Briar nodded her agreement and took out her second knife, hidden under the invisible zipper on her other leg, and handed it to Ryder, “Don’t break this one,” she said.
With a few more folders and books safely tucked in Lasan's coat, Nubes drew his sword and approached the one locked door in the room. "Are we doing this?" the leopard said, Lasan quickly catching up to him. "Let me know if you don't want to come."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"We have to go," he said, joining them by the locked door - the knife held uselessly beside him. What was a knife against a god? It would just amuse Notch, if it was him. He should have been preparing to do something other than attack with it, but he couldn't risk revealing anything more about himself.
Notch would put the pieces together.
He always had, back when they were kids.
"I wouldn't object to it," he added, gaze lingering on the locked door.
"Assuming we don't need to make a quick escape," Nubes said, while Lasan began to break the lock. "I grabbed what I believe are some of the most coherent ones, but you could always pick up some of the others?"
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
As Nubes nodded at Briar's comment, Lasan snapped the lock. The leopard turned back just in time to see the lizard slowly opening the door, revealing the hallway beyond.
It only took a second for the two of them to figure out what was causing the grinding sound, which was why Lasan grabbed onto the door and held it firmly in place after it moved a couple inches.
Some kind of creature stood in the middle of the room. Nubes didn't know how to describe it - it was a purple and black, oozing, person-sized mass. Shards of metal and brick poked out of it at random intervals, making it that much harder to tell if it was looking at the group or not. The leopard guessed it wasn't, given that it was a lot more preoccupied with jamming a metal rod into a hole in the wall it had created.
Before Nubes could guess what it was doing, he heard a loud snap from inside the wall, followed by a hiss. With what smelled like gas started to flood into the hallway, the creature turned and started to growl.
Well, it was definitely looking at them now.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
It was something else. Something that felt wrong. He tried to understand it - to feel if it was a creature of the night or of the day - but knew that it should have only been his own. Notch could have never made something like this.
Which left one other option.
This had been created by people.
And now it was letting gas loose and looking right their way.
"...Hi," he said, hoping that it was something that would talk if prompted.
Her eyes darted over the creature, noting every possible weakness.
Everything about it screamed threat. Everything about it tole her to kill it. Make it stop breathing, or whatever it was doing. Was it breathing? Would suffocation work on it? Would her gun?
The creature screamed, lurching forward. Even though it only moved a few inches, that was more than enough motivation for Nubes to push Ryder out of the way, growling out, "Don't say hello to it, you moron."
Lasan pulled the door shut. Gripping the handle and leaning away from it, he took a few deep breaths. "Those were gas fires in the bunkers, right?" he said, looking over at Nubes.
"This must be where the gas is coming from," Nubes said. "But it's not going to be able to set any of it on fire, unless-" he trailed off, then snarled.
"Mhm - It gets to the fire in this place's bunker," said Lasan.
Nubes looked over at the door leading to the hallway with the plants. "S***," he said. "And it has a head start, too. We'd best get moving."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
"I'm not-" he started to say, only to pause when he realized he couldn't explain his reaction without revealing the truth. Notch might still be involved, but...
He didn't have time to think about it. They need to shut off that fire to stop the gas from igniting. Everyone would be nothing more than charred corpses if they didn't hurry.
But it had a head start.
"Do we need to go to Lust and Gluttony to turn the fire off?" he asked. They could rush if they had to, but if there was another way, they could avoid the situation altogether.
"I'm not sure we can turn off the fire," Nubes said, while Lasan darted towards the door the leopard had been looking at. "Whoever built this probably didn't want people tampering with it, or at least some of the fires that we saw would've been out."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse a persona che mai tornasse al mondo, questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse. Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero, senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.
