Factory Reset: Divine Corruption

Chapter Ninety-Four

Chapter Ninety-Four: Sinking Claws

Gear-Work felt the earth rumble and hiss and fracture. His paws felt the cold vibrations in the soil beneath him, wracking with tremors and harsh quakes. It felt horrible, to feel the planet itself break apart. Not violently, but slowly.

Like a child tugging at the threads of an old stuffed bear, one single thread popping at odd second intervals. The stuffing puffing up as it's strings and foundation were pulled asunder. It felt like that, but for an entire planet. And they were deep in the congealing stuffing.

Gear-Work knelt down in the soul. The smoke creature tumbled down with Ruinate's Ruination, Gear-Work had seen that. The orange protogen backed up, feeling his chest heave. The Overclock serum within his veins was burning brighter, he had to use his power. Now was not the time for inaction.

Gear-Work pressed his knee deep into the dusty ground, easing open the finely reduced powder. Ruinate had loosened it enough, he could feel the weird material down below. He had to save Rallycry and Ruinate, he had to. They were down there.

He felt Bailout behind him, not knowing what to do. Gear-Work didn't blame him, the protogen was a fair bit over his head when it came to this. Nonetheless, Gear-Work knew what he had to do, "Get back, Bailout, hurry." Gear-Work announced, easing his claws deep into the soily ground.

"Atomize." Gear-Work commanded, his fingers quickly springing up before slapping the ground hard. A sound like a flaring supernova erupted around Gear-Work as the Boson Energy was flung towards it, a torrent wave of electrified energy blasting into the surrounding walls. Gear-Work felt the heat radiate off of the ground he stood on as he worked.

Gear-Work glanced down, feeling slightly-light headed as the dark void below him shined. He could see Ruinate upon the ground, the Beacon beside him. Rallycry slumped to the side. The Smoke Creature was coming up upon him, and Gear-Work could feel the palpable killer intent the thing gave off.

gear-Work quickly shifted in the sandy ground, kicking off the ground up dirt and slamming his body into the wall, digging his claws as deep as he could go into the dusty substance. The smoke creature was seconds away from killing Ruinate, and then moving onto Rallycry.

"Bailout, be ready to catch any debris just in case!" Gear-Work yelled as he jumped off the wall, straight down the hole. The wind whizzed past his head as he fell, his tail whipping furiously in the air as his fist clenched tight around a string of rocks connected to the wall.

And all in a second, a near mile of rock was instantly vaporized, congealing around Gear-Work as he fell. The rocks spiraled around him in a pattern, sharpening into hard spikes or flattened into shields and walls. Gear-Works legs were coated in an armor of rocks as he descended down, the air whistling as it passed through the many cracks and small holes incident in the rocks.

Gear-Work could feel the Overclock serum working it's magic in his blood. He had never used his power so many times in one day, nay, a month. He felt powerful and supreme. Gear-Work reached a hand out as he came close to the black surface of the core, aimed directly at the smoke creature.

In an instant, the piles upon piles of rock around him slammed into the black surface, creating a hideous shockwave that resounded against the walls of whatever the substance was. Gear-Work himself hit the ground hard, his visor cracking with a sickening shatter.

And yet, the good doctor got onto his paws once more, pressing his hand against his visor and disassembling it before reassembling it, good as new. He shook his head quickly as more and more stone and metal came crashing down, reduced to dust with the speed and the height it came from.

Gear-Work wasted no time, his paws squealed against the gleaming substance that made up his landing. Gear-Work ran to Ruinate, sliding to his aid with quick precision. Both quickly got back on their paws, Ruinate hurriedly turning to grab the beacon as a rumble was heard from the rubble that Gear-Work threw at the creature.

It wouldn't hold it for long, if at all.

"Come on, hurry." Gear-Work chanted to the other protogen, griping his free hand and yanking him along. Their paws generated a harsh squeak against the floor as they tumbled towards Rallycry. Ruinate crashed into Gear-Work due to the protogen stopping mid-run.

"We gotta get him out of here. What is this place?" Gear-Work both noted and asked, kneeling down against the substance. It felt cold to the touch now, but it felt sort of like rubber, and yet not at all like it. Whatever it was, Gear-Work could faintly control it. That was good, they had an exit, as Gear-Work hadn't meant to extend all of his stone throwing them at the creature.

Ruinate grabbed hold of Rallycry just a tumultuous scream cascaded out from the smoke creature, the thing reforming into a thin sheen of haze. It was still stuck, it needed more of its body, but it was still nearly out. Gear-Work glanced down, and decided to risk it.

The protogen raised a fist, and slammed it against the substance. It cracked and broke, a harsh glacial sound twanging from the crack. Gear-Work raised his fist once more, slamming his claws into the substance, managing to stick a single one and imbed it deep into it. That was all that he needed.

The substance became almost liquid-like a gel as Gear-Work controlled it. The surface of the clear black substance was bent to his will as he punched upwards, towards the cracked ceiling. Another glacial sound reverberated across the entire plan as the substance shot upwards, Rallycry, Ruinate, and gear-Work on it, one claw deep into the substance and the other hand trained at the sky.

A sound like a pin dropping now met their ears as the material wore thin. Gear-Work knew that his control was limited, and he couldn't draw from surrounding sources of the material below him despite still being attached to it. They would need to be flung up and caught.

"Get ready!" Gear-Work screamed, yanking his claws out from the substance as it accelerated tenfold. The substance instantly stopped moving, but they did not. They were flung towards the ceiling, just barely aimed properly so none hit the actual barrier separating the black plane below them and the pathway they were at.

"Bailout!" Gear-Work yelled as they reached the pinnacle of their arc, just barely above the hole Ruinate and him created. They began to fall for a single second, before they were caught by Bailout, their bodies taking on a gleaming glow of blue. Bailout's power.

And just as they were being brought back to Bailout, the smoke creature below them fully formed. And it was furious, it couldn't do anything, it was stuck down there in the black plane. It could float, but it was too heavy fully formed to float to the top, and it couldn't climb the already unstable structure created by Gear-Work.

Ruinated gave out a relieved sigh as Bailout let them out at the edge of the hole, all three falling atop the ground. gear-Work grabbed Rallycry and tugged to bring him closer as both him and Ruinate scrambled to get back on their paws and far away from the hole.

Ruinate glanced down at the beacon in his claws, his tail slapping the ground as he grinned. They did it. They actually, truly, did it.

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Howdy!

Whoo, another chapter right after I posted the other chapter? Crazy, right?

Well, that's how it's going to be. I've got a lot going on right now, and I do mean a lot. So, I resigned myself to do myself a favor and quickly finish this story. I don't mean that in like, it's going to be rushed, quite the contrary, I just mean I'll be doing my damndest to make a chapter per day.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed! Thank you to those that are still reading, and I hope you enjoyed! See you tomorrow!

~ Candle

2/13/2022