"Iceclaw's emotion got the better of him," Icegnash continued, "and he's outright attacking a Leopard Tribe outpost, along with Icestrike and Icescale. After dealing with their HQ and Icewing, the force can fly over there and attack the remaining three Hunters from behind. "Even Iceclaw won't anticipate being caught between the Leopards and Gorillas. We'll destroy their Rupture weapons, and even get on strong diplomatic terms with the Leopards if we deliver Iceclaw to King Leodus." "All this in a day?" the operator asked incredulously. "Yes, it's possible," Icegnash insisted. "As I said, this is the best chance to neutralize the Ice Hunters and wipe away the scourge of the Rupture crystals. All the pieces have fallen into place perfectly--" "Not all, Agent A," the operator interrupted. "It seems that in your obsession with the Rupture crystals and their wielders, you've forgotten about the other objective; gaining info on the Hunters' parent organization." Icegnash was silent for a moment before replying. "Operator, you're calling me obsessed, but you can't stop thinking about this theory of yours--?" "It's actually the Gorilla King's theory," the operator clarified, "which I and many others agree with. Think about it, Agent A: the Ice Hunters are a tiny organization with only five members, and that's including you. Where are they getting their chi and materials?" "I've already answered both those questions," Icegnash replied, stopping frustration from creeping into his voice. "While disguised, they steal small portions of each tribe's monthly chi shipments, and they've mined their materials from the Iron Mountains; the newest member that I mentioned in my last report, Icestrike, is an expert miner who knows the Iron Mountains like the back of his hand, despite his age." "What about the higher power that your 'leader' keeps mentioning?" the operator countered. "This 'Icedawn' whom Iceclaw reports to, who you've never seen in person?" "As far as I know, it really seems like he or she is just the leader of the Ice Hunters," Icegnash insisted, "hiding out in a remote location to save their own skin if the Ice Hunters get taken down." "But that's just it; Icedawn is the one we're looking for," the operator explained, "regardless of whether he or she has an entire second organization. Ever since you reported about Iceclaw's meetings with this boss of his, this has gone deeper than just monitoring a small terrorist group. "We need to stop this at the source; for all we know, Icedawn could be a warlord amassing power in secret while using the Ice Hunters as a diversion...and we do not want another war any time soon, right?" "...Right," Icegnash conceded. "I know how passionate you are regarding the subject of the Rupture crystals, but--" The sentence wasn't finished, as Icegnash, out of the corner of his eye, saw a jagged blue blade slashing down toward the hand that held the radio.
Valum had to lurch his upper body backward to avoid either his neck or beak being disconnected forever by a swing of the Rupture Blade. Luckily, his opponent wasn't able to take advantage of this, since Icewing herself had to dodge an attack from behind immediately after; Vamprah, with chi-enhanced speed, was rapidly spinning his spear as if it were a helicopter blade. Valum saw several light blue feathers carried off by the wind despite Icewing dodging the blow, and realized that Vamprah was now aiming primarily for her wings. During a brief moment in which Valum and Vamprah glanced at each other, the former gave the latter the tiniest nod, indicating that he perceived the strategy and would go along with it. Icewing dove down and then up (though 'up' and 'down' became somewhat subjective this high in the sky), attempting to freeze her two adversaries from below. The Vulture King and soldier once again dashed to either side of the ice blast, and the one who'd launched it was also forced to change her course, as the irrevocable force of gravity pulled the crescent of ice down. Even as Icewing avoided the plummeting, melting mass, the battle continued; Valum didn't give the terrorist a moment's rest, swinging his sword straight down from above and to her right while her back still faced the world below, making it appear as though he was aiming for her waist. Icewing parried the swing with the Rupture Blade, and, to Valum's frustration, managed to see Vamprah's attack from the other side in time. Utilizing chi-enhanced strength, she threw Vamprah back a couple feet with a wing beat, before the soldier could pierce that very wing with his spear. Icewing shot upward to get out of the unfavorable position, but that meant it was now Valum's turn to attack from below. With all his strength, Valum launched forward, pointing his sword straight up toward the space between his adversary's wings. Icewing turned just in time to block the attack, but she was carried upward by the force of Valum's flight, small sparks flying from the latter's sword tip as it ground against the Rupture Blade. Unbeknownst to the other two fighters, Vamprah's eyes widened as he took notice of these sparks, and he proceeded to grab his clothing with his left hand a few moments later. Pulling the fabric of his soldier uniform until it stretched far from his midsection, the young vulture drove his spear into the fabric from the side, wiggling around the sharp point of the spear until it tore the tuft of fabric off the rest of the uniform. As Icewing allowed herself to fall downward and continuously parried a rapid flurry of strikes from Valum, the Vulture King saw Vamprah carefully sliding his spear through the detached piece of fabric (or rather, sliding the fabric onto his spear). Though the light fabric fluttered in the wind, Vamprah kept it secure by stretching it around the two side corners of the diamond-shaped spearhead.
