Chapter 11: Chapter 11

Anja sat beside Sonia as the latter set up her laptop at the kitchen table. Sonia had been more animated this morning, apparently she had found something very interesting and wanted to come over to talk about it. “So what exactly were you so excited about that we couldn’t just do this over video call?”

“Remember those bio-labs I mentioned the other day? I was talking to Tharen and Gartho and they confirmed that, as it happens, those labs are also where Prometheus was created,” said Sonia with a bit of a grin, bringing some tabs in a browser, including some news articles. “So I went digging further about the specifics. After Prometheus was recovered by the Librarians, the people running the lab rather conspicuously destroyed as much evidence of their work as they could manage before the authorities arrived. Legal proceedings and investigations are still ongoing.”

“Okay, that’s definitely a blatant indicator that these people were doing something pretty illegal,” Anja shrugged. She had an idea of where Sonia was going with this. “So what’s your idea, I guess? Actually go over there and check the place out? It’s probably still swarming with cops.”

“Actually, the place got cleaned out of anything important that basically wasn’t bolted down that could be used as evidence that the police found, from what I can tell - people have been checking the place out once the police left,” said Sonia as she skimmed through multiple web pages and online videos. “Power’s been cut, the only things left are just furniture and basic equipment, no guards or police, and without power anything large enough that couldn’t be moved is useless without power.”

“So there’s probably nothing of actual value left that the cops haven’t taken. Not sure why we should even bother checking the place out, it’d be like a couple of hours to get there and back,” said Anja with a sigh. “Prometheus, are you even alright with checking it out?”

“I’m with you now and if nobody’s left to guard the place, I don’t see why not,” Prometheus remarked. “Last couple of days have been kinda quiet since the Namorrodor attacked.”

“Okay, fine, but that doesn’t mean the place is worth turning over. There’s nothing left that isn’t straight up bolted down. Besides, how does it help us with this whole Emperor thing?”

“I get where you’re coming from, and I kinda thought so too, but then I remembered we have access to advanced alien technology, and if we find anything, we could potentially learn more about what Prometheus can do,” Sonia pointed out. “We’d be able to potentially uncover evidence the police missed. We may even be able to find hidden rooms or passageways. I mean, this is some insane supervillain stuff, you never know.”

“Still would be a tedious drive to-” Anja immediately had a thought. “Wait. You’re not talking about driving, are you?”

“Yeah. Who said we needed to take a drive when we have access to a spaceship?” Sonia smirked.

“A bit brazen of you to suggest borrowing GDF equipment, but fortunately, your idea does have merit. Besides, I should accompany you on this little excursion if you want to actually make full use of the technology on hand,” Gartho said as he came into the room.

Anja chuckled, “oh, hey, Gartho. You sure that’s alright? What if Tharen needs the ship for something?”

“That won’t be a problem, we can send it back via auto-pilot until we need to return, or cut our excursion short in the event of a sudden emergency. Estella, Natalia and Tharen should be able to handle things here otherwise,” Gartho said. “I do enjoy doing a bit of actual police work when I get the opportunity.”

Anja groaned. She had been feeling a bit lazy today, but it seemed her hand had been forced. “Welp, alright. Let’s get going already. If nothing actually comes of this, Sonia, you owe me a custom coffee order of my choice.”

“And something does, you owe me one instead,” chuckled Sonia. “Come on, let’s go.”

❖

Anja still couldn’t believe that she was actually in the cockpit of a legitimate alien spaceship, moving at almost mach speed. The landscape outside the viewport was zooming past at speeds she never thought she’d actively experience. “All I can say is… Whoa.”

“It’s honestly refreshing to finally meet someone who isn’t used to spaceship travel,” Gartho chuckled, currently piloting the ship.

The cockpit itself had all the sci-fi staples that Anja expected, from holographic screens, a whole lot of fancy buttons and, interestingly, a combination of a joystick and a touch-based interface for the actual controls. The cockpit was borderline spotless, and had a decent amount of room. This ship probably wasn’t meant to get into dogfights very often, if ever.

