Phantasy Star Online: Episode 2

Forgotten Memento

PSOCecil

Everyone heard a faint buzzing from a small communication device in the distance, and they pressed a button on it, marked 'recieve.'

"... you read me?" Elly's voice came.

"Yeah, what's up?" Chihiro asked.

"There are three areas that hold the switches to unlock the security door. One is in a jungle, another on a mountain, the last on a beach. Decide who is going where."

After quick talks, it was decided.

"I'll go to the beach." Fei said, smiling.

"I'll go to the mountain." Angel said.

"And that leaves the jungle for me." Lutz finished.

Chihiro sighed. "I'll wait here... in this eerie fog..."

Angel patted her on the back, "At least you won't have to worry about monsters."

"But remember, you will have to wait here. You won't have a moment to waste, once that door opens." Elly's voice crackled over the radio."

"Yeah, yeah... I understand." Chihiro sighed.

"Don't worry, Chihiro. We'll be back as soon as we can." Fei said, smiling.

"T...thanks. This place gives me the creaps..." Chihiro said, shaking.

As they walked just a few steps away, into another teleporter, the fog seemed to eat them up, it was so thick. Chihiro sat down in the fog, on a cold metallic plate that held up the wall, and whatever was behind it, from the swamp below. She didn't move, paranoid of everything. She heard a rustle in the trees around her.

"Who's there?!" Chihiro screamed. Nothing answered. Chihiro continued sitting on the cold metal, watching anything that moved, softly humming to herself.

The light around Fei separated, and she found herself in a tiny cove, with vines covering the walls. She stepped out of the cove, and was overwhelmed by the natural beauty of what she saw. The waves on the beach, slowly creeping up the shore, only to return... the gently breeze, swaying her hair.

"If I weren't on a mission, this could be a paradise..." She quietly said. She stepped up to the crystal clear water, and saw her reflection. in it. She heard a slight buzzing noise from behind her. Quickly, she turned around, and spotted a large bug. A shiver ran down her spine. The creature readied it's large stinger, and began making clicking noises. Fei drew her Luconium Staff, and swung it down as hard as she could at the creature. It connected with a loud 'SNAP!' and the creature tumbled to the ground. She let out a deep sigh. She suddenly heard many more buzzings, as if over twenty bugs were coming. Before she could think up a plan, a stinger shot into her neck.

"Lutz... somebody... help..." she slowly said, and collapsed.

Fei opened her eyes, still tired. She slowly refocused her eyes, and screamed at what she saw. 'I.. I'm in a cocoon!' she thought, unable to speak. She struggled to get out, but most of her body was numb. 'There's no way I can get out of this... alive, at least.' Suddenly, she started to laugh, and speak. "Haha... isn't it funny? I made it through the last adventure, found my love, and saved Pioneer 2... only to be killed by bugs!?" She continued laughing, "And the funniest thing is... these bugs could kill me easily.. where as the creatures of darkness could not!" Her laugh slowly turned into a cry, "Lutz... Angel... Chihiro... where are you.... I'm all alone..."

Back at the metal platform, Chihiro gasped, and yelled into the device, at Elly, "Fei's in danger! I heard it!"

"You're just imagining things. I'm sorry, but you have to stay there."

"Call her. Turn up the volume as loud as it will go!"

"Jeez... ok, ok." Elly did so, and she heard a quiet buzzing. "Fei, do you hear me?"

No answer.

"Fei?!"

They heard her laugh, then begin to cry again.

"Chihiro, go get her, now!" Elly called.

"Ok!" She jumped up and ran to the teleporter, when she heard a voice.

"My life, ended by bugs!" It sounded hysterical, "Some hero!"

Chihiro quickly headed toward the beach.

When she arrived, all she saw was a peaceful beach.

"I don't trust this..." she quietly said, as she drew her Demolition Comet. Chihiro quietly walked across the beach, completely unaware of what she would see when she found Fei.

A few minutes passed, and Chihiro had not encountered any creatures. She stepped into a damp tunnel, and heard a slight buzzing. 'Bugs... not bugs...' she thought. She trekked forward, fearing that she would have to stand up against a few bugs.

