Third Energy Research - Subject Seventeen ("Jarren and Diana")

17-10-2047

Recorded by Dr. Andrea Dixon

Oddclaw arrived with our two newest visitors, confirming one part of our current mystery with the latest experiment.  Taking a different measure in my research, I decided to retrace one of our previous calculations, that of Subject Thirteen (see addendum 2a), and refine them better due to the upset we had in our first steps of the gravity well.  The result was we ended up with a readout of 6 TEFs with a violently disproportionate spike of energy that would be more comparable to around 300 TEFs.

Our two otherworldly visitors are Jarren Drumarien, an alien "turian" security officer from a metropolis known as the Citadel; and Diana Watterson, a human senior guard from a post-apocalyptic Illinois currently hunting down a fearsome beast that also came through with her.

        "I wuz scoutin' this thing we call thuh Blood-Beast," said Diana, "it came after Jamestown but we wuz ready, we locked down our defences and chased it off, but twenny of us got killed an' it wuz only thanks to our deathclaw buddy Gruthar that we managed to chase it off after a beatin'."

        "Wow such violent names," Jarren muttered beside her.

        "I headed after it, a wounded beast is a lot more dangerous to anybody else so I aimed to kill it.  But then we got sucked up all in thuh sky by yer freak-ass portal, then these guys came to help me out.  It went off into the sea, hopefully it drowned, I came here to report to you, an' that's all I got sir."

        "Good, at ease."  Thomas saluted her as she relaxed and sat down.  "So this beast went into the ocean?"

        "Yep," she crossed her legs with metallic clunk, "if it's dead then good, I got no other business here."

        "Well we're currently having a problem with our third energy gate, so we may be a while before we send you both back home."

        "What's the problem exactly?" Jarren leaned over from his seat.

        "Long story short," Andrea gestured beside Thomas, "the frequency levels are consistent to having you two and this beast, but there was a massive spike of energy someplace else and until I know what that is, I don't feel safe in sending you back in case something happens."

        "What kind of energy source you have?" the turian crossed his legs.

        "Best I can explain, we initiate a reaction from chain reactions of electron movement, oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, then transferring it into energy."

        "Wait, so you...you just use the energy of the-that's just making peroxide compounds isn't it?"

        "Yep that's the by-product, we originally wanted to make a clean energy source as an alternative to fossil fuels like coal and gas, but the original inventor of third energy made a machine so powerful it...essentially opens a tear through one reality to another."

        "Damn, that's impressive, you're doing all that without any eezo?"

        "Eezo?" she shrugged.

        "Element zero?"  Jarren grinned looking round the room.  "Makes a mass effect field when subjected to a-okay never mind so this is clearly a different...world, right, like a different dimension?"

        "Yes," Oddclaw nodded sitting beside him, "this is our world, both of you came from your own to here."

        "So this sum other different Earth?" Diana cocked her head.  "No wonder y'all got a blue sky, thought that wuz weird."

        "What colour's the sky back where you're from?" asked Dixon.

        "Yeller.  Sumtimes green if there's a rad-storm."

        "Jesus, sounds rough."

        "Eh," she shrugged, "I got my Rad-X on me, s'all good, now this mutherfuckin' beast that I gotta deal with."

        "I don't suppose you have like a picture of it or something?"

        "OOH, yeah!"  Jarren stood up and tapped his left arm.  "I got a recording for you guys on that."

        "Recording?" Thomas squinted.  "You have a camera on you?"

        "Yeah, body cam."  He patted his chest.  "Standard-issue for C-Sec."

        "I should inform you we don't allow outsiders to record on military property."

        "No, I understand if this place is confidential I'll erase it before I leave.  Anyways."

His arm glowed with shapes of amber, a circle over his hand and rectangles down his limb as he tapped a few more buttons to make a screen appear above his hand making Oddclaw gasp, whilst Diana noticed a shining blue circle deep within his wrist.

        "Woah, damn!" Dixon reeled back.  "You got a holographic transmitter?!"

        "My omni-tool," Jarren grinned, "it's my communicator, my recorder, keeps all the data I need on it-"

        "Ah like a palmpilot," Thomas nodded, "gotcha."

        "Not bad," Watterson nodded, "looks better than a Pip-Boy tell you that."

        "Alright here we go."

Jarren brought up the battle against the Blood-Beast through his body-cam, showing Diana taking her shot against the hulking monstrosity of flesh and steel, a turian's deadened face gazing towards the camera as he freeze-framed it.  Thomas tapped his chin staring closer at the image, whilst Dixon reeled even further back with a startled look on her face.

        "I...I know that thing."

        "Wait what?"

        "I...oh my god.  Oh god I-...um, alright," she leaned forwards and clutched her hands, "which of your worlds does this thing come from?"

        "Mine, can't you tell?" Jarren pointed to his face.  "We're not related, hopefully, it's some kind of awful experiment the Reapers did on my species and the krogan."

        "Alright so...and, you, Ms. Watterson, you fought this thing in YOUR world yes?"

        "S'whut I said," she tongued her cheek.

        "...fuck."  The doctor put her hands on her face.  "Fuck, fuck, god dammit fuck."

        "Whut's up, you didn't make this thing did you?"

        "No, no I...alright so.  I think, four years ago, we were using our portal tech, trying to refine it with this gravity well we have on another base.  When we activated it...that thing came through and attacked us."

        "Wait, THAT?!"  Oddclaw pointed at the screen.  "You were attacked by this?!"

        "Haytham and I on our other base, it came through the portal and we fought it back, barely.  I think...we may have accidentally pulled it out of Jarren's world and into Ms. Watterson's."

        "Are you fer real?"  Diana leaned forwards.  "Izzat cuz of you that fuckin' thing's on my turf, fuckin' all of our shit?!"

        "I don't know how else it crossed dimensions," she put up her hands, "I am so sorry, I swear, it was an acciden-"

        "Tell that to thuh seven who died in Jamestown."  She stood up with fists on the table.  "You got an idea to fix that I hope, or else there'll be blood to pay.."

        "I...we can help you hunt this thing down and destroy it."

        "Agreed," said Thomas standing up with her, "if this monster's such a threat and can't be reasoned with, it should be dealt with.  I apologise for our group's actions causing this in your hometown, we'll do what we can to make amends."

        "I will help too," said the raptor reaching out to Diana, "we must not let this beast escape, unless it is already dead in the sea."

        "I hate to break it to you guys," Jarren patted both of them, "but I'm pretty sure Brutes don't have lungs to drown in, they're technically undead."

        "If it bleeds we can kill it."  Watterson stepped back from the table.  "An' I'm takin' that fucker's head."

        "Wow you want a trophy?!"

        "As proof.  People of Jamestown need to know that it's dead."

        "I'll organise surveillance," the major-general took his leave, "we'll send out a few scouts and keep track of the area, where did this thing go?"

        "South of thuh desert," said Diana walking with him, "headed out into thuh sea."

        "I told Suneater to keep watch," added Oddclaw following, "if any of the flyers see it or James we shall be safe."

        "James?"  She turned to him.  "Whut's he look like?"

        "Shorter than us, green hair, pink face, has um, blue...uhhh, what do you call the clothes," he gestured a floaty air around him.

        "Robes," said Andrea walking past, "he's actually got a different look nowadays but yeah he's got green hair and a pink face."

        "Got it," said Watterson nodding, "he a friend of yers?"

