The Infinite Halls

= The Infinite Halls (DISCONTINUED) =
alright, everything here including themes, characters, and settings is owned by DukBoi (don't steal, that's wrong)
this is WIP 
and a Violence, Gore, and Smoking warning
this takes place AFTER TFoH
= Prologue =
the Seawing was running.
where? he has no idea.
he still hears the shrieking behind him, so he turns the corner, slipping a little on the way. Panic has engulfed him, along with fear. His legs are burning, and his lungs are screaming for air, but he can't stop.
he brings up his arm, which has a small screen attached to it.
"N! N, I NEED SOME HELP!" he screams, but the radio doesn't respond. He curses and keeps running. He starts to feel a burning feeling in his chest. His mask didn't help.
something shoots from the top of the wall, and he ducks below it. The spear slams into the floor, chips of white tiles spraying everywhere. He jumps over a pit filled with a foul-smelling liquid, which he assumed was dangerous. going around another hall, he pulls a rope, and he hears the swoosh of a metal grate coming down and crashing.
as a precaution, the Seawing peeks around the corner, and Immediately ducks behind the wall agian. A blue stream of superheated air whips past him, and he looks back. The metal grate trapped him between the danger. Then he looks down at the wall, which is a small cubbyhole that likely leads to a vent shaft. He squeezes in there, closing the metal grate behind him.
reaching into his satchel, he pulls out a flashlight and turns it on. The beam peers down the shaft. behind him, he hears audible mechanical grumbles and hisses, as well as the sounds of stomping talons. He squeezes through the claustrophobic space, panting through his mask. He hears the rumbling of the vents and continues.
before long, he comes across a vent. He looks down and sees the familiar white tiles. He flashes a picture with his gauntlet and keeps crawling. More thumps.
wait a second. Those were heavier than the vent sounds.
they were also getting louder.
the vent smashes into the top of the shaft by a giant claw, and the Seawing was dragged down by another, screaming.
= Chapter 1: Arbor =
Arbor opened his eyes to the sound of birds singing, just as he did every day. He got up, yawned, stretched, and went to wash up. being a Leafwing, he was naturally tough, and he put to use to that in the mines of his Pantalan coal town, Old Oak.
the Leafwing put down his brush and goes to the door. taking his pickaxe and canteen, he opens the door and walks down the road, passing by stalls selling artifacts, fish imported from Irondock, gems, and other trinkets. the intersection a few yards down was bustling with dragons, and Arbor see's his friend Cypress in the crowd.
"hey, Cypress," Arbor called to his friend.
"Hey, how's it hanging?" Cypress replies, in his usual cheerful mood. They do their secret handshake, which they've done since they were dragonets. Up, down, backhand, fist bump, chest bump. They laugh as they file into the mines going to their designated areas. both of theirs were in Sector E4, which was next to a potentially dangerous area of the mines.
they enter the mines, the cold, musty scent of stale air wafting around them. They sing their Old Oak Mining Song, which used to be used to help motivate miners in the old days.
while Cypress was mining, he broke open into a wide cavern. the echo of the rocks clattering against the ground reverberated off the walls. Arbor walks forward with the other miners. ha! I'm going to get my payday early if there's gold in there, Arbor thinks.
Everyone gathered around to look and patted Cypress on the back. The miners jumped into the cavern to search for ore and found multiple deposits of coal and iron. One lucky Icewing even found a small gold deposit.
Arbor swung away at a spot in the wall that had cracks in it. He figured that there would be some valuable ores here.
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG...CRACK!
Arbors pickaxe broke through. He stumbled forward a bit, then regained his composure. He squinted a little, brushing the dust from his face, and his eyes grew large.
inside the hole, he just mined was a huge, glittering gold vein. He reaches his hand towards it, then stops. Maybe he should tell the others about this first? eh, but then he wouldn't be able to bring it back to show to all of them. He was in a remote part of the cavern, and nobody else was with him. He shrugs. What's the worst that can happen?
he reaches out to grab the gold. He looks up as rumbling echoes through the cavern, and the roof breaks through and releases a torrent of rocks down upon him. Dust fills his mouth as he tries to scream, but rocks pin him to the ground, making it hard to breathe. They smash against his head and body, making him double over.
he blacks out.
