While the Katelyn was beating Harry’s ass back in the Pelican II Shair and Jon were struggling against the crab-claw monster into the abyss. The only light was the one provided by lightening whenever it struck the cave walls. After Katelyn let go of Shair’s hand the crab claw pulled the two towards itself very quickly causing the two to fly straight into its body. Much to their surprise, the body of the beast was a lot softer and almost squishy, when compared to its hard crab-like claws. The two crashed into the body and immediately were sent flying away into a platform to its side, it was as if the body was made of spring.

*Cough**Cough* Jon coughed loudly as he tried to stand up but his arms were slightly weak from holding unto Shair for too long causing slight tiredness in them. Suddenly he was grabbed by his right armpit and pulled upwards, when he looked up he saw Shair with a gun in his hand and blue mud smudged on his face and clothes. Jon thought he was gonna help but he was wrong when the pain came.

Jon was still a little groggy so Shair had to resort to using b*tch slaps to freshen him up, which caused Jon to scream as if he was being tortured. After the yelling subsided Jon was rubbing his red cheeks and yelling such curses the likes of which even Shair didn’t know. As soon as Jon looked up at Shair with tears stinging his eyes he was greeted by a palm full of blue mud Shair had grabbed from the ground.

“Plurgh, UGGHHHH” Shair was currently throwing mud all over Jon, his face, his body, even his shoes were soon covered with blue mud. Jon was still spurting nonsense when Shair clamped his mouth shut. He got very close to Jon’s face and widened his eyes to warn his cursing buddy to shut up. When his mouth was only a few inches away from Jon’s face he whispered slowly, even over all the thunder his voice could still be heard as loud as day, and the message was fully clear from those colorful eyes.

“Shut up and follow my lead” Shair hissed. All Jon could do was nod. Satisfied with himself Shair looked up and around the platform for any exits, keeping a close eye at the giant crab monster while he searched, Shair slowly edged towards the walls.

Noticing movement the crab monster quickly turned to the platform and moved towards it. Jon upon noticing the reactions of the crab became visibly nervous and quickly pulled on Shair’s straps to warn him. However Shair paid it no mind and continued to move towards the wall, again all Jon could do was helplessly follow.

Jon was no idiot, he was aware that the monster getting nearer towards them very quickly and the slow movements of Shair towards a wall would only lead to death. However he trusted Shair, be it for the fact that he was known to do behave crazily during battle, or the fact the Shair had previously saved his life. Perhaps it was a combination of all, whatever the driving factor he trusted Shair with his life. He at least owed him that much.

Shair had a weird way of acting during battle but the results could not be argued, whatever the reports were, the fact at the end of the day was that the mission was always successful whenever ‘Team Frontline’ participated. Since Shair was part of the squad it made sense to think that he must be resourceful and trustworthy to still be on the team.

Thinking back Jon remembered the way the Commander spoke in front of him, it almost seemed like she had respect for him. Those last few words they exchanged before the fall rang in Jon’s head, that conversation was evidence that she cared for the man greatly. As if losing him would cause great damage to the team and her, that man was walking infront of Jon and since he had the Commander’s approval as an irreplaceable soldier in her team it seemed logical to follow the man’s orders. After all, if the Commander respected him why couldn’t Jon.

Shair on the other hand was completely oblivious to Jon’s thoughts; he instead had his mind set on one thing. Breaking open the wall. As he got closer and closer to the wall so did the monster towards them. Until Shair was standing right next to the wall with a shivering Jon and the Monster directly on the ledge of the platform. Knocking on the wall a few time he pulled back, satisfied, and did something completely unexpected.

“AAAAHHHHHHHH” He screamed as loud as he could waving his hand as he jumped up like a monkey. Jon immediately walked a few steps away from Shair and cursed himself for trusting him. The monster roared loudly and pulled up his crab claws to smash down the annoying vermin. Each claw must have been at least 200 pounds by judging from the size and Shair had just asked the monster to smash him with it.

The claw sailed through the air and towards the jumping Shair. When the claw was only a few feet away Shair jumped backwards right next to Jon and they both watched it crash on the ground in front of them. The claw had left a large crater far larger than its own size, showing the immense power the claw held.

“Wow” Shair whispered fascinated by the display of power. The monster roared once more and prepared another attack, when suddenly Shair grabbed Jon by the side and pushed him to the wall on the right.

