Darkness Falz
by
M_BlackHawk

Chapter 1:

It had been several days since the death of Zoke Miyama to his former student, Shane Dansen. Since then, Mike BlackHawk and his family had been continuing their work, investigating the ancient Ruins underneath Ragol's surface.

Lara awoke on this particular morning, to find her husband sharpening his katana with a whetstone. "Is something wrong?" she asks, "I've never seen you up this early, or this nervous."

"There was a message for us this morning," Mike explains, "From Principal Tyrell, and the Guildmaster of the Hunter's Guild. We've taken some heavy losses from some creature in the ruins. Three teams have tried to take down this beast, but none have returned."

"My word," Lara thinks out loud, "Tyrell wants us to deal with it, doesn't he?"

"Yes," the HUmar sword master answers, "We'll be teamed with another hunter, and a force for this mission. We're to meet our partners at Tyrell's office this afternoon. There are already operations underway in the ruins to sweep the entire area, and clear it out for us."

"Anyone we know on these operations?"

"Maya's already left. I also got a call from Willem at Angelus Manor. Seifer and Diego are in the ruins, with Dash, Cajun, Necron and Striker. I just hope we've got the strength to deal with this."

"Who can we leave Jessica with?" the HUnewearl wonders, "She surely won't be ok while we're off fighting."

"Amelia didn't go with Seifer," BlackHawk tells his wife, "She'll be here in an hour. I'm thinking of taking Dad's saber into battle."

"The Elysion?"

"If this situation is as grave as Tyrell says, we may need it."

"I understand." After that exchange, Lara gets up and gets her gear ready. She and Mike go to their weapons cache and each get a Varista for a sidearm, while Mike takes his father's saber, the Elysion, and his katana. Lara decides on a Vjaya partisan, and her twin brand, which she puts on her belt.

Two hours later, the BlackHawks are standing at Tyrell's desk, along with their partners. One of them is a young looking newman force, named Buffy. Lara had worked with this one before, on training missions in the "Endless Nightmare" VR sims. Buffy carried her favorite wand, the Twinkle Star. The other was a HUnewearl with light blue hair. She carried an Imperial Pick, with a saber on one side of her belt, and a Geist Raygun on the other. Her name is IceDrop. All four hunters awaited word from the Principal.

"The situation is as grave as we had suspected," the Principal advises the hunters, "We sent another team in last night, before we called you four. We lost contact with them after 90 minutes from contact with the creature. We have no idea what we're dealing with, except for some message pods that my daughter had left. This creature is apparently a consciousness. It has no body. Rico happens to think that this beast is some Lord of Destruction that resurrects in a millennial cycle."

"I see," Mike answers, "What else do we know about this thing?"

"Not much," Tyrell tells the HUmar, "We don't even have any visual data on this thing for analysis. I hate to send you four in blind, but you're the best we've got. Mike, I also heard that the swordsman you faced in the ruins days ago may still be in there. Be careful." After hearing that news, Mike's eyes narrow.

"Mike," Tyrell says, concluding his statement, "Since you're the most experienced among this team, I'm putting you in command. I do hope you all come out of this alive. Good luck, and good hunting."

The team of hunters give the Principal a nod, and then head out for the teleporter leading to the ruins. Not knowing exactly what they're up against, these four now face the challenge of a lifetime in a creature infinately stronger than all of them.

The Hunter's Guild has had operations going in shifts, keeping the monster population in check, until the party assigned by Principal Tyrell can get to their destination. Then, the hunters would retreat to a location assigned by the guild, and telepipe back to Pioneer 2, to await the news of the creature's demise.

Rifle blasts zinged past the head of a dimenian, impacting into the legs of a Delsaber. Her HUcast partner, assigned by the Hunter's Guild took a swipe of his partisan, slashing several of the dimenian hoardes into oblivion. A Chaos sorcerer appeared, only to be blasted by a Grants from the FOmar in this particular party.

"If this keeps up," Maya thinks to herself, "We should survive long enough to see this creature killed."

"I hope so," the huge, dark blue HUcast responds, "We've lost too many to that thing already. Who's supposed to be coming to deal with the creature?"

"Mike and Lara are on that mission," the RAcaseal answers, "I hear that they've got two partners assigned to them by the Guild, and the principal."

"Let's hope it's enough," Dell tells them, blasting a Foie at a chaos bringer, only to have it shot down by Maya's rifle, "If not, we're in for a world of trouble."

Elsewhere, another party is hard at work, taking down numerous monsters as quickly as they can.

"Either the monsters are getting weaker," Seifer Angelus tells his companions, "Or we've gotten a lot stronger over the past few weeks."

"I doubt these monsters are getting weaker," Cajun tells his friend, "But we've been fighting down here for a couple of hours already, and these mop-up operations are supposed to buy time for our friends to get down here and take out that creature."

Seifer checks the Photon charge on his weapon, before slicing into another delsaber. "I just hope they get here soon. We'll be running out of power before we know it."

"Just keep up the assault," Diego tells his brother, "The rest should take care of itself."

In Principal Tyrell's office, Guildmaster Tyler Clark listened to communications going on in the ruins. "It's going well, Principal," he advises Pioneer 2's governor, "The Hunters should have the ruins cleared out in time for the main party to make their assault. So far, the first two floors have been cleared, and the third is on it's way to being swept of any monster presence."

