Phantasy Star – Death Among Us

Chapter 6 –

  It was dark, and real wet… Steam poured from the pipes around us as we made our way through the piping station. We could hear the clatter of claws on metal somewhere above us, and the strained light seeping through the slim grating did little to light our passage. Heat Charge moved swiftly ahead, me trailing behind, I was a bit more shaken up then he was. The snarls of the creatures perusing us grew louder with every step, and suddenly I heard a loud crashing sound somewhere behind us. And that's when I started running, fatigued our not I ran faster than I ever had before in my life! The creatures were now level with us in the piping station and gaining fast.

            Yuni stepped out into the long corridor, the crimson emergency lights illuminated her emotionless face. Akino followed nervously, shouldering the rifle, aiming down the hallway. Two of the Pan-arms slid around corner and made a dash for them. Yuni slowly lifted the 'Flame Visit'.  Her finger slowly pulling the trigger, a stream of flames jetted from the weapon, sending the room into an inferno. A moment of flickering silence, then a blood-curdling screech as one of the monsters leapt through the flames and crashed onto the floor in front of them. The bewildered five foot Hunawearl stepped back slowly, her crimson hair flickering with the light of the flames. Her deep blue eyes narrowed, and she let the flame-visit hit the grating. Her hands went to her hips, and onto holsters on either side of her belt. The strange yellow creature stood before her, snarling, its photon blade beaming forward.

"Let's do this…" Yuni drew her two mech-guns and dove backwards down the corridor, both guns blazing. The shots cut into the monster, but didn't hold it back. It rushed forward blade swinging. Yuni tucked back and sprung forward, catching the monster in the face with her combat boot. Yuni slowly dropped her aim to the creatures head, and whispered "See you in hell!" and pulled the trigger. The creatures head snapped back and its body fell back into the fire.

Yuni turned back to Akino, who was standing in the corner, scared to death. Yuni's face was splashed with blood, and her black shirt now red. She walked past Akino to the door at the end of the corridor… "We need to keep moving…" Akino shakily nodded, and took a step forward. She then pulled back a photon knife, and cut lose much of her long white hair, letting it float to the red flooring. She nodded, and her once green eyes turned a shade of bright red, and she began to scan the room. "I… I will no weigh you down any longer… I will pull my own weight…" Her face was stern, and she gripped her rifle tightly. Yuni looked her down for a moment, then nodded approvingly. "Let's move out, stay quiet, there's more of those on the move…"

They were closing in… fast! In a moment they'd be right on top of us, my mind raced for a solution. And up ahead I found one, it was going to be a tight fit, with no room for error, and actually a quite crazy plan… Up ahead was an opening on the right, and across the hall a huge tank of propane against the wall. Heat Charge understood before I could utter the plan. We sprinted for the room, the creatures only feet away… I could feel their breathe on my back… Then we dived to the left, and as I hit the floor, Heat Charge fired two shots into the propane, sending the hallway into a fiery explosion! The room we were in suddenly jolted… then began to fall, the room before us disappeared upwards, and as I searched the small room, I realized that we had dived right into a service elevator… oops…

We fell for a really long time, what felt like minutes. I broke open the hatch on the room; lights sped by as we fell past them. We passed openings with great speed, and I then realized what we had to do. "Heat Charge! We have to jump!" I yelled to him.

"Affirmative, on 3." He responded. I took my time sizing it up, then on the count, we jumped. We hit the ground so hard… I blacked out, I woke up a while later with Heat Charge carrying me down a low-lit hallway.