Her breath hot with fury and snorting with anger, Cindy bolted from cover to cover, listening closely for anyone following as she made her way into Leech's lab. For such a tall, muscular crocodilian, she was surprisingly quiet on her feet.
She knew Leech wasn't inside the lab; she would have heard her by now. Just to be safe, though, she darted past the main lab and through one of the side doors, entering a chamber that was full of ceiling-height silver storage tanks and buzzing lab machines that were all mid-way through completing their processes. This place was cramped, with many dark corners to hide in, a perfect area to conduct an ambush.
A quick search through the room revealed a pile of scrap metal thrown aside, full of various shapes and sizes of leftover waste. Cindy scavenged through it quickly and pulled out a large, dagger-like chunk with a sharp point. She stabbed it through the air a few times, and decided it would suffice.
"I'm gonna tear her fucking throat out... Take me from Seeth will she? Keep me locked up? Well, we'll see about that, won't we Leech?!" Cindy growled, scrambling to the back of the room and quieting down. She looked over the metal chunk in her hands and played the scene in her head.
Leech would come into the room, turning to face one of the many machines. Cindy would listen closely, eyes to the floor and ears primed and alert, to confirm Leech's position, and then, she would strike! She'd lunge at her -- no messing around -- straight for the neck and face with the metal blade, and get the job done. She could carve her up afterwards and claim her trophy once the kill was secured but she needed to be effective over anything else. She imagined the metal cutting through Leech's jade green flesh, a smile curling over her face as she did so, thinking about the life draining from that evil bitch's body.
She focused again upon hearing voices coming from the lab, but they were too quiet for her to hear what they were saying, and she couldn't risk coming out of cover to listen. Her clawed fingers shook slightly in anticipation and fear, but the croc's hunter instincts were kicking in, and she stilled herself quickly and perfectly, breathing slowly and controlled, undetectable under the hum of the machines vibrating in the room.
It took some time, but eventually, she heard the heavy thumping of Leech's footsteps, getting closer and closer, one after the other, no idea of what was lying in wait.
Cautiously, Cindy peaked out from behind the storage in the corner, roughly glancing in Leech's direction but keeping her eyes fixed on the floor. The alien had her back to her, and was currently fiddling with one of the machines.
"Bastard thing. Couple of degrees off and it's practically cooked the cultures. I'll need more samples and yet more time. UGH. I can't be arsed with this today." She thumped the top of the machine and brought herself a bit lower to look inside it, presenting her back perfectly for Cindy to attack.
Everything was matching up perfectly. Cindy was only a few paces away from her and immediately began to tread towards the vulnerable alien, her metal shank firmly in hand as she crept across the cold stone flooring of the dungeon laboratory.
Leech was still busy focusing on the machine, her head still inside its innards, and Cindy was now just a couple of steps away. Even the seven foot tall Cindy, who'd usually look down on everyone, was intimidated by the size of her, but she steeled herself again, grasping the shank tightly and kept her head down.. She pictured herself grabbing Leech by her long jelly locks, pulling her head to the side and plunging the shank deep into her vulnerable neck.
Cindy lunged forward into the air, filled with adrenaline and snarling in anger, but Leech struck her leg out backwards in a devastating mule kick, slamming into Cindy's chest with tremendous force, sending her skidding backwards and thumping into a storage unit behind her. The kick knocked the air out of her lungs and shook the shank right out of her hands. Cindy clutched at her chest, trying desperately to scramble to her feet.
She wheezed painfully and looked up to see the grinning face of Leech staring straight down at her. Leech seized the back of Cindy's neck and lifted her straight into the air. Cindy fought back, wrapping her thick, scaly tail around Leech's shoulders and neck and trying to wriggle free of her grip, thrashing her body around with as much force as she could, but then Leech grabbed her thigh as well, lifting the crocodilian above her head with ease.
"...C3 should do the trick."
The ground suddenly rushed towards Cindy, a painful, loud, fleshy slap rang out as Leech brought the girl down directly onto her knee, breaking her back with a single, precise slam. Cindy's vision went dark, a sudden coldness spread through her limbs. Leech stared down at her collapsed form, watching intently with an ever growing smile as she remained still.
Is this it... am I... did I lose? Am I dead?
But slowly, Cindy's vision began to return, sluggish and blurry but... she was alive and...
Leech's grinning face slowly came into focus.
"You have some gall, little crocodile. Attacking me in my own lab." Leech scoffed at her, taking Cindy by the neck again, but this time her body hung limply in Leech's bastard grip. "Of all the ways you could have handled that... HAH! You genuinely thought you could take me?!" She cackled and dragged the crocodilian out of the side room and into the lab. Inside, Cindy noticed a wolf-man, tied up against the back wall. They briefly made eye contact but he broke off nervously and remained quiet. Leech continued on through another side door. There was nothing Cindy could do now, her body just wasn't responding, no matter how much she strained. All she could feel was a deep, cold tingling in the core of her being.
