Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Destiny Of The Stars. ❯ Chapter 8

©H. Falcon. 2000-2003

--"Well, what do you see, Charlie?" "Umm... I'm not sure, sir. What do you mean?" "Well? What is here? What do you see that is out of the ordinary?" "N-nothing, sir." "Right, exactly. Nothing... just as I said." "I-I'm sorry sir, but I did hear a sound that was very loud." "Yes, I know, a metal sound right?" "Y-yes sir. Like metal banging against metal. I looked into the window when the door wouldn't open but I couldn't see anything." "Charlie? What do you see here... in this room?" "Umm... nothing, sir." "That's not what I mean. Tell me what you see." "Uh... rock, sir. " "And?" "M-metal? Beams, umm... crates." "Exactly. Nothing but junk. But you said you heard a noise. Are you sure it was nothing?" "N-no sir, it was a loud clanging sound." "Well, we shall have to look into this more then, won't we?" "Ye-yes sir." Both guards heard a rattling noise and looked up to the ceiling ahead of them, where they saw a twisted, bent, steel beam shaking. A section of it that was hanging from the rest of it broke off and head straight down and hit the floor with a loud crashing sound of steel hitting metal. After a few seconds the taller guard turned to the shorter one. "A sound kind of like that?" he said in a slightly sarcastic voice. The shorter guard just lowered his head and spoke in a low tone. "Y-yes sir... sorry sir." The taller guard slapped a hand on the back of the shorter one's shoulder. "Charlie... Don't worry about it. You were doing your job. Reporting anything unusual. Hell, I would be so lucky if all the men under my orders where so precise. You heard a noise and reported it. Even if it was a remote chance it was something relevant you called it in. That's what I expect from my men, Charlie. You did good. And besides... if it had been something important you would have been responsible for finding it. You did a good job, Charlie. Come on... let's go." "Yes sir... and sir? Thank you." "Charlie... I told you. Call me Dave." I watched them leave the room and heard the door close again. I waited until I heard their voices no more, and then jumped down from the ceiling, my feet hitting the ground with a soft thud. That was close... I thought to myself.

--Wait a minute! Hold on!! You want to know what happened? Well... fine. I felt my heart racing in my chest and I didn't know why, it all happened so fast. I heard the door reading and accepting the card and then I heard the mechanics of the door starting. I knew I had nowhere to go. So on instinct I looked up and just jumped up. I pressed myself against the corner of the ceiling and wall right above the door. I just stayed there, still, watching every move and listening to every word. It had been close... too close. Had I waited any longer I'm sure they would have seen me as I jumped. They had not. I had been just in time. I stayed up against the ceiling and wall. It was a good thing neither of them looked up. But then again... how many times do you go into a large room and look right above you and behind you a little? How many times do you go into a room and look behind you up at the ceiling corner above the door? Exactly... I'm betting your answer is rarely, or even never. It's just not something you do. So you're asking about the steel beam? That was you, wasn't it, You're saying? It wasn't just some lucky coincidence, right? Well if you're thinking that you're right. It had been me who had made the beam shake and fall. I had to cover up my carelessness from before. So with that beam falling, I knew they would think the sound before was just some more metal falling. As I said... the place was a mess. There were already parts of beams all over the floor. Obviously a reason why they no longer used this room was because it wasn't safe to do so.

--I moved back to the door and again looked through the window. Nothing... an empty hall. No guards, no anything. So... this place was not really important enough to guard, and that other room was a storage area. That's what the shorter guard said. And I was on Level D, apparently. Also... the taller guard said he had to come UP to level D. Meaning whatever levels there were, they were underneath this one. Knowing how humans are I guessed there was at least 3 more levels below me. A through C. If this was D... and it seemed like a more unimportant level, then that meant the other levels below where more important. I figured the lower they got the more important they where, meaning Level A was the most important. Which naturally meant that was where I was going to go. I knew somehow... my answers would be there. I waited awhile and after no one passed I stood back and lifted my right hand. My eyes glowed blue a little and the door slid open. This was certainly some sort of military-type installation. The door was a heavy door, metal... maybe steel. And it opened upwards. Not like a normal door. I stepped out into the hall and let the door close behind me. I heard it locking as it closed. I looked back at the door noticing the card key reader and grinned. I didn't need any stupid card key. I had my own. And it opened any lock. I turned and started heading down the hallway, walking slower then my normal stride. I was going to be very careful. It wasn't that I cared so much about getting seen because I couldn't handle a few guards here and there. No... it wasn't that reason that I was being cautious. I didn't want to be seen because I didn't want anything different happening here. I wanted them to go about their normal business as they always did. I wanted to find out what was going on without any hassles or anything being done differently. If the whole place went on alert, things would be different. And I had a feeling if that happened, I might not find what it was I wanted to find. And I wanted to find out exactly what in the hell this all was; why in the hell was there an obvious base inside this mountain? What did all of this even do? I walked to the room the guard had been standing in front of when I seen him. I looked at the door and across it in large, red lettering was "STORAGE, LEVEL D." In smaller lettering underneath there was "Level 2 access required." I looked at it. This door had no window. After all, it said it was just a storage room. Why would you need a window in a storage room? Realizing I hadn't noticed any large lettering on the other door I gazed back at it. No... nothing. There was nothing on the door. I looked back at the storage door and lifted an arm and the door opened. I wasn't going to take any chances. How did I know it was in fact really a storage room and the lettering on it wasn't just to throw someone off? I knew how humans could be. I looked inside… it turned out it was just a storage room after all. I looked inside but did not see anything relevant so I closed the door again and turned and headed down the hall.

