A City in the Jungle

Kuracongo was a nice place. Outside of the capital, it was thick with jungle, farming villages dotted throughout and connected by dirt roads. Becky ached to leave these roads and clamber into the trees where she belonged, but investigation came first. Most small rural communities couldn’t afford to pay even the WIld Hunt’s relatively low fees, but the self-proclaimed queen of the country had taken interest in a local problem. Apparently the local monkeys had grown strangely aggressive and were unstoppable to the locals. Even those who still had weapons left over from the civil wars that had torn this country apart found themselves unable to stop the hordes of ravenous primates from carrying away their crops.

Becky walked into the village where the attacks were worst and examined it from the edges. In structure it was much like most of the others here. A few sturdy huts in the center, along with a church of clay bricks. Normally, the fields would surround the houses, brimming with corn, manioc, or yams. Instead, they were barren. The earth was clawed up, as rough as if it had just been tilled. The fences were all torn completely to bits, shattered and in places even burnt-looking. Becky saw scraps of them even on the roofs of the houses. A little further into town and she was being noticed by people. They tried their best not to stare, but it was difficult not to. Becky stood out, the whitest person any of them had ever seen and surrounded by a flowing cloud of messy red hair. She had expected her tendency to go barefoot at least to be normal here, but everybody was wearing sneakers.

Most of the people were going about their business, cleaning up debris and bringing in fresh wood to rebuild with. Women kept their children far from the woods, men clutching handguns and rifles at the borders. Only one approached her, an older man with a half-grey beard like a stormcloud on his chin. He gestured her over to the church, where a few tables were laid out. Most were covered in wood and construction tools, but upon one lay something entirely different. It was like a clump of her own hair, although further inspection revealed the mangled body of a monkey. Its body had practically been shredded by bullets, everything below the ribcage mulched. It would normally be overkill, but Becky could immediately see why it had taken so many shots, and just why the Wild Hunt had been contacted. What were left of its hind legs were mostly metallic, with more metallic components lying broken in its opened chest cavity. Becky mindlessly poked at a few. She got the general gist. Somebody roboted the monkeys, the monkeys were now a problem. The person who roboted them had to go.

Becky went back out past the demolished fields, right up to the jungle’s edge. The monkeys would have come from this direction and returned the same way. This was where she would start. The people of the village watched with confusion as she shed and carefully folded her clothes, then gasped when she lunged with impossible power right into the branches of the trees, moving through them with more speed and grace than the primates she hunted. What sort of beast had their queen sent to hunt in these woods?

Becky swung and jumped and bounded until she came very suddenly to a stop, black strands of hair entangling her in a web far above the forest floor. She crept now, more an octopus or spider than an ape in her motions. She needed traces, and she couldn’t find them barrelling around. Tentacles of hair reached out and brought her whatever they came across. Broken branches, uneaten mangos, and a big tuber with a bite out of it. That was the one. A yam could have only come from a local farm. The only thing that made her take pause was the bite taken from it. It was too big for a monkey. There was something bigger out here. Her hairs felt them already.

Becky whipped herself upwards, looking down to see a chimpanzee blasting through the space she had occupied moments before. It sputtered along on smokey jets, puttering out to let it wheel about and face her. Its face was a snarling beak of metal, lips and jaws replaced with wickedly sharp steel, and targeting lights blinked by its eyes, embedded deep in the bone of its skull. Becky lunged down, foot-first, but the chimp’s brain had apparently been upgraded as much as its body. Its rockets boosted it past her and its sharp nails left three red lines on her flank. Becky heard more rockets going off in the woods around her. She emoted nothing, simply planting her feet and extending her dark hair outwards. A hair at 7 o’clock was tweaked and she wheeled away, letting a second chimp pass her. A moment later, she ducked a third going right for her head. Her heart was pounding now, her senses at their peak.

