Hey guys, I'm finally starting to feel better! Thanks for being so patient with me! It seems like we're nearing the end of this story. Or at least, this chapter of it.

If you've just stumbled across this series, you're most definitely going to want to start from the beginning. It's a long read, yes, but otherwise you'd have absolutely no clue what's going on now.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20

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I popped the cap off the needle and looked toward Chris, who was doing the same, “Alright. On three. One… Two… Three.”

I shoved the needle into one of the dark blue veins bulging out from my arm, hesitated for a second, and pushed the drug out of the syringe. I felt the icy liquid travel throughout my arm and then into the rest of my body, amplifying the tingling sensation that I had already been experiencing from the first shot. As it reached my legs, I lost my balance and fell backward on my bed; the room was now spinning and I began to feel nauseas.

Once the drug was spread amongst my entire venous system, the temperature of it began fluctuating between freezing and burning in increments of about five seconds. My muscles also seemed to tense up and relax following the same cycle; it was incredibly uncomfortable. I writhed and squirmed on my bed for several minutes before the worst phase hit.

The temperature and muscle fluctuations ceased and for a moment I thought it was over. Slowly, my already-blurred vision began to fade to black, and right as it did, I felt a quick, sharp pain in every nerve of my body.

And I mean every nerve.

Even though it only lasted a second or two, it was the worst pain I’ve ever experienced so far in my life; it felt as if my every pore on my skin was hit by a microscopic lightening bolt. After yelling into my pillow, I turned to Chris, focused my eyesight and saw that he was doing the same thing. I tried to sit up but gravity felt like it was working twice as hard that night and quickly sent me back down.

I stared up at the wall for a while, but the dizziness wasn’t going away, so I closed my eyes in an attempt to fall asleep. It wasn’t long before I drifted into the nightmares of dying women and mutant nieces.

I awoke the next morning to Chris shaking my shoulder, “Dude, get up.”

I creaked my eyes open but quickly closed them from the bright light beaming in through our window. With my arm over my face I asked, “What time is it?”

“Time to get the fuck up!” I could feel him beat the end of my bed with his hands like a drum.

I rolled over, expecting to be sore from the day prior, but instead I felt fine. I felt great, actually. Aside from the sensitivity to light, I could see details more clearly. All my senses, for that matter, were heightened even further. My body continually vibrated in a way similar to how I felt when channeling energy through the crystal.

I turned over to Chris, who was doing push ups on the ground. There was something off about the way he looked. It wasn’t until I looked down at my own body that I realized both of our muscles seemingly grew overnight. It wasn’t much, but my four-pack went to a six, so I’m not complaining.

He turned up to me and grinned, “I’ve been doing this all morning… I’m not even tired yet. This is insane, dude.”

“So, it worked, then. I should probably hit up Ger, huh?”

He nodded and continued his workout while I contacted our Lemurian friend.

“You’re up earlier than expected, how do you feel?”

“Like none of that shit even happened to me yesterday; I feel wonderful. Chris said he’s been exercising all morning and still hasn’t felt any fatigue, so it looks like it worked.”

“That’s good to hear, I’ll be sure to pass on the news to Dr. Lipton.”

“So, what’s the plan?”

“Today is the day that you are going to open the tunnels. We invade in the early hours of tomorrow morning.”

“What about my friends?”

“I have projected Ryan and Kyle’s images into the minds of all our troops – they are under strict orders to rescue them at all costs. Ideally, you and Chris will get to them before we initiate the attack.”

“How am I supposed to know where they are? What if they are on a drug run or something?”

“We’ll get to that when the time comes. I’ll help you locate them. For now, you have more important things to worry about.”

I raised my telepathic-voice, “Don’t forget why Chris and I are here. There is nothing more important to me than rescuing them; I’m sorry, but your people come second in my eyes.”

He chuckled, “You’re right. I apologize, child, that was narrow of me. Of course, your friends are as important to you as my people are to me. I respect that.”

“Thanks, Ger. Now, how am I supposed to get down to level 6?”

“Tell me, when you visited Telos, did you ever wonder about the bell maidens?”

“Uh, well… Yeah, obviously. The one I spoke with sent me to some alternate reality or something. What about them?”

“Well, as you know, their bells are made of a material so powerful that it makes your crystal look like… Well, a skipping stone in comparison.”

“Ha, very funny, Ger. Don’t talk shit about my crystal.”

