Chapter 5: Madness and Death
Silence roams the Tram car as it speeds towards Medical. Inside, Isaac, Sora and Kairi were busy grabbing some much-needed rest. Ever since Engineering, they had been rushing against time, but now that the ship was no longer in danger, for the time anyway, they could relax. Not that they could lower their guards down at any moment, however.
All the while, Isaac couldn't help but wonder about what the couple told him on their way to the tram. Somehow, items that belong to their friends have found their way onto the Ishimura. Items they would never part with. He could feel the dark feeling building up as he thought about the implications; none of them were good. The two of them were putting on a brave front, but deep down, he could tell they were worried. Worried and scared. It was the same with him about Nicole.
Stop thinking like that, Isaac! He mentally shouts to himself as he shakes his head. They are not dead! Nicole is smart, and if Sora and Kairi's friends are like them, then they are also still alive! I won't believe it until I see a corpse!
Now arriving at Medical.
"Finally." Isaac breathes as he moves to the exit. He could see Sora and Kairi moving to join him from the corner of his eye just as the tram slowed to a halt. But even through the glazed window, he could feel something was wrong. The last time they were here, the lights were on full blast. But now, all he could see was darkness broken up by faint orange glows.
The source of the glows revealed themselves once the tram door opened. Before them in the dark station, lanterns were placed along the ground while the body bags and dead Necromorph Slashers were missing. The only thing that remained was the dead security guard, still pinned to the wall by the Slasher blade.
"What's going on? Why are there lanterns on the ground?" Kairi asks as the trio spread over the platform. Isaac and Sora shrug their shoulders in confusion. Suddenly, Isaac's comm channel flared to life.
"Isaa… raced Nicole's…Chemical Lab…" Kendra's voice attempts to come through but is drowned out by static.
"What was that? We can't hear you." Sora replies as he and Kairi stand next to Isaac as the static only increases. "What about the Chemical Lab?"
"Shi… Lossi…nal…" The comm channel ended abruptly soon after, leaving the trio with uneasy thoughts.
"Great, communication failure. Just what we need." Isaac groans before opening the door to Medical. Lanterns light the way as an eerie fog covers the floor as the beds and boxes that blocked the way were now worryingly absent.
"What could have caused it?" Kairi asks as they enter the Security Station. Isaac turns to look at her, theories swimming in his mind before the door behind them suddenly locks down. Quickly followed by the other three doors around them, trapping them in.
"What the? Another lockdown?" Sora asks as he readies his Ripper and Kingdom Key. Kairi follows suit, holding her Flamethrower and Destiny's Embrace in her hands. Isaac glances around warningly, Plasma Cutter gripped in his hand as they listened for the signs of an ambush. Yet they could hear nothing.
"Somehow, I don't think it's a Quarantine Lockdown." Isaac hisses as he opens a comm channel. "Kendra, the Security Office has locked down. Can you lift it? Hello?" Hearing nothing from Kendra, Isaac closes the channel with a groan. "Fantastic. Comms are still down." While he couldn't see it, he could feel Sora and Kairi's worried looks behind their helmets. And he would be lying he if he said he wasn't worried either.
"More survivors? At last." A voice echoes through the speakers above them, jolting them into alertness. "You are safe here. I'm a doctor." The voice reassures them, yet something at the back of his mind tells Isaac not to trust this voice.
"Is Nicole Brennan with you?" He asks to the ceiling before taking a quick glance at the couple. "Or how about some people called Roxas or Naminé?" Sora and Kairi look at Isaac, faces hidden as the voice takes a moment to respond.
"You are not here for sanctuary, then?" It asks, sounding almost disappointed in the question. "Well, I am unsure of this Roxas or Naminé that you speak of, but Dr. Brennan is currently occupied. Shall I send you to her?" The voice speaks with sincerity, yet Isaac could not bring himself to trust it. A quick glance at Sora and Kairi told him they were the same, their body posture guarded and on alert.
"How about you open these doors, and we can go find them ourselves?" Isaac responds bluntly. He was in no mood to play games.
"Are you all that selfish? You might let something in. Or out…" The voice responds. Isaac stands silent, waiting for the voice to give a proper answer to his question. "So, you've decided to be difficult. Take a seat. I'll deal with you momentarily." As the intercoms go silent, the door leading to the Chemical Lab opens, and the other doors remain locked.
"It's a trap." Sora deadpans.
"Definitely a trap." Kairi agrees with similar bluntness.
"A trap we have to trigger." Isaac finishes with a grimace. "What has been going on on this deck?" Said question went unanswered as sparks rained down from the ruined ceiling. Seeing no other option left, the trio move through the door to the Chemical Lab. Passing through the lamp-lit corridor and passing the body of the worker who smashed his own head, the trio soon arrived at the main room. Only to be shocked at what they found.