-last edited on Jun 10, 2023 21:47:45 GMT by The J
Post by The J on Jun 10, 2023 21:45:32 GMT
Valum had no idea what Vamprah was doing, but the kid had clearly come up with a plan. This was further evidenced when Vamprah looked at Valum and gestured to his right, toward a nearby mountainside. Valum silently agreed with whatever this proposition entailed, not letting up on his flurry of strikes at Icewing as he pushed her toward the mountain. Icewing, likely made suspicious now by Vamprah's apparent inaction for the last minute and a half, dodged one of Valum's swings instead of parrying it, finally ending the Vulture King's onslaught as she dived down toward Vamprah...who, in turn, swerved around her to fly directly toward the mountain. Icewing halted her chase, flapping her wings to hover in the air as she looked at Vamprah with slanted eyes. She's doubtless trying to figure out what he's planning, Valum thought as he turned around. That makes two of us...but luckily, the kid's on my side. Vamprah halted his own flight, turning and pressing his feet against the side of the mountain as if he were about to launch himself from it. He ended up having to do so regardless, pushing off and to his right with a wing beat, and narrowly dodging an ice blast that came dangerously close to his left wing. Valum grimaced as he saw this, whilst flying around behind Icewing; a wing becoming encased in ice, especially from this altitude, would most certainly pull the owner of said wing down into a deadly and irreversible plummet. Before Icewing could launch another ranged attack at the young soldier, Valum came at her from behind with a powerful slash of his own. Icewing detected his presence in time to dodge a fatal blow...but not in time to dodge entirely; the Vulture King's blade became embedded in the metacarpal bone of her left wing, if only for a moment. Though Icewing had been clever to stop her pursuit of Vamprah, and instead focus on freezing him with ranged attacks after noticing his attempt to draw her toward the mountain, she'd become so fixated on that vulture and on figuring out his plan, that she nearly forgot about her other opponent. Icewing screeched in pain as she lurched away, whirling on Valum with furious eyes. Her wing flapping was more uneven now, with her injured left wing having to put in extra work, though it seemed to Valum that the terrorist's ego was hurt most of all. "How...DARE YOU?!" Icewing snarled as she launched into a flurry of strikes. In her blind fury, her attacks were less precise, easier to dodge and parry, which allowed Valum time to glance over his opponent's shoulder at what Vamprah was doing...and then it all made sense. Vamprah scraped the point of his spear up and down against the flint stone on the mountainside; once, twice, thrice, four times, until there were finally enough sparks to fall onto and ignite the soft fabric directly below. With that, Vamprah threw the spear, using all his chi-enhanced might. From this distance, it would barely 'strike' its target, but that didn't matter.
-last edited on Jun 10, 2023 22:27:26 GMT by The J
Post by The J on Jun 10, 2023 22:25:40 GMT
Valum pushed his sword forward against hers in that moment, shoving Icewing slightly closer to the oncoming spear. Even with just the very tip of the spear making contact, barely penetrating her right wing, and falling away half a second later, that was enough time for the flames below to make contact with Icewing's feathers. The Ice Hunter screeched in pain and shock again as the fire engulfed her right wing, and her left wing soon followed, as she inadvertently threw embers from one wing to the other by constantly flapping them. Valum flew far away before his own wings could get engulfed in the inferno (or alternatively, engulfed in ice from a wild Rupture Blade blast), but Icewing didn't seem to care much about him at the moment. She desperately tried to fly toward the mountain she'd ironically been fixated on avoiding earlier, whilst also stretching her arm behind her back and trying to put out the flames with low-power Rupture Blade blasts. While the latter effort paid off somewhat, the former did not, and Icewing's plummet began in full force before she could get close enough to grab onto any mountainside foothold. Wings that were once a distinguishable light blue were now an equally distinguishable red and orange, though they became less and less bright as they descended into the darkness between the Iron Mountains. Icewing wildly swung both her wings and the Rupture Blade all the while, and Valum watched the terrorist's literal downward spiral with some remorse; he knew that if he or Vamprah tried to rescue her, Icewing would either freeze them or set them ablaze, bringing them down with her even without meaning to, in this wild and instinctively self-preserving state. Valum glanced at Vamprah as they flew toward each other, and he could tell from the young soldier's expression that he was thinking the same. The Vulture King breathed out, now realizing that he'd been holding his breath since he pushed Icewing toward the spear of judgement. It wasn't long before the plummeting Hunter was out of their fields of view and hearing, below the mist of the Iron Mountains. The dozens of bright blue feathers floating through the sky around them were singed black and disintegrated one by one, until the last of Icewing's namesake was erased. "...Like you said when we first met, Icewing," Valum finally spoke as he gazed down, "all ice eventually melts here in the south."
