth. I’m not sure about the Myst variant, but on Earth it could operate for 8 hours on a full charge and could tear down buildings with all the efficiency of a bulldozer. That was before they managed to squeeze a reactor into them. The hands are articulate enough that it can pick up firearms or melee weapons designed for it, especially the Sample Retriever ax. Those barrels on the wrists could be loaded with beanbag rounds, or incendiary grenades. On Earth they held 10 in a magazine, but being The Myst,”
“Storage rings and extra dimensional spaces could hold a lot more, he could probably fit that within his FOG suit, assuming he doesn’t have a skill that auto loads for him.” Marcus added.
“Yeah, I miss that skill.” Marissa added. “Half the reason I use a zap gun is you don’t have to reload. The other half is it’s a cool lightning gun.”
As they spoke they arrived at the guild doors. E4 half expected there to be a half dozen purifiers guarding the door, but what she was not expecting was there to be a bunch of stone dividers on all the tables. As plastic was not common there were several holes that allowed the occupants to still see one another, completely defeating the purpose.
“Ah improper social distancing, I have not missed you.” She deadpanned. A quick look around the guild hall told her exactly what she needed to know. It was empty, save for one table that had a short and thin looking man in a regulation Purifier power armor undersuit. Normally made from kevlar, the outfit was of the purest white, with lots of little contacts that would sync up with his suit. Rather than a zipper there were several small metal buttons on the shirt as well as the pants. His table was covered with paperwork, which to E4’s eyes looked like maps. Countless miniatures sat spread out on the map, though she couldn’t see what they represented save for the one that looked like a Mark 1 Iron Golem. Half a dozen dice were scattered across the table, as if he had been playing a tabletop game. As they entered the man looked up, and E4 froze.
“Oh lovely, on top of Victorian steam punk and modern plagues now we’re adding Wuxia. What’s next, Lizard Wizards?”2
“You DARE? Who are you to mock my people and culture?” Vienna snapped back without hesitation, and with quite a bit of ire. “We kobolds have walked these mysts for generations, it was us who first learned to shape the Aether without the crude methods of pawns and men.3” She stepped forwards, seeming to flow on the air as she did as the air filled with the scent of ozone. “And what creature stands before me, too thin to be a conductor, are you some manner of gnome? Did you hop off a rainbow with a pot full of gold?”
Immediately he began to sweat, and E4 took a deep breath and made sure to keep herself on the far side of Marissa. The man was 140 centimeters tall, and he did have a red mustache and wild hair that was once red but had long since gone gray. His pale freckled skin probably hadn’t seen the outside in weeks without a FOG suit. The Hymn whispered his name to her, but she already knew it. “Grant Kindred, The Golden Spider.”
“You know him?” Marissa asked.
“Don’t drink anything he gives you.” E4 replied. “He fond of a number of drugs, and doesn’t hesitate to share them with the unwary. If you see him take out a vial of purple liquid leave the room, do not return. That stuff is slow death in a bottle.”
“Vienna be at peace, certainly the man before you has only recently been charged. He has probably never met a kobold, let alone an enlightened kobold, with such grace as yourself. Ain’t no… That is no way to treat a green horn.” He paused. “You are charged, right?”
“Oh, are you from the lands beyond this Myst?” He looked up. “Good Heavens, I can see you eyes. Finally, someone whose eyes are not locked in shadow. Do sit, Aproner, a drink for these fellows.”
“You know, I think he sounds more steampunk than we do.” Marissa whispered. “You want to mess with him?”
“And what of you chaps, care to join us? Heaven knows there is much going on, now is not the time to go it alone, not with the undead wandering around.” Immediately Marissa and Marcus’s ears perked up.
“What kind of undead?” Marcus was immediately at the table. “Are we talking corporeal, or incorporeal? Pristine, corpse, or skeletal? How many died fighting them, and did they get back up afterwards?”
“Well I can’t fault you for eagerness.” He looked up to Marissa and E4. “Maid, why don’t you fetch us a bottle from the bar?”
“Strong red, and some citrus?” E4 asked, picking up on the bottles he had set next to the table as well as the plate of lemon rinds next to them. The Hymn whispered the same a moment later.
“My word, it is like they can read minds no?” E4 caught the coin he flipped to her and quickly busied herself getting the drinks, and considered putting a few drops of ravager toxin in as well as the barkeep handed over the bottles. She was a heavyset woman, strong of build with curly brown hair and a face full of freckles.
