(click to enlarge)
The air here carried no scent of rot or rust. It was simply absent, as if this pocket of stone existed slightly outside the world's normal processes. Sound moved with a sluggish hesitation. Ghost's own footsteps arrived a half-second late, leaving the cavern to decide whether to acknowledge his presence at all.
The 1929 Ford Coupe sat anchored in the center of the rock shelf. It was still smoking. 130 years had passed, and the vehicle had not yet finished crashing.
As Ghost explored the car’s mysterious Entropy Engine, his wrench shifted position whenever he turned his back. The antique radio clicked and hissed without a power source. Condensation dripped from the ceiling in tight, rhythmic patterns that sounded entirely too deliberate. The car's rounded headlights pulsed a sickly yellow, twice, then died.
Ghost registered every anomaly. He forced his hands to keep moving anyway. Distraction meant death. He had to stay focused on the immediate task: salvaging enough cursed energy to construct a bomb and rescue his pack.
What troubled him most was not the poltergeist. It was the vehicle's engine block. He had never seen technology like this. A few scattered fragments looked familiar. He could puzzle out others through context, but the liquid core remained completely baffling. This was not electricity. This was something engineered decades ahead of its time.
Driven by sheer frustration, he wiped grease from his gloves, climbed into the front cabin, and stared at the reclined, mummified nun. Leathered skin clung to her skull beneath the tattered white habit. The gold necklace at her throat hadn't tarnished, hadn't moved, not once, in all the times he'd been down here. He checked the glowing blue display on his wrist-mount, calculating his shrinking window of time.
He looked back at the driver's seat.
The nun's head was now pointed directly at him.
Ghost scrambled backward out of the vehicle. His heavy boots hit the mud with a wet slap.
The dashboard radio flared to life. Static hissed, sharp and biting. It grew louder by the second until a woman's whispered voice bled through the noise.
"Stop."
"Stop."
"Stop."
He paced the length of the rusted chassis, checking the countdown on his glove again.
"Stop."
"Stop."
"Stop."
Ghost slammed his heavy iron wrench down on the hood’s frame. A sharp clang echoed through the cavern. He aggressively tapped a command into his haloglove, projecting a single, blinding blue word into the dark.
SILENCE.
The static cut out instantly.
He turned back to the exposed machinery and carefully gripped a thick, braided wire.
His wrench lifted, then flew past his ear. The iron caught the edge of his collar and missed his temple by a fraction of an inch. His datapad lifted off a nearby supply crate, spinning in the dead air. The headlights flickered in a rapid, erratic strobe. Both car doors slammed open and shut in a violent, deafening mechanical frenzy.
Ghost marched to the rear trunk. He grabbed a thick canvas blanket, dragged it to the driver's side, and threw it completely over the mummy's head.
He did not expect that to work, but the frantic rattling stopped immediately.
He walked back to the front grille and leaned deep over the engine block.
The heavy steel hood slammed shut with the force of a guillotine. If his reflexes had been a fraction of a second slower, the metal would have crushed both his hands into paste.
He gripped the rusted lip and tried to force the hood back up. It remained locked tight, resisting his leverage entirely. He braced his shoulder underneath and shoved upward. Nothing moved.
Ghost let out a long, ragged breath. Defeated by the broken physics of the cavern, he collapsed into the backseat, and stared out the shattered window at the rushing black sewer water. He could feel every precious, unavailable minute slipping away into the current.
His gaze drifted back to the front seat, fixing on the blanket-covered silhouette.
The blanket-covered nun’s head was still turned his direction.
He reached forward and yanked the canvas away.
He quickly tapped a message into his haloglove. Glowing neon text projected onto the humid air.
I AM GHOST. I AM MUTE. BUSY. MUST RESCUE FRIENDS. NEED BOMB.
Absolute silence settled over the leather cabin. Then, a faint, garbled whisper emerged from the copper speaker mesh on the dashboard.
"Sophia. That was my name."
The static hissed. "I built this engine. Stop."
He tapped a single, demanding response.
WHY.
"Entropy Explosion. Time rift. …Or worse."
