Fortnite: Quest Buddies (FINISHED)

Chapter 20: The Stronghold (Part 2)

Note: The Komoran runes are in English in another font so you guys can understand it. They don't sound like they are spelt. Just so you guys know what's going on :)

Skye woke up with a jolt. It appeared the others had fallen asleep, too. Skye checked her phone. It was 4:00am the next day.
Skye was thrown off the box she was laying on and hit the cold metal floor hard. Meowscles and Kit had to run to avoid several wooden crates coming their way.
Ollie was trying desperately to open the container door.
When he managed to wrench the door open, the sight made Skye gasp.
There it is.
A humongous building stood tall in a pyramid on a patch of barren land, and what surprised Skye most was, knowing Shadow, the pyramid was only the top. The real secrets lay deep underground. She knew it was The Stronghold because the Shadow logo was plastered in every space possible, without being messy.
"Jump out!" Deadpool cried, noticing that the container was close to a smashed window.
Meowscles shoved Kit into a backpack on the floor and tossed it on his back. The six of them then hopped onto the floor. Only whilst jumping Skye noticed a Shadow henchman in the sat of the magnet holding up the container. He had his head in his hands, and it didn't take long to put two and two together. Skye wanted to say thank you for creating an escape route, but she also knew it was on accident and the henchman wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in her.
Inside the building, no one had noticed the smashed window, since no one was there. They could all hear Kit's muffled raging through Meowscles' backpack.
"So, what's our next plan of action?" Maya brushed some hair out of her eyes.
"We go down. We won't find anything up here," Ollie suggested, echoing Skye's thoughts.
"Look around for stairs or an elevator or something," Skye agreed.
They all split up on the floor. Skye decided to take a particularly large room with Ollie and Meowscles (and Kit, but he didn't count.) It occurred to all three of them that there wasn't any way down from that room, but they kept looking out of curiosity.
"Ugh! It smells of oil in here!" Kit gagged, springing out of the bag.
Skye, being Skye, went up to the bag and took a big sniff. He was right. She instantly felt nauseous and leant against the table.
I go to The Rig all the time with Tina. Surely I can handle a scent of oil in a backpack, right? Skye thought to herself. But perhaps she couldn't. It could just be the guilt from her and TnTina's argument a few days ago. Or, perhaps it wasn't just oil in there.
Kit was vomiting violently into a trash can, and Meowscles was worriedly muttering something about Tabitha. That was no oil in there. Ollie was about to yeet the bag out the window, when Skye stopped him for no apparent reason.
"Get it *gag* out of here!" Kit growled.
"Get him out," Skye told Meowscles.
"Don't do anything drastic," Meowscles grabbed Kit and left.
Upon closer inspection, the 'oil' looked a deep purpley colour. Skye dug her finger in and scooped some out. It wasn't corrosive. It had the consistency of a gel, and now any illusions of oil had left it.
Purple... oily... gel-like... not corrosive... It was a poison! Skye chucked the bag on the floor and yelped.
"What?!" Ollie cried.
"It's poison!" Skye frantically rubbed her finger on a table.
Ollie's eyes had drifted over to the backpack.
"What's it doing in there?" Ollie wondered.
Just before Skye was about to solve the mystery with Ollie, Deadpool materialized out of thin air and told then he'd found an elevator, but it required a fingerprint.
"Damn it!" Skye moaned.
"That's not very PG family friendly," Deadpool  joked.
One glare from Skye made him turn away and leave. Skye and Ollie followed in quick pursuit. In a hallway there were 3 elevators with high tech touchpads. They were all activated by a fingerprint.
"Can't be just break the touchpad and go through?" Kit meowed.
"No. Who knows what traps lie here. Either way, it would probably set off an alarm," Maya disagreed.
"Keep looking! We have to find something!" Skye shouted.
"You ain't going anywhere!"
The agents heard several guns click behind them. They all knew that was a henchman's voice.
It was like instinct.
Skye turned around and slashed a henchman with her sword, then another 2. She dodged the rain of gunfire and killed the rest of the henchmen with the help of the others.
Except it wasn't with help from the others. For when she turned around to congratulate them, they were still stood with their hands up.
"I have one question, what the heck?!" Maya cried.
"I'm practicing for when we see Chaos Agent. If we see Chaos Agent, that is," Skye shrugged it off.
She picked up a limp arm and used the cold finger to open up the ID scanner. The elevator opened up and Skye stepped in.
"What are you guys waiting for?" Skye giggled, noticing the others hadn't moved.
The others became unstuck and followed Skye into the elevator. Once inside, no one spoke. Eventually Skye decided to break the silence.
"Did I scare you guys...?" Skye sighed.
"A lil bit, yeah," Meowscles went pink.
"I'm sorry... I don't know what came over me. It was like I was in autopilot... driven by something."
"Tina," Maya nodded.
"Yeah."
There was another moment of silence. The doors suddenly opened, and it occurred to Skye that she didn't know where they were - she had pressed a button at random.
Luckily the floor was empty. It was probably a boiler room deep in the place. But, in the empty blackness, Skye could feel someone else was there. Or something.
"Wait. There's something else here," Skye gasped.
"How do you know?" Ollie whispered.
"I just... know."
Ollie exchanged looks with Maya, Meowscles and Deadpool.
"Meow! I don't like this one bit! Can we please go back?" Kit mumbled.
"We can't!"
"Skye, is something wrong? Do you think Tina's nearby?" Ollie comforted Skye.
"No, not Tina."
Skye gave him that look, and Ollie knew what she meant.
"Skye, do you seriously think he's here?"
"Yes!"
Oro was close by. Skye could feel his power emanating from his body. And she knew now, from the way Ollie looked around, that he could feel it too.
"Wait, who?" Deadpool asked them.
"No time to explain!"
Skye and Ollie took off without waiting for the others and without explanation. They knew he was in this direction.
"WHO?!" Deadpool shouted after them.
The darkness was filled with the pounding footsteps of the two agents. They both knew they should be going away from the familiar energy, but they continued towards it. Skye's heart was pounding. It was very close now.
"I think it's behind this door," Ollie pointed to a door.
Upon looking at it, it looked ordinary, but then Skye noticed the ID scanner. It locked the door from thieves.
"Dang it! This place and its ID scanners!" Skye grumbled.
"We have to get through!" Ollie sighed.
Then, without warning, Skye sliced her sword into the scanner. She had seen one too many ID scanners today. Sirens immediately sounded from all directions.
"Skye! They know where we are now!" Ollie looked around frantically.
Skye didn't listen and pushed open the door. She knew what she expected to see, but it wasn't what she saw.
Instead of a rotten skeleton wearing a regal outfit, a staff sat on a pedestal. The staff looked as though it were made out of a glittery gold. It was decorated by golden chains and pieces of cloth on the handle.
"No way," Skye muttered.
She didn't have to say it. It was Oro's staff.
"Skye! Ollie!"
Barely noticeable above the sirens, Skye and Ollie could hear a woman's voice. Skye looked all around and realised that the room was full of cells that kept their prisoners inside by eating off of the staff's power.
She knew what she had to do. She went over to the staff and took it off the pedestal. Skye felt the energy course through her.
"This is so cool! How do I use it?" Skye spun the staff around.
A large purple lightning bolt shot out of the staff, breaking open a wall. Meowscles nervously poked his head out from behind the rubble.
"Watch where you fire that thing!" Meowscles howled.
"Hey, is that the thing Midas was looking for?" Deadpool gasped.
"Uh huh! I gotta figure out how to shut off the cells."
Almost like it was listening to Skye, the staff shone purple for a split second and all the cells shut off. Loads of henchmen and other prisoners poured put of the cells and hurried out of the broken wall. Only one person stayed, and Skye couldn't have been happier.
"Tina!" Skye cried and hurried over to her.
"Skye!" TnTina hugged Skye.
"I-I'm so sorry! I won't keep any more secrets from you, I promise!"
"No, I'm sorry. I was being selfish. However, what is your secret?"
"This is my secret."
Skye held the staff so TnTina could see it. Her eyes lit up, reflecting the gold.
"What is it?"
"It's a staff belonging to that golden skeleton at The Shark. His name's Oro. Midas will tell you more about him when we get back."
"Can I hold it?"
"Sure."
But, upon touching the staff, TnTina instantly drew back, obviously in pain.
"Woah! What happened?"
"That thing shocked me!"
"What?"
Ollie moved over to stand next to Skye. He could see something on the handle.
"Look," he said.
Sure enough, engraved in the handle in small writing was:

ҜΩMΩRΔ

"Komora," Skye gasped.
"Looks like gibberish to me," TnTina shrugged.
"The Komoran staff let a Komoran touch it, but shocked someone who isn't from Komora. I think the staff is specified so only Komorans can touch it!" Ollie realised.
A few seconds later, they became aware of the gunfire outside.
"Everyone get behind me!" Skye cried.
Everyone, knowing what she was about to do, did what she said before the henchmen came. When they did, Skye poised the staff ready.
"Fire!"
A huge purple bolt fired out of the end of the staff and its effects were visible upon impact. The henchmen were electrocuted instantly, and they all collapsed after a few seconds. There was no doubt that they were dead.
"Oh my God," Maya gasped.
Everyone went and looked out of the hole to see if anyone else was there. Everyone except Skye. She found that she couldn't move, and was frozen in place. The smell of poison from the backpack was stronger than ever, and it made her feel dizzy.
"Hey, Skye, you coming?" Ollie called to her.
Skye found herself turning back to the empty cells. In one towards the centre, she saw a woman. She was wearing clothing that resembled clothes that an Aztec would wear. She stared at Skye and gestured for her to come to her.
Her mother.
Deep down, she knew it was a trap. There was no way that her mother was there. She was dead, Skye had seen her die in her childhood house in her dreams. Yet, she was beckoning her to come.
"Skye! She's not real!" Ollie grabbed Skye's shoulder.
In response, Skye pushed Ollie away.
"Go away! She's more real to me than she ever was or ever will be for you!"
TnTina and Maya rushed over to help Ollie out.
"Skye, your mum is dead. You saw her die. Stop deluding yourself," TnTina shook her head.
"No! You're wrong! You're keeping me from her! You're my enemy!"
Before anyone could say anything else, Skye ran for her mother and hugged her.
Then she disappeared right before their eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Word Count: 2000
Skye Count: 71