TFW2005
Hisstank
Thundercats
TokuNation
Toyark
Home
News
G.I. Joe Movie
G.I. Joe Classified
G.I. Joe Vintage
Compatible Military Toys
G.I. Joe Comics
G.I. Joe Conventions
All News Categories
Photo Shoots
Database
G.I. Joe Database Index
G.I. Joe Classified
G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary
G.I. Joe Resolute
G.I. Joe Movie
G.I. Joe Pursuit of Cobra
G.I. Joe Renegades
G.I. Joe 30th Anniversary
G.I. Joe Retaliation
G.I. Joe Basic
G.I. Joe 50th Anniversary
G.I. Joe Con & Club
G.I. Joe FSS
Forum
Recent Posts Page
Characters
Snake Eyes
Cobra Commander
Destro
Baroness
Storm Shadow
Roadblock
Companies
Fun Pub
IDW
DeNA
Sideshow
Gentle Giant
Boss Fight
Ori Toy
Marauder
HissTank.com
>
HissTank.com - G.I. Joe
Integration
User Name
Remember Me?
Password
Rules
Register
Community
Today's Posts
Search
Community Links
Social Groups
Pictures & Albums
Members List
Search Forums
Show Threads
Show Posts
Advanced Search
Go to Page...
Thread
:
What If . . .
View Single Post
03-11-2021, 02:22 PM
LowTech
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Canada
Posts: 1,018
They advanced cautiously, following Lady Jaye's directions, the darkness turning to grey as dawn slowly approached. A crash of falling rocks echoed off the hills, and they picked up the pace, even Barbecue being able to spot the blood trail in the dawning light. The trail ran straight into a pile of rocks at the face of a cliff.
"Must have a cave in there, and somehow collapsed the entrance," said Doc, staring around.
"And we left our tools at the camp site," muttered Fred.
Barbecue pulled a small flask from his belt and drained it. He grunted as his heart rate sped up and adrenaline hit his body. He adjusted his wide leather belt, spat on his hands, seized a rock and pulled it from the pile. He turned, eyed the way the rocks rested on each other, noting the similar problems to rescuing victims under collapsed buildings. He reached and pulled a loose boulder from the top of the pile. Muscles flexed and strained as he bore the weight and tossed it behind him. The others stepped back to give him more space, and Doc frowned as his examined Barbecue's flushed expression and the veins and tendons standing out on his body.
"Where did you get that?" he asked, pointing at the flask.
"Oh, well, if you know who to ask . . . " said Barbecue, slinging a boulder the size of a small elephant.
"Copperhead Road?" asked Scarlet.
Barbecue tossed another boulder and tensed.
"It's the only place normal folks can get the potions they need."
"You know what's in those black market potions?" said Doc with a shudder. "They just take, um, less effective ingredients, with less consistent results that last shorter durations. They're more addictive too."
"What ingredients?" asked Scarlet.
"They harvest certain bodily fluids."
"Well," grunted Barbecue, wiping his hands on his trousers, "I drink milk and eat honey, and both of those are fluids from creatures."
With a grunt, he shifted a final boulder, clearing a narrow path. Lady Jaye shook her head and lit her lantern.
"Those come from cows and queen bees. That," she said, pointing to the empty potion bottle, "came from a bull or a stallion."
Scarlet flashed a quick wink and nudged Barbecue with her elbow as she stepped past him and tossed a flaming torch down the tunnel. She raised her crossbow to her shoulder and advanced deliberately, scanning the floor and wall, the tip of the bolt tracking the movement of her eyes. Nearing the
torch, she motioned to Barbecue, who tossed a second torch down the rough corridor, it's floor and wall streaked with blood smears, and with clumps of flesh and hair caught on jagged outcrops. He stooped to pick up the first. The narrow tunnel opened to the left. Barbecue tossed the torch around the corner as Scarlett rounded it, crouched, sweeping with her crossbow. It was a tiny, empty chamber. They carried on up the tunnel, which seemed to widen slightly. It seemed to open into a larger chamber up ahead.
