Two Weeks Ago…
Slowly, she felt her consciousness returning to her. She first felt the hard, concrete floor she lay on. Then the scent of dust and something else, something unknown, registered to her nose. Finally the voices came.
"-all shut down, Kaidan-cho, everything, from the park to Orochi Tower…" A female voice said, sounding rather grim.
Another female voice spoke in response. "SDF quarantine. Good news for Tokyo, bad news for us."
Another voice, male this time, dry and sarcastic, came next. "I thought the Dragon thrived on chaos?"
"Someone once told me the Illuminati had all the answers." The second voice responded in the same tone.
The first voice spoke up now, interrupting them. "They're saying a bomb. It's never just a bomb."
"Something worse, something that brought the Filth with it." Voice number two said, sounding slightly anxious.
She began getting up, groaning softly, the back of her head throbbing lightly.
The voices didn't notice, continuing their conversation. The first voice spoke with a quiet intensity now. "So we fight. That's what us Templars do."
She'd finally gotten to her feet, shaking her head slightly as she gathered her wits.
The man spoke next, voice wry, not having noticed her. "I enjoy a good fight, it's just these trousers are bloody velvet..."
He was interrupted when the owner of the second voice, an Asian woman, finally noticed she was on her feet. "Sarah! Thank Gaia…"
Sarah focused on her surroundings and her three companions.
The first, the one who had spoken to her, was Mei Ling. She was an attractive Chinese woman in her mid-twenties. Her black hair was tied off in a high ponytail, bangs obscuring her face slightly, and large gray headphones were on her head and covering her ears. She was very slim, and wore a tight reddish orange top with orange graffiti on it whose sleeves bared her tattooed shoulders and arms, and which also bared much of her midriff, exposing more tattoos. Her pants were low and tight on her hips, with large pockets, loosening to be slightly baggy below her knees. On her feet she wore blue and white tennis shoes. She had a long katana strapped to her waist.
The other woman was Rose White, a pretty American in her early twenties. She had platinum blond hair that appeared practically white, which fell to almost entirely cover her left eye from under a white wool beanie. She wore a white, long sleeved sweater of the same material under a red, hooded vest which, while fairly tight on her, hid the fact that she was toned and muscular. Around her neck she wore a red scarf, and blue jeans covered her legs, ending in blue Converse. She had a dangerous looking shotgun strapped to her back.
The last person was Alex McCall. He was British, in his late thirties. His dark hair was a mass of messy spikes, which looked as unkempt as the rest of him. He wore a white button up shirt, half tucked into his light blue velvet trousers, a wrinkled red sweater over it and a light brown trench coat over that. His look was finished by a pair of black boots. He had no apparent weapon on him.
Sarah looked around, trying to get her bearings before she spoke to the others. She was in a dim subway station entrance, a security gate closing off the access to the rest of the subway. It was dirty and grimy, a bit of an oddity in a Tokyo subway, but that wasn't the most eye catching thing.
Tendrils of some black, oily substance ran along the floor and trailed up the walls like ivy, black pods of the substance bulging from the bodies of the tendrils in place of leaves. One could almost be forgiven for mistaking it as crude oil, but it looked just slightly wrong. And it smelled wrong. And it seemed to suck in the heat. It was, in and of itself, simply wrong. Something that had no right to exist.
"Are you okay?" Mei Ling asked. "How are you feeling?"
Sarah blinked and sighed, gingerly touching the back of her head through her dark, curly hair. "Like something bashed me in the head." She said, her Cairo accent stronger than usual due to her residual disorientation. She glanced back around at the room they were in. Now that she was paying attention, she could hear the noise of people shouting further into the subway. "What happened? How in the name of all that is holy is there so much Filth here?"
Rose grimaced. "Something went off. An occult weapon or something. What you're seeing now is the result. It's everywhere. And it's infected a lot of people already."
Sarah's brow furrowed. "What could do that?"
"Does it look like we know?" Alex asked caustically. He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and brought it to his lips before he ignited it with a small burst of anima. "One moment we're on the tail of those arseholes we were called in about, the next…"
Mei Ling shook her head. "Now's not the time for this. We need to get through here and figure out what's going on and find Zuberi. This is… way too big for us to do anything else." Sarah and the others nodded in agreement. This was probably the biggest supernatural event of the last century just from what they knew.
