The Dark Beyond

A Turn of Events Part 2

Samuel took Nelson to the only building in the arena, where they took Miranda to rest after their fight, for their meeting. Nelson wondered what could be awaiting him there. He was eager for his first mission, though also extremely nervous. He purposefully wore a tighter shirt than normal in the hopes that his muscles could show out more to Anora. "One thing I can tell you," Samuel said, "Is we're going to likely get you a weapon today. You'll meet Tyler, our weapons specialist." Nelson nodded eagerly. He wondered what kind of weapon he should get. A part of him wanted to ask Anora to teach him to use a sniper rifle, both because he thought they were cool, but also because he wanted an excuse to spend time with her. Samuel lead the way inside. Inside, he went to the left towards the one door, rather than up the stairs towards what Nelson imagined was the infirmary. Samuel was already opening the door, halfway inside motioning for him to follow when noticed Miranda at the top of the stairs looking lost. "Hey, Miranda!" Nelson called. "Did she get lost up there?" Samuel asked. Nelson nodded, "I think so." She turned around curiously at the call of her name. She walked down the stairs eagerly to meet him. "Hey," she said, smiling openly at him. She waved briefly at Samuel before asking Nelson, "I know it's somewhere in here," she eyed his arms with a particular smile on her face before continuing, "Uh.. but I'll just follow you. You look like you know what you're doing." She kept staring at his core, where a few stray abs poked through. "My face is up here," Nelson said with a pleased smile. I hope Anora has a similar reaction, He thought as they followed Samuel into the room. It was simple, smallish room. Across from the door, were three dummies, each with a bullet proof window behind each of them. To the far right stood Tyler and now Samuel, next to a closet looking door, which revealed a wealth of guns. Tyler moved his brown bangs out his face as he introduced himself saying, "Oh so you are the two new ones! Well I'm Tyler, nice to meet you two." He bowed towards them. Well that's kinda extra, Nelson thought, making that awkward face he had a habit of making when he didn't know how to react. He surely wasn't bowing in return. "So which weapon would you like to try out?" Tyler continued after a short bit. Miranda glanced shyly at Nelson, seemingly trying to sneak glances at him but failing at the 'sneaking' part. She blushed slightly, and asked, "So... which one do you wanna try?" Nelson crossed his arms as he thought, smiling excitedly. "I think I'll need a shotgun. And a sniper rifle and probably a rocket launcher too. Can I have some grenades too?" "Woah woah," Tyler said, "You sound like Charles when he first came here. Ideally you're gonna start off with one main weapon, and maybe a knife or something." Nelson grinned childishly as an idea came to his mind. "Can I have a sword?" "Ever heard the expression don't bring a sword to a gun fight?" Tyler asked him. Nelson sighed. What a party pooper. "Try this one," Tyler said, handing him an impressively decorated shotgun. It was shiny red, with E.E.D. inscribed on the side in white letters. He played with it, surprised at the weight of it. Miranda also told Tyler that she wanted a shotgun.
     It was at that moment that Anora walked in. His mood brightened as soon as he saw her. Charles and Commander Moran were behind her. "I see you've already acquainted yourself with our gunsmith," Commander Moran stated. Nelson nodded politely. "Let's see what you can do," The commander said, pointing towards the dummy in front of him. "Yeah blast his ass," Charles said encouragingly. Nelson prepared himself to shoot. He didn't know how to handle a shotgun, he just knew not to put his eye next to it. He decided to try shooting with it over his shoulder, and keep his eye away from it. Shit I hope this works, he thought, hoping no one would notice his lack of skill with weapons. He tried to aim at the chest and fired. The shotgun shot back, catching him by surprise, a flying out his hand, and Anora just ducked in time not to get smacked in the face with it. The gun landed loudly on the floor. Charles tried to poorly stifle a laugh. Curiously, he still hit it in the chest. Nelson stood perfectly still, slowly and awkwardly turning his head to face everyone else, smiling with embarrassment. "At least I would have killed it?" he said hopefully. Miranda giggled at him, hands covering her mouth as she tried to hold it in. Anora cast a concerned look at him. Samuel pretended to look the other way as if he didn't just see that happen. Charles just grinned childishly, clearly amused.
