The Plasma Shadow

  Chapter 2∩

  Darkness enveloped Mirana as she dropped through the unseen opening, but lines of Shadow Plasma traced out a grid on the floor, so she was able to anticipate the impact, and she landed nimbly. The platform she landed on was small, surrounded on three sides by a wall, with the space in front of her open to another drop-off. She jumped again, then repeated the process down two more landings – evidently she needed to work her way below whatever danger had awaited in the unseen pit that she had been avoiding in the room above.

  When she finally reached a real floor, the path ahead was straight and short. A door sealed behind her when she started down it, and after a short tunnel she was not surprised to find a large crystal set on a pedestal, essentially identical to the one she had encountered on the hidden moon. She stopped, taking a quick glance around to check for anything else that might be important, but as before the room was made of featureless stone, although there were some patches that glowed dimly above her– evidently some kind of bioluminescent fungus. As much as Mirana hated to rush into a situation she did not fully understand, she had gone to a lot of trouble to get here, and delaying would serve no purpose. She walked up to the crystal and took hold of it.

  Long has this power waited for you, Shadow Master. The fact that you are here without having destroyed the Enemy means that our hopes are in jeopardy. Are you determined to complete your mission at any cost?

  “I am.”

  Then receive your final lesson. The Plasmic energy that flows through your body can augment your body, as you know. And as you also know, your command of it is very strong when the power is focused near you. Through extensive study, we have learned to convert raw power into solid matter. Within a limited range, you can call this matter into being in the form you choose. Doing so will drain your power quickly, but it can give you a powerful advantage when the Shadow Plasma itself cannot help you.

  Mirana watched as images of ancient Shadow Masters passed before her. Overwhelmed by their ‘Enlightened’ enemies, they had called forth armor and weapons out of nowhere to turn the tide of battle. Other times they would wrap themselves in the material of their surroundings to hide in an area where a Shadow field might have been detected.

  “It looks useful,” Mirana observed. “So this crystal is just going to make me able to do this?”

  The crystal will connect you to the power reserve we left and to the materialization matrix that will let you access it. It took much of this planet’s energy to hold this reserve. See that you use our power to its full potential.

  “I’m ready.”

  Know that there is much more that the power can do. But we could not transfer these other abilities here. Once you have destroyed the Enemy, memories will awaken, and you may begin a quest to recover the age that was lost. But none of this will serve you as long as they live. They must all be destroyed.

  A deep, purple glow flared out from the crystal, and Mirana felt its power rush from her hands, up her arms, and through her whole body. It lasted for a few seconds, building as it went, and the light from the crystal intensified. Finally it culminated in a bright flash and a final rush of power, and then the light was gone. Even the crystal had gone dark, leaving the cavern lit only by the pale glow from above her. Already, though, Mirana felt different, more aware of the Plasmic energy near her. And there was a fragment of a memory too, about this room. The way back had been sealed; she was going to have to find another way, and that meant going up.

  Mirana walked to the wall and touched it, giving her eyes time to adjust to the darkness. The surface was very rough, but it did not provide much in the way of handholds, and if she remembered correctly it angled inward as it went up, so that climbing would involve hanging upside-down. Scaling it would be clearly impossible without equipment. Which she supposed was the point. Focusing her power around her hand, she brought the Plasma to bear in a Shadow field, then willed it to solidify around the rock she was touching.

  To her exhilaration, the dark energy responded, molding into a rock-like texture around her hand that reached into every little crevice she was touching. Mirana raised her foot off the ground and pressed her boot to the rock, and again she was able to attach it by creating a thin covering over her foot. Using the new foothold, she pushed up and attached her free hand and foot. She tested her weight against the seals she had created and found that she was quite securely anchored. Feeling a rush of excitement at this new power, Mirana moved upward, releasing the covering on one limb at a time. She moved up past the lowest of the glowing fungus, and soon she could see an opening in the ceiling. Even as the rock curved toward the opening, leaving Mirana hanging almost completely upside-down, she was able to maintain a solid grip, letting the hardened Plasma find enough tiny crevices to support her weight.

  She was almost to the hole when the whole cavern shook, dislodging one of her feet and taking her breath away with the unexpected noise. After catching her breath and repositioning her foot, Mirana started across the ceiling again, but a second tremor shook the room. This time she just stayed put, waiting out whatever was going on as low rumbles continued to shake the room. What it would take to do that to the inside of a mountain was not something she liked to imagine, but it was clear that she needed to get out quickly. When several seconds passed without further tremors, Mirana continued across the ceiling and up into a narrow vertical passage, which led to a regular-looking tunnel, dimly lit by more of the pale fungal growths.

