Alright, send in a review or leave in a favorite/follow if you are liking the story so far!
"Vira." Mirii's head rose. "Can you turn into a Squid? Hunley can pick you up with ease, while you use your other form."
"Ow… uff…" Vira let her back fall all the way down, as she yelped and stretched her arms to the sides. "… I can try…" Her eyes squeezed, as she grimaced. "Owowowow… sh-shouldn't had landed like that…" She whispered.
Mirii sighed, as her eyebrows went up and her mouth downturned.
"If only I had some phials full of Power Health… those problems would had been solved in the most perfect way possible." Her irises slid over Hun. "Instead…"
"Uhm… can I help you in some way…?" The boy was looking down at his friend, as he tilted left and right under a slow rhythm.
The girl's mouth sealed, as she waved it faintly.
"I'm forced to watch Hunley and Vira accompanying me, while they both feel the injuries they took…" Her head shook slowly. "… s-so frustrating!" She grimaced again. "How did I let this situation happen?! How could I?! I can't stand those senseless imprecisions! They weren't even supposed to exist from my part!"
Vira dived inside her ink, as Hun opened his mouth. The Squid emerged on her ink's surface, while keeping her eyelids down to the middle.
"… uff… it feels harder to keep this form…" Her eyes squeezed. "Ow, ow, ow…"
Hun bended down and hugged Vira before raising back up. Mirii stretched her mouth over her right side, as her mind was seeing herself under her Squid form, while being hugged by the boy. Her eyebrows' 'smiled', as her eyes were focusing back on her friends.
"I still disagree to continue the mission, considering how you two need cures… but I also disagree to not help an innocent." The girl stepped towards the seen door, while holding her newly-acquired weapon closer to her chest. "Hunley, linger on my side… and stay away from anything described as dangerous."
"I will do my best…" He nodded, smiling a bit and following Mirii. "If you get tired, you can hold Vira while I fight the Stingrays."
"Thank you for offering me such option, Hunley." Mirii giggled, while still keeping her eyes on the door. "Although, I cannot let myself fall in the condition of using it…" She scowled slightly. "I must fight the Stingrays properly. I do not brook any mediocre performance on my part… in any situation."
"Well… as long as you don't put yourself into danger…" His eyebrows rose.
"Uff… I'm so sorry, Mirii…" Vira lazily blinked her eyes. "I wasn't careful enough… … I'm making you do the whole mission alone…"
"First of all, I'm not alone." Mirii snorted. "Second, I have experience in battle. If I didn't had any, I would had refused to arm myself."
"Still…" Vira yelped in a whisper. "… uff…"
The girl halted, standing some feet away from the large door and admiring its wires and smaller doors.
"Now…" Her eyes closed. "Hunley, position yourself behind me."
The boy stopped behind the girl. Mirii frowned, as she cocked her weapon and reopened her eyes.
"Once I open the door, be prepared to move as swiftly as possible… as if you were utilizing your other form." She took some steps in the direction of the door. "I will try blocking any enemy advancement in our way… as well as trying to protect you with all my will."
Her left hand went off the weapon, as it proceeded and touched the cold door's surface.
"I must conquer any conflicts with perfection… I must always prove my perfection in front of the others!" Her head rose.
Her hand slid, moving towards the shyly-exposed handle to the left, looking almost like any other smaller door present on the ingress. As her free hand arrived onto it, her fingers swaddle in a stealthy way… before her hand pulled. Pulled once more and then again. The door was still the same: as impassable as before.
Mirii lowered her eyebrows, raising her head and carefully scanning on every inch with her irises. She repointed those over the handle, as her back inclined and lead her head closer to it.
Something captured her sight, located on the left side of the handle: her free hand was dragged by its curious appearance, as the tip of her fingers would soon feel its hole as thin as a vertical line who was imitating the height of the handle itself.
"… curses." She responded in a snort, turning behind and frowning at her trusted allies. "I should had anticipated such inconvenience…" Her head shook, now searching all around with her vision.
"Wh-what's wrong?" Hun lifted the Squid a bit more, almost throwing her in the same orientation.
"Hunley, the door is locked." Her head rose, while still searching with the use of her eyes. "I found an empty slot next to the handle… that fissure might symbolize our need for an object resembling a plastic card or something of that nature."