"Sarah." Rose said, motioning to a chair a few feet away. "We put your weapons over here. Grab them just in case."
Realizing that she was indeed unarmed, Sarah quickly made her way over to the chair, where her twin kodachi and her backup revolver lay. She hurriedly gathered them up, equipping herself, before turning back to the others. It was only once she'd done so that what Mei Ling said registered and she realized somebody was missing. "Wait, where is Zuberi?"
"Somewhere down there." Rose said softly, indicating to the entrance to the subway.
Before they could say anything else a woman suddenly appeared behind the gate, slamming into and clawing at it desperately. "Open the gate!" She screamed in Japanese, tears of fear in her eyes.
Mei Ling immediately jumped to the controls. "I'm trying!" She yelled as she frantically worked. "It's inside the electronics somehow. The Filth-" She was interrupted when a couple of figures, making inhuman noises and moving erratically, jumped the desperate woman and killed her with a couple of blows, making the four flinch.
"No!" Rose cried.
"Fuck me…" Was Alex's muttered contribution.
Sarah was frozen, staring, as Mei Ling spoke slowly, shocked by the sudden brutality. "Oh… my… God…"
The figures moved away from the corpse of the woman, and soon the group heard them moving through the large vents in the walls. They all prepared for battle, Mei Ling's tattoos lighting up orange as she drew her sword, Rose unslung her shotgun, Sarah drew both kodachi and took a dual wielding stance, and Alex took a stance with his legs spread and bent with his arms out at his sides, energy appearing in his cupped hands.
Soon the first of their enemies jumped out of the vents. He might have once been a normal salaryman, but now his clothes were stained black with Filth, and all his skin was the same pitch black as the unnatural substance, leaving only glowing yellow eyes. Most prominent were the tentacles of black sludge that waved from various parts of his body, including his head.
He screamed, an inhuman shriek of mad rage, and launched himself at them. Equilibrium regained, Sarah darted in and started slicing at the monster, making it fall dead from its wounds in seconds.
"Nice work!" Rose said, but then they heard what sounded like a herd of more of them, screeching in rage.
"How many have they got in there?" Alex asked angrily.
As more appeared, moving to attack, Mei Ling spoke as she sliced one in half. "It's gone viral so fast… If this gets out into Tokyo…"
"It doesn't!" Rose said with determination as she blew one's head off with a blast of her shotgun, while Alex slammed a couple of fireballs into another. "We stop it here. Whatever it takes."
The foursome fought the continued waves of enemies which poured from the vents, shrieking horribly. Finally, after it seemed like forever but was most likely only a couple of minutes, the last one of the couple of dozen that attacked fell.
They all took a moment to catch their breath before Mei Ling moved to open the gate, finally managing it with a bit of work. As the gate began to go up, Alex murmured. "'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.'"
"Thanks for the encouragement, Alex." Rose bit out.
"Let's do this." Mei Ling said firmly. "Take it like all the other occult disasters, right?"
Sarah cracked a grin. "Can't be any worse than Bangladesh."
The others groaned at the reminder before beginning to walk through the gate. "We really have to stop meeting like this…" Alex said, traces of amusement in his irritated tone.
As they made their way down the stopped escalators they stopped when a wave of blackness came literally shrieking from around the corner at the bottom of the stairs, thankfully not spreading upwards, more infected humans rushing them from within it as it slowly dissipated.
Rose made her way forward to begin firing when Sarah noticed that a circle of darkness appeared on the wall. With a premonition of what was about to happen, she launched herself forward to tackle Rose. "Look out!"
A burst of black flew from the large patch of darkness, almost reaching the opposite wall, as Sarah huddled on top of Rose, covering her with her body. Soon it began to disappear, and they heard Mei Ling yelling. "Don't let it get on you! Don't even breathe in!"
After it faded the two women got up, backing away from the approaching horde of crazed victims. Once again, they fought off the horde, sustaining no damage thanks to their experience with combat. As they finished Rose spoke.
"It's reacting to us...like it knows we're coming." She said with certainty.
