Welcome to the Jungle
Esyla was laughing as she heard Merle crying in TT’s arms calling him Vaughn.
“You’ve got to be kidding, that guy isn’t Vaughn. I can’t believe that anybody would ever mistake TT for some real hero.”
“You have no idea what she’s gone though, Esyla” said TT. He finally came out of the shock of nearly killing Bel. He was shocked at Esyla’s reaction. He would have thought that she would be sympathetic to the cat girl’s plight. After all, Merle was best friends with Vaughn and was separated forcibly from him during the battle at the castle, from his best recollection of the series. “I’m quite certain that Vaughn is alive, Merle.” he said.
This caused the sobbing Cat girl to look up at him. “ Ho do you know my name? I haven’t told any of you this? “, Still crying she grabbed TT’s shirt and started shaking him. “What else do you know? “ Then she stopped as she finally got the smell of these people. She recognized the scent from the girl. It was the same scent that came from the girl that came back with Vaughn after he completed his ascension quest. “You..”
“It would appear that the young lass here is realizing we aren’t from around here. “ said Klerk as he cleared TT’s pistol. He looked at the gun and realized that it had the same serial number as Brian’s gun. H took the other gun out of the holster and examined it to be sure. It was. He tried to figure out was happening, but was interrupted by the Merle’s reaction.
“You are all form the Mystic moon, correct?” she said half-terrified.
“Boy, she sure is a master of the obvious, isn’t she? “ said Esyla in a sarcastic tone.
“Will you stop that, Esyla. I know its real hard for you to stop being a bitch, but we don’t need that know. We’re stuck here on Gaea, and we are going to need her help to be able to get back home. “ TT said as he gently pushed Merle aside to confront Esyla.
Esyla would not back down. “Oh what are you going to do if I continue to insult your girlfriend, TT? You going to shoot me? You missed hitting, Bel, and he’s a lot bigger then me. Oh. Look you’re blushing form the comment I gave? Oh how cute.”
*SLAP*
Esyla was shocked at what just happened. TT had just slapped her across the face. She looked back at TT and saw that TT was not the least bit shocked at this. She now decided to show the twerp that nobody could do that to her. She started to punch him when a hiss came from nowhere. Merle now stood between her and TT.
“What do you two think you’re doing? My Vaughn is trapped by forces of Zybok and the two of you are fighting? “ she said with some venom.
Brian decided to speak up now. He put on the gun belt offered by Klerk as he spoke. “Well, Lady Merle, I think we need to see if Prince Vaughn needs rescuing , don’t we?” He looked at the Aussie. The Aussie gave a short but perceptible nod. “I’m sorry, but we don’t know how or why we got here, but we do know that the only way to get home is to fine Hitomi. I can’t tell you how we know your name or some of the other names that we shouldn’t because we don’t know. By finding others from the Mystic Moon, we might be all able to get home back to our friend and families.” Bel hoped that Merle didn’t pry to much into the lie he gave. He knew that the first priority was to find if any other had been shunted to Gaea. If Hitomi was the same as what had been told, she could find this out rather easily. “Since we do not know the area, we need you to guide us to the castle. I would suspect that Zybok would be holding Vaughn there .”
Everybody looked at Bel now. While every thing made sense so far, going into a captured castle to find the ruler of this kingdom was not a prospect that even the Special Forces back home would think twice.
“I’m quite certain that you know a number of ways into the castle that aren’t exactly known to most, right Merle?” Bel smiled. He looked at the rest of the assembled group. Both Klerk and TT started to get what Bel was thinking, but Esyla was just beside herself on this one. She had no clue what was going on.
“What the Hell are you thinking, Bel? If memory serves me correctly, both Hitomi and Vaughn would be somewhere in the woods of Asturia by now, not in Castle Fanellia.” she said with a defiant tone.
“What are you taking about? Are you a seer like Hitomi?” said Merle with a questioning look on her face. “How would you know that they are alive?” as Merle eyes lit up with hope.
Esyla looked at Bel, Klerk , and TT for help but saw none was forthcoming. They all had amused looks on their face, especially TT. She wanted to swipe their smirks from their face, but she could only fault herself for being in this predicament. She tried to think of way to get out of this, but the only way was to go along with the idea that she was some type of seer.
“ I some times have vision of the future, but they are usually clouded in their details. Sometimes I don’t even know how I know these thing, but I do. “ She said with a slight smirk on her face.
Before Merle could question Esyla about this, Klerk step forward. “We need to break the stuff down that Bel brought with him. I also believe that our mysterious benefactor may have given us more presents, like this authentic replica of Bel’s gun. TT, Esyla, see if you can find more goodie that we can use. Me and Bel will break the pack down to essentials. Lady Merle, if you would be so kind to here, we will help you see if Vaughn is still in the castle. Okay.”
