#haahahh

His Dynamo lights up the space in front of him, but it's not nearly enough to be able to see more than a few feet. He steps over rails and rubble, aiming for the brighter exit on the other side.

When he emerges from the passage, he finds himself in the middle of another tunnel. The air is filled with a peculiar smell, something eroded and earthy.

He looks to the left - the rails disappear into the darkness far away. He looks to the right - there's a Nasod robot about to cut him in two.

He automatically jumps away, sighing to himself when the Nasod's metallic arm hits the ground where he had been standing not a moment ago. He aims his Dynamo and prepares an energy ball.

The whole tunnel shakes as he lets it loose. The energy short circuits the Nasod, but rocks start falling down from the ceiling. Esper hides himself in a small low-gravity field and waits out the avalanche.

The entrance to the passage connecting this tunnel to the one he came from is fully covered by the end of it, a pile of giant rocks blocking the small hole. Esper curses, trying to pull them loose. It doesn't work.

"Hey!" he cries out, but something catches his attention.

From his peripheral vision, he sees something move. He whips in that direction, standing shell shocked as he watches the short circuited Nasod rising to its feet again.

"What the…" he mutters in disbelief. The lights inside the Nasod blink on again and he staggers towards Esper.

Esper blasts him away with more energy balls, but the Nasod just keeps standing up each time.

"Stay down!" Esper yells at it, this time making sure he couldn't get up at all. Static noise fills the space and Esper kicks the pieces by his feet for good measure. Thankfully, they stay still.

He didn't notice before, since his attention was directed towards the fact that the robot wanted his dead, but now that the threat is gone, he notices something off about the Nasod. There is something green stuck to its faded surface.

Esper cautiously yanks it off to inspect it closer. It seems to be a plant, and its roots must've been attached to the Nasod's El shard, because they came out all glowy. Esper chucks the plant away and turns back to the pile of rocks.

"Masi?" he calls out again, "Lusa!" His only response, however, is his own voice, echoing in the giant cavern.

He tries moving the stones again. It still doesn't work.

"Masi! Lusa!" A manic edge creeps into his voice and he desperately tries to yell loud enough for the others to hear him.

They'll come back. He knows they will.

He sits on the ground, leaning back against the offending pile and picking at the few blades of grass - or whatever it is - growing by his side. Here and there, he cries out, only ever hearing himself.

He's not sure how long he just sits there, he doesn't have a clock or any other means by which to tell the time, but it feels like an eternity. He can vividly remember what it felt like to spend years in the Nasod library, with only the books to keep him company. This feels so much worse, if only because now he knows that the presence of other people can be pleasant. Back then, he didn't have anything he missed, except his mom. And now, he's all alone without Lusa or Masi and it's so much worse.

He doesn't even realize that tears have been flowing down his cheeks freely, but they keep dripping from his chin and wetting his knees.

He tries freeing himself once more; he makes the Dynamos create a low-gravity field, but that's as far as he gets. The rocks are all piled in such a disarray that he can't just pick one and move it without the others. When he comes to this conclusion, he doesn't hesitate to cry again.

Back to square one, but with less El energy and less stamina, Esper instead chooses to explore the tunnel. With a bit of luck, he might find another exit.

Oh, who is he kidding. He's never been lucky.

All he finds in the winding tunnel are Nasods, same as the one that attacked him before. He has to destroy all of them, because they keep getting up if he just disables them. It reminds him of zombies, but they're robots, they shouldn't be capable of this.

All of them have the same plant growing on them. It's the plant controlling them, he realizes slightly belatedly. There are tens, maybe hundreds of them growing all over the place.

Their spores float in the air, latching onto anything they can find. Some even try to land on Esper, but he brushes them off easily. They let off a very weird stench, and Esper doubles over in a coughing fit every now and then.

But he finds nothing in the tunnel. No sign of an exit anywhere, nor anything indicating that he could bust through a wall and get somewhere.

"Lusa! Masi! Guys!!" he tries again, dirty gloves clawing at the rocks that keep him trapped. "Please! Masi! Come on! Lusa!"

But no one comes.

"This is all your fault!" Lusa growls, punching stone wall. Without the plasma armor, he breaks his knuckles and blood drips down, staining his sleeve.

It's not Mastermind's fault. He, of all people, knows that. It's both of their faults.

That stupid plant would've waited. He knew he had heard Esper calling out, but no, they had to go forward instead. Curse their stupid curiosity!

"Fuck!" he curses, for the umpteenth time. "Goddammit, we're so dumb!"

Mastermind doesn't answer him, but he knows he thinks the same. Instead, he taps away on his holo monitors. His brows are furrowed and it doesn't look like he's having much luck with whatever he's doing.

"I can't scan the whole tunnel," he says finally, his hand curling into a fist mid-tapping. "I don't have enough power."

Lusa had seen Mastermind frustrated before, even angry - since it isn't so hard to push the genius' buttons -, but he had never seen him like this. He was glaring at the screen, lips parted to show is grit teeth. His whole body was trembling with badly-restrained frustration. Frustration at the fact that he is powerless. Literally.

"Use the El shards from my Dynamo," Lusa says, not hesitating a moment.

"I can't dismantle your Dynamo!" Mastermind protests. "What'll you do without it?"

Lusa glares at him pointedly. "I don't fucking care about the Dynamo! We need to find Esper! Use. The. Fucking. El. Shards. From. My. Dynamo."

Mastermind’s shoulders realx. He nods.

↳ Bad end