Dr. Thayer kept on staring at the back of the truck that held the box he suspected held what remained of a human that had hit the ground at terminal velocity. When he drifted of into his final dream he should have expected not to wake up anymore. In a matter of speaking he had not. As the trucks, holding his work that he would never see at its full potential drive off he noticed that he was still there. How was he still there?
Behind him something clicked on the ground. He turned to see a shape in white, with red wings wrapped around it. He had seen these wings sprout from the screaming subjects of his tests, but he had never seen them on a calm humanoid in a white suit. The strange figure had evidently tapped the ground with its cane. The silver cane was clad in teeth and at its end sat an angel carved and puzzled together from bone fragments as smooth as skulls.
"Well, a promising angel has failed to get his wings. I can not have that." The creature had a voice as if thousands of voices screamed in agony and in perfect harmony. It was a beautiful sound that might have driven the squeamish insane.
"Your failure might have doomed a lot more people than your success would have had."
The creature raised a hand and looked at it fascinated. "Your failure was to much to bare for someone higher up, so he made me to correct your shortcomings."
The creature had closed the distance before Thayer had mustered the courage for a reply.
The fingers of the creature closed around his neck and he found them surprisingly pleasant, like a strong warm shower after an exhausting crunch period. "You will finish your work. You will not let this go unpunished." The red wings of the creature finally spread. He had seen so many crude angels formed from mere humans, what ever this creatures ancestry was, it had made it beautiful, had made it terrible.
Dr. Thayer faded once more as the creature pressed him down into the dirt, into a puddle of his own mortal remains.
Through his closed teeth he pushed one question he needed answered. "Who… are….. you?"
The creature did not relent. but it answered: "Carmine Purpose" The wonderful terrible voice echoed in his ears as Dr. Thayer pulled himself back together. Large parts of him were missing, he had no bone larger than a few millimeters, but he stood, alone, the world around him dying and liquefying to become his new blood and flesh. Shambling, held aloft by tentacles of flesh, a new horror walked the world. One village, three places of interest, two special Insurgents and one flying anomaly and finally the entire continent, they all needed to fall. Dr. Thayer would make sure to take credit for this. He needed to earn his wings.
The little town of Welljoy was having a nice evening when the first dog started to bark at nothing. Maybe it had sensed some animal in the woods, a rabbit, fox or even a stray wolf, wandering to far to civilization. The leafs from last years fall rustled over the dirt, as if trying to follow something no man or beast could see. Something invisible approached the dog, that eventually realized that it was hopelessly outmatched by what ever was leaving behind the red drops on the ground.
Tail tugged the dog ran back to the house and started barking, filled with fear of something that had only a faint smell of blood. Old nanny Agnes opened the door and the dog was in before she could ask it what was wrong. She looked outside over her small lawn into the woods. She was not afraid of what normally lived in the woods around Welljoy, but should it come to it, her rifle had not failed her and while she was approaching her 80th birthday, she was still a great shot. She heard the rustled in the leaves and a few drops hitting the ground. Maybe it would rain, she thought.
She closed the door and went to look for her dog. Poor Rainold had fled into his doggy bed and was completely hidden under the covers. Agnes approached the bed while talking in her calm voice, of how he was save in here, of how much she loved him.
Than Agnes, saw the red drops on the blanket. Poor Rainold must have been bleeding, poor, poor thing. Maybe he had stepped in a trap or some garbage some teenager had left behind. She leaned down and lifted the blanket and was immediately hit with a spry of red liquid as the dog turned inside out before her eyes. Rainold turned into a red fountain of agony. Than Agnes started convulsing.
Welljoy would not see the next sunrise.
"Everything screams Chaos Insurgency, but why here? This was not a publicity stunt or an attack meant to spread." Agent Wiliam Alinov was pacing outside of the closed of perimeters surrounding Welljoy. The Foundation had reason to believe that the Insurgency was active around here somewhere. A few kilometers away something had made an attempt to spy on one of the larger local facilities, but than in the same night this had happened. "Maybe a test for something bigger? Maybe they lost control over one of there samples? The 'Blood Rain Virus' as they call it is a tricky bugger. Containment will need to burn the whole city down after we have confirmed the exact nature of the anomaly." Alinove's colleague, Dr. Finster Minchi was an expert on the more fleshy side of the anomalous. "Maybe they gave it to some cultist for cultivation?" Wiliam almost choked on a sip of coffee when he heard the words of the third member of his Foundation Cleanup Organization Unit, Dr. Igor Trench. Trench was an expert in the effects of ritual worship and sudden death on the material world, specifically anomalous biology. It had come up to often not to have on hand during cleanup.