“Stay right next to the wall.” Shair instructed and proceeded to yell again. “AAAAAHHHHHHHH”

Once more, the Monster swung his claw, cutting through the air straight for the two. Shair stopped yelling and grabbed Jon by the shoulder pushing him down and they both lay on the ground as the claw sailed over their head, barely missing them by a hair’s length and smashed in to the wall behind them.

“Roll” Shair shouted loudly and both him and Jon starting rolling away from the crab-claw. When Shair and Jon stood up again there was a hole in the wall where the monsters claw was struggling to get out of. It had swung with enough force to chip away more parts of the wall creating an almost doorway-like entrance into the wall. If one peered closely the light illuminated a room behind the wall. Shair pushed Jon towards the door way and then jumped after him, not giving the monster enough time to get another swing at them.

Once inside the two were greeted by the large hallway, the purple roots growing in similar fashion to wood creating a long, dark hallway. The monster was still outside, its roars and screams could be heard rattling the rather catacomb-like hallway. The monster started smashing the ground outside the wall in rage, but surprisingly did not attack the wall of the cave structure again.

*Cough Cough* now that the excitement was over Jon started coughing roughly, and then proceeded to vomit near Shair feet.

“There, there Jon. Get it all out of your system.” Shair patted Jon’s back as he looked around, gathering their surroundings.

*Cough*“I think I just threw up my breakfast.” Jon said as he stood upright. Shair looked down to examine the vomit.

“Where did you find the bacon?” Shair looked at Jon. They both stared at each other for some time.

“Hehehe”“Hahahaha” They both started laughing, they were hysterical after the close encounter with the crab-claw monster.

*Sigh* After they had gotten over the craze they started to look up and down the hallway the danger of their situation seemed to finally sink in their bones.

“Hey, I think we should go that way.” Jon said.

“Your right, that’s where the aircraft was flying and….” Shair pulls out a small rectangular device and observes its screen. “…They seem to be North-east of us, about 20 clicks from here. Up for some jogging?”

“Alright…Hey, where are you going?” Jon ran after the departing Shair “the team’s that way.”

“Oh, I know” Shair said.

“Then why are you going the other way?”

“To create safe passage” Shair looked over his shoulder.

“What? That monster is growing out of the cave from back there.”

“I know.”

“Then” Jon jogged over to Shair and held him by the shoulders. “Why are you going where there is certain death?”

“Haha” Shair laughed “don’t joke Jon. It’s only a highly probable chance that I will die, it’s not certain.

Shaking off the technician from his shoulder Shair continued on, but Jon was having none of that. He swung his arm and locked it around Shair’s preventing him from moving forwards. Shair stayed in his position and waited. Neither was budging from their position and both waited for the other to speak up, to explain himself. Until Shair finally gave in and with a sigh asked

“What do you think we would do once we get to the team? We still gotta leave after we destroy this thing, right? So I am going to go, and kill the thing that would obstruct our path again. It hurt us this bad when we were peak condition, what do you think it’s going to do to a damaged Pelican and an exhausted team? Huh?”

Jon just stared at him trying to form a reasonable argument but his mouth just opened and closed over and over again. None could be made against the logic.

“I am not going to let it obstruct our path once again…and you’re gonna help me.” Shair said as he gently pulled his arm free and walked ahead.

*Sigh* “Alright, Alright.” Jon reached to his side and took out a small pistol a standard Glock-66.

As they both walked down the hallway Shair increasingly leaned onto the walls, Jon followed suit thinking that it was best to do what a veteran does. After a few minutes of walking the long stretch of never ending darkness Shair and Jon were practically hugging the caves purple walls. That’s when they saw it. It wasn’t a lot but it gave an idea to what might await them over there. A small ray of pink light was shining through the abyss and the closer the two got the brighter it seemed to become. Shair came to a halt and reached to his feet, bending over, and took out a polished Magnum 44. Jon reached over and tapped Shair’s shoulder.

“A magnum isn’t gonna cut it.”

“A colt did”

“Is it like the colt? That thing was damaged, right.” Jon asked worryingly.

“More like… destroyed and no. It’s modified just like the colt…but nothing can beat my Colton. …It’s still good enough to get the job done.” Shair looked at Jon reassuringly.

