Chapter 9: The Fourth Stop (3)

Dressed in jet-black suits and fancy red ties, Theo and Carmina exited the gendered dressing rooms with their respective ID weapons held in their hands.

"I can't lie, wearing a suit to face off some monstrosity of nature feels a lot better than running full-speed ahead to mop a dude's cell room. But most importantly, we get to do some ACTION!" Carmina yelled with livelihood, a passionate fire for destruction was lit inside her eyes.

"I am less than optimistic to get a heart attack in the middle of the fight, but I'm feeling pretty smooth right now."

Duncan let out a jolly laugh, "Fret not, friend! We have some of the best healthcare in the entire State! But don't worry, just one victory can cure any with the faint of heart!"

"No, like, it's connected to this fire axe of mine. I will actually die from a heart attack mid battle if I use this thing."

"Oh, well, that's not so jolly, but you still have your friend to cover for you!"

"Leave it all to me, Theo! Wait, no, still do something, but I'll show you the might of what a stressed-out senior can do! THE HUNT IS ON! RAAAAHHHHH!"

'I don't think I can trust that,' Theo thought with caution.

"Haha, vigorous employees are always welcome! You'll need that spirit when facing some of the scary Distortions we have here. Nevertheless, let me give you a rundown of how we'll be doing your beginner training---"

Traversing downward into the sub-one floor, a difficulty one Distortion is to be set free by administration. 

It is Theo's and Carmina's job to control the Distortion back into a submissive state, thus allowing for a swift and easy job for detainment of the Distortion back into its cell. Although it will only be the two of them who will confront the Distortion, their access to open or close hallways are unrestricted in a certain radius of the freed Distortion.

Not only that, if something were to go wrong, there are personal available near Theo and Carmina's location to assist in battle.

"---you got that? Good, as re-explaining the situation is a waste of time that can be used for mental preparation. Follow me to the elevator."

Duncan, who may have had an infatuation with the two beginners before, had returned to the serious face he had used to enter the lounge. It seemed that, whenever Distortions were involved with the conversation, Duncan kept himself professional without a hint of emotion.

The elevator ride wasn't long, and it didn't take much for Theo to prep himself for whatever he was about to face. Sure, some blood or a gory sight might give a small fright, but it didn't seem like much after facing the first two Distortions. 

Theo felt thoroughly prepared to fight the monster that would be presented before him, but an uncanny thought had suddenly intruded his mind.

Was it really rational that Theo had adapted to such a bizarre environment like this one in a matter of a week or two? To divert from the path of normalcy so quickly?

Or was it that Theo was never meant to be a bystander but instead, a Manifestor that fought eldritch monsters as a career?

It was a thought that was just two sides of the same coin.

Ding!

The elevator rang a melodious chime, its sliding doors opening to reveal an empty hallway as white as any other could be.

"Welcome to the first sub level in the lab, but I imagine you've already visited here at least one time during your short-lived job as janitors. This entire floor is your playground---" Duncan gave out two phones, "---and these are how you'll be controlling the laboratory hallways to your liking. Do be warned though that using these to trap the Distortion won't do much and it can only buy you time."

Carmina fiddled with her newfound toy and put it inside her pocket, "Man, the success rate of these trainings must be thin. That British guy was one hell of a guy, backhanding me across the room."

"Oh, this isn't what we usually do. Normally, our training consists of studying Distortions and working out until trainees are fit enough to take a Distortion. Think of this as more of a test rather than training, since administration has never a Manifestor in action before. With the theoretical benefits of what Manifestors can do, there are high expectations."

"I guess we're pretty top dog around here, eh?" Carmina spoke as she nudged at Theo.

"Huh? Uh, yea."

"Woah, hey, don't go spacing out in such a crucial moment of our mission. As much as I'd like to use this situation to show off, I'm gonna be pretty angry if I have to carry your ass to the top."

"Yea, yea, I got it."

Theo casually dismissed Carmina of her worries with a wave, following after her as the elevator doors closed behind them.

The hallways were, as expected, eerily silent.

Although it had been cleared of personnel in order to keep any third party source interfering with their testing, Theo thought that there would've been the buzz of the fluorescent lighting at the very least.

But that silence wouldn't be kept for long.

