Bryke

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  Bryke looked over the water, his lights illuminating the darkness as he calmed down. That thing he had seen had been beyond anything that he had thought was possible. This place had to be bigger than they thought, or deeper! There wasn’t anything else that could explain how that thing he saw was alive. And then there’s the waterfall they thought was here. That had to mean that water came into and out of this place, so if the falls was the exit, where was the entrance? All in all, this place was madding to him.

  “Hey!” Zevortro called out, and Bryke could hear the joy in his voice. “I think I found a gate!”

  Bryke felt a bit of hope, maybe there was a reason those symbols were here. But before he could move, he went still. There was movement on the water, ripples that caused him to go still. Slowly he moved the light towards their source and then his breath went still. On the water were five small creatures, each one only half a foot tall but over three feet long. They were insects, with black bodies. They had two mandibles bellow two white eyes and their bodies were multi-segmented. On each body, six thin legs seemed to allow them to ski across the water. He watched as they moved on, one of them going in a circle to look at him. But then it joined the group and they all moved on. They barely had an impression on the water as they moved, and in seconds they were gone.

  Looking around, Bryke couldn’t see anything that might be hunting them, so they had to have been grazing. But how did they feed? Or were they migrating? But these things, they had to have been creatures near the bottom of the food chain. And the presence of prey meant that predators might be around. So with deliberate stillness,

  Bryke looked back toward where the insect things had come from, but after a few moments, he stopped. With a sinking heart, he quickly looked up, but he couldn’t see anything there. Letting the light move around the sky, he tried to listen. But there was nothing, and he didn’t know if that was something good or bad. This place had made his senses and instants all messed up, but he was sure something was there.

  “You okay Bryke?” Terra asked from behind him.

  Turning, he saw that she was right behind him, and from the light shining on them Zevortro was looking at them.

  Bryke looked at Terra and sighed. “I’m fine, I saw something on the water. Some kind of water insect, I think it was a prey creature here.”

  “Water bug? Then it was walking on water?” Terra asked, her voice holding fear.

  “Don’t worry, they were small. Barely half a foot tall but they were long!” Bryke said with a small smile. As his stomach started to rumble, he slowly licked his lips. “But you know, they were tasty looking. Maybe you could ‘Air Dash’ and we could see if they are good to eat?”

  Terra looked at him and chuckled. “We have enough supplies to last a few days down here. And Jessie has a backup one. Well, he had one. If came down here with him, I don’t know.”

  “Everything okay over there?” Zevortro called out.

  As Terra nodded and waved her hands, Bryke looked up at the sky. So far, there was nothing there, but those things had to be running from something. And all he could hope was that it wouldn’t cause problems for them.

  “Yeah man, Just fine! I just saw what might be another part of the food web around here!” Bryke called out as he and Terra walked over to Zevortro.

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  Zevortro

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  “What!?” Zevortro asked, aghast as he tried to look around, trying to see anything that might attack them.

  Bryke chuckled as he and Terra reached them. “Relax man. I think it was a prey animal, some kind of water bug. So where’s your find?”

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  Zevortro blinked and looked at them before sighing and pointing down. They both looked down and saw what Zevortro had discovered, a depression in the ground. It was in a circle with two holes along the side that were hand-sized.

  As he grinned at the others, Zevortro bent down and grabbed the two holes. After a movement, he moved the cover and they all heard a click. The top of the hole bent upwards and he pulled it upwards.

  A dark hole with a handlebar ladder that went down was revealed. Looking at the others, Zevortro only grinned at them. “Well, it looks like we might have a way out of here!”

  “It looks pretty deep!” Bryke said as his voice echoed down the hole. “And can I see the bottom!?”

  “What?!” Zevortro asked, his voice faint. Both he and Terra looked down, and they could see the bottom of the hole. “Yeah, maybe around thirty feet down.”

  “The water is a lot deeper! But maybe that was a created trench? Could there be a glass tunnel or something?” Terra asked, her voice unsure.

  “Yeah, I get what you’re saying! Like that attraction on the ship ‘Walk under the Depths’! The aquarium on the ship?” Bryke said with a smirk.

  Zevortro looked at them and then down at the hole, his mind racing as he felt shocked. He had always stayed away from the ship’s entertainment district, maybe he shouldn't have. “When’d they add something like that to the water park?”

  “It was just in beta really, and only to the crew members who worked there. You never took a shift?”

  “No, I was more in the other park and the race track. I was going to be giving a chance to the announcer after we reached the next port,” Zevortro said as he looked down at the hole.

  “But that doesn’t matter! Why would there be something like that on the ship here!? What is this place!?” Zevortro asked, his face going slack as he looked around.

  Bryke gulped loudly and when the others looked at him, they saw him looking down. He just spent a few moments staring at the hole, his eyes wide.

