Winds of Change Book II: Distant Thunder
Chapter 24: Discoveries! Diseases! And Designs?
AN: Alright, I know this chapter is a bit late, but there are several reasons for that. First I am trying to write multiple stories on multiple series, so it takes me awhile to do that. Secondly this chapter includes one of the two mystery characters from pervious chapters. Still not time to reveal names, but you'll get a better look at him and learn some more about him. Writing him in a way so as not to give away who he is or who his partner is, I had to write it in a different way than usual, also since he's got a decent sized part this time around, that's another reason it took some time to write up. The last reason was that I am introducing a NEW CHARACTER in this chapter, one of Arashi21's creations that has a major part in both of our works. So I had to send it to him to make sure I did it right, then he sent it back to me, then I had to finish it…yeah.
Which reminds me, HE UPDATED FIGHTING WING! Go check it out, the new chapter rocks!
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 or the 'Deathclaws'. They are the property of Asaph "Ace" Fipke and made by Nerd Corps Entertainment, Sony Entertainment Nintendo and Bethsaida (I think) however I DO own Kai, Rose, the Shadow crystal, Kanin, Tsuki, Majah and this story.
Shadow, Griffy and Nagera are the property of ShadowQueen25
Tigger and Aladd belong to Misery J. Voldemort
Marina is nuts for Star Wars'
Rondana was made, and is owned by Missy-Dedocakes
Scarlett is the creation of Love Flame
????? belongs to Arashi21
Piper rubbed her face with the back of her sleeve and sighed. For about an hour now, she, Tigger and Radarr had been working on reversing the polarity of the Lunar crystals that lined the hull of Kai's ship.
Now, she was no stranger to hard work. She had gone many a sleepless night helping to work on the Condor, plotting their next day's course, and refining crystals. But this was far from what she was used to. Kai's ship was a technological marvel and horror all rolled into one. She recognized that several of the parts were Cyclonian, as well as several that she knew to be from Free Atmos, but then, there were other parts.
"What the heck is that thing?!" Tigger's voice echoed throughout the ships hull.
Piper cringed. Her plan had been so simple at the time. But from there, it had evolved into something much more.
Crystals were simple, yet complicated. In most cases they gave off a field of energy that could be utilized for a number of purposes. The only known exception to this was the Leech crystal, which absorbed energy then once it reached maximum capacity, would detonate.
This was something Piper knew very, very well. So the fact that this ship used crystals to absorb energy should have grabbed her attention right away. But with all the madness that was normally associated with Kai, she hadn't even thought twice about it.
So, instead of trying to make crystals do something that was contrary to their nature, they found themselves trying to make them do what they normally did. This started with inspecting the crystals themselves, which Piper concluded were everyday run of the mill Lunar crystals. Nothing strange or unique about them.
So, if it wasn't the crystals that were responsible for absorbing energy, that left only one other possibility.
It had to be something about the ship itself.
Tigger had helped repair the ship several times over the course of their journey, but it had all been mostly superficial. Fixing an engine here, refastening an armor plate there, or replacing burnt sections of wiring. This meant she had never actually seen or noticed anything different about the ship from any other one she had worked one before.
Knowing that SOMETHING had to be making the crystals act as collectors rather than producers of energy, they pried an interior wall panel off and found nothing but the wiring one would expect to see. So, after they managed to get it back into place, the trio sat down and drew up a small diagram of the ship.
Flashback
"Ok, this ship is only so big. It can't be just anywhere." Tigger's voice carried a note of annoyance that both of the other parties were starting to feel themselves.
"Well, let's look at this from a logical point of view. If there are no wires connected to the crystals on the ships hull, then something must be drawing energy from them…how?"
Looking at the impromptu sketch that Piper had drawn of the ship, Tigger frowned.
"I don't know, mechanics are my thing and I know plenty about crystals…but…this is beyond me."
Radarr merely watched and listened.
"What could it be then?" Piper asked.
Leaning against the galleys bench cushion, Tigger shook her head. "With Kai, it could be anything. It's probably some Ancient tech he found and crammed into some dark corner somewhere."
"But…I thought you said Kai wasn't all that good a mechanic?" Piper asked, confused by the inconsistency of Kai's mechanical skills.
"He's ok, but he's not a gear head. He makes things work through process of elimination or trial and error," Tigger explained.
"Ok then, that means he didn't do it," Piper stated.
Tigger raised an eyebrow.
"Kai said that Ancient tech is temperamental. So I doubt he would mess around with something like this."
Tigger looked around the ships small kitchen and frowned.
"But this is a standard Cyclonian tender ship. I've seen tons of them, shot down plenty of them too."
Piper groaned. "I know same here. But there must be something we're overlooking, something small or simple."
"Well…what about his skimmers? Those things aren't exactly standard are they?" Tigger offered.
