Homicidal skeletons in an underwater cave. I really outdo myself sometimes.
"I think that fact that I hadn't been born when this event happened is one of the main reasons I only just made the connection, but it had been bothering me that I'd heard the name Azikh Khan before somewhere. Now I think I know where. During one of the many days I spent looking through my extensive collection of old newspaper articles from around the world, I came across one from 30 years ago, detailing an explosion at the Carrascola Nuclear institute in North Carolina that killed all 168 people who were working there. The article caught my eye because of one detail- they never found any remains. The explosion destroyed everything, and all people working there were presumed dead because they were in there at the time of the disaster, but no bodies were ever found. Not even remains. Weirder still, they could never find a reason for the explosion. But, as they conducted their investigations, one name kept popping up- Azikh Khan. A world renowned nuclear scientist at the top of his field, but one who had been brought up numerous times because of his extravagant and rather dangerous methods of experimentation. He was one more expensive failure from being let go, and instantly became the main suspect. But he was also supposedly killed in the explosion, and as the police could never find any evidence of arson or sabotage, it was left as unexplained. But I would hazard to guess I'm looking at the explanation right now. Am I getting close, Azikh?"
"Please" Khan said, "Do carry on. I'm rather enjoying this."
"I'm not" Holly decided to add. "This is really weirding me out."
"But you understand what I'm trying to explain?" Artemis asked.
"You think Khan is the nuclear scientist who caused the explosion, with one of his experiments that went wrong."
"Yes, but not just any experiment." Artemis pointed at the Energy Matrix. "He caused the explosion with that experiment."
"He tried to build a matrix and something went wrong?" Holly offered.
"Oh yes. Who in their right mind decides to try and harness pure energy inside a console? And who, other than Opal Koboi, who despite her evil tendencies is something of a genius, is actually able to do it, first try, without anything going wrong? Not Khan, that's for sure. But, with his job on the line, he decided to put everything into making sure this project could be completed to a high standard. What happened Azikh? Overload a few systems, cause a core meltdown? Pure energy is unstable at the best of times, but do you know what else it is? Powerful. Powerful enough to infect the remains of every single person caught up in the Carrascola disaster and bring them 'back from the dead'. Their bodies, their minds were reanimated by the power running through them. And you knew what was happening, didn't you?" Artemis said, aiming it directly at Khan. He said nothing.
"Do you think he planned it?" Holly asked.
"No, not initially. But once you realised" He aimed at Khan again, "You decided this could be used to your advantage. You took it upon yourself to take over the new group of people and become their leader, to promise them a new beginning. Of course, not everyone would be most pleased with you. After all, you were the one responsible for killing them, for deforming them beyond recognition. So you rounded up those who were loyal, and you took the Matrix, and you left. And with no energy powering them, those that were left behind simply turned to dust."
Khan began clapping once Artemis had finished, a sly smile present on his face. "Very good, very good indeed. You are far more intelligent than I expected, but I'm afraid you can tell all the stories you want, it isn't going to be able to save you. And once you and your friends are dead, you'll make excellent servants."
"Granted" Artemis said, "But before we meet our inevitable doom, I'd like one last request."
"Which is?"
"To congratulate you. To shake your hand."
Holly almost thought that Artemis had lost his mind. Facing impending doom, and he wanted to shake his tormentor's hand? But as he took a step closer, Holly clocked him glancing backwards. Tracking his movements, she also looked back, and saw Butler regaining consciousness. Well, he was always already conscious, but he had now very much regained his senses. They had a plan. Khan, the narcissistic zombie, wanted nothing more than to be congratulated, so he welcomed Artemis towards him. He extended his hand, and Artemis took it willingly. At first, it didn't seem as if anything was happening, but slowly Khan's arm began to vibrate, white smoke pouring out of every crack. Khan himself couldn't seem to let go.
"What are you doing to me?" He gasped as his entire right shoulder splintered under pressure. At the very same time, Butler sprang to his feet. One of the guards went to attack him, but he grabbed the spear and tore it out of the guard's hand before stabbing it straight through the other guard's eye socket. He then turned around, grabbed the first guard and quite literally snapped him in half over his leg. There was a fizz and then a bang beside Holly as Khan finally gave in to the 50,000 volts coursing through what was left of his body and caught fire. As the flames began to rise up his body, Artemis leaned into him.
"Arrogance is stupidity. If you are arrogant, it is because there is something you do not know. I suppose in this case I was the thing that you did not know."