The buzzing intensified, and Chihiro started shaking, almost violently. She accidentally dropped her weapon. "Shoot..." she whispered. She bent over to pick it up, and when her hand hit the sand, she immediately drew it back. In between the sand, beneath it, there were hundreds of some small larvae of a bug. Chihiro felt sick, but swallowed deeply, and quickly grabbed her weapon, and ran on. The tunnel ended. As she stepped out, she saw a large flying bug creature. It landed on the ground, and spread its wings, making a loud clicking and buzzing noise. Chihiro cowered, but stood her ground. She then heard laughing, to her right. Chihiro quickly looked, and saw Fei in a large cocoon, laughing hysterically.

"Shes lost it..." Chihiro quietly said, "She's off in her own little world..."

The large bug created a web around itself, and just flied stationary in the air. "Great, a free shot!" Chihiro said. She swung her weapon as hard as she could. Upon contact, the creature appeared slightly hurt, but landed on the ground, and turned around, firing a large bomb like thing out of it's behind!

"Oh my god!" Chihiro screamed, and dodged it. It flew behind her, and exploded against a wall. But it seemed a little tired after firing that... thing. Chihiro ran over to Fei's cocoon.

"Fei!!" Chihiro screamed.

No answer.

"FEI! Answer me!"

"......... Chihiro...?"

"Fei! You're...alive! Thank god!"

"Chihiro, get me out!"

"Watch out!" Chihiro cut open the cocoon, and Fei fell out, covered in goo.

"I'm free! I'm alive! Thank you, Chihiro!" Fei gave Chihiro a deep hug, equally coating her in goo all over her front side. "Oh, sorry."

"I'm just glad your ok," Chihiro said, smiling, "C'mon, let's-"

"Don't say 'squash that bug.'" Fei said, smiling.

"Squash that bug." Chihiro said, with a grin.

Chihiro swung the Comet at the still-recovering monster, smashing it to the ground.

Fei glared at the thing, and raised her cane far into the air, and concentrated. "Rafoie!" She yelled, and a large blast created a hole in the creature, who died.

Fei fell to her knees, breathing deeply.

"I'm going back." Chihiro said.

"O... ok..."

"Don't forget to press that button," Chihiro pointed to a small clearing, where the was a button shining in the shadows, "when you get the signal."

"Gotcha."

"See ya in a little while." She said, smiling, and returned to the platform, from a telepipe that Fei made.

"Is Fei ok?" Elly asked, once Chihiro returned.

"Yeah, she's ready."

"That's good... because everyone else is, too."

"Oh, good." Chihiro took a deep breath. "Ok, everyone... on the count of three... one... two... three!" Chihiro heard a loud metallic creaking noise, and the door slowly slid into the ground.

"Here I go..." She whispered, and started toward the new entrance.

Chihiro ran in, and the door closed right behind her. She looked around for the switch, and saw it. She ran over to it, her heart racing.

She grabbed the rusted switch, and began to pull it as hard as she could, to open it.

Until it snapped.

And the door remained unopened.

"What?! NO!" Chihiro ran to the door, and started hitting it. "Open!! OPEN!!" She stopped, and turned around, afraid of going in alone. "Ah! Telepipe!" she searched her item pack... only to remember, "I set it down when I sat down!!" And she couldn't cast Ryuker either. Something didn't want her to leave, or others to join her.

"Chihiro!" she heard from behind the door.

"Chihiro!"

"Fei? Lutz? Angel?!"

"We're here... why is the door still closed?" Lutz asked.

"The switch broke!! The door won't open!!"

No one said anything, unsure of what to do now.

Suddenly, Fei, Lutz, and Angel heard a sniff. Then another. They they heard Chihiro begin to cry. But they didn't know what to say to comfort her. In between her crying, and sniffs, they made out, "I... can't do... this... all alone..."

"Chihiro!" Fei yelled, "You can do this. Easily!"

"What..." She quietly said.

"Chihiro... I'm positive that there MUST be another switch somewhere, you just have to find it. I'm sure you can." Angel said.

Chihiro said nothing, she just smiled. "You're right..." she hiccuped, "I'm sure... I can do this... even without any items. I just have my demolition comet, Resta, and my own skills..."

"You can do it!" Lutz yelled.

"I'm going." She ran into the fog.

"Good luck... my love..." Angel quietly said.

'Yeah... I can do it..." Chihiro thought.

She took a deep breath, and walked under a large metal arch. Chihiro sniffed, again. 'I know I can do this...'

On the other side of the arches, Chihiro saw a plant-like creature... it was sort of human-shaped, but it also appeared slightly... odd. It seemed to shine, almost. She walked up to it, and it jumped up, and hissed at her.

