Leo was freezing. Not freezing in the sense of "the heater is broken" or even in the sense of "it's below freezing right now", although the second one was technically true. No, Leo was freezing in the sense that the fluids in his body were freezing solid. Icy wind roared around him, and an endless onslaught of horizontal snowflakes battered his exposed skin. He could feel and see his extremities succumb to frostbite as they lost feeling and turned blue. He didn't dare close his eyes or even blink, for he feared that if he did, his eyelids might freeze together forever.
After struggling through the foot deep snow in his ragged hospital gown, he died. His blue face wore a wide eyed expression of pure shock. Some of his fingers were missing, having simply broken off during his brief, painful hike.
A few seconds passed, with his corpse frozen upright. And then it happened. His whole body became coated in a layer of black ash that seemed to materialize from thin air. He instantly felt his sensations come roaring back, and with consciousness came more pain. The protective layer of ash cracked and was blown away by the wind. He struggled forwards a few more inches before freezing to death once more.
xxx
The old man woke with a start to the sound of a series of weak thumps coming from the door. He glared at the digital clock on the bedside table with slitted eyes. 1:37 AM. He growled and threw off the covers before angrily storming out of his room.
Who the hell could that be at this time of night? He grumbled to himself as he snatched a double barreled shotgun from a rack on the wall. Better not be another damn salesman. I have no idea how the hell they keep finding me. He squinted through the peephole with a shrewd look, but saw nothing. I swear if I find some kid hiding in the bushes or a bag of dog poop… alright, here goes. He undid the many locks that adorned the door, grabbed the handle, and flung the door open.
"GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE!" he roared as he brandished the gun. He blinked in surprise as he looked around at the scene he found.
A trail of blood ran from the path of worn grass in the front yard up to the porch. Spent bullet cartridges were strewn around the yard.
On the doorstep was some guy he'd never seen before lying facedown on the welcome mat covered in blood. He wore the uniform of a soldier. In one hand he clutched one of those fancy transforming guns that all the kids these days seemed to be using.
"Please" he gasped, a weak hand grasping for his ankle. He flopped face down again. The old man frowned.
"I really hope no one's going to advertise a cleaning product to me right now" he paused, and looked up. "Nevermind," he sighed with relief "This is much better"
An Alpha Beowulf was crouched right in the middle of the grass between the dense forest and the cabin. It was clearly wounded in several spots. It turned towards him, glowing red eyes filled with malice, black tar foaming from its mouth.
Looks weak already he thought to himself. It probably won't even get close enough to kill me. The beast bent its legs, muscles coiled to leap at him with what strength it had left. The man calmly walked forward as he pushed the butt of the shotgun into his shoulder.
It leapt at him with a guttural roar, black blood trailing from its wounds as its maw, lined with rows of razor sharp teeth opened to chomp down on his head. He planted his feet, and lined up the twin barrels with the beast's mouth.
He pulled the trigger and a blast of lead erupted from the gun, shredding it into pieces. It had faded into nothing before even hitting the ground. He hummed with disappointment before turning around to head back inside, snapping the gun open and tossing the spent shells onto the grass.
That was disappointing he thought. Oh well, back to… right. He looked down at the guy lying in front of his door. He sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. Forgot about that. He briefly considered just letting him bleed out, but the little part of his conscience that remained convinced him to, at the very least keep him alive until morning.
"Alright" he grunted as he grabbed the man by the arms and slowly dragged him into the cabin. He cleaned and bandaged the wounds with a practiced efficiency before tossing him onto a leather couch and throwing a blanket on top. "G'night" he called out, just in case the man could hear him as he trudged back to his room and slammed the door shut.
xxx
The soldier awoke with a start in a cold sweat, clutching his chest where there should have been a huge open wound. Instead he found it wrapped in clean bandages. He reached down and found his pistol at his side and breathed a sigh of relief as he calmed himself. Still wary of his surroundings he slowly extracted himself from the blankets, his fingers gripping the gun with white knuckles. Suddenly, he saw movement from the hallway.
"Oh, you're awake-"
Before he could think, he had whipped the gun around and pulled the trigger, splattering the old man's brains all over the walls. He lowered the smoking barrel and clamped a hand over his mouth in horror before suddenly realizing how bad the whole situation looked.
