CHAPTER 6
Two days had passed since Zathura and Iria had investigated the seabed facility underneath the Central Control Area. When they returned to the Lab Elly informed them of an even lower level. As Elly was inputting the coordinates for the new teleport to the lower level, the Chief took the opportunity to debrief them on their last mission for the Lab. They were to investigate the lowest level of the seabed facility, and attempt to locate the man named Flowen, a general that had been aboard Pioneer 1 and had been mentioned several times in the data recovered from their missions. She even supplied the two hunters with new, more powerful weapons as a reward for doing well on their previous missions, and to help them along in what might be their last one. Zathura was given a Yamigarasu, a sword which he had previously considered buying at a weapon trading event some months earlier, but didn't have enough meseta. Iria was given a Final Impact, quite a powerful weapon which fired a volley of shells in several directions. After both were satisfied with their mission parameters, they stepped through the teleport to the lower levels. As their vision cleared, they saw signs of violence everywhere. Bodies of scientists and monsters lay dismembered and bloody. Doors which had been ripped out of their tracks. Even the torso of a Sinow Zele which attempted to crawl over towards them. It was quickly put out of it's misery by Zathura's varista. Each new room held new horrors to behold. Zathura almost vomited several times during their journey, but thanks to his rather violent past, was somehow able to keep his composure. Iria, on the other hand, was a different story entirely. She held on to Zathura's arms throughout the entire walk. Zathura was surprised, he finally realized that Iria was definitely like no other android he had ever seen, or even heard about. He knew that some of them had emotion chips which were available to install, but Iria's emotions seemed to be....real, not synthesized, but as if they were her own. These thoughts quickly left Zathura as they entered a room which seemingly appeared to be a dead end. As they ventured into the room, the door they had entered through locked, and the room's air vents suddenly started overflowing with a strange purple gas. Zathura quickly ripped off a piece of cloth from his shirt and dipped it in a pool of water that had accumulated on the floor, then wrapped it around his face to slow the affects of the poison. Iria didn't have to worry about inhaling it, but it was still potent enough to enter the unsealed areas of her armor and start corroding her internal mechanisms.
Zathura opened a com link with elly and explained their situation. "Elly, can you hear me?" "Yes Zathura, go ahead." "Look, we need some quick hacking NOW! All the doors in this room have locked, and it's fillin' up with poison, can you stop it?" "Oh no, umm....give me a sec'." Less than a minute later one of the doors unlocked and the poison was quickly vented out of the room. "Thanks Elly, I owe you one." " heh, no problem Zath." Zathura cut off his communicator and directed his attention to Iria. "Are you okay?" "Yes, I think so." At this, Iria started testing out her servos, making sure they were all in working order. "Good, I can't have you getting hurt, I have all I can handle right now." "Oh.....okay." Iria said quietly. Zathura realized his mistake and attempted to make up for it. "Look, I-I didn't mean it that way,...It's just that the last thing I want is for you to get hurt,...I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you." Iria smiled at him. He knew he'd succeeded and was all too relieved she hadn't taken it personally. As they continued, Elly interrupted on the communicator. " Zathura, we've analyzed the maps of the seabed facility, and we've determined where flowen is. There is a lift a few rooms to your north that leads to the subject disposal area. That's where the scientists threw out all the failed or mutated experiments." " And Flowen's down there?" Well, if we're reading his genetic signature correctly, yes....there are some...abnormalities...but I'm sure it's nothing. Anyway, that's where you need to go." " Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes." The two hunters reached the lift and walked out to the middle. Zathura opened his com link again. "Elly, what now?" "Okay, there should be a lift control console to your left, activate it and take the lift down." Iria walked over and activated the lift. As they descended, a voice came over the facility's com system. "I've been waiting for you Zathura. I see you brought a friend with you as well, rather unfortunate. She will suffer the same fate as you, hahahaha." At this point Elly struggled to keep their link open. "Zathu....can you hear................signal is.........jammed, I can't determine........source........some kind......interference, Zathura!.....Zathura.........." The link suddenly shut off. As they reached the bottom they saw a large room lying just beyond the lift. As they walked out into it the strange voice continued. " You've made it further than any of the other hunters. I couldn't allow them to spoil the surprise. Haha, I have a present