Trailing behind Vi and Powder, Caitlyn stumbled through the corridor, dry heaving as her eyes darted across the room. Every wall, every corner, was lined with mutilated corpses. Most were impaled while others had their skeletal systems ripped clean from their bodies, left in heaps of pale, polished bone.
Even Vi struggled to keep herself steady. Her fists clenched as she tried not to breathe through her nose, her expression hard with disgust and rising anger toward Xander.
"Did you really have to go this far?" Vi asked, her voice tight, almost a growl.
"They all worked for Silco," Xander replied evenly without turning around. "Isn't this what you wanted?"
"Yeah, but…" Vi's eyes fell to a corpse with a hollow chest cavity and shredded interior. "Not like this."
"Hmph."
His demonic mask seemed to sneer as he passed through the next doorway, leaving her staring after him with unease. She waited until Caitlyn caught up who was still shaking, her hand over her mouth.
"We have to get my sister away from this psycho," Vi whispered harshly.
Wiping her mouth, Caitlyn coughed hard. "I completely agree. I don't know what this man did to end up in Dredge Prison, but judging from this…" She gagged again, her voice trembling. "He's a monster."
"Yeah," Vi muttered, her gaze fixed ahead as Xander and Jinx disappeared deeper inside. "He's fucked in the head. And worse, he's got my sister wrapped around his finger."
"Hey, come on!" Powder's voice echoed back cheerfully, her head popping through the doorframe. "Vander's this way!"
"…We're coming," Vi muttered through gritted teeth.
Reluctantly, they followed with each step accompanied by wet squelches and the faint hiss of leaking pipes. Powder didn't seem fazed in the slightest. She skipped ahead humming to herself, eyes darting from body to body with the detached curiosity of a child exploring a toy store.
"Whoa," she mused, kneeling beside one of the corpses. "Didn't know people looked like this on the inside."
She poked at a slick organ with her gun. "I thought it'd be… less squishy."
Caitlyn turned away, gagging again. Even Vi winced.
But Xander stopped.
He'd felt it. The faint, pulsing echo of a corpse. His crimson eyes flickered toward a nearby hall where it seemed to call to him.
Is Singed nearby…?
He followed the sensation deeper into the lab until the corridor widened into a large, dimly lit chamber. Flickering backlight cast long, quivering shadows over the walls.
And there, suspended by heavy iron chains from the ceiling, was a body.
Xander's stomach dropped.
It was enormous, broad-shouldered, the flesh patchworked together by thick stitches. Tubes and chains pierced through muscle. Parts of him were missing, entire slabs of flesh carved away, yet somehow the man was unmistakable.
Vander.
He was still human… mostly. But his skin was stretched tight, discolored, barely holding shape. The jars lining the walls held floating hunks of tissue, distorted organs, and fragments of faces in green fluid. Each one pulsed faintly, as though breathing.
It looks like Singed hasn't injected him with that wolf serum yet but he's still in terrible shape.
Frowning, Xander stepped closer, his boots clanking softly on the metal floor.
"Hey, why are they dangling a human from the—"
Powder's voice broke off and she froze mid-step. Her eyes went wide and for a moment, the manic energy drained out of her completely. She shoved past Xander and cupped Vander's face, standing on her toes as her voice cracked.
"Vi! VI!" she screamed. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "It's him! It's Vander!"
"What?! What is it?!" Vi bolted in, Caitlyn following with her rifle drawn. "What- oh god…"
She stopped cold. Her eyes locked on the face hanging before her, and every bit of color drained from her expression.
"Vander…?" Vi's voice broke.
She rushed forward, climbing onto the operating table to reach him. "Vander! Vander, can you hear me?! What did they do to you?!"
Xander didn't move. His gaze swept the walls, still trying to pinpoint that sensation.
That corpse energy… it wasn't Vander's. It was moving.
"Where is it…?" he muttered.
"What?" Vi turned, still clutching Vander's arm.
"There's something else in this room," Xander warned, his tone low and sharp. His mask turned, the faint red glow narrowing. "Something dead and alive."