Scarlett and stepped to either side of the entrance, steadied their breathing, and swung their weapons through the opening. They stepped into a narrow chamber and fanned out as Barbecue moved up the middle of the narrow room. A corroded spiked flail, a pair of damaged crates and some broken jars lay in a corner by another entrance, this one covered by a filthy curtain. Fred and Scarlett again prepared their bows. Barbecue took a breath, reached out, and yanked down the curtain. The creature - some unnatural cross of a wolf and a bear* - crouched on the other side, straddling the mule, blood soaking its muzzle and chest. It roared, the pitch changing as an arrow and bolt caught it in the belly. Barbecue leapt through the entrance and swung his axe horizontally at the creature. It caught the axe and spun with shocking speed, flinging Barbecue into a wall. He caught a glimpse of Fred thrusting his short sword at the creature's exposed flank, and Scarlett swirling on her knees, razor-sharp blades slashing at the creature's hamstrings. Barbecue staggered to his feet as the creature swiped at Fred. He swung his axe and felt it bite at the creature's shoulder. He wrenched at it, cursing the blade caught in the creature's flesh. The creature tried to kick at him, and its legs buckled. It collapsed on Barbecue, pinning him, its arms trying to claw at him. Scarlett moved in a blur and drove her dagger through an eye, the hilt catching on the skull. The creature spasmed, and lay still. Barbecue jerked and twisted clear of the beast, driving himself backwards on his hands and heels, clutching at the dagger on his belt. He gasped for air, looking at the creature. A wave of nausea swept over him and he fell to his knees, retching. Fred planted a foot on the creatures head and pulled the axe free, passing it to Barbecue and clapping him on the shoulder.
They looked around the room. It was dominated by several long tables, each with a bear or wolf held down by metal and leather restraints. Each appeared to have died while being cut apart, and blackened, hardened gore crusted the floor. A bench was covered with scalpels, saws, beakers and a leather-bound book. An entrance opened to another small chamber with small cells, each sealed with metal bars. Another emaciated wolf lay curled in one cell, whimpering, one paw surgically replaced with a bear's paw.
"Vivisection," gasped Doc, shaking his head. "What cruel mind came up with this?"
Fred loosed an arrow into the wolf, putting it out of its misery. He lit a flask of lamp oil and threw it in the cell. He lit another flask and waved at everyone to clear the room as he smashed it over one of the surgical benches.
Standing outside in the morning light, Barbecue sipped from a water skin, rinsed his mouth, and spat. The sound of another flask of oil smashing echoed from the cavern. Fred walked out and Barbecue caught his eye.
"Have we earned the five hundred gold?"
Fred stared back into the scorched cavern and spat in a fruitless effort to clear the taste of burned hair and meat from his mouth. He looked at his short sword, noting the hair and blood on the blade, and stooped to wipe on the dew damp grass.
"Yes," he said, nodding. "I'll attest to that. The guild will establish accounts in your name in its enterprise of lending gold against collateral."
Barbecue blinked.
"I'd rather you just give me the gold," he said.
The others nodded, narrow eyes studying Fred.
"Hmm. Very well. But you are missing an opportunity." He caught the look in the suspicious eyes and paused. He glanced up at the sun and the pointed in the direction of the city. "I assume you'll be going back to the camp for the horse and gear. I'll leave you here. I will arrange for the delivery of the gold to the Lady's estate. You can divide it accordingly. Though should you ever change your minds about the enterprises money-lending venture . . . no, well."
He clicked his heels, bowed his head to Lady Jaye, and set off. The others watched him leave in silence for a few minutes before turning and walking back to the campsite.
"Why would someone make these . . . things?" asked Doc.
"Do you suppose someone is trying to make an army?" suggested Scarlett.
Barbecue pulled out his empty potion flask and stared at it.
