Winds of Change Book II: Distant Thunder
Chapter 2: Ancient Flames! Present Pains!
AN: Ah chapter two, I had a little trouble with this chapter. I knew how I wanted it to end, but getting to that point was the hard part. In this chapter, readers will learn a bit more about why it is that Kai takes his job so seriously, get to see a bit more character development, and will be introduced to one of my most HATED creatures in all of video gaming history. Also, on a side note, I've had to go back and redesign the Ancient ship for the end. Why you might ask? Because Storm Hawks stole my idea in last week's episode (the one with the Dragon's) and I might even have to change another important element depending on one of the other upcoming episodes. (Crossing my fingers that I won't) Anyways, thank you to those that reviewed. They keep me going and are my inspiration for continuing. I'll try to respond to them when I get time. If I haven't responded yet, it doesn't mean that I won't, it just means I haven't had access to a phone line for longer than a few minutes yet.
Disclaimer: I do not own Storm Hawks, and never will, also I do not own anything related to Legend of the Dragoon or Legend of Zelda. They are the property of Asaph "Ace" Fipke and made by Nerd Corps Entertainment, Sony Entertainment and Nintendo, however I DO own Kai, Rose, the Shadow crystal, and this story.
Shadow and Griffy are the property of ShadowQueen25
Tigger belongs to Narrator01
Marina is Star Wars Nut's
Rondana was made by and owned by MissDedodakes
Kai paced nervously in front of the gang plank that he had yet to lower. Last night they had managed to find the Phoenix Den fairly quickly. This however did little to comfort the Scion, quite the opposite actually.
"People are dumb, not stupid. There is no way that something like this could have not been found over the course of a thousand years. It wasn't even hidden, it's almost like someone wanted us to."
"Kai! Everything alright?"
Kai flinched at the voice of Shadow. It was true that she was one of his closest friends, and anyone who knew them would say they were almost like brother and sister. But he did have reservations about bringing the young teen with him, heck; he had reservations about bringing anybody with him. But, as he had said yesterday, he had no choice in the matter.
"I wonder who it was? Fate? Destiny? Chance? Luck? Arygyn? Which of the lot finally got me pinned by their blade?"
"Kai? Everyone is here and ready to go." Piper said giving a mock salute.
"Arygyn, definitely Arygyn." Kai thought narrowing his eyes.
"I still don't see why I had to change." Rondana said crossing her arms.
"Rondana, this is the wastelands. Things catch on fire very easily down here, and your dress would certainly pose a fire hazard." Starling answered.
"Um, I had a question." Shadow said raising her hand.
"Yes Shadow?" Kai said, keeping his tone as civil as he could.
The morning had been a complete and utter disaster. Starling had yet again tried her hand at cooking, this time with Piper's assistance. And though it didn't catch anything on fire, Kai was still hungry from having nothing to eat yet. (He had dropped the 'food' into a hidden compartment in the kitchen when she was looking the other way.)
After that he had to get Starling to back him up and force Rondana into changing her usual attire, which meant finding something close her size. Twenty minutes and five restitching's later they managed to make something work.
And now, here they were.
"Uh, why can't we have our armor on? Not that I usually care about, but I don't like the idea of fighting without anything protecting me at all." Shadow said picking at the flight suit she was wearing currently.
"Shadow, if you wear armor out there, it will heat up to the point of causing you burns and give you some rather nasty scars. Besides, I don't think armor would do much good against anything that we come across down here anyways." Kai said the last part under his breath.
"So, can we go now?" Tigger asked slightly board.
"Just as soon as I go over a few ground rules." Kai said turning to face his temporary team.
"Ok, look, I know that I'm not exactly at the top of anyone's list as most desired leader, but I have been through this kind of thing before. So please remember that this is for all of our safety, not just yours. First, stay behind me; I go first into any rooms or halls we come across. That way I can check for any traps, second, don't touch anything, a n y t h i n g. Ok?"
Seeing everyone nod, he continued.
"Ok, third, last, and most important, if I tell you any of you to do anything, particularly in the form of a shout or scream of some sort. Drop what you are doing and do exactly what I tell you then and there, no questions asked." Seeing that everyone was in agreement he turned to Griffy and Radarr.
"Guy's I'm sorry, but this is one mission you two need to stay behind on. Next time you can come with us, but this time its humans only ok?"
Radarr and Griffy turned to Piper and Shadow for their orders, which were to do as told, and returned to the quarters area to get back to the sleep they were so rudely awoken from for the so called 'food' that had nearly killed them.
