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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 4950583" data-attributes="member: 3285">Time and the Serpent: Part 4 – The MoleIt started out as just a mole.One little fleshy, oddly colored mole on Archive's hip.  Nothing unusual.  Then it got bigger.  The color changed. It shifted from a normal-looking mole to a weird, fleshy protrusion.  A skin tab.  Still, nothing that strange about it.It bothered Archive.  Dressing became an awkward, arduous exercise to avoid irritating the sensitive skin tab.  And it continued to grow.Archive went to a dermatologist and paid to have it removed.  It was a quick outpatient surgery, the dermatologist told him.  And he was right, it was quick.The next day it was back.The second time Archive went to the dermatologist, Majestic-12 agents were waiting for him.  He was obviously under surveillance.They didn't explain who they were or what they were doing there, but he assumed Sprague sent them.  They took him somewhere, a warehouse, and laid him down on a table.  It was for the best, they said.  Archive knew this had to do with the explosion.  With Yog-Sothoth.  The experience had changed him.  He just didn't know how…until the mole showed up.The surgery this time was going to be painful, because the little wiry growth had become more akin to a tentacle.  Sometimes, it wiggled or curled. He had flashbacks to his OUTLOOK stress test, when they cut off his legs, but he was too sedated to care…When he awoke, Archive was tied to a wooden kitchen chair in a dilapidated house. No one else was present. Surrounding him was what appeared to be thousands of feet of cords — cable lines, high voltage lines, cat five cables — all intertwined and woven through the chair, to the chair, and connected to various hand-made boxed filled with humming, spitting and arcing electrical equipment. He was stripped of weapons and equipment and bound to the chair with a copious amount of plastic zip-ties. Archive struggled to get free. A low hum filled the air. Finally, the old light bulb above the stove exploded in a huge shower of blue white sparks, and a huge, high-pitched whining, like an enormous generator filled the air. The noise drowned out all other sounds. Blue, white and red lightning bolts leaped from the boxes, arcing and hitting items in the room. They found an item, struck it once, and then peppered the target with growing numbers of hits until it vanished in an eruption of blue white light, leaving a scorch mark on the floor where it once stood. Archive struggled harder. "Hey!" he shouted.  "HELP!"When all large metal items in the room have been disintegrated, the lightning began striking Archive.  He screamed.BZZT!Archive screamed again. BZZT!Archive's vision was consumed in a blue white flash. He awoke in a strange obsidian room. Though his clothing and hair was scorched, he was otherwise unharmed.  He lay amidst random lightning-kissed ruined kitchen appliances. The wooden chair Archive was secured in was lighter, as if it were sapped of all water. He easily broke out of the chair.  It collapsed into chunks of brittle wood and ash. His equipment and clothing lay carefully folded on the ground.  Archive got dressed. That's when Hammer and Jim-Bean skidded to a halt as they entered to the room.  "What the hell are you doing here?" asked Jim-Bean."Long story," said Archive."Did you see a serpent man come through here?" asked Hammer."Uh, no.  Why?" "Long story," said Hammer. "Let's go."As the other two moved away, Archive checked his hip.  The weird tentacle was gone. He smiled to himself and followed after them.</blockquote>

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