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Chapter 3 - The Girl

Location: Phoenix Grace Main Office - Chentrilla City

"How many times have I go to tell you?" sighed Diamond irritated. He was sat in a small dark room with a table stretched out before him. The room bear similarities to the same interview rooms used by the police. There was a mirror next to the table on the wall nearest to him that he was sure somebody could see him at the other side.

He was not alone in this room. Two wolves, dressed in a black suits stood before him. Diamond knew that these people were "agents" of Phoenix Grace and would not think twice about holding him here against his will.

Phoenix Grace made its own rules.

The company itself had boasted that it existed for hundreds of years, originally founded by Ivan Grace in the late twentieth century, the corporation had risen to become a major role in the economy of Chentrilla and influenced nearly every country in the world.

Phoenix Grace was originally a shipping company contracted for import/export business but had expanded into many other markets such as food, textiles, pharmaceuticals and even a little weapons contracting. This company was as massive as it was dominant and even though most of the company's past before the Asgard War remained shrouded in mystery.

Phoenix Grace had arisen to manufacture a huge amount of products and computer systems which existed all over the world along with the invention of the WSN (World Synchronisation Network) which allowed people all over the planet to communication electronically. Phoenix Grace had pushed Terra into a new digital age of technology that no other company could match.

However, like everything there had always been a darker side. Phoenix Grace was rumoured to have a great standing in government corruption. They would pay people to look the other way while they violated the law to create better weapons and technology.

They also had a habit for being ruthless and were the single biggest company on Terra, despite there being a law against monopolies.

The grey wolf was a typical Phoenix Grace employee, he was stern looking and rigid, very slender but all the while gave of the aura that he was not to be messed with. The other wolf had a slight browner tinge to his fur and he sat down in the corner, observing every subtle movement that Diamond made.

"Was it true...?" asked the grey agent who sat down at the other end of the smooth wooden table that had been coated in grey plastic to protect it. "that you and Chief Researcher Scarlet had a fight, the night before he was murdered?"

Diamond did not like where this was going at all, his white tail twitching in frustration. He had the feeling that he was about to be pinned up for this crime when it could have been any one of the research team.

Phoenix Grace had moved quickly to erase all records of Remmy in order to minimise the press and control the issue internally, Phoenix Grace did not like any law enforcement authorities interfering with their employees and work, so they tended to keep it quiet which was why Diamond was still being held in the main company building under heavy guard.

Diamond sighed as sipped a cup of water which was on the table, these to people made him uneasy but he could not work out why, was it there icy looks at him or the inferring that he was guilty of a crime that he did not commit or maybe just the felt that he was trapped and they had provided no legal counsel which was against Terran Law...

He was going to regret this.

"Yes... Remmy and I did have a fight..." he nodded but before both wolves could stare at him triumphantly he looked up them almost in defiance. "However...!" he shouted quickly. "I left his tent and went back to mine where I stayed all night... check the security recording... it will..."

"Unfortunately..." interrupted the slightly brown wolf who was sitting in the corner of the room observing. His voice was more husky then most and in another place and time could probably be considered sexy. "The security system cut out during the night, probably due to electro-magnetic interference... so we cannot prove your alibi."

The conversation suddenly took a dramatic change as Diamond sipped the cup of water in front of him. He was not sure if Phoenix Grace actually cared about Remmy's death or the fact that their operation was compromised.

It seemed the agents were treating this as an inconvenience rather then a serious murder.

"Mr Celestalis?" said the other grey wolf who was wearing deep black sunglasses to hide his face from Diamond. He paused for a second, trying to structure his sentence, his voice a lot deeper and more dominant than his associate. "Mr Scarlet was working on a piece of technology... where is it?"

"How would I know that!?" shouted Diamond, he looked over at the grey wolf, directly through his sun-glasses.

"That's strange..." Diamond thought to himself. "Why would they be interested in such worthless pieces of junk?"