[Beep! Distortion break out at sector 2B: 008, class one, 'Those Without Mother.' Please look under the information tab for more information.]

Both Theo's and Carmina's cellphone rang out from their pockets, prompting them to take it out.

"Wow, this looks like it has a creep factor of a seven out of ten."

"Residue Distortions made from a class three Distortion...? Please don't tell me we're fighting Distortion babies as our targets."

"Well, that's what we can infer, so I guess we are. Oh hey, look---" Carmina showed Theo a notice on her screen, "---we can kill 'em all we want! It might've been a bit of hassle trying to subdue a Distortion into detainment, but I guess they're hitting two birds with one stone."

"At least you're positive."

"Oh please, I needed a stress outlet the moment I got trucked into this world. That lamp post kicking was not enough to vent out my anger. BRINNGGG IT OOONNN!!!!" Carmina gave a barbaric yell before running head first into the unknown.

"Hey, dumbass, stop---!" Theo spoke as he stretched out his hand towards Carmina before she had promptly stopped.

"Yea, alright, that's a dumb thing to do. We gotta stick together, especially since we're facing a Distortion we don't know much about. Hell, who even made this? There isn't even a tab on how to face this guy! Are they telling us to just beat the shit out of them?!"

"I guess so, since they want us to get rid of this Distortion. More importantly, I'm glad that you aren't a meathead. You were reliving all the death flags of every movie out there."

"Pfft, of course not! I'm not about to go brain dead the moment I'm stressed! God, I would've died so much sooner if I was like that."

"Alex's bullshit?"

"Yup, it all comes from his bullshit."

Walking down the hallway with a more-than-relaxed posture, Theo and Carmina were busily chatting like they were without a care in the world. It seemed as though the Distortion they were going to face was just apart of their daily schedule.

Nonetheless, the two were logical enough to check around the corners, displaying both caution and ease.

But it wouldn't be long until a shrill cry could be heard deep into the corridor.

Immediately, Carmina shushed up Theo while shutting her own mouth, shooting a glance at him to see if he understood what to do, in which he nodded yes.

Taking a wary peek behind the hallway corner, an eye-twitching Distortion fell before Carmina's eyes, giving more shivers down her spine than the flesh-melding horror that was the Star Spore.

The Distortion looked to be a child-like humanoid crawling on the laboratory ground, its red flesh left skinless as soft but incoherent moans sourced its shrill cries. Instead, a sort of clear fluid was coated all over its body, leaving a line of mysterious liquid trailing behind.

Not only that, but as the Distortion crawled closer in sight, its list of deformities are larger and larger. Things like an irregular bone structure or bulging black eyes made themselves apparent once casting themselves into the light in front of Theo and Carmina.

With enough time, the Distortion eventually reached close enough to come into earshot of the two employees.

"Mama...! MAma! Mom! Momma---!" The Disportion cried out to Carmina, and once she had notice that she was spotted, had promptly walked out from her hiding spot and directly confronted its desperate wails.

"Ew, you look like the result of twenty generations of incest."

Without any mercy to the Distortion's grief, Carmina made a deep dent inside its skull with the blunt side of her knife and punted it to the roof before it went splat on the floor.

"GUAGH! MAGHUA! GHUAMA! GHUAGHUA!" The flesh baby cried once more, reverberating through the empty floor of the laboratory as the dent on its skull undid itself.

"Regeneration? That's a bit shit." Carmina observed the phenomenon with a hint of annoyance, "Yo, Theo, you think you can finish this guy off with your axe? I mean, if it isn't too much, of course."

" . . . I'll try."

Theo approached the pitiful being, raising his fire axe high above his head.

A moment of hesitation quietly lingered in his muscles before Carmina pointed it out, "You really don't have to do it."

"No, I got it. I just gotta prepare myself for cardiac arrest."

"Seriously, you don't have to do it."

"Well, seriously seriously times two, I can do it, I'm telling---" The distortion leaped towards Theo with its dying breath, "---AH!"

Surprised by the attack, Theo promptly swung at the Distortion and smacked it flat into the wall. The flesh baby, having been slightly nicked by the blade of Theo's fire axe, shriveled to a wrinkle and died with an exasperated yelp; the axe having sapped away the little heat its mother had left with.

