Cry for Idola, Chapter 3: Hellfire

[SquashDemon]

my first PSO fic...bear with me...


Prolouge:
The Red Child


Rico stepped through the large transport at the center of the giant spaceship that had kept the entity Falz sealed away for who knows how long...
Conflict raged within her, exitment, fear, sadness, it all blurred into one unsettling feeling...
almost as if senseing her discomfort, Heathcliff patted her on the shoulder, Rico gave a weakened smile as she looked around...This was impossible, a beautiful landscape streached out before her, a large monument was directly in front of her, but what was really unsettling was the graves.
After getting a closer look at them her eyes widened in a mix of confusion and fear, "Mr. Flowen!" she exclaimed, "take a look," Heathcliff bent down and read one of the graves, then contorted his face to match Rico's, for the graves bore a list of all the men Heathcliff had commanded that had died here in these ancient ruins, wishing that they rest in peace. She knew it was impossible, she knew it couldn't possibly be real, but there it was etched in stone, "R-Rico" the old man stammered, which was never a good sign, she turned to see Heathcliff looking at another grave, but this one only had one name, it read:


This is the final resting place of
Rico Tyrell,
may she suffer for eternity...

Rico was filled with fear as she rose up, "this...this is impossible..."
The ground began to shake, causing Rico to trip and fall to her knees, unable to notice the light that had rose from the ground...
Heathcliff unsteadily regained his footing just in time to shout, "behind you!" but it was all too late...Rico cried out in fear as the unnatural light struck her in the back of the head, her body went rigid for a moment, then her eyes rolled up into her head as the light began to spread through the rest of her body, envoloping her completly, it began to change her, mutatating her to the point where no one would ever recognize her as Red Ring Rico...

The being before Heathcliff Flowen was no longer Rico Tyrell...
She was now the monstrosity known as Dark Falz...


well, it's not my best work, but please tell me what you think! I'll try to get chapter one up tomorrow...so untill then!!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SquashDemon on 2005-01-29 03:50 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SquashDemon on 2005-01-29 16:22 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SquashDemon on 2005-01-31 19:42 ]</font>


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SquashDemon on 2005-02-03 16:14 ]</font>

[TheOneHero]

Interesting, I look forward to reading more. http://pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[SquashDemon]

Chapter 1:
The Second Ship

Rico floated aimlessly within a large void...
how long had she been here like this? A day? A week? A year? she couldn't see...couldn't hear...couldn't think...couldn't cry out for help...but she could feel...and she felt fear...