"Another Controller might have just killed you, but not me, I'm smarter than that..." She laughed again and discarded Cindy's body down onto an operating table akin to how someone would throw away a used towel. "So kind of you to volunteer your body for science - I promise to put it to good use. Together, we're really gonna make a difference, you know?"
Terror flooded Cindy's mind as the realisation hit her. She was no longer just a prisoner in the dungeon; now, she was a prisoner in her own body.
"It'll just be you, me and the sound of me taking samples from you. It's just a shame you won't be able to feel any of it." The scientist cackled and disappeared briefly, before returning with a couple of hanging bags of fluid and the appropriate medical tubing. "But you are gonna get real familiar with the sounds of scalpels and flesh. So at least there's that." She leaned in close to the crocodilian's head, her voice twisted with malice and spite. "You should have listened to them, Cindy. I'm coming for your friends next, and if they don't give me what I want, I'm going to break them too."
Leech finished setting up the fluid bags and fed the needles into the poor girl's arm, before flicking the lights off, leaving Cindy a paralysed mess in the dark with nothing but her own thoughts and failures to keep her company.
"You should know, I would have handled her irrespective of your help -" Leech sighed as she turned back towards the main lab, slamming the door behind her and locking it shut. "- but your... loyalty has been noted, Venter." A slight look of disgust crept over her face as she spoke to the wolf, but it quickly faded away. "I will see you are rewarded for it later. For now though, I have an invasion to organise."
*
Diego, Trent, Geralt and Tivy made their way through the dungeon corridors, staying low and quiet, with Tivy in the lead and guiding them through room after room towards the armoury. Hurrying footsteps echoed behind them, intensifying to a low grumble as activity increased. A cloud of anxiety hung over the group, as though there were constantly seconds away from capture.
Diego remained at the back of the group, ready to break off and distract from the others in case they were found. Each barefooted step was taken delicately and deliberately, they swerved in and out of unoccupied side rooms and nimbly avoided discovery with remarkable guile. After about an hour, they'd somehow dodged numerous patrols and made it to the armoury. However, The armoury door was a heavy metal security bulkhead, securely bolted and locked to the wall with several different mechanisms. The team paused and took cover in a small room just opposite, which was full of random bits of industrial equipment.
"There's a bit of luck!" Trent happily whispered to the group. "Excellent job everyone! I think we can use these tools to slowly bust open those locks... Tivy, you take point and let us know if anyone is coming around the corners, Diego you stay on... erm... distraction duty and scouting? I'm sorry dude, I hate to think of you as bait..."
"Don't worry about me. You and Geralt get on those locks, me and Tivy will keep you safe." Diego smiled back at him, putting a friendly hand on Trent's shoulder. "It's all coming together."
They quickly looked through the discarded tools and grabbed some pieces that they could use, a couple of things they thought might work. They only needed to duck behind some shelving once, when a lone Node came running down the corridor.
Everyone took their positions. Tivy peered around one corner, Diego around the other and gave the thumbs up for Geralt and Trent to begin working on the locks. They filed at the metal and gently hammered at vulnerable parts of the door, but activity was building within the dungeon; squads of Nodes were charging back and forth with supplies, passing by the armoury again and again and causing the whole team to fall back and wait for the all clear.
Work was slow. Any time they seemed to be making some progress on the thick metal locks, someone would turn up and they'd all have to retreat into the opposite room, staying quiet and hidden. Progress was slow and agonising, there was a constant battle between trying to actually damage the door and not make too much noise. Before too long Geralt's arms were starting to burn with the new strain on his muscles, and without warning, the blade in his hands suddenly broke mid-saw, and it clattered loudly against the stone flooring, bouncing twice before settling to a stop.
The group went silent and listened intently. Tivy gasped and signalled for the group to hide and they poured back into the dark supply room, waiting with baited breath as the sound of approaching footsteps thudded closer. The team all covered their mouths as the figure approached the door. It appeared to be a Node, standing at seven foot tall, dressed in a flat jacket of sorts and military pants with thick boots on. Her figure was pressing tightly against her clothes and she was armed too, with a rifle strapped to her back and an energy whip hanging off her hips.
She could immediately see that something was going on. Her eyes darted from the tool on the floor, to the door. She turned away from the group as she began to inspect the damage.
Tivy nervously fidgeted and felt for Trents hand, holding onto his fingers tightly. Nerves continued to build as the Node refused to move on... Trent grabbed Diego's arm and whispered as quietly as he could.
"C-Could you knock her out...? With your psyonics or something?" The fox asked desperately. "If she comes over here, it could all be over..."