"What the hell is this?" Isaac speaks as they gaze around them. Strapped down onto medical beds were numerous Ishimura personnel. Their eyes are covered by cloth as numerous wounds rack their bodies. Some of them are embedded with syringes filled with unknown liquids. The people strapped to the beds moan and groan, seemingly caught between life and death. And all around them, the growth they saw in Engineering had begun to wrap around the room, stretching over like catwalks.
"Kindly avoid disturbing my other patients." The voice booms overhead.
"Patients? What are you doing to them?!" Sora shouts back, anger flowing through him.
"Research, of course." The voice answers, its words chilling the veins of all three. "I'm so close to finding that missing factor. A Unitologist would understand." The final words from the voice were as though a pin had been dropped in an empty room.
"Unitologist? One of those nutjobs is doing all of this?" Isaac hisses through his teeth as his eyes narrow. "What the hell is he doing to these people?"
"This man. He's like Xehanort. Experimenting with things that should be better left forgotten." Kairi mumbles in mute shock. Sora pats her on the back with a free hand as he looks around, his gaze hidden by his helmet, yet the anger could be felt radiating from him.
"We need to get to the Chemical Lab. I have a feeling that's where we will find out 'voice'." Isaac speaks up with anger in his words. The couple nod silently as they follow him to the other side of Imaging Diagnostics, the moaning of the crew members echoing around them. Glancing down the central area, where the medical scanner lays, a flesh wall blocked the path with a bulging yellow sack on the side. Isaac blasts it with his cutter, destroying the sack and causing the wall behind it to vanish. Clearing the way once again and revealing the medical capsule. Seeing the job done, the trio continued on to the other side. Yet once they reached it, another horror was waiting for them.
A bulging mound of flesh, glued to the wall with a large hole in its centre. And sticking out from the top was a bald, bloodied and grey human head. Moaning in agony. Before either of the three could speak, the Necromorph variant reacted to their presence as five blood-red tentacles burst from its cavity, primed to strike the moment they neared.
Bringing the Pulse Rifle up, Isaac launches a grenade at the foe, destroying two of the tentacles as the other three retreated. A few seconds later, the creature launches a ball of flesh from itself onto the floor, where it sprouts a spine-shooting vine. It launches one towards them that misses Sora's shoulder before he returns fire with a Ripper blade. The diamond-coated blade doesn't even slow down as it tears through the vine, ricocheting into another of Necro's walled appendages.
A final grenade from Isaac finishes the job as the creature groans in pain and spews forth a deluge of vile and puke from its central cavity before finally going still, giving off what the three could only describe as a relieved sigh.
"What was that? Was that what those bodies back at the engines were turning into?" Kairi asks as the three converge on the fallen foe. Ironically, it was guarding the lift that led to the next floor.
"Maybe." Isaac murmurs as he glances at where the Necro is and the nearby lift. "Looked as though it was guarding the lift, like a guardian. As though there is something important beyond it." Taking a few seconds to think, he turns back to the couple who were holding their Key's high, illuminating the room. "Guess that's what they are now, Guardians."
"Isn't there a better name you could pick?" Sora asks. Isaac tilts his head for a few seconds before realising why Sora was asking that.
"Sorry. I don't mean to say it is a Guardian of Light, hell no. It's just the first thing that came into my head. And until we find a better one, that's what we're sticking with." Isaac apologises, much to Sora and Kairi's discomfort. Then again, there was a Heartless that was called Guardian, so maybe they were just being silly.
Stepping onto the lift, the trio head up to the next level, finding more of the growth overtaking the floor and walls with a large pulse of mass blocking their way. As the trio stopped to think about how to pass, Kairi noticed a yellow blob through a small gap in the mass. Remembering what destroying the others did, she aims Destiny's Embrace at the gap. Hoping her plan works, she fires a shard of ice at the sack.
Despite it being at its weakest level, the Blizzard spell managed to shatter the blob as the mass of flesh it was connected to began to destroy itself. But just as the way began to clear up, a Leaper smashes through the vent behind them and pins Isaac to the ground on his stomach.
Just before it could impale the back of his head with the fangs on its mouth, Sora and Kairi rush in and bash the Leaper off with their Keyblades before Kairi fires her flamethrower at it. The Leap howls in anger as the flames melt away its decaying skin and muscles, before the bones snap under the intense heat. Soon, all that was left was a flaming pile of flesh.
"Sneaky bastard. Hitting me from behind." Isaac grumbles as Sora helps him up. Looking over at the burring pile, he mentally thanks the fact the helmet filters out all smells and toxic fumes before glancing back to the path they created. "Nice shot with that ice, Kairi. Guess your magic still has some uses."