She could hear them turning around. They were faster than her, so running wasn’t an option, but they didn’t seem to turn very well, and they definitely couldn’t stop on a dime. It was good. It meant that the first was already coming back and the other two were still turning around. She had the timing down now. The chimp once again passed her by, this time well out of scratching range. Just beyond her, it slammed into a rope of her hair, tied firmly to a tree. Its momentum was converted into a painful tumble across the jungle floor until it unceremoniously hit a tree. The other two surprised her, too close together to be dodged. She lashed out with her hair, entangling one before the other slammed into her. They tumbled together, Becky holding the chimp’s snapping metal jaws at bay. Its grip tightened on her wrists, driving filthy nails into her skin. It was stronger than any chimp should be, stronger than her, slowly pushing that deadly beak closer to her face. Becky struggled to stop their roll, pushing herself to her feet with her hair. Swinging with both hands, she slammed the ape into the nearest tree. When it didn’t let go, she did it harder, breaking both the chimp and the tree. She winced and stepped out of the way of the toppling tree, leaving the animal’s body to be buried.

The last chimp was still in her hair, well and truly stuck. Being stronger didn’t matter if you were too firmly bound to leverage that strength. She held it in front of her and examined it. It responded to her attempts at monkey-speak with a metallic scream. She pouted and sat back until a new idea came to mind. A strand of hair retrieved the yam it had found before, along with a few mangos. The chimp’s eyes lit up at both options, following them as Becky passed them back and forth. Becky crouched in the red dirt and scribbled a doodle of the village, surrounded by the jungle. She pointed at the village, then herself.

This is where I came from.

She pointed at the monkey and made a face of confusion.

Where did you come from?

It took a few more tries, but eventually two apes reached an understanding. Still with a deadly loop of hair around his neck, the chimpanzee led Becky deeper into the woods, occasionally allowed a bite of yam or mango. She studied her new travel companion as they went. The chimp had been altered more than was obvious on the surface. It was walking more upright than its kind normally could, and she was pretty sure its legs were longer too. Whoever was altering these primates, they were evidently trying to uplift them into something closer to humanity. A backwards goal, in Becky’s mind.

As they traveled, Becky knew they were already noticed. She saw monkeys in the trees eying them, more and more as they went on. The land had begun to slope downwards, and she could see the edges of something entirely new. There was a village here, but not for humans. Tiny houses lined the tree branches, little more than walls and roofs for singular nests. They were pieced together from scraps of wood and metal, seemingly taken from the villages they had raided. Becky recognized rubber from tires and other bits of cars thrown in. The same went for the larger buildings that dotted the ground. There were chimp sized ones and then ones even bigger than that. Becky didn’t have to guess at their inhabitants. They were right there.

Guarding the frontiers of this village was a squad of gorillas, arms laden with weaponry. Some had glowing axes, others exotic guns. She could recognize they were females, but they were all as big as a silverback. Despite their size and weaponry, they looked between one another nervously at her approach, not leaping to the attack like she expected. She set down her captive and let him loose, giving him a gentle push towards the apes. He hesitated a moment before he took off, rushing to huddle among their ranks. Hoots and chirps were exchanged. The beginnings of a new language? She wished she could understand. There seemed to be a debate going on, interrupted when the earth shuddered. The primates all fell to silence and cowered, looking back into the depths of the village. Becky could see where they were looking only now. The base of a silver building, totally unlike everything else here. It was more like a skyscraper, polished and purposeful. She couldn’t see the whole thing from here from its tip passing the trees, but it seemed to be shaped like an egg, or what Alexis called a football and Eve did not. Something was coming from its depths.

The apes parted to let it through, but she didn’t need that to see what was coming. It was the silverback, and he truly was silver. Metallic wires and tubes poured from his eye sockets, folding back over his spine. Armor plating was embedded in his chest, defending his organs, and his shaved body showed the glimmering tips of unknown machines all over his body. While the females were as big as silverbacks, the silverback bordered on elephantine, warped to sizes impossible for his kind. A slack jaw dripped green slime. He was held in deference, but she could tell he wasn’t in charge. Just an enforcer… to the being beside him.

