V S M Sunset

[Altanis]

Overhead, the sun glared down with its incessant glaze of light and heat.

Ahead, the dusty roads were wreathed in a shimmering and indistinct veil of hazy sand and ghostly heat-mirages.

To the left, there was one of the rivers all flowing out from the center of the world. A dirty blue-gray colored ribbon, sparkling blindingly in the sun.

To the right, there was the line of tracks that supposedly lead to the wreck they were supposed to be rolling out to help patch up and get moving again.

And right there in the cab of the truck, was the driver's large and grumpy green friend, occupying so much space it was a wonder that Joey Blaese could even squeeze herself into the driver's seat at all.

"I tell ya, BC...every time there's a job like this we end up drawing the short straw. Startin' to seem like someone has it out for us, y'know?"

"You'z a git," the large green figure grumbled, shifting in his seat and causing the entire truck to shift along with him. "Dere ain't nuffin' but short stikks when we'z drawin' dem." He scratched at the side of his head, shifting the greasy ballcap that comically perched atop his massive noggin. "Dey knows we'z gunna do it, no mattah wot it is." He let out a sharp huff, the effort straining the grimy mechanic's jumpsuit he wore and for a moment making the slightly-peeling namepatch sporting his moniker, 'Big Chops', almost sit flush with the fabric again. "An' we'z just keep proovin' 'em roight."

"Yeah, yeah...I know. Preachin' to the choir there, fellah," Joey muttered. "Can almost imagine them just havin' a real hoot about it all soon as we walk outta the room. 'There goes Joey an' the Lunk again, off to do another job no one else in their right mind would touch!'" It made her tighten and twist her gloved hands on the steering wheel enough to elicit a faint squeak from the stressed probably-fake-leather. "....ain't like we can really refuse, though. Job's a job."

"One'a dese dayz, humie," BC grunted. "We'z gunna get too fed up wit dem to deal wiv it anymore."

"Yeah...one of these days. Believe me, it's probably sooner rather than later. And when it does come..." She let a dopey grin wander onto her face. "...just let me get the first punch in on that face of the smarmy bastard who calls himself our boss. Then you can go wild, buddy."

"Now you'z speaking my language!" He cackled with mad glee, punching one gargantuan fist into his other open palm with a solid, meaty thwack. "Oi'z gunna tear dem lim from lim! And maybe into even more bitz after..." He trailed off into indistinct mumbling and grumbling, until after another minute or two the only sound coming from him was akin to that of two angry bears fighting a locomotive. Snoring, like a big, green, absolutely terrifying baby.

"Glad one of use is at ease enough to get some rest out here..." She leaned over slightly to reach down and semi-blindly fumble for the radio. With any luck they were still close enough to the little dung heap of a town that passed for 'home' that there would be some kind of signal out here, and...

click...bzzzt....frzzhhhh.....sssssssssssssssssssssssss....

".....say no news is good news. But I think my program would be awfully dull if that were the case."

"Ah, hell. Can't believe it." Joey was practically giddy, and quickly fumbled to turn the volume up a bit and adjust the signal for further clarity. "They must've boosted the signal or something recently. Used to only get anything at all out of this station on the far side of town. C'mon, Mr. New Vegas, tell me something good..."

"Eyewitnesses report seeing roving bands of troops wearing power armor and advanced weapons along route 95. Travelers are advised not...to make friendly chit chat with them."

"Route 95, huh..." Joey's face screwed up at that, trying to remember where in blazes that was. "Think that's....way out west of here. Probably. Probably not any of my business. Never got reason to go all the way out there."

"Listeners have been unable to pick up radio broadcast from Black Mountain recently. Most are calling the static 'a welcome improvement'."

"Pffffffft.....yeah. Definitely ain't missed that bunch of wackjobs any." She leaned forward to peer around her hulking companion and out the side of the truck. Though the windows were covered in a smearing of dust making it hard to see clearly, let alone the wind-blown haze of dust out there in the air, she was still juuuuust about certain she could see the looming form of Black Mountain in the far-too-near distance. "Place gives me the creeps, being so close to town...always felt like whoever was up there running that damn station was just....watchin' everybody."

"Out here in the desert, we know the pain that numbers can bring us. Well so does Guy Mitchell, whose got Heartaches by the Number."

And the pleasant tones of the much-loved radio personality faded out, into the opening tunes of a song, eliciting a pleasant sigh from Joey. "Haaa....man. I'm never changin' it from this station. I'll break the damn knob off if I have to." The mechanic relaxed back in her seat, and just settled in to do her best to 'enjoy' the remainder of the hot, dusty drive out to the site of this wreck. By her job-clock, it should only be a few more miles. From there...an hour or two work at most to get it running again, and then another four-hour long, painful trip back to town.

She elbowed BC, only earning a dull pain in her arm for her efforts as she momentarily forgot he was built like a tank. "You're drivin' on the way back, pal."

He just snorted in response.

 

[Altanis]

As luck had it, her estimate on the clock had been correct. Just a few more miles up the dusty roads, and around a huge outcropping of rocky hills, and there it was. There was...a whole lot more wreckage and carnage than she had really been prepared for.

"Good sweet mercy...what in the ever-loving fuck happened here?" As she slowly climbed out of the cab of the truck, Joey couldn't help but wipe at the dinner plates her eyes had decided to turn into with the back of one dirty glove. "What did they freaking hit?!"

"Dere ain't no fixin' dat," BC helpfully supplied, leaning out the window of his side. He barely managed to fit one arm and his head through the comparatively tiny window. "Not wit da tools we got, anyway."

"Fuuuuck, man...." The smaller, much less green of the two mechanics groaned. "I hate it when you're right. Especially about things that sound like a lot more work in the near future..."

"We'z gonna hafta tow it back to da shop." BC grunted, and withdrew into the cab of the truck. The entire vehicle rattled as he 'delicately' tried to open the door, managing to succeed at not ripping the handle off for once as he did so. "If we wanna keep dis stoopid job, anyway."

"Yeah...I know. That's gonna mean an even longer, slower drive back to town. And then even more, longer work to get it fixed." She blew out a quick hiss of breath, planting one hand on her hip. "...If we even can fix it. I don't think even your crazy 'make it work' tricks will do it on this one..."

"Dere's always anuvver option." The hulking green brute turned his beady eyes to squint toward the distant mountains. "Bound ta be plenty uv everyth'n we need up 'der. An' it's all been abandoned or someth'n anyway, ain't it?"

Joey followed his gaze, squinting and blinking up at the mountains for a good minute before she suddenly recoiled. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, back waaaay up; you ain't seriously talking about going up there, are you?!"

"If by 'up 'dere ya mean Black Mountain, den yeah." The green brute simply reached up to adjust his ridiculously tiny hat. "Dat's exactly wot I mean."

"You...can't be serious. That's just asking for trouble! Or to fucking die! Have you forgotten all the insanity that everyone always talks about up there, or even who hangs around up there?!" She paced back and forth rapidly, wringing her hands in agitation. "It'd be nuts to go anywhere near the place. Even if..."

"...if it's less dan an hour from ere, instead uv six hours ta tow dis wreck back ta town," her infuriatingly observant companion finished her sentence for her.

"I HATE IT WHEN YOU DO THAT!" she wailed, pulling off her hat and throwing it into the dirt near her boots. "Why would you even bring this up, anyway? I thought you hated that place."

"Quit try'n ta change 'da subject, ya git," the gargantuan green figure growled. "...an' if ya have ta know. Ya heard 'da radio earlier: no more radio transmissions outta 'da place. It's gotta be empty now. An' ‘dat means easy pickin's for whateva we need."

"Uuuugh..." Joey threw her head back, one hand coming to find its palm resting against her face with a light smack of dust-caked leather against bare skin. "....somehow I just know I'm gonna regret this..." She heaved a heavy sigh before letting her arm flop back down to her side, and knelt to retrieve her dropped hat. "Let's go see what the damage actually is on this wreck, so we know what we need. And if there's even any survivors left to make fixing this thing actually worth it in the first place."

"There is...one survivor."

The voice which spoke up was foreign, and carried with it such a touch of bitter coldness that it made Joey stand up completely straight, and drew the immediate attention of the normally slow-witted and disinterested Big Chops.

"Who in the...?" The smaller of the mechanic pair whirled around to scan the scene again for any sign of the speaker, her eyes darting all over the place.

"I am...here..." This time the voice had lost much of its edge, and instead came out in a sharp wheeze. It was followed by the low rumble of grating and shifting metal, as part of the wrecked hulk shifted. Shards and bits of fragmented metal tore loose and fell to the sand-crusted roadside as something slowly pulled itself halfway free of the mangled remains of what had once been the front end of a large semi truck cab, clad in a long drape of some dusty old cloth or other. "Assistance..."

"You's supposed ta drive 'da trukk, not foight it." BC announced, then let out a loud rolling bellow of a laugh.

"Hold up a sec..." Joey jogged over to the partially-trapped entity, and immediately set to work trying to shift the worst of the debris, not waiting until the jolly green jackass finished being a dick to also plod over and lend a hand. "How'd you even get stuck under here anyway?"

"I neglected to pay attention to my...travel route," the figure hissed. "...and I suffered a collision."

"This thing hit you?!" That made the mechanic stop dead, staring with wide eyes again at the sheer scale of carnage which had been wrought. "How in the name of..."

"It was moving very fast." The trapped figure lifted their head, the cloth wrapping falling away to reveal the piercing glare of one golden-hued eye. "....and I was rather lucky."

"Talk about luck of the devil...I would've expected you to be paste, not just trapped here..."

"Less talking and more freeing me would be appreciated." The trapped one scowled deeply as they shifted in place, earning a sharp intake of breath. "It is not fatal, but I believe one of my lungs has been punctured." The statement was punctuated by a sharp cough, which left a thin trickle of blood dripping down its owner's chin. "I would very much like to remedy that issue."

