Chapter 3: Cloudburst
“Jess you are aware that these creatures will not be easily scared off by a simple fire,” Metra stated as Jess set down the ecologists’ portable heating unit near the entrance way to the diner. Taking out her multitool, she pried off a panel near the temperature control switch.
“Surely they make these things generalized and just cap the energy output from its power cell,” Jess muttered to herself.
“Are you even listening to me? Oh! I see. Clever.”
“Give a girl some credit, eh?” Jess found what she was looking for and swapped fittings around on her multitool.
The sounds of the creatures were distant but getting ever closer as branches snapped and clawed limbs dug into dirt and softwood alike.
“Hurry up, Jess!”
With a few small sparks and adjusting of a previously internal calibration dial, Jess smiled as she activated the unit and cranked its heat well beyond its normal operating temperatures. Internal components whirred as its thermal coil started warming up. “Yes yes, I’m done. This’ll take a little bit to reach its max. Let’s see if whatever Maris is now likes to chat.”
Jess picked up the warming heating unit by the handle and walked out into the doorway just as the figure that looked like ranger Maris emerged from the nearby treeline. From the looks of it, he was accompanied by a small pack of monsters. Two of those smaller lanky creatures with the sharp claws and a large lumbering one eyed monster that crushed foliage and long limbs of trees like they were balsa wood as it moved through the forest. As the two inked individuals made eye contact there was a pause as the fronts of blue and red ink on Maris swirled against each other. At that moment, Jess felt the wind pick up a little as rain slowly began to fall.
“Bartos.” Metra said softly.
“Wait, what?” Jess responded just as Maris’, no, Bartos’ look of confusion turned to agitation.
“METRA! What in Osoth’s name are you doing out there!?” Bartos yelled as he took a step forward into the clearing.
“Metra…what the hell is going on here?” Jess muttered. Metra was silent.
“You’re supposed to be INSIDE THAT CITY helping disable the place’s security and resistance forces! Empress Osoth herself gave you the orders!”
Jess hesitated as many new troubling thoughts were rushing through her head. Her distracted mind allowed Metra to catch her off guard, as her symbiotic companion spoke through her. “I uh… Was waylaid! My host was well outside the city when the invasion started. Yes. How about you give me an update on the progress of your work?”
Bartos tilted his head as his confusion and anger seemed to grow, the colors swirling about him increased in their speed. Regaining her composure, Jess set down the now very hot heating unit as Metra’s powers slowly drew more energy from it. Her inked body was now more orange than black. Just a bit longer.
“What!? Did you just take over your host? YOU IDIOT!” Bartos bellowed. “Fine! This is not my problem! Get your butt back inside that city and do your job. Maybe, just maybe, the Empress might forgive you!”
Jess looked at what she was up against as Bartos shouted and pointed at her and back behind him. She could feel Metra about to speak up again through her, a feeling like she was about to zone out. No, not again. “I can’t do that Bartos! I have a new assignment! Yeah! The uh, Empress does not trust you to get the job done out here! So I’m taking over. Go back to whatever hole you were hiding in and wait for new orders!”
“Jess…” Metra was surprised, not expecting Jess to mentally push her aside like that.
Jess could see Bartos’ eyes narrow hearing the oriole’s haphazard lie. “Metra, are you…Do you not have full dominance over your host? Pathetic. If you will not follow your orders, then you are a threat to the plan. I’m sure Osoth will reward me well for completing my work and punishing a traitor! GET HER!”
Bartos raised a hand commanding the monsters with him to charge forward.
“Shit!” Jess grabbed the now red hot heating unit, feeling only as if she was holding a plate that was warmed up a bit too long in the microwave, and smashed it in front of her. The surrounding foliage burst into flames from the small explosion of heat.
Rounding a corner, Jess could hear the gangly limbed monsters already closing in. With a powerful leap, one of them launched itself through the empty window in front of Jess, crushing the decayed remains of a booth table. Jess turned to react but felt herself zone out, watching as her body moved with abnormally fast reflexes. Metra planted Jess’ foot hard into the tiled floor making it crack even more and sent the monster flying back hard into the wall just above the window with a kinetically charged soccer kick.
“Mmgh, dammit, METRA!” Jess called out in annoyance as she regained control. The body of the creature crashing down into the rubble beneath it.
“What!? I am the one with combat experience here!”
“You have wha-”
Their argument was interrupted as another long limbed monster joined the fray. Jumping into the diner right next to Jess. The monster pounced, extending its arms out in an attempt to slash the oriole apart. Jess grabbed the frame of the booth behind her and leaped over, slamming her back into the front counter to dodge the blow. The claws of the monster produced a horrible screeching noise as they slashed through the metal and ancient upholstery of the booth. The monster clambered up and over the wreckage to continue its attack. Sucking in breath, Jess pushed herself up and let out a cry of anger using her momentum to throw a crude empowered uppercut into the beast’s torso just below its mouth. The ceiling cracked and groaned as the monster’s body impacted it, making it rain concrete fragments and dust as the monster fell back down onto the booth. On her feet, Jess reeled back and dealt a followup haymaker at the stunned monster sending it flying back and collided with the first gangly monster that was starting to pick itself back up.
“That all you got!?” Jess called out defiantly.
As if answering her call, her ears popped at a blade of air pressure cut through the flames of the front entrance allowing Bartos to enter. The far wall of the dining area was then smashed in as the lumbering brute type monster shambled in. Another response to her challenge. Jess swore as she dashed towards the lumbering monster as another blade of air sliced through the booth in front of her. The boom of sonic energy from the air attacks was given a baseline from the heavy footsteps of the monstrous brute advancing on her. Jess lunged forward to dodge another attack of high pressure air and looked up to see the monster was right on top of her. With a swing of its huge arms, Jess was lifted off her feet and smashed into the wall behind the counter. Metra’s power turned the blow that should have broken bones into feeling like she took a hard punch to the gut. In her dazed state Jess felt the rain sprinkle down onto her face as she saw the cloudy sky above her. Cloudy sky. An opening. Jess watched as the monster lifted its arms up to deliver a devastating hammer blow. Her vision seemed to zoom out as she felt Metra push her feet down hard, kicking herself up and out of the hole in the ceiling above them. Jess sucked in a breath as she regained control. The air was fresh and cool in comparison to the metallic and dusty air of the diner. Metra forcing her will over Jess filled the oriole with rage.
