15

Chapter Thirty-Nine

It was starting to get late, but I had painkillers, energy drinks, and a time-limit that was seeming more and more like I was going to miss it no matter what, so we pressed onwards. Thankfully, the handful of dangers we ran across were easily taken care of, the hazards navigated, and the wild 'animals' either avoided or easily put down.

As we continued to climb, though, a very different kind of problem slowly grew, and it was only stopping back Home for a quick drink that led me to notice it, as the difference between the Piltoverian environment it'd auto-calibrated to and the one Vi and I found ourselves walking back into was stark.

The mana in the air was thick, to the point it made it a little hard to breathe, and I yanked Violetta back through the portal as soon as she exited it.

"What gives?" the white-haired teen questioned, not fighting me on this, only confused.

Retrieving breathing masks, I tossed her one, as well as goggles, slipping on a set myself.

"Mana oversaturation," I told her. "I haven't studied Runeterra's magic enough to be comfortable with it, but it usually works along the lines of radiation."

"The stuff from the sunlight?" Piper asked, as I'd only barely touched on the advanced sciences with her, though, given who I worked for, both of them already knew I had knowledge from other worlds, so I didn't have to maintain a 'cover' like I would with Viktor or Caitlyn.

"Yep," I nodded, "but sunlight's the radiant expression, not the thing that makes the radiation itself. Different kinds of radiation are stopped by different amounts of material, like sunlight is stopped by your skin, but a lot of the stuff that's stopped by your skin other than sunlight is really really bad to get inside you. Mana is only like radiation, probably, so it might be fine, it might even be beneficial, but if you get that much in you it's just as likely to be really really bad," I stated seriously.

At their worried looks, I explained, "It's not been bad enough, yet, for me to see any direct effects, but if it were something like a slow poison, a catalyst, or even some kind of nutrient that enhanced you it'd do its job without me noticing. Skin contact should be fine, problems from direct exposure don't often come from pure Mana, and neither of us are mages so that won't be an issue, but making sure we don't get any in us would help limit problems. The goggles also helps protect mucus membranes," I stressed.

"Like, snot?" the younger sister questioned, trying to figure out what I was saying, smiling as I nodded, pointing at my eyes, then nose, and finally my mouth.

"Anything that gets naturally wet, pretty much," I agreed. "There's extra blood-flow, and the wetness means things can transfer on contact in a way they don't normally through skin."

The blue-haired girl frowned, glancing at the portal. "Can I see what it's like?" she questioned, in a way that said she knew the answer would almost certainly be no.

"Of course not," Vi replied, on que, then turned an annoyed look my way when I didn't instantly agree. "Jayce."

"We were breathing it in for an hour, Violetta, and it's only now gotten to levels where I'm worried. Also, this should be a way to tell if she's a mage. She's probably not," I quickly added, as Piper blinked, clearly never having thought about that, "but it's good to know what it's like, just to possibly recognize it later. Some of my Hextech experiments get pretty Mana intensive, but not this bad, and not this constant. If things in the lab ever get this intense, it's a good indicator to shut down the experiment, and, if you can't do that, run."

The white haired teen mulled that over, clearly not happy, but slowly nodded. "Fine, but just for a minute."

"Agreed," I replied, holding a hand out to Piper, who took it, and I led her through the gate back into the hallway.

The small girl smiled, taking a deep breath, only to stiffen, paling.

"What's wrong?" I asked quickly, trying to think of what it could be, the blue haired child's grip on my hand tightening, as she shook a little. Kneeling down next to her, her eyes were wide, and she wasn't looking at me, so I picked her up, Piper latching onto my arms as I did so, and I almost ran into Vi as I came back Home.

"What's wrong?" the older sister questioned, unknowingly echoing me. "Jayce, what'd yo-, what happened?"

"I don't know," I replied, moving to a seat, sitting on it and positioning Piper so that she was secure in my lap. "Powder, talk to me," I gently urged.

That snapped her out of it, the girl jerking, blinking, looking around like she didn't know how she'd gotten here. "J-Jayce?" she questioned, a little out of it.

My thoughts raced, as I tried to figure out what could've created such a harsh reaction. If she had been a mage, she should've started manifesting some kind of magic, but all she'd done was freeze up, with no other symptoms, which suggested a psychological response, but she'd already seen hextech activations, and dealt with that, but-

Right. Hextech activations, not another Resonance Cascade.

"Did that remind you of that night?" I questioned softly, and, hesitantly she nodded. "I'm sorry, Piper, I didn't think-"

"It's okay," the girl interrupted, scowling, though not at me, starting to work herself up "It was my fault! It's all my fault!"

"No," I countered, changing tactics, seeing she wasn't going to budge on this, while also getting the sense that, just maybe, we weren't talking about what had just happened. "It's no one's fault. I made a mistake, and you're still healing. No one's hurt, everything's fine. Okay?"

The small girl hesitated, wanting to argue, emotions unsteady, but having trouble putting her objection into words.

"That night?" Vi repeated, confused, eyes widening as she realized what we were talking about. "Shit, Powder, I, I didn't think of that either," she stated, voice full of self-recrimination.

"See, mistakes all round," I smiled a little, getting a rueful chuckle from the traumatized tween. "So, are you gonna be okay while Violetta and I keep going?"

Piper frowned, clenching her small fists, looking up to stare me in the eye as she declared, "I'm going back out there!"

"What? No," I replied, getting a hurt look from the girl, and dialing back the Song. "Maybe some other time, but-"

"She should," Vi argued, and I paused, turning an incredulous look the white-haired teen's way. "You said a minute'd be safe, right?"

I tried to figure out where the brawler was going with this, but I just didn't have enough of a mental model to work with, so I slowly replied, "Should be."

"And we'll be right there with her, right?" the older girl pressed.

"Obviously," I stated.

"Then, if Pow-, if Piper wants to try it again, what's the harm?"

Said girl nodded, imploring, "Jayce, please."

I took a moment, and sighed. "Piper's been through a lot, Violetta, and I don't want to put her through more, but... fine. But only for a minute, and if you freeze up again, you're going straight Home, okay?"

"Okay!" the blue-haired girl chirped, then realized what she was arguing for, and wilted a little. "O-okay," she repeated, still confident, but not nearly as eager. Piper jumped off my lap, but, as I stood, she held a hand out, waiting for me to take it.

I walked her to the gate, and, hesitating, Piper held her other hand out to Vi, who, a little surprised, took it, and the three of us stepped through, back into that hall thick with Mana. Both Violetta and I watched the small girl carefully, as she took a deep breath, shook a little, but said, either to herself, or to us, "I-I'm okay. I can handle this. I can handle this."

Neither of said anything, just waited, as, shakily, the girl let go of first her sister's hand, then mine, her breathing quick and shallow, fists clenching and unclenching, until she calmed, taking increasingly slower, deeper breaths.

When it'd been two minutes, and Piper had gotten control of herself, I put my hand on her small shoulder, causing her to look up at me in surprise. "Good job," I smiled. "You were right, you can handle this. Now your sister and I need to keep going. You good holding down the fort back Home?"

"I am. I... am," she smiled, surprised, clearly tired, but with the same determination she had before. "I, thanks, Jayce!" she beamed, giving me a hug. "And thanks, Vi!" she added, twisting about and giving her sister one too, then turning around and facing the portal she couldn't perceive. "Now, how do I..." she trailed off.

