AN: Chapter 3 is here! I am shit with keeping to my goal of 5 to 6k words! Good for you guys I guess... So without further ado: Enjoy~


I may have been a bit too excited.

Putting the Suit on was no easy feat at all. I was able to move it, after carefully (meaning violently without any restraint) smashing some rubble to more smaller rubble. It was definitely heavier than anything else I had moved until then, but I was able to drag it away from the wall into the corridor to my improvised bank (or my shelf to sit on, whatever you get my point).

The next step was getting any idea how to equip it at all, where was I even supposed to start?

How was I meant to open it?

There were no obvious buttons to press, no latch to loosen or pull open. I was a bit lost, I can admit that much. My first point of attack was the Helmet. It seemed like something that was probably supposed to be able to taken off, just so the user could eat or drink something.

Or talk.

Or to clear the visor.

I was maybe grasping at straws a little, but still, the idea seemed reasonable? And I needed to start somewhere.

After pulling the helmet off with a mechanic clack, followed by something of a "pop" I felt a bit silly for worrying so much first and then trying afterwards.

A Suit was supposed to be worn, right? And now that I could clearly see inside through the neck, I could confirm that it was indeed not a solid block of material. There was definitely space for somebody inside it.

Actually, maybe even too much space. That would be embarrassing, if I could not wear the suit because I was not big enough. I was actually pretty tall for a 15 year old, but this Suit was seemingly made for somebody that was taller than all of the fully grown men I had ever seen in my life.

No matter, I would make do somehow.

It was not only difficult to put on the Suit, no. It was also annoying, because I had to carefully search for buttons and clasps that were supposed to move, and those that were not, to be able to get it open enough so I could get in in the first place. No matter how thin I was, I would NOT try to somehow wedge myself through the neck opening or something.

It was also disgusting.

I had cleaned myself as much as I was able to, but well. If somebody would not notice a difference between before and after my efforts, I could not really blame them. I was still a sticky, stinking mess. Crusted blood, not crusted, still slick blood, the different remains of god knows what (so probably Minotaur guts), that I didn't try to identify too closely.

Because getting into a disgusted hissy fit would not help me at all.

Neither would vomiting, but even so, it was kind off close a few times.

On the flip side, I was pissed off enough by the whole process, that I could move the Suit without having trouble more than a handful of times.

Finally, after me cursing quietly for at least half an hour, I was mostly done. I looked like one of those miniature Ships you could somehow fit inside a bottle (and how did that work by the way? That always seemed like Parahuman weirdness, but my Dad had one of those too?)

The only thing left was the Helmet. I had to admit I looked pretty silly, as I watched my reflection in the visor. Like a child trying to put on the shoes of its parents or a much older sibling. My gaze got stuck at my hair that was spilling out outside of the suit.

My hair meant a lot to me, truly a lot. This dark curly hair? It was the only feminine feature I had, the only thing the trio could not take from me, the only part of myself they could not make me feel bad about. The only thing left of my mother as well, the thing that reminded me of her every time I looked into a mirror.

The flute I had from her? The bitches stole it from me, after I took it into school as sort of talisman (because I had been stupid, naive and a fool to think they would not rob me of it).

But my hair? This was something they could not take.

If they had tried to cut it as another "prank", I think I would have seriously tried to kill them. And I would have had no regrets afterwards.

But this hair was also sticky, wet and disgusting right now. And I would have to put it inside the Suit, if it could help me breathe outside of the complex. So I would be locked it with my hair like that for who knows how long.

But I really did not want to cut it, neither did I have a tool that would help me doing that in any precise way. That last thought convinced me to keep my hair and not rip it out or something. Honestly, I think I used that logic mainly as an excuse to fight my desire to cut it, but whatever.

I put the helmet down and started pushing my hair down my back, into the Suit. I had to suppress multiple disgusted shudders, but now I was committed and would not stop until I was done.

No matter how yucky and gross this was.


After I had the feeling of a wet, filthy towel more or less pressed against my back, I grabbed the Helmet.

I took a deep breath, and then slowly pulled it down on my head. The visor was too high up for me to see out, my head was more or less located in the neck of the Suit. I suppressed a curse on reflex, and then let it spew out of my mouth anyways.

Of course it did not fucking work.

I was not big enough at all.

FUCK.

I was screwed.

