ESCAPING DEATHTECH.
1774, JULY 10th.
In the bowels of DeathTech, Noche floated in a tube of glowing blue Grim gel; still bandaged from chin to toe and in a medical gown. Her eyes shut, body severely atrophied, and an oxygen mask attached to her face. Her eyes shot wide open as the liquid drained rapidly. The glass doors slid apart and she fell out.
Prone on the ground, she coughed and adjusted to the atmosphere. After her coughing fit, she gazed about the monochromatic room. Nearby was a room-flooding light, coming from a wide-open doorway. As she stood, legs shaking as if they haven't been used for months, she began to walk towards the door; her few small injuries visibly healing slowly.
Alarms blared moments later – she flinched from the noise; instinct took over. Noche ran around aimlessly and without thought. Sheraced down the hallways, taking twists and turns in an apparently randompattern.
She nearly tripped and fell over herself multiple times, yet her legs slowly improved. Her muscles were rapidly being healed by the assistance of the Grim gel. She stumbled into an elevator as the doors closed around her. It zoomed up, and when it opened again she dashed out.
Her eyes twitched and her head scanned the environment rapidly. She occasionally stumbled as she moved about, and her breathing was rapid. She also seemed to be very unaware of her environment. Which was a massive 100 mile room; the ceiling not even visible.
Another strange thing about this room was it felt like it had been left in disrepair for some time. Rotting banners and light filled gaps in the wall were everywhere. Crumbling, fallen, pillars were scattered about the room and covered in plant life. The air was stagnant and dusty, yet there was a slight smell of activity nearby; like oil, metal, and leather.
As Noche ran throughout this room she also didn't appear to notice how massive the elevator behind her was. It was a giant cylinder about the size of a skyscraper. Above it were three stained glass windows that made the elevator look tiny in comparison. Lastly, stuck on top of the elevator, there appeared to be a massive crow feather.
Entering the nearest open hallway in this 100 mile room, Noche ran past various cells. Each one showed the status of the occupants within; most of which were labeled as scientist, engineer, or hostage. It was no understatement to say, more than half were hostages. Below these labels were more information such as the person's name, the numerical identification, and their health status; some were dead.
Meanwhile, Jack Chandler sat in a security room while alarms blared and Noche ran without any real direction. On his desk, he was surrounded by a bunch of empty sun-e drink bottles and a yellow coffee mug with the inscription grossly praisin. Before him was a keyboard, mouse, microphone, and countless monitors. Jack took a sip from his mug, before spitting out the contents immediately. As orange liquid dripped down his slack jaw, he stared intently at the blonde-haired girl running throughout the halls.
"Wait! That's today?!"
Jack nearly fell out of his chair as he scrambled for the keyboard and microphone.
"I thought I had more time!"
This man had brown hair, wore an intensely vivid pair of yellow goggles with sky blue straps, and had a bit of a goatee starting on his chin. His scientist's jacket was white, but it contained yellow stitching and buttons. On the left side of his shirt's collar was a small sun themed pin. Hand shaking, he hesitantly reached out for the microphone... His thumb hovered over the button, but didn't press.
Then, on the nearby security monitors, he saw the sight of nuclear missiles being assembled on a factory line. He saw countless Grim gel filled vats containing DeathTech soldiers being grown from embryos. He saw the newest batch of these super-soldiers practicing in a training room... Preparing for the day DeathTech emerges from the shadows to declare world war. The sights on all these screens broke him from his paralyzed state. He slammed his fist on the desk.
"Damn it Professor Grim... FINE!" Jack paused, "I'd rather another life escape, if I myself can't".
His trembling hand stilled. He pressed the microphone button.
"NOCHE GO RIGHT!"
His voice boomed over the intercom in the hallway where she resided. When Noche did so, his eyebrows raised slightly.
"Wow, she listened." He muttered, "Now go straight! Wrong way, left! Now right again!"
He watched her obediently follow the instructions of his mysterious voice. Before he knew it, she arrived at the destination. A hallway with a T shaped intersection. Directly in front of her, between the left and right intersection, were three vertical windows. Underneath them was a lump of C4 explosives. On its bright neon green screen was the word HELLO.
Despite only leaning forward slightly, sweat trickled down his forehead and his limbs shook subtly. His heart was racing faster and his body felt tense.
"She could really do it." He thought, "She could escape DeathTech!"
"See that bomb ahead," he shouted, "in a few minutes it will explode! When it does, you need to jump out the hole it forms!"
As he said this, a dark form turned the corner. A massive DeathTech soldier with a Gatling gun on its back, the words MOM KILLER engraved on its stock. Noche stopped dead in her tracks. She still looked disoriented, confused, but when she saw this entity she froze. Neither she, or the stranger in the office, saw the shadow of an anglerfish on the floor. Its shadowy jaws behind Noche and the antenna's light coming from the three vertical windows... And the bomb below them. The man in the office felt his mouth go dry. He instinctively gulped.
"T-The Anglerfish soldier?!" He yelled, "Noche you have to run!"
Yet Noche barely heard those fading words. Sound became silence. All she could focus on was the entity before her. Her mind was foggy, she could barely think, but when she saw this entity her body refused to move. A dark pit formed in her stomach as cold seeped into her bones.
