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What Lies Beneath

by

~Miriah~of~the~Wind~

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Chapter 22: Crystal of Energy

"I'm starting to like these humans less and less." Mali said, "Um, Tak, Zim. Your robots are at it again." Indeed they were, for they had raced down the hall and back to the door. By accident G.I.R. knocked down a brief case.

"Well, look what we've found." Zim said and Tak signaled M.I.M.I. to analyze it.

"It belongs to the human who was talking to that Moira human." Tak read. Mali took two items.

"What's this?" Mali asked. Cam looked at it and replied it looked like some kind of old signet ring that had the sign of a raven and Zim explained that humans would leaved there mark that way but that they did that hundreds of years ago.

"Yes, so why now?" Mali wondered out loud. Mali gave the ring to Cam and took out a human letter.

"Zim you read this, I can't read earthling."

"Actually humans speak lots of languages but I can only read 'English'. The letter says:

Dear Friend,

Don't worry any more about our affair with Edinburgh, we have provided a tailor-made culprit to Scotland Yard. In addition, I confirm my presence for Alban Arthuan.

Respectfully,

Paul Evil

"Paul Evil?!? What kind of name is.." Tak never got to finish her sentence because they heard footsteps coming down. They turned to each other and pretended to be talking. A plump man around his seventies came down, took the briefcase, and went out the door.

"Damn, mutt!" he suddenly cried out for G.I.R. came up and bit him. Tak came over and picked G.I.R. up and said in her fake apology voice.

"I'm sorry if my friend's dog cause you any trouble, sir."

"It's......alright. Now if you'll excuse me I have an....appointment in Edinburgh. Goodbye." He turned around and left while G.I.R. snarled at him.

"He's going to Edinburgh, huh?" Mali said after he left, "Well, while he's away why don't we check out that old distillery of his?" Cam pulled out her map.

"The best thing to do is transport to the 'Stone Bridge' and then take the trail back up and to the left." They did so but Cam senses didn't lead them to the distillery. It lead them to the boat that led to the distillery. Cam gasped.

"What is it?" Mali asked her partner.

"W-water." Cam said pointing. Mali looked at it. So this was the terrifying liquid that could defeat the Irkens.

"If we just stay in the boat the water won't hurt us." Tak said trying to calm Cam down. It was an old, wooden, rickety boat, and Zim looked at it and wondered if it could ever really make as far as the distillery. Everyone got in and Mali grabbed the oars that were on the other side of the boat and started to row through the water. Cam used her super vision and stared at the water. She saw many things that she had never seen before.

"Zim, Mali, what's that?" she said pointing to a creature that came up to the surface, looking for food. It was long, scaley, and had eyes on the side of it's head.

"That's a fish." Zim said, "Sometimes humans keep these as pets or eat them as a meal." Cam watched amazed on how the fish swam through the water without burning and her eyes grew wide when Tak told her that fish needed water to survive. At last they reached the distillery. The human that everyone seem to call, "Ipswich" came into the distillery door. He looked around and gave his best, "You are NOT welcome" face and he went inside....with a fully loaded rifle. The Irkens got out of the boat and went to the door. When Mali knocked on it Ipswich yelled at her, "We're closed!". M.I.M.I. and G.I.R. were looking around and something shiny had caught G.I.R.'s robotic eye.

"Ooo, shiny." G.I.R. followed the shine, with M.I.M.I. closely behind him, in between some barrels. It was a pair of pliers.

G.I.R. heard his master say, "There's always something to be found deep in a deep, dark cellar." They looked around to the other side where a water wheel was flowing water into a trough through a door that had been locked and, with no doubt, into the basement. The enemy seemed to know that they were Irkens and the Irken's secret with water.

"Look, they've locked the entrance! With locks!" Zim said but then G.I.R. came over. He looked at his shiny pair of pliers and he analyze how strong they were. He clipped the chain that held the doors shut.

"G.I.R., M.I.M.I.! You two stay here!" Zim and Tak chorused. They looked at each other and then went through the door. The floor was littered with old bottles of whiskey.

"Somebody had a party last night." Cam said.

Mali did her usual duty of giving out orders, "Zim you're the smallest so you have to take this and knock him out with it. Take everything that you think is important." Mali took the bottle of the chloroform and drenched the rag with it's contents. She gave it to Zim, he saluted, and, trying carefully not to kick any of the glass, went through a second pair of doors, this time though, unlocked. Invader Zim quietly sneaked his way into the office. He silently opened the door. Ipswich didn't even know he was in there. Zim grabbed him by the throat and stuffed the rag over his face making sure to cover the nose and mouth. Zim was a madman and a little incompetent but he was one of the strongest Irkens ever. Ipswich struggled for a little while and then he became very still. Zim let him fall on his desk. He picked up a small leather bag and opened it. The title read: The Grand Book of Kelia: Crystals and ogams. He also notice a cane and, by accident, he flipped open the top part which revealed a small key. Zim also decided to take the cane with him. He quietly snuck back to the others and they quietly snuck back outside.

"Truly I am amazing!" Zim said holding out The Grand Book of Kelia. Tak rolled her human eyes.

"Okay, AMAZING one. How do we get past the water to get into the cellar?"

"We'll use this to stop the water wheel from dumping water into the trough." Mali said taking the cane and stopping it with the water wheel. Everyone stared at Mali.

