Dunescape Part 2
Cole hopped into the hot sand, crouching from the impact and running gloved fingers through the fine sediment. The fiery sand could be felt even through the leather on his paws. Sand that reflected the blinding light provided by the two suns overhead in an angry stare. Light that demanded those under it to yield and burn in a blaze of submission. A fire that only fueled the defiance of the people of the Planet of Sand; a planet known as Dunescape.
Cole lifted his gaze from the ground to see a mighty cave; one surrounded by slumped figures dressed in black, and faces obscured by smoke. He stared into the cave, only to see darkness within; unsatisfied Cole pressed a small button on his visor that sent an inaudible sonic pulse down the tunnel, revealing a series of disguised claymores in the walls. Behind him came a terse snort, ruffling his hood. It was his malnok; the eyeless great lizards were sensitive to sound because of their large pitted horns that acted as media centers for stimulus. The malnok could detect minute differences in air pressure and received echolocation.
The creature shorted again and shook its head, there was more that was troubling it than just the sonic disturbance. Cole placed a hand on the malnok's scaled head, sating the beast. Meanwhile a hand fell upon his stiff shoulder, luckily for its owner; Cole knew who it belonged to. He turned slightly to see a smiling mouth and a pair of amber eyes reflecting light from the hot sand behind a veil of shadow under her hood. It was Jane, Cole's twin sister and the stronger of the set; she could have parried anything he could have reacted with anyway. Cole moved his opposite paw to rest upon her own.
"Did I scare you?" Jane inquired playfully with a subtle wink.
Cole chuckled, "No, but I can pretend next time if you'd like." Jane pondered this before ruffling his ears and slipping away, back to her malnok. Cole turned to watch his sister leave; she walked back to her malnok to gather her things as her dusty crimson cloak glided above the sand like a blooded ghost and a white tail nearly blending into the sand. He and his twin bore nearly identical armored cloaks but with obvious differences in boot and gauntlet design tailored to their specific needs and skills.
Cole shook his head and relayed a series of sharp chirps and whistles to the steed beside him, and with hesitation the great creature of the desert turned into the expanses of the dunes to be followed by its sibling. Alone together in life and death as all the worlds' inhabitants were destined to be. Cole and Jane stood united in solitude, side by side as the last sign of the malnok passed over the horizon into freedom.
Jane slapped Cole on the back and brought him in close "beautiful," she said wiping away a fake tear while sweeping her arm out in front of her. Cole threw his head back in laughter; Jane had a keen snout for drama. He sometimes forgets that they are more than just partners, but family and close friends; bound together on an adventure to last a thousand lifetimes. Thick and thin, good times and bad, to the ends of the world, brother and sister; never to be apart.
"What do you say we head in, I doubt that was all of them," Cole said as he stood in the mouth of the cave. He reached up and reactivated the sonar visualizer in his visor and dug into a small pouch on his hip to pull out four small, thin knives that contained proximity EMPs that would disable the claymores before they can explode. Quickly and precisely Cole imbedded the darts into the seemingly normal walls with a flash.
Cole exhaled and stepped into the tunnel, discreetly gesturing Jane to follow him. As the passage grew darker Cole reached to the rear of his belt and retrieved a small orb about three inches in diameter. After a brief inspection Cole flicked the sphere into the air, and upon reaching the crest of its arc the artifact erupted into a brilliant light that stood suspended in the air like a personal sun. The ball of light hovered smoothly and followed Cole closely into the now illuminated abyss.
Waking closely behind was Jane, she was starting to notice that the previously natural looking cave was slowly starting to smooth and become more artificial in appearance. After they had been walking for over twenty minutes the walls were almost completely smooth concrete. Jane knew something was off, and it wasn't the cave; they had been walking for what felt like miles, and there was no end in sight. She sighed and opened her mouth to consult Cole when he stopped in his tracks and held up his hand to silently call a halt. Jane held back the urge to ask what was happening and decided it would be best to wait. A moment later Cole snapped his fingers and the shinning sphere went cold and dropped into his hand. Instead of plunging into darkness, the tunnel remained alight with a dim, unknown source. With the device secured on his belt, Cole lowered his hand and pointed to an empty spot on the wall then put his finger over his lips.
Cole twisted a dial on his gauntlet and placed his paw on the spot he had pointed to; Jane's eyes widened and she braced herself with hands on her ears. Cole smirked and flexed his hand; sending a seismic pulse into the wall, and blasting a round hole through four feet of reinforced stone. The hole was maybe eight feet in diameter and lead into an exquisitely furnished office lobby. There were rich mahogany surfaces, fine art along the walls, and a now rubble covered carpet. Cole gazed in, shrugged, and walked into the hole. Jane shrugged as well and stepped through the splintered remains of a once expensive coffee table that was against the edge they destroyed. The portrait paintings on the walls were of people nether of them recognized save one; Charles Taggard, the man they had just "captured."
Other than chairs and unmarked books, the rest of the room was empty. There were two doors; the secret one they had just demolished and one opposite them. Cole bowed and gestured his arms toward the remaining door in an exaggerated manner, without hesitation Jane curtsied and opened the door to reveal a dark hallway leading to another door with light coming from under it. Cole slowly walked up to the crafted wood door and placed his hand on the brass knob. All of a sudden Cole felt 600 volts corseting through his body that would have sent him flying had he not had a death grip on the handle, Jane heard something in the next room explode and as soon as it had started it ended; leaving Cole steaming on a wall.
Jane rushed over to him, "Are you okay!?" Jane was in shock, but not as shocked as when Cole turned to her.
"I'm... fine..." his eyes were red and bleeding, but he still had the ever present spark that she knew and loved. He reached up and wiped some drool from his lip with a smoking glove and patted some of his strait standing fur; the door handle it previously occupied was crumpled into the shape of his fist.
