Editing Story:ROAD TRIP! (Warhammer High)/Part Four (section)

===Challenging the Aggro Crag===


The next morning, Jake craned his head back and stared at the near-vertical pillars of craggy basalt jutting from the snowy ground.

“Nope.”

“Pansy,” Alex scoffed.

“Nope.”  Jake pointed up at the rocks.  “Not happening.  I’m just going to go enjoy all the snow while you genii scale giant boulders.”

“Okay,” Freya said, slinging a few extra spikes into her packs.  She had forgone the cloak and Fenrisian adornments for a more practical winter jumpsuit, complete with sealed polyfiber boots.  “If you must wimp out, then far be it from me to OW!” she said as a snowball broke over her face.

Jake rubbed the snow off of his gloves.  “Hmm, I could learn to like this stuff.”

Freya wiped snowmelt from her balaclava.  “You will suffer for that,” she promised darkly.

“Doubtful.”  Jake turned to observe the massive fields of snow all around them.  The pillars jutted from their surfaces like antennae, and aside from shallow slopes around their bases, the field was largely flat.  “You go fight gravity, if you wish, I’m going to enjoy this here nice, safe, frozen water.”

“Bah, this is a light dusting,” Remilia scoffed, slapping her hands together.  The sun was beating down on them, and there wasn’t a puff of wind on the air.  The conditions were perfect.  The fact that the temperature was approaching negative twenty Celsius was the only mild problem.

Even then, ‘problem’ was subjective.  Venus, both to spite their climate and to show off, was wearing a tee shirt.  The brilliant glare of the sun off the snow drowned out color from their surroundings, making her green shirt, waterproofed climbing pants, and skintight exercise gloves glow like beacons against her obsidian skin.

She rolled a ball of snow in her hands, letting it melt against her fiery flesh.  “Hmm.  Hey, Alex, catch,” she said, whipping the ball of slurry at him just as he stooped to pick up his climbing gear.

The ball splattered against his arm, and he yelped.  “Gah!  Hey, come on, we’re about to ascend here!”

“You can wait,” she said, rolling another.  She cocked her arm back to throw.

'''*splat*'''

She staggered and lost her ammunition as Freya avenged her fallen boyfriend.  “Ever had a snow fight with an iceworlder?” she growled, scooping up another round.

Remilia knelt in the thigh-deep snow, driving her leg in an arc to kick an impromptu pit in the ground.  She leaned in and packed a ball, chucking it at Venus with all her might.

“Ow!  What is this, two-versus-one?” Venus said, ducking against the barrage.

“Three-versus-two,” Alex shouted, dumping an armful of snow on Remilia’s head.

She squealed and fumbled out of her firing pit, as Alex tore off, laughing hysterically.  She took aim at his retreating backside when another one whiffed past her head.  Remilia turned to spot her attacker and took another one right in the chest.

“Yes!  Ah ha ha ha, yes!  The timing was the best part!” Venus crowed.  Seconds later, she had to duck as a furious missile from Remilia’s firing pit tore past her.

“You’re all just mad because I have the best camo!” Jake said, tossing another ball at Freya, who dodged it with ease.

“Sun-starved skin does not count as camo, that’s clearly just a paint scheme!” Freya retorted, catching him square in the stomach.  He pitched backwards in the snow, sending up a flurry of fresh flakes where he landed.

Alex lunged at her from behind, caked in snow from his ‘stealthy’ approach.  She neatly sidestepped, sending him face-first into the white.  He coughed, then went still as her shadow loomed over him.  “Oh no.”

“Just remember this, Alex, you’re the one who made this full-contact,” she giggled, popping her knuckles with simmering faux-menace.

A black and green ball and streamer slammed into her.  She barked in surprise and shock as she fell into the snow.  She blew some out of her mouth as Venus doubled over, laughing her head off.

Freya snarled and clawed her way up, but Venus was already backing up, rolling a snowball with both hands.  Freya dropped into a crouch and leaped, propelling herself at her cousin.  Venus threw herself forwards, under her cousin’s jump, and rolled away as Freya thudded into the snow, looking for purchase.  Alex scrambled back up and rolled another ball, seeking a target.

Remilia wiped snow off of her ski goggles from a lucky shot from Jake as the solitary Grey Hunter who had volunteered to watch over them shook his head.  “Nice to see you all taking to the climate,” he said.

“You kiddin’?  This is home, for me,” Remilia said, packing a massive snowball.  Jake spotted her assembling her missile and took off running, his breath coming in misty bursts as he ran away.  She raised her frosty weapon and tossed it, not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to send him face-first into the snowbanks.

Jake popped up, glaring.  Then he shielded his eyes from the sudden burst of white light that assaulted him.  “Hang on, guys, time out,” he called, waving his hands around at snow-level.

“What’s wrong?” Freya called, halfway through pelting her boyfriend.

“My sunglasses fell off,” Jake called.

“There, Lord Seager,” the Wolf called out, pointing into the glare.  Jake felt his way over and gingerly groped around in the snow until his fingers touched plastic.

