"You sure it's coming?! Richard!"
"Seriously... It's.... right behind us!"
Sawyer has about half a second to look up and dodge out of the way before a large figure comes crashing into them up from behind the containers. As containers and pipes began to fall down in front of them, a smoke cloud arose and Sawyer frantically looked around for the cryptid.
The monster in the smoke moved forward at them, but before he could even catch sight of it, Richard swung his axe with great force at the silhouette in front of him. He hits something, though it's tough and isn't staggered much by his impact. The smoke clears, revealing the cryptid.
Indeed, it was shaped like a large bear, though hairless, its dark brown skin a rough texture. Small pimples covered its body and face and its legs were like the prints before - four legs each like a large human hand but with only three fingers.
"Hey, you ugly bastard." Richard mumbles to it as his axe barely scrapes it and he retracts it. A smile, a twisted grimace spread across the Gumberoo's face and below it was a nasty looking patch of hair, like a beard if you could even call it that.
"Richard, watch out!" Sawyer calls out to Richard, who was met with a counter attack from the cryptid. One of its front legs is hurled at Richard's chest, sending him to the side, flinging him into a pile of mops. His vision becomes blurry, a ringing in his ears from the impact. The Gumberoo then sets its sights on Sawyer, turning to him with the same grimace on its face and rushing at him.
It opens its mouth in an attempt to bite off a chunk of Sawyer, however it clamps its many human - like teeth and bites nothing, as Sawyer jumps out the way, dashing past it and slicing it with his sword.
Barely a scrape on its skin.
After dashing behind it he instead tries to stab it. The cryptid swiftly turns around flailing its front leg at him. Sawyer's sword stabs into its arm, and once again he's met with his attack causing barely a scratch to the thing.
A gunshot rang out. A bullet from above hit the Gumberoo in the body, stunning the cryptid for a second.
Up above on the railings, Jericho kneels down and shoots at the cryptid. The impact of his bullets on the monster leaves him unwavering as he reloads to shoot once more.
During the moment of the cryptid's daze from the sniper's attack, Sawyer had managed to turn around and bolt away around the wall of containers.
"Richard, go around to the exit, make sure it's secured. Jericho, go to the side left of where we entered and wait for my signal." The radio message is sent out by Sawyer as he sprints away from the cryptid, occasionally shooting back at it to provoke it to follow him.
Though his back feels like it's burning from the collision, Richard stands up and scouts around to register where the others have run off to. He remembers Sawyer's command to secure the exit and rushes over to the other side of the building. He hears several gunshots growing distant, as Sawyer distracts the cryptid pursuing him. Upon making it to the warehouse gate, Richard sees that the gate is closed and reports back to Sawyer on his radio mic.
"Gate's closed! Where are you guys so I can-" Richard stops his report as hears another gunshot, but this time it came from above the warehouse. A portion of the glass roof shatters from the bullet's impact and glass shards fall down below.
As the noise of Jericho and Sawyer fighting the Gumberoo continue, Richard looks around to find any signs of the new arrival. His vision goes blurry, but he sees something close.
Something floating past him.
Another monster.
Richard's vision returns to normal as he stares, dumbfounded. It was fairly small, about the width from his elbow to his fingers. A slightly pointy face attached to a body that reassembled an organ, like a heart or a lung, with nerve endings dangling at the end of it as it floated in air as if it was a fish in water.
The mysterious amalgamation's eye gently quivered around in its socket, looking around and eventually meeting Richard's gaze - whom it ignored.
"Guys?" Richard speaks into the radio mic attached to his tanktop, surprised at the cryptid for simply floating past him. He hadn't seen such a strange looking cryptid yet, let alone seen one defy gravity. "There's another cryptid here."
No response.
"Shit." Richard looks to where the floating cryptid is heading and runs after it. Guided by the mysterious entity through the maze of containers, Richard finally finds Sawyer and Jericho peppering bullets into the cryptid as they dodge behind containers at each hammering attack from the monster.
A strong charge from the cryptid causes it to ram into a container crate, knocking over onto Sawyer. He manages to dash out of the way in time, but it was soon revealed to be a calculated trick from the Gumbero.
Its twisted grin closed in on Sawyer, who hadn't yet recovered his balance from jumping out of the way of the falling crate. It opened its mouth wide, several rows of teeth hurled themselves at Sawyer's face.
