Arc 7, Healthy Green Glow, Chapter 6
Gnome kept a good distance between us now that she realized my door swings both ways. Neon Nurse shocked me a few more times after that, but it cleared up my head. Sub had been influencing me more than I had thought. I took the hose to her and gave her a good whipping, unfortunately, she liked that. You are such a weirdo Sub. At any rate, we arrived at the entry point without any more altercations.
We were deploying through the Sewage Treatment Plant on the edge of Downtown. It was the easiest place to get in and led to the catacomb of tunnels that sprawled out below the city. The building was rather large with smoke stacks sticking out of the roof. Scrolled on everything were the three bold letters BAI, for Bronson Atomic Industries. It seemed like anything involving nuclear stuff had them in the picture. Surrounding the place were four high metal fences with razor ribbon on the tops and at the bottoms. I assume to discourage people from trying to get in or mutants to get out. They did try to sneak through the facility from time to time and even have attacked it before. The place looked rather secure with armed guards in lookout towers.
Why was this place important? This was where the water was cleaned and recycled. They had machinery in there that filtered out all the bad stuff, including radiation. Apparently, they sold the water after that to the farmers on the other side of town for a rather reasonable fee. From what I have heard the stuff is almost as good as mountain spring water after it gets filtered. What do they do with all the gunk and garbage? I don’t know, but it does get shipped elsewhere. I thought that I heard they use it as a fuel, but I could be mistaken about that. A few of their tanker trucks were leaving right as we arrived.
We got waved through the checkpoint. I could immediately smell the difference between the air here and elsewhere. The stench was palpable, like it just felt up my feelers… Did I just get violated by a smell? Everybody wore masks and radiation containment suits and that included us. The cyber swat wore them under their armor, while Sunshine and the rest of the scrubs had them over their normal costumes. The suit itself was armored to a degree and made of a thick rubbery stuff that was sealed completely shut. They were a bright orange color with reflective stripes on the chest and back. Over the head, thick glass shielded the illuminated face.
The entrance was not actually in the main building, but a side structure that was heavily guarded. It seems that BAI actually hired a few supers to guard the place. They weren’t Hero League as far as I could tell. They reminded me a bit of Molotov’s mercenaries, all of them had guns. Most of them were playing cards and stuff, looked like a boring job. I stared at the massive vault like door. This was the entrance to the maintenance tunnels and from there the rest of the sewers in general. Apparently, this part was not so bad since they did regular sweeps to clear out mutant animals. It was after we left this area that we would have to worry.
Catherine was not looking at me, concentrating on the mission at hand. Could be worse. I checked the tank on my back, the gauge was full and the nozzle in my hand had some good weight to it from the hose connecting it to the tank. Everyone had a chemical thrower, save Glide, and Disk. As for Squeeze, well, he was using his power to make it weigh less. I guess the others were not trusted with one, on account that the thing weighs more than two hundred pounds. I mean, that is a lot, it weighs like double what Sunshine does. There is no way in hell that little Moon Sailor Scout could carry one of these. Which was exactly why she didn’t. Instead, there was a trio of glowing knights who each had a pack.
I was the designated pack animal, so I dragged along the large refueling station on wheels. The thing looked like a large cylinder with flashing lights. It had various ports to plug in hoses and had a nice gauge showing how full it was. I suppose that I should mention that it makes more of the Rad-Gone as the supply depleted. I don’t exactly know how it works, only that so long as everything was green we were good. It is magic! Or rather Science! It more or less was an automated process, so there was not much input needed. I just had to drag it along so that we did not run out.
Medavac stood at the front of the group, looking us over, “All ready?”
“All ready,” replied everyone.
The BAI guys pulled a lever and the door shifted, rolling to the side. They raised their weapons ready to shoot anything that moved. Nothing did, surprisingly. I started to get flashbacks from my magical adventure down here before. The smell had not improved. It assaulted me and I almost doubled over puking. How the hell did I survive this before? Oh right, I went nose blind in the first five minutes of being down here from getting drenched in it. Ugh, hopefully, there won’t be a repeat of that.
Neon Nurse and Medavac led the way. I was in the middle of the formation, with Sunshine by my side. The foam shot out in all directions, coating the walls, ceiling, and ground. There was a neat little trick about it. If it came in contact with a contaminant then it glowed red, until the tainted material had been purified. It would then turn white and clear after a while. From the near blinding red glow around us, well, it was safe to say the sewers were an irradiated hellhole.
We slogged our way through, firing at the green glowing waters, turning them red as blood. Oh man, it is that time of the month, isn’t it? Speaking of which, it is weird as fuck not having a period anymore. Behind us, everything was frothing and red, though, it was lightening in colors. Still, it would take a few hours or more for the contamination to be cleansed where we had already shot it. As we rounded the corner, I heard the heavy door closing behind us, locking us in. There went all the light and sounds of the outside world. Good thing I am not claustrophobic.