"What? She said 'amazing one', right? I thought she was talking to me!" The snuck back through the first door, waited until the water drained out. When it did they found that a trap door was hidden under the water.

"Why would they put a door underwater?" Zim wondered out loud.

"Use your brains Zim! They did it so that Irkens like ourselves wouldn't find whatever they're hiding." Tak snapped. The opened the trap door carefully, since the door was still very wet and went inside. The air had a strong sent of malt liquor. In the room was a generator with a rope, a chest, and, of all things, an electric chair. Cam went over to the chest and opened it. The chest was small, light in weight, and had a raven symbol on it, just like the signet ring. She opened it to reveal two circular amber disks and two circular silver disks.

"These were the disks that were stolen from 'Edinburgh'!" Mali exclaimed. Then she paused and went on to say, "What's an Edinburgh anyway?"

"It this nation's capital city." Cam said. Then she moved the electric chair out of the way.

"Just as I thought a door! But it's locked!"

"Hey, look at the key opening." Tak said. The looked and it looked like a raven too.

"Do you think that we can use the signet ring to open it?" Mali asked.

"There's only one way to find out." Cam said as she used the signet ring like a key. The door opened and it revealed itself to be an underground path. The air was dark and musty. The Irken soldiers kept hearing footsteps as though Ipswich had woken up and started to follow them. They came to a room with three different passage ways. One had the sign of the cross on it. They ran to that room only to find a door with no handle or keyhole. They took another sign that had a raven on it. They ran to that one to find a pillar with the signs of the zodiac on it. There was a hole on the top of the ceiling there but they couldn't make out what it was. As they were leaving to take the last route they couldn't help but notice a human skeleton was there. They went down the last route that had a dragon on it. It led to a basement filled with diving equipment.

"Where should we go now?" Tak asked.

Mali stood there and thought for a moment, "We should go to the library and see if we can find anything about this lizard symbol thingy."

"It's called a 'dragon'." Cam corrected her.

"Yeah, whatever." Cam used her psychic powers and they found themselves once again in the warmer (and much more pleasant) library. Mali noticed the niche in the wall. There was a stone in the wall that also had the symbol of a dragon. When Mali pressed the cane against the stone it opened a passage way.

"Whoa, how did you do that?" Cam asked. Mali shrugged and showed everyone what she had found. The room inside was obviously the room that Moira was talking about; Her father's office. G.I.R. took the shiny chest key and opened a pair of doors. While everyone else was looking around for another clue or even another crystal G.I.R. was playing with the safe in the drawer. It had Latin words carved into it and instead of a dial safe, there were slots with letters in them.

"Ooh, look at the pretty words." he remarked. Mali, interested at Zim's crazy robot, came over to have a look.

"Foedus Francorum Cum Scotis Anno Dominici?" Mali read off the words engraved in the safe, "Cam what does that mean?"

Cam read the graving, it took a little while but finally it came to her, "The writings are from the 'Auld Alliance Treaty'. I think that if we match the safe letters with the date it would open the safe." Cam took out the treaty papers and moved the slots so that they read, "MCCXCV". The safe opened revealing a very important paper. On it was a chair with instructions on how to move the parts and a picture of a glove made out of chain-mail.

(A/N: For those of you who haven't studied the days of knights chain mail is tiny metal rings that loop around each other so the knight won't get punctured by a spear or sword. They were very heavy and unbearable in hot, humid weather.)

They went up the creaky stairs and soon came upon the chair that was told in the papers.

"Do you think we should open the chair and then get the glove or get the glove and then open the chair?" Tak asked.

"Maybe we should get the glove first." Zim said a little nervous. As they went further up the stairs they saw a door that led to some kind of lab with experiments. On a table they found what they were looking for.

"Look! The glove." Tak cried out.

"Look! A window handle!" G.I.R. cried out after that, "I gonna name her Lucy."

"A window handle named, 'Lucy'?" Mali said.

"Don't be mean to Lucy!!!" G.I.R. yelled and cuddled with the window handle. M.I.M.I. gave G.I.R. a stare that plainly read, "Um, don't you think it might be a little odd that a green dog is cuddling with a window handle." G.I.R. gave M.I.M.I. a stare that also plainly read, "Yes!......wait a minute........I don't know." M.I.M.I. shook her cat like head and followed the Irken soldiers and G.I.R. that had left and were now fiddling with the chair. Zim had put on the chain-mail glove and Tak was getting the chair to open. It was an old fashion chair that had two buttons on the top and two bar like levers on the bottom. Doing just as the instructions commanded her she pushed the left button then the right button, lifted the right arm of the chair and then the left arm, pulled down the right lever and then the left. The result caused the seat of the chair to pull up and there was the Energy Crystal, a brilliant crystal in a magenta sort of color. As Zim touched it he must of triggered some kind of sensor because suddenly a spear with a mixture of water and foxglove shot out and struck Zim. Because he was wearing the mail-chain glove Zim wasn't infected with the deadly poison.

"Zim, you alright?" Tak asked.

"Yes." Zim said.

"Damn." Tak muttered.

"What?"

"Never mind." While Zim and Tak were arguing Mali noticed that someone had walked in but she couldn't see the whole organism. Just the bottom of a maid's outfit. Mali could tell that, like them, it was an Irken in disguise. With a cold hard laugh. And a large, glinting, axe.

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