        "He's gone missing, we don't know where he is but if you find him please let us know."

        "We'll keep our eyes open ma'am," Jarren saluted, "thank you for your assistance in helping us fight this beast."

        "Dr. Dixon will show you around," Thomas gestured to the halls, "whilst I get these scouts in the air, report back here soon."

Heading off to the hangar he left the group who went towards the domestic quarters, Dixon showing them the usual places of rec room, dining hall and library with Oddclaw attending.  Passing by them were the usual guards, researchers and maintenance crew of badniks and reploids who waved to them.

        "Fully-automated staff huh?" Jarren nodded.  "Not bad."

        "They came from other worlds too," said Oddclaw, "they stayed with the humen because they had nowhere else to go."

        "Oh they're sapient?"

        "Yep," Andrea stepped through the library door, "they're all good peeps, helped us out a lot keeping the base all running."

        "OH, hello there!" the face of the librarian beamed from the counter.  "Welcome to my little sanctum."

        "Holy shit," Diana muttered, "where thuh fuck you get these?"

        "The books?" Anna gestured.  "We brought them from our world dear."

        "Damn, must be a good world if you got this many."

        "What do you mean?"

        "All thuh books I ever seen got burnt, or just rotted away."

        "Oh how terrible, you poor thing!  Well, I would love to recommend you something if you like."

        "Mmmm, you got any science books?"

        "Why yes over here!"

        "I wouldn't mind reading something too!" Jarren grinned.  "I never get a chance to read any human fiction."

        "Well let me show you."

She walked the hulking knight and slim-suited turian to the reference section, handing Diana an intermediate-level book on astronomy whilst recommending Jarren the classic "Treasure Island" as a centralised story on human relationships in the face of adventure and greed.  Oddclaw sat with them in the soft chairs whilst Andrea excused herself.

        "I gotta check on my gate," she thumbed to the hall, "need to make sure it's stable for sending you both back."

        "What exactly's the problem?" asked Jarren looking up.

        "Just the Kirk-Roentgens and the stable resonance I have to straighten out, any further questions about food and such you can ask Anna."

        "Aaaah yeah actually, I do kinda need some dextro-amino acids, I can't eat human food."

        "Why you allergic?" Diana looked over.

        "Well, yes basically I'll die if I try to eat it."

        "Damn.  Sucks for you."

        "I'll swing by our chemical lab," said Dixon, "tell our chief chemists to make you something...dextro-amino was it?"

        "Yep," the turian clicked his fingerguns, "got it in one."

        "Alright see you later."

As they sat down to read their books, Oddclaw taking a Sherlock Holmes novel for old times' sake, Diana took off some of her armour in thick clangs, piecing off her armjoints and her chestplate whilst keeping the leg greaves on as she spread her legs out with a deep sigh.

        "That's real pretty."

        "Mmmh?" she looked up.

        "The uh, band," he pointed to a brightly-coloured band on her bicep, "that's really nice."

        "Thanks," she looked over to its blue-green-yellow twist, "it's a friendship band."

        "Aw nice, who's it from?"

        "Friend of mine."  She clicked her tongue.  "S'why it's a friendship band."

        "Right, right," he rolled his eyes, "sorry uh, still sorta learning the human dialect, I mean I know I got a translator but, my dad said it was good for me to learn another language like, proper, without machines."

        "Better than me," she scratched her cheek, "only know English and five ways to say 'fuck off' in Spanish."

        "Hah, that's pretty cool we're both bilingual!"

        "Mmhmm," she looked to his hand as he turned the page, "sup with your wrist?"

        "Huh?"

        "Yeah that glowy thing in yer wrist."

        "Oh, this?"  He pointed to said glowy thing.  "I got shot through here when I was a kid."

        "Really?!" Oddclaw sat up.  "What happened?!"

        "This terrorist was going through the Citadel just gunning people down left and right, then my mom tried to tackle her and she got held hostage and well, I got right in there and shielded up."

        "How old were you?"

        "Four."

        "...damn."  Watterson smiled nodding.  "Four years old you could make shields and protect yer momma?"

        "Not fast enough," he grinned sheepish tapping his cyber-wrist,  "now I have this which lemme tell you is a pain to accessorise with."

        "Haha, whut fer like getting a bangle on yer other wrist?"

        "I just gotta wait for another bullet to take the other one now, then I could get symmetrical!"

        "Pffft, aww shit matching bullet wounds, that'd be king as shit."

        "You were very brave," the raptor nodded, "your mother must be proud of you."

        "Hahawwww don't make me blush!" he smiled twisting his fingers.  "What about you guys, got any cool wounds with a neat story?"

        "I do!"  The raptor showed off a deep scar in his belly.  "This is when someone stabbed me with a blade."

        "Daaaamn," Diana grinned, "how deep it go?"

        "Well, I almost died haha."

        "Shit, wuz that a fight?"

        "Someone needed help, they had gone mad and tried to attack their friend...then tried to kill my brother, but I stopped him."

        "You took a hit fer your bro?  Solid."  She offered a fist as Oddclaw bumped it.  "I just got thuh usual, holes, scrapes, bite marks."

        "Bite marks?" asked Jarren.

        "Well yanno sum nights get a little nasty..."

She made a devious grin as he stared expectantly, twitching his eye slightly with a curled finger.

        "So...hunting monsters?"

        "Yes."  Diana slapped her forehead.  "Damn you never fucked or whut?"

        "I-i...n-no, it's kinda hard when you're a turian."  He blushed wringing his hands.

        "Wait fer real, yer a virgin?"

        "Y-yeah, uhm...like hey I know how it works, I'm not a kid but just, yanno, between my job and you can really only do it with other turians or get some special protection with non-turians but it's such a hassle when you got dextros and also being a cop-"

        "I'm sorry?"  Anna looked over her counter.

        "O-oh, sorry are we talking too loud ma'am?"

        "No no, just...you are an officer?"

        "Yeah, sure am, makes dating real hard cuz-"

        "Nobody trusts your type, yes."

        "Well...basically yeah."  He scratched his cheek looking down.  "So, yeah."

        "That dextro shit sounds rough," Diana stretched her boots with a creak, "dunno much on that, I'm more into space stuff, not chemistry."

        "Well hey that's cool too,"  Jarren grinned leaning over, "what sort of space stuff?"

        "Like, the moon an' shit."

        "OH, my mate loves the moon too!" Oddclaw smiled.  "Her name is Moonclaw because of it."

        "Wait fer real?"

        "Yes, she watches the moon, she knows when it will come closest to our home."

        "Cool cool."

        "What other space stuff you know?" asked the turian.

        "Well like," she looked up at the ceiling, "Mercury's thuh planet closest to thuh sun, it gets four years o' rotation compared to Earth gettin' one year, then you got Venus all up with that sulphuric acid shit smoggin' the sky so it create a greenhouse effect which is why Venus is hotter than Mercury despite Mercury bein' closer to thuh sun."

        "...damn!" he smiled opening his mandibles.  "I didn't know any of that, that's super neat!"

        "Heh," the steel soldier rolled her eyes, "don' get a chance often to nerd about space."

        "Well hey, I'M from space, if you wanna swap space stuff we could!"

        "Mmm, alrigh', ain't gonna say no to that, whut's this citadel like?"

        "OH it's ENORMOUS!"  Jarren put down his book.  "So, imagine this GINORMOUS space station, it's like shaped like a cylinder that splits open in four parts, but it just covers an entire cluster of stars."

