Jack Baker

@driz As they walked out, Raze shouldered his shotgun using the leather sling attached to it and took out the map. "Says here that the path to the Processing Area is straight ahead," he said, looking at the room with the black sludge they had previously past. "Just past... this room..." he gulped. The room ahead of him didn't look very inviting; then again, neither did the rest of the house. Still, something felt... off. His gut told him to be extra careful. "Ok, break," he said to Lory, stepping in front of her and pointing to her pocket knife. "...You need a better weapon than that. I only have so much ammo, and who knows when I'll find more, or if I'll find more, or how many times we'll be encountering that old man or more of those creatures." He looked around, going back to the large room where he found the scorpion key. He spotted a long iron pipe leaning against a corner of the room, about as long as a baseball bat. He picked it up. "Seems sturdy enough..." he said, then handed it to Lory. "Here. At least with this, you shouldn't have to worry about fighting anything too up close."

@driz Raze walked over to what she was referring to and saw that a key was left inside, along with the monster. He picked it up, somewhat surprised at how warm the metal was. There was a metal tag attached to it; "Processing", it read. "Looks like we're gonna need this," Raze said, handing it to Lory. "Hold on to it for me." He closed the incinerator, then looked at the body of the creature he had just shot. "Swift Bolt..." Something clicked in his head just then. "Wait. That letter said they caught a guy trying to escape, and they locked him up in here... that's him!" He pointed to the creature. "Which means all those creatures we killed... had to be people that turned into those things! The missing people, the note saying how they 'turned'... the Goldhooves... they're making these creatures..."

@driz Raze took the opportunity to quickly grab two shells from his left pocket and load them into the gun. He pumped it once and aimed it at the creature's head, blowing it away. The force knocked the creature's headless body to the ground. Raze pumped the empty shell out of the gun, then proceeded to load in three more shells to fill it up completely. He walked over to Lory, helping her onto her feet. "You alright?" he asked.

@driz Raze brought a hand to his chin. "Think, think... three A's and a handprint... Aqua Dream, that name has three A's in it... plus the handprint on Scarlet... Hmm... wait..." He went over and closed all of the incinerators he had opened. Then he went over to Aqua Dream's and opened it. "Three A's." He made his way over to Scarlet's. "A handprint." He opened that one as well. Suddenly a click went off in the Swift Bolt's incinerator, and the door opened slightly with a loud hissing noise accompanied with a bunch of steam escaping. Raze stood still for a few seconds. "I don't think I'm gonna like this..." he slowly went over to the door and opened it all the way. One of the sludge creatures was inside it, and it began to wave its arms wildly, almost hitting Raze before rolling onto the ground and clumsily picking itself up. Raze noticed this one had a right arm that was bigger than its left, that looked like dark, spiky blades. "SHIT!" he shouted, raising the shotgun to its head and firing. His eyes widened when he saw that his head didn't explode right away, though the blast did knock it back. After it had recovered, it put its big arm up towards its face, preventing Raze from getting a clear shot.

@driz Raze looked around. "I'm... not sure," he said. He took out the map of the basement and tried to pinpoint their location. "It looks like we're in the 'Incinerator Room', not the processing area..." He looked to his left. There were about seven incinerators lined up next to each other. Each incinerator had words on it, written on tape. "Sky Chaser... Golden Haze... Morning Star... Aqua Dream... Scarlet... Swift Bolt... and Wild Ace..." he read off of each in no particular order. "These are names..." He then slowly reached out to the one marked "Morning Star". He opened it. Nothing was inside. He went though the rest of them. All of them were empty, but when he reached the one labeled "Swift Bolt", the farthest on to the left, he found that it was locked. He raised a brow in suspicion. "Hmm..." He looked behind him. There was a table with a note on it, which he picked up and read aloud. "Cole, I found the one who keeps trying to escape again. Lock him up in one of the incinerators and take him out when he's ready. You know how to open it, do you? Just remember: three As and a handprint. Do what you want with his girl..." He looked at one of the incinerators. The middle one, labeled 'Scarlet' had a giant red handprint on the door. But what did the note mean by "three As"? "I'm... not sure what to make of this..." he said to Lory.

@driz "Yeah..." Raze said. "But don't worry though. A shotgun blast to the head should take care of them. If worse comes to worst, we can still outrun them." Raze headed back to the basement stairs through the scorpion door, and came face to face with the basement door. He took a deep breath. "Alright... here goes nothing," he said, opening the door. He quickly made his way through the familiar corridors, stopping at a door to his right that he had passed before. "We haven't checked this area. There might be something in here we could use..." He opened the door and looked to his left. There was another one of the creatures standing in an open room. It started walking towards them. Raze took a few steps forward, getting close to the creature. He raised the shotgun up to its head and fired. Its head exploded in a black, slimy mess, chunks of it scattering everywhere. Raze turned his face away to make sure none of it got in us mouth. The creature's body dropped to the floor like a heavy weight. Raze pumped the shotgun. He had one shot left before he needed to reload. "See?" he said to Lory. "No problem."

