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Five minutes later, Marina leaned back with a sigh, rubbing at her head and closing her eyes as she slid slowly down the wall to sit on her rear. Zerrex looked down at her with concern as Cherry took aim at the door with the heavy magnum handgun she'd picked for herself, but Marina only shook her head tiredly, murmuring: "No... I'm sorry, Daddy, I couldn't get it open. It's one thing to work with people's minds or things I can see... but there must be thousands of gears inside the door, and I'm not getting anywhere."

Zerrex nodded, then he flexed his right hand, a small blade of the rocky substance beneath the hide of scale shooting out of his wrist. He stabbed this hard into the door with a grunt, wood splintering and metal groaning beneath, then the Drakkaren rested his other hand against the doorway as he concentrated, the blade bending to rest on the other side of the doorway. He ignored Cindy when she came out of the wolf's room, but she was quickly silenced by a look from Cherry even as Zerrex stepped backwards and forcefully tore the heavy door out of place, Lone peering awkwardly out of the doorway and staring as Zerrex gently put the large door aside.

The metallic stuff that made up the Drakkaren's right arm slid back through the ragged hole in the door, widening the wound in the scales on his right arm before they stitched themselves back closed as it vanished completely, and the group was left looking at an empty, abandoned elevator shaft leading down into darkness below. There were no cables or rails on the wall, however, so the reptile had to wonder just where the hell the elevator was... and then Cherry looked across at him, asking quietly: "Just you and me, Boss? Bebop looks tired out... Books can stay up here and babysit her and dumbass while we're inside there, just in case... there is something down there and it slips by us."

Zerrex nodded with a grunt after a moment, rubbing at his face with one hand before he pulled his own handgun out of his belt: an old Irenic Military handgun, but the .45 rounds still packed quite a wallop against most things that could be killed by conventional weapons. He approached the lip of the shaft, then he looked down inside it, murmuring quietly: "I don't see a bottom... Cherry, toss a spark down there."

Cherry nodded, holding out a hand and grinning widely as a small fireball appeared in her palm: it somehow had never been much of a surprise to the Drakkaren to find out that becoming a demon had given her control over fire... pyrokinesis just somehow seemed like something that went with the demoness. She carefully threw this into the darkness, and it fell through nothingness before it struck bottom, only a pinprick in the distance... but still better than nothing.

Cherry extinguished the flames before they could spread over whatever they'd landed on with a clench of her fist, and then she lost her grin as she became solemn, asking Zerrex quietly: "Do you wanna go first, or to back me up? If there's traps down there, at least I'll be able to see them before you do."

"I doubt there's any designed for killing demons. I'll go first." Zerrex paused, looking over at Cindy and Lone, and then he cocked his handgun before ordering quietly: "If we're gone for more than an hour without any kind of contact, don't come looking for us without first talking to someone in Hell."

"Okay Daddy." Cindy said quietly, but Zerrex knew she was just saving him the trouble of an argument, and it made him smile wryly: if Cindy wanted to come and find them, after all, she would do it, and Marina would be all-too-glad to help her out. The reptile patted her on the shoulder quietly, then he gave Marina a look as she gazed tiredly up at him... and finally he turned to Lone. The wolf was chewing nervously on the claws of both hands, staring stupidly at them, and Zerrex cleared his throat as he looked at him pointedly... and instantly, Lone composed himself, looking as serious and unafraid as he could... but the reptile could still see the fear of the unknown in his eyes. Cute, though. At least a little.

Then the large male gave Cherry a hand signal out of old habit - goddamn old memories never going away - before he stepped off the lip and dropped into the shaft, keeping his body straight, arms in, and feet parted slightly... and seconds later, he landed heavily on the ground in a crouch, slamming a palm into the concrete as he found himself staring at the back of the elevator shaft, enjoying the rush of being able to take jumps from such heights without even a scrape.

Zerrex stood and turned around, handgun held tightly in one hand as he tested the floor beneath him: cracked concrete, but definitely ground beneath it. In front of him was a heavy armored door... and the Drakkaren made a face at this before he rose a foot and kicked it hard. The door groaned, dented inwards slightly, and Zerrex kicked it again, then once more as hard as he could manage, and finally it gave way, landing on the cold cement floor of the next room and skidding a little as the lizard stepped forwards through the tall doorway.

Cherry landed less than a moment later, and even as Zerrex held his gun at the ready down the long, open cave he stepped into, he said dryly to her: "I told you to wait twenty seconds."

"I totally did." Cherry muttered as she stood up, aiming her own gun into the darkness of the cave. The eyes of the demons both glimmered in the darkness, both of them able to easily make out the shapes and sizes of things even at a great distance, although with their peculiar nightvision colors seemed faded and Zerrex saw a faint glow in everything he knew Cherry didn't. The two walked carefully up a small crest, where the cement peeled away to become an ugly rock bridge of some kind, and the two took in the long cavern as the demoness murmured: "This must be beneath the sewer system..."

Zerrex nodded in private agreement: the roof was leaky in some areas, and beneath the bridge they stood on there was a river full of vile sludge and things Zerrex didn't want to guess at. The walls of the cavern were some kind of purple stone, but much of the floor was obviously not natural, with large mounds of dirt here and there and random paths of cement that had been heedlessly plodded through in certain places. Zerrex wondered for the umpteenth time since finding the door if Narrius had done all this... and exactly why he would go through the trouble to build such an expansive path, with how little he cared about anything.

The two made their way across the bridge onto the other side, Zerrex's foot sinking through a thin layer of dirt and landing on something solid... and when the reptile dragged his foot to the side, both the abnormal smoothness and the synthetic glint told him they were standing on metal. Then Cherry called to him, and the Drakkaren walked over before looking at the ground where she pointed, the female murmuring weakly: "Just what the fuck."

"This... the 'IMS Archer?' But that means this is a military ship, and... the side of it is..." Zerrex felt his mind twisting as he looked back and forth between the passage walls, saying weakly: "But the passage walls just aren't that big..."

"They must have used the armor for the flooring, whoever the hell built this... which means they also likely were the ones who took it down. But I'll be fucked if I know how the hell they got it here..." Cherry murmured, then both of the Drakkaren glanced up towards the nearest pile, before the demoness winced as a skeletal arm shoved its way through the dirt. "Oh shit. Uh. Boss? We got some uninvited guests."

The tall pile of dirt collapsed, soil falling in all directions as no less than seven skeletons emerged, and similar numbers shoved their way out of other piles: all of them nothing more than bone, not a spot of flesh between them as many of their bodies crawled with carnivorous bugs. They staggered towards Zerrex and Cherry, hissing like snakes, and then Cherry blew the head off the closest with a snarl before one of them grabbed Zerrex's right arm, and the Drakkaren felt a wince of pain travel through him as it whispered: "You woke us from sleep, terrible one..."

Zerrex smashed it hard with his right arm, and the skeleton was snapped in half... but like the one that was now headless, they just continued coming, completely encircling both him and Cherry. They pressed back to back, then Cherry shouted: "Hate to do this, Boss, but we gotta execute a crescent maneuver, or those fuckers'll swarm all over us!"

"Great." Zerrex made a face as concentrated, however, and his right hand glowed with blue energy, the aura building as more of it was pulled from the air and blue lightning crackled down his arm. "Just don't make me do all the work this time, because we're obviously running in the opposite direction."

"Fuck you. Let it rip, Boss!" Cherry shouted, then she grabbed the smooth, shaped handle of her fifteen-foot long whip of sharpened metal chains, and it glowed a brilliant red as she snapped it forwards with a roar, the crescent-shaped fang on the tip of the chain bursting into flame as the female tore it out in a straight, one-hundred and eighty degree slash at the skeletons, and they were blown backwards off their feet by the wave of fire that shot through the air as at the same time, Zerrex released a beam of energy from his right hand with a wince, strafing it quickly through the ranks of the skeletons as he moved at the same time as Cherry.

Chunks of bone and undead hailed down around them, but the two didn't pause to admire their handiwork, Cherry reeling her whip in as they ran down the half-formed path through the remains of undead that were picking themselves up slowly and literally piece-by-piece. Zerrex cursed as one of them grabbed his ankle, but he ignored the crushing, painful grip as he ran along, making a face at the sight of the skeletal hand that had only part of a forearm attached to it before he finally reached down and slapped it off.

Then Cherry groaned as the end of the cavern came into sight... but there were more skeletons here, and more piles that could contain anything. Behind them, the undead had picked themselves up, and in many cases, even put themselves back together... and the two exchanged a look before Zerrex snarled as booming explosions filled the cave as great blasts came up from the floor.

They were rocked heavily on their feet, Cherry anchoring herself as Zerrex stumbled backwards, trying to get a good look at what was happening... and then a trapdoor near them burst open with the same loud bang, and bony hands clawed through the air before more undead began to lift themselves to freedom. Zerrex cursed as Cherry winced, then she said with a faint grin: "So okay, maybe the whole fucking ship is here, after all."

Zerrex mumbled, then he grasped his right arm as he felt a throb of pain roll through it again, wincing. The arm was an inheritance from absorbing the energies of a powerful demon, and he could feel that it wanted to be released... and the reptile's breathing quickened a bit before he cursed and let it expand, the limb bulging to full, ugly size, and he slashed his vicious claws out at the first skeleton that charged towards him, batting it aside like a toy. The skeleton crumbled under the blow, and this time, it didn't get up... and Cherry patted Zerrex shoulder as she stepped past him. "Dude, go beat the shit out of those fuckers ahead of us and clear a path. I'll hold these bastards here off... they don't seem to get up after we do so much damage to them, after all."

"Right, so give me the handicap." Zerrex said dryly, and Cherry grinned over her shoulder before she faced forwards again, as the skeletons of all shape and size staggered down the length of the boat towards her, as more ripped their way up from the guts of the deck. The male Drakkaren watched her for a moment, then he turned around just as a skeleton lunged towards him, and he cursed and instinctively lashed out with his claw.

He punched a hole through the thing's ribcage as it grasped his shoulders, and it gasped for air despite its lack of lungs somehow, before it collapsed lifelessly to the deck. The reptile made a face, wondering for a moment if this arm had something to do with these restless dead becoming more active... then he made a face, raising the gun now held in his left hand to shoot another skeleton staggering towards him several times, disintegrating its skull, part of its spine, a chunk of its ribs... and then it fell over and stopped moving. I only had to break most of its upper body, that's all.

Another skeleton lunged, and Zerrex pistol-whipped it before he lashed his warped arm out as more of them came forwards, and his claw ripped through them like wheat before the long blade popped into being and the reptile went to work with it, wading into the crowd of undead and slicing the warped blade back and forth through the ranks of the undead. They clawed back with their bare, bony fingers and bit with their jaws, but most of their attacks were useless against the reptile, causing him pain, but not on too great a level... but their numbers were many and he knew Cherry was being forced back bit-by-bit herself, whatever her bravado.

Indeed, the female was having a bit more trouble than she anticipated: although she could wrap her whip around one with a good sideways lash, then either incinerate it or simply rip it to pieces, there were far too many coming for her to deal with them one at a time, and her handgun was already back in the holster on her belt. She was making as much use of her abilities as she could, but her precognition couldn't allow her to watch her own back... and although she could in fact let herself close her eyes and better detect all the movement around her with what she lovingly referred to as 'third-person mode,' the skeletons were often so small compared to her and their numbers so thick that it would only hinder her ability to predict what attacks they were going to perform next.