I would starve.

I was really not excited about that.

Also, this was the only thing that could help me survive outside.

Maybe my "too angry to need to breath" theory would work, but I somehow doubted it. I had never heard of a Brute that had such a particular set of powers. (After all, I was a Brute now, for some reason, right?) They were tough, sometimes they were able to make themselves more tough too. But to disable basic bodily needs only some of the time? As far as I knew, they either were always unnecessary, or there was no way to stop the need for them.

Well, I had no other choice anymore. I would try everything before my body gave out.

But first I had to get out of this useless Suit. I probably looked like a tiny babushka doll put into a very large one, trapped like a child in its crib. As I tried to get the helmet off again, I had a panicked thought.

How would I get out of the Suit? The arms were too long for me, I had to use the neck for everything – combined with holding myself up, so I didn't sink down to the bottom. I had mainly used gravity to did my job with the helmet, pulling it further down from the inside. I had felt like somebody trying to put on a shirt just by climbing through the hole meant for the head – because I was doing pretty much that.

Yes I had said that I would in fact not do that, but the Suit was too big to make it work any other way.

Now my arms where inside the arms of the suit, because I had tried to move with it.

I wasn't flexible enough to get an arm out there without helping myself with my other arm – but both were trapped.

Shit.

Shitshitshitshit.

Trapped like this until I actually starved?

Hell no.

There had to be another way. With a grimace I tried to move in any direction. Maybe I could throw the Suit on the ground? Would that even be helpful, or just trap me more? Well I had to try it. Once it was lying on the ground, maybe I could crawl out like a worm fighting for Freedom.

I started swinging back and forth with as much force as I could in the little space I had inside.

Come on!

Come on!

COME ON!

MOVE!

And then two things happened at the same time:

The Suit started slowly falling over, getting faster the closer it came to the ground. Like things tended to do when falling after all.

There also was a loud "clack" as something locked, I gave a surprised twitch (there was no room for a greater reaction).

I did not shriek, whoever says otherwise can talk to my fists.


Lying on the ground, a bit dazed from the impact, I noticed that the visor seemed a lot closer to my face than before. Actually it was coming closer while I watched.

The Suit was shrinking?! How?! Where did the extra mass go? Why was it shrinking now, and not before?

Why was I thinking about logistics and weird physics instead of about my escape?!

Too soon for me to get my bearings, there was a soft hiss and the Suit stopped its movement. There was no more wiggle room, or space at all, except in the Helmet. It felt like something specifically made for me now, not like a construct made for the giant of all men.

Even my glasses were comfortable on my nose, the only thing not being perfect was my hair still sticking to me, now truly pressed against me. I could do nothing else but ignore it now anyways.

Grunting I sat up (was it lighter now, or did the stress just boost my power?) and tried to get used to moving around while stuffed into something I had no familiarity of handling.

It was not too bad. The Suit moved smoothly, and gave me a wide range of movement. I had the most difficulty getting used to the gloves. No matter how good something you put on your hands is made, there is still a stark difference between using naked fingers versus covered ones.

Doubly so, when said cover was not what I would call thin, probably because it was supposed to protect the wearer and not intended for delicate work.

That was fine, I was not in the mood for delicate work, so that was no great loss.

Also, I would hopefully not starve now.

Fuck you, you weird kidnapper place.

Now I had to walk around the shitty corridors again, until I found the exit.

Again.

Why me.


No matter my whining, I was actually in a good mood again. I was still angry of course, a baseline of rage would not let me go. The Suit would have been comfortable, had I been clean when I got in it (and maybe cut my hair), but like this it was a steady reminder of what I had gone through and what I would have to go through in the future.

That was not necessarily a bad thing, it kept me on edge and wary, in a pissed-off-but-not-really-feeling-murderous kind of way.

Without that, the Suit would feel more like a metal coffin, so I did not really mind.

A part of me was hoping for another foe outside of the facility. Next to a Portal that said "to Brockton Bay".

That would be the perfect combination, I mused, a way for me to get some more stress relief, combined with a way for me to finally get home.

I doubted that it would be that easy, whoever had put me here was a sadistic fuck.

Honestly, that would also be quite nice, to meet the stupid bastard Tinker who put me here, so I could shove my fist up his – oh there was the exit!

