Here's a little something for Halloween! I know i said Emblematic Hearts is my current priority, but that dosent mean i wont upload a new chapter if i write one! Enjoy...
Chapter 2: Intensive Care.
Master Yen Sid was furious beyond what was thought possible, all due to this imposter before him. Staring down at his duplicate, he summons orbs of light around him, ready to fire upon the imposter, who smirks sinisterly at him. "I will ask you again, What. Have. You. DONE!?" Yen Sid demands as the orbs glow brighter, dismissing the sound of the door to his room opening.
"Master, what is going on?!" the high pitched voice of his former apprentice snaps Yen Sid from his anger, turning his gaze to the doorway. Entering the room are the rest of the guardians of light, each showing looks of concern and confusion. "Who are you? You're not Master Yen Sid!" Mickey exclaims at the imposter sitting in Yen Sid's chair before summoning Kingdom Key W, followed by Riku summoning Braveheart. The imposter simply laughs before vanishing in a cloud of smoke, before reappearing in his cloaked form. Chirithy's eyes widen at the figure standing before him before hopping to hide behind Ventus.
"Finally, the gang is all here! It took you long enough. Now the show can truly begin!" He casts his shadowed gaze around the room, seemingly unphased by the glares from its occupants. "I think you should be more concerned with your two friends than with me, Master Riku." He nods his head at the glowing obelisk, its light pulsing ominously. Riku stares at it for a few seconds before turning his eyes back.
"Where did you send them!?" Riku asks furiously. If anything had happened to ones he viewed as his brother and sister, then not even Maleficent would stop his wrath. The cloaked man holds up a hand before snapping his fingers. Before the obelisk, the dark portal grew in size before a screen appeared on it, showing Sora and Kairi in their engineering suits alongside Isaac as he tinkers with a holographic panel.
"You need not worry. All I did was send them on their Mark of Mastery, but not the soft kiddy ones that you, Mickey, Aqua and Terra went through." The four named Masters harden their gaze at the man. Who was he to decide what goes into a Mark of Mastery? "Oh, put your Keyblades away, would you? It's not like you could harm me with them. After all, I made them in the first place…." The guardian's eyes widen in shock before turning toward Yen Sid. He turns to look at them with a solemn look in his eyes.
"I am afraid he is right. He is the one who discovered Kingdom Hearts, the X-Blade and created the ones we use today. He is the Master of Masters." As the guardians real from this information, Yen Sid takes a step forward towards the lost Master. "But that does not explain why you are here or why you have sent Sora and Kairi into a Dead Realm!"
"Wait, Dead Realm?" Aqua asks a hint of fear in her voice before turning her gaze towards the MoM in anger. "YOU SENT SORA AND KAIRI INTO A DEAD REALM!?" She shrieks at him as her motherly side flares up, only held back by Terra and Ven, barely.
"Wow. I know people refer to you as the mom of the group, but even I wasn't expecting THAT reaction!" the MoM says in mock surprise before turning serious. "But this realm is not a true Dead Realm yet. There are still two hearts that shine within it. That is what their exam is." He turns to look at the frozen image. "They will pass once they have rescued both lights from danger and have proven themselves worthy of wearing the masks of the Fox and the Leopard." He begins to walk around the rear of the room, not paying attention to the others. "But this will not be easy. They will be facing many challenges, both in the physical sense and the mental. But they have already found one of the lights! They are already halfway done! But the other light does not reside at their current location." He turns to look at the portal before waving a hand before it. "Shall you see what foes they shall be facing?"
Those in the room turn to the portal, its images flickering with static and alien symbols until it shows the Slashers attacking Johnston and Chen, chasing Sora, Kairi and Isaac. Then their fights with the Slashers, before finally revealing the Leaper jumping on Sora before Kairi and Isaac kill it. The image then shows the three resting on a tram, heading to the following location as sound finally begins to play from it. Everyone grows tense, Donald and Goofy naw at their fingers, Xion and Naminé cling to Roxas and Riku respectively while Terra hugs a shivering Aqua. Ventus stands quietly next to Mickey as Chirithy shivers in fright.
"Now then, let's see how they do…."
