tw: injury
"This is so, so, so fucking dangerous," Biana muttered, staring at the giant vault door. Scribbles inscribed in rock above the gleaming metal spelled out something in ogrish, and delicate golden runes under spelled out ARMORGATE.
"Pfft, dangerous? What are you, a child? Puh-lease."
Faye put her hand to the metal door as she closed her eyes, feeling for something. Biana could hear the electricity conducting through the steel as mechanisms broke down and activated. Gears clicked rapidly as they cycled through each other, and with a final CLICK the doors snapped open. Metal clanged as the slabs creaked outwards, forming a hallway that led down into nothing.
She smirked, rolling her eyes. "After you, princess."
"Why am I doing this?" she wondered as she took a cautious step into the cavern. The atmosphere was cold in the solid rock, and the walls were built from mixtures and alloys of different metals and stones, molding together into a singular greyish color. It was probably a good thing June wasn't here. Her claustrophobia would destroy her.
"We~ell! Then it's a good thing June isn't here, huh?"
They took one step and an alarm started to blare. Faye took off in the hallway, dragging Biana behind her with one hand and running her other against the sleek wall. Static bursts blasted like radio scratches as something shot past Biana's head, whipping out hair. She ducked, sliding into another hallway, something else blasting against the corner. Faye jumped up, slapping a construction overhead. A vault door closed them in, and only faint thuds ran out.
"Pfft, ogres still have machine guns? Get with the times, man." Faye looked completely undisturbed, simply running her fingers through her hair and giggling.
Thunder boomed, shaking the very earth itself as the walls trembled, echoing like gongs. Lightning danced along the steel, passing through and occasionally popping out, forming delicate arcs of blue and yellow. Biana heard the whirring of engines shutting down and groaning, wheezing as they collapsed.
"We~ell, thanks to me, the engine's shut down, but it's only temporary! So don't rest too long, we'd better hurry."
They shot down another corner, turning at the intersection afterwards and facing a spiral staircase. The air whistled as Faye morphed into pure electricity, whizzing in the air and shooting to the opposite overhang. She locked her arms with the piping above, hauling herself over a chasm.
Faye smirked from across the chasm. "Hm? Aren't you going to come? Remember, the engine'll reactivate soon..."
Biana gulped, levitating herself up and following Faye's footsteps. She wrapped her hand around a pipe, hanging under them like hanging from monkey bars. Her legs swayed precariously. Faye rolled her eyes, transforming into electricity and dancing over to a railed-off section. A machine gun hung useless in the corner. She bowed dramatically after Biana made her way over.
"After you, princess."
The door clicked and swung open, leading into what looked like a labyrinth. Metal catwalks looped around, turning and zigzagging and leading down different corridors. A central spiral staircase looped around, splitting off into branches and moving away.
"Do you even know where you're going?" Biana asked Faye, trying to catch her breath as the girl frowned.
"We~ell, I don't know at this exact moment, but I'm sure I'll figure it out."
She searched around before she noticed something, launching up and clinging to what looked like a fire alarm. She tore at the bits, pulling out an iron valve and twisting it, shooting electricity up in veins. Beeping passed throughout the room and cinders rained down, one getting in Biana's eye and making her scream in pain, temporarily blinding her.
"Jesus, you'll be fine, princess. We don't have enough time to rest so frequently."
She hopped down to the catwalk under them, rolling her eyes when Biana didn't follow her, squatting down and waiting expectantly.
"Are we going to go or what, princess?"
"Ugh, I'm coming." Biana pressed her ring to her eye when she finally regained sight. Calla's energy flowed through her eyelid, soothing her pain, and she swung down. Faye held up a gadget-like device that looked like several iron bars twined together.
"He~ere we go. See, I told you I'd figure it out? This'll lead us to where we actually need to go."
Biana shook her head in doubt. "Since when were you a Technopath?"
"I'm not a Technopath. I'm better than one."
She pulled at a bar, turning it over as electricity sparked. The bars glowed red-hot and Faye quickly let go, levitating the device into the air. Lightning seemed to draw toward the bundle like lightning rods did, except it drew something else.
"Magnetism. Isn't it amazing?" Faye looked at the device affectionately before it clattered down, losing its heat. The upmost bar spun like a compass, turning and facing down a branch of the spiral staircase. "After you, princess."
Her sighing filled the room as she hurtled down, barely landing on her feet. Her arm bashed painfully against a handrail and she healed it with Calla's ring, wondering why on earth she didn't levitate. Faye giggled as she bolted down, pushing a door open.
"This way, princess."
Machinery started to spin again, engines purring in the distance. Faye cursed, pulling Biana down as a machine gun located up clicked, taking aim and firing. She jerked away, rolling and missing the shot by inches. Another shot sprayed dust in her face and she spat it away, sliding down and under the catwalk, tumbling down the enclosed ladder. A bar crashed against her elbow and she heard a crack before she dropped down, faceplanting into a metal platform. A sword plunged into the grating behind her, scattering wrecked machinery as Faye dashed down, sighing when she saw Biana injured.