"Uh....y-yeah, hang on." And Joey whirled around. "BC! Get your ass over here and gimme a hand, you great fucking broccoli stalk!"

"Oi! Watch who you's callin' a veg'table, ya git!" he hollered, but he did at least stop his guffawing to lumber over to the scene.

 

[Altanis]

With the work of the two mechanics (even if one did far more of the work than the other), the trapped figure was finally freed after several frantic minutes of work. With much groaning and spilling of blood, they hauled themselves free and slowly upright on very unsteady legs. The ragged remains of the cloth draped over them, in some kind of passing attempt at a makeshift cloak, was quick to fly away with the sands in the hot winds of the desert, sailing into the distance in a lazy spiral.

Freshly revealed, Altanis scowled and lifted a hand to shade her eyes against the sudden glare, with her minor shade now robbed from her. "Your assistance in freeing me shall not go unremembered," she finally spoke after gaining her bearings and scanning the horizon for several seconds.

"Uh...y-yeah. Sure thing." Joey just scratched the back of her neck awkwardly, staring up at the person now easily towering over her. "You sure you're, uh...y'know, alright? You kinda got a few..." She trailed off lamely, just gesturing with a limp hand at the equine portion of recently-saved individual's body.

"Hmm?" Altanis let a bemused look flit over her face as she lowered her hand and turned about, twisting as best she could to get a look at herself. Her normally beautiful and pristine coat of sable normally meeting her gaze was now a pockmarked and ruined mess of gritty sand, matted clumps of blood-crusted hair and fur, and far too many cuts and still-oozing puncture wounds to count from her vantage point. As she stared at this bloody mess, her expression slowly began to twist. From the previous only half-interested smirk to an ugly, snarling scowl of bared teeth.

BC crossed his arms over his prodigiously muscled torso. "I fink she's just fine," he noted, with a sage-like nod. For his troubles, he found himself swiftly on the receiving end of a jagged piece of the truck's wreckage as it lodged itself in his right bicep. He completely failed to pay it any mind, beyond a faint snicker. "See? Still got plenty o' foight left!" he snorted.

"You insolent little..." the demon-blooded centaur seethed, her still-outstretched hand flexing to slowly curl and uncurl from a fist. And then her arm trembled and fell limp at her side as the rest of her body nearly followed suit.

"Uh...hold up, hold up, let's not get crazy here!" Joey quickly scurried over to interpose herself between the other two, holding up a hand toward each one. "BC, knock it off with bein' a jackass! And you, uh..." She gestured blankly at Altanis. "...big, scary demon...horse lady. Stop bein' so crazy aggressive when you're bleeding to death!"

"Bleeding to death...how dare you...!" Altanis snarled, and lifted an arm with a clenched fist to deliver a heavy blow to the impudent little woman's head...only to immediately stumble and end up pitching over sideways to the ground below with the force of her own attempt. "...guh..."

"Look, I'll just...chalk this all up to the blood loss and going heat-crazy," Joey muttered, trying to keep from rolling her eyes at the display of overt insanity. "Adrenaline can only keep you goin' for so long, and through so much. And if you keep it up, that's gonna run out reeeaaal quick, and leave you layin' out here for the buzzards. So just calm your tits, and we'll see about getting you patched up or something, okay?"

Roughly propping herself up on an already-trembling arm, Altanis could only silently fume. Her entire humanoid frame shook with each deep breath sucked in through clenched teeth, and shuddered with each matching exhale. Breathing was visibly taking a heavy toll on her. "....f-fine," she finally managed, the word coming out in a heavy wheeze.

Pride or not, she could ill afford to do something as laughably mortal as die in a place like this. Especially if there were such pitiful creatures nearby willing to offer their aid for nothing in return. Loathe as she was to admit it, she was in extremely bad condition at the moment. While only the damaged state of her lungs and the large amount of blood she had already lost were of any real impediment, and the other injuries were inconsequential...they did not hurt any less. The fact she had not inherited a full-blooded demon's natural imperviousness to things such as pain and blood loss was one she had cursed and despised for all of her years.

"Alright..." Joey heaved a sigh. "...BC, guess you won out in the end after all. We're headed up to Black Mountain." She turned to stare up at her big green friend with a scowl. "They're bound to have at least a couple supplies up there for emergency...even crazies need medicine and stuff. Give our new friend a lift and toss her in the back of the truck, so we can get moving."

"Dat's just wot I was finkin'," the jolly green jackass mused. "Dey's prolly got all kinds o' stuff up dere." He tromped closer, and without any ceremony leaned down to heft the centaur up off the dirt and into the air with all the difficulty of picking up a housecat. "Into da trukk wiv ya, now, girlie," he rumbled while stomping back down to the vehicle that had brought him here, and unceremoniously depositing Altanis into the rear bed of it with a heady thunk.

Altanis could scarcely contain the extremely undignified yelp that escaped her as she was so easily hefted up and manhandled. And the wheezing groan as she was roughly dumped onto the metallic bed. It was hot, certainly -- enough to have likely seared or burned the skin of most she was sure -- but barely more than a pleasant warmth to her. Almost soothing, against her injured hide. She would let the unnecessary brusqueness of the green brute's actions go, for the moment. When she had recovered some of her strength, though...that would be a different matter entirely.

"Make sure you hold onto your ass back there, now!" Joey shouted as she hopped back into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut. "This thing don't exactly ride the smoothest even when we're on the actual damn roads. And there ain't any roads at all up closer to the mountains."

"Your concern is profound and touching," Altanis hissed, quietly enough that she didn't even hear herself over the sputtering roar of the engine as it came to life. The sheer noise of it, and the way it made the entire vehicle rumble, made her recoil in surprise, nearly biting her own tongue. "....I will manage," she intoned in a flat tone, once the initial chaos of startup had passed.

"Yeah, you better. We ain't turnin' around if you fall out," Joey muttered. And then things were in gear and they slowly rumbled off into motion.

"Dis is gunna be good," Big Chops snickered from his perch hunkered down in the passenger seat. "We's gonna find all kindsa stuff up dere."

 

[Altanis]

True to the given warning, the trip was incredibly rough and unpleasant. Altanis was left to wonder whether this damnable vehicle was designed to be this much of a messy jumble of rattling metal or if the driver was intentionally taking the most uneven and treacherous path she could muster. Not that it would have mattered; the rattling and jostling around, while far from enough to really dislodge her or make her fall out, was highly unpleasant and terribly aggravating for her wounds.

It grew exponentially worse after the first hour, when they left any semblance of roads at all long behind. Off road, and with the sloping paths seemingly made of nothing but crags and shattered rocks, it turned the entire vehicle into a shaking and rattling mess that Altanis was positive would tear itself apart at any moment. It was bad enough that she seriously considered throwing herself off the back of the truck at one point, just to escape the incessant noise and tremors ravaging her frame.

When the contraption came to a screeching halt some time later among a cloud of dusty sand, she wheezed a heavy sigh of relief. "Has this ride of torment finally ended...?" She warily pulled her torso upright, clutching at the rear of the truck's cab with one hand to steady herself.

Ahead, the trail had dissolved into an impassable mess of rocky ground and huge boulders. Where the ground wasn't covered with chunks of mountain-rubble, there were huge piles of dirt and sand blown into dizzying formations by the wind, and everything else was strewn with pebbles and rocks. The sight of a sun-bleached skull of something with frighteningly large jaws peering out of a mound of sand only added just the right touch of macabre beauty to the scene.

"....yes. I see. There is no going further in this infernal metal conveyance," the demon-blooded arcanist muttered.

"Real shame, too," Joey announced as she hopped out of the driver's seat. "Was hopin' we could make it at least a little further. Only a half mile or so to the gates of the place up top, but....hell, look at this! Gonna take a long-ass time to hike through this mess." She kicked at the door of the truck, producing a hollow metallic clang. "So much for your big bright ideas, BC! This isn't gonna be any quicker than going back to town!"

"You's an even biggah git dan I thought," the burly ork rumbled as he slowly disentangled himself from the truck and stepped out. "We can get throo dis wif no problem." He rolled his neck to crack it, proceeding to pop and crack his knuckles with a sound not at all dissimilar to distant machine gun fire. "Dis is just wot I was eckspecktin' ta see up here."

Altanis took her time to slowly disembark, gingerly stepping down onto solid ground again. She hissed and winced as her legs took her full weight again, taking note that at least one of them seemed to be in a very bad way. Not broken, thankfully, but... Well. She wouldn't be doing much moving quickly in terrain like this, that much was for sure. After the minute and change it took her to finally get herself in order and work through the pain, she slowly limped around the truck to join the other two. And then cocked her head to one side as she stared at the path ahead.

"This is not the work of natural weather and time," she noted. The statement drew quizzical looks from the other two. "This was made with deliberate intention. A form of crude, but effective fortification." She lifted an arm to point, and drew a slow line through the mess of jumbled boulders and mounded dirt. "There is a clear path through. Unless one intends to spend many hours or risk grave injury trying to climb over this haphazard mess, it is the only way through." She let out a deep huff. "So easy to figure out....it is likely to be trapped in some fashion, or at the very least under constant and heavy observation."

"So....it was done on purpose, and probably trapped or being watched?" Joey summarized, reaching up to take off her hat and scratch her head. "Who in blazes would do that? This place is fucked. And supposed to be abandoned."

Altanis slowly turned her gaze to the smaller woman, peering down at her intensely. "Abandoned, you say. What gives you that impression?"

"Huh?" The mechanic looked back up, meeting the hellish creature's stare for several seconds before she hurriedly looked away and fiddled with putting her hat back on. "W-Well, y'know....heard it on the radio. Said there'd been no transmissions and stuff from up here in a while. So I figured that meant..."

"No word from a place logically means it has been abandoned. Yes." Altanis simply nodded, turning her eyes away. She swept them over the path again, before slowly bringing her gaze up to peer at the higher reaches of the mountain. "Consider alternatives for a moment, however. If it is not abandoned, what else could it be? Why else might transmissions have ceased?"