        "So like, bigger than thuh moon?"

        "Oh yeah totally we're talking TWO moons big, so you got the wards and you got the presidium where I live.  The wards are like full of shopping centres and uh crafting shops, clubs and drinking establishments, and yanno, there's the usual seedy types in the markets but that's just a little blip really compared to everything cool going on like the uhh Arsenal Armax Arena where you get to fight it out."

        "Y'all got a fight pit in space?!" Diana grinned leaning forwards.  "Whut like you just float aroun' shootin' each other?"

        "No no we got hard-light holograms, they're not real opponents but they're real enough, and if they hit you hard, it really hurts, lot of people get concussions from fighting in, plus anyone can do it, anyone, long as you got legal weapons!"

        "Yo that sounds cool as shit, anyone ever die from it?"

        "Well, a few times but that was cuz of like a glitch."  He craned his neck with a mutter.  "Damn I'm getting kinda hungry though."

        "I can help!"  Oddclaw stood up putting his book back on the shelf.  "Kevin makes chemicals, I can take you to him."

        "Oh yeah, okay uhh!"  He got up after and put his book down.  "You wanna join us ma'am?"

        "Nah is cool," she waved them off, "I got science here an' shit."

        "Hah, alright then."

Taking a walk to the medical labs, Jarren followed Oddclaw as they passed more mechanical staff with human guards patrolling as the turian waved and fingergunned through the place getting more than often a confused grin from the local staff.

        "Okay, how about this?"

The sounds of a buzzing came from within the med bay.

        "OOOOH, o-ooooh that's a real-NNNNGH!"

        "Heheheh, ya like?"

        "H-hoh yeah that was uh...hooo, that was sharp!"

        "Alright, how about this?"

        "A-AAAH, nnnngh, o-ooooh that's a bit weird that one I don't like that!"

        "Hmmm really, I thought that'd be a perfect fit."

        "No, no no it's like too biting, too-AAAH!"

        "Alright alright, OH hey dinomigo!"

Turning the corner Oddclaw saw Kevin sitting next to Amy, the wolf of steel picking up small battery-sized containers and slotting them in her chest to get different reactions ranging from thick-panting pleasure to cringing disgust.

        "Nice lab you got here!" Jarren said.  "You the chief chemist?"

        "Sure am, Dr. Izquierda but you just call me Kevin."

He stepped behind the desk with steel clanking legs as he shook Jarren's hand.

        "You one of the new guys who came in?"

        "Yeah,  Jarren Drumarien," the turian grinned.

        "And that's my favourite partner Amy over there, leader of the Reploids."

        "Well that's just a title really," said the wolf standing up with a creak of her joints, "how can we help ya?"

        "I'm needing some help with my diet," the officer scratched his cheek, "see, I rely on dextro-amino acids, not the levo types you guys have."

        "Ahhh really?" the human smirked shaking his head.  "Damn, all these years we finally get someone whose chemistry is completely different."

        "So you think you can help?  If I'm staying here a while I'd kinda need something to eat."

        "Well I am not a chef but I DO know how to make dextro-amino acids, would basically just be some molecule rearranging-"

        "Or you get some D-tagatose," Amy raised her finger, "that's a dextro-chiral sugar, you could eat that?"

        "Oh shit you're right, nice one Ames!"  Kevin clapped his hands.  "Alright, I THINK I have some fruits here, I collected basically every type out there."

He walked over to a storage container shaped like a fridge, opening to show a variety of bizarre plants that to a human vaguely resembled the modern fruit and veg they would know today, such as figs, olives and strangely-shaped pears that made Oddclaw lick his lips.

        "Those are my favourite," he said, "my son and I can eat these but the other raptors cannot."

        "Really?" Jarren cocked his head.  "That's weird, aren't you all the same family?"

        "Yes, but my father was from another world, so I think he was different."

        "Woah...extraspecies breeding, you don't hear that often."

        "I'll get some D-sugars for you," said Amy taking one of the pears, "shouldn't be a problem to make, though I hope you don't mind having nothing but sugars."

        "Well my mom'll kill me for not looking after myself," the cop grinned, "but what she don't know won't hurt her, thanks a lot ma'am."

The raptor and turian walked back out of the lab as Kevin looked over to Amy with a lurid grin.

        "So, if we had a kid would they be all robot or just flesh-body and robot legs?"

        "I seriously hope you're just being theoretical," she rolled her eyes at him.

        "Not unless you got some extra features in there."

        "Nope."  She patted her head.  "And you're not even the first human to ask, nice try dear."

        "...did you just call me dear?"

There was a moment.  They smiled then turned away awkward as he blushed and she whirred.

        "I'm just, gonna go synth these sugars-"

        "Yeah I uhhh, Iiiiii got, gonna go make more of those little containers."

        "Yeah yeah you do that, the ampere du brass was real good keep at that one!"

        "Right right, yeah, um, h-hopefully I can make a menu for reploids to uh...not eat but-"

        "Replenish!" Amy skipped her feet with a grin.  "Yeah, replenish, that's a word!"

        "Yes, yes it is!" Kevin cackled.

A few hours would pass as the three of them stayed in the library to keep reading their books, Oddclaw reliving the tales of London's criminals whilst Diana refreshed her knowledge of astronomy and Jarren became deeply engrossed in the high-seas adventure of a young human squire.  All they could do was wait and speak with each other until news returned to them with Diana finishing one book of science to move to another on the nature of physics and the history of Man's comprehension of such for how a simple pulley would lead to the space shuttle leaving Earth's orbit.

        "Eyyyy dab," Holt waved from the door.

        "OH, hello Jeremy!"  Oddclaw waved back from his seat.  "I am sorry I did not come say hello, I was reading."

        "Hahaha no worries."

He stepped into the room with a thunk as the raptor gasped, the sight of the human's right foot now covered in purple scale with thick golden claws.

        "OH!  Your foot!"  He rushed up immediate to his side.  "What happened?!"

        "Got hacked off," he said grinding its heel, "last mission we were on with that Spyro lad, some basturt chopped off me foot."

        "Oh no!  I am so sorry!"

        "Aww it's fine, ah got a new foot, ahm proper ddraig now!"

        "You fer real?" Diana looked up.  "That a fuckin' dragon foot?"

        "Well not an ACTUAL one naw, but thuh scales are real, my friend Spyro shed sum off to put on mah foot!"

        "Damn, sick as hell, love it."

        "Yeah it's pretty cool!" Jarren waved his hand.  "Also hi I'm Jarren and this is Ms. Watterson-"

        "Diana," she saluted, "senior knight."

        "Ah, Jeremy Holt, sergeant," he saluted back before putting Oddie in a headlock, "just wanted to check on mah wee mochyn bach."

        "A-AAH, Jeremy!"

        "Hmhmhaha!"  He smooched the raptor before letting him go.  "You up on readin' Sherlock again?!"

        "Yes!" he grinned holding the book up.  "I love Sherlock, they are fun stories."

        "Well thas good to 'ear, wuzn't sure if you'd be alrigh' with all thuh London streets."

        "Well...I had a dream of London once."

        "Wot, really?"

        "Yes."  Oddclaw looked up.  "I remember...I was a child, I had a different name but I remember all the streets in London."

        "Such as?" Holt crossed his arms.