All is quiet in the tram as Isaac fiddles about with his Plasma Cutter. He shoots a glance at Sora and Kairi as they rest on the bench in front of him. He could not help but wonder about those two. They have displaced power and kills that no ordinary person should possess.
I wonder…could they be from a different galaxy? Or an entirely different universe? He looks over them one more time before turning his attention to the tram route, seeing them near their destination. Well, I'll ask them when we have a moment of downtime. If we are going to survive this, we can not keep secrets from each other. But, for now, getting the Captain's RiG takes priority. He walks over to the sleeping couple before he gently shakes them awake. "Sora, Kairi. Time to get up." The two groggily return to the land of the living, each giving their own yawns. Sora turns to look at Isaac, facial expressions unreadable from their helmets.
"Have we arrived, Isaac?" Sora asks while standing up with Kairi, shaking her head to remove the last vestiges of sleep. Isaac nods at the two before the trams dings and opens the door for them. Entering out into an area identical to the tram station on the flight deck, they see the disturbing sight of one of the medical workers, wearing a bloodstained blindfold, petting a mutilated corpse. She talks to it, like it was still a living person, before handing three cylinders to the party, before dropping to the floor dead. The three shake their heads to dispel the uneasy as Isaac pick up the dropped items.
"Looks like Kinesis Modules; this should come in handy." He comments while attaching one to his left hand before doing the same to Sora and Kairi. "Kinesis is a useful tool, able to pick up objects and place them anywhere we want within reason. We can also throw them as well." He glances towards the containers blocking the entrance to the medical deck proper. "Watch." He lifts his left hand as white force field shoots from it and grabs onto the box before being lifted effortlessly into the air before he shoots it into the void below the tram station. "Keep an eye out for anything with the same mark as on those containers. They will let you know what can and can't be picked up." The couple nod before Kairi glances into the waiting area.
"Erm, are we going to mention-" she points a finger into the room ", those?" Sora and Isaac follow her gaze and see, to their dismay, several body bags lying around the place. Sora places a hand on Kairi's shoulder before pulling her away before following Isaac down the hallway to the hub area. Entering it, they see a crudely made barrier blocking off access to one of the doors as blood lay strewn around the room. Just as they enter the room proper, a sudden video call erupts in front of Isaac, startling the three.
"Isaac? Sora? Kairi? You there?" the voice of Hammond echoes from the call, easing the threes rapidly beating hearts.
"Hammond! You're alright. We thought you were dead." Sora says in relief before noticing one less head next to him, "Wait a minute. Where is Kendra? Wasn't she with you?" Isaac and Kairi's eyes widen when they notice that Kendra is nowhere to be seen in the video.
"That's what I want to know! One minute she was there and the next-!" he takes a deep breath, lamenting that he somehow lost her. "We can still do this, guys. Get me the Captain's RiG, and I'll be able to send a distress call and look for Nicole, alright Isaac?" Isaac nods thankfully at Hammond before he lists several items for them to get to blow through the barrier. Thermite from Medical Storage and Shock Pads from Z-G Therapy. Ending the call, the group take stock of the situation, debating which direction to go first.
"How about we go through Medical Storage first?" Sora says while pointing towards the Research Wing. "It looks closer to get than the Shock Pad, and we might find out what happened to Nicole as well." Isaac looks at Sora before turning his gaze towards the door, nodding in confirmation before walking towards it.
Readying his Plasma Cutter as Sora and Kairi summon their Keyblades, Isaac opens the door. Immediately they are greeted by a mutilated body next to the door, with two moving further down next to a turn in the hallway. Walking down, they could hear the mechanical thrashing of a malfunctioning door as they turned the corner, seeing more bodies along the way. Sora couldn't help but notice how used he was getting to see all the death around him, with a passing glance at Kairi telling the same story. After using Stasis to slow the door, they pass through and enter the central lab's second floor.
"Well, where do we go now?" Kairi asks as she glances around the room, feeling unease at how open it was. Isaac activates a light from his hand, showing a glowing blue line dashing across the floor to an elevator on the other side of the room. "Well, that's handy." She comments before following Isaac and Sora to the other side until the sound of metal grates falling grabs their attention. Looking around, they see all the doors are blocked by metal grates, as the lights dim before orange warning lights activate.