Icegnash managed to pull his arm back just in time, and just enough, for the Rupture Vengious to hit the radio, rather than removing the gorilla of his hand. The device was knocked out of his grasp and clattered to the factory floor, as Icegnash took a brisk step back and looked upon his assailant, managing to keep his cool. "I had a gut feeling there was something off about you today," Icescale growled, locking eyes with Icegnash, "which is why I opted to return to the HQ while Iceclaw and Icestrike went on ahead." He stepped forward and positioned one end of his double-bladed sword over the fallen radio, while still keeping his eyes on Icegnash. "It's a good thing Iceclaw didn't object," the crocodile continued. "I suppose him being in the mood to go it alone in the first place came in handy, as it sometimes does. "This is called a radio, right? The long-distance communication device invented recently, during the war? Quite the luxury to own, seeing as how expensive they are to make, at least for now; you, or rather, your mission, must be very important to the...Gorillas, I presume?" "Agent A!" the operator had begun shouting on the other end. "Agent A, respond! What happe--?!" The compressed voice was cut off as Icescale casually ran the Rupture Blade through the radio. The device shattered into several pieces, partially frozen and sent skidding across the floor in numerous directions. "Truth be told, I never did trust you fully," Icescale mused as he pulled his sword out of the small crevice in the floor it'd just made, "not as much as I trust the others. Your motive for revenge on the Leopards was never as strong as the rest of ours, and your story of being born in the Arctic seemed falsified, as your father seemingly lived in the Gorilla Jungle for his entire life. "Now...what to do with you, Icegna-- No, there's no point in using your Ice Hunter codename anymore, is there, Gulikovsky?" Icegnash considered his options. His back faced the east, where he'd returned to the HQ and the back door remained closed far behind him. In front of him, west, was Icescale and the hangar door--still closed--in the distance. The white crocodile must've entered through the secret doorway behind Iceclaw's 'throne room', to avoid being heard entering. On either side of the two Hunters, the Rupture vehicles lined the walls of the brightly chi-lit factory. Icegnash wasn't worried for his life, since Icescale would surely want to interrogate him (Icescale himself would realize this in a few moments, Icegnash estimated), and it wasn't as though the four Ice Hunters could attack Gorilla HQ on a whim. He said as much to Icescale. "What you'll do is capture and interrogate me, but then what? Attack the Gorillas out of spite?" "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it," Icescale waved off the question. "...You were planning to deliver this factory and the Rupture vehicles to your tribe, weren't you?"
Icegnash grinned, an intentional and calculated change of expression to catch his adversary off guard. "Not quite," he answered. "Heck, you don't even need to interrogate me. I might as well tell you: the reason I maneuvered myself into being the Ice Hunters' mechanic and vehicle designer, was so that I could gather all the unearthed Rupture crystals--not counting those from which you forged your handheld weapons--into one place...all accounted for. "In a few minutes, a Gorilla Tribe strike force will fly over this factory, which I've long since provided the exact location of, and bomb it until every crystal is obliterated...along with this building and everything else in it. Oh, and they'll do so regardless of whether I'm still in here, so don't bother trying to use me as a hostage; I swore to give my life for this cause, if necessary." "You're bluffing," Icescale retorted as the last word was still leaving Icegnash's mouth. Icegnash was bluffing, technically. Though the Gorillas bombing the HQ was what Icegnash had been hoping they would do, there was no certainty that they would, especially given the operator's response to his proposition. Icegnash also hadn't sworn to give his life by any means, nor did he plan to; there were still many things the young gorilla needed to do...things that dwarfed his current mission in both scale and importance (even if the destruction of the Rupture crystals, and those who wielded them, was important to Icegnash on a personal level). Still, the operator had surely realized that his agent had been caught, and the Gorilla King would be sending a force at any minute; it would simply be one to rescue Agent A (and the Gorilla Tribe secrets he carried) from capture and interrogation, rather than to bomb the HQ. Icegnash just had to stall until then... He raised his hands in surrender, then shrugged. "Believe it if you want. I accept my capture, and whatever fate I'm dealt...but if you don't want both of us to meet a fiery demise in a few minutes, I recommend moving locations, and getting us far away from this place's vicinity." Icescale didn't change his calculating expression, and Icegnash didn't either. "If you accepted any fate you were dealt," the crocodile spoke at length, "and were willing to sacrifice yourself if it meant all of this being destroyed...then why would you encourage me to take you out of here?" "Not encouraging," Icegnash replied, "simply guessing that you want me alive, as a prisoner--" "You're trying to keep me here, with you," Icescale interrupted, his long mouth curling into a toothy smile (Icegnash struggled to maintain his placid expression). "Yes...you knew that I wouldn't trust whatever you said; that if you said something to get me to stay here, I would've done the opposite. That's why you're instead encouraging me to leave, so that I'll stay...just like you want. Very clever, kid. When I was, say, your age, I might not have caught on to that."
