“W-w-w-who are you two?” The closest person, a bearded non-Sapient named Dr. Rhett Lincoln asked in a stuttering voice. While the group of them were all wearing similar looking outfits, he definitely seemed to be the oldest of them and while the other four all held their hands up at their sides, palms outward, he took a slight step forward to meet us.
The Hydramental in red ignited a ball of fire above his hand and stared at the scientist. “Do you really think that’s important right now? I asked you a fucking question. Your boss, where the fuck is he?”
Dr. Lincoln’s eyes went wide as he immediately backed back up and into the table he had been working at. The clinking of glass and metal from him bumping into the metal surface caused me to look around. The room had several long tables against the walls, with cabinets hanging above them and a myriad of different scientific-looking equipment littering the surfaces. But it was the far side of the room that caught my attention.
Several large vats lined the walls where the tables ended, each one filled with a bubbling green liquid and a hulking form connected to tubes and wires floating within. My interface was going crazy trying to highlight and provide details on everything I was seeing but I blinked them out of my vision as I moved to try and put myself between Hydramental and the doctor.
“Dude put the fire out, they're scientists, not fighters,” I said and Hydramental shot me a glare. I ignored him as I looked back at Dr. Lincoln, “We’re looking for the guy in charge. Now, would you like to tell us where to find him or do I have to let the hothead back there continue his whole firecracker thing? I'd really rather we do this the easy way where no one has to get hurt.”
“Isn’t it a bit hypocritical of you to threaten that after you just went off on Hydramental for exactly the same thing?” Angie asked and before I could reply, Jon beat me to it.
“There’s a difference between making a threat and actually doing it. Loophole, maybe surprisingly, knows the benefit of bluffing.”
“H-h-he’s not here,” Dr. Lincoln said. I was starting to wonder why the other scientists weren’t trying to move to hide when I caught sight of a familiar glint of metal near the floor. Each of the men and women in the room had shackles on their ankles, holding them to a pulley on the floor that seemed to give them some form of mobility within the room while still practically locking them in place.
“Well then where the fuck did he go?!” Hydramental demanded and threw the fireball. It went flying past me, smashing into a microscope on one of the tables and setting it ablaze in a way a piece of metal shouldn’t. Dr. Lincoln cringed to the side as he backed away from the heat of the melting metal.
“H-h-h-he hasn’t been here in weeks, I swear!” Dr. Lincoln gulped out. “I-I-I promise! We get our orders remotely every morning!”
“You’re lying!” Hydramental’s dual voices roared as another ball of fire roared to life in the red one’s hand. I could feel the heat emanating it and backed away. The fire settled ever so slightly as the Hydramental’s took slow, deep breaths. “We know he’s here, so stop with the bullshit, NOW!”
“How about we back up just a bit, what are your orders? What are you guys doing here?” I asked, taking Hydramental's hesitation as permission to try again and working to keep my tone as neutral as possible. Dr. Lincoln actually seemed to respond to this, looking back at the other scientists.
“We… they’ll kill us if I tell you,” he said, trying to find his nerves as he let out another breath. If I had blinked, I might have missed it, but as he turned his attention back to us, I could have sworn I saw a brief flicker of static pass through Dr. Lincoln’s eyes, “Though I suppose that’s exactly what your colleague back there will do if I don’t… isn’t it.”
“Well look at that, we got one with some actual intelligence,” Hydramental said with a bark of a laugh. “So what, is this where you’re growing all the meatbags?”
“Growing?” Dr. Lincoln asked, seemingly confused.
My mission tracker began to shake, The Snake Key practically vibrating at the edge of my mission as I took another look around the room, my eyes settling on a large, empty tank on the center of the far wall. There were tubes going right from it out to each of the separate tanks around the room and I felt my gut twisting as I tried to put the pieces together.
“Is this where you guys are making the serum? The one that all of the soldiers are taking to become temporarily Augmented?” I asked, feeling the tension in the room slowly building. Dr. Lincoln swallowed hard before he went to speak.
