| LOST
SOULS AWAKENED |
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"Ladies and gents! I give you IRIA: TSoS!! I have gone back and 'enhanced' a few things throughout the story, basically making it look more polished. Yay for me! Thank you all for sticking with this story, but the ride is not over yet...." --|(ris-Sama!!--
The sky was dark, extremely dark. Gray clouds surrounded the night sky, giving that gloomy feel to it. The ground was nothing more than thick layers of dirt piled atop one another and stretched endlessly across the planet's surface. There were a few trees here and there, but a thriving forest this was not. This was a desolate place, a place that hadn't been walked on in eons it seemed. That is...until now... Two bright beams of light pierced through the darkness like a knife. Soft footsteps were heard as they trudged through the soily earth. With these lights and these footsteps came two darkened figures making their way across this deserted land. “...we should set up shelter here. There’s no reason for us to keep on going when we’re not getting anywhere. ‘specially in the dark.” A voice that appeared to belong to a middle-aged man called to the other. “Then why don’t we just go back to the Kreeper if there’s nothing here.” The other voice responded. This one was the voice of a younger man, like an older teenager maybe. “Nah, we should be able to find something in the morning. Besides, our contract says that once we get here, he have to move out on foot.” The older voice grumbled to himself softly. “...and leave it to Tedan Tippedai to book us shitty Transit times, it’s pitch black!” “...some things can’t be helped.” The young one added, but his tone was rather unsympathetic. Although, this scenario did seem a bit odd to him. “Ah, well...” The body that held the older voice waved his flashlight in on direction. “...just set up the tents over there by those two trees while I go find something to make a fire with. Hop to it...” Without another word, the young man did as he was told. Half an hour later, the two men’s tents were set up and ready for use. Luckily, there was enough resources on the bland planet to build a decent fire, which lit the darkened area very nicely. While at this hour, a normal person would be sleeping, there was a teenager who was sitting against the trunk of a tree a few feet away from the crackling fire. This young man wore a black, skin tight body suit that displayed his muscular form perfectly. Over this body suit, metallic, silver armor made from stretchable alloy surrounded his chest, arms and legs. His legs, which he wore calve-high boots of the same material, were stretched out and crossed over each other in a relaxed position. His arms, who’s hand were shielded by his armor and black gloves, were folded across his chest casually. However, one look at this young man’s face and you could tell that he was far from relaxed and casual... He had the darkest of brown hair, shoulder length and a few medium
sized bangs falling in front of his eyes. Behind his left ear were 4
red and black hairbeads that varied in many different shapes and sizes.
His eyes...oh, those eyes...eyes of a piercing deep green hue filled
to the core with a hardened coldness, and a gaze that hardly allowed
any hint of emotion to show through. Not only did it leave a haunting
aura around the man, but his gaze could even make the toughest man’s
spine chill in uncertian fear. The radiant fire reflected off those
eyes and made them But there was still one thing that stood out on him: The necklace he wore around his neck. This was no ordinary necklace either, as a trained eye could see. The purple pendent looked as if it was one-half of a Ying-Yang shaped object with three small jewels embedded onto it. This was a sign that said that this young man...was a Mycian Hunter... “Man! You think they’d give us better tasting rations after all the crap they put us through!” That same older voice from earlier called from inside one of the tents. “These things taste like sawdust!” When the man exited the tent, it was obvious that he was much older than the young man by the fire. His short, scruffy black and gray hair and his rugged face, which seemed like it hasn’t been shaved in days, easily made him look like he was in his late-40s. He too had a Hunter’s necklace around his neck, but this one was black with five jewels instead. Obviously as a Hunter he would be wearing some type of armor, but it couldn’t be seen on him it was all concealed by an old, tattered black trench coat. The only thing that made him stand out as a Hunter were the two katatas that were strapped to his back. “Hey, Kaz? You gonna eat anything..?” The man called over to the young one. The young man however didn’t answer, not even a body gesture. He only stared idly into the fire. “Hello? Earth to Kazon?! You want some of this...?” The man asked again, holding a ration out towards the young man. The young man named Kazon remained silent for a moment before finally answering him. “...I’m not hungry, Instructor Ouspi...” “Yeah, well...I don’t blame ya,” Ouspi said as he took a bite of what appeared to be hardtack, “this stuff tastes worse than my cooking!” he said with a mouthful as the hardtack’s not easily chewed. Kazon, however, continued to stare into the fire...nothing from him. Ouspi took a big swallow. “Ah, come on Kaz! Lighten up! Don’t be so gloomy all the time. How ya ever gonna get a nice lookin’ girl actin’ all boo-hooey?!” He added with a laugh. Kazon, on the other hand, wasn’t buying it