They ran into a few more frightening humanoid monsters as they moved on to the next chamber. Much like with the first one they encountered, they made sure to creep up on them and kill them as quietly as they could with their melee weapons while they were in some type of hibernation mode.

To the creatures that they either didn't notice or want to put effort into taking out, they had snuck around to save some time. It was a quick and relatively painless trip to retrieve a security key they had needed for the next floor. Down a couple side passages and digging through what they thought were the security rooms.

Finally, they stood before a big airlock looking door, wide enough for all four of them to walk comfortably side-by-side and thick enough to withstand powerful explosions several times over. Given the sheer size and weight of the door, they all had a feeling it was not going to open as quietly as the others had.

"How much further do we have to go before we reach the fucking reactor?" Blake asked impatiently, glancing behind them and peering into the darkness they had just come from. The longer they stayed down here, the twitchier he seemed to get.

"We're only about halfway. Two more floors up from this point." Kid informed him flatly.

"Damn."

"Just follow your orders, and we'll make it out of here alive." said the team leader, sounding confident enough to be believed. "We're doing well, so let's not screw it up now that we've come this far. Sound good?"

Blake snorted but said nothing.

Maka pointed to a spot directly in front of the door, where there appeared to be the faintest outline of a square painted. "The lab's security doors will only open if we stand in this general area," She explained. "The system scans our bodies to make sure we're not contaminated with anything from the mines before entering the lab."

Kid set his sledge hammer beside the door and placed a flat palm against the cool surface. "While it's scanning, and while the door is opening, it'll be incredibly noisy." He turned back to face the group. "Loud enough to certainly wake up a whole host of those things. They'll be drawn to the noise like flies, so we should probably make a defensive line and backup plan if it heads south."

"Such a fucking brilliant way to die, standing on a box and lit up for all the world to see," Soul muttered, though he did not argue even as he shook his head at their situation.

Maka gripped her gun tighter in her hands. It was a smaller submachine gun with a high fire-rate, 40-round magazine capacity, and decent accuracy. Reloading it was simple and easy, the only problem being that its bullets were of a smaller caliber and packed less of a punch than the other weapons fielded by the team.

"So what's the plan?" She asked as calmly as she could manage.


Blake, as it turned out, was an expert with explosives. The blue haired loudmouth had brought along with him an array of grenades, mines and charges. It was his mines they ended up using in this situation, deploying a few further down the corridor that led up to their door to help thin out anything apparently coming their way.

He had muttered under his breath the entire time he set up the mines, and Soul heard enough to know that he thought they were all going to die down here. He thought so too, or at least a small part of him did. That part of him he shoved into the farthest reaches of his mind. No use thinking such thoughts. He would fight to survive for as long as he drew breath. Even if their opponents were truly hellspawn.

Kid, supposedly being good with his marksmanship, had a semi-automatic sniper rifle. It was deadly accurate in the right hands, though not something normally brought for indoor combat due to its length and bulk. However, given the length of some of the hallways and the size of some of the chambers down here, it might prove useful to take out anything that might be too dangerous for melee range.

Soul had deployed a foldable sentry turret off to the side, careful to ensure its field of fire did not include the squad. It was one of two compact turrets that he had been lugging around on his back. An impressive little feat, considering how heavy each one looked on top of all his other equipment. And not only did he have to carry ammunition for his own weapons, but for the turrets as well.

Maka, meanwhile, had no special equipment to bring to bear. At least, none that would be useful in a firefight. She was an engineering scientist, and it was her task to restart the reactor once they finally reached it. For that reason, she had some tools as well as a computer with her, one that she had been quickly instructed on how to operate and connect to the facilities systems once they reached the reactor room.

She had elected to be the one to start the sequence to open the door, and as such she stood by the door panel. The display glowed dully, waiting for input. Her eyes swept over the team as they readied themselves, and then she was looking down the dark hallway, trying to see as far as she could. As if she might already catch a glimpse of one of those nightmare creatures they've settled on calling kishens.

