Rupture: A Chima Roleplay Prequel Story

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.

    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 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."

    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.

    "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.

    "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."