Friday 2. Waking up that Friday, the day before still didn't feel real. Mike, the Phoenix, the volcano and the car, all of it felt like some sort of haze in my mind when I woke up that morning. But looking out of my window, the car was still there in the driveway, and I could finally process the day before properly. By time I'd properly accepted that, it was already almost midday, and I didn't feel like there was any point whatsoever in going to college. In fact, there was only one place I felt like I could be, and that was at work with Eva. At least I could drive over there now.
Parking outside the statue for the first time, I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth the vehicle drove. Gone were the days of being forced to ride with Sid or Randy; now I had my own car to drive and I could stay as far away from Randy's vehicle as I wanted to! I descended into the base, with Eva working on the transporter as I got down there.
"Michael, you're early today!" Eva began chipperly, turning towards me with a smile. "Glad you're here actually, Sid and Randy are in the back taking care of some of the cryptids and I've been making sure this thing works more safely for us in the future. All help is appreciated right now, it's a busy day!"
Something about her demeanour seemed a little off to me, but I couldn't exactly place what.
"Eva, have you even slept since yesterday?" I asked, concernedly.
"What, of course I have!" Eva replied unconvincingly, before changing the subject. "Anyway, the Phoenix is currently in one of the empty enclosures, but I'll fetch him out for you in a second. Sorry that we didn't get to attempt capturing the Death Worm yesterday but you seem to have bonded well enough with that Phoenix. So, do you fancy taking him home?"
I hadn't been awake long enough to answer a question like this properly.
"Sure?" I replied, wide eyed and caught off guard.
"Great!" Eva replied, clapping. "Then the next point of contention is it's name!"
Eva's top hat from yesterday became a useful receptacle for folded slips of paper with potential names for the Phoenix written on them, provided by myself, Eva, and the two other members of the team. There was about three from each of us, as far as I could tell, and it was about time to draw.
"You okay with this plan then?" Eva asked me as I nodded back intently.
"Yeah, let's make this a group effort!"
Plunging my hand into the hat, I pulled out one quickly folded sliver of paper. As I unfolded the name, I could straight away tell from the handwriting who wrote it.
"And the winner is... Seth!" I replied, to some mild applause from Eva. Even if the handwriting hadn't given it away, Randy's face certainly had.
"It's a name from a... thing that I watched." Randy sheepishly replied. "But it fits really well, I swear!"
"More importantly," Eva interjected, "are you happy with the name Exo?"
"Yeah, I am." I replied with certainty, turning to the perched bird. "Welcome to the team, Seth. Officially."
"Now!" Eva smiled, clapping and taking her typical mission-giving stance. "Before anything else, I think it's time to give Seth his trial run!"
The three of us taking our positions, Eva began to spell out what we'd be doing today.
"New Jersey, Musconetcong River. Any guesses before we continue?"
Nobody else answered. I shrugged and gave a tentative reply.
"The, uh, Jersey Devil?"
"Not quite, but I love the enthusiasm!" Eva replied, snapping her fingers at me. "No, today's focus is on a strange bug-eyed amalgamation known locally as the Mantis Man! Eight foot tall, described as mottled brown or green, with a nasty temperament!"
"Sounds fun." Sid dryly replied.
"And that's without even mentioning the bone-snapping claws and the chromatophoric camouflage!" Eva continued, appearing now mildly manic. "But, hey, that's fine! You'll be fine, right, Exo! I mean, you killed a Cherufe, what's an eight foot tall bug person to you now!"
Before I could interject, Eva had turned to leave the room.
"Sid, Randy, start packing for a riverside stakeout. Exo, you're with me whilst I give you a crash course in Phoenix care!"
Shrugging, and with Seth perching back on my arm ready, I followed Eva to the next room.
"So, Exo." Eva began to explain, pulling me into a side room decked out to look like a falconer had started squatting in the base. "Since you left yesterday, I've been working on making sure that your experience as a Phoenix owner is as good as it can be! I spent some time after you left researching things you'd need to know about the cryptid-"
"So you didn't get any sleep last night." I interrupted, flatly. Eva sighed and rested her hands on my shoulders.
"Michael, I'm fine, really! Can we just move on with the crash course?"
"Alright." I agreed, approaching the leather falconry glove. "Should we start here?"
"Right. Now, I wasn't exactly sure what size gloves you wear, but I know your arms are, well... there's a reason you have bodyguards. So, I bought you the smallest size."
I would probably have been offended, except the glove was a near perfect fit. So begrudgingly, I gave her a pass in that department. Plus, it was nice to have Seth on my arm without him gouging my skin accidentally.
