Necralis: Welcome... welcome one and all, to Chapter number 8. Hmm... this fic
ain't exactly progressing all that fast, eh? Well, not to worry. We have a
plot completely planned out... but I'm lazy and stupid things like school and
life keep getting in the way. Come oooon, Dad! I'm not stupid enough to
give my credit card number on the Internet!!
Vader: (holding out a food bowl and moaning) braaaaains... braaaaaains...
Necralis: You don't need brains, you worthless weasel.
Vader: But I DO need-
Necralis: Oh no, you don't. I looked it up. According to 'The Proper Care of Muses and the Like', Muses don't even need to eat.
Vader: But we like to!
Necralis: look, if you want more food, you'll have to inspire me some more. You've been almost completely useless for the last MONTH! Yes he has, and as a result, Kyren had to write the start of this chapter! (heh, so if you think it's absolutely terrible, blame it on her) So, unless you pick up your feet, I'm gonna have to get a NEW muse!
Vader: NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Necralis: YES!!! Oh, and have you seen Nibi?
Vader: That freaky little Chibi mouser? No.
Necralis: Hmm. I'll have to find her... Some mice ate my copy of Steel Magic. (snarls and waves a clump of tattered paper) This was a great book. AND NOW LOOK AT IT!! (starts to sob) And I can't remember who the author was, and it's REALLY old, so, may I ask, WHERE AM I GOING TO FIND ANOTHER FRIGGIN' COPY?!?
Vader: you read too many books anyway.
Necralis: Bah! It's no use tryna convince a muse that a book is good, cause most of the time they personally knew the author's muse... ANYWAYZ!!! I better let yas read. Please give reviews and/or cookies!
**D** I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me... neither does Kyren. Geez, that was tough. Oh! And the whiskrats are a sort of long, thin, furry sharp-toothed creature. They're a bit like Cougars, only, well, not cats. The people of Nithana have tamed a few of them... used for tracking and hunting and protection. And that's pretty much all you need to know...
- ~ -
Chapter 8: Ask Questions Later
'It started getting weird when Karok wanted to leave the village...
"Ptek? Are you in here?" I called nervously as I entered his workshop, nearly tripping on Trax, who was nosing about in the junk inside. Yeah, yeah, I know, Ptek isn't exactly a man to be feared. But if anyone is foolish enough to enter his workshop while he's working on some big project...
"Yeah! Oh, you'd better watch out for the stuff in the doorway, I think at least eight people have tripped on that today..."
"Whoa, Ptek, you actually told me for once. Damn, I was looking forward to adding some more bruises to my collection," I said, trying to avoid cutting my foot open on the stuff that crowded not only the doorway, but also the entire room. "What are you making?"
"Oh, ah... I don't exactly know... yet," he answered, biting his tongue. He was holding two objects, one appeared to be a piece of precursor metal attached to something that was zapping with electricity (or rather, blue eco in this world), and the other was holding some sort of... omni-tool he had created to make building his inventions easier.
"Oh yeah, I came here to tell you that Karok is, ah, being weird," I reported sitting down on one of Ptek's...thingies.
"What else is new?" He looked up at me. "Eiiagh, no, no, no, DON'T sit on that!" I leapt to my feet making an even weirder noise than Ptek had just made. Trax yapped loudly.
"What? What is it?" I asked nervously. "Am I contaminated, doomed to die a slow and horrible death, cursed to live the rest of my life attached to you?!"
"No, none of that, just lucky." He answered examining the previously sat on thingy.
"What could've happened?"
"Well, you could've broken it, and then I would've been forced to kill you."
I sighed. "Anyway, Karok wants us to go out to the desert with him." That is pretty unusual in our village, there's lots of... things out there you don't wanna encounter, like the wild packs of whiskrats and sandstorms. And there is the searing heat, did I mention that? Most of the time, only the travelers go out there, and they spend months preparing.
"What? Why?" he asked suspiciously, giving Trax a scratch between the ears.
"A dream told him to."
"Oh, jeez, not again. What did the last dream tell him to do? Wasn't it something like, prepare yourself for the worst to come? Then he went and got all our food and stored it somewhere, almost like he couldn't help it..." he suddenly looked thoughtful. "But, anyway, I don't think you should listen to him, he'll just get you lost," he warned, "Besides, it looks like it's gonna rain soon."
I glanced out the workshop's window. Dark clouds amassed on the horizon and moved towards the village at an alarming rate.
"Come on! Karok says he needs you, and you are bored, aren't you? Vester and Lethra are coming too."
Ptek sighed and lay down his tool. "Fine. But you owe me!"
_*_
"Gah, my eyes!" cried Vester, "There's too much wind! Sand and eyes do not mix."
"Yeah, I think we should go back, Karok!" I yelled, trying, in vain, to shield my eyes from the sand. Karok remained silent. After wrestling a few of the domesticated whiskrats off Ptek's, er... hyper-water flask (one of his inventions... don't ask) and receiving many (new!) painful bites, bruises and scratches we set off towards where Karok had pointed. I wandered over to Ptek, who was glancing around looking worried, to ask for some water. "I'm thirsty, can I have some water...Hey, ah, what is it, Ptek?"
