[Splat]

Glad Arthur was such an instant success I'm sure Munch's Master would be proud

Yeah, Arnie has rather more power in the story than in the RPG. I do like how he cunningly steered the conversation onto what he thought a more practical topic

Time for Anni's woes to increase...
I attacked this chapter viciously after I uploaded the last one and am at last satisfied with it.
Bad shizzle... And Anni's mystery is about to get even deeper. And time is ticking away...
(On the topic of scrabs in this chapter, it may well be that the scrabs in Abe's games were so much more vicious than the scrabs in MO because they were all females ready to breed - it's my chosen theory, anyway.)

Chapter 43

Anni had slipped away when Kix’s attention was elsewhere. She was feeling sad, and lonely, and above all she wanted company where she could just be herself, out of the way of anyone else. She went to find Somi.

* * *

“Come on, Razor!” Stivik growled two hours later.

“We won’t find her down here, anyway. I don’t know why you’re bothering.”

“Hey, I used to be a scout. I’m used to hunting down animals. Finding some mud will be child’s play.”

* * *

Anni had wandered through the derelict part of the factory, looking for Somi. She had long ago realised that she wouldn’t find the paramite just by going back to the place where she had first hidden her. Somi was now nearly fully grown, was strong and intelligent and though Anni had never seen them, she almost certainly had a pack of her own now.

She was wandering for only fifteen minutes when she heard a hiss. She spun round and grinned, “Somi!” A moment later, the paramite had leapt into her arms, knocking her over backwards, and the two were rolling on the floor, Anni laughing for the first time in weeks. They chased each other, they sat and Anni talked, then they played again. Nearly two hours later, Anni was running with the paramite down an empty corridor somewhere in the basement when the paramite came to a halt and let out a hiss. “What’s wrong?” Anni said, concerned.

There was something in the paramite’s body language, some fear. She approached the animal and crouched down beside her. “What’s wrong?”

There was suddenly a bang and a shriek from further up the corridor. Anni twisted round and stared. A huge, angry she-scrab was walking towards them, its head raised in a warning. Anni’s eyes widened as she dropped to her hands and knees beside Somi. The scrab stopped, looking uncertain, and even in her fear, Anni let herself smile. The smell of Somi that she had rubbed all over herself as they played was making the scrab see two paramites, instead of a paramite and a mudokon. It would think twice about attacking, but if it was hungry enough…

Somi let out a hiss, ‘Stay’, and began to back away. Anni didn’t dare copy the call, doubtful that she could make the sound convincingly to fool the scrab. But she edged back with Somi, hoping the scrab wouldn’t follow them.

* * *

Stivik was moving confidently through the derelict factory, winding down towards the basement, following his instincts. Razor was skulking after him, looking around nervously. Stivik was disappointed in him, “If there are any animals around we’ll hear them before they attack.”

“Well you might trust your instincts, but I don’t. Let’s find the stupid mud and get out of here. I’m not sticking around.”

“Not even to have some fun with her?”

“Don’t be an idiot. It’s dangerous down here, Stivik!”

Stivik snorted, “Your gun’s the most dangerous thing down here.”

As they wound down to the basement, they fell silent. The light was fading and Stivik was beginning to feel the intensity of the situation, too. But he was enjoying himself. It had been years since he had done anything like this, and even if it was only for ten minutes, even if he was safely inside some industrial walls and not really out in the wild, he was taking all he could from it. “There’s something up ahead,” He said under his breath. He put his head round the next corner.

He was looking down a dark, derelict passage, and quickly spotted Anni on the ground at the far end, deep in shadow. There was something beside her that he couldn’t see in the dark, but he guessed it was just some heap of junk. Between her and him, though, was a cow-scrab, from the look of it ready to breed, which would make it fiercely aggressive, viciously territorial. It was standing threateningly over the mud, and he was amazed it hadn’t already attacked.

Then he felt Razor close behind him and before Stivik could stop him, he yelled, “Hell, Stivik, that’s a SCRAB!”

He shoved Stivik viciously aside and he sprawled on the ground, cursing, “Razor!”

