Farkas "Bulk" Bulkmeier's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Bulk left the headquarters and kept searching. The feather burned in his pocket like a question he couldn't ignore. He moved through the wasteland following the massive prints, tracking them east through dead zones where nothing grew. The trail ended at a bunker half-buried in cracked earth. Something massive stood guard at the entrance — a creature built like a nightmare fusion of bird and machine. Metallic feathers caught the dying light, glowing eyes tracked his approach. The thing was twelve feet tall with talons that gouged deep parallel marks into the stones surrounding the entrance. Each stone bore the same deliberate claw pattern, marking territory the way an animal claims its kill. Bulk recognized the shape immediately — a Terror Bird, the kind of zord that shouldn't exist anymore. But this one moved, breathed, watched him with an intelligence that made his skin crawl. Bulk raised his hands slowly and stepped past the creature. It didn't stop him. Inside the bunker, the air tasted stale and wrong. A jacket hung on a rusted pipe near the back wall — black leather, ripped to hell, with a skull emblem painted across the front. Bulk's chest went tight. Skull had worn that jacket the day before the Fallout, back when they'd laughed about stupid pranks and self-cleaning suits. He picked it up with shaking hands. The leather was warm, recently worn. Not a relic. Evidence. The Terror Bird stepped into the doorway behind him, blocking the exit. Up close, Bulk could see where metal met flesh, where mutation had twisted something human into this mechanical horror. The creature tilted its head the exact way Skull used to when he was about to crack a joke. Bulk's throat closed. He'd spent years hunting wasteland predators, building a reputation on taking down monsters. But this wasn't a monster he could hunt. This was his best friend wearing a body that belonged in a scrapyard. The jacket slipped from his hands. He couldn't enforce justice on the only person who'd ever really known him. His entire purpose — the feared bounty hunter, the man who brought order to chaos — meant nothing when the target was Skull. Bulk stepped back toward the entrance, and the Terror Bird moved aside to let him pass.