Kathryn waited outside a padded observation room for Pitch to wake up, pacing back and forth worried sick and wondering what his color-reduced skin could indicate about his health considering he doesn't exactly have internal organs or anything. Ishwada simply tapped his foot on the floor and his fingers on his arm. Eventually, Pitch sat up gripping his head and groaning. “Talk about a hangover.” His voice came out somewhat distorted and he looked at the one way mirror. Kathryn took a step back in surprise as she saw the pure black eyes in his face.
Kathryn swallowed hard and hit the talk button on the wall. “How are you feeling?” Pitch rubbed his eyes and opened them again looking right at the one way mirror. “Like I was hit by a truck.” He then stood up and looked around. “Airtight, I'm guessing the door is locked. Someone is being a little paranoid. How long was I out? Did any of the specimens escape?” Ishwada hit the button. “Well all things considered you can understand our caution. Especially considering the appearance of your mask is different from normal. We've been unable to account for a few counting the Chimera but everything else either died or was locked back up. You've been out for three days. Besides the headache, do you notice anything different from normal?”
Pitch checks the door, confirming it's locked. His distorted voice echoes in the room. “More of an everything ache, I did almost die fighting that thing. Is it still alive?” Ishwada looked at Kathryn before hitting the button again. “As far as we can tell, yes. But it was knocked out as well and is still in containment.” Pitch walked over to the corner of the padded room and sat down with a groan. “I just want to go home and take a nap.” Ishwada pressed the button to talk once more. “Well we are going to run a few tests first, just to be safe. We have no idea what other side effects there may be or if they are lasting. So just hang in there for now.”
Ishwada let go of the button and looked at Kathryn. “Well?” Kathryn rubbed her arms like what someone that was cold would do. “Something doesn't feel right. I can't exactly put my fingers on it. But in addition to his appearance he hasn't said our names once.” Ishwada looked at Pitch. “I mean, he did almost die. So maybe give it time. Let's go in and get our sample. A simple test on his particles to check for degradation or whatever it is you're doing.”
Kathryn took a few deep breaths and opened the door walking in with Ishwada and holding a syringe. “I'll be grabbing that sample now.” Pitch put out his arm. “Sure thing Kitten. After that we get to go home right?” Kathryn looked at Ishwada before nodding. “Once you're in the clear we can go home.” Pitch looked to Ishwada. “Has the generator been turned back on or is it still off?” Ishwada looked at the particles as they entered the syringe. “It's off. As stated before the Umbran is still unconscious and contained. The city is running on reserves right now and cover stories are already in circulation.”
Pitch nods as the syringe is removed. “You're not going to turn the generator back on when it wakes up, are you?” Ishwada shakes his head. “Once you are in good health we'll probably hit it with sonic and ultraviolet weapons to weaken it so you can have a second go.” Pitch nods as the two start to leave the room. “Alright General, keep me updated.” Kathryn closed the door behind her, being absolutely sure to lock it. “Maybe all the excess energy frazzled him? Jumbled his circuits. We'll know once I run my tests.” Kathryn holds up the syringe and starts making her way to her equipment while Ishwada watches the isolation area. “Yeah, I'd hate for him to have a lasting injury because of something I asked him to do.”
Kathryn started up both the electron microphone and the mass spectrometer to run parts of the sample through and waited for the results. The lights started to flicker and Kathryn looked up at them. “The hell?” Unfortunately she had to keep an eye on the machines. After a while she checked both machines. “Hmmm…” Ishwada pops up behind her. “Ah, perfect timing it seems. What you got?” Kathryn looks over the results. “Several of the crystalline structures are cracked and damaged indicating there's a limit to how much energy can run through them. Basically an overload. Also… I found what I thought to be moss on the tiny crystals but when I looked deeper into it despite having the structure of moss contains zero DNA.”
Ishwada looked at the sample results. “So it's Cryptid moss?” Kathryn shrugged. “Looks like it, but I've never seen Cryptids take the form of plants. It's also decaying rapidly because I ran it twice. Like its mass is crumbling and fading away.” Ishwada nods. “Like what made it has lost its ability to remain stable. Something like that happened when Pitch solved the Onrio case. Anything else of note?” Kathryn looks over the papers printed out by the machines. “I'm still looking for other anomalies but there's a small leftover energy signature. It's anomalous in nature and resembles a form of radiation.”
Ishwada started walking away. “Call me if anything else is strange.” He stopped to look at the flickering lights. “I'll go check what that's about.” He left the area as Kathryn looked over her test results with a fine tooth comb. Her eyes widened as she noticed a detail any other researcher would have missed.