When one of the communication guys stepped over to them, Alinov was still spitting out coffee through his nose. "The one site team has found something. Does not look good, even by blood rain standards." The man pulled up the video feed for the organizers to see.
In the town square of Welljoy someone or maybe something had build an angel of flesh, held upright by bone scaffolding. Several geysers of blood were arranged around the construct and seemed to keep it moist.
"Can we package it? For study and containment I mean." Trench looked like he had just seen a real angel and not the horrific remains of a mass murder. The other tow gave him "the look". Trench would soon face a psychic evaluation and maybe would need to be "treated" to keep his expertise usable.
The communication man only shrugged. "The strange part is, it was almost pre-wrapped for us. The scaffolding and the thing itself are quite movable as if it wants to be taken." "Trojan horse?" Dr. Minchi said, than quickly revised the statement "Trap and Trojan horse". "There is one base around here we can bring it to, which would not give away information to the Insurgency…" Dr. Munchi began "… and it will probably be the next target too. I get an MTF on standby. Let us roll a horse in and than make horse lasagna." Alinove finished. This time it was Trench that lost his coffee.
Behind some heavenly armored trucks, something invisible followed the foundation team to there home, only dripping sometimes a few drops of blood. Dr. Thayer now knew how to actually get a physical for again, but being a ghost of blood and slime had its perks. One village had fallen, one specific Foundation site was next. He would go in as a shadow and sunrise them at dinner time, while they marveled at his crude craft.
Martin Caduceus was a decent enough actor, so he did not immediately start to panic when he heard of Welljoy. The briefcase had been closed. The man that was probably responsible was currently in a storage crate. The backups were gone, the records unpublished, but someone would eventually count two and two together. Ether he needed to take credit now or this whole ploy would have been for nought, but taking credit for something that could not even begin to be called an "appropriate field test" would sink his career in his cell of choosing faster than open rebellion against the Falchion.
He could just give the old bastard what he wanted, the credit. The words he had said shortly before the splat rang in his ear, "a village, give me a village." The business of the Insurgency was a bloody one, but this was taking it a bit to literally. Reports were coming in, the farce had the thing under control. It was only a slight relieve "I have enough here to dose the entire continent." This rather dangerous amount of plague was currently safely contained. Not all of it. The thought bit back into his mind. That bastard must have had something of it on his person.
The farce plant reported that they had found a statue of a flesh angel. Maybe, just maybe, the two events were entirely unrelated. There were docents of flesh cults. But only the stuff I have makes angels. The under cover plant had said that the farce thought that the angel was a Trojan horse and had called in an MTF, sensible. And they hurled it of to the base that had "it" in its basement. That base was 50% Insurgency by volume, and it had been in Quasis report as the thing the old bastard had said would have been his first target. Martin had a feeling that this was not over.
Trench could hear it. As an expert on such things he could hear it. The angel whispered. Dreams of pain, blood and glory. He somehow knew that the angel was not the thing that had swallowed the city, it had risen from it. It was an idol, a representation a shadow of what it was supposed to be depicting. Trench knew his time with the Foundation was almost up. They only held him as an employee and not as a prisoner, because his work in the field was flawless and necessary. They would soon have to do something about him hearing the artifacts sing. They would know. It would know. Under his feet in a cell maintained by D-Class praying day and night for it to stay asleep, occasionally eating one of there own in a bound of madness lay something someone saw fit to bury in living, glowing hot metal and place a mark of warning and heresy over the whole thing.
The thing down there was almost the antithesis to the angel, the thing down there did not sing only scream and growl, mindless without purpose, wishing only for the prayers to stop and to escape its prison of enforced slumber.