@driz "I think they'd be mad at us no matter what happens," Raze said to her, while grabbing the pendulum. He turned it around and saw it had a strip of tape with writing on it. "Living room..." he read, then realized what it meant. "I think I know what to do with this..." He quickly ran back to the living room and the grandfather clock he inspected before. Sure enough, this one didn't have a pendulum on it. He carefully placed it where it should be, and suddenly the hook holding the pendulum rose up into the clock, only for it to appear a second later. Though instead of the pendulum, a white colored dog head relief was in its place, along with the clock chiming loudly. "Alright!" Raze exclaimed, taking the relief. "You know, I think I might have seen where these need to go," he said to Lory, running back to the main hall. He approached a metal door with a three-headed dog engraved on the front, with spaces where the heads would be. He took the other relief from his bag and put both of them in their proper spots. "Alright, one more to go," he said.

@driz Raze made his way back inside the rec room and into the scorpion door room, giving the room a quick search. He opened a wardrobe and found a box of shotgun shells, eight of them. He loaded two more into the gun and pocketed the remaining six. He found a small table with a drawer next to the wardrobe and opened the drawer. There was a handgun clip inside, along with three more shotgun shells and a first aid med. He pocketed the ammo and put the med in the backpack. After half a minute of more searching, he couldn't find anything of significance, so he left, making his way back to Lory. Before he could get back into the main hall, he ran directly into Nick Goldhoof. "Well, well! Big man got himself a big gun! Know how to use it?" he taunted to Raze, walking towards him. Raze kept silent and aimed the shotgun at the old man's head, pulling the trigger. The blast tore huge chunks off of his head and caused him to stagger back onto his knees. Before Raze could give him another chance, he pumped the gun and shot him in the head again, laying him flat on the ground with the entire top half of his face gone. He began to convulse again, flopping around like a fish out of water, and like before, his body went limp after a few seconds. Raze looked at the shotgun, giving a nod of satisfaction. He stepped over Nick's body and went back to the main hall, meeting Lory. "He's dead again," he said, hoisting the shotgun on his shoulder. "That should buy us some time. You find anything here?"

@driz After a minute or so of listening, Raze couldn't no longer hear the old man's footsteps. He slightly opened the door and peeked through it. He couldn't see him. Holding the broken shotgun in his left hand and his handgun in his right, he stood up and quickly barged through the door in order to surprise Goldhoof if he was there, turning around to see if he was against the wall behind him. Nothing. He silently gestured for Lory to follow him back to the main hall, going through where Nick had kicked the door down. Poking his head out, he looked both ways for any sign of the old man before quietly exiting the rec room and going back to the main hall. Soon he found himself back at the statue holding the other working shotgun. "Here goes..." he said, taking it off the statue. Like before, the metal door behind him shut itself. He put the broken shotgun in the staute's hands, and suddenly the metal door unlocked itself, allowing Raze to get out of the room. "Yes!" he quietly exclaimed. He holstered his handgun and reached into his pocket, pulling out the two shotgun shells he found in the garage. He loaded them into the shotgun and pumped it once. "Only got two shots... gotta make them count..." he said quietly. "Or... there might be ammo back in that room we were hiding in. I need to go back and check..." He began to make his way back up to the rec room.

@driz Raze quickly inserted the key into the lock, and opened the door. "Get in and get down!" he said to Lory while entering. He shut the door and crouched, minimizing his breathing as best he could. He also grabbed the shotgun he saw before leaning against the wall, quickly inspecting it. "Gah... it's broken," he said. "Well, we can use this to get the other shotgun in the main hall..." He went quiet when he heard Nick finally break through the other door in the rec room. He leaned against the scorpion door to hear him.

@driz Raze looked at her and pointed up. "It's up there. With him!" he whispered. "We're not gonna get to the door unless we go through him. We need to track his movements, see where he ends up, and sneak by him when we find an opening. If worse comes to worst, we fight him." He took a look at his backpack. He had two clips, four counting the ones he had in his pocket. "I have some ammo left. Just gotta make it count." He stood up. "Alright, let's--" He was interrupted by the door suddenly swinging open with great force, knocking him back and onto the ground. The old man had kicked the door down and found them. "Howdy!" he said, readying his weapon. Raze scrambled to get his gun and aim it at his head. He fired two shots which seemed to stagger him, allowing Raze to get up and run up to him, giving him a good kick in the gut and knocking him to the ground. "Run!" he said to Lory, making his way up to the rec room.