“We should run for it now that we have the chance!” Metra said, trying to make Jess move away.
“SHUT IT!” Jess cried as she stomped her foot to both keep herself in control and keep them in place. The concrete beneath her cracked further.
“Give up now Metra and Jess Gabel! You can’t win this!” Bartos’ called up. “Yes, I know who you are now, Jess! Your actions take up a good portion of this fool’s mind!”
Jess looked at the concrete beneath her, noticing the scattered holes in the roof lined up to- Jess grinned. “YOU WISH!” Jess moved a step forward and with a small hop stomped down with both feet. The boost of kinetic energy was enough to cause the heavy chunk of concrete ceiling beneath Jess to crash down onto the brutish monster, burying it and kicking up a small cloud of dust and debris.
“Then DIE!” Bartos said as he zipped out of the way of the falling concrete and readied an attack.
Crouching on the pile of rubble, Jess used the last of the energy Metra had stored to kick herself forward. Bartos hovered back trying to dodge and repose with another air burst. He realized he had underestimated the force of the oriole’s movement when her kinetic haymaker connected with his head, sending him flying out of the window of the diner and deep into the forest. The satisfying sounds of flora being smashed filled Jess’ ears. This was soon drowned out with a new noise as Jess realized the fire had spread into the rest of the diner, slowly filling it with smoke.
Heading to the back of the diner, something caught her attention. There were other human forms in the treeline that she had just clobbered Bartos into. Jess’ eyes went wide as she saw them, people possessed with Grays. They stumbled forward like zombies into the clearing. Jess turned and sprinted out the back of the back of the burning diner and into the forests. Jess didn’t want to risk fighting and hurting them. As the ink shell covering her body receded back, she could feel the now drizzling rain patter onto her. Looking back, Jess saw that the flames now licked onto the tree that grew prominently from the side of the diner.
“Sorry, Dásos.”
________________
Jess jogged through the forests to catch up to the ecologists, but slowed her pace for a moment.
“Metra, now that we are alone. What the hell was that all about back there!? You worked for those guys?”
“...Maybe? Yes?”
“Yes? Bartos seemed more confident about it than a ‘Yes?’ Metra!”
“Jess, I can not believe I have to say this again. I. Do. Not. Know. I want to say yes, apologize, and say I am not working for them any more, but…”
“But what? Going to possess me again like you did back there? Try it again and see what happens!” Jess said sternly as her chest started to feel tight. She hated fighting with friends. If Metra was actually her friend.
“I- Jess. Look, I am sorry. I was trying to help!” Jess’ arm was covered in black ink with an orange mote again. “Okay so… I remember working for them. I served Empress Osoth. But, it does not feel right. Not that I have had some recent change of opinion. All of the few memories I have regarding working for them just feel…wrong.”
Jess stopped her jogging under a large tree, hearing the sounds of the ecologists talking with each other up ahead. She looked down at her arm.
“Jess, I promise to never take control of you like that again unless you give permission. If I do, I will leave and you will never see me again. Okay?”
“If you say so, Metra…” Jess took a deep breath, thinking about what she herself had said as the orange blob on her inky black arm seemed to shrink in shame. “I…we’ll talk about all this more later. I’m sorry too. Let’s just get through this nightmare first.”
“Got it.”
Jess stretched her legs a bit and the ink covering her arm receded. With things settled for now, she jogged forward to join the ecologists.
“Hey folks!” Jess said as cheerfully as she could, giving the trio a wave.
“Jess! I’m glad to see you made it out of there. You okay?” Luka responded, taking Jess’ bag off his shoulder and handing it to her.
“Pretty sure, I’ve got a nasty bruise or two, but otherwise I’m okay.”
Anna gave Jess a surprise hug, her height causing the embrace to press Jess’ head against her watermelon sized bust, “I was super worried, uh,” She pulled back blushing, “S-sorry. Thanks for helping us. I’m sure that was super dangerous.”
Jess’ tenseness melted away from the hug, it felt nice and Anna looked quite cute now that neither of them were feeling like they were about to get attacked by horrible monsters. Looking at Silvester, she saw he was lowering his arms that he had clearly thrown up to protect himself.
“You gotta be careful, Anna! What if the zombies had secretly gotten her and she was here to get us for real!” The goat said as his eyes flicked back and forth between the two.
Jess pushed up her glasses and rubbed her eyes in annoyance. “Silvester, these aren’t zombies and I’m not infected.”
“Sure sure, I’ll just be walking over here and you stay over there and we’ll be right as rain.” The goat said just as he tripped over a root and nearly fell face first into a mud puddle. “Ack! A-and speaking of rain, does anyone else find this rain suspicious? My predictive models showed this storm was supposed to miss us by miles and was at most supposed to be a light misting. Not all this…” Silverester looked up at the sky as he walked, blinking as the rain broke through the canopy above and hit his face.
“There are a lot of weird things happening right now, at this point I’m just glad it isn’t raining frogs or fish.” Luka chimed in.
The group settled into their hiking pace as they moved through the forests. Jess felt more at ease as she began hearing the noises of the forest again, even if they were a bit muffled from the increasing severity of the rain. A thought crossed her mind. Without her PET, knowing how close they really were to the Ranger Outpost would be difficult.
“Hey, can I borrow someone’s PET? I want to check how far we are from the outpost and my PET seems to be locked out of the entire network.”
The ecologists looked at each other and frowned. “Sorry, Jess. When we got attacked our PETs were charging in the main equipment tent.” Luka said, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment. “We made a run for it and didn’t think to grab them.”
“Lovely… Okay, no problem. If I remember right we should be relatively close…”
At that moment a large hulking figure crashed down from a large tree and punched into the earth as it called out, “POWAH BLASTAH!!!” Jess dove out of the way as the force of the strike cratered the dirt from a weak-force containment field being emitted by the figure’s gauntlets. Jess prepared to have Metra ink her over when the figure struck a dramatic pose as it moved into the light. It was a humanoid figure covered in an exosuit of red and white colored interlocking plates with strips of light reflective tape around the forearms, calves, waist, and shoulders. The individual’s face was obscured by a full helmet that had a black curved visor. Striking another flashy pose the figure called out in a now familiar deep voice:
“Tremble evil doers! For the good guys are here! F’ight or flea! For the Rangers know how to brin’ the heat!” The figure turned towards them and gave them a combat ready pose.