Cherry snapped her whip around her body in a long-practiced cyclonic movement, then she threw herself backwards with a grunt as several skeletons attempted to tackle her from the front, snapping her whip around in a hard slash before she landed on all fours. Immediately, she brought her head up as she kicked both legs out, smashing a skeleton hard enough to shatter his front and send more spilling like dominoes, before she let herself sprawl on her back as another swiped at her head from the side. Before they could react and pile themselves on top of her, Cherry spun her body and kicked both her legs out, kicking out the legs and pelvic bones of many of the undead before she leapt to her feet and snapped both her fingers as she pointed at the ground, and the piled-up skeletons were burnt away to cinders as a firewall burst into being around her, Cherry cursing as a bit of blood dribbled into one of her eyes. Shit, when did I get hit? This ain't good, I can't kill the bastards fast enough... "Boss, dude, tell me you got this shit covered!"

"Not so much..." Zerrex managed out from where the skeletons had started piling themselves on his body, and then he finally growled before his angelic wings ripped out of his back in a burst of white light. The skeletons on his back were disintegrated by it... and many of the others screamed in strange terror, fleeing from the white light and the terrible image of the bloodied Drakkaren, standing with his wings emitting a bright glow and his warped arm all-but-burning with dark energy as the cracks in the limb pulsed with evil red light. The Drakkaren frowned as he looked to the horde of the undead, saw the swell pass through them... and then he stepped aggressively forwards, and immediately they all staggered backwards, a terrible hiss passing through their ranks.

The reptile realized he was faced with a choice: he could continue to fight the creatures, or he could try and negotiate a way through, as Cherry let the ring of fire vanish from around her body. She shoved her way rudely through the ranks to rejoin with her father and master, and then she drew her gun, ejecting the clip to count the bullets left in it as she muttered: "I think this is where that diplomacy shit you're always talkin' about comes in. And fuck, but I'm tired."

"What the hell do you want? Why did you attack us?" Zerrex asked brazenly, and Cherry rolled her eyes and mumbled something about tact. "Who are you?"

None of the undead answered... they only continued to stare and to whisper their wordless whispers. The reptile looked back and forth slowly through their ranks, then he frowned as they began to shuffle forwards... and the Drakkaren set himself, concentrating before he stepped forwards with a grunt and slashed one of the angelic wings outwards, and a white blade of light energy shot through the air, slicing through the ranks of the undead and cleaving many of them into many pieces, light shining out of their sockets as simple contact with the energy killed them, much less being sliced into pieces by it.

The skeletons screamed... but this time, they rushed forwards instead of backwards, and Zerrex winced... but then Cherry stepped forwards and waved a hand, and a wall of white fire burst up along the length of the tunnel before she spun around and ran for the end of the passage. "Come on, that won't hold the fuckers for long! Let's move!"

Already, undead were trying to force their way through the wall, but only bits and pieces of skeleton were making it... except, much like throwing too many logs on a fire, the sheer amount of bones pushing into the flames were already starting to smother the white-hot wall. When Zerrex looked back, he could already see a few mangled undead staggering or crawling their way towards them on the other side of the firewall... and then he looked forwards to see Cherry lower her shoulder and bulldoze into a heavy steel door. The metal groaned, but held as she fell to a crouch, and Zerrex wondered if she was stunned before he realized what she was doing, as she grabbed the warped lip of the metal door and slowly forced it up and open.

The Drakkaren spun around, firing several shots into the undead chasing them: the first few skeletons only managed to take one or two bullets before falling, but the next few were in much better condition, even if they looked singed. The reptile made a face at them as he ran out of bullets, then he ran forwards and twisted his body instead of throwing out a strike, and his wings of glowing energy tore through the undead mercilessly, sending them falling backwards in pieces.

The flow didn't stop, however, and Zerrex realized they meant to snuff him out the same way they'd defeated the firewall: suffocating him with numbers alone. He set himself, their skulls expressionless and their body language meaningless, but he could sense their malevolence as they charged towards him. Then Cherry yelled at him, and the reptile turned around to see she had managed to get the door partway open, the heavy, enormous shutter now balanced on her back as she winced under its weight on all fours, and Zerrex ran towards her as his wings vanished before he dropped into a low slide, and Cherry threw herself upwards, then to the side with a roar of exertion, and she landed beside him with a wince, mumbling as she looked at him: "Fuck, I love you."

"I love you too, you big beautiful bitch." Zerrex responded faintly, and then they both stood slowly up, Zerrex brushing himself off as he looked down the narrow cement hall they'd entered, and Cherry cracking her back loudly before she made a face at the door. "I guess we better get going."

"Yeah, before they find a way through the door. Fuck, I just hope they can't climb back up the tunnel... although the look on Books' face would be hilarious." Cherry said contemplatively, then she grinned mischievously even as Zerrex looked at her sourly. "But dude, Lone'd totally shit himself."

That thought did make the male snort in amusement, as they walked down the hall together... and then he paused as they reached the end of it, which was just a blank stone wall. When the reptile rested his hand on it, however, he could tell it was false... and he looked at Cherry, murmuring: "I don't want to take chances. Gimme two clips."

Cherry nodded, and the two reloaded their weapons before Zerrex stood quietly with the clip held in his claw, his gun in the other. Cherry stood behind him, aiming at the wall... and then the Drakkaren pressed his warped forearm against the wall and closed his eyes as the side of the limb pressed to the false wall became sharp and bladelike. With a single hard tear, it ripped a large, long cut in the wooden surface, and Zerrex peered through the narrow gap before he murmured: "I don't see anything inside..."

The reptile continued with his plan, making another parallel cut before he simply kicked the wooden wall hard, and a large gap was opened in it that the Drakkaren carefully slipped to, motioning for Cherry to hold on for a moment. She did so as Zerrex stepped into a large, octagonal chamber... and then the reptile winced as large shapes rushed at him, shouting: "Mark!"

He threw the clip hard forwards before raising his arm protectively in front of himself, creating a thin wall of blue energy, and Cherry held her own hand out with a wide grin as she superheated the clip. It gave a hissing sound, then exploded in midair, and bullets whizzed in every direction, one of the shapes taking three of the rounds in its long, segmented body, and green blood splattered everywhere as it howled before collapsing on its side.

The other shape fled quickly under a table, where it chattered and hissed... and Zerrex made a face as he let his shield vanish as he looked at the dead body of the enormous, earwig-like creature. Its huge pincers were still slowly opening and closing, and its black eyes were stupid and mean even in death, large mandibles drooling some strange stuff onto the floor... and Zerrex knew that if there were two in here, there were bound to be more. He felt a chill go through him... and then the reptile looked slowly upwards to stare at another one of the huge bugs as it opened its jaws and swung its pincers down towards him-

Cherry blasted two rounds into its lower body, knocking the pincers back and the force of the bullets knocking it off the ceiling, but before it could land on Zerrex, a third bullet caught it between its eyes, piercing into its small, primal brain with enough force to send it spinning through the air. It crashed onto a table full of papers with a death scream, leaving a trail of ichors behind it and scattering all manner of junk in every direction, and then more of the hideous insects began to flood out of a thin crack in the wall, hissing and charging immediately towards the two reptiles.

Zerrex fired several shots into the face of the closest, then one of them leapt onto the table before pouncing at him, and the reptile swung his rocky hand out, crushing its head in and knocking it on top of another earwig. Immediately the living one bucked and thrashed, attacking the corpse of its comrade with furious hunger until Cherry put a bullet in its brain, and as more of the beasts poured out, she asked loudly: "How the fuck do we stop these things?"

"Fire, they hate fire!" Zerrex shouted, and as he shot several more rounds into the swarming creatures, he waded his way over to the second wooden table that occupied the room, brushing the papers and other stuff off it before he cursed as something snapped into his ankle, agony filling his body. The reptile shook his leg back and forth as he felt his ankle being steadily crushed and ripped apart, and then he fired wildly under the table until the pain stopped, and the Drakkaren threw the table hard at the large crack in the wall, Cherry quickly setting it on fire as she made her way over to Zerrex, firing the last of her bullets before she stomped on the head of the last earwig and caught a lightning-fast death-stab of its pincers towards her face without even a grimace.

She kicked it away, then knelt beside Zerrex before cursing as she saw his mangled ankle, the male wincing before he mumbled: "It's okay... it's starting to heal." He paused, then held his hand down over the wound, using his own energies to accelerate the healing process as he added quietly: "It was a stupid mistake. We both knew one of those little bastards was hiding under there... I just forgot in the heat of battle, I guess..."

Cherry grunted, looking at the dozen or so giant bugs around the room, their carapaces glinting the illumination of the flames. Unlike the skeletons, however, these monsters had started appearing everywhere throughout the world: gigantic bugs affected by Hell's corruption, just as many animal species had mutated and turned into whole new kinds of birds and beasts. "Stop blaming yourself, Boss. Let's take a look at what's here, anyway... fuck, if there's one thing I don't like about your house now, it's this damn place."

"Oh, shut up." Zerrex muttered, then he finally got to his feet, feeling a bit lightheaded. His energy reserves were running low now... he'd need to just use his physical powers for the next while, and hope that some of his energy would regenerate. It had been a hell of a long day for him, though, and admittedly the fact he wasn't in Hell was wearing him down, too... outside of their own plane, demons tended to be somewhat weaker. Mortal air... ugh, and they think it's healthy. "I hope this was worth all the trouble."

"Of course it is." Cherry said absently, not looking up from the papers she had picked up off the floor. Then she paused, and added quietly, as she looked overtop them: "Boss, even if this all turns out to be for nothing, that... some crazy mofo who owned this 'fore your... your parents did... it'll still be worth it." A pause, then she grinned and threw an arm around his shoulders, squeezing him amiably. "Think of it as bondin' time for us! And you know just how much I love bondage!"

Zerrex rolled his eyes, then he grabbed the papers away from her, frowning as he glanced down at them. He paused as he looked at the runes, then he realized they were upside down, and he murmured: "These are in old Hez'Rannan..."

"Oh, well, no wonder I couldn't read them." Cherry said blithely, and Zerrex rolled his eyes before she became serious again, saying quietly: "But that's bad, 'cause that's the only thing Narrius ever understood, right?"

"All his years alive and dead, he never learned to read or write more than a couple words... except, of course, for the old Hez'Rannan runes. He couldn't write them, but he could read most of them." Zerrex murmured quietly. He thought it had only gone to show all the more what a monster and an animal his father was... because he'd certainly had the time and energy to learn to read and write, but this skill that so many people considered precious was something Narrius had never bothered to grasp or understand, taking it for granted... and of course, that had been part of his downfall, since it meant he'd never been able to actually read any of the battle plans of his generals or advisors, always assuming the fear of being ripped apart by his monsters to be enough of a motivation for them to always get him the victories he wanted. "These were faxed over from a contact in Hez'Ranna... probably Requiem, because of the language he's used. Something about a shipment of capsules of some kind..."

Zerrex shook his head slowly, and Cherry made a face as she went through several more papers, saying darkly: "Well, whatever it was, there's all sorts of reports here that have been gathering dust... some of them I understand, some of them don't. Lots of genetics shit, though..." She paused, then slung the backpack she was carrying their ammo in off her back to sort through, muttering: "We gotta bring these up to Books, Boss, or bring Books down here. Either way, though, I think we're gonna want to probe the ruins of that ship as well, and something tells me from the lack of capsules, there's probably a hidden room or something somewhere in here."

"I think our earwig friends took care of finding it for us." Zerrex replied quietly, pointing at the crack in the wall that was still visible past the flaming table. They could hear hissing and chattering on the other side, but the bugs were plainly staying at a distance... and the reptile walked carefully over towards the fire, before he grunted as Cherry shoved him aside and kneeled almost inside the flames, the fire not bothering her. "You're going to burn your pants."