        "There was Portobello road, um...Wimbledon, the Isle of Dogs, Croydon, Westminster-"

        "Hold on."  Anna leaned over her desk.  "Wimbledon's not in the Holmes stories, how do you know about that?"

        "I had the dream of London," he turned to her.

        "Well, you can't have known that from the Sherlock stories alone, did you ever read a map of London?"

        "No, I have not."

        "Aw don' fret him Ann," Holt patted his shoulder, "got enough on his plate 'ere without worryin' about dreams they're all just stuff an' nonsense."

        "Right of course, sorry dear," she bowed sitting back, "would you like anything Mr. Holt from our selection?"

        "Actually just came to telt our new guests thuh scouts came back."

        "Really?!"  Jarren stood up sharp.  "Awesome alright let's hear it."

        "Damn."  Diana lifted herself with a creak.  "I wuz just gettin' to thuh good part."

        "What good part?"

        "Third law o' thermodynamics, shit's great yo."

        "Haha wow, I won't spoil the ending then."

        "Bitch you better not."

She smiled with a clap to his head as he nudged her arm before she put on her gear, locking the chest and steel gauntlets back in their joints as they headed out the door and back to the conference room.

        "Sir," she saluted Thomas, "whut's the news?"

        "Ms. Watterson," he saluted back, "we found news on the Blood-Beast, it was last seen emerging from the sea at the base of the Skylands, before heading into a cavern underneath."

        "The Skylands?" Oddclaw asked.  "Wait...cavern...OH, the bomberman cave!"

        "Bomberman?" asked Jarren.

        "Years back we had a terrorist group," explained Thomas, "they built a small base beneath the mountain, now it's part of our requisitions."

        "That monster gonna fuck yo' supplies up," said the senior knight clicking her tongue, "we headin' out now to fix this?"

        "As soon as possible yes, we have a flight ready for you."

        "Alrigh' let's do it, y'all able to back us up sir?"

        "I'll have a small fleet following," the major-general stepped out of the room, "we scouted the area and there's a coastal cliff we can set our positions at, then we head down inside and take this beat down inside the storage base."

        "Sounds like a plan," the turian nodded, "alright let's do this!"

        "You both comin 'with me?" she pointed to him and Oddclaw.

        "Well yeah of course!"

        "I will help too," the raptor nooded, "you want us to come with you?"

        "Yep," Diana nodded, "you both proved yerself against that thing, I trust you."

        "Well, thank you ma'am!" Jarren saluted.  "I'm honoured to serve beside you-"

        "Diana."  She patted his cheek.  "Just Diana."

        "Alright, Ms. Diana."

Rolling her eyes she took off down the hall with a pounding run, the corridors trembling from her boots as the turian and raptor came chasing after.  Kevin met with them briefly to offer a bag of dextro-amino sugars to the turian who graciously accepted to put in his satchel after taste-testing to confirm.  It was indeed quite nutritious and not toxic as he sighed with relief before they reached the hangar where six Duckies stood prim and shining beneath the opened cargo roof.  The sounds of shrieking jets revved throughout the room as Oddclaw, Jarren and Diana leapt onto the first small white ship that took off through the sky, zooming towards the great pterosaur mountain over two hours of flight.  The sun already started its descent, by the time they left the sky had become a rich golden hue.

        "This is a pretty nice vessel," the turian patted the walls of the egg, "you guys got some damn good engineers!"

        "Thanks!" said the pilot at the front.  "I'll drop you by the cliff, can't land at the shore but you guys can get down right?"

        "I got biotics I think we'll be fine, I can float all of us down there easy."

        "Yeah, all of us?" Diana lurched closer to him.

        "He saved my daughter!" Oddclaw grinned patting him.  "He managed to fly and grab her from the sky before she fell!"

        "No shit, I saw ya flyin' but you can make others fly too?"

        "Well, yeah." he shrugged rubbing his hands, "I mean I can't do it for like ages or carry too many, it's kinda not even flying more of aaaa field effect-"

        "S'fine, you givin' me ideas fer a real fight when we gets to it."

        "So, I meant to ask, what is your world like?"

        "I would like to know too," Oddclaw leaned forwards, "you seem a different knight than Chanoch is."

        "Well," she leaned back with a sigh, "it's hot, it sucks, there's barely any people out there in thuh desert, but we make do."

        "Do you live in a base like the humen here?"

        "Nah we got like, little places, houses, two towns called Beech an' Jamestown is where I live."

        "Jamestown?"

She turned herself briefly to show the slogan on her back.

        "S'not much but it's better than it used to be."

        "How so?" asked Jarren.

        "Wuz a slave camp when I wuz a kid."

        "Oof, yikes."

        "Got better tho, we did an uprisin' and killed the sons o' bitches, that wuz like twenty-nine year ago?"

        "Wait, twenty-nine, how old are you?

        "Thirty-seven?"

        "OH, I am as old as you!" Oddclaw patted his feet.

        "Wow I'm still the junior," Jarren rubbed his head, "thirty-three here, damn I was really hoping I could pull seniority for once."

        "You can pull rank," Diana grinned, "you're an officer, he ain't."

        "That is true!" the raptor patted him.  "I am only an ambass-sidor."

        "Wait, what?!"  The turian reeled.  "You're an ambassador?!"

        "Yes, I am the ambass-sidor of my tribe!"

        "...damn dude you were just not gonna tell me?!" he threw his arms laughing.

        "Wh-what?!"

        "You can't just drop that kind of title in conversation come on!"

        "So whut?" said Diana crossing her feet.  "We gots ambassadors too an' they got guns as well."

        "Well where I come from they wear fancy clothes and normally don't have guns on them."

        "Not us, my town ambassador's got a switchblade an' two pistols."

        "Spirits...now I'm really outta my league."

        "Naw," she punched his shoulder a bit too hard, "you good, you fucked up that Blood-Beast bad enough you in my league."

        "Hahah, thanks mi-...Diana!"

She tapped her nose with a little fingergun at him as he blushed, the raptor snickering at the two as the small ship soon reached the Skylands.  The sun had almost set, darkness came from beyond the east as the clouds turned from rich honey to lustrous ink.  Following behind the lone flying egg were its brethren, five more in formation as the first made its descent towards the coastal cliff next to the Skylands.

        "Hey, is that normal?!" Jarren pointed at the sea.

        "You askin' me?" Diana snorted.  "I'm still wonderin' why thuh water ain't green.

        "That is not normal," Oddclaw shook his head, "that...what is that?"

Something bubbled from the sea, a thick patch of black nebulous oil that spread along the coast with a seething aura that fouled the air.  As they landed the three stepped up towards the cliff as soldiers joined them, armed and ready to witness a most terrifying vision emerge from the sea.

        "What the fuck?"

        "Oh shit, what?!"

        "Brace yourselves soldiers we got contact!"

The sounds of guttural roars burst from the waves as something crawled up the cliff, thick bony fingers crunching into the stone from a monstrous flood of beasts that dragged themselves up to the plains to face the small army.  Skeletons of the sea, creatures of the past with some dark energy flowing through their bodies as their desiccated flippers dragged them forth with long eyeless skulls snapping with breathless shudders.  The halisaurus of 12 feet resembled serpentine seals with dragging hard bone-flippers, whilst the remains of past sarcosuchus nearing 20 feet came lumbering with snapping jaws and thick-ribbed bodies burning with black essence that dripped behind them.

        "A-are they...dead?" gasped Jarren.

