While Sally wouldn't consider herself someone who particularly enjoyed school (math especially, ugh,) certain lessons were all but burned into her psyche.

There were eight 'be' verbs. The hypotenuse of the triangle was equal to the square root of the combined squared values of the opposite and adjacent sides. Mitochondria was the powerhouse of the cell. The list went on.

Granted, she really doubted any of those lessons would work down here.

For example, let's say, hypothetically, one was trapped in a maze. The maze is constantly shifting in such a manner that escape is nearly impossible. Any subjects within would wander around until they escaped, died from exhaustion, or were swallowed up by what lurked between the walls.

If she needed to escape this hypothetical maze, which of the lessons that this hypothetical instance of Sally learned would work?

If one guessed that two concepts she somehow managed to remember from her single physics class she had to take in middle school would be what somehow worked down here, then one would be right.

When it comes to physics, the word 'work' has a very different definition. Work is the energy transferred to or from an object via the application of force, or, that's how she remembered it, at least. In short, work was the energy of something being multiplied by net displacement. In theory, if any displacement was ultimately canceled out, by, for example, wandering around a Metro for a few hours only to return to where you had originally started, the net displacement would have been zero, and thus, according to the formula, no work would have been done.

A whole lot of wasted effort, yes, but by the definition laid down, no work was accomplished. Nothing of value was done in the end. Sally once saw it as a stupid technicality; you still expended all that effort and energy, there was work done, even if it was meaningless.

Suffice to say, she was beginning to appreciate the physics definition of 'work.'

In her hypothetical experiment, if there was no one, fixed point, could you truly measure displacement? And if there was no displacement, was there any work done? Sally had a different idea, however.

This went beyond cold and calculating science. This was a matter of the spirit, something that transcended material rationality. The Metro, the maze, didn't operate on what made sense.

There was no fixed point down here, no displacement. No work, in every sense of the word.

…Sally was beginning to remember why she hated physics.

Ultimately, her psychotic mathematical ramblings amounted to nothing. For all the exploration she and the Spook had undertaken, getting around all the anomalies and through the no doubt many kilometers of barren tunnels, they were simply no closer to their goal of escaping. No work had been done, despite all the wasted effort. They had to have been walking for hours by now, no end in sight.

There was little else she could do, though. As one of the subjects in the twisted, ever-changing maze, she could either escape or die. It was cold, stark reasoning, the type of stuff that kept her soul eternally chilled; she could very well die down here, and the odds were only increasing.

To be outside of Inkopolis' respawner network… it put a freaky tension over everything she did. One mistake could kill her, and kill her permanently. Sally'd taken the ability to cheat death for granted her whole life.

She couldn't even take her mind off of that dark realization. The Spook, despite their… unique nature, had lost most of the mystery and intrigue around them. They barely spoke, didn't stop moving, and never took off their mask. Occasionally, she would catch them glancing at her, but the instant they noticed her staring they'd look away, almost sheepishly.

But why? They had been much more sociable back at the hobo camp, for lack of a better term.

They even shook her hand…? Like, where'd the friendliness go?

Regardless, she kept trying. Anything to stave off the cocktail of boredom and soul-numbing, deep-set terror.

"Any idea how much longer we're gonna be walking?" she asked them. Yeah, it was a dumb question, but one, she hadn't asked it yet, and two, she was going to go freaking nuts if she didn't say anything.

That, and she was also pretty sure what she said didn't matter. Sally could say something like 'oh my cod, Spook, look! There's jolly ol' St. Neptune, come to give us Squidmas gifts!' and they wouldn't bat an eye. Language barriers! You love to see 'em!

The whole language problem did put a sizable dent in her 'government agent' theory, if she was being honest. They might've been pretty uninteresting as of late, but they were still also a weird enigmatic person in a weird suit, so it kinda balanced out? What exactly was under that mask? A normal face? An infected one? A dead one? It kept her guessing.

For all Sally knew, maybe they were an alien, or something. How they spoke during the few times they did, how they moved, how they acted, it was familiar, yet subtly distorted in a way she couldn't put her finger on.

Except, of course, when they went against common sense, which happened to be right now, in fact.

The two had come across a patch of that glowing teal ink, not large enough to be dangerous, but not small enough to be something they could just get around without doing anything. Color her surprised, when rather than wait for her to spray a safe path across with her own ink, the Spook simply strode across the ink, the substance itself not sticking to their boots. It was absurd.

Why didn't they hesitate?

What they were doing was analogous to sticking your hand into a fire! Even if you were wearing some sort of fireproof glove, you wouldn't do so without flinching, at least! Avoiding foreign ink was something hardwired into everyone, an action that was only taken if there was no other option. To do so as if it were the most natural thing in the world, even if it didn't affect you… it just- it was insane.

And even if you were immune to the ink, there were very good reasons not to do so. More often than not, things were in the ink. Scary things! Things that wanted them both dead!

A school of smallfry Salmonids rose up from the ink, infected and undead like the Maw from before. Their bloodshot eyes bulged and squirmed, pupils madly dilated and flickering in their sockets. This was in sharp contrast to their rusted utensils, held with deadly intent.