Kai flipped the toggle and lowered the plank, blasting them all with a rush of scalding hot air.
Kai led the way and the others followed him, traveling in two groups of three, with Starling between the two groups and Kai.
Marina felt a cold shiver run down her spine.
"No doubt about it, this is the place. That must mean that whoever that…thing was is here somewhere. I just have to make sure I keep the group together and don't let myself get separated from the others at any time. Hmm, but I don't remember there being any mountains in my dream."
Looking around she saw the same desolate landscape as she had in her dream/vision. Rock, rock, and a river of lava all around them. Large mantle worms broke the surface every now and then only to fall back in with a large eruption following, and a few Flame Falcons flew overhead. Not close enough to see clearly, but just enough to make out what they were.
The place they had landed looked like a large flat grey disk in the center of a ocean of lava. A disk that just so happened to be connected to a very large mountain's base, almost like a ring.
Piper looked around slightly confused. "I thought this was an Ancient port or ship landing. Where would the ships have landed in all this?" She thought as she took in her surroundings.
Tigger's thoughts were more focused on trying to figure out how any type of machine could possibly work down here. "Anything metal would melt, and anything cooled would break from thermal shock. No way that anything could have ever been down here at any point in time. It's just not possible." She thought.
They reached the wall of mountain, and Kai started to search it carefully, like something was missing.
"Something wrong?" Rondana asked, still a bit peeved about having to wear a flight suit.
"Not exactly. I'm looking for something." Kai replied without looking away. He just continued to move his hands across the rocky surface deftly and feathery.
"What are you looking for? Perhaps we could help?" Starling asked as she watched the river of lava with more than a bit of fear.
"I'll know it when I see, ah, there you are." Kai said grinning as he found a flat portion of rock that had a single small hole in the center.
Reaching under his neckline, he pulled out the tricrystal and inserted the red side into the hole and turned it.
At first nothing happened, but soon mechanical gears could be heard groaning and whining to life and the ground began to tremble.
"Kai! What did you do!" Piper shouted as she tried to keep her ground.
The others didn't fare much better, with Kai, Starling and Marina being the only exceptions.
Rock began to fall from the mountain into the river of molten rock, small bits and pieces at first, eventually growing to the size of skimmers, and finally even larger pieces. They dodged the smaller pieces with easy, thankfully, and Kai and Piper managed to blast the larger ones into smaller, more dodgeable size chunks.
Five minutes later, when the ground finally stopped trembling, the group stared up in awe at what they saw.
A large metal spire now stood in place of what had been a mountain. It looked vaguely like an umbrella that was missing the cloth part and was still unopened.
"What on Atmos is that?" Shadow asked breaking the (somewhat) silent moment. (The lava was still bubbling)
"That, is the Phoenix Den." Kai said studying the large structure with a critical eye.
"I've never seen anything like this before. What kind of port was this?" Kai thought.
"Well, let's get this over with. I don't know how much longer I can stand this thing." Rondana said tugging at the flight suits neck.
"Alright, just remember what I told you ok? These things were made to keep out intruders, like us, from getting in, like we want to. So stick close and keep quiet." Kai said leading the group to what looked like a massive set of doors.
"I still don't see how this thing could have survived all this time." Tigger said as she followed.
"Well, it was covered by rock. Maybe it got covered in an eruption a long time ago, and all the rock kept it safe from the lava." Piper said thinking out loud.
The group reached the doors, but found that they were somehow sealed, from the outside, Tigger pointed out.
"Ok, something is seriously wrong here. Why would this thing have been sealed from the outside?" Kai thought, liking the situation less and less with every passing second.
Tigger made short work of the seal, but it still took Kai and Marina both to pry open the metal doors.
"Guess they didn't expect anyone to be coming back in." Tigger said studying the insides of the door as she walked inside.
"Woah, what happened here?" Piper asked looking around at the floor level of the Ancient construct.
"Jeeze, it looks like a bomb went off in here." Shadow said looking around.
Marina remained silent. The being from her two dream/visions could certainly replicate the damage she was seeing, but something was wrong. All the damage was….old. It wasn't recent by any means. It looked like it had happened a long, long time ago.
Burn and scorch marks adorned the walls, and looking up, they could see huge gaping holes that a skimmer could easily fly through that went through several floors both above, and below them.
"Looks like we missed the party." Shadow said nervously.
Rondana stared blankly at one section of wall for several seconds before speaking. "I think that was a good thing." She said pointing to where she had been staring.
The group turned to look where she had been pointing and had various reactions. Piper and Shadow gaped, Starling's mind automatically went into 'mission mode' Marina's hands found themselves at the scimitar hilts on her waist and Kai.