With easy steps I got between the doors, and waited with baited breath for the moment of truth.

Literally with baited breath, I would try to see as much as I could before needing to breath again. If the Suit didn't work, I didn't want the Trip to be wasted.

The Door shifted open.

Quickly – but not hasty, there would be no camping Minotaur-sibling fucker braining me, no Sir – I stepped onto the reddish rock.

Honestly, the sight was a bit… disappointing. It looked like I was surrounded by rocky hills of some sort. The facility was build in a clearing (or just drilled into the rock?). The building I had stepped out of, had one neighbor exactly on the opposite side of it. On a first glance, it actually looked pretty similar.

Again.

Whoever was the architect of this was hopefully fired or on permanent toilet cleaning duty, even Brockton Bay's Boat Graveyard had more individuality.

The Boat Graveyard.

Whatever, it was not really important, my patience just was not as good anymore. In a way, that a building made me actually angry, because it was always the same boring shit, was a bit sad.

That thought made me frown.

Its not like I had a choice or something, if I kept my life and sanity mostly intact to make it back home, a shorter, worse temper was a trade I would make.

Every.

Fucking.

Time.

And god was the smell in this Suit bad.


Now what to do? I didn't even notice me breathing again, because of my pondering, but I was still alive, so I was good on that front.

Would climbing up the hills do anything for me?

Probably not.

A Lair of this size should be in a very remote location – the red stone was also not something I had seen before.

No point in wasting my time like that.

No, breaking into the other building (if needed) looked like the right call here. If there was nothing useful there either, well.

Hey, Future Taylor? That is gonna be your problem, not mine.

Decision made, I stepped over the uneven Terrain until I was faced with a door (of course looking exactly like the one I had to pass through to get outside, fuck you, architect). A door, that, after some hissing, just opened and let me in. No need for violence or an alternative solution.

Was it weird, that I was a bit sad about that?

The inside of the Building was actually different from the stuff I was used to – at least something positive.

Instead of something that seemed like an abandoned storage facility, here the corridors were even bigger. There were checkpoints with still humming computers, the walls had been painted with different numbers and letters in regular intervals and there was something that looked like a map hanging there.

Impatiently I walked up to it, and tried to decipher what I was looking at.

It was a map, of this very building to be exact. I was in something called Entrance C, leaving it would bring me to the general storage facility. Somebody had scrawled something next to that with some black marker: "General entry is not allowed unless carrying an explicit exception pass, until further notice. Guards will be stationed to make sure there are no complications." Next to that was something in a deep red color: "Personal and Staff now ONLY needs a pass if they want to get into the new section with the new artifact."

So the Suit was not discovered or put there until after this warehouse (?) was build? But the walls seemed to have transformed seamlessly from stone to whatever the building was made of? Whatever, while a confusing mystery, it was not important to my current situation.

If I read the map correctly, the Building was made in a blocky, reversed C Shape. I was at the bottom left, coming from the Storage Unit and had entered through one of three Entrances. In the Wing I was in now where mainly offices to my right side, with a few labs and some rooms for tech-staff. Immediately on my left side seemed to be a storeroom, with a cooler, adjacent to a restroom combined with a small kitchen. After that came a number of "wet" labs, whatever that was. If I walked to the end of the wing, I would be greeted with some examination rooms and another social room.

Well, it was pretty obvious where I would go first, right?

The kitchen of course.

Now that I was confronted with the possibility of food, my hunger seemed to return with a vengeance. It was a bit too sudden, to be frank. I had been feeling pretty fine in that department before I started reading the map. Weird, but being concerned about that was not a main priority. I would keep it in mind tough.

The kitchen was actually pretty nice. There was a bathroom! Sadly it was also pretty empty. Opening the fridge I was momentarily glad about the stench I had in my nose already, because what I found was not something I could eat. Not anymore at least.

Closing the fridge with maybe a bit more force than necessary, I forced down my disgust at the weirdly formed, sickly looking moldy things I had witnessed (and how stupid was that, I was covered in blood and demon guts, but some spoiled food, that made my stomach rebel the most?).

Maybe the storeroom had something still? And maybe I could wash up a little in the bathroom? There should be air here that I could breathe, right? Would I risk another reset just for some personal pleasure?

Yes, I so would.

Worst case, I had my old friend back, so I could smash him (?) to a bloody pulp again.

