The Castle of Resurrection: Part Five

by phifi

Shamathia's Discovery

At the time when Ati had arrived at the ruins of the castle, Sammy had lost her path in the forest. She did not know that Ati had climbed on a tree to have a better view and so the lost the path. After searching for a few minutes it had started to rain Lupes and Aishas and so she had looked for a place where she could find protection from the rain.

Nearby she found a quite big cave. She sat down at the entrance and watched the rain. It looked as if it was not going to stop at all this evening and so she decided to stay in the cave for tonight, but first she wanted to have a look at the end of the cave, for caves in forest are seldom not-occupied by creatures who prefer to avoid the light...

To her surprise, the cave become broader and higher as she went deeper into it. Than, the rocks disappeared and the ground, ceiling and walls were build of solid undressed rocks. It seemed to be some sort of tunnel. After about 15 meters, the entrance was blocked by strong looking iron-bars from ceiling to ground, but for they seemed to be shattered by an earthquake, two bars had fallen out and Shamathia could pass through. The tunnel was leading her down, deeper under the earth now. Suddenly, it stopped, but in the ground was a square-shaped, black hole. A ladder was leading into the darkness and somewhere deep below Shamathia could hear the sound of dripping water... She stood there at the ladder for some minutes, unsure if she should dare climbing down the ladder without knowing what would expect her. Than she took heart, toggled her eyes into night mode, which allowed her to see in the dark equal as in the light, and climbed down the ladder.

It was quite long, and when Shamathia had finally reached it's bottom, it was slightly warmer around her. Darkness was all around her, but she could see everything well due to her magic ability. She stood in the middle of another tunnel, which was going into two direction. Shamathia went into the direction which she considered to be north.

After another walk of about half an hour, she came to a gate made of plain steal. Sammy already thought that her luck had left her now and that she had to walk all the way back, when she saw a tiny keyhole on the left side of the gate. Before she knew what she was doing, she had taken out her magic-key, which could open any door if it was used for a good purpose, and put it into the hole. With a metallic, clicking noise the lock opened. Sammy pushed on side of the gate open, which was very difficult for the hinges were totally rusted. But the gate moved a little bit, just enough to allow a small Aisha like Shamathia to slip through. Shamathia entered and could not believe what she was seeing.

She had just entered a large hall which had been cut out of the solid rock. It was filled with electronic equipment, computer, small robots and machines which Sammy had never seen before. Everything was covered with a thin layer of dust, obviously no one had used this room for quite a long time. The most astonishing thing stood in the center of the room: A column, consisting of deep blue crystal. It was very big, about four and a half meters high and three meters thick. Interested, Shamathia went closer.

The Diary

Ati was just about to leave the library when her eye fell on an ancient-looking book, which looked different than the others. She took it in her hand and read the handwritten title 'William's Diary'. Oh wow! Ati though. This is just what I were looking for. Maybe he was the owner of all this. She sat down on a chair which seemed not too bad and opened the diary. Many pages had been ripped out, but there were still a lot remaining. For the book was completely handwritten, it was very difficult to read:

Page 15
...ugly mutation !!! How could they do this to me after everything I have done for them?!? Evolution, bah, they made it only for their amusement. 'Let's see what happens if we turn those Cerpulls into a new shape that is just an insult' My poor little Firecy, what did they do with you. It hurts to see you like this.

But I will undo the change, and if it is the last thing that I am doing, I will undo the change. There is always a solution, and I will find it. My dear little darling needn't stay in this shape for all times, I will undo it. First of all, I have to find a place where I work undisturbed so that...

The rest of the page was not readable anymore. Some pages were missing. For a moment the room was put into bright light by a lightning and far in the distance, Antanie could hear a thunder. She went on to read:

Page 43
...This castle is just brilliant. It seems the right place to go on with my studies. I think that a solution is not too far now. After the rest of the equipment has arrived and I have put everything up I will dare making a first try. But I am still not sure which technique I am going to use. As written before, the ray-version showed some interesting results on the test subjects but there are these side-effects sometimes... no, I will prefer the nano-bot version. Maybe I should speak with my darling first what he would like more.

