The Wages Of Sin

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 32, Post Number 781

-Outside the wall, Sin-

The day had finally arrived. After the rescue of Serena Anderson from Haunted Castle and the return to Sabertooth Guild Hall Victoria had to prepare for the trip to Sin, which included gathering supplies, having her Azure Armor magically resized to fit her new form, and trying to come up with a convincing explanation as to why she had become taller and had longer hair. Fortunately it did not take too much talking to convince Abigail and Florence that they were dealing with the real Victoria and not an imposter. Her magic signature was the same and Victoria had demonstrated knowledge of things that only she would know by telling Abigail about the blonde going shirtless across a good chunk of Central Desierto while looking for the slaver camp and telling Florence about their trip to the remote village and subduing the bandits who had followed them to Sakuramori with her special shadow control power.

It had been a lengthy trip to Sin, but the helicopter that Franklin Kerwes had hired took Abigail and Victoria to their destination none the worse for wear. The pair had disembarked while Florence stayed on board because Pergrande would not allow them to land for medical treatment, so the older blonde would be their only hope for medical treatment should Abigail and Victoria need healing after completing the mission. Victoria would use the magic Florence had taught her and boost its power with the Crown of Persephone to handle any medical treatment in the field.

Once the helicopter had lifted off safely Victoria took off her backpack and pulled out the Bandolier, then put it on over her Azure Armor. There was no one to frighten in Sin because Abigail and Victoria would be the only living humans in the nightmarish landscape that loomed just beyond the wall. Even on the "safe" side of the wall the landscape looked like something out of that movie about the short guys taking a magic ring to throw into a volcano. The ground was barren and devoid of any plant life; there was not even a single shriveled tree in sight to let them know that trees once grew here. The sky was somehow red and there were no clouds at all.

"Well, this looks inviting." Abigail dryly commented on the dead landscape, red sky, and towering wall built to keep out whatever lurked deeper in the land of Sin.

"Yeah. Why go to Crescent Island on vacation when you can go here instead?" Victoria remarked caustically.

"Adventure tourism is a thing, you know. Some people get bored with tours to places like Joya and Seven and want something more exciting." Abigail replied in all seriousness. Victoria conceded that point and faced the wall.

"It's exciting all right. There's a scientist who's big on human experimentation somewhere in that forsaken place and we've gotta root him out. In addition to the local hostile wildlife, Kerwes probably has some more of those lizard things running around as extra security. He may have even cooked up some new mutants for us." Victoria said to Abigail. Abigail nodded. Victoria put her backpack on and brought out her Light Machine Gun so that she would have a weapon ready when they passed through the gate.

"Are you ready to go in?" Abigail asked. Victoria noticed that she was sporting a cuirass much like the brunette's own; the major differences were that Abigail's was olive green and that it lacked pauldrons. She must have gotten it from Hargeon Town after the pair rescued Liz from the slavers. The blonde mage looked towards the wall and asked a question.

"Sure. We're not getting paid to stand around and comment about the landscape." Victoria answered. The pair set out for the gate that protected the world from Sin. It was time to save the world from Alexander Kerwes and his Project Lacedaemon before it came to fruition... if it had not reached fruition already. Hopefully Victoria had not wasted too much time on trying to find out who she was to stop the scientist.

-Inside Sin-

"Oh look, more dead landscape." Victoria snarked once the pair had made it through the gate and faced Sin itself. It was every bit as bad as the "safe" side of the wall. There was no plant life, no greenery, just an endless expanse of barren ground and the sound of hostile wildlife in the distance. This place made Desierto look like a paradise.

"You know how this all came about, right?" Abigail asked Victoria. The brunette nodded. Florence had told her the story on the way to the wall.

"Yep. Pergrande woke up one morning and thought that it'd be a good day to throw out the mages 'cause some noble got worked up about mages jaywalking across streets, telling bad jokes, stealing toilet paper from public bathrooms, and driving down property values, but some of the mages weren't going to take being thrown out lying down. The exiled mages gathered here and combined their power to raise a big army of magic creatures, but the creatures were beyond their control. The creatures killed the mages and the land's been tainted with dark magic ever since." Victoria answered in an irreverent version of the origin story of Sin. The brunette did not care much for Pergrande ever since they denied the helicopter the right to land for medical treatment if anyone got hurt and hearing about how Sin came about strengthened her dislike of the irrationally anti-mage kingdom. Victoria and Abigail were taking care of a threat that Pergrande could not be bothered to use any of its mighty armies to deal with and the country acted like giving them permission to pass through their airspace was such a great sacrifice on their part, so the brunette did not bother trying to get Pergrande's story straight or give it any special respect.

"That's really cynical, but you've got the basics down. Anyway, we've gotta travel through a region filled with dark magic and hostile creatures and who knows what else. Everything here is hostile, so if you see anything that looks at you funny, shoot to kill." Abigail said to Victoria.

"You've got it." Victoria replied. It was not like the brunette needed Abigail's permission to defend herself, but it was nice to know that the blonde would not be upset if some of the hostile wildlife ended up dead. Together the pair strode into the unknown and untamed region of Sin in search of Kerwes and his lair.

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"Actually, Pergrande's policy against mages began when a wizard cast a love spell on a queen a long time ago and the queen left the throne. The king of the time vowed that such  anything would never happen again and thus instituted the policy we know Pergrande for today." Abigail spoke up to give the true story of how Pergrande came to be so stubbornly anti-mage. Victoria scoffed at it. She still held to the opinion that the upper crust of the kingdom was willing to trade the lives of every last one of its citizens just to push its message that mages were a class of people who needed to be killed on sight. She wondered how many ordinary citizens of Pergrande really believed in the "mages are bad" message that the upper crust kept pushing.

"I admit that what the mage did was a problem. You don't want people casting love spells or mind control on royalty because that could really mess things up. It was bad and the mage deserved to be punished, but does every mage have to pay for the crimes of that one mage who did something bad long ago?" Victoria asked Abigail a rhetorical question. It seemed like the king had overreacted when he declared that mages in the kingdom should be killed on sight. That was a good way to make enemies of everyone who could use magic, which was a good number of people in the world. It was also a good way to throw away talent that Pergrande could use; running off mages under pain of death deprived them of people who could help fight the creatures of Sin and maybe even push them back so that the kingdom would have less trouble with Sin. Oh well... if they wanted to live in constant fear of what could come pouring out of Sin, that was their business.

"You don't seem to like Pergrande very much." Abigail observed. Victoria did not know whether the blonde was being serious or sarcastic, but the brunette answered anyway.

"No, I don't. Not when they refuse to let us even land for medical attention if we get hurt during the mission and require more care than Florence or I can give us." Victoria replied bitterly to let Abigail know that there was more to her disdain for Pergrande than just trying to buck the establishment. There was a solid reason behind it and it was linked to how the pair were saving Pergrande from a lot of tragedy down the road.

"Look, I get that they don't like mages 'cause of one guy long ago. Whatever floats their boat. But when mages are doing you a big favor by going into a no-man's-land that you helped create with a shortsighted and oppressive policy, I'd think that at the very least you could set your hatred aside long enough to allow them to use one of your hospitals if they get hurt." Victoria laid out why she disliked Pergrande. For a brief moment Abigail looked impressed that Victoria could properly use words like "shortsighted" and "oppressive" in a sentence. She then gave a reply.

"I feel the same way you do. I feel like we're being given the short end of the stick, but it's probably for the best that we don't land and use one of their hospitals." Abigail commiserated with the brunette. Victoria then asked a question.

