-AUTHOR NOTES-
Might as well try to be basic with this one. In this part we follow the group after their piranha chase at the end of the past chapter. I personally was surprised to see them land a bit too far from the ocean… oO
Most of this part follows a series of prophesies as given out by Aiko Vince. Now she was a part of the Power Crisis set in herself – she started out as a Japanese tourist visiting Hawaii, and showed herself as a strong battler against the rebelling Navy. At the end of the story she left the group for a game company job in Tokyo… although cleaning the floors of Konami's developing rooms weren't quite what she had in mind. :P
Anyhow, hope you enjoy this as much as I do.
Peace out,
-Rexy-
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A darkened tunnel opens up in the next scene, and deep within it, a figure can be seen walking in the darkness. It wore long clothing, had highlights of pale skin across its face, and had long green hair brought down to where her heart lies. She then ended up facing the hand of Boron, buried within the gravel underneath. Then, she looked further on, and saw the whole group ahead of her, stuck in what seemed like a mixture of quicksand and gravel.
"Need a hand?" it spoke.
The wolverine gave out a light nod, and this left her to start pulling the group out, one by one. Once some of which were out, they started helping her pull out the others. They were all soon brought to their feet, leaving them to look at the figure within the darkness.
"Who..." Neo looked on at it in shock. "Who are you?"
"You forgotten about me? I can remember you from about seven years back."
With a twitch of the head, it started to make its way towards the light. It showed itself as a female figure, wearing black clothing from her head to her toes. Her skin was of a deathly white, and her green hair was set in almost the same style as Lozzy's long hair. That left some of them to gasp at her.
"Wait a minute... that hair... the clothes... your face!" Neo gave out a long gasp. "I think... it's all coming back to me!"
"Me too" said Gary with a wink. "I'm surprised you can even come down here at a time like this!"
Both males gave out a smile towards her, whom can only look back at them with a blank look. She then made her way past the group, and looked on at the view of the waters from behind them. A six foot drop was down below, with not a single stretch of sand to walk upon underneath.
"Actually," she said, "I've been down here for a while now. I've been stuck on this island for what seems like weeks."
She then turned back to the others, with her face starting to take more of a philosophical form. She then started to leave deep footprints within the gravel, as she made her way back. While that happened, her eyes met with Beverley's, whom can only look at her with her lower lip quivering at that point.
"Aiko Vince? Is that... you?"
The mysterious figure then leant towards a wall in a gentle twitch, with her eyes continuing to be brought over to her. Then, she gave in a light nod. Hope soon came towards Bev's heart - an old friend of hers, whom moved to Tokyo before being reunited on the island seven years beforehand, has returned.
(scene changes to another)
It didn't take too long until the group soon started walking their way down the tunnels again. The shortage on light crystals left their only light resource to be Sparky, whom gave out an electric spark from his finger and shone it out ahead of the group like a flashlight.
"So what brings you down here?" Neo asked her.
"Something remarkable. A prophecy told me of a powerful stone to be brought down here shortly. So this left me on a search for it."
"You seemed pretty sharp!" chuckled Martha. "How could you survive without food?"
She then looked up, and saw several bats flying around from the ceiling. She pointed up at them, and then she brought her focus down to the ground - several bones can be seen scattered across it. That left Boron to turn green with disgust, before covering his eyes trying to hide the thought.
"Oh, so that's where you took it from", Martha whispered with disgust. "Pretty scary huh?"
Aiko gave in a confused look back, before looking back towards the tunnel ahead of her. From behind her, Boron climbed his way towards Neo's back, starting to tremble with a slight bit of fear shown across his face. Near him, his partner gave off a few reassuring strokes to calm him down.
"So can you tell us more about this stone?" questioned Sara to her.
"Not much I may know about it, but I can recall it having a glow of lemon on it."
A glow of lemon. The very thought of it reoccurred inside Sparky's mind - the illusion of an opal-like stone, with a bright lemon-yellow glow around it appeared right in front of him. And from there, a monstrous shadow flew in the background. That caused him to soon come to his senses and blurt from his mouth.
"Wasn't that... the stone that I just came out from?"