“...Felix?” Jess picked herself up out of the mud and looked quizzically at the figure.
The visor and face cover folded back on the helmet to reveal the features of Jess’ wombat friend. “Jessie!? You’re the intruders?”
“Intruders?”
“Yeah! The Outpost’s warnin’ systems said some figures were movin’ in, did you and your new friends turn off your PETs or somethin’? I nearly flattened you!”
“Long story. Basically all of our PETs are inactive or missing.” Jess wiped the mud off of her water resistant suit as she waved the ecologists over. “And what is with the Rescue Ranger armor? You’re not a ranger.”
Felix posed again showing off the gear, “Looks good on me r’ight? Haha! Rangers ready for any danger!”
“...what? I thought the Wild Service’s slogan was…whatever, it’s good to see you Felix”
“Same here! I was worried sick when you didn’t answer any of my messages. Now let’s get you back to the Command Center!”
“You mean the Outpost?”
“Yeah, that!”
________________
It was a much shorter hike to the Outpost than Jess expected, which she took as a point of pride and a comforting realization. Despite how much her world seemed to be a complete mess in every way, some things were still consistent. The state of the Outpost, however, did not fill her with much confidence. The outpost stood at least two stories tall at its base, designed to look like an authentic log and stone cabin at a first glance with some hints at the technology held within. Continuing with the Wild Service’s goals of wanting to be amongst nature, the wood logs of the building appeared to connect into each other in a weave and root themselves into the ground. If it weren’t for Jess actually seeing one of these buildings get constructed, she would have sworn they grew it out of a rocky section of ground. Seemingly growing out of the back of the building was a lookout tower that stood several stories above the surrounding treeline, supported with metal beams that had a real layer of hardwood tree growing around them. In the time since the invasion started, the Outpost had seen its share of the action. Numerous windows were smashed and now replaced with interlocking metal panels meant to protect the building from intense storms. The wood and stone of the walls were not spared, bearing slashing and impact damage of monster attacks. To top off all the damage, the once artfully carved sign hung above the entrance that read ‘Wild Service Outpost 87’ was slashed apart, leaving it as mostly a pile of kindling on the ground.
Next to the building was the remains of a garage, now smashed open, opening a relatively intact but damaged hover truck inside. Said trucks were used frequently by the Wild Service for rapid transport of personnel and materials, typically to more distant ranger outposts and observation stations. This model sported a larger open back section for hauling.
“Wow, looks like things have been busy for you here, Felix,” Jess said trying to keep pace with her up-armored friend.
“It hasn’t been easy, that’s for sure, Jessie. Because well, you’ll see when we get inside.” Felix held a hand to the side of his helmet. “Command this is Red Ranger! Good news for once, the intruders were some survivors and my friend Jessie! Would you kindly unlock the doors for us?”
With Felix’s helmet open, Jess could hear the response, “Felix, for the last time, we don’t use code names. But that is good to hear. I’ll open up the front doors.” A feminine voice said.
With a hiss and clunk, the front doors to the outpost opened and the group hurriedly entered in to get out of the rain. The bottom floor of the station had been converted from its comfortable living spaces to accommodate the influx of people.
“Ranger Gabby is upstairs, Jessie, I’mma go head up to chat with her. Feel free to join us, I’m sure you could help chip in. You’re good with tech right?”
“Electrical yes, mechanical maybe.”
“Alright! Maybe you can help out Henry! But make yourself comfy, you and your friends there look like you’ve had it rougher than us.”
Jess grunted in agreement, looking over to watch Luka flop face first into a couch place near a novelty fireplace. Anna and Silvester soon joined him as they took off their packs and sorted through their belongings to change into drier clothing besides their bodysuits. Anna looked at Silvester who was glaring at everyone else in the building with suspicion and tried to put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off. Turning to Jess, she gave the oriole her best small smile and gave her a thumbs up.
Walking into the bathroom, Jess locked the door behind her and looked at herself in the mirror. A section of the mirror grew darker and an orange mote of color popped in.
“So, how are you doing Jess?” Metra said as the mote slowly moved about.
Jess stretched a bit and noticed the bathroom sported a Fog-cycle shower. “Been better. But I feel the concrete dust from that diner packing my feathers.” Jess stripped out of her thermal suit and under stickers, placing both on the sink. The black and orange splatter of ink moved over to the reflective wall of the shower. Jess could see the mote follow her butt as she walked in. There was a clear tension between the two since their argument before. But seeing Metra like this, Jess couldn’t help smile cock and eyebrow. “You okay there, Metra? This can’t be the first time you’ve seen me naked.”
“No, but who is to say I am not allowed to like how you look?” The orange mote swirled a bit.
“Didn’t know inklings liked that kind of stuff, is that normal?”
“You are asking the least qualified inkling to answer that question. But I know you want more straight forward answers. So, I remember being told I am a bit of what your people call a ‘Wild Card.’ And as a Wild Card, I must be truthful and tell you that you have a nice butt.”
“I didn’t mean like… Thanks, Metra.” Jess giggled and activated the shower, cleaning herself of the remaining slurry of concrete dust, mud, and debris she had picked up that day. Stepping out she walked over and looked at herself in the mirror. Overall, no worse for wear. She turned the sink on and washed off her thermal suit, the material enabling it to be rapidly cleaned with just a thorough rinse of water.
Jess looked herself over and looked at the mote that seemed to lean in as if inspecting her work in cleaning the thermal suit, or watch her breasts jiggle as she did so. If Metra could read Jess’ mind, then she was purposely ignoring a lot of them. Especially the thoughts on what Metra had done back in that diner. How much control does she have? Am I being any better by ordering her around with these powers? We should talk. Jess opened her mouth and the orange splatter of ink seemed to expand as if doing the same. Rather than saying anything, Jess took a deep breath and the orange dot shrunk back down to its original size. Not now, too much going on.
Jess turned off the water and wrung out her suit. Nice and dry, she’d have to send a thank you card to the materials engineering team that developed this thing. Jess got dressed and the ink splatter faded off the mirror.
