Apologies for the delay on this. Fell down the rabbit hole that was Persona 5 Royal ^^;
Anyway, what better time to put this out than Halloween? Enjoy
Chapter 25: Government Sector
"Still nothing?" Kairi asks as Sora joins her near the entrance to Gov Sec. He shakes his head as a howl echoes through the giant hole they had made.
"Nothing. You would think they would be swarming with all the noise we made. But they're not." Sora folds his arms as he looks back at the ruined drill. "I won't lie. It's got me on edge." A spike of pain racks through their skulls for a moment, words echoing around them before vanishing like a morning mist. "And these headaches are not doing any favours."
"The Marker must be getting desperate." Kairi says as she shakes her head. "It knows we are near and that we are not breaking. If anything, it makes me more determined to destroy the portal we made." Sora nods at her with equal determination. No matter what happened to them, they had to stop the Marker from reaching their realm. But there was another worry that was on their minds.
"Where are Isaac and Ellie? They should have been back by now?" Kairi could only shrug her shoulders at his question. It had been a while since Ellie and Isaac moved to link up, but they had yet to return. It didn't help that their Keyblade Armour did not inherit the communication ability of the mining suits they appeared in. With no way to communicate, all they could do was wait. Just as another howl echoed from the hole, the sound of heavy footsteps echoed from a nearby hall.
Stepping into the room, Pulse Rifle in hand, Isaac glances around before landing his gaze on the couple. "There you are." He says, walking up the stairs to reach them. "Thought I had taken a wrong turn at some point."
"Isaac, where's Ellie?" Kairi asks, searching for their friend. Not that she or Sora weren't happy to see him, far from it by the absence of Ellie sent alarm bells ringing in their ears. Isaac sighs heavily as he glances at the ground.
"Ellie is in a gunship. She managed to find a ride for us out of here. But I programmed it to leave." He reveals with a heavy voice as he walks past the couple to the security door.
"Wait, what?" Sora asks as the two move to join him. "Why did you do that?"
"Because I didn't want to lose her like how I lost Nicole." He reveals, his voice heavy. "I failed to save Nicole. Failed to save any of my friends on that ship. Failed Kendra and Hammond. And I almost failed her when Stross lost his mind. That's why I sent the gunship off." Sora and Kairi remain silent as Isaac brings his emotions under control. They knew that he had been blaming himself for what happened, but never like this. Then again, they never really had a moment when they could talk about it. A great howl from behind reminded the trio of their current plight, snapping them out of their thoughts as Isaac looked over the door.
"We couldn't find any switch or battery to open it." Kairi in forms before glancing behind her. While she didn't say it, she could feel something was making its way towards them. Something powerful and hungry. Isaac grunts in frustration before noticing a panel near the door. Thinking quickly, he rushes over to it before ripping it off and rearranging the wires behind it.
With the speed of a seasoned engineer, Isaac hotwires the panel and forces it to open the door. Just as the first of the Necromorphs begin to pile in through the hole.
"Everyone in! Now!" Isaac shouts as he opens fire with his Pulse Rifle. Sora and Kairi waste no time and rush past the doors before turning around to support Isaac with their Seeker Rifle and Plasma Cutter. Just as Isaac runs for the door, it begins to close again. Much faster than how it had opened.
Just as Isaac manages to slip through the gap, a Slasher tries to stab him through the neck with its arm, only for the door to slam shut. Slicing the arm in two as the blade falls to the ground as a dead weight.
Silence fills the hall as the trio eases the tension out of their shoulders, safe from the horde. Gleaming white lights illuminate the room as two circular stairs wrap around a support pillar before them. Stretching himself out and swapping his nearly spent Pulse Rifle for his Plasma Cutter, Isaac looks at the couple before squaring his shoulders.
"You guys ready? There's no doubt Tiedmann is waiting for us. We may even have to fight his goons as well. Are you okay with taking another life?" Sora and Kairi glance at each other before nodding their heads.
"We are, Isaac. It…wouldn't be the first time we had to." Sora replies. Isaac, for once, was thankful he was wearing a helmet. He knew taking the life of a living person was different to that of a monster. He couldn't help but curse that they were willing to do so despite everything they had told him. But again, what has been done has been done. No use in calling it out.
