IDS Yīnghuā - Log 1.0: Swift as the Wind and Quick as Lightning (風馳電掣)

"Ara-ara!" Sakamoto lit up with delight. "I just happen to have a very fine genetic bank to draw from! You'll only find the very best if you shop with me," the merchant rooster smiled, eager to sell Jun her wares.

Xian's flashbang clicked and then soared through the air in an underhand. Just as it looked like it would 'enter' the right doorway, blinding white flesh snapped closed around the device like an amoeba and pulled the device into the center doorway. There was a barely seen flash and bang somewhere up the stairwell, and a horrific, rumbling screech. Both the doors to the left and right had vanished.

"Ew!" Hoshiko shuddered.

"What the fuck!" Sakamoto recoiled, clutching her Wu.

"That. That is new, but unsurprising given the nature of Magic," The Caster remarked. "I was hoping it'd charge and attack, but this one seems to have a snare." She shrugged. "Well, shall we press forward?" As she said this, one of her companions found something under the water in the central dias, and pulled the rod up by its recessed handle. Carefully placing a heartstone in and sliding it back down, red lights came on, emanating dimly from the still remaining gemstones above. "Ah. Let there be light."

There was now only one doorway and stairwell leading to the command center.

The spearman, having finished placing his Heartstone, humored Xian's orders and came along.

"A Node on the Tree of Life's roots acts as a portal, and as such, can be compromised and attacked from the other end," The Caster explained to Wen. "The ancient scriptures described this facility as 'economy travel' with 'economy security', which apparently includes heat-beam projectors amongst its features," she added.

"It's a creature that makes illusions to trick people and attack them," Hoshiko tried to be patient with the space-rock-scientist. "They've so far made illusions of a lost child and the doorways." Hands on her hips, she stared a few daggers at Jun. "I swear Jun, if it's not space-rocks or rock-related, you practically have rocks-for-brains."

Seeing Xian pull out her stun grenade, the spearman understood and reached an arm out towards the sliding doors to move one aside for her throw. Grasping the marble-like door by the edge, it warped and wrapped over his arm, suddenly yanking him around the corner as a screeching bellow came from the room beyond

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The sound of teeth grating against chain-mail could be heard as the Aos'Si screamed.

Xian's stun grenade flew down the hallway and skipped off the ground. Entering the command center and curving around the lip of the doorway, the grenade vanished from sight as Xian dashed forward. With a tremendous flash and bang, the tigress rounded the corner. The mass of tarry black flesh and its massive maw of pale, white daggers stopped crunched down on chainmail to spit, sputter and screech.

Unseeing white, milky eyes wept blood as a pair of clawed hands pulled the maimed Aos'Si out of its mouth. As Xian brought her laser rifle to bear, a fleshy white lure on a black stalk flashed, an out of place, skewed wall appearing. She fired anyways, and moments later, a smoking, hole riddled corpse lay on the ground.

"Clear," Hoshiko followed up, noting the room was now properly empty. The Aos'Si Caster reached into the maimed spearman's pack and pulled out a glass vial. Watching with interest, the princess leaned in as the liquid was poured into his mouth, the hideous slashes across his face bubbling and mending. "Healing...potions?"

"Healing potions? How?!?!" Sakamoto leaped in. "We could merchandise this with advertisements everywhere! We'll make a fortune!" she realized.

To her credit, the Caster looked horrifically confused.

The creature's enlarged, toothy head stared up with pale, milky eyes that seemed to not see as Xian delivered another blow to its tough head, just to be sure. Like an angler fish that had grown long, gangly arms and claws for catching maiming and mauling, the rest of its fish-like body did not look like it was built for speed - rather, it was more like a merman meant to wait and pounce. Now however, their sensors gave them the faint sensation of cooked and burnt fish.

"Let's stay focused everyone!" Hoshiko raised her voice. "No hurt feelings, our first priority is the portal shutdown thing!" Hoshiko loudly proclaimed. Sakamoto visibly made to look like she murmured something to disapprove, but at least kept her mouth shut and politely bowed. Seeing them somewhat fall into line, Hoshiko reached out with her free hand and pushed the grumpy bull's weapon away from the Aos'Si. "And - " Hoshiko smiled, " - given we're dealing with horrific interplanetary forces and strange creatures from the deep, we should be nice and polite to each other!" she then winked, cranking up the saccharine payload.