Hazardous anomaly detected. Quarantine Activated
"Oh, shit…" Isaac mutters before training a cutter on a nearby vent. Sora and Kairi instinctively do the same, remembering the attack in the lounge. Seconds pass until a Slasher burst through a vent near Sora, who responds by firing a fireball into its face, destroying an arm in the process.
Two more burst out from other vents before being frozen by Kairi, who then throws her Keyblade like a boomerang, shattering them. A fourth ambushes the couple from behind but is taken down by Isaac before getting off the ground. Frustratingly though, the quarantine refused to lift.
"Why hasn't the quarantine lifted? We've taken out all the Slashers, right?" Sora asks while still gazing at the vents with Kairi at his back. Isaac looks around before looking down to the lower level.
"Think they're down there." Isaac motioned his head to the lower level before walking over to the elevator. Sora and Kairi look at each other before nodding and joining Isaac, moving to the lower floor. Instantly they are met by two Slashers crawling at them with their legs cut off. Deciding to save on magic and Isaac's ammo, the couple throws their Keyblades at them like buzzsaws, removing the Slashers remaining limbs. But no sooner was that done, three more jumped from above, ambushing the three. Two of them grab onto Sora and Kairi and try biting their necks, while Isaac downs the third one. Then, thinking quickly, he fires two shots at the Slashers arms, realising their grips on the two before they slashed the Slashers head and arms off with their Keyblades. "You two alright?" Isaac asks as Sora casts a cure spell on them.
"Yeah, we're good," Sora says, breathing heavily as Kairi places a hand on her chest, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. They both turn to look at Isaac with grateful looks. "Thanks for the save. Those things have a stronger grip than you'd think…." Isaac nods before motioning to a nearby room. Now seems like a good time to ask them where they came from rather than wait until they got back to the tram.
"Alright, you two, I think it's time to come clean." The two look at him, confused. "You are not from the colony, aren't you?" They look at each other uneasily, despite the helmets covering their faces. Kairi nods hesitantly at Sora, who sighs deeply before looking at Isaac.
"You're right, Isaac. We are not from the colony. We are not from this reality altogether." Despite wearing a helmet, the couple could feel Isaac's gaze narrow on them. They shift uncomfortably under his gaze.
"If that's the case, then why are you here dressed in CEC uniform?"
"It's best if we take a seat," Kairi says while motioning to the nearby couches. "This could take a while…."
Isaac rubs his hand along his helmet, trying to fool himself into scratching away the headache gnawing at him. It took roughly forty minutes for them to give a basic overview of how their universe worked, and it was a lot. But now he knew the reason why they were here in the first place. Crazy, convoluted, mad? If they had told him before all this happened and shown their skills, he would have thought so. But not now.
"So, your Master sent you here for a 'Mark of Mastery', a sort of exam for you to ascend to the Master Rank? And you are wearing CEC gear to blend in with our world and keep this 'World Order' a secret?" Isaac asks the two before him while Kairi plays around with a recorder they found on the floor. "Don't know why he hasn't given it to your boyfriend already, considering everything he has done." Sora merely shrugs in response before Isaac cups his chin. "Still, this is one fucked up exam he's putting you through. Are you even sure it was your Master, to begin with, and not an imposter?" The two of them look at each other, remembering the creepy smiles Master Yen Sid gave them before they entered this realm.
"The way he was smiling and being way more cryptic than he usually was did give us several alarms, but I guess we just trusted him." Sora sighs deeply before shaking his head. "I'm starting to think that we have been sent into a trap." Isaac looks between the two before walking over and placing his hands on their shoulders.
"I don't know what it is that your Master has planned, nor do I approve of what's been thrust upon you, but I swear I will get you two out of here alive." Sora and Kairi both give him grateful looks before hugging the engineer until the sudden sound of static startles the three. Before them, playing from the recording device Kairi had picked up, is a video of two people standing in the same room as them. One of them is dressed of high ranking, while the other is clothed in white medical clothes.
