They managed to load R.D. up into the Firebird as carefully as they could, and he still didn't stir--they could barely see him breathing, and it came in short, labored gasps. They drove, and found they were closer to the mine than they thought, probably due to the chase back when KishouDoragon and Omega began their fight.

The dawn was coming when they finally arrived--night had been giving way to gray skies, revealing the black and silver clouds overhead. They piled out of the car and carried R.D. through the short tunnel to the mine, with Alasea frantically looking around for the person they were supposed to meet.

"Hello?" she called out as they arrived in front of the building where they first encountered the darkened beast. Her voice carried out over the mine, echoing a bit. At the far end of the mine facility they heard a noise, like something dropping to the ground.

It was not, however, anything they expected--rather than a person, it was a large, insectile creature, exactly like the one Alasea had shown them before. An antlion. Another one appeared behind it. "Oh, shit," Alasea swore when she saw it. With a screech, the first one charged forward.

And then promptly exploded as green energy blasted it apart from the side, splattering the ground with greenish-yellow ichor.

"MotherFUCKER!" Matt shouted. "Who the fuck did THAT?"

"Wait--was that...?" Alasea partially whispered.

The other antlion leaped down with a screech, turning to the new attacker, though they couldn't see him themselves. It soon revealed itself--a long-limbed, greenish-gray being with a huge red eye. The antlion lunged at the Vortigaunt, but the alien skillfully grappled it and threw it to the ground, then blasted it with more green energy, causing it to explode like its partner.

"It's a Vortigaunt!" Ileyna cried, brightening up. Alasea let out a breath of relief as it trotted over to them, muttering in its own tongue. She was about to speak to it, but the alien ignored them as it walked up to R.D.'s prone body and knelt beside it. It lifted up a long-fingered hand and it suddenly became encased in a green glow, and slowly waved it over his body. "The... Rising Dragon..." it whispered in its guttural voice. "What harm has come..."

Finally it looked back at the others. "Ah, I am pleased to see that the rest of you are unharmed!" it greeted, gesturing with its other hand before looking back at R.D. "But the Rising Dragon... his condition is grave."

"Please tell me you can help him!" Helena said.

The Vortigaunt stood up and gestured with both hands. "Healing him will require more than I alone can conjure," he said gravely. "Let me summon my kin."

He turned and lifted both of its long arms to his mouth and gave out a long, alien cry.

"SHAAAAAAAA!"

After a moment, they heard a far-off Vortigaunt cry reply to the alien. "DEEENAAAAAAAH!"

Once more, their companion cried out, with a much longer, warbling cry, one practically indecipherable to the humans present. Finally, another reply came, the same as the Vortigaunt's first call. Nodding, the alien turned back to them. "My kin will meet us at a sheltered location beneath the surface," he said, walking back to R.D.'s body. He gathered him up in his three arms and lifted him effortlessly. "We must move him there quickly."

He turned to Matt, nodding. "I will stabilize him, if the Willard provides us with protection. Let us hurry, Willard. Help awaits us, in the mines."

Edited by RisingDragon on February 4, 2011 at 23:02:01

"Let's roll," Matt said.

They quickly made their way through the facility's exterior, and as they did, antlions leaped through the air, creating a grating buzzing sound with each pass. Luckily, they seemed unmindful of the humans, robot, and Vortigaunt below them. The Vort himself didn't seem to think of them as a threat for the moment, either.

Soon, though, they found an elevator, and while it didn't seem to be in good shape, they began their trip down into the depths of the Earth. As the elevator car came to a shuddering stop, the Vortigaunt pressed on ahead. "We must hasten," he said. "His state is delicate."

The room they entered was covered in planks of wood, and branched off various ways, while fenced off in others. One of the paths had a rail cart, rusted over from years of disuse. There was an overlying stench within, wafting from deeper in the tunnels.

"What is that smell?" Ileyna asked, blanching.

"Antlions," Alasea murmured. "I was afraid of that. Their nest is in the mines."

Edited by RisingDragon on February 4, 2011 at 23:00:06

"Fantastic," Matt said. "I think we'd better get ready to burn these fuckers if need be."

"The antlions below," the Vortigaunt carrying R.D. said, "May yet prove useful. We must proceed."

"What's he mean by that?" Ileyna asked, getting only a shrug from Alasea.

They proceeded through the nearby tunnel, and came into the mine proper. The walls, however, looked smooth and shiny, as if something had melted through them, rather than chipped or broke their way through.

