Following the muffled noises from down the long black pipe, Lloyd felt a pang of fear, and jealousy of Genis and Presea, who got to go and party and create an alibi for Zelos. He was surprised how quickly it became pitch black in the low ceilings of the sewer. He had to trust only his quick instincts and the uniformity of the stone tiles to keep him from tripping. He sincerely hoped that they didn't run into any monsters of the sewer like last time. He didn't feel like fighting in the dark, especially with a large river of filthy water flowing beneath them. It would not be pleasant to fall into, and Lloyd was sure being wet and smelly would endanger the stealthy nature of the mission.
Lloyd quietly voiced his fears to Sheena. "Aren't you worried we'll…run into something? Like…you know…a wall, or some of those creatures we ran into last time, remember?"
"I doubt it," she replied. "Four or so years ago, Meltokio went through a major effort to improve its sewer systems, after monsters kept seeping up into the city. They almost completely redid everything, which is probably why they replaced the grate. They've exterminated every kind of sewer monster, except for maybe the mice and rats. I think we'll be okay."
"Talking is ill-advised," intoned Taryo simply, and they fell into silence. They remained that way for longer than Lloyd could tell without the aid of the sun. In constant darkness, it was hard to tell how much time had passed. After what he later discovered to be an hour and a half, Lloyd detected something was different. He didn't realize what it was until a millisecond before it was too late. Taryo's near silent footsteps had ceased, and Lloyd only barely stopped in time to avoid smashing into him. He felt Sheena do the same thing behind him.
"Directly above you is a manhole leading to a little known area of the slums. You will continue as directly north as possible along the roads until you pass house marked by a crack roughly the shape of the city of Meltokio as viewed from above. At that house, you will turn east and continue two houses. Scale the third house however you see fit. There will be a board on the roof that you will use to move across to the only house that the board can reach. Crawl across the board to whichever house it can reach, and you will be on the roof of the Meltokion Superiority Society's headquarters in Meltokio. Get through the roof to the top floor in whatever manner you deem prudent, and then retrieve whatever information you need and leave. Do not return to Zelos' mansion for at least a day after you garner what you need. I now leave you. Lift the manhole cover in thirty seconds." And with a swish of clothing and nearly silent footsteps, he was gone like the memory of dream.
Overloaded with information, Lloyd didn't begin to count for a few seconds. "Do you remember all of that?" Lloyd whispered to Sheena.
"Maybe…" she ventured.
"What the heck does Meltokio look like from above?" demanded Lloyd quietly of whoever had come up with that idea for a cue.
"Didn't you see it on your way in on the Rheiard?" she replied.
"No!" Lloyd replied, feeling a little self-righteous. "Who would pick out something like that? Did you?" Sheena quickly shut up.
After a few seconds of contemplative thought, she responded. "I might know…it looks sort of like…a…a blob…with horns?"
"Not very helpful," laughed Lloyd.
"Yeah, well at least it's something!" Lloyd could easily imagine her blush.
"I think it's been thirty seconds," smiled Lloyd, as he reached up and lifted the manhole cover, tossing it to the side of the street. With the sudden flood of light, he realized that he was standing much closer to Sheena than he had thought. He couldn't tell how close she had been previously, because they had been whispering. Their faces were only a few inches apart, Sheena's head a little lower than his, as she was shorter. Sheena looked up at his face, taken aback at their proximity, neither of them exactly sure what to do in this potentially awkward situation. They stood like that for a few seconds, breathing deeply, neither of them exactly sure how to proceed. Now that he noticed, Lloyd wondered how he hadn't realized it before. They were close enough that he could feel her body heat subtly warming his front, her breath tickling his chin. Lloyd felt his heartbeat increasing, his breathing gradually speeding up.
Sheena seemed to be experiencing similar symptoms, a deep blush painting her smooth cheeks. She too, seemed embarrassed at this strange accidental scenario, but remained in place, staring into Lloyd's eyes, and he couldn't help but stare back into the bottomless abyss of her dark oak pair. They seemed to absorb him, encompass him in their depths. It was like he was peering at the edge of the pool of her soul, and had leaned too far over the edge, and fallen toppling in.
There was something happening between them, Lloyd realized, his brain only half-functioning. The already narrow distance was closing, though Sheena didn't seem to be moving, and he was certain that he wasn't. It was as if the floor had gotten it into its figurative head to push the two of them closer together, and neither of them was resisting. Sheena's eyes were sliding closed, her mind moving from things she saw and perceived, to things that were purely feelings and sensations. Lloyd felt himself unconsciously doing the same.
But to his great shame, Lloyd was not up for it. Startled by a sudden scratching far off in the tunnel, he lurched backwards, ending the moment suddenly. Sheena stumbled forwards, her eyes completely closed, jabbing one foot forward to stop her momentum.
Scratching the back of his head ruefully, Lloyd decided that he needed to say something, to clear the air. "I…I guess that was one of the rats they can't exterminate," Lloyd laughed nervously.