As Kairi gives a soft chuckle, the trio moves through the opened path. Finding more of the flesh blocking their path yet again, they move over the still-standing catwalk to the other side of the room. There, they find yet another yellow sack pulsing on the mound of flesh. Repeating what they had done, the path was soon cleared for them to continue on. But not before Sora finds an audio log left on the floor.
His curiosity gets the better of him, and he picks it up as it begins to play, grabbing the attention of Kairi and Isaac.
"There. I have to record these days – the old memory, you know." The voice from the intercom begins, sending chills down the spine of all three. Whatever was on this, it could not be good. "As I was saying, this new treatment I'm developing should be just the ticket. The trial is very promising."
"'Trial'? Uh…" the patient on the other end sounded unsure and unconvinced by the man's voice. Yet the person he was with did not seem to mind, at least in his voice.
"You'll be back at your post in a jiffy, with CEC none the wiser. Unless you don't trust me!" He says with a dramatic gasp of shock. One that sounded fake. Yet the patient didn't seem to pick up on it, quickly saying they should give it a shot. What followed next gave the trio a feeling of cold ice down their spines as the patient began to choke and hack, gasping for air as the 'Doctor' he was with began writing notes.
"Volunteer Nine is a young male, testing my new tissue regeneration formula. I expect death within the hour, but the changes to the vascular system are very promising. One moment for the clean-up…" The man clears his throat before activating a comm device, possibly the inbuilt comms that Isaac has in his suit. Hard to tell through an audio log.
"For the last time, get a trauma team down here!" He suddenly shouts, with anger in his voice. "Yes, I called! Three times! My patient is crashing – get off your smoke break and help me!" And with that, the log ends.
"The sick psychopath…using patients as lab rats for experiments? He has no right to be a doctor!" Isaac yells before punching a nearby wall. "Fucking Unitologists…"
"How many…how many people has he experimented on?" Kairi asks with building dread. Neither Sora nor Isaac had the stomach to answer, both disgusted by what they had heard. Pushing on through the dark-filled corridor, the trio enter the connecting room leading to Zero-G Therapy. Taking a right instead of going forward, the trio enter a door leading to Chemical and Cryogenics. The small corridor that greeted them led to a short cargo lift descending down to the ground level. The corridor they arrived in was blocked off at the far end, leaving only two doors for them to use. One of which was closed by an exposed fuse box, which Sora breaks with a swing of Kingdom Key, giving them access back to Imaging Diagnostics.
The other door led to the Chemical Lab.
Entering into the clean and sterile room, they find two large vats embedded in the wall to their left, the glass frosted and blurring anything hidden inside. While in front of them, standing before a computer console, was a hologram of Nicole, repeating the same lines she said on the broadcast back on the bridge. Isaac's heart sank as he walked up to the terminal.
"It's just a fake." Isaac mutters as though he already knows the answer. He could feel Sora and Kairi placing their hands on his back as he turned to the terminal and deactivated the broadcast.
Ship-wide transmission override: Isaac Clarke.
"Who do you think made this broadcast in the first place? That man we heard?" Sora asks as he folds his arms. Kairi tilts her head as she places a hand on her chin, thinking. While Isaac turns around to look at them. Before, he notices another door in the room opening with a shadow person emerging. He raises his hand up, about to call them out before he is suddenly hit by a blast of Stasis.
Sora and Kairi jump back in alarm, turning around to face the source as they reach for their tools. Only to be hit by similar blasts of Stasis before they could even remove them from their belts.
The shadowy figure chuckles at them as it enters the room, folding its arms behind its back as it steps into the light. "Clark. Isaac Clarke… Ah yes. Dr Brenna's nearest and dearest." The figure speaks as it steps into the light, revealing an ageing man dressed in a standard medical outfit. His black hair forms around his head, wrapping into his moustache and beard. He walks up to the trio, frozen in stasis with a jovial smile on his face. "And you have brought some friends, I see. We were colleagues, you know." He puts a yellow tool on Isaac's outstretched arm before lowering it gently to his side.
"Dr Challus Mercer, at your service."
After lowering Isaac's arm, he leans in towards him with a thoughtful look on his face. "Are you three the reason that the Marker won't begin?" He asks cryptically before a crazed smile breaks out on his face. "That's it." He says with realisation as he walks towards Sora, patting him on the shoulder. "Convergence isn't stalled…" He stops next to Kairi, placing a hand on her head before giving it a few taps. "She's meddling." His smile soon fades, though, as it is replaced by a frown.
"How is the question? But even if I were to ask, I suspect you're not the talkative type." He glances at the tank behind the trio before casually strolling up to it like he is in a museum. "And I haven't fully explored the cause of death as that missing factor." He turns back to look at the trio, still frozen by his stasis as they stare at the door he came from. "Dismemberment… Now I think you're on the right track there."
