Permafrost: Thunderbird

Chapter 21: Rotten To The Core

⭐️Chapter 21: Rotten To The Core

The Wave Crashers were now walking behind Hunter as he took them through the lab, having accepted his offer. After all, this thing paid much higher than turf wars did, and if they could get their hands on some new weapons and tech then that would be great. Hunter had one of the lab assistants take Bird away while him and the other four went away. The laboratory was mazelike, and frankly the Crashers were just following without memorizing their way through. They just hoped that this wouldn't be an issue later.

"So uh...what's the work you wanted us to do?" Thrash asked after a while of walking in silence.

"Well, there are a few things you could pick from. If you don't want any of them, you can leave in peace since you've already done what we needed," Hunter replied politely.

"Huh...well okay then, list away."

"There's guarding a few experiments...though we'd need to test how strong you are...carrying and transporting equipment...helping with weapons..."

The Wave Crashers thought about it. Knowing the Infernos had seemingly become attached to that girl, maybe there was a way they could bother them a bit more.

"Hey uh...can we guard that one girl we dropped off?" Spyke asked.

"Well, that'd be a bit risky since we don't know if you could betray us all of a sudden. After all, we've only truly known each other for a day," Hunter replied.

"How do we prove our trust to you then? You see, we know a group of people who might be after her as well, so we want to keep her here like you asked!" Thorne asked.

"I see. Hm. Well, I suppose we could have you work with already established guards in pairs to have them keep an eye on you..." Hunter suggested, though he drifted off a little as if he had more to say.

"Yeah! That'll work!" Spyke replied.

"Alright then...but are you sure you just want that? There are higher-paying things you could do," Hunter asked.

"Well, set me up for some weapons and guarding," Thrash replied. "But yeah, other than upgrades and payment, I believe that's it!"

"I see. Well then, time to get to business. I suppose we have a lot to work on."

The group could only smile with a sinister delight.

"Perfect."

-----

Man oh man were those Infernos so dead. Their main obstacle would be gone after this and they'd be free to keep on turfing the way they always had, cheat free against way weaker players. Of course, they'd still have to watch out for the stronger ones, and they might have to rid of those pesky Thislins too. But hey, they could continue their mission of becoming the strongest turf team there was! After that, they could be just about unstoppable and do whatever they wanted.

The Wave Crashers had indeed gotten ahold of new weapons and gear, and Hunter was giving them a tour around the place to get them used to it. He didn't show them TOO much though, just basic hallways and places. It was probably because of that whole "trust" thing, but what mattered was that the Crashers had the advantage now. Man, if only they'd had this stuff before. They could've done some serious damage with it all.

The Crashers passed rooms with more experiments. They could hear screams, but they simply shrugged it off. After all, it wasn't them in danger, so what did they care? Of course...such apathy didn't apply to ALL of them...exactly. One of them, after a certain point, became rather bothered by it.

Fang peered through the glass on one door and saw a young Octoling mutated with alligator arms and scales all over their body. They seemed to be tearfully trying to lift their limbs or do something, but they failed each time. Another room contained an Inkling kid coughing up bird feathers, weird spots all over their body. Fang looked at the other three teammates to see what their reactions were, but they seemed too distracted with talking about more power to notice. God, did they not hear these noises or have sympathy for that matter? Would it be wrong to disturb them and tell them something was up when they might shrug it off as nothing?

Fang sighed as he shook his head. This place was more than what it initially seemed, and now he'd realized just what he'd gotten into. He knew he was a bully, he knew he was supposed to be strong, scary, and almost apathetic...but this was immoral. Wrong. Past the point of being mean to the extent that several of these creatures might die from not being able to handle the things they'd been through. And where were their parents? Were they kidnapped?

Fang suddenly felt more and more regretful of the situation he was put in, but with no choice other than to follow, he remained quiet.

-----

Meanwhile, Bird woke up on a metal table of sorts. Something restraining her limbs kept her from shifting into a squid, the opposite of squidshifter thorns...probably bodybender rose essence or something similar to counter that. But...why was she back here? She recognized her settings, she knew laboratories all too well by now. Had it all been a dream? The last thing she remembered was going home with an Infernos member, then being roughly handled by some large jerks...it was kind of blurry.

As she laid there, not really able to do much except think, she took in the things around her. The smell of cleaning products, the feel of the cold metal, the sounds of other work being done in the distance. So many of these were things she was already familiar with, and she could only hope these scientists wouldn't punish her as harshly for escaping this time. Man, she could really understand why her friends hated that group of tall guys. They really were set on messing with them, a it seemed they really didn't have a care for anyone as they did whatever they needed to be on top. Bird sighed as she closed her eyes.

Even after all that time she'd parent planning an escape...

She'd still managed to return right back to where she'd started.