The scrab spun around and charged at them. Razor started firing, his aim wildly off as he panicked completely. He caught the scrab in the flank just as it neared them and instead of attacking it stumbled and crashed into Razor, throwing him back.

Stivik rolled over and shot at it with his tranquilisers. It stumbled and turned to face him. “GET OUT OF HERE!” he yelled to Razor, and then realising that Razor wouldn’t respond in his panic, added, “GO GET HELP!” He didn’t want or need assistance, but he had to get Razor the Hell away from here. The other slig gave a chirrup of confirmation in Sliggish and ran for it.

The tranks he had loaded into his gun were intended for nothing larger than a mudokon or a paramite. They would have a very slow affect on the hormonal scrab, and it spun around and reared over him as he fiddled with his gun to load the next trank.

It was bearing down on his with its sharp, bone-tipped feet when Anni leapt onto its back, taking him by surprise. She clung on for all of two seconds before it shook her off and she dropped to the ground, disorientated. The scrab, momentarily confused, turned its attention to the prone mudokon. It raised its head to the ceiling and roared, long and high, and Stivik realised what it was going to do next. His pack had known the scrab’s lethal power by its slang-name of ‘shred attack’.

It was charging towards Anni when something else hit it, something dark and dusty, and Stivik scrambled to his feet, staring now. It was a paramite, clawing at the larger predator, hissing and howling. Anni let out a scream, “Somi!”

Stivik raised his gun and heard Anni yell, “Don’t! You’ll hit her!”

“That’s the idea, grhzz-wit!” He roared and fired. The trank hit the scrab in the neck, and it stumbled suddenly, before it could use shred attack. Anni yelled something and the paramite jumped towards her. He raised his gun to shoot it but she threw an arm around it, crouching down low, and leapt under cover. The scrab howled again and stumbled towards him. He hurried backwards and it suddenly dropped like a stone, lying prone in the middle of the passage.

Stivik was breathing hard, hating himself for being so unfit. Odd, he smoked too much. Tilic and Dekas would never have let him get away with it. “Anni?”

He got no answer.

“Are you hurt?” His voice sounded rough, ragged. Odd, he was so out of shape. Dekas would have beaten him to within an inch of his life if he could see him now.

Down the passage he heard the muffled sound of sligs’ legs and Razor appeared at the end of the passage. He stopped and took in the scrab, “You got it?”

Then two figures appeared behind him; the hulk of Boogie and behind him, Dek.

“Come on, Anni.” Stivik called, “We’re getting out of here.”

“Hell, there’s another one!” Razor yelled suddenly and fired with his gun. Stivik heard a shriek and the paramite came leaping out of the shadows and passed him, nearly ploughing him down. Razor raised his gun to shoot it again as Stivik turned to do the same, but Anni yelled, “Leave her alone!” And threw herself into Razor’s way, distracting them both long enough for the paramite to disappear.

“Huh?” Razor said thickly, “It’s a wild animal, Anni! It was gonna attack you or something.”

“It’s not hurting anyone,” She said fiercely, and then she caught sight of Dek, standing behind Boogie. “What are you doing here?!” She almost screamed.

Somehow Dek managed to ignore this and snorted, “Forget the paramite. Is that a cow-scrab?”

“Yeah, it is,” Stivik said nonchalantly, approaching it carefully, “And it’s not in a happy mood.” He was grinning, enjoying Dek’s attitude to Anni’s attention-seeking.

“If it’s in heat, then it could be rather valuable, from a scientific view-point. I think we should take it with us. Razor, check it’s unconscious.”

But Anni let out a feral shriek and threw herself at the slig; Razor yelled as he was thrown to the ground and Anni pulled back, now gripping Razor’s gun, “Get away from here! Go away!” Anni yelled savagely, pointing the weapon at Dek.

Growling angrily, Stivik raised his gun, “Idiot mud!” He fired and the trank hit her in the back. She twisted around and moved to push herself to her feet but the anaesthetic was quicker to act on her and all she managed was to hiss furiously through her teeth before she slumped backwards, landing on top of Razor.