Rena's eyes bolted open and she screamed out in terror, after taking a few deep breaths, she managed to say, "what a scary dream..." the young newman girl now struggled to remember it...something about a red armlet...and a light...Rena sighed and crawled out of her sweat-soaked bed and staggered into the shower. Pressing a few buttons, the soothing spray washed over her as she racked her brain trying to remember...it was something important..."aah phooey!" she shouted, for now she had forgotten it completely. Rena was a 16-year old newman, which meant that she was still guranteed about five more years, newmans have such short life spans that not many even see age 25, she was short for her age, but she made up for that with her carefree personality, making it a point to never sweat the small stuff. She liked things such as plushies and anime, her friend SquashDemon was probably to blame for that...
SquashDemon was a human boy with long hair who always dressed in black, and although he was also 16 he towered over Rena, and made it a point to stand up for her whenever someone made fun of her height. (or lack thereof) At first glance, people might see SquashDemon as a very serious kind of guy, one never to crack a joke, and they would be dead wrong, he was a very lively, if not a little hyper, kind of guy, which is why Rena liked him so much. SquashDemon, of course wasn't his real name, it was actually a nickname he recived as a child, but after a while everyone started calling him SquashDemon, and people forgot his real name entirely, which didn't seem to bother SquashDemon (or just Squash, for short) at all.
Rena thought about this as she stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around herself, he was her best friend, not to mention her only one...
She was walking past the door when the buzzer sounded, she smiled to herself 'well at least I wasn't IN the shower this time' with no time to dress properly, she threw the towel to the ground and pulled on a robe, tying it off she shouted, "Come in!"
the door slid open to reveal SquashDemon, accompanied by a small boy with green spikey hair who Rena had never seen before, "Hi Squashie, what's up?" 'Squashie' was Rena's name for him, only she was allowed to call him that, if anyone else did, they'd find a black-gloved fist lodged in one of their eyes...
"well, I brought someone shorter than yo-gah!" Squash was inturrupted by a swift kick to the shins from his green haired companion, who, now that Rena had time to notice, was dressed completly in orange.
"I'm not short! I'm just a late bloomer!" Screamed the wily spikey-haired kid as Squash hopped comically on one foot, "yes, yes I know, I know, anyways, this is my younger brother Josh, my parents had him move in with me just last night and he-" Josh inturrupted Squash again, with a shout of, "I'm ten!!" "yes we know Josh, anyways I was wondering if you wanted to go to one of the port windows with us, today's the day we're supposed to be landing on Ragol after all, so whaddya say?" Rena's eyes started sparkling, "are you kidding?!? of course! I'd love to! let's go!" she ran for the door but Squash caught her, unknowingly causing the robe's tie to fall off, "shouldn't you get dressed first?"
Rena looked up at him with a very what-on-Coral-are-you-talking-about look untill Josh, who had a very clear veiw of Rena's now unrobed waist area asked, "what's that?"

Residential Block 13-c was suddenly filled with a shrill shreik, "EEEEEEEEE!!!!"

A few minutes later, a fully-clothed Rena rode on a laughing Squash's shoulders, something they did rather often, due to the fact that Rena was so light, followed closely by a rather depressed looking Josh, with a sizable bump on his forehead, "I'm hungry, big brother!"
"yaknow, I am too..." Rena added.
Squash set Rena down, and checked his pockets, finally finding what he was looking for, he pulled out a few crystals of mesta, "yep, I've got enough...we can get something at the MacDoobie's"
"cool!" Rena beamed and then began to chuckle as Josh attempted to climb up to Squash's shoulders saying, "my turn! my turn!" Squash sighed, "You sure have a way with kids, huh Squashie?" Rena Chuckled, "yeah, and I wish I didn't!" Squash replied as the three made their way to the restauant and Squash set the protesting Josh down, "no fair! she had a longer turn!" the three sat down to eat, having fairly normal table conversation untill Josh dashed for the playset, Rena then got very serious, "Squashie...can I ask you something?" "anything" "last night...I had a dream...it was...really scary, there were flowers...and graves...and then there was this strange light an-" "easy, easy! slow down, Rena...what are you trying to tell me?" "I think that something terrible has happened on Ragol...and I'm scared...I'm scared for the people of Pioneer 1..." SquashDemon simply stared at her in confusion, "and most of all...I'm scared for Red Ring Rico..." Squash said nothing, then Rena laughed nervously, "look at me! getting all bent out of shape over a dream! you must think I'm crazy!" to which Squash replied, "not at all, because I had the same dream."
The two stared at each other with a mixture of fear and confusion in their eyes, not saying anything untill a certian green haired little boy said, "are you in love? are you gonna get married?" Squash turned a light shade of red and tried to say something, but the best he could come up with was "n-I-yo-th..." Rena giggled and told Josh, "yes, we are getting married, do you want to be the ring bearer?" Squash turned even redder but continued to sputter, unable to say anything, "ew! no! weddings are gross!"
Rena laughed, "oh well, I guess we'll have to postpone it then huh dearest?" she said before planting a kiss on Squash's cheek, which caused him to turn tomatoe red, and caused Josh to make gagging noises, "ewwww you guys are gross! I'm gonna be sick!" he then turned and ran back to the playset.
Rena continued laughing for a few minutes before settling down, and noticing that Squash was still blushing and sitting perfectly still, "Squashie? you okay?" Snapping out of it, the red-faced SquashDemon managed to say, "huh? oh! uh...y-yeah sure I'm fine!" he then looked down in embarrasment, for his voice had cracked when he said "I'm"
Rena giggled again then said after checking her watch, "oh no! we need to get going or we'll miss the landing!" SquashDemon's face began to slowly return to normal, "huh? oh, right. yeah let's go..."
he slapped a few mesta crystals on the table and followed Rena out of the restuarant, being closely followed by an angy Josh, screaming, "Hey! don't forget about me! where're you going?! wait up!!"