Only then did the Spook hesitate, only for a moment. But instead of falling back as any rational being would have, they instead ran up to the swarm, and with a mighty kick, punted one of the poor freaks so hard it exploded into ink when it hit the far wall.

The Spook's sudden choice of violence also broke Sally out of her musing. Raising her weapon, she sprayed a path forward and ran in, shouting a battle cry.

With her laying down a volley of ink fire and the Spook wildly stomping and kicking, the small horde was mercilessly decimated. A simple threat, thankfully, dealt with quickly and efficiently. A horde of small monsters destroyed by two larger, more powerful organisms. It was nice to be on the winning side of that equation for once.

Cod, it felt good to be back near the top of the food chain, again. Leave it to the Metro to screw the world up this much.

But how, and why? What was distorting reality to this extent, what technology was doing it? Was it magic? And why would anyone make such a place? To have the ability to make this hell, their talents could have been bent to create something truly beneficial and great. But then, why build this place instead? Was this the product of a mad genius, or perhaps several? What drove them to make this place? WHY-

That line of thought abruptly stopped, cut off by an intrusive thought of hers.

Until she got out of here, trying to find a motive or method to the madness was all worthless thinking. She was gonna save that for anybody else that found themselves down here. Not her.

Sally lowered her Splattershot, looking at the panting Spook. Despite having stomped plenty of the smallfry, their suit was still clean, almost unnaturally so. Ink-repellant, somehow?

The eyes behind their mask locked onto hers, the battle madness behind them fading. They stood up straight, shakily walking up to her, waiting. She nodded.

"Wait next time, will you?"

All she got in return was a shrug.

Good enough.

Without anything else to resolve, they continued onward. There was little else they could do.

More tunnels… Yay.

Life in the Metro was often unfair. And more often than not, she would fall on the unfavorable end of an equation.

Still, the math must not have liked her, because this time, the consequences were more… severe.

CRROOAAAKKK!

Sally ran as fast as her legs could carry, a fiery stitch burning her side.

She was already out of breath, but the furious, pained croaks behind her were more than enough to keep her adrenaline pumping. The Spook was sprinting ahead of her, navigating the tunnel with little difficulty. They were stumbling through anomalies without care, eldritch fire, lightning, and dust dancing around them. She was barely able to follow their footsteps, performing an improvised dance between certain death.

Running like this, while agonizing, was the only option. She couldn't see well enough while swimming, and now was not the time to make any mistakes.

The abomination behind her did not possess the same sense of self-preservation.

Sally had only glimpsed the monster's form once, when she looked back at the sound of a particularly violent reaction, the kind created by a field of anomalies. And unlike the Spook, it didn't have any form of protection.

Through the maelstrom of electrical fire and distorted gravity, the taut, leathery skin of a twisted, almost comically oversized amphibian poked through. Its eyes shined through the storm, reptilian and mad. Sally had swallowed hard, trying to block out the smell of burning meat and ozone, as psychic nails began to scratch against her mind.

It was scratching her soul, tearing small gashes in her very being.

Ahead of her, she saw the Spook vanish from sight, a hand coming back into view to wave her through an exit door. Weaving between anomalies, Sally reached the end as well, just as the monster let out a repulsive croak.

CRROOAAAKKK!

Just as she ducked into the subway proper, a thin, vicious streak of ink shot through the open way. It formed a thick string that clung to the opposite wall, before retracting back to its owner, alongside a decent chunk of rock ripped from the wall.

T-the thing's got a tongue!?

Of course it had a tongue! Why wouldn't it!? WHY COULDN'T ANYTHING MAKE SENSE DOWN HERE.

Sally ran after the fleeting form of the Spook, sticking to the subway wall. Already, she could see the monster's sickly teal glow coming from the tunnel they had just fled, still in hot pursuit. The psychic nails were only growing stronger.

As it finally cleared the maintenance tunnel, Sally finally got a good look at the beast.

The glowing, slimy skin of a massive corrupted frog poked through the darkness. It hopped forward on four jointed limbs, moving like some kind of bastardized Judd-like creature. Fire and electrical burns covered its body, skin flayed by anomalies littering the halls it'd just chased them out of. Some of it had burned off completely, exposing raw muscle and fat. Much of the diseased flesh glowed, vile ink pulsing under the surface.

The period of grace abruptly ended. It opened its mouth, and the same ink tongue shot forward, trying to impale her. Sally ducked just in time, but as the tongue retracted, it brought with it another heavy piece of masonry. The debris clipped Sally, stunning her.

The frog, seeing that its prey was incapacitated, leaped impossibly high, just on top of her, and-

The Spook intercepted, pulling Sally back just as it was about to land on her. Instead of being crushed underneath it, the frog instead landed just in front of her. It stared down at her, tongue flicking against an eye.

Sally screamed, reaching a crescendo as the monster opened its maw, tongue dancing within. On instinct, she aimed her Splattershot at the mouth and pulled the trigger, purple ink coating the insides of the frog. It roared in pain, reeling back as her ink burned its insides.

