Chapter 38: 38. Castle Of Glass

Blue Miranda Church, Yorkshire, UK, Sat 15 Jan 22 21:58

The wind howled outside, making it's way through cracks and crevices of this old abandoned church, causing loud whistling screeching noises throughout. The rain as well could be heard dripping into puddles through holes in the roof echoing through the vast empty space. I chose this church as it was the first place I could think of locally to bring Jack to interrogate that was kind of in the middle of nowhere and deserted enough to not be disturbed either. I stepped up and tapped Jack on the cheek, he stirred then jolted awake, laying eyes on me as I slowly took a couple of steps back and away. He yanked at the ropes that were binding him to the chair.

Jack: "Oh ho-ho... You realise you're fucked now, 'Alex', because I've seen your face, I will hunt you down when I get out of here."

Me: "That's IF you make it out of here."

Jack: "Come on, you're one of the 'good guys', you wont unnecessarily kill someone that's unarmed!"

Me: "SHUT UP!" I growled, he was a already pissing me off, and one thing I had noticed is that my anger seemed to bring out Reikon more easily, I had to try and stay calm.

Jack: "You know that I'm not really into bondage, so-" I stepped up and punched him round the face, hard enough that he and the chair he was in started tipping back so I used my tail, pulled down on his thigh to bring him back upright.

Me: "I need to ask some questions and you're gonna answer them."

Jack: "I aint telling you shit about me!" He spat a mouthful of blood at my helmet, I scraped the worst of it off with my gloved hand and smeared it down his cheek, scraping my claws down his cheek as I did.

Me: "It's not you I have any interest in, I already know plenty about you! Born 1980 in Peterborough, average school life and got straight into the armed forces at 17, you spent 14 years in the army, doing some good things. But you got yourself dishonerably discharged for murdering unarmed civilians on multiple occasions in Iraq and Syria and were tossed out into the street. But Sky High Technologies got wind of your dismissal and your lack of a moral compass and scooped you up, gave you a job, more recently entailing picking up innocents for SkyTech's experiments and procedures."

Jack: "You've done your homework."

Me: "Indeed. That, I managed to dig out on the low priority databases with your company, I guess they deem you as somewhat expendable. I've also hacked the medium priority database and have found some bits that will be of great use to me. However, the high priority, that I am having trouble hacking, I'll get there, eventually. But the last pieces of the puzzle I need are hidden in there, I know it, and I need to know them now."

Jack: "I'm not going to be of any use to you, I do my job, they give me a name and a picture, I bring them in. I don't know what they do with them once I drop them off where they tell me to, you think I have access to their databases?"

Me: "Hmmm... So you've been to their facilities?"

Jack: "Now I never said that now did I?"

Me: "Tell me the locations."

Jack: "I don't know where they're based-"

I extended a claw and dragged it down his thigh, tearing through his denim trousers and the flesh below. "...Arrgghh!"

Me: "Oh come now Jack, a man with a ranking such as yours? I saw you leading those teams this morning, your lackeys might not know the locations, but I'm willing to bet you do."

Jack: "Ha ha ha, you think a little scratch is going to get me talking?"

Me: "Oh so you admit you have more to give? Well so do I..."

I knelt down and grabbed the back of his knee then punched his knee hard. I heard the knee cap bone shatter and he screamed in pain.

Jack: "ARGH!... Grrr... Ooo, that was a good one.. gah... You know I've been tortured better before right?"

Me/Reikon: "I'm just warming up... Now where?"

Jack: "I told you I don't know! What's wrong with your voice?!"

Me/Reikon: "Eh eh!, wrong answer!" I grabbed his left index finger and twisted it back sharply. The bone snapped and he groaned in pain again.

Me: "Where?" I tried to ask calmly.

Jack: "Grr! Fuck you!..."

My patience snapped, I grabbed him by the neck and hoisted him into the air his body dangling in the air along with the chair he was tied to.

Me/Reikon: "You're pissing us off Jack!..."

He struggled against my grip, unable to even try and break free. He choked for a couple of seconds, "... Although..." I put him back down on the floor and he coughed and spluttered as I released my grip. I opened my tail blades and pushed them into his crotch, "...men don't think with their heads do they?"

There was now a constant incoherent whispering now from Reikon in my head, she was definitely getting stronger but all he did was stare at me, clearly trying to call my bluff.

