Maddox reluctantly steps forward from the elevator and the man in the labcoat follows Maddox perfectly which is very concerning and scary for him since his miasma illusions were something he used so often that he never felt any danger while using them. Until now that is, with his cover blow he was panicking like never before and all he could do was just try to do the only thing could do.
Roll with it.
So with as much confidence that Maddox could muster he steps forward from the corner of the elevator and replaces his invisibility illusion with something else.
The man in the lab coat was scared out of his mind since he did not like dealing with the infected that find their way into the facility as each of them has a different temperament and viewpoint that doing something random may trigger them to attack. There are a few cases that have occurred where researchers such as him have been killed by their 'guests' as the manager called them, but he failed the coin toss this time and was forced to come over here to greet this infected.
Still though if anyone saw that he was just talking to thin air then they would just think he was nuts heck he would have thought the same thing about himself had it not been for the live feed he was getting from the contacts that he was wearing where he was shown the motion sensors and seeing that there indeed was someone in the corner of the elevator.
Still, though his heart lept into his mouth as the figure in the corner finally moved and started moving towards him that his legs froze in place and even if he wanted to move he would be unable to move.
One should feel safe in these types of situations, especially when four armed guards are standing right next to him with live rounds and the safeties off on their weapons which would be able to kill certain lower-tier infected but usually middle-tier infected showed up here and there was very little they, the little guys, could do.
Still scared out of his wits the researcher sees before him the infected reveal itself to him which scared him even more.
A creature that retained its humanistic features stood before the researcher standing at a height of 5'4 looked slightly up at the researcher. Its exposed skin was a dark blood red, a stark contrast to most infected who generally gained some form of grey or green skin, pitch-black pupils that had no visible iris that somehow still conveyed the feeling of being looked at by the researcher. The creature had two small horns that jutted up from its long black hair that went down to its exposed chest that was well defined and toned with some scarring that portrayed some fights.
This creature scared the researcher and everyone there since was defiantly a mutated variant of some sort of known infected variant, however even more startling and scary was that no matter how much they thought of all known infected throughout the world there was no infected that looked remotely similar to the one in front of them, meaning that this was a new kind of infected.
Newfound infected species were extremely dangerous as no one knew anything about them and the only way to know anything about them would be to send small reconnaissance teams to their deaths and then perform the autopsies to get a glimmer of what they were capable of. There were only fifteen known species of infected that were known as some may be in hiding. There were protocols for dealing with these situations but none of that applied when the first ones to make contact were the infected themselves.
The grips of the armed individuals next to the researcher tighten as everyone is panicking at what to do.
"Yo nice to meet you the names, Diablo," Maddox says as he nods his head slightly and looks around in a kind of aloof manner despite the tense atmosphere he just created
"Uh..." The researcher was a bit unsure how to react since most infected that have shown up are well not like the infected before them
Maddox had created this infected form purely at the moment since having a regular form of some regular infected that he had seen would not be able to cut it. So he instead decided to go with a demon look to his features since it would be easier to show up since not many changes would happen with his body except for his skin color, eyes, the addition of horns, body tone, and finally, hair was all pretty easy to change. So it did not take much to change his body since all it was is just adding onto stuff that is already there and not that much detail is needed for the new changes so it works for Maddox's illusions.
"So what was it that you were saying about taking me someplace," Maddox asks while directing his gaze back to the researcher who feels a slight chill at the unearthly gaze
"Uh... Um yes esteemed guest we would have the honor of escorting you to the selling area where you may find anything that you may desire" The researcher affirms
"Alright then lead the way," Maddox says as he gestures for the welcoming committee to lead the way
A bit hesitant on what to do, the group of armed men and the researcher begin to walk away whilst Maddox follows behind while looking around the place to see where he was and what he had gotten himself into.
He had entered into some sort of underground facility from the looks of it as taking the elevator brought him to a sort of cliffside that overlooked this massive facility from the outside. It looked almost like a modern-day city underground but just looking at it this way showed Maddox a bunch of flaws that there were. This facility looked as if it spanned about a mile into the distance in this massive man-made cave allowing for people to see it from anywhere that they were as long as they were close by and up high they could get an entire view of the place.
From where Maddox stood he could see the center point of the city was a gigantic skyscraper-type building that extended up into the smooth ceiling of the cavern and probably allowed direct access to the surface. There were no windows visible on the skyscraper building from here. Other smaller buildings surrounded the skyscraper with the smaller ones being on the outskirts with the height of the others progressively getting taller towards the center of the facility. Still, none of the other buildings reached up to the ceiling which looked to also be about only a quarter of a mile from the ground up.