Pushing those thoughts out of his head, Isaac leads the couple down the stairs and towards a darkened hall, leading towards an equally dark room. Aside from a small wall jutting out not far from the entrance with a door embed into the wall next to it. But they had only taken two steps in before their eyes were blinded by two large flood lights on the other side of the room.
"This is your last warning! Drop your weapons and stand down!" A voice echoes through a loudspeaker as the light dies down. Dropping their hands from their eyes, the trio were met by a wall of metal riot shields and a swarm of blue lines from Pulse Rifles trained on every part of their bodies.
A firing line. They had walked right into a trap.
Isaac quickly scans around them, looking for any way they could escape. A frontal charge would result in death, and a retreat would result in the same fate, provided the Necromorphs hadn't managed to smash their way in. His eyes wander to the right before falling on the door in the wall. The wall jutting out provides a moderate amount of cover.
"With me." He silently whispers to the couple before bolting to the right, Sora and Kairi following after just as the Security leader commands his men to open fire. Ducking behind the wall, a flurry of pulse round rain down from the other side, gouging into the walls, celling, floor and stairs as the trio hide behind the cover. "Into the door, quickly." Isaac whispers again, opening the door into what looked to be a shower and washing room. A very clean and fancy-looking one as well. Soon, the sound of gun fire ends, as the guards outside begin to talk amongst themselves, their voices echoing into the room.
"We need to kill the lights. That's the only way we're getting past them in once piece." Isaac speaks out loud as he paces around the room.
"Hey, how about this?" Sora suddenly asks, standing next to a maintenance tunnel. Isaac looks at him and nods with satisfaction before opening the shaft. Sora and Kairi retract the capes on their armour before following Isaac into the shaft, emerging into a security room near the barricade. Lights from the Pulse Rifles beam down the hall, swirling around as they try to find the trio. None of them could expect them to be hiding in the room right next to them.
Placing a finger over his mouth, Isaac moves other to a set of stairs before ascending them, Sora and Kairi close behind. Heading up, they find another security room overlooking the hall. But what was more important was a nearby power cell plugged into the wall.
"Think this controls the lights?" Kairi asks. Isaac looks it over before humming in contemplation. It could be the power cell they were looking for. Or it could be something else. A small part of his brain told him to leave it alone and look for an alternative. Yet, at the same time, another part of his brain told him to remove it. That it was the quicker option left to them.
Sighing with resignation, Isaac opens the panel and raises his arm. "Only one way to find out." He says before dragging the cell out with Kinesis. Instantly, all the power around them went out, the terminals going dark and the lights extinguished. Small smiles fell on the three before one of the guards outside caught their attention. A very worrying attention.
"Shit! The bulkhead door has been breached!"
Growing horror fell on the trio as the roars of the Necromorphs echoed from down below. The guards, in a fear-induced frenzy, opened fire on the horde that fell upon them, claiming numerous Slashers and Lurkers, yet the horde still charged. They fell upon the steel riot shields that were bolted down in place, bone arm blades scrapping against the steel as they worked to tear them apart.
Then, through all the flashes of the Pulse Rifles, it appeared. The hulking mass of dark flesh, five red glowing eyes around a teeth-filled maw and the glowing emblem of the Nobodies. The proto-hivemind form stomps forward before, with a single swipe of its arm, smashes down the riot wall.
The trio did not need to hear the slaughter that was happening bellow them as the fear and pained-filled cries of the guards echoed around them.
"Dear Light." Sora mutters as Kairi holds a hand over where her mouth is. "This is like when the Heartless tried to invade Radiant Garden again, but much worse." Isaac didn't reply, only looking out the window with an impassive gaze.
This is what needed to be done, right? Earth Gov brought this on themselves, so it's only karma. Isn't it? Isaac asks himself as the sound of the horde finally dies out as, a sick feeling sweeps within him. This…this is not right. We should not have done this. There had to have been a different way to enter! He breaths deeply through his nose before shaking his head. It's not like we can find out now. "Come on. We best start moving. Those things will be on us once they're done with Tiedemann's men."
Reluctantly, Sora and Kairi follow after Isaac towards the lower floor only to see the aftermath of the massacre. Blood stained the glass window as it pooled over the floor and walls. Even dripping from the celling while limbs lay scattered around the hall. The steel barricaded was torn asunder, and the security station beyond was bent and crushed.
