81Chapter Twenty Three: Into the Breach
7:43am The Next Day
Nabiki breathed in the crisp morning air as she stepped out onto the concrete of the harbor. She glanced around before taking a long swig from her coffee thermos. She then scanned the area for the place they had designated as their meeting point: hanger 7.
She didn't have to look long, as she quickly spotted it a few hangers down from where she stood. As she got closer to it, she could see that Dr. Tofu was standing outside of the hangers doors talking to a tall pink haired woman wearing a white blouse and a knee length red skirt.
Tofu was wearing what seemed to be a blue and white striped old fashioned bull body swimsuit over which he wore a white lab coat that was fancily embroidered with gold thread. Around his waist was a belt with several pouches. Tofu had a steaming cup of coffee in his hand while the woman appeared to be smoking a black cigarette.
As she neared them, she overheard a small bit of their conversation.
"…until we managed to find and destroy the tapestry, which was ghastly by the way," The woman said in slightly accented Japanese, "Lemme tell you, the governess wasn't very happy that we hadn't only trashed her house but that Kelyme drank her entire stock of wine. We were saved when Rayman reiterated that her chancellor had nearly assassinated her son and that we were the ones that stopped the little natch. That is, until Kelyme busted in like the drunkard he is yelling something about accidentally setting the mansion on fire, so we still got chased out of the building."
"And the chancellor was one of these…" Tofu asked, "beasts?"
"Corrupted by the dark energies within the governess' newly acquired tapestry," The woman nodded, "That's pretty typical. The Miasma likes to hide in unassuming objects like that."
At that point, Nabiki had finally stepped up to the pair, causing them to notice her.
"Ah, Nabiki," Tofu said as she stepped up to him, "Good morning."
"Good morning, Doctor," Nabiki said, "And you, miss…"
"Raven DuCate," The pinked haired woman bowed, "You're Miss Tendo, right? I'm Kyros' mate."
Nabiki quirked an eyebrow at that.
"His what?" She asked.
"Ah, I mean girlfriend… or is it wife?" Raven laughed, "Sorry, your earth lingo is really weird. I'm an extraterrestrial like he is, so you'll have to excuse me if I say anything weird like that. Anyway, their finishing up their preparations inside so they should be heading out soon enough."
Raven extinguished her 'cigarette'; Nabiki could tell whatever in it wasn't tobacco by the smell alone, it smelled… minty; and led them inside.
The first thing that caught Nabiki's eye was the large… aquatic vehicle situated within the flooded dry-dock in the middle of the hanger. It was large, about the length of a bus and twice as wide, and was definitely not made from earth technology. It was streamlined and was made of a matte dark blue metal. She could see Kyros; currently in his more furry form. He was the one person who seemed ill dressed for an underwater journey as he was wearing normal every day clothing; sitting on top of the vehicle shouting something to someone inside. Nabiki couldn't understand what they were saying as they weren't speaking any language she had ever heard, but she could see the head and shoulders of whoever Kyros was talking to through one of the windows of the craft. He appeared to look human, although she couldn't tell from this distance.
Cologne and Shampoo stood just to the side of the craft. They were talking in Chinese as Shampoo was stretching her arms and legs. Shampoo was currently in her three tailed Kitsune form and was wearing a rather racy white bathing suit.
Glancing around, Nabiki quickly saw that Rhys was nowhere in sight.
"Where's Rhys gotten to?" She asked.
"Hmm?" Raven said, walking towards the ship, "Oh, he said something about changing into a swim suit and hid over there behind those crates."
Nabiki glanced over towards the crates that Raven had pointed to, but her attention was almost immediately shifted back to Raven as she suddenly let off a bright purple flash of light. Nabiki watched as the light quickly subsided, leaving Raven in what Nabiki assumed to be her true form.
Raven now stood nearly a half a foot taller and was covered in fur the same color as her hair, an almost pink strawberry blonde. She didn't have the cheetah spots that Kyros did, instead she had the fur pattern more closely resembling a lynx.
Nabiki again realized that she was probably the only normal human in the room. She let out a long sigh.
Nabiki shook her head and started to make her way over to the crates that Rhys was apparently hiding behind. As she got closer, she noticed that occasionally a cheetah's tail sometimes came into view and that she could hear two people talking.
However, before she could round the corner, Rhys came into view, followed by Ukyo. They were both in hybrid form and both female. Rhys was wearing a green one piece bathing suit, the least risqué bathing suit they she had acquired a few days before. Ukyo was wearing a dress that had apparently been made for someone of their height and physiology; the dress had a small slit just below the waist line from which her tail was poking through. Ukyo was also holding the clothing that Rhys had arrived in.
"It looks good on you though," Ukyo said as neither of them had noticed Nabiki as of yet.
"It does?" Rhys asked, blushing slightly, fidgeting with the shoulder straps nervously, "Eh, I don't care. I don't plan to be wearing something like this on the regular. It's bad enough that I have to wear it even once."
Rhys and Ukyo turned their attention forwards just in time for them to see Nabiki before they bumped into her.
"Nabiki?" Rhys said as she saw her standing there, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, seeing as I'm not going with you, I wanted to at least see you off," Nabiki said, looking at the cat-girl with a sideways glance, "Besides, Kyros called me last night and said he had something he wanted to speak with me about before you left."
Rhys idly rubbed the back of her neck as the three of them made their way back towards the rest of the group. As they neared the dry dock and the sub situated within it, Kyros and the man Nabiki had seen within the craft were disembarking.
The man in question was tall, standing about 6'4", and had a head of long, strait, and light blue hair kept out of his face by a red bandana, from under which one could see four small ivory colored horns poking out from his temples. His eyes were a dark blue color and he wore what looked to be some sort of blue and white flight suit. Strapped across his suit were several gun holsters, none of which were currently carrying guns. If not for the small horns, he would have looked perfectly human, aside from the strange hair color.
"Everyone here?" The man asked.
"Seems like it," Kyros said, "Everything's ready to go. Okay, everyone's attention, por favor!"
Everyone present turned towards the two. Kyros cleared his throat.
"In just a few, we're gonna be heading out, so make sure you've got everything ready," Kyros said, "Everyone that's going make sure you listen to Rayman here as he'll be telling you how to buckle into your seats and what not to touch once you're inside. Everyone else, I need to talk to you for a small moment before we get things underway."
Kyros, followed by Nabiki, Ukyo, Cologne, and Raven walked over to an area a small ways away from the watercraft. Raven quickly took her place beside Kyros.
"Okay, I have a few things I need to talk to you about, especially Ukyo," Kyros said, causing Ukyo to look somewhat confused, "It's nothing too incredibly serious, I'm merely covering all of the bases."
"There is a chance that something beyond any of our controls might happen once we get into the ruins," Kyros said, "The facility was built using the same theoretical energy that was within my home, and it is incredibly likely that, due to damages wrought by time, that the entire place is flooded with all sorts of primal energies. Energies that can have an effect on people if they happen to be sensitive to it."
