The Paradox Zone
When they exited the portal, the BF5 were momentarily struck by the fact there was absolutely no natural light to be found; the only light that illuminated their surroundings was what came through the portal. With the few seconds they had before they were plunged into darkness, Agura examined their surroundings. The Battlezone – or at least the few yards she could see of it – seemed to be dominated by a circular wall, seemingly made out of metal or a black, obsidian-like stone; then the portal sealed and they were plunged into this shadow world.
A pause that lasted a few heartbeats was broken by Choza's voice over the comm. "Turn on your headlights," she said quietly.
The humans obliged, grateful for the excuse to relieve their eyes of their misery. The cave darkness had been making red dots appear in their vision, yet they had hesitated, since they feared that doing something obvious would trigger some unknown danger.
The lights made the Black Diad, mounted on her Shifter in front of them, come very much into view. In the glare, she was peering into the darkness and at the wall in front of them, like she was seeing some pattern none of the humans could discern. When they all began looking around, Sherman noticed that there were random surges of light beyond the beams, like sparklers or fireworks, but they vanished before he and his older brother were able to scan them.
"What is this place?" Zoom asked nervously, taking off his helmet for better side vision.
"The Keymasters called this place the Paradox Zone," came the reply. "My kind call it the Dark Zone because of the way it appeared when changing its appearance, according to the wills of those controlling it. Metaturra was the one who called it the Paradox Zone, because of its contradicting functions."Almost absently, she began to recite a sort of riddle or rhyme. "It is one thing, yet it is many. It exists in the Multiverse, yet it does not. It is a place of life and death, luxury and poverty, learning and ignorance.
"Its' not elegant, but it describes the Paradox," she finished, shrugging her slim shoulders. "Normally, the Zone is used for a training Zone for recruits learning to create Battlezones, but it can also be a refuge for the ones that need it … or a place where the worst of the worst are executed, the ones the Krypt Zone cannot contain."
As they had spoken, the darkness had slowly risen away from the area, allowing the BF5 to switch off their headlights as they observed the new surroundings. To the Humans, they resembled the ruins of Modulon 5 – a few Agis Guardians (or rather, what was left of them) could be seen dotting the landscape of scarred and toppled, tan skyscrapers. The center structure was the sole undamaged building – a giant dome, one that the Superbowl might be hosted in (at least, that was what Vert was comparing it to).
"Uh, are you sure we haven't gotten here too late?" Spinner asked, despite the fact he knew the portal for this Zone had only been opened minutes earlier.
Choza shook her head. "The Sanctuary version of the Paradox Zone always looks like this. Besides, the Phoenix glyph on that obelisk" – she punctuated her sentence by indicating a nearby pillar, where a carving of that bird glowed blue – "has not turned red. It is blue; therefore, no one has penetrated the Sanctuary yet. My Mistress will be waiting inside the dome for us."
With that, Choza revved the Shifter and tore off into the Zone. It took a moment for the others to follow suit, but soon they were all weaving amongst the wreckage, heading towards the eerily complete dome in the center.
XxX
[[Topside scan: no major life forms]]
[[Hub systems: operational]]
[[Mobius Command Center: optimum]]
[[Battlekey Vault: unbreached]]
[[Security systems: operational]]
They were the usual scans, all indicating that all was well, yet Sage was not confident in that. Of course, all was well in the Hub – except for herself. Ever since Choza and the Battle Force 5 had entered the stormshock, some three hours earlier, the Blue Sentient had been waiting and worrying. Her calculations from the Diad's plan outline had indicated that – if they did not encounter opposition in the Battlezones – it would only take an hour and a half for the group to find the Keymaster and bring her back to Earth. Twice that time had gone by, and with no communication since then, the young female could not help but fear that something had gone horribly wrong.
Nothing's happened. They've just been jammed.
But still –
If Krytus had found them, you would know it.
She'd been having a similar argument for the past hour or so, her logic centers warring with her emotion nodes. While she knew her logic had a point – if her twin had been feeling powerful emotions like triumph or rage, she would sense it – her emotional modules, the ones that caused her to be compassionate towards Vert and his friends, told her the radio silence was unnatural.
They're fine.
By the Council of Five, being a thinking machine can sometimes be annoying. Logic –
That was as far as her annoyed observation got before a bolt of raw, mental energy ripped through her systems, causing her to voice a cry echoed by the hollow, metal walls of her Hub, heard only by her machines.
She was floating in the expanses of space, the familiar homeworlds of Blue and Red Sentients floating around her. The moons spun in their celestial dance around their larger partners, shooting stars whizzing by like sweeps of shining paint.
Sage's eyes fell upon the Red Sentient Planet. She was flying closer, defying the lack of gravity as she plummeted. Thrills of fear raced into her mind, but her logic reminded her that this was just a vision; her physical form was in no danger.
Just a vision, yet she knew it was so dangerous; these glimpses into the future she sometimes had could be both a blessing and a curse. They had mercifully dulled after her civilization's fall, Krytus' imprisonment, and her own amnesia, yet the curing of her memory and her brother's liberation from the Krypt Zone had caused her power to return full-force.
Her free-fall abruptly stopped above Mados, one of the largest Red Sentient cities before she had frozen the Reds in time and space for eternity. It had been like Modulon 5 on her own world, only much more dangerous – while Modulon 5 had been known for philosophers, scientists, and artists, Mados was known for weapons factories, production of Antimatter crystals, and many more unsavory actions.
Why would her visions bring her here? Zemerik had only used it to produce Sark legions and salvage Sentient technology, considering it a place of bad memories and only keeping a garrison there to prevent the Vandals from taking it. Besides, the Sark leader was currently fleeing Krytus –
The moment her mind came to that conclusion, her eyes focused on one of the tallest buildings that made up the center. Her eyes suddenly zoomed in on a window near the top, and suddenly she was there, peering through the opening; an invisible onlooker.
