Chapter Text
The day seemed to be a bit of a blur as you stared up at the plain ceiling above you. After you had accepted the offer with Urbanshade you were forced to listen to a long and tiring briefing about what was going on and why you were even doing this. That last question always stayed in your mind. Sure you knew you wanted your freedom more than anything but something about this whole thing made your skin crawl and even made you second guess yourself sometimes. Before you could even close your eyes a guard had opened your door startling you in the process. You quickly looked at the guard.
"Come on. Best to start now than later and you are going alone. Here is your jumpsuit, just change in your bathroom then follow me."
When you heard you were going alone you felt uneasy but you managed to sit up and get off the hard bed they forced you to sleep on. You walked over to the guard who handed you a pale dark blue jumpsuit. You sighed a bit as you walked over to your bathroom and put it on. Once it was on the guard gestured you to follow in which you did. You glanced around the place noticing that a few other people were walking around seemingly to only wait for when they had to do this mission. That uneasy feeling returned as the guard brought you to a room. There was another person there. You stood there nervously before the person spoke, "sit down. I'll be with you in a moment."
You walked over to the only place there was to sit which was a table and sat down then waited for a moment before the person walked over. You looked over at them and decided to ask, "what am I doing here?"
The person seemed to smile but it was hard to tell with a face mask covering their face, "well we got to make sure prisoners like yourself don't try to disobey orders so we are gonna put this diving gear on you. The second you disobey orders. . . POP. . ." You jumped clearly being frightened while the person continued, "your head will be blown off so make sure you follow orders. Got it."
You quickly nodded as you looked down now fidgeting with your hands. This mission was no joke to them apparently. About thirty minutes went by as the person managed to get the diving gear on you along with giving you a few other things then sent you out of a door which led to a large dock. A few guards looked at you as they pointed towards the submarines. With a small breath you walked forward and went towards the submarines. You walked into one and held onto one of the hanging handles that was on the ceiling of it. With a loud noise the door closed and the submarine plugged into the water causing you to slightly lose your balance and hold onto the handle tighter to gain your balance back. That's gonna be hard to get used to. You sighed softly as the submarine shook slightly while it went down. While you let the time pass you looked around just curious on what the sub looked like. Nothing too amazing but oh well it was something.
After a bit the submarine rocked roughly as it emerged from the water once again making you lose your balance. Once the submarine steadied itself you let go of the handle and walked over to the door. Looking around a bit you saw the button and pressed it causing the door to open. You stared for a moment before walking off the submarine onto the small dock then the HQ system turned on and spoke, "As discussed during your briefing, your primary objective is to secure and bring back the Crystal. Your secondary objective is to secure as many loose assets as possible. You've been equipped with a diving tank, allowing you to navigate any potentially flooded areas. You've also been equipped with a Crystal container, used for securing the crystal if, erh, when, you reach it. You have permission to use any additional equipment you may find. Our Navi-Path AI has marked the shortest route possible to your primary objective. It should be noted, that you'll mostly be left on your own, as we are currently busy managing multiple teams. We will tune in from time to time, if it matters in the moment. Open the door, and proceed when ready."
You stood there for a moment listening then frowned when they mentioned IF you make it to the crystal, "wow so much for support," you rolled your eyes and walked over to a few drawers, opening them to find that there were documents and USBs in them. You looked at the bag that you were required to carry then stuffed the assets in it and continued to look around. You then found a keycard so you picked it up and went to the door to open it. The door quickly slid open. You peered into the room and walked in.
Almost immediately your attention was caught by a locker with a weird wet substance coming from the bottom. You walked over to it and noticed that there were purple glowing like eyes in the slits of the locker. You also heard loud breathing from it. You got nervous and walked away from it, "the fuck is that-" though you were a little curious about it so you walked back towards it and opened it. Immediately tentacle-like things grabbed and pulled you into the locker. You screamed and suddenly everything was black.
You gasped as you quickly looked around. You were in a dark area. You were confused slightly until you got startled when you saw three glowing blue eyes staring at you then a voice spoke, "Oh. Hello. You died." You were shocked and speechless so you really did die, wow, that was short lived. You were about to say something when the voice continued, "Whaaat a shame. We haven't met before, but hopefully you'll be able to stay alive long enough next time for me to give a proper introduction."
You quickly looked at the voice, "Wh-what do you mean by next time!? I-i'm-" you were then cut off by a growl. Whatever was in front of you did not have the patience to deal with your voice.
It then continued, "Since those iiidiots up there didn't feel like telling you about which exact dangers you'd face down here, I've been asked to fill that role. Whenever you die, you'll be brought here, and I'll show you a document detailing what caused your. . . oh. so. early. demise."
You frowned, obviously you can tell this. . . thing. . . was mocking you. Your thoughts were confirmed when you heard an amused chuckle from the thing in front of you before it continued while a document was pushed forward on the table, "He was very specific with... how much, information I could share with you though. It's stupid, I know, his orders, not mine."
You opened the document but there was nothing really much to read and it was hard to read with no light. You then looked up while the voice continued, "All the documents are heavily classified, lots of black lines, [REDACTED] text, whole nine yards. The more times you die to something, the more black lines he lets me remove," Great you were gonna go through a cycle, that wasn't on your bingo card. You then got slightly startled as a light flickered on but you quickly relaxed as you looked at the document, now that you could see.
Apparently what killed you was called Puddles of Void-Mass. You blinked at the name as you started to read. Damn you were really stupid all you had to do was avoid the locker. You sighed irritatedly as you pushed the document away and right on cue a blueish gray claw with four fingers closed the document and dragged it away. You were slightly surprised and kinda scared with how big it was. That hand was like the size of your head. You gulped and looked up when you heard a soft chuckle again. Apparently whoever was in front of you noticed your surprise but didn't comment on it as it spoke again, "Oh, and uhhh, one more thing before I forget. The next time you inevitably fail, and get sent back down again, you'll have the opportunity to stock up on some useful supplies, assuming you have funds for it of course. I've (been forced to) set up a system that'll allow you to order supplies whilst you are still aboard the submarine, all of which will be conveniently awaiting you in a crate at its destination. I, optimistically look forward to your patronage, friend!~"
You stared for a moment and before you could speak once again your vision faded to black and you jumped awake. You looked around and noticed you were back at your room. Confusion swept over you. Was that a dream? You laid back down. Did you really die? Questions swirled in your head as you sighed. If you really died then your wise choice was to actually think your next run out instead of doing stupid actions like you did. Though one thing that really stood out in your mind was that creature. What was that? Why did it call you friend? And why did it say you'll hopefully meet it? You decided to just sleep on it as you rolled over and closed your eyes. Eventually falling asleep.
This was really no joke.