CHAPTER 34
The team moved to the base of the Tortoiseshell, and began to push through. For Nick, the feeling was electric. The light he could see from any Altered suffused the dome like the sun, and unlike when he was looking at his friends, he could feel it. Cait had said she'd tried to taste it on the way through in the sim, comparing it to licking a battery. Nick imagined that this is what it felt like inside one.
The power coursed in and through him, igniting whatever mechanism in him sensed the power of the Waves. He got the feeling it could have been extremely unpleasant, but the nurturing, protective nature of Shelly and her ability instead made it feel as though the air itself was giving him a hug after rubbing its feet along a shag carpet.
They pulled through, and Nick immediately picked back up on the scent. Outside of the 'Shell, where the battle hadn't raged, the iron scent on their quarry was easy to pick out. He didn't love Warhawk calling him a hunting dog, but it was an apt comparison. He pointed northeast and began to make his way through the forest, swinging through the trees as the team jogged to keep up.
As he moved, he felt the brush of Sonder's mind against his. While the girl grew more comfortable in the team, she was getting better about diversifying her connections. He opened himself to it, and was surprised to find Cait's emotions networked in. She was radiating an uncharacteristic calm and comfort to Kennedy as the goth hero started to use the flesh tendrils she got from Nick to sling through the trees. Nick picked up that he needed to send the same support, and did his best, trying to focus on the way Gwyn made him feel. Safe, supported, and accepted.
The scent was strong enough here that he was able to concentrate on both for now, and the link slowly stabilized. They continued to trek through the woods, Warhawk soaring above and calling out any strange movement or landmarks. They'd spooked plenty of mundane animals, but hadn't yet rustled up any Altered Beasts.
"Warhawk, heads up," Gwyn's voice crackled over the comm. "Aerial target moving towards you fast, at your 8."
A muffled curse over the comms, the crack of gunfire, and then a semi-metallic crash sounded from above. Warhawk slammed through the canopy, wings interposed between her and a jet-black winged monstrosity that clawed at them furiously. It was overall catlike, but great feathered wings extended from its forelimbs and hind quarters, its tail a long fan. The wings had smoking holes from Warhawk's failed aerial defense.
Nick whipped himself over, forming himself into a makeshift net to slow her fall. It worked, but the claws of the flying cat turned on his tentacles. He hissed as its razor sharp claws tore through his skin.
Regeneration is great, I just wish the initial injuries didn't hurt so fucking much.
Cait was there in an instant, tackling the beast off of Warhawk and out of his web of tentacles. She got a limb under each of its own, locking its limbs down.
"Someone wanna finish this thing off?" she called.
"Hold up!" commed Lira, "That thing is new, and my reads are less great on dead things…. Hmmm…."
She made more thinking sounds as the beast hissed and struggled, but with Cait locked around it, it wasn't going anywhere. Dawn cautiously approached it, eyes glowing soothingly green.
"Looks like it's unique!" Lira said eventually. "Some sort of fusion between Crow and Puma, a Cruma, if you will. Wilds Witch, whatcha doin'?"
The Cruma's eyes were beginning to glow the green of Dawn's, and its agitated hisses and yowls had calmed to a deep rumbling. It was not entirely dissimilar to Salad's contented purrs, and Nick saw Cait start to rub the fur on its chest, though she kept her legs locked.
"It is okay, friend." Dawn crooned, her voice musical and heavy with magic. "We are not Beasts, nor are we here to compete for your prey."
The deer lady, showing a remarkable lack of survival instinct, placed a hand on the Cruma's muzzle, stroking along its nose. Instead of having a venison lunch, it nuzzled into her hand, the comparison to Cait's cuddly chonker now undeniable. Dawn cooed, and continued to stroke it, faint trails of magic tracing her touch.
"Wilds Witch," Warhawk asked, her voice calm but tinged with anger, "Are you making friends with the thing that just tried to eat me?"
"He wasn't trying to eat you, Warhawk. This is a beast like our friend Breastman, I can feel the scared kitten inside of him." Dawn continued to caress the Cruma, which visibly calmed with each stroke. "Kennedy, you can feel it too, can't you?"
