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  I point down at her feet. There is a large spider about to crawl up her leg. Kala screams and stomps on it. Her foot passes right through it, and then it disappears. Now I'm the one laughing. "Not so funny anymore, is it?"

  "What? You did that?" Kala asks.

  I smirk and nod yes to her.

  "You, ass!" She tries to kick me, but I dance away.

  "Hey now, language. We have a child with us. You guys need to chill it with the dirty sailor talk." Jill admonishes us.

  Kala blushes, "Oh, sorry. It's Jax's fault. I learned how humans talk from him."

  "Anyway. What were you trying to do, Jax?" Jill asks me.

  "Never mind, I'll try again later...when I am alone. I think this new skill is pretty awesome. Just think, I can cause all kinds of distractions in battle." I say.

  "We are just giving you a hard time. Any new skills we can gain will help us in the coming days. Even Kala's Find Nuts skill..." Jill says.

  For a moment I think about saying, Yeah, she can find these nuts, and then grab my balls. But, there is a kid around, and I am more mature than that...

  "Well, Kala fill up your water and grab anything you might need. I doubt we will be gone long, but better to be prepared. Doc, you need anything before we check out these ruins?" I ask.

  "No, I am ready." He says.

  "Alright, you guys be safe." I say to Jill and Aurelia.

  "Let's do this." Kala says and links her arm around Doc.

  Chapter Four: Dungeon Dive

  ~

  I pull up the trapdoor in Livia's house, the hinges creaking with rust. It plops down onto the floor with a thud. There is a ladder leading down into darkness.

  "Hmm, well looks like there is nothing down there. Let's go home." Kala says.

  I chuckle, "Kala, it will be fine."

  "Yeah, that’s easy for you to say. You can do your freaky Morph thing to change your eyes and see in the dark." Kala says looking down the dark hole.

  I pull something out of my bag and hand it to her. "Here, I made this last night when I couldn't sleep."

  Kala grins, "Did you make a flashlight?" She looks at the metal tube in her hand. It has a reflective cone on the end that holds a Radiant Core.

  "Yep. I don't know why I didn't think about using Cores as a light source before. Doc helped me Craft it. Or, I guess he really made the whole thing, I just told him what I wanted. He's better at Crafting than I am." I say.

  "Here, give me the flashlight. I'll go first, and then shine the light on the ladder for you. Deal?" I say to Kala.

  She hands me the flashlight and then nods yes to me. I hold the light in my hand and descend down the ladder. It's about 40 feet down, my feet touch a smooth floor. I look around, but it is just a dark passage. I shine the light at myself and give Kala a thumbs up.

  After everyone is down Doc says he will take the lead. We cautiously walk down the dark hall, our echoing steps bother me. I touch the smooth wall, I can't tell what material it is made out of. There are no seams, bolts or anything.

  Up ahead I see a faint red glow. If this is anything like the other Progenitor ruin we visited, that red light will be the door. Doc raises his hand for us to stop.

  "I will investigate the door. It should recognize my built-in access credentials." Doc tells us.

  "Okay, just be careful." Kala tells him.

  Doc walks closer and the door glows red and then scans him. Then a beam of red light focuses onto his head and stays there for a moment. Doc turns around, "I'm sorry, Jax. It says that I am locked out. It did tell me that this is an experimental research facility. I was also able ascertain that the facility has 32% power. I believe you may be able to open the door."

  "Experimental research? Huh, well that sounds interesting. So, I could have a lab to work in again?" I say excitedly.

  I hear Kala sigh, "Just go check it out, Mr. Progenitor."

  I step around Doc and walk up to the door. The red light scans me, A metallic voice says in my mind.

  "Access code?" I ask the door.

 

  "What will I find inside this facility?" I ask it.

 

  I sigh, "Yes, I wish to proceed."

  The door swishes open, creating a small cloud of dust. I turn around and make a startled sound. Kala is right behind me, peering over my shoulder into the room past the door. She then looks at me and winks.

  "Hi babe." She whispers and kisses my cheek.

  I smile at her and then whisper, "Alright guys, let’s go in armed and in Stealth. I have no idea what we will find in here."

  I equip my Royal Short Sword of the House of Ala-Vis, and Kala gets her bow out. Doc Morphs his arms and hands into wicked looking swords. I make eye contact with both of them and nod, indicating that I am ready. I start to move then Kala puts her hand on my shoulder. I turn around and look at her, she holds a finger up, telling me to wait. Then I get a notification that Kala wants to add me to her party, I accept.

  I walk slowly into the dark room, as soon as I step in I get a notification.

  New Quest Alert:

  Investigate the Experimental Research Facility

  You have found a Progenitor Research Facility. Discover what was being worked on in this facility.

  Quest Type: Secret

  Difficulty: Hard

  Rewards: ????