“We’re nearing our destination,” Gartho said. “Sonia, how’s the suit?”

“Fits pretty snugly, but surprisingly flexible?” Sonia came over, wearing a GDF combat suit that had some similarities to Natalia’s suit, but wasn’t skin-tight and she had a more standard-looking sci-fi-esque combat helmet under her arm and a rifle on her back. Gartho wouldn’t let her come along without protection and a weapon, and fortunately they had spares of both just in case. “I think it’ll work. Hopefully the personal shield holds up.”

“It’ll depend on what we potentially encounter,” Gartho said, as he began decelerating the ship. “Either way, you should allow Anja and I to take point and secure the area first.”

The ship slowed to a near-stop, right above the abandoned facility. Gartho chose to land in the facility’s parking lot, which was completely empty as one would expect, as the ship uncloaked. “No human life detected for kilometres. We should be clear to proceed, ladies.”

“Roger that,” Anja said as she put on her ‘suit’, and Sonia put her helmet on. Anja felt surprisingly tense, which surprised her. But what could she possibly find aside from abandoned machines?

The trio stepped out onto the tarmac, as the ship proceeded to recloak itself, and they started walking towards the main entrance. The look of the entrance immediately brought to mind the word ‘questionable ethics’ in Anja’s mind. She could see the main lobby through the doors and windows, which had a front desk with a huge screen on the wall behind it. “Black Mesa, eat your heart out…”

“If I start seeing a man in a suit holding a suitcase show up out of nowhere I’m outta here,” said Sonia with a groan.

“I really doubt that would happen,” Gartho said, as he went to the front door, “stand back, I’m going to apply some power to the door and unlock it.” He attached what looked like an alligator clip to the door, which was attached to a small power generator he carried. In fact, he had a full set of equipment on his person, including what looked like a folding automatic turret and some kind of fancy multi-tool.

The door suddenly came alive as it was given power, and using his multi-tool Gartho was able to manually force the door to open, cutting power once the way was clear. “This place will probably have more automatic doors. As much as I’d prefer not to leave obvious evidence of intrusion, we’ll probably have to break down a few.”

“People have already busted in through the windows just to check this place out,” said Sonia, pointing to the broken glass. “Nobody’s going to really care if we break down some doors as well.”

“I suppose you do have a point,” Gartho conceded. He handed another multitool to Anja. “If we’re going to explore this place in a timely manner, we’ll probably need to split up. Sonia and I will investigate one part of the facility, you investigate the rest on your own. This tool will be able to send images to me as we go along, and my NIA will be able to identify areas that may potentially have false walls or secret passageways.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan,” Anja accepted the multitool, briefly testing it out. After confirming it was more than satisfactory, she turned it off. “We’ll meet up back here once we’re done.”

❖

Anja flashed her multitool’s flashlight down the corridor, taking peeks into the various rooms and offices as she walked. So far most of the doors she had encountered were more standard swinging or sliding doors rather than powered automatic doors, which made it easier for her to open them, and even the ones that were locked simply needed the actual lock to be smashed instead of the whole door.

However, as she expected, she found little in the way of actual substantive evidence of what had been going on in this facility. Every single room had been searched from top to bottom. Files had all been taken regardless of context. Entire computers had been unplugged and hauled away, leaving only monitors and peripherals not owned by employees.

So far, the multitool had not detected anything out of the ordinary as of yet, which made this a somewhat dull search. “Prometheus, do you remember all of these rooms?”

“Not really, I was stuck in one containment chamber and really couldn’t get out,” Prometheus confessed.

As she continued to look, Anja saw the remains of what looked like the entrance to a laboratory, which looked as if it had been ripped apart from the inside. She stepped through the ruined doorway, finding herself in a large laboratory chamber, utterly ruined by an apparent containment failure, as evident by the containment chamber in the middle that had a large hole ripped through it. “Oh. I guess this is where it happened.”