"Yeah, well, shit happens. These clothes of mine are wrecked anyway... Cindy's right, we must be horrible to upkeep." Cherry mumbled, leaning in as close as she dared to look through the crack... and then she made a face and leaned away as an earwing shoved its head through the hole, snapping at her viciously, before she drew her gun from the holster and said mildly: "Hello precious."

She fired a single shot, and the earwig was blown backwards, the others chattering angrily away as she made a face and stood up with a grumble. "Since these fuckers can't chew through... fuck." She halted in mid-sentence to brush off some ash and a bit of flame that had settled one of her of pant legs. "Skedaddle. Anyway, yeah, that shit looks like wood, but goddamn that paint camo shit they used on it is good... looks just like cement to me. But past there... place is fugly, Boss. Bugs everywhere, and it looks like they made that into a nest. And I don't want to be goin' through no nest."

"Did you just say skedaddle?" Zerrex asked dryly, and Cherry coughed and looked awkwardly away before the reptile rolled his eyes and said on a more serious note: "Then we'd better investigate the rest of this room thoroughly... there might be another secret passage we can use to bypass that whole mess."

Cherry nodded, and she and Zerrex both headed to separate walls, feeling carefully along them before Zerrex quietly knocked on a wall in the top right-hand corner of the room, a section across from where the earwigs were currently holed-up. Cherry looked at him curiously, and then she stared as Zerrex drew back his clawed hand and it morphed into a massive sledgehammer, and then he grunted as he slammed his hand into the wall, knocking a huge chunk of cement out and sending cracks spiraling through the section.

He hammered again and again into the damaged wall, and then it simply collapsed, the reptile brushing dust off himself with a curse before he stepped not into any secret tunnel, but instead the sewer system, staring stupidly back and forth as his warped hand returned to a claw. Cherry walked up behind him and gently patted him on the shoulder, saying soothingly: "Nice try, Boss. Better luck next time, though, huh?"

She grinned... then frowned when Zerrex didn't give her a retort or a punch, only stared past her... and slowly, she looked up to a pipe where a trickle of water was flowing out of. Then she winced at the sight of dozens of earwigs all clawing at a heavy sewer grating that nonetheless remained in place, before her eyes dropped to look at a wall of iron bars... but more of the huge beasts were already attempting to wiggle their way through this, while another was ramming itself against the looser door in the metal bars, whether out of instinct or some kind of animal intelligence Zerrex didn't know, and didn't care to find out.

Before either he or Cherry could back into the room, however, they both heard a loud crunching... and Cherry whirled around before drawing her gun, shouting: "Boss, don't look now, but I think their want to eat our faces off is way stronger than their fear of fire!"

She fired off several shots into the veritable horde of giant bugs that poured through the now torn-down secret wall, flooding over the ceiling, walls, and floor... and Zerrex cursed before he winced as the metal door was knocked off its hinges and they began to pour into the sewer passage. He drew his own gun, firing several shots into the closest as he took a quick glance over his shoulder to take in the environment: a sewer passage that sloped steeply downwards, likely towards some sort of holding tank or abysmal lower level. "Cherry, like... set something on fire!"

"Dude, I don't got no gas, you know how hard I've been working in the last while going back and forth between here and Hell?" Cherry snapped, then she winced as an earwig lunged at her and she kicked it hard enough in the underbelly to send it splattering on the wall opposite. "Nevermind, you made your damn point!"

Zerrex shoved one of his hands onto Cherry's back, and she blinked before arching her spine with a wince, several of her shots going wild... but as an earwig lunged at her, she dropped her head forwards and her eyes flashed. A terrible blast of psychic force tore out of her, and the earwig simply exploded as dark lighting arced and sizzled through the air, coupled with the incredible psychic power, and the earwig's former comrades were splattered with his remains, causing confusion in their ranks. Then Cherry roared as she stepped forwards, throwing both arms out and concentrating, and a blazing inferno of white and red fire exploded out of the ground, the heat intense enough to send Zerrex reeling backwards and the earwigs popping like corn in the flames; but their blood didn't even have time to splatter over the walls before it was disintegrated by the intense flames.

The male fell to one knee, then he coughed blood and quickly wiped it away with a wince: he didn't want Cherry to see how much energy he'd used up in forcing some of his own into her, which Cherry was currently burning quickly through... no pun intended. Or maybe just a little... goddammit, my head is pounding but we gotta forge forwards...

Then the female let her body slump as she exhaled loudly, and the white flames quickly died down until all that was left were dwindling fires on a few blackened corpses, the rest of the sewer floor covered in ash. If there were any survivors, they had retreated into the nest... and Cherry sat tiredly beside Zerrex as her scales flickered and her demonic characteristics pushed out of her form. Slowly, she reached a hand out and quietly intertwined her fingers with Zerrex's corrupted claw, and he looked at her with surprise before she leaned her head to the side, and the reptile smiled faintly as his own horns pushed into being before he let them tangle lightly with Cherry's own, as her horns pushed out of her head: first spiked, then the spikes vanished as they branched out. They sat like children who had been tired out by some great event... and then the demoness murmured softly: "I don't wanna die down here, Boss. But there are so many of the fuckers... and... they're not just resilient, they're able to hurt us. I think we've tried to do too much today... I think... we overestimated the strength of our bodies."

"Never." Zerrex said quietly, then he closed his eyes as he tried to force his demonic characteristics to vanish... but he was too tired, his mind too numbed for him to quite manage it. So instead, he grunted as he untangled himself and stood up, still holding Cherry's hand before he hefted her to her feet, and she smiled a bit at him as he said quietly: "Don't turn into a little whiny runt on me now, Cherry. We can do this together."

She nodded firmly, then winced as they both heard a loud smash, followed by another, then another. It sounded like something massive smashing against steel... and Cherry pulled out her whip as Zerrex tucked his handgun into his pants with a mutter, creating a blade of steel as they both headed carefully back into the octagonal room. Only one earwig was in sight, but it was blind and rolling around in agony, and Zerrex easily crushed its skull under a boot before both of them stared in shock as the enormous armored door that had taken Cherry all her strength to hold open was knocked off its hinges by some powerful force, skidding across the room before banging loudly into the wall opposite hard enough to send down a hail of dust.

The two took up ready positions as they heard footsteps that were oddly light, and a white radiance shone down the hallway... and then a moment later, both gaped as Cindy stepped into the room, her backpack strapped in place and a holster on either hip as she rested her hands on her waist, gazing at them as she said mildly: "It's only been thirty minutes, so technically I'm not breaking any rules here. I'll still go and get someone in Hell if you two vanish on me in another half-an-hour."

"Oh fuck, am I ever glad to see you, Books!" Cherry babbled, and then she ran over to the female and picked her up in a hug, Cindy wincing and grasping Cherry's shoulders before she was set down, and then the larger, muscular - but not quite as strong - female fell on her rear with a groan, looking stupidly up at her as she asked dumbly: "How'd you get past the skeletons?"

"I..." Cindy looked away, blushing a bit, and Zerrex walked over to the hall, and he was somehow unsurprised to see piles of broken and damaged bones all over the room. He leaned back, giving her an amused look, and then she finally mumbled: "Well, the undead aren't difficult for the holy powers to take on... they could barely stand to look at me, much less touch me."

"Fuck, I am so glad you're an angel and not a stupid useless demon like me." Cherry said blatantly, and Cindy smiled and blushed before the female grunted and climbed to her feet, rubbing at her head and asking mildly: "You got anything in that magic bag of yours to help us deal with a bug problem? And what the hell's up with Marina and Lone?"

Zerrex opened his mouth to ask another question as Cindy nodded and took off her backpack, and then he turned and coughed hard, staggering and digging his claws into the wall as blood splattered out of his jaws. He winced, then coughed again and gagged, his legs going weak before Cherry was beside him immediately, looking at him with concern and pain in her eyes as she supported him without a joke, without a twitch... and Cindy grit her teeth before muttering: "Looks like arming up will have to wait... Daddy, here, drink this."

Cindy tossed Cherry a can of cola, and Cherry looked at it dubiously before Cindy said mildly: "It's Frost Plus, the new energy-boosting line. Daddy's love of caffeine is a blessing, too... you know how it reacts with his system."

Cherry nodded as the pieces clicked together for her, and then she opened the can for Zerrex before offering it to him. Zerrex looked at her strangely, but then he took it and smiled faintly, taking a long sip and resting against the wall for a moment as he breathed softly in and out. For whatever strange reason - maybe because of how his body had such a high-energy makeup - caffeine reacted with his system and worked for him like sleep and food did for other people, restoring his energy... and because he was a demon, even going so far as to accelerate his natural healing abilities. He closed his eyes, then he tilted the can up again and this time guzzled it down, not wanting to take any longer than he had to as some of it dribbled down his chin and muzzle to drip onto his chest, and then he stared at Cherry, the last bit of cola dripping into his mouth as she stared back at him, her tongue against his chest before she blushed and drew back, tapping her fingertips together and coughing. "I... I wanted a sip."

Zerrex threw the can of cola at her head, and Cherry threw a headbutt into it, knocking the can into the Drakkaren's abs before she grinned at him. Then her grin widened as Cindy rooted through her bag, and somehow pulled an assault rifle out of the tiny backpack... and a moment later the reptile realized it must have been enhanced by magic as she tossed the rifle up to Cherry, only to then make the female gape as she pulled out a massive heavy rifle used by the Dragokkaren Enforcers of Hez'Ranna, complete with a humongous drum of bullets. "Holy shit, is that a Shadowhawk and Blackhawk-"

"HAR-52. I'd let you try using it but you're obviously too weak." Cindy said with a playful glint in her eye, obviously relishing her own strength. She set it to burst fire mode as she checked the gun over, Cherry looking moody before Cindy returned to her bag and pulled out a tiny lever-action shotgun, which Zerrex gladly took, tossing her his handgun in return, and the youngest daughter of the Drakkaren smiled slightly up at him, saying softly: "I got plenty of ammo, too... Marina was the one who sent me down here, after all. And to answer your question, Cherry, she and Lone are standing watch at the doorway. But she felt your pain, Daddy, and sent me down here and warned me to load up... and now I think we should do okay. Come on, I'll distribute a spare clip to each of you, too, but I think we have enough firepower to deal with whatever we have to."

Zerrex nodded with a grunt of agreement, but then he tilted his head as Cindy paused in mid-reach for her backpack. She frowned as she reached down and picked up a clipboard that still had all manner of paper on it, brushing a bit of blood and char off it, and then she looked up at her father, asking sharply: "How far did you get into this place?"

"About this far... I knocked a hole into the sewers to see if we could get around a nest of bugs, but..." The Drakkaren shook his head, then he pointed at one of the corpses of the giant earwigs strewn about the room. "This is what we've been dealing with, by the way. They're nasty little bastards, though... certainly hurts like hell if they can get a hold of you with those teeth of theirs."

Cindy nodded slowly, then she returned her eyes to the clipboard, flipping through the papers to settle on one in particular. She gazed at it for a long while, then murmured quietly: "A lot of this has to do with the Great War... and..." She paused, then looked over at Cherry, who was grumbling and trying to rub a spot off the top of her assault rifle with her wrist. "With the experiments that enhanced your sister Cynterra into Cherubim."

Cherry looked slowly over at Cindy, and there was silence for a moment before Cherry asked in a quiet but firm voice: "What happened? And when did that motherfucker do it?"

"It doesn't say... this is all theoretical information here, not practical, other than the DNA data logs... and it doesn't look like this office was used for a long time." the angelic female murmured softly, shaking her head slowly. Zerrex frowned a bit as Cherry muttered something and snarled at the ceiling, and then she looked down in surprise as Cindy said: "But what worries me more is that it looks like they did a genetic extraction on an actual angel to get this information..."

