---
The ship broke into the smoggy atmosphere and started to fly over a large mushroom forest down below.
Chlo looked out through the window and to the greenish landscape down below and she let out a heavy sigh. “I really have a hard time coming to Swog.”
Musa let out a grumbling sigh as she watched the pilot controls, taking them in. “So you keep saying.”
Chlo twitched; she recognized that tone in her Needlix companion's voice. “I know it's your home and everything, it's just-”
“I know full well how you feel about my homeworld.” Musa said, cutting her off. This was not the first time they had this talk, and as patient as Musa could be, it didn't exactly make her feel comfortable. “But this is a job, and we really could use the extra funds right now.”
“We do?” Chlo asked and looked over, “But I thought-”
“Someone wanted to stop over at Hygron last week.” Musa spoke up, interrupting the Shkeel. “And I warned you, being that far out it was going to eat into our reserves. So, here we are.”
Chlo frowned a little at that and sighed. “Okay, okay...so...what are we doing here?”
“Someone asked for help regarding some kind of research base here.” Musa explained; knowing full well Chlo hadn't read the mission brief. “Not sure on the details just yet, just that a few researchers were here doing some work, but it sounds like a recent storm has caused some trouble so they wanted some additional help.”
“Research?” Chlo perked up a little at that and looked over. “What kind of research?”
“They didn't say.” Musa answered, “Being this far out in the forest, my guess would be either some cleanup stuff, or xeno-stuff, most likely xeno-biology stuff.
“Oooo!” Chlo smiled, almost immediately perking up at that.
Musa sighed, “Figured that would get your attention.” She shook her head and turned back to the ship controls, activating the ship comms. “Contacting Station Echo, requesting landing permissions.”
Chlo did seem to perk up a little at that and she started to go over her equipment and her wetsuit to make sure she was ready to head out.
As she did, Musa waited for a reply, but after a few moments, there was just silence. Musa looked over the communications before trying again. “Station Echo, do you ready?”
“Is something wrong?”
Musa rubbed her head. “I don't know...not getting a reply from the facility.” She frowned, “Well...like it or not, we're gonna have to go in for a landing.”
She maneuvered the ship around the domed building and headed for the open landing pad behind it. “What the?” She spoke up, “Looks like there's another ship here. And geez...looks more of a clunker than ours.”
“Maybe it's something one of the researchers own?”
Musa shook her head. “No way, I'm sure they have much nicer looking ships than this. We might have to be careful, just in case we have some uninvited company.
Chlo gulped, “Uh, yeah. Sure. You got this.” She gave the Needlix a reassuring smile.
Musa just sighed and shook her head before she moved the ship in and landed next to the other ship before she got up from her seat. She rechecked her armor as well as her cybernetic arm, making sure that the arm cannon was in working order before she headed for the hatch.
As their usual order, Musa was the first one out, moving down the ramp and holding her arm canon out as she scouted the area. “Hmm...coast seems to be clear so far.”
There was a 'thud' from the ship, followed by some grumblings from the Shkeel, making her sigh and turn to watch as Chlo struggled with her walker platform before it finally activated, springing it's six insect-like legs out.
“You know, if you didn't want to visit so many places, we might have the money to actually get that thing replaced.”
Chlo huffed as she climbed onto the platform as it started to move out. “But it works fine!”
“We had to repair that thing three times just this week.” Musa said.
She was about to say more, but a new voice joined in. “Howdy.”
Chlo yipped out as Musa turned around, holding her arm cannon out at the newcomer.
It was another Needlix, though he certainly didn't look like a member of the facility or some kind of raider or trouble-maker. His clothing was simple, heavy boots, and what looked like some kind of headphones that were actually spiked, the whole thing seemingly keeping his messy green hair in some sort of order.
“Whoa now, take it easy.” He said, “That thing might go off.”
Musa raised a brow. “Nido?”
The male smiled. “Nice to see you two again. Not greatest time to meetup again, but it is what it is.”
Musa raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”
“Got a call this morning and was asked to come along here and give you two a hand.” Nido just shrugged, “I didn't know it was going to be you two, but I'm glad it is, should make this a lot easier. Whatever we're doing here.”
“Oh, I don't think we even know.” Chlo said. “I don't think.”
Musa sighed, “I suspected that we were going to get more details when we arrived. All I know is that they were working on something here and wanted a transport, but beyond that, I have no idea.”
“That's weird.” Nido rubbed his stubbled chin, “Wonder why they asked me to come along?”
“Were you able to talk with anyone?” Chlo asked.
“Nope.” Nido said, “Been quiet since I got here, but it's only been, like, ten minutes.”
Musa sighed, “Alright, well...in that case, if we're ready, then lets get inside and see what's going on.”
She took the lead and the three of them approached the entry on the landing pad.
The automatic doors opened up for them and they stepped inside. “Looks like the power is still on.” Nido commented as he looked around. “That's good.”