He chuckles darkly once again, walking past them towards the open door. "Try and relax, my friends. Convergence is so close." He turns back to look at them with a smile plastered on his face. "Maybe, your deaths. Will tip the balance." And with that, he turned to leave just as a low growl began to emerge from behind the trio. Followed closely by the bounding of glass, the snapping of cords and erratic movement.
Then, just as the stasis that was holding them in place began to wear off, the glass behind them was shattered into pieces, spraying all over the room as a large creature emerged from the pod behind them. It roars in anger and hunger as the trio spin around, weapons raised and summoned.
Before them stood a hulking mass standing taller than Isaac, the top half of a human face protruding out from its massive skinless body. Three tentacles hand from its jawless mouth as its hunched-over arms lean forward like knives. It stomps forward, a crazed look glinting from its still human eyes as Isaac and Sora launch Plasma and Ripper blades at its legs.
It falls to the ground with a heavy, meaty thump as Kairi turns her flames on the creature's arms, engulfing it in blazing flames. The fires do their work quick, snapping the arms off without any trouble. As the creature goes still, the team take a moment to breathe. Thankful they managed to beat mercers craved experiment.
At least, before it began to spasm on the floor as blood shot out from its wound was the sound of bones snapping and breaking, rumbling from the torso. Then, before their eyes, the creature rose again. It's missing limbs re-growing at an unthinkable pace as it once again towered over the trio.
"What the hell has he created!?" Isaac shouts as the three duck under a swing of its arm blade. The Necromorph roars at them before swinging again, this time its arm colliding with Sora's Keyblade. It tries to skewer him through his chest with its other arm, only for Kairi to deflect it with her own Keyblade. Isaac fires his Plasma Cutter at its head, blinding it and forcing it to swing its arm around widely before Sora fires another Ripper blade at its legs. Once again on the floor, the Necromorph attempts to regrow its lost limb, only to be blasted by Stasis from Isaac.
"What do we do?! It keeps on regenerating no matter what we throw at it!" Kairi shouts as the three back away from it.
"Would the Contact Beam do anything to it?" Sora asks, his right hand holstering the Ripper. Isaac shakes his head with a grunt at the suggestion. They would need something bigger than the Contact Beam to stop this thing. Just when it seemed all hope was lost, Isaac's comm channel flared to life.
"Maybe this will work…" Kendra's voice echoes through the static as it clears up. "Isaac? You guys there?"
"Daniels! Open the door to Chemical Lab!" Isaac shouts as the Necromorph slowly stands again, the Stasis begging to wear off. "JUST DO IT!"
"Uh—okay." Kendra replies before typing can be heard on her end. Seconds later, the door they came through opens, revealing an escape. "The doors unlocked."
"RUN!" Isaac yells as the trio sprints out of the room, leaving his comm channel open, the Necromorph roaring in anger as they flee. All the while, Kendra listened on in confusion and worry. As the trio runs out of the room, the door slowly closes behind them before one of the beast's claws stops it from closing. With inhuman strength, it forces the door up before leaving the Chemical Lab, its eyes trained on the fleeing forms of the trio.
"It's still after us!" Kairi shouts as she exits the door leading to Imaging Diagnostics, chasing after the boys. The two look back, seeing the beast walking down the hall as the door slowly closes. Not taking a chance, Isaac blasts the door with Stasis just as the creature slams its armed blade under it, slowing both down.
Not looking back, the three continue to run as the beast slowly forces the door open, rushing into the corridor leading back to the security station. They continued to run until they were once again in the relative safety of the Security Office. It was then that Kendra decided to speak to them again.
"Are you guys alright? What happened down there?"
"Nicole's broadcast…it was a fucking trick. Set up by a fucking Unitologists. Dr. Mercer." Isaac replies, anger in his voice as he breathes deeply from the sprint. "Worse, he made a fucking monster that can regenerate from any wound we inflict. It's an unkillable beast without heavy firepower."
"That's not the only thing." Sora speaks up as he straightens out. "He's got people tied down to beds to experiment on. He's treating them like lab rats."
"Oh god…" Kendra exclaimed with horror as her hand could be heard in front of her mouth. "That's not all. The entire deck is on lockdown. The only way to remove it is by unlocking it in the office that's enforcing it. It must be Mercer's."
"Can't you unlock the doors to the Tram station? We're right next to it." Kairi pleads.
"I would if I could." Kendra replies with bitterness in her voice. "I can brute force the internal doors, but the lockdown can only be lifted from Mercer's Office."
