﻿Chapter 4: King of the Mountain


Bing! The chime of the subtram went off as Jess found herself sitting on the subtram once again. Looking up in surprise, she saw the doors open in front of her. She slowly rose from her seat and noticed the subtram car she was in was dark and empty, even for the subtram this early in the morning. She paused. If it was the morning. Regardless, the lights on the tram car were all out, even the emergency ones. Her surrounds were illuminated solely by the lights of the station that were only partially on and in an emergency light red that slowly pulsated. 


“Wait… I was…” Jess muttered as she stepped out of the tram car into the station. The emergency lights helped light up a sign, she was in the station of her residential sector. Below, it was the always updating board of subtram times and the status of stations. All of which were listed as ‘Emergency Shutdown’ and every station on the line except the one Jess was in was marked as closed. But she was out in the wilds a moment ago, fighting for her life, with Felix and Metra… “Metra?” Jess waited for a response, “Look, if you are giving me the damn silent treatment, well… yeah, I deserve it. But could you at least give me some indication you are there? I’ll take an insult at this point.” More silence. Jess heard the pattering of rain as she waited. It took a moment before the realization struck her. The rain. If she was in the subtram station, then there would be meters of dirt, rock, and polycrete between her and the surface. But she could hear it. The drumming of the rain was only briefly interrupted with the occasional rumble of thunder. Regardless, it helped her decide what to do next; she had to get out of here. If something was wrong with the station, she did not want to stick around to get crushed by a cave in. Looking to the emergency exit she found it was filled with rubble.


“Okay, uh, shit. Metra, if you are there, let’s see if we have enough juice to move this.” Jess grabbed a hold of one of the larger chunks of polycrete and tried to lift it, to no avail. She looked at her hands, they weren’t inked over. It was becoming more and more clear that it was just her down here. Alone. She let out a long sigh. Giving the station another once over, she spotted the elevators which seemed to still be in operation. Ignoring normal safety instructions, she stepped in. No music was playing within the lift as it closed and brought Jess up to the surface level, just the sounds of rain. The doors slowly opened revealing the city of Locksmouth’s residential district. Or rather, what was left of it. Jess looked about seeing the remnants of her home. The paved road beneath her was pocketed with impact craters and burn marks. The charred, destroyed remains of hover cars and trucks smoldered under the rainfall. Jess felt like she was crying, but it was impossible to tell aside from the weight in her chest. Moving towards her living complex she heard the groan and shuddering of metal as a tower nearby leaned over and collapsed into another beside it, shearing off a section as it took out a distant walking platform. “No…please no,” Jess faintly gasped as she realized that was the building two of her packmates lived in. Looking over the elevated ledge of the walkway she saw it crumble into the ground below. She could only hope they had evacuated. The sounds of its destruction were somehow unable to surpass the pounding and drumming of the rain. Jess closed her eyes and ran forward in the downfall of rain.


Jess felt her feet slip out from under her as she landed on her back in a puddle with a splash. To her surprise it did not hurt. Looking up at the sky for a few moments she could see more damage to the buildings around her. Sections of buildings had been blown off by what she could only have guessed were some immense explosions. Balcony gardens faintly gave off steam and smoke from the fires they fueled. The more Jess saw, the more she felt alone. So alone.


“Wait, where is everyone?” Jess pulled herself off the ground and looked around again. The city was in shambles and she was still working through that, but there weren’t any bodies. No blood, no clothing, no personal effects, nothing. “Hello!?” 


Her voice pierced through the rain and echoed about the district, but there was no response. No monsters, aliens, people, nothing. Cautiously moving forward, Jess was now thoroughly soaked by the rain, but she had found her living complex. The building had certainly taken its fair share of damage but despite the destruction around her, the interior of the building seemed mostly intact. Structurally at least. The atrium, like everywhere else, was abandoned. The front desk was smashed in two and shattered electronics and masonry were strewn across the floor. Jess walked over to the doors leading to the maintenance staff section of the floor and found they were bent in. Inside she could only see more destroyed furniture and repair supplies. “Mr. Wolly? Are you there? Hello!?” She called out to see if the head maintenance technician was still around. While frequently the one to hand her notices to stop jury rigging the electrical systems in her living space, she had a relatively friendly rapport with the gecko man. Sadly, she got no response. 


“This just keeps getting worse…might as well grab my stuff and get out of here.” Jess thought out loud. Her usual concerns about muttering to herself faded as at this point, she’d rather learn someone was actually around from hearing her than worry about embarrassment. She squeezed back through the doorway and saw the lifts were non-functional. Looking at the doors to the stairs she swore under her breath and began her trek up. She regretted picking an upper floor to live on as she made her way up flight after flight of stairs. The rain pattering down was ever present. She made it up the five flights of stairs when she felt everything start to catch up to her. Her friends are gone, her home is destroyed, who knows what happened to all those people out in the wilds. Jess stopped on one of the floor landings of the stairwell, leaned against the wall and slid down it to sit. Now that she was out of the rain and somewhat drier she realized she was crying. For how long, she didn’t know. She had lost track of time as she sat in the corner of the stairwell. The rain being the only thing keeping her company. 


Kuukey! 


The oriole’s head snapped up as she heard the sound. The chirp of her favorite frog. But also, the chime she had set in her PET years ago to be her message alert tone. She kept it on vibrate most of the time these days, but that was definitely how it sounded coming from her PET. Reaching down to her hip, she found her PET was missing. Patting herself down, she tried to look for it. Standing up she saw she wasn’t sitting on it again, fueling her confusion. Looking at the door she was next to, she did a double take when it displayed the number of her floor. Jessie knew she definitely had not climbed enough stairs to have reached it. 


Kuukey! 


Again went the chime, this time distinctly from behind the door. Jess entered the hallway and saw it was just as destroyed as the rest of the building. There were deep gouge marks in the walls and floors, the occasional flame burn, and the lights sparked with errant electricity. The door to her apartment was open, letting a mixed blue and red light of the rainy sky and fires of the city enter the hallway. Jess slowly approached her apartment, but didn’t hear any noise coming from inside besides the ever persistent noise of rain. Looking inside, her living room was relatively still intact. The couch was in one piece, the wall integrated display was intact, and even the carpet looked fine. The only thing that really stood out was the far wall that once held a floor to ceiling window to view the city was blown out, appearing like a portal from her life a few days earlier to the chaos that it was now. Another chirp from her PET drew her attention to it. It was placed on her coffee table in front of the couch. She bent over and picked it up, finding that while it was on and functional, she could not seem to unlock it. Her puzzlement was interrupted by the sound of her bedroom door sliding open with a SHUNK. 


“Who’s there?!” Jess called, dropping her PET onto the couch and raising her fists, “Show yourself!”


A small mote of familiar orange light hovered into the doorway, black ink spilled out of it as if it was leaking the stuff from an unseen source. Rather than splashing all over the floor it appeared to fill an invisible mold and took on a very familiar shape, looking like an inky orange and black duplicate of Jess. “No one here but a monster…” Metra said in a soft voice, looking down at the floor. 


Seeing it was Metra, Jess relaxed and flopped back onto her couch with a small bounce. “Then you won’t mind a brute taking up space on the couch.” Jess picked up her PET again. Looking at the screen of her device she noticed something, the text on it was gibberish symbols. Leaning back and staring up at the ceiling of her living room she let out a long sigh. “This is a dream, isn’t it.”


