The Chameleon Loop

One hundred people lined up beneath the shade of an ancient redwood tree, taking cover from the beating California sunshine. Six Abrams tanks had their double cannon turrets aimed over the concrete slab that served as the portal’s marker while a dozen shipping containers sat behind them, empty and waiting for the mana crystal bounty to be mined. In the end, it had come down to Nox, Mary-sue, and Ashley as this expedition's only hunters.

Three kill teams were apparently missing in action, roughly thirty hunters who could not be accounted for or were overdue. A casualty toll that put the entire west coast of America in a state of desperation. Several of the rangers chatted nearby, mingling with the mining teams.

“Man, my kid just tested positive, and that cockholster of a principal gave him the therapy. Damn school tried to make him a hunter.” Said a Ranger, hands resting on his slung MP-7.

“Shit, worst fucking timing ever. Governor PanicRoom Piera just signed that vaccine mandate, every kid in public education has to get jabbed with the hunter therapy.” Answered a miner from behind Nox’s field of view.

“Fuck! Just what I need, a twelve year old who can punch my balls outta my mouth. The hell is Piera thinking? Did he give a public statement?” Asked MP-7 Ranger.

“Shut your cockholsters!” Shouted Mary-sue, leaping to her feet.

Her voice was loud enough to silence all hundred people, echoing off the lowest branches and calling all attention to her. But Nox could sense the air change, becoming surprisingly pregnant with mana.

“The gate’s opening.” He said, coming to his feet and covering his ears.

All twenty rangers drew their weapons, safetys clicking off as they aimed at the concrete slab, there was nothing but clear air there. Meanwhile the miner’s bumbled to their feet, covering their ears as they started walking towards their bobcats and wheelbarrows. Most turned away from the portal, a smart move since electric blue energy crackled into being a second later. Polarizing the air with malice. Tank crews took ranging shots with their coaxial machine guns, 50 BMG rounds thundered into the distant woods, zipping through the space that began to emit a glowing sphere.

The sunlight vanished for a millisecond of eclipse, darkening the world as a bolt of lightning connected with the portal, blasting it into being. Nox’s enhanced senses were blinded by the thunder and light, forced onto one knee to avoid faceplanting. He covered his eyes and blinked rapidly, hoping for tears to clear his vision. They didn’t, not that it mattered, a second later all six Abrams unleashed hell, firing both cannons in a constant stream of depleted uranium. The coaxial guns –loaded with specialized Raufoss rounds– shrieked in anger, howling as the explosively mundane rounds impacted some portal ejection.

About a dozen rangers were deployed between the tanks, equipped with airweight RPGs. Weapons they used now. Dozens of explosions stormed into hundreds as the military defended humanity.

Ten minutes later a score of goblins lay dead. Green skin pierced, burnt, and otherwise motley against the even hue of powdered concrete. A squad of rangers approached the gate from the side, hacking through goblin heads with Mbars, just to be sure. They deployed two wire rats and drove them into the gate until their hundred foot leashes pulled taut.

“Clear!”

That was the signal everyone had been waiting for. Two tank engines roared into life, reversing their positions for the mining equipment to pass through. Eight rangers took point ahead of Nox, with four standing between him and the two female hunters. Another dozen rangers marched behind them, their grim faces expecting casualties.

“I’m Sergeant Jimenez, we’re here to keep your pretty faces clean, careful in there, you might chip a nail.” Said a squat man whose muscles reeked of testosterone and cheap tequila.

“Lead the way sarge.” Said Nox, carrying Taylor’s blue sword in one hand.

[Get dick wet] appeared over the sergeant, a prompt Nox immediately dismissed. Whatever the power was, it seemed to reveal some inner desire of everyone it appeared over. Personal details that Nox often wished he had never seen. Green camo vanished into blue lightning as the Rangers led the way, soft echoes of gunshots emitted from the portal, muffled by whatever mana permeated the dungeon.

“Sergeant Jimenez! That’s chip a nail Sir.” Shouted Mary-sue.

Her correction made the man’s eyebrows disappear into his helmet.

“Excuse me?” Snapped Jimenez, storming over to press his forehead against Mary-sue’s.

