Chapter Text
The Hadal Blacksite was cold. Small puddles littered the hallways, and trickling cracks in the glass ceilings served as a constant reminder that more than enough water to crush everyone inside loomed overhead at all times. A dripping sound followed them through almost every single hall: it was enough to drive someone insane.
And all of that didn't even take into account the things down here. Horrible monsters capable of digging their teeth and claws into your flesh and easily tearing you apart. They could be just around any corner. The dreadful anxiety of walking through a doorway, unsure of what could be waiting behind it, was enough to leave any sane person paralyzed. It would have paralyzed Brie.
Except neither of her companions seemed to have any such sanity, and were taking the danger in such stride that it almost had her shouting for them to “slow down!” so she could process literally any of it.
However, she had no such bravery, nor any such luck with either of them.
“My arm hurts,” Maria complained yet again. She was immediately dealt a glare by Gavin, who had incredibly deep eye bags.
“Oh, that’s strange, it’s almost like a creature bit it ten minutes ago. You couldn’t possibly let us forget it,” he sarcastically replied. Maria rolled her eyes at him, continuing to tightly grip her injury. To be fair to her, the amount of blood dripping didn’t look great. The sight of it was unnerving: it reminded Brie too much of all the death she had already seen (both inside and outside of the Blacksite).
“Hey, at least we’re fifty rooms in,” Brie tried to reassure them both as the door slid open. The next one looked like it required a keycard, and her own tired eyes surveyed the room without a second thought.
“Hm. Odd— normally there are at least desks to look through,” Gavin said, planting his hands on his hips as he too surveyed the space.
Then a vent lid flew across the room. They all jumped and let out various exclamations of shock, one of which was a string of swears from Maria. Very original of her.
“Pssst, over here!” Brie blinked in confusion.
Was that a human voice? Another Expendable, maybe? Or some creature trying to lure them in?
“Nope. That is a bad idea,” Gavin grumbled, stomping past the open vent and continued to look around the room: this time with a little more effort.
Maria and Brie quickly joined him. Not even ten minutes later they had swept the space from top to bottom and still came up empty handed.
Brie stood up with a deep breath. “Guys, I hate to say it, but—“
“Don’t you even finish that sentence,” Maria butted in, effectively cutting her off. “I am not going into the creepy vent with a disembodied voice inside.”
“The ‘disembodied voice’ does in fact have ears.” They all froze up, eyes drifting to the vent. “And a body. So…”
“So it can hurt us!” Maria continued, this time in a whisper. “I am not goin’ in.”
“She has a point,” Gavin piped up monotonously. Maria closed her eyes with a firm nod.
“Thank you.”
“No, not you, Maria. Brie.” She glared at him. He stared right back with no visible emotions besides exhaustion. “We have no key. We have no other exit options. And you know the rules: ‘no movement means bomb detonation.’ Or, in layman’s terms, we explode. So, unless you want your insides to coat the room, somebody’s gotta go in. Preferably multiple people.”
“What, so we can all be killed together? How comforting.” Gavin firmly shook his head.
“No, safety in numbers. You remember when…” He paused, swallowing harshly. “…when Kathy got pulled into that weird locker. She could have died if Brie wasn't right there to pull her out.”
“Yeah: she was just outside the locker to help, not in it with her!” Maria snapped back.
Brie closed her eyes and took a couple deep breaths. She felt a headache forming thanks to the non-stop squabbling.
And to think they were older than her.
“I’ll go in!” she shouted. They both stopped talking to stare at her. A spike of nervous anxiety caused her already flimsy determination to falter. “Since neither of you are gonna… do it.”
She walked right up to the vent and paused. Staring down at the open crawl space gave her nothing new to work with, and did nothing to ease her concerns. She turned to the two other Expendables right behind her, brown creased in fear. She looked for any signs of assistance or selflessness with an offer to go first in her stead. To be the bigger person.
Apparently she was with a couple of itsy-bitsy cowards because all Maria did was avoid her gaze, and Gavin simply stared at the vent.
Right. She faced it again with a sigh and got onto her knees. Don’t hesitate. Be brave.
This was the only way to keep going, the only way out of this terrible Blacksite. The only way home.
Brie steeled herself once more and crawled forward, pausing only briefly in the middle. She had to prepare herself. Who knew what was on the other side?
Please be another Expendable. Please be another Expendable. Please be-
She crawled forward, freezing up when she reached the end, only her head poking out. It was not an Expendable. It was a monster.
The creature was huge: like, ten feet tall huge. It had three arms with clawed hands and a long, winding snake tail. Its whole body was coated in teal scales, and three soulless, glowing eyes stared down at her through a mop of messy black hair.
“Brie? What’s in there?” Maria called.
“Hello there, Expendable. My name is Sebastian Solace. Never fear, I don’t bite.” It spoke. This thing can speak.
“Big fish guy,” Brie whimpered. The mutant chuckled mirthlessly.
“Very observational, this one,” he noted. One of his arms gestured to his tail which, Brie only noticed then, was covered in satchels. Each one had a unique item strapped to it: a flashlight, a weird epi-pen looking thing, a flash-bang, a first aid kit, etc. The first aid was what really caught her eye. “But I’m also a shopkeeper. You part with some of the data you’ve been collecting, which truly does you no good down here, in exchange for something of actual importance to you. You’ll find that these are a lot more useful.”
“Wh- Brie, did you find a salesman in there?” Gavin echoed. Brie didn’t reply: she was busy actually listening to the salesman in question. It could be important.
“I’ve got batteries for the flashlight and a neat little mystery document for sale on the table: you know what they say, knowledge is power! And when you’re all done shopping, you can find the keycard on that other table right over there.” Another of his hands gestured to the table closest to him with wares on top, then to the table further away. Sitting on that one was a radio in the process of machine surgery and, more importantly, a keycard. “Your complimentary ticket out of here. Just so long as you leave it by the door once you’re done.”
Bingo.
“Move it, Brie!” She felt someone bumped into her from behind, nearly shoving her face-first into the room. It was Gavin.
“Hey! Careful!” she exclaimed. The fish guy— Sebastian, apparently— watched them keenly. It was kinda freaking her out.
“Then get out of the vent. I’m trying to join you in there,” he tiredly replied. “Maria’s behind me, too.”
“Only because there’s no lockers out there,” she grumbled as proof, voice muffled thanks to Gavin’s spot between them.
Brie, too annoyed with their arguing to bother adding to it, pulled herself out of the vent and slinked to the side, away from the giant fish mutant. Gavin started to follow her out, stopping right in the entryway. He swore under his breath, expression still not changing.
“Gavin, move your butt!” Maria complained. He followed Brie out of the vent, standing just close enough to block her view of the giant creature. He didn’t react when Maria swore and immediately crawled a little further back. “Nope. You guys have fun, I’m stayin’ in here, thanks.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Gavin muttered, likely intended more for himself than Brie. “Leaving us to deal with this situation.”
“Situation, huh? What’s that s’posed to mean?” Sebastian asked. Now, Brie wasn’t that great at reading people, but she didn’t have to be to catch the clear taunt oozing from the shopkeeper’s tone.
And Gavin… well.
For all his nonchalance, Brie knew that his breaking point was not one to be pushed. This… creature (for lack of a better word) did not.
“Oh, I don’t know. Have you considered—“ he gestured to all of Sebastian, “—any of this? Have you looked in a mirror?”
“Oh, I could ask you the same thing Whiskers.” Gavin bristled, eyes narrowing dangerously. Brie’s eyes drifted to his face, where his unkept mustache stood out like a sore thumb. Combined with his growing stubble, he looked like someone fresh out of jail (which he was but… y’know, not a good look).
“Fish-face.” Sebastian snorted humorlessly.
“Oh, getting real creative are we? Like I haven’t heard that one a hundred times before,” he snarked.
“What are you, a child?” Gavin snapped. Sebastian slithered slightly forward, leaning down to look him right in the eyes and sending Brie several steps back. His teeth were so sharp.
“Hate to be the bringer of bad news, but you’re not one to talk. What with your kindergarten level insults and ego just as fragile.” He grinned wider as Gavin’s expression turned into something lethal. “It’s like looking at a man-child. I bet you lived in your mom’s basement before you got here, forever single and-“
Gavin moved too fast for Brie to react, pulling out his flash bang and clicking the trigger. Blinding light illuminated their surroundings, causing her to flinch away and squint her eyes. She recovered quickly, rubbing at her eyes to clear the last of the blur.
