Chapter CVI: Into the depths of Atlantis Part VI

The journey continued on, after the icy terrain the exploration team had all managed to struggle through. Everyone freezing,teeth chattering all trudged together through the deep white icy snow. Finally all of them fortunately had made it back to snow free plains which had more natural and suitable warm temperatures which was a huge and massive relief for everyone.

But for some reason things had become... a little strange to Nozomi Riku and Mickey, though there were no obvious real reasons for this. For the exploration team itself and the keybladers themselves hadn't seemed to of changed, but there was something a little different about Rourke, though he had the same strict commanding tone and military discipline, he always carried he had gained this rather arrogant smirk. However everyone had already seen this smirk on him numerous times, this one seemed more sinisterly devious in some ways but not paying this too much attention to this no one was thinking too deeply about it they all simply got on with their duties.

Riding on the back of one of the trucks Nozomi (with Cait sith on her back still still not having woken up), Riku and Mickey all sat together while Milo was at the front in the passenger seat pointing out their way forwards and onwards as they continued on the long and winding path.

Nozomi sitting inside watching the dark scenery through the open canopy was getting restless and so bored with this mundane routine of duties. It felt like as though all this travelling was leading them no where fast at all! So speaking up her frustrations she spoke as her back fell onto the trucks metallic surface, "man this is taking way too long! When are we going to get to this Atlantis place anyway!"

Hearing her Riku responded rather bored himself, "how should I know? The only one who does is Milo."

Listening as he stated the obvious Nozomi responded, "yeah thanks a lot! As if I didn't know that all ready!" She then turned her face away from him as she turned her attention to Mickey instead as she asked, "your majesty?"

Hearing his title being called Mickey turned as he asked her, "yeah Nozomi?"

Glad that she'd gotten his attention she proceeded with her question, "has Milo told you how far we are from our destination? Because it just feels like its taking forever."

Quiet for a moment after she'd finished her question Mickey told her, "well true, I can't argue with ya there Nozomi, it is takin' a long time with these here vehicles that pretty much is obvious but..."

Listening to him and hearing him trailing off like this at this one moment Nozomi looked at him as she pulled herself back up right, quiet herself as she saw him looking into the distance she encouraged him to continue on as she said, "but?"

Hearing her Mickey finished, "well, we're not too far from our destination apparently there's only a couple of obstacles and then that's it."

At the sound of this information Nozomi was pumped straight back up again as she replied, "well that's great then! I mean I'm dying to see what this ancient place is like and also-

"But," cutting her off Nozomi quietened down in seconds as she looked on with a puzzled expression as Riku too looked at the king himself as he saw their royal advisor had a serious expression on his face, they then both listened as he said, "there's something that's been bothering me."

Hearing this surprised that he hadn't caught onto it Riku asked,"what is it? Mickey?"

Quiet again for a moment Mickey then told him and Nozomi,"I'm just wondering why we haven't seen any heartless since we've been here."

Then really surprised themselves Nozomi and Riku hadn't even thought about that since they'd arrived in this world! Recovering after a few moments Nozomi responded first as she said, "um... I don't know? Well... isn't it just because we haven't seen Pete here?"

At this Riku responded, "that's true, but then would they appear in such an ancient and abandoned place like this? There are no other hearts for them to prey on except ours."

Mickey hearing both replies nodded as he replied himself, "true on both counts, but you're wrong on one thing I think there Riku."

Hearing this reply the white haired keyblader repeated, "wrong?"

To which the king nodded as he told him, "correct, because I don't believe that we're alone in this place."

As the king said this Nozomi asked then, "wait your majesty you've seen-"

However at that point suddenly they came to a halt as the truck stopped causing a slight shake, surprising everyone Riku asked, "huh?What's going on why have we stopped?"

Now really curious forgetting what she was about to say Nozomi quickly hopped out of the truck to see what was going on, while Riku too was just as curious hopped out but waited for Mickey and as he did the mouse king looked upwards into the distance as he seemed to stare at something in the darkness.

