Quest: Hell Hospital (Part 1)

--- Maya ---

“Fine, I’ll handle it myself!” She told him before striding down the hall towards the administration archive as she felt her blood beginning to boil from what Decker had told her.

On the one hand she knew exactly what he was talking about, given how much time she’d spent in her lab compared to being out and about, but on the other… (Who does that asshole think he is looking down on me?!)

After a few minutes of stomping through the halls with Decker silently following her while wearing an irritating grin on his face, she realized that despite how pissed she was she needed at least some semblance of a plan if she was going to (show the DJ just how wrong he is before rubbing his face in it.)

(Though the question is how best to do that?) She frowned, knowing that she didn’t have much longer to figure it out. (Okay, right… I’m up against an enemy I vaguely know so my best bet is to probably handle this quietly and then if things go wrong handle it loudly. After all, even if things go wrong there’s nothing stopping me from just blasting these Creeps with my Hand Cannons.)

With the vague beginnings of a plan, she considered what parts of her kit would constitute ‘quiet’, before realizing she hadn’t actually built anything that could be considered ‘stealthy’, save maybe her trap mines. (Which actually aren’t going to be quiet once they go off…)

“I’ll just have to make it work.” She sighed.

“What was that?” Decker asked a few paces behind.

“I said, to keep quiet we’re getting close to where the spawn and I don’t want them to know we’re here.” She answered with a frown.

Decker made a face. “Going in quiet? Blegh. Louder and prouder is always better for this kind of thing.”

“Not if you don’t want to be ripped apart.” She argued, before considering it. “Or if you want I can feed you to the hounds to buy myself some time.”

“Tempting but you said you wanted to handle this yourself so I’m going to have to be a little more hands off than that.” Decker shrugged as he raised both of his hands.

“Then don’t be a backseat gamer.” She told him, tossing one of her mines down.

“Uh, are explosives a good idea in a confined space?” Decker questioned with a slightly nervous tone. “We don’t want to literally blow the roof off of this place.”

“Their yield isn’t that high.” She told him with a roll of her eyes. “Honestly, you need two or three going off at the same time to destroy the more stable walls.”

“If you say so, though bombs aren’t exactly a mainstay of stealth builds.” The Gamer Guild lieutenant noted as she threw another mine down.

“Traps and mines are a mainstay of stealth builds in a modern setting.” She pointed out as she threw a mine into an otherwise empty room. “They’re just not good for Ghost runs.”

“Fair enough, they just feel like half-assing that route though.” Decker told her. “Sniper, silenced gun, or a bow and arrow seem more of a rogue's route.”

“And I’m an M.A.D. not a rogue.” She reminded him before spotting the door to the archives. “Alright, we’re at the place I last saw the Bloodhounds.”

“Plenty of Rogue M.A.D.s in this world.” Decker said, apparently needing to get the last word in as they entered the archives.

“Whatever.” She sighed before looking around for a moment. “Why aren’t any of these Creeps spawning yet? They were all over me the last time I was here.”

“Oh, that. That’s probably me.” The DJ shamelessly admitted.

“What do you mean?” She frowned.

“You know how in some games if you’re a high enough level the low-level guys will run away from you. It’s basically that.” Decker explained. “Has to do with the fact that I am absolutely covered in Madness and Magic, anything that senses that stuff can spot me from a mile away.”

She took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. “You know, that’s the kind of thing that would’ve been good to know before you followed me here.”

“Don’t worry about it, I’ve got Creep bait on me.” The (idiot) assured her as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of something red with streaks of black moving through it.

“Creep bait?” She repeated skeptically as she eyed the vial.

“Well that’s not its actual function, but everyone who has dealt with the stuff enough knows it's basically Creep bait.” He told her as he uncapped the vial before dumping it on the ground.

“And what exactly is this stuff?” She asked, more curious than anything now.

“Uh, if you don’t know, then you don’t want to know.” Decker answered before shuddering, and quietly adding “That was one secret I really wish my sister hadn’t looked into…”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

(I just want to know more now!)

Not willing to admit that, she instead told him, “That tells me next to nothing about that stuff.”

“Just uh, just avoid any ‘Deviant Drugs’ unless you know exactly what is in them and how they’ll interact with your powers.” Decker grimaced, looking more than a little uncomfortable. “For instance if I’d taken this junk I would’ve lost my mag-”

A nearby explosion cut off whatever Decker was going to let slip, before being followed by a couple more even closer.

“Welp, looks like your Creeps have come out of hiding.” Decker noted before leaning out of the doorway. “Oh, but they aren’t dead yet. Might want to get on that.”

“Get away from there before they see you!” She hissed, grabbing the (idiot) and dragging him away from the door.

“So you’re not going to take advantage of the fact that you staggered five of them with your mines?” Decker checked with her. “Seems like a waste to me, but you do you, gamer girl.”

She glared at Decker for a moment before groaning as she ran into the hall and spotted the downed Bloodhounds picking themselves off of the visibly charred ground.

