This chapter was kinda hard to do cause i was doing a chapter on my Doctor Who fic. I couldn't imagine a war Tardis space fight without the Tardis being really old and broken cause even the Doctor Type 40s survives basically every type of damage. Weapons in the comic and audio dramas, and only in the time war, where you heard the Tardis being destroyed or being outmatched
Plus, that's not counting the time lord upgrading the hell out of them to the point they can take the form of humans and polit themself and they run on 100s of Eyes of Harmony. In the worst-case scenario, destroying an Eye of Harmony would turn the TARDIS into an antimatter explosion capable of wiping out a hundred worlds
Or time lords pulling body horror and using Regeneration to fuse with the ship
PS does anyone here read Camelot rise in Marvel personality I like cause it add alot of comic stuff and try not to nerf them tho I don't like some choices like ADD MERLINE OR MORGAN!!!!!!!!!!
I have 3 more chapters that need editing i should get one done by Friday
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They moved deeper without leaving bodies behind.
That mattered.
Morrana had learned a long time ago that dead guards created urgency. Missing guards created confusion. Sleeping guards created excuses.
Every devil they dropped was left breathing, tucked behind doors or under desks, comms disabled and memory pricked just enough to blur the last few minutes.
Subtle was not clean.
Subtle was messy in a different way.
The facility was bigger than it looked from above. Old tunnels had been widened into labs and holding areas. Temporary walls divided the place into sections. Some were finished, with proper flooring and clean signs. Others still showed raw concrete and exposed cable.
Seraphina mapped as they moved.
"They're using the old drainage lines as energy channels," she said. "Smart, actually. Ugly, but smart."
Azaria glanced over. "Do not compliment the fear basement."
"I can hate it and still notice competent engineering."
"No. That's how they get you. First, you compliment the wiring, then suddenly you own a villain chair." Maeriva walked ahead, checking corners.
"I'd own a villain chair."
"You already sit like you're waiting to declare martial law," Azaria said.
"I sit normally."
"You sit as furniture; stab you in the butt." Zarathos made a low sound that might have been a laugh.
Maeriva pointed at him without looking back. "Don't encourage her." The joking helped.
They passed another chamber. Then another. Each had humans inside. Different setups. Different pressures. One room was cold. One used isolation. One could hear quiet recorded footsteps from behind the walls.
No torture racks. No monsters jumping from shadows. Just controlled discomfort turned into numbers on a screen.
A woman in one chamber kept asking if anyone could hear her. Her voice was hoarse. She knocked on the door every few minutes, waited, then knocked again.
Morrana stayed by that window too long.
Death was patient by nature. Not because she lacked feeling, despite what people assumed, but because rushing usually broke more than it saved.
Still. Her jaw hurt from clenching. Seraphina touched her elbow. "We'll get them out."
Morrana nodded. They continued. At the next intersection, voices came from around the corner.
Two devils. Maybe three. Morrana signaled.
Maeriva moved left. Zarathos stayed back because he was not built for "casual hiding." With the whole fire skull, Azaria ducked under a pipe and pressed herself against the wall with a grin that looked far too excited.
The devils turned the corner carrying tablets and coffee cups.
One was young, blond, with silver piercings along one ear. The other was older, narrow-faced, tired around the eyes.
"Voss wants another compatibility sweep," the younger one said. "Like we haven't done seven already."
The older devil sighed. "Just do it. When he gets like this, arguing only makes him add more charts."
"I hate charts."
"Well, you chose to major in research."
"I wanted weapons research. Not babysitting panic rooms for humans."
Azaria's face shifted. Very slightly.
The older devil noticed something. His head turned.
Morrana stepped out and caught his wrist before he could reach the alarm charm under his sleeve. Maeriva took the younger one down with a chokehold, quick and controlled. He kicked once, knocking over his coffee.
SNAP
With a powerful pull, snaps the devil's neck
Azaria caught the cup before it hit the floor. Everyone looked at her.
"What?" she whispered. "Evidence control dont want any alarms going off."
Seraphina took the tablets.
"Names," Morrana said.
She scanned the IDs. "Lukan Vey and Oris Malrec. Mid-level staff. Not leadership."
Maeriva looked at the unconscious younger devil. "They knew."
"Yes."
"Then why are they still breathing?"
Morrana looked down at them.
Good question. Because Celestia would ask.Because not every fool in a machine understood the whole machine. And execution could wait until they knew what they were dealing with.
"Because we're not here to make noise," Morrana said.
Maeriva didn't like it. She still nodded.
Seraphina unlocked one tablet and skimmed the logs.
Her face tightened.
"What?"
"They have a selected host."
Azaria's fingers stopped moving.
"For the fake Sacred Gear?"
Seraphina nodded. "Subject D-17. Human male. Twenty-six. Name… Haruto Senda."
Zarathos stepped closer.
"Alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Seraphina turned the tablet around. A map pulsed faintly.
"Core level."
Maeriva rolled her neck once.
"There it is."
The lift to the core required two staff keys and a spoken passcode. Seraphina had the keys from the tablets. Azaria handled the voiceprint by replaying a clipped recording of the older devil saying several unrelated words. It sounded terrible to everyone standing nearby, but the system accepted it.
The doors opened.
Maeriva stared at the panel."That worked?"
Azaria winked. "Egotistical people in labs always think their security is hotter than it is." The lift descended farther than the first.
The walls changed as they went down. Less concrete, more metal. Less temporary wiring, more deliberate structure. The air grew warmer.
Seraphina checked the tablet again and frowned.
"The machine's running at low output."
"Meaning?" Morrana asked.
"Meaning it's not fully active."