Esyla wanted to protest this, but already Klerk and Bel were going through the pack, discarding a lot of thing, taking what they thought might be needed in the assault into the castle. How could two ex sailor, one hentai otaku, some cat girl and, her self get past some army and save the prince of a recently conquered land. It just didn’t make sense..
Fifteen minutes later, TT came back with some spare ammo clips for the pistol.
“Alrightey then, Merle, I want you lead us to one of the secret passages into the castle. I’ll back you up. TT, I want you and Esyla to stay together between me and Klerk. That means your tail ass Charlie, Klerk.” said Bel as he took his fanny pack and got up.
“I’d rather stay here. “said Esyla. “You haven’t really though this out , have you? They just took that castle, and most of Fanellia in one bold stroke. They have an entire army searching for Vaughn, right now. I f you want to get yourselves killed, then do it with out me.” she said with venom in her voice. She didn’t understand this at all.
Bel looked at her with a resolve that frightened TT. “You have no clue, do you, about our situation. They are going to tear this nation apart and they will not care who get in their way. In this time back on Earth, they raped and pillaged villages. They took advantage of anybody who was not them. They are going to find us if we don’t move, and we don’t have any defensive capability to stop them. They will kill us and probably rape you and sell you into slavery. Right now, we need to find a way out of here, and Escaflowne is the way out. And Escaflowne can only be piloted by Vaughn, which means that to get your self-centered egotistical ass out of here and fulfill my word is to rescue Vaughn. “
“I also believe that probably the safest place is right behind Bel, lass. After all, they would expect an assault on the castle, now would they?” smiled the Aussie.
Esyla was pissed. She didn’t like the way she got railroaded in that argument. She didn’t understand how anybody could believe this would work. It couldn’t. Still, she couldn’t even defend herself out here alone. So she followed the line out of the camp.
Merle, however was puzzled by some of the statements made during the argument between Esyla and Bel. First, how did they know about the Guymelef, Escaflowne? Very few knew about it true existence in the castle. Secondly, how did they know it could get them out of Fanellia? She decided that these question could be asked when her Vaughn was safe from Zybok. She had a felling that these four could do the impossible, and that was save Vaughn.
Sunrise came to the valley, when Merle got to the secret passage that she knew that would bypass the city and into the kitchen in the castle. She moved the steel grate that covered the sewer entrance into the castle.
“This will lead us to the kitchen in the castle.” said Merle. “However I do suggest you breathe through your mouth as it is the sewer system for the castle.”
“Great. Now I get to smell like a sewer before I’m killed. I hope you guys survive so I can kick your asses for this.” said Esyla as she saw Bel grabbed a small flashlight and head band. He turned on the light and entered the entrance.
“All clear. Keep to the sides as there isn’t much water in here. And try to keep quiet.” said Bel as he helped the other in.
The group walked down the line for a while. The light from Bel’ flashlight was the only light given off and as it was red, It really didn’t help the other in their predicament.
“I hope there is no gator down here.” said TT.
“What was that, TT? You scared of a little lizard. “ said Esyla.
“I mean that doesn’t alligators live in sewer systems. “ said TT. He was scared . While he didn’t want to die, he didn’t like going into the heart of the Zybok army. Despite Bel arguments, he wasn’t sure that they would survive. After all, The forces of Zybok were veterans of many campaigns, while half this group hadn’t even been close to combat. Still, he remembered a saying from somewhere. When in doubt, act.
Bel and Merle came to a intersection of the sewer system. One leg went to the left, while the other went straight. “ Any clue if there is any wild life down here?” said Bel as he looked at his watched. They had already spent 90 minutes in the tunnels. He knew that they had travel almost five clicks. Even he had to believe that the entrance to the kitchen was near here.
“I don’t think so. “ said Merle as she contemplated which way to go. She had never tried to sneak into the castle before, so she was unsure which direction to go. “We should go this way “ pointing to the left.
“Hold up for a second, so the other catch up.” said Bel.
“DO you really think that this will work? “ she asked.
“What assaulting the castle? From the sewer systems and secret passages? I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe otherwise.” he said. “ Why are you trusting us? We could be Zybok spies.”
“ I fell that it’s the right thing to do. “
“As do I.”
Esyla, TT, and CPOK finally came out of the darkness to the intersection. Merle again reiterated which direction to go. Bel again took lead, and went down the corridor. He went down for a while, then he noticed a smell that wasn’t there before.
