Secret Lab

> «**Oh**, your problem's getting fixed alright! The army is preparing everything to **blow** this whole place up to cover this *whole thing up*! and as for *you*... *I'm gonna give you a taste of your own medicine!*» Vinnie before killing the German Scientist
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The **Secret Lab** was a classified government facility, appearing as a central location in the *Guns, Gore & Cannoli* series.

Build beneath the city of Thugtown, the lab's sole purpose was to create a poison covertly adulterate the ingredients used to brew alcohol to counteract the bootlegging operations by organized crime, to enforce the Prohibition Act. Due to its inherent effect of turning the consumer into a freakish flesh-eating walking corpse, better known as zombies, the production was immediately halted after test runs revealed properties. Thanks to the venality of its creator, the Zombie poison has since become the signature armament of a villainous crook, who first uses it to exact revenge on his former employers, then to get rich and finally to gain power and force his rule unto the world. One brave and tough mobster, however, aims to put a stop to his wrongdoings, if for the wrong reasons.

## Background

The Federal Bureau of Prohibition secretly had the construction of the laboratory contracted, right underneath Thugtown, a known criminal stronghold, hiding it next to the metro system tracks. Behind the large metal door is a massive hangar, filled with large vats, strange machinery, large pipes for exhaustion, hanging metal catwalks, huge air turbines, barrel containers with an automatic drop function and Tesla-inspired technology, including a lonesome experimental Tesla cannon and electric barriers, though the latter are prone to switching on and off irregularly. When Vinnie stumbles across it, it also contains hundreds of stacked barrels containing the poison, marked with a skull and crossbones. The vats are now filled with a green liquid and the pipes now emit green poisonous gas, hot steam and lit gas.

The government hired a scientist to create a chemical solution to be used to disrupt the alcohol trade by poisoning the supplies used in distilling, irreparably damaging the public's opinion on moonshining, whiskey-peddling gangs, as well as the safety of drinking alcohol. He received a lot of funding from the Bureau, which the scientist used to create a lethal compound. His superiors were initially thrilled by his results, but when he showed them the additional effects of the excessively "extravagant" chemical during test trials on human subjects. They quickly pulled out of the project, taking with them the finances they had invested, further mudding the reputation of the now-disgraced researcher. In an act of desperation, when a stranger named Frankie approached him and offered him a large sum of money for more of the poison, he went to work and produced gallons more of the toxin. When he eventually found out the truth, Frankie threatened him into continuing working for him. When he had enough poison (more than that, in fact) to taint the local breweries, he locked the scientist away in his lab, leaving him trapped with numerous zombies and the Army on his tail.

## Guns, Gore & Cannoli

Vinnie finds the lab by pure chance, after fighting his way through the sewers and the reservoirs. He then found a derailed metro train and marching through it, he found the city's subway tunnels. There he was suddenly fired upon by US soldiers in trucks full of dynamite and explosive barrels, having apparently caught the, by surprise in the act while they were attempting to collapse the tunnel and the door leading to the lab. When he opens the metal vault door, he catches sight of a man dressed in a lab coat, standing above on a metal catwalk, who promptly runs off, yelling for him to leave him alone. He chases the scientist, who activates multiple machines to slow him down, while he also attempts to dodge the dangerous vapors emitted from the pipes he is moving on. After a tireless chase, Vinnie finally caught up to the scientist, having cornered him in a dead end. He intimidates the scientist into giving him all his information on both the government's and Frankie's involvement, before Vinnie murders him for his own role in the destruction of Thugtown by drowning him in one of the vats.

## Guns, Gore & Cannoli 2

The lab, or at least the part seen in the first game, was apparently flooded, likely by the nearby sewers and is now occupied by the Dark Don Gang and their Nazi compatriots, who seem to have restarted the production of Zombie poison. They also appear to have build more tunnels, both cemented areas and dirt caverns. The flooded lab is now used as a port of sorts, where the Nazis dock their U-Boats when they arrive to transport the poison to Germany. Both parties are later either decimated or driven out by Vinnie when he returns in search of the Dark Don.

## Trivia

* During the U-Boat level, the skeleton of Mickey, the rat Vinnie had slain in the first game can be seen in the background, having apparently been washed into the Secret Lab. Further up the pier, a set of vats, also from the first game, need to be climbed over. Some of them are empty, but one still contains the dead body of the German scientist Vinnie killed, now also a skeleton.