Part two of Elises own story is here, I think i've settled on the name "Glass" for now, i think it suits! We're introduced to one of Elise's crew here who suffers from a very real condition, i'm hoping to represent it in a realistic manner, both for its funny element and its less entertaining part, naturally though, Elise and the rest of the crew are a total babe about it, but I won't spoil anything more! Hope you enjoy reading!

Part 1 - https://www.furaffinity.net/view/43784126/

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The belch and roar of the old rattling engine could be heard across the wetland planes for miles, Elise was heading full speed towards the last town between her and her crew, Whetstone. It was beginning to rain as she approached, the blazing inferno of Ironwest town was now replaced by the rolling cool grey clouds, stretching out as far as she could see, usually this bleakness was the sign of yet another dreary day but she was absolutely craving normality right now and the clouds were a pleasant sight to behold.

She'd kept some spare ammo on her bike which was already equipped and was letting her fancy power core rest in the bikes armoured compartment, the damn thing near exploding from the encounter with the Pyre. As she drove, her bike kicking up dust and spitting dirt backwards, her communicator bleeped awake, she quickly responded, keeping her eyes on the road ahead and scanning the environment for threats.

“Skiff! How are the preparations coming? Are we nearly ready to go?” Elise spoke sternly but she was happy to hear a friendly voice.

“E-Elise! T-thank the gods you're OK, we heard an explosion... *FUCK IT IN THE ASS, WE'RE ALL DEAD*, S-sorry, We thought the worst! W-what happened?”

“Skiff, I told ya, you don't need to apologise for your ticks. There was a small Pyre but I dealt with it. I'm just dropping by Whetstone to see if anyone has actually survived. You heard the explosion at the camp though?” It hadn't quite sunk in how powerful that detonation was, she considered it was better to not think about it.

“Yeah... I-it scared me shitless... *PUSSY BOY! MAN IT UP, FUCK BOY* What should we do?”

“As we discussed Skiff! But faster! Get Nem and Mare on the ship first! And make sure you got Frank's med's for god sake! And Skiff, don't get distracted, yeah?”

“*THEN KEEP YA TITTIES AWAY THEN, WHORE!* Sure, no problem! I just...” As he spoke, there were voices in the background, it sounded like someone was shouting the name “Skiff” over and over again.

“You shouldn't be phoning me now, should you Skiff...?” Elise sighed but a gentle smile crept over her face.

“I got worried! I had to check!

“Tsk. Bless you Skiff, you better go help Mags with whatever you were supposed to be doing. I'm fine, just stay focused, right?”

“S-sure... *FOCUSED ON YOUR FAT ASS*, Sorry, see you soon right, Elise?”

“Yeah, i'll be back as soon as i've checked on Whetstone, fucking hell, I don't think anyone has survived this...” Elise disconnected the call and stared ahead at the approaching town. Whetstone was a collection of smaller houses and buildings, built in traditional stonework by hand, it used to be a quaint little hamlet but much like Ironwest, it was now in ruins.

Elise skidded to a halt on her bike and looked on as she saw two figures patrolling through the ruins, dressed akin to med-evil knights, only they were as wide as a car and wielded swords the approximate length of typical road signage. These were Crusaders, front-line infantry of the Followers of Cyrune, they were brutal, powerful warriors who specialised in closing the distance and using their thick armour to take the brunt of enemy defences, but could also rip a man in half with their bare hands when required. They didn't look like they were up to much at the moment though, they hadn't spotted Elise yet, as she'd pulled up onto a ridge and Whetstone was below her, giving her a good view of the ruined town.

Once again, there was nothing in the way of survivors as far she could see, the town had been plucked clean of people and thoroughly demolished. Whetstone was one of the only good sources of clean water for the local area, not that it was of huge importance at this point, but the town had been built around a well in the very center, and it appeared that the cultists were currently displaying bodies around it, a small collection of them were stapling dead towns-people to poles and hanging them up...

Elise's grip tightened around her revolver in anger, her breath hot in her helm, just last week she was chatting with these people, having food with them, helping out with jobs around the town. Now they were all dead and these sick fucks were hanging them out like they were fresh laundry, proud of their work. This wasn't the time for vengeance though, it was far more important to get out alive. She stayed low and looked over every house closely with her helm's optical enhancements, ensuring no one was being left behind. The rain was getting heavier and was washing the ash off her armour, the pitter patter of water on metal was a sound she absolutely hated and always did her best to ignore it.

