Demons were far from the holiest of creatures. Granted, they were not outright evil like many made them out to be. They had their quirks, sure, and were far quicker to resort to violence than most species. But they were far from the worst. That honor went to creatures that destroyed for the sake of destruction… or out of pleasure.
The noise that came out of the door and filled the staircase could be called a scream. It could even be called a sonic assault, for all that everyone were covering their ears. But what it certainly was, was a cry of pain. And not just one.
An entire chorus sounded out as the balls of Hellfire exploded in the midst of dozens of the plant creatures. The vine released the imp who, having been introduced to an element from its natural environment, was none the worse for the wear.
The Hellfire spread rapidly from one plant to another, sucking up Grims energy reserves like a pig with a bucket of truffles.
Grim couldn’t disagree with his assessment and charged past Joe, who had been standing there stunned. “Go now or don’t go at all!” he yelled back at the group. There was only a moment of hesitation before the rest charged in after him.
“Fuck,” grunted Joe as the group’s flashlights illuminated walls covered in moving vines and mobile Red Rattles, several of which were retreating on fire. “Whatever you engineered in the lab is not only free, it’s got a fucking domain… and its fucking spreading.”
Trevor couldn’t help but agree. ‘That seems to be the case. The good news in this case is that if we can find and kill the central beast, the domain should collapse. If that happens most of these Rattles should die off or flee.”
The group moved along the vine covered walkway, Grim occasionally blasting out a ball of fire. The rest of them didn’t see to have any ranged options that were of use against the creatures. While gunfire was useful as a distraction, it didn’t even slow these things down.
“I can’t keep this up indefinitely,” he grunted. “Find the fucking door and let’s get inside already.”
The scientist pointed ahead to a concrete outcropping, “There. It should be just on the other side of that support arch,” he directed.
They rushed over, Grim continuing to fling fire at anything that moved while the imps occasionally picked up an errant Rattle and throwing it over the edge into the murky stream below. He took immediate note that the demons were touching the damn things and were none the worse for it. Filing that away for later, he continued his attacks.
The screaming had never quite stopped, but it had grown more dull as they moved away from the point that the fire flinging man had initially attacked. There must have been something important there. Grim wasn’t able to identify it, but he was now certain whatever he had hit was critical to the creatures.
Coming around the edge of the concrete support arch, Trevor was the first one to skid to a halt. “That… that can’t be possible,” he muttered, staring a very much intact solid steel door. “If they didn’t come out of here… where did they get out from?”
“Questions later, open the fucking door now,” grunted Grim, “Running out of fucking energy!”
“But I don’t want them to know that. Establishing limits is key to garnering trust. If people know you have a weak spot they are less likely to be intimidated by you. More likely to trust you,” he explained.
Trevor went right to work on the door, getting the firs tone open in mere seconds. Stepping into the doorway there was a small room, no larger than ten feet by ten feet. A second door was presented to them.
The group stepped into the room with, granted, a bit of shoulder rubbing. But Grim kept it free of the now very agitated Rattlers. The psychotic plants had gone from running around on fire, to running directly at him while on fire. BY the dozens.
“I could… really use that door open now,” Grim fumed, agitated that no one else was even able to help him hold back the tide of the plant creatures. Couple that with the fact that if one touched him he was essentially dead only deepened his level of stress.
“Working on it,” Trevor called back as the second door popped open.
The third door was immediately beyond with no room attached to it. The scientist had that one open quickly as well.
He wasn’t sure what had gone wrong, but Grim knew there would be a delay in getting inside the moment he heard Trevor start cussing.
“Aw shit,” the scientist griped, staring at the solid wall of metal in front of him. “When the fuck did they put this here? This… I don’t think we can get through this?”
Grim conjured a massive ball of Hellfire and dropped it in front of the outer most door, then slammed it shut. Turning, he pointed at the wall, “Get the fuck out of the way,” he snarled causing everyone to move. Joe grabbed Trevor and hurled him to the side just as Grim let loose a solid stream of crimson fire.
