Chapter 25: Chapter Twenty-Three: White Visor

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Mason felt his heart sink as he heard those bells roar and the lights flash, shooting instantly up from his position on his bed. Marissa and Axel both looked terrorfied, and Hannah was looking around.

Axel was the first to react, grabbing Marissa and tearing through the door, "We have to go! We have to get out!" He yelled through the alarm, yanking Marissa with him. Mason slid off the bed and quickly picked Hannah up.

He then grabbed B-64's hand and rushed through the doorway, following Axel as he led them down a hallway. As they ran past each door, they heard a calm and collected robotic voice call through some speaker, "Security Breach: MTF Squads that are available are asked to follow protocol."

Mason heard another sound, sharply reducing and impairing his hearing. The sound shook the very walls of The Foundation, startling enough to cause Axel to trip, though he caught himself.

"Hurry up!" Marissa yelled, tugging Axel as he continued to almost trip his way down the hall. The voice in the walls voiced another warning, "All Non-Combatants please make your way to the Breach selter. Profile Red is in action, please make your way to the Breach Shelter on Floor J-4."

What does that even mean? Mason wondered, but he didn't have much time to think as another explosion sounded off, just above their heads. The ceiling shook violently as a creature seemed to roar. That sound was familiar to B-64, who tried to process it.

By now all the sounds and noises had disturbed Hannah, who clung onto her Brother for support. Mason held her close as he continued to run, holding her ears close so that she could not hear the noises.

They found their way into another hallway, labeled J-1. Marissa called them into it, hoping that they could at least find this so-called Breach Shelter that was talked about. Mason found himself silently thanking every single God he knew for having them on the exact level they needed to be.

The hallway stretched for some time before reaching another bend, with a single sign declaring it J-2. They all could hear roars and screeches, horrible amalgamations of noise that if they were any louder, it most certainly would have made their ears bleed.

They reached J-3 before too long, and they felt hope rise in their chest. That was quickly crushed as they heard a crash, and the ceiling before them, right at the bend into J-4, collapse.

Rising from the pile of rubble and support beams was a blackened and charred creature, a single Puppet. The thing's flesh was smeared around it's body in disproportionate angles, it's mangled face beyond recognition besides a single eye dangling from it's socket.

They stood still for a moment, a horrid cacophony of different voices raging out from a single wide orifice that it called a mouth. B-64 quickly covered Mason's ears, disconnecting his own sound sensors.

Marissa and Axel quickly covered their ears as well, and Mason did to Hannah. They stood there, not making a single sound as the creature roared, the walls vibrating with hard energy, causing them to somehow melt.

The singular Puppet slowly closed it's mouth, it's bones making a harsh snapping sound as it turned it's. The single eye dangling from it's decomposing head swiveled to look at them, the string of flesh connecting it to the brain slowly sapping due to the stress.

B-64 was quick to react, knowing what kind of devastation that thing could wake. He pushed Mason out of the way gently with his arm, making his way towards the unnatural creature. He knew how these things worked.

He skipped into a run, activating his shield and slashing it into the ground. With a strong flick of his wrist, he sent rubble and concrete flying from the earth and hitting the creature straight in it's abdomen.

A split second later he released his dagger, turning his body at such an angle that the dagger was propelled quickly, lodging it into the creature's brain before it could even react to the pain of the rubble.

And not a second later he reached the thing, quickly reaching for the dagger, and kicking himself over the relatively small creature's head, catching the lodged dagger and pulling it along with him, slicing the things brain and face to bits.

But he wasn't done: He gripped the creature's neck and pressed his wrist against it, grabbing hard as he activated his shield. It generated with a hard fizz, cutting cleanly through the thin hard neck and staining the blue light a liquid greyish-brown color. The color of it's blood.

But B-64 knew that when there was one, there would be hundreds following. And sure enough, not a second later they could hear multiple hard screeches of anguish and torture, their calling card. It struck the others with fear so badly, it made them freeze in place.

But B-64 had no more time. He raced to grab the others hand and dragged them along, slipping Mason onto his back as he carefully held Hannah, dragging both Marissa and Axle in one hand as he let his dagger slip into his other.

As they passed underneath the ceiling whole, the thin visage of another puppet appeared over them. B-64 reacted quickly and threw his dagger up, slicing through the things entire face. B-64 then called it back, slamming the hard blunt end through another large chunk of brain matter and decomposing flesh.