"I guess," sighed Sheena, her face remaining pointed at Lloyd's though her eyes were still closed. "We should probably go…it's been more than thirty seconds." Opening her eyes and shaking herself to loosen up muscles, she leapt upwards to the open hole in the arch, a literal light at the end of the dark and unpleasant tunnel. Wriggling a bit, she managed to force herself up. Lloyd was glad that she went first, because he was no where near as graceful with his leap, only barely catching on to the top, and awkwardly heaving his weight up until it rested on his forearms. He struggled to get a foothold, flailing his legs wildly, like a fish out of water, but he could find no purchase on the slick stone arch below. Smiling sadly, Sheena took him under his arms and pulled him up.
"Thanks," murmured Lloyd, still feeling extremely awkward, and glad that it was dark outside, or else his burning cheeks would be even more obvious. "Umm…So…which way is north? I can never remember all of those cues. Even after living in a forest for my entire youth, I can't remember which side of a tree the moss grows on."
Sheena did not laugh, but the corners of her mouth lifted just a tad, which Lloyd was glad to see. She seemed more forlorn than furious, which was what he was afraid of. He had seen what happened to Zelos. Sheena turned her back to him and selected a metal streetlight. It looked out of place in the poor mud-brick buildings that surrounded them, and had obviously been placed by the government, or some noble seeking the favor of the general populace. Sheena grabbed the pole in her hands and, placing the balls of her feet on the metal, quickly scaled it.
"The palace is the tallest building in Meltokio by royal decree," she explained, "and it's on the south side of the city, so, unless we are much further south than I think…" Her eyes selected the palace from the other dark silhouettes, and she swung around and off the pole, landing on the ground as lightly as a cat, absorbing most of the impact on her legs, which bent quickly at the knees to avoid injury, and her left arm, which she placed in front of her to stop her forward momentum. "…that way!" she informed Lloyd, pointing over and past his shoulder.
Lloyd couldn't help but note the grace with which she landed. "You…you are very acrobatic," he complimented.
Sheena smiled at his slightly awkward and rather evident observation. "Thank you," she replied. "May I ask…what prompted this…compliment?" Lloyd shrugged.
"Well, it's true, and I don't know if I've ever told you, that's all." Sheena's smile grew.
"Thank you again," she laughed ostensibly forgetting or ignoring, at least temporarily, what had occurred before. "But we need to get going. I doubt the first few houses have any Meltokio-shaped cracks in them, or he would have told us to just go five houses down, or whatever, it can't be too far, because there's not all that much time until dawn, so we've got to move quickly." She turned briskly, waited for a few seconds, then twisted her neck to face him. A large, playful smile was plastered across her face. "I'll race you for the first part," she laughed, and took off.
He smiled after her, giving her a few seconds head start. As he watched her lithe form dance across the rough cobblestones, he couldn't help but feel an unexplained sense of…satisfaction, was the closest emotion he could describe, and he didn't know why. Shaking his head and resolving to think about his confused emotions later, he sprinted after her.
He quickly caught up with her, and tagged her on her shoulder, flying by. He got away almost scot-free, but a protruding stone made him stumble and almost fall, which gave Sheena enough time to return the favor. He soon caught her again, and began the process again. He clearly had the advantage for the first couple minutes, but as she narrowed the gap, he realized that while he had raw speed, she had finesse and endurance that he couldn't match, and she quickly gained the lead. After a minute or two more, she had to pause and wait for him to make sure he didn't get lost. It was then that they mutually decided that the game of tag was over, and it was time to begin looking for the Meltokio-shaped crack in a house. In the next half hour, they made no progress, although Lloyd saw one that he was absolutely sure fit Sheena's description of "a blob with horns". Sheena argued that the horns were lopsided, but climbed the building anyway to appease him. There was no board, and several buildings that could easily be jumped to anyway, so they agreed that it must be further, or, in the worst case scenario, behind them.
Lloyd's earlier giddy mood was dampening as he walked through the slums of Meltokio, and observed the living conditions. He had never been one to tolerate injustice or the degradation of human beings, and the slums were chock full of both. Most of the lower class was in their homes, but the unlucky ones had to settle for sleeping on the street. After seeing a few too many of them, Lloyd decided that he had to act, and began stealthily placing gold coins on or near them. Sheena looked a little strangely at him when he started, but quickly gained understanding, and did not inquire further. His celebrity had earned him more than he could ever use.
The buildings in the slums made their search even harder. Most of them were in poor condition, some of them clearly unlivable, despite being obviously inhabited. Most of them were so saturated in cracks that Lloyd couldn't tell what layer of the wall he was looking at. Even worse were the streets themselves. Meltokio was not exactly a planned city, and streets spread out like the thin veins the scattered out from the impact zone of a stone thrown at a glass window. There were a few occasions in which they weren't sure which street was more directly north, a dilemma that was not aided by the fact that Sheena couldn't recall whether the massive palace was actually on the south-south east or south-south west side of the city.