Today I had a long talk with Firecy and he agreed to try the nano-bot version. I have already made the program code ready as soon as the remote-control matrix....

Page 44
... has arrived we can start... I am like so excited, hope everything will work fine? But I am very optimistic. Looking forward to see my darling in his true shape again, the majestic Cerpull, mighty, powerful. Awesome, it will certainly work.

Finally the matrix has arrived. It is already installed and tomorrow I will inject Firecy and doses of about 5000 nano-bots (ver. 4.6.2). Mike was a bit unsure if we should already try it. He said that we were not experienced enough yet, I told him to get on with his work and not worry about affairs which are not of interest for him. He certainly is a good programmer and knows a lot about hacking Neopia but sometimes he has these ambitions of telling me what I have do to. As soon as this...

Page 45
...thing is over, I will kick him out. Maybe I am unfair, but I don't really trust him, in fact, I never did. But I need him and...

Now, again some pages were missing. The thunderstorm had approached, and the rain had increased. Ati hoped that Sammy had found a place where she could also stay dry.

Page 49
...the result we shocking: At first, everything seemed to work fine. But after he had gotten his true shape again the transformation process still went on. He started to grow, became bigger than he ever was. His muscles became incredible large. I was afraid if he could not get hurt and stopped the bots. Mike had watched the whole process a mixture of interested and fascinated. I think he still has this dream of building the ultimate creature and conquer Neopia. Well, as long as he uses his manic-intelligence to help me, I shall not complain. But what am I talking about? We succeeded !!! Firecy is no longer an ugly Tatsu but a majestic Cerpull !!! I cannot find the right words to express my joy... this is my biggest success. Tomorrow I shall make a big feast for us three. =)

Page 50
The feast today was awesome. It is so great having my pet back in his true, original shape. Mike tasted blood when he saw what else the nano-bots can do to a pet than changing it's shape. We all agreed to give Firecy another injection to make him more powerful. Let's see, it will certainly be a big surprise when a well-trained war-Cerpull enters the Battledome.

Another success !!! With the help of another injection of nano-bots I could almost double Firecy's strength and agility. He was also very satisfied with the result. I allowed he to go to the mountains for three days to try his new powers. Meanwhile, I will relax a bit and thing about new plans. I will certainly leave this...

Page 51
castle soon and return to Neopia Central. Wo-ho, that will be a show. Firecy, the Cerpull came back from his hide-out to rule Battledome. hehehehe...

The rest of the page was left blank. Two blank pages followed. Than, the handwritten script went on, but it had changed, was more unreadable and unconcentrated. The author seem to had been a bit tipsy too much for him:

Page 54
All right, his status is stable now. I still can't believe how this was possible. Oh, I should not forget to write what happened: Firecy went to the mountains to try his new strength on the rocks. But he did not return after three days as promised and so Mike and I went out and looked for him. And than we found him. He was lying under some extremely large rocks, unable to move, most of his body smashed. When I first saw him, I thought he was dead, but somehow, he was still alive. How could this happen? Why on earth do all these catastrophes only happen to me and my pet?!? This is sooo unfair! However, Mike and I teleported him to the underground lab immediately and connect him to the life-supporting machines we had build for the case that

Page 55
something went wrong during the nano-bot operation. I am always afraid of using that teleport thingy but Mike said that there was no chance that the staff could notice it. So, and this is the current status: Firecy, the great Cerpull managed to get his beautiful body smashed under some tons of rock. Brilliant.

Firecy's status is unchanged. He is alive, but under which circumstances? The damage is too great so I cannot use the nano-bots now, I might just give him the rest. The ray I also do not want to use, due to the side-effects. Mike told me had was preparing something to help my little darling, but I am not sure if what he is planning really is the right way.

Again several pages were missing.

To be continued...