Opening the door, Jess looked around the room. The ecologists had settled in some, luka and silvester were sound asleep. The panda was still face down on the couch. They were not the only ones trying to rest. There were a couple other hikers resting on chairs and the floor, a small family of bunnies in the kitchen area, and off by himself was a young coyote boy seated on a woven wooden chair holding a comic book. His long dark hair was tied back in a ponytail and his small backpack was placed next to him. He must have been out here on a short trip. As his eyes met Jess’ he quickly looked back down at his comic book, trying to hide his interest in the new people entering the outpost. He continued to try to look enraptured with his comic book as Jess walked up and knelt next to him.
“Hey Kid, are you doing alright?” Jess said gently. His eyes flicked up at her and then back down at his comic. “What’cha reading there? I might not be that knowledgeable about comics, but I can see from the cover it looks exciting. What’s your name?”
“I’m Ross…It’s about space pirates.” The boy mumbled.
“That’s very cool, have you been-”
“Have you seen my parents?” He interrupted, looking up from his comic.
“Well, uh, what do they look like?”
“They are both coyotes like me, but both about as tall as you. Mom has boobs as big as yours too! Dad has short hair, and mom has hers long and done like mine.” The boy rattled off.
“I’m sorry, Ross, I haven’t.” Ross frowned at Jess’ answer and looked back at his comic. “But I am sure they are okay, I promise to even help you look for them when things have calmed down, okay?”
“Promise?”
Jess pulled the coyote into a tight hug, “I promise.”
Leaving Ross to his comic, Jess walked upstairs and through a set of metal doors marked ‘Wild Service Staff Only.’ The upstairs of the building lacked the warm natural aesthetic of the lower level. One section containing a variety of ranger equipment was locked off with a hard containment field, while the rest of the floor was divided into office space and computer readouts. Said computers were showing and updating weather reports and numerous camera feeds, several of said feeds were inactive. In the center of the room was a table depicting a hologram of the local area, around it sat an owl woman and moose man, both in standard Wild Service Ranger uniforms, and Felix who was still in the Rescue Ranger exosuit armor. Seeing Jess enter, Felix beckoned her over.
“Heya Jessie! Meet my new ranger buddies!”
“Buddies is pushing it, Mr. Schmidt,” The owl woman said, getting up. Her right hand was restrained in a sling.
The moose gave a smile, “Aw be nice, he has been quite the help.”
The owl’s nonplussed expression did not waiver. “You must be Jessie. I’m Gabby, senior ranger here. You’ll have to forgive me for not shaking your hand.”
“Right, you okay?”
“I’ll survive. Took a big hit from one of those huge monsters yesterday when this all kicked off. Damn near tore my arm off in the process. Probably going to need to get this thing replaced with a prosthetic.” Gabby then hooked a thumb with her left hand at Felix. “It is why Felix over there is sporting Rescue Ranger armor and not me right now.”
“Sorry to hear.”
“Yup! Security system of the Wild Service! Name’s Henry by the way!” The Moose said, giving a big friendly wave. “The storage units are specially locked. One suit per ranger sign in. Gabby was kind enough to give hers to Felix.”
It was no surprise, Jess though. Those Rescue Ranger suits were quite a piece of tech. Jess had seen a lot of them from the many times they were dispatched to ‘rescue’ her. The armor itself looked like just a collection of carbon nanoweave plates and an adaptive folding helmet in the containment field it was stored in. But the simplicity was part of the charm and an engineering point that took the design team over a year to create. They were heavily optimized to give off a much less intimidating figure as it was believed that people would panic if they saw someone stomping towards them in something like gravity trooper armor. Reading into their creation after the third time getting ‘rescued’ by them, Jess learned that each plate acted as its own containment unit with a built in fusion cell in the torso plates. When the plates are attached to specific interlocking points on the ranger’s undersuit, the inner storage deploys a layer of interlocking carbon silicate fibers that act as a supplementary layer of muscle that enhances the user’s strength and endurance. It also insulates and protects the user from extreme temperatures (such as forest fires and icy water) and concussive and slashing attacks (such as wild animal attacks), to say nothing of the hardened plates. It even sported an adaptive pocket to accommodate for numerous tail sizes. The helmet is adaptable to fit numerous sizes and shapes and was equipped with a built in rebreather and reactive HUD visor that outlined people and objects to identify people in even the least visible conditions within a certain range. The boots featured built-in anti-grav boosters and the gloves sported local repulsion field generators, giving the user increased mobility and defensive options. It took a lot of convincing to allow the Wilds Service to make many of these given the potential damage they could cause if they got into the wrong hands, which explained the strict storage conditions. But they were the perfect set of gear to help get people out of even the most dangerous wilderness conditions.
“Speaking of, for what we need to do next, you’re going to need to get your’s on, Henry,” Gabby gave Henry a stern look. “No sitting this one out.”
“R-right…” Henry said anxiously.
“Plan? What’s going on?” Jess walked up to the table as it started displaying a new sequence of animations.
“Unfortunately, we can't stay here,” Gabby stated as she punched in commands on the display’s terminal. “We-” She paused. “Wait a second,” Gabby pulled out her PET and looked it over, “I recognize you. You’re Jess Gabel. You’re the idiot that was wasting the Wild Service’s time by switching your damn PET off making us send out Rescue Rangers to ‘help’ you.”
“Well, uh… sorry?”
“Amazing, the city gets thrown into chaos and I get stuck with the Wild Service’s top trouble maker.” Gabby’s feathers fluffed up before settling back as she calmed herself. “Please tell me you can at least do what I tell you right now, because I don’t need you getting in the way.”
“Hey!”
“This is important, Jess. Lives are at stake and we can't stay here.” Gabby resumed entering commands into the terminal as the hologram showed areas from several points around the nearby mountain converging on a building at the summit. “These outposts are not built to handle this kind of attack. Protocol states were to get everyone we can and get to a science observation post at the top of the mountain nearby. Unlike these buildings, that facility is big enough to support fifty people and withstand anything short of a magnitude 5 earthquake. Closest thing to the protection a dome gives out here. Hopefully, it will last long enough for help to arrive.”
“So how can I help? I could-” Jess started.
“You are good with electronics, right? Ever fixed a hover truck? Henry could use a hand.” Gabby interrupted.
“Not really. I could probably fix most of the electronics in this room, but I was never trained to repair gravity skiffs.”
“Damn. Okay, well just hang out with the others downstairs, we’ll think of something.”
“Hey! I can still help. Felix could use a hand holding those monsters off while Henry fixes the truck,” Jess protested.