As though expecting a spear to have pierced his chest, Theo reflexively placed his hand on his hand on his heart before realizing there would be no crippling heart attack to be found; just a slight flustering heat one might get after a long jog.

"I'm... not dying? The hell?" Theo spoke with confusion as he swung his fire against the wall, hitting a live wire as the electrical heat transferred to his heart, "AGGGHHH! FUUUCCKKK!"

Clutching his chest as though searing pain of his heart were akin to literal flames, Theo shrieked in pain as he dropped to the floor, erratically swinging his legs with a laborious breath.

"Oh, shit."

Carmina, not quite alarmed by the sight, scratched her head as she spoke the obscenities natural to her mouth; realizing that all she could really do in the situation was to wait only gave her more reasons as for why she shouldn't even need to worry.

Luckily for Theo, the live wire was running on a low voltage as it only supplied energy to a couple communication tablets running throughout the lab, encased in a heat-resistant rubber that reduced the heat sapped by Theo's fire axe.

"Auugghhh . . . "

"You alright?" Carmina spoke as she lent a hand to help Theo up.

"Maybe. Ugh, my hearts beating like it's on crack; I feel like I've been dealt a shitty hand with my fire axe."

"It'll get better. I mean, look at my ID weapon---it's a dagger that heals the wounds that it inflicts; bullshit, right? But you only need some good ol' time, training and testing to really figure out how to whack some butt with your ID weapon. Nearly blew out my brains tryna figure out the Wave control I needed to limit the regeneration factor on my dagger."

"So you're telling me to just keep hacking at stuff until I get better at it?"

" . . . pretty much!"

________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Heads up, another one's lurking around the corner!"

"Got it!"

Carmina swiftly mutilated a flesh person, who were a lot more mature yet equally as deformed as their infant selves, and ran ahead as she left Theo with finishing off the flesh people before they either naturally regenerated all the damage.

But, even with a body impermeable to exhaust; even with a rear position less mentally taxing than the slaughter-fest happening just a meter or two away from him, Theo found it difficult to keep up with Carmina's brutishly violent pace as she slashed through motherless Distortions the moment a wailing or sighting of those flesh people registered in her mind.

Just as Carmina had intended, she excelled in her line of work, and had struck awe inside Theo's psyche.

Would he ever reach that level of efficiency? What kind of feelings would run through his mind if he had that level of power? How many people could Theo save in the future if he had the strength Carmina had?

That kind of inspired awe.

Nonetheless, Theo kept chopping at the flying heads as they flung from their bodies, withering their skin to a dry wrinkle as the heat garnered inside his heart at a manageable level; the short but consistent use of his fire axe having shown near-immediate results.

Of course, that didn't mean Theo's axe handling skills grew in proportion to his tenacity to heart burns, as on every other flying head that Carmina slashed clean off for him was a missed axe swing that required Theo to travel back and signal Carmina to hit for him.

It was impossible for Theo to achieve such high proficiency with his fire axe, after all; it was his third time using it.

But as Theo missed yet another head flung back towards him, Carmina missed his signal to stop and continued her murderous pace without any intention to look back for Theo.

Detecting, running, slashing, finding, and running once more, Carmina seemed to be stuck in a sort of fever for slaughter as she kept butchering Distortions as a way for stress relief.

It was only a matter of time before Theo was left behind in the laboratory halls by himself.

At first there was a slight anxiety looming over Theo as he tried calling Carmina on his work phone, to in which there was no answer, but the wails of mutilated Distortions had assured him that she was doing just fine.

It wasn't that the maze of hallways and corridors that stored these Distortions was scary either, as it was well lit with fluorescent lighting.

Well, the walls and floors might have been gruesomely covered in blood, but the fact that a beast more scarier than the flesh freaks Theo needed to kill was on his side had given him the peace of mind to travel through the lonesome hallways with relative ease.

But as any other pubescent boy finds themself in a long, bloodied corridor with nothing but his mind to keep the silence from staying still, Theo began thinking, 'So what do I do?'

With Carmina's feverish pace far outmatching Theo's, it felt impossible to catch up unless she had looped back around to meet his back. It was also because of that pacing that Theo couldn't really do his work either, as any Distortion alerted to him was also alerted to Carmina.

