Night Come Down

Chapter 3 "The Hidden Horde"

The speeder drove through the night, its' green lights shining the way down a private road. Quav coughed as the dust flew around them, and the power plant could be seen in the distance. Kal'ia adjusted her scarf as the speeder came to a halt in front of the back door to the massive power plant, a yellow light illuminating the door. Kal'ia stepped off the speeder as Quav winced in pain, holding his thighs as he stepped off.

Quav; "I think I got saddle sore..."

Kal'ia chuckled quietly as she went over to the door, pulling out a pistol from her side and pointing it at the door handle.

Quav; *Quietly* "Wait! Let me try picking the lock first."

Kal'ia; "This is faster, isn't it?"

Quav; "Yeah, but this is quieter."

He bends down and reaches into his pocket, pulling out a syringe, emptied of its' contents. He bends the needle and proceeds to pick into the lock. Kal'ia looks around as Quav works. After a minute, a click is heard and the door opens slowly. Quav stands and discreetly steps behind Kal'ia as she began walking inside. There were a myriad of Sto'kov'lore posters put up throughout the halls and dotting the offices as they walked.

Kal'ia; "Had no idea they were this popular."

Quav; "You don't come to the city much, do you?"

Kal'ia; "Nah... Too busy for me. Radicals like them love urban life."

Quav; "H-hey, I'm not radical! I just like being close to the market."

They enter into a large chamber holding a massive machine with runestones placed around it at various points.

Kal'ia; "That... Is not Lorinthian."

Quav; "I never could tell what it was. Cacophony would speak it occasionally, write it even more rarely, and I never knew what he was saying."

She approached one of the runestones before looking around the room. There's more of those symbols etched into the wall and floor, with a box labeled "Gravisonium" sitting beside one of the largest symbols, empty and open. She turned to the reactor and approached the interface. She pressed a couple buttons, mumbling to herself as Quav went to look at the etchings in the rear.

Kal'ia; "This says the Gravisonium was removed recently, almost a week ago... But it still had plenty of charge..."

Quav got on all fours as he looked at the symbol on the ground, closing one eye as he scanned it attentively. No way this was burned into the metal, or even cut. No, this was shaped to be this way, as if they molded it to have the sigil when they made it.

Quav; "Um... Kal?"

Kal'ia; "Yeah?"

Quav; "I was kinda hoping Cacophony was some Cysko'dro'ranin experiment gone wrong... But I wonder if he's an alien or something."

Kal'ia gently shook her head in disappointment, pressing a couple other buttons on the interface to open the reactor door.

Kal'ia; "What makes you say that?"

Quav; "Oh, y'know, the unintelligible language, the shapeshifting, the creepiness, the-"

She interrupted him, shouting at him from within the reactor.

Kal'ia; "That last one is not indicative of aliens."

Quav; "Well, it should be!"

Suddenly, a metallic clang is heard as the door to the reactor swung closed by an unseen force.

Kal'ia; "Quav? Quav!"

Kal'ia pounded on the door with urgency as she saw a metallic being, similar in stature to Cacophony with yellow eyes appeared outside, making eye contact with Quav. Quav siezed up, swallowing a knot in his throat as he stumbled around for the revolver in his pocket.

Metal; "Cacophony thought you guys would be here. Your girlfriend bleeds Ichor, and the boss wants more Gravisonium."

Quav draws the firearm as the being morphs brass knuckles onto its' fists.

Quav; "... As much as I'd like to think so, she's not my girlfriend."

Metal; "She's getting sucked dry, whether you like it or not."

Quav stifled a laugh as Kal'ia rolled her eyes behind the window of the door.

Metal; "What's so funny?"

Quav; "Nothing, nothing."

He then fired all six rounds at the metal being, with one of them missing and hitting the interface and making the door open. The metal being seemed to shrug off the bullets, but reacted to Kal'ia jabbing a knife into its' back, pulled from a sheath on her left shoulder. The being turned around and Kal'ia pulled a knife from her right shoulder, slashing at the neck of the being, but no blood came out. He laughs and picks up Kal'ia, making her drop the knife, and throwing her overhead to Quav, knocking him over.

Quav; "Gah!"

The being chuckles as Kal'ia gets up and draws an advanced looking pistol, firing three beams of blue light that singed the metal of the being, ocassionally melting pieces off. He continues walking towards them, in no pain whatsoever. She then lunges and digs her hands into his abdomen, making him shout as she reveals a shard of green crystal. Kal'ia gasps quietly before speaking.

Kal'ia; "Gravisonium!"

Metal; "And it's mine!"

The being punches Ka'ia in the face, knocking a couple teeth from her mandibles, but she growls and grips the shard with both hands, pulling it up from his chest, orange energy forming a cone that connected to the rest of his body. He yelled out as he bashed Ka'lia off of him, but Quav then grabbed the knife that Kal'ia dropped, screaming as he fell onto the being, stabbing the crystal. The knife shattered like glass, and the being laughed as he morphed into a ball and then back into a bipedal form, his crystal exposed from the front and back. Ka'lia groaned and rubbed her head as the being got Quav in a chokehold, making her look to the entry of the room, grab the door and attempt to rip it off its' hinges. It doesn't come off completely, giving her only a sharp piece of the door. She screams as she runs for the being, stabbing it in the back oncemore, this time cracking the crystal and making the being drop Quav.

Quav gasps for air as the being drops to his knees and Kal'ia pulled on the crystal once more, his eyes flickering between green and yellow. She flips the scrap of door around to a reverse grip and the being laughs.

Metal; "You can kill me, but you'll never get rid of us all. For we are a Horde, Hidden in the places you hold dear. I know who you are, Kal'ia. What you are. You cannot hide forev-"

With an unphased expression, she shoves the hunk of metal into the crystal once more, cleaving it in two, making the energy dissipate and the metal of his body drop to the floor. The larger piece turns clear, while the smaller half remains green. She drops the larger piece and picks up the smaller one, using her other hand to bring Quav to his feet.

Quav; "I-Is it dead?"

Kal'ia; "I think so... We got a shard... Now I just gotta make something to shoot it."