“Heh, now this room I remember pretty clearly!” remarked Prometheus. “It’s nice to come back without all those scientists around just staring at me making notes day after day.”

The containment chamber had clearly been airtight, with an ‘airlock’ used to move objects into the chamber and a set of robotic arms used to move things around inside the chamber itself. Anja examined the walls of the chamber - heavily reinforced glass. “Guess they really didn’t want you getting out.”

“Not for a lack of trying. I was gathering my strength, probably would’ve pulled it off at some point,” Prometheus noted.

Anja then noticed that the chamber itself was… Filthy, to say the least. The floor was covered in blood and other organic detritus. “Should I even ask what that’s all about?”

“Oh, yeah, that stuff… The scientists fed me a lot of meat. Specifically fresh organs. They first started feeding me animal organs, but then started feeding me human ones instead after a while. I’m guessing it was to try and get me to become sentient. Turns out they were right on the money,” Prometheus said. “Fed me a few human brains and suddenly I was pretty self-aware.”

“Okay that’s legit fucked up. Probably donated organs… Or just straight up stolen from corpses,” Anja groaned. “Do you have any… Memories from them?”

“Maybe. I have bits and pieces, but any memories are hazy at best. I dunno whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing, frankly,” Prometheus admitted.

Still, Anja could tell that there was nothing left. Any hard drives in the computers had been taken or destroyed. “Sonia, Gartho, you guy actually find anything?”

“Sorry, we got jack,” Sonia said over their communications channel. “Found the server room but it’s been raided too.”

“Between the staff trying to torch their data and the police not leaving any stones unturned, the chances of us uncovering anything is increasingly unlikely,” Gartho lamented.

Suddenly, Anja’s multitool started beeping, displaying a holographic radar interface, showing a map of the immediate area. A dot was on the radar, and moving.

“Hold on. Anja, your multitool is detecting life signs, roughly human-sized. Someone else is here… And according to these readings, they’re not human, or any other known sentient species,” said Gartho.

“I’ll go check it out,” Anja said in a hushed tone, heading out of the lab and towards where the life sign signal was. Modifying her suit’s feet density to be much more softer, she was able to soften her footsteps significantly.

As she closed in on her target’s position, she took a peek around a corner to get a look, using an extended tendril as a ‘third eye’. Whoever it was, however, they were wearing a fairly simple dark blue cloak - they seemed to be roughly two meters tall, and had something large on their back. They were headed in a specific direction, and Anja decided to not reveal herself until she found out what they were looking for. She continued to carefully tail them, staying out of line of sight as much as possible, making use of the radar to keep track of them.

The cloaked figure arrived at the door to the administrator’s office. Anja watched as the figure raised a hand with sharp red claws, slashing the door lock and ripping it apart in one fell swoop, permitting them entry.

Anja followed carefully, hiding right outside the door and peeking in as the figure stepped inside, leaving the door wide open as they went straight towards the desk, pulled out one of the drawers and reached underneath. Anja heard a click, but nothing happened. They seemed confused by this, pressing the mechanism making the noise a few more times.

Anja decided to show herself, stepping into the doorway. “Ah, I don’t think that’s gonna work, mate. Power’s out.”

The figure was immediately alarmed by this, and swung their clawed hand at her. Anja saw streaks of white speeding through the air at her, and she raised her arms, blocking the attack - the resulting feeling was if they had thrown blades at her, and something had tried to slice into her suit. “Hold on, I’m not here to-”

“You’re not fooling me!” The figure spoke with a masculine voice, and two large wings suddenly emerged from the cloak. The top half of each wing was cream-coloured, the bottom halves were a dark green.

