Emergency Protocol 667

Chapters

The Awakening
The Seer
The Surface Camp
The Capture

The Awakening

A loud beeping filled the facility, echoing down the long and dark halls filled with red light, illuminating it, yet still making it seem dark at the same time, the lights going on through every room and hallway. Abruptly the beeping stopped and the lights switched to a more normal white, now replacing the previous light that had been filling the entire facility. All the material that made up the floors, roof, and walls, was a simple light grey metal, seeming like normal steel yet was reinforced ten times over to withstand any attack or disaster. The fact that the compound still stood was a testament to the metal's strength.

"Wakeup sequence initiated. All personnel please clear Cryo Chamber 1." A feminine voice suddenly rang out of the loud speakers in the Cryo Chamber.

In the Cryo Chamber itself it was quite a sight to behold. Hundreds of pods were formed in lines, with a large and clear walkway down the middle, splitting the lines in two. The room was also in freezing temperatures, a mist of frost slumbering on the metal floor, with some of the pods even having small icicles formed on them. A sudden hiss came from one of the pods as it depressurised, the door to the pod moving outwards before sliding to the side to reveal the occupant inside. A man stumbled out of the pod, a white jumpsuit specially designed so that the occupant could survive the long cryo sleep and not freeze to death, paired with gloves, boots, as well as extending into a hood with a filtration system, the whole outfit completely covering his body.

He immediately collapsed to the metal ground as he made contact with it, falling to his knees and managing to catch himself with his hands as he coughed violently into his mask, the sound echoing around the largely silent room. As he gave one final cough he simply knelt there, taking deep breaths through his filter. After about a minute of this he shakily got himself to his feet, flexing his fingers for the first time in over a million years. He then did some stretches, testing to see if his muscles still worked well, and sure enough, while they were still a little stiff, he could move them around.

He looked around, the cold of the room not reaching him due to his suit. Looking up at a nearby loudspeaker he asked, "Alpha, how long have we been asleep?" Silently hoping for the right answer as he crossed his fingers.

The room fell silent for a while, only to be once again broken by Alpha's voice, "Emergency Protocol 667 has been in place for approximately...6.7 million years." It replied cooly after taking a second to properly calculate it.

The man simply stood silent, looking at the loudspeaker, his expression hidden by the mask. His shoulders began to silently shake, the sound of faint chuckling following before breaking out into bellows of crazed laughing, as he jumped up and did a small dance. "It worked!" He yelled happily into the room, "We did it! It's a miracle!" This display continued on for about ten minutes before dying down, the happy man looking back to the loudspeaker.

"Alpha, begin reawakening process on the rest of the pods in Cryo Chamber 1." He said, walking up to a nearby pod.

"Yes Director. Would you like me to awaken the others as well?"

The Director shook his head at that, "No, not yet. I would rather have controlled chaos in here than uncontrolled chaos in the entire facility."

"Understood. Would you like me to begin the awakening process now Director?"

The Director walked up to a nearby pod, looking it up and down as he wiped away the frost from the small strip of glass that allowed one to look inside the pod from outside. "Yes Alpha. Awaken them."

Private O'Malley looked at the open locker before him, the all too familiar uniform he had practically lived in from the start of the apocalypse separated into all it's different items. He started with the suit, taking off his grey one to put on the yellow one, the symbol for NERO emblazoned on the right shoulder, a hood also covering the back half of his head. The suit itself was made from experimental fibres that could sometimes even stop assault rifle bullets. The monsters that had killed his friends didn't care about that though.

He shook his head to clear the bitter memory before putting on the black gloves and boots with similar protective qualities to the suit, yet were kept separate for better simplicity in putting on the uniform. He then moved on to the vest that was emblazoned with the words NERO at the top., like a regular bulletproof vest but much, much stronger. It was used, despite the suit already being bulletproof, for both extra protection, and the ability to carry multiple magazines of ammo into the battlefield, which had been a much needed necessity during the apocalypse.

