Chapter 21: Sacred Stars

It begins Here...

But where it ends will be left up to fate...

The very second that Klarana took Greg, Zet, and Diana out of Lucius’ base, they all instantly regretted asking her for a ride. The weather outside was frightful, and not even Diana’s insulated body was all that delightful. Biting winds bearing flakes of jagged snow gnawed at the travelers’ skin as the Sepren soared up into the atmosphere, towards the place where Lucius had probably retreated to.

“I just hope you know where you’re going!!!” shouted Diana over the screaming winds. “I wouldn’t want to be flying around here forever!!!”

“Dho noht worry,” assured Klarana. “Hai hhave bheen hinformed of that man’s whereabouts fhor a vhery long time. Trust me, hon this at least.” A pause.

“I’ll try,” said Diana with difficulty. “Right about now, you’re the only one who can help us.” Klarana’s smile was hidden from her passengers as she soared through the freezing Siberian air. Diana, sensing that their conversation was now over, turned around and looked at her companions. Both of them were exceptionally blue with cold.

“You gonna be all right?” she asked. A shivering Greg gave her a frozen look, pun intended, and silently demanded to know which level of insanity caused her to ask such a question.

“Don’t give me that look,” pointed Diana bitterly. “This was all your idea, not mine.” She continued to glare at them for some time, receiving only a chattering of teeth as a reply. Finally, the demi-human sighed, shook her head, and knelt down so that her warm body was close to them.

“Here, c’mere,” she muttered as she drew them in. “If you two don’t get any funny ideas, I’ll let you use my body heat. But one wrong move and you’re walking to wherever it is we’re going! Understand?” Both Zet and Greg nodded their heads quickly, and held Diana close as they tried to steal some warmth. They both thanked her, but Zet’s was much more heartwarming--pun also intended.

A few frozen minutes passed, leaving even Diana a little suffering from the nasty weather. But the chill received from nature was soon dwarfed as the foursome slowly approached their destination. At first, the object before them seemed like an illusion, or maybe some kind of freakish creation of nature. But the closer they got, the clearer it became. What started out as a gigantic black emptiness in the dull-blue sky transformed into an indescribable and impossible structure, one that was darker than the bleakest slums on Earth. The evil aura emanating from it throbbed and pulsed like the beat of a dark heart, and what little light the object could boast was all in sickly colors.

What they were all staring at was not an illusion, but Pandora Base.

“Inconceivable!!” hissed Zet in awe. The chill of nature was tropical compared to the paralyzing feeling he was receiving from this dark dream of a construction. Humongous in size and slender like an obelisk, the black metallic building seemed not rooted in earth but air; put simply, the thing floated in the sky, a dark omen to all that passed by its territory. If one stretched the imagination enough, it resembled a large, thin, black hexagonal crystal, hovering in the air.

“Whoa...” Nobody, not even Klarana, could claim stoicism as they drew near the dark hovering tower, so silence and awe were understandable emotions. Swallowing down his nervousness and barfing up doubt in its stead, Greg gently kicked Klarana’s sides.

“Hey, uh, you sure this is the right place?”

“Hai ham positive, “ she insisted. “This his hindeed the place, but hin theory, hai ham not supposed to hknow habout it.”

“Then why--”

“Hit his personal,” replied the Sepren quickly and softly. “Fhor now, let me just say that we hhave harrived...” Another pause. Greg, who dared claim to know such a violent species, swallowed and nodded his head in hollow understanding.

“ ... All right. Thanks for the ride, Klarana. Hey, but where do you think we can get in?”

“That whill nhot be a problem...” said the Sepren quietly, and for a moment, Greg wondered what his “friend” was talking about. He then noticed that she was not stopping but actually speeding up, and thought that such a change should be announced to her.

“ ... Uh, Klarana? Are you, uh, gonna stop anytime soon?” Silence--dead, dead silence. Greg swallowed like he had never swallowed before, and quickly ducked under the protection of the Sepren’s wings.

“GET DOWN!!!” he shouted. “SHE’S GONNA TRY AND BREAK THROUGH THE BLASTED THING!!!!”

“Freaky!!” shivered Tania. Cattia darkly agreed.

“The place gives me creeps in places I didn’t even know I had,” she hissed. “Blast ... so that’s Pandora Base? Man!! What a dark power it’s giving off!!”