Sally took the chance to scramble back to her feet, and with a shout of fury, began to spray the frog's leathery skin. Her vision focused on the damage she was causing, the rush of ink behind her ears fueling her violence.

Until the Spook grabbed her shoulder, breaking her out of her bloodlust. Without waiting to see her response, they ran, pulling her along with them. As they did so, Sally saw as her ink was absorbed by the frog, being replaced by the toxic, teal ink it seemed to be made of. Sally gasped, wrenching herself out of the Spook's grip and running on her own.

Fighting wasn't an option! How was it absorbing her ink?

They hadn't gained much ground before the frog recovered, hopping at them again. Sally tried to lay down a path of ink behind her, hoping to ensnare it, but the frog simply jumped over it. This open space was a curse; they were nothing more than fish in a barrel, flies to be consumed.

With a croak, the frog's tongue shot out again and managed to nick the Spook's leg. While it didn't stick, it caused them to stumble and trip. Somehow, they scrambled back to their feet just in time to avoid a torrent of acidic bile that the frog vomited out.

This wasn't good!

To compound issues, the tunnel ahead of them carried a noxious, green glow, an acid spill. To her dismay, the Spook sped up upon seeing it, diverting their path. With no choice but to follow, Sally put her nose and mouth into her shirt, trying to filter out the fumes. Damnit, they had the gas mask, not her!

It was another side passage, connecting to another subway tunnel. It was chock-full of acid and airborne anomalies, if the distorted, hazy scene was of any indicaiton. Why couldn't they just keep running forward!?

The frog was just behind them, about to leap again.

Without a second thought, Sally was scooped up by the Spook. She cried out indignantly, but was ignored as they jumped into the anomaly. Nothing registered.

Everything else did.

The acid bubbled and hissed at the Spook's waist, but refused to eat through. Sally's core lit up in fear as she grabbed the Spook's neck, raised her legs up, doing everything she could to avoid the acid droplets that were splashed up.

It was terrifying. Sally swore one of her hearts exploded.

But, it was over, Sally being let back down on the ground. The Spook's lower half, while smoking, was still intact. W-when did they… She couldn't remember reaching the end.

Across the acid was the frog, which was eyeing them with murderous intent, calculating. The tongue shot forward, trying to spear her, but as it reached across the air above the acid, the space snapped, bisecting the tongue, falling into the acid and dissolving immediately.

Another airborne anomaly.

The frog's eyes retracted. Blinded by the pain, it leapt forward, trying to reach them regardless of the cost. Revenge. Its first leap landed it in the acid. Sally could only watch in horror as the flesh sloughed off of its body, eating through the organics as if they didn't exist. The monster ignored it, however, and leaped again from its ruined legs. This time, being caught in the air, where it floated for a moment.

For a moment, then…

SNAP!

The same anomaly that took its tongue took the rest of the frog, exploding it into little bits. What remained fell into the acid, dissolving into nothingness.

Sally and the Spook could only stare at where the frog had once been, both in stunned silence.

Eventually, Sally snapped out of the shock, pulling at the Spook's arm.

"C'mon… that… was a thing, but we need to keep moving."

And so, they did. For their sanity.

The second time the Spook wanted to cross something, it was far less eventful.

"You… really want me to cross that?"

Now that Sally had a choice in the matter, however, with death breathing down her neck and all. But, she was still just a kid, and she was a stubborn kid.

She crossed her arms indignantly, much to the chagrin of the Spook. For once, she was looking down on them, as they were waist-deep in a river of filth. The subways had transitioned into sewers a while back, complete with… well, sewage.

The Metro had yet to completely stomp her sense of dignity.

"Look." Sally said, exasperated. "We could always just turn back, you know."

She pointed back the way they had come from. "See, turn back. Turn back."

Rather than take her wonderful suggestion to heart, the Spook shook their head, pointing to the other side of the stream, saying something in their own tongue. Like always, it was rough and dry, almost painful to the ear. She swore it sounded condescending.

"Yeah yeah," Sally huffed, not understanding them in the slightest, "but why? What is so important about crossing here?"

They let out a huff of their own, gesturing to the other side, then pointing her flashlight at a spot in the dark. What were they-

A glint of metal caught her attention. Just barely, she could see a rusted door embedded into the stone.

"...oh. I see now."

She bent down near the stream. "But, how am I supposed to get across?"

The Spook presented their back to her.

"Ride on your back?"

Seeing her resignation and recognition, they nodded gravely.

"Alright then…"

Without any further fanfare, Sally awkwardly climbed onto their shoulders.

She was far too large to sit comfortably, but anything to keep her away from the stream. Her hands found security in grasping the Spook's head, while they kept her legs secure against their side. A knot in her stomach grew; she was putting her full trust in them not to drop her, or topple over, or screw up in such a way that killed her. There was no respawner down here, only death.

In an odd sense, it was nostalgic. It reminded her of when she was a small child, getting these kinds of rides from her dad.

Before long, they had reached the other side. Sally was dropped back onto her feet, the Spook climbing out not long after. Like always, the nasty sewage water just flowed right off.

"So… uh, what's your story?"

Predictably, Sally didn't get much of a reply, only a shrug. Still, she thought, better a bit of interaction, rather than none.