  Finally back on her feet, Mirana hurried down the passage, hoping it would lead her to an exit soon. As far as she could tell, she was actually moving away from the room with the hidden pit that she had entered from, but since she did not know where the original canyon-cave had gone, it was not unreasonable to think that it might meet up with the path she was now taking. To her surprise, though, the path ended in a dead end. She frowned, looking around for a hint of another way, but there was none.

  Mirana turned back to the end of the path; the floor was flat right up to the rock wall that sealed the way forward. She pressed close to it and tried to sense what was on the other side. It was not easy; she was not really used to sensing things through the ether other than her own power. But something told her that the barrier was relatively thin. To test the theory, she created a hard covering over her hand and knocked on the stone, then on the wall to one side. The sounds were definitely different. Satisfied that she was meant to break through the barrier, Mirana increased the mass of the covering on her hand, hoping to turn it into an effective club. When it was so heavy she was having trouble holding it up, Mirana took a wide swing and slammed it into the stone barrier. The rock gave way with a satisfying crunch, revealing an open space through the hole. After a few more swings, Mirana had a doorway wide enough to pass through. She carefully peered through into the cavern beyond.

  This room was dark like the others she had passed through recently, but it was much wider. She was about halfway up a cliff face that dropped straight down into a subterranean lake. The pale glow was here too, but only from below the water’s surface. On the opposite wall, near the very bottom of the lake, Mirana could sense a Shadow field marker. That had to be the way out. But the lake was deep, and it was bound to be freezing, if the waterfall she had stepped through earlier was any indication. Feeling a little irritated at all the trouble she was being put through just to get out of this place, she started experimenting with her power again.

  Her goal was to create some kind of wetsuit. It was easy enough to cover herself, but the material had to allow movement, too, and for some reason a rubbery substance was turning out to be harder to materialize than the solid covering had been. The image of fish scales flashed through her mind, and Mirana modified her covering, constructing it out of individual plates joined by just a thin layer of flexible material. Flippers for her feet were no problem at all. When she was done, she felt a little odd, standing there covered in her makeshift scales, looking like some kind of aquatic myth. To put
a finishing touch, Mirana decided to construct a transparent face plate, along with an air sack on her back attached with a hose. When she was satisfied that she could move, she jumped clear of the ledge and plummeted toward the water.

  She hit with a huge splash, but once she had oriented herself she found that swimming was fairly easy. Gradually adding Plasmic mass to the covering on her hands, she let her suit’s weight drag her down as she propelled herself forward through the dark water with the flippers. She held her breath as long as she could, realizing that the uncompressed air she had brought along would only be good for a few breaths. Finally she was at the marker at the bottom, which looked to her normal sight like a continuation of the stone wall. When she moved through it, the welcome sight of daylight met her eyes from the rippling surface on the far side of the water above. Mirana quickly shed the extra weight she had added and surfaced.

  This end of the lake was a little bigger than what she had seen inside the cave, but this time it led to an actual shoreline. Mirana immediately recognized the sky as showing through a false ceiling, and from the cliff walls ringing the lake and continuing up the shore it seemed that she had come out in the same canyon-cave she had started in. She made her way to the shore and let her scaly wetsuit vanish back into the ether, leaving her dry and smiling at her ingenuity. But her sense of self-satisfaction was immediately replaced with caution as a faint scraping sound hit her ears. It seemed to be coming from up the valley, and something told her that X was not the one making it.

  Mirana wrapped herself in a familiar Shadow field and hurried up the path, which narrowed quickly as she went. She had scarcely left the lake behind when she came upon a rock slide that blocked that path. It was crawling with at least ten red Vortak. Some were even moving along the walls. Mirana clenched her fist and gritted her teeth. She had not expected a battle quite so soon, but she was certainly not going to let these creatures stop her now.

  Moving quickly toward the rock slide, Mirana formulated her plan. The fastest way over the rocks would be to use the enhanced grip technique she had discovered earlier, but something told her that doing that would involve becoming visible. On the other hand, these creatures would not be able to use any long-range weapons on her, so as long as she could manage to become visible only when confronted with one or two, she should be able to continue forward.

  As she reached the base of the stone rubble, Mirana angled toward a spot that was relatively clear of Vortak. She climbed as far as she could and then dropped her Shadow field so she could fuse her hands and feet to the rock and scale a large boulder. The creatures immediately spotted her, and two rushed toward her immediately. Mirana stopped mid-climb just long enough to fire a Shadow bolt into the nearest, knocking it aside. She reached a solid landing in time to dispatch the second Vortak with another Shadow bolt, and then she was invisible again, scrambling in a different direction.