And yet, when they found what they were looking for, it was incredibly obvious. The building that housed the crack they were looking for was in decent condition, some of the outer layers of the bricks flaking, but other than that, completely average. The only thing that brought their attention to it was the fact that they were looking for irregular cracks in the first place, and the large stone lying in the middle of the road. It looked like someone had hurled the stone at the wall for some reason, presumably anger. The large stone now lay abandoned on the ground, the wall dented by its momentum.
"Sheena," motioned Lloyd, drawing her attention to where he was looking. "This looks kind of like a blob with…whoa…" The image of the crack on the wall reeled in his gaze like a fisherman. He found he couldn't look away, now that he saw the secret.
"What?" she asked, drawn in by curiosity.
"Look at the detail!" marveled Lloyd.
"You're right," replied Sheena. "This is definitely it. That's almost exactly what Meltokio looks like from above."
"No, not that," scoffed Lloyd. "That's ordinary. Look at the bottom of the crack. Do you see that one circular flake that's by itself surrounded by a large area with fewer cracks?" Lloyd hovered his finger over it, but the natural tendency of hands to shake and vibrate a little made him unsure if she could tell which one he was pointing to. Sheena nodded nonetheless, not seeing his point. "That's the palace, and there's the cathedral, right next to it. These must be the noble quarters, see how they're larger flakes than most?" Lloyd counted flakes. "That one right there is Zelos', see?"
"Wow…" wondered Sheena in awe. "You're right…And look! Each of these cracks here leading to the slums…each of these represent a street…which means we're…right here!" She laughed in disbelief at the ridiculous accuracy of the Meltokion crack.
"How did they do this?" ventured Lloyd cautiously.
"Magic…" breathed Sheena, but as Raine was absent, she needed to assume the role of the practical one. She shook her head clear. "No, come on, we have to go. I'd guess there's under an hour until the sun rises. We have to get out of here quickly."
"What?" exploded Lloyd, incredulous. "How can you tell?"
"You see the mountains to the east? There's a faint light seeping over them. We don't have long." Lloyd couldn't see it, but he trusted her enough to believe it.
"The sun seems to be our enemy in this quest," he observed blandly. Sheena laughed in agreement, and they both jogged off to the east two houses.
The street east was a heavy downhill slope, rough and rugged, almost as bad as a mountain trail. The houses here were all of varied heights, between one and four stories, though all were of a similar low quality build. Lloyd was amazed that some of them were able to stand. Fortunately, the third house, the one that the two of them were supposed to scale, was only two stories, and looked reasonably sturdy. Lloyd was a bit concerned by the distance between that roof and the roofs of the adjacent houses, but he decided that he wouldn't worry until they saw the length of the board that the Darting Shadows had left them.
As soon as she identified which building they were supposed to climb, Sheena began to run straight at it with speed significant enough that for a moment Lloyd was afraid she was going to smash into the wall, but as her ninja status denoted, she was too skilled for that. She instead kicked off the wall, gaining far more vertical height than she could normally jump, jammed her hand in a crack in the building and flipped herself upwards and around onto a protruding beam. She laughed at Lloyd's look of skepticism. "Do you really expect me to do that?" he mock demanded. Sheena reached down and took Lloyd's forearm, pulling him up the wall, as he struggled to help with his feet and his other hand. As he mounted the beam, Lloyd realized two things.
First, there was another story to climb, and this one looked even more difficult. Secondly, as the beam they stood on was very short and narrow, he was once again standing much closer to Sheena than he normally would. So close in fact that their torsos were pressed together. One corner of Sheena's mouth rose in a sad smile, acknowledging that they were in a similar position to their earlier confrontation in the sewer. Reluctant to move dramatically for fear of losing his balance or pushing Sheena off, Lloyd cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Er, how are we going to get to the roof?" he questioned, trying to distract himself from the warmth coming from both Sheena's body and his face.
"Put your hands down, give me a boost," instructed Sheena calmly. Pressing his back against the mud brick wall so as to give Sheena as much room as he possibly could, he made a cup with his hands. She lightly stepped on his hands, then onto his shoulder, and as always she surprised him, weighing much less than he expected. She just barely grabbed the top of the roof with her fingertips, and for a frightening moment, Lloyd thought she was going to plummet to the street below, but she regained her composure and shifted her weight to her hand, then brought one foot up to the roof, hooking it with her heel. She lurched over the wall and laughed. "That was fun!" she laughed.
"Great!" replied Lloyd. "Now can you help me up?" She smiled and extended her hand back down. This time she was far enough away that he couldn't grab her arm, and could only reach her hand by stretching upwards as far as he could. She leaned a little further, and with a lunge, grabbed his hand.
"Got you!" she exclaimed. To his great surprise, as their hands clasped, Lloyd felt in the pit of his stomach as if the beam had broken and he was falling. It felt almost exactly like he had missed a step in the dark, but for some reason, this time it was a good feeling.
Blinking twice to clear his head, Lloyd grabbed the nearest feature of the wall and placed his feet against it, pushing himself up. After much noisy heaving and hauling that would probably be frowned upon by members of the Darting Shadows, and probably some of the more orthodox members of the Mizuho. It was thoroughly unstealthy. Sheena laughed and fell backwards as he finally got a handhold strong enough to launch himself off the wall. She toppled over onto her back, and Lloyd almost followed, but staying true to his battle instincts, he turned his motion into a roll that almost, but not quite, sent him flying off the other edge of the building.
