Chapter Sixty-Eight: A Green Light
Decay.
It was a useful ability, dubbed "Grayscale" by Mason, Ruinate's captain. An ability unfitting for a dignified scientist and scientific expert such as Ruinate, but a useful one nonetheless. To be able to instantly rot and decay any substance he so desires. Makes escaping a room trivial.
There wasn't much Ruinate could do at this little fork in the road. Hidden behind the warped shield, his captain and the rest of his crew continued moving forward. They were determined, Ruinate gave them that. Mason and his boyfriend, slicing and dicing their way through the tendrils. Marissa kept track and kept out those that slinked to the back.
For an analytical brain such as his own, there was a beauty in the terror he and his fellow protogen felt. A terror so resident in their very core that it felt as natural as the fear of nonexistence, the fear of oblivion. A condensed emotion of dread and anxiety of those to come. It was odd, in a way.
Among the tendrils of inky darkness, beyond the miasmic walls of fog and void-like blackness, was a sense of fulfillment. A sense of prophecy, that they were going along the path that was forged for them. A sense of sheer and ultimate contentment with all those involved. This was the way.
Ruinate gripped his sword, feeling the soft leather straps coiling around the shaft of the blade. It's toothy appendages, made out of a naturally produced cartilage, shivered with the anxiety of its wielder, and yet the sharp jagged "smile" those teeth formed had not faltered, merely shaken.
Ruinate had always felt like the black sheep of this rag-tag family. The scientist, the "smart" one, he was called. He was smart, of course, but that was his main quality. All though, Ruinate himself was rather taken with being revered in that sense. He did feel attached, but not like the others. He hadn't socialized with them. He barely shed a tear when those that Fallout had killed were confirmed to be perished.
Was it wrong of him to not feel like that, especially with how shaken and disturbed the emotions that Fallout had displayed showed that the ruby bombardier was traumatized by it? Perhaps, though those thoughts were quickly overshadowed with dodging and hacking at a few tendrils.
They were strong, yes, but not invincible. Ruinate's decay and his sharp conscience blade made quick work of those that attempted to strike from above, although he too was deemed invaluable, and was converged around, along with a still sniffling but aware Fallout.
They sloshed through the ink-like goop the silent tendrils dripped upon the floor with their movement. It felt like sticky tar, clumping together the fur on their paws - at least those that had biological paws - and making their movement far, far slower than what it should be. Even those that were fast, like Rallycry.
"Renaissance!" Marissa cried out, curling her fingers together as another intense white glow overtook her body, "Make sure Nebula is healed!" She yelled, her fingers curling together to force out more of her Boson Energy. The energy condensed as an intense gravitational wave thrashed against the room.
"Fuck!" Nebula screamed, her knees buckling as she was knocked to the ground, her crystal claws clenching so tightly some of the crystal cracked off. Her sharp bladed tail dug deep into the floor, the metallic substance they were walking over being pierced to support her.
"Shit, shit!" Render cried out, turning around swiftly to send one of his drones over to assist her. Using it's constructs, it gave her something to rest her arms against, and to brace her legs, as she struggled against gravity to keep them all afloat. Even still, they could feel themselves straining to keep upright. Even the tendrils slowed..
Marissa's eyes were a burning white, a solid gold outlining the shining rays. Renaissance could barely walk, his rather frail body - made even more fair and slim by his new upgrade for better movement - buckling completely under the weight. In a blur of violet light, Rallycry rushed towards him, sliding to a halt to carry him.
"Come on, we have to keep going!" Their commander, Mason, called from the front. His burning neon purple eyes pulsed with the energy coalescing within the room. His fur stood on end as his ears were flattened against his scalp. He was drenched in the liquid, their movements spraying the viscous fluid upwards, the inky ooze sliding off of his fur like oil.
Renaissance made it to Nebula, pressing a golden tip of his spear against her body. As she took on a golden glow, the gravity pressing down on the group grew lighter and lighter, as the wave of unfettered gravitational energy pushed down on the tendrils harder.
A flash of light blasted through the group as Freefall took her shot, the piercing round slicing through one of the downed tentacles with ease. She cocked back the weapon, her visor splitting open to reveal jagged lines of the nanite fiber, her tongue coiling around in knots as she struggled to maintain focus.
A frosted arrow plunged through another tendril as Northern took their shot, her crossbow bolt slicing through a tentacle. She was standing next to Fallout, her eyes slanted into thin slits to showcase her intense anger. This just had to be the day that her close friend broke down. And now, she had to kill the tentacles before throttling her captain about not helping Fallout.
