Location: STS nuclear power plant Stanistan
Date: 15/04/2165
Standpoint: Ivy Smith

They slowly made their way towards the mystery light, as they got closer Ivy realised that it was an entrance of some sorts to an undeground location. She said "It looks like a bunker, but not of Chinese origin, or of any nation from my knowledge". Sophia spoke through the Comms "I've got a better view up here and I can confirm that this is unlike any bunker design I've ever seen, and I studied several of them last week". Percy said "Affirmative, keep a look out, it could be a trap".

Everyone agreed and they continued waking, the closer they got to the entrance the muddier the ground got, until the point that Percy and the others started to slow down due to having their feet constantly sink in the mud. Thankfully the less density and agility of her Scorpius Mech made it so it could walk over anything from deep mud to a frozen lake.

Above them Sophia noticed the team slowing down pace and said "Come on guys walk faster, I'm using a jetpack not helicopter blades, I can't hover in the air." Sam replied "Well not everyone can fly like you Sophie so get over it". Ivy replied "I'm on the ground and I'm walking fine". Artyom said "Don't get me started on your Mech". Percy intervened saying "Guys focus, there is a 60% chance this is a trap and I dont want our last conversation to be about this." After that everyone shut up and kept moving.

After 30 minutes they reached the entrance, it was a tunnel dug into what seemed like obsidian, with black stairs leading down. It was big enough for humans to pass through but unfortunately not for the Mechs.

Percy said "This is odd" Sam replied "Yeah no shit, whoever built this did so by hand or small machines and never got detected". Percy said "No, I mean the area we are in right now is odd". Ivy asked "What do you mean Venator". Percy replied "according to the schematics this place where we are right now was a special area dug out and filled with all the liquid nuclear waste from the plant, and the last measurement revealed that there was so much of it that it would take a temperature of 500000°c to boil it. Yet here we are with little to no radiation in the area".

Sophia landed next to them and said "Maybe it got absorbed by the ground, could be why it's so muddy and deep". Artyom replied "Yeah but we have no way of knowing". Sam then said "Actually we do, I created a cool gadget for my mech a few months ago and it should do the trick". He retracted his right arm and a detector of sorts came out, it was like an emf reader but had numbers, letters and a 3-d diagram instead. "Behold, the Gauge Prime! This baby can detect radiation like the normal gauge counter, but can also detect where, in how much quantity and which state it's in!" Ivy retorted "I would call you a genius except that name is terrible". Sam looked at her and said "Yeah I know I'm working on it".

Sam started to try and find where the radiation is and after a while brought out his right hand again, he said "Percy's right, this is extremely odd". Ivy asked "Why's that?" Sam replied "Sophie was right, its all been absorbed into the ground, it's already 25 meters below the earth". Sophie said "That's really bad, it could affect all the nearby environment" Sam shook his head and said "that's the weird part, it's all going down in one direction" he pointed towards the entrance and said "all the nuclear waste is moving towards whatever's down there, and its being dissolved at a rate of 10 liters per hour."

Artyom said "I'm no genius but I'm pretty sure that's not natural". Percy nodded saying "You'r right, it isn't natural, so then the question is that who created this bunker? And what's in there that can absorb nuclear waste?". Sophie suddenly asked "Weren't the Chinese and Americans working on a machine that could absorb the radiation and nuclear waste that a nuclear bomb inflicted, this entire thing could be a test to see whether or not it works" Artyom replied "Sophia's got a point, they could have bombed the powerplant, allow the nuclear waste to spill everywhere and use the machine to absorb it". Ivy asked "But why do it in a neutral nation?" Sam replied "Because Stanistan is the only nation stopping China from attacking Russia, so for them, if this test works then they have a way to win a nuclear war, but if they fail then one of their major enemies take a huge blow to its economy and power, since this power plant used to produce 33% of Stanistan's energy."

Percy then asked "There's still something off about this place, how has it gone undetected? It was obviously made before the power plant since no one can build stuff in nuclear waste but how long ago? And why hasn't this come up on any satellite or scanner?"

