In the dark corridors of the lab, rats and other small creatures scurried by. Their tiny squeaks, filling the corridor with noise, as the two Birds walked down the hallway with their flashlights. To prevent himself from getting scared, Eagle tried to open conversation with his cousin. “So…how’d that date go?” Nighthawk glared at him. “You would know since you saw the aftermath.” Eagle’s shoulders slumped. “Right, forgot she stole 20 dollars from you.” “It wasn’t just that, it was also a kick to the stomach! And then she ran off with 20 dollars. Who the hell does that?!” Nighthawk complained. “Was I really that bad?!” Eagle shrugged. “I dunno, maybe if you were as good with women as you are with hunting down artifacts, she wouldn’t have done that.” “Says the guy who’s the only experience with women is behind a 100 dollar bill.” Nighthawk retorted. “Rrrrrrrgh,” Eagle growled. “Can we just-“ “Hold up!” Nighthawk suddenly hissed. In front of them, laid yet another hole in the ground, going down for who knows how long. Nighthawk shone his light down the hole, seeing no bottom. He looked around and saw a small ledge on the outskirts of the lab. “Well, guess that’s our way forward. Come on.” As they began to slide along the edge, Eagle asked, “Okay, I gotta know. Why did Toaster think it was a good idea to send us on a chase for these relics? Wasn’t he and chubby supposedly tracking down some form of monster?” “If I had to guess, we’re probably fitting into his plans. Toaster has nothing but foolish plans when I worked with him a few years ago.” Nighthawk replied. “Ever heard of FarmVille? It was a project he commissioned but never finished it due to…well…” “Lemme guess, your temper tantrum murder rage.” “It wasn’t a temper tantrum!!” Nighthawk protested. “Sure it wasn’t.” Nighthawk sighed, “At any rate, it was supposed to create an agricultural area designed to feed all of off-topic. Got shut down several times by the Senate. And that was all before our…’ mystery night.’” Both of them continued to walk forward, pushing aside a door. “Well, from my experience, it was a temper tan-what in the fresh Turkey Hell is this?!” Eagle yelped. The room they had entered was a large bio container room. Several tubes used to hold creatures sat empty, broken, dried of any possible fluid that once held them. Plants were out of control growing all around the tubes. A small pocket of sunlight, from a hole in the ceiling, shone within, illuminating a pile of corpses. The bodies were all bones, no flesh. Several of them were seemingly thrown from the pile or were dragged. All of them were dressed either in combat armor or in lab coats not too dissimilar to the scientists back in the city. But one thing was consistent, they had all been burned at one point. Nighthawk walked over a skeleton. “Well, guess these guys got boned.” “Seriously? That’s all you got to say?” Not, ‘whatever killed them is probably here’? Not ‘poor -blam!-’?” Eagle chastised. Nighthawk shrugged. “What more can I really say? They’re dead. Nothing more we can do for them.” Eagle moved over to one of the dead scientists, it held an old tag. The name tag read, “Dr. Fenrir”. Eagle grabbed the name tag and handed it to Nighthawk. “Look at this dude, according to the tag he was their lead scientist. There’s a thing as a lead scientist?” Nighthawk flipped the tag around in his hands. “Huh. Why does that name sound familiar…?” Eagle shrugged. “Maybe it was an old story someone told back in your prison? After all, chances are during the shower time you got-“ Bone cracking silenced them both. Nighthawk drew both of his knives, while Eagle drew the pistol stolen from the soldiers. Something had cracked a bone behind the pile. With caution, they moved silently, like death. After a few moments, they came face to face with a small rat climbing through the bones of a large creature resembling a dragon/scorpion mix, which had died long ago. “Whew.” Eagle sighed in relief. “Thought that was some sort of monster we would have to fight.” “Don’t be stupid,” Nighthawk responded. “We don’t have the budget or body space in a post for a drawn-out fight scene.” “What?” “It’s fourth-dimensional inter-degree warp -blam!-ery. Don’t worry about it.” Nighthawk quickly explained. As he finished talking, he brushed off a table nearby, finding a small computer, surprisingly still blinking with power. As he turned in the power, the monitor flashed what appeared to be a doorway. Three holes on the top, and a giant gold line down the middle. The whole doorway was covered in a blue tint, with markings similar to the relic the cousins had stolen. “I guess this is our target,” Nighthawk stated. “‘The Door of Woes’, as it’s called. Now, why would it be here in an abandoned lab?” “It’s got the same markings as the ones on the orb. You think it's connected?” Eagle responded. “No doubt, guess those excavators didn’t get here in time to uncover it. According to these field notes, it’s a doorway to the void.” Nighthawk mused. “Does it say where it is?” Eagle asked. Nighthawk tapped a few keys in the keyboard. “It’s right down the hallway.” “You mean the hallway with the giant skeleton that’s in front of it and rats all fleeing in the other direction?” Eagle asked. “Yep. Pretty sure it’s giving off residual void energy, causing panic in these rats. Well, better grab your extra underpants in case you shit yourself scared.” Nighthawk teased. With that, the two cousins walked off, turning on their flashlights to see in the dark, not noticing a shimmer of a purplish figure behind them, before dissipating into thin air and moving like death past them. Invisible, uncompassionate, and hungry. So very hungry for life. [spoiler]And before you ask, yes, I am going to start putting titles at the top of the post instead of just part numbers. Mainly for comedy sakes.[/spoiler]