Chapter 30

As soon as Jeremy hit the water, he stopped any attempt to be graceful – his suit might have dampened the cold and been waterproof, but the sudden loss of gravity stopped him all the same. Reorienting himself, he looked around for a hole in the lake. He found that an entire section of the wall was missing, resulting in an underwater cave at the edge of the lake. Going back up to the surface to take another breath, he dived down and made for the cave.

Thankfully, Chrysalis had been right: The swim was only a few meters. He poked his helmet out of the other end of the lake, taking in the surroundings. There were a lot of side caves, and he fruitlessly switched to infrared – there were no changelings here. He heard a rustling behind him, and he whipped around to find nothing. Shrugging, he turned back to find that in the short time he was facing away, the entire space in front of him had filled with changelings. Jeremy groaned – this again?

He pointed his weapon forward, only to find it snatched away by a changeling who was close to him, and promptly broken in half. Grinning, the changeling tossed the two pieces off to the side, and faced him. “Jeremy! Run, we can fix the weapon!” cried Luna, evidently watching.

“No! Don’t run, it shows weakness!” Chrysalis countered, and the two quickly started a vicious argument. This irritated Jeremy, and he still had to deal with the oncoming horde – should he attack or not? Sensing that he was indecisive, the crowd pressed in and began biting every inch of him they could reach – none of this actually punctured the thick suit, but it still pinched enough to hurt.

Soon, he was being slowly crushed under an ever-increasing mass of changelings – evidently they had all teamed up just to kill him.

“What art thou – get out of there!” Luna ordered.

“He can’t, you idiot!” Chrysalis retorted, and they resumed their argument.

As Jeremy’s vision turned black, he reflected on his life choices. Maybe he should have ran. Maybe he shouldn’t have given up the weapon so easily. And as he was about to slip away from consciousness from the sheer weight that was pressing down upon his chest cavity and exposed joints, the feeling of mild irritation gave way to a burning, white-hot rage. He hadn’t fought his way through Chrysalis’ entire hive, Celestia and Nightmare Moon, and come back from the dead to be beaten by such a simple tactic as being crushed to death. Everywhere he looked, changelings were laughing and hissing, and he could still hear Luna and Chrysalis frantically arguing in the background. Jeremy decided he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Shut. UP!” he yelled, and in a burst of rage he threw the pile of changelings off of him. There was a shocked silence on the other end of the receiver, and Jeremy didn’t care anymore. No longer worrying about peace, nonviolent confrontation or any of that, Jeremy grabbed the nearest changeling – he remembered this one’s laughing face specifically – and slammed it down onto the stone floor, with enough force to cause the surrounding loose stones to quiver. Something glowed behind him, but he didn’t care, instead solely focusing on ripping the changelings apart. The next one was quickly dispatched by a ruthless foot stomp to the skull, and the others began to run away, screeching. Immediately, Jeremy gave chase.

After a few short seconds of catching up to and ruthlessly pummeling each changeling he came across, Jeremy’s radio alerted him that Luna and Chrysalis were about to speak to him. “Jeremy. We fixed the device, it is lying right where thou left it. Get back here and retrieve thy weapon,” Luna demanded.

“In a moment,” Jeremy muttered as he ripped a changeling off of him and threw it on the ground, stomping on it with his metal boot in a psychotic fury.

“Not just a moment! NOW!” Luna yelled, nearly blowing out the speakers with her royal Canterlot voice. Startled, Jeremy stopped what he was doing and immediately ran back to the spot he had left his weapon, noting that it certainly looked fixed.

“What’s the hurry, anyway?” Jeremy asked as he picked it up.

“I didn’t want you doing something you’d regret,” Luna answered. Jeremy stared for a moment as it hit him that he had snapped. And done exactly what he wasn’t supposed to.

“Ah…” Jeremy started, searching for the right words to finish that sentence. Fortunately, Luna seemed to understand the sentiment.

Chrysalis spoke up, somewhat shocked but trying to sound amused. “The ones you – ahem – ‘caught up to’ aren’t too bad. Gravely injured, but they’ll regenerate – the purple-shelled ones do that.”

Jeremy made a disparaged sound. “I can’t see anything except green down here, but sure. Why the hell do purple ones specifically regenerate?” Chrysalis grumbled, but sounded glad to change the subject.

“Each of the most popular hives goes after love in different manners,” she explained. “I won’t go into what each does, as we really just lure in prospective food differently – suffice it to say that the purple ones try to infiltrate militaries and win them over with their enhanced combat skills, then use the love they get to make themselves stronger and thus attract more military interest. In fact, I believe some countries let them.” Jeremy noted this, half-interested.