"No, but they were built using standard parts. He might have tweaked them a bit, but you can still tell what they were made from," Piper retorted.
"So? Nothing on this ship is normal. Most of the equipment that runs this ship might be Cyclonian, but I've seen plenty of stuff that isn't."
"Go on," Piper urged, not making any sense of what she was saying, but hoped that the girl would at least figure something out to help them on her own.
"The wiring comes from Free Atmos ships, I know that. Cyclonian ships use iron wire which overheats and has to be replaced every so often. Free Atmos wiring is made of copper, so it doesn't overheat and is able to carry a stronger charge. That's why our ships, even the old ones have stronger shields."
Piper listened carefully, but said nothing, instead she allowed the younger girl to continue.
"Then you have all of the systems themselves. The weapons are all Murk tech…I think, I've never really had a chance to take anything of theirs apart before. But I know it's not ours or Cyclonian at least."
"How do you know that?" Piper asked, not really interested in the source of the technology as much as how Tigger was able to tell how it was out of place.
"Free Atmos crystal weapons have a concave lens that focuses the energy into a more concentrated beam. Cyclonian weapons are pretty much the same but they have lenses made of crystal instead of glass. But the weapons on this ship have overlapping lenses. They almost look like a four leaf clover that's had its leaves folded inward then had a big crystal lens put on top of them. It's like a super refractor of some kind. I actually drew up some plans for them to try and make once this is all over," Tigger explained.
"Uh…huh. Anything else?" Piper asked, all the techno babble going over her head. She understood the gist of it, but not the more complicated bits.
"Take your pick. The engines came from a Cyclonian destroyer, the shields are from a Free Atmos cruiser, and I've never seen half the stuff in the command cabin before. The controls work more like a skimmer's than an actual ship's," Tigger explained.
"So what your saying is, nothing on this ship actually came with it."
Tigger nodded her head in agreement.
"Well, if anyone else went through and did what he did, I'm sure they would have done the same. He took the best he could find and put them together. Isn't that what everyone wants?" Piper asked.
Tigger shrugged. "True, but it makes you wonder why he went through all the trouble in the first place. He could have just as easily took a bigger ship and did the same thing. It would have made more sense actually, he wouldn't have had to stuff and shove so much in such a tiny space."
"It might have been the best he could do Tigger. Remember, its not like he can just stroll around like the rest of us to a used carrier lot, he's got a price on his head," Piper pointed out.
"So? He lives in the freaking ship graveyard of Atmos Piper! Do you have any idea how many wrecked ship hulks are in terra Deep? There must be hundreds, and that's only counting what the Murks have done in the last hundred years."
Piper's eyes widened.
"Tigger…what…what if…this wasn't actually a Cyclonian ship?"
Tigger's eyes narrowed in confusion.
"What are you talking about Piper?"
Piper bit her lip; a trait that Tigger had learned meant that she wasn't as nervous as she was thinking.
"What if…just suppose for a minute that this wasn't a Cyclonian tender ship."
"Uh, Piper, take a look at it. If it looks like a duck, fly's like a duck, and quacks like a duck, guess what? It's a duck."
Piper shook her head.
"What if it was only made to look like a Cyclonian tender ship?"
Tigger mulled the idea over and frowned. "I don't know…that would take an awful lot of work…and why would he even bother going through that much trouble?"
"So everyone would think it was a Cyclonian tender ship," Piper replied with a knowing smirk.
Following Piper's logic, Tigger tried to make heads or tails of it.
"So…you think he went through all this trouble just to make something look like something its not? But why? A ships a ship. Who cares what it looks like?"
"You just answered your own question Tigger," Piper answered rising from her seat and heading to the exit.
"A ships a ship…who cares what it looks like? I don't get it. Why would someone try to make a ship look like something its not? Sure, it might stand out less, but that's hardly worth trying to cover over. The only reason I can think of would be if it stuck out like a sore thumb otherwise. But what kind of ship would.."
"Holy Mary! This things an Ancient!" Jumping from her seat, Tigger chased after Piper down the corridor.
Flashback end
When the two reached the realization of what they were dealing with, they started at the front of the ship and worked their way back, looking for anything that stood out or just didn't seem to belong. That proved to be rather difficult however given just how many things on the ship were out of place. While it did indeed look like a small Cyclonian vessel, the more attention the two paid to the finer details, the more and more things stood out.
First, welding scores could be seen every few feet of the hull, proving that it had put together like a puzzle, not constructed like a normal ship. Tigger had commented that this explained why the thing was always falling apart from engine stress, not because the engines were too much for the ship, but because the ship had not been built to normal specifications, it had only been built to look like it had.
Overall, it was a very convincing form of camouflage. They had been riding in the ship for weeks and hadn't even noticed it. That alone said plenty, especially since Starling was Special Forces and Tigger was an expert mechanic.