“I don't like how quiet it is though.” Musa replied, “This feels too...empty. I feel like we should be hearing something; footsteps, voices, something other than the air circulation.”
Chlo stepped a bit closer, the legs of her platform tapping at the metal floor. “Well...maybe they're just in a lounge or rec room or something?”
“Maybe...” Musa didn't sound convinced. “At least they have directional signs here, getting around shouldn't be a problem.”
Nido nodded, “Think we should split up?”
Before Musa had time to consider it, Chlo spoke up, “That's a terrible idea! Something always happens when a group splits up!”
Musa sighed, “I don't think we have anything to worry about. We don't even know if anything is actually wrong here.” She turned to the Shkeel, “How about you go and try to find like a computer room or control center? We might be able to find others there, or at least maybe gain access to their computers or something.”
Chlo shifted on her walker. “Well...I guess that sounds good.”
“I can take a look around the hanger areas here.” Nido said, “Check and see if transports or such are missing, maybe see if they have any records or something.”
Musa nodded, “Alright, I will scout around and see if I can find anything. This facility shouldn't be too big so it shouldn't take a lot of time. When we find the control center, we can meet up there.”
Chlo huffed a little, “I still think this is a bad idea!”
The three went their different ways; Chlo following the colored directional line and heading in deeper into the facility.
It seemed kind of nice, or at least better than some of the other places the two had been into before. The power was on and the place was downright clean, much different from what she would normally think of a polluted planet like Swog.
Thankfully, she didn't have to go far before she found a control center of some kind; a small room with several computer terminals with the screens on, but empty. Chlo activated her communicator.
“Okay, I think I found it! There's no one else here though.”
“Pretty quiet on my end too.” Nido reported. “From the looks of things, their ships are all here, but there's also this weird look wreck.”
“Wreck?” Chlo asked.
“It's obviously a ship of some kind.” Nido continued, “But it ain't one I've seen before, and it's in such a state that there's no way she's flying any time soon.”
“Weird.” The Shkeel walked over to one of the terminals. “Maybe I can find something in their database? It doesn't look like their system is locked, so I might be able to find something. How about you, Musa?”
“It's been empty so far.” She said, “Going through some kind of lab storage area. For some reason the power seems to be out here, the lights are barely working. No one seems to be h-whoa!”
Musa's voice was suddenly cut off and the sound of something falling or crashing could be heard. Chlo tensed up, “Musa! Musa are you okay?”
They didn't get a reply right away, but finally they could hear her voice coming back. “Son of a...yeah I'm fine, I'm fine. Just tripped over something.”
“You hurt?” Nido asked.
“No, but I seem to have landed in something.” Musa sighed, “Yeesh...looks like some kind of purple goo got spilled over the floor here.”
“Sure it ain't some Mucker slime?”
“I'm quite sure, I don't think they had a spur-of-the-moment turf battle in here.” Musa grumbled. “Did you find anything else?”
“Not really.” Nido said, “Logs are very simple, last time a ship was out was about a week or so ago. Guessing they went out sometime after the storm.”
“Oh yeah, there was a storm recently?”
“Yeah, a massive storm rolled through here a couple weeks ago. Given the location and everything, I figured they just needed some stuff repaired afterwards here.”
“Maybe that was how it started, but then where is everyone?” Musa huffed out, starting to sound a little strained. “Did you find anything yet, Chlo?”
“I'm searching through their database now.” Chlo said, “Looks like they've been busy fairly recently and-” She stopped sudden. “Oh...oh! You guys! You're not gonna believe this!”
“What? What is it?” Nido asked.
“According to their reports and stuff in here, the researchers here found some kind of weird wreck in the forest sometime after the storm, and they actually found a survivor! It's some kind of alien! You guys should see this! It's like a...well it's kind of like a yellow Aqualine!”
“Alien, huh?” Nido said. “Guess that might explain the wreck then. I'll make my way to you. You good Musa?”
There wasn't a response for a long moment. “Huh? Oh. Yeah, right. I'll...I'll start making my way there.”
Nido hurried out of the small hanger and through the halls until he reached the control room. “So, found anything else?”
“Yeah!” Chlo said, opening up window after window of information. “This happened sometime after this storm you mentioned. They found the wreck in the swamp, and after they pulled it out, ended up finding a survivor!”
“An alien you said?”
“Yeah!” Chlo touched one of the windows and expanded it. It showed what did appear to be a yellow feline creature with green and purple markings, very similar to an Aqualine in some aspects, but lacking the gills or third eye. Instead they had what looked like ridged spines on their head. Their tail also seemed strange, it looked like it had a maw there as well.
Nido raised an eyebrow when he saw the tail, while it wasn't exact, it did remind him of his frequent employer.