"Why? Do you think that they'll give us an "accidental" overdose of something to kill us?" Victoria asked. Abigail turned to the brunette and nodded. The brunette had never considered that, but it would be just like Pergrande to kill off hired mages once they had gotten what they wanted out of the mages. Victoria was safer because she was part of Sabertooth, but Abigail was a Guildless mage and thus did not enjoy the kind of protection that Victoria did.

"On second thought, you're right. I can totally see them doing that because they hate mage so much. I don't want to die by accidental morphine overdose, if you get what I mean." Victoria conceded that Abigail had a point when she said what she did.

"Yeah. We'll just do our job, get back on the helicopter, and fly outta here to a place that doesn't hate our guts." Abigail summed up their plan. The pair kept moving forward in the no-man's-land and kept an eye out for any creatures that wanted them dead, which would be everything here if what the blonde had said was true. At least Victoria knew what their enemies were.

The pair looked for any signs of a hidden lair like a cave that really stood out, a deep pit where a deep pit should not be, or even a tower that had recently been built and stuck out like a sore thumb. The landscape in front of them was a flat plain with nothing in the way of landmarks, so Kerwes must not have set up his lair here. They would just have to keep moving and stay vigilant for either the local hostile wildlife or some of Kerwes' lizard mutants. If they were really unlucky they would have to face some of Kerwes' latest creations.

They did not know what else the rogue scientist could cook up, but that was exactly what made him so dangerous. Victoria had thwarted his plans twice before and in their last encounter she had proven that she could defeat him in a head-to-head fight. After his defeat he had vowed that the next time they met would be their last meeting. His back was against the wall and he would do anything to stave off death no matter how low he had to go. Victoria had no choice but to finish what she started because Alexander Kerwes was too dangerous to be allowed to live.

If Alexander Kerwes was allowed to continue his experiments Pergrande would most likely be the first target for either more test subjects for perfecting Agent Lacedaemon, a testing ground for his newest mutants, or for outright conquest once he had perfected Agent Lacedaemon. Victoria had already been given permission by authorities to kill him instead of taking him in alive and Kerwes was determined to not be brought in alive. She would have to go against Sabertooth policy and employ lethal force instead of trying to take him alive; this might cost her her place in Sabertooth, but it was a risk that she was willing to take if Earthland was to be saved. However, there was one small problem.

To bring Alexander Kerwes to justice, first Victoria would need to find him.

Kerwes knew what was coming and had taken precautions. He had holed up somewhere deep in Sin and had fortified his hideout with all kinds of defensive measures. Automated sentry guns, floor traps like panels that covered pitfall traps, electrified floors, mutants of all kinds roaming the place... Kerwes was going to pull out all the stops to keep Victoria from getting to him. If all of those measures failed and she got to him, she was pretty sure that Kerwes had one last card to play. Victoria was not sure what that last card was, but she was certain that it was going to be an unpleasant surprise.

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-Sin, one hour later-

"Does it feel like we're going around in circles or what?" Abigail asked Victoria. The pair had been traveling for over an hour and had not come across anything that betrayed the presence of a secret base. No lab-grown mutants running around, no obviously altered cave, nothing. Either Kerwes had hidden himself well and was waiting for them to find him or they were just unobservant. Either possibility was valid.

"Yeah, Abby. I think we're going around in circles 'cause everything looks the same. The same rocks on the ground, the same mountains, the same everything." Victoria concurred with the blonde mage. The pair continued to walk and complain about how monotonous their surroundings were while wondering where in Sin Kerwes had set up his secret lair. Moments later Abigail spotted something of interest and pointed it out to the brunette.

"Hey Vic, do you see that cave over there? That's not natural, is it?" Abigail asked, pointing towards the cave with her left hand. Victoria followed the pointing finger and soon saw what the blonde was talking about. It was a cave to the far right that was just a bit too rounded at the top and too wide to be natural, suggesting that the cave was man-made and shaped to allow special equipment to be moved into it.

"Yeah, I see it. And no, it's not natural. It's too precisely made to be natural." Victoria answered. Now that the duo finally had a clue, it was time to go investigate the cave and see what they could find. If it was a decoy, then all they would have wasted was time. If it was the real thing, then they would be one step closer to finding Alexander Kerwes.

"OK, let's check it out then." Abigail said before taking the lead and making a beeline for the cave. Victoria followed right behind her with Light Machine Gun at the ready. Hopefully this would not be a waste of valuable time.

-Inside the cave-

Abigail and Victoria walked into the cave and immediately noted how precise everything was. The walls were perfectly smooth and the opening that led deeper into the cave was a perfect arch. Beside the left wall sat an excavation machine that was perfectly clean as if it had never been used; there was not even a hint of oil on the ground beneath it. This perfection only made the pair worry about what surprises were waiting for them deeper in the cave.

"Everything's too... too perfect. It's like he wants us to know that this was man-made and that this is his lair." Abigail hypothesized aloud. Victoria concurred with her colleague. They walked through the smaller opening and saw a metal door with a large circular object above it and to the right. Victoria was pretty sure that they had just been caught on camera.

"Smile, we're on camera." Victoria snarked, pointing towards the circular object hanging just above the doorway. As if to confirm her suspicions Kerwes' voice rang out from a hitherto unseen intercom placed beside the door.

"Well, well, if it isn't my father's lapdog all grown up! And she even brought a friend! I didn't even know that she had friends!" Alexander Kerwes sniped at Victoria. The brunette was honestly surprised that Kerwes had recognized her in her new form.

"Don't be so surprised that I see through your trickery, Lapdog! I recognize that armor and that backpack from our last meeting! Unless the lapdog died and you're just an imposter using her gear, which is highly unlikely, you're that same annoying lapdog that always chases the promise of money and the next adrenaline fix, that same annoying lapdog my father hired to kill me!" Kerwes took another swipe at Victoria. Victoria was hardly affected by the insulting name of "Lapdog." She had been called a lot worse before. Victoria calmly sauntered up to the intercom speaker and spoke into the grill.

"I'm glad to see you too. Or hear you, anyway." Victoria snarked back. Laughter met her wisecrack.

"I know what you and your friend are here for, so I'll skip the witty banter and cut to the chase. I'm in here, but getting to me won't be easy. You'll run into some surprises along the way, but don't worry about me running away. I'll be waiting for you at the very end. I did say that our next meeting would be our last, after all." Kerwes said before reminding Victoria of the promise he had made back on Snowfall Island. The brunette was surprised that he would stick to it considering how he had bailed out on her at Shadow Island. The metal door in front of the pair then opened as if beckoning them to enter.

"I'll be waiting for you and your friend, Lapdog." Kerwes said before the intercom went silent. Victoria faced Abigail, who had hung back to let Victoria and the scientist exchange verbal barbs without a third party taking up space.

"Ready to go see the good doctor?" Victoria asked Abigail.

"Sure thing. I didn't come all this way to go sightseeing... not that there's much here to see." Abigail answered. Victoria laughed a little when she heard that.

"We'll both need a vacation after this adventure. We'll go somewhere that's not a wasteland tainted by dark magic. Now c'mon, let's see what abominations the good doctor has waiting for us." Victoria said to Abigail. The pair then entered the metallic corridor that lay in front of them.

-Inside Kerwes' lair-

Abigail and Victoria had just set foot inside the corridor when the metallic door closed and locked behind them. Abigail ran to it and tried to open it, then gave it a half-hearted punch when it was clear that the door was sealed. Abigail then stated the obvious.

"We won't be going back that way." Abigail remarked. She faced forward and rejoined Victoria in the vital task of finding and stopping Alexander Kerwes once and for all.