        "Not dead enough," Diana gripped her rifle, "they in our way."

        "Yes," Oddclaw pulled out his shotgun, "Jarren, are you ready?"

        "Uh...y-yeah," the turian joined them with his pistol, "I guess there's no point in reading them their rights huh?"

        "They would not un-derstand you.  Even I do not un-derstand them."

        "WEAPONS FREE!" the soldiers cried behind them.

        "REPEL THEM SOLDIERS, PUSH THEM BACK INTO THE SEA!"

        "OOORAAAAH!"

The monsters lunged sensing their intent as they strafed out of their path, jaws of white and taupe cracking against each other as soldiers fired upon the horde in a searing light show of neon and silver trails from bullets and lasers skimming off the rotting corpses.  Oddclaw took his first shot as a halisaurus swung its neck for him, ducking low and firing to shatter its skull apart in a monstrous fire burst and send spasms through its lifeless body.  Another came lurching from the side as Oddclaw fired off his second shot to rip through its spine whilst the first seal-snake tried to swipe at him with vile claws despite its headless form.  He rolled fast and leapt behind it to evade its rotting flippers, the second trying to thrust the remains of its neck like a dagger for his face as he grabbed the spine and twisted with a hard wrench to the grouind, roaring as he bent it backwards before it cracked and twitched.  The dark essence inside of its belly seemed to loom towards him as he leapt out its path, the scent of black cold death emanating from the beasts as he stepped back and fingered along his gun to feel its recharge.

Jarren took a few shots towards the kaprosuchus, lurching crocodilians that made unearthly sounds and galloped like skeletal horses as he dodged between them, his bullets pinging off the their skulls as he holstered his gun and charged up his biotic field with a brief shimmer of mauve.  When one of the croc-spectres turned he charged straight for its side, crunching with a bone-shattering force to rip through its emaciated body in half and send both sides spinning off from each other.  The second tried to bite him from behind as he rolled and shot out a biotic whip to wrap round its throat, lifting its body up into the sky before slamming down hard to crack its ribs.

Then there stood Diana, facing down two more kaprosuchus and a halisaurus that joined them with a festering hunger for her flesh.  Her rifle shot piercing green lasers through their cores, tearing through the dark mist that buzzed incessant inside of their corpses but not enough to stop them as the halisaurus screeched with savage clawed flippers swinging for her face.  She blocked with her rifle and spun back when one flipper crushed on her body, using the momentum of its swing to turn and pull out her bat with a violent swing that cracked its head and sent it flying like a foul ball across the plains.  A kaprosuchus came from her side as she slammed her bat within its jaws when they crunched for her head, the hard-varnished wood creaking under the force of its vile teeth as she twisted it hard with a wrenching crack, dislocating the creature's jaw to become a jagged slant as she pulled back her diamond-bladed bat and came downwards upon its face, caving between the eyes with the piercing sawtip before she turned and spun twice to make a home run swing for the second kaprosuchus, carving through its jaw to cleave its head entirely apart in twain.

        "KEEP FIRING!" the soldiers cried.

        "WE GOT 'EM ON THE ROPES JUST DON'T LET UP!"

        "FIRST WAVE RELOAD, SECOND WAVE KEEP IT COMING!"

        "JARREN!"

Diana's cry alerted him to another crocodilian who had been lurking in the grass, skirting around the turian as he jumped out the path of its monstrous teeth crunching the earth and swung its head hard enough to punch his chest to send him rolling.  Gasping with a wheeze he staggered to his feet as the creature came galloping towards him with eyes of deep and slathering teeth of rotting bronze.  A baseball bat came flying dead-on like a missile, piercing through its skull and ripping the bone with its savage bladed points to send it crumpling to its side as the thudding feet of Diana came up to him.

        "Y'alright?!"

        "Yeah th-thanks, get your weapon I got this!"

        "DO NOT TOUCH THE BLACK AIR!" Oddclaw shouted wrestling against a serpent-seal.  "IT IS INFECTING THEM, KEEP AWAY!"

        "Seriously?"  Jarren stared towards two more halisaurus dragging their fingers towards him.  "What are they like, rogue nanos or something?"

        "Less talkin' more ass-whuppin'!" Diana barked twisting her bat from the gator's skull.  "TEAM UP!"

        "Yes ma'am!"

Shaking her head with a smile she stood beside him as they stared down the horde incoming.  Five halisaurus had teamed up with lugubrious necks and broken flippers of twisted claw as they came en masse, the steel soldier taking the first swipe when one swung its neck for her head and she blocked with her bat, taking a second swing to bend it hard as Jarren shot a biotic lash to wrap round its head and rip it clean off from its vertebrae.  The second serpent-seal came shrieking with a sudden leap as the turian rolled quick out its path, flying straight back towards with a surging biotic rush that streamed pale blue behind him.  His punch became the weight of a truck crunching its head, cracking it apart as he leapt off its spine and somersaulted high above the third monster of the group, shifting the gravity of his body to become a boulderous weight as he crunched down the base of its spine and pushed off the body just before he touched the black core.

Diana took on the fourth and fifth seal-snakes at once, watching them both swing their claws together as she punched both of them back with her thick gauntlets then made a double-cross strike of her bat to rip their fingers out with a twist of her bladetip through the knuckles.  Their deathless pain rattled through their bodies as they came together with a crush, one she managed to block with a shoulder barge but the other snatched its jaws upon her steel arm and tried to wrench her to the ground.  With a roar of insult she slammed her fist against its head, savagely beating until it finally released from a weakening jaw before she felt the other halisaurus bite down on her leg and drag her hard until Jarren came flying with a divekick to crack its neck in half and send its head grinding through the grassy dirt.

        "Heh, thanks," she smirked standing up.

        "S'not over yet!" he pointed to a much bigger beast emerging from the waves.  "Think you can handle that?"

        "Bitch I can handle deathclaws this ain't nuthin'."

        "What WOULD be something for you then?"

        "Bottom of the ninth with no outs."  She spun the bat in her mitts.  "Wanna see how far I can swing that fucker's head?"

        "Bet you can't hit it farther than I can!" he cracked his fingers.

        "Yer on, loser buys the winner a beer."

        "DEAL!"

Despite the constant assault of lasers and bullets from the field of soldiers, the horde of apparitions advanced with seemingly no end as they crumpled one after the other from enough holes and severings of their limbs.  For every one skeleton laid to rest with its black essence seeping into the earth, another two would rise from the ocean more determined than ever to devour the living.  The soldiers did not play fools, keeping their distance far as they could and leaving the melee combat to the three specialists.  Oddclaw also kept his distance waiting for his shotgun to recharge its energy, firing off skulls with bone-shattering blasts of fire that formed spheres of destruction whilst dodgerolling between necrotic kaprosuchus and wretched halisaurus that came for his head.  The black fouling air that buzzed and surged in their bodies disturbed him, its scent so familiar of death and yet so alien in its putridness as his gun recharged for two more shots, blasting through a croc-beast and lining up two halisaurs to explode them together.  One swung its neck like a club for his feet, the raptor diverolling over the top and swinging his shotgun like a cudgel to deflect its jaws snapping for his head.  A kaprosuchus lunged from behind as he backflipped sharp on top of its head, smacking the jaws shut with his feet before he leapt towards Jarren and Diana.

        "Are you alright?!"

        "Yeah nearly," Jarren panted, "we got a BIG one up here!"