     "Don't let him hold a shotgun ever again," Commander Moran said, frowning disappointedly, "At least not without proper training." "Perhaps he was also practicing hitting a target behind him as well," Miranda suggested, smiling still. The commander merely shook his head. "I'm trained with a shotgun," she said, picking up the shotgun from the ground. She confidently went over to the dummy right next to Nelson's and fired twice, blowing off the head and leaving a gaping hole in the chest." The commander nodded approvingly. "If you want I could teach you how to use this," Miranda told Nelson, a suggestive expression on her face. He thought he saw Anora roll her eyes. "I can use an Assault rifle," he quickly, eyeing the closet to see what all was in there. "Are you sure?" The commander asked. "Most definitely. I just wanted to hold the shotgun to be honest. But I'm good with an assault rifle." I have no idea how to use an assault rifle, he thought. He just didn't want to get embarrassed because he didn't know how to use a weapon. Tyler cautiously handed him a deep blue assault rifle with E.E.D. inscribed on it. He prepared himself to try to fire the beautiful weapon. Luckily he didn't have to try, because Commander Moran insisted they had important things to talk about.
"We have a pretty important mission, but also relatively dangerous," The commander said, as they followed him out of the gunsmiths room and down the hallway. Nelson kept the Assault rifle, and Miranda kept the Shotgun. As they followed their commander down the hall - which went back behind the stairs - Nelson thought of a name for his gun. The blue death? Naw that's corny. Hmmmm. Aquamane? Nah... he was deep in thought trying to figure out a name when Miranda glanced at him and asked, "What are you thinking? You look deep in thought." "I don't have a name for my gun," he told her. "A name?" She echoed amusedly. "Naming your gun?" "Yeah, it's only right," he replied, "You gonna name yours?" Miranda merely smiled and shrugged, glancing down at the ground as they walked. He wondered if Anora or Samuel named their weapons. Samuel was behind them walking with Charles, and Anora in from of them, asking the Commander something. When she was finished, he asked her, "Hey Anora! Did you name your sniper rifle?" Anora glanced back him, and slowed her pace to walk on Nelson's left side, Miranda on his right side. "Name my sniper rifle?" She asked, eyeing him curiously. "Why ever would a do such a thing like that?" She playfully retorted. Nelson smiled shyly, and replied, "Ya know.. shouldn't guns have a name?" "I don't know," Anora said, green eyes looking him up and down. "Perhaps we should save that for people who don't throw their guns around." Everyone laughed at that for a moment, except the commander, who never seemed to smile or laugh, and Miranda. "I think I have an idea for my name though," she said with some thought, that deep feminine edge coming into her voice that Nelson found so attractive. He felt himself blush. With a glance at Miranda, she said, "How about... The Black Hammer?" Nelson laughed nervously as Anora eyed him with interest. "I'll bet you know all about that," she said. He thought he heard Miranda mutter something under her breath, but quickly hushed herself. Anora raised an eyebrow at her.
