Peter stared at the Biomorph and spread his hands wide.

“If we stay here we get torn apart,” he said.

The creature’s weapon didn’t waver.

“Go in there,” it said, Another tentacle-like limb pointed towards the broken remains of a store. “We encourage you to move swiftly.”

Peter quickly weighed the likelihood of overpowering the thing.

Walks Alone Biomorph Scout; Lvl 21; 225% Blue Flower Creche

Well that’s not happening.

He looked at Chester, but the old ghoul was no help. He looked like he wanted to run, but he was obviously too smart to think he had a chance of getting away.

The crowd coming after them was almost there - the noise of slapping ghoul feet and angry shouting made that obvious.

“Fine,” Peter sighed. He had to assume the Biomorph had a plan of some kind. “Everyone, in the store!”

He ran into the dark interior without looking. Nothing was going to be worse than getting caught by that mob. The others followed him without question, and the Biomorph slithered in behind Dumbo Ghoul.

“Proceed to the far wall,” it rasped.

Peter kept going, stepping through piles of rotten clothing that lay all over the floor. When he reached the back wall it was bare concrete with a broken door hanging from its frame, leading into an even darker space.

“In here?” he said.

“Stand upon the rectangular region,” the creature said.

The lead ghouls of the pack chasing after them appeared in the mall outside. They ran straight towards the fire doors without looking into the stores around them. But Peter had a feeling their leader ghoul wasn’t going to be so oblivious.

A rectangular outline began glowing with soft blue light on the floor, in a space devoid of any wreckage. It was easily big enough for all the ghouls plus the Biomorph to stand in.

“Here, fast,” Peter said, motioning to the others.

Alice looked sick with fear.

She was doing just fine on her own, joined up with us, and now she’s being chased by Flame Clan and kidnapped by a Biomorph.

He had to admit that from her perspective the day could not be said to be going well. But they crowded together, all of them as far away as possible from the creature as it slithered onto the platform. Without any delay, they began sinking down into the floor. Alice gasped and grabbed at Peter for support when they started moving.

“It’s okay, if he wanted to kill us he could have done it already easily,” Peter said to her.

Dumbo Ghoul almost seemed to be enjoying himself. He was watching the store rise up away from them with his mouth open and wide eyes.

Chester was just frowning. Peter had to agree with him. There was no obvious escape route here.

After only a moment something slid into place above them, blocking out the shrinking square of light from above.

A fake floor, presumably.

Almost immediately, their strange little elevator stopped with a hissing noise, and a door opened in front of them. Light flooded in, bright enough to blind them momentarily. Alice squeaked in fear again, and Peter shielded his eyes, trying to see.

“This way, this way,” said the Biomorph as it slithered away into the brilliantly lit hall outside. The pistol had disappeared, along with the whole tentacle that held it. Peter didn’t doubt it could come out again in an instant, but there was no reason to hold them at gunpoint now. There was nowhere to go.

Wherever they were, it was the cleanest, most high-tech spot he’d ever seen in the game. Only the headquarters of some of the bigger player guilds could even compete. The floor was smooth gray tiles, the walls were clean, white, and seamless. Overhead their way was lit by brilliantly bright rows of lights that never flickered at all.

All of the ghouls looked out of place and wary in that environment.

In fact, let’s face it, they look like sewer rats.

With their drooping, wrinkly skin, and their patchy hair and the filthy rags they wore, Peter saw them again for the monsters they were supposed to be. He’d almost forgotten that perspective for a while.

Ugly or not, they were his clan now.

All the same, we need to get better clothes. Having my party dressed like this is just embarrassing.

The Biomorph didn’t fare much better of course. It looked more technological - more manufactured and at home in this environment than the ghouls, but it was still a wobbling nightmare of metal and flesh.

It was hard to judge distance but they probably went two or three hundred meters before their captor finally shuddered to a halt in front of one segment of wall which looked no different than any other.

“Here we will return to the surface,” it said.