"Now, I've also bought you some dead rats for snacks; for Seth I mean, obviously; a great carrier cage for him that should hopefully be fireproof, a perch for the base, a perch for your home, a cat climber, since it's basically a big birdhouse with built in perches, and a squeaky rubber ball that you can bounce for him for enrichment!"
I stared blankly at Eva. Silence hung for a few seconds between us.
"I... don't think I can ever go back to the local pet shop after buying all that in one go." Eva replied, awkwardly. "But, that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make. Now onto basic care!"
Eva's speech on basic Phoenix care mostly revolved around keeping heating on at all times, making sure that Seth was never too cold, having a source of fire handy at all times (hopefully a gas stove would be fine), having a fire extinguisher at all times, and what I'd be dealing with if Seth ended up being critically injured and he needed to reborn in fire, so to speak. Just as I was starting to lose focus, Eva finally announced that we'd reached the last topic.
"Now, to conclude," Eva began, as I set Seth down on the perch, "we'll deal with the topic of bathing your Phoenix! Seth's biology means that his skin will constantly be producing an oily secretion, like a hippo, which quickly evaporates into a powder that coats the feathers. This is what allows a Phoenix to be reborn in fire, and it also helps any nicks in the skin to heal remarkably quickly. But it also needs to be washed off every week or so, like it would be in the wild, otherwise it can start to shed like dandruff and become a fire hazard. I've washed him already today, so keep that routine in mind for next week. And whatever you do, don't just pour away the water!"
"Why?" I asked, puzzled. "Is it unsafe for the environment or something?"
"The opposite, actually." Eva clarified. "When the excess water is boiled off, the remaining substance has remarkable natural healing properties. I believe you experienced them yesterday, in fact. Having a reliable source of 'Phoenix Tears' can be a game-changer for most everyday injuries! Now, I think that just about wraps everything up! Any questions?"
"I think we're good." I replied, smiling. "Also that the other two have probably been waiting for me for about half an hour, so I should probably get out there."
Meeting with the bodyguards and getting Seth in his carrier cage, we were finally ready for the mission. Standing in the transporter, I gave Eva a final look before we left.
"Eva, whilst we're gone... just try and get some rest, okay?"
Eva nodded firmly, and light engulfed the three of us as we began our search for the Mantis Man.
It wasn't an unlikely occurrence that Eva sending me on a mission would end up with me arriving submerged in ankle deep water, but it was definitely never something that any of us were pleased to find. Releasing Seth from his carrier and hanging it on the side of my backpack, all I hoped was that he wouldn't just fly off into the forest and leave us. But, to my delight, he came to a rest on my hand as he feasted on a rat carcass presented to him. We pressed forwards through the soupy riverside, with me casting Seth off and calling him back to acclimatise himself to both me, and his new name.
"You know, I think he's really liking the name Seth, don't you?" Randy noted, chuffed.
"I mean, I still think Gizzard would have been a better name." Sid added, as both Randy and I turned to him incredulously. "But I mean, Seth's, it's a good name, a solid name, yeah."
Just then, something felt off, and I held out my ungloved hand to pause the team. I couldn't tell exactly what it was, but something felt oppressive, as though we were being watched. Seth could definitely sense it too, he roused but refused to fly, staring intently at the interstice between two trees in front of us and hissing. Terrified to even confirm my own suspicions, I slowly crouched and plucked a single twig from the forest floor, holding it out. As I threw it through the air, it bounced off of something I couldn't see; before it snapped in two mid-air moments later and the perpetrator decamouflaged itself.
The Mantis Man towered above all three of us, head cocked as though sizing us up as prey. It's mandibles chattered with hideous clicks, and it's claws, edged and serrated, snapped audibly in the air. It approached us with legs as thick as tree trunks, swaying side to side as it did as though toying with us. My heart was beating out of my chest as I gave the only possible order I could to my bodyguards.
"Fall back and run, we can't fight it like this! Move it!"
Stumbling over twigs, mud and tree roots as we went, the three of us ran through the trees, Seth flying behind and past us as we fled for our lives.
"Did we lose it?" Randy shouted as we continued to run. I looked over my shoulder, seeing nothing in pursuit.
"I have no idea!" I replied, realising how stupid looking out for an invisible threat was. "Just keep running anyway!"
We ran onwards, until I couldn't anymore, with my legs cramping and my lungs on fire. Pausing for breath, we could finally process what we'd just seen, and we could make a plan.
