[2] Fighting Scorpions in the Sandtrap

[Sage]

Their trek was a long, arduous one. The miserable, intolerable heat had slowed the pace of the group considerably since they had started. Juno and the old man could have likely kept on marching at their original pace, but the other four held them back. Oliver’s sense of strategy forced him to give up the advantage of fast movement for the safety in numbers, though he was ill-convinced that the stragglers he slowed down for could make that much of a difference.

They stopped, then, very sharply. Juno and Nash were talking about something, Sage wasn’t sure what, exactly. They were too quiet.

“Uh...” Sophia began, close enough to the blue haired girl for her to hear. “Okay,” her voice hinted at disbelief, but Sage still had no idea what was going on. And then, the ground before them heaved, and a bulge rolled beneath the sand, traveling across the path they had originally been taking.

“What is it?” inquired Rod, whose name had yet to be revealed to the diminutive quarter saiyan. Nash and he exchanged banter but it went over Sage’s head. She lost sight of whatever that... thing was, and she couldn’t figure out where it went.

“Very clever,” she heard, and turned to face Rod, just in time to watch as a razor-sharp pole tore out from beneath the sand, impaling the dark haired man. The appendage tore out through his abdomen, blood glistening on the end of the spike.

Sage’s strangled scream came out as little more than a whimper, while a man next to her stumbled onto the ground in shock. The girl couldn’t... she couldn’t move. She could only stare at that horrible scene.

Blood stained the nearly-white sand, and Rod convulsed uncontrollably, his feet dangling above the terrain. Suddenly, his body was sharply pulled to the ground, and he disappeared beneath the sand. And still, Sage could only stare, paralyzed with fear.

“Move!” Nash growled, the only one with enough sense to react in the situation. “Go! Go! Go!”

The group bolted as one, save Sage. Sophia paused, turning to the girl, but Juno had already doubled back. He sharply grasped the hybrid’s wrist and violently jerked her away from the site they’d been ambushed at.

At first, the girl stumbled, but soon she was running full-tilt, her eyes wide with panic. Her feet pounded down on the sand, kicking up puffs of it under each footfall. She did surprisingly well on this terrain; it felt like snow, and she had always been more at home in the cold.

“It’s no use!” Juno suddenly exclaimed. “There’s nowhere to go!”

Sage’s heart sank. Absolute fear drove her to keep running but all she could see in her mind was herself suspended from one of those vicious spikes.

“That way!” exclaimed the light haired boy. “I see a rock formation! I think it’s a cave!”

Nobody had to tell her twice. She ran as hard as she could, but she could feel the fire burning in her chest. Her breath was being cut short. Soon she wouldn’t be able to even walk. Wincing at the thought, she pushed herself. Every breath hurt like hell, but she had to keep going. Her desperation gave way to despair, though, as she saw the group begin to pull away from her.

However, in front of the group, their subterranean assailants burst up out of the ground, revealing themselves to be misshapen scorpions. Sage stumbled and fell onto all fours, coughing and hacking violently, unable to focus on anything around her.

She felt an arm wrap around her, and could just barely make out Sophia pulling her up to her feet. “Come on, we have to keep moving,” she insisted. Sage knew she was right, but it hurt so much.

She stumbled onward the whole time oblivious to the incredible danger Tempo put himself in for chasing after his MP3 player, and Juno for chasing after him. Had she known, she would have simply offered her own music player to him.

The two women joined with Nash just as Tempo and Juno did, and the three scorpions rapidly surrounded them as best they could. A stinger first lashed out at Oliver, who deftly hopped aside, his arms up in the air, surprised at how fast these abominations could strike.

Another stinger lunged into the crowd, this one aimed at Juno, who ducked under it, narrowly evading the pointed tip, which pierced the clothing on his shoulder, tearing the fabric with ease. To Sage, it looked like the scorpions were trying to dispose of the stronger warriors first.

That is, until Tempo tackled the hapless girl to the dusty ground. Sage saw the deadly appendage sail over her head, while the fiery haired youth rolled off of her and onto his feet.

Okay, they don’t care who they attack, she reasoned, clutching at her chest as another wave of pain stabbed at her lungs. Her breath was coming in horribly short, now. She would need to find cover soon, to treat herself, or she would die, regardless of the scorpions who sought to kill her and the others.

Explosions rang out as ki waves were loosed upon their adversaries, and sand was hurled into the air from beneath the shockwaves. Sage climbed to her feet, dismayed to see that the scorpions seemed unharmed by the assault.

Desperately, she leveled a hand against one of the scorpions, this one occupied with Juno. She did her best to focus, trying to drag her cryokinetic energy up from whatever depths it resided in. You know how to do this! she internally shrieked, but nothing came. The effort was for nothing.

“What the hell are you doing!?” someone roared at her, breaking her concentration. But not before she gazed down at her hand. It was wet. She didn't have time to ponder at this, however, as one of those damnable tails swooped in at her, nearly taking off her head.