X-File Eve
Chapter 4
An X-Files/Parasite Eve 2 crossover fanfic
By: M.H. Torringjan
Okay, I'm finally getting back on this one. Hopefully, I can take it
somewhere in a few parts and see about making this genuinely interesting. ;-)
Okay, first thing's first. I don't own Parasite Eve 2. Squaresoft and Sony
Entertainment of America do. I don't own X-Files. Fox Entertainment and Chris
Carter do. I made a few minor characters, but not many of them will show up for
the rest of the series. They were just the proverbial red-shirts, and I may
bring back one or two of 'em for flavor. For now, though, it's just Aya,
Scully, and Doggett. This part's going to be a bit longer than the other ones,
but stick with me... Now, if there's nothing else...
November 25, 2001
Harden Facility, West Wing
Harden, Florida, 1:43 a.m.
A stray line of programming code flashed across the screen of a computer
monitor deep in the bowels of the ANMC facility.
Replication program running
A semi-human hand ran its fingers across the keyboard and typed in the
word, "Lock command." As the system registered the command, the remains of the
humanity left the ANMC and it slammed its claws through the keys and circuit
boards, destroying the keyboard.
In the background, the sounds of machinery cranked up and slowly began
churning about, the products of years of work moving along its path towards the
final goal, the infection of America, no, humanity with the Neo-Mitochondria DNA
via vector virus. A mammoth form in the central shaft of the plant stirred
inside its thick, slimy cocoon and began to gain consciousness as the movement
around it disturbed its hibernation ever so slightly. In the control room, the
ANMC screamed, sensing the power contained within this soon-to-be-awake ally.
As the primal battle call rang across the development chamber, energy flooded
the spaces, lighting the living material of the ANMC and burning it to a crisp.
The smoke floated up to the ventilation system and into the stale swamp air
outside.
A hallway away, Scully and Doggett heard the commotion in the development
chamber and shuddered. They had already had to take care of two rooms, one of
them containing Golem soldiers, and had already needed to use some of the
smaller med packs that they had been allotted. Making a trip back to the supply
closet to re-supply, they had met more Scavengers. Scully felt a slight
tingling on her skin.
"Feel that, Scully?" Doggett asked.
"Yeah, I was kind of hoping it was just me," Scully replied. "What do you
think it was?"
"I'm guessing it's whatever's behind that door," Doggett replied. "I
don't think I want to meet it."
"We won't have to worry about it yet. The door's locked," Scully said.
Another bestial scream came from behind the door.
"Good thing. We'll tell Agent Brea about it later," Doggett said. "For
the time, we've got some more information to find. We don't want this to remain
an X-File."
"Good point," Scully said. "So, where do we go next?" A pair of doors
stood along the hallway halfway between them and the door to the development
chamber.
"Why don't we try left?" Doggett suggested.
"As good a suggestion as any," Scully replied. She opened the door
carefully and stepped cautiously into the room, surveying any possible threats
to them. She couldn't see anything inside besides some over-turned furniture
and leftover slime. Doggett moved to watch her back and follow her inside.
The walls of the room were covered with technical posters, demonstrating
lines of genetic code, designs for various bits of complex machinery, and
sketches of some of the creatures that they had seen up to that point.
Disturbing about the whole thing was that they hadn't seen some of the sketches
in real life. In the corner of the room, a pile of bloody flesh festered away;
it had signs that it had been there for a while, maybe as much as a week. There
was an assault rifle on the floor nearby, and some empty shells surrounding it.
The light on the ceiling swung back and forth, flickering uneasily from being
knocked loose.
"What is this place?" Scully asked rhetorically.
"I don't know, but it might be important," Doggett said. He knelt down to
examine the pile of materials that had been spilled to the floor during the
apparent attack. Most of the papers had been soaked with blood beyond Doggett's
ability to make out the text. "I doubt this'll tell us."
"How about the computer?" Scully asked, gesturing to the gray and blue
iMac monitor that looked like it was in one piece. Doggett turned the monitor
upright and wires came spilling out of the open back of the machine.
"Nothing doing," Doggett replied. Behind Scully, a ripple appeared in
mid-air. "Duck!" Doggett exclaimed, swinging his gun around towards the shape.