“According to the information here, they were in pretty bad shape.” Chlo said, continuing as she brought up several more screens. “Aliens are kinda hard to work on I imagine, but they did their best. It just looks like some injuries were beyond repair.” It looked like the Shkeel was avoiding some of the more 'graphic' images as she dug in deeper. “Thankfully, he seemed to be okay with Gorm technology, so they augmented him to help with the recovery.”
Before she could continue, there was a thump coming from the entrance, causing her to jump. The two would turn and see Musa at the doorway, though for some reason she was looking worn.
“Ya okay there?” Nido asked, “You look kinda haggard.”
“I'm fine.” Musa replied, her response sounding rather short.
“You sure? You look like you ran-”
“I said I'm fine!” Musa snapped this time, walking into the room. “What else did you find? Anything on this awful purple sludge?”
Nido raised a brow while Chlo hesitated; she had seen Musa mad, but there was usually a good reason for it. “Uh...oh yeah.” She turned back to the screen, “The wreckage seemed to be coated in something the couldn't identify; it wasn't a natural substance from the swamp itself, so they gathered some of it up for study.”
“Great, so what the hell is it?” Musa asked sharply.
“I don't know.” Before Chlo could say anymore, Musa actually slammed her cybernetic arm into the side of the desk, leaving an indent.
“Whoa, take it easy there.” Nido said, though that seemed to just earn him a nasty look from Musa.
Before anything else was said though, Chlo spoke up. “Oh...uh oh...”
“What is it?” Nido asked.
“Uhm...I think I'm starting to see what may have happened...” Chlo brought up some more windows. “This little alien; apparently his name is Lucas, they gave him some Gorm cybers when he was recovering. It looks like they used some plans from a Gorm that's living on Swog, someone named Zane. It seemed ike everything was going fine, but...”
“But?”
Chlo squinted at the screen. “It's...hard to tell. Some of the reports here are incomplete or just missing. There's stuff that were never recorded, but a lot of it also seems like it was corrupted.” She tapped at the computer, “It...looks like something happened, there are reports of this Lucas starting to act strangely. Then there was some kind of accident, and then he started to actually attack the others! The station went into lockdown, but...but that's all. There's nothing else left.”
Musa just snorted out. “Right, then this should be pretty easy. Find the freak, take him out and then we can get the hell out of here.”
Both Nido and Chlo looked over to her. “What are talking about?” Chlo asked, sounding shocked.
“I don't think it's that simple.” Nido said, “Gotta find the researchers first, they might be hiding away here somewhere.”
Musa just snorted, “I doubt it. If this little gremlin went crazy, and is souped-up with Gorm tech, then you gotta assume that there aren't any survivors. Stomp out the pest and we can leave.”
“That's not like you!” Chlo said, “The researchers here were trying to figure out what was wrong with him, I think we can try and help him!”
“This isn't some kind of new pet for you to obsess over!” Musa spat out, her anger clearly showing. “This thing has killed so we just deal with him! End of story!”
“You don't know that.” Nido started to protest, but Musa just growled out.
“Fine! You both can just hide away in here for all I care! I'm getting this bastard!” With that, she turned and stormed off.
Both Chlo and Nido were left speechless as they watched her leave. Finally the Needlix spoke up. “What was that?”
Chlo shook a little, the look of worry heavy on her face. “I don't know... this isn't like her at all.” She rubbed her head, “I mean...I've seen Musa angry before, but there was...you know...a reason for it.” This just came out of no where.”
Nido rubbed his chin, trying to think. “Think this has anything to do with that sludge? She did say she fell into some.”
“I don't know, maybe?” Chlo twitched before she turned around and accessed the computers again, looking through files. “Some of the researchers here were trying to study this stuff. I mean, it could just be something from that ship or-” She stopped.
“What?” Nido asked. “What is it?”
Chlo looked at the screen and shivered a bit. “I'm...I'm not sure.” She brought up a few screens, “According to some of these reports, it sounds like this stuff was...'behaving strangely'.”
“Uh, what does that mean exactly?”
Chlo looked through a few more files. “Well, it seemed to be...making more of itself? Like they only had like half a liter of the stuff, but the next day it more than doubled. They started to experiment with it, but things started to get weird. Equipment started to fail, some of the samples ended up getting destroyed for some reason.” Chlo stopped again when she opened up the next file. “Oh...uh...okay, this looks bad. It says here that they had Lucas in a room to run some tests on him, but they also had a sample of the stuff in he same place, but apparently the beaker holding the stuff broke in the lab. It was evacuated for safety, but with the timing of everything...”
“Doesn't sound like a coincidence then.” Nido said. “Musa's acting weird, so it might be connected to this stuff.”
Chlo frowned; she was clearly worried for her friend. “What do we do?”
Nido sighed, “I dunno. I guess the best thing to do would be to get her outta here and over to a medical facility. There's a chance that this stuff has messed up her arm and armor, so they need to be dealt with. As for this Lucas guy...I dunno, maybe we can do the same for him.”
“But if he's as dangerous as we're thinking, what can we do to stop him? Or Musa for that matter?”