"And is there a reason you are only now telling us this?" Cologne asked.
"The effects will not be dangerous," Kyros said, not answering the question, "Hopefully no one will be effected by it as it takes very specific circumstances for the sort of phenomenon I'm talking about to take effect. Raven here will be staying with Ukyo at the Saotome residence in case anything happens. If anything happens, I'll know, which means Raven will know soon thereafter."
Ukyo looked somewhat surprised and confused.
"Me?" She asked.
Kyros glanced at Raven for a moment and after a moment, Raven nodded as if something had been communicated between them.
"Of all the people on board, Rhys is the only one I see may be affected by the energy," Kyros said, looking at Ukyo, "Which means that there is a slight chance that it might affect you as well."
"Kyros believes, and I agree," Raven stated, "That there is a connection between the two of you that isn't rightly understood at this point. If Rhys ends up being affected, that connection may cause a similar reaction within you."
"And what sort of connection are we talking about?" Nabiki asked.
"Just an energetic bond transgressing both space and time," Kyros said quickly, "But anyways, Raven will be staying with Ukyo in order to manage any sort of reaction that may or may not happen. Nabiki, Elder Ku Lon, we'll be needing your assistance in making sure no one happens to wander close to the Saotome home until we get back. We do not want anyone seeing anything that may, or may not, happen within the Saotome house while we are gone. This is of the utmost importance; there are factions that may exist on Earth that we do not want to have to deal with and it is nearly impossible to tell wither or not someone is affiliated. If it becomes necessary for someone else to enter the house, they'll need to be cleared by Raven beforehand."
"This isn't anything crazy serious, is it? Nabiki asked, feeling slightly nervous about the situation.
"At present…?" Kyros replied, "No, not especially, but we don't want to tempt anyone. Or anything."
"Don't worry," Raven said, "The last time we encountered them was back in the early 40's, when we had to get rid of them. As far as we know, they haven't reformed or regrouped."
About thirty minutes later, those destined to search the ruins found themselves about fifty feet before sea level.
Rhys had been slightly surprised that none of the many dock workers had noticed the strange craft exit the harbor. Rayman had enlightened them when he said that the craft had a nano-optical camouflage, rendering it invisible to most wavelengths of light. The most the workers could have seen would have been an odd but barely visible depression in the water.
"What should we be expecting once we get there?" Tofu asked, seeing that Rhys and Shampoo were occupied with looking out the viewing ports.
"There'll probably be a few energetically enhanced life forms in the waters directly around the facility, created by energy that'll be radiating out of it," Kyros said, not turning away from the strange luminescent screen he was staring into, "The ship's defenses will be able to deal with anything hostile."
Rayman, who was piloting the craft, flipped a few switches, "We're about fifty miles out from the site; preparing to dive."
"Dive?" Rhys asked, "Why are we diving already if we're still miles away?"
"The camouflage only hides us from visible sight and heat sensors," Rayman said, "Radar will still pick us up if we're close enough to the surface, so we'll have to dive to put distance between us and any boats that might be up above."
The craft's engines hummed into action as the craft tilted downward. Slowly, yet surely, the light from the surface above grew dimmer and dimmer until the waters were nearly pitch black.
"Anything near us?" Rayman asked.
"Nothing but a few dozen fish," Kyros responded as he continued to stare at the screen in front of him, which was odd because the screen didn't seem to be displaying anything recognizable. It simply seemed to be a circular screen that was simply emitting a multicolored light.
"Okay then, switching to energetic surveillance," Rayman said, pressing a few buttons.
Immediately, shutters began to slide up and over the viewing ports, briefly cutting off their view of the waters outside. After a few moments, however, the shutters flared into life, portraying their surroundings in incandescent 3D.
"Whoa…" Rhys and Shampoo said at nearly the same time, now able to see for hundreds of feet in all directions. A few fish swam by the view ports, which immediately displayed several written messages around them, although neither Rhys or Shampoo could read the language.
It was twenty or so minutes later that Rhys had grown bored watching the strange views that went by, and was now glancing around the inside of the ship.
She recognized what she thought was a case for emergency air tanks and what appeared to be some sort of small air lock, but everything else was completely alien. She then looked at all of the instruments and screens that covered the front end of the craft. None of them had any text on them she could read, but she could somewhat guess what each panel was for. One seemed to things such as air pressure, depth, orientation, and general location, while another seemed to show the general topography of the ground beneath them.
Eventually, she came to look at the screen that Kyros was looking into. Unlike the other screens, which were mostly dark with glowing letters and were mostly square or rectangular in shape, this one round screen seemed almost as if it was taken from a different machine and wired into the sub. Its screen seemed to be an unchanging mass of glowing light and was the main source of light within the cabin. There didn't seem to be any text or information showed on it, yet Kyros rarely glanced away from it. Eventually, her curiosity got the better of her.
"What's that screen for, anyway?" She asked, lifting herself up off her seat and as close to the screen as her seat straps would allow her.
"Hmm?" Kyros asked, glancing towards her for a moment before turning back, "Oh, this thing? It's an energetic readout of the theoretical energy within a certain distance around the sub. It shows the concentration of different types of energy. The bright red and deep blue are thermal energies, this golden color right here is the life energy or Mana from a huge school of fish, this large dark brown area seems to be the magnetic field of a mass of magnetic ore…"
Rhys could see what he was talking about… sort of. The screen was rather blurry and she found it difficult to discern where one color ended and another began.
"How do you tell what's what?" Rhys said, "It seems all blurry to me."
"It requires a certain amount of mental training and a basic understanding of how the technology works," Kyros said, "Back on Ryft, this stuff is a part of the culture, so everyone can use it. If you're not from a culture like that; which includes pretty much everyone born on Earth; it can take years of training to use a lot of the more obscure pieces of theoretical tech. That involves lessons in how T. Tech works, a good amount of history, physical sciences, biological sciences, astronomy… all sorts of stuff. Put simply, it isn't so much as seeing the differences, moreso it's about feeling it… understanding it."
"Understanding it…" Rhys said softly to herself. She continued to look at the screen for a few more moments.
After about ten seconds or so, the screen suddenly seemed to sharpen significantly, allowing her to see the individual colors, but only for a split second before the colors flared back into their previously blurry state. At the same time, a sudden pain flared in her head.
She hissed slightly at the intense pain as she gripped her forehead and fell back into her seat. This caused Shampoo and Tofu to glance at her.
"What is it?" Shampoo asked.
"N-nothing," Rhys said, the pain almost immediately subsiding, "Just a headache, I guess."
"We're here," Kyros said, "Bringing it into view."
The screens in the front of the cabin flickered as the shutters lifted and lights on the outside turned on to reveal….
"It's just a rock wall," Tofu said as Kyros unbuckled himself and started to move towards the back of the cabin, "Wait, where are you going?"
Kyros paused next to Tofu's chair, "To open the door."
"Door?" Shampoo asked, looking at the rock wall in front of them, "I don't see a door."
"You will," Kyros said as he moved towards what appeared to be an air lock. He pressed a button and a small compartment opened. He lifted himself up and placed his feet inside of the airlock, worming his way into it.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Tofu asked, "We're at least a mile under the surface, if you go outside without some sort of pressurized suit the weight of the water above us will crush you."
"Nah, I'll be fine," Kyros said as he slid into the compartment.
"Then what about an air tank?!" Tofu shouted as Kyros arms disappeared into the airlock and the door slid shut.
"Don't worry about him," Rayman said, "He'll be fine. Opening the air lock."
There was the sound of rushing water and, a few moments later Kyros came into view in front of the sub.
"How is he able to survive out there without any protection?" Tofu asked, adjusting his glasses.
"Kyros isn't a normal person," Rayman said, "He's probably mentioned that he's kinda secretive about it. Don't worry, you'll probably find out once you're inside the ruins."
Outside of the sub, Kyros reached his hand out and pressed it against the wall in front of them. A jade green glow suddenly flared from between him and the wall, slowly spreading out and encompassing the entire wall they could see. Then, as suddenly as the glow appeared, it vanished, taking the wall with it.
Ahead of them they could now see a huge cavernous opening, and in that opening they could barely see what seemed to look like some sort of city in the dim light.
"Okay, doors open," Rayman said into a small microphone that none of the others had noticed until just then, "You coming back on board or what?"
"No," Kyros' voice somehow came through the speakers in the sub, "I might have to open another door so I might as well stay out here. I'll start searching for some sort of dock."
"Copy," Rayman said as he slowly started to maneuver the sub into the opening.
Just as they had almost made their way completely through the opening, a sudden grinding sound came from the back of the ship as the tail end of the sub scraped across the edges of the opening. Everyone inside suddenly breathed in sharply.
"Damn it!" Rayman said as he gripped the controls. After the craft was all the way through, Rayman grabbed the microphone again, "You could've made the opening a big enough for the sub, you know!"
"My bad," Kyros' voice came as they could see him wave nervously in the water in front of the sub.
He then suddenly burst into motion, disappearing into the dimness of the cavern. Everyone except Rayman blinked a few times in surprise. Kyros was not swimming so much as… flying through the water somehow.
"Turning energetic surveillance back on," Rayman said as the screens again descended over the view ports. As the screens flickered on, the cavern burst into view.
The ruins that came into view looked akin to a city, but not a city that the surface world has ever seen. There were several towers that looked like a cross between sky scrapers and smoke stacks, each with dimly glowing rings of light along the top or a glowing spire. There seemed to be what looked like miles and miles of structures and buildings connected by a huge web of corridors and tunnels, all centered around a huge dome in the very center of the facility.
Kyros voice came in through the speakers again.
"There's an influx of chaotic energy from the dome," He said, "That's where the gate'll be. I'll see if I can find a place to get in nearby the whoa…!"
Rayman blinked a few times.
"You okay?" He said just as a large tentacle suddenly flashed by the front of the sub. Rayman instinctively reared the sub away from the imposing limb. He quickly brought the sub back into alignment and the offending animal came into view.
"Is… is that one of the energetic life forms you talked about?" Tofu asked.
The 'life form' in question appeared to be a giant squid that appeared to be at least 50% made of ice. Its eyes glowed an icy blue color and was easily at least ten times larger than the sub. After a few moments, what seemed like explosions of greenish energy seemed to flash across one side of the squid.
"Look!" Shampoo shouted, pointing off towards one of the tentacles nearby the explosions.
Said tentacle was wrapped around a small object which, under closer inspection, turned out to be Kyros. Kyros appeared to be the causing the greenish explosions by throwing off what seemed to be shockwaves through the water. Seeing this, Rayman began pressing buttons rapidly. Several whirs and clunks sounded from the sub around them.
"Weapons armed," Rayman said, "We're going in."
The sub burst towards the squid, which seemed to be giving all of its attention to the small creature pounding it with explosions; explosions that weren't doing as much damage as it seemed they should've been. Rayman oriented the sub behind the squids head and let loose a barrage of torpedoes and what seemed to be energy weapon bursts.
The torpedoes exploded a brilliant blue color as the energy shots peppered the squid, causing it to flail around. The attacks, however, did little other than scorch the squids flesh.
"What is that thing made of?!" Rhys yelled, "You're attacked aren't even hurting it!"
"Oh it's hurt," Rayman said, pressing a few buttons, "But energetic creatures follow a different set of rules from normal biological life forms. We keep whittling away its ability to withstand injury and hopefully it'll run."
"Hey!" Kyros' voice came, "Could use a little help, here!"
Rayman pressed a button and began to dive as several icy tentacles came whipping by. He dove underneath the monstrosity before coming up before where Kyros was about to be pulled into the squids mouth.
Kyros himself was glowing a familiar jade green color, but was now completely wrapped up in tentacle and unable to move his arms or legs. A targeting reticle appeared over the squids mouth and a moment later two torpedoes were zeroing in.
Before the torpedoes hit, Kyros let off a burst of energy, causing the tentacle around him to be forced from him and also causing the first noticeable wound as bluish blood began to seep into the water. They could hear a monstrous screech as the squid writhed in pain. A few seconds later, two torpedoes sailed into its gaping maw, detonating inside of the beast.
Blue blood flowed from its mouth as the squid decided that its prey wasn't worth the pain; it quickly swam into the darkness and out of view.
"I don't think it'll be back any time soon," Kyros said, "And I managed to spot a place we might be able to get in while it was trying to have me as a snack. Sending you the coordinates."
A blip sounded as a set of numbers appeared on the screen and a few moments later, the location was highlighted on the viewing screens.
"What in the world was that thing?" Tofu asked, shaking a bit of water from him as he got out of the sub.
"That was what happens when normal creatures spend too much time around primal theoretical energy," Kyros said, pulling a long piece of shredded icy squid meat from his arm, his expression displaying how nasty he felt the meat-sicle was, "They sometimes 'mutate' into elemental beasts. That squid was practically glowing with endothermic energy. It's a slow process that typically takes several generations to become evident."
"'Endothermic energy'?" Tofu asked as he pulled a large rod from his pouch. He tapped the tip, causing it to brighten and light the room, "Thermal energy is heat energy, not something that's cold."
"True, but...," Kyros said, flinging another piece of squid meat to the floor, "I'm talking about theoretical thermal energy, which can moreso be thought of as a force of nature and not a typical type of energy. Every type of theoretical energy has two equal and opposite ends of the spectrum. Thermal energy has both a hot and cold end: one type radiates energy and thus heats things up and the other absorbs energy and thus cools things down. All types of energy exist in a similar type of balance."
Rhys was next to climb from the craft and hopped the ten or so feet between the sub and the stone floor of the dock. Looking around, she saw that the room was quite bare. Featureless, actually. The walls and ceiling where the same slate gray as the floor; none of which held any decoration or anything other than a large closed door across from the sub.
Shampoo landed silently beside her as Rayman came to the opening at the top of the sub.