Mason was the first to awaken from his stupor, and he quickly grabbed Hannah to lighten the load that was thrust upon B-64. B-64 gave a short trill of thanks, his entire mind focused on getting to the breach shetler and making sure Mason and Hannah, as well as everyone else, were safe.

The hallway ended in a large padded white door. From a quick, albeit broken scan, it revealed that the door was nearly unbreakable, and that it needed a keycard to open. Not even his dagger could easily cut through it.

B-64 quickly turned around, hearing the puppets begin to fall from the ceiling to avenge their fallen friend. B-64 glanced at Mason, and from that look alone Mason knew to stand there and be with his friends. He nodded.

B-64 eased Mason and Axel to the ground, amping himself up. He could tell by the voices that they were right at the bend, and were scenting them out. In just a few moments they would be swarming.

Figuring that he had a moment to think, he thought about what he could possible do to prevent them all dieing: He couldn't fight all of them, much less six, at once. He couldn't use his shield, as it wasn't big enough, and his dagger was effective, but on a single puppet basis.

He thought back to the Infinity Chamber, and what Mason had done with the first little thing they asked him to do. Scarlet Blast, if he wasn't mistaken. He saw what it had done to that thing, and he wondered if he would be able to do that.

He swiveled his head, his mechanics creating a little puff of steam at the fast action. He swiveled his body and stood upright, his visor showing every single pupper before him, crashing into one another as they tried to claw their way towards them.

He saw what Mason did, and took in a deep breath, opening his visor up. He knew that he couldn't use his hands, but his mouth was connected to the Boson Generator, he could probably use that.

The back of his throat opened up, revealing a small opening. B-64 gripped his hand and attempted to say what Mason had said, Scarlet Blast. He thought in his head, clenching his fingers and hoping that it would work.

He felt the intense heat rise in his body, his diagnostics saying that the heat was enough to melt through most things. He directed some of the stream of energy to affect reality within himself, allowing his body to sustain the heat without harming anything.

And within a second of doing this, B-64 anchored his paws to the floor, he bent his back a little and opened his Visor as wide as it could go. With a shudder raking through his body, B-64 unleashed the energy at the horde just meters away.

Energy spilled from the protogens' maw, sparks of red and orange blasting from his opened visor and bathing the hallway in a crimson glow. The stream of energy was so intense that it melted the surrounding metal.

B-64 used another stream of Boson Energy to block off sound behind him, allowing him to take the full frontal blast of the sound waves produced by the creatures burning alive, being evaporated in an instant.

A few were able to scream for a single second as the blast raptured through them, erupting the surrounding around them and deeply denting the steel plated concrete walls, turning the few weak spots to dust in a matter of milliseconds.

B-64's fur was bleached white as all the energy in his body went to his generator, and the concentrated sounds of The Puppets managed to create a crack in B-64's visor, as well as dent his leg's metal.

And as the last few seconds remained, B-64 buckled. He collapsed onto the ground, sputtering red liquid out from his mouth. But the horde in front of him, as well as a couple of miles straight, evaporated. All that was left was a few still corpses, and dust flying in the air.

Mason quickly rushed to B-64's side, quickly helping the protogen onto his side. Mason felt the sting of getting into contact with him, as his fur and metal were incredibly hot. He braved through the pain, rolling B-64 onto his back.

The protogen stared up, running diagnostic after diagnostic and attempting to fix the damage to his body he had done. There was a reason why they had never really changed reality that much.

But what really scared him were his Boson Reserves, dwindling at a slim 3%.

As Mason tried to get the protogen back up on his paws, a thud echoed through the hallway. Marissa and Axel unfroze at that thud, and looked around scared like. Mason held B-64 close, ignoring the sting. Hannah rushed towards him, hugging Mason.

They slowly looked on in relevant horror as what looked like another Protogen fell from the ceiling. Slim and sleek black furred arms, almost organic looking metallic parts as well as a gold rose B-Series Captain's Cloak.

The protogen turned, his white visor and black facial features looking at the group with malice.

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Hello!

Significantly shorter chapter today, sorry 'bout that, but I had nothing really else to say.

I'm not sure on hw to describe this "New" character despite having a relatively decent idea on how I want him, or her, to look like.

Anyways, tell me what ya think about this, please!

Thanks for reading!

~ Candle