Before the two could continue, the lights in the room suddenly went out, only the lights of the computer screens were left as power suddenly failed, and the whir from the power generators went out.
Nido looked up and grunted. “Okay...that's bad.”
Chlo looked around nervously. “What the? What the heck happened?”
“Not sure, but I can take a guess.” Nido frowned as he looked around. “Need to check out the power center to know for sure.”
The Shkeel looked over to the green Needlix with a concerned look. “What should we do?”
The two looked at each other, both seemed a little lost for ideas.
“We can go and check the generators.” Nido said, “I'm worried that this was done by the Lucas character...”
“What about Musa?” Chlo frowned, “I'm worried about her. Maybe I should go and try and find her...”
Nido raised a brow. “Weren't you the one saying splitting up was a bad idea?”
“Don't remind me.” Chlo sighed, “But...”
The Needlix nodded before he reached to his side and pulled out blaster and handed it over to her.
“Wait, you're giving me a weapon?” Chlo seemed apprehensive.
“Don't want you to be completely defenseless. Hopefully you won't need it.”
Chlo hesitated, but she did take it, fumbling with it a little. “What about you?”
“Don't you worry, I got a little something.” Nido pulled out another weapon, though Chlo looked at it with some confusion.
“You...brought an umbrella?”
“Of a sort.” Nido said. “Alright, well...if you want to do this, then let's do it. Keep comms open, and call for help if you need it.”
Chlo frowned, but she nodded. “Alright...be careful.”
Nido nodded. “You too.” He said before he turned and headed out.
Chlo hesitated, watching him run out before she looked down at the blaster in her hands. “Oh...oh boy...” She took in a deep breath before she slowly made her way out. “I really hope you're okay Musa.”
----
The facility took on a whole new feel now that main power was out. Auxiliary power was one and the halls were lit with emergency lights, but that was only a small comfort. There were still plenty of shadows being thrown about, and the lack of any sound now made everything so much more imposing, the gentle rumble from the air circulation was now replaced with silence.
Nido took out his flashlight, even with the minor lighting, he needed to see the signage to know where he was going. He felt that a facility of this size wouldn't need a very large power room, yet in the dark it felt like it was a lot more immense than it really was. And he really wasn't sure if the quiet was a good thing or not.
He continued to move, his steps echoing through the empty halls until he finally reached the entrance to the power center. “Whew, here we are.” He said and reached for the door's manual release, giving the heavy handle a pull before there was a hiss and the door would release and he could push it open.
He shone his light inside, showing off the large power generators that flanked each side of the room and the control panel in the rear of the room. There was an unpleasant smell filling the room; the familiar scent of smoke and ozone made the Needlix grumble. “Hmm...that's not a good sign.”
He headed in, shining his light around to look at the generators. The smell must have meant that something got damaged, but he was not ready for the kind of damage he would find.
Towards the end of one of the generators, it was completely trashed. The metal cover had been ripped open and much of the wires and components had been completely wrecked, blackened burn marks could be seen against the metal from where electrical sparks once spewed out, filling the room with the faint electrical smoke.
Nido huffed out, “What the heck caused this?” He asked to himself, waving a hand to clear the air a little to get a better look. “Well, this is not a good sign...” He said before checking the next generator. Thankfully, that once seemed to be intact. “Right...think, Nido.” He said to himself, tapping his arms. “Backup power should keep the computer system up, maybe I can find something that I can bypass the damaged generator. It's not perfect, but some power is better than none.”
He headed to the rear console, setting the 'umbrella' down before he started to tap at the interface. Thankfully, the screens would activate, though it was clear to see that the power was indeed limited.
“Alright, let's see what we can do.” He started to tap away, checking through the options, but then he stopped suddenly, his ears twitching when he thought he heard something. At first, he thought it was just his tapping echoing off the walls, but then that tapping started to turn into creaking, and then turned into tearing.
He slowly started to turn, looking back behind him. In the ambient light, he could see something coming from the ceiling. At first it looks like a cable, but with how it was moving, it was easy to see that it wasn't. It was more like a tendril or a tail...
A tail. With a maw.
“Oh...oh crap.”
Nido watched the tail-maw as it started to bite into the other power generator, tearing away at the metal casing like wrapping paper. But Nido knew that the tail had to be attached to something...or someone in this case. His eyes slowly started to look up, and he spotted it, hanging from the ceiling. A yellow feline-like creature with green ridge-plates, wearing Gorm-style armor of white, black and green. There was something wrong though, even in the dark Nido could see what could only be described as patches of darker color on the alien's body, it was like his furred body was being...transformed? It almost looked like he was being forcibly changed into a Gorm? That was crazy, there was no way...
His thoughts stopped quite suddenly though as his eyes met with the red eyes of the alien, suddenly seeming to notice he was there. Nido stood still, watching the alien as the tail stopped its tearing. “Lucas, wasn't it?” Nido said, keeping his voice calm and steady. “You okay there? Heard you been through a lot.”