“How long has he been in here?” She asked, sliding a coin to the woman.
“A week off and on, always going over his maps and sharing drinks with his troops. That set a’ FOG gear he’s got out front has been scaring off all of my usual lot, the ones he hasn’t recruited.” She replied back quietly. “I don’t know where he gets the money to fund it all. I know you Regulators are rich, but it’s like he’s got pockets as deep as a well.”
“Yeah, he has a knack for that.” E4 said, gritting her teeth. “Is the charging chamber in the basement open?”
“Sure it is, is your mistress paying upfront or in installments? Either way is fine, he isn’t going to be using it.” She gestured to Kindred. “Took one look at the chambers and thought we were trying to kill him, which is fair. If one of us got in there we’d be gone.”
“Oh, no, this is for me.” E4 fished around in her pocket for the coin Marissa had lent her. “Ten coin right?”
“Actually… there is something you could do. This is the last of the wine we’ve got up here, and Mr. Kindred has been drinking like a fish. I’d like to get more but… there’s something in the wine cellar.”
“So I’m going to do the adventurer’s special and clear the giant rats out of the cellar?” E4 asked. The barkeep nodded. “Give me a minute to speak with my mistress, I’ll be right back. As she brought the wine back E4 saw that Kindred was detailing to Marcus and Imnad what was going on around the town, while subtly shooting glances at Marissa that set E4’s teeth on edge. She also noted he was trying not to look at Vienna, but kept shooting glances at her horn ornaments. “Mistress, I have been tasked with the adventurer’s special.”
“Rescuing a princess from a dragon?” Marissa asked.
“I was unaware you were in such danger. No, clearing the rats out of the cellar of the first inn I go to.” E4 replied. “Have to start from level 1 after all.”
“Is that a thing?” Kindred asked.
“Levels are not a thing, this isn’t Dungeons and Dragons.” Marcus replied. “Tiers and skills are. Those are the path to power, and you’re not even charged yet.”
“By jove, you are the third person to insist on that metal death trap.”
“This mistress has another option.” Vienna replied. “Should you gather enough Dense Myst and prepare the proper streams within the darkest forest The Heavens shall take note and bring forth a great tribulation. Surviving such a trial would surely bring ascension, and likely several achievements.”
“Yeah, the Darwin Award. Vienna, you told me you died the first time you tried that.”
“This mistress did not say it would be easy, for genius that I am still did I attempt it thrice before controlling the Aether with such skill as to survive.” She touched her ornaments. “And was thus given the form I so envied in my youth.”
E4 stepped away before she could get caught in the conversation between husband and wife as Vienna espoused the virtues of ascension via tribulation, which involved tanking several lightning strikes of increasing intensity. E4 returned to the guild maid, who was quick to show her to the cellar.
“Cold down here.” E4 muttered. Beneath the guild hall the cellar was made from melded stone. Her guide took a hard right at the bottom of the stairs towards the pantry. E4 shot a casual glance to the left to see a large metal door etched with a bolt of lightning. “Was this made by an Aether Shaper?”
“The freezer array has been colder than usual.” the barkeep replied. “And the guild hall was built by Lord Mayor Gerric Stone-Weaver. He was here this morning, probably will come back tomorrow morning. He’s likely seeing to the walls. He is highly skilled at his art of stone shaping.”
“Is he Aether Blessed?”
“Regulators often use that term, but I cannot wrap my head around what it means. I do not think so, for he is not a regulator nor does he leave. It is due to his benevolence that we have existed in harmony for so long. For he has constructed for us our homes, and provided stone guardians to protect us.”
“Sounds like a great guy.”
“Truly, he is. Yet… no, I have over spoken.” She opened a door, and at that instant E4 noticed that her right hand was not made of flesh, but of stone. A gold and silver bangle etched with symbols clamped fast to her wrist, right where stone met flesh. “They are in here, good hunting regulator.”