Flames shot out from every pore in Khan's body, but still Artemis did not let go. The red eye that had so defined Azikh Khan lit up and burst into a gooey mess. As Khan screeched, Artemis finally let go, pushing him away into the darkness. Number two meanwhile had just been watching, and slowly backing away, but after seeing what was left of Khan, he made a run for it. Holly, in split-second timing, stuck out a leg. With no time to react, number two tripped straight over it. Off balance and going far too fast to stop, he stumbled into the very Energy Matrix that was powering him. With an exasperated scream, he was vapourised.
"Artemis" Holly said, "I suggest we run."
"I think I like that suggestion a lot" He replied, and so they ran.
Butler, naturally, led the way again as they sprinted through the extensive cave. With there being a shortage of natural light, the three of them had to rely on their other senses to avoid crashing into any of the walls or pillars, though on more than one occasion Artemis manage to fail at doing just that. Confident neither Khan nor any of his followers had caught up to them, they stopped to take a breather.
"Artemis, what the hell were they?" Holly said between breaths. Right now she wished she had been allowed to take a pair of wings with her.
"They were exactly what I said they were" Artemis replied. "An Energy Matrix is a powerful device, powerful to raise an army of the undead. Khan was clever though- he'd dialled himself into the Matrix itself. Whilst everyone else was a brainless zombie, he still had full control of his thoughts, which means he dialled himself into the Matrix before it blew up everyone else."
"How do you dial yourself into a Matrix?" Holly asked.
"Well, think of the one thing he had that nobody else did."
"His eye!" Holly exclaimed. "But he doesn't have that anymore."
"He doesn't, but you need slightly more than an eyeball to create a connection. The eyeball provided the pathway into his nervous system, but underneath the eye-patch he was wearing I saw cluster of micro-chips, which would be able to store everything: Memories, plans, ideals. Everything that would have been lost when his brain was destroyed. That is also something you can only do before you blow yourself up. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that he planned the entire event."
"Homicidal zombies, just what we needed" Butler said. "And I thought finding an entire population of fairies living underground was weird enough."
"Hey, we're not that bad" Holly complained. "Well, most of us, anyway. Now, I think we should keep moving and see if we can find a way out of this cave."
"One problem" Butler replied. "There's a fork in the cave."
"Oh wonderful" Holly said sarcastically, moving beside Butler. "There seems to be a fork in everything today." Now at the edge of the path, Holly could clearly make out the divide infront of them. One of the routes, the one that curved off to the right, was a continuation of the cave. The other route would take them through what looked like a glass tube. But, it was an illuminated glass tube.
"We take the tube" Artemis said, joining them.
"What makes you say that?" Holly asked.
"Consider this my dear elfin friend. We are dry, and yet we managed to travel through an expanse of ocean to get to this cave. Now there are no caves around the base, which means the only plausible explanation is that we went through that tube. Also, despite the face they blindfolded us before they took us here, I can remember the route we took."
"Tube it is then" Holly said, and they set off once more.
The tube was angled slightly uphill, but shallow enough that Holly, for the most part, didn't notice. The tunnel was most certainly made of glass, highly refined, polished and no doubt one of the many luxuries Azikh Khan stole in the process of setting up his elaborate plot. Soon, however, they reached a crest in the tube. Looking down, Holly could once again see the might of Aquaria Major. It looked different from the outside, like a giant 3D spider with 8 legs spread out evenly from a giant, bloated body, although half of those legs were in ruins from the depressurisation. And, in the centre of that body, was the asteroid. Butler was the first to walk over the crest, and was faced with two more offshooting tunnels.
"Which one?" He asked.
"Neither" Artemis replied. "Follow the path. We go straight down."
And so they carried on walking. Holly managed to lose herself in the rhythm of everyone's footsteps, until the pattern changed. Pulling herself back into reality, she decided to listen closer, and realised the noise wasn't coming from any of them.
"Guys" She said, "Stop a second." In the now almost silent atmosphere, they could all hear the whirring, rolling sounds behind them. Simultaneously they all turned around, just in time to see a claw swinging straight towards them. Artemis ducked- and even though Holly was already so short that the claw passed over her head, she did too- but Butler stayed firm. When it reached him, he grabbed it, then tore it off the droid it was attached to. The droid decided the next best option was to swing its gun arm, but Butler parried it, took hold of the robot's head, and tore it straight off. If they thought it was over, however, they were mistaken, because another droid suddenly appeared behind them. Butler attempted to halt it, but it saw him coming and hit him hard in the balls. Even someone like Butler couldn't stop bending over in pain, and the droid saw this as an opportunity. It skirted past Holly and Artemis so that it was now infront of them. In one motion, it brought its gun up and aimed straight at Artemis.
It never fired. Instead, as a great burning hole formed in its torso, it gave out a small wail and collapsed to the floor. And, when the droid dropped to the floor, both Artemis and Holly were left stunned as to who was behind it.
Oh the cliffhangers. Except, you can probably guess who it anyway...