“Y-yes… We were tasked with modifying the DNA extracted from-”
“Not another fucking word Dr. Lincoln,” a gruff voice demanded from behind us and I spun on my heel.
A man with a neatly groomed black goatee and a sharp glare sauntered into the room. He wore a leather vest that was practically identical to the other Vipers, but it was clear that he was different just from the way he carried himself. Although a good part of Hydramental's face was covered by a mask, it was hard to deny the general similarities between the two men. I was just about to highlight him when Hydramental tossed two fireballs directly at the man who sidestepped them with a casual grace.
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” The Hydramentals roared in anger. “HOW FUCKING DARE YOU WEAR HIS FACE!”
For all his anger though, Hydramental didn’t rush in to attack with more than just his initial barrage of dodged fireballs, his feet planted as balls of fire swirled around his hands.
“Come on Marco, are you really going to attack your brother so casually?” Sal asked, his expression still light as Hydramental noticeably tensed up. I highlighted the man quickly as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Sal the Snake. Level 10 (Elite) Viper Lieutenant. This is a non-Sapient Augment.”
Hydramental’s yellow form split off as electricity began to dance between its fingers.
“Don’t you fucking dare use my real name, you knock off bitch. I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU,” Hydramental’s voice echoed. I could actually feel the static in the air just before a large rush of electricity rushed across the room at Sal.
“Guess that answers the question on if Sal was a clone or not!” Jon said in a hurry as I turned from Sal’s already shifting form. This really was my fault for bringing Hydramental with me, and it was something I couldn't change now, no matter how much I might have wanted to. The scientists were still cowering around the room, unable to move due to their restraints. I moved toward Dr. Lincoln as quickly as I could, preparing to attack his chain when he threw a set of hands ahead of my possible attack.
“No, don’t! If he sees us without the chains, he’ll attack. These are the only things keeping us safe,” He pleaded with me as another rush of static passed through his eyes. I wasn’t entirely sure why he would believe that, but I chalked it up to whatever orders were put into place in the non-Sapient’s mind. If he believed it was the truth, I couldn’t risk sending him into a panic by trying to force him to go against it and I really didn't have the time to try and convince him either.
“Tell your people to get under the tables and stay there, I can’t promise anything… This might get messy,” I said, turning and looking at the massive form of Sal. He must have grown at least another half of a foot since the last time I had seen his snake form and he was casually shrugging off both the fire and electricity being thrown at him.
Sal spit several rapid shots of venom globs toward Hydramental, one of them striking the yellow Hydramental and dissolving it as he took a massive hit to his health. Even though Hydramental seemed to be able to throw attacks in rapid succession compared to the larger cooldowns that I had, the largest weakness to his powerset seemed to be the negative impact that happened whenever one of his clones disincorporated. It also seemed to leave him stumbling for a second to recover, a period which Sal used to his advantage as he started to rush toward the next closest Hydramental.
Without waiting for confirmation from the scientist now behind me, I activated Phase Step, picking a spot behind Sal’s massive form and finding myself appearing a few feet off to the side of him. I was about to curse the random chance, but Sal was still moving in on Hydramental and I had to move on instinct to stop him from reaching Hydramental.
My next move was a risk, logically I knew that, but there was nothing ideal about the situation we had found ourselves in. I couldn’t push this fight back into the hall, it was too narrow for either Hydramental or I to work in, but I also knew that pushing it further into the room threatened the scientists. As little as I wanted to risk them and the possible information they could give us, Sal was already both higher leveled than us and an Elite, so I had to give us the best possible chance.
I actually had to jump just slightly as I caught up with him, and I threw a 60% Gravity Punch directly for the middle of Sal’s back with the momentum of my leap. I wasn’t entirely sure if his Elite resistances would help him or not, hell I still wasn’t even sure what those fully were, but as my fist connected with the leather of his vest, he was blown forward and across the room with every bit of force I had added to my strike, crashing through the room nearly to the far side of the room and well outside of my actual local area. Without skipping a beat, I pulled out a Superior Stamina Injector and slammed it into my arm, fully topping off my Stamina bar before I stepped as far as I could manage across the space.
