Chapter 5

The two made their way from the make-shift campsite in relative silence, only broken by Quake touching the top of his head and wincing occasionally. The forest of iron trees started to thin out as they reached where the base of the mountain intercepted the cliff face. Peering over the edge at the quarry below, Jeck turned and asked Quake a question.

“So how come you guys are fighting anyway? You don’t strike me as the type of guy to get into territorial disputes.”

Quake peered out over miles of dusty gravel. He looked down at the group of downtrodden animals who were beginning to rust. He looked down at the mammoth sleeping in front of the entrance to the quarry

“I’m not entirely sure myself. There’s an entire deposit of molten iron down near the bottom of the mines. It’s what most of the animals here subsist on. Normally it’s treated as neutral ground where nobody fights.”

Jeck nodded in understanding. “It’s like a watering hole in the desert. I’m guessing this iron is why the quarry was set up here in the first place?”

“Yeah, but ever since that mammoth came here, he’s been hogging all the iron for himself, never letting anyone else even enter the mine. I try to distract him by fighting so they can get their fill but our fight yesterday took us right into the caves. They couldn’t get passed us and I got beat. Now they’re going to go hungry.”

“Well look on the bright side. You’re going to get revenge today and they are going to be going home today with warm bellies.”

“Yeah, I guess…” Quake trailed off, staring down at his feet.

“Are you nervous?”

“A little I suppose. What if he still beats me? What if I lose? What do I do then?”

Jeck leaned down and gave him a light elbow to the gut. “Then you pick yourself up, train your ass off and kick his ass the next time, right?”

He hesitantly lifted his head up

“…yeah”

“Screw that! You’re gonna win now, right?!”

He started to perk up more and more.

“Yeah!”

Jeck stepped behind Quake and lifted his leg.

“You’re going to go out there and show that big bastard who’s boss!”

He threw his hands in the air and puffed out his chest.

“YEAH!”

Jeck extended his foot and kicked Quake off the cliff.

“Go get ‘em tiger.”

He squawked as he felt himself leave the ground. That wanker! Quake swore he was being annoying on purpose. Well, at least he wasn’t nervous anymore.

Falling faster and faster, he pulled himself into a series of flips and performed a picturesque three-point landing, throwing up a cloud of dust and making a large crash that startled the sleeping mammoth awake.

All the mechanimals perked up at the sight of their savior. The Mammoth glared at him, pulling itself to its feet. It was back, it always came back. Back to take what was his. The precious, life giving metal, the silver nectar that he fought and earned? No. This ends now. They fight and it will die.

The two looked across the rocky gravel, sizing each other up. Something had changed, this fight would be the last, winner takes all. No words or threating growls were exchanged. No macho displays of dominance. The two simply vanished in a blur of speed.

Shockwaves of dust and loose gravel was kicked up in the wake of their numerous clashes. The other Mechanimals quickly scuttled over the piles of rubble and hunkered down behind them for fear of being caught in the cross fire of the two apex predators. Jeck watched the two of them go at each other, each one looking for a decisive blow that would ensure victory. He let out a low whistle.

“Damn, no words or nothing, It’s just on sight.”

He walked over the edge of the cliff onto its face. Placing a palm down on the craggy rock, he manipulated the earth into the shape of a chair and sat down in it. He crossed his arms and contemplated on the outcome of the fight. If Quake won then everything was fine and dandy. He probably would, the mongoose was pretty damn talented, after awakening the Layer, but on the off chance he messed this up and lost? Jeck could stay and teach him for another day or two at most, but he did give him a deadline and Jeck tried to follow through with those.

Eh, Quake’ll probably win, he thought to himself, then something caught his eye. A familiar distortion peeking out over a distant rubble pile. How interesting.

/////

Quake ducked under a blow that could have levelled a skyscraper, then weaved out of the way of a left. Retaliating by extending his cable and swinging his drill into the side of the Mammoths left hindmost leg, he jumped back as the Mammoth stumbled and its whirling chaintusk almost cleaved him in two. Reaching around to his drill, he slotted his claws into two small openings at the base of it, one for each hand. The drill split in five ways, from the tip to the base which blossomed open like a flower giving him ten fearsome claws that now stretched up to nearly a foot long. All that was left of his tail was a small drill about the size of his head attached to the cable that ran into the base of his spine.