for you Zathura, I believe you'll be quite impressed." "Who are you, what do you mean?" "Tsk, tsk...even now you don't recognize me?" At this point they saw two steel panels open high up on the wall, revealing a small observation room. Zathura then came to recognize why the voice had sounded so familiar. Mishra stood looking down on them from the safety of the observation room, where he had no doubt monitered their progress throughout the entire facility. "So now you know....I will finally have my revenge on you for leaving me to die." "I told you before, I didn't leave you to die Mishra. There was nothing I could do." "Enough!!! I've heard your lies before, and I'm tired of them. You came here looking for Flowen correct? You shall have him, haha. Behold,...7 years of study and experimentation, modifications to a previously abandoned project perfected. Zathura, meet the man who shall bring about your doom." As he said this, two large doors shuddered open, and a gigantic creature stepped out from them. "What the...." Zathura and Iria both stood wide eyed at the creature that loomed before them. "This is the man formerly known as Flowen. After giving his body to the facilities here in order to further their study, he was casually tossed aside as a failed experiment. I have perfected his genes, and given him rebirth. Do you hear me....Olga Flow? I created you, and I order you to destroy them!" The creature known as Olga Flow looked at Mishra, then moved forward as if he was really going to obey his commands. Suddenly, with speed so incredible even Iria had trouble following, Olga swung it's mighty sword and decimated the observation room. Glass shattered and steel was broken, then, without warning an incredible explosion occured, completely obliterating any debris that was left of the small room.
Olga then stepped forward to Zathura and Iria. As Olga brought his sword crashing down towards the hunters, Zathura thought he barely heard a voice calling out. "Free me, free me please." This thought was dispelled as he barely managed to dive out of the way of the gigantic blade. As Iria took aim and began to fire volley after volley of photon bullets at Olga, Zathura concetrated his efforts on the only part of Olga he could reach....his ankles. "This is pathetic." thought Zathura, there's no way we can kill this thing alone. Even Falz wasn't this big, and we still barely managed to beat him with four skilled hunters. Olga then brought down his foot, attempting to crush Zathura underneath. Again Zath dodged the blow, and stood up long enough to regain his composure just before Olga struck again. This time he hit, Zathura was thrown across the room and crashed into Iria, sending them both reeling to the ground. As they got up, once again Olga attempted to crush them. As Zathura hauled Iria out of the way, he heard the voice again. "You must call upon your mag, please...free me." "Am I hallucinating? This can't be happening." Zathura felt as though he wasn't actually hearing the voice, but as if it was IN his head. Zathura decided he might as well try. He called out to his Rati, which responded with a series of clicks and beeps. "Rati, I've never asked you to do this before, but I think this qualifies as an emergency." Rati understood, even though Zathura couldn't hear him, he understood what Zathura meant, and immediately started charging energy. Zathura yelled out to Iria. "Iria, get back, get against the wall...you can't be near me right now." "What? What are you going to do?" " JUST DO IT!!" Iria ran towards the outside wall and continued to fire, knowing full well her blasts were doing absolutely nothing. Rati finished charging and let out a small surge of energy, casting a small energy shield around Zathura. Zathura moved in close, dodging Olga's blows. When he got within 20 yards of Olga, he signaled to Rati."NOW!! PHOTON BLAST!!!!" Time seemed to stand still as all the light was removed from the room except for Rati's intense glow of energy. A strange symbol appeared on the floor as Rati began to do something amazing,...it was changing. When the transformation was complete, a winged figure stood between Zathura and Olga Flow. Iria recognized it from her database of Newman history. It was one of the 6 ancients!! She couldn't believe her eyes, Rati and Zathura had actually summoned an ancient. As the Ancient/Rati extended it's arms, bolts of pure energy shot skyward and disappeared. A moment later, streaks of white death rained down from the void. Piercing everything around the hunters. Iria barely managed to stay out of range, while Olga Flow was pierced over and over by the bolts of pure photon energy. When it was finished, Olga's screams broke through the silence and echo'd throughout the room. As Olga crumpled to the ground, mortally wounded by Rati's sacrifice, a red figure rose out of Olga's body. It was slightly distorted, but Zathura instantly recognized it as the image of Heathcliff Flowen, the man they had been sent to find. This time Zathura was sure he heard it. As Flowen rose into the air, he clearly spoke out, "Thank you, you have freed me from that prison of hate and angst. I am eternally grateful to you. Take this as a symbol of my gratitude."