As they slowly crouched their way towards the light a large purple room came into view. That was all it was, a large circular domed room with purple light coming from its dead center. The object that was radiating the light was cylindrical in shape and curved from the top and bottom similar to a muscle tissue. The light radiator was attached to a circular metal ring at the top and bottom, inside the thing was a creature similar in shape to the monster outside except it had a head seemingly attached to a helmet with wires all leading for the top metal ring, and around the purple glass tube were a whole litter of Fraz.

The Fraz were most commonly known as root monsters and they lived up to the laymen’s term. A humanoid creature with purple tendrils twisting and merging all over the body, creating as intricate of a network as the circulatory system found in the humans. Each tendril was similar to a blood vessel, it carried the sucrose and water in a vascular bundle such is the job of a stem in the plant. However all the tendrils overlapping each other were just an exoskeleton the main thing was hidden beneath all the layers, the power source of the creature. Usually it would be a sack of water or a human heart encased with other organs, or sometimes even a motor. The Fraz became what they ate, so obviously these Fraz’s that lived in a place such as this which was constructed with plants and meat were humanoid monsters made from a delicate merger between plant armor and a meat energy source.

“Oh come on, this is easy picking.” Shair whispered and he muffled a laugh.

“Is it? ‘Cause I see eight regulars and one special in the tube and judging by the masks on the regulars they’re pretty weak” Jon acted accordingly to the situation, which was scared out of his mind, while Shair was just plain crazy.

“Your right…”Shair looked at the Magnums bullet chamber. “This thing only carries seven bullets, so that’s seven depending if I don’t miss. You gonna have to take that one out though, my advice, unload the whole clip on him. Armors tough.”

“Alright, on three?”

“One….Two….Three!”

Once a soldier ambushes a Fraz the area becomes a playing field, they had the first action and so obviously would have the advantage. When Jon and Shair both came out of hiding, aiming down the iron and steel sight of their respective guns they were clearly at an advantage. The 8 individuals in the playing field were momentarily frozen and just stared at the new incomers. Shair’s battle experience dictated that he shoot the guys from one side despite their distance from him and check them off from one side to the next, one by one. But the rational thinking said to takeout the ones closest and move to check off the ones further behind. Aiming down his steel sight he aimed for one at random and pulled the trigger. Then moved to check on off one the side and another two on the other side, it was completely random the polar thoughts may have deterred his thinking but the memory of shooting engraved into his body was still there and had won over. The movements were quick and with as little movement as possible.

Jon on the other hand had only one Fraz to take care off the one who was the furthest. It fell victim to all the bullets he could fire in the span of time Shair had to shoot the other 7 regulars. When the firing stopped, and it only stopped when the Fraz Jon was targeting fell down, everyone came to their senses. All the shots fired by Shair barely hurt the Fraz all it did was agitate them, and so immediately after the firing stopped they pulled out their own guns, a jagged shard like gun, and pointed it at them. Although they had the upper hand they did not proceed to shoot, only yelling and threatening with their guns pointed at them. By now even the special in the glass tube was aware of what was going on as it shifted its head in their direction and was also shouting.

“WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!” Jon yelled at Shair eyes ablaze with anger.

“Wha-.”

“Mishkin valnuk takmish Vooo” One Fraz yelled at

“It was supposed to work.” Jon was sobbing slightly.

*Sigh* “Fine, Fine” Shair waved his hand at Jon. Pulling out the Magnum he proceeded to pull the hammer until a loud click could be heard. That set a series of explosion of the remaining 7 Fraz, each one engulfed in a raging red fire as if an incendiary bomb went off from where the bullets were shot. Soon each of the Fraz was on the ground burning into red crimson crisp.

“See” Shair looked at Jon his hands up expectantly “I told-”

*Boom* The wall behind Jon was suddenly broke open and a large crab claw the size of two meters swung into the room, hitting Jon and throwing him away. Shair ran towards Jon and dove for him pushin him out of the way of the swinging claw. However it didn’t go as intended, the large claw sung straight for Shair instead and slammed him into the shoulder. Shair was sent flying over to the base of the glass tube where the metal ring smacked him right in the stomach.

“Uughhh” Shair looked upwards as he tried to gather his bearings. The special seemed to be laughing inside his glowing liquid as he moved inside. Jon was barely dodging the claw swings and was getting increasingly fatigued, Shair could see him slowly getting out of breath. The monster however was just the same, its energy capacity was much larger than Jon and seemed to be getting closer to actually connect the claw with Jon.