"Capsule... could they have been talking about a specimen capsule?" Zerrex tilted his head towards Cindy, but at the same time he rose his shotgun in his left hand towards the opening leading into the nest, as he heard scratching and saw movements in the strange, mushy stuff that coated the walls.

Cindy didn't bother to reply: instead, she began gathering up the papers nearest to her, stuffing them into the backpack before she tossed a spare clip in front of Cherry. The female caught it easily without so much as a twitch, but Zerrex looked down in surprise as he felt a bandolier land on his boot, before he smiled grimly over his shoulder as Cindy slid the backpack back on and stood up, holding the massive, too-big assault rifle of her own in both hands. The imposing barrel rose towards the hole... and then Cherry said darkly: "Fuck this. I ain't waitin' around for these shit-eaters to form a pretty line for me... let's bust in there and see if we can find any more information on what they goddamn did to my poor sister."

Zerrex nodded, then he and Cherry advanced to the sides of the hole, Cindy staying back with the heavy rifle before Zerrex motioned for the demoness to take the lead. Cherry grinned coldly, not needing to be asked twice, and then she slipped into the nest, making a face as she stepped on the spongy, papery material. She looked left, right, then up, then returned her eyes straight as she whispered over her shoulder: "The whole fucking place is covered in this bullshit... I can't set anything on fire in here, Boss, the whole damn nest'll go up like a drunk bum's cardboard box."

"You have a way with words." Zerrex muttered, and Cherry grunted something as they slowly made their way forwards, Cindy taking up the rear and Zerrex in the middle. There were holes and cracks in the gunk all around them, and he could hear them, almost feel the bugs moving... and he knew that this was a bad idea, but he also knew that they had to press forwards... and not just for us anymore. This could hold answers to questions I've had for literally millions of years about the Great War and Narrius... and Cherry need those answers on her little sister, and her old best friend...

They reached a bend, and Cherry looked back at Zerrex for guidance. It only took the reptile a moment to think ahead of what to do, and he pointed at the curving wall opposite, where the strange mass bulged in a way that was almost obscene... and Cherry nodded, running quickly over to towards this bulge as she looked into the next hall at the same time, dropping down to one knee and aiming her rifle down the corridor before she paused and slowly looked upwards, saying stupidly: "Boss. Tell me that ain't what I think it is."

Zerrex looked up towards the ceiling... and he stared in horror at the sight of a strange pod hanging there. It was pulsing and bulging, a strange drool dripping out of it... and then it slowly began to peel open, more slime dropping out of it before the three reptiles scattered backwards, Cherry yelling something in disgust as ugly white larvae dropped out of the strange sac to land with a loud splat on the ground, some of them burrowing into the soft membrane as others squirmed their way towards the Drakkaren.

Zerrex made a face of disgust at the little beasts, then he fired three shells into the ground, splattering most of them into bits and pieces. Cherry added her own gunfire to the mix, aiming upwards at the pod and sending a foaming green liquid splattering out of the pod before it screamed and withdrew suddenly into the ceiling, leaving a dark hole behind... and a moment later, earwigs began to drop out of this, Cindy shouting: "They must have mutated, evolved!"

She added her own gunfire to the mix, the massive assault rifle hitting bugs with enough force to cause them to all but explode, Zerrex blasting the heads and chitinous bodies of the insects apart with his own shotgun blasts. Cherry, meanwhile, was aiming at something down the hall, a snarl on her face before she shot the reptile a look, and the Drakkaren spun around on instinct, throwing a hard punch outwards and smashing in the face of another earwig in mid pounce.

The reptile realized they were battling some different type of threat as well, as he kicked another huge earwig across the room before it could bite him, the creatures swarming in from behind them as well now as the Drakkaren reloaded his shotgun as quickly as he could, his fingers fumbling five shells into the weapon as fast as he could before he spun it around in his left hand, working the lever at the same time before blasting apart an insect as it didn't jump, but flew through the air on ugly, too-narrow wings. It screamed as it fell to the ground, writhing in agony, and the reptile realized that their legs were longer, too... evolved, just like Cindy said. "Watch out!"

"I see 'em!" Cherry shouted back over the sounds of gunfire, and then she vanished down the corridor. Zerrex and Cindy both quickly followed, wading through the dead bodies of earwigs that were quickly beginning to pile up... and it had now become almost impossible to tell if there were any survivors, as they staggered over ground littered with bug guts and twitching limbs, both of them still firing into the earwigs massing over the walls and forming almost a solid carpet on both ceiling and floor of the hallway. Whatever else, they were strong in numbers... and Zerrex did not like how pressured they were being as he rounded the corner and cursed at the sight of more of them flooding out of a hole in the wall. "Boss, we gotta do something to buy ourselves more time, we can't keep this up for much longer!"

The reptile nodded, gritting his teeth before he cursed as he clicked on empty again, clubbing an earwig with the barrel of the weapon before he concentrated, his free hand glowing blue before he threw a sphere of energy into the ranks of the bugs. It exploded and sent pieces of them flying in all directions, the survivors scurrying quickly away. Cindy, meanwhile, had joined Cherry's side, both of them forcing forwards as they unloaded both rifles on full automatic into the horde of earwigs pouring out of the walls, and then Cherry halted as she clicked on empty, her hands working to quickly reload before she paused and reached out, grasping Cindy's arm. The smaller female paused, releasing the trigger of the heavy assault weapon, and then there was a strange silence for a few moments as the surviving earwigs vanished back into the holes in the wall that they had spawned from. "The fuck?"

"Something must have called them back..." Cindy murmured softly, shaking her head, and Zerrex made a face as he slowly reloaded his shotgun, looking nervously back and forth. "They probably have a hive mind... which means they're all taking orders from some bug queen."

"Fuck, I ain't dealing with no queen bitch." Cherry winced, rubbing at her head slowly, then she looked sourly over at Zerrex. "Only you could get us in this much shit. But I say that once we find what the hell we're lookin' for, we just torch this nest, then go back upstairs and seal this damned place off for like, forever."

"Bad idea. Torching the nest could drive the queen into the sewers, or worse, that cavern back there... I'm sure that place would be a more-than-suitable home for the bastards." Cindy replied, and Cherry made a face at this before Cindy said softly: "The only way to ensure our safety is to kill the Queen. With the structure of this nest so far and the behavior of the earwigs, I'm willing to bet they've developed on a very similar level to ants. The Queen's chamber won't be hard to find because it will have to be in a large place near whatever they're using as a food reserve. In all likelihood, it'll also be near whatever was emanating enough of Hell's corruption to cause such vast mutations... they'll be drawn to the power source."

"Great." Cherry sighed, then she looked plaintively over at Zerrex. "Dude, this sucks ass. Serious ass. And I really don't know how we're supposed to find shit-all in this place."

Cindy rolled her eyes, but Zerrex held up a hand for silence as he frowned, lowering his head. The other two reptiles looked at him, and the Drakkaren murmured quietly: "Just listen."

They did... and both picked up on it after another moment. A murmur of some kind, running through a wall nearby, as if something had just turned on, and Cindy frowned before stepping close to the wall. She glanced over at her father, asking a silent question... and then she smiled a bit when he nodded, saying quietly: "I'll be just a second."

Without another word, Cindy concentrated for a moment before stepping towards the wall... and she passed right through it as her body became transparent, the angelic female showing off one of the abilities she had gained after death. Cindy was capable of phasing through solid materials with little difficulty, and it gave her all manner of offensive and defensive abilities. Although as a mortal she had often felt left out with no fantastical powers of her own other than her brute strength and stunning intellect, as an angel she had gained magnificent abilities... and it meant that she no longer felt as inferior compared to any of the other members of her little family. Not that she ever was, anyway... with just her brains and brawn, she could give any superhero a run for their money...

The two waited quietly... and, just as Zerrex was beginning to get nervous, Cindy reappeared through the wall, becoming physical again as she hugged herself with a shudder. "I had to pass through so many bugs just to get here... God. But there's some kind of generator room on the other side there, and lots of the earwigs are just sitting around, warming themselves on it... this facility might be larger than any of us expected. I think what we're looking for isn't too far ahead, though... there's a door ahead covered by some goop we should force our way through."

Zerrex nodded slowly at this, then he flexed his right hand slowly before extending the ugly blade from his wrist, saying mildly: "Forcing our way as always, huh? I guess that's no surprise, though... but I really don't want to stay down here longer than we have to. If things start getting ugly again, we should probably attempt to head for the surface, to rearm ourselves... maybe we should even call in some of Ire's troops to do the job for us."

"Captain Ravenlight, running away from a fight, huh?" Cherry grinned at this, then she coughed and quailed under Zerrex's glare, holding up her free hand as she shouldered her rifle. "Okay, okay, for the love of crap don't blow a gasket. Dude, I don't wanna be here or be doin' this shit myself, but I guess if anyone's gotta, we gotta. What, you afraid to get your hands dirty with bug blood all of a sudden?"

"No, I just know that... we're all a little tired right now. And we have more important things to worry about than a bug infestation." Zerrex replied irritably, making a face at the female before he sighed and trudged again, looking moody. "I hate this goddamn nonsense. Every time we try to do something, we end up dealing with a whole crapload of things at once. And don't tell me it's just life, 'cause life really shouldn't be like this."

Cherry opened her mouth, but Cindy grabbed her shoulder, jerking her close and saying to her in a quiet but deadly voice: "Don't. Daddy is stressed and tired. He doesn't need to piling more shit on top of him right now. You remember how you felt when you had to leave Priest behind in Hell, don't you?"

The muscular female glanced down abashedly at this, then she rubbed slowly at her face before clearing her throat and bounding back ahead, smiling lamely at Zerrex before she took the front of the line again. She looked back and forth, then paused as she looked at an uneven section of wall, walking over to it and tearing at the membranous gunk that covered the entire hallway. "Wait, wait, there's something here, Boss!"

"I see." Zerrex said drolly, and he pushed Cherry aside to slash at the material viciously, cutting several large gouges into the door beneath before he rose a foot and kicked it hard, opening the way into a smaller corridor. The walls of this place were still mostly cement, but there were several winged earwigs in here, all of them immediately hissing and advancing... but Zerrex solved this problem with a few shells, walking inside as he fired and then crushing the skull of one of them under his booted foot to still its writhing body. "Where to from here?"

Cindy shook her head: this small corridor was lined with doors, and she hadn't had the time to check them all. "My guess would be a biogenetics lab... but it could be anything. For all we know, Narrius could have still been using this place even during the Great War."

"Then it may have been raided... or rigged for self-destruct." Zerrex muttered, rubbing at his forehead slowly as the blade vanished back into his arm. "Let's take a look."

He forced the door closest to himself open, then cursed as two earwigs immediately pounced him, but Cherry punted both of them off, firing several rounds as she tilted her assault rifle sideways and strafed it once to the left, knocking holes in both of the earwigs and sending them sprawling. There was no time to celebrate as more flooded forwards from where they were standing guard over several large clutches of eggs, however... and then both Zerrex and Cherry stared as a humongous spider dropped on top of the charging earwigs and immediately began biting and clawing, as the earwigs screeched and fought back against the aggressor.

Their pincers were no match for the size and ferocity of the arachnid, however, and moments later the spider vanished up the wall with no less than four earwig bodies in tow. Neither of the Drakkaren was sure what had just happened... but Cherry peered cautiously into the room, checking the ceiling first before she finally said dumbly: "Dude, okay. Like. Scary. But okay. Uh... shit. I don't see the fucker anymore, just a big open vent behind us... but I don't think that bastard'll be back."