The alien looked at him before he gave him a wide, unsettling grin, showing off his sharp teeth. He laughed, sending a chill down the Needlix's back. “GEE-heeehHEHEEHeheheh...you could say that. But I'm gonna be fiiiiine.”
“Ya sure there?” Nido asked as he slowly started to move a hand closer to the umbrella.
“Yeeeeah.” The feline said, snickering. Suddenly, without warning, he pushed himself off the support beam and launched himself at him!
Nido reacted quickly, grabbing a hold of the umbrella and opened the canopy up like a shield. Lucas was not expecting that, and he crashed into the surprisingly touch canopy, his claws trying to tear into the strong nanoweave fabric. Nido had to use the back console for support, bracing himself against it as he held the improvised shield up against the attacking alien.
He thought he would be able to hold him off, but that was when a wire from his shoulder started to squirm and move around rather erratically before it focused a laser on the canopy, trying to burn through.
Nido grunted, “Oh crap-!” He didn't know if his 'brella was going to hold up against something like that. He had to do something and quick; he never gave this a proper test, so now was as best a time as ever. He pulled a trigger on the handle and, quite suddenly, the canopy of the umbrella shot off with a surprising amount of force, actually launching itself and the attacker up into the air, causing both to crashing against the wrecked generator with a a loud crash.
The needlix didn't wait, old Muck Warfare instincts kicked in and he ran for the door as the alien struggled to recover. He could hear him clawing away at the canopy and the wreckage as he ran for the door. He quickly spun around, trying to force the door closed as Lucas was soon back up, rushing for the door. Nido grunted and huffed out, pushing as hard and as fast as he could before-
CLUNK!
Nido let out a heavy breath as the door slammed closed and the latch reengaged. He let out a breath, “Right...right...okay. That did not go the way I would have hoped. But-”
He was stopped mid-sentence when he heard a thud coming from the door, followed by another one, and then the sound of metal creaking. “Oh...oh come one, you have got to be kidding me!”
His first instinct was to try and leave and get some distance, but he stopped. Given the tech he had now, that may not be the best idea. Instead...maybe he could get in the first strike. It was certainly dangerous, but none of the options available were exactly 'safe'.
His choice was made and Nido moved to the far wall, going to one knee and brought up his umbrella and took aim. It was what he referred to as an 'undercover 'brella'; more of a defensive weapon in disguise. With the constant tweaks he made to it, it should pack enough of a punch to knock out even a Gorm.
Once again, old Mucker instincts came up as he sat and waited in ambush, watching as the door started to twist and warp. Nido waited and watched, finger on the trigger, until the door was wretched open.
He pulled the trigger and fired; a pulsewave of energy shot out and slammed into the revealed Lucas. While not a point-blank shot, the alien feline let out a loud cry of pain as he flew backwards from the door and crashed. Nido himself was pushed back a little from the shot, not expecting a recoil that powerful. He quickly recovered and got ready for another shot, but he could hear scrambling from the room, followed by a screech of metal and then a crash.
Nido stayed put for a moment, expecting to see him come running out, but instead it was just silence. He finally got up and cautiously peeked inside. The room was empty. He made a quick scan of the room before he spotted some more twisted metal in the middle of the room. “Dangit...he must have broke into the ventilation system.” He sighed and stood back. “Who knows where he could be now... He instinctively looked up at the ceiling overhead before he started to move. “Right...I think we might have to consider getting out of here after all. Gotta get to Chlo.”
He activated his comm, “Chlo, do you hear me? I'm headed over to you, I think we need a change of plan.”
He didn't get a reply back, all he got was static.
“Chlo?” He checked his communicator again before he frowned. “Dangit...alright, guess we're running now.”
----
The spider-like legs of her mobile platform clicked against the metal floor, causing strange echoes to bounce around the Shkeel as she moved down the hall. It really didn't help her nerves, looking around nervously. “It...is way too quiet in here.” She said, actually whispering to herself. She had attached her light to one of her head tendrils, using the light to look around.
Her mind was racing with worry, now tinged with fear. What was wrong with Musa? Could she actually talk her down so they could get out of here? If not...then what? She really hated the idea of actually...shooting her...
Chlo shook her head. No, there had to be an alternative she could consider. She stopped and took a quick look around the hallway; looking for any kind of room or lab she might be able to use. Her light would land on one of the directional signs, pointing to a nearby door. “Ah ha! There!” She smiled and quickly hurried over, stepping inside slowly and finding herself in what was clearly some kind of laboratory.
“Alright Chlo, let's think.” She started to look around the room, “Okay, so...clearly I have no idea what half of this stuff is, but...maybe...” She tried to think, but that was when her light landed on a first aid station. “Oh hey! Okay, maybe this will work!” She hurried over to the station and opened it up, looking at what was inside: a lot of it was just the usual, mundane items like bandages and sprays, but there seemed to be a few other items, including some special medicine. “Okay! Right, so...maybe if I...”
