Marco tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. A weird feeling ran down his spine as if he was being watched from the corner of the room. In one motion, he shot up from the bed and motioned his hand to summon his gun. Nothing, he looked at his palm, empty, the hue of his fingertips not there.
The room was dimly lit, blue walls, tiled floor, a twin sized bed and a small bag in which sat his clothes. The only light coming from the singular tall window, it was open, the curtains flowing in the wind that was coming in. He stepped off the bed and walked to close the window. It slammed down hard, he looked down at the frame, cracked. Upon looking back up, he froze.
It was there, the thing that took everything from him that night. An altered not much taller than him, hunched over with it's "face" pressed against the window. It was completely black, a silhouette in the night, however it had two bright eyes that emanated a white glow, small pupil like dots spun inside of it's cornea. The creature was not hunched over, in fact, this whole time it had been standing with its chest towards the sky. It flipped over, it's neck silently rotating keeping its head in the exact same spot and orientation, the only thing stopping it from coming in being the thin window.
Marco took a step back, the ground under him crumbled as he froze and fell backwards, the ground under him giving way into an infinite void. When he was fully upside down, two titanic white hands came from the void, their fingers extending up towards Marco reaching for him. Right before he was engulfed in their fingers, he was woken up by a sudden jolt. He swung his hand up, striking Tyson in his chest. He fell over backwards holding his chest, his back hitting the wall of the cave. Kaylie and Bodhi were both sitting nearby watching this happen, Kaylie immediately checked on Tyson while he walked towards Marco.
He grabbed Marco by the collar and yelled "What's the hell's the matter with you?" Marco looked around, still mildly confused from the dream he had just had. He waved his hand in the air feeling the sting on his knuckles, he had hit Marco, who was now sitting on the floor trying to catch his breath, much harder than he probably thought. "You wanna call your mommy now? Huh? HUH?!" Bodhi demanded as his grip tightened. They both stared at each other, Marco placing his palm over his eye and wincing, Bodhi let him go.
Marco stood up and they both walked towards Tyson. They stood over Kaylie who was squatted next to tyson, She unzipped his suit slightly to check under it. "Does it hurt a lot?" Tyson nodded, she pressed her fingers against his chest, no real reaction came from her pressing down on the spot. She stood up, the three of them now towering over Tyson, Marco extended his hand out, Tyson took it and all four now stood facing one another.
Marco gave Tyson a playful punch, not really knowing what to say. "Sorry about that. Bad dream..." Tyson looked at him, pouted and nodded, walking away; with his back turned and pressing his palm into his chest, he said "all good boss."
Bodhi looked up at Marco who was looking down at the spot Tyson was sitting in. He frowned and asked, "Is everything okay in that head of yours?" Marco didn't really have an answer, but "of course I am just, like I said, bad dream." He looks down at his gloved hand, his arbiter back where it belongs. He looked at Bodhi's, a simple small rectangle. The color not too dissimilar from his own. Everyone else had already packed up their sleeping bags and were waiting on Marco to roll up his and put it in Bodhi's pack. He did so in quickly, and as he was stuffing it in Bodhi looked around and whispered while holding his wrist in a very serious tone. "You were calling for your mom. I hope this is not something Im gonna have to tell Darren."
Marco glared at him and nodded. Handlers were supposed to be disconnected from their families, while some remnants were expected of course, hurting a crewmate for calling for one's mother was enough to question one's judgement. He glanced at Darren who was leaning on a wall with his rifle in hand. They all approached him, he straightened out and walked towards them. Marco stood by him and asked loudly, "Everyone ready?" A silent nod came from the crew.
The flat terrain turned into tall thin but tall cliffs, almost like blades coming from the ground. All still in the same perfectly white color. It was terrifying in a way, the ground sloped downward and at some point they came underground. The reason they had to "Find" the fissure is because from the void looking down, this is all perfectly flat terrain. Fissures sat in underground canopies, where they rested until it was time. The first crew arrived at a thick wall, red in color. Bodhi unloaded all the armor and equipment from his back as Darren's group arrived, Kailey did the same.
They clapped their own hands together and interlaced their fingers, pulling them apart, a large light cylinder forming as their hands moved apart, bashing into them in a flash of light. Two long and wide drills formed around their hands, they summoned their masks and immediately got to work on the wall.
The others summoned their own masks, the adjusters had a slightly different mask, with a small nozzle at the bottom. The handlers got behind them and placed their tablets on the VGRs, short for Void Gamma Receivers, inside the fissures it was as dark as the void, no light in, no light out. The handlers locked the nozzles into place as a dark fluid flowed from their backs to their masks, enveloping their face in the same color that covered the skies. From their point of view, all was normal, from outside, it was as if their faces were edited out in video editing software. Kailey and Bodhi came back, mildly distressed. "It's cracking!" Exclaimed Bodhi as he picked up his stuff. Both Marco and Darren looked at the opening the two had made.
A large circular room with a flat ground, and roof, pale white like the outside. Imbedded in the ground in the center, a crimson layer of what looked like crystals was pulsing between its dark blood like color and black. It budged angrily and rumbled a low growl, Darren and Marco both readied their rifles and called the handlers up. They all slid down into the room as the hole they made was a bit off the ground.
Cooper jumped in without looking, as he looked up, a cold shiver ran down his spine. He had heard Bodhi's warning, but the fact that it was already sinking meant that they were much later than they probably thought. Had they gotten here a day later, it would have been too late. Tyson on the other hand was not as scared, he wasn't aware of the very small amount of time that they had left. They stood on opposite sides each as the carriers slid inside the room, placing an anchor behind Cooper and Tyson. Summoning their claws, they both jabbed the syringe before turning around to face their fate.
The crimson floor gargled and pushed against as they could see it was very slowly sinking into the floor that was slowly wrapping around it. The handlers stood at their sides with rifles in hand, they all kneeled down. With the blades on their left hand, they reached to where the other one was standing and dug the sharp objects into the barrier. With one slow and smooth motion they brought it back to between their knees. A black mist similar to the one from the rupture slowly emanated from the incision. They took their claws and pulled on the section they had made in the middle, ripping it off. Tyson and cooper both leaned down, dunking their heads into the black abyss before diving in.
The handlers both aimed their weapons down at it as they were cutting into it. Even with their more than keen observation skills and sight, they could see nothing under there. Only those with the VGR were capable of comprehending what it was that was down there. After a few seconds, Cooper's thread light up into a soft red with a hard tug from within, Darren hoisted his barrel onto the anchor and held the trigger down, charging his weapon up. "Ready," he awaited for Marco to do the same on his end. However, Tyson's thread was not lighting up. A growing tension in the room as everyone stood around waiting for him.
A minute passed, nothing, a drop of sweat came down Marco's forehead and landed on his moustache. He kept his aim on the abyss, he could still see the rope moving, but nothing. Bodhi held his hand to his mouth with a worried expression, Kailey sat watching by. "God damn it Tyson" Darren exclaimed loudly.
They all saw as the incision slowly started to close. There was no more time to wait, suddenly, Tyson's rope slacked. No tug, no lighting up. It took a second, but from the hole arose a singular object. a black gloved hand with a rope attached to it. The next instant a hand came up on the anchor, pulling himself up, Cooper came out of the abyss and screamed "FIRE YOU PIECE OF-"
A loud boom knocked everyone back, the entire room was filled with black fog. The carriers were both knocked against the wall and the handlers were barely able to hang on to their position by holding on to the anchor. Cooper's body flew across the room, hitting the roof. The sound of the roof crumbling above them as thin pieces of stone landed on their heads. The sky was uncovered, they were still unable to see because of the black mist.
It dissipated quickly, giving them full view of the creature overhead. A young A class altered floated above their heads. Looking more like deities, these altered were capable of things beyond any comprehension. There was nothing they couldn't destroy if they felt like it, nowhere they couldn't get it they put the effort into it, and almost no damage they couldn't heal from. If it weren't for one glaring weakness that is specific to each A class, they would almost be unbeatable.
Marco looked up, dazed from the explosion, his eyes caught on to the altered that was over him. A lanky black figure with a rainbow hue around it. With large wings on its back, it didn't need to flutter to stay in the air. Its long dainty arms ended in spikes rather than anything resembling a hand. It gazed around the room, looking nowhere specifically with its bright white pupils, despite placing it's eyes directly on everybody, it didn't show any amount of care for them.
It attempted to fly up, but the singular red strand that stuck to its chest prevented it from doing so. Despite it's monstrous presence, this one was still barely just a newborn. not really knowing what to do, it only kept trying to fly again and again. Darren's rifle landed a bit away from him, he quickly reached for it, standing up and kicking a rock behind him. The creature immediately turned it's head at the sound and fired a singular spike into the ground with. The spike hit the ground where rock landed, shattering it to pieces, Darren froze in place with the loud crack of the projectile hitting the floor. Marco still had his rifle in hand, he looked down, Tyson's hand was hanging still floating in the water, he gulped quietly and turned his attention back to the creature.
The room was dead silent other than the soft humming that came from the creature, his mind races with ideas, perhaps it didn't see them as a threat, maybe movement, maybe it couldn't see at all. He very slowly got up from his prone position, the creature's feet were dangling in front of him as it kept trying to fly away. He paces around it very very silently, doing his best to not step around on any of the gravel from the caved in roof. It didn't care about movement, that's one thing off the list. He approached Darren's rifle and went to pick it up, his boot slid on the ground causing it to scratch. He immediately recoiled his leg up to him before another spike smashed into the floor at maximum velocity. He almost fell over but caught himself, landing his boot against the wall quietly almost in a split.
He tapped into Darren who was now hunched over behind him, "No sound." he looked at it, it was gazing at the sky. It couldn't listen to their voiceless communications. He used his rifle as a stick to get himself back up right, taking a very slow deep breath. Crouching down, he grabbed Darren's rifle and passed it to him, they both now stood next to each other to the right of the creature. They looked around, The carriers were both sat down pressed against the wall wide eyed as they looked up at the altered. Cooper was laying stomach down with his face away from them. Tyson was nowhere to be seen.