Then again, Kai was known for being incredibly good at hiding things. And what better place to hide something than out in the open?
After examining the ship from stem to stern, the two girls were convinced that there was much more to this ship than they had realized.
"Ok, so we know that there is more to this ship than we thought. But we still don't have a clue of what we're looking for. How would we even recognize it?" Piper asked, frustrated at the lack of finding anything of use other than potential blackmail material on Kai.
"I know! Geeze Piper calm down. We're dealing with something that is a bit out of our league here. We need to keep calm and figure this out."
Piper groaned and tapped her head against the ships hull with a dull thud.
"Now, if he was trying to pass this off as a Cyclonian ship, it means that it must have looked at least somewhat similar to one. So, he took a bunch of parts from other ships and used them to make it look more like one. That means that there must be some part of the original ship here. The question is, where?"
"It's not on the inside, that's for sure. I haven't seen two wall panels yet that look like they came from the same ship."
Inside her minds eye, Tigger made a sketch of the ship. Noting where the various bits and pieces that she knew were not from the same ships, she stripped them away one by one.
"Take off the hull, the weapons, the engines, and the electrical equipment…that doesn't leave much. Heck, all that really leaves is the…bottom."
Walking towards the exit ramp, Tigger called Piper and Radarr after her.
Running as fast as her legs could carry her, Marina picked up the pace when the village finally came within sight.
"I might hate that cesspool and wish that it would burn to the ground, but I've never seen anything look more beautiful than those walls right about now," Marina thought while she forced her lungs to continue pumping air.
When the two guards at the gate saw her, she didn't even bother speaking to them; she just ran by them and continued into the village. She needed to find Rondana, and she wanted to put as much distance between her and the forest as possible.
Flashback
As she backed away from the pond with her 'package' tied firmly shut, Marina felt her skin crawl.
"Something's watching me out there…but where?"
Straining her sensitive hearing, she tried to concentrate on something, anything that would give her a clue. There were no birds chirping or insects calling, and she couldn't hear any sign of movement at all. What really unnerved her however was the lack of even the lightest breeze in the air.
"Whatever it is, it's staying as still as a statue."
Looking down, she noticed for the first time that her hand was shaking every so slightly.
"What…what is this feeling? Why can't I stop shaking? I know it's not cold here, I can feel the sweat on my back. Is this what it feels like to be afraid?"
Marina, despite everything she had been through in life, had never once felt truly afraid of anything. Wary perhaps, and even extreme aversion. But not once had she felt completely and totally afraid.
"What's wrong with me!? For Nayru's sake, I'm a Dragmire, I fear nothing!" Even though she shouted this to herself over and over, she couldn't quite make herself believe it.
As soon as she reached the tree line, she bolted. She was used to feeling adrenalin rushes when fighting, but this was a new experience for her.
She lived in a land where only the strongest could survive, and even then there was no guarantee. She had stopped counting how many assassination attempts had been made on her life years ago, or how many near death experiences she had from fighting whatever was thrown her way, be it humanoid or beastly. She had fought and defeated people far more skilled than her, fought and killed creatures many times larger than herself, and had hunted some of the most dangerous predators terra Gerudo had to offer.
But not once had she been the prey.
Something moved out of the corner of her sight, but the moment she turned to get a better view it was gone.
Pumping her legs harder, she increased her speed, not going full out since she didn't want to tire herself out, but pretty close to it.
Behind her she was able to hear a second set of footsteps, almost keeping perfect rhythm with her own in an attempt to mask themselves.
Taking a quick look over her shoulder, she couldn't see anything, just dead tree's as far as the eye could see.
"What's going on here? Why is it following me like this? If it's stalking me, it's had plenty of opportunities to attack, so why hasn't it?"
Running over the excruciatingly short list of possibilities, Marina came to one conclusion, and it made her stomach turn to lead.
"Because it's enjoying the chase."
Marina herself knew the feeling well. She had done this many times in the past. She knew it was wrong, and it was a part of her that caused more than just a little bit of shame, but the only thing that would get her blood pumping more than a good fight, was the knowledge that some poor unwitting creature was only breathing right now because she let it, because she hadn't decided to attack yet. She blamed her father for this, but knew it to be in the blood of all Gerudo.
Right now though, she was the unwitting creature.
Blocking out every distraction, every sound, every scent and every sight, she pushed forward.
"There is something very wrong in this forest and I'm not sticking around to see what it is," Marina thought.
Flashback end
Not once had she actually seen what it was, but she had sensed it easily enough. It hadn't even bothered to try and hide its presence from her.
It wanted her to know it was there.
With one last shudder, Marina finally came to a stop in front of her goal.
"Ron...RONDANA!"
Stepping outside of the wooden cabin, the young medic was surprised to see Marina gasping for breath.
