System Hunt: Regalia

“You really came down here and only saw a kitchen.” Sam said disappointedly. The stairs had fallen deep into the ground for what felt like minutes before Sam realized what Yoko meant by ‘come up.’ Somewhere along the descent, without him noticing at first, he’d stopped descending. His feet kept moving down, but the staircase twisted in a way that gravity shifted, and suddenly he was climbing up instead.

The axis had flipped seamlessly.

Sam hesitated, testing it by stepping backward. The moment he tried to go down again, the shift repeated. Up became down, down became up. Yoko, grinning at the sight of his confusion, was already used to it and climbed ahead without hesitation.

“More strangeness,” he muttered as they both reached the top—or bottom—whatever it was now.

A hidden research lab or at least some kind of storage area was tucked underneath the cave. Its walls were sterile and metallic with no sign of the pink crystals that surfaced at every bit of dirt. There were four rooms and a long hallway leading to a heavy metal door with a crank.

One of the four doors lead into a well equipped kitchen. Yoko’s clone was already exploring the contents while the Original and Sam entered with buckling chickens in a cage.

“Oh good, the protein is here!” the clone exclaimed with an all too happy grin.

Sam shook his head at the original beside him. She shared the same happy grin and was rubbing her hands together in anticipation. The kitchen itself was just as sterile as the rest of the lab—plain walls, bland metallic counters. Even the pots and utensils were devoid of colour, neatly arranged and gleaming under the cold lights.

“I’m assuming one of you knows how to butcher a chicken?” Sam said as he opened a cupboard and found it full of variety spices. All were in plain, brandless containers and difficult to identify despite having cooked for himself for years.

Yoko winked, “There’s always a first time for everything, but as long as we have…” she trailed off and leaned past her clone to twist the knob on the sinks tap. Water came rushing out. “Yes! And it’s not pink either.”

Sam’s eyes narrowed at it and he bit his lip as his hands became sweaty from anxious thought, “This is…what is this place?” his feet carried him out of the kitchen and back into the hallway.

The lighting, despite being white and steady, had a strange quality. It didn’t buzz like fluorescents should, and there were no visible fixtures—just glowing strips embedded in the ceiling, casting the hallway in a sharp, sterile light. He walked down to the next room, a plain door with a bronze knob just like all the rest.

He twisted the knob and stepped into the room. A smells smacked his senses instantly and Yoko, suddenly manifested behind him, curled her nose in disgust, “Nrrgh, smells like science…not the good kind obviously.”

She would know. He recoiled, nostrils flaring as he tried to place it—something chemical, chalky, and wrong. Inside, the room was just as large as the kitchen, the sink was exposed without any cupboards or fastenings around it but there was one swivel chair in the centre.

There was a bathtub at the edge where the burner would’ve been and unlike most things in the facility the tub was riddled with stain lines. They streaked across both horizontal and vertical and seemed to be where a lot of the pungent scent emanated from.

Two metal rods jutted from the tub’s end, connected by red and blue wires that ran along the wall to a large table cluttered with lab equipment. Test tubes filled with suspicious, dark fluids, half-broken beakers, and tools Sam couldn’t recognize littered the space. At the far end, two cathode ray tubes were positioned, holding sharp, glowing red crystals inside, connected to the tub by wires running beneath.

“What is all this?” Sam wondered and turned around to Yoko. She stood over the tub, still inspecting it with narrowed eyes and a hand over her nose.

“Nothing good if I’d have to guess. That’s clearly blood and…I think people were experimented on in here, maybe monsters as well.” She said, her voice muffled.

“Belua too? Why do you think that?”

Yoko pointed upward, and Sam’s eyes followed. Above the tub hung a metal cage, the same size as the tub, suspended from the ceiling by thick chains. She pointed down near the tub’s base. “See those latches? They line up with the tub. That cage was for holding… something.”

Sam narrowed his eyes at everything in the room, an acute disgust coming over him the longer he looked, “Let’s check the other room, sick of this place.”

“Finally.”

Sam shook his head at her as they stood in the corridor, “Aren’t you curious what happened here? Why Belua and possibly even humans are being caged and tested on?”

She rolled her eyes at him as she slammed the door of the lab shut and leaned against a wall, “No, this world obviously has its own history and we’re Invaders, not archaeologists. We’re here to get Regalia not solve mysteries, the only reason I’m still here is because she’s not done with the chickens yet.”

“That’s pretty close-minded.” Sam said, already moving onto the next room, “This place…someone’s clearly been using it for something important and chances are it’s one of the Stewards Zacchaeus talked about.”

“What so like a lair? You think we’ll find a Stewards lair so easily?”

Sam shrugged, “We found Zacchaeus just a few hours ago, we found the cave, and we found this place.”

She threw her hands up, “Fine, whatever, it’s been a little smooth but you’re the one that said we should go after Belua first, there aren’t any here and I bet there won’t be any behind that door.”

He twisted the knob and pushed the door open. A cold blast of air rushed out, swirling around their feet, and the sight inside stopped them both in their tracks, “Those are…people?” Yoko murmured, horrified at the sight.

Rows of bunk beds filled the room, and on each one lay a body—men, women, and children, all frozen in various stages of crystallization.

“Oh my God,” Sam whispered as he continued to walk in.

Some of the people were fully encased, eyes wide open, paralyzed by the growth of pink and red crystals around them. Others had limbs twisted into sharp, crystalline forms, their hair stiff and sparkling with crystal tendrils.

A single wheeled stretcher stood in the room’s centre, covered in crystal shards. On it, a hammer and chisel sat abandoned, both dusted with a fine layer of frost.

“This… this is…” Sam trailed off, unable to finish the sentence.

Suddenly, a cold voice broke the silence. “It’s mine. And you Invaders are trespassing.”

Sam spun around, but before he could react, a woman stepped out of the shadows, pulling a syringe out of Yoko’s neck as her body crumpled to the floor. Sam barely had time to process the sight before the butt end of a rifle smashed into his face, sending him spiralling into unconsciousness.