Chapter Text
Grian walks up to the ‘secret’ lab of the HEP. They knew of its existence for a long time now, it’s just been a little too guarded for them to take it down. Of course being able to access the guards’ schedules and what’s being researched makes it a lot easier. It still took a lot of planning to figure out the best time to attack and how to do it.
Grian takes a deep breath as he walks up to the guard at the door, there’s a lot at stake here. “Hello!” He greets cheerily, reaching into his pocket, “I’m here to check in on how things are going.”
The guard looks at him in confusion, having had no idea he was coming, obviously. Before he can respond though, Grian pulls out a mushroom and shakes it in front of him, sending a cloud of spores directing into his face. While Grian is infectious himself, it’s nowhere near as fast acting as he needs it to be, thankfully there are plenty of mushrooms that do that job for him.
The guard coughs as he inhales the spores. His eyes go hazy, and he backs into the wall, slowly sliding to the ground. It won’t take long for him to fully succumb and join them.
Until then, Grian reaches down and plucks a keycard from him, giving him complete access to the facility. Or, more specifically, giving Father Spore complete access.
It doesn’t take long for him to arrive, grinning at Grian when he does, “excellent work!”
The avian mirrors it, swiping the card to unlock the door. He enters the building and gestures for Scar to follow. “This place is heavily ventilated, but it’s rather easy to shut that down if you know how to. And once we do, we’ll easily take over this whole place.”
“Lead the way, my songbird,” Scar replies, cheerful. Grian nods and begins leading the way, although they walk side by side. He can feel the spores that Scar naturally emits surround them, but the ventilation in the lab makes sure they don’t stick around for long.
They only have one incident on the way to the server room, running into a guard who was thankfully caught off guard enough by their presence that Scar easily sedates him.
Once inside the room, Grian immediately heads to the panel that controls most technical things in the building. For something so vital, it is criminally easy to shut it down, not that Grian is complaining.
He hands the keycard to Scar, “once I shut it down, they’ll notice quickly. I’ll stand guard outside once I do, incase they call for backup.”
Scar nods, giving Grian a chaste kiss before leaving. He flicks the final switch to shut the ventilation down, grinning when he hears the ventilators fall silent. Once they’re off, Grian goes over to the monitors on the far wall, showing all cameras in the building. He shuts them all down before deleting all footage of today. Scar doesn’t plan on letting HEP take this place back, but if they try to remotely access this footage… he’d be caught.
After ensuring that all incriminating evidence is gone, he leaves the room and then the building. When he leaves, he notices the guard stirring back into consciousness. Well, as conscious as sporelings like him can be. He’s extremely pale, with some purple crawling up his neck. His physical transformation isn’t completed yet, but it should be enough for him to listen.
Grian removes his gloves and crouches down in front of the guard. He tilts his chin up with two fingers until their eyes meet. “You’re gonna be our guard now,” he purrs lowly, “you won’t let any pesky HEP member back in here, alright?”
His eyes are completely fogged over, but he nods slowly. The guard slowly stands back up, returning to his post from before, but for them this time.
“Good little sporeling,” he coos, “gonna make the Father proud?” From what Grian can feel from the hive mind connection, Scar will be very happy with what happened today.
Grian doesn’t truly expect anyone to come, Scar’s spores can be extremely potent when he chooses to, there won’t be time to call for backup. He still can’t be too careful though, this mission is extremely important.
It was approaching sunset when they first arrived at the lab, but it’s fully dark out when Scar exits the lab. His happiness is very palpable, although that can be the hive mind speaking, since it’s humming with excitement.
“Everything went smoothly,” Grian says more then asks, already able to tell how it went.
Scar nods, “they are all under my control and have received their assignments. The HEP won’t be getting this place back once everything is fully grown.”
“Which will take hours?”
“Less.” Scar closes the distance between them, cupping Grian’s face gently, “you did marvelously, songbird. I’m so proud of you.” He leans in close, their lips a hair’s breadth apart, purring quietly, “you deserve a reward.”
Grian shivers as he eyes flutter closed, leaning forwards and pressing their lips together.