And so, with his ass flat on the floor like a duck, Theo began imitating the 'thinker statue' pose before promptly standing back up.

' . . . what the hell am I doing? I'll just walk around, this isn't that deep of a choice.' Theo thought, hoping sincerely that he didn't look like an idiot on camera or that he wasn't caught on camera at all.

As short lived was his pondering was, Theo stood up and began walking.

Fiddling with his work phone to see if its GUI held anything he hadn't seen before, Theo walked the long corridors of the lab to find nothing but the eerie buzz of the fluorescent lighting above.

As he had expected, there wasn't anything new for Theo to know, but it did give him time to analyze some of the knowledge he had before hand.

'Those Without Mother' is a collective group of Distortions whose numbers were too many and similarities too close for them to be listed individually. With their annoyingly regenerative abilities, terminating them is often too expensive on wave-resonate energy as they heal through class-one Distortion equipment, needing higher class equipment to kill them.

They come from a class-three Distortion named 'Girl of Wrongful Loving,' whose existence proved to be better terminated than naught as the rapidly reproduction of the now-weaker 'Those Without Mother' had brought countless breaches.

With the failing potency of birth-control pills or just violent beatings in general, the 'Girl of Wrongful Loving' had broken out of her cell with a flood of her own children, killing countless class-one employees and finally giving upper management the push they needed to terminate the Distortion.

The aftermath of the breach was just short of detrimental, but nothing that the laboratory couldn't handle.

Although the interior was vastly damaged, especially because of the overwhelming amount of weight the children had with their numbers, it seemed that the laboratory was beyond hand-done construction as repairs were done in just hours after exterminating the 'Girl of Wrongful loving' as though it were fixed with magic.

'Come to think about it, what is the name of this lab? There's no way the name is just smack dab laboratory, is it?' Theo pondered, but nothing on his work phone had shown anything.

It wouldn't be until a warping squelch of soft, wet meat that an uncomfortable shiver ran down Theo's mechanical spine, breaking his eyes from his work phone to look at the source of such a disgusting sound.

Minced on the floor was a Distortion whose body wasn't able to be killed by Carmina, contracting and expanding its separated limbs to push back against its restraining skin.

With the excessive amount of amniotic fluid still being produced from God-knows-where, the moving mass of skinless muscle had created a sound equivalent to a sack of wet mice being pounded into mashed peas.

Actually, now that Theo wasn't exactly in a rush to finish off this Distortion off, he took his time to look at it, but it had quickly become more of a sight for sore eyes than a subject of interest as the Distortion's many disfigurations were still present regardless of how many bits and pieces it was minced into.

Contorted joints, displaced jaw line, abnormal amounts of limbs and organs, mistily gray eyes, veiny lines running down the surface of its skin---it was only reasonable for these Distortions to cry out so loudly.

"And here I thought people without father figures were bad."

Theo raised his fire axe high and mighty above his head, swinging it down to end the poor Distortion's misery.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

In a room dimly lit by the massive monitors that loomed over her, Luna observed everything the laboratory had to offer as well as the well being of each and every employee listed under her name as the assistant manager.

With one hand, Luna clicked like mad to check all the cameras and status screens of the employees. With the other, Luna tapped away at her keyboard, giving orders at every instance that an employee was going to work on a Distortion.

"Progress report on the new employees in the control department with their elimination of the assigned Distortion?"

"Going smoothly, but it's expected to take another thirty minutes."

On the other side of the room was Vint, whose duty was far from ordering employees on how they should stimulate Distortions.

Spanning all across his desk were data sheets and graphs and every type of information a scientist could use, calculating the mathematical hellhole that was the resonate wave energy produced by the Distortions in real time.

Yet somehow, throughout the chaotic organization of all those statistic and papers, Vint could easily pick out the information he needed without fail.

The only thing that a normal set of eyes could distinguish out of the ungodly amount of science and math was a single screen held high above the rest of the chaos, displaying a percentage bar that was about 57% the way there.

"Luna, how long until a State inquisitor comes and checks up on the lab?"

"Six days until our doom, manager."

"Shit . . . can we really get that much energy in such a short amount of time? How much more time can we buy if the state inquisitor dies due to 'natural' causes?"

