Step One

[Albert Wesker]

It was another hour and change, by count of his watch, when Wesker's boots finally stepped into the shadow of the cleft canyon in the mountainside. As he stepped forward into the canyon, he cast his eyes around warily and curiously. "Keep your weapon handy, Mister Death..." he said quietly. "Just in case we encounter something...dangerous."

"If we encounter anything at all..." HUNK grumbled. But over the particulate-laden wind howling across the mouth of the canyon, the faint clatter and click of him checking the safety and ammunition status of his firearms could be heard. "Damn...all this ash and grit has gone a number on this thing...would've been a mess if I tried to fire without a little cleaning."

Inwardly, Wesker smirked faintly. "Well, I suppose it's good you checked, then. Wouldn't want you blowing up from a faulty weapon, now." Truth be told, he was doubtful if even his own weapon exploding would be enough to even slow down someone like Agent HUNK. The man had survived a mutated William Birkin, and an infected Raccoon City, along with all the dangers it had had to throw at him. A little thing like a firearm explosion didn't even register compared to that. It would take something far more grandiose to kill a man like him. Whether he just had the devil's luck, or was just that good, no one had ever figured out...though no one had really cared to look too deeply into it. He had gotten results, and that was all that mattered in the eyes of Umbrella's upper crust.

They had scarcely gone another dozen paces, the structure of the dwellings they had spied out before just becoming clear, when a deep, rumbling voice bellowed from up above. "Whoa, there, outsiders!" And a moment later, the ground trembled as what appeared to be a boulder nearly the height of a man dropped out of the air. Ash and dirt plumed into the air, the two outsiders recoiling in surprise. Rising up from the impact site, the boulder unfurled, a pair of arms capped with huge hands planting themselves in the dirt and heaving up a torso that would have looked more at home on a barrel than anything living. Short, stocky legs thudded to ground to support the creature as it stood up fully. Rock-crusted tree trunk arms slowly folded over a torso covered in enough muscle to embarrass the likes of Chris Redfield. Deep eyes, shining a dark blue color, peered warily down at the two visitors from under thick, bushy eyebrows. "This is Goron territory! What business do you have, here?"

The narrowed eyes, and harshly-worded speech of the giant rock creature made it clear enough to Wesker: while they wouldn't be stopped from going in, they weren't exactly welcome here by any means. Still...the entrance of the creature had certainly left an impression. And it brought all manner of ideas to mind, the inner scientist dwelling in the recesses of his mind rising from years of slumber with a manic start.

Doing his best to remain civil, Wesker coughed to clear his throat, before reaching up to adjust his sunglasses. "My apologies...I had no intention of trespassing. I've just newly arrived to this place and got lost traversing this..." He waved a hand absently at the lava-spewing landscape behind him. "...hellscape. My associate and I are extremely exhausted, and rather ill-supplied to continue going on for much longer. We happened to spy this place from a distance, and though it might offer some shelter from the elements where we could rest for a while, to regain some strength."

The weight of the Goron's stare was almost overbearing as it drilled into the former executive, his stony features betraying nothing of his mind's working. He seemed to be working up to something, when another voice hollered from further within the village, and the sound of tumbling earth sounded. Another boulder came rolling and thundering toward them, skidding to a stop and unfurling into another Goron; shorter and not as overtly muscular as the one from on high, but much stockier and broader. "What's the commotion here, Brother?" he rumbled, looking from Wesker, to HUNK, and back to his associate.

Boulderfall just grunted. "Two outsiders here...got lost in the Steppes. Came here looking for shelter."

Roller Derby planted hands on his hips, peering at the two new arrivals with every ounce of intensity his fellow had just moments before. "....hrmm. Don't trust 'em. They look shifty," he finally announced.

"Aye. I agree with you, Brother," the tumbling thunder rumbled, with a nod of his rocky head. "...but it's going to rain out there, soon. It'd be a near death sentence to send them away into that."

"....hrrrmmm..." The rolling stone grumbled and grumped, tapping one foot on the ground with a noise like hammer and anvil. "...fine," he finally stated. "Let them in. They can stay until the storm passes. Just keep an eye on them." And without another word, he dropped back to the ground, curling into his boulder state, and tumbled into a roll, thundering away with surprising speed.

The majestic crashing brick watched him go, before turning back to Wesker with a disgruntled stare. "Right...we're in the middle of packing to head off to another site to make our home for the next little while, so things will be busy around here. But like was stated, you're free to use the canyon here as shelter from the elements. Be mindful of the rain, take shelter from it where you can. It's liable to eat you alive if you don't." And with that he, too, tucked himself into a boulderball and trundled away, deeper into the camp.

"....I feel like I just had a fever dream," HUNK stated, breaking his silence since they had arrived.