The anglerfish soldier raised its arm. Similar to long ago, weird energy started to form around its hand. Greens, cyans, and aqua colors swirled about and began to form mass and shape. A pistol was formed in its hand with the carving of an anglerfish upon it. With a simple pull of the trigger, a bullet whizzed right past Noche's cheek; drawing blood.
With that, trauma resurfaced in her mind. A pinhole developed in the pupil of her left eye. Noche unleashed an agonizing scream as she clutched her head. She made a tight fist with her left hand, causing the old bullet scar to become all the more visible. Opening her fist, energy began to swirl about the palm.
Throwing her left arm behind her, she swiveled it forward like a cannon and took aim of the being before her. A ball of energy formed an inch away from her palm, and this energy slowly became an unfathomable spinning orb of compressed water, intense winds, and crackling lightning. These three elements compressed to the size of a baseball and were shot forward with the force of a cannonball.
However, as it sped across the room, it lost much of its initial momentum. By the time it had reached the anglerfish soldier, the orb had no more speed than a mere butterfly. The anglerfish soldier paid no heed to the weak attack; instead aiming its pistol at Noche. The orb was unnoticed as it landed directly on the explosives. Similarly to the concussive force of a large firecracker, the tri-element orb exploded in a 15ft diameter.
A small bead of crackling lightning floated in place as small droplets of water were scattered everywhere. In this first blast of air and water, the soldier lost its grip on the handgun. However, instead of falling to the ground, the handgun instead floated in mid-air as if suspended in zero gravity. In fact, the gun began to levitate straight up, alongside with tiny globules of water.
Then an intense vacuum force took place. Harsh winds drew everything into the small bead of lightning. Soon a new baseball sized orb of water was reformed, but this time with the soldier's pistol floating in it. Half a second later, lightning exploded from the core of this re-formed orb. Utterly disintegrating the pistol and evaporating all the water.
The sparks struck the lump of C4, and the L.E.D. screen changed from a green HELLO to a red GOODBYE. The resulting explosion destroyed all the cameras and flooded the hallway with heavily obscuring dust; making it impossible to see anything in the chaos.
From the cloud of dust emerged the anglerfish soldier, with half its organs and a missing left arm. With the massive hole in its torso, she could see beyond the ribs jutting out like a bone cage. The massive spinal column stood out like white hot metal, as clumps of meat dangled near its thighs.
Its appearance was more like the undead, left to rot for weeks, rather than a mortal being. Impossible was the only word that could describe how it still moved. With its remaining arm, this necrotic monster lunged towards Noche.
"JUMP!" The intercom blared.
Noche leaped out of the smoldering hole in the wall. The force field was fast approaching and soon she would splatter against it. However, gaps began to appear as she fell rapidly closer. They didn't last long though, as the forcefield was already repairing itself. Tucking herself into a ball, only a few strands of hair didn't make it as the forcefield snapped shut; barely missing her neck.
Far above, the anglerfish soldier could only watch. Its eviscerated extremities, colored an alien orange, began to heal at a rapid pace. From the exposed muscle, ripped organs, and fractured bones these glowing antennas appeared and quickly knitted its body back together.
With a new, perfectly repaired body, the prototype super-soldier turned away from the smoldering opening and walked back into the darkness of DeathTech. Where hundreds more of its immortal brethren were being grown.
As this occurred, Jack sat before screens full of static from the security room. The last thing displayed was Noche using... Magic? A taser? Something. As the crackling sounds of the monitor filled the room, he couldn't bear to turn his gaze away.
"She did it. She actually did it. Noche escaped DeathTech!" he muttered almost in disbelief, "And no one knows, but me and her grandpa... Now it's up to Cross to keep her safe."
He was happy. Really happy for her... But a part of him was sad. He was hoping, really hoping. That maybe. Just maybe. He could have seen... He sighed as the emptiness and silence of the large room sank in. Forcing himself to smile ever so slightly, he let out a half-hearted chuckle. His face contorted ever so subtly as he stared beyond the screen.
"Go see the sun..."
Behind him the doors opened. With the silence broken by the creaking metal, he turned around to see the silhouette of a humanoid with bull-horns.
During the same time, Noche had already fallen several dozen stories and reached terminal velocity. Ocean was fast approaching, it seemed like she would land in its emerald waters. That was, until the tides retracted and revealed an array of bedrock below.
The last thing she saw before impact was the massive flat rock before her. Her world went black as a loud skull-splitting crack ringed in her ears. She hit the rock hard and her consciousness was fading fast. Before it did, Noche had a vision.
In the depths of the universe where many stars, cosmos, and galaxies resided, were two beings. A being of fire, composed of many universes, held an infinite loop. Released from its hand, the loop moved towards the second being. A being of bone, fashioned like the grim reaper, with a left hand missing its metacarpal bones. The reaper broke the infinite loop and so died the fire; the stars themselves having lost their life... And all faded to nothingness.
Tick.
Tock.
TICK.
TOCK.
TICK.
TOCK.
The clocktower continued to echo with each marching minute.