The door had led to another maintenance room, similar to the one she had rested in an eternity ago. It was dry and dark, yet, with the remains of a beat-up crate, the Spook had managed to start a fire with… something cobbled together from their backpack.

It had been too long since she had been this warm, felt the heat seep into her cartilage. It brought her an odd sense of ease.

The Spook, on the other hand, simply stared into the fire, the flames reflecting off of their helmet's optics. They leaned against the wall, sitting down in a casual pose. What exactly were they thinking behind that mask?

Sally shrugged, clearing the thought from her mind. For now, it was just good to rest. Even if the Spook was silent, they were another set of eyes to keep watch. This place was probably safe, but she could still remember the last time she tried to rest with that assumption, especially in a room like this. Logically, she knew it probably wouldn't happen again, but it did little to relieve the tension she felt. It let her think, for once.

Her mind got crushed to paste, but how?

It was a mystery, for sure, but did she want the answer? The answer would no doubt be horrific, and she already had enough material to fuel a thousand nightmares. Did she want to add to the pile?

Could she really go back to a normal life after this? She had almost died, seen ruptures in the fabric of reality, comprehended monstrous horrors that roamed this hellscape, and she had done all of those in the space of a few hours.

A part of her would forever be stuck down here, a piece of her she would never get back.

Sally sighed, leaning back. That was assuming they even made it out of here. She was simply wasting her time thinking about it all, yet she couldn't help it. Some crazy little thread of optimism, she figured. Something that was trying to keep her spirit alive. It sure did work, at least.

Maybe it was a survivor's spirit, something from her grandpa. The thought brought a ghost of a smile to her face. She couldn't help but feel he was keeping an eye on her, even now.

It brought a bit of comfort to her dreary frame.

A frame that was quite hungry, now that she had the chance to unwind.

Sally rooted around her backpack, pulling out a granola bar. The one smart thing she had done before coming down here was to stock up on food and water; as far as she knew, it was the only edible and potable supply down here. And so far, she had a fair amount left, which… was strange. She knew time was all kinds of wonky down here, but to this extent? She swore she had gone through a lot more? Or… shell, how long had it been?

…as long as it worked in her favor, did it really matter?

Yeah, let's go with yeah.

She took a vicious bite from the bar, reveling in the taste. Turns out, food tastes amazing when you're in dire need of it. Even if it was some cheap convenience store granola bars.

She scarfed it down and reached for another, only to see the Spook staring at her from across the fire. That… was new.

Specifically, at the bar she had just grabbed. Were they hungry?

Probably; they had been running down here for what felt like hours, that would wear anyone out. On impulse, she tossed the bar to them, landing on their lap.

"Eat up, hope you like granola."

Despite her words, the Spook was still cautious. They opened the bar and turned it in their hands, examining it carefully. Eventually satisfied, put it back in their lap. Their hands moved to their mask, but froze. Their gaze had fallen onto her yet again.

Then back to the bar.

Then her.

The bar.

Her.

….

She could hear them sigh, a resigned noise. With a pair of clicks, they peeled back the hood they wore, exposing some sort of helmet. Another set of clicks, and the mask was pulled free.

They took a deep breath, their face finally free of that featureless mask.

Or, his face, for that matter.


Hm, what was this…?

Far above, a woman reached out an armored hand, a heavy rock in her grip. When she felt the weight of it start to lift away, she let it go.

Impossibly, it floated into the air, moonlight glinting off of its surface as the wind that rippled through the trees pushed it slightly. Eventually, it fell to the ground, pushed out of some kind of radius.

The engineer clicked her tongue at the result. An anomaly? Anti-gravity, to boot. If they were up here, outside of safe testing areas or known anomalous zones…

Concerning. But, for now, nothing more than an oddity. She had bigger things to worry about. To stay on the safe side, though, she marked the rough location on her paper map, and returned to walking.

Throwing that post-human Aberrant back to their people wasn't exactly the best idea she had, and sticking around here was not something she really wanted to do. Without an idea as to the extent of those creatures' military response, she wasn't willing to risk it. Holding a patch of forest with nothing but a shitty prototype energy pistol also just wasn't worth it, either, doubly so considering she had a limited supply of ammunition.

What was worth it, though, was what the Aberrant had to say when she 'interrogated' it, back before it's stupid little escape attempt.

The language barrier wasn't something she could get around, but showing her hostage her lovely little scrapbook of stolen stickers, newspapers, and sketches of human corporate logos until it freaked out proved to be actually pretty effective. Suffice to say, she didn't expect Kamabo's logo to be what set it off, but it did, and frankly, that scared her a little.

The Aberrants already trashed Borealis. Seventy-five souls dead, except her.

If they got into Kamabo, too…

She didn't want to think about what nightmares would get unleashed. All the old tech, the machines, the experiments. All that had to stay buried, and then some.

But if the Aberrants knew about Kamabo, that meant they'd managed to at least discover something about it. An entrance into one of their facilities, or an Emplacement, or fuck knows what else.

The tech level of their species wasn't all that fantastic, sure, but the worry still remained. If they hadn't found Kamabo yet, she had to get in there before they did.

