Chapter 4
"Thanks for rescuing me, miss Maja. I didn't expect those Krawl to show up when I touched that mineral," Gumark said when I saved him from being killed by a mess of Krawl, me and my arsenal dealing with them in a snap. And the Spectrobe I chose to attack happened to be an Evolved from called Anuberos, which was a Spectrobe that looked like a giant dog with a long, skinny beak and fiery powers that formed into giant ribbon arms.
"You're welcome. Your boss told me that you may be in danger. And just letting you know, from what Radeese told me, stay away from Black Minerals. They attract Krawl," I said to him.
"Thanks. I can make it back on my own now," Gumark said as he proceeded back to town and I flew my way back, making it back to Rallen and Jeena's location in the area past the gate to see that they had handled quite a large Krawl just as I was entering the area.
"Hey, Maja. Think you could get us over this chasm now?" Rallen smiled.
"Of course," I smiled at him as I went to him and wrapped my arms around his waist and I hovered both of us over the chasm, his Komainu retreating into his Cosmolink while I did this, which I was grateful for as I didn't want to do extra work in getting the Spectrobe kids over the chasm as well. "Now for you," I smiled at Jeena as I went over to her and picked her up by the waist next. Once we were safely across, I touched down on the ground again and the duo of Spectrobe Masters smirked at me.
"Let's move out to the cave," Rallen smiled.
"Lead the way," I smiled at him as he took the lead, Jeena and I following him as they made sure to search for fossils and minerals along the way, them managing to find 3 different fossils in the Sunny Grassland and a ton of blue and green minerals before we went to an area that looked a bit darker than the other areas, if only because of a strange mist surrounding it.
"I think this may be the Valley of Mist that Radeese mentioned. The cave should be nearby," Rallen said, us going forward a bit before I smelled the scent of monsters nearby.
"I smell Krawl nearby... multiple little ones," I said as I took up a battle stance and we moved forward some more, the Krawl soon arriving and there being 4 small ones that were shaped like spheres, me activating the Prizmod to bring out a sword while also calling out a different Sepctrobe, this one being an Evolved form called Doma-Boma, which was an imposing tank of massive proportions! He immediately shot multiple rounds at the smaller Krawl and demolished them all with a single hit, me gasping as I smelled something else. "Um... guys? I smell an even stronger Krawl nearby... its smell is the most rancid so far! It's gotta be a big one!" I said with concern.
"You're not wrong, Maja. These readings are off the charts!" Jeena gawked as we moved forward slightly and then heard a loud roar from over the cliff. And what came over the cliff afterwards? A gigantic Krawl that stood at least 30 feet tall and looked quite nasty in appearance with a bulbous yellow orb on its head and giant clawed feet and hands!
"Iku Ze! Let's do this!" Rallen exclaimed as he and Jeena took control of their weapons and Spectrobes while I looked at the monster with awe.
"The Krawl can reach a size this massive?! Time to lay this beast to rest! Doma-Boma! Attack!" I exclaimed, the giant tank Spectrobe complying and shooting a giant missile at the giant monster and the blast being so powerful that it made the beast stumble over and onto its back, prompting Jeena and Rallen to attack it with their swords and their Spectrobes, the giant Krawl roaring in pain as it then evaporated into the air, me sighing at this and looking nearby at something that intrigued me.
"Hey, guys? Is it just me, or does this trench over here look like a crash site?" I asked the duo, them coming over and inspecting it as well.
"Yeah, it looks like something crashed here in the past, but what was it?" Jeena asked.
"I don't know, but it isn't important now. Let's get going to that cave," Rallen said, him leading us to the cave in question and, upon Rallen and Jeena getting close to it, their Cosmolinks glowed in response and the door then opened up in a snap.
"It must've responded to your Cosmolinks. Let's go see what's inside," I said with a smile as I was about to follow them inside, but then the same thing happened to me that happened back at the ruins.
"Oh come on! I want to see what's in there too! Dammit!" I groaned as I saw that there was a barrier in this cave as well that kept Krawl out of it.
"Sorry, Maja... you can keep an eye out for us while we explore, okay?" Jeena said with concern.
"Okay... I'll do that," I sighed as I petted Koroko with a frown, him showing a face that turned to sad, which made me smile.
"I know, I'm upset too... why am I not allowed to go into these places? And what the heck do I have to do with Wyterra's former Spectrobe Master? And what kind of life did I have in the past with the Krawl?... I can't think straight and whenever I try to remember the Spectrobe Master, all I get is just a glimpse... maybe if I tried to think of names that I knew of... hmm... Krux... what kind of person is he?" I sighed as I tried to think of who this Krux guy was that Rallen mentioned.
When I thought for awhile, I suddenly gasped when I saw a person in my memories that matched Rallen's description of what Krux looked like. Half his face human, half his face Krawl. An angry look in his eyes, an enigmatic white mask in his grasp... and wearing the darkest robes of anyone I'd seen. He also had immense power and I somehow felt that he was strong. Immeasurably strong. "Krux... who is he?" I sighed again as I then heard Rallen and Jeena emerge from the ruins from behind me.
