Victor popped the Metamorphs with bullets. They froze in place and he kicked them into pieces.

The others were on him right after they dealt with the remaining Metamorphs in the caves. This deep down, he could feel the air starting to get hard to breathe. Professor Cooper had helped them pack some breathing masks for the trip, but it would only do so much for them.

They stepped into another open space that looked like an abandoned mining spot.

“Another Haven Point,” Chekhtana chimed in unannounced. He jumped onto one of the little shacks there and laid himself against the wood.

“Haven Points?” Victor asked him as he stowed the pistols.

“The Altessssians use them. Caves may change but the Haven Pointsss do not,” Chekhtana replied. He chewed idly on one of the wooden beams covering the top of the shacks.

“What’s the point of keeping them around? Wouldn’t it be better to tear it down once the work’s done?” Victor asked while the others explored around the room.

“They sserve as landmarks for the Altesians. The layout of the caves is alien to the Stars above, but the Altesianss can alwaysss tell. It is… defensive,” Chekhtana told him.

“You should write that down, Vic. The Professor would love to know all that,” Amadeus replied.

Victor nodded in agreement but didn’t get to it immediately. Instead, he looked around the place in search of Seeds or treasures they could use. The Altesians wouldn’t be there to hound them as long as the Vintarics were in Los Angeles.

And the bugs weren’t much for navigation, which made it all the easier to avoid them. All apart from Chekhtana, but he was an outlier from the start.

“How close are we to Scepter’s hideout?” Ashley asked the bug while he bit off another piece of the roof.

“Close…” Chekhtana replied, but it was tinged with nervousness. Victor chuckled. He could tell a Vintarics emotions by the sound of their voice now.

I need to get out more, He thought to himself. The claustrophobic tunnels didn’t make it any better. To distract himself, Victor went over to Leo by the edge of one of the holes leading out of the Haven Point.

“Find anything yet?” Victor asked him.

“Not with the range I’m getting,” Leo replied.

“Want me to hold you up for a better connection?” Victor joked.

“Let me connect to a better Wifi first,” Leo quipped back.

He had a little pouch beside his waist that he reached into. All throughout the trip, he’d been cutting and dislodging little gems from the walls of the caves while they moved around. He’d stuff them into the pouch and keep on moving forward.

When Leo pulled out a little emerald, Victor realized what it was for. He crushed it in his hands like it was made of sand and the dust wafted away from his hands. Leo then slammed them back down into the ground and let out a deep breath.

“It’s close by. There’s a massive crystalline structure down there. We just need to follow… that path,” Leo said.

He pointed to one of the holes and started moving.

Victor rounded up the rest of the group while he did. The hardest was Chekhtana, as the Vintaric didn’t seem keen on leaving its resting place.

“You’re not leaving until we meet this Scepter,” Victor told him as he peeled Chekhtana off of the roof. He jumped down as the bug wriggled in his arms and forced it onto the path.

“The Professsssor was kinder than you,” Chekhtana spat at him.

“That was a trick. You’re just a lab rat to him. At least I’m honest with the way I treat you,” Victor snapped back.

They continued down the winding path, even when they met with walls in their way. Leo would clear them up quickly for them using his Seed, and they’d continue further down towards their destination.

Several traps laid in their path as they walked. Pit traps, spikes and boulders that threatened to crush them. but Leo would move a single piece of rock to disable them, or Victor and Amadeus would shoot them till they broke into little pebbles.

All the while the crystals in the walls grew more abundant. The colours shined even down this deep into the caves, giving no reason for them to use flashlights. Leo wanted to collect as many samples as he could of each crystal they found, but Victor pulled him forward regardless.

They finally reached a hole at the end of the path that looked different from the others. It was more grandiose, leading into a room that was carved entirely out of glowing crystals. Inside of the room was a throne surrounded by corpses and belongings of a hundred different kinds. They looked like trinkets stolen from above, helmets of Angelos and dried up skeletons of other Vintarics.

The smell wafting through the cave would’ve been unbearable had it not been for the respirators the group had brought along with them. As it was, they stayed back in fear of an ambush, and made a plan.

There were a thousand holes swirling in and around the caves they were in, and Victor darted his eyes between each and every one of them. There was nothing in them, not even a single sound echoing off of the walls. But something felt off about them, and Victor couldn’t shake the feeling.

When he looked closer, he realized it was the fact they were dark. No other place in the caves were as dimly lit as those holes. The Altesians usually made sure there was ample lighting in their paths, or so Chekhtana told them, which meant it couldn’t have been their work.

“The layout’s changed a little. I… I wasn’t the one who did it,” Leo said, fear leaking into his voice.

“Leo, can you close off the-“

A bullet pierced the air and embedded itself in the wall right next to Ashley’s face.

