Note: Once again, the section marked in bold is a document taken from the game.

Chapter Two: Femme Fatale

Initial Location: Dock/Landing Space

He got himself trapped...quite amusing, Regina thought, as she climbed up the ladder onto the landing space. She chuckled to herself as she scaled the last rung, climbing onto a big opening, with large crates in the center. They looked old, for their color was fading, and ivy began to snake its way around the sides. Straight ahead, a door with an electronic lock glowed red. Pulling out her stun gun, she touched the end of it to the lock, resetting the lock, the light changing over from red to the confirming green. Opening the rusty door, the hinges squeaked loudly, evident that no one's been here for a while. It opened to a path, leading to a rickety-looking wooden suspension bridge. A foul stench suddenly filled her nose, a pungent odor of death. Looking down to her left brought the answer—a dead soldier sat in a pool of his own blood. Judging by smell, he had been there a while. Regina also noticed this: tiny, little dinosaurs were eating pieces of skin off his rotting body. The little creatures, almost bordering on cute, were jumping up and down excitedly. She couldn't help but smile, but feel bad for the misfortunate soldier.

Suddenly, the ground seemed to give a little as Regina heard a dull thud.

Him again?

At the first sound, the little Compys scattered, running across the bridge, their little legs scurrying to safety. As Regina too began to walk the hopefully steady bridge, she looked down—and sure enough, it was the T-Rex, the very same one with the eye missing, walking slowly below her, each step loud and ominous like the sound of many deep bass drums. Not wanting to stick around any longer, she walked slowly across the remaining span, and quickly ran to the door, her handgun drawn as she slowly opened it. She ended up back into thick jungle, a thin path snaking its way through the dense vegetation. Walking quickly, her mind and body alert, she followed the S-shaped path, noticing the large boulders along the sides—perhaps a makeshift fortification, she didn't know. Another door stood several feet away, and as she made her way through, the first thing she noticed was the air—ever since the hovercraft jumped into this time, the air had taken on a humid texture, but here, it felt really warm and muggy. As she walked along the South Route, her shoes found themselves running into soft earth, and she could hear a squelching noise—the ground was quite saturated. Up ahead, Regina noticed the path was lined with wooden planks. She had probably walked into a marshy area, and suddenly she felt a tiny prick on the back of her neck.

"Ow!" she yelled quickly and slapped the back of her neck. When she pulled away, she found a smeared mosquito on her fingers.

Great...

Walking atop the planks, she noticed the path split up ahead. Straight ahead led to a door, a yellow sign next to it, and a brown sign with faded white lettering below that; to her left, the path continued on to unfamiliar ground. As she approached the door, her eyes could make out the words, and she read them aloud: "Warning! The marsh area ahead contains poisonous plants that emit toxic spores—life-threatening if inhaled. Do not enter unless you are equipped with a weapon of incendiary quality." Then she looked at the sign below—the lettering was faded, but readable:

WATER TOWER: ¼ mi.

THIRD ENERGY MILITARY FACILITY: ¾ mi.

Well, looks like I won't be going there just yet...just a little longer, Dylan. You're a guy, you can deal.

Her only option was to bear left. As she walked, she heard some rustling. She stopped dead in her tracks and pointed her handgun in the direction of the sound—nothing. Moving quickly, she went through the door—and she walked out onto a large clearing. Ahead, she saw a large stone structure, probably a wall of some kind, a door at the base. The path disappeared a few feet ahead, a vertical drop down below. The worn road continued on, and a ladder led back up. Atop the raised earth appeared to be an abandoned military jeep. That section of path led straight to the double doors. Jogging, she hopped onto the lower level, and followed the beaten path to the ladder up. As she gripped the first rung, she felt the ground shake as a loud thud, sounding extremely close, thundered through the area.

Another quickly followed, then another.

The T-Rex again?

She heard a roar cut through the air, then she heard the sound of crunching metal. She looked up—and saw the jeep looming over her, starting to topple. Regina fell backwards off the ladder, rolling out of the way as the jeep hit the ground, bouncing oddly away, missing her by a few feet. Scrambling to her feet, she picked up her handgun off the floor, and saw it. A large dinosaur, smaller than the T-Rex but still many times larger than Regina leaped off the raised platform, causing the surrounding earth to shake, causing her to stumble. Its dry, reptilian skin was mostly blue, its underside a pale white, its legs very thick, bulging with muscle.