"Where's Lethra?" he asked.
"What? She's gone? Oh no... Karok! Stop!" Karok turned.
"What?" he asked impatiently.
"Lethra's missing?" asked Vester who had been listening to us. I ignored everyone else's questions and ran back the way we came until I came to a moving lump of sand.
"Ack! Help!" cried the lump. I started scooping up sand from it, revealing Lethra's sandy, spluttering body.
"Eheh, eheh, ooooh... I fell over and the sand covered me!" she managed to cough out. "Bleh, I feel sick... thanks, Mir."
Sandstorms can be really, really vicious around here – makes you wonder why they built the village so close to them. Karok had made us all rush out without getting any gear, not even the goggles we usually wear. I was starting to regret... oh, alright, I had been against it from the beginning. Why were we coming out here?
I decided to ask Karok.
"Gah! Stop the madness! We almost lost Lethra, and it could happen to anyone else. Karok, we should go back!"
He didn't even turn around. Probably couldn't hear me over the wind, which had now reached howling pitch.
"Just a little further!" he shouted, after I yelled at him a couple more times.
"A little bit further to WHAT?!?" I yelled, then regretted it as my mouth filled up with sand. Karok pointed, but, surprise surprise, it was completely invisible.
He yelled something else but it was lost in the wind. Just as I started wondering whether I would be fast enough to hit him over the head and escape before he caught on, the sandstorm stopped. Just like that. As though someone had flicked a switch.
I glanced around at my friends. They were all in varying states of disbelief and nervousness. The silence pressed heavily on my ears.
"Who hit the mute button?" said Ptek, breaking the eerie silence that had fallen.
No one answered him, and as I glanced at the miraculously clear horizon, I noticed the clouds were closer than ever before. It may've been my imagination, but they looked purple.
Karok suddenly knelt in the sand.
"When the darkness falls..." he whispered. "When hope fades..."
"Karok, what the hell are you babbling about?" Ptek demanded.
Karok ran his fingers around a circle in the sand. Trax began to whimper.
"They will gather..."
"WHO will gather? Do you know something about this?"
The circle in the sand began to glow.
"To aid the Shiner..."
The glow grew brighter.
"Who.. What? What's a Shiner?"
"To drive back the darkness..."
The purple clouds were getting closer...
"To decide the fate of this world and others."
The circle in the sand suddenly exploded with blinding blue light that just as quickly vanished, leaving a round, dark hole in the sand. Karok staggered backwards, hand covering his eyes, which were streaming with tears from the light. He leapt to his feet and grabbed Lethra by the wrist.
"In! Quick!" he gasped, hurling Lethra unceremoniously in the hole. He then dived in himself. Ptek, wondering whether Karok was actually seeing important stuff or just insane, followed. Trax streaked in after him.
Vester and I glanced at each other. A faint feeling of foreboding pervaded me. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong...
"May as well see, eh, Mirly?" he said, grinning. I shook my head and clambered down into the hole, Vester following.
It was very cramped and dark. "Cozy," muttered Ptek. "Uh... Lethra... your elbow is jammed in my eye..."
~In a desperate battle, a Hero was falling.
- * -
An odd click interrupted Mir's story, as with a loud pinging noise and a few sparks, the lights flickered back on.
"Flibbing!" Ptek cried, dropping his spanner and putting the panel back over the wires. He turned around the see the others staring at him funny with raised eyebrows. "What?"
Mir shook her head and turned back to the others when the light abruptly switched off again. Ptek bellowed something that sounded oddly like "Boogers!" which caused Jak to edge away from him and look to the others for explanation.
Versca suddenly stood up and strode over to Mir, nearly falling over Trax. She shoved the dark-haired girl aside and settled herself in Mir's place, saying with a grin, "My turn to tell the story, sister. And I won't have any crazy embellishments, prophetic dreams and purple clouds, huh!"
And, ignoring Mir's reproachful glances and Karok's vicious kick, she started to tell her side of the story, her style quite different from Mir's, occasionally glancing over the astronomer as though daring her to protest.
- * -
A thin, red-and-silver haired girl poked her head around a door and yelled "Necris! We're on in a second!"
The girl sleeping on the bunk in the corner shrieked and fell off, having just been woken up from a rather nice sleep.
"Fooled ya," grinned Versca, coming over and helping her up. "I wanna show you something."
"Can't it wait?" moaned Necris, brushing her section of dark hair out of her mismatched, sleepy eyes.
"Weeell... I SUPPOSE it could wait, seeing as you're feeling a little under the weather..."
The acrobat growled and whacked her friend around the head.
"You, Versca, are an insensitive, manipulative jerk."
"I know," sighed the jerk in question, clasping her hands. "How can one not love me?"
"Quite easily," growled Necris. "Where's Sierra?"
"Practicing."
"As per usual."
