The Darkened Sanctum

III: "Return What's Missing…"

"But… but captain-"

"Your job was to protect the cargo and make sure it was delivered safely," Zeno had her eyes fixed on Bosch's, who was trying to keep himself together in her office. "You aren't done with your job. You'll have to go retrieve it and bring it back for reshipment."

"But Ryu-"

"If he's fallen, he'll have no hope. If he is alive, he is strong enough to come back. He's tougher than you think he is. But right now, he isn't the issue, nor is the fact half of the track is missing: you must go and retrieve the shipment, do you understand?"

"…Y… Yes ma'am."

"Perhaps while you are searching, you'll come across him again. He isn't one to give in that easily." Zeno pushed her glasses back up her nose quickly, "But don't let anybody stand in your way at recovering that creature! You cannot fail this mission: your reputation is on the line, young sir."

"…" Bosch stared with a shattered look. "Right, ma'am. I'll go start looking now!"

He turned and left quickly, Zeno letting out a sigh as the door slid back shut.

"All these setbacks… Ryu, you better come back up here alive."

"There!"

The heavy blue iron crate was roughly tossed into a room. The two men that had hauled it took a minute to rest as it was ungodly heavy. The bigger man, with short brown hair, looked at his companion, "What's in this thing anyhow?"

"Hello?" A weak feminine voice came out from the crate, "Where are we now?"

"That… that sounds like…"

"Don't mind it," The younger man headed for the door, "Don't worry, little miss, you're at the next destination. The doctor will see you shortly… hehe!"

"Doctor? Hey!" There was a sudden pounding from inside the crate, "Don't leave me here!"

"Sorry, regulations: all lab equipment and animals must be kept contained until the proper authority opens them!"

Cheryl growled as she heard the two men leave, and then sat back in the corner of her crate, staring at her bare feet in the very dark confinement. They had moved her from the storage up to the main labs, it seemed, and she only had a small slice of time before somebody would slice into her. With a sense of hopelessness, she frowned, looking about the box.

Then she sat up a bit. Listening close, she heard nothing, meaning the men were gone. She moved to the side of the crate, opposite to the side she heard the men leave from. Cheryl then slammed her figure against the hard side, wincing a bit- but the crate had tipped slightly. It set itself back down with a loud 'clang', but nobody seemed to notice. Refocusing her pain into energy, she slammed again into the wall, and leaned against it- with the amount of force she had used, the entire crate suddenly fell onto the next side with a resounding 'thud'. Panting, rubbing her side, she waited breathlessly.

Nobody came.

She did it once more, then again, swallowing pain. Four of these heavy turns made her crate fall against the open doorway, hanging crookedly. The lid was face down- crouching; she tried to jump on the surface. After fifteen minutes, the top fell through and she tumbled out, but soon heard voices. Climbing out from under, she headed down the hall opposite to the voices with great speed.

"That vision… Hortensia, would you share it with the rest of them?"

It was a darkened room, carved out of marble, chairs behind two curved desks that were near the center of the circular room. There were people sitting at each of these chairs, each silent within the darkness. One man, glowing patterns running up and down his figure, stood to the front of the group but faced away. He was staring directly at a great tapestry that hung from the wall; black on red, it depicted a dragon and many symbols running down its length, designed in curls and curves. Ancient writing labeled these things, the entire thing made with expert detail. But above, the view was the best: a circular window letting in soft, white light. However, there was nothing to see but the light and the curling pattern through the window, a false sense of hope.

A woman, blonde, in a white, very short dress, also clad in armor across her arms and legs, with her eyes shut tightly and her head slightly bowed looked up after this remark. Keeping those feather-soft lids closed, she spoke in a rich voice, "Man will gain wings… and the Sky will return. These words came wrapped in uncertainty… I cannot see further into this dream."

"Man will gain wings…?" A man to the right side of the room, with red hair, scoffed, "I don't see men growing wings any time soon."