“Evil places like this always seem to exude some kind of negative aura,” said Jerwon in a burst of eloquence. “ ... Though I must admit,” he added, “this place feels a hundred times worse than any demon I’ve seen on my journey...”

“Well, let’s not stand out here all day,” sniffed Dana coldly. “Naja’s gonna have a heart attack from all the terrible vibes that this place is giving off, so either we go or stay. Cat?”

“Let’s go,” said the Space Cat without hesitation. “I ... I’m not just doing this for me, but for everyone...” The blonde continued to stare at the dark floating tower, some sort of horrid thought going through her mind as she beheld such ungodly energies. She took a brief look in Dana’s direction, and flashed her friend a brief smile before stepping forward.

“Now,” said the Cat, “how to open such a monolithic door? Dana, Jerwon, any ideas?”

“Don’t look at me,” muttered Jerwon. Dana expressed similar powerlessness, and so all eyes turned towards Tania. She let out a proud sigh, cracked her knuckles, and stepped forth arrogantly.

“(Sigh) Once again, it’s up to me to get everybody out of a jam...”

“I knew you could do it, Tia,” smiled Cat. Tania turned her head around to glance at her sister.

“Was there ever a doubt?”

Slowly, Klarana paused to review her current status, and seeing that everything around her was all right, uncoiled her wings and released her passengers from their so-called safety. Every single one of them tumbled out in a dizzy stupor, and fell to the floor in a slump. Their brains and bodies could not register such a turn of events; Klarana merely yawned.

“Hwe are safe,” she said to them without a hint of interest in her voice. “ ... Fhor the moment, that his.” Snorting slightly as most Sepren did, Klarana chose this rare moment of peace to examine her surroundings in a more detailed fashion. The debris from her crash was strewn around the floor and a bit was hanging by a thread on the hole she made; her passengers were slowly recovering but were still in a shock by what they had gone through. Of course, considering that she had just crashed right through the outer metallic wall of Pandora Base...

“Uggghhnnn...” mumbled Greg. “Klarana ... ugghhnn ... next time ... ugghnn ... don’t ... go ... to such ... extremes...”

“Hyou are safe, correct?”

“(Urp) Only if you consider ‘safe’ being forcibly thrown through the wall of this bizarre place ... Say, what is this place anyway??” Sacrificing his dizziness for curiosity, Greg shook himself and examined the freaky structure. He let out an amazed gasp as the inner structure of the place came to view, but what a place! The inner bowels of such a foreboding hovel of villainy were made up of a sick, twisted conglomeration of metal, wires, platforms, and strange mechanical devices. The entire place, shining with dull neon lights, was a mesh of steel and stone and metal; it was impossible to even discern if the place was really mechanical ... or organic.

“ ... Whoa,” muttered Greg. “Hey you guys! I don’t think you wanna know what this place looks like...”

“Too late,” grunted a voice from behind him. Greg briefly turned around to see Diana helping a dizzy Zet stand, the latter still looking weak from the wound he had gotten earlier. As tough as either of them were, they couldn’t help but shudder at how malevolent everything looked.

“It is as if we are in the bowels of a living nightmare,” noticed Zet with a whisper. “Truly this place is infested with some kind of black plague.”

“Hyou can study thhis harea later,” hissed Klarana. “This little hhole hai made whill draw the hattention hof the security forces. Hyou should make hhaste hif hyou wish to stop thhat mhan.”

“And you?” said Diana. Klarana flicked her razor-sharp tail in the air and glared down a dark hallway.

“Hai whill hremain hhere to watch hyour back. Hai would normally never dho such a thhing, bhut hfor the son hof Jerad, hit hwould be han hhonor...” The Sepren completely focused all of her senses on the dark hallway in front of her, and almost at that moment, the alarms went off and the faint sound of racing guards could be heard. No doubt, they were heading towards where the intrusion had taken place.

“GO!!” shouted Klarana. “Dho not worry habout me! Hai ham a Sepren, hafter all! Hyou should take care hof that wretch for me!”

“You sure you’ll be okay?!” spat Greg. Klarana wheeled her reptilian head around and glared at him angrily.

