Shadowlands 18: a conspiracy shrouded

He moved quickly with a right hook aimed at my head. I tilted my head forward and came up, glancing the blow off of my shoulders as I swung two fists and a foot across his face. I planted my foot near him and horse kicked him with my back foot into the wall.1

His knuckles made contact with my body. I felt skin rupturing from his strike.2

As I stepped back he pulled out another injection gun. “I underestimated your fisticuffs, but you underestimate my resourcefulness.” He threw off his coat and little mechanical boosters unfolded out of his back and wrapped around their respectively assisted limbs.3

Now he was moving like lightning. His sharp fingers slashed all around me as I twisted and ducked away from him. I saw another open side, and I kicked hard.4

He slid back a bit, and continued his assault. I jump kicked him in the head and he fell off the catwalk. He reached and his arm stretched, swinging him back around onto the metal platform.5

“I continue to underestimate your ability, and I was afraid of using this,” he said calmly. He pulled out a syringe and stabbed it into his thigh. In seconds his body was changing. Muscles bulged, teeth grew; he looked like a demonic gorilla with an almost human face.6

“Now you die!” he bellowed. Ding. The door to the elevator opened. He barreled at me, shaking the whole catwalk. A hulking mass of muscle headed right at me.7

But I had the guided Vix missile on my side. Burning claws dug into and ripped out the scientist's face. I grabbed his injector and put dose after dose of unknown substance into his system.8

Alice ran up. “Al! They’re after me!”9

I looked at the elevator. Little tripod animals with a single giant eye were clawing at the elevator.10

“Why did you have him take you here Al?”11

“Because I’m fucking destroying this place! Help me find the controls!”12

We ran down the catwalk until it came to an office. I kicked in the door and looked around the room, control and monitoring systems everywhere.13

I switched through all the reactors, turning up their catalyst rate. I shut off the water in the geothermal, and turned the magma intake all the way up.14

Alarms sounded from everywhere, but they were nearly inaudible over the rumbling of the reactors cooking off.15

Thid! Thud! The door to the office was denting inward.16

“Just when things were going well!” I shouted to Alice, “The insect thingys come to eat your face!”
A thick fingered fist about the size of my head slammed through the wall.17

“Or rather,” Alice said as she opened a hatch in the floor, “The roids kick in.”18

We slid down a ladder to an enclosed walkway. It hung over the magma floor like a tunnel in the air. The tube was compartmented with glass barriers as a contamination control. The compartments were joined by small doors, which opened slowly, as each room ran decontamination whenever its seal broke.19

We had moved about five compartments when the scientist burst through the ceiling. He spotted us and gave chase, smashing through anything in his path.20

We were making decent progress, but he was gaining on us as we raced to the next door. I reached it first and hit the button. The contamination light turned green, like all the others. The motors started whirring. The door stayed shut. I pressed the button again. Nothing.21

I punched the panel hard, cutting my knuckles open on the ridged buttons. The door continued whirring.22

I heard Alice behind me, chanting. She stopped suddenly and said, “Al. You might want to move.” I turned and saw her standing with her staff over her head. The floor around her was covered in runes and glowing brightly. I ducked away, and she blasted through three walls.23

The next compartment was an intersection with a large cement shaft. Either side of the platform we stood on had two escalators down to a landing. On these landings were two more escalators back to a platform beneath us. That platform had a set of elevators leading down into the depths of the labs and up to what I hoped was safety.24

None of this did me any good however because I was actively dodging a desk being thrown by a giant gorilla man. I didn’t even see any desks as we ran through, but damn it, he found one.25

Alice and Vix had taken cover at the heads of the far and near right escalators respectively, hiding behind the motor chassis.26

During the time they took to get in cover, I had taken the opportunity to get more shit thrown at me.27

A piece of rebar caught my eye. I ducked out from behind the desk, and grabbed the bar, rolling behind another piece of cover. A filing cabinet smashed into the random piece of architecture that provided a hiding space to me. “Al!” shouted Alice, “He’s attacking us!”28