Ivy said "Wait, what if this was from before the time of Stanistan itself, remember before the third world war, Kazakhstan was under the influence of Russia and China back when they were allies, so China could have built this bunker back then, and they could have manipulated the owners of the STS power plant in some way to let them test their new device, it would also explain why none of us find this design similar." Percy replied "With all due respect Scorpius that is a terrible theory, what your suggesting is that the Chinese have maintained this place for at least a century without any other nation noticing." Ivy replied "Well atleast it's something".

Sam then said "Enough chitter chatter, come on let's explore the bunker!" Percy replied "Hold on Sam, we can't do that, remember the ground is filled with nuclear waste". Sam said "Oh please, it's already deep underground, we'll quickly get out of our Mechs and explore the place, then we'll report it to mission control!".

Before Percy could reply, Artyom suddenly lost balance and began to fall backwards, thankfully he landed on Ivy's tail which stopped his fall thank god I remembered to retract the blade otherwise I would have stabbed Artyom Ivy thought, though out loud she said "Ares are you alright?" Artyom tried to stand up but started falling forwards, only to be grabbed by Sam, Artyom put his left arm around Sam's shoulders for support and said "It would seem that my gyrosphere is also malfunctioning". That's bad thought Ivy, the gyrosphere was the thing that helped the Mech stand up, without it the forces of gravity, air friction, inertia and several other forces wouldn't allow the mech to even stand up, much less walk around.

Percy said "I'll call Octavius to pick you up Ares, you can fix up your Mech". He went silent for a moment since he closed his Comms with us to open his Comms with Octavius, 3 minutes later he opened his Comms with us and said "I can't call him, there's a static around here that isn't allowing me to, Sam can you check what's causing the static?" Sam nodded and pulled out another scanner, he did a few scans and said "There's a 5 km blocker around this bunker, everything inside works but communications with the outside doesn't".

"Okay that's the final straw, now we have to explore this otherwise it could be a threat to the NNA's security. Scorpius, you and me are going to explore this dungeon since we're the only two here that are any good at non-mech close combat. Viper you start to carry Ares out of this blocker and towards the rendezvous point, Artemis you fly to the rendezvous point as fast as possible and contact Octavius. Understood?"

Everyone agreed and Artyom, Sam and Sophia began to do what they were told. Ivy asked Percy "Wouldn't it be better if I just dug down? The ground is muddy and easily removable" Percy replied "Absolutely not, you heard what Sam said, there is a ton of Nuclear waste and even if it's being absorbed I don't want to risk it". Ivy sighed but agreed knowing it would be useless to argue.

She brought her Mech closer to the entrance and opened the escape hatch. She got out of her Mech and jumped onto the ground, thankfully Mission Control had given them extra radiation suits to wear inside the Mech to prevent any chance of radiation poisoning, unfortunately they had only provided them with shock pistols since they didn't expect any none Mech combat. The best these pistols will do is knock someone out, and if it's trained soldiers down there then this will only tickle them.

She saw Percy get out of his Mech as well, both of them began to slowly walk down the stairs making sure to be extremely quiet. As they walked down the walls started to become lighter in colour until they were green "what is this wall made from? I've never seen a green mineral like this, it isn't Emerald is it?" Ivy asked. Percy touched the wall and said "Judging from the radiation suit's scanner it isn't a mineral or an element. Infact the scanners are coming up empty."

Ivy nodded and they began to walk down. Suddenly the stairway ended and a door was infront of them, it was pure black in colour and Ivy's scanners told her that it was made of obsidian, the walls around it had paintings and writing all over them. Ivy wasnt much of a genius when it came to deciphering images and words from other languages, but fortunately for them Percy could. He studied the walls and said "it's a story from a long long time ago, infact if I'm reading this date correctly this is from the 14th century! It's a bunch of people, wizards I think, fighting something called the Darkness, the picture shows at least 50 of them fighting a man who had the armies of the undead at his side. Apparently they managed to entomb this darkness behind this obsidian door. There's also a line here saying 'Beware when going down underneath, for this is where He sleeps'".

Ivy said "That's absolute bullshit, it's either some Chinese pulling a prank or some scare tactic." Percy replied "Obviously Ivy, Mages and this Darkness? Seems like a Chinese kids story. Come on let's see what's really behind these doors."

Percy and Ivy had to shove the door open which; since there was no handle or lock or anything, the door refused to open at first, but after pushing it for a bit it finally opened.

Percy and Ivy entered a massive room, at least 4 meters in height, it was fully grey in colour with a green floor made of the same element, the walls and the roof were made of the same grey material. At the end of the room there was a massive skeletal head of what seemed to be a dragon, it was 3 feet in height and at least 2 meters wide, inside the open mouth was another door which was made of Obsidian.

Percy said "that's weird, the walls and roof are made out of pure Iron, and I don't mean the 99.8% pure Iron that modern technology got us, this iron is pure 100% pure". Ivy sighed, Percy would sometimes start speaking extremely technical and Ivy wouldn't understand a thing, she said "Can you explain what that means in proper English?" Percy shook his head and said "it means that even with our technology the iron we use has 0.1 or 0.2 percent of other elements, but this iron has no impurity in it, which should be impossible."

Ivy sighed and said "Who cares, honestly you, Sam and Sophie can be such nerds sometimes". Percy shrugged and said "It's handy to be smart sometimes". Ivy nodded and they started to walk towards the dragon head. Ivy used the scanner of her radiation suit which came to the shocking analysis that this Skelton was 100% natural. Percy must have gotten the same results because he said "There's no way this is a real dragon head". Ivy touched the sharp teeth on the dragon's mouth and poked around, she looked at where it's eyes should've been and saw a purple flame in each of the eye sockets, on closer inspection she realized that a purple wire..no a purple tendril went from both of the flames which went behind the skull and connected to the back door, it was connected in such a way that it wasn't obvious from the front. She climbed down from the skull and saw Percy about to touch the door.

"Percy stop!" She shouted as she pulled him back from the door. Percy asked "Whoa! What's the matter Ivy?" Ivy said "the door is connected to 2 tendrils that lead to purple flames that are in both of the eye sockets, and I'm pretty sure touching the door could be deathly. Percy nodded and said "Good observation, you may have just saved my life". Ivy nodded in agreement, she picked up a small pebble on the ground and threw it at the door, the pebble touched the door and purple fire engulfed it, it all happened in a few seconds but when the fire was gone, there was nothing but ash that spread onto the ground, the pebble had been incinerated.

Percy shouted in surprise and said "What kind off technology is that? I've never seen nor heard of it!" Ivy replied "There's a chance this isn't Chinese at all...but it couldn't be magic." Yet even Ivy didn't convince herself by saying that.

Percy said "Okay clearly whatever is behind that door is important, if we can't touch it we'll just blow it open, Ivy take out your pistol and get ready to shoot at the door." Ivy nodded though thought if whoever built this went through this much trouble to keep whatever it is behind that door locked, should we really release it? Nevertheless she waited until Percy counted to 0 before blasting the door open.

It took only a few shots before the door blasted apart, mostly because it looked ancient and worn down. Ivy and Percy looked at each other, not knowing whether to stay there and shoot whatever came out the door or to walk in and arrest whatever was there. Unfortunately for them, the decision was already made as 2 black whips suddenly flew out of the dark and wrapped around Ivy's and Percy's necks, they instantly tightened and Ivy could feel it burning her skin slowly, she tried to pull it off but the more she tried the tighter it got, she fell to her knees and stopped trying to get rid off the whip, next to her Percy, who was also on his knees, came to the same conclusion as he let go of the whip. As expected it loosened up a bit but was still tight enough that Ivy couldn't even speak.

Suddenly a laugh echoed from within the room..it sent shivers down Ivy's spine, it was the sort of laugh that the boogeyman would have, no, that's the laugh of someone the boogeyman would be afraid off the Ivy thought.

Suddenly a man walked out of the darkness. He was wearing a dark robe and underneath Ivy saw a man with skin as white as a ghost and hair as black as the night sky with purple eyes and a purple flame on his right hand, it clearly originated from his hand which should've been impossible, the man looked healthy, even though he was locked underneath the ground for who knows how long. If he was even locked, yet looking at the shackles with broken chains on his hands and neck Ivy could crealy tell that this man had been a prisoner.

The man spoke in a deep English-Caucasian mixed accent "Ah, finally, I have been awoken from my slumber, tell me, are you two one of my servents? Or were you just unlucky enough to stumble across my dungeon?"

Dungeon? Slumber? This guy, whoever he is, talks like he's from medieval times thought Ivy. Though she couldn't voice her thoughts since the whip was still stopping her from speaking.

The man seemed to realize and sighed, he closed his right hand, making the fire disappear and waved his hand and Ivy and Percy, the whips instantly disappears and Percy and Ivy gasped for breath. They got up and quickly picked up their pistols aiming it at the mystery man. Ivy said "I don't know who the hell you are, speaking all medieval and shit but you made a huge mistake attacking us, we're no one's servants!" Percy looked a lot more cautious and said "Who-what are you?"

The man looksd confused at the way Ivy and Percy talked with him, was he expecting some respect or fear? Even if he was then that was the last thing Ivy would give. The man finally spoke "You mean to tell me you've never heard of me? Kronos the supreme? Master of Darkness? Bringer of Fear?" Ivy and Percy shook their heads, the man..Kronos, sighed and shouted "Oh damn you Alexander! How dare you erase my presence from history!" Percy said "Dude, who the hell is Alexander? And how did you summon that purple fire, and those 2 whips?"

Kronos stopped, clearly shocked from the question, he looked at both Percy and Ivy before gasping and saying "No, don't tell me he-ugh of course a fool as noble as Alexander would wipe magic off the face of this planet. Tell me, which century is this". Now it was Ivy's turn to be shocked by the question, she replied "It's obviously the 22nd century". Kronos said "Ah, so I've been trapped for 8 centuries, it's obvious now why no one remembers me, or magic for that matter."

There was no way this man had been in here since the 1300s, no one could survive that long, Ivy was extremely in shock, and clearly Percy was more shocked then her because he blurted out "Okay enough games, there is no way you've been in here for eight freaking centuries, and all this talk about magic and this Alexander is clearly bullshit, what's next, your gonna tell me Voldemort was real? You better tell us the truth and whether or not your working for the Chinese or else we'll blast your face off!"

Kronos had the audacity to actually laugh, he said "Voldemort? Don't tell me humans remember that fool of all people! Well his actual name was Vilder, son of Mort, he was my second in command. And as for blowing my face off..." He pointed his hand at Percy and his pistol flew into his hand, Kronos grabbed it and closed his eyes for a second, he suddenly opened them and said "Ah, so you managed to turn lightening into a small energised bullet of sorts, contained in pistol, ingenious, thankfully I can tell what something is by touching it, this thing is meant for paralysing someone, not killing, however this is".

Kronos opened his right hand again and levitated the pistol in it, he seemed to focus for a moment before the pistol simply turned to ash and disappeared. He snarled and said "My power is not coming back to me fully, but it is enough to take care of you idiots. Now, I want you to tell me everything that has happened since I was gone".

Ivy was about to retort that she was not some historian but Kronos snapped his fingers and the shackles appeared on Ivy and Percy's hands, feet and neck. Kronos chuckled and said "And if you fail to do so then even the darkest beasts from the pits of hell won't be able to rescue you".

[This is the end of the chapter, I know most people will be confused on how the people that dug the pit for the nuclear waste didn't discover the entrance to the dungeon and several other plot holes but I swear it'll be explained in the next chapter I promise, thanks for reading!]