Scully jumped out of the way, swinging her gun around as Doggett pumped a volley
of shots. The shots found their marks, disrupting the Stalker's camouflage and
knocking it to the ground. A few more well-placed shots left it melting on the
ground and left Scully fairly shaken.
"Good shot," was her best response for the time.
"Should we go find Brea?" Doggett asked. "Maybe she can make some more
sense out of this than we can."
"That might be a good idea," Scully replied. The two walked back out into
the hallway to head back where they came from. In the hallway, a Greater
Stalker was waiting for them. It jumped into action, quickly pouncing at the
two agents, who were caught off-guard. It caught Scully in its grip and threw
her to the ground beneath it, its body looming over her. As it drew up its
clawed arm to drive into her body, Doggett took a shot into its side and Scully
rolled out from beneath it. She took aim and began firing upwards into where
its head should be.
The creature jumped away from the shots with an unforeseen speed and
disappeared before the agents could get a new bearing. As an automatic
reaction, Doggett and Scully moved so that they faced back to back for better
defense. The two of them watched the space around them to try and find the
Stalker before it could attack them. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed to the
ground as it materialized on the ceiling to their side and took a swipe at them.
The force of the blow threw Scully to the ground and Doggett into the wall
behind them. Scully aimed her gun quickly before the creature could disappear
again and fired away. The shock from the shots interrupted its action and left
it completely defenseless for a split second. That was just long enough for
Scully to continue her series and fire until her clip was empty.
The creature was staggering around the floor, wounded to almost the point
of death. Scully quickly reloaded and finished it off with a couple of shots to
the head. She'd just consider it a mercy killing at that point.
Doggett groaned painfully from where he was sprawled out on the ground.
Scully moved to help him into a sitting position and pulled out a med pack for
him. A small trickle of blood ran down his face from a cut on his forehead.
"Ouch," Doggett groaned.
"You'll be all right," Scully said, handing him the med-pack.
"Well, I should hope so. Was that all he had?" Doggett replied as he
brought the med pack up to his mouth. As the substance traveled down his
throat, he felt a cool feeling rush through his body and the pain in his
forehead ceased. "This stuff really works!" he exclaimed at Scully.
"We should try to get some for our other cases," Scully said. "It'd make
the medic teams' jobs a lot easier, if nothing else."
Doggett stood up on slightly shaky legs and walked back in the way they
had come, followed by Scully. Behind the door from where they had come, a pair
of green-suited golems were sentries, pacing back and forth. The two agents
took aim and fired away at the closest one, the one with the glowing blade
attached to its arm. It reeled back a moment before regaining its balance and
rushing at them. The frantic shots were the only thing slowing down the
lumbering form of the android attacker.
In the commotion, the other golem, the one with the grenade launcher,
aimed its laser sight at Doggett. Doggett noticed that and jumped to the right
as the grenades took flight. The golem's aim followed its target. Doggett
looked up and found the blade golem looming over him, about to bring its blade
down. Before the slash could come, a series of shocks rocked the golem, smoke
rising from its back. Doggett scrambled to move from underneath the falling
golem. There were large gaping wounds in its back.
"What happened, Scully?" Doggett asked, keeping his eyes on the grenade
golem.
"It kept shooting at you, even with the other one in the way," Scully
said.
"Not too bright, is it?" Doggett asked. "Divide and conquer, Scully."
She obliged him easily, running to the far side of the golem from him and taking
aim at its back. She held down the trigger of the M93R, firing short bursts
into its vital systems. One bullet caught the battery linkup to its head and
turned its systems off much quicker than a body shot would have. The two of
them opened the door to continue their search for Aya. Frankly, they hoped that
she hadn't gotten very far, either.
Aya poked her gun around the corner of a long hallway. When she ducked
around herself, she was met by a Fatty ANMC and a trio of blue amoebas.
Reacting habitually, she cast a quick combustion spell and melted the amoebas
easily. The fatty was blown onto its back by the force of the energy and
immediately began struggling to right itself. Aya took a shot with the Mongoose
to send it back onto its back for good. She walked through the door at the end
of the hallway, leaving the items that the NMC's had held, perhaps to retrieve
them later. Inside the room was a laboratory set up with large tanks of water.