E4 stepped in, and the door closed behind her. Immediately E4 checked to make sure she wasn’t locked in, as like an idiot she hadn’t checked BEFORE the door closed. Thankfully there was only a tiny latch that she could easily break, and rather than a door knob there was a push bar on the inside which would bypass the lock. “Good to see they followed fire safety protocols, but seriously E4, this is how you get kidnapped by body breakers.” She drew her knife. “Alright rats and rodents of unusually large size, come on out.” Her horns buzzed as she reached out with telekinesis. Her psychic skill allowed her to parse the feedback with more fidelity than she had on Earth. What once would have been a hazy image almost immediately resolved into a fuzzy, but workable, image. Several objects moved, and while she couldn’t see their little whiskers E4 was pretty sure from the general shape they were rats. With a gesture a dozen of the squealing vermin were pulled form their hiding spot. Like an oversized cat E4 was upon them, blade in one hand claws in the other. One rat thought itself clever and ran between her legs, receiving a cut from her tail that bisected its spine. With a flick of her knife E4 shot a bolt of bio-lightning at a rat, which immediately vaporized it and slightly burned her knife. Immediately she felt her arm begin to prickle and steam, though the ravager toxin kept her from feeling the pain. “Huh, I don’t remember that hurting on Earth.” She rolled up her sleeve to find chunks of her own flesh simply missing, blood leaking slightly even as her regeneration protocol repaired the damage. She reached for the damage, yet while she thought she remembered how to use her healing hands, she couldn’t quite get it to work. It reminded her of when she had first awoken and tried to use her claws, like there was a muscle she just could not flex. “Lady Mara, I do relish your gifts, but they can be destructive.”
E4 continued her search, her telekinesis guiding her to a few rats that managed to hide for just a bit longer. With each one slain she made sure to inhale the dense Myst released, as little as it was. As she reached for one it somehow managed to slip away into a hole. She reached for it, yet something stopped her. Her grasp felt an odd coldness, and a strange stillness, that made her recoil. It hadn’t harmed her, especially as she was still a few meters away, but it was unexpected. Crouching down and moving aside a sack of charged potatoes, something she noted she would definitely be asking about soon, she found some clever little rat had chewed its way through the wall and into another room.
“Sneaky little bugger.”
“Cold… It’s cold.” A shiver shot down E4’s spine at the sound. It came from the freezer, and sounded like a child. “Sir4, we don’t like this. Please let me go.”
“Hello, is someone there?” E4 called.
“Aah, please sir, let us out!” E4 threw open the storeroom door and within an instant stood before the freezer. She ripped the door open, the handle not putting up any resistance, and froze at the sight.
“Bleeding Havoc.” The freezer before her looked more like a slaughter house than a freezer. Bodies, human bodies, had once lined the floor, yet now only torn up black canvas bags remained. The cause of these bags crouched over one of the last remaining bodies, its impressive rack of horns bobbing slightly as it ate.
“Hello?” It spoke in a child’s voice that did not fit its grotesque form. “Is someone there? We’re so hungry” Despite its words it did not look up from the leg it was currently devouring as if it were a cob of corn. The creature’s limbs were strong and muscular, yet its spine and ribs were skeletal thin. E4 quickly counted 15 points and knew she was in trouble. She turned, trying to be quiet, yet as she did she felt something hit her foot, something hard and round. She saw a loose potato, likely dropped at some point in making dinner one day, strike the wall with a low THUD. She shot a glance back, and the horned thing was looking at her.
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“MISTRESS!” E4 called. She grabbed the door and threw it shut with all her might, but the ravager was faster, its body hitting the door before she could lock it. E4 threw her weight against the door, trying to keep the monster within, but she knew it was only a matter of time before it got out. The creature thrust a clawed foot through, five toes facing forwards and one backwards in the manner of feral ravagers5. E4 was more than happy to unload a crossbow bolt into its foot, even if she knew the ravager toxin in the bolt was nothing compared to what was already running through its veins. With a wild swipe it grasped at her arm, shredding the flesh and cutting into the marrow of her ulna. E4 winced, even as the euphoria flooded through her veins. It was faint, the ravager toxin within her blood dulled it, yet inside she knew the damage was crippling.
“So hungry, I want to eat you. Can I eat her father? Please I want to eat her. Oi, I get the first bite you gluttons. Looks like meat’s back on the menu.” The feral chittered, every second repeating a stream of horrific hungry babbling fifteen times. It sounded as if five different minds were contained within its brain, though E4 knew there had to be more, and all of them were starving. In a single moment one voice recommended a dozen ways to roast, boil, or fry her. Another voice wanted to play with her before killing her, a third recommended eating her while still alive, to preserve freshness. Another described its visions in such detail E4 could see her own head resting upon the lid of a roiling cauldron, and smell her own flesh within the stew. For just a moment she loathed the fact resonance was such a dense language.