He looked at Merle to see if she recognized the smell. She wrinkled her nose, but gave an indication she didn’t recognize the smell. Bel motioned Merle to stay where she was and to tell the others to stay there. He turned down the tunnel and continued. He came to a came a sharp rise and to a grate. He looked up and saw the stables. He decided to get up into the stables to see if they were indeed in the castle. As he tried to get the grate open, it made a loud creak. Bel knew that someone had heard the sound by the way voices were yelling.
*Now would be a good time to leave* as he tried to put the grate down slowly, However, the soldiers that turned the corner saw the grate go down and rushed to it.
Bel ran down the corridor some and stopped beside a support built into the wall of the sewer. He got the flashlight, flipped to the white light, and blinked down the corridor to the other. In Morse code, he told them to run. We readied his pistol as the soldiers were running down the corridor. Then he decided to put the pistol away and brought out his knife.
Klerk looked down the corridor for any signs that Bel would come back, when a small bright red light was seen. Klerk realized it was mores code, and got his pistol out. He readied it as the message was flashed again.
Short, Long, Short.
“Romeo”
Short, Short, Long.
“Uniform”
Short, Long.
“November” Then tuned to the other. “Run down to the intersection. I’m going to cover you. “
The soldiers decide it wasn’t the best idea to run down the sewer, so they lined up in a formation of four and walked down with their crossbows readied. Bel waited till the last solider walked pasted him before he acted. His action were like a whirlwind to the soldiers as he grabbed the last soldier’s neck and slit his throat with the knife. Then as he fell, the next guy started to find what his buddy had done, was shot by a crossbow quarrel that went through the chest plate of his armor and sliced his heart in half. Bel then grabbed his pistol and shot the other two. They were just turning around when the 9 mm shells hit them in the chest area. Bel, now, was running down the corridor shouting “We’ve got company’ not waiting to see if any other soldiers were coming down.
All Klerk heard was the two gun shots, then Bel shouting. He put his piece down and waited until Bel ran to his position. Then making sure their was no immediate pursuit followed the American down the corridor. They got to the intersection, where the others were, and told them to follow them up the other corridor.
“What the hell happened down there, Bel ?” asked Esyla as they go to another sudden rise and a grate. Klerk moved up and opened the grate and moved out. He looked around and saw it was indeed the kitchen of some castle. It was a big as many house he had been in. He saw a number of cooks and orderlies but no obvious troops.
The personnel of the kitchen was surprised that some strange looking man with glasses just came out of the sewer. But none of them moved fats enough for the Aussie.
*BLAM*
“Listen up you, primitive screw heads. This is my boom stick. If you don’t run away, your going to go BOOM, too.” said CPOK in an obviously antagonistic way.
This got the desire affect as the kitchen staff vacated the premise in about two seconds. Esyla had just gotten up out of the sewer and in to the kitchen.
“That was stupid, Klerk. I never would have thought that somebody would quote Bruce Campbell on this world.” She said as she got out of the way. Klerk had gotten to the doorway that the staff run away in.
Bel, TT and Merle got out of the sewer and went over to the doorway. Merle looked out.
“this is the right place. Just down the corridor is Van’s room. Down the other way is the royal chambers.” she said as she tried to go, but Klerk grabbed her.
“No, Lass, the baddies will come to find out why the kitchen staff was running like a dingo in a chick coup. They will come down here, and it’ll get ugly. Where to, Bel? Dungeons?” said the Aussie pulled Merle back.
“No, we go to Escaflowne. He would have tried to get it to work, remember? He’s a hot head. He would have ………….”
“I don’t like it when strangers threaten my subjects, even when trying to rescue me.”
All of them turned and saw Vaughn come out of an oven. He was very tired and hurt. Merle squealed in delight as Vaughn had not be captured.
“Vaughn” as Merle glomped him.
“Merle, I’m glad to see you, too. I ,however do not know who people are? From you’re the clothes you where, I would guess you are from the Mystic Moon, like the girl Hitomi?” he asked as he disentangled himself from Merle.
Klerk spoke up form his position at the doorway. “That we are, Your Highness. I sorry about the lack of formalities, but we are here to get you to safety. Where is Hitomi?”
“Dalindau took her away. He still at the castle, but I haven’t seen her since the attack. They also have my mother in custody somewhere. They also have the Temple under guard all the time, so getting to Escaflowne is out of the question, especially since I do not have Hitomi.” said the young prince. “ After all, she’s the energest.”
I'm sorry HF, Naz, Tau, and Jae. I haven't forgotten about you guys. But you got to have some fun early so............
CPOK, Arse kicking has commenced, take no prisoners.
Esyla, better?
TT, I haven't heard anything from you? Don't worry, you'll get your chance to shine real soon.
I hope everyone is enjoying this.
(I highly suspect you're nicer than you give youself credit for.)
)
