Legends of the Halcyon Era

Episode 67 - The Avion Adventure: Ghostly Apparitions and Mysterious Secrets

---

Previously, in Legends of the Halcyon Era...

After arriving on Avion, Commander Black Draco offered those suffering from memory loss access to a special treatment that could restore what they'd lost. While Celeste would ultimately turn down the process and had to work to mend things between the Commander and Nytetrayn, Steel went through with it, only to discover that he'd previously died.

Since then, Nytetrayn has been hanging out with Black Draco to better understand his heritage and his new skills, while Celeste would visit a museum and discover an exhibit that told her all about the woman she'd been confused for previously – Celeste McTreggor – which inspired her to want to contribute more to the group.

During this time, Steel had been training intensely with the likes of the Dragon Knight, SunFlame, and another Avion warrior, Katrina, to build up his nanite healing factor with but one thing on his mind: Revenge. After nearly driving Janine away for good, he finally realized his folly.

Now, Black Steel, SunFlame, Adam Powers, and Katrina are off to investigate a ruin discovered outside of the city.

Outside of Avion City, a pair of beams of light streak across the sky; one tinged a gold color, the other red. They touch down outside of a stone structure in a clearing surrounded by wooded area for miles. While the beams only numbered two, the figures which form from them are double that. As energy appears to take form, there are two humanlike figures, and two Reploids: a golden anthropomorphic dragon and a humanoid Phoeline.

"Guess this is the place," said SunFlame, the gold Mechadrake.

"Indeed," replied Adam Powers, the human with purple hair, shades, and a black leather jacket with flame deco.

"So, what do you guys do here?"

"Shoot things, mostly," replied Black Steel, the other human, who was adorned in black armor that had seen better days. "These places tend to have lots of things that want to shoot you first."

"We basically just head in, explore, kill anything that needs it, and if we're lucky, bring back something useful," Adam elaborated.

"Nice. I like it," SunFlame responded. "Maybe this can be my new hobby..."

"It's a good one to have. Got lots of 'em back on Terra, too," Steel told him with a pointed look.

The Phoeline, Katrina, had been looking the ruin entrance over while the others talked. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go see what we can find, shall we?" she said.

"Sounds good to me," SunFlame said. "We ain't shootin' anything out here."

Steel smiled, knowing he would miss SunFlame and his attitude when they got back to Terra.

Adam nodded and started walking towards the entrance, followed by the others. Inside, Adam looked around, with Katrina following his lead, though she seemed a little more tense.

As SunFlame looked around, he asked "So, Asshat, what makes for good finds?"

Not even blinking, Steel replied "Well, Bitch Breakfast, on my world, you would look for these really big crystals called 'refractors'. But here? I'm not sure, exactly. Whatever it is will likely be exceedingly large and noticeable, so don't worry."

"Sounds good, "Crumb-bum."

"...Dick."

"Cheap."

"Okay, that was weak. But 'D' is a hard one."

"Oh, it is not, Dustmop," SunFlame said, as he held up a few strands of Steel's hair.

"Get your cold-ass claws outta my hair, ya Elephant humper."

"Fart-breath."

As they continued along, the passageways seemed to get a bit darker. Adam seemed largely unfazed.

"Girdle-wearing Girlie-girl."

"...watch it," Katrina warned.

SunFlame and Steel chuckled, the latter adding a meek "sorry".

"Horse's ass."

"Ignorant Girly-girl."

Katrina stopped and shot a glare at Steel, who quickly pointed at SunFlame and said "It was him!"

"What I love," SunFlame said, "is that in trying to zing me, you wind up getting – HEY!"

Katrina didn't look for long, as she was more concerned with making out things in the dark they might need to avoid – something her Phoeline vision was particularly well-suited for.

"Jagoff," SunFlame continued.

Eventually, the group came to a staircase that seemed to be carved into the ground itself, spiraling downward into further darkness.

"Better be careful," Adam warned the others, as he activated the night vision setting on his sunglasses. SunFlame's own eyes took on a fuller red glow as his pupils disappeared behind his own vision enhancements, while Steel clicked a flashlight to his right shoulder pauldron.

"Nice," SunFlame said.

"Perhaps we'll find your ancestors here, SunFlame. Maybe you're royalty. 'King Assmonkey' has a nice ring to it, no?"

"We aren't originally from this planet, Steel," Katrina said.

"Uh, it was a joke."

"Don't mind her, Lord Microid's Nad," SunFlame told Steel, before chuckling and adding "triple word score."