Icegnash felt sweat building on his brow. Never underestimate your seniors, he thought. "Well, congratulations," Icescale continued, "because I am staying here; not because your reverse psychology worked, but because I know the Gorillas aren't going to bomb this place." "Oh?" Icegnash managed a grin. "And how are you so sure of that?" "Because if they were willing to sacrifice you, and if you were in agreement, truly accepting whatever fate is in store as you claimed... " Icescale said quietly with a cock of his head, still smiling, "you wouldn't be sweating right now." Icegnash swallowed, cursing himself internally. "You're good, Gulikovsky, but you've still got a lot to learn." Icescale pointed one end of the Rupture Vengious at the gorilla. "Not only that, the Gorilla Tribe isn't going to let this technology go to waste just because you disapprove of the Rupture crystals. Indeed, I think I was right on the money: the Gorillas will be coming here to take the Rupture vehicles for themselves--or rather, for their king--even if that's not what you were hoping they'd do." "Wrong," Icegnash countered. "I was the one who proposed the mission in the first place, after I discovered the Ice Hunters. It's all outlined with the end goal of destroying the Ru--" "You think they care?" Icescale interrupted, astonishment in his voice. The crocodile seemed on the edge of laughter, yet his smile turned into a scowl. "The Gorilla Tribe used you to create the Rupture vehicles; do you actually think they care about your goal?" His scowl became a seething glare. "No...after all, who gives a scat about what you want, as long as the king gets what he wants?! That's how all the tribes are--" Icegnash watched as the Hunter stopped himself mid-sentence, taking a deep breath. "So here's what's going to happen," Icescale continued, as if he hadn't gone off on that rant, "when the Gorillas arrive and storm this place, they'll find their agent with his feet frozen to the floor, and the Rupture Vengious at his neck. We'll negotiate from there. "And, listen kid, I consider myself a merciful croc, within reason. I don't want to kill you, despite you being a spy, so coopera--" Both of them sharply looked to the east, Icegnash turning around and Icescale staring over his shoulder, as they heard the distinctive sound made by a burst of chi energy, followed by what sounded like a door hitting the floor.
Valum dashed in beakfirst before the backdoor to the Hunters' HQ even hit the floor, and he heard Vamprah entering right behind him. The young soldier had initially insisted that he go in front to protect the king, but Valum had ordered Vamprah to let him go first, since the latter was now without a weapon. The door had been no match for the combined strength of two freshly chi-powered warriors, though it had been well hidden; they never would've known it was there, had it not been for Icewing incidentally tipping them off.
Up ahead, Valum spotted two figures in the factory; as he got closer, he could see that it was Icescale and the gorilla Hunter who'd been manning the hangar door earlier. The former was armed but the latter wasn't, and he'd already had his hands up in apparent surrender, keeping them up as he turned to face the new arrivals. "...King Valum??" the white gorilla asked in surprise. "You're Vulture King Valum, right?" While Valum had never met this gorilla, his appearance was well-known among various tribe officials. Most recognizable because of my head scar, Valum thought glumly. Icescale, for his part, was initially too shocked to move, but quickly took up a defensive position, his double-bladed sword brought up vertically in both hands. Valum brought his own sword up in a defensive stance, and made a motion to Vamprah, signaling the other vulture to halt his flight. They'd have to be careful, to avoid getting frozen by a blast from the Rupture Vengious... "I am," Valum said in answer to the gorilla, but kept his eyes on Icescale, "and who might you be?" "I..." the gorilla began as he moved his arms, and (to the mutual shock of Valum, Vamprah and Icescale) reached into his eyes, "...am not your enemy." The gorilla lowered his hands, now holding tiny, concave blue disks; colored contacts, Valum realized, as the white gorilla looked up with bright red eyes. "My name is Aether Gulikovsky. I am--was--the Gorilla Tribe's spy within the Ice Hunters." Gulikovsky, Valum thought. Was this the son of Aeon Gulikovsky? Aeon hadn't had white fur, but then again, Valum had never met his wife (and Aeon's fur had been a very light gray on top of that); much like white wolves, white gorillas were somewhat rare, but could have that fur color while being born in the south. "I knew you weren't Arctic-born!" Icescale snarled, glancing at Aether's eyes, then quickly back at the vultures, before unleashing a horizontal crescent of ice (one much wider than Icewing's, thanks to the length of the Rupture Vengious) to freeze the three of them. They all saw the attack coming as soon as Icescale had brought his arms up for the downswing (this slightly slower time to move it, on account of its weight, being the downside to the Rupture Vengious's size), and dodged accordingly; the vultures flew above the blast, while Aether leapt up and to the side, onto the hood of what looked like a buggy. This was one of many vehicles lining the walls of the factory, Valum noted, though he hadn't yet been able to inspect them more closely. Icescale didn't hesitate to slash upward at his airborne adversaries, apparently prioritizing them, and Aether took advantage of this. The albino gorilla pounced onto Icescale from above and to the side, but the tackle didn't throw the Ice Hunter off his feet. After a brief scuffle, Icescale grunted, threw him off with his left hand, swung the Rupture Vengious with his right, and froze his assailant to the floor.