It seemed in the blink of an eye however, the situation down in Whetstone had changed, the Crusaders standing guard had disappeared, greatly alarming Elise. These were hulking metal titans, their disappearance should have been noticeable earlier... she drew her rifle from the bike and clacked a heavy round into the chamber, sliding the bolt back and forth to load and returning to her previous position on the ridge, shouldering the rifle, her suspicions were correct. She'd been spotted and the Crusaders were already half way up the ridge, moving with incredible, impossible speed, clutching their gigantic swords eagerly as they pounded up the soaking rock face.

Elise let off her first shot that rang out loudly over the ridge, echoing into the distance, these were armour piercing, heavy calibre rounds and they impacted with tremendous force, puncturing through the Crusaders chest plate and bursting out his back, leaving a hole the size of a fist in his chest cavity, the fight faded from his form as his blood gushed out of the injury but out of sheer spite, the monstrous man continued to lumber forward. Behind him, the other Crusader charged forward, sword pointed directly ahead of him.

Elise loaded another round calmly, bolt back, round in, bolt forward. Raising the rifle again to her shoulder, the second Crusader was now at the top of the ridge and was facing Elise directly, he brought his sword up to point directly at her and thumped his chest twice intimidatingly.

“Rejoice peasant! Your salva-”

His words were cut short by a shot straight through the head, bursting his helm and skull in spectacular fashion, spraying exploded metal, bone and blood everywhere. Behind him, the wounded Crusader stumbled up the hill, using his sword as a walking aid, although badly wounded, he'd made it up the ridge and was preparing to throw himself at Elise.

To his side, the just killed Crusaders body refused to fall and instead, a loud roar blared out, a bright yellow light shining from the head and from no where, a new head began to form, screaming out in anger as powerful psyonics reformed his flesh.

As calm as could be however, Elise loaded another round into her rifle as the Crusader revived, bolt back, round in, bolt forward. The shot punched right through the already wounded Crusaders chest again and finished him off, his dying gurgles dribbling out and his body crashing to the floor with a loud thump as the other one finished reforming, head fully complete, although helmet-less. He gripped his sword and charged right at the girl with pure aggression pumping through his veins, Elise whipped out her revolver and quickly fired a couple of shots, one glancing his head and the other impacting a shoulder blade.

He swung for her neck in a massive horizontal swipe, looking for a clean decapitation, but his blade swept over her as she ducked, taking aim again, another revolver round thumped from the barrel loudly and thunk'd cleanly into his forehead, swiftly ending the assault. The other Crusader did not revive, leaving Elise alone with the two dead armoured behemoths.

“Scum, utter scum.” She quickly returned to the bike, holstering the rifle and revolver appropriately. She was half way to sitting on the bike but she quickly stood, ran over to one of the Crusader corpses and gave it a couple of solid kicks to vent some frustration, but then returned to the bike swiftly and carried on towards her camp.

There were no survivors at Whetstone.

Her escape from Ironwest had not gone unnoticed, peering just behind the horizon and eagerly searching, another Pyre was hunting after her, a significant following of Flares were shambling around behind it, slowly scouring the land for any trace of her, they did not appreciate her handling of one of their own and were keen to exact justice upon her. Although much slower than her on her bike, this Pyre was walking at a decent pace, its many heads and eyes watching the landscape and just catching site of a moving dust cloud, although Elise wouldn't know it, the chase was on.

Her journey back to the camp was uneventful, if completely maddening, but now wasn't the time to be mad, getting her people to safety was of utmost importance. The camp had a decent height metal mesh fence around its perimeter, a ship pad just down the road and was otherwise just a collection of oddly shaped caravans that had been turned into a minor settlement, this was completely off-grid, they had their own generator, water pump and most of what was around they'd done by hand with whatever materials they could scavenge. It wasn't glamorous, but it was home, up until a few hours ago anyway.

Elise skidded into the middle of the camp, bringing the bike to a stop and taking in what had been done. They were behind schedule. From behind one of the material sheds, a small, awkward looking fox man stumbled out, looking around in a confused fashion, he was skinny and wirey, with bright orange and white fur, with keen lime eyes that portrayed a significant intellect to him, dressed currently in a tanker coat and scruffy jeans.

“*BUTT-FUCK THIS BAD BOY* Ah shit shit shit... where did I put that-”

“Skiff!” Elise called out, her helmet hissing loudly as she removed it and placed it on the bike. “Whats going on? This place is hardly packed at all!”

“Ah fuck! *BAD BITCH BOSS IS BACK!* E-Elise! It took us ages to convince Nem and Mare of the danger, M-mare wouldn't leave without her dagger collection, so Mags had to usher them out... Zen is getting the ship ready *CRASH AND BURN, BABY* So...”

