Emily looked into the dark cave and walked slowly inside. She stayed close to the wall in hopes she would find her way out better. She was alone, and it didn't feel comforting. Normally on any mission she was with at least one person, but this time she was alone. When she thought about it, going inside alone was a pretty stupid idea. She started to wonder why the crew had let her. They probably hadn't realized exactly what they have done yet. Ethan and Luis weren't there and were a bit to busy to pay much attention to the plan, and C.G. was over come with fear of spiders. Now that it was mentioned, Emily wasn't terribly fond of spiders either.
It was getting darker, and Emily was starting to wonder if she had any kind of light programmed into her communicator. The darker it got the more thoughts raced through Emily's head. What if she did get lost? Then she remembered Ethan's compass was in her pocket. She picked it up and squinted to see the letters. The path she had been following seemed to be heading north, so to get out she had to go south. Even though she was done looking at it, Emily kept the compass gripped tight in her hand that wasn't clutching the side of the cave. It gave her a sense of security, even though Ethan wasn't actually there with her.
Suddenly there was the sound of at-least sixteen spider legs heading towards her. Emily stood flat against the wall and stood completely still, hoping they wouldn't see her. Of course they'd see you, Emily; the Camiliographic Helmet you are wearing is pure white! They'd be fools not to see it! Emily took deep, slow breathes.
The spiders came in view and Emily froze. Time seemed to slow down. Two huge, beady-eyed Silver Spiders came scurrying down the passage way. As they passed Emily scanned them and the Camiliographic Helmet she was wearing transformed her into a copy of the creepy beasts. Just in time also, because they turned around after realizing something strange in the cave with them. Once seeing it was a 'fellow' arachnid they continued on their way.
"Few," Emily whispered, figuring out how to control her new six legs along with her old two. "That was close. Are you still getting a picture, C.G.?" The cave seemed to had become brighter. Maybe it was the fact that the screen of the Camiliographic Helmet wasn't in use, and therefore the dark blue tint had disappeared.
"Confirmed," C.G.'s hushed voice rang through the cave. The camera had thermal sensors also, incase the light became to dim for it, so it wasn't a mater of ability to see. C.G. now felt bad that Emily was there alone, but someone had to watch the equipment and take notes. Also C.G. really hated spiders.
Emily walked for a couple of minutes longer and came to this large room. In this room she saw a mesh of huge eyes and white fur, she had found the Poggles! Tending to them were the Silver Spiders, whose pattern of white and grey made them seem much like butlers! The Poggles seemed to be perfectly at ease with these creatures that were notorious for farming and eating them. This made since, because if the Spiders had any brain what-so-ever they new not to kill these mammals in front of their buddies!
"Wow," Emily whispered, watching a spider hand grass seeds to a relaxing Poggle, "this is amazing."
"Amazing, yes…" From the footage C.G. was watching, she didn't agree. All she saw were a bunch of innocent little Poggles being tricked into being spider chow. Yes, it was very 'amazing' that the spiders developed that concept, but the whole thing gave her the creeps.
For the next hour Emily and C.G. watched the behavior of the mammals and arachnids. They weren't sure exactly if they were working together, or the spider was taking advantage of them. Tiny Poggles seemed to run around freely, and they seemed to thrive. One would say the relationship was almost parasitical on the spiders' behalf.
As Emily was sitting in the cave, doing nothing but watching the interaction and life style of the two animals, a Poggle walked strait up to what it thought was a Silver Spider but was in fact Emily. It made a couple of high pitched squeaking sounds and Emily looked around hopelessly. What was she supposed to do?
"Oh, you are so cute!" Emily whispered, as she resisted the urge to pet it with two of her spider legs. The hamster-sized animal looked back at her in confusion. Of course, Emily was a bit smaller than the creature at the time and therefore it was a bit intimidating.
Luis's voice rang through her communicator, "Em, don't talk to it, it thinks you're a spider." Even though Luis's voice was the level of a whisper, his giant sized voice box extruding the tiny speaker of Emily's communicator did not go unnoticed. In fact, it echoed through the cave repeating the deadly word 'spider' over and over.
The silver arachnids looked back at the source of the sound with eight gleaming black eyes, each! There had to be at least ten there tending to the many furry Poggles. Emily held her breathe. Hopefully they'll just leave her alone. She then realized that her best bet was to move on and walk away like nothing happened. As she did this she tripped, and the holographic technology in the Camiliographic Helmet broke up, causing Emily to be revealed.
