The team was all on break from there last mission, each at some remote part of the city at the time, when there cellular phones went off and they where call back to action. They where told to return as fast as possible. As they entered the main mission briefing room, their mission advisor, Douglas McGathered, was waiting there for them.
"Welcome gentlemen, I am glad you could come so quickly, your mission is as follows," Douglas said as a slide projector and screen move into place. An overhead picture of a mall is shown.
"Almost five hours ago a small two level mall in Brunswick, Georgia experienced an unusual event." The slide changed and now it is still the overhead shot of the mall, but this time there is this strange dark reddish brown rock looking substance climbing up the sides of the mall.
"As you can see this in not a normal event for this mall. The stuff climbing, or moving its way up the walls, as far as we can tell, is Magma. Strange as that sounds, its even stranger that is totally cold as it moves. We don't understand why or even how this is possible.
"The photos you are looking at are over four hours old. The walls are almost completely covered at this point. I must tell you that you are not the first squad to go in, but you are the only squad available at this time. Team Alpha.Seventeen.Four went in about three hours ago and nothing has been heard from then sense.
"The local area has been closed off on all sides, and a no fly zone is now in effect around the surrounding area. the local media is being kept away and has been fed a story that it is some kind of terrorist or hostage situation. Your main objective is to enter the building and retrieve Alpha.Seventeen.Three and any people you can. Second is to find the cause for the incident and stop it.
"Your team will be flown in my plane, then by chopper to the landing zone. It will take three hours to reach the landing sight. Use your travel time to your advantage, and work on your plan of attack. The only equipment you will have is what you can take with you."
The team was all outfitted with heavy armor, as well as several weapons and ammo. The team was unsure as to exactly what they would find there, so they tried to equip themselves with a little bit of everything.
The team was taken to a helicopter, after the plane trip to Georgia, and then flown to the mall. They reached the mall at about mid-afternoon. As the team flew over the target sight, they get a good look at the mall. The mall has changed. It was now far worse then the photos showed before. The walls of magma have moved up to were they almost totally cover the building, if they hadn't been told before what this was, you would have no idea that it was a mall. The entire area was crawling with people, military, scientists, and agents of all kinds. When the team landed there where met by a man in a white lab coat, and one in a flack jacket.
"I'm glad that you have come, my name is Talcum. The alpha team went in over six hours ago, and there still has been no word from them. We have been having great difficulty in getting into the mall. We are working on a way in for your team Our orders are to give you any support your team will need, but you guys are the Beta team, we are just Gammas, here to protect."
A small hole was blown in the side of the building, near where the main entrance would be, just large enough for one person to enter at a time. As the team enters, they could see that most of the lights were gone, and that the complex was running of backup power. There was this strange chanting coming over the PA system. The team could hear the sounds of screaming, and some very strange sounds coming from all over the place, and all around them. Shortly after the last member of the team enters the mall, the hole behind them closes up tight, leaving them trapped inside.
The team quickly discovered that there IR. goggles were not functioning, and that they were blinking on and off without regularity. Their radio's where also not functioning at all. Even the short range, person to person system was not working. The team was completely cut off from the outside world.
In front of them was the mall map, the glass had been smashed, and the map destroyed. There was blood covering the map, as well as the surrounding floor. In front of them they could see the information booth, and what was left of what looked like a young woman. Just past that they could see a man shooting at some kind of bat creature. At the man's feet was a Alpha squad member, he looked very hurt, and almost dead. The man firing the pistol at the bat thing, he also had an M16 on his back. The one striking thing about the man was the fact that he looked like the walking dead. His face and body looked like it was rotting, and there was a strange odor of death around him. The man shot down the bat, and then moved to check the fallen man at his feet.
Mephisto quickly moved forward and told the man to identify himself and to move away from the solder. The man introduced himself as Captain, and bent down to check on the man. The man was in great pain, and was going to die. So without anyone seeing, Captain used his special touch and absorbed some of the man's life energy, and the man was out. Mephisto ran up to Captain, and kicked him in his face, yelling to him to get away from the man. Captain stood up, and just stared down at Mephisto. Hacker moved up and checked on the man, but he knew there was nothing he could do for him. Before the man died he wanted to thank Captain for trying to save his life.
The team gathered just away from Captain, so that he could not hear, and they decided to let him tag along. Since they could use all the help that they could get, they let him join. He also looked like he could hold his own in a fight.