Raising her hand cannons into the air she fired off half a dozen bolts of electricity at the Creeps. Hoping that her aiming software would be enough to make up for the fact that she wasn’t really aiming on her end and just firing as many shots as she could.

Most of which did connect with one Bloodhound or another, as demonstrated by the three who hit the ground before beginning to slowly burn away to cinder and ash.

Not that she was able to stick around and watch since the other two managed to shake off everything she’d done to them before turning towards her with matching growls, as the world around her seemed to shake and her heart began to pound in her ears.

“Shit, shit, shit…” She cursed, struggling to breathe as the Creeps began crawling towards her, their claws leaving massive gouges in-

“Bonk.”

She blinked as the shaking stopped and it became much easier to breathe, despite her still pounding heart.

Slowly she turned towards Decker who had a fist raised just above her head.

“Fun fact, a lot of the weaker mental effects can literally be knocked out of you.” The DJ smiled, before glancing at the Bloodhounds. “Oh! Might want to dodge right.”

“What?” She asked, still a little dazed.

She received her answer via a mass of muscle tackling her to the ground, and sending them skidding several feet as one of the snarling Bloodhounds pinned her to the ground.

“Oh, shit!”

“Don’t worry you can take ‘em!” Decker called after her.

She switched one of her hand cannons to sound and burst before grabbing the Creep’s shoulder and blasting it. An action that sent it hurling into the hallway wall with violent thud, though not without its claws cutting her bicep just beneath her shoulder armor.

“Fuck, I should’ve brought the power armor.” She groaned as she picked herself up, hating that she’d gotten so worked up that she hadn’t thought to go back to her lab for it.

“Mm, couldn’t have hurt.” Decker agreed, having apparently heard her. (Because of course he did.) “Also that one isn’t dead yet.”

Her eyes shot to the side just in time to meet a pair of hellfire red eyes as the Bloodhound began to growl and she promptly shot it in the face with a mix of electricity and sound. Pasting the creep against the wall with a disgusting squelch as the scent of burning meat filled the air.

“Now it’s dead.” Decker nodded, giving her a thumbs up.

(No idea if that fear response was me or it.) She admitted to herself as her heart continued to pound in her chest.

“Oh, on your right.” Decker told her, causing her eyes to dart away from him and to where a trio of Bloodhounds were rounding a corner. “Ooh, now that is a grenade loving target if I’ve ever seen one.”

Agreeing with him, she reached into her jacket and pulled out one of her explosives before hurling it down the hall at the Creeps.

The trio all looked down at the explosive curiously, before the device fulfilled its god(/me) given purpose and exploded, throwing all three creeps around with a shockwave that left her ears ringing.

Not wanting to give them a chance to get back up, she forced herself onto her feet before making her way over as she reloaded her Hand Cannons.

Once the Creeps were in range she unloaded everything onto them, bombarding them in a barrage of sound and electricity as she blasted them apart.

As her Hand Cannons auto-loaded themselves she couldn’t help but pant as she watched the trio of Creeps begin to break down into cinder and ash before drifting into the air, a sense of accomplishment filling her as she realized she’d taken out almost a dozen monsters by herself.

“Good job, gamer girl.” Decker clapped from behind her. “Told you, you could do it.”

“And the moment is ruined…” She sighed, before turning back towards the (pain in the ass.)

“Though you do have two left.” Decker told her, immediately sending her on high alert as she looked around the wrecked hospital hall in search of the Creeps she’d missed. “Over here.”

Cautiously, she walked towards Decker before he gestured towards the archive room where she found a Creep with its face being pressed into the dirt by one of Decker’s bears, who was gently bobbing its head to some unheard beat.

She turned on Decker with a glare. “I told you I didn’t need your help.”

“Eh, this is less me helping and more me reffing the fight.” Decker disagreed, raising a finger into the air.

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?” She frowned.

“Right, so certain breeds of Creep. Namely the ones that dissolve when you kill them, tend to spawn a bigger Boss Creep when you kill all of them.” Decker reminded her.

“I know that.” She told him. “That doesn’t explain why you held this one back.”

Decker rolled his eyes. “I held this one back, because once you kill it the boss Creep will probably spawn and you’ll have to fight it. And if you hold one back then you can decide when the boss spawns rather than letting it ambush you on the tail end of another fight. Which as an M.A.D. powered by prep time is usually a good idea.”

She made herself take a calming breath before bitterly admitting that, “Yeah, that does sound like a good idea.”

“Glad you agree, because we’ve got like five minutes before this idea quits working.” Decker informed her.

“What?!”

“It has to do with how many Creeps you kill leading up to the boss. After you kill about half of them, the boss is coming no matter what but how fast it comes is based on how many Creeps are left.” Decker explained, before shaking one of her hands in a so-so gesture. “I don’t know what the exact math is since it varies between Creep species but we should have enough time for you to throw down a few more mines or something.”

“I don’t have any more mines!” She told him.

“Oh, you didn’t bring enough dakka to a fight?” Decker frowned. “Don’t you know, you can never have enough Dakka.”

“Gah!”