It was hard to tell just what the creature might have looked like before, as now it was nearly entirely mechanical. An elongated greenish brain sat under a transparent case on top of a discoid body, supported by six spindly legs. Two more limbs emerged from underneath, tipped with multiple thin metal filaments that Becky figured acted as fingers. Without eyes, it seemed to watch her. You did this, she thought, but she made no move. She just stood, watching the little creature for its next move. It quickly made it, demanding action with a chirp. The silverback crouched and pushed the apes in front of it forth. Becky looked over everything coming after and took the only reasonable action. She ran, a wave of apes behind her with the silverback keeping order in back. Glancing back, she saw the leader turn away, seemingly satisfied as it walked back to the building it came from.

Becky spread her hair out behind her to feel out approaching enemies. The first was a chimp, jetting along at top speed. She couldn’t outrun such a creature, so she dropped to all fours as it closed in, letting it blast overhead as she scrabbled along for a few seconds before pushing herself back onto her feet. But she had lost momentum, she realized, and the slower apes were catching up. More chimps forced her to dodge, and each time, the gorillas closed in. An axe grew so close she could see the orange glow it gave off in the corner of her eye, and she sprang off the ground just in time. The blade cut the air below her and she grabbed onto a tree branch, using her momentum to swing forwards. She moved through the trees now, alternating between running and swinging at will.

The gorillas couldn’t follow her here. They were too big, too heavy. Unfortunately for her, it seemed that this was already on their minds. The red monkeys were waiting, and she was swarmed immediately. An initial barrage of plasma burned away hair and scorched flesh before they lunged in, scratching and biting. She returned in kind, attacking with hair, limbs, and teeth alike, painting the leaves red with their blood and hers in equal measure. She couldn’t tolerate the attack, but she couldn’t fall back to the ground, either. But eventually, she had no choice. The trees suddenly ended, and she found herself going nowhere. She splashed down in shallow water and it was immediately red. The monkeys released her in shock and she took advantage to entangle them in her hair and shove them underwater. She had a moment to take in what had just happened.

The trees had ended because she had been chased right up to the edge of a lake. Sandy shores stretched out in each direction, curving back so that she stood at the bottom of a U-shaped beach. Cornered. Gorillas were already emerging from the trees, cutting off her escape routes. She looked back into the lake’s water. Most primates weren’t good swimmers, she knew. But she didn’t know if their enhancements would let them follow her into the water, where it would be even harder to fight back. And if the monkeys shot plasma at her while she couldn’t defend, she would be boiled. She had to make a stand here. Despite this determination, she dredged up the drowning monkeys and threw them back to their compatriots. She just couldn’t bring herself to slaughter them, even if they were about to slaughter her. Maybe they deserved to have their little civilization out here, even if they seemed to be under the tyranny of that strange disk creature.

The moment she thought of it, she noticed. The apes were staying back, waiting. They seemed as frightened as her, even as they took in their injured comrades. Becky could tell why. The earth shook just a tiny bit. He was coming. The silverback emerged from the trees, stalking along at his own pace. His knuckles dug deep into the sand, leaving great furrows. So he was going to finish her off. Becky looked down at her body. She was covered in injuries, but all were shallow. Her blood loss was minimal. She could keep going.

The silverback rose up on his hind legs and roared, slamming his chest with his hands. The noise made the earth shake more than his steps did, and even the lake sloshed at the pressure. Becky responded with her own scream, pitiful in response. Beating her chest made little sound, so she flared out her hair, making herself look bigger. She wasn’t sure just how this beast watched her without eyes, but she could feel his gaze, sizing her up. He was unimpressed, she could tell immediately.

