Factory Reset: Divine Corruption

Chapter Eighty-Seven

"Keep going." Marissa muttered to herself, jolts of white lightning softly sprinkling between the individual hairs on her fur. Her eyes were trained forward, glowing, winding. They had been travelling for a while now, feeling the tremors of ancient rock and metal clanging against distant sounds of explosions and screams of the Residents. Fallout was still alive, he was still fighting hard and fast.

Nebula was trailing behind her, using her power to swiftly bring along the other two: Aberration and Bathysphere. The two looked around intently, visors caked in worry and dust. The only illumination that was provided was the crackling of their Boson Energy, and the occasional spark generated by a piece of metal scratching against metal. The cavern shook.

Nebula glanced up at the lioness, her visor reflecting the crackles of lightning emanating from Marissa's floating body. Marissa was like her, mostly. While Nebula had her power directly linked to gravity, gravity was just a facet to Marissa. Someone who wielded the fullest extent of White Boson Energy, the energy of the soul itself. At the cost of their own body, of course.

Nebula wasn't certain if Marissa was dying or not. Sometimes it looked like Marissa was nearly about to fall upon the floor, dead. Other times it was as if the Boson sickness that was brought along by the unrestrained power of the energy didn't affect her.

Sometimes it was forgotten. Mostly, it was forgotten. Nebula felt for her, she really did. Now more than ever, as Nebula wasn't certain how they were supposed to find and save Fallout. She understood that they were all powerful, but the Residents were unlikely to go down without a fight. And fallout was the strongest there. Now that Rip-Cord had died, Fallout was the strongest.

Nebula glanced to her side, pixelated eyes peeking at her comrades. Aberration was like a brother to her, her partner, her friend on the Bridge. Bathysphere was a teammate, though not an abnormally close one. He was shy, often, and he wanted to please his captain. It appeared he found solace in Noxious.

"Good for him." Nebula thought, turning her attention back to the cavern.

The explosions were slowly starting to sound closer and closer, as the tunnel kept stretching on and on, darkness. A void before them, swimming in the void of the absence of any light. Inky, bleak, lifeless. As they flew through, they couldn't even see the bottom anywhere. Where the bodies were.

Nebula was thankful for that.

Aberration, on the other hand, was unsure what to think. It shouldn't have been unexpected, to be tasked with ascending, or descending - Aberration honestly couldn't tell - into an inky abyss was not what many would want to do. And hearing the screams of the Residents, and the explosions getting louder wasn't a comforting thought either.

"Just how many are there..." Aberration thought, his mind feeling emptier than usual. It was like a terrible dream. Not quite dreadful enough for a nightmare, but a dream. Like he was floating along, like none of this is happening. The existential threat to their lives, to the universe, like that wasn't real.

And yet, it was very plainly real. It was in the baseline reality, and Aberration could barely wrap his head around that. That this mission was real, that everything happening was real. He felt like a passenger on a doomed ship. Knowing that it was real but hoping, praying, that it was not. But, like that doomed passenger, he knew it was real. He just wanted to refuse to believe it.

And yet, he couldn't even do that either. As much as he joked around or did certain things others found funny, he could tell when something was serious. He knew that they all had a very high risk of dying, and yet he felt like none would. That this would magically turn out to be the perfect solution. This was life, this was reality.