I started to offer her a hand, but she shook her head. "If some stupid mouthy bats could then... and it's..." she muttered, reaching out a hand to grab my jacket, and Vi's shirt, before, with a grunt of effort, picking herself up, so she was suspended between us, swinging back and forth, several times, before with an "oof!" launched herself forward, twisting automatically to try and avoid the portal, pulling hard on my jacket, but, hemmed in as she was, she just bounced off of me.

And fell right through the Gate.

I blinked, as, that shouldn't be possible, the very nature of the perception filter over the portals forcing you to avoid them, only, she had, but only after she'd committed, over-committed really, to her course of action, and, like the bats, had no choice but to pass through.

That. Was. Brilliant!

Yeah, that's the genius that resulted in the destruction savant known as Jinx, I thought, shaking my head, and she'd figured it out in seconds. It'd require knowing where the Gate was, in order to zero in on its entrance; a band of physical capability where, too much, or too little, and you wouldn't have the strength to set yourself up or have enough to get out of it; and the ability to mentally partition enough to hyper-focus on your current actions, so only the last part of the sequence was corrupted by the filter, but damn if she didn't pull it off.

Vi frowned, glancing to me, and jerked a thumb in the general direction of the portal she couldn't perceive. "I thought we couldn't do that?"

I shrugged, "Piper's just special like that."

The white-haired teen thought about that, shrugged, and replied, "True."

​

If I thought the mana was thick before, it only got worse as we rose, to the point that it actually started to impede our movement, somewhere between walking through water and doing so normally, the air shimmering slightly. Pausing to take a breath without the mask, holding a hand up for Vi to not copy me, I could feel my Defenses doing... something, confirming that the rebreathers were absolutely needed.

And, if that wasn't bad enough, it'd gotten clean again.

Chemtech fluid rushed through the walls, as did pipes full of other things, each with its own particular noise, some sluicing through like water, while others gurgled thickly, all of the tubes completely intact so I couldn't use their broken spewings to try to identify their contents. Wild Talent started giving more and more specific instructions, which Vi and I followed to the letter, slipping through rooms, down hallways, and across well-maintained catwalks.

'Stop', it directed, high up in a room where pumps worked, a device glowing red as it heated the contents of one pipe, a device with yellow chemtech doing something else, though, as the pipe was solid metal, I couldn't tell what, only that the yellow glowing tubes themselves were double-walled for some reason, and I really wanted to know why.

Holding a hand up, we waited, as one of the automatons slowly stumped its way through the chamber, and only after it'd already been gone for a full minute did we get the go-ahead to press forward. I still turned my phone's camera to get everything I could, but didn't try and tarry, the goal for this trip to get the hell out of here, not for research. I could always come back, properly equipped and, more importantly, with additional time.

Though, as we pushed our way ever higher, taking a stairway up to the next floor, and the Mana intensified even more, I realized that I'd need to invent magical hazmat suits first.

Now, though, the ambient energy in the air could be seen, giving everything a pearlescent, iridescent shine like rainbow mist that started to obscure things too far away. Taking a quick trip Home, we both staggered as soon as we passed through the portal, our movements suddenly free, as colors streamed from our clothing, spreading out into the air.

"Get back," I ordered as Piper started to run over to us, and we 'decompressed', the energy leached from us as the pocket dimension, like a freezer, 'cooled' us by eliminating the Mana that spread from our bodies as soon as it was no longer conceptually part of 'us'. Holding up a finger, I popped my mask off, but, breathing in, still pinged my Defenses for several seconds, and only when that stopped did I nod to the teen, who did the same.

Both Vi and I still glowed, faintly, the colors of our clothing, our hair, but not our eyes, oddly vibrant. More than that, I felt good, energetic, and it was only my Company Defenses that weren't causing me to worry, and not just Mind Defense.

Nodding to Piper, she approached us, cautious, asking, "Are two okay? You had, uh, rainbow BO."

That got a snort out of me. "Just absolute tons of Mana. We're taking a break, and I'm gonna collect some samples." She opened her mouth, and I kept going, "No, you can't come with me to help. This stuff is very dangerous, and you don't know the proper safety protocols. Because they don't exist. Yet. I can handle it, and Vi, go take a shower and change into a clean outfit. Leave the one you're wearing in the lab, I want to see if there's permanent effects."

The brawler nodded, then paused, "But, like, I'm okay, right?"

"Should be," I agreed, and at her concerned look I added, "that's the best I can offer you right now. We're not just on the cutting edge of this, we're on the bleeding edge, and need to be careful to make sure it isn't ours. I'd say I could do this on my own-"

"Jayce," Violetta started to argue.

"But I know you wouldn't agree," I finished. "Now go, I'm gonna go get some samples."

The older girl nodded, and jogged off for the stairs, as I followed her, snagging the cart as I did so. Stopping by the lab, I grabbed vacuum canisters, and a pump, piling them up and taking the cart back down, heading for the gate when Piper yelped, panicked, "Jayce!"

I paused, looking to her, and she pointed to her face, insisting, "Mask!"

For a second I wanted to point out that, with my abilities, I didn't really need it, but the girl had enough problems with proper lab safety, so it was better to model it for her. "Thanks!" I smiled, picking the rebreather up and securing it, the girl giving me a shaky thumbs up, which I returned confidently.

Stepping back through the gate, high up and out of the way, the catwalk thankfully sturdy enough to count as 'floor' to the portal system. Turning on the pump, the internal batteries worked just fine, Company Tech built to function even in anomalous environments, I popped off my mask and took a deep breath, the feeling very uncomfortable, though not as bad as breathing dirty oil, my Defenses hard at work.

Popping my goggles off as well, my company protections redoubled their efforts, but easily handled it.

Still stung like a bitch though.

Gritting my teeth at the very uncomfortable sensation, not true pain, the pump shut off, having filled one canister, and I blindly swapped it out for the next, blinking away tears that dropped, glimmering, hitting the metal at my feet and sizzling in a way that was really concerning.

Yeah, this was dumb, I thought, banking on my Defenses to screen out damage while letting enhancements through, and, while I had to deal with more sizzling tears, the sealing material for the goggles would have just absorbed the charged moisture, and the uncomfortable feeling slowly fading.

Looking around, the odd shimmering flow seemed a little more distinct now, though I had no idea if I was just trying to put a positive spin on my idiocy and blowing smoke up my ass.

Or Mana.

Regardless, I was reminded of the fact that intelligence was an intensifier, and that it didn't stop you from being dumb, it just meant that when you were dumb, you were intensely so.

Filling up all the canisters, I stepped back Home, and only had to wait a couple seconds for the 'Mana decompression' to finish, having absorbed a lot less of it in that shorter time. Violetta and Piper were both waiting for me, and helped store the now Mana-filled canisters.

"What're you gonna do with these?" the brawler questioned, as we locked them up.

"No idea, but it'll certainly be interesting," I smiled in return, heading back down, securing my goggles and mask, making sure Vi did the same, before we both re-entered the Mana-filled chambers, stopping as a chemtech robot stomped by underneath us, then stopped and slowly looked up in our direction.

I grabbed my travel partner and dragged her back through the portal, and, five minutes later, carefully stuck my head through, the coast now clear. Waving her after me, we stepped through once again, back into the thickened air, but to mercifully empty chamber.

Pressing onwards, the next level up was worse, the Mana now clearly visible, flowing in distinct currents, the prismatic mist channeled in a single direction, the same way we were going. Slowly following it, Vi stopped me, pointing, as the metal walls were inscribed with glowing lines that confused me until I realized they were tightly-packed rune-clusters, continuous arrays that fed into each other in a manner that I couldn't understand in the slightest.

Yet.