"Fan-fucking-tastic." Isaac says bitterly before shaking his head. "Sorry if we sound bitter, Kendra. We're not taking it out on you, it's just—"
"I know Isaac. The stress is getting to us all. You guys, most of all. Just get to that office and get out of there. I'll try and contact Hammond and let him know what's up." Shaking his head as the comm ends, Isaac glances at the door leading to the Emergency Rooms and Morgue as the circle turns blue.
"Let's get this over with." Isaac motions to the couple as he enters through the door begrudgingly. A feeling shared by his two friends as they enter the waiting room.
"Unwise, my friends. My hunter may regenerate, but he takes an attack like that personally." Mercer taunts them through the intercom as the trio stares into the room beyond. Pitch-black and without lights, the doors leading out to Intensive Care locked. And who knew what would be lurking in those dark depths.
"Think this, 'Hunter' is waiting for us in there?" Kairi asks as they stare into the darkness. They could faintly make out the operating tables and support pillars in the room but nothing else.
"I would bet on it." Sora answers with a frown. Isaac sighs, disheartened, as he opens the door, raising his Cutter to illuminate the path forward. Stepping into the room, they find the door leading to Mercer's office was not locked. It was instead out of power. The power cell that was plugged into the wall had been pulled out. Grabbing the cell with Kinesis, Isaac glides it back into place as Sora and Kairi hold their Keyblades high to light up the room.
He had just noticed this, but Isaac had realised that, at some point, he was doing all the Kinesis and Stasis. It was hard not to see why they went doing any. After all, you could only use those with a free hand. Still, it irked him a tiny bit that he was doing all this. Maybe he should bring it up at some point.
But not now, as the Hunter made its appearance, followed closely by two Slashers. Just as Isaac inserted the power cell into the wall.
"Hold them off! I'll get the door open!" Isaac shouts as he rushes to the door. Sora and Kairi respond by firing their respective tools at the approaching Necromorphs, with Kairi setting down a flame wall to engulf a Slasher as Sora used the Ripper Blades to shear off the legs of the other Slasher. As for the Hunter, it stalks forward, tearing one of the medical beds from the floor and out of its way. Seeing the behemoth approaching, Sora and Kairi throw their Keyblades at it in a Strike Raid.
Only for the beast to swat them away. Just like their magic, even their skills were being shackled by this unknown force. But it didn't stop them from using the Stasis modules in their suits. With a joint blast, the Hunter was rendered immobile as Isaac opened the door, allowing them to escape. The Hunter could only look on with fury as its prey escaped once again.
Diving into the corridor, the trio sprints down the hall before ducking into an emergency supply cupboard. "That should for it off our trail for now. I hope." Isaac comments as the trio pauses for breath. If only they could destroy the Hunter instead of running from it. As they stopped to rest for a precious moment, Kairi noticed a strange device resting on a nearby table.
It looked to be a rectangular black box with red accents, but what was strange was the handle and red guard sticking from the top. Walking over to pick it up, Kairi was surprised to find the two 'sides' of the 'box' folding upward before twisting forward at a 90* angle. Becoming a solid line with a blue energy field
"What is this?" She asks out loud, catching the attention of Sora and Isaac. While Sora was looking over it with intrigued, Isaac was folding his arms with recognition.
"That, Kairi, is what we call the IM-822 Handheld Ore Cutter Line Gun. Basically, think of it as a supersized version of my Plasma Cutter, but for large chunks of ore. Its main method of firing is similar to the horizontal mode of the Plasma Cutter. As for its secondary, it used to be mines, but I heard it was changed to something else. Trip-mines, I think. Either way, it will be a handy tool to have." Kairi nods at Isaac's explanation before testing the weight of the Line Gun.
"It's…a bit too heavy to use one-handed…" She admits before grasping a second grip on the hand guard. "But, I think I'll stick to using this while we're on this deck. If it's like the Plasma Cutter, then it will be great against the Hunter." Sora and Isaac nod at this before turning back to the exit. Outside, they could hear nothing, only the silence of the Ishimura. Resolving their minds, the three exit the room and begin to move on, but not before finding another audio log left on the floor.
"Wonder what's on this one." Sora asks as he picks it up. Before either Isaac or Kairi could answer, the log began to play on its own.
"It's a shame. When I began my research, Terrence Kyne's insights into the Marker were invaluable. How he's been reduced to sending little missives like this one:" Mercer speaks in a bored tone before a recording of Kyne's voice begins to play. Anger filled in his words.
"You butcher. I saw your 'hunter' –I know who it used to be! That cellular regeneration… Good god, don't you see what you've done!? I agree with Amelia. If this is Unitology, I want no part of it!" Kyne's missive ends with anger and disgust, yet Mercer shows no signs of emotion at the outburst.
