The Knight and the Princess

"Attention, all agents. We are experiencing a WAW-level containment breach in Lower Central Command. The abnormality has been sighted in the uppermost Security hallway- all agents report there immediately."

As the announcement ended, the loud, jarring alarms began. Arang looked up from a book, startled, but seemingly not especially concerned. Looking around the room at his fellow Control agents, all readying their weapons or recovering from the sudden fright the alarms gave them, a look of confidence began to form on his face. Sure, he wasn't one of the Control captains, but he'd been here longer than almost anyone else. He knew what he was doing. And this was "only" a WAW-class- very dangerous, for sure, but the whole facility had reinforced gear capable of handling whatever a WAW-class abnormality could throw at them. It was no low-level rabble, but it would likely be manageable. He confidently hopped out of his chair and grabbed his crackled, leafy spear from beside it, preparing to begin suppression.

But as he and his Control teammates made their way to the elevators on their way to Security, things began to sound like they were going awry. Listening in on the Security radio line, he heard a chaotic mess of sounds- initially just the clashing metal and gunfire that he would've expected, interlaced with what sounded like...rustling leaves, oddly enough. But quickly, the sounds changed. He heard what sounded like Hoon shouting for his teammates to retreat, among continued scattered gunfire and the screams of panicking clerks. Things were...clearly not going well. But what was most odd was a sound like cracking wood and rustling foliage, like the sound of a plant growing much too quickly...and with the slam of a door, the sounds muffled, then faded.

"Holy shit...I don't know who else in the facility is...listening to this," Hoon said, breathlessly, into the radio, "but if you are, go back to HQ...and wait for further orders. This thing...this thing is no joke." Soft ruffling feathers as he moved his wing, and a pained groan.

"Arang to Hoon, are you guys alright in there? Any casualties?"
"No agent casualties, but we've had...some losses on the clerk team. ...And it got me bad. I'm bleeding like crazy." He groaned through gritted teeth. "This thing does some vicious black damage."
"...Learned anything about it, from the...encounter?"
"It's immune to black, that's all I know. I tried to hit it with my hammer and it didn't even flinch." A pause. "It might be a good idea to try pale, if...any of you guys have access to that."

"I can switch to Justitia from Da Capo," Piper chimed in from Central Command. "Can someone tell the manager to black-shield me when I get there?"
"Can do," Arang responded. "You get to medbay, Hoon. We need a minute or two to prepare for this. Arang, out."

The next deployment was to a hallway in Information; only Piper, Arang and Mortimer were sent this time. Piper had switched into Justitia to get some Pale damage in, while Mortimer was capable of doing long-range White- good to have a ranger. Arang was the only one whose particular...reason to be there wasn't exactly clear, but he was sure he'd heard his name in the announcement, so off he went. The three of them grouped up in front of the hallway, and discussed a game plan. The manager said the abnormality was stationary, and spread vines along the floor to strike at and damage opponents- so Piper would rush in, black-shielded, Arang serving as backup, and Mortimer staying in the doorway to fire from a distance.

Piper carefully pressed the button to open the door, and the three were greeted with a startling sight. Dead-center in the hallway stood the abnormality- the first time Arang had ever seen it. Tall and dainty, it seemed to be made of dry, desiccated plant matter, with a whole apple for a head; two severely-yellowed holes in its flesh seeming to serve as "eyes". A red-and-yellow dress covered most of its spindly body, with the exception of its thin, handless arms, tapering to a point instead. Around it, the cracked, dry vines had already covered half the room- and had already taken a life; a clerk, nauseatingly impaled through their whole body by the rapidly-growing plants. Mortimer retched a little.

None of them had much time to process the scene; they had a plan to enact, and with the shot of a shield-bullet turret in the corner of the ceiling surrounding Piper in a black shield, the game was on. Arang ducked to the side, staying close behind Piper, as he rushed towards the being. It stayed mostly still, but turned to look at him at the first collision of sword to planty flesh, and sharp vines snapped up from the floor like striking snakes- bouncing off the surface of the shield, but visibly damaging it. Hoon was right- the damage this abnormality could do was vicious. Mortimer's gunfire also caught the attention of the being, and while it was definitely doing damage, it only seemed to accelerate the growth of vines toward him. Unnerved, he backed away, and the door closed.

Wait, this wasn't part of the plan, Piper seemed to think as he turned around...and that one moment of dropped guard was enough to let the Abnormality get one last shot in, enough to break through the shield. The desiccated vine cracked against Piper's stark white suit, ripping right through it and tearing through Piper's skin. Letting out a sharp cry of pain, he stumbled away. "Fall back, fall back! Arang, get out of here, we need to make a second attack!" He forced himself through the door, and Arang tried to follow, only for thick, dry stems to shoot up from in front of him, blocking the door.

Arang could barely even turn around before the Abnormality's plant-growth grabbed him.

Wrapping themselves tightly around his arms and torso, the dry, sharp surface of the vines dug into his flesh like barbed wire. Wincing and gritting his teeth in pain, he struggled for a moment, but stopped just as quickly as he felt the plants dig deeper into him the more he moved. It turned him around to face the abnormality, which had now turned its whole body around to face him. He got the feeling that it wanted something to do with him, specifically, but he wasn't sure what. Otherwise, why would it grab him like this instead of just running him through like it did the clerk?

It seemed to slowly glide towards him; if it had feet, he couldn't see them under its dress. He struggled a bit to lift his head, but managed to look up at the being that now loomed over him and made him feel deep, gut-wrenching fear that he hadn't felt since he was new to the company. It looked down at him and tilted its head- and in that moment, he suddenly realized something. This Abnormality and his comfortable new EGO suit- they matched. The colors and patterns were a perfect match. Maybe it wanted to look closer at him because it noticed the same thing. It bent down a little and lifted an arm, lifting up his head from below his chin to get a better look at him, and he could imagine it like a fairytale princess, asking him- are you my Prince Charming, or my knight in shining armor?

There was a moment of quiet, as the two stared at each other- the abnormality curious, the agent fearing for his life. And...it backed away. Turning and returning to the center of the room, the abnormality surrounded itself with vines, before seemingly sinking into the floor, to go somewhere else. The vines loosened their grip on Arang's body, and he dropped to the floor, flinching once again as the covering of foliage on the floor punctured his hands and knees. Sitting back on his feet, he heard the plants covering the doorway withering and crumbling, but he was focused more on his mangled, bleeding arms and the amount of damage the thing had just done to him, and to those he'd been assigned with. He couldn't help but wonder if this delicate-looking princess would be the abnormality to destroy the company...and he finally collapsed, landing on his side and losing consciousness. And so he lay, crumpled onto a bed of withered plants, waiting for a savior of his own.

---

The next time Arang awoke, it was in his bed, at the start of the day once again. He checked his phone to see the day- it was the same day he'd just sworn he'd gone to work on. Did he just wake up in the middle of the night, or was he dreaming that whole time? He sat up and looked across the room, at the soft apple-red tailcoat and green suit hanging in his closet, and felt a little bit of a chill. There was an uncomfortable sort of familiarity to it, now. But it was his EGO gear, giving him defenses he wouldn't have otherwise, and besides, it was pretty comfy.

And he'd been there longer than almost anyone else. He would be fine.

He slid out of bed, and pulled his suit down from its hanger, preparing to head to work.