  The creatures had a fairly good idea of her location now, though, especially as she could not help dislodging small stones here and there, and by the time she reached the next steep climb, it was clear that she was not going to make it without dealing with the creatures first. Instead, she re-created the suit from before, only with thicker scales and spikes on her hands and forearms. She rushed toward the first Vortak, meeting its clawed limb with her armored hand and driving her other fist into its face. She followed that up with a kick, augmented with the Shadow power charging within her, and the creature fell away. Mirana turned just in time to meet the rush of two more Vortak. She had to move quickly to avoid exposing herself to both at once, and the limbs of the closest one moved so fast that it took all of Mirana’s training to keep blocking. Finally her opponent put too much force into a swing, and Mirana was able to use its momentum to turn it away and grab it from behind. Before it could turn and counterattack, she anchored herself to the ground and threw the creature she had just grabbed into the second, stunning them both just long enough for her to blast them with twin beams of dark energy from her hands. By the time Mirana realized the third Vortak had already launched itself from above, the only thing she could think to do was to crouch down and create long spikes on her back. The spines broke as the Vortak fell on them, and Mirana rose quickly to toss the creature away. She began to climb again, already having trouble keeping track of all the creatures moving toward her.

  When she reached the top of this second mass of rock, Mirana was able to vanish again and dash down a slight slope that led to yet another sharp incline. As she ran, Mirana had to question the wisdom of whoever had caused this rock slide. Presumably it was to discourage further exploration, but were it not for this obstacle, getting past these creatures would have been so much simpler.

  Again Mirana started her next attack with bolts of black fire, but she was not sure how long she would be able to keep up that attack; the Vortak she hit at any kind of distance did not stay down for long. Her armor let her dispatch another of the creatures that got in too close, but now the others were gathering a short way off, preparing to rush her together. Mirana looked down at her hand, thinking. She had never really been a fan of blade weapons, but at this point she really needed something to throw. As the Vortak started to advance, Mirana crafted a three-pointed blade with barbed tips and hurled it at one of the Vortak. It stuck, causing obvious injury. Mirana followed up with two more, and then she was surrounded again. She created knives this time, and the Shadow Plasma obeyed her command to make the tips extremely sharp; each thrust put a Vortak on the ground. When there were so many on her that they threatened to overwhelm her with their sheer mass, Mirana sent out a wave of dark energy, knocking them all back.

  Then she was climbing again, risking less time to secure each grip so that she could move faster. One creature was rushing at her from the ridge she was working toward, and each time she fired a Shadow beam it managed to duck behind something. Mirana panicked when the creature started coming down right on top of her, but suddenly a new thought occurred to her; when the Vortak was almost within reach, Mirana coated the rock above her with a completely flat sheet of hardened Plasmic energy. The Vortak lost its grip and fell, its parting swiping attack denting Mirana’s makeshift armor as it passed. Mirana finished the climb and vanished again.

  Now the path was all downhill, and Mirana took it at a near run, reappearing only for brief moments to cling to the rock and slow her descent until finally she was back on the ground. Most of the Vortak were behind her now, and each time she encountered a new one she was able to get right up next to it without being noticed. Her first instinct was to run past these, but she knew that the creatures behind her were already in pursuit, and each creature that she could remove from battle would increase her chance of survival. She ended up killing most of the remaining creatures as she ran past.

  Mirana slowed as the passage narrowed and she approached the entrance. For some distance near the start, the canyon really did open on the sky, and the idea of giving Nakmar Dren a clear shot at her in an enclosed space was not very appealing. The thought of being trapped between him and the Vortak he had sent in after her was worrisome as well. All of a sudden Mirana was feeling terribly unprepared, in spite of her newfound abilities. How had those Vortak gotten in here, anyway? Why hadn’t the moon base taken them out – not to mention Garodus? How had they made it through the corridor? Briefly Mirana considered trying to collapse the passage behind her, but it was very tall, and even if she could create some sort of wall across the ground, those insect creatures would just pass through higher up. In any case, they could not be far behind her now. She was going to have to find out what was going on outside.

  When she could see the entrance to the split in the cliff, Mirana sent a stream of invisible energy out into the air in order to see just how far she had before the Enemy’s marker would take effect. The green light appeared close to the opening, and Mirana walked as far as she could without stepping into its range.

  Suddenly a familiar voice called out from the clearin
g beyond. “You have kept me waiting, Shadow Master. You may show yourself; I’ll keep my distance for now. I have a message to deliver before I kill you, and I don’t want to send you running for cover just yet.”

  Still well back into the canyon, Mirana let her Shadow field drop; it would be useless now. Part of her wanted to race out there and finish this, but she forced herself to take stock of her situation. She realized that she actually felt fairly strong, in spite of her continued use of her new abilities; evidently the infusion of power the crystal had given her had not quite worn off yet. And while Mirana could think of several dangers that Dren might have in store out there, there was certainly nothing to be gained here. “I’m ready,” she said to herself, then strode out of the canyon.