With a single flap, the wings generated a powerful gust of wind that blew Anja right out of the doorway, sending her tumbling back before she quickly recovered. The figure stepped out of the office, unleashing another gust with his wings - this time, Anja was ready, leaning forward and spiking the floor with her symbiotic suit. “Okay, pal, if you wanna throw hands, I’ll show you what I can do…”

She charged, extending whip-blades from her arms as she side-stepped another air slash, taking quick swings at him from about a couple of meters away. However, he was no slouch, taking on a martial stance as he dodged and deflected strikes with his apparent aerokinesis, striking back with quick punches that seemed to be far out of range until Anja felt the air itself slam into her body. She decided to move in closer, shifting to more solid arm-blades that she started slashing at him with, trying to slash through the cloak.

While a few strikes ripped into the cloak as he backpedaled, allowing her a better look at him - he had a grey hoodie and blue pants, the former styled almost like a classic toga, and the latter with a yellow and leather belt. He had a leather pouch strapped around his waist, leather protective guards around his legs, and two feline digitigrade feet with cream-coloured fur. She still couldn’t get a look in at his face yet.

“You’re pretty good for one of Echidna’s lackeys…” He said, as he drew two short swords of antique design that Anja recalled were from Bronze Age Greece, his wings flapping again as he tried to blow Anja back, sending her several meters back, though she did land on her feet this time.

But his comment struck her as odd - did he mistake her for someone who’d be his natural enemy? “Hold on, what are talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, only reason someone like you is hanging around is to protect the government’s secrets!” He said, slashing the air with his swords. Anja immediately moved, seeing that the air slashes created by the two blades looked much deadlier, and as she anticipated, one of them cut into her side, damaging her suit and causing her to bleed a bit.

She decided to take a gamble, and removed her helmet. “I think you’ve made a mistake. I’m not who you think I am.”

The figure stopped, staring at her from under his hood. “What the… You’re…”

“Anja! We’re here!” Sonia called out, as she and Gartho raced into the corridor, weapons raised. “Drop the swords, and hands up where we can see them, pal!”

The figure was silent for a moment, but dropped both swords, raising his hands in apparent surrender, pulling back both the cloak’s hood and that of the hoodie. “Sorry. It appears I didn’t realise you weren’t from Gaia.”

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Anja just stared in surprise as she finally got a look at her opponent’s face.

He had the head of an eagle. Staring back at her were two red eyes surrounded by yellow scerla. He had a distinct orange beak. Most of his body was a creamy white. The top of his head was green, he had two feline ears, red eye markings and fanciful red, yellow and blue plumage, and barely visible under his clothes were a set of fresco-like markings on his fur along his arms, chest and shoulders.

“Uh… You’re a griffin,” Sonia blinked. “An anthropomorphic griffin.”

“That’s right,” the griffin chuckled. “That reaction certainly confirms that you’re not familiar with the denizens of Gaia. Apologies. My name is Logos Metaxas, and I am a member of the Gaian Resistance Movement.”

“I was not expecting someone from Gaia to be here,” Gartho said. “Why are you here, anyway?”

“Investigating this lab for evidence of illegal research bankrolled by the Gaian government. My comrades received intel about this place, including where the secret passageway was,” explained Logos. “You’re not of any species I’ve ever seen.”

“That’s because he’s an alien,” noted Anja. “I’m Anja Kendrick, she’s Sonia Mata, he’s Gartho Beathwe. We came here looking for information on Project Prometheus, which is the symbiote on me.”

“Hey, wassup,” Prometheus said.

“Then I think we’re looking for the same thing,” Logos nodded. “Again, sorry for attacking you. I thought the only people who would be here would be Echidna’s agents. I never imagined that the symbiote created here would bond with a human, nevermind also make contact with alien life.”

“Trust me, the last few days have been one hell of a thing. And we’re not exactly the type to go to bat for a despot,” said Anja. “If that misunderstanding is cleared up, I think we can trust you, at least for now. Gartho, there’s a hidden passage in the administrator’s office, can you go open it up?”

“Right, but of course,” Gartho said, going straight past Logos and into the office.

“I guess we’re all on the same side, then,” Sonia said, lowering her rifle and walking over.

