Another crummy day, another equally crummy job. The grenade factory he worked in was dimly lit, grimy, and littered with shrapnel from discarded parts- amongst other things. Like the floor, the eyes of the workers surrounding him were clouded with the despair the mind-numbing motions of their labor brought to them. Filling capsules with sharp lead that would one day rip through the flesh of another… Unlike his coworkers', Vanth's eyes were filled with vigor; his day was only going to get better. No longer would he have to work day in and day out at a sweatshop to pull in enough money to help his parents. He had gotten his hands on the last pieces of equipment to pull off his latest heist: a new pair of gloves and an unmarked crowbar. They were stashed between some of the boxes which were scheduled to ship out to the frontlines tomorrow. Without these tools, stealing that crystal his man inside the R&D building mentioned would be more of a pain than it had to be. All he had to do now was wait for the end of the day.
As the ragtag tide of workers were leaving the factory, a hooded figure slinked along the walls away from the crowd towards a large mound of crates ready to be shipped. Upon reaching his stashed gloves and crowbar Vanth slipped on the gloves, slung the bar into his pack, then turned on his heels towards the rooftop of the main factory building. From there, he navigated across several wooden planks which stretched from factory building to factory building until he reached the rooftop of the R&D department.
Reaching into his pack, Vanth pulled out a lock picking kit and unlocked a corroded metal door. A few flights of stairs later and he was close to the lab where the government's brightest were keeping his prize until their next batch of tests. However, something was off. He could feel energy in the air around him as he approached his quarry. There also weren't the normal amount of security cameras that sat in every ceiling corner of every other building he had broken into. No trip wires, no hidden redeye relays, nothing. Was he even in the right building? Vanth got his answer when he broke into the room where the gem was encased.
“That's it? This puny little thing?” He reached out and grabbed it, inadvertently triggered the alarm for that room. Amber and ruby emergency lights began flashing with klaxons blaring. By instinct Vanth dropped his prize into the pouch attached to the inside of his pants and rushed out of the room with crowbar in hand. The entirety of the lab had transformed in an instant. Stout metallic lumps, the size of basket balls, were slinking along the floor towards him as he stepped out into the hall. He swung at one to no avail; his crowbar merely bounced off. After that, all of the lumps began glowing red, the temperature of the room increasing, and their metal sides liquidating to transform into searing tentacle-wielding cannons.
“Oh fuck this!” Vanth shouted at the tentacle cannons while batting away their jabs and dodging their small projectiles. He backpedaled down the hall he came from and back up to the roof top where the night sky was lit up with search lights, flying machines, and klaxons. He could still hear the cannons slinking up the stair well with their flexing metal limbs. He dashed over his planks and made his way back home, weaving between dilapidated houses, construction sites, until he was sure they had lost his trail. Coming up ahead was the back door to the shack of the place he called home.
Unfortunately, that was when he heard several short blasts of a pistol and two thumps hit the floor. His parents. Panic struck his heart like a hammer and he sprung through the backdoor. Deep red blood was pooling around two tied up corpses of the couple that gave him life. At this he kneeled down next to his mother and held her lifeless hand. The tromping of boots was heard from the forefront of the hovel. Something rustled from behind him, then everything went dark.
(TBA)