and thus the first chapter comes to a close...
if any of you are wondering, all the characters in the story are based on people I know.
stay tuned, the next chapter will feature the explosion and a good section of the forest, along with a special cameo by the awesome NPC, Great Sword Zoke!

[SquashDemon]

Chapter 2:
No Future

Rena, Squash, and Josh ran to the already crowded window in hopes of finally seeing what was going to be their new home. Currently, all they saw was a collage of colors whisking by; Dispite his failing Subspace Physics in high school, Squash still knew that what he was staring at was millions of galaxies, demensions, and entire realities whizzing by the ship, it was at this point that Principal Tyrell's voice came through the sound speakers, "attention all people of Pioneer 2, this is Principal Tyrell speaking, Pioneer 2 is now leaving subspace and preparing to establish a communications link with the Central Dome"
as he said this the colors and lights began to fade as Pioneer 2 left the wormhole and reentered normal space, "this is so exiteing!" Rena exclaimed as the people of Pioneer 2 got their first look at Ragol, it started off as a small bulish green dot, then it grew as the ship got closer, a few gasped in splendor as they saw through the clouds great lakes and rivers, mighty mountains and deep valleys, "Big brother, Rena, look! over there! the central dome!"
Josh exclaimed, and sure enough the great building that used to be Pioneer 1 was there, surrounded by a lush forest, "I guess neither of us had anything to worry about huh?" Squash said with a smile, "guess not..." Rena replied.

Rico tried to move, to think, to breathe, to do anything that proved she was still alive. A desire burned within her, a desire to be set free, to no longer be trapped within the darkness, she yearned for the light, the light she could not see, as she continued to feel, but this time...she did not feel fear...she felt anger...anger that was not her own...anger...and hatred...she was consumed by these powerful emotions, covered in them, suffocated by them...she wanted to be rid of them, she wanted to be free, she tried to move, to think, to call for help, but she couldn't...the anger was taking over, washing away all other feelings...Rico was no longer frightened...She was Furious...

"we will now establish a Communications link with the central dome." Principal Tyrell's voice boomed over the speaker, "so let's hope that line isn't busy" the joke got a few chuckles from the crowd, but Squash just groaned, muttering something about great leaders and lame jokes. Then the data beam was fired, and Central dome sent a beam of their own, just as the two beams crossed and the data download began, something shiney caught Squash's eye, "Rena..." he managed to say before the place that he was looking erupted into a huge explosion, enveloping the central dome and most of the forest around it, causing several gasps and screams from the crowd, "S-Squashie? what's going on?" Rena stammered in shock of what she just saw, "I don't know...but it's not good" Squash said with a deathly pale look on his face. After a few minutes, Principal Tyrell's voice returned through the speakers, "All Registered Hunters, Forces, and Rangers, report immeadeatly to your nearest Guild counter for an emergency audience with the Principal." This caused even more confusion amongst the crowd "what does this mean Squashie?" Rena asked as they made their way through the crowd, "Josh, go home, now!" SquashDemon commanded and handed Josh the keycard, "aww...just when it was getting good" the small boy pouted as he turned to leave, "It means, Rena, that we're all in a lot of trouble..."
the guild clerk directed Squash and Rena through the teleporter in the back that led to the principal's chambers, they stepped through and stood on the large platform that housed the director of the scientific department of Pioneer 2, the principal's secretary, and of course, Principal Tyrell himself, who, as the last few hunters had entered the room, began to speak, "I'm sure you all are wondering why you've been called here...during the small data transmission that was recived before the explosion, transporter coodinates were sent from Central dome, they lead to a point in the forest about 2 miles from Central dome; this is a request to all available hunters, go down to Ragol and survey the damage, check for any survivors, then return and bring a report to me. The teleporter will be operating in 72 hours, that is all."

