Early morning light glinted off of the abandoned form of the sanatorium on the outskirts of downtown Amsterdam, the gleaming steel skyline of Neo-Amsterdam looming up behind it like a predator about to finish its prey.

The silence of dawn was soon shredded by the arrival of a MEC van, disgorging a team of seven armored figures.

“All right, heads up.” Came a female voice from one of the lighter armored figures, Commander Eva de Vries, “We’ve had a report from HQ that this place turned Dungeon. Our mission is to verify this report and clean up the mess.”

The other figures nodded solemnly while filing in a line outside the van, gearing up silently with only the noise of armors and weapons locking into place.

The commander finally placed herself in front of the line and looked at each approvingly, this was the team with which she already scoured out over a dozen Dungeons successfully, and she knew each of the faces currently hidden behind a darkened visor by heart.

“Role-call”, she finally stated, slipping into a measure of professionalism that bonded this group together well.

“Heavies, Peter and Jonathan.”

“Here”

“Check”

“Scout, Franklin.”

“Yo, commander”

“Troopers, Cara, Philip and Kurt”

“We’re present Sir.”

Eva nodded slowly. “And me makes seven, all accounted for.”

Slowly she turned towards the front door of the sanatorium, a double door of heavy oak, set a few feet above ground level, with a flight of marble steps to get to it.

“First order is to establish first base perimeter.” She started the plan she and HQ plotted with the use of the blueprints of the building. God knew what it looked like right now, but if all was still corresponding there ought to be a small hallway behind the front door, a foyer.

“I don’t like the looks of this place Eva.” One of the troopers came towards her commander. “I know it’s been empty for years now, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be crawling with Echoes. You know how I get around Echoes”

Eva nodded and reached out to Cara a moment. “Stay close to me, seven go in, seven come out.”

Clearing her throat, Eva resumed, “Heavies, take up position left and right of the door, Troopers with me, I go point. Scout, you stay here last, don’t want to lose you at the front door.”

While everyone took their position, Eva reached her hand to her chest where underneath her protective suit was a locket with a photo of her parents in it.

“On my mark… GO”

Like the well-trained team they were, the MEC force burst into a foyer that was not only there, but also somehow had grown from its meager 3x3 meter proportions into a hallway of true Gothic flair. The roof domed high up above their heads, columns and pillars with gargoyles and all kinds of monstrosities lined the walls, and a heavy chandelier illuminated the entire place with an eerie flickering glow.

“Good God in Heaven…” breathed Kurt through the respirator in his helmet.

It didn’t take long for the team to scour the place, and an all clear was given before the very lightly armored Scout was allowed to enter. The Heavies, clunking around in their powered armors were already setting up the Base Perimeter Beacons, which consisted of a literal mesh of laser-beams covering the area like a giant tent and theoretically allowing only the members of the team whose biosignatures were programmed into it to pass through un-fried. It had been field tested against lesser Outerworlders successfully so far.

Once the base had been set up, the commander flicked a switch on her helmet and an unnatural hum collected around her. “Here goes,” She partially prayed, partially informed her crew. She was about to use the prototype of a new form of communication between the outside world and the team within the Dungeon, seeing as most of these aberrations prevented, scrambled or even outright ~changed~ normal radio communications. This was an Ether Radio, devised to employ the same extra-physical energies the newly awakened Magi use to send their messages.

“This is Commander De Vries to HQ. Recon was right; this is definitely a Dungeon, most likely a Class A as well. Base Camp has been established and we’re waiting for further messages before continuation. Please confirm communications?” She finally sent to the outer world.

“This is HQ,” A tinny voice finally replied, “Communications have been received, and test of radio a success. Continue with the mission as planned.”

Eva shrugged, the communication wasn’t all that wonderful, but it worked and that mattered.

“Franklin, front and center” She called, and the lightly armored scout came forwards with a salute.