"Marina! What on Atmos happened to you? Is everything alright?"
The older woman shook her head as she tried to catch her breath.
"No *pant* something *pant* something is not right *pant*." Stopping to catch her breath, Marina stood straight and took a deep breath.
"Rondana, something is out there, in the forest," Marina whispered.
The younger woman peered over Marina's shoulder into the forest and squinted. For a brief moment she thought she saw something, but it disappeared as soon as she blinked.
"That's weird, I could have sworn..." Turning her attention back on her unnerved friend, Rondana frowned. "She looks upset, but what could have done this to her? She doesn't look like she's injured physically, and I know she's been through some tough spots before. What could have spooked her this badly?"
"Maybe you should start from the top…and what happened to your pants?"
Remembering her 'cargo' Marina gasped.
"I think I might have found something…a clue about what's wrong with the Blood Claws," Marina whispered as she held up the cut piece of cloth in one hand. She tried to project a wiry smirk, but it came out as more of a grimace.
"Well, what is it?" Rondana asked impatiently. She knew her friend had apparently just been through an ordeal, but any clues as to what was ailing the village's warriors took top priority right now. She was a medic after all.
Marina shook her head.
"Not out here. We need a lab."
Rondana looked around for a moment until she spied Majah.
"Come on, well use his!" Rondana ordered before grabbing the taller woman's forearm and dragged her towards the village healer.
Casting one last glance over her shoulder, Marina's eyes widened when she saw what looked like a young man crouching on a tree branch just beyond the city's gate.
When she blinked he was gone, but that did nothing to stop the shudder that passed through her body. It had been only a brief glimpse, and she hadn't been able to get a good look at him, but one thing stuck out above all else.
His eyes.
From well over fifty yards away she had been able to make out those ominous amber colored orbs. The things literally had been glowing.
Not wanting to think about the subject any further, Marina started to willingly follow Rondana rather than allow herself to be dragged.
Landing without making so much as a sound, the figure smirked.
"Good, she got back. I didn't know how much longer I was going to be able to cover her. There are far too many Deathclaws roaming about now." Looking over his shoulder, he frowned. "I just hope it bought them enough time. Now I just need to find-" Feeling a massive surge of energy growing to the villages north, his body reacted on its own.
"Bugger! I told her not to overdo it!" Running at top speed, the man jumped into the air and grabbed a limb from the bottom. Reversing his grip he hoisted himself up into a crouch on the branch, then jumped onto a higher one.
"This day just keeps getter better and better," he thought sarcastically.
Flashback
It had taken next to no effort to down the fleet of Cyclonian ships. For all intents and purposes they were little more than large slow moving targets.
What came after that had been less than his morning exercises.
Several divisions of cookie cutter Cyclonian troops had formed up between him and the massive metal doors imbedded into the side of the mountain.
"This is your only warning! Put down your weapons and get down on the ground now!" One of the soldiers called out with a bullhorn.
Not paying the warning any attention, he continued walking towards the door.
"Open fire!"
The moment the order was given; red crystal fire filled the space between the assembled group and the lone individual.
"This takes me back. Futile resistance," he chuckled to himself.
Growing tired of the crystal fire pelting him, he spread open his translucent wings to their fullest and propelled himself with one great flap.
"My turn!"
With a bestial roar, he punched his left fist into the ground, throwing all of his strength into it, and then focused a burst of crystal energy behind it.
The result was a massive crack splintering in the rock and moving towards the men like hungry serpent followed by a geyser of energy.
"Fall back! Fall back!"
Chuckling to himself as he watched the soldiers scurry about and into the massive cavern, the figure rose from his kneeled position and once again started marching towards his destination.
When the two doors, each of which was the size of the Condor slammed closed however, he cursed his carelessness.
"Great, this could take a while," he thought dryly as he looked over the towering set of gates.
Flashback end
A lone Deathclaw leapt up at him from below. Many years of fighting just to survive had honed his instincts to a level normally only animals could attain.
A rather ironic point given just how long he had fought to prove the opposite true.
"Been awhile hasn't it old friend?" He sneered before throwing his weight forward into a flip. The moment he felt his feet make contact with the Deathclaw's head, he pushed off, using it like a stepping stone. The action propelled him several feet up and forward fairly quickly, and had the bonus effect of knocking the Deathclaw back down like a speeding bullet.
The creature's impact left a crater several feet deep.
"This is getting old. I can see why he wanted to move things forward a bit."
Flashback
Slowly opening his eyes, it took a moment for the room to stop spinning. It had been quite a while since he had absorbed anywhere near this much energy.
"Man, how could anyone do this? It's like having your head held underwater for an hour," he groaned as he sank to his knees and clutched his throbbing head.