E4 heard the sound of chairs moving, but she knew she had to do something to buy time. She jumped back, telekinesis carrying her farther than mundane muscles could. The ravager threw open the door and stepped into the light. E4 saw it wore a shredded dress similar to the barkeep. Its hair had hung in loose tufts, its head marred with scratches and scars where it had attempted to get at the isopod within, chunks of its chest and stomach replaced with the crude scars that tended to follow the feral ravagers after they repurposed any loose flesh they could find.
“Get back!” E4’s left arm flopped raggedly from the elbow down, but the telekinetic nodes within still worked. She pulled back on her crossbow’s lever and fired three more bolts into the feral, one of which it bashed away with its claws and the other two it ignored. It felt no pain, even as the bolts struck its stomach and chest. It opened its mouth impossibly wide, long needle like fangs pierced its gums where its teeth should have been as its cheeks split along scar tissue from where it had mindlessly healed the previous tears. A second set of fangs pierced through the bottom of its mouth, yet another sign that the mind within was truly gone for a sane ravager would only have fangs descending from the top of the mouth. It let out a wail that made E4’s ears ring even as long cracks formed in the once solid stone. The ravager seemed to vanish, and only E4’s experience being a ravager warned her to lunge forwards towards where it had been just before its claws would have severed her head from her body. A looming claw caught her leg, sending her tumbling right on her already injured arm.
Her arm made a sound far too reminiscent of nails on a chalkboard as the bone was ground into the stone floor. Yet even as she tripped E4 lashed out with her tail, catching the ravager’s leg. It didn’t cut as far as she expected, but it made a small cut. Against any other foe that would have been enough to give a euphoric dose of ravager toxin, but all it did was release a small but steady stream of aether.
The ravager paused as if it heard something, and E4 realized it was listening to someone coming down the steps. “Hey hungry!”
E4 had often tested the limits of resonant on Earth. Like traditional sound it could be drowned out, but not easily. It could communicate extremely complex ideas and thoughts at high speeds, and she had just been on the receiving end of it. While no one had found a way to attack through resonant, no viruses or malware could be passed through it, the images and ideas it evoked could be very distracting.
E4 chittered an image. A warm fireplace, a cozy den, and the smell of a delicious roast. It was cooked just the same way the ravager’s was, but there was something extra. Something the ravager couldn’t know about. Something strangely sweet and spicy, something that promised the kind of calories that could satisfy even a starving ravager. The feral ravager froze, trying to parse out what E4 was chittering about. She chittered out another image, the stew pot open, a delicious hearty red stew just within, with some manner of herb floating on top. The herb was just out of focus in the image, and the ravager actually leaned over her as if by peering into the non-existing pot it could bring the tempting herb into focus. It stuck out its tongue, as if it could taste the illusion of stew. The ravager was chittering its own image, a third of the discord of voices urging it to eat her, two thirds dreaming of eating her head stewed with the mysterious herb.
“Consider this the end of our conversation.” E4 spoke, pointing with her right hand. “At high volume.”
The bolt of bio-lightning struck the ravager right in the tongue, where is arced between the fangs and right into the back of the head. Like the horns and the tail, the tongue and fangs of the ravager are actually growths that stem from the isopod rather than the host. In a normal ravager they are far tougher than the surrounding flesh. The trade off is that damage to them can drive the isopod within berserk, damage such as aether directly disintegrating the Myst the isopod was made from. The isopod within its skull twitched, causing its entire body to go into spasms as E4 expected. What she did not expect was its entire face to burn right off, leaving a burned skull behind. The right eye looked as if an isopod was clinging to the orbital socket, its legs locked into the bone, while numerous legs stuck through the jaw where the teeth should have been and formed its fangs. Of its left eye nothing remained save a hollow eye socket behind which she knew the main isopod remained. Several spines jutted out from its head, most small and previously hidden by its hair, but what had once been horns were now revealed as antenna as they twitched, even if they were split and pointed.
A second bolt answered the first as Marissa’s bolt rifle spoke, the crack of its Aether louder than E4’s own. The ravager whipped around, giving Marissa a moment to whisper out a “What the,” Before it lunged for her. Unlike E4 it did not rely on telekinesis to move, just sheer brute strength.
Which might be why its lunge veered slightly to the right, its injured leg not providing as much force as its uninjured leg. The ravager smashed into the wall, hard enough to send a spiderweb of cracks thrice its own size. This gave Marissa enough time to lay another bolt into its back, and Marcus to get between her and it.