"We shall wait for this vision to clear… but… there is one who has been chosen… However, his number is low… far too low for my comfort." The man before the desks sighed silently, "But there isn't much we can do for now… let us watch… and see what becomes of our dragon."

"Ow! Stop tossing things back here!"

"Well, don't walk in the path of my throwing."

Nina looked among the two, silent, occasionally ducking as boxes and other assorted trash was tossed back. Lin was ahead, carving a path out of the litter, purposely tossing things back in Ryu's direction. Nina learned how to duck after the third time of being hit, but now was dodging expertly. Ryu, on the other hand, was going about it all the wrong way- he'd raise his arm up to deflect the blows. Nina slightly wished she could tell him how to duck the proper way, but that wasn't happening any time soon.

"That almost hit me in the eye!" Ryu tossed a box aside, grumbling, "Do you even know where you're going?"

"Do you?" Lin looked back with a devious smile.

"I asked you first!"

"I first asked you."

"No you- oh for the love of…" Ryu ducked as a tin can was tossed back via Lin's tail, "You were talking about 'working together' just a few minutes ago, now you're… you're…"

"Getting on your nerves?"

"YES!"

"I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves," Lin suddenly broke out into song, clearing the path, tail bobbing to the music, "Everybody's nerves, everybody's nerves. I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves and this-is-how-it-goooooes!"

Growing a headache, he growled some, but was calmed some when Nina would pat his arm slightly. Clearly she understood all that was going around her, and she even looked a bit annoyed by the singing, too. Lin was on the third verse by the time they reached a ladder to the second story.

Up here it was the same: rust-eaten metal walls, garbage strewn about, faint dripping noises from dark corners, and a general lack of good lighting. Dust was thick in the air down here, swirling before their eyes as they pressed onward. Lin's raucous singing echoed down the metal halls as they continued, almost making the paneling vibrate.

"And this is how it-"

"Shut up already! You're being extremely immature! For a terrorist I was expecting a little better- I guess I was-"

"Mistaken."

"…" Ryu growled a bit, "Right. Now seriously, how far are we?"

"Three flights."

"Thank you. Do you know how to get up there?"

"Yes, amazingly. Isn't that a novel idea: I'm leading you two, and I know the way! That's so amazingly splendid, huh?" She looked over her shoulder with an odd grin, "I'm not planning on leading you into an abyss or something. Don't be so paranoid. I'm not even interested in you."

"Well, if you're 'interested' in Nina then you've gotta deal with ME."

"See, exactly why it isn't worth it. You'd be expecting it. But cut me some slack here, buddy-"

"Don't. Call. Me. THAT." He growled, "I am NO friend of ANY criminal."

"Ah!" Nina suddenly tugged on his arm, catching his attention. She slowly shook her head no at him when he looked down, with a faint sigh.

"…Alright. I won't fight with her anymore. I think Nina would like it if you cooperated, too."

The little one nodded.

"Fine, alright." She continued forward, tossing things to her sides now, occasionally picking up things with her tail. Walking through a grungy door, she came to halt in the large room; trash heaps went up to the ceiling, but more importantly there were genics running about around the area. However, she merely grinned, "Antz."

"What?"

"Antz. Feral Worker Ants." She stepped out into the room, causing a few to run off- clearly, they didn't want to harm the party nor be harmed themselves. "They're good luck because they don't bother you. Leave 'em alone and its said someday they'll make you a fortune."

"Huh." Ryu followed, Nina close behind, looking at the large, brown ants digging through the trash piles. They would wiggle their antennae, 'sniffing' the piles before digging, and they would take out some of the oddest things: Old toys and other knickknacks. "Never heard of that."

"Though some genics go 'feral', not all of them wind up becoming violent, you know. Some will go out of their way to stay away from you. Then there's certain types that always go nuts- it's important to tell them apart. I'm surprised a law-abiding person like you wouldn't know this!" Lin passed by an ant that was digging and lightly tapped its head, getting a surprised squeak in response, "Silly little things. Who knows what they do with the stuff they collect?"