--I peered around the corner. I saw a hallway about the same length as the one I just walked down. At the sides were two doors and at the far end was a wider door. Seeing as there was no one at all I moved around the corner and continued walking. I got to the first door and I read what the lettering said. "WEAPONS STORAGE LOCKER, LEVEL D SECTORS 1-3." Below it, in smaller letters there was "Level 3 access required." Weapons... I did not need to go into this room. I turned and continued down the hall to the next door. Wait a minute, you say! Why not go into that weapons room and take some weapons for yourself? Why you ask? Because, weapons are man's foolish tools! I did not need weapons. I had everything I needed. I had myself. I needed no foolish weapons that humans had created. No... I would never use a weapon created by humans! I read the lettering on the second door. "SECTORS 4-6." In smaller letters beneath that, "Sector 4 - Maintenance, Sector 5 - Garage/Supplies, Sector 6 - Helipad/Cargo Bay." In smaller letters below that was "Level 2 access required for sector 4, Level 3 access required for 5-6" Interesting, I thought to myself. I guess I was going to go through here... but what about the door at the end of this hallway… it was wider then the rest. I turned my head to side and looked down at it. I moved and walked slowly to it. As I got closer I read the lettering on the wide door. "Sector 2 elevator, Level D" So... I was in sector 2 of level D. And this elevator... I wondered to myself if I should take it. There was that other door I could go through. But... I didn't see how any of those places mentioned on the door would be useful. I needed to get to the lower levels, and the elevator would take me down. Where... I did not know. But it would be at least a different level. I did not press the button on the panel to call the elevator. No... I knew that this was an advanced place. They no doubt could monitor the activities of such things as elevators. As I said, I did not want to alert anyone. I lifted my hand and made the elevator door open. It parted into two parts... one went up into the ceiling; the other part went down into the floor. This was definitely some sort of high tech installation, whether it was military or otherwise. I stepped to the edge looking down the shaft. All I could see was total darkness. I stood there at the edge for a moment looking down into the void. I then felt the doors trying to close again. I held them open for a few seconds more and then without a thought on the matter, leapt off the edge.

--I let myself fall a little and began to pick up speed. Since I did not know how long this drop was I was looking down. I could feel myself falling faster but I could not judge how fast because when you have nothing passing by you, it is hard to judge your rate of speed. All I could see was the faint outlines of the walls around me. But I felt myself falling fast and building up even more speed as I fell. Then I saw a darker Square approaching. It got closer as I fell. I started to slow my descent, slowing myself down until I was floating softly downwards. The darker square got closer and closer until I landed on it, my feet softly coming to rest upon the cold surface. I knew this was the elevator car. I knelt down on one knee and looked for the opening I knew would be here. I found it and lifted it with my left hand. Not using my powers, just lifting it as anyone would. I held it open for a moment, waiting. And then I looked down inside. I grinned when I saw what I did. I figured I would be right. I looked at the back corner section just to the left of the opening and in the back left corner, pointing just straight ahead towards the door was a camera. From here there was no way it could see me. But it was a good thing I did not just jump down into the car. No... I knew enough to be careful. I knew this place was going to be very high-security. Obviously the camera was to look at anyone in the elevator car or anyone coming or going into the car. I knew if I did nothing and jumped down and tried to go out the door that wherever that camera was connected to... whoever was watching it, would see me. I continued to grin, and then my grin faded and my eyes glowed a light blue. The red light on the camera indicating it was on and working properly went off. I didn't need a light to tell me it wasn't working now. I knew it wasn't. But since they had put the lights there... I thought to myself. It's nice to have an indicator telling me when they weren't operational anymore. I jumped down into the car and felt it shift just a little. Strange... I thought to myself. I guess this was only a smaller elevator used only for persons... And even then, maybe only 2 or 3. I lifted my hand and made the door open and stepped out into the new hall. No one was around... I let the doors close behind me and I turned around so I could read the lettering on the door. "Sector 2 elevator, level C" Level C... I was one level down from where I had been. If every elevator I found only went down one level… it could take awhile to get all the way to the level I thought was where I needed to go… level A. I looked at the elevator doors for a few seconds, staring at the lettering. Then I thought about how when I had jumped down into the elevator car it had shaken a little, shifted. I weighed 269 pounds, So I knew it wasn't an elevator that was used for anything more then persons or light cargo. That means there must be another elevator somewhere, one used for the large cargo. After all... there was a helipad up on the other level, so there must be a bigger elevator. And perhaps one that will take me down more then just one level at a time. I turned and started to walk down the hall. Yes... I will find that other elevator, I said to myself.

