Chapter CDXVIX: The Things Reporters Keep In Their Camera Bags… ~Dakota

It had not been an easy job getting past security and into the Water Palace. In fact it took a good deal longer than Dakota had planned, much to his dismay. In fact, if it hadn't been for the few minutes that Dyluck had distracted the guard, he might have had to pull out 'that'.

Dakota had never actually been inside the Water Palace before. He was quite impressed by the beauty of the layout. A large waterfall cascaded down the fall wall into a pool that flowed across the floor, under a series of bridges, all of which were highlighted by numerous plants such as water lilies and slender-leaved pondweed.

He stayed out of sight as much as possible as he headed for the rooms to the back of the palace, where he knew the guardian had his private office. Dyluck was easily already there, if that were really where he was going. Dakota wasn't sure where the Mana Seed was, but it made sense that it should be kept somewhere near the guardian's office.

"They couldn't go and make this easy by having a sign pointing the way to the Mana Seed. Oh no. Dakota needs to earn his paycheck by–"

The Pandoran ducked behind a suit of armour decorating the hall as a pair of acolytes came down the hall.

"Can you believe that Yoshi had the nerve to come here?” one of the two said. “And Syoro Porami let him in without a second thought."

"Syoro von Kippo is the Guardian of the Cyan Arc, and he and Syoro Porami are old friends," the other said, looking slightly unsure of himself. "I mean why would a Guardian steal the Mana Sword?"

"Didn't you see what it said in the paper? Even the TEHP think that he's behind it."

Dakota rolled his eyes with a slight smile. Sheesh Derrilon. You always have to be in the spotlight don't you?

The two acolytes passed Dakota's hiding place and continued down the hall.

"At least security is as tight as it is…"

The orange-haired man slipped off down the hall once again. He pulled out his pad as he went, and scratched down a quick note before stuffing it back in his pocket. Dakota came to a T-junction, picked a direction and kept going. I'm going to miss the whole meeting at this rate, he mentally berated himself.

He had not gone more than a few steps in the new direction when a bell peeled out through the water palace. Dakota's first thought was that somehow they knew he was here.

"Full scale attack!" a voice shouted from the PA system. "Everyone to their stations! This is not a drill! Repeat! This is not a drill! Stairways deactivating in thirty seconds! Twenty-nine! Twenty-eight!"

Dyluck…was he attacking? That couldn't be a full-scale attack could it? Then again, he did wield the power of the Cyan Arc… Dakota didn't waste another moment. He took off as a full sprint down the hall. Two of the palace guards were running down the hall from the opposite direction.

"Halt!" one of them shouted.

Dakota sighed. "I don't have time for this." He kept running, and when he got close enough, he planted his foot on the wall beside him, pushed up and cleared the two guards' heads with a foot to spare. "Don't waste time! Get to your positions!"

He didn't wait to see how the guards reacted. Even if they did give chase, he was going to find Dyluck. Another two guards couldn't hurt in case the guardian of the Cyan Arc really was the reason for the emergency.

"Three! Two! One!"

Dakota came to the end of the hall. In front of him he could see a large structure that he recognized immediately. It was the place where the Mana Seed of the Water Palace was kept. There were guards already in position around the Seed even if they were not sure where the threat was coming from.

"Stairways deactivating…now! I will be present shortly!" one last broadcast from Nase echoed over the PA system before it fell silent. But even with the PA system silent, Dakota still heard an odd whistling sound.

"At least Syoro Porami sounds safe." Dakota murmured to himself.

"You! What do you think you're doing?"

Dakota turned to see the two guards had, in fact, followed him. Both looked slightly out of breath.

"Just trying to get the story straight." The Pandoran flashed a smile.

And that wasn't the only thing that flashed. Suddenly every light source in the palace doubled in luminosity, and blew out in quick succession, plunging the area into darkness. It was only in the surprised silence afterward that Dakota realized what the odd noise he heard was. There was a storm outside of the palace; and a large one at that. Thunder rumbled, shaking the entire building, even louder than the confused shouts of the guards. Any emergency power supply on which they might have been relying was not going to do any good if all of the light bulbs had blown. Dakota slipped past the two guards in the darkness.

He slipped back down the hallway almost as quickly as he had come up it. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Dakota counted his steps mentally, and then he turned right and continued down the new hall. His ability to memorize a place after only having seen it once was coming in quite handy.

He knew without a doubt that Dyluck Thanatos Yoshi von Kippo, Guardian of the Cyan Arc did not possess any type of weather controlling powers. The attack had to be coming from outside.

"If I have to fight robots, I had better be getting overtime pay!" he shouted to no one in particular.

Dakota was close to the entrance now. That was until he remembered that Syoro Porami had deactivated the stairways. Unfortunately Dakota had already taken the first few steps down them. Seconds later he splashed into one of the palace's many pools. He came up sputtering. It did him very little good to memorize a build's layout if it went and changed on him like that.

It was only then that he noticed the hole in the wall, through which a number of figures were streaming, illuminated only by the occasional flashes of lightning outside. Dakota reached into his (waterproof) camera bag and pulled out a stick, which he promptly cracked. The entire stick lit up with a strong orange glow. He threw it toward the figures. It arched up, and as it came down, there was a slash and the stick fell to the ground in two pieces, still glowing.

Walking past the sticks were shiny metal boots. Heavy shiny metal boots at that that were topped with metal breastplates, with metal arms and gloves, topped with a metal helmet.

Who the heck wanders around in armour like that anymore?

Dakota bit his lip. It looked like he was going to have to use 'that'. He waded through the water to the edge. None of the armoured people had noticed him yet as he climbed out of the water.

Dakota then pulled out a shiny metal gun from his camera case. Okay…guys covered in metal. What would be good for that? Lightning? Does lightning hurt metal? Argh, why can I never remember this? The young orange-haired reporter grabbed a few shells from his bag. Fine, we'll leave it to lady luck.

He cracked open the gun, and slid two shells into place and then flicked it closed. He took aim at the nearest invader, and at the next flash of lightning he sighted the helmet and fired.

There was an explosion of green energy from the end of his gun. It hit its target solidly. Dakota took aim and fired again. This time there was an explosion of blue, which also hit its target. But on the next flash of lightning Dakota was met by an eerie sight. His two targets were continuing along, and neither had a head.

"Man, I hate robots!" Dakota reloaded with two more shells, this time aiming for the chest. The next shot was yellow; it hit the chest of the armour and fell completely to pieces. Dakota was readying his next shot, when the pieces floated up from the floor, reforming the metal body, which then continued walking.

"Oh you have got to be kidding me…"