___________
Arbor doesn't know how long he's been trapped in this cave-in. He's hungry, and his canteen ran out hours before. Now it's only a matter of time before he meets his demise.
"Help!" he shouts weakly. With his free arm, he scratches at the rocks above him in desperation. The rocks that are pressing down on him he estImated was about 400 pounds... enough to kill a smaller dragon. Yet he's still down here, trying to survive.
all he had was his strength, hunger, and hope. He's getting weaker by the second, and his hope ran out days before. He's getting drowsy. The black jaws of death hang at his eyes.
until finally, he closes them for the last time.
= Chapter 2: Fallout =
Arbor gasps awake. He feels that he's in a bed. Not under pounds of rock. And he feels full as if the hunger from before disappeared completely. For a second, he doesn't move. He stares up at the ceiling, which was made of wood beams crisscrossing the room. Multiple light fixtures hung from it, fancy modern ones.
Arbor gets up and tries to rub his head. Instead of feeling his normal scaled hand, he is greeted with hard, cold metal. Arbor yelps, looking down at his right arm, which now had a metal glove strapped to it. It had small little buttons, a switch, and a large screen in the middle. Arbor tries to pry it off, but it doesn't budge.
Arbor stops for a second to look around. In the front of the place was a giant metal door, with a symbol that looked like two swords and a flag behind an O. To the left was a workshop, and to the right was a small kitchen. In the middle of the room, a box stood still, decorated with the same symbol as the door.
Arbor gets up, looking at the box. A section at the top looked like it molded into a dragon's hand, so he walks forward and puts his hand in it. when he does, yellow lights move downwards from the outlines of the box, and it begins to hum rapidly. Arbor backs away before the box disassembles and clatters to the ground.
inside the box is a circle, surrounded by two other blocks, spinning fast. For a couple of minutes, it doesn't do anything, so Arbor gets closer to it.
"HI, THERE!"
Arbor screams and jumps back, tripping over the device and banging his head against a counter. He only sees the legs of a dragon, which glow a holographic white. He looks up at the dragon, who appears to be an Icewing with a headset of sorts over its eyes. They have a metal glove too as the one Arbor has.
"who-what-how-what-" Arbor sputters.
"oop, sorry. Didn't mean to startle you, hehe," they say, giggling sheepishly. "know, I know what your thinking. where am I? what's with this dragon in front of me? and why do I have a friggin' metal hand attached surgically to my right arm?"
Arbor stares blankly at the Icewing.
"let me sImplify it. Your dead! that sucks, doesn't it?"
"I'm dead?" Arbor mutters. "dead?!"
"you're probably also wondering, 'if I'm dead, how am I still here?' i don't know how. Some weird technology stuff." the dragon struts over to Arbor, who gets up, rubbing his head with his non-metal arm.
"Listen, is there anything I need to do? I just want to get back home," Arbor says.
"Sorry, no can do. I'm here to help you do your job," the holographic Icewing replies.
"what's your name, anyway?" Arbor asks, walking over to the kitchen, where he pulls a mango from the fridge. At least they have food here.
"oh! my registration number is D7I89H-U3H, but you can call me D," they replied enthusiastically.
"id much prefer that," Arbor responds.
= Chapter 3: Deployment =
D begins a debriefing while Arbor sits down on his bed. "alright, Arbor, your whole job here is to map out whatever is behind the portal door. I'm a Supervisor, and you're a Mapper. You have a gas mask and a headset on that counter over there, and whenever you leave, you got to put them on. It'll protect you from most diseases or something else out there,"
"every few kilometers, you need to score the wall. If you tap the red button on your gauntlet, it will score anything in front of it. Your gauntlet also can be used as a weapon, because you can activate a serrated diamond edge arm blade from it that will chop anything in half."
"traps and Scythes are also easy to come by out there. we don't have a full explanation of what Scythes look like, but all we know is that they are some sort of robot that can vary in weapons, armor, and speed. Traps, on the other talon, can range from arrow dispensers and acid pits to giant spiked balls swinging from the roof."
