Unlikely Heroes
Chapter 38: Ruins and Answers
Before the group continued, Cosmo made sure to upgrade their weapons. They then got back onto the smaller boats and went towards the cave Dirving had pointed out. The vehicles went through the entrance. The group looked around and there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. "So this is the place he was talkin' about," Chris said.
Sheva then spotted something. "That's the boat the woman used to get away," the female human stated, pointing it out.
Everyone else saw it. "So she might be here," Nicholas commented.
The boats the group were on pulled up to a dock and the all got out but Josh. "So, you guys are really gonna go through with this?" he asked.
"Yes," Chris replied.
"This is not just about Jill, but the Drodros project as well," Sheva said.
"I guess there's nothing I can do to stop you," Josh stated. "I will call HQ and try to get the withdrawal order rescinded. I will also try to get you backup. Try not to get yourselves killed!"
Those in the group nodded in response and watched the guy drive off. He did look back at them one last time with a gesture he would see them around. "Guess it's time to move," Nicholas commented, looking ahead.
"Maybe we should go ahead you and I," Liru suggested. "We've got the best noses."
The group began to walk forward. "By the way, that name Dirving mentioned, Alexis…" Uma said.
"Anyone heard of it before?" Logan asked.
"I have," Sheva replied. "If it's who I think it is, that's the name of the director or Dricell's African division."
"Do you think she could be connected to Dirving?" Chris asked.
"it's possible. But I don't have any proof."
"Dricell…" Chris said.
"Well if there is a connection, what does this mean for Africa?" Logan asked.
"Not sure but if we keep going, we're bond to find out," Uma stated.
"True," Chris agreed. "Let's move."
The group moved forward deeper into the cave. They noticed that there seemed to be signs of natives living here. And this proved to be even more true when they emerged into a more open area. They could see skeleton remains of humans, some of which were hosted up by wooden beams. Light was coming into the caves from holes in the ceiling. "More of those native Ajini live here I guess," Akio said.
"In that case, be on guard," Nicholas commented.
Liru's ears then twitched. "Hm?" she asked.
Suddenly in front of the group enemies emerged from the ground. They looked like some kind of burrowing spiders, but they were large, the size of small badgers with spikes on the legs. They also had some kind of long tail as well. It only took a couple of shots to kill them. When they were, they melted away like all the enemies seen before. "More monsters," Nicholas growled.
"There may be more," Liru said. "I think I can hear them."
"In that case, watch out."
The group kept going, taking out any more of the enemies that appeared. After going up a ladder and down a path, they found themselves at what appeared to be a stone door. Chris was able to get it open thanks to a little help from the other guys. Everyone then went through and were shocked when they saw what lay ahead. "Whoa…" Uma whispered.
"My god…" Cosmo said softly.
What lay ahead appeared to be some kind of ruined settlement that was almost a small city. There were a few places that had fires burning like a light. Natural light came streaming through holes in the ceiling and there was even a few place where there were some tiny water falls. In the distance the group could see two beams of natural sunlight hitting some kind of shiny object in the shape of a large diamond on a huge tower like structure. There were even some bats in here that fluttered past. "I never knew such a place existed…" Sheva said.
"It looks like there's been some recent activity," Chris pointed out.
"I hope Dirving was telling the truth when he said we'd find answers to this place."
The group then had to jump down a couple of ledges. "Still nothing yet," Napoleon commented but was on guard.
The group did find a large stone chest that had money in it that was grabbed. They kept going through the stone passages of this area. But it wasn't until they reached a bridge and began to cross it that it happened. Sheva and some of those from the nether were in front of Chris and the rest. But they stopped as they had a nasty feeling they were being watched. They turned around just in time to see a large stone pillar beginning to fall down. The group was able to see it was some hostile Ajini that had done it. Those with Sheva made it across the other side and avoided getting crushed. But now the bridge was out. "Guys!" the female human stated. "Are you ok?!"
"Yeah, I think so!" Nicholas replied back. Liru, Cosmo, and Akio were with him and Chris.
The male human jumped down the ledge that was now here and he lead the way. Then his small group heard the shouts of the enemies they had faced before. "Uh oh," the female android whispered.
The enemies then appeared, more natives that were infected. "We'll provide cover!" Sheva told them.
It didn't take long for Chris's group to fight through the enemies and reach the others. "That wasn't so bad," Liru said.
"Let's just catch our breath for a minute," said her boyfriend.
After they had, the group found another chest with money in and took all of it. Then Chris led the way forward and another chest was found in front of a different colored square of stone. The two humans pushed the lid open but there was nothing inside. Just then the floor beneath the group opened, revealing it was a trap door and they all fell down to the level below. They all managed to land just fine but were breathing hard from the sudden rush. "Is everyone okay?!" Uma asked.