"Doesn't want a fiasco like last time." Versca did an overblown imitation of someone falling on their butt. "Hasn't yet figured out that I put soap on her shoes."
Necris raised an eyebrow. "So that explains it. She's usually a good dancer."
"Such a pity that skill doesn't extend to her personality."
"Pity that skill doesn't rub off."
Versca flipped her the finger. Necris returned it with a flourish.
"So, anyway, what is it you wanted to show me? Is it cool?"
"It's freezing, my dear Necris. Absolutely freezing."
Necris winced and sighed. "Not only are you insensitive, you are also insanely corny."
- * -
"How... much... farther?" panted Necris, as they clambered over the fourth tree that had been in their path.
Versca glanced back at her friend, noting her shaking hands and sweating forehead. She had obviously not been stretching like they were always ordered to, and her slackness was taking its toll.
Not that she'd ever been one for conformity. Her very outward appearance was a testament to that. Though her hair was currently dirty and messy, with twigs and leaves stuck in it for good measure, it was still easy to see that one half of it was long and dark, whilst the other was blonde and cut short. The same went for her eyes, one being a deep, clear shade of green, the other pale blue. They had been like that since her birth. The moment she'd found it that this particular aspect of her appearance was unusual, she'd done everything in her power to accentuate it, from wearing pied clothes to dying her hair.
It was this weird urge of hers to be different from everyone else that had led her to run away and join the circus. Versca's story was not nearly so interesting – she'd been born in the circus, she lived in the circus and she would probably die in the circus too. Her parents had died when she was seven, leaving her to wander vaguely to look after herself. She'd found she'd had a pronounced aptitude - as well as an unhealthy fascination - with knifes of various sorts.
"Not much further," she said to her suffering companion. "Just don't have a heart attack before we get there, eh, Grandma?"
Necris gave her the finger. It was something of a tradition between these two, especially as Versca had a strange compulsion to insult everyone she knew. In all appearances, the pair wouldn't have made a very good pair of friends – except for one crucial aspect.
Necris had once saved Versca's life.
It was a long story – it had to do with water, seaweed and sharks (N&V: We'll save it for another fic, shaaall we?) – but the practical upshot was the pair never went anywhere without the other.
Versca was thinking and pushing branches out of the way with her hands on automatic when she heard a loud screech and a flurry of breaking branches nearby. She would have started towards the sound had someone not crashed through the trees next to her and landed flat on her back next to her foot. Versca leant over her to see if she was all right, then suddenly straightened up and started smirking.
"Why, hello there, my dear Sierra."
The newcomer was thin and female, dressed in a white shirt with longish purple pants. She was tanned and orange-haired, with a face that may have been beautiful had it not been covered in scratches and twisted in an angry snarl. Her usually neat hair and clothing was now ragged, with twigs and various assorted parts of the scenery ensnared in them.
"I swear I'll kill you, Versca," she growled, struggling to get up and restore some of her dignity. "You knew I was following you. You KNEW!"
Necris said, "With you stumbling along like an elephant? How could we NOT know?"
Not many people like Sierra, partly because she disliked them and partly because she treated them like the lowest kind of filth. She was in fact the daughter of a well-known dancer, but while the skill had been passed down, her mother's kindness had not. She now made her living doing graceful and elaborate dances to amaze crowds, between which she screeched at even the ringmaster and demanded all the best of everything (which she often got, thanks to her stunning beauty and prowess at blackmail).
Now, her tanned face flushed with fury, she got to her feet and screeched, "HOW DARE YOU TREAT ME LIKE THIS!"
Versca patted her on the head because she knew the girl would hate it, and said soothingly, "Calm down, Sierra, there's no need to bust my eardrums, you know. Now get of my way, I'm trying to keep an appointment I made with Ms Necris here."
Sierra's voice rose higher, to the point where Versca winced and covered her ears. "I AM THE DAUGHTER OF MAHALIA! I do not appreciate being dragged on an obstacle course-"
"We didn't WANT you to follow us! You just decided it would be a good idea to eavesdrop!" Necris does not like sticky-beaks.
"It was a good thing I did!" Sierra rounded on Versca. "I should have known you were behind my fall, you jealous, lazy, ignorant peon..."
She followed them all the way, whining and complaining and generally being a pain in the butt (apologies Kiz, do you mind your character being such a bitch?). Versca was on the point of strangling her when the trees they'd been climbing through suddenly stopped and they walked into a clearing.
A rather impressive jumble of bronze metal and stone rose before them, its rounded towers and pinnacles seemingly etched against the blue of the sky. Numerous indecipherable symbols crawled over the metal, telling stories of ages past... or maybe just saying 'push' or 'pull'. All three girls started making 'oooh' noises.
"Precursor ruins?" Necris panted, "Well, they are pretty cool, but not worth dragging me out of bed for."
Versca waved her arms around at this insult. "There's some cool stuff inside, you know."
"I've seen ruins so big that you could break your neck trying to see the top," Sierra lied grandly. The other two looked around at her and said, "shut up" in perfect unison.