Smiling, Lloyd inquired, "So where's the board? This is the right house, I assume. I don't think we counted wrong, and there's no way that rendering of Meltokio was a coincidence."
"Hmmm…" Sheena glanced around. The roof was covered in dust and hay, and was thoroughly boardless. "Maybe they…hid it…for some reason."
"Probably to keep their secrecy. You can't leave evidence as incriminating as a board of wood out in the open," suggested Lloyd sarcastically. Sheena smiled again. They were both in surprisingly bright moods for a late night stealth mission. "But seriously, there aren't many places one can hide a long board on an open flat space like this roof. Remember, he told us we were going to be sliding across on this so it's got to be pretty strong."
"Yeah, and long too, these houses' roofs are pretty far apart," agreed Sheena. "It couldn't fit under any of the hay, so I don't think we need to bother…ah…there it is!" she exclaimed, pointing to the raised edges of the roof. There was indeed a board there, but it was part of the houses construction, the top was even plastered over. Sheena sighed in exasperation at his glance of skepticism. "Come on, don't you see it?" she urged. "Yeah, it's plastered over, but it's clearly more recent. I'm not even sure it's dry yet. They must have pretended to be repairing the roof in order to place the board without suspicion. Come on, I'll prove it to you, help me pull the board out of the wall."
Lloyd shrugged, but as he grabbed the other side of the board, he had to admit that Sheena was right. The plaster was damp, and was barely even plaster. It felt more like child's clay, it was so easy to separate from the wall and the board. They soon held an approximately ten foot long board between them.
"Well, which building do you think we can reach?" inquired Sheena. "They all look pretty far away."
"I'd hazard a guess at…the one behind you?" proffered Lloyd, slightly doubtfully.
"Really?" questioned Sheena, looking back.
"Yeah," replied Lloyd, feeling a little more confident in his choice now. "See that little uneven ledge coming off the end of our building? It looks like the perfect shape to slot a board in if you didn't want it to fall off!" Sheena was still a bit unsure, but he prodded her with the end. "Come on, it doesn't hurt to try." She nodded in agreement and got on the side of the board so that Lloyd could walk forward without pushing her off. He pushed the end of the board off the edge, careful not to drop his part, lest the board overbalance and clatter loudly to the ground below. The board was heavier than he expected, and he had to be careful to not let the heavy end slip out of his hands. He was the unlucky soul at the end of an ever lengthening lever, almost lifting him off the ground. Fortunately, Sheena realized his struggle and quickly added her weight to the occasion, which allowed him to push the other end of the board to a rest on top of the adjacent house. As he had hypothesized, the end of the board he was carrying fit perfectly into a slot at the edge of the roof, greatly stabilizing it.
Sheena complimented Lloyd, "Nice guess,"
Lloyd complimented himself, "I'd call it an acute observation." He sniffed rather regally, (which is not to say like Regal, rather to say it was a rather royal sounding sniff).
"Well, let's not call it anything anymore," nodded Sheena. "Now it's serious. Now we really have to be quiet." She took a breath to steel herself, then volunteered, "I'll go first. Come after me once I'm safely to the other side. I don't trust this board to support both of us." Lloyd nodded in silent agreement. It didn't look very trustworthy. The wood was unsanded, thin, and of dubious quality. He expected to reach the other side on his chest, with splinters dragged all down his front, but Sheena had another way to do it. She simply leapt onto the narrow beam, not more than a few inches thick and cantered to the other side as if on a balance beam, arms outstretched and everything.
"Sheena!" Lloyd exclaimed in worry. It wasn't too far of a fall, but any drop in the dark, especially onto rough and uncertain cobblestones wasn't to be desired. A sprained ankle was the best result possible. Of course, he had no need to worry at all, because, as a Mizuho ninja, and a woman with extraordinary balance, she made it to the other side easily, upon which she turned and questioned,
"What? What's wrong?"
"Umm…" Lloyd shrugged awkwardly. He had obviously underestimated her abilities. "I guess I was just worried you were going to fall. I guess I just forgot that you were a ninja."
Sheena laughed. "That's a pretty major thing to forget. But you're right not to worry. I could backflip across this board and this roof without a second thought."
"Well, I don't know if it's a good idea in the dark…" replied Lloyd sensibly. "Especially with such shoddy workmanship on these houses. I think I'll stick to crossing on my chest, okay?"
"That wouldn't work so well with my…er…light garments. They're very flexible, but they'd get torn easily. I disagree with you about the houses though. They feel very sturdy. I think I could jump around on them safely, see?" she asked, testing the spring in her feet and the clay edge to the roof she stood on, about to prove herself wrong. With a remarkable bound, Sheena launched herself into the air, bending her arching her head and back over her center of gravity, then quickly pulling in her knees for the spin. She easily had her feet around in time to catch herself, but the roof was not so willing to do the same. With a shout, she crashed through the hay, stick and mud brick roof to the floor below.