They sound found out why. They came across an antlion that looked different from the rest--a pale green in color, with a head like that of an oversized ant with no eyes. It screeched when it came across them, then spit out a viscous glob of acid.

"No." Matt gestured with a hand, raising the earth in front of him to catch the burst of acid. He kicked the section of earth hard enough to send chunks flying at the antlion before the acid could finish eating through the rock. "Get out."

The stones struck the fragile creature and tore it apart--the acid sacks in it ruptured, spraying it everywhere as it was killed. "Ugh, that's gonna be a problem," Alasea commented as the acid began burning into the stone around them.

"Beware the acid lions," the Vortigaunt said, stepping past them. "Their corrosive spray allows for quick carving of rock passages, but also serves as a strong deterrent to intruders like ourselves."

More were coming. They could hear the skittering of their feet echoing down the carved and melted tunnels. "We need to get moving," Alasea said as she drew her sword, ready to use it as a focus. "If we get surrounded, Matt, just use that footstomp attack of yours."

The screeching creatures rushed out of the nearby tunnels as they fled. Most were the typical soldiers, but others were the acid-spitting workers like the one they'd just slain.

"Make me face them!" Hugo shouted to Helena, who was currently lugging him along. She flipped his around, and he aimed his pickaxe, blanketing the hordes behind the group with a sweeping wave of fire.

The antlions died easily enough, but they couldn't stick around. Quantity had a quality all it's own, after all. Their retreat took them deeper into the nest, and now they could see more of the antlion's handiwork--fleshy sacks hanging on the walls and ceiling, held by webbing, and papery combs found here and there.

And then there were the bioluminescent, maggot-like grubs, not a few of which were accidentally squashed underfoot.

"They make a satisfying squish, do they not?" the Vortigaunt remarked with a humorous tone as Matt accidentally stepped on another one.

"This is probably going to come back to haunt us in here," Alasea said with a frown.

"Down here," the Vortigaunt finally said, gesturing with its middle arm to a hole in the floor showing mine cart tracks below. "My kin will meet us in the chamber below."

"This is so fucking groooooosssss," Matt whined, waggling his fingers.

"I should've worn shoes," Helena said, wiping the sole of her foot against the dirt. "Oh, God, it's in my TOES."

Never before had Ileyna been so glad she could hover than she was right now. Despite the grubs' unusually large size, they were surprisingly easy to miss when walking, up until they screamed and gurgled when they were crushed underfoot.

They dropped down into another tunnel, which lead into a large, half-circular room containing an elevator at the back, and numerous other tunnels--most of which were for mine carts, and another which looked like a breach from antlions. There was a sturdy table set up at the base of the elevator, down the large ramp, and it was there that the Vortigaunt set R.D. down and went to work, lifting up its two large arms and emanating more green energy from them to help stabilize the wounded young man.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Hugo asked. "I've been programmed with a selection of medical procedures. R.D.'s human enough that I might be able to assist."

"The Rising Dragon clings to the margins," the Vortigaunt said, slowly waving his hands over R.D.'s form and shaking his head slowly. "My kin are still some distance away. For now we must not be disturbed."

"I don't think there's anything we can do to help R.D., Hugo," Alasea said. "If my power couldn't stop whatever's killing him, then I doubt medical procedures will help.:

"So what can we do?" Ileyna asked.

"We keep watch and make sure none of those blasted antlions follow us," replied the Daughter of Dawn. "I'll set up some wards."

And so they waited. Occasionally, antlions followed, burrowing up from the ground in the tunnels, but they were quickly put down by the five of them. It wasn't long before, for possibly the eighth or ninth time that Alasea's wards triggered, but this time, the defenses she keyed to strike at antlion biometrics didn't activate. And out of the hole in the main tunnel's ceiling came a trio of Vortigaunts.

"They're here!" Ileyna cried, pumping the air with her fists and causing her beret to slip with the sudden movement.

Well, it was about time! Then again, with all of these killer bugs hanging around, made sense that they would have some trouble getting here. Matt watched the Vortigaunt arrivals join their escort and surround R.D..

"Now to the next matter at hand... the Rising Dragon," the first Vortigaunt said as he halted his ministrations to R.D., letting the other three take over. "His injuries are grave. This will necessitate deep immersion in the vortessence."

"Indeed," murmured one of the other Vortigaunts.

"We require the larval extract."

A great deal of murmuring and agreement rose up among the other three Vorts.

"The extract!"
"Yeeees!"
"Agreed."

The first Vortigaunt looked out at the humans. "I will make the journey to seek the extract, deep within the nest, in the sacred nectarium," he informed them. "But I cannot hope to bring it quick alone."