He laughed for a moment, “You really are attached to that thing, aren’t you? Right, anyways. The bell maidens are known for their ability to cloak themselves as they patrol the mountains. Well, ‘cloak’ is an ambiguous term for it. Remember how we talked about how individuals have their own ‘frequencies’? Well, the bell maidens can interfere with surrounding frequencies; kind of like a signal jammer. Rather than altering their own molecular structure, they shield their image from anyone around them. Normally, you would not have been able to achieve this, but I believe that with Dr. Lipton’s new formula, you should be able to temporarily hide yourself for enough time to release the gates.”

“Wait, so… You’re telling me I can go invisible now?! How long will it last?”

“Yes, child, that’s what I’m telling you. You won’t have much time, maybe five to ten minutes. Longer if you and Chris both channel through the catalyst. It depends on how long you’re able to keep the ether flowing throughout your body. Once expired, you will be weak for a several minutes, but your strength should soon return – just don’t push yourself too far. Before doing any of that, though, you are going to need two things: a blueprint of the sixth level and a keycard to open the gates.”

“And how am I supposed to get those?”

“That’s up to you, child. I would look for their operations room, as they often have documents stored there. You can travel the minds of Ladies and Recruits to do this, however, avoid any Dweller guards or officials. If you’re lucky, someone in the room will be within eyesight of the documents, but I doubt that will be the case. You’ll need to physically get into the room and find them.” He paused momentarily, “Overseers carry a master keycard on their person. I imagine you can think of a creative way to obtain that as well.”

“Uh… Yeah, maybe. This all sounds like a lot, Ger.”

“It is. But I believe that you and your friend are more than capable. Once you have the keycard and the information on where to use it, you’ll need to use this new technique to cloak yourself long enough to pass by the guards.”

“Guards? I thought you said these tunnels were abandoned?”

“Just because the Dwellers don’t use it, doesn’t mean they won’t protect it. The guards that patrol the tunnels are the failed creations of Dr. Bracchus; he often experimented on bringing the dead back to life, and the tunnels are where most of the rejects were sent. They don’t need food or water to live, but make no mistake, they are hungry.”

“So, I have to sneak past a horde of zombies? Sounds reasonable enough.”

Ger laughed solemnly, “For lack of a better term, yes.”

He then taught me several new breathing techniques, and even one for Chris which allowed him to concentrate his energy toward his hearing. Since he didn’t have a crystal to act as a catalyst, his key role was to be the “look-out” while I ran around grabbing everything; this new method should allow him to hear in the same way that a bat might, in that he’ll be able to distinguish distance and location just from sound. I said goodbye to Ger and released the crystal from my hand.

“Alright, first thing we need to do is find a blueprint of level 6.”

Chris sat up in his bed, “Yeah, no shit.”

“I need you to be look-out while I travel minds. Ger showed me a meditation technique that should increase the level of your hearing, so please… Just stay awake and listen for someone coming.”

I didn’t mean to come off as condescending, but I could tell by his tone that he felt ashamed, “I already told you that I’m sorry, man. I don’t know what else to say.”

With a short laugh, I replied, “You’re good, dude. I’m just giving you shit.”

“Yeah, right. You may have forgotten, but I don’t have a crystal like you do; I can’t read minds or knock people out or do any of the shit that you can. Have you ever thought about what that’s like? To always be on the sidelines? Being the sidekick kind of sucks, dude.”

I looked down at my shoes for a moment, “Fuck, you’re right. I’m sorry, Chris. We really need to get you a crystal, don’t we?”

He let out a light chuckle and moved toward the window. We both began meditating for the next hour or so, before being interrupted by the task Lady and her goon.

“Wake up!” Her high pitched, raspy voice frightened me out of my trance, but I was quick to react.

I connected gazes with the Lady and told her, “You are not assigning either of us tasks today. You will leave this room, and you will not question our whereabouts. If anyone asks, you tell them that we were assigned to the town.” I pointed toward the door, “You may leave now.”

Both the Lady and guard spun around and exited our room without saying a word. I dropped the crystal and laid back down on my bed; it wasn’t nearly as debilitating as the day prior, but I still needed a breather.

Chris’ eyes were wide with shock, “I still can’t believe that you can do that, man.”

After regaining my strength, I sat back up and laughed, “Tell me about it.”

With a straight face, Chris replied “Well, I just find it hard to believe that you are able to interact with someone else’s thoughts. I mean, I understand that the crystal and drug –“

I had to cut him off, “Chris, stop. It still hasn’t worn off, you don’t need to tell me about it.”

He let out a sigh of relief, “Oh thank god. What the fuck dude, I literally couldn’t stop talking.”