“Yes, it is. Made a bit more…real? Lucid? Yes, lucid is the word. Now that I am awake we can do that a bit more.”

“Then why is it like that outside?” Jess gestured to the hole in the wall and the downpour on a ruined Locksmouth. 


Metra walked over and sat down next to her. Their large backsides now squish against each other. “Jess, I know you are smart. You know why.”


“Dammit… I…fuck. So…about that talk then. How should we start?”


They both were silent as they let the statement hang in the air.


“Well, let’s start simple I guess,” Jess turned towards her inky form and looked her in the eyes, “I’m really sorry Metra. About all of this. Even this depressing dream. I’ve probably forced a lot of things on you these last few years and especially now.”


Metra gave a small smile and looked out the hole in the side of the room, “I would like to apologize for my actions as well, and it is not entirely your fault the dream is like this,” She turned back.


“What? How?”

“You are not the only one who is alone here.”


“...Oh. Oh Metra, I didn’t even consider-”

Metra put a hand up slowly to signal Jess to wait a moment and placed it back down onto the oriole’s as she continued. “Now I can actually remember enough to answer those many questions of yours. So please, let me do that now.” Jess nodded and let her continue. “While distant memories are a smear of information, I know that I was created by Empress Osoth. She is an inkling of immense power and the one currently leading the attack on your people. She created me as one of her elite, one who was tasked with infiltrating worlds and when the time was right use my abilities to wreak havoc and chaos before the invasion hit.”


“So Bartos was right…”

“Partially. My position gave me more freedom than many other elites. After some time I got arrogant and decided I did not nor should not take orders from Osoth. Not out of a sense of morality or justice, but because… I guess I just hated taking orders. So I rebelled. And was beaten down. Hard. My punishment was confinement for some amount of time, I do not remember how long. But prolonged time in our world of Canvas caused our mind to…blur? Blend? I do not know the right word. But I was kept in a prison for so long I do not remember when I was first placed in it.”


“Fuck, that… yeah I think isolated is an understatement there Metra.” 


 “What is important is after that time in my prison, Osoth decided to make use of me again and sent me to Earth. From the little I remember, I was tasked with finding and destroying a lot of key infrastructure. Communications, power, that weather control machine in the city, all were valid places to attack. But upon arriving here, that is when I met you.”

“Met is an interesting way to put it. But, wow.”

“Wow, indeed,” Metra and Jess adjusted themselves on the couch when they realized they had started leaning into each other as Metra told her story, “Sorry…As I was saying, when I met you I had time to regain myself and rethink some things. I believe it was my imprisonment that saved us both then, it left me worse off than Osoth thought. So rather than take you over and wait to attack, I hid and watched. Which is why I now am so very dearly sorry for controlling you like that. I promised myself shortly after we came together that I would never do that without permission again. But in the heat of the moment, I… fell back on bad habits.”

Metra began to say another apology when the oriole grabbed her and pulled her into a tight hug. “No need to say it. I admit, it was a horrible feeling when you did it,” Jess squeezed Metra a little tighter in their hug for a few seconds, “but I accept your apologies.” They held each other tight as a rumble of thunder echoed throughout the husks of the buildings outside. Letting go, Jess and Metra remained leaning against each other. They stared out into the city beyond watching the rain. Not that there was much to see with the intensity of the storm making visibility beyond the next few buildings non-existent, “My turn, I guess,” Jess took a long inhale and let it out as one quick exhale, “Fuck, I am terrible at these things.”


“You seem to be great at adding extra swear words to your conversations,” Metra said playfully.


Jess gave her a smirk, “Gee thanks,” she paused and stared at the ceiling for a second, “Okay, shit, where to start… So as you may be partially aware of, my social life is a bit of a fucking mess. My pack had been going great since we were in primary school together. A tight band of friends, one of which I fell in love with.”


“Ember, right?”

“Yup, Ember. She was perfect. A great leader, loved going out to parks and in nature with me, our parents loved letting us spend time with each other, we supported each other through fucking everything!” Metra saw tears beginning to form in Jess’ eyes as she went. “And then… and then she vanished. Moved to Anchorsway. Without a word. Without a video, message, letter, hell I would have taken a brick through my bedroom window, painted to tell me that she dumped me. I didn’t know what to do.”


Metra wrapped an arm around Jess and squeezed her shoulder reassuringly. “I bet you did all that you could, right?”


Jess squeezed her eyes shut letting the tears that were building up spill over her feathery cheeks as she nodded. “I begged the school, the police, even the local government to tell me what happened and they all told me her moving was entirely above board and everything was fine. But it wasn’t to me. It wasn’t.” Jess squeezed Metra’s hand tighter as she continued. “To make matters worse, my pack was… Ember was the pack alpha, and with her gone the others were without any sort of direction or cohesion.”


“That is not your fault Jess.”


“No… but looking back, they were all hoping I would step up, take Ember’s place. I’m not Ember…so my pack is,” She held her breath for a moment before letting go, “my pack is disbanded. Non-existent. We are as much a pack now as a group of random people walking the same way on the street.” Jess hung head in shame as she finally admitted it, Metra squeezed Jess’ hand a bit more. 

“So you blame yourself for being alone. I guess that makes two of us.” Metra said softly. “A lonely duo of our own creation.”


Jess couldn’t help but laugh a little hearing it, “We are alone together, that’s one way to say it.” Metra’s smile grew hearing Jess laugh. “So, when the invasion happened, well. I just fucked up one situation where failing to take charge cost me my closest friends. I didn’t want to make the same mistake and have it cost me even more.”


“A shame you ended up bonded with an inkling that hates taking orders.” Prompting another laugh from Jess. 


“I over-corrected, and didn’t treat you fairly. I am sor-” Metra this time was the one to pull the other into a hug. They held together as they composed themselves.


“So we work together, then.” Metra said with a smile.


“A lonely duo against the world! Or at least, Bartos. For now.” Jess smiled back. 


The two giggled, until each realized they hadn’t let go of their embrace. 


“Metra, you mentioned something else before.” 


“What is that?”


“Something about you being a wild card who liked my butt.” Jess said with a new kind of grin on her face.


“Yes. Indeed I did.”

Jess shifted her position so she was straddling Metra’s lap and giving her a face full of her bust. “Why don’t we find out how far you being a wild card extends.~” 


“We should.” Metra pulled Jess in as they kissed. For however long the rest of the dream lasted, neither of them noticed the rain outside.






________________








Jess awoke staring up at the wood and stone ceiling of a new room. Despite the room’s built in sound proofing, the pounding of rain was as noisy here as it was in her dream. The strong-force containment field that the facility used as its windows held back a lot, but the storm was getting intense outside. The room Jess found herself looked like a comfortable bedroom in a log cabin, but with the familiar touches that made it look as if it was grown rather than constructed. Probably designed to instill a feeling of living with nature rather than surviving it. As she tried to move, Jess felt a lance of pain shoot through her body. 
“Ow ow, yup dammit, feeling those fights catch up to me.” 


She felt a warm soothing sensation as black ink slide out and onto her arm as an orange mote appeared. “We did our best…well, I will admit, Not our best. We could have done substantially better.”

Jess pulled back the blanket and found she was stripped to her under stickers and emergency medical patches were applied at key spots on her body. “Woah.” Jess said softly as she saw her most obvious injury. Tracing from the right side of her neck down to her hips, her feathers had been burnt off revealing a striking Lichtenberg figure in her skin. 

