The Falling Word

[joelyou]

Kris pushed the button and the elevator quickly started to move downwards. Floor after floor it kept moving. Darion and Kris wondered if it would ever stop descending. Finally about 15 minutes later the elevator stopped and they emerged from the elevator room into a room that looked like a dark, old, abandoned parking lot. Cold air blew at them as they entered into the other room.

"I can't say that i enjoy this place to much." Darion said as he examined his surroundings.

[crazyichigo777]

Kristofer walked out into the room and pulled out a flashlight. He flicked it on and shone the light around the room. Cement support pillars were everywhere, but other than that, the room seemed empty.

"Should we split up and look around?"

[joelyou]

"Well I don't have any better idea... Just stay along the walls."
Darion said as he went off to the left with his arm extended and his fingers just barely brushing the cold cement wall.

Darion turned to look behind him after about a minute of walking, to see if his could still spot Kristofer but he saw nothing but darkness.

All of a sudden Darion noticed that his flashlight was beginning to flicker a die out. Then the hair on his arms started to rise. He quickly came to the conclusion that some kind of electro-magnetic current most be flowing through this basement... but from where... and from what.

Darion then out of the corner of his eye noticed a dim blue light shining from around a corner ahead of him.

[crazyichigo777]

Kristofer walked along the right wall, keeping close to it. He noticed that the farther he followed the brighter his flashlight became. He figured it must have been an electric field coming from the other direction. Even once his light reached it's full strength, darkness continued to swallow the light. It was eerie, but Kristofer shrugged it off.

Then he heard Darion yell for him from far off. In the echoing room, Kristofer wouldn't have been able to find Darion if he hadn't known where to look. It was unlike Darion to be loud when they didn't know who could be listening, so Kristofer knew it was important.

How important?

[joelyou]

Darion turned the corner and faced what looked like a small blue star.
It was about 2 stories high and perfectly spherical. It also was glowing blue and small flares of electric bolts constantly shot out of it.

Darion knew that this was important so he yelled as loud as he could for Kris.

He looked around and no one else could be seen guarding it, which made him curious. He thought that something like this would be something that they would find worthwhile protecting, or, knowing them, at least would be worth selling.

Kris, soon after, came to his side staring wide eyed at what was before him.

"Kris...' Darion said not taking his eyes off of the wonder,' The only reasons that no one would be here guarding this thing could be that they don't know it's here, or its to dangerous to keep an eye on..."

[crazyichigo777]

Kristofer stood in silence for a moment, then responded to Darion.

"I'm gonna say that they know it's here, it's kinda hard to miss, so it's gotta be dangerous."

Kristofer fired off a single shot at the sphere. A flare shot out to meet the bullet, consuming it in blue fire. The sphere seemed to be out of control for a second or two, spurting energy in all directions, but it soon calmed down. Kristofer looked at Darion, who seemed more than a little irritated.

[joelyou]

Darion never took his eyes off of the orb as it engulfed the bullet.

"Kris,' Darion said as he kept his eyes fixed on the sphere,' give me your compass."

Kris without hesitating took his compass out of his bag and handed it to him. Darion took it and examined the needle. It was pointing directly at the sphere. Darion walked around the sphere to the other side and looked back at the compass, still it was pointing at the sphere. He returned to Kristofer and handed him his compass.

"It's magnetic..."

[crazyichigo777]

Kristofer looked at the compass. Holding it out like that brought painful memories. It wasn't the time for reminiscing though, so Kristofer let them slip away as he put his compass away. Both men just stared at the sphere for another minute or two. Then Kristofer noticed a control panel on one of the nearby pillars.

"What's this?" Kristofer said, trying to read the labels in the low light. Kristofer could barely make out the word under the largest, most centered button.

"Compress"

Kristofer pushed the button. Four mechanical arms extended down from the ceiling. They started to spin around the sphere. The sphere began to shrink. It was soon the size of a baseball. Kristofer noticed the box that the two men had been carrying. It was open now, and seemed to be just the right size to fit the shrunken sphere inside it.

"This must be what they were carrying before." Kristofer picked up the box and noticed a gauntlet lying nearby. He looked at Darion.

"Think we should?"

[joelyou]

Darion, without hesitation went over and picked up the gauntlet and strapped it on tightly. Neither of them stopped to think why the gauntlet would have just been laying around, or why this artifact would not be protected, or even why the control panel was still operational.