Nina glanced at the ant Lin had tapped as they walked by, and she reached out and patted its head. It watched the party walk away, only wriggling its antennae and tilting its head in odd directions.

The next story was, well, a different story, to put it both literally and figuratively. Reaching the next, large room, they found themselves facing a bunch of, well, piles of goo. Not ordinary goo, these were killer, feral Goo, magic-wielding jellyballs that packed a punch.

"Oh, I hate these things!" Lin suddenly whipped out a gun, pointed straight at a golden one and fired- the creature bent inward, then the bullet popped out a second later as its gelatin-like body simply reformed. Its eyes, though bouncing up and down atop its head, never got knocked away. "God damn it!"

"Stay here, Nina!" Ryu drew his sword and dove into the pile: there were red ones, blue ones, and yellow ones, all identical in shape and size. They'd make peculiar 'boing' noises as they moved about, and soon the two were getting hit with fire, water, and lightning spells.

"!" Nina watched this in panic- she knew how to take care of these creatures, but she hadn't a weapon! Looking among the scene in fright, she jumped as some small claw tapped her from behind. Looking back, she saw the little ant that she had petted from before, who handed over a piece of foil. She took it, stared at it for a moment, and then put her hands together. It watched, curiously, as she 'pulled' her arms out, signaling something long. Then she made a 'pinch' gesture, suggesting it was thin. Finally, she held her arms out in an 'I don't know' pose. The ant nodded, then ran back downstairs. She watched over her shoulder as her party got their butts whipped, becoming more and more anxious. Soon, though, the ant returned, and held out another shiny, long, thin object- a pipe and faucet that once was part of a sink. Patting the gentle creature on the head, Nina took up the pipe, ran out onto the field, then suddenly raised the now-a-staff up with a loud 'Ah!'

The creatures were suddenly hit with a wave of electricity, causing the red ones to melt into puddles, the blue ones to take medium damage, but healed the yellow ones, as the surprised Lin and Ryu dove out of the way.

"Uhnn!" She swung the pipe down, creating a blast of ice to shoot past the remaining Goo- the red ones melted, the blue ones healing. "Ooh!"

Finally, with a wave of fire, the blue ones melted into puddles, nothing left on the battlefield but little Goo eyes. She let out a sigh, wiping her forehead off.

"N…Nina!" Ryu scrambled out to her, "That… that was amazing!"

"Interesting powers…" Lin clambered out of her hiding place, finding a pop-can ring around her tail. She pulled it off quickly. "Well, we know who to turn to now for instant campfires."

Ryu glared a bit at Lin, then looked back at Nina. "Are you okay? Hey, where'd you get-"

The little ant scurried away, taking its foil with it.

"Told you they were good luck…!"

After a few more, better-fought conflicts, winding through the dark, grimy halls, they went up the last, creaky ladders. The dust thinned as they climbed to the surface, but was still very visible in the dull golden light. But before leaving, they had stumbled upon a room that was once a dorm; old beds, hanging off the walls themselves, complete with dusty mattresses.

"Let's… take a break." Ryu let go of Nina's hand and took a well-deserved sit on a bed. "If ever just walking was a chore… ugh…"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Lin moved to lean against the grungy wall, looking at Nina as she started to wander about the dirty room. She was in contrast with the concrete floors and rusted metal walls; that white dress and those sparkle-emitting wings making her highly visible. Staring at those wings, Lin suddenly grew a smirk.

"So, don't you want to know what she is?"

"What- huh?" Ryu looked over and noticed Lin was staring at Nina, then he looked at the woman, "What are you talking about?"

"Well, don't you?"

"…You wouldn't tell me anyhow, would you, criminal?"

"…" Lin frowned slightly, then let out a sigh. "Truth is… I'unno. I was just told to bring her back to HQ. I wasn't told anything more."

"Huh. Then how do you know they're not just going to cut her up?"

"Because I know…" She let out a sigh, "I just do."

"Well, whatever, I don't really care. I just want to make sure she gets somewhere safe."

Lin smiled a bit. She spoke to herself, "I admire that, Ryu."