The wall opened up, and what was obviously another elevator was in front of them.

Peter looked up and down the long underground hallway. It curved away gently with no obvious doors or any other signs of where any other elevators might be.

“Nice place down here,” he said. “Safe. I guess this tunnel goes all over the Nexus? Even out into the player zones?”

The Biomorph slid into the elevator without responding, and one tentacle motioned them in. They followed.

When the door closed and they began to ascend, it said, “You will not see that location again. But we needed to bring you away from the Flame Clan.”

“So will you finally tell us why we’re here? Who do we have to remove from the Creche?”

A square of light appeared above them and rapidly expanded as the elevator rose.

“A creature came to the Creche. It will not leave until you remove it. It’s presence cannot be accepted. You will cause it to leave.”

“Sounds like this is really important to you.”

The elevator brought them up into another ruined building. Morning sunlight was filtering in through shards of filthy broken glass.

Let’s hope the boys made it back to the nest okay. We’re going to be late.

The Biomorph gestured with a tentacle for them to go.

But Peter stood right where he was.

“I said, it sounds like it’s important to you that we do this. We have a price for our help.”

The Biomorph moved with lightning speed. It whipped around and slapped an armlike-appendage around Dumbo Ghoul, with the plasma pistol pressed to his temple. DG looked frightened, but he didn’t struggle.

“You will remove it,” the Biomorph screeched. “Refuse and we will kill this one immediately.”

Poker face.

“Kill any one of my clan and I will never cooperate with you. Never.”

“You will die.”

“How do you think the creature in the Creche will feel about that?”

In fact Peter had no idea how The Creature would feel about it. But whatever it was, it obviously needed Peter in order to leave the Creche. And that was important to the Biomorphs, apparently.

The Biomorph’s skin vibrated with agitation. It was an ugly sight.

The plasma pistol retracted.

“One hundred gold,” it said. “You will move now.”

“Ten thousand.”

That was a pure stab in the dark. But the Biomorph had blinked.

“Five hundred, we will barter no further.”

“Twelve thousand.”

Three of its eyestalks all swiveled around to stare at Peter. It glared silently at him for several seconds. Peter suspected it was talking to someone.

Finally it shuddered again it released its hold on DG, who scampered away from the thing at speed. The Biomorph slithered away off of the elevator platform. All of the eyestalks swiveled away again, as if it didn’t want to look at Peter.

“Eleven thousand. Trade value only. We will give you no gold.”

I can live with store credit for now.

“Deal,” Peter said, and stepped off the platform. He gestured to the other ghouls.

“Let’s go. The man has a creature he needs removed.”

They moved out into the light of dawn together, following the Biomorph. It was another ruined street, with the green Nexus glow shimmering in the air above. Nothing moved in any direction, and the wrecked buildings were silent.

“This way. We will move quickly now.”

It was slightly amazing to Peter that the Biomorph didn’t leave a trail of slime behind it as it moved, but however it was managing to ambulate across the debris, nothing slowed it down. It flowed along the road ahead of them, moving purposefully. It didn’t appear to be watching that they were coming along, but then again there could easily have been more eyes in the bulging flesh of the thing. Insect eyes, perhaps, or even cameras or other sensors.

Chester was eyeing the surrounding buildings carefully. DG and Alice trailed after them, looking worried. It wasn’t normal for ghouls to just stroll along in the middle of the street where anyone could see them.

“I thought Biomorphs usually went in… groups,” Peter said.

There was no sense in not getting whatever new information he could out of the situation.

“I am a Scout,” it rasped. “We move alone.”

“Thus your name. Walks Alone. Seems kind of sad to me.”

“I serve the Creche. I share with them in ways you will never know.”

“Are there a lot of scouts?”

“There are as many as needed. If you wish more information you may barter for it, but not with me.”

“I’d like to set up a trade arrangement with the Creche, actually. Who should I speak with about that?”

“Not with me. First you will remove the thing from the Creche. Its presence is unacceptable.”