"Oh, right. That dumb insult game... again. Doesn't that ever get old, SunFlame?"

"Nah, not really. You can really broaden your vocabulary, if you hang with the right people."

Katrina sighed as she shook her head and looked back over at Adam, who seemed to largely be ignoring the rest of them.

"But of course, ya' Opium Pissing Quart of Rank Shit," Steel said. "Five in a row."

SunFlame paused for a moment to count. "Damn."

"I wonder if there's still anything down here," Katrina said. Adam didn't answer, but simply continued on and looked around as they descended.

"Not that you'd know, you Totally Unbelievable Vampire-Wanking... crap. Xylophone?"

"That was weak, even for you," Katrina said.

"Yeah, well, 'X' is a toughie," SunFlame said, with a hint of indignation.

Adam stopped to take a closer look at some of the carvings. They seemed completely alien in origin, and looked like they could take a lifetime to decipher. Katrina made a note of them as well, thinking to refer some of the people in Arkopolis here to look into them. After a quick look around by Adam, they continued on.

"Y'know, I can't believe I'm actually doing this again," SunFlame said. "After those damned kangaroos, I swore I'd never set foot in one of these places again. But the lack of leg-humping here does make me think it might not be as bad as I thought. Just more... boring."

"Again?" asked Katrina. "Oh yeah, you were on the exploration cre– wait, what?"

"Yeah, MoonRazor and I decided to give it a shot back on Earth. Er, Terra. Whatever. We wanted to earn a little of the local currency so we could give Serenity somethin' to do. Crazy stuff, I gotta say."

"If it helps, most ruins on Terra have Reaverbots who'll just try to kill you, rather than hump your leg and then kill you," Adam said. Then, with a wicked grin, he added "You should really ask Jan about that place sometime. I'm sure you'd love her response."

Katrina, unsure of how to respond, decided to just make a mental note to ask Jan about it later, and continued following Adam.

"It might've already come up. Didn't she start screaming last time?" SunFlame asked, thinking back.

"Can't say I remember," Adam said. "That sounds rather low-key for her, though."

Katrina started to rethink her mental note.

"Y'know, I almost had that place repressed, 'til this place kicked in the memory again." He muttered "Those things were sick..."

"All this Terra talk reminds me, I think the Commander is looking to have a public broadcast soon to address our trip."

"Oh, fantastic," Adam said with a bit of sarcasm. "Does he want us to appear as well?"

SunFlame shrugged. "Dunno. Maybe if you wanted to."

"I don't."

"Well, I don't think he's much interested in parading you guys around, or anything like that."

"Good. I'd rather not be swarmed whenever I go outside, thanks."

"Hey," SunFlame said, as he looked up above them. "Is it me, or is that weird light sort of following us?"

"Hm?" Adam said, as he cast his eyes where SunFlame was looking. As it happened, the light did seem to actually be following the group, as far above them was now darker than it had been when they'd been there, much like it was below them. "I don't know, but I'm not complaining."

"Huh," SunFlame said. "Oh well."

It wasn't much longer before the group reached the bottom. Dim lights flickered awake as Adam stepped on the floor. The lights grew stronger as the others followed. Katrina tensed as she quickly looked around the chamber, preparing herself in case anything was lying in wait.

"What kind of ruin has interior lighting?" SunFlame asked.

"You'd be surprised at what you'll find in a ruin," Adam said. "The kangaroos, for example. Or that stupid hand."

"Hand?" SunFlame asked.

"There was this one ruin we visited with a hand that could basically warp in and out, grabbing people and dropping them elsewhere. It seemed to really like me, for some reason. Probably East's doing."

As Katrina stared with widened eyes at this revelation, SunFlame just commented "Freaky."

The chamber they found themselves in was very wide and cylindrical, with more markings on the walls. Steel attempted to identify them, even though he knew full well that there was no chance of that happening, while Adam looked closer to compare them to the similar ones he had found earlier.

As they looked around more, they found that one side of the chamber was home to a stone doorway. A shut stone doorway, at that.

After a moment's consideration, Adam shrugged and went for the door, while Steel ran his hand along the markings to get a feel for their texture, and Katrina and SunFlame kept an eye out for any threats that might be lurking in the shadows.

"Something doesn't feel right," SunFlame said, as he looked around.

"This place is giving me the creeps," Katrina added.

As Adam examined the door in hopes of finding a way to open it, SunFlame's foot accidentally kicked something that rolled across the ground with a glass-like clink. Steel diverted his attention from the markings to get a closer look at what SunFlame had kicked, and picked it up to reveal it appeared to be... a beaker?

