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“Are you sure we should be doing this?” asked the man in the lab coat.
The man standing next to him wears a trench coat and fedora, simply waving the other off. “We continue where we let off, simple as that.”
The man in the lab coat seems to sigh at the response, a frail hand moving to lay upon the chilled glass of his next project. The container was filled with a clear, jelly-like substance that seemed to surround a small organism, its body unrecognizable by any means, sporting colors dark as the night. Whatever it was, it shouldn't have been brought up into existence.
The man in the lab coat shifts in his seat uneasily, knowing that what they were doing was wrong, that they should just cut their losses while they’re still in the clear.
The man seems to question again, clearly hoping for a different outcome. “Sir, this is the sixth one this week alone, shouldn't we just quit while we still can?”
But soon as the words come out he turns to see the other man had already walked off, making no motion to change his earlier notion.
And so the man simply continues on conducting the tests, not like he's got much of a say in it. Removing his hand from the glass the man grabs a nearby vial full of a strange, light purple, liquid, one that was quickly entered into a needle, ready to be injected in the supposedly sleeping organism.
Upon injection the man notes a twitch, a good start, but so were the others. Then the creature seems to move its head upwards, towards the man who almost lost control as soon as it opened its white, voidless eyes.
It seemed alive enough, scribbling down a messy note by the subject's name. Subject:HA110W, attempt #6, the beast with no soul, feeds on fear.
The man quickly takes up his notes and runs after his boss, eager to show success to before a seemingly impossible task.
The beast takes note of this, using its small form to climb out of the strange cylinder, clearly fumbling with its newfound limbs. Upon hitting the desk it seems to wince, dragging itself across the desk, simply messing around with whatever it's eyes laid upon. That is, until it seemed to lose its footing and fell off the edge, landing into a bucket of oil. It's dark colors blending it in, the unknowing janitor picking it up and dumping the contents into the storage tank, soon sending it to the loading dock.
The beast squirms around in the liquid, morphing it's body to try and accommodate for its new surroundings. The storage tank the small beast is in is soon loaded onto a truck, a truck that's route leads it straight into the city.
Upon the normal route the beast grows, feeding off the uneasiness of its driver, soon enough gaining too much mass, and toppling the truck over, shrinking back down in its own fear, slipping in oil as other men seem to race towards the accident.
All except one, one ran towards the beast.
The beast shrinks down on itself instinctively, not used to being out of its container or it's new surroundings and interactions it held.
But the man before the beast looked like that of an overworked young adult, sporting black hair and gray eyes, wearing a hoodie and jeans.
The man seemed to contemplate what should be done, upon their eye contact he seems to decide. And with the man swoops up the beast, running the opposite direction of the crash.
The beast curled up close to the man's chest, unsure of how else to react, but the closer it got the more fear it consumed. Until before the beast knew it, they arrived at another building, the man clutching it closer as it entered the door and started stringing words together to the other being, though to the beast it didn't look like a man, so it must've been it's counterpart. Their voices seemed like static needing to be cleared to the beast, and it only worsened as the duo seemed to stare at an electrical box, one with little men and their counterparts screaming static to it's ears.
But the fear the beast was able to feed off of the duo was more than it could handle, the fear hitting its strongest peak when the beast notices that the next man to appear on the electrical box was the first he stared at in this new form.
The counterpart seems frantic after hearing the static from the box, the voice soon became understandable to the beast and of higher pitch than the male.
“Kai we can't stay here with that thing, we have to leave before they find out you have it!”
Kai responds quickly, knowing that time isn't on their side right now. “I know, I know, so let's stop standing here thinking of where we're gonna go and just go already, Mileena you know we don't have the time right now!”
And with that the beast is taken by the duo, and every passing second the power it gains from their combined fear is too much to keep in such a small form, so it grows. And grows, and grows, and grows.
Until Kai can no longer carry it, dropping the beast and falling to his knees, Mileena kneeling down beside him trying to be of aid, not taking into account the current circumstances.
They were trapped, a wall to their backs and the beast with no soul in front of their only exit, only growing larger in size as the fear it consumed grew stronger by the passing seconds.
Whipping its tail around the beast hits the wall next to them before they can even blink, sending it crumbling down on top of the duo.
And with its leave Kai emerges from the rubble, cut and bruised and clearly confused. So he waits, hoping his partner will come up just the same to help him figure this out.
Though it seems the other is hesitating.