"other agencies, however, usually have trained explorers around here. If you see someone with a fancy-looking headset, a chest plate, a tool, or a weapon of some sort that has a symbol that doesn't look like yours, I recommend you either run away or fight them. S.H.O.C.K, Barracuda, Firewall, and Smokescreen will probably train their Mapper's to kill on sight."
through all this, Arbor nods his head. He understood what this was meaning, despite the fact he was very new to all this. before he could say anything or even raise his hand fully, though, D disappears. Arbor gets up and inspects the gas mask he's supposed to wear. It was emblazoned with the same O symbol that was on the box that D come out of.
he puts the gas mask on and slides the holo-headset over his eyes. D's face appears on it.
"ah, you got the hang of it!" D exclaims over the radio. "anyways, let's get to work. Oh, and by the way, sometImes the radio cuts out from time to time. It usually lasts about 15-20 minutes, but I'm sure you'll be fine,"
"so ill be alone sometimes? WITHOUT help?" Arbor yells, panicked.
"as I said, you'll be fine." Arbor makes his way towards the door, looking at the scanner pad. He shrugs. what's the worse that can happen? he smacks his hand against the pad, and the doors open with a loud swoosh.
in front of him lay a hallway, decorated from ceiling to floor with white tiles. Lights buzzed overhead, which broke the eerie stillness of this place.
"Welcome to the Infinite Halls, Arbor," D says over the headset. Their breathing of himself echoed through his gas mask, breath clouds forming on the shield. He looks at his gauntlet and unsheathes his arm blade. That was okay. And so, he stepped out into the Halls.
= Chapter 4: The Room =
Arbor starts to walk. Occasionally, he checks his gauntlet screen to signify where he's going. Meanwhile, he's also looking behind him, above him, and below him constantly to watch for traps.
around 10 minutes in, he peeked around the corner and noticed three holes in the wall, each pointed in his direction. He Immediately ducked back as three arrows whizz past, slamming into the wall left of him.
"whew, nice one," D says over the radio. "I think you can avoid it by going over it if you can."
"how do I go over it?" Arbor asks, confused.
"try flying or using your wings somehow," Arbor looks back at the trap. He bends down and takes one of the chipped tiles, and throws it down the hall. The trap is set off, and Arbor manages to leap over the arrows below him and lands in a heap on the other side.
"Hey, nice job! at least you didn't get your head ripped off," D congratulates.
"that doesn't help," Arbor grumbles. However, his attitude changes when he sees a door on the other end of the hall he was on, but it had a score mark on the side that seemed to look like a B in front of a triangle, but the triangle had points on the ends.
"shoot," D mutters. "Barracuda Mappers. watch out, Arbor."
"do you know what's in there?" Arbor asks, getting up.
"likely food, water or techni-" the radio cuts out with static.
"D?" Arbor says, startled. She had warned him about this earlier. He smacks his gauntlet a couple of times, but it didn't work. Sighing, he looks back and takes a couple of arrows from the wall. He might need these later. He walks towards the door and opens it a little bit, carefully making no noise. He closes the door, silent as a rat, and peeks around another corner.
the room in front of him seemed to be a kitchen. Multiple stoves and cookware were scattered about, as well as multiple shelves. There were also two large dragons in the room. One seemed to be a Nightwing with light blue eyes, and the other was a Leafwing with a spear. The Leafwing was rifling through drawers, while the Nightwing was fidgeting with a knife. both had a chest plate strapped to them.
"oi, Night, help me out over here," the Leafwing yells over to the black dragon, presumably called Night.
"Yeah, okay... I'm just really nervous until Aqua comes back," Night responds, sheathing her knife and walking over to the Leafwing. Arbor stays quiet, but his attention is caught by a shiny object on the shelf. Unfortunately, was high up, higher than he could reach. He crept over to it, barely making any noise.
then the door swings open. "hey, guys? did one of you leave or something? because-" Seawing stops in the doorway, staring directly at Arbor. Arbor recalls another word that D said: 'if you see someone with a fancy-looking headset, a chest plate, a tool or weapon of some sorts that has a symbol that doesn't look like yours, I recommend you either run away or fight them.'
despite this, Arbor raises his hand to wave at her, but the Seawing doesn't wave back. Instead, she takes out a sword and calls out, "OI! get over here, you lunkheads! there's an intruder!" both of the other dragons whip around, brandishing their weapons. Arbor was trapped, the door out blocked by the Seawing.
he was going to have to fight. Or else.