"I'm going to set the sub to go back to my dock back on the Washington state coast," Rayman said as he leapt the ten feet to the stone floor, surprising Rhys and Shampoo in the process. Rayman did not carry himself as a powerful martial artist would and didn't looked the type to be able to leap such a distance. From the now occupied gun holsters all across his body, it appeared that firearms were his main mode of attack.
Rayman pulled out a small device and began to press several of the buttons. A few moments later, the latch of the sub slowly closed and the sub slowly submerged back into the water.
"Won't we need the sub to get out of here?" Rhys asked.
"We shouldn't," Kyros said as he was removing the last of the squid meat from his person, "If the feeling I got from the dome is any indication, we should be able to use the gate to get out of here."
Kyros then walked over to the door, which didn't seem to have any handles or anything else that one could use to open the door. The entire door was mostly featureless except for a large bar going down the middle from the top and bottom, meeting at a circular impression in the middle. He pressed his hand into the opening and closed his eyes.
His hand began to glow green and soon afterwards, the glow spread to the door, filling the circle and the large bar to the top and bottom. Soon afterwards, the door split open silently.
The hallway beyond was dim, barely lit by two barely glowing lines along the edges of the floor. It seemed to stretch off infinitely into the darkness. As Rhys looked down the hallway, she could almost feel a slight breeze. It smelled musty with a hint of something strange.
"Everyone prepare yourself," Kyros said in a dark, almost emotionless tone, "We don't know what's going to be up ahead."
A bad feeling suddenly settled over her as a shiver ran up her spine. Kyros' mood had almost instantly soured when the door had opened. Something within her told her not to go any further.
A loud "clack-clack" came from behind them as Rayman pulled the slide back on quite possibly the largest pistol Rhys had ever seen. Rayman's expression seemed to mimic the same dark tone that Kyros had spoken in.
Another shiver ran down Rhys' spine, causing the fur on her tail to stand on end.
"You okay?" Shampoo asked, her vulpine face looking concerned.
"Y-yeah," Rhys responded, trying to keep her voice from shaking, "I'm fine."
"We should be near the dome by now," Tofu said, "We've been walking down this same strait hallway for at least ten minutes now."
Kyros, who was in the front of the group, didn't respond. He simply kept walking.
Tofu quirked an eyebrow before looking back to where Rayman was covering the back of the group. Rayman was walking backwards, his eyes never straying from the darkness that was behind him. He didn't respond either.
"This place is creepy," Shampoo said, looking down the hallway, "It's like this hallway never ends. It looked like this place would be a maze when we were outside."
"We gotta be getting near some sort of opening," Rhys said, "I can still feel a breeze."
"A breeze?" Kyros suddenly asked, looking towards her, his face serious.
"Y-yeah," Rhys told him.
"I don't feel a breeze," Shampoo said, "The air in here is stale and still."
Suddenly, a loud bang came from behind them, causing Rayman to instantly raise his pistol. Everyone stopped in their tracks.
"What was that?" Shampoo asked.
"Sounded like something fell to the floor," Tofu surmised.
"But we haven't passed anything that could've fallen," Shampoo said, "The entire hallway has been empty."
"We should keep moving," Rayman said. He did not, however, lower his weapon or turn around.
They started to move again, albeit at a slightly faster pace. A few moments later, another bang came from behind them. Shampoo, Rhys, and Tofu stopped moving, but Kyros and Rayman did not.
"Keep moving," Rayman quipped, pushing those who had stopped along with him. They started to walk again.
At this point, the bad feeling that Rhys had felt back at the dock had grown into a full blown panic. She clutched her arms to her chest and, as hard as she tried, could not stop from shivering. She glanced both up and down the hall, trying to calm herself.
"Rhys," Kyros' voice came quietly.
Rhys snapped her head to him.
"Keep calm," Kyros said, his voice emotionless, "And look into the darkness. Do you see anything?"
Rhys looked downward and tried to take slow even breaths. She glanced at the hallway ahead of her and her eyes grew large.
There were eyes looking back at her. The eyes of two people… and then three… and then five… and then ten….
And then they vanished, only to be replaced by one set of much larger eyes, each eye made of dozens of smaller eyes. These large eyes then turned and moved to the left, disappearing behind a corner.
"What…?" Rhys asked, her breathing growing quicker, "What were…?"
"Voidlings," Kyros said in a quite tone.
Rhys steeled herself and swallowed hard. At least the endless hall wouldn't last much longer, although she hated even imagining looking down the turn that those eyes went down.
And yet, after a few more minutes, they never came to a corner or a fork in the road. Long after they should have passed the corner that the eyes disappeared behind, the hallway remained perfectly strait and unending.
"What is going on here?" Rhys asked, "We should have passed that corner by now."
"What corner?" Shampoo asked.
"There wasn't ever a corner," Kyros answered Rhys.
"But I saw those eyes go around a corner!" Rhys said loudly.
"Eyes?" Shampoo asked, "What are you talking about?"
"It's toying with us," Kyros said, seemingly ignoring Shampoo. He then spoke in a louder tone, "We need to hurry up. We are not safe here."
"Not safe?" Tofu asked, "We haven't passed anything since we entered this hallway. This place seems to just go on forever."
"Exactly," Kyros said cryptically.
"You're not making any sen…" Tofu started.
"Shh!" Kyros said, cutting him off.
As they fell silent, they could all hear a small screeching sound from ahead of them, like a sharp metal point being dragged across the stone floor.
"What is that?" Shampoo asked, now as freaked out as Rhys was.
Rayman reached to his side and pulled another large pistol from its holster. A similar screeching sound came from behind them. Kyros pulled was seemed to be a swords hilt from his side and then gripped his hand around it, causing a blade of energy to form. That energy then solidified into what seemed to be a blue-purple crystal that crackled with electricity and smelt of ozone.
"We need to move," Rayman said.
And as if waiting for him to say that, two quite monstrous and loud wails came from both ahead and behind, as if a thousand voices all screamed in anger.
The screams echoed down the hallway and seemed to rip at their ears and rattle around in their mind. Rhys and Shampoo instinctively covered their ears only to then find out that, even though they could no longer hear. the screams still came in loud and clear.
"Move!" Rayman yelled.
A minute later and they found themselves out of the endless hallway. Whatever joy that may have brought was crushed by the fact that they were now in a much larger hallway that was much more brightly lit…
…and the fact that they were nearly surrounded by nightmarish creatures all trying to kill them.
Rayman shot at those behind the group, hitting each one with a perfect shot to the head. Sadly, some of them, even with their heads mostly missing, still continued to approach them. Tofu was casting every spell he could, blowing many of them to pieces, but a good number of those pieces rejoined into more creatures. Kyros and Rhys formed the front of the group, Kyros ripping them to shreds with his blade and Rhys slicing at them with her claws, but to the same effect as those shot and blown apart by the others. Shampoo was throwing her Kitsune fire at any who came from the sides to the same effect.