"I uhhh… I'm sorry!" he said, before turning to run out the door. As he hurriedly undid the suspicious amount of locks on the door, he turned around to look back on the scene and saw the impossible.
The man was getting back up without a trace of a wound marring his forehead.
"That wasn't very polite" he stated quite frankly as he fitted a brown flat cap back over a gray buzzcut. He cringed as the other man let out a high pitched scream of terror.
The old man gently set two mugs of water down on the rough wooden dining table before settling down in a chair across from the uniformed soldier. An uncomfortable silence passed before he clapped his hands together and spoke.
Might as well get the basics out of the way. "Right. My name's Leo. What's yours?" The soldier fidgeted with his weapon before answering.
"Quartz" he muttered. Leo cupped a hand to his ear and leaned in faking an expression of confusion.
"What's that? Speak up kid" he said. "My hearing's not the greatest ya know." He silently groaned at the thought of having to keep up the innocent old man act. The soldier, now known as Quartz, repeated himself, louder this time with a tinge of frustration in his voice.
"I said my name is Quartz" he replied. Leo smiled genially.
"So what brings you to my particular part of the woods Quartz?" he inquired. Quartz rested his elbows on the table, periodically forming patterns with his fingers.
"I'm just a traveller" he stated. Leo's eyes narrowed as his suspicion of this stranger deepened. He's hiding something he thought, as he held a congenial smile. An awkward silence passed. Leo patiently waited as Quartz continued to fidget with his fingers. When someone gives you an incomplete answer, the easiest way to get more info is to wait. Sure enough, after another few seconds of tense silence, Quartz continued.
"Well, I'm a huntsman…." he paused. "I'm with Atlas Special Operatives. I'm here because I found something" Leo folded his arms and leaned in with interest, reddish eyes locking onto gray. Inwardly Quartz debated with himself whether or not he should be telling this to some random stranger. He eventually settled on just spilling to the guy. He's just some old guy in the woods he thought. Even if he does react negatively, what could he possibly do? He took out his scroll and slid it across the table, activating a holographic video as he passed it to Leo.
Leo smirked inwardly. This kid's too easy he thought. Not that I'm complaining though. I've already got a goldmine of information. Quartz continued, oblivious to the scheming thoughts of the old man across from him.
"I was assigned to protecting this place located in the mountains. I don't even know where it is; they flew me out there with a blindfold over my eyes" Leo saw hundreds of video files organized alphabetically from A-Z. He scrolled through the list and picked a random one. The video began to play.
Onscreen was an overhead view of a woman was strapped to a table. On the table to the left to her was what looked like a woman that was identical to her. They could have been twins, but even a casual observer would be able to tell something was wrong. While the woman on the right appeared alert, her sapphire eyes darting from left to right, her skin vibrant and healthy, the woman on the left looked… wrong. Unnatural. Her… no it's eyes were blank and soulless.
Doctors and technicians in white scrubs and face masks bustled around them, adjusting bits of machinery. One of them connected the two with what looked like a bundle of cables and wires. Upon closer examination one could see that there were circular metal plates at strategic positions along the head, neck, shoulders and legs.
The two men watched the video with bated breath, all thoughts of scheming gone as they were sucked into the scene before them.
After a few more seconds of watching the doctors check various gauges and flip switches, it, whatever it was, began. One of the doctors turned to a previously unnoticed shadowy figure in the corner, the lighting preventing the two observers from seeing the figure's face. The figure appeared to nod, and raised a hand, signaling for them to begin.
A few of them tightened the leather straps around the subject's wrists. A doctor turned towards the camera cleared their throat before speaking with a slight tremor in their voice.
"This is test designation P-20. Analyzing the physiological and psychological effects of aura transfer from an individual possessing aura to a genetically identical host without aura. Start." He signaled to a technician standing next a switch near the heads of the subjects. They flipped the switch.
At first, no one panicked, as everything seemed to be going well. A soft glow enveloped the woman as her aura manifested before seemingly being absorbed into the metal plates. They saw the cables connecting the two glow before the plates on the other table glow. A soft yellow light formed around the...person before sinking into the body. A brief, tense silence of anticipation passed before all hell broke loose.
And that ends this chapter. Sorry about the cliffhanger but I felt like this one is long enough as it is.