Since the incident, the special scientific division of Phoenix Grace, most commonly associated with accident control and nuclear containment had sealed off the area. They were know as ENRISE, the name was an abbreviation for an ancient Terran phrase that was about the pursuit of knowledge at all costs.

ENRISE were only sent to extremely dangerous places and dealt with some off the worse disasters on Terra. Application to join ENRISE was by invitation only and they were hope and dream of every scientist that worked for Phoenix Grace. The best of the best.

"Oh come now Mr Celestalis? We know that you spoke with Remmy about that same device just hours before he was murdered. We also know about the discovery of the Valkyrie and the excavation efforts that were taking place WITHOUT higher approval, as leader of an excavation team and senior cryptologist we are holding you personally responsible..."

"Alright!" shouted Diamond, seeking to end this quickly. "What exactly are you getting at? I did not find the artefact and Remmy brought the team there WITHOUT consulting me!"

The wolf without sunglasses stared back at Diamond, he did not even blink when Diamond raised his voice and just stared at him blankly.

"Where is it, Mr Celestalis?" he chanted repetitively.

"I DON'T know!"

Location: ENRISE Research Facility - Serenity Island - Terra

A thick dusk was falling on the island. Serenity Island was located in the North Terran sea, a windy and cold array that shared more in common with Scotland of another land rather then anything else.

The island was not hugely large, only about twenty miles across and about the same from north to south. Most of the island was covered with dense forest that had been untouched by sentient beings for thousands of years. However on the north side of the island, overlooked by a wind swept hill that led into a sheer cliff drop into the sea lay some ruins.

These ruins were once the village of Millennia which had been home for a small tribe that worshipped strange gods with unspeakable powers. Cut-off from the rest of the modern world and never leaving the confines of the island, these people thrived. However they had long since disappeared, leaving only the ruins of the village behind.

The village of Millennia was once paved with pure marble streets which were now cracked and decayed, grass seeping through the cracks and growing up towards the sun. There were magnificent pillars which were now covered in ivy that made up a lot of the buildings within the town.

Nobody had ever seen the people that had once lived here and it was only by chance that a band of oil prospectors found this island at all. It had never been charted.

However somebody was here now, a small figure in black robes walked out from the ruins, onto the winding path that lead up the hill just outside the village to the most magnificent site on the whole of the island.

A temple...

The temple was massively tall circular structure that was the only thing sat on the hill. Scientists theorised that it would have taken the most advanced primitive cultures on Terra decades to build. Every part of the temple was beautifully crafted with inscriptions running all along the walls of this perfect circle.

At the front of the temple were two huge stone doors that had not even been touched by the passage of time. They alone barred entry to the temple, nobody, scientist or pillager could get inside leaving their secrets contained within the walls of the unbreakable temple.

The figure climbed the winding path to the temple as it began to rain, the clouds were swirling above as the islands greenery seemed to come alive as if a reaction caused by the rain.

He looked around. He was all alone, there was not a figure around for miles and that gave him the perfect opportunity to complete his task. He leaned down, only part of his long black cloak gave way to his face as he took out an object from his heavy back-pack. His long muzzle and slightly orange fur gave away instantly that he was a fox.

He waited in order to complete his objective, pulling back his hood and letting the light rain rejuvenate his spirit. His muzzle bore an interesting black tattoo that was shaped like two sharp sickle-like markings from his large amber eyes downwards and a circle engraved onto his nose.

He continued to wait, it was getting very close. The object that he held in his paws seemed to be a piece of green stone that glowed ominous, a bright luminous green as he held it close to him.

"The time has come..." he mumbled.

However he was not actually alone on the island.

Beneath him, concealed within the caves that run under the island was a top secret research facility for the ENRISE portion of Phoenix Grace. They had decided that since this island was still unmarked from most maps that this would be the perfect place to put a weapons lab however they had also decided that due to the satellite surveillance of some of the other companies, that they would have to conceal it under the island.

The facility was huge, it sprawled out through the massive caverns under the island and seemed to just go on forever. In-fact, more space had been dug inside the caverns and the most of the rock had been replaced with metal supports to protect from cave ins.