and Ouspi quickly shut his mouth. Kaz still kept his eyes trained on the fire, remaining ever so silent. There was a very long silence as Ouspi continued on with his dinner. The silence seemed to have an effect on him, since he was a more up-tempo kind of guy, unlike Kazon. “Ouspi? Why does Tedan Tippedai find this empty, newly discovered planet so intriguing enough for us to come out an survey it?” Kazon asked. “Shouldn’t they leave this to a science team...?” “Tedan Tippedai’s a bunch of idiots. But as Hunters, we just do as we’re told, get paid and move on to the next job. If you want to make it in this biz you shouldn’t ask questions. Don’t let any one else tell you otherwise either.” ...another long silence followed. “...Ouspi...I’m think I’m ready to use your Borobdin when we get back.” Kazon finally said to break the silence. “What?!” Ouspi responded, almost choking on his food. “The Borobdin?! You have to have Administration permission to use on of those! Not only that, you’re only just an apprentice! Only the highly skilled Hunters can use those things.” “I don’t care...” Kazon said finally with a cold voice, taking his eyes off the fire, nearly burning holes right through his instructor. “...you know I’m ready for it. Apprentice or not, you’ve seen that I’m better than half the Hunters working now.” “This is true...” Ouspi responded but couldn’t help but to feel uneasy under the young man’s icy gaze. “...but look, I’m getting to old for this type of thing. I proved that when I first met you. I’m not as quick as I used to be. So soon you will take my place in the ranks and you’ll be able to do all the fun stuff.” He thought for a second. “How old are you now Kaz...?” “...18...in a week.” “See! That means you only have one week until you become a full fledged Hunter! After that, you can use more powerful weaponry and stuff. Not only that, I can retire! But for now, you’re still my apprentice and what I say goes. Understood...?” “...whatever.” Kazon responded under his breath, his gaze returning to the fire. “Good. I’m gonna go hit the hay. The contract says we need to get a soil sample for some reason. After that, you should get some sleep too. Were need to up by dawn.” “...understood." Kazon said somewhat sarcastically, but still kept tha same tone of voice. "After doing all of this grade-school biology work I won’t need to be a Hunter. I'll join the science teams and even get paid more than doing this...” Kazon stood up from and brushed himself off. As the silent apprentice walked away, Ouspi shook his head slightly before crawling back into his tent. “Just as defiant as I was back then...Just lighten up kid... “ He thought to himself. “I know it’s hard after everything you’ve been through. But just lighten up...” Kazon had left his flash light since we wasn’t going that far. After he got about 50 yds from camp, he crouched down and took a small glass container from a pouch on his belt that was next to his .45 caliber pistol. He began to scoop small portions of the soft soil and put it in the container. He and Ouspi were usually on the same page, but this job just seemed
odd to him. But still he followed his instructor’s orders thoroughly.
The best reason of why he did would be that Ouspi’s the only father
he’s ever known...actually, more like the only parent he’s ever known.
While Kazon didn’t love his instructor like the father figure he was
but he did show him the upmost respect most of the time, even though
he still Kazon stood up and screwed the lid onto the container tightly. “Hunters doing a lab rat’s work...” He thought to himself. Just as he was about to start making his way back to camp, he heard footsteps behind him. Kaz quickly dropped the soil container and removed his pistol from its holster. He tightened his grip around it as he slowly scanned the area, but saw nothing in the darkness. “..the hell...?” The trudging footsteps continued to get louder though, and Kazon’s heart began to race... “Am I hearing things...?!” He thought. “I thought our scanners on the Kreeper detected no forms of life on this planet other than the plant life and yet I hear these footsteps. But....but there’s nothing here, I can’t see anything....I better get back to the tents and report to Ouspi.” Kazon slowly began to back-peddle to the campsite, his gun still drawn and ready to fire. Then suddenly, he bumped into something, something that didn’t feel like a tree or a boulder, but something....else. He stood frozen next to what ever it was that got in his way. “Easy Kazon....it’s probably nothing...just wait for it.....NOW!” With that he quickly jumped and turned 180 degrees in midair. When he landed he had his weapon aimed directly at this object, but as he finally got a view at this thing...it made him stand frozen in shock... Through the shadows he saw the silhouette of a creature well over 7ft tall. It’s body, including his arms and legs, were built like a rock and were covered by a tattered cape that wrapped around it’s muscular form. What struck the most fear in Kazon was when he looked up to this thing’s head. It was shaped almost like a disk atop his head. “C-c-could this...be...?” Then a flash of a red line that appeared across the creature’s face pierced through the darkness, it appeared to be the monster’s eyes. Not only that, on the disk-like part of it’s head there was a small, white, luminous face, like the face of a doll that belonged to a young girl....this was Zeiram.... Kazon stared into this second face with his teeth grinding together in an attempt to hide