The glimmering light around them seemed to subside and they saw that they were in a cavern that was absolutely massive. A forest grew about them and it got its sun from a huge hole in the roof of the cavern. Birds even chirped in the trees about them while a natural spring fed a small creek that ran away and down a small slope. The cavern they were in must have been near a mile in diameter. Everywhere there were piles of dragonite looking as if they were common in every forest. Massive statues made of the substance towered high into the cavern. They were of warriors in heavy battle regalia armed with ceremonial bladed melee weapons and energy based fire arms.
Rotox continued down a path that looked extremely well maintained and the others followed. They were all wide eyed at everything that encompassed them. Looking ahead they saw that they were suddenly in front of a large cairn. Rotox stood before it and the others respectfully stayed their distance knowing that this must be the burial spot of his emperor. They looked upon him with awe, he was in his element, the sun shone in rays about him and he became the avatar of calm. He turned and looked at them one by one, and like the first day he saw her, he stared at Aisha. Only this time she didn't turn away, she smiled and stared back.
Then a sound so foreign to a peaceful place such as this came from nowhere. A gunshot. Rotox saw as Aisha faltered then fell. Jim and Gene rushed to catch her. Suzuka drew her sword and turned and spotted a figure up on the hill behind them where the door to the hangar was.
"Ha! One down and five to go!" Harry McDougal said, reloading the gun on the robotic suit he was in
"Where the Hell'd you come from?" Gene yelled
"You shouldn't be so surprised Gene Asswind", Harry said with a smile, "You cost us a lot of money knocking off our main client, you didn't think we'd let you get away with that did you? Especially that Ctarl who did most of the work", he said gesturing to Aisha
"What are you talking about?" He shot back confused
"I'm not dumb, we got reports from the survivors. Some kind of beast trashed the place to Hell, and it was a full moon that night", He explained, "We put two and two together, and just as you were leaving port we snagged you with a tracer"
Gene remembered back to the night of the job and realized that coincidentally there WAS a full moon. And the tracer! He flashed back to the takeoff day and remembered the slight thud that he had disregarded as space junk.
Rotox stood behind Gene shaking in total disbelief, this couldn't possibly have just happened. He shuddered violently and his eyes closed tightly as the image of Aisha dropping to the ground played over and over in his head. He opened his eyes to see her lying still in Jim's arms. All he could think was, "The one person I've ever cared about…". He felt the creature gnawing at the inside of his mind and he twitched. His gazed switched to Harry and he spoke with an unnerving calm, "What did they say the creature looked like?"
Harry was caught off guard by the tone of the new speaker, it sounded almost relaxed, but regained his mentality when he realized that he had him at gunpoint, "Well now who do we have here? Another weakling following Gene? Well all I remember was that it was big and scary. Good enough for you?"
Rotox sneered as it came out in a sudden flare "I DONT THINK YOU GOT THE GUTS TO TAKE CARE OF WHAT YOU JUST STARTED!" Rotox shouted as he let loose the rage. His sight turned blood red and he felt power, and that made him want to kill this thing all that much more.
Gene was nervous, Rotox had never been this mad. He realized that he must have really had feelings for Aisha because this time he was beyond control. Suzuka ran to help Jim move Aisha seeing that Rotox would endanger any and everything in the area. Gene ducked into the foliage that ran along side the path
Rotox knew that this was no normal rage and that he couldn't control it even if he wanted to so he only push it forward. He grew past what he had been before, his muscles bulged and constricted, his fangs became more numerous and sharp. His hide grew stronger and grew taught where bones began to protrude. He took a huge step forward and the ground below him thundered.
Harry fell back. "What in the name of all that was Holy is this thing? What have I done?" He ran through the hangar door and started for the spacecraft's elevator.
The creature peered through the small opening to the hanger. It dwarfed it in size and inhibited it from chasing Harry… for a few seconds. The beast's fist punched clear through the solid stone wall. A second punch cleared away more stone, and then a third, and with the fourth the wall was gone. It entered into the hangar and towered above the ships. Across the room he saw the aircraft lift being raised. It ran towards it with all of its speed and thundered into the wall with the elevator just inches out of its clawed reach. The creature didn't make a sound or move for a second, which made it seem all that more eerie as it peered upwards. It knew that however frightening a noise it could make, it wouldn't be remotely suitably for what it felt
Harry looked down at the creature and met its gaze of hatred. He made another mistake; he taunted it thinking it had no chance of reaching him now.