Kai felt a genuine sense of dread settle in.
Before them were six huge claw marks that tore through the metal wall. Each of the claw lines was large enough for a person to stand inside and each were spaced just as far apart.
Kai looked around and quickly took note of how far it was to get back to the ship, and compared it with a single memory he had prayed long and hard to never have to recount again as long as he lived.
"It's too far." He said under his breath.
"Did you say something Kai?" Starling asked, causing him to jump slightly.
"Oh, uh, listen guys, why don't you head back to the ship and let me handle this one alone." Kai said swallowing.
"What' going on?" Shadow asked slightly hurt that her friend was trying to ditch them already.
"Shhhhhh!" Kai said holding one finger to his lips. "Keep your voices down. Look, I know I brought you here to help, but if that…thing is here, it changes everything. You just have to trust me on this." Kai pleaded.
Starling grabbed Kai by the shoulder and spun him around. "What exactly is it you're talking about."
Kai was still trying his best at getting used to sharing information, but something like this he wasn't ready to talk about.
"Look, just….just imagine your worst nightmare and times it by ten. After that, you're still not even close. Just please take the others back to the ship and let me deal with this." Kai once again pleaded.
Starling narrowed her eyes and poked Kai in the chest. "No. You might be flight lead, but if this mission is going to have any chance of success we need to keep you in one piece. We can't have you going on some suicide charge this early on to fight something you had trouble with on your own in the past.
Kai's mind, heart, and being were all screaming three very different things at the same time. His brain, more precisely his memories reminded him that he didn't just have trouble with said problem, but had in fact lost and lost badly last time he had come across one of these things. His heart was screaming to knock out every last one of them and drag them out of the base, while his being screamed to leave with them and blast the Ancient port from the (in this case relative) safety of his ship.
Realizing that option A would result in six very angry female tenants, and option B could leave behind something possibly dangerous, Kai relented.
"Ok, but…look, the possibility of us surviving through this base just dropped into the single digits if the thing that made that mark is still here." Kai said seriously.
Silence
"S…single digits." Shadow squeaked.
"There's a good chance it's gone, but if it's not, I felt you deserved to know ahead of time." He said moving to a set of stairs the wound upwards to the top, and slowly climbing up.
The girls all looked around from one another and back to the moving form of their friend. They quickly nodded and followed him to the stairs.
Hearing the fall of footsteps coming from behind him, Kai shook his head and frowned slightly, but was careful to not let it show.
They reached the next floor, and with help from Marina, Kai was able to force open the first set of doors. They all cringed at the sound of scraping metal, now fearing that they would give away their location to anything that might wish them ill.
A few lights flickered on and off, but for the most part the room was pitch-black. Strangely enough the room seemed to be empty, almost totally void of anything.
"I don't like this." Kai said scanning over the room.
Starling and Marina nodded in agreement. Something was…off about the entire situation.
"Still, we've got a job to do." Kai said reaching into the mission pack on his back and after removing an orange colored crystal, he held it in one hand. Then, reaching into a pouch on his pants pulled out a dark red crystal and touched the two together for a brief second until they glowed lightly.
Looking around the room, he found a spot that looked good and went up to it. Taking out his slicer blade, he cut a hole into the wall and shoved the orange crystal into it.
"Ok, one down, let's keep going. And remember to stay quiet." He warned.
This continued for what seemed to be several hours. They pried open a room, which was almost always empty, and Kai would repeat the process he had done in the first room. Even though nothing had happened yet, they didn't want to risk anything. This was new territory to them, and the fact that the only one in their group that had dealt with this sort of thing before was constantly looking over his shoulder and around the room did little to inspire them.
They repeated the process for every room on ten floors before Kai told them they were done setting up. All that was left was what he called 'Doom Patrol' which was basically going over every square inch they had covered already with a fine tooth comb before going back up to the top floor.
"Why do we have to check again?" Shadow asked as they went over the same empty room for what seemed to be the hundredth time.
"Because small things can make a large difference in the end. If I set this thing off and anything is left over I need to make sure it's nothing useful, or at least nothing usable." Kai replied as he felt along the walls for any sort of hidden switch or device.
"What could make a difference? I mean it's not like you could hide a ship in here and not see it." Shadow shot back as she arched her back to work out some of the kinks that had formed in it. Several hours on your knees felling along the floor would do that to anyone.
"A single crystal can make all the difference." Starling answered looking up only to see Kai's shoulders slump slightly.
"I don't think we'll find anything else here or any other floor." Rondana said stretching her knees.
