I wish I owned DBZ, but I don't. I own DVD's and tapes, but it just isn't the same. I also don't own the rights to any of the music pieces you see selected, just copies of merchandise, such a shame. The artists that created them are geniuses and we all must bow to them.
Chapter 16: Hunting the Queen
Vegeta and Bulma moved cautiously through the temple, keeping all eyes and ears open for more aliens. So far they had been lucky and no more attacks had come over the past hour, but Vegeta wasn't deeming the area safe just yet. After a bit of weaving around, they came to a familiar path that had led them down there to begin with. While Vegeta doubted that Trunks would still be in the sacrificial chamber now, it was the best place to try to pick up his trail. He had Bulma stay very close and very quiet as he scanned every nook, cranny and shadow that potentially hid an alien while they moved on. It wasn't long before they came to a long, spiraled stairwell, one they had traveled before.
"Woman, tread lightly and try not to make a sound. There may be more of those things hiding in the shadows," Vegeta whispered. Bulma nodded nervously and stayed within inches of her husband as he began to ascend the stairwell. Dead silence ensued, which made even Vegeta slightly nervous. The musty aroma filled the air as they neared the top, but he still couldn't hear anything nearby, with the exception of Bulma's racing heartbeat. Once they reached the top, Vegeta double-checked the stairwell to make sure nothing was creeping up behind them before proceeding. There was nothing but darkness ahead of them, though Vegeta could make out the shape of the floor and walls. Bulma reached into her coat for a flashlight but Vegeta roughly took her hand, shaking his head no. Then he stepped forward into the black hallway, with the alien smell getting even stronger with every step. Soon they were in complete dark with not even the shallow light from the stairwell to guide their way. Vegeta momentarily lost his sight until he happened to see a narrow light coming from a passage to his right. He turned that way with Bulma trailing behind, though he went very slowly. A separate scent of human blood filled the air, almost clouding out the alien scent with its intensity. Vegeta still didn't pick anything up with his ears until he stepped into the lightened passage. Then he picked up a feint human breathing pattern, two of them in fact.
"This is it," Vegeta whispered as he pulled Bulma a little closer before stepping into the chamber. Inside, they saw that the entire room had been entrenched with some sort of slimy residue. It reminded Vegeta of the Zerg creep that tended to spread like a plague. This wasn't quite the same stuff, but it was very similar. It was all over the ceiling and walls, and a little bit on the floor as well. Along the walls, human bodies were bound with the same material. Nearly all of them had large, bloody openings in their chests, and all of those afflicted victims were dead. Bulma gasped slightly and turned away to bury her head into Vegeta's shoulder. Vegeta spotted two that were not dead, and one of them was asleep. The other one appeared to be awake and scowling at him in particular, and the Saiyan prince was obliged to return it in kind. Vegeta eyed the battered and twisted right leg of this man, figuring that was how the aliens captured him before he got away.
"So, you're still alive?" Vegeta growled. Bulma turned and spotted Captain Gates glaring down at them both, though he wasn't in a position to do anything about their presence.
"You should thank your lucky stars Vegeta. I nearly escaped, no thanks to that blasted kid of yours!" Gates grumbled.
"So Trunks is just fine?" Bulma said with glee.
"I have no idea about Trunks, it wasn't him that stopped me from escaping," Gates sighed as he glanced down at his ruined leg.
Vegeta chuckled slightly, "So the boy made it here as well, I thought that injury had a familiar look to it. You might have stood a better chance if you hadn't betrayed us. That leg must hurt awfully bad!" Vegeta grabbed Gates' broken leg and squeezed just a little bit, causing the mercenary captain to shout in pain.
"Do your worst, I'm dead within a matter of hours anyway!" Gates screamed back.
"Really? You think it would take me that long?" Vegeta said with a smirk.
"One of those damned aliens is inside me by now. I hope it's the one that kills you!" Both Vegeta and Bulma stared at Gates in question, until they looked at the other dead bodies around the area.
"I get it! So they must use humans as hosts to breed or something!" Bulma exclaimed.
