The Rubber Duckie

By: Angelus Erreare

A/N: Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Shin Megami Tensei characters.

WARNING: Crude Language

Chapter 1: Mystery Object

xxxxx

They walked carefully along the pitch-black passageway. Argilla wrinkled her nose in disgust. The air in the small, narrow passageway was old and stale. Actually, that was an understatement; the air was foul.

She resisted the urge to pin her nose with her fingers. But, alas, her resistance wavered, her resolve crumbling. She succumbed to her desires. She pinned her nose with her fingers and pulled her face upwards.

She heard a snort. She turned sharply to see who it was having the audacity to snort at her! Surprise, surprise; it was Heat. She glowered at him as he continued to smirk. His face was only illuminated with the luminescent rods but nonetheless, she could perfectly see his grinning face.

Stupid Heat.

"What the hell is so funny?" she asked dangerously.

His smirk widened, "What's the matter? Too tough for you?" he taunted. She grinded her teeth, baring them at him but she said nothing. She turned her back on him and continued to walk.

"Where the hell are we?" she asked, touching the wall on her right side. The wall was intricate with designs she had never before seen before. There were illustrations and pictures that adorned the wall. She had never seen such depictions before.

There was an entity that stood on four legs with hair on its head and had long silky strands at the tail. What was it again? Right; it was called a "horse". There weren't many animals left on the world. Not since the great disaster that occurred three centuries ago.

Since the great disaster, most flora and fauna had died. Only a few plant species had survived. Because of that, most animal species had been wiped out. And along that, many things that were considered as necessities by the people of old had vanished. Those that remained had been brandished as mere frivolities. Children in the Junkland had grown up without the knowledge of what they called as "toys" or "games".

No, they had all been groomed for war. It was because of endless battles and endless struggles that they had survived. Central governments had long since collapsed. It was the primordial instinct to survive by any means necessary that prevailed. They had been sorted into tribes and as members of such, had the obligation to fight for it to the death.

And so, the children grew without experiencing what it was to be a child. It was as if they had grown up too soon, too fast.

And the elite Embryon team that now walked along this narrow passageway was no different.

'We have no pasts…'

They were but mere shadows of the present struggling for a future that held neither hope nor light. For what did they fight for? For whom?

'For the people we love…' she thought, determined.

Who?

She looked around herself, thinking…She had no one. Not really.

'Bah! This isn't the time for this!' she thought. No sooner than she thought those words, did a finger tap her shoulder, "Are you…alright?"

"Serph!" she blinked in surprise, "I'm fine. Where are we?"

He nodded. That was right. They had been investigating a ruin by the Northern Pole of the Planet. They had discovered a crack on the ground. Heat would have gladly burned through the floor to get a better look, but Serph had held him back, stating that since the floor was made of ice…maybe it wasn't such a good idea to burn through it.

As they lowered themselves through the crack, what awaited them amazed them. It was an ancient building of some sort. It had been completely destroyed…its walls were ashen, its floors uneven; everything in it was destroyed; the furniture…the ornaments…everything. But since a blizzard was threatening to erupt at the ground above, the team decided to camp within the old building for the time being.

And so, there they were, walking along the building's pitch-black corridors. They knew not where it led, but they were determined to find out.

"Man!! It's cold down here ja?" Cielo whined, hugging his arms to himself, shivering.

Gale shook his head, touching his forehead, "There is no use complaining. Let us proceed." Gale merely walked past Cielo, not wanting to hear anymore of his ramblings. Was it Cielo's ramblings or his teeth chattering?

Hm.

Argilla put an arm around Cielo, "That's why you should put on more clothes. We aren't at the tropics you know?"

Cielo's teeth continued to chatter, "I tink you're rr-riigghhtt!"

Heat snorted as he turned back to look at the two, "And you're babying him you know? Just leave him."

Argilla glared at him, "Why do you always have a stick up your ass? Jesus!" she said, rolling her eyes.

Heat returned her glare tenfold but said nothing, clasping his cape tighter around himself before walking ahead.

"Don't worry yourself over him…" Serph said from beside her.

She turned to face him, her frown still in place, "I know damn it. It's just that he's damn so annoying sometimes. Aagh!"

She would have said more but was interrupted by Gale, "This is not the time to discuss such trivial issues. You can wait until we get back to Muladhara to solve your problems with Heat."

xxxxx

The group had stumbled upon a corridor with many rooms. The four looked at Serph expectantly, waiting for his order. He looked at them, "Search them all."

"For what exactly?" Heat asked.

Serph sweat-dropped, "For anything worth of notice. Weapons…tools…technology…whatever."

The group stared at him; dumbfounded.

Gale touched his forehead and stepped forward, "This is a scouting mission. Anything that is worth of notice should be taken."

"Right." Heat said rolling his eyes.

