saladlove | Descent of Nightmare (Chapter Two)

tanadin posting in

So it's my birthday and I'm sick, which sure is great. Really. I didn't edit this chapter much (sorry!) but it should answer some questions. I meant to get the maps finished but I've seen sick, so, sorry. :c

Chapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html

Chapter Two

Mysterious

Cavern Oasis, Timewarp. September 22, 2277 Kaldriel time. Time instance 842N.

“You’re cheating,” Starren complained, crossing her arms. “Again.” Narrowed brown eyes only marginally lighter than her skin glared outwards.

Korrah shrugged and set down another card on the table. “You always say that.” Her wings- mechanical feathered wings that felt as much a part of her as her white mask or her arms- folded tighter against her back.

“You are,” Tavren informed her, leaning forward to survey the card game closer. “You tighten your wings when you deny it, and you should only have three of the aces. Starren picked one up earlier.” His eyes twinkled intelligently, a slight grin lighting up his face.

Korrah sighed and set down her cards. “Okay, okay. I was cheating.”

“I knew it!” Starren threw her cards at Korrah and crossed her arms. “Can you-”

She was interrupted by Everex skidded into the room, almost falling over but correcting himself quickly. He looked a bit sheepish before speaking.

“Zatar is here. He wants to see everyone.”

Korrah exchanged glances with Tavren and Starren, reluctantly following Everex further into the cavern. They were the last to arrive, lining up with the others as the teleporter hummed gently as it always did when it had recently been used.

Several minutes passed before the rings spun and Zatar appeared, striding easily out of the receiver. “Hello, everyone! My, it’s been awhile, hasn’t it?”

“A few months,” Krassor told him. “What have you been doing? Anything fun?”

“No, I’m afraid not. I’ve been very busy. Kaldric! What’s been happening? Anything I need to be aware of?”

Their robot guardian took a step forward to address Zatar directly. He- well, it, but they called it a he- was about six feet tall and humanoid, made of red metal. One of his hands was replaced with a flamethrower while the other had claws that could extend from the fingertips. He couldn’t fly, but he could run quickly. His head was in the shape of some giant reptile head, red lights marking his eyes.

“No, sir. They have been doing well.”

“Excellent. So, today I’ve brought someone to meet you. I’m sure he’ll be through in a minute. He was critical in obtaining...well, in obtaining what I needed to make you.” The larger claws on Zatar’s feet clicked on the stone floor. “He doesn’t know what to expect when he comes through, so be sure to give him a warm welcome. He’s a raptor, like me, but he’s a bit...odd. You’ll see.”

Zatar smiled at them for a good twenty seconds before the teleporter hummed and spun, flashing with blue light and letting them see their visitor.

He was slightly taller than Zatar and looked far more physically powerful, standing confidently with a cloak around him. His hood was pulled back, allowing them to see his face. His scales were silver and his eyes were dark yellow, glowing faintly as he looked them over. Dark gray feathers ran along his spine, starting at the top of his head, and vanished into his cloak but appeared along the top and at the end of his tail. The air seemed to hum every so slightly around him, and Korrah could tell immediately that his cloak was heavily enchanted, but its specifics eluded her.

“Zatar, what is this?” His head snapped around to look at the other raptor, eyes glowing brighter. “What is this?”

“M, I thought you’d be pleased. This is why I asked you to retrieve those blood samples.”

M stood up straighter, baring his teeth as his feathers raised up and his tail stiffened. “You...you...no! No, this is wrong! This is wrong! What is to be gained from this?!” He motioned at Deathclaw. “And what….what…”

“There was an odd number. I hope you don’t mind that I took a sample from you.” Zatar tilted his head. “It’s not a big deal, M.”

“Not a big deal? I am Mystrex! The Mystrex are not supposed to have children! And you...you...made one!” M’s voice rose to a furious screech, claws flexing. “You...you…”

“We should perhaps leave,” Zatar mumbled. “This did not go as well as I had planned. Back to the ship, M.”

M snarled at him and stepped back into the teleporter, vanishing into the blue light almost immediately. Zatar looked at the group helplessly before following, the teleporter shutting off as soon as he was through.

They exchanged glances.

