Chapter 19 – A Spark in the Dark
As Shala and Naver were being elevated up to Mandark's airship by a hover platform, Shala collapsed onto the floor.
"What are you doing?" – Naver asked, though he was now used to this kind of behavior from Shala.
"Now that I have found my airship… my mission is complete. I can finally let loose." – Shala said leisurely with his eyes closed and hands behind his back.
"Couldn't you wait to do that until we got off the elevator? And anyway, you're saying that for like, the third time. Every time we reach a new camp. Those are your exact words." – Naver replied, staring from the top down.
"Yeah, but this time, it really is over. I get my room back, I get to drink Radicola again, so all's well that ends well."
"Mmhmm. And who do you expect to defend the earth against the Fusions? Cheese?"
"I'm not taking any lip from Mr. "I never asked to fight in this war", dude" – Shala replied.
"Whatever." – Naver shrugged Shala's comment off as the platform reached the airship.
"You know, you forget how you've missed things until you actually get here." – Shala said while looking around the ship. "It's surreal. Though, I'm not used to being able to see Green Maw, the Infected Zone and Dexter's airship from here. And the air is a lot, uh, greener. And the smell of the beach is missing."
"The smell of the beach?"
"Yeah, like the salty summer smell. I was sick of that smell and I never thought I'd miss it, but, here we are."
Naver was looking around while talking to Shala. Everything was new to him, though he knew that he definitely had been here before. Disappointed that nothing seemed familiar, he asked Shala:
"Where to? Let me guess, the soda machines?"
"Hah, what, you think I don't got Radicola at home? Nah, we're going straight to my room. There'sa couple of free rooms on board too, so we can be neighbors. That reminds me, we do gotta see Tetrax about all this. But first, the Radicola."
Naver nodded. Meanwhile, his mind listed all information on a familiar name, as usual.
"Tetrax Shard. Petrosapien. Occupation, bounty hunter, retired. Height 6'6… SHUT UP, ALREADY!" – he yelled at himself in his mind.
"Whoa." – Shala moved his head.
"What is it?" – Naver asked, worried that his outburst might have been out loud.
"You didn't use your powers, did you? Cause I felt them."
"Oh. Not sure. I might have. It wasn't on purpose or anything, though."
"Don't sweat it." – Shala reassured him. It was good nothing happened this time, but Naver realized that accidental outbursts were now possible. He never realized this was gonna be a thing he'd have to pay attention to.
He shifted his thoughts onto what Shala referred to as "the bazaar", which, even though Naver had no way of knowing it, was far less populated than it usually was.
They passed an area of the bazaar which was frequently referred to as the "bot spot". That is, this is where the Dexbots and Mandroids had their shops set up. Their products were always there for a fixed reliable market minimum, though the stock was always running low on the good items. The local Nano Station was also present here, with an assigned Dexbot selling Nano items.
"Oh, shit!" – Shala exclaimed and hunched behind Naver. A couple people stared at them.
"What the heck, dude?" – Naver reacted, though he was used to Shala's occasional eccentric outbursts.
"I just remembered, I owe one of the Dexbots a boatload of money for crashing a DexLabs hovercar." – Shala explained to Naver. They passed the bot spot with Shala using Naver as cover so that none of the Dexbots would recognize him.
"Would you even be able to pay it off with the comms down?" – Naver asked.
"That's a really good question. However, I do not want to find out the answer the hard way. So, I'll play it safe just in case." – Shala explained as they got past it.
They finally reached the living quarters. Shala climbed down the familiar ladder, followed by Naver, who looked around the airship's interior, examining the walls' circuit-looking textures from up close. To Shala's surprise, there were a couple people hanging out in the hallway. Shala glanced at them as he passed by.
"Alright, now it's time to enter my humble abode." – Shala told Naver as they stood outside Shala's door. "Welcome to Casa Shala!" – he said as he pressed the button to open the door. To his surprise, someone was already there. In fact, several people.
"Who're you?" – One of them, a buff guy sitting on the chair, asked. There was a chubby kid sitting on the table. Shala looked towards his bed. There was an older, unshaven guy lying on it with his headphones on, watching something on his NanoCom. The room looked different too – none of Shala's stuff was there. Shala took a step back and looked around the hallway to make sure he got the right door. Yep, third door on the right side, this was definitely his room. So, what gives?
"Well?" – the guy in the room asked.
"Uh… I'm sorry, but this is supposed to be my room." – Shala told him.
"No way! This is our room!" – the kid on the table yelled.
"Nope. This is supposed to be my room. What are you doing in here?" – Shala stepped inside. Naver remained hesitantly in the hallway. "And where's all my stuff? What'd you do with it? My laptop? My parts? My Radicola?"
"Easy there, tiger." – the guy on Shala's bed told him as he sat up.
"Hey, you're wearing shoes in my bed! Get off!" – Shala told him.
"It's my bed, and I can do what I want with it!"
"Who the hell told you guys you could get in here and take my stuff?" – Shala yelled.
"Lay off, okay?" – the jock told Shala. "It was the diamond guy. You got a problem with this, you take it up with him. As for your stuff, we never touched anything, it was like that when we got here, capisce?"
Shala groaned and stormed out of the room. Naver took one last look at the people inside, not even knowing if he was supposed to say something to them, then promptly followed Shala.
Shala angry-walked to the soda machines at the edge of the food court in quick and long-reaching steps, forcing Naver to hurry up to keep up the pace. "First I get my cola, then I'm gonna have a chat with Tetrax." – he mumbled to himself. He scanned the NanoCom against the machine's terminal, pressed the corresponding soda's button and… he heard the sound he's heard a thousand times, the sweet sound of a soda can thumping inside and then getting ejected from the machine.
As Shala was about to catch it, something hit it mid-air at high speed, causing it to be knocked away. Shala turned his head towards where the can landed. It had a single diamond shard pierced right through it, which had caused for the soda inside to explode all over the place, leaking fizz everywhere.
"What the hell?" – Shala yelled and turned to Tetrax, who approached him.
