//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Meeting the Locals // Story: Hunters and Hollows // by thatguyvex //------------------------------// Episode 2: Meeting the Locals X would never let himself show it to his team, but he was nervous. The problem with reconnaissance missions was that it inherently meant dealing with unknown variables, and in his experience there were few things more dangerous to the success of a mission or the safety of the team than ‘unknown variables’. Take this fortress, for instance. Its sheer size suggested it was occupied by a substantial population, which if hostile could spell serious trouble for X and his small group of comrades. It wasn’t that he doubted his own martial prowess or that of his companions. He knew they each possessed a high degree of competence and strength, even in these reduced, human forms. Yet numbers were numbers, and X didn’t relish the notion of having to fight through an army of foes if he and his team were discovered and it turned out the occupants of this realm were hostile. Made him wish the master had given them a means of assuming their true forms. But he was a soldier and he’d work with what he had to complete the mission within parameters. As long as it didn’t overly risk the team. He couldn’t afford to lose any of them, and the thought left a combination of cold fear and a heated, angry spark in the back of his mind. He shoved both feelings away, letting calm, cold focus take over as he led the team towards the looming fortress. It’d been further away than a casual glance would have indicated, still requiring the group to spend nearly half an hour moving at a good clip over the sands to cross the distance to the walls. As they went, Gigan’s assertion that a battle had taken place here became only more confirmed as they passed obvious craters from explosions, and saw the wreckage of several vehicles. X saw what looked like broken fuselages and engines, perhaps from some kind of hover or aircraft. There were no bodies, but in a few places he saw dried patches of red drying the sands; old blood. Gigan’s scans indicated several days old, but no more.  That confirmed this realm had violent conflict, which didn’t necessarily bode well for having friendly interactions with the locals. X inwardly cursed the lack of cover available to conceal their approach. He didn’t see any lookouts, watchtowers, or even a window in the wall, but that didn’t mean the fortress might not have someone keeping watch somewhere. Fortunately their new clothing, all white and black, blended well with the desert, providing some camouflage.  “What’s this?”  Irys was the one who’d spoken, softly, as if worried of giving away their position. She’d paused to scoop something half buried in the sand as the others looked to her. What she was holding was a small, white military style cap with a short, black bill and some kind of silver emblem on the front. Upon a closer look the emblem looked like a five pointed cross.  “Must have belonged to a soldier from one of the two sides that fought here,” X deduced, his eyes narrowing slightly as he scanned the ground, “Although the lack of bodies is unusual, if the battle only took place a few days ago.” “Honestly wouldn’t fully trust my scans around here,” Gigan noted, “There’s enough weird energy interference in the air I could be off about how old the blood is.” “No, I don’t think you’re wrong,” Irys said, her nose wrinkling, “I can still smell traces of it. Blood, fear... bad things happened around here.” “We’ll find out more soon enough. Keep moving.”  At X’s words, Irys nodded and dropped the cap, and the group moved on, past the remains of what appeared to be smashed fortifications. It was as if someone has raised stone blocks from the sand and rapidly carved them into short walls and a small, pyramid shaped central fortification. Most of it was smashed to chunks of rubble, but it was impossible to miss what appeared to be weapon emplacements, or what was left of them. Beyond that was a field of craters, although most of them were being smoothed out by a very faint breeze that stirred the sands. More wreckage and a few more tattered remains of uniforms could be seen here, and more dried blood, but still no bodies. Nor any visible guards or patrols from the large fortess looming ever larger ahead. By unspoken agreement they made their way to the massive hole in the fortress’ wall, where enough rock rubble was strewn on the ground that they would have little trouble scaling it to reach the opening itself. The group did so quietly, moving at X’s occasional hand signal as he continued to check for signs of anyone that might spot them. Gigan’s scans continued to turn up not immediate locals, but he also said his internal scanners were getting more and more interference by the moment. Finally reaching the top of the rubble pile, the team could look inside the hole and see the fortress interior. “Hey guys, I’m no expert, but isn’t there supposed to only be skies on the outside