Azaria leaned her head back against the lift wall. "That sounds like the sentence people say right before the machine becomes fully active."
Zarathos looked at her.
She looked back. "Yes, bonehead? I've been in rooms."The lift opened into a small security vestibule.
No guards. That was the first bad sign; there wasn't even any canon fodder guards to look intimidating, which devils would 100% do. The second was the smell. Hot plastic and Old sweat.
The sharp bite of ozone from overworked seals.
The corridor beyond led to a large observation room. Through reinforced glass, they could see the core chamber.
The machine hung in the middle like a half-built engine. Rings of metal and rune-carved bone rotated slowly around a dark center. Cables ran into the floor. Fear-energy moved through them in thin red lines, pulsing irregularly.
Below it, strapped into a medical chair, was Haruto Senda.
He was awake.
His head hung forward. His shirt was damp with sweat, and his hands were clenched around the chair arms so tightly his knuckles looked bloodless.
Something hovered in front of his chest.
The artificial Gear core.
Azaria's mouth went flat.
"No jokes?" Maeriva asked quietly.
"Not feeling inspired yet; give me a hot min and ugly face."
Morrana studied the room. Three engineers inside. One senior devil at the main console. Dr. Elion Voss, if the profile matched. Thin, composed, too focused on his screen to notice the room outside.
Seraphina's voice was soft. "We can't just smash it."
Maeriva looked at her like she had said something offensive.
"Why not?"
"Because it's linked to the humans upstairs and to him. If we break the core wrong, the feedback could hit all of them."
Azaria muttered something unpleasant under her breath.
Zarathos rolled his shoulders. Chains dragged lightly against the floor.
"Then we unplug it."
Seraphina shook her head. "Not that simple."
Maeriva leaned closer to the glass. "It's always that simple."
"No. It's really not."
Morrana raised a hand before they could argue.
Inside the chamber, Voss spoke into a headset.
"Bring Chamber Six up by two points. Slowly. I don't want another collapse."
A voice answered through the speaker. "Subjects are near exhaustion."
"Then rotate stimuli."
"They need rest."
Voss finally looked irritated. "Fear does not care about rest."
Haruto made a small sound.
Not a scream.
More like a breath-catching wrong.
Voss turned toward him.
"Stay with us, Mr. Senda. You're doing well."
Haruto lifted his head enough to look at him.
His voice was rough. "Go to hell."
Voss smiled faintly. "Already there, technically."
Azaria looked at Morrana.
"Can I bite him?"
"No."
"Not even a little?"
"No."
Morrana rolled her eyes. "What with you and biting."
Azaria replied fast, Well, there are a lot of devils that eat humans, so I want to taste what a devil is like."
Before Morrana could say anything, zarathos butt in "Well, devils' taste changes based on their bloodline or class, but most devil i ate tasted like firm pork to me."
Everyone looked at him, and Zarathos looked at them back without flinching." What? I get bored hunting, so I go on Reddit to look at supernatural questions, one of them being what a demon tastes like."
Maeriva cracked her knuckles softly. "Okie, ignoring what skullface does in his freetime What's the play?"
Morrana looked around the observation room. Consoles. Backup relays. Manual shutters. Emergency suppression seals.
"Azaria, take the cameras and comms. Seraphina, find a way to isolate the core from the upper chambers. Maeriva, door. Zarathos…"
He looked at her.
"If Voss tries to trigger anything, scare him."
Zarathos's fire brightened under his hood.
"Scare. Not kill."
He sounded disappointed.
Morrana gave him a look.
He grunted. "Fine."
Azaria was already at the security console.
"Cameras looping. Comms delayed by thirty seconds. Not perfect, but the basement nerds will think it's lag."
Seraphina connected the stolen tablet to the main line. Her fingers moved quickly, but her breathing changed. Shorter. More focused.
Morrana noticed.
"You good?"
"Ask me after I don't accidentally cook forty civilians."
"Fair."
Maeriva took a position at the chamber door.
"Ready."
Morrana watched Voss through the glass.
He adjusted a dial. Haruto's back arched slightly, his hands pulling against the restraints.
The red lines in the cables brightened.
Seraphina cursed under her breath."He's increasing the draw."
Morrana stopped waiting.
"Now."
Maeriva opened the door quietly.
That was the trick. Not kicking it in. Not shouting. Just opening it like she belonged there. The first engineer looked up.
"Who are—"
Maeriva crossed the room and put him down against the floor before he finished. Morrana took the second with a strike to the ribs and a hand over the mouth. Azaria slipped in behind the third and tapped two fingers against the back of his neck.
He collapsed. Voss turned slowly from the console.
For a second, he looked annoyed.
Then he saw Zarathos walk in.
His face changed.
A lot like he saw God.
His eyes widened. His lips parted slightly. One hand moved toward the console.
Zarathos caught his wrist.
The flames under his hood lifted just enough to show the burning skull beneath.
"Don't do that or I'll rip that hand off."
Voss swallowed. His fingers opened.
Morrana stepped to Haruto's side.
He looked up at her, eyes unfocused.
"Are you real?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"Good."
His head dropped back.
"Thought I was losing it."
Maeriva cut the restraints.
Seraphina entered last, still looking at the tablet.
"I've isolated three upper chambers. Working on the rest."
Azaria glanced at the core.
It pulsed once.
The room lights flickered.
Haruto flinched.
Morrana held his shoulder.
"Stay still."
He gave a weak laugh.
"Wasn't planning a dance."
Morrana looked at the thing hovering at his chest.
It shifted slightly, as if aware of them.
Not alive.
Not dead.
Waiting.
Azaria moved closer, smile thin.
"Okay, ugly. Let's see what makes you tick."
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