What are strings except the souls of those who fail to see their place in the universe? --50.7 Seconds Post-Integration.
'Of course, monsters, why wouldn't there be monsters?!' Clark abandoned all thoughts of investigating the cause of the explosion. To his left and right, he saw a geyser of black gunk shoot up from the ground. 'This place is going to be overwhelmed and soon. I need to get out, not play good guy ranger.'
He turned toward Hera's imminent and headlong path of destruction and ran toward it. As he did so, he searched for anything he could use as a weapon. It was a construction site, or demolition site, so there needed to be something he could use his dandy to bless and use as an anti-slime measure. Looking and looking with each step, he found nothing. He cussed at the situation, grumbling that it was this reason why he needed his own multi-tool.
Ka-rash!
And there went the first bit of Augustford property as the wrecking machine crashed through one of the many wood and rock sheet walls erected by the company inside the Interior chamber.
Another alarm sounded. This one of a higher pitch than the first.
'Crap, so they do have alarms for intruders!' Clark was hoping maybe the company would be so secure in their operations here, they wouldn't have bothered going the extra mile for security. 'Guess I can cross that off my list of preventable measures,' he half-joked as a way of dealing with the terror.
Over the next few minutes, the situation worsened by magnitudes. Black gunk from the geysers soared into the air, coating everything; it wasn't long, then, when that goo solidified into monsters who began to claw and nap at the Containment Guards. Shouting dominated the Interior space as Containment troops flooded the area and brought their multi-tools to life with a crack and spackle of electro-magic. Then, search lights beamed to life. A massive voice boomed, "INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT! AUGUSTFORD VEHICLE HAS BEEN HIJACKED! ALL ASSET PROTECTION AGENTS MOVE TO INTERVENE!" The message repeated several times, giving him no end to his grief. 'Now we have to deal with asset protection people!? Come on, Hera, get a move on!'
With crashes and ka-booms, not to mention the debris falling from every which way like rain, it was easy for Clark to avoid looking like he was doing anything out of the ordinary, given the situation. Around him, workers scattered, Containment Guards waved them in the safety direction. He kept pace with Hera decently, at least for the first while. After about twenty minutes, he found more and more distance between he and her. It was then that a guard shouted. "You, boy, the evacuation zone is over there! Get a move on!" Could the guard tell his age just from his height? It was true, Clark was never the tallest guy, but he was hardly diminutive, either.
"Okay, sorry!" he yelped back and ran off in the direction indicated by the guard. He couldn't risk an open fight with a member of Containment. He would meander in the direction pointed out by the guard, then he would resume his trek.
Such a strategy was all well and good -- until such a time when it wasn't good. Such as several more 'walls' later.
Near, now, the final bit of all separating the dungeon-interior from the store block, and the public, by now, asset protection had set up means to block the vehicle's passage. One such means impacted and tore up the wrecking ball's treads, rendering it immobile.
But that didn't deter Hera.
Getting a feel for the machine by now, she worked the machine's gears and levers. Slowly, the machine started to swing back and forth, the giant wrecking ball gaining momentum. The asset protection folk panicked. "Stop that terrorist!" one shouted. But it was too late.
The ball had already built-up gravitational forces and crashed into the wall's facade with a boom.
A pull brought his attention to a nearby asset protection guy. "Get yourself over there and attach this to the back of the machine!" he ordered of Clark.
'Oh, they think I am one of them. Great! Now, how do I dispose of this explosive before...' he wondered, but for naught.
Now, it finally happened, the monsters from the other chambers had overwhelmed the Containment Guards. A chorus of screams to his backside brought he and his arm-grabbing-happy asset protection friend's attention toward a sloshing mass of Noir Slimes.
Not able to see the asset protection man's face, if it was anything like his, Clark imagined the man drained of color. 'Why are there so many?!' Clark's asset protection goon ran like the dickens in the opposite direction.
Not knowing how the explosive worked, he pulled the pin that said, 'Pull Here,' and chucked the explosive into the mass of Slimes; the slimes overtook the explosive like a surging river swallowing a stone. Fire burst from the slime-mass as the explosive detonated -- obviously imbued with magical energy, for it eradicated a good number of monsters... ultimately, the explosive killed did little to stem the horde.
Since he hadn't been able to locate a weapon -- makeshift or otherwise -- Clark turned tail and ran, ignoring the System notifications (likely) alerting him to experience gain. Running, he continued to cuss the string of decisions he made which had led him to this point.
Another CLANG and smashing crack boomed from the union of the wrecking ball and wall. Large fragments of the wall tumbled away, letting in streaks of light from the store block outside. Trying his best to rush toward the vehicle without tripping over himself, he nevertheless did trip a couple of times. He practically leapt through the plump flight of steps circling the vehicle's tasse. "Hera! Turn your ball around, destroy the monsters!"
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"WHAT?!" Hera repeated several times and she and he engaged in a verbal farce over engines too loud. Eventually, he got her to understand. She shouted back, "Pour over that purification dandy you have over the ball!"
Not wanting to argue, he scampered down from the driver's cabin. At their back, were the monsters, closer now than ever. In just another couple of minutes, they would be within striking range -- thank the gods the slimes were slow!
He ran and took his anti-monster oil tincture out from his bag. He violently uncorked the bottle. Then, with a mighty fling of his arm, shot liquid all over the giant, black wrecking ball. He repeated until the tincture was empty. It was a huge ball, so he couldn't spare any for the hypothetical 'needing some for later.' Later was now and he wasn't going to take any more unnecessary risks.