Argilla nodded and Cielo just shrugged, "But…!"

"But what?" Gale asked, terribly not amused.

"It's cold out here! Dat means dat if I'm alone it'll be colder ja?" he said painfully, hugging himself tighter, his legs turning into jelly.

Gale turned cold eyes on him, "That is not my concern."

Serph interjected, "Alright. Meet back here in 15 minutes. Move out."

The five disbanded and entered the rooms that they faced. Argilla had entered the room to the southwest, Heat entered the one beside hers, and Cielo entered the one beside his. Serph entered the room opposite Argilla's and Gale entered the room beside his.

xxxxx

Argilla used the flashlight attached to her arms and pointed her arm accordingly to the direction she wanted illuminated.

The room had been burnt from the looks of it. Nothing remained in tact. The chairs and tables were turned into charred furniture, as if ready to crumble into a heap of ash if touched. There were cupboards and drawers and closets. She approached the cupboards first and opened them.

She felt a twinge of disappointment as she saw that its contents had been burnt as well. All that remained were ashes. She inserted her hand within and scrounged about, hoping to find something; anything. She gave a startled yelp as she touched something solid.

Oh. It was just a piece of broken wood. She growled in annoyance and moved over to the drawers. Like the cupboards, there was nothing in it; only dirt, dirt and more dirt.

This was getting irritating. But then, she had a more disturbing thought, 'Oh no! At this rate, I'll be the only one without a specimen to report!'

Disturbing images of Cielo receiving an award from Gale for best scavenger came to her mind. She saw herself being ostracized by her comrades.

'No!!' she inwardly yelled.

There was no way in hell that even Cielo could best her! No way in hell!

Argilla then got back to her feet and walked over to the closet. She was pleasantly surprised though to find that the closet had been locked. Hm. Intrigue began to build up within her. With her superior strength no match for the pitiful lock that was centuries old, she literally smashed the closet door with her right fist.

Her eyes widened with anticipation as she removed the broken doors out of the way. She was severely disappointed though to find that the insides of the closet had been overrun with dirt and ash.

'Gaahh!' she roared, again getting awful scenes of Cielo…She shivered at that thought.

In the fit of frustration, she slammed her fist onto the closet again, and there, within, the planks of wood that she saw naturally piled up with the filth and dirt inside gave way. Behind them was a small box of some sorts.

Argilla smiled; her mouth opening. She squealed and grabbed the box in her hand. This had got to be it! The building that they had entered, they had deemed to be a laboratory of some sorts. If not, then it had had to be hospital.

The preliminary rooms that they had searched contained old, rotten and broken equipment that were most probably used for medical purposes; that or for some laboratory experiments. She took the box into her hands and stared squarely at it. It was an old box. Correction; it was an ancient box. It was made out of wood but the fibers were severely decayed and it felt a bit moist in her hands.

'Ewww…' she thought disgustedly, resisting the urge to sniff it, knowing that it would probably smell foul.

She examined the box carefully and saw that it had a small inscription at the bottom right corner on its lid.

She put her flashlight on it and tried to discern the label but failed as the years of decomposition ate its way through it, erasing most of it. But Argilla could see a portion of it. It was none like she's ever seen before though…so, it was useless to think about it.

Forgetting about the label, she focused on its weight instead. The box was pretty light. She frowned; what if it was empty? She shook it lightly and heard a small scuffling within. Ah! So it wasn't empty!

Wanting to eradicate the feelings of butterflies in her stomach, she grasped it on its lid and pulled it away. The lid tumbled onto the floor, creating a thumping noise that echoed in the room. She closed her eyes painfully; she hated sounds like those. It was too noisy.

'Ah! The box!' she inwardly yelled.

Her eyes immediately shot opened and peered inside. Her eyes widened and her smile grew. Within the box was an object she had never seen before. It was small object, shiny gold or was it yellow? She lifted it off the box, dropping the latter to the floor, inspecting the strange object in her hand. It had a transparent casing on it. 'To protect it from decomposition no doubt.' she thought knowingly.

Without further thoughts, she tore away at the transparent covering to reveal the object within.

What was it? It had the most strangest of carvings on it. It had a face! It had two eyes…two holes in the place where a nose should be…that was probably its nostrils. But…it had no mouth. In its place was an orange mass. Maybe that was its mouth. She turned the object upside down to get a better look at it; it had no legs. But then, because of the features that it had, the object, whatever it was, clearly symbolized a living entity.

Most probably an animal that existed three centuries ago. Hmm…but still. She rubbed the object and felt that it was smooth to touch. The box was not airtight but since the city had been frozen the way it was centuries before due to its rocky ceiling, everything within it had been preserved. Well, everything else after the bombardments the city had obviously sustained. Freaky. It would remind anyone of one of Jules Verne's. Well, that and the transparent covering. That must have been airtight.