"Healing potions are always in every person's self-care bag, so I would imagine they are available for negotiation," The Caster brushed herself off, occasionally slowing her speech as she picked the best words she could to convey the concepts. Standardization of first aid kits was not easy to communicate. Turning to the stone console, it's face gilded with gold scripture and gemstones, she began to work, her hand placed on the cold surface. "I had my suspicions, but it would appear that the horned man has consumed others?" The console's central, raised face spun and sunk, revealing an indentation for another heartstone. This time, the one that she carried, larger than the rest. "The belief that they vie for control - silence that thought immediately. Replace it with the belief that you are the one in control and that greatness is your destiny."

The other Aos'Si that they could see from within the command center had finished their work below and stood at the ready, and with the placing of this final heartstone, the facility seemed to properly come to life. Dormant crystals lit up, the emergency red lighting fading away to be replaced with the famliar glow of daylight. But more importantly, several displays appeared across the stone face like holograms. Fingers dancing across the lighted stone, the 'keys' vibrating to her touch, The Caster set something into motion.

"Ara! There's a faint rumble in the stone," Sakamoto remarked, shuffling closer to her Chongwu for safety. Needless to say, meters of solid stone shouldn't rumble, and in moments, water began rushing into the portal room below as the origin point floated across the air before reaching the center. The Aos'Si below were struggling to stand against the tide, but soon enough, even that ceased, the torrent of seawater tapered down as island scenery came into view on the bubble of warped space. "Maybe a beachside resort after this is in order," she mused with delight. "At least, once when we figure out if those red lights in the water are good or bad indicators," the rooster merchant pointed.

Sure enough, down below in the portal room, three glowing red points of light could be seen in the dark, murky water. Almost waist deep now, one of the Aos'Si spearmen waded over and made to prod at it with the sharpened point. A jet of water splashed up, and in an instant, his two halves fell apart! A trio of watery colums rose, the red lights casting their baleful glare on the remaining three. Spears at the ready, bolts of silver-blue light leaped out at the aqueus creatures, bursts of steam erupting from where they struck the watery bodies.

"Hurry! You have to help them fight, or we're going to end up trapped here!" The Caster shouted.

Thanks to the hologram systems built into her helmet's exterior, the Aos'Si Caster could see the expression on Hoshiko's face that said something like, 'I'm with stupid -->' in regards to Jun. At least, until she turned her attention to the magical assembly that was being worked on. Soon enough, the 'Node' itself could be seen, and the expression on the Tiger Princess's face grew inscrutable with melancholy. The serene pouring of water was pierced by violence however, and in an instant, the situation went from zero to one-hundred. Just as the Caster was about to lash at Wen with her tongue, something struck him first.

"Quiet Wen! You're no better off!" Hoshiko suddenly snapped with anger. Eyes widening with surprise, both the Caster and Hoshiko at herself, the latter grimaced and gritted her teeth, rushing down the stairs with the others. Hearing Jun's confusion, Sakamoto shouted,

"Shoot the mad water with the angry red eye!" the Rooster turned to point at the impossible scene. Over a story tall each, the three tall pillars of water sprayed cutting jets of water at the Aos'Si, while bolts of bright energy flashed back. Blasts of steam and boiling water spurted from the towering bodies like wounds. Though the Daqin started peppering the raging waters with their own weapons, it seemed to have little effect until Wen's flash-bang went off. The three entities stopped dodging and juking, their watery skins jittering like they had been put under an ultrasonic cleaner.

An explosion blasted apart one of the three as Hoshiko stood, her underbarrel grenade launcher smoking from the shot. The remaining pair of watery masses dived. As the Node disgorged water, the salty brine rose up to their hips. Silence reigned again, and the Daqinren knew that they had all seen this movie before. Hoshiko was yanked underwater and out of view, only to reemerge inside one of the creatures. Its body now more spherical, its diameter visibly enlarged and snapped back down as it tried to crush the princess!

Worse, the second one reemerged, now moving faster like a dolphin. Leaping in and out of the salty churn, it took pot-shots at the Daqin, knocking over Wen and winging Xian enough to rattle her balance. Though they were shaken, their suits held! But imperial armor wasn't going to protect Hoshiko from being hydraulically crushed!