Most of the left side of Aether's body, save for his head, was now affixed to the floor and suspended by the ice, his right side dangling upright. No sooner had Valum and Vamprah dodged Icescale's latest salvo than the Vulture King gave his orders. "Help Gulikovsky," he said quickly. "I'll hold off Icescale!" "But Your Maje--" Vamprah started. "I'm the only one of us with a weapon!" Valum bit back, and the young soldier nodded obediently, diving toward the half-frozen spy while Valum cut off the true Ice Hunter's attempt to intervene. The crocodile unsurprisingly parried Valum's strikes with skillful precision; this, let alone the fact that he was wielding a double-bladed sword, was indicative of Icescale's experience. Valum's battle with Icewing had been exhausting even with Vamprah's aid; had it not been for the extra chi orbs the vultures carried, Valum reflected, he likely wouldn't have been able to fight two Ice Hunters in one day. He ascended and flew backward with a wing beat, simultaneously dodging a swing from Icescale and allowing him to see Vamprah's progress out of the corner of his eye. Vamprah was plugging a chi orb into the freeze victim's harness, and as Icescale glared over at them in frustration, Aether exploded out of the ice with the distinct roar of a gorilla. Aether nodded a thanks to Vamprah and got to his feet, just in time to see a well-aimed blast from the Rupture Vengious flying straight toward them. Valum, however, was also just in time; dashing in front of the other two with chi-enhanced speed, he caught the flow of freezing energy with the flat of his sword. This didn't stop the blast in its entirety, as it splayed out on either side of the now frozen steel blade, peppering the Vulture King's arms and spiky shoulder armor with shining specks that were so cold they stung. Valum winced, but didn't let up, spreading out his wings on either side to shield Vamprah and Aether further. The two ice blasts that had begun as one hit the vulture's wings hard, almost completely freezing them over and knocking him off his feet. All this happened in the span of two seconds. Valum felt the non-frozen parts of his wings (near where they connected to his back) land into something, and turned his head to see that Vamprah had dashed forward, catching him. Expecting another blast from Icescale while they were vulnerable, Valum did the only thing he could think to do: throwing his half-frozen sword as hard as he could, straight at the white crocodile's snout. Indeed, Icescale had been in the process of a downswing, but had to use that swing to knock the sudden projectile out of the way, stumbling to his left with a grunt. Valum slammed his wings onto the floor, shattering the ice around them, and got to his feet just as Aether Gulikovsky was running around to his left. "What are you doing??" Vamprah called out, but the albino gorilla didn't acknowledge, seemingly fixated on getting to the other end of the HQ.
Icescale's long snout snapped to the side, in apparent realization, as his eyes tracked Aether. "Trying to get the blueprints, are you?!" He launched an intercepting crescent of ice in front of the gorilla, who skidded to a halt. Aether grimaced as the projectile passed inches in front of his face, and jumped backward a few feet in wake of another blast. Valum, who'd picked up his own sword, launched himself backward before putting a hand on Aether's right shoulder. "Give it up; he's too strong with the Rupture Vengious, even when we have chi plugged and he doesn't. Let's make a tactical retreat, before he can freeze all three of us." "I was hoping to get at least some of the blueprints out of their clutches," Aether growled in frustration, "but you're right..." Both vultures flew behind the gorilla, who allowed himself to be picked up by the arms (narrowly avoiding another ice blast in the process) and flown out of the HQ's blasted-open back doorway. Icescale roared and charged forward while launching ice blasts. With his free hand, he finally pulled a chi orb out of the bag on his hip, but his three enemies were already out of the HQ, soaring into the sky.
