More Than Human

Chapter 82: Investigation and Intel

Price brought König, and a little reluctantly, Gaz. As soon as Kyle heard that Nik might have been hurt he demanded to come with them. Price wasn't sure about it, but ultimately let him come with.

They drove out to the given coordinates and it led them to a large expanse of woods. It didn't take them long to see a trail of smoke leading up into the sky. They moved through the woods quickly. Gaz had a slightly pained expression on his face and he walked with his hands over his ears.

"I don't know. Please calm down!"

"Kyle?" Price asked.

"The trees are all freaking out. Some of their friends and family were burned in the crash." He explained.

Price rubbed his back between his wings, "The sooner we get there the sooner we can leave, yeah?"

Gaz nodded, determined.

They made it to the crash site, a few trees had been split and knocked over. Flames licked up from the remains of the plane. They all hurried forward.

"Nik? Where are you?" Price asked, getting on his knees to look beneath some of the wreckage. He didn't receive a reply at first, but then there was a slightly wheezing cough sounding from somewhere below.

"J-John?"

Price slid forward, laying eyes on him in the slightly crushed and overturned cockpit, "Nik!" He placed a hand on the side of the metal and pulled it away with a hiss, the metal was still hot.

König shoved him out of the way with a tentacle and grunted a slightly pained sounding sound as he wrapped a few more around the hot metal and worked to pull it up. Price quickly crawled forward as he held it, hurrying to get Nik unstrapped from his seat and dragging him out. Nik clutched a hand around his middle and groaned. As soon as they were both cleared from the wreck, König dropped the metal, a few singed tentacles quivered from the pain.

Gaz hurried over to examine and fret over his burns.

Price had Nik resting on his lap.

Nikolai gave a few more wheezy coughs from the smoke, "Y-you-!" He dissolved into a little hacking fit.

"Easy, Nik. Easy now." Price rubbed his back.

Nik recovered after a moment and let out a little chuckle, "Told you that I would live."

Price shook his head, "You sure like to get close. Gave me a bit of a heart attack back there."

"Gotta keep you on your toes." He laughed again, wincing slightly, "Think I cracked a few ribs, Captain."

Price nodded, looking him over, "We'll get you back home and taken care of, Sweetheart. Don't worry."

Nik snorted, "Sweetheart? You must really have been scared."

Price shook his head fondly, "If you wanted to come home you could have just spoken to Laswell. Didn't need to crash a plane."

He shrugged slightly, "Not my fault some sort of fire monster blew me out of the sky."

Price furrowed his brow, "A monster did this?"

Nik nodded, "Think it's what hit the base."

Price pursed his lips. He couldn't think of a reason why a monster would do that. Of the target was Makarov, which he assumed, he couldn't imagine why a creature would want him. After everything he had done to monsters? Maybe they killed him? But why the rest of the base?

"Let's talk about this back home. Get you patched up." He told Nik, carefully lifting him up with a grunt, trying his best not to nudge his ribs around. He glanced over to Gaz and König, "Gaz, how're those burns?"