While Chlo was a researcher, chemistry wasn't exactly her strong suit, but this was the best alternative she had other than shooting Musa. She activated her wrist computer and quickly started to look through some information before she discovered a formula and started to put it together. “Okay...that should be it. This tranquilizer should be strong enough to knock her out. But it's only enough for one dose. It should be enough, I hope.”
She loaded the concoction into a hypospray just as her communicator activated. “Chl-...u hear m...?”
She jumped a little, hearing the static from her comms. “Nido? Nido is that you?”
“...eaded ov... nee... nge of pla....”
She frowned. “Nido? Can you hear? I didn't catch any of that. Nido? Nido! Oh come on, what is going on now?” This did feel strangely familiar to her; there was one time whee she and Musa had to rig up a way to block communications during a previous mission, was Musa actually doing something like that now, or was something else causing the interference?
“Oh great...” Chlo took in a breath, trying to calm herself down. “Right...right...okay...well...I hope you get here quick, Nido. I could use the help...”
She headed out of the lab and once again started to down the hallway, shining her light around for any sign of her friend. The hall seemed to lead to what seemed to be the facility's recreational room, only this place was in complete disarray. The furniture had been piled up against the walls, at one point they must have been used to form barricades, but have since been pushed away. The food machines had been smashed apart and the tv monitors hung crooked on the walls, their screens broken and lifeless. Chlo scanned the room, nearly jumping when she finally saw Musa standing in the middle of the room. She was just...standing there, completely unmoving.
She gulped. “Musa? I'm really glad I found you.”
At first, there was no response, but as Chlo kept talking, she started to turn her head.
“Nido's gone off to try and find out what happened to the power, but I think we need to get out of h-” She stopped and gasped as she looked at the Needlix, completely surprised when she realized that she was watching her, and that one of her eyes had changed to a dark, glowing red.
“I'm not going anywhere.” Musa said, her voice trembling with what sounded like barely contained rage. “Not until I find the little bastard and I kill it.”
Chlo gulped. “I...I don't think it's worth it now. We...we're way in over our heads here. I think we-”
She stopped short when she watched as Musa spun around, holding her arm cannon up and pointed it right at her.
“We wouldn't even be here if it weren't for you!” Musa shouted out, “If you would stop being a spoiled and frivolous child, we wouldn't need to be here at all!”
Chlo froze, terror starting to grip her.
“So you know what?” Musa continued, staring at the Shkeel as a wicked grin started to grow on her face. “I think it's time to put an end to this. Once and for all.”
Chlo whimpered, loosing her voice for a moment as she looked at the weapon aimed at her. “M-Musa, hold it...I know this isn't like you.” She said, trying to talk while looking for some kind of cover. “You wouldn't do this. Let's get out of here and-”
“SHUT UP!” Musa yelled out. “I have HAD it with you!”
Everything happened so fast. Chlo could see the arm cannon powering up, about to fire. Without thinking, she dove off of her walker just as the blast struck the walker, sending it and some of the legs flying off. The Shkeel landed heavily, sending the blaster skittering off to the side while she scrambled to pull herself over behind a turned-over couch.
“Musa!” Chlo gasped out, fear taking over as he tried desperately to reach to her friend while frantically fumbling with her pouch to get the hypo. “Musa please! Don't do this! I don't know what's happening, but-”
She let out a yelp as the Needlix was standing over of her, slamming a foot down on her tail as she held her cannon to the Shkeel's head; her expression showed nothing but rage.
“Now, for the last time. Shut. Up!”
Chlo whimpered out, too afraid to move or do anything, fearing that this was the end. She trembled and looked into the unnatural face of her friend...
But suddenly there was the sound of a shrill growl. Before either of them knew what was happening, something slammed into Musa, knocking her back into the middle of the room.
It took the Shkeel several moments to get enough sense back for her to move, digging her claws into the couch and hid behind it as she watched what was happening.
Musa was struggling against something, or someone. Chlo gasped, realizing that it was the alien, Lucas!
Musa stumbled around and struggled as Lucas was trying to claw at the armor, he tail starting to snap and bite at it, actually getting some purchase on her leg before The Needlix was able to dislodge him and threw him off.
The alien was quick to react, his Gorm-legs activated, creating a hovering field that let him slow his impact against the wall and landed to his feet.
“You!” Musa hissed out. “It's about time you showed up! I'm going destroy you!”
The feline hissed and laughed. “ Y̶o̵u̷ ̸c̶a̴n̶ ̷c̷e̶r̷t̵a̵i̶n̷l̶y̴ ̵t̴r̷y̵ !”
There was a loud clash as Lucas launched himself forward into Musa, though she was prepared for it this time and she held her arms up, catching him as he started to claw away at her. The laser tendril on his shoulder whipped out and fired a blast at her, catching her off guard as the laser glanced off her arm and bounced off, shooting through her ear.
