Author's Note: Why hello there, guys (and possibly females). Betcha didn't expect to see me back so soon. I live to toy with your expectations, you know. Read a chapter, disappear for six months. When you expect me to leave again, I have one done in a week. Anyway, on with our reviewer response.
Sraosha: Well, hello again! Nice to know I have someone reading. Anywho, you are Senpai to me, because you have been here longer, and you are a better writer than me. But, since I've been reading some conspiracy fiction on how to find someone's private information through name and birthday. Since I give my name out freely (for the most part), I don't wanna give my birthday out. Needless to say, you're older than me. And my co-author. And I've tried to make the paragraphs more interesting. Hope you enjoy!
Also, I want to thank my new editor, as he helps me to both write and edit. Now then, On With The Chapter!
August 3, 2013 7:30 AM
Outside the Copan Middle Pillar
Sam's POV
The sleep that followed our arrival back at the tent was absolutely wonderful. The first thing I heard after returning to the tent, in fact, was a loud, harsh beeping that refused to allow any sort of relaxation whatsoever.
"Drake, turn that off, we're trying to sleep!"
Drake just groaned in response and sat up.
"Sorry guys, but I promised to be at work first thing in the morning. Remember, I had a deputy that went completely insane somewhere around here?"
"Yeah."
Drake got up and stretched. "Well, if you guys don't mind... Seth, the hell is that?!"
Over in the corner of the tent where we had dumped our things from the night before, there was a small, metallic box.
"I dunno. I found it right after we took down that huge...thing."
"Hm. I wonder what's in it?" I said. I got up and picked it up. The thing was smaller than it first looked, about the size of a sheet of paper. It was made of some kind of steel painted black, and on the front, it had a label that read: "Copan Research Data."
"Research data? I wonder what's inside?"
The thing had no keyhole, but it did have a digital screen showing a few blanks, an alphabetic keypad, and an index card fitted into a clear, plastic sleeve embedded into the metal. On it was neat handwriting that read: "The human body is truly a marvel. If we become infected with a disease, it naturally develops antibodies to fight it off. If we are struck and bleed, it naturally clots blood to protect from infection. And if we are assaulted by the Shadows of another's heart, we can sometimes naturally develop _ to protect ourselves."
"We need to get this open. There may be something inside that we can use."
"What makes you so sure?" Drake asked.
"If Seth found it inside the ruins, then that means that these people were most likely researching those creatures, or something about the ruins themselves."
"Alright, but what was all that nonsense about 'shadows of another's heart?'"
We read the card again to ourselves.
"Hey, look at this!" I said.
Both Seth and Drake got up and walked over to see what I was talking about. I pointed to a specific place on the card.
"See here, 'Shadows' is capitalized! Do you think that may have something to do with it? And another thing, the answer thing over here has seven spaces for letters to go in." I indicated to each of the things respectively.
Drake put a hand on his chin in a thinking pose. "Shadows...and it was found in those ruins... and..."
All of a sudden Seth's face lit up, and then Drake's. Then, in a bolt of inspiration, I felt mine light up as well.
"The Shadows are those creatures from last night!" We said in unison.
"Then the thing that we developed to fight the Shadows are..."
We looked at each other again.
"Personas!"
"Put that in, now!" Seth yelled.
"Alright, give me a minute!" I yelled back.
I turned back to the small box and pushed the "P" button. It made a loud beep, and the letter P appeared on the screen.
"P-E-R-S-O-N-A" I said as I pushed in the corresponding buttons.
The box made a loud beeping noise and then a small click. I pulled on the part with the keypad, and the front of the small box opened. Inside were a couple of papers. I pulled them out and began reading what was printed on them.
"The Nature of Shadows In the Copan Ruins- Preliminary Report."
I looked up at the others only to see them staring at me with their full, undivided attention. I continued to read.
"As you know, tomorrow marks the first exploration of the rumors of Shadows dwelling in the Copan ruins, a set of strange artifacts left over from a time long past. The basis of these rumors is the ruins' intriguing history, as they are famous all throughout the area for the numerous disappearances, murders, and suicides that happen almost periodically. As such, it should be easy to determine if they command a presence here."
I paused for emphasis.
"As a precaution, allow me to explain what Shadows are, since I know some of you might not be familiar with them. Basically, Shadows are the dark side of the human heart, given form. It is not currently known what causes them to appear, but they are extremely dangerous and unpredictable. Their main source of food is the human mind, as they will immediately feast on the consciousness of any that dare to enter their domain. They also have been known to build intricate, sprawling nests to confuse and weaken their prey."
"That explains all the suicides and crazy people coming from this place." Drake muttered.
"Wait, there's more." Seth elbowed him to shut up.
"Shadows are known to attack people without mercy or warning. And, as far as we know, there is only one way to bring harm to them. That is to develop what is known as a Persona. When certain people are put under extreme mental duress, they will sometimes trigger a reactionary response and 'awaken' to their Persona. A Persona is, in essence, a manifestation of a deep, primal, and ancient power locked away within the human mind. They usually take the form of incredible deities, awe-inspiring warriors, or other historical/mythological figures of note. While it isn't known exactly why they do this, it is commonly thought to be to represent how old and powerful they are. This theory is given further credence by an awakened Personas trademark saying: 'Thou art I, and I am thou.'"
"Yeah, I guess Aeron said that when I first called him."
"Xbalanque did too, if I remember right."
"I'm pretty sure Baal-Hammon did as well. Wait a minute, there's a bit more."