"Welcome back, Shala." – he said with an ironic welcoming smile.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Don't you realize that until we reestablish contact, we've got a limited amount of Radicola left?!" – Shala yelled, ran to the can and picked it up so that he'd drink whatever was left, even if it did lose all of its fizz.
"I see you're taking the situation seriously." – Tetrax said as he watched Shala pick the can up, then with a precise shot out of his fingertip, shot it out of Shala's hand.
"Hey, you could hit me with one of those!" – Shala yelled. Naver stayed quiet, unsure if he should say anything to Tetrax. So far, all he did was follow Shala around like a shadow.
"Then you'd better shut up and not make me do it for the third time." – Tetrax answered. Shala begrudgingly complied, and wiped his hand against his pants, which was all sticky from the leaking Radicola can.
Naver wondered whether he'd be able to catch one of the diamonds mid-air, but it was best not to test his might under these conditions, and it'd be unwise to reveal his powers to a stranger. Probably not a good thing to have piercing diamond shards coming at you at high speed, either. He wondered if Tetrax was like Lieutenant Steel.
"What's with the people in my room?" – Shala demanded to know.
"Oh, that? I had to make sleeping arrangements, and considering you were gone and I didn't know if you would come back at all…"
"And my stuff?"
"It's right here with me." – Tetrax reached behind the soda machine and grabbed a large black garbage bag, then held it out to Shala by its neck.
"My stuff's in there?" – Shala asked.
"Yes. Though, remember one thing, LG Shala. I am not your janitor. I am not your maid. And I am not your mother. Everything in your room I shoved into this bag indiscriminately. Both your belongings, and your garbage. You can sort them out on your own time."
"You WHAT? But there were open cans of Radicola in there, with some of it still inside! My laptop's gonna get damaged! My weapons! And my lab coat will be stained!"
"Stained-er." – Tetrax corrected him.
"That's not a real word in the English language." – Shala told him.
"I don't care. This was a one-time thing. Next time, I'm throwing your garbage overboard." – Tetrax told him menacingly and held out the bag of dirty laundry towards Shala.
Shala held his hand out to grab the bag, but Tetrax pulled it back.
"You can have your garbage back after you do something for me. I have a mission for you." – Tetrax told Shala.
"Oh my god, I just got back!"
"And you're the only one here that I trust to get the mission done." – Tetrax interrupted his whining. "Maybe trust is too much, but I am certain that you are at least capable."
"Gee, thanks for the backhanded compliment."
"The operatives I've been left with on the airship are… not up to task. So, I need your help. As you might already know, the airship's comms transmitter has been damaged. Without it, we have no chance of contacting the mainland, or restoring connection across the Darklands."
"Okaay…"
"Luckily, we have a replacement." – Tetrax told him.
"Where?" – Naver asked.
Tetrax smirked and shook his head towards the side. Naver and Shala looked to the left and realized what he had meant.
"Whoa." – Naver said.
"Seriously? Green Maw? The DexLabs airship?" – Shala protested.
"I'm afraid so." – Tetrax told them, still smirking.
"I'm not going anywhere until I rest up. And I need my Radicola."
"Go ahead, grab a can." – Tetrax told him and turned his arm into a stub of diamond tips, ready to shoot crystals at any moment. The look on Tetrax's face was almost daring Shala to go on and try to get another can. He then blew his finger as if it was a smoking gun and put it down.
"Wait, did you… did you hide behind the vending machine on purpose so you'd ruin my return?"
"I knew this would be the first place you'd come to."
"Well, second. I tried my room first."
"You're going to have to do the mission for me. Until then, you don't get your belongings… and you don't get any Radicola."
"And my room?"
"You want me to evict four people?"
"My room."
"Fine, you'll get your room too. Just do the mission. This airship… no, all of the Darklands are depending upon it." – Tetrax warned Shala.
"Can I come too?" – Naver asked, finally saying something to Tetrax for the first time.
"Who are you? You weren't on Simon's list."
"He's with me." – Shala told Tetrax. "He's up to it, trust me."
"Yeah, you could use backup on this one. You sure you wanna go?" – Tetrax asked Naver. Naver nodded. "If Shala says you can fight, I'm gonna go off his judgement. I'm not responsible for what might happen you, in this case. Shala is."
"I can live with that. So, Tetrax, I hope you're not expecting us to leave now. Can't we at least get a good night's sleep and leave in the morning?" – Shala asked eagerly. "Where are we supposed to sleep, anyway? I don't have my room anymore."
"I know what morning means for you, I'm gonna find out that you're still here tomorrow at 14:00 with no intention of hurrying." – Tetrax mumbled. "Let me see if I can put you anywhere. In the meantime, you tell me everything that's going on down on the island."
"Shala's back!" – Macy shouted as soon as Tetrax, Shala and Naver entered the control room. She ran over and hugged him.
"Uh… I missed you too…?" – Shala asked, a bit shocked by the affection.
"I thought you were DEAD, dude! Where the hell were you?" – she asked him.
"I fell over the edge."
"You fell over the…" – Jim muttered to himself and facepalmed. "Welcome back, LG." – he said politely.
"Nice to see you too, Jimbo. Hey, where's Simon? Don't tell me he escaped with the S.C.A.M.P.E.R.S.!"
"He's out with the Mandroids. Who's your friend?" – Jim asked him.
"Oh, hey. Jim, Macy, this is Naver. He fell over the edge with me. Naver, these are Jim and Macy. Technicians for the airship." – Shala introduced them all to each other as they shook hands.
"Ahem." – Tetrax interrupted. "I believe we were exchanging information."
"Oh, right. Where were we?"
"You were telling me about Huntor's base. I'd appreciate it if you didn't get distracted when talking about vital information."
"Oh, right. Yeah, so this guy, alien huntsman, he's had a base in the underground caves for ages, even before the invasion began. And not only that, he's had these storage bunkers all around the island too. That was where Demongo had me break into, by the way, before the airship went missing. Apparently, he had a chronoton particle in there that Demongo wanted."
"A chro… YOU GAVE DEMONGO A CHRONOTON PARTICLE?!" – Tetrax lost his cool and started yelling.
"Oh my god, three different people have yelled at me for this already! How is that such a big deal?"