The shout caused the group to soon come to a stop. That soon caused Aiko to turn in his direction, with curiosity starting to spread across her face. She eyed the wolarcoot up and down, before she suddenly brought her arms out and walked right towards him.
"Wait a minute... tell me more!"
She then started walking closer towards him, and it didn't seem to be long until she took a warm grip around his arms. That left them to edge closer towards each other. She had determination on her face, while he was shaking his head at 30 miles per hour.
"Oh no, I doubt that I'm the philosophical type! Leave that job to someone else!"
"Please, tell me!" Aiko shouted.
"Not if you tell me who told you about the stone first!"
That caused her to soon release her grip from the wolarcoot's arms, before she turned back at him as she walked back towards the others. Then, she soon brought her body forward and looked on towards each of the crewmembers, one by one. She occasionally raised her head to the ceiling, seeing the bats flying by.
"Let me admit something to you guys."
Again, she walked away from the group, and found a rock stuck up into the air. Then, she climbed onto it and sat down on it firmly. She brought her chin into her knees, before looking on from right ahead of her, speaking from her very mouth and twitching her eyebrows every few seconds.
"In my years back at Tokyo, I took a pastime at looking into the future."
"Ah, with a time machine!" laughed Neo.
"No, I'm meaning in the way of developing psychic powers. I've viewed the powers of the stone through my mind, and I believe that it should bring some peace to this world."
This left some of the crew members to look at each other with slight bits of confusion at her words. Some of which even had the courage to exchange shrugs and strange looking frowns on their faces. Even Sparky seemed to show a face diving into concern.
"What, the destruction of my planet bringing peace to another? That's crazy!"
He shouted that line, as he brought his claw-like hands forward, with a slight bit of hesitance brought into his face. But it wasn't too long until Aiko jumped down from the rock, and again, she took him by the wrists and looked directly into his dark eyes.
"Oh, come on. Thanks to you and your strong heart, the magic of the island will bring a long life to this world... but at something else's expense."
Sparky was almost on the edge of smiling, but as soon as he heard her last two words, he soon started to shiver. That left him to release his grip from her, before blurting out from his jaws with a strong amount of fear brought inside his fur and wings.
"What do you mean?"
"You mean..." Neo gulped. "My demise isn't too far?"
"I doubt that it will be a human based demise", whispered Aiko. "But still, if we want to make the prophecy come true, it's time we got round to facing the music."
She then looked on at the tunnel ahead of them, still leading into a deeper tunnel of darkness. Then, she looked up - all that could be seen were stalactites, and more bats. The sound of shuffling could be heard from up there, occasionally bringing small rocks down to the ground below.
"That's if we can get back up there", muttered Neo in a light tone.
The tunnels started to get even darker as the group progressed their way through. The only light that could possibly be seen was sparkles of the wet surface down beneath them. But it wasn't too long until one of the drops highlighted the edge of a rising bunch of rocks, stuck out from the ground.
"I see a stairway!" Neo shouted.
"So do I!" beamed Gary. "And you know what happens here do we?"
As he said that, he crouched down and placed both of his hands down onto the surface. Soon, the light from the water drop started to shine even more, illuminating a more powerful path of light ahead of them. This left them all starting to smile together.
"Oh, I get it! We eat cheese in tubes, do we?" Snappy gave out a chortle.
"Very funny", Martha shouted at him with anger. "Now get up there!"
Growling, she took a hold of Snappy's arm, and they started heading their way up. As they progressed up the spiral path around them, the rocks started to get much steeper, allowing some of the members to struggle their way up towards the top. Even Jenny couldn't help but end up going far behind the group.
"I don't think my shoes can stand the surface! It feels too rough!"
"So are mine," started Beverley with a quiet voice getting louder, "but you don't see me complaining!"
Lozzy soon resorted to getting behind Jenny. "Me neither! Now get up there you weak thing!"
Angrily, she took a hold of Jenny's arm, and pulled her up the steps. That left her screaming with every step, and on one occasion, one of her heels on her shoes seemed to be on the edge of breaking. Soon, they reached the top, where a tunnel brought into a lighter room was seen ahead of them. They stepped inside one by one, and their faces were dimly lit in the light ahead of them, allowing their eyes to reflect even more within the darkness. They then walked further ahead, and saw something start to shoot out from the ground - an aroma of bright white gas.
