Miyu Fanfic 2: The Lost Temple

[LoneWolf]

Warnings: Alchohol use, language, graphic (I mean REALLY graphic, that's how I roll) violence.

Miyu crouched on the roof of a building that overlooked Corneria city. The city was beautiful at night, glowing orbs of light raced by on the highway, and multicolored billboards flashed all over. All the skyscrapers were lit up. Miyu wondered what the inhabitants were doing right now. Sleeping? "Probably not, Corneria city never sleeps," she thought, "but then again, sleep is one thing I'm counting on." and with that thought, she leaped over the edge of the roof.

Her safety line caught her, and she landed silently on the glass. Miyu pulled out a standard glass cutter and cut a Lynx shaped hole in the glass and dropped into the room. It was dark in this apartment, but she always kept a pair of night-vision sunglasses close at hand. Once the glasses picked up the ambient infared light, Miyu could see that she was standing in a very upscale apartment. An indoor fountain trickled in one corner of the room, and there was a fireplace on the opposite wall. It had not been lit for some time, but it added a sense of warmth to the room. Miyu continued through this room and into the next, which was the bedroom. The door was locked, but she quickly picked it with a magnetic pick, and entered. It was another fairly upscale room, the drapes were obviously silk, and another fireplace laid on the wall to the right of the bed. There was a sole figure laying in the bed. Miyu drew a knife and walked over to the side. "Goodnight..." she whispered, and slit his throat. The man's eyes opened, and he stared at her for a second, gurgled a little bit, and died.

A week later Miyu sat in Tom's bar, drinking his famous tequila and conversing with Sodium. Recently they had not been having much luck getting jobs, most of them were just "Kill this man for 10,000 credits." or "Steal this item and I'll split my profits with you." but nothing that paid all that much. "I'm bored," Sodium said, "few jobs that pay well, and none that are really all that fun. It's just a bad season, I guess?" Miyu glanced at some of the other mercenaries in the bar. Most were fairly poor-looking, with only a few bullets in their ammo belts, or only a pistol to defend themselves with. Her and Sodium had been doing fairly well, the money from the job they did several months ago involving the asassination of General Pepper had kept them well fed and clothed. But that money was running out, so Sodium and Miyu had been doing smaller jobs. "No, something just isn't right. If it has affected everyone, something big must be going on. It seems that people are just more reluctant to hire mercenaries and assassins. We have been killing a lot more civilians as of late, but still..." she trailed off. "Well, as long as there are two people left on this planet, someone's going to want someone dead, and at least that will keep bread on the table." Sodium said, "Well, let's go talk to your friend and see if anything new has turned up."

"Well, there's various people to be assassinated, some stuff to steal, and I just got a message saying somebody wants a generator sabotaged. There is one other thing but I don't think it would interest you too much..." Miyu and Sodium were standing in front of an old grey ape, who Miyu trusted as a vendor. "Well, what is it? We need something to do." said Miyu. " There's a team of people who uncovered a temple on Fichina a few weeks ago, and they say they need 'protection' although, odds are, there's nothing but ice and maybe some artifacts out there. But It pays pretty high, 50,000 credits." Said the ape. Sodium seemed interested, and so they signed on.

Miyu shivered. "I wish it wasn't so damn cold. I hate cold." Sodium laughed. "You call this cold? This is summer on Fichina!" Miyu grimaced. "You have to remember that your species was bred for cold. Mine was not." she pulled her coat tighter around her. Sodium was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. "Look up there! That's crazy!" He said suddenly. A gigantic temple, carved out of what appeared to be gold and ice towered above them. Giant figures, most wearing armor, the rest being torn apart by monsters covered the face of the temple. It was amazing to see, especially in the barren wasteland of Fichina. "Come! This pales in comparison to the interior!" said the leader of the expidition. His name was Jack, and he apparently had years of experience with fortune hunting. "Tread lightly. You are about to see something that has not been seen for hundreds of years." and with that, he opened the doors.

It was dark for a few seconds as their eyes adjusted. Once they did, though, they all gasped, except Jack and a few others from the original expedition. The light reflected through the ice and off of the gold, creating rainbows of light that shot all over the place. "This is amazing!" said Miyu. "Yes, but still nowhere near as impressive as what lays farther in," said Jack "and so we must continue."

