Scorch
Scorch found himself being chained back to the bedpost, still collared at the neck and once again sprawled out on the bed.
His slaver had grown bored with the fight, it seemed, and dragged him back up here to her little room. It was a likely unintentional, and ironic, act of kindness and mercy to the half-dragon; he could barely bring himself to look at the three gladiators slaughtering each other.
He prayed for the survival of the prisoners with every fiber of his being, though it seemed unlikely, as the raider barely even acted like they had touched her through the fight, while they themselves had taken a lot of punishment.
As for him, he was being tended to by his mistress, who herself was returning to the bed and forcing him, once again, into a one-sided embrace. She was clearly hungry for more; then again, why wouldn't she be? This was her first day with, as well as one of the few raiders that had, a sex slave, and surely she would take advantage of him every chance she got.
"Ready for round two, handsome?" she hissed, a caustic brew of amorousness and sadism at his plight in her voice.
"I can't say I am... not that my input would change anything..."
"That's right." she growled, pleased at his submission. "Keep up this good behavior, and I might even allow you a few more freedoms under my command... of course, you have to prove consistent in demonstrating your worth..."
She began to bring their muzzles back together for another kiss; another act of desire that sapped his strength rather than bestow it, bringing no pleasure- only a feeling of gray, bland emptiness.
And that's when they heard gunfire and screaming.
The soldier immediately jumped off of him, gathering her sniper rifle and checking it for ammunition before turning back to him, using her telekinesis to undo the lock tethering the chain to the bed, before using said telekinesis to grasp his chain and yank him along.
"Come on. Something's causing trouble down there."
They both ran(he having little other choice to avoid being strangled by the collar) down the flights of stairs, ultimately running out of the vacant lobby wrought with rusted, mobile coat hangers, torn-up check-in desks, and destroyed sofas and into the encampment outside- and witnessed total anarchy before them.
Raiders were scrambling around in a maddened panic, with numerous carriages who were occupied by other changeling ghouls speeding around.
Scorch didn't exactly see the reason behind the panic. I mean, it was just raiders with car-
One of the vehicles, with a makeshift gunner's turret crafted into the roof, fired upon one of the drones with a machine gun, tearing the raider apart in seconds. His shredded body slumped onto the ground, the only movements being violent twitching, jade blood pooling from his corpse.
What?
That wasn't natural. If there was one thing that defined the Wretched Hive and the reason behind their success, it was their lack of infighting. What reason or benefit was there to divide a faction, and one that works so well, against itself in such a fashion?
He felt himself being forcibly yanked towards a light post, dragged over by his small length of chain. When she managed to get him over there, she locked him to the structure.
"Stay." the soldier ordered, readying her weapon.
"Wait, you're leaving me here?" he asked, shocked- though the reality was, Scorch shouldn't have been too surprised.
"I'm gonna go up on the balcony and nail these suckers from afar! I'm gonna show these Locusts who's boss!"
She proceeded to fly upwards towards the metal catwalks that stretched upward through the condo complex, undoubtedly to stake a position to bring death from above. However, before that could even be achieved, another carriage sped by, this time armed with a makeshift rocket turret. The hostile vehicle fired a rocket upward, and Scorch followed the rocket with his eyes, ultimately leading to his mistress, who was still flying upward when she became consumed in an explosion of fire and debris.
Scorch got down, covering his head to shield himself from any rubble(and stray body parts) that would land on him. He got back up, and looked to his chain. He couldn't unlock it; he had no key or anything to pick the lock, and he had no skill in magic that did the job. The chain itself was magic-proof, so teleportation wasn't an option. And even if he wasn't suffering from malnutrition, he wouldn't be strong enough to pry apart the collar around his neck.
"There he is!"
He turned his head over so quick he himself was surprised it didn't break. Running his general direction were two figures- both of them the prisoners that fought in the arena. He recognized the broken-horned Unicorn ghoul in a heartbeat(he had only discovered she was a ghoul when she recovered from the gunfire in the shootout back at the plaza- before, he had thought she was just a scarred, veteran wanderer), limping severely as she moved forward(her legs likely still healing a little) but the other was one he had never actually encountered. Of course, he recognized the Griffon for his role in the gladiator fight, but nothing more.
The Griffon charged up to him, roughly grabbing the hybrid by his collar- before yanking it apart, much to his amazement.
"Th-thank you. But how were you..."
"Buck can give you the strength to do next-to-anything, kid. Speaking of which..."
He flexed his wings from within the confines of his body manacle. The metal briefly chafed, creaking as they stretched out on his sides, before popping off his body and clattering to the ground, his wings unfurling.