Even as the door behind him began to melt, metal running down the sides like ice-cream in the sun, he cut through the metal bulkhead like a hot knife through butter. As he finished cutting out a large hole, the door behind him failed. It caved in as a result of both his makeshift trap and Rattlers throwing themselves into the objecting blocking them. Regardless of the Hellfire.
Cutting off his stream of fire, Grim ran forward and slammed bodily into the stills teaming metal. With a loud screech, the entire section he had burned fell away and into a cavernous room. Looking up from the ground he pointed at the doors, “Get those two closed and get the fuck in here!” he yelled, break the group out of their stunned states.
Joe rapidly closed both doors as the group rushed through them and into the darkness of the labs. As soon as he got the second one closed, the group paused. The rhythmic thumping of Rattlers hurling themselves against the outer most remaining door had them collectively nervous. With no sound of tearing metal, however, they were now sure that the doors would hold.
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Outside of being melted that was.
Grim turned to Trevor. “Alright, we’re inside and there’s nothing here. Not even a… domain thing. On the other hand, there area shit load of those things outside. I’m not even sure we can get back out. So, give me a debrief on what you think just went wrong here.”
The now very intimidated scientist backed up, his hands held out placatingly. “I… I don’t know! They were supposed to be stuck in here, not in the sewers. But if they are in the sewers they probably ran out of food or something in here.”
“I don’t buy that. They could get through the doors,” Grim said. “I mean, yeah I melted one, but they aren’t capable of breaking through those reinforced doors. Personally, I’m leaning towards someone let them out then sealed this place up behind them. Or they let them out then ran the fuck off before the Rattlers got too bad.”
Trevor didn’t know what to say. The timid scientist was not the most forceful of personalities, but thankfully he had Joe on his side to step up.
“I don’t what happened here either, but it sounds like Trevor was neither in charge of their abandonment of this facility. He gave us what we had and we made the choice to come,” Joe pointed out, and Grim had to begrudgingly agree with him.
Grim grunted. “Fine. I will take that, with a grain of salt, for now. Lets move further in. If all those things are outside there is unlikely to be much inside.”
“Boss, let me go first,” Tetra said, putting some gloves on her hands. She turned to Trevor, “As long as those things don’t make skin contact I should be fine right?”
Trevor nodded, and she slammed her hands together, generating visible electrical current between them. “I got this boss. Rat, can you rustle up some little friends?”
The big Anubis demon frowned, “No. There are no rats, mice, or even cockroaches here. In fact… whoa… in fact I don’t think there’s anything living in here. Not that I can feel anyway.” He turned to Grim, “I can feel living things in a certain radius around me. You really bumped my powers up a notch Boss,” he said enthusiastically.
Joe looked at Grim with interest, but the man was having none of that talk where possible future enemies could overhear. He cut off Rat with a cuff to the back of the head. “Enough. Let’s move people. Its time to clear the area, find materials, and figure out what we have to work with. Unless we can, somehow, unseal this place we are stuck where we are.”
He gestured at Trevor, “Take us to wherever the central administration area was. They should have a map of the facility where we can find what we need. First and foremost, lights. We can worry about the other stuff later.”
The scientist led them through a series of dark hallways, chambers, and rooms. The longer they moved, the more concerned and impressed Grim got. They were following a man who hadn’t been inside this place for years, but knew his way around in the dark? Things weren’t adding up.
Eventually the smaller, and far more timid, man led the to a pair of doors. Stepping through, Grim lanced around the interior, his flashlight cutting through the darkness of what appeared to be a large office complex. Scattered papers, tipped over desks and cubicle walls, and a few smashed wooden office doors marked what would have been, for all intents and purposes, your standard above ground office building.
“This doesn’t look too important,” Stella piped up, causing the scientist to look at her.
“Looks can be deceiving. The rear portion of this office section is actually a CIC for the lab,” Trevor responded. “Its where the maps, plans, and central databanks are. That’s where all the facility schematics and floorplans will be as well.”