= Chapter 5: Arbor vs Barracuda =
the Seawing lunges at him, swishing her sword past him. Arbor dodges in time, but the blunt end of a spear smashes into his temple, sending him sideways. The Leafwing snickers, and keeps sending blows. Arbor raises his gauntlet and smacks the spear aside, it smashing into a wall and breaking in half.
the Seawing slashes at him again, but when they miss, they grow seemingly frustrated, and eventually, they drop their sword and grip Arbor by the neck, choking him. "can't get yourself out of this one, you little rat," the Seawing snarls, and throws him into the kitchen. He hits the counter near the stove, where the Nightwing-looking dragon turns it on.
the Seawing grabs him again. This time, she tries to push Arbor's head into the open flames of the stove. His left arm is pinned to the counter held by his enemy.
"get him, Aqua!" the Leafwing jeers, picking up their broken spear. Arbor's face is only a few centimeters from the flames now. He could feel its heat, licking at his mask. His breath is in panicked gasps. Then-
he manages to free his arm from the grasp of Aqua, which proved to be a fatal mistake. He grabs their talon, and with a swift jerk, yanks it out of their hand like a dentist to a tooth. She screams and grabs their hand, which was now bleeding profusely when Arbor grabs their head and smashes it into the stove. He holds it there for a few seconds before elbowing their back, making the dragon crumple.
the Leafwing and the Nightwing stare in shock. Their friend lay in a heap on the floor, clutching her face, shouting in agony. The Leafwing raises her hackles and lunges at him, swinging her broken spear. Arbor picks up a pan and smashes it again, and the Leafwing stumbles back. Arbor punches her in the stomach, making her double over.
"Listen, I didn't want to fight you!" Arbor raises his hands in defense.
"pah! like the three moons you did!" the Leafwing retorts, sending a blow to Arbor's face, making him reel back. Arbor recovers quickly, though, and chucks his frying pan at the Leafwings face. It hits its mark, and with a loud CLOOOOONG, it smacks into her nose, a stunned look on her face. Arbor, feeling accomplished, walks over and sImply pushes her over, and she flops to the ground, unconscious. 
the quiet Nightwing-looking dragon stares at him, holding her knife out. She looked scared. Arbor points towards the door. The black dragon looks surprised, then drops her knife and runs, slamming the door behind her. Arbor coughs and holds his head, a bruise forming on his temple where the spear hit.
then, his gauntlet beeps. "sorry 'bout that, Arbor. The connection here is faulty, so i-" D stops talking. "what happened to you? are you okay?"
"Barracuda Mappers," Arbor spits. "I was trying to be friendly to them, but they tried to kill me."
"What happened to them?"
"I let one get away. I knocked the Leafwing out with a frying pan, but I burnt the Seawings face off with a stove,"
"that must have hurt. why did you let the one go, though?"
"she didn't do anything. And she looked scared. I didn't want to hurt her," Arbor looks up at the shelf where he saw the shiny object, so he reaches up and grabs it. "D, what is this?"
"it's a key," she replies. "turn it over, would you?" Arbor turns it over, revealing an E Imprinted on the back.
"take it back to base, ill be able to scan it," D says, and Arbor begins to walk back.
= Chapter 6: The Key =
back in his room Arbor munches on a slab of scorched antelope meat. At least, he thinks it is antelope. Meanwhile, D is scanning the key with a tool, running a small oval of light across it.
"Alright, so I've recognized the grooves and it might potentially be a server room key, but I'm not sure about it," D says, turning to him. 
"as long as it gets me places, I'm happy," Arbor mutters back, throwing the bones of his meal into a bin and laying down on his bed. "I'm going to sleep," 
"fine by me, Supervisors don't need sleep!" D laughs, then continues scanning the key. Moments pass by, and soon Arbor is sound asleep. 
________
THUMP. THUMP. THUMP THUMP.
Arbor wakes up to the sound of rumbling. He gets up and looks around his base. D was nowhere to be found, likely in that box that she came from. Arbor gets up and turns on the lamp at his workstation. 
THUMP. THUMP. WHAM. Arbor crouches and peers down the vent that connected to his room. nothing there. Frowning, he gets back up at walks to his bed. 