"Yeah, well... you first." Zerrex kicked her lightly in the rear, and Cherry staggered into the room, looking back and forth anxiously. The Drakkaren followed a moment later, and the two stood hesitantly near the doorway before Cindy sighed and pushed past them both, ignoring both the Drakkaren and the clutches of eggs as she walked over to a set of metal filing cabinets: the only things the earwigs hadn't been able to destroy.

Cherry, meanwhile, now satisfied that she wasn't going to be eaten, walked over to the nearest group of eggs before she leaned down and picked one up. She examined in curiously, tilting it back and forth in her hand and staring through the translucent shell at the forming larva inside, and then she dropped it and squished it, muttering in disgust. "There don't seem to be much flammable shit in here, so I'm gonna torch these fuckers once you're done there, Books."

Cindy only waved at her, murmuring something as she thumbed through folders before she picked out a thick file, and she began reading through it before she looked over her shoulder at them grimly. "This facility was in fact still being used at least as short as twenty-three years ago... there's all sorts of files I'd like to save if we could. I can't fit all of them even into this backpack, but it sounds like this facility was abandoned after it lost funding and Narrius began deploying more ground troops throughout Ire. This is a maintenance log... the last entry says they weren't going to bother dismantling the security systems, but they were going to seal off all the exits and lock down most of the armored shutters. It also mentions something about a 'bowl...' I'll see if I can dig up a floor plan."

Zerrex grunted, making a face as he looked up at the ceiling nervously, and Cherry glanced over at them before she shook her head and suggested: "Wait, Books. Let me do that. You go and scout around the area some more, see if you can find us the quickest route to the Queen... or better yet, the main security terminal."

"Yeah... the control room is probably locked down somewhere, but you'll be able to get in no problem." Zerrex added, nodding at Cherry's idea, which made the female give a bright, pleased grin. "You can save us a lot of time and effort if you can find that and activate whatever security systems are offline... and any surviving cameras might let us find out where the Queen is, if you don't come across her."

"I think I know where she is already... but alright, Daddy. Thanks, Cherry." Cindy added, and Cherry nodded pompously, watching as Cindy turned transparent before she vanished not through the wall, but the floor this time. Then she swaggered over to the filing cabinet before jumping as Cindy stuck her head through the floor, adding: "And if you find any files on-"

"Shit, I think I know what an important file is by now, Books!" Cherry stomped one foot wildly through Cindy's discorporate head, making her wince as the female glared daggers down at her. "Get the fuck out of here, you're ruining my awesomeness and making me look bad!"

"Drama queen." Cindy muttered, then she vanished through the floor again as Zerrex snorted laughter, and Cherry mumbled something sulkily before going back to work.

Zerrex, meanwhile, took a moment to pause, laying the shotgun down and then sitting cross-legged and he took a long, slow breath... then held it, forcing his body to halt its breathing. Demons, after all, didn't need air... and as he closed his eyes, he let himself fall into a light meditation as he stretched his mind out through the facility, feeling the energy radiating through the gooey stuff on the walls... and he could sense the hostile, dumb energies of the earwigs, even. They felt angry and vicious, and he could feel a more-demonic energy he knew was the Queen... and somewhere nearby, was Cindy's energy, flickering strangely as she passed easily through objects.

In the room with him, there were two friendly energy sources... Cherry, who was fiery and lustful and loyal... and another energy that felt unintelligent, yet curious. It was right beside him... and Zerrex frowned a bit as he felt something odd and hairy nuzzle at him before he opened one eye... then yelped in surprise as the gigantic spider from earlier bumped against him again, the reptile flailing his arms before he fell over onto his back with a groan.

"What is it Bo- holy FUCK!" Cherry gaped and leapt backwards, whacking the back of her head off the shelf hard enough to dent it, and then she dived for her assault rifle as the spider scuttled backwards, hissing. She snarled, and then blinked as Zerrex sat up, waving a hand wildly at her before she said dumbly: "Dude, I'm not kidding when I say there's a giant spider behind you. There is seriously a giant fucking spider right behind you."

"I know." Zerrex climbed to his feet carefully, sensing the energies of the arachnid... a bit more uncertain now, and agitated... but the Drakkaren forced himself to calm down as he realized the effects of the corruption must have enlarged the bug's mind as well as its body and opened up new senses. He reached a hand nervously out towards it, and the spider tensed itself, but he didn't feel it growing any more hostile... and then Zerrex carefully patted it on the head, and the huge bug clicked its mandibles together before leaning forwards. Cherry tensed now... and then she stared as it bumped against the Drakkaren lightly in a way that was almost affectionate, and the reptile let out a sigh of relief. "There, see?"

"What the shit, are you the spider whisperer now or something?" Cherry asked flatly, and then she paused, peering at him as she jumped up to her feet. "Dude, I thought you could only do that shit with the hydras and the wyrms."

The Drakkaren shrugged with a grunt as he rubbed a hand lightly through the coarse hairs of the giant bug: now that he knew it wasn't going to eat him, suddenly, the arachnid wasn't half as creepy as it used to be. Sure, Zerrex didn't think this whole experience would stop him from crushing bugs in the future, but nonetheless... well, it's a good thing I spent so many years training steeds down in Hell... "Oh, chill out. And well, this bug doesn't seem... you know... retarded or all... bug-brained. Shut up, I'm doing the best I can here to come up with a good word. Anyway, like, it seems... intelligent. And come on, look at it! It's almost cute, it's even got... lime-green eyes, instead of like, all those other ugly bastards with the black eyes..."

"What's your problem with black? I seem to remember you having a good bit of that color on you somewhere yourself." Cherry shot back with a wide grin, and Zerrex groaned and slapped his forehead before he looked down at the spider, gently rubbing a hand over one of its upper arms as it clicked at him curiously, then looked over at Cherry. "Hey, don't you look at me, fuckface. He's the softie here. I'd eat you if you weren't so gross looking."

Zerrex sighed again, muttering something under his breath, and then he carefully got down on one knee as Cherry relaxed a bit, but still looked suspiciously at the arachnid. He looked into its eight eyes, making himself a bit more vulnerable to test it... but when the spider moved forwards, it only bumped itself lightly against him again. Then, all of a sudden, it reached a leg up, and Cherry gritted her teeth... but Zerrex laughed as instead of attacking him, the spider just tried to mimic what he had done to it several times now, patting him on the head and scratching its clawed hook of a foot lightly through his scalp. "See? It's friendly!"

"It's got the same size brain as you." Cherry muttered, then she sighed and turned around, grumbling to herself as she went back to digging through the files as Zerrex and the spider continued to curiously inspect each other.

A few minutes later, as Cherry sat with a pile of files beside her, reading one with a frown on her face, the lights suddenly clicked on... and the spider looked back and forth in panic before it calmed almost immediately as Zerrex touched it and clicked his tongue lightly, using the same methods of communication that he did with the animals of Hell. It seemed to respond best to them... and Cherry rolled her eyes at this, mumbling: "Gee, I hope you and Fuckface are getting along over there. Asshole."

"Are you feeling left out?" Zerrex asked, mocking a raised eyebrow despite his lack of them through long practice, and Cherry glared at him before she concentrated, a pair of large, fuzzy eyebrows appearing on her face before she made the same expression back at the Drakkaren. He looked at her sourly, then he asked in a more serious voice: "Okay, bitch. Then what did you find that's actually got you reading?"

"It's an old log file on some on Narrius's nastier experiments... you know, the Unseen, the RED Unit, shit like that." Cherry responded, frowning a bit as she paged through the report, then she added quietly: "There's some real crazy shit in here, Boss. Not to mention that business about them having an angel in a storage tank somewhere... I'm starting to believe it though. I mean, you and me act dumb about this crap, but I like to think we've got it down a bit more than your average person if just 'cause we spend so much time with Cindy... but fuck, I don't understand any of this bullshit at all."

"Sorry I took so long." Cindy's voice was muffled as she emerged from a wall, and she skidded to a halt before solidifying, panting a bit and wincing as she rubbed at her body slowly. The two looked at her curiously, and then Cindy smiled a bit, saying softly as she looked over at her father calmly, showing little surprise - if any -at the sight of the huge bug. "It's nothing... it just hurts a bit when I return to normal form after letting my body remain ethereal for too long."

Zerrex nodded slowly, and Cindy walked over to the spider, kneeling in front of it and reaching a hand out, movements slow and careful as she rubbed its head gently. It clicked at her, then reached a hand up and patted her on the head, and Cindy looked surprised before she laughed, and the spider made a bouncing motion, as if sharing in her joy as Zerrex looked proudly from one to the other. Cherry huffed, then said loudly: "We have something serious to do here, people! Cindy, get the fuck away from Fuckface, he and Zer need to finish their circle-jerk."

"She's upset I'm not playing with her." Zerrex said mildly, then he pointed at the lights that were now glowing in the ceiling. "That your work?"

"Yeah." Cindy nodded, turning serious again as she stood up and adjusted her rifle. "Like I thought, the queen's chamber is in the bowl, which is straight below us... I didn't want to get too close, but she doesn't look like any kind of earwig I've ever seen, that's for sure. I found the control room not long after, and I opened the shutters that were protecting the bowl... it's sort of the bottom of a pit, and from the barrels and broken containers, it might have been where they were dumping toxic byproducts or some other biohazard zone. A lot of the earwigs down there are very big and very ugly... we'll have to be careful.

"I also opened the shutters leading to the nearest lift, and turned it on... and I unlocked all the laboratories and containment rooms. We should be able to find what we're looking for somewhere in here." Cindy paused, then said quietly: "There's only one problem. We need to find that angel and secure all the data we can before we kill the Queen... once we do, the earwigs will likely go into a frenzy. On the one hand, if they go mad, we don't have to worry about them rebuilding their nest... but on the other, they might try and pursue us or head topside to attack people, in which case we'll have to eradicate them."

The Drakkaren nodded, then Cherry stood up and stretched, picking up her assault rifle as she said mildly: "Well, let's do this then, huh? I can't think of any damn better way to spend my afternoon, after all... what about you, Boss?"

"Sure, why not?" Zerrex said after a moment, and then he smiled slightly as he handed the shotgun over to Cindy, asking curiously: "You wouldn't happen to have a close-range weapon I can use in that bag of tricks, would you?"

Cindy slipped her backpack off, then she dug through it for a few moments, tossing a few assault rifle clips out - Cherry snagging these and tucking them safely into her sidepack - before she put the shotgun away... and then pulled out a long katana with a lengthened grip. Zerrex took this reverently, gripping it by the steel sheath as he gazed over it, and Cindy said softly: "I gave that to Marina for her birthday last year... we had it in Hell, remember, because she wanted to spend the day with you. But she said you would make better use of it today than she would, so I should bring it to you..."

"And I think I will." Zerrex gently pushed his thumb against the golden, flower-petal hand-guard of the sword, and the blade glinted as it pushed out of the sheath, revealed just enough for the reptile to see it clearly. He smiled slightly at the sight of the gleaming white blade, then said softly: "Not only forged in Heaven... but this was made by Tinny."

"Good eye." Cindy walked over to Cherry, glancing at the files as she tucked them away into the backpack, and then she smiled across at Zerrex as she pulled the last file out of the muscular female's hands, making her grunt in displeasure. "He misses you, you know. Both of you, since a certain someone hasn't visited him in a long while."

Cherry rubbed the back of her neck embarrassedly, and then she blushed when Cindy tilted her head upwards, saying quietly but firmly: "We all feel guilty for what happened to him, but it isn't your fault or anyone's fault that he died all those years ago, now. He saved our lives. You owe it to him to visit soon, understood?"

