Team Huffle Badger [Chapter 7]

[Renard]

Tagged: Beckett, Arauchia, Ysmir

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The tech was excellent. It had actually been one of the first thing Renard had thought about when he’d heard they were going into the Labyrinth. A few years before, he had flown to South Dakota to do a shoot in the caverns of Jewel Cave. Nearly 160 miles of underground terrain was a lot of distance for a film crew to work with to get the very best shot, but communication was of key importance. Especially underground, when there was great risk of either cave in or pitfall. Of course, the majority of Ren’s work had been done in trailers outside of the cave system itself, producing subterranean monsters and mutations. However, he had been on call the entire time to do touch ups between scenes. Extremely low frequency radio waves they had called them. Had the ability to penetrate through rock and dirt. Renard was impressed Jesse had thought of it, though he had not said as much.

The meeting itself was short and to the point, which Ren also appreciated. He was a creature of action, and the act of waiting around tended to make him feel antsy. Left to his own devices, he probably would have plugged his ears with some buds, turned the music up loud, and gone in guns blazing. In this case, he deferred to someone who knew what they were doing. Which was odd for him. Renard had a complicated relationship with authority figures. Specifically, he hated them. Blame it on Hillstrom. Blame it on Beatrice. Blame it on Isengrim. The moment someone felt they had a right to bark an order at him (or in some cases, make polite suggestions), he was apt to buck. Except Jesse hadn’t asked for him to show up. He hadn’t given orders. That was the difference. Renard had been the one to demand volunteer to go in. So he couldn’t rightly be a trouble child could he? See. Maturity.

The walkie talkie was hooked to his belt. He had opted for fairly simple garb, orange baseball cap, a black and orange windbreaker. T-shirt. Black jeans. Black and orange high tops. His gun, which was a massive assault rifle, was strapped across his back overtop the sheath for his sword. Of course, he was giving his best impersonation of a mouse. Though he suspected no amount of sneaking was going to help them up ahead, because it looked like the winding tunnels of the Labyrinth were about to narrow to the point where people were about to have to file through in a single line. Possibly even turn on their sides to pass through. Limited mobility. The best place for someone or something to make the drop on them. Renard wasn’t particularly pleased with it, but that was life.

“Babe, let me get around you.” he said as he gripped Beckett’s bicep a moment to pass in front of the other man. Originally, he had been behind the other man. To uh. Watch his lover’s back.

Yeah.

Watch his back. That sounded legit.

But if they were about to walk into a potential zombie trap, he wanted it sprung on him, not Knuckles.

[Beckett]

[ WEARING ]

When he had first suggested that he and Renard find a means of getting further involved with the Fforde, this hadn't exactly been what he had had in mind. Though, he supposed, there were far less interesting ways they could have gone about it. What could have been better for some twisted bonding experience than over the slaughter of zombified mutations in a series of dark, maze-like tunnels in search of some coveted key that they might never even find. They certainly weren't the only vampires setting out to roam the tunnels in search of them, though the motivations were, no doubt, as varied as those doing the searching. In any case, Jesse had been very clear on the purpose for their being there and what he would want to see achieved, and Beckett wasn't about to discount those reasons. They were valid, and that was enough for him to keep his mouth shut. That only left the matter of the small unit splitting into two groups, each one set to go a different direction in hopes of increasing their chances for success.

Renard, of course, would love every ******* minute of it. Reasons be damned.

Which is why he had no qualms with pausing in his steps to allow the man to pass him by, even going so far as to gesture ahead with an arm. "By all means, go ahead. The first trap you walk into, I'm going to immortalize forever by taking a picture to hang on the wall..." His tone was so even, so controlled that it would have been impossible for anyone other than Renard to tell if it was a joke or not. And it was entirely possible that it wasn't. Not that he had any intentions of verifying it out loud. Maybe that gave the impression they were some morbid couple with serious problems, but...maybe that wasn't an entirely incorrect assessment. Depending on who you asked.

With a glance over his shoulder at the other two in their group, he frowned. If he recalled, Jesse had introduced them as Arauchia and Ysmir. He honestly couldn't remember if he had ever exchanged words with them in the past, even in the form of the family board, though Arauchia did look a little familiar. Had she approached them once in the catacombs? "So, have either one of you ventured in here, before? Any tidbits of information that might help us find what we're looking for? Or...prevent impalement, pitfalls, and the like?" Because he certainly hadn't been in here, before, nor was he a fan of the narrow passageways that threatened to split their own little group up easily enough as they were forced to move through them single file.

[Ysmir]

◄ W E A R I N G ►

Ysmir had taken up position in the rear, giving him the vantage of seeing the entirety of the group in front of him, while he only had to glance over his shoulder and see what might be coming up from behind, the occasional turn and pace backward as he kept his gaze on an even, steady sweep of the narrow space behind them, ensuring that no one or no… thing crept up behind them. His pistol in his hand, he cocked his head as he and the third member of their little group were addressed.