"Hurry up and heal yourself already," she complained, drawing her sword back into her hand. Biana groaned, lifting her head off the floor. Faye looked like she was contemplating whether or not to step on her from that judging gaze on her face.
Another gun hummed behind her, taking in energy and locking its target just as Biana fixed her elbow. The gun flashed red as a gear clicked and she screamed, reaching out for Faye. She didn't seem to notice.
A bullet shot out from the barrel, hurtling toward them at speeds faster than sound, indeed creating a supersonic whistle that made Biana clutch her ears-
Faye's sword launched into action, whizzing behind her and intercepting the bullet. The clang was louder than anything Biana's ever heard before, louder than gongs, louder than tidal waves, louder than the force field explosion when they'd encounter Ruy. The sound seemed to rip at her ears, tear her eardrums apart, shred her ear bones into pieces, and all Biana could do was scream as she dived down.
The smoke faded eventually. She dared to look up, afraid of what she would see. Faye would have been annihilated by the bullet, it would've pierced her body, she would be dead-
She wasn't. She was standing unscathed in the wreckage, twirling her sword around her finger in boredom, dipping her head like she was falling asleep.
"Hurry," she said impatiently, leaning against a safety guard and resting on her sword. "We don't have time. We're on a crunch! So get your head up and get going, or I'll drag you along. Literally."
"Stop," Biana mumbled. "No. Don't stop. Ugh- forget it. Can you deactivate the security again or something?"
"Been there, done that, got the T-shirt. This should be a more permanent shutdown. Hopefully all the circuits got fried." She grinned, turning and heading down the hallway, crooking a finger over her shoulder. Biana sighed, trudging her feet along and following her.
There were no disturbances for the next hour or so, just mindnumbing walks through the Armorgate. Faye had indeed completely destroyed the security systems. All doors along the way were open, all defense mechanisms deactivated, and Faye seemed to understand where they were going. Biana asked how.
"Lo-gic. No, really. We want to find secret files or whatever between the Neverseen and the ogres? They'd hide it with the highest security they have, which would naturally use the most energy. So I just have to find where the most electric charge is stored, and conveniently the electric systems" -- she pointed to the wiring above -- "are located directly over the catwalks, which means I just have to follow the path of least resistance. Right, here."
They turned right and down a long ladder that led down a chute. By this point the mostly steel walls had transformed into natural cave structures. Stalagmites jutted out from the rough walls, dripping water that splattered onto the ground ominously, like gentle rainfall. Biana kept her grip on her ring, brightening up a path with Calla's viridescent glow. The artificial lighting was flickering like it was malfunctioning, blinking in and out as if it was trying to communicate something in Morse code.
Vials of microorganisms decorated the sides, glowing faintly with their bioluminescence. They looked like splashes of glitter painted onto the dark walls, not particularly belonging in the creepy atmosphere. Placards labeled each individual species, some crossed out and scribbled under, but they were all written in that indeciperable ogrish script. More locked vaults were appearing by their sides, some blocked with silver doors, some others with gold. A very select few were bound by obsidian chains that seemed to absorb all light, and strangely they were tagged with elvin runes. One read DISTITOPIKNIAN, another HISTOPHRESKISONUTTIAN, and the last one they saw HOMILETHIBARBON. All of them were stamped with a symbol that consisted of seven spirals that extended outwards like a beanstalk, crossed out with heavy red ink. Under that were the words dangerous. Do not interfere.
Wisely, none of them interfered.
Another couple hours passed, or maybe they were just minutes. Time didn't really seem to affect them anymore, deep under the ogre's heavily protected Armorgate. It almost seemed too easy. Biana knew King Dimitar wanted them to access the files, but something was off. There were no sounds in the cave except for the soft dripping of water and their footsteps reverbrating against the metal catwalks.
"This way," Faye told her, leading her down a chute that descended into complete darkness. She pointed her sword into the darkness and lightning flashed, striking down into the sword and pulsing outwards in blasts of static, turning everything white. Biana shielded her eyes before the light calmed and thunder waves moved along Faye's sword.
"After you, princess."
Biana didn't have the strength to complain as she took the first step, hopping off the midair metal rung and landing on the soft muddy ground that squished and molded under her feet. Ooze seeped into her shoes and her foot sank into the sludge as she struggled to pull her feet out.
"Idiot," Faye muttered, levitating up and floating in midair. Biana cleared her throat and followed her example, her face flushed red.
Another bit passed. The glow from Faye's blade was starting to fade when they approached a solid metal wall, an enormous circular dial in the middle, runes decorating the edge, a central keyhole engraved into the cylinder.
Faye fished out the key King Dimitar had given her and inserted it into the lock. The key clattered as pins set themselves and Faye moved to adjust the combination lock, turning from τ, to ρ, to π. Human symbols, Biana realized.
The door clunked before a crevice split down the metal. The lock shattered and dropped to the ground, sinking as the iron shards sunk into the mud.
"Here goes nothing," she heard Faye say. "Go on, princess."
Biana stepped into the dark chamber, and Faye followed behind her, cautiously holding out her sword. There was no need.