Stolen story; please report.
The entire center of the room looked like a wrecking ball had crashed through it due to Sal’s massive form barreling through it. Luckily all of the scientists had jumped for tables along the walls of the laboratory. Before Hydramental could make another move, I stepped the rest of the way to where Sal had landed from the force of my first strike, activating Sting Like a Bee and striking downward at Sal’s still prone form with a 25% Gravity Punch. While he should have been thrown backwards, the downward strike pushed that force straight through him and into the concrete floor, cratering the structure ever so slightly as cracks went rushing outward from underneath the snake-man.
I didn’t wait for him to recover and pulled the last of my venom soaked guns from my inventory. With three quick squeezes, I fired into him and watched as, surprisingly, all three bullets found purchase and pierced his skin. Even further to my surprise, he still got a Weakened debuff, granted only a 5% one. I didn't hesitate and pulled the trigger three more times, halfway emptying the magazine and chunking his health down to 50%. Even at just 5%, his Weakened debuff was more than enough to remove his Elite status as I hopped backwards and held an arm out in front of Hydramental before he could charge.
“That…. Damn Loophole…” Jon muttered in the back of my head as I stared toward Sal as he slowly pulled himself upright. My eyes scanned the vats surrounding us before settling on the empty one in the center of the wall that seemed even more out of place now. Out of the corner of my eye, in one of the corners, I noticed a glint of a lens and found my anger rising as I stared directly at it.
“Really!? You taunt me, you tell me to come fight you and this is what you do?! Just send your men at me again!? You told me I’d get to face you! You told me I’d get to see what you were capable of! So where are you!?”
Sal started to laugh as he swayed lightly. His arms raised as he gestured to the room around us. “The bossssss never liessssss. Thissss! Thissss is what the bossssss is capable of. I wanted to let you in Marco, to sssssshow you the truth. But I guessssss you’ll jussst-”
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck stand up and a flash of icy blue went flying past me, coating Sal’s upper body and mouth in ice just before a rush of electricity whipped across the room and struck the now Weakened Sal in his icy coating. His health went plummeting and I rushed forward, taking the opportunity to try something we hadn’t done just yet.
I leapt into the air, throwing a hook for Sal’s head and adding a 20% Gravity Punch with it. While Hydramental’s conducted strike had sent Sal’s health plummeting, my strike was intended to be non-lethal. It was a small but key detail that Angie had told me on my first day, and while that felt like ages ago even though it had really only been a bit over 72 hours, the detail had still stayed locked into my head. Sure enough, while his health bar bottomed out, a small sliver remained as he gained the KO debuff and collapsed to the ground as his body shrunk and morphed back into his human form.
“We need to tie him up before-”
“Get out of the fucking way now!” Hydramental’s triplicated voices demanded from behind me. I spun on my heel and saw him walking toward us. He hadn’t bothered to pull a health injector, which felt like the wrong choice since his health was sitting at 60% just from the single clone of his that had been dispatched.
“No, he’s KOed. That means he’s down for an hour, we can figure out a way to keep him locked down and then we can ask him questions,” I said, setting my jaw and planting my feet to block Sal’s now human form from Hydramental.
“They. Aren’t. Real. They are only going to tell you what fucking Axio wants them to tell you. At this point, I’m convinced my brother’s just been dead for years and this whole fucking thing has been a fucking game just to make me jump through his god damn hoops, but I am just fucking done, I am going to kill this asshole and wipe my hands of Axio's bullshit,” he said, the echoing of his voice grating at me as he disbanded our Temporary Team-up. “Now, I’m not going to say it again, Loophole. Move, or-”
“Julia no!” Dr. Lincoln shouted.
There was the ring of a gunshot that echoed in the room before Hydramental’s blue form dissolved into a flash of light. The source of the shot was a young woman, trembling as she held a gun out ahead of her, staring at Hydramental in shock that she had even hit him. His health immediately dropped by another third as only his yellow form remained separated from his main body. This time, the shock of his form being disincorporated somehow only affected him briefly, and it only took a second for him to recover before he spun on his heel, looking toward the young woman as electricity began to dance between his fingers.