     Before Anora could comment, they were at an elevator, Commander Moran hurrying all of them inside. The door lead them to a large dark room. It seemed like there was only one table in the middle. It had the only light in the room shining on it, illuminating a sharp shiny object. It resembled a sword. It was all meteorite black, with the top have have a slight green glow to it, flickering unpredictably. "That is extraterrestrial technology," Commander Moran said, eyeing Nelson now. "Nelson, before you escaped from that alien, did you see anything like this? Our experts believe it to be a key of sorts." Miranda gaped. "That was you on the news?" She asked suddenly. Nelson nodded. "That's... so cool.." she said, "You've actually seen one before?" "I was lucky," Nelson told her. "All of us saw it," Anora said plainly, "It's just another alien. He killed it tho." Miranda just stared at him in awe. "Well our engineers in California have recently made a breakthrough," Commander Moran said, as they approached the blade. "We have reverse engineered some kind of teleportation technology from the crash we found at Roswell." "It took us this long to figure it out?" Nelson asked curiously. "That was more than half a century ago." "Yes." The commander merely said, "Anyway, it lead to some structure on Mars, resembling a pyramid. Since this thing here was found as a part of it, we're sending a team of you to go and investigate it. They have the teleporter active in our E.E.D. base there. See if this thing is a key or something to unlock it. Report back what you find. Also a word of advice. Do not touch it. We tested it out on a criminal - mind you he was sentenced to death anyway - and the second he touched it, his skin turned grey, and he seized out and died. Lab results show that it tried to bond with his DNA somehow. Basically it's fatal to humans." They all nodded. Commander Moran clapped his hands and a robot came out of the shadows to grab the object and put it in a box before handing it to the commander. "Alright. You all can get whatever you need ready. We leave tomorrow. Nelson, Anora, Samuel, this will mainly be your assignment since you two are the highest ranking and you"- he pointed to Nelson - "Have fought and killed an alien alone. Meet back here tomorrow. Also, come with me, you'll need a car if we want to be able to call you for help at anytime." He motioned for him to follow him. Nelson casted excited glances at everyone before following the commander to the other side of the dark room where another elevator lie. Anora, Samuel, Charles, and Miranda followed him. At the bottom of the elevator was a huge cave with concrete flooring, and a few cars parked for him to pick from. There were a bunch of cars to pick from, but the seventh one caught his eye. It was light green Mustang Terminator Cobra. "Is that a Cobra?" He asked the commander. "Yes," Commander Moran replied, "It was my son's before he died. I kept it and had it upgraded. It has the same electric technology as the 2023 models, but it looks and sounds the same." "Can I have that one?" Nelson asked, "It's my dream car." Commander Moran paused for a moment, though his face showed no emotion. Slowly he took the keys out of his pockets. "Do not let me down." "I definitely won't," Nelson said, barely holding his excitement in. "I won't get a scratch on it." He eagerly jogged up to it, pressing the button on the key to unlock it. "It's so beautiful," he thought out loud. Miranda walked up to him, seeming to have something to say. "Beautiful," he blurted out, looking directly at her and smiling. As her cheeks turned the same color as her scarlet red hair, he added on, "This car is so beautiful." "It's really cool," she said shyly. She fiddled with her hands in her pockets as Nelson got into the car, admiring it. It looked like Miranda had something more to say, and he was just about to ask but Anora interjected saying, "I love this car," she said, running her fingers along the passenger side door as he rolled the window down. "Mind if I have a ride?" She had a particular gleam in her eye. Bruh holy shit man! He thought, Hell fucking yeah your fine ass can get in!!! But out loud, he only said, "Of course you can Anora," smiling shyly. She let herself in and closed the door behind her, playing with her hair. Her intoxicating vanilla aroma immediately took hold of his senses. How was it possible for someone to smell so good? He excitedly, but nervously started the car up, the engine/supercharger whine combination like pure mechanical music to his ears. The sound seemed to surprise Miranda, as she jumped back. "I'm sorry about that," he said apologetically. "You might wanna move," Anora said, somewhat rudely shooing her away with one hand and playing with her hair in the other. Miranda frowned, and backed away from the car. Nelson drove up to the Commander, and asked him how to get out of the cave. Commander Moran merely pressed a button in his pocket and the end of the cave in from of them began to lift up, revealing a beautiful sunset outside. He pulled up to the where the cave had lifted up, a road leading upward to the outskirts of Cincinnati. He peeked a glance at Anora, who eyed him with clear interest. With the light shining on her just right, he found her absolutely irresistibly gorgeous. Her long, flowing black hair seemed to glisten in the sunlight, and her perfectly emerald green eyes seemed to sparkle just slightly as she unexpectedly bit her bottom lip. He felt himself getting hot and nervous. "What is it?" She asked him quietly. "You're.. just really really.. pretty," he admitted shyly. She blushed brightly, glancing downwards. "Thanks," She said, a bit suggestively. "Wanna see how fast this can go?" He asked. She nodded, smiling shyly herself now. He floored the mustang, accelerating as fast as he could. The engine sounded like heaven with the echo from the cave. "WOOOOOOOOOO!!!" She exclaimed at the top of her lungs as they sped off into the sunset.