Eventually they reached a set of stairs, which continued down as far as the light coming through the ice allowed them to see. Sodium pulled out a flare gun and fired it down. The harsh white light showed them that eventually the stairs turned to stone, but didn't show any signs of a bottom. "And thus we descend into hell" said Miyu.

They walked down the stairs for half an hour, maybe more, before there was any sign of a bottom. Eventually they entered a large, long chamber. There was some sort of resin in bowls on either side. Miyu pulled out a match and lit one while Sodium did the same on the opposite side. A line of dark green fire shot from the end they were standing at to the far end. The room was suddenly bathed in an eerie green glow. "That's one hell of a trick, eh Miyu?" said Sodium, but Miyu didn't reply. She was standing in front of something, and staring at it. "Miyu? You alright?" Sodium walked up behind her and gasped. A bloody corpse wearing one of the red expedition jackets lay in front of her. The chest was torn open. "It seems that he's only been dead for a few days, a few weeks at most..." said Miyu. Sodium reached for his gun. "What did this?" Sodium asked. Jack stared at the body as he spoke. "We actually don't know, and that's the reason we brought you along. Come, there is much to be discovered!"

The next chambers were similar, they contained that same resin, and also had similar architecture, mostly gold. More bodies were encountered, all appearing to have suffered the same fate as the other man. They also encountered various other skeletons with shattered ribcages, broken necks, and a few that were missing %50 of their body. One, Miyu noted, had a spinal column that was split perfectly down the middle, as if sliced. The chambers themselves contained nothing of intrest, besides some hieroglyphs. They eventually reached another set of stairs. "Well, let's see how far down this hellhole goes, shall we?" said Jack.

"1136 meters and counting," said Sodium "we're over a kilometer below sea level. But we started much higher up, so we're probably over two kilometers below where we started." Miyu grimaced. "Still no sign of...whatever is guarding this place...hey, weren't there twelve of us when we started?" only eleven people stood in the chamber. "Oh sh*t! What the bloody hell is that?!" said a younger snow leopard named Janet. In the corner there was a black, oily creature, anthroid, but lacking any fur. It was hunched over the corpse of Jack, hands already digging around in his chest. It looked up at them, and Miyu caught a glance of it's eyes. They had no pupils, no irises, nothing. Just milky white, with veins converging on a central point.

Suddenly the low bass of Sodium's low frequency plasma rifle filled the chamber. The low frequency of the bolts made them extremely unstable, and thus explosive. One hit the creature, and it disintegrated in a shower of gore. The blood was purple, and apparently highly acidic, as it was already eating away at the walls. "Jack!" cried Janet as she rushed over to his lifeless body. "Jack! Jack?! Speak to me, damn it! Jack!" she cradled his corpse as if it was some sort of precious gem. Tears streamed down her face. "Leave the body! We don't want the smell of fresh meat on our hands." said Miyu, "Who's second in command?"

Janet stepped forward. Her expression had changed to one of hate. As she stood there soaked in blood and tears shaking, she looked possessed, almost demonic. "I am."

"So, what now?" said Miyu. "We continue down, and kill every last one of those things." Janet replied. "We didn't come down here prepared for a hunt. I've got a pistol, Miyu has an assault rifle, but overall we only have a few rounds of ammo between us." said Sodium. Janet snapped her fingers, and a few of Jack's aides with briefcases stepped forward. "I don't suppose those contain research equipment, then?" said Miyu. The aides clicked open their cases. Contained within each was a tri-barreled machine gun, complete with several 300-Round drum magazines containing incendiary rounds, lighted front and rear sights, and a dual barreled grenade launcher. "HELL YEAH!" cried Sodium and he rushed forward. Miyu just smiled and picked one up. The third aide clicked open his briefcase. It contained two hand cannons and several rockets for each. "Where the eff did you get the funding for this?" said Miyu as she picked one up and aimed down it's sight. "Well, let's just say that a few companies have their eyes on this place." said one of the aides.