"Uh..." Joey just stared blankly for a minute. "I don't fuckin' know! I'm a mechanic, not some....big smart thinker type!"

Big Chops meandered over to the pile of dirt which held the skull and poked at it with a toothy grin. "Maybe it's 'cause dey lost dere sparky bits wot makes da radio work." He chortled as he grasped hold of the bleached bone and gave it a yank, pulling it free of its partial burial. "Seems loike da kinda fing dat'd happen to a buncha idjits wot live up on a mountain like dis."

Altanis smirked. "Crudely worded...but yes. If it was not abandonment, then a loss of the ability to send any word is the other likely reason." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Whether that is because of something as simple as their equipment no longer functioning, or something else entirely, remains to be seen, however."

"I...." Joey's eyes just slowly blinked several times in succession, the distant squeak of gears desperately trying to turn fast enough to keep up with the suddenness of this new idea nearly audible. "....can't believe I didn't even think of that..." And her palm quickly met her face with a lout smack. "Uuuuugh this just became an even worse idea than I could have ever imagined!"

"You have mentioned several times now why coming up this mountain was a bad decision, but never quite why that is." The centaur leaned forward slightly to leer down at the mechanic curiously. "Pray tell, what has you so frazzled and riled up about this particular location?"

"Why the fuck do you even care, anyway?!" she snapped back, swiping a hand sideways in agitation. "There's bad stuff up there, okay? Buncha big, mean, stupid, green freaks!"

"Oi!" BC hollered, his voice muffled slightly by the new skull helmet he had managed to make for himself.

"Not you, you big fuckin' asparagus stalk!" Joey shouted back. "Even more stupid than you! And even meaner!"

"Ah. Not the location, but the inhabitants, then." Altanis nodded sagely. "Are they dangerous?"

"Only if you're not one of them," Joey huffed, shaking her head. "And news flash: we ain't them. So we're probably fucked if we don't commence to de-assing the area like...five minutes ago."

"We's still need da supplies an' stuff from up dere," BC spoke up as he strolled back over to lean his immense bulk against the truck. "Or else we's gunna spend all day droivin' back down da mount'n and back ta town, den back to fix up da wrecked fing."

"Uuuuuugh." Joey covered her eyes with both hands. "I haaaaate you so much right now...fine. We'll go. But you're fucking going in first."

"You intend for him to absorb the brunt of any violence that happens to come our way?" A grin broke out onto Altanis's face with the word, showcasing her gleaming fangs. "My, my...how heartless of you."

"It's what he lives for," Joey grumbled as she finally shut the truck door, slamming it hard enough to make the entire thing rattle. "Like...literally."

"Fascinating..."

 

[Altanis]

The big burly orkoid had little problem tromping his way through the mess of ramshackle fortifications. They had clearly been designed to stop smaller and more human-sized creatures, leaving someone of his size to simply walk over -- or on occasion, through -- the attempts at obstacles. The few which were sturdy or large enough to prevent such easy passing he simply applied one of his ham-sized fists to and sent it into the dimension of rubble and splinters. Watching him work was enthralling, equal parts amusing and entertaining and horrifying.

Imagining what a blow from those sledgehammers that stood in for his hands would do to a fleshy, living target...was certainly an interesting one. The scene it would leave spattered all over the nearby ground would undoubtedly be worthy of being framed.

As much as she might have liked to devote much more time to the admiration of such simply grunt work and brutal efficiency, however... Altanis was forced to carefully pick her way along after the other two. Had she been in perfect health, she too could have easily enough simply stepped over and around, or battered aside most of the obstacles. The mounded earth and rubble would likewise pose little issue to her, under normal circumstances. It would be laughable to overcome this entire mess, or simply bypass it altogether.

...under normal circumstances.

Normal circumstances where she wasn't missing almost half the blood in her veins, and wasn't so ridden with wounds that even remaining upright and limping along was a feat in and of itself. Every last inch of her body ached and hurt, and the slightest misstep threatened to send her toppling over again. Every loose pebble or bit of sliding dirt under her hooves was a brush with gravity winning over her remaining strength. She was one slip and fall away from ending up sprawled on the ground for good; she doubt she would have the energy to get up again. Even her hellish resilience and tenacity could only go so far, especially after surviving a collision like she had.

.....how long had she laid there after that, anyway? It had felt like days in her pain-addled mind.

She leaned forward to loom over the human woman, peering down at her curiously as they both waited for the large green one to clear aside a wall of chest-high rocks piled over the road. "You said you were coming to salvage that....vehicle which had inadvertently struck me, yes?"

"Comin' to fix it, not salvage it," Joey clarified. "We ain't fuckin' savages. We leave all that thieving, robbing, scavenging and whatever the hell else to the actual bandits and savages out there running around the desert like their asses are on fire." She huffed, tugging her hat off to wipe her forehead with one sleeve. "....hot as it is out here, they might actually be on fire. Fuck if I know."

"Hmm....to repair it, yes..." Altanis murmured softly, straightening her posture up again. She managed to withhold the groan of discomfort the action caused her, feeling fresh blood leak from several places under the strain. "Then you received word of it...recently?"

"Report came in sometime late last night or stupid o' clock this morning. Or something like that." She shrugged helplessly. "Not sure when it actually came in, just that we got the short end of the stick to go deal with it about 8 hours ago."

"Hmm. Interesting." Then for at least eight hours, and possibly longer, she had laid there drifting in and out of consciousness. The miracle of not simply dying om impact was remarkable enough, let alone surviving that long untended to and continually crushed and cooked by the weight and heat of the wreckage.

Only fitting, really. She was destined for far greater things than becoming roadkill. In her mind, the oversized steel beast of a truck had suffered far, far worse than she had. She could walk away from it, once extricated from the wreckage. By the assessment she had overheard from these two...'mechanics', that contraption wouldn't be so much as starting again, let alone going anywhere at all, without extensive repairs. Her pride was justifiably inflated and restored upon this assessment, especially when compounded by the length of her survival. She had no way of knowing how long the days on this world were, but if they were anything like that of back home...

"Shud be just about at da top of dis here mount'n," BC announced as he dusted his hands off. "Just one more bend in da road, and den we's at da gates of the fuhsilitee up dere."

"Good," Joey spat, hunching her shoulders as she trudged forward through the dismantled barricade. "That means we can get this over with already. And hopefully get out of here without gettin' fuckin shot at or something."

"Are you that frightened of a little mortal peril?" Altanis mused, with her teeth again bared in a leering grin.

"I think anyone with half a brain is averse to the risk of sudden death!" the human shot back, the pitch of her words rising ever so slightly as she whirled around to stare angrily up at the centaur. "Part of the reason we're doing this is to help your sorry ass, remember? Fuckin' god help me if I know why at this point, though. So quit bein' such a damn jackass already, would ya?!"

"....hmph." To that, Altanis's expression lost all trace of amusement and dissolved into a cold, frowning mask. "Very well, then. You wish me to be grateful?" She leaned down toward the human, crossing her arms over her chest, bending her legs at the knees until she was not quite at eye level, but her face was scarcely more than a foot away from the other woman's. "You have saved me from what was destined to be a slow, but certain death from exposure, blood loss and starvation," she said, voice whisper-quiet. "And for that, you do have my gratitude."

Her eyes narrowed, leaving only a thin sliver of her golden irises visible, nearly glowing in the shadow of her hair hanging over her face. When she next spoke, her words came out in an icy, disquieting hiss. "But my gratitude does not translate to acting like some simpleton who is cowed and delighted to merely be alive and will tolerate being spoken to in any way from one who acts like a petulant child throwing a tantrum." She punctuated the statement by jerking forward to close the gap between them, as if to strike or deliver a headbutt, and her lips parted to reveal her tongue as it flashed out, a dark violet color and glistening with something far more viscous than saliva.

"Buh-wha-!" Joey's eyes snapped open and she recoiled back, stumbling several quick steps away and staring at the appendage sinuously twirling in the air in her direction. Far, far too long for what it should have been, forked like something reptilian and oozing something that hissed and steamed when it hit the ground. Her face flushed bright red as she indignantly reached up to pull her hat back on. "Y-Yeah, whatever you fuckin'....sick-ass...weirdo..." she grumbled, turning away to quickly trudge forward and catch up with BC.

As she rose back up to her full height, Altanis chuckled and chortled with clear, open amusement. "Mhmhmhm....." And she slowly, ever so slowly, withdrew and recoiled her tongue back between her lips and into her mouth, with an intentionally audible and exaggerated schlurping sound. "Gyahahahaha. It has been millennia since I was able to startle someone with such a juvenile trick...but it is every bit as amusing now as it was back then." Her mood was lifted as highly as Joey's shoulders as she trotted quickly forward to catch up with them, her high spirits temporarily dulling the aches of her sorry physical state.

 

[Altanis]

The remainder of the trek up to the gates of the ' fuhsilitee' at the mountain's top was far easier than most of the hike thus far. The roads were still reasonably intact, and mostly clear of rubble. The going was not only quicker, but easier, and brought with it a merciful chance to rest and simply breathe. The ease of simply walking uphill was not to be understated, when pit against the equivalent of trudging through the hip-deep sludge of a madman's attempt at barricades and fortifications.

Unfortunately...it was not quite all good news. Round one bend in the road, it had been easy enough. Just a simple cracked and splintered road of asphalt, full of craters and potholes and long since bleached to a dull gray by the constant bombardment of the sun, but no more. The next slope, however...it was much shorter but far steeper, the incline being incredibly cumbersome for one of Altanis's stature to ascend in her currently weakened and winded state. The final obstacle though...was where they had rolled out all the stops.