As Flowen rose, his image began to disappear, in it's place a sword fell spinning to the ground. It stuck into the ground in the center of the room, just next to Olga Flow's body. As Iria joined Zathura, she asked, "Is it over, have we finally finished our quest for Flowen?" "Yes, we'll take his sword back as evidence." "I'm so glad it's over, I don't ever want to see so much death again." As Zathura stood there with Iria, Olga's body rapidly degraded, leaving nothing but dust behind. The two hunter's stood there recalling all of the horrible events they had witnessed. Zathura couldn't believe Mishra had gone so far for revenge that he would awaken such a thing as Olga Flow. As he thought about this, Iria took his arm, and...for the first time since they had met, embraced each other. Each was thankful that the other had survived, and each was so happy they had done it, together. Zathura looked into Iria's eyes, and...after a moment's hesitation, kissed her. Flowen's sword was returned, and each hunter collected their rewards. Zathura and Iria decided to retire from the hunter's lifestyle, and with the money they had earned...decided to start a new life together in one of the fledgling colonies that were sprouting up on Ragol. In leiu of a child, Zathura built a HUcast with the help of Iria. They named him BIOhazard, and he was to be the heir of their legacy when their time came to leave this world. However, BIOhazard's is another story, for another time.
Two days had passed since Zathura and Iria had investigated the seabed facility underneath the Central Control Area. When they returned to the Lab Elly informed them of an even lower level. As Elly was inputting the coordinates for the new teleport to the lower level, the Chief took the opportunity to debrief them on their last mission for the Lab. They were to investigate the lowest level of the seabed facility, and attempt to locate the man named Flowen, a general that had been aboard Pioneer 1 and had been mentioned several times in the data recovered from their missions. She even supplied the two hunters with new, more powerful weapons as a reward for doing well on their previous missions, and to help them along in what might be their last one. Zathura was given a Yamigarasu, a sword which he had previously considered buying at a weapon trading event some months earlier, but didn't have enough meseta. Iria was given a Final Impact, quite a powerful weapon which fired a volley of shells in several directions. After both were satisfied with their mission parameters, they stepped through the teleport to the lower levels. As their vision cleared, they saw signs of violence everywhere. Bodies of scientists and monsters lay dismembered and bloody. Doors which had been ripped out of their tracks. Even the torso of a Sinow Zele which attempted to crawl over towards them. It was quickly put out of it's misery by Zathura's varista. Each new room held new horrors to behold. Zathura almost vomited several times during their journey, but thanks to his rather violent past, was somehow able to keep his composure. Iria, on the other hand, was a different story entirely. She held on to Zathura's arms throughout the entire walk. Zathura was surprised, he finally realized that Iria was definitely like no other android he had ever seen, or even heard about. He knew that some of them had emotion chips which were available to install, but Iria's emotions seemed to be....real, not synthesized, but as if they were her own. These thoughts quickly left Zathura as they entered a room which seemingly appeared to be a dead end. As they ventured into the room, the door they had entered through locked, and the room's air vents suddenly started overflowing with a strange purple gas. Zathura quickly ripped off a piece of cloth from his shirt and dipped it in a pool of water that had accumulated on the floor, then wrapped it around his face to slow the affects of the poison. Iria didn't have to worry about inhaling it, but it was still potent enough to enter the unsealed areas of her armor and start corroding her internal mechanisms.
