Finally, it was the first day of summer. The school term had ended, and it was the only time students were allowed to leave the military base if they wanted to. All the students who had planned to leave would meet up on the second year field. On there, a large teleporter would be placed which would take them all to the same Earth station.
From there, students would make their own way to wherever they needed to go. However, Quinn had other plans and unlike the other students who were packing and getting ready to leave, Quinn was patiently waiting in his room for most of the students to go. It was already mid- day, and he had decided that he would get a nice long rest before heading out.
When he finally did wake up, he noticed that Vorden was no longer in his bed by his side. Most of the students were pretty excited that they would finally be able to go home and had packed beforehand, ready to go back any second.
‘He must have gone back to his family, I wonder what Layla will do?’ Quinn thought. Since she was no longer a part of Pure, and he had chosen not to inform her of his plans.
Luckily, before Vorden had left, Quinn had decided to ask for some blood to fill up his blood bank. He had actually also tried to get the materials to make the flask and ring in his item shop. But as expected, they were nearly impossible to find. He now realised why Fex was so happy when he had put up the crystals for sale.
‘Hopefully, the vampire planet is a dark one.’
It should be, as Fex said, only when vampires reached a certain stage would they be sent out for a quest to obtain the materials for the ring.
Leaving his room, Quinn chose to look out of his window onto the field. The last few students that were remaining looked to be entering the portal with their belongings. He watched them go in one by one and time continued to pass.
“I’m just delaying it, aren’t I?”
Everything Quinn needed was either in his system inventory or was in the dimensional space in the shadow. They had no clue where they would land once entering the portal, so it was best to be prepared. They might even just land in the middle of a whole vampire city, and they needed to be ready to explain themselves.
Finally, not wasting any more time, Quinn decided to enter Logan’s room.
“Come in!” Logan said.
As Quinn opened the door, he was greeted with something he had never expected. Inside the room wasn’t just Logan, but Vorden and Layla were there waiting as well.
“Huh? What are you guys doing here, aren’t you going home?” Quinn asked, trying to figure out what was going on.
“No, they’re not Quinn. I decided to tell them about what was happening because I knew you wouldn’t. I told you before, they are equally invested in this, just as much as you are.” Logan replied.
“He’s right, Quinn,” Vorden replied. “You should let us make our own choices, and you have to remember. Peter and Fex aren’t just your friends, they’re ours as well.”
Layla then started to walk up to Quinn and looked him in the eyes. “You idiot!” She shouted. “Why do you think I wanted to turn myself in the first place? It’s because of how weak I felt when being around you, how I felt hopeless. I did this thinking I could finally help you and then you go and chose to not tell me. We are part of the same problem, we have a connection.” Layla said as she stopped and walked off back near the others, fearing that her emotions would have gotten the better of her.
“Look, I understand, but I was just looking out for you gu….” Quinn stopped in the middle of his sentence. He finally realised that what he was doing was exactly what they had done for him, when the vampires came for Fex. He remembered just how upset he was, when they didn’t tell him, he felt the same way.
“You’re right.” Quinn said. “It’s your decision, but Vorden, you can’t copy vampire abilities, and other than Logan’s which is difficult to use, it might be troublesome for you. These vampires are incredibly strong.”
“Didn’t you just give me these,” Vorden said, turning around and showing the white and black curved swords on his back. “I’m pretty sure I can fend for myself. Not just that Quinn, what about you? If you get hurt you’re going to need your little blood bank, right?”
Quinn didn’t know why, but whenever he did need blood in the past, he used to always go to Vorden or Layla, as for Logan. He tended to avoid asking him the question. In a way, Logan’s blood just didn’t seem or sound as appetizing. It probably had something to do with his diet of strange sandwiches.
“So you all know what’s happening then, right? About how they’re going to kill Fex. I don’t know what’s happening with Peter, but I’m going to try my best to stop it.” Quinn explained. “I’ve been trying to get stronger for this very reason. We could be going up, or even fighting against them to save him.”
“Quinn, we already know that,” Layla said.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Logan said, as he pushed a button on his table, allowing for his bedroom door to slide open. Suddenly a person came crashing into the room with their face planting against the floor. The door quickly closed behind her. As they all looked at the person, it was someone they all recognized.
“I’m sorry I didn’t mean to eavesdrop.” She said, with her head down on the floor begging. “I just came here for Layla.”
The person who was on the other side of the door… was Cia.
“Don’t worry, she didn’t hear anything. This room is soundproof and locked. Like an aircraft, I created my own ventilation system that I order the parts for and replace once in a while.” Logan explained.
‘No wonder I couldn’t smell her outside?’ Quinn thought.
Layla had quickly gone down to help her up, and Cia now stood closely behind her, while peaking at all the others. Seeing how different Cia acted before and after the memory loss was making Quinn feel a bit queasy in his stomach.