"Mmmph!" He grunted as he took the time to stretch them to their limits, inducing faint cracking and popping noises as he did so. His posture finally relaxed, he sat back down. "Finally! My wings were clamped like that for far too long!"
Scorch turned to his companion, addressing her. "Did you convince him to help us?"
"No. If anything, the opposite was true- he dragged me here to save your rear end. I wouldn't have bothered."
Oh. Hearing that was... disheartening.
The Griffon brought him back to reality. "We need to move. We should get our crap and escape while the Locust Horde is giving them a much more important distraction than us."
Locust Horde... Yhuul had said called the hostiles Locusts as she was departing... perhaps that was what she meant. He had never heard of a subdivision of changeling ghouls that wasn't loyal to the Wretched Hive; perhaps this Griffon could provide some insight on the matter.
"Hey, numbskull, you coming?!" He heard a female voice calling. He came back down to earth to see that the others were already a good distance ahead of him. Cursing under his breath in both annoyance and surprise, the former being mostly directed at himself, he sprinted behind them, following their lead.
They returned to the pool area and proceeded to look around for their possessions, keeping an eye out for both the Roaches and the carriage-riding Locusts to see if they tried anything sneaky while they searched. He himself had been investigating underneath the lifeguard tower when he heard the Unicorn call out to them. "I found our stuff!"
Converging on her spot, he and the Griffon came up to a decrepit, unlocked chest near what used to be a snack bar, and, indeed, many of their items were within- potentially saved as a reward for whoever won.
Although his clothes were not within, likely thrown away(which was currently more of a shame than it typically was, as the violation he had suffered only a few hours ago made him really averse to being exposed), but at least his most important possessions, his combat saddle and Tirek's Middle Claw, where within.
Also within the chest was a pair of leather pouches, a belt and holster and a revolver that was a spiraling blend of color running down the gun, a tornado of blindingly bright shades of violet, orange, yellow, white, pink, and cyan. The only dull color was on the barrel; black paint had been used to write the word "Vengeance" on it. The Griffon, as soon as he saw it, immediately snatched it from the tub and began inspecting it as thoroughly and caringly as someone else would a foal.
As the stranger tossed and turned the gun in his grasp, Scorch was able to get a much better look at it. On top of the barrel was a maroon triangle pointing downward toward a dial that was divided into six separate spaces; each space had a word written in tiny print within it. The six settings were labelled as follows; "Arcane", "Image", "Morale", "Wartime", "Peace", and "Awesome", with the arrow currently pointing towards "Arcane". While it's apparent owner had it turned upside down, Scorch thought that a different word- "Ministries' "- had been painted on the opposite side, thought it was harder to tell turned the way it was.
Deciding to cease focusing on the revolver, given their environment, he decided to suit up into his saddle and gun. While he did so, the Griffon finally stopped inspecting the gun, proceeding to twirl it around in his hand, giving a brief laugh in satisfaction. "Good thing the bastards barely touched it! I'm telling you, they would have had Tartarus to pay if they had damaged this thing!"
The Griffon snatched up the two bags and his belt and sheathe as well, briefly opening them up before closing them again, smiling in content, and slinging the drawstrings around his wrists. He then put on the belt and slid his gun within the holster.
"Alright then, is everybody done?" the group's ghoul asked impatiently, her teeth bared(you can't really hide much with a cheek torn off). She had her guitar slung across her back; she must have grabbed it and not noticed the action, or even the guitar, for that matter, when he was looking at the Griffon's peculiar gun.
Scorch looked at Tirek's Middle Claw. "I'm down to two bullets, but that's something we need to access later. Until then, I'll just make both shots count."
"And I got plenty of ammunition for Ministries' Vengeance here in my pouches."
"So we're good, then. Alright, let's get out of here!"
And with that, they began hastily looking around for an escape, a way to exit the city. They made sure to try to stay out of sight of fleeing raiders and marauding vehicles that where rampaging across the ruins of Vanhoover; at this point, it had spread far beyond the encampment, as raiders tried to escape the city on both flight and hoof. Nowhere was safe; raiders would be chopped down on the ground, and these "Locusts" seemingly had peerless long-range weaponry, as even when he looked up, he could see ash-grey shapes dropping from a good distance above the city.
They were currently hiding within an alleyway, hiding out and keeping an eye out for a way to proceed with escape. Scorch looked over to outside the alleys, out into the streets beyond. He saw a female changeling ghoul run into his line of sight, only to be shredded to bits via machine-gun fire. A carriage sped by her dead body, it's occupants laughing cruelly. Scorch couldn't help but feel a twinge of pity; even for a raider, dying in such a way was just... eeaugh!
Deciding to take his attention off of it, he looked over to the other streetway, creeping over to the edge of the alley to look around for something.