"The farms . . ." he said. "The slaughtered animals were all bulls and stallions, weren't they? Maybe this is tied to selling potions?"
"Maybe you're not as dumb as you look," muttered Scarlet.
***
Postscript
Lady Jaye walked the halls of her estate, mulling over her long conversation with Scarlett. It had been illuminating, and troubling. Matters were even more fraught than she had suspected. But those were matters to consider in the morning. In the meantime, her insatiable curiosity demanded answers. How had those experiments been performed, and what had been learned? She stepped into her wine cellar and quietly closed the door behind her. Muttering a phrase and pushing on a torch bracket revealed a crack in the wall that she pushed through. She knelt in the small opening, her toes on the edge of lead symbols embedded in the stoned floor. She opened a heavy wooden trapdoor and descended a spiral staircase, emerging in a forgotten temple to a long-lost deity. One wall was lined with shelves laden with jars of willow bark, animals organs suspended in liquid, mold spores, and insect larvae. Bookcases and scroll cases lined another, close to a writing desk covered in jars of brightly coloured inks and an assortment of quills. Several heavily scarred worktables dominated the space where a congregation once gathered. A delicate silver and platinum circlet sat on one, surrounded by various thin lenses ground from rubies, emeralds, and diamonds. She cleared a space at a table, pulled the leather-bound book from a satchel and laid it in a copper-lined box. She put on linen gloves and, after examining the binding, carefully thumbed through the pages. Settling the book back open at the beginning, she swung a large lens over one, and peered through it at the magnified writings and symbols, marvelling as the words changed shape on the page trying to conceal their meaning. Energy crackled around her hands and she imposed her will on the book . . .
__
*
https://www.yojoe.com/action/93/monstroviper.shtml
___
Author's note: I'm not sure about this one. I have some kind of clash of personalities and their associated troops in mind (think Musketeers vs Cardinal's Guards, with a dash of the underworld and an as-yet-undefined but significant role for Crystal Ball) with Jaye and the Baroness as rival puppet-masters, and Springfield/City of Springs as a Lankhmar-like setting. It hasn't quite jelled yet.
LowTech
View Public Profile
Send a private message to LowTech
Find More Posts by LowTech
Sponsors
Recent Threads
Delta-17 o-ring line
G.I. Joe: Wrath of Cobra New Video Game
Best of the 80s Custom Project
G.I. Joe Classified Series Official Thread 2024!
Boss Fight Studio Action Figure Line
Black Out
G.I.Joe Classified Picture thread
Duke #5 (Spoilers)
Top 5 LEAST liked characters or figures from GI Joe
Operation Mosterforce - New 1/12 Line of Figures from...
Super7 x G.I. Joe REACTION and O-RING!
I WANT TO ARGUE! Part XXI, About the 2024 HasLab
Definitive Best 2001 Figure Poll
Do you remember your first?
Super7 Ultimates (Could-be the Official) Thread
Pick the next VAMP-level vehicle
Cobra Desert Razorback RC
Classified Snake Eyes 2096
Marauder Task Force Super Thread
Contest?
My Collection Showcase For The Month
Classified Zartan v2
Quick & easy (& lazy) ME Gung Ho.
Fans Hobby Skyhawk images
Dominic Santini
Recent Off Topic Threads
Hisstank Late Night thread...
What song are you listening to?
G.I. Joe March Madness 2024 Round 3 Dreadnok...
G.I. Joe March Madness 2024 Championship Battle Armor...
Joy Toy's Dark Source Line
Recent B/S/T Threads
looking for weapons and assorted pieces 25th Ann -50...
80s GI Joe Vehicles & Aircraft
Hellion42's BST list
Wtb 82-83 file cards or?.
Closet Cleanout...
Vintage Tomahawk for sale, 99% complete
FOR SALE: "Master of Disguise" Zartan, Pulse...
MagicWazard's B/S/T thread