“Quinn, I think she should come with us.” Layla said.
“What!” Quinn blurted out.
“Wait look, she knows nothing, she remembers nothing, she has nowhere to go and right now I’m the only one she’s got. I don’t think she would betray us, and she helps me with my powers. I promise, I’ll explain everything to her, and you can make her my responsibility.”
The room was silent for a bit, as Quinn couldn’t believe what Layla was suggesting. At one point and time, Cia was the enemy. Could removing someone’s memory really change them that much to a point where they could trust her? Of course, Quinn now trusted Layla, but he barely knew Cia.
“Please Quinn,” Layla said, with a glint in her eyes making her look like a sad puppy dog.
“I think we should take her,” Logan said. “We need all the help we can get. Her ability was extremely handy when we were fighting the king tier beast and also, it will allow Vorden an ability to copy as well. Why don’t we have a vote? All those who wish to bring Cia along.”
Logan raised his hand, and so did Cia and Layla, and then when Quinn turned to look at Vorden, he noticed his hand was up, the only person he thought who might have been on his side.
“Well, I guess my say doesn’t really mean anything then,” Quinn said.
The reason why Vorden wanted Cia along was that it didn’t matter if she lived or died on this trip, in his opinion. It wasn’t someone to look out for like the others. He too agreed with Logan. The honest truth was, having no one’s ability that he could copy worried him a lot. At least this would give him something.
“Okay, before you go, I prepared something,” Logan said. As he turned his chair around and went to grab two small chests. He opened one of the chests with one of his mechanical arms that were connected to his chair.
The first chest contained five small spray bottles that looked a bit like perfume bottles. Quinn knew exactly what it was.
“This is a formula I’ve been working on. The Vamp…” Logan stopped himself there for a second, realising Cia had yet to learn of everything yet. “Layla, it might be best for you to explain this to her now, and then I can go on to explain this.”
Layla then took herself and Cia over to the bed that was on the other side, while the boys patiently waited for her explanation. They were waiting for some type of shock or horrified look to come across Cia’s face, but it never came.
“I don’t care. I’ll do whatever you say, I just want to be with you.” Cia said as she leapt across the bed and jumped on Layla, giving her a huge hug.
The boys looked away at the awkward scene and interaction.
“Didn’t Cia used to have a thing for you?” Quinn said, giving Vorden a nudge on the arm.
“I think that might have all been a Pure act thing.” He replied.
Once the two girls were done, they had come back to join the group and finish listening to Logan’s explanation.
“As I was saying before, every human here, I think I should say, needs to carry this on them at all times. The effect of the spray lasts for five hours. Two puffs are all you need, so it should be plenty to last our whole trip there. Just make sure you don’t lose it or break it.
“The vampires have a particular smell of their own, which allows them to recognize their own kind. This has been created by emulating Quinn’s smell. So to everyone else, they will think you are a vampire. Don’t forget to spray yourselves. If you want to be safe, spray yourself every four hours, because a second over five could be your death while we’re there.”
Vorden and Cia took a bottle each, while Logan kept the spare, as well as the chest for himself. Then he presented the other chest and opened that as well. Inside this one were several different designs of masks.
“Quinn, and I already have one, this is for the rest of you to choose. Inside these masks is a communicator. Although it’s best if we stay together, we always have to prepare for the worst. There is a good chance we might be split up at some point.”
Logan continued explaining a few more details to the group, about all the different case scenarios that could occur when going through the portal, and what their plan of actions were. After all the explanations were done, everyone then prepared themselves with all their equipment and supplies. They all also chose one of the masks, which each had a slightly different design to them.
This time, Logan was the carrier of items, preparing food pills and water pills for ultimate survival. After all, not all of them could survive just on blood and other things on this trip. There was a fairly large rucksack on his back that looked extremely heavy, but the main thing was that inside of it was a portable teleporter that would lead them back to earth. They needed a way to get back no matter what.
When Logan bent down to pick up the large and heavy rucksack, several spider-like legs appeared from his back, gripping it and holding it in place. Taking all of the weight completely off of Logan. It looked kind of silly still, as Logan was fairly short and the rucksack was bigger than him.
The explanations were all done and everyone was now ready. The square teleporter was placed on the floor, and the input code was put in. The device started to start up, as mechanical sounds were heard and two arms flung open from the side of the machine. Seconds later, a portal opened displaying a green like colour, but they knew this wasn’t a green portal planet they were going to.
“No one, and I repeat no one, is dying on this trip.” Quinn said. “We are going to save lives, not sacrifice ours. Understand?”
Everyone nodded, and then formed a line in front of each other, with their hands on top of each other’s shoulders. They all then slowly walked in until eventually, everyone had gone through the portal and into the vampire world.
END OF ARK 2
ARK 3 BEGINS
*****
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