Mercenaries’ Tale – 4.14 Gratin’s Journey
Gratin’s journey through the facility was similar to his friends’ with the one exception being that the anti-magic signal accompanied him throughout. The others regained the use of their faculties the moment they left the vicinity of the mage, Gratin being the focal point the sound wave was produced from. Where ever the corridors took him, a rat blaring the signal stalked behind. Head pounding, his senses failing him, Gratin stumbled on, hugging the walls for support.
At one point – Gratin unsure how long into his journey exactly – he was joined by seven heavily armoured men. Two grabbed his arms, supporting him as they began to drag him towards his final destination. The others all held Gatling guns; a precaution for if the signal failed. Gratin believed he could craft a shield powerful enough to defend sustained fire from two of the guns if necessary but five seemed an impossibility.
Eventually they came to a lift, riding it upwards before exiting into a large chamber lined with pod-like structures. Details escaped Gratin at this point, the sensation on his brain feeling as if many railroad spikes were being rammed through his frontal lobe one after another. It was unbearable, the mage barely able to stand under the pressure.
The mage was vaguely aware of a large human stepping forward to gently grasp his jaw, turning the mage’s head this way and that to get a good look at him.
“What is the signal currently set to? I insist it be lowered! We’ve yet to study long term effects of the blasted thing! I won’t have you corrupt the validity of this specimen!” Gratin became aware of the pain subsiding, the sensation dialling back to one more akin to pins and needles. The mage blinked as his senses righted themselves. Things still seemed fuzzy and he could not perceive his environment in as vast a range as he usually could but it was better than being totally blind.
The scientist who had ordered the relaxing of the anti-magic was a large man erring on the obese with gelled back hair. A large, immaculately groomed moustache dominated the lower half of his face. His large glasses had coke bottle lenses which the man adjusted to better examine the mage.
“Excellent… excellent! It does my heart proud to see that you survived so long outside of containment! I’ve spent the last twelve years obsessing over you, GR4!” the scientist happily babbled. Gratin was taken aback.
“Do I… know you?”
“Well, that’s a sticking point really. Those damn mages whisked you away before we could officially meet. You see, I created you dear boy!” the man laughed heartily, “of course, the Alexendrettas don’t like us treating the test subjects in such familial ways, gendering them and such. Says it leads to unhealthy attachments but you were – are – my greatest achievement gods damn it and I’ll treat you as I see fit,” he winked at the mage, who seemed more confused than anything.
“I do not understand. You are human…” The man in front of him clearly had human proportions from what he could sense of the doctor’s shape. The ears and eye sockets were too small and he was taller than any Twigarnian he had ever met before, his species being naturally short with it being rare for one to be taller than five foot, the giant of a twigarnian Doug had fought being a rare exception that had no doubt formed extra mass due to all of the runic enhancements he had given himself. The scientist was over six feet tall.
Gratin found himself trailing off as the scientist clasped a large meaty hand on his shoulder, laughter booming out of him as if the mage had told an amusing joke.
“I didn’t father you, boy! No, I cloned you from cells taken from the Tserulian Monastery!” the scientist proudly announced. Gratin failed to find the situation funny.
“…Cloned?” it was at this point that the scientist calmed down enough to realise that the mage might not have been informed about the nature of his existence and that this probably was not the best way to find out. His voice took on a more sombre tone.
“Ah, of course you had no way of knowing… the night you left was essentially the night you were born. You were never supposed to achieve full sentience. Perhaps I should begin again?” he offered Gratin his hand. When the mage failed to accept the handshake, the scientist took the initiative and clasped both of his hands around Gratin’s right.
“It is wonderful to see you again, GR4. I am Doctor Käsehändler. It is good to meet you, even if this particular meeting shall be fleeting,” he smiled a sad smile. Gratin’s mind was reeling. It was hard to focus with the prickling across his brain but he forced himself to seek clarity.
“My memories… are you saying that I do not have any prior to waking up in this place because-”
“You did not exist before that night, correct. Or rather, you had never been conscious before that point. The moment your pod lost power was the moment you came to be,”
“I am…not real?” Gratin summarised. Käsehändler shook his head.
“Nonono, you are very much real! You just don’t have a conventional birth! Whatever identity you forged for yourself in the intervening 12 years is very real! You should be proud of that! Nobody expected you to come as far as you have! Just look at you! A grade six mage! That passed through the Tserulian academy with honours! Hand picked to work for the Grand Master himself!” the scientist was beaming with pride, “there may be some genetic memory at play; maybe Ard’or’s time on the Spire being drenched in aether has granted you with a heightened affinity for aether manipulation… this will require much more study but we have all the time in the world to search for those answers! You and I will be spending a lot of time together so long as the Alexendrettas allow it…” he trailed off, his hands having let go of Gratin’s and began idly playing with his facial hair.
“…Who are-”
“My apologies! The Alexendrettas own this facility. I suppose if you wish to see me as your father then they would be your mother. They made all of this possible!” Käsehändler swept his arms wide, indicating the room as a whole. Gratin failed to be impressed, simply staring numbly forward.
One of the guards cleared his throat.
“Sir, our orders-”
“Yes, yes, I know. GR4 needs to go back into stasis for now. Of course, we’ve never put a fully realised mage into stasis before. I would rather not risk upsetting his brain chemistry until we have had a chance to better study him…” he seemed conflicted. The Guards were not as worried.
“The Sisters were quite clear, sir…”
“Alright, fine. Remove GR4’s personal affects and we can begin. He’ll be tucked away again before you know it,” he replied irritably, clearly displeased that he would not be able to spend more time with his creation. Gratin tensed up as the guards holding him in place tightened their grip, a third putting down their weapon and approaching with the full intention of removing Gratin’s mask…
Suddenly the world was plunged into darkness as the power cut out. Gratin became very aware that the anti-magic that had been preventing him from using his powers was suddenly absent, his mind feeling less fuzzy all of a sudden. He was fully aware of everything around him once more; the exact dimensions and body heat of the people surrounding him; their emotional states; the heat being generated by the computers affixed to the multiple pods lining the chamber and the mass of electronics dangling from the ceiling; the body heat of the half-formed experiments floating within the pods…
The penny slowly dropped for the humans in the room as they realised that no power meant the speakers producing the anti-magic signal were no longer operational – the rats not having access to this floor meaning that they had been utilising the tannoy system – and that meant they had a very powerful and annoyed mage in their midsts.
“Shit! Some one grab-” Gratin wasted no time in releasing a blast in all directions, a wave of magical heat escaping the surface area of his body and sending the men around him flying in all directions. Now he was able to properly perceive the world around him, the mage was aware that the group had been standing on a gantry suspended in the middle of the chamber. The guards were sent toppling over the sides, where they succumbed to gravity and fell six stories downwards. The only ones fortunate enough not to plummet to their demise were the doctor and a pair of guards that had been standing directly behind Gratin. All were now sprawled across the floor.
The emergency lighting came on, red light illuminating the platform as Gratin began to levitate, flames igniting around his fists. Käsehändler stared up at him in awe.
“Magnificent! Just… magnificent!” he laughed as he took in the full grandeur that was Gratin.
“Why was I created?” Gratin’s voice boomed, the black glass of his mask boring down on the scientist. A small part of the doctor’s brain began to wonder if he was in danger.
“…The Sisters…The Alexendrettas…they wanted you to open The Spire for them!”
“I do not know what that is. Explain!”
“It’s the key to the Nexus! You can unlock everything! The secrets of magic! Maybe even the very universe!” The doctor proclaimed, “You, GR4, are the most important thing in the galaxy to them! They will do anything to have even the smallest piece of you!” this only seemed to anger Gratin, the flames around him intensifying.
“I am not a thing and that is not my name!”
“Yes, I know you prefer Gratin!” the Doctor started to break down into another laughing fit, “but where do you think that came from? You only ever saw your serial number written down before you became aware of us haha!” the doctor could barely contain himself, “GR4-71N! GRA-TIN! Don’t you get it?!”
“This isn’t as humorous as you make it out to be,”
“Maybe not from your perspective! What you call yourself hardly matters though. You won’t escape! Haha!” Gratin began to float closer to the man only to hesitate when he realised the guards behind him were still conscious and had radios.
“We need assistance in 6C! GR4-71N is-” the guard’s request for aid was cut off the moment Gratin flung a fireball as him, incinerating him to a crisp. This hardly seemed to intimidate the doctor, who was still laughing.
“Don’t assume the sisters won’t have you executed! All they need is your DNA! The original sample was lost the night you awoke but if we can just get a new sample from you then we can start the whole experiment over!” he babbled madly, “I don’t want you killed though, there’s so much I can learn from you! Just surrender! There’s no limit to what we could do if you just work with us!” he stared up at Gratin with mad eyes, extending out a hand as an offering. Gratin’s lip curled in disgust.
“Forgive me for not leaping at the opportunity,” said the mage in his usual deadpan manner. He was reaching out with his senses, expanding his gaze to beyond the room. He could detect a squad of men running up the stairwell carrying weapons. He threw himself to the side as the door was flung open, the squad rushing onto the gantry ready for a fight, opening fire the moment they were clear of the door. Gratin catapulted himself upwards with the hope of using the machinery that controlled the pods for additional cover from the sustained automatic fire rather than expend the energy using his shield magic.
What he hadn’t been expecting was for Käsehändler to pull himself to his feet and fling himself at the firing squad.