"What in the...?" Katrina began, as the door Adam had been working on seemed to make a beeping sound before rising into the wall with a hiss.

Adam glanced back at the others before looking into the next room and entering the dimly-lit chamber. He put his hand to his shades, activating the infrared scanner within, then looked around for possible threats, only to find none were evident.

Satisfied, he entered the room under the assumption that the lights would switch on as he moved into the room, while Katrina kept an eye on him. Indeed, the light flicked on as soon as he entered. The chamber was tall and dusty inside, and there seemed to be a few other instruments lying around: Beakers, bunsen burners, and other things you would expect to find in a laboratory, albeit mostly broken, sitting atop "tables" that were in reality nothing more than raised stone blocks and platforms.

Steel set the empty beaker down, as he, SunFlame, and Katrina followed Adam into the adjoining room.

As Adam studied the instruments, he and the others noticed that they seemed to be covered in a goop of some kind. Steel felt his stomach tighten.

"Good, this is not," he said.

As Adam tried to salvage any un-gooped tools he could find to put in a holding area of his backpack, he noticed one of the broken beakers had markings that looked like they read "B.E." and what looked like part of an "N" where it had been shattered. Katrina wandered around, looking at the walls and ceiling. Steel activated proximity sensors, and scanned for anything that had a heat signature or motion pattern.

Suddenly, the door they'd entered through slammed shut. Then something echoed throughout the chamber: An odd sound, sort of like "hr-hr-hr-hr-hr..."

"What was that?" SunFlame asked, as he broke out his axe.

"I don't think I want to know," Katrina replied.

Steel readied his cannon as his eyes darted about, looking for any signs of movement, while Adam looked up at the sound and activated his own scanning equipment while placing his hand up at the hilt of his sword, looking about the room for any other doorways, only to find none.

Out of the walls seeped more of the same kind of ooze that they had seen on the lab equipment. After forming into the shape of a hand, it then reached out to smack at the group.

"Duck and cover!" SunFlame shouted.

Steel leapt back, just out of range of the swipe, while Adam rolled to the side and drew his sword as it made a sickening splat sound on the floor. Katrina had darted back and with her hands outstretched, let loose a stream of fire at the gooey appendage.

SunFlame had rolled out of the way as well, coming up swinging for the arm with his axe. It lopped off a large chunk of the hand, which then sank into the cracks of the brick floor.

Meanwhile, the rest of the arm slurped its way back into the wall. Moments later, more of the slime oozed out of the wall, forming a large face, which promptly let loose a blast of blue fire out into the open area of the chamber.

Steel took aim with his Buster as SunFlame converted his axe into its large hand cannon mode, while Adam and Katrina took to the air to avoid its fiery attack. They returned fire with their respective weapons, aiming for the entity's mouth. This resulted in the face emitting a loud sound that could have been taken as either a growl or a groan – or perhaps both – before it sunk back into the wall.

"Dammit," Steel said. "Unless it has some core, nothing we do is going to do any real damage."

"No kidding," SunFlame replied.

Steel rushed to the broken instruments scattered across the makeshift tables, and began searching through them for something that looked even remotely like a potential weapon against the creature, like maybe some sort of chemicals. Unfortunately, the lab was barren of any other such thing.

As he searched, the walls around them began to see the ooze reappear over them, and it started to close in on the group.

"Crap," SunFlame said, backing away from the approaching slime. "Things are getting a bit tight in here!"

"Maybe the instruments are the core," Katrina suggested, as she and Adam similarly put as much distance between themselves and the walls of ooze as possible. Steel blasted at the ones on the tables, while Adam removed the ones he'd pocketed away and tossed them into the air, where Katrina incinerated them with a burst of flame.

"None of these do anything," Steel said, wincing in frustration.

SunFlame converted his axe to cannon mode, and blasted away at the ooze, but to no avail. "C'mon, think! What works good against liquids? Man, wish my brother was here right about now."

"Heat!" Steel exclaimed. "Any of you got a flame thrower?"

Katrina gave Steel a look.

"Oh... right," he said sheepishly.

"Tried it before, let's see if second time's the charm!" she said, as she put her hands together and let out another stream of flame at the gooey mass. While a portion of it bubbled up and popped with the surrounding ooze avoiding the area she blasted, it did little to stem the oncoming tide.

"I've got some plasma grenades," Adam offered.

"Hey, hold on, slick. You use those, we're gone, too!"