@driz Raze closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "Yeah... I'll be... I'll be fine. Just need to calm down a bit..." He slowly stood up. "C'mon, let's see what that door nearby opens." He walked over to where one of the scorpion doors he saw was, then took the key out and slid it into the lock. He turned it and heard the door unlock with a click. Opening it, he saw it led back to the main hall of the house. "Shortcut... good to know," he said. Walking out. As he took another step, he nearly jumped when he heard a familiar Appleloosan voice. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!!" It was Nick Goldhoof, and it sounded like it came from the balcony overlooking the main hall, though he couldn't see him. He crouched down. "We just got done dealing with fucking mold men... now this guy again?!" he said quietly in frustration.

@driz Raze shook his head. "I don't even know..." he said. "This is the first time I've ever seen something like this. Though I think I've figured something out: three shots to the head should do them in. That shouldn't take too much ammo." There were two paths he could take, a door to his right or keep following the path he was on leading further down. He kept following the path, which split again: left or right. Left was a door labeled "workshop". He tried opening the door. Locked. "Great," he muttered, then went right. As he went by, he passed an open entryway leading to a room covered in black sludge. He decided not to go there and kept going straight, walking up to an unlocked folding gate. He slid the gate open, finding himself in a large room. In front of him was a small map taped to a shelf, which he took. It was labeled "Basement Map". Taking a quick look at it, he saw that the processing area was deeper into the basement, past a generator room of some kind. Taking note of that, he folded the map and put it in his pants pocket. He kept walking forward, finding a large table in the middle of the room, with containers filled with rotten meat. He covered his nose and mouth. "Ugh... that smells terrible..." he said, almost gagging. "Just what the hell is that?" He noticed something sticking out of one of the pieces of meat. It looked like a large metal key. He carefully took it out and inspected it. It had a fake scorpion attached to it. "This could be the key to those weird scorpion doors..." he said. He put it in his pocket along with the map. "Let's backtrack for a minute," he said to Lory. "I want to see what those doors are hiding..." As he went back where he came from, a ceiling vent door dropped on the ground with a loud bang, surprising Raze. From the vent, another black creature fell out of it, struggling to get up. "Not again!" he said, he looked to the left of the creature. There was a door that he ran toward and kicked open. He went inside and quickly shut it. He looked around, the door leading back upstairs was just ahead of them to his left. He turned around and aimed his gun at the door. Though he could hear the creature bang on it, it didn't seem like he knew how to open it. Raze slowly lowered his gun, and raised a brow. "Seems like they can't open doors..." he said, then ran back to the entrance, quickly opening and shutting the door behind him and running back up the stairs. They were back in the hallway leading to the basement. Raze leaned back against a wall, slowly sliding down until he sat on the floor. His hands were gripping his head. "I need a minute..." he said. "My heart's pounding out of my chest..."

@driz Raze took the time to focus, taking a deep breath and aiming for the monster's head once more. He pulled the trigger, and the biller hit its mark, causing the head to explode. The creature fell to its knees, and collapsed onto the floor. Raze then holstered his gun, setting his backpack on the floor and taking out a first aid med. He used a little bit of it to wash out his wounds and saw them beginning to heal, giving the rest to Lory. He then checked his gun; six bullets left in the loaded clip. Putting on his backpack, he continued to move forward.

@driz The creature staggered back from the tackle, black liquid oozing out from the wound in its stomach. It took some time to recover from staggering, then quickly ran forward to Lory, slashing at her with its claw. Raze saw this and fought through the pain and tried to shoot at its head once more. He missed.

@driz "Don't panic on me now, Lory," Raze said while walking. "We either move forward, or we die. We have no other options." He kept walking, the pathway snaking left and right a bit until it straightened out and turned right. As he was about to turn the corner, another one of those creatures walked out from behind it. As soon as he noticed the two, it approached them. Raze jumped back as soon as he saw it, aiming his gun and firing two shots at its head. They caused it to stagger back, its arms moving back with it. It then sprung itself forward launching its claws at Raze. He put his hands up at the last minute, and he could feel them being pierced by the sharp claws. "Agh!!" Raze exclaimed in pain, feeling the blood running down his arms.