Wasting no time, Commander De Vries told him to go and check out the next room, including the ones immediately adjacent to them, all ground floors. He wasn’t to enter if there were any anomalies present, and to keep his radio open, albeit silent.

Franklins mission was short, short enough even to last all the way to the opposite door in the foyer when he returned to the camp to report that there were already two nasties, probably Echoes, looking like a nurse and a doctor. They were hovering to and fro in the other room.

A plan of action was quickly decided, while Echoes were not all necessarily evil or destructive, Eva didn’t want to take any chances and ordered the Troopers to take them out fast. A few bursts of fire were all it took to dissipate them.

“Easy kill commander,” Kurt commented.

De Vries nodded silently, too easy for her tastes and a shiver ran down her spine, setting off the biosensors in her suit.

“Are you ok Sir?” came Jonathans voice through the team’s radio.

Eva nodded slowly, “Yes and no John. I’ve gotten a nasty feeling about this place all of a sudden. Like we’re being set up.”

“Call it off then,” Came Cara, “Heaven knows I’d rather go than face these things.”

“We’ve got orders Trooper.” Eva finally returned. “Everyone take up standard scouring position, we’re going to clean this thing up one room at a time and be hasty about it.”

Standard scouring position was something the team came up with accidentally during a few of their missions. It consisted of the Scout taking point, followed by the Commander and the Troopers. The Heavies, spaced out a little to the side, brought up the rear. This allowed all the members in front to slip behind them when needed before closing ranks.

Everything went well, apart from Cara, whose heartbeat went nearly off the scale when they encountered the infirmary. The high glass-stain windows above every empty bunk the depiction of another patient in great pains, mutilated and deformed. Disembodied moans and screams were rolling through the pathway. Occasionally there was a flicker of something in a bed, or a nurse tending to an invisible patient.

Breathing fast and shallow, Cara tried not to look at any of the beds, or at the depictions in the gothic panes.

Eva had her moved more towards the middle, flanked and bordered on all sides by her partners. She knew Cara's problem, a month or two ago a greater Echo in a hospital turned Dungeon took over her mind, forcing her to play in a scene of terrible butchery of hallucinatory patients as if the poor people were merely cattle.

“Just breathe deep Cara, there’s nothing here. Right Franklin?” Eva called out through the comm.-link.

Franklin nodded while his scanning equipment flitted their ranges through the area, probing, measuring and testing for any presence. He was nearly done and about to corroborate on Eva’s statement when every sensor and indicator in his helmet turned red with warning.

“SHIT!” was the only thing he managed to say on such a short notice.

That one statement was enough to rally the entire crew, of course, and with their backs pressed against the doorway through which they entered they took up their combat positions. The display inside their visors switching immediately to make dual use of their own sight, as well as Franklins sensors, but it was unnecessary. The enemy was quite clear within seconds. The doors in the back burst open in splinters, fragmenting the beds nearest to them as a figure directly from the nightmare world strode through.

It was clad in a white doctors coat, at least, it was once white for now it was splattered with blood and other indeterminate bodily fluids. It had no visible feet, instead hovering over the floor a few inches. Wires and machinery burst out through tears in the coat, writhing about it like maddened tentacles of a metal octopus while hands obscured by thick black rubber gloves held various tools expected on the desk of a taxidermist.

A head, if it could be called that, was plastered with a maniacal fanged grin while wiry hair bristled about a pair of dark eye-concealing protective goggles.

It hovered there for a few seconds, looking around at the windows around it and then at the MEC team.

“I.. see.. that.. the.. new.. patients.. have.. arrived..” It finally breathed.

“Full auto!” screamed Eva, trying to get her voice raised over the din suddenly rising in the room.

She didn’t have to say that twice, as everything the Heavies and Troopers had to bear was unloaded into the apparition’s direction within the next two seconds. An electrical whine issued from the creature as it sagged to the floor without much ado.