“Try killing him!” I shouted back, “And also our staple of running the hell away!”29

“Okay! Vix, light him up!” Vix popped up and launched a cinder bomb at the ogre. Alice crouched on the escalator and chanted as it brought her down. I tapped the rebar against my boot and dashed to closer cover as Vix distracted our foe.30

It broke through Vix’s attack and dove at him. Vix hopped up, and the beast smashed the escalator.
Alice launched a bubble as the beast dove across between the two sets of moving stairs. It enveloped him, and sent him flying into the swirling magma. 31

The main geothermal reactor exploded. Pressure had built up, and now the whole system was rupturing.
Lava sprayed onto the ceiling. A few of the overheated reactors melted the walls they were affixed to and fell down.32

The elevators brought us up out of the caverns into a small foyer in the catacombs, where a staircase emerged into a graveyard.33

Alice led the way to town all the way to the mayor’s house. I knocked on the door.34

The mayor opened the door and looked surprised at my appearance, “What happened to you?”35

“Nothing,” Alice replied, “you may want to get out of your house.” We pulled the mayor out of her doorway.36

“Wait what? Why?”37

A plume of fire answered her question as it erupted through the roof of her home.38

“The threat has been dealt with,” I told her flatly, “Now just write a little note that says what a good job I did, seal it, and I’ll be going home please. Madam.” She was gaping at her house, which now had a huge hole in it, and was slowly catching on fire.39

I put my hand on her shoulder and she snapped back into her head, “Oh ah yes, definitely. Do you want a reward?”40

“No thanks,” I said grimly, “I think I have to give them a cut of it if I do. Now, all I need is a letter saying how awesome I am and I’ll be on my-“ I was cut off as the ground opened up in the town square.41

I turned and watched as a giant horned head rose through the cobblestones. It was followed by massive shoulders and an enormous body. The townspeople scattered.42

“Way,” Alice whispered, helping me complete my sentence. She then added, “I’ll start looking for a spell to get us out of this one shall I?”43

“Please do,” I replied. “Madam mayor, once you’ve got your stationary you can run the hell away too. And a pen, don’t forget a pen!”44

I waited a few more moments as the demonic looking upgrade to the scientist got its bearings. There was really nothing I could do until the fucker attacked me, and even then I was limited in my actions.
“YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE COME HERE MORTAL! I WILL DESTROY YOUR VERY ESSENCE AND-“45

“HEY! Jackass! If you’re gonna do it, just do it!” I shouted back. Really if I was going to die I didn’t want him lording it over me forever. It threw him off a little, he hesitated a minute before he started up again.46

“IF THAT”S YOUR GAME WE”LL PLAY IT.”47

His hand swung around and slammed into the ground where I had been standing.48

After avoiding it, I dragged my foot along the ground and jumped onto the back of his thumb.49

I ran up his arm as he pulled his hand back. I slipped a little and grabbed hold of his tough green skin.
He reached up with a finger the size of my body, and flicked at me. I swung around and lost my grip avoiding him. As I fell, I noticed runes being carved in a circle around the hole he stood waist deep in.
He grabbed at me, and caught me. Before his fist closed I climbed out of his palm. I tumbled to the ground and avoided a sweep of his hand.50

The fight was exhausting me quickly. I couldn’t maintain the distorted time. After things came back up to speed though, the runes seemed to scrawl out more slowly than ever.
I stomped my foot down and ran around behind the beast.51

“WHERE DID YOU GO RUNT? WHERE ARE YOU?!” He pressed his hands into the ground, trying to push himself up.52

A big purple hole tore open in the sky, and I felt it was time to reappear so that I could gloat.53

I climbed up the spikes on his back. He couldn’t feel me through the bony armor of his spine.54

I pulled myself onto his shoulder, and kicked his earlobe, “Hey jackass! See that hole in the sky! Something’s coming to kill you!”55