The space between Sawyer and the incoming cryptid is suddenly blocked. There, stands Richard, holding the Gumberoo's jaw open in place. Restraining the entity in place as his muscles tighten up to push back against the force of its jaw.
It abruptly pulls back from Richard's grasp, leaving him stunned leaning forwards.
Flicking its head to the side, the cryptid prepares to crunch Richard.
As soon as it turns its head, a shape flickers by the eyes of unit 24 and slams the cryptid out of the way.
Sawyer and Richard slightly back away, as they see the unexpected situation unfolding in front of them -
Another cryptid attacking the Gumberoo.
It had flashed before their eyes with incredible speeding and power, knocking away the Gumberoo and now tearing into it.
In front of them, a fleshy, strong - framed humanoid with a close thin - lipped mouth, two misplaced eyes on its face and scar - like suction holes on its cheeks and shoulders, grabbing and holding down the Gumberoo. Its mangled hands sinking into the
impenetrable, or so thought, cryptid. Jericho, who's still standing on the railing aiming his sights down, too watches in surprise as another cryptid has appeared and begins to dig its hands into the target, who can only struggle and shake to escape its grasp.
The railing makes a faint noise, as if somebody or something had stepped on it, triggering a quick response from Jericho. As he turns his attention away from the two cryptids he turns his rifle and aims down at the source of the noise behind him. The thought of yet another unknown entity showing up to their location causes him to put a finger on the trigger, ready to shoot.
But he stops, as he sees the figure approaching in the shadows be that of a man. The light from the street lamps outside reflecting off the glass roof of the warehouse illuminating the oncoming man's face.
The man dressed in black shirt and baggy pants, a black scarf wrapped around his neck. His dreadlocks obscuring his face as he walks closer to Jericho.
"Hey, hey, don't shoot." He mumbles, keeping his voice down.
"You can't be in here." Jericho lowers his gun but keeps his guard up. "This building is off limits to the public, if you've gotten lost I can escort you out."
The man's eyebrows raise, the golden piercing on his left eyebrow also lifting.
"The hell? I'm your new teammate. Didn't get the memo?"
"Yeah, we did. But we didn't expect you to come in mid - mission. How'd you get in anyway?"
"Shot my way in through the roof."
"What? Why?"
"Convinience. I also wanted to make sure I wouldn't get ambushed by the cryptid."
Jericho just takes that reply and focuses on what's more important, "Sawyer, Richard, what's going on down there? Listen, the new guy's here with me." He says into his radio mic.
"It's dark in here." The man who had just arrived walks towards the edge of the railing and looks down.
"How did another cryptid get in here?!" Jericho says to himself, as if the possibility of the new member knowing was not even considered.
"The Berezovsky Miracle." The man says as he simply watches the two cryptids fight. Jericho's confused stare pivots to him as he talks.
"That cryptid will dig into the target, and eventually create suction holes in it that expand and destroy it."
The Berezovsky Miracle, a cryptid reported in Russia in the early nineteen hundreds. A man had found a monster in the forest, which he killed with a shotgun. Upon inspecting it, he laid eyes on a tall being with a disfigured face that was now gushing black blood. There had been no proof of this story however - no verification of the cryptids' existence. Not until only a few years ago from the current year, when a cryptid with a similar appearance to the Berezovsky Miracle story somehow appeared in the north of the USA.
On the floor of the warehouse, Richard and Sawyer keep their distance from the ongoing scene. The newly appeared cryptid, now identified as the Berezovsky Miracle, was sinking its hands into the Gumberoo, who struggles in an attempt to free itself. The Berezovsky Miracle's hands create two gaping holes that stretch and expand, destroying the flesh of the Gumberoo.
The newly arrived man takes something out of his pocket. "Oh right, the woman told me to use this." He takes out a mic chip, clipping it to his shirt and putting the receiver ear piece on his ear. "You two down there, can you hear me?"
Sawyer hears the unfamiliar voice over the radio. "Who is this?"
Standing on the edge of the railing, the man looked at Sawyer and Richard down below. Jericho looks at him as the man turns to him, and something floats past. The fish - like, floating cryptid from before hovers around the man.
"You can call me Lex."