A thick wall of rusted fencing and barbed wire rolled out across the road in a crazy, jagged line. Numerous signs were hung on it, with loop of wire and chain or simply nails bent into hoops, all of them sporting different words to state the same message: Keep Out. Beyond the fence was some fifty yards of open road and scorched parking lot, the most intact stretch of it on the entire mountain by all likelihood, and absolutely littered with a profusion of chaos. Beartraps, huge swathes of shrapnel and caltrops, more than a few odd devices which a swear-filled explanation from Joey informed her were some kind of proximity explosive, and beyond all of that a set of tall gates flanked on either side by walls of multi-layered sheet metal and bits of old 'armor' salvaged from ruined vehicles in the deserts below. Numerous corpses littered the area, all of them long since reduced to bleached skeletons and not even rags remaining of whatever belongings they may have had.

Altanis remained silent, staring out across the no-man's land between them and the gates. Her arms were lightly folded across her torso, one clawed finger tapping rhythmically at the bicep of her opposite arm. Her golden eyes flicked here and there, settling on one obstruction and then the next, only sparing each one a second of focus at best. "Hmm..." She finally spoke up, trailing off into a heavy sigh. "Not exactly a fortress, is it..."

"It might as well be. Look at that mess!" Joey waved an arm at all the chaos just waiting to be walked right into. "No one in their right mind would try and get through that! Even the bits we can see are more than enough to kill forty-seven groups like us."

"As wind-blown and dusty as this place is, there likely is more than we can clearly make out and see, yes..." Altanis murmured in agreement, a scowl briefly tugging at her lips. "Perhaps we should sent the green brute through first." She turned to peer down at the human woman, with a light smirk. "It is, as you said, what he lives for, is it not?"

"Look, I....don't really have any doubt he could just walk through all that and come out the other side still mostly in one piece." Joey shifted her weight from one foot to the other, quickly glancing over at the lumbering form of BC where he was currently squatted down by the remains of an overturned truck near the side of the road, before returning to anxiously looking over the mess of death-filled ground before her. "But, uh...I don't think it's the best idea..."

"Not the best idea?" The demonic tactician's voice betrayed her incredulity even as her expression only allowed a minor quirk of one eyebrow. "Please, do enlighten me as to why."

"All the fuckin' noise, for one!" Joey snapped, spinning on one heel to direct her gaze up at the hellish horse-woman. "Those damn mines out there! I dunno if you've ever heard anything like 'em go off, but news flash: they ain't exactly quiet!"

"Hmm." Altanis simply sniffed lightly to that, flicking one fingertip out and glancing down to study it. "Duly noted. You have other reasons, I assume?"

"Damn right! The bigger issue besides all the noise is the big lug himself." The antsy mechanic chanced a glance over at the burly ork, watching for a moment as he casually overturned the truck with one hand to get it right-side-up again. "He's calm and easy enough to manage right now. But he doesn't...always stay like that. If he gets, like....really riled up, especially if there's violence involved and whatever he has instead of adrenaline gets flowing..." She trailed off, her arms slowly rising up to hug at herself, her hands rubbing at her arms.

"He loses what little control he has, I take it." Altanis posed the statement matter-of-factly, as if it was just an observation on her part. Something she had little, if any, actual interest in. "Becomes uncontrollably violent, focusing only on furthering and prolonging the madness and fighting, or something to that effect?" A stark, clinical conclusion, spoken in an offhanded manner while the fell-blooded strategist simply examined her nails.

"Y-Yeah, exactly. He gets riled up and worked up and angry and like....just sees red. Everything ain't nothin' to him, except for being smashed or used to smash something else. Sometimes even..." She shivered, looking up at Altanis...and immediately letting out a sharp huff at the sight that greeted her. That flat, utterly uninterested and uncaring expression, not even bothering to look at her. Not even bothering to give her the time of day while she was figuratively pulling her hair out with concern over what might happen to someone who was obviously her friend.

Joey's face burned, her arms dropping down to her sides. Her worry and unease immediately turned to bitter anger. She flushed dark red as she stepped forward and, though she had to quite literally hop entirely off the ground to manage it, she brought one arm up and socked the uppity hell-beast right in her smug, uncaring face. The sudden, crisp THWACK echoed unnaturally clearly in the otherwise silent air. The following crunch as her boots touched down on the dusty asphalt, however, did not.

It never came, in fact.

Joey's hand, still stinging sore beneath her glove from the force behind her rash blow, had scarcely cleared Altanis's face before the centaur had reacted. One hand had shot forward and closed around the human's neck, the other seizing her striking arm at the bicep. Despite her wounded state, and the sluggish lethargy she had been moving with until now, the reaction had been nigh-instant and with all the speed of a striking viper. The uncaring, almost lazy look on her face a mere moment before had vanished. There was no baring her teeth in a snarl, no leering sneer of red-hot anger or hate, no ugly scowl of menace or bloodlust. It was a cold, iron-hard expression as unreadable as the bare wall of a cave. It might have been anger, it might have been something else entirely. The mechanic didn't know.

She brought her still-free hand up, clutching at the slender wrist with a vicegrip on her throat. "H-Hey, lemme--" she started, her words coming out in a halfhearted wheeze. "...lemme...go, you..."

Altanis didn't respond. She just stared, with an unblinking gaze, at the human in her grasp. She didn't apply any pressure to her grip, clearly not intending to choke or crush. She didn't let up on her hold ether, however. Not until well over a minute had gone by, and Joey's frantic struggling had lessened from its frantic, feverish state. Just fixed her with that wide, glassy-eyed stare.

"H-Hey...you still in there?" the mechanic hesitantly spoke up, with an audibly, nervous gulp.

".....you are unfathomably lucky, little human," Altanis finally spoke again. As she did so, she blinked once, and released her hold on the mechanic's arm. Her expression lost that eerie, doll-like mask of utter inscrutability to adopt one of cold displeasure. "Under most circumstances, striking me in such a way would have meant you were doing the equivalent of signing your own death warrant." Her lips curled upward into a nasty smirk, as she slowly brought the human closer to her, until a slight inclination of her neck brought her forehead to rest against her momentary captive. "But not at this moment. I have...other plans in mind that will make for a far more suitable punishment."

Her arm trembled, and with a scowl she carefully lowered Joey down to the ground until her trembling grip gave out when she was still several inches from touching down.

The rattled mechanic hit the ground and her legs immediately gave beneath her, sending her crumbling into a heap in the dirt. She lifted one arm weakly to her neck, rubbing at it as she coughed and wheezed. It hadn't been a chokingly-tight grip, but...yikes, having all your weight supported like that was not fun. Or comfortable. She focused her eyes down on the ground, taking her time to regain her bearings and steady her breathing.

Big Chops cleared his throat from his perch several paces to one side. He was leaning against some kind of huge, makeshift hammer he had fashioned out of the truck's reinforced bumper and one of the axles. "Iz you two dun wif the playin' around now?" the clueless oaf questioned. "We'z can take all da time you want fer dat stupid kissy-stuff after we'z done up here."

Altanis exploded into a riot of laughter at that, which was only ever so slightly full of bitter mocking. "Yes! We certainly can take plenty of time for that when we're done here."

Joey's face burned hotly again, turning an entirely different shade of red. "Sh-shut the fuck up, you god damn overgrown brussel sprout!"

 

[Altanis]

The indignation and embarrassment that was positively drowning the incredibly ruffled and battered mechanic was slow to pass. Her composure and sense of balance was equally slow to return, and she needed several long minutes before she could so much as muster up the energy and presence of mind to do something as simple as stand up. She dusted herself off, batting and brushing at the desert sand and grit which now seemed to coat her everywhere. It took her even longer to manage looking up, but the moment she did so and caught sight of Altanis standing there, smirking down at her, she was forced to hurriedly look away. She fruitlessly masked the effort by wincing and swiftly jerking a hand up to her hat, tugging it down low in front of her face.

"Man....why in the hell are we even still bothering with you, you fuckin freak..." She muttered. "Way you act so high and mighty, you clearly don't even need our help to begin with."

"Au contraire, my dear," Altanis spoke up softly. "As much as it pains me to admit it...I do require your aid. And providing it will in some part make up for the crass and absolutely unacceptable manner in which you have behaved."

"Ex-fuckin'-cuse me?!" Joey's temper re-kindled itself, and with it her energy and fearless attitude came back in full force. She straightened up, lifting her head to glare up at the obnoxiously haughty demonic woman. "The hell you mean 'make up' for?! Unless you forgot, we saved your ass! So if anything, that makes us even already!"

"Incorrect." The single word hit like a whip crack, and made the mechanic visibly flinch and shrink back half a step. "That act alone, and the promise of further aid, was why I have allowed you to act as you have. But your act of striking me..." She scowled, lifting a hand up to her cheek and gently caressing the place she had been sucker-punched. Loathe as she was to admit it, the blow had actually hurt. For her relatively small size and slight frame, the mechanic packed one hell of a punch. "...that, you must still make up for. One way or another."

"Pfffft." Joey met that notion with a mocking dismissal, waving a hand disinterestedly. "Yeah. Right. Okay, sure. And I just wanna ask you why in the hell would I do that?"

"For the same reason you bothered saving me in the first place." Altanis sneered, with her smirk returning in full force. There was a gleam in her golden eyes as she leaned forward ever so slightly to emphasize her words. "Beneath all your rough and tumble exterior, and that mockingly rude and callous attitude, you are a good person. As much as you might try to hide it, and hate that it is true, you can't really do anything about it."

"Tch..." Joey just sucked in a breath through clenched teeth and turned abruptly on one heel. "BC! C'mon, we're figuring out a way to get in here!"

"You have done nothing but confirm I was correct!" Altanis spoke up, raising her voice. As the mechanic hunched her shoulders and stormed away, the demon-blooded horse-woman could only let out a faint laugh. "Poor, poor dear...as easy to read as any book. So vehemently against coming up here, and yet so easy to convince in spite of all the risks and dangers. All for naught but helping a perfect stranger." She folded her arms over her chest, with a smirk playing at her lips. "Such a good little girl. The kind that is so easy to play with and lead right where you want them. Once my strength has recovered somewhat..."