He didn’t know the first thing about any of these people, but that he had been asked to accompany them. That was enough for him. He shook his head at the question asked, though, as he lifted a tactical torch to fill the narrow passage behind them with light. “Never been down here myself, no,” he muttered, keeping his voice low as they moved. He was doing his best to keep from drawing attention to them, careful to keep the mouth of his rifle barrel from scraping against the rock wall, ducking when the weapon strapped to his back came too close to the ceiling.

“Hacked a few private e-mail accounts, though. Picked up a little chatter about the place. Nothing extremely useful, really. Some seriously nasty things down here, though, I can tell you that much at least.” He shrugged, the safety on his pistol clicking off as he spoke. It was clear that, in spite of his cool, confident demeanor, he was fully aware of the gravity of their situation. He was aware of the danger that lurked around every corner.

“The Hebigumo Foundation was digging around down here, but you know that much,” he muttered, giving a shrug as he swept his electric torch through the darkness, slashing through the shadows with a harsh, crisp light. He took a breath, though he didn’t need it, and hid his smirk in the dark. It was lost in his voice, though, as he sent his thoughts out into the dark, to where they would find Raegan with the other half of their expedition, someplace in a far reach of this pit of darkness.

I know you can’t stop thinking about me. Hearing my voice now and everything.

His confidence drove her mad, and he loved it. Though, if she knew how much it shook him that he had spent years contracted by the government, helping to control the outbreak in the QZ and keeping it contained, only to learn that this little slice of hell had been right beneath their feet the whole time? Well…

It wasn’t an everyday feeling, knowing that the mouth of hell was yawning just beneath your feet for years, and only learning of the thing after you had already died. It was unnerving, at best, even if he never let it show.

“What about the rest of you? Anything with a little more substance? Anything useful?”

[Renard]

UGH. “You know some guys would be ******* thrilled to have a boyfriend who is willing to get chased by some crazy as **** giant, Indiana Jones boulder. Or take darts to the face. Or whatever the **** is down here. But nope. Here I am. Risking my ***, and my boyfriend is talking about putting pictures of pancake, dartface Ren on the wall. ****’s. Sake.” The words were more hissed than anything else, as Renard crossed in front of Beck so that he could ‘lead the charge’. Not that it was much of a charge. For the most part, the objective was to stay as quiet and unnoticeable as possible so as not to draw the attention of some big ugly monsters. And while he was out in front, he continued to mutter things about how he was being a gallant ******* knight, and how Beck had better ******* repay him with...and at that point his chatter became either too quiet or too indistinct to make out. This was, surprisingly enough, Renard in stealth mode. In fact, his normal volume was somewhere around a shout.

Of course, then he realized the other people were talking and he just sort of shut up so he could listen. How many times had Beck told him not to talk over people? It seemed there wasn’t a ton of information to go around. He heard the term ‘Hebigumo Foundation’, which tugged at something in the back of his mind. He had probably heard the words before. Like ‘Apple’ and ‘Microsoft’. Eventually some corporate entities became so large that they entered the vocabulary of the average person as points of reference to products. Though Ren couldn’t, for the life of him, remember what the Hebigumo Foundation actually produced.

The narrow passage came to an end abruptly right into a large chamber. He could hear some rustling ahead and he squinted. There was a bright light behind him, held by Ysmir and when the beam connected with the area the sound had come from, he caught sight of what looked like a pillar crumbling. It didn’t look structural thankfully. But that was curious wasn’t it? He approached slowly, glancing around for an exit. “I don’t have any sort of information, but I am curious. Who made this place? The Hebigumo Foundation might have been digging around in here, but this architecture is ancient. It was deliberately built and carved out of the ground. It goes deep. Very deep from what I understand. So who would have had the resources and the ability to have made this?” he asked.

[Arauchia]

WEARING

When Jesse had asked for volunteers to head out and explore the Labyrinth, Chia more then happily obliged. She had got her feet wet shortly after her awakening, but the assurances that the sirens were forced out of the endless tunnels was not enough to make Chia feel safe. And the way the creepy *** Administrator sounded, he had ulterior motives. So She would help try to find this proverbial key and then hopefully destroy it. She liked the rift just the way it was. It was sort of at Goldilocks zone at present; not wide enough to let the undead hoards pour out, not too narrow to stop vampires from returning, just right.

Chia kept an even pace followed along behind Renaud and Beckett. Every once awhile she would glance back to make sure Ysmir was keeping up. She however was happy to have been selected to tag along. Chia wanted to better know her new family, each one of them. She had no complaints about who Jesse had paired her with as they were all relatively fresh faces to her. These three men, she had only seen in passing, mainly as they were all whacking back the undead hoards in the Mausoleum. So what better way to bond then to bash some skulls? It was one of her favorite past times after all. And they were all fairly easy on the eyes. Why was it that the call of the darkness was only answered by the beautiful? Another one of life's unanswered questions.