'Hmm…' she thought, examining the object again. None of the decay was present on the specimen. It was perfectly preserved.

But then, what was it made of? What was its purpose? The object was quite soft to the touch as well. But before she could contemplate on it any further, she had remembered that they were to assemble outside after a quarter of an hour.

She glanced at her watch intently; they were to meet in 2 minutes. Gathering her things, she got ready to leave.

xxxxx

"Report." said Gale's impassive voice.

A snort came from Heat's direction. All eyes centered on him. "Well," he said, crossing his arms, "all I found was this piece of garbage." He held out a small metallic object in his hand. He stepped forward and gave it to Gale.

Gale inspected it with much scrutiny. Argilla leaned her face in, in hopes of gaining a glimpse of the object. Gale touched his forehead, "It would seem to be a communicator. It doesn't seem to be operational. But it matters not. Best take it for further testing."

Heat scowled again, "What the hell are we doing here anyway? This pile of crap is just…crap!"

Everyone just ignored Heat. Sometimes, he was just too damn annoying!

"Cielo, what did you find?" Serph asked, completely ignoring Heat.

Cielo, who had a boyish smile on his face, scratched the back of his head cheekily, "Erm…I don't know wat dis ting is…but it's de only ting dat wasn't destroyed ja?"

"Let me see it." Serph said. Cielo handed him a small yet elongated object. It too was silver in color, Argilla noted sourly. Okay; it was two-zero. Two of her teammates had found something unusual; and metallic. While she on the other hand found…never mind.

Serph examined it, "It seemed to be a storage device for data. Good work Cielo." Cielo cheekily smiled; baring his teeth. Others may have found that cute, but not Argilla. It just seemed too freaky to witness Cielo smile like that.

"What about you Argilla? Did you find anything?" asked Serph, his silver eyes piercing through her skin. She gulped.

She shook her head.

"Negative. There was nothing but rubble."

Why was she doing this again? Oh yeah; because she didn't want to be embarrassed. Oh man! Even Cielo found a cooler object than she did! It was true that whatever that object was, it was ancient. But then, 'Theirs is silver and metallic! Mine is yellow and sooofftt!! How lame is that?'

Serph did not look convinced and she heard a snort from Heat, "Are you sure you looked everywhere?"

She turned sharply at him, "Yes I did! Now shut up!"

Heat glared back at her and Cielo got in between them, flagging his hands, "Ey, ey! None of dat kiddies! We still have a mission to complete ja?"

Serph and Gale chuckled.

"Cielo's right. Knock it off Heat. And if it makes you feel better Argilla, I didn't find anything either." Saved. Savior. Yup. Now she felt her lips tug upwards.

'Serph didn't find anything either! Yay!' she could just picture herself dancing around like an idiot throwing flowers on the sides.

'Damn…am I losing it?'

"I did." Gale's expressionless voice snapped her back from her daze, "Here."

The four looked in curiously, "What is it?"

It was an oddly shaped bottle; like a triangle with its side curved. The bottle was made of glass and was red in color. It also contained liquid within.

"I wonder what it does…" Argilla trailed off, being mesmerized by the bottle.

Serph took the bottle in his hands, "It could be a water container…or a container for poison. Be careful. We'd inspect it back at Muladhara. Well, that's that. I suggest we find a place to spend the night. We leave at first light…well, provided the blizzard lifts. So, conserve your rations. You never know how long we'd have to stay here."

xxxxx

Argilla had secured a room to herself that night. As being the only female in their group, her need for privacy was revered by the others and when she asked for a separate room, none of them objected.

Just as she was about to enter it, a warm hand touched her shoulder. She was startled for a moment and spun around instantly to meet Serph's smiling face, "Serph! Erm…what is it?"

He took a closer look at her and leaned down, his face a mere inch from her ear, "I know you found something."

She blushed; so he knew. He had probably known that she didn't want to show it in fear of embarrassment and so decided to keep quiet. But then, why did he say that he didn't find anything either?

'Can it be…?'

The he wanted to save her the embarrassment?

'Oh Serph…you're so sweet…'

"Serph…what are you talking about?"

Well, just because she knew that he knew didn't mean that she'll let him know that she knew that he knew. She'll just have to deny it until he gave up and went away.

'Or send you to the MP to question you…heheh…' she inwardly laughed, nervously.

He whispered again, "It's okay. Whatever it is, you may keep it. I imagine you've found something to your interest…which wasn't exactly of any interest to the group."

"Serph…"

He smiled again and took a step back. He turned around, "Well, maybe one day you'd show it to me."

She was about to reply but he had already started walking. She smiled admiringly at him; he was so sweet. He was just the best!

'You have a crush on him…' her inner voice said.

'Shut up. I didn't ask you.' she said with finality.

'Just think about it. Maybe it's this thing that would help you finally snag him!'