"Sheena!" cried Lloyd, disregarding his own advice and taking a flying bound halfway across the narrow board, which slid off of the building that he had leapt from. Before it could fall however, Lloyd had completed his hurdle between the two roofs and landed on the other end of the board, where his weight as leverage flipped the board up, smacking him in the back and into the same hole Sheena had fallen into, its jagged edges welcoming him like teeth into a dark pit he could not see the bottom of. To his surprise and dismay, there was no intermediate level separating the second-story roof from the ground level floor, sending him plummeting for a longer time than he expected. Even the floor was dark-colored, so he couldn't see it until it was just a few feet from his rapidly descending face, giving him barely enough time to shove his arms and legs in front of him to absorb the impact. His muscles tensed quickly enough to keep his face in a generally human shape, and not the shape of the smooth floor. To his surprise, he found that he had landed well enough to avoid any major injury, and minor and uninhibiting bruises were the worst he had suffered.
It was then that the ill-willed plank that had already once slapped Lloyd's back decided that it hadn't had enough, and rotating through the air, slammed once more into Lloyd's slowly arising form, the flat side perfectly aligned with his spine, hammering him effectively back to the ground, and knocking out all vestiges of air from his suffering lungs.
"Are you alright?" a slightly concerned, thoroughly amused voice sounded behind him. Lloyd recognized it as Sheena's, but she was speaking louder than would befit her during a stealth mission, especially since they had only begun the infiltration.
"Y…yes..." Lloyd forced passed his spasming lungs.
"It's funny," remarked Sheena. "Normally when I fall into a pit, I'm the one who gets hurt, not anyone else. You seem to be the exception."
"You're not injured are you?" interrogated Lloyd. "I did warn you about the backflip."
"I'm fine," assured Sheena. "I've had practice. You on the other hand, need to fall in more holes." Lloyd shot her a contemptuous glare, which only made her grin.
"Well, I guess we better get ready for a fight," coughed Lloyd, pushing himself to his feet, Sheena helpfully hauling him up from beneath his arms. He blinked twice to clear his head, and to his surprise that he was, for as long as adrenaline pumped through his system, almost completely painfree. "There's no way that our little commotion didn't wake up everyone in the entire neighborhood, let alone the building."
"I don't know," mused Sheena, "These walls look pretty soundproof." Glancing around for the first time, Lloyd realized to his surprise where he was. The entire room was made of a steely metal, though it was darker, almost black, which was part of the reason Lloyd found his landing so unexpected. Even the roof was composed of this strange material, but, as he realized he and Sheena had had the misfortune of crashing through the only vent in the room, which now lay desecrated by dirt and hay in the other corner. Lloyd quickly realized that their mission was quickly switching from stealth to hit and run. No matter how much they hid or spread the dirt and hay that had crashed in with them, it stood out in this smooth metallic, inorganic room like mud on a bridal gown.
"Well, there's no way we're going to hide this mess we made, so we better get going…now where do we go?" His inquiry was eased by the fact that there were only two ways move through the room, excluding their rather creative entrance. One door led in the direction of the street and was outfitted with a heavy lock and what looked like ominously like a large battery. Lloyd shuddered to think what had happened if they had tried the front entrance, and made a mental note not to go bursting through any doors that he hadn't obtained entry to. The other door looked less fortified than the first, but Lloyd could tell that it was several inches thick of their strange metal, which he had a feeling would not be easy to cut. A foot or so to the left and slightly above, there was a keypad, as real and immovable as any human sentry.
"Oh no…" groaned Sheena. "What are we going to do now? It's too late to turn back now. This was our only chance. They know we're after them now, and will quadruple security…we've got to get past this and quickly! But how? I've heard that if people press the buttons often enough, then those ones get worn down…but I don't know how many mistakes this allows before lockout…or worse…and I doubt that such a rich and secure organization would go long without changing its passcodes…" Lloyd had never understood technology and this was only baffling him more. He might as well be a monkey for all the sense Sheena was making to him, and naturally his eyes began to wander around the room.
"It...the…wait…maybe…the one looks different…" hazarded Sheena. "A one is probably in the code…but where? And how many times? What do you think Lloyd?"
"I think it's the two middle digits," answered Lloyd happily. "And the first is a four, and the last is a seven."
"What?" Sheena raised her eyebrows. "Why on earth do you…" but Lloyd only pointed at the board that had fallen after him, pummeling his back. Ingrained in tiny but clear numbers on the thin side, were the digits 4117. A grin slowly spread across her face as she rapidly turned back and punched in the code. "I guess I should have known our friends at the Darting Shadows wouldn't let us in blind, would they?"
Her finger darted for the enter button, but Lloyd stopped her. "Wait!" he exclaimed.
"What?" she replied, her finger hovering.
"I…um…are you sure you want to press that?" he asked, slightly embarrassed.
"Yeah, of course, why not?" she replied, confused.