But I was gonna go looking for food first, before taking of my helmet.


The storeroom itself was actually a bit empty too, but there was some canned food still left. The cooler was a waste of time, the meat may have looked tasty some years ago, but not anymore. It would have been another story if it was freezing inside, but that was not the case. Maybe that was supposed to be like that, maybe the machinery stopped working efficiently after some time, who knows.

Canned Food it was. Better than nothing, and I may even be able to heat it or cook it.

Grabbing an armful from the pitiful amount of "treasure", I stepped back into the kitchen – there was a door connecting the two rooms directly.

I put my loot on the table, and then grabbed my helmet.

Wait, how do I take this off to begin with?

After some fiddling, I heard a satisfying clack, followed by a hissing sound once again. Now able to take it off, I pulled it away easily. Not even a single reset and handling the Suit was becoming very close the second nature. It was designed very well, who ever had done it did a great job, nearly everything worked after the first, second or third try, very instinctual and stuff.

Good work.

Not like the fucking architect, fuck you architect.

Ah, right, the breathing thing. Well yeah, it worked. Made sense, but it was still nice to have confirmation. After a short peek into the bathroom (which was not disgusting, thank you whoever was or had been in charge of that), I walked back to the table and started taking of the Suit completely (that mostly worked without any problems, thank god). I still had some form of violent anger swirling in the back of my head, something I had trouble noticing by now, but it was still there.

Perpetually pissed off Taylor did not much care that she was pissed off and all that.

Honestly tough, the Suit had to be some Tinkers ultimate Achievement or something; my body was still disgusting, but the inside was not even mildly stained. There were some bugs crawling around, those had been in my hair I would wager, but that was it.

First, cleaning myself, then cleaning the Suit a bit.

Why had I taken off everything? Well, inside the bathroom was one of those hot air blowers, for the hands, but there was also a dispenser for paper towels. And it still had a new package on top of it too.

It was a bit dusty, sure, but who cares. And the water was working too!


It took me a while, to wipe myself down with the wet paper things, and my hair turned the water in the sink disgusting for quite a while, but slowly but surely I felt more and more like a human again. I could even wash my glasses!

Getting my hair to dry would be a bit more difficult tough.

Hmm.

First I wringed it out as best as possible. Then I tried to put my hair into the air blower, carefully. I had no idea if I could get it stuck, or sucked in or something.

After I did as much there as I could, the top of my head was still moist, but the rest was fine-ish.

Of course I now had the classic "I just walked through a hurricane, after putting my hand in an electrical outlet and it was raining before and after too" hairstyle. I gave an involuntary whimper.

That was still fixable, right? Right? It had to be.

It was a lot more clean now at least. I had even used nearly all of the liquid soap. Not sure if that was smart (my hair was sure to not thank me for it) and it felt weird, in a bad way, stiff and dry.

But it had reduced the stench without me needing to cut it, and that was my main goal. Could be worse, right?

Now, some food.

Shivering lightly, I rummaged through the kitchen. There were some pots, some cutlery and I was able to find some plates too. After I set the table, I grabbed two of the cans, ripped them open with ease (and I was not sure I would ever get used to my strength) and turned on the stove.

Praying internally, I felt for a change in temperature with my bare hand.

It worked! Slowly I could feel heat building. Putting the Pot filled with canned beans – because of course it was beans – on the stove, I hesitated for a brief moment.

What had I forgotten?

A wooden spoon, to stir my modest meal! Well or something similar. Shrugging, I used one of the spoons for eating. No wooden spoon was no great loss.

Alright, things were definitely looking up now!

Improvised bean soup was not my favorite dish, but the aroma still made my mouth water. Right, talking about water! Quickly I grabbed a Glass and filled it with the Water in the Sink. I hoped that this was drinking water, but I did not really care to be honest. As long as it wet my throat and didn't incapacitate me I would be content with it.

Sitting on the chair like I was now - literally bare assed - would be unpleasant though. So back into the Suit I went, I was pretty dry now anyways.

I took care of the stupid critters first of course.

Then I filled my plate and sat down, and dug in.

Honestly, I made a silly sight. A 15 year old girl, in Power armor, eating some beans with the chair creaking under her. If it broke under me, I would not be surprised. This Suit was not made with casual use like this in mind.