"There! Done!" Clark didn't have to shout at Hera to let her know he had done his task. Hera had been watching him the whole time. Throughout that period, the wrecking ball was kept in motion, slow motion, but motion, Clark happy Hera knew how to control the machine with a silver of precision.
In the nick of time, the massive ball crashed into an entire column of monsters -- and eradicated them all in a single shot.
On its return swing, the ball destroyed another wave of enemies. And another. Then another.
Dozens must've been destroyed. Clark received an 'experience gained' notification for each of the foes felled by the blessed wrecking ball. He was racking in the experience!
Not that he had time to dwell on experience gain. Deeper inside the Interior, where they had just fled, he already saw more monsters surging up. By now, Augustford security had been mustered in full; beams of bright light blasted from odd guns imbued with holy energy. Each beam took only a single shot to vaporize one of the slimes. "Looks like the good old company has it handled from here!" Hera shouted down at him. "Let's get a move on!"
Hera turned the vehicle around and pulled the stick to reverse. She scurried down the steps while the vehicle automatically drove ahead and crashed into another wall, then another, each bringing with it a might crash. 'If we are ever caught for this, we are so fecking fired!'
"Let's go!" Hera shouted to him as she shook him away from the vehicle's diversion.
He mumbled something, not having the right state of mind to compose and response and followed Hera as they ran as fast as they could out of the Interior and into the store block. Behind them, chaos, screaming, as the wrecking ball continued its unguided careening into the dungeon interior and shattered walls, company tools, and anything else which was in its way.
He and Hera -- still in Containment Guard garb -- ran until they couldn't run anymore. Literally.
When they did stop running, they were in some back part of the store he had never before seen. Droplets of water fell from seams between pipes. Steam hissed out from valves. It looked as though they were in some maintenance tunnel which hadn't seen any actual maintenance for years. In the room's far corner was an incinerator furnace on low power.
Hera was sloped against a wall catching her breath. He did the same but had some curiosity about where they were.
"We will rest here," Hera told him. "Take off your disguise. We won't be needing it anymore."
He obeyed and happily removed the badly fitted uniform. Throughout the whole affair, Clark's uniform stuck to him too tightly. Removing it, he was happy to be breathing once more. His skin felt liberated of their mortal concerns. He tossed the uniform into the incinerator vat.
Some minutes passed as the two continued to keep themselves rested. Eventually, Clark asked "What now?"
"Now? We wait."
"Wait for what?"
"For members of my church."
"Members--"
"Please! Enough questions!"
Clark's eyes narrowed. He wanted to yell at Hera to stop with her secrets. He didn't yell at her, though. He kept his discontentment inside and waited for other members of her group to come.
Echoing steps from the rundown passage signaled Hera's cohorts arrival. They were dressed in heavy robes that looked uncomfortable. Hera introduced him as "an invaluable friend." They bowed to him then talked to Hera nonstop in a jargon heavy way. Clark understood none of it and willed for the conversation to be over so he could stumble back to his dorm and rest.
The church followers left after so long. Hera turned to him. "Sorry for keeping you," she whispered. "To answer the many questions you have, yes, this was not a spontaneous operation. We were planning on infiltrating that area for a long time. Before you came along, we were planning on blowing up the walls with explosives. Praise be for your arrival! Saved us a lot of trouble with going along through the crevice. We will be keeping the paths of the Interior in mind from here on out."
Clark didn't know what to think about Hera and her churchgoers using the dungeon's Interior as their own personal insurgent tunnels. It seemed perverse. Not only to their employer but to his role as the dungeon champion. He figured it was too late to object, though. Plus, it isn't as though he would gain anything from objecting now.
Hera continued. "Now, we can go our separate ways. But I will always remember the service you rendered for my people."
He had to intervene and say something. "What's going to happen with the shrine? It's filled with monsters and security people. You aren't going to shoot them all dead, are you?"
"Heavens no, Clark!" Hera laughed. "My church knows how to handle monsters. We're no strangers to their ways, nor how to cleanse them from creation. As for Augustford, now that the wall is down, our real work begins. We will launch an activist campaign to pressure Augustford to reveal the truth -- that they have been hiding from the world the old shrines and that these shrines were never abandoned. They won't want to budge, but we're anticipating that. If you're worried about violence, know that we will strive to keep things purely self-defensive."
Although Hera's assurances were comforting, he still did not like the insinuation there would be violence yet...
'I can't dwell on other people's actions,' he told himself, as he dismissed the 'what if' thoughts from his mind.
"Good to know, Hera. Thank you."
"No, Clark -- thank you!" Hera laid a hand on his shoulder. "If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to call on me or my church. We will provide to the best of our ability." Hera moved to leave but then swiveled on her feet back to him. "Before I forget, I do not know if you are aware, but there is a feature of working for Augustford called 'work details.' They allow people, within certain limits, to work the same shift on the same floor together. My understanding of work details is that they can allow for a nice labor efficiency which lets them quickly climb floors. If you ever wish for me to join your own work detail, you only have to give me a buzz."
Clark nodded and smiled. Did he want Hera to join his work party? She was chaotic... of course, so was Theo, at first.
"SIMP. Take me back to my dorm," he asked the spiritual consciousness.
"With pleasure, lord of chaos."
Did You Ever Get into a Fight at Work?
