TRIGGERFINGER (ORIGINAL STORY) - SEASON ONE

S01E07 You Again?! A Familiar Face! (Part Two)

***

It felt like they had been in the tube forever, as it dove deep into the ground. Ash was getting impatient, he just wanted to find Rian and Mortimer already. The doors finally opened, and they all stepped out into a long, white corridor. They walked down the hall and into a large room filled with office cubicles, computers, and desks. Ash sat down at one of the computers and started mashing letters on the keyboard.

"What is this thing?" He asked, smacking the side of the monitor.

"That's a computer," Bolt answered. "I had my own laptop back at home."

"Okay. And what's a laptop?"

"It's like a portable computer."

"Right. And what does portable mean?"

As Bolt tried to explain to Ash what the word portable meant, Kore and Marianne started looking around. The place was empty. Maximus Paige probably had everyone evacuated. He knew they were coming, he had to have known. That's why Boomie Rang had been sent to The Neighborhood to stop them. Kore sat down and turned on one of the computers, hoping to find some information on Rian's whereabouts. He doubted there would be anything about Mortimer on there. Whoever was using this computer must have been in a hurry because they forgot to log out, and before Kore's eyes lay a file called "Project Hellhound".

"Project Hellhound," he said out loud.

Ash rushed over. "Hey, that's what Mortimer was telling me about!"

Kore knew exactly what a Hellhound was and it was nothing to take lightly. What on Earth could Maximus Paige be doing with one? He clicked on a video file dated 10 years earlier and it opened. It was rather grainy so the picture was difficult to make out but it looked to be Maximus Paige standing in front of a camera. He had a smile on his face, and stepped aside. There was a man standing in a large cage, he was hooded, so Kore, nor the others could see his face.

"At last," Maximus said. "We have found a willing candidate to drink the PH elixir. Let us see what transpires."

The man in the cage was handed a vial of some kind of clear liquid by a woman in a lab coat. He sniffed it, then tilted his head back and drank the full vial. Nothing happened at first but then out of nowhere, his clothes started ripping as he grew in size. His limbs started crunching and cracking as he shouted in pain, his arms and legs morphing into that of a dog's, long claws attached to big giant paws. A tail grew out from behind, long and powerful. His head shapeshifted into what almost looked like a wolf, its eyes a bright, piercing red.

"Astonishing..." Maximus muttered.

It lashed out and tried to bite its way through the cage but the bars of the cage sent out an electric shock to keep the creature at bay. This only angered it however, as it continued trying to chomp its way through. Kore wasn't sure what the cage was made out of but it must have been a pretty impressive material for it to contain such a ferocious beast as a Hellhound. Albeit, a Hellhound created by an elixir rather than an actual one.

"I see you've uncovered information regarding Project Hellhound," the voice of Maximus Paige came over an overhead intercom. "Wait until you see it up close and personal."

"Where are you Maximus, you bastard?!" Marianne yelled. "And where is my grandson?!"

"Mortimer is with me, where he belongs. Now, let's play a game, shall we?"

"Game?! That's what this is to you?!"

"I'm sending you coordinates on the computer in front of you. They will lead you to a set of double tubes, much like the one that brought you down here. One will lead you to Rian, one will lead you to myself and Mortimer. It's up to you to decide which one is which. Make your choice wisely."