The claws scraped across the dusty floor as he charged again, leaping forward at the bigger combatant. They clashed again, sending out a shockwave that threatened to topple over the rubble piles the other Mechanimals were cowering behind. He jumped over a left hook and used it as a spring board to attempt to gouge the Mammoths eyes out. He thrust his clawed hand forward and was surprised when they clanged against the Mammoths tusks which had twisted themselves into his attacks path.

This was bad, his failed strategy had left him floundering in midair. The Mammoth, sensing his panic, quickly took advantage of it by sending a rib cracking jab directly into his gut. He flew off and rolled across the ground, sticking his claws into the ground to stop his momentum. He panted as he clutched his shattered ribcage.

He opened his mouth to voice his plan of attack, saying something out loud, or whispering it to yourself often clarified the nebulous ideas of the brain, or so Jeck had explained to him. What came out instead was:

“Ow my fucking ribs.”

He glanced around the arena they fought in. There were several piles of rubble off to either side making a sort of path to the entrance of the quarry cave, of which he was standing in. He needed an opening, something that would force the bastard to use his Perfect attack.

‘And I think I know how I’m gonna do it.’

Pulling himself upright, he crouched down while his tail stretched over his shoulder and spiked into the ground in front of him. He gave the small drill at the tip of his tail some juice and it spun rapidly, destroying the ground under both his, and the Mammoths feet. He was careful to focus the damage in one spot.

Severing the drill from his tail, he jumped backwards and did a half-backflip putting him almost perpendicular to the wall, pointed straight at the Mammoth. His cable tail split apart just before he reached it. The individual braids coming undone, and circling around to form a spring that compressed in on itself as Quake jumped into it. (Jeck had laughed when he saw it and called it the Tigger maneuver, or he tried to, another mysterious bolt of lightning put a stop to that sentence halfway through.) Potential energy reached critical levels a millisecond later.

He launched himself down as though he’d been shot out of a canon. The Mammoth, just finding his footing as the earthquake petered out, looked up and barely managed to get one of his tusks up in time, blocking death by mere inches. It began to lean out of the way as the mechanical ivory began to buckle under the stress of Quake bearing down on it.

One of the blades shattered, allowing the mongoose to carve a long, painful trench down the Mammoths chest. It roared in pain, angry at the damage and the audacity of this insect managing to make him bleed. It looked over at his hated foe, who had taken to watching him wearily from the bottom of a mound of rubble. The metal claws on its hands coming together to form a singular drill at the end of its left arm. That was it, it was dead. With a roar like a landslide, it pulled out its remaining tusk, still whirring, and charged.

Quake did nothing as he crossed the distance except raise his arm and place the drills tip against the laying rock. He spun his drill, faster and faster, the rotation sending minute shocks throughout the pile.

Vibration after vibration pounded the rocks until the crumpled to dust. Dust that got sucked into the still spinning drill. The Mammoth was upon him now. He turned and flicked his arm at it, sending dust into its eye. As he predicted, though the Mammoth cried in anger and pain, it still swung its mighty arm, wielding the chainsaw like a sword, aiming to bisect the target of its fury. It applied its Perfect affect to the sword to compensate for its lack of vision.

Quake smoothly weaved to the right, his Layer cancelling the auto-hit of the sword. The Mammoth only had a brief moment of confusion before Quake swung up with his drill inside its guard, penetrating its defenseless chest. The sound of scraping metal was emitted as Quake rammed through its chest and sent its corpse flying on the same trajectory he took four nights ago.

Jeck watched warily as the body sailed towards the mountain, then sighed in relief as it bounced off and rolled down into the grassy canopy.

“Thank god he remembered to control himself.”

Quake collapsed to the ground, his iron reserves were low and his muscles were tired. The other Mechanimals slowly pulled themselves out from behind the debris and, upon seeing the vacant quarry entrance, made a beeline for it. He lay there, baking under the hot sun until a shadow passed over him and blocked its golden rays.

“Not even a thank you huh?”

“Let them be, they’re probably starving.”

Jeck stood at Quakes head bent over ninety degrees at the waist, black hair falling in front of his face.

“You gonna get up?”

“I don’t think I can move. I’ll have to wait until my iron reserves replenish themselves.”

“How long would that take?”

“Depends, could take twenty minutes or two hours.”

“So, and this is purely hypothetically, it would be faster if I carried you into that cave down to the iron pools?”