--I stopped and stood still for a moment. I heard faint sounds, voices, far away. I could not make all of the sounds out. "Sector 2.... level C…" It was getting closer. I could make out more of what was being said. "Sarge said to check out the camera," one voice said. Another was heard. "Yeah, so why do we have to check it out? Why not send some new rookie?" "Don't ask me... let's just do what were supposed to, okay?" I heard a slight grumble from the other voice as if in silent protest. These guards where headed right for me. They where going to check out the camera I had just disabled, I thought to myself. This place works very efficiently. Already they're going to check out a camera I had disabled not more then 5 minutes ago. I looked around and noticed only one doorway within reach before they would get to me. I moved to it and made the door open. I darted inside and made the door close. It was a close call... but I knew they had not seen me… or had they? I stood against the wall to the side of the door and heard one guard stop right in front of the door. "What is it, Lt. Paris? Why did you stop?" "Sir... I heard something. Like... this door just closed or something. Just as we turned the corner." "That's nonsense, Mr. Paris... look at that door, what does it say?" I was curious, too. I had not paid much attention to the wording on the door, I hadn't the time to. I didn't even know where I was. The only thing I knew was this room was dark, and there were strange shadows and some weird bubbling sound coming from the back of the room. But it didn't matter; I was alone in this room, at least. I turned my head more towards the wall, listening to them talk. It would be good to know what this place was. Even though I could hear their voices... they where still muffled through the thickness of the door. This place may be advanced and highly secure but at least this place wasn't sound proof. At least not the parts I had been in so far. I listened carefully. "Well? What does it say, Mr. Paris?" "Sir?" "On the door!" "Oh, yes, sir. It says, Research lab 3, sector 2, level C." "Yes, and tell me what is says for access level." "Level 4, sir!" "Exactly, and do you know or see anybody here with level 4 clearance?" "N-no, sir!" "Right, so it was impossible for you to hear this door closing. You were hearing things." "I guess you're right sir" "Of course I'm right… now let's get back to our task at hand." "Yes... sir" I heard the last part of the voices fading as they moved away further down the hall. So... I was in a research lab... and it was a high level of clearance required... I figured I'd look around since I was here. Maybe I'd find something useful... or important.

--I moved away from the wall and started walking to the strange shapes and shadows at the end of the room... along with that strange bubbling sound. What was that sound... why did it seem so... familiar. I stopped. It was fairly dark and I knew it would be wise to have light on. But I was also very cautious. I stopped and listened carefully. When I tuned out the sound of the bubbling I could hear another sound... a low hum... that sound was familiar as well. But unlike the bubbling sound I could not place where I heard before this sound I knew. It was the sound of a computer, most likely in standby mode. I knew there could be many possibilities of different types of security... but I just knew it would be okay to access this computer… at least... I hoped so. I spoke out loud softly. "Computer, turn on the lights." There was a slight hum.. and it seemed to take a little longer then the one back at my castle. --Lights on at 90%-- The voice was female... and sounded a lot like the one I had back home. Only... somewhat different. I found this particularly interesting. I narrowed my eyes as the lights came on. I wanted the lights on but I didn't need them to be so bright. "Computer... reduce lights to 40%." There was a beep and the lights reduced their glow. Good… I was right. I was able to access this computer. It did not have user access lockout. I looked around, now that the lights where at a low but comfortable level. And what I saw at the back of the room made my eyes widen. I moved over to what I saw and placed my hand on the glass. A... a stasis tube? A flood off memories flooded over me... Back to a time that seemed so long ago... Amber... I closed my eyes keeping my hand on the glass. I lowered my head... No… that was so long ago... that was the past... I don't know how long I stood there with my hand to the glass, but it seemed like a long while.

©H. Falcon. 2000-2003