With the vest fully on he reached for the black gas mask, however hesitated. Picking it up he examined it, the mask he had worn basically during the entire apocalypse and never even having a chance to take it off for more than an hour when he was awake. He wasn't sure if he hated it, or felt protected by it. During the whole apocalypse this uniform had been his only form of continuity. It was always a new thing every day. Washington has fallen. A horde needs to be investigated. There is a new mutation. Yet another chopper was lost. He brushed a gloved hand over the red tinted lens, before continuing the ritual, strapping the mask around his head, he took a deep breath of the filtered air.

Although the air in here was already filtered. Does that mean the air he was breathing was double filtered? As in twice as good? That didn't matter though as he reached for the final piece of his uniform, a helmet made of the same material of the vest, with a similar NERO word printed onto the front. He observed his gloved hands through the mask's lens', the colour of the world still being the same despite the red tint on the outside. They seriously had spent their time making the soldiers look more badass yet still able to see properly when they could have been working to stop the virus. Although, he didn't think anything could have stopped it.

Looking to his right and to the exit, he noticed the other soldiers were already beginning to leave, rifle's in hand. Grabbing his own assault rifle, he loaded it with a magazine, taking others as well to put in his vest. Even though every single one of those things had most likely died, some itching at the back of his mind wouldn't let him leave without a few extra mags.

Taking another deep breath he moved to join the rest of the soldiers, everyone lightly jogging down the hallway to their destination. After about a solid minute of jogging they funneled out into a medium sized room, an officer, if the series of stripes on his left shoulder were any indication, stood in front of a large elevator, hands held behind his back as he regarded all the soldiers moving into the room. About two dozen had moved into the room and lined up to stand at attention before the flow finally stopped, satisfying the officer.

"Alright men. As I am sure you know, the Protocol was a success. Welcome to the future boys." Came the gruff voice from the officer, bringing about a round of cheers. O'Malley didn't join in however, the hold on his rifle only tightening. "Now though, we have to make our way back to the surface. The drills should reach said surface soon, so we will be notified when that happens. Before that however, it is time for a debriefing.

"We are in a strange land, and a strange world, which will be very different from the one we know. There will be new fauna, new animals, hell, even new goddamn air. As such, we are on a cautionary mission. Once we get to the surface we will split into two survey teams led by both Jenkins, and Keyes. You will secure the perimeter around the elevator, and make sure nothing dangerous is about. And for the love of god, don't touch a goddamn thing that isn't the ground beneath your feet. Am I understood!"

"Yes sir!" Came the resounding response from the assembled soldiers.

The officer looked at the watch present on the outside of his suit as it began beeping before looking back at them, "And that's our cue ladies! Move! Move! Move!" He shouted springing the group into action as the made their way onto the elevator, the officer pressing a button on the inside panel as he walked in last.

Slowly the elevator began to ascend.

The ground beneath Dancing Melody shook violently, causing her to drop the basket of berries she had been carrying, sending both them and her sprawling across the grass. She let out a yelp of fear as she began to lightly bounce from the shear force of the shakes, only causing the berries to run further away. Finally, after what had seemed like hours but had only been a minute or two, the shaking stop. Holding a hand to her head, she attempted to stand only to fall back to the ground, dizziness overtaking her.

Looking around the forest she was in she scanned her surroundings, her gaze almost passing over something before flicking back at the shine of metal. Tilting her head curiously, she hesitantly got to her feet, flinching at the amount of dirt that had been smeared over her blue dress. Rarity would not be happy. Making sure the dizziness was fully gone before cautiously making her way over there. Hiding behind a tree, she looked on in awe at what lay before her. She was at the end of the forest right now, particularly on the end where Mount Meinhoof rested, a very small mountain, yet a mountain nonetheless. Yet that wasn't what caught her attention. Rather it was the giant metal cone suspended in the air by four metal beams, all spaced out evenly, standing between the forest and the mountain, with a large hole beneath it. There also seemed to be a large amount of grooves circling around the giant cone, as well as grooves on the inside of the metal beams, but not on the outside for some reason.

This definitely wasn't here this morning. This was further confirmed by the clumps of dirt and grass that lay haphazardly around it, as if someone had shot a particularly large fireball at the ground. Did this thing dig it's way up? If so then where did it come from?

And why did it decide to dig up.

She gulped at that last thought and decided it wasn't worth her life to see what was going on. She wasn't some adventurer or hero. That was left to those Elements of Harmony folk. In fact, she should go tell them this right now. Turning around in the direction of Ponyville, she moved out from behind the tree to begin walking back before stopping in her tracks as her ears picked up something, causing them to turn in it's direction. It was some sort of whirring. And it was behind her. Looking over her shoulder, the whirring slowly got louder before a tube appeared from the hole, moving up until it reached the beginning of the cone.

One of the sides of the tube opened.

They looked at her.

She looked back.

One of them took a step forward.

She had never run so fast in her life.

Author's Note

Bit of an experiment. Also here is what the soldiers look like, in case my over the top description wasn't enough.

The Seer

Luna and Celestia hurriedly walked through the halls of Canterlot Palace, their guards basically jogging to keep up with the two sister's long strides. "Tell me exactly what happened." Celestia said to the deer that was also jogging along side them, a simple leather uniform with a sapling on it's right breast labelling him as one of the Seer's guards.

The deer was young, as young as one could be to be apart of the guard. This was further reinforced by the antlers present on his head covered in light brown fur, that while might seem sizeable to a pony that didn't know any deer, was actually only about half of it's full size. "Well, honestly I'm not sure what happened myself. I was minding my own business guarding the door when the Seer starting screaming her head off, like she had just encountered a hungry polar bear." He nervously explained, not used to being so close to royalty.

Celestia nodded at this. The Seer was a deer, and an especially talented one at that. The art of seeing into the future was one that little of their kind possessed, making them extremely worshipped in their home country. And because only a deer could see into the future, every ruler wanted one. She herself was on of those rulers, and was lucky enough to get one of the most talented Seer's ever. And so, when a Seer began to lose it, everybody was in danger.

They quickly made a right, the pristine hallways making way for one that seemed overgrown, with vines and plants growing out of the walls, yet never directly onto the path. It was said that the deer preferred the forests and trees to the artificial constructs of the other races, and so Celestia had tried her best to mimic the forest while keeping the Seer in the palace. This saying appeared to be true as the nervous young deer visibly relaxed as they entered the leafy hallway.

A wooden door lay at the end of the hallway, left slightly ajar as voices came from inside. Sharing a worried glance with her sister, they quickened their pace, moving into the room without even bothering to knock, much to the protest of the young deer. Inside faint smoke choked the room, covering every inch of it, yet never leaving the room as if some magic kept it here. To the left of the door lay a cauldron, some sort of brown liquid bubbling inside as shelves of ingredients stacked the walls to either side of it. To the right the shelves continued, a table placed evenly between the walls with a single chair beside. The centre of attention however, was what was sitting in the chair.

A dark grey deer sat in the chair, a purple dress worn like a toga clothing her. On her antlers were dozens of bead loops, swaying silently as the Seer took deep breaths, both hands to the sides of her head as the other deer that had been guarding the door, similar to the previous one yet older, knelt beside the chair trying to sooth the Seer by speaking in their own tongue, that no other creatures alive except for the deer knew.

Upon noticing the entry of the princess', the guard quickly got up, casting worried glances at the Seer as if he expected her to explode as he approached. "Princess Celestia, Princess Luna." He greeted, bowing slightly, "I take it Buck has filled you in." He continued, nodding to the deer that had told them of the situation.

"Yes, we have been told that the Seer started screaming. Was she attacked?" Luna replied, looking around the room for any signs of struggle, yet finding none.

The guard shook his head as he let out a sigh, looking back to the Seer who was now muttering quietly to herself as she rocked back and forth. "I do not believe so. Rather, I think she saw into the future and was...horrified at what she saw." He offered as an explanation.