"Well," muttered Versca, smiling and rubbing her hands. "Shall we go in?"
Necris glanced straight upwards, then to the south. "I don't know, Versca... it looks like it's going to rain."
"Versca cares not for rain!"
"I do," muttered Sierra, pouting.
"Yes, but we don't care what you think." Necris glanced at the sky again, then grinned. Sierra's reluctance seemed to solidify her resolve. "Ahh, why the hell not."
They found the door – it was large and round, opening with a high-pitched whirr. The inside of the temple (or whatever it was) was not very different from the outside, except for the occasional humming Blue Eco vent in the floor. The Vents made the only sound, apart from the rustling of clothes and the deep, echoing sound of footsteps on Precursor Metal.
"Pretty," said Necris, tapping a glowing blue panel in the wall. "You be quiet," she added, as Sierra opened her mouth. Sierra looked offended. Versca was murmuring under her breath.
"Left... three doors... funny blobby thing... Here!" she suddenly stopped and squinted at one particularly non-descript door. "I think this is the one." She swiped her hand across a panel in the wall and the door hummed slightly then opened.
"WOOOOH!" she shrieked, racing into the chamber beyond and clambering onto a machine that resided within.
"Are you sure that's what it's meant to be used for?" frowned Necris.
"No," said Versca, now hanging upside down from her knees. "Do I care?"
Sierra looked oddly at the...thing...which was very large and looked insanely complicated. It may have once been used as a clock... or a torture device... it was hard to tell with Precursor technology.
Versca was obviously not interested in the secrets of the Precursors, and continued to swing happily on one of the protruding bits, yelling in a most juvenile manner.
"Is this what you wanted to show me?" asked Necris, staring at her friend disgustedly.
"Is it not cool? We can come here whenever we like and use it to practice on! And I'm the only one who knows how to get in here-" she looked absurdly proud of this – "So toffee here won't be able to follow us."
Sierra gave her the finger, a most unusual display of vulgarity for her, and looked ready to throw another tantrum. Versca was hanging upside down again, face turning red as all the blood rushed to her head, while Necris was examining the symbols with interest, wondering whether or not they would be easier to read upside down.
And this would probably have continued for quite a while, had the door not chosen that moment to start closing.
What happened was that the blue glow-panels stopped their steady pulsing and started to flash, accompanied by a rather weird klaxon noise. The door, which had been open the whole time, started to close... and there was no way to open it from the inside.
"CRAAP!" Versca dropped heavily to the floor and felt pain flare in her ankles. Necris and Sierra both started scrambling for the door, clawing and scratching desperately at each other, selfish in their terror. Necris yelled as Sierra tore out a few strands of her hair, then gave her a sharp prod in the stomach, causing the dancer to squeak and allow her to get free.
The acrobat was the first to dive through the opening, but jut as Versca was stumbling up to the door, Sierra gave her a vicious kick in the stomach. Versca grunted and flew backwards, skidding along the floor for a few metres then coming to a stop. Just long enough for Sierra to leap through the door as it slammed shut with a final, echoing 'clang!'.
She was trapped.
- ~ -
Kyren: Hello, peoples! I've been listening to WipEout music for about two weeks and I'm still not sick of it! It's so cool... if you have WipEout (1, 2097 and Wip3out, whatever, they're all good) you should probably agree with me. I WANT WIPEOUT FUSION!!! *twitches* Hmm... I stopped writing that when Lethra says, "Bleh, I feel sick... thanks, Mir," and then started writing again after Versca's bit. Necralis wrote the rest. If you don't already know my deviantART account... www.getahaircut.deviantart.com it be... there's a picture of Mir and Lethra and a badly drawn me (Kyren)! with Shalashaska and one of his beloved cupcakes...
Shalashaska: Oh,yes, I believe that would be my cue for... mmm... cupcakes...
Kyren: Oh, and just in case you need this, How to pronounce various OC's names:
~Mir: Erm, you can pronounce this either rhyming with fur or like the name Mia (Mee-a)... but I use the fur one...~
~Ptek: The P is silent so it's just pronounced 'Tek', I don't want anyone saying P-tek!~
~Ylaster the Mighty: The Y is pronounced like 'e' so it's Ee-last-er. Ala Ylon and Ylander and the Ysandir and Ysanne Isard. Yes – I am a total nerd and damn well proud of it.~
~Miala: From my sisters fic, When I Grow Up (go read that by the way), it's pronounced Me-ar-la, not Mayla. If it was spelt Maila it would be pronounced Mayla.(remember that for Sierra as well, See-air-ra((Kiz's cameo's name!)), alright?) ~
~Necralis: Ne-crar-lis, emphasis on the 'crar' not Ne-cra-lis~
~Necris: Neecris...~
~Jak: be-longs-to-Ky-ren... Only joking. ^^;~
Kyren: And that's all I can think of now, but if you want to know how to pronounce stoof, you know who to call! But you don't REALLY have to pronounce stuff like that if you don't want to. Just no one say P-tek, ok?! So, look out for the next chapter... and don't forget to V&V (erm... View & Voo). CHEEEEEEEEEZ!
Vader: (holding out a food bowl and moaning) braaaaains... braaaaaains...
Necralis: You don't need brains, you worthless weasel.
Vader: But I DO need-
Necralis: Oh no, you don't. I looked it up. According to 'The Proper Care of Muses and the Like', Muses don't even need to eat.
Vader: But we like to!
Necralis: look, if you want more food, you'll have to inspire me some more. You've been almost completely useless for the last MONTH! Yes he has, and as a result, Kyren had to write the start of this chapter! (heh, so if you think it's absolutely terrible, blame it on her) So, unless you pick up your feet, I'm gonna have to get a NEW muse!
Vader: NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
Necralis: YES!!! Oh, and have you seen Nibi?
Vader: That freaky little Chibi mouser? No.
Necralis: Hmm. I'll have to find her... Some mice ate my copy of Steel Magic. (snarls and waves a clump of tattered paper) This was a great book. AND NOW LOOK AT IT!! (starts to sob) And I can't remember who the author was, and it's REALLY old, so, may I ask, WHERE AM I GOING TO FIND ANOTHER FRIGGIN' COPY?!?
Vader: you read too many books anyway.
Necralis: Bah! It's no use tryna convince a muse that a book is good, cause most of the time they personally knew the author's muse... ANYWAYZ!!! I better let yas read. Please give reviews and/or cookies!
**D** I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me... neither does Kyren. Geez, that was tough. Oh! And the whiskrats are a sort of long, thin, furry sharp-toothed creature. They're a bit like Cougars, only, well, not cats. The people of Nithana have tamed a few of them... used for tracking and hunting and protection. And that's pretty much all you need to know...
- ~ -
Chapter 8: Ask Questions Later
'It started getting weird when Karok wanted to leave the village...
"Ptek? Are you in here?" I called nervously as I entered his workshop, nearly tripping on Trax, who was nosing about in the junk inside. Yeah, yeah, I know, Ptek isn't exactly a man to be feared. But if anyone is foolish enough to enter his workshop while he's working on some big project...
"Yeah! Oh, you'd better watch out for the stuff in the doorway, I think at least eight people have tripped on that today..."
"Whoa, Ptek, you actually told me for once. Damn, I was looking forward to adding some more bruises to my collection," I said, trying to avoid cutting my foot open on the stuff that crowded not only the doorway, but also the entire room. "What are you making?"
"Oh, ah... I don't exactly know... yet," he answered, biting his tongue. He was holding two objects, one appeared to be a piece of precursor metal attached to something that was zapping with electricity (or rather, blue eco in this world), and the other was holding some sort of... omni-tool he had created to make building his inventions easier.
"Oh yeah, I came here to tell you that Karok is, ah, being weird," I reported sitting down on one of Ptek's...thingies.
"What else is new?" He looked up at me. "Eiiagh, no, no, no, DON'T sit on that!" I leapt to my feet making an even weirder noise than Ptek had just made. Trax yapped loudly.
"What? What is it?" I asked nervously. "Am I contaminated, doomed to die a slow and horrible death, cursed to live the rest of my life attached to you?!"
"No, none of that, just lucky." He answered examining the previously sat on thingy.
"What could've happened?"
"Well, you could've broken it, and then I would've been forced to kill you."
I sighed. "Anyway, Karok wants us to go out to the desert with him." That is pretty unusual in our village, there's lots of... things out there you don't wanna encounter, like the wild packs of whiskrats and sandstorms. And there is the searing heat, did I mention that? Most of the time, only the travelers go out there, and they spend months preparing.
"What? Why?" he asked suspiciously, giving Trax a scratch between the ears.
"A dream told him to."
"Oh, jeez, not again. What did the last dream tell him to do? Wasn't it something like, prepare yourself for the worst to come? Then he went and got all our food and stored it somewhere, almost like he couldn't help it..." he suddenly looked thoughtful. "But, anyway, I don't think you should listen to him, he'll just get you lost," he warned, "Besides, it looks like it's gonna rain soon."
I glanced out the workshop's window. Dark clouds amassed on the horizon and moved towards the village at an alarming rate.
"Come on! Karok says he needs you, and you are bored, aren't you? Vester and Lethra are coming too."
Ptek sighed and lay down his tool. "Fine. But you owe me!"
_*_
"Gah, my eyes!" cried Vester, "There's too much wind! Sand and eyes do not mix."
"Yeah, I think we should go back, Karok!" I yelled, trying, in vain, to shield my eyes from the sand. Karok remained silent. After wrestling a few of the domesticated whiskrats off Ptek's, er... hyper-water flask (one of his inventions... don't ask) and receiving many (new!) painful bites, bruises and scratches we set off towards where Karok had pointed. I wandered over to Ptek, who was glancing around looking worried, to ask for some water. "I'm thirsty, can I have some water...Hey, ah, what is it, Ptek?"