“Sorry Jess, but no can do. I am not letting an unequipped citizen run around out there with those things about and I am not letting Henry give you his armor, if he gets injured, then we are entirely out of luck getting that truck repaired at all.” Gabby made the attempted motion of crossing her arms before remembering her non-functional arm and instead put a hand on her hip.
“But! Shit, okay so, I’m not unequipped! Just don’t freak out okay.” Jess held her hands up a little as she looked between the two rangers and Felix. Henry was in the middle of jumping up and down in his under-sticker trying to get his thermal suit that the exosuit attached to on. All of them paused, Henry doing so teetering on one leg, “Okay??” Jess said with a sharper tone, trying to get one of them to acknowledge her before she did anything.
“Oookay, what is it Jess?” Gabby broke the silence.
“This is what I can do,” Jess said as Metra inked her over, making the bird be covered in a layer of shiny black ink with a small amount of orange swirling at her core. “Okay. Everyone good? So-” Henry toppled over as he slipped on his suit.
“Oww, and woah, that some new secret tech, Jess?” Henry said, picking himself off the floor and squeezing his above average sizes into his form fitting suit.
“Not quite. This is Metra. A symbiotic entity from another world. She’s here to help. I know that sounds utterly insane, but here we are,” Jess slowly said so as to not cause any panic, “She is why I have been able to fight off those monsters in the forest.”
“...Yeah that does sound completely insane. This week just keeps getting weirder…” Gabby stared at Jess as Felix walked over to her and started poking her inky form. “Ugh, Dammit. Fine, you can help Felix. We’re strapped for options right now anyways.” Gabby said reluctantly.
“Woah, Jessie! Lookin’ sleek! So does that make ya slippery like lube or somethin’?” Felix looked her up and down, efforts to poke and rub his armored hand on her arm to test the slipperiness proved this was not the case.
Jess leaned forward pressing her rack against his chest. “Sorry big guy, it's more like a suit of armor.”
“Excuse you! I am more than just a simple ‘suit of armor’! I am the Mistress of Energy Manipulation! A nearly unstoppable force combined with an nearly immovable object! I’m-” Metra interjected in Jess’ mind.
“Metra lets me hit extra hard too.” Jess heard Metra let out a cry of annoyance from hearing her abilities simplified to such a degree. “Speaking of which, can I borrow a heating unit or something? I need to charge up Metra’s abilities.”
“No can do, we were supposed to receive a new batch of them today, but well, monster attacks mess with delivery schedules.” Gabby said as she watched Henry clumsily put on his Rescue Ranger armor.
“And I assume tapping into the electrical system is out of the question too?”
“Jess, it is taking all of my sanity to even agree to letting you and your ink symbiote thing help. No way am I going to just agree to you breaking stuff or purposely electrocuting yourself.”
“I’ll figure something out then.” Jess paused for a moment as she thought about her situation. “I have another idea. It’s a long shot, but let’s see if anyone else downstairs has an inkling too.”
“An inkling? You mean your symbiote friend? Fuck it, go for it. Just let me go down first so your inky black butt doesn’t scare people.” Gabby said, walking towards the door.
“Oh, thanks! I’m surprised you are so willing to help.” Jess followed along behind.
Gabby stopped right before the door to the stairs and turned around. “Listen Jess, I don’t like you. From all my experiences with you and your interactions with the Wild Services, you are a self centered jackass. But right now, I have people down there I swore to protect while they are in the wilds and if trusting you is what I need to do to keep them safe, I will. Don’t make me regret it.” Gabby poked her feathery finger against Jess’ sternum as she said her major point. With that, she turned around, opened the door, and began walking down the stairs as she addressed the people around.
“Okay, folks. We are planning on moving out before sunset if Henry can get the hover truck fixed fast enough. We will, however, need some help. I am aware no one else here is trained to work with grav skiffs. Jess here has shown me that there is a chance some of you might be able to assist in keeping the monsters back while Henry works. Jess?” Gabby turned and gestured to the inked oriole as she walked down the stairs. There were a few gasps from the small crowd.
“I knew it!” Cried Silvester. “She is infected! STAY BACK!”
“You! Shut up or I will shut you up!” Gabby said, shouting Silvester back down. “This girl is offering to put her life on the line to help keep the rest of you safe. You will show her respect.” Gabby shot a glare at the crowd that surprised even Jess.
“Thank you, Ranger Gabby, uh… I know this might sound strange. But these are strange times. So if any of you have something like this, please let me know! We might need your help out there.”
The group of hikers and the family whispered back and forth asking if any of them knew about such a thing. The room fell silent as a small brown fur covered hand was raised. Jess was as surprised as the others to see it was the coyote boy, Ross.
Jess walked over, “Ross, this is something really dangerous and I know you want to help. So you have to be honest. Do you actually have something like this? They are called inklings.” Jess gestured to her inked form.
“Yeah! His name is Sutr!” Ross nodded enthusiastically as he was quickly inked over, his left side covered in a dark maroon ink that slowly moved up and his left covered with a lighter red ink slowly moving down.
“Oh no! They can infect children too!” Silvester hid behind the couch he was previously sitting on next to Anna, “As if it couldn’t get any worse!” Took a deep breath, as if about to continue with his panicked tirade when he caught the death glare Gabby was giving him and instead shrank behind the cushions of the couch. More afraid of the Ranger’s immediate ire than the inked kid. His outburst still had its effect as Ross looked back down at his feet sullenly.
“Woah! That’s awesome, Ross!” Jess rustled Ross’ inked hair, trying to cheer him up. “You are full of surprises. Go get your things, Ranger Gabby and I want to talk with you more upstairs. But first…”
Jess checked the rest of the crowd again. “Anyone else?”
“I, uh, I do…” Anna said, raising a trembling hand as she inked over, her colors being a gradient of magenta to blue that slowly oscillated back and forth.
Silvester scrambled back with a yelp, falling over the couch and banging his head against the wall. “You too!!”
Anna’s inky cheeks shifted to her intense pink as the gradient shifted. “Y-yes, but, uh. I’ve known about Thya for a while before all this. It’s just, well, she doesn’t like attention either.”
“Well miss, we do appreciate you volunteering to help.” Gabby said as she looked at the now three ink-like shiny citizens she had to work with.