“Not our best…” Metra repeated softly.


“Damn. At least we are okay, even if this does not feel great.” Jess traced the figure down feeling it cross over her heart, sending a bit of a chill down her spine at what could have happened. “By the way, what happened? When we got hit by lightning? It was weird.”
“That was a risky special ability of mine. I have an upper limit of energy I can hold on to. When we hit that limit, it flows back out rapidly and extremely efficiently. Borrowing from your electricity terms, I call it Short Circuit.”


“And that is a good thing?”

“Quite! Like that we can unleash a lot more energy at once however we want. We’d move faster, hit harder, react better, No holding back. They do not call me the Mistress of Energy Manipulation for nothing!” The mote danced about happily.


“Even after what we did in that dream, I’m not calling you Mistress, Metra.” Jess said with a smirk.


“Jess! You know I have not asked you to- ANYWAYS, the Short Circuit cannot be stopped by me however. It goes until I run basically dry. It also, well… Last night was an example. If the energy suprasses my limits, we will burn out.”


Jess scratched her head and thought about what Metra was saying. “So if Bartos throws lightning at us again, we’re screwed.”

“Not necessarily! I, we, uh. Last time you and I were at each other's throats as much as we were at Bartos’. I do not know how to describe it, but I feel like there is less resistance between us. Physically. So if you are willing, I think we can do it.”

“Hell yeah! Let’s give it a shot!” Jess tried to sit up fast to leap out of bed only to feel her head rush from the medical compounds still being administered through the patches, “Ah! Ow, yeah. Later. We will give it a shot later, hopefully.” Metra laughed a bit as the ink receded back.


Jess, more slowly this time, pulled herself out of bed. On a chair nearby was a new wild service marked thermal undersuit, her backpack, and an MRE. Her stomach growled angrily at her for her neglect of it for so long. Checking to make sure the heating unit inside the MRE was actually safe this time, she activated it and got dressed. Jess had to jump a little bit to slide her curvy figure into the suit. As she did, she noticed in front of her bed was another chair with a blanket balled up on it and Felix’s pack next to it. The floor in front of it sported many muddy boot prints. An echo of thunder rippled through the building as the faint memories of her getting picked up and rescued by Felix rushed back to her. 


“You alright, Jess?” Metra said as Jess steadied herself on a bed post.


“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay. Just still recovering a bit I guess.” 


The oriole picked up her warmed up MRE and started digging in. She went through it much faster than usual as she realized just how hungry she was. Having mealtime replaced by near-death experiences could really build up an appetite. After finishing up she looked over her belongings to see if anything else had gotten damaged or lost last night. This time, luckily, everything seemed to be intact. Pulling out her PET, Jess checked to see if she was still locked out of the network. The sad face of Dásos the dryad appeared on her screen to inform her of the same message as last time. No access. She placed it back in her back and made her way to the door. Opening it up she was greeted by the muttering and chatter of dozens of campers, hikers, families, and several rangers. The main room of the building maintained the aesthetic of an upscaled log cabin. Support beams, floors, furniture, it was all designed and molded to give the place a cozy feeling. Some experiments conducted out here could take months to complete and while the scientists probably could easily take a hover skiff back to the city, making their place of residence for the duration of their work comfortable was a high priority. Looking amongst the crowd she spotted the ecologists Luka and Silvester typing away at terminals as a screen built in the wall displayed meteorology data for both the region and the rest of the world. A ranger in Rescue Ranger armor stood nearby as a guard.


“Sorry miss, I know you want to contact your family like the others, but these terminals are for Wild Service usage only right now. We’ll let you know as soon as we can arrange something for you.” The ranger said flatly as Jess approached. The tone of the ranger made it obvious she had been saying that quite a bit as of late.


“Huh? Oh, I just wanted to see how those two were doing. Hey Luka! What’s going on?”


The panda turned to see Jess, giving her a worried smile. “It’s okay, uh, we can chat…” The ranger nodded and moved a bit to the side to let Jess approach. Silvester gave her a side eye and shuffled a little bit to be a step further away from her. 


“Hey Jess. You uh…you doing okay? You weren’t looking too hot when we got you in.” Luka said anxiously as he resumed his work at the terminal. 


“Feeling better, things still hurt a bit.” She peered over his shoulder and looked at the monitor, a swirling vortex of clouds appeared to be building... centered directly on the top of the mountain.


“Y-yeah, I bet… I’m sorry Jess.”


“For what?” Jess cocked her head a little in confusion.


“I didn't think you’d actually help us back there. The last goo monsters we saw that day took my friends and suddenly both you and Anna have them? I just…”


“Hey man, I get it. Water under the bridge.”


“Jess, it’s more than just that. I was the one in the back of the truck with Felix administering medicated pencils to you. That lightning strike did a lot of damage…you kept going into AFIB.  We even had to break out the station's Stabilizer Unit when you got here.” 


“Shit, Bartos went all out with that, huh.” Jess gave the still tender mark on her chest a rub. As she looked up Luka turned away from his terminal and placed a hand on her shoulder.


“And last night when you and Anna showed you had those ink things in you, I was angry. Angry at everything. So seeing you messed up like that from trying to protect us…” Luka looked Jess in the eye, “so I mean it now when I say it. I am glad to see you are alright.”


“I appreciate it Luka, now tell me, what’s going on?”


“Right, uh,” Luka turned back to his terminal and resumed entering commands as the system accessed and displayed more detailed weather patterns of the area, “You’ll have to ask the rangers in the observation room about what their grand plan is, but it seems like every nearby ranger outpost got hit in a similar fashion to ours. One or two didn’t fare as well. So being the ones familiar with this site’s systems, Silvester and I are looking into what is going on with the weather.”


“Dammit, I was kinda hoping it was just our unlucky group dealing with this. So how’s the weather?”


“You can cancel any flying plans you might have had, for one. Something is heavily altering the local air pressure and kicked up that storm into a category three hurricane, and climbing. The weirdest part? It’s localized. Rest of the planet’s weather is relatively normal. Besides the resulting effects of a massive storm getting kicked up out of what was supposed to be just a small light storm front.”


“This is definitely Bartos’ doing.”


“You keep saying that name like I have any idea who it is.”


“Did you see that red and blue inky wolverine last night? The one I was trying to beat down? Yeah, that’s Bartos. Given he shoots blades of air and can call down lightning, messing with the weather probably is within his wheelhouse.”


“Damn. Well that explains it, I guess. Weird aliens warping physics isn’t exactly covered by even the most advanced meteorology courses, you know. It doesn’t solve our immediate problem though. We’re basically locked down here. It is too dangerous to use the trucks or even walk back down the mountain with those winds.” Luka rubbed his temple and sighed. 


“We’ll figure something out, alright?” Jess said reassuringly as she gave him a pat on the back. 


“Well, I promised myself I’d trust you, so sure. Just don’t go getting yourself killed, Jess.” With that, Jess slid her hand down to give Luka a pat on the butt, making him yelp a little in surprise.


“I’ll try, so long as you promise to relax a little.” The near smack was enough to snap Luka out of the funk he was in, at least for now. He smiled a little and nodded.


