The lift doors hissed open with a soft pneumatic sigh.
What greeted them wasn't what anyone had expected.
A massive underground facility stretched out before their eyes, easily the size of a sports stadium. The walls were sleek, made of reinforced alloy and reinforced glass, lined with humming consoles and glowing panels. Strange equipment buzzed and beeped in every direction, with suspended tanks filled with swirling fluids and half-formed constructs. Mechanical arms hung from the ceiling like silent sentinels, twitching occasionally as if ready to work on something... or someone.
There were screens displaying genetic models, mutant energy readings, molecular simulations, and even simulations of viruses and cures battling it out in real time. The air smelled faintly of antiseptic, metal... and something that resembled pet shampoo?
Because crawling everywhere - and that wasn't an exaggeration - were animals.