"My diagnosis? Poor Terrence is suffering from the same dementia reported on the Aegis VII colony. 'Amelia', for example. The only Amelia he's ever mentioned was his wife. And Amelia Kyne died seven years ago."
"As if things couldn't get any worse. A normal Uni is one thing, but a crazed Uni? That's just a psychopath." Isaac speaks as he marches down the corridor. Sora and Kairi hurry after him in silence, unsure what to say to him.
They soon quickly find their path obstructed by another Guardian, glued to the wall next to a door leading deeper into the Emergency Wing. Giving a nod to Sora, Isaac stands to the side as Sora grabs the Contact Beam from his back. Aiming it at the Guardian, he unleashes the firepower of the Contact Beam, shredding the stomach of the Guardian and leaving a noticeable dent in the wall behind it.
"That's…powerful." Kairi comments after seeing the raw power of the Contact Beam. Sora quickly puts back onto his back and grabs his Flamethrower as Isaac opens the door. They continue on, passing through the enclosed cubicles before arriving back at the door leading to the Morgue. And right beside it was Mercer's Office.
"Of course, he would be near the Morgue. The perfect 'spot'." Isaac hisses as he opens the door, but what they find inside was more disturbing than they imagined. Hanged upside down in front of a terminal was a dead Infector form, its wings held up by chains. In the left corner, another crewmember lay strapped down, their eyes covered with no signs of life emanating from them.
Pictures and diagrams were posted all over the walls, leaving nothing free of his deranged thoughts.
"Just when we thought he couldn't get any more crazy." Sora comments as they walk into the room. Isaac grunts in acknowledgement before finding another audio log lying on the floor. Deciding he has had enough of the madman ramblings, he kicks it away only for it to activate and play.
"Surgical log, Dr Challus Mercer. Tissue regeneration experiment five." The log begins to play with Mercer's voice echoing around. But behind his monotone voice, another was screaming in fear.
"No! No, please! Not me! I didn't do anything. For god's sake!" Her cries went unheard as Mercer ignored her pleas, instead focusing on whatever twisted experiment he was conducting.
"These children of the Marker – Kyne's 'Necromorphs' – have provided all the material I could ask for. And the Infector variant has provided a key insight: implanting the material directly into the brain renders optimal results."
"You said you were going to help! You promised! You promised! Doctor? Doctor, please!" The unknown voice continues to beg, as tears could be imagined falling down her face like a waterfall.
"Of course, that requires puncturing the frontal bone, just above the glabella…" Mercer stops speaking as he reaches for something heavy before walking over to the innocent person he had clearly strapped to a table.
"What are you –? No – don't, please! Please, no!" The woman screamed in horror as Mercer brought whatever he device over to her. One could almost imagine the terror on her face and the calm and impassive look on Mercer's, with the hint of evil in his eyes.
"Don't worry. It has been sterilised." Mercer calmly informs the woman. Only for her blood-chilling screams to shortly follow as the recording comes to an end.
"I'm going to be sick." Kairi moans as she places a hand on the front of her helmet. Sora was copying her movement, looking away from the recording and avoiding contact with the dead Infector. Isaac stays silent, working on the Terminal while pushing the dying screams out of his mind. He could lose his lunch later. If he had any after all of this.
"Alright, almost got the doors unlocked. Just need to do this…" He calls out as he finishes typing on the console. With one last button press, the A.I. system takes over.
Warning. Local door protocols corrupted. Rebooting system. Please stand by.
"About time you realised." Isaac grumbles as the system begins to fix Mercer's meddling. Until a hacking cough to his left made him jump in surprise. Glancing over, along with Sora and Kairi, they find, to their shock, the supposedly dead body was, in fact, alive. "Oh, god. Hang on! We can help you!" Isaac speaks as he reaches for a Med Pack. Only for the crewmember to raise a badly injured arm with muscle and bone showing.
"Not me. Save Hydroponics." The man speaks with pain and weak gasps of air. "We're all dying. Air's poison. But there's still time. Her enzyme will work if…" He falls into a coughing fit as Isaac grabs his raised hand. "She just needs liquid nitrogen. Save us…" And with his last words spoken, he dies with his hand slipping from Isaac's grip. While Isaac gripped his free hand in anger, Sora and Kairi looked at Isaac with concern.
"Are you okay, Isaac?" Sora asks as the two walk up to him. Expelling a deep breath through his nose, Isac unclenches his hand before standing up straight. He nods his head, not wanting to speak in case he yells in anger. Soon, Isaac's comm channel flared to life, with a distressed Kendra on the other side.
"Guys, that man was right. Air quality is dropping ship-wide. Shit, how did I not notice it sooner?"