Kamabo's main facility was directly under Tokyo, under that giant gaudy skyscraper of theirs that served as their corporate HQ. With that Aberrant city directly over it, not to mention tons of dirt and other crap, she wasn't going to be able to get in there at all.

She very vividly remembered finding Neru-sha's Saitama office building, all 235 meters of it, buried up to the rusty corporate logo in the middle of densely packed woods. If anything, that at least gave her a metric for just how far the Aberrants would have to go to get down to Kamabo's facilities proper.

(Granted, she didn't know how the hell 220 meters of dirt got there, let alone how it got there in under 12,000 years. Questions, questions…)

With the city's Aberrants seemingly unable to get into Kamabo's facilities proper, part of her worries went away. Not much, but enough to keep her eyes off the city, for now.

However, once one hit the mountains outside the city, things got a bit more complicated. Kamabo maintained quite the number of satellite facilities, with subterranean rail tunnels snaking hundreds of kilometers around between facilities. If the Aberrants found one satellite facility, they could theoretically find them all.

She was going to find out soon enough. If she remembered the maps right… one such satellite facility was not far from here, wedged into the hillside.

In preparation, she checked her ammo and weapons, just in case there was a fight.

Two shots left in her current plasma cartridge. Fifteen cartridges left, stuffed away in all manner of pouches she'd strapped to her armor.

Her custom 'fish hook', still in good condition. Earlier, she'd sharpened it with a whetstone, and lightly oiled its blade.

FLK Active Protective Plating body armor and helmet, lightly scorched, but its CBRN capabilities were still fine. Normally, she wouldn't trust anything from a Polaris shell company, but it got her this far.

Some of her other supplies had to be sacrificed to throw the Aberrants' impending response off of her trail, but thankfully, there had been time to stash the more important bits away. It may have been stupid to waste a few shots to incinerate the rest, but sometimes, one needed to leave an impression.

Sparing the Aberrant hostage she took was a deviation in her plans, but she couldn't bring herself to end her life. Or, she didn't want to do it messily with her hook, or waste a plasma shot. Even if it was deserved, she still wasn't at the level of cold-blooded murder. Yet.

Or, was it because they looked human, just enough? It didn't stop her back at Borealis, but that had been a clear cut case of self-defense.

It would explain why this hesitation didn't extend to the beasts before her.

Three genetic abominations were ahead of her in the dead of night. Dead-eyed, diseased tentacle monsters, scootering about on their little Roomba(?) bots, spreading their virulence, their corruption.

With a gentle swing, she brought her fish hook to bear. Preferably, she'd vaporize them at range with her pistol, but she only had so many plasma cartridges, and if she was being honest, she had been far, far too liberal with them the past few days.

Really, using one to kill a few fish, and a tree? Reaaaal conservatory there.

Granted, the fish was friggin' delicious. When her life significantly was less apocalyptic, she would have to try it again, maybe write an informal paper about the benefits of plasma fishing. The feds would be on her ass about it, but she reckoned that some good fish might at least delay the ATF's inevitable arrival a bit.

Which wasn't here nor there, thankfully. With no feds to watch her, no oversight committees judging her every move, anything was on the table.

And as such, when she was faced with these freaks of nature, she tightened her grip on her fish hook, muscles tensing andreadying for action.

Let's do this.

Without a second thought, she shot forward over the viral ink, fish hook raised and ready to kill. The first abomination didn't notice her, not until their flesh was caught by the hook, partially protruding. It didn't make any sounds of pain, only its two companions staring at her in disbelief.

As she had learned from the Aberrant in the woods, a hooked creature was quite easy to manage. As a hostage, that is. For those you wanted dead…

With a grunt, she ripped the hook out, tearing a gaping hole in the being's flesh. It burst into more of the vile ink, staining her APP. Good riddance. His two friends were cut down in quick order.

Satisfying. A small measure of vengeance.

She was beginning to like this hook. She'd always thought it was just a fun little conversation piece, never meant to see use, but the sharpness, the weight… she gave it a small twirl. There was a little fun to be had with this thing, as well as some light thematic irony if she thought about it.

And he saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.

Matthew 4:19, King James. She wasn't religious, nor were these monsters men, yet the apocalypse certainly had given her a measure of leniency, especially for humor. Even if it came down to quoting verses, it still kept her sane. Never in her life had she expected to do so, but these were desperate times. Her mother would have been proud, even if she was using this despised lifeline.

Different times, that weren't as fucked up as now.

Not that it felt particularly fucked up out here. Or, anywhere, for that matter.

In her search for Kamabo's satellite facilities, she found herself quite deep inland, high up in the great forests of post-apocalyptic Japan. At this distance, she couldn't see the city of Aberrants, and not even the little pockets of rural Aberrant life were out this far. This place was completely abandoned, untread by anyone but her. It was only her, the forest, the bugs, and the stars. Were it not for the knowledge of her species extinction, it would have been peaceful out here.

She no longer feared what monsters might stalk in the dark; she had the means to kill them all.

But, the fact that she had to was already a bad sign, especially out here, where no life should have been. That alone wouldn't have been an issue, but it was where she found them specifically that had her worried.

