Nightshade: Into The Fire

Nightshade carefully helped Ace off the floor and looked around, a sign near the empty elevator shaft read 'Floor 7 - Offices'. Nightshade sighed, he didn't know how many floors this facility had and worse off he had to protect Ace. Yeah, protect the kid who's saved my ass twice now. Then again it was really because of the gem...

"You okay Ace?" Ace nodded and that was good enough for Nightshade as he awkwardly grabbed his hand and the prince raised an eyebrow, "Don't make that face, I'm doing this so we stay together. Based on what Rita said and what Computer told me, it isn't safe."

The walked away from the elevator and through the lobby leading them directly into a giant office space, cubicles and all. Only portions of the room seemed to be lit up, in the areas that were illuminated Nightshade could see cubicles splattered in blood and viscera. The smell almost made him gag, Ace was covering his nose with his elbow. Oh shit. They carefully made their way into the office, Nightshade constantly scanning the tops of the sections for any movement. Why didn't I bring a gun? Note to self, always carry just in case.

Nightshade froze as he heard a noise, it was quiet at first. A series of seemingly random clicks but it sounded gargled and strained, like whatever was making it couldn't breathe properly. Then it rounded the corner of one cubicle. A bipedal figure wearing the tattered remains of a button-up shirt and faded black pants, there was no fur remaining on the exposed parts of its body only bloody bubbled up skin. It had no eyes, just blackened cavities where they should have been. Nightshade caught the terrified look in Ace's eyes and clamped his hand over Ace's mouth but not before a small squeak escaped his lips. The pony, if one could even call it that at this point, snapped it's head in their direction wheezing and groaning aggressively as it slowly lumbered towards them. Nightshade tensed as it approached, looking back at Ace holding a finger to his own lips as he uncovered Ace's mouth. Nightshade held his breath as it walked closer, the smell intensifying. It smelled of rot, death and... Magic burn residue? The two stayed still and held their breath until it blindly wandered all the way down towards the lobby. Nightshade looked at Ace, the boy had tears in his eyes. Ace suddenly pressed his thumbs against Nightshade's temples and left the charcoal unicorn with a mild headache.

"Sorry, it was the only way I could cast it." Ace's voice sounded clearly in Nightshade's head despite his lips never moving. "It's a telepathy spell. I thought it might be helpful... I still haven't worked out all the kinks though-"

"I... Think... Whoa, that's freaky," He thought able to slightly hear his own voice echo in his head, "Alright, we need to get down to the reactor floor. That, without a doubt, is more than likely the bottom floor. That monster that we just saw- "

"I could sense it's pain... And the smell... The horrible smell, maybe we can help-"

Nightshade saw Ace getting misty-eyed and he put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"As much as I'd like to see if there was a way to save them there isn't time. That reactor is boiling and I want to at least save one life... As I said, this place must be crawling with them. Not to mention the runaway experiment. It seems like they only respond to sound. With any luck, we can reach the reactor, without killing anypony, save our trapped agent and make sure this place and whatever evil shit went on here never sees the light of day. Then I need to have a serious talk to Celestia about what we saw here."

"Mom won't be too happy you brought me here- "

"She won't be if you don't tell her," Ace's eyes widened at the thought, "It'll be our secret, but right now we gotta move. Rita's time is running out."

Nightshade grabbed Ace's hand again as they began to creep through the desolate office dodging the occasional stumbling monstrosity, they were nearing the stairwell when Nightshade spotted a light. It flickered repeatedly until he turned to look at it. It began to flash seemingly random until he recognized the pattern, it was an SOS. The two darted over to the stairwell door and it swung open, they entered and the scientist behind it softly closed it.

"Finally they sent a rescue for us. I was beginning to think nobody was coming." Nightshade glared at the pony, he was one of the ones who caused this.

Nightshade found trouble moving his mouth but once he did he spoke softly, "Listen we need to get down to the reactor, do we need special clearance?"

The scientist looked taken aback, "R-reactor? Why would you need to go there? We need to get out- "

"Listen, we have an HVI we're meant to extract you can come with us down to the reactor or give us the clearance so we can leave once we have our primary target. No matter what we still have to get our HVI before me or my associate can leave."

"Fine," He took off his ID card, "This should get you down there but hurry, I don't want Cerberus to find us."

Nightshade took the card, contemplating asking the question before deciding to just descend the stairs.

"We aren't actually saving him, right? He's one of the bad guys right," Ace's voice resonated in Nightshade's head.

"No. We aren't he doesn't care about the lives lost here, Rita was trying to prevent all of this. Until we get her out of here and destroy this place... Nothing else really matters. Okay?"

They both flinched at a roar somewhere deep in the bowels of the facility, this was getting dicier and dicier as they continued. Nightshade began to hurry down the stairs, they cleared about three floors when an explosion rocked the stairwell. A fierce blaze started below with an earthshattering rumble Nightshade momentarily let go of Ace's hand to brace himself on a door before realizing his mistake. The landing for the next few floors of the stairs was missing and Ace tumbled down the stairs, falling into the smoke. Nightshade caught a glimpse of the gem turning solid gold as the prince vanished below, yet he didn't hear a sickening thud or any hint of injury.

"I'm- I'm okay! The smoke's really thick though, I don't think it'd be safe to fly through."

"Fuck." Nightshade slipped in the door he was standing next to. 'Testing Lab'. "Ace? Keep going down, stay hidden. I'll meet you down there. Just my fucking luck, huh?"

He stared into the maze of animal cages and small test containers. This was not gonna be fun.