"Amazing...!" Neo whispered.
It started to give off a bright electric spark to match its color, before it started to shake and give out a brighter white fog around them. That left him to gasp at the sight of the substance, before he started edging closer, with his hands out towards it. But... Aiko soon rushed to him and held him on the shoulders.
"Careful, don't touch it! You don't know where it's been!"
"Whoops, sorry Aiko!"
That left him to bring both hands down to his side. Then, they sighed and walked their way towards the others, whom all soon made their positions surrounding the chamber. They all gasped at the looks of the substance, before looking at each other square in the eyes.
"So, this has got to be the legendary Lifestream, innit?" asked Crash.
Zephyr gave out a lengthy sigh. "Sounds like something from a Squaresoft game if you ask me."
Sighing, he folded his arms and trailed his way towards a wall, with his long white hair starting to trail behind him in the draft surrounding him. Meanwhile, the others took a step closer, careful not to touch the sparks in their full form. The light from it started to reflect across their own clothes and bodies.
"It seems like it's brimming with a whole load of magical power!" Whispered Crunch. "So... delicate! But... why do you think Tiko wants it?"
"Perhaps to become a Sephiroth try hard? Or to start off his own mini-Shinra?"
"What are you talking about, Zephyr?" said Snappy with a shrug
"I said it once and I'll say it again - you'll find out come ninety-bloody-seven!!!"
The shouting soon caused both Crunch and Snappy to fall to the floor backs first. Then, Zephyr angrily made his way with anger towards them, with his tail twitching in a furious motion. Then, from further behind them, Spike made his way ahead of the group, with his hands held together.
"Well, let's face it - at least Tiko's not here. So how do we expect to guard this thing?"
"We try by force", Chyna spoke in a low tone. "No other way, but still will work nonetheless."
They gave out a light nod at her remark, although most of them seemed rather reluctant to it. But then, before anything else could happen, some light thuds could be heard from further ahead of them. An opening started to open up at the other side of the room, giving way to a dark tunnel.
"Did you see that?" DJ asked.
Some of the others gave out some light nods, before they started edging in the cave's direction. Suddenly, a shadow started to show itself, making its way further down. That caused them all to start back stepping their way behind them, to the other side of the room. Some of which even held hands for support.
"Looks like we'll be putting this into practice!" exclaimed Sara with a wink.
The shadow then came closer towards them, and jumped out into the opening, before performing a handstand, a cartwheel and a jump towards a ledge nearby. It then showed itself into the full light - a figure that looked just like Sara, but with opposite colored clothing, a small white bobble in her hair, and deep blue eyes. The very figure... of Deksta herself.
"Intruders at three o' clock!"
At that comment, that left the others to look at each other with confusion on their looks. Even Boron seemed to take things one step further and roll across the ground, clutching his stomach and giving out hysterical laughter. That left Deksta to leer at them all, before stepping closer towards the group.
"So, how could you escape my piranha trap?"
Neo gasped. "You set them up? Never mind how we could escape them, we just did! Why did you set it up?"
As he shouted that, he edged his way closer towards them with his hands brought out to either side with anger. He tried to take a second step, but that only dragged his weaker leg across the ground. From behind him, DJ made his walk to him, and started patting him on the leg injury. At its spot, the scratch started to patch itself back together.
"Why do you want to poke your nose into such fishy business?" questioned Deksta with her hair starting to go over her face. "Besides, don't bring your hands onto our precious lifestream."
"It doesn't belong to you, you tramp!!!" brawled Aiko.
Her shouts echoed across the room, and they somehow remained there for a further eight seconds. That left her to leer at her, before she jumped down onto the ground, with her feet landing with a thud and rising dust particles from off the ground.
"Well, how about we just see about that. You, against me."
She pointed at them all, and she edged her way closer towards them. Near Neo and Aiko, both Crunch and Brio stood by their side, leering towards them with cold looks straight towards her. She looked at them, and the lifestream, and then her way of attack could soon be decided upon.
-end of part 6-