She could make out dark shapes swimming around the tanks, presumably Divers.
As she looked in the tank, trying to discern what was contained therein,
one of the dark shapes rushed forward and bashed into the glass separating them.
The glass appeared pretty thick from Aya's view. She doubted that whatever was
in there could break it.
Nearby, there was an undisturbed desk surface with a computer on it. She
took a seat and began booting it up. That would most probably be the place to
find anything of interest about the facility. When the desktop display came up,
a password box flashed into place across the screen. Aya froze. She didn't
know the password for this facility's system. Made her wish that she had
someone as resourceful as Kyle around for information.
Beside the computer, Aya saw a pile of papers. She began hopefully
shifting through the papers to try and find a clue as to the code to use to get
in to the mainframe. All she could find was a series of measurements from
experiments done on ANMC's, along with security reports about the town of
Harden.
"They wouldn't be stupid enough to use the same password twice, would
they?" Aya said half to herself. She typed on the keyboard, "Melissamaya" and
clicked on the enter button. The clicking sound of computation filled the room
as the system processed the password. When the screen did something, it was not
exactly what Aya had expected it to say.
"Password rejected. Fatal Error: Cloud protection program running."
"Well, how about that?" she exclaimed. "Guess the same person sent it to
all the facilities." She tried typing in the converted password into the
computer, "A3EILM2S2Y." A moment later, the screen changed to show a list of
choices for Aya to get information. She chose the first category, "Security
status," and waited for it to load up. A list of security statuses began to run
down the screen. Machine gun turrets were active in much of the compound, the
Golems were running (as though she needed to be told that), ANMC's were detected
in most of the compound, and Kyle Madigan was not inside the compound, or
anywhere near it.
Hold it. That just mentioned Kyle. Aya scrolled back up and tried to
enter the edit mode. Another security clearance box appeared on the screen
requesting a second password. They wouldn't use the same password a third time,
Aya said to herself. They may be mad, but they're not total idiots. She sat at
the desk, scanning the papers that were scattered around again to get some idea
of anything she could try. At the bottom of the pile, there was a small piece
of paper that had a list of phrases on it. She typed the first line on the
sheet into the system, "ProjectEvo." After she pressed the enter key, she
realized why she would be turned down. She had forgotten to translate the
password.
After appropriately translating the password, she pressed the enter key
again and was turned down flat again. She looked down at the sheet of paper and
decided to try a different phrase. Maybe the password was related to the
section it allowed entry to. The fourth word on the list was "LockdownPatrol."
Aya rearranged the letters appropriately and entered it, gaining access this
time.
Her first step was to disable the machine gun turrets, which she achieved
easily enough. The computer that she was at couldn't access the main controls
for the Golems, which was housed in a remote location. She looked next at the
Golems' identity recognition program and removed Kyle's identity from the
program. Maybe then, she could convince Kyle to lend her an assist. If she
could get ahold of him, at least. There were some locks on doors around the
compound that seemed to lead to important places, judging by the number of
machine gun turrets and locks on it. She released those locks to gain access.
They might be better off going there eventually.
The next task was to determine the purpose of this facility. She accessed
the mission statement page and scrolled through the text quickly. Most of what
she saw was the same as the Dryfield facility; they were researching the
behaviors of different ANMC's and how to produce the different kinds for
consumer use. Of course, she suspected that there was some sort of system that
would spread the virus to the general populace. Beneath everything, there was a
file listing simply titled, "Azra." Aya tried accessing it, but the file itself
had been deleted, only leaving the listing. She could only wonder what this
Azra thing was, and whether it was dangerous.
A slight tingle ran across her skin as she logged out of the computer. As
she turned around, she saw a trio of Divers staring at her through the glass of
the tank. As quickly as she could react, the Divers had charged the glass
together and crashed through it. Shards of glass flew in every direction as the
large creatures slid over the floor towards Aya, their jaws working at a frenzy.
Two of them latched on to her ankles and knocked her feet out from underneath
her. The third flopped across the floor to try and finish the job. Aya aimed
quickly at that one and fired a shot into the middle of its forehead, dropping
it for good.