Immediately Marcus was a flurry of blades, his cane sword finishing its third blow before E4 could even blink. The ravager, already injured, only managed to parry two of the blows, the third cutting across its stomach and spilling forth a stream of Aether.
How ironic, that a creature so obsessed with food, would lose its favorite organ so easily. The feral let out a scream that sent E4’s mind reeling with the sheer outrage before it lunged forwards towards Marcus its claws and fangs ready to feast. From each hand six claws plunged into Marcus’s flesh even as long jointed fangs reached for his face, only to stop a centimeter short. From where she lay E4 saw Marcus’s cane sword buried to the hilt in the ravager’s chest, right over its heart. With a flick of his wrist he tore free his blade before reflexively slashing its through just below the rib cage, a stream of Aether and myst flowing from the corpse. He gave it a shove with his elbow, which set the top half falling back separate from the lower half and tore off a good big of his shirt in the process.
“What a strange creature.” He winced, looking at the long thin scratches that covered his sides. He was bleeding, yet the claw wounds weren’t deep. “I don’t like it, something about it sets my teeth on edge.”
“What was that, E4!” Marissa ran past the ravager to E4’s side. “What happened to you, what happened to your arm?”
“Shoot it in the head!” E4 called. Marcus looked up at her, just as the ravager sprang back to life and threw itself at him. For just a moment it was airborne, heedless of its lack of legs or the intestines that trailed behind it. Three lightning fast bolts of energy struck it, each one striking its exposed skull, before the third one finally disintegrated the skull revealing the isopod within. It was an ugly thing, gray shell marred by black and red tumors. Its mouthpart, normally small and able to feed only on plant life or blood, had been replaced by gruesome black mandibles. Said mandibles sank into Marcus’s stomach, just before a bolt of lightning far larger than anything Marissa’s zap gun could produce curved around Marcus and impaled the thing, sending the isopod and the torso it was still attached to flying across the room and right over where E4 still lay. The isopod immediately began chewing into the stone, before it got stuck. The torso began trying to claw through the stone, yet it its claws began to weep aether and disintegrate as the bleeding from its torso finally stopped. E4 looked up to see Vienna and Imnad charging down the steps
“Devil’s Handkerchief what is that thing?” Marissa exclaimed. She leveled her zap rifle at the still struggling isopod, firing two shots into the torso’s back and one actually striking the isopod. The body stopped, sagging.
“Is it dead?”
At her words the isopod pushed out and she fired. Her bolt hit a tumor which immediately ruptured in a puff of myst and steam, as the monster bolted back into the freezer, an ever lengthening line of intestines following after it. “GET IT!”
E4 saw the isopod bite one of the bodies, severing its torso from its waist. Immediately dozens of tendrils shot from its spine and connected to the lower spine of the new body. As it did the remaining bodies seemed to evaporate in a cloud of myst. Hidden behind the cloud a horrific mockery of life pushed itself up, jerky in its movements and clearly unnatural
“The cur dares to insult this mistress of Aether?” Vienna charged into the freezer, bolts of lightning and a haze of Aether forming around her fists. “This fool knows not to bow its head and face judgment. Come husband, let us teach it the might of the imbued.”
Immediately the pair were before the creature, Vienna lashing out with Aether infused fists and gleaming tattoos while Imnad provided support with a seemingly small revolver. Yet E4 could not blame his caution, as his wife was a force of nature, bolts of lightning shooting off of her with every move and the sound of thunder echoing after every blow. The woman was a blur, punches and kicks going so fast E4 could not follow them, only catching still frames illuminated by her tattoos.
The feral parried the first series, each blow receiving a tiny scratch in return, only for a precise shot from Imnad to reveal it was a feint. His shot caught the creature right where its tail merged with the host’s spine, sending the entire body reeling. Vienna did not let its misstep go unpunished, calling out a phrase E4 could not understand in her native language before striking a pose from a martial arts flick and delivering a punch with enough lightning it could have lit a city block. The blow crushed every one of the ravager’s ribs and sent it flying into the wall so hard it crushed every shelf and dented the metal, as well as cracking the stone behind it. Heedless of injuries the ravager threw itself back towards her. With casual disdain Vienna caught the creature’s wrist, before its six fingered hand twisted with a bone breaking crack and sank its claws into her wrist.
“The toad hungers for the flesh of a swan, not knowing it bites a dragon.” Vienna called, and immediately her entire body crackled with lighting. She called something in kobold, which E4 did not understand but The Hymn translated into something along the lines of “Divine retribution of righteous wing of the Ancient Dragon’s Wrath which shakes The Seven Mountains.” The shock left the ravager blackened and standing stock still. “Know your place.” With a single finger she reached out and pushed it.