"He never said anything about this before, AHH! But why should I be surprised!" Growling he tried to hold back from roaring like a caged animal, but the pain was searing through his head.
Hearing a familiar whoosh sound followed by a crackle of static, he felt his scowl deepen.
"What do you want!?"
A deep, rumbling chuckle filled his ears.
"Well now, aren't we the presumptuous one."
Cringing, his eyes opened as he turned to look into the flaming portal. He did nothing to hide his discontentment, but he remained silent.
"Good, so you can hold your tongue. Perhaps there is hope for you yet."
Biting to keep his mouth shut, he continued to glare at his unwelcome 'visitor'.
"Go to Urufu Mori and…assist in any way you see fit."
Feeling the edges of his lips pulling back, the man rose to his feet.
"Time to go pay the fleabags a visit huh?"
"You are not to allow yourself to be detected. Do so, and she will suffer the consequences." The man's face was replaced with a silhouette he knew almost by heart now.
Scowling, he turned to leave, but stopped when the voice spoke once again.
"This does not extend to your…friend however. She may do as she, or yourself pleases."
Balling his hands into fists, the screech of metal on metal filled the air.
"I…understand," he hissed between clinched teeth.
"Good, do not make me regret this…arrangement."
With that, the small portal of fire closed, leaving not a trace behind.
Flashback end
"Ten years…ten long years and still he makes me wait! Even when this close!"
Scowling, the man jumped over the edge of the canyon to the other side. His thoughts distracting him so that he didn't notice the shock of purple hair lowering over the edge moments before, nor hear the scream as its owner lost her grip and tumbled down the canyon.
Rondana and Marina were hurried into Majah's lab in the back of the medical cabin. The moment the old man had heard Marina might have something to explain what was happening, he had transformed into a charging bull and just about knocked his way through to the lab with the two girls in tow.
"Geeze, he's pretty quick for an old guy eh?" Rondana asked, trying to shake her friend from her somber mood.
Marina nodded in agreement, but remained silent, further worrying her friend.
During the entire short journey to the lab, Marina had noticed several things, the first of which was that she no longer felt an overwhelming sense of fear or imminent death.
"This….makes no sense. How could I go from being stark frightened to completely calm just like that? It's like it just…went away? That's not possible for someone to calm down so quickly from that degree of fear, I should know, I've done it to others enough times to see it first hand!"
The more she thought it over, the more it started to bug her. Somehow, she had gone from normal and ok, to nearly scared out of her wits, then back to normal. While not a psychologist, Marina was far from stupid, stupid people didn't last as politicians of any sort for very long, let alone as monarchs.
Another odd thing was her lack of memory from the entire event. She remembered finding the dead bird, but then after that things got fuzzy. She recalled sensing something watching her, then bits and flashes of her running through the forest, and then her arriving at the village, but any and all detail from the event was missing or so foggy she could hardly focus on it at all.
The third, and in her opinion most bizarre oddity she had noted were several small, almost paper thin cuts on her clothing. This she would have passed off as having come from snagging on plants and whatnot, but all the cuts were diagonal, and went in the same direction, downwards with the low point being at her front.
"It makes no sense, I just don't get it. I remember everything before finding the bird, but after that…"
Forcing her mind to break through any mental barriers that might be in place, Marina recalled one tiny thing, but nothing more.
"I remember…seeing those eyes…I saw them right before I started running…the same ones I saw when I reached the village…I wonder…could it have been some form of technique? Something that forces a person to feel fear? It wouldn't be completely unheard of, I know that father had something similar he used, but that would only work on people with weak wills. How could someone superimpose their will on me with no effort at all?"
"Marina? Hello!? Atmos to Marina, anybody home?"
Blinking, the redhead became acutely aware of a pair of snapping fingers in front of her face.
"What?"
Rondana and Majah were both giving her impatient looks.
"The bird you idiot! The bird!" Her mind shouted at her as she so often did at Madoc.
Lifting up the severed pant leg, Marina placed it on the table.
"I was out for a stroll trying to calm down…when I came across…this."
Opening the wrapping carefully, Marina watched the other two closely as she continued to explain.
"I found what I thought was a spring not too far to the south from here and was going to take a dip, but when I saw this fella, well, I decided not to. I thought it was strange that a buzzard of all things would just be dead with no sign of trauma. Their plenty tough, so for one to just drop like that can't be normal."
Rondana pulled a pair of gloved from her belt and turned over the bird, inspecting it as closely as she dared to.
"Did you see anything else there?"
Marina shuddered.
"Yeah, I saw something alright, not sure what though. The thing had glowing eyes and was keeping pace with me when I turned tail and ran."
She ignored the looks from the medic and doctor.
"The only other weird thing was there was something in the water…or something weird about the water itself…I'm not exactly sure which."
"What do you mean something weird about the water?" Rondana asked as she continued to inspect the dead bird.
