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Counter Earth Chronicles - Fallen Empire

Chapter 104: Feast Of The Damned

Day 206 (continued)

"He is the monster master, their ruler!" Tippi shouted. "His fur is as dark as the night, his teeth indescribably sharp and his claws very menacing. He is very cold, unfeeling and without mercy."

"I thought well, you know, that he would be taller." Corey said eyeing the black werewolf.

"...and menacing..." Rumble snorted.

"And not 001." I said astounded.

"Little cub *koff* *koff* why do you play with your food?" The monster king asked Rumble.

"Oh no he didn't!" The black haired teen said, loading his crossbow... very quickly.

"Thank you for the pleasant introduction otter. It was well thought of and expertly delivered. For that I will eat you last." The black werewolf said.

"...they are not food. They are my family..." The brown were-creature snorted.

"That is something you will never understand fuzzy." I said also aiming my weapon at him.

"What is that meat?" 001 said eyeing the two humans, brown werewolf and otter girl before him.

"I have seen your kind before, you rule with claw and fang, brutality and might; where your word is law and disobedience is death. But tell me something, do your subordinates follow you out of respect or is it fear? If you are sick or injured will they come to your aid?" I said mocking him as the palm of my left had rested on the launch button of my weapon.

"Freckles if we stay around here much longer the four of us are going to know the answer." Mr. Collins warned.

"...we are in their territory..." Rumble grumbled.

"Right, he probably has minions in his cave over there." Corey suggested.

"Alex your shoulder." Tippi said peeking out from behind Rumble.

"Yeah fuzzy took a bite out of me." I said noticing that I was bleeding from my wound.

"Quite delectable *koff* *koff* I can't wait to sample the rest of him. Then you and finally you." The black werewolf said eyeing Corey and Tippi. "I look forward to digesting you for the next few days."

"Everyone, we got to figure out how to transport that hover vehicle." I said to my companions.

"You could use the blue coupe's tractor hooks and pull it from the ravine." The snarky teen suggested.

"But the minute we remove the hover vehicle..." Tippi trembled.

"Hi, remember me?" The monster master growled looking right through us.

"Yeah the monster king." I replied.

"...I got this..." The former lab creature said.

"You think you can *koff* *koff* take me on cub?" The werewolf taunted.

Rumble snorted in response.

"Werewolf against werewolf? Rumble will kick his butt." Corey said.

"Give it a good slashing too until there is nothing left but matter, blood and bone!" Tippi said cowering.

"Tippi! That is rather graphic." I replied.

"Alright let's do this." Corey placed his fingers at his mouth and whistled.

The blue prototype appeared over the top of the ravine.

*I am here Mr. Collins.* The automated assistant responded.

Overwatch drove the blue coupe about halfway down the deep slope of the ravine until the vehicle started to lose traction.

"That is far enough." The teen said looking at his wolf. "We have to recover that hover vehicle at all cost."

*Mr. Collins, Mr. Winter, Mr. Rumble the prototype can't assist you and recover Ms. Otter's vehicle at the same time.*

"Right the side-pods can't pull and target enemies at the same time, so we have to hold the line until the objective is achieved." I growled, sounding like our resident werewolf.

"Right pull Tippi's vehicle to the top of the ravine and flee before reinforcements arrive." Mr. Collins said looking at his wolf.

Rumble then looked at the otter girl.

"...Tippi assist Overwatch..."

"Right, be careful." The little girl said taking the were-creature's paw, before running to the interior of the prototype.

*Sidepods engaged. Tractor hooks deployed.*

*THOKK!!*

Two cables shot from the weapons launchers on either side of the blue coupe right into the rear of the pink sedan.

Corey, Rumble and I watched as Overwatch pulled the vehicle off of the pinned monster king scraping him.

"We got it! Sort of!" The otter girl shouted over the PA system. "Pull Overwatch pull!!"

"Free at last." The black were-creature said standing. "Now who should I devour first, the blond or the brunette?" 001 announced looking at me and Corey.

"...neither..." Our honorary beastial growled running at the monster king who despite his injuries became that black blur I was all too familiar with.

The brown and black were-creatures circled each other and circled each other, sizing one another up before the black one attacked.

"RAWWRRR!!!"

The brown and black werewolves locked paws and claws before the stronger of the two threw its opponent on his side. The monster king pinned Rumble who struggled against the great beast's weight.

001 tried to bite the former lab creature on his neck, Rumble winced at the last second transfering the bite to his shoulder making an injured canine sort of whine.