"THAT IS AN EXTREMELY BIG DEAL! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW BIG OF A MISTAKE IT IS TO HAND OVER A CHRONOTON PARTICLE TO A DEMON WITH QUESTIONABLE AT BEST AFFILIANCES!" – Tetrax kept shouting. Macy, Jim and Naver shrank into a corner so as to not invoke Tetrax's wrath on themselves. "AS SOON AS YOU RETURN FROM YOUR MISSION, YOU HAUL YOUR ASS TO HUNTOR'S CREST AND GET THE CHRONOTON PARTICLE BACK FROM HIM! I DON'T CARE HOW YOU DO IT, JUST DO IT!"
"That's gonna be a little problematic." – Shala piped up, though not as scared of Tetrax as the other three were. He was somewhat used to Tetrax yelling him on occasion. "You see, Demongo left camp after I gave it to him. He's vanished." Shala saw Tetrax do something like drawing breath (do petrosapiens even breathe?) to get ready to yell some more but he cut him off before Tetrax could speak. "Not to worry, though, I've got a couple of VERY RELIABLE and VERY COMPETENT friends tracking him down."
"I know what your idea of "very competent" means, Shala, so you'll have to forgive me if I want more reliable assurance than that." – Tetrax said flatly.
"It's Jay Zoomringer! You must have heard of him, right? The DexLabs time traveller?" – Shala explained.
"Hm. Yes, I've heard he gets the job done. Fine. But you're on thin ice, LG Shala." – Tetrax said menacingly.
"Well, how the hell was I supposed to know that it was a chronoton particle and I wasn't supposed to give it to him? It's not like I'm up to date on current time travel components! I wasn't even working at Dexlabs when that project was active!"
"What you were supposed to do was to keep Jack in the loop of Demongo's plans. You could have brought the particle here so that I could examine it before handing it to Demongo!"
"But then I'd have to go all the way back to Huntor's Crest and then back again!" – Shala protested. Though, after the piercing look Tetrax gave him, Shala decided not to talk back anymore.
"So. What else of Huntor?" – Tetrax then asked him.
"Well, that's where the survivors of the Providence camp are sheltered right now. Huntor himself doesn't seem to be working against us. He would have preferred to be passive and not take part in the war for either side, but there are apparently these giant worm things around the caves that are trying to dig him out so he appreciates the manpower Providence brought with them." – Shala explained. "So, do you know Huntor?"
"Heard a lot about him from my bounty hunter days. Haven't met him in person, though." – Tetrax admitted.
"So, if nobody knew Huntor had a secret base here… how the hell did we know to call that area Huntor's Crest?" – Shala asked him.
"Oh, that? Yeah, I'm responsible for that. I heard rumors on the bounty hunter forums that Huntor had a hunting resort on a remote island on earth, and that location seemed to fit its description. I muttered the name to myself and someone overheard me and thought I was naming the area, and since then the name somehow stuck. I didn't realize Huntor himself was actually here!" – Tetrax explained it all.
"Well, you can go down and meet him for yourself now. Exchange your bounty hunting stories or your kill counts or whatever." – Shala said sarcastically. "So, are we really staying in the control room for the night?" – he asked.
"That's the state of the housing market in the Darklands right now." – Macy said. "You guys up for a movie night?" – she then asked everyone in the room.
"No, Macy. This is still an emergency situation. And besides that, Shala needs his beauty sleep. He's got a mission tomorrow."
"I don't think he understands what the term "beauty sleep" is used for…" – Shala whispered over to Naver. "Alright, here it is then. But can I AT LEAST get my contact solution?" – he then asked Tetrax. "It's been almost like a week since I've cleaned my contacts, and any more than that and I'll get an infection."
Begrudgingly, Tetrax held out Shala's garbage bag to him. "Only the solution. No funny business, or else I'm personally destroying all the Radicola on this airship. And don't think I'll forget about Demongo. You better hope whoever it is tracking him down does a good job at it."
"Oh, how was your day, Alice? Yeah, it was amazing! I went to the beach, caught some waves, then got trapped in an underground cave system by a demon experimenting with time travel!" – Alice was talking to herself as she made her way forward through the darkness on her hoverboard. Jay was right behind her, but kept silent, as usual.
"I don't know about you, Jay, but I am getting kinda sick of all these cave systems on this island." – she then remarked.
"That's where the Fusion lairs are." – Jay grunted.
Alice shone her flashlight ahead. Nothing but caves, caves and more caves. She tried to check the mini-map to see if it was working this time, but no such luck. Not even an approximation on their location.
"Well, at least we can know it's not a Fusion Lair this time. NanoCom readings say 0% of Fusion Matter infection in the area. Just some plain, ordinary caves."
And in silence, they kept going.
"Okay, can we take a break?" – Alice then asked. "It's been 6 hours and my knees have gotten sore again. Just when I thought the pain from the Fireswamps battle had gone away, too…"
Jay didn't feel tired or sore (or he did, but chose to ignore it), but he knew it was pointless to argue with Alice. It was always pointless to argue with Alice on stuff like that. If he kept pushing her indefinitely, she'd eventually collapse and wouldn't be able to go on further. Meanwhile, these breaks were slowing him down. Why did he agree to let her "tag along" on his mission? For a moment there, he considered leaving Alice behind and keep searching for an exit on his own, but he immediately realized he wouldn't be able to go through with that.
Having considered all that, Jay stopped and sat down. Alice took that as a "yes".
"Pretty chilly in here." – Alice noticed after she sat down. "At least when you're moving, you got the blood pumping through you and you don't notice. Now though, brrgh…"
Seeing as Jay was in his "non-talkative" mood again, Alice sat down, pressed her NanoCom and opened up several folders as different holograms. She opened one of the files, skimmed over the text, and closed it, then moved it from one folder to another. Then a couple times more. Some files she moved without reading, and others she'd take longer to read. Once, she activated the holo-keyboard and added something in before moving. Then she created a new folder, and started moving certain files from all over into this new one. Jay was watching her through the entire process.
"What are you doing?" – he finally asked.
"Reorganizing my research files." – she said without taking her eyes off the holograms.
