Letting a Hero into Laboratory [4-2] was not part of any original plans that the Hivemind had made in recent times. That facility was meant to have been secret and only available to itself and nobody else. That had gone into the rubbish the moment that the Hivemind had seen the Heroes take off just a few metres away from where it was having its vessels dig into the earth to uncover more parts of the place. Secrecy was not an option anymore. Surviving the local apocalypse, on the other hand, very much was.

“Do you even know what this place is?” Tesla questioned as the two walked along to the top of the facility, standing on the metallic roof. Each step let a resounding thud ring out in the open air, some space present beneath that first layer of defence. The Hivemind was still not entirely sure what actual pieces of defence there were inside the building, however. Too many parts had been left untouched to be sure.

“I know that it has more scrap metal than anybody could ever wish for,” Oak said, answering the questions as dumbly as the Hivemind wished as the Biomancer brought the woman down the stairs and into the facility. Everything was already opened up, luckily, letting the Hivemind play it off as the site was just malfunctioning. “A lot of these doors can’t be opened no matter what we do but more than a few parts are still working.”

“You should be happy they don’t,” Tesla admonished as they went through the small halls, the woman having to duck her head to miss some of the pipes. “This place is meant to be a killing floor for anybody stupid enough to enter.”

“Nobody has died yet,” Oak pointed out.

“That’s where dumb luck and the age of this building come into play,” Tesla said. “The moment we get this ordeal over with, I need you to get everybody away from this. There is no reason for civilians to be in here.”

“When you see the scraps we’ve been able to get off the walls, I am sure you will disagree.”

The excuse of wanting the metals seemed to be working well, the Heroes having no real expectations from civilians. The Hivemind had never been too sure of people saying the truth when it came to such things but it seemed those Heroes truly didn’t have many expectations of the populace. It wondered how much else it could get away with in the future.

Getting through the hallways, moving past the half-opened doors without much fanfare, the two were finally let into the larger room with the railgun. It was a mechanical monstrosity, nearing twenty-five metres. It couldn’t even turn inside the actual room, needing to be lifted outside the actual facility through the already-made exit before it could do as much. Such had previously been impossible, however, no power to be seen in the facility.

“I need you to hold these two and put a lot of power into it,” the Biomancer said as he ripped off a chunk of the wall that had the power lines to the main generators. From there, every part of the facility could be powered safely, including a certain railgun that was sitting close by. “With this, the rail gun should work without any issues and I should be able to make the system lock onto the target.”

“How do you know how this all works?” Tesla questioned as she grabbed the two massive cables. How the woman held both so casually was a wonder of what Heroes were made of. Each was meant to weigh nearly twenty kilos yet she seemed to not even notice the weight.

“There’s a manual in one of the other rooms,” the Hivemind said, noting down it needed to forge a manual later if everything worked right. “It went over how the entire system worked, though too many pages had been ripped off.”

“When we’re done here, you are going to show me the entire manual,” Tesla warned before taking a deep breath. “How many minutes did you need?”

“As many as you can give me while keeping up the maximum output,” the Hivemind answered. It wasn’t even sure the woman had enough power to make the machines come to life, much less power up the railgun to the required power to fire. It had seen the requirements of such weapons. The magnetic output alone was more than anything most people would interact with throughout their entire lives and the woman was expected to generate that more every second. “If I shout for more, put in more energy.”

“... Right,” Tesla said, looking down at the cables with a wary eye. “Try and keep your distance from me during this. I’m not sure I’ll be able to contain the power to only the cables.”

“You’ll have to if you don’t want the entire structure to short-circuit,” The Hivemind ordered as it went away, hoping the Hero wouldn’t take it lightly. The floors were made to kill anybody unlucky enough to be on it when it was charged with power. The Parasite had no desire to kill the Biomancer because of some Hero not being able to do their job. “Start it up when you can.”

Another rattle got through the facility as the fight above went on. The Hivemind wasn’t sure it wanted to know what was happening in full detail just yet. The cameras on the farm weren’t able to track the fight anymore, the brightness too much changing for the lenses to capture anything concrete. The sheer power was too much. Would the railgun even be able to track the right person?

No more warnings came around as the Hero began to channel her powers. The Biomancer vessel was able to spare the woman a glance as the first spark was seen before the entire facility began to come alive. In the distance, the whirring of the generators came on once more, the old blades grinding against the shifted metal spectacularly. Yet, the longer it all came together the more it all seemed to work. The lights came on, the doors opened and closed every second, and the ventilation came on as well. The entire facility was alive!

Laboratory [4-2] Overview

Power

7/100

Power-Generation

3.74/day

Status

Underpowered

The generators were truly up and running now. Yet…

Railgun [4-2] Overview

Charge

0.01/50

Status

Off

Ammunition

2

“We need more!” The Biomancer shouted from a distance. The Hero barely gave a glance before starting to shout out in frustration. The Hivemind wasn’t initially sure how that was meant to help until the brightness of the lights increased. Somehow, everything was becoming more powerful. Everything was getting what it needed. “Keep it up! The railgun is starting.”

The screens on the terminal started to light up one by one as the power was granted to them after decades without use. The Hivemind would have smiled internally if it had the capabilities, instead making the Biomancer look through the screens in a rapid fashion. Everything was depending on it working and… there!

A button was hit and the ceiling opened up as the railgun began to rise from the floor, held by a massive platform. The gears letting it rise clacked with each step, making the Biomancer nearly go deaf from the lack of tuning after all those years, yet it all worked in the end. The eardrums were perhaps damaged yet sight was the only thing the Hivemind needed if it had to work with the console.

Railgun [4-2] Overview

Charge

35.2/50

Status

Active

Ammunition

2

Everything was being prepared, that whirring of the railgun powering up being like music to the Hivemind’s many ears. The vessels hiding in the forest could hear it from hundreds of metres away. The Parasite only wondered how loud it was going to be when firing.

The external tracking cameras on the weapon finally turned on after a lot of button mashing, the systems beginning to search for targets. As the Hivemind had feared, the old systems had trouble looking through the many pieces of light and shadow in the air. The weapon had been made to take down flying heroes yet even then it had trouble keeping up with the movements.

“How long?” Tesla shouted in frustration, the woman groaning in pain as she kept up her part. The Biomancer wanted to shout back but the Hivemind wasn’t sure what to say. The tracking systems were still calibrating, the movements too random to easily fire from.

“Another minute!” The Hivemind lied. The Hero could hold out another minute, right? The smoke being seen from her suit wasn’t good at all, a small piece starting to catch fire. There was no actual ability to heal the woman, however, getting any closer to rising to permanent death. Those massive sparks of lightning jumping everywhere weren't safe in any form of the word. A mere glancing blow was everything required before the Biomancer would be dead on the spot. The Hivemind needed Oak Williams alive.

Giving the terminal a good punch, the railgun finally aligned itself right, tracking the movements perfectly. Seeing the last parts of the energy capacity fill up right, everything was looking ready. Tesla screamed from the side as the skin on her flesh burned but the Hivemind nearly screamed in joy with her. Pressing down hard on the trigger, the massive resounding boom nearly made the Biomancer’s skull split in two.

The railgun had fired but it was broken, and any external cameras instinaly cracked upon firing. As Tesla fell to the floor in pain, stopping the channelling of her powers, the Hivemind only had one question in its mind. What was going on outside?