“Dear I wouldn’t,” Vienna let out a very un-jade beauty like scream as the isopod bent its host’s body unnaturally and bit her finger. She pulled back and delivered an also unladylike kick right into the creature’s groin, which elicited a CRUNCH not unlike an entire sleeve of potato crisps being crushed. “YOU DARE!” Imnad exclaimed, emptying his revolver into the creature before going in with his cane sword. Immediately the ravager wheeled on the new threat, lashing out with a dozen cuts from its claws of which three got through. With every move black charcoal fell from its frame, evaporating into Myst as it hit the floor.
“MISERABLE WORM!” E4 didn’t even see Vienna move, her form blurring, before she landed a devastating blow into the ravager, sending it reeling just as its foot stepped in a noose. E4 hadn’t seen Vienna set the noose, but it wrapped around the ravager’s ankle and yanked it to the side and just beyond her view. A loud CLACK sounded, accompanied by a spray of gore and a loud popping sound. For a moment the entire freezer was lit up bright as day, and the scent of ozone and flood of Aether that followed left only one conclusion. Vienna flicked a fan over her face to hide her smug smile. “Bah, not even a worth my time.”
“Yes Mistress, truly allowing it to bite your finger was a stroke of genius.” Imnad replied, earning a glare from Vienna, before both laughed.” With a casual gesture she called a bear trap half her own height from the wall, a bug zapper sized for Mothra, and another tool E4 had no reference for to her hand. With a gentle gesture the entire assortment vanished in a cloud of Myst which was rapidly pulled into a tiny brass ring on her finger.
“Good Heavens, what are you doing down there?” Kindred called, E4 could practically see him wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. “There is an awfully lot of banging.”
“Kindred, this mistress has several questions.” Vienna gracefully flew up the stairs, her feet not touching a single step. “First, for what purpose did you lock a cannibal in the freezer rather than ventilating its skull?” In a move that only worked because she wasn’t expecting it Vienna was shoved back down the stairs and the door was slammed. “What The Myst?”
“You can’t come up, you need to under quarantine to ensure you’re not infected. A ravager infection,” In the time it took E4 to blink Vienna was up the stairs, through the door, and leveling a string of growls and threats that certainly did not sound like they were coming from a human throat.
“Y’all I’d better… Excuse me, I must mediate between my wife and Dr. Kindred.” Imnad quickly ascended the steps, gingerly stepping through the ragged hole in the door.
For a moment the basement was quiet, just Marcus, Marissa, and E4. The tension of the fight was over, the monster was dead, and as far as they knew they were safe. E4 listened to The Hymn for some cue that some new threat was upon them, but nothing stood out.
“So, E4, you seemed to know what that thing was.” Marcus spoke, finally breaking the silence. “While it bore some resemblance to a ghoul or… unmentionable cannibal, I get the feeling this is something from your Earth. Care to comment?”
E4 took a moment to compose herself. Were they suspicious? She did have horns, they knew she had horns, but they were different. Her horns were short slender and curved, not large pointed racks that resembled a deer. She chittered a short prayer for wisdom, though not to Mara lest she never hear the end of it. She suspected God would understand resonant. “That was a feral ravager.” She managed to stand, though Marissa was quick to support her. “Did it get you?”
“I don’t think so.” Marcus replied, checking himself over. At the sight of his own blood he pulled up his shirt, and for a moment E4 noticed the perfectly sculpted washboard abs before her clinical and medical mindset took over. Marcus looked confused, despite the dozen claw marks that covered his sides where the ravager had gotten him. “Doesn’t hurt. Actually…” He tapped the wound. “Feels… warm? Almost like taking a hot shower.” He poked at one of the wounds and let out a low sigh. “That… that’s not a good sign is it?”
As he did so E4 picked up on the tiny resonant signals being given off by the toxin. “If you want to further aggravate your wounds, no, it’s not. Ravager toxin replaces pain with a sort of runner’s high. Hold on, let me see how bad you are… shoot.” E4 held out her injured arm, her Wise Mind scanning Marcus and chittering out the details quietly in resonant. “Only minor cuts… and that’s a miracle in of itself. Ravager claws are sharp.”