Alex scoffed dismissively, though there was a hint of wariness as he spoke. "This stuff can't think. It's a cancer. Cancer doesn't know you're coming, it just is."
"Then why did that look like a trap?" Sarah asked quietly. Alex didn't answer, simply moving down the stairs to continue going forward.
Soon they reached another gate passed some turnstiles. Alex turned to address the team. "New plan: fight chaos with chaos. Keep the bastards at a distance, then take them out."
"That's your plan?" Mei Ling asked incredulously.
Alex shrugged. "Well, it's a plan…"
Rose shook her head before turning to Sarah, who was sheathing her blades and drawing her revolver. "You've got point, Sarah, like usual. Make every shot count, okay?"
"Don't I always?" Sarah asked with a small smile, holding her gun up and ready as they opened the gate.
When she reached the subway platform at the bottom of the new set of escalators she saw a large group of Filth infected just standing around, swaying lightly, the most movement on their forms the tentacles that waved around wildly.
Slowly she raised her gun and aimed at the head of the closest infected. She felt the others making their way behind her and pulled the trigger. The infected dropped, missing most of its head, and the others turned toward her, shrieking. The team began to launch attacks.
The fight was brutal, and there were several close calls, such as when one of the infected jumped Alex and brought him down, about to beat on him before Mei Ling sliced its head off.
Eventually they had killed all the enemies and regrouped, panting lightly.
"Alright." Rose said. "This isn't working. We're gonna need to use some heavier powers. Don't hold back, right?"
Alex coughed lightly and scratched the back of his head. "I was pacing myself…" The girls all rolled their eyes, amused by his bravado as they usually were.
Mei Ling turned to Sarah, her face serious now. "Listen, Sarah. You have to find Zuberi. We'll hold them here. Make a stand."
Sarah frowned. "Are you sure?"
Alex snorted. "I think we can handle some messed up freaks, mate."
Sarah nodded slowly before turning to head to the other side of the tracks. "Alright. Don't die, got it?"
Mei Ling waved her away. "Only if you do the same."
Sarah began to move quickly, only barely hearing Rose's wistful "I could murder for a strawberry smoothy…" as they moved away towards the entrance.
She dropped onto the tracks, looking around. Splashes of Filth covered everything, the tracks to the right blocked by rubble that had fallen from the ceiling, and the area was dim due to damaged lighting.
Thankfully her destination lay on the other side of the tracks directly in front of her, a well-lit area with a locked chain-link gate that led to the other platform.
Sarah holstered her gun and drew her blades as she approached, ready to slice through the obstacle. She stopped in her tracks when a loud of black fog appeared behind the fence, which burst open as something huge hurtled out of the darkness.
It was another Filth infected, but this one was enormous, its upper body grotesquely muscled with a disproportionately small head on its shoulders. It looked like a corrupted version of the Hulk. It glared at Sarah with glowing yellow eyes and charged at her, a low growl escaping it.
Wishing she hadn't put away her gun she dodged backwards as it swung at her before darting in to slash at it, her blades glowing with energy as she knew she couldn't afford to hold back against this enemy. The glowing steel cut deeply into the monster, who roared and swung an enormous fist at her head. She ducked under it and slashed at the passing arm, cutting it off at the elbow and releasing a burst of black blood.
The monster roared before hunching over. Darkness began to cover its form, and Sarah knew what came next wasn't anything good. She launched herself backwards, and almost made it, but was knocked on her ass when the brute emitted some sort of dark shockwave from its form, the edge of it hitting Sarah and launching her back a few feet.
She winced and got up, rubbing her tailbone before looking up as the monster charged at her. "I've had enough of this shit." She muttered before launching herself forward, the glow around her swords growing stronger. She ducked under its swinging arm and launched herself into the air to bring her blades to its neck in a scissoring motion. She encountered some resistance, but it wasn't difficult for her to remove its head from its shoulders. She landed on her feet as it toppled backwards, its disgusting blood leaking sluggishly from the newest opening in its body.
She sighed and checked her blades. None of the Filth had stuck to them due to her power covering them. Satisfied, she made her way towards the now open gateway, wary and ready for anything.
She made her way along the tracks on the other side, eventually finding her way blocked by rubble. She looked to see that the door to a train car was open. Deciding to see if she could make her way through there, she entered the car to find another door open at the opposite end of the car.
