"Battle Force 5! A Storm Shock is opening," Sage said through the intercom.
Vert groaned and pushed himself off the bed, having spent most of the night awake. He got suited up and ran into the Hub to meet the others. Doing a quick head count, he said, "Ok. Agura, Tezz, Zoom and Stanford, let's get going." He leapt into the Saber as he spoke. "Put the pedal to the metal guys!" He sped off.
Stanford made an annoyed grunt as he climbed into Reverb. "Are you sure I can't trade with someone else?"
"You'll have plenty of time to sleep when we're done, Stanford," Agura quipped from within the Tangler.
Tezz left shortly after her. Zoom watched the copper blur speed away with a brief yawn. "Nothing like a fresh, hot battle first thing in the morning," he said, starting up the Chopper. "C'mon, Stanford, I'll race you." He rode off after the others.
"No fair, I'm not well rested." He slammed the pedal hard and dumped the clutch, rocketing after him.
The five of them drove through the desert, heading towards the whirlwind. Zoom whooped and yanked the throttle, flying headlong into the portal.
"Glad to see someone got some sleep," Vert said with a laugh. He went in after him, Stanford, Agura and Tezz in tow.
They emerged on a metal bridge and stopped to take in the surroundings. A sort of city spread out as far as they could see, the structures made out of black metal with green and blue highlights in the form of windows and odd markings. It wasn't too unlike the Sark home world, though with a noticeable lack of Zurk running around.
"Looks abandoned," Agura supplied. Most of the buildings had collapsed or were missing large sections. It made her think of a lost battle. The bleary gray sky supported her claim.
"That doesn't mean there's no ghosts running around. Tezz, do you have anything?"
"Funny how now you realize my scanners could be useful to you," he remarked whilst working on his console.
"You're not seriously still mad about that, are you?" Vert wasn't in the mood for grudges. "Listen, you of all people should know why I had to leave you behind."
"Me of all people also knows that, had you let me come with you, you wouldn't have chased down a civilian. The Key is thirty clicks South from here." He drove off without waiting.
"And I thought Spinner was petty," Agura commented.
"Zoom, a little recon?" He rubbed his forehead to relieve some of the tension.
"On it." The scout found a broken section of bridge and rode off, bike shifting into flight mode.
"C'mon, guys." Vert led them in the direction Tezz went, doing a visual sweep of the area every few seconds. They may have been hard to spot from below but the bridges didn't go higher than most of the buildings and had no overhead protection. They'd be easy targets if they stayed put.
Splitwire came to a stop at what looked to be the end of the road, the bridge having collapsed. Tezz waited for the others' arrival. "The Key is in that building over there," he said, referring to a massive dome approximately three miles away.
Vert didn't like it one bit. "How's your eye in the sky, Zoom?"
"I got nothing, Vert. The place is dead." He turned around and began to fly back to the others.
"We should go before the Reds or Vandals show up," the scientist offered.
Stanford fought back another yawn. "Tezz is right. The sooner we're done here, the sooner I can get some decent sleep."
"Alright, team, let's go get ourselves a Battle Key." They drove down the debris, most of it solid enough to hold their vehicles. By the time they reached the bottom Zoom had caught up to them.
"It's all clear," he said, sliding to a stop. "No Reds, no Vandals, no nothing."
"I'm not picking up any heat signatures either," said Agura.
Stanford tapped his console. "My sonar's coming up empty too. Weird, you'd think there'd at least be some Zurk or something."
"I don't like this," Vert muttered. Why was it so quiet? "Stay sharp, everyone." He drove to the building while the others followed.
The dome was much more daunting up close. It, unlike the rest of the architecture, was a nondescript gray with no windows or markings. Only a smooth and unmarred shell. The only break in the structure's monotone was the massive doorway leading inside. They entered one by one, lights cutting through the darkness as they traveled deeper in. It just kept going and going, the pathway becoming a gentle spiral into the void.
Agura clicked on the Tangler's search lights when the shadows became almost claustrophobic. After many tense minutes, the team's unease growing as their minds expected increasingly horrific terrors to emerge from the darkness, they reached the end of the incline. They were inside a massive room, the ceiling so high it vanished. There were no windows, no sources of light other than their cars. Every corner she checked turned up devoid of life. Twisted chucks of metal, debris and cobwebs littered the area. Parts of machines and other miscellaneous items were scattered about and weird markings were etched into the walls with frantic strokes.
"This place gives me the creeps." A chill ran down her spine when she saw the Key floating atop an unusual structure. Jagged spikes and strange markings littered the construct, all seeming to point at the Battle Key, whose eerie design matched that of the décor. A dull glow emanated from it.