"Be ready for anything, Abby. This is his last hiding place and he knows what we're here to do. He's got nothing to lose, so he'll throw everything he has at us to stay alive." Victoria suggested to the blonde as their footsteps echoed down the sterile metallic corridor that loomed in front of them with no end in sight.

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-Inside the corridor, 15 minutes later-

The corridor was a typical square and was wide enough for ten people to walk shoulder-to-shoulder without problems... Kerwes must have anticipated trouble and must have wanted to give his mutant defenders as much space as possible to meet and deal with intruders. It was also well-lit with florescent lights on the ceiling and dormant light strips along the baseboard of the walls to the left and right of the pair. The floors were of construction-grade tile with no distinguishing characteristics aside from looking to have been recently installed. Why had Kerwes gone to all this trouble to furnish something that was likely going to go up in smoke when he triggered a self-destruct sequence in a last-ditch effort to take the mages with him when he was defeated?

She had no idea why he had done that, but she appreciated the simple layout and the more than adequate lighting. Abigail walked carefully along the tiles and moved slowly in case a pitfall trap had been set up. If a tile gave way beneath her the blonde would have enough time to back away before she fell in. Victoria followed carefully behind her while watching for those reptilian mutants with the bullet-resistant hides... she would not be surprised if some of them were hidden in nearby wall panels or had been loosed elsewhere in the facility.

"It's quiet. Too quiet." Abigail said to Victoria. That line was undoubtedly something taken from a movie, but the sentiment it expressed was an accurate one. The facility was way too quiet to be the site of Kerwes' last stand. The pair expected automated sentry guns to pop out of the ceiling and open fire, hordes of reptilian mutants to be thundering down the corridor with claws ready to rend flesh, anything to show that the facility was on full alert and not abandoned. Maybe Kerwes was trying to lull them into a false sense of security before dropping the hammer, so the pair needed to stay alert.

"Yeah." Victoria agreed laconically. Abigail stepped on a floor tile that sunk into the floor and a six-foot length of wall on each side dropped down to expose a pair of reptilian mutants; all four screeched a warning sound and hurried to the attack.

"Shit!" Abigail cursed while drawing her Sky Blade. Victoria stepped a couple of feet to Abigail's left and opened fire on the first of the mutants, aiming for its head and hoping to hit the soft tissue inside its mouth. Instead she grazed the outside of its jaws and only pissed it off, but Abigail came to the rescue in her typical flashy style. She extended the Sky Blade to its full length and focused silver magic into the blade, then used her signature Wind Reaper spell.

"WIND REAPER!" Abigail exclaimed before lashing out with her sword and cutting all four reptiles through the waist. They screamed and fell over backwards, thrashing with their arms for several unsettling seconds before they bled out and died. Victoria sighed and dispelled her Light Machine Gun. It was useless against these creatures... they must have been specifically created with enhanced toughness for Kerwes' last battle.

"Thanks." Victoria thanked Abigail for the rescue. Abigail turned away from the defeated beasts and spoke to the Sabertooth mage.

"Say, their skin's pretty thick. Do you have anything that you can use against them?" Abigail asked. Victoria frowned and listed the only two reliable ways to defeat them.

"Yeah, I have two things that work, a Grenade Launcher and a Beam Cannon. Those reptiles are vulnerable to explosives and my Beam Cannon spell punches through most armor like it's toilet paper. I'm worried about you getting caught in the blast radius if I use the Grenade Launcher. The Beam Cannon's strong, but it eats through my magic power like there's no tomorrow. However, there might not be a tomorrow for us if I don't use the Beam Cannon." Victoria laid out what she could use and expect to do reliable damage against the reptilian mutants. Aiming for the soft tissue inside their mouths was an option, but it was too unreliable to guarantee a kill against the creatures. She needed to make quick kills to save magic power for the final fight against Alexander Kerwes, but her best options were either dangerous to Abigail or costly to use in terms of magic power. Still, she would need Abigail's help to make it to the end, so Victoria would take a gamble and use her most effective weapons to give them a better chance of survival.

"Hmmm. I see. I don't know what to tell you other than to be careful because we need to save magic power for the big fight." Abigail said to Victoria, who summoned her Grenade Launcher.

"I'll lead the way so that you won't be as likely to get caught in the grenade's blast radius when I use the weapon." Victoria volunteered. Abigail shook her head.

"No, Vickie. You're our only medic. If you go down early, we're screwed. I'll keep the lead so that you aren't as likely to get hurt if I trigger another trap." Abigail asserted in a tone that would not brook any opposition. Victoria was not sure what to say to that, so she only nodded.

"OK. Just stay safe." Victoria said to her blonde partner. Together the pair walked past the bisected mutant lizards and proceeded further down the corridor with renewed vigilance. That floor panel was but the first of many traps that their host had set for them and they needed to avoid triggering as many of them as they could.

Victoria kept a short distance behind Abigail and did her best to focus on the task at hand, but she was deep in thought. For the second time since they had met Abigail was putting her life and career on the line to help Victoria with a job that she had no stake in. The first time Abigail had helped Victoria on Crescent Island with killing Kerwes' reptilian "failures" that had been dumped a short distance away from Mermaid Cove and had taken refuge in the tidal caves to breed more of their species. The brunette was simultaneously worried and thankful that Abigail was taking such a big risk to help her defeat Alexander Kerwes once and for all. Once this job was over she needed to thank the blonde for her help with all the jobs they had taken together.

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It had been five minutes since something had last tried to kill them and Abigail and Victoria were on edge. So far they had not set off any more floor traps, but there was no predicting what could be lurking around the next corner. Fortunately for them they did not have to worry about a small army of angry reptiles around the corner, but their joy was short-lived when they reached a set of silver double doors that stood at the end of the hallway. It was a elevator and Victoria knew what that meant.

"Oh great. An elevator." Victoria snarked. Abigail blinked and turned to face the Sabertooth mage.

"What's so bad about that?" Abigail asked her. Drawing on her unpleasant experience on Divide Island, the brunette gave her answer.

"For one thing, there's no other way down. For another thing, Kerwes will be in full control of the elevator, so if he wants to sand us to a floor full of reptiles and keep the doors wide open, he can do that. If he wants to send the elevator plummeting to the bottom of the shaft with us in it, he can do that too." Victoria answered with the kind of authority that came with experience. Abigail stared blankly at Victoria for a few seconds, then groaned once she comprehended the magnitude of what Victoria had told her.

"Damn, I hate it when you're right. Once we get on it we'll be at his mercy. But I don't see any other way down except to cut a hole in the floor and climb down the cable." Abigail commented before suggesting a possible way down. Victoria shook her head.

"I wouldn't risk it, Abby. Kerwes has likely already accounted for that approach and he'll be ready to bring the elevator down on our heads as soon as we leave the elevator." Victoria nixed the idea on the spot. While Abigail had the good idea of finding a way down that was not dependent on the whims of their host, the elevator looked to be the only way down. She hated to even think this, but they would just have to hope that Kerwes was more interested in a fight than he was in reducing them to crimson stains on the elevator floor by sending it plummeting to the bottom as soon as they set foot in it.

"Well then, we don't have any choice but to get on board and hope for the best." Abigail summarized their plight. Victoria sighed. Once they finished discussing their course of action the elevator doors dinged open as if inviting them in. The brunette would not be surprised if Kerwes had been listening in the entire time they were talking. The mages looked at each other, then got on board.

"All aboard." Victoria dryly remarked. She was about to put her life and that of Abigail in the hands of a certified lunatic who had openly expressed his intent to kill them both. The doors closed with a DING and the pair found themselves listening to some kind of classical music that had a prominent choir backed by violins and other stringed instruments. The choir was singing in Latin, but the brunette was no fan of classical music and could not tell what the music was other than something really old.