CRASH 
something comes down from the ceiling, rubble spraying everywhere. Arbor gets knocked down, smacking his face against a rock. All light is taken away from the room as if a giant black hand grabbed it. 
that was when a red light started washing over the room. Another thing comes down, making the ground under Arbor shake. Arbor manages to reach up and grab his mask, strapping it on before the red light sees him. D's box still sits in the middle of the room, humming. And that was when the light turned back on.
the things in the middle of the room were huge. They looked like dragons, except with no wings and instead some sort of cannon, a huge red eyepiece over their head, and a large beak instead of a regular dragon snout. Their talons were serrated and curved into a wicked point, and the end of their tail had a spike on it.
the light flickers out again, and the things continue to scan the room. Mechanical hisses and grumbles are audible as they ransack the drawers and fridge. I can't let them steal my things, Arbor thought. He turns around and crawls to the counter, and grabs his headset, flicking it on.
"D, what in the moons are those?" he whispers yells.
"Scythes," D replies. "I'm not sure how they got into the vent system, they aren't programmed to do that,"
Arbor doesn't respond, instead, he is holding his breath, as a Scythe is looking over the counter, right above where his hiding. He unsheathes his arm blade and slices the robot's throat open. It makes a gurgling sound as it staggers back, and the other one looks up, ready to fight.
Arbor jumps up and dropkicks the lead one in the chest. It smashes into the desk, but recovers quickly and swings back at him with a brass-plated fist. Arbor stabs its arm as it swings, and rips its whole arm off, spraying black oil everywhere. Feeling accomplished, he turns to the other but is met by a tail to the face, smashing him against the counter and winding him.
the lead Scythe looks at him, and part of its arm seems to regrow. The other one grabs Arbor by the throat and pins him to the wall. He punches him, cracking his mask. Arbor finds an opening, chops off its arm, whirls behind him, and grabs its horns.
"try me, moron," he snarls before slamming his blade into the back of his neck, sticking it out of its throat, oil spraying everywhere. It lets out a metallic screech and gurgle. He wrenches it out and shoves the body of the Scythe aside, looking at the other one. The Scythe only screeches and lunges at him, jaws open. 
Arbor is smacked against the wall again, having the Scythe over him, its jaws being held open by Arbor's hands. His breathing is in short gasps again, and black is circling his vision. Peering down the Scythe's throat, he sees a mechanism that's glowing very bright very fast. A flamethrower? 
Arbor punches it and dodges its jaws, then slams his arm down its throat. It lets out a muffled screech as Arbor pins it to the floor and yanks the inside of its throat out. Oil splatters across his gas mask as the Scythe extends a serrated talon, its one red eye looking for any sign of mercy on Arbor's face, but he only raises his foot and slams it down, causing the Scythe's head to explode. 
panting, Arbor looks around his ruined base. Counters were smashed in, items were strewn everywhere, and the ceiling was broken into pieces. 
"ugh..." D's disembodied voice sounds from the box. The light flickers on, and D appears beside Arbor. "stupid Scythes. we can't stay here, they'll send more, what do we do now?" 
"run as fast as we can," Arbor replies, walking towards the door and opening it. 
"what if they come before?" 
"we run faster," 
= Chapter 7: Running =
Arbor bolts through the door, carrying everything in a satchel on his back. D's box is in his arms.
"where the heck do we go?" Arbor says to D over his headset.
"I don't know, just run!" D panics. Arbor hears slamming behind him and turns to see two more Scythes on his heels. 
"oi! watch out!" D shouts. A spear hits the ground in front of him, blocking his path. the Scythes are closing in on him.
he pulls out the firing mechanism from the other Scythe and clicks the switch. blue fire comes out of the nozzle, engulfing the Scythes in flames. One hits the ground with a sickening crunch, its neck and face mangled into a smoking mess of wires and parts, while the other screeches and grabs its arm, which was burning up to his shoulder and wrenches it out.
lines of wires and metal wrap around the place where its arm was last. "uh oh," Arbor mutters, before taking off again down the hallway. Taking a right, he jumps over a pit full of green slime and stops to catch his breath. More mechanical roars sound from around the turn, and the now fully healed Scythe comes into view. 