Regardless, our path took us along one of these 'flows', which ran from one room to another, gathering in density, my skin tingling as my Defenses prickled, and I looked to Vi, the girl jittery and glowing slightly, as I'm sure I was too, the next room separating into a higher and lower path, and, despite my misgivings, I followed my Talent's suggestion of taking the high road, the pattern of increasing Mana density breaking as there was less energy up here, even if it was still far denser than normal.

The dangerous feeling abated slightly, and I relaxed a little, as we pressed on, doubly sure of our path as the next chamber saw more chemtech robots moving about the ground floor, tending various devices, and, where crystals had started to form on bits of metal, smashing them apart, turning them back into vapor. The Mana mists condensing more and more, until they ran in thin rivulets, up troughed ramps in defiance of physics, more and more of the charged vapor pulled into the growing river of pure energy, which I really wanted a sample of, but there was no way to gather some without also gathering the attention of the deadly droids below.

The Mana level in the upper layers started to increase again, but was still at manageable levels, as Vi and I silently made our way through the next doorway, stopping as the girl swore, "What the fuck?"

Seeing what lay before us, I had to agree.

It was another large chamber, though thankfully not the size of the canyon crossing, filled with hundreds of vats, all in various states of 'done-ness' creating patterns of light, each one with pipes filling it with thick, gooey mud, churned and heated by autonomous chemtech arms, light bending around them oddly, as, in troughs, thin streams of solidified mana were added.

As the crystalline liquid dripped in, light started to bloom, spreading throughout the mixture.

Green light.

As solidified magic was introduced, the thick substances inside melted slightly, becoming first a slurry, then a thick syrup, the viscosity lowering as the glow increased, until, finally, it ran like liquid, and the chemfluid was drained from the vat, arms scraping it clean, then scraping each other clean, everything washed with a blast of water, which was then drained through a different aperture, only for the process to start anew, as thick black mud was pumped into the empty vat.

"This is where it comes from," I muttered, presented with the solution to a mystery I hadn't even begun to crack. "This is how it's made."

I'd checked the archives, but no one I could find in my cursory investigation at the Academy knew how chemfluid was created. Well, there were a few people that claimed they could do so, which is likely how Piper got the impression it was 'Juice', but they refused to share how, to the point I was fairly certain they'd just lied about it.

It was possible there was some sort of trick to it, given that this was a magical dimension, so substances with anomalous properties were to be expected, it was just the fact that chemfluid was so damn versatile that had led me to try and figure out how to use it, despite its extreme toxicity.

The fact that the damn stuff was on tap, though, running through the walls of Zaun, had confused the fuck out of me, only, with everything I was learning, suddenly it didn't seem so far-fetched after all.

No one knew where Zaun had come from, when it had been built, or really anything about it, 'book-learnin'' discouraged in the Undercity, while the Academy of Piltover was suspiciously incurious about it.

The question, then, is if they knew and were hiding this, or if they just learned that they didn't want to know?

There'd been a psychological experiment I'd read about, as cruel as it was insightful in the way such things could be, where researchers had put monkeys in a room with a ladder, and, suspended over that ladder, was a banana. After letting the monkeys climb up and get the banana a few times, the scientists had started spraying down the chamber with ice-cold water anytime a monkey got halfway up the ladder, dissuading the simians from going for the food. It worked, obviously, until none of the monkeys would go for it, and that's when the real experiment began.

You see, they started introducing more monkeys into the chamber. These new test subjects would then see the banana and start to go for it, only to be attacked by the others, who didn't want to be sprayed down and chilled, the 'veterans' knowing what would happen if any of them tried. Then the scientists had removed a few of the old monkeys, adding others, the pattern continuing, with each new monkey trying, only to be stopped, often violently, by the more experienced apes, until every single simian from the first group was gone.

Now, every monkey there hadn't been sprayed, even once, hadn't experienced anything to personally understand the problem with ascending the ladder, but they still attacked the new ones when they tried to go for the banana, and, in doing so, enforced a 'taboo' with no idea of why it existed in the first place.

So, did Heimerdinger and the others know what was down here, or did they, like those monkeys, just know it was 'bad', and that was it?

Regardless, there were dozens upon dozens, maybe over a hundred automatons in this chamber, each one individually a deadly threat, a team of three repairing one vat, while another disassembled one with cracked metal plating, the robots keeping this entire edifice working, their creators likely long, long gone, but that didn't matter to their creations.

"Jayce," Vi whispered, pulling at my jacket, her voice muffled by her mask. "We need to go."

"Right," I murmured, tearing my eyes away from all of this, a discovery that I would explore.

Later.

When I could survive it.

Following my implanted instincts, I led her through the catwalks, high above the chamber, plumes of Mana and chemical laden air buffeting us, but, thankfully, the thick mist that covered the production chamber's floor obscured us from the sight of the chemtech constructs, as we crossed the chamber, and, finally, entered a doorway found where the roof dipped down past the walkways, revealing stairs that we took up, and out.

Climbing them, it was a bit like leaving the underworld, the Mana-levels in the air dropping rapidly, each step a little easier than the last, the colors getting paler, until, finally, the ascent ended, leading to another doorway I opened up, Vi following me as we stepped out into a rusted metal hallway that seemed downright dreary.

Removing the gas mask, I took a deep breath, and the air seemed oddly... lacking.

The closest thing I could compare it to was the environment of a heated home in winter, lacking the characteristics of desert air, but feeling, ever so slightly, as if something was missing, and like it was being leached out of you. That was because, as the heat of gas increased, so did the ability of it to hold humidity, so what would be normal at a colder temperature became unnaturally arid if a humidifier wasn't used in conjunction with a heater.

Only it was magic that was lacking, not anything as mundane as water.

Regardless, we pressed on, through the mana desert, the spaces bare, and lifeless, finding another stairway up to the next floor, then the next, then the next, the leaching feeling, never enough to ping my Defenses, slowly fading as we put distance between ourselves and the Chemfluid Creation Chambers, until the sensation faded completely, and, we once again had to deal with the wildlife.

It started small enough, insects, rat-things with a dozen legs that leapt with surprising speed, more of those pipe-eels that we gave a wide berth to, but they didn't stay small.

Things got larger, until, as Vi and I were making our way through flooded corridors, we heard something.

Something large.

The passageways were tight, almost cramped compared to others, with only the occasional chemtech light illuminating the space, when, ahead of us, something yowled, the noise far too deep to be normal, reverberating down the flooded halls, the water that'd sloshed at our feet vibrating slightly.

"Okay, not that way," I started to say, when another sound came from behind us, though not anywhere close by, Wild Talent remaining silent, which could either mean there wasn't a danger, there wasn't a danger to me, or whatever made that sound was sentient and thus a massive danger to both of us.

"Jayce?" Vi questioned, as I called my phone to me, and tried to open a gate home, only for it to spit an error message back at me, the location 'unsuitable.'

Glancing around, I realized that, again, the water was messing things up, its slowly flowing nature not providing a stable location, and the few bits that stuck up weren't large enough for the gateway to connect properly.

"Follow me," I instructed, pressing onwards, trusting my Talent, which stirred enough to give me a vague feeling, leading us down several turns, trying to move without splashing too much, with moderate success, catching something large passing by in the distance: a flash of faded white skin, and a long, whip-like tail.

'Stop' commanded my grafted instincts, and I did so, holding up a hand, Violetta doing the same, though I didn't know why.