Just then more enemies began to emerge. "Great," Nicholas growled, drawing his katana.
"Take 'em out!" Liru stated.
Once these and the few natives that showed up were killed, the way forward opened. The group did take the time to open the three chests that were behind them, to the right, and left that had small gems in them and grabbed those. The group then crept ahead and saw they were right in front of the shiny object seen before. It looked to be on top of a huge structure that was almost like a building yet there was no doorway to get in or windows. There were two huge flames burning in some kind of urns of the same size as the object, one each on the left and right in front of this. In the center besides having more enemies was strangely shaped structures in the center. "What do we have here?" Cosmo wondered.
"Let's find out," Nicholas replied. "Hand me a grenade."
"Use this," Chris told the male werewolf and handed one over.
Nicholas tossed it and it blew up a couple of the enemies while the rest in the group took out the rest. When the hostile natives were gone everyone went to the center where the structure was and saw there was a lever that could be pushed. It took two to move it and doing so opened a door so everyone could move forward. But this also activated something else and seeing this made those in the group take a step back. "What in God's name are those?" Sheva stated. "Better give them a wide birth!"
The things turned out to be huge spiked orbs that were ablaze. They were rolling and hitting each other to go back and forth to create a hazardous path. "Hurry!" Pachira then exclaimed. "It's closing!"
The new door opening was indeed doing that. Napoleon moved as fast as he could without a second thought. The guy made it and stepped on a switch which kept the door open and the orbs to explode. "I didn't know you could move so fast," said his girlfriend.
The rest joined the male vampire and then it was down some stairs and through some double stone doors. They found themselves in some kind of hallway with statues made to represent the natives on either side. Then someone stepped on a section of the floor and felt their foot sink as they activated something. They all felt something shake and turned to look back to see that the statues behind them were beginning to fall. "Uh oh…" Uma gulped.
"RUN FOR IT!" Cosmo yelled and they all booked it.
Everyone did and then after a bit they saw a section ahead fall to reveal a pit. "JUMP!" Nicholas barked and everyone made it.
They kept going and were able to make it to the very end before another door closed. Everyone took a moment to catch their breaths. "Let's hope we don't have to do that again any time soon," Akio whispered.
"Even so I still feel we're not near the end yet," Cosmo said.
After the group was ready to move on, they jumped down a ledge and found another wall in the way. "Now what?" Logan asked.
Two chains were found and these were pulled which caused some stairs to appear. The group went down these and found themselves in a large area that had different levels. They could see another waterfall in here and that there were large statues of some kind of humanoid figures in here that were sitting with their arms up. Chains were attached to these and they were in different colors. However this whole room was one big puzzle to get some stairs to appear so the next area could be accessed. It wasn't easy as there were enemies that did show up. But then finally at last the main stirs had been raised up. "Finally at last," Nicholas grumbled.
"Getting somewhere, huh?" Logan stated.
Suddenly a shriek was heard from a monster. "That sound…" Liru growled.
They looked up and from a hole in the ceiling they saw the same kind of enemy that had come from that truck at the mines descending down. "Another of those?!" Cosmo stated.
"At least this time we know what to do!" Aiko said, shrinking to his side but not faltering.
"Let's blast that thing out of the sky!" Nicholas exclaimed.
This time it didn't take much to kill this monster. "That wasn't so bad," Pachira said.
"No, not this time," Cosmo agreed.
Now it was up the new flight of stairs were another door was found. "Just how much further does this place go?" Liru asked.
"Who knows?" Nicholas replied. "But hopefully we'll get those answers soon."
"And not die," Pachira added.
"I'm thinking Dirving might be setting us up," Napoleon said with a frown.
The group went through the door unaware what was going on elsewhere. In a room with a sofa a briefcase was open being attended to by a human woman. "The preparations are almost complete," she stated to the other in here with her. She had a slight accent. "Then we can leave."
She took out a shot from the briefcase and flicked it with a finger to get it ready. "Good," the other in here replied, this being a man.
The woman then took the shot which was an injection and did the task of placing whatever was inside it inside the man. "You know, I was surprised Las Lagas was a success," she commented. "When you first arrived I had my doubts. And now Drodros is complete."
The two had stood up by this point. "Your position in Dricell is secure," the man said.