It had only been a few hours since the explosion, but it was already all over the news, "...causing panic all over Pioneer 2, stay tuned for more details." Squash clicked off his TV, "I bet..."
Rena, Josh, and himself had been staying at his apartment, where they had been lounging around, trying to forget about what they just saw and heard, and failing. Rena was sprawled on the couch and Josh was sitting on an armrest while Squash was walking to the fridge "you guys want some sodas?" "sure," "yay!" Josh's childish enthusiasum slightly lightening the mood as Squash handed both of them their drinks and opened his own, taking a sip he noticed Rena was staring at him, "something you need to say?" Rena nodded but then glanced at Josh. Squash caught this and patted Josh on the back, "why don't you go play with your toys in the other room?" "okay! today Sonic is going to fight the Chaos monster! wanna come watch?" "...no that's okay, go have fun!" "oookay, but you're missing out!"
Josh shouted as he left the room, the door sliding shut behind him. "so what's up?" "you should already know..." "that dream?" She nodded, "I knew...something bad was going to happen...but I never expected this..." "me nither...what can you remember?" Rena closed her eyes breifly, then began to speak almost like she was telling the story of her life, mind, it was her voice, but it sounded like someone else was talking, "It was very dark, the place I came from, there were strange monsters everywhere, coming at me in waves...then I saw the red light, it led me to a place like a paradise, but it was tainted...a bright light flew at me...and...I'm sorry, I can't remember anything else..." Squash said nothing but reached under the couch and took out a flask, pouring some into his can he offered it to Rena who simply drank out of the flask itself then came back coughing. Squash
patted her on the back, "it's a little strong, sorry..." "it's okay Squashie..." she leaned against him and closed her eyes, "I'm scared Squashie...I'm really scared" "So am I Rena..."

Two days had already passed as Squash paced anxiously in his apartment dressed in his Hunter's frame, his Stag Cutlery at his hip, ready to take on anything that came at him. The buzzer sounded, "come in" door slid open, Rena stepped into the room, wearing her Force's hat and necklace, along with her shoes which slightly elevated her, bringing her to shoulder level with SquashDemon, "you ready?" "yeah..." they headed down to the Hunter's district and stepped through the warp to Ragol, unsure of what they might encounter, they both engaged their weapons and stepped further into the forest, "it's really quiet..." Rena remarked, "yeah...but there isn't any sign of the explosion...what happened to all the wildlife?"
A bush rustled nearby and an odd looking animal stepped out Rena jumped, "wh-whats that?" Squash slowly stepped in between the odd creature and Rena, "I don't know, but it might be hostile..." a twig snapped. Turning, Rena saw three more strange animals heading towards her, "Squashie!!" Squash glanced at the three animals for a second before deciding they were getting too close for comfort and depriving the one in front of him of it's right arm, he leapt sideways jamming one edge of his Stag Cutlery into the head of one of the animals, "They're not friendly!" Rena nodded then raised her staff and shot a fireball out of the tip, a technique commonly referred to as Foie, the flying ember plowed into one of the creatures, setting it ablaze, but not halting it's approach, Rena then charged foreward and jammed the photonic tip of her staff into the shoulder of the creature causing it to cry out in pain before falling to the ground while Squash twirled and slashed through the other two who both fell to the ground before they could fight back, but not before they could roar loud enough to attract the attention of a pack of wolves, as well as some more of their kind. The Hunter and Force were now neatly surrounded by the beasts, as they closed in, if one listened hard enough they could hear a sword being unsheathed and a gun being cocked...six photonic bullets flew at the beasts, knocking some of them down, and causing the others to flinch before lunging at Squash and Rena, Shino the android leapt out of the forest and shot down two more of the beasts as the man known as Great Sword Zoke tore through one of the beasts with his legendary swords, the Sange and Yasha, "the beasts are called Boomas," Zoke explained, "you'd do best not to be surrounded by them...

yay! writer's block over! for those of you wondering, Rena is using a Rod, not a Cane...but unfourunately I have to cut short this chapter, I share this computer with my siblings, please comment post!