Speaking of her captain though, she did give him more respect now than before in his social standing. He was a good captain, but he had a select few he stayed around often. Northern was not one of those he often met, though he was casual with her as well.
What earned him more respect was his taste. Was his regard to his partner, his boyfriend.
Ja'Kle stood strong beside the rabbit, wings flush against his back as the spectral void-blades danced around him. The hilted darkness flung through the air quickly, the edged weapon slicing through the tendrils that still remained with blinding speed.
Like her captain, Northern didn't pay much regard to most of the crew. Hell, she didn't even notice that Ja'Kle was actually decent at fighting now until this fiasco happened. She would have always considered the Mosomarians to be weak. But now, she doubted that accusation very much, even if Ja'Kle was "Evolved".
His reflective furry coating reflected the faint light that still remained within the room, the dark void around them silhouetting the moth in an almost divine lighting. Dust flew off of his body just as fast as those blades, and yet it was not a hazard to the team. Maybe it was the sheer overwhelming presence of Boson that allowed them to overcome the dust. Maybe it wasn't.
As they progressed further, less and less tendrils stayed mobile. By the time they reached what could be considered the "center" of the room, the tendrils all but stopped coming. Marissa finally collapsed to the floor, her energy shot and her eyes tired. She fell face-first, the thin mane-hairs softly growing back around her neck.
"Renaissance, Viscera, can you-?" Mason called out, although the two knew what his orders were. The immediately stopped over to where Marissa had fallen, and despite the fact that both were near collapse themselves, they did their best to help Marissa up.
The team was tired yet again. Even after such a strong and large amount of rest and respite the hours earlier, their energy was a combined zero. The only ones that remained standing after the room finally fell silent were Render, Wither, Mason, Ja'Kle, and Fallout.
Ruinate was the first to fall to the floor, his body quaking with the energy he just expended. There was little use in attempting to move at this point. He might've not been fighting on the front lines, or barely fighting, but the exhaustion brought on by the sheer pressure of succession was more than enough to bring the valiant scientist to his knees.
"We're close..." Wither pronounced to the group, the fading blue and red eyes of the protogen narrowed into slits "I can feel it. There's a massive store of technology just a couple miles from here. I can't access it, but it's still there." He continued, his dulling blade "Star-Reaper" brushing up against his tail as he pressed the hilt against his left shoulder.
Render's ears perked up, the sultry protogen moving to be beside his love as Mason and Ja'Kle did the same, Fallout being left alone between them, "I'm not sure how these tunnels are so long now. Especially here. They were compact before this... shitstorm happened." Render continued, using an Earth Term he had heard Axel use when Mason was in the medical bay a few years back.
Mason retorted with a quip, though Ja'Kle didn't quite hear what he said to cause the other two to laugh. He noticed Fallout there, wanting to talk to his captain, but not wanting to disrupt the conversation that was important. So important that jokes were being exchanged.
"Love..." Ja'Kle asked, tapping Mason on the shoulder with a finger - from his hand that only had four fingers now - and grimacing, "I think... I think Fallout wants to tell you something." He told his boyfriend, and with a look of horror Mason returned his attention to Fallout, beginning to apologize profusely as Render and Wither backed off to attend to Marissa.
"It's fine captain... I just- Well, I just wanted to say thank you..." Fallout told him, his slanted visor turned a bit downtrodden as the ruby protogen glanced down at the inky floor with a meaty sigh, "I'm so, so sorry for breaking down like that, I-"
Fallout was stopped in his tracks by Mason hugging him, bringing the explosives officer in for a long, drawn-out hug, "Never apologize, Fallout. I... I blame myself too for someone that died. Maybe it's not the same emotions, but... I understand. I don't like you any less because of it, understand that..."
"You're a part of the team. You're a part of our family, and that means everything. We will never abandon you." Mason attempted to comfort him, although the prospect of them all being a literal family might've made the deaths all that more impacting to Fallout. If it did, then he didn't show it, only beginning to faintly sob against Mason's hug, really leaning into it.
However, that closure was short-lived, as Wither shot up from the other side of the room, his visor quickly flashing multiple colors, brandishing Star-Reaper and pointing it towards the darkness that led towards their ultimate goal.
"Someone is coming!" He yelled, before a thunderous echo resounded through the void-like room. And from that darkness came a light. A light that glowed a faint green, and a light that outlined the protogen against them.
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Howdy.
So, I'm back. For good this time, until I finish this story. I will attempt to do a chapter a day to catch up to my schedule, but that will most likely not flourish.
I just hope that this chapter was decent.
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed.
~ Candle
8/29/2021
Sorry for how bad it looks, I'm just trying to gain inspiration back again.