"Is this the best time for it?"
"It's not that they have to be reorganized or that it's urgent, I just enjoy the process of it."
"You… take pleasure in it?"
"Yeah. I'll probably rearrange it again some other time eventually, in a different way."
"I don't understand the thought process behind this."
"It's not a you thing, my friends don't really get it either. It just feels good to me to catalogue things and sort them by different attributes. Especially, if there's lot of it. I've got hundreds of docs in here. It just feels… soothing."
"If you say so." – Jay shrugged.
"You want to see the files I'm reorganizing?" – Alice asked him, hoping to show off. For a moment there, he didn't respond, and Alice was disappointed, but then Jay moved over and sat down next to her so he could see the holograms from up close.
"See, these are my research logs on various Fusion monsters. A lot are the ones in the Darklands, but not all of them. For example, I examined this one when I was with the Saturdays at Twisted Forest. Look." – she said as she opened one of them, labeled "Bladed Mantis".
At first there was a bunch of stats about the monster, which Alice scrolled down on, and showed him the rest of the text:
"The Bladed Mantis, like it's earth namesake, likes to stand completely immobilized to attack unsuspecting prey. This is made possible through its specific color and texture, which allows it to blend in with a Fusion environment. The body and appendages resemble Terrafuser roots, and-"
"That is interesting." – Jay mumbled. "I imagine it's quite useful in fighting the monsters."
"Yeah. I mean, sure, it's useful for the war, I've got a lot of readers on my Fusion research blog for stuff like this, but I just feel like even beyond that, these monsters… Each creature is a treasure trove of information, ready to be dissected, and it's just so interesting to me."
"And the more you study them, the more files you'll have to keep reorganizing around, right?" – Jay asked with a smile.
"Hmph. Yeah, that too." – she smiled back at him.
After a second, the expression on his face changed. "You keep reorganizing, I'll be right back." – he told her.
"Where you going?"
"To… to the bathroom!" – Jay said as he left. He walked and walked, away from the section of the tunnel where Alice was. Once he felt like he was far away enough, he pressed the "record" button on his NanoCom.
"Fusion War Journal entry 698, May 15th. Me and Alice discovered Demongo's time lab through an underwater tunnel. It had various articles of time travel-related technology, some of which was familiar to me, like the chrono capacitator, which I kept. Before we could conduct a deep investigation, the lair caved in, an act which was perpetrated by either Demongo or Fusion Demongo. We are currently trapped in an unfamiliar cave."
Jay paused, sighed and continued.
"I am conflicted about Alice's involvement in my mission. On one hand, her knowledge of Fusion Monsters, as well as of the Darklands might prove invaluable. She is also a welcome asset in combat. However, it has been a long time since I've let someone be this close to me. The last time this happened… I'm not sure if it is a good idea to keep her around any longer, for both our sakes. I might have to-"
Jay cut off mid-sentence, as he heard footsteps approaching. It was Alice.
"Hey, were you talking to someone?" – she asked, a little bit concerned.
"No." – Jay said with a completely straight face.
"Come on, I'm not deaf. And I'm not blind either, I've been noticing you sneaking off all the time. Come on, spill the beans, what do you get up to?"
Jay tried to keep an emotionless face as he stayed silent.
"I think I know you better to expect you being in league with the Fusions. And the comms have been down for days. So, unless you like talking to yourself while peeing…"
"Alright, alright, I'll tell you." – Jay finally cracked. "But you can't tell a soul about this. I mean it." –he said intensely. "I keep a Fusion War Journal."
"You keep a diary?!"
"It's a Fusion War Journal!" – Jay corrected her.
"Suuuure."
"This way, in case I die and someone finds me, they'll know what my mission was and hopefully, they'll carry it on."
"Okay, okay, you didn't need to keep it a secret from me, you know." – Alice told him.
"It's supposed to be private." – Jay mumbled.
"Well, you needn't worry about that. In case you do die (which I won't let happen, by the way), you can count on me to carry on your mission!" – Alice told him.
"Hm." – Jay groaned. Alice knew that in this case, it meant approval.
"Would she be up to the task?" – Jay thought to himself. But then he remembered, all those private things he's said about her – if he died and she got his NanoCom, she'd be able to listen to it all. And maybe he'd be dead, maybe he wouldn't be. He was experienced enough to know that not a lot of people stay dead, especially if there's time travel involved. This was something to ponder the next time he was adding an entry to his War Journal, though without the risk of Alice overhearing. Rather than go deeper into these thoughts, he said to Alice:
"Come on, we need to keep moving. We won't find the exit sitting around here."
He summoned his hoverboard, the base of which illuminated the floor, and the light got faintly reflected all around the walls. Alice sighed, activated hers (that didn't light up) and followed.
"How are you on food right now?" – she asked from behind.
"Got a couple bars left. You?"
"Still got a little bit of the stuff from the SACT camp, but we've got another problem. The water. We're running dangerously low."
"We'll have 3 days to get out of this cave, then."
"I'm not risking dying of thirst down here. Listen, there's gotta be an underground river somewhere here feeding the lake that was on the isle. The lake with freshwater. So, keep your ears sharp for flowing water, alright? Especially if we see branching passages."
Jay wanted to say that he always paid a great deal of attention to the sounds around him, but didn't feel like it was worth furthering the conversation, so he simply gave a slight nod.
"Hey, toss me a bar, I'll eat on the way." – Alice told him. Jay got one out of his belly bag and tossed the Piles O' Honey bar to her, then he got another one – the last one, for himself.
Soon after, they noticed that the ground was wet. And they could hear the sounds of water flowing, as well. Indeed, as they kept going, the ground was now covered with water as an underground river could be seen ahead of them. Alice bent down and sipped a handful of water. "It's drinkable!" – she exclaimed. "Let's get to the main river itself, it might be muddied up here."
And so they kept moving forward, now the water being dispelled from under their hoverboards, revealing the ground underneath. Soon, they entered a slightly larger passage, and indeed, the cave river ran through it!
Alice ran up to it and started filling her thermos. Jay examined the chamber. You never know when a potential threat is going to show up in a place like this.