At this point, the screaming had become ten times worse, making it difficult to concentrate on any one specific thing. The screams seemed to rip and tear at their minds and, although they had not noticed, Rhys, Shampoo, and Tofu were actually starting to bleed slightly from their ears.
"What are these things?!" Tofu yelled.
"Demons!" Shampoo yelled back.
"No!" Kyros said, "Void Spawn! Worse than demons! Far, far worse!"
"Aim for the head or the glowing heart!" Rayman said, unloading a few more rounds, "They are less likely to survive a hit to those areas!"
A few moments later and they were forced to a standstill. There were simply too many of them to make headway.
"We need to do something!" Tofu yelled, "We cannot stay here!"
Rhys was silent, her hands nearly in-perceivable as she stuck any of the beasts that came near her. There was no thoughts going through her head and all fear had been replaced with a silent terror and utter denial of what was happening. She didn't even notice that her hands had begun to glow slightly as they flashed through the air nor that those she had cut down were far less likely to stand back up. Her tactical mind, sculpted by her years of torment under Genma's training regiment, had long since kicked in.
Most of the beasts were vaguely humanoid in shape, but all of them seemed to twist into and out of itself constantly; some ran on two legs, others on all fours. Some ran on the floor, others crawled on the walls and ceilings. Some seemed to jump in blindly, others remained far away from them, never approaching. They were all, however, as black as pitch with glowing eyes and mouths, some glowing a sickly green, others a blood red, and still others a flickering bright white, almost like static on a TV. Most seemed to have a pulsating core of energy where their heart would be, others actually seemed to have a rib-cage, which obscured the glowing, pulsating mass in their chest.
And they were all either yelling in anger, screaming in torment, or pleading them to end their lives, all with a voice that sounded like a thousand people yelling all at once. She could also hear what seemed like whispers and chanting in the back of her mind; nothing intelligible, but dark and foreboding, carrying a sense of wrongness and depravity.
Individually, the beasts were only slightly more capable that a normal human, with the obvious exception of their insufferable screaming and that these beasts had sharp bladed appendages sticking out of random places on their body. Most of those bladed appendages were made of the same sort of crystal as Kyros' short blade, except they glowed with the same sickly glow as their eyes did. If there had only been a few of them, fighting them would have been relatively simple: beat them down until they stayed down. But now, they seemed to leap from the shadows in a seemingly endless supply.
"Look!" Shampoo yelled, pointing off in front of them, "A door!"
Rhys turned to look at the door. It was large and was quite possibly the most decorated thing they had yet to see since they entered this horrible place. It held the same vertical bar and center circle as the first door, but on either side were two reliefs of vaguely humanoid creatures. They appeared to be somewhat angelic in design, each line perfect and intricately made.
"That's the door to the gate room!" Kyros said, "Cover me while I make a pathway!"
Rhys immediately jumped in front of him while the others moved to surround him. Kyros brought his hands in front of him and almost immediately an overwhelming feeling of power surged from him, although it seemed that the only ones able to feel it was Rhys and Rayman. The surge was powerful enough to cause the closer monsters to recoil away and hiss angrily.
"Wha… what the hell is that?!" Shampoo yelled, looking behind them. Everyone but Kyros glanced in that direction.
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!"
The roar came as a huge monstrosity stepped from the darkness. Its eyes were huge and comprised of hundreds and hundreds of smaller eyes. Its mouth was the same, filled with hundreds of smaller mouths all gnashing and snarling at once; some screamed, others wailed sadly, others seemed to curse them in multiple languages at once, and still others seemed to chant a single phrase over and over. It stood as high as the room they were in and had two huge arms with huge crystalline blades coming from them. In its 'chest' sat a huge pulsating 'heart' five times the size of the hearts of the smaller creatures; its eyes and mouths glowed with a sickly green color and seemed to weep a black oily smoke.
"It's the seed!" Rayman said as he dropped his two pistols, their ammunition spent.
He then reached both his arms out and in a flicker of blue energy summoned a pair of large machine pistols. Unlike his pistols, these did not seem to be made of earth technology. He turned both of them towards the huge beast and began to fire, blue gouts of energy coming from their nozzles.
The bullets peppered the beasts hide with flashes of blue energy and the creature howled in pain, but it would not be deterred. It began to slowly make its way towards them, crushing, smashing, or impaling any of the smaller monsters that got in its way. As if smashed its way through the crowd of smaller monsters, cracks began to form along the walls and ceilings. Before long, water began to spray out of those leaks.
"It's going to destroy the hallway!" Tofu shouted.
"Almost there…" Kyros said, an orb of green energy forming in-between his palms.
The 'seed' slammed its bladed arm into the wall, nearly shattering it. Water began to spray in even faster. The smaller monsters began to scramble to get away from the larger one, ignoring Rhys and the others as they retreated into the darkness. Those that weren't near the larger beast, however, did not faulter.
"Hurry up!" Shampoo yelled.
"Almost…" Kyros said, the orb now as big as a bowling ball.
Rayman had to dive to the side to avoid one of the bladed arms as it cam smashing down into the ground where he had stood. He rolled onto his feet and glanced upwards.
"Kyros!" he yelled.
"There!" Kyros said, opening his eyes as the orb flared to life.
Forcing his palms forward, the glow encompassed his entire body, slowly causing all of his features to melt away, yet his form was obscured by the glow. The energy he had gathered ripped forward, all but vaporizing any of the monsters that stood between them and the door. As the energy slammed into the door, the door suddenly sprang to life, glowing vividly. It began to open.
"Rhys!" Rayman shouted, "Grab the others and run!"
Rhys instantly went to action, grabbing Shampoo and Tofu and began running as quickly as she could towards the door. She passed the threshold and screeched to a halt halfway into the large room beyond. She looked back up towards the door to see Rayman dive into the room, landing on his back and still shooting at the monsters that were still coming. Kyros, still glowing, flew into the room and with the wave of his hand the doors slammed shut. At least three of the monsters were crushed by the door. Several of their limbs continued to twitch and fidget as they lay on the floor.
They all sat there, in the center of the dome, breathing hard. Rhys sat up from where she had been lying on the floor to see Kyros, who now looked almost completely different, wave his hand in a series of motions. A green symbol appeared on the door and was suddenly carved into the surface.
Kyros had gone from a cheetah person to a being whom appeared to be made of glowing energy. His physical shape remained almost exactly the same, yet his golden cheetah spotted fur had changed into a coat of shimmering silver. His clothing began wispy and the same jade green as the glow that had consumed him. He remained floating in the air as he turned towards the others, his eyes were now simply glowing orbs.
"What… the hell… were those things?" Tofu asked loudly, out of breath.
"Voidlings," Rayman said as he holstered his firearms. He, like Kyros, was not out of breath like the others were and stood there calmly, his eyes glowing a deep blue color, "Dark entities corrupted by and controlled by a dark and depraved consciousness consumed by madness. It hails from the Void, the emptiness that exists beyond the edges of reality. They latch onto a person's mind and consume their knowledge and their memories all the while twisting their physical form into things that look like those monsters outside, driving the person mad in the process."
