A flattened ring lit ablaze as a green coated man was spit forth from it, catching himself on the ground. His journey to reach this gate's entry was not eventful or worth covering.
"Hot damn," swore the maniac as he pulled off a conical shaped cap from his head. Maybe something happened in that time. "Who woulda ever thought so much interestin' stuff could be goin' on down there. That was quite possibly the most amazin' time o' m' life. Well, 'cept fer the leeches. Those were just horrible all 'round." Greenborne retched. "I didn't think somethin' could survive like that by suckin' not blood." Discarding the frivolous headwear with a certain glee knowing he was no longer forced to wear it, he examined the next level. Before he did this, however, he needed his goggles. Everything about the chamber was a blinding white. The floor, walls, and ceiling were stark and immaculate. The corners where they met could barely be distinguished. The surfaces seemed to be the light sources themselves, glowing brightly, but the true means were several suspended small, crystal rods that hung in midair, evenly illuminating the chamber to eliminate any trace of shadow. Contrasting sharply with the surroundings, dark navy hemispheres studded the flats, awkwardly placed with no seeming order. Their exteriors were solid and shiny, showing no breaks, cracks, or other inconsistencies, not that Frederick felt like getting too close to verify. Stepping around the embedded domes with plenty of leeway, the Disaster trekked through the wide, open room, presumably approaching the exit. A few of the glowing shards were pocketed instead of brushed out of his path. Greed was a vice after all, and he knew them all personally. The emptiness and perfection of the space was a bit eerie. Everything was still and spotless, with the exception of the giant spots that littered the area. A haunting silence consumed in the air, boding for nothing well as the fiend could feel himself under an ominous watch, but there was no one or nothing around, except for...
"Are ya crazy half-orbs followin' me?" he questioned, not certain whether or not he actually sought a response. "Yeah, damn straight. Turning about and continuing, he felt an ill presence, but nothing was there upon facing back around. The dark mounds, however, seemed misplaced, a hard task to discern since they lacked any real order in placement. Uneasily turning forward, he knocked and smeared his grimy shoe against the cleanly floor, scoring a large scuff from his sole. It would easily serve as a marker. Taking a few more steps forward, he flung back around with a finger pointed outward, expecting it to be aimed at whatever it was he suspected caught in the act of sneaking. Instead, there was nothing, in more ways than he could have thought. The place holder he rubbed onto the ground had vanished. He knew he had put it there, and he did not travel far enough away to lose track of its location. The situation was beginning to exceed eerie. Slowly stretching out a leg in a long step away from where he was, a brisk walk through the spotted field began. As his escaped elapsed, this time, he turned his gaze out the corner of his eye, noting the floor without actually appearing to be doing so. The shiny domes he passed were reflective, although not clearly rebounding the images against the curved surface, but it served the point well enough. Piecing the act together from several different locations and passes, the objects tracking him were the dark domes themselves, or what they really were.
When thought to be unwatched, the hemispheres split open into an array of legs all attached to a silver core. They silently crawled, closing in on his wake. From his departed steps, small tentacles that hung from the bottom of their bodies, supposedly a mouth, scraped and cleaned the area of anything left behind, whether bacteria or small particles of dirt. Both were certainly abundant in his soles. The stalkers were frozen in an instant upon Fred darting a quick eye back, just to keep them on edge. Unraveling the chain from his forearm, Rick swung it around while whistling a nameless tune. Letting it sway wide and far while pretending to be inattentive of the situation threatening him, the fiend turned about abruptly with the links still suspended out behind himself. In their hasty reacting, the oddities shut fast, but one did not take into account what it shut upon. Emerging from its spliced shell, a length of chain hung from the infiltrated armour. The hollow husk was transformed into a war flail, crashing through the ranks of its own kind, clattering and smashing shell upon shell. The weapon did not survive long. The creatures, whatever they were, abandoned their reserved behavior, their secret known, and enclosed upon the scene of action. Prepared to duel until death, Greenborne was mildly disappointed, although thrilled with living, that the oncoming horde arrived to clean up the littered chips of enamel dropped by their brethren, careless to the actual hazard that caused the mess to begin with. The expanse of stick-like legs intertwined with one another, forming a sturdy mesh while they tidied the sterile chamber. Having no other exit route and full knowledge that the dwindling scraps of the battlefield would not keep them occupied much longer, the man took the only escape he could, over. The same maculate foot that soiled their floor crushed a myriad of their slender legs, snapping them like brittle twigs as he passed overhead.
In growing strides, Greenborne removed himself from the dense cluster but still was faced with a few stragglers on the outskirts. These outliers confronted him to his face directly as they were not lying in wait but hitched a ride. Scurrying up his legs as they pressed on through the crowds, the lightweight janitors positioned themselves without detection upon his body and, one by one, made their presence known. Tightening tendrils squeezed below his knee first. A quick drop to the floor crippled that custodian without difficulty, but, before he could rise, the abrasive appendages could be felt along the small of his back, beneath his garb. As he grappled with that nuisance, another bit onto his shoulder while yet another attached to the opposing side of his neck. Frederick threw himself into a wall, back first, producing an unpleasant squishing noise. Taking both fists, he pounded them into the wall above his shoulders and dragged his knuckles upward, smearing the splatters. As more tiny feet could be felt upon his body, he twisted wildly, rolling along the wall to rid himself of the unwanted passengers. The crunching could be heard over his whole person, from his ankles to inside his sleeves. After quickly shaking off, or out, some of the broken shards, his race resumed. The mess created served as a helpful distraction to the obsessive crawlers.
"Hah, ya stupid buggers," mocked the maniac as the threats scavenged the debris of their own kind. "Ya forgot what 'twas ya were doin', an' now he's gettin' away! That's what ya get fer bein' so... damn... simple..." His pace of speech slowed along with his travel across the blank floor as his attention became divided. In his path stood a massive, crystalline structure that stood out from the rest of the scenery as it was something. The tremendous jewel stood taller than the lunatic, glistening with a pure sparkle of its flawless, transparent sheen. It was unmistakable at first glance: this was love at first sight. "Don't worry, baby," comforted the Disaster, trying to wrap his arms around the enormous gemstone. "Daddy's here." Amidst his bewilderment, he could have sworn there was another issue he had forgotten, but more dazzles took away those fears. "Oh, crap, right," he realized as a spindled leg crept upon his, "those things." Shaking off the critters, he scaled the crystal higher, not wanting to abandon it. The added top-heavy weight caused the mysteriously balanced piece to topple, crashing upon the empty floor. The mad man wept bitter tears. He was not injured or hurt in the slightest way from the fall. His agony was purely mental, for he realized a way to escape with his life; however, this would cost him his precious. It took a few more gnaws at his shins until he finally committed to the act. Placing a heel upon the fallen gem, laid out flat, Fred kicked it forward with a heavy heart. The massive pillar, slowly, rolled over its many facets, crushing an entire line of the creeping army as it went along with no end to its rampage in sight. Several did escape the flattened fate, but they became overwhelmed with the cleaning task at hand, a long stretch that would need picked up bit by bit. Devastated, the one coated in green solemnly turned to leave, shuffling his feet careless to the scrubber that was biting into his foot.
"I'll get ya in a while," he assured, "but, first, mopin'." Running a finger beneath his nose with a pouting sniff, he turned back to the janitor. "Okay, now that's m' bone. Enough already." A swift heel stomped the gnawer flat, creating another stain that would need tending to.
