Cyberdryad Guardian Friends: Trouble in Bogsquat Swamp - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

The light still glittered off of the water's surface, deceptively distant, and beneath her feet Rusakina felt the earth turn to mud, soft and squishy between her toes, and then it gave way to water. Still she advanced, transfixed by the lights, the water level rising to her knees, then her waist, as she moved forward. A thought echoed in the back of her mind that she should have told Mariko and Kurlag. But the light had captivated her, drawing her forward with a vacant expression, even as the water level rose to her breasts. Besides, the others were sort of being jerks anyway, just because she had to go to the bathroom and wanted to be a little discreet about it!

The night air swirled around Rusakina as vague, misty ambience, and she waded onward to the shrill night song of birds and insects, though the water was now at her shoulders. Once or twice, she would pass an alligator or giant turtle in the water, but they ignored her and she returned that courtesy. The light occupied her mind, shining bright in the distant foliage, as she traced a long path through the water. In the back of her mind, it occurred to her that she must be in the thrall of a will o' the wisp, a luminescent spirit of the swamplands that led unwary travelers to their doom, but she was no mere traveler.

The light was close and bright indeed when Rusakina emerged from the water at the shore, shining upon her. Her skin bathed in white light, wet hair clinging to her shoulders, and the wet fabric of the dress hugging her slender body, with a vacant stare upon her face, she looked like a ghost of the bayou emerging from the swamp. On dry land, she passed through a copse of trees and grasses, and emerged to see that the light was a bright, shimmering floodlight, set on a post in a small forward operating base. She casually noticed two women in Nailrazer soldier uniforms emerge from large temporary canvas structures at her side in a rush and point N-188 assault rifles at her.

"Freeze, intruder!" one of them shouted. "Hands in the air!"

Rusakina smiled at them and kept walking. She was nearly at the magnificent light, and had come too far to be deterred by a silly thing like automatic weapons fire. Her gaze went skyward to the elevated light, her feet gliding forward, and she didn't notice the gaping huge pit in the ground until she fell and pitched forward into it, into the sticky net of a giant spiderweb!

Rusakina cried out in shock and dismay, at first because her line of vision to the light was blocked, then again when she realized she had been mesmerized into walking right into a Nailrazer trap! She struggled frantically, but the webbing was very tough and sticky, and she was completely unable to pull free. To make matters worse, her dress fell up around her waist, baring her butt to anyone who might look down.

A shrill laugh rang out from above. "Like a moth to a flame!" a woman's voice cried out in triumph. "All too easy! Welcome, Rusakina, to Nailrazer Mobile Command: Bogsquat Region!" She chuckled.

Rusakina turned her infravision on and craned her neck far to the side so she could look up. Above the edge of the pit, she saw a woman in a commander's uniform smiling down at her. "Who are you?" Rusakina demanded. "And how do you know my name? Let me go!"

"Hmm, there's the little matter of your unsecured radio transmissions before we jammed the signals," the woman said smugly. "And the video that our drones uploaded of your confrontation. Speaking of which, Central Command is quite cross with you. Do you have any idea how much it's going to cost to have that drone you submerged repaired and put back into service?"

"Maybe you should learn from that," Rusakina said, glowering angrily. "Crime doesn't pay!"

"On the contrary," the woman said, "we're still coming out well ahead, dumping that toxic waste out here. See, the funny thing is that many provisions of the Resource Harvesting, Industry, and Jobs Act take effect retroactively, including the measures permitting waste disposal on federally-protected lands, given certain easily-obtained permissions. So in the end, dumping that toxic waste won't even be a crime!" She laughed again. "Though we'd be happy to extort Senator Czartashian even at a loss. Sticking it to that empty-headed liberal cougar is its own reward."

"You really think you've won, just because you've caught me?" Rusakina asked. "The others won't be caught so easily by your stupid magical light."

"Magic light?" the woman said, a rich air of amusement in her tone. "Um... about that. That was a perfectly ordinary light. I wondered about that, actually. Why did you wander up to it blindly like you did? Is it just 'cause you're dumb? Are you an idiot? You must be a stupid person."