Me/Reikon: "Do you know Jack, I am currently trying to fight back an evil conscience from taking over me? Now I might be holding back slightly, but she?, I have no idea what she will do to you. The more you piss me off the less control I have. Now surely what they pay you can't be worth all this pain and misery, so why don't you just make it easy for the both of us and just tell me what I want to know?!" He continued to stare, and if anything just started to smile. My neck involuntarily twitched.

*"MY TURN!"*Reikon screamed in my head, I stumbled slightly as my legs partially gave way, I felt myself go numb, unable to control what I was doing, unable to think straight...

Reikon: "Oops... To late..." She snarled at Jack, through my own mouth! And she forced my tail forward and Jack screamed, echoing throughout the empty church.

__________

Barstow, CA, Sat 15 Jan 22 15:30

It turns out that on this one occasion, Reikon breaking lose, taking control of me and 'interrogating' Jack, had actually done some good, she managed to make him talk and unsurprisingly, he knew more than he was letting on. What she did to him... physically and mentally, was rather horrific to watch, a few occasions I managed to regain control, just long enough to stop her killing him. Though once it was done and we had got enough answers from him, she started wandering off and it took a lot of effort to take control of myself again at that point. I'm not going to lie, I was worried I wasn't going to be able to retake control again each time. But the whole experience was quite scary to be honest, to have someone else controlling you.

But here I was now, back in control... for now anyway... acting on those answers that we had obtained, despite the fact that Reikon and myself thought he was bullshiting, and still possibly is, he listed a couple of locations. Granted, not a lot, mainly common drop off points that he would meet the scientists and hand over the drugged captives. But he mentioned a couple of worthwhile ones before he passed out and I couldn't get him back.

One was London, which of course, I was well aware of, the other one had my attention more though, that location being Barstow... The same 'abandoned' facility that I had my first trial run in in the mk 2 armour, a little over a week ago... Seems like a life time already and so much had changed since then. I Jumped in over head, glided down, landed in the yard, not too far from the entrance gate. I immediately started walking in further, trying to pick out something, anything! that I might have missed before, anything out of place.

Then I noticed something that I wasn't sure if they were here last time or not... while walking along the sandy dusty road that lead through the site. There were tyre tracks, big ones, articulated lorry sized, or semi trucks, however the Americans referred to them as... I followed them for a short while, realising that the truck had turned at one point and backed up to a loading bay. I strode with purpose, leapt up to the loading bay and dug my hand in under the shutter and yanked it up, ripping the locks from their mounts. As I stepped inside and looked around there was nothing here, nothing out of place, just an old, disused warehouse. Sighing to myself as I was trying to work out what was going on here I stepped in further then noticed something again.

My vision picked up a gap in the floor, between some racking, and another running parallel some 15 foot back. To the normal eye, it might have just looked like the expansion joints in the concrete that spanned the entire room, but as I concentrated and looked harder, I could see through this section of the floor, just about able to make out cables and mechanisms below this section of floor. I stepped onto it and looked around, no obvious signs of any lift controls, so I Knelt down to one knee, placing my hand on the floor and concentrated. Purple and red bolts of electricity coursed down my arm and into the floor. The was a clonk and this section of floor I was stood on started slowly lowering.

With a satisfied huff I straightened back up and looked at my armoured hand... The abilities I seem to be optaining hour by hour, probably should be scaring myself, but they're weren't, they all felt completely natural to me, as if I had been born with them. I dropped my hand and looked around at the elevator shaft. My vision still couldn't penetrate the walls by more than a few feet at my eye level, seeing nothing but concrete and iron supports. Below me however I could see further, the platform I was stood on was not as thick, but as far as I could see was still just more shaft... Guess what ever it was that was down here the SkyTech really did not want the outside world to see.

__________*_Wrex_*__________

Blue Miranda Church, Yorkshire, UK, Sat 15 Jan 22 23:01

I had just completed a lap of the abandoned and decaying church, circling above, taking an aerial view to see if Alex was around the building at all, but not that I could see and not that my suit's sensors were picking up. I landed near the entrance to the building, sploshing down into the puddles created by the broken path that lead to the main door. Now that my plasma jets were silent, I could easily hear the pitter patter of the rain bouncing off my helmet outside, an odd sensation as I was completely warm and dry.

Wrex: "You sure she was here? Kind of an odd place for her to come."

Sora: "Readings were present and strong, she kept using the Shard more as time went on while she was there. Of course if you had moved a little quicker-" she jeered over the coms.

Wrex: "Oi... Not all of us are magically inclined and I had to entertain Major Tom, his superiors and what felt like the rest of the British army all evening. Besides, you could be here helping me move about quicker."