Emma would have used that to make fun of me, I mused. "Taylor, you are so fat, it is a wonder you don't break the bus every morning." I frowned. Actually, she would probably say something in the lines of "I break everything, and that's why we were poor" or something.

Now I even bullied myself, what was wrong with me.

I kind off missed her and her two bitches. Right now, the idea of shoving my fist through their faces made me smile a bit.

Maybe I would do that, when I made it back. But the aftermath would be quite a hassle, so perhaps not.

I washed my hands and mouth, and then put on my helmet again. I had to suppress the urge to clean the dirty dishes, but there was not really a point in doing so.

Now that I had a full belly and nothing was chasing me, I was getting a bit curious about this place again. Leaving the kitchen, I walked straight to the other side of the corridor. The map had said "offices", maybe some answer could be found here.

The door was unlocked too!

Inside, there were computers, shelves, the usual stuff. I tapped the monitor of one of them test-wise, and a generic background logo looked back at me: "UAC". Sitting down in a chair, and then using the mouse while standing after it broke under me with a loud crack, I looked through the files.

Whoever owned this, gave no shit about security OR was very horrible at it. Or both.

I looked at another computer to compare the folders.


Alright, so each computer had a few folder that were identical, with the same name and (on first glance) the same files inside too. Everything else was not shared between them. Something every worker had access to either was very important or completely useless.

A more detailed search turned out that it was the former; those seemed like site logs, important guidelines, that kind of stuff.

This facility was owned by the Union Aerospace Corporation. It was constructed with the goal of finding "alternative uses to the qualities and uses of Argent Energy" whatever that meant. To not interfere with the other facilities or show up in the public eye, it was build on a remote location on Mars?!

What?

I was on Mars?

Wow.

But that made no sense?

I mean, it explained the red rock and stuff, sure, and it explained why there was no air outside. But I always thought gravity was supposed to be different from earth on other planets? If so, I had not noticed anything.

Was that normal?

Was I just blind in the holy-shit-I-can-kinda-jump-to-the-ceiling kind of way?

Because I could to that. But only after I got some sort of super-strength and ripped a biological Tank to shreds with my bare hands. I was pretty sure that had not much to do with different gravity. No, something else had to be at play here. And after looking through some kind of logs, I found out at least a possible hint to what.

"The Leadership has allowed the request of the Research Team for more aggressive experimentation. The Test-side has been cleared of former experiments and their remains. The following Artifacts-" here there were some lists of numbers I could not make heads or tails out, so I skipped them, "-have been approved for use. Detailed records are to be kept. Primary objective is the further research about the portal-creation:

Can it be opened with the use of fewer resources?

Can it be made more stable?

Other, personal goals are to be treated as secondary!"

Portal? That sounded good? Maybe it was a way back to Brockton Bay too? Or at least Earth Bet, that would maybe be enough already.

I left the computer running and walked out of the room, back to the map. Where was the Test-side? After some searching (the map was big, sue me) I found it: At the other end of the building, there was a small marker that showed a way to my goal. So I had to go to the end of the corridor, go left, go to the end of the building (while ignoring the main entrance A), go left again and then walk pretty much in a straight line until I was outside through Entrance B. And then keep going.

I groaned.

Hopefully the way was easier to find outside than it was on the map, otherwise I would take a while. Well walking through the whole building would take a while too. Going outside by Entrance C, and then walking right, so that the storage facility was on my left side, would cut the way down by a lot. But the map said that there was a rocky hill in the way, so no idea if that was faster or not. Better take the safe option, going through the building like this gave me the opportunity to find some more useful stuff too.

And its not like there were pressing time concerns at the moment either.

Decision made, I started walking along the corridor.


I did not find useful stuff. Honestly, it seemed like the part where I came from was more the exception rather then the norm. The rest was pretty much picked clean of everything. There was only one outlier: Every Computer or electrical device I found on the way was powered and running. The only sound that was not my heavy boots stomping on the ground was the constant humming of powered cables, following me the whole way. Directly on the opposite side of the main Entrance A was a room that surprised me.

Because I could not open it. My punches barely dented the metal, and the glass strip in the middle was too small to fit through in any way.

I glanced through the glass, but there seemed to be only more computers. Maybe some sort of terminal? It was heavily reinforced, more than anything else I had seen until now.