The sound of the rushing subterranean river mingled with the low electrical hum of the haloglove.
Ghost steadied his breathing and typed again.
HOW EXIST IN SAFE ZONE?
"I am not evil."
HELP ME.
Ghost manipulated his wrist-mount. He projected a saved image of his college friends, displaying Minjo, Plague, Echo, Lisa, Kyra, and Kyle huddled together in the dirt of The Pen. He typed below the image.
CAME TO RESCUE FRIEND. WAS KIDNAPPED.
He updated the projection, pulling up a stolen surveillance feed of Jihoon. The boy lay comatose in the center of the Museum of Catastrophes. Bright lines of violet Zone energy snaked into his pale flesh. His chest rose and fell in perfect synchronization with each cursed energy pulse.
The holographic light glitched, casting fragmented purple shadows across the ancient wooden dashboard and the hollow eye sockets of the nun.
"Recent?" the radio buzzed, the voice trembling with static emotion.
He tapped.
TODAY.
He watched the hologram, and tried to imagine Sophia’s point of view, watching the violet lines Entropy power pulsing into a young man’s chest. The rhythm of it. Her creation used for an evil purpose.
A single drop of condensation struck the metal roof of the car. Then another.
The headlights slowly dimmed to a dull, amber glow. The car’s Entropy Engine gave one final, ragged spurt, then went entirely cold.
Darkness swallowed the cavern. The only illumination came from the faint, passing trails of bioluminescent algae swirling in the distant water.
Ghost waited in the absolute dark. The roar of the rushing river sounded hollow in the engine's sudden absence.
Sophia did not speak.
Minutes ticked past.
With a soft rustle of dry fabric, the canvas blanket slowly slid from the mummy's shoulder. It pooled onto the rusted floorboards with a heavy thud.
The radio crackled. No voice followed.
He leaned forward, listening intently to the white noise. The static shifted, adopting the distinct, rhythmic cadence of human breathing
He understood, with sudden clarity, that the silence was not malfunction. It was grief.
He tapped his screen one last time, projecting a final plea into the blackness.
HELP ME SOPHIA. CEREMONY TOMORROW.
The metal frame shuddered. The engine hummed once. It was a low, resonant vibration, sounding exactly like a machine exhaling after holding its breath for nearly a century. The twin headlights flickered on, burning steady and brilliantly white, slicing through the cavern gloom.
With a sharp metallic click, the car hood popped open.
"Let us begin," the radio whispered.
...
On Him, Ghost:
Jumpsuit: Starlit Endeavor - Machina Jumpsuit Set [mesh](Salvage Station)(1985L)
Wristpad: Starlit Endeavor - Machina WristReader Wristpad[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)
Hair: Dura - B95-HAIR [mesh]
Headband: TRASH - Covenant Unrigged Headband [mesh]
Gloves: LANEVO - Silence Gloves, LegacyM, Fatpack [mesh]
Head: LeLUTKA - CAMDEN 4.0 [mesh](3990L)
Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)
Setting:
Bootle: ISHIKU - La Mer Swing-Top Beer Bottle[mesh](Salvage Station)(480L)
Spooky Eyes: HAUNT - Little Void - Puddle[mesh](Salvage Station)(159L)
Radio: Starlit Endeavor - Machina ChatterBox Radio[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)
Boombox: Starlit Endeavor - Machina LoopCrate Boombox[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)
Datapad: Starlit Endeavor - Machina OmniDeck Datapad[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)
Flask: Starlit Endeavor - Machina Rations Flask[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)
Toolbox: Starlit Endeavor - Machina Toolbox[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)
Wrench: Starlit Endeavor - Machina Wrench Gift[mesh](Salvage Station)(Gift)
Cannisters: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Cannisters [mesh](Salvage Station)(160L)
Oil: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Oil[mesh](Salvage Station)(100L)
Radio: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Radio [Dark][mesh](Salvage Station)(140L)
Corpse: ContraptioN - Wrapped Corpse [mesh]
Car: Dirty Rat - The Botched Job [mesh]
Setting: Dirty Rat - Sewer [mesh]
BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:
