Chapter 2: What Lies Beneath

[Polaris Lyn]

Polaris blinked.

<A garden...?>

Fireflies, or what looked like fireflies, floated around them peacefully, their glowing lights adding to the mysterious, tranquil ambience of the garden, which was almost immediately broken by a loud rumbling.

<An earthquake---?>

Polaris shifted her balance as the ground shook beneath their feet, glancing around. After a few moments more, the ground stilled, and silence descended upon the team once more.

And Polaris spoke.

"Does anybody have any idea what to do next?"

[Hadrian D'arcell]

"Does anybody have any idea what to do next?" Hadrian heard Polaris say.

"Actually we do." He glanced around and picked out a small pocketsized flashlight in his pocket. It was a way better lightsource than those stupid fireflies flying around.

He walked a little further, his boots crunching the twigs littering the ground. He pointed the flashlight in random places. "Lesse...tsk..tsk...a turn here, a turn there, an intersection waaayy further to the left." He stopped and pointed the flashlight to his group. "We're in a labyrinth....Joy."

[stardust]

Stardust shielded her eyes at the brightness of Hadrian's flashlight. She stepped away from the group to walk around too. Though they were surrounded by walls, the pathway wasn't really narrow.

"That's obvious," she said unimpressed, eyes surveying the area.

[Polaris Lyn]

Stardust's voice was grating.

"If everything's so obvious, Infinity, kindly grace us with the OBVIOUS way through this little maze," Polaris retorted coolly enough, her voice level.

Then she blinked, looked down at her hands. They were still bloody.

[waterlily43]

Jun shifted impatiently.

"Well in any case let's just move along? It's one step closer to the Ruby than bickering about what is obvious or not." She sighed, taking the lead and venturing ahead deeper into the labryinth, turning back to look at Hadrian when she had to squint in the dark. "Come on I need a light source."

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Jun is so cool XD *waves her flaggie*
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Hadrian smirked at Polaris's comment on Stardust, earning another irritated look from the girl. The pinkhead was just hopeless.

"Well in any case let's just move along?" He swung his gaze to the direction of that voice. It was Jun, striding past them to take the lead. "It's one step closer to the Ruby than bickering about what is obvious or not." Now, that was true. Definitely the best line he heard since they got here. He stood up straight when Jun looked back at him and demanded a lightsource. "Uh yeah, sure." Nodding, he walked towards her and pointed the flashlight ahead of her.

A few seconds later, Hadrian noticed something strange. A hole. One of the walls had a hole in it. "Wait, look..." he announced, pointing the light on the particular wall.

[stardust]

Stardust heard Hadrian and briskly walked over to where he pointed his flashlight. Touching the edge of the hole, she took a peek inside. The smell of gunpowder was still fresh. It seemed like this was caused by a minor explosion. The walls behind this one had one too, and so did the next one, and the next, and the next.

/A C4 bomb perhaps?/ Diwata inquired. After coming to a small realization, she felt his eyebrows meet. This was bad. Someone other than DotNA was after the Ruby as well.

"Somebody was here," she mumbled. "We're definitely not the only ones here." Stardust looked back to the group.

[Polaris Lyn]

"There are others? Oh, joy!" Polaris strode up towards the broken part of the wall, reaching out and leaving a sticky, scarlet mark on the edge of the shattered stone. She peered through the hole, and commented, "But at least, we won't have to try and find our way through this blasted maze. Our predecessors were kind enough to help us...inadverdently."

She glanced back at Jun, Hadrian, and after a moment, Stardust, the only others who were surrounding the wall. "Onward, I suppose," she said very softly. "Let's go meet up with these people. We'll have ourselves a regular party." She paused, then gave Jun a pointed look. "I'll apologize to you for the pointless bickering," she said, "but she," a jerk of her dark head to Stardust, "can just go to hell and stay there."

Without waiting for Stardust to explode into obscenities, Polaris stepped through the shattered stone, beyond the reach of Hadrian's flashlight. The fireflies filtered into the labyrinth, lighting everything with their slight glow. It was getting creepy.

[miyavi]

Sho blinked when Polaris made her way into the labyrinth. He'd heard of ladies first, but this was ridiculous! What if there were monsters? He frowned at Hadrian's back. Obviously, chivalry wasn't one of Geeker Boy's strong points.