of buildings, not inside?” asked Megalon, “Because either I’m seeing things, or that’s a sky in there.” “You’re not seeing things, I see it too,” Gigan said flaty, face drawn in a confused frown as he tried to push his scanners to make sense of what they were seeing. Within the fortress was a massive, open space. More desert existed under what appeared to be a pure blue sky streaked with clouds, with no visible light source. Yet all was bathed in stark light as if under a mid-day sun. To their immediate right was a large bridge or interior wall that was a good twenty meters high that stretched from the exterior wall for what looked like kilometers towards the fortress center. In the distance, there, they could make out the shape of a multi-tiered interior keep, with multiple towers rising upwards into a central tower that speared upward until it seemed to vanish into thin air. The rest of the interior space wasn’t empty, the desert dotted with other cylindrical towers and buildings of varied colors. Most were white, but a few were red or yellow, with one tower off to the left appearing to be onyx black. Some looked to be closer to small palaces or castles rather than towers, and somewhere to the distant right of where the team stood, a huge dark canyon cut through the desert like a wound. This also wasn’t the only hole in the wall they could see. The battle must have struck the inside of the fortress as well, because it was hard to miss the giant melted pathway over a hundred meters wide and kilometers long that ran from left to right, smashed through the interior wall, and struck the exterior wall on the far right side of where they could see. Another massive hole was left there, denoting the power of whatever beam or similar attack had caused the destruction. “Looks like somebody had a wild party in here,” Gigan said, tapping the side of his head in frustration as he scans kept coming back with fuzzy data. “Hard to be sure, but I think that’s actually a ceiling up there. I’m picking up solid mass high above our heads, but got no clue what’s causing the light, or making it look like a sky.” “This place is so huge we could be walking around in our normal bodies and have head room!” Megalon exclaimed, grinning. “Keep it down. We’re in stealth mode, remember?” said Gigan, and Megalon nodded, making a ‘zipping lips’ gesture. It took even less time for them to scale down the rubble on the interior of the wall than it had for them to climb on the outside. When they all got to the ground, X held up his hand, tilting his head as he listened to the sound of faint voices. He turned to the others, whispering, “Sounds like we’ve found the natives. Keep down, quiet, and let’s have a look.” As stealthily as a group of transformed kaiju could sneak the team crept forward along the bottom edge of the rubble pile, until they could slowly, one by one, peek around the corner at the source of the voices. There was a group of half a dozen beings that for the most part appeared human, although it didn’t take long for X and his team to notice the not-so-subtle differences. While having the standard issue arms, legs, and head all neatly attached to a torso that was the general human/bipedal norm, these people, male and female alike, each bore a distinctive hole that went right through their entire body. It’s location varied for each person. One had their hole right in the center of his chest, while another bore hers in her stomach, while yet another, for whatever reason, had the hole placed over his right hand. Regardless of where the hole as, it was always perfectly round, and could be seen clear through, regardless of its size.  Which would logically mean some of these folks must be missing internal organs, yet they were standing around, chatting, and playing some sort of dice game using an upturned, polished human skull as a bowl.  Other distinctive features included odd ornaments of bone that ranged from odd helmets, to partial jawbones, to just random bone white fragments upon brows or laced into hair. However a moment of inspection showed these weren’t separate ornamentation that were being worn, but rather something fused to the individual’s body, like some kind of bio-organic armor, albiet so small and decorative it couldn’t fulfill that function. Besides that, these people had the same random color and skin tones that were consistent with the humans who occupied the realm that the Dark Hunters were already familiar with to a degree, which was a much broader range than the usual humans from Terra.  