Sebastian’s reaction was far more violent, reeling back with an angered screech. His tail flailed out and clocked Gavin in the gut, sending him to the other end of the room with a resounding crack.
“Gavin!” Brie cried, ducking under the tail before clinging tightly to the wall, not moving to help. So she didn’t want to be hit by that thing, sue her. She was worried, not stupid.
“GAH, my eyes!” Sebastian growled, turning to face them with nearly closed, glowing eyes. He pulled his fringe out of the way, properly uncovering his third eye. Despite the previous level of relative cover, it too was squinting as he more purposefully maneuvered the end of his tail, slamming it down on the abandoned flash bang hard, crushing it irreparably. He turned his face to Gavin with a snarl. “Don’t. Do that. Again.”
Maria chose this moment to peek inside, her concern finally getting the better of her. It took her only a minute to scramble into the room and over to Gavin, hovering over him with her good hand. The action snapped Brie into action.
“How much is the medkit?” she asked, voice wobbling to an annoying degree.
“Three hundred data points,” he hissed back, fixing an only slightly dulled glare at her. Her shoulders sagged with the sense she was being scammed before turning back to Maria.
“Give me your data-collection-thingy,” she ordered. Maria turned back with a look of annoyance before unclipping it from her belt and tossing the device to her.
“There. You’ve already got the retro stuff, do whatever. I don’t care.” Despite her claim to ‘not care’, Maria proceeded to carefully prop Gavin up against the wall, muttering stuff as she did. Brie, for her part, turned to Sebastian and grabbed the sack hooked to her belt, holding that and the little device up to him.
“Take the three hundred,” she meekly stated. Her companions needed medical attention. Even when the shopkeeper took her whole sack and simply kept it, then took some of the data too, most definitely scamming them further, Brie didn’t care.
This stuff was worthless if they didn’t make it out alive.
“Okay, I have a medkit. Let’s-“ Sebastian promptly cut her off.
“Not in my shop. Clean up somewhere outside,” he demanded. Brie tried not to sigh as she hooked the medkit onto her belt, approaching Gavin and offering her hand.
“You heard the… shopkeeper. Let’s go,” she whispered assuringly. Gavin took her hand and she pulled him up with a bit more effort than she wanted to admit. He grimaced as she brought him over to the vent, helping him in ahead of her. “Okay, Maria-“
“Already got it,” she replied, holding up the keycard as she hurried over in long strides. “Now get goin’.”
Brie nodded quickly and followed Gavin into the vent. It was slow going to the other side, but eventually the three of them emerged with their “treasure” in hand.
Given that Maria had been nursing her wound for longer with relatively minor consequences, Brie started by inspecting the most recent injuries: that being Gavin’s.
“What were you thinking?” Maria snapped, pointing at Brie’s patient angrily. Brie simply ignored the argument, choosing instead to carefully feel around his rib cage. Nothing felt loose or out of place, so that was good. If it wasn’t a break, then it was manageable. Not great, but manageable.
“He was asking for it,” Gavin grumbled. Brie rifled through the first aid and retrieved the pain killers, handing them over and holding up two fingers. Despite this, he quickly downed three, earning him a half hearted swat. “Hey.”
“I said two, Gavin.” Brie grabbed the bottle back, carefully storing it back in its box. “We have to conserve these. The least we can do is take the recommended dose. Maria, come sit.”
She did so, and (after a lot of squirming and grunted curses) Brie got her all bandaged up, setting her injured arm in a makeshift sling.
“Let’s go,” Gavin grumpily ordered, pulling himself up against the wall and walking ahead. Brie offered her hand, but Maria stood on her own and brushed past her. Brie sighed before following along.
They caught up to Gavin in less than a minute, both of them watching as Maria unlocked the door. Brie strutted in first, tiredly pushing loose strands of hair away from her face.
“Don’t forget to leave the keycard,” she reminded them, receiving an off-handed “of course” from Maria. She didn’t bothering waiting, or even turning around.
She was just so tired, man.
(She didn’t see the look her companions shared behind her back before catching up, Gavin taking the stolen keycard and tucking it into his wetsuit pocket.)
o o o
Sebastian harshly rubbed his two main eyes, sliding the hair away from his third to still see the room.
Stupid Expendables and their stupid flash-bangs. Why does he even bother selling those annoying things anymore?
