The twins smiled at each other. "You know if you hit that button, I bet it will take your blood and make the sword more powerful, right?" Minx told him.
Midas grinned.
"Why don't you head upstairs and get some sleep. Tomorrow, we try to open Mother's lab again."
Midas was already walking up the stairs while she spoke. Minx smiled, sent the message to the command post to share any interesting footage with Sam and went to bed herself. She felt like things were finally coming together.
The next morning, they got themselves, Shalt, Mandy and Dawn ready to go. Caser and his family would also go. Fiza chose to stay behind and remain in contact in case something happened.
Immediately following breakfast, the group headed out. Others asked to go but Minx vehemently refused. There was a threat on the planet.
Minx once again was greeted by the plants. The beasts stayed away but Griddlebone, once again, trained Adam, Alice, and Stephie as Minx had named them. They hunted and each caught something to eat on the way to the entrance. The family, bi-ped and quad-ped equally, were proud of the juveniles.
Once again, Griddlebone and her children stayed on the surface. At the door, Minx breathed deeply. She unsheathed her sword and used the key. She felt the power and pressed it against the door. The door opened.
Inside the door, on the floor, there was a magic circle. "I was right, there's a trap… Stay here."
Minx stepped in the circle, still holding her sword. Immediately, it lit up and the outer portion rose up. It appeared to be scanning her. A melodious voice could be heard, "DNA confirmed. Welcome, Botan. Please state your name."
"Minx Botan."
"Did you bring guests?"
"Yes."
"Please stand them in the circle one at a time."
Minx followed the instructions. One by one, those in her normal entourage were registered with the system. She assumed this was a way of registering people as being authorized in the lab. Once there was no longer anyone on the other side of the door, it closed on its own.
Moving past the entry circle, there was a long corridor. It felt a little eerie but soon lights turned themselves on. After it seemed like the tunnel was never going to end, a door opened to the right and a massive lab could be seen.
There were plants in growing boxes, in tubes, in all manner of mediums. Many Minx couldn't even identify. Everything looked dead. There were magic circles with sigils around the interior edge of what looked like tables or countertops. Knowing these were magic, she was a bit concerned. There was one that was the same shade as her hair, and she was drawn to it. She touched the outside of the circle then waived her hand through it, she felt a slight pain.
"DNA confirmed. Welcome, Minx Botan. Initiating message playback."
Minx squealed in shock and jumped back as a hologram of the top half of a gaunt woman appeared right in front of her. She had the same skin tone as Minx and now Midas. Midas rushed to her side to share in the message.
"Minx, I am your mother, Cybil Botan. I have been trying to find you and Midas since you were taken from me 8 years ago. I have also been conducting research here trying to find a way back to the planet your father is on. I'm growing very sick as something is draining my energy. I suspect it has to do with the beasts when they removed my wings. I'm …. Diminishing."
"Where my fight is ending, I pray, my daughter, that you take it up. Finish my research. Find a way back to Nordash. Help your father defeat the beasts and the one who created them. Only then will both worlds be free. I love you my Minx and Midas. Tell your father… I tried."
As the hologram of her mother faded. A female computer voice filled the room. "Access to research granted to Minx Botan. Initiating… Initiating…" As the computer spoke, plants started appearing in all the circles. They were all different and quite unique.
The voice resounded again, "Access fully granted."
Suddenly all the plants began talking all at once. The plants that were dead when she arrived suddenly seemed to have a new life and were filling with color once again as if they were simply in stasis before.
Minx and Midas looked at each other, "What's going on?" Midas asked her.
"Each one of these plants on the tables and counters are a machine of some sort. That one over there is measuring potency of something. We've got measurements of life force, weight, all kinds of stuff. It's going to take me weeks to get caught up on what's going on here." She listened as the biggest plant gave a report.
"The beasts are very strong and feed off the power, the energy of magical creatures. They have been at war with magic folk for 50 years. Our side is losing. Our father told her to take us and leave through a portal which landed her here. Just before leaving, a beast managed to slice her wings clean from her back." Minx nodded. "The energy source the military recorded was her coming to this planet. I have a map now. And I need to go there."
Her expression turned serious. She looked up at Midas. "This is very dangerous and I will need to study some of the magic a bit more. I have been given some symbols but don't know what they mean. I should be ready once I know what they mean."
"Soooo…" Midas said, "it sounds like our parents are pretty bad ass."
Minx chuckled. "Let me give these plants some energy then we can head back."
She walked over to a vat of light green liquid. She channeled her Qi and the liquid started glowing. The more she put in it, the brighter it was. When she finished, "this works like a battery for the place. It's programmed to go into stasis if the power runs too low."
"Alright let's…" Suddenly the walls were trembling and the floor shook.
They rushed back to the entrance which opened for them automatically. Just as the last one left, the door closed itself. Minx suddenly skidded to a stop. In front of her she saw green and purple scales and a very long snake-like tail. Her eyes slowly went up and up and up. 30-feet into the air she saw a head. Out of its mouth she could see a yellow forked tongue.
Suddenly a booming, angry voice filled the area, "who daresssss tressspassss on my domain!"
Minx was looking into the eyes of a very angry demon-tier beast.