Run!

Her pistol would do nothing, so she began to take off, practically running up the ladder, her muscular legs moving as fast as they could. Looking behind, the creature let out a roar, then leaped onto the earthen platform and began to run, moving quicker than the T-Rex. Almost instantly, the creature lunged, its large mouth wide open, ready to snatch her up. She dove to her side, just missing the head by a foot. With lightning reflexes, she got up and continued the dash to the double doors, hoping to escape from the Allosaurus. She nearly crashed headlong into the metal doors, her arms extending forward, bracing for impact as she hit the door. Her hand gripped the handle, and she bolted inside, slamming the door behind her, then slumping to the floor as the adrenaline shock quickly dissipated.

Oh, the things I do for you, Dylan...you better be thankful. Damn, that thing's quick...there might be a chance I have to go through there again. Maybe I'll find something here that I could use to stand up to that monstrosity. One question remains, though...where am I?

She had jumped out of the frying pan...and into a desolate wasteland. Just feet ahead of her, a pile of worn-down, useless, rusted machinery sat, as thin tendrils of ivy snaked their way around.

Nature eventually reclaims everything.

To her left, a ladder led up to a raised metal platform lined with thick pipes, also covered in rust and ivy vines very thick, almost as if they were choking the very life out of the plant itself. She couldn't see beyond that, and so she rose to her feet and climbed up to the platform. When she cleared the machinery, she leaped off the platform, and to her immediate left, a door covered in ivy.

I'll have to tell Dylan to come check this out...

To her right, a door led to something indoors, and ahead was another bridge; however, it was broken—impossible to get across. Entering the door to the Control Shack, she found the room deserted. Computers lined the desk along the wall to her right. Beginning her sweep, she noticed some apparent personal belongings on a shelving unit along the right-side wall, along with some pipeline. Some of the items were covered, maybe to protect them. Curious, she lifted some of them—after all, no one would come to claim the items. Along the shelf, there were books, laptops, some tools. As Regina peered at the covered contents, she came across something that greatly piqued her interest: lying on the shelf was a gun-like object, a can attached to the rear of the gun, a strap attached to it.

Flame launcher! A new toy!

A big grin came across her face, for now she had something to go through the Marsh/Poison Plant area with. She pulled the can from the gun and shook the contents a little—it was mostly full, and she hoped it would be enough. Putting the handgun back in her holster, she screwed the can back on the gun and put the strap over her.

Did I mention I like fire?

Continuing her sweep of the area, she noticed the center table, strewn with notebooks and papers, reams of data, scribbled handwritten notes. Out of curiosity's sake, she picked up one of the many sheets of paper, and judging by the writing style, it looked like it was a panicked hand. It was legible, but looked rushed, as if something bad was occurring, or something was happening.

The recovery of the Timegate seems impossible with the limited resources we have in this world. Today was supposed to have been the last hopeful experiment. However, the lack of instruments stopped us from conducting this experiment. One week ago, the transport team lead by Lieutenant Wolf was supposed to bring us the instruments for the experiment. They never arrived. Something must have happened in the Military Facility. We still haven't been able to establish communication with them. If we still intend to go ahead with the experiment we need to go to the Missile Silo on the other side of the suspension bridge, but the bridge was destroyed in a recent combat. The only other way to the other side is through the deadly poison zone. It is too dangerous to even go near the area.

Missile silo? Huh? Just what did the government plan to do with Kirk's work on the Third Energy? Bad enough this happened, but what exactly don't we know?

She'd make it a point to report her findings to Dylan. With nothing else in the room, she made her exit. As soon as she stepped out, something flew by her, missing her head by inches. Whatever it was, it exploded some feet behind her. She quickly looked, and at the edge of the bridge, three mysterious figures, obviously female, pointed strange-looking guns at Regina, and a second later, two more disks flew from their guns, whizzing for Regina. She dove out of the way, the disks exploding on hitting the ground. The trio all wore the same—black rider jackets, short, tight black shorts, and all of them wore helmets, hiding their identity.

