STEM: The Underground City

Multiple pair of black boots crunched the leaves that blanketed the floor of the artificial forest.

After moving as a group for almost an hour with no sign of the creature in sight, Diana knew they would have to resort to the last option.


"This isn't working captain . We need to split up. " She gritted her teeth, either from frustration, anger, or from the pain of the wounds in her neck still healing beneath the thin layer of skin she had sprayed on the neck.
She touched her cheek which was slashed by the beast's claw, which although smudged by blood, was healing.

Her grey shirt, still soaked with deep red blood was now drying up and sticking to her chest in an uncomfortable manner.

"I know but we can not take that risk of splitting up. We don't want to lose anymore people" He stated flatly, ignoring the spite laced in her question.
" Oh wow. Who knew the captain had feelings. This is intriguing. " She scoffed as they walked forward.
They were leading the group at the front while Mason and Doug guarded the back.
They decided to leave no room for loopholes as they had seen how deadly the creature was in LEAR headquarters.
A single mistake had cost them the lives of many lab scientist in LEAR and million Xyrone damage which they hoped the authority wouldn't hold them accountable for.

Although, it wasn't entirely their fault from the beginning. They had acted on commands and brought back a specimen from the exploration as instructed by the commander himself. They had just not anticipated the survival of the Khalgora. In fact it seemed highly impossible as they had confirmed it dead.

"Quit the attitude and just follow orders. Can't you do that? " He looked at her with obvious frustration.
They hadn't been on good terms lately but right now was an awful timing to be in a fight with each other because they had a bigger fight ahead.

" You should know better brother. You can't tell me what to do." She smiled with a fierce challenging look sparring his frustrated expression.

He clenched his jaw and out of anger turned to the group behind him.
"Yang, you're in charge of the group while Diana and I will search as a pair. You go to the West side of the forest, while we scour the east. If you get to the beast first, send a signal and keep it busy before we arrive. However in case we do, keep an eye out for the signal. "

The pale boy looked confused at the sudden change of plans but nodded anyway. With a little reluctance, the group of three moved behind the trees .


This artificial forest filled with red oak trees and pine trees,was grown to supply Flouresce with air. It accounted for a good percentage of air consumed in the city.
The sky which was painted in orange and red now looked darker with hues of midnight blue as the sun was almost completely out of sight.

" Did you send them away so they wouldnt witness your irrational, pompous and inappropriate side? " She mocked with mirth in her blue orbs.
" Are you scared of losing the power you have? So soon? " She tsked in a dissapointed tone.

He grabbed her wrist in anger " Don't push it Ana! You have been getting-" Before he could finish his sentence, she shook her wrists out of his hold as if irritated by any form of physical contact with him.

" No you watch it Axel! I made you the captain you are today and believe me, I very much have the power to take it back! " She spat with her face contorted in anger.

" I earned this position! " He growled with clenched fists, his face red with anger.

After the outburst, she waited a long while as if letting his words sink in and then smiled wryly at her brother.
"You and I know that's not true" and then walked away from him as if with no intention of looking back.

"Where do you think you're going?!" He shouted after her.
" Anywhere you aren't " She kept walking deeper in the woods.
" What if you face the beast alone? It'll kill you on the spot! " But even that didn't make her retract her steps.
" I'll gladly die alone" And then she disappeared behind the oak trees.
Now away from prying eyes, she tried to calm the flood of energy in her system to control her rage.


Lost in her thoughts, she walked aimlessly in the woods until a twig snapped in her head.
She picked up a great rush of energy in her vicinity.
It was here.
Suddenly all her anger and cockiness disappeared as she faced the gory reality.
She rushed to the nearest tree and placed her palm on their tree bark.
Slowly the tree lost its green, as if being drained of all its color. When she was done taking all its life energy, it was nothing but a brown hollow log of wood still having branches and dead leaves but still rooted to the ground.
But that wasn't enough. It wasn't even close to what she needed.
Unfortunately she couldn't afford to kill all the trees in the forest as the cost of repairing the damage done to the forest could be her life.

She drew energy from two more trees and hoped she could stall the Khalgora until the others came to help.


Tapping on the watch on her left wrist, the blue beam of light which was supposed to signal the others, shot to the sky.
Yes,that was a foolish move if she wanted to stay unnoticed but it would find her soon anyway.

Tuning into her body's energy compass, she picked up the movement of the large energy source.
The motion image in her head displayed the back view of the shifter beast, but it looked like it was searching for something. Zooming in, she watched it closer.


Then as if the Khalgora sensed an audience, it turned his head with a smile which was visible despite the energy flares from different parts of its body.

She stumbled back in fear of what she had seen and tried retreating back to where she came from. Facing that creature alone wouldn't be bravery but pure stupidity!

Her heart paced fast in her ears . She turned around to run but was met with her worst nightmare.

The pools of lava in his eyes struggled to meet but the vertical slit of his pupils kept them apart.
His perky, pointy ears twitched in excitement as it heard her fast beating heart. She struggled to keep her knees from giving up on her as she took slow steps backwards.

" What are you?" The giant beast spoke in a deep bass voice. His skin, well covered in gold scales that matched his burning eyes stood out in the green environment.

Her eyebrows bunched together in confusion.
Was this Khalgora ignorant of the existence of humans?
She didn't have time to think of that.

Instead, her hands glowed gold with a gold light orb enveloping her fists in preparation for the fight.
She couldn't steal his energy until he came close and that was totally out of the question as it would kill her once it had its hands on her.
Her energy levels were too low from the last encounter with this same beast but the only energy filled life source she had was the trees. Could she go from tree to tree taking their energy? Nope. That was definitely out of question.

" I should be asking you that. I know you definitely aren't a normal Khalgora. " She could chit chat with it until the others arrived. At least that would give her some time.

His eyes narrowed at her words. The corners of his lips lifted in amusement of the little prey before him.

" And you definitely aren't a normality either"



















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