Equinox: The Uprising

Chapter 17: Scorpion Crevasse Part 2

                I arrived at the entrance. The walls of the slope had been scratched up, no doubt by Jack himself. I proceeded down into the first clearing. All the vines around the pool had been cut and the scorpions were dead.

                -I’m starting to think Jack didn’t do this…

                I continued onward to the temple, whose door was ripped open. The walls of the temple had scratch marks on them but more importantly were the drag trails on the floor, as if something had drug something else down the hallway. I proceeded to the next chamber.

                In the next chamber I saw a dead body near a large hole in the wall. I scanned the hole and it seems as though it had been made by physical force, much like that of the Claws or Talons. I examined the body and was shocked to find that he was a member of the NHR, the same people that I had met here before in the past. I walked through the hole in the wall into a large silo-like room that went downward. I saw in the center of the room was a figure, just standing there. I jumped down. The fall took all but ten seconds but I was fine when I hit the ground.

                When I approached the figure, its hands grew three times larger and formed claws. Then it started speaking but what I heard wasn’t human.

                “You shouldn’t have come here.”

                There was a small pause. Then he dashed backward toward me and swiped at me with his left claw. I jumped over and activated my Talons. We stood with our backs to each other for one moment.

                -I’m trying to help you, Jack. I have a cure; you just have to hold still enough to take it.

                “I was interested in a cure before, but now I have seen what kind of power these claws can give me and I’m never going back.”

                -Please, we need you to help fight the Omega Teranors!

                “I am Teranor now. I will help THEM not YOU!”

                He growled out the last word and then tried to trip me using a maneuver that I scanned and studied. He started spinning along the ground, hovering just above the floor. His claws were aligned to be able to hit the legs of whatever was standing there. I jumped over this attack and finished the scan. I then used the same attack to counter his, he and I were staggered for a moment by the cancelling forces and then he started running along the walls, very fast.

                I saw him jump all the way from one wall to the other, easily two hundred feet! On his next jump, he swiped at me. I blocked with my own Talons and then activated my TDD. I shot at a spot that he would have been at in two seconds and shot. The blast hit him directly, but he put up his claws as a shield and there was no damage. I then remembered that the NHR guard in the past handed me a Bio-Mech Destabilizer which would allow the deconstruction of those claws.

               

                I activated it and shot once more at Jack, the same as last time. This time however it had hit his claws and started breaking them down. I took that opportunity to grab him, throw him to the ground, get on top of him so he couldn’t move, and force the potion down his throat. I held his mouth shut so he would have no choice but to swallow, which he did. I then drove my Talons into his suit conduit and found the software for the claws, copied it to my suit, then deleted it from his.

                -Suit, purge all foreign contaminants.

                [Purging… Purge complete; the software is now safe to use.]

                I then re-uploaded the new software to his suit again as per not taking that ability away indefinitely. He stopped squirming so I knew he was fine now, the potion worked.

                “Chris, thank you. I am in your debt. Now can you please get off of me?”

                I stood up and offered my hand to help him up, which he declined.

                “No thanks, I’m fine. Do you know where the exit is?”