Leaving the two ecologists to their work, Jess stretched her arms a bit and walked over to the rangers standing in front of the doors to the observation room. A skunk and a fox, both having their helmets opened up to show their faces despite the desire to appear as figures of authority. 


“Heya guys, name’s Jess. Mind letting me through? Felix and Ranger Gabby probably want to see me.”


The two look at each other and smiled. The fox ranger turned to her and nodded. “Felix mentioned you. Quite a bit. Come with me, I’m sure he’ll be happy to see you.”

The skunk scanned a keycard against a pad next to the door allowing the doors to open for Jess and the fox ranger to walk through. Jess was surprised seeing that the observation room was a flurry of organized activity that contrasted the more aimless worry of the common area. A few Wild Service maintenance personnel were hard at work repairing rescue ranger armor plates that had malfunctioned or were heavily damaged. Their owners sat at a nearby table comparing stories and information. What little Jess could overhear, they had gone up against a mix of those strange aliens, gray inked wild life, and some even gray inky citizens. Leaning back in a chair with them was Felix, in the middle of recounting the events of last night again when he saw Jess walk in.


“-and then after them weird razor toed monsters attacked, I got slammed to the ground by this brown bear…gray bear? It looked like a big ole brown bear but had that gray inklin’ stuff on it. A gray brown bea- Jessie!” Felix tipped himself too far back and fell backwards onto the ground nearly breaking the chair underneath him. “You’re alright!” Felix got out as he picked himself up off the ground and rushed over to his friend.


“Glad to see you are ACK-AlrightthereFelix!” Jess gasped out as she was lifted off her feet by Felix’s bear hug. “I uh, ah, don’t want to be rude but-” Felix released her in a moment causing her to land flat on her feet.


“Oh! Darn, r’ight, sorry there Jessie. Did I break anythin’?”


Jess gave his arm a playful punch trying not to punch one of the armored plates on it. “I think I’ll be just fine, provided you don’t crush me. Thanks for saving my butt back there Felix.”


“It’s a butt worth savin’!” Felix’s responses caused a few of the rangers nearby to chuckle given the bounce jess’ butt displayed when Felix dropped her. “What? She’s a gen-u-ine super hero! Got them fancy powers and everythin’.” Felix gave her a thumbs up and patted her butt. 


Another ranger sat up a bit in his seat, “So you’re one of the people with the alien super powers? Let’s see it! Felix kept going on about you getting coated in gel or something.” Several calls of agreement echoed from other rangers nearby. Jess looked about nervously for a moment.


“You up for it, Metra?” Jess muttered.


“I am ready when you are.”
Taking a step forward, the layer of rubbery ink emerged and coated her body. The majority of her body was jet black with a small swirl of orange around her heart. The sensation of being inked over this time surprised Jess for a moment. It felt warm like she was in a caring embrace, making her realize how the previous times she and Metra did this felt so much colder. If Jess’ blushing could be seen through her inky layer, she did not care. She blinked and realized she had largely missed the reactions of the rangers in the room, only picking up that it was a combination of shock and amazement. 


“So you can shoot fire and stuff when all inky like that?” One wolf ranger said, “Because if that is just fancy armor, I’ll take my nanoweave plates here any day.” The wolf said, tapping his armored gauntlet’s knuckles on his chestplate. 


“Oh the Mistress of Energy Manipulation can do more than just take hits! But, I don’t want to trash your clubhouse here to show ya what else she can do.” Jess said, placing her hands on her hips as she defended Metra’s prowess, causing the orange swirl on her chest to swell and swirl for a moment. 

“Unfortunately, all of us may see what Ms. Gabel can do before we get out of this mess,” Ranger Gabby chimed in as she walked into the room, accompanied by Ross and Anna, “good to see you are awake, it means I can stop having rangers escort your friends so they can check on you.”


Ross swayed forward and back on his feet with his hands behind his back trying not to make eye contact while Anna jumped forward and grabbed Jess a very well padded hug.

“MMph! G-glad you care,” Jess got out with her face buried in meerkat mammaries.  Anna blushed and took a step back as she released the oriole. 


“Practically had to pry them off you, Jess. I only let Felix stay as long as he did because, well, you try moving an up armored wombat like him without breaking something!” Gabby moved around to the table where several rangers were sitting, one got up from their seat to give it to her. “Thank you Kurt, now if folks are done gossiping and,” she looked down at the table and cleared a set of playing cards that were mid-game off to one side and set down a portable hologram emitter, “playing cards, I want a sitrep.” 


The wolf ranger stepped up next to her and plugged in a data chip into the holographic emitter to start displaying information as he talked. “So far Senior Ranger Santos, there are 32 citizens accounted for who had checked in at nearby ranger stations and emergency kiosks. In addition, 3 ranger pairs are still missing, but no emergency transponders were active.  That leaves us with a dozen rescue rangers, if we are counting Felix.”


“Anything new on what is going on with the weather? Or any news from Locksmouth?”

“Good news or bad news first?”


“Bad news.”

“Bad news, Locksmouth is basically locked down and from the limited information we have gathered, the Wild Service headquarters is destroyed and the communications network is malfunctioning. At least for more complex communications. Direct messages to and from nearby ranger outposts seem to still work, for what that is worth.”

Gabby rubbed her forehead with her good hand, “Go on.”

“Then there is the crazy storm circling. The biologists noted that this storm is definitely not normal. Something is altering local air pressure exponentially and kicking up a weather front that was supposed to be light showers miles from here to a hurricane right on top of us.”

Jess moved up to the table and looked at the weather pattern being displayed, “Good news, I think. I know what is causing that. This is Bartos’ handiwork.”


“Who?” The wolf said in confusion.


“You saw him when we were leaving the outpost, Gabby. Blue and red wolverine looking guy. Which uh, good time to bring up, that is also Ranger Maris.”

“Head Ranger Maris? Are you sure you didn’t suffer a concussion last night, miss?” The wolf said in disbelief. 


“Dammit…” Gabby said as she sat back in her chair a little, “I wasn’t sure when I spotted him, but that confirms it. So Maris has turned traitor?”

“No no! Well, I don’t think so anyways. Inklings can possess people by force, Bartos is one of the elites that got him. Maris’ hatred of me aside, he is too much of a by-the-books hardass to be attacking people.” 


“So Maris, I mean Bartos is the one behind our troubles.” 


“At least out here. Long story short, Bartos is just the one tasked with dealing with folks outside the city.”


Gabby stared at the map of the region on the holographic display for a couple of moments as everyone seemed anxious to hear what she had to say. “I’d love to know how you know all this, but I believe you. It lines up some facts perfectly in the worst way. Us getting here was all part of his plan.”


“How so?” The wolf ranger asked.


“Simple, Kurt. What is easier? Run around a massive forest picking off people, or scaring everyone with just enough force to get them to gather up in one spot?”


“That monster has been herding us!”


“Does mean there are more of us all here to fight back, that’s ah big gamble.” Felix commented.


“Bartos must be pretty sure of himself. Wouldn’t be surprised if he has accessing what little of the Wild Service Comm Net there is at the moment,” Gabby zooms out the region map having it highlight and display the status of the ranger outposts around the city, “If he knows what Maris knows, then all he needs to do is hit us here, normally protocol dictates we hold up here until assistant arrives from Locksmouth or a nearby city. The station is reinforced against natural disasters, but not a siege. If they break in, people will get hurt.”  