"We're not done yet, we still have the top floor to check." Kai said leading them back to the stairs.
As the group climbed, Marina found herself wondering just why they had gone nearly to the top, only to go back and check each floor back to the bottom, and then go back to the top. It didn't make much sense to her, so she asked. Kai's answer, while surprising her, did make some sense.
"I found though…experience…that most of the bigger problems tend to happen at the top, bottom, or end, whichever point is the farthest from the exit when it comes to the Ancients. That's why I check everything and then back track to the exit twice, that way I have it memorized and am mostly certain that I haven't left anything behind that I need to go back for in the event of…an emergency." Kai replied.
When they reached the top floor, Kai crouched down and looked at the ground carefully for several minutes before picking up a small piece of debris and throwing it a little distance from himself. After a few seconds passed and nothing happened, he threw a few more pieces at different spots before finally setting his foot on the ground.
"What was that about?" Tigger asked confused.
"He was checking for traps." Marina said, recognizing the actions as ones that she had once been taught long ago.
Kai went a short distance, stopped, then motioned for the others to follow him, but to walk slowly, so as not to upset anything.
The top floor was far worse than the others had been. The other floors had simply been devoid of anything. The top floor however looked like something had bitten it several times, chewed it, and then spat it into a wall. There were several large holes that lined the walls, some more claw marks, burn holes, and several holes that looked like a cross between a burn and a tear.
Tigger shuddered at these having recognized them instantly as acid marks.
"Whatever attacked this thing, I think it was after whatever was up here." Starling said narrowing her eyes.
"I think your right." Kai said taking careful steps to the one door that was on the top floor.
They were all surprised when it opened with a hissing sound as soon as he got close to it.
Shrugging his shoulders, Kai walked in with the others close behind.
"Oh God." Shadow managed to get out before turning away for fear of losing her breakfast.
Tigger, Rondana, Piper and even Starling were close to having the same reaction to some degree. The only ones that weren't in immediate danger of losing their stomachs contents were Marina, (who had seen such sights before) and Kai (who had also seen similar sights, and whose stomach was still empty).
What was before them was a grisly mess. Several skeletons littered the ground, all had apparently died in…less than peaceful ways apparently, and all had tried to some degree to make it to the room's one exit, none apparently made it.
"I think I'm going to be sick." Piper said covering her mouth and shaking her head.
Rondana, as a doctor had some experience with situations like this, but not enough to be completely unaffected. She still felt sick, but had enough strength left in her to provide some comfort to Shadow and Tigger, neither of which had ever seen anything anywhere close to this before.
"Marina, it looks like it's just the two of us this time. Check the area as best you can, and field strip the bodies. Remember, we can't leave behind anything." Kai said walking towards the closest skeleton.
Marina nodded her head and went to the opposite side of the room, where she began checking.
Starling, after gaining some degree of control got up and was about to help when Kai stopped her.
"Star, if you don't mind, could you hang back a bit. The others aren't in the best of shape right now, and we can't afford to split up, could you stay with them and keep an eye and ear out for us?" Kai asked still searching the first body.
"Sur..sure….I can do that." Starling said, honestly relieved.
Marina kept silent. She knew it was important that someone watch the exit, but the way Kai had reacted caught her attention. He hadn't said anything until after she had started to help them out. She grinned slightly, but that faded when she found a necklace on the skeleton she was checking. It appeared to be a heart shaped locket and was made of gold. Opening it, she frowned at seeing the two pictures inside that had been preserved by time and placed it back around the skeletons neck.
Even thieves had their limits at what they would take, and she was sure that the necklace would be destroyed along with the skeleton it was on.
Kai had just finished checking the last of the skeletons, so he was now checking the room itself. His actions were almost robotic in nature, having performed them so many times before. He had long ago grown immune to such things, though that didn't mean he liked them any more than he had the first time. Truth be told, he had no intention of ever cleaning a single article of clothing he was currently wearing, same with the cloths the girls had on. Anything that touched a skeleton, or anything related to a corpse was dropped into the wastelands. Every time he would look at a pair of gloves that had picked up a skull, or a pair of boots that had stepped on a single human bone, he would see that action play over and over again. Besides, it wasn't like he was in any danger of running out of flight suits, or any type of clothing for that matter. He could open a small store should he ever need the gold, and he hated doing laundry.
"What is this?" He thought.
In the center of the room was a cluster of crystals of various sizes and shapes, all glowing faintly. Around them was a dull looking metal collar that had writing on it.
