DD - Book 2 - Chapter 3 - Research and Destruction

George slowly crawled along the staircase’s ceiling, staring down at the draconid struggling in my arms, growling the entire time. 

I’m sure if anyone else had been carrying the creature he would have already pounced on them, caring more about getting to his sworn enemy than dealing with the consequences. Even now I could see his mandibles twitching, legs twitching with anticipation. I had to be very careful with the little dragon. 

As soon as we got to the bottom of the stairs something exploded in the rotunda ahead of us, filling the area with smoke and showering us with debris. Kass and I darted to the nearest pillar, using it for cover while we surveyed the situation. 

If this had happened in any other part of the dungeon, I would have been concerned, but this was the laboratory. Explosions weren’t just expected, they were commonplace.

It wasn’t the area that was the issue, it was the occupants, the Gremlins. The brown, leathery skinned humanoids had both prodigious intellects, and a complete disregard for their personal safety. Even with all the magically enhanced materials around the dungeon, their workspace had to be buried deep underground to keep them from damaging the surrounding areas.

They also designed, created and maintained pretty much everything in the dungeon, from the weapons and equipment used by the staff to the massive crystal control center that we used to broadcast all our matches. The only downside of working with them was that all their advanced experiments tended to explode, even the ones that weren’t designed to. 

Once the smoke began to clear, I peeked around the corner of the pillar, and checked out the situation. There were a couple gremlins standing around some type of metal scaffolding with crystals embedded at regular intervals. It looked like something had exploded in the middle, severing the top of the structure and causing it to topple to the ground.

Whatever had happened had caused both part of the metal structure, and one of the gremlins, on fire. Despite the grievous injury, and the hazard laying just a couple feet away, the gremlin girl just continued to argue with her colleagues. 

Just another day in the labs.

“Is it safe?” Kass whispered over my shoulder.

“No,” I muttered. “There’s always a risk of something else down here exploding, but I don’t think we’re in any imminent danger. We should hurry up and find Jenkins before something else happens.”

As I stepped out from behind the pillar I noticed a familiar face a couple feet away, tinkering with something that looked like a flintlock rifle.

“Jacobs,” I called, as I approached the gremlin. He didn’t react so I raised my voice. “JACOBS!”

When he didn’t react again I reached down and knocked on the desk right in front of the little engineer. As his head snapped up I had to dodge back to avoid getting smacked by his strange telescoping eyewear. He reached up and flicked the lever on each of the dozen or so lenses suspended in front of each eye, allowing me to look him in the face.

“Oh, hullo! What brings you to the labs today?” he asked cheerfully, as he pulled some cotton out of his massive, leathery ears. 

“We’re looking for Jenkins,” Kass explained. “The little guy in Talia’s arms flew into the main atrium and created quite a disturbance, with a little help from George, and the capsule on his neck literally has her name etched on it.”

When she held out the cylinder Jacobs’ eyes grew wide. “It’s here already?!? Really?” he exclaimed excitedly.

“Yes…” I replied slowly. I noticed that the other gremlins in the area had all gone quiet, and were staring at us, equally excitedly. Usually the only thing that got them that excited was the newest state of the art technology. Or explosives. “What is it…?”

“I’ll go get the boss!” Jacobs proclaimed, hoping off his stool and darting towards one of the workrooms that branched off the central area.

Kass slid forward and gently placed the metal cylinder on the middle of Jacobs’ desk before making a swift retreat. “What was I thinking, shaking that thing earlier? I should have known better!” she muttered.

After she retreated I took a large step back as well. Better safe then sorry.

A couple seconds later a small gremlin in a labcoat and goggles came sprinting out of one of the back rooms. 

“It’s here! It’s here, it’s here, it’s here!” she cackled, as she snatched up the little cylinder and held it under her nose. She took a large sniff and sighed. “Smells like progress!”

“Ummm… hey Jenkins… What is that?” I asked cautiously.