"Doctor Lynx to Containment Chamber 4" ordered a voice over the intercom within the base as Doctor Ravenno walked by. Doctor Ravenno was a small raccoon that was very short in stature and wore the white coat that most would link with a scientist or a doctor. He was the Director of Biological Agents here at the base and he pretty must lived and worked here.

Communication with family members was not permitted by order of the company. If you came here, you came here for life.

Ravenno had been exceptionally busy all day cataloguing some new viral specimens for production in Phoenix Grace's biological weapon division. He never had any ethical implications with his work and how it might be used and the ban on biological warfare by the United Terran Government had not stopped him much either.

Phoenix Grace was above the law.

"What is it?" sighed Ravenno, annoyed from the fact that he wanted to actually go and get some dinner before retiring back to the barracks for the evening. He black and white fur was all musty from living in caves for almost ten years. He tapped his pager on his belt while her responded which acted as a two-way communication device.

"Sorry to bother you Doctor... but we have detected a living biological organism within one of the artefacts. The ones that we were analysing at Everonth."

Ravenno responded with an irritated sigh as he brought the pager to his mouth and responded. There was nobody standing in the white corridor but himself. "Yes... I'll be right there."

He immediately turned around, mumbling to himself as he walked toward the lift at the far end of the corridor. Ravenno was quite old, at least forty in Terran years. Most Terrans had a life expectancy of at least one hundred years however with it varied depending on species.

However Ravenno had signed his life away working as an ENRISE scientist. He never seemed to get any time to himself nowadays. He tapped the button and waited for the lift to whirl down to him, looking at his watch wondering if he was going to get an chance to sleep tonight.

He walked casually into the lift before it whirled him back down into the depths of the facility.

When he emerged from the small lift which felt incredibly boxed in and claustrophobic he was in a huge room which had once been a large lake under the island. However now it was used as a containment and research lab for specimens collected all over Terra.

It was not really a room at all but in actuality a large cavern with a long metal walkway leading down to where the strange sphere recovered from the Valkyrie had been placed at the end. A few meters down were some stairs that lead up from the walkway into a smooth booth-like room that was connected to the cavern wall. There was a constant damp feeling in the air due to the underground lake below the walkway and the constant sound of water dripping from the stalactites hanging from the ceiling.

Ravenno casually stepped out onto the balcony, his eyes occasionally dancing over to the railings each side so that he could not fall in the seemingly bottomless lake below him. He stomped up the steps and into the control room which was filled with brightly flashing displays and computing equipment.

There was only a single person in this room, a security officer by the name of George who had called Ravenno over the pager. He was a canine species, similar to a beagle. His large black pupils smiled at Ravenno as he entered the room.

"George, why are you here?" Ravenno immediately asked, understanding that security personnel were not usually allowed into certain high level scientific areas due to their inert ability to disrupt research.

"I-I-I'm sorry Doc-tor..." cowered George as he realised that he was not supposed to be here. At this facility, the security staff only maintained areas outside of the main research labs and were therefore allowed to work shifts and return to their families. Violation of this rule resulted in the security officers either being shot for insubordination or thrown into the sea and drowned. "I was just... eh... in the area and I saw this thing beeping and I thought..."

Ravenno narrowed his eyes, he considered informing security that he had entered the facility however he decided against it. "Get out of her..." he immediately responded.

George nodded with a sigh of relief, he just had not thought about it. He thought was doing a good thing alerting Doctor Ravenno, that was probably why the Doctor had let him go. He quickly made himself scarce.

Ravenno exclaimed in annoyance as he sat down at the chair that George had been in. He tapped the computer console which had already been logged in by another researcher. Why had the researcher left his post and allowed a security officer to walk plaining inside this laboratory?

The lift whirled back up to facility leaving Ravenno alone. He suddenly felt very cold in this cavern with only the small florescent lights both in the room and the cavern giving subtle illumination.

He checked over the last active file and the computer console sprung to life. Ravenno looked up from the console out the large pane observation window to the sphere that was sitting outside in the cavern. Initial scans to penetrate it and discover what it was had failed however he was getting a positive biological signature coming from it.