"These symbols are similar to those of Sentient hieroglyphs, the ones on that structure in particular. But the ones throughout the room... Huh, I do not have any possible matches for what they could mean." They looked like they'd been carved into the metal surfaces by hand.
Vert regretted not bringing the Cortez brothers. Sherman's extended knowledge on the Sentients might have been able to fill in some of Tezz's blanks. Speaking of, he found the scientist getting out of his car to take pictures. He opened his mouth to warn him of the possible danger.
"Is now really the best time for souvenirs, Tezz?" Stanford piped in for Vert. "You must have one heck of a photo album."
"I am taking these photographs in the hope that we can decipher them later. I'm curious as to what they could mean."
"Curiosity killed the cat," Zoom said. He glanced up at the structure. So far, nothing had attacked them. There didn't seem to be any traps; surely they'd have set one off by now. His sensors hadn't picked up anything other than their vehicles. They really were the only ones here.
"What do you suppose this place is?" Stanford questioned. "It looks like some sort of workshop." He eyed what appeared to be an axle and part of a bumper propped up against a table.
"Whatever it is, I don't like it," Vert replied. "Hurry and get your pictures, Tezz. We need to jet out of here before somebody comes knocking."
"I am almost done, just let me-"
Zoom nicked the key from its spot and it stuck to the Chopper with a snap. Something clicked.
"Everyone out now!" Vert ordered when a distant rumble sounded, rapidly growing in volume.
Tezz dove back into Splitwire and reversed just in time to avoid a falling chunk of ceiling.
Zoom yelped and cranked the throttle wide when a particularly sharp piece of the structure fell towards him. He ended up awkwardly maneuvering around obstacles and going up the adjacent wall, flipping mid-air and being one of the first to hit the path leading back up.
The team hightailed it out as fast as they could while the building crumbled around them. They nearly lost control and swerved off the edge several times as the spiral path shook and fell apart in places.
Part of the ceiling's support collapsed just before they could reach the exit, and Stanford launched a few well-aimed shots to keep the area clear. They made it out and drove away as the massive dome turned to ruin behind them.
"That was too close," Zoom panted, still shaky from the experience. He'd gotten quite a few scrapes from falling metal and concrete.
"Somebody certainly hates visitors," Stanford added, looking at the collapsed structure in his rearview. "Can we get out of here before the rest of the place self-destructs?"
"I never thought I'd say this, but I couldn't agree with you more, Stanford." Agura revved the Tangler and they drove back to the Earth portal.
"Why did you grab the Key, Zoom? I was not finished yet." He'd gotten several interesting shots of the symbols, but nowhere near as much as he would've preferred. He hoped he had enough to work on.
"Hey," Vert scolded. "We weren't here for research. The Key takes top priority. If these markings of yours turn out to be something, we can always come back." He got a grunt in response.
The team reached the portal with no further incident and rode through, landing in the desert. They drove back to the Hub.
Tezz checked in with Sage to see if she knew anything of the unusual language, only calling in Sherman when she proved just as clueless as he did.
"It is strange," she said, observing the images before her. "I recognize the writing on the structure that was holding the Key. They are snippets from Sentient lore, though they are not coherently placed. Whoever built the structure did not know what they were doing. As for the markings on the walls, I am unsure as to what they could mean." They were similar to that of her own language and yet nothing like it.
"It looks kinda like certain Earth languages," Sherman commented.
"What, is it French or something?"
"No, Spin. It looks closer to Chinese or Arabic, something with a more symbol-based approach. It's almost like it was mashed together with Sentient hieroglyphs."
"I will run it through a language converter and see if it matches anything," Tezz said, already moving to his lab.
"Did you pick up anymore readings, Sage?" Vert questioned, stepping up to take Tezz's place.
"No. There was no unusual activity, but that does not mean it has stopped. I will notify you the moment my sensors pick up something."
Vert nodded and walked away to do some light maintenance on the Saber. Sherman stayed to run a system check on the Buster with Spinner, while the rest of them went elsewhere. Stanford made a beeline for his room while AJ, Agura and Zoom went to the game room.
The rest of the day went by somewhat peacefully.
A/N: Yes, I am aware that Chinese and Arabic are two completely different languages that look nothing alike. I mention them because the idea is that the markings aren't something letter based. I was trying to make them seem like strangely thought out scribbles that make no sense only if you have no idea how they work to form words. Essentially, the best comparison would be any random made-up alien language you might see in movies or games. Think like Jak and Daxter! There was a language for those games, I'm pretty sure. It's been years but you get the idea. Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk and I hope you enjoyed!
