The Eragotten Legacy: Part Two

      "All clear on the mission then, Sequen?" Jury, the green Techo, asked. His voice was a little shaky. "And remember your equipment, a Regulation Meridell Crossbow and a black suit with the standard equipment. Camera, Tracer Bug, Thermal Sensing Glasses, a few Regulation Meridell Smoke Grenades

      "Right… I'll be fine…" Jag nodded, winking as he disembarked from the plane and stepped it the blistering hot sand.

      In the near distance was Sakhmet Palace, which is where the new train station was.

      "I'll be in contact, Jag… Serena and I both will…" Jury said, closing the plane's door.

      Jag tapped the miniature earphone in his ear.

      "Gotcha," he said into the mouthpiece, giving a thumbs up to the pilot of the plane, looking at him questionably from the cockpit.

      The pilot nodded and started up the plane, which soon took to the skies.

      Jag started quickly towards Sakhmet Palace, rushing through the smoldering hot sun.

      Jag finally reached the palace and suited into his black ninja-type uniform.

      Immediately upon entry, Jag saw the train station to his left. He walked quickly over there, trying not to attract too much attention, until at last he got into the station.

      The concrete walls didn't look very well with the beautiful golden sand it was bounded by.

      A yellow Aisha, clothed in desert style clothing, approached.

      Jag silently clicked a button on his belt, taking a picture of the Aisha without her knowing.

      "May I see your ticket?" she asked politely to Jag.

      Jag clutched a badge from within his black suit and showed it to the Aisha.

      "Oh, it's you… Meridell told me you'd be coming. Alright, I've got a seat for you on the next train…"

      "What?!" Jag gasped. "But I need to get on this one!"

      He lowered his voice, afraid to attract too much attention.

      The Aisha looked curiously at Jag. He shifted around comfortably. He really stood out from the rest of the crowd in his black uniform.

      The Aisha suddenly burst into a wide smile.

      "Then find another way aboard!" she winked and marched away quickly, before Jag could protest. He heaved a deep sigh and whispered into the microphone, "Jury, I need another way onboard. Our contact kinda bailed on us…"

      "We don't have a contact, Jag…" Jury's voice stated back. Jag's eyes widened.

      "We… We don't?" he murmured in shock, looking after the Aisha who just ran into the train station. "You mean…?"

      "She works for Blanchette and Darigan, Sequen! You must stop her!" Sum exclaimed urgently through the headset. "We're analyzing the photo you sent us now… Stand by…"

      Kirrus burst into a sudden run and dashed quickly into the train station.

      He entered into the cold, dull train station with nothing but a bare cement surrounding, just an empty floor, with a solid staircase leading to two doors marked with the label Train Boarding.

      Immediately upon entering, Jag found himself surrounded by six more green Scorchios, armed with loaded crossbows, aiming at him. The door slammed and locked behind his back and the Aisha smirked when she saw Jag. She stood right across from him.

      "Ok, Scorchios, I'll go tell Blanchette our little guest has arrived and you take care of him…" the Aisha stated clearly, turning and walking away.

      "Jag, you've got to stop her! We've finished analyzing her identity; her name is Anna Yuur, a personal adherent to Lord Darigan. This could compromise the entire mission!" Jury's voice called urgently through the earpiece.

      "The train will be leaving in forty seconds, final chance to board…" a voice on the announcer said.

      Jag looked around hurriedly. The Scorchios all took a step towards him.

      Jag quickly leapt onto his back as two of the Scorchios shot their crossbows, whose bolts cut quickly through the air above him.

      Jag leaped to his feet and grabbed a Regulation Meridell Smoke Grenade from his belt, then chucked it onto the ground and threw on his Thermal Sensing sunglasses.

      He held his breath as he watched the Scorchios wander around aimlessly throughout the smoke, coughing and holding their eyes closed. A few of them fired their crossbows, but all missed miserably.

      Jag, using his glasses to navigate through the thick smoke that was slowly beginning to fade, burst through three of the Scorchios, knocking them back into each other…"

      "He's getting away!" one of them squealed, coughing afterwards.

      "Twenty seconds until train departure…" the announcer's voice stated again.

      Jag raced down the stairs towards the two pale translucent glass doors leading into the boarding station.

      Jag crashed viciously through as a crossbow bolt flew right passed his head from the Scorchios behind him.