It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust. The contrast between where we were and ahead of us was a bit startling. It was dark as fuck in here, save the water and our foam. There was a good thing about this stuff, though. It killed just about everything, including the wretched smell. Now it was all nice and smelled like bleach. I don’t particularly like that smell, but it was better than the alternative.
Time was hard to keep track of down here since everything looked the same and there was no sky to keep track of. It must have been hours already… dammit, it had only been ten minutes, according to the clock in my hud. Tunnels, tunnels, and more tunnels. So far it had been a straight shot, no diverging paths, save the odd dead end access tunnel. I didn’t have to actually do much, just keep pulling, just keep pulling, just keep pulling. For something that was supposed to be so fucking exciting and dangerous, this shit was boring as fuck.
“Who wants to listen to some music?” I asked, tapping through my hud. Ah, man this thing doesn’t have any music on it. I forgot to restock it with that mixtape that Molotov left me.
Medavac laughed, “I got you.”
He switched on his suit’s speakers drowning out the dank sounds of water foaming and marching footsteps. It was some old music, rock or indie? Never heard this stuff before. Something about A bad moon rising and Charlie not surfing. He slowed his pace, slightly bobbing his head along with the tunes.
“What the fuck is this shit?” I asked.
“This shit, is what I listened to in Nam,” said Medavac with a little chuckle, “Killed lots of Charlie and Commies to this mixed tape.”
“Nam? You never said that you fought in Nam. Wait, how fucking old are you?”
“Going on sixty. Nam was a meat grinder, I tell you. Twenty years of blood, sweat, and tears. Those were some of the best years of my life. I only caught the tail end of it, the last ten years.”
“You really like war eh?”
“Oh yeah, nothing gets the blood flowing like taking a man’s life.”
“You need a hobby Medavac.”
“What do you think banging bitches is?”
“Well, I suppose if you put it that way. Still man, killing is fucked up.”
“You kids these days are spoiled and spineless,” said Medavac, “Hell, I saw some dumbass protesters the other day saying that Zombie Lives matter. They want to eat people’s brains. Why the fuck would you not want to kill them? How do they have rights? They are literally dead.”
“Ok, that is fucking retarded. Zombies are one thing, but a living, breathing person is another.”
“I blame the schools and the Voodoo, but that is beside the point. Stay away from the Voodoo, that shit will fuck you up.”
I laughed, “Voodoo?”
He had a rather somber expression, “Well, Voodoo is some scary stuff. So there I was over in Jamaica on leave after Nam, this was a little bit before I got my powers mind you. At any rate, got wasted one night and ended up fucking this Witch Doctor like there was no tomorrow. I wake up three days later in a coffin, naked and six feet under the ground.”
“Holy shit, how did you get out of that?”
“Well, the bitch came back and dug me up so that she could drug me with her voodoo powder. Well, you see there are two types of Voodoo. The alchemy side which knows secret recipes to make potions and the magic side that can bring dead people back to life as zombies. There is some other stuff, but it is mostly the zombies. Most are of the alchemy variety. That is where their magic comes from you see. It fucks with your head and makes you see shit that isn’t real. Some of them even import Devil’s Breath to make voodoo slaves.”
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“Wait, what the fuck is Devil’s Breath?”
He stopped and gave me a long look, he got close, “Scopolamine, also known as Devil’s Breath is a drug made from a nightshade plant. It is the most dangerous drug in the world, save some of the weirder Super made ones. What it does is take away your will and by that I mean it makes you open to all suggestions. You lose all inhibitions and do whatever the people around you tell you to. They tell you to help them steal all your shit and you will gleefully load up your car and even drive them to the place they want to drop it off. The scariest thing is that you are fully cognitive and able to function, but have no will, like a puppet. Hell, it is used in the sex trade too. You wake up the next day with the worst hangover ever, assuming you wake up at all. No memory or very fuzzy memory of what happened after being exposed. It works fast too, only takes twenty minutes to take effect. It is the shit of fucking nightmares, I tell you.”
I stared at him. “Holy fuck balls. That is the scariest fucking thing I have ever heard of. You are just fucking with me, right? That shit is not real, right.”
“No, it is certainly real. I lived through it, then I researched it after I got free.”
“How did you get free?”
“When she opened the coffin, I punched her in the cunt. When she went down, I poured the powder on her face and she overdosed.”
“How easy is it to overdose?”
“Pretty fucking easy, from what I have read anyway. That is the only time I ever dealt with that shit.”
“The world is a scary place,” I nodded.
“Eh, don’t worry about it. That stuff is mostly used in Colombia.”
“Wait, isn’t that one of the countries you still have not fucked a girl from?”
“Yup. I am never going there.”
