ExFic 14: The Knight's Quest

The arrival of the Chimera Knight had not gone unnoticed. After all, it’s not everyday someone descends from the sky in a beetle’s armor. As Kumiho, Katrina, and Wearwolf led the white-haired soldier and his trio of insects to the town hall, a crowd began to gather. The townsfolk kept a respectful distance, yet there was a tension in the air, as if they were awaiting the moment he would spontaneously leap onto a conveniently-placed soapbox and rally the villagers to action. Not that there was anything, that they knew of, to be rallied against in particular, and his demeanor was far too serious for him to just work a crowd into a later just because of their expectations, but when the unexpected happens people expect something exciting to follow.
“Step aside! Make way!” Katrina barked at people as if they didn’t know someone important was walking in their general direction. “Chimera Knight coming through!”
“It would appear this Chimera Knight is a source of great interest,” Wearwolf noted, trotting alongside his partner.
“Figure that out yourself?” Katrina replied. “Move it or lose it, people!”
“I have noticed, just by the paraphernalia in your room, that the Chimera Knights are a subject of great respect and admiration,” Wearwolf continued. “Yet I know little about them, aside from the fact that they are great warriors.”
“That’s an understatement,” Katrina said. “They’re, like, superheroes! The Avengers, Justice League, and Jedi Knights, all rolled into one! They’re the greatest force of good the world has ever known!”
“I am unfamiliar with all those names,” Wearwolf replied.
“Trust me, when it comes to big names, the Chimera Knights are up there with the major religions and top celebrities,” Katrina said. “No other paramilitary organization in history has half the renown of these guys.”
“Glowing sentiments,” the Chimera Knight remarked. “A fan, I take it?”
“Hell, yeah!” Katrina exclaimed, bringing the trip to a dead halt by suddenly turning to face him. “I’ve got all the Chimera Knight-related merchandise! Comic books, action figures, video games, movies, novels, novelizations of the movies about the games based on the action figures from the comic book; you name it, I got it! I even have the Tenneka replica Holy Armor Dragon Girin signed by Aldion Marx himself!”
“That’s impossible,” the Chimera Knight said, his brow furrowing in disbelief. “Tenzeka hasn’t produced a line of Girin replicas in fifty years, only ten exist to this day, and only three of them are signed. How could someone from a town this small afford such a rare item?”
“Internet auction,” Katrina replied simply.
“That was you?” the Chimera Knight replied. “I had heard rumors that someone managed to buy and resell enough junk to buy it before the auction ended, but I never really believed it.”
“It’s true,” Kumiho said matter-of-factly, as if it were an embarrassing quirk. “I’ve seen it. She only had to spend five creds from her own pocket. She couldn’t keep it in her house, so she donated it to the local museum.”
“Technically, I still own it,” Katrina elaborated.
“Sadly, she’s never been able to replicate her success,” Kumiho went on. “her mother made her stop when she started losing more money that she made.”
“Well, yeah,” Katrina admitted. “But I’m unstoppable when it comes to Chiemra Knights! I’ll be a Chimera Knight myself one day!”
“You don’t say,” the Chimera Knight commented with a smirk. “I wouldn’t be surprised. You’ve definitely got the enthusiasm. How much further to the town hall?”
“We’re right in front of it,” Katrina said, pointing to a nearby building. It was one of the larger buildings in town, not to mention one of the oldest. But where one’s normal perception of a town hall might be a stately, white building, perhaps with a dome on top, this one was a mass of vines. Whatever the building originally looked like was hidden beneath what could very well have been interpreted as an incursion of vegetation. The vines were thick with age, providing the building with a nigh-impregnable shell of living armor. Even more plants and animals appeared to live among the vines, providing on-lookers with a sort of vertical garden. The slow onslaught had been fought back from the windows and doors, but on close inspection, it would appear that the only thing keeping the vines off them is the occasional application of a chainsaw.
With one look at the dense jungle hillside that passed for a building, the Chimera Knight was heard to remark, “Holy crap.”
“Yeah, that’s the general reaction we get from visitors,” Katrina replied.
“It’s kinda funny, really,” Kumiho added.
In stark contrast to the outside, the interior was as white and sterile as any government building would be expected to look like. The electric lights above hummed like insects as employees and citizens went about their business. Or, rather, dropped what they were doing to watch the Chimera Knight and his entourage stride past. The occasional toady popped up with offerings of coffee only to have it declined. It wasn’t long before the elder herself met up with them in the hallway.