"Eh I've been once. Few weeks ago. I heard about some sort of meeting to talk about how to best eliminate the threat sirens posed to us. So I went in to explore with a couple other people. I didn't beat up on anything though and we came back empty handed." As she spoke, she tended to keep her voice down, in case there were others outside her team in the vicinity. Violet eyes would glance around the cavern that opened before them, her steps taking her up alongside the boys as she pulled a pair of daggers out of their holsters.

"Personally, I don't think we went deep enough to actually find what's being hid in here. I'm curious to see what those people were doing in here anyways. I heard rumours it was something they unearthed. So someone had to have built it ages ago." Adela offered with a coy smile. She loved investigations.

[Beckett]

In the midst of Renard's rant, all he could do was smirk. The man had a habit of saying exactly what was on his mind with little to no filter. At the very least, he was honest and no one ever had to be worried that he was lying to them in regards to how he felt. He was unapologetically brutal in that sense, but it was one of those things that kept Beckett close. When he wanted nothing more than wallow in his own self-pity, Ren was there to tell him exactly how ******* ridiculous he was being, whether he wanted to hear it or not, and then force him into situations that allowed him to focus on just about anything else. And in return, Beckett kept him from being an asshole unnecessarily, which was to say that he encouraged the man to actually care about people beyond the reach of the Sutton family.

That's where the Fforde came in.

They weren't exactly a family, but it was the closest thing that they had in this city where monsters were a reality, and there would come day when they were all that they really had left. Other than each other anyway. That was just another reason that Beckett had agreed to venture into this dark, crumbling abyss. If they bloodline was in search of something that would impact them all, then the least he could was put his neck out to try and help. He made a mental note to reach out to Jesse for the sake of learning more about this...rift and this Shadow Realm that he had really only heard about in passing. The two were connected in some way or another, so it seemed vital that he understand it on some level. And as they entered into the large chamber with the cracked pillar in the center, he truly hoped they could find what they were looking for before the whole damn place caved in around them. Granted, the sirens had been excavated down here for weeks, so maybe the tunnels were a little more structurally sound than they appeared. Or, the sirens just that lucky.

He had just opened his mouth to speak up in regards to Arauchia's previous descent into the Labyrinth when the walkie talkie on Ren's belt came to life with static, only for a woman's voice - Raegan's, maybe? Was that her name?- to break through the overall hush of the massive room and echo off the walls. “You know, you almost got me killed, you ******.” Beck's eyes widened a fraction, freezing on the spot as the sound carried. There was a moment of silence, one where he thought they just might have avoided catching the attention of anything nearby. Then the walls on the opposite side seemed to come to life as a couple of skeletons, so alike the ancients of the mausoleum, but far less clumsy, moved in their direction. So much for stealth and avoiding combat, if at all possible.

Son of a *****!" he hissed, using one hand to guide Ren one step forward so that he move out of the narrow passageway enough to allow Arauchia and Ysmir to get into the room before the skeletons got too close and had them backed into a literal corner. Plus, Ysmir was the one with the light, at the moment. His gun was deliberately kept in its holster for now, as now hardly seemed the time to draw even more attention to their location with gunshots, and so he opted for his sword.

[Ysmir]

He would’ve hoped that the cavern in front of their little slice of cave had been empty, or that Raegan would’ve quietly let her anger boil to unleash it later. He should have expected, however, that she would answer his words with words. And he should have expected that she was going to be loud about it.

As her words erupted from the hand held units at each of their various points of contact with the bodies of their team, the darkness came to life ahead of them, the shapeless room of darkness suddenly filled with shifting, clattering shapes of hazy shadow that only just made themselves visible with their movement. He lifted the torch and turned the brilliant light into the room in front of them. A flick of his thumb and the light was like a small white sun in his palm. The light would be hot enough to burn flesh in minutes, but it was bright enough to drive the shadows from the farthest corners of the rocky room.

Eyes sweeping swiftly over the lit room, the creatures stunned by the brilliance of the light shining toward them for a brief moment, Ysmir counted the bodies as they shuffled closer. Five of the things creaked and rattled in the big room, each of them regaining their bearings in spite of the sun reaching so low into their sanctuary of darkness, a thing that they had likely never seen. He lifted his pistol, the suppressor causing the weapon to feel front heavy, his grip tight to keep the weapon in line with the shot that he intended to take.

He was farthest to the back, still working his way down into the room. As such, his shot was taken from the vantage point over the heads of the group he was with.

He exhaled, and let his body settle. His frame was still as stone as he did his best to zero in his shot, his finger taut on the trigger. He narrowed his gaze, watching the closest of the things as it took a step toward them, and then another, as he centered his sight on the thing’s forehead.