The woman with him slowly walked behind him, one hand trailing on his body. "Oh… I have my eyes set on something much bigger," she cooed with lust. The man murmured in response, smirking as he felt her fingers trail his shoulder and back. "You'll be needing a partner right?" The woman was now on the man's right arm, looking up at his face. "Someone suitable to join you in your new world." Here she placed one hand on his abs. "I believe I've proven worthy, haven't I?"
"Perhaps you have," he replied simply.
Just then the masked woman came into the room. "The DSAA are here," she stated.
"It appears your old friends and Chris Limefeild has come to pay a visit," the first woman stated to the man. The man said nothing in response. He wasn't worried. Here her voice took on a loving tone. "Do I sense concern?"
"The plan is in its final stages," he stated sharply. "I will not tolerate delays."
The first female scoffed and left the room with the briefcase and second woman. Here the man was left to think about what had happened at that mansion on that night where he had murdered Lencer. The same night when Jill had knocked him out of that window. For it was Desker, alive and well. "I believe I should thank you, Lencer," the evil male said.
Meanwhile Chris's group had made it to the next area. Up ahead they could see some kind of huge round orb that shown like a giant gem. In front of that the path split into a right and left one. And in front was some kind of gate that had three slots on it. Everyone checked it out. "Looks like they're slots for items," Akio said.
"Typical," Logan grumbled.
"Guess we have to go find them," Nicholas commented with a shrug.
It was decided Chris and Sheva would take the werewolves, the dogs, Uma, and Logan down one path and the others would go down the other. The humans leading the way chose the path on the left while the other group would take the right. However it wouldn't be that easy for as soon as each group went onto each path, right up where the glowing orb was, hostile Ajini came out. These were using the glowing orb that was being caused by sunlight to make it glow and focusing that into beams of fire and energy to act as a defense on the pathways. "Shit!" Napoleon snarled after ducking behind something just in the nick of time to avoid being hit.
"To think these natives would come up with something like this," Cosmo said.
"I don't know if I'm impressed or scared," his girl whispered.
It took some work but eventually, the group managed to get the items needed in order to get past the gate. It was then up some stairs and through a pair of doors that had some kind of carvings in it and two figures meant to represent males of the tribe on either door. Beyond this was a hallway that had steps that went down to a single stone door. This led to a room that was square and had a huge hole at the top with sunlight coming down into a beam to an orb that collected this. The orb was on a stone stand in the middle that took the beam and sent it in straight lines that were sent to other stone objects. These were rounded and caught the beams into jewel like items in the middle of them. But as soon as the group fully stepped into the room, the way back closed. Sheva took a closer look. "I see," she said. "There's a trick to getting out of here."
"And probably has to do with the beams," Nicholas commented.
"Tread carefully. Those beams are dangerously focused."
It wasn't hard to direct the beam to where it needed to go in one of the corners of the room to one of the rounded stone objects. This allowed them to access the level below where they saw more of these. "So there's more than one we need to get the beam to; no matter," Logan said.
They saw the beam was being blocked by a pillar. "I think we can knock that over," Cosmo commented.
The group did so and were able to arrange the objects in here so the beam went to where it needed to go. "So what next?" Sheva asked.
It turned out to be the hardest puzzle of all. But with some work, the final way down was figured out. But not before grabbing everything of value. The group rode down and found themselves in a small tunnel that led to a section up ahead. "This is different," Logan commented.
"I see something up ahead," Uma pointed out. Looking ahead should some stairs that led to some kind of plants.
"Let's check it out," Nicholas stated.
Getting closer showed this seemed to be more like a sacred area. "What is this place?" Chris asked softly.
The group slowly walked up the stairs towards the plants. These happened to be flowers, but not like any that had been seen before. They had some kind of red tint to them but nothing that seemed normal. "How can these survive underground?" Sheva asked.
"These are no ordinary flowers…" Chris stated.
Nicholas then looked to his right and spotted something. "Wait!" the male werewolf stated and rushed over to it with the rest following him. It was some kind of stone block that had moss growing over it. The guy whipped it away and the symbol revealed left him, those from the nether, and Chris in shock.
"Rindella…?" the male human asked.
"What?" Sheva replied in shock.
"What was Rindella doing here?" Napoleon asked.
"I don't know…" Chris replied and they looked and saw some research tents and lights next to the flowers in a corner of this room. "But it doesn't look like anyone's been here for a while."
"You can be sure they wanted to keep this place a secret," Liru commented.
"Some of this equipment has got the Dricell logo on it," Cosmo said taking a look at it next to the tents. "Were they working together?" Little did the group know just how right on the male android was.
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Author's notes: I do apologize for how long it took to get this out but being on a hiatus break for four months did that. Rest assured I'm still around and now that I'm back it's time to resume all the stories. Thank you for your patience.