“No! Don’t kill him!” the Doctor screamed, knocking a gunman off balance. Bullets sprayed wildly across the chamber, impacting the machinery Gratin was hiding behind. Electronics began to spark and a klaxon began to sound. Gratin could sense movement from below as the pods began to open, the bodies within sliding out as the contents were dumped.
The guard pushed the scientist off of him, sending the large man sprawling into the rail.
“Interfere and we will not hesitate to shoot you too!” the guard announced. Käsehändler wasn’t listening. His attention was drawn to the shifting mass below that he could see through the grating of the gantry.
Groans could be heard echoing up the chamber as naked figures rose. Not all of them were humanoid; some bore the basic shape but others had additional limbs or exoskeletons. At least one was a shifting mass of flesh that attempted to form an approximation of a human shape only to collapse back into itself as if someone was moulding a lump of clay or putty. It was hard to pick out specific shapes in the din of the lower levels but there were enough shifting in the shadows to realise that there was a lot of movement and some of it was beginning to skitter up the walls, travelling up behind the machines.
“…M-Mr Garret?” the Doctor began.
“Someone get the Doctor out of here! Does anyone have eyes on GR4?” the lead guard, Garret, was far more interested in dealing with the mage problem. Gratin was still up near the ceiling somewhere, hiding amidst the cables, tubing and machinery. Käsehändler began to back away from the walls, edging down the gantry towards the centre of the chamber. His eyes were wide, darting back and forth as he glanced between the darkened pods for any signs for movement. Were those tentacles in the dark? Or more cables? And what was that clicking noise just on the edge of hearing?
“Mr Garret!” His voice sounded more strained this time, his eyes settling on the pod closest to the door. The pod that now appeared to have an extra cable poking out from the top. A cable that was dripping some sort of viscous fluid…
“Tilo, get the fuck outta hereaaAAAHH!” the cable – no, tentacle – the Doctor had been focused on slivered to one side and then shot out towards the yelling guard, side swiping him and lifting him into the air as it began to wrap around him, dragging him back down into the dark where his screams were suddenly snuffed out. The other members of the squad barely had time to piece together what happened before something large and armoured and slobbering erupted from out of the blackness between the stasis units, landed on the back of one of the other guards and dragged him back over the edge of the gantry.
By this point, the other guards had noticed the creatures from the pods moving in the shadows. Genetic experiments developed as weapons or tests to see how different biological traits could be added and enhanced to create a superior creature. The guards wasted no time firing on the mass, survival instincts kicking in. There were yelps of pain and strange screeching noises before something roared so loud the walls seemed to shake. Three hulking creatures leapt out of the din below, landing on the gantry so heavily the entire bridge buckled and warped under the impact. The were large, muscular and covered in a thick exoskeleton that could withstand the sustained stream of bullets that was being fired their way. If anything, the gunfire only made them angrier, the creatures rushing the guards and battering them with their massive, meaty fists, pummelling so forcefully into the ground that – when the screams finally ceased – all remained was a bloody smear. Two of the creatures began to feed on whatever fleshy chunks remained, the third sniffing the air and slowly turned to face the trembling doctor, who was in the process of attempting to crawl away. A growl escaped its lips. It looked like a cross between a gorilla, rhino and some manner of beetle, horns sprouting above its nostrils and mandibles surrounding its lips.
Käsehändler closed his eyes tightly, fearing the worst.
There was a sudden burst of heat, the force of an explosion and the sound of startled whimpering. The next thing Dr Käsehändler knew, someone was gripping him under the armpits and they were moving at speed out the door, angry animal cries sounding in their wake.
Käsehändler opened his eyes, shocked to see Gratin was his rescuer.
“GR4-?”
“Do not thank me. I still have questions and you may be the only hope I have of rescuing my friends,” the mage informed him as they zoomed back towards the stairwell, tension evident in his voice.
“What were those things?”
“Err…weapons developed to be sold to various security firms and military outfits. They’re unfinished, programming yet to be applied. They’re working purely on instinct right now!” the doctor explained. Gratin grunted in reply, sickened by the work that took place here. He did not have time to dwell on it though, a siren beginning to blare around them.
“The fire alarm?” Käsehändler queried, surprised. That was a cause for concern, Gratin further stretching out his senses to find the source of the fire. What he found caused the colour to drain from his face, a familiar force at work in one of the other sections of the facility…
“…Abaddon…”
“What-”
“Quickly, direct me to the warehouses! Now!” the note of panic and desperation in Gratin’s voice struck a nerve somewhere deep inside the doctor. This was serious, what ever it was.
“…We need to get back to the ground floor.”
Post by Sam | January 14, 2023 at 12:01 am | The Mercenaries' Tale | No comment
Tags: Anti-Magic, Doctor Tilo Kasehandler, Forest Canyon, Genetix, GR4-71N, Gratin, Mad Science, Mutants, Polaris, the Mercs