Right as she expected, the abominations were outside an angular concrete structure, built into the countryside. A steel door was embedded into the structure, a featureless maglock door built from the usual alloys.

It having been blown up and covered in the contagious ink of the Aberrants didn't soothe her worries one bit. Something was clearly wrong here, even more so than the typical Aberrant behavior. Those three she had killed were diseased monsters, something that was exceptionally atypical.

Some kind of plague, perhaps? A mutant monster plague? She felt like a stupid kid saying it, but what else could it be?

Note to self: possible bioweapon, maybe used as a potential last resort?

That complicated things very, very much. And by complicated…

She twirled the hook in her hand. There would be plenty of bodies. Extermination work, like that one summer job where she eliminated cockroaches. All that experience was going to pay off tonight. If there were three of them out here, just how many would there be inside?

Cautiously, she entered.

Very few of them, apparently. Which was good.

What wasn't good was what else was down in here, though.

The further she went in, the more this place got… impossible, for lack of a better term.

Anomalies littered the space, fractalizing hallways into one another and distorting the facility in ways she'd never seen before. Heard of, yes, but seeing it still made her question everything she knew of the phenomena.

Especially for it to be induced so 'calmly,' if she had to describe it. The few experiments she knew of always had violent outcomes, whether it was the anomalous formation of energy fields, patches of space stitching themselves together endlessly, or just an area ceasing to exist altogether.

Then, there was that whole clusterfuck in the Eurocom. A reactor complex going tits-up, turning a good chunk of the Ukraine into the Eurocom Exclusion Zone. All that land, gone to waste, all the lives lost.

And seeing how large the distortions here were, this looked to be the start of another Zone. Underground, thankfully, but another Zone nonetheless.

It seemed far more stable than the EEZ, thankfully, but as she had probed deeper into the facility, she noticed more and more logical inconsistencies; rooms looping in on themselves, spaces that shouldn't have fit where they did, and of course, zones of anomalous activity. Ripping and restitching reality was far from seamless, and these 'errors' were space-time's blood clots, come to close the gaps in reality.

For almost an hour, she wandered about, navigating anomalies, distorted hallways, and the occasional Aberrant freak or two. With nothing worth mentioning coming about, she decided to turn around and head back to the surface…

…only to find the hallway behind her just gone.

Smooth concrete, as if the door behind her simply never existed in the first place.

She couldn't leave.

Shit.

All she could do was probe deeper, and so, she did. Gradually, the tunnels were turning from smooth rock and metal to jagged, worn down brick.

This place had stopped being a Kamabo facility at some point, so…

Where… was she?


Sally couldn't sleep.

She was stuck staring into the dying embers of the fire instead, contemplating. She was also keeping watch, which was redundant, considering they jammed a metal pipe into part of the door to block it from opening, but anything to justify her insomnia.

Insomnia, which for now, she was blaming on the Spook. Occasionally, her eyes would flit to his face, seeing that he hadn't put the mask back on to sleep. Occasionally, a few muscles would twitch, and he would flinch.

Was her mutant theory right?

She had been serious when she thought it up, but hadn't considered it an actual possibility. Because, really, what were the actual odds of it being true, rather than the more mundane theory of 'foreign government agent with a throat injury using bleeding edge technology?'

She was not calculating the math for those odds.

Nor did she want to particularly know of his origins either. He wasn't a bumbling idiot, like those mutants on TV. He had his suit, and knew how to work it judging from the ease by which he removed his mask. The fact that he was some sort of misshapen Inkling didn't inspire much confidence either. Perhaps he was some government project, rather than an agent?

He could have been some sort of mutant conjured miraculously by the Metro, but he wasn't… mutant enough. They still looked strangely natural, as if he was meant to look like he did. Created by intelligence, rather than chaotic, random chance. The Metro wouldn't spit someone like him out.

Cod, even the hair he had looked natural. Same with the lack of eye rings, or pointed ears. Nothing seemed to stand out to her, in that regard. His teeth, though… those were familiar, but where had she seen them?

Regardless, the revelation made her a bit uncomfortable.

She scooted closer to the fire, taking in its dying warmth. It was a small comfort, one she would have taken for granted back home. Sighing to herself, she laid down next to the fire.

Another sleepless rest.

The inklings of a headache roused her awake.

It was a small pain, barely a scratch, but it sent her heart racing, being woken up like this. Sally instinctively pressed herself against a wall. The fire had gone out, causing her to scramble for her flashlight. It revealed the Spook, whose face was uncomfortably twisted, yet still asleep.

The headache was only growing, the scratching intensifying. She could hear inaudible, disjointe whispering, and her electrosensory organ was starting to cramp. The Spook's face was slowly twisting into agony, dripping with watery sweat. His breath had grown rapid and heavy, verging on feverish.

He was being illuminated by a sickly green glow coming from the cracks in the door. She could hear the metal creak as something heavy pressed on it.

Vile ink was forcing its way through the cracks.

And as it forced its way through, dripping, the voices spiked.

