Perilous Crossings

Posted on Mon Apr 22nd, 2024 @ 6:37pm by Connor Bruin & Ethan Hale & Aurora Summers & Kennedy Kelly

Mission: Episode 4: The Savage ConneXion
Location: Savage Land
Timeline: September 1, 1990

Trees and vines were no obstacle for the Lord of the Savage Land. Without anyone else to scout ahead, Ka-Zar did it himself and then reported back on which direction to head next. Ka-Zar moved back and forth between the team like a fish in water.

"Lost Lake," Ka-Zar said. "It's over a day's journey from here but if we press hard we may make it before nightfall." With that not-so-subtle encouragement to pick up the pace, Ka-Zar moved ahead.

For Connor's part, he attempted to mimic Ka-Zar's vine swings. His effort was pure. No matter how he imitated the form, he wasn't actually moving any faster. If anything, he struggled to keep up with the others.

"THIS IS NOT AN EFFICIENT MODE OF TRANSPORTATION," Connor complained and not for the first time.

“Then come down from the trees and join the rest of us Connor” Aurora offered a smile. “Last thing you want is to get yourself injured and unable to help Bliss.”

“Nothing about this is efficient.” Kennedy groaned from her position towards the back of the group. It was so miserably hot and the trek through the jungle didn’t help alleviate that discomfort. “This place sucks.” Forcing herself to march along, Kennedy groaned at Ka-Zar’s proposition to push themselves in order to make it to the lake by nightfall. “There has to be a better way than hiking. How did they take Bliss so quickly?”

Ka-Zar returned from scouting ahead and answered her question. "They had a head start. And Zaladane has acquired enhanced sorcerous powers, from where I cannot say. She can move about the Savage Land at will. Her armies must march, but she can mobilize a surprising number of warriors in this manner. It is how her Sun People have conquered every other tribe so quickly. Only the United Tribes huddled in the last free village of the Fall People stood against her. Your intervention interrupted their attack. I hope it is enough to turn the tide. Once other conquered villages hear of our victory, it may be enough."

"BUT WHAT ABOUT BLISS?" Connor had flipped down from a vine and joined Ka-Zar in a trot. His mind was singularly focused.

"Using beast mounts would alert enemy scouts. We must continue on foot for now." Ka-Zar's tone brooked no argument. "Once we get to the Lost Lake, other options will be available."

“We’ll get to Bliss, and we’ll get her out Connor” Aurora offered her friend a smile. “For now we do as Ka-Zar says, he knows this place he’s our best chance.”

Ethan had been flying but he'd been playing rearguard. "Ka-Zar. I know your fast, but I can scout further ahead, and stay close to the treeline so I go unnoticed , or at least make it harder for them to notice me."

Kennedy hadn’t been paying an enormous amount of attention to her teammates as they walked, her focus had been on placing one foot in front of the other while trying to ignore how sweaty she was. When Ethan finally spoke she noticed he had been flying during their travels.

“I thought no one could fly here? That the bad stuff would find us if you were flying?” There was a touch of worry in her voice as she asked. “Didn’t he say that Sauron owns the sky?”

"I haven't attracted his attention so far," Ethan said, "that's why I was asking. I'm a lot more effective when I can fly."

Before the sentence fully came out of his mouth, Ka-Zar shouted, "Get down!" He grabbed everyone nearby and slammed them into the jungle shrubs at their feet.

As he did so, a rush of wind passed by overhead. Carried on membranous wings were fiendish creatures that held the vague likeness of humans. No less than five of them seized Ethan from midair like birds of prey and made to carry him off. Elongated talons protruded from most of their joints, allowing them to skewer him in their aerial dogpile.

"Pterons!" Ka-Zar shouted. "Not Sauron. They are weaker. Take them down and we may yet keep our cover!"

The command shook Connor from his ponderous stupor. He sprang into action with an urgency that made up for lost time. Springboarding from one tree to another, Connor caught the cluster of Pterons in the high branches where Ethan did his best to fight off their ferocious assault. They all took turns, pecking and clawing at Ethan in attempts to break through his guard

"HAAAAAA!!!"

One of the Pterons turned to face Connor a split second before his boots crashed into his face. The harsh beak snapped at an awkward angle, sending it falling to the jungle floor below. Connor grabbed a second Pteron in passing and used his own momentum along with gravity itself to pull the winged monstrosity below him. He swung around its torso to get atop it and deliver hammer fist strikes all the way to the ground.