"More or less," Gates frowned.
"But how did they get here?" Bulma asked.
"I have no idea," Gates said.
"You're lying!" Vegeta shouted at him.
"Believe what you want to, oh great Saiyan prince! But I really do not have any clue as to how they got to Earth. It could have been decades ago!"
"He's, ugh, telling the truth!" a voice said from behind. Vegeta turned to see a pale Dr. Redwood hanging there.
"Hey, you're still alive too?" Bulma asked.
"Barely, but not for long. Dr. Gray told me everything before one of those things came out of him. Long ago, alien hunters from another world came here, and they brought those creatures along so they could hunt them. And they tended to return to this planet after a certain amount of time. I think our ancestors worshipped them as gods, thus why this temple was built. At first I didn't believe it, but it sounds accurate. As little as a thousand years ago, this area wasn't completely covered in ice," Redwood explained.
"Why did they bring them here though? Couldn't they hunt them on their own world?" Bulma asked.
"No, those creatures can only reproduce with a human host, or at least that's what Dr. Gray assumed. He said he found the story written along the walls in the ancient languages. Those aliens would arrive and expect a sacrifice, and using humans, they would breed the ultimate prey. But because of the hostile nature of the creatures, they would fight them to the last. And if they didn't survive, they made sure nothing would. There are several indications that this has happened many times before, and the other aliens didn't win for some reason. Entire civilizations wiped out instantly because of their failure," Redwood explained further.
"That would explain some of the missing cultures from the past I guess. But my question is, why aren't those other aliens here now to stop them? I understand that luring us down here with the heat bloom was likely part of the trap, but we should have seen them by now, right? If they would really make sure that none of those things survive, we should have seen a trace of them!" Bulma pointed out.
"I'm not sure, but I have a theory. The last inscription made here was one over five hundred years ago. And before that time, they would come once every generation, but there is nothing written afterwards. Either they fought and lost the last time, or they simply haven't returned since then," Redwood said.
"That doesn't add up, you said that the tomb down there had been opened exactly a year ago! That means that someone was here then. We probably wouldn't have known about it due to the Zerg war that was being waged," Bulma said.
"I think I can answer that one," Gates chuckled from the other wall. Vegeta turned and growled a bit, but remained silent so he could hear the rest.
"Fine, explain yourself!" Bulma scowled.
"It was us that opened the tomb last time. Our client wanted to examine this place when he found it on some ancient map he discovered buried at another dig sight," Gates replied.
"That explains why you got the hole dug so fast, you had already done it before. But that doesn't explain how you survived last time!" Bulma pointed out.
"Quite right, but there wasn't anything to fear either. That heat bloom was not our doing and it wasn't here last time. We simply explored the temple and left, and I can only assume that it reset itself since we were here last. Those creatures weren't here either, even though there were traces of them everywhere. Our client left a small beacon to transmit a signal from this temple in hopes of drawing those other aliens here. Well that never appeared to work either, until just a few weeks ago, he received a return signal. He's been busy plotting against you two, so it kind of went hand in hand. Then the heat bloom went off, and well, you know the rest," Gates grinned.
"Anything else you would like to mention about your boss before I rip you apart? His name would be a good start," Vegeta snarled.
"I would, but I'm sure you have plenty of ways to figure that out. It's much more gratifying to see you fail, Saiyan!"
"And what business do you have with me, weakling?"
"I was in East City those many years ago when you and your big friend first landed on Earth. Somehow I escaped the explosion, maybe because I was one of the smart ones and started running first. My family wasn't so lucky, and got caught in the blast. I probably should have died that day, but it doesn't truly matter now. It's too bad I'll probably be dead before I see the good doctor's pet tear you apart!" Gates sighed.
"Pet? Oh, you mean that worthless robot? Let's just say that it won't be a problem," Vegeta said with his cocky grin installed.
"Who built it?" Bulma asked as she stepped forward.
"I'm not inclined to tell you Miss Briefs. Why would I want to when you're married to a genocidal alien like him?" Gates fired back.