"We've got a problem." – he told her.
"Of course, it couldn't be that easy. What is it?"
"Look around. I don't see an exitway from here."
"Oh… crap." – she sighed in disappointment. A moment of hope, followed by immediate despair.
They both examined every inch of the chamber, but to no avail. The path they came from was the only way that led to this chamber. That, and the river, which came out from a hole in the wall, dropping into a tiny waterfall.
"So what do we do now?" – Alice asked. Jay didn't have an answer. "Are you sure we didn't miss any branching passages along the way?" – she added. Jay shook his head.
"How long is the food gonna last us?" – he then asked.
"I don't know, I only packed enough for a couple days, and I thought I was going overboard with it. This was only supposed to be an afternoon's search and then back to Huntor's, after all. Where are you going with this?"
"We have a supply of water. Without food, we might survive for a couple months. The people on Huntor's Crest are bound to notice where and when did we go missing, and come looking for us."
"That's… only a last resort. We've got to figure out something ourselves!" – Alice exclaimed. They both sat in silence, thinking of what to do.
"There could be fish in the river." – Alice suggested, then looked at the river closely.
"You know how to fish?" – Jay asked her.
Alice shook her head.
"Yeah. Me neither." – he answered.
"We'll throw that into the last resort pile." – Alice decided.
"The river has got to lead out into the ocean, so…" – Alice started spitballing.
"What do you have in mind?"
"What if we sent something along the water? Some sort of message. It might get washed up on the beach, and the search party could find it and know where to look for us." – Alice proposed.
"And what are you gonna send the message with? A note in a bottle?" – Jay asked her, as it was obvious neither of them had waterproof ways of sending one.
"Maybe my NanoCom?" – Alice suggested.
Jay gave it a thought.
"No. I still don't like that idea. They might be too late by the time they send a search party after us. I highly doubt they're gonna be able to dig through that cave-in. They can't carry equipment through the underwater tunnels, if they have any." – Jay decided. "We've got to find our own way out of here."
"Well, the only other way out of here is by swimming." – Alice said, after once again having looked around the cave.
"That's it!" – Jay exclaimed.
"Huh?"
"This river. What if the tunnel it comes from has further air pockets that we can access?"
"Dude! I was kidding!" – she yelled. "Although…" – she thought. She looked at the hole the river was flowing out of, and then the one it was flowing into. "It does seem like the only other way out of this chamber. This is, however, also incredibly dangerous, like, I can't stress it enough how. It's running water this time, not a lake! One slip and your body's gonna get washed up on the beach somewhere, probably."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take. You can follow me if I make it."
Alice watched in shock as Jay stepped into the water and climbed against the current towards the hole the water was coming in from. His hand slipped and Alice's heart skipped a beat, but Jay managed to hang on. One slip and he'd fall, hit his head or something, and probably be taken by the river's current out of the chamber into the other hole.
"Jay, I should do it! I'm better at swimming!" – Alice yelled. Jay, however, did not slow down at his climbing. "And I have a Jump Nano! You're gonna slip and fall!" – she added. Still, Jay paid no attention to her.
"I'm not letting you risk your neck!" – he finally exclaimed, just as he was about to reach the river's source.
Alice watched the river, imagining how the water would drag Jay's body along if he did slip and fall, and how it would lead him into the opening the water went through on the opposite side of the cave. Then, she realized something.
As Jay was right about to dive into the water and climb against the current in an underground hole, he heard Alice shout "I know a better way!"
"Huh?" – Jay looked back, and in that moment his hand slipped, he let go of the wet rocks and the flow of the water pushed him back down as he fell into the river, just as Alice had imagined it. She quickly grabbed him and dragged him out.
"We redirect the water into the tunnel we came from." – she told Jay as he was coughing out the water. "That way, the river goes somewhere else, and the hole it was flowing into until now gets freed up."
Jay was still coughing.
"You okay?" – she then asked him, concerned.
"Fine." – he managed to grunt between coughs.
"Of course you're not letting that bother you. Alright, if you're fine, up you get. We've got a dam to build."
Alice and Jay watched their newly built dirt dam redirect the water into the passageway they came from, thus leaving the hole in the ground free to explore.
"Okay, I'm not sure how long this thing will last, we've gotta go in and find a new passage quickly." – Alice told Jay as they quickly climbed into the hole in the ground. "Worst comes to worst, this gets us out into the ocean again, or the lake on the isle."
"We've been going for hours, I think it's gonna take some time to get us there." – Jay told her.
"That's true too." – Alice agreed. "Oh, and one more thing. Conserve the oxygen we're getting in that tunnel. Even without the water, it's barely wide enough for us to fit in. Trust me, you do not want to waste your breath in there."
They crawled and crawled. They were making progress, but only at a snail's pace. Then, Alice got the idea to activate her hoverboard and lie on her stomach on it, then push herself forward. That was much faster and easier, so Jay did the same thing. Though, their backs were now rubbing against the top of the narrow hole.
"It's not gonna cave in, you're not gonna get stuck." – she kept repeating to herself. "I wonder if there's enough air for us here." Then, she heard running water again. "Hey, is it me, or is there a stream of water here now?" – Alice asked him as she noticed water flowing under her, repelled into drops in every direction by the hoverboard. "Crap. Crap, oh crap." – she muttered to herself. "We gotta get a move on, the dam's gonna give any minute now!"
It was true. They could now hear water flowing behind them.
"Jay?"
"I'm going as fast as I can!"
The water was coming, Alice could feel it rising. Then, the water of the river came in with full strength. At first it got dispelled in 2 directions by the hover module of Alice's hoverboard, but that wasn't enough as it overtook first Alice and then Jay. They were completely submerged and flowing forward. Alice was about to accept the fact that her death would be due to drowning, not suffocating, but then…
"GASP!" – she felt air around her face and got to breathe in before she was surrounded by water again. There was air up there! So she tried to swim up again, but before she did, she felt around the water for her hoverboard. She couldn't grasp it. She was gonna keep looking, but something dragged her out of the water and onto the ground. It was Jay!
"Are you alright?" – he asked.
