Queue the boss theme

The alpha labs.. A sight Deacon had hoped to never see again and yet, here he stood. The gates had opened for them once, and it seemed they were still standing as open as they did back then. He did not necessarily fear the labs, but he respected them. Rumors about Nidhogg getting out alive were still occasionally going around, Deacon himself did not know whether it was true or not either. He just hoped that he wouldn’t stumble upon him, if he was indeed alive.

Behind Deacon, his spiked partner in crime, Bishop, approached. He missed his old life there, but the freedom of the outside world had started to grow on him, while Deacon had embraced it immediately. He looked over at his brown, feathered friend and smiled, if only a little.
“I know you miss this place a little bit, Deacon.” he teased, but Deacon was not amused.
“You know I find no value in this place.” he scoffed.
“So why are we here, then, Deacon?”
That was a very good question. Deacon was not sure, but stories of a dark ghost had enticed him to investigate. Maybe they could find clues about how they were made at the same time? He knew he was not born from an egg, but how was he made, and why? He had many questions, but very few answers.

The two large carnivores entered the labs once more, no hesitation to be seen in their movements. Well inside, Bishop took a deep breath and let out a big sigh of relief as he glanced at Deacon with a smug smile.
“Home sweet home, partner.” he said, as he took the lead towards the lab section of the complex. Deacon just rolled his eyes at Bishop’s comment before following him in, kicking away any rubble as they went on.

It did not take long before this so-called ghost was stalking them, though they both pretended they didn’t notice at first, when rounding the next corner, Bishop stopped to wait for who, or what, it was to catch up. Deacon observed, as Bishop crouched down, placed his tail as a tripwire and waited, and almost like clockwork, a thud could be heard after Bishop felt something stumble over his tail.
“Got you, mister ghost!” he cackled, as a very annoyed carno stood up and huffed.
“My name is not Ghost, it’s Ghast.” he snarled. “And why are you ruining my fun?”

“Not to poke fun at what you consider fun, but we are here for something that actually matters.” Deacon interrupted, as the tension between Ghast and Bishop was growing.
“And what would that be?” Ghast questioned, squinting at Deacon.
“To figure out what they were actually doing here.” the brown acro explained.
Ghast seemed unamused at first, but with a heavy sigh he started walking, and nodded for the two larger predators to follow him. He had been lurking in this complex for quite some time, ever since it opened.
“I know you all came from here and all, but how much do you two know of this place?” Ghast asked as the three of them walked and entered a large room full of specimen tubes, with some specimens still inside a few, some incubating, some decaying.
“Honestly, not much. We just know that we were made, rather than born.” Bishop replied as he looked into a tube with a partially decayed alberto. Disgusted, he backed off to look at some monitors and papers scattered around instead.
“Yeah that’s about it.” Deacon confirmed as he tried to find any clues as to what was going on down here at some point.
Ghast nodded, he had no clue about anything either, but he had been through most of the specimen areas at this point. He figured that maybe, if they got to the section with acros in them, there would be some answers that they were looking for. But he was reluctant to go there, due to the horrors he had witnessed from the shadows back when others tried to take Nidhogg down.

Just as Ghast was going to suggest moving deeper in, they could hear a clanking pike and some loud thuds from up ahead. The three of them froze for a moment, as the lights flickered for a moment before going out at the end of the long, specimen filled corridor. Coloured lights started to appear from around the corner, getting closer. Blue lights..
“We have to leave..!” Ghast whispered, with a sense of panic and urgency in his voice.
Deacon looked over towards the blue light before pushing Bishop towards the room’s exit. Bishop wanted to growl at him for getting too close, but he realised that now was not the time.
“How is he still alive?” Bishop quietly hissed towards Ghast, as if he was supposed to have an answer.
“How am I supposed to now? I never got near that freak.” the clouded carno scoffed. “I’m not stupid like that.”
Deacon sighed. With Nidhogg now roaming the complex, it would make searching for clues much more difficult, and more importantly, unsafe. He carefully looked back inside and saw the glowing yellow light from his hip move away, but he knew it was best to wait before going back inside.
“We have to be careful if we continue, I’m not about to risk my life for some stupid documents.” Ghast hissed towards the acro duo.
“Me neither.” Deacon assured him.
“Let’s leave, for now.” Bishop suggested, and the other two seemed to agree.