-Inside the elevator-

The elevator was a typical one of its type; it featured a faux-tile floor, a floor number display on the top right, and a no-frills control panel on the right with thirty buttons for floors, an OPEN DOOR button and a CLOSE DOOR button.  It even had an intercom grill that could be activated by pressing and holding the CALL FOR HELP button located just beneath it. Victoria laughed at that detail.

"Well, what now?" Abigail asked.

"I guess we go to Basement Floor Thirty." Victoria remarked. She took a deep breath and pressed the thirtieth floor button with the index finger of her left hand. The square button glowed blood red and the elevator started to descend at normal speed before it halted around the third basement floor.

"Oh great." Victoria commented as a familiar voice came on over the intercom. She should have known that this would happen.

"Did you honestly think I'd make it that easy for you?" Kerwes asked a rhetorical question. Victoria frowned and clenched her teeth as the scientist laughed at them. She could not wait to punch this guy's face in when they finally met.

"I'm eager for us to fight too, Lapdog, but first I'd like to have some fun with you and your friend!" He said as the elevator started again. It began to slowly descend, then stopped around the fifth floor. It then reversed course and ascended back to the first floor, where it paused for a few moments. Victoria did not like the look of this and neither did Abigail, who put away her sword. Victoria dispelled her Grenade Launcher to prevent accidentally firing a grenade and blowing them both into an indescribable crimson mush.

The elevator then descended rapidly. Both girls screamed and vainly tried to stay on their feet as it descended out of control and threatened to slam into the bottom of the shaft. Victoria slammed into the left wall, spun around, and then fell face-first onto the floor and Abigail lurched backwards and slumped against the back wall while her hands scrabbled for anything to steady herself with. The elevator then came to a sudden halt on the twenty-ninth floor and both girls were thrown into the air. Kerwes laughed at them for a second time when they landed.

"My first impulse was to let you both fall to your doom, but it's much more fun to watch you suffer. Besides, I want us to fight one last time and we can't fight if you're both dead." Kerwes taunted the pair with the knowledge that he could end their lives at any time he wanted. The elevator then began to rise as the mages tried to get up.

"Hey Abby, I know you like me and all, but would you mind getting your hand off of my ass?" Victoria asked Abigail, who had fallen on top of Victoria and was pushing to get off of her while the brunette was lying on her stomach. Abigail's left hand was on the floor and her right was on Victoria's backside. The blonde looked at where her hand was and blushed.

"Um, yeah. Sorry!" Abigail meekly apologized before obliging and getting off of Victoria, freeing the brunette to finally stand up. The mages stood up again and the elevator door opened onto the fourth floor. Victoria looked at Abigail.

"Ready to see what's on this floor?" Victoria asked the blonde.

"Yeah, let's do it!" Abigail answered. The mages stepped off of the elevator and onto the fourth floor, which was another sterile corridor that stretched as far as the eye could see. While they were apprehensive about what waited for them on this floor, whatever waited for them sure beat another elevator ride.

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-Basement Floor Four-

Abigail and Victoria stepped off the elevator to find that ahead of them was a short corridor that ended with steel doors that had glass windows. They were just like doors that the surgical theaters of hospitals used. Victoria did not like the look of that one bit, but she had no choice but to press on and see what was inside the room because there was no other passageway in the corridor, nothing but the elevator they had just gotten off of.

"I don't like the look of this at all." Abigail said to Victoria, her right hand on the grip of the Sky Blade and ready to draw at a moment's notice.

"Me neither." Victoria replied. Forty-five seconds of walking led the pair to the doors, where they lingered for a moment before mustering the courage to go inside. Abigail looked at Victoria and looked like she wanted to be anywhere else but here right now, a sentiment that the Sabertooth mage shared.

"Ready?" Abigail asked.

"I'm ready." Victoria answered. Abigail kicked open the doors and the pair burst inside the room ready for a fight.

-Inside the room-

Abigail and Victoria paused a short distance away from the doors and immediately regretted their decision to enter. On the left and right walls of the large and sterile room were upright capsules, each containing a mutated person exactly like the ones Victoria had fought and killed on Shadow Island. The only difference was that they were a mix of male and female instead of being exclusively male like the mutated people Victoria encountered on Shadow Island. They must have been random adventurers who Kerwes had captured and used as test subjects for Agent Lacedaemon. A curious detail was that the capsules on the left all contained women and those on the right contained only men... Kerwes was a rogue scientist, but he was a meticulous rogue scientist.

"What the Hell is this place?" Abigail asked a rhetorical question. She then walked to the left side of the room and examined a capsule that contained a mutated woman. The woman's left arm was twice the size as a normal person's while the right arm remained normal. Pustules were all over the left side of the woman's face and her mouth was twisted in a permanent grimace of pain that exposed the woman's teeth and gums. Victoria walked closed enough to the capsule to take a look and had to turn away from the sight.

"It's one of his laboratories. These people were used to test Agent Lacedaemon. I'd say that he tried to test it on women as well as on me for the sake of being thorough." Victoria remarked. All of the mutated people were dead inside their capsules, which was a mercy compared to the suffering they must have went through when injected with A-LAC. Abigail turned away from the capsule and looked towards the double doors on the other side of the room.

"Let's go." Abigail said in disgust. Since there was nothing else of interest, the brunette nodded in agreement and left the room through the other door.

-On the other side-

Abigail and Victoria left the other room behind and found themselves in a medical prep room complete with a box of gloves, a surgical gown, a surgical mask, and other tools of the trade. On the left was a sink with handles that were stained with blood, presumably from unwilling test subjects. On the right was a small hanging cabinet full of chemicals like painkillers and sedatives.

"Nothing creepy about this. Not at all." Abigail snarked about the room. She noticed something on a table against the back wall and walked over to investigate it while Victoria wondered how Kerwes managed to get running water so far out here. She suspected that there was a lot of lacrimas that made everything run. There had to be because Sin was not anywhere near civilization.

"Hey Vic, check this out. It's a notebook and in it's a lot of mentions of something called Agent Lacedaemon." Abigail notified Victoria of what she had found. The brunette walked over to her blonde companion and took a glance at the red spiral notebook, which was indeed filled with notes pertaining to the project. They were written in neat handwriting in black ink with notes written off to the side in red ink. While the subject matter was utterly revolting and Victoria should have torched the notebook on the spot, it was still oddly interesting to see how far Alexander Kerwes would go to perfect his life's work.

"According to these notes, A-LAC has worse effects on women than it does men. Also, test subjects die within two days of it being administered." Victoria read off a small section of notes that included a detailed list of the problems it induced in female test subjects, which she duly recited. Among those problems was asymmetrical arm growth and musculature, pustules forming on the face, and a laundry list of other issues that culminated in a heart attack as the cause of death. Abigail looked at the brunette like she had just grown a second pair of arms.

"He wrote down all of that?" Abigail asked incredulously.

"All of it. He's a scientist and he's trying to perfect his life's work. Once it's perfected he's gonna sell it to national governments as a formula that can create super soldiers on demand." Victoria answered calmly. Abigail blinked. Victoria remained calm and continued to read on despite her growing revulsion at what Kerwes had been doing since they had last met. What she read was revolting indeed.

Victoria thumbed through the notebook and found another section that described how the perfected A-LAC was supposed to work.

Agent Lacedaemon worked by enhancing aggression, completely killing empathy, dulling the recipient's ability to feel pain, and boosting the effects of adrenaline rushes to a level far beyond what ordinary people experienced. At least that was how it was supposed to work on paper. In practice it caused its recipients to undergo the problems listed in the earlier section and die within two days of A-LAC being administered. Victoria read some notes jotted in the margins where the author considered the possibility of selling the current version of A-LAC as a means to get funding for further research.