A growl echoed through the hall, and slowly turning, I saw a hairless cat's head, only one the size of an oven, peering around the corner, large, milky-white eyes staring sightlessly in our direction. Vi and I froze, waiting, until it turned away, and lethargically made its way down a different passage.

Moving then stopping, again and again, whenever my Talent commanded us to, we threaded our way through those flooded halls, avoiding the rhinoceros sized hairless cats, of which there had to be at least a dozen prowling about, at one point needing to push ourselves against the walls as a hissing screech filled the space.

Not hesitating, I grabbed Vi, who moved with me, as I stepped up onto a bit of fallen pipe, cacophonous splashing telling me the large creatures spread out in the hallways around us had given up any pretense of stealth. Pressing her against the metal wall with my own body, to lower our combined profile as much as possible, my Talent instructing me that this way was best, I whispered, "Stay quiet," as one, then another, of the large creatures ran down the passageway, a third slamming into me as it followed the first two.

I absorbed most of the force, biting back the pain as it aggravated my injury, but not fully, and the girl still grunted a little from the blow as well, the creature coming to a splashing hall with a confused, curious, "MROW?"

It came back to us, sniffing a bit, until it nudged my side painfully, but my Talent was commanding me not to move, so I did just that, until, a few seconds later, another yowl in the distance caught its attention, and it took off in that direction once more.

Slowly, I pulled away from Vi, quietly asking, "You okay?"

"Y-yeah," she replied, having been able to watch the thing as it approached, while even moving my head might've been enough to doom us both. "You?"

"Could be better, definitely could be worse," I replied, the painkillers starting to wear off and that 'nudge' had hit me right in my bruised ribs. "Lets get the fuck out of here."

"Agreed."

​

Another dozen floors, and we had to be getting close, the ambient Mana seeming to have stabilized to Zaun standard, and we must've climbed several miles by this point. More than that, the architecture was getting, by degrees, less and less industrial. It was a subtle thing at first, long degraded personal touches here and there, half-corroded metal buttons, a broken ceramic cup on a table, and so on, but there were signs of life here, and not just living things.

Then, turning a corner, and going through a set of double doors, I stopped, as I looked down a wide hallway, chemtech pipes arranged almost artfully to create light, walls lined with doors that just looked... different.

Pinging my Talent, there was no danger here, so, hesitantly, I moved to one of them, finding it locked. Gesturing to Vi, who smirked and stepped forward, the brawler slammed a kick into the door that shoved it open with the sound of tearing metal, before she grandly waved me in.

Obliging, I stepped inside, the rooms dark in a way that was rare down here, one hand stupidly going out, to flick on a light-switch, only to hit something. Feeling it, I found a knob, and turning it, light blue radiance bloomed throughout the space, revealing an old, but mostly intact, apartment.

what.

Violetta stepped inside, looking around, eyes narrowing as she pointed, one corner of the space obviously a kitchen, with a number of old, dust-covered appliances sitting on it, one of them connected to the kind of chemtech port you'd see in homes in Zaun. "Jayce? It looks like our place. A little. What does that mean?"

Solve one mystery, get another, I thought, as I shook my head, trying not to think about how someone would combine incredibly toxic fluids with meal prep. "It means it's past midnight, I'm tired as shit, and we can figure this out tomorrow. And by tomorrow I mean later today. We'll need to get up early, anyways, if I have a hope in hell of making it to work on time. Either way, this place isn't going anywhere, and I've had quite enough of today. Yesterday. You know what I mean."

The white-haired brawler looked around again, as I opened the portal Home, the girl questioning, "But, like, we are going to look around, right?"

For half a second I considered teasing her again, the self-avowed 'non-academic' showing a curiosity that was absolutely in line with the very things she scoffed at, but I was tired, and my sense of how much was too much tended to suffer when that happened, so I instead settled on a much safer smile, as I reminded her, "Come on, it's me we're talking about here. Of course I'm gonna go poke things I probably shouldn't. Actually, if it seems safe, want to bring Piper over?"

The older sister started to say no, stopped herself, and looked around the room once more, slowly nodding. "You know, I think she'd love that. We-" she cut herself off, yawning, which, of course set me off. "But tomorrow. Today. When we wake up."

"Yeah, that," I agreed, offering her a hand, which she took, and we both went Home, for some well-deserved rest.

Chapter Forty

"Ooh, it's using the heating effect to cook!" Piper grinned, having disassembled what was obviously a chemtech oven, and was currently looking at the parts, able to decipher what they did in seconds while I was still trying to make heads or tails of the messes of tubing, valves, and other components I was looking at. It'd taken a bit to find the shutoff, as I'd been unexpectedly sprayed with the hilariously toxic chemicals at first, but better me than either of the girls. With their innate poison resistances they'd probably be fine, but I didn't want to risk it.

Each of the 'apartments' in the hallway was ostensibly identical, but each had been customized, though almost all of those 'customizations' had long, long since rotted away, tapestries now unrecognizable piles of organic material, only the metal wires they'd hung on giving away what used to adorn the walls. It was a bit of an odd situation, as, while I was sure a tremendous amount had time had passed, and there had been some degree of airflow, these areas hadn't been disturbed since, presumably, their original owners had evacuated, and, from the coins we kept finding, had done so in a hurry.

The coins themselves were inscribed with various symbols that tickled the edges of Jayce's memories, but I didn't know why. He'd seen a few of the sketchings, somewhere, sometime, in his decade long search to capture magic for use by non-Mages, but whatever he had seen that included them hadn't been important enough for him to pursue. The coinage came in a variety of metals, the smallest ones rusted into nothing but orange dust, but the steel, brass and silver ones were fine, even if the last two were heavily tarnished. I'd tossed a few to both girls, Piper pocketing them with a smile, while Violetta had shot me a confused look.

"Keepsakes," I'd shrugged. "Pretty sure the Undercity merchants won't accept them, but they're definitely interesting."

With our resident Chemtech expert overseeing us, Vi and I had disconnected two of every device we could find, some with obvious uses, like a blender, and others less so, then had taken them Home and put them into storage for later study. That left Piper to disassemble the rest we found with significantly... less care.

"Hey, Vi, do you think Jericho would like one of these?" the tiny tinkerer asked, elbows deep in the device's internals.

"Uh, yeah," the older sister nodded, before frowning. "But, we can't. We're," she glanced my way, "supposed to be gone."

"You can't do so personally," I disagreed, "but that means less than you think. Who's Jericho?"

Piper grinned, "He's really great! He owns a stall on Mainstreet and makes the best fishbowls!"

"Fish Folk, wears an eyepatch but not a shirt, always grinning?" I questioned, getting a nod from both of them, a happy one from Piper, and a skeptical one from Vi. "Huh, never stopped there before, but I'll make sure to, and get some to go. Anyways, while you can't give it to him yourself, that doesn't mean he can't get it. It's actually something that I've been looking into," I mused.

"What d'ya mean?" the younger sister inquired.

"Well, while Chemtech is 'uncouth' and 'dirty' to 'Pilties', once I've got some successes under my belt, and am given a certain amount of lassitude, studying it with Academy resources should be something I can swing, and, if not, something I'll be able to do on my own," I explained. "Now, I'm sure you know how those in Piltover view those in Zaun, so getting them to allow me to 'test' experimental devices in the undercity, away from 'proper folk' should be a pretty easy sell. That means that, if you can figure out how to make it work, I can swing getting one installed in his shop, even if I have to go through Babette to get it done. What?" I questioned, the white-haired teen giving me an odd look.

Her brows knit, as the brawler mulled something over, finally enunciating, "You want to help people." I started to reply, and she held a hand up. "Not Pilties. People... Huh." Taking a deep breath, she asked, "You think they'd let you?"

