“There’s someone coming.” Cobalt warned the team as they made their way through the labyrinthian dungeon. It would be easy to just retrace her steps the way they were brought in of course, but it wouldn’t help them find John. Besides, there was the obvious downside of it being the most obvious place any prisoner would escape from, and while Gorekin assured them whatever sorcery he was using to mess with the ancient technology in this place also disabled the systems that would instantly warn them of a prison break… it really was better to be safe than sorry with the entire group only just getting used to their new powers. In Faith’s case seemingly not even fully aware of what exactly they even did given her apparent surprise at her skin hardening once more into a tough exoskeleton.

In any case, they had been following the faint scent of John for a while now, Cobalt making use of her newest mutation to mask the psychic signatures of her friends from any prying minds. That did not mean however the nigh-invisibility offered to her by her own near-perfect camouflage could be extended to the others though.

Understanding quickly, Gorekin and Faith pressed as close to the wall as possible as Cobalt snuck forward, blending in so well into the background that the only thing one would see would be a slight shimmer in the air roughly corresponding to her outline. She sniffed the air again, just one guard coming as it happened. Good, made things less complicated.

In a flash of movement, they pounced, but whatever their opponent was they were clearly either blessed with a mutation that let them see through the camouflage or skilled enough to compensate given they dodged the strike that would knock down even someone a step or two above her in cultivation. Likely both she considered, as the skinny-looking cultivator sidestepped another two slashes. Not effortless she noted, but still impressive.

Lucky for her, she wasn’t alone.

Gorekin jumped out, the massive beast-man momentarily surprising the slippery man enough that Faith of all people jumped over to tackle them. With the fact she was still getting used to the new exoskeleton, she moved a bit clumsier than would be ideal, but between the shock of Gorekin’s attempted tackle and Cobalt’s continued pressure, she managed to grab onto him and hook on with spines bristling at the edges of her skin.

“Wait! Wait! You… Saha’s daughter right? Cobalt was it?” The man pleaded.

While it was true he probably could see her based on that statement, she stubbornly remained in camouflage. “What do you want?”

Now that she was looking more carefully, however, he was wearing Sect clothing but evidently wasn’t a guard or anything like that. By the looks of things it was unlikely he was anything much more than an Outer Disciple with one or two Mutations, at least one being the round rodent-shaped ears on his head, though given his skill at dodging her she figured that his practical experience likely overshadowed what he lacked in terms of Cultivation.

“I’m Tom… Tom Sludge, friend of your mother.” He panted, having evidently exerted himself, and is in the midst of feeling the effects. “I wanted- to talk to you…”

Cobalt felt a blood vessel pop in her forehead. “What’s it matter to you? Even if she gave a shit they still consider me a fucking traitor for bullshit that is plainly untrue on its face.”

“The higher-ups are paranoid bunches, and Marcus is not known for lying… but he has been different as of late. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something off, so I went looking for you. That and, I have to admit, I am curious about you.” He admitted.

“What? What is there to be curious about?” She asked.

He gave a sad little laugh. “I have known Crane for years, she defended me when I was a nameless starveling back in the days we were still recovering from the Great Famine… I owe her my life. We were close, close enough she let me in on some of the shit she does, enough I thought I knew her… but she never mentioned you ever. Yet it’s true. She’s a shit liar when you get to know her, you know.”

“Guess we both really had to find out what she was like the hard wa-” Cobalt began to speak before she caught a whiff of something travelling their way. Sniffing further and listening to the subtle acoustics of the movement, she growled.

Her fucking so-called mother.

“Looks like she followed you.” She scowled with a whisper.

Barrelling down the hall at surprising speed, the woman of the hour slithered her way across and eyes blinded by rage, Cobalt rushed to meet her.

Given her invisibility Saha barely had time to react before being slammed with a punch fuelled by the knotted feelings of frustration and betrayal inside Cobalt. The woman who could have extended the smallest modicum of sympathy and effort, who could have even done the bare minimum attempt to help her, to understand her kracking daughter and chose not to! And now she has the gall to show up again like some-

She felt two arms wrap around her, attempting to pull her off, and she momentarily shimmered out of camouflage to burn bright red with anger, snapping at Tom as he tried to get her off. She nearly slammed him into the opposite wall, but Faith and Gorekin ran over to reinforce, managing to pry her off her useless mother.

“Whoa! Stop that! Let’s be reasonable here!” Tom pleaded.

“REASONABLE! SHE ATTACKED ME!”

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“REASONABLE! SHE ABANDONED ME!”

Saha and Cobalt both spoke at once, their words overlapping.

“Let’s hold off on the killing each other thing for now, please?” Tom pleaded.

“Has point, no good kill each other. More important thing do. Dis- disa not happy with you” Gorekin growled, stumbling at the last word.

“Wrath is a deadly sin, lose yourself not to it.” Faith added.