Once this happened Emily didn't have much time to think. In the split second before the spiders started running towards her she pulled the helmet off and stuffed it in her pocket, then head through the tunnel she believed she came out of. She had to go north, right?
The five select spiders chased after her. She could hear the forty legs shuffling behind her. "Guys, I need some help. The Camiliographic Helmet glitched up and now I'm being chased by five poisonous crawly critters!" Emily yelled desperately into her communicator. "Hello?"
"We hear you, Em!" Luis said into his communicator, standing up. There wasn't enough time to fix the engine, he hand to find the manual over-ride! "We'll get there ASAP!"
Ethan jumped off his own lazy bum as the two of them searched frantically through the room. A manual over-ride couldn't be that hard to find.
"I'm on my way, also Emily!" C.G. said into here communicator, standing up. This was all her fault. She shouldn't have been so stupid as to let Emily go in alone. "Keep your communicator on so we can track your coordinates!"
Emily's frantic voice came out of C.G.'s wrist, "Done! Please hurry!"
C.G. looked at the items she had with her. The TractorBeam, MediScanner, Molecular Compressor, and the Hollidat were all spread out on her bag, basically useless items. C.G. had no time to construct a rope to get down, though. She grabbed the Molecular Compressor and forced it into her pocket. C.G. then grabbed the TractorBeam. What she was about to do might not work, but she had what Ethan would call a gut feeling. She took a deep breath and hoped for the best.
C.G. pointed the TractorBeam towards the bottom of the escarpment and activated it. It seemed to grab hold of the ground fine, instead of lifting up a loose rock. C.G. closed her eyes and Jumped, pointing the TractorBeam's green light at the same spot. The beam repelled her in the air, where she seemed to float, but had trouble holding the TractorBeam, and the weight of the Earth. C.G. was relieved that it had worked, but now she had to work her way down before the TractorBeam gave up and she tumbled towards the ground.
Using every bit of strength in her being, C.G. pulled on the small tube. It felt much like the performing pull-ups Ethan did so very often. With every pull she came a bit closer to the ground, but it wasn't fast enough. From all the power the TractorBeam was using, when she was about half way down the power gave up and she went hurtling towards the earth.
C.G. tried her best to land in a way to inflict the least amount of harm, but there wasn't enough time and she landed on her foot, which quickly twisted around. She felt a cutting sensation in her ankle.
"Ouch," C.G. said, as she tried to stand up. The weight on her right foot made her cripple in pain. She moaned.
Emily heard this, and while she was entangled in her own problems, she asked into her communicator "C.G., are you okay?"
C.G. stood up, using her left foot to support her weight almost entirely. "Yes, I'll be right there Emily!" No matter how injured C.G. was, Emily was in grave danger and C.G. had to help! C.G. ran toward the cave, quickly switching her feet. Once reaching the entrance of the cave she didn't stop. She had to get to Emily, and was tracking her on her communicator! C.G. was trained in focusing all her energy and performing twice as fast. Hopefully she could catch up to Emily quickly!
Emily came to another large room, where there were even more spiders! She stood there in disbelief, huffing. How did this happen? She went north! She went north… Emily slapped her forehead. She should've gone south to get out of the cave; she entered through the north tunnel! Duh, Emily! It was to late now, because venomous Spiders were coming at her in every direction, surrounding her. She hoped C.G. would get there soon.
Luis and Ethan were frantically moving everything around in order to find the manual over-ride. Boxes and random items were basically thrown together in a stack. Luis slouched against a wall, about to say it was hopeless, but his back pushed against something and the door slid open.
"Way to go, Luis!" Ethan exclaimed, thumping Luis on the back once he was standing up again.
"I meant to do that," Luis said quietly as he and Ethan ran out of the Time Flyer. They jumped onto separate Dirt Gliders (as re-named by Ethan, for they reminded him of his skateboards at home, in which the brand name Dirt Glider) "Great, my least favorite way to travel!" Luis complained, pressing the back button to propel his board.
"We're on our way, girls!" Ethan yelled, ignoring Ethan's complaints as he swerved all around the jagged peaks ahead. Luis was way behind him, trying to find his balance. "I hope!"
TO BE CONTINUED