@driz "I don't even know anymore," Raze said. "Out of all the things I've seen in my entire life... this is most confusing." He saw a door just ahead of where the creature came out and attacked them. "C'mon. This way." He opened the door, finding himself in a hallway. On one end, there was another door decorated with scorpions like the one in the rec room. The hallway also opened right leading further in. Since he still didn't have the key to the scorpion door, Raze went right instead. The first thing that got his attention was the set of stairs leading down. He sighed. "Do I want to...?" he asked reluctantly, then shook his head. "Screw it." He went down and opened the door, finding himself in a basement. Just like the other room where the creature attacked them, most of the walls were covered in black sludge. "Celestia above, it's in here too!" he said. "Which might mean..." He unholstered his gun. "Stay sharp," he said to Lory, walking forward.

@driz Raze did as she suggested, and aimed for its right leg, shooting it twice. It was destroyed, and it fell to the ground. Raze quickly reloaded and shot three rounds at the creature's head, causing it to explode, killing it. After confirming it was dead, Raze carefully holstered his gun, taking a deep breath. "Alright... on top of regenerating people... now we also have mold men to deal with... great!!" He said, kicking the creature's corpse.

@driz Raze came in at the last minute, kicking the thing out of the way before it could lunge at Lory. It stumbled back, then quickly recovered, making its way forward again. Raze fired a few shots, and they hit the creature's left arm, destroying it. It seemed to cry out in pain at this, then quickly made its way over to Raze, raising its claw for an attack.

@driz Raze slowly opened the door, not prepared for what he saw next. The entire room was dark, the walls covered in some sort of black substance, almost like what he saw in the bathroom. It smelled moldy and disgusting, and he almost gagged when he entered inside. "Ugh... what is this?" he said, looking at the walls. As he walked forward, the substance in the walls began to move, making squelching noises, and something came out of it. It looked humanoid in appearance, completely covered in black sludge. There were sharp claws sticking out of what looked like its arms, and where its face was a large pair of sharp teeth. The noises it made sounded like it was choking on something. It began to make its way over to them. Raze's eyes widened at the sight of it. "Holy SHIT!" he exclaimed, raising his gun and firing two rounds. They both missed, as the creature began to move erratically, bobbing its head around.

@driz Raze nodded, putting the whiskey back into the backpack and standing up. "We just need to be careful," he said to her while shouldering his pack. "The guy still has an edge over us, remember that." He took a deep breath. "Alright, let's go." Before they left, he searched the room for supplies. He found two handgun clips with 10 bullets in them in a drawer, and that seemed to be it. He exchanged the almost empty clip in the handgun for a full one, then holstered it. To his left was a strange door with a two-headed crow statuette placed on it. He pushed on it. Locked. "Another one of these animal doors..." he said. There were small windows on the sides of the door that allowed a small peek of the room behind it, and Raze took a look. He spotted something inside that looked familiar to him. "Is that a... homemade grenade launcher...?" he asked out loud. "Better keep that in mind..." He found another door to his left, behind the couch. He opened it, leading to a small, brightly lit room of some sort with a large table in the middle. There were a couple of whiteboards lying around. One of them had a note attached to it. Raze picked it up and read it. "August 12th: That homeless man turned. He's the thirteenth. August 15th: Three college girls. All rotten. Cole is a goddamn idiot. August 17th: The husband from the couple we caught turned overnight. He's the fifteenth. Unfortunately his wife isn't, so we'll just get rid of her." Along with the note was a small picture of... something; it was too dark in the picture to see anything. The only thing he could make out of it was something sharp, almost like... teeth. Raze felt a slight chill go down his spine, then put the note down. It was then he noticed the other pictures on the walls. Candid shots of various people. "Are these... the missing people...?" Raze asked out loud.