"Understood." Cherry mumbled, looking awkwardly at the floor, then she cleared her throat as she hopped to her feet, walking over to Zerrex... and then she sighed and patted the spider roughly on the head, but the spider only patted her just as hard back, making her wince and sulk. "Okay, okay, I get it, Fuckface. Fine, I'll play nice with your... weird new pet, but I'll be damned... I... wait. I guess I am damned, huh?" Cherry scratched her head at this, then cleared her throat and continued as if nothing had happened: "I'll be... blessed... if you're bringing this son of a bitch back home... and don't even think about it, Cindy, blessings hurt like you're getting your balls being towed like a trailer truck!"

"Stop being a baby." Cindy grumbled, then she looked over at Zerrex. "We need to go back out to the main hall... but it'll likely be crawling with bugs by now. The light should still have them confused, however, and I think they'll likely spread out through the nest, since they seem to enjoy basking in the heat. They might not swarm us in strong light, either... their eyes are likely sensitive to it.

"We need to move down the hall, and past a security shutter that I hope to hell is open by now. Then we take a left through a door with a blue light over it, and we go past an armored shutter that I'll open from the other side for us." She halted for a moment, and Cherry motioned impatiently for her to go on. "There's a lift past there we take down to a catwalk, and from the catwalk we can jump down to the Queen. The way out won't be as easy... we'll have to take a service elevator up to a different catwalk, then another elevator to get back into this area. I don't know what might happen, though... I mapped this course out quickly on the map I found in the control center."

"You never fail to impress, Cindy." Zerrex said softly, and the female blushed but smiled warmly as the Drakkaren gripped the heavy sheath of the blade in one hand, rolling his shoulders as he smiled slightly. "And now we'd better get ourselves moving. Cherry, take the back of the group... if the earwigs are out in force, we'll need to depend heavily on your abilities to avoid getting ambushed."

"You're just trying to make me feel special and put me in last place at the same time." Cherry said sourly, but she nodded nonetheless, making a face as she adjusted her whip for better access... and from that movement alone, Zerrex knew she was taking her job seriously. He smiled a bit, then took the lead, motioning for Cindy to stay close.

The spider followed too, staying close to Zerrex and clicking at him curiously, and the Drakkaren reached out to pat it gently on the head before the little group moved carefully down the hallway, the reptile not liking the fact that he could see earwigs running back and forth through the open door. Then one of them turned and chattered, raising its tail pincers aggressively... and immediately the giant spider leapt forwards and onto it, biting savagely into it as it rolled it over to pin the bug helplessly.

Zerrex took the opening to run into the hallway, swinging the sheath hard outwards to knock two more earwigs scattering, before he drew the sword and slashed outwards with it at the same time as a bug dropped from the ceiling, and the Drakkaren sliced it cleanly in half. He grinned coldly, then whirled his way into the ranks, swinging the sword low and the sheath higher, ripping deep wounds through any of the bugs unlucky enough to be caught in his way.

Cindy roared as she opened fire with the heavy assault rifle, knocking earwigs off walls as the heavy rounds tore through their hides and blew them into pieces. More earwigs swarmed through the holes in the wall, but Cindy noted that already it seemed there weren't as many, before she snarled as she clicked on empty, and then her eyes flicked to the side as an earwig swung its tail in at her.

The female's body became discorporate, and the tail harmlessly passed through her... before she stepped into the space the earwig was occupying as it looked confused, and forced her body to become physical. Immediately, the earwig simply exploded, disintegrating as Cindy winced, before she swung the heavy butt of the rifle out to slap away another earwig, knocking its head mostly off as she snorted. Physics 101. Two objects cannot occupy the same space at once.

Cherry, meanwhile, stayed near the back of the group, shooting bursts into two earwigs that had lunged towards the spider as it ripped apart another of the bugs. More of them were swarming now from down the hall, and she snorted, reaching into her pocket as she shouted: "C'mon, Fuckface, move your ass! Hey, Books, we really need to haul ass!"

"For once I agree with you!" Cindy responded, making a face, then she closed her eyes as her body became discorporate, before she flickered out of reality entirely... and a moment later she reappeared down the hall, calling: "I'll clear this area, work your way towards me!"

Goddammit, what I wouldn't do for space-time abilities... "Yeah, yeah, fuckin' showoff. Boss, come on, we're wasting time!"

"I'm a bit busy at the moment!" Zerrex replied in a strangled voice, as he slashed viciously back and forth, knocking flying earwigs out of the air. But even then they often still kept coming until he managed a hard strike to their heads or some other severe trauma to their bodies, the flying earwigs showing a surprising resilience to both the sword strikes and the battering power of the metal sheath. He cursed, then winced as he heard a chewing and crashing sound before the beasts finally tore a hole in the wall and their own membrane, and half a dozen of them flew out... but Zerrex brought up an arm with a wince, and they landed on a blue shield of energy instead of his body, before he grunted and shoved it forwards, knocking them back through their own hole before he enlarged the dome-shaped shield into a wall that covered the gap, the bugs ramming themselves crazily against it as Zerrex cursed, already seeing cracks appearing in the azure wall. "Fine, run!"

The Drakkaren shot past the few remaining earwigs as they hissed at him, followed by a limping spider, and last of all, an angry Cherry who was firing crazily into the ranks of the bugs, using her precognitive powers to try and get the best shots she could as she ran backwards, while dodging the slashes and bites of the earwigs that had managed to stay alive and dancing through the carpet of corpses all along the ground. It was a truly magnificent display, even if Cherry's wincing took some of the grace out of it... and then she shouted furiously: "Yeah, eat that you shit-eating bastards!"

Zerrex rolled his eyes at her rage, then he skidded to a halt as he found Cindy surrounded by dead earwigs, and only one wound on her body... but it was a surprisingly-large gash on her forearm, and Cindy was only making it bleed even worse as she slowly hauled a security shutter up with loud grunts of effort, before she looked at her father as he grasped her arm and felt her bulging bicep, saying raggedly: "It's magnetic and goddamned heavy... and the netting is holding onto it tighter than I expected. Give me a hand."

The reptile nodded, dropping both sword and sheath to reach down and grasp the underside of the shutter... and the two grunted, their muscles flexing as gears inside the shutter clanked, both of them pushing upwards until something gave loudly with a shriek of steel... and then earwigs that had been waiting on the other side of the shutter both lunged, tackling Zerrex and Cindy to the ground. Immediately, the angel became discorporate, the earwig falling stupidly to the ground and biting uselessly into the floor before exploding as Cindy solidified her body, and Zerrex grabbed his own earwig by the face with his right hand, the mandibles of the creature snapping as it bit into the not-flesh of the Drakkaren before he crushed its head and tossed it backwards with a grunt.

Before either could get up, however, more earwigs lunged... but with a wild cry, Cherry slid in on her back, flicking the assault rifle to semi-auto mode and squeezing the trigger rapidly as she strafed the assault rifle through the air. Time seemed to slow, the bullet casings seeming to flip with lazy grace, as Cherry continued to slide past them, already on her fifth shot as four earwigs spasmed and flew backwards... and a fifth staggered, its head exploding before Cherry brought her legs back and slammed her feet into the heads of two more bugs, and then she spun herself in a way that seemed impossible, shoving one hand out behind her to work as an axle as she hefted herself into the air before standing on it with a wide grin, her eyes alight as her assault rifle held in one hand, and then her huge muscles flexed as she shoved herself off the spongy ground, flipping once and finally landing in a kneel with both arms outstretched. "I am the most fucking awesome thing ever!"

"That was a little bit excessive." Cindy said mildly, as Zerrex only gaped dumbly at her. Then he shook his head quickly as Cindy knelt by the wounded spider, touching its damaged leg gently and making it cringe and click several times, before she looked over her shoulder and cursed under her breath at the sight of more earwigs coming in through the walls as the ones they had just escaped swarmed down the hall towards them. "Come on, we'd better make a run for it before they catch up."

Zerrex nodded, picking up his weaponry as Cindy shouldered her huge rifle, and he allowed her to take the lead as they headed for the door. An earwig seemed to appear out of nowhere, hissing... but Cindy only kicked it hard enough to splatter it against the ceiling, and even Cherry gaped before Cindy rammed herself into a rusted door with a faint blue bulb glowing above it, knocking the door down before she cursed loudly and leveled her assault rifle.

Huge spiders marched menacingly towards them, the three of them much larger and much more intimidating than the smaller arachnid they had with them... but before anyone could react, the little spider hobbled into the room and chattered several times as Zerrex and Cherry walked up beside Cindy, the three hesitating in the hallway before the little bug knocked itself against Zerrex. The larger spiders seemed to hesitate... and then Zerrex patted the small spider, and the small spider turned around to pat him gently back... and the energy in the room seemed to change. Instead of advancing on them, the huge spiders walked past, and the three Drakkaren stared in awe as they moved into the hallway... and then the sounds of battle began, as Zerrex knelt in front of the small spider and smiled. "Thank you."

The arachnid clicked in return, then stumbled away towards a broken-down door. It hesitated and turned around, looking at Zerrex with its hard, chitinous features and expressionless eyes... but then it bowed towards him before raising both forelegs... and Zerrex rose his own hand in return, and finally the spider vanished into the room. The reptile straightened, then shrugged as both Cherry and Cindy looked at him, finally asking mildly: "What?"

"Nothing. Ugh, I'm gonna miss little Fuckface." Cherry said tenderly, rubbing at her head lightly... then she started walking down the hall, gesturing for them both to move. "Come on, though, we're runnin' out of time! There're too many goddamn earwigs for those three big-ass bugs to take on, and we all know it."

The two nodded, and they hurried down the hallway, Zerrex privately glad to be in an area that was mostly cold concrete: there were webs here and there, but they could all easily handle webs... and it made it very clear why there wasn't as much of that gross membrane that the earwigs had somehow built. "Is that the shutter?"

"Yeah, and it looks like it's in okay condition." Cindy said quickly, then she went into a jog before she phased through the heavy black and yellow shutter. Both Zerrex and Cherry skidded to a halt in front of it, looking at each other nervously after a moment of nothing happening... and then a red light began to flash above their heads, a weak siren blaring as the shutter began to slowly rise up into the ceiling, and the two ducked under it the moment they could to find Cindy already waiting impatiently at the broken gate to a large-size lift. "Sorry for the pause... the button was jammed. It seems like the lift was stopped on a lower level, too, but it's working... it's just slow."

"We totally should have just jumped down there." Cherry said reasonably, as she leaned over the broken waist-high gate to peer into the semi-darkness below... and then she made a face, asking: "Is uh. That supposed to be on there?"

Cindy frowned and looked over the edge as well... and then she winced as her eyes caught sight of the tall genetics capsule, which sat beside several large-size metal crates. "I figured that any containment capsules would be on the lower levels, since this is all administrative up here... they must have been trying to transport it out but run into some kind of problem while moving it. It works to our advantage, at least..."

Nonetheless, she took the spare moment to reload her assault rifle, tossing the empty drum away and half-shrugging the backpack off to pull a new one out. She slapped it into place, then chambered the first round with a simple pull of the bolt on the side of the huge weapon before she rested the butt of the gun against her shoulder, ready to fire on the capsule should something nasty happen, as it often did with them.

What they saw inside, however, was no angel. It was a mangled body... and Zerrex frowned before he hopped the gate first, walking up to it and tapping on the glass. There was no response, however, and it looked like whatever liquid they were keeping the subject in had gone stagnant... and the reptile shook his head before he murmured: "It's a Dragokkaren... but look at the eyes. Nothing but hollow, ugly pits..." And the body has become petrified. It's a dead Unseen.