“Here, use this.” Marissa fished in her bag and brought forth a medical bag similar to the one she had given E4 for the Screaming Dread hunt. The fact that bag was bigger than the bag she had drawn it from was but a minor detail. “You might not have healing hands right now, but you can still use a med kit.”
Reaching in E4 found everything she’d need, though it was a bit disorderly. She picked through, finding the C’psee’ter spit as well as the bandages and tapes she would need. She quickly dressed the wound with practiced precision. She noted a drain to her energy as she did, as the bag tried to drain her of Aether and she paid in ATP. “So question, how good are you at handling withdrawal?”
“Withdrawal?”
“Ravager toxin is mildly addictive. I’ve never had anyone go out into the swamps looking for more, but I’ve had some folks dreaming about getting scratched, and waking up wishing for just a bit more. Had to put locks on the doors because someone tried trimming a ravager’s claws and gave themselves an infection. Probably tomorrow you’ll feel stiff, and might consider getting scratched again. Had a guy who used to scratch himself with a knife trying to get the feeling back, but he was an outlier.”
“I’ve got just the thing.” Marissa replied, digging into her bag.
“Marissa, I’m not drinking that.” E4 shot him a confused look, until she noticed Marissa had pulled out a 2 liter bottle made from glass and marked with the word ANTITOXIN in what she took to be wax pencil. Marissa uncorked the bottle, and a strong herbal scent swiftly filled the room. “No, you’re not,”
“E4, hold him.” Marissa spoke, grabbing onto Marcus.
“Going to point out I’m missing a chunk of my arm, I think I’m going to sit this out.” Even as she said it Marissa produced another bottle. “So what is this thing?”
“It tastes like lawn clippings, but it binds to toxins and causes your body to burn them off into Aether.”
“Does it give you a skill for that?” E4 asked, already popping the cork and downing the bottle. Immediately she winced at the taste, yet a ravager’s pallet includes anything not rotten through and most that are. She downed the entire bottle, and suddenly felt sick. Her serotonin and endorphan levels crashed, and she let out a loud gasp as the pain from her arm suddenly hit her. “Ow! Owowow!” As she spoke Aether practically poured out of her mouth while her ATP levels skyrocketed. She felt tears come to her eyes. “WHY?”
“Devil’s Hankerchief E4, what’s going on?” Marissa exclaimed, crouching next to E4 who was now a bundle of pain on the floor. Her arm felt like it was on fire, her tail lashed out at her pain leaving long slashes in the stone, her claws extending and retracting while leaving an odd circular pattern in the stone floor. “Woah, that’s, that’s not normal.”
“That… Really… Hurts.” E4 groaned. “Bleeding Havoc, it’s like my arm is on fire!” Aether poured out of her mouth as well as from her wound, before it began pouring out of every pore in her body. She reached out to her Wise Mind and immediately saw why. The antitoxin had bound to every bit of ravager toxin and was feeding it into a point just within her skull. Only the fact she was making so much ATP to regenerate it all was keeping her alive. She turned her Wise Mind on herself to observe the data.
“E4, E4, come on, get up.”
“Let me be, I’ll be,” E4 felt something cold poured over her arm which eased the pain, but not so much the effects of having her ravager toxin removed. “Ow, reminds me of the first time I used naloxone with a broken arm.”
“Marcus let’s get her into the charging chamber, that should help her heal her arm, and if there are more of those things we need her healed.” Marissa turned to E4, the bottle of whatever she had just used disintegrating into Aether. “Are you ok to move?”
“Yes Mistress.”
It took a few minutes for Marissa to get the key for the charging chamber, during which time E4 heard her arguing with Kindred about something. Finally she came back down with the key. The charging chamber was sealed with a metal door, the same one E4 had seen coming down. It was smaller than the one in Los London, more the size of a large closet. Countless dials sat lodged within stone frames, stone cages surrounding the copper and silver wires so no one would bump them and get zapped. Marissa quickly helped E4 undress, while Marcus conveniently stepped out of the room.
“So Grant thinks we’re all infected with Ravager pox and wants the guild hall quarantined for 24 hours. He says anyone touched by the creature has a chance to turn. You seem to know about them, anything to look out for?”
“Grant Kindred was accepted into the Purifiers for his knowledge of tactics and logistics, not his understanding of pathophysiology.” E4 noted the levels of ravager toxin in her blood had returned to normal as her arm was no longer a blazing stretch of burning pain and now more a warning light in her mind. “He fit right in with the other purifiers as he preferred to shoot the infected rather than treat them, which was exactly what he did during the D. Nocturnus plague of Romania. He held off a force of 10,000 infected with a force of less than a thousand. He used a system of high intensity lights and trench warfare to neutralize their night vision and increased speed while his men shot any who approached his bunker and burned the bodies to ensure they wouldn’t get right back up.”