Was this thing alive?

His nose twitched as he turned around suddenly. He had got the strangest feeling that he was being watched. His fur standing slightly on end, he looked but nobody was there.

"Strange" he thought to himself as he spun the chair back round to look back at the computer console in front of him.

His ears twitched as he began to hear a faint melody, also like some kind of tune was echoing through the caves. It was not very loud, he had to strain to hear it but it was there. Almost as if it was being played by a flute, it was both beautiful and sad at the same time.

Ravenno got up and walked down the steps out on the walkway, again hearing the strange melody that seemed to increase in volume as he grew nearer to the strange sphere in front of him.

What was going on!?

The computer that he had left behind in the control room appeared to flash red as it scanned the sphere.

"Warning - Containment Breach!"

However Ravenno was in the full sway of the music and ignored the computers sirens as he approached the sphere in front of him. He was seduced by the powerful melody and caught in an unbreakable trace as the melody seemed to move from a flute to a female voice humming it.

The sphere began to crack almost as if somebody had bashed it with a large spoon. In-between the cracks, light seeped out into the room as Ravenno just stood in front of it, enthralled by the music within his mind.

The light was so bright that it could have blinded anyone in the room as the sphere finally blasted open, sending out a shock-wave that knocked Ravenno to the floor and shot through the control room causing deep explosions of fire from the computers within.

Ravenno finally recovered from his trance as the music stopped, looking up towards the sphere. He had not been aware of his actions for the past few minutes and was incredibly confused. His hair flopped down in front of his face as he climbed to his feet to star that dazzling white light that was being emitted from the sphere, part of him excited and part of him fearful.

The light began to fade leaving only a silhouette standing before Ravenno. It was humanoid, with two arms, two legs that could be made out.

When Ravenno's vision returned to normal, an adolescent girl stood naked with long, dark red hair draping from her head down to her shoulders, a face of incredible beauty, pure white skin, her lips were a deep shade of red which complimented her large green eyes.

She stared at the scientist with a gaze that could cut through a planet.

Ravenno had never seen anyone like her before, he was so intrigued that he ignored the possible danger of what he did not understand. The girl closed her eyes and her head drooped forward, it was covered in a jelly-like substance which had sustained her within the sphere.

"Eh--" cited Ravenno, out of breath with amazement and unsure of what to say. This woman had to be an alien, he had never even conceived her human-like appearance. She had no fur, no muzzle but seemed to be some highly evolved form of ape. He could only tell that she was female from the apparent breasts and female genitals that she possessed. "...welcome!"

The girl shot her head up in an unnatural fashion to stare at Ravenno but did not say a word and within a short flash of light, Ravenno believed that he could see another woman behind her, as if spirit like but he shrugged it off.

The other woman appeared to have a more greenish skin colour and had merciless, almost evil looking red eyes that stayed with him for a few seconds. However Ravenno put it down to being an hallucination brought on by the strangeness of this event.

"Eh..." sighed Ravenno, slightly more disturbed by the strange hallucination he had just had and moving slowly back along the catwalk to call for aid. "Wha-What is your name?" he asked, trying to buy a few seconds and keep her calm.

The young girl just stood before him, not even moving an inch. She glanced up at the lift and it just some how exploded, a mass fireball falling down into the water below making Ravenno duck in horror.

This girl was telekinetic!?

He suddenly felt a massive surge of pain as he turned back to face the girl. He feverishly tried to escape her telekinetic grip as she lifted him into the air. He was only there as few seconds before he felt his mortal wound.

His own arm lancing through his own body through this girls strange psychic powers. He felt that warm sensation of blood and his insides as he was held in sky contorted as if he was just a rag doll before being dropped to an icy death into the water below.

"My confinement has been long.... Now lets have some fun.... Shall we Daddy?" whispered the girl silently as she began walking through the research chamber, breaking pieces of metal off the catwalk and making them swirl around her. After almost 300 years... she was free!