Arbor drops the box and takes a tin can out of his satchel, and chucks it at the Scythe just as it jumps over the pit. It clangs off of its head, but it doesn't stop it, and it slams into Arbor. 
Arbor crashes across the floor. D's box rolls alongside him, with D in his headset seemingly getting knocked around. 
"HURK-" 
Arbor feels something wrap around his neck, beginning to choke him. A black vine or wire was coming down from the ceiling, and strangling him. Arbor takes out his blade and chops at it, but it doesn't work. The vine was made out of something he couldn't place, but it was strong. 
as the Scythe draws nearer, two more follow behind him, growling and hissing. 
"I'm going to e-e-enjoy this," the lead one stutters. Those things can talk?! Arbor panics. Then something breaks open the vent above them, and a dragon with a spear drops down. It smashes the vent with its talons and whirls the spear around, hitting the lead Scythe in the face. 
the dragon slams the spear through one of the others, presses a button, making the head split into three different parts, and wrenches it out, the insides of the Scythe along with it. The other Scythe grabs the spear from them and throws it away, so the mystery dragon takes its jaws and breaks them in half. 
the Scythe staggers back, clutching its face as its friends get up. They ready the cannon on its back but it was too late, because the dragon rolled over it, and instead of blasting its enemy, it blasts open its friend's head open. The red light goes out, and oil is pasted across the wall. 
the dragon stamps on the Scythe they rolled over's knee, and they grab the headpiece emitting the red light, and dig its claws in, making the Scythe screech in pain. After a few seconds, it lifts its foot and steps on its back, making the Scythe's spine and neck come out. The talking Scythe growls and lunges. 
the only thing the mystery dragon does, though, sends both legs out and dropkick it in the face, slamming it against the ground and into the pit of slime, and makes an audible hissing and crackling sound. It doesn't come up. 
they turn to Arbor, which was still hung on the vine thing. They pick up their spear and walk toward him. Arbor looks at them with wide eyes, trying to talk but can't. They lift their spear and flip a switch, making it turn blue and hum with electricity, and swing towards his head. 
= Chapter 8: A Friend =
Arbor hits the ground in a heap, hacking and struggling for breath. D spawns in next to them on the floor. "I don't feel too good,"
"no wonder, what were you thinking?" the mystery dragon shouts. "trying to outrun a Scythe, let alone three?"
"they raided our base," Arbor wheezes. "what else were we supposed to do?"
the mystery dragon backs off a little, seemingly confused. "they don't do that,"
"oh, they do alright," Arbor gets up and takes a look at his rescuer. They wear the skull of a deer or other animal, and are covered in black padding. "thanks,"
the dragon grabs his arm and flips it to the backside of his forearm. "that's assuring," they say.
"what?"
"you don't have an agency tattoo, like me," they lift their forearm, showing no sign of a tattoo. Arbor remembers seeing it on the Seawing in the room, the same symbol outside the door. Meanwhile, the mystery dragon walks down the hall, gesturing for Arbor to follow them.
as they walk, Arbor catches up. "who even are you?"
"I can't take my mask off here. Come on," after around 20 minutes of walking, the dragon stops. "do you hear that?" Arbor cranes his neck. "is that yelling?"
"I think so,"
they walk forward and peek around the corner. An injured bright-white dragon sits against the wall, holding her arm. red blood seems "boss? oh, thank the moons. I thought I was gonna die here,"
"ah, don't worry Light. we will handle it," a voice comes from around the corner. Stomping feet follow it, and a Sandwing steps around the corner. He had an aura of menace surrounding him, wearing an eyepatch and a long scar running down his chest.
then, two Scythes come behind him. They are larger, and have three red eyes, with two cannons on either side of their back.
"Are you just gonna patch me up?" Light asks the Sandwing.
"oh, we could, but it really would be a waste, of time and resources," the Sandwing replies calmly.
"w-what do you mean?" Light replies, confused.
"what I'm saying is, your worthless, now that you're injured. Your obsolete, compared to these two," he waves his arms at the big Scythes. "and I don't need you anymore," he starts to walk away. "put it simply, Hyrax says your fired."
the left Scythe blows the dragon to smithereens. Hunks of body spray across the wall. Arbor ducks back as his savior ducks their head.