        "We git past this," Diana pointed, "we git ourselves down that shoreline, Jarren how's yer energy?"

        "I can keep going, but I need to save a bit for carrying us."

        "Save yer strength, let me an' Oddclaw fight this fucker."

        "I'll do what I can!"

Facing them was a monstrous sarcosuchus, a giant crocodile king of equine gait that stretched to 30 feet long with wide colossal ribs and a peerless white skull with copper flecks of rotting skin dappled over its body.  Every step it made shook the earth like a steed of the gods come forth to judge their sins as it scraped the earth under its thick massive claws before charging into a full run.  Oddclaw quickly rolled aside whilst Diana took a ferocious swing for its head in a sidestep.  The sarcosuchus swerved its large head with surprising speed to evade her bat, headbutting her stomach to send her down before it came down to bite at her face until Jarren socked its jaw hard with a biotic punch to stagger it.  Diana pushed herself up and thrust her bladed bat in it eyesocket, wrenching the bone with a crack as it snarled with rasping shudder to rear its jaws back and come crushing down towards the turian at its side.  He shoved himself back with a short burst of gravity, stunning the undead beast briefly for Diana to make a ferocious crack of the bat and Oddclaw to shoot at its head with a bursting flame.

The monster roared with a black burn across its cheek, swinging its giant tail towards the raptor to knock him down fast as it turned towards Jarren with a lumbering snap of its fangs as the turian backflipped twice out of its reach to come lunging with a hard kneestrike to its chin, before Diana came with a destructive vengeance, four diagonal swings before a fifth searing uppercut that gouged through the creature's jaw hard enough to lift it up wide open for Jarren to lash its face with a gravity-arcing whip from his hand.  The beast crumpled hard in kicking its feet, black oozing out of its open-ribcage belly as it lurched back up with crunching feet that swung hard in a mauling slash when it raised its front legs high in a fierce front-kick, scarring both Jarren and Diana in surprise before Oddclaw shotgunned both shells into its stomach to obliterate its chest, scorching fire roasting through the black essence to briefly dispel it and cause the sarcosuchus to shudder in its stance.

        "Are you alright?!" he cried to the two.

        "Yeah yeah fine!" Jarren gasped from the scar on his face.  "I had worse!"

        "Mutherfucker's gettin' salty," Diana smacked the bat in her hands, "this bitchass think he can stop us?"

        "Then let us prove it wrong!"

Oddclaw thumped his chest with a shriek of fury as the croc-beast roared in response to his challenge, the raptor luring him with a defiant stance towards him and away from Diana and Jarren.  She raised her brow with a knowing nod and motioned herself towards the creature as the turian nodded excited when they watched the thundering beast chase after Oddie.  He rolled fast under its legs and caused it to turn sharp with a swipe of its tail coming down upon his head, thwacking him hard as he spun through the air and groaned with stars bursting in his eyes.  The monster came slavering with black ooze from its jaws before something came hurling like a cannon towards its face.

        "GEEEEEEET FUCKED, BITCH!"

Screeching like a fastball came Diana herself propelled with Jarren behind her, shooting her entire body forwards as she swung her bat for the sarcosuchus' head.  One mighty crack sent its skull flying towards the darkened sky as she landed on her feet in a sliding tackle, her bat sweeping behind her as she stared towards the sunset where a white star flew to the southwest.

        "Home run mutherfucker."

        "NIIICE!"  Jarren rushed up pumping his fists.  "So was that you or me that did that?!"

        "I say both," she gave him a high-five that he slapped back, "you set me up good, you'd make a good pitcher."

        "Aww thanks!"

        "We have to move!" Oddclaw stood up from the dirt.  "Quick, to the cave!"

        "Alright got it let's go friends!"

Heading down to the cliff's edge as the sarcosuchus' body slumped, the raptor stopped short of the brink as Jarren brought him close to Diana and focused his power around them, a sphere shimmering with a soft hum as their bodies lifted from the grass and they floated down across the waters and down the cliff towards the rocky shore at the cave entrance.  The battle raged on behind them as lasers pierced through the air above them, the snarling roar of beasts falling one by one through some weakening force the further they departed from the sea.  Jarren stiffened his arms with a burn in his brain as he struggled to keep his passengers afloat, Oddclaw kicking his legs softly with Diana sheathing her bat to pull out her rifle, the ball of biotic strength soon landing on the pebble shore to disappear as they stared into the cavern.

        "SITUATION CONTAINED!" cried a soldier from above.  "ODDCLAW, YOU ALRIGHT?!"

        "YES!" he replied waving.  "IS EVERYONE ALRIGHT?!"

        "ALL GOOD!" she thumbed up.  "WE'LL KEEP WATCH HERE FOR A DAY OR TWO, GOOD LUCK DOWN THERE!"

        "YOU TOO!"

He turned towards the entrance and took his first steps in with Jarren and Diana on each side of him with weapons out.  The wake of destruction signalled the Blood-Beast's passing with deep gouges in the walls and floors that went further within, the reinforced passage showing some damage to the structural beams by the scraping of flesh and metal traces.  The storage area showed greater signs of ruin, crumpled steel boxes tossed aside like children's blocks to leak their contents out in a soft spill of materials from metals to extra weapons.  They checked every corner, every room to the side expecting to find the beast lurking within but there was nothing.  Then they found the door, or what used to be one in a back room.

        "There," Diana pointed, "looks like we go further in."

        "Wait, this is..." Oddclaw stepped forwards, "this should not be here."

        "Whut?"

        "This...I do not know what these are."

A large room beyond a smaller dirt-walled storage room showed a cellar with old barrels stacked neatly on their sides against the walls, filled with vinegar that stung their nostrils sharp of its acrid puce scent.  What had once been a wooden door at the end of the room was now a giant hole, wood and stone splintered underfoot.

        "These used to have wine," Diana tapped a barrel, "y'all let this age way too long."

        "Wine?" Oddclaw scratched his head.  "But, no, this room is not right, it should not be here."

        "I think he's right," Jarren pointed to the floor between rooms, "see how the dirt back there's a lot fresher than this stone here?"

        "Yes, you are right, it is different!"

        "So whut?" Watterson shrugged.  "Beast went in there, let's go after."

        "I do not know what is in there," the raptor pointed to the gape, "be careful Diana."

        "Heh...don' worry 'bout me," she patted her rifle, "I got plenty o' juice to fuck this guy up."

        "Hey look at this!"

Jarren bent down towards a broken pile of steel.

        "This is some kinda device, is it-"

        "A radio!"  Oddclaw bent down.  "Someone was here, th-this is from the base!"

        "Were there any guards down here?"

        "They didn't tell us," Diana shrugged, "woulda said if they had guards down here, someone woulda radio'd in."

        "Unless they got ambushed."

The turian tapped his omni-tool and brought up the glowing amber rings to scan over the shattered radio.  A footprint emerged in the dirt as Oddclaw sniffed the air.

        "I know that scent...it is different but-"

        "Like whut?" Watterson asked.

        "It is...I am not sure now I thought it was James but it smells different."

        "You recognise this print?" Jarren pointed to the long rectangle with triangle-point.  "It's some kinda metal boot I think was here."

        "I do not know what that is," the raptor shook his head, "none of the humen have feet like that."

        "Someone else then?" Diana pointed to the hole.  "Maybe came through with us an' we never met 'em?"

        "It could be.  Alright, let us go."