The researchers and a small team of techs in the sub basement spent three days fixing and cleaning the mess, it looked just like new by the time they were done. The Umbran contained inside the generator cell had barely moved since it got knocked out during the scuffle three days earlier. Its particles layed on the floor like a puddle. Finally they became active and slowly regained lift, floating into its standard position making a series of warbles and noises that sounded somewhat like quiet whale calls.
A female researcher looked over. “Ah, the subject is awake. Start the generator back up.” One of the scientists in the room objected. “Mam, we have plenty of surplus in the energy silos, in fact we went from having just one filled to having five filled during the scuffle. Also the Black Eagle Commander instructed us to keep the generator off.” The female researcher scowled at her fellow researcher. “He's not in charge here, I am. I'm the most senior member of this team now that Grimes is in holding. If we have room for surplus storage then fire up the generator.”
The man tried to object again. “We don't know what kind of damage the subject took, if we turn it back on we-” The woman slammed her hand onto one of the control counsels. “Did I stutter?! I'll turn it back on myself if you're going to be that way!” The woman turned on the generator and lightning started rapidly hitting the Umbran turning purple then hitting a receiver node. However, this time a horrible sound came from the Umbran. Like a small whale trying to mimic the cadence and pace of a hyena laugh. A repeated low pitch sound. It shifted from the low pitch to a higher pitch and back again with the lights starting to flicker.
The man reading the devices looks over to the female researcher. “We're getting a lower return than normal, about twenty percent. I'm also getting strange readings and the returns aren't stable. The amount we are getting keeps fluctuating.” The first man shook his head. “I knew this was a bad idea. We should shut it back off.” The woman raised her voice once more. “Unless you think this place is going to explode or the subject passes out again, you are not to turn that off unless I say so. Understood?” The man nodded sheepishly.
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After a while of flickering lights, Ishwada came down to the sub basement to find the source of the flickering lights. The moment the elevator door opens he's assaulted with a series of sounds pulsing through the room. “What in the devil is going on down here?” He then noticed the generator had been turned back on. “Why is that back on, I specifically told you to leave it alone.” The female researcher turned her attention to Ishwada. “You had no authority here, at all. Yet you arrested Grimes and put a hold on our work without even having prior clearance. Black Eagle didn't authorize this, you have no say or power here. So I'm going to continue doing my job and following my orders because I'm not about to risk my life's work because you decided to go rogue.”
Ishwada raised his voice. “Me go rogue? How about the fact you people managed to capture the Cryptid I've been after and have had it in custody for eight years and didn't even tell me?! Instead you created a secret powerplant that uses it to power the city. Why is it making so much noise??” The female researcher grabs at her hair. “I don't know, it's never done that before. It always sat quietly.” Another researcher spoke up. “I'm telling you it's injured and we should have at least given it time to recover.” The female shook her head. “Time is money and we can't waste any. Besides, if the subject dies we have a back up now.”
Ishwada's head snapped into looking at the woman. “Excuse me?! You are talking about a sentient being with a sense of identity. Not to mention he's been a valuable asset to my team. You can't just kill your prisoner and slot him in there to replace it. The non human citizens protection agreement was worded the way it was for this very reason. To extend the protections offered to Doppelgangers and Succubi to new types of Cryptid capable of human levels of thought.”
The woman uncrossed her arms and tilted her head. “I’ve been running experiments of Doppelgangers for years, with orders. There's no such protections. I would have been informed.” Ishwada blinked a few times. “The agreement was proposed as early as the sixties and was finalized in the eighties. How can you work in this field and not know about that? It's the first thing we go over at Black Eagle because we have to work with non-human citizens as part of the agreement. One of my squad that died three days ago was a Dopple.”
The woman blinked a few times, then shrugged. “Well as Grimes always says, there's no price too high for progress. So what if we have to break a few rules and violate some laws. We are talking about the betterment of humanity and saving the world. Surely you can't be placing the lives of criminals and literal monsters above law abiding citizens.”
Ishwada took a few breaths. “It's easy to establish a tyrannical rule, when you take the rights away from prisoners and criminals. You start with only feeding the monster death row inmates, but then what about states without the death penalty? What if it's not enough? Expand on what lands people on death row? Sure you may start with killers, rapists, and child molesters. Then it's immigrants or because you can easily convince people they are a danger to humanity, it's non-human citizens. Next thing you know you're putting Doppelgangers and Succubi on a registry, then placing them in camps and using them to feed the Unbrans powering the world. All justified by them being something less than human.”