The group then moved to look over where the hole had been. They knew that they couldn't get out just yet, but that the guys on the other side would find a way to get them free. The group moved to the first shop on there right, which happened to be a drug store. Inside they found the dead body of one of the Alpha team members. It looked as if her was trying to make something to stop the bleeding, and keep himself alive. The group moved through the store, and found several dead people, as well as what looked like small dead monsters. None of them had ever seen anything like this before. Mephisto and Hacker went and made some make shift medical kits. Captain found a large duffle bag and used it to hold onto the kits. They took the man's 9 mm, it only had four shots left when he died. The man's armor had been completely ripped open, and he had many deep cuts in his body. Mephisto took the man's patches so they could keep a count of who they found.
The group moved onto the next shop which was a hardware store. What they saw inside was something that no one should ever have to see. Inside they saw a man lying on the counter. Deep inside his back was a circular saw blade, as well as several screwdrivers, and drill bits. They also found a woman who's arm had been sawed off with a hack saw. From her face, and her body it was easy to tell that she was alive, and held down when it happened. The group would start to move to the back of the store, when four small green monsters can jumping and running out at them. One threw a saw blade at Mephisto and it stuck into his armor. The group would attack and kill the monsters. The group would go through the rest of the store, and they would peace together a propane tank, and a mixture of a garage door opener, and other electrical equipment to build a make-shift bomb.
The group took the bomb, and placed it in front of the entrance where they came into the mall from. Hacker then picked up the information desk, which was a surprise to the rest of the group. He dropped it on the other side of the bomb, as a attempted to shield them from some of the blast. The group then decided that if it did work, it would most likely close just like it did before, and that they should find as many people as they can before they blow the bomb.
They went to the toy shop that was next to the hardware store. The first thing they saw was what looked like a small child, she had been hung by a jump rope. As Viper moved into the store to cut her down, the rest of the group fanned out on either side. Inside here it was much like the other shop, many people where dead, but most of the ones in here where children, or women. Mephisto and Hacker stayed at the front of the store, as the rest moved in. As Mephisto moved past a group of dolls, one of the jumped out and attacked his left leg. At this same time, two gremlins jumped out. One from behind the counter, the other from a high shelf.
Mephisto quickly kicked the monster off his leg and into the air. Agthork shot it in mid-flight, doing a good bit of damage to it. Viper attacked the one from the shelf that jumped on him, he took several shots on him, and managed to kill him. Captain attached the one that jumped from behind the counter. He took the ax he had picked up in the hardware store, and took a swing at it. He lost his grip on the ax, and it went flying and hit Mephisto strait in the chest. Hacker then quickly finished it off the one that had attacked Mephisto when he dumped half a clip into it. Captain went and threw the little gremlin across the room and into a wall, then he threw a baseball at it, destroying the baseball, and killing the monster.
The group split up, one person down each of the four isles, with Hacker guarding the entrance. The group was knocking over, and moving just about every doll they could find. As Viper got closer to one, it jumped at him, not wanting to be knocked over. The two of the fought for a little bit, but he managed to kill it. The group them moved back together, and finished there sweep of the store, finding only more dead people.
The team gathered up some batteries and a small remote control car, the kind that has one of those squirt-guns that pops up. They decided to use this car like a remote control bomb. With a grenade, and some, they have a very nice mobile bomb.
The team could see a fountain in the center of the mall. Agthork had no problem with seeing in the dark, and could see something floating in the water. The group took up positions a good distance away from the fountain, and gave Agthork cover, as he moved to what was floating in the water. In the water, floating face down, was a dead member of Alpha team. He bent down, and flipped him over. As soon as the body turned over, a huge gust of water shop up, throwing the body, and Agthork backwards. A huge water elemental came out of the fountain. The team began to fire at it, and move back. There normal guns seemed to have no effect on it at all. Only Viper's laser rifle, and Mephisto's incendiary rounds seemed to have any effect on it at all. Agthork told Hacker to try using the bomb. This water demon was knocking the group back, as it hit them with huge globs of water. Captain ran back to the hardware store, and grabbed a flat of five or six bags of cement mix. The remote bomb drove up, exploded, and only seemed to make the monster mad, rather then hurt it.
The bomb did do one thing, it made a great hole in the floor, and near the fountain. Captain came back and threw the bags of cement at the water monster. Some broke up, and other just hit the ground. Hacker shot at some of the bag in the hope to make them dust up more. The goop seemed to effect the monster, it slowed down a bit, and moved back to the fountain. Once it go into the fountain, it just sat there, taking in the water strait from the pipes. The group could tell that it was cleaning itself, and knew they had to turn off the water. Captain jumped down into the hole to try and turn off the water. He yelled back to the group, and told him what he found, which was the water control room, but he didn't know how to shut it down. Hacker then teleported down into the hole, and helped Captain shot down the water. As this was going on, the group still took shots at the water monster, trying to keep it busy. With the water turned off, the cement took its effect on the monster, and the group was able to kill it.