The Dragokkaren had likely once been enormous, even for his breed, with how cramped he was in the twenty foot capsule... but the wires had long come loose from his emaciated body, which was covered here and there in moss. Most of his scale had turned to ugly stone, and his eyes were open, but missing, all around them terrible scars... and Zerrex made a disgusted face before he glanced at the metal crates, knocking on one lightly. "I wonder what else they were trying to drag out of here..."

"We'd better leave it alone." Cindy said quietly, as she activated the lift before joining Zerrex, while Cherry skulked around the platform as it slowly began to descend. "We still need to find the genetics lab, any other important research documents, and the angel before we destroy the Queen or try to sort through anything... and we can always find another exit out of here and come back once we're sure that the bugs have mostly died off. We also have to get a hold of Churchill and Albatross..."

The Drakkaren nodded with a grunt, then, before he could stop himself, asked: "I heard a rumor down in Hell Albatross went blind... is that true?"

Cindy was quiet for a few moments, then she nodded and sighed softly, Cherry making a face. "Yeah. He handled it pretty well, though, think he got a synthetic eye installed... but I haven't talked to him at all for a long time. None of us have... not that I think any of us blame him for what happened."

"I think Marina does." Cherry said quietly, as she finally came to a halt on the other side of the crate, leaning against it as she relaxed and lowered her head, closing her eyes. "I think Marina blames him even for the war. I know she blames him for... for what happened to me, and I know she blames him for your death too, Boss... the only thing she doesn't blame him for is the shit that went down at that PMC base, but I know she blames him for the whole fucking mess starting. She thinks if he warned us a little bit earlier, they wouldn't've had the time or power to start up that weird-ass doomsday device of Narrius that made all those Black Holes between the different planes."

Zerrex sighed and shook his head slowly at this, and the three were silent for almost a minute, until the lift finally ground to a halt. The male looked to Cindy, and she nodded, taking point and pushing open the gated passage with a creak to step out onto an empty platform with another locked armored shutter. She hit a button beside this, and it began to rise slowly up into the air as Cherry dropped onto her stomach, looking tense but her eyes calm as Zerrex stood with sword drawn.

But the small platform attached was empty, and although they could hear earwigs moving and chattering, none were visible along the catwalk, which stretched for perhaps a hundred feet across some vast, empty expanse. Carefully, they made their way forwards... and Zerrex leaned over the side with a wince to look down into the bottom of the bowl far below as Cherry whistled and Cindy merely shook her head slowly. "So much just wasted..."

Below, that spongy mass coated everything... and earwigs crawled madly back and forth around a huge, ugly beast that Zerrex's eyes refused to process at such a distance: all he could see was that it bore some faint resemblance to the earwigs. Around this mass, the membrane seemed to have mutated into plant-like pillars and arches, like bent trees, and Zerrex could see both dead, rotted bodies and broken laboratory equipment piled along the edge of the area... and many of the earwigs were busily carrying clutches of eggs from around the great ugly mass to other parts of the nest... and then Zerrex stared as out of the membrane, a strange, fleshy pod rose up on six legs and scuttled over, blossoming open, and earwigs began to stack eggs into it... and Cindy frowned as she leaned over the railing, watching this with a twisted sort of fascination. "Look at that... some other form of bug life that's been mutated by Hell's corruption, but it's working in symbiosis with the earwigs... that must have been that thing you shot back in the entry hall, they're some kind of nursery bug... look, by the bodies, it looks like they scavenge on the bodies, and in return they must carry and nurture clutches of eggs and larvae for the queen! Maybe they're responsible for producing the warriors, the earwigs with the wings."

"Fuck, you're such a nerd." Cherry muttered, but she was nodding nonetheless, making a disgusted face as she took aim with her rifle... and then Cindy grabbed the barrel and aimed it away, and Cherry gave her a glare. "Hey, lemme do my job! What the fuck, seriously?"

"You really want to bring the whole nest down on us right now?" Zerrex asked dryly, and Cherry paused to think about this for a moment. "We'll deal with this later... for now, we have to find what we came here for. Then we can shoot them."

Cherry mumbled and nodded, hesitating before she finally sighed and lowered her weapon, and then she said darkly: "So long as I get to shoot those fuckers up later. They creep me right the hell out..."

Zerrex had to agree: the way the earwigs were moving around was like a hostile society massing for a war, not supposedly-dumb insects just working to keep alive. And the way the lights that lit the bowl in rows glowed through the membrane covering all surfaces of the inside of the shaft, up just past the walkway they were standing on - and the reptile noted there was even some of that nest-goo all over the middle and rails near the other end of it - made the ugly purple-pink gunk pulse with a strange radiance. He didn't like it at all... and he wondered how strong the corruption in here was as Cindy led them carefully and quietly along the catwalk, until she carefully wrestled open a sliding mechanical door on the other side to reveal another hallway coated with the membrane.

"No wonder it wouldn't open." she muttered, touching the goo, and then she winced, drawing her hand back quickly. Zerrex looked at her curiously, and Cindy made a face, murmuring: "It's warm."

Cherry frowned, tilting her head as she carefully reached out and touched the stuff with the back of her hand, and then a shudder ran through her body. "Fuck, she's right. I don't even wanna know what the hell that means... can we please get out of here?"

"The nesting is so thick here... we'll have a hard time even finding the doors, much less reading the labels on them." Cindy replied with a hint of disgust, as she looked back and forth. She led the way forwards, her eyes tracing over the walls... and then she winced when Cherry grabbed her shoulder and jerked her back, then she stumbled past the muscular Drakkaren and her father at the sight of the long, ugly thorny tendrils that were slowly writhing back and forth across the floor of the hallway. "What the hell are those?"

"I was hoping you could tell me." Cherry muttered, and she paused for a moment before raising her hand, focusing her abilities. A moment later, the fleshy tendrils burst into flame, and they writhed rapidly back and forth for a few seconds before they dissolved, falling away into ashes. From the recesses of the nest, there resounded a terrible wail... and the walls pulsed before several large sections slowly drained of their power. "Dude, what the fuck, that shit is alive?"

Cindy carefully touched the ashen section of membrane, and she drew her fingers back after a moment, murmuring: "It feels brittle, now, instead of soft... those must have been some sort of feeding tube, and that means these walls are probably rich in nutrients so the earwigs or their larvae can feed off them..." She paused, making a face as Cherry opened her mouth and leaned towards the wall. "I wouldn't do that if I were you... there might be other bacterium and insects inside the wall."

Cherry stared, then immediately leaned away, making a disgusted face as she wiped at her body with one hand. "Fuck, now I feel all dirty. Who the hell knows what kind of shit those earwigs have been in, anyway... dammit, we really gotta find this lab place."

"Here." Zerrex had gone ahead a few paces, and the reptile lightly tapped on a pinkish section of the membrane with the tip of his sword before he sheathed it, grasping the wall with his right hand and digging his fingers into it. He grunted, then tore hard downwards, and a large section of the wall tore free, revealing a damaged door that was covered in slime. Zerrex made a face as he dropped the torn chunk of wall, and then he grasped the frame of the electronic door and forcefully pulled it open, the metal squealing in protest.

Two earwigs were inside the room, and they hissed at the reptile... and then Cherry leaned into the doorway and fired off two quick bursts, killing both bugs quickly and efficiently. She snorted and nodded at this, muttering something to herself, then she followed Zerrex as he walked into the room, Cindy pausing for a moment to examine the membrane further before following as well. "Dude, this place fucking stinks."

"Well, it would. Most of these capsules are broken and the preservation fluid's gone stagnant." Cindy said quietly, and Zerrex nodded slowly. An entire wall of the room was covered in the enormous capsules, and the room was by no means small... and more capsules were placed haphazardly here and there on the ground, most of these ones smaller in size. Most of them were cracked or broken, coated in a reddish slime and green mold... and from some of these, stretched frozen limbs and even bizarre and petrified features, a bit of bark and moss coating the now-stone bodies here and there.

Zerrex glanced down at a flicker near the corner, but it was only from a broken circuitboard that was hanging from the ceiling by some damaged wires, sparks hailing down occasionally to dance along the floor below before vanishing. The large room was grim and cold... and Cindy gave all of the capsules a quick glance over before she gasped as she accidentally brushed against an arm, and it snapped off at the elbow, falling to the ground below to shatter into dust as the elbow slowly bled a sticky, red substance that had probably once been blood. These poor bastards suffered a fate even they didn't deserve... "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Cindy quietly touched her chest, slowing her breathing before she continued her inspection of the capsules, and she paused most of the way down the line, resting her hand against the glass of a capsule that was overgrown with ivy, but coated with none of the goo: that made sense, at least, because the door was ajar and none of the preservation fluid was inside. The female opened it after a moment, then she knelt down and removed something from the bottom of the capsule... but before Zerrex could ask curiously what she'd found, Cherry grunted something from where she was looking at the smaller capsules.

They both walked over, and Cherry tapped the glass once, Zerrex leaning in and frowning a bit as he looked down into the contents of the capsule, before he asked quietly: "What the hell is it?"

Inside the capsule was a headless body with mottled blue skin and furry black hands ending in large white claws... and Cindy frowned a bit before she traced a finger slowly through the dust in the capsule above where the body had a stitched-up set of long surgical scars. "It looks like one of the old regenerative experiments of Narrius... we had reports he had his surgeons and scientists experiment with different methods of organizing organs and even limbs, to enhance the body's productivity and toughness... and of course, they used prisoners and other people they could kidnap to experiment on the cellular structure of people and see how much they could take before dying. Let me see..."

Cindy looked down at the papers she had discovered stashed inside the capsule, and she thumbed through them, muttering: "These were all ordered destroyed, but it seems someone wanted to keep a record of them for whatever reason... yes, it says here that Subject 117 was the first person to receive the 'angel's genetic markers,' and that splicing the subject's DNA caused an almost instantaneous bad reaction and mutation. Decapitation followed suit, but it failed to kill the subject... so they locked it up in a containment facility until it eventually died, three years later.

"They performed an autopsy, and they added all the information they extracted from the cellular and organic makeup to the genome they were building..." Cindy shook her head slowly, murmuring: "The immortality project and the Dragokkaren synthetic genome." A pause, then she glanced over at Cherry, who looked disgusted. "It says here that Cherubim was one of the first subjects to successfully receive the angel's cells... but there's a follow-up letter here that notes that it was only after she was implanted with a Nephilim that the cells took full effect. They must have included some sort of activator in the genetic material... but whatever else, it's noted here she didn't degrade as fast..." Cindy halted as she saw Cherry's eye twitching and the deathly glare on her face, and she swallowed thickly before stuttering: "N-Not that... this is... I mean... I just want to let you know what happened to your sister, it's... I don't mean..."

"Right." Cherry grabbed the papers and tore them away from Cindy, then she mumbled to herself as she read through them before showing them to the other female and pointing at a certain sentence, asking sharply: "The fucking hell does that mean?"

Cindy looked at it for a moment, and then she said quietly: "It means that they were using her as a prototype model for a new class of clone soldier that was never released... if we can find more genetic logs in the facility, I might be able to tell you more."

"Fuck that, I don't wanna hear any more of this shit. Let's find the angel or whatever the hell it is, then kill the Queen and get the fuck out of here!" Cherry snarled as she spun around and threw the papers into the air, booting a capsule hard enough to send it crashing into the wall before she stomped to the doorway and outside, letting out a furious yell - whether because something got in her way or just out of anger, Zerrex didn't know. He rose a hand to Cindy, getting off the capsule he'd taken a seat on to watch the debate, and he quietly shook his head.