"Shut up!" Rusakina shouted hotly. She struggled again, but it was useless. "You still haven't told me who you are!"

"Commander Octavia Spindel of Nailrazer," the woman said, "though it hardly matters to you. You won't be alive any more after this."

"So you're just gonna murder me, out here in the swamp?" Rusakina demanded, desperation scraping the edges of her voice. "It means that little for you to just take away my life?"

"Oh, no," Octavia chortled. "We're a perfectly legitimate para-military industrial group with the utmost respect for the laws of the United States of America. We won't murder you. But be cognizant of where you are: in a giant spiderweb. It seems that a giant mutant spider has built a web in the middle of our camp, completely by accident. If my soldiers and I judge that the risk to our own lives is too great to justify a rescue attempt, that may make us cowards, but not murderers."

Rusakina screamed as she turned to the other side and saw an enormous spider the size of a lion staring at her with multiple eyes like obsidian beads. Mortal terror pierced her heart, and she quivered helplessly as it slowly walked along the web towards her, shrill screams ringing out through the swamp. Adding to her horror was the presence of an alien intelligence crawling into her mind. It was the spider, and Rusakina felt its (no, his, for it was a male spider) superhuman intelligence and a deep sense of pain, alienation, and hunger.

The spider was an unnatural variant, mutated to unnatural intelligence with telepathic ability and the social need for companionship and acceptance. But humans found him a frightening monster to exploit and mistreat, and other giant spiders were just mindless bugs who wanted to kill him, possibly after mating with him first if they were female. And even that was denied to him, for his genitals were deformed beyond what was normal for a spider, such that he had an almost-mammalian penis. Now he was alone, starving, and enraged at the two-legged humans who had lured him into this accursed pit with their hypnotic light and promises of food and fellowship, then betrayed him and trapped him here by lining its edges with a chemical compound that would begin to corrode his exoskeleton on contact, making escape impossible. They had given him nothing to eat despite his desperate pleas. Now that one of them had fallen into his web, and he was determined to satisfy both his hunger and his hatred at once by devouring her.

No! Rusakina protested in her mind. I'm not one of them! I'm here to stop them! We are both their victims!

The spider stopped, twitching one leg in thought. He seemed to feel the sincerity of Rusakina's pleas, but his hunger and emotional pain still surged in him, making him volatile. He walked around the web, circling Rusakina and regarding her with a mixture of hunger, pity, and lingering resentment. But then when his gaze drifted over her exposed ass and pussy, she felt him recognize it as her reproductive aperture, and even felt him react with a twinge of shameful, confused arousal.

My name's Rusakina, she told him, still with an edge of fear in her thoughts. What's yours?

The spider called out with a rapid series of clicks, chirps, and chitters that his telepathy confirmed was actually his name.

My puny humanlike vocal cords can't do that, Rusakina admitted. How would you like a human-like nickname? Is there any name that you'd like to have?

The spider's mental response was a wave of gleeful emotion. He recognized the nickname as a term of endearment or familiarity given to an acquaintance, and being in receipt of this honor delighted him on a level that Rusakina didn't even fully understand. Can I be called Webster? he asked mentally, in a mindstate halfway between a super-intelligent alien and a hyperactive kid.

I guess, if you want to, Rusakina thought back, though she made an audible wordless groan.

Webster's mind bubbled happily at her. See, it's a pun, based on your human language! he thought. Because Webster is a name, but also I'm a spider, you know, and-

Yeah, I get it, Rusakina thought with a sigh.

That's why it's funny, Webster insisted, pleased with his own cleverness.

Yep, Rusakina agreed flatly. Great.

"Why aren't you eating her?" Commander Octavia yelled into the pit. "Ridiculous spider!"

Repressed hunger surged forth in Webster's thoughts, his mood swinging sharply, and Rusakina could feel the power of the temptation. It was intermingled with a little bit of regret at the thought of eating her after she let let him pick out a nickname that she would call him, and a confusing twitch of lust as his many dark, beady eyes studied her exposed nether parts. Rusakina knew her life was in the balance if she couldn't win him over quickly! Webster, if you help me get free I'll find you some food after we beat these guys, she said.

