Jelo stared down into the dark space below, his mind rapidly weighing the options before him. He couldn't see the bottom from his current position, couldn't determine how far down it went or what waited at the end of that descent.

He found himself debating whether to enter at all. Every instinct told him that entering unknown enclosed spaces was asking for trouble.

Traps, ambushes, dead ends with no escape, any of these could be waiting below. The smart move would probably be to leave this building, continue his search for Mira above ground where he at least had room to maneuver and multiple directions to flee if necessary.

But curiosity was gnawing at him relentlessly, demanding answers to the questions this hidden entrance raised. Why was there a concealed space beneath an abandoned building? What purpose had it served? Was it a shelter, a storage area, or something else entirely?

The building above seemed completely deserted based on his thorough search, so the main threat would likely be Dabba that might have taken up residence in the underground space. And Jelo felt confident he could handle Dabba at this point. He'd proven that multiple times already today, defeating creatures that should have been beyond his capabilities.

If the Dabba somehow got the upper hand, if he found himself overwhelmed or trapped, he could always use WingBurst to climb back out quickly.

The rationalization complete, Jelo made his decision. Taking a deep breath to steel himself, he positioned his body over the opening and began climbing down into the space below. His hands gripped the ladder rungs firmly, finding them surprisingly solid despite the age of everything else in this building. The metal was cool under his palms, slightly rough with corrosion but structurally sound.

The descent felt longer than it should have, the darkness swallowing him completely after just a few meters. His enhanced vision helped somewhat, allowing him to make out the vague outline of the ladder and the walls surrounding it. The air grew cooler as he climbed downward, taking on a stale quality that suggested poor circulation and long-term isolation from the outside environment.

Finally, after what felt like descending at least three stories worth of distance, Jelo's feet touched solid ground. He released the ladder and stepped back carefully, giving himself room to react if something attacked. But nothing came at him from the darkness. The space remained silent except for his own breathing and the faint sound of his boots against the floor.

That floor, he realized immediately, felt different from what he'd expected. It wasn't wood or packed earth or even concrete. Landing on the surface, he discovered it was cold and metallic, smooth in a way that suggested intentional manufacturing rather than natural formation. His boots made a distinct hollow echo.

As his eyes continued adjusting to the minimal light, details began emerging from the darkness. The room stretched before him, larger than he'd anticipated, filled with shapes that slowly resolved into recognizable forms. Equipment of some kind, workstations, storage units. This wasn't just a simple shelter or hiding place. This was something far more complex.

It was a lab, Jelo realized with growing astonishment. Clearly advanced and futuristic in design, far beyond anything he'd expected to find in an abandoned building in a contaminated zone. But it was also clearly abandoned, left to decay just like everything else in the Forgotten City. Dust covered the machines in thick layers, coating every surface with the fine gray powder of neglect. Screens on various consoles flickered weakly with minimal power, most showing nothing but static or completely dark, a few displaying fragmented data that scrolled endlessly without purpose or audience.

Jelo moved carefully through the space, his enhanced senses working overtime to process the surroundings and watch for threats. He scanned everything methodically, trying to understand the lab's purpose through the equipment that remained. There were syringes arranged in precise rows on one counter, their contents long since evaporated or degraded. Chemical vats lined one wall, some still containing liquids that had separated into distinct layers of different colors and viscosities. Racks of strange devices whose functions Jelo couldn't immediately identify occupied another section.

The silence pressed in oppressively, broken only by his footsteps echoing slightly in the enclosed space and the occasional electronic hum from equipment that somehow still drew power from whatever source fed this underground facility. It was eerie, walking through this abandoned place of science and experimentation, seeing the remnants of work that had been interrupted and never resumed.

Jelo paused near what appeared to be a central workstation, its surface covered in papers that had become brittle with age. He picked one up carefully, trying to read the faded text, but the language was technical and the degradation made most of it illegible. Something about cellular modification, mutation rates, stability thresholds, fragments of meaning that suggested this lab had been studying Dabba or the radiation effects that created them.

Suddenly, a rattling sound echoed from above, sharp and metallic and utterly unexpected. Jelo's head snapped up toward the source, his body immediately tensing for action. The opening he'd entered through, the concealed floor section that had granted him access to this underground space, was moving.

The floor panel slid shut with a loud, final-sounding clank that reverberated through the lab like a death knell.

He was trapped inside.

Panic surged through Jelo immediately, flooding his system with adrenaline that made his heart race and his breathing quicken. This was exactly the scenario he'd told himself wouldn't happen, the worst-case situation he'd dismissed as unlikely. But here he was, sealed underground in an abandoned lab with no clear way out and no knowledge of whether alternative exits even existed.

He rushed back to the ladder without thinking, his feet carrying him across the metallic floor at maximum speed. His hands found the rungs and he began climbing rapidly, ascending toward the sealed entrance with desperate urgency. Maybe it wasn't fully locked. Maybe he could force it open from below. Maybe the mechanism was weak enough that his enhanced strength could break through.

Just as his hands were pressed flat against the unyielding panel, a figure burst from the shadows behind him.

Jelo caught the movement in his peripheral vision, his enhanced senses screaming warning a split second before the attack came. He twisted on the ladder, trying to see the threat while maintaining his grip, and got his first clear look at what had been hiding in the darkness of the lab.

It was a person, or had been once. A man, disheveled and wild-eyed, his appearance suggesting someone who had lost their grip on sanity long ago. His clothes were torn and stained, his hair wild and unkempt, his face covered in a patchy beard that showed months or years of neglect.

But it was his eyes that were most disturbing, wide and manic, burning with an intensity that spoke of obsession or madness or both.

A mad scientist, Jelo's mind supplied, the term fitting perfectly despite its dramatic quality. This had been his lab, or he'd taken it over, and now he was defending his territory against an intruder.

The man was ready to attack, his body coiled with violent intent, and Jelo was caught on the ladder with limited options for defense.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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