In the heart of a steel room, a young lady stands. Unlike her peers, this room does have a single door, forever sealed from the outside. Breaking free using explosives crosses her mind, but she ultimately chooses patience over force, easing herself onto the cold floor.

Claire "I guess some music will brighten the mood. Let's see here..."

Her fingers dance across her phone's screen, a digital ocean of applications until they rest on one— "Songify". Entranced by a song titled "Rhythm of Heaven", a melodious symphony of gentle piano notes and the hushed whispers of the ocean fill her sense.

Claire "Ha. Now, this is the jam. If only Kaney and Gwen were here too then we could be jamming buddies."

Suddenly, radiant disks of light bloom in the space.

As they converge, a figure takes shape— a South American man adorned with insect legs in place of hair, which to Claire's guess belong to fire ants. His face is a canvas of past battles— a blindfold, a trio of scars across his nose, and burn marks gracing his chin and neck.

?? "Greetings, young lady. My name is M105. I'm telling this now so that I may not feel guilt as to what I'm about to do."

Claire "Hmmm, I expected you to complain more about the fact we switched. Why are you so calm? It is a bit suspicious."

M105 "Life guided me through many trials. So much so that something like this barely makes me hesitate anymore. Okay, enough chatter. Let us begin!"

M105 pulls out a wooden club from beneath his robe.

Claire "Errr... that is just a normal wooden club. Not a very good weapon you know."

M105 "I know but... with a little bit of a push..."

With a powerful thrust, M105 directs the club skyward, setting the room ablaze with an inferno's warmth. The club ignites, searing flames engulfing it until they lick his hand. Despite the evident pain, he merely grits his teeth.

Claire "Hey! Stop right there!"

Claire fires, launching twin bolts— one targeting his right wrist and the other his skull. His speed saves him, his bloodied right-hand bears no sign of burns, only scars. With his left hand, M105 grasps the wound.

Slowly, the scars begin animating and flowing freely across his skin.

A grin replaces the anger on M105's face. Pain is usurped by pleasure as his scars reform into swirling patterns on his left hand. Claire watches, fascinated, as M105 tames the roaring flames, cradling them as if they were mere cotton candy.

Claire "Yo, I might not be a smart gal but that doesn't seem like it should work. Also, all this fiery stuff, are you Gwen's opponent?"

M105 "I have no need to answer. Also, if you are a Major like me, anything is possible. You just need to take some... RISKS!"

A fireball comes soaring toward Claire.

Dashing to the right, she narrowly escapes its path. Yet the flame rebounds off the steel wall. Luckily, it careens to the left, skittering across the room. M105 claps his hands and stomps on the flames, the heat seemingly powerless against him.

Claire fires five bolts, aiming for his face.

M105 "I can sense panic in this attack. Such a weak-minded way of thinking. Let's end this..."

M105 swats them away flawlessly, however unbeknownst to him, one bolt conceals a canister. The ill-timed swipe triggers an explosion, blanketing the room in a thick cloud of white dust.

M105 caves, expelling a gory torrent of blood.

M105 "What in the foulest trick have you done to me?!"

Claire "Classic anthrax. You should have brought a gas mask. Like me!" "Actually, that was a damn lie. I had to sacrifice my cool safari hat for this ugly junk. Good thing I got rid of that giant ass fan for that canister though."

Scooping a fistful of fire, M105 crushes it in his palm.

Unleashing a wave of fire from his hand, it surges through the dust cloud. Most miss their target, but one flame grazes her fingernail. The flame extinguishes, only to be replaced by a creeping scar advancing across her skin.

With clenched teeth, Claire wrenches out the affected nail.

Claire "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh! A..a...ah. W-Wow, that was very fucking painful."

M105 "That was... just a taste of... what to come. Prepare... yourself."

Claire "You can barely talk, dude. You should give up. Take a deep breath or two."

M105 "NEVER! Giving up is a sign of weakness. I should've done this from the start."

M105's trembling arms clutch tightly to the club's handle.

Claire "Very well but you will die soon if you don't treat the anthrax."

M105 "Impending doom will not pause my conviction!"

He brings the club down with a furious swing, emitting a scalding slice of flame.

Claire ducks, causing the fiery blade to rebound back to M105. Snatching the flame, he hurls it like a spear. Claire rolls to the side but— a sliver of flame finds a gap in her mask, searing into her right cheek.

Claire "Shit shit shit! This isn't good!"

Applying a bandage to her burning injury, Claire braces against an oscillating sensation of pain and relief. In response, she morphs a spyglass into a sturdy steel shield.

M105 "Oh, very clever but I doubt you can stay on the offensive long. Wait... what?!"

Claire rushes M105, pinning him against the steel wall.

She rains bolts onto his right hand from her free left hand. The symphony of bone-breaking crunches and tortured screams suddenly ceases when she feels a fiery touch on her leg. Despite the contact, Claire persists in her attacks...

Claire "Let go of the damn club!"

