The underground slaughterhouse lay deathly silent.
The faint glow of a lighter danced between Tim's fingers, driving back less than two meters of darkness.
Hiss-
A heavy hiss of escaping gas broke the silence. The pungent smell of formalin instantly grew ten times stronger, stinging their eyes shut.
In the shadows straight ahead, three rusty metal Suspended Animation Chambers slowly slid open to either side. Nutrient fluid oozed onto the blue-brick floor like thick snot.
Three figures crawled out.
No, they could no longer be called human.
Transparent tubes covered their bodies, and their skin had the gray pallor of corpses. The joints in their limbs had been crudely sliced open and fitted with dark-gold metal mechanisms. All ten fingernails had been ripped out and replaced with three-inch blades of Asgardian steel.
"Test subjects 075, 076, and 077." Tim raised the lighter, his blue eyes fixed on the identification plates attached to the monsters.
"Roar!"
The monster in the middle let out an inhuman howl, dropped onto all fours, and lunged like a spider. It moved so fast it stirred up a gust of foul-smelling wind.
"Scatter!" Jason growled.
Tim rolled across the floor and ducked behind an operating table. The lighter went out.
In the darkness, only the grating screech of the monsters' metal joints remained.
"Dick, on the left!" Tim's voice came rapidly from beneath the operating table. "They're unfinished! Their bones were forcibly replaced with metal, but their joints show obvious signs of rejection. The one on the left has yellow fluid leaking from its knee-that's infected tissue breaking down!"
"Got it!"
An almost inaudible rustle of fabric came from the tangled rusty pipes overhead.
Dick hung upside down from a beam like a real bat. His eyes were closed as he tracked their positions by sound.