"Er…well," Lloyd palmed the back of his neck, as he commonly did when uncomfortable. "You saw the battery trap on the front door, aren't you worried the same thing will happen here?" Sheena raised one eyebrow, arching above her dark chocolate eye like a bridge over night waters.
"Lloyd, it's not like we have a choice. If the Darting Shadows are trying to betray us, then we're already doomed anyway."
"Well, yeah," Lloyd agreed, "But you heard Taryo. He waited a week before coming to Zelos to protect secrecy and avoid suspicion. The code could have changed in that week; in which case, you're dead if you press that button."
"I guess that's a risk we'll have to take. Like I said, we don't have an alternative." She raised her finger to press the button, but Lloyd gently pressed her hand out of the way.
"All I was suggesting is that I press it, instead of you," he informed her. Her other eyebrow joined the first in the elevator position. "N…not to be protective or anything!" Lloyd explained rapidly. "I, I'm just wearing gloves and boots which would help to…er…divert the…um…the…uh…the shock," he finished lamely.
Sheena shrugged in mock defeat with both her shoulder and her hands raising them to shoulder level, appealing to an invisible audience, but she stepped back nonetheless. Lloyd took her place in front of the keypad. He had halfway convinced himself with his own arguments, and now partially expected his last action to be sending his own death order to the battery trap, his last sight the thoughtless, lifeless keypad. "What a lame last sight." The thought popped unbidden into his head, along with, "And what a lame last thought," as he jabbed the button and jumped back.
The door swung smoothly open, revealing a descending spiral staircase. Gritting his teeth, Lloyd glanced up at Sheena, who was staring cavalierly back, her arms crossed under her buxom chest, biting her lower lip, every thing about her screaming 'I told you so.'
"Well…I guess Taryo was right," laughed Lloyd apologetically. Sheena just rolled her eyes and strode off down the stairs. Lloyd followed her cautiously, swinging his head around the door as he passed it, just to check if there had, in fact, been a trap. The back of the door was blank. He winced and swore silently, but didn't think it tactful to alert Sheena. They descended the staircase together. Lloyd noted how quickly but silently Sheena glided down the stairs. Her foot touched upon each one, but it was barely more than a brush. Gravity was doing most of the work here, with her providing nothing but the forward momentum. Lloyd wished her was light and skilled enough to be that stealthy. After all, a group is only as fast as its slowest member, he reminded himself, and the same principle applied to noise. Deciding that stealth was much more important now that they didn't have soundproof walls as a protective barrier, Lloyd slowed down, despite the fact that Sheena was getting ahead.
The stairs quickly became dark as they exited the moonlit room behind them. However, as Lloyd began to worry about not seeing what was in front of him, as if an answer to his thoughts, he reached a small flat area, the width of three or four stairs. Beyond that, the stairs were the same, but with dimly lit strips of light on the sides illuminating the stairs and the bottoms of Lloyd's boots but nothing else. It was eerie, the light penetrating only such a small area. He felt as if the rest of his body had become invisible, and his boots were moving on their own. The stairs continued down into the darkness for what seemed like an eternity. After a few minutes Lloyd paused for a moment, and realized that he could no longer hear Sheena. Hoping that she wasn't peeved at him, he continued at a slightly faster and louder pace. He doubted that anyone would be ascending such a long staircase so late at night, and if they did, they would run into Sheena first. Lloyd could feel the temperature begin to cool and realized that he had gone further down the stairs than he anticipated.
Just as he was beginning to wonder how deep under the earth the staircase could go before reaching its molten core, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. Slowing back down so as to avoid detection, Lloyd crept up to the door. There was only a very pale semblance of light leaking in. Hoping Sheena was beyond it waiting for him, he peered around. What he saw was a dark hallway that extended ten feet or so then opened to the right to a room he could not see, but was issuing dim grayish light and a muffled mechanical clicking noise, like a million monkeys on a million typewriters. Additionally, there was a dark figure with her back to the wall near the portal to the unknown room. Lloyd recognized the figure as Sheena, breathing slowly and calmly, steeling herself.
Lloyd crept up beside her, hoping she recognized him. She did, and turning her head, breathed in his ear, "Took you long enough,"
He grimaced and whispered back. "Not everyone is a ninja like you. I'd be more than happy for the years of training, but you better be quick, you've only got a couple hours until dawn, so you better get teaching." He couldn't see her expression, but he imagined an amused smile.
"Just follow my lead, and stay low," she advised. "But let's get a look first, some reconnaissance, you know?" Lloyd nodded, and Sheena slid one step closer to the door, like a blind diver about to leap off a cliff, and hoping there was water below. Lloyd tried to capture her technique in his memory, resting most weight on the balls of the feet, hunched over, but not like trying to avoid an arrow, more like trying to keep weight centered while moving through a low passageway. She straightened up, and so did he. Holding her hair back so that it wouldn't swing around the corner with her head, increasing the part of her that could be seen, she peeked around the corner. In the dim light illuminating her face, Lloyd could see her eyes go wide, and wander up higher and higher, ominously higher than he was comfortable with. She took a shuddering breath. "I…I think this room is clear," she said, stepping out into the light. "H…have a look for your own."