And not a soul was left alive.
"We should have waited. There could have been another way to turn off the lights but leave the door shut." Kairi whispers as they enter the hall. The roars of the Necromorphs echo ahead of them, along with the sound of gunfire. Sora hugs her with his left arm as Isaac walks up to the security station, hand clenched around his Plasma Cutter.
"We should have. But we didn't. We have to live with that now." He replies, looking back to the couple. "The Marker and Portal we created are just up a head, somewhere in this place. It's time we fixed our mistake."
"Right." The couple replies slowly, following Isaac past the destroyed station. The room that lay beyond was in no better shape than the hall outside, fresh blood pooling along the ground as more dead security personnel lay on the ground. One was hanging on the railing lining the interior of the room as the central hologram struggled to stay alive. Around them, the doors on either side were locked down, leaving their only way forward through a changing room.
Stepping into the room, they could hear the distant gunfights slowly start to die out as the Necromorphs continued to storm through the sector. A mangled and desecrated scientist lay in the centre of the room before a blue holographic scanner. Thinking back to when they changed the solar panels, Isaac grabs the body with Kinesis and moves it before the scanners. Just like back then, the scanners activate, recognising the body and opening the door to the right.
Moving into the foil-covered corridor, the trio hide behind a corner as several Slashers run past them through a different corridor. Confused at the Slashers ignoring them, the trio move into the nearby room only to find two large cylinders with an orange liquid inside them.
Along with the interior skeleton of Markers inside them.
"What the hell? Is this what Earth Gov has been doing? Making Mini-Markers?" Isaac asks in horror as the cylindrical vats stand ominously before them. A growing feeling of dread built inside Isaac as he looked at the endo-skeletons. Did I also make these? Or was it from Stross or one of the other patients?
"Just how desperate are they for Markers? Don't they know what these things can do?" Kairi asks as he looks at one of the tanks. Sora stands next to her, shaking his head in frustration as Isaac stands to the side, his mind racing. At least, it was until a Puker landed on top of him. With a startled cry, Isaac grabs the Puker's hand as it tries to tear his helmet off, acid falling from its face before it is suddenly slammed into the side by Sora.
As the Puker rises to its feet, it is engulfed by flames from Kairi while Isaac and Sora fire their Plasma Cutters at its legs. "Damn it, that was close." Isaac breaths as the Puker falls to the flames. "Thanks for the rescue there, Sora. Didn't know if that acid would melt through the suit or not."
"Don't mention it." Sora replies before glancing to the passageway beyond the vats. "Let's keep moving. Staying her is giving me the creeps." Not arguing with Sora's observation, the trio continued forward, entering into a rectangular room. Plants encased in glass cubicles line the outside wall while a circular booth extends outward towards the centre. "Think this is like the Hydro place on the Ishimura?" Sora asks, gazing into one of the glass cubicles.
"No. This looks to be more of a research area. Wouldn't surprise me if that was the case." Isaac grumbles as he scans the room. The lights cast it in a deep blue glow, mixing with the shadows around them with overturned tables littering the floor. A silent calm fills the room, with no sign of the Necromorphs being nearby. Making their way past another Marker Creation cylinder, this one holding a blue beam with it, the trio proceed out of the room with weapons raised. Descending down a ramp, they arrive at an area called the Project Annex.
Entering through the door, they were greeted by pools of blood mixed with intestines and organs as a soldier's body hung from the celling by his head. Or, to be more precise, the head was jammed on a piece of vent in the celling, were blood dripped down to the floor below. Besides the cadaver, there were two ways for them to leave. Unfortunately, only one of the doors was open, leading to a Radiation Room.
"What the hell do they need a Radiation Room for?" Isaac mutters as he opens the door, the couple following silently behind him. They were reminded of what Isaac told them back when they boarded the Valour and how dangerous this 'Radiation' could be. But the room they entered was not what they were expecting.
All around them, stacked in random places, were countless boxes holding whatever items the Earth Gov wanted. And along the floor was the familiar growth, snaking its way around like ivy. Making their way through the room, their feet bogged down by the growth, they find their exit shut with the nearby power cell dead from a power surge.