Good point, I should be asking about that.

“What is it? Can you tell me?”

“It appeared. It gave us signs by which we might find you.”

“But what is it?”

“Horde. Or so it appears. I will not discuss it further.”

“I assume we can buy more information?”

“Not from me. It must be…”

The Biomorph shuddered to a stop.

“What is it?” Peter said. Chester dropped to all fours instantly, ready to bolt for safety.

The creature made a blubbering, hissing noise.

“Flame Clan,” he said. “They come this way.”

“Oh no,” Peter said. “Should we go back down again?”

The Biomorph didn’t answer him. Instead there was a flashing of tentacles, and then there were three small boxes being held out to them, each on a separate arm.

Peter scanned one right away.

ACTIVE VISUAL CLOAK MOD: LEVEL ADAPTATION (-16)

LEVEL 18 CAMOUFLAGE (Modded: Lvl 2)

POWERED; 100% (3 Hours)

DEFENSE 100%

20 Hide in plain sight! Great for playing tricks on your friends! Also useful for not getting torn apart by rampaging mobs.

“Impressive.”

It was new to Peter. The orange text indicated it incorporated T-tech components.

Three of them, no less. Plus mods. I wonder what just one of them would be worth.

A lot, that was for sure.

“You will attach them to your clothing. You will move swiftly, the Flame Clan are not far.”

Peter took it and clipped it to his jacket, showing the others what to do. It was a decent guess none of them had ever handled anything like this before.

Chester managed it after watching Peter, and Alice had no problem. She turned and helped DG attach it to his rags.

“Now what?”

There was a mild humming noise, and both of the other ghouls faded away until they were just blurry outlines in the street. When Peter looked down he could still see himself.

The Biomorph faded away as well.

“What happen?” DG said.

Peter waved his arms and walked up to DG, showing him that they could still kind of see each other.

“But if we stand still, we’ll blend right into the background, yeah?” he said to the Biomorph.

“If we see the Flame Clan you will be still, yes. They will not see you.”

DG laughed with understanding.

“This great! I want one!”

Me too, big boy. I want a whole bunch of them.

But they could talk about that at the Creche.

“Observe me closely so that you do not become lost,” the Biomorph said, and headed out again.

They headed up the street again, and before long they heard the sound of ghouls nearby. There were shouts from the insides of the wrecked buildings, and the clamour of a mob running through the debris.

“Be still!” the Biomorph said.

They all froze.

To Peter’s surprise, the two players they’d seen running away in the mall were still alive. They came running out of a doorway just a few meters away, and nearly slammed straight into the party on their way up the street. Their faces were intent, and from the quick look Peter got, the male was at 40% and the female was something similar in the 30’s.

Not good, we’re right in the middle of this.

Ghouls burst out of the buildings behind them, swarming up the street.

The party was saved by the natural Ghoul instinct to hug cover - very few of the pack moved more than an arm’s-length away from the dark safety of the wrecked stores and offices. They flocked together up the road, with the blue-clad leader ghoul following closely.

Peter thought they were safe, but then the leader stopped suddenly, and turned around, looking down the street towards them suspiciously. It had a side-arm of some kind on a belt. It sniffed and crouched, then stood up again and pointed directly at them.

“I see you, Biomorph,” it said. Then it turned and loped away after the swarm.

They all waited until they were alone again in the street.

“Good job taking us right back into danger,” Peter said. What had just happened could only be an accident.

“My choice was poor,” Walks Alone said. It didn’t sound apologetic at all. “But we are safe now.”

All the same, Peter thought this was a valuable encounter. There were real limits to how much the Biomorphs knew about what was going on in the Nexus. They might have high-tech tunnels down below, but up above you could surprise them.

File that away for future reference.

“You guys okay?” he said to the others.

They all responded positively, but neither Alice nor Chester sounded very happy. At least DG still seemed to be having fun with being invisible. He crept up beside Peter - a zone of pixelated background identifiable mainly by his size.

“You see me now?” he said.