Could I break it? Probably, with enough work on it I didn't think there was much that could stop me.

At least not much in the way of doors.

But I felt that would take longer than getting to the Test-side and back. Even after talking myself into a rage my enhanced strength did not help too much. My strikes impacting the material were loud now, but the damage was not much more than before.

I would try the site first, and if that turned out to be a dead end, coming back and bashing this door in was still an option.

Shaking my arms a little, I started walking again.

Right, I was only halfway through the building.

For fucks sake.

There was not much enthusiasm in the first place, but after walking for something that felt like nearly an hour even that little rest was gone. No matter how much my break had recharged me, this whole thing was still very, very boring.

I had been mostly fed up with corridors and their ilk after fleeing through the storage building for uncountable times. So it was with relief as I finally stepped outside again. There was no noticeable difference to the other Entrance I had come through. The rock was still red (made sense, if I actually was on Mars, but wrapping my head around that? Nope, still could not do it.), it was still dusty.

And that was it.

No plants, no vehicles, nothing except a metal cabin I was walking to, around 200 meters away from the main Building. It was set into the rock itself, like a mix of a mine-shaft from one of these old western movies and the big Gates from an Endbringer shelter. It was not a closed construct, but there were metal bars all over it. It looked like a big elevator, big enough for my Dads beaten up car twice over.

Closer inspection after stepping inside showed that it was an elevator. The size was reasonable for the transport of equipment I guess? I'm sure there was a reason, no matter the monotone look of the structures I had seen until now, they were definitely not build by an amateur.

Using the device proved to be quite simple: There were only two buttons. And both had a word carved into the metal next to them, so it was still quite readable; "Test-side" and "Main Facility".

With a mental shrug I pressed the correct button and held on for dear life, as powerful engines suddenly roared alive.

The Elevator moved through the mountain, at a sharp angle. It was going up and forward. The acceleration eased up after a few moments, so I could stay upright again without having to hold on tightly.

Only now I realized in what danger I put myself in by accident. If there was so much power in this thing, the chance of it breaking down, the cables snapping or an obstacle on the route was not that low.

Well, I was still fine and I would have used (or try to use) this elevator no matter what, but I had not been prepared for complications. This was a bad habit I had to break quickly, I had no idea how many resets I could take (or how many I even had, were they limited? A fixed amount?) so reducing the number I needed as much as possible was very important.

So being careful while exiting this thing, or anything in general, was something I would train myself in.


As the speed of the construct made by an insane crack-head slowed down, I crouched in front of the exit, ready to spring into action. Only to nearly jump in surprise as the elevator opened behind me. Turning around I blinked owlishly at the seemingly innocent way outside.

So this thing had two ways for people to get in or out, depending on which station it was at the moment? Noted.

So that already did not work out as I wanted it to, but oh well. Nothing had jumped me, there was still barely a sound to hear. I was alone. So no harm done, but this was unacceptable. If there had been another Monster, or some sort of security system behind that door, I would have been dead or gravely injured before even realizing what had happened.

This was definitely something to work on.

Annoyed with myself I walked out, into the Test-side.

Honestly? No matter how much I was ranting about the style and look of things in general (mainly because of my mood and anger seemed to give me power, so why not), this Test-side?

It was awesome. Like something I had imagined with Emma when we played Heroes and Villains, when we said "Tinker Lair" or something.

It was a big, circular room. Well not really a room, because it was obviously build into the mountaintop. There was no ceiling, and one side was without a wall. Instead there was only a thin railing made of metal, some halfhearted protection against the very deep drop behind it.

Like, this sight just hammered in my head that I was on a mountain more than anything else had.

If I jumped, how long would it take for my broken body to reach the ground? The morbid thought amused me for some reason.

Maybe because I knew exactly what "my broken body" looked like, maybe because I was intimately aware how it felt like even. It was nothing unusual for me anymore.

I stepped back from the drop, ignoring the little voice in my head urging me to jump, to just try it (that voice was something I had sometimes, even before all this, but now it was weirdly insistent. Was that normal? Maybe I had broken something in my brain already?).

I looked through the room again. Machines of varying sizes littered the walls. Much of it was positioned in a way that it could be aimed at the center with ease. Speaking about the center: there was a reinforced table positioned in-front of it, with glass windows protecting the user should something from the middle of the room explode or something? That was my guess at least.