'…' she was quiet for a moment, was there any truth in what her inner self was suggesting? Hm; well, she'll just have to wait and see.

'You know you want to know hoooowww…' the voice drawled.

She smacked herself in the forehead, 'I'm losing it.' She ignored it and started to walk again.

'Wait wait!!'

'I'm not listening.'

'Wait…!! You could probably use this thing to lure him out!'

This caught her attention, 'Huh?'

'He did say he wanted to see it; right…?'

'Whatever. Besides, who cares? I don't have a crush on him.'

'Feh. Whatever. Just deny it. Idiot.'

'Hey! Shut up!'

To her surprise, the voice did disappear. She smiled and then shrugged her shoulders. She realized that she was still outside her room. She blinked; she had been standing there since Serph left? She looked at her watch; that was fifteen minutes ago.

She really was losing it.

She turned the knob on her door and entered her room.

Heat moved out of the shadows. He frowned; something was going on between his leader and his teammate. He had originally decided to spy on her after he had decided that she had been lying during their meeting. She had found something; and he was going to find out what.

xxxxx

She sat there, on her makeshift futon, looking at the box again. She had thought about opening it and examining its contents but, it was still too risky to do that here and now. No. She'd better do that in Muladhara.

With a sigh, she set herself under the covers, tucking herself in securely within the blanket's warmth. The air was chilly but it wasn't cold. But all the same, it was chilly and the last thing she needed was a cold on the way back.

Besides, Heat would probably make fun of her again.

Her eye twitched as she thought of Heat. That was right; that bastard had done nothing but irritate her. As to the exact reason for this, it still eluded her.

She shook her head, "Stupid Heat."

She closed her eyes, clutching the box to her chest. She thought instead, of her silent yet charming leader.

xxxxx

Argilla breathed in the warm air that was present at Muladhara. They had just gotten back from that ice prison and she couldn't be happier.

"Man, I couldn't wait to get outta that place." She shivered at the thought of it.

Cielo grinned, "I know wat you mean…Dat place was nasty. It was dark, cold and smelly too ja?"

Heat smirked, "You're acting like a woman, you know that?" he spat at Cielo.

"And you're acting like an annoying fungus…you know, de type dat causes rashes?"

Argilla burst out laughing, "You said it Cielo."

Heat said nothing, his eyes burning with fury. Argilla sweat-dropped, "Erm…I think Heat gets the picture Cielo."

Heat glared at her and stomped away, not even giving their all the while silent leader as much as a look.

Serph looked at the three with amusement in his eyes; they'll never grow up.

xxxxx

Argilla walked into her room, exhausted. She had just finished her night shift and couldn't wait to get into bed. She was about to reach for the bed when a cold voice stopped her like a deer in headlights.

"You're hiding something woman." he spoke.

It startled her as she heard his voice. But it all changed to bitter annoyance as her brain had processed the voice; it belonged to no other than Heat.

She snorted, "You really are like what Cielo says; a fungus; a rash that just wouldn't go away."

He grunted, "Shut up."

Argilla flipped on the light switch and there, she saw him, leaning on her wall, his arms crossed, a smirk pasted on his face. She rolled her eyes, "What the hell are you doing in my room?"

"Nothing." he said nonchalantly. "Just routine checkups."

She raised an eyebrow, "What checkup?"

"To check whether you've betrayed the tribe or not." he said flatly.

She looked at him with utter disbelief, "What the hell are you talking about?!" Had this guy gone crazy? She moaned in disgust, "Couldn't you bother someone else?!"

He smirked again, walking towards her. He circled her, each step bringer him closer to her. He stopped as he neared her ear, "It wouldn't be this fun…"

Argilla could feel the hair on the back of her neck stand as his warm breath made contact with her skin, tickling it softly. She fought back a moan in her throat. She took a step away from him and narrowed her eyes at him, "Cut the crap. What do you want?"

He smirked and leaned back, "I already told you."

She growled in frustration, "There's nothing here that would even suggest that I would betray the tribe. That's just your bullshit. Heat, I'm tired and I want to sleep. So, get out."

He chuckled, "Oh no you don't. You're hiding something." he said, leaning in closer. Argilla stiffened as he voiced out his suspicions. 'Does he know?' she asked herself in self-doubt.

'Of course not! He's just bluffing!' a part of her answered.

Right; of course not. She hid it in a safe place; there was no way he'd know.

She smirked; he wanted to play? Then they'd play.

"Oh? And what is it?" she taunted him.

Her smirk widened as he didn't speak, glaring at her, "Well, it seems to me that you haven't got squat."

He cursed under his breath.

"Get out." she said firmly, pointing at her door. Heat turned to leave, muttering a few curses. He stopped in front of the door, "We're not through. I'll found out what you're hiding."

She rolled her eyes, "Whatever."

xxxxx