And that's when he did see something- almost like a blessing from the Royal Sisters themselves.
A military hangar, and from the looks of it, it hadn't even been pilfered by the Roaches yet. Surely their would be some sort of aircraft in there that could get them out of here!
He tapped both other individuals on their shoulders, getting their attention. "Follow me."
They did as he advised, silently but swiftly slinking across the street over to the hangar doors, slipping into the hangar in-between the closed doors.
They entered a wide area shrouded in shadow and darkness, a void in which nothing could be seen. However, all other senses were applicable, and the Griffon quickly made this obvious.
"Disgusting. It smells like something died in here."
"What's your name?"
"What does this have to do with what I just said?"
"I doubt we would do well as a team if I just referred to you as Griffon."
"Fair point. Kenny."
"Well then, Kenny, I should remind you that this is the apocalypse- so something probably did. And... what's your name?"
"He literally just told you his name!"
"I think he was meaning your name, young lady."
"Whatever. Do you actually need my help at the moment?"
"Why, yes, thank you for asking. Use your horn and shed some light around here so we can find the light switch."
"Why can't you do that? You're a Unicorn as well, are you not?"
"Don't you think that if I did know illumination, I would have used it? Besides, it's not that big of a favor to ask."
The room filled with a dim, jade-hued light, lightning dancing all across her horn and mildly illuminating her ruined face as she scouted the room, looking around for the light switch. Eventually, she found it on the left side of the room, near the doors, and pulling it in kind, giving light to the long-abandoned area. Over in the back of the massive room was a massive helicopter, with two pairs of steadying mechanical legs keeping it above the ground.
"Amazing." Scorch baffled, awed. He immediately ran over to it, scanning it over with his Pipbuck for readings. Once he finished, he checked the screen. "Just as I believed- this is a cloudship. A Vertibuck, at that. You'd think that the prospect of a military hangar would excite the Roaches, get them to actually see what's inside, but I guess not."
He ran over a couple of more scans on the Vertibuck, checking on it's condition and ability. "And it's in astonishingly good condition. I don't think it was ever actually used in combat."
"So it'll fly?" Kenny asked, nonchalantly spinning his revolver on one of his claws.
Turning back toward them, he nodded. "All I need is some gas, and it should work just fine."
Scorch had turned his head back toward the Vertibuck, and proceeded to look around for gasoline- when he heard a creaking noise from the other side of the building. He turned over to the entrance, with Kenny and their Unicorn accomplice looking the same way as him, to see the slightly-open doors being pushed apart by a pair of giant, ash-grey hooves, monstrous growls of strain emancipating from the other side.
'You hold off whatever's at the door!" he told them, returning his attention to the aircraft before him. "I'll get this baby some juice!"
While Scorch worked on finding fuel for the helicopter, Kenny, revolver in talon, trained it on the door.
"Trust me, whatever's coming out ain't even gonna touch you."
As the door gave way, thunderous footsteps rattled the hangar, and Scorch spared a look behind him to see what abomination had entered.
It was a hulking ghoul that stood at nine feet tall and twelve feet long, with orange splatters dotting it's body. It had a monstrously deformed face, with a mass of flesh melting over it's eyes, to the point where only the muzzle and horn were visible, the latter jutting out of the boiled-over exoskeleton. Scorch immediately recognized it as the Twisted that had knocked him and his ghoul companion out earlier.
"Hey, uh... what's your name?"
"He only told you a few minutes ago!"
"Again, he was probably talking to you."
"Well, does it matter? We clearly have an unwelcome guest that we need to attend to!"
"That's what I'm talking about! Do the One-Two Punch with Kenny! You know, that thing we did back with the group of raiders!"
Kenny smirked mockingly. "You know, for someone who says they're more fond of working alone, you two already seemed to have a little battle technique going."
"That was his idea, not mine!"
Radroach, thirsty for carnage, took advantage of their inaction and, using whatever vestigial remnants of his magic he could access, charged a swirling green energy in his horn.
"So how does this One-Two Punch work, I may ask?"
"She zaps something, or someone, with her lightning, and then the other person attacks it and anything, or anyone, else the lightning chained to while they're stunned." Scorch explained, though he had returned to frantically searching for gasoline and was not facing either of them, nor the Twisted they were facing.
"Sounds like a good enough strategy to me." the Griffon concluded. He pulled back the hammer of the gun, producing an audible click. "We'll show this big crapsack who's bo-"
A pained groan interrupted him, and Kenny looked over to see the ghoul behemoth fire a beam of green energy upon him. Still under the effects of the drugs given to him in the arena, he was able to leap out of the way, the beam only grazing him as it struck the concrete floor, boring through the hardened substance in a hail of fragments and dust upon impact.