"Just great. Hope we can find another one close by." Kairi moans out loud. Before Isaac could reply, a startled cry from Sora alerted the two just as Sora slammed into the nearby wall. Turning around, they find themselves facing a Stalker, crying out in victory before getting blasted by Stasis from Isaac as Kairi turns her flame thrower on the Necromorph.
The blue flames make quick work of the creature, its limbs snapping to the heat as it falls to the ground in slow motion. But no sooner dose it fall to the ground, several more cries erupt from the darkness, movement rushing between the boxes.
"Crap. We walked right into an ambush." Isaac mutters as the two back up towards Sora, who is busy nursing his head from the impact. Lights shine into the darkness as Isaac and Kairi look for the Stalkers seeing one of the Necro's heads poking out before pulling away like a snake. Soon, two of the Stalkers charged towards them, heads down and arms glued to their bodies, only to run into a wall of fire. Another tries to rush around the flames, only for a Pulse Rifle grenade to explode right next to them. As both of its legs and its right arm flew off in a shower of blood, the box it was nearby had been blasted open, revealing a power cell.
Isaac, seeing an opportunity, grabs the cell with Kinesis and inserts it into the wall cavity after removing the dead cell. Restored with fresh power, the door unlocks and opens, allowing Isaac and Kairi, with a concussed Sora between them, to flee into the room beyond.
"Fuck, that was close." Isaac comments as they lean Sora next to the wall. He pulls out one of the few remaining Med Packs and injects it into Sora. "You feeling alright now, buddy?" Sora groans in response, resting his left hand on his head as he shakes slowly.
"Better." He replies before slowly getting up. "A bit wobbly, but I'll be fine." He lowers his hand before glancing between Isaac and Kairi. "What hit me anyway?"
"It was a Stalker. We walked right into a trap." Kairi replies, her left hand grasped into a fist. "We got careless."
"No use beating ourselves about it now." He begins to walk down the ramp, Pulse Rifle in hand. "Come one, we have to keep—argh!" He suddenly criers out in pain, grasping his head.
"Isaac!" Sora and Kairi cry as they rush to his side, supporting him as he fights against the pain. Eventually, it subsids as Isaac continues to breath deep. "You alright?" Sora asks as the couple lets go, but stays at his sides.
"Yeah… I am." Isaac says heavily. "It's the Marker. It knows that I'm here. We're getting closer."
"Then let's keep going. The sooner we find the portal and the Marker, the sooner we are free of this." Kairi says before walking down the slope. Sora quickly follows after her as Isaac gives a small chuckle before following himself. At the bottom of the slope, they find another door leading to a Reconstruction Room.
And it was obvious what was being 'reconstructed' the moment the door was opened.
In a vast circular chamber, sealed off by a glass wall, four triple emitter laser beams blast into a helix internal skeleton, the out side slowly being covered in the glyph-filled panels of the Marker.
And the only way to the other side was to go through the beams.
"Well, this looks like it will be fun. It's the centrifuge all over again." Isaac sarcastically speaks as the couple give a deep sigh. As Sora looks over the beams again, he notices how the beams are slowly going up while leaving a portion underneath free of energy.
"Hey. I think we can crawl under these beams." He points out to the space beneath the beams. Isaac and Kairi glance at the space before tuning back to Sora with hidden smiles.
"Well, it beats having to run around in a circle again. Let's go." Isaac replies as he gets on his hands and knees. Unfortunately, even at this height, the beams would still hit his head. With a sigh, he gets on his stomach and begins to crawl. Sora and Kairi follow him, themselves also having to crawl on their stomachs.
As they made their way around, a group of Slashers burst through the vents from the room they had left. Thinking that the trio were easy prey, the Slashers rush out of the room in a blood-hunger frenzy. Only for the rotating lasers to tear them apart in quick succession.
Ignoring the carnage behind them, the trio slowly make their way into another viewing room, the one harbouring a service lift. Stepping onto the lift, they rise up to the second level, finding the control terminal. And taunting them on the other side was their exit door.
As Sora and Kairi moan at the design of the place, Isaac glances at the terminal and the pinning projectors. As they spun around, Isaac could see the tale-tale symbol of Kinesis on the back of the prongs. His eyes widen in realisation as he deactivates the machine.
The device slows to a crawl before finally, one of the prongs stops right next to the terminal. With a hidden smirk, Isaac activates his Kinesis and drags the prong down, creating a bridge to a central platform.