“Dhon’t make me prove myself to hyou,” she hissed. “Just trust me. Now go, hand don’t come back!” Without saying anything else, Klarana slithered forward, preparing herself to engage some future enemy. Greg had to admit that meeting a Sepren in a dark and spooky place like this was just the kind of thing nightmares were made out of, and without a moment lost, he joined Diana and Zet in running in the opposite direction. With her weak hearing, Klarana was able to determine that her “passengers” were far away from her, and grinned sickly at her newfound freedom.

She didn’t have to hold anything back now.

Finding only smoke, Dana and Cattia and their miniscule accomplices stepped into Pandora Base, right through the place where Tania had blown. The building was made out of extremely powerful and thick metals, so Tania had to use her very rare and very expensive explosives to blow a hole in the place. Even so, the opening was barely small enough for them to squeeze through; Jerwon was actually glad of his size, for once.

After taking a brief moment to bask in the haunting awe of the insides, the foursome raced through the terrifying base, relying on Tania’s bits and pieces of information she had stored in her memory banks. The small android knew only so much about the insides of the tower, however, but what she did have was enough to go on. Of course, the team knew that they had to run in order to escape capture. The explosion caused by Tania would definitely summon the security forces, and with a building like Pandora Base, there was going to be lots of security.

Racing through dark corridors, the foursome occasionally had to stop and think about where to go. Forks in the path came as often as a heartbeat, and sometimes there would be up to seven different paths for them to choose. Tania’s limited knowledge of the Base’s architecture got them out of most jams (Naja’s semi-reliable senses put them through more), but they oftentimes had to scour through endless dead-ends or else double back when a path presented nothing.

Pandora Base was also difficult to see in, since even the brightest lights were dull, so Cattia had to take the lead. The girl was true to her name, in that she had the speed, reflexes, and the escapism of a feline. If she accidentally stumbled across a trap or a pitfall, she would get out of the mess and warn everyone else of the danger. There were also hidden cameras stationed in areas so out of the way that only Jerwon’s knife-throwing abilities were precise enough to strike them down. So, all in all, it was impossible to get through the place without teamwork.

“Over here!” shouted Tania, pointing down a surprisingly well-lit hallway. “I’m sure of it!”

Both Greg and Diana easily sprinted through the long corridors of Pandora Base (quite confident that their rear was being guarded by a battling Klarana), but Zet, who was not quite as physical as they were, was having to wheeze his way through. Of course, the three of them had probably ran through a whole mile of twisting passages and hallways, most of it in the dark, so it was understandable that one of them should be out of breath.

“Hold ... hold on, please!” shouted Zet. Diana and Greg came to a halt and looked back to see the elf bounty hunter slowly catch up to him. The poor guy was very short on breath, and was even sweating a little. He leaned on his knees to draw in precious oxygen, and it was decided that the three would take a break.

“This is insane!” spat Greg. “The whole place is one big labyrinth! We’d need, like, a compass and a map to get us through!”

“A few lights wouldn’t hurt either,” indicated Diana dryly. Both of them slipped down to the floor, the female hugging her muscular legs close to her body. Gregory, who had learned to treat demi-humans with respect due to his lineage, tried striking a conversation with the lady while her bodyguard was resting.

“So Diana ... if we get through with all this mess, whaddya wanna do?”

“I dunno,” she replied lazily. “Prob’ly just wander around avoiding the Chikyou. Who knows? I might sum up the guts to actually take the fight to their own territory, but not until I got some more muscle. No offense, Zatore, but I don’t think you can protect me from an insane cult of ten-thousand plus magic-users.” Zet, who was still panting hard, had nothing to say.

“What about you?” she asked of Greg. “You have any plans?” Greg shook his head and gave her a sincere answer.

“I have... no clue. Who knows?! I’ll probably end up taking a lousy paycheck for all this trouble, then I’ll probably go back to Saturn Space Station with Dana, Cat, n’ Jerry, and see if I can make a few credits here and there. Just ... things, y’know?” Diana nodded her head and turned to Zet, whose breath was becoming steadier by the moment.

“I can guess what you’re gonna do,” she told him. Zet glanced at her and gave her a very serious gaze.

“Eh? Oh, ah, right. I shall, ah, just continue what I am doing now, I suppose...” Diana tilted her head and gave Zet a smirk that could almost be interpreted as a smile. Suddenly, a ferocious mechanical groaning sound forced the three of them on their feet. Not wanting to stick around to see what the sound was or where it came from, the trio hastily ended their break and began to run again.