Two Red Sark were in the corners, but they could not see her. An ornate door was tightly sealed, but in the center, there was only what Sage recognized as a reverse hadron link. Just as a hadron link could recharge a Sentient and awaken them from their hibernation modes, a reverse link could force a Sentient into hibernation and keep them there.
It wasn't the link that made her feel shock and horror, though – it was what was inside it.
With a gasp, the Blue Sentient was released from the vision's grasp, gasping like a shocked Human would when they awoke from a nightmare. Desperately, she tried to raise Vert, Choza, or any of the others on their comlinks, but she only got static. Just when she truly needed to communicate with them, she was well and truly jammed.
I wish I wasn't, she thought, eyes closing and seeing the last part of the vision once again. Dear Agis Guardians, I wish I wasn't.
XxX
The labyrinth of destruction seemed to go on forever; while they must have made fifty turns in ten minutes, they never seemed to get any closer to the arena where the Diad had said Metaturra was waiting. It wasn't long until Stanford complained about it, and Choza commented that it was a defense mechanism, meant to slow down invading forces. "There's a way through to the center; we just need to find it.
"There's another defense in here, though," she added. "There's a ray complex somewhere around here that will trigger hyper-aggressive tendencies in its targets, effective in organic beings, robots … and Diads and Sentients. If they come out, none of us are safe."
"Is this like Tors-10?" Agura asked, remembering the Coliseum Battlezone and the mad Red Sark that had been controlling it.
"Tors-10 only had a limited version of the beam that's in here. His beam only worked on organics like you and the Vandal, and it affected everyone not contained behind shields. This one will affect us all … and it will only target certain persons. The whole purpose of it is to divide invading groups and make them fight amongst themselves, enabling more powerful defenses to be activated."
"Is it triggered automatically?" Zoom wanted to know.
"No. Anyone within the dome can turn it on; it's not controlled by the Zone. It will manifest as red energy beams. When it turns on, a humming noise will be made, something like –"
Before Choza could finish, a deep thum, like the deep strumming of a bass guitar plugged into giant amplifiers, pealed out, making everything shiver.
"– that!" she ended, accelerating. "Evasive maneuvers!"
None of the humans had needed another word on the subject; they all remembered the aggro-beam Tors-10 had used on them not too long ago. All five cars scattered, Choza continuing on the straight path while they raced down side-alleys.
Peering back, the Black Diad could see the monstrous machines that were chasing her down the battered avenue, eventually breaking off to hunt the Battle Force. They were tripods, red Cyclops eyes blazing in the center of an oblong head. As she watched, the pair pursuing her fired a bloodred beam she narrowly managed to avoid.
Over the comms, she could hear frantic cries as Vert, Stanford, Zoom, Agura, and the Cortez's raced away, trying not to be hit. Not like that will help – this flight is hollow, empty; they'll catch us in the end, she thought grimly. Our only hope is if Metaturra realizes I'm with them and shuts down the rays.
Her thoughts were broken by a shriek, quickly followed by clamoring as the others tried to contact Stanford. Choza herself could hear heavy breathing, like a cyber-ox was preparing a charge.
"The ray's got him," she said matter-of-factly. "Only way to release him is –"
Another cry hit her audio receptors. "And now Agura's been hit."
Sighing, she almost missed hearing another shot being fired from the pair of ray-bots that were hunting her. Quickly executing a hard left, she managed to evade, but while she had been talking, another bot had silently fallen into the chase among the ruined buildings. Swimming through the air like a metal jellyfish, its eye began to focus, ready to fire.
The Shifter's sensors detected the bot, warned her. The Alpha Prime began to go into shift-mode – too late, as the beam ripped through the air and connected with her.
Satisfied, all the hunting bots vanished like they never had existed.
Choza remained on the throughfare, feet on the ground to stabilize the Shifter. Her artificial heart and lungs were working overtime, and while her mind rode a wave of relief that she wasn't hurt, something else was being triggered. She felt better, better than she had ever felt before – yet she felt like she was balancing on a knife's edge, where a gentle breeze could fling her one way or another.
"Choza? Do you copy?" Vert called over the comm. While his question was in concern, to Choza it was a smug one, like it was vindication that she was worthless, a traitor – dead weight. The Alpha Prime could never tolerate such criticism in the past, and now, with the Diad equivalent of adrenaline ripping through her body, she responded with far more rage than she ever would have when she was sane.
"Bring it on!" she roared to the perceived challenge, revving the engine and flying down the alleys, seeking those that would abandon her. Two vehicles – one emerald, the other violet – moved up beside her, but she had no harsh feelings towards them. They were like her, and they would help her hunt down that did them wrong.
Weapons at the ready, Choza, Agura, and Stanford – now fully under the sway of the agro-beams – began the hunt.
XxX
Author's Note: So yeah, read and review! For now, I'll just leave you with a quote from today's new episode (I swear, HW: BF5 is the most quotable cartoon I've ever watched).
[Quick note: In the episode, Vert traveled back in time to recover the Double Helix Crystals (what Sage used to freeze the Red Sentients in time) from Krytus and his crew. He also used a virus Sage implanted into his sword to release Zemerik from Krytus' will, explaining how his eyes were opened]
(Vert has just used the Saber to snatch the Crystals out of Krytus' hands and is driving away)
Vert: Close, but no enchilada!
-Later on-
(Krytus and his crew have cornered Vert at the edge of a cliff; Krytus has Vert by the neck)
Krytus: I don't know who you are, or what an enchilada is –
The scene kept going from there, but it was right then that my brother and I looked at each other and burst out laughing. =P
-Inferna