"Why did they build the room like this? Why does everything have to be so complicated?" Kairi asks as they walk to the centre platform. Sora glances at the second prong and repeats Isaac's moves, creating a second bridge for them to cross. Isaac stays quiet at Kairi's question. He wasn't going to try and defend the layout, either. Continuing on through the only door still working, the trio find themselves going down another slope leading towards Data Management.
And what greeted them was another bloodbath.
Several of Tiedemann's guards lay scattered around the floor, riot shields scattered and bent or torn asunder. Dead slashers pile along the ground, several of them wearing the jackets of researchers. Others were security guards.
Not even the shop kiosk at the back had been spared, its lights dead and black as red blood dripped from the control panel. The door to their right had been bashed in, rendering it inoperable, while the left was still functioning, but only barley.
And lying on the floor next to the body of a Slasher was an Audio Recording. With curiosity overcoming them, Isaac picks up the small device and activates it. Soon, a tired voice begins to play.
Kinner Phelps. Research log 43-546. Success. The Marker Layer held up. It is a fully expressed physical representation of the heuristic algorithms from Patient 4, with no breakdowns. The construction schedule begins in earnest tomorrow. The celebration is tonight. I hope I don't black out during the middle of the party. But I'm anxious for some reason. Tiedemann is adamant about Patients 5 and 6 as well. A portal to another universe? Why build that when the Marker gives us unlimited energy?
"This guy must have been in charge of the Marker development. Guess, this was his fate in the end." Isaac mumbles as he glances at the dead Slasher. He looks back to Sora and Kairi, who are glancing at the circular device in the centre of the room. "Come on. Let's keep moving." The couple nods before chasing after Isaac into the nearby room. Said room was engulfed in blood-red lights with two support pillars reaching from the ceiling and down towards the bottom floor. Two floors down.
"How close are we getting? It feels like we are going in circles." Kairi asks as they step through the room, her eyes looking down the hole in the centre of the floor. She could see the other two floors bellow them, with the one on the bottom marked with several dead guards.
"I don't know. All we can do is hope." Isaac replies glumly as he opens a nearby door. Inside was a ramp leading to the lower floor, along side two more dead guards. "Christ, how many guards were stationed here?" The question was left unanswered as they continued on their path down, a feeling of dread creeping on them as they scanned the vents. The fact they had not been attacked in some time had begun to eat away at them, a foreboding feeling that a large ambush was waiting to strike.
Or that something else had garnered the attention of the Necromorphs.
Soon, they finally reached the bottom, finding what looked to be a desperate last stand. The guard's bodies were lying as though they had been but ragdolls, some thrown into the walls and crumpled like paper, others smashed to the floor like eggs. One guard's body was nearby a terminal, its panel off and one of his arms still lodged in the wires. Compared to the rest of his mangled corpse, the guard's arm was still in tact if not for being scorched by the wires.
"Looks like they tried to escape through this bulkhead but had to hotwire it to open." Isaac deduces as he looks at the carnage around them, blood sticking to their boots. "As for what cornered them…"
A roar rumbles from above as the sound of metal being crushed echoes along side thunders heavy thuds. A roar that they were all too familiar with. But no sooner did the beast land behind them than its appearance left a pit forming in their stomachs.
Unlike a normal brute, this one was pitch black with sickly green. Its eyes were glowing red with hate, but it was what was on its chest that made them shudder.
On its chest was the emblem of the Nobodies.
The Nobody Brute roars at them before punching with its fist despite the distance between them. It was then that it showed possessing the same elasticity as the Nobodies from Sora and Kairi's dimension, as its arm stretched towards them at frightening speeds. The trio managed to dodge the punch as it continued on and slammed into the wall behind them, blood dripping from the arm as the Brute retracted its arm.
"That's new!" Isaac shouts in alarm as he opens fire with his Pulse Rifle. But to his shock, despite the round hitting the Brute's weak spot, the rounds seemed to do no damage to its arm. "What the fuck?!" He shouts in anger as he dodges the Brute's headlong charge. Sora and Kairi attacked with their Contact Beam and Flamethrower, but only Sora's weapon seemed to do damage to the beast.