In response, Rusakina felt a surge of angry suspicion and paranoia from him as his mood darkened from bad to worse, and she felt his feeling that she was no better than his captors in Nailrazer because she'd use sustenance as a bargaining chip when he was starving! I have food in front of me right now, Webster thought. She could sense that he had been betrayed and used before, that their Nailrazer captors had feigned feelings of friendship to his telepathic senses before to manipulate him. He feared another betrayal from Rusakina, bonding with him over the nickname only to cast him aside when he helped her.

No! Rusakina protested. We can be friends! We... In her panic she felt a flicker of Webster's lust and attraction. She felt that, beneath his suspicions and paranoia, he wanted to like her, and also wanted... Mate with me!

Webster's advance, and his attempts to suppress his unnatural sexual attraction to a humanoid woman, both stopped. Through the telepathy, Rusakina felt his arousal growing, his lustful appraisal of her body, eager and confused with an edge of hope, yearning, and tenderness. His thoughts showed that he had never been intimate before, his mutation making him mentally and physically different from other spiders so he was unable to mate, and indeed he had never thought it would happen. As Rusakina's mind filled with the reality of what it could be like to have sex with a giant mutant virgin spider, a bizarre sort of lust came over her as well, and she felt her body growing open and wet in anticipation.

Really? Webster asked. Why would you offer this?

I want to show you... Rusakina thought slowly, trying to project genuine emotion in a way that would please him. ... that I genuinely like you. Yes, I need your help, that's true. I'll die if you don't help me. But I also want you to be happy and well-fed and safe. And loved. A-and if you yearn for the feeling of shared intimacy... I want to give you that. She focused her lust, her most taboo thoughts of attraction, and projected those towards him too. And I want to feel good with you, too.

Webster crawled up behind Rusakina on the web. Then do I just move over you and slide it in your opening there? he asked nervously. This is a new experience to me. She felt something warm and slick with sticky fluid brush against one of the cheeks of her ass.

"Yes, good!" Commander Octavia cried out. In the darkness of the night, she misunderstood his reasons for crawling over her. "Devour the damnable dryad bitch, you hideous freak! Or you'll starve down there!" Several of the lesser-ranking Nailrazer soldiers crowded to the edge of the pit to watch, out of sadism and curiosity.

Yep! Like this. Rusakina smiled and tried to picture the mental image of a cock entering her pussy, slowly and at an angle that she would prefer.

Oh, so it's the vertical slit opening, not the little round one above it! Webster thought in a moment of realization. It's so good that you showed me.

Yes, it is, Rusakina agreed with a nervous, fearful giggle. Definitely go in that opening, not the little round one. Please!

Then Rusakina gasped when she felt a moist, sticky presence pressing against her pussy. She tried to lift her hips to adjust the angle, and mentally guided Webster to change his angle slightly and press in slowly. Little by little, she was filled by a knobby tube of wet, spongy flesh, a hot stretching feeling giving way to an amazing, forbidden kind of fulfillment. His firm, bumpy underside brushed against the soft skin of her back, and a deep forbidden thrill coursed through Rusakina as she fully considered that she was indeed being mounted by a mutant spider!

The web bobbed and swung with the motion of Webster's thrusts into Rusakina, erratic and clumsy at first, but through the telepathic link she found she could give him guidance on how to stroke her inner walls on just the right spot each time he pushed down. He wasn't attractive and skilled like Judas, nor as well-endowed and powerful as Kurlag, but Rusakina had never imagined that being taken bent over by a mutant spider could feel so good.

A beam of focused light and an incredulous laugh came from above the pit, where Commander Octavia was watching with a high-powered flashlight. "Oh my God," she said gleefully. "The spider's not actually eating her... he's fucking her! How utterly disgusting!" Even so, Rusakina's infravision could make out heat flushing into her erogenous zones, and her hand slowly sliding down the unbuttoned trousers of her uniform to idly stroke her pussy as she watched. The other Nailrazer mooks chortled and muttered dirty comments.

Rusakina's soft gasps echoed up from the pit, and the spiderweb rose and fell slightly off-time with the movements of Webster's abdomen over her, the thrusting of his cock becoming more confident and assured. For now, Rusakina shut out the presence of the evil woman above them, letting herself focus only on the desire and tender affection she felt for her mutant arachnid lover. Pleasure rose within her, spurred on by the well-guided thrusts of Webster's cock, its irregular knobs and nodes massaging her sweetly. Finally, in untold time, she cried out in the night as an orgasm shook over her, her pussy and thighs quaking with taboo pleasure as she came on Webster's magnificent cock.

"Unreal," Commander Octavia laughed from above. "The dryad slut just got off from being pounded by this eight-legged freak!" Hypocritically, she was also obviously enjoying the show herself; her hand holding the flashlight was shaky, and the heat outline of her body gave away her advanced state of arousal to Rusakina's infravision as her hand down the front of her trousers shlicked rapidly. Some of the others were getting hot too.

You scream, but you are not in distress, Webster observed. There was a layer of tension in his tone as well, his movements jerky and deliberate. You feel... happy? Good? Content?

It's called an orgasm, silly, Rusakina thought, happy and teasing, still flooded with bliss as the amazing feelings continued. And it feels really amazing! When are you gonna have one?

It is starting to feel good, Webster acknowledged. Very good. Then his attempt to communicate in words ceased. There was a powerful sense of wonder and excitement in his mind, intermingled with some trepidation at unfamiliar feelings quickly rising in his body. Too good... this isn't normal...!

It's okay, Rusakina reassured him, projecting warmth and affection. Keep going. Just let it happen.

After several more thrusts, Webster froze, his eight thick, powerful legs wrapping tightly around Rusakina in an embrace, his cock buried inside her as it began to twitch and undulate. Unbounded excitement and joy burst from his mind, and Rusakina felt truly happy for him as he exploded in climax, unloading large amounts of his thick, pungent cum into her. Her pussy still felt wonderful around him, the afterglow of her intense orgasm making her tremble happily as he came inside her.

Several seconds passed, and they hung together in the webbing before Webster said, I'm going to prick you with my fangs. Cry out and feign your death throes, then go very still. I will pretend I am waiting for my venom to dissolve you, as I must before I eat. He brushed the tips of his legs against her arms and legs where they were caught in the webbing, getting some sort of greasy, caustic oil on her.

Rusakina thought to mentally protest, but her astonished scream and panicked thrashing was genuine when two sharp, cruel points punctured the skin of her shoulder painfully. Webster pulled his cock out of her with an absurd, gentle sucking sound, then crawled away, and Rusakina felt the sticky glue of the webbing dissolving where it held her bound, where he had rubbed the oil. In a few seconds, Webster started bouncing on the web, making it shake up and down. Use the web's momentum to launch yourself in a leap over the edge of the pit! She felt affection in his thoughts, and hope. Good luck!

When the web bounced up again, Rusakina kicked off with her powerful legs, launching herself into the air as if from a trampoline. She turned a somersault in midair, sending a single marble-sized bead of rich mutant spider cum flying from her slightly-open pussy, and in a happy coincidence it flew right into the eyes of one of the Nailrazer soldiers, causing her to stagger back and discharge her assault rifle into the night air, throwing the camp into chaos. Rusakina landed on her feet near two of the others, and dispatched them with an open-handed chop to the throat and then a knee driven hard to the solar plexus.

"Oh shiiit!" Commander Octavia cried, but it was not an merely an exclaimation of dismay at Rusakina's escape, for at that moment her frenzied masturbation at watching Rusakina's sexual encounter with Webster, which she had foolishly not stopped as her climax drew on, had its natural consequence, and a huge, incapacitating orgasm stole over her, so that she doubled over with her eyes crossed, her mouth opening and closing with gasps of pleasure, unable to give proper orders, her fingers still playing at her clitoris as her willpower completely failed.

In disorder, another Nailrazer soldier standing very close by swung his gun around to point it at Rusakina, but she grabbed it by the barrel, jerked him forward by it, and then launched a karate kick to the face that took him out of the fight in an unconscious heap. Two other soldiers shot their weapons, trying to walk a trail of automatic fire onto her in the dark night, but she cartwheeled to the side, avoiding their shots, and then directed the grass on the ground to crawl up their legs and bind them where they stood. They stopped shooting to try to tear themselves free in a wild panic, and that gave Rusakina the time to rush them, grab each by the hair with one hand, and dash their heads together hard with the full strength of an infuriated tree-spirit cyborg. Both fell to the ground, groaning.

"All right, you green-haired spider-fucking goof, freeze!" A Nailrazer lieutenant stood outside of one of the canvas structures, flanked by four more soldiers carrying assault rifles, all leveled directly at Rusakina. She stopped, uncertain if she was quick enough to reach them or if she'd just die in a storm of automatic fire, and then saw from the corner of her eye that Commander Octavia had stumbled over to a security turrent where a heavy machine gun was mounted, and was gripping its handles in sticky, glistening fingers and bringing it to bear.

Rusakina sighed, then slowly raised her hands in the air. It seemed as though she was caught after all. But then, slowly, she saw a vine slithering like a snake over the top of the canvas structure behind the lieutenant and soldiers! Trembling, she could only watch as it dropped down over the unaware soldiers, catching three of them and coiling around their necks, so that they dropped their weapons to struggle against strangulation. At nearly the same time, a huge figure emerged from the cover of night, and threw a large section of waterlogged tree stump that struck both the lieutenant and the remaining soldier hard enough to knock them off their feet.

It was Kurlag, and Mariko was with him! "Hey, Rusakina!" Mariko called out. "What gave you the idea to go running off and beat the enemy all by yourself anyway, dumbass? Everyone hates a glory hound!"

"I didn't mean to!" Rusakina protested. "I'm so glad you're here!"

Kurlag ran forward, absorbing several bullets from an assault rifle without slowing, then grabbed a Nailrazer soldier in his massive hands and threw him into a canvas structure hard enough that the entire thing folded inward and collapsed, its supports bending and failing. "All of eeyoon should run, or bow down before the might of Kurlag!" he bellowed.

Then a sickening burst of heavy automatic fire exploded his upper body into chunky, steaming pulp. His legs buckled to the ground, twitching.

"Playtime's over!" Commander Octavia yelled out from behind the smoking turret-mounted machine gun, which glowed hot to Rusakina's infravision. "Prepare to be obliterated!"

"Kurlag!" Rusakina shouted in dismay. She glared at Commander Octavia through tear-filled eyes. "You've gone too far now, you murdering bi-eeek!" Screaming, she had to dive to the side to avoid fire of the machine gun, which narrowly passed over her and tore through the side of another canvas structure, ripping it to shreds. In a stark state of total panic, she frantically rolled and crawled behind a heavy metal generator and battery bank to take cover, hoping it would offer at least some protection from the automatic fire.

Peering around the corner, she saw Mariko circling around the other side of the turret. "Give it up, Nailrazer scum," Mariko called out. "That thing only aims one way at a time, and there's two of us. What's it gonna be?"

A single beat of silence hung in the air, enough for Rusakina to hear the rapid approach of softly-humming rotors. "I don't need to choose, you idiotic dryads," Commander Octavia called out triumphantly. "The cavalry just arrived!"

The other Warmaker-class heavy drone flew into view some six meters over her, a spotlight shining down from it onto Mariko, then swinging back over Rusakina, bathing her in light that would have been blinding if it was not largely filtered out by the advanced programming in her infravision. "Now then, surrender, and you won't be harmed!" Commander Octavia demanded. "Apart from partial dissection so we can analyze your cyberware for reverse engineering, of course."

When the drone's spotlight drifted to Mariko again, Rusakina saw a tiny speck moving over it, and when she flashed her infravision back to normal, she saw that it was glowing with a familiar bright-green light: it was Judas! There was a puff of shimmering fairy dust just above the drone, and then the tiny form of Chancelly Mayple grew to full size over it and fell onto its top, causing it to lurch in the air. It wobbled wildly, discharging its weapons in an uncontrollable burst, and somehow Chancelly had the presence of mind to grab the aerothermal cannon's turret and pull sharply to one side, so that its discharge of superheated explosive air struck one of the legs of the radio tower at the edge of the camp. The metal grew soft and buckled, and then Rusakina screamed as it fell in her direction. She stood up, ran, and dove forward just before the tower came crashing down onto the generator and battery bank, sending up a storm of sparks just before a deafening explosion rang out and fire spread from it to one of the canvas structures.