Shampoo sat there, silently staring at the door and the still moving bladed appendages. After a few moments she slowly stood, walked over towards the door, and proceeded to burn away the limbs with a bout of fox-fire. The appendages let out a shrill shriek as they slowly burned, dark wisps of energy coming from it before flowing towards the door and disappearing into its seams. Rayman glanced at her as Kyros floated towards the center of the room.
"It's quiet now…" Rhys said. She had expected to still be able to hear the screams and cries from beyond the door, or the sound of water rushing into the hallways, but there were no sounds coming from outside. It was then that she noticed that her ears still rang painfully. She reached up to feel them before bringing her hand back to see that it was bloody.
"The voidlings cannot enter this room now," Rayman said, "Not with these doors here and definitely not after Kyros sealed them. By now they may have completely forgotten about us. I have to apologize. We knew that it was possible for the void to be here, but we had not predicted it to be this bad."
"If these... voidlings or whatever come from beyond the edge of the universe, how the hell did it get here, on Earth?" Tofu asked with a touch of anger in his voice.
"It's been here since before the recorded history of this planet," Rayman said, "The void constantly tries to force its way into this reality, but the universe keeps it at bay. Every once in a while, though, it finds a way through and creates a seed; a physical form through which it can enter this reality to corrupt and twist everything it touches, even the basic laws of physics. The void was what made a hallway that would have been only a few hundred meters long into a never ending hallway. We were stuck in it until it decided that it had toyed with us enough."
Tofu looked down.
"Consider yourselves lucky," Rayman said, walking towards the center of the room, "Normal mortal creatures can be driven insane and twisted into voidlings themselves simply by being in an area filled with the dark corruption and no mortal weapon can truly kill any creature consumed and corrupted by it. Had a normal human been here, it is likely that the screams alone would have almost instantly driven them insane. That you escaped with your lives and sanity intact makes you some of the very lucky few and is proof of inner strength."
"How do you know so much about it?" Tofu asked, the anger leaving him.
"The others and I," Rayman said, "Raven, Kyros, Kelyme, and Amber… we fight theme."
"I thought you said that no mortal could kill it," Tofu said, "How can you fight it if you can't kill it?"
Rayman chuckled.
"We're not normal people by a long shot," Rayman said, "None of us could really be considered a 'mortal'. But even with our capabilities, we wouldn't be able to do anything without Kyros."
Rayman motioned towards where Kyros had gone. Tofu turned to look, along with Rhys, who had been numbly listening to them, and Shampoo who slowly wandered back towards the group. It was only then that they looked at the room around them.
Kyros was situated in the center of the room, floating in the middle of what looked like a large circular machine. As he floated there, the brightest source of light in the entire room, he slowly lifted his arms. The machines responded, the strange symbols and lines carved into them began to glow with a silver light, revealing those carvings to be made of a silvery crystal. The glowing runes and glyphs slowly began to radiate out from the center of the room, slowly making their way across the floor, underneath where the others stood, and all the way to the walls.
Small pin pricks of light began to flare to life along the inner surface of the dome they stood in. Small lines started to appear, connecting some of the points of lights together. Slowly but surely, the lights covered the ceiling, revealing a perfect copy of the stars and constellations of the night sky on the stone surface.
"Hey, Doc," Kyros' voice came, his back still turned to the group, "Remember when you asked me what my capabilities where? And how I laughed when the old lady called me a boy?"
"Yes," Tofu said.
Kyros turned to him, his eyes fading from green orbs of energy back into the same green eyes they were before, although his irises still glowed with the same intense green light. Other facial features such as his mouth had also seemed to have disappeared.
"Remember what I said about the Architects and how you asked me why I know so much about them?" Kyros asked. Upon Tofu's nod, he continued, "Well, I know so much about them… because I am one of them. An Architect. An Aeterna as we call ourselves; a being made entirely out of All-Matter, energy condensed so much that it is compressed into a physical form. And as for how old I am…. I don't know. A million… maybe two millions years old?"
Tofu boggled slightly, stunned.
"As an Aeterna, I represent everything that has ever existed, all that exists, and all that will ever exist in this universe," Kyros said, looking at the ceiling, "I'm the polar opposite of the Miasma that in beyond that door. I represent all of reality, where as it represents everything that shouldn't exist, everything that cannot exist, and yet it is still real. I'm the only person I know of who can fight and truly destroy the Miasma."
Kyros slowly floated down to touch the ground again.
"I'm also the only Aeterna that knows and understands negative emotions," Kyros said, "As a race without wants, needs, or desires, the others don't have any concept of anger or fear or pain or sadness. I'm ostracized and shunned because of that; the others say I'm a liability and unpredictable. Whereas Rhys is one of the last of his kind, I'm the only one of my kind that has ever existed; a pseudo-Aeterna, unfinished and incomplete."
"I thought you said all of the Architects disappeared or were sealed away," Tofu asked.
"They did disappear," Kyros said, "Into the cracks and lost corners of reality; into small pocket dimensions and the like. They sit there twiddling their thumbs in confusion because they can't understand that the universe they created is being consumed by madness. They don't understand that everything they stood for and created, all their priceless works of art, are being destroyed by the mindless hunger of the Miasma."
Kyros then shook his head.
"Enough of this," Kyros said, "I don't like speaking of it… well, because back on my 'home planet', the planet made for me by my creators… my 'mother' and 'father', I'm basically the closest thing to a god they have. I don't like the attention, it attracts the Void and always ends up hurting the people I try to protect."
Kyros then chuckled nervously.
"But anyway," He said, turning to the machine in the middle of the room, "We've found what we came for. The raw chaotic energy that fuels the Astrological Gate has kept the Void at bay. With these glyphs, we should be able to get the gate at Stonehenge working again."
The room went quiet after that. Quiet enough to hear movement on the far side of the room. They all turned to look.
They all saw what appeared to be some sort of humanoid figure, seemingly made of All-Matter and metal casing was vaguely in a female figure, struggling to stand. The metal was a shining silver color whereas the All-Matter was a vivid purple.
"The-the-the gate has b-b-b-been re-reactiveated-ed-ed-ed," the figure sputtered out in a robotic tone that skipped much like the music upon a scratched CD, "Sys-system malfunction-tion-tion. Un-unknown-own knowledge detect-tected-ed-ed."
"What is that?" Rhys asked.
"It is a golem," Kyros said as he quickly moved over to it, "An artificial life form created by the Aeterna."
"Is it dangerous?" Rhys inquired, slowly standing. She began to slowly walk over towards the golem.
"We'll see," Kyros said as he moved over to it. The golem looked up at him as he approached it.
"Aeterna-na," it said, "Creat-ator-tor, th-this unit-it-it is malfunction-tioning-ing. Th-this un-unit requires-res-res re-repair-air-air."
Kyros moved around it to its back and tapped a small circle embedded in its metal frame. The circle flashed and disappeared, revealing the All-Matter underneath. He placed his hand upon the golem and concentrated. He then proceeded to push his hand into the golems back.