"Give me a minute." he said softly, and Cindy nodded quietly as she began to collect the scattered papers on the ground. He walked to the doorway, then paused to watch as Cherry punched the membrane as hard as she could with her free hand, the other digging into the body of the assault rifle as she hammered her first over and over into the wall... and then she shot a look at Zerrex before snapping her gaze forwards again, and the reptile sighed softly, walking forwards as the muscular female wiped wildly at her teary eyes. "Stop that."

"Fuck you." Cherry mumbled, and then she blushed a bit as Zerrex turned her around and pushed her quietly against the wall. She tried to look away, and the reptile gently brushed at her eye with his thumb, before she reached her hand up and grabbed his, squeezing it tightly as she bowed her head forwards and asked weakly: "Why did it have to turn out this way, Boss? I hate this. I hate these emotions, feelings, these... moral standards that make me feel so goddamn outraged and vile and all this... this crap. Why can't this be like the old days, Zerrex, why can't we feel like we once did... feel... nothing, nothing but hate and rage and lust, and they were all good things, back when we fought for nothing and didn't give a shit about anyone or anything else... back when I could pretend I wasn't the daughter of a circus whore and I hadn't abandoned my sister... shit..."

"You know why." Zerrex tilted her chin up, meeting her eyes quietly as she fought back her tears, biting her lip hard enough to send a bead of blood down her chin. Zerrex watched as it rolled slowly down the underside of her muzzle, then it dripped down to patter softly on her breast, and his eyes looked quietly at the spot it made against her scales as he murmured quietly: "Because now we have a bigger obligation. Because we aren't stupid kids anymore, and we're supposed to have learned from and paid for our crimes... because even we demons have hearts and souls, and know right from wrong... and it's our choice to make whether we piss on the memories of our lost loved ones or if we fight through the bad emotions... so we can feel the good ones again for good reasons..."

"I hate you so much." Cherry pushed herself against him, and Zerrex closed his eyes as he hugged her close, squeezing her tightly against his body. She let out a long, shuddering breath, nestling closer into his masculine chest, and then she rubbed her head slowly against his neck, asking quietly: "Will you hold my hand, if I get too scared?"

"Always." Zerrex smiled faintly, then he looked over his shoulder as Cindy stepped through the door, clearing her throat politely. Cherry released Zerrex and coughed, rubbing at her eyes quickly and then mumbling something, but Cindy only held up a hand, hesitating for a moment.

"I was doing some thinking." she said finally, and she paused a moment longer before saying quietly: "Maybe we should just give up for now on finding the valuable data and the angel... we can kill the Queen, escape, and then come back later and-"

"What, and miss all this horseshit? Come on, my favorite game's always been seek and destroy!" Cherry said boisterously, grinning and throwing her arms wide before Zerrex slapped the back of her head lightly, and she rubbed at her skull as she mumbled: "Hide and seek, I mean, hide and seek. But come on, I mean, like, it can't be that hard to find a goddamn angel anyway, can it? Zer, why don't you sense it out?"

The Drakkaren made a face at her, and then he sighed, shaking his head a bit as he muttered: "I didn't feel it earlier when I was meditating... but I guess even if the angel's dead, I still might be able to feel whatever residue is left in its cells." He looked uncertainly at Cindy, but when she shrugged and Cherry motioned at him to go on, he finally sighed and closed his eyes, holding up two fingers in front of himself as he concentrated on the very tip of his claw, visualizing his energies gathering into his mind and that he was balancing a lens on his fingers, or a radar dish, or anything like that...

As Marina had told him, though, it was more the familiarity with the focal gesture than the visualization that would count, after a while... and he felt himself automatically stretching not his mind, but his own energies out, feeling how each particle interacted with every other molecule, and even less, and what they all felt like... and he could sense, nearby, some... alien, foreign energy. Something long dead, but still powerful... it... that's no angel or demon, though... "It's here... it's nearby. But I felt other energy signatures, too... I'm guessing earwigs, but it's hard to tell. This stuff is interfering with me..." Zerrex made a face, rapping the gooey membrane covering the walls lightly. "It's not alive, exactly, but it still puts out a lot of energy... and there's a hint of demonic corruption in it, now that we're deeper into this labyrinth of a facility."

"Dude, you should totally sell this as part of your house the next time the housing markets are working." Cherry said thoughtfully, rubbing at her chin with a wide grin. "Yeah, yeah, just imagine touring this place... and with a comfy bed only a short jog away!"

"The undead and the demonic bugs might take a bit out of the sale price." Zerrex said dryly, and Cherry rubbed her head awkwardly at this, then the male pointed at the wall some dozen feet ahead of them, where the passage made a sharp right turn. "Anyway, there should b e a door... somewhere... on that wall..."

"Let's just make one." Cindy muttered, and Cherry and Zerrex both stared at her as she pulled off her backpack, rummaged through it, and then pulled out a large metal box. She opened this, then produced a large, pre-shaped plastic explosive, walking over to the wall as she tore a thin sheet of plastic off the sticky bottom of the charge, then she slapped it against the wall and tapped a button on the device attached to the front of the bomb. She walked nonchalantly back, then leaned down over the metal case and picked up a detonator, her body and the device becoming transparent as she said mildly over her shoulder at the two gaping lizards: "I'd find some cover if I were you. I've been meaning to test if devices I phase out of physical reality with me can still affect devices on the physical wavelength, if they use certain wireless frequencies."

Zerrex and Cherry both gaped, then they scrambled down the hall before Cindy pressed the button. For a moment, nothing happened other than the two physical reptiles leaping and covering their heads, then awkwardly landing on top of each other when there was no big explosion... and then Cherry sat up, shoving Zerrex into the wall as she looked over her shoulder with a grin-

A moment later, the charge exploded, ripping apart the membrane and taking much of the wall with it to open a huge hole into the next room, and Cherry was knocked sprawling as Zerrex felt his face grind painfully along the membrane before he fell forwards, arms under his chest. He scrambled quickly to his feet as Cherry did the same, glancing back and forth before she cursed and dived for the rifle that had been knocked out of her hands, and Zerrex kicked his own sword up to his feet as two mutated earwigs flew through the smoke on their ugly wings... and then Cindy emerged from the smoke behind them, grabbing the two by the tail and smashing them hard together in midair, and they fell to the ground, their tails lashing backwards... but Cindy had vanished back into the smoke. One of them turned around, tail raised... and the other charged over the ground towards Zerrex, but the Drakkaren slid easily forwards as he drew the sword with a vicious slash, and the bug writhed as its tail flew through the air before the reptile spun around and dropped to one knee, stabbing downwards at the same time to finish it off before it could turn its mandibles on him.

The other earwig's head had already been crushed by a large piece of cement, its tail whipping erratically through the air for a few moments before finally stilling and dropping limp as Zerrex withdrew his blade from the earwig's body, wiping it clean with a face of disgust on the membrane. Cherry peered hesitantly at the smoke, her assault rifle at the ready... and finally, it began to clear, Cindy rubbing absently at herself before she murmured thoughtfully: "It works as if it has to first travel a great distance, causing an irregularity in the time between activation and detonation... which means the wavelength of the frequency is distorted but still capable of affect, like sound waves generated by my speaking."

"A nerd even when you're a pyro. This is why only me and the Boss get to blow shit up." Cherry said flatly, then she shoved her way past Cindy, leaning her head forwards as she glowered at her. "I got your number. I'll fix your little red wagon, yes I will."

"She's mad because you got to blow stuff up and kill the bugs, and she didn't get to do anything." Zerrex said mildly, and Cindy sighed and rolled her eyes as she walked over to pick up her backpack, throwing it back onto her back as she hefted her heavy assault rifle from where she'd left it. Then she followed the two into the next room... and frowned as they found it was a sterile laboratory, one of the tables covered in old papers, and another one covered in scientific instruments, but with no genetic capsules to be found. There were all manner of books on shelves, and at the far end of the long room, another of the ugly tables that was attached to the ground by a single sheet of steel... but Zerrex couldn't even see where it was hidden. When he concentrated on the energy he'd felt earlier, however, he could sense it in this room... and the reptile shook his head before looking over at Cherry. "Tear it apart."

"You got it." Cherry grinned a bit as she put her assault rifle aside on one of the bare tables, then she immediately walked over to the shelves, knocking books aside and checking for both hidden doors and buttons as Zerrex checked under all the tables, Cindy meanwhile examining the papers. It was all fruitless, however, and Zerrex muttered under his breath as he reached the other side of the room, his search of the tables, the floors, and the walls finding nothing... and then the lizard frowned a bit, closing his eyes as he felt a pricking at his skull... and when he opened them, he found his eyes drawn automatically back to the table covered in the different instruments.

The reptile slowly walked over to it, and he brushed the microscopes aside to pick up a heavy black metal case, long enough to contain a rifle, but with a much thicker diameter... and the lizard turned it over, putting it back down on the table as he read a single word aloud: "'Angel.'"

Cherry and Cindy turned to him, then they approached the case as Zerrex carefully opened the four simple clasps holding it closed, feeling tense and yet horribly curious... and then he opened it, and the three stared at an ugly, twisted arm, the remains of something that most definitely was not an angel. It gave off a terrible energy that was neither angel nor demon, and the feeling of it made Zerrex wince before he hesitantly reached forwards to touch it.

Cindy reached out to grasp his wrist, but Cherry grabbed her shoulder and shook her head, looking grim, but seeming to know that the Drakkaren needed for some reason or another to make contact with this thing... and the male made a face of disgust as he drew his fingers over the gray, scaly flesh, the texture almost as repulsive to feel as his mind found the energy it gave off. He looked slowly over it, and he was reminded of a fleshy version of his own terrible arm... and the reptile gripped his own right limb quietly before he murmured: "This... this is no angel. This isn't demonic, either, and... yet... it definitely isn't mortal. We should take this back with us for further analysis. I want to know what the hell this is... and maybe examining it will answer some of the other questions we have."

He drew his hands slowly down the limb, over the fingers ending in thick black claws, and then he realized there was a hollow just beneath the hand... and sitting in this, was a leather-bound notebook, camouflaged against the black of the shaped metal that surrounded it. Zerrex picked this journal up and untied the black rawhide string wrapped around it, then he opened it, his eyes settling on the first sentence. 'At the request of Patriarch Narrius himself, we have begun experimentation on this limb, the remains of what we have been told is a divine being...' Narrius, you would have known this was no angel... what did you find, and furthermore... what did you do with the rest of this thing...

Zerrex was shaken out of his thoughts as Cindy closed the case, and she quickly sealed up the clasps before she tossed her backpack onto the table and shoved the specimen case inside. It was an amazing feat, watching the way the case slid into the tiny backpack... and then she looked at him as the Drakkaren slipped the journal into his pocket, asking quietly: "Are you okay, Daddy? You look a little stunned."

"Obsessed is more like. Or the s-word that I really don't wanna say, 'cause I was pretty damn sure you had no fears." Cherry said mildly, picking up her assault rifle and leaning on it against the table. "Anyway Boss, like. You got any suggestions on just what this thing is? 'Cause I admit that even I don't like the energy it's giving off, and I know you're sensitive to that shit."

"Forget about it..." The Drakkaren shook his head quickly, then he made a face as he picked up the katana, squeezing his fingers into the neck of the sheath as he threw off whatever strange feeling had come over him and instead said quietly: "For now, we have a job to do. We still have to kill that Queen, then get out of here, after all."

Cherry grinned widely at this, shouldering the assault rifle as her eyes flickered with malevolence. "Now that's what I'm talking about, Boss! Let's go and beat that bitch into the ground, and then we'll play that old favorite game of ours, run-like-shit. Or like, more like, you-gotta-take-a-shit. That's it." She paused, then looked sourly at Cindy and Zerrex as they both shook their heads. "Fuck you, I'm cool."