"Isaac! Open the door! We'll keep it distracted!" Sora shouts as he fires another beam of energy at the Brute, the creature roaring in pain and anger as it tears into its arm. Kairi helps out by aiming her Flamethrower at the spot Sora was attacking, hoping to add more damage to the creature.
As the two worked to stall the beast, Isaac worked to hotwire the door. Surprisingly, the dead guard had managed to clear the first two levels before the Brute smashed him, leaving Isaac with the easiest hack in his life. No sooner had he begun he was finished as the bulkhead door opened up. "Come on!" He shouts to the couple as he runs through the opening. Sora and Kairi give chase, the former blasting the beast with Stasis for good measure before diving through the closing door.
Leaving behind a fuming Brute.
"That was an unwanted surprise." Kairi breathes as the trio takes a moment to pause, the sound of the Brute hammering away at the door echoing in the chamber.
"I'll say." Isaac replies before straightening out. "My shots did nothing to that Brute. And what was up with how it attacked?"
"It's how Nobodies are. They have always been like that." Sora replies as the trio head towards the exit. "There's even one that could morph between different forms at will: bird, sword, feet. It was a really annoying foe to face. Well, not as much as Dancer Nobodies anyway…"
"Sounds fun." Isaac grumbles as he opens the door. He didn't know what to expect beyond it, but what they found left them gaping regardless. Before them, stretching over a circular cavern, was a large containment zone. A circular building built within Gov Sec, accessed only by the small connecting bridges reaching out from the centre. And a glance at the other bridges leading to it was swarmed by Necromorphs. All of the different variants, from Stalkers and Spitters to Lurkers and Leapers.
"I think we found where all the Necromorphs are." Sora breathed as the trio made their own way to the centre building, thankful that their bridge was isolated. Isaac doesn't reply as he opens the door leading to the Projects. What awaited them was a small room with a table and shop kiosk, along with several discarded helmets. And a lone audio log. Picking it up, Isaac sets it to play, and out comes the scared voice of Kinner Phelps.
Kinner Phelps. Research log 43-553. I'm convinced we are puppets of some alien influence. I no longer believe we are in control of either project. I believe even our rationalization for these things is an illusion planted by the forces of the original Black Marker. And those things with the strange Emblem on their chest. We don't know how to make these things. It is making us make them. And it wants to escape and spread. Not just this universe but others as well. Desperately.
"As if we didn't realise that ourselves." Kairi mutters as Isaac discards the log. Despite being thrown, it continues to play.
I'm under security watch after taking a sledgehammer to the tiny marker I built last week. And that was after I threw away a plate with a keyhole carved in it. We need to destroy everything we built here, Markers and keyholes alike! I don't know why it's making us make these, but if it's anything like the Marker, then it can not be good. They were right the first time on Aegis VII. This is beyond our ability to control!
"So he realises the truth in the end. Only to become one of the Necro's he sought to stop." Isaac mutters as the recording dies. "It's always the good men who die first, while those who seek power die last." Sora and Kairi stand silent as Isaac walks over to the kiosk to purchase some much-needed supplies. Restocking their med packs, ammo, and even grabbing some spare stasis recharge packs for Isaac, the trio move into the nearby elevator and descend deeper into the complex.
The lift was as long as a pit formed in their stomachs, the feeling of reaching the end falling on their shoulders. Soon, the lift stops and opens, revealing a large foyer with a glass wall overlooking a vast room. But it was what was in the centre of the room that had their eyes snatched away.
"Oh my god…I built that?" Isaac asks numbly as he gazes at the Marker he had built, his and the couple's helmets retracting away or vanishing into light. And compared to what they saw on Aegis VII, it was no contest.
Isaac's Marker was about the same height as the Hive Mind they had thought back on Aegis VII, if not larger. Its surface was a mixture of gold and black as it pulsed with green energy. Even the room it was in seemed to glow an unnatural green as a vast Necromorph horde gathered at its base, filling the entire room.
"That has to be almost every single person on the Sprawl as a Necro down there." Kairi points out with horror and dread. Sora just looks on with a hidden face, but the fact that his left hand was tightened into a fist displayed his emotions as clear as day. Suddenly, a video comm log opens up on Isaac's suit, revealing a very flustered Tiedemann.
"Clarke! I knew you three were trouble from the start! But they told me you were necessary! That your minds were the purist. I spent years sifting through your distorted brains! This is not the way it was supposed to happen!"