Logos nodded, both his swords suddenly shooting up into the air into his hands, and he returned them to the sheaths on his belt. “Most verily. It seems humans aren’t as inherently hostile to us monsters as Queen Echidna would like us to believe.”

“Sounds like your queen isn’t fond of humans,” Anja noted, as they walked into the office, watching Gartho get to work.

“Humans were created by the gods in ancient times, whom King Typhon and Queen Echidna both had animosity with. And Echidna was forced to birth many monsters in those days to be slain by human ‘heroes’. The kingdom’s propaganda paints humans as violent beings who would eagerly hunt us monsters to extinction,” Logos explained.

“So I guess you griffins have wind powers, then?” Anja asked.

Logos blinked for a moment, but then chuckled. “Ah, no, actually. All us Monster-kin each have a special ability. Mine is aerokinesis.”

“Huh, so superpower lottery. Neat,” Sonia nodded. “And any particular reason why you’re in a resistance movement against your own government?”

“Queen Echidna was a fair and just ruler… Until recently. Now, she’s lost interest in governing for the people,” Logos frowned. “Corruption in the government has risen dramatically, and she herself has been getting involved in questionable behind the scenes projects, and with even more questionable people. We were originally a protest movement, but when the government cracked down on us, we became a resistance aimed at forcing Echidna to acknowledge the problems she’s causing, or, if necessary, remove her from power.”

“Here we go,” Gartho said, as part of the floor opened up, revealing a secret stairwell. “Ladies first.”

Anja and Sonia went down first, shining flashlights down the stairs, and opening the door at the bottom. Anja expected more disappointment.

However, the hidden office room was entirely intact and untouched, including a file cabinet, another desk with an intact computer, and a full server rack. “Well, I’ll be damned. Jackpot.”

“Ah, a classic secret room! Absolutely marvellous,” Gartho said, his mandibles clicking together in delight as he came in behind the girls, hooking up both the computer and the server to his generator and starting them up. “I’ll start copying the digital files, you three look at the physical files.”

“This might be the evidence we need to prove Echidna is up to some shady business,” said Logos as he eagerly started skimming through files.

Anja and Sonia also started to take a look at the physical files. While it certainly had information on Project Prometheus and other illegal experiments, the actual client didn’t seem to be Echidna or Gaia, or if not, they were hidden behind pseudonyms. So unfortunately, it wasn’t quite the smoking gun that Logos had been looking for, as far as Anja was concerned, but it was still very useful stuff. Anja unfortunately didn’t have time to examine the files in detail, however, but what she did skim through seemed promising - details on how Prometheus was created, how he was grown, and some information on his theoretical capabilities. This was going to be interesting to read through later.

“This is very interesting information indeed, I believe we’ve certainly found what we’re looking for,” Gartho said. “Anja, Sonia, it’s probably best that you head back to the ship. Logos and I will handle duplication of all of these files, the ship will take you back to Angel Bay.”

“Huh, you guys came from quite a ways, then,” Logos said. “Apparently some weird stuff is happening over there.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” Anja said.

The girls explained what had been going on in Angel Bay to Logos, along with what the deal was with the planetary shield.

“Not what I was expecting. Looks like we’ve got more to deal with around here than just Echidna’s machinations,” Logos rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I agree with Gartho, you two probably should head back. Perhaps I’ll visit to check in on Prometheus - if the Gaian government catches wind that he’s bonded to a human, they’ll try to capture you, Anja.”

“Thanks for the warning, big guy,” Anja nodded. “Then I guess this is just goodbye for now?”

“I think so, yeah,” Logos smiled. How he did that with a beak was beyond Anja’s understanding. “It would be a shame to not meet with you two lovely ladies again after our first meeting was so brief.”

“Whatever you say, Romeo. Seeya later,” Sonia chuckled, “come on, Anja, let’s go.”

“Right, seeya. And we’ll meet up again back at Angel Bay, Gartho,” Anja said, as she and Sonia went back up the stairs.

❖

Anja watched the landscape zoom past through the cockpit canopy, the world becoming a blur as the ship flew entirely on autopilot.