His intimidation made her roll her eyes. One hand caught hold of his belt buckle and the other took hold of his plate carrier, in the next second the sergeant’s attitude was on it’s head, held aloft by a C ranker.

“Listen here you cheeky cunt. Call us mutants or whores or whatever you like on base, but in a dungeon you need us more than we need you. My name is Sir, and don’t let me hear you slip up even once Jimenez.” Whispered Mary-sue.

Jimenez’s face looked like it was about to explode with veins bulging across his forehead, beating with the palpitations of his heart.

“Yessir.” He groaned.

At his word Mary-sue smiled, inverting him and setting him down on his feet, she made it look effortless, like a kindergartener playing with a beanie-babie.

“Good, carry on sergeant, I just had my nails done yesterday.” Said Mary-sue, holding up her right hand to show off the hot pink acrylics.

Nox chuckled, then remembered why she’d redone her nails and rolled his shoulders. Attempting to avoid the inevitable shudder that ran down his spine at the thought of radiation causing her skin and fingernails to fall off. Then he stepped through the gate, and his mana slammed to a full bar.

A dozen goblins lay around him, slain by the eight rangers who preceded him. Two rangers were down, one bleeding from a dozen arrows, and the other with both arms broken. They’d been ambushed.

“Fucking worthless wire rats.” Snapped Nox, before raising his voice. “Push forward! We’ve got healers coming behind!”

The cave around them was dark, despite the growing number of flashlights and scattered glowstones. As an E gate there wasn’t enough mana saturation to inhibit normal human optical equipment, such as flashlights, red dots, and infrared lasers. Happily allowing the rangers to enjoy all their battle rattle. Nox scattered glow stones around the tunnel, lighting the way as he and four rangers pushed deeper.

Mana crystals lined the walls and ceilings, casting ethereal wisps of blue light. Nox silently cursed them, wishing C4 wasn’t banned in this particular gate. A spark arced from a nearby cluster of crystals into one of the rangers, his muscles tensed as he experienced a mana fueled taser. His finger involuntarily tightened on the trigger, torching a round. The bullet zipped into the ground one inch behind Nox’s foot and buried itself into the stone.

The tasered ranger collapsed to his knees, dropping his MK18 short barreled rifle. “Aw fuck!”

Nox tossed a glow stone down the tunnel, watching it roll down the tunnel corridor until it encountered a fork in the tunnel.

“You alright soldier?” Asked Nox, not wanting to take his eyes off the tunnel.

“Yes sir, fucking crystal surprised me!”

“No shit sherlock.” Said another ranger, helping the tasered man to his feet.

They advanced to the fork in the dungeon and waited for the others to catch up. Silently waiting as the sounds of bobcats with jackhammer attachments began shattering the earlier mana crystals. Sending reverberations through the cavern. Thoughts of cave ins and being trapped passed from Nox’s mind into the ranger’s. Yet the cavern was solid stone, and not even dust fell from the ceiling. Nox could smell the fear leaking out of the rangers, two men with hard jawlines and tight chinstraps.

“We’ll hold here til our diviner shows up. What are your names?” Asked Nox.

“Corporal Evans Sir.” Said the point man, he’d been quiet til now, eyes forward but at ease. In simpler terms, a veteran of several dungeons.

“Specialist Jenkins Sir.”

“Private first class Garcia Sir.”

“Private first class Rogers Sir.” Said the tasered soldier.

I ask for names and they give me ranks… Thought Nox, trying not to sigh.

“Garcia, Rogers, you two reek of fear. Is this your first dungeon or something?” Asked Nox, trying to make idle conversation and coming across as a dick instead.

Both privates hesitated in answering, wanting to mouth off and insult Nox but remembering Mary-sue’s earlier display.

“Yes sir.” They said slowly, one after the other. “Yes sir.”

Their reaction hit Nox’s consciousness like a pool noodle, large, mostly painless, but vibrantly obtuse. Somehow reminding him of when he first met Nora, her bright orange shirt had made him call her ‘highlighter chick with glasses’ on accident. A memory that they would have laughed at back at camp, if Nora wasn’t dead…

Movement down the right hand tunnel caught Nox’s eye. Something had made the mana crystals flicker or maybe wink. He couldn’t be sure.