"What in gods name is going on down there?" The medical officer asks. The other man looks at him, calm and patient.
"I think that's precisely the point, doctor. God's work." The three look on dumbfounded. How can this horror be 'Gods work'? The medical officer in the video seemed to agree with them, saying how what is happening down on the colony is connected to what he called 'the Marker'. The three looked to each other, wondering what he meant by that.
"You can assume all you want. I do not. The Marker is glorious and divine, you – you know that." The main they believe is the Captain rebukes the officers claim. Isaac growls under his helm, calling the Captain a Unitologist scum as the video continues.
"Captain, people are dying down there. Killing each other. Is this madness the 'transformation' Unitology teaches us?" Isaac looks at the officer in surprise. Here is someone who worships Unitlogogy questioning its beliefs. At least it seems he still has a straight head. The now identified Captain dismisses the doctor, who he called Terrance, saying that high stakes are needed when everything changes. Stakes that Terrence worries about. The three look at each other conflicted.
"What is this, 'Marker', that they were talking about?" Kairi asks, only to receive shakes from the other two. "Well, whatever it is, we may end up finding it. It sounds like it was brought up." Leaving the room, they walk over to a door leading to a Bio Lab. The name alone made Sora and Kairi's skin crawl before evening opening the door. Not that what lay beyond it was any better for the two Islanders. Turning a corner after entering a small office, they are confronted by…
"Why are there babies floating around in pods?" Sora asks as they near the proper Bio Lab, separated by a glass wall. Isaac looks at the two before sighing. It's not a topic he walks to talk about. The sudden arrival of a survivor stops them in their tracks, however. He bangs on the glass wall, pleading for them to get him out until a sudden pike pins his hand to the glass—the three gasp at sight before seeing the creature that pined him. A zombified baby is crawling along the tubes with three tendrils coming out its back, with each one loaded with a spike. It glares at its prey before firing three more into his back. He looks at the group in pain, tears leaking from his eyes before the creature fires again, this time at his head, exploding it like a watermelon. Again, it screeches at them before vanishing into the dimly lit area.
"Zombie babies too…?" Kairi says with a mixture of disgust, fear and heartache. Sora pulls her into a comforting hug as Isaac slams his fist against the wall. Is nothing safe from these things? He looks towards the door entering the Bio Lab, noticing it now glowing blue. He shakes his head before motioning the couple to follow him. They enter Keyblades and Cutter raised, waiting for the beginning to strike. Instead, it leaps from a corner before extending its three tentacles to attack but is hit by a fireball to the face and sent crashing into the wall. Walking past the singed corpse, which they begin to call a Lurker, much to their pain, they ascended another service elevator to the upper floor.
Stepping onto the higher floor, they spot another Lurker leaving one of the pillars containing the babies, which had been broken into. Slowly walking forward, they are ambushed by a third as the second one moves along the walls. One of them leaps onto Isaac and ready's itself to strike into his back before Sora's Keyblade comes swinging it, dismembering its tentacles from its main body while Kairi freezes the last one. Taking a moment to catch their breaths, they proceed onward, exiting the Bio Lab and entering another office, with the thermite lying on top of the desk.
"Alright, one part got," Sora comments as he picks up the canister and places it on his hip. He turns to look at Isaac. "Now, all we need is the shock pad, right?"
"That's right. Hopefully, there should be one in the Z-G." Before leading the two out of the medical wing, Isaac replies before Kairi stops to ask him what Z-G means. He turns to look at them, shocked at the question. "You are telling me you fly through space and have no idea what Z-G means?" the two of them shrug sheepishly at Isaac, who shakes his head at them. "I swear. Anyway, it's best if you experience it rather than me tell you what it is." Moving past the malfunctioning door with Kairi using some of her Stasis, they proceed to move back to the central area after having to fight past another two Slashers.
