The cavern before him looked like no home to him.
It was a wasteland, barren and lifeless. No life to be seen any place near them. All that stood was a tall, tattered building.
Blakk Industries.
''Come, we have much to do, Tad" barked the voice of the company's monstrous creator.
The harsh order broke Tad from his thoughts, and he hurried to catch the man he called a father...If it was even possible to call him that at all.
A cold shiver went down the young Blakk's spine as he recalled the last time he had been in the citadel.
The utterly crushing defeat he'd endured at the hands of the Shane, his gang, and the Shadow Clan.
A defeat which sent him down to the Deep Caverns.
To his fall into a literal hell.
Once more, Tad was pulled from his thoughts by a loud alarm.
Before him, Thaddius Blakk growled in frustration, removing his clawed, monstrous hands from the palm scanner in front of him.
"This useless machine doesn't recognize me anymore it appears" he mused darkly, flexing the fingers of his own hand, grinning at his claws.
"Then... How will we get in? Is there a back door, or-?"
Tad's question was cut short as his father pulled him forward harshly, in front of the panel.
He chuckled in amusement, putting a hand on his son's shoulder.
"Oh there is no need for a 'back door', my son"
He typed a few commands into the panel before them, until a blank handprint scan reappeared again.
"Place your hand on the panel. "
The younger Blakk didn't hesistate nor question his senior, quickly placing his hand on the aforementioned hand scanner.
He gulped as the system completed it's scan of him.
His eyes remained on it, even after the scan was completed and the doors reopened as they had before when his father was in charge.
His father sighed in what seemed like relief and disappeared behind him, striding into the ruined citadel, seemingly forgetting about his own son.
Tad lingered at the panel still, reading what the system said in bold text.
"Perfect Match Complete.
Welcome Back, Dr. Thaddius Blakk"
The entire building still bore the scars of the many fights that had ocurred within its metal walls almost two years ago.
"There is barely anything worth saving here at all..." muttered Blakk.
So much potential wasted in this place.
His technology, his research, his creations, his plans, inventions. Everything he had built, his entire empire.
All forgotten and broken into pieces.
He stepped into the remains of his former office.
Menacing claws trailed across his ruined desk carefully as he recalled his crushing defeat not only at the hands of Will Shane, but his son.
His dear son, Eli Shane. A greater thorn in his side than his father had ever been. A clueless moron who believed he was invincible.
That Shane had annoyed him, caused him damage to all his operations, made him waste millions of gold to rebuild, and humiliated him in the eyes of thousands.
Clawed nails dug into the metal of the desk in his rage creating dents, crushing part of it with his brute strength.
"If we are to finally put that pest six feet under, we will need to rebuild at once, " he barked at Tad, who jumped at the harsh command and nodded quickly. Be it out of fear or understanding, it seemed Blakk didn't care.
"Where are we to even get the resources from? Everything here is destroyed and its impossible to even use it as anything but scrap," informed his son.
His monstrous father only chuckled, a sound that unsettled Tad, and pulled up a keypad on one of the damaged, flickering screens before him.
He punched in a code, and an account opened up on the screen.
"Funds will be of no issue to us... A good man always plans ahead after all, " Blakk mused and turned the screen to face towards Tad, who held Piper in his hands.
Placing her onto his shoulders, she hid into his hood as Tad himself looked at what the screen displayed. His eyes widened at how much was stored away in this one account alone.
Enough to buy a cavern. Maybe even two.
Certainly enough to rebuild what was lost.
"Now then, we will begin the rebuild process as soon as possible, "
Tad looked up at him in confusion.
"Rebuild? How can we even rebuild? Do we even have a plan to get back at the Shane? "
"Do not doubt me, son" barked Dr.Blakk .
He found a button on his desk, pressing it .
"As I informed you earlier, Thaddius... A good man, always plans ahead. Especially when it concerns the Shanes, and revenge. "
Blakk removed a worn down journal from the compartment he opened, and tossed it on the desktop.
Though it could barely be called a journal really.
Worn down, yellowed pages held by leather, it was more a book.
On its cover ,engraved, was the title.
Legends of the Realm
"Inside this journal is our plan of attack. For years, I studied Dark Water and its possibilities. Wanted to have power at my fingertips. However I learned there was more than just Dark Water, that held such power. With this..."
He took the journal, holding it up with a malicious grin.
"We will be able to find her"
Tad frowned in confusion, taking the journal into his own hands .
" 'Her'? What are you talking about? What 'her'? "
The elder Blakk simply chuckled, and smiled. It was a stone cold, spine chilling grin.
He urged his son to open the aforementioned journal.
Once he did, he saw what it held.
Countless articles of all forms, reports, even ancient texts translated. They were all years old, but a few recent ones remained.
They all were connected, mentioning supernatural incidents. People close to death being healed, caverns dying that became lush with life, rare slugs that returned out of nowhere.
These were all accounts that would be incapable, by even the strongest slugs.
"That is not all. Before I was locked away in Hell, I was able to find something groundbreaking. " informed Blakk, as Tad put down the journal.
Blakk pulled up a screen, and opened up a file.
"This video was recorded roughly 3 years ago, by scientists who were exploring an undocumented region of a cavern. They reported vanishing equipment, and the feeling of being watched. "
He played the video.
It was blurry, the camera shaking as if the one filming was afraid. Blaster fire could be heard in the background.
The plant life, white in color, was attacking the one filming, as if desperate to get their camera away, to get them away from the cavern. The person filming did indeed back away, but not before dropping their camera and fleeing.
Tad looked in confusion, but then something moved in the video.
Behind the defensive flora, barely visible with the blurred lens.
It was the silhouette of a person. The video's quality was too low to tell anything about them.
But one thing stood out.
They held fire in their hands. Fire that didn't harm them at all.
And to match their fire, their hair seemed to flow around them in a non existent wind.
The hair itself appeared like its own flame.
A blazing blue flame.
The figure appeared to notice the camera. And fired a blast at it, ending the video abruptly.
"This, is what our plan is, my son"
His father removed the screen from view and held a page from the journal.
On it , were ancient texts, translated into modern language.
The Divines , read the page.
Tad took the page, and read it over as his father spoke.
"The Divines,my son, are the most powerful beings in the realms. They are mightier than any slug, any ghouls I could ever create. Their power even rivals that of the Dark Bane. Tied to the Elementals, their powers are limitless
"It is power that not even a blaster can ever hope to rival. These warriors are capable of manipulating to power of a slug in their very own hands!"
Piper, who'd remained hidden in Tad's hood, squeaked fearfully at the mention.
Blakk laughed almost manically.
"It had been decades since such rumors about a Divine rose, even centuries! "
His face contorted into a wicked smile.
"With such power at our hands, we could not only rebuild..."
His eyes filled with malice, and his smile grew almost insane.
"We can make the entire realm sumbit to us. "
Tad gulped, and stepped back as his father began to laugh crazily.
His father slammed his hands down onto his desk, and his grin grew darker. He chuckled and looked right into Tad's eyes.
"We can end the entire Shane line once and for all! "