by T5 and Danny
With that, Naecken decided to take the fight to the monster and help his new-found friend. He jumped down the gaping hole.
Danny Hearn managed to cut off a tentacle before it grabbed the manager around his waist.
Naecken landed on his feet only a couple of feet from where Turkish Stringfellow was standing. They were inside a tunnel that seemed to go on forever, sloping down into a warm, misty cavern. The headache returned, and Naecken felt the ground around him, like a living force.
Stringfellow had managed to put the monster in a confused trance, so there it was, a pile of grayish flesh with huge, thick tentacles slowly moving toward him. Shouts from above indicated that the struggle was over, and the mine was safe... for now.
Then the ground shook again. Into the tunnel a huge, reptile-like monster emerged, resembling a crocodile but at least fifteen times the size, like something out of a B-movie.
Naecken looked at Stringfellow and ruminated. What was it about the ground that made him feel like this? He reached out with his senses and felt the life force of the earth. He pinched it.
Instantly, the tunnel flowed inward and squashed the gray-tentacled monster, and Stringfellow managed to get out of the way. They looked at each other and smiled.
"You can feel it, can't you?" said Stringfellow to Naecken.
"Yes. The geomagnetic forces pulsating through the minerals... it's always been there, but I never let it into my mind." Together they concentrated.
Danny and Tobias Christopher saw the giant reptile dig its way out of the ground and stared at it, amazed.
"Now who the hell cooked this mother up?" yelled Tobias over the loud growling noises the lizard made.
Danny looked at him in surprise. "I didn't think of that. But right now let's get these two people into safety."
They took the manager and his secretary, and headed for higher ground. Danny carried the axe-wielding, skull-faced stranger over his back, while Pete Glover led the two others toward the foot of the mountain, trying to cheer them up.
"Y'know, this isn't so bad," the short, monkeylike man said with a grin. "Think like this... you'll gets somethin' out o' the insurance, and you haves the chance ta rebuilds th' place inta somethin' new and fresh... hey, b'y?"
The secretary's tears were ruining the already-nasty makeup, and Richards managed a crooked smile while wheezing and panting in the slippery and wet climb. The rain was unforgiving, and the mud was everywhere.
Below them, Naecken and Stringfellow focused their powers and created huge spikes out of the ground, which they hurled into the lizard monster.
Its dying roar deafening them all.
Stringfellow said, "It's not over yet... we must go underground and find the source of all this."
The team stood assembled, staring down the huge hole into the inky blackness of the world below the surface.
"We're going underground again?" Tobias asked.
"There'd better not be any bloody cannibals this time," Danny said.
"So, uh... who's goin' first, den?" Pete asked.
"I will. I have the best night vision out of all of us," Danny answered.
"Y'do?"
"Or, I will in a second. I think possums have excellent night vision... Hal, you hear that?"
"Yeah. Possum vision. Got it," Hal said, audible to no one but Danny.
"And claws... something that climbs a lot. I dunno, a koala or something." Danny's hands hardened into the tough black claws of the koala. "And just in case... sonar might help to find out the lay of things down there."
"So you're thinking... bat?"
"Yeah."
Danny felt his ears expand and grow, becoming like a bat's. His voice box constricted a little, as he became able to mimic a bat's high-pitched sonar screams.
He jumped down into the hole. He gripped onto the hard-packed dirt of the side wall with his claws and slowly began to descend.
Shitshitshitshitshit... Danny thought. What the hell am I doing? I'm going underground to look for the lair of a giant fucking lizard. I don't do this. This isn't me. I'm not a hero. Who knows what's down there? I can't do this.
Danny climbed back up. "Listen, guys... I... can someone go with me?"
Naecken thumped Stringfellow on the back and said, "We will follow you into darknesss. Sssorry, wrong choiccce of wordsss." He grimaced in pain, as the headache grew worse.