His first attack came, a casual open-hand strike from below. She sidestepped easily and half the beach was thrown into the air, raining down over the lake. He threw out a few more of these lazy attacks, all easily dodged. When a big right passed overhead, Becky took her chance and lunged. She jumped, used the metal plating on his chest to launch herself higher. She threw a punch with all her strength at his neck. It did not yield. The muscles were so solid that her punch bounced off with barely a reaction. She grabbed hold of his lip with one hand and yanked herself so that her knee struck at the exact center of his throat, just below the chin. That time, she felt softness. His roar of anger was a reward. But her handhold was too precarious to strike again. She felt some of the slime he was drooling touch her fingers, and it caused them to prickle and burn. She let go, only to be met by his own knee. She was bashed in midair, sent rolling back towards the edge of the water. It had begun. He was serious now.

The silverback attacked with sweeping arms and slams, forcing her to constantly jump and dodge. His full force was sending furrows through the lake and making the whole beach bounce. She could still read him enough to avoid everything, but he was fresh, while she was already tired and bleeding. No, even if she was at her max, this would be a dangerous opponent. She couldn’t underestimate the alpha like that. He took a step back after another missed smash and a hideous gurgling came from his throat. She realized what was coming and moved to the side just as he puked up his noxious green slime all over the beach. Heat rolled off it in waves and as it spread, it stayed, sitting atop the sand. She was cornered more than ever, and when he threw his next punch there was nowhere to go.

Becky’s hair all came together, layer after layer instantly forming a shield before her. It wasn’t enough. The blow smashed her off her feet and sent her skipping across the water. She cocooned herself in hair to tolerate it, blinding herself to the world in her dizzying roll. It only ended when she slammed into something hard, forcing her to a painful stop. Her wrappings came undone and she sprawled in the sand, spread eagle. No, not sand. She was on top of a tree, knocked down when she hit it. She tilted her head up to see that she was on the opposite side of the lake. The silverback was already coming, pushing through the water. She rolled over and tried to stand, but her legs were shaking. It felt like her whole torso was one big bruise. She couldn’t run, not now. Her legs wouldn’t carry her. Was it time to summon him? No, she couldn’t! If she ran out of mana here, she would be helpless!

The silverback was nearly upon her, in water shallow enough he could stand. He loomed overhead, posture relaxed. Becky held herself as upright as she could get and roared at him again, another pitiful defiant scream. He seemed to react with amusement, stopping to tilt his head before he threw a final blow. She jumped straight up and made it. He was slow to withdraw his fist, expecting a punch that shattered her once and for all. Instead, she landed atop his fist and began scrambling upwards. He took a moment to realize what she was doing, letting her reach his elbow before he waved his arm in an attempt to shake her off. Hair, arms, and legs all worked together as she moved like a spider the rest of the way. She whipped around to his back just as a massive palm slapped where she was a moment before. She couldn’t waste a moment here.

Carefully, steadily, she made her way higher. His body was shaped as such that he couldn’t reach her where she sat, but he would eventually realize that and get smarter. All she could do was try to finish this before then. Just a little higher, right at the base of his short neck, and she was ready. Her hair reached out like two grasping arms and wrapped tight, right at that soft spot she had found before. Like a python, she tightened her grip.

The silverback gagged and clawed at his neck. His fingers were too thick to get under the hairs, too clumsy to pry them away. None of his strength could come to bear against her. He stumbled, reeled. Becky thought she had him, until he tipped over backwards. She barely had a moment to gulp in a breath before she hit the water. His weight fell upon her, but she could endure that. She had to. If she released him, she would never get a second chance. If she wasn’t hurting him, he wouldn’t be so desperate! The water was red from both of them, her cuts opening again and her hair beginning to cut into his throat. Her lungs burned, but she knew his must feel the same.

Frantic thrashing gave way to subdued thrashing, then weak motions, and finally to nothing. The gorilla fell still atop her. Becky wanted to wait another moment to make certain, but she couldn’t bear the agony in her chest. She kicked free, wiggling out to the surface. The air reinvigorated her, bringing life back into her body. She was able to focus again, seeing clearly the massive body before her. Lying in a pool of slowly-spreading red, the silverback was done for. Across the lakes, the primates watched apprehensively. Becky responded to their awe. She grabbed the silverback and clambered back atop him. Standing on his chest, she screamed and beat her chest. They responded, hooting and shrieking back. She was just strong enough to swim back, collapsing into the unaltered arm of one gorilla. Becky found herself lifted gently, carried as the primates returned to their village.