She took point ahead as they stepped into the next room, walking through the giant crack to see a second wine cellar larger than the previous room as they saw barrels next to crates with bottles and the much clearer presence of different stone to that of the industrial storage.  The walls had turned pale like faded parchment, flickering torches in barred nooks and crannies preventing them from being taken as the land turned greatly uneven, the howl of subterranean winds breathing death into the place with a low murmur.  The third room was a giant wall of stone with a gap at the top, broken crates at the base as Jarren gave Diana a lift with his biotic strength to hoist him and her over the rock, whilst Oddclaw scrambled up with his claws digging into the seams and swiftly leaping over.

The fourth room was the largest yet, the floor constantly uneven in a series of jagged stone plateaus and dips with a set of crumbling stairs to the east that led to a higher door, and another giant hole to the north directly in front of them.  A series of halls greeted them with violently-shifted landscapes, floors both risen and fallen causing them to climb or descend carefully through the corridors as they noted ancient patterns on the walls, formed like chains beneath hanging lanterns that glinted solemn above their heads as they passed from room to room to taste the musty air between worn yellow stone and bleak walls of vellum until they found a different set of doors.  Two cast-iron double doors once stood beneath a strange aseembly of shapes, ancient runes signifying dragons both serpentine and quadrupedal that surrounded the broken twisted remains of the steel portal.

        "I do not un-derstand," Oddclaw shook his head, "this...none of this should be here."

        "Didn't yer human pals bring it here?" asked Diana.

        "This...they would have said, if they had known about it."

        "Wait do they not?" Jarren scritched his chin.

        "The only thing here was where the steel boxes are.  Not this...not all of this."

They stepped forwards to the next room, a large cross-shaped forum where broken pillars stood in each of its four corners with small torches casting shadows everyplace.  But what drew their attention more, besides the next broken door ahead of them, were the slaughtered remnants that littered the room.

        "Oh...spirits," Jarren gasped, "ohhh no, this, this is bad."

They walked carefully round the corpses, briefly examining them to be a variety of creatures dressed to be knights and peasants in various shades of armour.  Reptiles of long ear and pointed snout, soft-snouted canids and lapines besides humans drenched in red.

        "If this because of that beast that got here-"

        "No."  Oddclaw leaned over one of the bodies.  "They have been dead for too long."

        "Plus thuh wounds aren't his," Diana kicked one of their arms, "not big enough fer a Blood-Beast."

        "Well that's...good," the turian rubbed his wrist, "I mean not good that they're dead but, well, it seems like something bad happened around here-

        "Quelma?"

        "Wh-what, DIANA!"

        "Quelma..."

Something grabbed her heel as she looked upon its face.

        "Quelma crealuqat almutannees."

Pulling her leg sharp from its grasp, the body of a rabbit-faced creature stared with hollow eyes and a bloated tongue.  Something had once been attached to its head by a thin strand now broken as it lurched up onto its feet, standing only up to 4 feet but in turn signalling the others to join it.  Twenty bodies had filled the room now breathing with a vile hiss, humans, reptiles, canids and lapines that twisted their legs back into position to walk with staggering gait and weapons brandished in their arms, a mass of the dead lurching towards the intruders with the same black essence of the skeletal beasts from the sea.  Dark necrotic auras that trailed from their wounds with wisps of sorrow

        "Holy shit," muttered Diana.

        "Th-this...this is real right?!" Jarren muttered.  "They were, d-definitely dead!"

        "They are dead," Oddclaw clicked his shotgun to raise before them, "their scent, this place, everything smells of death."

        "B-but, but they can talk, alright j-just wait, WAIT!"  He put his hands before the crowd advancing.  "LISTEN, I am an officer of the citadel, PLEASE do not approach any closer!"

        "Quelma crealuqat almutannees, sont venualty dans notratina?"

        "They ain't gonna listen," the soldier pointed her gun, "but I'll make 'em if they don't."

        "W-WAIT, wait h-hold up they can talk!" Jarren cried.

        "They ain't gonna wanna."

        "NO LISTEN, LOOK!"

        "Vos destitma," shuddered the rabbit, "ontlaq scelleyirik."

        "ENOUGH!"  The turian pointed his gun sharp.  "STOP!  NOW!  THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!"

        "Embraaanqna-nous.  Embraanqna...l'eternhalud."

They fired all at once upon the horde of the dead, the bodies staggering back but largely unfazed by bullets and energy shots that ripped through their forms and tore new holes through the corpses which bled more of the darkness out of them in infinite spillage.  Oddclaw's gun did most of the damage, blasting at least four of the creatures back with a volatile flame to send their bodies cracking against the wall, but not enough to stop them as swords and axes dragged with sharp scrapes behind the rotting beasts.

        "Guess we gonna hafta beat their faces in," Diana reached for her bat.

        "Iiiii do not wanna get closer to them than this," muttered Jarren.

        "Worked on thuh skeletons back up there."

        "Yeah but these guys look a LOT more messed up, right Oddclaw?"

        "Yes," the raptor nodded, "the black air is worse here, these bodies are fresher than the ones we saw."

        "You think it's sum kinda disease?" she kept her bat before her.

        "If it is, we must not let it touch us."

        "Embraaanqna-nous," gasped the horde approaching, "EMBRAANQNA-NOUS!"

The rabbit lunged forth with a sudden thrust of its blade, a thin rapier heading straight towards Diana as she took a swing against to send it reeling back before she kicked hard at its stomach.  Then something punched its head clean off to crunch flat into a wall, twitching ears above a melting pile of broken shards.

        "WH-WHAT THE-"

        "Szhtay back."

A pale reptile spoke with a scratching voice.

        "Your raptor friend'szh right, don't touch any of them."

        "You here to help?!" Diana barked.

        "Wait 'til I clean thiszh up...then I'll let you deszhide."

The stranger swept his arm out towards the trio as they stepped back to let him take over.  The masses of the damned turn upon the newcomer, a reptile of long pointed snout with four long ears dangling at his neck with faded blue dewrag upon his head.  Torn yellow pants wrapped round his sturdy thighs and thick tail of ashen white, his arms creaked with a sinuous sound, bending yet rigid, branches of the willow that wept silent by the lake.  On his muscular back was a large tattoo of deep crimson blood, an elaborate cross with a thin hilt at the top, and a bulbous point at the bottom within a gilded circle.

        "Ontlaq scelleyirik!"

A human lunged forth with his throat split-open and a spear towards the reptile as sparks scraped off the stone before the stranger grabbed the halberd and cracked it sharp with a twist of his hand, hurling the axe's blade through the zombie's head, splitting in half as the axehead shattered against the far wall.

        "You all know the ruleszh," said the pale beast, "yer not allowed to be in the szhellar."

        "L'ETERNHALUD!"

Two dog-faced beasts with half their faces gone came shrieking with daggers out front as the pale one suddenly disappeared into his shadow, crooked knives stabbing at air before he reappeared beside them with his elbow crunching through one's rib, following with a vile punch that cracked the other's head as both their bodies flew crumpling across the floor.

        "W-WOAH!" Jarren blinked staggering back.  "Wh-what the-"

        "Thuh fuck?" Diana squinted.