Finally entirely focused on their respective tasks, Scorch continued his search for fuel while the other two held the Twisted off. The Unicorn fired a bolt of lightning upon the goliath, stunning it, while Kenny opened fire upon it while the Twisted was incapacitated.
The bullet was shrouded in a deep purple glow, leaving a slowly-fading trail of similarly-colored light behind it as it flew forth from the muzzle. As it struck the changeling, the point of contact erupted into an explosion of violet fire that spread along the changeling's body, albeit only for a brief instance. The ghoul's exoskeleton healed over only slightly, given it's lack of extensive harm.
The Unicorn ghoul briefly looked over towards Kenny, genuinely amazed.
"Did your gun just do that?"
"If you like this thing on "Arcane", just you wait to see what else this can do."
The Twisted fired upon the group again, this time aiming at the other ghoul in the room. She was sent flying across the room, slamming into the helicopter at breakneck speeds, although her abilities as a glowing ghoul allowed her to regenerate from her fractured bones soon enough. Getting back up, she fired another dose of lightning upon the brute, causing it to stagger back slightly as green energy danced across it's body. Kenny fired another shot from his revolver, this time blowing off it's front left leg. Although the stump was fixing itself, it was considerably slower than before.
And that's when it did something that caught them both off guard- it proceeded to create a trio of green balls of energy that swirled around it's horn, for an instant, before flying towards them. She took her blast to the chest, but her regeneration allowed her to heal completely, drawing off the balefire in the atmosphere. As for Kenny, he successfully evaded both of them, jumping out of the way and the blasts exploding at either side of him. He recoiled, merely for a moment, as if having a heart attack, before he returned to his stance, gun once again ready.
He turned to his fellow combatant. "Ready to finish him off?"
She nodded, and they both fired upon the hulking raider simultaneously, ending the abomination's life in an explosion of arcane energy, plasma, and green slime.
They both turned towards Scorch, who was just finishing pouring in gasoline for the Vertibuck. He ran in and turned the key in the ignition, causing the propellers to start spinning before turning his gaze to them from within the cockpit.
"You two, man the guns. We're getting out of here."
"You know how to fly that thing?" Kenny asked somewhat doubtingly, nonetheless clambering in, holstering his pistol and grabbing ahold of the turret.
"No, but you haven't either, and I doubt anyone else here is going to offer us flight lessons."
As if to enunciate his point, more feral screeches came from the outside; they had likely heard the shootout with the Twisted and had come to investigate(in spite of being attacked by a much more prevalent force... or were the attackers coming to investigate? It didn't matter.).
The Unicorn ghoul, looking back towards the opened doors once, finally entered the cloudship and took up the other turret. Scorch looked down on the cyclic bar to his right, grasping it in one of his talons.
He prayed to the Royal Sisters that fortune would favor him this time- while simultaneously begging them to not make the situation another cruel joke like the last time he had prayed for their intervention- before turning the cyclic to the right, wheeling around towards the hangar doorway and swiftly driving toward it, just as Wretched Hive began to congregate upon the entrance, the Roaches swarming upon them.
Thank goodness that did what he thought it did.
The helicopter barreled through them with ease, sending them flying out of his way, as Scorch took a turn to the left, driving down the street and into the open area ahead. Turning his head downwards, he looked around frantically for the controls to ascend. He finally laid his eyes upon the collective, grabbing ahold of it and yanking it backward, causing the vehicle to begin it's ascension. Pressing his back hooves down on the petals, he used them to turn the helicopter a full ninety degrees as it continued skyward, facing the east side of the city before he shifted the cyclic forwards, proceeding to fly off.
If he was being honest, he had just been fiddling around with the controls and hoped that it would work, and was grateful on his success in that so far.
He proceeded to fly over the city, continuously ascending into the skies, reaching nearly a mile into the air. He heard the two in the back firing off their turrets; he could only assume more Wretched Hive and Locusts were attempting to board the vehicle, and the fact that they were still flying gave the implication that they were successful in holding them off- thank goodness.
Eventually, he spared a look behind from the cockpit, and saw Vanhoover miles behind them. Kenny and their other teammate had ceased fire, further given the implication that they were in the clear.
He smiled, equal parts triumph and relief. 'We made it. We actually survived.'
He had hardly eaten anything, he was even lower on ammunition than he was before, and he had even endured some nasty wounds today(to both his body and self-esteem), but he was still alive, and at the moment, he was just fine the way it was.
Truly relaxing for the first time that day, he thrust the collective forward, and the Vertibuck began it's slow descent to the barren earth below.