It's been quiet for some time, let's have some murder. And it's twice as long as well, enjoy.
The large reptile jogs down the hall, a scowl forming on his snout as the bouncing forms move further down the hallways in front of him.
He wasn't about to unleash bullet hell, just yet, they had him going into the Genetics sector of this poorly made lab, drifting farther into sections he had never seen. He wasn't the one to clear it out before but as Vector slowed to a stop right before a completely darkened doorway, he wished he had.
It seemed the lights either didn't go into this portion of the sector, or something had removed them by force. With a click of his own light, the lime mobian wasted no time in going into the darkness of his own volition. His anger kept him moving forward, listening to the wind moving around him, the soft chitters of those diseased scientists, both literally and figuratively when they had thought this was a good idea.
He would put them down for his friend.
For his brother.
His steps became soft, eyes squinting in the dark as he tries to pinpoint where they had gone. In this portion of the hallway, he could make out that all the doors were closed off, corralling him further down it by default.
Vector could feel his muscles flex under his protective armor, as he squeezes the handle of his weapon, lifting the sights to his level to be ready for his enemy. He could no longer hear the soft distant whistling of the Maintenance sector and the increased time being on this route, allowed him to realize the temperature drop.
The wind whips around him again, prompting him to turn with it, pointing his gun in the direction it went.
And yet, it wasn't enough as something caught him in the legs, throwing him off balance with a crunch as they tried to make off with his battered leg and sliding him forward with it.
He yelps, feeling the pain radiant throughout his leg before he kicks it off with the other, the form screeching back into the dark when his light flashed upon it. His eyes follow down to his leg, seeing the calf was badly damaged by the bite force alone, it hadn't punctured his armor, but made it collapse onto itself.
Vector snarls, moving towards the wall before pathetically trying to pull himself up. His pride kept him from calling the others, the wanting twitch in his fingers going to the trigger of his gun instead.
He was ready for the second assault that passed him, deformed person full of blood and teeth jumping forward into his vision, thinking he was weak enough to take out with a frontal attack. The thing was wrong as the crocodile blasts him back with the force of his rifle's ammunition.
The area momentarily being lit up with it.
And that was when Vector felt the dread settle in the pit of his stomach, sweat now turning cold against his skin.
~x~
Scourge rests against a wall, rubbing at his muzzle in agitation. Firstly, too many chaosdamn rooms and secondly, no information about the scientists were cropping up, or anything to peg Eve to this outbreak. Just stupid drama among the people that work here.
Not like it mattered now.
It was sobering to go into someone's room and think, this person isn't coming back. But they had a mission to finish and presently they needed to find some evidence on why this was happening. But the acid colored male could not allow them to just look at the missing scientists' rooms without searching the others, in case they were jumped.
"Anything?" He calls out, looking at each one of his companions only getting negatives in response. All except Tails who had his large ear pressed against one of the doors, pointing silently at it.
Icy blue eyes narrow into a glare before walking over to the kit, his team coming to position themselves close by. With his gun unholstered and ready, he sends a nod to the younger fox, watching as he pulls the door open.
First thing the team sees is a desk planted in front of the doorway in a makeshift barricade. The second would be an older stag trying to hide in corner, shaking as he shields himself from the beam of the flashlight.
"P-please don't shoot!" He exclaims, startled as the team pushes into the room, the desk being little inconvenience for the mobians.
"You're actually alive." Tails murmurs, flicking on the light switch and allowing full view of the room. There was a trash bin by the bed, smoldering from a recent and dying fire, most likely what he used for heat and light when the lockdown occurred.
"Is the lockdown over?" The stag questions, shakily getting to his feet, a hopeful look in his eyes.
"No, we're the search team they brought in. What's your name?" Scourge answers, holstering his weapon with a smirk.
"William, Dr. William." The stag responds, brushing himself off before glancing nervously at the personnel in front of him. "Y-you're not infected, are you? Any of you?"
"No, but how did you get in here?"
"Yeah, this isn't even your room." Nickolai states, glancing at the name plate outside the door.
"I'm in Genetics, the outbreak started from there, and I ran and hid in a room." William answers, a slump in his shoulders at his behavior. "I wanted to survive, and unfortunately this animal is quite intelligent, it knew me." He coughs.
"You used a room that didn't have your smell in it to hide." Tails puts together, rubbing his chin, receiving a nod from the stag.
"We'll need to regroup at the med lab. At least we can say we completed some of this mission." Scourge sighs, leading the group back into the hall, Ghost being one of the last to come out.
"Regroup? No, you need to get me out of here! I'm sure you've realized the danger of being here don't you!?" Dr. William scowls, glancing around at the vacant hallway as they began to walk.
"Yeah about that, why don't you tell us about your test animal? Seeing as we lost one man from it already." The green male hisses, turning on the deer doctor.
William's ears prick up in his fright. "You terminated him, right? The creature has a type of cell in its body that reacts badly with our structure. A bite passes it on to the next." He explains with a huff. "Which is why I wish to no longer be here!"