Quake scowled. “Don’t you dare.” But alas, his threats fell on deaf ears. Jeck scooped him off the ground with both hands into a princess carry.

“Put me down! This so humiliating.” He vainly tried claw at Jecks face.

In response, Jeck threw him over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. No longer able to reach with his claws, Quake continued his “assault” by occasionally poking at Jecks eyes with his tail, which was batted aside easily. They navigated the tunnels in relative silence, only broken by the sound of panting.

“How are you doing that?”

“Hmm? Doing what?”

“How are you navigating these tunnels so easily? I can sense the ground through my feet and tail, but it’s pitch black in here, How do you know where to go?”

Jeck laughed. “The dark doesn’t bother me. I’m blind.”

Quake was shocked. “You’re blind? I’ve been getting my ass handed to me for a blind guy?”

“Hah, yeah. I wasn’t always blind though. I got into a fight I shouldn’t have. Long story short? He used his Aspect to placebo my optic nerves into exploding.”

“Yeugh, that sounds painful.”

“It was.” He said casually. “I’m over it now though, I made a power to sense things around me in a radius. Color doesn’t translate very well, neither does light or anything 2d really.” He looked up. “Oh hey we’re almost there.”

Opening his eyes and peering around Jecks torso, Quake looked into the familiar, steady orange-red glow of the ferrous caverns. He could make out the blobby silhouettes of the other Mechanimals all partaking in their metallic feast. The hydraulic spider had some sort of straw stretching all the way to it head, which was almost scraping against the ceiling. The buzzsaw scorpions were using their claws to grab fistfuls of the substance and throw it into their mouths, while the ants with the silvery sheen had simply opted to submerge itself in the molten iron.

Jeck thought it looked rather cozy.

Over the lake, shining across the harsh light of the iron pool, was a single, silver root.

‘I see, so that one root feeds into the entire forest and has been slowly taking on the properties of metal, just like the rest of the animals here.’ He thought to himself.

Outwardly he asked. “So what now? Do you need to drink this stuff or can I just dunk you in it?”

“You could do both.”

“Great.”

Jeck hurled him into the pool and smiled as he gave him the middle finger as he sunk below the heavy fluid.

As he sunk below the slowly shifting surface and his vision was filled with bright orange, He opened his mouth and started drinking big mouthfuls of the liquid. He could feel it work its magic immediately. Warmth spread from his mouth deep into the pit of his stomach. Cracked and shattered ribs began to fuse back into solid metal once again. His muscles bulged and energy raced through his body. It was almost comparable to awakening his Layer. He felt the tip of his tail spark as his drill began to reconstitute itself out of the surrounding magma, the blueprint in his mind guiding its shape. After so long with an empty belly, it felt like a divine moment or a religious experience.

Up on the shore Ghost was trying and failing to persuade Jeck not to eat the iron.

‘It looks inedible, why do you insist on giving it a ‘taste test’?’

‘It looks delicious, now stop trying to talk me out of it.’

Jeck reached down and cupped his hands together and scooped some out, then brought it to his mouth.

‘Besides, all the other animals here can, why shouldn’t I?’

He slurped up the hot iron and swished it around in his mouth. It tasted….hot. Just hot. That was it, it overpowered any other sort of sensation he might have, unfortunately it cooled down and allowed the other tastes to come forth. Then Jeck realized that his body was not designed to eat iron and would therefore not taste good to him.

At all.

‘I’ve made a terrible mistake.’

‘I told you so.’

Quake emerged from his bath just in time to see Jeck scraping his finger on his tongue, desperately trying to get the taste of hot rock out of his mouth.

Did he? Oh he did. This was prime teasing material right here and it’d be a shame not to take advantage of it.

He sauntered over to a hacking Jeck. “Have a nice meal?” He asked innocently.

Jeck spared him a glance. “Piss off.”

“What’s wrong? Can’t handle a meal with a little kick to it?“ He dipped his claws into the pool and pulled up a pinch of iron and drank it. “Ah~ Delicious”

Jeck crossed his arms and stubbornly looked away. “Shut up.”

A shit-eating grin graced Quakes face. “Was it too spicy for poor widdle Jeck?”

Jeck whipped his head back around and shoved a finger in Quakes face. “Listen here you little bastard! I can out-spice you any day of the week. Any time.” His Irish accent was more noticeable when he was pissed.