"Holy crap!" Mariko exclaimed, and it was only because of the hardened receptors in Rusakina's ears that she could still hear her; if she'd had flesh-and-blood eardrums, they might have been burst by the explosion.

The heavy drone wobbled dangerously in the air, and Chancelly fought with it, trying to run it around on the floor of the swamp. It careened low over the Nailrazer mobile base, but stayed airborne, and swooped around in an attempt to bring itself to bear, guns facing towards Rusakina and Mariko, and Rusakina had no cover, and no hope to evade at this close range. She stared with growing dread, and she saw Chancelly grimace atop it and then thrust her forearm right in the way of one of the rotors. Chancelly's agonized scream was drowned out in a metallic squeal and a storm of sparks as the rotor cut right through her flesh and struck the carbon-fiber reinforced steel-mithril alloy of her ulna. The rotors was stopped, and the drone went spinning out of control to crash into the hard dirt on its side, all three rotors on one side getting mangled as they struck dirt and rock in a hard crash landing. Chancelly leapt free at the last minute, but still landed hard and rolled across the ground, and she seemed to wobble unsteadily when she rolled to her feet.

"Okay, fuck this!" Commander Octavia exclaimed, and she leapt from behind the machine gun and started to run. Rusakina darted out in front of her, prepared to cut her off, and Commander Octavia dodged hard to the left and took off with a burst of speed. But her trousers, still unbuttoned to make room for her earlier masturbation, fell down around her ankles, and she tripped over them and fell to the ground hard. Rusakina ran and tackled her, and furious thoughts of avenging Kurlag's death overran her sense of morality and decency for the few seconds it took her to lift Commander Octavia up, then carry her and toss her down into the pit where Webster still sat.

Chancelly and Mariko rushed to her side, the former bleeding heavily and worse for wear. "Russie, no!" Chancelly gasped, clutching her bloody forearm. "Did you really just murder that woman in cold blood by throwing her to that spider? We could have captured her!"

"She killed Kurlag!" Rusakina protested. "I hate her!" She was still gripped by fury, but the consequences of her actions made her sick to her stomach.

"Um... Kurlag's a troll, you dork," Mariko said with an impatient scowl. "They can heal themselves from any injury that's not caused by fire or acid."

"No way," Rusakina said in disbelief, but beside her, Chancelly nodded with a grimace.

"Yep," Chancelly said. "Wish I could do the same. Now that their radio transmitter is down, I've used our radio to call in command. They can come get us, and hopefully get me fixed up with some quick-healing biotech patches." She looked up from her badly-wounded arm, and her eyes flashed. "But that woman...! Maybe we can still save her!"

They started to rush towards the edge of Webster's pit, but were stopped short by a long, low scream from Commander Octavia. Rusakina's stomach turned, and she wailed in despair at knowing she had just taken a helpless woman's life, even in attempted vengeance for an ally... but then she realized that the scream was not a sound of pain or distress. When she finally crept up to the edge of the pit, she saw that Webster was atop the trouser-less form of Commander Octavia, his abdomen rising and falling over her in a familiar way.

Webster! Rusakina protested. Really? Seriously!?

She actually wanted it, seeing as she was captured no matter what, Webster thought to her, somewhat distracted by his pleasure, and I'm as horny as I am merciful. When we're done, I'll leave her bound for your human authorities to capture. That would be proper, yes?

Rusakina rolled her eyes and doubled over with relieved giggles. Okay, you perv, she thought at him, but I'm sure she's not as good as I am. She stuck her tongue out at Webster, then shimmied to shake her breasts teasingly at him before stepping away.

"It's okay, guys," she told Mariko and Chancelly. "The spider's a friend of mine, and he communicates through telepathy. What's going on down there is mutually consensual."

Any remaining doubt of that was erased by Commander Octavia's cries of "Yes! Faster, you magnificant creature!" from the bottom of the pit. With nervous laughter, the three dryads backed off of the pit, allowing the mutant spider and enemy officer to have their moment.