“Anna, you could do this the entire time?” Luka said in a tone of shock and a bit of anger. “What about when we got attacked!? Gabe might still be-” He cut himself off and flopped back into his seat- “why, didn’t you help before?”
“I uh, we did…” Anna tried to look at Luka but couldn’t help but look at anything else when he turned his head towards her. “I saw them coming with Thya’s help and I told everyone, remember? But, she- I mean we, don’t really know how to fight…I’m sorry Luka.” The panda looked back at the fireplace silently, thinking about what he just learned.
“Anna, I’m sure you did the best you could. We could really use whatever abilities you have now. Okay?” Jess placed a hand on Anna’s back and lightly patted it.
“R-right.”
“Okay, come with me upstairs, we’ve got a lot to talk about.” Jess took Ross by the hand and led him and Anna back up the stairs.
Gabby stepped forward and adjusted her ranger’s hat to help in maintaining her limited position of authority. “Thank you for your cooperation. Make sure your bags are packed. We are heading out to the observation station tonight!” Gabby announced the crowd and followed Jess.
The rain was picking up more outside into a proper rainstorm with the patter of rain on the outpost’s roof growing louder. Distant rumbles of thunder and crashes of lightning could start to be heard as well. As the group entered the upper floor they were greeted with the sight of Felix trying to show Henry how to make some odd pose that looked like a more flashy martial arts stance. “Like this? Oh! Gabby uh… Felix here was just showing me how he uses the Rescue Ranger armor.” Henry said blushing as he was caught mid pose, quickly straightening himself out.
“Henry, please. Do not treat Felix as a role model with this,” Gabby rubbed her forehead and walked over to a warm pot of coffee and poured herself a mug, “Now, you thre- four weirdos, I’m counting you too Felix…”
“I’d describe myself as, ‘morphinomenal’ thank ya very much,” Felix interjected, drawing more confused looks.
“... Right,” Gabby took a long pull from her coffee and sighed, “I’m putting a lot on the line to trust you lot. So those of you with, inklings, was it? What can you do? Besides looking like mascots for some body paint service or entertainment center.” The owl took another deep sip of her coffee.
Jess stepped forward first, “Metra here lets me absorb energy and put it back out as something new. So like, if I charge up I can hit stuff really hard. Plus when covered like this, I think we are generally more durable than normal.”
“Jess, I have informed you I can do more than just that. There are more forms of energy besides kinetic energy!” Metra said in a matter-of-fact tone to Jess.
“What about you, Ross? What can Sutr do?” Jess ignored her symbiotic partner and de-inked, turning to the young coyote.
“Sutr can control friction. Like, all sorts. I don’t know how useful that’ll be with fighting though.” Ross frowned. Jess put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed a bit.
“Hey, that’s pretty cool! I can think of a lot of ways you can help with that! Would be much harder for monsters to attack us if they are slipping, sliding, and tripping over themselves!” Jess said encouragingly.
Ross perked up, “Really?”
“Definitely, kid! Just stay behind me and Jess and send those monsters flyin’! We’ll keep those bad guys off ya!” Felix said, giving Ross a big thumbs up. “We’ll make a Ranger out of you yet!”
“If my right arm could still work, I’d smack you upside the head, Felix! You are not an Energy Ranger or whatever you called them,” Gabby grunt with annoyance and looked at Anna, “And you Miss? What can you do?”
Anna blushed in her inked form and looked at the others. “I can, s-see well… Thya lets me see and understand a lot. I mean, I can see all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum! I uh, checked. I’m sorry, that probably doesn’t help you at all, I’ll just go back downstairs.” The meerkat started walking towards the doorway when she was intercepted by Gabby.
“Hey hey hey, don’t go losing it on me now, girl. You might be very helpful. We’ll have you up in the observation tower. Who better to give us a warning than someone like you? Especially with the outposts’ warning system being malfunctioning all day today.” Gabby took Anna’s hand, held it up, and gave it a squeeze. “Just take some deep breaths. You will do alright.”
Anna inhaled deeply as her gradient of ink colors slowly stopped shifting about and settled down. “O-okay. Got it.”
Jess punched her fist into her hand. “Alright, let’s get to work.”
________________
The patter of the rain outside of the ranger outpost only seemed to intensify as it churned the dirt paths around into mud during the few hours of sunlight they had left. As it grew dark. Only the occasional clap and rumble of lightning broke through, lighting up the cloudy sky as daylight slowly died away. The outside lights to the outpost kicked on illuminating the local trail. Their unique shape and design provided a great deal of visibility while not contributing much at all to any light pollution. A point someone on the Wilds Services committee fought for, citing the historical documentation on how badly pre-splice humanity had robbed many a generation of seeing the true dark sky by their lack of attention or care for protecting the night. Jess wished she was stargazing with Felix on top of that diner right now. But thanks to the events of the past few days, it was a downpour and the diner was likely collapsing from the damage she and those monsters had inflicted on it.
Standing near the road clad in his armor, Felix touched two fingers to his head, “Hey, Anna, any sign of any monsters out there?”
“Nothing yet, though all the rain is messing with Thya’s ability to see infrared, everything being cooled off , b-but I’ll let you know!” The meerkat responded over the rangers’ closed circuit communicator she was given.
“So, Jess,” The coyote boy Ross said watching Jess haul out a metal container before taking out a padded wooden chair, “What are you doing?”
Jess gave Ross a smile before smashing the chair against the stone turning it into a pile of wood and cotton, “I’m making a campfire out here,” she said as she started arranging the cotton under the wood in the container while staying under the overhang provided by the station. Her position giving her a slight amount of protection from the rain.
“What? But there is a fire inside.”
“Close! That’s a hologram with a heater. We need a real fire out here!” Jess took out here pack and placed the steel wool in the cotton. The oriole smiled a little looking at the knife and flint her brother pestered her about bringing, looks like it would come in handy.
Ross watched as in the shadow of the oriole’s form, sparks flew from a few test strikes of the knife on flint, “What’s so important about a fire?”
Jess sent sparks flying from her knife on the flint, quickly catching the steel wool alight. Blowing on it she spread the small flames onto the cotton and foam material of the cushion, slowly getting the fire going, “Fire is important to our history. It provides warmth and light. It provides motivation and inspiration. A spark in the dark can be what turns despair into hope and promise. A fire-”
“Um, I meant like…” Ross fidgeted looking for the right words as he interrupted Jess who was staring at the growing fires that took to the wood.