Sora: "Well as your suit hasn't got the range to track her energy signature over the planet and as we can't get one of our ships to Earth, then me, sat here at this console, is your best option at trying to keep up with her. Now, are you going to check out the inside of this building or what?"

Wrex: "Alright alright..." I pushed the slightly ajar door open further, enough to let myself in. I stepped through the foyer, stepping past rubbish and broken furniture and into the main congregation hall. Scattered and broken pews lay here and there around the room, but sat in the middle of this large and leaking room was a single chair and sat upon it was a Human, a bald headed man, slumped over with his head almost in his lap. I cautiously and quietly stepped towards him, checking around the room as I approached.

Wrex: "Jesus..."

Sora: "What?"

Wrex: "I'll send you what I'm seeing."

I willed my suit to link my vision feed to the call."

Sora: "What the...?" She quietly exclaimed in shock. My HUD scanned him as I got closer, there was a pulse, slow, but there was a just about a pulse. There were pools of crimson on the floor around him with darker patches staining his clothes here and there. I gently grabbed the top of his head and started pulling him back upright.

Suddenly he jumped awake to me moving him, startling me and making me jump back.

Jack: "No please... No more... I told you all I know, no more, please... I can't... I can't take..." He strained to say trailing off, his head rolling around on his shoulders. His face was black, blue and swolen, his nose was crooked, his jaw didn't look right and there was blood pouring out of every orifice and several gashes. I crouched down beside him,

Wrex: "Hey, hey, who did this you?" Even though I already knew the answer.

Jack: "Whaa... Oh... You're not her... The one that looks kinda like you... Alex... She... she showed me things... Messed with my head, gave me memories, took away memories... I don't even know what's even real anymore!" He started sobbing towards the end.

Wrex: "Easy, easy, she gone, but I need to find her... What did you tell her?..." The man just kept silently sobbing, his head slowly falling back forwards. "...please, I need to get to her before she hurts anyone else!" The sobbing action slowly died out and suddenly he flopped forwards as far as his restraints would allow. Then my HUD beeped and flashed, in particular the section monitoring the mans vitals, his pulse had flat lined.

Wrex: "Shit..." I said slowly standing back up, "...I recognise him though, he was on the cctv in the shootout this morning at the hospital.

Sora: "Luckily we don't need him for answers, got a new hit, big one, Barstow, California."

Wrex: "Fuck it... You say it's a big one?"

Sora: "I wasn't sure if there was a hit earlier. She could have Jumped in there earlier but the problem is is that parts of California are swimming in the Shard's energy, it's difficult to tell new from old. But Barstow just pinged up with a large quantity, way more than what a Jump creates, guess that confirms she's there."

Wrex: "I'll never get there in time... But she keeps going back to Barcelona yeah?"

Sora: "Yeah."

Wrex: "Maybe now I should head her off."

Sora: "About time."

__________*_Alex_*__________

Barstow, CA, Sat 15 Jan 22 15:46

Finally the elevator lowered through the ceiling of an open and rather empty area with what only could be described as a sizeable blast door. I spun, crouched on the spot, gauntlet raised, ready to charge and fire, but there was no one here, no opposition, no security or anything. Satisfied that I wasn't about to be attacked I relaxed, as this lift slowed to a halt and latched to the floor, I stepped off it and walked towards the blast door and gazed up at it. It was large enough to get a truck through with ease. I was startled, span and raised my gauntlet at the female computerised voice to my right,

"Authorised access only, please present appropriate identification."

I lowered my arm and relaxed again as I stared at the access console on the right side of the door frame and stepped towards it. I placed my hand over the key pad, looked up the credentials for Jack Tenno then sent those to the console in a flurry of red and purple bolts of electricity. His name and ID card were displayed on the screen, I removed my hand as it processed but after a couple of seconds it beeped a negative tone.

"Tenno, Jack - Priority three clearance - Access denied - Please present appropriate identification with a minimum priority two clearance."

Me: "For fuck sake..." I thought through everything I had dug through so far on SkyTech's databases... maybe their 'priority' system matched their databases's security levels, in which case I looked through the personnel files in the medium priority database, looking for one in particular... 'ahh... found it...' I place my hand back on the console, again a series of electrical bolts, sent the information to the console and It made an approving chime in response.

You are reading story Alex – Heart Of The Vanguard at novel35.com

"Skiff, Riley - Priority two clearance - Access Granted, welcome Doctor." There was a clunk and a rumble from the door and I stepped back and smiled to myself as the door slowly started raising up into the ceiling.