Musa yelled out in pain before she kicked the alien back, lifting her arm cannon up and taking several shots, forcing Lucas to duck and run avoid to avoid the attacks.
“Stay still you little-” Musa's energy blasts were getting stronger as she built up the energy levels; the bigger blasts were much harder to dodge for the feline. But he was edging closer, and when he was close enough, he lunged forward, one of his arms actually crackling with electrical energy. He was able to grab hold of Musa's armor and an extreme electrical blast shot through her. Her armor did it's best to absorb and mitigate the blast, but it was extreme, causing much of the armor's electrical defenses to start frying.
Chlo hid behind the couch, her only means of cover, watching with wide-eyes at the fight taking place. Her mind was racing; what was she going to do?! They were going crazy like this, someone was going to get killed! Energy blasts shot everywhere, blasting against the walls and the remains of the furniture, while bodies collided, the dull thud of claws and fists against metal echoing in the room.
Nido could hear the commotion down the hall and he rushed forward, but he stopped short at the door when he saw the fight that was taking place. He stood there in stunned silence. “Holy...”
Chlo gasped and turned, seeing the green Needlix and she let out a yelp. “Nido! Get to cover! Quick!”
Nido was shook out of his stupor and he looked around, spotting the helpless researcher to the side. “Chlo!”
With his attention diverted though, he didn't realize that Musa was able to kick Lucas and sent the smaller form flying, and then crashing into Nido, knocking him to the ground. His umbrella weapon clattered to the ground and slid, stopping short of the Shkeel.
“Agh! Hey-!” Nido struggled against Lucas, trying to get him off and move away, but the feline refused to budge. Now that his first target was her, he dug his claws into his chest while the tail maw snapped down onto his leg, causing him to yell out in pain. “Get...off!”
Lucas hissed and he raised his hand up, electrical energy surging through his hand, but before he could strike, his arm was suddenly grabbed and he was yanked off.
“Got you this time!” Musa growled out as she held onto the thrashing Lucas, energy charging up in her arm cannon. She was preparing to blast him point blank, but the shoulder mounted laser tendril started to whip around again. It fired, blasting into Musa's armor as she tried to take aim. The energy blast fired, and Lucas let out a horrible scream of pain as the blast blasted through his leg, causing the now damaged cybernetic limb to fly off and clatter against the wall and sending a rush of pain through him.
Musa didn't hesitate this time, taking the feline and then slammed him down into the ground several times like a ragdoll, until he wasn't moving anymore.
Chlo watched in horror as Musa stood there, her armor damaged and arm cannon smoking. By the door, she could see Nido struggling to get up, clearly injured and clearly injured. But Musa also seemed to notice him and she turned and started to approach him, his arm cannon once again starting to hum with energy. Chlo gulped, her voice catching in her throat as she knew she had to do something!
“M-Musa...” Nido was struggling to get up, watching as the damaged Needlix was starting to approach her. “Listen...”
Musa didn't say anything, instead she just stared down at him, her infected eye seeming to glow as she approached him, raising her arm cannon up at him.
“MUSA!” Chlo let out a loud yell, catching her off guard. Musa turned around, just in time to see that the Shkeel had managed to force herself closeer, holding the umbrella weapon awkwardly, but enough that she was able to pull the trigger.
The energy blast shot out, catching Musa's arm in the blast. That combined with the charging energy and there was a brief, but intense explosion, sending the two backwards with the force.
Musa howled out in a combination of pain and rage, holding the remains of her arm and shoulder as she thrashed on the ground. “YOU STUPID BITCH! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!”
Chlo whimpered out as she fell to the floor, clearly shaken and injured by the blast. She was panting hard, but she tossed the hypo over to Nido. “Hurry! U-use that on her! Take her out!”
Nido huffed out, managing the catch the hypo. He ignored the pain in his leg and he rushed over to the thrashing Needlix, pinning her down and injecting the hypo into her. Slowly, the enraged Musa started to calm down, and soon she fell unconcious.
Silence fell over the facility once more.
----
It felt like she was climbing out of a long, dark tunnel, only to be greeted by pain. Musa let out a groan as she started to come around. Her body ached, and she was disorientated, taking her a few moments to realize that she was laying in a bed in a Needlix hospital. Everything hurt, and she realized that her arm and eye were bandaged.
“Wha...what the...?” She tried to speak up, her voice straining as she coughed.
“Well hello there. Welcome back.”
Musa twitched an ear, “Nido?” She twitched as she looked over to the green Needlix next to her bed.
“Nice to see you again.” He said, offering a faint smile. “It...is you, yes?”
“What? Of course...” Musa groaned, trying to sit up. “How...how did I end up here? What the heck happened?”
“You don't remember?”
She sighed, “Obviously not.”
Nido sighed out, “What was the last thing that you remember?”