Silent, anguished cries blasted through her mind, the raw tide threatening to overwhelm her. The Spook's eyes shot open, bloodshot. His screams were horrific, unbound, unbridled, and like his voice, raw and dry. They did little to help her mental state.

She could barely think, the pain was that horrid.

He had stood up, teary eyes focused on the door, struggling to get his balance past the psychic assault on their minds. His mask sat unworn in his grasp.

Sally was on the verge of losing it, like he had. But, strangely, the horror of the moment kept her grounded. The adrenaline pumping through her veins strengthened her resolve. She refused to break.

And right now, they needed to get out, hide, whatever!

She grabbed the Spook's shoulders, shaking him. He was looking right through her, eyes wide and pupils dilated.

"C'mon, snap out of it!"

His screaming had ceased, leaving only what looked like some kind of numb terror in his unfocused eyes. Seeing that nothing was working, Sally slapped him squarely across the face.

It left a bright red mark on his cheek, but it seemed to work. His eyes blinked, focusing on her. Horrified, yet in the moment. Sally didn't waste time, dragging him away from the door. Still confused, he complied, like a lost child.

They were both pressed against the back wall, utterly trapped. But the ink kept pouring through the door, thickening and coalescing into a humanoid form, a body of mono-color ink. As it took its first steps forward, Sally had to suppress a gasp; it wasn't shaped like an Inkling or an Octoling, the proportions were subtly off, as well as how it walked.

It did so like the Spook.

Its blank face looked about, as if searching for something, sightless. It uncertainly walked forward, as if unused to walking. Its approach only drove more nails into Sally's head, while tears streamed freely from the Spook's eyes. Their gaze was locked onto the figure, and after a moment, it was reciprocated.

Sally heard the breath catch in his throat.

On impulse, she backed away from the figure, further along the wall. Shapes and forms overlaid themselves across her mind. Thoughts that weren't her own-

Scientists at their workstations. Keeping the dream alive.

Calamity. Safeguards dismantled. Casualties skyrocketing.

Last resort. All together, now. Fumitaka, signal when ready.

Failure. Defense systems subsumed. Machines consuming machines.

No hope. An Octoling departs for the surface.

Until now. The Spook's face, reflected.

Her hand felt a doorknob-

A doorknob? A door? Against the back wall? There… hadn't been a door there before.

The figure was almost to the Spook, arms outstretched, as if wanting a hug.

Sally twisted the knob, and by some miracle, it opened. A rush of cold, stale air accompanied the opening, catching the attention of the figure, and by extension, the Spook.

He took the opening, shoving past the figure out tackling her through the door.

Scrambling back to his feet, he closed it.

They were safe here, right?

Most likely, seeing as the door refused to budge. Sally was sitting against the heavy, metal door, panting. As soon as she had closed it, the headache had vanished, though the dregs were still coursing through her system.

The Spook, while still conscious, looked awful. Sally was sure she looked just as bad; the Spook seemed entirely unused to the mental attacks, whatever was causing them.

More evidence, which… she still wasn't sure about it.

Evidence they weren't part of a hivemind, perhaps? Her father had always talked about the jellyfish ruling everything through some sort of hivemind. So, that non-existent fear could be put to rest?

She was getting off-topic, wasn't she? Brain fog from what had just happened, she assumed.

There were more pressing matters, such as… where they were? Right. Where were they?

This place was dark, yet some kind of all-encompassing light illuminated everything, albeit poorly. Here, it was fairly small, about the size of one of the larger classrooms back in school, and unlike the rest of the Metro, it was filled with equipment.

Laptops, documents, test tubes, tools, scientific devices Sally couldn't fathom the use of, all messily arranged across a variety of tables. Still largely damaged, however; even in this safe room, time hadn't been completely defanged.

This was some kind of laboratory. And somehow, they found it in a maintenance closet, through a door that had appeared out of thin air. What were the odds? It made no sense.

Of course, perhaps her luck had finally decided to change. That's how probability worked, right? If enough bad stuff happened, good luck would find you, right? She was no scientist, yet it made a degree of sense.

Were the people here scientists? Perhaps the ones from those weird visions?

She cautiously picked up one of the papers; it was still sturdy, despite the environmental damage. It was certainly official-looking, but she couldn't read it in the slightest. An entirely different language, a familiar-looking one, at that…

Her heart began to beat slightly faster. It was a human script, Their written language! Almost no photographs of theirs survived, but some of their paperwork had, some of which Sally knew by heart. Like, the one funny piece of script, 'q'.

And that meant…

This place was human-made! Her original theory was right! In an instant, the ember of hope in her soul burst into a fire.

Without tact or strategy, she began shoving everything she could into her backpack. This was an untouched treasure trove! This was gold, all of it! Forget that rusty wrench, this was the real prize!

One of the laptops was plugged into the wall via a charger, and she took the opportunity to open it up. The keys were in human script as well! And it was intact! With a bit of fiddling, she even managed to turn it on, only to be greeted by a lock screen. Still!

Into her bag!

There was an old burner thing of a make she didn't recognize. When she turned it on, it produced a bright, blue flame. So cool…

Into the bag!

Human periodic table containing a bevy of new elements! She couldn't read it, but who cares!