He paused his rubbing when the sound of a thud echoed from outside his shop, predictably followed by the sound of crawling through his vent.
Michael’s face popped into the room, looking up at him in concern. “Hey Sebastian. You okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m just peachy,” he grounded out through gritted teeth, continuing to rub the fuzzy splotches in his vision away. It was not working, as to be expected. Michael winced before crawling out of the vent.
“Sorry. I heard the, uhm… flash-bang noise? Probably shouldn’t have asked.” Sebastian sighed and ran a hand down his face, having finally given up on rubbing the smudges from his vision. His attempts were doing literally nothing, there wasn’t any point to it.
“It’s whatever. Stupid and annoying Expendables are gonna be stupid and annoying, it’s in their nature.” He gestured to the vent. “Could you do me a favor? I told those idiots to leave my keycard by the door once they’re done with it so I don’t have to make a new one. You mind grabbing it for me?”
The smaller experiment perked up and nodded, eyes creasing slightly thanks to the smile under that mask. (That was Sebastian’s guess, anyway. Who knows if the creasing was his imagination, he only had his third eye to work with at the moment.) “Sure. I’ll be right back.”
He darts out of the room in less than a second with practiced ease. Sebastain feels a twinge of annoyance. If he weren’t so huge it would be a lot easier to accomplish practically anything in the Blacksite.
Well, no use in mourning what-ifs. Since it was taking Michael a minute, Sebastian turned his attention from the vent to his newly acquired files and such. His sorting system was starting to really bear fruit, especially with ease of access. He needed these last bits of gathered material to carry their weight in worth. When it came to such simple, insignificant documents, they happened to work best in bulk. So bulk he would give, downloading them onto water-proofed data collectors.
Whatever company he contacted would no-doubt pay a fortune for this much data (and dirt) on Urbanshade. He just had to make contact.
And he was oh-so-close to success. That’s why he needed that keycard: every last file counted towards his goal, towards freedom. For all of them.
Thumping filtered into Sebastian’s hearing and he turned around, watching as Michael emerged once again, stepping back into the room. His hands were empty.
“Where’s the keycard?” the shopkeepers asked. Michael shifted awkwardly.
“About that. There’s no keycard by the door. Or anywhere near it.” He reached back to scratch his neck, stopped only a second later with a wince and lowering his hand. “Or anywhere else in the room.”
Sebastian groaned, face palming with his empty hand (the other two were holding files: the easiest data to sort). “Of course those little twerps took it.”
Sebastian set aside his research and folded his dominant hands together. “Look, Michael. If I can’t get my hands on that keycard, I’ll have to shut down this shop. This is the most efficient shop in the Blacksite, and brings in double the research of any other shop I’ve got.
“If this shop shuts down, I’ll go at least a day with half the possible income. That stacks fast, and this is assuming I can get this radio working at record speeds.” He finally turned his attention back to Michael, pointing at him with joined hands for emphasis. “You understand why this is important, yes?”
“Uh… yeah?” Michael sounded unsure, but that was the norm for him. He was clearly paying attention to what Sebastian was saying, and it looked like he understood the gravity of it.
Good.
“So you understand why I’d ask you to do me another favor?” The uncertainty faded from his expression as Michael nodded once more. “I need you to grab the keycard from their bodies once they die.”
Michael didn't reply for a moment, staring up at Sebastian with an unreadable expression (the fact that the lower half of his face was covered really didn’t help much either). The larger mutant was about to ask what was up when he cleared his throat. “Right. Yeah. I can do that.”
Sebastian raised an eyebrow. “You sure? You don’t sound sure-?”
“No. No, I got this,” Michael repeated, more firmly this time. He crouched down beside the vent. “I’ll be back with the keycard.”
“Okay.” That didn't feel right. Sebastian didn’t want to end with that. “Don’t die, alright?”
“I’ll try.” With that last reply Michael slipped back into the vent and, within a minute, he was out of Sebastian’s hearing range. Then again, Michael didn't have to get very far for that. If walldwellers had a little more brain, they could be dead-silent killers.
Sebastian shook his head and returned to his sorting. He had to get done fast, then he could work on the radio.
He was this close to a breakthrough. He could feel it. They’d be home free soon enough.
Now if the dots in his vision would just go away, then he’d be in great shape.