“I don’t blame you.”
We nodded silently for a bit. It was a mutual understanding. I almost wish I did not know about that shit. I am certainly not going to be sleeping tight for a few days. How terrifying would it be to not have control over your actions? Medavac is scared of it and he don’t scare easy. That is more than enough for me to be afraid. I mean, I guess from the sounds of it at the time you don’t even realize it. Either way, makes my stomach churn, talk about worse than death. Shit, I think that might be on a level above rape on the evil scale. It is like literal mind rape.
At any rate, scrub, scrub, scrub. I pushed the thoughts to the back of my head. We had advanced pretty far, I think. We were at the first major intersection, which meant that the mob of suited sewer spelunkers was going to break up into three different teams, or rather four. One group of four was going to stay here and guard the refueling station. Medavac went middle with his group, some guy I don’t know went left and Neon Nurse led us to the right. Everybody knows that right is always the right answer. Not that we are looking for anything in particular.
Yay, I get to do things. I held the nozzle steady letting loose the spray of white liquid that foamed up as we proceeded. Gnome was doing pretty good too, her outer suit was covered in metal, making her appear to be some sort of golem. It looked rather sturdy and she was not having any problems at all carrying around the tank of foam and spraying down the walls.
I don’t know if I am thankful or disappointed at the fact that I have not seen a single mutant animal. On one hand, I want to reassert my dominance and on the other, well, they are more trouble than they are worth. Catherine was getting the ceiling and Neon Nurse washed the floor. Sunshine was unfortunately extra weight here, her knights were doing all the work, but I could tell that she was bored. Then I got an idea.
“Sunshine, come here.”
She perked right up and darted over to me, “What is it Nee-san?”
“You wanna shoot things?” I asked, showing her the hose and nozzle.
“Sunshine can use this?”
“Yeah, go for it. Just stay close,” I said, keeping a hand on her shoulder so that she would not bolt off.
Knowing her, she was liable to drag me with her or it might be like a dog clotheslining itself when attached to a pole. She let fly the foam and it threw her to the ground from the sudden pressure. Eh, oops. At least she landed in the foam rather than in the sewage. I pulled her back to her feet and she wore a rather determined expression. She tried again, only to repeat what happened. It would be a little cruel to laugh, so I simply held her like a child. It was almost a princess carry, but less dignified. She seemed to like that.
I guess this is one of the advantages of having four arms. I am still wondering why she is not using her powers. I mean her knights are about as strong as I am when they are grouped up. Couldn’t she make like super powered gauntlets to hold it? She might be trying to show that she can do it herself. At any rate, now I had my own personal Sunshine to pet as we went along. The magical glowing bunny ears stuck up out of the hazmat suit, wiggling with glee.
My meter started blipping, looks like about half. Something tells me this is going to be a long day. We rounded a corner and found a bunch of ripped open barrels oozing green goo. That ain’t natural and it looks rather fresh too. Sure enough more BAI stuff. It looked like somebody had raided a whole cargo shipment from how many were scattered around. The effect was obvious, the ecosystem had already shifted due to the exposure. Rats were scampering around, wallowing in the stuff. As a result, they were getting bigger and even the cockroaches too. Do the animals actually like this stuff? That was a disconcerting thought.
I heard some clacking of claws and turned, looking up. There was a centipede eating the smaller creatures. It hung from the ceiling, striking down on the unsuspecting prey and crunching them up with the thick mandibles. This thing was massive, like as big as a fucking alligator. We wearily took a few steps back. The antennae twitched, pointing towards us. I am a bug, I know what that means.
“Kill it!” I screamed.
Just like I thought, it scuttled towards us. It seemed that everybody had the same idea, all of us shot it with the Rad-Gone. It reared up, screeching and fell off of the ceiling. The damned thing was fast as hell on all those legs, as it fled down the tunnel. Shit, it got away. Well, at the least it didn’t like that stuff, thank Lord Helix. They don’t get bigger than that, do they? So many legs igh! It ain’t natural I tell you, nothing should have that many legs.
I don’t know if it was my instincts kicking in from meeting a predator or what, but all my senses seemed to be elevated. Distantly, I could hear that fucker running around. It didn’t seem to have gotten very far. The other vermin had long since scattered, leaving us to a relatively silent passageway. We set to work hosing the place down, Sunshine was now firmly attached to my chest thanks to the bottom pair of arms. I was not letting her out of my grasp, not with giant bugs running around.
I made sure to drench the barrels and made my way up to the walls. Just a little bit ahead of where we were I saw something rather strange. It looked like some kinda growth, like a tumor or something. Whatever it was, it was alive. The fleshy thing was growing out of the wall and pulsating. It expanded and contracted slowly, almost like breathing. I looked around and found a broken pipe. This will do. I know it is gross, but how could I not prod something like that? It was practically begging for it, is… is that an eye? I poked the tumor and all at once it retracted into the wall and the cement bulged. It was almost as though there was a larger organism back there… oh, son of a bitch. That is exactly what this is! This shit reminds me of the Zerg.
