In the city of Zaun, strange murders have been occurring at the H.I.V.E. labs frequently, cancelling their efforts to create a method to reuse the sewage waste for the good of Zaun. Efforts have been made to track the murderer down, but all efforts...
"Cops missing after sewage Investigation!" the newspaper shouted on the 5th page. I glanced at it uneasily as my father began reading it. I heard it all. The screaming and the horror. It was all so familiar. So similar to the reaction of others towards the criminals he pummel. This time, he wasn't there. at the moment they were killed. He knew Zaun was a cruel place where thugs take to the shadows, but never like this. He could find them out pretty easily. It hurts to imagine their faces as the murderer stroke them down.. Or better yet, tortured alive. Maybe still alive...
"The bodies were never found.." the newspaper read. "The bodies were never found..."
I began to shudder at the thought.
"You doing okay?" my Mom asks. "Looks like you were spooked last night or something."
"Oh! Last night? Just a nightmare about that H.I.V.E. convention," I chuckled nervously. "It just came out of nowhere.."
"Hm.. Such a shame. They cancelled the H.I.V.E. project too it seems," my dad grumble. "The poor saps investigating it got shot and- Ow!" My dad glared at my Mom, annoyed, before glancing at me. "Well.. don't pay attention to that sport. Things like that happen down here all the time."
"But we can try to change that can't we?" I ask. "That's what you guys always taught me."
"Yes pal.. But sometimes our safety needs to come first. You know very well about who you are don't you?" I grow silent after that remark, feeling a pang of guilt in my chest. The baron is probably hunting us down as we speak. My father frowned at my expression of dismay. "Hey... Just.. promise you won't indulge yourself in this ok? I'm just saying that we don't wanna lose you. Am I clear?"
I nod solemnly. "Good.. Well.. Time for me and Mom to go to work." The bell echoes through the canyon outside. 8 rings. 8 rings of the sector 907Z's clock. "Crap.. The 8th bell... Mary! We're gonna be late for the trolley!"
"Coming!" My mom shouted back. She turns to me. "Be safe out there. Don't get yourself in any trouble! Food's in the fridge!"
The door closes. I give them 5 minutes if they came back. 1st minute. No door opening. 3rd minute. No one coming in to find something. 5th minute. The trolley most likely left carrying them. After it was over, I quickly march back down into my room underneath and lifted my bed with my large green arms. Underneath it is the wardens' map of the sewers with their location, a small flashlight, and the arrow found at the H.I.V.E. center. I'm sorry Mom. Dad. But I'm not wasting my powers. I shove the map into my body and look up at the poster of Atomic Man above me. He always tried to make people's lives better. My parents always used their powers to help people. It's time I used mine.
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I enter the manhole swiftly and entered the musty, humid sewers through the pipes. I always felt comfortable down here. The moisture around and the silence of it all is so relaxing to me. No one could find me here, and I was free to relax. Remove the toxic fumes and the darkness down here and it could be a great cultivair, but it wasn't like that all the way through. As I follow the map, seeping through cracks and descending through pipes deeper and deeper into the maze, it grew dark. The shadows loom larger and the colors around me began to blur to a dark gray and black. As I approach the point, the squishing of my substance echoes through the halls. The skittering of the insects around me began to heighten as they ran away. Some crawl onto my skin. A lot of them did with their small hairy legs. I begin to shudder as they scurry along the pipes and cracks. I quickly left the safety of the moldy walls out of disgust only to step on something dry and moldy.. Was it poop? Blood? I grab the flashlight within me and turn it on. It was a weird dried green substance. It didn't look like mold, for it was leaking something red.
I begin to flash the light at the hallway. Shattered glass scattered on the floor. Wiped blood stains everywhere. The faint stench of flesh, mold, and acid became more and more apparent as I slowly approach. Missing arrows can be found sprinkled in the area, the same golden tipped arrows. I take out the map. I'm here. The location where they went missing. They have to be somewhere around here.
As he look around, he heard faint taps on the floor. I turn to the direction of the sound. Tap tap tap, but found nothing. It was just a dark hallway. Probably the leaking of a pipe somewhere around. I look down to the bloodstains and the glass again. They were dragged. The blood made a trail. I followed it briskly with my flashlight.
Tap Tap. Tap. The drops getting faster.
I follow the blood trails to the toxic, acidic water. I shine my light onto it and see distinct shadows underneath the water.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The missing bodies were there. It had to be, lest this guy had more victims. I stretched my arms into the water. I feel the body. His head was frail and his skin soft and swollen, or at least Ithought it was skin. I slowly unearth the body from the pool. His eyes looking up desperately in an attempt to live. His veins were a sickly green and his skin nearly melted. The acidic blood dripping into my hands as the gaze of terror stares into my soul. I drop the body back into the water, stepping back in fright.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
The footsteps go faster. I breathing amplified in the tunnels. It's time to take him down. Time to take him down before he does any more of this! I shined my light at the direction of the footsteps. No one was there, but it still kept going.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Chuckling is heard in the silence. A sinister cackle was heard into the darkness right behind me. I try to turn around, but it's too late. The cask was dropped. The green fog quickly envelops me as I take a defensive stance. My arms and legs slowly grow crusty.. My head foggy.. But I gotta fight. I gott-
The arrow pierces in my skin. Everything seemed to stop as I turn around. I saw a shadow. A hunched shadow, but that was all I saw. The arrows continue to fire and fire and fire and fire. The cackling boomed into the halls as he took delight in my destruction. My body jerked as the arrows went into his skin one by one. First everything seem to feel fuzzy. Then his eyesight went green. My body began to lose energy and stability. I tried throwing my arms at whatever it was, but I couldn't.. The arrows kept going. The poison kept running. Until I couldn't take it anymore... I exploded in a disgusting eruption of acid and goop. My senses numb from the torture. I can barely see anything as the bloblets. My hearing droned out as I tried to make out figures in the darkness.
"What!? Where's the body?" it shouts angrily as it stomps into the darkness. Gotta stay awake. Gotta keep it together. Where's everyone... "Ugh... how dare they!? There —— something here..." Gotta.. stay.. awake.. Can't let this guy.. "Hm.. ——— you'll ——– to do!" The murder grabs me by the antenna. His cold, bloody hands making my skin shudder. His nails biting into my flesh.
"Let's see what this makes...." he cackles dastardly. Everything drones out as his laugh echoes in my pained mind. The bodies. My parents. They were out of my grasp now. I'm sorry guys.