Below that note Kerwes had further noted that in its current state A-LAC made for a better emergency measure than a super soldier maker because its users died within forty-eight hours of usage. Ever the perfectionist, Kerwes had rejected the idea of selling an inferior version for quick cash because he wanted to make the "perfect" Agent Lacedaemon before even thinking about selling it to governments. That was a relief; that decision meant that there was very little chance of knock-offs being made by government labs.

All Abigail and Victoria had to do was kill Kerwes and destroy the lab so that the agent could never be made in any form. First they had to get past his defenses. Then they had to fight him to the death. Neither of those tasks were going to be easy.

[Post Word Count: 1,201]
[Total Word Count: 6,847/12,500]

Once Victoria had read enough of the notebook to learn that Kerwes was a meticulous record-keeper she took off her backpack and placed the notebook inside to gather evidence for Franklin Kerwes. Abigail frowned deeply. She then opened her mouth and called Victoria out on what she was doing.

"So you're gonna take that disgusting notebook with you?" Abigail asked angrily. She did not like what was going on and was not shy about expressing it.

"I have to, Abigail. His father wants all the evidence we can get on his son's work." Victoria answered calmly. She wanted to torch the notebook herself, but she was obligated to take it back to Franklin or she would not get paid for any of this even if Alexander Kerwes was killed. Abigail was not buying it. In fact, she was positively livid.

"So you're just gonna hand over the notebook to someone who might use it to jump-start their own research into super soldier projects? Is that what this is all about? Are you gonna doom all of Earthland to a repeat of this... this mess just for a paycheck?" The red-faced Abigail asked Victoria. The brunette sighed. Apparently Abigail did not get the memo about whose project this was before Alexander Kerwes hijacked it and took it into the realm of things that should have never been researched.

"I'll tell you about it when we get outta here. Right now we need to gather evidence and-" Victoria started before Abigail cut her off with a raised hand.

"I'm not buying that, Victoria. Sure, Franklin might mean well and might really want to put an end to Agent Lacedaemon, but who's to say that Alexander doesn't have a secret database of his findings somewhere that his notes are the key to finding? What if we just end up handing governments the research so that they make their own versions of A-LAC? How many lives will they use up and toss aside to perfect the formula?" Abigail asked. Victoria paused in place and looked at the blonde. She had never really thought of that. Seeing that she held the advantage, Abigail pressed her point.

"Think about it for a moment. We're sent here by Alexander's own father and several national governments to kill Alexander so that he's not a threat anymore. OK, fine, I get that. They also want us to grab all the evidence we can on his work and hand it over to them. That's what I don't get. I don't like what this could be leading up to." Abigail continued. Victoria had no rebuttal to that.

"How do you feel about all this, Victoria? Don't you think that there's something fishy about all this?" Abigail asked. The brunette had to take a minute to think of a decent response to give.

"I don't care for it either, Abigail. I'm not smart enough to think that far ahead and that's my fault. I really hope that this doesn't backfire on us, but that's not something that I can predict. All I know is that there's a scientist who's abducted multiple people to test a super soldier formula on and that I've fought him twice before. I want to stop him here and now before he finally perfects A-LAC and sell its to the highest bidder." Victoria replied to the angry blonde, trying to convince the former that the Sabertooth mage was not totally oblivious to how Alexander Kerwes' findings could be used and abused by those with ill intentions and enough power to get away with it. Alexander's research was undoubtedly enticing to those who wanted to get more fighting ability out of their soldiers but did not want to invest heavily in special forces programs. It was also enticing to those who just wanted to create an army of disposable berserkers and point them at their enemies, then watch the mayhem unfold. While A-LAC in its current form was best used to make a one-use army of berserkers instead of a batch of reusable super soldiers, under the right circumstances one use was all that was necessary.

"We'll deal with the moral ramifications of what we're doing later. Right now we need to get to Kerwes and take him out." Abigail agreed. It was obvious that she was not entirely sold on Victoria's reasoning, but she was going along with it for the sake of team unity. The two mages had to work with each other if they wanted to get through this job intact and bickering with each other was not conducive to teamwork.

"OK. We'll talk about it later, but right now let's go back to the elevator and see what else is waiting for us." Victoria stated. Abigail nodded. Together the pair left the prep room and the surgical theater and got back on the elevator. Maybe this time Kerwes would not try to kill them with gravity.

-On the elevator-

Once the pair were safely on board they decided to press the DOWN button and see what happened. Victoria pressed the DOWN button with her left index finger and waited for the elevator to get into motion while the music with the chorus singing in Latin played over the speakers. The elevator worked and descended one floor without incident. The doors even opened without issue... this was too good to be true.

Victoria put one foot forward and the doors slammed shut, nearly catching her left foot in between them, but the brunette was just fast enough to step back. If she had been just a second slower her left foot would have been caught in the closing and badly hurt. Victoria took another step back and saw the elevator begin to descend on its own, meaning that Kerwes had taken control of it.

After about a minute of descending it stopped on the tenth floor and the doors opened up to reveal an empty corridor.

"Before I let you two go any further, I need you to do me a favor. Clean up the mutants on this floor for me. I would have done it myself, but I got so wrapped up in my research that it slipped my mind for weeks. It's been awhile since the last culling and I figured that since you're in the neighborhood, I'll let you guys do it." Kerwes said to them like a friendly neighbor making a request for the mages to watch their dog while they went to get a pack of cigarettes at the convenience store. Victoria frowned. Kerwes was playing mind games with them, but unless they wanted to die messily by getting stuck in a falling elevator the mages would have to play along.

Victoria equipped her Light Machine Gun and the sound of inhuman moaning floated from down the hallway. Victoria took the lead and Abigail followed. As soon as they exited the elevator the doors shut behind them, trapping them on the tenth floor until every last mutant was dead.

[Post Word Count: 1,168]
[Total Word Count: 8,015/12,500]

-Tenth floor-

Victoria and Abigail prepared to face off against the small mutated human army that was about to round the corner. Victoria realized that her Light Machine Gun was not going to be quick enough to take on the masses before they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers, so there was only one option left. The brunette dispelled the Light Machine Gun and brought out her Grenade Launcher to deal with this threat. She did not like what was about to go down, but it was the best choice to keep the pair safe and conserve magic power for the fight with Alexander Kerwes. Things were about to get messy.

"Um, Victoria, why did you change weapons?" Abigail asked her anxiously. Victoria looked at the blonde and wordlessly pointed towards the crowd with her left hand. The crowd of mutated humans numbered at least sixty. They were dressed in all manner of clothing, but the common theme was "adventurer's garb" and all of them wanted Abigail and Victoria dead. They were also 400 meters away and closing fast.

"I'm about to open fire, Abigail. You might not want to see this." Victoria warned the blonde. Knowing what was about to happen, Abigail nodded and shut her eyes. Victoria hesitantly leveled the Grenade Launcher and held off for a moment to fully comprehend what she was about to do. Like what happened in the Phaaz village many months ago, Victoria remembered the advice she had gotten to look them in the eyes before pulling the trigger.

These enemies were mutated people.

They had no choice in this. They did not ask to be turned into abominations.

They were already dead. She was just ending their suffering.

She was just ending their suffering.

That was what she kept telling herself as Victoria took a deep breath and steadied her aim. She then fired the first high-explosive round, which skidded to a halt at the feet of one mutant and sat still before going off. Victoria fired a second with the same result, then a third, then a fourth. Victoria had fired ten grenades before the crowd was reduced to an indescribable mess, but the crowd was no longer posing a threat to them.