Sonder dropped from where she'd been hanging using her tentacles, and Nick felt their link cut. Her hair took on a feathery quality and her back began to bulge against her shirt, before two raven wings burst forth. She gasped, smiling as her mind encompassed the Cruma's.
"Poor baby!" she said, carefully approaching Dawn, the Cruma, and Cait, who was looking more awkward by the second holding onto the thing. Sonder reached out a feather-laced hand to scratch it under the chin. "Dawn's right, this thing is young, and scared, but not aggressive by default. She's got more in common with her than she does the Coonbeasts. Obviously, we're keeping her."
"Fucking what!?" Yelled Warhawk, earning a growl from the Cruma. "Look! It'll eat me the second y'all take your minds off it!"
"Nooooooo," said Sonder, still skritching at the beast. "I'll keep her calm! And with this link…."
She flapped her new wings, rising a few feet into the air.
"I can keep you company!"
"You could do that by linkin' with me, Kenn!"
"I don't like linking with you, your anger bleeds." Kennedy glared at Warhawk, arms crossed and mind made up.
"For what it's worth, I'm in Sonder's head too," Cait volunteered. "I'm getting the bleed through from this thing, and it really does just seem like it was scared and confused, although with more of a dose of territorial than Sonder's letting on."
Kennedy turned her glare on Cait at that.
"But!" the blond bombshell continued, extricating herself carefully from the monster. "It seems happy as hell now. Especially with Sonder linked, it smells itself on her and likes that."
"Exactly!" Kennedy said, "Dawn, can you talk to her?"
The deer lady was still cooing and stroking the beast.
"I cannot," she answered, "but I can suggest. Friend, would you like a pack? Would you like to follow?"
Kennedy squeed and clapped her hands, doing a flip midair.
"I can feel a yes!" she squealed. "C'mon baby, follow mommy!"
With that, she flew up past the canopy. The Cruma, with a hesitant look around at the rest of the team, scrambled up a tree, kicking off of it to join its new friend.
"This ain't fuckin' Pokemon," growled Warhawk under her breath as she took off herself.
"For one who takes her power from nature," Dawn responded over comm, "I would think you would be more tolerant of such things."
"Y'all forget why we're here? We're beast huntin'! It's the rare Altered Beast that don't have an inborn hatred of anythin' what ain't it." Warhawk ranted, her accent growing more pronounced with agitation. "And this one in particular took me out the fuckin' sky!"
"Wilds Witch has a point, 'Hawk," said Bullrush, his angle obvious. "You know it's a numbers game. For us beastfolk, it's a crapshoot of if a human gets Altered and goes crazy, or if a deer becomes a wilderness saint, like Dawn."
"Thank you, Claudio. A very kind appellation." Dawn replied.
"Ah, fuck it," Warhawk replied. The group waited for her to continue, but she stayed quiet.
With Nick's odd senses, he could sense Kennedy and the Cruma in the sky. The girl was clearly trying to get the hang of her new wings, with the Cruma watching over her, seeming almost amused. Warhawk had resumed her wide figure 8's, scouting and only yelling advice to Kennedy when their paths crossed on her return loops.
As they progressed, the scent of Ironhide got stronger, not weaker. Barely perceptibly so, but enough for Nick to know they were on the right path. It led them in the opposite direction of the path they took in the Dreamscape. Instead of breaking out of the trees into farmland, the scenery did change but just to younger wilderness.
Most of the area they traversed had been farmland at some point, and that ancestry made itself known with patches of untended beans and corn. However, over the years since the Waves had forced civilization to huddle into points of light, the forest and general wilderness had made quick progress in retaking the once orderly fields. The trees were more sparse, and the undergrowth thicker as they made their way.
The dense grasses and weeds did provide cover for some particularly aggressive beasts, but nothing that really posed a threat to Nick. With his Altered sense alongside the rest of his suite, he couldn't really be surprised if he was paying attention. A Coonbeast leapt out of a burrow a few yards ahead of him, and was speared through the eye on a tentacle before it had finished its war cry. This did still have the unfortunate effect of putting everyone on edge, and progress began to slow.