The woman raised her voice. “Because they are! They are monsters, born from the negative emotions of humanity. I don't care if there's that one outlier that just likes hugging stuff the staff here and at Black Eagle use like a therapy dog. They are monsters, and should be exterminated. However, I hate wasting something that could benefit humanity. So why not use the resources at our disposal?” Ishwada grits his teeth. “You're just as bad as the other guy. Do you really not see the problem? Do you really not see the rabbit hole you've opened yourself into? I too once wanted all Cryptids dead. But then I was reminded to look at my own past and compare it to the worst outcome of the future for Dopples.”
The woman hits a few buttons then puts out her arms. “You want to lock me up with Grimes, fine. But I just password locked the controls so you can't turn it off without me or Grimes. Eat shit and die, monster sympathizer.” Ishwada put cuffs on the woman and started to escort her out. “I really thought people of science would be more reasonable and logical than this.” As Ishwada starts taking the woman away the sound pulses from the Umbran start taking on a pattern. Three low pitch pulses followed by three high pitched ones followed by three low pitched ones before pausing and starting again. Ishwada paused for a moment, but continued to the elevator. Ishwada locked up the female researcher in a containment cell right next to her boss.
One of the security officers of the building was looking over the footage of the incident, his eyes dark from sleep deprivation as he has been running over the footage with a fine tooth comb for three days. Frame by frame. Looking for anything out of the ordinary. He watched as the energy was shot into the two Umbrans causing an EMP like effect. As the pulse reached the camera there were three frames of contact before the signal was lost. He looked closely at the screen for those three static filled frames.
He went back and forth a few frames at a time until he was sure. During the last three frames, the room had been empty of researchers and looked dilapidated and abandoned. Plants growing over several pieces of equipment and the cell itself looked broken open. Then he noticed the static that lasted a few frames before it went black resembled a face looking directly at the camera. In the last frame before the static he saw a shadow under the camera like something moving. He didn't understand what any of this meant but took pictures of the last frames and printed them out on large papers before putting them in a folder and running out of the room to find a researcher.
The man scrambled and tripped over multiple things on his way through the building before eventually colliding with a person and sending them and himself to the floor. He slowly got up and gathered his papers to see the person he bumped into was Kathryn Smith. He helped her up after she gathered her own papers. “Miss Smith, perfect. You qualify to see this. He then placed the pictures on a table. “Look at this, I think we finally got evidence that there is in fact an otherworld connected to the Cryptids.”
Kathryn looked at the frames and her eyes widened. She put the images back in the folder and took them. “Thanks, I'll definitely get started on that when I have the time. Right now I have to find Ishwada.” Kathryn ran off with all the paperwork in as much of a rush as the man had been in, looking for the former General.
Pitch mentally prepared himself between the quarantine doors. This was going to be the first time since the initial fight with Black Eagle that he would be in genuine danger. The door opened and he dropped in, dropping his shell and switching to his true form before attacking the Umbran. It felt like they were trying to eat one another as energy shot back and forth and outward. Pitch couldn't focus on that as while trying to eat the Umbran images flashed through his mind.
Brief glimpses into this thing's past flashed before Pitch's mind. Ancient times of hunting early nomadic humans. The humans using fire to push them back and no longer being able to feed with ease. They turned to cannibalism with the amount of strength gained far greater than what they got from humans. Eventually, only it remained. Now immune to fire but only resistant to sunlight it continued to hunt alone. As far as it knew, it was the last of its kind. The images continued and got more intense as Pitch started to feel what it felt in the moment. The primal base emotions without any reason to temper them. Mindless, aimless, only driven by instinct.
Then he saw that day that the Umbran attacked the first grade class from its point of view. To it, it was just a meal of opportunity. Food that was unfortunate enough to cross its path. Then it came up to young James, who's fear dissolved. The Umbran was confused, and since fear was part of its digestion it could sense the change. It started poking and prodding looking for a fear response, but nothing. It even started to try to possess him to gain greater understanding. An ability the Umbrans actively avoided because feeling the feelings of their prey was detrimental.
Then it was attacked and rushed out so fast it left a piece of itself inside of young James. He then continued to watch it go about its days until it was captured and studied and finally tortured to generate energy. Pitch felt pain surge through his body as the energy passing back and forth had started to reach a point beyond what he could hold. Then, he was hit by a pulse. There was a split second where Pitch saw the lab in an abandoned, dilapidated, and overgrown state with the cell cracked open. But then everything went black as he lost consciousness.