It looked up and saw with disbelief that the insect was TAUNTING it! It didn't know what it was feeling now, only that the remote part of it's mind could still think worried that it might somehow get too mad and kill itself from the inside out, but the primal hatred didn't care in the least and that if it only had one more thing to accomplish in this life, this would be it.
Harry gave a shriek of terror as he saw its muscles bulge MORE. The fur on it's back changed to white in sporadic bolts before changing back to pitch black. It actually looked as if lightning were streaking across it body as it pounded a claw into the solid stone wall and hoisted itself up. It plunged the other claw into the wall and did the same. It was gaining on the rising elevator but beyond it, the beast saw light and knew that its prey would escape if it didn't do something. This piece of worthless life that killed her! And with those last two words ringing it its mind it launched itself up the rest of the shaft. It smashed through the elevator car just as it reached the top and Harry was flung into a clearing the surrounded the area.
Gene and the others heard monstrous sounds from the hangar and ran towards them. They had to get out of the "Eden cavern". The walls were crumbling from the hole punched into the wall by the creature. Gene only had enough time to line all of his pockets with the precious dragonite, and then rounded up the others and bolted out. Just as they entered the hangar, the cavern behind them collapsed and a cloud of dust rushed out through the doorway. They saw the tail of the creature shoot up the elevator shaft at the last second. They continued up towards the surface, forgetting the ship that they planned to take.
The creature had Harry pinned to the ground. It crushed his legs and made him yell out in pain.
Harry couldn't restrain the cry. He looked up into the crimson eyes of the creature and knew that he probably deserved the fate he was about to receive, but he was filled with a new fear as the creature started to talk, if talking is what you'd call it.
"KNOW THIS AS YOU DIE!" it thundered, "YOU ARE NOTHING! YOU WERE NEVER ANYTHING! BUT YOU KILLED THE ONE THING THAT TO ME WAS EVERYTHING!" For a second it hesitated and thought about consuming Harry but then sensed that this thing had the reek of oil and machinery about it and knew it must be some sort of android. It decided that eviscerating it would be just as satisfying as it curled its clawed hand into a massive fist and started the down stroke.
Harry waited for contact, and he heard a loud explosion but felt no pain, and he opened his eyes to see the creature was gone.
He looked up and saw his brother's ship launching a flurry of missiles into the creature that hadn't disappeared but had been knocked away. He hobbled to the ship carefully and slowly because of his crushed robotic legs, as it quickly dropped to his level and opened the bay doors. He dove in and was carried to safety. The ship was out of view within seconds leaving the creature on it side.
Gene was the first to enter the clearing. He saw the creature and looked up in time to see the McDougal's ship retreat.
The creature was breathing raggedly as it lay on its side waiting for the wounds to start healing.
Gene dared to get closer to the beast. It suddenly but almost lazily rolled over and met his gaze. He was shocked to see its eyes, because they had lost their crimson hue and looked almost... sad?
"Hey man", He said, trying to calm it down, "You'll get another chance at em"
It pounded its clawed fist into the ground which created a small quake, "DAMN STRIAGHT I WILL! I'll hunt them down like dogs and kill them without mercy!" It roared and laid back releasing a monstrous growl from its throat.
Suzuka, Jim, and Melfina burst into the clearing. The beast turned to regard them. It shrank slightly due to the fact that it realized that at least they were safe. Though it was still venting anger when it noticed another figure in the jungle. She cleared the heavy brush and he recognized her. It took no time at all for him to return to his normal size.
"Aisha!" He yelled as he limped across the clearing. He wasn't completely healed yet and had large gashes in his side.
"Happy to see me?" She said laughing
"B-but he shot you?" Rotox stammered
"Pff, he just knocked the wind out of me and this armor is a lot tougher than it looks", she said tapping her officers' cuirass, "So, what set you off this time?"
