Aside from a couple of monitors showing either the outside of the facility or the rooms we had just walked through, the remaining ten had an eyeball staring directly into them. Perhaps just an inch or two away from the lens. The effect made it look as if an eldritch monster was staring directly at us. With intent.

"I'd ask how… or why," Roxy began, "but I doubt there is a simple answer."

[The who might be a more pressing matter. It's possible they know we are here.]

As far as I could tell, the eyes weren't moving. Most were different shades, so were more likely to be from the workers than a single entity. The blast door had prevented any eyes from being placed in front of the cameras out here, which was… reassuring?

"I have an alternative theory," Clara said. She pushed the body off the chair and sat down in front of the console herself. Tapping at the dirty keyboard, one of the central eyes turned into a screen showing lines of text. "Although it has more basis in folklore than hard data."

"You're looking up solutions on the internet?" Roxy crossed her arms and huffed, fogging up her eye protection slightly.

"Not all knowledge is innate. We're clearly dealing with something outside of our usual comfort zone, Rockslide. Would you like to hear my theory?"

The super grumbled and gestured for her to continue.

Clara typed out a couple more commands before turning the chair to face us both. "What we are dealing with is an Aberration. An entity similar to a demon or eldritch monster. They differ in that they embody a mood or feeling, and aren't really sentient."

[If that is the case, how did it get here?]

"What's the third most common issue within the city, Gunquake?"

The first two were criminal gangs and villains. Their underlings included. Thinking back to my years in Goldarch, I had a reasonable stab at guessing the third.

[A cult.]

"While I don't have access to the full records, several names on the employee clock-in book were hired with the change in ownership. Most of them have police records, arrested in relation to cult activities." Clara gestured to the rows of monitor eyes. "Summoning of otherworldly entities isn't unrealistic - it's only a couple of steps away from what Belle is capable of, after all."

[But they got more than they bargained for.]

"Summoning isn't an exact science. Especially for amateurs with delusions of competence brought on by ignorant fervor."

Roxy looked toward the open doorway. "They should have checked the internet a little more, huh?"

The techie ignored her and continued. "This plant would have had the space, energy demand, and atmosphere to do the summoning. Unfortunately, any error in the process randomizes the outcome of the ritual. Inert failure is preferred compared to the alternatives."

[Which is what we are dealing with now.]

Clara nodded. "I had to translate a few articles as information is sparse or disputable. This Aberration might be one known as The Witness. Their arrival removes or destroys the eyes of anyone within radius. It wasn't a conscious decision for them to block the cameras with the stolen eyes… more of a force of nature. The desire not to be seen."

Roxy groaned and visibly shuddered. This was out of our usual wheelhouse by several degrees. While the eldritch might be reasonably close to magic, the monsters we had faced were slightly more grounded in reality.

If this were a test from Kingston, I wondered if that meant we were to face darker problems in the near future. A one-off wasn't the worst thing… but we were on holiday. It was unfair. Not that I was about to complain about it. Part of me was interested. A chance to test our mettle against something new.

"Detective work is done then." Roxy drummed her gloved fingers on her arm. "We're not considering fighting it, right? Can we?"

[I have both the smartest and strongest women on the continent on my side, I see no reason for failure.]

Clara continued typing. "Flattery will have no effect on our success, Gunquake."

The super leaned closer to me. "You think I'm the strongest?"

"The Aberration will have either consolidated into a physical form that may be damaged, or could not exist in this cruel world and has dissipated."

The sound of shattering glass came from deep within the building.

[I guess it's up in the air.]

"I'll close the blast door behind you and guide you from here. If you can clear some of the cameras, that would enable me to keep an… eye on you."

Roxy groaned. "Fine. Let's get this over with, Dubs."

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I gave the room one last look. Not exactly what I'd call safe, but it seemed as though the big game we were hunting had been contained within the main plant work area. While I was running at minimum effectiveness, Roxy could probably explode the monster within a few seconds. We'd be back home before nightfall.

She led the way, and I followed her over to the blast door. While there was a keypad with buttons and an area to swipe a card, Clara set it to open from the security room. The lower section hissed as the heavy metal shunted slightly and slowly rose.

We wasted no time and rolled beneath the bottom of the door as soon as it had lifted with enough clearance. It lowered immediately as we got up to our feet. The last thing we wanted was for the Aberration to get out of here. Not only for the techie's sake, but Goldarch as well.

This large space was practically a hangar. Dim fluorescent lights hung from the ceiling, providing barely enough light. A couple of them had been torn from their fittings, while another swung slowly from side to side at an odd angle. On the right were two large metal doors, maybe three times the size of the blast door. The closest had some large dents in it, metal railings and other debris on the floor around it. Further down, blood splatter covered the second door.

Based on the tools and machinery lying around, it was easy to guess that this was where deliveries of materials would come in. Running along the center of the room was something between a conveyor belt and a minecart track, although the storage vehicle that had been sitting empty had been crushed flat like a drink can. Impressive, since it was almost the size of the Meteor.