Once the door was high enough I made my way into what looked like a large storage warehouse, arms raised at the ready, scanning the area in front of me as there was whirring of machinery filling the air. I walked down one of the closest aisles, got barely half way down when some kind of boxy machine turned and drove down towards me, I kept an arm trained on it as it drove towards me, but I stepped to the side and it drove past a few more feet, stopped, turned 90 degrees then raised a wooden crate up onto the racking then removed it's forks and turned to face back down the route it came.

'They're just automated fork lifts.' I watched it follow the black line on the floor so I stepped in front of it and it stopped a foot from me. I placed my hand on it and hacked it into the network it was linked to. My suspicions about this facility was confirmed... codenamed 'Grave Digger'. Jack had said that he knew that failed SkyTech experiments were moved and stored here and never came out, only 'supplies' and upon hacking and finding a map for this facility, I had found where the final supply I was after was stored. I let go of the machine and stood aside, letting it continue on it's path. I carried on cautiously down the aisle following the machine I had just hacked and watched similar machines moving in and out of a pair of doorways on the left side of the room which opened when they approached, temporarily allowing a mist to escape and closed immediately after. My thermal imaging kicked it to reveal the map was correct, this area that the automated machines were entering carrying goods into was a freezer, I could see sub zero air escaping the doors.

I followed close to one of the forklifts darting alongside it as entered the freezer, the door just missing me as it closed behind me. Outside air temperature was reading minus 50 degrees Celsius, thankfully, my armour... Well... It being a part of me now, was keeping me nice and warm and beside the feeling of it being so cold, I merely just knew it was cold, rather than experiencing and suffering from it. I mentally scanned through the inventory that I downloaded from the forklift, searching for an appropriate DNA sample that would closely match Sarah's. I had learnt from the SkyTech's data that with the earlier procedures, like with me originally, blood transfusions were required along with some organs and many skin grafts. It took a lot of donor Draconic DNA to overcome the host's own DNA, to mutate it essentially, rather than the host's body rejecting it, much like it would to a virus or incompatible organ transplant.

Because of this, initially only 1 in every 10,000 subjects were compatible and likely to survive the procedure, this is why Alpha, Bravo, Charlie and Delta batches were so few in number. Now I was one with the Shard, I knew what Skylen meant, using the SkyTech's basic technique and process in combination with the Shard's abilities the gene pool could be widened to 1 in every 100 and also the minimum donor DNA that was required to trigger the mutation was a lot lower as well. Initial results with Echo batch, with Skylen's assistance, a simple blood transfusion was all that was required, and there was some 312 produced in Echo batch, rather than the 40-70 as in previous batches.

All of this meant that I just KNEW, a hundred percent, that after I touched Sarah in the hospital, accidentally reading her DNA, that I could save her using this method. I just needed to find the right donor DNA. So after picking out a close and viable match, I pulled the serial number and it's location in this freezer, my HUD highlighted in the racking. I made my way down the many aisles, arriving a the highlighted one, made my way down and arrived at the specified location. I stopped and looked up at the shelves above me, four levels up, my HUD highlighted my target. I fired my jets, slowly hovering upward to the right shelf, eyeing up the container as I arrived, visually scanned the barcode... it matched.

This was the one! I grabbed the metallic container and lowered myself back down to the floor. I swung the ten litre barrel behind me, holding it above the base of my tail then willed, altered and extended parts of my armour in order to grab onto and latch the barrel to my back. Satisfied my primary objective was complete, I had one thing left to do... Destroy this place. I made my way back out of the freezer and further into the facility, I had an idea on how to do it, but I needed to get closer to the center of it. Best place I figured was a very large mostly open plan room, labelled as 'Mining Hall' on the map, whatever that meant, I couldn't actually pull up anything about the activities or contents of this room, but it was the center of this underground facility, if I could take the support columns out, then the floors above would collapse in and in a cascading effect, would destroy anything stored or 'mined' here.

I made my way down and through the levels of this facility, realising that this place was totally unmanned, I met no resistance on the way. Either the facility simply didn't need it or the SkyTech were so arrogant and believed that no one would ever break past the blast door, maybe a little of both but it made this much easier for me. I fast walked down a long hall before arriving at the door labelled 'Mining Hall', which was locked, another control panel on the right side of the door illuminated and spoke as I approached.

"Authorised access only, please present appropriate identification."

Me: "Why do it twice? Surely one at the main entrance is all that's needed... But whatever..." I placed my hand on the console, send the information for Dr Skiff.