Seeing him looking he asked, "your majesty what're you-" but suddenly Riku looking where the king was staring to saw some kind of movement in the darkness of the cliff edges, though it was a brief sight, there was definitely something there. But what was it?

Meanwhile running over herself with Cait sith still on her back in his backpack mode Nozomi saw that Milo, Audrey, Sweet and the others all standing together and approaching she could see clearly why.

Across the path was a huge crumbled wall it was so enormous in fact that there was no way to even climb over it, since it was so smooth over its surface with only some few horizontal patterned lines across.

Looking at it Nozomi wasn't even sure she could cross it with her own power, but walking over still amazed she stopped standing behind Milo and next to Audrey as she entered the small gathering of seven other people, with her adding and making it eight (nine if you included the unconscious Cait Sith).

She then listened quietly as Rourke spoke up, "looks like we have a little road block," to which Nozomi thought to herself, 'well that's completely obvious ain't it?'

But watching on she saw Rourke turn to Vinny as he continued to look up at the huge wall, he then asked the demolitions expert, "Vinny what do you think?"

Hearing his commander asking for his opinion he immediately gave his evaluation as he squinted his left eye measuring up the huge obstacle, " I could un-road block that if I had about two hundred of these," to which he pointed to the stick of dynamite in his left hand, but he made a further calculation "problem is I only got about..." he then calculated on his free right hand what he had in his explosive inventory, "ten!" Then Vinny looked into his satchel while Rourke looked on with annoyance at this evaluation, he then took out what he had on himself as said, "plus five of my own and a couple of cherry bombs, road flare."

Listening to this odd... list Nozomi spoke up, "well how are we supposed to get across that thing then?"

To which Vinny looked to her and Milo as he made a little joke with his own sly wit, "well if we just had some Nitro Glycerin, that'd make a big enough boom, hey? Milo? Little lady?"

Hearing this blank for a moment Nozomi looked really annoyed just as Milo became as she cried out, "hey!" To which at once Mole burst out laughing loudly and madly, Nozomi had to restrain herself from bashing him over the head again with her keyblade as she looked at his annoying face.

Mickey and Riku then finally made their way over to see what was going on and hearing the laughter they both wondered what had caused this? But Rourke was getting a little tired of this foolishness and so knew in moments how to stop this large outburst of laughter, "looks like we're gonna have to dig."

At once hearing this delightful info, Mole brimmed with a huge grin as replied with a positive thumbs up,"it would be my pleasure!"

'Mole digging?' Came across the keybladers minds, this was going to be an odd sight.

After manoeuvring the other vehicles out of the way and of course the other exploration members, Mole began his most loved of loved activities, digging. The machine roared to life in moments and as it did its sharp coned nose immediately dug straight into the wall.

At first as everyone watched on the machine seemed to have a powerful upper hand as sparks flew out left and right everywhere, as everyone watched Nozomi thought to herself in the distance, 'wow! I would never be able to drive that thing!'

Then suddenly at that one moment as though fate reading her mind, problems occurred. The machine though obviously could penetrate through the wall it unfortunately was not doing it to a rough rubbly surface and so the machine had friction obvious from the sparks on the smooth surface. At once the machine got stuck as the cone nose got wedged into the wall.

Mole though undeterred pulled hard on the levers and the wheels as they became tougher to manoeuvre as the sparks flew out left and right in the drivers compartment. Despite his determination though unfortunately the machine couldn't take it and then heaving and breathing, it finally spat out a flood of fire from its rear pipes finally ceasing its drilling.

Coughing and spewing out smoke as it clouded his compartment Mole immediately became annoyed and frustrated as he tried to move the levers again, however to no avail and seeing he could do nothing he called out angered, "work!Stupid! Argh! You are stupid!" As he smacked his head into the steering wheel, angered at his machines muck up and collapse as well as his own inability to stop this breakdown.

Seeing that he had literally screwed up, Mickey spoke up, "well looks like that poor fella's upset."