"I was going to wash my hands after checking that thing, but I noticed that the water was…silvery. It didn't look right. I put a stick in it and swirled it around some, but when I pulled it out, the gunk ran off the stick like mercury or something."
"Wait a minute, you said that it was south from here? Was it in a small clearing, surround by trees on three sides?" Majah asked suddenly.
Thinking back and trying to remember what the area looked like exactly, Marina nodded her head.
"Now that you mention it, yeah, it was. I didn't think it at the time, but it was a bit weird for something like that to just be in the middle of a forest, but the one side was clear open, looked almost like it was a cliff face or something," Marina replied.
Majah sighed.
"Then it looks like what is happening to the Red Claws is no accident, you were right Rondana."
The two girls noticed the sadness in the mans voice, but said nothing.
"Marina, what you find was the Warriors Well. It is the spring where water for the Red Claws is drawn, both drinking and bathing."
"Wait a second, back up, you're telling me that you even have separate wells here?" Marina was about an inch from blowing her top. The entire terra seemed to be constructed for no other purpose than to piss her off, and it was doing a bang up job of that.
"Yes, we do have separate wells, but not as you are thinking. The Red Claws have their own well, while the rest of the villagers draw water from a well located within the village," Majah explained.
Marina crossed her arms and snorted. It wasn't as bad as she had thought at first, but it still irked her.
"Well, if something is in the water, it would explain why only the Red Claws are ill and not the rest of the village," Rondana reasoned.
"Still, how could something poison a spring? That's not possible is it? The water is continually being replenished, so it should filter itself out shouldn't it?" Marina asked.
"It would be possible if something was in the water, not just something put in it. I know what you're getting at though. You can poison a well by dropping something in it, but for a spring, it would take a continuous source, like a corpse or something filled with poison that's refilled regularly. Otherwise it would clean itself out," Rondana said tapping her chin.
"Either way though it's bad. What you're saying is that something is either dead at the bottom of the spring, or someone is deliberately poisoning it."
The two girls looked at each other, and then nodded.
"Sorry Mahja," Rondana started.
"But we think it's the second one," Marina finished.
"I'll need to get a few instruments from the ship though if I'm going to figure out what is doing this, come muscles…err…Marina, I need your help," Rondana slipped with a nervous laugh.
Marina lazily raised one eyebrow but followed her to the ship. She didn't have anything better to do anyways, and she did need to change into another pair of pants.
Tigger, Piper and Radarr were crouched under the ship searching for something. What, they didn't know, but they knew there had to be something, there wasn't anywhere else left to look.
"Now, if I was Kai, where would I hide something I didn't want anyone to find?" Piper thought to herself. She had tried getting into Kai's head a few times since the journey had begun, but each attempt ended worst than the pervious. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out how the teen survived as long as he had. Sure, he had a very strong will going for him, and had been trained by some of the best out there, but the fact remained that none of that was enough to do what he did and keep going. There was something else at play here, something fueling him.
What that was however, she had no idea.
"Wait a minute, I might not be able to get inside his head, but I know someone who can!"
To be accurate, she knew two someone's that could get inside his head, but since Shadow was busy acting as the lookout up on the watchtower, she was unfortunately left with only the alternative.
And she really didn't like the alternative.
Closing her eyes, Piper took several deep breaths. Though they had spoken several times in the past, this would be the first time she ever tried to initiate contact.
During one of Kai's bedridden recoveries, she had asked him how he spoke to Rose if he ever needed to for any reason. It had taken a while to get it out of him, but the older teen finally relented and told her that while Rose was the one to usually contact him, there was a way he could speak to her in case of an emergency. It had taken the better part of the afternoon, but he explained the process in great detail.
With her eyes closed, she couldn't see anything, but right now that wasn't important, she didn't need her sight, she needed her hearing.
At first she could only hear the background noise around her. People talking, a few kids running around the ship, and Tigger's muttered curses at Kai's lack of proper ship building knowledge. Concentrating, she pushed it all away, pushed it far away from her mind until she could hear nothing but silence.
Then, she heard a familiar giggle.
Focusing on that sound, she pulled herself towards it, listening for the sound she knew belonged to her.
"Over here, come on Piper, you've almost got it! Just a little bit further!" She heard being cheered in her mind.
Feeling something soft under her hand, Piper opened her eyes, and gasped.
Before her was a massive and flourishing valley stretching as far as the eye could see. The ground was covered with lush green grass, and monstrous crystals rose from the ground blanketing the entire area.
"Welcome home Piper!" Piper heard just before getting glomp tackled to the ground by a flying blue and black missile.
Opening her eyes, Piper came face to face with 'New' Piper, still wearing the same backless and sleeveless black flight suit from before. The only difference that Piper could see with her twin was that her smile was ten times brighter.