He went back to spraying the changelings, and paid extra attention to the ones he had already taken care of, noting with distaste that they had already mostly healed by the time he had gotten back to them. Part of him still wanted to break them – to make sure they would never get up and hurt him again. But he had to keep that under control. Keep moving. Keep spraying.

He was interrupted by a changeling with a seemingly colorless shell beckoning to him, and actually speaking his language. “Over here!” it cried. Jeremy cautiously walked over to find more of the same color of changeling, all huddled inside a crevasse. The one who had spoken addressed him again. “We… um… would like to ally with you. You know, to get rid of the competition.” Jeremy considered the offer – a changeling posse of his own would actually be rather helpful. Unfortunately, he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between friend and foe on the battlefield.

He turned on his outside microphone, wincing at the audible click it made. “Sounds nice, but I don’t trust anyone here on principle – plus, I’m just going to get you all eventually with this,” he noted, pointing to the spray gun in his hand. The changelings recoiled in fear.

“No! I don’t wanna die!” another female one pleaded. Jeremy stopped, and lowered the weapon in surprise.

“What, you think this kills you?” he asked. The changeling curiously nodded.

Jeremy chuckled. “We said we weren’t killing, remember?” he reminded her. “This gun just puts you to sleep for a few days – no harmful effects whatsoever.” There was a brief bit of confused-sounding hissing among the members of the oddly colored hive.

“Well, it’s not just that,” a male spoke up angrily. Jeremy made a questioning noise in his direction, and judging from the beep in his ear, Chrysalis had just started listening in. “We’re not a very popular hive, and we don’t get much food as it is… if we come back from this fight without scoring a high position, our queen will kill us off just so there are less mouths to feed.”

Jeremy was once again irritated. “We… also said something about infinite love, forever, right? That was a thing, if I recall,” he remarked sarcastically. The changeling nervously shifted its hoof.

“Yes… well… a lot of us hives are skeptical about that – we think Chrysalis is just putting on an unusual act for this Trial in order to confuse the rest. Or maybe she’s just crazy, who knows.” Jeremy was startled out of responding by a vitriolic torrent of combined hissing and speech from Chrysalis – judging from the parts he could understand, she was extra pissed off at that idea.

He quickly switched off his outside mic and advised Chrysalis to save it for later, before continuing his train of thought. “So… you said you needed to score high compared to other hives and they’d leave you alive?” he asked, and the changeling group nodded. “Well… hold that thought, and whatever you do, don’t cross me again. I’ll come find you when everyone else is down.” With that, he left – he had been absent from the game for far too long, and he bet the other competitors were getting complacent.

12-30-13, 9:07 P.M.

Oh, how very wrong he had been. Jeremy stepped out onto a full-on battlefield – so this was what Trials were like without his presence. It had quickly turned into an all-out competition, and the fight was so thick in places that dust clouds obscured those who were actually fighting. Through unknown means, changelings had managed to blast a hole in the roof, letting moonlight through and giving the whole chamber an eerie glow. It was being repaired, and any changeling who dared approach the hole in an attempt to escape was ruthlessly shoved back by none other than Chitin, a massive hoof blocking the way as he guarded the newly made exit from the outside. The changelings bit, slashed with their wings, and kicked at each other viciously, and Jeremy decided he should probably put a stop to this before someone got badly hurt. Taking out the spray gun, he waded around the cavern, sticking to the shadows until he struck with a large burst of the tranquilizer, and then stepping back into invisibility.

This seemed to work, for the most part – a large portion of the changelings had been taken by surprise by his re-entrance and promptly dropped to the floor, breathing peacefully. A few managed to notice his approach, but weren’t able to avoid the liquid spray of his gun. Finally, he took out the last group by firing at random into the air until the ceiling and surrounding changelings were thoroughly coated in the transparent, non-viscous sleeping agents, and dropped out of the air, landing with audible thumps. Jeremy reached a hand up to wipe the sweat from his brow, but was physically stopped by his helmet. Lowering his hand, he felt briefly embarrassed for forgetting it existed – he was acclimatizing way too fast.

He decided to check in with Chrysalis. “Chryssi, Luna, you there?” he asked. There was a distinct silence on the other end.

“…'Chryssi'?” Chrysalis asked, voice dripping with mockery. Jeremy blushed, and thanked science she couldn’t see him.

“It was shorter to pronounce!” Jeremy protested, and Luna could be heard laughing in the background.

“Ugh. You and I have to have a talk about this when you get back – no pet nicknames.” Chrysalis stated flatly.

“Fine,” Jeremy huffed. “Anyway, besides the group I talked to earlier, is that all of them?” Luna stopped laughing in the background.

“…Now that you mention it… yes, I think that’s all of them. So why haven’t the others surrendered yet…?” Chrysalis wondered. Judging from the sounds that happened next, she had been shoved aside, audibly protesting as Luna took the mic.

