Fantasy Kaizoic: Earth Reborn

[Da Doofus]

"Fine fine." Rufus huffed, striding outside to distance himself from Stryx.

The Commander just sighed, and looked at Kairo.
"I'll tell Red Team to mount up." He nodded, leaving the tent after Rufus.

The critters watched Kairo.
Ezekiel yawned, and Leonard hopped onto his back playfully.
Frederick only kept his suspicious gaze.

 

[Chai_T3a]

"They're hopeless." He mumbled as the two of them left the room. His voice directed to no one particular.
He then looked over at the critters, giving them a warm smile.
"Least you guy's aren't getting at each other's throats." He went to grab the cage. Making sure to keep the thing as still as he could. He didn't want to rough them up too much on their journey to the cricket. For all he knew, they'd have lots of that when they made their way back to base camp.
"Come on. We're heading to your new home." He again, said to the critters. He found it odd that he was talking to the little things, they would never understand what he was talking about. But he still felt the need to inform them of what was happening.

He slowly made his way to the Cricket, again keeping the cage from rumbling or bouncing as much as possible. He deposited it onto the floor, as close as a corner as he could to maximize the amount of space left for the Red Team and Rufus. Speaking of Rufus, he should probably thank him at some point for agreeing with all this. Even with the point he'd had made, he knew it must not be easy leaving behind all this. Maybe he'd do it if he could catch him alone. But for now, he stood by the Cricket, waiting for everyone else to come back.

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus had stepped in the carrier-side door and had sat by the entrance.
Soon after, Hudson, Haru, and Adrianna stepped in. Their boots clanged on the metal floors as they found their own seats.
Outside the armored back door, Kairo would hear Stryx clamp on the mounted rail.
That would leave either Valdez or Bill to drive the vehicle back through the jungle.

Rufus sighed.
"Got all my crap out here for nothing." He closed his eyes and shook his head.

 

[Chai_T3a]

His ears caught Rufus’s words. He couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty after that. He hadn’t regretted convincing the man to come back, but that didn’t mean the Kairo would feel any better about all this. It was a situation where nothing he did would make everyone happy. Something that he seemed to be very bad at handling. He visibly frowned a bit.

The frown came down as fast as It had appeared. The last thing anyone needed was to deal with this bit of over-dramatization. It wasn’t such a big deal anyway.

“Hey. Who knows. You might enjoy it there.”
He said.
“For starters, We’ve got plenty of food.”
“

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus scanned the room at the Republic troopers.
"Hmm . . . Handouts from the people who've tried to kill me before." He spoke dryly. "What more could a man want." He sighed.

"Bit paranoid, ain't ya?" Hudson asked. "We aren't a hit squad, y'know?"

"The Republic is like a lot of machines. Shiny on the outside, all the bells and whistles. Take a peek on the inside, and you may get dirtied by the oily crap inside." He responded. "I got nothing against you boys; you're doing your jobs.

It's the power grubbers in charge I try to keep hidden from."

 

[Chai_T3a]

He shrugged in response. He lived most his life within the republic. His parents used to be huge supporters, and therefore, dedicated their lives for it. He on the other hand, barely even kept up on politics. Besides the few confrontations he’d have with the directors, he had nothing else to go on to judge them.

“Well it it makes you feel better, we only got Stryx at camp.” He said.
“None of the directors are there. Which I guess makes sense.”

 

[Da Doofus]

"Well that's something." He admitted. "That Bentley guy seems like a weasel."

Adrianna chuckled at that.

Just then, the Cricket's engine roared to life, and they were moving.
The tires clanked as their gears went into motion.

Frederick, Leonard, and Ezekiel stirred and made nervous purring sounds at the Cricket's mechanical bellowing.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo smiled in response.

As the engine started up, Kairo found himself staring out the window. He spent his time gazing through the dense flora as they began their journey back to the camp.

In the state of deep thought, a certain question had popped into his mind. Rufus had mentioned that red team was just doing their jobs. That had got him wondering. What did they really do? There was the obvious stuff that came with working military, but he’d always wondered how it was like outside of the basics. He probably ask them about it. Besides, might as well try and start up some conversation. It would take some time to get back.

“Hey. If you don’t mind me asking. What did you guys do?” He asked, there was a slight pause. He had originally been finished, but then he realized what he said had been extremely vague.
“You know. Before the world ended. Seems like you’re all to comfortable with each other to have met a few months ago.....not that thar’s a bad thing.”

 

[Da Doofus]

"We were mostly a search and rescue team." Haru began. "When the Fenridon and Titannelid were fighting in New Athens for example, we were sent in to lead survivors to a secure evac location."

"Damn that freakin worm was ugly." Hudson laughed.
"Didn't they end up killing it in Egypt?"

"Yeah." Adrianna nodded. "Remember when we had to clear that subway of Lancecrabs?"

Rufus perked up.
"You talking about those things that used cars as shells?"

"Yeah. Had the horn growing out of their faces." Hudson shaped an invisible horn from his nose.

"So what did YOU do for a living, Mr. Maye?" Adrianna asked, smirking a bit.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo cocked his eyebrow in surprise. His conversation with Stryx in the storage shed suddenly popping into his mind. Talking about his old job would probably be tough for Rufus. Then again, the Red team probably already had some semblance that it wasn’t honest work. So they probably wouldn’t treat him any differently. He listened in intentively.

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus only smirked.
"Well I advertised myself as a 'Treasure hunter for hire.'" He stretched out. "Private collectors would pay me to go into abandoned cities . . ." He paused. "Abandoned by PEOPLE, I mean; and retrieve some old artpiece or document, or just blow open a vault for the goodies."

"So you went into cities occupied by monsters to steal from the dead?" Haru said icily.

"Well it sounds bad when you put it like THAT." Rufus shot a glare at the armored soldier. "Would you RATHER the Louvre's artworks stayed there to be burned by Hypodraconis? I don't do grave robbing. I 'stole' from crumbling buildings . . ." He thought. "And a few times from gangs trying to auction off some lost weapon."

Hudson laughed.
"Sounds interesting."

Rufus smiled. "It is until you have Republic suits getting uppity because you're taking contracts from countries they didn't like."

"The world was fighting monsters, why would they care about who liked who?"

Rufus tapped his helmet now sitting on the floor.
"You'd be amazed how long some grudges last."

 

[Chai_T3a]

As Rufus described his occupation, it became clear to him that ‘Smuggler for Illegal markets’ was a bit of a harsh term to describe it. If you boiled it all down, that was what’s Rufus did, but it wasn’t like it had caused harm to anyone. Guess the government could get pretty antsy if you don’t toe the line.

“You’d think the world would be more co-operative in all that.” He shook his head in disappointment.
“Not....fighting over who get’s to keep a damn artifact”

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus shrugged.
"It paid the bills and kept me from starving in the gutter back home."
He glanced out the window, and noticed the environment.
"I will admit though . . . It'll be nice to be around people." He admitted.
"Things get creepy at night."

 

[Chai_T3a]

He shivered at the thought of the screams he heard last night. The sound of that dying animal was definitely unnerving. Even just thinking about spending a night outside the walls was beginning to frighten him.

“Yeah.” He gave a slight nod.
“I’ve been out here a day and I’m already scared shitless.”

 

[Da Doofus]

As though realizing just then that they were not in a familiar environment, Leonard began yelping a high-pitched sound while grappling onto the bars.
Ezekiel followed suite, yelping the sound that sounded like cries for help to some unknown listener.

The sounds reverberated off the walls in condensed echoes that undoubtedly bounced off through the jungle.

Frederick popped them both on the heads with his paws and dragged them back to the cage's corner. All the while watching the humans with that same suspicious look.

Rufus and the rest removed their hands from their now aching ears and gawked at the bat-like apes.

"The fuck was that?" Hudson frownes. "What the fuck are those things anyway?"

Rufus shrugged.
"Don't know. They just showed up last week at my camp."