“So we ignore protocols!” Jess de-inked and joined the group gathered around the table, “Bartos is going to hit us hard, but he is the key to all this. He’s controlling the weather and those monsters, take him out and we’re golden.”


“Easily said, Ms. Gabel, and who gave you authority here?!” Kurt scoffed.


“Easy there, Kurt. She has a point. Bartos himself attacked my ranger station, despite not needing to. He’s got us on the backfoot and is cocky about it. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s going to be here when they attack next.” Gabby says standing up and putting a hand on the wolf’s shoulder. 


“I nearly got him last time! And I was, uh, let’s just say I’m a lot more focused now. So leave him to me.” Jess retorts at the wolf.


“Heya Jessie, don’t forget you’ll have us out there with ya,” Felix said, hefting Ross up onto his shoulder. 


“Yeah!” Ross gave her a thumbs up, “we’ll kick that Bartos guy’s butt!” Anna walked up beside the two of them and gave Jess a smile. 


“Right!” Jess turned and looked back at the rangers, “I do have one favor to ask, can I borrow a PHU? I promise to return it…”




________________






The storm outside had only gotten more intense outside as the day went on. Jess sat under the metal awning of the research facilities man building. The strong winds made her have to sit close to the heating unit she had going beside her. She had to wait as Metra slowly drew the thermal energy from it, as she promised not to break or hotwire it to crank out heat. It was already dark for most of the day, given the density of the cloud cover, but it appeared nearly pitch black when nighttime approached. Jess was idly stretching a bit as the soreness from the night before slowly faded. She heard the door open behind her and saw Felix trudge out and sit down next to her.


“How’s it going, big guy?”

“It’s, well, I’mma be honest Jessie, it isn’t great. You know I’m kinda an optimist, but whew, it is a rough one to say the least.”


“I feel ya…” Jess picked up a field communicator and clicked it on, “Hey Anna, any sign of our impending doom?”


“I, uh, what?”


“Sorry, Anna. How are you doing? You and Thya spot anything yet?” 


“…I’m doing okay. I’ll feel a lot better when this is over… No sign of them yet. But, I don’t have the best view down from here. I’ll uh, keep you posted!”


“Well guess we have more time…Hey, Felix. I never got to thank you for saving my ass back there. You’re definitely more deserving of being called a hero than me.”

“Aw shucks, Jessie. It was nothin’. I know you’d do the same for me any time,” he flexed his arm which surprisingly showed through to an extent through the armored suit he wore, “I’mma Power Ranger ‘til the end!”


“...Okay, how about this. I’ll agree to actually watch that ancient show you keep going on about and we’ll be even for you saving my life, deal?”


Felix laughed and playfully punched Jess’ shoulder. For the first time since they started hanging out, Jess didn’t nearly fall over from the punch. Felix noticed a patch of orange ink from the impact spot sinking back into his friend. “Heh, sure Jessie.”


It was at that moment that Jess noticed something that sent a shiver down her spine more than any wind chill. The rain had stopped and the wind had died down significantly. Looking up into the night sky she saw the reason as the clouds were lit up with the occasional lightning strike. They were in the eye of the storm. 


“Get ready everyone!” Jess called into her communicator, “We’re in the eye! If Bartos is going to attack, now is likely the time!” The flood lights of the research station snapped on and illuminated the area. Additional rangers and Ross filed out of the building and took up defensive positions with Felix joining them, each ranger activating their armor’s shields to form a defensive wall. There was a slam and hiss from the station’s doors as they sealed shut and an emergency hard-force barrier snapped to life in front of them. The roars and gurgles of the monstrous onslaught could soon be heard coming up the mountain. “You ready, boys?”


“You got it, Jess.” Ross said as the shifting reds of his inked body sped up a bit.


“It’s Morphin’ Time!” Felix cried out just before the rescue ranger helmet he wore folded shut and its visor glowed an intense bright light red. 


Soon after, numerous gangly legged monsters spilled over the lip of the mountain side with several of the one eyed brutes stomping their way forward behind them. “Remember your training folks, we can do this! Dásos be damned, let’s show them how the Rangers rumble!” The voice of Kurt piped in over their ranger’s helmet comms. Felix charged forward with the defensive line of rangers as they let out a battle cry. Their armored suits stomped into the muddy gravel of the mountain top as they moved, adding more momentum than the monsters they faced. As they slammed into the wave of monsters, the sharp claws of the long limbed monsters stood little chance against the energy shields the suits projected, sending many creatures tumbling back. Their defensive line was further tested as several gangly limbed creatures leapt up and over from behind the station in an attempted flank. 


“Behind you!” Jess called out and  took a step forward to intercept the monsters when Ross grabbed her arm.


“Jess, wait! Remember the plan, Bartos isn’t here yet…Let them handle this.” Ross said as he looked back at the fight. Reaching a hand out he clenched a fist. 


A pair of rangers turned to face the creatures a moment too late and were tackled to the ground. While they were caught up grappling the smaller gangly creatures, delivering repulsion blasts to keep the monsters from ripping their armor off, several of the larger creatures trudged forward and raised their heavy limbs to attack. At that moment, the brutes glowed a dark red and toppled over on their own feet, the increased friction causing them to lunge into the ground, rather than step forward. Felix and Kurt moved in to take advantage of this moment and shoulder checked the monsters on top of their fellow rangers. Felix grabbed his monster by the legs while it was still falling over from his tackle, pulling it back towards him as he slammed it down into the ground.  Despite being out-numbered, the rangers were holding their own.


Jess was practically bouncing on her feet as she watched, wanting to get in on the action. Her opportunity came earlier than they had planned. A ranger was sent flying her way after taking a direct hit from one of the brutish monster’s upward bludgeoning swings. The monster charged forward through the gap in the rangers, who were too preoccupied to stop it.  Jess rushed forward and caught the falling ranger a moment before he hit the concrete in front of the station. With a grunt she landed, very glad that her inked up body could absorb the force from the armored ranger. The antlers gave him away as Henry, the mechanically inclined ranger from the outpost. 


“Woah! Henry, are you alright?” 


“Y-yeah, that- LOOK OUT!” 


Jess looked up to see the brute of an alien was nearly on top of them. She swore and tackled Henry who was starting to get out of her arms to throw them aside. Looking back she saw the brute’s hammering strike went wide and smashed concrete, quickly followed by its feet slipping out from under it as it was highlighted by a light red glow. The oriole didn’t have time to apologize to her ranger friend as she let him slide to the ground and charged forward to deliver a kick to the side of the monster’s bulbous head. Without having to focus like she had before, her soccer kick was amplified with a burst of kinetic energy, sending the brute spinning and sliding across the ground like a hockey puck. The energy carried it off as it careened off the side of the cliff on one side of the mountain top. Looking back she saw Ross give her a thumbs up, his attention quickly moved back to the fight as he heard the clatter of claw on plating. 