"Quit yammerin' to yourself back there and come on already, if you're actually coming!" the mechanic shouted from ahead, as her lumbering orkoid friend happily set about dismantling and ripping apart the fence on the near side of the no-man's land between them and the gates.

 

[Altanis]

"If you would like to make a way to access this place without physically walking through this....obstacle course set before us, I have a method." Altanis's words, as she trotted up to the dismantled fence on shaking legs, were slow to come. As if she was reluctant to volunteer the information at all, let alone do it so freely. "Though it will require a modicum of trust on your parts, or else...a complete abandonment of going unnoticed." She lifted her hands, palms facing upward, in a clear shrug of utter indifference. "Whichever you choose is of no difference to me, but I shall leave it as your choice to make, for the moment."

"Yeah, fan-friggin-tastic, ya damn horse..." Joey muttered, words dripping heavily with disgruntlement at the mere notion. "So we either gotta trust you, which personally seems like a really damn swell idea, or give up any chance of gettin' in here unnoticed, huh? Wow. Super. What amazing options."

"If you are of such a mind, I am more than happy to make the choice for you," the demonic centaur spoke. For her part, she had only twitched an eyebrow in irritation at the 'horse' comment. That would just be added to the tally for paying back later. "But I doubt you will care for my decision."

"Wait, wait, wait, hoooold on a second there!" Joey quickly changed her tune, whirling around and holding up both hands in the universal 'whoa slow down' gesture, palms facing toward the hell-beast. "Just...gimme a minute here, okay? I don't really like either one, so it's just...figuring out which one sucks less..."

"We'z could always just go wif 'neiver one', ya know," BC piped up. He was sitting right at the edge of the expanse of hostile ground, squatted down with his huge makeshift wreckage hammer slung over one shoulder. "Just walk right on in dere, and throo all dis stuff like it weren't even dere." He cackled at the prospect, punching the ground with his free hand hard enough to leave an ork fist-sized imprint in the ruined asphalt.

"We're trying to avoid that stuff, BC!" Joey whined, not even bothering to turn and look at her companion. Instead, she just bright one hand up to tiredly rub at her eyes. "Don't wanna make a big mess and let who or whatever is in there know we're about to waltz in and crash whatever party they got going on, remember? Get the drop on 'em if we can, or better yet just avoid them altogether!"

"So you wish to opt for the route which is less likely to blow our cover, then?" Altanis spoke up in amusement. "It is far quicker and more efficient, as well." She lifted a hand to idly study her nails again, flicking an errant bit of dust from one clawed digit. "If you can stomach trusting me that much, of course. I understand you think me quite the insufferable fiend at this point."

The mechanic just let out a long-suffering groan, now rubbing at her face with both hands. "Not even a day...not even half a day...and already you are on my nerves so fucking badly...tried to kill me or something...god damn it all why do I bother sometimes..." She muttered under her breath, most of the words lost in her angry mumbling and muttering, but the few tidbits that were clear enough to make out did bring an amused smirk to Altanis's face. "Alright, alright, fine! Fine, already! We'll...just go with your damn plan. The one that doesn't involve blowing our cover."

"My, my, my. So quick to decide." Altanis's tone was bright and playful, as she followed her words with a mocking chuckle. "Very well, then." She slowly moved her arms to hold them outstretched, one toward Joey and one toward the big burly ork. "Hold still, if you please. This is delicate work."

Any further questions as to what exactly 'this' was were quite immediately cut off as a deep haze of crimson light flickered to life around the pair of them and they were slowly lifted free of the ground. Joey was plucked off the ground with ease, as surely as someone picking up a small child. Big Chops on the other hand...was slow and unsteady to move, lifting into the air with the teetering unease of someone trying to hoist an almost-too-heavy crate.

"Wha-whoa, what the?!" Joey flailed haplessly in the air, as she proceeded to tumble forward. As the ground rushed up quickly toward her face for a sure collision, she let out a high-pitched squeak and clamped her eyes shut...and the expected collision never came.

"Pfeh. Wot's all dis, den?" BC rumbled out, making Joey carefully crack one eye open. The huge ork was still in his exact same squatting posture, only now ever so slightly and slowly rotating sideways in place. He had a disgruntled and thoroughly unamused expression on his face, but otherwise seemed unperturbed. "Oi'z not sappose ta be flyin'. Dat stuff's fer dem crazy boyz wiff da rokkits."

The sheer oddity and absurdity of the statement, combined with the unamused expression and unflinching posture of the ork immediately smashed Joey's nervousness and concern over her own predicament to bits even as she hung upside down in the air. "That's a good look for you, BC!" she wheezed out when she finally caught a moment between her amused fits. "But....hah...man...what the heck's going on?"

"I believe I requested you to stay still." Altanis let out a heavy sigh, stamping one hoof in irritation. "This does not require much focus, but my condition does not make it easy even so. Especially if you continue squirming around!" she snapped. "So unless you want my control to slip again, at which point you will actually fall, be still!"

"Heh...y-yeah...right." Joey managed to stifle her incessant giggling, covering her mouth with one hand to do so. Slowly, she reached up for her hat with her other hand, finding it missing. "....huh?"

Altanis rolled her eyes. "It fell off, when you nearly fell." The hat in question lifted from the ground up to hover before the suspended mechanic's eyes, surrounded by the same hazy red glow. "I will return it when you are set down. Now, as I requested before: hold still." Her expression shifted, brow furrowing deeply as her outstretched hands flicked down slightly. Both of her suspended 'allies' lurched forward through the air, drifting over the no-man's land at some dozen feet up.

"Okay, this is...actually kinda cool..." Joey mumbled, just staring down at the ground with wide eyes as she drifted over the road. "Except for the whole...floating right over certain death part...and being upside down. Keep feeling like my jacket's about to fall off."

"If you move to try and stop it from falling, I will strip you completely and throw your clothes to the wind," Altanis snapped.

In response, Joey just made an indistinct sputtering noise as her face went pink. "D-Don't you fuckin' dare! If you want your sorry, bleeding ass patched up you better not!"

The demonic centaur just snorted with amusement, and casually flicked her left hand. The motion sent just the barest tug to unzip the mechanic's jacket entirely, and make it slip nearly free, held in place only by her arms and earning an indignant squeak of protest. She squirmed and pressed her arms closer to her sides to prevent it from falling off entirely, but otherwise remained still. Even when her undershirt started to sag and creep up, threatening to expose her and making her face grow steadily redder from a combination of embarrassment and mounting fury (the blood beginning to rush toward her head from hanging upside down didn't help that either, really).The combined threats of a very real fall right into the middle of the danger below, and of being left naked, were enough to keep her compliant for now. At least for as long as she was in the air, anyway.

....which, rather thankfully, lasted only for the next several seconds. The pair jerked up another few feet before hitting the gates and then floating over it before being somewhat roughly deposited on the other side. Immediately when they touched down and the shimmering red haze faded, three things happened simultaneously:

Joey screeched something along the lines of "Fuckin' pervert ass magic horse witch!" as she struggled to right her jacket and properly zip it up again. "Get the hell over here so I can slap your shit in again!

Big Chops slowly rolled over and sat up, from having been rather un-delicately plopped down on his front. "Dat was sumfin' else. Let's neva do it again."

Altanis's arms fell to her sides as she all but collapsed in a heap on the ground, her legs giving out on her. She grunted heavily, and with a heavy cough felt a fresh wave of blood gush from her wounds as yet more of it dripped down her chin. The thick, nearly-black color of her unholy blood stood out starkly against her bright red skin, and even more against the pale, ash-gray of the fluffy mane about her neck. "Ugh...you had best appreciate my efforts, mortal..." she wheezed, followed by another choking cough. She lifted a weak, shaking arm to wipe at her lips. The black ooze of blood smeared against the silver bracer on her forearm.

"Now that you have settled, do see if you can open the gates," she called out. The stress of raising her voice enough to be heard felt like swallowing a bundle of nails, in her freshly blood-stained throat. "I will rest for a moment and then make my way across as well."

"Yeah, what the fuck ever!" Joey shouted back, arms still curled protectively around her torso. "Take your time, you damn..." she trailed off into much quieter cursing and ranting.

Whatever she was saying was apparently quite funny, as Big Chops was set to guffawing loudly as he observed his partner kicking at the ground and fence repeatedly.

 

[Altanis]

"Why iz we even still worryin' about dis freak anyway?" Big Chops grumbled far more quietly, after he had managed to calm down from his fit of amusement. "Ain't like dere's much chance o' her still bein' alive much longer, wevver we help or not."

"Because, BC. It's just the right thing to do." Joey muttered while fiddling with the chains on the gate. As ridiculous as it seemed, the huge padlock seemed to almost be just for show, with the entire mass of rusted chains tied in a very literal knot. It seemed like several links had been hooked and fitted together, even crudely welded in a few places. "Fuckin' hell...who in their right minds did this? Were they trying to keep out the entire world or something?"

"Da right fing to do is stoopid," the huge ork snarled. "Oi'z been jokin' about it all da time so far, but dere's just somefin' not right about dat one." He jabbed a finger the size of a soda can toward the distant form of Altanis still trying to regather her strength. "Gives me da creeps."

"Huh?" That was enough to crack Joey's frustration and focus and make her look up. "I mean yeah she's kinda werid. And pretty fucking creepy." She hunched her shoulders with a deep scowl. "And a damn pervert really wearing on my last nerve already..." she seethed through clenched teeth, before slowly letting that flash of anger bleed away and returning to her work at the chains. "....but that's just kinda normal for this place, ain't it?"