  “Hey, Bryke, you okay man?” Zevortro asked softly. When Bryke didn’t respond, Zevortro looked up at Terra who was starting to look worried. With a sigh, he reached over and pushed Bryke.

  Bryke fell backward, and then he looked up at Zevortro with a glare. “HEY!”

  “Well, responded when we call you man! What was taking up so much of your mind?” Zevortro asked as he held his hands up.

  Bryke only blinked and then he looked around and chuckled a bit. “Sorry about that, I sometimes get lost in my head. But I think I’ve figured this place out.”

  Zevortro blinked and then he looked at Terra who was just as shocked at Bryke’s words.

  “Okay, what did you figure out about this place?” Terra asked and Bryke looked down and sighed.

  For a moment, Bryke just stood there before he started to talk. “Okay, so I have two ideas. One, this is a giant pool. Or two, this is a bioweapon factory that stayed active beyond the creator’s life.”

  “Bio-Weapon factory? Like germ….. no. not germ warfare. You mean using life as weapon platforms! But that’s only in the theoretical stages!” Terra exclaimed in horror.

  Bryke only shook his head at Terra like he was correcting someone who should know this. “Theoretical to the Federation. This place wasn’t made by the Federation after all.”

  Zevortro looked at his friend before he felt his heart drop. The idea that they were in a bio-weapon factory was shocking. But the idea that the thing that attacked them was a bioweapon, that was worse.

  But then they all went still as a loud reptilian roar echoed off the water.

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  Jessie

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  Jessie landed on an island and looked back, hearing the roar’s echo from much closer to him. With a scowl on his face. He looked around and tried to find anything that he could see that would give him any hint of what was stalking him. But then he heard it, the sounds of distant ending roars.

  “I’m close,” He whispered, and then he ‘Air Dashed’ away, moving towards that sound.

  Another howl behind him and he could feel it down to his bones that the thing that had been hunting was striking now.

  He moved up high, at least ten feet, and then he looked down, and there in the darkness, he saw it. There, a large shape that sped through the darkness, fast. And as he was watching, it turned and started to come at him!

  Without wasting another minute, he ‘Air Dashed’ higher at an angle to the right, hoping to get a look at this thing. But as he came out of his ‘Air Dash’ lights suddenly came on from above. In a single moment, the whole chamber was lit by light.

  “AAAGGGG!” Jessie held his hands up to his face as Nanites in his eyes adjusted what he was seeing. Before he could take in everything, an old instant of his screamed at him and he ‘Air Dashed’ to the right. He came out of it twenty feet away and ten up, and he could finally see the thing that was hunting him.

  It was a large reptilian creature, five feet tall and ten wide. It had six limbs on a powerful green-colored body that ended in a long whip-like tail. It looked at him from three eyes above a muzzle that had two fangs that went down from its mouth. And then in a moment, it shot at him.

  He ‘Air Dashed’ to ten feet up and he couldn’t see how it was flying at him. But he knew that he had to kill this thing here and now. But as he turned his head, he suddenly realized the roar of the falls was louder.

  Looking towards the sound, he was able to see everything. The falls were at least three islands away from him, and they took up the horizon. He couldn’t see anything beyond them, and he had to wonder if this was the end of the ‘room’. But looking at how fast the water was at the island two away from the falls, he suddenly grinned as he made a plan. It was risky, but he saw this as the best chance he had.

  And then he ‘Air Dashed’ away, just escaping the reptilian creatures' attack. A smirk formed on his face as he came out ten feet away. He looked back at the beast as a timer nanite activated, the timer being imposed on the right corner of his vision. Once the beast found him, it took the creature five seconds to fly at him.

  He started to lead the beast closer to the falls, making his ‘Air Dashes’ activate after four and a half seconds. The beast moved closer and closer, and he was ready for it. His plan had to work, or he would take this thing with him.

  Landing on the island just before the waterfalls, he looked up as the reptilian came at him, its front paws wide. Without saying a word, he ‘Air Dashed’ to just before the water and looked at the beast as it landed.

  With his smirk growing wider, he looked at the beast and mentally prepared for what he would do in moments. To his shock, the beast started to walk towards him. When it was five feet away from him, he ‘Air Dashed’ to just six feet up and then another ‘Air Dash’ to just above the beast. As it looked around for him, he grabbed it and then both of them were ‘Air Dashing’ away.

  They came out upside down just above the waterfalls, and Jessie kicked the beast away. As it tried to find him, Jessie aimed and fired three times. The bolts hit the creature’s right limbs and side. Jessie’s shots tore off the creature’s limbs and the side shot gored the beast. It roared in pain as it hit the water, and Jessie ‘Air Dashed’ to just over the falls by a foot and ten up from where he was. He watched as the beast fell into the abyss and then he ‘Air Dashed’ back to the closet’s island. Landing on it, he looked around and took in the truth of this place.