“So, uh. Today was pretty bonkers,” said Sonia, now back in her casual outfit as she stared out the window as well. “We discovered more information about Prometheus, which we’ll hopefully get to study later, and also a monster-person from underground who turned out to be a pretty nice guy.”

“That second part sounds oddly familiar,” Anja remarked. “But nevermind that, I suppose. You still sure you should be getting involved in all of this?”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Sonia smirked. “After today why wouldn’t I want to?”

“Yeah, I figured as much. Well, if you wanna do that then it’s not gonna be my fault if something happens, just saying,” Anja said.

“You say that, but we both know you’re still worried about me. I’m not gonna end up like Matt,” Sonia sighed.

Prometheus then chimed in, “who is ‘Matt’, anyway?”

Anja winced. That brought up… Painful thoughts. “Matthew Braeman. He was… A friend. Don’t wanna talk about it.”

“Ah, I see. Now I’m starting to piece things together,” Prometheus said. “Oddly familiar name, though, dunno why. Maybe one of the scientists had the name ‘Braeman’…? I dunno.”

“Whatever happens next won’t be your fault, Anja,” Sonia smiled. “I’m not gonna walk into a dangerous situation unprepared. I’ve got your back, and I hope you’ve got mine. And we won’t be alone, either.”

Anja took a deep breath. She knew Sonia was right, but she couldn’t help but worry. “I know, but… I don’t want to lose you, too.”

“What happened to Matt wasn’t your fault. And I’ll be damned if I ever let you blame yourself for something like that ever again,” said Sonia, shaking her head. “If something ever happens to me, it’ll be because I made the choice to put myself in danger to keep our home safe.”

Anja stewed on that for the rest of the trip, right up until the ship landed in her backyard.

She and Sonia disembarked from the ship, and went back inside the house. Anja could scarcely believe they had been so far away mere minutes ago.

“Anja. If something happens to me… Promise me you won’t blame yourself.” Anja was snapped out of her thoughts by Sonia, who had turned to her to make eye contact.

Anja frowned. “Sonia, what if it’s genuinely my fault? What if I screw up, and-”

“Don’t make me slap you,” Sonia said sternly. “Shit happens. I’m not gonna let you blame yourself for every little thing that happens, regardless of whether you could or couldn’t do anything about it.”

Sonia had always struck Anja as a bit prideful - not arrogant, but she realised she always took responsibility for anything she was involved in. Maybe sometimes way more than warranted, one way or another. But in this case, was Sonia accepting responsibility for what might happen to her for Anja’s own sake?

Anja briefly bit her lower lip. But Sonia’s pleading stare caused her to capitulate. “Okay. I promise.”

“Good. Then hopefully I won’t have to worry about you getting even more messed up,” Sonia smiled… Before kissing Anja on the lips.

Though briefly surprised, Anja quickly reciprocated, wrapping her arms around Sonia’s waist as they locked lips.

Over a minute passed as the kiss continued, slowly and sensually. They were friends with benefits, but Anja wasn’t sure she was ready for a relationship with Sonia. Maybe there was some love there, but right now, Anja was still a bit too messed up in the head to be comfortable with it. But Sonia knew that, and was happy to wait until she was ready.

As they broke the kiss, they put their foreheads together. Sonia smiled. “I’m here for you, Anj. I’ll always be here. Even if I have to haunt you to do it.”

“That’ll be a sight to see,” Anja smiled softly. “Thanks, Sonia.”

Sonia smirked, “by the way, you owe me a coffee~”

That gave Anja pause. And then she groaned. “Ah, fuck, I do, don’t I?”

“Anyway… I really should get going. Got stuff that needs doing,” Sonia said, giving Anja another, briefer kiss before heading for the front door, waving. “Later!”

“Seeya,” Anja said, with a wave.

Then she sat down at the table, taking deep breaths as she rested her head in her hands. “I just wish I can keep that promise, if it ever comes to it…”

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