Razor let out a disgusted yell and a moment later pushed her off of him, scrambling to his feet and flapping about like her touch had contaminated him with some disease. Stivik rolled his eyes, wondering who he thought he was impressing. “Did you kill her?” Razor hissed.

“Don’t be an idiot,” Stivik snarled. “She’s just unconscious. I think we should all get out of here before more trouble comes. And I’m taking that girl to Arnie; that’s the second time she’s pinched someone’s gun and I’m not letting her get away with it!”

“It’s too late to bother Arnie, now,” Dek said, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed the time but it’s rather late. Bring her up to my lab.” There was a glint of greed in his eye which Stivik liked the look of. “The scrab, too.”

He nodded, smirking, “I’ll carry her. Boogie, you want to help Razor bring the scrab?”

Boogie glanced back at Dek, who nodded, and the big-bro strode forwards, filling up the corridor. He lifted the scrab by the waist and hauled it up, “Grab its neck, Razor,” He grunted.

“Don’t hurt it,” Dek cautioned as Stivik picked up Anni and flung her over his shoulder like a sack of meat.

“What are you gonna do to the mud?” Razor asked.

“Take a look at her, make sure she’s not ill. And there are cages in the lab I can keep her in overnight so you can tell Arnie about her in the morning.”

“Sounds better than she deserves if you ask me,” Razor grunted.

* * *

Stivik was leading the way when the three sligs and the vykker, complete with their unlikely cargo, emerged into the main factory. It was dark; the main lights in the production areas had been shut off for the night.

“We’ll take the executive lifts; it’ll be quicker,” Dek told them, who, as a vykker, was the only one other than the glukkons and Seven with permission to use them.

“This girl’s starting to stir,” Stivik said a few moments later as Dek pulled the lever to call the lift down. “Weird, the trank should’ve lasted longer than this. Maybe the dart was bad.”

“It won’t be long now.”

Razor laid down his half of the scrab and worked the pulley to pull the company up the lifts, since Dek couldn’t work the glukkon voicelock. “Hell, now she’s giggling!” Stivik growled as they reached the middle floor, “Right in my ear! That’s as creepy as anything!”

“Hurry up, then,” Dek barked irritably and led the way towards the labs. He opened the door and led them in. “Put her on that table, and strap her down if you can manage that. Boogie, there are some cages through that door where you can put the scrab.

She was murmuring to herself as Stivik laid her down on the table, then singing shakily, “I drink to you… I drink it from… I drink… too much… It comes out of my…”

He rolled his eyes and tried to ignore it as he strapped her down. There were short leather straps and buckles at the edges of the table for the occupant’s wrists and ankles, assuming they had them. He slid them on rails along the table edges until they were at the right distance for Anni, locked them in place and began strapping her down.

“It comes out of my…”

“Shut up, you freak,” He muttered under his breath.

In a deep voice, very different from her own, she said it again, “It comes out of my…” And then in her own voice, high, timid and scared, she muttered a word he didn’t catch.

“She’s strapped down,” He called to Dek, straightening up.

“Good,” Dek replied and came over to examine his work. He had been loading drugs and equipment onto a trolley. “Pull that over here for me, will you?”

Stivik obediently tugged the medical trolley over. There was a large gas cylinder on it, attached via a tube for a mudokon-fitting gas mask.

* * *

Anni could hear Dek’s voice, and it made her want to scream; the sound of the vykker was utterly repulsive. Terror coursed through her; she couldn’t move or see, and they could be doing anything to her. Something was tickling in the back of her head and suddenly it exploded like a supernova. Pain shot through her head, like she hadn’t felt for years. She wanted to scream with all the air in her lungs, to shake, to thrash, it hurt so much. She wanted to cry out, to weep, to beg.

She couldn’t move. She lay as still as a piece of wood while inside she burned. She managed to open her eyes a crack and saw Dek descending on her with a gasmask. Stupid vykker; she and Nova had started becoming immune to that stuff that vykkers used when they were still tiny. What did he think he was doing?

Darkness closed in.

