Ravencroft Institute – Midnight
The air inside Ravencroft Institute was thick with the stench of antiseptic, rusted metal, and something far less sterile—something feral. The reinforced walls bore deep claw marks, remnants of past violent struggles. The flickering fluorescent lights above did little to push back the shadows that clung to every corner, almost as if they were alive.
In the heart of Containment Wing B, where only the most unstable and dangerous inmates were housed, a deafening hum crackled through the stale air. It wasn't mechanical—it was unnatural, like the groaning of a dying star.
Then—
Reality split open.
A jagged tear in space ripped through the hallway, glitching and spasming like something that shouldn't exist. The edges pulsed with chaotic energy—red, black, and white, shifting violently like a broken signal struggling to stabilize. The hole in reality shuddered, its mere presence making the air heavy with static.
Then, it spat something out.
A silhouette stumbled forward, its form briefly distorted before snapping into focus. A figure—tall, thin, draped in shadows. His eye sockets were dark, hollow voids, save for the flickering red glow deep within. His movements were unnatural, stiff yet fluid, like a puppet being forced to move.
Then, the portal collapsed behind him with a corrupted bzzt!, sealing the wound in existence as if it had never been there.
Silence.
A moment later—
Klaxons blared.
🚨 [WARNING: ANOMALY DETECTED.] 🚨
Red emergency lights flashed in rhythmic bursts, making the entire hallway seem like a beating, bleeding organism. Security doors slammed shut, sealing the wing. Automated turrets hissed from the ceiling, their sleek barrels rotating toward the unknown intruder.
But the true reaction came from something else.
A low, wet slithering sound oozed through the room.
From within a reinforced containment cell, something stirred. The glass was thick, meant to hold monsters, but the thing inside was no ordinary monster.
A black mass, viscous and shifting, coiled against the glass, reacting to the presence of something… new. Something it had never tasted before. The surface of the inky creature bubbled, forming tendrils that slapped against the glass, testing its confines.
The overhead hazard label, barely legible under the pulsing red light, read:
"SYMBIOTE SPECIMEN #004 – STATUS: UNBONDED."
The creature didn't just sense the new arrival.
It hungered for it.
From within its reinforced containment cell, the black mass shifted, tendrils slapping against the glass as if testing its confines. The symbiote's surface bubbled, its form rippling with raw, insatiable desire.
It had found something new.
Something powerful.
A hissing, guttural voice slithered into the cold air, barely above a whisper but filled with raw, insatiable desire.
"You… are not like them."
The containment cell shuddered.
And then—it cracked.
UltSans hesitated, his hollow gaze shifting toward the containment cell. The deep crack running along the reinforced glass glistened under the pulsating red lights, a jagged wound forming where there should have been nothing but sterile containment.
He hadn't heard anything—no voice, no whisper—only the soft, unnatural sound of something wet shifting beyond the fracture.
His expression remained unreadable, his voice a quiet murmur, laced with detached curiosity.
UltSans:"...Hmm?... Did that... glass tube break?... Weird... How did that happen?"
The glass trembled again.
A slow, deliberate pulse rippled across the black mass within, shifting like an ocean of tar under moonlight. Something within it twitched, reacting not just to UltSans' presence but to something deeper—something within him.
Then—
A second crack spiderwebbed outward, followed by a wet, distorted growl vibrating through the cell's thick walls.
Whatever was inside wasn't just reacting.
It was awakening.
UltSans hesitated, his hollow eye sockets narrowing in mild curiosity. Something about the cracks in the glass felt off, but he couldn't see clearly in the dim, flickering light.
Slowly, he lifted his right hand, his palm opening lazily.
A small flame flickered into existence, floating just above his outstretched palm. It cast dancing shadows along the cold walls, its gentle glow pushing back the overwhelming darkness.
With the room now illuminated, UltSans took a step forward, his gaze sweeping over the area.
Nothing.
Just a cluttered scientist's workstation, littered with scattered documents, broken vials, and rusted surgical tools. The entire space seemed cramped, suffocating, with barely any room to move.
His expression remained blank.
UltSans:"Hmph. Just another one of those weird human labs..."
He dismissed it, his focus shifting elsewhere.
But in that moment—his guard was down.
Something shifted.
From behind the thick glass, the black ooze began to move—not with random, mindless hunger, but with deliberate purpose.
The cracks along the containment cell widened.
Then—
The symbiote struck.
A tendril lunged, slipping through the fractures like a living shadow, slithering toward its prey—silent, fast, precise.
UltSans hesitated.
His hollow eye sockets narrowed, scanning the dim hallway for the faint movement he thought he'd seen.
But before he could react—
The symbiote lunged.
It surged forward, a black, inky mass moving with unnatural speed. It slammed into his face, tendrils slithering into his mouth, his nose, every opening it could find. UltSans stumbled back, his skeletal hands clawing at the slime, but it was too fast, too relentless.
In seconds, it was inside him.
UltSans froze.
His body went rigid, his mind scrambling to process what had just happened. He didn't feel pain—just a strange, invasive coldness spreading through him, seeping into every crack and crevice of his being.
To him, the symbiote was nothing more than a dark, shapeless slime. Its true form was obscured by the flickering red lights of Ravencroft's emergency alarms. He didn't understand what it was or why it had attacked him.
All he knew was that something foreign was now inside him.
And he wasn't sure how to feel about it.
Meanwhile, the symbiote's journey had only just begun.
As it spread through UltSans' body, it began to analyze its new host. And what it found was... baffling.
This wasn't a normal human.
This wasn't anything it had ever encountered before.
The symbiote quickly noticed multiple life-threatening conditions that should have killed any ordinary being:
A rib, jagged and broken, piercing through tissue.
A heart that barely functioned, its beats erratic and weak, as if it were only going through the motions.
Blood that was thick, almost sludge-like, more fat than fluid.
Organs corroded, eaten away by some unseen force.
Yet, despite all this, UltSans' body was alive.
It functioned as if none of these issues mattered.
But the most perplexing discovery was the energy.
A constant, invisible pulse radiated through every inch of UltSans' form. It was powerful, chaotic, and unlike anything the symbiote had ever encountered.
This energy seemed to be the glue holding UltSans together, defying the laws of biology and physics.
The symbiote's initial confidence wavered.
This wasn't a simple human.
This was something else entirely.
Questions flooded its mind:
What was this corrosive force eating away at the organs?
How could UltSans be alive when every sign pointed to his body being long past its expiration?
And what was the source of that strange, invisible energy that seemed to defy reality itself?
The symbiote's usual process of symbiosis—taking control of the host's body and mind—was met with resistance at every turn.
UltSans' body was a battlefield of contradictions.
And the symbiote found itself struggling to adapt.
Yet, despite the challenges, it couldn't help but feel a growing fascination.
UltSans was unique.
Special in a way it couldn't fully comprehend.
And that made him all the more desirable.
For now, the symbiote continued its exploration, probing deeper into UltSans' body and mind.
It searched for a way to establish the bond it so desperately craved.
But with every step, it found more questions than answers.
And the line between host and symbiote began to blur in ways neither of them could have anticipated.