Zathura opened a com link with elly and explained their situation. "Elly, can you hear me?" "Yes Zathura, go ahead." "Look, we need some quick hacking NOW! All the doors in this room have locked, and it's fillin' up with poison, can you stop it?" "Oh no, umm....give me a sec'." Less than a minute later one of the doors unlocked and the poison was quickly vented out of the room. "Thanks Elly, I owe you one." " heh, no problem Zath." Zathura cut off his communicator and directed his attention to Iria. "Are you okay?" "Yes, I think so." At this, Iria started testing out her servos, making sure they were all in working order. "Good, I can't have you getting hurt, I have all I can handle right now." "Oh.....okay." Iria said quietly. Zathura realized his mistake and attempted to make up for it. "Look, I-I didn't mean it that way,...It's just that the last thing I want is for you to get hurt,...I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if something happened to you." Iria smiled at him. He knew he'd succeeded and was all too relieved she hadn't taken it personally. As they continued, Elly interrupted on the communicator. " Zathura, we've analyzed the maps of the seabed facility, and we've determined where flowen is. There is a lift a few rooms to your north that leads to the subject disposal area. That's where the scientists threw out all the failed or mutated experiments." " And Flowen's down there?" Well, if we're reading his genetic signature correctly, yes....there are some...abnormalities...but I'm sure it's nothing. Anyway, that's where you need to go." " Alright, we'll be there in a few minutes." The two hunters reached the lift and walked out to the middle. Zathura opened his com link again. "Elly, what now?" "Okay, there should be a lift control console to your left, activate it and take the lift down." Iria walked over and activated the lift. As they descended, a voice came over the facility's com system. "I've been waiting for you Zathura. I see you brought a friend with you as well, rather unfortunate. She will suffer the same fate as you, hahahaha." At this point Elly struggled to keep their link open. "Zathu....can you hear................signal is.........jammed, I can't determine........source........some kind......interference, Zathura!.....Zathura.........." The link suddenly shut off. As they reached the bottom they saw a large room lying just beyond the lift. As they walked out into it the strange voice continued. " You've made it further than any of the other hunters. I couldn't allow them to spoil the surprise. Haha, I have a present for you Zathura, I believe you'll be quite impressed." "Who are you, what do you mean?" "Tsk, tsk...even now you don't recognize me?" At this point they saw two steel panels open high up on the wall, revealing a small observation room. Zathura then came to recognize why the voice had sounded so familiar. Mishra stood looking down on them from the safety of the observation room, where he had no doubt monitered their progress throughout the entire facility. "So now you know....I will finally have my revenge on you for leaving me to die." "I told you before, I didn't leave you to die Mishra. There was nothing I could do." "Enough!!! I've heard your lies before, and I'm tired of them. You came here looking for Flowen correct? You shall have him, haha. Behold,...7 years of study and experimentation, modifications to a previously abandoned project perfected. Zathura, meet the man who shall bring about your doom." As he said this, two large doors shuddered open, and a gigantic creature stepped out from them. "What the...." Zathura and Iria both stood wide eyed at the creature that loomed before them. "This is the man formerly known as Flowen. After giving his body to the facilities here in order to further their study, he was casually tossed aside as a failed experiment. I have perfected his genes, and given him rebirth. Do you hear me....Olga Flow? I created you, and I order you to destroy them!" The creature known as Olga Flow looked at Mishra, then moved forward as if he was really going to obey his commands. Suddenly, with speed so incredible even Iria had trouble following, Olga swung it's mighty sword and decimated the observation room. Glass shattered and steel was broken, then, without warning an incredible explosion occured, completely obliterating any debris that was left of the small room.