"Skiff, Riley - Priority 2 clearance - Access Granted, welcome Doctor."

The doors parted and I gazed into a dimly lit room, my eyes adjusted quickly... But I wish they hadn't...

Me: "Oh my..."

There were cages, with beds in, evenly spaced apart in a grid pattern, there were at least a hundred... No, many hundreds of them! Maybe even closer to a thousand! I could see them stretching along way down this almost cavernous space, apart from the support pillars of course. Each and every bed in every cage housed a Dragon... Or, some form of one anyway. I started walking down the room, eyeing the contents of each bed, deformed dragons of all manners of speaking. Be it missing limbs, additional limbs, abnomal body parts, deformities, disproportionate body parts, extra bits... A small number even still had human skin in patches and/or limbs or extremities, a couple even still mostly looked human. A lot had patches of skin missing, and all were hooked up to machines with pipes and tubes flowing in every direction.

*"Eurgh!... How disgusting!"*

Me: "Shut up." I growled at Reikkon in reply.

"Please... Help..." A male voice strained to call out to me. I stopped my walk and made my way over to the side of his cage. He was half Human, his face was this weird contorted and elongated Human shape, with some Draconian features apparent, one eye being slightly larger and reptilian, a mixture of large carnivorous teeth spaced out between Human teeth lined his jaw, his outstretched hand had a mixture of claws and finger nails with patches of scaly skin tracing it's way up his arm.

"Help me... Please..." He said again, his hand still outstretched. I hesitantly took his hand and he firmly grasped it.

*"Do you have to touch them?!"* I ignored her complaints.

Me: "What... What happened to all of you?"

"We're the drop outs... the failures, but the ones who lived."

Me: "And they told you this?!"

He feebly nodded.

"And we were told that, although we might not be perfect, we will still be of use to them."

Me: "In what way?" I think I knew the answer already... The 10 litre container on my back, the one filled with Draconian blood... It came from here... 'mining' hall literally meant mining of bodies!

"The harvest us... Skin, organs, blood... What ever is of use to them, then keep us alive until we heal, then harvest us some more."

Me: "Oh my... That's just... This is sick... I..." I went to pull away, to find the controls to release the cells but he pulled me back.

"Can I see your face?"

Me: "I... Err..."

"Please?"

I sighed and gave in, opening and retracting my helmet for him and in return I got what I guess was a smile on his deformed face.

"You're pretty."

Me: "Erm, thank you... I'm getting you out of here though, all of you."

"No, no you're not..."

I stared at him for a few seconds, trying to figure out what he was getting at.

"...you think that any of us stand any chance of living a normal life again?... Kill me."

Me: "What?! I can't do that!, I-"

"Please! Just Kill me!"

Me: "I ca-"

"And me!" Another male voice spoke up,

"Please, kill me too!" A female shouted from somewhere,

Me: "I can't kill you, I-"

More and more voices started shouting over the top of my own, all asking for their death,

Me: "Please... I can't..."

"Kill me!"

"End this!"

"I can't take this anymore!"

"My children can't see me like this!"

"I can't... I just can't!"

"I'm hideous now!"

"This is torture! This is hell!"

I ripped my hand away from the man's and walked away, covering my ears, but the voices were still hammering their way into my head...

Me: "Just... SHUT UP!" I screamed and fell to my knees, my voice echoing around the hall and it fell silent as I sobbed into my hands.

Me: "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! You don't deserve this! But I can't kill you either!"

"We're sorry too, maybe you're right, maybe we don't deserve this, maybe we do..." The male I initially spoke to said to me, "... But do we deserve to suffer still? I know we're asking a lot... But please... Can you help us?"

I wiped my tears away,

Me: "I can get you out, all of you... You can try and live out you lives and-"

"We don't want to!" Another male screamed.

"Some of the things we've been through and seen... not the sort of things you can ever forget deary." A nearby woman added.

I got back to my feet.

Me: "You're all serious then? You really want it to end?..." I asked shakily looking around at them all to which I was met with dozens of yeses. "...Is there anyone here that wants to be saved?..." Hoping that even if there was just one that I could save, it would ease my conscience and I asked loud enough to be heard by everyone in the hall. Now all I was met with was nothing but silence. "... anyone? Please?"

"Pretty girl... It's what we want... Please... There's no place in the world for us." The initial man said to me. I gave him a nod, brought back my helmet into position and made my way to the center of the room, my plan would still work, plus I couldn't kill all of them personally.