“-oh, heh right. Yeah,” Jess realized she was rambling from the stress, it had been a long day, “ So, Metra absorbs energy. Ranger Gabby wouldn’t let me go around overcharging heating units or break electrical conduits. Hell, it took over an hour of arguing earlier to get her to agree to let me smash up some chairs for fuel. This fire is the next best thing to charge me up…Sorry, I was going on a bit of a tangent there.” Jess stoked the fire more as the got her hands in close, closer than what would normally be safe as her inked over body slowly started growing more orange at her fingertips and her core.
“Oh! Cool cool,” Ross said looking at Jess’ body as it slowly grew more and more orange. Jess, seeing him staring, ushered him in closer.
“Ever sat by a real campfire before?”
“No…This is my first time camping,” Ross admitted as he walked over next to Jess and the fire. He could feel its pleasant warmth as the outpost walls provided some protection against the winds. Undersuit or not, the fire gave a kind of warm feeling he hadn’t felt before.
“Now don’t go sticking your hands in like I’m doing, but watch those flames. They can be quite mesmerizing. Felix and Anna are keeping watch,” A distant yelp came from the garage nearby followed by Henry calling out on the communications circuit that he was fine, “And Henry is trying to not fry himself on the grav skiff.”
The Oriole and Coyote shared a small laugh as they sat by the fire. “Now we just need for those monsters to wait for an hour or two and I should be ready for anything!”
“Uhh folks!” Anna’s voice called out, “We have company! They’ll be here soon!”
“Welp, so much for being safe about this, remind me to get some burn cream after all of this done,” Jess said to Ross as she shoved her hands deeper into the fire, for something that should be giving her some serious burns, it only felt like she was getting sunburned. “Ahh ah, damn, okay,” she pulled her hands out as she heard limbs snap and foliage nearby start to rustle as she moved into the muddy road, “Stay behind me, Ross.”
“Got it!”
There was a clang from the garage as Henry’s helmet whacked into the hood of the truck. “Crap! I need like five more minutes!” Henry yelled.
“Let’s rock it!” Felix said, taking one of his weird poses.
It was a tense few minutes as the sounds of movement in the woods soon became audible over the noise of the falling rain and occasional rumble of thunder. Not wanting to risk the outpost doors or Ross, Jess left her fire and moved into the mud of the road. As if coordinated with the weather, three forms leaped from the treeline. More of those weird razor toed gangly limbed monsters.
“Stay behind me, Ross!” Jess called as she eyed two that were poised to go after her and the coyote. She was stuck, if she went to move for one, the other would move. Suddenly, the monster on her right looked as though it was faintly highlighted in a dark red light as its attempt to slink forward resulted in it vaulting hind legs over head and splash into the mud. The dark red shifted to pink as its subsequent attempts to move only caused it to slide and splash about.
“I-I’ve got it! Hah!” Ross cheered as he held his hands aloft, his inked colors shifting against each other rapidly as Sutr invoked his power. “Get’em Jess!”
“Hell yeah!” Jess cried as she shifted her attention to the other monster as it dashed forward at her. Reeling back she moved just out of the monster’s swipe and slugged it hard with a wild punch, expecting it to get thrown back or slammed down from the kinetic force. Instead, the site of her strike sizzled and burned as her punch inflicted fiery energy upon the monster. She panicked and punched its oblong head with another haymaker leaving another near glowing burn mark on its hide as it let out a pained screech. The smell was revolting, even in the heavy rain. “METRA! WHAT THE HELL!?”
“You keep ignoring what I keep saying, Jess! I can send energy out in other forms!” Metra’s voice yelled back in Jess’ head.
Jess grunted in annoyance watching the burned monster turn and flee into the woods, the thermal strikes hurting it more than whatever motivating force could force it to stay and fight.
At this time, Felix moved in towards his opponent. Throwing up a hand, he activated his armor’s repulsion field, using it as a temporary shield against the monster’s slashing strikes. Like a football linebacker, he charged in and shoulder checked the monster back, sending it toppling into the mud. The monster’s sharp claws found some purchase as it kicked itself forward into another lunging attack.
“Woah!” Felix gasped as he dove to the side and rolled back onto his feet in the mud. Kicking on the suit’s hover boots he launched into a lunging attack of his own and tackled the monster. The exosuit’s plates blocked the stabbing claws of the monster as he grabbed it and delivered several heavy blows, sending several of the creature’s razor sharp teeth flying before it went limp unconscious in the mud.
The monster Ross had disabled slowly rose slowly from the mud, only to slip back down flat as it again failed to find purchase. “Jess!” Ross called to snap the oriole out of her internal argument.
“Right!” She splashed forward through the mud and delivered a kinetically enhanced soccer kick into the side of the beast, sending it flying up and over the treeline. “I didn’t think I hit it that hard…”
“Air resistance is a form of friction!” Ross said with a big smile on his face, “I guess we turned that off too!”
“Alright! Let’s get-” Jess was cut off as a noise she was very much not expecting to hear pierced the din of rainfall and thunder. The howl of a wolf. “-Oh no.”
The trio saw two gray ink covered wolves break through the brush at the tree line, accompanied by one of the lumbering cyclops like brutes. “Okay, same as before!” Felix called out as he was slammed to the ground by a large gray figure. A gray inked over bear raised itself up to attack its prey. Throwing his arms up Felix activated the repulsion field on his gloves. These fields were designed to hold back such a beast, but were barely getting the job done with its gray inkling enhanced strength.
“Felix! Hold on!” Jess called, her voice partially drowned out by the crash and rumble of a nearby lightning strike. Running through the mud she slid to a stop realizing she was again the only thing between the other monsters, Ross, and the ranger outpost front doors. Felix was going to have to hold out. Looking at her opponents, the two inked wolves gave off a familiar shimmer of pink as their movement forward quickly turned to sliding and splashing in the mud as they collided with each other. The brutish monster, however, was unaffected and raised one of its huge tree trunk sized limbs to smash jess. The oriole threw herself to the side as she dodged the strike by inches. Moving in close, her fists briefly sparked with electricity as she delivered a flurry of one two jabs into the monster, sending brief arcs of electricity out as its form was lit up. It seemed only slightly stunned at the hits, raising both arms to crush its pesky opponent when jess clasped her hands together as she raised them up and threw a sideways hammer strike into the side of the brute with all her might. A flash of electricity erupted from it as the creature let out a deep groan and toppled back and laid unmoving in the mud as it let off steam and small sparks of electrical discharges.