The other two kept pulling at her legs keeping her from getting up. To
keep from shooting herself, she called her mitochondria to cast a wave of
combustion across the two attackers. They burst into flames and recoiled their
heads instinctively, releasing Aya. She cleared her legs from the line of fire
and opened fire, silencing both of them. Her legs began healing almost
immediately, and the pain faded quickly. Those Divers were acting in groups, as
though they were being controlled. Usually, they would only work alone. So, it
seemed that someone had it out for her again.
There was a phone on the desk that seemed to still be working. Aya dialed
the number for the central office. She needed to tell the others about this.
Rupert picked up the phone. "Aya, what's up?"
"Rupert, I think we may have some problems here," Aya said.
"What else is new? What's the problem?"
"It seems like the ANMC's are being controlled by someone or something. I
was just attacked by a group of Divers," Aya replied.
"Doesn't surprise me one bit," Rupert said. "Have you found any humans
who can say what's been going on?"
"No humans yet," Aya said. "And I doubt we will find anyone."
"And how are the Agents working out?" Rupert asked lightly. Aya imagined
he would have been grinning.
"I suppose you think you're funny," Aya replied. "I haven't heard from
them for a while. We split up so that they weren't at risk from my powers."
"Good idea."
"How about that backup?" Aya asked.
"This stuff takes time, Aya," Rupert replied. "I'll get them there ASAP."
"Thanks. And if you happen to see Kyle, tell him that I've taken care of
the security program that targeted him, and he should be safe if he wants to
drop by," Aya said. Aya promised another call once she learned more and hung up
quickly.
"Another call? You're going to run them up quite a tab, you know," said
Doggett from the door of the room. Scully was right behind him, her weapon at
the ready.
"Ah, I think it's on the taxpayer's dime," Aya replied. "What's up?"
"We hit a dead end the other way and dropped some critters on the way
back," Doggett said.
"Well, I just opened up some doors down that way," Aya said. "We can go
down there and check it out."
"And what happened to this, 'I'll work on my own' act all of a sudden?"
Doggett asked.
"I just won't use my powers," Aya replied coolly. "And if I need to, I'll
say so so that you can get out of there. Besides, according to that computer
over there, there're some nasty buggers ahead."
"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence," Doggett said sarcastically.
"It'd be a lot easier if you weren't here, but you're going to insist on
'helping out,' I'm guessing. Since there's only one place to go, we're all
going there," Aya said. "Good luck."
"You too, I guess," Scully said, feeling slightly nervous. She had dealt
with flesh-eating creatures, deadly viruses, government conspiracies, and
mutated humans, but never all at once. She wondered if Kirsch would give her
some vacation time after this...
The three of them trekked back through the facility to the doors and the
newly accessible elevator. They got on and went to the second level. When the
door opened, the lights in the room were off. Aya's mitochondria didn't seem to
be reacting, so she assumed them to be safe for the moment. There was a halfway
opened door to their left. A fluorescent bulb inside flickered ominously,
making Scully grip her weapon tighter. Aya pushed the door open cautiously and
glanced around to check what was inside the room. What she saw was rather
unexpected to her. A set of rows of cubicles lined the room. Well, sprawled
around the room was a better description. The disorder in that room would
probably drive their occupants insane had they not probably already been dead or
ANMC's.
"Let's leave that room alone," Doggett said. "Desk jobs make me nervous."
"Ditto there," Aya said. They continued into the next corridor, which was
oddly empty. Aya's mitochondria seemed to be reacting slightly, though. As
though they felt nervous. She drew her weapon as the door slid shut behind
them. There didn't seem to be anything around them, but that didn't mean
anything. "Stay behind me a minute," she told Doggett and Scully as she powered
up a combustion blast. The flame traveled down the hallway, and Aya grinned as
it traveled across the bodies of two Stalkers who had been camouflaged in front
of them. She took aim and finished them off with her Mongoose. As the shots
landed in the Stalkers, dropping them to the ground, a wave of energy passed
through the room, setting off Aya's senses. The walls around them began to stir
noticeably and shades of orange and black phased in and out of sight.
"This won't be good," Scully said, eyeing the walls.
