The Innovator

We fire at will, attempting to take out the enemies trying to cut off our exit. But these agents are well-trained, positioning themselves to avoid being seen through the increasingly smaller gap between the door and its frame.

Harbinger snatches a grenade from his belt and tosses it through the gap. The grenade rebounds off the side of the moving door, landing just outside of the facility…and detonating behind the door, presumably killing the pair of enemy agents.

Still, the door continues to close, fueled by the continued momentum from being pushed by the enemy agents.

That gap to the outside, that sliver of moonlight peeking into the facility, becomes smaller and smaller.

If we don't stop that door now, we’ll be completely trapped!

I draw my knife… and lunge at the door… wedging the knife between the door and the frame.

Then…

SNAP!

I try to pry the door open with my knife, only to retrieve its handle with a broken blade.

And at that moment, the front door seals completely with a satisfied groan.

“No!” Jen cries out despondently. “We’re alone with those things! We can scarcely fight in this darkness, so don’t expect me to treat your wounds!”

“Then rely on your flashlights and your ears to avoid getting wounded in the first place! Form up and take up arms here! Shoot on sight!” Harbinger commands.

Though we anticipated enemy reinforcements to arrive, we were taken aback when one of the previously locked doors in the foyer was thrown open!

On instinct, Jen fires upon the door, expecting to either be ambushed by enemy agents or more of those creatures.

SHRRRIEEEK!

The dissonance of mechanical shrieking bombards our senses, forcing us to shield our ears.

As the Breakpoint team is staggered by the gnawing resonant sound, out comes a man with a crazed look in his eyes, laughing maniacally, “GY-HAHAHA!”

The crazed man is outfitted with goggles and a white lab coat, and short white curly hair burgeons from the sides of his head, while the center of his scalp is barren and bald. He is the very picture of a mad scientist. And surprisingly, he is unscathed by the hail of Jen’s gunfire. Did she somehow miss him?

“Tick-tock, tick-tock…” he seems to say aloud.

The three of us aim our weapons at him, and though he raises his hands above his head, he brandishes a toothy smile.

“Identify yourself!” Harbinger demands.

The unidentified scientist opens his unnaturally large mouth wide to deliver a haunting tune:

“Oooohhh, when you’ve got boils and toils,

I’ll inject you with poisoned oils!

You break into my beloved domain,

I’ll detain you, treating you with disdain!

Steal my research without saying goodbye,

And you’ll never again see that blue sky.

Come to me with empty pockets, nothing to offer,

Don’t worry, for it will be your brains that fill my coffers!

You’ll scritchy, scratch, scratch till your nails come loose,

Trying to retain your sanity until it’s no use!

Why am I like this, you may ask?

For I am looking for the one to wear my mask!

A life of an inventor is full of expectations,

Requiring me to make trinkets that will serve generations.

The mask will save Crux, the corporations, and all,

So fret not and let me work so we may all stand tall!

Tick-tock, tick-tock…

Ready yourselves! For I, the Innovator, will give you all one final shock!”

“What kind of demented nursery rhyme was that?” Harbinger insults, sneering at this so-called “Innovator.”

“Weren’t you listening, Harbinger?” Jen scolds in a harsh yet relieved tone. “He’s the one who made those monsters.”

The Innovator simply shrugs at this accusation, seemingly indifferent to the twisted methods he used to achieve his esoteric goals.

Jen lowers her head for a moment, unamused by the Innovator’s ambivalence, before continuing, “But at least the man behind it had the decency to enter my clinic and request a lethal injection!” Jen proclaims, reading her weapon, poised to end the Innovator and his vile projects for good.

She aligns the madman’s head directly in between her sights.

“Luckily for you, I’m taking walk-in patients today,” Jen states stoically. “And I’ll be happy to administer my lead-based medicine directly into your brain for maximum effect.”

The Innovator just stands there and smiles, letting his arms fall to his sides, seemingly ready to embrace his end.

And with a swift pull of her trigger, she intends to end this man’s existence.

BANG!

Again, that barrage of terrible shrieking forces us to protect our ears, but just for a moment, I caught a glimpse of the Innovator’s power.

Though Jen aimed precisely at the madman’s head, it was as if the project from her bullet twisted and unraveled the moment that shrieking noise was unleashed.

Then, the shrieking noise subsided as soon as it came.

“His head is protected!” I announce, implying that we must change our strategy to overcome this troublesome foe.

Harbinger doesn’t question my announcement. And opts to rush the man with his pistol drawn, grabbing the man by his head, and shooting him point-blank in the chest three times.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

Though it seems that the man lies limp for a moment, he lifts his head, staring Harbinger directly in the eyes before speaking, “Oh-ho! So scary, but you’ll never stop the insatiable progress of the Syndicate! Those old weapons of yours can’t overcome my superior technology!”

“They can if you know how to use them,” Harbinger snaps back.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Just as those words leave Harbinger’s lips, he notices that the Innovator entered a command into his wristpad, activating explosions around the room and causing the rest of the doors in the foyer to break from their hinges and fly across the room, propelled by explosive energy. We were right to suspect that those locked doors contained explosive traps!

“Do you intend to bury us all here?” Harbinger yells.

“Of a sort, GYHAHAHA!” the Innovator admits. “You may have cleared out my first wave of thralls, so I’ll have to awaken the ones from my reserve.”

WAAYYYNNN!

Another mechanical screeching sound, but it’s different this time. Oh, no!

More of those six-eyed creatures emerge from each room, and they simultaneously sprint toward Harbinger’s location!

Harbinger is forced to release the man, and he switches to his assault rifle to hold off the ensuing horde. Jen and I raced to a position opposite of Harbinger, hoping to divide the attention of the swarm and set up a kill zone.

But even so, the horde ignores us, and Harbinger’s rifle clip runs empty just as the creatures come close. Harbinger wields his knife, and just as he swipes the closest creature with his knife, Harbinger… misses the creature.

No, he didn’t miss, but rather, the creature ran right past Harbinger, descending upon the Innovator himself!

The horde plunges their teeth into the Innovator’s body, and yet… the man is unflinching and unafraid of the mob of monster’s assault.

The madman lies at the center of the horde, and he continues to laugh maniacally.

“Are they protecting him?” Jen questions, equally confused and terrified by the Innovator's strategy. “No, I see that they are biting him, and—”

Jen is left speechless, and she lowers her weapon as she sees a red-haired creature using its arms to slowly crawl toward the Innovator, attempting to join the rest of the group.

“Sarah?” Jen calls out to the crawling creature.