On route 10 going west, the black SUV sped though far west Texas. They had just passed through Ft. Stockton. The last vestige of civilization in that direction until the Texas/New Mexico border. Six hours on the road and one sunset had bought them to the middle of nowhere. As far from her home as Crusay had been in quite a few years. The new moon made everything pitch black out on the desert plain. The only headlights for miles were coming from the car. Despite this, Crusay was staring out the window. As if looking at the scenery. She had the large stick she used to cast the alchemy circle gently resting along her body and on her shoulder. She had insisted on taking it with her on the trip. Dox sat next to her as the other man drove. Everyone was very quiet. Dox pushed back the sleeve of his coat and looked at his watch. It was the third time in the last 20 mins.
Crusay caught this out of the corner of her eye. "You late for something?"
"No. Just checking." Dox responded.
There was an awkward pause before Crusay finally asked, "....for?"
"For our ride." Dox said.
"We aren't in it?" Crusay asked.
"Not the big one no." Dox looked at his watch again. This time he stared at it.
Crusay turned to the driver. "Hey Beef McLargeHuge. Where are we headed again?"
The driver glanced back at Dox. Noticing his constant attention to the watch, he turned back around and said "...sorry, have to concentrate."
Crusay shot him a sharp look. Seeing that she was being ignored now she emitted a large sigh and started to stare out the window again.
Dox was now very intent on his watch. Paying close attention to the second hand. It was an old piece at this point. Something special that was given to him by a friend. It had a worn brown leather band with a silver frame. Looking like a grandfather clock with traditional roman numeral numbers. It didn't match the rest of his clothing. But it was one of the most important tools he owned.
The second hand slowed. Dox counted in his head. One one thousand, Two one thousand, Three one thousand... then it stopped.
"Right here Collin." Dox told the driver. The car came to a screeching halt.
Crusay jerked a little as the car stopped. She looked up at the driver. "Collin? Your name is Collin?"
"Yes mam." He responded. He turned on the hazard lights and unbuckled his seat belt. Opening the front door and getting out. Dox did the same and motioned for her to come out.
Dox turned to her. "Well we're finally here."
Crusay had a skeptical look on her face. There was a time when she had liked surprises. "Had", being the key word. She also had grown to hate vagueness. Her tolerance for it was completely gone. The pitch black surroundings weren't helping. She decided to dig her heels in. "Haven't you heard? I don't do the vague game anymore Dox."
"You're going to want to see this." He enticed.
"There is nothing in the middle of nowhere, in the pitch black dark that I want to see." she retorted.
"Alright." he conceded.
Dox pulled up his wrist, exposing the watch again. With his other hand he pressed a button. The watch slowly pulsed in and out with a blue hue. Just then a giant crack sounded. At first Crusay thought it was lightning but it was more static. More mechanical sounding. Like a Tesla oscillator. It cracked again this time louder. Enough to make her jump a bit. Looking out the window, she was trying to see exactly what it was. A bit of light caught her eye and she looked up.
In the sky she could see where the sound was coming from. Way up high a section of the clear starry night was being blocked by a strange cloud forming. Hiding a patch of stars from view. It looked like a lighting storm had manifested out of nothing. The cloud grew as if pouring out into the sky. The lighting moved with it. Exposing its size with the sharp sparks it gave off. And you could hear something tearing though it. Like an over amplified static charge. And from this, came the nose of a gigantic machine. As stretched out, the light and noise danced around it. Crusay moved to Dox's side of the car and poked her head out to get a better view. The machine finished pulling itself away from the cloud, and finally showing its whole self. A giant airship. Crusay stood out of the car, a bit shocked.
"What do you think?" Dox asked.
"That's some Final Fantasy shit right there." she quipped.
"Indeed." Dox retorted.
From the ship, a much smaller piece flew away from it and toward the three. As it came closer Crusay could see that it was like a tiny version of the larger ship. She had to cover her face a bit when it landed. Blowing the sand and dust around. Dox and Collin quickly walked toward it. A young man stepped out of the craft and walked over to them. He waited a second for Dox to say something to him. Then rushed off toward Crusay. She quickly reached in the car and grabbed her stick. Her paranoia made her strike a defensive pose. The man stopped a few feet away and held his hands up.
"Hey there!" He had to yell a bit over the noise of the craft. "I'm Tweed. I'm just taking the car." he motioned his hand letting a set of keys jingle in them.