A lever switched on and the lights spontaneously erupted, filling the room with a thousand blinding spotlights that shined brighter than the stars in the night sky. Biana yelped, turning away before they could sear her eyes. Faye smiled, walking toward a device in the corner that was perched atop a dark oak desk. It looked like a human laptop. A half-eaten apple was glued to the sleek, silvery back.
Faye sat down on the throne before the desk and tossed her hair, flipping open the laptop.
Fintan Pyren
Touch ID or Enter Password
"What's the password?" she asked, turning the computer over and examining its sides. "How do I find a password?"
Biana snorted, sinking down onto the cool steel-plated ground that seemed to be treated with ice. "Aren't you the better Technopath? I thought you could do everything."
A frustrated grunt and Faye smashed the computer, making it rattle on the table. She pressed the ENTER key.
The input shook and buzzed. Faye groaned.
"I can't do anything without completely destroying the laptop," she complained. "The circuits are so tightly packed together I can't tell which are which." Her brows furrowed as she moved her finger over the keyboard. "This is storage," she said, pointing over the F key before she moved over to the G. "And this is security, I think? Wait, no. This is internet? Fuck. I don't know." She tore her hands through her hair. "I... actually don't know."
Biana let out a small breath, coming closer and squinting at the laptop. "Is it something related to Fintan? Like... I don't know. Lodestar or something?"
"He wouldn't set a password that simple. Though I wonder..." Faye looked around, clutching her fist and making lightning sizzle and spark on her nails, expanding outward in pulses of gentle shock. They felt like small tickles across Biana's skin, like water running down in a shower. A couple moments passed before Faye nodded.
She reached up and tapped something Biana hadn't noticed. It floated down slightly before casting a Lodestar over the ground. Runes projected over a southwest circle.
"Daetaknos," Biana breathed. "This... this is a Lodestar hideout. I thought... I thought the Council raided all of them."
"They must not've been completely through then," Faye noted, sauntering over to the symbol and tracing the runes. "You can never trust the Council. So... does that help with the password?"
"The lines," Biana realized. "If I read the line... try 0-11-<-1-<-1-<-0*."
Faye tapped the password in before she sucked in a breath and clicked ENTER again.
The screen opened, files and new tabs popping up on the device. Faye let out a breath and scrolled her finger over the window, turning it into a touchscreen as she frowned, saving and closing a document.
"These are all plans," she murmured. "But I think most of it's passed already. Like this one... OgrePlagueDimitarStupid.txt." She chuckled after reading the file name. "Of course he'd name it that."
"Go into Finder. That's usually where the files are. Try Ctrl-F."
Nothing happened.
"Wait, no, sorry. This is a... what did Sophie call it? Mac-n-Cheese? No, wait, Mac-n-tosh. Command-F."
A magnifying glass appeared and a text box flickered, the cursor tracing over the input.
Faye tilted her head before typing in Humans.
"Humans? Why humans..."
Biana's voice trailed off when a new file appeared onscreen.
HumansNuclearDestructionFallout.txt
"Fallout," Faye whispered. "Fallout. They want... Nuclear Fallout. We have to stop it. Timeline... Aug 8. Assassination of current American president. a) Hold Russians liable. b) hire Russian shooters... US-1... explosives? Under consideration. Shooter amount indesirable. Employ guns. Chinese involvement... potential? Criterion. διστιτοπιχνιην usage. Undesirable..."
"What does any of that mean?" Biana asked, bending over Faye's shoulder and reading the file. "What's διστιτοπιχνιην?"
"I don't know. It's something human. These are random notes... bullet points... wait, this. August? Shanghai Tower. Destroy? Nuclear target? Criterion NOT MET. Current status LOCKED. Location: 501 Yincheng Rd (M), Lujiazui, Pudong, Shanghai, China, 200120... UNDESIRABLE. διστιτοπιχνιην mark usage, present, UNDO. Place explosive in..."
Suddenly the screen flickered, turning black. Faye slammed the keyboard again and an empty battery popped up.
"It's out of battery," Faye screamed. "Fintan didn't charge it... no. No, no, no. Not like this..."
"Can't you charge it?"
"Not without emptying the memory, no. Anything else..." Faye's eyes focused on several buttons in the corner. "Maybe those?"
Biana walked over. There were three buttons, blue, green, and red. Illegible runes decorated their pedestals.
"Click the green one," Faye instructed.
The button activated with a smooth buzz and a projected screen illuminated the wall, filled with nonsensical scribbles bizarrely circled and boxed. A large X crossed out the entire page in black ink.
"The red one. Try the red one."
"It's never the red one," Biana argued. "It should be the blue one."
"No, it's the red one. I know it is. Click the red one!"
"Why would I? It's never, ever the red one. Red-"
Faye lunged over, smashing the red button and pushing Biana away.
Mechanisms whirred. Nothing seemed to happen for a moment.
Then something behind them buzzed and Biana snapped back. The open door creaked before it started to slide together.
Biana shrieked, launching herself at the vault door, but it was too late. The doors slammed shut and she crashed into the metal, listening to the dull thunk that indicated at least three meters of solid iron.
The circular lock emerged again, except without any markings this time. The keyhole was sealed shut, and a final devastating click echoed through the room.