Jess sucked in a deep breath, “CUT IT OUT,” She screamed in her head as she realized Metra was meddling with her powers again, “I DIDN’T ASK FOR THAT!”
“And I TOLD YOU TO STOP WASTING MY POTENTIAL YOU BRUTE!” Metra shouted back in kind, Jess let out a rage filled scream as she barreled towards the inked wolves, sliding down onto one leg to deliver a heavy energy fueled strike into one slamming it into the other. The wolves let out a pained whimper from the hit and but were stuck sliding about in the mud without their friction to right themselves.
“STOP GETTING IN MY WAY!” Jess yelled as she punched one of the inked wolves with one arm as the other turned its head and bit into her arm, “AGH!” Anger fueling her reaction she pulled back a leg and kicked the wolf hard, sending it sailing into a tree with a hard thud. The other lay knocked out in the mud from the hard strike she delivered a second ago. Huffing heavily she heard Felix grunt. “Shit! Felix! I’ll-”
There was a heavy thud as Jess saw Felix lift up and throw the inked bear down onto the hard muddy dirt of the road. “HAHA! You ooze! You LOSE!” Felix activated the repulsion fields on his gloves on a higher setting, causing his shoving strike to send the bear flying back into the woods with a crash. It was making no sounds of getting back up any time soon from that fight. ‘Jessie! You alright?!” Felix said scraping mud off of his armor, “That was a close one! Didn’t expect’em to use wildlife! Hahaha! This suit is great! I bet I could take you one on one in this thing, Jessie!”
“Good news folks!” Henry interjected, “The trucks up and running! Gabby, get everyone loaded up so we can skedaddle!”
“I’m… You…” Jess tried to get a clear thought out but was further distracted.
“Yes, Brute, answer your meat-head friend! He seems to be thinking better than you!” Metra jeered.
“Shut up!” Jess yelled back as thunder rumbled overhead. Her gaze unfocused as she stared at the mud as it was pelted and further churned by the heavy rain. Ross looked on in confusion as Jess held the sides of her head in her hands as she seemed to stare at nothing.
“Jessie? I was only jokin’... you okay?” Felix said, taking a step towards her. His attention was drawn back to the woods when the crack of lightning illuminated their newest uninvited guests. A group of at least ten gray possessed citizens, lead by a blue and red inked figure. Bartos. “Oh no…”
Jess’ head shot up as she spotted Bartos floating amongst the hoard of grays. Despite the internal shouting match, she and Metra turned the anger boiling up towards a mutual enemy.
The doors of the outpost opened as Ranger Gabby and Anna ushered power out towards the garage, “Come on folks! Go go go! Oh shit!” Gabby blurted out seeing the swarm, “keep them off us for a minute!” She grabbed Ross’ hand and pulled in towards the truck, “Come on! They’ll handle it!”
“R-right!” Ross turned and joined the other rushing to the garage.
“Remember, Brute. There are people still in there.” Metra said in Jess’ mind in a superior tone.
“And why do you care, monster!?” Jess sniped back.
“Wha?” Felix took a step forward before he was accosted by one of the grays. His suit heightened strength allowing him to easily shove the person off and send them tumbling back into the brush. “Woah there! Jessie, this is no time for games!”
“Felix! Hold back the people! I’ll keep Bartos busy!!” Jess yelled out. Her senses became a blur as the rain seemed to become more and more intense as did the frequency of lightning.
“So this is where you ended up, pest!” Bartos bellowed, “How convenient! I get to kill you here and not even interrupt my plan!”
“TRY ME! FUCKER!” Jess lunged forward and took a blast of high pressure air to the face, knocking her back into the mud.
“Is that all? Hah!”
“OH YOU ARE DEAD!” Jess hunched down and sprinted forward, each step boosted with kinetic energy as she knocked over possessed campers and blades of Bartos’ air attacks. Each footfall dug deeper and wider muddy craters as she built up energy and momentum. Finally she jumped up again, too close to let Bartos get off a blast and delivered a flying two legged kick into Bartos’ torso, making him slam hard into a tree.
“Jessie! The truck is loaded! Come on!” Felix yelled as he sent three grays falling back with a light application of repulsion energy.
“I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU, SCUM!” Bartos said, raising his hand up at Jess.
The hover truck was fully loaded and out of the garage, its hover skiffs kicking up mud and water under it.
“You’re going down, you bast-” Jess started when suddenly her vision whited out. Her ears ringed, muffling all other noises as she smelled ozone. In a fraction of a second, her entire body felt like it was on fire. Another split second, she felt more alive than she had ever felt before. And then.
CRACK-BAM!
It felt like her entire body had just burst a capacitor, the mud around her was cracked and dry. Her vision fading she felt something large push in and pull her limp body up. Felix? She mouthed as the muffled voice of her wombat friend called her name.
Felix saw it, that other inked fella seemed to have called the weather to his aid as a single bolt of lightning struck down squarely on Jess. Her inked body was a bright glowing yellow and in a blink, she toppled to the ground, her body seemed to burst out in a microexplosion of heat as it turned jet inky black and her eyes a pale orange. Shoving past the grays he called her name and scooped her off the floor. Seeing the horde encircle and this blue and red dude wind up another attack, Felix kicked on his hover boots and propelled himself up and over towards the truck. Holding jess tight in one arm he felt the truck lurch and take off with him clinging to the back. Other hands tried to grab his arm to help but he was took heavy and his grip was slipping. With just his fingers keeping him on, he felt was about to plummet into the dark when suddenly his grip felt solid. Unbreakable. A faint dark red shimmer appeared around his body.
Inside the truck, Ross had pushed himself up to look out the back window, his hands held up he let out a sigh of relief as he saw he was just in time. Felix had max friction, he’s not going anyway, same for Jess.
Jess looked at her armored friend, the helmet shifting itself back to reveal his face as he said…something. Even in the darkness of the night, the inner lighting of the helmet illuminated Felix’s face. He looked worried. Her ears still ringing Jess could only tell he was talking from his moving lips. She looked up at the rainy sky as her vision went blurry and dark. Metra was silent.