Crusay took a long look at him. He was extremely tall. Had a long angular face with a short cut blond hair. He sported a pair of jean overalls, a blue tshirt, and a pair of heavy boots. It was hard to see with the pant legs covering most of his shoes. He looked right at her. Staying still. Trying to be as non threatening as possible. Dox waving at Crusay caught her attention. She slowly walked past Tweed, keeping an eye on him. He made a point to not take his eyes off of her, turning as she moved past him. She lowered her "weapon" and then made her way to the ship. When she moved far enough away he slowly put down his hands and breathed a deep sigh of relief. Quickly, he shut the back door and rushed into the SUV. Turning off the emergency lights and driving off into the desert.
***
The craft sped up to the ship and into a hangar on the underside. When it docked, Collin opened the sliding door and waited for Dox and Crusay to exit. Crusay followed Dox to a door on the other side of the hangar with Collin close behind. The door lead them to a long hallway that stretched to the left and right.
"This ship can get a bit confusing if you don't know it." Dox explained.
Collin put his hand to his ear, listening. "Sir, the captain requests your presence on the deck."
"Well I guess the tour will have to wait." Dox continued. "Follow me."
As Dox walked off Crusay made a note of her surroundings. She tried to commit every turn, hallway and stair climb to memory. She noticed that the halls all had an associated letter and number combination. If there was any other location marker she could identify then she made a point to note it in her mind. She also looked for any exits. The last thing she wanted was to be on an honest to god airship and not know what to do in an emergency.
"You're awfully quiet." Dox said. "Thought you'd have tons of questions for me once you got in here."
"I'm busy." she responded.
After wandering around the ship they finally reached the deck. Crusay was a bit surprised at the size of the deck. It wasn't Avengers huge, like she imagined. It was way more practical. With low ceilings and coming to a rounded point. About half of the front for the deck was all windows. The rest was filled with various chairs and consoles, about six on each side where the crew sat. In front stood a person in a long tailed jacket facing the windows. They had on a long dark skirt that matched the color of the jacket with a lace trim. A pair of laced up, tall boots on their feet. Curly hair that went to just above their shoulders. The figure turned around and smiled.
"Mari?" Crusay asked with shock.
"Crusay!" Mari responded. The two walked to each other and shared a huge hug.
"Holy shit! You're the captain?" Crusay exclaimed.
"Hard to believe huh?" they asked.
"Not really." She started. "It suits you. And the uniform is amazing."
"What's with the stick?" Mari asked.
Crusay fiddled with it. "Well, its... my stick. And it got us out of a huge problem earlier. So I'm keen on keeping it with me."
"I thought you liked rocks." said another approaching from the right. She was a taller woman with a similar matching suit to Mari's outfit. Her baby face gave her away.
"Holy crap Ellie! Fuck, you're still alive?" Crusay jabbed.
"Who the hell do you think I am? Of course I'm still alive." Ellie retorted. They both hugged their greeting.
"Jesus Ellie, I forgot how tall you are. So what the hell is your position up here?" Crusay asked.
"Sit down for this one Crusay it may make you faint."She paused for effect "I'm the captain."
"Is that true?" A smile crossing Crusay's face.
"No. Not really. But I am the second in command. Mari is the brains. I'm the beauty."
Crusay snickered. It was good to see some friendly faces again. For a moment it seemed as if everything was just like it used to be. Moments like these were too rare to not keep going.
"So is it only Brits allowed on this monstrosity or are the others here? Where on earth did you even get this ship?" Crusay had numerous questions for everyone.
"Actually there aren't too many familiar faces on the ship right now." Mari started. "Our field crew has the most people you'd recognize there. Otherwise the rest of them are either on this ship or missing.
Crusay remembered what Dox had said to her about the first gen of butterflies. "Dox had mentioned some of the butterflies going missing."
"Yes, and he probably told you why we wanted you here then." Ellie continued. "Everyone was a little shocked that you hadn't gone off the radar either."
"Yeah well, I was busy....with things." Crusay responded.
Ellie and Mari gave each side eye to each other. "Could you elaborate?" Mari asked.
"I'd rather not." Crusay clammed up right away.
Dox took a hand and rested it on her shoulder. "Anything you could tell us would really help. We're trying to make sure everyone is safe."
Crusay nudged her shoulder away from Dox's hand. "Yeah. Safe. Contained where you can keep an eye on me." The kind greetings had passed. Crusay was on the defensive. "Tell me, do you have them in some holding cell underground? Or maybe you keep them 30,000 feet up in this mystical disappearing airship."