"Jayce's partner in the Academy is from the Undercity, so I'm sure he'd help!" Piper answered for me.

Vi blinked. "Really?" At her sister's nod, the white-haired teen wasn't sure how to take that, settling on another, "Huh."

"So, Piper, You've got another half an hour, and then Violetta and I need to move out," I said, summoning my phone and checking the time. "We got up stupid early, because, if I'm not walking into work in five hours, there's going to be problems. Your sister and I can grab a few more things for you to work on, because this stuff is..." I sighed, "innovative, but then we have to go."

The blue haired girl was disappointed by that, but understood, as we grabbed an extra Chemtech vacuum, and pried off what looked like an intercom from the wall. We even, at her direction, disconnected a Chemtech toilet that I'd previously ignored, because, dear god, why did even the toilet need toxic chemicals, it's just plumbing.

Soon enough, everything was put away, most of it left in the gateroom for Piper to manage on her own, and Vi and I pushed forward, moving further in what was clearly some kind of residential area, as I regretted the fact that we couldn't stop, resolving to come back here at a later date. Hitting a large open chamber, what was clearly some kind of shopping area, along with at least one restaurant, all centered around an elevator, I became excited, rushed over to it, trying to toggle the controls, only for nothing to happen, the elevator carriage missing, and the shaft seemingly empty.

"Of course it wouldn't be that easy," I grumbled, looking around, seeing the area was utterly empty in a way that, to be honest, was a little unnerving. It wasn't too peaceful, the place a bit of a mess, trash everywhere, the stores clearly ransacked, but, glancing over to Vi, I questioned, "Bring your sister back out? You take her to check out the restaurant, I'll look at the stores?"

The teen hesitated, biting her lip. "I... I don't like this place, Jayce. And don't we need to keep moving?"

"We do, but we can take five minutes," I told her, but didn't say more, clearly waiting for my travelling partner's opinion. Eventually, she sighed and nodded, and I opened the gate, calling her sister out, and sending them off, while I jogged over to the other shops, the shattered glass windows comfortingly dusty and grimy, but my view was still clear enough to see that nothing was waiting to ambush me.

I still slowed a little, keeping my senses open, as I quietly announced, "I mean you no harm," but nothing moved. Inside, shelves were half-destroyed, the place ransacked, but while the apartments only had enough venting to keep the air from going stale, this place was more open, and seeing animal droppings and discarded exoskeletons, vermin had come, had their fill, and left, not enough resources left to sustain an ecology.

"Never thought that class Professor Croft taught would actually be useful," I mused. I'd taken it because a handful of Classes back in Basic Training let us leave basecamp, and, while difficult, get some actually restful sleep. However, the 'High ROI Archaeology' Seminar had utilized a room akin to the Wizarding World Room of Requirement to simulate tombs instead of having us go and see them 'in the wild'.

As I tried to recall those lessons, my already sleep-addled mind too often focusing on our instructor's, er, hidden treasures, I went through the checklist, applicable to any kind of 'expired locale' scenario, from a single locked room to entire dead worlds, like Jumpers often ended up in, exploring the Multiverse to try and find new, unclaimed Dimensions.

"Ransacked, so whatever happened wasn't a complete surprise. Vermin sign, so not complete lifelessness, though the Ratling kingdom was kind of a clue," I mused aloud. "Autonomous systems still intact, which changes things a lot, while reducing most dangers. Material degradation. . . fuck, I can't remember." There had been tables that'd outlined, in various conditions, how fast things fell apart, but there'd been the massive caveat that high-mana dimensions could invalidate them, and Runeterra was dripping with magic.

Literally, if one went down a few dozen levels.

"Minimum, a couple hundred years, then. Given that no one remembers this place... duh," I sighed. "Okay, Jayce, this isn't helping anything." Moving to the back, there were books, but the open ones were rotten messes, and the few that looked intact came apart in my hands.

Grabbing coins, and opening metal boxes, trying to salvage what I could, I froze as I heard Piper's voice, shrill, scream, "JAYCE!"

Taking off at a run, I jumped through the broken window, breaking it more, gun out, and dashed into the restaurant, ready for anything, slowing as the girl stumbled out into the seating area, pale. She saw me, rushing over, and tackled me in a hug, as I kept my weapon free, but held her with my other hand, asking, worried, "Vi? You okay?"

"Yeah, but... it's bad," she replied from the kitchen, a tension in her tone, but she said she was fine.

"Jayce? I want to go home," Piper requested, and I nodded, summoning my phone and opening the Gate. Leading her through it, and then closing it, I slowly entered the kitchen area.

Violetta was there, and she looked past me, asking, "Back?"

"Through the Gate," I agreed, understanding what she was asking. "What is it? Monsters?"

The brawler didn't say anything, but shook her head, and motioned me to follow her, as we moved past Chemtech cooking equipment, because, sure, mix toxic chemicals with your food prep, to what was clearly the freezer in the back. The door was open and inside?

Corpses.

Mummified bodies, several of them holding each other, the desiccation process having bound them together in death, but there were a dozen people inside, and I was able to apply the lessons Mrs. Croft had given more effectively. "Oh."

"What happened, Jayce?" Vi questioned, not demanding, but glancing over and reading my expression, seeing that I understood something she was missing.

Stepping inside, looking around carefully, I spotted corroded air filters, empty shelves with not even the slightest bit of rotten remains, no vermin sign, and one corner with metal pails overflowing with dried excrement. "Whatever happened, they sealed themselves in here. They had food, for a while, but, whatever it was, it wasn't enough." Stepping back, I tried the handle on the inside, and it toggled the latch, eliminating that option. "Was there anything blocking the door?"

"No," she replied, waiting.

"Then they weren't physically trapped," I noted, "And they chose to die rather than leave."

Violetta was silent for a long moment, as I poked around a little more, before I shook my head and headed out, taking a look at the kitchen itself, seeing several Chemtech appliances that hadn't been in the apartments. Looking for the hookups that Piper had taught me to spot this morning, I closed the valves, and started stripping them.

"What could do that?" the brawler finally asked.

"What?" I questioned, having been focusing on disconnecting something that looked well-used, but I had no idea what it could possibly do.

"What could be so bad that they'd, just... lay down and die," she questioned, looking disturbed.

Getting the ports decoupled, I shrugged. "Oh, that's simple. Poison gas."

"... what?"

I waved towards the ceiling. "Remember the history lesson on how Piltover was founded? The Sundering of Zaun?"

Violetta looked around, "But, the gas was supposed to have been blown away."

"And, near the surface, it did," I agreed. "But the gas was heavier than air, and so it went down, into, apparently, this place."

"The gas we saw before?" she questioned. "The stuff that ate that branch?"

"That was acid, entirely different," I shook my head. "If the initial gas had been like that, then it would've stripped everything, like the metal we saw underneath the acid." I tapped the. . . yeah, still didn't know what it was. "This would've had the paint stripped off it, but poison will kill you just as fast as acid will, only it probably won't be quite as terrible a death. Probably."

Sighing, I opened a Gate, grabbing an appliance and stepping through, getting Piper's attention, the surprised girl trotting over, sniffing a little, but trying to pretend she hadn't been. "Stay on this end, and I'll hand a few extra things over," I ordered, and, blinking shiny eyes, she nodded. Pausing, I asked, "You okay?"

"I, uh, yeah, it's just..." she hesitated. "I've, I've seen bodies. It's stupid. But..."