Frederick lowered his ears and growled, showing off needle-sharp fangs.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Once the incessant screaming finally came to an end, Kairo found himself looking down at Frederick. The way the little thing was acting brought concern to him. What could have scared them so much? He doubted that it was any of them, seeing that they'd already been in the Cricket for more than just a little while. Was it something particular they said? A tone or something that frightened them? That just didn't seem to sound right.

It definitely didn't sound right at all. A pretty terrible theory was beginning to form in his head. The creatures had huge ears, that must have meant that their hearing was miles better then anyone else's. Could they have heard something? Something that freaked them out so clearly that Leonard and Ezekiel had lost all semblance of sanity? The thought made him shiver.

'No. That couldn't be possible. It just couldn't be.'

He didn't know if his logic was sound, or if he just didn't want to believe his theory. But either way, he wasn't going to bring it up. They'd be fine. Their wouldn't be anything dangerous coming for him and the rest of the crew. He'd just been worrying again, like he'd had all the time. The trio must have just been freaked out by something boring and mundane.

"You think you can calm him down?" He asked Rufus in an attempt to disperse his thoughts. He was the most familiar with the bat-monkey's.
"Fred's looking real nervous."

 

[Da Doofus]

Rufus reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag of trail mix.
"I been giving em the dried fruit bits. See if that works." He tossed it to Kairo.

 

[Chai_T3a]

He took a quick glance at the trail mix, before picking out the fruit and handing it into the cage. Hopefully this will calm them down.

He watched intentively to see what kind of affect it would have.

 

[Da Doofus]

Ezekiel reached for a piece first, but Frederick snatched his hand away.
He growled and made a more aggressive yelp.

Hudson covered his ears again.
"Fuck's sake shut that thing up!"

Stryx knocked on the back doors.
"What's going on in there?"

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo felt his ears would start to bleed if this was to continue any longer. Through all the noise, he could barely make out Stryx’s word through the glass.

He turned over to look at Stryx.
“Got no clue.” He shrugged, before looking back at Rufus.
“They ever do this with you?”

 

[Da Doofus]

"No." Rufus gritted.

Frederick yelped once more, and lifted his right ear. Leonard and Ezekiel did the same, and glanced at the right window.
Then all three of them settled, and curled up in the cage, covering their faces with their ears.

Adrianna watched them for a few seconds.
"Ok . . . They do that again, I'm throwing them out."

Hudson nodded.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Kairo felt a bit of relief as the noise had finally come to an end. But there still seemed to be something that was bugging the critters. That kept him from truly being comfortable in the situation. But he tried his best to hide that concern.

He looked back out the window, gazing forlornly outside.

 

[Da Doofus]

The rest of the journey continued in the closest thing to silence one could find in a rattling vehicle with a muffled engine sound encades in metal.

Valdez took an alternate route away from the tree shrine, favoring open clearings to avoid plowing through more foliage.
The skies began turning to the purples and oranges of dusk when they returned to the camp.

The Cricket stopped, and the engine shut off once they were past the gates. Already, sounds of a crowd collected from outside.
Rufus was quietly snoring in his seat.

 

[Chai_T3a]

Even with the relatively uneventful ride, Kairo found himself fully alert throughout most of the trip. The sight's he'd seen through the windows keeping him up. One would believe that seeing nothing but trees for hours would become monotonous and boring, but it didn't seem to work that way for him. Spending most of his life in a city, filled with nothing but concrete walls and roads, he'd barely even know that such a place could exist. Now though, he could finally catch up on what he had been missing.

The journey back, albeit long, was much faster than getting to Rufus. Kairo watched as a crowd of people began gathering around the cricket. It was time for them to get out of vehicle. He leaned over and shook Rufus's shoulder lightly in an attempt to wake him up.

 

[Da Doofus]

He snorted and awoke with squinted eyes.
The mechanical side door slid open, blasting the interior with the camps nocturnal lamp posts.

Red Team began departing from the Cricket as the ex-smuggler groaned upon his return to consciousness.
The critters twitched their ears curiously at the commotion outside, but only made quiet squeaks in response.