      The boarding station was much like the rest of the station, insipid grey cement. The train, much like a 19th century one, was black with a dark red chimney at the end which was already puffing mounds of thick exhaust.

      The train was waiting and Anna Yuur, the Aisha, was just getting on.

      Jag picked up the speed, just as the doors were sliding closed.

      With a thin fit, Jag just managed to dive through the door leading onto the train, marked LD-M Express.

      Luckily for Jag and his oath not to be seen or heard, this train car was empty, except for Yuur who turned quickly to see Jag.

      "Ahh, so my Scorchios have failed me yet again…" Anna smirked, turning to face Jag who immediately leapt to his feet and faced the Aisha. "Eragotten has gotten quite careless with the agents they choose to send on missions…"

      "Speak for yourself, Yuur," Jag said, readying himself and folding away his glasses.

      The Aisha flung herself viciously, without warning, at Jag who threw himself into the air and replied with a sturdy kick at the Aisha, knocking her back.

      The Aisha flew into an open door, leading into a packed closet.

      Jag lunged at the closet and slammed the door shut, the pulled the switch lock at the side, and the door bolted shut.

      "Hey! Lemme outta here!" Anna called from within. Jag knocked on the door.

      "All in good time, Yuur. All in good time…" he laughed, walking away towards the door leading to the next car.

      Jag entered into a long hallway with several doors on each side, much like the hallway in a hotel. Low lamps hung from the high ceiling, and they swung around, occasionally hitting the wall on one side of the hallway as the train made occasional thumps over the tracks.

      Jag stuck to the shadow, peering down the hallway.

      "Which cabin is Blanchette in?" Jag whispered.

      "Fourth door on the right…" Jury replied. The reception of the earpiece wasn't as clear, but still comprehensible.

      Jag crept silently down the hall.

      Suddenly, the third door on the left flew open, knocking Jag hard in the face. Jag flipped into the air on impact and spread his arms and legs, suspending himself at the top of the hallway, just above the door.

      The green Skeith walked out and looked around, left and right, and then walked back into the cabin.

      Jag dropped from the roof and landed silently with a soft roll on the red carpet. He stopped just outside the fourth door on the right and threw on his Thermal Sensing sunglasses.

      The door ahead of him appeared as a pale, powder blue. Behind this, though, was a shape of a Scorchio, shown in many shades of orange and almost reddish colours.

      "He's asleep…" Jag muttered to himself, judging by his body temperature.

      The EEM Agent slowly drew to the door and nudged it open, then quietly snuck in.

      There was a wide window just when you entered ahead, and then two long chairs on either side of the small cabin.

      Joseph Blanchette, the Scorchio, was sitting with his back hunched on his chair, with his eyes closed. He was snoring occasionally and would jerk his head around uneasily as he slept.

      "Hericogulashi… This situation is really stressing me out…" Sum muttered through the headset.

      "What the heck does that mean?" Jury asked rather bluntly.

      "It's just a word my father taught me when I was younger. It's supposed to be a good luck charm in words. Hericogulashi…" Sum replied. "I've never told that to anybody before, though."

      "Of course not. That's the most absurd thing I've ever heard, Anna. As if saying something could do anything whatsoever…"

      "Stop arguing in my head…" Jag whispered. He turned his attention back to Joseph. It looked as if a blue fissure was right beside him, floating in the air, but it soon vanished.

      The grey laptop was sitting closed on his lap.

      Jag inched towards Blanchette. He reached for the laptop as he rose to his feet.

      "Freeze, Sequen!" Jury's voice ordered clearly. "Blanchette is awake…"

      Jag stopped dead in his tracks. A surprised expression grew on his face.

      "Bad news, Jag," Sum's voice said tensely. "Darigan's men have blown out the bridge ahead. Twenty seconds is all it'll be before this train is falling two hundred feet right into the ocean…"

      Jag drew out his crossbow and aimed it at Joseph.

      "I know you're awake. Get up, Blanchette," Jag demanded loudly, prodding the crossbow around.

      Joseph Blanchette hesitated, and then opened his eyes. He snickered.

      "So, Mr. Sequen, you've got me in your crosshairs. Well done…" Blanchette muttered, clapping.

      Jag prodded him with the tip of the crossbow.

      "Don't move, Joseph…" Jag ordered. "Hand over the laptop…"

      "Ten seconds and the trains goin' down!" Jury shouted urgently.