"And what was!? You invading our home just so you can steal our resources?! Stepping on everything we care about?!" Sora snaps back with anger. Tiedmann glances at Sora with rage in his eyes.
"Silence! We had everything under control! This is not our fault! We were so close to understanding it if it were not for those Unitologists pricks!"
Before they could argue any further, the Marker erupts in golden light like a pulse, shaking the station to its core. It then erupts again, a split second longer than the last, before erupting a third and final time. This time, the light doesn't fade, and the rumbling continues.
"What's happening!?" Kairi shouts as Sora and Isaac cover their eyes from the glare. Tiedmann, who was struggling to hold himself, answered for her with fear in his voice.
"It's all those bodies! All those bodies you let in here! It's triggering a Convergence event. But, we never… expected…this many bodies!"
As Tiedemann's video log was cut off in a flurry of static, the Marker once again erupted in a blinding gold light. As the light dies down to a more manageable glare, the shaking stops. Yet the Necromorphs in the room with the Marker begin to suddenly rise up into the air as though they were being pulled by a rope.
"We've got to destroy the Marker and portal now. We can't let it get away with this." Sora glances at Kairi, who nods at him before looking at Isaac. But to their surprise, Isaac was not next to them. Instead, he was walking towards a nearby room as though he were in a daze. "Isaac? What's up?" Sora asks as he and Kairi follow him into the neighbouring room. Isaac doesn't respond as he continues walking on before stopping in front of a strange circular device. One of three.
"The Machine…just like Stross said." Isaac speaks as he presses a few buttons on the side before moving on to the next to repeat the process. "I remember these. The machine activates the parts of the brain where the Marker codes are stored. But how does that threaten the Marker or the Portal? What were they afraid of?" He turns his head to look at an empty space, his eyes focusing on something. Sora and Kairi look at each other with bewilderment before Isaac turns to look at them with a resigned look on his face.
"This is going to hurt, but we don't have a choice." He looks back at the machine before giving a sigh. "You might want to dismiss your armour. It's going to be tight."
"What do you mean?" Kairi asks. But Isaac remains silent. The couple give a worried glance between themselves before sighing with great reluctance. After sharing a quick kiss, the two stand in front of the machines next to Isaac's and dismiss their armour. Every fibre of their being, heart and soul told them not to go into these machines, but another part told them they had no choice.
And so, with great reluctance, the trio entered the machines.
Step one: Crawl inside.
The trio crawl their way to the back of their respective machines, laying their head down on head supports and looking up at the device above them.
Step two: The screws go tight all around.
A panel opens up behind them before three metal clamps press themselves on their head, locking them in place. Similar clams lock their arms, legs, and torso, locking them in place. Followed by small devices covering their eyes and forcing their eyelids open, just as the machine above them reveals itself to be a needle.
Ponting directly at their right eye.
Cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in your eye.
Then, the needle began to lower itself, tracking their eyes as they instinctively moved around. Fear and dread ran through their veins as the needle came closer, not stopping in its descent.
Closer as the metal glowed from the outside.
Closer as the point became more defined.
Closer as their breath hitched and adrenalin surged through them.
Closer.
Closer.
Closer.
Until it stops, just barely touching their eyes. The three relax, their hearts slow, and breathing returns to normal. Maybe the device wouldn't poke them in the eye. Maybe it would do something different.
And then, the needle dives into their pupils and pieces the back of their retina.
They wanted to scream in pain in fear, yet the shock of the strike rendered them speechless. The pain did not last for long, as they were soon flooded by thoughts as the Marker signal in their brains was activated, at least in Isaac's case.
For Sora and Kairi, it was different. It felt as though a great weight was being lifted from their shoulders, shackles that were wrapping around their hearts being loosed before falling away altogether.
Soon, the needle retracts as the clamps release the trio from the process. Neither of them stayed in the pods as they quickly rushed out, Sora and Kairi casting a double heal spell to mend whatever damage had been done to their eyes.
"That sucked." Sora spoke for all three of them as they stood up from the machines, with he and Kairi resummoning their armour as Isaac reactivated his helmet. But before they could even speak, the vent to their left was broken open as an old foe revealed itself to them. A foe with eyes full of rage.
The Nobody Ubermorph had found them.