The group then moved across to the next shop, every time they moved they thought they could see little red eyes looking over the edge of the upper level, watching them, and waiting to see what they did. They thought it was odd that none of the monsters would attack them when they where in the open, but only when they entered the shops.
The next shop they went to was the record store, inside they could see a large ape like creature, with huge bull horns on its head. The Ape creature was ripping apart what looked like a member of Alpha Team. The group moved in, and told it to drop the man. They reasoned with the creature, and managed to keep it from attacking them, and let it run off. The Alpha member was very dead, and had little or no useful equipment. As they where coming out, they could see someone moving on the other side of the mall, when they yelled out to him, it turned out to be some kind a reporter, who had been trapped in the building.
Hacker saw a Radio Shack, and said they might be able to get some electrical equipment there that my left them get through the interference. Agthork entered first, with Viper behind him. Inside ever type of electrical toy was running wild. A remote control car came whizzing out and hit Agthork in the foot. The group moved out quickly and decided to abandon there quest for the electronics.
The group began to think that they where doing this the wrong way. And decided to try and find the control room that was running this strange chanting. The report said he saw a sign that said "employee's only". The group went to the door the reporter had said he saw, and found a set of stairs leading downward into the underside of the mall. The group went down, and found several offices, storage rooms, as well as the PA system. It looked like to them, that this was not the room the chanting was coming from, but that someone has rerun then systems to a second room.
Following some of the wires, they found that it went to the maintenance area, not far from where they found the water cut-off systems. The group wound, and moved blindly though a dark catacombs of steam and water pipes. They found a room that had a man, dressed in robs with a hood, the chanting could be heard clearly here. At one end of the room was a large, glowing blue portal, shining. All around the room, on either side of the man, and the portal could be seen death. Dead people, torn apart, dead monsters. The floor was covered in blood. The man rose, saying "Welcome, I have been waiting for you."
Mephisto started to talk with the man, asking him who he was. He told them that he was Reverin Thomas Barton, and he was the new leader of the world. "The age of darkness is apon us, and I shall bring us into the new age."
The Hacker knew who this guy was, he was a crazed religious leader, who ran a strange group of people. He was very influential, and from what he had understood, he had disappeared almost 5 years ago, and hadn't been heard from sense. Captain jumped past the group and tried to throw the Reverin into the portal, and managed to be knocked away. When he knocked Captain away, the hood fell, and they could see that his head was totally bald, except for two, two inch horns. The mans face had a strange color to it, a kind of dark gray color.
He became very unhappy, and attacked Mephisto. He would punch, and kick at the group. Viper tried to shoot him in the head, and this only pissed him off more. He went and attacked his weapons, and managed to destroy his rifle. Viper drew a new gun, and tried again. Captain, and Mephisto tried to keep him busy, but he didn't care, and still moved toward Viper. Each time he would get shot by Viper, he would tried to attack his gun, and take it away from him.
During the fight, the reporter moved to a computer that was running the chanting program, and turned it off. With the chanting gone, the portal fell away. Mephisto moved in the way of the Reverin so he could not get to Viper, but Viper managed to shoot Mephisto by mistake. Mephisto was hit by the Reverin, and he fell down, bleeding, and was unconches. The Reverin the took this chance to try and run down Viper. Viper moved, and got out of his way, just as the Reverin had hoped. He managed to run down the hall, and through a small metal door.
Hacker and Viper staid with Mephisto to try and stabilize him. When the remaining three got to the small metal door, they found it locked from the inside. The reporter then did something that none of them expected. He phased through the wall, and managed to open the lock. Once inside, the found that it was a small, unknown room under the elevator. They followed a small tunnel that lead into a sewer. Agthork fired several shots into the sewer, but the Reverin managed to escape.
The group began to regroup upstairs, when a huge explosion went off. They realized that their bomb must have gone off. In a matter of seconds, about fifteen troupers came in, and helped them get Mephisto to safety. The reporter was taken with them, and the entire group was debriefed. It was determined that the reporter was a problem, and he could not be trusted with the information he had. No one from Beta.Six.Two really knows what had happened to him. After some extensive studies, they aloud Captain to join the group. He great strength, and power made him a good addition to the group.