Becky didn’t feel like a captive. She was pretty sure she wasn’t. She was just a friend now. They approached the great building in force, and she could see it clearer now. It really was totally smooth, impossibly so by human standards. Up close, she could see how it was strangely embedded in the ground. She didn’t really know what that meant. It didn’t seem to matter, really. The disk creature had seen them coming and was retreating, ducking plasma shots until it slipped into a tiny slot on the side of the structure, which swiftly closed up behind it. As the primates surrounded it, new slots opened, exposing barrels wrapped in coils of glowing wire. Becky knew what that meant, and she knew any hesitation would lead to the destruction of the people who were now her friends. Now she had no choice.

Her hair flared upwards and she opened the gates between worlds. A massive skull emerged from her hair, growing ever greater in scale as it went. A smooth skull was only broken up by a single jagged purple horn, a mouth splitting it nearly in half just below. As it kept emerging on an endless neck, another head emerged, nearly identical but with two horns instead of one tipping its nose. The darkness spread as a torso emerged, ignoring green bolts cast from the great building before it. A hind limb emerged and allowed Gilgamesh to stand tall, looming nearly as tall as the building was. A dark shell covered its back, covered in the same jagged horns decorating its face. Shots that landed there didn’t even leave marks, and the beast seemed almost uninterested in what lay before it. A few shots caught its softer necks and it grunted. Gilgamesh and the structure faced off.

Both of Gil’s heads launched forwards, sinking their horns into the silvery skin of the building. The earth shook as the beast shuffled up close and sunk in its claws. Its full weight was pushing into its foe, and the beastly tower began to crumple and shift backwards. This was no playful push. Becky squirmed out of the arms of her handler and waved, running back. Gilgamesh was just getting started. The monkeys ran with her as silver tore and dirt filled the air. More and more shots pelted the draconic abomination, but Gilgamesh was not deterred. The egg tilted, base tearing from the soil. The entire leaning structure toppled, and Gil fell upon it. The whole earth bounced and even at this distance they couldn’t escape the wave of dirt thrown up over the entire village. When it cleared, Gilgamesh was still atop the fallen structure, crushed underneath. Gilgamesh was not satisfied with this damage and kept ripping and rending, shredding layers out of the silver football. Becky decided to keep moving. Gil was playing now, tossing ruined machinery every direction and tugging it apart between its heads. It was less than a minute before her mana was drained and the beast vanished. Her hair became red once more and she slumped over. She was exhausted, but that was fine. She won.

With some direction, a small group of apes took Becky back to the village, the rest staying to scavenge for parts and rebuild the village. She picked up her clothes at the edge of the village and then led a gorilla up to the village elder. She got them to shake hands, then waved her goodbyes. They would work this out from here, she was sure. She was going home.

“Home.” She said as she entered the door.

“Well that wasn’t very long. You handle the monkeys?” Eve looked up from the desk, seeing a filthy, wet, and bloody Becky. Not too surprising. She always came back like that.

“Yep. Friends now.” Becky responded.

“Friends? Eh, as long as they stop causing trouble you can have your pet monkeys or whatever. Take a shower and rest up, you look like you need it.” Eve waved her fighter upstairs. Becky obeyed without another word. Back in the jungle, she had nearly died, but it was still here that she felt out of place. She skipped the shower Eve suggested and went to her room, where she had piled up clothes and blankets into a nest. She wiggled within and curled up. She thought about the apes she had left behind and wondered what they would do with their new freedom. She had done good today, she thought. Something worth the money she earned at this job, for once. Not hunting a monster, meeting a new people. She went to sleep, and dreamed of a city in the jungle.