“That wasss a warning shot, humanssss. Leave now,” a female voice sounded from the whole the bullet had come through. The figure was shrouded in darkness, and when Leo shined a light onto it, it recoiled.

The Vintaric was large, big as an Adult, and had a shiny blue mottled shell that reflected light like the crystals around them. it was as if she was made of moving sapphires, with her piercers formed into the shape of a sniper rifle.

“We’re not here to fight,” Amadeus pleaded, holding his hands up.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Though he found it stupid, Victor still took his arm off of his holster and let it down. Worse came to worst; he could hide behind Chekhtana for a few shots.

“We’ve brought offerrrrings for you, Scepterrr,” Chekhtana said meekly.

Her antennae twitched in response to Chekhtana’s words. Amadeus pulled down his pack and kicked it over to her with his hands still raised. Pistols spilled out of the pack, discarded ones they’d found all over the city. Scepter’s arms unfolded from the sniper rifled and instead formed back into sharp blue claws once more.

The crystal blue Vintaric immediately jumped out of her hole and down towards the pack in front of them. Victor swallowed, taking in her size up close. She sniffed at the offerings and moved them around with her claws, but Scepter never ate a single one.

“I do not like thessse,” she announced, before pulling her head up to look at them.

“Tell us what you do like then. I promise, me and my people will… try to procure it for you,” Victor said, forcing the words out of his mouth.

He hated parlaying with someone like her.

“Even if you brrrring me a whole arrrrmourrry, I will not do it,” Scepter told them.

“What do you want us to do then?” Victor asked.

“Whateverrr you wisssh. It is none of my concerrrn.”

The crystal blue Vintaric walked past them and into her cave once more, with the group following closely behind her.

Though she’d said she didn’t like them, Scepter accepted the offerings regardless. When Victor got a close look from behind, he realized it was because she was emaciated. Not as full as the other Vintaric Adults he’d seen.

Scepter lounged on the large throne in the center of the room, playing with the skulls and trinkets she’d gathered for herself.

“You said she was the one who defeated Altar. What’s wrong with her?” Victor asked Chekhtana angrily.

“SSShe is not in the rrright state,” Chekhtana replied. “Something isss wrong with herr.”

“She’s insane,” Amadeus added. The giant bug was holding one of the skulls in her claws and nuzzling it.

“How long have you been down here?” Victor asked her. Her antennae twitched, and Scepter turned towards him once more.

“Yearrrs.”

“You were here even before the Fall?” Victor asked.

“The Fall?” Scepter asked.

That was enough of an answer for him.

“Why did you even come down here? There’s nothing for a Vintaric to eat,” Ashley said. She’d been scrounging through one of the many piles in the cave, only to come up with nothing.

“Altarrr…” Scepter said with disdain and fear. “He kept sending enemiesss. I had to rrrrunn. But not farrrr. I could only find… the cavessss. I shaped them, hid in them, deeperrr and deeeperrrr until he could not get me.”

“And no one else could either,” Victor said.

“But you did,” Scepter told the group. There was a manic look in her eyes that faded quickly after. It was like embers starting to smoulder, only to wink out a second later.

“Why did you want to kill Altar?” Victor asked her.

“We choose the strongest among usss asss leaders. I thought I was ssstrrongerrr,” Scepter said, as if it was a plain fact.

“And you’ve been running away ever since?” Ashley asked her. The young woman walked right up to the Vintaric to stare it in her face.

“Altarrr is too strrrong now. He has Sseeeds that I cannot match,” Scepter said. And then a moment later, “It is hopelessss to fight him.”

“Look all around you! Didn’t you take out all of these monsters?” Ashley asked her.

“Yess…”

“You even took down Angelos! What do you mean you’re too weak to fight him?” Ashley said with indignation.

“He will ssend morrre. And if I kill him, morreee will grow afrrraid of me. And then morrree after those. It will neverrr end as long as I have ssstrength,” Scepter replied.

“So, you’ll stay down here and wither away instead? For a legendary figure of the hive, you sure turned out to be a joke,” Ashley taunted the Vintaric. Scepter took it as an insult, and Victor realized he should’ve stopped her before.

The air around Ashley grew hotter, and Victor wanted to place a hand over her mouth before she could say anything else.

Before he could, however, Scepter rose and screeched at her instead.

“Damn it, Ashley!” Victor said.

Scepter’s hands formed into a sniper rifle as flames erupted all across her body. Ashley bathed her in fire and only stopped once the Vintaric was fully covered.

Once the flame vanished, Scepter remained. Parts of her body were singed, but she seemed more annoyed than hurt.

She aimed the sniper rifle at Ashley. Leo raised stone over the Vintaric’s footing and the shot went wildly off-target. Scepter shrieked once more and Chekhtana took the opportunity to run.

