Predatory

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Fifteen megaticks later, Tarn and I were running down to the basement, and at our heels, Tesarus, Helex, Vos, and a very moody Kaon. We had to leave the Pet back in the Peaceful Tyranny because Tarn thought he would only slow us down, much to Kaon's annoyance. This, coupled with the hang over, the early morning, and the cold, made Kaon unbearably irritable.  Whoever was causing problems, was going to have to deal with him. I almost felt sorry for them.... almost. From how much of his behavior I had noticed already, I still wasn't sure if I necessarily like him or not.  

Because the Peaceful Tyranny was obviously parked on almost the very top level of a three hundred story building, and the elevator decided to be broken because reasons, we had to run down what I counted as two hundred flights of steps. I take that back, whoever has to deal with Kaon also has to deal with ME. 

"Stupid time to cause trouble, couldn't they have waited a few more hours?" Kaon muttered angrily, as he tried to keep up. Tarn silenced him with glare.

 A ghost of a smile flicked across my lips. Tarn was sort of a strange mixture of father figure, questionable uncle who was given too much responsibility, counselor, and older brother. Yet he had authority, that much was sure. If Tarn was the dad, then Kaon was definitely the moody teenager, without question.

"What exactly are we dealing with? Especially this early in the morning?" Helex asked Tarn. We were on our fourth flight of stairs. Poor Tesarus was already out of intakes, I could hear him struggling to keep up behind us.

"No idea Helex, but there are only a few things in the basement. The labs, the brig, and the containment facility. If the problem is big enough for backup... it's not going to be an easy fix." Tarn replied, something in his voice was warning. If this problem was big enough to call the DJD, this had to be something big. And I most definitely needed to be on my guard. 

Vos shivered and tucked his arms around him, saying something unintelligible, but it sounded like swearing... very creative swearing specifically. I wondered if Tarn knew about his foul language? 

Kaon was still complaining under his intakes, as we ran at full speed having reached what was about the ninth floor. We were beginning to descend the tenth flight, when everything went black. The empty hallways became eerily silent. One could have heard the intake of a scraplet echoing from ten flights upstairs as if it was booming thunder. 

The inky darkness was so thick it was suffocating. If I hadn't been....well without her, I couldn't have even seen my servo in front of my face. As it was, I could only make out the very outlines of Tarn and the team. My servo threatened to shake again, I clenched it beside me. A panic attack had no place here. After a few ticks, the power slowly flickered back on, I could hear the groaning and growling of an old generator kicking back to life. I let out the intake I didn't realize I was holding. 

"Well that was-" Kaon began, but Tarn shushed him instantly. He held up an index digit, in a silent command to keep quiet. He tilted his helm to the side, he appeared to be listening. I listened as well, but even with my superior audio receptors, I could hear nothing. Other than the shaky hum of the old generator, everything was quiet. Too quiet. 

Some of the lights on one side of the stairs were out. Probably connected to the same shorted out fuse. Which begged the question, Why was the fuse out? The fuse boxes were normally connected to breaker rooms. So where were the lights on the stairs connected?

"Something's wrong, something's very, very wrong." Tesarus murmered behind me.

 A chill blew through the stairwell, and a shudder rippled up my spine. I shivered. Something caught my audio receptors, but was just too quiet to hear. Tentatively, I reached up behind my audio receptors, and turned the sensitivity dial up. As I did so, the sound came into focus, it was a scuffling scratching noise. Like something with claws was scraping against metal.