Demonlust (sub-series of Demonblood saga)

"And this," my dad explained to me, "is where the demon's essence is concentrated into its most raw form, where it can be most easily manipulated. The power, you see, is an unknown force that we, as researchers, devote our everyday lives to discovering its secrets. It is a boundless energy that could replace reliance on foreign fuels forever!"
My entire class looked around in awe at the tall steel ceilings and the old, large pipe systems that ran up the walls. The room was quiet for now, my dad's voice rebounding off the walls as he spoke, and pointing to a large, bubbling container with a single black sphere floating in its midst.
"Students," my dad explained, "is one single ball of energy, and is very dangerous. But it is so powerful, that it could power the entire city of New York! Zoe!" my dad snapped at the girl standing by me. "Don't touch the glass! If you alter the energy's environment it could react violently!"
"You act as if it's alive." she commented, giving him a stern look and putting her hands to her hips, pursing her lips. My dad merely replied with a knowing smile as he allowed us to wander around the lab area.
Zoe held my hand as we walked over to three different colored tubes on the wall. A tiny canal that connected the three of them suddenly filled with a greenish liquid and channeled it into the tubes, and it began to bubble. Then, it shot up the tubes and out of sight into the labyrinth of pipes and chambers that would lead it into the next room and the next step of the process. I looked up as I heard my dad's voice sound from behind me.
"So as you can tell, students, that many chemicals are required to contain this raw power, so the next room in our tour will show you how we properly dispose of the excess demon essence and toxic chemicals used in the process. It is very loud in this room, so before you head through the doors, stop by the counter over there and grab a pair of headphones!" he shouted.
Together we walked over to the counter and each slipped on a pair of the headphones before lining up outside the door.
"Ready?" he prompted us, then typed in a series of numbers into a keypad and scanned his finger, then a siren sounded as the doors creaked apart and began to spread out to allow us passage. The cacophony in the next room sounded like one hundred blenders trying to grind glass, and I was sure we would have gone deaf if it were not for our headphones.
My dad realized that we would not be able to hear him, so he gave us each a computerized screen to look at as he typed his explanation instead of audibly telling us.
Welcome to the last stop on our tour! As you can see to the far end of the room, we have large holding containers that are dumped into the tubes you see situated into the floor. I'm warning you now with all my heart to stay away from those. They are motion activated and will slide open when something or someone comes near.
The holding containers are connected to most of the series of pipes and chambers you saw previously, and let off absolutely no radiation, luckily for us. When they are filled to the brim, they are carried over by one of our service robots and dumped into the huge pipes leading to our disposing system that pumps all waste into the ocean.
Now don't think, students, that we do not care for our fish friends. I rolled my eyes as I read this. The language my dad used made it seem like we were in kindergarten, when we were in fact, graduating this year as the class of 2147. The man embarrassed me.
In fact, he continued, We have a holding chamber that all waste is dumped directly into! There, it is incapable of escaping into the water. Another chemical is added with the toxic and magic waste, that eventually dissolves all traces of waste and purifies into all-natural, refreshing water that is released into the ocean! We have three different chambers so each one has a chance to destroy all toxins before release. All perfectly safe, I assure you! Yeah, sounds perfect.
Then, he turned around and waved us off to explore around, seeing giant pistons grinding on the walls, pulverizing some unknown substance into a fine powder. I looked up at a network of tubes filtering countless different fluids into the disposable holding containers. I tugged Zoe and we wandered over to the transparent holding compartments, seeing the bright colors swirling around, it made it appear almost harmless.
I sighed and sat down, bored out of my mind. How could anyone find this crap interesting? Sure, the demons were overrunning much of America now, but we still had an oil reserve nearby, and it would be at least five years before we needed sweat the slightest worry. That's why I was aiming to join the weapons development crew now, so that we could create the best defense systems before the threat emerged.
The only excitement that occurred was when one of my classmates, Evan, decided to prove his bravery or something ridiculous to his friends because, unbeknownst to my dad's oh-so-watchful eye, he wandered over to the dumping chambers. I sighed, watching him stupidly stand just enough out of its way so that it wouldn't detect his movements. Then, I saw one of his friends creeping up behind him, and I immediately had a hundred different ideas of what he was about to do, but all I could think was that I truly didn't care what he did. I just wasn't going to let him throw Evan to his death.
I ran over to Evan and shoved him out of the way the same time Jason knocked into me, and the last thing I heard before plunging into the dark, cavernous pipeline was the grinding of the lid sealing shut as it pulled me into its depths.
I shivered as I stood in the toxic chemicals, hearing an enormous rushing sound coming from far down the pipeline, surging towards me to send me into the dissolving compartment.
I sat in silence and fell to my knees, the chemicals lapping around me and soaking my clothes, seeping into my skin, which soon began to itch. A stinging sensation soon followed. I took a deep breath; a terrible mistake, as the acrid odors wafted up into my nostrils and causing me to gag.
I was in such total and complete darkness, it unnerved me as the roaring of chemicals and demon essence grew more prominent.
It settled in quickly that this may just be the end of me, and I closed my eyes, accepting my fate as the rush of fluid knocked into me and sent me surging towards the end of the system. The wave had hit me with such unimaginably incredible force that I had gone unconscious for a few seconds, before realizing that I was merely being tossed around my some awesome force that was determined to crush me to death.
Suddenly I was thrust into the open, and for a brief moment it felt as if I was flying...
Until the flow thrust me downward at blinding speeds into the dissolving pool of toxins and demon energy. The initial impact was incredibly painful, and I cried out in agony, accidentally ingesting the burning chemicals, choking as they seared into my throat. I coughed and my eyes flashed open on instinct, and immediately regretted it as my eyes, too, began to experience the same agony.
The increase of waste flow created a terribly powerful eddy that swirled me helplessly around in the fiberglass container. It crushed me against the basalt rocks on the inside of the container, scarring and tearing open my back and shoulder.
I cried out again, feeling the dissolving chemicals trying to deteriorate my skin as well as the burning chemicals around me. I swam up to the surface as the last of the flow ceased and gasped at the air, only to be intoxicated by rancid taste of the chemicals and unsettling aura of the demon energy.
I pounded on the fiber glass, my skin becoming raw and irritated, praying and desperately hoping that it would break before I died helplessly in this chamber filled to the brim with deadly toxins and unnatural power. Suddenly my energy seemed to be sapped out of me as I floated weakly to the service and lay there, feeling the waves toss me around.
As the chemicals seemed to eat away at my body, I lay still on the surface, waiting for my life to just end. The suffering was great, and the affliction in my throat that hampered my breathing made the agony even worse. I didn't want to endure it any longer, but then, another great force of water sucked me downward as the bottom of the tank opened up, releasing its contents.
What? I thought with panic rising inside of me. /The chemicals weren't nearly removed of at all! My dad lied... Or perhaps there was a malfunction? The chemicals swirled around in the water around me, and the sudden rush knocked me towards the wall of rock, and as my head slammed onto the jagged point of the black rock, I was knocked out.