The bullet Scepter had fired hit the ceiling and let loose some crystals from it. They fell onto the ground where Leo picked them up. He crushed the sapphires in his hand and formed a spike of earth so sharp it cut through Scepter’s carapace.

The Vintaric formed her other appendages into sniper rifles as well, shooting them at Leo. A single shot was loud enough to get their ears ringing, and Victor knew they had no hope of surviving a single shot.

Red lightning raced across Scepter’s body while she tried to reload. It sapped her strength and staggered the monster, letting Victor get in close. He placed a hand against the Vintaric’s body and focused.

Slowdown.

The Vintaric moved like it was walking through water. The others pelted her with more of their attacks, hurting and charring the Vintaric where they could. But through it all, they didn’t notice the ground coming up to swallow them.

None of them except Leo.

“Ash!” He shouted for his sister and pushed her away. In her place, his feet were trapped in the ground. Amadeus was trapped too, and the two of them began sinking deeper into the dirt.

Scepter jumped from the ground to the wall, and hung there while she reloaded.

“I CANNOT FIGHT HIM! NOT ANY LONGER!” Scepter shouted madly as she reloaded her sniper rifles.

Victor and Ashley were her only targets, having forgotten the others as soon as their arms were entrapped.

“Why’d you have to taunt the crazy monster?” Victor asked her.

“I’ve got a plan. She just needs a bit more of a push,” Ashley told her.

Scepter took shots at them from across the room while Victor and Ashley dodged. They sent fireballs and bullets towards the Vintaric, but she’d just jump to another spot.

The ground was torn up from the fight and dirt and dust cluttered the air after every earth-shaking shot from Scepter’s rifle. But that very clutter gave Victor an idea.

“Ashley, taunt her some more!”

Without waiting for an explanation, Ashley got to it.

“Was your aim always this bad or did you lose that down here too!?” Ashley shouted at the monster.

Scepter shrieked and fired more frantically into the ground. Shrapnel hit Ashley right in the forearm and she screamed, but no one was around to help.

She continued darting all over the place, taunting Scepter every free breath she could take. She only hoped it was enough for Victor, because she couldn’t see him anymore in the cloud of dust.

Across the room, hidden behind the veil of dirt was where the Timewalker stood. He had his dual pistols aimed at Scepter and ready to go. The infused bullets were waiting to be used, and he just needed a single clean shot.

When the Vintaric cocked her rifle once more, Victor took the shot. Twin bullets of ice and fire streaked through the air and hit Scepter in the abdomen. They weren’t the strongest, but they had his Slowdown built right into them.

Victor smiled as the Vintaric slowed and he took his next shot.

Blue flames erupted along Victor’s guns, and flame bullets cocked in the chamber. He fired those doubly enhanced bullets and knocked Scepter right off of the wall.

The large Vintaric fell right into the cloud of dust, away from Amadeus and Leo. Ashley and Victor popped out of it at the same time, and he gave her the signal.

Flames bigger than Victor could muster flew around Ashley and snaked into the cloud. An explosion rocketed out from the area and covered the Vintaric from head to toe. The It lit up instantly, reflected across the crystalline walls of the chamber until they blinded the entire group.

Once those flames cleared, Scepter was left standing, but scarred and with both rifles held up.

“You…. humanssss,” Scepter said with a tired look.

“You can still fight?” Ashley asked.

“Of course!” Scepter said defiantly.

And Ashley smiled despite her wounds.

“Doesn’t sound like you from five minutes ago,” Ashley told the giant monster.

Scepter paused. She looked down at herself and the weapons she wielded. And then back up at Ashley.

Ashley moved forward despite her wounds. Victor wanted to follow but she waved him down.

“You’re strong. Really strong. What makes you think you can’t fight Altar now? Look what you did to the four of us,” Ashley told the monster.

“He is….” The defiance died in Scepter’s mouth.

“You can fight. And with our help, you’re not just going to get in a few hits, but win,” Ashley said. But the Vintaric still seemed a bit hesitant.

“And you’ll get control of the Stolkatan Hive as well. Didn’t you want that?” Victor asked.

More of the passion returned to the Vintaric’s voice after that. She offered an extended claw to Ashley, and the woman shook it with glee, despite her bloody teeth and limp arm.

Chekhtana popped out later once he realized the fighting was done. Victor would’ve thought he’d escape, but it seemed the Vintaric quite liked the food the Professor had been giving him.

With a new ally in tow, the group left the depths of Scepter’s caves through tunnels she had carved herself. She’d used them to find food to sustain herself from above ground, before retreating backwards.

Once they were near the Los Angeles Gate, they popped back on through and made a plan.