Slowly but surely, the rangers were turning the tide when the lights of the station revealed a new force had joined the fray. A mix of possessed wildlife from wolves, to bears, to even moose and deer joined rushed up the hill to join the alien creatures. While the smaller wildlife did not pose much of a threat to the rangers, their numbers and the larger predatory animals complicated the ranger’s plans. Jess felt she was going to explode as she forced herself to stand back and watch. If she wasted all her energy before Bartos even showed up, then he’d be at an advantage and this entire plan would be for nothing. She looked on as a section of one ranger’s armor was smashed off by a possessed bear’s strike causing them to topple to the ground. Throwing up their repulsion shield, the ranger blocked the potentially lethal follow up strikes from the bear. The bear’s attack was further diverted as the now light red glowing ranger skid back as the impact of the strikes pushed them outside of the bear’s reach. The forms of Ranger Kurt and a female fox ranger barreled through several possessed deer as the the two rangers used their repulsion fields as clear a path forward and collided with the massive possessed bear. The rangers worked together landing heavy blows on the beast, beating it back. Similar moments played out again and again, with the rangers’ coordination and teamwork pulling themselves out of disaster. But the onslaught was starting to wear down on them. The combined strikes of a possessed moose caused one ranger’s repulsion shield to overheat and snap off as his gauntlets ejected the near red hot projection units off as a safety mechanism. The unit sizzled in the wet mud as the ranger dodged back out of the way of the moose’s attacks. Even Ross soon began to struggle to keep up. Being relatively new to his abilities, he and Suter swapping so quickly from maximizing and taking away the friction of so many creatures across the field was leaving him panting. Jess steadied him as he had to stop and catch his breath from the exertion.  


“Jess! G-get ready!” Anna’s voice came over the oriole’s communicator, “I’m seeing something coming closer that is messing with the EM spectrum! It’s Bartos! I, uh, think.”


“Finally!” Jess cracked her knuckles as she looked about the field, waiting for the cause of so many of her recent troubles to appear. What came up the path first, however, made her stomach drop. A small horde of gray possessed people. “Oh fuck.”


With a grunt, Kurt and the fox ranger heaved and slammed the possessed bear they were fighting into the concrete and metal wall of a side building of the research station. Turning to look, the wolf spotted the horde, “What the hell is that!? Are those the missing people?”


Felix sent a spindly armed monster tumbling back with a powerful haymaker as he looked over, “Yeah! Saw’em last night! Careful, those folks still m’ight be in there!”


The horde drew closer and joined the fray, causing the tide to shift against the rangers. The trained workers of the wild service had been trained to defend themselves against all sorts of animals, but fighting people they promised to protect made it like fighting with a hand tied behind their backs. Jess watched as the rangers tried to hold off the horde as it mixed with the remaining monsters and possessed wildlife. Blasts of repulsion fields and thundering strikes from the armor enhanced rangers were tuned and or pulled, not wanting to risk seriously injuring the possessed people. The opposition did not have such concerns. Slashes and pounding blows slammed against the rangers’ formation as they slowly backed up and were forced into a defensive ring around the entrance to the research station. Thunder rumbled overhead adding to the dire shift in momentum. Then, a set of louder stomping steps could be heard as a massive creature lumbered up the path. It was covered in chitinous armor with exposed sections of muscle that looked like clenched razor sharp teeth in the darkness of the night that connected to three fingered hammer-like forearms. Its insect-like head bore three eyes in a triangle formation and it looked determined to smash them apart. Hovering behind it was Jess’ long awaited target, the blue and red wolverine form of Bartos. 


“Felix! Clear a path!” Jess called as she readied her charge. Her wombat friend in the middle of the defensive ring just turned and nodded. Cranking his gauntlet’s output to max, he deactivated his repulsion field, only to send a wave of force blasting forward as he reactivated them, knocking down the collection of possessed creatures and people in front of him. The moment he did, Jess kicked herself forward and smashed her way through the crowd directly in front of Bartos’ trump card and the inkling elite himself.


“You again? You surprised me Jess!” Bartos said as he gave her a sinister grin, “I thought I made it obvious that you and your pathetic excuse for an elite were no match for me!”


“You wish! Like I’m losing to some flunky that didn’t get invited to the main show in Locksmouth!” 


“How arrogant, let me correct that!” Bartos swept his arm out, sending a blade of pressurized air slicing at her as the armored monster charged forward. Jess dug her legs into the ground for a moment before throwing herself forward to meet the monster’s assault head on. Just before they collided, Jess turned her body and braced her arm as she slammed her elbow hard against the monster’s torso. The creature let out a deep groan as its chest armor smoked from the thermal energy imparted into it, the air around the oriole smelled terrible as she splashed onto the muddy ground in front of it, her elbow still steaming from the hit. The feeling of overpressure caused her to instinctively jump and roll to one side as two more blades of air pressure cleaved through the earth where she was crouching. Before Jess could right herself, she felt like she was hit by a car and was launched several meters across the ground as the monster took advantage of her roll and landed a heavy blow squarely into her back. Jess slammed a hand into the ground and dug her hand in deep to stop herself from hitting the wall of the station. 


“You okay?” Metra’s voice echoed in Jess’ mind.


“That is definitely going to leave a bruise, hah. Yeah.” Jess stood up and sprinted back at the duo who were eyeing the encircled rangers. “Hey!” She said, sliding between the monster's legs, popping up to grab and deliver a kinetically amplified headbutt to Bartos, causing him to topple back onto the ground, “Eyes on me, asshole!” 


Bartos let out an anger filled grunt as he pushed himself up and out of the way of Jess’ follow up punch that left the previously wet dirt smoldering. Hearing the clicking hiss of Bartos’ monstrous guard, Jess threw up her arms to block its hammer-fisted blow. She nearly lost her balance from the force of the hit as she skidded back. “What the hell is that thing made of? I can’t juggle it and Bartos like this!” Jess muttered to herself as she leapt and dove about as she traded blows with the creature. Each clash made her feel more drained as she threw energy at it. 


“I have an idea~” Metra said as the thought was shared, making Jess smile and nod. Jess moved in close, barely dodging a wide swing from the monster that kicked up dirt and mud beside her. Hopping side to side, Jess threw haymakers left and right into the armored shell of the creature. Each hit sending waves of vibrational energy that while not as powerful on their own, were boosted further and further as they resonated. While not leaving any cracks or dents in the monster’s hide, it collapsed back onto the ground with a deep groan. Jess was panting hard as her form was nearly completely black from all the energy she expended. Bartos however, rose up with a laugh as lightning started to crackle more in the sky. 


“Admirable, Jess. I am almost impressed. But this farce of a fight has gone on long enough!” Bartos jeered.


“I’d say so! You have done nothing but hide behind your monsters!”

“I shouldn’t have to waste my time wi-”


“No wonder Metra was given a more important job than you! You are pathetic!” Thunder rumbled even louder overhead as more bolts of lightning crackled overhead and lit up the mountain top.


“I’m going to enjo-”

“Enjoy tasting the dirt when I slam you into it!”

“Shut up and die you insolent bitch!” Bartos roared as he thrust a hand out. At that moment, Jess’ vision whited out for a flash. Nearly falling to the ground, Jess took a heavy step forward to catch herself. The wet ground beneath her was bone dry and cracked from the heat of the lighting strike and the air smelled of ozone. She blinked as her other senses slowly returned. The oriole stood, now a bright yellowish as arcs of electricity crackled off of her. She could only tell Bartos was saying something from his shocked expression and moving lips as her ears still rung. 


“Metra?” She thought,


“Yes?”


“You ready?”


“Fuck yes!”


