Of Heroes and Villains

The Chapter In Which They Arrive

They kept on walking until lunchtime, at which point they'd all grown too tired and hungry to keep traveling as the side effects of not sleeping through the night caught up with them. They agreed on a short break, just long enough for them to take a nap after eating, with Sean standing guard.

"How close are we again?" asked Lan, shaking like a kitten. "I hate this cold."

Sean took a look at their surroundings. "I think we've got a quarter of the way left."

"How can you know that?"

"Not my first time coming here. I remember that tree." He gestured toward an oddly-shaped pine tree. Its length bent several times, so it had grown in a zig-zaggy manner.

"That bush under it is so weird," Dean muttered, and Don agreed.

"Huge, too."

The bush then moved, and all of them got tense. It shook some more as something moved either on the other side of it or directly inside of it.

"Not a bush!" yelled Sean as legs popped out of the green fur, the animal untangling itself. A massive boar slowly turned around to face them, staring at the food they had started eating.

Without a second thought, it came at them, not hindered by the snow in the slightest. Jordan slipped into the ground. Sean grabbed Lan and jumped away with her. Don and Dean were the slowest, and nearly got skewered as the boar slipped through them, its speed astounding for something so large.

"That's not a pig!" yelled Don. "That's a fucking mammoth!"

The pig was slow to turn around, but when it did, it surged forward again, this time straight at Don. Instead of jumping to the side again, he ran straight for it, then dove under its tusks and tried to kick its legs out of the way. He was too weak to do so, and the pig felt nothing.

"Leave the things; We can make it without them from here," Sean instructed as Dean reached him.

"Jordan's clothes," Don whispered to himself, collecting them off the snow. The group started running away, with Sean staying a bit behind to keep the boar off their backs.

The pig completely ignored the food, and rushed them again. Sean stood his ground, and managed to grab it by the tusks, then held it in place, being forced back only slightly. He delivered a non-lethal kick to the boar's nose, and it took off, squealing the whole time.

"That thing was as big as a car," moaned Jordan as she pounced from under the snow, then hurried to put her clothes on. "I hate Russia. Can we go home, please?"

"I thought they'd be bigger," Sean muttered.

"Don't jinx us," Don told him.

A thud.

They all heard it.

Another one. Then another.

"Please don't tell me," Jordan started, taking a step back. They saw something massive moving in the distance, the top of either its back or head visible above some of the smaller trees.

"I figured as much," Dean cried as mama boar came into full view, accompanied by her injured hellspawn.

This time, Sean ran right alongside everyone else. The baby might have been fast, but the mother was not. She moved like an elephant, barely the speed of a regular human, and they were losing her.

"I don't like Russia," Don whined as well, head turned around just in time to see mama boar run through a tree like it was nothing.

The more they ran, the more they could feel something in the air.

"You can stop now," Sean ordered. Despite their fear, his group obeyed. Mama boar kept getting closer and closer, but was hit by a bolt of lightning before she could touch them. It came out of nowhere, hit her back, then vanished.

"Static in the air," Don said. "We're here?"

"Not quite," called someone from up ahead. A blond woman around Sean's age came into view, dressed in summer clothes. She had long, wild red hair and emerald eyes. Her white clothes made her fit in with the snow perfectly. "I just came here to see what was taking so long."

"We really aren't running late, Erin," Sean replied. "Guys, this is Erin Gorgon, the lead scientist at the ERF."

All of them were surprised to learn she was so young. The woman strolled over to them, going immediately for Dean. Without missing a beat, the two broke into a make-out session.

Sean glared at them as they went on, but the rest of the group was amused. Almost amused enough to forget their recent brush with death.

"Dean," Erin said as they pulled away. "Nice to see you, as always." She indicated his crotch. "I see it's reciprocated."

Dean just smiled, as though they weren't being more inappropriate than anyone else had ever been. "Hope you brought a car."

The girl gave him a mischievous smile, and Don couldn't help but see her as a siren whose only purpose in life was to destroy men.

'Oh no,' he realized. 'I'm the jealous type.'

It was ridiculous, and he knew it. There was nothing between Dean and him. They've barely known each other for longer than a month.

They ended up walking the rest of the way, but Erin's vapor allowed her to attack anything that came at them from afar, which was a lot safer than anything any of them could've done about it.

The first time Don laid his eyes on the massive facility, he couldn't help but be amazed. It was massive - bigger than any building he had seen before - with walls as white as the snow around them, completely windowless, its roof shaped like the half of a massive sphere from which several giant telescopes protruded.

"I trust you're hungry and tired," said Erin as she led them through the front door. Every scientist they came across shuffled out of her way, and Don couldn't help but wonder if it was because of her vapor or status. Might've been both. She snapped her fingers, and a teenage boy with black hair and big, childlike eyes came up to her. "Minion Nine here will show you to your rooms. Since we all live here, there are plenty of beds. I suggest you get a good, long rest." She gave Don a wicked smirk, making him shrink back. "Testing starts tomorrow."

Meanwhile, in the Russian forests.

"Are you fuckin' sure we gotta go in?" groaned Val, not agreeing with the cold weather in the slightest. "Why the fuck are we here, Brainfreeze? Out with it."

Dimitri stared at the facility before them in silence.

"Better not be because of that asshole who looks like you. I swear, if you dragged me all the way here just for-"

Ignoring her, the man took a step forward, looking for another way in. His two companions walked after him, Val complaining, Shen quiet.

Both could tell something was off from the cold pressure their teammate was giving off as snowflakes came out of him.

"Still can't believe you covered a whole fuckin' forest in snow."