Cautiously, Lloyd did the same, and almost yelped in surprise at the sight that greeted his eyes. The staircase had taken him far further into the dark than he had expected, and he was now standing in a cathedral of machinery and technology. The roof was so far above his head that the dim light emitted by the circular globes hanging halfway down barely illuminated its lofty ceilings, supported by beams of the same dark metal. The room was about twice as long and broad as the Tethe'allan Throne Chamber. But far more amazing then any of those were the contents.
The entire room was cordoned off by black walls, but these walls seemed to be alive, moving, though not changing location. It was as if they were made of thousands of black scaly beetles. The massive walls were so uniform, Lloyd was certain they had a purpose, but he could not have in a million years guessed what it was. Even as they looked, huge metal arms with long needles soared around the room at high speeds, hovering over the walls, lingering sometimes over one part, as if trying to read something off of it, but invariably moving off. Some of the arms were black, and some were red, and Lloyd soon realized that there was a difference. The black arms would only move across the walls, without touching them or changing them at all, like an artist observing his completed mural. The red ones sometimes were the same, but Lloyd noticed that sometimes, as they swept over the area, there was a flurry of clicking, whirring, and the strange movement in the walls that Lloyd noted earlier. "What…what is it?" asked Lloyd, his awe blatant on his voice.
"I…I don't know…" whispered Sheena, dreamlike, raising one foot in front of her body, and taking one step into the large room. Lloyd winced for a second, sure that the strange mechanical arms with oddly threatening needles were going to turn once they "saw" her. After all, all of his experience in robots, that was exactly what they had done. Yet they continued in their strange work, heedless of all that was around. Sheena blinked, and like a sleeper suddenly realizing that they had woken up, looked around confused. "We better check this out," she stated confidently, glancing around and sneaking up to one of the walls. Lloyd cautiously followed her. He did not fancy tangling with any of those sword-like appendages.
"Look!" exclaimed Sheena, pointing excitedly at a nondescript point on the wall.
"What?" questioned Lloyd. The wall looked exactly the same to him.
"The wall! It's not solid!" she explicated.
"It looks solid to me…" replied Lloyd, unimpressed.
"No, no, I mean, it's not one big piece. It's made of little chip, that are…flipping around…which is why it looks like the wall is moving. It's just that sections of the wall are flipping around in place."
"Are you sure?" Lloyd was still a bit cynical.
"Yes!" replied Sheena, exasperated. "See the little tiny cracks in the wall? Those are the divisions between the little tiles that make up the wall." Lloyd squinted at the wall, and had to admit that he did see hair thin lines cordoning the wall into a grid.
"And down there!" she pointed down one of the aisles between the wall. "Where the robot arm is moving! Don't you see the little chips flipping around?" Lloyd nodded.
"I guess you're right," he submitted, "But why? What strange technology is this?"
There was a moment of silence, as they both tried to fathom the answer. As they thought, Lloyd gingerly prodded the wall, trying to flip one of the chips around, but found it impossible. It was like trying to separate two magnets that you couldn't get a sufficient hold on.
"I don't know…" answered Sheena finally. "But we'll have to find out later. We still need evidence to condemn them."
"And we need to get out," Lloyd reminded her.
"I think we're okay on that front," quipped Sheena enigmatically, but before Lloyd could question her as to why, she crouched and darted around the corner of the wall, making her way to the other side of the hall, where a single door loomed ahead of them. This one, Lloyd was certain, was not equipped with any malignant trap technology. It looked like one of the simple metal doors in the Sybak Research Academy, too light to house anything deadly. Plus, now that they were in the facility, there was no need for excess security. Sheena seemed to be under the same line of thought, and as she reached the door, gently twisted the knob, and opened the door less than a crack to see if any light leaked through. Lloyd sidled up behind her. "It's dark in there," she whispered, "So it's probably empty. I'll go first; follow me if you don't hear anything." Lloyd nodded. Though he didn't want to send her in alone, he was more comfortable with the expert going in first. She edged the door open by impossibly small increments, so slowly that Lloyd could barely see it moving. Once she had a wide enough gap, she sucked in her gut and slipped through.
Lloyd held his breath, listening for any sound that might indicate her capture or detection. He was listening so intently, that when Sheena suddenly stuck her head back out the door, he jumped like someone suddenly grabbed while listening to headphones. Sheena grinned as Lloyd took a deep breath to calm himself, shaking his head angrily.
"The room is clear," laughed Sheena. "Come on in." Glancing around, Lloyd did as she instructed, leaving the door open just a fraction to illuminate the pitch black room. Looking in, he saw nothing, and even as his eyes adjusted to light, there was nothing special. The room had eight desks around the edges, each with a single box in the middle and an ordinary wooden chair, pushed in neatly.