"We saw that, is there any way to reverse it?" Shadow interjects, coming forward to face the deer.
"We were working on one, but we never found a host that the cell reacted well with." The elder sighs, rubbing at his muzzle. "The process of finding whether a person possessed the quality was limited here."
Ghost taps Scourge's shoulder lightly to get his attention, only to be brushed off by the acid green hedgehog who was listening to the old stag.
"Didn't that Perry guy have a bite?" Dune murmurs, looking over at Nickolai who hummed in thought.
"I think so, he was all bloody and freaking out. And everyone we've run into has been bitten too." The domino fox states, snapping his finger.
"If he was and you're keeping him, you should put him out of his misery and yours. Otherwise, he's going to come back and just try to infect everyone around him." The deer snorts, feeling no remorse for his colleague.
"Eve is with him. Scourge, we need to pick up the pace." The crimson splashed male growls worriedly, already looking towards the exit of the dorms. "Let's go." He proceeds to walk ahead of his
The deer looks a bit shattered at that revelation. "Eve is here?" He gulps lightly, more frantic now. "You either need to get her out of here or get yourselves out." His eyes dart around in fright, never landing on the people with him. Hooves tapping lightly as he ducks down slightly. "You're only asking for trouble by being around her."
Scourge perks at this, a look forming in his icy eyes. "Asking for trouble? How so, did she cause the outbreak? Did she create the animal?" He interrogates, stepping closer to the deer.
"Scourge we can question him later, we need to go back to the med lab. We haven't heard anything from Vector or Eve." Shadow growls, ears laying back against his head in frustration.
William laughs nervously, hand wiping the sweat from his brow. "Create it? No. That was Cole and nearly everyone in Genetics. She knows nothing about it, she works with Medical." He answers. "I-I just know that when the creature, uh, Hound is involved, it's best to keep your distance from her." The deer gulps, wringing his hands together.
Scourge snarls, clenching his hands before catching the collar of the scientist. "But why is that!? And where the hell is Dr. Cole if he's the reason why we're risking ourselves?"
Dune and Nickolai pull the furious hedgehog off the old deer, exclaiming different statements of calming him down. And once he was off, the deer took the opportunity to turn and run from the team, going down the hall past them and out the open doors of the dormitory hall towards the atrium.
The deer was fast for being much older and when the team kicked into high gear to catch him, they got a front row seat of his doom. Witnessing the curved talons from a paw reach to take hold of one portion of his antlers and a sharp maw smashing into his neck in the same opportunity.
They could hear the pained squeal from the deer as his blood was unleashed from his torn throat. Splotches ruining the flooring under him as the beast crushed his windpipe with the force of its bite.
With the lights back on, though dimmed, they could see the massive frame of the thing that started it all. It was easily twice the size of the deer mobian it held in its jaws, and that was on its paws. Its shoulders packed most of its muscle, slimming down at the back quarters but no less strong to a tail that swayed lightly above the tile with a deadly club attachment at the tip. The beast's pelt seemed to move and flex in time with its movement, limbs or crunching jaws.
The team was stuck for a moment before their training kicked back in place and they pointed their weapons at the creature.
"Kill it!" Scourge shouts, firing his own weapon as the rest of the armed mobians did the same.
They caught sight of the piercing slitted eyes of the rattling test animal as he turned to them. In an act of self-preservation, he tossed the deer back at them, knocking back Dune, Nickolai and Scourge before darting up the wall as the other three chased him with aimed and precise shots back into a broken vent and escaping with a low hiss.
When it was gone, a chill went through the team as they looked at each other.
This wasn't like other missions.
Nickolai holds back a scream as he's forced to look at the mutilated William in the face, neck lax and bending every which way as Scourge and Dune push him off to help the fox. He shivers in both disgust and fear. "Guys, terrible time but I can't stand deer meat." He mutters weakly, trying to find some humor in this situation. Both to relax the team and himself.
He flicks blood from his hands, suppressing another shudder as his tail curls around his legs.
"We need to get out of the open areas." Ghost murmurs before pulling a partially burned paper from his pocket and pushing it to Scourge. "William was burning your evidence." He announces and then glancing toward Tails to check out the rookie, who looked a bit sick.
Blue eyes were frozen on the sight of the deceased doctor. His first kill to witness, and perhaps it would be his last. The odds seemed stacked against him at this point. If an experienced agent like Nack could die so easily, what could a rookie do better?
Scourge glances at the page before grinding his teeth. While some information was lost, the page was detailing the creature they had just seen. Designated as Hound for its origins as a predecessor of mobians and having more distinct features of canines. The paper eluded to tests for creating more of Hound, a cure to its bite, the benefits to such a cell being introduced to mobian biology and imprinting. All of which were not specifically detailed leading to Scourge hitting the wall next to him in rage.
The deer burned their evidence like Ghost had said.
"We need to get back to Medical." Scourge orders, sucking in a deep breath before turning around. He gives the corpse of Dr. William a passing glare before pulling a bullet in his head.