As she approached it there was the sound of a man yelling something in Japanese, and before Sarah could react there was another burst of black fog in the doorway, from which a body was shot as though from a cannon, slamming into the opposing doors with enough force to dent them. Sarah had enough time to see it was somebody in an Orochi security uniform, blood dripping out of their mouth, before she turned back to the doorway, blades at the ready for anything that came.
Instead of another monstrosity, however, the fog receded as a golden glow appeared briefly. Then a man stepped into the train car, the doors closing behind him.
He was in his early fifties, gray hair in short, swept back dreadlocks, along with a similarly colored beard, contrasting with the dark skin characteristic of a man from the Caribbean. He wore a green shirt splattered with paint stains, a necklace of small feathers around his neck and a leather coat with a leopard print inner lining. Well-worn jeans with frayed edges fit him comfortably, with black loafers covering his feet. The look was completed by red tinted circular glasses perched on his nose.
"Zuberi!" Sarah said, relieved to see the aged shaman.
Zuberi smiled back at her. "Ah, the cavalry has arrived." He turned to look out the door, on guard against any incoming trouble. "Could you please help this young man before he expires? I must be on guard."
Sarah sheathed her blades before approaching the Orochi man. "I'm not much of a healer, Zuberi. I never really focused on it."
"I do not believe he will need much power." The man said calmly.
Sarah huffed lightly, knowing that this was just Zuberi's way of trying to teach her to be more diverse in her abilities, before getting on her knees besides the semi-conscious man. Her dark skinned hands began to glow gold as she focused on her task.
Zuberi began to speak, his calming voice helping to relax her as she worked. "Even where the Filth corrupts, Gaia's power endures. Take it into yourself. Breathe it out. Will this broken body mended."
There was a small flare of power, and the man began to breathe much more easily before groaning and getting to his feet, lucid now and moving his limbs in wonder. "Arigato." He said, bowing to her.
Sarah bowed lightly back as Zuberi spoke, smiling. "Good. Good. But even Gaia will be tested by what is to come."
Sarah whirled around when she heard movement behind her, finding Alex, Rose and Mei Ling rushing down the train car, trying to catch their breaths. At Sarah's look Rose spoke slightly sardonically. "Making a stand… wasn't working out."
"Yeah, about that… this ain't looking much better, to be honest." Alex responded slightly bitingly.
"Now is not the time for argument." Zuberi snapped at them.
"Knew he would say that." Mei Ling said softly, a small smile on her face.
The group prepared to make their way out the door, the Orochi soldier picking up his assault rifle and nodding to them. "Allow me to assist you if I can for your help."
Sarah nodded. "More firepower is always welcome. Thanks."
"Let's get this show on the road." Alex said, cracking his neck and spitting the butt of his spent cig on the floor.
They found a mass of Filth infected rushing them from the platform. As they all prepared to fight Zuberi shouted. "We need to reach the next platform!"
"Easier said than done." Rose growled as she fired her shotgun.
It was a long battle, with more Filthy humans coming from the tunnels and the vents. The group ended up killing at least two dozen of the things. It got especially treacherous when two of the giant types that Sarah had fought showed up to assist the smaller varieties.
The group looked around warily once the last giant had fallen with a low groan. "Well, that was… stimulating." Rose said.
Nobody was able to respond, interrupted by the platform shaking and a patch of darkness forming on the floor in the middle of the platform. "Something's coming out of the ground!" Mei Ling cried as a dark shape began to pull itself out of the black.
"What the bloody hell is that thing?" Alex asked incredulously at the sight of this newest challenge.
It was some sort of dog, or at the very least a canine. If canines got to be taller than a man and longer than a car, that is. Its skin was the black of the Filth, and what fur it had was a dark gray, with a mass of dark spikes growing from its back. It bared its fangs, glaring at them with the luminescent yellow eyes of the other Filth creatures.
It looked around at all of them before letting out an ear piercing howl and charging at Rose in quick bounds. The Templar threw herself to the side in a well-practiced roll, barely getting away from the monstrosity before it tore at her with long, gleaming claws.