      "No," Blanchette answered plainly. "I won't give you the laptop…"

      "Give it to me… Now…" Jag commanded more sternly, shooting the crossbow and nailing the seat beside Joseph's head.

      "Five seconds, Sequen! Get off the train!" Sumuilevelt shrieked. "That's an order, agent!"

      Jag hesitated, but then dove through the window, leaving Blanchette in the cabin, and tucked into a roll as he landed on a slim grassy line bordering the forest on either side of the train track.

      Ahead, on a bridge going over the river, was a large gap in the bridge, and the tunnel on the other side was unreachable.

      The bright moon lit up the night and stars speckled the dark sky.

      Jag stood up and looked as Blanchette dove from the window as well and grasped a wrung of a ladder being lifted by a helicopter as the rest of the train burst off of the track and began its descent.

      Jag paused to try to remember what happened, and then it came back to him.

      "The laptop…" he muttered as he watched the train bail off the track and begin falling.

      "Thank goodness you're safe, Jag. However you've failed the mission… We're sending by a plane to pick you up…" Jury said in his deep, demanding tone.

      Jag thrust the piece from his ear, redundant to hear any more protest, and darted quickly towards the splintered bridge and leapt off, falling down the wide ravine towards the train that was falling down, towards the river far below.

      Jag streamlined his position as he fell quickly down towards the train until, after about five seconds, he'd reached the window he had exited from Blanchette's cabin before the train's descent.

      Jag fell alongside it and steadied himself as he pulled himself in.

      The cease of the air pushing past him came as a shock and he hesitated before shuffling his way to the laptop on the floor. Jag grasped the laptop and turned back to the window with the laptop under his arm. The river was only about three seconds away.

      Jag flung himself out of the window and flew towards the far end of the ravine, and when he was just about to crash into the river, he grasped a tree growing vertical on the rocky side of the gorge.

      The branch Jag had grabbed broke from the cliff, but one root stay connected, and Jag was swung down into a rock that surprisingly crumbled into a hollow, isolated cave.

      Jag almost dropped the laptop as he collapsed into the cave, with the fiery explosion of the train's impact close at his rear, and surprisingly the fire caught into the cave and quickly blew itself towards Jag Sequen.

      He pulled himself to his feet, slipping on the oil that was spread across the floor.

      The fire brushed at his back and Jag recovered quickly and raced down the dark cave, lit only by the flaming blaze behind him.

      But Jag couldn't believe his very eyes as he looked ahead at yet another large train sped towards him from the front, even though there were no tracks.

      With the fire at his rear and a train closing quickly on him from ahead, Jag was in the biggest problem yet.

      Jag, when about only a metre from the train, crashed to his back at top speed and slid along the oil-drenched ground, under the train whose wheels managed to keep it only barely above the Techo's body. However, the fire was still quickly chasing Jag along the oil he was sliding on.

      Finally, the train had passed and Jag pulled himself to his feet as he continued to slide from the fire, until alas the cave tunnel slanted steeply down and Jag slipped on the zenith and tumbled down the slippery rocks, still in hot pursuit by the fire, until the oil came to and end at the sharp turn, ending the slope and returning to a horizontal path at the end. And then in a second of grief and shock, Jag realized he'd left the laptop all the way back by where he'd passed the train, and now it looked like he had nowhere to go but further into the dark cave, as the fire came to a halt at the end of the slope, though the flame continuously nipped at Sequen's oil driven back.

      The Techo heaved a great sigh as he weakly lifted to his feet, crawling away from the flame, but to a greater surprise, the laptop slid down the slope, through the fire, and came to a stop at Jag's feet.

      Jag picked it up hurriedly and inspected the condition. The laptop would probably never work again, but an unharmed CD slid from its side as Jag tilted it to the right. He caught it and leaned over towards the fire to read what was written in pen on its clean cover. Lost Desert Meridell Darigan Record File.

      "This is it! This is all I need!" Jag exclaimed happily, embracing the CD. "All I need now is a computer from the Space Station…

      Jag Sequen turned hesitantly towards the long tunnel ahead of him, and slowly began walking down the path, limping slightly, but with a great smile upon his face…

      "So I guess it's true what Jury always said," he began to himself, "No matter how deep the darkness, a light will always shine through…"

To be continued...