The brown werewolf clasped the black werewolf and the two rolled on the ground of the ravine like two wrestlers in a prize fight until Rumble had freed himself from the creature's maw. He then pounced the black werewolf picked him up and threw him.

*SMACK*

The monster king hit the side of his cave landing with a thud. He rebounded becoming the black blur charging at our honorary beastial at blinding speed knocking Rumble onto his back where he started slashing with him with his claws right, left, left right. The spot where they had wrestled was splattered with blood.

"Cub why are you protecting them?" The monster king said spitting out some bloody matter from his mouth.

"...you would never understand..." The brown werecreature said recovering. His lower legs grasped onto the black werecreature's stomach as he performed a circle throw tossing the black werewolf off of him. Recovering Rumble charged the monster king with his head down low before biting his left leg hard.

"Come on Rumble! You got this!!" I heard the snarky teen shout.

"Welcome ONE and all to our Tourist Tours!!" I said estaticaly to three prospective and ignorant clients. "See a close up view of the former cities of the empire!!"

"On a harpy?!" A male binturong asked.

"Her name is Demona, she is quite friendly and gentle." I said. He traded glances with an older female and younger male next to him.

"Come let us show you what has befallen the High Evolutionary's empire. You will find it very enlightening." The she harpy said.

"Some would even call it life changing." I added.

"How much?" The female binturong asked.

"A day's supply of food is all we ask." The harpy said.

"That does seem expensive." The younger male said.

"Life is tough in these after empire times." I responded.

The third thought about it. "Very well." The female responded.

"Excellent. You three climb onto her back." I said to our new customers.

"What about you mister?" The smallest of the three asked.

"We will carry him." The she harpy said smiling. I grabbed on to the she monster's leg as she took off into the sky with the binturongs for an aerial tour of World Five. "Hold on tight now."

"Trust us you will find this flight transformational." I said to our new offerings as they trembled violently after touching Demona.

*MUNCH* *MUNCH* *MUNCH*

"ALEX!!! ALEX!!! SNAP OUT OF IT!!!"

"UGH." I said coming to. It was another shimmer.

*MUNCH* *MUNCH* *MUNCH*

(Why am I in so much pain?)

I glanced downward to see Animus biting my leg and removing a hunk of my flesh. I then looked at my left seeing a brown three eyed thing with tentacles feasting on my shoulder accerbating my injury from earlier.

*MUNCH* *MUNCH* *MUNCH*

"AH GET OFF OF ME!!!"

"Freckles!!"

*THOKK!!*

I watched as an arrow flew right at the wyvern I had fought earlier. He caught it.

(Uh oh!)

"That is the best you can do?!" Animus asked.

The tip exploded into this white muck encasing him. It was a glue bomb.

"ACK!!!"

*THOKK!!*

Another arrow fired at the creature dining on my shoulder encasing whatever it was into a net. It struggled within it binds as the net shrunk smaller. It roared.

I looked toward Corey who had just saved my bacon. He was fighting hand to hand with two more creatures. The first was quite demonic looking- red with long horns, long ears and fangs. The second looked like a walking diamond shard, very scary and surreal looking.

"Where did they come from?!"

"They showed up while you were out!" Corey said trying to fight off the two at the same time.

"Corey, we can't fight them hand to hand, they are much stronger than us!"

I looked at the blue prototype which was still struggling to pull the pink sedan up the side of the ravine and then at the fighting werewolves.

(This wasn't working.)

"Overwatch code black!!" I said firing my spear tip at the diamond shaped thing attacking Corey.

*Aborting mission.*

My hook hit the target just as the automated assistant cut its cables.

"Come over here!!" I shouted, retracting my hook.

The creature was pulled right into the path of the sliding pink hover vehicle.

*BAP*

(Three down!)

"Human you are mine!!" The demonic creature said picking up the black haired teen by his neck.

Corey hit his attacker with his crossbow while trying to free himself. The monster snickered. "That itches."

(Oh crap!)

"How about this?" The black haired teen said firing an arrow into the creature's right eye.

"AUGH!!!" It screamed dropping him.

"Did that itch too? How about this?" Mr. Collins said stabbing an arrow tip into its neck. "Or even this?" He shouted stabbing another arrow into its nose.

(Well done.) I thought to myself as an eerie sound permeated the ravine.

*KRUNCH*

"It is over humans." The wyvern who had been hit by the glue bomb announced.