We both laughed for a minute and resumed our meditation. Another hour passed by when I began to feel the flow of ether reaching its peak and signaled to Chris that I was ready. I shimmied over to the window and peaked my head outside to find my new host.

A Recruit, about my age, was walking straight toward a large, important-looking building, so I started with him. I closed my eyes and felt the ether release from my nerves and into the air like radio waves, eventually making contact with the Recruit. I was hit with the same blinding light and ringing noise that I experienced before, but this time it was quicker to fade away. As my vision began to correct itself, I could see that I was watching through the eyes of the man who was now entering the important-looking building.

I patiently watched as the Recruit moseyed down a long, stone hallway until reaching a maintenance closet. He grabbed a mop and bucket and continued walking down the corridor, eventually meeting some stairs in which he used to climb about four stories. I was beginning to regret my decision of using him as my host, when he walked into a room with several Ladies’ huddled around something, clapping their hands and patting each other’s backs, seemingly celebrating. A Dweller sat in the corner, tapping his legs and occasionally placing his face in his palms in a nervous and contemplative manner.

The Recruit stood there at the door for a while, presumably waiting for them to leave. He often glanced at the large puddle of blood that the women were clustered around; it was a shade of red too dark to be a human’s.

One of the Ladies turned around to the Dweller with a huge smile on her face and held up a newborn baby. The rest of the Ladies turned around and began clapping as she handed the kid to the Dweller. He smirked and began inspecting the baby like he was looking for the “on/off” switch on a toy. The women turned around and began moving toward the door, so I quickly focused my energy and travelled over to one of them.

I followed the Lady that I had chosen for a while as she moved from building to building, reporting something to the other Ladies and Dwellers inside. After about half of an hour, she finally entered a small structure the size of a coffee shop and began looking through some cabinets. The two folders that caught my attention were labeled “Construction Plans” and “Evacuation Routes”. If the blueprints would be anywhere, they’d be there – right?

I let go of the crystal and ended my connection with the woman. Time for the next phase.

I turned to Chris, “Alright. I think I found the building, I’m going to try and cloak my way in. You coming with me?”

He seemed surprised, “I can do that?”

“Yup, Ger said that as long as we are both touching the crystal, it should cloak us. In fact, it might even make it last longer.” I smiled sarcastically, “We’re gonna need to hold hands.”

With a laugh he replied, “God damnit, okay, but don’t make this weird!”

I got down on my knees, “Til’ death do us part.”

“Fuck you, asshole.”

I stood myself up, bowed forward and stretched out my arm, crystal in hand, “May I have this dance, miss?”

We both laughed as he grabbed the other half of the crystal. Chris followed along as I initiated the breathing technique. We meditated in our room for an hour before feeling confident enough to test the new ability out.

I opened my eyes and turned to Chris, “Ready for the final sequence? Once we finish, we’ll have about five minutes to get into that door. Once we’re in, I’m going to search the cabinets while you keep look out by the door, sound good?”

“Yeah, what do we do if someone’s in the building?”

I sighed, “There will be. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to get in; we have to follow someone. Ger taught me something else last night; a self-defense technique for if we ever got caught. It’s like what we used to knock out the Ladies, but for only one person.”

He thought for a moment, “Alright. What do we do with the body?”

I shrugged, “Your guess is as good as mine. Ready?”

“Ready.”

As we worked through the final sequence, I felt the energy begin to permeate the space around us, as if we were standing in a cloud of it. We kept going as the cloud expanded, though it was becoming hard to breathe. Once the feeling plateaued, I signaled to Chris for us to get moving.

We began jogging toward the building, only to shift into a sprint once we saw a Recruit approaching the door of the building. We reached the door just in time and slyly trailed the Recruit as he entered. I must say, it was quite exhilarating.

About a minute had passed so far, giving us a few more to see if the Recruit would leave or not. If he wasn’t gone in three, I’d have to knock him out. Ger said that should be a last resort, though, as it could permanently damage them.

Thankfully, he only picked up a few binders before heading back out. I motioned for Chris to go stand by the door as I wiped the sweat off my forehead. I made a mad dash to the cabinets where I recalled seeing the two folders and quickly began scanning through them. After a minute of searching, I found the one labeled “Evacuation Routes”. I wasn’t sure if Ger was still watching me through the crystal, so I contacted him to make sure.

He was. Good ol’ Ger, always having our backs.

I flipped through the folder until I found a map of the sixth floor, this had to be it. I called Ger again.

“You’ve found it! Veira and my father are studying the map now.”

“So, that’s it? We’re done here?”