Grim walked forward, stepping gingerly between the cubicles and debris. The group scurried after him, not wanting to be left behind the only person that could effectively destroy the Rattlers. The things were incredibly resilient, according to Trevor at least, against most forms of trauma. Fire was effective against most life forms, however. Not demons, exactly, but most other life forms.
The group practically charged into the central intelligence chamber of the facility, following the quickly moving Grim. Inside was a large square room filled with rows of monitors, offices along the side of the chamber, and large view screens up front.
Tetra whistled, “You guys must have been seriously well funded. These computers are only being released to the public as of recently. They definitely were not available for purchase when you say you were here last.
Grim took a look around the room while she spoke, taking note of multiple inconsistencies. Eventually he turned and walked up to Trevor. The scientist turned to face him. Seizing him by the throat, he conjured a handful of Hellfire. The group immediately went crazy.
Joe stepped back, drawing a hand gun and pointing it at Grim. While the large spy was dour faced, Tetra and Rat moved to flank him, ready to pounce should he fire. Stella disappeared entirely, and the imps simply looked confused. Having no orders, they simply sat there and hung out, watching what was unfolding.
The imposing man gripping Trevor by his throat ignored them all. “You are going to tell me, right now and with one hundred precent clarity, what was going on here. Or I am going to kill you,” he said calmly, explaining the level of violence that was going to happen.
“Grim maybe-“ Joes tarted cautiously, but the man whipped his head to the side, startling the spy with the aggressive level of eye contact that was being made. The level of rage that was present in the mans eyes made him swallow, unsure what the results would be if he actually pulled the trigger.
“This place is spotless,” Grim started. “No dust. No blood. Broken furniture? Hardly evidence the facility was abandoned. I can hear the power in the walls, there is certainly running water, and there is an active network connection. This place is far from abandoned, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a portion of this place was still inhabited.”
Joe dropped his gun, mulling over what he was saying. “I get that, but we haven’t seen anyone. And Rat said that he didn’t sense anything living around us.”
“No. He said he didn’t sense anything living. Including us,” Grim corrected. Turning to Rat he asked, “Am I right?”
“Yeah… yeah boss. That’s spot on. I should be able to feel you, at least that’s what my powers are telling me. But I… can’t,” the Anubis demon sputtered.
“Not won’t. Can’t,” clarified Grim. He shook Trevor, who was now wide eyed with terror. “This little shit led us down here for a reason. And not the one we wanted.”
Trevor began to snivel, and Grim dropped him on the floor in front of him. “Rat bar the doors, I don’t want any surprises while I interrogate this little puke,” he growled. His demon subordinate ran over to comply as he demanded, “Enough crying. Spill what’s really going on or I will burn you alive and figure out why this place is so fucking important.”
“It wasn’t my idea, I promise,” started the scientist. “Those experiments really happened here. That much was true. But this place wasn’t a science lab, it was a villain’s lair. Those… Rattles are the villains. Virus, a bio scientist genius, was trying to forcibly merge plant and human. He wanted an evolution of man to repopulate and overwhelm the planet.”
Grim nodded in understanding, “And you want to continue his work. Either that or recover it and sell it to do whatever it is you want to do. Am I right?”
Trevor nodded. “The research is kept in the data banks. I was on Viruses research staff, so I know right where that is. I coordinated the resupply of the base and worked on the theoretical science of the project. Multiple hats you know,” he said nervously. “I hid in the CIC when the outbreak happened. I opened all the doors to the sewers and let those monstrosities out. Then I sealed the base. I’ve been in communication with the bots here. They keep the place sealed and in good condition.”
He paused. Then hung his head. “I wanted to find the research and sell it, getting enough funding for my own research.”
“And how did you plant to get past us?” Grim asked, somewhat curious as to how a man with no combat abilities expected to escape.
He shrugged, “I have a pheromone that will prevent them from attacking me. I honestly didn’t expect you to get past the Rattlers. But on my way here I got taken by the Hounds. Joe found and rescued me. The rest you know.”
Grim shook his head. This was getting complicated.