“Obviously not seeing as you can’t handle a little iron. I’ve been drinking this stuff since I was a baby.”

“Try some human food and we’ll see who’s talking.” Jeck started muttering about ungrateful students before a thought occurred to him.

“Speaking of ungrateful.” He motioned over to the cave wall with his head where a distortion, nearly invisible under the shimmering heat of the cavern hung. “You wanna talk to him?”

Quake turned his smile towards the lizard who dearly hoped the two looking in his direction was a coincidence.

“Get over here.”

Goddamn it.

Very reluctantly revealing himself, the saurian trudged over to the only two creatures in the forest that could kick his ass with all the enthusiasm of a prisoner on death row being marched to the firing squad.

“H-hey you two, long time no see!” He said with false bravado.

“Hey, remember when you left me to die against the mammoth?”

He cringed. “Haha yeah, listen, no hard feelings about that right? It was getting pretty dice-y back there but I figured it was better that one of us live to fight another day, y’know? And I ju- “

“Cut the crap Big Ball.”

Big balls heart leapt into his throat.

Snrk!

Before immediately falling back into his stomach.

Both Mechanimals turned to look at Jeck who was biting his lips.

Big Ball narrowed his eyes, pride taking over.

“What? What’s so funny about my name?” He demanded.

Jeck tried to school his features into a frown. “A-absolutely nothing.”

The lizard frowned and moved his face inches away from Jecks left side.

“You don’t find….anything remotely amusing about the name Big Ball?”

Jeck pursed his lips together and shook his head, his shoulders were also beginning to shake, which, if you asked Jeck, had nothing to do with the situation at hand.

“And let me guess, you’ll find ‘absolutely nothing’ funny about the name of my current mate..”

He paused for effect.

“…Vajizzma.”

Like a water past a breaking damn, Laughter bubbled out of Jeck throat.

“Ahahaha! That’s her name? Seriously?”

“Stop laughing this instant. It’s not funny!”

‘Are you seriously laughing at a dick joke?’

‘You’re a dick joke.’

Jeck collapsed onto his back. His face was turning red and tears were streaming down his face. Peals of laughter echoed through the cave prompting every other Mechanimal to turn around and stare at the trio.

Big Ball turned back to Quake.

“Just kill me already.”

“Nope.”

He did a double take.

“What do you mean no? Why not?”

“As the third strongest person here, I need you alive. You see, Jeck is taking me with him when he leaves the quarry.”

“He is?”

“I am?”

“You are.” Confirmed Quake.

Jeck thought about it for a moment then shrugged. “If you slow me down, I’m leaving you behind.”

“Deal.”

Big Ball shook his head. “Wait, wait, wait. You want me to look after this place?”

“Yeah, someone needs to protect these guys, and it’s going to be you.” Quake leaned in close. “Any complaints?”

Big Ball shook his head rapidly.

“Good, and if you end up acting like that woolly bastard, you’re going to die like him too. Trust me, I’ll know.”

Big Ball gulped.

“Jeck, I believe we’re done here. Lets get going.”

“’Kay.”

The lizard watched as the two walked off into the darkness of the tunnels.

‘What the hell just happened?’

The two made their way back to the surface and began raiding any vehicle they could find. With Jeck instructing Quake on what to look for, They eventually found an old foremans office, and with it, a map of the area. Now they stood at the top of the cliff.

“Looks like there’s supposed to be a small outpost a couple hundred miles off that way.” Said Quake pointing diagonally along the cliff. “Apparently it’s part of a small country across the sea. I don’t know if it’s still there. I’ve never left this place. It’s a weird feeling.” He admitted.

“Don’t worry. If you ever get homesick, you can always come back.” Jeck reassured him.

“Yeah I know, it’s just…” He struggled to put the feeling into words. “I feel like I should be, I don’t know, more sad? I guess. About leaving this place behind I mean.” He turned and gazed out over the dusty rocks and orange-white gravel and felt very little. “I - you know what, lets just go. No more looking back.”

Jeck patted him on the back. “That’s the kind of spirit you need to survive out on the Plains. No regrets. We’ll walk for now. It’s not that far and we’re in no rush.” Quake nodded and the two set off on, what would eventually turn out to be a rather eventful journey.

And if Jeck noticed him take one last glance back, well, he didn’t mention it.