Also, first time I used the poster 3 command in Garry's Mod! That was one big ass picture! (I had to scale it down because the software I use to edit my images kept crashing, also, why the fuck would I need this to be 10000 pixels????) I think I'm also getting the hang of manually painting on specular details--I've been working with the limitations of this engine for 10+ years and refuse to use Soft Lamps. >:(
Warnings: Body Horror, Gore, Graphic Depiction of Someone Transforming into a Creature (see body horror), Mild Blood (surprising lack of blood for a Doom Fic), If I missed any please let me know!
Part One: The Hurt
Derrin had woken up with a rather nasty headache but as much as he would've liked to have gone back to bed, the ARC couldn't afford to have people calling in with migraines. Not with Hell banging down on their door. So with a swig of water and a migraine pill Derrin made his way down to the main laboratory to start his shift, on the way, being asked by several coworkers if he was feeling alright. Apparently it wasn't just his head that felt like shit.
About 4 hours in Derrin had already drank five bottles of water and downed another migraine pill, but they did little to relieve the pain. He was about to ask one of his supervisors if he could go to medical to get checked out when an announcement rang out over the intercom.
"Alert, Doom Slayer detected in the immediate area. Please proceed with caution."
A quiet murmur rippled across the room as people began to talk once more. Derrin remembered Dr. Hayden mentioning that he expected the Slayer to come in search of the Demonic Crucible. If that was the case… maybe he could tough out this headache a little bit longer. He really wanted to meet the Doom Slayer.
"Hey Derrin, you doing alright?" one of his fellow researchers asked, he couldn't tell who, his head felt like it was spinning.
"What? Oh, yeah, I'm doing fine." the intern mumbled "Just a little headache, I'll be fine,"
"Alert, the Doom Slayer has entered the facility. Alert, the Doom Slayer has entered the facility. Please commence evacuation in an orderly fashion."
'This is it' Derrin thought and panicked murmurs rippled throughout the staff. Derrin began to make his way to the Crucible's holding cell, stumbling a couple of times along the way. His headache was getting worse by the minute, maybe he should've gone to medical. But if he had, then whe wouldn't have gotten to witness the Hellwalker step forth from the elevator and approach the intern and the crucible.
"It's him… I-I mean Dr. Hayden said you'd be coming for this sooner or later" The intern stammered, trying his best not to look or sound like he was about to pass out as the behemoth of a man pulled the Demonic Crucible from it's cell. He was so close to the man that Derrin could actually see through the dark blue visor, even catching a flicker of concern when the Slayer spotted how pale Derrin had become before making his way to the next room.
The intern began to follow but stumbled as his legs started to give out. Derrin hit the railing hard, letting out a sputtering grunt as the wind was knocked out of him. A firm grip helped the young man to his feet as the Slayer let Derrin brace himself against his arm. His bones were aching, and Derrin let out a small whimper of pain as his head felt like it was about to split in two. Everything felt blurry and the intern could barely make out what people were saying as the Slayer helped him up the stairs.
"Mmm sorry…" he mumbled out as the Slayer sat him down on a bench. His bones were aching and the sound of his heart was like a thundering drum in his ears.
"I-" the inter began to croak out before he fell to the floor, nails digging into his scalp as his face twisted and contorted in pain. His muscles twitched and spasmed and he could feel the pressure on his bones building until the eventually snapped and the intern began to scream.
The Doom Slayer began backing away as the ARC personnel began to run from the room as the man he had just helped began to writhe on the floor in pain. Sure, he knew that people could turn into demons, but he was still startled by it all. He wanted to put the poor guy out of his misery, but he also needed to maker sure that bucket of bolts doesn't get destroyed if things get hairy.
Slayer unceremoniously ripped the cyborg from his chassis as he pinged Vega for a portal, the former ARC intern now howling in agony. Fuck, he couldn't take it anymore. He needed to put the thing out of it's misery.
Derrin could feel his skin tearing itself apart and flesh parted aside as his bones continued to snap and mend only to snap again, doubling in size and length. His spine felt like though it were being ripped from his body and pulled apart as old vertebra were pushed out like baby teeth by new larger vertebra. Nerves burned like he'd been set alight from the rapidly growing skin and flesh that began to cover him, sheets of his old self sloughing off as the evisceration was outpaced by the rebirth. But all of that paled in comparison to the sheer agony from his face splitting open.
His voice warbled from human screaming to a more primal wail, his throat growing sore from the near constant howling. The intern could feel his teeth shifting to and fro and his jaw broke and widened to fit his new more monstrous teeth. Derrin's glasses grew tighter and tighter before snapping in half as skull began to split and heal like the rest of his bones had done moments before. Though slowly but surely the pain began to dull and the hammering of his heart began to die down as his transformation came to its end.
The former intern took deep gasping breaths that burned his now tender throat and lungs. A deafening silence falling over the poor man broken only by the sound of a shotgun being racked. Derrin whimpered as he came to the realization of what was about to happen and curled in on himself as the cold barrel of the gun rested on his head, the blades of the meathook starting to dig into the still tender flesh. The former human let out one last whimper before bracing himself for the end. But it never came.