It was not a hard guess to make, because in the middle was a circular platform, with a heavy looking pedestal. On top of it was placed something that looked like some sort of high tech battery – Tinker made probably – because it was glowing in an ugly red. Even from the respectful distance I kept, this thing looked volatile and dangerous.

Every few seconds, red symbols hushed over its surface, to quickly to really see and never quite looking the same, but more like shifting abstract versions of some original text or rune I did not know. Following the symbols was a crackle of red energy, discharging into the air. The effect reminded me of a Tesla coil, but with red light.


I walked carefully to the table. Here would be the scientist standing when an experiment was running, I guessed, to observe closely. I myself would not do something like that, the protection seemed way to flimsy for my tastes.

But I was no scientist, so I had no room to talk.

There was actual paper on the table, the ink (?) still quite readable. Except that the text cut off in the middle of the page quite abruptly. Not like somebody who was writing got knocked away or something, no, it looked like the person just simply stopped in the middle of the sentence. And never finished it.

Nor picked up the paper.

I suppressed a shudder. Something had obviously gone wrong, but not in the "boom, explosion" way I liked to imagine such things.

No, something else had happened.

I stared reading.

"The Experiment has showed surprising results, and is not even close to finished! Indeed, we find ourselves quite confused, why nobody has tried such a combination before, or at least attempted something similar.

Argent Energy is not truly understood by us, but it has obvious uses and strengths. But why have we never pushed it in this way?

This energy, this power from Hell, it would just make sense that it would interact with Artifacts of such origin!

And it does, in truly astounding ways.

I pity that I was not able to acquire the Suit of the Doom Slayer for this, but I can understand the call for caution. I'm sure I can convince them after I give them my notes of this success. My colleagues testament will also be very helpful, I imagine.

We have pushed already far, far further than anybody else has managed until now. We gave only a little power in the chamber, to kick-start possible processes and now the energy output is already enough to power the whole facility for a week! Well, it could at least, harvesting the energy is the part where we are stuck for now. We tried to use one of the fuel cells, and they fill up quickly BUT removing them from the reaction center also somehow removes the gathered plasma. Worse, the Cells do not charge by any method afterwards, they are all dysfunctional. No matter what we try, they return to their unfilled state in mere moments.

I also lost my new assistant. Not a great loss – he was a simpleton and getting on my nerves – and through him I was able to gather valuable data. But he is blocking easy access right now, and I really don't want another person to get stuck – for example, myself.

The machines still work properly and without issues, only living organisms fall victim, a theory the use of rats has proven to be correct. The order stays mostly the same, with some variance on the time taken.

First, the Victim (this was scratched out and replaced with "Test-subject") is unable to escape the rays. They stay more or less at their point of entry into the sphere. They do not starve, even after a few days of exposure, nor do they show sign of hunger or thirst, or other discomfort (no biological waste is observed either). After some time, they start to get agitated and are able to move more than before.

This happens at the same time as the cosmetic changes do. Demonification is of course known to us, but usually the likelihood of just dying is a lot higher than getting possessed. Not in this case. All subjects became demons, there was not a single "normal" death. The increased movement does not get reduced afterwards either, instead they are able to move more and more as time goes on. This is hard to confirm, because only the last subject to enter the sphere is observable. They seem to take each others places.

Where did the others go? Did the simply disintegrate? Where they send to hell? This is so exciting!

Breaking the Sphere is still not possible for any of them, so there is no real danger.

The whole thing is very fascinating, and may revolutionize the knowledge and use we have with Ardent Energy!

Update: The Sphere seems to have slightly grown, but its shifting nature makes it hard to be certain. I have send a warning to the facility anyways, no need for unnecessary risks. Especially the storage Vault should be emptied of the most important artifacts, just to be safe. It is the closest to this Test-side after all.

There should be no real problems – closest is very relative in this case after all – but losing the Praetor Suit would be a serious blow, it was very hard to borrow from the Main Facility. My career would be finished for certain.

But as I said, I do not see any serious risk for -"

And then it simply ended.

Well, that was enlightening in some ways, and disturbing in others. Mainly, because there was no sphere here. Or something similar.

Neither were a demonic assistant or demon rat things.

