Chapter Text
“Science holding strong, Sir!” proclaimed Dr. Ridley before instantly giving the intern a solute, turning back to her computer. Before he could question why he was called “sir”, despite being a lowly intern, Dr. Ridley again turned to Mitchell, proclaiming “MATH!” whilst holding out her hand in a bizarre crushing motion.
Of course, Mitchell’s main focus was on the current test subject, 002, aka “Nori”. Or, more specifically, his focus was on the terrifying expression she was making, one aimed at him.
Mitchell didn’t really know too much about the experiments going on down here; it wasn’t his job to know much, just do what they asked of him. But… He had always been curious. He knew a bit, of course. He knew that they screwed up, that humanity had created something too powerful for even the universe to control, but that was mostly it. Everything else was above his pay grade.
Focusing back on the drone, the one that was currently being possessed by… something—most likely the same “something” that humanity created—he really didn’t like the way it was looking at him. At first, he thought it may have just been looking in his general direction, at everyone around him. But no, that… thing was looking right at HIM.
So, hoping to get some form of confirmation from the possessed robot, he quickly pointed at himself. Honestly, that was kinda stupid. What did he expect, the robot to give him a nod? A quick “yes sir, it is you I'm staring at in a menacing way!”
“Doctor Chambers!” called out the head scientist, looking towards Mitchell. This was enough to snap the intern out of… whatever he was doing. Immediately his head snapped towards Dr. Ridley, seeing her staring directly at him. Was she calling him Chambers? But…
Looking down at the pin on his suit, he saw it reading the name of his boss, Dr. Chambers… “Oh! No, I-I-I’m not—” he stammered out, then promptly looked behind him to look at the kiosks that held their uniforms. There his fears were confirmed; he’d grabbed the wrong uniform.
Looking back towards Dr. Ridley, he whispered “Is this guy important?” whilst holding his clipboard to the side of his face, hoping to hide his shame at grabbing the wrong uniform… no wonder it was so tight, especially down below…
Suddenly the chains holding the drone in the air rattled, the wind howling.. Which was odd since they were deep underground.
Then she broke free… Somehow it managed to manipulate its own shadow, using that to create claws out of the shadows to break all four of the chains holding it up… maybe they should have used more chains?
As it slowly levitated down, it used one of its shadow appendages to grab a harpoon off the wall (why were there weapons next to the extremely deadly robot?) and threw it directly at Mitchell!
Thankfully he was able to block it with his clipboard (somehow), the harpoon pinning the clipboard down on the ground behind him. The other workers managed to then set the defences up, just in time too, as the super magnets shaped in a petagram, and the UV lights, all kicked in just as the robot devil monster thing was about to claw his face out with a, this time real, claw limb thing that it grew from nowhere. The UV lights resulted in the thing pulling its limbs directly back into its body, saving Mitchel from a horrific and painful death.
He really didn’t wanna die by some weird metal thing in his face. That sounds way too stupid and painful.
But, as they say, there’s no rest for the wicked. Mitchell couldn’t even take a quick breather before Dr. Ridley grabbed his attention.
“Chambers!” She threw some ID lanyard towards him, which he fumbled with and struggled to grab. “048!”
“Right, so… uh… ha ha… This a doctor specific thing?”
Honestly, Mitchell was a coward, and he knew this. He’s just an intern for a reason. But, when he got no answer back from his boss who was walking towards the demon robot whilst doing some awesome action hand spins with that crucifix USB thing, he realised he had no real choice. He messed up earlier by putting on the wrong uniform, and it is way too late now to turn back and admit it’s the wrong uniform. Something was going wrong, clearly, and he had no choice but to do as told.
“‘Cause I’m on it!” And with that Mitchell turned around and sprinted out of the cathedral, past his coworkers who were just carrying on as if nothing weird or paranormal was happening. What kind of coffee were they drinking to be so nonchalant?
As he ran outside in a panic, he almost dropped his lighter when he tried to light his head mounted lamp. Why did they even have these? There’s literally UV lights in the cathedral behind him, why can’t they have just normal flashl—
He looked behind him and saw that… thing. It was still staring at him whilst smiling creepily, waving at him like some kind of possessed paranormal child.
What is wrong with it? Why is it so—
“Guh! Agh!” he yelped in fear as the Sentinels they had as guards leapt towards him, scaring the life out of him. Thankfully the chains held them back, stopping them from attacking him. Why did they have such a dangerous defence? It didn’t matter, he had a job to do, and the sooner he did it, the sooner he could go home and cry himself to sleep over what was happening right now. Well, the crying to sleep part was normal anyway, so, just go home and have a normal night?
Welp, my lifespan has probably been reduced by a good few decades from all of this!
He ran as fast as he could, eventually turning a corner and almost missing the locker that contained the one robot he was after, 048, aka “Yeva”. Slamming the locker open he showed her the ID badge he had, pointing at it a couple times and then shrugging, which only received a groan from the drone as she slammed her head against the wall.
It’s not his fault he didn’t know what he was doing! This was supposed to be Dr. Chambers' job, not his!
He undid her chains as fast as he could, accidentally pulling them a bit too hard a few times and hurting the drone, which he felt really bad for. But, once she was out of the chains, he grabbed her hand and ran as fast as he could. He didn't know why he needed her, but he was sure everything would go better once he delivered her to where she needed to be.
As they neared the cathedral, 048 pulled her hand out of his and slapped his hand away, but that wasn’t the main reason he became nervous. The Sentinels were gone, and in their place lay their dangling chains, swaying in the wind.