I didn’t even hesitate as I Phase Stepped between them, just as the bolt of electricity went surging across the space.
Even though I had been in enough fights by now and taken more than my fair share of hits, they had all been almost purely physical blows. So while I had gotten used to the feeling of being struck, even thrown into walls, cars, and the ground itself, I certainly hadn’t gotten used to the feeling of electricity coursing through my system.
My health dropped by nearly 40% from the single strike and I felt myself shake slightly as the current stopped. There was a look of pure hatred that spiked over Hydramental’s face as his red form split back off of the main body. I was lucky the shock didn't linger for more than that few seconds and I didn’t wait for him to strike again. Instead, I activated Fun House, going invisible and slipping to the side as my forms started to run in a circle around him.
“Oh fuck you!” Hydramental shouted as he threw several fireballs at one of my afterimages. The flames blasted the illusions apart before slamming into one of the many vats, instantly breaking the glass and sending the bubbling green liquid inside of it spilling out over the floor.
There was a flash of light that passed from his yellow form to his blue and it jumped forward, raising a hand and blowing out, freezing the liquid over on the ground in an attempt to send one of my afterimages slipping. Unfortunately for him, that was on the other side of the room than I actually was. I moved quickly, punching his yellow form in the back of his head as hard as I could without activating a single ability, hoping it would be enough to just knock him out.
I wasn’t sure what attacking his unpowered form would do, but once again I was taken by surprise as I was knocked backwards by an electrical shockwave that pulsed out of his body. I skidded across the ground as my health dropped by another 20%. Without bothering to get up, I picked one of my still formed afterimages and stepped over to it just before Hydramental’s red form could start pummeling my prone form with more balls of fire. With his eyes briefly off of me, I materialized an Enhanced Health Injector into my hand and shoved it into my leg.
There was another gunshot that rang out, and Hydramental shouted, “You bitch!”
I looked over, seeing his health had dropped down to 15%. It was long delayed, but I saw him materialize an injector into his hand and before he could use it, I ramped up Center of the Universe. I wasn't sure if it was because he hadn’t been anticipating this or if the rapid succession of his clones being destroyed had affected his own control, but it barely took any force before the injector was ripped from his grip and came hurtling my direction. I kept the strength up, focusing on objects as beakers and small metallic tools started to fly from the tables still in my range, peppering the Hydramental clones that were between them and me. I used the scattershot as a distraction and rushed forward, absorbing the injector flying my way and maintaining my gravitational pull on items.
The only single colored Hydramental still moving was his red form. I wasn’t sure what exactly had caused it and doubted he’d even tell me if I asked, especially right now, but I assumed his main form had some form of passive defense that had activated when I had struck his unused yellow form. It would explain why he never went out of his way to defend his main form during normal combat and it was the explanation I was going to go with for now. I kept my focus on the red form, getting in close to him and throwing a 20% Gravity Punch for his midsection. This time it connected and the form exploded into a shower of light before plummeting Hydramental’s health the rest of the way down. Just like in the street earlier in the day, I hadn't been trying to kill him, so my attack only left him collapsing to the floor with the KO debuff after he had already been left so low.
“That dude really needs some anger management lessons,” Jon muttered as I slowly caught my breath, my stamina bar nearly critical. I looked over, seeing the woman still holding the gun up, her hands trembling as her eyes met mine.
“Julia, please put down the weapon, I think we should be thanking this man, not threatening him,” Dr. Lincoln said from the other side of the room.
My mission tracker shook again and without me even prompting it, the Snake Key materialized into my hand, its eyes glowing just as brightly as they had at the tunnel entrance. I looked at it and then back over to the Dr. Lincoln.
“I think I’ve been asking the wrong question,” I said, almost like I hadn’t just gotten into a massive fight in front of all of them. My relative calmness seemed to actually put the scientists at ease as Julia lowered the weapon and fell to her knees as she took in rapid breaths, her nerves having clearly gotten to her. “When your boss does come by, how does he get here?”