Having found a staircase that went up was a good thing. Having to climb the staircase up was a bad thing. Dana didn’t know whether to hug Tania for discovering the place, or punch her for it. These things usually were double-edged: it was a blessing to find one, which meant that it led somewhere, but it was a curse to actually use them. Several stories up the endlessly large Base, and even the most athletic of the group were suffering from cramps and exhaustion, even Tania.

“This is ... quite insane!” spat Cattia as she forced herself to go up another step. “What floor are we on anyway?”

“I think we passed the 21st,” said Jerwon.

“And how many floors does this place have?”

“I’m guessing somewhere along the lines of a million.”

“Yeah...” Snarling, Cattia forced herself up yet another step, and finally collapsed as she reached a new floor. Dana and Tania were already there waiting for her, resting their weary legs.

“Take a load off,” offered Dana as she saw her friend emerge. “Jerwon too. Looks like we got a loooooooooong way to go...”

“Just what I wanted to hear,” snarled Cattia bitterly. “Couldn’t we have taken the elevator?”

“The place doesn’t have any,” said Tania. “I think whoever resides here uses some kind of advanced lift that carries them from floor to floor. These stairs are used for those who don’t have any authorization.”

“And you can’t hack into any of these lifts, or their computers?”

“That’d be impossible, even for me!” she insisted. “In case you haven’t noticed, this place has technology well beyond our scope of imagination. They could hack into our machines, Cat! Besides, even if I could, I wouldn’t doubt the presence of a built-in security system. Some dumb hacker like me could come and foolishly fiddle with the thing, and the security machine would go haywire and might even blow up in their face! Huh, I’d rather take the stairs!!!”

A pause.

“Sorry I asked, kid...” muttered Cat darkly. Dana snorted lightly, petting Naja gently as she rested.

“Let’s stay here for three more minutes,” she said. “Jerwon, if you’re still tired, I can probably carry you on my back, but Cat and Tia’ll have to tough it out.”

“We’ve been through worse,” boasted Tania calmly. A scalding look from Cattia quickly caused her to change her words. “ ... Not really.”

Hours passed, about three or four of them.

It was only through sheer coincidence that both “teams” ran into each other on a certain intersection. They were extremely overjoyed to learn that the others were safe, but a reunion would have to be put on hold. With Klarana’s fate unknown, and Sahn and Dustin mysteriously absent, it seemed up to everyone else to make it through Pandora Base and find who they were chasing. It seemed as if all three of the men Cattia talked about each called this place their home away from home. Why else would Cattia’s group and Greg’s group run into each other?

Now with the whole party reassembled, the odds of getting through such a place increased. With security “mysteriously” out of hand (and annoying alarms going off every so often), the group was free to explore the whole place on their own time. Of course, their rush was also attested to the urgency of stopping System GOLGOTHA before it could be initiated, whatever it was. As enigmatic as the project was, Cattia assured all that it was not intended for good.

Basically, it took the whole team another hour to vault past the bulk of Pandora Base’s inner workings, but their efforts paid off as they ascended into the highest levels. Lights were becoming brighter and brighter (with security tighter and tighter) as they proceeded level after level. Tania’s scattered knowledge of the base’s construction assured them that in order to get to where they wanted, “up” would be the desired direction, so all efforts were turned skywards as the large group sped forward at an almost-unstoppable pace.

Of course, there were those necessary breaks...

With their combined might, the seven mismatched teammates smashed down the final door of the final chamber of the final room, and not surprising, they met their final enemies. Standing in the room were both Grady and Lucius, who had been in deep conversation up until that point. However, when their door had been smashed in, the talk was cancelled and both tyrants turned a surprised face towards the door.

“What is the meaning of this?!” demanded Grady in a growling voice. “How did you all get here?! Lucius, you must have led them here!”

“I did no such thing!” insisted Natassti. “They must have followed you!!“

“You dare accuse me of such a thing?!” The two tyrants instantly flew into a heated argument, but luckily, Tania was there to break them up.

“QUIET!!!! ... Umm, excuse me, but we followed both of you here.”

“You should have stayed in school, young lady!” snapped Lucius fiercely. “You are all dealing with powers you cannot possibly contend with!”