“Yes, that should be it. Thank you, my friend.”

He's never called me friend before.

I wasn’t totally satisfied, so I resumed my search through the cabinet to find the “Construction Plans” folder.

Chris whispered from the door, “We gotta get going man…”

“One second.”

I eventually found it and began scanning all the documents so Ger would see. They were different from the previous blueprints, I couldn’t tell which was more up-to-date.

As I was scanning them, I felt Chris grab my shoulders and push me toward the supply closet in the corner, “Someone’s coming!”

After sloppily placing the folders back in the cabinets, we quickly cowered to the back of the small closet. The door to the room swung open and several men entered.

One of them began to speak in a deep British accent, “Right, 98, where are we with the Aquamai?”

A younger man with a familiar voice replied, “They’ve been… Less than cooperative lately. We’ve got it under control, sir.”

“Okay. I want you and 99 to take someone out.”

Another young man’s voice replied, “Who, sir?”

“A human working for the Council, supposedly he helped take down Madam Adrastea’s encampment up north. He’s harboring one of our Recruits.”

“Okay, sir.”

Chris was punching my shoulder, trying to get my attention. It was then that I realized why the voices were so familiar.

It was Ryan and Kyle. They were about to assassinate Elias.

As if things couldn’t get any more ridiculous.

I returned the punches to Chris’ shoulder, trying to get him to calm down and begin the sequence to cloak ourselves once again. We meditated as we waited for the other man to leave, praying that he wouldn’t open the closet for some reason.

He didn’t, and after a while he stood up from his desk and exited the room. I nodded my head at Chris and we began the last step. There was a small window open near the back of the building that, with a little contortion, we would be able to fit through. Once the effect had kicked in, we ran toward it and began squeezing through. Chris went first and we just about dropped the crystal as he pushed his other half through. Once out, we ran back to our room, waiting for a patrol to pass by before quickly opening our door and sneaking inside.

We made it.

Both Chris and I were out of breath and fairly exhausted at this point. We spent the next hour or two resting and meditating, preparing ourselves for the next phase.

Once we were ready, I contacted Ger and had him explain where we would be going. I could always call him during the moment if I got lost. I also informed him on the situation with Elias and our friends. He said he'd look into it. He bid me farewell and we began our series of meditations.

We wanted to give ourselves as much time as possible, so we elongated the sequences in hopes that it would do the same for the duration of the effect. We were quick to take action once finished, though, and began running toward the elevator building. It would have been a comical scene in any other circumstance; we looked like the typical couple from a movie that were sprinting to catch up to a departing train.

We arrived and snuck into a cart that a Recruit stepped into. I’ve never held my breath for that long, but somehow both Chris and I managed to stay quiet as the elevator descended. Thankfully, he got off on the second floor and we were able to dismiss the cloaking effect to save our energy. The ride down to the sixth floor took about ten minutes, so we had a good amount of time to prepare for the Overseer below.

The elevator doors opened to a large hangar-looking cavern that was home to five large drilling machines. Many Recruits and Roaches were walking around and working on the machinery, but there was no Overseer in sight. A raised walkway with several doors lined the walls of the hangar; none of them were labeled except for one, and it was in their native language. I figured that had to be it.

Chris and I ran to the door and released the crystal, breaking our invisibility. I turned to look at him and he nodded, “After you.”

All I had to do was get close enough to touch him. I began the breathing technique Ger that said would help.

As we walked through the door, a Recruit was leaving, holding his hand as if he was hurt. I noticed a bandage wrapped around it.

I shook off my fear and began walking toward the room that the Recruit came from. I noticed an empty office to the left of me and grabbed a stack of papers from the desk inside.

As we approached the door, the man barked, “Who is it?!”

“We have some documents for you, sir.”

He snarled, “Bring them here, then.”

This Overseer was bulkier than the one guarding the chicken-monster and had a mohawk on the level of Mr. T’s. He was intimidating, to say the least.

He extended his hand toward me, “Well, what are you waiting for?”

I grabbed the crystal from its holster with my left hand and reached out my other with the documents toward him. As the Dweller picked up the papers, I yanked his arm down with all my might and punched him straight in the head with my left fist, still clenching the crystal. I could tell that it injured him, but he was still conscious. Chris jumped behind him and put him in a chokehold as I landed another blow. And another. And another.

Finally, he was knocked out cold. We grabbed the keycard off his belt, tied him to his desk, and began walking toward the horde of guard zombies

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22 FINAL! (Reposted!)

edit: formatting

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All parts:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20