"We can kick ourselves about it later. Right now, we need to get liquid nitrogen. If what the guy said is true, then someone in Hydroponics is making something to fix it. We should be able to get some in Cryo, past the Chemical Lab." Isaac responds as he glances at the door, the red symbol still rebooting.
"It's better than nothing. I'll clear you guys a path to Cryo. Also, I've managed to tell Hammond about that Hunter. He's keeping a closer eye on things, but so far, according to him, the crew deck is a mess. More of that flesh substance you guys found is spreading through the deck."
"You can clear it by destroying yellow orbs on the side. It should make things easier for him, but it might attract attention." Kairi informs Kendra, who thanks her for the info. Soon enough, the doors finish rebooting and open for the trio, who begin to make their way back to the security station. Only for a green gas to start filtering in from the ventilation around them.
The moment it began to fill the room, the three broke out into coughing fits before their onboard air supplies could kick in, saving them from the toxic air. "Shameful, my friends. Forcing me to liquidate my research subjects." Mercer's voice booms over the intercoms as the trio rush over to a nearby air station, connecting their suits to it.
"He's gassing the deck! And with that Hunter around, we can't stay here." Isaac shouts in anger as he glances around, the green fog filling the room.
"Isn't there a way to stop it?" Sora asks as he holds Kingdom Key up. The light radiating off it does little to light the room, reflecting off the green fog around them. Isaac racks his brain for an answer, thinking about the entirety of the Medical Deck.
"The Security Station! There should be an override!" He informs the two before detaching himself from the air station. "Let's hurry!" Sora and Kairi quickly detach themselves from the station, chasing after Isaac towards a split corridor. A Pregnant variant blocks their way forward, forcing them to turn left. Thankfully, there was a second door leading to the Emergency Room. However, the Hunter was waiting for them, lumbering out of the darkness and into the green fog around them.
Knowing they were on a time limit and with no way to kill the beast, Kairi uses her stasis to slow the beast down as they run past the hulking beast. With another blast of stasis for good measure, the trio rush on through the exit door on towards the Security Station. A Lurker attempts to ambush them in the connecting doorways, only for it to be smashed aside by Isaac with his Pulse Rifle.
Reaching the Station, Isaac quickly initiates the system to flush out the toxic air just as their suits begin to run dangerously low on air. Seconds of agonising waiting pass by before the air was cleared, and they could afford to breathe again, for the time being.
"That was close." Sora comments as they take a moment to breathe. After a few seconds, he looks at Isaac as he wipes off the blood from the Lurker. "Do you think that air came from Hydroponics?"
"It could very well have. And if the air was that bad…I hate to know what is going on in Hydro." Isaac replies before holstering the Pulse Rifle.
"Let's get to this Cryo area and get what we need." Kairi mentions before shaking her head in exasperation. "Why is it that every time we think we can rest, another problem shows up?"
"A question for the ages." Isaac replies before opening the door to Imaging Diagnostics once again. Moving back through the dark-filled halls, they find themselves back in Diagnostics, with all the crewmembers tied to the beds, dead from the gas. Gritting their teeth at the senseless loss of life, the trio make their way back to the Chemical Lab, where they first encountered the Hunter. The room was eerily quiet, with the door they used to escape being left jammed open and indented upward.
Ignoring the shattered glass, Isaac leads the couple to the door Mercer used to leave, leading to the other side of the blocked-off corridor with its floor stained red. Pushing it to the back of their minds, they continue on down the hall, finding locks filled with much-needed items for their tools. However, why energy for the Contact Beam was stored away inside a locker confused them at first.
"So, what is the Cryo room used for?" Sora asks as they stop next to the door leading to Cryogenics.
"Well, it's complicated." Isaac replies cryptically. "There are a lot of uses it can have, but for medical reasons, I would say to freeze things that the doctors need for research." At least, I HOPE they use it like that and not on people. Seeing Sora and Kairi not pressing him for more, Isaac opens the door leading to Cryo. Inside, they find a large room with cylinders big enough to hold a man lining the walls, shutters hiding their contents. In the centre stood a large device with four entryways and four diagonal wall corners, big enough to hold one of the cylinders inside it. A cold mist fills the room as ice builds up along the edge of their metal suits.
Isaac steps to the device in the centre, pulling out a canister from a wall before inserting a pipe from the central machine into it. On the outside, a gauge ticks upward as the canister is filled with liquid nitrogen before reaching full seconds later. With a confident nod, Isaac detaches the hose as it automatically seals itself to prevent it from spilling while he attaches it to his belt.