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SquashDemon on 2005-01-30 20:46 ]</font>

[SquashDemon]

Chapter 3:
Hellfire

Squash gawked at the man who had just saved his and his companion's life, "you...you're Great Sword Zoke!" the black-clad ranger nodded, "the wild animals of Ragol are very vicious, you must exercise caution...carelessness will not be tolerated." Squash bowed and Rena, seeing this, did the same, "keep your wits about you, both of you, and we may meet again," and with that, Zoke dissapeared through the foliage followed closely by his servant Shino.

Rena and Squash cut their way through the forest, silently at first, but Rena found this rather uncomfortable, "Squashie?" "Yes?" "What did you see before the explosion?" "I'm...really not sure, it was like a glimmer, or a ripple...but it was land-locked...what really bugs me is if the wild-life was so hostile, why didn't Pioneer 1 warn us?" Rena sighed, "maybe...they wern't always like that...maybe the explosion changed them..." "Rena..." Squash trailed off as what looked like a giant purple sack floated down in front of them and began spitting out the largest mosquitoes ever seen, "this isn't good, is it Squashie?" Rena said after taking one of the Mothmants down with a powerful Zonde attack, "not at all!" Squash said as he jumped past the bugs and cut into the nest with his Stag Cutlery, only to find that the only thing he accomplished was making more bugs emerge, "dammit!" Squash screamed as he attacked, "why!" SLASH SLASH "won't!" SLASH "you!" SLASH SLASH SLASH "Die!?!" KA-SPLAT "kasplat?" a photonic bullet had blown off one of the viney 'legs' of the nest, causing it to fall. FOOM another barrage of photonic shots, taking down the remaining insects, Squash looked towards the source of the fire to see a rather human-looking RAcaseal, with blonde hair, caucasion skin, and blue coverings, she could almost be mistaken as a human if it wasn't for the large metallic 'ponytail' attached to the back of her head...
"Hello..." Squash said as he approached the Shotgun-cradeling Ranger, "my name is SquashDemon, and this is Rena Cartel." "Lealis" the andriod replied hesitantly, "you're a good shot...would you like to come with us?" Lealis looked pensive for a while before leveling her shotgun at Rena, who's eyes bulged, "No!" Squash cried as he leapt at the ranger just a second too late as she pulled the trigger, the photonic bullets flying toward Rena, one coming less than a centimeter close to her large ear, but flying past her completly and striking down a booma that was closing in on Rena. Squash, meanwhile, was on his knees completly out of breath, being kicked in the stomach by an angry andriod will do that to a guy, "R-Rena..." he gasped, unable to see that his blue haired compainion was completly fine, just a little shaken, she ran to Squash and kneeled next to him, both of her blue braids hanging over her shoulders as she spoke, "I'm fine Squashie, don't worry about me...start worrying about what Lealis did to you." The android remained expressionless, but turned and fled...