"Random dead in an alley and likely loved ones slowly dying together are two entirely different things," I gently stated, and, after a moment, she nodded. "Eventually, we'll have to deal with more things like that, but, when I say that I you are young, and shouldn't have to yet, know I'm not looking down on you, but-"

"I know that!" she cut me off, wincing. "I, I know that," she repeated, thinking, and I held up a finger, telling her I'd be right back, grabbing another appliance, some kind of stand mixer, and stepping back Home, I handed it to her. "Thanks for letting me help," she finally said.

Smiling, I told her, "You aren't useless, or helpless, Piper. You taught me about Chemtech, letting me get this stuff in the first place. Everyone has limits, even me, and while pushing them is good, there's a point where, once you push past it, you stop growing and start hurting. You being down there was pushing it a little. You seeing the dead like that was past it. Eventually it won't be, which isn't a good thing, isn't a bad thing, it's just life, at least for those that push their limits."

The girl sniffed, nodding, with a, "Thanks, Jayce."

"You're welcome," I told her, stepping back to Runeterra, accepting the next disconnected appliance from Violetta and handing it through to her sister.

"You talk to Powder?" the brawler questioned when I leaned back into Runeterra, and I nodded. "Good."

After everything was passed through, and the Gate was closed, we left the restaurant, Wild Talent directing me towards a set of stairs, and it was only when we were climbing it that she spoke once more. "Is that why you wanted me to wear the mask?"

"Not for Zaun, but once we were down here? Yeah, it was one of them," I replied easily. "Not that it would've helped against the acid mist. Or the Pipeels, or the Ratlings, or Battle-pedes, or... this place is kinda bullshit," I sighed.

"Yeeep," she agreed resignedly, and we both chuckled. Wild Talent directed us down a hall, up another set of stairs, then another, gaining height more and more. The air started to become oddly damp, and, here and there, I spotted bits of odd red mold that my implanted instincts said was safe to touch, even for Vi. Higher and higher we got, until turning a corner, the mold had spread, covering the walls, the floor, the ceiling, but that wasn't the worst part. No, not by a long shot.

It was pulsing.

It was slow, and rhythmic, almost like a giant heartbeat, but, able to see it stretching outwards, the movement I'd overlooked was obvious.

"Uh, Jayce?" Violetta questioned, staring at the downright Zerg looking passage, rightfully freaked out.

"Mask up. Also, gimme a sec," I told her, querying my Talent, which was quite insistent that this was perfectly safe, and that the Not-Creep wasn't dangerous, even for normal people. More than that, any request to go around it was immediately denied, and it took me a moment to realize why.

"Shit," I swore, feeling a sudden sense of tiredness. I knew that Mind Defense would keep me going, but this entire clusterfuck had just been one thing after another. "Okay, good news, we're almost there. Bad news, we found the cap."

"Cap..." the brawler repeated, but then showed that, while she disdained formal education, she wasn't stupid, as her eyes widened. "This is why we don't know about... all of this?"

I nodded, taking out my sword, and gently stabbing the mold, which contracted around the point like a twitching muscles, grasping the end, sending ripples of motion down the hall. "Very likely. It's basic dungeon ecology, and this place absolutely qualifies. We've gone several miles up, Violetta, and, even though I can't be sure, we must be close. However, the only way out is through here. I can trust in my Defenses, so it might be the best if-"

"No," she disagreed, not angrily, but confidently. "No, Jayce, I'm here with you. Whatever's in there, it's stopped anyone coming down. Or anything coming up. You're not handling that alone."

Technically I could pull rank, state that, as the leader, I'd said that if I told her she was off, she was off, but... but this wasn't like the murder mantises, and I wasn't getting any sense of danger from supernatural sources, it was only my own nerves. "...Fine," I sighed, "but we're both grabbing enough explosives to blow up a quarter of the Academy, and have it wrapped to prevent discharges. I don't know what we'll find, but it probably isn't expecting thirty pounds of plastique."

​

Checking my phone, I sighed, as I now had a little less than three hours before I needed to walk into the lab, two if I wanted to arrive on time, and it'd take at least a solid hour to just traverse Zaun and Piltover to get to the Academy.

And, more than that, everything ached, as, while I'd been pushing myself, as had Violetta, several days of constant, high-tension dungeon crawling having worn on us in numerous ways, and, as I'd told Piper, we were past the point of growing and into hurting territory, though being able to rest had helped tremendously.

"Almost there," I reminded myself, my combat partner hearing me, and shooting me a nervous, but confident grin before she put on her mask, as we both exited the portal, back to the creep-filled hallway, and... had it grown?

Not my problem, I thought, following Wild Talent as I stepped with as much courage I could muster onto the thick, spongy layer of mold, which shifted slightly under my feet. It wasn't enough to destabilize my footing, just enough to destabilize my certainty, but I kept going, because the only way out was forward.

As we walked, down hallway after hallway, watching the twitches, it reminded me nothing so much as an enormous spider web, sending vibrations down the halls towards... something.

"This way," I whispered, my instincts telling me to take fork after fork. It didn't suggest I whisper, but something about this place felt like I should. The walls absorbed sound like nuts, making us feel, possibly rightly, that we were in the belly of some great beast. Coming across a staircase, it'd made a solid, moist and oddly indented ramp which was a little difficult to walk up, but the bit of training Vi had put me through in order to do parkour like she could came in handy here.

"Ugh," the girl groaned, "It's gripping my feet."

Paying closer attention, if I put my feet in the indentations, the twitching, indeed, served to hold them in place enough to make it easier to climb, so. . . yay?

Up, and up, through organic corridors, like architectural veins, we traveled, and, in one, I paused as a breeze, the first one in close to an hour, blew through the chamber, carrying a biting, acrid scent with it. Pausing, I started to head that way, and my Talent was... fine with that.

Trusting in it, Vi followed my lead, and we pursued that breeze, until the corridor opened up, revealing a wide chamber, and one only partially 'fleshified'.

But I finally saw it.

An elevator.

It was on a raised dais, with the carriage present, and, as far as I could tell, everything was intact.

However, it was also surrounded by a vast moat of acid mist.

The green was distinct, as was the conspicuous pseudo-polished shininess of the metal at the edges, which kept the muscle-moss at bay, and, while the organic covering went up the walls a little, it seemed to dry out at the edges, unable to keep expanding upwards more than a few dozen feet on its own. Worse, the mist was occasionally spilling up over the dais, in subtly sizzling tendrils, as the air in the shaft stirred.

"Damn," I swore. "We could probably fly over there, but that'd kick up the acid."

"Is that the way your power says to go?" Vi asked, staring at the swirling caustic clouds with trepidation.

I checked, "No, but it's right there." She gave me a flat look. "Yeah, fine," I agreed, turning away, only to stop, as we were no longer alone.

Spoiler: What's waiting behind

"Jesus Christ!" I swore, seeing a dozen dog sized... things on the walls, staring at us with misaligned glowing red eyes, covered in the same kind flesh-mold that plastered everything.

"Wha-FUCK!" Vi agreed, turning to see what I was looking at, and dropping into a fighting stance.

But as we stared at the skull-spider-mold-things, they just stared at us right back.

Wild Talent prodded me, and I gave it a mentally disbelieving look, but it was insistent. Taking a cautious step forward, I spread my hands, and said, "Greetings, Collective."

As one, the spiders returned the gesture in perfect synchronicity, their voices flat, buzzing, almost mechanical. "Greetings, Traveler."

"Wait, they speak normally?" the brawler questioned, and, yes, that was odd, but hopefully also meant we were close to the goddamned surface.