Victoria looked at her work and felt another part of her soul slip away. There was nothing to be said to Abigail to make what had happened any less horrific. Victoria exhaled and felt a sense of revulsion that threatened to carry her away then and there, but she shoved it down because she had to in order to get the job done.

"Let's go." Victoria said to Abigail in a voice completely devoid of emotion. Abigail nodded and followed the brunette through what used to be the gang of mutants while keeping her hands over her eyes and looking only through cracks in her fingers. Victoria did not know if there could ever be any forgiveness for what she had done.

-Down the corridor-

The pair passed through the scene of the carnage and reached the other side to find a steel door barring their path. On the right side of the doorframe was an intercom grill. Victoria knew what was about to happen next.

"Well done, Lapdog! I saw through the cameras how quickly and efficiently you dealt with those test subjects! I never thought that you'd have it in you to act so decisively!" Kerwes mockingly congratulated the brunette in an effort to take a cheap shot while she was dejected over what had just happened. Victoria clenched her teeth and kept quiet. She was not in the mood for witty banter and mind games.

"Not in the mood to talk, huh? No zingers for me? No melodramatic vows to bring me to justice? OK, I'll let you two pass and use the elevator. This waaaaaay!" Kerwes rattled off like a game show host before opening the door. Beyond it was a short corridor that led to an elevator that they would be using to be taken down further into the scientist's lair. Victoria and Abigail wordlessly looked at each other, then walked on board.

-Inside the elevator-

"OK ladies, we're gonna go down a few more floors and you're gonna do me another favor! I've got some of those reptiles running around downstairs and I never got around to cleaning them out, so here's the deal. You do that for me and I'll cut the games. I'll bring you right to me and we can settle this once and for all!" Kerwes promised before the elevator jolted to a start. Victoria kept quiet while Abigail nervously eyed the floor counter as it ticked up to the twentieth floor. The elevator door dinged open and the pair obligingly stepped out to face the next floor of horrors.

-On the twentieth floor-

The elevator closed behind them and the pair took a deep breath before proceeding. Victoria hung onto her Grenade Launcher because it was one of her only weapons that could reliably harm the thick-skinned reptilian beasts that would be coming their way. She breathed deeply and kept the weapon at the ready as Abigail drew her Sky Blade. A minute later they could hear high-pitched screeching and the sound of thundering footfalls as the reptiles charged towards them from down the hall... they numbered eight and it sounded like more were on the way.

They were moving far too fast to hit with the Grenade Launcher and Abigail was too close to the blast radius, so Victoria opted to use her spells instead. Beam Cannon could definitely harm them, but she did not know whether Shockwave Punch could. She was about to find out soon enough.

"HERE THEY COME!" Abigail yelled as a group of three especially eager reptiles thundered towards the mages. Victoria took a deep breath and set her Grenade Launcher down, then readied a Beam Cannon spell. This was the time to use some of her big-ticket spells to get them over this hurdle and to the man Victoria had been trying to bring to justice since the incidents on Snowfall Island, Shadow Island, and Divide Island.

Abigail focused silver magic into her Sky Blade and waited for the reptiles to get close, then swung it in a swing so quick that it left a silver afterimage in the air. The three reptiles were cut in half at the chest and fell to the ground, leaving five more of the first wave to deal with. Victoria spotted one of them breaking away from the others and fired a Beam Cannon spell that punched through its skull and made it flop forward to the ground. The other four ran by its corpse without pausing and were looking forward to killing the mages and eating their remains.

[Post Word Count: 1,133]
[Total Word Count: 9,148/12,500]

When the remaining four reptiles of the first wave came bounding in for what they thought was a free kill, Abigail was ready for them. She leaned down and suddenly dashed towards the reptiles, then stopped and performed a spinning slash that made her do a full 360-degree revolution. Mere moments later a thin silver afterimage of the blade appeared at the waist level of the reptiles.

"HURRICANE FANG!" Abigail said. Spurts of blood issued from the wounds and seconds later all four mutants screeched in pain and fell apart where they stood. Victoria was impressed by what she saw Abigail do, but they were not out of the woods yet. More screeches echoed from down the hall as Victoria picked up her Grenade Launcher... Abigail saw her do that and quickly scurried away as the brunette hefted the launcher into position just as she saw the first of the new wave of reptiles rush onto the scene.

Victoria aimed and fired a high-explosive grenade, missing the feet of the first reptile and two more who were right behind it but causing the grenade to settle in place and go off three seconds later, shredding the legs of another mutant that charged towards the pair. It flopped to the ground on the stubs of its legs and screamed pathetically as its colleagues rushed by it without even attempting to help it.

Victoria set down the Grenade Launcher and took careful aim with a Beam Cannon spell, aiming for the skull of her target. Once she had a clear shot she fired and punched through the skull of her intended target plus the forehead of a second mutant who was following close behind, giving the brunette a two-for-one kill for the magic power used to cast the spell. Abigail leaped into action with her Sky Blade and severed the arm of a reptile who raised it for a one-handed strike on the blonde. She then did a spinning slash that saw her bring the Sky Blade down in a two-handed slash that cleaved it in half from shoulder blade to hip.

Abigail quickly retreated before the onslaught of five more scaly enemies moving in for the kill and Victoria brought out her Submachine Gun for a close-quarters fight, clutching it in her right hand. Three of the enemies moved to engage Abigail while two hurried towards Victoria, who drew back her left fist and focused golden energy into it, then punched forward towards the closer of the two reptiles. The Shockwave Punch enveloped it in a concentrated burst of light and sound, dazing it and causing it to scream in agony. The second lizard continued towards Victoria and she formed a Flashbang in her left hand.

It drew close and Victoria tossed the device in its direction. It went off and blinded the beast, giving her an opening to jam the weapon against the roof of its mouth and pull the trigger. It screamed before falling over; Victoria dispelled the empty weapon and brought out her Shotgun to finish the remaining lizard, which was still dazed from the Shockwave Punch. She jammed the barrel of the Shotgun into its mouth, pointed the barrel towards the roof, and fired a Solid Slug that punched through its brain and made it flop backwards.

"Um, Victoria, a little help here!" Abigail called out plaintively, ducking under the swing of one mutant before being hit in the chest with a powerful blow that sent her flying backwards and past the brunette all the way to the elevator door. Victoria looked back for a moment, then faced forward to deal with the three lizards who rushed at her simultaneously. She ducked under the slash of the first one and jammed her Shotgun under its chin before firing a Solid Slug that punched through to its skull, dropping it on the spot. A slash from the second lizard caught her on the left pauldron and knocked her to the right wall, forcing her to drop her weapon and setting her up for a two-handed downward slash from the third.

Victoria jumped back and avoided the worst of the damage, but the front of her pants were shredded by the claws and caused her to feel a jolt of pain. She answered by preparing another Beam Cannon and firing it into the skull of the offender, killing it on the spot. She turned and prepared another Beam Cannon, then firing into the skull of the last mutant standing. Once it was dead Victoria looked down and saw that she was bleeding from the cut.

"Damn. I liked these pants too." Victoria dryly commented on the loss of her pants. They had been cut and they had been bled on, making them useless once this job was over. She focused golden magic into her hands and closed her eyes, then cast a Medical Bag spell on herself to heal the wounds on her legs. They began to close up before her eyes and the bleeding stopped, but what was left of her pants legs were already ruined. Victoria ignored that and dispelled both her Shotgun and her Grenade Launcher, then hurried to Abigail's side.