Maddox looked to be at a halfway point from the ground facility as he looked down from the cliff he was at. Maddox considered this place a facility since all of the buildings seemed to be connected through passageways both on the ground and some suspended in the air. Everything seemed to be made of metal with plenty of people moving around on the ground floor each having uniforms from what Maddox could see.
"So what do you guys do here?" Maddox asks while following behind the group on a paved path leading down from the cliffside
"Erm-well... uh..." The researcher was unsure of what he was allowed to disclose to the infected since most of their clients and 'guests' did not have much interest in what they were doing here
"Uh sir command wants to talk to you," One of the armed men says while taking out a phone which has a call already answered and ongoing
"Yes?" The research asks once he picks up the phone and spends only a few moments before hanging it up and handing it back to the armed man who handed it
"Well, Mr. Diablo our facility is meant to research the factors of both miasma and essence to see their capabilities as well as to find how we normal people can potentially utilize them," The researcher says while looking at Maddox with a sort of uncomfortable smile
"Alright then however I don't think you are going to be bringing me over there to be experimented on so where are we going specifically?"
"Well of course trying to capture and experiment on your kind would bring a lot of benefits there are a lot of problems with that and so we only can experiment on the drained," The researcher says while sweating a bit at Maddox's words
"I assume that by the drained you mean these?" Maddox says while forming a replication of Jack's body
"Uh... yes that is what we refer to them as but your kind generally calls them a variety of names like batteries and well pleasure devices..." The scientist says while shivering a bit from the names which intrigues Maddox a bit
"Alright then, but where are we going specifically?"
"To the area where your kind generally like to stay in due to the products that we sell to them at reasonable prices"
Maddox does not comment on that but just looks now at the facility and finally sees what was essence and miasma signatures coming from various areas in the facility, but most were muffled by the walls that surrounded them. The area that had the most essence was unsurprisingly the skyscraper and it seemed to be covered in an even more powerful essence barrier than the one that he had seen at the Coalition house. Now the place that had the most miasma was an area off to the left of the skyscraper which had a hefty amount that seemed to be unrestricted by the facility which was interesting to see in a place like this.
Maddox does not say anything as he followed the group in front of him and does not comment or say anything else which is to the relief of the researcher and the armed men since dealing with an infected is stressful enough as it is and talking to it was a sure way to accidentally offend one.
Once they had shown up closer to the facility there was a golf cart parked near a metal road that lead into the facility and the driver was an infected.
It was a goblin-type infected that stood at just three feet in height which made it look almost comical in size as it was standing next to the golf cart.
Being as most of its species the goblin had a small height, pointed knife-like ears that jutted back, was bald, and had a weird green shade of skin. Each infected have relatively the same facial features of a sharp-pointed nose, yellow crooked teeth, and yellow cat-like eyes that allow them to see in the dark. Most goblins from what Maddox had seen in Jack's memory wore only loincloths or simply nothing at all but this one was wearing a specially tailored black suit with a red bow tie but did not wear any shoes.
The goblin infected had been leaning against the golf cart and smoking on a regular cigarette but once it saw Maddox it stopped as its jaw dropped while looking at him. Hastily the goblin snuffs out its cigarette with its foot before standing up straight and begins to slightly bow towards Maddox.
"This lowly one greets its superior," The goblin says while keeping its gaze on the ground not daring to look up at Maddox
Goblins are one of the low-tiered infected and are generally the most common that the Coalition has to deal with. However regardless of any infected that there are they always follow a strict hierarchy amongst themselves where the low-tier follow the middle-tier and in turn, the middle-tier follow the high-tier. Seeing Maddox the goblin immediately submits to him as at the very minimum he was a middle-tier infected.
However, seeing the infected in front of him made Maddox both disgusted and angry at the sight of the creature his first instinct was to torture and murder it but he reigns in those emotions since he had to find out more about this place so going crazy on some small random infected would not help. Plus he would not be able to do much against infected, at least for now that is.
So Maddox only scoffs at the infected before looking to the group he had been following.
"Um... well to get to the area of the facility that has more guests you will need to go with the driver since being in close contact with unrestrained miasma is harmful to us regular people" The researcher explains to Maddox
Maddox does not say anything but simply walks to the golf cart and sits in the back causing the group that he had been following to give a big sigh in relief as this new infected was no longer their problem and they could get a few hours to decompress.
"You there let's get going or are you planning on just staring at the ground the entire time?" Maddox asks the goblin who scrambles into the driver's seat and drives away further into the facility heading in the direction of the miasma that Maddox had viewed from before