"We do not mean to intrude," I stated, the words fed to me by my Talent. "We only seek the surface. Could you, perhaps, guide us to it?"

The frankly terrifying looking creatures seemed to vibrate, an odd buzzing in the air, the creep under their feet twitching wildly, but only down the tunnel, not towards us. After a moment, the buzzing stopped, and the... molders? Sure, the Molders once more spoke as one. "Follow. We Will Meet A Coordinator."

As one, they turned, and silently started to skitter down the hallway.

"Jayce?" my partner asked, and I shrugged.

"Talent says to go," I told her, uneasy myself, but trusting in my Company purchase.

We took off after them, and, watching closely, every step each of the Molders took led the fleshy walls to contract a little on their insectile legs, the number of which seemed a little random, with some having seven, some eight, one nine, and two having only five. We backtracked a little, but were on the path Wild Talent had directed, and they stopped around a wall, which-

"Oh, gross," Vi grimaced.

I watched as the seemingly solid wall irised open, like an architectural sphincter, and shuddered a little as I started to follow.

"Jayce, I don't like this," the brawler stated, but still walked through behind me, as the ring of muscle wetly closed, trapping us.

"Same," I agreed, still following the creatures, up another set of stairs, down a few more hallways, and to another... let's call it a doorway. Several more of the creatures skittered by, giving us space, completely silent, not even pausing to look, which made the hairs on the back of my neck lift up, not that this entire situation wasn't already doing that.

The... doorway opened, revealing a large chamber, this one completely covered in the wet, red creep, the walls dotted with openings down them, and, if I kind of squinted, I could see how this would be a large mezzanine-filled space, something in the middle covered in more mold, to the point it was a single grotesque spire of not-flesh, halfway up which sat. . .

Spoiler: The Coordinator

God, this was a terrible idea.

It was some parody of a spider, but in a different way then the Molders were, with an almost mammalian jaw studded with rotting teeth, five large solid-black eyes, three on its head and one on each its two forward 'legs', all seeming to regard us, despite the lack of any visible iris. What's worse was that its insectile legs merged with the fleshy 'mold' twitching beneath it, sending the pseudo muscle into spasms which ran off down the various openings in the chamber.

Walking up to it, as the Molders moved aside to create a corridor, Wild Talent guiding my motions, I just kept a smile on my face as I mentally took stock of my explosives, approaching the spire, and the thing merged into it.

And then the Molders all around us stiffened, then spoke, as one.

"Greetings, Travelers," it stated, the voice coming from the Molders deeper, and with a more intelligent tonality, though the monstrosity before us remained silent. "It has been many cycles since we have met your kind, and never from below."

"We fell, a great distance, and have been attempting to return from whence we came," I told it. "We have journeyed far, and only wish to leave this place."

The 'Coordinator' continued to twitch, sending off pulses of contractions in every direction, its large mouth opening and a truly vile scent washing over me. "We will assist. But first, we offer you a gift."

"Gift?" I echoed, watching as several Molders skittered below the large creature, lifting insectile legs upwards.

"We give you our blessing," it stated, from the Molders around us, as more and more arrived. From its rotten teeth, strings of lumpy fungus dripped, which the smaller creatures gathered into two apple-sized balls. "If you still wish to leave after becoming we, we will of course assist you, as you will be us."

"Jayce?" Vi replied, very understandably freaking the fuck out, even as I turned my attention inwards, demanding a goddamn explanation from my Wild Talent.

~Take it. Body Defense will protect you. Leave,~ it offered simply.

Vi doesn't have Body Defense! I argued, as the Molders started to move towards us.

~Stamp her. Then she will.~

I don't want to Stamp her!

A sense of confusion came from the bit of me that wasn't me, as it mulled that over, the Talent finally giving me a sensation that, when put into words, would've been a snarky ~That sounds like a you problem.~

Oh, I'm gonna submit a serious complaint to HR, I mentally growled-

"Jayce!"

Does the elevator work? I demanded, getting the equivalent of an exasperated shrug, and I had a plan.

"If we are going to receive such a Gift," I said, smiling with proper etiquette, quickly opening pockets and taking out explosive packets, stripping the plastic wrap and shoving them together into one large lump, "It is only &polite& to return the favor, and give you something to eat." I accidentally slipped into Sylvan, mentally shifting gears into Fae-thinking, the word making all of the creatures go still for a moment.

"Twenty seconds, feed it," I informed Violetta, glancing her way, priming the explosive and tossing her the basketball-sized sphere, watching the girl's eyes widen, and turning around to see that the creature had moved.

With the sound of ripping flesh, It pulled itself free from the wall and leapt, landing in front of me with its jaws open as a tide of thick fungal matter washed over me, getting in my eyes, my nose, and my mouth, taking me off my feet with the sheer amount of it.

I heard my partner yell something, and scrabbled backwards towards her, spitting out the gooey, gummy shit that'd filled my mouth, feeling Body Defense at work. Getting to my feet, I blinked my eyes clear, seeing the Overseer staring at me, almost confused, swallowing down a bit of white, as my mental timer ticked down, but we needed to move as we were now in the blast zone.

"GET BACK!" I yelled, as everything around me retreated, giant monster included.

"What did y-SCREEEEEE!" the collected monsters started to ask, before the Overseer detonated, sending chitinous shrapnel in every direction, a piece slamming into my chest hard enough to send me back on my ass, driving the breath from my lungs, sending more mold-goop out of my nose. The deeper timber of the Collective's speech was gone, their voices shrill as they went berserk, Molders running in every direction, one leaping for me, only to get punched out of the air by Vi.

"Jayce, we gotta go!" she yelled, completely unnecessarily, and offered me a hand up, but I rolled to my feet on my own, not wanting to get any mold on her.

"Agreed," I replied, summoning my phone, smearing its screen red, but I knew the commands by heart, only to hear a warning beep. Pulling out my pistol and shooting a Molder that started to close, I tried to wipe off the screen, only partially successful, but that was enough to get the, what?

Creature location error?

That only happened when you tried to open a portal on top of a. . . oh.

The flesh-looking mold under our feet was simultaneously alive, and not a single-organism like I'd assumed, so the targeting couldn't get a metaphysical lock.

Shit.

"Time to go," I told her, as the Molders continued to run rampant, reaching over and carefully plucking a grenade from her kit without touching her. "Follow me."

Running for the door, I primed the timer on the explosive and tossed it forward, gun coming up and taking down several more of the mold, spider, things, one of them jumping for me, revealing a long, barbed tube like that of a tick, before I blasted it out of the air, the creature blowing apart in a burst of chitin, organs, and a lot more mold-goop.

Slowing, doing calculations, I paused outside of the worst of the blast zone right as it went off, the compacted high explosive not producing any shrapnel, the detonation enough to blow out the fungal sphincter, the fleshy-looking material tearing apart in odd patterns that in no way matched the muscular and organ tissue it appeared to be.

Ignoring my own academic interest, wondering if I'd managed to give myself a concussion, I focused, taking off through the twitching, ruined 'valve'. Behind me, I heard more explosions, Vi covering my back, which I really appreciated, only glancing her way long enough to make sure she wasn't falling behind.

Hitting a stairway, my fluid-covered feet slipped off the first step I hit, and the reflexes my trainer had been instilling within me kicked in, as I slid down the stairway, skating with a staccato beat, the brawler behind me taking them three at a time, turning to see dozens of Molders blocking our path.

They were running around randomly, before, all at once, they stopped, and turned to stare at us.