But then there was a shuffling to the side, and a skinny teenage guy crawled out of the wreckage of one of the collapsed structures. His stringy hair was an unflattering straw-colored mop behind a bandanna, and his pasty white skin was dotted with peach fuzz and bad acne. He was tied to a metal folding chair with zip ties, but still managed to drag himself forward. "Hey, you guys," he said. "What's going on? Why's there all this fighting and stuff?"

"We're here to put a stop to Nailrazer's crimes," Rusakina announced to him. "We're GAEA-Shield One. Are you Gilbert Dewey, the captive they took?"

"Naw," the guy said, "call me Gil. And, you know, I could have broke out myself, I just thought it was best to leave it to the pros." His eyes traveled up and down Rusakina's body, and a grin flashed over his face. "So... you always dress so hot when you're busting up terrorist groups in the swamp?"

Rusakina rolled her eyes. "Never mind that," she said. "We're here to rescue you."

"Right on," Gil said with an easy grin. "All I'm saying is you look good doing it, and if you wanna, you know, get to know each other better..."

"Unbelievable," Rusakina murmured, shaking her head. "Just... aren't you, like, fifteen? And dating Prinna Czartashian too? Nevermind. Whatever, you're safe now. Wait over there, okay?"

"Can you at least cut me loose from this chair, though?" Gil asked, somewhat pathetically.

Rusakina groaned, but still took a knife from one of the knocked-out Nailrazer soldiers and used it to cut him free.From the pit, the sounds of moaning and frenzied rhythmic motion gave way to subdued gasping, indicating that Webster and Commander Octavia must have finished their sexual interlude. On the ground, just as Chancelly and Mariko had predicted, the pieces of Kurlag had pulled themselves back together, and the troll sat up with a pained groan, looking rather weak but very much alive.

"Well, team," Chancelly said, "we actually did really well. All the Nailrazer soldiers seem to be knocked out or on the run, we're mostly okay with only light wounds, Gilbert Dewey is safe, and a few minutes ago I just radioed in a call to the Commander. Our people are coming here to take control, complete with hazmat teams on freight hovercraft to secure and maintain the toxic waste, and some rescue workers to escort this young man back home. And now that the enemy commander is finished having kinky spider sex, she can be taken into custody for her crimes."

There was just one person who was missing now. "You must've met Judas, Chance?" Rusakina said. "Handsome fairy guy with a sexy accent? It looks like he brought you here, somehow."

Chancelly nodded. "He said he met you, and you mentioned my name," she said. "He used his fairy wine to shrink me down to size, then flew me here in his arms. We got here just in time to be your surprise reinforcements."

"But where is he now?" Rusakina asked. "I wanted... well, to thank him again." She blushed, remembering their passionate interlude earlier this afternoon.

From around the bend he had disappeared to, the bright green light of Judas popped into view, weaving through the air excitedly. "Look out!" he called. "There's another one of those flying machines headed this way!" Rusakina's sensitive ears picked up the soft whirring sound of rotors again after he had spoken, and a renewed feeling of dread welled up in the pit of her stomach.

"Get behind cover, everyone!" Chancelly said. "These things are no joke!"

"You don't have to tell me!" Rusakina shouted, and she dove behind a medium-sized supply crate.

The drone came into view, another Warmaker-class heavy combat drone. Of course there just had to be a third! But this one was outfitted slightly differently: instead of a turret with an aerothermal cannon, it had a winch from which dangled a cable with a robotic claw on the end. Rather than scanning the area or coming for them, it stopped to hover over Webster's pit, and then dropped its robotic claw down in there.

"Look out, Webster!" Rusakina called. "Right above you!"

To Rusakina's relief, the drone started to pull up without discharging its guns, but as it rose, the webbing-bound body of Commander Octavia Spindel was now in its robotic claw. It was not actually another attacker; it was performing a rescue mission for the Nailrazer commander! "Hey!" Rusakina shouted. "It's helping her get away!"