"My hoverboard! Huntor's gonna kill me!" – Alice told him. Jay, who had already de-summoned his hoverboard back into his NanoCom, jumped right back into the river to get it back. Alice looked around. Now they were in a bigger chamber than before, so there might be a way out after all. She got up. She was dripping wet, and if before she was cold, now she was freezing. She started doing jumping jacks to get warmed up as she watched Jay swim back ashore, with Huntor's hoverboard in hand.
"What are you doing?" – Jay asked, who was as wet as her, but didn't seem to mind. He put Alice's hoverboard down on the ground.
"Fuh-fuh-freezing c-cold." – she told him.
"Oh. Okay." – he said.
"I'm seriously impressed and jealous, and a little bit concerned over the level of stubbornness you display against the raw elements of nature." – she told him after. "The wind, the rain, and the cold? Is there anything that can stop you?"
"I'm not gonna let anything stop me from protecting the earth." – Jay told her dutifully.
"Yep, I'm sure many have tried. So, uh… you want to keep going?"
"Maybe we should let ourselves dry off first." – Jay suggested. Then he took off his jacket, lied down on the ground and started doing push-ups.
"Now?" – Alice asked, bewildered at Jay's dedication to keeping in shape.
"What? I'm warming up, just like you." – Jay said effortlessly as he kept going up and down.
"Whatever happened to not being affected by the elements?" – Alice asked him.
"I may not care, but my body… well, that's another thing. Imagine if after all this time hypothermia is what gets me. So yes, I'm warming up, just like you." – Jay answered casually.
After a short while, the two of them were down warming up and sat down opposite each other to rest and to let their wet clothes dry, at least for a little bit.
"I never took you for a surfer girl." – Jay decided to break the silence.
Alice realized he was talking about earlier. "It was my way of letting out steam." – she explained. "During the school year, I was overloaded with school, private teachers, extra curriculum, special exams… Only had one hour to rest or hang out with friends or stuff like that."
"An hour a day? I don't think that sounds too bad."
"An hour a week."
"Oh."
"Yeah. I only had one way to unwind. But then every summer, for six weeks, I was no longer Alice Quickfeet, repressed overworked student, I was a grom at Surfer's Paradise, riding waves at the water frontier. That was probably the only thing that carried me through the rest of the year."
"Must have been… great. I mean, it was terrible that you had to… overwork yourself, but…"
"Yeah, it was amazing. A single surfing session was enough for me to unwind nine months of stress… So, you see, I know how feels is to dedicate almost every single second of your life to something. To lose your sense of self in it. You need some "you time" every once in a while, to ground yourself. Else, it's like you're a hollow person. A shadow of who you could be." – Alice went on, hoping to sway him this time, at least.
"I'm glad that you are concerned for my well-being, Alice, but this is something the entire space-time continuum might be affected by. I can't let myself loosen up like this. A single mistake is all it would take." – Jay answered, though it was easy to tell that saying this was hard for him as well. He sighed. "I need you to promise me that you'll let me carry on with my mission the way I've been doing. No more… surfing lessons or anything like that."
Alice stared at him with concern, though Jay avoided her gaze. "I wish I could, Jay, but I can't stand watching you be like this. You're becoming a shell of a person, and it's hurting you."
"That's a burden I'm willing to carry." – Jay said grimly, though avoiding her eyes. "If it means that no one else has to get hurt…"
"And what about when your burden hurts the ones close to you?"
"I…"
"I can help you carry it."
Jay finally managed to look into Alice's stare. Even though the cave was only illuminated by their NanoCom flashlights, that was enough for him to read into what she was thinking. All she wanted was the best for him, and yet, he couldn't care about himself, and he could see in her longing eyes that that was hurting her… He realized his entire body was shaking, and it wasn't from the cold or the river. It was that feeling again, the one that's been coming and going, the one he's been trying to repress. Ever since the beach… no, since the RV… hell, way before that, too. He stared back and read in Alice's eyes, shining like diamonds, that that feeling was with her too. He didn't know what to do, her face was so close…
And then she leaned in.
That feeling got stronger, it took control of his body, and even though he was seeing it all in slow motion, he couldn't stop it. Slowly, while breathing heavily, he found himself leaning in too. And as they kissed, a thousand different feelings rushed through his brain at the same time, each of them screaming a different color, each of them telling him something else, and Jay had no idea what to make of any of this. This was his first time, after all. The only thing he knew was that it was supposed to feel good, and it did. But with that, he could see the feeling of guilt, slowly overtaking the others. He wasn't supposed to feel good. But after all this time, this actually happening – it felt like a dream. One that's come true.
He couldn't tell how long has it been going on. Hell, he forgot that he was in a dark underground cave. He felt like he was drowning again, but not from the water this time, but rather, he was forgetting to draw breath. And though this should have lasted forever, the guilt persisted.
He pulled away.
"Wow." – he said while breathing heavily. "I can't believe you did it."
"Yeah." – Alice agreed, also breathing heavily. "I can't believe I did that, either."
Jay gulped. Despite (or maybe because of) the shock, he realized that he had a huge grin on his face that couldn't get rid of. He felt like an idiot. He could only hope that the darkness of the cave obscured this stupid expression. Then, he looked at Alice, who was looking at him eagerly, but also anxiously. She was clearly waiting for his answer.
"I…" – he started a sentence, but realized that he was at a loss for words. "This is… too much, I can't tell you now, okay? I mean… goddammit, sorry, I can barely talk." – Jay felt embarrassment for the first time in a long, long time. He looked at Alice, and she had the same goofy smile on her face that he had, which was clearly visible in the dimly-lit cave. Her wet blonde hair was shining almost like silver in the reflected light. "I just… need to process this, alright?" – he asked, hoping that she'd understand.
Alice laughed lightly, still a bit nervous. "It's okay. You can tell me when you're ready. In the meantime, we can keep trying to get out of here."
Jay gave a sigh of relief. Though, why was he relieved about it? This was obviously going against everything that his mission entailed until now. Becoming too close to someone. Putting them in danger. That already had ended badly for him once. And yet, the joy he felt almost made the risk worthwhile. God, this whole thing was so stupid…
Finally, Jay pulled himself together. Whatever feelings he might have gone through just now, they couldn't distract him from the mission. The mission always came first. He got up.