The only other thing X noted was that each of these people were wearing clothes similar to what he and his team had come out of the portal with; all white and black, in various simple cuts and fashions. That, and each of them was armed with some manner of blade sheathed at their sides, or carried across the back. No guns or other advanced looking weapons, but that didn’t put X at ease. Without knowing for certain what these people were capable of, physically, he had to assume those swords were as much a threat as any other weapon might be. His team was thankfully silent as they listened to the conversation, even Megalon knowing full well at this point to not make a peep. “That’s two Gillians and an Adjuchas,” one of the people said, a black haired female with thin eyes and a thinner smirk  as she pointed to the recent die role, “Doesn’t beat my Vasto Lorde.” The man who’d just tossed the dice, a burly fellow with long, brown hair, scoffed and kicked the skull they’d been using for a bowl over, “This game is stupid anyway. We’re not even betting anything.” “You got a better way to pass the time, dumbass?” the woman said with a sneer, standing up from her crouching stance, hand already going to her sword. “Maybe I do! Guarding this hole is a waste of time, the Quincy ain’t coming back after the ass kicking we gave them, and honestly I’d rather kick your ass to kill the time than toss dice.” “Uh, should we stop them?” asked another fellow of a nearby compatriot, who just shrugged and smiled. “Nah, let them fight. This’ll be more fun to watch, and they’ve been needing to let off steam since their Espada got demoted.” As one the bickering pair wheeled on the speaker, both with their swords instantly appearing in their hands, the woman shouting, “Watch your mouth! Your Espada got his ass beat by just two Quincy, while Lord Guto did what nobody else has ever done and captured a freakin’ Sternritter! What’d Torch accomplish, eh!?” The other two, now both wearing dangerous looks, squared off with the pair and soon had their own weapons drawn. The instigator, a intellegual looking man with a narrow face and swept back blue hair smiled coldly, “Lord Torch fought one of the most powerful Quincy to a standstill, while your Guto barely defeated one of the weaker Sternritter, then as I recall, pulled his forces out of the fight. Meanwhile us real Arrancar were left to carry the day and send the Quincy running with the blood of their comrades still staining the dunes outside our walls. Then, just to add the perfect cherry on top, a newcomer surpasses Guto and becomes the new Sixth Espada, kicking your master down a notch. Am I missing anything?” “You’re about to be missing several limbs,” promised the burly fellow, but just a it seemed that things were going to turn to blows, there was a fierce bellow from one of the others. “Enough!”  The command was followed by what X could only liken to a pressure wave that billowed out from the individual who spoke. He couldn’t really see it, but there was a distinct wave of energy he could sense on some deep, fundamental level that washed over him. He saw the sands around the speaker stir outward as if from a gust of wind, and her body was briefly wreathed in a gleam of faint green light that clearly wasn’t natural. She stood, and wasn’t a particular tall woman, but the other... Arrancar stepped back from her. Well muscled by petite, the woman had a head of short cut white hair, tinged around the tips a faint green. Yellow eyes regarded her companions with a sullen harshness as she spoke. “Last time I checked, we’re here to guard, not waste time arguing. The first one of you that tries anything is going to regret the idiocy.” “But Greta,” complained the black haired girl, “You heard what they’re saying about Lord Guto!” “I hear it, and what of it? You think Lord Guto gives two craps what a pair of pissants from Torch’s horde think? Don’t let them bait you into a fight, Giselle. We can’t afford this right now. All of you settle down, and while you’re at it, get back to your designated guard posts.” “Why?” sputtered the brown haired fellow, holding out his hands with a bored look, “There’s nothing out there and the Quincy ain’t coming bac-” Before he finished his sentence, the woman named Greta simply vanished. Or rather, she moved with such speed that to normal eyes she’d have appeared to vanish. X saw it, he’d seen opponents who could move with such speed, but it was still a bit of a shock at how instantaneously the woman moved. No human could pull off such a maneuver.  She was on the man in less than an eyeblink, gripping his face with her hand. He was easily over a foot taller than her small frame, but she could still easily reach his head, and swiftly slammed his face against the rock of the nearby rubble pile with enough force to shatter the first chunk of stone and grind him into the next one.  “Question my orders again, and all that’s going to be left of you is a smoking crater,” Greta said in a voice like venting steam pipe, and her statement was punctuated by a glow of red energy that gathered in her other hand, forming a pulsing sphere of crimson light.  