"You are not fine; my pad says your heart stopped!" Jane snapped.
"Only f-for few seconds," Cole said with a weak smile. Jane about ready to kill him herself when the door swung open, revealing a pair of armed men in familiar black garb.
"Hands on your head!" the hound on the left barked.
Jane held up her finger, "one second."
The two men seemed baffled, "I-I'm sorry miss, but I have to insist" the one on the right said as he placed a hand on Jane's shoulder, and in that instant is when he made eye contact with Cole's blooded halos. Cole smiled devilishly and in the same second grabbed Jane's paw and discharged his stored electricity, channeling it through his sister and into the horrified canine. The brute was launched backward into the room beyond. The second dog heard a loud snap and thought it was his partner until he saw what remained of his arm within the grasp of the female intruder; he stared awestruck until his vision faded to black and fainted, with that the room fell silent.
"That was gross," Cole said.
"You've see worse," his sister replied, casually wiping a few droplets of blood off her muzzle "More importantly, what the heck was your stunt!"
Cole shrugged innocently, "I improvised." Jane snorted in anger and was ready to dispense a beating that no one had better interrupt-
_ *Clap*_
_ *Clap*_
_ _ *Clap*
_ _ Jane turned away from her brother to the new sound, much to Cole's relief. In the room they were outside of looked empty, just the bodies of the two unfortunates; a large leather chair behind the main desk swiveled to face them and revealed a jackal to have been sitting in it. He spoke slowly "Cole and Jane Moor, I've been expecting you; for a long time." The man was tall and dark, but most strikingly he whore an eyepatch over his left eye. Another noteworthy feature was his silvery robotic hand; exposed unlike its gloved counterpart. He wore a dark trench coat with metal plates underneath it. In the space around him floated holographic screens that appeared to be security feeds of the compound and outside; this character had been watching them. All the while the twins had their visors scan the figure as well; after a few seconds they came to the same inarguable conclusion.
The two siblings stood, glanced at each other; by this time Cole's fur was back down, and exploded into laughter, Jane threw her head back and leaned on the doorframe while Cole used his knees for support. The man was getting obviously flustered and slammed a metal fist on the table, leaving a crater in the wood, "Do you have any idea who I am? I'm-" but they were gone.
Out of nowhere Cole leaned from behind him and onto the desk, "Arik, right; I'm Cole" he said holding out a charred glove.
Bemused, Arik tried to sputter a response when Jane leaned on his opposite shoulder wiping a tear away, "I'm sorry, you just... look like a pirate." Now Cole took his opportunity to grab the crime lord's hand and give it a good shake.
"So how'd you lose your eye? Was it a horrible accident, or did you have it removed to look cool?" While Arik's attention was on her brother, Jane lifted the eyepatch to peek underneath.
"Oh, horrible accident confirmed," this was the last straw; Arik snapped and pushed Cole away from him and pointed his prosthetic at Jane, which had had now taken the shape of a strange gun.
This piqued Cole's interest, "cool, dose it turn into a hook as well?"
He turned to Cole, "No! This is a highly sophisticated-"
"LaserKraft right, you can tell by the position of the prisms near the back," Cole said matter-of-factly, "there is also a fun trick you can do with them." With that Cole reached into his satchel and whipped out an ornate ivory hand mirror. The sudden movement caused the surrounded man to fire his weapon, sending forth a bolt of amber light only to be caught by Cole's mirror and reflected the projectile back into Arik's wrist, severing the device.
Cole blew off the smoke that was coming from his mirror and twirled it in his hand as he shoved it into an empty holster, like In an Ancient American western film. "This is how this is going to work," Cole slowly laid out his request in a flat and reasonable tone "we heard a little rumor that there was a treasury somewhere in this compound. It would be just peachy if you disclosed the location of said shinnies."
Arik snorted, "I would never betray the trust of-"
"Shoot his other hand off," Cole said coldly. The room flashed a brilliant yellow and a scream rang out, a crippled man stared at a newly cauterized stump on his wrist; eyes wide like moons. He slid trembling out of his chair and buckled to the ground, pushing his chair to the back wall. Cole spoke to the broken figure, "Let me ask again, _please_tell us where the treasury is and we will be on our way."
"N-never..." the remains of a once powerful man now lied unconscious on the ground only to be wheeled off and be replaced with another. Cole gazed upon the shriveled husk and shook his head slowly, at least he had integrity.
Jane looked up from behind the dark cherry desk, "Dumb-Dum had the access codes to the main vault in his top drawer." She lifted a slip of parchment above her head, waving it slightly. Jane sighed. "Ya' know, I don't like it when it ends like this," Cole glanced over and flipped off his hood, ears at attention. "We finish a job or confront some mob boss, and they just fold," she sighed again. "A little challenge would be nice." Cole raised an eyebrow and looked her in the face with blooded whites. "Okay, this one was fine but you know what I mean," Jane slapped her sides with strait arms, not wanting to talk about it anymore; "let's finish up here." Cole said nothing.
Brother followed sister through winding tunnels and corridors, alternating between natural-looking cave slopes and well-kept concrete walls. Cole was intrigued by the scale of the facility; it was obviously more than just a vault, it had a barracks, offices, and R&D labs filled with cowering scientists. Near the end of the laboratory area Jane left a single port crystal, one that would, if evenly divided, could give the innocents a way of escape. The Capital would likely see them all arrested, trading one prison for another; one with funding from the Capital, a warm bed, and safe place to hide.
At the end of the hall Jane stopped and Flicked her ears towards a large yellow sign above the last door, warning not to intrude. She slapped her hands together in anticipation, "Looks like our stop."