Ethan was regretting his decision of not heeding Ka-zar's warning. He was self-assured to the point of cockiness and one more had pressed his luck. Now it was coming back to bite him. Literally. Dealing with one he was pretty sure he could handle. Four of them at once was a different situation entirely.

Their attacks were coordinated and their beaks and claws were affecting him. But, they were not the only ones who
had claws. His weren't as long, but they were just as sharp and his had something theirs didn't a neurotoxin.

The Connor appeared and took out one of them, leaving him facing three. The odds were still against him, but they were slightly improved. There was one more thing that gave Eithan an edge, slight as it was. He'd trained for hours every day. He feinted an attack on the one closest to him and then did a mid-air somersault which brought him closer to the biggest one. He swiped at the creature's face trying to gouge out its eyes.

Kennedy didn’t exactly scream as the Pterons swooped down from the sky but she gasped so suddenly and sharply that a breathy shriek came out of her.
“I hate it here so much!” Kennedy exclaimed as her bearings returned to her and she drew her bow and arrow.

The tangled mess of enemies and friend made it hard for her to take an accurate shot. Kennedy opted for leathery wings over limbs, firing arrows that would rip and ruin until flight was taken away. It was a tedious and wasteful process as she missed shots and made small holes but it was the best she could offer without hurting Ethan.

Aurora focussed her sights on one of the Pterons. “Hey you, come on down here!” She focussed her telekinesis grabbing the winged creature and thrusting it down into the floor. She daren’t grab one that had hold of Ethan incase she injured him in the process.

Kennedy took advantage of Aurora’s telekinetic tug and fired a single lethal shot into the now isolated Pteron. It crumbled onto the jungle floor, a meal for scavengers later on.

They were working better as a united front rather than solo attackers. Kennedy noticed Connor was losing height while the Pterons were gaining it. She recalled their time on the mansion lawn and how she had been able to charge and subsequently shoot Connor into the sky. If he wanted to catch up to those Pterons that would work out nicely.

“Hey Connor!” Kennedy shouted out to the trees “Fastball Special?”

Connor grinned with eyes and mouth stretched wide. Nodding vigorously, he jumped before Kennedy on all fours.

Kennedy placed her hands on Connor and shut her eyes in order to better focus on him and her powers. Mentally visualizing Connor’s mass and density she let her power move across him until his whole body shimmered with golden light. Kennedy then dug her heels in and pushed Connor as hard as she could. The result was an exponential release of kinetic energy rather than an explosive discharge that sent Connor flying through the air.

"WAAAAAAAH HAAAAAAAAIIII!"

The thrilling scream turned into a war cry as Connor tumbled head over heels in a flying cannonball. Just before impact, he stretched out horizontally for a double heel kick that connected with the Pteron's torso. The explosive kinetic force that had sent him careening through the air transferred into the Pteron's chest cavity and caused it emplode on its itself. A shriek of agony pierced the sky as it fell away from Ethan.

"HELP," said Connor's device. He made a desperate hand-sign for "help" as he began to fall.

A human blur passed through on a vine. Ka-Zar had grabbed Connor's falling bulk out of the air, but their combined weight sent the vine spinning off in a new trajectory. It took a few kicks off a close cluster of tree trunks before Ka-Zar guided them to the ground.

"LET'S DO THAT AGAIN," Connor's device said.

"Are you injured, X-Men?" Ka-Za ignored Connor's silly suggestion and went straight to business. "We must move quickly!"

“I’m good” Aurora looked around at the others before looking back at Ka-Za. “Those Pterons are more humanoid than I was expecting, I could sense their minds, which means I can affect them as well.”

The camouflage setting on Ethan's uniform had ceased functioning. He no longer looked like an All American Boy with wings, he now looked more feral than ever. He was bleeding in a score of places. None of them in and of themselves was fatal. They were however painful and he'd lost a fair amount of blood.

He turned to face the lone Petron still challenging him. He was in no mood to make a smartass remark, or a pithy comment. He just wanted this over with. So, he took hold of the creature grappling with it, then flew straight into the ground, using the Petron as a shield.

Kennedy winced at Ethan’s brutal finishing move on the last Pteron, the crunch of its body a touch more unnerving than she had anticipated. It was Ka-Zar’s question and request that they move that brought her back into the present.

“I just want this to be over.” Kennedy groused as she began walking much faster than she had before. “And no more flying!”

More squawks from above. Tree branches began fluttering for as far as the eye could see. Wings began to descend.

"Run!" Ka-Zar shouted. There was no way to fight them all, not without aerial support themselves. "To the river!"