What the hell.

~~~

M snarled at him the moment Zatar stepped through the teleporter, backing him closer to the wall. Zatar grinned sheepishly as he flipped the switch to disable the teleporter. “Come now, M, it’s not that big of a deal, is it?”

“You were given experimental technology to perform a certain task and instead you’ve been messing around with genetics and doing things that you shouldn’t! This is wrong, Zatar! Creating beings in a lab from combinations that were never meant to happen? And one of a Mystrex?” Rage ran through M’s veins, rage he hadn’t felt in years. “What is wrong with you?”

Zatar fumbled to explain himself but M was barely listening, the image of all of those...those...creations burned into his mind and bringing back memories he’d been trying to forget for the past five years, hitting him in the chest with a hollow pang.

They reminded him of his friends back on Kaldriel. The revolutionaries he’d left behind after they’d taken down the Mainframe, against all odds. Sure, he’d helped, but he was confident that they could have eventually done it on their own and, in his foolishness, had acted more than he perhaps should have in order to return to Hatu faster.

What a mistake. He’d forgotten how busy life was here, how busy and dull and monotonous it could be.

But he would have taken that over this.

When he had set out for Kaldriel, Zatar- his superior, a class higher but within the same circle- had pulled him aside and requested blood samples from any individuals who had been particularly interesting or useful. M had obliged, and now…

So this is what he wanted them for. Mixing and matching genetics to create offspring. He put them in timewarp to speed up their aging, at least according to us, to avoid having to wait too long.

It was clever, but it didn’t mean he approved.

M growled, shaking his head and cutting off Zatar’s explanation. “Shut it down. This is wrong. Shut it down.”

“What? No! No no no! I can’t do that!” Zatar clicked his claws nervously and his tail lashed. “I’ve spent five years on this project! Five years! Not to mention all the work before you even left for Kaldriel and in the twenty years since! I’ve done most of our timewarp testing in the past, and it was all boring, boring, boring! This is interesting! Why would you inhibit science?”

“You were not approved to do these tests.” M’s eyes narrowed and he pulled up his hood. “I’ll be taking this to the Council. You will not get away with this.”

Zatar protested and tried to stop him, but M left the room anyways and shut the door behind him, racing through the halls and back to where he’d docked his ship.

He had no words to describe how furious he was.

~~~

“So, uh.” Everex looked around at the rest of the group helplessly. “What the hell was that?”

“That,” Korrah mumbled, “was Zatar being an idiot and making a mistake.”

“But who was that?”

“M, apparently.” Solace crossed her arms. “What kind of name is M? It’s just one letter.”

Twelve looked around at the group before speaking. “Well, whatever Zatar wanted, he’s gone for now. We can likely go back to what we were doing.” She left the room, most of the group filing after her.

Everex watched them go until Solace sidestepped closer and hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder. “Hey.”

“Hi.” He smiled. “You act like we haven’t seen each other in hours.”

“What, am I not allowed to hug you?” She stepped back. “Fine then.”

“Wait, no, that’s not what I-”

“Owned,” Korrah decided, stepping over to them and spreading her mechanical wings slightly. Metal feathers glinted in the faint light from the stones on the wall. “You want to go flying instead, Solace? This loser isn’t worth your time.” She winked to show that she was joking.

“Hmm.” Everex reached forward and pulled her mask off of her face, earning a squawk of protest.

“Hey! Give that back!”

“Not until you’re done being an asshole!”

“I’m going to get Twelve!”

“Like she wants a part in this!” Everex held it up while Korrah jumped to reach it, eventually just flapping her wings a few times to get enough altitude. She snatched it back, returning it to her face and adjusting it so that she could see. She crossed her arms and glared as Everex and Solace both laughed at her.

Solace patted her on the head. “We can go flying. Is it alright if I invite Everex?”

“No.” She crossed her arms.

“Koooraaaah.”

She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Of course he can come. As long as he doesn't steal my mask again.”

“I won’t steal your mask,” Everex assured. “Unless, of course, you try to replicate the Incident.”

“Incident?” Solace frowned and looked between them. “What incident?”

“Long story,” Korrah mumbled. “C’mon. Let’s get into the sky so I don’t have to listen to you assholes, I can just pretend there’s wind in my ears.”

“That doesn’t work as well when you tell us your plan.” Everex motioned for them to follow and led the way outside, holding the door open once they reached the end of the caverns. He shut it behind them and waited for Solace to transform into a phoenix before taking off.

Of the three of them, Everex was the least natural in the air, stiff metal wings and energy-fueled propulsion carrying him onwards. Korrah flew on mechanical wings as well, but they had been carefully crafted by Tavren to emulate bird or phoenix wings. They were as much as part of her as her limbs at this point, and memories of her before she’d gotten them were odd and felt wrong.

Solace flew on wings of flame, swooping and diving and rolling in ways the other two couldn’t hope to ever achieve. She cawed joyfully and circled around them several times before leading the way out into the desert, away from the oasis and out onto the open sands. Solace swooped down towards the ground once they were a ways out and blasted flames, creating a line of glass. Everex grinned and focused his powers, calling on his magical core. Flames danced around his metal arms, blue tinge distorting the orange reflection, but then it was gone, forming glass in the sand that intersected Solace’s and leaving Everex grinning.

He always got a rush from doing that.

“You guys are assholes!” Korrah shouted, reaching into the pouch at her side and pulling out a card. Everex didn’t get a good look at it- its back was black with orange runes- as she tilted her wings and wheeled around, back towards the intersection of the glass. She threw the card down at the ground, edge driving into the glass and holding it upright, magic hardening and sharpening it just for purposes like this one.

Korrah barked the activation word- “Mirda!”- and the magic in the card activated, destroying it in the process.

Not that it mattered. The spell contained inside was an explosion.

The glass shattered and fragments flew everywhere along with sand, not hitting anyone but making Korrah laugh hysterically as she flew back towards them.

“You just love doing that, don’t you?”

“You’re just jealous!” Korrah flapped her wings to carry her higher, Everex not far behind.

He wouldn’t trade his friends for anything.