“Let us be the judge of that,” said Diana darkly as she stood to her full height. Compared to a giant like Grady, though, she still fell short. The burly old man grumbled out a laugh at the seven intruders, but had to wonder what his bungling security forces were doing.

“I don’t understand how so many good men could fail so miserably,” he grunted. “Especially considering the fact that we’ve had two break-ins recently!”

“Oh, them? We took care of them,” pointed Greg. Lucius Natassti snorted.

“How? There are almost fifty-thousand patrolmen on call in this base and only seven of you. Do the math.”

“Let’s just say that I’m friends with a secret weapon,” he grinned in reply. Lucius gave birth to confusion, but an enraged Grady poked him into clarity.

“You fool! He’s talking about that wretched Sepren! That monster’s been causing the havoc of recent!”

“You mean...” Lucius’ calm face was thrown into shock; Greg, on the other hand, couldn’t be happier.

“Ha! That ‘monster’ certainly is mopping the floor with your men! But enough about that! It’s time we settled things with you two! Prepare to face our wrath!!” He grinned (causing more than one of his colleagues to groan in annoyance) and stepped forth to challenge them both. Grady, more amused than afraid, merely crossed his arms and chuckled.

“You still don’t understand, do you?” he growled. “I’ve defeated scum far more threatening than any of you. Not even your freak-of-nature friend over there is powerful enough to stop me!”

“What did you call me?!“ screamed Diana fiercely. Grady’s laughter grew.

“Yes, yes, you are but amoebas compared to me. I could squash the whole lot of you under my single boot alone--haha, and System GOLGOTHA has yet to be activated as well! Even if you defeated me, that cataclysmic program will be set to go off! Your efforts to get here have been wasted!!! Hahahahahahaha!!!!” Grady belched out a wicked laughter, just like a true villain would--and just like a true villain would, Lucius Natassti ran off suddenly like a coward. Grady’s pleasure faded the very instant his partner turned tail.

“Natassti! You coward! I ought to have you killed as you stand!!!!”

“Hey! You! Wait!!!” Before anyone knew it, Zet had also sprinted after the billionaire, with Diana flapping close by his side. Grady snarled, but considered the loss a minor issue. After all, it was now down to just five.

“Well,” he sang darkly, “what a predicament you have been placed in! Though that chicken-hearted Natassti’s flown the coop, and two other foul creatures with him, this fox still has enough hens to devour right here!!”

“I’m tired of your paltry jokes!” shouted Dana. “It’s payback time for what you did earlier!” The half-enraged, half-deranged young woman ran forth with her staff twirling like a windmill in the air, but before she could even score a blow, Grady walloped her something powerful in the guts. Dana crumbled instantly to the floor, the stuffing and everything else knocked out of her.

“Hey! Dana!” Greg and Cattia rushed towards their injured friend to make sure she was okay, while Tania made a different mad dash towards the man responsible for everything. She launched her mechanical arm at him, knowing that not even his bearish power could crush her. Grady’s hands met hers, and the two locked together in a mortal grasping/shoving match. The older and larger man scowled darkly at the short girl, and even he looked to be struggling slightly.

“This ... is ... impossible!” he spat. “A girl your size and age shouldn’t have this sort of power!” Tania merely smiled at him and continued to shove, but something snapped in Grady’s mind that made him realize why he was losing. With an “Aha, so that’s how it is!”, he quickly reached one of his hands forward and ruffled Tania’s hair fiercely. Suddenly, the girl went limp and fell to the floor in an unresponsive heap.

Cattia screamed.

“TANIA!! You sick freak, you shut her power off! How’d you know where to--”

“My dear lady,” grumbled Grady, “I did not get into this position of mine without massive knowledge of machinery. I have an especially vast library of knowledge concerning androids, so it was quite simple to determine where her shut-off switch was--that is, once I figured out her secret!” Cattia snarled at the vile man and almost produced a weapon, but a haughty Grady stopped her by pressing his immense boot on Tania’s head.

“Ah-ah-ah! I wouldn’t do anything foolish, unless you want this girl’s head smashed in! Yes, that’s it, put your weapons away...”

“You...” Snarling, Greg and Cattia each listed off a long string of particularly nasty words, many of them having four derogatory letters in them. Grady merely smiled, and before the cursing wanderers could do anything else, they were restrained by a very powerful man who had hitherto been hiding in the shadows.