"Man, that hurt. So m-much." Abigail wheezed. The wind had been knocked out of her and she was undoubtedly bruised from the impact, but she was not bleeding because the armor she was wearing had absorbed the worst of the damage with three nasty gouges to show for it. Abigail looked towards Victoria's legs and commented.

"Vickie, you... your legs!" Abigail gasped. Victoria waved it off.

"I healed them already, Abby. I can bleed on my own time." Victoria remarked with action hero bravado, dismissing the severity of the wounds. They were already healed and the only thing left was the pain, but she could power through that. They needed to get to Kerwes and shut him down for good.

Abigail slowly got to her feet and picked up the sword that had been knocked out of her hand. She then rejoined Victoria and the pair slowly made their way down the hall towards a closed metal door with an intercom grill. Not this again. The pair eventually reached it and were met with more comments from their host.

"It got kinda rough there near the end, but I never doubted you for a moment, Lapdog!" Kerwes complimented Victoria for her determination and her handling of the reptiles. The brunette did not deign to speak and instead waited for the doors to be opened. Abigail wordlessly crossed her arms and tapped her right foot against the floor while waiting for either more verbal barbs or for the door to be opened.

"Not in the mood for banter, I see. Anyway, you did what I wanted, so I'll open the door for you ladies. I'm bringing you straight to the thirtieth floor so that we can end this." Kerwes told them before the door opened to show the elevator doors waiting approximately 150 meters on the other side.

Abigail and Victoria walked through the doors and to the elevator, where they boarded quietly and took stock of their situation.

Abigail was starting to get her breath back after being knocked backwards into the elevator door while Victoria's legs still tingled with pain. After all of the fighting to get this far Victoria had a little over half of her magic power reserves left, but that should be plenty to deal with Alexander Kerwes. Her Beam Cannon and Shockwave Punch were powerful enough to justify their use, but they still cost a lot of power to use, so she had to make each shot count.

-On board the elevator-

"Gooooing down!" Kerwes announced cheerfully as the elevator began its final descent to the thirtieth floor. Both girls were anxious about the upcoming fight with the scientist behind all of this. They did not know what tricks he had up his lab coat sleeve, so they would have to be careful because his back was to the wall and he had nothing to lose.

The elevator slowed down and stopped smoothly on the thirtieth floor, permitting the duo to disembark and stare down a bare concrete corridor that only had fluorescent lights on the ceiling and steel double doors at the end.

"I'm waiting for you just down the hall." Kerwes said to them.

The pair took one last breath before stepping off the elevator, which closed behind them. There was no way out but forward. It was time to finish this.

"Ready?" Victoria asked Abigail.

"Ready." Abigail answered confidently. Together the two mages strode down the corridor and towards the steel double doors. They would need to work together for the final battle, but the two of them could handle whatever Kerwes had waiting for them. They were sure of that.

[Post Word Count: 1,475]
[Total Word Count: 10,623/12,500]

-Basement Floor Thirty, past the steel double doors-

The steel double doors parted to admit the pair to a command center exactly like the one inside the Snowfall Island base. It was a medium-sized square room lined wall-to-wall with computer consoles and computer monitors showing various images like the chemical makeup of Agent Lacedaemon, a double helix being pulled apart to illustrate precisely how A-LAC affected human DNA, and security footage of the pair's battles through the facility. They saw a blond man in a white lab coat and blue jeans sitting with his back to them. He was typing calmly on a keyboard while humming the tune of the music they had heard on the elevator. Victoria equipped her Light Machine Gun and as soon as she did so he spun around to greet them, but not before pressing a button that opened a hitherto concealed passageway to the left of him that led down.

"Hello there, Lapdog. I'm so glad that you and your friend could make it all the way here. I was worried that the reptilian mutants might kill you before I got a chance to do it myself." Alexander Kerwes greeted the pair like he had invited them for tea instead of for a battle to the death. Victoria frowned and met his eyes with her own.

"I'll spare you the theatrics. I'm here to end this once and for all." Victoria flatly stated her intentions. Kerwes laughed at her and smiled widely. He reached for the back of the chair he had been sitting in and glowed red for a moment.

"I want to end this too, so I'll skip the formalities because we both know each other. Let's GET THIS STARTED!" He said normally before shouting at the end. He then flung the office chair at her with his left hand and bolted for the recently opened passageway while Victoria covered her head and blocked the worst of the chair's impact with her forearms. Victoria shrugged it off and bolted for the stairs herself with Abigail following right behind her.

-Downstairs-

In front of them loomed a wide and lengthy access tunnel with pipes hanging from the ceiling and lighting provided by dull yellow emergency lights place at 50-meter intervals along the floor. Victoria spotted the figure of a human running ahead, so she raised her weapon and opened fire on it, loosing a twenty-round burst of fully automatic weapons fire in Kerwes's direction. He did not flinch as he kept running towards the end of the tunnel, so Victoria assumed that she did not land a single hit. The chase would continue.

Victoria pulled ahead of Abigail and hurried to catch Kerwes, but she was too late; he had already vanished into the gloom.

"Be careful, Victoria! This is a good place for an ambush!" Abigail warned the brunette of the dangers of getting too far ahead of her partner. Victoria slowed down to a brisk walk and let the blonde catch up just in time for a thin section of lead pipe thrown like a javelin to land to the left of Victoria and lodge diagonally in the ground near the startled brunette.

"SHIT!" Victoria screamed. Out of the gloom rushed Kerwes, who was glowing red and charging straight for her. The brunette raised her weapon and opened fire, but the rounds just seemed to bounce off of him as he chuckled. He casually slapped aside the gun and then backhanded her with enough power to send her spinning into the air and about five meters back onto the floor. While the brunette recovered Abigail went on the attack and buried her sword into his right arm with a two-handed downward chop.

Kerwes groaned a bit, then pulled the blade out with his left hand and flung the sword aside. Abigail stood her ground and punched him in the face with a one-two combo using both fists, but he was not fazed by it at all. She continued to punch ineffectually until he caught her right fist with his right hand and twisted her arm behind her back. Victoria quickly got to her feet and aimed at his left side, then powered up a Beam Cannon and fired a shot that pierced his left side.

"DAMN YOU!" Kerwes yelled in pain as he staggered away and released Abigail. She took the opportunity to grab her sword while Victoria picked up her Light Machine Gun. Once Kerwes had recovered from the surprise attack Victoria fired on him while Abigail set up for an attack of her own.

"That was a good shot, Lapdog, but you won't get another." Kerwes promised her before glowing blood red. He calmly walked towards her while shrugging off the bullets and gripped the barrel, crushing it with a single motion. He then snatched the useless weapon out of her hand and flung it away. A blood red hand wrapped itself around her throat and Kerwes dashed with her, slamming Victoria against the left wall and pinning her there.

Victoria started kicking against his chest and Kerwes laughed at her ineffectual struggling.

"I haven't felt this alive since our last meeting, Lapdog. Too bad that this one's going to be our last. All good things must come to an end, after all." Kerwes said in a tone of mock disappointment. His hand tightened around her throat and started to squeeze the life out of the brunette as her feet tapped a macabre beat that slowed down as each second passed... she barely retained enough consciousness to count twelve in total. Whatever Abigail was doing, she had better do it fast because Victoria might not live for much longer. Suddenly the blonde appeared behind the scientist and said a familiar phrase.

"HURRICANE FANG!" Abigail called out. A silver afterimage appeared and Kerwes' back spurted blood. He yelled in pain as he released Victoria. Abigail picked her up and hurried to carry the Sabertooth mage away from Kerwes, who was going for the pipe jutting from the ground. He pulled it out and chased the pair down in no time.

