Chapter Text
Prologue-Discovery
Ortho liked finding new things. Just maybe not in the lower levels of Tarartus. Especially since he was supposed to have access to all of Styx’s floor plans. And yet, a mysterious door sat in front of him.
A heavy, steel reinforced mystery door at that.
Psh…
The door ominously opened. Naturally, he decided to break in. It wasn’t overly difficult, but Ortho was still perplexed as to why he had to hack in at all. Briefly, Ortho considered getting Idia to come explore with him. But…it would be easier to drag his brother out of his room if he had solid evidence of something cool…
His curiosity won over his caution.
“Hello?”
No one answered, unsurprisingly. He tentatively floated forward. He was well aware of the dangers of encountering Overblots this deep, but he needed to be sure that everything was alright in here. Plus, he wanted to know what was hidden away in this area.
“Is anyone in here?”
Whap.
Ortho froze. The sound reverberated off walls. Slowly, he hovered forward, prepping his weapons(just in case).
“Whose there?”
TWAP.
Ortho swiveled, turning towards the new sound.
...................................…………………….
“IDIA!”
Ortho burst into the room, screaming at the top of his proverbial lungs.
Idia jumped, accidentally chucking his phone across the room. He wheeled around, staring at the robot.
“W-what?! What’s wrong?!”
Ortho had never looked this wound up before. And, frankly, that kinda terrified him.
Rather than answering, Ortho leapt forward, snatching Idia’s arm and yanking him forward.
“Ortho! What are you doing?!”
“Ifoundthisdoorthatwasn’tonthefloorplanandIhadtohackittogetitopenbut there’sabunchofkidsinthereandtheircontainmentcellsaremarkedasoverblotbuttheirnot-”
Idia tried desperately to decipher the ramble that spilled out of Ortho’s mouth, but it was hard to focus when he was getting yanked down halls by a little brother with a titanium grip.
“Wait, you had to hack into what? Wha-Ortho, where are we?”
Ortho had finally stopped their trek, and proudly displayed to Idia an open door so menacing, he swore he heard boss music playing.
“I don’t know.”
Idia felt goosebumps crawl up his arm. Ortho was directly connected to Cerberus. He was supposed to know every in and out of Styx. Well, so was he, but Ortho was voted much less likely to forget stuff like new rooms being added to the facility.
“You don’t…know?”
Ortho nodded.
“That’s why I had to hack into it! But that's not what I wanted to show you.”
Idia tensed as Ortho led him into the unknown room, alarm bells ringing off in his head. Nothing about this seemed good. And it only seemed to get worse as Ortho dragged him towards a huge glass cage that was lit in some very ominous light.
This is almost intentionally creepy at this point…
And it was flat out creepy when he made eye contact with what was sitting inside.