"A Persona is the only way to fight the Shadows, and as such, it tends to fall on their users to keep the nearby Shadows from harming ordinary people. If it weren't for them, Shadows would most likely overrun whichever human settlement was closest, and start slowly and systematically feasting on more and more humans, until the entire area was a dead zone. That is why my team is here. To compile information and to prevent this from happening."
"At the bottom it has a footnote or something: "P.S. For some currently unknown reason, if a person without a Persona stumbles into a Shadow's nest, then they won't be attacked for some time. This gives Persona users about 3 days to rescue them before the Shadows attack."
We all sat in silence for what seemed like hours, poring over the information that I had just read.
"Soooo," I trailed off. "How about that? Now we know what we were fighting against."
I was greeted with yet more silence.
"Hey, guys." More silence.
At this point, I was indignant. "Now, listen here. I'm not letting anyone get harmed by these bastards, and neither should you! We are going back in there, and we are going to fight those Shadows again! We can use this information we just received to keep a better eye on what's happening, and hopefully, we can stop whatever the Shadows are doing!"
"Yeah!" Drake looked up and exclaimed, "This is my town, and nothing, Shadow or otherwise, is going to hurt my folks. We are going to kill those things!"
"Alright!" Seth looked up, fire in his eyes. "We aren't going to let those over dignified shapes hurt anyone we care about!"
"That's the spirit! Drake, I bet that deputy you were talking about yesterday was attacked by a Shadow." I said.
"Now that you said it, he probably was."
"In that case, I think that you should call off that investigation. First of all, how are you going to explain that there are secret nests of large, black creatures that feast on human minds? Secondly, there is too big of a liability with bringing two non-Persona users to a Shadow-filled area."
"I see where you're coming from, but wouldn't it look strange if I just up and canceled an investigation into how one of my deputies got hurt?"
"Good point." I put my hand on my chin in thought.
"I know! How about you wait until we fix the house up and bring me along with you to investigate. That way, we can each cover a deputy with a Persona user. The Shadows probably won't want to attack with two of us around, and we can just search around and leave."
"That's not a terrible idea. The only problem is, you have no experience or training in this sort of thing, and you have no police background to begin with."
"Oh, I guess so."
Drake stopped for a minute, then said, "Alright, here's what we are gonna do. I'm gonna go through with this investigation, but make sure that both of the deputies are by my side at all times. I'll also monitor any incoming missing persons reports, and see if we can't stop the Shadows from getting their claws on any more people. You two just worry about fixing up your place and finding work. Then we'll develop a new plan of attack."
Seth and I both nodded our agreement.
"Alright," Seth said, glancing around the tent, "so what are we going to do about all of this stuff?" He indicated towards our weapons from the last night as well as the small amount of medicine and other items that we had picked up.
"Oh, that is an issue." I said, cradling my chin in one hand in a thinking pose.
"Hm, what about taking it all over to my office?" Drake asked.
"Not happening, we'd have to walk down Main Street with a halberd, lance, and some discount medicine. I think you would be contractually obligated to take us in."
"Oh, I know!" I shouted, "how about we put all of it in that first room right inside the middle pillar! That way, when we need it again, it's right here for us to grab."
"That's not a bad idea, Sam." Drake said, giving me a pat on the back, "How about we go do that right now and then go back?"
And that was what we did. We all grabbed our weapons and a bit of the medicine and made our way to the middle pillar again, constantly looking around us to make sure that no one was arriving. Finally assuring ourselves that the coast was clear, we then went up to the door embedded right into the stone. I reached out to it again, and it, again, opened with no resistance. We walked just into the first room, right before the large set of stairs, and set down all of the things.
"They seem pretty safe. Hell, it's not like anyone else is able to get in here!" I said.
"Alright, let's get the tent and go back. I believe that you have a house to work on and I have a case to work on." Drake said.
"Okay, thanks Drake." Seth said.
We walked out of the pillar, shut the door behind us, and made our way through the ruins to grab our camping equipment, and then went out down the dirt road we had come in on. When we got all the way down to Main Street again, we said our goodbyes to Drake and made our way to Ms. Jensen's property, saying nothing. We walked in an awkward silence all the way to the run down house before Seth said anything.
"Let's take a look at this house and see what repairs need to be done on it, okay?"
"Sure, I'm game."
The two of us made our way across the street, and went into the run down house. Surprisingly, it was mostly intact. The paint on the walls was peeling and faded so bad that the color was all but impossible to decipher, but at the same time, the walls themselves were pretty solid. I felt that when I walked up and pushed on them in various places. The floors, however, were torn up and felt really, really unstable. I made a comment about this to Seth, and we moved on to the next room. The house was filled with old, rotting furniture that definitely needed to go. I also noticed many different places where the roof had leaked, even to the point that there were patches where water freely dripped in. The house consisted of two floors, a large lower floor with a bathroom, the remnants of a bedroom, and the kitchen and living room. The upstairs had a bedroom, bathroom, and access to the attic.
The house was arranged so that the stairs were the first thing you saw when you walked in, with a hallway leading to the bedroom and bathroom, along with some other miscellaneous rooms on the left and the kitchen, dining room, and living room on the right.
"This place needs a bit of work, huh?" I muttered to Seth when I passed him while upstairs.
"Yeah, but I'm game. You?"
"You know it."
We heard a knock at the door and Seth went to answer it. I heard him walk down the stairs, and open the door. Then, I heard a loud crack, like he had hit one of the walls, hard. I felt Baal-Hammon jump to attention in the back of my head.
"What was that?"
"I don't sense any shadows, but I can feel Seth in pain."
Leaping into action, I took a running start towards the stairs.
"Seth!"
A.N. It's the return of the 4 am upload party! Yayz!