"I've had enough of you! This fight is between me and the Lapdog!" The scientist yelled before swinging the section of pipe with such force that Abigail was launched to the right wall, where she collapsed onto her knees. Kerwes dashed over to the blonde and punched her in the face with his left hand, knocking her out. He then smiled and turned back to Victoria.

"Now, where were we?" Kerwes asked menacingly. He dashed towards her and hit her with a shoulder tackle that sent her flying forward and sprawling to the ground on her stomach. She held her hands out and prepared a Beam Cannon, rolling onto her back and firing it at his head. Kerwes casually sidestepped it and she missed.

"I told you that you wouldn't get another shot." Kerwes repeated his earlier taunt. He then raised his weapon and hit the left side of her ribcage like a golfer swinging at the ball on a tee. She screamed and slammed into the right wall, where she lay as the scientist approached her with murder on his mind and a smile on his face. Abigail was unconscious and Victoria was on the ropes. She needed to turn this losing battle around before Kerwes ended her life and Abigail's, thus freeing himself to finish work on Agent Lacedaemon.

Victoria could not allow that.

[Post Word Count: 1,246]
[Total Word Count: 11,869/12,500]

"Face it, Lapdog. It's over for you and your friend. You're both going to die down here and be buried in shadows. No one will ever find your bodies." Kerwes taunted Victoria as the latter lay helpless before him. She had summoned so many weapons and used so many big-ticket spells that her magic reserves were almost depleted. By her estimates she had one Beam Cannon and one more healing spell left in her, but she could not afford to waste her last shot. She needed a good opportunity to land the fatal shot, but how was she going to get it?

She mentally replayed his words as he strode towards her with the section of pipe raised in both hands. He was going to bring it down on her head and end her life in one or two rage-fueled blows. He might be right when he claimed that she and Abigail were going to be buried in shadows. Her eyes opened.

Shadows.

That was it!

Victoria was so used to relying on her weapons that she had forgotten about her power to control shadows. That ability was her ace in the hole, the ability that she needed to get out of this mess and save her life and Abigail's. Reaching deep down inside herself, the brunette's green eyes flashed violet and the shadows began to mold themselves to her will. Kerwes finished walking towards her and stopped about two feet away, adjusting his grip so that the end of the pipe would strike true and end the life of his nemesis.

"This is goodbye!" He taunted, winding up for the fatal blow and delaying it so that he could see the terror on her face as the end of her life approached. Victoria reached out with her right hand and the shadows responded, grabbing the pipe and coiling around it. Kerwes tried to bring down the pipe, but it would not budge.

"What? What's the meaning of this? It won't move!" He cried out. Victoria slowly rose to her feet and used the shadows to snatch the weapon away from him, then used her mind to get more shadows to grab his arms and legs to immobilize him. Kerwes' face showed terror as he struggled in vain to escape his nearly invisible bonds.

Victoria used her mind to have a shadowy hand grab the pipe and raise it in front of the scientist, who looked up at it. She then brought it down on his head, causing him to yell. Victoria wound up for a second swing to the head, then a third, then a fourth, and finally a fifth before the pipe bent too much to be of use. It was casually tossed aside and the brunette approached the scientist, whose head was rolling from side to the side from the blunt force trauma she had dealt to him.

While she approached the shadowy hands began to hold him tight so that he could not escape what was about to happen. It went against everything that Sabertooth stood for, but Kerwes could not be allowed to live. Victoria was going to end his life here and now.

Victoria wordlessly paused in front of him and used a shadowy hand to raise his head and hold it still so that she could get a better aim on him. She then put her fingers together and focused golden magic into them for the last Beam Cannon she ever intended to use on Alexander Kerwes. There would be no last-minute dodge this time... Victoria was going to shoot him directly in the forehead. Kerwes' eyes widened as he realized what was coming.

"N-NO! YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU CAN'T!" He shouted in desperation, struggling vainly to free himself from the shadowy hands holding him in place. Victoria clenched her teeth and saw the faces of the mutated humans she had blown apart with her Grenade Launcher. She saw the lab notes he had made in the red notebook carried in his backpack. She saw the double helix of human DNA on the computer monitor. This was the end of the line for this mad scientist.

She could do this.

She would do this.

She wordlessly fired the Beam Cannon at a two-meter distance from him. It struck home and ended his life with a smoking hole blasted directly through the forehead. She lowered her hands and exhaled.

It was over.

Victoria had finally killed Alexander Kerwes. After all of these months of chasing him and after all of the injuries she had sustained hunting him down, he was dead. He was never going to terrorize Earthland with his twisted experiments again.

Abigail regained consciousness just as Victoria dispelled her shadow power and Kerwes' lifeless body crumpled to the floor. She slowly got up, collected her sword, and hobbled towards Victoria, who was standing in silence. Abigail looked towards Kerwes' body, then towards the battered brunette.

"Did you... did you kill him?" Abigail asked. Victoria wordlessly nodded before dispelling the Light Machine Gun that had been taken from her earlier. She then leaned down and grabbed Kerwes' left shin to drag his lifeless body out of here and present it as proof of her kill.

"Whoa, Vickie! Are you really going to take his body with us? Is that necessary?" Abigail asked the brunette.

"Yeah, this really is necessary. I'm taking him with us to make sure that he doesn't pull some techno-magic bullshit and come back to life when we leave. After all that we went through to kill him, I'm making sure this asshole stays dead." Victoria answered in the affirmative. She then looked forward and continued to drag the deceased scientist behind her. A stunned Abigail followed behind her and watched the scientist's corpse to make sure that he did not revive for one last bid at killing them.

-On the surface of Sin, outside Kerwes' lair-

After a thirty-minute trip through Kerwes' lair the pair arrived outside the cave and waited for pickup. Five minutes later a black helicopter swooped in and landed, disgorging Florence Manderley and Franklin Kerwes. Two more black helicopters landed and disgorged four dozen men armed with assault rifles wearing black body armor and black masks. Fully half of them had demolition charges as part of their kit.

"We did it." Victoria replied to the adults before they could even speak. They saw the corpse that she was dragging and grimly nodded once they saw its battered face and the quarter-sized hole in its forehead.

"I hated to see things come to this, but it had to be done for the good of Earthland. He was far too dangerous to leave alive to continue his twisted work. You have my gratitude." Franklin said to Victoria and Abigail in a somber voice. Two men in all-black armor and masks came forward with a body bag and placed Alexander Kerwes inside of it, then zipped it closed. Victoria and Abigail watched in silence as the body was carried away to the second helicopter. Despite all his evil, he was still Franklin's son and deserved a little dignity after death.

"You guys did it! I'm so proud of you!" Florence said to them, hugging each girl. Victoria ignored it and spoke to Franklin.

"Your son's research is still down there in Basement Floor Thirty, in a command center of sorts. I suggest you destroy it all. I believe that we killed all the mutants, but there still might be some down there, so be careful." Victoria said to the older man. He nodded grimly and motioned towards the cave, where the teams of men moved in to destroy the data and render the lair forever inaccessible to curious adventurers and those who wanted to follow in Alexander Kerwes' footsteps. Franklin followed them in.

"C'mon guys, let's go home." Florence said with a smile. Victoria and Abigail wordlessly followed her to the first helicopter and boarded it. It took off and the trio were on their way back to Earthland after a job well done.

Victoria hoped that Sabertooth still had a place for her after word got back to the guild hall about what she had done. If it did, great. If not, she was sure that there was plenty of work for a mage like herself waiting to be done. If Sabertooth did not want her, she would go Guildless and make her own way from here on out.

If going Guildless was the price of saving the world, then Victoria would gladly pay it.

[Post Word Count: 1,430]
[Total Word Count: 13,299/12,500]