"Not just the future." The Seer suddenly said, looking up at the gathered, "The past." She said, eye twitching slightly.

This caused surprise upon many, the royal sisters most of all, "The past? How though?" Celestia inquired, beginning to believe that the Seer had gone crazy. Looking into the future was difficult enough even for the most gifted Seer's, but the past? It was just impossible.

"And what did you see?" Luna asked, moving past the guard and Celestia to kneel in front of the Seer. The Seer began to shake violently, tears silently flowing down her face, bringing Luna to take her hands in her own.

"I-I...saw what...we once were." She sputtered out, causing Celestia to frown. What we once were? Then that meant...

"By we, do you mean everybody?" She asked, hoping that the Seer would deny it. This was not the case though, as the Seer switched her gaze to face Celestia, pain filling her eyes, as she nodded ever so slightly.

"Y-Yes...we were...at war." The Seer confirmed, now looking confused herself, "T-They killed so many...but we won...we won. But did we?" She continued to trail off once again, giving Celestia and Luna to both look at each other in worry.

"At war? Equestria hasn't been at war for over a thousand years." Luna pointed out in confusion. "If there was a war we would have known about it."

Before Celestia could reply however, the Seer did so first, "Not thousands..." She spoke, now beginning to speak more clearly, "Not even hundreds of thousands...no...millions." She finished going back to her panicked state.

Celestia shook her head in disbelief. Millions of years? It was frankly impossible. Not only could the races not all be evolved from one species, but for the Seer, even one as talented as she, simply could not be able to see into the past for millions of years. "I'm sorry sister, but it appears the Seer has finally broken." She admitted sadly, causing every creature in the room to look at her in shock, even the Seer in her crazed state.

"N-No, you have to believe me!" She pleaded, looking between the royal sisters, "They have come back, we have to stop them!" She continued, trying to make her way towards the princess' only to be blocked by the royal guards that had slipped into the room with them.

As soon as the first royal guard laid hands on the Seer the other deers leaped into action, both drawing their swords in the blink of an eye and getting in between the Seer and everyone else, causing the guard to leap back in shock before readying his own spear. Seeing the unraveling situation, Celestia quickly held up her hands in a calming gesture, "Hold on there. We will guarantee her safe passage out of the palace. But I am afraid to say that the Seer has finally lost it." She told the deer, Buck looking behind nervously at the Seer who desperately tried to push past them yet was unable to do so.

The older one scoffed however, surprising Celestia, "If you think the Seer isn't telling the truth, then you are the one that has gone mad." He stated, gaze flicking in between the guards and princess'. Upon seeing how outmatched he was he continued, "But if you wish us to leave, we will gladly do so." As the last word left his mouth he sheathed his sword, gesturing for Buck to do the same. After a moments hesitation he followed suit.

"Please! We have to stop them! They will destroy us! Please!" The Seer screamed back as the guards gently, yet forcefully pushed her out. As the older deer began to step out the door he stopped, looking back at Celestia with an almost sad look in his eyes.

"I hope you know what you're doing." He half whispered before following Buck, who was struggling to keep the Seer under control.

As the door closed behind them, and the screams of the Seer finally faded to silence, Luna turned to her sister a concerned look on her face, "Are you sure that was the right call sister? Seer's are very valuable." She asked.

Celestia could only scoff at that, "I have no use for one that has gone crazy. Even though she has helped me many times in the past, her usefulness has regretfully come to an end." She replied, as if expecting this very incident to happen.

"But what if she was telling the truth?" Luna pointed out, gaining a disappointed look from Celestia.

"Oh sister, as talented as she is even she wouldn't be bale to see into the past. Not even to mention she claims it was a million years! It's utter nonsense, and never been done before by even the most powerful deer that have ever lived." She explained, hoping her sister would see sense, yet, from the frown on Luna's face, she clearly didn't.

"Just because something has never been done, sister, doesn't mean it can't." She said as she walked past, opening the door to leave, saying as she did so, "It was never believed that any creature could make it to the moon alive. Remember that sister." Leaving Celestia and the guards standing dumbstruck.