Against his own advice, Ka-Zar unwrapped threads from around his oaken arm and spun them around over his head. When the first Petron came in sight, Ka-Zar shouted at it. But he waited for the second. When more came into sight, Ka-Zar threw the weighted leather band like a bola. It landed true around the neck of the attacking Pteron, who then crashed into the entire formation and scattered them in the air.

Connor heard the sound of water and made his way to it. But he ricocheted off the trees and swung from branches in the manner he'd watched Ka-Zar. His pinball effect slowed the Pteron advance as much as his progress to the river.

Aurora followed as fast as her legs could go, there were too many for her to be able to stop in one go and she couldn’t risk burning down the forest either. Instead, she followed the sound of the water, the same way as Connor had headed in the canopy above.

Having, at least temporarily learned his lesson, Ethan picked himself off the now dead creature. He was bruised and battered. There was now a gash over his left eye dripping blood into his eye and down the side of his nose. The claw on the index finger of his left hand had broken off.

He followed close behind the others and contrary to his nature, was staying quiet.

Aurora looked towards Ethan. “We need to sort out your wounds, in this environment, they could easily get infected. I can try and cauterise the worst ones if you want me to. Just be warned, it’ll hurt.”

"Normally I'd say no, I heal pretty quickly. But I don't want to chance that here. Go ahead and do what you need to do."

Kennedy dared to look behind them one last time only to see the branches bob and sway with the pact of heavy-clawed feet landing on them. A single Pteron made its way to the jungle floor and shrieked in alarm as it watched them feeling the area.

“Must go faster!” Kennedy shouted as her brisk walk turned into a full-on run towards the water.

Aurora saw the Pteron, looking to Ethan. “As soon as we get a chance to stop, I can’t risk trying to heal you on the move I’ll just do more harm than good.” She turned her attention to the Pteron, she could feel its mind question was could she affect it? She turned to the others “Wait! Let me try something...” She paused to focus on trying. “You don’t see us...we’re not here...you lost us...”

Ethan nodded at her assessment and then had turned to launch himself at the Pteron. Her words stopped him and he lifted a prayer to heaven that her ploy would be successful.

It was no surprise that Ka-Zar got to the riverfront long before any of them. He was doubling back with a bundle of fronds in his arms that he'd torn away from the foliage.

"Take these!" Ka-Zar shouted as he began flinging a large frond to each of the X-Men. "Regard me!" While Ka-Zar had merely looked muddy at first, he snapped the remaining frond in his hands and let its black, tarry resign leak all over his chest. He dragged it through his underarms and crotch before finishing with his arms, shoulders, and face. "In that order!"

"WHY?" Connor flashed the hand sign that triggered the question from his speech-generating device but he was already complying.

"Because that!" Pointing toward the river, a large creature leaped out of the river and snatched a Pteron that had dared fly too close. Fins from more of them jutted up from the water. "Now rub!"

"IS THAT A LIOPLEURODON?" Connor gasped and then rubbed even more of the sticky resin all over himself.

Kennedy looked at the aquatic dinosaur in horror before she obediently snapped open her palm frond and let the black goo run down her chest. She smeared it across her body in almost the same order that Ka-Zar, a grimace across her face the whole time. The plant’s liquid smelled disgusting, it had a rotting vegetal sort of odor that made them stink like pond scum. “Why is this place so horrible?!” Kennedy whined and sobbed as she rubbed the foul resin across her face. “Do we swim now?”

This time Ethan listened to Ka-zar and did exactly as he'd been instructed. He had no intention of taking on this huge creature if he didn't have to.

Aurora joined the others, rubbing the resin over herself as Ka-Zar had instructed. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to sort Ethan’s wounds with this sticky residue everywhere! Who knows what adding fire to this would do!”

"Jump into the river and stay in the middle!" Ka-Zar shouted. "The beast's mates will flank the riverbanks and ignore midstream so long as you're covered in the sap!" He flung a rock at the head of an approaching Pteron before diving into the water. "Come!"

Connor didn't like the idea but he saw no other choice. Following suit, he scampered along a branch and hopped into the river.

Ethan's eyes cut between Aurora, Connor, and Ka-zar. "That's not a good idea for me. I can't swim. Well technically I can but getting my wings wet could drown me."

A deadfall jutted out into the river. Ka-Zar darted toward it, used the momentum to break it free, and then swung his body around to let the river's current do the rest. He kicked and paddled it to midstream where it would be safe. "Come, X-Men! Take hold and stay low!"

