Chapter 114: What The Hell?

"Strange," Zero muttered as he found himself walking through the facility with both hands in his pockets.

He had entered the facility through an underground maintenance tunnel, which had been relatively easy.

Too easy, actually.

Cameras were everywhere, but the security system wasn’t as impressive as he had thought.

Curious, he tried taking a look around to ensure that this was not some sort of trap.

Unfortunately, he had also discovered that the facility was much larger than it appeared from the outside.

And judging by the equipment he’d passed, Magnus had been working here for quite some time.

Zero walked through another corridor, with his hands still in his pockets and his footsteps echoing through the empty facility.

"Where is everyone?"

That was the strange part.

There were signs that people had been here recently, but as far as he could see, there was not a soul around.

Well, at least until he walked further into the facility.

Scrape!

The sound of something scraping against metal caused him to stop and look ahead. He didn’t have to wait long for the cause of the sound to reveal itself.

"What the hell?" Was the only thing the hitman could let out as he looked at the creature before him.

The thing looked vaguely human, but it was hunched over, with its claw-like fingers scratching the floor as it moved.

The creature had dark purple skin with darker veins visible beneath it and purple glowing bumps all over its body.

The moment it spotted Zero, the creature suddenly launched itself towards the hitman; fortunately, he was quick enough to react.

Forming a katana, Zero sliced off the creature’s head the moment it was close enough, before slightly leaning to the side, letting its body fly past him and slam into the wall.

Curious, the hitman crouched beside the corpse, studying it with a slight frown. "A zombie?"

It certainly looked like one, but it also seemed a lot different. There was also the fact that he could feel the heat from the creature, which ruled out the possibility of it being a Zombie.

After all, Zombies were undead, which meant that the creature’s corpse should’ve been a lot colder.

His gaze then moved towards the glowing bumps on the creature, and he was tempted to pop one with his katana.

"I probably shouldn’t," Zero said, stopping himself from lifting the blade.

He had no idea what Magnus had done to these things, and getting some unknown substance on his suit wasn’t worth the risk.

Scrape! Scrape! Scrape!

More scraping sounds pulled him from his thoughts, and the hitman stood back up before turning towards the sound.

"Guess the cavalry’s here," Zero said as he looked at the creatures ahead of him.

They all looked similar to the one he had just killed, just that each was a different size. He also noticed that they had some sort of energy being released from them.

It wasn’t exactly Pragma, but it was quite similar... almost as if it was in a different form.

"Alright then," Zero said with a grin, as he looked at the four creatures before him, "come at me, uglies."

The creatures seemed to understand the provocation, because the next second,

ROAR!!!!

With a roar, all four suddenly charged at him.

The first to reach him was the smallest and nimblest one. It launched itself at him, with its maw wide open, ready to bite his head off.

Zero grabbed the hilt of the sheathed katana and swung it so fast that it almost seemed as if he hadn’t even moved.

The creature harmlessly flew past and landed behind him, but it didn’t try getting up again, not that it could anyway.

A few seconds later, its head rolled off its body, and purple liquid started glowing out of its neck.

The hitman paid it no mind as he remained focused on the other three. Another lunged at him, and he was about to draw his katana again, but soon realized that the other two were attacking from different angles.

If he tried slicing off the head of the one coming towards him, then he wouldn’t get enough time to respond to the attacks of the other two.

"How annoying," Zero said before moving to the side, letting the first creature’s attack miss him by a narrow margin.

Before it could fully fly past the hitman, he grabbed its leg and used its momentum to spin it around and launch it into the second one.

Without relaxing for a second, Zero unsheathed his katana just in time to block the much larger creature’s claw that was aimed at his head.

The creature’s strength was impressive enough to make the hitman’s feet slide backwards slightly, but he still managed to stop the attack.

"You’re the strongest one, huh?"

ROARR!!?!

As if responding to his words, the creature roared in his face, causing the hitman to smile.

"Too bad."

He then proceeded to twist his wrist, causing the katana to slide between its claws before cutting straight through its arm.

SLASH!

The creature immediately pulled back, but the hitman wasn’t about to let go of his chance. Unfortunately, before he could close the distance between them again, the creature suddenly opened its mouth.

From within, Zero could spot a glow that was getting brighter by the second, and his instincts immediately went haywire, sensing the incoming danger.

A bright beam of purple was suddenly launched from the creature’s mouth and directly towards the hitman.

BOOM!

The beam caused an explosion as it slammed into the wall, creating a massive hole in the facility wall and kicking up dust everywhere, obscuring the view within the hallway.

***

Inside what seemed to be a lab filled with large tubes that held humans within, stood a man in a long white lab coat.

He had a head full of green hair that was neatly combed back, and on his face was what seemed to be a gas mask and goggles that were glowing because of the monitor before him.

Displayed on the monitor was the hallway in which Zero had been facing the creatures in.

"I’m disappointed the HA only sent one hero," he said, his voice sounding a bit mechanical due to the mask.

He turned around and looked at the tubes holding the mutating humans, "but I suppose I do need a new lab rat."