What the hell?

The two in the rear fired again in unison, then turned and ran toward the chasm behind them. Regina took out her stun gun and deflected the disks, avoiding a potential death.

"Wait!" Regina called. The two mysterious women in the rear leaped in the air, and the third turned to run, and Regina began to give chase, her handgun now drawn.

Mess with me, you bitches?!

"Wait! I'm not going to hurt you! I'm here to help!" she yelled, only for the third one to turn, point her gun, and fire another strange projectile at her before running again, following the two that cleared the gap. As she prepared to jump, suddenly the wooden planks gave way, and she raised her hands in the air, her gun flying out of her hand, as she began to disappear from Regina's view.

No!

The unfortunate female grabbed onto a plank for dear life, her grip failing quickly—she'd fall to her death hundreds of feet below in a few seconds.

"Here! Grab my hand!" Regina said, kneeling down and quickly grabbing one of the girl's wrists, just as her grip failed. Quickly, she pulled the girl up, and wasting no time, the girl scrambled away from her, scurried away to a wall, obviously panicked. Regina rose to her feet and walked calmly toward the girl, who was trapped, and unarmed. She grabbed her by the shoulders, and the girl wriggled, trying to free herself, emitting muffled sounds of fear. With one hand, she attempted to take off the helmet, but the writhing girl made it difficult.

"Just hold still!" Regina yelled, and the clasp came loose. What emerged was a girl, her hair blond, short, tapered at the sides. Her blue eyes were watery, and transfixed in fear and panic. She gazed at Regina, looking at her short red hair, now wild, staring in her dark, brown, determined eyes, the stern Asian face, her thin body, noticing her gray uniform, and the weapons and items she carried around her waist—a set of handcuffs, a pocket for ammo, things of that sort. The mysterious girl looked in her mid-20s, her skin a pale, creamy white, laden with sweat. She grabbed the girl's wrist firmly, and pulled her to her feet. The temporary calm was once again replaced by struggle as the girl tried to free herself from Regina's unusually tight grip.

"Come on," Regina said, not in a mood to compromise. They walked into the Control Shack, the girl emitting whining noises, grunts, still trying to free herself, trying to escape. She pulled the girl in front of her, and pinned her to a pipe, holding onto her wrist while she took the handcuffs and successfully cuffed her wrists behind the pipe. The girl yelled in protest, and struggled to get free of the cuffs, but she wasn't going anywhere.

Regina walked a few steps back, and just looked at the captured girl. "Listen, young lady. I didn't want to do that to you, but you left me with no other choice." And now she had no choice. She had to continue on, back through the jungle, to go through the marsh, and get to the Military Facility.

She's not going anywhere, and I'll be back with Dylan.

"I'll be back shortly," she told the girl. No reaction from her. On that, Regina turned and walked out of the room, and turned to her left, back up onto the platform, and out the door, back to where she encountered the Allosaurus. Luckily, it got bored and left, and she was clear.

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She saw Dylan sitting behind the locked door, his back to her. When he heard footsteps, he turned, got up, and saw Regina's sexy figure, her face smirking. She bent down and picked up a green key-like object.

"There you are," Dylan said, relieved. "I was wondering what happened."

"Mr. Barbarian got trapped, I see," Regina said, trying to hide a smile.

"Yeah, yeah, shit happens," Dylan agreed, his face turning red. That was a blow to his ego, and as much as he tried to hide it, Regina noticed.

She held out the key plate. "What do I do with this?"

"See that control panel to your left?" Dylan asked. She nodded. "See how it's blue? I think there's a key that matches that color. I found that key in the facility, and I saw a similar control panel in this room, red in color. However, I put that key in, got the contents, then an alarm went off, and I was trapped in here."

"Smooth," Regina said sarcastically. "Where do I find the key plate?"

"There's a room in the facility that was electronically locked, and I couldn't go past it. You might be able to unlock it with your little light saber thingy, and find something in there. Check it out."

