Chapter 2 - Pox ex Machina.

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Somewhere in the thick of the Kalaragi jungle, monsters ran down a trespasser. Tigers, which resembled large wolves but with horns, three of them varied in sub species and color. They ran down, chasing Julius. He ran through, getting scraped and cut against the thorn bushes that grew between the trees. It was a maze of trees, vines and ferns, and he felt like a rat caught up in it.

Sweat flew off him as he tried to gain a farther lead, but they were catching up. In the rush of everything, he tripped, and rolled down a hill crashing into a rushing river. He couldn't escape the current as it swept him away and spit him out of a large waterfall. The tigers looked over the cliff and watched him crash in the lake below. They were hungry and decided to pursue their target.

Julius swam and climbed out of the lake, coughing out water. He was so tired and rested his head for a moment. But a moment is all the Tigers needed to race down the other way and surround him in the clearing around the lake. He saw them, crawl out from the edge of the Jungle's shadows into the moonlight. One stepped out from the pack, the leader. It growled viciously. Julius expected words to come from it but realized that wild monsters don't usually speak in human tongues. "I don't suppose that means you're inviting me over?" It leaped in and snapped at him. He avoided it rolling and climbed to his feet. Putting his hands together, the runes burned into his leather gloves glowed, he stood ready for them to come at him.

The tigers were cautious at first, but then the leader ran in to skew him on the horns. Julius focused on him. Dodging, he grabbed the neck, pinning the monster and giving him some control. The tiger gave him a spiteful look. "What? Never seen breeder gloves before?" Using his new strength Julius swung him around and made him fly. The Tigers saw their leader soar and crash into the grass. They all took note, snarling and shifting around Julius. He stood ready, watching them move around. He felt something tingle behind him, it felt familiar, and turning around he absorbed the bolts of lighting one shot from his horns, into his right glove. He dashed toward it, as the constant stream of lighting shocked his right glove and swung with his left striking the tiger into the earth, knocking it unconscious.

The other tigers came at his sides and bite down on the gloves, pinning him. The leader ran towards him, looking to sink his jaws into his neck. Relaxing his right, it slips from the glove. Released, he uses his left to drag the other tiger in his place. It worked, the leader bit into his ally instead. The pain made the tiger cry and release his hand. Not wasting any time, he knocked the one that had his right glove with his left. It was a harder hit than Julius intended, he felt his fist crash through the monster's jaw, but necessary as he pried the glove from its mouth. He had both gloves back now, and he stood before the leader. Julius felt the rage boil in the Tiger.

It shouted into the air, and many more of the pack came lurking from the wood. Their horns glowed brightly; they were going to use the horn bolts again. Julius gave a confident smile, and squatted down, ready to fly. A moment before they shot off the bolts, he jumped up and flipped, having his fists face the ground. The bolts converging and being absorbed by the gloves, he struck them down in the ground, sending a wave of lighting surging through the area. It crashed over all the pack of tigers surrounding him, knocking them down.

Finally, Julius had a moment to breath. Looking at his gloves, they were damaged beyond repair, singed into a tattered mess as his flesh became exposed. he thought back on the man who he revived from the mystery disc, his face, his brown eyes and hair, his white skin. He felt veins throb in his head. "That guy is going to be the reason I die before seeing Alice again." He grumbled. He pictured Alice's exposed bosom, from times she wore a casual dress when she wasn't working the ranch. I wanted to grab them at least once before I die. He shed a small tear, holding a fist tightly before him.

Growling resonated in the air, Julius looked up in disbelief, the tigers were getting back up. "Shiiit!" Sweat crowded his face, his heart throbbed hard and fast, he was going to die here. They pounced on Julius, tackling him to the ground, one bit into his arm, others his thighs, legs, shirt, and foot. They tugged him apart, and he cried out in pain as his flesh was torn by the teeth. He felt his left arm and foot shatter under the force of a tiger's jaws.

But before they could finish, they all heard a whistle. The tigers looked around, scanning the area. Julius was in too much pain to take notice. Then, a red and white blur, the size of a small child, came flying in. It tackled a tiger to the ground, and then before they could blink, retreated back into the shadows. Under a new threat, the tigers aimed their back to each other, forming a protective circle around the leader. Then another blur, this time blue and white, streaked past, knocking another Tiger into the air, where it seemed to disappear. The tigers moved away from Julius, and finally a yellow blur ran past, carrying him away.

A man came out of the shadows, wearing a brown akrubra hat, rimmed with sharp teeth at its base strapped by leather. He wore a sleeveless rangers vest he kept open, and ragged white tunic underneath, tucked into denim pants, with thick leather boots. He dove into his vest pocket; his biceps couldn't help but look massive. He took out a carton of cigarettes, and a box of matches from another pocket, striking one of them to light a cig between his lips. Shock set into Julius nulling the pain, letting him see the ranger clearly. "Pox! Pox I'm sorry, they ruined my gloves I couldn't…Roman has…he's got-"

"Easy there, Jay, just take a little nap, I will take care of the rest." Pox's voice was a calming sound, a reassuring one that put him as ease. Within moments, he passed out, leaving Pox and his team to fight the tigers. "Come on out and show yourselves rangers, they should be able to see you when you kick their ass, right?" the blurs came out together, revealing themselves to be a trio of Antlan rangers. They were around four feet tall, like humanoid ants, with golden crested horns that grew on their foreheads. One was blue, one was red, and the last was yellow. They all had white accented markings but wore different colored scarfs. The blue one wore a green scarf, the red one wore a black scarf, and the yellow wore a pink one.

Red gave a signal to the other two, and they went in opposite directions, surrounding the tigers. Red darted straight into the formation, and leaping above them, manifested an orb of energy which he threw at the leader. It exploded, knocking it down. Blue took two tigers from the rings, and Yellow took two more, knocking them all hard and into the air, they both met in the middle as tigers rained down as hard fleshy thuds on the ground. They were all too fast for the tigers. Some lay dead, and some were unconscious like the leader. Pox walked up to the fearsome but injured Tiger leader who couldn't get back up. He looked at Pox with heated spite, the last thing he saw was Pox putting his hands over his eyes. "Rest." His ranger's gloves glowed, and the vicious beast was sound asleep. "Red, Yellow, go get the wagon, and hurry." Red and Yellow acknowledged with nods. "Blue you're with me. Cover me while give him first aid." Blue leaped up in a nearby tree, taking overwatch. Pox took a knee beside Jay, sliding off his backpack, he reached in and took out cotton, gauze, and a tourniquet.

Before long the Zuums, bipedal green colored raptors, came pulling the wagon. The Antlans helped Pox lay the unconscious Julius down into the wagon. Pox and the rangers climbed in with him. "Take us to Ryuwn, and hurry! The kid doesn't have much time!" with that, the Zuum's ran. They eventually found the path out of the jungle and got to top speed. The city of Ryuwn was the capital of the nettle kingdom and it sat on a peninsula, a finger of the mainland where Toggle was, north-west of it. Kalargai jungle eclipsed the mainland, dipping in slightly, but fading as you went further south into the peninsula. Ryuwn wasn't too far from the edge of the jungle. The city was an hour away on horseback, but they had Zuum's, monsters known for their speed. They managed to reach the hospital in Ryuwn, in a third of the time.