Still glaring daggers at the woman who shared her blood, Cobalt huffed. “Fine.”

“What are you doing here?” Tom asked Saha.

“I could ask you the same Sludge! What’s gotten into you, breaking potential infiltrators out of prison?” Saha spat back.

“He no help actually! We do by selves!” Gorekin proudly announced.

“Don’t tell her that!” Faith hissed.

“H-how did you all escape? Are the guards useless?” Saha questioned, evidently shocked.

The anger dissolved slightly as Cobalt pondered the question. “Actually, there were a few, but it has been strangely quiet hasn’t it?”

Something was happening, and clearly, none of them had any idea what it was nor liked the implications in the slightest given the universal expressions of discomfort.

The sounds of loud, mechanical, clanking in the distance confirmed her fears. Ordinary human senses of course would not be quite enough to pick it up, but to her finely tuned and mutation-enhanced ears it was more than audible; if a little dampened by thick walls of metal, concrete and stone.

“John?” She questioned out loud, though she was almost certain despite the machine parts grafted to him the slimy boy could not physically make those noises.

“John? Where?” Faith asked behind her.

She pointed in the direction of the sound originated from, somewhere a little off to the north perhaps. Seeing the finger, a concerned look mounted on the face of Tom and surprisingly Saha.

“That’s where the hospital wing of the dungeons is, for heavily injured prisoners that require significant treatment prior to questioning. If indeed your friend is anywhere… it would be there.” Tom answered.

“Something’s wrong though, that was like… metallic footsteps. And it’s fast but, when John wants to run he moves faster than you can imagine. That isn’t John, that might be something else.” Cobalt deduced.

“Whatever is, big problem.” Gorekin huffed. “No can see there though, too far, seal too good.”

“I am not risking my life on this- this fools errand!” Saha hissed.

Cobalt felt her blood vessels in her forehead threaten to burst over yet another reminder of her useless mother’s naked cowardice. But thankfully a cooler head was present to prevail.

“If there truly is something like a machine infiltrator running loose in our Sect it is our problem too, if not right now then very kracking soon. This is in our self interest Saha.” Tom explained.

Biting the inside of her lip, Saha admitted. “You are unfortunately right… fuck.”

“Good, now I know the two of you have… enmity… but please hold back for a bit while we evidently have more important issues on our hands.” Tom told Cobalt, with a pointed look at Saha.

Cobalt was about to say something rather stupid before a chitinous hand stopped her. Faith giving her a glare that told her that this was not a fight that was worth pursuing at the moment.

“Alright, you two… lead the way.” Cobalt managed to spit out.

The run over was steeped in a painful tension. Cobalt would have loved nothing more than to run on ahead and get away from the painful coils wrapping around in her iron guts. Unfortunately however, given Tom and Faith were only slightly above the speed of a higher grade Wretch and splitting the group would prove extremely unwise she had to grit her teeth and bear moving in silence neck and neck to Saha.

A small part of her still wanted to know what she was thinking, behind those cold snake-like eyes. She did her best to crush that, nothing good she had learned could come from that woman.

“Is that… a corpse?” Faith gasped, causing Cobalt to turn her neck at such breakneck speeds she would have broken something if she were a mortal.

Indeed, so lost was she in her thoughts that she evidently missed the bodies of what seemed to be several guards stuffed into a vent. Well, that at least answered the question of where the security was.

Her stomach growled hungrily, and the delicious scent of human blood caused her to salivate. Noticing Faith starting to look at her with eyes reminiscent of a hunted Jackalope she forced herself to turn away and crush the thoughts. It was… not right to think such things.

“Let’s keep moving.” She said, trying to move the errant thought of how vulnerable Faith seemed out of her head. Her father’s inheritance had such a way of making her feel and think like a monster.

They continued forwards, the bodies becoming less and less hidden, almost as though whatever was doing this either ran out of patience or was running out of time. Likely both. Eventually, the trail of carnage led to a cell with an open door, and inside…

“Greetings, Cobalt, Faith, Grrkkn and ah it does appear there are two more.” What was distinctly Artos said in the same creepy monotone. “You have arrived at an opportune time, I have just managed to complete purging my system of toxins, and have regenerated to 89% capacity.”

Her heart sank.

“Are you certain your friend isn’t a machine?” Saha asked.

“He isn’t- but this- look it’s complicated and I don’t like it as much as you do.” She said. “But this is Artos his… arm… and he isn’t one of those machines from the coast.”

“Affirmative: enemy model of European design principles, unaffiliated.” Artos said unhelpfully.

Looking closer she could see that one of John’s fingers seemed to be hastily regenerated by tendrils of red cabling wrapped around a skeleton of fresh metal and her heart sank. It was the finger with the ring on it. “Did you-”

John noticed where she was looking and lifted the arm. The eyes studding the limb focusing uncannily onto her own. “Ah yes. We do have a problem, unfortunately.”