"Come on. We need to keep moving." – he told Alice bluntly, though he had to make a slight effort not to break his voice.
Alice had a slightly delayed reaction. It seemed like she was contemplating the whole thing, too. But then she got up and followed him. Jay had a point – the still didn't know if they were gonna make it out alive from there or not.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" – Alice thought to herself as she followed Jay throughout the winding tunnels. "Why did I do that? Of course, he's not ready for it! I wasn't fucking ready for it!" – she thought, arguing with herself. "It was a spur of the moment thing… come on, Alice, you're supposed to be more balanced than that! God. I wonder how Cindy's gonna react to all this."
The winding tunnels were going on and on, and the darkness didn't seem to want to let them go. Alice wondered how far they had made inland so far. She couldn't even tell the direction they were heading in anymore. They could be under the Fireswamps just as well as under Huntor's Crest.
If it were the Fireswamps, the large, interconnected tunnel system there would surely cross over with this one, leading them to an exit. However, there was a high likelihood of meeting the monsters she had dubbed "Undertaker Worms" as well. She had seen them murder two Providence Agents when they were stuck in the caves before. Though, seeing them again would provide an excellent opportunity for research as well.
However, the soil around them looked nothing alike the Fireswamps. There, it was sandy, red-hot and burned, not to mention sometimes on fire. The caves they were in now were the complete opposite – dark, damp and a bit muddy.
After a while, the tunnel led them to another wide chamber. This one held a variety of branching passageways. Alice was ecstatic – one of them HAD to lead to an exit, right? She counted nine total, excluding the one they had arrived in. She and Jay stopped to look around.
"You got anything to mark the tunnels we've been through before with?" – she asked him.
Without a word, Jay drew his Couture Rifle and shot at the wall next to one of the branches, leaving an extremely visible imprint from the blast in the wall. Silently, Jay went into the tunnel, and Alice followed.
Though Alice was exited at the multitude of possibilities, one by one they all ended in disappointment.
Tunnel #1 was a dead end almost immediately.
Tunnel #2 circled back to tunnel #4 as it led Alice and Jay into the same large chamber.
Tunnel #3 started out strong, but slowly started descending and descending and eventually it was so low that neither of them could even crawl through. "After all these caves I know what claustrophobics must feel." – Alice said to herself, hoping to warrant a response from Jay, but it never came.
Tunnels #5 and 6 both ended up being dead ends as well.
Tunnel #7 opened into another wide chamber, though this one went into an extremely deep ravine with no other passageways. They shone their NanoComs' flashlights down, and not even they could reach the bottom. Without another word, Jay walked to the edge, bent down and started climbing down.
"Uh, Jay?" – Alice asked, disbelieving that he would really attempt this. Her voice echoed around the chamber. Jay didn't respond.
"Jay, you can't seriously be trying this passage of all the ones, are you?" – she asked and paused, hoping Jay would answer. He remained silent.
"You're gonna slip and fall into the bottomless pit of death! It's certainly not gonna get us any closer to the surface! Don't you want to at least try to check out the other passages first? We had like 2 left." – Alice told him. By now, Jay wasn't even visible unless you looked down over the edge.
Alice heard Jay sigh, which was echoed as well, then he climbed back up.
"Alright. Let's go." – he grunted and went back to the cavern they came from. Alice followed him.
Tunnel #8 split into two, which gave Alice further hope – further tunnels meant more possibilities of an exit, but was disappointed when tunnel #8A looped back into #8B and brought them back to the original chamber.
And thus, only tunnel #9 remained.
For a while, it seemed promising. Even though it went on and on, it didn't immediately stop. And Alice was hoping she wouldn't have to go back to the ravine. Though, she was worried about Jay.
Jay had barely muttered a word since their… exchange. And since then, the awkward, silent tension between them was back, and stronger than ever. Alice was hoping Jay wasn't mad at her, just like then, though that seemed unlikely.
"Alright, this was a highly emotional event for him." – Alice tried to rationalize it. "I say that as if it wasn't highly emotional for me, too. But the point is, he's been emotionally depraved and touch starved for the past year. That's gonna take a while to get over and think through. He did say he needed time to think about it." – Alice thought, and patiently awaited the moment Jay would be finally ready to talk.
Suddenly, they stopped. Something was different about the cave now. The surroundings had taken a slight tint of green. They turned their flashlights off, Jay deactivated his glowing hoverboard, and indeed – some sort of green light was irradiating the tunnel. They kept going, and it wasn't long before their assumption was proven. In front of them lied a Terrafuser, glowing the sickening shade of green that they were accustomed to all too well. It was funny, for a while there, Alice had forgotten that this was what awaited them outside the cave, which in less than a day managed to encompass her whole world.
"Infection's spread down here." – Alice remarked. Jay nodded slowly.
"You know what this means, right?" – Alice asked him. "We've GOT to be somewhere near the surface. This can't have run that deep. This tunnel might actually be our ticket out of here."
"You think this could lead to a Fusion Lair?" – Jay asked.
"Maybe. But hey, that means that there's DEFINITELY an exit from there somewhere." – Alice assumed.
Without another exchange, both of them activated their hoverboards again and kept moving on. At least the tunnel was interesting to look at now. Terrafusers of all kinds of shapes and sizes passed by, as the cave's level of infection increased. They were also more alert – a Fusion Monster could have popped up from here at any time.
Soon, the infection got so severe that they were hovering over a puddle of Fusion Matter now, which encompassed the entirety of the floor. And to their terror, the cave's ceiling started getting lower and lower, just like tunnel #3. Soon, they had to lie down on their hoverboards to be able to move forward at all. Though they had an understanding – better this than the ravine.
Eventually, they had to stop and turn back.
"There's not enough oxygen in a tunnel this narrow. We're gonna drown, or suffocate, or get dissolved in Fusion Matter immediately." – Alice told him.
"You'd rather we go back to that ravine?" – Jay retorted. That was obviously the least favored option. "Well, what else do you propose?" – he asked her.