“That sounds pretty good.”
“D. Nocturnis is a bacterial infection that causes the infected to believe they need blood to survive while also giving them increased perceived strength and night vision. It can be treated with aripirazole for the schizophrenic delusions during the early stages and a combination of piranizamide, isoniazid, rifampin, ethambutol over the course of 3 months can cure it outright if you catch it before the brain damage gets too bad. Rather than treat the infected Kindred had them shot. The Bleeding Hearts tried to figure out how he kept his own troops from catching it, but all we found were heavily redacted records of an experimental drug called Panacea Number 7 and a lot of cremated purifiers.” She paused, deciding what to tell Marissa. “Ravagers aren’t created by a pox, and ravager toxin isn’t infectious. Ravagers are spread by an isopod that has to craw into your eye to get in, and it’s not subtle. If you lose vision in your dominant eye that returns in a few hours then you’re in trouble.” She took a deep breath, considering what to say next. Her instincts, long buried, warned against it.
“You know a lot about them.” Marissa replied.
[[Don’t. You know Mara won’t like it if you reveal that.]]
“Funny what happens when you try to study a disease rather than burn it and anyone infected.” E4 heard a low clicking sound as some of the instruments indicated the chamber was ready to go. By this time she was down to just a linen shirt that barely covered her thighs. “I guess that’s my cue. If you like, I can try to write up a proper report once I’ve got my Intellect stat back.” She said, finally getting into the coffin. “One last thing, no matter what he tells you, don’t take anything Kindred gives you. He’s not above using poison to get rid of his detractors.” She flashed a smile. “That’s how I know your antitoxin tastes like hemlock.”
For the second time everything went white. For a single moment E4 felt her body go white hot, then ice cold. She felt her hands twitch, though this time they did not split. Pressure did not suddenly grow in her skull, rather it felt more gradual, as if she had a head cold, before the sensation suddenly vanished. For a moment E4 wondered if Mara had figured out how to make her isopod grow quickly, or if it had been when she was struck by lightning. As the thought passed through her mind she realized it was done.
With contemptuous ease she pushed open the coffin. Her Hymn reminded her she was naked, and with a gesture she wove from her own skin a new gown.
[[Flesh-woven gown: A gown made to be disposable yet soft. Is very comfortable despite its material, and tough enough to shrug off both blades and small caliber bullets. Can self repair ATP: 2/2. Signal 1. Max signal 2. Efficiency 50%. Upkeep 1ATP/week.]]. As she made the outfit E4 felt a sense of understanding return to her mind. [[Genetic memory has restored Fast Fabrication.]] A moment later she noticed Marissa had left her an outfit, and she quickly swapped most of the fabricated clothing.
[[New skill obtained: Ravager fighting style]]. E4 waited for some form of understanding to drop, but nothing did. [[No, I’m not sure exactly what this is either. Maybe there’s a way to exert ATP or Aether to improve your claws, but we do that anyhow. I’m guessing this just makes it official. More research is required, maybe a better name- Red Queen]]
E4 dressed quickly, and just in time as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She quickly straightened up before Marissa could open the door.
“Oh, you’re up.” Marissa set down the tome she carried and checked her pocket watch. “After what happened last time I expected you to be finished quickly, but that was fast. Normal charging takes 12 hours or more.”
“It felt like a blink, like one moment I’m getting in the next I’m done.” E4 replied, stretching. She immediately noticed an issue. “Mistress,” She tugged on her blouse, “I don’t remember my last shirt being this tight.”
“Must be an effect of being charged.” Marissa replied unconvincingly. E4 knew she had done something, though it wasn’t entirely her doing.
“Yes, I think I’ve grown.” E4 stepped next to her mistress, almost uncomfortably close, especially given she wore only a thin cream colored nightgown. “I think I’m just a bit shorter than you now, call it 180?”
“Probably, I’m 190.” Marissa replied. “You know, I think you look better in this body, stronger than the last one, a little more,” She glanced down and E4 rolled her eyes. “The eye thing is a little odd, you don’t see heterochromia in The Distant Shores very often. It’s exotic,” She paused. “Um… E4, what were the first stages of infection again?” She took a step back. “Just curious.”