Rena looked at where the mechanical woman was standing, "that was wierd..." "yeah really..." Squash gasped as he staggered back to his feet and picked up his Stag Cutlery, which he had dropped when he was kicked, "I don't think she saved us on puropose...I think something spooked her" Rena said, frowning, "well, we'll never know now..." Squash Remarked, "she's gone...we should get moving too..." Rena nodded as they continued through the forest, stopping to deal with, in order, some boomas, a pack of wolves, more boomas, the barbourous wolf, more boomas, a flock of Rappies, and just a few more boomas, Rena breathed heavily, "I'm getting tired of these things...huh? what's that?" looking over at a small waterfall, Rena saw what looked like a yellow dot, hovering in mid-air before dissapearing behind a mossy stone, "Squashie, did you see that?"
"see what?" Rena looked back at the waterfall, it was gone..."um...nothing, nevermind..." a faint child-like giggle sounded from the waterfall..."That's it!! I know you heard that, Squashie!!" "heard what?" "gaaahhh!" the frustrated force threw her hands in the air, stormed over to the waterfall, climbed onto one of the nearby boxes, looked in and found...nothing, absolutly nothing, "but...but it was right here!" "Rena?" asked a bewildered Squash, "are you okay? you look tired..." Rena hopped off the box, "I guess I'm just hearing things...lets keep going!" they continued to wander through the forest without much event, untill..."Holy crap, what the fuck is that?!" Squash's eyes widened, not only were they standing in front of a Hildebear, but sweet, innocent, little Rena had said the 'f word' "...yeah, I'm pretty sure that this is bad..." Squash remarked, "let's try to kill it fast, so it doesn't make us oh-so-very dead..." the Hildebear spit a fireball at Squash, who reacted by instincivly raising his left arm, allowing his barrier to negate the attack, "so that's why we have these things..." Rena cast barta at the creature, freezing it's legs to the ground, "now Squashie!" Squash jumped at the beast, ready to thrust his Stag Cutlery into the hildebear's head...and was swatted away like a fly..."oops!" Rena exclaimed, she probably should have frozen the arms too, the beast broke free of the ice and raised it's powerful fist, as Rena cast another barta at the Hildebear, to seemingly no avail as the beast swung it's fist at Rena, but fortunatly it never touched her, in fact, it no longer had a right arm, thanks to Squash who was, once again, standing in front of the Hildebear, but this time he was much angrier, "A word of advice..." he said as he leapt in the air, spinning his Stag Cutlery behind him, "DON'T FUCK WITH ME!" he cried as he slammed one edge of his twin into the top of the Hildebear's head, sending a jolt through the beast's body before it fell. "well, that wasn't so hard," said Squash, who was now housing one hell of a black eye, Rena frowned and stared at the ground, "I'm sorry...I really suck at this huh?" "It's not your fault, Rena...he would have hit me anyways, besides, we've come this far already, so you must have had some skill, otherwise we'd already be dead." Rena jumped and caught Squash in a crushing hug, "but you were almost killed! and all because of me..." Squash sighed, "but Rena, I wasn't killed, and if you hadn't distracted it, I would have been, so you're not giving yourself enough credit..." "Squashie...you're my only friend, I don't want to lose you...please, promise you'll stay with me...please?" Squash looked down at Rena's face, which was filled with tears, "...I promise"

it had been a few hours since the incident with the Hildebear, and Squash and Rena were well on their way, the Central dome was in sight, so they couldn't have been far away, they, of course encountered more enemies, and dispatched them rather quickly, except for the hildebears, those took some work...they had even discovered a whole new subspeicies of rappy, a blue one now know as an Al Rappy, which, upon being defeated, dropped a rather strange looking item, which Rena Immedeatly noticed, "what is that?" "looks like a Katana" Squash answered, "looks old too, let's see...made in 1985 by Dosetsu...I think it's the Agito!" Rena's eyes bulged, "the legendary sword?! what's it doing here?" Squash's eyes narrowed, "good question...bah, it's probably just another fake...the real one's more than likely to still be on Coral...but just to be sure let's take it with us, I'll have it tekked later," he said, putting it in his pack, "hey look! the central dome!" Rena beamed, "we're almost there!" "you know..." Squash inturrupted, "we haven't seen anyone from pioneer 1..." "um...what if they're all taking shelter in the central dome?" "we can only hope so..." Squash said, readying his weapon as the enemies approached, "this close to the dome?" Rena mused, "I hope they're okay..."

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: SquashDemon on 2005-02-07 16:03 ]</font>