"This golem has been slightly corrupted," Kyros said, "Meaning that the creatures outside were probably golems themselves before they were corrupted. This one seems to have spared because it were within the gate room."
Kyros then seemed to pull on something within the golem, causing the golem to twitch somewhat violently. It made several noises before Kyros finally seemed to pull something out of its back.
What he now held was a small orb of dark matter that was pulsating a sickly green akin to the monsters outside. Kyros hand flared into light, causing the orb to writhe and to hiss and pop as it slowly evaporated, but unlike the corruption burned by Shampoo's foxfire, none of the wisps of darkness escaped; it seemed almost to be sucked into the light as it shined.
After the orb was destroyed, the golem went limp.
"It seems the Void consumed whatever knowledge and memories that had made up this golems consciousness," Kyros said, "But hopefully the knowledge about the gate is still intact. If it is, it'll be worth the trouble of reconstructing its consciousness.
"Will she be alright?" Rhys asked.
"Hmm…" Kyros glanced at her with an expression Rhys couldn't immediately identify, made even more difficult due to his lack of facial features, "This golem has lost too much of its memories and knowledge to remain sentient, so it wouldn't be correct to call it 'she' in this state. If its main information systems are still stable, I should be able to restore that sentience, but its consciousness will be distinctly different."
"What?" Rhys asked, "Different how?"
Kyros looked at her with the same unidentifiable expression; it seemed almost like he was studying something about her.
"Essentially…" Kyros then said, "The being that this golem used to be is, for all intents and purposes, dead. If I restore its consciousness, its memories will be completely different, meaning that it will be a completely different being with a completely different personality. And that's only if I'm capable of restoring its consciousness. I will have to get her someplace safe before I can check."
Rhys blinked, having noticed that the last time Kyros had addressed the golem, he had called it a 'her' instead of the impersonal 'it' he had been using. Kyros then stood and started to walk back over to the gate.
"So," Tofu said as Kyros walked over to where he and the others stood; just outside of the gates circle, "How do we use this thing to get out of here? You had previously said that these gates don't work without a view of the sky, correct?"
"Essentially," Kyros said, pulling out a small device as he neared the gate, "This gate, however, seems to be using the star chart that's engraved on the ceiling instead of the natural stars in the actual sky. However, I cannot speak for the accuracy such a system will have. This facility hasn't been active in millions of years; the actual star filled sky will more than likely be slightly different than this representation on the dome with some younger stars appearing and older stars disappearing. The discrepancies may make accurately pinpointing the destination difficult. It shouldn't be that bad, though."
"How long will it take to get it working?" Shampoo asked, "I want to get out of this place as soon as possible."
""Don't worry," Kyros said, "It's already up and running, but it'll take a few moments to get a reliable set of coordinates. We don't want to appear in the middle of the pacific. It's best we aim towards the center of one of the larger land masses but also a place that we'll be able to stay in comfortably with the gear we have."
"That rules out Eurasia," Rayman noted, "It'd be far too cold this time of year in the middle of Russia."
"Can't go with the US either, not after those old foggies at Area 51 got pissed at us using the Nevada desert as a testing site for one of Kelyme's crazy devices," Kyros said, "We'd be swamped in red tape and angry men in black the instant we appear."
"What did you expect with Kelyme creating something he called, what was it?" Rayman cocked an eyebrow, "The 'Big Buxom Bikini Beam'?"
Kyros chuckled for a few moments, "That was a classic, but yeah, the US is a not an option."
"Wait…" Shampoo said, boggling slightly, "The big buxom what?"
"The Big Buxom Bikini Beam," Kyros said, "An artifact that fires a beam that turns anyone it hits into a buxom woman wearing a bikini. For most people it only lasted for a few hours to a few days. Although some had to wait months and a few still haven't changed back. They let us go when they had realized that it would be nearly impossible to actually make Kelyme pay for any of his mischief, and then only after they made us swear never to test anymore of his crazy devices on US soil. Even if this doesn't have anything to do with Kelyme, they still wouldn't appreciate us popping into existence in the American heartland."
Silence reigned for a few moments.
"Anyway," Kyros said, "It seems that Africa is the best bet. It may suck to find ourselves in a desert, but we'll be able to make do with it being hot better than it being freezing. Most of us are wearing swim-suits."
Kyros then nodded before continuing.
"Okay, everyone get into the middle of the room," he said as he started to move back over to where the golem laid inactive on the floor. With a snap of his fingers and a small, almost in-perceivable flare of energy, the lifeless form began to float along beside him as he returned to the center of the gate.
"Someone take hold of her," he said, motioning towards the golem, "I won't be able to keep her from crashing to the ground where we arrive."
"Crashing to the ground?" Shampoo asked.
"Gates connect two places in a two dimensional fashion, typically vertically, so it's like falling through a mystical hole in the ground," Kyros said, "When the gate opens, we'll probably drop about ten or so feet, so be prepared to land once we get there."
"Good lord," Tofu said as he slowly picked the feminine looking golem up. He grunted as he managed to hoist it onto his shoulder, "She must weigh half a ton. What is she made of?"
"Ah, yeah," Kyros said nervously, "I should have told you that All-Matter can be kinda dense and ridiculously heavy. Pure chaotic all-matter is almost as dense as the stuff that makes up a neutron star. If I didn't have direct control over how gravity affects me, I'd probably weight several hundreds of thousands of pounds myself."
Kyros then glanced around, noting that everyone was inside of the gate's circle.
"Everyone ready?" He asked.
After receiving the affirmative from everyone present, he activated the gate.
Almost immediately, the room sprang to life around them. The star-covered ceiling shone brightly, lighting up in sequences that pointed out the ancient constellations. The pillars of the machines lit up as their glyphs shone silver.
The circular area they stood upon suddenly flashed before suddenly falling away. The feeling of weightlessness persisted only for a few seconds before they landed upon a grassy field. The cold, stale air of the ancient ruins was replaced by a hot breeze filled with the smell of an open field.
Everyone looked around as they stood back up.
"Where are we?" Shampoo asked.
"Hmm…" Rayman said, pressing a few buttons on the same device that he had previously used to control the submarine, "It appears we're in the sub-Sahara. That means that the closest person to us we could contact would be Amber in Great Britain. I'll work on getting a satellite signal, but the gate messed with the GPS function so it may take a few minutes."
Saotome Residence, Japan
The day for those left on land has been, so far, rather unexciting. Most of the time they had spent simply talking or idly passing their time. Currently, they were sitting around the dining room table having tea.
Cologne had taken to making sure no powerful ki or magical signatures came close to the house. There had been a few moderately powerful signatures that came within her senses, but none that came within a mile of the house.
Raven had been doing the same, except she had been sensing what she had called 'energetic and spiritual signatures'. She had mentioned that it would be highly unlikely to sense anything as there were very few individuals on Earth that could even sense such things, let alone actually utilize it.