Olga then stepped forward to Zathura and Iria. As Olga brought his sword crashing down towards the hunters, Zathura thought he barely heard a voice calling out. "Free me, free me please." This thought was dispelled as he barely managed to dive out of the way of the gigantic blade. As Iria took aim and began to fire volley after volley of photon bullets at Olga, Zathura concetrated his efforts on the only part of Olga he could reach....his ankles. "This is pathetic." thought Zathura, there's no way we can kill this thing alone. Even Falz wasn't this big, and we still barely managed to beat him with four skilled hunters. Olga then brought down his foot, attempting to crush Zathura underneath. Again Zath dodged the blow, and stood up long enough to regain his composure just before Olga struck again. This time he hit, Zathura was thrown across the room and crashed into Iria, sending them both reeling to the ground. As they got up, once again Olga attempted to crush them. As Zathura hauled Iria out of the way, he heard the voice again. "You must call upon your mag, please...free me." "Am I hallucinating? This can't be happening." Zathura felt as though he wasn't actually hearing the voice, but as if it was IN his head. Zathura decided he might as well try. He called out to his Rati, which responded with a series of clicks and beeps. "Rati, I've never asked you to do this before, but I think this qualifies as an emergency." Rati understood, even though Zathura couldn't hear him, he understood what Zathura meant, and immediately started charging energy. Zathura yelled out to Iria. "Iria, get back, get against the wall...you can't be near me right now." "What? What are you going to do?" " JUST DO IT!!" Iria ran towards the outside wall and continued to fire, knowing full well her blasts were doing absolutely nothing. Rati finished charging and let out a small surge of energy, casting a small energy shield around Zathura. Zathura moved in close, dodging Olga's blows. When he got within 20 yards of Olga, he signaled to Rati."NOW!! PHOTON BLAST!!!!" Time seemed to stand still as all the light was removed from the room except for Rati's intense glow of energy. A strange symbol appeared on the floor as Rati began to do something amazing,...it was changing. When the transformation was complete, a winged figure stood between Zathura and Olga Flow. Iria recognized it from her database of Newman history. It was one of the 6 ancients!! She couldn't believe her eyes, Rati and Zathura had actually summoned an ancient. As the Ancient/Rati extended it's arms, bolts of pure energy shot skyward and disappeared. A moment later, streaks of white death rained down from the void. Piercing everything around the hunters. Iria barely managed to stay out of range, while Olga Flow was pierced over and over by the bolts of pure photon energy. When it was finished, Olga's screams broke through the silence and echo'd throughout the room. As Olga crumpled to the ground, mortally wounded by Rati's sacrifice, a red figure rose out of Olga's body. It was slightly distorted, but Zathura instantly recognized it as the image of Heathcliff Flowen, the man they had been sent to find. This time Zathura was sure he heard it. As Flowen rose into the air, he clearly spoke out, "Thank you, you have freed me from that prison of hate and angst. I am eternally grateful to you. Take this as a symbol of my gratitude."
As Flowen rose, his image began to disappear, in it's place a sword fell spinning to the ground. It stuck into the ground in the center of the room, just next to Olga Flow's body. As Iria joined Zathura, she asked, "Is it over, have we finally finished our quest for Flowen?" "Yes, we'll take his sword back as evidence." "I'm so glad it's over, I don't ever want to see so much death again." As Zathura stood there with Iria, Olga's body rapidly degraded, leaving nothing but dust behind. The two hunter's stood there recalling all of the horrible events they had witnessed. Zathura couldn't believe Mishra had gone so far for revenge that he would awaken such a thing as Olga Flow. As he thought about this, Iria took his arm, and...for the first time since they had met, embraced each other. Each was thankful that the other had survived, and each was so happy they had done it, together. Zathura looked into Iria's eyes, and...after a moment's hesitation, kissed her. Flowen's sword was returned, and each hunter collected their rewards. Zathura and Iria decided to retire from the hunter's lifestyle, and with the money they had earned...decided to start a new life together in one of the fledgling colonies that were sprouting up on Ragol. In leiu of a child, Zathura built a HUcast with the help of Iria. They named him BIOhazard, and he was to be the heir of their legacy when their time came to leave this world. However, BIOhazard's is another story, for another time.