Elder Ronsmith was, as would be expected, an old, lean woman with a kind face and white hair tied up in a bun. She wore a beige skirt suit and stood in a slightly bent posture with a large walking stick. The staff was just tall enough that the owl sitting on it was face to face with the Chimera Knight, or would be if it wasn’t fast asleep. One look at her wrinkled face told you that she had seen much in her life, further evidenced by the vine-like tattoos that had taken over her neck and encroached her face. She had seen enough not to be totally awestruck by the presence of a knight, thought not so as to be completely discourteous.
“Ah, you must be the Chimera Knight,” Elder Ronsmith said warmly. “We’ve been expecting you. I am Elder Geraldine Ronsmith. I hope your trip was a pleasant one.”
“I am Captain Rosecrucious Berg,” the Chimera Knight stated woodenly. “I need to speak with you most urgently. May we speak in your office?”
“Yes, of course,” Elder Ronsmith replied, leading the way into her office. “Come right in. You too, Katrina and Kumiho.”
“With all due respect, madam, I don’t think they need to hear this,” Captain Berg said.
“You might as well,” a familiar voice said from the office. “They’ll just listen through the door, anyway.”
“Mom?” Katrina inquired, following the knight into the office. Kumiho closed the door behind them. “What are you doing here?”
“I came here to inform Elder Ronsmith of Captain Berg’s arrival,” Katrina’s mother explained. She stood off in the corner next to a filing cabinet, on top of which her Mysticat sat grooming herself. Bootsy soon joined her and lay down to watch everyone else. Elder Ronsmith’s office had more than enough room for four people, a wolf, an owl, two cats, and three giant beetles.
“Couldn’t you have just phoned or something?” Katrina asked.
“I felt this was important enough to tell her in person,” Mother replied. “So I made an appointment three weeks ago. And if I wasn’t here, you wouldn’t have gotten in.”
“You knew about this three weeks ago?” Kumiho exclaimed. “I just found out this morning!”
“If you don’t mind, we have more important business to attend to,” Berg interrupted.
“Of course,” Mother said. “You have matter of worldly import, don’t you?”
Berg eyed Katrina’s mother warily before continuing, “As I was saying, I am here on a mission. For the past five years, I had been tracking a poacher by the name of Rossiter…”
“Did you say ‘Rossiter’?” Katrina asked, her eyes widening. Her expression of surprise was matched by Wearwolf and Ronsmith, while her Mother and Kumiho remained passively amused.
“You know of him?” Berg inquired cautiously, his momentary pause betraying more of his surprise than his poker face.
“You could say that,” Katrina replied. “He left a nasty scar on my shoulder during my Rite of Initiation a few months ago.”
“Do you know where he is now?” Berg asked. His voice was unusually measured. Not as demanding as one may expect from a hunter finally cornering his prey. After five years of asking such questions, perhaps you already knew the answer.
“We’ve been on the look out for him for a while now,” Elder Ronsmith answered. “Unfortunately, we’ve found nothing unusual in the immediate forest for quite some time. Not even the wild animals have seen him since.”
Berg nodded. “Rossiter is very good at covering his tracks. He can hunt for months without being detected, and can vanish just as easily. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was still in this area.”
“Oh, but where in such a forest can a man hide even from the animals?” Mother asked insincerely.
Berg gave her an irritated glare. “The Terra Engine.”
“The Terra Engine?” Mother exclaimed with exaggerated surprise. “How could someone possibly hide there?”
“He someone managed to obtain the entry codes that allow safe access into the bowels of the machine,” Berg explained, resolutely ignoring Katrina’s mother’s tone of voice. “These codes have been a closely-guarded secret of the Chimera Knight since our formation. We surmise that Rossiter is no mere poacher. His misdeeds are merely a cover for his role as a member of the Lamarckian Initiative.”
“Those terrorists?” Elder Ronsmith exclaimed. “My word. If they were to somehow gain control over the Terra Engines, they could very well destroy all life on Ares!”
“Why would someone wish to destroy all life?” Wearwolf inquired.
“The Lamarckians believe human progress upsets the balance of the universe,” Katrina explained. “Ares was a dead planet before we brought life back into it with the Terra Engines, thus disrupting the natural order. The only way to stop human progress is to wipe out humanity completely, and the best way to do that is by killing the planet. Fortunately, the valiant efforts of the hard-working Chimera Knights have kept the Lamarckian Initiative at bay for hundreds of years.”