M105 "Over my dead body. This club is the symbol of my will and determination. You shall burn long before I let go!!"

Claire "Fine then. Take this!"

Discarding her crossbow, she equips night vision goggles, transforming them into the merciless blade of a guillotine. She cleaves at his wrist, staining her arm with a warm spatter of his blood. Atlas... M105 relinquishes his grip on the club. Claire bandages the burn wound, denying the spread of the moving scars before injecting a syringe in separate sections of her leg, forcing the scars to retreat into oblivion.

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M105 "Fu... Fuck you..."

M105 falls unconscious. Claire directs her attention to the still-burning club. She transmutes the blade into a bucket of water, dousing the relentless flames. The room fills with steam as the fire subsides but then...M105's voice echoes through the room. In a frenzy, Claire reaches for her shield, but M105 is nowhere to be seen.

Claire "Come on out unless you're chicken!"

A sudden croak startles her and she turns around...

The dispersing steam uncovers a monstrous, hairy frog, bearing cross-like eyes. For a brief moment, Claire finds it a bit adorable, but the perspective shatters as it lunges forward, intent on crushing her. The steel floor bows under its immense weight... Claire gulps.

Claire "That is one heavy frog."

She fires bolt after bolt.

Her projectiles poke into its jelly-like body, but it barely bleeds. Intrigued, she retrieves the bolts, only to find the wounds heal instantly. The frog retaliates, swatting her into the wall. Claire morphs her shield into a thermal suit and extracts her fanfics.

Claire "Goodbye... I'm going to miss you. Gwen, I truly hope this will work!"

Her fanfics morph into four canisters, the first pair labeled "Compressed sodium hydroxide".

Launching them towards the colossal amphibian, the beast unwittingly crushes the canisters, releasing the caustic gas. It stutters, its body beginning to smolder, yet its regeneration remains.

Unveiling the remaining pair of canisters labeled "Mustard gas", she hurls them next.

Its flesh begins to slough off. The frog unleashes a thunderous croak and lashes its tongue about the room. In its rage, the tongue falls off and collides with Claire, propelling her into another wall.

Claire "Fuck. There goes my ribcage. Oh, never mind. I still got it. Wow, I really thought I was going to die."

Struggling free from the severed tongue, Claire finds safety in a corner. She fires a barrage of bolts at its eye, but the creature rolls, diverting the projectiles to its side. However, it now bleeds. Excited by this, she launches an even greater onslaught of bolts.

Anticipating the attack, the frog unfurls its regrown tongue.

Claire "Aw come on! You already fixed that! Fine! Let's try something more explosive!"

She transmutes the bucket into a frag grenade.

She sprints towards the recoiling tongue, pitching the grenade into the creature's gaping maw. An explosive roar echoes through the room as the beast collapses unconscious, smoke billowing from every orifice.

Claire "Did that do it? Is it dead? Hello, Mister Froggy! You're dead, right?!"

No response. Claire cautiously loads a bolt into her crossbow, circling the fallen beast. Upon inspection, she notes the bolts are being expelled, the punctures closing up like they never truly pierced its skin. Suddenly, the creature's mouth disgorges three smaller frogs.

The largest one boasts green skin speckled with yellow dots and fearsome claws on its pads. The second, significantly smaller, glows a vibrant red, patches of its skin translucent, revealing a hazy yellow-orange light within. The smallest one, no larger than her palm, shines as bright as the moon and is perfectly spherical.

The two larger frogs confront Claire, while the little one comically rolls away.

Claire "You guys are so cute! Sadly, I have to kill you."

Launching a bolt at the clawed frog, it quickly deflects it, pouncing towards her. Claire narrowly avoids a swipe aimed at her eyes, stumbling backward. Suddenly, the sound of sizzling from the red frog catches her attention.

Its body illuminates before launching a molten ball of lava at her.

Claire ducks, but a stray globule of magma sears through her thermal suit and onto her knee. Despite not breaking the skin, the intense heat permeates the region as she retreats.

Claire "Shit! Not good! I need to finish this fast!"

Overclocking her crossbow, Claire unloads a barrage of bolts into the two frogs, temporarily transforming them into pin cushions. Her triumph is short-lived as she notices the bolts being expelled just as they did with their larger kin.

Claire "Dammit! I forgot about the healer!"

A trail of white mist seems to connect the two frogs. Ignoring their pursuit, she follows the mist to a corner where a crack in the wall reveals the smallest frog. With a quick swipe, she catches it, storing the tiny creature in her inventory.

Claire "Wow! That worked! Wait, we can capture animals now?! Why... why didn't Kaney tell this? Okay then... Come here, little guys!"

The sight of their young sibling vanishing seems to spook the remaining frogs. They dart away, each leaving their own distinct trail of chaos— the claw-frog scratching a path of spikes, while the lava frog smears a streak of molten flooring behind.

Claire "Okay then to the air I go!"

