The four blobs quivered in terror when she said that, then they grudgingly nodded. They crawled down to the lower level, signalling that they were going to work on getting the panel open. Jessica went to the remains of the kitchen and gathered some ration bars and looked for a lantern.

Melissa followed and asked “So what’s the deal with those bizarre creatures?”

“You mean the blobs?” Jessica said finding a worn-out pack and began to stuff it with leftover rations. “Not sure, found them the other day. Really handy, they can repair a ton of things.”

"If I had to guess, they appear to be some form of nanotech creatures in a gel matrix."

"What is nanotech?" Jessica asked, looking troubled.

"It's a type of tiny machine. Back when I lived on Theranos, a Sky City, they had some rudimentary nanomachines that could undertake trivial tasks. Nothing like these things, especially not being able to form a suit around you like I saw before I ducked down the tunnel."

“Yeah, If it really feels like it was one of their primary functions. I just found out about it, when they did that.”

"You seem to be able to communicate with them. Do they speak with you?"

"Not at first, but I'm starting to pick up images and thoughts from them. Could that red crystal have been some nanomachines that took over my sister?"

"Conceivably, I've never heard of anything like that, so it's beyond me. I would have to examine her to get an idea of what I'm dealing with."

Jessica nodded and filled an old pack with the leftover ration bars. In one of the cabinets, she managed to find a lantern that worked as well. Heading down to the lower level with the Doctor following she asked "So you lived on a SkyCity? Why are you down here now?"

"That is a long story" Melissa said as she climbed down. "Despite what many believe down here, the Sky City's are not utopias. If you don't have power, life up there can be just as hard down here. The one with the most power are the crime lords. Maybe some of the Sky cities are better, but not the ones I know."

"I made a mistake and upset the wrong people. So I had to flee down to the ground and settled down here. Looks like I'll have to up and leave. Papa Bright is likely to have reported he discovered me to his brother. So what about this weapons facility, do you know what's down there?"

“Only a little bit, I saw that weird black cube on one monitor, it was floating over a bunch of skeletons. Speaking of skeletons, I also saw a freaky black goo covering one moving about within there. We are going to have to be careful; it seemed dangerous."

Going to the corner of the room, Jessica found that the blobs had managed to remove the layers of metal sealing the floor panel to the ground. "Much obliged guys, here have a ration bar to aid you get your energy back. I don't know what's down there so I'm relying on you guys to help us out."

Passing out a full ration bar to the four blobs, they greedily took it and dissolved it down. Skye lifted up the panel and looked down it making sure it was safe. When it saw nothing out of the ordinary, it waved to Jessica that it was safe to start climbing down.

Taking a look down the dark shaft, at the very bottom, she could make out some yellow flashing lights. Using her lantern, she examined the walls of the shaft and determined that they looked undamaged. "Alright Doc, this is the way down to the facility. It's a long climb so be aware."

Stepping down the ladder Jessica's arms began to hurt. Still sore from the recent fight, she had to take it slow as she climbed down the shaft. When she was halfway down, she had to take a second to rest her screaming arms. Shifting the pack on her back, she continued down.

Getting closer to the bottom of the shaft, she heard a screaming siren in the distance that made the hairs rise on the back of her neck. Reaching the bottom, the tunnel was filled with flashing yellow lights, which made it a bit hard to look down the tunnel.

An odd sense of dread ran through her body, and Jessica raised her gun looking around to make sure it was safe. A few seconds later Melissa climbed down and said in a sarcastic tone "Well this looks lovely." Looking up Melissa said "Come on we need to get out of here before they start looking around the place."

Cautiously they walked down the tunnel with the flashing amber lights. Passing the painting on the wall, the Doctor said “Vadetech?”

“Yeah, it’s an old company that apparently built this facility.”

"I'm somewhat familiar with them. They apparently were behind the construction of the flying cities. They were also partly responsible for the world going to shit too."

When they reached the bend, Jessica peeked around the corner and was disturbed to find the locked door was now torn off its hinges and lay in pieces. Raising her rifle, she stepped forward with the doc and blobs following her closely. "This wasn't done by the explosion. Keep your eyes open for that freak"

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Stepping through the remains of the entrance, Jessica found herself in front of what looked like a security checkpoint. There was black goo all over the place, and as she watched some of it pulsed like it was alive. "Hey Skye, is that stuff dangerous?"

The blue blob rolled up and touched the black goo. Skye looked a little disgusted and seemed to say it was safe, it was just some waste product. An image of those things appeared, warning her, the black stuff on those things however was dangerous and should not be touched.

Taking a look behind the security counter, Jessica saw that there was an old skeleton with rotting clothing laying down. Its skull had been crushed long ago. Melissa said "Hey take a look around that body, he may have some sort of key card that will allow us to open lock doors."