"You trying to remember your past?" Rallen asked.
"Yeah... I finally remember what Krux looked like... and you were right. He does look like a monster... but then again, I'm one as well, aren't I?" I sighed as I looked at my purple fingers with a sigh.
"You're not a monster if you don't want to be one, Maja. You have the choice to be what you want to be," Jeena said with a smile as I felt her hug me from behind, me smiling at her embrace and humming at it.
"Thank you... Jeena, Rallen," I smiled at them as I could've sworn I felt some tears roll down my cheeks. "So what did you find in there?" I asked them.
"Well, we found four things. Firstly, we found an old memo disk that belonged to the Spectrobe Master. Then we found a badge of an NPP officer, which we'll need to find out who it belonged to. Then we found a glowing Spectrobe fossil. And upon touching it, we found out that the pedestal in there could be used to evolve Spectrobes with these special minerals," Jeena said as she produced a teardrop-shaped mineral that looked gorgeous, mostly because it was prismatic and it had multiple rainbow colors to it, but primarily a golden hue.
"It looks gorgeous..." I gawked at it, as it looked like the prettiest thing I'd ever seen.
"We've discovered that feeding a Spectrobe this mineral will allow them to evolve into their next powerful stage. We need to report back to Radeese to see where to move on from here," Rallen said with a smile.
"Okay, let's head back then," I smiled as Koroko went along with us on our way back, us seeing that the same guy that asked me to find Gumark was just finishing up work on the bridge as we arrived.
"Oh, Maja and the Spectrobe Masters! I see you've returned. I was meaning to give this to you. It's something the former Spectrobe Master entrusted me with long ago. It's a special kind of adaptation that you can use to interact with your Spectrobes and feed them minerals in a database," he said with a smile as he handed Jeena a special cube.
"Wow, thanks!... Yet we never even learned your name," Jeena smirked.
"Oh how silly of me! My name is Kotetsu, and I was responsible for crafting special weapons for the Spectrobe Master all those years ago," he smiled widely.
"Impressive," Jeena smirked at that with a smile as we proceeded back to Haven Village and we would begin to talk to Radeese once more.
Once we got back to Radeese, Jeena said she needed to go back to the ship to install the new upgrades into the database so that meant Rallen and I were seeing Radeese on our own. "Hello again, friends... where'd Jeena go?" Radeese asked.
"Well, we found out how to evolve Spectrobes, but Jeena needed to go update our systems so we could be able to evolve them on our ship," Rallen said with a smile.
"I see. I would like to request something in the meantime. The Former Spectrobe Master didn't work alone, as he had a partner named Kamtoga. He should be on Planet Doldogo. But I fear that the Krawl aren't just attacking our planet. I suggest evolving a fire type Spectrobe to an Adult form before you head out, as the Krawl on that planet are of the plant property," Radeese said.
"The former Spectrobe Master's partner? Maybe he knows something about him that he could tell me! I need to find him! Please, give us the coordinates and we promise to get an adult fire spectrobe and be on our way!" I said with excitement, Radeese smiling and giving us the coordinates and me rushing out in flash, Rallen latching onto my feet as I flew back to the ship in a frenzy.
"Calm down, Maja, he's not going to be going anywhere anytime soon, you know?" Rallen smiled at me.
"Maybe, but he might know something about this mystery person I see in my memories!" I said with a smile as we entered the ship and saw that Jeena had already awoken multiple different Spectrobes in the meantime. She now had a turtle Spectrobe, one that looked like a puffy sheep, a Spectrobe pair that looked like a pair of shoes, and a fox-like Spectrobe with long ears. And on top of that, the fossil they found before had turned into a cute red and white monkey.
"We've got coordinates to another planet that may be under attack by the Krawl and Radeese suggested we evolve a fire type Spectrobe to add to our arsenal on our trip to Doldogo," Rallen said to Jeena.
"Better yet, how about two? Because I found another evolve mineral during my way back here," Jeena smiled.
"Cool! That way both of us can have a Fire Type," Rallen smiled.
"Okay, but which two do we use it on? We have Komainu, Zaza, Zen, and Torga," Jeena said.
"Maybe Torga and Zaza? They look like they could do serious damage when they evolve," I suggested.
"Okay then, are you alright with that, Rallen?" Jeena smiled.
"Only if I can get Torga to control for a change," Rallen smiled.
"Fair enough," Jeena smirked as she went into the database and I gasped at how she actually entered the incubator on her own out of nowhere! I was so flabbergasted I didn't even realize that she had evolved the two Spectrobes already before she then came out again!
"That looked SO COOL!" I said with a giddy face at how awesome that looked.
"I know, right? Kotetsu's expansion cube made it so that we can now enter the incubator in the Database on a whim!" Jeena smirked.
"Awesome! Now let's get off to Doldogo, but only after we call back to HQ," Rallen said.
"Yeah, and we still need to mention your condition, Maja," Jeena said to me.
"I'm well aware," I said to her with a small smile.