It continued to get colder and darker the farther they went down. Strangely enough, they didn't find any more creatures, just bones and bloodstains. "Where are you hiding?" Sodium said. Suddenly some device started beeping. One of the aides spoke, "Motion tracker's got something! Well, a lot of somethings, but you get the idea!" Miyu smiled. "Something to shoot at!" the archway to the next chamber suddenly darkened as hundreds of the creatures flooded in. "Bring it on, bitches!" Sodium yelled. One of the team members who was a female canine glanced at him. "Oh...yeah...sorry!" Sodium said. "Sodium!" Miyu yelled. The two of them suddenly began firing into the crowd. Janet's eyeballs vibrated with the sheer power of the guns. Creature upon creature fell, and several caught on fire. Miyu fired the grenades out of her launcher. The small vacuum warhead caused a massive explosion where they landed. Bodies flew and gore sprayed all over the place. Everyone's ears rang. 100, then 125, 150 of them fell, but still more of them flooded through the opening. Sodium dropped his grenades into the crowd. "I'm out! Now reloading!" cried Miyu. Sodium watched as his round counter sped down. 70, 50, 30, 10, 0! Sodium yelled "Reload!" and dropped the drum out. It clattered almost ominously on the floor. Miyu kept mowing down the horde of them. Sodium was back. "This is my last mag! What about you?" he screamed over the roar of their guns. "Same!" Miyu replied. 90 shots left. 70. 50. 30.  10. 0. "I'm out!" she yelled. Sodium's gun began clicking as well. "Shit! Me too! What now?!" he said. "There's a small orange button on the side! Push it, drop the gun, and run like hell!" yelled Janet. Sodium and Miyu did as they were told, and the round counter suddenly jumped back up to 30, then began counting down. "RUN!" Janet cried. The group began sprinting back through the chambers. Their footsteps echoed like thunder in the empty chambers.

Sodium was counting to himself. "10 seconds, 9, 8, 7..." they came to the first staircase. "4, 3, 2..." the group scrambled up the stairs. "1, 0." His pupils dilated and he dropped to the ground. "EVERYONE, DOWN! HOLD ON!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone braced for impact. Then there was a flash of intense blue light followed by an ear-shattering boom that knocked the air out of Sodium and Miyu's lungs. Fragments of stone and ice flew past with the huge blast of air. Indigo flames licked above the team's heads. A few of the aides that fell behind caught on fire and flew by, screaming. They hit the stairs above them with a sickening crack. Their limp bodies flew up the stairs, carried by the roaring wind.  Miyu's face was slashed by shards of ice. Sodium didn't seem to be faring any better, his jacket was torn and bloodied on the back. The flames shortened, and the hurricane of wind began to die down. Miyu rolled over. Sodium did the same. "Holy f**k..." said Miyu. A cavern at least a few hundred meters wide gaped before them. The walls were steaming and the air was distorted from the intense heat. "Your tail's on fire." Sodium said casually. Miyu looked behind her. Indeed, the tip of her tail was burning with a bright orange flame. "CRAP!" she said, and commenced blowing on it. Sodium fell back laughing, but yelped and quickly sat back up as he put weight on the gashes on his back. Everyone looked relieved, everyone except for Janet, who just stared into the cavern, expressionless. "Janet? You alright?" said one of the aides. She suddenly stood up. "Janet-" but the aide was cut off as she sprinted to the edge and threw herself off.

They emerged from the tomb. It was night now,  and everyone sucked in the fresh, crisp Fichina air. "Well, I'm glad that that's done and over with!" said Miyu, "Now, let's head home."

Sodium coughed. "That's some strong brew, how much alcohol is in this?" the bartender glanced up, then fell to his knees and vomited all over the floor. "Well, that's great, I just got served liquor by a drunk man. Remind me why we're here again?" he said. "Mike's always like that. Look." Miyu said.  Sodium glanced behind the bar. There were several discolorations on the linoleum. "Ugh." he said. "Do you want to leave?" said Miyu. Sodium seemed to be having trouble keeping his lunch down, and nodded rather than saying anything. Neither of them were sober enough to fly and so they checked into a hotel instead.

They decided to spend another few days in the city, restocking supplies and ammunition. On the last day they decided to go to a music festival that was in town for the weekend. "I always have loved going to these. Your ears always ring afterwords." said Miyu. Both of their skulls vibrated with the massive bass long into the night.

Well, whaddaya think? If you can think of any improvements I can make, just post them!

[Guest Trace]

Nice. I like it :D

[LoneWolf]

Nice. I like it

:D