"WAAAAH!" Chihiro screamed, startled. The creature spit some sort of fluid at her. Though she dodged as fast as she could, some splattered on her left arm.. She screamed in pain, and tried to shake off the fluid. But she found that she couldn't shake her arm, she couldn't move it, feel it, anything. But, luckily, it was only her left arm, she fights with her right. The creature almost seemed to laugh at her. She looked it at, extremely angry at it. She slammed it on top of the head with her weapon, and killed it. But she kept hitting it, so hard that it's body started to be crushed into mush. It's sap-like blood coating its corpse, and splattered on parts of Chihiro's front, she knew that it was dead. She stood over the mush that used to be the plant thing, breathing heavily. She glanced at her left arm, and noticed that it was turning a very pale green, on top of being numb.

"I... can't move it... or feel it!" She said, panicked. "No... settle down... once you make it back to Pioneer 2... they can help you..." But knowing that did nothing to settle her down now. Chihiro turned on her mini com, to speak to Elly.

"Elly!" Chihiro cried.

"Oh, Chihiro! Are you doing ok?"

"My... my left arm! It's infected with some sort of... venom! It's gotten in a few cuts too... my arm is a pale green, and I can't feel or move it..."

"Hmm..." Chihiro could hear Elly's fingers tapping fast at a keyboard, "We don't have any records of a disease like that... looks like your own your own with that one.... sorry."

"Oh... it's ok.." Chihiro looked at her arm again, and sighed.

Chihiro continued on. "There doesn't seem to be many monsters here..." She quietly said.

Some of the fog dissipated, and Chihiro found that she was standing on a large dam! If she squinted her eyes, she could swear that she saw something under the water, at the bottom of the waterfall side of the dam...

She pressed on . There seemed to be lasers...

"Most likely sets off an alarm..." She said. "I'll have to be extra fast, and be careful about my arm..."

The lasers were spinning, so she figured that she could make it through easily. She waited for an opening... and ran! The laser almost hit her back, but she made it.

In front of her stood a long bridge, across the last half of the dam. The second she took another step, more lasers popped up out of the ground. But these ones were stationary. On the other side of the dam, she saw a computer, and a teleporter.

"I'm gonna have to cross these..." She stepped through one, and a barrage of alarms and flashing lights went off. A large android fell from the sky, and it landed with a loud 'thump!'. It looked up ant Chihiro, and started to walk toward her. "Don't come any closer!" She screamed.

But it kept coming. She held her weapon ready, and slashed it across it's large chest. Wires sparked as they were shorted and cut. It seemed to have a weak casing. She got ready to attack again, when it disappeared. Caught off guard, she stopped attacking, and looked around. "Did it run away..?"

Then, out of nowhere, a large metal fist landed right in her stomach, knocking her to the ground, the wind knocked out of her. She layed on the ground, coughing and gaging. The robot appeared again, and slowly walked toward her. Chihiro was too busy trying to recollect her breath to notice it. It continued walking.. until a photon launcher fired a shell right through it's head, deactivating it!

"Are you ok?" Chihiro heard.

Chihiro coughed up blood, still trying to breathe.

"Chihiro...? Is your name Chihiro?"

She tried to look at the man, but her eyes were still refocusing. "Yes... that's me... who are you... I can't see..."

"It's me! Bahn! Your brother!"

"Bahn..." Then she realized, "Bahn? Bahn!! Where are mom and dad!? Why are you here?! Can you open that big door??"

He sighed, "Whoa, slow down. First of all, that door, if I could open it, you think it'd be closed, and I'd still be here?"

"Oh..."

"And... mom and dad... were killed. By Flowen." Bahn slowly said.

"They're... dead...?" Chihiro slowly whispered. She looked down, her lower lip trembling. A tear rolled down her cheek, and she fell into the fog blanketing the ground.

"Some sort of experiment on him... by Dr. Osto."

Her head snapped up, her eyes wide. "Osto?!"

"He used the cells from some sort of monster to mutate Flowen... Osto was killed by Flowen, but then he went on a murderous rampage. I think he's hiding in the lower disposal pit of the Sea Lab now."

"When did... he get the cells...?" Chihiro asked, looking afraid, and ready to cry again.

"Last year... um... around the middle of the year."

Chihiro started bawling, "That..." she hiccuped, "That's when I... took some cells out of my body!! Those were MY cells that mutated Flowen!!" She screamed.