"The Head will certainly notice their disappearance, presuming that their shit-for-brains hive mind isn't interfered with. I mean, that'd mean that we could hack into their connective system in the first place, but we can't, so it would be about an hour before we get an assault team on us."

"A dead end, huh. What do you think is the likelihood of the project getting exposed?"

"Hella high, and nothing less. It's doubtful that they won't check our energy distribution just because we said so; in fact, they'll be even more inclined to do so."

Vint messaged his forehead, "...success rate of getting the inquisitor to look at class four Distortion 'Portrait of God?'"

"Forty or so percent, but it's the best course of action we have right now, not to mention that it has the highest success rate out of any other option. Should we prepare for riskier stimuli to the Distortions for more energy?"

"How much time can we buy with that? And yes, we should." Vint opened a nearby cabinet to take out more paper than his deck surface can cover before it gets buried, setting the ballpoint of his pen on its white sheet.

"Three days at best, one day with unlucky circumstances." Lune replied before turning on an intercom with the employees, "Please initiate the stimulation of passive class four Distortions. Look inside your employee handbook for more details."

"Ha... government rebellion is a lot harder than said, huh?"

"Duh, we're trying to go against a mega power with magic so science-fictiony that you couldn't believe it even with your two eyes!"

"Distortions are pretty bizarre themselves, you know."

"The State has technology that could fry us to plasma with their weapons, Vint. I don't think some reality-interfering British guy could do anything about that."

"What even is a British, Luna?"

"Just a work of imagination, Vint."

The State, but more so known by its mysterious, but fearsome leader, is a plutocratic megalopolis that doesn't come under any sort of nation, but instead works as an independent organization with its own rules and constitution.

In fact, not only is it an independent organization, it is the sole habitable area in this world, which means it is the single ruling power throughout its planet.

Of course, there have been associations like Vint's laboratory that attempt to rebel against The State, but none were successful, or even notably big as they all were crushed into fine cement for the city roads.

Those weak will always stay weak and the strong will always stay strong, as it's how this world runs.

So why was Vint and Luna attempting a rebellion against such a terrifying tyrant?

They had neither the manpower to war with The State, nor did they have the strategic mastermind that could collapse, so what drive could they possibly have?

A photograph of a heart-warming family cuddling each other, smiling without worry.

"...Luna, did you really get a whole-ass family to bargain off their group photo? What the hell did you give them?"

"Eh, all family affection can be bought off with some chicken dinner, which leaves me to be a winner."

"Incredible rhyme, you should start a rapping career."

"My voice is too beautiful for the world to hear."

"Of course it is."

No reason in particular.

Luna was the first to start it and Vint was quick to follow, but there never seemed to be a thought inside her head with how relaxed she seems about it.

It would only be so many years into the effort that Vint had found himself in a standstill, but after investing too much into the whole overthrow-the-government project, it felt unjust to up and leave Luna to do it herself.

After all, it wasn't like Vint had a purpose before the whole thing.

Just wandering around the dystopian streets of The State, living a sort of half-lucid dream researching into the numbingly expansive wonders of this universe.

With that thought in mind, Vint decided to ask Luna, "Just curious, Luna, why are we doing this?"

"What, are you going to leave?"

"Nono, just curiosity and nothing more. After all, it wasn't as though I had an incentive to overthrow the government in the first place, so it wouldn't matter if you didn't have one either."

"One, that's the sort of reason you'd give to leave a project like this. Two, that's awfully rude of you to think of me so willy nilly to rebel against The State without a proper reason!"

"Well, sorry, but you just seem way more care free than a revolutionary would be."

"I'm just stress free, and nothing more. Plus, my reason for this isn't as grandiose as those revolutionaries, but rather...

...I can't let you muddle your soul any more."

Vint went into a state of static, "What was that, Luna?"

A flicker of hope came and went, leaving only the disappointment of failed expectations to shape Luna's face.

"Ah, it'll never work until I do this right. Get your ass off the conversation and start working, Vint! You're the only one who can properly measure our progress, so start mathing your damn hands off!"

"Oh, yes ma'am."

And so the two got to work, frying their brains till steam comes off their head as slowly, but surely, their deadline was coming ever so close.