"We have to get out of here," they say, as they retreat.
= Chapter 9: The Hideaway =
the dragon opens a vent near the ceiling farther down the hall.
"can the box fit through that?" he asks the dragon.
"put it in the cargo chute," they say, gesturing over to another hatch. Arbor opens it and puts D's box in.
"Arbor, are you sure about this?" D says through his headset.
"They seem nice enough," Arbor mutters back.
"nice enough now, but when they blow your head open they won't be!" D whisper yells back. Arbor shoves her box down, closing the hatch.
"come on," the dragon says, now up in the vent shaft. Arbor grabs onto it, and the dragon helps him up.
he crawls forward and is Immediately falling, but it didn't have a hard landing. Cushions and blankets lay under him, and what lay in front of him made his mouth drop open. A row of swords and spears line the walls. A desk and chair are to the right, and a small light hangs above, flickering.
"Alright, now that that's over with..." they turn to Arbor as they take off their helmet. Underneath was a Rainwing, with two different colored eyes, one hazel, one blue. "I'm Ibis," she says, extending her hand towards Arbor.
Woah. what do I do? Arbor thinks. He has never been to Pyyhria, and his town isn't an ideal tourist destination, so this was his first time seeing a live Rainwing. Ibis's scales turned from a light pink to a shade of blue.
"uhh-hi," Arbor stutters. "I'm Arbor," he reaches forward and shakes Ibis's hand.
"What is that?" Ibis asks, pointing to the firing mechanism in Arbor's hand.
"it's the thing Scythes use for fire," Arbor replies, holding it up. Ibis takes it and inspects it.
"How did you get this?" she asks. "also, why are you with all your stuff? where is your base?"
"the Scythes destroyed it," Arbor sighs. "I fought off both of them. I ripped that out of their neck," he points towards the flamethrower. Ibis stares at him. "what?"
"I destroyed both of the Scythes,"
"how? you have no weapons, as far as I can tell,"
"I have this," Arbor holds up his metal hand and extends the arm blade. Ibis jumps at the sudden appearance of the weapon. "Woah,"
"I don't know how I have it," Arbor says. "I just got here with this," a thunk sound emanates from a hatch, and D's box rolls out. D herself spawns in, clutching her head. "ugh. I am not going to be feeling well for a little while," 
"who was that Sandwing?" Arbor asks. Ibis frowns and turns to a lime green color. 
"Hyrax. He's the Executive Control Manager for S.H.O.C.K, but he has some... Unorthodox terms on how to handle wounded crewmates," 
"by blowing them to bits?" Arbor shivers, remembering the poor S.H.O.C.K Mapper that Hyrax told his Scythes to shoot. 
"his two Scythes are Mark Four Mauler Scythes, and are his bodyguards," Ibis continued. "they are much more dangerous, and way smarter than normal Scythes. How does he get them on his side? I have no clue," 
"so, what do we do now? are we trapped here forever?" 
"I don't think so," Ibis picks up a book on her desk. "I think I have an idea of where the exit is," 
= Chapter 10: The Plan =
"See, I have this interscreen, but it needs files to potentially scan to find some sort of map to this place." Ibis points to the device on her desk.
"D said that there were server rooms somewhere around here," Arbor says, taking out his key. Ibis points her finger and says, "I think you're onto something. If we find a server room, we can potentially open it,"
"and get all the data inside," Arbor grins. Ibis takes a map from the bookshelf and opens it, her eyes darting all around. "aha!" followed quickly by a small, "oh no."
"what is it?" Ibis lays the map down on the table, pointing to a long hallway. "S.H.O.C.K has made a base right here. we're gonna have to get past them to go into the server room,"
"wait where did you get all this from?"
"dead Mapper," Ibis replies, pointing to a splotch of blood on the corner of the map. Arbor gags.
"I say we go through the vent system, drop down and knock out the guards to steal their gear. Then, we disguise ourselves as them and go through to the server room, and steal the servers. easy as pie,"
"that would work, but the guards will have their Supervisors in whatever they use. They would know about us if we steal their stuff," Arbor points out.
"you can take this," he hands Arbor a thin device with a little metal part at the end. "stick that into their device, and it will drop D in to disarm their Supervisor," suddenly, D appears. "hold on, are we robbing from S.H.O.C.K?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Ibis asks, turning a shade of light blue.