And honestly, the casual mention of Hell, or the casual talk about people being turned into demons? That was the most unsettling of all. Old me would have discarded that talk as the eccentrics of a villain cape or something. And part of me still did. The red Monster (or Demon, I guess?) could have been created by some sort of Biotinker still. There was just one problem with that Theory. Actual, multiple problems, but this one could not explained away too easily.

I had never heard of such a Tinker, or Master, or some other Cape. The one coming close would be Nilbog, he created armies of morphed creatures and slaughtered his town. Now he lives there, as a Lord over dirt, as Goblin King, surrounded by walls and soldiers with heavy weaponry.

And multiple capes on speed dial should he try something.

But he never did, he never left his town, neither did his creatures. And I was not in Ellisburg, because that was not on fucking Mars or a place that people called like that.

So I had never heard of such a Cape. That in itself, was not much of a problem, I liked capes, but I was not better informed than the usual Teen, at least not about Capes that were not in my home city.

But if this was the work of a Tinker, the media would have talked about him a lot. Everyone knew Nilbog, no matter who you were. He was infamous. He was the reason people did not use the word "Goblin" anymore for fucks sake.

So if this Demon thing was the work of a cape? I would have heard of it. But that wasn't all. This Scientists talked about Argent Energy, about working for other people, about facilities working and using this Energy.

Tinker tech could only be build and maintained by other tinkers. And it broke down, fast. So it was expensive, exotic, and you could only use it for a limited time before you needed somebody to fix it. And Tinkers were busy people, maintaining a single facility? Maybe possible for some, I don't know. Multiple facilities? Hell no.

This sounded like people that were not Parahumans. And they could work on this stuff? Even get new, replicable discoveries?

No, this way something else. There were no powers here.

And how would I continue now? It seemed like the text gave hints of maybe some sort of loop already starting with the subjects (the not starving bit had caught my eye) but if that was my loop they were talking about, well that was not very comforting either.

I had eaten things after all, and felt hunger.

And I really did not want to turn into a Demon. My increased strength suddenly had a lot more sinister reason, or at least a possible reason. (Please let me be a Parahuman and not in some sort of Demonification process thing, please.) I was terrified of getting out of the suit and seeing my skin had changed to red color or something.

So I did obviously not get out of the suit (that would have killed me anyways, I was not in breathable air, I nearly forgot that).

Also, there was.

No sphere.

Of any kind.

And wasn't that a scary realization?

Because, if that sphere trapped the things inside in a loop and turned them into demons. And if that trap only allowed one living being to be observed. And if the sphere grew.

Well, that would explain a lot, right? This idle thought?

I found no trace of anything alive, not animals, bodies, anything. I could not be permanently killed. If the sphere kept growing, it would have consumed pretty much everything I interacted with. If I kept walking and climbing away, as far as I was able, would I find myself fighting against a barrier I could not break?

I was truly scared now, once again. Not like the consuming terror as the Demon kept slaughtering me, but more like the apprehension I had felt right before I got shoved into my own locker.

There was one thing wrong with my theory: I was not actually alone.

I mean, I was now, but only because I killed the other inhabitant.

So either I was totally wrong OR I was somehow in the loop of the Demon.

In that case this wasn't even my loop, I was just an intruder.

That could explain the hunger too, but I had never tried if I could starve.

Maybe I should, just to see. I grinned morbidly.

Some gallows humor? Why not?

I had not even considered the Demon being permanently dead and I still did not think that he was.

Well what now?

Humming softly, I looked again at the energy cell in this so called "chamber". What would happen if I walked into it, touched it? Maybe pulled it away?

I was locked in a loop already after all.

I walked closer, but another fear stopped me.

What if I got turned into a demon this way?

Frowning I crossed my arms.

This was not the last option, I still had that door to try.

But this right here was the origin, the true beginning of whatever clusterfuck happened. Going back and breaking in, what was the point, really? What could be there to help me out of this?

No, this here was the most likely option of success.

And if I got turned, well.

That would be bad obviously.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And as a Demon I would be done with this shit too, just not in the way I had hoped.

Positive thoughts Taylor, stay positive.

I slowly reached out.


AN: Aaaaand that's a wrap! I am a bit sorry for the cliffhanger. But honestly, this was getting waaay to long, its hard to find "good" spots to stop. I guess you have to wait for the next chapter. I hope I made you a bit curious...