Jess tensed as her body felt like it was on fire. Her now bright yellow eyes snapped open, her body was glowing a white that practically thrummed with energy. The previous aches and pains since she woke up and the new ones she gained from the battle thus far melted away as she felt more awake than she had in days. Kicking herself forward she left a small crater in the rocky earth beneath her and time felt as if it slowed down slightly to the oriole. Her form looked like a streak of ball lightning as it rocketed forward across the mountain top, sending the bodies of monsters and possessed animals tumbling over as they tried and failed to intercept her. Jess felt several blades of pressure fly at her as she drew close to her wolverine shaped target. The previously devastating blasts felt like simple gusts of wind against her as her energized form absorbed the energy of the strikes entirely. Jess was a single lunge away from Bartos, “This is it!” She cried. The arcs of electricity still sparking off of her nearly hitting Bartos as she drew near. Desperate to evade Jess’ charge, Bartos shot himself upwards.


“Insolence!” the red and blue inkling exclaimed as he readied a burst of air pressure, aimed to put down the fool that was ruining his seemingly perfect plan. With a heavy slam, Jess catapulted herself upwards, directly under Bartos, who for a split second, had lost track of her rapid movements. Bartos’ exclamation of anger towards Jess was interrupted before he could get a word out as she grabbed at his ankle. Jess turned her body and used her upward momentum to pull on Bartos, making him flip around as he was used as a kind of axis of rotation. At that moment gravity started reasserting its authority over the two’s aerial acrobatics. Using what little momentum she had left, Jess threw Bartos down hard into the ground kicking up dirt and rock in a small crater around the impact site. Before Bartos could regain his senses from hitting the ground, Jess elbow slammed into him, deepening their shared impact crater. The oriole pulled herself up and straddled the blue and red wolverine to pin him down as she began to pummel him, each punch enhanced with kinetic force. Bartos’ attempts to throw up his hands to block or return a punch were smashed aside as Jess let out a loud yell, taking out her aggression, frustration, and pain on the inkling that had put her through hell over the past couple of days. With a final heavy double handed slam of a strike, Jess stopped, breathing heavily as her form slowly drained back to a near black ink. 


At the same time, she saw the red and blue ink seem to ooze off of Maris and slide away. Jess tried to reach forward for it, but she felt her arms give out under her from exhaustion. Her exhaustion from the fight caught up to her as the effects of Short Circuit passing hit, causing her to fall forward onto Maris. Her ears still rang from the lightning strike as she lay there trying to catch her breath. After a moment she felt Maris move a bit under her. Looking up she could see his eyes were partially open as he was saying something. Jess couldn’t hear his voice as her hearing slowly recovered, but she smiled and gave him a playful pat on the cheek. Head Ranger Anthony Maris looked up into the night sky, took a deep breath, and passed out.


Sitting there, Jess felt something wet drip onto her back. Slowly droplets of water drizzled down onto her with increasing frequency as the rain slowly resumed. Unlike the storm earlier that day, this rain fell at a lighter pace as the storm overhead slowly dissipated. She laughed to herself just before blurs of movement around her shocked her back to the situation before her fight with Bartos. She stood up and spun around, nearly falling over again from the exertion. Instead of the potential carnage she feared, she saw the remnants of the monsters under Bartos’ control were being pushed back by the rangers. Without their elite present, the monsters were uncoordinated and soon losing support as the possessed animals began to turn and flee. Moving forward, the rangers appeared to step over and past the possessed people who were unable to stand up or grab hold of the ranger’s armor, all glowing a light red Ross and Suter’s power. While still dampened, Jess’ hearing returned just enough to hear the victorious cheer of the rangers as they realized they were victorious. Jess looked on as the gray ink of many possessed people receded following their quick and controlled defeat at the hands of the rangers. The smell of battle were quickly being washed away by the rain. A particularly large ranger’s form pushed forward towards her. With the fight won and forces dispersing, the ranger’s helmet folded back open revealing Felix’s face.


“...azin’ out there, Jessie!” Jess heard Felix say as her hearing began to return to her. Looking past him, Jess saw Ross hugging a now uninked man and a woman coyote who had just sat up from the ground, his parents.


“We all were.” She got out as she took a step and felt her legs give out from under her. Felix quickly caught her as she passed out, a satisfied smile on her face. 


________________


 
Jess awoke staring up at the wood and concrete ceiling of a new room. A feeling of fear washed over her as she questioned whether what she just experienced was a dream. Her fear subsided as something stuck out to her, she couldn’t hear any rain. Getting up she felt her body protest a bit as it was still recovering. Looking at the clock beside the bed, the green numbers of its display read out ‘5:41 AM’. As she pulled herself out of bed, she noticed was still in the Wilds Service thermal suit they had given her. Stripping out of it she took a quick shower and walked out into the main room of the station in just her under stickers, holding her PET in her off hand. People were all over, the majority of which were huddled up with friends and loved ones on provided sleeping pads. Several rangers half stripped out of their armor lay asleep on couches and chairs, not wanting to take up proper sleeping spaces from the citizens they rescued. In the room one ranger stood guard in front of the doors to the observation room, Kurt the wolf. The look on his face was as stern as ever, but he gave Jess a nod and did not stop her as she walked past him into the observation room. Inside, Ranger Gabby sat in a cushioned chair, steaming cup of coffee in her good hand as she looked out the windows. 


Turning she saw it was Jess and looked back out the window. “Sleep well, Jess?”


“Pretty well. Just wanted to see how folks were doing.”


“Well, practically every ranger out in that fight is injured in one way or another. Even Kurt. I told him to get some sleep, but the best I could do was make him use a medicated pencil.”


“Sorry to hear, and I’m sorry I-” Jess was cut off as Gabby turned in her chair and gave her a tired but serious look.


“Don’t go soft on me now, Jess. They knew what they signed up for. It’s thanks to you that we only have injuries. Now shut up and sit down next to me, you’re going to make me miss my favorite part of this job.” She gestured to an empty chair next to her. As Jess sat down, she looked out the window in the direction Gabby was watching, just as she saw the sun crest over the horizon. Its light slowly spilling out across the forests and hills of the surrounding area. Jess turned and saw Gabby smiling contently. “People have asked me why I took this job. Sure it is more dangerous than most common jobs in the city, sure I have to wake up at odd hours, sure I have to deal with foolhardy kids getting themselves lost and hurt in the Wilds. But this,” Gabby took a deep sip from her coffee and set it down on the arm of her chair, “This is why I’m still doing it. Haven’t missed a visible sunrise since I took this job.” The two sat there in a comfortable silence as they watched the sun slowly fully emerge. 


“I can see why.” 


“I do also have some more good news for once, Jess. The communications system with the city has been reestablished. After the fight last night Henry and I did some digging. Somehow, Bartos used Maris’ authorization to activate a long forgotten safety protocol in the system. Hit everyone on our warning list with a ban from the network before basically cutting off access to the city. Because most folks who go out into the wilds outside of designated areas had at least one warning or two, well, it made it extremely easy to isolate a lot of people at the press of a button.” 


“Woah, what? Did you get through? How is Locksmouth?” Jess said in surprise.