Riku only shook his head as he would have expected this digging and drilling expert to have known that this would have had happened on such a smooth surface like this.

Nozomi only nodded quietly as she watched on, then quietly as she did she saw their engineering expert walk across to fix Mole's problem, "there's Audrey's cue," she said aloud though not entirely excited.

Watching from where she was standing Nozomi saw as well interestingly that Milo too followed behind Audrey as she pulled off the boot covering revealing the boiler and engine which brimmed out with dark smoke.

She then looked on and saw Audrey seemingly dive in as she started throwing various nuts and bolts out behind her as Milo dodged out of the way by ducking down. As she did this Nozomi thought to herself annoyed, 'she should watch where she's throwing those things!' But as she watched on she wondered to herself as she asked Riku, "what do you think she's doing?"

Hearing her ask this question Riku replied in his honest dry manner, "how would I know? Do I look like an engineer to you?"

As he replied like this Nozomi simply replied, "nope" as she rolled her eyes expecting no less from old snowball.

But then as she turned her eyes back again to watch she saw that Audrey had to head away for some reason, probably to help fix the machine. But then as she went away she saw that Milo was doing something, though he was looking over his shoulder cautiously obviously not wanting Audrey's wrath.

Nozomi became curious what was he doing? Suddenly then he pulled out a wrench and hit something and as he did the machine immediately sprung back to life as first the dead dark smoke was quickly replaced by lighter grey smoke, Mole seeing the wondrous effect spoke out, "she lives!"

Really surprised that he had done this Nozomi spoke out, "wow! How did he do that! I thought he was only good at reading maps and translating!"

Mickey spoke up then himself as well as he added, "So did I! There's a lot more things to him it seemed than even I knew!"

Watching further with her amazed eyes Nozomi saw Audrey return, she asked something to Milo and as she did he made an explanation of some sorts as he had a rather smug look on his face.

Audrey listening went to the digger and closed the engine boot and then turning back to Milo she looked ready to hit him as she pulled back her right fist, the linguist pulled himself back not wanting her to hit him.

Nozomi became alarmed in moments as she spoke out again, "hey!" As she immediately went to intervene.

Riku and Mickey watching her leave were silent for a moment but then the white haired keyblader spoke aloud as he rolled his eyes, "she's butting in again."

Mickey in turn simply pulled his arms up as he shook his head with a warm smile as he replied, "that's just who she is."

Running up Nozomi then saw Audrey hit Milo, but it wasn't a violent assault instead it seemed almost playful as she simply hit him gently in his right arm twice with both fists before strutting off leaving Milo to rub his arm hard trying to rid the pain.

This slowed Nozomi's pace, in fact stopping her all together as Audrey walked past her, but before she left her range of vision she asked her without turning around an annoyed expression on her face, "what'd you hit him for?"

Audrey stopping for a moment then told her annoyed, "why don't you just go and find out from boy wonder yourself!" With that she walked off.

Standing still for a moment Nozomi wondered to herself, 'what was her problem?' But then she simply walked forwards towards her main focus, arriving finally before him as he still rubbed his arm a little painfully still she asked, "are you okay Milo?"

Hearing her he looked at her and quickly regained his composure as he simply folded his arms with a positive smile hiding the ache he replied, "oh hey Nozomi! Uh yeah! Yeah, I'm fine, I'm fine no problem here!"

Smiling relieved that Audrey hadn't done anything too severe, she replied, "that's good!" With that she turned to look at the back of the drilling machine and seeing the smoke again she asked, "how did you fix this thing? Do you have some experiences with machines or something?"

Hearing her ask this question Milo told her his confidence growing, "something like that! You see where I used to work in the museum, the boiler in this big boy is a Humac model one P fifty four circuit A thirteen, and where I work we had the A fourteen model." Clearly enjoying being able to show off his keen knowledge of boilers, he took a deep breath as he then continued, "and you see the heating core is a whole Humanic line and they've always been a little, "Milo then indicated with his right hand a wavering motion to indicate the temperament of the machine before concluding, "so sometimes you have to give it a little boom to persuade them a little." Milo then finished as he punched his right hand into his left indicating what he meant by a little boom.