"Doesn't look like there's anything else in here…" suggested Lloyd, straightening up and taking a step forward to further his conclusion. And, as if breaking some invisible trip wire, as soon as his foot went forward, four bright spotlights flamed into life in the middle of the room, two on the floor, two on the ceiling, all pointed straight into the middle, at a hulking object that for a moment Lloyd did not recognize. Before he discovered what it was, however, he needed to affirm his own safety, and quickly did. The spotlights were extremely focused, and only the slightest light leaked from the center of their beams; illuminating a room that was exactly as Lloyd had first observed, completely bland and completely safe. Having confirmed his own safety, he peered into the middle to discover what was there that was so worthy of spotlight.
In one quick glance, he determined it was a black suit of armor held of the ground by thin metal poles, but it wasn't like one Lloyd had ever seen. It was fully covered, no holes for eyes, and though there were movable joints, which told him that it wasn't merely a strange statue, they looked like they would be far too heavy and slow to move practically. Just from a quick frontal view, Lloyd could already see three easy ways to get slip a blade under or through it and get to the soft inside of anyone wearing it. Fortunately for his later conclusions and suspicions, there was more to the armor than that. The entire suit was of a pitch black material that was so dark that it almost seemed to be absorbing the light of the spotlights, exuding its darkness to the rest of the room. It was disorienting to look at for any amount of time longer than a few seconds. Lloyd was sure that he had never seen anything like it, and yet at the same time, it seemed strangely familiar. It was like hearing the climax of a story that he had heard countless references to, but never actually received himself.
"Wh…what is it?" asked Lloyd, more of a rhetorical question than anything else. He knew that Sheena had never witnessed anything like the armor.
"I don't know…" replied Sheena in wonderment. "But I think that we need to get out of here. We really don't have much time left until dawn, and a weird suit of armor isn't the incriminating evidence we need. This is crunch time, right now, and getting distracted won't help."
"I know, just…just give me a second. I want to see what this is about." Sheena sighed, but didn't move to stop him, which he took as affirmation. Lloyd stepped a little closer, careful not to step on anything which might have triggered the lights in the first place. He reached the edge of the lights, standing awkwardly, like a swimmer unsure of whether to dive into the water, but curiosity got the better of him. Slowly and carefully, he extended one hand forward to the armor. As soon as it entered the light, Lloyd immediately noticed a strange sensation creeping up his arm. It was as if his hand had been immersed in subzero water, but was protected by a plastic glove. It was a wet cold feeling, but with out any water. Additionally, he began to get a headache, and it felt like a high pitched noise was buzzing in his ear, even though he could physically hear nothing. It was extremely distracting, and though Lloyd realized that the armor was enchanted immediately, the disturbed state of his mind did not realize that perhaps backing off would be the best course of action. Instead he peered through the light, studying the armor more intently, and found a surprising discovery, that would have been obvious, had the armor been any color but as black as oblivion.
"It's covered in runes!" he exclaimed. "The armor is magical!"
"Really?" asked Sheena, who Lloyd realized was standing only a few feet away. It was hard to hear over this incessant buzzing in his ears. "You read runes, right? What does it say?"
"I…er…I can read runes…but…um…I just have…I mean, my knowledge is mostly practical, for carving charms and stuff…this looks really, really advanced." It was hard to keep focused over the mentally and physically dampening abilities of the armor. "I mean…I mean…I can read a few…here and there…See? That one is 'Be protected from' and this one is 'contain'…and…that one…is…something to do with…solstice?"
He turned, and took a step to look at another part of the armor. The entire thing was intricately carved with impossibly small runes coating the entire surface. "And this one is power…of…some kind…possibly power of mana…but I'd need context to figure that out. See, Sheena, I'm not too bad? Sheena?" Lloyd realized suddenly that she had gone deathly silent on the other side of the suit, as the breath had been suddenly knocked out of her. "Sheena?"
"L…Lloyd…I…I think you better see this," she forced past her lips. Her face was quickly turning white, like someone with a severe wound. Concerned, Lloyd slipped around the armor, still feeling the cold wetness and buzzing noise dampen his senses.
"What is it?" he asked, but she just held up a single finger, pointing it at the glove like an accusation. Lloyd followed her gaze to the pitch black gauntlet. It was made of the same metal, he noted, and would be awful, weighty, and ridiculously impractical in battle. It was then that he realized that she was not pointing to the hand itself, but a spot on the back, where there was a small hole in the glove, the only point in the entire armor that wasn't completely enclosed. For a second, Lloyd didn't see anything special, but even with the dampening, inhibiting, one might say, qualities of the ore the armor was constructed of, the dreadful answer was too obvious to ignore, especially as he read the all too familiar runes encircling the opening.
"It's a giant Key Crest…" he breathed, the pit of his stomach sinking to levels of dread he had never experienced.
"Aaaaaannnnd…Stop," came a smooth voice from behind them, as the glaring lights of the rest of the room flicked on. Before his sight had readjusted, his ears heard what he would have missed, the rhythmic tramp of highly trained soldiers flooding into the room. "I think that's as good a place as any to end your little self-guided tour." The voice chuckled. "You didn't really think we'd just let you waltz in here, did you?"