Valum and Vamprah set Aether down as gently as they could, panting in exhaustion as their chi orbs fizzled out. They'd been able to get decently far from the Ice Hunter HQ, around the area where the two vultures' short-lived hideout had been. They sat down on the cliff across from Aether. "Thank you for the assistance," the albino gorilla bowed in appreciation, "both of you. I'd be the Ice Hunters' prisoner now, had it not been for you." "It's no trouble at all," Valum replied, "especially since the results of our little escapade were so much more interesting than I thought they'd be." "Right...you must've followed Icewing here after she tried 'negotiating' with you," Aether nodded slowly, seeming to remember a conversation. "I suppose Icescale was too distracted by me to ask; what happened to Icewing?" Valum and Vamprah exchanged a glance. "...We had to neutralize the threat." the latter said flatly; a tone Valum hadn't yet heard from the young soldier. Aether nodded. "I understand. It's a shame, but she was no friend of mine, nor are any of the Hunters. I'm actually more interested in the status of the Rupture Blade." "We don't know if it's still intact or not," Valum mused. "She took it down with her; still holding it as she plummeted, after Vamprah set fire to her wings." "I see..." Aether said absently, rubbing his chin. "...Not to be accusatory," Valum said, crossing his arms, "but I'm guessing your mission was to get the Rupture weapons for the Gorilla Tribe?" "Oh, no," Aether shook his head. "Well, not really. I volunteered for the mission, after I discovered the Hunters, because I aim to destroy the Rupture crystals." Valum was intrigued by this goal, but before he could ask about it, he heard the whirring of helicopter blades.
-last edited on Jun 24, 2023 19:00:56 GMT by The J
Post by The J on Jun 24, 2023 19:00:17 GMT
Aether looked up and the vultures followed his gaze, turning to see three helicopters black as night approaching. One of the craft's side doors was open, and a gorilla was hanging onto the door frame as easily as if it were a tree branch, waving with his free hand. "I knew they'd come quickly," the spy remarked, waving back. "The Gorillas have helicopters now?" Vamprah asked loudly, to be heard over the growing whir of the spinning blades. "We commissioned the Ravens," Aether explained, just as loudly, "to teach us how to build and pilot them, in the years after the war." He added dryly, "As you can imagine, it was by no means cheap, but it was definitely worth it for situations such as these." Valum nodded as he and the others backed up, allowing space for the helicopter in the middle of the formation to get a couple feet above the cliff. There wasn't enough room for it to land, but Aether easily jumped into the open side door using the last of his chi orb, and the vultures flew in after him. The three readily accepted the earmuffs handed to them by the gorilla hanging onto the doorway, who then grabbed the side door and pulled it closed. There were four seats in the back of the helicopter; the two vultures and two gorillas sat down across from each other, after which the dark-furred gorilla looked at Valum's head scar, seemingly having a moment of realization. "Your Majesty!" he bowed deeply, his head almost in his lap. "Forgive me for not lending you a hand in the doorway; I didn't realize the Vulture King was among--" "At ease, soldier," Valum sighed and put up a hand. "I'm just your humble passenger now." The gorilla seemed surprised by this, and Valum heard Vamprah chuckling beside him. The pilot glanced back at them before speaking into his radio. "We've secured Agent A. Repeat, we've secured Agent A. Moving in to take control of the terrorists' base." "What??" Aether exclaimed. "No, no, we need to leave. My mission was a failure. You...you won't be able to take the base--" "It's alright, Gulikovsky," the gorilla in the back reassured, grinning. "We're the commandos. You said there was only one Ice Hunter in there right now; he won't be a match for all of us." Valum glanced at Aether for a moment, seeing frustration and desperation on the young gorilla's face. All of them together probably could take down Icescale and seize control of the base, but... Aether wants to destroy the Rupture vehicles; he doesn't want the Gorilla Tribe to have them, he thought, and honestly, I can't say I do either. As frustrating as it is to let the Vultures and Leopards' enemies keep their base and vehicles, better a small group have the Rupture vehicles, than an entire tribe mass-producing them. He cleared his throat and spoke up. "With all due respect, the three of us weren't able to defeat Icescale even with chi plugged; we barely got away, in fact." "Noted, Sire," the pilot acknowledged flatly.
