The bottom level of the bunker was filled with water, waist-deep and murky green. Splish. Splish. With every careful step, she felt the urge to turn back. There would be no way to access the lower level until it was drained anyway. Lia thought back to the access hatch in the mountainside, how she'd thought herself so lucky to find it cracked open. All the water must have leaked in over months. "This far as I go for now", she muttered to herself. "Maybe I come back with a bucket."

Something stirred in the water behind her as she turned. A tell-tale white poncho topped with dark lenses on a white mask glared back at her in the flooded tunnel. She hesitated. Pistol? Goggles? Her hand raised her pistol halfway, but the flash of light from the OWL's 10-WINK reached her before she could pull her goggles into place. She was stunned, frozen in place by the 10-WINK's ray, and the thought blindness crashed her brain. As the sound of the pyreband charging cut through her daze, a thought surfaced.

"I wonder if it can vapor water like it can vapor skin."

Lore by @doom_captain ❤️ (twitter/X)