Darion just walked up grabbed the steel box and slowly and carefully moved towards the sphere. The closer he made it towards the orb the harder he found it to move. By the time he was within distance of grabbing it he could barely lift his arm. He fell to the ground and began to pull himself along the floor towards it. He then reached for it and grabbed it. He felt a wave of heat and a wave of something he had never felt before surge through him. He didn't know if it was the feeling of having his life pulled out of him, or the feeling of a new life being thrust into him. Either way he knew that he must put the sphere in the box as quickly as possible. The thing was weightless, it almost felt as though it was floating in his hand. He placed it in the box and quickly shut the lid. He felt the weariness leave him and he stood up tightly gripping the box under his arm.

[crazyichigo777]

"Darion, are you ok?" Kristofer asked to his friend, who only nodded.

Kristofer took the box and examined it carefully. There was nothing special about the outside of it. He had seen that the inside had been lined with lead. Then he took a look at the gauntlet. It wasn't lead-lined, but Kristofer could tell it wasn't a normal metal gauntlet. He stuffed it in his bag.

"No doubt that set off an alarm, we should get moving.' Kristofer looked over at Darion, who was staring into the darkness, sweating a little, ' Are you sure you're ok?"

[joelyou]

Darion made no reply and motioned for Kristofer to follow him. They bean once again to follow along the wall. The whole time Darion's mind was racing with a countless thoughts.

As they were walking along the wall Darion stopped cold and and raised his hand to motion Kris to stop.

"Someone is there." Darion said listening intently for anything.

Suddenly a man clothed in black from head to toe leaped out at Kris and kicked him across the face, knocking him onto the floor. Darion quickly threw a punch at him, but the man deflected it and grabbed Darion by the neck and pushed him against the wall.

"Where is the star!" The man hissed.

Darion growled and grabbed the man's hand and twisted it until he released his grip on his neck. He then held the grip and pulled him to the ground, and gave him a swift hit across the back of his head, knocking him unconcious.

[crazyichigo777]

Kristofer got up, feeling his nose to see if it was broken. He walked over to the unconcious attacker. He then began to search the man's pockets. After a minute or two, Kristofer had found a dagger and several throwing knives, as well as card keys and a notebook filled with passwords and codes.

"There are probably a few more of these guys hanging around,' Kristofer turned to Darion, ' let's get moving before the come in bigger numbers."

[joelyou]

After they search the assailant they kept moving along the wall. This time they were a little more careful, and kept a closer watch on their surroundings.

After a good 10 minutes of walking they came to a heavy reinforced, sealed steel door.

"I would say that we should keep going...' Darion said as he examined the door,' But this may be the only way." He looked around for a little while for any keypad, lock or panel, to get them in... but they found nothing. for several minutes neither of them said a word, until they heard the sound of fast-moving footsteps come from across the darkness.

"We have to hurry!"

[crazyichigo777]

Kristofer pulled out the sword he found in the treasure room. It glowed dimly even without any light shining on it. The footsteps sounded closer. Kristofer found the doors latch and thrust his sword at it. Both Kristofer and Darion expected to hear a metal-on-metal "clang", but instead they heard something very different. They could hear the sound of steel being pierced and broken. The sword stopped when the hilt hit the door. Kristofer pulled the sword out and thrust it back into it's sheath. The door loosened from it's frame.

Kristofer pulled it open and both men quickly stepped through. They shut the door and held it shut. Kristofer pulled a plastic pouch from his bag. He placed it on the ground and pulled a piece of the broken handle off of the door. He wedged the piece of the handle under the door. Then he took the pouch and ripped it open. Inside was a metal rod with a plastic box at one end, and a plastic baggy containing a sticky putty of some kind. Kristofer opened the baggy and stuck the putty to the door. Then he opened the box at the end of the metal rod and pulled out a couple of wires. After pressing the metal rod into the putty, Kristofer secured the wires to the door with little pieces of the putty. Then he flipped a switch inside the box.

"There, that'll give 'em a good shock if they try to follow us that way."

[joelyou]

Darion stood quietly as Kristofer applied the trap to the door. After he had finished they began to walk down the dark hallway that they were now in. They completely ignored the sound of the men being electricuted by the trap that they set. The hallway that they were in was quite similar to the room they just left. It was cold, dark, and it seemed like it had no end to it. It did not take them to long before they (literally) ran into a ladder leading up.

They climbed up the ladder and pulled aside the seal at the top, emerging into a room that completely confused them. As soon as both Kris and Darion got out of the hole the seal moved itself back to its former place over the hole, trapping them in.

The room they were in was circular and brightly lit. It appeared to be an modern looking arena. It was indoors and was completely enclosed by darkly tinted glass on all sides.

Suddenly, as they were examining the place, a voice came over a speaker system.

"We have been expecting you."