Ethan stayed where he was, unwilling to chance drowning

Aurora did as Ka-Zar said, turning she motioned to Ethan. “Ethan...come on! We won’t let you drown I promise!”

Kennedy dove into the water with a level of comfort seen in people who grew up swimming. She had spent every summer of her youth on the beaches of Nantucket Island, ocean waves and undertow were much harder to navigate than the river’s waters. She took her place next to Ka-Zar and Connor in the water, offering to help pull the driftwood to their destination.

“Ethan, you’re going to have to trust us!” Kennedy called back to the shore and the rustling in the trees continued to approach. “Otherwise you’re going to get us all killed.”

"Go on without me," he almost said, but forced himself not to There were few things he feared but the water and drowning were at the top of that very short list.

Closing his eyes, he wadded into the water till it was above his calves. "How are you going to do this? How are you going to support me, to keep me from going under and not be killed yourself?"

Kennedy brought the driftwood closer to Ethan. “Lay across it on your stomach, so your back is farthest away from the water.” Her voice softened but her tone remained firm as took him gently by the arm and escorted him into deeper waters. “Hug it with both arms and I’m going to hold one side and Connor is going to hold the other.”

Kennedy looked over at Connor, a quick request for him to assist her. Teamwork is what would save all their lives.

“So the log is going to keep you afloat and your back out of the water and Connor and I are going to keep you from capsizing. We’re both strong swimmers. We can do this if we all stick together. You wouldn’t let one of us get hurt and we’re going to do the same for you, okay?”

Ethan nodded and he opened his eyes. "Okay. and you're right. I wouldn't let any of you get hurt either. Thanks, and sorry for acting like a scared kindergartener.”

“It’s alright. I threw up in the hedge maze during the Purifier attack on the school.” Kennedy attempted to laugh off the tension and fear. She held the log still for Ethan as he settled on it, keeping it as motionless as possible to help him feel comfortable. “I think we all freak out sometimes, that’s why we need each other.”

Etan blew out a long breath and settled on the log. "This isn't too bad so far," he managed.

"Good," Ka-Zar said. "The river forks a few times but all of them eventually reach Lost Lake. Depending on whether the Pterons return in force, or worse, with Sauron and the other Mutates, then should be able to get there tomorrow."

The log ride was rather uneventful. Ever hour or so, Ka-Zar pitched the log sideways to the riverbank for them to reapply the sticky weed sap where he saw patches of it growing. The natural predators of the river largely ignored them thanks to his guidance, though at one point he'd had to get the better of a crocodile who lacked respect for the Lord of the Savage Land.

Just before the river fed into the Lost Lake, a whistle came up from Ka-Zar. He swam to shore and bid the others to follow while the current let the log drift into the lake. Once they came to shore, he said, "Wait and see what happens."

The log lazily drifted out of the river's current and let itself be carried to an open patch of water in the lake. While it didn't exactly stop, it pitched sideways and lost much of its momentum. Ka-Zar ducked low and flung a rock out which splashed just behind it.

At the sound, a pack of Pterons leapt from trees and soared straight for the log, tearing it to pieces in search of the ones who had escaped them earlier.

"We need to lay low for the night," Ka-Zar said. "Pterons hunt best by night. Let them tire and by first light, we will make our move to the center island. Our next leg begins there."

Connor had noted the sun had not risen very high that day, so broad daylight was unlikely to give them away. If anything, it would hamper any natural night vision those creatures might have. "O-K," he said aloud without the need for his signing device.

Pulling some netting aside from the ground, Ka-Zar revealed a small bunker. It would be close quarters for the night, but if they were quiet, it would be safe and dry.

Aurora, for one, was relieved to finally be getting somewhere where she could rest. She’d promised to cauterise the worst of Ethan’s wounds to try and ward off infection.

It was no Ritz-Carlton, heck it was no Motel 6 but after the past few days of hiking through a hazardous and exhausting jungle, the bunker actually looked pretty good. Kennedy dropped her bow and quiver into a heap by the entrance to the bunker, the first time she had taken them off in days before laying down on the closest bed roll. She had come to the Savage Land to busy her brain and exhaust her body in order to ward off the consuming grief of her father’s death. The Savage Land had provided that desired relief and Kennedy found herself asleep in a matter of minutes.

Ethan was relieved that he and his teammates had survived. He was concerned however that it was taking him so long to heal. Normally he would have been back at 100% by now, but he wasn't even close to that. He could push himself, he thought, to deal with a new foe, but he didn't know how effective he'd be.

He slumped down in the corner of the bunker and nodded off.