“Thanks, Lord Hasskald,” Jake called, sliding his sunglasses back on with a sigh.  “They were a parting gift from my parents, I’d feel terrible if I left them out here,” he added.

“Perhaps you should leave them here and wear goggles in the future,” the Wolf said as Jake walked closer.

“I think I should,” Jake said.  The others had all dropped on the snow, panting.  Jake himself was feeling a bit giddy from the exertion.  “This snow stuff is fucking awesome.”

Hasskald laughed aloud.  “So glad you approve, Lord,” he said.  His voice had the rich and hearty tones of a man in his element.  “They didn’t have snow on Terra?”

“They had the kind of lethargic, uninterested snow one expects from a weather machine several hundred kilometers away,” Jake said, loosening the collar of his white thermo jacket.  “Never more than a few inches deep, since they didn’t want to make the roads un-drivable.”

“A few inches?  Un-drivable?  What kind of weak drivers do they have on Terra?” Hasskald asked, amused.

“Terran ones, Lord,” Jake chuckled.

“Probably.”  Hasskald crouched in the snow, watching Remilia and Freya limber up for their climb.  “At least those two seem to know how to use safety clamps on a climbing surface.”  He glanced over at Venus, who was wiping the steaming snow off of her bare arms.  “Princess Venus isn’t as experienced, I can see.”

“I haven’t asked.”

“She’s going to break her legs if she climbs with the clamps like that,” Hasskald sighed, standing up and walking over.  His power armor ate up the distance in seconds, leaving Jake struggling in his footsteps.

He halted beside Venus.  “My Lady, please refasten your clamps a bit,” he said, pointing at where Venus had arranged her carabiners and climbing clamps.  “If you lose footing up there, your legs could break with the clamps arranged as they are,” he said.

She glanced down.  “Oh.”  She adjusted her equipment.  “Like this?”

“No.”  Hasskald knelt and gently moved the fastener on the rope feed.  “Like so.  Spread the weight out.”

“Ah, I get it,” Venus said.  “Thanks.”  She fixed the misfed rope clamp and hefted a hammer.  “Thanks, Brother.”

“Are you certain you don’t need more…robust clothing, my Lady?” Hasskald asked.

Venus shook her head.  “No, thanks, this is fine.”  She lifted a handful of snow and held it on her bare fingertips.  In moments, it was melting down between her fingers.  “If we’re not approaching a blizzard at midnight, I won’t even feel it,” she said.  She flicked the moisture away and started hammering a spike into the rocks.

Hasskald backed up, nodding.  “As you wish.”  He took a step to the side to see how Freya was doing.  “A day for it, eh, Sister?” he called.

“Couldn’t have prayed for better weather,” Freya yelled back.  Hasskald smiled.

“It’s a joy to see her taking to her world like this,” he said.

“I bet,” Jake said.  He sat down at the base of the pillar Venus had started up.  “Do you climb?” he asked his towering host.

“In my youth, for sport.  Time took the appeal away for me,” Hasskald said.

He glanced over to where signs of the impromptu snow fight had disrupted the flat snow fields.  “Tell me, Lord, what are your own plans for after this sojourn?”

Jake struggled to his feet, brushing snow off his pants.  “Well, I’m headed off to college.  Kouthry Technical, on Terra.  Venus and two of her cousins are going to be there too.”

“I see.  Do you have any aspirations towards the military?” Hasskald asked, leaning against the pillar.  He dwarfed Jake in his Power Armor, but was clearly trying to project a casual air.

“I don’t, really.  I don’t think I would fit in.”  Jake shrugged.  “I understand that that’s not a choice Fenrisians get to make, but it’s not the life I want to live.  I had a few friends in high school who have enlisted, though.  Praetor Field Artillery and some of the more esoteric Terran Army units.”

“Good on them, then.”  Hasskald grinned broadly, showing his enlarged fangs.  They were easily twice the size of Freya’s.  Then, Hasskald was probably three hundred years old.  “Don’t think we all resent those whose lifestyles are more peaceful, lad.”

“Some of the Rout seem to,” Jake said.

“The Rout?  Hah!  I suppose Sister Freya said to call us that?” Hasskald chuckled.  “Well, ignore the naysayers.”

Jake looked at him, suddenly nervous.  “Should I not call you that?”

“No, go ahead, it’s more respectful than ‘Space Wolves,’ certainly,” Hasskald said.

“All right.  Really, it’s more of a general feeling of resentment than any single comment,” Jake said.  “When we were gearing up today, the armorer we spoke to was downright cold to all of us except Freya.”

“Armorers hate parting with their precious gear, lad, I suspect that’s as true on Fenris as it is Mundus Planus, Terra, or Prospero,” Hasskald said.  “Why do you not climb with the others?”

“Frankly, Lord, I’m distracted enough by the fact that there’s snow everywhere, I’d rather not argue with gravity too,” Jake said.  “You know, lest I lose.”