A heavy silence blanketed the area while the weapons of the MEC team cooled down again, the only noises once again the steady hiss of the respiratory systems inside the member’s masks.

Suddenly, with a grinding noise of breaking bones, the thing righted itself again. Hovering over the floor it managed to wave a finger at them reproachfully and its voice echoed through the infirmary.

“Patients.. Hostile.. can’t.. have.. that…” It seemed to draw a deep breath before screaming out. “ORDERLIES!”

The word echoed through the room, the lights on the heavy chandeliers flickering, twisting shadows and creating the illusion of actual movement in the windows depictions, until they bulged and fell outwards.

There, in front of the ‘doctor’, between it and the team now stood a dozen thin glass figures. Pictures come to life and with jerking movements heading towards the MECs.

Eva quickly flicked the Ether Radio to make contact with HQ.

“HQ, come in,” She started as more weapons rapport reverberated through the high ceiling. “HQ, Do you copy! This is Recon Team One. We need backup! Repeat! SEND BACKUP NOW!”

“This is HQ,” A tinny voice finally replied, “Communications have been received.”

Commander De Vries breathed a small sigh of relief, help would be here soon as long as they managed to hold ground, but the reply continued.

“Test of radio a success. Continue with the mission as planned. Continue Eva, continue AND DIE!”

The last words echoed through Eva’s helmet, painfully assaulting her eardrums when she realized that it wasn’t the earpiece that said those words, instead they seemed to be coming from the walls of the Dungeon themselves.

Eva’s professional attitude melted from the power of her one deep fear, panic settling into her mind as she started to just fire at the glass monsters advancing on her and her people. Wherever a shot entered the things, the area around it shattered into deadly fragments propelling through the area.

A sharp pain shot from between Eva’s shoulders all of a sudden, and while her vision blackened she turned to see what took her from behind. The last thing she saw was Cara’s face, looking at her through a shattered visor with black blood-crying eyes.

Eva was alone, sitting in what appeared to be her own living room.

A few confused glances, followed by a short inspection of her surroundings quickly confirmed that this was her own living room. Her armored suit was gone, replaced by her favorite jeans and shirt. While she was trying to figure out how this could’ve happened, the blinking light of her answering machine drew her attention. She didn’t want to press the message button, in the back of her head something was screaming out for her not to, but with a strange slow movement she reached out and activated the playback.

“This is Academic Hospital, Miss De Vries? I’m afraid we have some bad news.”

Her mind reeled; this can’t be true, not again. She knew the message and she knew what it was about to say. “It seems your parents were involved in a fifteen vehicle pile-up on the A2 highway…”

The rest of the message trailed off while she wailed, she lost her parents five years ago, not ~now~.

She looked about the apartment, her husband, where was he. She needed consolation, someone to be with to break the loneliness. It was then that she heard a noise from the bedroom. Ben, it had to be Ben, the words rushing through her head while she ran towards the door and opened it.

Without a single sound Eva sagged to her knees, retching and crying. On the bed was indeed Ben, but dead, writhing as if he had been for weeks.

While she sat there, knees hugged to her chest, rocking back and forth slowly, a tinny voice emerged from all around her, sparking a memory inside her fragmenting mind.

“They’re all dead Eva… All of them… Your father. Your mother… Ben.. Cara..”

“No..” she replied meekly, sobbing into her jeans.

“Oh but they are.. look Eva.. look at them..”

Visions of her eviscerated team members floated past her, mingling with her parents deathbed and the image of Ben.

“You’re the only one left Eva, all alone. Doomed to die.. all.. alone..”

Eva’s voice went muted when she screamed again, watching as right in front of her eyes her hands aged. Liver spots appearing out of nowhere and her body emaciating under her clothing. Out of despair and pure anxiety Eva turned to the doorpost, grabbing it with both her shaking hands, and forced her skull against it with all the draining strength she could muster.

Blackness, silence, nothing.

