Flying down the dimly lit emergency tunnel, the intrepid duo whooped their way down to the heart of the underground complex, a sprawling system of caves stretching from the equator to both poles of the superterran planet. The organic stairway grown from the tree they were descending down had quickly proven to be a challenge for the less physically accomplished augur, and so the two had decided to ride the emergency lift to the bottom.

“Finch, let’s go again!” The bulky wraith exclaimed, “I haven’t had that much since Karoth.”

“Maybe later man, we still have that wraith to take care of remember?” Finch reminded him as they regained their wits. They still had a long way to go before reaching tartarus, the prison block he managed as part of his domain.

The two walked past the entrance and made their way to the airways, waving aside groveling guards all along the way. Finch couldn’t help but grin as they entered the giant wooden tube that glowed blue from the copious amounts of pollen used to lift travelers off the ground and propel them great distances in the blink of an eye.

“I never get tired of that,” the smug sprite gloated to his friend, “Maybe you’ll experience the feeling one day too if you work hard enough Bernard, but probably not right?” He ended in a mocking tone.

“Of course, I’m not a power hungry monster like you,” He grinned back, jumping out of the station and into the embrace of the force distribution network of microscopic spores. “But I can still beat you all day in here, last one to there’s a withered augur!” He called back as he hurtled down the tunnel.

Grumbling a little at his friend’s early start, Finch shot off the platform and propelled himself hundreds of meters per second after his friend. The airways were seldom used by the various personnel living and working in the underground complex, and most couldn’t handle such high speeds anyways. These tunnels were made for transporting troops and allowing the various lords to maintain their territories, though obviously Bernard had bestowed upon them a new calling. After several minutes of traveling he finally reached their destination, crashing into his previously gloating friend to break his momentum.

“God, you fucking asshole,” the younger sprite complained, “what do you think the stabilizers were made for? You’re gonna get us both killed one day you know that?”

“I thought the great wraith captain could handle it, you did beat me in that race right?” Finch grinned. Ignoring his annoyed friend’s muttering he exited the rather plain station, a single cavern with only a few seats to rest and recover in, leading the way to the gargantuan prison they had been making their way towards.

After inserting his whiskers into the scanner, the still grinning lord of the underworld led his friend through a set of doors and onto a high walkway over a massive prison block. “This is it bro, time to get serious,” He cautioned his friend as he summoned an overseer to attend to them. Bulbous on one side and flat on the other, a floating bot flew up and out of the prison, intercepting them as they crossed over the brightly lit chasm.

Inserting his long, slender fingers into the edges on the flat side of the robotic prison warden, Finch started going through the prison’s private network, searching for the specter that was the cause of his worries. Unfortunately, it seemed that destiny had different ideas about what should happen. At precisely the time that the strange ripple reached the planet, the ghostly being had gone berserk and escaped somehow from its confinement.

“It looks like we’ll have to go hunting,” he shook his head, “that thing is definitely on the loose. And angry too by the looks of it.”

“Perfect,” Bernard made a rather painful expression, “I don’t suppose you’ve got any other good news for me, do you? Let me guess, the inmates are also out right?”

“Actually yes,” Finch replied after a moment of looking through the overseer’s report, though with none of the usual glee that would normally accompany such a statement, “It looks like we’ll have our hands full for a little while.”

“Well isn’t this just perfect,” the ape-like wraith repeated himself, the feelers growing from his limbs and spine rippling with dissatisfaction, “I swear this system never seems to work when we really need it.”

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“When it rains, it pours right?” Finch walked over to the ledge, “It’s actually intentional though, we don’t want the thing getting hungry and coming up before we can send someone to take care of it right?” Grinning he glanced over at the somewhat uncomfortable soldier, “Now drop us down to the bottom, we need to hurry up.”

“You’re a real slave driver you know that?” Bernard picked up the smug augur and shoved him in an uncomfortable position down a newly formed pouch on his midrift, taking on a vague resemblance to the kangaroo’s of earth. “Comfortable?” he asked while growing shock absorbers inside and around various parts of his body, “because ready or not, here we go.”