As the hours piled on and miles fell away, everyone but Cait was starting to feel the strain of the trek through untracked terrain. There had been a long argument about what to name the Cruma, but after Kennedy reminded people she could send it targeted bloodlust, her word became law on that point. As night began to fall, the group had made about 20 miles, almost directly northwest of the city.
"Cheese and fuckin' rice," Cait groaned, "How far did this guy run?"
Based on Nick's sense of smell, a lot farther than this. He'd kept the scent, and it was still growing stronger, but when he compared it to the fresh scent of the Coonbeasts they'd fought today it was much, much weaker.
GONNA BE AWHILE, he informed the group, getting a giggle from Cait at the reminder of his new accent.
"Well shit." Warhawk said, calling a halt and landing in the middle of their formation. "Doesn't look like this is gonna be a daytrip, folks. Bastard must've run far enough to round up another big batch of his kin, since I expect y'all took out most've em in the area in that brawl yesterday. I'll call Samsara in for- oh hey!"
The teleporter flashed out of a mandala gate next to Warhawk, dropping two massive duffels and immediately stepping through another.
Cait raised her hand, immediately reconsidered, and just spoke.
"So, why is she dropping off supplies instead of taking us home?" she asked.
Good fucking question, actually.
"Heh, AEGIS policy," Warhawk answered with an evil grin. "Basically, we're bait out here, way it is for all combat patrols like this. If there's anything in the area that'll attack travelers at night, Swan would rather have it be us than a convoy of traders or civilians between here and New Chicago."
"Works for me!" Cait beamed, "I've begun to find getting chewed on relaxing."
"You for real?" Kennedy asked, landing with the Cruma in tow. "Because I bet Rose will take you up on it. She's been catching rabbits all day and I can still feel she's a hungy girl. Yes! Aren't you!"
"I still feel strongly that she's a Salad Jr.," Cait complained as the goth beauty scratched Rose under the chin, the beast's appreciative purrs filling the clearing they'd stopped in.
"Go on buddy, you can eat her, just a little bit." Kennedy and Cruma both turned predatory gazes on Cait, the gold of her eyes and the beast's primal yellow almost a match.
"Hey! Hey!" yelled Warhawk, glaring over from the tent she was setting up. "Already not happy about takin' in the stray, you give it a taste for human flesh we find out how the thing tastes in a stew!"
Kennedy put a hand to her chest in mock outrage, and Rose grumbled unhappily. Nick rolled over, putting out a tentacle towards the big catbird. She sniffed at it, then licked at it with a big rough tongue before rubbing her cheeks against it, the vibrations of her purrs coursing down the tentacle.
"She likes you!" Kennedy cooed.
Whatever she is, kinda surprised it doesn't have an instinctual fear for stuff like me built in.
Nick was happy she didn't though, as he started to play with Rose, dangling his tentacles like cat toys as the beast jumped and batted at them. He heard Cait approaching Kennedy behind him.
"The feathers look good," she said, standing close but not reaching out. "Glad you came back down so I can appreciate 'em."
"And you, annoyingly, don't look like you've spent all day in the summer heat trekking through the wilderness." Kennedy's tone didn't match her words, more appreciation than exasperation. "How the fuck is your hair still good?"
"Invulnerability from being ugly, I guess." Nick could feel Cait's smile in her tone. In the 360° view his senses provided, he saw Kennedy step forward to brush a strand of hair back over Cait's ear. As she did, he picked up a burst of fear scent from her. He'd noticed a trend of that. Anytime Kennedy went to touch another person, Cait, Lira, even her mom, there was a burst of that acrid stink. It had been worse with Cait a week ago, but now it had faded to a quickly dissipating whiff.
While Nick was distracted, Rose got her teeth into a dangling tentacle. Nick hissed in pain, and the catbird gagged as she got a mouthful of black blood.
Well, if I'm gonna play with her like that, probably better I don't taste like chicken.
"Hey! Rose! No biting!" Kennedy called, running over as Nick went to help pitch camp.