The man whose face was currently kissing rock looked at her with a sweat soaked, fearful gaze and was quick to say, “I get it! I get it! I won’t talk back again!” Greta slowly released him and stood back, the red orb of energy fading from her other hand as she put both hands on her hips, nodding in satisfaction, “Good, because we lost enough people already, so it’d be a shame to have to axe you for being an idiot. Now all of you, get back to your damn posts.” X took that as a clear enough signal for them to get out of sight, and turned to signal to his team to move back to where the rubble pile met with the towering interior wall. Keeping low, they quietly moved to the wall’s edge and started following it to the left, away from the giant hole and pile of rock rubble. There was still no real cover, but the interior desert had a few short sand dunes, and X led the others towards the nearest one. Hopefully they’d reach it before any of these ‘Arrancar’ on guard noticed them. Fortunately it seemed their guard posts were set up to look outward for enemies in the desert beyond the wall, not inward for anything that might have already sneaked inside. The Dark Hunters got behind a sand dune that was situated up against the wall and once they were hidden behind it, they all took a moment to let out relieved breaths. “Well, we’re in,” said Gigan, “Here’s hoping getting out is just as easy.” “I don’t suppose your scanners picked up any detail on just what those guards are?” asked X, “Because I’m going to surmise that despite appearances, they definitely aren’t human.” Gigan tapped his sunglasses, a small whir of mechanical noise barely audible behind them, “I was close enough to get some data without too much interference. Whatever is powering that light show the angry chick pulled off, it wasn’t Equestrian magic or the kind from Terra, nor based on any scientific principle I’m familiar with. It was outputting a lot of energy, however. Not on the level of your gravity beams at full strength, but enough that I wouldn’t recommend getting hit with whatever attack she was threatening to pull off with it.” “She was fast,” Irys said, frowning, “I could still see her move, but that was still fast. Going to cast my vote that we avoid fighting, if we can help it.” “That goes without saying,” X confirmed, “Our job here is recon, not starting a brawl. If it comes to a fight, prioritize retreat over combat, unless it seems we can neutralize them quickly.” Although X was confident he and his team could handle a small group of opponents such as these ‘Arrancar’, a fight was still far from ideal. Even if they defeated one small group of guards, that would still likely alert more, and there was no telling how many enemies might be in a fortress this size. So far they’d already gathered some useful information from eavesdropping on one conversation. He’d be happy if they could figure out a general layout for the fortress and get out with perhaps one or two more instances of listening in on the residents. X wouldn’t risk more than that, however. “We should keep moving, but let’s go over what we know so far,” he said as he got the group moving again. They followed the wall, making sure to keep close to any dunes they could while also watching for any sign of more of the locals. “They said a bunch of weird words I didn’t get,” said Megalon, “What’s Arin’s Car all about?” “Arrancar,” Gigan said simply, “Going to guess it’s the name of the species. Could be a tribal name, too.” “They said something about Espada,” Irys said, and X noticed she was holding herself for some reason, as if she was cold, but he didn’t mention it yet. “I got the impression it was referencing some kind of leader. More than one.” “Yes, ‘Lord’ Torch and Guto,” X remarked, thinking over the conversation they’d heard, “It sounded as if these ‘Espada’ are ranked, and a recent battle changed those rankings, with the one named Guto having lost status.” “Didn’t look like these Espada’s are all pals, either. Those Arrancar were acting like they served different ones, and didn’t much like each other,” Gigan noted, face showing a hint of disdain, “Not very disciplined, either. If that Greta hadn’t stepped in, they’d probably had started trying to kill each other. Who runs an army like that?” “Is it really that different than what our master is doing?” asked Irys, and when the others looked at her she quickly said, “It’s just, our master gathered us from all sorts of different places, and while we all work together we’re all not exactly a family.” “Yeah, those Anteverse dudes are real stiffs,” Megalon said, “Not one of them ever laughs at any of my jokes.” “And we all know Ghidorah’s a straight up prick,” Gigan said in agreement, “Yeah, I guess I see what you’re saying, Irys. Someone around here has to have a  lot of power to get these Arrancar all working together without regularly slaughtering each other. Means these Espada must be pretty potent.” “And whoever leads the Espada must be exceptionally potent,” X concluded, and paused as he saw Irys was now rubbing her arms, despite the fact that the air was fairly stale and room temperature, rather than cold. “Irys, is something wrong?” “Huh?” Irys blinked at him, then floundered for a moment for a response, “I don’t know. I feel... weird.” “Weird? Like, ‘Whoa that was a freaky dream last night with the pickles’ weird, or more ‘Why are they called flapjacks if nobody named Jack made them’ weird?”  