"Not if I can help it," Mariko said, and she raised a Nailrazer soldier's assault rifle and opened up on it with a burst of fire. The bullets glanced off of the heavy armored metal frame of the drone, and Mariko growled. "I can't seem to hurt it! But I could probably take her out if I... crap!" She was cut off abruptly when the drone fired a warning burst of bullets that tore up the earth by her feet, obliging her to dive for cover.

"Let her go!" Chancelly said. "It's not worth killing over, or getting yourselves killed!"

Rusakina supposed that she was right, but her jaw clenched in frustration that the enemy commander had gotten away. She walked to the edge of Webster's pit, staring after the drone as it flew into the distance, dangling the Nailrazer commander in its grasp. "I guess we'll be seeing her again," she said wearily.

A huge hand fell upon her shoulder. "Then you beat her again," Kurlag's voice rumbled. "Pretty Rusakina and all her friends fight well." His tone carried no small amount of admiration.

"Indeed you did, my beauty." On the other side, Judas flew up near her face, and she could barely make out his grinning expression. "All of us people of the swamp owe a big debt to you and your friends for beating these rascals but good." He chuckled. "I hope you'll accept payment in the form of a dance, as I did... but even beyond that, I have something for you that I think you've been missing."

There was another sprinkle of fairy dust from Judas, and a familiar pair of expensive black pumps appeared on a nearby rock, along with a clean and mended black designer dress. "My dress!" Rusakina exclaimed happily. "And Mariko's shoes! Thank you so much, Judas, you're the best!"

Mariko laughed. "Now I don't have to flip out on you for losing or ruining my good shoes," she said. "You owe this guy a lot more than a dance, Rusakina. He saved your butt."

"He'll get it," Rusakina said. She grinned at Judas. "I'd kiss you right now, but I'd smash like half your face with my big, slobbery lips if I tried!"

Well done, Rusakina, Webster sent in her mind from below, in the pit. I also must commend you and your team on your resolve and courage. I'm so happy to have you as a friend and an ally. You'll be... helping me get out of this pit soon, I hope?

"Of course!" Rusakina said. "In fact, I want all you boys to come back to Portlancisco with us. I don't care what anyone says. You deserve as much credit as we do; you all volunteered and fought with all your hearts, and if there's gonna be a victory celebration, I want you all there."

The next set of rotors that Rusakina heard about two and a half hours later belonged to a helicopter that carried a proud Commander Antigone Jefferson of GAEA-Shield One, along with several other operatives to help with the containment and documentation of the battle scene. Also stepping off of the helicopter, to Rusakina's surprise, was a woman of well-preserved middle age in a classy, expensive dark blue skirt suit, with lustrous black hair, an amazing figure, and a uniquely pointy but round full-lipped face that could strangely be described as looking both heart-stoppingly beautiful and completely dopey. She was instantly recognizable as the reality TV celebrity and model turned politician Senator Lynn Czartashian herself.

"Well done, ladies!" Commander Jefferson said. "What perfect timing you had! I was just briefing Senator Czartashian on the status of your mission when I got the call. This looks like an unambiguous success, and I am so proud that Senator Czartashian got the chance to personally ride down to the combat zone with me and see the work you've done."

"Their commander got away," Chancelly said, "but it wasn't worth the risk to stop her." She smiled slightly. "Everything else is safe and secure." She held up her wounded arm. "But I could use some patching up when we get back."

"I can't even say how to-o-otally grateful I am to all you guys!" Senator Czartashian exclaimed. "You've really done me a solid here, and you'd better believe that no budget that cuts your funding or your contract's getting through my Senate for as long as I'm in power. Thanks sooo much!"

Rusakina cleared her throat and looked down. "Thanks, Senator," she said softly. "But we couldn't have done it alone. The troll, the spider, and the fairy here with us were all critical to our success, and if you give me a chance, I'd like to tell you all about it."

Senator Czartashian laughed. "Of course!" she said. "Let's get you home and patched up, and then tomorrow, who's up for lunch at Cheddarbee's? Bring the guys too; I'm buying!"

"Whoo-hoo!" Rusakina cheered happily. Beside her, Mariko and Chancelly also cheered in anticipation of this momentous treat. "Thank you, Senator! You're the best!"

Continued in Chapter 5

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