"Then this'll have to do," Steel said, as he pulled a compartment out of his upper-right armor plating. Three small balls popped out into his hand, and he clicked two buttons on the tops and hurled the first into the slime at the far end of the chamber.

"What're those?" SunFlame asked.

"Napalm," Steel told him, as he set the second sphere and hurled it to his right, before following it with the third to his left.

The ooze ceased before the napalm, while the rest continued to move in. SunFlame gave his sonic attack a shot, which managed to impede its progress a little, but not terribly much. Adam and Katrina continued blasting away at the ooze as best as they could.

"Man, wish we had some electricity or something, then we could fry this guy," SunFlame said.

Steel paused. "We do."

"Say again?"

Steel removed his upper-body plating, and took off the chest and upper-arm pieces. After opening a panel on the back, he began to mess with a couple of loose wires that looked like they'd been tampered with many times before, and a warning light started to flash red.

"What are you doin' over there?!" SunFlame asked, as he and the others continued trying to keep the beast at bay with a barrage of blasts.

"This suit is powered by small batteries that enhance motions with electronic impulses. I'm going to overload the sensors."

By this point, the ooze had stopped closing in around them, trapping them within its slimy walls. The face from before reappeared above them, and began its descent down towards the group. Katrina, Adam, and SunFlame turned their attention towards it and kept up their attacks, hoping to at least slow it down, if nothing else.

Steel put two wires together that were most certainly not meant to touch, and after much sparking, Steel's hair was standing on end even more than usual.

After letting out a puff of smoke and regaining his bearings, Steel hurled the armor pieces that were now sparking and pulsing with a raging electrical current into the nearest segment of slime.

The suit impacted the slime, and sank partway in before the electricity began to course throughout the mass of slime surrounding them, eventually reaching the head and electrocuting the entire beast. After a few moments of this, accompanied by the others' attacks adding further pressure, the whole thing exploded into liquid, not holding its shape like before.

Now, not only was everything in the chamber covered in gunk, but it kinda smelled, too.

"Ugh," Katrina said as she wiped some off her face. SunFlame spit a wad of it out, and just said "Man..."

"Do we ever have a victory that ends in us looking good?" Steel asked out loud, to no one in particular.

"I'm just tired of not being able to come out of a ruin without gunk on me," SunFlame lamented. "Where the hell did that thing come from, anyway?"

"Pores in the walls," Adam said, running a hand through his hair, wondering if this stuff would at least make a decent gel, before shaking his hand off to get rid of the excess.

"Well, durr," said SunFlame. "I mean, literally, where did it come from? How'd it get here? It couldn't be natural, right?"

Katrina looked at the others with a sour look on her face as she took a few heavy breaths, and said "I don't think I like it here. If this is what you guys spend all your time doing on Terra, then you can count me out."

"Tell me about it," SunFlame said.

"On Terra, things usually work out better than this," Steel said.

"Oh?"

"Well," said Adam, "for one thing, that's the first slime monster I've encountered. So I think that might be more of a 'you guys' ruins' thing."

"Eh, whatever. Let's just get outta here."

Steel checked around to see if any passage had opened, as typically seemed par for the course, and found that the door through which they'd entered was once more ajar. Meanwhile, Adam was looking around for more doors, but nothing more opened before them.

As they headed back for the stairs, Steel explained "Our society is upkept by our refractors. The ruins there are the best places to find them. And there's nothing so good as bringing a nice, large crystal to a town that's on its last leg."

"Hmm, y'don't say," SunFlame replied.

"Odd to think that this is it, though," Steel pondered aloud. "I mean, two rooms? With some hulking monstrosity and nothing more?"

"Now that you mention it, that does sound kind of weird," Katrina said.

"This was obviously some sort of laboratory," Steel continued, "and I'd think it'd have more than just two overly large chambers. For all we know, these ruins could be one of many in a set."

"Maybe there's more we just need to find," SunFlame suggested. "But frankly, I don't care right now. I just want a clean set of clothes."

At just that moment, Katrina whipped her head back and forth in an effort to shake some of the gunk out of her hair – and hitting the others with the ooze in the process.

"Perhaps this area used to be a facility linked by numerous structures, each with their own purp– ULCK!!" Steel said, before his mouth caught a glob shaken free from Katrina's hair. He promptly gagged.

"Oops," she said, upon realizing what she'd done.

"Thanks, Katrina," SunFlame said as he wiped some of the goo from his snout.

"My mouth... ruined!" Steel said between dry heaves. "ACK... tastes like... death!"