Looking up, he saw the others close to the exit, all facing the other way. He couldn't really blame them, and, they had done better than he had the first time he had ever come face to face with a skeleton.
"Piper. Could you…could you come here for a second." Kai called out. He really did feel bad about putting them through this. He knew that after a person came face to face with something like this, it changed them permanently. He only hoped that this wouldn't be yet another notch mark against him in life.
Piper swallowed, and without turning called back. "What is it?"
Kai shook his head. "I need you to translate something for me." He called across the room.
Piper nodded and was about to turn when Starling stopped her.
"Piper, close your eyes and take my hand. I'll guide you ok?" She said holding the trembling girls arm, trying to will some of her own strength to the younger girl.
Piper nodded her head and said a quick thank you before closing her eyes and letting herself be guided to where Kai was standing patently.
When they reached the spot, Starling let go and headed back to the others while Piper looked over the engravings with keen interest.
Kai watched as Piper dusted off the metal collar, and looked over the writing. Seeing her hands tremble and body shake every time she peered out of the corner of her eyes felt like a stab to him.
"Man Aerrow's going to rip me a new one after this is over with." He thought shaking his head.
"Ok, this is just plain weird." She finally said after going over the runes several times.
"What do they say?" Kai asked. It wasn't everyday that Piper of all people said something was 'just plain weird'. Due to the exploits of her squadron, she was probably the world's foremost expert in weird. So for her to even call something a bit odd was a major accomplishment in of itself.
"Well, these are controls for…that can't be right. I must have mistranslated it." She said checking it over a third time.
"What? What does it say?" Kai asked getting impatient.
Piper looked at Kai was a disbelieving face.
"It says flight control system."
"Wait a minute, you mean that…this thing…" Kai couldn't even finish the sentence. Sure he had seen the power of the Ancients on more than one occasion, he was living proof of such, but to believe that they could make something the size of Lark's palace fly? That was leagues beyond anything he had ever come across.
"I guess that's why we didn't see anything that looked like a port when it came online." Piper said still dazed by the discovery.
"But…for this thing to fly would have taken a tremendous amount of power, even more than the Storm Engine, and that was powered by the Aurora Stone." Kai said suddenly needing leaning against the crystal formation.
Piper just shook her head in disbelief. "If Lark were to ever find this thing…" She left the rest in the air. Not wanting to even think about the possibilities.
Leaning forward, her hand brushed against one of the crystals, which glowed faintly in response and hummed lightly.
Kai jumped when the metal plates covering the viewports shifted and parted down the center, opening like a giant door.
"Piper, what did you do?" Kai asked through his teeth.
"It was an accident! I swear I didn't mean to!" Piper said quickly backing away from the control.
"Please Kai, I'm really really sorry. Please…uh…Kai..are you ok?" Piper asked.
She had expected him to explode; she had expected him to be angry.
She had not expected him to be completely silent.
Looking up, she saw something she had only seen once in her life.
Kai with a fearful expression on his face.
Not spooked, not jittery or jumpy. Not even frightened.
Just plain morbid fear.
Not moving an inch, Kai spoke in a quiet voice that carried an undertone of urgency that Starling had never heard from Kai in all the years she had known him.
"I want everyone to listen to me very very closely. I want you to walk quickly and above all quietly out of this room, down the stairs and get to the ship now. Do not for any reason stop, do not for any reason speak, and whatever you do, don't look back."
"Go, now." Kai said not moving an inch.
Shadow, Tigger, Rondana and Starling, all being close to the exit were more than just a little caught off guard by Kai's order. They were about to move when something strange happened.
The pouch that Marina wore around her neck glowed faintly orange, while Shadow's necklace glowed with a cold blue light, and Kai's holster glowed with a purplish black light.
"Snap." Kai muttered under his breath.
The next thing they heard was a rumbling sound, followed by a sound that could only be described as very long nails being dragged across a chalkboard somehow mixed with hissing air.
"MOVE IT MOVE IT MOVE IT! GET GOING NOW!" Kai shouted.
End chapter 2
AN:Muhahahahahahaha! Looks like next will be its first appearance, and though I doubt anyone knows what it is or has ever even heard of it, this chapter should have given enough hints as to what it is capable of doing. I know this chapter was short, but not every chapter is going to be really long. Ten pages is my minimum though, so this is about as short of a chapter that any of you can expect seeing. As for why this one was a bit short, its kinda hard to write a long chapter about a group of seven exploring an empty base, I think I did good just getting this much up.
I hope that I have gotten you hungry for the next chapter,
An Ancient Terror Awakens!
Till next time, Ja Ne!