Her eyes clinched over another door, located on the upper floor of the hall.
"An object who's the equivalent of the door's key." Her feet were withdrawing from their previous position, now shifting in relation to the stairs. "We must find it, if we want to proceed."
"Alright…" His hands lowered Vira, as his eyebrows did the opposite. "… this is not good…"
"I agree." Mirii responded with a scowl. "I preferred something straightforward, so we would had improved our chance to succeed. Under such arrangement, I can't shake off those worries regarding our safety…" She sighed.
"W-we can do this!" Hun's eyebrows fell near the top of his eyes. "Don't worry!"
"I appreciate your optimism…" Mirii smiled briefly. "… but reality is what we have to concentrate on. That Stingray might have planned another despicable trick for us… and we do not possess enough options for guaranteeing our own survival."
"Wouldn't that fissure be another trick…?" Vira's tentacles also moved lazily in thin air. "Uff…"
"Impossible." The girl increased the speed of her own walking. "I have encountered a true vertical hole, when I passed my fingers on it. The Stingray's tricks are illusions, not complete changes."
"… you got a point…" The Squid's eyelids dropped all the way down, slowly.
"Now, Hunley… I want you to follow my exact steps over the stairs." The girl's weapon pointed over the mentioned target. "That Stingray might had laid one of her tricks on it…"
"Do we have to climb them?!" Sweat jumped out from Hun's head. "I-I can jump on the upper floor, thus we skip"
"How are you supposed to transport Vira…?" Mirii arrived in the front of the stairs.
The boy's mouth blocked, while maintaining itself open.
"… focus, Hunley." She sighed. "We can't allow any distractions on our parts."
"… sorry." His head lowered, as his downturned mouth strained.
"You have done nothing wrong." Mirii's head turned to her right, aiming her smile at him. "In fact, your idea would have been splendid, if it wasn't for this circumstance we have to deal with…"
"Urgh… did they invented a time machine…?" Vira waved visibly. "I have the urge to slap my past self…"
"Enough talking." The girl traveled towards the stairs. "Follow me, Hunley. Together, we will overcome any hoaxes."
"Yes!" Hun smiled, traveling right behind her back.
Mirii's right foot landed on the first stair step. Her irises were fast at analyzing their surroundings. Once she stood for five seconds, her left foot went over the first and touched down the second. Her irises were still scanning under the same consistency… the boy simply looked around, while Vira let out the umpteenth yelp.
"Nothing suspicious on sight… … urgh." Sweat was suddenly appearing on her face. "Wh-what if she disguised a true hole as part of the stair step's…? Wh-what if she disguised… a-a group of spikes in the same way?!"
She shivered, as her feet were still advancing normally…
"Painting the floor is useless for my case… is there a better way to confront those stairs?!"
Her eyes locked upon her feet, discerning a smaller distance in between her current position and the upper floor.
"… I'm still progressing without any problems…"
She frowned.
"Why in the world am I spouting conspiracy theories over those innoxiously stair steps?!"
Once her teeth clasped, the girl jumped across the remaining steps before arriving on her goal. Hun jolted, as he stopped for a second.
"I can confirm that the stair steps are not contaminated by the Stingray's tricking skills." As the girl twisted behind, she nodded. "Come here, Hunley." She smiled.
Hun smiled as well, sprinting over the last stair steps and-
CLANG!
Darkness immediately buried the girl, as her eyes were seeing a round opening shrinking in the distance and her mouth was delivering the loudest of her screams.
"MIRII!" Hun's face appeared from the left side.
The hole closed, leaving her sight in complete blackness.
KATA-PLUM!
Mirii hooted, squeezing her eyes and rolling herself left and right.
"Ha ha ha ha ha! In my trap, you did fell!"
"NOOO!" Her eyes reopened as wide as ever, joining her lowered eyebrows. "CURSE YOU, NAUSEATING STINGRAY!"
"Save your breath, you better do! Fighting for yourself, you must."
Her eyes focused on her surroundings: a table was located in the middle of the room, a closed door over the top-left corner, a line of cabinets were stretching on the wall in the front…
SLAM!
The door opened, revealing two Stinglings wielding each their classic Stingray weapon. The man entered first, followed by the woman: he cocked his firearm, rapidly aiming its muzzle towards Mirii.