Taking a plunge from the walkway, the two left the overseer far behind as they hurtled down into the chasm that decorated the enormous cavern known as tartarus. For eighteen seconds they fell, going much farther down than they had down the tree to get to the underground caverns. After several hundred meters of free fall the behemoth of a sprite landed on his feet before promptly falling onto his ass, his whole body vibrating and several vines thrashing to get redirect the excess momentum.

“Remind me never to do that again,” Finch groaned as he stuck his head out of the pouch, “I think i’m gonna puke.”

“Oh don’t be such a baby,” Bernard retorted, “it wasn’t that bad. I handle worse pretty much every other week. And didn’t you say to get serious? Get out man, we don’t have all day”

Clumsily crawling out and then proceeding to fall on his face, Finch finally started to collect himself. With a slight sway in his step he walked towards another tree, one of the few that graced this area. Pitch black with pure white leaves, the monochromatic monstrosity loomed over the even a fifteen foot wraith like Bernard.

“Time to finally get this show on the road,” Finch muttered to himself as he walked through the rippling trunk of the enormous tree. Before going all the way through he turned and looked back at his friend with a grin, “Follow me Bernard, I doubt you’ve ever been inside of the actual prison, and it would be bad if you got lost.” Then, without another word, he was gone.

Bernard stared agape at the now very inconspicuous tree, he had never thought the entrance to the prison would be hidden behind such advanced technology, or even that this apparent portal even existed. After a few more moments of staring, he hurried to follow Finch through the portal.

Walking inside the tree proved to be a strange experience even compared to the warrior’s expectations. As he walked inside the trunk he could feel reality shifting and warping around him, causing his body and even spirit to ripple. This strange passage to the prison was completely dark except a bright spot of light at some point ahead of him, and without any sign of Finch he could only try to get to the source of that light. With each step images would flash across reality, scenes of his childhood as a rather small sprout living in the capital city of their glorious planet, alfheim, his life as a soldier fighting the rival tribe of slimy freaks that had been vying for their territory, and everything in between. After what seemed to be the entirety of his life was displayed around him, the glowing speck of light started to glow brighter and flew into his chest.

“So it was an actual speck, not a door,” Bernard pondered while stroking his whiskers, “but now what do I do?”

“You open your eyes,” came a voice from behind him. Jumping up in shock the wraith sprang away from the presence before realizing who it was. Strangely enough he found he had his eyes closed as well, and when he opened them he found himself in an even stranger place than before.

“What do you think?” a monochromatic Finch grinned at him, obviously reveling in his confusion, “Perfect place for a prison right?”

“Where are we?” the big man managed to stutter out, obviously a bit overwhelmed by the place, “How did you manage something like this?”

“The miracles of science my friend,” the augur’s grin grew even wider, “I created these trees myself a couple centuries ago, it’s why I’m the lord of the underworld today.” Allowing the grin to fade away Finch reminded his friend of the dangers, “Right now though we need to get to work, this entire area is infested with imprisoned invaders, and once they know we’re here things will start to get messy.”

“Understood,” the wraith gave a short reply, scanning their surroundings for any hostiles. As a seasoned veteran of the last 3 wars, he had plenty of experience fighting enemies in unfamiliar environments. He would be ready when the fighting started, and they would get out of this alive.

“There’s no need to be that serious man,” Finch reassured the big man, “We won’t be dealing with the rabble. Watch,” he gestured around them as their surroundings started to warp, “there’s only a few people in this godforsaken place that could get past this shield, and even then they would be easy to pick off with your strength once they got inside. The only problem is the wraith, that thing is going to be a little more trouble to take down.”

“I should have expected this,” Bernard murmured, “then let’s get going and finish the job, I’d rather not be wherever we are for long if I can help it.”

“Don’t worry bro, I got this,” Finch drawled, unaware of the danger that would inevitably come after so much buildup, “now let’s go.”