The word passed through the D-Class, missing several spies. Rumor had it that the Insurgency had smuggled a weapon in for them and drops of blood, hidden in garbage were passed around. On the signal they would touch it and get the bloods power. The fuse was lit. Once the signal went of, D-Class would rise in rebellion and a lot of them would put their base training from the Insurgency to good use, running away as fast as possible, when they saw what weapon the Insurgency had send them.
Wiliam Alinov had made it to a shelter, together with Dr. Finster Minchi, they had split from Igor Tranch that went with a team of the MTF down to "that thing". A few researchers and administration staff had made it here as well. Through the thick walls the screams were just audible. They knew they were bringing something dangerous in, but for some reason the only place nothing had happened was the statue. What ever had caused this had come through someplace else. No one knew where it began, the cantina or the prison areas, but it blew up way quicker then expected. Alinov had needed 2 minutes to reach the shelter and in that time had seen 5 of the angels past the bio containment parameter. Currently the MTF guys were torching everything that moved and did not were a uniform like theirs. "The Insurgency would not do this." Alinovs mind was trying to make sense of it. A single anomaly, used with notice, apparently not aided by other forces? The Insurgency would release something like this on a base like this, but not after showing it of in a random small town near here. Minchi nodded "The Flesh does not act like this ether. Once released it would try to spread, not fight and make a show of it. This is not the behavior of something mindless that just wants to infect things." Alinov knew little about how angels of flesh should behave, but that was why he was not the expert. He was an expert in Insurgency tactics. Where were there second wave operatives? The on ground infiltrators? The implants and sleeper agents that would now be activated to join the attack. They had to little intel on this place to have many outside of D-Class and no new people had entered the facility recently. Accept for…
Igor trench stepped over the corpses of the D-Class agents that had prayed to keep, "the thing" asleep. His friends from the "MTF" had made short work of them. "You guys could not have shown up at a better time. Say, which one of my team members called you in? I want to formally join once this is over." The visor of the troupes staid unreadable. With the constant chanting now silenced and the other mechanisms disabled by Trench, the inaudible screaming from bellow had stopped. It was awake and it was coming up. Igor Trench watched the stone slab over the burial place, soon he would finally get to see it. The Insurgency would not have just unleashed it, they had some way to control it, right? "Guys, you do know what is down there and how to deal with it?"
Several helmets dropped to the ground and several bullet proved vests shattered as if answering, than he heard the dripping of liquid on the floor. Igor Tranch looked down to see that he was standing in a pool of quickly expending blood. He heard the singing before he turned around to see that the MTF Insurgents had unveiled themself in all there fleshy, bloody glory. The smell of blood was overwhelming. Trench fell down to his knees, splashing him in more blood. As he started praying, for himself to be part of the glory a pale monster turned to look at him. "I still have a use for you. You shall get what you deserve."
The stone behind Trench cracked open as a chain forged of bones still connected to bits of flesh escaped the hole and dragged Trench down below. He screamed in triumph all the way down.
Dr. Thayer pulled himself free of the flesh he had inhabited, which immediately started to bubble and transform to match the shape of his other vessels. What in a Foundation base can go everywhere? What is beyond suspicion? Well, the called for reinforcements to handle a situation like this. Bio containment obs rarely expected to be fighting something that can phase through all protection gear.
The form of Igor Trench rose from the hole. His bones had apparently been completely replaced and a new skeleton was now wearing his skin. That and the bloody bone chains behind him made him a glorious sight to behold.
"I see the hand of another at work. One I thought beyond and lost." The thing only had a resemblance to Trenches voice left, it sounded more like a clogged faucet producing sounds. "Carmine Purpose allowed me to be here. He actually never mentioned you."
A gurgling laughter escaped Igor Trenchs skin. "Sometimes even the magician wants to see the world sprout it seems." The flesh stretched over bones twisted and shifted as the chains dragged the body forwards. "For bloody glorious carnage. I shall take on the eye that thought to see me." Dr. Thayer could almost not smile. Almost. "Call me Roseate Skull ." Dr. Thayer actually managed not to laugh in the creatures face. Who named these angel of destruction?