Derrin could hear the Slayer's grip on the shotgun tighten before the gun was pulled away. His heart was in his throat again. Why hasn't he killed him yet? Was he waiting for Derrin to make the first move? Did he pity him enough to let him go? No it couldn't be that, he'd never let a demon just go free right? He was a demon… right? His ears twitched as he heard the slayer kneel down next to the former man. Wait, his ears could twitch? Derrin's confusion was quickly replaced with pain as the Slayer's hand fell heavy on his shoulder once more. The former intern hissed in pain as pain shot across his still tender and he felt something long attached to his spine lash out side to side, causing even more pain across his nervous system.
'I'm getting soft' The Slayer thought to himself as he holstered the SSG and knelt down beside the former human. Viscera and torn clothes pilled around it's now larger body. If he were to wager a guess the once five foot six man was now around the same hight as a hell knight, maybe even a bit larger. He could hear the poor thing whimpering as he had approached, they both knew what he'd became and Slayer could only imagine the anguish the former human was feeling in his final moments of lucidity. He didn't even know the poor guy's name, he had glanced at his name tag while he was helping him to the bench, but it was just a series of numbers. And in an attempt to offer comfort in the beast's final moments, he gently left his hand rest upon it's shoulder.
The former intern had immediately hissed at the touch, it's tail lashing out behind it as it pulled away. The Slayer hummed mournfully as he realized time was up. But before he could even stand up another portal had opened. Argent energy crackled through the air as the crimson portal wretched itself open across from the two, and a tall humanoid demon stepped out.
Metal armour clanged against itself as the demon approached. Its torso nearly bare, save for half a breastplate, the atlan port pulsing in tandem with its tainted heart that pumped rotten blood through purple spidering veins that cut through its pale ashy skin. Two great curved horns protruded from atop its gaunt skull, another pair framing the muzzle like guard obscuring its mouth as it spoke.
"You were never one of us." its voice heavy and metallic as it dragged its argent ax across the floor "You were nothing but a usurper, a false idol who blinded us. But my eyes have been opened. Let me help you to see, Slayer." The Marauder spat, casting a shower of sparks as it readied its weapon and challenged the beast.
The Doom Slayer charged forth, having switched to his ballista and fired a shot. The Marauder deflected it with its shield before dispersing it and lunging forth with its ax, its eyes burning green with fury. The Slayer just barely dodging only to fire his shotgun into the demons back before dodging again as it returned the action in kind. The two continued their dance of death as Derrin looked on. Fire, block, dodge, fire, dodge, then block again. The two moved about the room like a hurricane of iron and plasma.
The Slayer had been distracted by a pack of imps that joined the fray when a blazing spectral hound burst forth from the Marauder, barreling towards the unsuspecting Hellwalker. That was when something stirred in Derrin, something old, something angry, something that had the human turned troll charging across the room and tearing into the hellhound. Wrath overpowering pain as he felt his teeth sink into the hounds spectral form, shattering it like glass. The beast roaring in defiance to the Marauder before charging towards it like a rabid bear.
Heavy claws slammed down on the shield as Derrin tried to shove it aside in order to tear into the demon, who was too distracted by the new assailant to notice the Slayer readying another ballista shot behind it. The force of the energy bolt sent the two flying, with the battle hardened Marauder recovering from the new formed troll. The Slayer and Marauder slammed into each other as Derrin regained his breath.
"Your honor and duty mean nothing!" the demon spat "Only pain matters now." It continued as it bashed its shotgun into the Slayers head and kicked him across the floor before turning its attention back to Derrin. It fired a shot, it hit, but the beast Derrin had become did not stop as teeth clamped down on its horn.
An ax to the chest finally sent the message to his brain that Derrin was hurting, hard.
"And you.." the demon growled as it kicked him onto his back and started to press the argent axe into his chest. "Your end shall not be quick."
An enraged roar shook the room as the Doom Slayer barreled towards them, Doomblade extended and a look of pure rage in his eyes. Another hound was sent only for it to be sliced in half by the Hellwalker. The shield, shattered like glass against his fist. The Marauder only had one chance to shoot at the Doom Slayer only for his hand to crushed in Derrin's jaws and the Doomblade rammed through is skull.
The Marauder dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, dark blood seeping from its wounds. Its ax sputters a few times before going out like a light. The former intern breathing heavily as the stench of his own burnt flesh and hair permeates his nose. His head is ringing again, this time from being slammed into the ground twice, and he can barely keep his head up long enough to look at the Slayer before passing out. The last thing he sees is a large drone drawing near as a blue portal opens behind it.
"Dr. Hayden has been secured. What do you wish to do with this individual?" VEGA said, his voice filtering through the comms as the music died down in Slayer's helmet.
Slayer looked to the former human who now lay unconscious at his feet. At the mercy of the Hellwalker and his companion. On one hand, he'd helped the Slayer, potentially even saving him from another trip through limbo. But on the other, he'd attacked the Marauder with such ferocity that he felt like had he not had the wind knocked out of him by the ballista, he would've killed the Marauder on his own. That was a terrifying amount of rage, an amount he was all too familiar with.
"I do not detect any significant amounts of Argent Energy in his body aside from the residual energy from the Marauder's ax. I do not believe he is a demon if that is what you're worried about. But I do detect a possible concussion from the repeated head trauma."
Slayer continued to think.
"If we do not take him with us he will likely be killed by either demons or ARC personnel."
"We'll take him, I want to know what happened, want answers." The Slayer finally signed to the drone before hoisting the intern's unconscious body onto his back and carried him through the portal.