"RUMBLE!!!" Tippi screamed.

I looked toward where the brown and black were-creatures were fighting just in time to see the wrong one teeter than fall down face first. 001 then picked him up and tossed aside our honorary beastial as if he were a rag doll.

"You are an impressive fighter cub, but my experience is greater." The monster king announced.

"Wait you were injured!!!" Corey shouted.

"Still am meat, and you know what? I won anyway." The monster king said locking his eyes onto the two humans in his sites and before noticing what we had done to his warriors.

"Animus, Vicious, Insidious, Dominous!!! You let them do this to you? THEY ARE JUST TWO HUMANS!!!"

"My liege they are formidable and cunning." The wyvern moaned from within the white viscous substance.

"No *koff* excuses!!" 001 shouted.

The black werewolf's subordinates were silent.

"Yes what is it?"

"The slice strike at their colony did not go well, we lost." The red demon like creature that had handled Corey said pulling out the arrows in his eye, nose and neck.

"What?!" The monster king shouted.

"Great more corpses we will have to bury." The black haired teen snarked pointing his crossbow.

"Dominous shut him up." The black werewolf ordered.

The creature did not acknowledge the monster master.

"Dominous?" The monster king asked his subordinate.

"There has been some concern about you my liege." Aminus said.

"What is you obsession with the three traitors?" Dominous asked feeling the blood that was trickling from his neck wound.

"You are questioning me?" 001 asked growing agitated.

"It has proven quite unhealthy sire for us as of late." The wyvern said.

"Because of it a number of our kind have perished." The creature under the pink sedan responded.

"Vicious What are you saying?"

"Look around sir I am stuck, Animus and Insidious are down and Dominous is bleeding out. Was all this worth it?"

"So our food fights back what of it?!" The monster king asked annoyed.

"We feel in light of what has happened that a change in leadership is necessary." Vicious proposed.

"And those will be the last words you will ever speak." The monster king said to his former subordinates.

*Monster King, Dominus, Vicious, Insidious, Animus if I could have your attention please.* Overwatch said creating a distraction.

*Flame thrower engaged*

"AUGH!!!" Dominous shouted as he torched from behind.

"Overwatch you can do that?!" The otter girl gasped.

*Machine gun engaged*

Corey watched as the black werewolf darted off toward the direction of his cave as the bullets started flying and their shells rolled down the side of the ravine. We hoped that 001 had been hit at least a few times in some vital areas and would bleed out.

"Survive that!!" Corey taunted the running werewolf as Dominous ran in circles trying to put out the fire on his fur, while his blood loss from his neck would increased.

"Vicious, Animus and Insidious- take this message back to your forces! Leave us alone or what was done here will be the least of your worries!" The otter girl announced to the detained monsters.

I limped over to examine our fallen werewolf. Corey joined me.

"His neck has been broken." I announced.

"We have taken our share of lumps today. Overwatch!" The snarky teen said.

*Should we finish them?*

"No. A few have to live to deliver our message." Mr. Collins said. "Dominous pending demise is enough for now."

"And from the sounds of it, there is some dissention among the ranks." I replied.

The monsters watched as we loaded our were-creature into the trunk of the blue coupe.

"So how are we getting my mom's vehicle out of here?" The she otter asked.

"I guess we will have to carry it out. Overwatch engage hover mode."

*Affirmative Mr. Winter.*

"Extend the deflector to maximum encase the sedan, excluding Vicious and take us home before we bleed on the seats."

That evening...

"Ursa, it was my call to make, and I made it!" A perturbed badger shouted at her co-leader.

"Was it Barq?"

"So what would you have had me do? Stay with Alex or return to help defend the colony during the incursion? I decided to return and sent Corey and Rumble in my place. It was the right call to make Ursa and you know it!"

"Barq Alex and Corey were mauled and Rumble was gravely injured!" The bear said to the badger.

"They handled themselves exceptionally well given the circumstances. If you think my judgement is suspect then I will step down and you can find another monster specialist."

The brown bear was silent.

"You don't have another monster expert do you?" The badger asked goading her friend.

"Well there is Rhinox." My pregnant she beast commented cutting her eyes.

"You wouldn't dare!" Lady Barq said to my perfect person as their voices trailed off as they returned to their offices on the first floor.

"Corey lie still." Sharkara said to the black haired teen.

"What was that about?" He asked as my devious person started treating his numerous scrape and bite marks.

"A minor disagreement between two of the co-leaders." Shakara's helper said.