“A delivery from my cousin Teressa! The latest development from her labs!” Jenkins explained excitedly.

“Uh huh, and is it dangerous?” Kass asked from the opposite side of a nearby desk.

“Of course not. She wouldn’t have sent it by messenger if it was dangerous,” Jenkins scoffed, before turning and looking at me. “Why do you have it?”

“Because your cousin didn’t send it by messenger, she sent it by draconid. This little guy caused quite a commotion upstairs,” I explained, holding up the tiny drake. I had expected it to be trembling in my arms when that explosion went off, but instead it seemed to have completely calmed down. It just raised its head and casually flicked its tongue out at Jenkins, like some sort of snake.

“It did! Wonderful! When Teressa told me about her discovery and offered to send me a sample, I told her that we didn’t have easy access to drake bile to reproduce it. She must have sent this little fella to help with that,” Jenkins said, gently taking the draconid from my arms. It immediately extended its neck and started nuzzling her face. “And it’s so affectionate!”

“Yeah… be careful with that thing,” I said, as the gremlin started stroking the draconid like a cat, causing it to let out a low rumbling purr. “George and the other spiders are likely to see it as a threat, and attack it on sight if it gets loose. The only reason George isn’t down here stalking it right now is the explosions scared him away.”

I looked past her, towards the still smoldering wreckage on the other side of the room. “By the way, what is that?”

“A new transmitter,” Jacobs explained, gesturing to the smoking debris. “By embedding crystal into a metal housing we should be able to amplify the broadcast signal, and allow us to transmit it over a much wider area. In theory anyways. If we can get it to stop exploding.”

“Wait… How did it explode if it was just made of metal and crystal?” Kass asked, confused. “Neither of those are explosive.”

The gremlins in the room all started whispering between themselves, it was almost like none of them had ever considered the question before. Finally, after several seconds, one of the gremlins that had been working on the device looked up and shrugged. “Dunno, magic?”

“Right…” I sighed. “Please tell me you’re going to put up safety barriers between the stairs and main rotunda, like I asked you to. Someone’s going to get hurt one of these days. And I mean someone other than you guys.”

“Don’t worry, the barriers are going up at the start of next week,” Jenkins replied. “We needed to order some extra large quartz slabs, and then treat them with magic. Once they stabilize we’ll be able to put them up, and they act as nearly indestructible windows. Visitors will be able to see into the work area without being in any danger.”

“Good. I think we’re lucky that no one’s been injured while visiting the labs before, considering how often things catastrophically fail down here,” I said.

“That’s the price of progress!” Jacobs declared, causing the rest of the gremlins to nod in agreement.

“That’s fine, as long as there’s no collateral damage,” I told them. 

Jenkins nodded seriously, then turned and handed the draconid off to Jacobs. Once her arms were free she held the cylinder up to the light, inspecting it for several seconds before grabbing both ends and gently twisting them in opposite directions. Although the capsule had appeared featureless, it turned out to be two interlocking spirals. As she twisted them apart, revealing a small ampule of glowing red, white and orange dust, Jenkin’s grin slowly grew wider.

“What is that?” I asked cautiously. 

“Umbral Ash. A brand new, completely stable explosive,” she explained reverently.

I took a step back, while the other gremlins simultaneously took a step forward, eager to get a look at the new substance.

“An explosive?” Kass squeaked.

“Twice as powerful as gunpowder. I can’t wait to test it!” Jenkins explained.

“You enjoy that… after we’re gone,” I said, as I retreated towards the stairs, Kass hot on my heels. “Just remember to put up those safety barriers!”

“Will do, have a good day!” Jenkins called back.

We didn’t stop until we were a couple landings up, hopefully well out of range of any blast. The two of us just stood there a moment, breathing hard, half expecting an explosion to ring out at any moment. 

“Ironically, I think that’s the quietest I’ve ever seen the labs,” Kass giggled, once we both relaxed. “So… lunch?”