He actually let out a smile.

“You certainly did take your time, comrade Brokolov,” sighed Grady wearily. The man pinning Cattia and Greg against his body, Ilyich Brokolov, grinned maliciously at his compatriot in terrorism.

“It is all in the timing, Dorina,” he replied. Jerwon, the last one left standing, froze in position as the two immense and powerful men leered down at him. His knives would probably do him no good here, unless he had a really big sword with him...

... Nope. Nothing. Just knives. Hoo-ray.

“Little boy, I think you are in trouble,” said Brokolov darkly, his thick Russian accent making every word a threat. Jerwon was too petrified to worry about the names he was being called. Suddenly, a powerful blow struck Grady on the head, sending the immense man tumbling to the floor. Jerwon almost cried with relief as he saw a bruised Dana Withers standing there, still clutching her baton. She was breathing hard and perspiring, so the blow must’ve taken a lot out of her.

“That was for hitting me,” she said bitterly, and for good measure, she gave Grady a kick and a word too vile for Tania’s ears. Soon, both her attention and Jerwon’s were drawn to Ilyich, who looked more angry than scared of the two. A tap on his shoulder caused him to look away, and when he did, his anger turned to shock as he saw Cattia standing there smiling!!

“How did you--” Before he could even finish his sentence, Cattia punched him square in the face, sending him stepping a few feet back--and releasing Greg in the process. The brown-haired adventurer burst of out Ilyich’s grasp and wheezed for air, then turned around to glare at the man who had done him wrong.

“So!!!” he sang. “Looks like the tables have turned, eh? Not so tough without your buddies, huh?”

“Hmph, I have no need of them,” snorted the old guy. “I alone have the power and influence to defeat all of you!!”

“I’m sure you do, pal,” said Dana as she twirled her baton. Ilyich growled, but knew that he was outmatched for the time being, so with great reluctance, he bolted out of the room as fast as possible, with Jerwon and Greg tailing him closely. Cattia almost came with them, but was stopped by Dana.

“Hey, hold on just a sec,” she said. “I need to make a phone call, but I dunno how long this old guy’s gonna be down. Do you have a gun on you?”

“Two,” replied the scarred blonde, displaying both her guns. Dana nodded her head.

“Good. I’m gonna make my call. If Grady moves,” she pointed, “kill him.”

“Will do,” said Cat, and Dana left to make her “call”. As she huddled over in an isolated spot, Grady slowly came into consciousness again. His hand slowly went to the back of his neck to rub some sense into the muscle, but before it could even touch skin, Cattia fired two shots right into his body. Instantly, Grady’s hand flopped to the floor, and never moved again.

“Cattia!!!!” Dana was still making her call when the shots went off, so the shocked look on her face was beyond priceless. Calmly, and with the cool of a glacier, Cattia blew the smoke off her guns and tucked them away.

“He moved,” she pointed blandly. Dana silently stared at her friend in all her bravado and suave, and slowly broke out into a fit of laughter.

“Cattia,” she chuckled, “I like your style!!”

Lucius had a head start, but before long, he had mistakenly backed himself into a dead-end, with nothing ahead of him except for a railing and a very long drop into the dark pits below. Behind him were Zet and Diana, still in hot pursuit. He swallowed, but Lucius was not so defenseless that he didn’t even know how to get out of such a situation. Calmly, he folded his hands in front of him and began to wait.

Diana flew in first and made a landing. She crossed her arms and gave Lucius her bitterest stare, making sure that the rich young man didn’t make a run for it. Zet came about a minute later, a little out of breath but otherwise ready for a duel.

“It seems as if you have nowhere else to run to!” declared the elf. “You should surrender at once, and tell us how to shut down System GOLGOTHA.”

“Now, now, now ... there’s no need for all of that!” said Lucius smoothly. “We don’t need to act like barbarians and make demands now, do we? We can approach this like civilized gentlemen--”

“I think not!” shouted Zet, whipping his large cannon out. Lucius’ calm face vanished in a second.

“N-now hold on, just a second! What do you plan on doing with that object?”

“ ... Let us say, I plan to negotiate,” said Zet coolly as he stepped towards Natassti. Lucius took a few steps backwards, obviously in no mood to playact a diplomat.