"Hells," Roxy whispered, her voice muted by her suit.

Half a dozen bodies lie around this area, all in various states of dismemberment. If I were to guess, the Witness had been through here at some point. It didn't look like it had tried to eat the workers, but used them as clubs.

I looked up at the closet corner of the wall. A glob of bloody material hung in front of what I assumed was a security camera. Pain ached in my temple, as if my mind was trying to escape the sight. A hum ran through the air, and I scowled.

The eyeball popped, spraying small blobs of the orb across the walls.

//Clara: Delivery One cleared. //Clara: Not exactly high definition color, but I can see you both.

"How did you do that?" Roxy asked, frowning up at the camera.

I rubbed at the side of my head, the residual pain fading away.

[Your guess is as good as mine. Something akin to my Dispel magic, although it's somewhat different. It wasn't intentional.]

Plus, a little painful. I wasn't trying to turn my brain to mush or explode my own eyes just to clear the cameras.

"Anything else you can tell us, Clara?" Roxy took a few slow steps toward the center of the room, her eyes looking around the shadowed recesses of the ceiling.

//Clara: Without vision, and with most of the machinery powered down, no. //Clara: I am trying to approximate size and location as we speak.

"Where would you hide if you were an eldritch asshole, Dubs?"

[Oh, I wouldn't be hiding.]

A sobering thought. I followed her lead towards where the conveyor led. While not a door, the pathway for the functional carts ran through some black plastic curtains. Probably several layers of them, if this was meant to be another soft 'air lock' for the hazardous materials.

Roxy stopped twenty feet away from the reflective surface. It was clear from this distance that some moisture clung to most of the hanging curtain. Not blood, either.

"No way I'm crawling through that shit," the super grunted. "This place already gives me the creeps."

[Care to knock, then?]

The pain in my head receded as the second camera popped eye juice down to our left. Clara confirmed she could see us from two angles.

Roxy put her left foot forward and turned to the side slightly. By her right hip, she placed her hands as if she were holding a large ball. The gloves of her suit dripped and melted away in a sudden glob as bright amber lava bloomed between her bare hands.

"Been wanting an excuse to try this one," she said with a grin.

The ball of lava cooled to dark brown stone, and then a second layer of lava washed over it. Somehow she was able to maintain the spherical form of the object as it enlarged. Just as it neared three feet in diameter, it burst into flame. With a roar, she flung it forward, her muscled form bursting out of the remains of the charred suit, leaving only the helmet on.

Like a comet, the ball flashed through the center of the curtain, melting a wide hole. Sloppy chunks of the material drooped or fell to the floor with a thick splat. The smell of chemicals entered my re-breather. The projectile struck something metal further into the next room with a dull clank that echoed all the way back to us.

Roxy shook her arms of drying rock. "Kingston owes me a new dress, the fucker."

I had earlier noted she left her new bracelet in the Meteor, but it wasn't like any part of her current clothing was heat or lava resistant. Our violence here had to be immediate and unrelenting, as we were both glass cannons in our current state. Playing with fire.

//Clara: Whatever you did just cleared that whole room out of eyeballs. //Clara: Sorting One and Two. Corridor to Furnace One. //Clara: No sign of the Witness yet. //Clara: Furnace One looks to be blocked by debris. Maybe collapsed. //Clara: As per the records, Furnace Two was in regular use. //Clara: But Furnace Three has been offline for three days.

[Is that common?]

//Clara: It is not, Gunquake.

Roxy stretched out her fingers. "Sounds like they might have performed the ritual there then. Let's head that way unless something comes up."

I nodded, and we went through the tunnel of partially melted plastic she had created. Unlikely we'd be ambushed now that we could see through to some of the Sorting room. Although after walking through the dark passageway, it felt like we had stepped into hell.

Her thrown ball had left a dent in a large container of some sort. A broken metal staircase ran up to a gantry where people would have been able to oversee the sorting process. Once the carts from the other room came in, they were lowered in the center of the room so that employees could excavate the hazardous materials with small cranes and forklifts. These boxed packs would then drive off toward one of the furnaces.

The lowered section of the floor had at least eight dead bodies in it. Most of them without suits, all of them without eyes. While not dismembered, blood was everywhere. In addition to the shattered metal gantry, many of the vehicles had been overturned or torn in two. A sticky substance that was almost like an oily film ran across them and over the walls, like a slug's trail.

I craned my neck upward to look higher than the cameras could. Similar lights hung from the ceiling, although blood was splattered across one of them. Worse than that, however, was the shattering headache that snapped in my brain at seeing something else.

There were easily twenty eyeballs hovering in the air, looking down at us. Unlike the camera-blocking ones, these swiveled and looked back and forth. Taking in the super and I. Roxy looked up and balled her fists.

Then, with an agony that felt like I was pushing a hot bullet out of my skull, I ended them all. Even if I didn't know how.

They burst like fireworks within split seconds of each other, raining down gore on us and the dirty floor.

From the direction of Furnace Three, a bloodcurdling scream echoed out.

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