Megalon’s words actually made Irys smile a bit, but it soon faded as she knelt down and gingerly touched the sand beneath her with one hand, “I’m not sure how to explain it. Since we got here I’ve just been feeling off, somehow. Like something isn’t right. Isn’t right with this place.” Her eyes focused on the ground for a moment, then she closed them, “It’s like I can feel it in the sand... a... wrongness. I don’t like it.” X and Gigan exchanged a look. X then went to Irys and knelt next to her, “We still need to finish our mission, but if anything gets worse concerning this feeling, say so immediately. Keep us informed of any change, no matter how slight, understood?” “Yes, and thanks. It might be nothing,” she admitted, standing up and seeming to shake herself and regain her focus, “Could be just my nerves.” “Well if its not, don’t try to be tough, and just tell us,” said Gigan, and Irys nodded at him gratefully.  A moment later the four kaiju turned (relatively) human continued their stealthy trek. ---------- Las Noches didn’t have many amenities, and what few it did have such as clothes or the occasional piece of furniture were manufactured in the deep tunnels and chambers beneath the fortress, known collectively as the ‘Warrens’. Adagio had been down there a few times, and found the place distinctly unpleasant, and had little desire to acquire any of the ‘goods’ made down there. She’d found a much simpler solution to the problem. Stealing what she wanted from the world of the living. Sure, the Soul Reapers and Quincy patrolled and guarded many cities, but not all of them, and more importantly, Adagio was very familiar with Canterlot City and could tell her vassals exactly which stores to hit. This allowed them to acquire just about anything she thought they needed, with usually minimal risk. As an added bonus she delighted in the idea that Sunset Shimmer would keep wondering who was breaking into Canterlot City malls and stealing things. It was a petty, but Adagio didn’t care, and she smiled as she sipped chilled lemonade while relaxing on a comfortable fold-out chair set up by the wall side of the pool.  Di Roy and Roka were swimming, alongside two of Adagio’s other vassals, Hoops and Score. Her last vassal, Dumbbell, was still recovering from injuries suffered recently, but Roka had assured Adagio he was on the mend.  “Oh for the love of- It’s just water! You kick your legs and just kind of move through it. It’s not that hard!” Fenice was trying to convince Gaw to give the pool another shot, although with minimal success.   Gaw, looking like a displeased, soaked cat, glared at the pool, especially at Di Roy who was racing Roka across the water. She shook her head like a dog, dislodging more water droplets, and grumbled, “I kicked. It just made me go deeper. Let dumb people like Di Roy play in death pool.” “Look, you’re not going to drown with all of us here, and I can just show you how to swim by example. But you’re not going to learn if you don’t try.” Gaw ignored her for a moment, sniffing the air and frowning before saying, “Why you care if I learn swim or not?” Fenice just threw her hands up, shaking her head, “I don’t know. Father says to try to make friends with you people, so that’s what I’m trying to do. Adagio! Help me out here! Can’t you just order her to cooperate with me?” Adagio sipped some more lemonade, set the glass aside on a small folding table next to her chair, and sat up, “I don’t have a reason to force Gaw to swim if she doesn’t want to. It’s for the best, I need at least one person keeping watch anyway. Gaw, why don’t you go on patrol? Make sure there’s none of Guto’s people skulking around our territory.” Gaw actually smiled, although it was more like a showing of teeth, which did include a pair of rather prominent and fang-like canines as she enthusiastically hopped to her feet. If there was one thing Gaw loved doing it was hunt, and going on patrol was akin to that. Not quite the same, because most of the time there was nothing out there worth hunting, and Adagio had given her standing orders to only scare off or otherwise beat the crap out of intruders rather than kill them. A bit disappointing from Gaw’s perspective, but patrol was still much more her speed than getting near the water again.  Crazy Di Roy, splashing around and having fun. Gaw was already planning her revenge for being tossed in the pool. Probably involving that dumb game box thing he liked playing with so much. Heh, toss that in the pool and see how much he enjoyed swimming after it.  