“We were lucky Bartos kept Maris’ PET and access cards on him. Thanks to those, I got the network back online… and took you off the blacklist, you’re welcome.” Gabby sighed in frustration. “Someone is getting an earful from me for leaving such a dangerous protocol in the system.” Jess powered on her PET and rather than Dásos’ sad face on her screen, she had normal access again. A second before she could press anything, her messaging system exploded with notifications from numerous groups. “As for Locksmouth, the reports I am getting are a rollercoaster of a ride.” Gabby said as Jess read through a flurry of messages of people calling for help, asking where she is and if she is okay, and mentions of what is going on. “Looks like everything is safe now, the weather control system in the city was hijacked at one point followed by rampant attacks by those creatures as well as numerous special inkling possessed people, like Bartos with Maris.” As Jess scrolled, the feeds and comments of many shifted to a black and pink inked wolf girl and her friends fighting back against the invasion. “Luckily for us, it seems someone going by Echelon and her comrades fought back and won. Guess someone beat ya to the punch.” Jess continued looking over reports, before realizing what Gabby had said and that she was quiet for several minutes. Looking up she saw the owl staring at her with an eye cocked. “I’m joking Jess. You did your fair share of heroism out here. You also look like you are about to jump out your seat and leap out the window in your under stickers to race back there. Sit down for a bit longer, you’re hurt and have earned a rest.” 


Jess looked back down at her PET, seeing that her feathery arms were fluffed up, on the verge of deploying her wings for flight. She took a deep breath as her wings settled back down. “That obvious, huh?”


“I don’t need a psychology degree to see you are beating yourself up over this. Now either watch the sun with me, or get your fat bird butt back in bed.”


Jess smiled a bit, “Fine, you’ve got me.” 


Looking at the last of the chats she saw her friends and family were still asking about her. To save some time, she composed a message to send out to everyone. 


[ 2541/08/08 6:32 am


TrailZapper: Hey everyone.


She slowly typed out a near paragraph of what had transpired. The alien attacks outside the dome, meeting metra, saving the ecologists, defending the ranger outpost, and then the final fight at the research station. Emotion of the events passed through her as she teared up a little, putting it to words adding new significance to everything that had happened to her. Before she hit enter a thought crossed her mind. Her brother Miles might not be able to take all that. His last messages were worrying in both content and in that they stopped after a while. Plus, the rest of Locksmouth is already dealing with so much. Her telling them this would just add to it. She selected and deleted her unsent message.


Hey everyone. The communications network got shut off out here. I am glad to hear folks are okay. We had some close calls, but the Wild Service Rangers saved us. I’ll be back in the city real soon. ]


She sent the message and shut off her PET. Getting up she made her way back to her assigned bed, pulled over the covers to fall back to sleep. But sleep did not come.  Rolling over Jess checked the clock again, less than an hour had passed and her mind was filled with the thoughts and concerns that she had so successfully suppressed the past few days. The city might have been saved while she was away, but there was still work to be done.


“Metra?” Jess said softly, her beak buried between pillows.


“Yes?” The inkling’s voice echoed in her mind.


“What should I do?” Metra just giggled in response. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing nothing. I could tell you the smart thing would be to rest and wait. But let us be honest, neither of us wants to do that.”


Jess laughed softly, the noises muffled by the pillows as she pulled herself out of bed. She found that a brand new wild service backpack was placed next to the one she had packed for what was supposed to be a fun outing into the wilds with Felix. Looking closer now, her original was barely holding together with the emergency adhesive tape. It had been slashed, peppered with wooden splinters, splattered in mud, squished, and manhandled. She could probably make it fall apart by shaking it hard enough at this point. Jess smiled looking at it and whispered a word of thanks to it as she unpacked what she had left and transferred them to the new bag. Rather than leaving the original behind, she folded it up and packed it into one of the larger sections of the Wild Service bag. She donned the clothing she originally packed as her spares, kept safe in a water resistant durable pouch. The top felt a bit weird to wear after practically living in thermal suits for the past few days, but also nice for the same reasons. Her cargo style pants were pulled tight on her above average butt, causing to bounce a little as she left go of the waistband, much to her, and Metra’s, satisfaction.  Backpack hefted up she opened the door to see both Kurt and Gabby standing there. Gabby was still nursing a cup of coffee and Kurt leaning against a support pillar. Kurt let out a huff and handed over what appeared to be a candy bar to Gabby who smirked.


“Told ya she’d do it.” Gabby said with a small grin.

“Dammit.” Kurt huffed, shaking his head. The two looked back at the oriole.


“Uhhh, I-” Jess got out before Kurt held up a finger to his mouth to request she remained quiet. 
“You are quite the troublemaker, Jess,” Gabby said in a whisper, not wanting to wake up the rangers still asleep in the room, “We bet you’d need to be tied down to not hurry back to the city. Given all you have done for us here, we’ll just overlook this violation of protocol. On one condition. You better come visit once things calm down, many of the folks here want to thank you.” Gabby stepped aside to let Jess pass. “Remember to do like- heh, you be safe out there, Jess.”


Jess took a step forward and pulled Gabby into a hug, nearly making the owl spill her coffee in surprise.  Moving as quietly as she could she exited the research station. The winds of the mountain top whistled around her. They were steady, and much calmer than the hurricane that terrorized the mountain top the night before. The oriole walked near one of the ledges, deploying her wings she quickly checked her flight feathers and wing sections to make sure they were good for her next move. With a smile, Jess took a running leap over the edge. Wind whipped against the oriole as she took flight and started gliding her way back home, back to Locksmouth.


________________








Jess hefted a packing container up onto her couch as she heard the doorbell to her apartment ring. Turning to face it, her backside and tail feathers knocked over some things she had placed on her coffee table.
“Come in!” She called, giving the door authorization to open, as she bent over to pick things up. An older gecko man walked in, getting a full view of the oriole’s butt that looked like it was one bounce away from popping out of her shorts in her current position. 
 
“Hello Ms. Gabel. I heard you were almost finished packing up, so I felt I should swing by.” The head maintenance technician said taking off his hat and rubbing his scalp a little. 


“Mr. Wolly! Good to see you, it’s been days since I last saw you! Are you doing okay?” Jess said, placing a coffee mug she picked up into a box as she turned to face him. 


The gecko nodded as he put his hat back on, “Those monsters did a number on some of the units in this building. But we got lucky, some nearby buildings got hit much worse, looking like a tornado ripped through the hallways of some. Plenty to keep us busy.”

“I bet! Just this time you can’t blame the damage on me screwing with the electronics, ha!” Jess joked as she leaned on a box.


“You certainly kept my team’s work from getting dull, I’ll give you that much. Speaking of busy, a friend of a friend in the Wild Service mentioned you, and it seems like you got up to quite a bit outside the dome.”


Jess blushed, “Well… there was a lot going on that week, really it was the rangers who got us through it all,” Jess nervously said while she stared up at the texture of the ceiling. 


Mr. Wolly cleared his throat, “Who knows, was just a story he told. Seems there are lots of stories of heroics both big and small flying around. I am just glad folks are safe.” There was a prolonged silence as Jess tried to think on how to respond. Mr. Wolly did her a favor and changed the subject. “So where are you moving to? Certainly can’t be as exciting as Locksmouth.”


“Anchorsway, I am moving in with my brother Miles down there,” Jess felt like a twenty kilo weight had been lifted off her chest from the break in tension, “long story short, this whole incident has gotten to him quite a bit. Who knows, I might move back when things calm down.”


“Well Ms. Gabel, it has been a pleasure,” Mr. Wolly held out his hand which Jess grasped and gave a firm shake, “watch out for yourself down there.”

“Thanks, Mr. Wolly, who knows. Maybe some time beneath the waves will be relaxing.”