* * *

“That should keep her down for a good while,” Dek said, straightening up.

“Boogie’s having trouble locking the cage,” Razor said, wandering into the room. Dek didn’t look round until he heard the flick of a lighter.

“I won’t have smoking in my lab!” He barked, spinning around.

Razor looked affronted, “Come on, you guys invented them.”

“It interferes with the instruments and it smells like death.” Vykkers didn’t mind selling things that poisoned their customers, but they themselves all intended to live as long as medical science would allow; all vykkers feared death, having seen so much of it. “If you’re going to smoke, get well away from here! Well away!”

Razor looked like he was going to argue, but Stivik spoke first, “Go on. It won’t be interesting now, just drawing blood and seeing what colour it turns. He won’t hurt her, not until Arnie’s heard what she’s done.”

Razor grinned, “Keep her simmering,” He said with a nasty grin and stalked out of the lab.

Dek huffed and turned back to Anni, picking up a huge, empty syringe from the trolley as he did.

“Dek, how do I lock this thing?” Boogie called through the open door to the store room with the cages.

“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Dek growled, standing over Anni and waving the syringe around impatiently. Leering, Stivik turned to watch Boogie struggle as Dek peered through the door, trying to see what Boogie was doing wrong. “Turn it counter-clockwise! No, not that way! See, now that bit sticking out should slide into place. Got it?”

* * *

Anni’s eyes opened slightly and she saw a vykker standing over her with a syringe. She realised her arms and legs were strapped down. Her heart began to race; as quietly as she could, she tried to pull herself free but the straps were too tight. She felt a scream building in her throat but just before it burst out, another force took hold of the scream and sent it in a different direction, soaring towards the ends of her limbs. Her hands and ankles suddenly burned, painfully, and she snatched them away.

Stivik let out a roar, “GTRZ! GRHZZ! WHAT DID- HOW DID- HELL, SHE HAS POWERS!” She raised her head and saw him scramble back from her, bang into a medical trolley, sending its contents crashing to the floor and lift his gun to point at her.

“What are you jabbering about?” Dek yelled and turned to face the terrified slig.

“She has grhzzing powers! The straps! She’s burnt them! She summoned fire out of the air and burnt through the straps!”

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

How's THAT for a cliff-hanger?! I didn't know she could do that! Did you know she could do that?! Did she do that?! What just happened?! Find out the answers to these and other questions (or not) in the next exciting installment of...

I would like to leech off of your sympathy for a moment on the topic of that scene in the basement with the scrab, for two main reasons.
First, the scrab in the story bears little resemblance to the male, vykker-modified scrab from the RPG that was created by Jarnww, which had the abilities to think rationally and speak.
To make it worse, almost the entirety of that scene was deleted by a hacker, who hacked into the forums and screwed everything up so badly that Alcar had to load up a 2 or 3 three week old backup of the forums, after 2 or 3 weeks of very intense RPGing. Pretty much the whole encounter, until Anni is carried out of the basement, was deleted and I don't really remember what happened. I think Sev was down there but I don't remember why or when he left the others. Boogie didn't appear until later but I don't remember how he got drawn in. I do remember that Anni somehow got Stivik's gun off of him and was threatening to shoot him; apparently (judging by T-nex's later posts) she was protecting him from the scrab somehow (which, as noted, had the powers of intelligent cognition omigoshrofl). Dek jabbed her with a tranquiliser syringe, which is what knocked her out. I rearranged a lot of that as you saw, and did my best to batter it into a feasible shape, but it was a painful experience. I dunno how Razor made it back so quickly with Dek and Boogie, but who's to know, eh?

Eh?



Remember how Anni dealt with that scrab. Pretending to be a paramite, what a clever girl!

And as a final note, just think about how terrified a slig would be of a mudokon with powers; imagine how you would feel if you found out that someone you really hated and had even been bullying had powers to summon fire or worse still, to completely take over your body, to force you to kill your friends and even kill yourself.
Anni's gonna have her work cut out explaining her way out of this one!

If you don't reply, Stivik will be even angrier!!!
And time is ticking...