"Right, so, what do we do?" I began, as soon as I'd stopped gasping for breath. Nobody answered, so I continued.
"Well, what do we know? One, it's a big bug, so it won't be easy to trap or snare it. Two, it's able to camouflage really damn well, and that's scary! Three, it looks like it's got a tough exoskeleton, so getting a dart in it will be a challenge."
"Any way we can break the plating?" Sid asked. "Maybe hang a log in a tree and cut it loose to hit it?"
"Too risky, we don't know how smart it is." I mused, before thinking back to the volcano. "No, breaking the armour isn't the right call here. We just have to hit where the armour isn't."
"What if we used mud?" Randy asked, as I looked at him quizzically. "Like, what if we dug a hole too deep for it to be able to escape from? We could throw mud on it in the hole, then we'd be able to see it even if it was camouflaged, and if the mud hardened it wouldn't be able to move! If it couldn't move, we could find somewhere to sink a dart."
Slowly, as Randy talked, a smile crept onto my face.
"Randy, you might just be a genius! Alright, team, let's find a place and start digging!"
Progress was slow but steady, as the three of us moved together digging into the soft ground by the riverside. The top mud was soft, but by the time we were a few feet deep it was getting tougher to dig. Seth was on lookout perched on a nearby tree, and we'd made about an hours progress before his demeanour shifted. His eyes seemed to focus, his feathers ruffled and he took off into the forest. Quick as I could, I leapt from the hole to give chase.
"What are you doing?" Sid asked, as I began to run into the forest.
"Seth's flown off, I need to catch up or we've lost our chance!" I replied, turning back for just a second. "Just... keep digging, I'll be back in a moment!"
Catching up to Seth wasn't too hard, he'd only flown a short way into the forest and was currently perched, staring daggers at a patch of space. I knew the Mantis Man was there, watching and scheming. All I could do now was check if our tactic would actually work. As I'd done with the twig, I reached down and grabbed a packed clump of mud in my hand, before throwing and impacting against a shamrock plated torso which came to view as the hideous creature roared. It swiped as I turned to flee, it's claw clanging against Seth's cage and nearly snagging me. Seth flew at the beastly Mantidae's head, distracting it long enough for me to run back towards the camp. Over my squelching footfall, I heard the sound of ripping, and Seth flying past with a shriek made me turn just quick enough to dive out of the way of a tree that the Mantis Man had flung at me, roots and all. Crawling now and covered head to toe in mud, I clambered to my feet and continued to run as it drew nearer and nearer, before I squeezed through some thinner trees and burst back into the campsite where Sid and Randy were still digging.
"We're not ready!" Sid shouted as I dashed towards the hole, which was clearly nowhere near deep enough for purpose.
"Well it is!" I shouted back, as the trees parted and the mud-covered insect pushed through with vicious fury. I circled the rim of the hole as both bodyguards clambered out of it besides me and the Mantis Man skulked closer to us. Three shots flew from my left but all bounced off the bug-eyed beast's shell. But even still, it's full focus remained on dissecting me. Even when Randy grabbed a large stick from the ground and struck it in the chest, it just swiped him aside and struck at me again as I dived backwards. Looking down with gleaming malice, it would surely have impaled me there on the ground, had an armful of mud not impacted it in the head, blinding it and knocking it to its side.
"Get up, we gotta move!" Sid shouted, pulling me to my feet as the Mantis Man flailed and stumbled to the river. Seth was trying to drag Randy's considerable weight up also, so I ran to his side to help the groaning bodyguard stand. Taking a defensive position, we stood back-to-back, before I realised a horrible truth. There was a thick cloud of mud in the clear water, and I could no longer see the Mantis Man.
"What do we do?" I asked the group in a hissed voice, the gloved arm holding Seth trembling as I scoured for any sign of the Mantis Man.
"Fall back." Sid ordered stoically, tranquilliser gun aimed and ready. "Get further into the forest, away from the water. We can start digging again there."
My heart raced, and I couldn't shake the feeling that the Mantis Man was right in front of me. Seth's head darted as his eyes scoured the water, but not even he could see the giant bug. Slowly, we moved as a unit away from the water, still vigilant and making sure not to trip at any point. My blood ran cold as I heard it- the distinctive snap of the Mantis Man's raptorials, and clearly the other two heard it too as they span on the spot ready to fire. But it was too late as I was lifted from the ground, and it became visible again, eye level with me, mandibles chattering. I felt the weight of its claw on my chest as it began to snap me clean in two.