"I don't think I can-" Dr. Lincoln started to say before another rush of static passed through his eyes. He swallowed hard, his own hand trembling as he slowly lifted his arm up. It was almost like he was struggling against himself to even do it, but when his finger was fully extended, it was clear what he was pointing at, especially since I had already been pretty sure I knew the answer. The empty vat.
I turned from the scientists and walked over toward it, stepping around the prone forms of both Hydramental and Sal. The key shone brighter and brighter the closer to the vat I got until the vat itself started to glow. In a flash, the key vanished from my hand and the vat evaporated into light.
In its place was something oddly familiar. A large, glowing white rectangle. It was the exact kind of doorway I passed through whenever I went to Sanctuary Square, though what it meant here I wasn’t quite sure.
“I was expecting just another hallway…” I said and Angie let out a nervous laugh.
“Um… I don’t know if you should go through that… if it’s calibrated for SnakeBite, it might hurt you if you use it,” Angie suggested.
“Why would he have a key that showed how to get it if he couldn’t go through it though?” Jon offered and I felt myself swallow hard as my gut clenched.
"I'm not sure, it just feels like an unnecessary risk, especially with everything he still has to take care of in this room," Angie suggested again and I was almost positive I could hear fear in her tone.
Even still, I felt my hand rising, reaching toward the portal. They were both right, logically I knew that, but I had already come this far. I looked back at Sal and Hydramental again, they’d be knocked out for at least an hour unless someone came in and resuscitated them. I pulled my hand back as I looked toward Dr. Lincoln and his eyes met mine.
“Don’t let anyone wake those two up, at least not before the hour is up. And if you do somehow have some way to restrain Sal... well can you guys do that for me? I can't let him keep terrorizing the people of this city.” I said and Dr. Lincoln nodded, his jaw set in determination.
“I will see what we can do, I believe we can keep Mr. Travisi unconscious for the time being, though I can't make any promises toward the other one. We will do our best to secure the room, you spared us, we owe you that much."
“Thank you,” I said with a nod before looking up at the camera and pointing at it with as much ferocity as I could. “I told you I was coming for you. There’s no more hiding.”
“Loophole, do you really have to-”
Angie’s voice was cut off as I stepped into the portal. Just like with Sanctuary Square, the portal only took a second, but this time I found myself in an entirely unfamiliar place when the light faded from my eyes.
The entire opposite wall of the room from where I had emerged was glass, with the moon’s light shining brightly into the space through the wide windows that overlooked Central Park. There was an almost sterile smell to the room as I looked around it.
“Where the hell am I?” I muttered out loud as I stepped forward. I looked over my shoulder, expecting to see the portal I had stepped through only to find nothing but a blank wall. “Umm, how am I supposed to get back?”
There was a noticeable silence that hung in the air as my question went unanswered and I stepped forward, placing a hand on the wall where the portal should be.
“Angie? Codex?” I asked again and then waited. Once again, neither of them responded, but that's not to say it did remain quiet in the room.
“It… It’s no use. They can't hear you in here, it's a dead zone,” a raspy, pained voice croaked. It was almost too low to hear, but in the stillness of the room, only broken by the sound of an occasional, random beep, I could hear it all the same. I turned around, looking for the source only to find a large bed at the center of a wall to my side, propped partially upward.
There was medical equipment surrounding the bed, with wires and tubes all traveling along the wall and down to the single inhabitant that lay in the room. The man was practically skin and bones and he was beyond pale, wearing a mask that was clearly helping with his breathing. His eyes were sunken in, though they met mine with a fierceness that didn’t match his broken body. My interface highlighted him, showing his nearly critical health bar and nearly a dozen debuffs that I barely had time to register. The monotone voice that I normally only heard in The Common Ground echoed into my head as the man started to let out a violent coughing fit.
“SnakeBite. Level 41 Venomized Vampire.”
“It- It-... It's nice to finally meet you Loophole," he wheezed out in a painful sounding rasp. Speaking sent him into a rough coughing fit that took a moment to settle before his sunken eyes met mine once more. "We should probably talk.”
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