  Do you accept this quest? Y/N

  Well, I was planning on doing that anyways, but thanks quest alert. I swipe the window away. As soon as I step into the room, lights slowly illuminate the space.

  I stop walking, "It seems the room can detect us in Stealth." I whisper.

  I exit out of Stealth, and look around. It is another hallway. But, this one has thick windows on both sides. The rooms behind the windows are dark and I can't see in. This might be a security hall. I have a bad feeling about this. I turn around to tell them to stop, but before I can Doc steps past the entryway.

  The door swishes close and a long blue laser light quickly scans us. The beam stops on Kala and then there is a loud horn sound. A force field surrounds Kala. There are a series of beeps and then the metallic voice speaks into my mind.

 

  Kala looks terrified and is yelling, but I can't hear her through the force field.

  "No! Please release her. Deactivate all security." I yell.

 

  "Yes, I confirm." I say.

 

  The force field disappears and the doors on both ends of the hall swish open.

 

 

 

 

  My eyes go wide and I look at the door standing open to the next room. "Fuck my life." I say barely above a whisper. I turn to Kala, "Are you okay?".

  She looks shaken, "Yeah, that was not fun."

  "So, guys...I think I may have released some really bad things into this facility." I say.

  "What are you talking about, Jax?" Kala asks me.

  "When I deactivated the security the computer told me that a number of things were released." I tell her.

  "Can you reactivate the security?" Doc asks me.

  That’s a good idea. "Reactivate security. Place test subjects back into confinement." I say to the walls.

 

 

  "Damn. Well, guys you up for slaying some bad guys?" I ask Doc and
Kala.

  They both look at me, and then nod yes.

  Quest Update Alert:

  Investigate the Experimental & Native Research Facility

  You have found a Progenitor Research Facility. Defeat the hostile experimental life-forms in the facility.

  Test Subject 0-5-1-9: Active

  Native Species 33M-01: Active

  Mind Furies: 0/10

  Experimental Biological Weapon Q-74: Active

  Quest Type: Secret

  Difficulty: Very Hard

  Rewards: ????

  Bonus Quest:

  Learn about each life-form: 0/4

  Rewards: ????

  "Geez, well this just got a lot harder." Kala says.

  I hand Kala my last Health Orb and one Mental Orb.

  "Thanks, I'll save them for an emergency."

  I step into the next room and the lights turn on. I look around but I can't see where the light comes from. It is a soft warm light that seems to emanate from everywhere. This looks to be a central lobby of some sort. There is a control panel in the center with a seat. The panel is formed right out of the floor with the same smooth material.

  "Doc, do you know what type of material everything is made of?" I ask him.

  He walks up to the panel and places his hand on it, "I am unable to absorb it." He then uses his sword hand on the floor to scrap up a bit. But, he is not able to damage it. "Interesting. The records in my database have this facility listed as Substation 31, not as an experimental research facility."

  There are three doors in this room, beside the door we came through, left, right and forward. Above each door is a glowing red light. I walk up to the control panel. It is of a different design than the panel I found in the first progenitor ruins. I place my hand on the panel and three translucent screens appear in the air above the panel.

  "Jax, do you think you should be touching that?" Kala asks me.

  "Well, the computer told me that this mark on my right hand basically gives me administrator privileges. What’s the worst that can happen?" I say. I realize that the last part of my sentence was probably the same last words of many fools.

  Right below the screens is what looks to be floating water, the same size as the panel and screens. I reach out and place a finger into the floating water. It feels like warm maple syrup, or blood.

  A genderless voice says in my mind.

  I decide to try answering with my mind, .

 

  I reach up and place both hands into the floating substance. I feel a tingling in my third-eye and then images and words flood my mind.

 

  I answer with my mind.

  My hands dance across the floating liquid, pulling up different images on the screens. "Jesus." I say out loud.

  "Jax? What the hell is that thing?" Kala says over my shoulder.

  On the screen in front of us is a live-feed of a room in this facility. It shows a floating monster. It is built similar to a human, but its face is twisted in agony. Where its eyes should be are black voids. Its face is deathly pale, with black veins running everywhere. Its skin is wrinkled and sagging. Its hands have black nails that continuously scratch its arms, until black fluid seeps out.

  "I believe that is a Mind Fury, a precursor to The Blind." Doc says behind us, making both of us jump.

  The Mind Fury on the screen slowly turns its head towards the screen and seems to look right at us and then it opens its mouth and screams. Kala and I grab our heads in pain and fall to the floor. When my hand leaves the Feedback Pool the screens disappear and the pain in our head stops.

  "Jax? Kala? Do you require help?" Doc asks above us. I look up at him and I shiver, momentarily filled with fear.

  "Jax?" Doc asks me again, and then he offers me his hand.

  "Thanks Doc." I take his hand and stand up, and then help Kala up.

  "That thing is straight out of a nightmare." Kala is holding herself, looking around the room with obvious fear.