"Hmph, you have no idea how right you are!" Vegeta grunted as Bulma reached into her coat and pulled out Coleman's cell phone.
"I can find out by tracing all the calls made to your buddy's cell phone, so you might as well save me some trouble!" Bulma said as she flipped the phone open and turned it on.
"No need to dig that far. I'm sure you can figure it out by simply looking at it long enough," Gates explained. Bulma waited patiently for the phone to startup, and then gasped at the symbol that she saw.
"What is it woman?" Vegeta asked.
"Let's just say that this won't be as simple as you might have thought. But I do know whom we are dealing with, and we'll deal with things appropriately when we get home. We should concentrate on finding Trunks and getting out of here first!" Bulma replied as she promptly shut off the phone. Vegeta growled a bit at the lack of information, but agreed with her for the time being.
"Let's also get you down doctor, we'll take you somewhere and get that thing removed!" Bulma said, motioning for Vegeta to help her.
"There's no point, the thing inside him will burst out before you get out of here. Those things seem to breed rapidly. I'm surprised I've lasted this long to be honest, ack," Gates said with a slight cough.
"In that case, I will be merciful. It is much more gratifying to see your suffering," Vegeta chuckled.
"Yes, too bad isn't it?" Gates scowled. His eyes suddenly shifted upwards for a brief moment, and Vegeta caught the motion. He spun just in time to see an alien dropping down to him. He managed to catch its claws as it landed, starring face to face with it. The aliens jaw opened wide and Vegeta nervously frowned at the second set of teeth aiming for him.
"Hahaha, I hope that thing rips your head off!" Gates laughed from the sidewall. Vegeta ignored this and readied himself to counter this attack. The alien's teeth sprang out, and came to an abrupt stop when Vegeta caught the tongue like muscle that propelled it. The alien screeched and tried to pull back, but couldn't escape Vegeta's grip. Vegeta growled a bit and ripped the tongue right out of the alien's mouth. The alien's screeching increased ten fold as it cried out in pain. A steady flow of its yellow blood then streamed from the back of its mouth. Vegeta saw it coming, but struggled to get the beast off of him as it held on tight. The alien leaned forward and the acid blood poured all over the top of Vegeta's right shoulder. He threw the alien off, but it was too late, and his jacket fizzled out as his shoulder burned. It was Vegeta's turn to cry out in pain as he literally felt his shoulder melting and disintegrating. Bulma came over to help him, but was hesitant to touch the afflicted shoulder. Instead, she spotted a machinegun on the ground, and picked it up with intent as the alien slowly recovered.
"Take this you monster!" Bulma shouted as she opened fire. The alien took the first few bullets without a problem, but Bulma kept firing until it fell backwards and lay unmoving. Bulma approached the dead alien and pumped a few more shots into its head to be sure before checking on her husband again. Vegeta's shoulder was in very bad shape, but for the moment it appeared that the acid had stopped. She could see that it had penetrated several layers of skin, muscle and other tissue, but it looked like it missed all of the bone matter. Vegeta managed to remove the rest of his jacket and handed it to her as he cringed in severe pain.
"Well, it almost got you, what a shame!" Gates laughed as Bulma used the jacket to wrap up Vegeta's shoulder.
"Laugh it up weakling, you'll be dead soon enough!" Vegeta growled back.
"Perhaps, but its very pleasant to see you go down before hand! Hahaha!" Gates laughed. Vegeta snarled as Gates continued to laugh, though both of them were silenced by the sudden sound of bones snapping. Gates' face lit up in pain as his chest starting bleeding. He yelped a bit as the creature in his chest suddenly burst out and flew through the air towards Vegeta. Vegeta caught it in mid air with his left hand, and grinned darkly as the young alien squirmed in his grasp. With all his strength, he threw it into the wall, watching as the alien smacked the stone before simply dropping to the ground, not moving. Vegeta chuckled slightly at the easy kill, though his shoulder ached again once he did, causing him to clutch it protectively.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" he said as he slowly walked across the chamber to the other door. It was slammed shut however, and judging by the shape of the door, it only slid up and down.