Nozomi was silent listening with a slight baffled look on her face, as half of what of Milo had said had gone completely over her head, but at the very end she understood what the boom meant as she realised that was when he used the wrench on the engine. So finally she replied, "ah, okay! Well... I didn't get all of that but it's amazing what you were able to do there! Well done Milo, its good to see you've got multiple skills, they've really come in handy."

To which Milo grinned happily really proud of himself at that moment, "well you know I try."

But then behind them both, "okay, okay enough praising there you two! We've got an exploration to get on with!" To which both Milo and Nozomi saw it was Rourke ordering them from one of the trucks.

Hearing him Milo spoke up first, "uh right yeah sorry!" With that he ran forwards first himself.

Then quickly Nozomi replied too, "yeah me too! Sorry sir!" With that she headed back towards Riku and Mickey who were standing before the truck they'd been travelling in.

But as she ran forwards she bumped into a certain other travelling exploration member who was dressed in a uniform with a long over coat and a gas mask and construction helmet of some kind.

Seeing this she quickly apologised, "oh sorry sir!" Before running off again in the direction of her friends. However unbeknownst to her the masked being shuddered and made an odd hissing sound as his eyes glowed haunting soulless yellow, but no one else would notice since Mole's loud laugh was heard and the trucks all followed slowly behind the driller as they made their way forwards.

It was a long time later in that day (though still no-one could tell when it was night or day anyway), but finally they arrived in front of a huge long bridge stretching far forwards. It was pale grey in colour and all around it was nothing but a sea of darkness flooding everywhere hiding any other possible things that could have been beneath it.

But what was allowing them to see any of this haunting environment they were all in was a simple torch of some kind illuminating everything with a dull green, yellow light. Looking at it it, it was completely and utterly eerie as everyone stared up at it with uncertain eyes.

But as Milo looked up from the 'Shepard's Journal' seeing the resemblance between the actual physical object he was seeing and the illustration inside his book, he then spoke up, "this is it, it's gotta be!"

Everyone was silent as Rourke their commander spoke up, "all right we'll make camp here!"

Nodding at this everyone then began to move to do just that, but still that light was distracting and as it continued to shine on Audrey asked, "why is it glowing?"

Hearing her ask this Nozomi answered, "dunno? It's not electric is it?"

But Mole hearing both these silly little girls replied enlightening them, "not it is not is a natural Phosphorus source."

At this explanation Nozomi replied nodding, "oh!" But then turning quickly to the king she asked, "what's a Phosphorus source?"

Laughing a little as he heard her question Mickey replied, "I'll tell you in a minute Nozomi."

But Vinny then added his own statement as he pointed to the odd object, "that thing is going to keep me up all night, I just know it!"

To which Riku added just an annoyed, "ditto on that." For he was not the type that was able to sleep with too much light shining down on him.

With that all the group dispersed to get themselves set up, but as they all headed off Helga turned to her commander as he had asked her to come and speak to him about a certain something. Finally making her way over she asked, "so what it is it you wanted to talk to me about, Rourke?"

Smiling as she came over he told her, "well you see its a certain little surprise, something which I'm sure will suit us both real well?"

Not understanding what he meant, she watched as he turned around for a moment and pulled something out of his pocket, "now just excuse me a moment I need to make sure of something." It was a small glass like object and with it he shone it in the eerie light and as it did it shone reflection across the darkness and as he flashed it slightly in the darkness suddenly from across the darkness somewhere shone a dark blue light ever so slightly. They'd made contact.

Seeing this Helga asked, "what's that?"

Smiling Rourke replied with that smug smile on his face, "a couple of contractor's... and soon we'll both have everything we want!"

At this it was then Helga listened quietly and keenly to the plot as her greed grew as her own darkness swelled within her own heart... everything would begin from that night on.