Once everyone was up, I stood in the stairwell on the third floor with Riley. I was pretty excited to check out the floors alone.
Sure there would be untold horrors, but I was ready as I could be. Once I sealed up the exit, I would edit my form.
"Are you sure about going down there alone?" Riley asked , and I grinned.
"Why? Did you want to join ?" I bugged him, and Riley crossed my arms.
"No, that is not what I ant. I know how resourceful you are from our few interactions, but there are so bizarre and violent things down there. Most of them are cargo from the Gray's ship that we captured after it crashed four years ago. I wasn't there, obviously, but so of the things killed a lot of people before getting captured," Riley explained, and I nodded.
"Yes, I understand that there is going to be so serious resistance down there, but I won't look like this," I explained, and Riley nodded, uncrossing his arms.
"Good. You really are the only person that is capable of handling sothing like this. Stick off four through six. They are more tech levels. The ones that you want are seven to ten. Seven has the basic non-aggressive herbivores. There are so dangerous ones there, but that is because of their composition. I just know that so can be poisonous to touch or breathe in the fus they give off," Riley explained, and I nodded, impressed.
"You are quite knowledgeable about this stuff, but I guess that is to be expected, right?" I said, and Riley nodded.
"I was part of the strike team that dealt with problems in this bunker, so I was required to understand the things that I would be dealing with. The eighth is more the large herbivores, but that is probably the safest level. I would deal with that one last. There is soone in there, but Michael is fine. He is a Xeno-Biologist, and also a Xeno-Botanist with access to a garden. There is food and a unique alien water filtration system that can slowly create water from siphoning oxygen from the air, and one of the creatures down there," Riley explained, and I nodded.
"That sounds really interesting, but if he is okay, we will leave Michael, and I will start with nine and ten first," I said and then asked, "What can you tell about them?"
"Nine are carnivores, and there were two people on the floor, but I would be surprised if either of them survived. From the last ssage, I got from… Candace… it just didn't sound like she was going to make it," Riley said and sighed.
"This is soone that you were close to?" I asked, feeling that from the way he paused and sighed. The man was tough, but everyone had a soft spot.
"Yeah, but I have made my peace with it. If there is anything of hers you could grab for , I would appreciate that. That floor has so vicious pack-type monsters and so other monsters that fight alone. I wish I could tell you more about them, but I never actually had to go to the ninth or tenth floor. If there was a call, we would be sent packets on our tablets. I was allowed to keep what was sent, but they were dead, and there were too many to rember. Luckily, a good portion of them will be dead, and only the strongest will be left," Riley explained.
"Who was the other guy on the floor?" I asked.
"Floyd, if any of the four that are locked on the two floors survived, it would be that crazy bastard. Still, I listened to the door, and there was nothing but animalistic howling on the other side. The last floor had Cecil, and she is nuts, plus Arseni, but that is all the biggest and most dangerous predators. There is no way that they survived," Riley explained, and I nodded.
"I will start with nine first, and then hit ten. Let Sofia know that I am going down now and to have Mr. Tree gets an incubation chamber sent down to the ninth floor. If anyone is alive, I will bring them out safely, and if not, I will clean the places out, so they are safe to recover what was lost," I said, sticking my hand out to Riley, and he shook it firmly, and then turned, and headed back up the stairs.
I turned right away and started to head down. I felt terrible for Riley, and it hit close to ho for . I couldn't imagine what it must have been like for him to hear what I was sure must have been her cries.
What I didn't tell Riley was that I could detect two human life sources. There was one on each floor, so I didn't want to get his hopes up; I was pretty sure they were both won, but the walls were really thick.
Once I was down to the seventh floor, I used Firaga's powers to heat up and flatten the steel stairs. I added more systeminium to strengthen it to the point that I would even be able to get out without being able to control it.
The next step was to change my own body in the sa fashion. I used Katie's ability, mixed with so of Aiko's, to create special reactive armor that makes look sort of like if Master Chief and a Gundam Wing had a threeso with a Transforr and sohow shit out into a pool of silver.
I don't even have good words for what I had created. This is what happens when you have too many sources to draw inspiration from. Now I was walking death.
My legs were covered in layers of plates that could break away and be controlled with magnetics and the gravity engine that was now humming inside of . They were sharp and autonomous, acting on my will. I tested them out, and the parts of my legs flew off and started to circle around in an orbital pattern. They would also co back to my legs if sothing tried to attack on one of the legs, but I was a lot lighter without them.
I was pretty sure that I might dent the floor if I wasn't using the gravity engine to make lighter. My body was covered in rifles, pistols, and blades, and there was even a mini particle beam on my shoulder.
[Hey! How is it going?!] Oga asked, nearly giving a heart attack.
'I am getting ready to go fight so Xeno-Beasts. What the fuck are you doing? Also, do you mind using your inside voice when talking in my head? I almost shit my pants!' I sent it back, and Oga laughed at .
[I just noticed that you were using the shit out of the System, and I thought that I should check on you. lody also says hi, and she loves you.] Oga explained, and I sighed.
'How are things going with you two?' I asked, but then lody and Oga's images ca into my view.
"This is much better! Hey, baby! I missed you!" lody cheered, and I grinned.
"I missed you too! How are things going with you two? Is he giving you trouble?" I asked, and lody laughed.
"Oga is much easier to push around than you are, so things are going pretty smoothly. I was just bringing in another herd of beasts. They listen so much better than the humans," lody said with a sigh.
"Oh? Have you been telling people about the forests?" I asked. "I have spread pretty far, but they are still pretty sparse and far apart in the states down here."
"We have been trying, but the further south we go, the less receptive people seem to get. That isn't to say that we aren't getting people to co and go to the tree. It's just that most people are pretty leery when we start explaining things," lody explained, and I nodded.
"I was worried about that. Part of the problem is getting people to give up violently and hate each other. That doesn't an we are all going to dance and sing. There will still be anger and disputes, but we are going to be settling them with clones; as for the other part of the problem. The conspiracists, and many other people in general, have grown up in a world that makes its daily bread by lying to everyone," I explained, and Oga nodded.
"Yes, many people seem to make constant reference to news and governnt officials constantly lying and covering things up. Is this really how your world worked? We studied your people, but I have never seen such a diverse race. And I don't an that in a good way. Hardly anyone can agree on anything, and there are many variations of the sa thing that other breeds try to make more special than others. Why would not all people that were good at sothing work on it?" Oga asked, and I chuckled.
"Don't worry, and I know that this is hard, but you two are doing good work," I said, but lody was giving a weird look.
"Why do you look like gazord jumped Ironman in a dark alley?" lody asked with a confused look.
"Because I have to go capture a bunch of vicious monsters. They are creatures from other worlds," I explained, and lody wiggled her finger at .
"You should maybe work on it, so it doesn't look like… that," lody said, and I shook my head.
"Love you and goodbye, you little shit," I said as lody blew a kiss and both screens closed.
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