Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 286: The Lab

Like a siren's song, Laz was captured.

He had no idea why.

As he went forward, Laz walked in between buildings and around piles of rubble without stopping. His walked took him far beyond the border area of the community square type area that the gate was situated at. Despite this, Laz knew were he was going and didn't slow down.

"Are you alright?" Ruby asked, concerned. She saw that Laz didn't seem like himself at the moment. HIs eyes shown with an unnatural light that scared her a bit, but his even breathing and calm demeanor helped to calm those fears.

"Yes, but... apparently I have to go somewhere and I'm not being given a choice." Laz was finally able to talk as long as he kept moving the way he was beckoned. Although Ruby was still worried, she took comfort in the fact that Laz didn't seem worried.

The journey took a over an hour of straight moving. They finally slowed down when they approached a large, square building. It looked dilapidated and there was even large holes in parts of the walls that were visible. If not for these things, the building would have been a huge and majestic place. The outside of the building was decorated with many different sculptures of creatures that looked amazingly lifelike. Human sized metal creations were spread all over the place while there were even large, three story animal like creatures placed right in front of the front door. At least Laz was assuming it was a front door.

As he walked up the the opening between the two creatures he didn't recognize, Laz marveled at how bit this 'door' was. It was almost twice as big as the animal states in front of it, making it almost six stories high. The reason for Laz's hesitation on calling it a door was because whatever was suppose to be covering the hole was gone, leaving only a worn path going in and out of the building. It's worth noting that the path size would accommodate around six or seven tractor trailer sized trucks going side by side into it.

Laz couldn't imagine what this building was used for and more accurately, why he was being drawn into it.

Despite that, he still felt the pull and continued on.

"This...?" Ruby said, stopping.

For whatever reason, the pull on Laz was lighter now that he was within the entrance of the building. Because of that, he was finally able to stop moving forward.

"What is it?" Laz asked, turning to face Ruby.

"I'm... feeling something too, something weird. Like, something inside here means a lot to me..." Ruby said, almost unable to express her feelings.

Now Laz was even more shocked.

"Even you're feeling something?" Laz asked, concerned.

"Yes. But, it's not as strong as what you've felt. I feel like I really should go inside, but it's not strong enough to pull me forward..." Said Ruby after thinking for a moment.

"I think that the only way we will find an answer is to go inside and see," Laz said. Even though he had misgivings, he was getting more and more intrigued about this.

"Alright. I guess it would be a waste not to..." Ruby agreed as they both walked forward, side by side under the massive archway that seemed to be the door. Laz had a feeling that he was walking into the mouth of a massive beast.

Inside, the area was half lit and half in darkness. From the ceiling and the walls, there were several glass like objects that emitted light, but currently less than half of them were working. Around the massive dome like room, litter and rubble was strewn everywhere with barely a clear path to walk forward. Even worse, the rubble consisted of broken and twisted metal that more often than not was as sharp as a knife. It took Ruby and Laz a lot of time to safely find a way through the debris.

After making their way through a lot of doors and hallways, none of them looking different from the other except for the bits of debris that had fallen from the ceiling being different, they finally ended up at a door that was still locked.

Laz could feel the draw coming from this room. Now that he was outside of it, he knew he had to find a way inside..

"This is where I need to be too..." Ruby said, staying at the door.

The only reason either of them knew it was a door was because there was a faint outline on the wall along with what looked like some sort of key pad at about waist height. There weren't any keys on the key pad and instead were several holes along with a little screen. Neither of them knew what to make of it, or how to access it. Something like this was far beyond their scope of understanding.

"How the hell are we suppose to open this?" Laz mused out loud.

"We don't even know the language much less how this thing works... And I'm guessing that finding another door is out. How the fuck we even made it this far I don't understand," Ruby said while examining the 'keypad.' She knew a bit about locks and doors thanks to her job. But this was something from another species so there was no way to guess if it would even work the same.

Laz was even more confused than she was and started wondering if he could blast his way through. The big thing stopping him was he had no idea what the result would be. If he was attacked by some sort of defense system, he would be killed before he could even figure out how he died. The building looked like the power was half on, half off... but that didn't mean that he had a fifty percent chance of being safe.

Just as Laz was debating trying a little flame to melt the door, he ended up hearing a voice.

:Find the custodian,: the voice in his head said, surprising him.

Laz couldn't help but jump at the voice. It sounded old... very old and very weak. But even then the power behind it was enough to shake his brain to the point of bursting.

"Did you hear that?" Laz asked in a shaky voice to Ruby. Ruby stopped examining the key pad long enough to look back at Laz and found he had turned as white as a ghost.

"Baby. You're looking even whiter than normal. You ok?"

"Did you hear the voice?" Laz said, steadying himself a bit.

"No. I didn't hear anything," Ruby responded. But instead of asking more questions, she quickly grabbed something out of her hand bag that was tied to her waist. It looked like an ornate hand held fan. As soon as she pulled it out, she kept it close to her breast as though she was afraid of shaking it.

"No. It's not a threat. It was telling me something..." Laz said. Although he didn't understand what she was doing with the fan, he knew she was anticipating danger.

"What did it say?"