"Where's Lethra?" he asked.
"What? She's gone? Oh no... Karok! Stop!" Karok turned.
"What?" he asked impatiently.
"Lethra's missing?" asked Vester who had been listening to us. I ignored everyone else's questions and ran back the way we came until I came to a moving lump of sand.
"Ack! Help!" cried the lump. I started scooping up sand from it, revealing Lethra's sandy, spluttering body.
"Eheh, eheh, ooooh... I fell over and the sand covered me!" she managed to cough out. "Bleh, I feel sick... thanks, Mir."
Sandstorms can be really, really vicious around here – makes you wonder why they built the village so close to them. Karok had made us all rush out without getting any gear, not even the goggles we usually wear. I was starting to regret... oh, alright, I had been against it from the beginning. Why were we coming out here?
I decided to ask Karok.
"Gah! Stop the madness! We almost lost Lethra, and it could happen to anyone else. Karok, we should go back!"
He didn't even turn around. Probably couldn't hear me over the wind, which had now reached howling pitch.
"Just a little further!" he shouted, after I yelled at him a couple more times.
"A little bit further to WHAT?!?" I yelled, then regretted it as my mouth filled up with sand. Karok pointed, but, surprise surprise, it was completely invisible.
He yelled something else but it was lost in the wind. Just as I started wondering whether I would be fast enough to hit him over the head and escape before he caught on, the sandstorm stopped. Just like that. As though someone had flicked a switch.
I glanced around at my friends. They were all in varying states of disbelief and nervousness. The silence pressed heavily on my ears.
"Who hit the mute button?" said Ptek, breaking the eerie silence that had fallen.
No one answered him, and as I glanced at the miraculously clear horizon, I noticed the clouds were closer than ever before. It may've been my imagination, but they looked purple.
Karok suddenly knelt in the sand.
"When the darkness falls..." he whispered. "When hope fades..."
"Karok, what the hell are you babbling about?" Ptek demanded.
Karok ran his fingers around a circle in the sand. Trax began to whimper.
"They will gather..."
"WHO will gather? Do you know something about this?"
The circle in the sand began to glow.
"To aid the Shiner..."
The glow grew brighter.
"Who.. What? What's a Shiner?"
"To drive back the darkness..."
The purple clouds were getting closer...
"To decide the fate of this world and others."
The circle in the sand suddenly exploded with blinding blue light that just as quickly vanished, leaving a round, dark hole in the sand. Karok staggered backwards, hand covering his eyes, which were streaming with tears from the light. He leapt to his feet and grabbed Lethra by the wrist.
"In! Quick!" he gasped, hurling Lethra unceremoniously in the hole. He then dived in himself. Ptek, wondering whether Karok was actually seeing important stuff or just insane, followed. Trax streaked in after him.
Vester and I glanced at each other. A faint feeling of foreboding pervaded me. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong...
"May as well see, eh, Mirly?" he said, grinning. I shook my head and clambered down into the hole, Vester following.
It was very cramped and dark. "Cozy," muttered Ptek. "Uh... Lethra... your elbow is jammed in my eye..."
~In a desperate battle, a Hero was falling.
- * -
An odd click interrupted Mir's story, as with a loud pinging noise and a few sparks, the lights flickered back on.
"Flibbing!" Ptek cried, dropping his spanner and putting the panel back over the wires. He turned around the see the others staring at him funny with raised eyebrows. "What?"
Mir shook her head and turned back to the others when the light abruptly switched off again. Ptek bellowed something that sounded oddly like "Boogers!" which caused Jak to edge away from him and look to the others for explanation.
Versca suddenly stood up and strode over to Mir, nearly falling over Trax. She shoved the dark-haired girl aside and settled herself in Mir's place, saying with a grin, "My turn to tell the story, sister. And I won't have any crazy embellishments, prophetic dreams and purple clouds, huh!"
And, ignoring Mir's reproachful glances and Karok's vicious kick, she started to tell her side of the story, her style quite different from Mir's, occasionally glancing over the astronomer as though daring her to protest.
- * -
A thin, red-and-silver haired girl poked her head around a door and yelled "Necris! We're on in a second!"
The girl sleeping on the bunk in the corner shrieked and fell off, having just been woken up from a rather nice sleep.
"Fooled ya," grinned Versca, coming over and helping her up. "I wanna show you something."
"Can't it wait?" moaned Necris, brushing her section of dark hair out of her mismatched, sleepy eyes.
"Weeell... I SUPPOSE it could wait, seeing as you're feeling a little under the weather..."
The acrobat growled and whacked her friend around the head.
"You, Versca, are an insensitive, manipulative jerk."
"I know," sighed the jerk in question, clasping her hands. "How can one not love me?"
"Quite easily," growled Necris. "Where's Sierra?"
"Practicing."
"As per usual."
"Doesn't want a fiasco like last time." Versca did an overblown imitation of someone falling on their butt. "Hasn't yet figured out that I put soap on her shoes."
Necris raised an eyebrow. "So that explains it. She's usually a good dancer."
"Such a pity that skill doesn't extend to her personality."
"Pity that skill doesn't rub off."
Versca flipped her the finger. Necris returned it with a flourish.
"So, anyway, what is it you wanted to show me? Is it cool?"
"It's freezing, my dear Necris. Absolutely freezing."
Necris winced and sighed. "Not only are you insensitive, you are also insanely corny."
- * -
"How... much... farther?" panted Necris, as they clambered over the fourth tree that had been in their path.
Versca glanced back at her friend, noting her shaking hands and sweating forehead. She had obviously not been stretching like they were always ordered to, and her slackness was taking its toll.
Not that she'd ever been one for conformity. Her very outward appearance was a testament to that. Though her hair was currently dirty and messy, with twigs and leaves stuck in it for good measure, it was still easy to see that one half of it was long and dark, whilst the other was blonde and cut short. The same went for her eyes, one being a deep, clear shade of green, the other pale blue. They had been like that since her birth. The moment she'd found it that this particular aspect of her appearance was unusual, she'd done everything in her power to accentuate it, from wearing pied clothes to dying her hair.
It was this weird urge of hers to be different from everyone else that had led her to run away and join the circus. Versca's story was not nearly so interesting – she'd been born in the circus, she lived in the circus and she would probably die in the circus too. Her parents had died when she was seven, leaving her to wander vaguely to look after herself. She'd found she'd had a pronounced aptitude - as well as an unhealthy fascination - with knifes of various sorts.
"Not much further," she said to her suffering companion. "Just don't have a heart attack before we get there, eh, Grandma?"
Necris gave her the finger. It was something of a tradition between these two, especially as Versca had a strange compulsion to insult everyone she knew. In all appearances, the pair wouldn't have made a very good pair of friends – except for one crucial aspect.
Necris had once saved Versca's life.
It was a long story – it had to do with water, seaweed and sharks (N&V: We'll save it for another fic, shaaall we?) – but the practical upshot was the pair never went anywhere without the other.
Versca was thinking and pushing branches out of the way with her hands on automatic when she heard a loud screech and a flurry of breaking branches nearby. She would have started towards the sound had someone not crashed through the trees next to her and landed flat on her back next to her foot. Versca leant over her to see if she was all right, then suddenly straightened up and started smirking.
"Why, hello there, my dear Sierra."
The newcomer was thin and female, dressed in a white shirt with longish purple pants. She was tanned and orange-haired, with a face that may have been beautiful had it not been covered in scratches and twisted in an angry snarl. Her usually neat hair and clothing was now ragged, with twigs and various assorted parts of the scenery ensnared in them.
"I swear I'll kill you, Versca," she growled, struggling to get up and restore some of her dignity. "You knew I was following you. You KNEW!"
Necris said, "With you stumbling along like an elephant? How could we NOT know?"
Not many people like Sierra, partly because she disliked them and partly because she treated them like the lowest kind of filth. She was in fact the daughter of a well-known dancer, but while the skill had been passed down, her mother's kindness had not. She now made her living doing graceful and elaborate dances to amaze crowds, between which she screeched at even the ringmaster and demanded all the best of everything (which she often got, thanks to her stunning beauty and prowess at blackmail).
Now, her tanned face flushed with fury, she got to her feet and screeched, "HOW DARE YOU TREAT ME LIKE THIS!"
Versca patted her on the head because she knew the girl would hate it, and said soothingly, "Calm down, Sierra, there's no need to bust my eardrums, you know. Now get of my way, I'm trying to keep an appointment I made with Ms Necris here."
Sierra's voice rose higher, to the point where Versca winced and covered her ears. "I AM THE DAUGHTER OF MAHALIA! I do not appreciate being dragged on an obstacle course-"
"We didn't WANT you to follow us! You just decided it would be a good idea to eavesdrop!" Necris does not like sticky-beaks.
"It was a good thing I did!" Sierra rounded on Versca. "I should have known you were behind my fall, you jealous, lazy, ignorant peon..."
She followed them all the way, whining and complaining and generally being a pain in the butt (apologies Kiz, do you mind your character being such a bitch?). Versca was on the point of strangling her when the trees they'd been climbing through suddenly stopped and they walked into a clearing.
A rather impressive jumble of bronze metal and stone rose before them, its rounded towers and pinnacles seemingly etched against the blue of the sky. Numerous indecipherable symbols crawled over the metal, telling stories of ages past... or maybe just saying 'push' or 'pull'. All three girls started making 'oooh' noises.
"Precursor ruins?" Necris panted, "Well, they are pretty cool, but not worth dragging me out of bed for."
Versca waved her arms around at this insult. "There's some cool stuff inside, you know."
"I've seen ruins so big that you could break your neck trying to see the top," Sierra lied grandly. The other two looked around at her and said, "shut up" in perfect unison.
"Well," muttered Versca, smiling and rubbing her hands. "Shall we go in?"