“We did an echolocation spell for thine area. Something’s coming, and whatever it is, it’s big. Brace thyself.” Jeremy nodded. What could it be? he wondered as he took stock of himself – he was bruised and battered, but otherwise recovering alright from his recent near-death experience. The suit, as usual, was perfectly fine, having once again mysteriously repaired itself. Well… not so mysteriously to Jeremy, at any rate.

Jeremy became aware of a tremor in the ground every few seconds. Getting ready, he hid behind a tall stalagmite jutting out of the ground, gun at the ready. To his surprise, the tremors faded away for a moment, but he wasn’t stepping out just yet. He took a single step out, to look out from the side of the rock formation. The tremors suddenly, violently came back, as if hearing him. Jeremy distinctly remembered that he was in a giant cavern, and sounds echoed. Really, really, well.

{Half Life 2 Episode 2 OST – Vortal Combat}

A massive changeling burst out of a cave opening, the opening itself enlarged by its entry. Two more appeared from under the lake, and to top it all off, a fourth appeared furled on the ceiling of the cave, where the opening had been earlier. In the background, Luna was yelling at him to do something, while Chrysalis was hurriedly apologizing that she hadn’t seen this coming – not that he was paying much attention. Jeremy vaguely remembered screaming once before they were upon him.

The next few minutes were a series of blurs for Jeremy, but he still was somewhat cognizant of what was happening, and forced himself not to freak out and go berserk again, no matter how much the music made him want to. The first one attempted to stomp him to bits, but there was a hole in its hoof in just the right place – Jeremy dove through it and scampered up its leg, using the other holes as hand- and foot-holds until he was riding atop its back. It screeched and bucked forward, causing Jeremy to begin to slide off – and it was no small drop to the cave floor below. Not wasting a second, he grabbed its hair and swung up to the bridge of its nose, and hurriedly picked himself up. It reared up, flinging him into the air, and opened its mouth expectantly. Jeremy was aware that he couldn’t fly, and really wished someone had done something to fix that. As the mouth closed over him, he gave the entire inside of the changeling’s maw a spray with his sleeper gun, and it stumbled a second before collapsing to the ground, the shock of landing thankfully absorbed for Jeremy by its massive tongue. Grunting with exertion, he crawled out of its mouth to hear Luna cheering. “Fight’s not over yet,” he grumbled, facing the three remaining.

They appeared stunned for a second before all three sprang forward, with the obvious intent to attack him together. After noticing the trajectory of their heads, Jeremy sprang back and two collided with a dull thud. Jeremy took advantage of this to spray both of them up the nostrils with the sleeper gun, distastefully noting how that would’ve felt if it had been done to him – at least they went down quicker from direct ingestion. The final remaining changeling, who had been invisible before it teamed up with its comrades, stalked towards him, hissing angrily. “Yeah? Well c’mon then, let’s see what you got!” Jeremy yelled back, forgetting that his mic was off. It made an attempt to bite him, but seemed to think better of it, evidently remembering what had happened to the others. Instead, it reached out a hoof and casually smacked him, and Jeremy went flying. Thankfully, there was a wall close by – but as Jeremy achingly got up, he thought he’d be seeing stars for weeks. The giant changeling then lowered its head, and charged at him, intending to impale him on the wall with its huge, curved horn – as good as his suit was, Jeremy didn’t think it could take that.

What could he do? There was no way he could escape to the side – he had been thrown into an unfortunately narrow crevasse, just a few feet too deep into the wall for him to escape in time. No going under it, either – its head was so low to the ground he’d be crushed if he tried. Only way out was up, then. Just as it was about to hit, Jeremy jumped up, pushing off of the wall in a desperate attempt to avoid its horn. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated, and tripped over the horn itself, slamming down onto the forehead of the giant. Scrambling up, he noted that the changeling appeared confused – it had expected him to be a smear mark on the wall. Smirking tiredly, he took out his gun, and in a display of bravado for the confused giant, whirled it around once before turning on his mic. “Goodnight,” he jeered, and sprayed the liquid mixture all over its face. The changeling initially resisted before giving over, and dropping with a thump – Jeremy was pitched head over heels, landing with a metallic clang to the changeling’s side.

//{end}

As Jeremy picked himself up, he tried to think. But he was hurt, and tired, and hungry – all he really wanted was to sleep. An obvious question came to mind, and he tuned back in to his headset to find Luna and Chrysalis still cheering. “Hey, girls.” Jeremy mumbled, causing them to stop and shuffle around for a moment before waiting for him expectantly. He tried to remember what he was going to ask, succeeding after a moment's wait.

“So… is it over?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 31 Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 18 Minutes