A swirl of bubbles punctuated the pale lavender fluid, running across the facial armour of the occupant of the pod, and then vanishing upwards.
"The subject's body is adapting well to its new form," Commander Alteil said to the Count, who was staring up at it, "We were able to fit the plating and the hardpoints for the scaled-down Fury CAS armours."
The glowing fluid was again filled by a swirl of bubbles as the vents on the creature's tail opened, expelling the gas.
"And the female?" the count asked.
Alteil turned to the second pod, which was holding a second figure.
"She wouldn't accept the Fury DNA," he admitted, "We had to replace it with DNA we harvested from the Drakus before it managed to flee."
"And the Evolt systems?"
"Both their cores would not accept the Geno- and dragon-type DNA we were hoping to infuse," Alteil said, "However, they did accept the Gil Vader DNA. We've managed to stimulate them into Evolting into their secondary forms… although they only remained in them for a short time. The female… retains her visible female indicators in both forms," Alteil added.
"At least we'll be able to tell them apart even when they both Evolt… Place them into stasis."
"Sir?"
"We do not want them awakening on our journey," the Count explained, "There is enough danger here already without them awakening and potentially destroying the ship… Are the CAS armours for the male ready?"
"Yes, Count."
"Place them beside the stasis unit."
"Of course, Count."
Alteil roared an order, and the lab technicians scurried to place the armours next to the stasis-field generator.
They never got the time to engage the stasis field, however; the modified Whale King rocked as it was struck by a cannon blast from a Blue Sovereign that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. As the Count and Alteil sprinted towards the bridge, the laboratory pod was shaken loose of its anchors. The lab technicians ran to the airlock… making it just in time to avoid the explosive decompression as the cargo hatch was blown clean off. Sensing the loss of atmosphere, the pod slammed closed, but that didn't prevent it from being sucked clean out of the Whale King and into empty space. Unbeknownst to all, it slid into a spatial distortion, vanishing completely from the face of this universe.
Eragon sat staring up at the skies, wondering what to do now that Oromis was gone, and Glaedr closed off from the world.
A shooting star crossed the sky, and Eragon absently wished for some help.
Seconds later, the Rider became aware that the air was heating up, despite the fact that it was a rather cool night, and he could detect no magic.
Eragon looked up, then yelped in shock, as a fireball about two dozen metres across came plummeting down and smashed into the sand that shored the Leona Lake. Eragon winced as flecks of molten glass came within inches of him before stopping. The drop in the Rider's strength was minimal, however, and he slowly made his way forward as the waters of the lake rushed back into place, exploding into steam around the base of the strange object.
Eragon stayed clear of the fiercely bubbling water as Saphira came bounding up beside him.
"Are you hurt?" she asked, eyeing her rider over.
"No, Saphira," Eragon assured her, "I'm fine. Perhaps the slightest bit singed, however," he added, when he touched his belt buckle and had to pull away his hand because it was too hot.
The water around the object had stopped bubbling, allowing the pair to get close. Eragon studied the side of the object, and tapped it with a stone Saphira had scooped up off the lakebed. It rang like metal, and Eragon frowned. It was hollow.
"I feel… strange," Saphira said, shifting as there was a bizarre sensation in Eragon's midriff, "It is radiating heat still… I sense wild magic," she added, giving Eragon an impression of confusion, "It is… touching me. Healing me somehow… but I have no wounds."
Eragon watched in amazement as the pod's surface cooled rapidly, dispersing the heat somehow. Eragon jumped down into the water, but slipped on the smooth glass beneath the water; Saphira caught him before he could fall.
Saphira gently moved him to the side of the object, and something groaned in it. With a bang, a door suddenly opened in it, and Eragon, taken off-guard, was swept inside with the current.
"Eragon!"
"I'm fine, Saphira."
Eragon pushed himself to his feet, only to come face-to-face with two containers filled with glowing lavender fluid. The fluid itself suspended two objects, one in each container, which showed as dark silhouettes beneath the fluid. One of them had glowing blue patches, however, faintly visible even through the strange fluid.
The fluid around the one without the glowing patches bubbled suddenly, albeit slowly, and Eragon sucked on his lip, looking around. The equipment was strange, much of it sparking angrily as water swirled around it.
A slight movement caught Eragon's attention; the two things inside the fluid were shifting, and a pair of glowing eyes wavered on each of them.
The containers hissed, and the fluid drained out of it, revealing the pair. One was armoured in gold and silver, and had a pair of skeletal wings, and the glowing blue panels on her (for she had that all-too-obvious feminine chest) shimmered slightly. The other was mostly black, but sections of his body were stark white. He didn't seem fully armoured yet, unlike the female.
The two pods hissed, then opened abruptly, dumping the two onto their hands and knees. As the male slowly stood, plating Eragon previously hadn't noticed suddenly flew out of the water and hovered around him, before slamming into place over his entire body, except for his chest, which was already armoured. It included a backpack with two arms, fitted with fearsome-looking triple-bladed weapons. Similar blades were fitted to the buckler-like shields he had over his forearms and hands. Different armours also disappeared into his body, as if absorbed. Eragon watched apprehensively as the two flexed themselves and their strange equipment, as if getting used to their bodies.
The female had two tube-like weapons currently attached to her back, although they looked like they could be flipped up and into her grip easily and quickly. Each wrist bore triple blades that extended out beyond her closed fist, glowing sporadically almost like Eragon's own blade Brisingr. The male of course had those strange blades, which spun on their own.
The male paused, before turning to Eragon.
"Where are we?"