"Damnit, it must have triggered shut when the temple started to shift," Bulma shrieked slightly.
"I guess we'll have to force it open then," Vegeta said as he placed his good arm up against the stone. Just as he started though, he heard sounds on the other side, and stepped backwards.
"What is it?" Bulma whispered. The door suddenly lit up with blue light, and some sort of cutting beam pierced through the left side of it and began to circle around. Bulma hugged her husband for protection as whatever was behind the door was coming through.
"Hmmm, which way to go this time?" Trunks asked as we reached a fork in our path, again.
"Well the center was a dead end, so it's either right or left, pick one!" I said impatiently.
"I don't know, this wasn't here when we started ya know!" he replied, exasperated.
"I guess I'll take a stab at it then," I said as I stepped into the three-way intersection. The fork on the left seemed to have warmer air coming from it, and the one of the right had a strange musty smell coming from it. It was the same smell of the aliens from what I could tell, only it was very feint. I could detect trace amounts of human scent in there as well, but I wasn't for certain.
"Well, I'd say this is the direction you went before, but the warmer air this way is probably the way to the core. All right, let's hurry and find them before that queen decides she's been here long enough," I said as we moved to the other path. We both ran down the darkened corridor, and the musty scent increased the entire time, along with a distinct human blood smell filtering through the air. I thought I heard a feint banging sound as we got closer, but I wasn't quite sure. We came to a stop at a large stone door, one that had a dead parasite alien lying dead nearby.
"This is it big brother. This is that sacrifice room or whatever it was called. It's where the eggs first appeared," Trunks whispered.
"I take it the door slammed shut on you guys," I said, as I looked it over.
Trunks nodded slowly, "I could lift it, but it wouldn't stay open."
"All right then, stand back, I'm going to cut it open," I said as I pulled the ancient stone from my pocket again.
"Why, I could lift it pretty easily before!" Trunks pointed out.
"Well, if we have to drag anyone out or are in a hurry, we don't want a huge heavy door in our way. It won't really matter if we leave it open or not, the aliens can go through the air ducts anyway," I said as I summoned my Psi sword from the stone.
"Okay, you're the boss," Trunks gave in as he stepped backwards. I stabbed into the side of the door and cut through rather easily as I made a circle extending from the ground to just about six feet up.
"You're up," I said, pointing to the door and shutting down my sword. Trunks charged it and pushed open the freshly cut stone until it fell backwards and into the room. The stench of the aliens mixed with human blood then increased several times as the air rushed out. The first thing I saw in there though was a surprised Saiyan prince and his blue haired mate.
"So, you made it after all," Vegeta noted as Trunks and I stepped through.
"Yeah," I nodded slightly. I spotted a slightly red jacket wrapped around Vegeta's right shoulder, which automatically meant some sort of injury. Must be a bad one if he actually bothered to cover it up.
"Oh Trunks, I'm so happy to see you!" Bulma cried out as she embraced her son.
"All right, we don't have much time. Let's get the hell out of here," Vegeta grumbled as he hobbled towards the door.
"Hold on, we need to hunt down these aliens and destroy every last one of them! We can't let them get to the surface!" I replied. This stopped Vegeta in his tracks as he glanced back at me.
"How do you know about that already? The woman didn't have any time to explain things!" Vegeta growled at me.
"I know enough. And while sealing up the tunnel might work, it's not a guarantee. We have to kill the egg-laying queen, and my guess is that she is near the core, or wherever the heat is coming from," I explained.
"You know about them? Don't you dare keep it hidden from me boy!" Vegeta roared.
"He's right, you need to kill every last one of them! You can't risk them getting to the surface!" a voice said from the far wall. I spotted one of Bulma's assistants, Dr. Redwood, hanging on the wall. Judging by the pathetic shape he was in, he was already impregnated with an alien.
"I'm sold, but how are we going to get through this maze before this queen decides to leave?" Bulma asked.
"She's a lot bigger than the others, she won't be able to travel through air ducts and such. There's a fork in the path just behind us, it likely leads there!" I said as I pointed back through the door.
"That doesn't explain how you know about all this," Vegeta growled.
"Later," I replied as I stepped towards Dr. Redwood.
"What are you doing now boy, leave him! He's going to be dead in a matter of hours anyway!" Vegeta shouted.
"I might be able to save him, you never know," I said as I started ripping the slimy bindings off of the doctor.
"He's right kid, just leave me. You don't have enough time to reach a hospital from here," Redwood grunted as I pulled him down.
"Don't need one yet, not when I can do it myself. Now I want you to sit still and close your eyes," I ordered. The doctor looked confused at this, but shrugged and complied. I grasped the stone again, but hesitated for just a moment. Hope this works.
"Now I want you to concentrate with a single thought. Isolate a memory, something that made you feel good or happy. Hell, anything positive and not evil. Should be easy to reminisce at this point. Whatever happens, do not let go of this thought, do you understand?" I asked. Redwood didn't act like he understood, but I suppose that could be expected.
"Not really, what are you going to do?" he asked.
"I'll tell you afterwards if it works. It won't work if you don't do what I just said," I replied. Redwood sighed and relaxed for a moment before a slight grin came across his face.
"Do you have it yet?" I asked.
"Yes, I was just thinking about the first time my wife and I…" he began as Trunks suddenly gagged.
"I don't need details, just focus on that thought if that's what makes you happy. And whatever you do, do not open your eyes until I say so!" I barked at him. He shook nervously for a moment but then calmed down for a moment before that smile returned. I then summoned my sword from the stone again and carefully refocused my own mind to a positive state.
"You can use your energy down here?" Vegeta shouted in disbelief, aggravating me again.
"Shut up!" I growled back at him before shifting back to the task. I summoned more energy and allowed my concentrated sword to slacken and expand until it was nearly four inches in diameter and glowed slightly white, though it remained mostly blue. Just as I thought it might do, well I'll know pretty quickly if his thoughts aren't straight. I slowly stabbed forward through Redwood's chest, watching for any signs of pain. I saw none, but he did at least notice the light and change in temperature. I moved the sword up and down through his body until I heard something inside him shift a bit. A painful grimace came across Redwood's face, prompting me to hurry.
"Keep focusing, I've almost got it!" I reassured him. I chased whatever was moving down and felt my sword tear into it. Redwood's grimace lightened, and after a few seconds of waiting and slowly moving around the same area, I pulled the sword out and shut it off. His eyes shot open as he caught his breath, and color returned to his face.
"What did you do?" he asked.
"Killed it," I said simply with a grin. He ripped open his button shirt to see nothing but a very light burn mark, no more serious than low-grade sunburn.
"You may want to take a few scans when we get back, just in case I missed something. You're welcome," I said as I gave him a hand up.
"Okay boy, just how did you do that?" Vegeta grumbled.
"This stone allows me to concentrate a little Psi energy. That red headed girl we encountered gave it to me on the way here. Something about this place being sacred and having a natural suppression field for spirit energy. As far as removing that alien in him, that's just knowing how to use my power, nothing more. It was trial and error with Zeratul the same day he showed me how to freeze things. And speaking of the Protoss, whoever hired these guys got a hold of some of their leftover technology and set up a ki restrictor out in the snow somewhere, she told me about that too," I explained. Vegeta looked somewhat satisfied with my answer, though I knew he was still waiting for how I knew about the aliens to begin with. A sudden hissing sound got our attention though, and we glanced over to see several aliens crawling over the walls and coming through the opposite doorway. I backed up towards the door we had entered through, motioning for the others to get there quickly. I spotted several eggs lying around the room, and some were starting to open as well. Time to find out how much power this thing can handle. I grasped the stone and held it sideways in front of me as I started focusing as much power as I could into my hand. It slowly leaked in there and sparked a bit, but it didn't gather up near as much as I wanted. Looks like Leira wasn't kidding about it not handling very much power, I don't have enough for a powerful beam. Guess I'll just focus it a bit harder.
I shifted the stone to my left hand and then held it across my right arm as I opened my Psi filled palm. I spotted six full-grown aliens crawling towards me quickly, and released the glowing ball in my hand at each of them at the same time. The blue lightning poured out and zapped them all down. I kept up the effort until they literally blew up and showered the floor with their acid blood. I pulled back and reenergized the lightning blast again, this time aiming for the eggs and parasites in the room. I spread the energy out a little wider so I didn't miss anything, and fired again for several seconds. Psi lightning streaked through the room in a thick and wide burst, striking everything multiple times. All of the parasites I saw instantly dropped and the eggs fell apart from the inside. I stopped momentarily, watching for any real movement, and seeing none.
"All right, let's go find that queen!" I said as I ran out with the others.
-
About twenty minutes or so into the trip towards the central core, Vegeta started to grow impatient, not that it was a surprise.
"Where is this blasted place supposed to be?" he growled as we were still slowly running down the corridors. I shook my head slightly at this, though I expected Vegeta to be a little frustrated. I had considered sending them back to the surface and going on alone with Trunks, but I didn't want to risk splitting up with Vegeta injured and without his energy. But at the rate that the prince was getting angry, it was getting tempting.
"It's probably quite deep in the temple, and we haven't gone down very far yet," Redwood said.
"Argh, what a waste of effort. We should just go back to the surface and wait it out there. Then at least we can search for the Protoss device while we wait," Vegeta suggested as he came to a stop. The rest of us stopped as well, and I allowed my momentary frustration to come out again.
"If you want to go back now, be my guest. I'm not turning back until that thing is dead or until I'm forced to. Don't be turning coward on me now," I spat back at him. What I got in return wasn't one of the death glares I wanted to remember, but he got the message.
"Perhaps we should split up boy, since you're in such control of the situation. We're being slowed down anyway," Vegeta said with a slight grin of arrogance.
"Hey, I resent that!" Bulma screeched at him. He had said that just to undermine me, but it did point out a good suggestion at the moment.
"That might actually be a good idea, but one of us should go with them back to the surface. Since you are being slowed by your injury, you should go back with them while Trunks and I go ahead. Only problem is that I don't know how many aliens are left and where exactly they are. My gut says that they will proceed this way in order to protect their queen, but that doesn't mean they aren't done hunting either," I pointed out.
"Argh, I'm fine!" Vegeta grunted back. I spotted movement behind him and Dr. Redwood, and saw several aliens creeping up on us. Vegeta realized what I was staring at and sunk into a stance as Redwood moved behind him. Behind me I heard more movement and spotted four more coming near, making a total of eight near us.
"Trunks, protect that side with Vegeta, I'll handle these!" I shouted as I grasped the stone in preparation. The four aliens before me backed off a bit when my sword reappeared, as if they had sensed me use it before. I heard Trunks' battle cry behind me as he attacked one of the aliens there. I ran towards another and slashed it in two before it could even take a step. I heard Trunks stomp down hard on the other one, and it ceased to move. All right, down to six, that was easy enough. The remaining aliens suddenly perked up and seemed to sense something in the air, though I couldn't tell what it was. The three before me suddenly turned and ran in the other direction and the other three followed along the walls, running past and completely ignoring us. For a brief moment I detected a screech go through the air, but it was so feint that it must've come from quite a distance away.
"What the hell?" Vegeta asked first.
"Maybe the queen is calling them for whatever reason, I could barely hear it but I'm guessing she's down this way! You three head back to the surface just in case there's another way out of here. Trunks and I will go on ahead and stop them!" I ordered, though Vegeta grumbled at me for it.
"Hey, maybe the other aliens finally got here and are taking care of the queen. Maybe that's why they are rushing to help her!" Bulma suggested.
"Other aliens?" I asked with a questioning eyebrow raised.
"Yeah, whoever brought them to this planet in the first place. It's written on the walls around here, it says that these aliens were worshipped as gods and that they used humans to breed those monsters so they could hunt them. It said if they didn't beat the monsters, that they would leave nothing alive to ensure that the creatures didn't escape," Redwood explained.
"It must have been those other aliens that lured us down here to begin with. They had to have activated the heat bloom. The whole situation with the mercenaries is probably mere coincidence since Gates admitted that they didn't really know about the monsters," Bulma added.
Trunks scuffed slightly, "Well at least we know how they got here, but I haven't seen anything thing other than those freaks yet!" I narrowed my eyes slightly, something about this wasn't quite adding up. I had seen the dead humans on the surface, but they looked like that had been just beaten to death and thrown aside. If there are more aliens down here, we should have seen a few by now.
"Did you guys encounter anything else down here?" I asked, gazing at Bulma and Vegeta.
"Yeah, a big yellow robot that Vegeta beat up, but I can tell it was made on Earth, so it couldn't be that!" Bulma explained. So either they are running late, not coming, or are ready to wipe this place out if we don't succeed. Either way, we have to move forward to be sure they aren't down here.
"Head back to the surface. If you see any of these other guys, try to hold them off or explain that we'll take care of that queen. Trunks, let's get moving now!" I said as I promptly chased down the aliens, he followed a second later.
-
Trunks and I ran at near top ground speed as we followed the alien scent. The air continually got warmer and I could see a feint red glow coming from a distant part of the long corridor.
"That must be it up there!" Trunks pointed.
"Maybe, let's not get our hopes up just yet!" I replied. Another minute of running and we came to a long and steep stairwell that went down. At the top of it, there was a large warrior statue holding a sheathed sword, one that Trunks was eyeballing. Then he grabbed it and pulled it loose.
"Trunks, we don't have time for games!" I barked at him.
"Why can't I, he's not using it after all! Besides, it isn't fair that you can use your sword when I can't even feel my energy! It might come in handy you know!" Trunks scuffed at me with his nose in the air. Well I guess it couldn't hurt right now, I thought as he strapped the sword around his shoulder, looking like a miniature version of his older self. At the bottom, I could see a lightened path surrounded by flaming pits.
"Let's go," I said as I quickly jumped to the ground far below, landing carefully with Trunks right behind me. The chamber we entered was large, but very warm compared to the entire temple. At the back of it, I spotted large chains hanging from the ceiling over some sort of throne like surface. As we got closer, we saw that some of the chains had broken off, and among them was a large, round and slimy object and even a few more eggs lying sideways. I approached carefully, seeing that the chains were melted, and that the large round object had a big enough opening at one end to hold one of those eggs.
"Gross," Trunks commented.
"I think that's the egg sack or something, but where's the queen?" I asked as I glanced around. The big alien wasn't something that could easily hide as far as I could tell, and I didn't see her anywhere. I did noticed how melted the chains were though, and this gave me the answer right before Trunks came up with it.
"Those other creeps must have used the acid blood to free her or something, look there's a melted chain over there!" Trunks pointed out. I turned and spotted one of the large chains discarded farther away, along a different path than we had taken that also led out of the chamber.
"She escaped, damnit!" I groaned.
"Well, we can just chase her down then!" Trunks suggested. Just as he started the other way, I thought differently.
"No, let's go back the way we came Trunks. We can meet up with the others along the way and it should be fast enough that we could beat her back to the surface and seal the tunnel if possible. Since we don't know that way, we could be slowed down by the maze of unknown obstacles. Once we get up there, we find that Protoss device, shut it off, and blow this place sky high!" I suggested. Trunks nodded at this idea and followed me back up the stairs, both of us running as fast as we could.
A/n: I feel the need to point out that the majority of you may have missed something a few chapters ago. I'm not going to say what it was, but it can be considered a very clever cover up. If you caught it, good for you for noticing. But I seriously doubt that you did. On the other hand you can just stay tuned and let it work itself out, and then slap your head wondering, "How in the hell did I miss that?"
No preview this time either.