Opposition

Soon after leaving the battlefield, the team ran into a puzzle. It involved lowering of barriers, but one side needed to have flames lit, and the other side needed to merely walk onto the switches. Since Virginia had a Tindercrest, she was the one who walked along the top to hit the ones on the bottom. With one on the bottom opened, Maya could hit the next one on the top. Then, Virginia had to hit the next one for Maya so she could hit Virginia's second switch. It appeared as if the theme of the old ruin was one of teamwork.

Two more puzzles like that were found. In the first one, Virginia walked towards the top to open a door, while Maya helped her to hit the switches, some with fire and some with plain stepping on them. It was the final trick, however, that gave them the most grief. Virginia had to keep the spikes at bay with fire, while she and Maya opened switches. Then Maya nearly deserted her, until the girl yelled for her to come back and honor her side of the bargain. Which Maya did, with only a few hints of sarcasm in her voice.

At last, they arrived at the chamber. Maya took the two crystals, looking at them and taking in the beauty that they held. "Well then, how about we fight over these two. I can see that look on your face, you don't want to fight without a reason. So here's one to do it." She threw the Agulite at Virginia. Now, with both teams having one, they would have to fight their rivals in order to acquire the second one in the set. As the battle began, Maya pulled out a book. She became a martial arts master, with her hair in a ponytail and a traditional fighting costume on. The four members of Virginia's team sighed, the girl seemed a little crazy.

"Jet, you burn Todd's afro again, he seems to not like that," ordered Virginia, "Gallows, give all of us a guard against physical attacks. Clive, help me to start attacking. Jet and Gallows will be able to give the both of us a hand on their next turns." With that, she pulled out her pistols, and fired them at Todd, not in the mood to get confused today. Jet and Gallows worked magic, while Clive helped to attack. Todd struck Virginia with his Psycho Crack, but she did have a Confusion Ward on. Shady attacked Jet with Firebreath, but Jet was guarded against fire. Nothing was able to help the bomb Alfred threw at Clive, or Maya's striking Gallows with her pole. They were only physical attacks, and skills like Defender don't always kick in when you get hurt. You need to be lucky in that account. Although Gallows was lucky, odds were against him.

They continued to strike at Todd, due to his nature, until he was down. Then, they went for Alfred and Shady. Finally, Maya was all that was left. Virginia concentrated, and used her Gatling on her rival, as did Jet. Gallows and Clive never got a chance to hit, for Jet's last shot knocked Maya to the hard ground of the ruin. She tried to get up, but found she wasn't in any condition to continue fighting these four Drifters.

"You win this time, here take the Germetron. But I wouldn't advise putting the two of them close to one another. They're like the two sides of a magnet, opposite sides of the spectrum. If they were to come in contact with one another, there would be an explosion in about twenty minutes," said Maya. Of course, she told this to Virginia after tossing the Germetron to her, and only after she'd stopped to place the two in one hand. Freaking out, Virginia tossed the two gems to the floor, and her team frantically ran out of there.

* * *

Virginia finished, "And that's what happened. We successfully repelled the intruders, but had no idea that the two were going go cause an explosion. Thus, the whole Survey Point was buried in the rocks and the two crystals with it. All of us feel very sorry for this grievous error. How can we make it up to you?"

Lamium looked at them. "It's alright, that was an unfortunate accident. I guess I should have told you exactly what they were, I take it for granted that my workers know all about the ruins and treasures we are excavating. Besides, no one was killed. So I guess we'll just call it even. If you really want to make it up to me, how about listening to my story. The tale of how I left being a Drifter and founded this society."

Virginia nodded, and he began. He spoke of how he was traveling one day, and fainted from lack of water. Lamium had dreamed about a place that was filled with sparkling blue water, and green forests as far as the eye could see. It was almost as clear as if it had been a memory of the distant past. When he had drunk his fill from the lake, he looked up to see a giant tree in the clearing, one that seemed to be watching over the world. After awaking from the dream, he found himself in Boot Hill, in the shop of the ARMs Dealer. That night, he saw the Saint for the first time, she told him where the Ark of Destiny, the Immigration Ship, was located. He set off right away, and upon confirming the rumor he started this organization to better the planet. Virginia seemed a little bit amazed, her hometown ARMs Dealer helped this man get his new start.

"Well, if you people want to do any research, then feel free to go into our library," Lamium told the four, "We have many books on Filgaia, various theories, and there is also a lot pertaining to old ruins here."

So the four headed for it right away. As Virginia looked at a book about some greenery on Filgaia, she heard Clive give a little shout. When she looked at him, she saw a book all about the Council of Seven in his hands. Contained, was a list of every man and woman ever on the council, and every group that had existed. Say one member left, the next list would include the other six with the new person who joined. It only took a split second for her to jump down from the top level, and arrive at his side. Jet stood next to his friend, and gave her a faint smile. The two knew exactly what Clive was going to be looking at in the book.

"Let's see, the last seven names on the list in the book. Here they are: Werner Maxwell, Leehalt Alchest, Melody Vilente, Elliot Enduro, Pete Inkapilia, Malik Bendict, and Duran Bryant. Well, that is the proof we need. The Prophets are connected to the Council of Seven, they are using their old technology to go one step further than their comrades went the last time. Hmmmmmmm. . .this is even a list of where the council members lived. Seems most were staying in the lab. But this Werner Maxwell lived right in Boot Hill. That's not too far off. Leader, do you think we should go and ask if he's still alive?" Clive asked her.

Virginia replied, "It doesn't sound too bad. And if he's indeed dead, since you say their project had a mysterious end ten years ago and those Prophets look to have dabbled into Demon technology to live, we can always ask his family. He's got to have someone who he lived with there, else he'd stay at the lab like the others." She hoped she didn't sound too mysterious about now, if she gave herself away now, she didn't know what she'd do. The girl gave Jet a little look, it was time to face her past after all these horrid years.

- - - -

Teefa's Last Word…

Well, I got into all of the backstories at the Ark. I'll have plenty of time for it next time now, we can have a short meeting, the scene, and then maybe start out for Infinitum. I'll have to see about time constraints. Poor Ginny, she's really got it rough having to hide all of this. I really felt for her during the game. Lost her mom, thought she lost her dad, lost her dad. Luckily she still had Jet. This time, Malik was told by Leehalt to cool off and observe them. Leehalt's sensing there's something more going on, ie Ginny's powers, and he wants to make sure that they don't make any rash errors. Due to the fact that A) Leehalt's a tactician, B) Malik isn't stupid and C) this gives him time to work on ideas on how to regain his mother's memory while he watches, he agrees.