"Excellent," Tyrell responds, with his back to the guildmaster, looking out the window of his office, "I noticed BlackHawk had his father's saber, Elysion. It's strange for him to be carrying both that, and his normal katana, the Hiryu no ken, that Zoke gave him."

"Did you notice his reaction to the news of that other swordsman?"

"Yes. It could be quite interesting to see what happens. Monitor communications between the BlackHawk party. We should be in for quite a revelation."

Clark looks at Tyrell with some look of puzzlement, wondering what's going on in the principal's mind.

The final chamber before the creature's lair was filled with different creatures. Inside this room, another team of hunters takes care to clear out the monster presence. This team consists of two HUmars, and two rangers from military intelligence.

Necron slashed his way through a couple of dimenians, only to have a chaos bringer appear right behind him. It was shot down by Shiara Mano's Bravace. "Thanks," Necron tells his partner, before taking out another dimenian hoard, "These things just keep coming and coming and coming."

"But we've got to keep up the fight," Mano answers, "Lara and her party will be here shortly. Hold on, Necron. Several marks coming this way. It's reinforcements. The other levels have been cleared."

A large number of hunters raced through the doorway, weapons at the ready. What once was a fight for survival for a team of four, became the last stand of the ruins monsters. After losing four teams to this creature, the Hunter's Guild had had enough. Emotion fueled each combatant, pushing them to stronger power, and clearing out the chamber with time to spare.

"Glad you guys could make it," Striker told the other hunters, "You all are a sight for sore eyes."

"Save it for now," IceBlink tells the other HUmar, while slashing through his opposition with his saber+75, "There's still one battle to go after this. We'll celebrate after that one's won."

"Yes, but will the BlackHawks and their partners be able to do this, though?" Capt. James Morgan asks the other hunters, "This thing has already taken out four complete teams."

"They can and will," Maya answers, "I've seen him fight more battles than you'll know, and believe me when I say, they'll win."

"I hope you're right, Maya," Maya's HUcast compatriot thinks out loud, "You sure have faith in that team."

"My faith is in Mike and Lara, Galveris," the RAcaseal reminds her partner, "I've watched them on other quests and know their strength. Besides, they have to win, and get home to Jessie."

Mike and Lara's team had proceeded through two different levels of the ruins, not seeing a single monster around. In his hand, Mike held the hilt of his saber, Elysion. Lara, IceDrop and Buffy watched as the HUmar activated the mystical blade. Lara's Vjaya sprung to life as she activated it's photon charge. IceDrop readied her pick, while Buffy kept the Twinkle Star close.

The team passed a long hallway, coming up on a monolith, and a message pod. Lara activated the pod to listen to the message inside. The voice was "Red Ring" Rico Tyrell's. "The door is already opened," it said, "We opened it. This may be the beginning of the end of the universe. We have to do something... We must do it. We have to defeat it now! Defeat it before that dark "thing" revives with the perfect body."

"I guess we know what we have to do," Buffy tells the team, "Rico's messages told us what this thing is."

"But if it's a consciousness," Lara replies, "How can we kill it?"

"If the other parties were able to fight it," IceDrop says calmly, "then the consciousness must have found a body."

"Good assumption," Mike responds, "We'll just have to see when we get there. I hate going in blind as much as you do, Lara, but we're already involved in this battle. We've got to win this fight, or our people will never find another homeworld."

Lara nods as the team proceeds into the next room, which is filled with Hunters. Mike, Lara, IceDrop and Buffy receive well wishes from all as they approach the doorway to the creature's lair. Waiting there are a few old friends.

"Glad you guys could get here," Seifer Angelus tells Mike, shaking his friend's hand, "Send that monster to meet its maker for us."

Mike grins, "Ok..the celebrations at your place afterwards, though." The two laugh at their exchange.

"Good luck, Lara," Diego says, "Wish I could be there with you."

Lara hugs Diego, "You guys just get out of here," she advises him, "We'll be back shortly. We'll all get together after the fight's over. Oh, make sure that Amelia doesn't need help taking care of Jessica, ok?"

"You've got it," the RAmar answers.

Lara then turns her attention to her sister, Shiara Mano. "Well, sister," she says, "I guess this is it. Wish me luck."

"I'll be with you in spirit, Lara," Shiara tells her elder sister, "Good luck, and get this thing for Riala, ok? She was on Pioneer 1."

"I will," the HUnewearl replies, "Bet on it."

"Mike," Maya advises her longtime friend, "some data analysis was done on what we did know about this creature, and about the explosion. It's supposed that this creature is responsible for the explosion at Pioneer 1's Central dome."

Mike nods, "Ok, Maya. Thanks for the information. We've got to go now."

"Come back alive," the RAcaseal says, "I'd hate to lose you and Lara in here."

Their goodbyes said, Mike, Lara and Buffy head to the transporter into the monster's lair. IceDrop is midway through the passageway to the transporter when she's stopped by a voice calling out her name. "ICEDROP!" a male voice yells. She turns around slowly noticing the icy-blue haired HUmar. "Good luck," he says, "And be sure to come back. I'd miss you." IceDrop blushes as she turns around and heads into the transporter. Already focused on the coming battle, the three other hunters don't notice IceDrop's flushed expression.

The team appears out of the transporter, into a garden. Buffy sets a Shifta and Deband on her partners as they proceed toward the massive monolith in the center of the garden. Weapons at the ready, this team now faces their most challenging battle ever.