"They're actually kept underground when we can capture them." A man approached the group from behind Crusay. He was a man of average height, and average weight. Short brown hair and an outfit that matched the officer uniforms. But this one was much simpler. It looked more traditional with the longer jacket, large buttons and stripes on the collar. He had large aviator glasses on and a sneer that had "snob" written all over it. She recognized him immediately.
"Hello Robbie." She greeted in the nastiest way she could.
Robbie took off his glasses and somehow found a way to look down at Crusay despite her being taller than him. "Papilio." He responded.
Crusay had expected this. There was no way she was going with Dox and company and not going to run into the head of security for New Weaver co. Robbie was the one who went after her five years prior. The doppelganger incident. She may have been more blunt and paranoid than she used to be but she wasn't stupid. As much as she would like to throw down with Robbie she would have to hold her shit together until they figured out what happened to the others. Then she could get the hell out of there before things got out of control.
"It's in your best interest to share with us what you know." He said.
"Not like it would matter if I did share. You can't trust any information coming from an infected. Can you?" Crusay jeered.
"I am not Help3r and treating me as such will not help your situation. The only reason you aren't in holding is because your friend took personal responsibility for you." Robbie pointed at Dox.
"Last I heard Dox spoke for the group of you. And that includes you. I was invited and I came of my own free will. And I'll leave the same way when I god damned please." Crusay countered.
"You are in our house now Papilio. I have made peace with the fact that we have to work with you in order to complete this mission. But I am also aware of your degrading condition. Do not test my abilities on this ship. Or you will be put in holding." Robbie asserted.
Ellie was about to walk over and break up the potential fight but Dox stopped her mid step.
Crusay moved herself to inches from Robbie's face. "Listen you little shit. I know what you're trying to do. Getting me all riled up so you have an excuse to put me away forever. Well I got news for you buddy. I'll be Beast fodder before I give you the pleasure. But if you ever feel like taking that stick out of your ass then I’d be happy to go one on one with you. Just to even the score. Oh, and you can't have help from your cast of thousands either."
Robbie scoffed. "Your threats are underwhelming."
Ellie pushed past Dox and got in-between them. "That's enough. You aren't helping, Robbie. Now we all have to get along while we're here. So let's just kiss and make up like good little secret organization agents."
Robbie extended his hand with a stern look on his face. Crusay hadn't even broken eye contact with him yet. She could see the "peace" offering in the periphery. She wasn't keen on it but went for his hand anyway. But before they could shake, the lights cut off and came back on in a bright red. A loud alert sounded and she could see all the other hands on deck quickly working at their terminals.
"Report!" Mari demanded.
"There is a Placian on the ground Capitan." One of the officers yelled out. "50 kilometers out."
"A Placian? Like Dark Placian?" Crusay asked.
"Bringing on screen." The officer stated.
A large screen came down in front of Mari and turned on. It showed the dark desert plain with the early morning light coming over the horizon. A highlighted circle on the monitor tried to highlight the creature but it was almost impossible to see with the rising light behind it.
"Magnify the image." Ellie said.
The image grew and grew till they could make out a person walking on the ground. As the light spilled over the land they could finally see what was there. A woman, walking away from a white door standing alone. It was slowly shutting as the woman walked on.
"We have a confirmed door!" The officer yelled out. "Potential survivor coming out."
"But where's the Placian?" Ellie asked.
"Can we scan the woman at this range?" Mari said.
"No, she's too far out for our bio sensors." the officer answered.
"I don't like this at all." Crusay growled. "That looks like the same door that was at my home." As they got closer they could see a series of rags over the woman's face. Covering her eyes and top of her head. She had dirtied and torn clothes. Walking in bare feet, almost stumbling.
"Send out the antennas. I don't want to take any chances." Mari commanded.
"Yes Captain." the officer responded.
***
Deep in the center of the ship was a room with a large, blue glowing dome. In it three pods contained three sleeping men. The dome slowly turned red and a gas filtered into the chambers. Each man slowly woke up and saw the red light above them. Moogle was the first to sleepily reach up and put his hand on the inside of the dome. A small square appeared around his hand. The words [Antenna 1 Confirmed. You may now speak to your peers.] above it.
"Antenna 1, Moogle awake. Let's go guys. Time to get to work." Moogle said out loud.
Tanuki grunted a little and raised his hand to the dome. It made the same image and commands as Moogle's. "Antenna 2, Tanuki awake."