"Gotcha. Back soon." She turned around and prepared to exit.

"Wait, hold on a minute," Dylan interrupted. "What's that toy you got there?" He asked, referring to the flame launcher.

"Flame launcher. I'm about to chuck it...the fuel's gone." She quickly left.

"But—ahh, women. I hope she hurries up," Dylan said, and sat back down on the floor.

Good thing she's alive...

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Mustiness. Neglect. Abandonment. As she walked down the hall, she thought these things.

What used to take place here?

Ivy was breaking through the floor in places, and she looked at the discolored walls, curious.

If this was a military facility devoted to the Third Energy, what was done here? When she reached the end of the hall, she found the locked door, and she chuckled as she unlocked it.

"Light saber thingy..." What is this, Star Wars? Besides, it's too small to be a light saber...maybe a light dagger.

The doors opened, and quickly, she noticed the room was in stark contrast to the rest of the facility. Monitors and grids towered high above her, lining the room, computers and control panels in front of abandoned swivel chairs. Obviously, a control room of some sort, she walked slowly, absorbing it all in, her mind spinning with wonder and intrigue.
Maybe Rick could make sense of all this? I wish he wasn't positioned elsewhere...I'm sure he'd be fascinated.

The room took a right, and at the end of it, there stood a panel set into the wall, and it contained the key plates.

Bingo.

There were six key plates, each one of them in their own corresponding color slots.

How cute—they're arranged like the colors of the rainbow...red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.

Below the key plates, a message: "The key plate system is designed so that only one key plate can be in use at a time. To change key plates, put the one in use back in its corresponding slot, and take the new one."

Simple enough. Which one did Dylan need? Blue? Blue.

She placed the green key plate back in its slot, and pressed the button for blue. A quick little mechanical whirr, and the blue key plate was in her hand. Her objective done, she ran out of the room, and back to Dylan.

As she entered the Hardware Storage, Dylan was standing there, waiting for her, his arms crossed and a smug grin on his face.

"What took you so long?" He said, still smiling that male grin.

Regina paid him no mind, and quickly put the correct key in the control panel. The lock released, and the door opened. The S.O.R.T. soldier looked at him and smirked.

"Nice to see you too," she began. "You owe me one. I found a young female survivor. But, she was uncooperative. I locked her up in the Control Shack. I'll take her back to the ship. You go on ahead, I'll meet you there."

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Location: Hovercraft

She was struggling all the way from the Control Shack to the hovercraft. Once they were inside and the door was locked, she released her grip, and the girl ran around, darting around, moving quickly, scared for her life. Her eyes darted back and forth, and her head kept turning, glancing at her new surroundings, at Regina. She ran for the door, but Regina held her back, gripping her by the wrist like a young infant.

"Just try to relax," she reassured. "What is wrong with you? You're a survivor, right? Please, we're here to help you." No response from the girl. "What's your name? Where are all the others? Where's your family?"

She didn't say a word.

Behind her, Dylan appeared out of the ship cabin. His face looked solemn. "Regina, you better take a look at this."

Letting her go, she followed him into the cabin, and she was greeted with a most distressing sight. The entire cabin was trashed, from top to bottom. Wires were pulled, broken, hanging from the ceiling. The metal shelving running along the top of the cabin was bent, twisted, broken. Ahead, the Timegate appeared all right, but neither was too sure. Belongings and items were broken and strewn everywhere—this clearly was not the work of dinosaurs.

"It wasn't dinosaurs," Dylan opened, obviously perturbed. "Someone must have gotten in here and trashed the place, the computers, everything." He walked toward the center of the room and looked in a small compartment in the floor. "They also damaged the engine activator—the starter battery is missing. We can't move our ship."

Regina looked along the sides of the Timegate, and found the activator, broken, pieces of it missing. "The activator for the Timegate is broken too." As she said that, a frightening thing came to mind, something she could not admit, but now had to:

We can't get back to our own time.

How goes it thus far? As always, feedback is welcome. Chapter 3 will be up in a few days...Dylan heads to the Research Facility, with some questions on his mind. What will he encounter? Find out when I post Chapter 3!