Me: "I'm sorry to you all..." I said, feeling incredibly guilty as I reached the center of the hall. I screwed my eyes shut, concentrated the Shard's energy and let it build, holding in my mind the support columns of the room as the targets. "...ARRGGHH!" I screamed as the built up red and purple energy wave blew outwards away from me in a powerful shockwave, skimming the tops of the cages and hitting the columns.

There was a few seconds pause as the concrete on the columns started cracking, chunks falling out and the odd column collapsing about a foot and the cracks spreading out to the ceiling. Part of the ceiling collapsed on the far side of the room, obliterating the cages under it and in a cascading effect, the collapse continued, pillars gave way and the ceiling came crashing down. Satisfied that the facility was well on it's way to destroying itself, I checked the container was still on my back then created and Jump next to me and stepped on through, just as the piling in concrete was about to hit me.

__________*_Skylen_*__________

'Grave Digger', Barstow, CA, Sat 15 Jan 22 16:55

With this site being one of SkyTech's more important ones, intruder alerts and security breaches were to be taken seriously, but usually it was just kids messing around, triggering motion sensors. Even if it has taken me a while to get here on this occasion, I was still one of the first that is requested to check out this unmanned facility, only due to the nature of the contents below ground level. Nevertheless, I landed in the yard in front of the loading dock that formed part of the facade of this facility. But instantly I knew that something didn't feel right...

 'The Shard! It has passed through here! I can feel it! Which means... ALEX!!!' I ran up to the warehouse, noticing on my approach one of the shutters forced open, a hand shaped dent at the bottom and the locks sheared from their mounts. I leapt up onto the dock, into the warehouse... The lift was down! I ran up to the hole and looked down, growling in annoyance and stepped into the hole extending my wings in arches, enough to slow my descent, but not to hit the sides of the shaft. It didn't take me all that long to reach the bottom, fully spreading my wings as I did to halt me and I hit the floor of the elevator platform with a massive thud, immediately pulling my cannon from its holster... No one here... But the blast door was closed? 'Had she made it inside??' I ran up to the door, to the control pad at the side.

"Authorised access only, please-" I cut off the computer's voice by placing my hand on the pad and it scanned it.

"Skylen - Priority 1 clearance - Access Granted, welcome." It responded and I stepped back, readying my weapon. The door barely raised high enough though for me to scan the room beyond as a red and purple shockwave shot through the room, impacting me and knocking me off my feet...

Skylen: "Gahh!!!..." I quickly pulled myself from the floor with an angered growl, it was then I noticed the ground vibrating beneath my feet, getting stronger by the second, "...what the?..." I started stepping backwards in uncertainty. Cracks then started tearing through the concrete of the walls and floor beyond, and then started dropping slightly, rumbling intensifying. 

Instinct told me to run... So run I did... I holstered my cannon and sprinted on all fours to the elevator shaft and leaped up into it, bounding from wall to wall, using the supports to climb as fast as I could. Bit's of the shaft walls came falling down towards me, narrowly missing me. Everything wobbled and shook, the creaks, groans and rumbling grew to deafening levels. 'I wasn't going to make it... Unless...' I came to a stop on a girder, struggling to hold on as I looked down the shaft, it twisted and warped in such an unnatural way. A crash from a above drew my attention up... The roof from the building above caved in above and came crashing down towards me. It was now or never and I had no choice... I threw my arm out below me, concentrated as best as I could and created a Jump below me and let go and fell into the portal... This is going to hurt... I know it will... I rushed it... Chose a destination too close to where I left... I remember my love, Reikon, telling me once a long time ago, that it was dangerous. And we were both right... It hurt... it hurt a lot. The red and purple fog that was normally harmless burnt me, every part of me stung as I screwed my eyes and mouth shut. Seconds past which felt like hours given the stinging burning pains I was receiving before I was met with the pain of meeting a solid object with a thud. I felt a sandy dusty floor beneath me... I had made it out alive...

Skylen: "RAAAGGGHHHH!..." I screamed painfully as I rolled around on the floor... I knew that would happen, I knew that by me rushing to create a Jump, and picking somwhere so close to exit it would injure me, possibly even kill me, but it was either take the risk or be buried alive. I opened my eyes and saw that every part of me was smoking, my burnt scales sizzling in complaint. I growled in complaint as I got up and watched as the 'Grave Digger' site collapsed in on itself, as if the Earth was swallowing it whole, I growled again internally in annoyance now at the sight of it.

(-Linkin Park)

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