Sho dug around in one of the random pockets of his hoodie, before pulling out a glow stick. Why he had a glow sticks in his pocket, no one would ever know. It wasn't Geeker Boy's flashlight, and it wouldn't last very long, but hey, it was good enough for the time being.

"'Scuse me," he muttered, making his way past Jun and scrambling gracefully through the hole after Polaris. He broke the glow stick and shook it, the phosphorescent light a bright orange, and Sho held it up, waving it around. The labyrinth seemed pretty empty. At least, no giant monsters were running through the halls towards them. Sho blinked, then peered through the next broken wall. That seemed empty, too.

"Can I borrow this?" And before Sho could answer, a slender, slim hand grasped his sleeve and took the glow stick from his hand, leaving a slick, slimy streak of something dark on his knuckles. Sho blinked as Polaris threw the glow stick through the next hole, where it illuminated the next few feet ahead of them wearily.

Sho turned around to call to the others, but the lack of light confused him. He stumbled, and his head smacked against stone with a loud crack! Sho's angry shout echoed throughout the labyrinth.

"SON OF A---!!"

[Blaze Sanaku]

ROTFLMAO SHO XD EEEE and everyone else's banners are *_____*

---

Blaze stared at the holes in the wall; they seemed as if they were just recently made.

"Well whoever blew these walls open isn't very bright," Blaze scoffed, "they're just leading us to them. It's like they want to be killed."

Blaze pushed past Sho to follow Polaris into the holes. She furiously batted the fireflies that were getting into her face, but to no avail. She was just succeeding in getting bug guts all over her hands.

THUD

"SON OF A--!"[/i]

Thinking a monster had attacked, Blaze wheeled around and said the command for firaga. Light and warmth immediately burst from her palms upward into the sky and the dark area the seeDs were in lit up. Sho was seen lying on the floor and rubbing his head.

Blaze burst out into laughter. The sound of her laugh echoed throughout the labrynth almost as loudly as Sho's curse. Her firaga soon died away since she was laughing so hard and they were shrouded in darkness again although Blaze's maniacal laughter kept on going.

[stardust]

HAHAHAHA GLOWSTICK XD LOL!!!
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Stardust was going to explode with what Polaris had said but bit herself not to. It was like something caught up with her--and reminded her once again. If she did bite this then she would just degrade herself and this bicker would never end. So what if she just shoved this Polaris out of the bullet's way a little earlier and got no thanks for it. So what if this rude "now an axe-weilder" ex-swordsman know-it-all was trying to be like a smartass now. Her death glare softened into a smirk, shifting her weight on one side. She didn't give a damn if she didn't apologize to her anyway, and she surely wasn't going to so...

Stardust lifted her middle finger at Polaris as she watched the SeeD walk her way to the other side to check the holes with a glowstick. Her smirk grew wider. And that's that.

/I'm sure Reese will be proud that you continue his flipping legacy./ Diwata said sarcastically.

She was about to say something to the others at the back when Blaze came striding in and accidentally casted her popular Fire spell that luminated the place. For a whole five seconds there, the place was brimming brightly. However, the smoke was unbearable when the lightshow was over.

Stardust couldn't help but cough. "What on Earth?!" she said between her coughs though Blaze's maniacal laughter was still at high. Stardust stepped inside the hole and swat the smoke in front of her. "Don't cause a vineyard fire here, this is Shumi's sacred ground!"


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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH I had to edit XD

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian was laughing, not because of the clumsiness Blaze had displayed earlier, but by the way Blaze laughed. It was contagious. He nodded at Rayden and Jun, then stepped inside the hole as well.

"Don't cause a vineyard fire here, this is Shumi's sacred ground!" Stardust demanded.

"Doesn't look that sacred now with these holes in the first place." Hadrian said as he straightened up to look around. Boy, was it smoking here. "Those weirdos couldn't have gotten far anyway. Let's just hurry."

Following the holes on the walls, the group found themselves on a dead-end. Right on the side of the thick mossy wall was a half-torso statue.

Hadrian looked around puzzled. It seemed like this was the farthest they could go. He shook his head. "So...THIS is what lies beneath," he said half-heartedly. "A glorious dead-end."