"I can't believe you finally did it! You have no idea how long I've been waiting to meet you in person!" 'New' Piper shouted before hugging her again.
Though she was somewhat happy to see her 'twin' Piper's eyebrow was twitching when she noticed a few other details of this 'world'. Namely the statues that were surrounding them. Most were of Aerrow, about ninety percent of them to be accurate. But then she spotted a few that weren't.
Several were of Dark Ace, a few were of Kai, and to her horror, two were of Harrier and one was of Finn.
All of them were shirtless, and some were even in swim trunks.
"Why are those statues here?" Piper asked, more embarrassed than annoyed.
New Piper grinned before climbing off of her and helping her up.
"You like? Well of course you like, this is your mind after all," 'New' Piper teased with a flourish, once again revealing the fact that her flight suit showed a fair amount of skin on the backside.
'New' Piper looked over her shoulder, and frowned when she saw her twin's expression.
"Piper, we've been over this. I'm not changing, this is who I really am, who you want to be. You can't keep fearing little things like that."
Piper looked away, still red in the face.
"Yeah, the me I want to be, the me with a figure," Piper muttered.
'New' Piper groaned.
"Geeze girl, you're worst than Kai! I AM YOU! Don't you get that! The only difference between us is mental, not physical! You look exactly like I do!"
Not believing her for a minute, Piper ignored her 'twin' when she remembered why she was here in the first place.
"Look, I need your help. Me-"
"And Tigger are trying to figure out what the heck is up with Kai's clunker of a ship right?"
Piper nodded.
"That's pretty much it. I can't go get Shadow, so you're the best bet I could think of. You think like he does, so I was hoping you could give me a hand?"
'New' Piper frowned.
"I can't believe she still doesn't get it! How much more obvious do I have to make it!"
Sighing in aggravation over her other self's cluelessness, 'New' Piper spoke.
"I'll help you out, I think I know where what you're looking for is," she began.
"Yes! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Finally a break!" Piper cheered.
Seeing how happy her other was, 'New' Piper almost felt bad for what she was about to do.
Almost
"But, I want compensation for helping you out again."
Piper blinked, clearly not having expected that.
"Huh?" She asked intelligently.
"I said I want compensation. You know payment? I've helped you out several times and so far you haven't done a single thing for me. Tit for tat, payment for services rendered, you know the drill."
Piper's face scrunched up in confusion.
"But you're not real; you're just a figment of my imagination, the physical manifestation of my mind. I can't pay you, and even if I could, what would you do with money? It's not like you can go shopping or anything."
'New' Piper grinned evilly. Piper rated it as being somewhere between Lark and Dark Ace, not so much as evil as assured of getting what the barer wanted.
"Oh Piper Piper Piper, silly girl, you should know that payment doesn't have to be gold. There are sooo many other things that could be used for collateral, and you know it."
Not liking where this was going, Piper watched her double with a careful eye.
"What do you want then?"
'New' Piper grinned.
"So very many things Grasshopper, but we shall start with something small, something you can handle," 'New' Piper said sagely.
Piper felt her stomach clinch, having a sneaking suspicion as to what this other wanted from her.
"Well, get on with it, what do you want? We don't have a lot of time on our hands so hurry up!" Piper snapped.
'New' Piper ignored her snap, knowing that in this world time didn't exist, but while she was enjoying this, she knew that her other couldn't take much more.
"Straight to point huh? I like that. Well, since you can't really pay me much at the moment, I'll settle for you cutting the sleeves off of all the flight suits Kai let you borrow."
Seeing her other's blank expression, then grin, 'New' Piper added one other bit.
"And no long gloves, I know you got some of those too, but if you're going to wear gloves, they cant go past your wrist. I don't want to see you wearing any of those shoulder lengths you brought."
Piper deflated when her plan was shot down before even taking off.
"Now, do we have a deal?" 'New' Piper asked holding out her hand.
Looking the other way, Piper reached out and shook her others hand.
"Nice doing business with you," 'New' Piper said before she and the rest of the world disappeared from sight.
Opening her eyes, Piper was about the scream at her other for not keeping her end of the bargain when she noticed that her hands were no longer at her sides, but were holding onto a armor plate on the bottom of the ship, apparently having pulled it down.
"Wow, way to go Piper! How did you know to do that?" Tigger asked in amazement.
Blinking, Piper regained her senses and shook off the feel of someone having moved her like a puppet on strings.
"Uh, lucky guess? Come on, lets see what he's hiding up in here," Piper quickly covered over the subject and climbed up into the black space above, not wanting to answer Tigger's question since her only options were to lie (which she hated doing) or tell the truth and get locked up in the Atmos Funny Farm.
Shrugging her shoulders, Tigger climbed in after Piper, followed by Radarr.
"I can't see a thing in here, hey! Watch where you're putting you hands!" Piper shouted.