There was something similar to the monsters movements that Shair noticed. When he looked back at the special then at the claw, it just connected. Quickly loading the bullets in the chamber he aimed the Jon-claw duo.

“Jon get over here!” Shair shouted as he fired the sticky bullet and the claw. Jon turned to run towards Shair, but the claw was fast and almost squished its prey when Shair pulled back the hammer and with a familiar click and explosion the claw was blown back by the explosion. Jon however was also caught in the explosion and blown forward by the impact, he slid across the floor towards Shair’s feet. Shair pulled Jon up by the shoulders and pointed at the creature in the glass.

“I break it you shoot those wires. Alright?”

Not waiting for his answer Shair pointed at the glass and shot three bullets in a triangle, then exploded them. The glass immediately broke and collapsed on itself, the purple goop inside slowly oozed outside. The puppeteer inside the tube got angry and swung its puppets crab claw at Shair, the swing connected and knocked him away. As the special got ready for another swing Jon aimed his gun and started to unload a barrage of bullets around the head area of the creature.

The bullets of a Glock-66 were made in similar style to a snipers bullets, they were pointy and made to fit in the small mag. They were widely used during the initial part of the invasion of the Fraz so the HQ issued them as a standard firearm for all its operatives, even the medics. Of course many people had some other sort of firearm on them which they had salvaged or made over the past years, like Shair’s colt and Magnum 44. But the Glock-66 was still greatly used, it was not because it was easily manufactured but the bullets that its structure could fire without harming the one pulling the trigger really made it an appealing choice. The bullets were similar to a sniper in all aspects except two; the size of the bullet and the coating of mercury fulminate at the end of the bullet.

Mercury fulminate would explode when friction, heat, or any other subtle energy raise in the surrounding occur. The Glock-66 was easily able to hold the bullets coated with it and fire without causing the thing to explode. So when Jon fired not only did all 6 shots connect but also caused the head gear with all the thick wire to completely explode and drop the special into the small pool of goop. When the head gear exploded the crab claw immediately fell to the ground with a loud thud suggesting that the connection was lost.

Not soon after the claw fell a loud roar echoed through the room. The puppeteer had gotten up and was moving towards Jon with clear rage and anger. The special was very different from the regulars. Where the regulars had masks of woods with designs to rank their power and similar body structure, the specials had none. Each special had a different shape from the other and its power couldn’t be estimated from its appearance, so when fighting a special one had to be very careful so as to not approach an extremely powerful one and Jon had just pissed one off all because he listened to Shair.

Jon looked behind the special as he slowly moved backwards away from the approaching monster and saw that Shair was slowly climbing to his feet, coughing vehemently but alive. Shair dusted himself and looked around, when he saw the slumped claw he gave Jon a thumbs up ignoring the creature that was about to kill him.

“Hey” Shair shouted, attracting the special’s attention. “You’ve caused enough trouble”

He aimed down the sight and shot the rest of the bullets in the chamber, once the thing was agitated and the chamber empty he pulled back the hammer *click* and he watched the thing burn. Unlike the regulars this special had a meat body on the outside which allowed the death to be swift and quick so one such as Shair couldn’t really enjoy the screams or struggles of the Fraz as it died.

“Hey, you alright?” Jon jogged over the dead branches of the Fraz towards Shair.

“Yeah, why?”

“He hit you pretty hard and you are bleeding from the head”

“Oh” Shair quickly pulled at his tee and wiped the blood from his head. “I’ll be fine. Come on, we gotta get better firearms.”

Shair walked over to the dead bodies and picked up a shard gun the Fraz were using. Unlike the pink and purple color scheme of the room the guns were oil black colored. Shair tossed the shard gun at Jon and took up another on, he then proceed to sweep up the ash of the Fraz rubbing them all over his body and some on his check.

“What are you doing?” Jon asked the kneeling Shair.

“The… uhh… mud is washing off from sweat” Shair said motioning to Jon “Need something else to blend us in.”

“We’re gonna go back the same way”

“Wouldn’t you want double protection, mud for blending in the walls and ash to disperse in the darkness?”

“Alright” Jon kneeled next to Shair and scooped up some to rub it on him. Once both were covered in the ash of the enemy they moved back towards the tunnel they came from. There they reapplied the much of their uniform creating a camouflage against the Fraz.

“Keep quiet and follow me.” Shair instructed as they moved back into the darkness.