Taking the door to the Imaging Diagnostics Wing, the survivors walk down a winding hallway, with the lights giving out halfway through, all the while a dull thud could be heard repeatedly. Walking down, they find the sound coming from a medical officer slamming their head against the wall. They were utterly torn up from the waist up. Sora moves up to them, asking them if they are alright until they slam their head against the wall with enough force to break their skull, killing them. They slowly slide to the floor, trailing behind them a smear of blood. Sora shakes his head before stepping back a few steps as Kairi places a hand on his shoulder. Isaac sighs sadly at seeing another person die before them before moving on into the Imagin Diagnostics Room proper.
Entering the darkroom on their left, they find a locked door with a gap in the wall for a power node. Isaac turns to the couple, showing them the lock. They nod before Kairi steps up, casting a low-level thunder spell on the lock. To their delight, it works and unlocks the door for them. Inside they find some Plasma packs for Isaac and some Med Packs before leaving and proceeding to move through the room, only to find their way blocked by a large cylinder with a mutilated body in it, with the Kinesis symbol on it. Remembering the boxes from before, Sora uses the Kinesis module on his left hand to move it out of the way while also creating a path for them on the higher level. Isaac complements the play before moving forward, with the couple walking steadily behind them. Suddenly, two leapers strike out at them but are quickly felled by fire and ice from Sora and Kairi while Isaac picks up a large battery lying on the floor with Kinesis and places it into a slot in the wall.
With power restored to the cargo lift, the three use it to reach the upper level, crossing over the platform on top of the cylinder that Sora moved before. Suddenly, a Leaper breaks out from a vent along the wall while a Slasher rushes at them from the front but is taken down quickly by Isaac while Sora fires the Leaper with a blast of thunder. Moving through the upper level, they come across another door with another exposed fuse keeping it locked, which Isaac takes care of with a quick plasma burst, opening the entrance to the Z-G therapy Area. Moving through the door, they enter another corridor with a third door leading to a restricted area, with a pool of blood splattered along the floor and walls. They move away from it, opening the second door, only to find the air around them rushing out at an alarming speed while their air tanks activate.
"What's going on?" Sora asks, noticing a timer appearing on Isaac and Kairi's backs while a similar one appears on his visor, next to what looked to be his RiG and Stasis meter. How did he not see those before?
"We've entered a vacuum! There's no air here. We need to move quick!" Isaac says before sprinting ahead of the couple, who quickly chase after him. Turning the corner, they are greeted by a gaping hole in the ship's side, exposing the corridor to the vacuum of space. They could see the planet before them, grey and lonely, while a giant creator could be seen on the surface of the planet, like a wound. Moving quickly as the timers in their helmets grow smaller, they finally reach the Z-G Therapy, with a door closing behind them, allowing air to refill the hallway and filling their air tanks. Sora and Kairi brief sighs of relief before looking at Isaac.
"Alright, when we set foot in there, your put will activate and keep you from floating off. Just follow what I do, and you'll be fine. Just think of it as gliding through the air." Isaac says while opening the door to the Z-G Therapy. The room in question is a large cylinder with two platforms on both ends, while a holographic panel lights up in front of them. A single touch from Isaac and the room activates. The couple immediately feel as though they were back in Neverland as the feeling of weightlessness takes hold of them, only staying on the ground due to their boots. They glance at Isaac, who chuckles at them before leaping towards the ceiling. Sora and Kairi look at each other before nodding and repeating Isaac's movements, flying through the air before landing next to him, both giggling at the joy felt at flying, even if it was for the briefest of moments. The three glance at the other platform where a battery floats next to an empty slot before landing on it, with Isaac using his Kinesis to move it into place, opening the door to the storage room.
"Is that the Shock Pad we need, Isaac?" Kairi asks while pointing to a device on a table at the far end. Isaac nods as he picks it up and puts it on his belt, commenting that they have all they need and now need to head back. Heading back into the Z-G room, they are attacked by two Leapers as they fly through the space, but they are easily picked off as they slowly charge at them due to it being Zero-G. Another Slasher tries to attack them in the vacuum hallway but fails quickly to Sora before it could even strike. A second and third tried again in the Imaging Diagnostics room alongside a second Leaper, managing to injure Isaac before being blasted by twin balls of fire from the couple. "I don't like saying this, but I'm starting to get used to all the death and blood around me…." Kairi mentions with a hint of fear as she looks around the room before they enter the corridor with the dead medical officer. Sora looks at her with sympathy, commenting that he is starting to feel numb to all the blood, but the fear doesn't leave. Isaac was about to add his own comment until the sound of flesh hitting steel rings out from the corridor and in a vast number.