Transforming her UV flashlight into a drone, she attempts to mount it, but her wounded knee buckles and nearly impales her face against one of the spikes. On her second attempt, she succeeds, steering the drone toward the claw-frog. Cornered, it makes a desperate leap, managing to strike the drone.

Though the drone crashes, she captures the clawed frog in mid-air, adding it to her inventory.

Claire "Whew! Two down! One more to go!"

The lava frog lets out a croak, lobbing multiple shots in but they all miss as the gas finally takes effect. As she approaches it, Claire takes out a dumbbell and turns it into another drone. In a last-ditch effort... it decides to fire at random.

A stray shot finds its mark, damaging the drone's propellers and sending Claire hurtling through the air.

She leaps towards the frog but... another shot of lava sears through her right knee once more. It burns through her flesh causing her to scream within her suit. Claire lands next to the frog and opens her inventory portal. With a kick from her left leg, the frog goes flying into it.

Then— She leaps towards the frog, suffering another burning shot to her already injured knee. Pain erupts, searing through her suit and skin as she screams. Landing next to the frog, she swiftly opens her inventory portal, kicking the lava frog into it with her other leg.

Claire "F-Fin...Finally. It is over-

A rogue drone propeller ricochets off the wall, severing her damaged leg.

Horror takes hold of her as she stares at her lost limb. If it weren't for the confines of her thermal suit, she'd be vomiting a hundred times over. With tears running down her face, she applies a syringe to the traumatic wound, staunching the bleeding. However, the toxic effects of anthrax and mustard gas begin to take their toll— her head spins, and her vision switches between clearness and blur. Left with no choice, she crawls towards the massive frog corpse.

Claire "May...be th...there something. I-I c-can u-use."

In despair, she licks the amphibian's sweat, but it offers no respite. Angered and pained, she beats her hands against the frog's skin— exactly twenty times.

Suddenly, the frog's skin shines and a line of text appears.

Summoning the remnants of her waning consciousness, Claire pushes to read the message...

Hello, my Olam Solarn. I used to live in the slums with my six siblings and my drunk father. We were in debt and so our father forced us to work to pay it off. We had no choice as it was the only way to put food on our plates. Though... I would be lying to say the work was easy. Hard Labor. Two words that haunted my dreams, I would scratch my own skin at night to reduce the stress of work. There were times when we didn't work hard enough, my father would either sell us as temporary slaves for rich people or sears our backs with heated metal. Honestly, I preferred to be a temporary slave than go through that pain again. My reason is that it was the 21st century. Most rich people are more sympathetic and sometimes give us money in secret.

Alas, I would have lost my mind long ago if it wasn't for my beloved pet frog which I raised since I was young. I hid the frog who I called Gerald under the floorboards of my bed. His presence cheered me up through the darkest of times. I loved him so much that I used some of the money I earned to buy feed for him. Hehe.

The peaceful times didn't last long as one dreadful day approached me. I was ready to return to bed but as I opened the door, I saw my father standing. He was giving me rage-filled eyes and in his hand was Gerald, croaking without a care in the world. He put Gerald in a box and dragged me away. That night he seared my back 20 times and I passed out about three times. When I was awake, I was tied to the wall. My father took Gerald onto a cutting board and began slamming down on my defenseless friend 20 times. It was a nightmare. To add insult, he cuts Gerald and ate him in front of me. Tears ran down my face so much so that I couldn't cry anymore.

My brothers rushed in the take him down but he had a gun and shot them one by one. He then points at my head and said "I should've just sold you little bastards' organs instead and I would've gotten out on this shit hole a long time ago.". I was too traumatized to even respond. The last thing I heard was a gunshot and when I woke up, I was no longer tied. There was a group of robed men and my father, dead on the floor. They asked if I wanted to join them and I did as they have saved my life... at least that was what I thought.

Now, being near death's door, hidden memories appear left and right. I've learned that I wasn't knocked out at all but on the thin line of lucidity. I heard them saying "I can't believe that a single snitch and the job was done this easily!". I'm shocked beyond measure and everything I believed in is a lie. Young lady... thank you for opening my eyes... May you find victory in your future. Goodbye.

Claire "Oh my... god. I-I c-can't be-believe it. Those... monsters."

KABOOM!

The explosion shatters the wall on her right, revealing the arrival of Gwen and Adrian, each wearing a crude wooden gas mask. Without a moment's hesitation, they sprint toward their fallen comrade.

Gwen "Tis tis. I told her to be exceptionally careful around using these gases. Adrian, hold her up as Izzy extracts the foreign chemicals."

Izzy pokes into each of Claire's joints and starts extracting.

Claire's consciousness zips back...

Claire "Woah. WOAH! Gwen?! Adrian?! How did you guys get here?!"

Gwen "Simple method of digging through steel and dirt. I'm glad you're alright. Let us find the others."

Adrian "Come on! I'll lead the way! Oh but first..."

With a spare syringe in hand, Adrian recovers Claire's lost limb.

Claire "Nice! Okay, let's go!"

(To be continued)