“Neon Nurse,” I nearly cried, retreating back over to her and pointing at the wall hysterically, “There is something in there!”
She gave me a long look, “The flesh blob?”
“Yeah, yeah it fucking moved and shit!”
She shined her light over the hole from a good five feet back and we could see the disgusting flesh writhing within, “It is a Tubifex Worm colony. Granted, this one is mutating at a rapid rate. Deeper in these things will cover the walls.”
“Are we going to kill it or what?”
She nodded her head, “Well, obviously. Now let me tell you, there are much worse things down here than them. You see these worms are actually not a predator and are just scavengers that eat the filth and carrion. Of course with the way mutations work, they could theoretically go carnivorous, so better safe than sorry.”
She approached the hole and one of her robo arms stabbed in with a syringe attachment. It emerged full of some sort of fluid and she stepped back as the gurgling intensified. It seems they didn’t like that.
“Wait you didn’t kill it?”
“I was taking a sample for study. We need to research this sort of stuff otherwise, we might have problems later on.”
“So I see,” I replied, edging away from the drooling hole.
“Catherine, care to deal with it?”
She replied, sounding a bit disgusted, “On it.”
Catherine crouched down and aimed her arm at the hole. A gun popped up that had been built into the suit and fired off several rounds. A revolting sound gurgled up, it almost sounded like a shriek. The crevice lit up briefly and the wall shook, cracking. A sizzling filled the air and smoke oozed out of the hole. I guess those were inferno rounds? Hopefully, that was enough to kill it. Just to be safe, we pumped our hoses of Rad-Gone in there to drown the bastard in cleaning materials. It was about as toxic as bleach, I pray it is enough to finish the job. The place seemed safe enough, so I let Sunshine free for now.
I heard something splashing around up ahead, curious, I went to take a look. I saw something that I had not been expecting at all. A, a turtle? Who the fuck flushed a baby turtle down into the sewers? Wait a minute, that thing is pretty big and the shell had razor sharp edges. There was not just one I soon discovered. There were four of them and a giant rat all happily swimming in some green glowing goo. Oh dear Helix, can it be!? Do you like pizza too? Will you be my mutant friends? Can we learn ninja moves together? I squealed with delight, taking a step and they looked at me with glowing red eyes. Uh oh. That don’t look friendly. Oh shit, those are snapping turtles and they have teeth!
The rat hissed and a tongue shot out like a harpoon, it almost got to me. Luckily it was not quite long enough to reach. I stomped on it before it could retract and the turtles dove into the irradiated water, swimming towards me. They circled like sharks with their clawed flippers. Oh, what sharp teeth you have. I latched onto the ceiling as the little bastards snapped. One managed to sink its teeth into my ass. Son of a bitch, why is it always the ass?!
I grabbed it and snapped the neck. It was all muscle, hmmm that gives me an idea. I grappled up another and crushed the skull. Ah ha, I tied the two necks together into a nunchuck, or rather turtlechuck. I swung it around like a lunatic and cornered the last survivors.
“I just wanted to be friends?!” I cried, hysterically beating them to death with their own family, “We could have had such great adventures! Why? Why did you turn on me?! We could have been a family!”
The rat squealed as it was crushed under the turtle shell and everybody had gathered to see what the commotion was about. Neon Nurse pat my shoulder asking, “Vesper, what is wrong?”
“Nothing,” I sniffled, “Just killing my childhood.”
“Do you need a minute?”
“Yeah, give me a few,” I said, gathering up the bodies.
I can’t just leave them here. They deserve better than that. I couldn’t exactly bury them. So I did the next best thing, made a second turtlechuck. Their sacrifice will not be in vain, I shall use you to battle evil! With these half shells of justice, villainy will tremble in terror! Turtle Power! Lookout Bronson City there is a new hero in town!
“Eww put those gross things down. You don’t know where those things have been. What is wrong with you?” scoffed Gnome in disgust.
I tossed the turtlechucks over my shoulder, “Nothing.”
Well, she had a point. They lived in the sewer and they died in the sewer. That and it is pretty nasty carrying around the corpses of turtles tied together. Sometimes I just get so carried away with myself. That damned theme song was egging me on. Farewell my childhood, you will be missed. Dead and buried, right next to Nicky Mouse. Oh no, not the octopus! Damn you, Molotov! You ruin everything.
Our tanks were running on empty, since we had to use more than expected on various creatures. I could only assume it would be the first of many refueling trips, after all, we had miles of tunnels to scourge and that was just the upper levels of the sewers. I don’t want to know what is deeper down there. There could be mole people or something.