"You'z not wrong," the burly ork admitted after a moment, scuffing at the dirt with one boot. "But you ain't all roight, either. Dere's somefin' just...off 'bout her. In a diff'rent way dan people from around here. Loike....I dunno wot but it ain't right. Loike she's up to somefin'."

Joey just rolled her eyes to that. "We're all up to something, big guy." She cursed quietly as she slapped a gloved hand against the knot of metal links. "Don't think about it too hard, neither one of us is exactly a genius. Here, you take a crack at this." She pushed herself up to stand and stepped aside. "The lock I could probably manage, but this is some advanced fuckery right here waaaaay above my pay grade."

"Lemme take a look-see..." Stepping up to the gate, BC bent forward to peer down at the knotted mess of looped and welded chains. "Dey wasn't too worried 'bout gettin' da gates open again once dis was shut..." he rumbled, before straightening up again. "Shouldn't be too 'ard to get it fixed. I'z got just da right tool for da job."

"Really?" Joey's eyebrows shot up at that one. "You actually brought tools with you?"

"Yep." And with no further ado, the orkoid mechanic showcased his expertise by lifting up one massive boot and slamming it into the knotted mess of metal. it gave way under the impact like wet paper sack, the gates flying open with a harsh grating screech against the asphalt. "Da size 42 ork wrench."

".....of course. I shouldn't even be surprised."

 

[Altanis]

The sharp crack of snapping metal and grating stone, however distant it was, proved enough to snap Altanis from her exhausted daze. She started, her eyes shooting open and glancing around quickly to remind herself of her surroundings.

Yes, yes, the mountain...in the desert...

Her rapid, pained wheezing slowly subsided into more regular breath as she summoned what strength she had left to force herself back up into a standing position. Even such a brief rest, unintentional as it had been given she had nearly passed out, had done her good. Demonic physiology was a wonder, with what it could cope with from just a short moment to recover. A hiss from between clenched teeth as she started moving again painted a clear picture she was far from fully recovered, however.

She didn't even bother to lift a hand to direct her efforts as she went, merely projecting a wave of force before her to sweep the detritus of the no-man's land aside and out of her way. The shimmering haze of crimson acted like a plow, brushing and smashing aside the larger obstacles and sweeping the piles of sand and dirt away. The traps were picked up and tossed aside, while the mines were more delicately plucked up and then flung as far into the distance as possible. The distant explosions as many of them went off upon landing definitely wouldn't do stealth any favors.

Luckily they weren't coming from that direction.

She reached the gates to find the other two staring at her. She glanced from one to the other before a scowl settled on her face. "What is your object of fascination this time?" she snapped.

There was a long silence before either of them spoke up, which only increased Altanis's already dangerously high levels of frustration. And when one of them did speak up, it was with...concern? "....you sure you're alright?" Joey finally managed, shifting her weight from one leg to the other. "Almost thought we'd lost you for a minute there."

The demonic centaur snorted to that, waving a hand to dismiss the notion. "As I said, I merely needed to rest for a moment before making my own way across."

"Uh...yeah, that was like twenty minutes ago or something," the mechanic noted. "You were just kinda...sitting there. Too far away to tell, but I didn't see no sign of any breathing either."

"Insolence!" Altanis barked, the sheer venom in her voice making Joey flinch back. Or maybe it was the blood-flecked spittle. Or the wracking cough that overtook her body for several seconds after. "....that is impossible..." she wheezed, wiping her lips clean of their bloody mess. She bared her teeth, stained black and red from the blood which should have been busy flowing through her veins. "I set you down past these gates only a minute ago. You managed to open them seconds before I rose to cross that treacherous terrain!" She swung an arm back to point at the parking lot full of assorted traps and death. "In what world does the work of two minutes equate to the passage of twenty?!"

"The, uh..." Joey muttered, rubbing the back of her neck. "...the one where we opened the gates ten minutes ago. And you just snapped awake, like...a minute ago? Almost like you jumped outta some kind of nightmare or something."

The hellish strategist narrowed her eyes, lifting a shaking hand to point directly at the human mechanic. "You...are mistaken..." she hissed, and jabbed a clawed finger into her chest. "...and should cease such idiotic prattling before my patience wears out entirely."

"She ain't lyin'," BC finally spoke up from where he stood to the side. His huge arms were folded over his chest, and from under the bill of his comically small cap, his beady little eyes glittered. "You'z was ded to da world over dere. For fifteen minnits, easy." He leaned ever so slightly forward, the thick cords of muscle in his arms bulging visibly. "An' if you's got a problem wif dat, or fin' I'm lyin, we's can deal wiv dat later. Once we's done up here."

Turning to meet the rough gaze of the ork, Altanis held it for several seconds before giving a wordless grunt and looking away. "Fine. We will discuss your...timekeeping ineptitude when we are in a less unwelcoming place."

"Dat's wot I thought," Big Chops grunted, before turning to stomp off further down the road away from the gates.

"For what it's worth, we actually were worried," Joey said flatly. "But with that attitude, maybe we shouldn't have been." And she turned to hurry after her large green friend.

"Tch...as if the concern of a mortal would do anything but demean me," Altanis growled, before slowly trotting after them. "You will learn what your place is soon, fool... Very soon."

 

[Altanis]

Within the complex at the top of Black Mountain, in what had once been a storage shed for supplies, a lone man sat in a dusty corner. Shrouded in a cloak of rags, one leg pulled up near to his body and the other stretched out before him. Dirty, torn jeans and a ragged white dress shirt stained with an awful mixture of oil, dust, dirt, grime, sweat and blood were all he had to his name for clothes. That, and a pair of sturdy, thoroughly worn out boots so worn by the dust and sand of the desert trails they had lost all trace of their original color.

What his few clothes didn't cover, the bandages did. Thick strips of once-white cloth, now stained and dirtied an ugly gray color and beginning to fray. From head to to toe, leaving only the very tips of his fingers and a small strip of his face where his eyes rested free to the air. And even that skin was a pale, blistered and burned mess.

He looked very bit like a ragged, broken man barely clinging to life. Like the sort that would just roll over and accept whatever fate next came to him, even if it were death. Like just another poor soul lost in the desert, caught by some band of deranged fools with enough insanity and firepower to be better than the average joe. Or by some of these crazy monsters lurking out in the sands. Or maybe...

He slowly lifted his head. His eyes, gleaming blue in the dim light of late afternoon sun from the shed's only window, were a stark contrast to his otherwise ragged looks. Bright, sharp, full of life. Full of hate and defiance. Full of strength. He craned his neck, staring out the window. Distantly, he heard it....the sound of explosions going off. Faint and barely there, masked by the shrill winds up on this mountain...but he was sure of it. It was time. It was finally time.

"Then a cry passed throughout the army close to sunset, saying 'Every man to his city, and every man to his country.'" His voice was ragged and grating, rasping and heavy, but carried clear and loud as if roared from a megaphone. It echoed through the cracks in the walls of the tiny building, and out the window to the facility beyond. Slowly he shifted, rising up to stand, and limped his way across the room to the window. He rested his hands upon the sill, peering out intently through the bars preventing his easy escape. He could see the forms of the inhabitants of this place, stirred into action by the distant blasts near the gates, and by his own awakening.

The Burned Man had not so much as moved in what felt like months, and not made a sound. And suddenly he roused himself to speak, and make such a strangely chilling proclamation. It set everyone there on edge, frantically scurrying about for weapons and to make ready for whatever was coming.

"And when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and, lo, an horror of great darkness fell upon him."

 

[Altanis]

The 'peace', if you could call it that, of their trip into the facility at the mountain's top was short lived. A minute or two of warily proceeding past the gates and further into the compound, and suddenly they all heard it coming. The heavy tramping of many, many booted feet pounding sand at a brisk pace.

"It seems we didn't make it in undetected after all," Altanis murmured, with a derisive snort. "What a pity."

"It's probably your fault we didn't!" Joey snapped. "Throwin' those damn mines around like that; do you even know how many you set off, and how loud they were?! We were supposed to be going in quiet!"

Further arguing or angry finger-pointing was interrupted smartly by the sudden, sharp report of gunfire. Several shots in rapid succession, peppering the ground just in front of them. "You! No more talking! This is not place you supposed to be!" a deep, guttural voice roared out as the incoming mob finally stomped into view. "You be quiet now! No more talk! Or we make you dead!" They were all huge and monstrous, to the last. Burly and hulking figures with hides ranging in shades from vibrant green to midnight blue, skin stretched taut and fit to bursting over bulging muscles and flesh nearly too big for their bodies. Small, beady eyes with yellowed sclera and wide gaping black irises peered out above a mouth pulled back in an eternal snarl, lips stretched out over a too-large skull into a permanent teeth-baring rictus.

Each and every one of them had at least one weapon; some kind of heavy firearm, or a huge (if crudely fashioned) melee instrument. Many had both of them. They were covered in a motley collection of armor, some of it having been mostly fashioned from actual suits torn apart and re-fitted to their hulking frames, but for most it was a salvaged mess of anything and everything they could find: old scrap metal, car parts, animal hides and bones. Some of them had draped themselves in long, ankle length coats and cloaks, ragged and fraying at the edges but buttoned up messily over their fronts and heavy with the weight of many, many explosives both improvised and normal.

....and upon each and every one of them, somewhere upon their armor or else branded into bare flesh, was the same symbol: omega.

"Oh, fuck..." Joey whispered, so quietly it was barely audible even to those standing right beside her. "I knew it, I knew it, goddamn mutants. We're fucked, we're so fucked, we are so fucked!"

BC simply hefted his own crudely fashioned weapon into both hands, taking a ground-shaking step forward and readying to clobber the first thing he could get to. "Oi'z got half a mind ta stomp aaaaall o' you'z gits!" For his trouble, the huge ork only got a volley of gunfire directed his way. It served mostly to perforate his uniform, and only barely managed to so much as draw any blood. Nothing beyond superficial damage from the looks it, enough to puncture the skin but not go deep enough to cause serious injury. If anything, all it seemed to do was make the giant greenskin move on from 'slightly angry' to 'absolutely pissed'...well, at least if the unholy noise that burst from his maw was any indication.