Eva’s mind rested in the void surrounding her peacefully until the sound of movement to her left snapped her back to reality. The Dungeon, her team, countless thoughts and jumbled memories flooded her while she opened her eyes and bolted upright only to regret the motion while she sagged back onto her back.

“Careful there, you’re still recovering” a hoarse, whispering voice drifting into her ears.

“Who are you?” She croaked, it didn’t sound like anyone she knew.

“Doesn’t matter who I am,” The unseen figure whispered again, even though it seemed that this was as loud as he, it sounded male, as he would talk, and the words were crystal clear. “Call me Jaunt if you must give me a name.”

Eva brought her hand to her closed eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Where am I? Where’s my team.”

“They’re dead miss, all of them.”

The response stilled her breathing. Forcing her eyes open and her head to turn towards the figure, what she saw nearly caused her to scream out anew. There, leaning over her, tending a wound to her arm was a figure who fitted into the nightmares that spawned the beast that attacked her.

Easily seven feet tall, his features were masked by a myriad of black leather belts with silver gleaming buckles. It even appeared that apart from the sleeveless long coat, all he was clothed in were the belts, arranged about his person. The most disturbing part, however, must’ve been the lopsided leather strip blocking his eyes. Blindfolded, but still he was able to see her looking at him and nodded back at her.

“What are you?” She exclaimed, trying to back off from him, discovering she was placed on one of the beds in the fateful infirmary. With a practiced eye, she kept track of the ‘man’ long enough to see the completely shredded remains of the ‘doctor’ in a crumpled heap. Glass shards dotted the surroundings, but not a single trace of the six others she was with.

“And where is my team?” She demanded with a quavering voice, recalling flashes of the visions she had moments ago.

The buckled figure shook his head solemnly and turned his unseeing gaze on Eva, his coarse voice slotting into her ears like lead slabs. “I am a friend, that is what matters. And your team...” Without saying anything else, he motioned upwards and behind her. Dreading what she was about to see, Eva followed and this time didn’t manage to stay quiet. Crying out her defeat and misery she looked at the new windows replacing the ones they shot, depicting each of her team’s members in a scene of frozen fear and agony.

“You can’t do anything to save them now Eva,” The figure that had introduced itself as Jaunt continued. “You can still save yourself by destroying the Dungeon, it will not let you leave alive otherwise.”

Eva looked at the man, her defeat slowly making place for confusion. “It.. won’t let me leave?”

Jaunt ‘locked’ eyes with Eva. “Listen, how do you think that your precious HQ sent you and your team to check out Dungeons before the public even knew there were Dungeons? How do you think that you’ve been equipped with the ‘right’ gear for the job? Research? Definitely, but not the one you thought.”

His whispering voice unlocking thoughts from Eva she had tried to ignore for so long now.

“Your HQ is doing research, research on how to have places turn into Dungeons when they want to. But they made a mistake on this one, it’s too powerful, it’s sentient.”

Still wrapping her mind around the accusation that Jaunt made, telling her that the people she trusted her life with were nothing more than frauds and now, murderers, her jumbled thoughts were now marred with the last statement.

She slumped back into the bed she was laying on, giving up on understanding by using an old human mental escape mechanism; She just decided to go along with anything.

“Ok,” she finally replied after Jaunt was done “How do I destroy this thing then?”

Jaunt merely pointed at the door the monster had emerged from, “The answer is in there, you’ll have to find a way out of the Sanatorium with what you find there.”

She nodded and slowly got up, only now did she notice that her armor was gone and that somehow, she was dressed like a patient belonging to the ward. When she turned around to question Jaunt about this, she only saw air, he was gone.

“Whether you believe me or not Eva,” A last whisper echoed in her hearing “is all up to you. But beware, the Dungeon is alive.”

Slowly shuffling forwards, she finally reached the doors indicated to her and placed her hands on the latch. She looked behind her, at the windows and a steely resignation set on her face. “I’ll do this for you guys.”