"What?! How?!"

"Around that time... every numan fell into a odd coma... he snuck into my room, and while I was in it... he cut off a small portion of the skin on my right arm... leaving a scar.." She tried to use her left arm to lift up the clothes on her right arm, but she remembered that she couldn't move her left arm. "Oh yeah... I can't move my left arm..."

Bahn looked at her arm, and gasped, "What happened?!"

"I think.. the dark cells had some sort of violent reaction to that things poison..." Her arm started turning slightly red, losing the green. Chihiro shuddered, "I don't like this..."

She suddenly gasped, and fell over, onto her face, in the fog.

"Chihiro? Chihiro?!" Bahn yelled, but her words echoed into the night. He bent over to pick her up, but she wasn't there. "She's... gone..." he heard a loud slice, the sounds of wires shorting, and an explosion.

"Hey, it sounds like Chihiro's coming back... maybe she found something." Angel said.

Suddenly, there was a thick slice in the large metallic security door, the wires were shorting in it, and it was being pulled open from the new hole. The wires caused an explosion, making gears and pieces of metal fly everywhere.

"Watch out!" Angel yelled, and everyone ducked to dodge the shrapnel.

"What...?" Behind the explosion, Fei saw a person that.... sort of looked like Chihiro, yet also looked like a monster, with a sharp blade as its left arm, insect-like wings, and fleshy antennae coming out of its head. "Chihiro!?"

"Fei! Get down!" Angel pulled Fei down fast, just missing the shrapnel.

"Angel! That's Chihiro!!" Fei cried.

"What?!" Angel waited until the shrapnel flew past him, and stood up, ran to the door, and saw her. "Chihiro....?"

"Stay away from here... from me..."

Angel stepped a bit closer, "Chihiro... we can help you..."

"Get away!!" she screamed, and drew her blade arm up, ready to cut him down. "I don't want to hurt you!"

"Chihiro... we want to help you..." Fei walked up, and looked Chihiro in the eyes.

"Fei... whats wrong with me..." Chihiro quietly said.

"I don't know..." Fei quietly answered, and hugged her. "But we will find a way.. to turn you back."

Chihiro fell to her knees, and began to weep. "I'm a monster!!" she wailed.

Angel shook his head, "No your not, Chihiro..."

"I hate my life!!" Chihiro screamed.

"Oh, no you don't, Chihiro..." Lutz said.

"Yes I do!!" She yelled, "Everything is always happening to me!! It's all because of my own stupidity that I got infected with these damn darkness cells in the first place!" She looked up at the sky, "Leave me alone!!" She screamed, her works echoing off in the distance.

"Chihiro? Where did you go??" A voice called from inside the base.

"Oh no.. it's my brother... Bahn... I can't let him see me like this!" She used her insect wings to fly on top of the arches, out of his view.

"Bahn!" Fei yelled.

"Fei? Is that you?" Bahn ran up to everyone, "How did you guys get in here?" Fei points to the hole in the door, "Whoa! How did that happen?!"

"Chihiro... cut it open..."

"What? No weapon is that strong!"

Chihiro began to fly down, slowly, and Bahn noticed her, but couldn't tell what it was.

"Everyone, look out!!" Bahn fired his Photon Cannon at what he thought was the monster. Chihiro dodged it, and glared at him, with a wild, animalistic anger. She flew down extremely fast, and tried to cut him. He jumped back, but she hit his Photon Launcher, which fell into two pieces, and fell to the ground.

"Chihiro!! What the hell are you doing?!" Fei yelled.

Chihiro was snarling at Bahn, when she heard Fei. She suddenly stopped, her eyes open wide. "Wha... what did I almost do?!" she cried.

"Ch...Chihiro?? Is that you...?" Bahn asked.

Chihiro slowly nodded.

"So it really mutated your whole body..." He slowly said.

"When I saw you fire... I went insane... I wanted to kill you... I'm so... so sorry... I'll try to control myself for now on..." Chihiro pleaded.

"Chihiro..." Bahn quietly said.

They all just stood there, wondering what they will do next. Chihiro was wondering if, and when, she will finally lose it all, 'And bathe i their blood...' she thought, with a dark grin.

"Chihiro! We're going on!" Fei called to Chihiro, who had fallen back.

"Oh." She smiled, "Coming, guys!" She followed them.

To be continued...