The base was on fire.
Not just a little bit on fire. A lot on fire. As in completely and utterly on fire, with most beings trapped inside it was burning and on fire as well, dying in agony and clawing at the exits trying to escape.
Tempo could hear a lot of screaming. And considering it was her job to deal with supernatural threats like one of her headquarters being on fire, she needed to go in there. She didn’t want to, but she didn’t want these innocent Temthans and other assorted races dying in a freak fire.
“HELP!”
First things first, Tempo opened up the first door she could find. A pillar of black smoke exploded out of it, making her gag. A charred Temthan screeched as they fell past her, grateful to be free from the building.
“What happened?” Tempo asked as she dragged the Temthan away from the heat of the fire. “What is going on?”
“The monster… Tried to kill it… Burnt it all… Protect the data… All backed up… Whenvern protect us…” The Temthan passed out, leaving Tempo alone to sort out this mystery. Did they cause the fire? And what monster?
Something roared from within the building. Not flames. Something alive.
With no other options, Tempo surrounded herself with a shield of air and charged into the building. Being the south entrance, she knew that there were two paths, left led to the bathrooms and kitchen area, while right led to the main offices. But with so much heat and flame, it was barely possible to keep her eyes open, and Tempo found herself stumbling, tripping over burning debris and bumping into door frames.
Finally, she made it into the main office, which originally had an open fireplace in the middle. Someone had thrown a canister into the middle of it, causing the whole room to essentially explode. On the other side of the room though, Tempo could see the potential cause. It was that creature again. The one she’d met while in the Anexartan server building.
It seemed different though.
Something clawed at Tempo’s leg. There was someone under a desk. Tempo quietly pulled them out from under it, and tried to drag them back towards the exit. The creature though heard them and looked up, before returning to whatever it was it was doing. It looked like it was clawing at the ground.
Once Tempo had pulled the now unconscious Temthan out into the open air, she tried again to ask what happened.
“It… attacked… Boss tried to… Kill it… Said we should destroy it…”
“Is anyone else in there?”
“Just the boss…”
Once again, the Temthan passed out. Tempo breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe there was a chance to save their superior, a dragon-like Temthan by the name of Kronios, before either the fire or that monster claimed him.
Tempo took a deep breath as she raised another shield around herself and ran back inside. The monster was no longer clawing at the ground, but throwing burning furniture across the room, as if it was looking for something.
“Monster, what have you done?”
The creature immediately turned around to face Tempo. But unlike the rather calm being she saw last time, this one met her with a vicious snarl, standing on four legs, clawing at anything and everything around it, as if it was in a frenzy.
“Monster…”
“K-KILLED YOUR OWN!”
The creature’s voice was barely recognisable. It leaped not at Tempo, but back where it was clawing earlier. It lifted up a body and threw it at Tempo. The bleeding, burning corpse of Kronios landed by her feet. No longer caring about anything else, the creature went back to destroying what remained of the room. Whether it was injured or even worried about the fire, Tempo had no idea. Instead, she raised her gun, threatening the beast.
“Leave now or…”
“OR YOU DIE!”
Debris flew past Tempo but she held her ground.
“YOU THINK HE WAS INNOCENT? HOW MANY DEAD?”
Tempo fired her pistol. Bullets seemed to do no harm to it. The creature though was angry, snarling. It leaped at her and swiftly pinned Tempo to the ground. Saliva and blood dripped from the creature’s jaws. Black, inky claws held her down.
“He killed them. To protect data. To try and kill me. So I killed him.”
Tempo tried to struggle. The creature disregarded her attempts. Suddenly, the creature seemed to calm down, but only for a moment. It wrapped its claws around Tempo’s shoulders, then dragged her outside, before letting go. Tempo couldn’t understand the creature’s motives, did it really have a sense of morality?
“Hey!” Tempo shouted as the creature tried to walk away. “You…”
“You did nothing. So you do not die. Do not push your luck. Sorry that I was so… angry…”
With that, the creature spun around and disappeared into the remains of the burning building, leaving Tempo alone with two unconscious Temthans and a lot of confusion.