Aphmau's POV:
"Holy hell!" A voice echoed through the basement and I looked back.
"Kyle, shush!" I grabbed his hoodie and yanked him towards me. "Are you sure we don't need anyone to keep watch?"
"Positive, I reinforced the door." He beamed, sticking out his chest.
Little did I know Kyle's version of 'reinforced' included pipe cleaners, washy tape and-
"Where's your gum?" I asked.
"Finished it," Kyle shrugged. "Had the whole packet while you were exploring."
-Whatever was left of that gum once he was done with it.
Cue the 'yucks'.
"Guys!" Emmalyn whisper-shouted and we ran to her. Through a doorway in the darkness was another room. It had another computer screen, except this one took up an entire wall. There was one single control panel along with a keyboard in the center of it.
"Aren't you supposed to be keeping watch?" Emmalyn narrowed her eyes at Kyle.
"You say that as if you're unhappy to see me," He grinned and spread his arms.
"I already don't like you, don't give me another reason not to." She glared at him before walking over to Emily.
"I like her," Kyle smiled.
"You do? She repeatedly said she doesn't like you since you met her, which I can't blame her for." I gave him a playful glare, reminding him about the Heli-plane incident.
Heli-plane, a Helicopter with the controls of a plane. A.k.a Why Kyle should never be in charge of a break out.
I think I'm gonna stick to that name.
"She cares about you. She's mad at me because I nearly got you killed. That shows that she genuinely cares about you." He chuckled. "And a friend of yours is a friend of mine, whether they like me or not." And with that, Kyle marched over to her. I rolled my eyes, smiling, and stood next to Red. Turning my attention to the screen, I noticed it was just like the other one, completely blank, lit up by blue.
"Can we turn it on?" Emily asked.
"Shouldn't be too hard.." Red cracked his fingers before tampering with the control panel. "Aph, can you pull the black lever for me."
I froze, remembering the last time I was out in a situation like this.
"What would happen if I mess up?" I stared at the panel.
"It wouldn't turn on and you'd try again..?" Red gave me a strange look and I shook my head, silently pull the lever. "Thanks.." I didn't look any of them in the eye as Red continued. After a few seconds, a beep sounded and the screen started working.
"Sweet! Now let's see what's on this sucker." Emily grinned, rubbing her hands together. As Red flicked one last switch, the blue screen turned white. As it booted up, the same blue dragon symbol flashed on screen. It faded to reveal a desktop.
"What've we got?" Kyle leaned forward.
"What's that?" Emmalyn pointed at one of the folders, ignoring the elbow Kyle was resting on her shoulder.
"Video Log?" I read the title of it. Red clicked into it and revealed hundreds of files, leading up to about a year and a half at least.
He opened the first video,
Day 41
The camera was shaky, someone was holding it in there hand. The person behind it was creeping up on a girl.
"Hey!" The person, who sounded like a guy, grabbed her shoulder. And she turned around, coughing. Apparently she was drinking a smoothie and now it was dribbling down her chin, falling on her clothes. She slowly lifted her head and glared at the guy behind the camera.
"Oh you're dead." She growled.
"Gah!" The man screamed a high pitched scream before running. The sound of a door opening could be heard, and another woman walked in. She had black hair flowing past her hips and lavender eyes. (A/N: I want her and Aph to look slightly different.)
Mom..
The guy ran behind her and the sight of the other woman storming towards them was hidden behind my Mom's shoulder.
"Alright, what is going on here?" She spoke. "Why is Enki hiding behind me, and who made.." She trailed off and turned around to glare at the guy.
"Enki, did you make Menphia mad again?" She crossed her arms.
"Pft, why ever would I do that.." Enki chuckled nervously before attempting to make a break for it. I caught sight of a leg being placed in his way before he tripped on it.
"Ugh.." Enki groaned and someone picked up the camera, letting us see Enki's dark green eyes and white hair.
Like Travis..
"What is this stupid thing?" I recognized the voice as Logan held the camera lens to his face.
"I believe the ancients called it: 'A camera'." Enki received a glare for his sarcastic response.
"I'm not an idiot, I meant what are you doing with it." Logan growled.
"I have to record everything we do daily, but writing in a book is tiring. So, starting today, I'm just gonna video everything." He shrugged.
"In other words," A blonde man came into view and slapped Enki on the back. "Enki's trying to make up for his lost life long dream of becoming vlogger." He laughed and so did the others as the Keeper turned red.
"C-Can it, Esmund!" Enki barked at him while Menphia stalked over to him.
"Uh.. Menph, hey!" He grinned sheepishly, stumbling to his feet.