Author's Note

interesting stuff here

The Surface Camp

The ground shook as multiple drills made their way through the ground, larger than the one that made way for the elevator, spaced evenly around the clearing. These drills were the main ones and was the only way to get all the vehicles that had been stored in the compound out of it. The people that had designed this place had really thought of everything. Drills had been fitted on top of every elevator, the size scaling with the elevator. The purpose of this was so that people could eventually leave the compound, as the main entrance would have surely been blocked off, and sure enough it was. They had really been lucky though, because of this clearing in between the forest and the mountain they could safely and cleanly make their way to the surface.

O'Malley gazed into the forest where he had seen the creature run into, frowning through his mask. No one was really sure what it was, however they weren't allowed to chase after. Yet, he was sure it looked like a human, that is if you ignored the cone on it's head.

"O'Malley! Get over here!" His officer suddenly called out, snapping O'Malley out of his thoughts.

Walking over, he was careful to avoid the other soldiers that were carrying equipment, the contents unknown, mainly due to the fact that you couldn't distinguish each container, always being the same dark grey, and the same design, with maybe some differences in scale. Making his way over to where he heard the voice, he spotted him speaking with another person, dressed up in the NERO scientist suits he had seen so much when going on missions. It had a single pipe moving from a small oxygen tank on it's back moving into the mask, a filter positioned on the right side of the mask. The visor went across the middle portion of the face, which remained hidden due to the dark tinting of the visor. The officers could only be identified by the stripes that were present on their left arms, yet they were basically identical to all the other soldiers that bustled around them.

Slinging his rifle over his back, he approached them before saluting, "Reporting for duty sir." He said, only gaining a quick nod from his officer before resuming his conversation.

"Just don't go too far alright. We still don't know what sort of threats could lie in those woods." He said, turning to briefly yell at some soldiers that had dropped a container.

"I will be fine. Besides, your soldier here patrolled it right? So he can just escort me around it." The scientist replied, her voice voice being feminine. He would much rather assume she was a girl then call her 'it' the entire time.

The officer hummed to himself for a minute before nodding, turning to O'Malley, "O'Malley, you are to escort Lieutenant Alinsky wherever she wishes to go. But under no circumstances are you to leave her alone. Am I understood Private."

O'Malley saluted once again, saying, "Yes sir!"

The officer nodded once again, "Alright then, I guess you should be off Lieutenant. Now if you'll excuse me I have some morons to reprimand." And sure enough, as soon as he turned around he began to yell at yet another pair of soldiers that had dropped a case.

"Alright then Private, let's get on with it shall we." Alinsky said, moving past O'Malley and towards the forest, causing him to follow close behind.

They continued their trek deeper into the forest, the sun quickly being snuffed out from the thick foliage, only a few rays of it piercing the trees. Alinsky still continued on, occasionally observing a tree, yet never stopping. Finally after a few minutes of this silent walking, she stopped and crouched down, whatever she was looking at being blocked by her body. Moving around he saw the object of her attention, surprising him greatly at just what it was.

Crap.

She was looking at crap.

"Say uh, what you got there lieutenant?" He inquired, watching as she took a pair of pincers from a small bag on her side, picking up a piece of it.

"Tell me private." She said, observing the shit that was currently held in the pincers. Wait, it was being held in the pincers? "Do you see anything unusual with this?" She continued, standing up to show it more clearly to O'Malley.

Leaning forward slightly he looked it over, unsure of what he was supposed to be looking for. He then noticed that there was multiple splinters imbued into the crap, the full colour of the crap now being much more clearer. It was a very dark and subdued green, in fact, it would have been very easily to mistake the colour for brown. Telling the lieutenant of his findings she nodded in agreement.