Necris glanced straight upwards, then to the south. "I don't know, Versca... it looks like it's going to rain."
"Versca cares not for rain!"
"I do," muttered Sierra, pouting.
"Yes, but we don't care what you think." Necris glanced at the sky again, then grinned. Sierra's reluctance seemed to solidify her resolve. "Ahh, why the hell not."
They found the door – it was large and round, opening with a high-pitched whirr. The inside of the temple (or whatever it was) was not very different from the outside, except for the occasional humming Blue Eco vent in the floor. The Vents made the only sound, apart from the rustling of clothes and the deep, echoing sound of footsteps on Precursor Metal.
"Pretty," said Necris, tapping a glowing blue panel in the wall. "You be quiet," she added, as Sierra opened her mouth. Sierra looked offended. Versca was murmuring under her breath.
"Left... three doors... funny blobby thing... Here!" she suddenly stopped and squinted at one particularly non-descript door. "I think this is the one." She swiped her hand across a panel in the wall and the door hummed slightly then opened.
"WOOOOH!" she shrieked, racing into the chamber beyond and clambering onto a machine that resided within.
"Are you sure that's what it's meant to be used for?" frowned Necris.
"No," said Versca, now hanging upside down from her knees. "Do I care?"
Sierra looked oddly at the...thing...which was very large and looked insanely complicated. It may have once been used as a clock... or a torture device... it was hard to tell with Precursor technology.
Versca was obviously not interested in the secrets of the Precursors, and continued to swing happily on one of the protruding bits, yelling in a most juvenile manner.
"Is this what you wanted to show me?" asked Necris, staring at her friend disgustedly.
"Is it not cool? We can come here whenever we like and use it to practice on! And I'm the only one who knows how to get in here-" she looked absurdly proud of this – "So toffee here won't be able to follow us."
Sierra gave her the finger, a most unusual display of vulgarity for her, and looked ready to throw another tantrum. Versca was hanging upside down again, face turning red as all the blood rushed to her head, while Necris was examining the symbols with interest, wondering whether or not they would be easier to read upside down.
And this would probably have continued for quite a while, had the door not chosen that moment to start closing.
What happened was that the blue glow-panels stopped their steady pulsing and started to flash, accompanied by a rather weird klaxon noise. The door, which had been open the whole time, started to close... and there was no way to open it from the inside.
"CRAAP!" Versca dropped heavily to the floor and felt pain flare in her ankles. Necris and Sierra both started scrambling for the door, clawing and scratching desperately at each other, selfish in their terror. Necris yelled as Sierra tore out a few strands of her hair, then gave her a sharp prod in the stomach, causing the dancer to squeak and allow her to get free.
The acrobat was the first to dive through the opening, but jut as Versca was stumbling up to the door, Sierra gave her a vicious kick in the stomach. Versca grunted and flew backwards, skidding along the floor for a few metres then coming to a stop. Just long enough for Sierra to leap through the door as it slammed shut with a final, echoing 'clang!'.
She was trapped.
- ~ -
Kyren: Hello, peoples! I've been listening to WipEout music for about two weeks and I'm still not sick of it! It's so cool... if you have WipEout (1, 2097 and Wip3out, whatever, they're all good) you should probably agree with me. I WANT WIPEOUT FUSION!!! *twitches* Hmm... I stopped writing that when Lethra says, "Bleh, I feel sick... thanks, Mir," and then started writing again after Versca's bit. Necralis wrote the rest. If you don't already know my deviantART account... www.getahaircut.deviantart.com it be... there's a picture of Mir and Lethra and a badly drawn me (Kyren)! with Shalashaska and one of his beloved cupcakes...
Shalashaska: Oh,yes, I believe that would be my cue for... mmm... cupcakes...
Kyren: Oh, and just in case you need this, How to pronounce various OC's names:
~Mir: Erm, you can pronounce this either rhyming with fur or like the name Mia (Mee-a)... but I use the fur one...~
~Ptek: The P is silent so it's just pronounced 'Tek', I don't want anyone saying P-tek!~
~Ylaster the Mighty: The Y is pronounced like 'e' so it's Ee-last-er. Ala Ylon and Ylander and the Ysandir and Ysanne Isard. Yes – I am a total nerd and damn well proud of it.~
~Miala: From my sisters fic, When I Grow Up (go read that by the way), it's pronounced Me-ar-la, not Mayla. If it was spelt Maila it would be pronounced Mayla.(remember that for Sierra as well, See-air-ra((Kiz's cameo's name!)), alright?) ~
~Necralis: Ne-crar-lis, emphasis on the 'crar' not Ne-cra-lis~
~Necris: Neecris...~
~Jak: be-longs-to-Ky-ren... Only joking. ^^;~
Kyren: And that's all I can think of now, but if you want to know how to pronounce stoof, you know who to call! But you don't REALLY have to pronounce stuff like that if you don't want to. Just no one say P-tek, ok?! So, look out for the next chapter... and don't forget to V&V (erm... View & Voo). CHEEEEEEEEEZ!