“Are they out at least?” Elise pressed two of her fingers strongly against her brow, huffing in frustration, marching towards her own caravan.

“Y-yes. Just me here...”

“Alright. Did we get everyones meds?” The fox nodded to confirm her question, waiting for instructions. “Good. Heres the plan Skiff, i'm going to quickly pack my stuff, you got what you need too? We're not coming back so make sure you got everything you need.” He nodded again. “I'm going to leave my stuff with you, as soon as i'm done packing, you grab the shit and go.”

“*GRAB MY ASS, PANCAKES FOR DAYS, BABY!* Okay, essentials only? Then head to the ship... what are you going to do if i'm taking your stuff?” The fox ticked again, clicking his fingers as he did so, it was involuntary and Elise had instructed him not to try and suppress them, as it seemed to do far more harm than than good, but everyone at the camp knew of his condition and took no offence to any ticks of an offensive nature, not that this was an example of that.

“I'm going to grab anything tradable or sellable from the stores and bring it up on the bike, tell Zen to keep the ramp down for me. Skiff... don't get distracted... if you're not on the ship when i'm back, we likely won't have time to fetch you...” As she spoke, she pushed open the flimsy metal door to her caravan and grabbed a canvas sack, the caravan was groaning under the weight of her armour, she would never have worn it in here but it didn't exactly matter at this point. This had been her home for god knows how many years, stapled together lovingly by the people here for her, hand built shelves were lined with heart felt gifts, pictures of her and the crew together... she quickly packed them into the bag and stepped over to her bed, a rickety but comfy construction, they'd managed to find a rather high quality mattress a couple of years ago and gifted it to her for all the work she'd done around the camp, replacing the cardboard thin one she had previously, she adored it but it was replaceable, no way of bringing it at this point.

Her bedside table however contained memories that weren't so easily replaced. A worn, beaten and old diary, that was tapped shut was the first item on the list. A faintly glowing, ornate ring gifted to her was another, there was some instructions regarding her rifle, armour and bike that were important too so those were snatched up and hastily shoved into the bag... she stopped and looked around the room, it felt unreal. Just yesterday, this place was safe and homely, or at least it was to her... now they were running for their lives, death peering over the horizon, corpses of the stubborn or unlucky piling up behind them. The clock was ticking and it weighed heavily upon her every action, despite her calm exterior.

She did another quick sweep of her room, grabbing some snacks and anything else in arms reach, filling the bag to a reasonable degree. She took a deep breath, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes as she said goodbye to the rickety metal shack and stepped out into the bitter, moist air of the camp. Skiff was waiting for her, with his own bag already in hand which was rattling loudly with every small movement he took.

“Remember what I said, Skiff. I want to see you on that ship when I arrive, no detours.” She handed the bag to him and he nodded again, clutching Elise's bag closely and quickly dashing off towards the ship pad down the road.

Elise however headed further in to the camp, towards a hatch on the floor, which she pulled open to reveal a narrow staircase, it was only a few steps down until it reached a room which was organised by herself, this was an underground material store the camp used for keeping things out of the weather, anything from raw timber, to metal ore and refined produce, just nothing edible.

Towards the back of the store were six black, locked containers, roughly the size of small suitcases, which Elise was hoping to bring, they would make the journey ahead much easier... unfortunately for her, these were also rather heavy and for the sake of not tripping over in her armour, she grabbed one in each hand and made her way back up the stairs and towards the bike, she had mag stores on the back of the bike and the containers fit onto those perfectly.

It was a couple of minutes walk back and forth, she would have brought the bike closer but the camp was not built on flat ground and it was difficult to move it further in without risking damage to its tires. She hurried back and further two containers, the return journey still quiet, although anxiety filled.

She returned one final time, disappearing into the darkness of the store and heading to the back of the room, hauling the final containers up, but a shuddering, piercing screech sounded loudly as she did so. Cautiously, she walked out of the store, containers in hand and looked out around the camp...

Just down the road from where she'd arrived, a towering figure stood, the grass under it had been burned away by its presence, the rocks around it were glowing bright orange as it stood, heat saturating the air. A body more akin to wax than flesh, moving faces of fury and anger looked over the surroundings, this Pyre was absolutely gigantic, dwarfing the last one Elise managed to kill.

“COME OUT, WOMAN!” It bellowed, voice booming and angry. Unlike the previous one, this ones many mouths spoke together, its many vocal parts swam around its titanic form with a nauseating slickness. “LET THE FIRE BURN YOUR SINS CLEAN. LET ME HELP YOU.”