"We must remain to keep the Rising Dragon alive," said one of the other Vorts.

"Please, Willard, join me," the first asked of Matt, holding two of his hands together. The others quickly agreed that it was a good choice.

"Yes, take the Willard!"
"Yes!"
"There is no finer companion!"
"A choice well stated."

Alasea stared at the level of confidence the aliens seemed to have in Matt. "It's like they don't know you at all," she remarked.

Edited by RisingDragon on February 6, 2011 at 14:43:33

Normally he'd make a joke too, but with someone's life on the line like this, especially R.D.'s, he definitely didn't feel comfortable with all of it. Still, if they thought he could cut it, he'd oblige. "All right, I'll go with you."

"Are you sure someone else can't come with him?" Helena asked. She looked over at R.D.. "I mean...I want to make sure he stays safe, but if it'll help get this extract quicker, I should come along too."

"More people would probably just attract more antlions," Alasea said, "And there's still more coming this way, so we'll need more people to protect R.D. and the Vorts. If anyone could go with him, it'd be Ileyna, and we can't risk that."

"We must make haste," the Vortigaunt said, trotting past the others to the main shaft. At the far end was a metal panel gate, and a deactivated generator. The Vortigaunt approached it and electrified his hands, using the energy to charge it and open the way, revealing an antlion breach further in on the far tunnel wall. "Let us hurry."

"I'll be fine," Matt said. "You all stay together."

"Be careful in there," Alasea said, looking worried. "Try not to stumble into the King Antlion or any Myrmidons."

"Good luck!" Ileyna cheered as they disappeared into the breach.

They cut their way through several webs and a number of grubs before they got back into the main of the antlion nest. Their first enounter was with a pack of antlions tearing apart a corpse, and it quickly spiraled down as the Vortigaunt blasted them with lightning and more acid-lions showed up, but it wasn't long before they got into the next part of the mines and to an elevator, both of them generally covered in antlion gore.

"We grow near the nectarium," the Vortigaunt said, unmindful of the slime covering his body. "We must be careful, for soon the Guardian will know of our intentions."

"Guardian?" Matt repeated. "What Guardian? You didn't mention a Guardian, did you?"

As if to punctuate the Vortigaunt's statement, some huge and heavy smashed into the boards of the mine chamber with a resounding crash. Luckily for them, the boards held, despite splintering and offering a view of a cavern tunnel--and the hulking creature that was huffing and glowing an eerie green color.

"Ah, the ancient guardian!" the Vortigaunt exclaimed, as the creature snarled and galloped back down the tunnel. "Retrieving the extract may not be unchallenging. The guardian's presence guarantees the nearness of larval clusters. They are commonly posted near the young."

Edited by RisingDragon on February 8, 2011 at 18:44:40

"Challenge is the complete opposite of what we want!" Revving up with gathered electricity, Matt decided to provoke it with a shot of powerful lightning. "Thunder Blast!"

The Vortigaunt quickly blasted away Matt's attack with one of his own. "You must not harm the Guardian!" it reprimanded him. "Should the Guardian be slain, the extract will be ruined!"

"Oh, well, that's just great!" Matt said. "And how do you propose we get it without being stomped into a mudhole?"

"Perhaps I could help." A voice from the behind came forward. A walking armor walked up to the group.

"I have a riddle that can help you."

"When the unstoppable object meets the unmovable object, what happens?

(OOC: C'mon, Hardman, at least ask before butting in.)

"As you have always done, you will find a way," the Vortigaunt said sagely. "Come. Let us retrieve the extract."

The alien approached another generator, one attached to a gate like the one in the elevator shaft, and jumpstarted it with its powers. "Pity the generator that requires a Vortigaunt to operate it," the alien said as he did so. The gate lifted and the pathway was open, allowing them deeper into the nectarium.

And soon enough, as the two of them dropped down a ledge onto a rocky platform over a chasm, the Antlion Guardian appeared, galloping out of the tunnel across from them and halting to bar their path. The beast towered above them, standing on four legs, with a hulking trunk of a body hanging forward like an obscene hook. The entire frame of the beast emitted a greenish-yellow glow. The only thing that stood between them was a long pillar of stone, not quite forming a stalactite and stalagmite yet.

It was the only thing that saved them, too, when the beast suddenly snarled and charged, smashing headlong into the pillar due to its blindness. "Run!" the Vortigaunt yelled as it darted around the Guardian and made a break for it into the tunnel. He headed straight for a hole in the far wall, one covered in a yellowish slime--it was too small for the Guardian to get into.