@driz Raze looked up at the ceiling. "Believe it or not... I used to be a mercenary. You know, gun for hire, and a really young one, at that. When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was be a soldier. You know, walk with authority, get recognition and respect for serving my country and all that. I was aiming for the Royal Guard at one point; some guy that I knew from my neighborhood, retired Guardsman, saw something in me, a potential to really rise through the ranks. He took me under his wing, and taught me everything about being a Guardsman. He was like a second dad to me... anyway, he recommended me to the recruitment center in Canterlot, and soon I was shipped off to training camp. And you know what? That guy was right. It wasn't easy, but I managed to really breeze through training, whatever they threw at me, I adapted to it. I earned a lot of respect from my superiors and my fellow recruits... but I apparently made a few jealous enemies as well." He paused for a moment, taking a deep breath. "So I pass recruitment, one of the youngest to graduate and be placed within the Royal Guard. Not even two months into it, I get framed for stealing money from the Royal Treasury, and I get a dishonorable discharge. I go back to my mentr Guardsman, and, to my surprise, believes that I had nothing to do with it, that I was innocent, and that he'd help me find out who did it." Another small pause. "In the meantime though, he and I started our own little mercenary business. We didn't kill anyone, mind you, we were more like an alternative to the Royal Guard. We did security jobs, or we'd protect people from outside threats, like Diamond Dogs. Sometimes we'd also assist in catching crime suspects." He sighed, and sat up, looking at the ground. "So one day... we get a job from a small town in Dodge Junction. Apparently a roaming band of Timberwolves had made their way over there and were harassing the locals, one of them injuring a citizen who had strayed too far. So we go over there, ready to take 'em out. Turns out they were a lot smarter than we gave them credit for. They get the jump on us. I managed to get to safety and get rid of them. But my mentor... he wasn't so lucky. They had gotten to him first, and just... completely maul him..." He clenched his fists. "Tore him to shreds... by the time I had made my way over to him... I could barely recognize him. He was dead for sure. It still haunts me... though I tend not to show it. After that, I just... I didn't want to have anything to do with soldier work, ever. I wanted to erase that memory from my mind... so I took up camerawork. I thought filming things would help me take my mind of what I had seen, and my experiences with trying to be the soldier I thought I would be. And to be honest... it kinda did. And now I'm here... using my soldier skills fighting off crazy people." He scoffed at the thought. "It's like I can't escape from it..."

@driz "...Ah. I see," Raze said as he took the bottle from her. "I was just curious, you know how I am." He took a swig of the drink and sighed in satisfaction at the taste. "Well, it definitely earns the price tag its been given." He set it down, and stared at the ceiling again. "I don't know, I really don't think that's how the world is. You just gotta find the right people to trust, though those type of people aren't exactly a dime-a-dozen." He stared at her. "I know you've had it rough, but just how bad did you have it anyway? I know your dad was a cop, and all..."

@driz Raze sat down next to her and took out the bottle, handing it to her. "Not too much though," he said with a slight smile. "You better leave me some." He leaned back against the couch, putting his hands behind his head. Staring at the ceiling, his mind began to drift off about random things. His home, his other friends, his old job in the Royal Guard. Then, without thinking, he looked at Lory. "So, do you like me or something?" he asked her.

@driz Raze kept the gun steady, trying to make sure he wouldn't hit Lory. Once he thought he had a good mark on Nick's head, he fired. The shot hit him and caused him to stagger back; his whole body beginning to spasm violently, while he made a noise almost closer to choking. Raze lowered his gun, not sure what to do next. After a few more seconds of spasms, he dropped to his knees and became limp, falling down on the ground. He showed no signs of life, though Raze knew that wasn't the case. He quickly holstered the gun and approached Lory, quickly taking out a first aid med from his backpack and applying it to her injuries. When he was finished, he grabbed her by the hand and quickly went through the dining room and into the living room. Quickly scanning the room, he found the grandfather clock, but couldn't really see what they were looking for. "What the heck? There should be another one in here!" he said, checking the sides and the back of the clock. Nothing. He sighed in frustration. "Maybe we're missing something..." he said to himself. "Whatever. Let's just find the other one. I don't know how much time we have before he gets back up," he said to Lory. He walked over Nick's body and back to the main hall, looking for something that might help them. "Now, where could this processing area be..." he said, then spotted something interesting. At one end of the hall near one of the stairs was a projector of some sort, shining on a painting. He walked over to it, not sure of what to make of it. The painting was of a hawk that was baring down on a dog, looking ready to strike it down. The hawk looked blurred out from the rest of the painting. On the bottom of the painting was the title: "Sky Hunter". Raze opened his backpack to see what they had that might help him with this. First aid mess, the board game, the bottle of whiskey, and the wooden figure he got from the bathroom. He looked at it more carefully, moving it around in his hands. Upon closer inspection, he saw that it kind of made the figure of the hawk in the painting when angled a certain way. "Hmm..." He looked at the projector. "Maybe if I..." He held the statuette up against the projector and moved it around until he got was he was looking for: the silhouette of the hawk. He then moved it over the blurred out one in the painting, and suddenly, something clicked. The blurred hawk then colored itself in until it was visible, and the wall that held the painting opened up and revealed a tight space just big enough for Raze and Lory to slip through. "Geez... who the hell needs this in their house?" he said. "More importantly... who builds this shit for them?" He shook his head and decided to slip through, and once he made his way out, he found himself in a large room. It looked like a... break room or a lounge of some kind, with a taxidermy deer and a large couch in the center of the room. There was also a large fireplace in front of the couch. "Alright... I don't think he can find us here..." he said. "Looks safe enough. Hey..." he turned to Lory. "I think we should take a bit of a breather... we've been running around a lot, and it's important we regain our energy."