Astra slowly opened his eyes. In the crash-landing of the Gantrithor he had been left behind, much to his dismay. He coughed, and heaved a decent-sized piece of rubble off of him with a good amount of effort. He got to his feet and looked around...in the distance he saw a massive hole. He blinked, then heard beeping coming from a nearby chamber. He entered it, to find several tanks. He entered with wide eyes, and proceeded to locate the beeping noise he was hearing. He eventually succeeded, discovering a panel with a flashing blue light on one of the tanks. Inside the tank was a strange patchwork of human, robotic, and alien body parts. The alien parts much resembled that of the aliens on the ship. "Well, seeing as there's no one around," he thought, "I guess I'll get this thing, whatever it may be, outta here." He looked at the console confusedly. He pressed a button, and suddenly the top of the tank flew open. He jumped back, shocked, and the strange creature awoke, looking at Astra with one brown human eye (the left one) and one glowing yellow eye (the right one), surely alien. The creature floated from the tank and landed on the ground, looking rather clumsy on its shiny new robotic feet. Its knees were bent backwards. It then began to speak.

"Greetings, I am Zephirus Darkwind. Do you know what's wrong with my legs?" Astra simply blinked, with no idea how to respond. Zephirus looked down, and noticed his new legs. "Huh?" he uttered. "Wh...wha...wh-what happened to me?!" he cried, obviously shocked. Astra finally got up the courage to speak, and uttered, "These aliens fixed you up." Zephirus looked at Astra, then his look turned to a glare. He grabbed Astra by the throat and hoisted him up, yelling, "What the hell did they do to me?! What the hell am I, huh?!" Astra fought to remove Zeph's hand from his throat, flailing like a fish on a hook. Zeph blinked once, then abruptly dropped Astra, turning his back. Astra took a deep breath, then opened his mouth to speak. He quickly closed it, however, when he heard what he believed to be crying. He got to his feet, and dusted himself off, going to check out the massive hole.

Astra walked to the side of the hole, and looked in. *Deep,* he thought, moving back a bit. He then considered his options. He had been brought here like all the others to stop this Havering person, but, unfortunately, he had no clue how, and why he had been brought at such a late stage. The big bad guy's ultimate weapon was loose, and he was brought in. For what? To be a savior, or to be the final touch on an already-exceptional gathering of heroes? Or maybe just to make a fool out of himself. He then felt the ground weakening below his feet...he looked down as the ground began to crumble away. His eyes widened, and he jumped back just in time as the ledge crumbled and fell into the abyss, making a microscopic impact on the ground below. *Ohhhhhh no,* he thought, shuddering, gripping a nearby rock tightly, *Ain't noooooo way I'm goin' down there...* His cowering was interrupted by Zephirus's voice.

"Get off the ground," Zephirus snapped in a rather nasty tone. Astra obeyed, and looked over at Zeph. Zeph was now dressed in a brown hooded cloak, which accurately concealed his body. The hood kept the alien side of his face in shadows, the glowing yellow eye staring out from the shadows. The human side of Zeph's face remained visible, the brown eye having a lock of silver hair with a forest-green highlight at the tip hanging down in front of it. The breeze that slightly blew back Zeph's cloak revealed the gleam of a sword's blade at his right side. He removed an anion pistol he had found stowed in some futuristic locker from its holster and twirled it, already appearing to be a master with the weapon even though he had only had it for the past 5-10 minutes. "We have a madman to stop, so quit cowering and get ready to fight," he barked, as if a general commanding his men. Astra nodded, and uttered shakily, "So, Zeph---" Zephirus cut him short, snapping, "Don't call me that anymore, Zephirus Darkwind is dead...I'm Sirocco Zephyr." Astra blinked, nodding once more, repeating himself, corrected, "So, Sirocco...we're going down this huge hole?" Sirocco nodded, and holstered his pistol, stepping to the edge and looking down. The determined look on his face was unwavering. "It's now or never," he remarked coldly, leaping into the hole. Astra sighed, muttering, "I can't believe I'm doing this," and leaped into the hole, not wanting to think about what lay below...