When she opened the doors she was greeted with an unnaturally peaceful view. It was an office. She blinked in the light, rubbing her eyes a moment. A large room with a plush carpet under her bare feet stretched out in front of her. There were pictures of doctors lining the walls, some potted plants and what appeared to be a secretary was typing away at her desk next to a door marked ‘Dr Bergen’.

As she shuffled closer, on guard, the secretary looked up to her and smiled, she tried not to run. Like the doctor before her, this ‘woman’ was covered with blood. Her body seemed fused to the chair she was in, wires and tubing coursing back and forth between the pair. She had no eyes, or eyelids, just smooth skin where they should have been, yet a pair of spectacles perched on her nose. When her mouth opened, she could see rusted iron teeth jutting through continually bleeding gums.

“Can I help you dear?” She asked, and a shiver ran along Eva’s spine again, it was the same tinny voice that replied to her through the radio, the same voice that bled from the walls before she fell, it was the Dungeon itself.

Eva glanced at the door and then looked at the ‘secretary’. She figured she needed to get into the next room, and it looked like the place was toying with her. “I. I was told. to come to Dr Bergen’s office.” She replied in her meekest voice. “To discuss my treatment.”

The secretary made a show of rifling through an index bound with human fingers until she stopped on a page of tanned skin. “I don’t see your name here hon” the tinny voice went again. “Are you sure you have an appointment?”

She shook her head and still not looking up she replied, “I was sent here by the nurse. I’ve been a bad girl.”

The thing behind the desk took delight in hearing this and waved her to the door, “You will need to see the doctor then.” The tinny voice came mockingly.

She nodded and shuffled on while the door opened on its own, praying silently that the thing that was already killed was the Doctor.

When she stepped in she was again greeted with a scene from a horror movie. Machines lined the walls, strange gleaming tools and charts littered the free space. Canopic jars stood on shelves and the desk with eyes floating in an amber liquid, all focused on her. The place was empty, thank god, but she had to act quickly. She was sure that the Dungeon itself was looking at her through the eyes around her.

Deliberately walking very slowly to stretch for time. Eva needed a way to be free from here, for her to escape. And then it hit her, not a way for her to get out, for a patient to get out, she needed a release form.

The moment she realized her escape, the room around her warped and changed, the desk seemingly further away while a hiss from behind her signaled the odd machines coming to life. It knew she knew, and it wasn’t going to let her go.

Taking a running leap she bolted to the desk, landing behind it and clamping on, as it was still ‘moving’ around her. Desperate now, metal tentacles writhing towards her, she knew that if she didn’t manage to save herself here, not even the apparition in the infirmary could save her.

She tore through the papers on the desk, breaking containers and glass jars everywhere, she forced drawers open until she saw it, the item staring at her from within the dark recesses, it was a large rubber stamp with the word ‘Discharged’ on it, lying on an inkpad. Eva frantically grabbed it and wetted it, already feeling the steel wires clasp around her ankles and snaking their way upwards along her legs.

The air outside the sanatorium was already cooling down again in the dusk of the coming night when the door slowly opened and a single, broken figure crawled out. It was wearing the bloodied gown of a hospital patient and muttering incoherently about men wrapped in leather belts and her team turning into windows.

She was found by a man who happened to be taking his dog out for a walk past the abandoned building and spotted the large MEC van standing outside.

Eva de Vries was the sole survivor of a mission still labeled a success by her superiors on account that she managed to destroy the Dungeon. She never heard a single word about the deaths of her team, nor had she mentioned the odd man in her reports. When she questioned her captain about the ‘coincidences’ in discovering new Dungeons of late, however, the company physician happened to come forwards with a devastating report of her mental stability after the last Dungeon run.

Without any ceremony, she was given her discharge from the MEC service, and a social security pay.

She disappeared into obscurity with her husband soon thereafter though; the only thing eyewitnesses could account for was the form of a strange tall and wiry man entering their house the day before they came up missing.