That was a bad sign, something was clearly up. So, once he entered the cathedral they had hired out and saw that everything was fine, no one doing anything about the Sentinels, his suspicions were practically confirmed. That and the small glitch he saw on one of his colleges. Oh, and the small puddle of blood with the crucifix thing in it. Especially since he could see his boss, Dr. Ridley, with that same crucifix stabbed into the head of the possessed robot.
Yeah… this was fake. While he knew very little about what was going on, he could tell when he was seeing something real or not. Well, okay, no he couldn’t, but this was an obvious fake!
“Chambers! Get over here!” called out the clearly fake Ridley.
Knowing that he was probably screwed, he decided he’d at least try to keep 048 safe, so he came up with a very good, and obviously not fake, lie.
“Yep! Uhm… So, I… couldn’t find 48?” In his head he prayed that this worked and that the fake Ridley fell for it… and surprisingly she did.
“Whatever!”
“R-right…” Mitchell slowly shuffled forward “Here I… come…” Looking around, he did his best to see if he could find anything that’d help him. But so far his best bet was to grab the USB he saw on the floor and use it. He wasn’t exactly sure what he’d need to do with it, but guessing from what the projection was showing him, he’d definitely need to do something with it… maybe it was like a vampire?
Once he was close enough, he slowly crouched down and went to grab the crucifix thing, but that’s when he saw an arm… and then, looking further up, he saw Dr. Ridley. She was still alive—missing an arm, but still alive. However, she was remaining quiet. Maybe she was hiding?
And that’s when this fake reality gave up pretending. A tendril grabbed his boss and flung her into the air, going through all sorts of objects which were, in reality, holograms. As she yelled in pain and fear, Mitchel watched as he too cried out in fear as he bore witness to the death of Dr. Ridley, watching her get pulled into a bottomless pit made of flesh which now replaced the magnetic pentagram.
The hologram truly came apart then, showing the intern what the chapel truly looked like now. Flesh crept upon the walls, floor and ceiling, no doubt the remains of his coworkers, now used as decoration, their bones being attached to the floor and desks by fleshy tendrils, growing like coral on a seabed. Technology flashing red in warning, the cathedral roof in tatters with stalactites from the roof of the cave crashing down around him, causing Mitchell to grab the crucifix whilst rolling forward to dodge one of the stalactites. And as he looked up he saw it…
That… monster, the very entity which had destroyed Earth, now possessing the body of an innocent drone, 002, Nori. It rose from the flesh pit, riding mechanical centipede tentacles as it looked towards the floor ominously, holding in her left hand the skull that once belonged to Dr. Ridley, still wearing the pope hat she wore despite being a scientist. Or at least it did, before the entity crushed the skull in its bare, robotic hands.
It then stepped off from the one tendril it was standing on, now walking the ground it shared with Mitchel. Two claws grew from its back, dragging them along the ground as it began making its way towards the intern, digging its claws into the metal floor and making sparks fly behind it.
Mitchell knew he had to do something, so he rose to his feet, clutching the USB thing in his hands, his very, very shaky hands. Of course, he didn’t exactly know what he was doing, so he just held it out in front of him, like the Solver was some kind of demon. Of course, it technically was, but that's besides the point as this.. Well… it did nothing.
Instead of getting some sort of growl as a sign it was working, the entity spoke in a very robotic, yet slightly feminine, voice. “Thanks for… the new host… intern.” raising its left hand, a symbol appeared before it, yellow and bright. Using the symbol to conjure up some sort of strange magic, it pulled the USB crucifix from his hands and into its hands instead, before raising its left hand with the item in it, spinning it around a bit before then throwing the crucifix at Mitchell’s face, USB part aimed directly at his him. “MacGuffin,” the robotic voice said, a gleeful smile traced its face.
But… it never reached him. The shockwave of it flying so fast did, and that shattered his visor, but the crucifix thing didn’t. Instead it hovered directly in front of him, the same symbol holding it back… but this time it was red? Well, a kinda orange-red mix. And upon looking behind him, he saw who exactly saved him.
It was 048, Yeva.
She was holding out her right hand, the same red symbol projected in front of it. She had saved his life. And upon pushing her hand forward slightly, she flung the crucifix directly towards 002, smashing the USB end into the face of it. The entity's voice, now glitching, proclaimed, “O-o-ow… W-wha in th-the sc-sc-science…” before ripping out the USB and throwing it behind itself into the pit below, proceeding to collapse to its—or more specifically, her —knees.
The entity wasn’t in her anymore. 002 had been freed.
This was great! Fantastic even! Mitchel should be overjoyed!
Yet he wasn’t, because he was a coward. He always was a coward.
Turning back around, Mitchel gave a quick thumbs up to 048, giving her a quick salute as he ran off. Honestly, he didn’t really know why he was running. He was a coward, he knew this. That’s why he was only an intern, he was always too scared to push himself further, but why he was the way he was? He had no idea. Sure, 048 may have saved him, and the entity may be gone. But… he just felt like he HAD to run away.
Perhaps he was going to find someone? Tell them what happened? Get help?
Yeah… yeah that makes sense...
But… then the ground shook, almost like an earthquake. Stalactites fell all around him, knocking him backwards… He felt a pressure on the back of his head, a small spike of pain.
Then everything went black…
Deep underground, the shaking caused from the collapse of the planet's core could be felt even there. Deep, deep down. Down where nobody dared to look… where it waited, lost in the darkest depths, stuck in those walls… prowling… searching for an escape…
It’s quiet here…
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