Sarah drew her gun and quickly fired shots of glowing energy that slammed into its backside. There was no way she was getting in close with that thing. The others were apparently of the same opinion, as they all began launching attacks at the beast while playing keep away as it charged at each of them in turn, trying to catch one in its slavering jaws.
It was as Mei Ling launched another wave of energy from her katana that the beast switched tactics. It planted its paws on the floor and growled, darkness beginning to swell around it.
"What the hell is it doing now!?" The Orochi soldier asked as he slammed a new clip into his weapon.
In response to this question, the monster let out another howl as orbs of blackness launched from all over its body like mortars, falling to the ground with crushing force and bursts of darkness.
Sarah yelped as she barely dodged away from an orb which slammed in the place she'd just stood. She could feel the impact through the ground at her feet. The rest were doing the same, their assault on the monster stopping as everybody scrambled to keep away from the random attacks, which went on for almost an entire minute before the monster seemed to finally get tired. Thankfully everybody managed to avoid the orbs, though they were a bit scuffed up due to close calls. Immediately they resumed the attack.
They had to weather two more similar attacks from the beast before it finally fell with a whimper, its form beginning to turn to black ash. They all looked at each other, trying to catch their breath, before Alex spoke. "Well… that happened…"
They had just gotten to the point they could breathe normally when the platform shook and more black fog appeared from the gate leading to the escalators. "The gate's opening!" Rose cried.
"I think that's bad news." Mei Ling said, taking a stance. She was proven right when the gate travelled up, releasing a new, larger horde of monsters of various sizes. "Yup, bad news."
"They're not stopping!" Rose said as she fired into the mass of black flesh, the Orochi soldier a short distance behind her, firing his assault rifle in controlled bursts.
"And they will not stop." Zuberi said grimly. "This is all to hold us back."
"Top marks for effort." Alex grunted, unleashing a blast of lightning in the face of one of the hulks.
"Someone has to push through." Zuberi continued. "This confusion may be all the chance we have."
"'Someone?'" Mei Ling asked in trepidation.
"I'll do it." Sarah said, eyes hard as she rammed her blades through an infected's heart before she began rushing towards the escalators. Her way was briefly blocked by a Filth hulk before its head was removed from its shoulders by a condensed blast of power from Rose's shotgun.
"Go! Go!" Rose cried, already turning to fire at another monster. Sarah didn't hesitate, rushing through the gap in the assault.
One of the hulks turned to follow, chasing after her as she rushed up the escalators. She'd made it halfway down the hallway when she felt the ground shake and heard Rose cry out. "Look out! It's all coming down!"
Sarah looked up to see the roof begin to fall. She launched herself forwards, barely avoiding the debris coming down. The hulk wasn't so lucky, roaring as it was slammed into by tons of stone.
Sarah gasped for breath, hands on her knees, and looked back at the wall of rubble blocking the way she came. She groaned. "Well, I guess that leaves me with one way to go…" She sighed, stood up, and began making her way deeper into the tunnels of the subway stations.
She walked for a few minutes before slowing down as she saw odd, red light shining from the next platform. "What the…?" She reached the platform and stared, slowly stepping forward, not believing her eyes.
On the other side of the tracks, the platform opened up into space. Literally. It was as though reality had simply shattered in this place, the platform breaking up and leading to the infinite. She could see stars, millions of them, and directly in front of her was a burning, dying reddish brown sun, asteroids travelling slowly by it.
She moved closer, and saw what looked like a dark planet, enormous and threatening, floating above her. It radiated a silent menace, something fathomless and horrifying.
Wrong.
She felt herself breathing quickly, close to hyperventilating.
This was wrong.
Wrong. Wrong. wrong. WRONG. wRoNg. Wrong wrongwRong WRonG WroNgwroNgwrongwrOngWronGWRO-
Sarah fell, collapsing on her side, eyes open, yet unseeing…
So, yeah… that happened.
There's not really much to say about this chapter. It's still the opening of the game, a tutorial mission to get you used to combat and introduce you to one of the mysteries of The Secret World. What the fuck happened in Tokyo?
We'll find out eventually, but it's going to be a while.
I hope you all enjoyed. Next chapter will be the end of the faction introductions. Then we'll be able to have some fun. Hope to see you all there. And please, review.