"Sorry, guys," she said, as she smiled sheepishly.

As SunFlame started up the stairs, he said "I'll bet archaeology will pick up after this," then paused before adding "or die off entirely."

The others followed him up the stairs before a realization struck the gold Mechadrake. "Waitasec," he said before smacking his forehead while the others looked on in confusion. "Why are we climbing these stairs? Let's just teleport out."

"Sonofabitch," Steel said.

"Katrina, you get Adam, and I'll grab Steel."

Adam shrugged while Katrina put a hand on his shoulder, with SunFlame doing the same for Steel, and they activated their teleporters... only to be met with an unpleasantly familiar "duh-duuuuh" sound.

"Crapbaskets," Katrina said.

"Oh-kaaaaaay... maybe these things got busted in the fight?" SunFlame theorized.

"So much for that idea," Steel said.

"Guess we're takin' the stairs, after all."

"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" Katrina said.

"Because we're probably about to be jumped," Steel told her. "It's the way of things in these dungeon crawls, you see."

As Katrina gave Steel an unsettled look, SunFlame said "Great" with no lack of sarcasm.

"Let's just get a move on," Adam said. "The sooner we're out of here, the sooner we can clean ourselves up."

"Yeah, let's get it over with," SunFlame agreed, as he continued to lead the way up the stairs.

As the group proceeded to about a third of the way up, they began to hear a sound. Or rather, sounds. Sounds like that of something hitting the floor or walls far below.

"You guys hear that?" SunFlame asked.

As they stopped and looked back, it was difficult to tell what was making the sound without the light extending very far. Soon, however, it became abundantly clear what the sound was as they saw one step followed by the next falling away from the wall.

"Crud!" SunFlame shouted.

"Run for it!" Adam added, as though anyone there needed the prompt to bolt up the stairs as fast as their legs could take them.

It wasn't long before the group soon reached the exit, stopping a short distance outside of the ruin gate..

Breathing heavily, SunFlame said "Whew. Well, that was fun."

"That's not what I'd call it," Katrina told the gold Mechadrake.

"Somethin' like that."

"If by 'fun', you mean 'completely heart-stopping', then yes," Steel added.

"Come on, now," said Adam. "Just think of it as more training."

Steel was about to shoot Adam a dirty look, but a few moments after the final step dropped, the ruin exploded, the blast hurtling the four through the air.

SunFlame landed with a thud and uttered "Jeez..." while Steel flipped and landed on his shoulder hard, letting out a near-indecipherable string of expletives. Katrina managed to flip in midair and land on one knee, though Adam wasn't so lucky, as he lay splayed out on his face a few feet from her. As Katrina helped him up off the ground, he spat out a mouthful of dirt.

"What the hell?!" Steel shouted. "Why do things always have to blow up after you're done looking at them?!"

"I guess someone didn't want us coming back... or leaving," SunFlame said.

"It does indeed," Steel agreed.

"Alright, let's try the teleport thing again," SunFlame said, grabbing Steel.

"Yeah, get us out of here."

With that, SunFlame activated his teleporter, and he and Steel shot off in a burst of gold energy. Katrina likewise grabbed Adam's shoulders, and they vanished into a red beam.

Minutes later, the two pairs landed in Avion City, near the hotel the Terrans were staying at.

Steel blinked in semi-disbelief at the sudden arrival. "Damn, that's handy."

"Alright, kid, I'm off to get a shower. You should probably do the same."

"Definitely," Steel said, as he and Adam staggered away, each dripping ooze and drawing a few stares.

"Catch y'later," the gold Mechadrake said with an over-the-shoulder wave, as he and Katrina headed out to their respective places.

"Take it easy, man," Steel said, before he quickly headed to his room and darted for the shower, hoping all the while that the puke-inducing slime smell wouldn't kill Janine in her sleep.

***

SunFlame soon arrived back at his place, where MoonRazor happened to be.

"WOOOOOOOOO, what reeks, Sun?" the silver Mechadrake asked.

Wordlessly, SunFlame flicked a glob of the burnt goop into his younger brother's face as he proceeded to the shower.

"Sick," MoonRazor said, as he made his way to the kitchen.

SunFlame started up a hot shower and got in, wasting no time in washing away any loose globs of goo that were still affixed to his scaly skin.

Meanwhile, MoonRazor turned on the sink to wash off the goop that his older sibling had introduced him to. Seconds later, a scream echoed out from the bathroom.

"MOONRAZOR!!! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU..."

MoonRazor decided then that it would be best to beat a hasty retreat.

---