"Shira?" I mumbled.

"It will blow over." My lioness said to her patient. "You have whole chunks of flesh missing!"

"Alex does as well." The female sabertooth tiger remarked.

"I think that was because Alex and I were surrounded by monsters who were trying to eat us." Mr. Collins said making a sarcastic remark.

"Well you two sit back and relax because it is going to take the dermal regenerator a while replace what was eaten."

"Shakara, you didn't have to word that so graphically." Shira remarked.

"Healer, how is Rumble?" The black haired teen asked.

"Banged up pretty bad, he has gouges and bite marks all over his body and his neck was broken. He is regenerating in the next room over. He will be fine in time."

"I thought he was going to win." Mr. Collins remarked.

"Now that I think about it, 001 is substantially older than Rumble and does have more experience and he is the leader of that colony of monsters." I said as I got a dirty look from Corey who was lying in the bed across from me. "Um, yeah, say where is Tippi?"

"With Kenna and Arugula they are trying to recover the pink sedan's travel files." Shira responded.

"If we can find out the exact location of where she came from." I said.

"What we went through today will be well worth it." Corey said concluding my sentence.

Kenna, Arugula and Tippi worked through the evening and into the night trying to salvage the data from the pink sedan.

As for Corey and myself, we spent the night in the Infirmary. It sucked because I didn't particularly care for being away from my females.

"You awake freckles?"

"Yeah. I can't sleep." I replied.

"You missing your triad?" The teen said turning on his side to look at me.

"Um hmm, and their incredible racks."

"Yeah, I miss Rumble. His mane is great to sleep on as well." Mr. Collins said candidly. "Sometimes I like to crawl underneath his loincloth and wear it with him.

"Can I ask you something Corey?"

"Go for it freckles."

"While I was in my shimmer, how did you manage to fight all those monsters?"

"Remember those special arrows I was making? When I became surrounded, I couldn't use my crossbow as much so I became very physical if you catch my drift. I stabbed one creature in the aorta and the eye. Then hit another with a glue bomb."

"And the last one with a net that contracted everytime it struggled." I said completing his sentence for him as we were visited.

"Good even boys." My perfect person said walking into our room.

"Lady Ursa."

"Mistress."

"I thought I would check on the two of you." She said sitting down on my bedside. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore." Corey and I responded in unison.

"Well you were both fed upon by the monster horde. Alex had chunks missing from his leg and shoulder."

"And something similar happened to my chest, back, thigh and..." Corey started to say.

"Buttocks?" Lady Ursa said filling in the blank.

"You heard about that?"

"Shakara's dermal regenerator was overworked trying to rebuild, restructure and replace what the creatures had eaten." She said studying us. "Suffice to say you two had what was removed restored, but you will still be sore for a few days."

"So I heard while Alex and I were away there also was another incident." Mr. Collins said looking at my fierce ursine warrior.

"There was. The monster king sent a small team to infiltrate the city to try to capture Haem, Sandu and Linias."

"So that is why Lady Barq was ordered back." I said.

"If we had the use of one of the probes on the blue or red coupes we could have spotted the strike team."

"How were they detected?" Mr. Collins asked.

"When they tried to capture the monster trio. Linias, Haem and Sandu managed to hold their own until help arrived." My fierce ursine warrior said proudly.

"Must have been their training or their trainer. So did you and Lady Barq make up yet?" The black haired teen asked.

"Not exactly." The she beastial said petting me and Corey on our heads. "Maybe tomorrow. Now get some sleep."

Day 207

The next morning Corey and I were awakened by a commotion coming from downstairs. Fearing the worst we hobbled our way to the first floor of the central building and then outside where there was a small crowd around the prototypes and the pink sedan that belonged to Tippi's mother. Inside was Arugula and the otter girl.

The teen and I made our way to the side of the battered sedan. We noticed that the spring hare was blushing and the otter was all cheers.

"Arugula what is going on?" I asked the she ninja.

"We had a breakthrough!!!"

"It took all night but Kenna, Tippi and myself were able to determine Tippi's flight path and her flight's origin with what we were able to salvage."

Corey and I looked at the battered heads up display on what was left of the dashboard of the sedan there was a yellow blip flashing. "Right here. This is where we will find your mother Tippi and hopefully our transportation to the space-gate."

Although it would take time for Corey, Rumble and myself to recover. The injuries we sustained from our recent mission were more than worth it.

Alex Winter August 3rd, YOE 34