Of course, Cologne's own thoughts were that the notion of such forces was preposterous. She had, on numerous occasions throughout the day, said that she had never heard of such things and she had access to records that went back thousands and thousands of years.
Raven had reacted rather well, in fact; she reacted as if she had expected no one to believe her.
"I've been on this planet since the early 1940's," Raven said, "And I've yet to find anyone who recognizes these types of energy patterns; at least, no one that was even remotely normal that recognizes them. I'd have to go to other dimensions before anyone knows what I'm talking about."
"Being able to sense it is that rare?" Nodoka asked as she sipped her tea.
"On Earth, yes," Raven said, "But if you step into the spiritual realm it's literally everywhere."
"Spiritual realm?" Cologne asked, her expression very skeptical.
"Like with ghosts and such?" Ukyo asked.
"Well, Kyros would call it the energetic plane, which is a bit more accurate, I guess," Raven replied, "And no, typically you don't find ghosts there. It isn't unheard of to find a spirit of a deceased person there, but those are the exceptions and not the rule. I call it the spiritual realm simply because that's the most used term for it on my home planet. It is a place where most energetic beings live, beings that are composed of the energy that makes up the universe, like light, heat, gravity, and the like. We Ryftans just call them spirits or elementals because it's in our culture."
"Ryftans?" Ukyo asked.
"I come from the planet Ryft, so I'm a Ryftan," Raven smiled, "Just like you're an Earthling because you come from Earth. A lot of people simply call us Beast-men, but that can get you into trouble as a most of us see it almost as a racial slur. But I have to say, the way you named your planet Earth… not very imaginative."
"What do you mean?" Nodoka asked.
"If you knew how many species are recorded as having named their home planet their equivalent of 'Earth', you'd realize how common that is," Raven said, "But it's understandable why you'd name it that. The obvious name for your planet would be what you call the ground beneath your feet."
"So where does 'Ryft' come from?" Nabiki asked, actually rather bored with the conversation. At this point, they had been talking about random things for almost three hours. Occasionally, she randomly asks a question about the current topic as to pass the time without being a total vegetable.
"It is a name found within the most ancient written myth ever discovered," Raven said, "Supposedly it's the name of one of the very first of our kind to come into sentience; an ancient Tahmores that brought together the very first modern Ryftan tribe."
"Tahmores?" Cologne asked.
"Ah, that's the name of one of the seven major tribes, or more specifically the seven major species of Ryftan," Raven said, "They look kinda like the canines of this world, just semi-anthropomorphic. I'm a Namir, the tribe that you would say resemble felines. But I'm not feline in any way; we might look like cats, but there are a good number of things that differentiate us, like the fact that our DNA isn't even remotely similar to a cats DNA and our claws."
"Your claws?" Ukyo asked, "Kyros claws looked fairly normal.
Raven answered by raising her hands. In a small flash of light, what seemed to be claws made of purple energy came from her fingertips.
"A Namirs claws are made of solid energy," Raven said, "All Ryftans have the ability to manipulate energy, due to our planet being so over-saturated with it. We Namir can manifest claws, the flying Salea can manifest wings along the same lines as our claws, and the Tahmores have what could be called "spirit hands", which allow them to manipulate objects even though they're four-legged beings unlike the rest of the tribes."
"We can't stay here."
"What?" Ukyo said, "Why?"
Raven raised an eyebrow, as did Nabiki. Cologne glanced at her, whereas Nodoka looked confused.
"What are you talking about?" Nabiki asked.
"Someone said that we can't stay here," Ukyo answered.
The others stayed quiet for a moment.
"No one said that,"Nabiki said, looking around at everyone.
"What?" Ukyo replied confused, "I know I heard someone say that."
"Don't believe them."
"There it was again," Ukyo said, looking around, which she immediately regretted. She suddenly became very lightheaded. She put her hand to her forehead and closed her eyes as suddenly the light in the room became so bright it was painful.
The others watched a Ukyo very suddenly looked quite ill. She began to sway back and forth where she was sitting.
"Are your alright," Nodoka said, putting a hand upon Ukyos shoulder. She then placed a hand on Ukyos forehead, "Oh dear, you're burning up!"
"Go stay with your mother."
"And whats more, here life force has started to fluctuate wildly," Cologne said, moving over to the girl, "Let us take her where she can lay down."
"So he was right," Raven said, her expression one of sadness. She then stood, "Yes, let's get her somewhere comfortable, then I have to make a call."
Ukyo, with Nodoka and Nabiki's help, managed to stand and walk a few steps before her knees buckled and she nearly fell to the ground.
"RUN!"
"My head..." Ukyo said weakly before she slipped into unconsciousness.
Sub-Sahara
"Amber said that she shouldn't be long," Rayman said as he closed a small cell-phone looking device, "Two hours at most."
They group had moved a small ways from where they had landed, over to a small cluster of trees so that they had some shade. Shampoo sat beside one of the trees, her knees to her chest and her face buried in her arms, having washed the blood from her ears in a small pond that was only a about three hundred meters away. Kyros sat cross-legged with the golems head in his lap; he appeared to be meditating as energy flowed from his hands into the golems temples. Tofu stood a small distance away, thinking on the revelations learned from what they had just been through.
Rhys, however, stood just outside of the shade, and seemed to simply be staring off into the distance.
After a small while, Shampoo looked up and saw that Rhys was standing stock still. Somewhat confused and a little concerned, she slowly stood and moved over to where Rhys stood.
"Are you okay?" She asked.
"This place...," Rhys answered immediately. She drifted off, not completing the sentence.
'What about it?" Shampoo asked, looking around.
"It's...," Rhys said, "Familiar."
"I can't leave you here!"
Rhys suddenly shook her head vigorously. She then looked around, a look of concern on her face.
"What is it?" Shampoo asked.
"You... didn't hear that?" Rhys said, "That voice..."
"No...," Shampoo said with a confused expression, "There's no one here but us."
"Take you sister and RUN!"
Rhys suddenly inhaled violently, having to take a step back else fall onto her back. The wind picked up suddenly and all Rhys could smell was the scent of burning wood.
Rhys head suddenly began to swim as she teetered back and forth a small bit.
'Rhys?" Shampoo asked, concern in her voice, at which Kyros glanced up to watch them, "Rhys are you alright?"
"N-no," Rhys managed to say, placing her hands over her face. It was only a few moments later that her knees buckled and she fell to the ground.
CHAPTER END
Wow, okay, five years. This story isn't dead. Even I'm kinda surprised.
This chapter took a long time to finalize, as I've been changing the concepts behind the Void and all that jazz almost constantly over these five long years. Having revisited my Doc files just a few days ago I realized that a lot of this chapter had to be re-written (yes, this chapter has been mostly complete for five years, so sue me). Hopefully it isn't too obvious that I'm rusty towards the very end of the chapter.
I've got the next chapter somewhat figured out already. It, obviously, has to do with the strange voices that only Rhys and Ukyo could hear.
"An energetic bond transgressing space and time" indeed.