"You little.. When I'm done with you the police won't be able to identify the body." She glared at him and he gulped. "I swear- Wh- HEY!" Menphia shouted as Donna came into frame and picked her up, heaving the furious woman over her shoulder.
"Alright, time to calm down." Donna began walking off and Menphia yelled swears at the others.
"Logan, get her off me!"
"And why should I?" He smirked, leaving against the wall.
"She's your girlfriend!"
This is before they were married.
"Yeah, which is exactly why I'm staying here. Where she won't kill me."
"You son of a-" The door slamming cut her off. I didn't notice the camera had been left on a table until then. Logan rolled his eyes and walked out the back door without a word.
"I'll make sure she doesn't kill anybody." Esmund sighed and went after the girls, leaving Enki and my mother.
"Irene?" Enki asked. "Wait, let me stop recording." He rushed over to the camera and fumbled with it. But when he stepped back the video was still going- he hadn't properly cut it.
"I assume you took her advice into consideration." His joking tone was gone and now a solemn one.
"Actually, I've already done it." My mother responded.
"Does anyone else know about the key?"
"Kul'zak," She nodded. "He found it last time he stopped by, but no one else."
"Where even is it?" Enki asked.
"Not my place to tell." She smiled. "Just know it's right under your nose, or your chin." My mother muttered the last part, quiet enough so Enki didn't hear, but loud enough so the camera she was next to picked it up.
"But-"
"No time, we got work to do, remember?"
"Right.." Enki sighed as she left the room. He turned to pick up the camera and stopped. "Wait.. The red light means it's off.. right? How do I do this again?" You could hear him fumbling with the buttons before the video ended suddenly.
We stayed in silence for a moment before someone spoke up.
"Did anyone else recognize the room they were in?" Emmalyn asked.
"It looked like.. Like the part of the Basement we were just in.." Kyle trailed off.
"We need to go to the beginning, Enki said he was sick of doing journal logs, right? Well.. What if something in there explains what this used to be?" Red suggested, tapping away at the keyboard. He pulled up some more files and, skimming through them, opened one. It was a document. Emily began to read it out loud,
Day 1
I never could've have imagined that one coincidence would change so much. All it took was being in the right place at the right time, a moment later and none of it would've happened. So much has changed since then.
Kul'zak says he heard rumors of a powerful army during his travels. The leader of it all has been given the name 'Shadow Lord' because nobody has ever seen him. He lurks in the shadows, waiting with his ruthless army of blood red knights.
This could be bigger than any threat we've faced in the past months. We need to regroup. Irene knows a group of people who owe her a favor, they're willing to help us.
There's this old warehouse, an empty one. We'll use that as a base. It'll be risky, being out in the open, but no one will try anything unless they want to be exposed. The Warehouse has been empty since 1966, nothing will be changing anytime soon.
Should we ever need it, the address is enclosed in this entry:
As Emily paused from reading her eyes skimmed the address.
"That's the school address.." I muttered.
I inhaled a sharp breath and turned to Red.
"Red, when did this school start being built?" My voice was tight, the tension in the atmosphere could be cut with a knife. He took out his phone and typed it in the search bar,
"August 1st, Seventeen years ago." Red read out. "Still pretty new compared to most schools in the area."
"And when did they start construction for Headquarters-?"
"July 24th, Seventeen years ago." Kyle answered before I could finish. "A week after they probably abandoned their old hideout and relocated."
My eyes widened and I felt a small grin rising on my face.
"Don't you guys know what this means?" I started. "It means this school used to be the Original DIVINE's base. Think of the secrets in these walls! If we can search the place, find more untouched areas like this, we could find the answers that we need." Shaking my head slowly, I turned to face the screen again.
"We could finally be able to take down Disaster.. Maybe even Demon." I laughed breathlessly. "We would finally win! This could be what we've been waiting for!" I was laughing now and the other seemed to realize the same thing.
"People, I think we just hit jackpot," Emily smirked.
"Couldn't we just ask Donna and Logan?" Kyle thought. "I mean, they were kind of part of the DIVINE, wouldn't they know all the stuff here?"
"Do you really think they'd tell us anything?" Red scoffed. "Those two have more secrets than anybody I know."
"He's got a point." I nodded. "Okay, school starts in thirty minutes so maybe if we-" I stopped talking when a noise came from behind me. Out of the doorway to the room we were in, something rolled forward. It was small, something you could easily hold, with bumps on the side. I recognized it immediately. I also noticed the lack of a pin at the top. But what caught my attention was what this particular thing looked like. As it clicked for the others, Red shouted,
"GET DOWN!"
He had to be fast.
After all, Grenades only have a four second delay.