Musa sighed in frustration, but she was starting to realize how difficult that was to answer. “I...we were...in the mushroom forest, on an job. And...you were there. And...” She hesitated. “Good grief...what happened? I can't remember anything.”
“Normally, that would be for the best, but...” There was some clear hesitation in his voice, but he spent some time briefly going over what happened. As he told the story, Musa was slowly starting to remember, getting fragmented memories coming up. She felt her stomach twitch.
“Oh god...I...I tried to kill you guys...”
Nido twitched an ear. “You certainly tried.”
Musa winced. “Chlo! What abut Chlo?! Is she-?”
“She's fine.” Nido said, “She's in a different area of the hospital here, more friendly to aquatics here. But she's fine, only took some minor burns from that big blast. But, sad to say, you're arm is toast.”
Musa frowned and looked down. “What about that alien, Lucas?”
Nido frowned next. “Far as I know, he's in a special ward here. Being an alien, he was needing some special treatment. And because of his augmentation, they had to get in touch with several Gorm to help. Interesting lot too, one tall green one and a bigger slate colored one. Uhm...Akira and Byte I think they said their names were. But, last I heard, it sounded like he was going to be okay.”
Musa closed her eye and put his head back against the pillow. “Hell...this went all kinds of bad. I...don't even know what to say...”
“Nothing to say I think.” Nido said. “You weren't yourself, and it sounds like that, whatever was in that lab, infected you and started to mess with your head. Can't blame yourself for something you had no control over.
“Doesn't make me feel too good...” She sighed. “...were there any survivors from the laboratory?”
“Oh yeah, they're all fine. They had barricaded themselves into one of the smaller lab rooms. When they heard the commotion from the fight, they came to investigate and found the lot of us. Funny enough, they ended up helping us instead of the other-way around.”
“I guess that's good.” Musa fell silent. “...Nido, I'm just...”
“Don't need to say sorry.” Nido reminded her. “Just get some rest. When you're feeling up for it, you can give Chlo a visit, I'm sure she will be happy to see you're back to normal.”
Musa was quiet. She wasn't sure if she could see Chlo after all of that. “Now I have to wonder what we should do now...”
“Well, I for one plan on asking some questions.” Nido said, slowly standing up. “I'm gonna get in touch with my one employer; since he sent me over to help, he might have some idea of what was going on, and he certainly owes me an explanation or two.” He looked over to the blue Needlix and smiled, “I'll be back to visit you two though, so don't worry. Heck, I'll look around and see if I can find you a new one. Get you a better one than the one you had there before.”
Musa just let out a groan. “Later, Nido. I...really don't think I can do this now.”
Nido let out a chuckle. “I'm teasing, don't worry. Just get some rest, yeah?”
“Yeah...”
----
“It's the same virus.”
The green Gorm was talking to the slate blue Gorm over his holo-interface as he looked at the small yellow alien as he was put in the hospital's isolation ward. The small feline was, thankfully, fully unconscious and resting, though completely without his cybernetic limbs.
“Are you absolutely sure?” The blue Gorm asked.
“It's impossible to mistake.” Akira replied, looking over the patient information.
Byte sighed out. “Damn...I was hoping this would have been an isolated incident. I guess it's not now. Is there any information on this facility?”
“It's an independent group.” Akira replied, “Not associated with anyone we are. From what information I was able to get, they've been privately funded by several sources. Rezla, Grizz Co, Ez Corp, and so on.”
The blue Gorm grumbled. “Well...I suppose we should send in a team to clean up and investigate.”
“I wouldn't recommend that.” Akira said, “Not without some heavy protection. This virus was specifically designed to target us, and we have no idea how bad it could be inside that place. And now we know that this thing can also infect other species, so no one is really safe. We may have to quarantine the area for now.”
“I know it's bad, but is it really that much worse?”
“Certainly seems like it.” Akira said, “We know how bad it was for Zane, and this alien's been augmented with our tech, and from what I've seen, the stuff he had were all based on Zane's gear. For all we know, that may have been the source of the infection, but the others were inside there mentioned something about some kind of slime or sludge-”
“Which is similar to what Kaz told us as well.” Byte frowned as he looked down. “Well...how is this little alien? Lucas was it?”
“So far, so good.” Akira replied. “He's gonna need to have all of the tech cleaned out before he can have anything new installed. But as for him, as well as the Needlix, the virus thankfully didn't infect their biology like it would have done with a Gorm, so getting it out of their system is a lot easier.”
“Thank goodness for small favors then.” Byte sighed and nodded. “Very well...get what information you can and keep at it. This virus has some of us worried for a while now. I want to get it dealt with as soon as possible. In the meantime, we'll get the area quarantined, then we can see about getting proper protection before we can send a clean team into this facility.”
Akira nodded before he closed the channel and looked back at the sleep feline. “You're pretty lucky kid, could have been a whole lot worse.” He sighed, Still, I would like to find the bastard responsible for this...”
