Stella paused while putting on her neon yellow jumpsuit when Ramses shushed Aaron. Her ice-colored eyes met Ramses' light emerald ones. Ghost walked over to The Egyptian Museum agent and crossed her arms. "It's good not to trust the big companies one hundred percent. I do the same with my employer, however, I do know that the people I work with would pull me from fire in a heartbeat. Granted, usually, Dragon has started said fire, but I digress. At least, I know that good people have my back," she spoke and shot a wink at the Egyptian as she tapped her ears. "Super hearing."
Stella handed Ramses and Aaron yellow suits like the rest. "Even if you two aren't going through the purple-mist-of-mystery, you should still suit up. When we open that door, you'll be just as exposed as we are," she instructed as she strode back over to the rest of her suit and finished the gaudy ensemble.
Stella went first through the door, using her TRUMPET device to lead the way. She pressed her comms unit in her suit that linked to the other suits. "Keep your voices down if you need to speak. These dark matter creatures are unpredictable," she whispered as they came upon the decrepit village of eons past. Her augmented vision was going crazy with highlighting various objects of interest, but the brightest was the little squatting statue and the etched wooden baton.
While the objects were interesting, Stella's main priority was to get #3, Nova, and the others into a submarine without injury. The group made their way toward the clock tower when a familiar roar echoed throughout the cavern. Stella glanced back at #3 hanging on to the rope she had tied around her waist. ' Is it too late to hope that this is a simulation again?' she thought as she spied a large, scaly tail followed by the feet and, finally, the entire being.
"You got to be fricking kidding me," Stella muttered as her eyes scanned the dark matter dragon that was between them and where the submarines were docked. Thankfully, the dark matter dragon had yet to see them. She began to think of their options. Chances were that the statue and baton most likely did something that could distract the dragon, but Stella wanted to use those as a last-ditch effort.
Ghost led the group behind some large rocks to keep them out of sight of the giant creature. She turned back to her little comrade and knelt down. "3, I need you to stay with Star. The submarines are on the other side of the dragon. I am going to create a distraction for you, Star, and the others to run and start up the submarine," Stella explained in a hushed tone. She smiled softly. "You can do this, 3. The submarines should be similar to the one that we patched together, maybe just shiner tech," the woman encouraged before she untied the rope from her waist.
Stella quietly stepped around the sleeping violet-hued lizard towards the artifacts. She couldn't help but get a bad feeling about this. It was as if Von Galloes was testing them again. Before she could second-guess herself and the decision she made, Stella tiptoed over to the baton and grasped it tight with her right hand. Suddenly, an electrifying sensation reverberated up her arm and throughout her body even with the protection of the hazmat suit. Her body even had a slight purple glow as she crouched over in pain. Stella gritted her teeth to keep herself from screaming, she forced herself to stand up.
The glowing woman wasn't surprised that she caught the attention of the now awake dragon. "Hey there bud, we're going to have some fun," Stella spoke in a sickly sweet manner. Her eyelids twitched unevenly as whispers of a different voice began to echo inside her head.