Likely much to his chagrin, Farron would hit a roadblock almost immediately: his door of choice refused to cooperate. Only after giving the switch set into the wall a minor beating would the portal grind reluctantly open halfway before becoming lodged forevermore in place. It was enough space for the duo to squeeze through, in any case. Beyond, it became apparent that the shutters which had sealed them into the station were not the only of their type: several more lay ahead in a narrow corridor, but it seemed as though they had failed to shut properly and instead formed a bizarre - if only marginally obstructive - obstacle course for Farron and Eris to clamber their way over, under, and around. The only other obstruction that presented itself at the moment was the gentle lefthand curve built into the passage.
The potential for further disappointment, however, was imminent. Rounding the bend would leave the two in yet another hub, though in this case it was merely an intersection of halls and nothing more. But in a surprise twist, two of the three directions open to them were clearly labeled; though their own illumination had failed, the wording on the signs above each entryway were still legible in the low light.
To the left, BARRACKS. Based on its proximity to the hangar, it most likely would have been the living quarters of the technicians that worked there. Perhaps they would find some manner of tool to open the way out, though a dead end could reasonably be expected otherwise.
To the right, INFIRMARY. Likewise, a small medical station serving the nicks and scrapes of everyday labor was sensible. Exploring it might lead to some clue as to where the residents of Anemone Station had gone, and why it was they departed so suddenly. Though...perhaps this was one of those times where such things were better left unknown.
And finally, dead ahead, the unlabeled passage. While it lead to no particular destination, odds were that it was the only selection which would lead them deeper into the base in any significant capacity. Whether or not they actually wished to proceed in such fashion was wholly up to the courage of the unlikely partners.
It was in their best interest to choose wisely.
--------------------------------------
Having finally slithered free of its icy prison in earnest, the thing deep in the station's gut was revealed to be little more than a slick, shapeless mass of...
something. A dull gray shot through with streaks of green, the mound - perhaps the size of a small dog - utterly lacked any distinguishable features, save one. A brilliant, golfball-sized crimson sphere, smooth and flawless, pulsed beneath the surface, its luminescence visible even though the seemingly opaque exterior of the body. This core shifted to and fro as the thing quivered in place, almost as if it were looking for something...or perhaps just 'stretching its legs', so to speak.
A thin protuberance shot from the mass with sudden and impressive velocity, lancing straight through the side of a nearby computer station, one of the same that had long ago been monitoring its confinement. The 'limb' seemed to branch out within, each division itself multiplying hydra-like until it had formed a foriest of microscopic tendrils. They flowed over the circuitry of the PC, digging into every nook and cranny of the device in a bizarre display that seemed somehow both organic and artificial simultaneously. The formerly dead machine winked to life for the first time in many years, and images began to flash across its monitor...
Photographs. News articles. Historical documents. Top-secret dossiers. It began slowly, with each lingering on the screen before being replaced by the next. But it took only moments before the images streaming past became an indecipherable blur, nothing more than a brilliant kaleidoscopic display beyond the ability of a human to make sense of. Anemone Station had been linked up to some of the widest-ranging and most in-depth repositories of human knowledge ever collected courtesy of the Directory. And now
it was processing every scrap of available information, analyzing it and storing it away for later reference. Keeping up with the Joneses, as it were; the frozen sleep had been long, and there were ever so many happenings to catch up on. A dozen minutes of silence later it detached from the unfortunate console, seemingly sated in the quest for knowledge.
Bleach OST 2: On the Verge of Insanity
The thing stretched and twisted, seeming to defy the laws of physics as it began to grow exponentially. Thick tendrils whipped out from the creature indiscriminately, and those unfortunate objects on which they found purchase were rapidly drawn in to provide mass as fuel for its explosive growth. The original material was irrelevant; glass, steel, or ceramic, all broke down into the featureless gray-green soup as they were absorbed.
But suddenly, the thing was no longer quite so featureless as before. The flicker of the dull red emergency lighting illuminated the shape of a man, but twisted and deformed. More animalistic, more...
predatory. Powerful digitigrade legs sprouted from an elongated torso, while a heavy tail appendage dragged on the ground behind the body, easily three meters in length. Pale skin - if you could even refer to it as skin, being the same strange substance through-and-through - pulsed with crimson streaks that rose and vanished across its surface. A jaw deeper than that of any human held multiple rows of frighteningly long and dagger-like incisors.
Fully transformed, the beast slipped from the room with a silence that belied its bulk. The layout of Anemone Station was fresh in its mind, compliments of the base's own computer systems.
At long last, it was time to go.