Martin was purged on the satellite, eating his popcorn. SEPIA would take care of it. After they had cleaned up this mess the Farce would swipe everything. Martin had his story for the Insurgency prepared and had already planted evidence that Dr. Thayer had tried to steal HIS research and had accidentally created a volatile sub-strain that went lose and caused all this mess. What ever this was it was not what Martin had tucked away in a save location. He knew how flesh behaved. Even the angels were mindless, easily distracted, uninterested in organized warfare. He had brought the popcorn to watch the utter destruction of his little problem. An easy one-hour comedy of seeing what he thought to be a problem for his plans being dealt with. When Dr. Thayers creation had started to move the comedic film had turned into a thriller. SEPIA was holding back angel aerial strikes while they rammed there body into there base at supersonic speed. It was raining bloody angels. The ground troupes moved in proper formation as if actually directed by something that still had a mind. It was interesting to see how much flesh Dr. Thayers strain of the virus had accumulated. The town of Welljoy and the Farce site. The mountains of angry tissue even brought in Farce heavy weapons for gods sake. SEPIA was holding. By now the Foundation would know and mobilize. This problem would be solved.
There was a series of soft beeps from his eye in the sky. "It is here. Hang on, I will have to deal with this." Martin dropped his popcorn bucket and hung on. When the lady says to hug her you hug her.
A chain of bones hung with fleshy bits missed them as Quaesitor left the site of the battle. Martin was no stranger in being close to the action but that had been a bit to close for his taste. The large form of the satellite was making quick turns that made his head fuzzy. He could see the white chains in the air, could see the red flesh hanging from bones against the cloudy sky. Then Martin noticed that they were going up. The lady must be pretty ruffled if she gets me to where I can no longer breath. "I will catch you. Do not touch ground before I say you can."
Martin saw it as if in slow motion. The satellite pulling away, The large spider of bones in a web that covered the entire sky and than the clouds had swallowed him.
SEPIA was being overrun. They had deployed what they knew to deploy against the flesh and it had stalled them, but now there was no longer flesh to cover the bones that were marching on them. Fire and cinder and than the first real "raindrops" hit. Large boulders, parts of the walls of the Foundation site and bone-rods straight from the lower atmosphere. The anomalous died in waves, but SEPIA fell to gravity and simple high velocity rounds. The last one to hit was the entire clock-tower of Welljoy.
Martines fingers clung to the metal as she caught him. She fled strange as if covered in transparent goo. Martines eyes saw the blue haze all over her body. "You may touch the ground now."
Than the satellite hit the ground. She was gone. It was not that the lady had crashed and splintered, she was just gone, like a nice dream you suddenly can no longer hold onto. Martin lay alone in a crater looking up at what looked like a tiny white spider wrapping up a fly, only far away. He breathed in and out. "I would really like to wake up now."
Some money was exchanging hands as the bets were paid out on end of the world scenarios. The one guy that had tipped "bone spider in the sky" would die very rich as humanity mountain its last defense.
Dr. Thayer watched the red drops hitting the continent. Each an angel that had gotten his wings. The last thing Mr Skull how he had taken to call him was currently fighting a nuclear arsenal while the flesh no longer bound to any mind had gone to wander of in glorious, but unorganized, mad consumption. Martin would have be a smear on the world by now. Skull had confirmed that he fell before he could wrap up hid business with the eye. Victory was his and glory would be his.
He heard the tap of a cane behind him.
He turned and saw his red wings sprout as his gaze meet the face of Carmine Purpose. "Why did you not have a flask of your work in your pocket, for quick release?"
The answer Dr. Thayer knew to be true sounded utterly wrong when he spoke it. "The virus causes pain and I did not wish to be infected."
Carmine Purposes wings unfolded. "Are you currently infected?" Thayer only nodded.
"So than, time to pay back the credit of mind I gave you."
Suddenly Dr. Thayers world was pain. There was pain in him, he was no longer incorporeal, no longer a ghost, no longer shielded from the pain of being alive in the hellscape that was spreading, to engulf the world. Pain, only pain and blood everywhere blood.
The flesh tree that formed where Dr. Thyler actually died had not leafs but many wings of flesh and blood ran from every hole in this tree. Crimson Purpose raised his closed fist towards the horizon in the direction of the giant spider. "Time to go. The wizard awaits our report. I feel he will be pleased." He flipped his hand over and opened it, reviling the tiny rose bone spider now sitting in his hand. The light from the first nuclear explosion reached them moments later, but they were gone from under the tree by the time the shock wave hit the tree.
