As Fredrick cleared the way, Jay would occasionally peek at his enormous palm, within it, looking like a miniature toy made for a child, lay a full size compass.
"Ten degrees to the right!" He would call out to Fredrick, and Fredrick would shift direction accordingly. This was thanks to the fact that even with his enormous machine limps and spinning blades for hands, even Fredrick couldn't slice through the thick trunks of the giants that towered over them.
Once in a while, a shadow would pass over the small group, as Ying swooped by, and Zac would sweat nervously, as he remembered the man's intense stare.
'Does he know something? Are they taking me to a lab?' Now that he was relatively idle, just following in Frederick's footsteps, suspicious thoughts were stirring in Zac's mind.
'No, they wouldn't! They're here to rescue us, right.' Zac's thoughts flipped back and forth about the Augmented.
He desperately wanted to ask them about their affiliation, but was struggling to work up the courage, since he had only heard fragments of comments about the ITC while in his wolf form.
'If I ask, they might know that I'm the same person as the wolf hybrid, then they'll definitely sell me out! My ability is strange enough that they'd get some sort of reward!' Having spent an entire year in isolation, only going out to work or buy groceries, Zac's mind was filled with negativity.
But it was thanks to Mary, that Zac didn't continue down the dark spiral of thoughts that he was slowly drifting down.
"Why do you do this? Why do you come in here, risking your lives, to save a few people?" Mary's shaky voice piped up as Fredrick was leading them around a particularly large trunk.
It was Jay who replied from behind them, his impossibly deep voice booming over the whirring of Fredrick's hands.
"This is what we were made for. Literally. In the first days of the Transition, we volunteered to have our bodies remodeled, to risk our lives to become something that protect humanity. This was long before powerful Augmented lived glamorous lives in the spotlight. This was when we were the mutants, the frankensteins and the freaks." Jay's tone was filled with sadness.
"Soon enough, new methods were created, and new Augmented were built to replace us, but we weren't willing to be shoved aside and become errand boys for the ITC, or to go and work for the highest bidder." Jay paused for a moment, thinking over what he was saying, remembering Ying's earlier scolding, but decided to continue speaking.
"This is what we choose to do, as relics of the past. We're willing to risk our lives, while the sanctioned Augmented are not. That's why we are here, and they aren't." Jay's voice trailed off, and Mary looked back at him, her eyes wide, filled with confusion, admiration, and surprise.
"So, how do you all live, day to day, I mean?" Zac tried to ask about how they earned money in a roundabout way. This was quite the sensitive subject, and though Zac tried to be subtle, what he was asking was clear.
This was thanks to the fact that Mary's earlier question about kidnapping, and Zac's fear of being sold off to a lab, were very real.
For the changes that came with Transition Zones weren't only positive ones, excluding the danger and death that came with the initial transition, there were the scum that preyed on the survivors.
With Magical Beasts and dangerous terrain, it wasn't uncommon for many people to simply disappear within the zones, especially those caught up in the initial Transition.
But there were also those who disappeared at the hands of mercenary Augmented, hired by human traffickers to kidnap prime targets within the zone.
Those that disappeared, would be written off as casualties of the Transition. As for the ITC, they cared little for the small blips in their statistics.
"Kid. I know you're afraid, and it's only because we're unknown to you that you're asking. Otherwise, I would have taken offense at that question." Jay rumbled, the slightest tinge of anger in his voice causing Zac to drip with cold sweat.
"We live off of pensions, paid out when we were 'retired.' It's not much, but it's enough to eat and sleep. We live in apartments not so different from yours, you know?" Jay's voice lightened up, as he realized he may have scared the scrawny young teen.
"Sometimes, people we've saved end up being family of wealthy individuals, and we'll get a gift of cash from them, but that's no replacement for a stable income." Jay shrugged, before continuing. "At the end of the day, we're doing what we believe in, and that's what counts."
Zac was left in stunned silence at Jay's words, here he had been thinking about his lavish new life as an Augmented, while this man speaking with him told him all about how he and his comrades, who could live well as employees for an industrial corporation dealing with Transition Zones, willingly lived a impoverished life like his.
"You have my adm-" Zac started to say, turning to look at Jay over his shoulder with a respectful expression, but was cut off by a shrill whistle.
"Everyone! Huddle together, now. Backs against this tree right here," Frederick rapidly barked out commands, and the survivors huddled together, quickly following his orders, scared expressions on their faces.