-last edited on Jun 25, 2023 18:45:23 GMT by The J
Post by The J on Jun 25, 2023 18:41:31 GMT
"However, with all due respect to you, the three of you didn't have vehicles built for this. These helicopters are the latest in Raven and Gorilla Tribe technology. Icescale, even with his Rupture weapon, won't stand a chance against three sets of suppression missiles and precision chi lasers. I say this not to gloat, but as a matter of fact." The pilot spoke into his radio (that's right, a radio, Valum realized, that's the new communication device I'd been thinking about earlier; Aether wasn't kidding, these things must be expensive). "Move in to surround the base. We'll give the terrorist a chance to surrender." "You're...making a mistake," Valum heard Aether say helplessly, as the three aircraft converged on the HQ. Valum and the others in the backseats turned to look out the wide front windshield, getting a clear view of Icescale stepping out of the backdoor. The white crocodile seemed calm now, but Valum suspected he was simmering with anger beneath the cool exterior. Icescale walked around to the side of the factory, staring up at the helicopters. The pilot addressed him through a built-in loudspeaker. "Attention, Icescale. You are outnumbered and outgunned. Surrender immediately, and you will be treated fairly as a prisoner of the Gorilla Tribe. Our aim is not to destroy you or your base." As the pilot said this, Icescale did something Valum had never seen before: he pulled a second chi orb out of his bag and tossed it into his open jaw. Another chi aura erupted up from Icescale, the blue outline around his body now thicker, as if he had twice the chi power--which, Valum supposed, he did. "Fire--!" the pilot yelled, just as Icescale lifted the Rupture Vengious with extremely enhanced speed, unleashing an ice blast with equally enhanced range. The ice struck the rotor of the helicopter on their left, and in an instant, the blades stopped spinning as they were encased in ice. The helicopter dropped like a rock, and the desperate whirring of its tail rotor wasn't enough to keep it from smashing into the side of a mountain. The ensuing impact and explosion split the craft in half, and its front half became a flaming mass of scrap metal rolling down the mountain. "GREAT CAVORA--!" Valum heard the pilot of the helicopter to the right exclaim over the radio, just as Icescale launched another salvo. The unfortunate aircraft had its main rotor wrapped in an icy embrace just like its companion, and plummeted just as fast, scraping bluntly across the side of a steeper mountain and causing an avalanche above. Boulders first smashed, then ripped through the tumbling helicopter, burying its shredded parts forever. The radio was now pure static, briefly interspersed with screams. "Now do you see why we need to retreat?!" Aether snarled, and the pilot cursed, lurching the sole surviving helicopter around. Valum heard Vamprah let out a shaky breath as they flew; out of Icescale's range and far, far away from the Ice Hunter HQ.
"...Mission has been aborted," the pilot was saying into the radio, his voice dripping with both disappointment and stress, "but we've safely extracted the VIPs." "I'm sorry about this," Valum said, but Aether and the other gorilla in the back waved it off. "It wasn't your fault," Aether replied. "It was Icescale...and that accursed Rupture Vengious." Valum put his arms behind his head and lay back on his seat. "So Aether, I've been meaning to ask: Are you related to Aeon Gulikovsky, by any chance?" The white gorilla nodded. "I am his son. Like my father before me, I hope to join the Vultures and Leopards' alliance. I, and many others, believe that joining a military alliance would be the best course of action for the Gorillas, especially after the war. "That's why it's perfect timing, now that I think about it, for you to be here. I humbly request that you meet with the Gorilla King, Your Majesty. We're on our way to Gorilla HQ anyway." "I second this," the gorilla next to Aether chimed in, and the pilot called back an agreement as well. Valum thought for a moment, and nodded. "Very well, but the Vultures will need to know what I've been doing, before they waste resources on a manhunt." He turned to his left. "Vamprah, I'm sending you back to Talon City, that you may report on everything that's happened since we left, and on the fact that the Vulture King is alive and well, meeting with the Gorillas." "What? But Your Majesty, I should be there to protect--!" Valum held out a hand and smiled. "Trust me Vamprah, you've more than proven yourself by now. You're one of the Vulture Tribe's finest soldiers; after all, you were the one who ultimately defeated Icewing, coming up with a strategy on the fly while I couldn't. "However, I shouldn't face any trouble in the Gorilla Jungle, with these soldiers' protection, and I need the Vultures to know about what transpired today. You've rested your wings long enough to fly back to the Great Desert, right?" "Yes, Sire." Vamprah both conceded and answered the question, unbuckling himself from his seat. "May I open one of these doors?" Valum called to the pilot. "Allow me, Your Majesty," the gorilla replied. "Keep your earmuffs on, everyone; it'll be loud." The left side door of the helicopter slid open in parts, giving way to a burst of air; they were at a high altitude, but not dangerously so. With one last salute to Valum, Vamprah turned, spread his wings, and allowed himself to fall forward into the sky. Valum saw the young soldier gliding away to the east as the door closed. "So what prompted you to become a spy within the Ice Hunters?" Valum turned back to Aether. "Moreover, how did you discover them?" "Also like my father before me, I'm a diplomat," Aether explained, "in addition to a covert agent. I was traveling in the Iron Mountains to meet with the Leopards five years ago, just after the war, when I spotted Iceclaw."
