Bring The Heat

43. Jungleman (GOJS ARC 14)

-(IN AN ABANDONED SHOPPING CENTRE IN JEWEL STREET THAT EVENING)-

"No! I want to kill them! Look- I can move using Tape Deck!" Twig petulantly pleaded.

"Shut up," the mysterious figure said emptily, "you're injured. Let's just let Alan and the Knight handle this."

Twig hated being brushed off, but there was something he hated more.

"Her name is Emma. You know that! She's one of my crew... and I want to be out there, fighting by their side!"

"Really? You just want to go and get yourself killed?" the figure hissed, becoming annoyed.

Twig recoiled in shock.

"Y- you think they're gonna die!?"

The figure turned to him, sending a freezing aura of dead, stale air in his direction.

"Of course they will... it's a suicide mission. But the attack should kill off at least someone, or at least it'll unnerve them to be followed. I can use those seeds of doubt. Would you just trust me?"

"WHAT THE FUCK!? YOU'RE GONNA KILL MY CREW!?" Twig exclaimed, jumping to his feet in protest despite his injuries. The figure turned to him, sighing.

She approached him ominously, but simply pushed him back to his seat gently.

"Let me be clear. They are NOT my men. If anything were to happen to you... well, it wouldn't. I wouldn't allow it. But do not think I don't value their lives... I am simply giving them the opportunity to die for a cause, in place of the needless deaths that befall every resident of this disgusting place..."

Her tone could've seemed affectionate, were her words not plagued by their meanings.

Twig hung his head in shame. This wasn't the battlefield... it was no place to be so childish.

"I'm sorry... you're right. But please, what am I meant to do here with no gang? I can't control the people alone!"

"Nothing. We're leaving to follow our enemies. They should be weakened by the fight... they'll rush back home so desperately, and never know they're leading us right back."

-(BEN, ROBIN, AND MINT)-

Ben looked out of the window.

"Ok... looks like the sun'll be setting in about 30 minutes. That'll give us the cover of night when we're outta here, and no darkness for that Knight to move in until then. Let's go."

The three silently slipped out of the doorway. Mint felt a strange unsureness building up inside of her - she hadn't been out of Jewel Street for a long time... was it something that she could really leave behind?

Ben felt excited, but with a strong pang of anxiety. He was going back to that taste of freedom he had been robbed of... but what if he died? What if he died and never truly saw it again? He felt like life was dangling something just a little too good in front of him... not to mention that he was abandoning his personal mission of saving Jewel Street, and leaving it under Twig's control.

Robin, naturally, was terrified. She was relieved to be heading back home, but she had already almost died twice... and there was also her duty as a healer. Sure, Ben could plug up some wounds, but she was the only one here who could properly replace whole body parts, and treat injuries fully. She couldn't let anyone die...

Loud thumping boomed from down the road behind them.

The group turned, squinting through the wobble of heatwave, at the growing figure.

"Oh, what the fuck!?" Ben exclaimed in shock.

A massive elephant was storming down the road towards them! The ground shook as it approached. The group turned back and sprinted down the road away from the charging beast, but to no avail. It was too damned fast!

Robin looked back, and screamed at what she saw. The elephant was almost upon her... it trumped deafeningly in murderous intent, it's long trunk swaying and flicking in anticipation, it's long, sharp tusks raising to stab as it got closer. And those eyes... they looked almost human... they looked angry!

"In here!" Ben yelled, his sense finally returning through his fear, as he and Mint turned to run into a nearby building.

Robin turned to join them, but having worse cardio than the two, fell behind slightly. She felt her foot collide with something thick and powerful moving the other way, and tripped, slamming heavily to the ground. The elephant shrieked victoriously as it charged just past her, having tripped her with it's trunk.

In the doorway to the building, Mint and Ben stood, screaming for Robin to hurry up and follow. She clambered to her feet, but heard a quickly growing buzz to her left. The buzz of a motor. She barely had time to turn and look before the motorcycle slammed into her at incredible speeds, whisking her violently away.

"NO!" Mint and Ben screamed in unison, staring in shock at the spot where Robin had once stood. Mint covered her face in horror.

But the elephant was turning back around, and beginning to charge towards the two of them, so Ben gulped down his feelings and grabbed Mint, dashing into the building.

-(ROBIN)-

It took Robin a second to process what had happened. Suddenly, she was moving very fast... her feet scraped against the ground... she looked down. Straight through her chest was a long spear, piercing her lung as it fully impaled her. Her gaze slowly raised towards the man holding the spear.

It was the old man she'd seen in Everyone's Yard, leaning over his motorcycle and giving Robin an evil look of bloodthirsty satisfaction before turning the spear to the road behind him, and lowering a struggling Robin to the ground.

The road tore the skin from her cheek and arm violently as she shrieked in pain, until it scraped her off of the spear entirely.

Her body rolled heavily along the road until she reached a stop, laying there wheezing as tears streamed down her face. Robin pressed her hand to the hole in her chest, quickly patching up the her lung to stop it from leaking air or filling with blood.

Slowly, she climbed to her feet, and checked her arm. It was bright red with blood from where her skin had been ripped away like fabric. She winced and sobbed slightly as she let a net of vines slip into her wounds and make a quick web that covered them tightly.

That was the limit to her power; making complex organisms took time, focus, and usually a lot of equipment and knowledge of the wound she was fixing. So in battle, these crude bandages were all she could do, just little extra pieces to hold her together until she got a little downtime to properly replace them. And in terms of pain remedies, creating plant substances was new to her, and a very unexplored nook of her power.

And so, she gave herself a second to sob, being alone for the first time in a couple of days. It hurt so much, and she was so scared...

The charging of an elephant shook the ground once more. Robin looked to her right, no, her left, no... the noises seemed to be coming from everywhere! Frantically, her eyes shot around the rows of buildings looming around her. Where the fuck was the elephant coming from!?

There was a loud crash to her right as an elephant slammed through one of the buildings, creating a sizable hole in its wall. But then... another crash, to her left! And another!

Spinning around, overwhelmed by terror as she was surrounded, Robin gasped in despair. Three elephants closed in on her from all sides! There was nowhere to run, and her attacks would do nothing to these behemoths... so she just froze and watched. Her mind desperately searched for a way out, and found nothing.

But as the elephants reached her, they did something strange. Instead of attacking her, they circled around her tightly like sharks. The rumbling of their crashing footsteps disoriented Robin as she covered her ears and looked around wildly. And then she saw why...

Despite the light of the sun, the elephants were casting large shadows. And from one of those shadows on the underbelly of one of the elephant's...

The glisten of armour! The knight emerged!

This was an ambush!