  "Doc, what do you know about that thing? You said it was a precursor to The Blind?" I ask him.

  "Yes, I let myself release some more memor...knowledge from what I absorbed from the Watcher."

  "Doc? Are you okay? Was that small piece of metal that you absorbed from the Watcher changing your memories?" I ask him.

  "No, I earmark each new portion of memories that I release, so I am able to keep track of my memories and...his. Thank you for your concern, but I am able to handle it. You have nothing to fear from me, Jax. As for the Mind Fury, it was created by the Progenitors as a type of crowd control weapon. Ultimately, they were a failure, they drove the people they were trying to control crazy." He tells us.

  "But, what about The Blind you mentioned? The name sounds similar to The Mute Jill told us about." Kala asks him.

  "The Caste captured a number of the Progenitor experiments and developed The Mute and The Blind from them." Doc's body ripples, like waves in the ocean. "Be grateful those are not The Blind."

  I get an update on the quest saying we have completed 1/4 of the bonus quest to learn about the monsters in this facility.

  "I'm going to try using the console again." I say.

  Kala backs away, looking scared. I place my hands into the Feedback Pool and before I can do anything the lights flicker.

 

  "Damn. Looks like we won't be getting anything else out of this console." I look around the room, it is empty except for the console. "The Progenitors really did not like clutter." Well, which door do we choose?" I ask.

  "The left door seems the safest." Kala says.

  "How would you know that?" I ask her.

  She shrugs, "I don't know. Just a feeling."

  I walk up to the door and the red light above flashes.

 

 

  "Okay, everyone in Stealth, weapons ready. The computer said there is only one life-form in this section. We can do this." I say, not really one for pep talks.

  I step forward and the door swishes open and lights illuminate the next room. It is a very large space, with many consoles. There is one closed door at the far end of the room. Along the walls are large glass holding tanks filled with a clear liquid. In each tank is a different creature. There are numerous tables within the room as well. Some of the tables have bones with long decayed hair and skin.

  My mind is in overdrive imagining the wealth of information contained in this room.

  "The room is clear. Everyone spread out and look for anything of value. But, please stay away from that door." I say.

  I go to the left and look at one of the holding tanks, there is a fetus floating in it. It looks like if a human and a lizard had a baby. I'm about to walk to the next tank when I notice a cabinet on the wall next to the tank. There is a small red light at the base, I reach out and touch it. The door to the cabinet swishes open. Inside is three shelves, on each shelf are colored orbs resting in indentations, like eggs in a carton. The top shelf are red orbs, the middle blue and the bottom are purple. I look at the red light and focus.

 

  I get Kala's attention, she walks over and looks at the contents of the cabinet. "Nice. You take half and I'll take the other half?" She says.

  "Yeah, these will come in handy." I say.

  We then walk over together to the next tank. "Is that a monkey?" Kala asks, pointing to the creature floating in the tank.

  "I guess it does kind of look like one. Although I think it may belong to the Ouranopithecus genus. It is a common mistake to interchange monkey and ape." I say, studyin
g the floating creature. I feel Kala's eyes on me and I look at her. "What?"

  "You are such a nerd." She says with a chuckle.

  "Interesting." I say, looking down at the next few tanks next to the ape-like creature.

  "What is?" Kala asks.

  "It's kind of like looking at a human evolution chart. This is amazing." I say as I walk to the next tank. "This one looks like an archaic human." Before us is what looks like a hairy human with a distinctly smaller cranium. Kala and I both gasp at the next tank.

  "A human?" Kala asks.

  "I think so, but there seems to be something... odd about him." I say.

  In the tank floats a grown adult nude male, with olive skin and dark hair.

  "His hands!" Kala says a little too loud.

  "Oh. He has six fingers on each hand. Strange, this must be a different species of human they were working on...I still can't believe that we were created by the Progenitors." I say, looking at my own hands.

  I see a red light at the base of the tank, I focus on it. This time I get a pop-up window.

  Species: 2-9-4-1A

  Creation Date: 1,100,567 BX

  Seeded: Planet Alpha Piro 3

  Population: 3.451 Billion

  Evolutionary Potential: Class 5

  Xoria Synthesis Potential: 11% Max

  Queued for Termination: 1,303,274 BX

  *WARNING! This database has not been updated in 3.1841 million years.

  "I... did they kill almost three and a half billion people?" I ask.

  "Jesus. Who were these Progenitors? They act like they are gods. Creating and destroying entire worlds. What happened to them? Where did they all go?" Kala asks with a mixture of anger and fear.

  "I wish I knew. I'm really not thrilled be a Progenitor myself right now. The more I learn about them, the more it sounds like they were monsters." I say.

  "Jax. The next one is a human as well." Kala says.

  We walk over and look at the body floating in the tank. It is a child of around eight years of age. She has five fingers on each hand and looks to be a normal human. I focus on the red light on her tank.

  Species: 3.0.0.0