Chapter 34

The Ark: Part 3- Retrieval

Earth 63, 2049, 5:23 PM

Calrok's POV

When we entered the ark I took notice of the hieroglyphs on the walls, they were a warning to all who entered without permission. We arrived in a massive square room, four pods containing our targets were spread out in the center of the room. They resembled a hollow obelisk with a glass window at the front. However much to Oliva's dismay the Ancestors were far from preserved.

"NO, IMPOSSIBlE' she screamed as she saw the cryo pods. There were cracks on the front of all the cryo pods. The one on the front right had a massive crack across the entire front of it. Eons of waiting had caused a buildup of energy that cracked the pods just enough to leak the coolant preserving the Ancestors. Nothing remained but the withered skeletons covered by a thin layer of skin.

Oliva pointed at me and yelled "YOU LIED, YOU SAID GIRATINA ASSURED THEY WERE INTACT!"

I shook my head and walked towards an empty space in the middle of the other pods. I pressed my hand into the ground and poured shadow energy into the ground. As the ground started to rumble, a stone slab slid out of the floor and began to hiss as air entered the chamber for the first time in eons.

I stepped back and said, "Now who's showing no faith, after the ark was constructed the Ancestors implemented a failsafe before going on ice. If one pod leaked all of the other ones would transfer their coolant into the leader of the hive mind and seal them away in a more secure space"

As I predicted a fifth cryo pod rose out of the ground and took its place in the center of the others. Within the glass window was a perfectly preserved ancestor. I placed my hand on the glass window and channeled shadow energy into it. This caused the front of the obelisk to open and the ancestor to fall out in a solid block of ice. Landing like a brick but not shattering the ancient ice.

"Incredible" Oliva exclaimed.

"Get to work, were almost out of time" I ordered.

Oliva scoffed and retrieved her tools from her backpack, after chipping away the ice around the Ancestor's head she applied sterile gloves to her hand and began to make the incision above the eyes. She cut a clean circle and peeled the flesh away before retrieving a small item that looked like a taser with a single prong on the front.

"What is that for" Ethan asked as the Ancestor's eyes began to glow, it was starting to wake up but was far too weak to defend itself. Not that it would have fought back anyway, thanks to its link with Giratina it knew not to attack us.

"A precision laser cutter for getting through the skull, it will go through the 6 millimeters of bone to allow a safe removal" Oliva assured.

With a searing hiss the beam cut the skull open, revealing the brain. It looked like a spiral of flesh wrapped around a blue pulsing organ. Carefully Oliva used the laser cutter to separate the brain from the spinal cord and put it into its case. She pressed the power button on the top of the tube causing the tube to fill with a blue liquid. The plate on the bottom made a humming sound as it chilled the liquid to just above freezing.

Oliva put her backpack back on and tossed her gloves away. She picked up the canister and hooked to her belt.

"Well, we're finished, let's get out of here" Ethan recommended.

"Yes, we are finished here…" Oliva whispered.

I saw her hand moving to the holster on her thigh, unfortunately for her she underestimated my reaction time. As soon as she leveled her gun at Ethan, I froze her in place with telekinesis

"No..NO" she stammed.

"Are you serious?' Ethan asked, stunned at Oliva's recklessness.

"Foolish girl, you thought you could pull one over on us?" I taunted.

Ethan laughed and said "why did you think we were absent from the bridge yesterday? Giovanni briefed us on your little plot. I just doubted you'd be stupid enough to try "

Her eyes went wide, fear taking hold of her.

"If it's any consolation, you had no chance of killing us with that gun, I can regenerate a bullet wound like nothing and Ethan's armor is bulletproof" I explained as I took the brain's canister from her belt.

Suddenly the ground began to shake, causing Ethan to look around wildly. He turned to me and asked "what is happening, I followed your orders"

I laughed and said "take it easy, Giovanni ordered me to keep you around me at all times, you think he would do that if he was planning to eliminate you. You've more than proved your worth"

Ethan relaxed slightly and asked "what is happening then?"

"The Ancestor's were worried someone would kill them in their sleep. As such when we opened the Ark's gate it initiated a countdown. If an Ancestor didn't deactivate the booby trap it would collapse the whole island" I explained.

"How are we getting out? Our teleporters don't work here with all the energy interference" Ethan demanded.

"We have 30 minutes before this place collapses, that more than enough time to get to the surface with the shortcuts down here" I assured him.

I turned to Oliva, still frozen and place and said "i'm afraid you will be buried along with this ark, you know you should be careful with guns, you wouldn't want to hurt yourself"

Oliva struggled with all her might but was unable to resist and I telekinetically controlled her arm and made her shoot herself in the kneecaps.

"AGHHH" she screamed as she fell to the ground, helpless to stop me from crushing the pistol in her hand.

"Farewell" I taunted as Ethan and I ran out of the Ark, leaving Oliva to die as punishment for her treason.

Earth 63, 2049, 6:02 PM

Alex's POV

We arrived at the Ark's gate only to see Ethan and Calrok exiting with a metal canister. Ethan looked at us and groaned.

Ethan drew his sword and said "your persistence is getting obnoxious"

"Hold them off, i can open a portal to you once im at the surface" Calrok ordered before taking the bridge on the left.

"Go after him, I'll take care of Ethan and catch up" I ordered.

Everyone looked at me with concern but there wasn't time to argue.

"GO,NOW' I screamed to get the message across, they seemed to get the message and ran past, Ethan stared me down and simply let them pass.

"You are just determined to be the hero again" Ethan mocked.

"I don't care about being the hero, im stopping you here and now" I replied as I shifted into a Lucario again.

"Oh i'm going to enjoy this, with the enhancements Colress gave me, you'll be easy prey" he stated confidently.

I took my combat stance and said "Your overconfidence it just as bad as before, and your not the only one who kept training"

Only one of us was leaving this cave…...

Author's note- surprise, I've got 3 chapters left to write so the schedule is changed, I'll be posting one on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. the final 2 chapters after the finale will be on a Monday and Friday. The next chapter will conclude the Ark raid.

Leave a review, this story is in its final phases and I hope its living up to you guy's expectations :)