"Snor, report in." Moogle said. There was no response. "Snor?" he continued. Moogle pressed a few buttons that lit up on the dome checking Snorlax's vitals. "Snor I know you're awake. We need to suit up and we can't without you."
"You didn't say the thing." Snorlax responded. "You said that next time we do this you were going to say the thing."
Tanuki snickered.
Moogle sighed with a little smile curling the corners of his face. "This is for Larry."
"Once more with feeling!" Snorlax encouraged.
"THIS IS FOR LARRY!" Moogle yelled. And with that Snorlax slammed his hand against the dome. Their beds angled down and dropped them into a wide hallway where they landed standing up on lit up stands. Each man's forehead glowed, revealing a little oval gem. This gem grew a little antenna that formed into a thin crown around their heads. The light shined around them and created armor for the feet and legs first. Then the torso and shoulders, and finally the hands. Once suited up a large door opened at the far end of the hall. The morning light spilling through making it very hard to see anything outside of the ship. A giant gust of wind flew past them and they all jumped off their pedestals and ran to the light.
"Antennas do you come in?" Mari said from their mics.
"Good to see you awake. We have a woman who seems to have just come out of a potential doorway to the Vault. Close the door and determine the woman's condition. Proceed with extreme caution." Mari finished.
"Roger that." Moogle responded.
As they reached the edge they jumped out of the ship. Headfirst toward the ground gaining speed. Each man's suit spread a pair of gliders. The three leveled out and flew toward their objective.
"Activate camera." Tanuki commanded.
Back in the ship everyone was getting a bird's eye view of what was out there.
"Suggest we do a fly by before landing." Tanuki said.
"Good idea." Moogle responded. "Commencing fly by."
They got closer. The woman was now a considerable ways away from the door. The morning light made everything visible now and as the three went by the ship got a closer look at who was down there. And nobody could believe it.
"Izzie?" Crusay whispered.
"That couldn't have been.....that looked like Izzie" Snorlax said.
"Engage immediately." Moogle responded. The three doubled back so they would be facing her. Moving in synchronicity they brought their legs together, locking their feet in place. Large boosters in the heels of their feet ignited, pushing them closer to the objective. As they neared, they unlocked their feet and moved their feet in front of them. Using the boosters and gliders to slow them down lowering them to a few feet above the ground. The boosters cut and gravity took them as they landed running, making sure to stop a little ways from Izzie.
She continued to walk. Head turned down, slowly moving along the desert floor. Brushing sand as her feet moved.
"Let's collapse that door before anything else comes out of there." Moogle said. "I'll stay with Izzie." Tanuki and Snor ran past Izzie and to the door. Moogle slowly approached Izzie.
"Izzie? Can you hear me? It's Moogle." She continued to walk as if there was nobody there.
"You've been gone for two weeks." Moogle continued. He moved to directly in front of her. Putting his hands on her shoulders making her stop walking. "Izzie? What happened?"
Snorlax and Tanuki approached the door. Tanuki stretched out his right hand. Parts of his armor came off and collected forming a large broadsword. Snorlax stretched out his hand. Part of his armor formed a large pickaxe. Each began to hack at the door, cutting it away to pieces. The entire thing collapsing as if it was simply made of wood.
Izzie remained unchanged. Moogle messaged to the ship. "It's Izzie, but she's not responding. She has some kind of crude bandaging over her eyes."
"We're sending down a medical team to you now." Ellie responded. "Dox and Crusay are with them."
"Roger." Moogle responded. He took a look at the bandages. They looked dirty and a bit bloody. "I'm going to take a look at your eyes Izzie, okay?" He slowly moved the bandage up from her eyes. As he did he saw dark sunken in circles. Which contained fog covered orbs that looked more like a shark's eyes than a human's.
Izzie's mouth opened a bit as a wide smile spread across her face. There were only gums where teeth should have been. A loud crack made Moogle jump back and he noticed the smile was now stretching to the back of her head. She arched her head backward looking up. Her upper torso stretched as she made a sickening slurping and gurgling through her mouth. Her face and arms stretched. Making her almost indistinguishable from a human anymore. Her hands becoming pointed with jagged ends like a crab. Hardening like a shell. She fell forward and a large tail grew. Her legs and feet remaining their original size despite it. Izzie's face had elongated and she coughed and gurgled black sludge from her face. Her gaping maw open, Moogle witnessed individual rows of sharp teeth stretching out in lines from the outside of the mouth to the inside. Twenty five rows with a total of three hundred teeth. All poking out from the gums and curving inward.