“Wolf girl gets the gold star,” Berg said. “The Lamarckians fund their organization with both legitimate fronts and illegal activities. Thus, it’s only natural that some of them are poachers who hunt protected wildlife to sell on the black market. The Terra Engine in this case serves the dual purpose of hiding Rossiter’s goods and furthering the schemes of the Initiative. Rossiter may be a step or two ahead of me, but when I play catch-up I play it fast and play to win.”
“Well, what do you propose?” Elder Ronsmith asked.
“I plan to lead a small team of your best hunters, lawmen, soldiers, or whatever armed for your town can lend to the Dionysus Engine,” Berg explained. “I will use my own access codes to gain entry and corner Rossiter in the engine. Rossiter usually works alone, so if we can catch him by surprise we can apprehend him with little trouble.”
“Assuming he’s even in there,” Mother added. “Or ever was.”
“I’ll go,” Katrina offered.
“No, you’re not,” Kumiho countered. “I’m not letting you go.”
“I’ll be fine, I promise,” Katrina said assuredly.
“I’m afraid Kumiho’s got a point,” Mother said. “You can’t go to the Dionysus Engine with Berg’s party.”
“That’s right,” Elder Ronsmith agreed. “You’re far too inexperienced. This is a job for seasoned veterans. I’m afraid a fledgling like you would be too much of a liability.”
“But you need my help!” Katrina argued. “I’ve fought him before! I know his moves! You need all the help you can get!”
“The party will need to be as small as possible to avoid detection,” Berg said. “I’ll only need three, maybe four of your best fighters.”
“Mr. and Mrs. Chardonnay are former marines, so they’re a natural choice,” Elder Ronsmith said. “Mrs. Burgundy is our hunt master, and her assistant, Mr. Reisling, is a good candidate, too, though perhaps we should get a policeman or two instead…”
“But you can’t leave me out!” Katrina proclaimed. “I have to go!”
“Not with Berg, you’re not,” Mother said, her Mysticat nonchalantly climbing onto her shoulder. Bootsy jumped off the filing cabinet and scampered into Kumiho’s arms. “Come along girls, we’ve seen all we need to see.”
“You can’t be serious!” Katrina exclaimed as they left the office. Her mother closed the door behind them. “There’s no way I’m missing out on this! You can’t just say I’m not going! What can possibly stop me?”
“Good question,” Mother said, feigning pensiveness. “What indeed? Suffice it to say, you’re not going with Berg’s party, so it looks as if you’ve been left to your own devices.” She gave her daughter a mischievous smile before walking off. “Ta.”
“That’s not fair!” Katrina whined.
“I’m going with you,” Kumiho blurted out.
“What?” Katrina asked.
“I jumped the gun, sorry,” Kumiho said. “Go on.”
“Katrina stared quizzically at Kumiho a moment. She sighed and put her hands on her hips.
“You’ve been thinking up that answer this whole time, haven’t you?” she said.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Kumiho replied reluctantly.
“You already know what I’m about to do before I do, don’t you?” Katrina said.
“I don’t think you need to be psychic to figure out what you’re about to do,” Kumiho said. “It’s in your nature. There’s no changing that.”
“What are you two talking about?” Wearwolf asked.
Katrina knelt down and whispered into his ear, “We’re going to follow them. don’t let anybody find out, okay? It’s a secret.”
“The Elder expressly forbid it,” Wearwolf noted. “And your mother said you are not to go.”
“She said I wouldn’t go with Berg,” Katrina replied. “She didn’t say anything about going after him.”
“That logic is most sophomoric,” Wearwolf said. “This mission sounds dangerous, and I am certain every has your safety, as well as that of the party, in mind.”
“Hey, if you’re too scared, you’re free to stay behind,” Katrina said, standing up.
“It is your safety I fear, not my own,” Wearwolf said. “If you do not stay, I, like Kumiho, have no choice but to aid you.”
“It’s agreed, then?” Katrina asked.
“They party won’t leave for a while,” Kumiho said. “We’ll have plenty of time to prepare ourselves and convince Rion and Jaime that they can’t come.”
“That’s awful hypocritical of us,” Katrina replied gruffly. “But you’re right, this mission is no place for kids… They’re not going to follow us, are they?”
“Not today,” Kumiho said. “But we will have a surprise accomplice.”
“Who?” Katrina asked.
“If I told you, it’d ruin the surprise,” Kumiho replied cheekily.