This was supposed to be a simple mission.
Diana's mind kept telling her that like a broken record, over and over again but no matter how many times it played, she simply couldn't comprehend what she was looking at. Martin wouldn't, or maybe he just couldn't wake up. There was blood- oh god, the blood- it was staining his white shirt red and it had started painting the metal floor crimson like some kind of sick canvas. This never happened before, nothing of the sort. There had been close calls but never had something happened like this and Diana could feel tears sting at her eyes as his warm blood began seeping through her fingers as she pressed his shirt to the gaping wound in his left side. It had just happened so fast-
"Will you hurry up Martin?" Diana shouted.
Shouted. She was always shouting at him. Why? He really didn't deserve it.
She watched her step brother narrowly dodge another slash of claws from the giant mole from the computer monitor.
Safe in a computer room above the large lab while Martin ran for his life. Typical.
The mole gave an unintelligent snort, its beady red eyes following Martins as he ducked behind a metal pillar next to the giant, though now open tank. It hadn't been four minutes ago when the wacko scientist they'd come here to retrieve had released this brute of a monster.
Where was he now? The whole purpose of coming was to apprehend him and yet…
He'd been experimenting with animals, illegally and this was the outcome. It had become a case given to the Center when bear sized cockroaches spewing acid were found terrorizing a summer camp.
No one was hurt. Until now and it simply had to be her brother. The one who was always helping people without expecting much but recognition back. She didn't even give him that.
"Just lure it back into the tank and I'll just close the lid!" She ordered again.
Martin knew what to do, she knew that. He wasn't as stupid as he pretended he was and she knew that but if he wanted to pretend, she'd play along. If Java hadn't gone off for a culinary course, they'd have that mole under lock and key by now but he obviously wasn't here, so it was up to Martin.
He rolled from the pillar and made a mad dash for the tank. He ducked under some steamy green spit the mole spewed that began melting the floor and paused in the large tank as the mole came after him, gnashing its teeth and sending more acidic saliva flying.
It was a miracle that the spit didn't get him, really. She almost wish it had, it would've been better than this. Anything was better than this.
The second the mole stepped into the tank, Diana waited only a second for Martin to get himself out before she hit the button.
I didn't even realize what I did until-
The glass came in strips, one following the other in a row and the first one was right in Martins way. He parried to the side, and the mole's claws hit the glass with a deafening ringing noise.
That was what did it.
Even from the small lab, the should see Martin looked dazed from the noise, just as a soldier would after a grenade went off, the noise messed with his senses. That three seconds he took to regain his wits, the mole hadn't wasted a single one.
Diana covered her mouth as a gut wrenching sob ripped out of her. She clenched her eyes shut as the memory flickered through her mind, trying in vain to shut it out.
The claw flew through the air. She screamed his name through the communicator but there was nothing he could do now. The car sized claw hit him, even as he tried to move out if its path, it still clipped him enough to send him skipping across the steel floor. It was a wonder that he was actually knocked through the last opening of the glass before it shut behind him. Diana couldn't stop screaming into her hands. She had seen it; she saw the blood that went flying as the mole hit him. It was splattered on the inside of the glass. He rolled twice then lay flat on his back, arms at his sides and he wasn't getting up, only two metres from the giant rodent that was banging on the glass in fury. She stared in disbelief at the computer for all of two seconds before she took off down the spiral stair case and sprinted to Martin, all the while gasping in air in an attempt to keep herself from breaking right there. She collapsed at his side and a cry of terror tore painfully from her at the sight.
She was all out sobbing now. She couldn't think straight as she hid her face in Martins chest. She couldn't feel his heat beat. She couldn't feel him breathing. She couldn't feel anything but the icy cold terror that turned her limbs numb and made her lungs strain to function. It hurts.
His shirt was torn and she could see the bloody mess that ripped through the side of his stomach. Blood was pooling around him. Actually pooling, she thought that only happened on TV but here her brother was, his blood draining from him as she trembled like a frightened kitten. She raised her hands slowly but she snapped forwards desperately pulling his over-shirt off of him and pressing it to the wound, feeling her stomach turn and her throat seize up.
"Martin?" She asked quietly. She peered at him with large, watery green eyes and tucked a stray strand of her auburn hair behind an ear. Don't cry. Don't cry.
He didn't answer her. Did she really expect him to? His always energetic brown eyes were closed. They weren't clenched in any form of pain; he looked like he was sleeping. That scared her. She shook his shoulder lightly.
"Wake up!" She pleaded. She felt her lower lip quiver as he gave no signs of even being aware of her. What should she do? What should she do! It was usually Martin who saved her. She looked down at his U-Watch. It was broken, the glass cracked and the normally green light was black. She didn't know what to do.
She started panicking.
"Oh god, Martin please wake up!" She begged shaking him. She could feel him bleeding through the shirt. She felt like she was going to be sick. She was shaking as she pushed the rare strands of sunny blond hair from his forehead. Her chest was heaving and the hand pressing Martins characteristic red and yellow shirt clenched until her knuckles were pure white. She put her free hand to the side of his face. Somehow the light warmth of his face calmed her enough to bring her down from hyperventilating. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn't dead, that his blood was still flowing because of a still beating heart. She forced herself not to think of what she'd do if he suddenly went cold.
Martin is always the one doing the saving. For him to need to be saved is just unthinkable but the one time he needed to be I… I just. Diana pressed her forehead into his chest and cried. She never thought she would cry over him for any reason but now, she couldn't think of anything else to do but wait for someone to come. It wasn't long; it couldn't be more than two minutes before she heard MOM's heeled footsteps.
"Diana?" She called and Diana heard her gasp from the entrance to the lab. "Martin!" her calm footsteps turned to frantic running and Diana couldn't bring herself to look up from her brother's now tear-stained shirt to meet MOM's frantic teal eyes. "What happened?" She demanded. Diana felt more tears spill over her cheeks. She never heard mom sound so frantic before. Diana just shook her head. She couldn't answer, if she had to tell about what had happened, she wouldn't be able to handle it. MOM didn't press it; she was ordering paramedics from the Center to be dispatched. Immediately. Diana pulled herself from Martins chest, her grip on his fiery short slipping and the bloody cloth fell to the steel floor. She was shaking so bad she didn't think it was possible, part of her thought she might be having a seizure of some sort but she honestly couldn't care less. She could be having a heart attack but there was no way she was leaving Martins side. She took his limp, but warm hand in her own small trembling one and squeezed it. She couldn't bring herself to feel an embarrassment for the display of fearful affection.
This was her fault. The realization struck her like an icy sledge hammer and she flinched. A choking noise breaking her silence as her shoulders shook with repressed sobs. Why didn't she give Martin enough time to get out of the tank? She was so stupid! Here she was, Ms. A+ Diana Lombard, locking her brother into a tank with a four story tall mole. If he died, it was her fault. It was her fault. It was her fault!
The paramedics came through a portal that melted from the entrance to the lab from the jungle. She refused to be pushed aside as they worked, no matter how much they pushed her until MOM gently pulled her away, her grip on her brothers hand slacking and his arm fell back to his side. She sat on the floor shaking like a leaf, blinking through the guilty tears as they worked on him. She couldn't be bothered to listen to what they were saying.
They slipped his limp form onto a stretcher, their shouts of dropping BP and requests for O- blood as they examined his Center ID. She stood slowly, MOM helping her to her unsteady feet as she watched the white clad men pull her brothers bloody form through the portal. She looked up at MOM who looked down sorrowfully at her, the furious mole forgotten as Diana finally got her vocal cords to work.
"The last thing I did was yell at him"