Before either of them could continue though, a rustling came from a bush about twenty feet in front of them, drawing both of their attention. The bush began to growl as a pair of glowing green eyes could be seen inside the bush. Unslinging his rifle he slowly raised it to aim at whatever was in the bush, motioning the lieutenant to back away slowly. A paw that was made of wood moved out of it's cover, shocking both O'Malley and Alinsky. Slowly but surely the creature fully emerged from the bush, every single bit of it being made out of wood, with thorns as claws, and sharp splinters as teeth. Moss also seemed to grow on it, as well as many small twigs that had little leaves on it.

"Lieutenant." He said, taking a step back as the beast before them took another step. "Get out of here. Slowly. Don't run unless it runs. Do you understand." He glanced back at Alinsky who stood dumbstruck, staring at the creature through her expressionless visor. "Alinsky!" He said, snapping her out of her stupor.

An ear piercing howl was suddenly sounded, coming from the beast, it's maw pointed to the sky as it continued to howl. As if by magic several more of the creatures jumped out of the trees, growling ferociously, surrounding them completely.

Reaching into his side holster, he drew the pistol, wordlessly handing it to Alinsky who nodded, trembling as she raised the pistol to take aim at the one closest to her. Still keeping his weapon raised he used one hand to activate the radio on his vest, yet didn't get the chance to use it as the creatures leapt at them, teeth bared.

Gunshots rang out from the forest, causing all the soldiers in the now assembled surface camp to stop what they were doing and ready their weapons in the direction of the gunshots. Officer Jenkins immediately drew his sidearm while going onto the radio. "This is Officer Jenkins, All patrols report in!" He yelled into the radio, getting replies from all the patrols in the area.Before he could demand to know what was going on another radio joined in, gunshots almost making the other voice impossible to hear.

"~zzrrt~This is Private O'Malley, we need backup now!~zzzrrt~Get to cover lieutenant!~zzzrrrt"

Looking in the direction of the gunshots, he immediately got back on the radio. "O'Malley! Hold on for a bit longer, I'm sending a patrol your way!" He said before looking at the soldiers who had assembled around him, now looking to him for orders.

Pointing at five of them he instructed them to go look for O'Malley and Alinsky, also getting on the radio to redirect several patrols in their direction. Looking at the rest he ordered them to secure the camp and make sure nothing can get through that wasn't NERO personnel. As they all scrambled away, he frowned worryingly through his mask in the direction of the still firing gunshots.

"Just hold on a little longer O'Malley."

Author's Note

I am aware that some of you are unhappy that it is not a zombie story. But there was no way I could find where I have NERO wake up to a zombie apocalypse with it still being related to MLP.

uniform of a NERO scientist

The Capture

"I'm telling you, those noises came from over here." Sharp Sword explained, his golden armour contrasting deeply with the green shrubbery of the forest around them. Sharp was currently leading the group of four other guards through the forest to where he claimed the noises had come from. It had almost sounded like somepony had fired off a hundred thunderclaps in the span of a few seconds, despite the weather being as clear as it could be with not a single cloud in the sky.

"Yah sure about that rookie? I know you pegasus have super good hearing and all that, but there isn't a single thing out here." Broken Shield said, his voice gruff from years of shouting orders to his subordinates. He shifted his spear in his grip, glancing around to the trees surrounding them. "Not even those darn timberwolves have decided to show up yet."

They continued on in silence, eyes constantly watching the shadows as if expecting a monster to jump out at any moment. As they continued their slow march, the forest soon fell eerily silent, the previous tweeting that had come from nesting birds disappeared, replaced by nothing but the sound of the group's breaths. Broken Shield held up his fist, telling the group to stop while stopping Sharp Sword with his other hand. Everypony stopped dead in their tracks, eyes now furiously scanning the undergrowth. Broken Shields ears flicked as faint noises, almost like somepony was talking just ahead. Motioning with a hand, the group crept up to a large bush, the voices getting ever louder as they approached, yet somehow also seemed to be slightly garbled. Peering over the bush Broken Shield's jaw dropped at what he saw.