“Not very well. It’s a good thing their leader didn’t see us either.”

“It would not expect a low-tier clan such as yours to have this technology,” said the Biomorph. “We will move now.”

The creature turned off it’s own cloak and popped back into place in front of them.

“I will leave yours active,” it said.

“Can you see us even with the cloaks on?” Peter said.

It didn’t reply, and slithered off down the road.

They trudged onward for a long time, and Peter did his best to remember landmarks along the way - a broken fountain, the base of a statue with two bronze legs ending in nothing at all now, then a large circular plaza blocked with the crumpled remains of a skyscraper that had collapsed into it.

They moved deeper and deeper towards the sickly green glow of the Nexus, until the light began to suffuse everything.

Peter had never even met anyone who’d been in this deep before.

“You know this area at all, Chester?” Peter said. “I hope your Horde travel lore is going to help us find our way back again.”

The blurred outline of the ghoul next to him paused and seemed to stare around the ruins.

“Think so. Only come down this way a couple of times, but should be okay.”

“I want to be able to get back here. The clan needs to be able to trade with the Biomorphs. They have things we’re going to need.”

Speaking of which.

REPUTATION BIOMORPH REPUTATION

Now -55%; Hostile

Yikes! When did that happen?

No wonder Walks Alone was barely tolerating them. It was a big change in his status. His small buff from the gear was being swamped by something else completely. Peter hoped it was because of the thing at the Creche, but if it stayed that way they were probably screwed until they could repair it.

There was no point in worrying about it for now. It was outside of his control.

But when they finally reached the Creche he had to stop himself from laughing.

So much for the notion of a secret hidden base.

It was a gaudy thing that you could probably have seen from an airliner. The creche had taken over most of an old city block, and where the buildings had been, there was now a bizarre fractal tracery of silver superstructure around a jumble of fragmented concrete that had no obvious outline at all. It looked vaguely like some kind of insect nest, if the insects were able to move multi-ton blocks of concrete wreckage into place to suit their needs. High up there was a protruding half-globe of what looked like stained glass. Peter suspected it was made of fused window shards, mirrors, streetlights, and anything else that the creatures could find.

Never mind ghoul nests, this is an actual nest.

He was getting a sense of the Biomorphs now beyond them being just another random threatening mob.

They’re true hive creatures.

It was no wonder the presence of an unwanted thing in the Creche that they couldn’t get rid of would drive them to distraction.

The Biomorph slithered to a stop in front of an irregular opening in the base of the structure. Without any warning their cloaks turned off, and the ghouls all looked shocked to be able to see one another again.

“That’s a good trick,” DG said, laughing happily again.

Alice and Chester nodded. It was obvious they were all thinking the same thing. The notion of being able to instantly hide anywhere at all appealed to something deep in a ghoul’s instincts.

“I know, I know,” Peter said. “It’s on the list, trust me.”

“You will go in there and remove it,” Walks Alone said, gesturing with a tentacle.

“We can just go right inside?”

“This small zone may be accessed for trade. If it was anywhere else we would have burned the creche to ash.”

Good to know. Please stay inside the visitor area.

“Alright, come on,” Peter said. “Let’s go find out who’s so anxious to meet us.”

But then he stopped, and turned to Walks Alone.

“I don’t know this creature, and I didn’t ask for it to be here. If we remove it, will we be forgiven for the intrusion, or will you attack us as enemies?”

The Biomorph paused in the way that Peter now interpreted as it conferring with someone or something. Probably something inside the Creche. It went on for a surprisingly long time.

Finally it stirred and spoke.

“We have already agreed to a trade. If you fulfil your portion of that trade, we will be satisfied.”

Does that mean there was still some uncertainty on the topic?

It wasn’t like he could demand anything else from them at this point, so there was no sense in making an issue of it. But he was willing to bet there was an amazing array of weapons directed at them right now, ready for anything that might happen next.

“Fair enough,” he said, and strode confidently into the dark interior of the Creche.