"Everyone ready?" Kid's voice came through on the comms. The team visibly tensed, and Maka could feel her own body stiffen. The beating of her heart seemed to grow louder, and she idly wondered if it might even be loud enough to draw the monsters early. With a snort, she shook her head and cleared such unnecessary thoughts away.

"Ready," She replied, sounding more confident than she felt safe.

"Do it."

Maka manipulated the door panel, the display brightening as she interacted with it, and moments later the wailing of an alarm began to sound, accompanied by flashing warning lights above them. The sudden noise, painfully loud after extended silence, was near deafening as it echoed across the stones and throughout the facility. Beneath the sound of the wailing alarm came the sound of the machinery involved with the unlocking and opening of the door. The floor rumbled beneath their boots.

Maka scrambled to join the squad within the bounds of the box just as the scanner, the sensor popping down from a small hatch in the ceiling, began its process with a laser not that much different from the one the turret had- except where the turrets laser scanned in a vertical line from left to right, the door scanner scanned with a horizontal line from top to bottom.

Cold sweat on Souls hands made his gun feel cooler to the touch than normal. Nothing came down the hallway yet, and the waiting was beginning to gnaw at him. The sound of the alarm and the door drowned out anything he could hear beyond, but he thought he could hear the ravenous roars and snarls from the darkness of this place.

BOOM.

The ground shook, but the sound of one of the mines going off pierced the constant barrage of sound that enveloped the squad.

BOOM.

Another one went off. How many had Blake deployed? Three? Four? He couldn't recall. He swallowed, though his mouth was dry, and stifled a cough.

BOOM.

That mine exploded closer to them in a brilliant flash of light and fire. Smoke filled the hallway, but despite that, Soul could see the unnatural shapes of dozens of those things moving through the smoke, dimly bathed in red-orange light by the small fires scattered about.

Powerful shot rang out next to him, making him nearly jump. Kid had begun to fire, and he saw one of the taller shapes fall backwards.

"Steady! Steady now!" Kid yelled through the comms.

And then they were upon them. A mass of legs, arms and twisted pale forms. Each one similar and yet slightly different from its brethren. Some stayed low to the ground, others stood on two feet. Each one with sharp claws and snarling conical maws encompassed with rows of bristling fangs where faces should have been. Each one eyeless and yet seemingly staring at them hungrily.

Gunfire erupted as the turret let loose. Plenty of targets for it to shred apart, and many of them withered and fell beneath the onslaught of bullets. But still more came. Too many. They pushed through, despite the numbers of them falling dead and dying.

Blake began laughing like a madman as he started to fire his own weapon with reckless abandon. Kid was yelling commands, but too many sounds mixed together was too much for anyone to really make out what he was saying. He too was firing his weapon. His aim precise, his shots sparing, making each one count instead of firing blindly like Blake seemed to be doing. Kid was still firing his sniper at the targets in the back, seemingly unconcerned with the kishins getting closer and closer.

Maka realized only then that she had yet to fire a single shot. Too engrossed in watching the oncoming horror show. Like a wave of nightmares come to drown them in blood and pain, down here in the darkest depths. One of them came close enough to strike at Soul in front of her. Either the man did not see it, or he didn't care, but Maka finally snapped into action as the creature lunged for him from his left side.

Her fingers squeezed on the trigger of her submachine gun. The gun's muzzle flared, sending bullets hurtling through the air and slapping into the creature with enough force to stagger it. Black blood sprayed, oozing from the holes torn into it by her bullets, as it spasmed and died on the floor missing parts of its head and only a hand's length away from Souls crouched form.

It felt like they slaughtered creatures by the dozens, and still more came. The turret ran out of ammunition. Whirring on empty, green laser scanner turning red to indicate it was now a useless piece of junk. It beeped, as if in apology for being empty. The door scanner had finished its task, but when Maka turned to check on the door, it was only half opened and moving slowly up, inch by inch.

With a shake of her head as she reloaded her weapon, she yelled over the noise through the comms. "We need to move, now! Fall back to Plan B!"