"N-No, wait!" Joey's eyes went wide and she suddenly want pale, taking half a step forward. "Don't!"

Too late, as Big Chops thundered into the fray, amid a chorus of shouts of "NOW IS DYING TIME!" and "KILL HIM!" from the enemies. Bullets rained down with a deafening cacophony, deadly lead-filled thunder spewing from two dozen sets of hands. Shotguns and rifles and machine guns all mixing together in their deadly hail. And Big Chops charging through it like it was nothing more than normal rain, even as his uniform was utterly shredded and his green hide was turned red by the countless impacts.

He crashed into the mutants like a wrecking ball, scattering them in all directions like angry bowling pins. He stomped, and spit, and snarled and swore. He lashed out with his huge hammer in one hand and his bare fist, punching and clawing and smashing.

"No, no, no, BC don't do this..." Joey whispered, reaching up with a shaking hand to weakly grab at the silver belt around Altanis's humanoid waist. "You...you have to..." She jerked her head up, staring up at the demonic centaur with wide eyes. "Help him! Please, do something!"

"I am in no shape to do much of anything at the moment." Altanis simply turned to look down at the human with a disinterested stare. "Even if I was in better shape, what exactly would you like me to do? That is certain death; I would be torn apart in seconds, I'm sure. Besides...your friend seems to have it under control."

"You don't get it! I'm not worried about us, or about him being able to beat them!" The mechanic trembled, and tightened her grip. "I'm scared of what's gonna happen to him. I told you what happens when he gets real worked up, especially if it's in a fight. I can feel it, right now, he's this close to going over the edge! And if we don't stop him soon—"

The desperate pleading explanation was silenced immediately, as there came a sickening wet crunching of bone as Big Chops reduced one of the mutant's heads to a bloody mess with his fist. He smashed his hammer into another, discarding it and ripping the huge blade from the back of his recent kill. Wielding the gargantuan, ragged cleaver in both hands, he swung it with reckless abandon, and when his mouth opened again, spittle flew out in a thick spray as he bellowed one word with such volume it nearly left his two former companions deaf: "WAAAGH!"

 

[Altanis]

The deafening roar shut Joey up immediately, making her already pale features lose any color they had left. Her trembling stopped, and she just looked...utterly defeated, sagging down and slowly crumpling down to her knees. "....too late," she finally whispered, her voice hollow and empty. "So long, buddy..."

"You speak as if he's already dead," Altanis peered down at the human, quirking one eyebrow. "Are you simply giving up and resigning him to that face already?"

"No, it's not..." The mechanic tried to speak up, but her words faltered and she was forced to just dry swallow weakly. "I'm not just giving up, or something, but it's... Whatever you wanna call whatever is as big and mean and green as he is. I've seen what happens when they get this angry and worked up. Once they get to the point where they..." She shuddered, wiping her eyes with one hand and waving the other at the spectacle of carnage that Big Chops was in the midst of. "....get like that, it's...it's all over. They get sucked into thinking about nothing but fighting."

Altanis's expression didn't so much as flicker, simply remaining looking down at Joey without so much as blinking. "And this bothers you," she said matter of factly. The human visibly flinched at the statement, her expression hardening slightly. "You have an abnormal level of attachment and worry for such a brutish creature. This state of being seems to be natural for him; why would you be so terrified of him returning to it?"

"You just really don't fuckin' understand, do you," Joey growled. She hauled herself up again, legs shaking and unsteady but managing to hold for now. When she looked up, her expression was twisted into a grimace full of anger and pain, her eyes wet and already starting to turn red from fighting back tears. "I thought you were just a jackass, but you're a real heartless goddamn monster. He's my friend! Why wouldn't I care?! Even if he makes it out of this alive, the big dumb idiot I knew is gone, and now he's just some huge bundle of angry fighting monster!"

"Your 'friend'?" The demon merely scoffed, shaking her head. "The precious little human and her big monster friend. How quaint." She laughed. "Friendship has always been such a terribly fragile thing." She abruptly ceased all mirth, and returned her gaze to the ongoing brawl. "So easily broken, and so easily exploited. That you would let yourself have such a glaring weakness to begin with is...pitiful."

"Shut up already, you son of a bitch!" Joey wailed, and her clenched fist suddenly struck Altanis squarely in her humanoid stomach.

The suddenness of it all made sure it struck clearly, driving all the air out of the hellish creature's lungs and making her shudder and tremble violently. Wheezing and gasping, her legs gave out after mere moments, sending her crashing to the sand-covered asphalt below. As she struggled to regain her breath, her eyes were wide with both visible agony and sheer unbridled fury. This human...this insect, had dared to strike her again?! That would be the last time she...!

Even her internal venting was cut short as she felt a pair of gloved hands suddenly seize hold of her by the horns. She scarcely had time to even utter a wordless screech of protest, before her vision was filled with blackness and a field of white starbursts. The mechanic had violently yanked Altanis's head forward and down and slammed her knee right into the center of the demonic centaur's face with a horrid CRACK, making her howl in pain. She fell roughly to one side, supporting her human torso with a shaking arm planted against the ground. Her other hand clutched at her face, clawed nails digging into the crimson flesh even as thick, black demonic blood oozed around her fingers and down her chin.

"We never should've even fucking bothered to haul your sorry ass out of that wreckage!" Joey shouted, both of her fists squeezed tightly. Her face was contorted into an angry scowl, her teeth bared. Tears streamed down her face. "All you've even done since then is be a grumpy, condescending, self-righteous asshole! You don't even have the decency to be grateful we bothered to save you, let alone bother enough to try and help you even more than that! And you don't even have the god damn empathy or common fucking sense to shut the hell up when some seriously awful shit is going down!" She finally finished, devolving into frantic and ragged breaths.

Altanis slowly lowered her bloodied hand, her face twisted into a mask of unmistakable fury. "You have made...your last...mistake..." Her words were cold as ice; as sharp as any assassin's knife. Without even a twitch of motion to warn against it, a hazy cloud of reddish light blossomed around the trembling mechanic's throat, and constricted with a vice-like tightness. The demonic strategist seethed and hissed her breath through clenched, bared fangs, barely holding back her urge to snap this human's neck like a twig.

There came a sudden CRACK and Altanis felt a white-hot pain in her skull. She went rigid, eyes wide and gaping, as she felt convulsions slowly start to slowly roll through her entire body. Then the sickeningly wet, hot feeling of blood. Slowly running down her face. One hand, shaking so badly she could scarcely control it, lifted up as if in slow motion to her face. She ran her fingers over it, feeling the thick black ooze coating her fingertips immediately. Then her forehead...a gaping hole there, in her flesh. Panic set in, as she numbly felt around the wound and slowly pulled her fingers away.

She stared blankly at the mess of her hand, before her eyes slowly started to unfocus. The gold color of her irises faded, glossing over as her arm went limp. She swayed in place before sagging forward and dropping limply to the ground.

Freed from the psychic chokehold, Joey gasped and sputtered as she collapsed to her knees, frantically shoving herself back and away from the fallen hellspawn. One hand tenderly rubbed at her throat, trying to not focus on the agony coursing through it. For the second time in what had to be less than an hour, that psychotic bitch had nearly choked her out! But now....now she was...

She couldn't manage to tear her eyes away from that gaping hole, in the back of the centaur's head. A disgusting mess of shattered bone, bits of splattered and shredded brain, and everything covered with blood. She never would have admitted it, but for all her absolutely fucking disgusting traits and attitude, the weird-ass demon-horse-thing had been....well...attractive? Or something like that. Maybe her more human-like part, anyway. But now...now... It made her stomach twist in a knot, and her throat burn.

Sure, she'd seen plenty of people die before. Most everyone who lived on this damn world probably had. But not...not like this; not point-blank, in her face, with every gory detail burning itself into her mind. She just wanted to look away, not see it anymore. Not see that steadily-growing pool of inky blood spreading over the asphalt, staining that beautiful snow-colored hair into an ugly tarred mess. But she knew that if she looked away from that grisly scene, she would see something much less disgusting...but far more heartbreaking. She'd see her friend losing himself, and dying in an entirely different way.

She just...wanted to not be here...

Tears started to well up in her eyes again, as she fought to keep the contents of her stomach down. She fought bitterly for her desire to try and make a run for it, with her hopelessness and sickened state sapping her strength.

So broken and distraught was she...she failed entirely to notice the crunching of sand and shattered bits of asphalt behind her. The tromping of something huge, and heavy as it drew close. The last thing she knew was the unbearable pain of something striking her in the back of the head, as her vision exploded with white stars.

The blank, dead eyes of Altanis staring back at her were the last thing she saw before her senses gave up and she blacked out entirely.

 

[Altanis]

In spite of everything stacked against him as it was, Big Chops held his own alarmingly well.

Outnumbered dozens to one, and with naught his own crude makeshift sledgehammer, he had brutalized and beaten down three of the hulking mutants already. Stealing a more effective weapon from one of their corpses, he had launched into an all-new frenzy of violence and chaotic brutality. A far more effective assault, when combined with his reckless and heedless swings and charging at anything that drew his ire at the second.

The ones who dared to try and challenge him to melee combat were lucky to last more than a few seconds, overwhelmed by sheer brute strength and pulverized or quickly chopped into grisly, bloody chunks by his huge jagged sword.It was the ones at range that were the issue. The ones with their automatic rifles, and explosives, and more tactical sense than the mindless shouting fury of their 'lesser' brethren.

The one at the back of the pack, who stood head and shoulders above the rest, was the clear leader of the rabble. In spite of the fact they had never so much as spoken a word, or made a single action of hostility, it was impossible to miss. The garish gleam of absurd, heart-shaped glasses on their cobalt-hued face did nothing to hide the yellow-eyed stare set into a twisted, permanently scowling face. They were getting increasingly mad by now, that this dumb stupid thing wasn't dead yet, and that the other two were being completely ignored and not shot to death or captured!