Nodding, Jessica moved the body with her gun and found what looked like a key card under the skeleton. Picking it up she attached it to her shirt. Checking the counter for anything useful, she found a set of monitors that had been smashed underneath it. In a side drawer she found some decayed papers that turned to dust when she moved them.

Underneath was what looked like a container for some candy. Reading the label she saw it was some sort of bubblegum that was guaranteed to never go stale. Seeing no use for it at the moment, she tossed it into her pack. Turning to the Doctor she asked "You said you saw a map of this place? Where are the exits located?"

Melissa said "I only saw it briefly, and it's hard to say down here, but most of the exits I saw were located south."

Keeping quiet as best they could, they went forward. Strangely after they entered the siren stopped completely. They occasionally found another body that had turned to a skeleton, several of which had been crushed as if something stomped on them. Several of the doors they tried were locked down, and Jessica saw no way to open them, and trying the key card prompted a red error on the key reader.

They found a set of double doors and Jessica peeked in and saw they had come across the cafeteria. Seeing the mound of dead skeletons made her not want to go in. Agreeing that they should move on, they continued onward only to hear a strange knocking sound.

A little spooked by the sound breaking the silence, Jessica kept her gun ready. Tension filled them as the sound seemed to get closer. Then all at once the noise ceased. Waving at the blobs to keep on guard, they crept forward. As they did so, the black goo started to coat the walls.

One of the doors they passed had been busted open with jagged metal reaching out into the hallway. Taking a look inside Jessica could see several busted up tubes. The black goo was so thick inside, it made the floor look almost alive. They continued forward and discovered a still ajar door that had been jammed open by a body. Grabbing the key card off the body, Jessica ran it over the door, and it opened.

The door slid open with some effort, revealing a dark lab with a faint flickering yellow light in the corner. Stepping inside, Jessica was startled when some lights in the ceiling turned on. On several benches in the lab, monitors were lighting up as the computers they were attached to turned on with a hum.

On a table in the middle of the room, she found a set of pages that had been sealed in plastic scattered about. Carefully Jessica picked up one of the pages, she found it was describing a series of experiments intent on producing the ultimate warrior.

Using a bio-nanotech goo they had recovered from the black cube, they exposed several humans. Initial studies proved to have several problems as the individuals exposed went mad. They changed the focus to creating a berserker that they could release on enemy forces.

Hearing a loud thump come from the hall, Jessica waved Doctor Melissa back and carefully went to go check on what it was. With caution, she peeked out the door taking a look up and down the hall and didn’t see anything. Stepping back in, she turned around and was startled to find one of those freaky black skeletons was standing right behind the doctor.

“Duck!” Jessica screamed and brandished her gun at the creature. It charged forward to attempt to grab the doctor, only for Melissa to swing a chair at it knocking it backwards. The monster crashed against the back wall and seeing that she had a direct shot, she fired.

The gun let out a whine and then an unpleasantly loud boom sounded making her ears ring out in pain. The gun thumped hard into her shoulder, nearly knocking her back. Where the slime covered, skeleton had been, it was exploded as the bullet shattered it and punched through the wall. The skeleton collapsed into a pile of black goo.

Blaze rolled over and looked at it prodding it with a tendril and waved that it was dead. Going over to Melissa she asked "Are you alright? Did it touch you?"

"No, It snuck up on me. I guess that thing was one of those who was experimented on. Where the hell did it come from?"

Daisy looked around and pointed up at the ceiling. Following the pointing tendril, Jessica saw a vent had been opened in the ceiling. “Oh great, they are in the vents that must've been the knocking sound we've been hearing.”

Not wanting to hang around in this room in case, more of those things showed up and they left the room. Continuing forward they found several more labs that were working on different projects. Not having the time to check them out, they kept moving.

When Jessica opened one of them, Blaze took a look inside and waved a tendril in an excited manner. It rolled in and began to look over the components that were laid about in the room. Jessica went in and took a look around. She found that this was some sort of firearms development lab.

Going through the documents, she found that most were still in the development phase and were not being close to ready anytime soon. However, she did find mention of one product that had been developed after researching the remains of a ‘project Zodias.’

Besides the name, the report did not mention anything else about what the project was. However, it described the gun as being able to fire a distinct beam of energy that was able to tear through most materials. The only downside being that it required intense energy and could at most fire two shots before needing a new energy pack.

While she was reading Blaze had pulled open a chest and pulled out a large gun. It was so massive, that Jessica was barely able to hoist it, Melissa said “Here let me hold on to that.” To Jessica’s surprise, the Doctor easily lifted it.

"How are you able to do that?"

"Genetics. While it is not standard, if you expend some money you can genetically engineer your child in the womb. Which my parents did. I'm now stronger and smarter than most other humans."

"Great. That means you carry the bug gun." Jessica said drily and moved out.