[???]
"Master, I have received a report from our forces at Mount Konte. They have located a strange trio scaling the mountain towards that old abandoned base.
They were too strong for our scouts to handle. Soon they will reach the summit. Will you permit me to go and take care of them?"
"No need. I require your services here. I will send someone else to handle our curious intruders. Now hurry back."
"Understood master."
***
[mountain peak]
Rio arrives at the peak of the mountain top where he finds a series of small carvings along the wall. Each carving is accompanied by an indent in the wall.
These carvings were created for the purpose of allowing the Orders operatives a pathway into the facility.
Rio instructs Zack on how to open the path.
Walking up to the wall, Zack places his palm into each indent in an almost rhythmic pattern.
Once he had removed his hand from the final indent, rumbling could be felt within the earth beneath them.
The ground shook as the dust began clearing from the center of the ground, revealing an old steel elevator shaft.
The doors open and Rio steps inside.
Rio takes a deep breath as the doors begin to close.
"I'm back to where it all began," he sighs.
As the doors close Rio spots something in the distance.
He tries to get a closer look as the object increases in size but the doors close before he can.
"What was that? Something was definitely coming over here." Rio wondered out loud as the elevator descended into the facility.
As he looks around Rio can see that this place has gone through many changes since his last visit.
Aside from the altered layout, the place seemed to have been abandoned a long time ago.
Plant life had bloomed throughout the facility and many of the doors had been broken off of their hinges.
The oddest part was that despite the clear lack of activity in the facility, it was still being powered.
It was eerily quiet as Rio made his way down the halls.
As he passed the door to the old control room, Rio heard a sound behind him.
a loud crash was heard from where he had just come from.
Not knowing what was happening, Rio quickened his pace.
He wanted to at least see what he could find in the abnormality holding lockers before confronting any possible dangers.
The door to the room was ajar allowing Rio to slip inside. He searched through the room, to find that most of the useful abnormalities had been removed.
Only the anomalous weapons and items that were deemed useless were left behind.
And luckily for Rio, this included the parasite.
It was still alive and Rio could tell that it still retained its original power as it thrashed around the clear container.
Before doing anything else Rio activated his dominance on the parasite. He didn't know how long it would take but there was no harm in waiting a bit as the parasite was harmless in its current state.
After a few minutes Rio could see his influence start to increase.
The parasite's small body succumbed to his domination without much trouble.
The parasite started to slow down and eventually stopped moving altogether.
"Domination successful. Would you like to name your new servant"
"Of course I would, I already have a name in mind. I'll call you, Panoply. It means 'complete armor' since that will be your new role."
Zack takes a syringe that accompanied the container and pulls Panoply into it and swiftly injects the parasite into Rio.
The process was calming and painless as an outer shell erupts from around his body. It was a pale blue with black outlines.
The shell was a mixture of hard and soft material. It covered his entire body and even extended a bit further. The shell seemed to give him a more solid and less flimsy appearance.
Not only was the parasite useful as a suit of armor but it also made a good weapon. Rio transformed the armor around his mouth into a cannon and fired it against the wall, easily creating a large hole leading to the other side.
"Now this is what I'm talking about," Rio thinks to himself as he starts to make his way to the exit.
As Rio slips back out of the door he's struck hard by an unknown force sending him flying backwards. He crashes into a nearby wall, breaking off several pieces of his armor as he did so.
Luckily for him, his armor took the brunt of the damage.
His armor begins reconstructing itself as Rio regains his footing.
He sees the cause of his injury. A massive bipedal creature was standing right in front of him with a wide grin.
It was wearing some kind of jet pack on its back and had a long chain around its neck with some device attached to it.
The creature is focused on Rio as Zack slams its arms into the Creatures side.
Before the attack reaches it though, the Creature raises its palm to its side releasing a wave of black energy that sends Zack flying back into the room.
"That can't be the best you two can do right? Come on, Show me the power that took down our scouts outside," The Creature taunts with a wide grin.
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