A small clearing was just on the other side of the bush, several creatures in what appeared to be yellow suits walked around picking up pieces of timber that lay scattered around the clearing and dumping them into a small pile that reached to about their knees. They also appeared to have slung what looked like grey clubs, which had small pieces of the club sticking out at random, over their shoulders. They all looked exactly the same, with a full yellow suit coupled with a larger piece of black on their torsos with a large silver cylinder on the back, as well as a mask that looked to be connected to the cylinder. One stood out from the rest though. This one seemed to wear full white, and didn't carry any of the extra stuff that all the others did. All that she held was a dark green orb in her covered hand, turning it over as she observed it closely. He recognised the orb however, and it began to make sense as to why they hadn't encountered any timberwolves. The piles of wood. The green orb. These things had killed the timberwolves. A shuffling was then heard from his right, causing him to whip his head to the source of it, only to find one of the creatures standing there, pointing it's club at him with two hands.

"Don't move." Came the garbled voice, several more slowly walking out of the forest from all around them. The group quickly got into a defensive circle, pointing their weapons back in turn. This caused the creatures to freeze, their gaze fixed on the weapons that they were holding.

A different one stepped forward, holding up a hand towards the ponies, "Put down the weapons and come with us. If you resist we will use force." It said, causing Broken Shield to bare his teeth in a low growl.

"Like tartarus we're going to do that. Rather you should put your clubs down." He countered, pointing his spear at the first on to walk out, "You are outmatched with those clubs of yours, even if you managed to take down some timberwolves you are no match for Equestrian steel."

The one that had stepped forward stopped for a moment, tilting his head in what could only be confusion before he placed his hand on a small grey rectangle on his chest, not reacting when the guards closest to him pointed their spears at him, "Subjects are resisting, requesting lethal force to be authorised." He said, a reply coming soon after from what could only be the grey rectangle.

"Lethal force authorised for only one subject, bring the rest in alive. We only need four."

The creature flicked his club in Broken shields direction, "Kill that one. The rest of you switch to tasers" He said. The guards immediately tightened their defensive circle, not about to let these creatures take them without a fight.

The first one that had showed itself took a step forward aiming the club at Broken Shields head, as his comrades drew much smaller clubs, once again aiming them at the group. Baring his teeth even more he stared at the one that still had the larger club, the most obvious threat. "Come on then! What are you waiting fo-"

Blood. It covered the back of his neck, the side of his face, and was just everywhere at once. Looking to his right, Sharp Sword's eyes widened in horror as Broken shield fell to his knees before continuing on to the once green grass, a hole that looked like it had been drilled in between his eyes present on his face. His eyes rolled back into his head and his tongue hung outside his mouth. He didn't even have a chance to scream as his body suddenly began to spasm, intense pain coursing through it. Collapsing to the ground as he lost control of his limbs, his wings splayed out, one of the monsters approached from above, a heavy boot falling onto Sharp Swords face soon after.

His eyes blearily opened, a splitting headache causing him to hold his head with a hand. Rubbing his eyes he sat up, looking around at his surroundings. He appeared to be in a concrete box with a glass panel making up one of the walls, all the normal furnishings that one might find in a room such as a desk and bed were present, all being the same shade of mahogany. The light for his room that hung from above was enough to illuminate the whole of the box however didn't reach far beyond the glass panel, only a small fringe of what looked like concrete was visible at the very edge of the light. Placing a hand on the glass he squinted his eyes, trying to see past the never ending blackness to no avail. Looking at his clothes he appeared to be wearing a white jumpsuit, with no means of a zip visible to him. Trying to move his wings, his eyes widened as he looked behind him to find that his dark blue wings were secured in a metal clamp, not being able to move an inch.

A ding was then sounded, causing him to look toward the source of it which had come form beyond the darkness. Another light turned on, revealing an open door. Standing in this door was a creature, its body covered in a white jumpsuit similar to Sharp's except that it had more on it such as pipes and a mask that covered it's face.

"N.I.L.S.S, activate welcome message." It said, sounding female as it walked forward, stopping at the glass.

"Subject 3, welcome to NERO Compound 501, please cooperate and you will be treated well."

Author's Note

Nice job if you can figure out the reference