... The Overseer wasn't the Queen, was it? I thought as they spoke a single word.

"INTERESTING."

Before I could say anything in reply, Vi hurled another grenade, and, in an ear-popping detonation, the way was clear again, though, while pounded down, the mashed 'flesh' of the floor still stymied my attempt to open a Gate Home.

Okay, I can work with that.

"Where are we going?" Violetta questioned, on edge, tossing another grenade behind us as more Molders started pouring down the stairs, unified in purpose once more.

"Elevator," I wheezed, forcing myself back into a run, chest aching, tiredness starting to pull on me, but I pushed through it, tearing down the biological corridors, using the mental map I'd created to lead us back the way we came.

"THERE IS NO ESCAPE," the swarm chorused, the flesh all around us spasming, but I paid it no mind, my Wild Talent, feeling annoyed, giving me the route I wanted, warning me that Violetta would die if I tried this, and we probably both would.

Dumbass pseudo-AI, I groused back at it, smiling slightly as the air took on that same biting air, and the dark, dank, and thoroughly disturbing tunnels ended, as we came back to that open shaft, the creeping mold underneath our feet thinning, but not quite gone, until it hit the edge of the acidic gas, which would kill Violetta in seconds, and possibly myself as well, long before either of us got to the elevator platform.

But I didn't know it'd kill me, and I could definitely get Violetta out, the girl, thankfully, still wearing her gas mask. If I timed it right, and I was really wrong, I should be able to get through this with only minor burns.

I stopped, bringing up the interface on my phone, trying to place the Gate as close as I could, getting the same error, and pushing it back an inch, another inch, another inch-

"Jayce?"

There. The oval of energy sprung to life, bits of acidic mist curling around it. The filter systems would keep it from spilling through and being a danger to Piper, except in the single moment her sister was passing though. She'd probably still be burned, and her clothing absolutely would, but the spider silk would degrade cleanly, and the treated steel would merely corrode.

"THIS WAS FOOLISH," the Molders spoke as one, dozens, then hundreds pouring out, not just from behind us, but from doorways all around the chamber. "YOU RESIST US. COME, AND YOU WILL SURVIVE."

Vi looked terrified, holding two grenades, ready to prime and throw them, but she could tell we were screwed. "Do you trust me?" I asked her, knowing that, if she fought me, if she tried to correct, she'd be dead.

"I-I do," she told me, with a shaky nod, but one of growing confidence. "Be kinda stupid not to now."

"And you're many things, but stupid isn't one of them," I shot back with a grin.

Turning to face the horde, and priming my own explosive, I started to say, "While I appreciate the offer of hospitality, I'm afraid I must decl-"

But I was interrupted.

"&Follow the breeze, Speaker.&"

I froze, as did the Molders that were getting ready to attack, the voice coming from everywhere, yet nowhere, the Sylvan words a whisper on the wind, yet incredibly clear, as, with a sound at first like a gentle gust, then a roaring gale, wind roared down through shaft, hitting the acidic gasses, and kicking them up into a tsunami of green death that made me freeze for a moment, the wave instantly covering the gate, but as it slammed forward, the oncoming storm parted around us, and only us, the Molders screeching in agony as the entire chamber hissed, nearly deafeningly in its intensity.

In the moat, more acidic gasses had already started to rise, but a clear corridor led from our position, down into it, and across, then up the steps to the elevator platform. My Gate was actually blocking it, but the intention of our savior was clear, and I wasn't going to waste the gesture.

"GO!" I commanded Violetta, closing the gate, and throwing my grenade back down the hallway where even more Molders were braving the remnants of the gas to try and chase us.

She did the same, taking off at sprint, and I followed, feeling one of my learning Talents sitting up, just a little, and taking note of the clear use of Magic on display.

Running down the rising corridor of gas, until it reached above my head, on a whim, I stuck my hand through the 'wall', finding a buffeting layer of air, but I could push past it, into the caustic gas. Wrenching my hand back after a couple seconds, I found that, while the fake-viscera of the fungal gel had been completely removed, my gloves were fine, despite not being rated for that kind of hazardous exposure at all.

"One Decon shower, coming up," I grinned, before with a jump, I leapt to the side, into the gas, which, damn that was bracing, the stuff force-cleaning my eyes, but I was fine, as environmental dangers were specifically covered by Wild Defense, and while it was toxins, not acids, there were named in Body Defense, one of those two protected me completely, as it had from the other chemicals I'd been exposed to on my way up from this goddamned hellhole.

Jumping back into the corridor, I was squeaky clean, giving Vi a thumbs up as she glanced back at me worriedly, causing the girl to let out a strained laugh and shake her head as she glanced past me, her eyes widening slightly, and then she started really sprinting.

Looking back myself, more Molders were charging down the safe path towards us, but they seemed almost. . . clumsy on the spotless brass floor, tripping over themselves, several falling to the sides, and into the acid mists.

Hitting the far stairs, I charged up them, Vi already trying to decipher the controls, the girl throwing a lever, the door blocking our way to the elevator carriage retracting. We both quickly got inside, the controls here even simpler, and the brawler threw the lever, the metal floor under our feet buckling for a moment, and I had a single moment of panic, before we started to smoothly rise, higher and higher, away from that wet hell.

"&Thank you! We're clear!&" I spoke to the air, unsure if the Mage that had saved us could scry.

While they didn't respond, the clear corridor, which the Molder were only starting to emerge from, collapsed, shrieks and sizzling once more filling the chamber, but quickly diminishing, as we went up, and up, and up.

"What was that?" Violetta questioned, breathing a little hard, but getting her panic under control. "There was birds, but, there aren't any birds down here. Or if there were, they'd be murder birds, not... that. And then you chirped back. Like you did to the big spider-thing."

"That was a Mage who saved us," I told her, enjoying her shocked expression. "And one that spoke Sylvan, language of nature spirits, and Yordles. Apparently, there's far more than Babette down here, helping out."

"I, Babette's not a Mage," the brawler replied, latching onto the easiest topic.

Shaking my head, I told her, "All Yordles are Mages, because they're all Spirits. Most just don't do much with the talent they have." Leaning against the metal cage, I sighed. "And, damn, am I glad they did. My plan probably would've worked, but it would not have been nearly as neat." As we continued to rise, I commented, "And I was way off on how far we had to go. Shit."

Thankfully, for my pride if nothing else, we started slowing as soon as I said that, the elevator coming to a stop into... a small space, with room to disembark, and the only doorway out completely bricked up.

Looking at it, I could probably go back Home and get a sledgehammer, but. . . fuck it.

"Vi, hand me. . . two grenades," I instructed, and, frowning, she did so, watching as I molded the explosives. Opening a Gate, I held out my hand, which she took, and I led her Home, setting the timer and following. Thirty seconds later, we exited the Gate, finding the doorway led to a dirty, dusty space that someone had used as a flophouse, a while ago.

Getting ready to leave, Violetta put an arm out to stop me, and she gestured at my coat. Confused, I looked down, taking far too long to realize I was wearing my Justice outfit, balling up the coat and tossing it back through the Gate, along with my sheathed blade, and holstered pistol. My under armor was clearly visible, but, to be honest, I was fucking done with this bullshit, and that was good enough.

If we had trouble, I had a Vi, and if that wasn't good enough, I still had five grenades in the cargo-pants I was wearing.

So done with this.

It only took a single minute of walking for Violetta to identify where we were, and, that, if we made a bee-line for the bathysphere, I'd barely make it to work on time.

But we came here for a fucking reason.

And we were going to do what we came here to do.