Eventually, they snarled audibly and stomped forward, seizing one of the smaller brutes with one hand the size of trashcan lid. "Listen here, dumb-dumb! Stop trying to kill this idiot, and actually kill him already!" came the bellowed command, along with a violent shaking that served to make the mutant drop his rifle entirely.

Without missing a beat, the leader stooped down and grasped the rifle on one hand as if it were nothing more than an over-large pistol. "I'll deal with those other two over there." And off they tromped, around the fray with huge and heavy thudding steps, before simply shimmering away into the oncoming gloom of sunset and vanishing from sight entirely.

The mighty ork had been having the time of his life, fighting and killing and butchering everything he could get his hands on. It was just what he had been missing to make him feel real again, like a proper ork....but it was going to be way, way too short-lived. These mutants were tough bastards. The green-skinned ones weren't anything really special, but the ones with darker black and blue hides...they were something else. Bigger, stronger, tougher, faster...smarter. And they kept turning invisible and pulling sneaky tactics!

By the time Big Chops had lost an arm, and been reduced to angrily screaming and whipping his blade around with the other, it was a certainty: he was toast. The order from the enemy's boss to finish him off was redundant.

A concentrated onslaught of gunfire hit him from all sides, and finally brought him to a halt. His knees buckled and he collapsed, only holding himself up by jamming the jagged sword he clutched at into the ground. He gave out deep, choking wet gasps flecked with blood and spit as he stared angrily and defiantly at the mutants. "C'mon den, you ugly gits...is dat all you'z got?!" he growled.

Slowly, his eyes roved over the crowd, trying to do a count of how many were left...and quickly getting lost at four. Bah, not important anyway. It was when his eyes fell upon the bodies of Joey and Altanis, on the ground and being dragged away, that his fury rekindled and he surged back to his feet. He didn't know if they were dead, or just knocked out. He couldn't really care terribly much about the demon horse, but the human...!

He took one stomping step forward, and jabbed his blade into the oncoming chest of a charging mutant. The skewered behemoth just lumbered forward two more steps before falling over in a bloodied heap, disarming the ork. Just in time for the impact of a huge, heavy hammer-blow to his spine to send him crashing down to his knees again. He stared angrily, defiantly at the body of his only friend being dragged off further into the facility. "You...dumb...gits...you wuz s'pposed ta run away..." he spat out.

There was a sudden explosion. A horrid crunching sound, and his vision went dark, his ears filled with a piercing shrill ringing. With an manic yowling bellow of pure agony, the ork mustered up what remained of his ludicrous strength and threw himself back to his feet and whirled around. Even with pain crackling through his every nerve, and with death cackling in his ears, the blinded ork threw a punch at his attacker. Again, and again, and again he pummeled and bashed and struck at the mutant, driving it back and down into the ground and reducing it to a bloodied smear on the ground.

And then....he finally gave several heaving breaths before giving up the ghost. "You'z....shoulda...run..." he groaned out before slowly crumpling down to the dirt. "I could'a handled...dis..." Half of his head reduced to an ugly paste by a grenade blast, one arm missing, and his entire body shot full of so many holes it more resembled something perforated for convenience than a living creature...he finally died.

With a grin on his big, stupid face.

 

[Altanis]

When Joey Blaese finally regained her senses, she wished immediately that she hadn't. Her head felt like it was about to tear itself in half, and there was a dull ache in just about everything else, too. She slowly opened her eyes just long enough to see that she was at least not outside anymore, and it was dark now. Dark and cold. It made her groan softly, squeezing her eyes shut and just trying not to move at all. Fuckin' Arbiter's sake, it even hurt to breathe right now. What the hell had happened to her? Last thing she remembered was....

A dead, glassy-eyed expression full of something between agony, surprise and sheer disbelief. Coated in a heavy sheen of black, steaming blood. Staring directly at her.

The sudden recall was violent and vivid, and her eyes snapped open. She sat bolt upright, ignoring the red-hot lines of pain through her everything that it caused. Immediately the sickened feeling in her gut returned, twisting it into knots she was sure would've made dear ol' Grandpappy "ties knots for a living" Bronson real giddy if he could see her now. Shaking and trembling racked her body, and a deep chill set in as she remembered the other part of that entire mess. Why she had been so focused on something so gory in the first place.

Big Chops...gone. She was really going to miss the big green bastard...he'd been around since she was a little girl really. Never so much as changed one bit, always the same big dumb, gruff, uncouth, rowdy fool. Strong and tough as all hell, and good enough with a wrench and grunt work to land a job, and make her just sort of follow along after him. Everyone always kept him at arm's length in town, knowing just what might happen if he got a little too rambunctious one day, but...he was like part of the place, dammit. Everybody who had half a braincell left knew him.

Coming back to town without him was...

She just slowly tugged her legs up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "Man, how am I gonna tell everyone about this..." she mumbled, resting her head on her knees.

"You'll have to get out of this place alive before you can tell anyone about anything."

The sudden voice speaking up nearly made the mechanic jump out of her skin. But thankfully, all she did was simply let out a surprised noise somewhere between a surprised scream and a choked squeak, and scrambled backward awkwardly until she hit something solid. Her eyes were wide as they could be, straining to see through the darkness and looking around wildly for some sign of who had spoken.

"There is no need to be afraid. We're trapped here, and neither likely have the strength to waste on being afraid or panicking." The speaker was...well spoken enough, but his voice was unsettling somehow. Deep and ragged, like someone who had seriously messed up their throat or was violently sick. Like every word was a chore to speak, and took all the breath he had.

"Forgive me if I don't feel any better. My friend just fuckin' died out there, and I watched...." Joey scowled deeply, a brief surge of fury bubbling up to temporarily squash her grief. "....some pretentious asswipe get shot right in front of me."

"Yes. I was able to see some of what transpired." Slowly, with a light rustle of movement, there came the shape of an arm lifting into view through the gloom, into the silvery haze of moonlight filtering through a barred window. Covered in grimy bandages down to the fingers, one of which was extended to point toward the only window in the room. "I doubt these mutants know it, but this place is situated to provide quite a clear view to someone who takes the time to look."

Joey quickly turned her head to glance toward the indicated window. "So what, you just...watched it all go down or something?"

"Not all of it. But some." The speaker slowly let his arm drop again. "Your friend put up a valiant fight. I've seen ten men not be able to deal with a single one of those super mutants...and he took on over thirty of them and nearly reduced their number by half."

"Yeah, yeah, it's....real impressive..." Joey mumbled, her head dropping slightly. "I just wish he wouldn't have done it. We could've just run, or something..."

"If you had run, all of you would have been shot. He did the only thing he could to try and buy you time to get away." There was a rustling sound again, and the speaker leaned forward until his silhouette could be seen in the silvery gloom. "Why didn't you take the chance he gave you to run?"

"Run? He...he was my friend! I couldn't abandon him!" Joey shouted.

"So you chose instead to make his sacrifice meaningless." There was a brief pause, while the mechanic simply tried, and failed, several times to come up with a response and simply stuttered over her words. "It is not a judgement. That was your decision to make. To see it was such a hard one for you..." He leaned back again, completely out of sight. "....you truly are a good soul. An increasingly rare thing, these days."

"Yeah...some good that does me, though," she mumbled. "Now I'm stuck in here with no hope of gettin' out alive, let alone back home..."

"Don't be so sure of that." This time, the hidden man's voice was quieter and softer. He leaned forward, further this time, until the moonlight glinted off of his eyes. A milky, silvery blue color flashed back at Joey as he looked at her intently. "You turned what should have been certain death for four souls today...into the death of one, and salvation for the other three."

"Salvation? Three?" The mechanic actually laughed at that. "I dunno what world you're on, buddy, but even if we could find some miracle to get us outta here, I only count two."

In response to that, the man simply lifted a bandaged hand to point again. This time, toward the wall behind Joey. Or at least...what she had thought was the wall. She turned her head slightly to look, and...she simply made a choking noise somewhere deep in her throat and threw herself away. It wasn't a wall at all, it was the fucking demon horse's damn corpse! She could feel her stomach doing gold medal worthy series of flips and twirls, and the chills set in even more deeply. "W-What the...fuck? Why is she...her fuckin' body here?!"

"There is a reason for everything," the strange man said softly, and slowly lowered his arm. "Think to yourself not why she is here...but why would they bother to bring her here at all? Why not also the corpse of your friend?"

"Fuckin' hell, it's an Arbiter-damned corpse, man!" She pointed a finger at the demonic creature's remains, in an accusatory manner. "What kind of 'reason' could there be for any of this shit?!"

"We cannot always expect God to do all the work," the man said quietly.

"God? You mean the frickin' Arbiter?"

"Yes. We cannot expect her to do all the work. But there is always a way for the work to be done." Even in the dark, his eyes flashed, and his voice dropped to an even deeper pitch. "It merely requires finding one suitable to do it, and an appropriate way to send them the message. The sun sets and darkness falls on the mountain outside, just as life fell away and darkness fell onto her mind."

Joey shivered, rubbing her arms with her gloved hands and chancing another quick glance down at the hellish creature's face. It still made her feel sick. "What kind of message could even be sent by killing somebody, though..."

"That isn't for us to know. All we can do...is have faith it is a good one." Another rustling noise came, and then a bundle of cloth sailed out of the gloom toward Joey. "Here. It gets cold in the desert, especially in such a drafty hovel as this. You'll need the warmth tonight more than I."

"I, uh...th-thanks, I guess..." She caught it, and though she tried not to look too eager about it she quickly tugged it loose and open and wrapped herself up. It was only a thin blanket, but a hell of a lot better than nothing.

"When the sun rises, it will be time."

"Time for what?"

"That...remains to be seen."