The Curse of Taloncrest Manor

Chapter 17: A Daring Escape

Within seconds, the lab was overrun by countless explosions and debris began flying all over the place. Dr. Octavio disabled all the glass cages, grabbed his chainsaw, and began moving towards the group using his tentacles, all while Patches, Gorelump, and the doctor's army of zombies began rushing toward them. 

"RUN!" Ricardo cried. Cooper carried James' unconscious body over his shoulder as the five of them began to desperately flee the crumbling B2 floor. "Can't you, like.....teleport us out of here or something?!" Elijah asked Jane in a panic. She shook her head. "I'm afraid I can't! Let's just get out of here alive. I'll explain once everything is safe!" 

Octavio swung after them on the ceiling pipes, almost never seeming to give the friends any breathing room. He occasionally threw his chain hook at them, hoping to pull one of them into his clutches. "You kill two of my creations, and then you destroy my greatest project? You all will pay for this dearly, I promise you....." the doctor said. 

The gang quickly moved through the labyrinthine hallways one final time, passing the generator room where the boys had fought Stitchfang before. They eventually reached the stairwell and began to hurriedly ascend it, while Dr. Octavio decided to take a different approach and climb the elevator shaft in order to cut them off. 

Octavio's zombies seemed to have a one-track mind, caring only about the destruction of Ricardo's group. They quickly flooded the stairwell like a giant, fleshy, rising avalanche, never giving the heroes any room for error. "Don't lose the key! We need it!" Cooper reminded everyone. Elijah looked back, and almost threw up at the sight. "They're disgusting!" "Don't worry, we're almost at the B1 floor!" Ricardo said as he opened the door at the top of the stairwell. 

As soon as everyone was on the other side, Ricardo closed and locked the door swiftly, effectively trapping the zombies in the collapsing stairwell, where they eventually fell to their deaths in the fiery remains of the charred laboratory. The entire elevator shaft collapsed as well, dooming Octavio to the same fate. "No.....NO! CURSE YOUUUUUUUU!" the doctor roared in anguish before being buried under several tons of debris. 

On the other side of the door, the heroes had some time to catch their breath at last. ".....That's way too much for me, if I'm being honest...." Cooper said wearily. Elijah agreed. "Tell me about it. Trying to start a zombie apocalypse? He was so, so twisted." 

"Well, at least he's out of the picture. And now we have the key to the balcony, so we can save Rose!" Ricardo pointed out. 

"Not until James recovers, though," Cooper reminded him. "Right. Let's head back up to the first floor and rest in the lobby. Maybe Jane can explain her magic powers to us there." Ricardo said. 

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The debris pile shifted and shuddered. The clanging of metal and banging of steel reverberated through the ruins of the destroyed lab. Soon, Dr. Octavio re-emerged. He looked around at the lifeless bodies of what had formerly been his army of zombies, at the remains of Patches and Gorelump, and at the dilapidated state of the laboratory. ".....How long must the boy and his friends continue to be a thorn in my side?!" Octavio growled. "They've taken everything from me; my work, my creations, my master's favor, and my very livelihood. That's it.....if I can't destroy humanity with an army, then I'll do it myself!" 

He ran over to a drawer and pulled out a syringe filled with an unknown substance, one of the few things to survive the destruction of the doctor's base of operations. Within seconds after injecting himself with it, the doctor began painfully mutating. Several fleshy, light blue tentacles began sprouting everywhere on him. Cyan, skin-like growths began erupting all over his body, he grew shining claws on his hands and feet, and his size increased significantly, with the doctor laughing insanely throughout the entire process. 

"Yes....YES! Now, I shall get my revenge!" he said as he shuffled out of the destroyed lab, in his new monstrous form. 

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Back in the lobby of the mansion, James had fully recovered from Octavio's tranquilizer dart. Ricardo, Cooper, Elijah, and Jane all updated him on what he had missed since he had been knocked out, including the battle with Dr. Lockwood and Octavio's ultimate defeat. "Wow....looks like I missed quite the show, didn't I?" James joked. "Indeed. I'd imagine you would have been very helpful against Lockwood. But it's fine.....you can blame Octavio for that. We're just glad you're safe." Ricardo responded. 

Elijah piped up. "But there's one more thing that needs to be done, isn't there?" Jane nodded. "Right. I suppose you'll be wanting an explanation on why I was able to restrain that 'Octavio' ruffian earlier." 

"After I gave up trying to remind Bart of our past together, I began to take up the practice of magic as a hobby in the meantime, to try and take my mind off of things. I was hoping to create a spell to place on him that would make him remember everything, but ultimately, it was to no avail. I did manage to create this, though." Jane said, showing her necklace to the others. "Whoa.....what is it?" James asked. "A jewel infused with a pacifism spell. I can use it every now and then to restrain someone's actions for a lengthened period of time, be they alive or dead. It definitely wasn't what I was expecting to get out of it, but at that point, I decided to take whatever I got. I thought it might be useful someday, and lo and behold, it was." 

"That's awesome!" Elijah exclaimed. "She's literally our ghost repellant!" Jane laughed. "Not so fast. I can only use it on one person at a time, and once the duration runs out, it requires time to recharge. So we should still remain stealthy, and keep a low profile just to be safe. I can't protect you from, say, a large swarm of hostile ghosts, for instance." 

Cooper smiled excitedly. "Glad to know we have yet another self-defense tool on our side. We're leveling the playing field with the ghosts more and more by the minute!" 

"Alright, is everyone rested up?" Ricardo asked. Everyone answered in agreement.

"Doing great!"

"Just fine here!"

"Raring to go!" 

"Yes, indeed." 

"Perfect. Next stop, the third floor balcony!" he said. 

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Dischord and the Songsworn cultists were all in position, but Melody was getting more and more impatient by the second. 

"Where are they?!" she complained. "You'd think they would've been here by now...." She flew the piano close to the force field in order to talk to Rose more closely, even though she was in stasis. "I suppose they don't really care about you after all...." she said with a chuckle. 

She landed the piano back on the balcony floor and got off the bench. Just then, a Songsworn cultist approached her from behind. "Grand Magistrix.....perhaps this 'Ricardo' and his friends do not exist." "Do not worry.....they are out there....." Melody responded in an almost-hypnotic tone, without turning around. "But we've waited for hours! And I haven't seen them since the beginning of the night! I genuinely do not understand what is within them that could help someone as powerful as You. Maybe we could wait until some actual people come to the mansion, rather than operate around these deluded figments of Your imagination?" 

Melody turned around in a rage. ".....Do you know what I had to do to make the progress that I have? All of the blood on my ledger? All the murders I've committed? The 105 years spent in this opulent prison?" She began advancing towards the cultist, backing him up to the balcony's edge. "And you think that I'm 'deluded', insane, and leading you astray? I'm SICK of this place, and I wish nothing but freedom for myself and those who follow me. That's why I need their souls, AND WHY I NO LONGER NEED YOU!" she yelled before shoving the cultist off the balcony. 

She walked back to the center of the platform. "So.....holding out on me, are you, 'heroes'? That's okay.....I have the perfect spell for the job."

"Once you see it, you'll simply be dying to make your way to me."