Bag!

She grabbed a plastic vial full of a clear, odorless liquid. In her haste, a few drops spilled over the edge onto the table, where they smoked and hissed their way through the artificial surface. So… cool!

She put it down gently. Acid doesn't go in the bag.

But! What else was there!?

She would have continued looking, only to instead jump when she felt a hand grab her shoulder. It was just the Spook, thankfully. His face was still pale and tired, but appeared to have shaken off the mental shock; his expression was unreadable, having seen what she was looking at.

He then shrugged, turning away.

Almost as if spellbound, he moved through the room, fingers trailing on the counters and equipment. His eyes were unfocused, seeing, yet not quite comprehending. Idly, they picked up one document, scanning it.

And then another.

And another.

He eventually put the paper down, looking right at Sally. She wasn't sure what his age was, but for a brief moment, he looked old, far older than she could imagine. Then he looked away, looking for something. He got up, striding across the room to another door, one she hadn't noticed earlier. While he walked past her, he grabbed her flashlight, as well as the vial of acid.

Sally caught another glimpse of his eyes; haunted, yet steeled.

Without hesitation, he walked through the door, Sally keeping up, partially out of concern, partially because she didn't want to be alone down here again.

They wandered almost aimlessly, going through hallway after darkened, abandoned hallway, passing storage rooms filled with materials, tools, and everything in between. Sally desperately wanted to stop and look closer at what the small facility possessed, but the Spook refused to slow down. Worse, the more he looked, the more desperate he became.

What was once a restrained pace had fallen into animalistic speed, practically tearing through the facility. Sally could see desperation written plainly on his face, and the dull shining of tears down his cheeks. Even as he grunted and groaned with exertion and pain, he refused to stop.

Until suddenly, he did stop, Sally almost crashing into him in the process.

He stood at the entrance of a long-ish room, glowing the color of the vile ink. His grip tightened on the doorframe, odd, fearful noises coming out of him.

Peaking over his frame, Sally could see why.

The room was full of strange angular 'tubes,' easily large enough to hold an Inkling or Octoling. All of them were shattered, the glowing, vile ink of the Metro dripping off of them. It also covered the walls and ceilings, like the ice in some corrupted freezer. Occasionally, a bit would drip from the ceiling, splattering onto the corrugated walkway.

There she saw a broken respawner in the center of the room, sparking madly.

Slowly, the Spook entered, his face an unreadable mask. A hand trailed along one tube, the man forlornly looking about. He slouched forward slightly, an invisible weight being put on his shoulders as he inspected the scene.

He'd reached the center of the room when it happened. Above him, a small bit of the teal ink dripped off of the ceiling, directly onto the Spook's head.

It squirmed, then melted away.

The Spook jerked up, only for a moment.

Then, he collapsed to the ground, screaming.


/ REWRITE A/N: /

Falk here, as usual.

Before I get started; shoutouts to cr4b#9697 on the Polariscord for the original idea behind the last art piece in this chapter - the one with Polarisguy getting dripped on. With their blessing, I've appropriated the idea for my own nefarious deeds. They don't seem to have the original up anywhere but the Discord, but I'll link their Twitter just in case: /_cr4b_

Good shit. Anyway, back to the chapter itself.

God, I hope we're not already fucking this up. Compared to the original chapter, this still seems like a slog to get through - lots of things happen in here, what with THE FROG, the new Stranger entering the Metro, the old Stranger's face reveal and subsequent mystery thing right there at the end… It's already feeling like a lot.

There's not much I can really say, other than the usual 'oh we're fixing stuff by adjusting things and doing other things so it's better lol!' so I'm gonna say just that. We're fixing stuff by adjusting things and doing other things, so it'll be better. Maybe. Hell if I know, honestly.

Beta reading is kinda hard, since while we have a group of people who I can summon at will to read the early versions of these chapters (shoutouts to Polariscord made men) they've got zero obligation to read or provide feedback. While we're technically also beta readers by rewriting this, we're also biased because we know everything that happens. Gotta get external input, or we'll make no actual progress towards improving the fic.

With that said, I do feel at minimum the improvements to language, grammar, and consistency should at least make this less of a slog than the original, which is something, I guess.

Anyhow, I'm going to turn this over to Piston for what he has (or had) to say, so I'd like to take the time to hope you're having a good day, and that you'll be back for another chapter! Take care!

/ ORIGINAL A/N: /

In an ironic sense, the chapter that I struggled the most with since starting this story turned out to be the quickest to write. I'm not sure why that is; perhaps I'm just a bit lazy, heaven knows I could dedicate more time to this story. I mean, it's been almost two years now, and we're just getting to about 14 chapters. So much more could have been done. In the future, I'll try to get these out faster.

For the chapter itself, I don't have much to say on it, except that consequences will never be the same. That, and it was a new experience to write about what was found and happened on the 'journey'. It was a learning experience, overall.

Aside from that,there's also a Discord server now, as well, and this is the invite code 'qCMxkGzzBg'. We're still a bit small, but we have some fun, and art, too! It's been a good experience!

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading and reviewing, and have a good one!