The air thickened. Caitlyn's eyes darted everywhere as the silence pressed in.
"Where? I don't see anything!" she whispered, rifle sweeping the corners from the entrance.
Scritch—scratch—scritch—
Something skittered along the wall.
BANG!
Caitlyn fired, the muzzle flash lighting the chamber.
Xander raised his hand, focusing, reaching out to the corpse energy in the direction she'd shot.
Corpse Explosion!
The power surged but nothing happened.
His eyes widened. Whatever it was, it rejected his command.
"Fuck," Xander hissed, summoning his glowing green scythe blade into existence.
"Don't hit Vander!" Powder cried, clutching Vander's dangling body protectively, her trembling arms barely able to hold him.
The scratching turned into scraping, faster and louder, until something screeched from the vents above, shaking the entire chamber. Xander's eyes widened as he caught the twitch of Vander's hand.
"Get away from his body!" Xander shouted, lunging forward and ripping both sisters back just as Vander convulsed.
"GAAHH! AAAAAAA!"
Vander spasmed violently, his chains groaning as his massive body writhed against them. His eyes rolled back with only the whites showing and froth bubbled at his mouth as he began shouting.
Raw, furious, and tortured.
"I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!" Vander roared, his voice cracking through the chamber.
Between Vi and Powder's panic and Vander's sudden berserk thrashing, Xander barely registered the next sound of metal warping.
The vent cover exploded off and two razor-sharp tendrils shot out, gleaming silver in the green chem-light.
His scythe moved in an instant.
CLANG!
Sparks sprayed as he deflected both, embedding them into the floor before they whipped back with impossible speed.
From the vent crawled a thing, its body long and twisted while it dragged itself with insect-like grace. It had two heads, each with red baboon faces and from its shoulders extended needle-tipped tendrils instead of arms.
Its faces, once normal monkeys, twitched with remnant memories of empathy. Their eyes peered at them with hollow lifelessness.
One shrieked, then both heads shrieked together, creating a pitch so sharp and unnatural it made their ears ring.
Immediately Xander swung his scythe but the creature dropped low, darting underneath and completely avoiding it. The blade tore through metal instead and carved deep gashes along the walls.
Caitlyn fired twice but the thing reacted faster, vaulting across the lab with impossible strength and speed, using its tendrils to swing and deflect itself between metal counters.
"Back up, both of you!" Xander shouted, stepping forward just as one of its tendrils lashed at Vi and Powder. His hovering scythe caught it mid-air, sparks flying.
Next to them, chains snapped. One, then another with Vander's frenzied roars filling the air.
Several links were already broken from before and now, with his unnatural strength, he tore free from another set.
Raising his hand, Xander summoned bone spikes from the ground. They burst through the floor, spearing upward into the ceiling but the creature again somehow predicted it.
It twisted, hooking its feet into the pipes overhead, and swung with unnatural grace. Its razor tendrils wrapped around the spikes, coiling before shooting straight toward Xander.
Fuck!
He twisted, dodging one strike but the second slammed into him, piercing through his chest, the blade sank a quarter inch into his flesh and bone.
Gritting his teeth, Xander grabbed the tendrils with both hands, blood dripping down his front.
"Cait!" he shouted.
BANG!
Her rifle's shot rang out. It severed the tendril, spraying dark blood across the floor. The two-headed creature let out a piercing, guttural scream, its shrieks turning into a rattling gurgle as it dropped from the ceiling, writhing violently.
Xander raised his hand again.
"AAAAaa—"
Its cry was cut short as bone spikes erupted from the ground once more, impaling the creature mid-twitch. It convulsed, its body jerking once before going limp.
Its other tendril lashed wildly one last time, a death spasm, and slashed open Xander's side like a jagged blade, tearing a long, deep gash through his ribs as it retracted back to the creature.
He groaned and collapsed to one knee, clutching his chest as the pain grew, and his vision blurred.
He heard Caitlyn's boots skid against the floor and her shouting, "Vi, get back!"
But all he heard next were cries. Powder's, Vi's, and the clatter of chains snapping one after another.
Then came the roar and a desperate plea.
"VANDER!"