"Alright, got the nitrogen. Now all we need—"
"Seeing my Hunter unleashed….it's almost worth losing my other patients." Mercer coldly interrupts Isaac as he reveals himself in a control room in front of them. Isaac quickly steps out of the device with Sora and Kairi joining him, not willing to stand around and risk becoming frozen human popsicles. "But you, your friends, and Dr. Brennan have delayed me long enough." Isaac's eyes narrow in anger behind his helmet as he takes a step forward.
"If you've hurt Nicole…" He says with anger in his voice. But Mercer puts his hands up in surrender with a calm face.
"I've never shown anything but courtesy towards Dr. Brennan. Can you say the same?" Isaac growls as he fails to answer Mercer. Sora and Kairi step in front of him as they point their Keyblades forward. "And about your friends? Have they shown the same respect to their loved ones?"
"At least we can say we're not a fucking murderer." Sora spits in rare anger. "There has only ever been one other person who has done the things you have done. And you remind us of him too much for our tastes." Kairi nods her head in agreement as they stand with Isaac, who continues to glare at Mercer. Mercer, for his part, was indifferent as he fiddled about with a device on his right arm.
"Speaking of courtesy, have I you to thank for fixing the Ishimura's engines?" With a flick of his wrist, the shutters around them open, revealing what lay inside. Inside each and every cylinder, frozen and unmoving, was a single Slasher. The trio looked around in shock as the revelation fell upon them. "Our homecoming will be…truly divine. I doubt even you can stop a Convergence Event fuelled by the entire population of Earth."
"Convergence?" Sora and Kairi whisper to each other, confused at the word. But Isaac was focused on another fact.
"Are you mad? You take these things to Earth, and you'll kill everyone!? And besides, the Ishimura doesn't have the fuel to make the trip! You're a dead man no matter what, and this 'Convergence' you want won't happen!" Isaac shouts. Mercer looks at him with unimpressed eyes as he turns around on his feet.
"Only for the faithless. Humanity will be made whole, my friends, with or without you. And I'd say you've made your choice already." And with that, he makes his leave just as the Hunter bursts from a vent right in front of them. It roars in what could be called victory as it stomps towards the three as they slowly step back from the approaching beast.
"Well, what now?" Kairi asks as the three back away into the device. Isaac glances around him, thinking of anything they could use to stop this thing. His eyes fall on the surrounding Necro, frozen in ice, as an idea forms in his head.
"Kairi! Use the Line Gun on its legs!" Isaac commands. Kairi tilts her head for a second before aiming the gun at the Hunter's legs. Pressing the trigger, she fires a large stream of plasma, larger than anything from Isaac's Plasma Cutter. Despite its slow movement, it slices through the Hunters legs, sending it falling to the ground. "Now Sora, uses the Ripper on its arms!" Following Isaac's command, Sora launches a Ripper blade at the Hunter in hover mode with the Ripper blade held in place by a small beam of Kinesis. The diamond-coated blade made short work of the Hunters arms before breaking after use.
As the Hunter prepares itself to regenerate its limbs, Isaac blasts it with a shot of Stasis before ushering the couple towards the control room. Leaving the Hunter in the middle of the machine. Coming to a stop before a terminal, Isaac punches in command just as the Stasis wears off and the Hunter regrows its limbs.
"Outgrow this, you freak." Isaac says as he initiates a command. In an instant, the doors surrounding the device slam shut as a gas is pumped straight into the machine. The Hunter roars in a fury as it slams its blades against the glass in an attempt to break free. The glass splinters and cracks as the blades slam against it, only for the assault to slow before suddenly halting altogether. All the while, the sound of water rapidly freezing fills the air as the Hunter's form becomes like a statue. The trio wait with bated breaths as the machine stops pumping gas into the chamber as silence fills the room.
Cryogenic freeze complete. Transporting specimen to storage.
"We did it." Isaac breathes as the three slumps in relief, the threat of the Hunter sealed away in a block of ice. Straightening his back, Isaac opens a comm to Kendra as Sora and Kairi exit into the chamber as the Hunter is taken away. "Kendra, the Hunter has been dealt with. We've frozen it and sent it off to storage. Do us a favour and keep an eye on it so Mercer doesn't free it again."
"Will do, Isaac. The bastard locked me out again. Did you get him?"
"No, he got away." Isaac replies with a growl. "He wants to take these things to Earth, Kendra. You have to seal the Captain's Nest. Even though the Ishimura doesn't have the fuel, he could still crash it on another planet. We need to warn Hammond—"
"Okay, okay, I can seal the Crow's Nest, but I haven't been able to reach Hammond after I warned him about the Hunter. Still, our air quality is dropping. You have to get to Hydroponics and stop whatever is causing this."
"Can do." Isaac replies before closing the comm, turning his gaze over to the couple as they stand around one of the glass doors, debating. "Wonder what's got their attention?" Isaac mumbles before walking out of the control room. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?