"Nothing! those snobby cockroaches oughta get an attitude check," she laughs menacingly, punching her fist into her palm.
"Okay, here's the plan. When we break into the base, we need to head down this half of the hall. That way we can access the servers easily. I'm going to put my Supervisor into the servers, and he'll grab them and store them back into my helmet. You, on the other hand, might have to provide some cover for me, so get ready for that,"
"wait, you have a supervisor?" Arbor says, strapping his gas mask over his head.
"yep," Ibis replies, holding up a small token. A screen appears above it, showing the face of a sleeping Mudwing with the same headset that D has.
"oi, G! wake up!" Ibis shouts. The Mudwing opens his eyes. "eh? what?" he looks at Ibis, then over to Arbor. "who is that?"
"I'm Arbor," Arbor, says waving. G looks back to Ibis. "why is he here?"
"I saved him,"
"he's not from an agency, is he?"
"nope. Don't think so, anyway,"
Ibis puts her helmet on her head. "ready?"
"ready," Arbor replies. They climb over and out of the vent, and back into danger.
= Chapter 11: The Heist =
the pair walk down the hallway near the base. "what if we get caught?" asks Arbor.
"executed, probably." Ibis replies, not perturbed by the slightest. Arbor shudders.
"hey!"
they look down the hall and see the two S.H.O.C.K guards running toward them. One was a hybrid of a Sandwing and an Icewing, while the other was a regular Icewing with a gold necklace.
"act normal," Ibis whispers to Arbor.
"Who are you?" the Icewing shouts in Arbor's face.
"just passing by," Arbor replies.
"that isn't gonna cut it, Leafwing," the Ice-Sand hybrid grunts. "Aurora, what should we do with them?"
"let's take them in for questioning, Biome,"
"I don't want to do this," Arbor grumbles.
"yes, you are. Come with me," the Icewing grabs his arm and tries to drag him towards the entrance to the base. Arbor, however, yanks his arm away and domes her across the head with his metal hand. 
Meanwhile, the Ice-Sandwing hybrid was fiddling with his baton. Before he could look up at Arbor, Ibis smacks her spear into his leg, sending his baton clattering away. Instead of fighting, the hybrid just puts his hands up. Ibis grabs his headset and points towards the hall where they came from. They nod and start to run. 
the Icewing staggered then charged at Arbor, but he blocks the baton, which Arbor could block easily, and grabs her face. He adjusts his hand to grab her neck, then pulls his other arm back and clobbers her in the face, sending them flying. She smashes into the wall, and flops to the floor, unconscious. both Arbor and Ibis grab their headsets and put their device into them. As Arbor puts it on, he could hear a tussle going on in the background. 
"gah! get outta here, bloody fool!" 
"wanna see bloody? ill show you bloody!" 
"I'm going to pound your face into your own body!" Arbor begins to say something, but doesn't, probably for the best. Suddenly, D appears in the top right corner of his screen. She has a black eye and multiple bruises on her body. 
"Sorry bout that. now, where were we?" D clears her throat. 
"let's go," Ibis says, pointing towards the door, which had a snake and a large S printed on it. Arbor takes the Icewings hand and taps it against the scanner, and it opens to reveal the base. well, if you classify it as one. 
pounding music blares over seemingly huge speakers, and a band is playing on stage. S.H.O.C.K Mappers were everywhere, getting cider at the bar or dancing. 
"Stay calm," Ibis mutters. She has to say it normally though, because of the music. They walk up the stairs leading to the stage, and Arbor spots the door to the servers to the left. He flicks his head in the direction, and Ibis nods. They begin to walk over. 
"Hey, can you come here for a sec?" a Silkwing band member waves to him. "our guitarists dropped out last second, and we need another guitarist," 
"uhh... I mean, I can play guitar, but-" 
"good, c'mon up," the Silkwing waves and heads backstage. Arbor fidgets with his fingers. 
"hey, you got this," Ibis says beside him. "plus, it'll make a good distraction," 
Category:Fanfictions (Incomplete)
Category:Fanfictions (Fanon)
Category:Fanfictions
Category:Genre (Mystery)
Category:Genre (Adventure)