"It wasn't me! It was your monkey!"
Radarr growled at being accused for something he hadn't done. It wasn't his fault the glasses wearing girl was blind as a bat in the pitch black, but he could see fine.
"Wait a second, let me get a light," Piper said before digging her hands into her pockets.
"Ah ha! Let there be light!" Piper shouted triumphantly as she held her prized Solaris stone in front of her, Tigger and Radarr.
Warm light illuminated the area, banishing the darkness as if it had never even been there.
Seeing what surrounded them, Piper nearly dropped the crystal.
"Oh," Piper started.
"Dear," Tigger continued.
Grauh, Radarr finished.
The entire inside was an almost off shade of black that absorbed the light from the Solaris stone, but they could still see everything perfectly. Currently, they were in a crawl space about three feet high, meaning they had to crouch if they didn't want to hit their heads on the 'floor' above them. While the ship they had been in for the last few weeks had plates welded and was made like a jigsaw puzzle, this section of the ship looked like it was constructed in one piece, without any seems or rivets.
What was really strange however were the instruments lining the walls around them. None of them seemed to be online, but they weren't covered with dust either, so they had been used in the recent past.
"What is all of this?" Tigger asked, stunned by what she was seeing.
"You mean you don know what it is? I thought this was your thing?" Piper asked in confusion.
"Uh, yeah, NORMAL mechanics and stuff. I don't have a clue what this junk is. It's not like anything I've ever seen before. Its decades beyond anything we've got or even Cyclonia."
Turning, Piper pointed the Solaris stone to the bow of the ship, then to the stern, and was able to make out a panel at the end of each end.
"So, which do you think would be best?" Piper asked.
Tigger pushed her glasses up and frowned.
"My bet would be the back of the ship. It's closest to the engines so it would make sense…normally," Tigger added the last bit when she remembered whose ship they were crawling inside.
"Well, no time like the present, let's move," Piper replied as she handed the Solaris stone to Radarr, who was the only one that could walk upright inside the crawl space.
Tigger followed after her friend, trying to not pay too much attention to the numerous devices and gadgets that lined the walls, or the ach her knees and palms were starting to feel from crawling on the hard metal floor.
"This sucks you know that Piper? Just once I would like to go on a normal mission, one that doesn't include someone getting sucked into Oblivion, fighting interdimensional beings, traitors, someone almost getting killed or weird freaky stuff that is only supposed to happen in books or TV shows."
Piper snickered.
"Well, it could be worse."
Tigger quarked an eyebrow at that one.
"Worse? HOW?" She asked, mystified at how things could get any worst, but not being dumb enough to actually say the cursed phrase that brought instant doom to the speaker.
"Aladd could be with us," Piper offered.
"How would that be worst? That would almost make this whole stupid thing bearable!" Tigger shot back trying to defend 'her man'.
"Oh please, can you imagine what it would be like? Having Aladd on a ship with six girls?"
Tigger paled.
"Then could you imagine what Kai would do if he even looked at Starling the wrong way?"
Tigger didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the mental images the though conjured.
"Anyways, at least we're not crawling in an air vent right?" Piper joked once they reached the end of the crawlspace.
"Yeah…I guess…but…uh…now what?"
Piper studied the panel closely. She recognized some of the writing on one side, but none of what was written at the top of the panel.
"I think…this should do the trick," Piper said as she placed her hand on the panel and pushed down lightly.
An audible click was heard, and then the panel slid inwards to the side like a hatch.
This time Radarr dropped the Solaris stone.
Before them was a large pulsating crystal. It reminded Piper of the one Arygyn had on his scepter, only it didn't have as many colors to it, glowing only with yellow and white light. Seemingly having sensed their presence, the glowing crystal hummed and resonated like a sky whale.
"What the heck is that thing?!" Tigger's voice echoed throughout the ships hull.
End chapter 24.
AN: Yeah, cool huh? Looks like there is more to Kai's ship than meets the eye lol. I wanted to get more in, but this chapter just kept growing and growing so I had to cut it off. I know it seems that not all of the characters got equal time, but that's because of me having cut it where I did. The rest of what was supposed to be this chapter was going to focus on Marina, Rondana and Shadow, but I just couldn't fit it. So, guess whose going to star the next chapter? I figure that this book will be ending in a few chapters, the next one will be the others and what they were doing, followed with a bit more here, then a good two chapter epic battle, so it should end around chapter 28 or 29…hopefully.
Again, sorry it took so long, but I've been busy with a lot and had a hard time with some parts of this chapter. I'll try to be faster in the future.
So, liked it, hated it, let me know! Reviews are what keep me going, improve, and give me ideas. I still accept annon reviews, but if you're logged on I'll try to reply to your review within a week (it's the best I can do).
Till next time, Ja Ne!