his own fear. The young Hunter held his gun up at the head of this towering monster as sweat began to flow from his pores. “Am I hallucinating...?! It this....the Zeiram?! I’ve heard rumors about him at Administration from the other Hunters...but I thought is was just a trivial legend! Is...this real..?” His body began to tremble as those icy green eyes now, blatantly, displayed his sheer terror. Then the small face’s eyes opened and let out a shrill screech like an imp of the devil as it displayed it’s razor-sharp fangs, the face slowly extending out of the head. Kazon eyes widened and let out a frightened gasp, this just made it shriek louder and made Zeiram begin to approach him. “Ouspi!” Kazon screamed in a frightened manner. “Instructor Ous--” He was cut off by Zeiram’s powerful fist that came across his face, sending the young man flying through the air. Kazon, however, had superb agility and managed to land in a crouching position a couple of yards away. Blood began to trickle from the corner of his mouth as he re-aimed his pistol at the creatures head. “Stay back!!” He screamed once again. He began to fire shots at the stalking monster but none of them phased the beast. Zeiram just continued to move in closer even though Kazon’s shots had dead-on accuracy. Zeiram continued to walk closer as Kazon stood up, firing from point blank range. Kazon’s eyes were narrowed and filled with anger mixed with fear as
fired at a rapid pace. All the while, he wondered why Ouspi hasn’t heard
his screams or shots. His deep thinking also made him forget to notice
that his pistol was running out running out of ammo. After Kazon fired
his next shot, the weapon clicked, signaling it was emptied. Kazon looked
up to the giant with wide eyes as the white face came down to meet “I’ll see you in hell!!!” Kazon’s fists clenched as he punched the face away and began to give Zeiram’s body a flurry of his own powerful jabs and a few kicks. Still though, his effort proved no avail as Zeiram stood tall, seemingly untouched. Kazon backed off a bit before charging back at Zeiram, leaping into the air and bringing his foot across it’s face. This too, had no effect and before Kazon could land back on the ground, Zeiram had grabbed him by his boot, leaving the Hunter dangling. “Let me go...you bastard!” Kazon called out as he tried to fight his way out of Zeiram’s grasp. Ignoring the Hunter’s ramblings, Zeiram then swung Kazon by his leg over his head and then brought him down, slamming Kazon onto the hard earth beneath them. For Kazon...everything faded to black... ***** It was raining now...Kazon Locke laid motionless on the ground as the rain poured down on his back. Dawn had arrived, and the planet’s sun had just risen. The radiant beams of light shined on Kazon’s closed eyes, causing them to tremble slightly then open. After he realized what had happened to him earlier, he slowly began to push himself up from the ground, even though it was hard even to keep his eyes open. He got to one knee and tried to look around, his vision, though, was blurry and could barely make out anything. As he stood to his feet, he felt as if he was hit by a freight train rather than running into Zeiram...well...they’re both about the same. The weary Kazon started to slowly stumble his way back to the campsite. When he finally made it back to the tents, his vision had already cleared slightly, but the odd thing was, he couldn’t hear Ouspi’s usual, abnormal snoring. Did Zeiram get him too...? Kazon started to walk over to one of the tents, but then, he tripped over something and landed in what seemed to be a puddle of some sort left from the rain. The apprentice blinked a few times before he realized that he wasn’t laying in a rain puddle...but blood. Kazon looked over his shoulder as his vision had now mostly returned, only to see his trainer laying dead in a pool of his own blood. “Ouspi...!!” Kazon’s eyes widened as he scurried over to Ouspi’s side and examine his body. “Wha--...what happened...!!”As he scanned the body, instead of seeing bruises and cuts that Zeiram would have left, he saw two bullet holes... “No.. Zeiram...didn’t do this...! Zeiram didn’t have a gun. And he couldn’t have used mine because it was empty! ...was some one else here...?!” Kazon looked down to the ground a few feet away from him. There were footprints, human footprints that led off in the opposite direction. Kazon looked back down to this fallen instructor. “Damn it!!” He screamed as he punched the ground as hard as he could, tears swelling up in his eyes. “Tedan Tippedai must have set us up!! The soil sample must have been to separate us!!” Those tears began to stream down his face, the once emotionless Hunter had broken... His only father was dead... “What’s it matter...?! He’s gone...I’m alone.... First my own father leaves me to die and now this?! Who can I trust now?!” Kazon buried his face into his gloved hands. He wept for a few minutes as the rain poured down on them. Then Kazon’s weeping...suddenly stopped... “Who to trust....?” He said aloud, his hands moving away from his face. That same coldness that was once in his eyes had now returned tenfold. He looked down to Ouspi’s body, then pulled that rugged black trench coat from the instructor’s body, along with his two katanas. Kazon held the items in his arms as he stood, still a little wobbly. He gave his instructor one long last look with a face full of a mystrious determination, before turning to the direction of the Kreeper. “Trust no one....” ******************** NEXT TIME!!: |