"My guards and I pulled back and observed him from afar. Obviously, we'd never seen a white leopard before, and he seemed to be using the snow of the Iron Mountains to camouflage himself whilst creeping around; very suspicious indeed. A vulture with blue wings and a white crocodile with blue eyes soon showed up to meet with him." "Icewing and Icescale..." Valum murmured. "Yep," Aether nodded. "The Ice Hunters were just the three of them at the time, and that was the site they chose to build their base. It was simply by chance, by a stroke of luck, that we Gorillas caught them in the act without them knowing. Despite that, I always felt as though they were being intentionally vague in that meeting; that they suspected someone could've been watching them. "They made no mention at the time of any higher power that Iceclaw was answering to--'Icedawn', he'd later refer to them as, and no, none of the Hunters other than him know Icedawn's species or gender--nor did they talk about Iceclaw's aim to usurp Leodus as the Leopard King; rather, they simply discussed where they'd build their factory and how they'd regain access to the Elemental Rupture." If Valum had ears like the canines and felines of Chima, they likely would've shot up at the gorilla's mention of Iceclaw's planned coup. Does Aether know about his identity? he thought, for he was now almost certain that Iceclaw was Leodus' half-brother. "Iceclaw in particular is an...important fugitive of the Leopard Tribe," Valum chose his words carefully, hoping Aether would pick up on the implied question. Luckily, he did. "Oh, yes," Aether nodded, "Rest assured that Iceclaw's identity is a secret held by the top brass in the Gorilla Tribe. The only three individuals who know about it are me, the operator I'd report to directly, and the Gorilla King. You may also rest assured that the three of us can keep a secret." The gorilla soldier sitting next to Aether jokingly grumbled at this. That information not being common knowledge among an entire tribe eased Valum's worry, but only by a small margin. He made sure to hide any discontent that might've seeped into his expression. The Gorilla King now has something he can use to blackmail Leodus, if he ever so chooses, Valum thought glumly, though he dared not say this aloud. "Anyhow," Aether continued his recollection, "we of course left before the Hunters could spot us, immediately returning to HQ and reporting this to the Gorilla King. Though the Hunters hadn't made any terroristic threats during that meeting, I think anyone would agree that a small group of tribe-less exiles planning to mass-produce vehicles integrated with Rupture crystals, following the Rupture Incident, a war involving the Sabertooths' and Mammoths' use of 'magic' powers, and a Great Illumination, is cause for alarm; and that keeping tabs on such a group is certainly justified." Valum nodded. "You'll get no objections from me on that front."
"Despite not making any direct threats at the time," Aether continued, "they all voiced hatred for the Leopard Tribe. Due to this, Icewing's unnatural wing color, and the fact that they were talking about the Elemental Rupture as if it was something they were certain existed, rather than a modern myth, the Gorilla King and I surmised that Icewing had been involved in the Rupture Incident firsthand, and that the three of them all sought revenge on the Leopards. Thus, my cover story mixed fact with fiction; my father having lost his life at the hands of the rogue miners would be my motive for 'hating the Leopards'." "So the Hunters knew you were Aether Gulikovsky?" Valum asked. "Right," the gorilla confirmed. "They'd refer to me by the Ice Hunter codename 'Icegnash', but they knew my actual name; they just didn't know I was a spy. The trick was to make them think I was never a member of the main Gorilla Tribe, so that they wouldn't suspect me. Thanks to my mother having been an albino gorilla, and my father having had extremely light gray fur, that'd guaranteed my fur to be white as snow. "So, it was easy to appear as though I was born in some far-flung Arctic colony; in itself an explanation as to why I'd never been a member of the Gorilla Tribe proper. The only problem was my eye color, which was quickly fixed with blue colored contacts." "Sounds like you thought of everything," Valum mused. "No wonder they didn't suspect you for five years." "Well..." Aether replied, "they never did entirely trust me, if I'm being honest. My motive for revenge against the Leopards wasn't as strong as the rest of theirs, being that it was the loss of just a single family member, and I didn't even witness it firsthand. Despite having never met the family of Aeon Gulikovsky, they were also dubious as to whether I'd truly been born in the Arctic, having never heard of a gorilla colony there--though I supplemented this by claiming that it'd been an intentionally obscure group of rogues, and that my mother had divorced my father to join that group while pregnant with me. "Unfortunately, that also weakened my revenge motive, since I was apparently determined to avenge a father I'd never even met. I addressed this by explaining that I did, in fact, meet Aeon Gulikovsky many times as a child, since he'd secretly traveled to the Arctic colony to visit his family on numerous occasions. The timeline lined up well for that explanation, since I was fourteen when my father passed, and I claimed that he'd been planning to visit me again right after the Rupture expedition. Even so, the Hunters never trusted me as much as they trusted one another. "They'd been suspicious of me from the start despite requiring my skills as an inventor and mechanic, which is why they hadn’t let me forge a Rupture weapon for myself--in addition to my not being much of a fighter anyway, as I'm sure you could tell during our tussle with Icescale."