He looked at the hole and struggled harder to move. I climbed down his arm, and waited for whatever was coming to save me.56

And I waited and waited and waited not seeing anything approaching.57

The demon was almost free when the side of his head exploded and a tiny obsidian stone landed in my hand, covered in blood.58

See how helpless he is without the girl.59

Alice stepped out from behind a building and surveyed her work. “Hah! Got him!” she exclaimed, “Supposedly that’s a fragment of the stone that killed Goliath.”60

I tossed it to her and said, “Didn’t realize there were that many volcanoes near Israel.”61

Alice shrugged. We waited around until a few brave souls returned, the mayor being one of the first. 62

She still looked a little shocked from her house being blown up, and a giant demon destroying part of the town she had a moral responsibility to. “Is it dead?” she asked.63

“I think so,” I replied, “But I’ve been wrong before, please sign my release so I can take a break please.” I gestured to the desk I had set up in the road, with a quill, an ink bottle, an envelope, a red candle, a piece of her personal stationary, and her signet. Vix stood behind the chair, ready to push it in once she sat down.64

“Alright I guess I owe it to you,” she said. She wrote out a letter. Next to her signature she poured some wax and stamped it. She handed the letter to me and I folded it and placed it in the envelope.65

“I really don’t know who will want this,” I said, “but I’m getting it just in case they try to check up on me, big brother syndrome you know?”66

“No, I, I don’t,” she replied. She looked at Alice who simply shrugged and shook her head.67

As we left the town, I looked over the note:68

To the concerned party;
Your messenger, identified by his accomplice as ‘Al’ did not disclose to me his findings on your reports of shade presence (I assume it was for my safety) but he did serve my community well by finding the cause of frequent disappearances and kidnappings, as well as the destruction of some infernal creature that nearly destroyed the town. He would not accept a reward from me, but I recommend you make some positive personnel action in his favor.
He was quick, timely, and responsive when I requested his assistance, and generally respectful to myself and the people of my town.
I thank you for lending his assistance in Gurnwalsh
Respectufully
Madam Gurn69

Nothing significant in the letter itself, but I noticed something odd about the stationary. In the top two corners were crests similar to one I had seen elsewhere. I forgot to tell you about this. While looking around one of the offices in the labs, I found a letter sealed, watermarked, stamped, and crested with an odd looking mark.70

The mark on the mayor’s letter had two serpents wrapped together making an ‘S’ their heads facing opposite ways. Superimposed over the serpents was an interlaced ‘GW’ surrounded in a wreath of olive leaves.71

The mark on the letter from the labs had a single two headed snake twisted into a spiral and forming an ‘S’ shape as well. Behind the serpent was a downward facing hand holding a slashed eye between the index and middle fingers.72

I had also noticed the twisted snake symbol on the crest for the league of shadows, but there, both serpents faced downward.
I suppose since I’m talking about all this, I should mention what the letter from the labs said:73

Peter;
I am pleased with your progress. Send a backup of each of your best developed serums and tissue samples, as well as your invented machines to the sanctuary.
I will be sending someone soon to inspect your progress, and shortly after that you will be relocated to the sanctuary.
Treat my messenger with the respect you show me, his main task is to be my mouth when I am not present to speak, but he can also be my fist when I am not present to strike.74

The signature line held nothing more than the stamp and a quote, “the slightest reward is the greatest for the servants of truth”75

I snapped back out of my thoughts when Alice suggested we rest for the night. We could have made the citadel grounds in an hour, but one more night of freedom would do me good.76

“Alice,” I said, breaking my hour long silence full of thought and staring into a fire, “What is truth?"77

“Nothing I want to believe in."78

Death stood watching me, from a distance, out of sight and out of mind. I sat calmly not knowing that my life was a meere trigger squeeze away from being extinguished.79

Crosshairs lingered on my head briefly, and then lowered to the ground. It wasn't mercy that saved me.