A Rocky Start (open)

The howling wind brushed the ghostly pale skinned boy's bangs across his face. The sleeves of his leather jacket were wrapped tightly around his knees as he shivered a bit from the the peak he was sitting on, overlooking the deep canyon below. However, JaK didn't mind the chilling wind up here. He enjoyed the thrill and view, as did others apparently. His yellow eyes suddenly caught glimpse of some researches on a ridge just below him, digging for something. This was nothing new, he came up here often these days and witnessed many camps, hikers, and scientists searching around here for buried artifacts.

There was another who caught JaK's eye. The individual stood at an adjacent peak across from the teen. The person donned cloth robes that hid everything, including their gender from JaK's sight. The only thing that was visible was a vile held in their hand of what appeared to be some yellow liquid. This peeked JaK's interest and as he focused his keen eyes on the mystery person's other hand, he could see a wriggling worm like creature no bigger than his palm. The figure fed the vile to the wriggling worm only moments before dropping it off the side of the peak down to the cliffs below. JaK peered over and caught glimpse of the archaeologists still working on their site while searching for the worm, but to no avail.

The researchers were still unaware of JaK or this other person's presence, when a sudden rumble alerted them by jerking both JaK and the people below. After another moment a second rumble shook the entire foundation of the cliff-side, causing the people below to scream in alarm as it seemed this was the start to an upcoming quake. However, a third shake revealed that this was no earthquake, but a large monstrosity that erupted from the sandy canyon bottom and let loose a shrill shriek as it focused its attention on the trembling scientist's above.

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"What the hell?" JaK said, as he took notice of the creature and how it resembled the much smaller one he had taken witness to moments before. However, the cloaked figure that had dropped it was gone and now only this beast remained. The parasitic snake creature plunged into the ridge the scientist were digging into, barely missing them and then began to tunnel into the rock surface as if it were cardboard.

The people scattered to the canyon bottm in the brief disappearance of the giant rock snake in the hopes of escaping, but soon were cut off by the creature as it resurfaced from below them and cornered one older male. As it prepared to bore down upon him, suddenly from above the creature was knocked into the floor by something resembling a falling meteor. Upon closer inspection, the object that hit the rock snake was no rock or other type of debris, but a boy in donning bedrock like skin similar to the mesa's. It was JaK, and as he stood up he looked at the beast he had just crashed into while rubbing his head.

"Ouch. That freakin hurt." JaK said while cracking his neck and popping his shoulder back into place. "High impact is always the worst." He spoke aloud while looking over the shocked faces of the people before him. "No worries, I got it." JaK spoke reassuringly, but what didn't know was that they're shocked appearances weren't due to his daring heroics, but because of the beast's side tentacles! The creature was still alive, shown by how it's tentacle lingered just above the boy and then swatted him off of it's head with tremendous force. JaK's body went soaring into the side wall of the canyon area, causing a plethora of debris to descend upon him from the vibrations he caused upon impact. Soon getting rid of the annoyance after the monster rose it's head again and looked upon the archaeologists littered before it and wailed.

As Cynthia led most of the researcher's out of the area, the beast was still focused on the specific old one it had isolated until she called out too it. Then as rock snake turned to her it once again was dropped down upon by Metamorphi and with much more force than JaK had hit it with earlier. Afterwards a tentacle reached out for Meta as it had JaK before, but the teen floated up in the form of paper causing it's attack to miss. The beast rose up moments later, angrily howling and was met with an equally loud sonic blast from Cynthia's guitar, which knocked it over. The creature wreathed in pain before burying itself back into the ground. At the same time a hand burst from the rubble and with a feral scream JaK emerged from the debris. A scowl was eteched upon his face as he looked for the beast and rubbed his head tenderly.

"Son of a %#&$ is gonna pay for that." The yellow eyed teenager said as he surveyed the area, but found the creature had disappeared and instead another muscled boy was standing next to him and in the distance a young female was standing with a guitar. "The hell are you two supposed to be?"

The old man ran towards the young girl huffing and puffing. "Wait, please I have something to tell you of great importance. I know why this things after me, just please help m--!"  Suddenly the entire canyon wall came tumbling down towards the four of them in the form of large boulders. The creature moved through the rocky terrain like a coiling snake in grass stocking it's prey. It's slithering was causing the old rock to break apart and fall down the mountainside with crushing force.

JaK's eyes grew wide as the rocks began tumbling down towards the group and he took evasive action; leaping sideways, cartwheeling backwards, and then leaping off one large boulder onto another falling rock, which he then scaled up like a professional olympic acrobat. The teen leaped across the falling debris with the fluidity of a parkour master as he climbed the descending boulders towards his target. "Let's go you overgrown maggot!"

Suddenly, the creatures tail flew forward from the side of the mountain and struck JaK in mid-leap causing him to go spiraling through the air into the cliffside with a thunderous crash. Meanwhile, the old man who was being protected by Cynthia spoke up as she demanded. "This creature is polytechmorph. It was grown in one of our research facilities and is hybrid of dormant prehistoric dna strands and living tissue of today's worms." Suddenly the creature turned it's attention back on them and roared as it approached with furious intent. "To make a long story short, it's a grown test animal and I have a vaccine that can shrink it back to it's intended size, but I have no clue how to administer it safely."

As the snake creature approached Cynthia and the old timer her sound waves kept it held back writing in pain. However, in it's frustration it's tail came swooping over it's head to deliver an impactful swipe at the group. Although, this attack was mislead when JaK emerged yet again. This time with his armor cracked and his real skin showing underneath. He was on the side of the monster's head and punched it in what he assumed was a sensory organ or something it used to see, since it wasn't heavily armored in this area.

The creature screamed in agony and attempted to knock JaK off again with a tentacle, but the nimble teen side flipped over the horizontal swipe and landed in the same spot before ruthlessly punching the rock snake again with a flurry of right hands. "Not this time!"

"Ok, here take it. Just know you have to insert the vaccine through it's mouth so it travels through the digestive track. It's the quickest way to shrink down the Polytechmoroh." The old researcher said handing the vial to Metamorphi.

Meanwhile, the monster wriggled about trying to fling JaK off, however, he still held on with just one hand and struck the snake continuously with the other while yelling wildly. Soon the creature's tail attempted to hit JaK, but he jumped out of the way just in time and caused the beast to hit itself. Although, while in the air he was struck and pressed down by an aberrant tentacle. JaK stuggled to lift the monstrosity's appendage off of him, but he was barely able to avoid being crushed by it's heavy limb, much less move it. "URrrrrRRghhHH!! Caught between a snake and hard place all at the same time. Just my luck!"

As Metamorphi lunged the vial, suddenly the sonic disruptions caused the beast to flail and send it tail sailing forward where it knocked the vial out of the way. However, JaK held on as the creature lifted it's limb and when it hit the vial he struck back it with his foot after letting go of the tip of it's tail. The teen had seen with his keen vision that Metamorphi was trying to throw the vaccine towards the beast and knew that stuff must be a way to stop it. So JaK sent it hurtling towards Cynthia knowing that she could send it sailing towards the monster's mouth with aid of her amp. "Hey rocker chick, play it it's last rights!"

The vial flew into the beast's mouth as it writhed in agony from Cynthia's sonic attack. The vibrations of which were so strong it caused large boulders to drop from the cliff-side down into the valley. JaK covered his ears due to his current location being so close to her playing and the beast.

The creature began to shrink, inch by inch per every second the song went on. As the last note hit, the rock snake reverted back to it's normal size by Metamorphi's foot. "In hindsight, when it's not so pissed and huge. It's kinda cute."