Alice had to think. "Well, all the other tunnels are out of the question… Even the ravine. But there's one we haven't considered yet." – she looked at Jay, who was listening intently. "We go back to the very beginning, the tunnel with the river, you know, the one where we…" – Alice was saying, but she chose not to finish that sentence. "And we try to build another dam and go further along the river's route. But there's no guarantee we're gonna find another cave in there before the river catches up to us." – she explained.
"So we might as well drown either there or here." – Jay finished the sentence. "Hm. And here, there's the additional risk of getting dissolved in Fusion Matter."
"Wait…" – Alice said, and examined the Fusion Matter closely. "This isn't… pure Fusion Matter. That's… a Fusion Matter/water solution!"
"So?"
"So, it's less corrosive than just Fusion Matter. I mean, sure, normal water is still safer, yes, but I have a hunch on where exactly we are right now. I think this might be our best option after all." – Alice concluded. "Because there's no telling when are we gonna find another air pocket down that river, but this, this definitely has to be close to the surface." – she explained. "Just keep your Heal Nano out, just in case." – she then added.
Once again, the two of them lied down on the hoverboards on their backs, and went deeper into the tightening tunnel filled with Fusion Matter. Jay had his Nano Rook at his side. Soon, the tunnel was so low and narrow that they couldn't fit in it at all, and they had their chests pressed against the ceiling. They had to push themselves down a little bit, while the hoverboards tried to push up, causing more Fusion Matter to spray in all directions around them, including onto their bodies. Though, both Alice and Jay ignored it.
It was getting harder to breathe as they only had centimeters of space between the ceiling and the Fusion Matter. Thankfully, they didn't have to submerge themselves just yet. Then, the strangest thing happened – the Fusion Matter started rising all around them, and distributed itself evenly along the walls of the narrow tunnel of the cave. All around them, even on the ceiling, but strangely, not touching them. Alice wanted to point it out, but they barely had enough oxygen to breathe, much less to speak, and Jay, who was right behind her, would notice this without her saying anything. At least this way they had a couple more centimeters, though.
Soon, Alice saw something up ahead. Something green. Granted, the whole Fusion Matter spiral around them was green, but the thing ahead, that was a different shade. Just a few more meters, and they'd reach it. Just a little bit further and…
Alice was out! She felt the fresh air! She could see the wide space all around her! But then her hoverboard started wobbling and Fusion Matter started getting dispelled in all directions. Alice looked around. She was in an Infected Zone! You can't have hover vehicles activated in an Infected Zone! So, immediately, she jumped onto a patch of land and disabled the hoverboard. Soon, Jay came out right behind her, and Alice quickly told him to do the same.
"WE'RE OUT!" – she then exclaimed joyfully.
"We're out!" – even Jay said triumphantly. Suddenly, unexpectedly, impulsively, they hugged each other in joy, joy that they were out of those narrow caves, joy that they wouldn't die down there, joy that their quest would continue, but then they realized what they were doing and immediately broke off. This was extremely awkward.
Alice looked around. They were in an Infected Zone, with a huge body of Fusion Matter right in front of them. This was obviously the Lake Green Maw. Various destroyed tanks, S.C.A.M.P.E.R.S. or other vehicles were floating around in the air. Alice looked at the place they got out of the tunnel from. There was an extremely narrow gap between the ground and the Fusion Matter that didn't seem to lead anywhere. Well, until now, it didn't. Alice smirked.
They heard an extremely loud explosion. Both of them looked up – it came from the DexLabs airship that remained in the Infected Zone ever since the Battle of Hero's Hollow. Alice and Jay darted their eyes all over it, trying to find the cause, but then, something inexplicable happened – the front end of it started descending, soon followed by the rear end.
The DexLabs airship was falling down.
End of Chapter 19.
Extract from Alice Quickfeet's Fusion Monster research log:
Miasma Hulk
Fusion Matter type: Adaptium and Blastons
Power Level: 30
Boss: Master Miasma Hulk
Height: 6'-7'
Boss height: 7'6''-9'
Weight: 600-800 lbs.
Boss weight: 900-1200 lbs.
Special attacks:
Eruption: yes
Corruption: all 3
Stun
Description:
Miasma Hulks are a monolithic mass of lava, charred rocks and molten metal. They have no head, as their face lies on their body. Their appendages are often adorned with metal chains that they use in battle.
Behavior:
Miasma Hulks roam the Firepits, almost always in groups of three and four. The fourth one, in this case, is the Master Miasma Hulk, who acts as their leader. On the occasion of disobedience, the Boss isn't afraid of using violence to instill compliance in the other monsters. However, unlike most other monsters, the groups of three and four are not set in stone and the Hulks often swap members freely, just like their Fireswamps counterparts (I suspect they don't even realize it, because they don't seem to be able to tell each other apart). The single Hulks that are left without a group is often a product of these swaps that can't find a two-person group to join into. It's actually kinda sad.
The main thing that sets the Miasma Hulks apart from Magma Hulks is their relationship to metal. They like the remains of man-made objects, such as the field of broken-down Dexbots. Using their extremely high body temperature, melt the metal these Dexbots are made off and consume it, which is what accounts for their metal composition. They also somehow manage to smith the shackles they are wearing, which they use in battle. They haven't figured out other, more effective tools to develop, though. However, they aren't as environmentally aware as the Magma Hulks.
Fuson Control dispels any and all hierarchy and groupings the Hulks might have, and the entire collective becomes a unit. There is no disobedience expressed whatsoever.
In battle, besides swinging their shackles around, they are able to generate and throw fireballs at people. This makes them extremely hard to approach because of the long range of their attacks. However, if you do manage to get in, finishing it off from up close is much easier than the Magma Hulks.
Area spread: Firepits and Fireswamps, especially around ruins of man-made objects. Though, they tend to avoid the Providence outpost, as they know they'll die before they reach it.
Known Fusions that have controlled Miasma Hulks:
Fusion Courage
Fusion Ed
Fusion Hex
UPDATE: 12/03
Need to see how will the Miasma Hulks react to the wreck of the Providence outpost, and if they realize it's safe to go there, as many precious metals await.