It was then that he wondered, exactly, how much damage a shot to the head of a skeleton might actually do. It had no brain to damage. Perhaps that was not the wisest choice of shots, in hindsight, but with his efforts committed to the headshot, he slowly pulled back on the trigger, squeezing without causing his hand to tremble, as best he could manage. The pistol bucked hard in his hand, the sound of the gunshot distorted wildly by the suppressor, the flash of the muzzle, as limited as it was with the mod on the barrel, was lost in the glare of his torch.

“Let’s do this, then,” he muttered as he stepped down from his spot, to free himself of the tight fit of the crevasse.

[Arauchia]

Chia had nearly dropped her dagger when she heard the voice crackle over the two-way radios. Eyes would glance at the device clipped on Renaud's belt. Why was this woman making a ruckus? They were all on the same team and she was being highly distracting. So much so that Chia didn't notice the shamblers walking towards them, until her compatriots reacted. A glance was given as she heard the sound of a handgun discharge behind a silencer before her gaze returned to the task at hand. Five undead targets. To her eyes, Chia thought these things looked very similar to the critters that she had been stalking in the Mausoleum. Shouldn't be a problem.

Slowly, she veered away from the boys and the doorway and moved along the cavern wall. Her steps were extremely deliberate as she started to pull the darkness around her like a cloak as she crept up behind the critter that was the furthest to her left out of the bunch. Chia stayed along the wall until it shuffled past on its way towards the three traveling with her, then she struck. Her hand lunged out of the shadows, causing her knife to tear through some of the brittle bones. The skeleton seemed to howl as it turned and took a swing at the blonde, which she ducked under rather effortlessly.

While she was crouched, Chia held on tightly to her knife and punched upwards into the beast's rib cage. As her fist made contact with it's sternum, a bunch of the skeleton's rib bones went flying. As she pulled back into a defensive position with her daggers up in front of her, Chia couldn't help but smile as the pile of bones wobbled and threatened to collapse in on itself. A well placed kick with her right foot tipped the creature backwards and flew into a bunch of pieces as it impacted the stone floor. She then turned and started to assess the remaining targets.

Beating back the undead hordes; just another delightful night in Harper's Rock.

[Renard]

“It would have to have been years and years ago.” Renard mused, clearly lost in thought for a moment. He didn’t say much more on the subject, but the architecture was foreign to him. He suddenly wished that he had both paid more attention to set design, and to some of the native architecture related to the region. He could tell they were descending into ruins, but he couldn’t have said with any confidence if they were a few hundred years old, and had been made after the arrival of European settlers, or if they had been built by the indigenous people. His gut instinct was that the masonry and the scope of the work involved in excavating into the earth was outside of the abilities of the latter. But then there were the famous Pyramids which had been built thousands of years into the past. So maybe it was like one of those mysteries. Either way, Ren was not ashamed to admit he didn’t know what the **** he was talking about as far as that topic was concerned. So he let the subject drop.

Then there was the sound of static and a loud, feminine voice. The shuffling of undead bones across the stonework.

Well this was certainly not ideal. They weren’t even very deep and had already lost the element of surprise. The mission had been one of stealth, which meant they needed to quickly either run or put down the skeletons which came more and more into view with every passing moment. Renard was not the type of person who believed in backing down from a fight (which was usually because he was the one who started them), but he also knew the things in the Labyrinth were supposed to be a lot stronger than he or Beck were used to taking on. So his first instinct was to quite literally pull his boyfriend over his shoulder and haul *** in the opposite direction, leaving Arauchia and Ysmir to fend for themselves. Something told him that Beck would probably punch him if he pulled that move though. And before he could make any suggestion to the contrary, the fight had already begun.

Ren dragged his sword out of its sheath. He worried, for a moment, that even if these things were as deceptively weak as they may have appeared, the clamor was going to attract stronger things. But he didn’t really have time to focus on possible problems because one of the skeletons descended on him like a rabid animal. The thing clasped a dagger that looked like a jagged piece of glass in its hand, and it swiped at him rapidly, as if it was a beast with claws. He just barely stepped back and out of the way, when it surged closer, trying to get inside of his guard. The hand with his blade in it twisted, to catch an oncoming swipe, and with all of his strength, he slammed the thing backwards and right into a wall as with the intention to stun it.

The skeleton bounced off of the stone, and Renard hammered the pommel of his sword right into its skull with so much force that a cranium began to crumble immediately as if it was made from nothing but dust. Another couple of firm jabs and the thing's entire head was completely gone. From there, it just took a few deft sword strokes to leave it as nothing but a pile of old bones on the ground.

[Storyteller]

==========AUTOMATED POST==========

Renard attempted to fight a standard enemy, and was successful!