“My Lady - are you sure? Ms. Summers?” Inside one of the secret underground bunkers, the maid asked Carol Summers, as twelve of her core team members that came with her proceeded to close the entire bunker down. To her understanding of Carol Summers, or Beverly Winters, circumstances like this she would usually find a way to strike at her other opponents - the forces of her biggest rival High Broker at the Exalted Bondsmen were just decimated, and though her biggest ally’s troops were largely destroyed as well, the majority of her manpower was preserved, which meant that it would be a perfect chance to take over the domains and resources of the opponent. Though something strange must have happened - for the maid could not seem to remember the name of this opponent of hers and Carol Summers’. She only knew, that this opponent’s gone, forever. She cared not how it happened, be it the beam of energy that rained down from the sky, or the weird energy explosion that occurred in the underground bunker at that castle.
“Yes.” Carol Summers sighed and said: “Prepare the protection array, activate it fully as soon as possible. ”
“What is happening, my lady?” The maid asked: “What is it that you fear or worry about right now?”
“To be honest, I don’t know.” Carol Summers responded with a heavy frown on her face: “That beam of energy - no, something before that, it gave me a very bad feeling. And the sense of me not being in control of what's in my mind - it deeply concerns me.”
“What is that, exactly?” The maid became more confused: “What troubles you so much that you would just let - let that girl be out there like this? What if our enemies found her first? What if she’s dead?”
“How much do you know about the beings above us?” Carol Summers looked around and double checked that the bunker’s defense array, then she pulled up a tablet and checked on the information displayed: “And not just normally floating in the sky, I mean in a way that one could use to describe the type of existence - ”
“Like gods?” The maid asked: “I think you know my leanings on that, my lady.”
“No, not just gods. But also demons, or any other beings that are - well, that are off some sort of spectral, celestial or transcendental nature.” Carol Summers scroll through the items on her tablet, then sat down and let out a long sigh like she had just done something extremely exhausting: “The lycans and vampires, for example, they have the Night Lord, and the Queen of Blood Moon, and many others entities in whom they hold their faith.”
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“... and you, my lady, you have that entity from whose grasp you have been trying to break free.”
“Slightly different, but similar.” Carol Summers stood up and paced around in the limited room inside of this bunker with thick walls: “And that pillar of energy - it just gave me a very similar feeling to when I am in their presence. Either in the presence of the previous one, or the current one - I felt - I felt powerless and small, and that my path could be cut short even with the smallest of transgressions, as long as the one who holds my name wills so.”
“But, that was not the one.”
“No it was not.” Carol Summers shook her head: “But I can’t help but feel this - this - sense of danger, that something will be coming after me, something COULD come after me, following the thread that was my name, my path, and the unfortunate contract that binds me to that being. I don’t know how it is possible, how it could be done, but - ”
Carol Summers sat down on the floor and stopped talking, with her face buried in her hands. This posture of hers only remained for a brief moment, however, then she immediately stood up and announced her order: “Activate everything here, the oxygen generator, the isolation shield, and the obscuration array.”
“Yes.” The other members of her team were still confused, but they proceeded according to her order nonetheless.
“This will give us thirty days at max.” Josephine Wong let out a long exhale: “I don’t know if this will be enough - ”
“Bang!” On the morning of the third or fourth or maybe even the fifth day, while everyone in the bunker were still either asleep or in a state of meditation. All those in this bunker were woken, and Carol Summers immediately rushed to the control table at the center of the bunker and tried to examine what caused the disturbance.
“Bang!” Before anything could show up on the screens, something struck the bunker again, this time they could feel that the strike seemed to have come from below.
“How? I thought this place was built on solid rock - ”
“Bang!” Whatever struck the bunker seemed to have moved to the upper side and struck it again.
Carol Summers operated on the control panel, and a hidden and one sided skylight slid open, and all the individuals inside the bunker saw a creature on top of the bunker - it had five legs like those of spiders and no body at all, the part of its body to which the five legs were attached was one giant eyeball - with three, then five, then thirteen pupils.
“Aha! Found ya!” The giant eyeball with thirteen pupils let out a happy, child-like laughter: “Found ya! Why don’t you come out?”
Before anyone in this underground bunker could answer, this creature slammed one of its legs against the bunker once again, and though there was no visible damage done to the body of the bunker, Carol Summers could tell from the control panel before her that the defense array of it deteriorated by a terrifying extent.
“Come out! Come out!” The creature laughed some more, as it banged the bunker with its legs, “COME OUT!”