Escape the Night: The Ungodly Machine
A/N: Hey, guys, here is the start of episode 2 of Escape the Night, and as I said before. This is a novelization of the series, and if you haven't watched it, please do, it's worth it.
Read, review, and enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
PROLOGUE: THE MAD SCIENTIST
In the basement of a certain house locked in the 1920s, a balding man was working feverishly on a strange and very steampunk machine that had two tall glass tubes attached to the sides with a glass square tank in front of it, and all around it was machinery. He was wearing the typical white steampunk lab coat and he was doing his best to ignore the pleas of the young man and the young woman that were chained off to the side.
"Please don't do this!" the young man pleaded, wearing only white pants.
"Shut up!" the scientist snapped, staring at the readings on the machine before him.
"We didn't do anything!" the young woman cried, wearing only a sleeveless white dress.
"Shut up!" the scientist snapped again, grabbing a paper with writing on it. "Shut up, I need to think!"
Just then, a door opened and the hooded figure with the creepy mask from Joey's nightmare, entered, approaching the scientist. `"It's time."`
The scientist straightened and turned to the figure before glancing at the tank, which was filled with a black liquid that surrounded a blackened skeleton. Knowing that his employer was right, he went to a table covered with papers and instruments, and picked up a syringe.
"No! No!" the young man cried, trying to pull away as the scientist approached him and injected into him a sedative that made him to limp.
"No! Please don't!" the young woman pleaded as the scientist turned to her, injecting her with the same sedative so that she also went limp.
Putting the syringe down, the scientist removed the chains and placed first the young man into one of the tubes, and then the young woman into the other tube. He went back to the console that ran the whole machine and glanced at his employer, unable to see past the creepy bird-like mask to see what his employer was thinking.
The scientist focused on the console and pulled a lever. Soon lights began flashing, electricity lancing through the equipment, and the two tubes were soon filled with a toxic black gas that drained the life out of the two victims, killing them slowly and painfully, not that they were really aware of it because of the sedative they'd been given.
The scientist watched the readings, avoiding making eye contact with his victims, and he also watched as more black liquid poured into the glass case, filling it so that the skeleton was completely covered. Moments later, a female humanoid monster sat upright with a loud scream, a spiked collar and a chain being the only things keeping her from launching out of the case to attack them.
She had pale bluish horns growing out of the top of her head, she was bald and her face was white save for the read around her eerie green/gold eyes, her red lips, her mouth was filled with white fangs, and dark bluish-grey on the back of her head and down her neck. She was covered with only dark blue and green scales and she was clearly evil with how she was tugging at the chain, trying to break free.
The mysterious figure stared at the creature for a long moment before speaking. `"We'll need more."`
"The machine needs to be recharged," the scientist informed his employer, and while he was pleased that his machine had worked, he was feeling guilty, too. "It requires more electricity than a small city."
The mysterious figure pulled a small pyramid object, that had carved tentacles and glowing red eyes, and set it on the nearby table. `"Try using this."`
The scientist stared at the artifact, having never seen anything like it before, but he could tell that it was powerful. "Once I place the object in the machine," he warned, "it may be impossible to retrieve."
`"It's better that way,"` the mysterious figure stated, still staring at the new creature, which was hissing at them and still tugging on the chain. 'Yes, it's best that the artifact remains inside the machine for the time being. Eventually it will be needed again…but only when the time is right.'
When his employer left, the scientist carefully picked up the artifact and carried it to the machine, going to the part between the tubes. He opened a hatch and gingerly placed the artifact inside, sealing it shut. 'There, and now to find more victims to build up my employer's army.'
When the mysterious figure had first approached the scientist, he'd been struggling to convince anyone that he could give new life to the dead, and that he could improve that life, too. Yes, it did mean having to kill others, but he had been certain that he could do it, and when the mysterious figure offered him the money and a place to build his machine so that he could prove his theory right, he'd jumped at the chance.
The mysterious figure had provided him with a part of the massive basement of the house to be his lab, and he had immediately had gone to work on building his machine. His ungodly machine, and when he was sure that he had it working perfectly, he had gone about getting the skeleton ready with a few genetic modifications that his employer had approved.
Once the skeleton was ready, he had gone out to a local college and convinced a young man and his girlfriend that he needed some assistants for an experiment. By a twist of fate, they had been science majors at the college, and it hadn't taken them very long to figure out what the scientist was intending to do.
They had had tried to escape, but others that worked for his employer had prevented them from leaving the grounds, and now his machine had been successful in transforming their life forces into energy that'd been used to create the first of many creatures for his employer.
'My theory was right,' the scientist thought, going to work on preparing a second skeleton while the mysterious figure would arrange to provide fresh victims. 'I can both create and give life to that that was once dead.'
A/N: Those poor students! If anyone has a guess of who is behind all this, post your guesses in the reviews. R&R everyone!