Against the Clock

Chapter 11 | Problems

[Time Steve's POV]

As I walk through the halls of the Professor's lab, I start to hear strange sounds echoing throughout the passages.

"What in the name of Origin...?" I mumble, trying to understand what these sounds are.

There's more than one, it sounds like... metal scraping, growls, and low shrieks? What is happening?!

Wait... metal scraping... the Assistant!

I rush to the source of the sounds, and I see a staircase leading deeper down into the lab, the noises coming from wherever it leads. Of course this whack job has a basement to his lab, of course he does. It's like some kind of requirement that every mad scientist has a spooky fricken basement to their labs, or something.

I brace myself for whatever I might find, and rush down the stairs. Flight after flight of stairs, the sounds get louder and louder with each passing level. Eventually, I reach the bottom, and I see a hall full of what looks to be high-security cells with glasslike walls facing into the hallway. There's a weapons rack with five swords placed in it near one of the middle cells. At the back of the hall, there's a room with a very sturdy-looking door with multiple locks. What on earth would the Professor be keeping down here...?

I look closer at the reinforced door at the end of the hall, and see that it's slightly open. Carefully making my way towards it, I realize that this room is where the sound is coming from.

I open the door to see the Assistant holding a door to a giant observation room closed, a strange black, white, and grey half-melted goo creature trying to force said door open. The creature only has its head, arms, and torso, the rest a gathered blob around the creature and spreading along the floor. Gross.

I rush over and try to help the Assistant keep the door shut, and he turns to me.

"You do not have the authorization to be down here." He says.

"Is now really a time to be bringing up authority, Assistant?!" I yell, both annoyed at him and worried about... whatever this thing is. "There's a freaking goo creature trying to break out of wherever this place is!"

"Did the Professor send you?" The Assistant asks, and I sigh, knowing I can't reason with this one-track-mind android.

"Yes, he did." I say. "He asked me to find you because you were supposed to be getting information on Sabre's illness, and you hadn't checked in for a while."

"Understandable. It has been 6 hours since I last was with the Professor, also how long it has been since I was assigned to research the virus." The Assistant begins. "I had an alert from this room notifying me that there was an in-progress breach going on just as I arrived the research station. I have been given a protocol to keep this intruding entity inside this chamber and to keep it from not only risking the safety of those inside the lab, but the Kingdom as well."

"Intruding? What do you mean?" I ask, still trying my best to keep this door shut along with the Assistant.

"Before yesterday's incident involving the two unidentified entities, this one had broken into the lab a few days prior." The Assistant says. "The Professor and I were able to capture it before it went into the room Sabre was inside. Professor Red had told me to place it inside this chamber for analysis, but the following morning it seemingly deteriorated itself, turning into a liquid mass of an unidentifiable substance. It seems to be reforming back into an entity for an unknown reason."

Wh- These things have broken into the lab before?! Dang it, Professor!

"Are you serious- Whatever. I'll yell at Professor Red later." I say. "For right now, can you somehow let the Professor know this is happening?"