Emerging from the corner door is a small army of triangular flesh with hooks on their ends, rolling towards them quickly, catching the three off guard before leaping onto them and attacking with their hooks. The three flail around in pain, throwing the creatures off into the walls, killing them before calming down and looking at their RiGs, but to their shock, they had each been brought down to two or three bars before Sora hurriedly heals them up.
"What the hell were those things!?" Sora exclaims as he looks at the impact of where the things landed. Isaac and Kairi could only shake their heads at what Isaac named them as Swarmers due to their numbers. Deciding that standing around next to a corpse was not great, they move back to the central room and place the Thermite and Shock Pad on the barricade. After backing up a safe distance, they activate it and melt a sizable hole into it, allowing them access to the morgue. "Alright, we're through. How far is it to the morgue Isaac?" Isaac looks at Sora before holding his hand palm up, opening a map of the Medical Deck.
"We will need to pass through the clinic and emergency room to reach the morgue. So stay on your toes, guys." Before opening the door, Isaac closes the map before raising his Cutter, Sora and Kairi hardening their grips on their Keyblades. Moving through the hallway and turning the corner, they come face to face with a large gaping hole with the metal peeling out like a flower in the side of the wall in front of them, with blood splattered everywhere before it. "Well, that's welcoming…."
"What do you think could have caused that?" Kairi asks while eyeing the giant hole with caution. Isaac shakes his head, unnerved at seeing thick steel bent like cardboard. Sora glances around the hallway before noticing a second recording device, like the one Kairi found. Curiously, he picks it up and activates it, revealing a female medical officer with a pixy cut hairstyle.
"This is Senior Medical Officer Nicole Brennan, transmitting ship-wide." The recording begins, immediately grabbing Isaacs attention as he looks at the women in the recording. "We need more help! We don't have the resources to deal with these many cases." She pleads into the recording, with tell-tale signs of sleep depression in her eyes. "Nobody will tell us what's happening! These wounds…we're not equipped to deal with this many…" her message is interrupted by the sound of a patient screaming in pain from behind. She turns around, telling the nurse to hold him on the table before ending the recording.
"Nicole…" Isaac breaths her name while raising a hand to where the video played. He clenches his fist before feeling the comforting hands of Sora and Kairi on his arms. He looks at them, a comforting gaze flowing through the helmets.
"We will find her, Isaac. I promise." Sora whispers to him. Isaac nods thankfully at the two before they continue down the hallway, walking past the hole in the wall and moving into the Clinic Waiting Room. They walk through it, looking away from the blood smeared along the floor and couches before moving into the Clinic proper. Despite the wideness of the room, the flickering of the lights made the room seem smaller than it is. They were not helped by the support pillars with operating tables before them, with desecrated bodies and blood covering them.
As they move to one end of the room, which has a discarded battery, they are ambushed by two Lurkers as they attack from the walls, hitting them with their spikes before being frozen by Sora and Kairi. Seeing the frozen babies fall to the ground and shattering makes them wince; even though they are monsters, there were still babies once, a fact that still haunts them. As Sora places the battery into the wall next to the door leading to the morgue, power returns to the room proper, bringing the lights back on and lighting the room. Entering the corridor, they catch a glimpse of a Lurker crawling around at the far end, seemingly running away from them.
"Something tells me we are about to have company…" Sora mumbles as he tightens his grip on Kingdom Key, Kairi doing the same with Destiny's Embrace. Isaac nods at him before moving forward; Cutter raised alongside Sora while Kairi watches their backs. Keeping their guard up paid off when the Lurker came back alongside two Slashers and a Leaper before getting hit by Thunder by Sora while Isaac removed the Slashers limbs. A third tries to attack from behind via the vent but is blasted by a ball of fire from Kairi. After opening another door via a thunder spell, which contained several medical packs to their relief, the group proceeded into the Intensive Treatment room.