The stranger spun fast with a roundhouse kick, crunching a human's head into a lumpen heap as one rabbit without a head shrieked from behind to stab into his back with a short sword.  He didn't even gasp, simply turning with blade buried through his stomach without a drop of blood before he slammed his knee so deep into the lapine that its chest collapsed completely inside itself, jagged points stretching through its back like a broken mouth of ribs.  The pale reptile pulled the sword from his back, flesh tearing slightly as he clashed swords against another reptile with a black-burnt face, crackling flecks of scale shedding off in its movements as his sword was twisted out of grip before the stranger punched deep into the stomach, grabbing a fistful of black essence and sucking it hard through his veins with a howling screech from the undead beast.

        "LOOK OUT!"

Oddclaw's warning came before a human swung their remaining arm with a large mace towards his head, the stranger blocking it with his fist like it was paper before punching the human's head off cleanly from his shoulders.

        "Hey, Oddclaw," he pointed to a group of spear-wielders, "uszhe yer gun on them wouldya, juszht szho yer not szhtandin' there."

        "Alright!"

The raptor took aim at the three humans with spears, blasting a thick fire that burst their bodies apart and threw them back before two reptiles came snarling in a sudden run towards them, organs hanging putrid from their severed bellies as Jarren swiftly blocked them with a biotic shield.  His hands flashed a navy blue as the monsters bounced off against his shield, ripping swords against the impermeable wall before the turian waited for them to stagger back enough to shove them away with a shockwave burst, knocking down four of them at once with Diana reaching forwards to golf swing two of their heads and curbstomp a third.

Four dog-faced creatures of various burnt disfigurement amassed upon the pale reptile, his fist crunching hard in an uppercut that sent one of them straight into the roof with a disgusting splat of organs bursting into a red rain upon his head.  The other three he almost swerved between the blood drops to assault, fading into his shadow to crack one's skull in half, gutpunch another to crush its heart out behind its back and crunch the third's entire spine with a cleaving axe kick as his heel drove down through the canid's chest.  Another reptile tried to leap onto his back, but he grabbed its head hard and ripped half its body forwards with sheer strength as its legs fell off his back and he hurled its upper torso into the wall.

        "Alright, let'szh finiszh thiszh."

Standing before the thinning herd of the undead, the reptile steadied his feet and spread his arms wide with a snarling flex as the red tattoo on his back glowed with a searing blood-heart.  A dark wind rippled through his fists, channelling down his shoulders with a shrieking howl that wrapped round his body before he swung his arms forth with a sonic boom that ripped through the room.  It came nowhere near the three intruders, but it devastated the wretched fiends by splitting the remaining ones apart with trembling winds of dark ether that sucked their own essences out from their corpses in a writhing twister of black above their heads.  Shrieking tears ripped across the walls Jarren, Oddclaw and Diana stepped back quick as they could and braced against the searing maelstrom as the bodies hit the floor all at once, their auras surging deep into the lone reptile's body as his crimson tattoo pulsed before he stopped with a sigh and saw one last reptile stumble forwards in its last gasp to attack him with a chipped sword.  One punch to the stomach was all it took as thick burgundy drooled down his arm and the corpse slumped feeling the last of its ethers escape.

        "Ugh," the pale reptile shook his wet fist, "hate when they szhtill got organszh in them."

        "Hey uh, th-thanks for the help!" Jarren waved.

        "No problem," he walked towards them, "though you really szhouldn't be here."

The creature grinned as they got a look at his face, seeing much to their shock he had a single pale eye whilst the other was black, absent and rotten.

        "Huh."  Diana grinned sheathing her bat.  "You sum kinda ghoul?"

        "Wow am I that ugly?"  He grabbed a sword and peered at his reflection.  "I mean when I'm above I wear a blindfold to cover the eyeszh but-"

        "Nah nah you look good, just that's whut we call folks like you back home."

        "What, the undead?"

        "Naw, we don't use that word."

        "Wait hold up," Jarren shook his head, "first off, those were all really undead, like the dead brought to life?!"

        "Yep," the reptile tossed his sword.

        "Not some kind of parasite or rogue nanos or-"

        "Nope," he cracked his knuckles sharp, "nnngh ow szhit I alwayszh do that, szhorry hold on."

They recoiled slightly as he popped two of his fingers back into joint.

        "I gotta szhtop doing that szho, yeah, they're all undead."

        "And you?"  Oddclaw stepped forwards.  "Are you...un-dead too?"

        "Yeah, well...wait."

He stepped close to the raptor and roved his pale eye upon his face.

        "Huh."

        "What?"

        "Nuh, nothing," he shook his head smiling, "you look juszht like an old friend of mine."

        "Oh, well...I am Oddclaw," he bowed and offered his hand, "I am sorry we are intruding but, we are hunting a terrible beast."

        "Yeah?"  He shook his hand in turn.  "Well, I'm Baldwin, I'm the guardian of Lea Monde."

        "Lea Monde?"  Jarren looked up to the stone ceiling.  "Well, I'm Jarren Drumarien, Citadel Security, you really saved our hides from those things."

        "Diana Watterson," she saluted, "Brotherhood of Steel Chicago, Senior Knight."

        "Aw szhit a knight?" Baldwin grinned as he shook their hands.  "Where'szh yer mount then?"

        "My whut?"

        "Yeah you knightzsh alwayszh got a chocobo with ya."

        "Ain't no idea whut that is."

        "Heh..." he patted her shoulder, "well, if ya need one I know a moogle who'szh got plenty for ya."

        "We're huntin' thuh Blood-Beast," she pointed to the broken doors, "big-ass mutherfucker with a face like his-"

        "No relation!" Jarren raised his hands.

        "Wearin' a big-ass suit like a krogan, seen anythin' like that?"

        "Hmmm..." the guardian rubbed his chest, "did szhenszhe a pretty big monszhter round here, much bigger than moszht thingszh here which iszh why I guesszh the doorszh got fucked up."

        "Most?" Oddclaw raised his brow.  "There are larger beasts here?"

        "If you go deep enough.  Don't you worry," he petted the raptor's head before turning north, "long aszh you have me around, I'll protect ya."

        "Thank you," he bowed, "can you take us deeper so we can find the Blood-Beast?"

        "I'll do you better, I'll rip hiszh head off fer you to keep."

        "HAH, yeah!"  Diana raised her hand that he high-fived.  "THAT'S whut I'm talkin' about!"

        "Damn right, if there'szh szhum monszhter running around in my szhity, it'szh not shztaying alive fer long."

        "Wait."  Jarren stepped up beside him.  "Could you like, tell us what the deal is with those undead things also we fought some outside that were just like skeletons."

        "Wait, what, outszhide?"

        "Yeah, like they had that same black stuff inside of them!"

The reptile leaned back with a weird look to the turian.

        "That...that szhould not be happening."

        "It did," said the raptor, "beasts that had died in the sea had the black air inside them and were coming out of the sea to attack us."

        "Wait, the szhea?" Baldwin rubbed his head.  "We near water now?"

        "Yes, just down that way."

        "...ahhh."  He clapped his hands closing his eye.  "Damn, it'szh...really doing that huh?  Szhit thiszh might  be a problem."

        "Whut you saying?" Diana put a hand on her hip.

        "Let'szh get outta here firszht, I'll tell you more when we find a szhafe szhpot without anything lurking around."

Motioning them to follow, Baldwin took them deeper into the depths of Lea Monde as they left the wine cellar behind with the walls turning a darker hue.  The cold sank into their bones as the roomful of corpses left a chill in the gasping breeze, lifeless forevermore.