“Jenkins, aim your light down the right tunnel, you too Rogers.” Said Nox.

Two white lights shone down the right tunnel, while the two other rangers shone their light down the left side, careful to aim one light high and one light low, fully illuminating both passageways.

“Looks clear sir.”

“Hold it steady.” Said Nox, peering into the passageway.

Which did indeed appear empty. Nothing but flowers of mana crystals growing out of stone walls. Except for the single slit eye hiding behind one such outcropping. Yellow and feline, it reflected the light of both flashlights, yet that only aided it’s cover since the mana crystals also shone with the bright light.

[SURVIVE]

The prompt startled Nox, so much so that he raised his sword towards the eye. A ripple of motion on the ceiling distracted him, allowing the eye to shut and vanish.

“Are my eyes playing tricks or did that crystal just wink at me?” Asked Garcia, finger moving into the trigger guard.

“I saw it too, keep your eyes peeled. They could be hiding, or using cross tunnels, but the way they disappeared… Does anyone have thermal?” Asked Nox, praying active camouflage wasn’t real.

Then the center of the tunnel shifted refracting light like a mis-aligned optical prism. A rainbow of color flashed through the tunnel for a half second before returning to normal.

“What the fuck was that?” Asked Jenkins.

Sounds like whispering leaves echoed through the tunnel, sounding perfectly natural, as if one were in the open woods. But this was a tunnel, underground, without leaves or any breezes to drive them. Still more terrible was the fact that Nox understood the rustle, as easily as he understood english.

It whispered “thank you for bringing us food brother.”

“Jenkins, aim down the center of the tunnel and fire one round.” Snapped Nox.

Discipline dominated the Ranger’s mind, and he obeyed the order in two seconds. One second was spent aiming, the other was spent gently squeezing the trigger. The gunshot echoed through the tunnel, along with the feral shriek of something inhuman. This was no goblin, but a creature that Nox had seen before. Blue blood sprayed into the air as the bullet sent the feline dopple sprinting down the tunnel, walls shimmered as other camouflaged creatures retreated, fleeing into the darkness beyond the flashlight’s reach.

“Holy shit, what was that? How did you even see it!?” Said Jenkins, baffled by the sudden appearance of something where there should have been nothing.

“Active camouflage. A fucking shapeshifter! Corporal! Radio back, we can’t let any of those things escape!” Shouted Nox.

“This is Corporal Evans, we have confirmation of shapeshifters. Repeat, confirmation of shapeshifters over.”

The atmosphere in the tunnel suddenly changed, mining equipment stopped mid strike as the shapeshifter protocol was engaged. Every ranger had an existing battle buddy, but the miners treated the hand holding with the contempt of blue collar workers. Their loose adherence to what should have been a cardinal rule forced the rangers to drag them out of the dungeon and use the thermal optics on the tanks to assess each miner.

An hour of circus clownery later, Ashley and Mary-sue caught up to Nox with a dozen rangers and Sergeant testosterone. They carried two thermal scanners, each unit was a two man system, with the lead man carrying the emitter and the rear man operating the screen and the “dazzle array” a system of phased lasers that could be aimed and pulsed rapidly. Bright enough to blind a human, but barely strong enough to make hunters blink. But the array wasn’t a weapon, its purpose was to rapidly alter the light and burn out chromatophores, the cells that automatically changed color to create active camouflage. Nox tried not to think about the number of octopi that had been sacrificed to create such a tool.

“Hey, Ashley, can you see any of them further on?” Asked Nox, watching the rangers and the dazzle teams inch down the tunnels.

Ashley was quiet, chewing on her lip as mana circulated around her. Unlike his days as a therapy hunter, Nox could taste the flow of power, felt his skin prickle as Ashley’s divination washed past him, flowing down the left tunnel first. Mary-sue sent her own divination down the right tunnel, yet her mana was terrifying. It felt like a tiger stalking prey across Nox’s bedroom, an unstoppable tsunami of fangs and claws yet it was silent, constrained totally. Nox gagged, shuddering as his entire body tensed. And then her divination was gone, sailing past Nox harmlessly.

“You’re quaking like a leaf,is this your first raid Sir?” Growled Sergeant Jimenez.