"It said 'find the custodian...'"

"Find the what...?"

"I don't know. Honestly, the weirdest part was that it didn't sound like English, but I still understood it."

"That's..."

:Hey baby. I want you to make me scream while I ride your face?: Ruby's voice echoed in Laz's mind. He knew that they could communicate that way, but it wasn't something they did instinctually.

"Did you understand that?"

"You want to scream while riding my face?" Laz said with a half smile.

Ruby laughed.

"Close enough. But I thought that line towards you in Spanish. Which means, whatever gets said via our minds gets translated. The problem is that there is always going to be something that doesn't translate exactly right no matter what language." Ruby summarized her theory. Laz couldn't help but be impressed with her wits.

"So then..."

"As far as what that voice wants you to find, it must be something like a guardian, or a caretaker... or something similar. Something that your brain translated into custodian."

"Well what would that be?" Laz asked, looking around.

"No idea. It's your voice..." Ruby said with a smirk while also examining the area.

Nothing really stuck out at first until one of the half lit lights hit a piece of metal just right to catch Laz's eye.

He made his way over and gently moving aside some of the fallen rubble, Laz noticed a crushed automation that was just a ways down from the door. Half of it was buried by the fallen ceiling while the rest was damaged. The thing looked human in size, but dented, rusted and beat up beyond repair. He couldn't be sure, but something was telling him that this hunk of junk was what he was looking for.

"Baby. Over here," Laz called over to Ruby who was still poking around other pieces of debris.

"This... is...?" Ruby asked, not sure what Laz was indicating.

"I think this is it?"

"You think?"

"I don't know."

"It's a good thing you're cute cause otherwise you would be super useless," Ruby teased Laz.

"Oh. I'm pretty sure I am good for something else..." Laz said, wrapping his arms around her supple waist.

"Laz. As freaky as I like it and I have never done it in another world before... I don't think it's even possible to get into the mood right now..."

"Yeah. Alright. Good point."

"Anyway, this thing..." Ruby bent down and looked at the human sized hunk of junk.

"I'm pretty sure this is what it wanted..."

"Shh... wait baby... Let me think..."

Laz didn't say anything while Ruby looked over the robot. She was careful not to touch anything on it, just to prevent any surprises. Her gaze finally came to rest on what would have been it's left arm, if it would be called an arm.

"I think I get it, but it doesn't make a single bit of fucking sense. Why would machines need locks?" she said while shaking her head.

"What?"

"It's arm... the key is it's hand type... what ever the fuck it is..."

"So we need it's arm?"

"I think so?"

"That's not totally helpful..."

"You got a better idea big boy, this girl is all ears..."

"Yeah. No. Ok. We will go with what you said. Still.... I don't think we can move this thing. It's basically supporting the entire ceiling that's collapsed on it. Then again, if we only need the hand..." Laz leaned over the indicated arm and summoned out his black flame, covering his entire fist with it. Before Ruby could stop him, Laz slam down in a chopping motion. Had the automation been new and undamaged, Laz's probably wouldn't of even been able to make a dent. But after such an extended period of time and damaged, the hand came right off with little effort.

"See? That was easy... oh fuck..." Laz's smile at a job well down quickly disappeared as the eyes on the monstrosity lit up, like a sleeping creature opening it's eyelids.

Laz couldn't help but back away while carrying the hand as Ruby did the same.

The creature looked like it wanted to move, but the damage was way too severe for that. Added on to it the amount of weight on top of it, it was barely able to turn it's head while looking at Ruby and Laz.

"Intruders detected in main lab. Unit damage 95%. Repair not possible. Support not responding. Switching to primary function, final cleansing. Initiating...."

"Did you understand that?" Laz asked Ruby.

"Yes."

"We are in fucking trouble... I don't think it's looking to give us a bath..." Laz said, feeling waves of energy coming from the automation.

"Fuck.... You just couldn't wait, could you?" Ruby said, grabbing the hand from Laz.

She quickly went to work, connecting the various digits on the hand into the holes on the keypad. After having put the various fingers into the holes, Ruby and Laz heard various clicks taking place in the door, but after a moment they stopped and the door didn't open.

Ruby looked at Laz.

"You're looking really calm right now..."

"Didn't think I'd die being blown up by an imitation terminator... what a fucking way to go..."

At that moment the, door which had previously looked like it was dead, started to inch open.

"Thank god..." Laz said, grabbing Ruby's hand and rushing inside without even looking.

Just as they got inside the door, Laz threw Ruby to the side and jumped on top of her before a world ending blast sounded. Bright light and intense heat filled the inside of the darkened room through the small, barely human sized crack that had opened.

After everything had calmed down, Laz finally got off of Ruby, doing his best to stretch his back. Shards of metal had imbedded itself in his back, shredding through his military gear. If it wasn't for how sturdy he was, he would have been cut to ribbons by that blast.

"That fucking hurt," Laz said trying to get a feel for the damage.

"Hey, can you give me a hand.... for the love of god's left testicle...." Laz said as he got a clear view of the room they had gotten into.

Even Ruby's eye's were glued to the things they saw while trying her best not to throw up.

:Welcome to Hell...: