It was a tunnel with little in the way of light. All that shone were the red emergency beams which gave not nearly enough to hop the rusted metal steps two at a time. This stolen vision proved the situation more dire than needed.
Kage and Isaiah had come to the bunker only to find the door cut from its hinges. At least one Villain strong enough to slice through this metal had managed to get inside, but judging how there were other marks from scratches and burns, signaling the image of battle, more were nearby.
Their reaction was too slow as they sensed the aura of an amassing group arriving at the bunker. They were relatively low-tiered Evolved yet together these Villains may prove more difficult than Kage had surmised earlier. Isaiah shoved Kage toward the bunker's door, standing guard at the entrance waiting for the horde that may fall upon him as he descended the expanse of the dark corridor. It was an act based entirely on instinct rather than a grand proposition. Isaiah simply needed to be alone, otherwise he may run in the sight of his friend. Thus, Kage charged without another word echoed by the light patter of the soles of his shoes stomping on the steel floor. He did not trust in Isaiah's ability, he couldn't even begin to understand what it was the boy hid from him, but he would surely survive.
'They all would, they just had to play their parts well.'
Kage felt the glowing beams melt the sweat from his pores. Clanging gears and the dripping of some burst pipe reverberated off the walls. The place was in sorry condition with jagged scraps protruding from awkward spots on the downward slope to Hell.
Upon a smashed red light did Kage find sizable shards, the perfect size for weaponry. Caught up in this ruckus was he unable to acquire the blades he commonly practiced; the glass would have to make do. He ensured not to slice his hand on a few of the pieces as he tossed them into his pants' pocket.
The lair creaked from the rumble above where more lost their lives. They tear the flesh from the other for goals unbeknownst by either side. Servants to a master's whim. Kage could not fathom the extent of which a master would go to control their subjects.
'What would be the point of this taken power struggle? Neither side could do much more than what they already have.'
The future would be the only remembrance of the event. Those who were at the forefront in the experience are forced to return the next day without fear in their bods. They must continue to power the steel and iron of the work horse which serves the nation. Possibly in decades or at the least centuries will pass when their significance is finally made note. Another conflict and another statistic. The very idea ground his molars together wishing to eviscerate the faces of those responsible.
Deep in turmoil, Kage could not answer his suspicion on this battle at which nothing was at stake. Although he had grown much since his time as a patient, he was still a boy unable to comprehend the sheer lack of motive that could propagate such actions. But perhaps he could find it, not in the rummage of his mind, in the sacrifice of bone for body.
He had caught a whiff of his prey. No further than fifty meters down had a stench risen and the dripping of something obscene pooled onto the metal floor. It's cold surface unmistakably made warm by a viscous fluid swirling his feet muddying their movement.
Ahead, Kage finally heard the discernable words of a pair of Evolved stoking the flames of threat. While he still hid in the shadows cast by the dimmed light of the tunnel, Kage gave a word of thanks that his aura was a minute amount leaving him barely noticeable to an ordinary human or even Evolved. This fault gave him the chance to draw close to the intruder, just before their muscled back. He couldn't discern whether the person was male or female, but he clearly saw the horrified glass orbs from the civilians gawking at the bristling veins running along the Evolved's forearms. A black blood swirled within caking their deaths a terrible hatred.
The person held to someone's neck, her skin ashen gray with wrinkles covering her face like a chipped statue. Her age beyond time itself as what remained of her soul sucked away by the Devil. A prehensile tongue with a flat tip embedded itself inside her mouth slithering through the woman's digestive tract feeding on what was left in her stomach. Snuggled into the gut of the poor individual, the tongue consumed her intestines, then lungs and pancreas finally ending on the delectable heart. The appendage would continue its adventure carving away all that made up a body until it was done. However, its satiation would never be ridden as the next victim surely appeared just as appetizing to the flailing oral organ.
Despite this already heinous item, the back of the Evolved woman was showered with porcupine needles, the same with her hair. A certain side-effect from inbreeding in Evolved households. The product of commencing incestuous relationships with the express purpose of creating a child with the genetic makeup to inherit the similar abilities of both siblings, or between a mother or father with their own flesh and blood. A once commonplace action in which even government bodies conducted to produce a valuable Evolved; however, has since then been prohibited by the Supreme Justices of the United Western States as well as the Europa Union.
During the process of childbirth, on many occasions, the mother would go under extreme mental and physical pain to the point that nine out of ten mothers would die in the process. It was later discovered that incestuous fetuses developed their auras while in the mother's womb causing internal pressure to the point that the organs of the mother would be used for nutrients keeping the baby healthy. Let alone the issues caused to the mother, the child would most times come out deranged and animalistic, some were even monsters themselves. Reports indicated the grotesque elements of severe rashes that would cause constant deterioration of the skin along with mental deficiencies that rendered many unable to live independently without the need for a maid.
Even considering the risks involved, many still conducted this form of conception for the likelihood of an enhanced Evolved granting unprecedented power to the individual and their family. Yet, few if any of these enhanced Evolved were able to survive past their fifth year of childhood.
But by happenstance Kage had found himself on the path of a dreaded enhanced. He of course knew this woman to be Ponku, a woman originating from the Asian Alliance however after being branded a serial killer and hunted down by their law enforcement she fell under new employment fleeing her nation. For years many had not known what occurred to the woman, yet it was explained right before Kage's eyes the source of her sudden disappearance. The Black Queen had managed it all leaving the Villain to paint the halls of the bunker a beautiful sight. One that Kage mustered a breath to save his mind from the stench that wrought the scene unto him.
This insight also brought forth a clue to her weakness. Although hidden, underneath her clothes were armored plates lining areas around her heart and other vitals, another outcome of the breeding process. This armor extended to nearly everywhere except two locations in the midst of either heel.
A subconscious flick of his tongue wiped away a building strand of saliva from Kage's lip. Caught in the moment, he felt a disgust toward this action. It reminded him of a dog gnawing on a soaked bone. A starved wild animal searching for something to ignite its arousal. It was the expression William gave each and every day at breakfast, lunch, and dinner when Kage had entered the mess hall turning to the braided redhead.
'Wait… who?'
Around him was this box, a cage of misrepaired metal, shredded at the edges, or white tiles so clean and shiny you could see your own face in them any time of the year? His hands forever encapsulated in leather gloves never to touch the supple flesh of a living being, or were they padded mittens stabbed full of needles which scraped along the nerves to reduce tension? Whatever this place may be and whatever may be gracing his own flesh, the situation had not changed. A sight all too familiar; yet how did he know this?
Pounding a fist to his temple, Kage escaped the barrage of fitful frights; focusing on the savage ready to pounce this time on a young girl. Her hair silken as a window's drapes, eyes brown like a dewy mud hinted with a smidge of scarlet and dressed like a sewer rat.
She gently lifted the child from under the arms dropping the flickering tongue past her dehydrated and chapped lips. It seethed for nourishment.
No longer had Kage remained, but a shell that reverted to a more primitive nature to hunt. And hunt he did. He tracked his prey's muscle twitches to determine the correct course of action. Her breath was ragged as desire took hold; attention was shot to non-existence as she made way for her next meal. The shard of glass slid out from the boy's pocket as he crouched lower to the floor finding himself at the heel of the woman. Instilled lessons from his red-haired teacher were drilled out into the memory of his body as were the words accompanied by this boy he had known.
"Seizing a large opponent is quite tricky. It requires a foremost knowledge of those fuckers. Especially the big and strong ones, haveta watch their movements before getting in deep! Although Evolved may look and act differently, they are the same suckers with the same weakness, same as ordinary folk. One of which being-"
'The tendons.'