Along its walls are isolated cubicles, sealed in thick glass with metal around them while a single operating table lies in them. A medical officer in one of the cubicles, laughing away with insanity while operating on a dead body. "Excuse me, ma'am, are you okay?" Kairi asks through the glass. She turns to look at her with a sadistic glee before using the bone saw on herself, slicing her neck open. Kairi backs away in shock; hands clasped over her helmet where her mouth is while gasping loudly. Sora stares in shock while Isaac places a hand on his head while shaking.
"What is going on here?" he asks no one in particular. The couple look at him and slowly shrug. Are they also at risk of losing their minds on this ship? Walking past the cubicles and a door that leads to a 'Dr Mercer's' office, the three finally enter the hallway that leads to the morgue. Before they could even walk down it, a deep, hungry roar echoes through the hall, shattering the glass on the sides. A lone Lurker tries its luck against them but is taken out by Isaac before it is even finished running across the floor. Reaching the end of the hallway, they find an elevator. Taking it down, they finally reach the morgue. All across the floor are gantries piled with body bags while a series of doors along the far side-line the wall, some open with bodies piling out. Blood lays splattered across the room while in a secured space separated by a glass wall, lying on a table with a bright light shining on him, is the captain corpse.
"We finally found him. Let's get the captain's RiG codes and get out of here." Isaac says to the two while moving forward. But the moment he enters the room, a black shadow hovers over the captain's corpse. The three are confused about what it is until it falls upon it. It is shaped like a bat, with small claws on its wings. Like on the Slashers, a bone scythe extends from its front before piercing the captain's skull, before it fires out a tentacle into the captain's chest. Blood plasters the glass walls of the room, concealing what the creature is doing to the corpse until it is forcibly shoved off by the now transformed captain corpse. He is now a black Slasher, with even darker red eyes glowing from its skull. It turns and growls at the three, who were looking on disgusted before smashing through the glass.
The sound of glass shattering snaps them out of their gaze, causing Sora to fire a burst of Kinesis at the Slasher, engulfing the new creature as well, leaving them open to a round of fire from Isaac and Kairi. While the new one falls quickly to Kairi's flames, the Slasher takes more bolts from Isaac before finally falling.
"Well, not we know what's been happening to the dead bodies…." Isaac says with a hint of disgust in his voice. "So we now have 'Infectors' to add to our growing list of variants. Let's just get the RiG and get out of here." He walks up to the now-dead again captain before ripping the RiG off his back before calling Hammond. "Hammond, we've got the RiG, but we've encountered two new types of these things. One is what's causing all these dead bodies to be reanimated, an Infector as for the other…."
"Babies, literally zombie babies…." Sora says bitterly as Kairi places a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Yeah, those. We're calling them Lurkers…."
"I see. Thanks for the update. I'm receiving the codes from you now, and they're looking good. Head back to the tram; I 'l tell you what I've found when you get back." Hammond cuts the call as the three nod to each other before heading back to the tram station. All is quiet between them, alertness flowing through their veins for possible attacks. So on edge where they that a sudden call from Hammond as they near the Security Office causes them to jump.
"Jesus Hammond! Don't scare us like that!" Isaac admonishes his co-worker as Sora and Kairi work to still their hearts.
"We can worry about that later!" Hammons replies hotly, sweat running down his head. "One of those things managed to find its way to me, but I locked it in an escape pod. But I found out what was going on. It all happened when they cracked the planet. It spread through the colony before working its way up here."
"Wait, Hammond, are you saying that this is not an infection?" Kairi asks, horrified.
"I'm afraid so. What we are dealing with is some form of alien life! But we've got bigger problems than that, unfortunately."
"What could be worse than that!?" Sora asks frustratingly.
"It's the Ships engines. They are offline, and our orbit is decaying! If we don't get it back online soon, we will crash right back into the surface of the planet. Head back to the station and head to engineering. I'll see what I can do from here." Hammond cuts the call as the three sprint to the Tram Station.
"I just HAD to ask, didn't I?" Sora asks before they rush onto the Tram, Isaac slamming his fist on the Engineering Icon before turning to look at him.
"Well, one of us was going to say it."