That plan set in her mind, Gaw swiftly left, following her alpha’s orders and beginning a careful yet swift hunting patterns across the swath of desert and wall that was her tribe’s territory. While more intelligent than even her companions might give her credit for, Gaw was a creature of instinct, through and through. She followed Adagio because Adagio had proven herself as a strong alpha for the tribe, even stronger than Gaw. Di Roy was the annoying but still acceptable beta male of the group, although more useful and tolerable than the three other omega males, whose names she barely remembered. Roka and Fenice were strange. Gaw considered them part of the tribe, even if they were kin to Lament, who despite being an even more powerful alpha than Adagio, didn’t really lead the way an alpha was supposed to.  For the most part those two, along with all the tiny young ones that Lament kept in his tower, Gaw just considered part of the extended tribe. Just like the one Adagio had once had at her side called ‘Ember’, who was sadly gone now. Taken by enemies. Gaw growled at that. Threats to the tribe must be eliminated. Yet she couldn’t destroy those that took Ember, because they’d taken her so far away that Adagio didn’t know where the enemy was. As soon as they found out, they’d strike, tear apart and eat the flesh of their enemies, and recover their lost tribemate. Until then, Gaw’s job was to protect the tribe’s territory, which she’d have done even without Adagio’s orders, but Adagio was good at giving orders, so Gaw didn’t mind. Gaw moved with great speed, her form flickering across the sands in swift bursts. She never thought in terms of Hollow techniques like ‘Sonido’, which was what she was using. To her, she was just moving ‘fast’. And much as it begrudged her to admit, this new, small body was very fast. Faster than her old one. But she liked how she was before Adagio had changed her and Di Roy. That body was large, powerful, with big claws and teeth. It had felt natural. This new body didn’t quite feel right. Smooth skin instead of hard scales, and hair. Why did it have to have hair? Hair got wet and felt strange.  Also, she hadn’t needed to wear clothes before changing, which didn’t make any sense to her. She’d been just fine being naked before, but now that she looked like a squishy little human suddenly it was a problem if she walked around naked? Dumb. But Adagio said to wear clothes, so Gaw did. Even if it was dumb.  Sadly she found no sign of enemies during the first half of her patrol, covering most of the territory north of the wall. She stopped short of Lament’s territory, clearly marked by his large, black tower. She was tempted to check it anyway, just to make sure the little ones were okay (not that she liked them!), but she didn’t like the idea of challenging Lament’s territory. He often smelled... dangerous.  Turning east and then south, Gaw covered the ground between the main gates of Las Noches, and the wall running west back towards Adagio’s territory. There were a bunch of idiots from other tribes milling around the big hole the enemy had made in the wall, but that was no matter to Gaw. If the enemy returned, she’d rip into their innards and bring some of the meat home. She was rather hungry. Maybe Adagio would go hunting with her later? Or Di Roy, if he could keep his mouth shut for five minutes. Such a poor hunter, that male, what ever was she going to do with him? Gaw stopped in her tracks, sniffing the air. There it was again, that scent. She’d smelled it earlier at the pool, but it’d been so faint she’d thought she’d imagined it. But now there it was again, much stronger this time. She was nearly back at Adagio’s territory, with the pool just out of sight beyond several hundred meters of short dunes. The smell in the air was definitely from something warm blooded, but it was strange. Not Hollow, but not quite human either, so it couldn’t be Quincy. Gaw crouched low, stalking forward while her nose tasted the air. Her hand slowly went to the curved blade across her back, and she felt the resonance of her Zanpaktou. Strange name, for a hand-claw, but that’s what Adagio said the weapon should be called. It even had an individual name, but Gaw didn’t really get why. It didn’t matter, she was hunting... The smell grew stronger, and she realized it was coming from four distinct trails. Her eyes picked out faint prints in the sand now, as well, and sniffed them. Four intruders. None of them smelled normal. Almost human, but there were traces of something else. One had a charged and smoky scent akin to the weather before a storm, while another something of a clean, mint smell that reminded Gaw of a deep forest spring. Another smelled of oil and machinery, combined with a sharp tint of spicy aggression, while the fourth scent was of deep, wet earth mixed with something strangely like... coconut?   It was a bizarre mix of smells that told her next to nothing about the intruders other than they were an odd bunch.  Increasing her pace while ensuring not to lose the trail, Gaw continued on until, crossing one last dune, she spotted them. Four people of human size and proportions, creeping along the edge of the wall, clearly trying to stay out of sight. Gaw had no idea who they were, but it didn’t matter. They were intruders, and there was only one instinctual response Gaw had to intruders in her tribe’s territory. Attack.