The harsh words made Nox jump, and clutch his chest with one hand. He spun to face Jimenez, holding one finger to his lips. More whistling rebuked his desire, this time loud enough for Jimenez and the human rangers to notice the uncanny wind.

“Traitor, kill the traitor who walks with meat.” Said a voice.

Other mouths echoed the phrase, turning it into a battlecry as it grew distant.

“Dopplegangers, like the one in the labyrinth, but these ones have claws and eyes...” Muttered Mary-sue.

“I see them too, dozens of them, they’re all running deeper into the tunnel…” Said Ashley.

“You mean they’re coordinating, retreating from our advance so they can ambush us later.” Said Nox, finishing his sister’s thought.

Ashley nodded “yes”, drawing Jimenez’s ire.

“They’re beasts! Who cares if they coordinate? They’re E ranked trash, and we came prepared with your fancy hunting ammo. Rangers! Lead the way!” Ordered Jimenez, sending two teams of four down each tunnel.

Corporal Evans led his squad, but slowed, stopping to approach the place Jenkins had wounded the first dopple. He raised a fist, silently ordering his squad to halt as he searched the ground, looking for evidence of the wounded dopple. Lines as hard as the crystal around him appeared on his face.

“You won’t find anything Corporal.” Said Nox, “Dopples don’t bleed, and it’s probably already healed itself. If you get a clear shot, hit them multiple times. Keep shooting until they go down, then cut off the head and destroy the heart.”

“Yessir.” answered the four rangers.

Ashley’s divination faded, as did Mary-sue’s sending both women leaning against the tunnel walls as their senses returned. Nox supported Ashley with an arm, helping her to sit. While two rangers assisted Mary-sue, one on each hand as they practically drooled over her. If they’d been any more eager, Nox wondered if they would have knelt on their hands and feet to give Mary-sue a seat.

“There’s too much mana.” Said Ashley, face contorting as she held her head, pain crawling over her eyebrows.

“Dopples are C ranked and higher, but there were dozens of them, just running around in the open, they’ve got us outnumbered two to one on my side.” Said Mary-sue.

Her declaration confirmed Nox’s worst fears, this was a second mis-measured gate, and not by an amount that could be fudged, or chalked up to an accident. Jimenez scoffed, marching down the left passageway without a care in the world.

“That man must have testicles the size of watermelons.” Muttered Nox.

“More like a room temperature IQ. Bah, I'll follow him, remember, rotate out your soldiers, don’t let them get sick!” Shouted Mary-sue, chasing off after Jimenez.

Nox bit down on his sword, taking a moment to chamber a round in his 460 Rowland pistol, he’d been able to buy ammo from the armory on base, since the pistol was a hot rodded version of a 1911 and the caliber was similar enough. To a lay-man 460 Rowland could be described as a magnum version of 45 ACP, though its true differences of case dimensions, heeled vs non heeled brass, and nitrocellulose composition would have been more accurate descriptors. His pistol clicked into the new safariland holster on his belt, a high retention holster that could protect the pistol under dungeon conditions.

Nox led his squad to into the darkness, following behind the dazzle team. Progress was slow, and the echo of mining soon reached the rangers, fortelling of their slow progress. Yet no dopples appeared, erie silence creeping through the underground. A fork in the road appeared, and Ashley’s divination showed that one tunnel endedtwo hundred feet in.

“Do we have another dazzle team?” Asked Nox.

“No sir. We’ll have to quarantine this passageway or clear it by eye.” Answered Corporal Evans.

“Absolutely not, hold the fork, Dazzle team, let’s clear this dead end while we can.” Ordered Nox.

Four unnamed rangers accompanied the two man dazzlers, creeping forward as the array scanned and blasted potential hidden dopples. The air grew stale, reeking of ageless sweat and human waste. Stains lined the walls, which slowed them further as the rangers took time to stab each stain, unsure if it was filth or a hidden enemy.

“Whoa, we got a big head source up ahead.” Said the rearmost dazzler, eyes widening behind his glasses.

“Daddy?” Called a voice.

The single word echoed around the expanding cavern, cutting through the ranger’s armor as only their own daughter’s voice could.