"A little help!" Moogle yelled as he stretched his arm out to form his weapon.
Tanuki and Snorlax turned around and saw a giant prehistoric monster where Izzie once stood. They turned from the broken door pieces and rushed to Moogle's aid.
The weapon was forming when the monster hovered its jaw over Moogle and quickly lowered it. He ducked and rolled out of the way as the monster got a mouth full of sand and earth. He stumbled and tried to recover himself from the attack but the monster was quick. Using its claws to pull itself forward and its long tail to move it faster like a snake. Constantly trying to close its jaws onto Moogle.
Snorlax caught up to it, jumping up and landing the giant pickaxe in its tail. Stopping it abruptly and causing it to make a horrendous scream. It turned around instantly and went for Snorlax but Tanuki grazed it with his sword making it flinch. Giving them enough time to get away. Moogle used this opportunity to collect his weapon. Holding his hand out pieces of his suit collected to create the curved sword, a khopesh. The three of them backed off quite a ways as the giant creature writhed and howled. Joining back together desperately trying to catch their breaths.
"What in the sam hill is that thing!?" Snorlax sputtered.
"Izzie." Moogle said still shocked.
"What?" Tanuki asked.
"That thing was Izzie. I saw it happen right in front of me. She...changed into that thing."
The monster finally curled around and laid its giant mouth on its tail. Moving its jaw back and forth, spurting black sludge everywhere. Finally releasing it from being pinned down. It turned and looked at the three antennas.
"Oh shit." Snorlax said. Despite loosing a quarter of its body, the thing was still fast as hell. Quickly driving itself forward with the two front claws.
"We have to get rid of this thing." Tanuki said.
"But what if Izzie is still inside of there?" Moogle asked.
"What are we suppose to do, knock it out and bring it on board?" Snorlax stated. "Whatever we do, it can't get done without the pickaxe." The thing lunged itself forward snapping its jaw shut in a desperate attempt to get them. The three jumped away just in time. "I'm going to get my weapon. You two need to distract it." Snorlax ran off toward his pickaxe. The monster was tracking him until Tanuki sliced though one of its claws. Dropping it on its belly and ruining its balance. Both Moogle and Tanuki made sure it saw them and then ran in a big circle away from the beast. Despite its many injuries it still was trying to capture them. Turning and following with its blue-grey eyes. It didn't take long for them to connect with Snorlax, pushing the last of the tail off of the end of the axe.
It used its one last claw to slowly move toward them. They saw the pitiful and disgusting creature dragging itself across the dirt and sand. Leaving a trail of that black goo that didn't seem to stop gushing out.
Moogle still could not believe what he had seen. This couldn't be Izzie. It wasn't her. It was something else. Something had taken her and made her this way.
...Or maybe, she had finally succumbed. Maybe this was the end result for butterflies. The last stage of infection. Where you truly became a monster. A real monster.
"We need to do this." Snorlax finally said.
"Yeah. We should....bring them together. Finish this." Tanuki continued.
Snorlax put up his axe. Tanuki, his sword. Moogle hesitated for a moment, then put up his khopesh. The weapons glowed and floated away from their hands. All merging together to form their ultimate weapon. A giant triple lazer cannon. The three held it together. Aimed it at the monster that was once Izzie. And blasted a giant beam of energy at it. The energy beam went though it.. Freezeing the creature. Once it was done. Moogle walked up to it. Taking one last look at it, frozen in time. He took his blade and with one slice, cut its head from its body. And with that the entire thing collapsed into a billion pieces.
The three took a long look at the remains. Behind them, one of those smaller craft landed. Our poured a number of medical crews followed by Crusay and Dox. All of them running toward Moogle, Tanuki and Snorlax.
"Are you all okay?" Dox asked.
"Yeah, we're fine." Moogle responded dryly.
"What in the hell was that!?" Crusay asked.
"It was Izzie. She turned." Tanuki said. Taking Moogle's words.
Everyone looked at the remains. Dox kept a stern face about him. "Lets get some samples and get out of here!" He yelled to the medical aids.
"Yeah, no sense in dwelling until we know for sure." Tanuki agreed.
"I know what I saw. It happened right in front of me." Moogle argued.
"Well I need to get back right way. I'm already getting a headache." Snorlax added.
As everyone walked back to the craft, Crusay poked a few bits with her stick. Her mind flooded with what Tanuki said. Is this what was happening to everyone? How long before she became like that. A monster.