"Oh nothin", he said trying to mirror her tone
"Yer so full of yourself!" She said laughing again
"Well if you two are done, how bout we get to it?" Gene said impatiently
"Yeah we ought to get the ship"
"Oh no! I forgot about it. I hope the hangar didn't collapse along with the cavern", Jim said as he started running toward the entrance
The others followed behind. The shaft wasn't and option now that the elevator was gone, so they had to take the long way around.
Jim took a long sigh when he saw that the hangar was pretty much untouched
"Well", Gene said, "How are we gonna do this?"
"I could pilot the fighter and meet you guys in the OS", Rotox offered, "If you want, I could act as an escort"
"Sure, we'd be goin home with class.", Gene said rubbing his hands together, "My own escort, Excellent!"
"One more thing though", Rotox said over his shoulder as he walked over to a wall with large symbols on it, "I wanna get some new threads real quick"
He traced some of the symbols with his finger and then gave two solid knocks. A small slot opened that was about 3 feet by 3 feet, and a vertical locker slid out smoothly. The locker gave a click and slowly opened. Jim took a peek inside and saw what looked like a black ooze that just barely moved. Rotox put his arm into the liquid and soon it started to run up his arm and cover his clothes. It hardened into an amazingly intricate suit of pitch black armor. The liquid went and covered his head then hardened into a helmet that looked skull-like. When it was done solidifying he removed the helmet.
"AWESOME!" Jim and Gene said in unison
"This is just the standard issue pilot uniform. My personal set was much better, but it's long gone. This is also symbiotic, like my clothes. That's why it changes like that." He explained, "But right now, I'm WAY past hungry. "
"Can I go with you?" Aisha asked
"Uh, ok. I think there should be enough room", He said scratching his head
She took off, "RACE YA!"
He shrugged and casually walked after her. Aisha was almost there when she tried the open hatch command. Nothing happened.
"Oh too bad, cant win if ya can't get in"
"Oh shut up and open the door..." she stuck out her tongue
"Oh I see, when you win it's great, but otherwise it's no fun, that's what humans call a poor sport"
"Hey!" she snapped playfully, "I can get just as mad as you so watch it SPORT"
Gene finally gave up on watching them, "I'm gettin outta here", he said waving his hand
Jim, Melfina, Suzuka, and Gene went back to the OS and made it back out into space and met up with the hardly visible fighter that Rotox and Aisha were in.
They opened up the com link, "You remember how to fly that thing ok?" Gene asked
"Sure, It's like riding a bike... only with some buttons and throttles and meters and stuff", he said giving a thumbs up sign
"Ok then, let's get rolling", Gene said as he motioned for the com link power switch. Something fell out of his pocket and he looked down. "Hey! The dragonite, I almost forgot about it!"
"How much you salvage?" Jim asked. Rotox could see him on the com screen behind Gene.
"Enough to get at least ONE beer when we get back", he opened his coat smirking and Jims eyes popped open when he saw that the pockets on the inside lining of his coat were also chalked full
"Ooo! Sparkly!" Aisha was hanging on the back of Rotox's chair with shining eyes
"You like that, huh?" Rotox said turning around with a bag in his hand, "Here you can have this"
"Thanks", she took it, opened it and squealed, "A REALLY BIG ONE!"
"Yep, that's my last pay check"
"Are you guys ready?" Gene asked annoyed
"As we'll ever be! See ya in three weeks guys!" They all waved and the screens went off.
Rotox turned and started toward the stasis pods
"Thank you" Aisha said and hugged him and for the second time caught him off guard. He almost fell but caught himself and laughed
"It's alright. Time for sleep though", he was about to keep going but she started to purr."Aisha, we gotta go". He stood there for a few more seconds and finally his stomach rumbled.
"I could really go for some cat right about now", he said laughing
"YOU JERK!" She quickly backhanded him and went to the pod
"What I do?"
"You're such a dork"
"So?", and he yawned just before his pod closed
Aisha had never once in her life had that response to ANY of her insults and stood speechless as she fell asleep.
The two ships continued toward home while the crew slept. Gene sold the dragonite and made a small fortune when they got home and Rotox eventually went back to Kojack's place for a while before starting his own fledgling outlaw business using the fighter he found at the ruins, but he always stopped back in every once in a while to screw with the crew.
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End