"You two get out of here!" Aya yelled. The phasing stopped abruptly with
a mat of Stalkers covering the walls around them. Scully pulled at the door as
hard as she could, with no results.
"It's locked!" Scully said.
"Someone must have remotely activated it!" Aya exclaimed. The Stalkers
began dropping to the floor from the ceiling and the walls, and Aya opened fire.
The advancing wave was too much for her to completely deplete, though. She
began to give ground as they advanced. Seeing a spot of clear ground behind
them, she jumped as far as she could to draw their attention. She didn't quite
make it, landing on the back of one Stalker. A sickening cracking sound floated
through the air as its spine broke. She aimed down and finished it off. "Well,
what are you two waiting for? Open fire!"
"We might hit you!" Scully objected.
"It doesn't matter, as long as you don't kill me," Aya said. "We've got
them in a pincer here! Take advantage of it!" Doggett didn't need to be told
twice as he began firing on the confused Stalkers. After a few of them had
fallen, the rest of the group got the idea and phased out quickly. Aya shot as
many as she could before they disappeared. About ten of them were still alive
and crawling around on the ceiling and walls, as evidenced by the lack of
footprints in the thin layer of slime that coated the floor.
"What do we do now?" Doggett asked.
"Sorry, guys, but this may hurt," Aya said. She cast another shot of
combustion down the hallway. Scully and Doggett felt a wave of heat pass over
their skin, and they burst into flames. Fortunately, so did the remaining
Stalkers that had gathered around to surprise Doggett and Scully. Aya quickly
tried using her healing powers on the two ailing agents. She had been
practicing some new powers for a while now, and healing others was one of them.
She was getting fairly good at it, but it still wasn't anywhere near as
effective as using it on herself. The flames extinguished from Scully and
Doggett, who had fallen to the ground in pain.
"The hell were you doing?!" Doggett exclaimed from his place on the
ground.
"Turn around and kill those things!" Aya yelled. Doggett gathered his
presence of mind, aimed and shot the five Stalkers that had fallen to the
ground.
"There're still some somewhere else," Aya said. "Agent Scully, you all
right?"
"I'll be okay in a few minutes," Scully replied.
"Now you see why I wanted you to leave?" Aya asked.
"I've had worse," Doggett replied.
"And you'll probably get worse if you stay. Will you leave yet?" Aya
pleaded.
"I'm staying around. It seems to be safer with you than it is upstairs,"
Scully said.
"You may be right. Then again, you may not. It feels like there's
something nearby big. They wouldn't throw so many at us if there wasn't," Aya
said.
"Whatever there is out there, we need to worry about what's in here, and
how to get out after we beat that," Doggett said.
"Good point," Aya said. She whirled around as she heard something fall to
the ground behind her. The Stalker was running towards her dead on, a tactical
mistake on its part. Wait- did the walls just move? Aya said to herself. She
jumped back and fired three shots, one at each wall beside her and one at the
one that was running at her. Three bodies fell to the ground. The first had
been a decoy for the other two to get her. Now, there were only two left. Aya
calmly threw a shot of plasma down the hallway to smoke them out. Both of them
phased in and ran at her at a blinding speed.
She got one before it could reach her, but the second one threw its body
through the air towards her and latched onto her shoulder. It quickly made its
way up to sink its teeth into her skull, trying to get a chunk of her brain.
Aya blindly slapped at it, not doing much. As she felt the teeth scrape along
her cranium, she began to panic and flailed helplessly. She couldn't use her
gun, because she couldn't be sure of her aim. Cool usually comes difficultly in
such a situation, but Aya found enough of it to grab ahold of the creature's
body and tear it from her back and throw it to the ground at her feet with as
much force as she could muster. She took her gun and fired, silencing the final
creature.
"Are you all right, Agent Brea?" Scully asked from her resting place.
"Sure, just give me a minute," Aya replied. Another cool wave swept over
her body as she healed the cuts she had received. "Those Stalkers were either
very, very smart for their species, or they were controlled by a very skilled
little girl."
"Controlled by a girl?" Scully asked.
"Yeah, these people clone people like me to control their creations.
Otherwise, they would over-run the compound like they have done. Last time, the
child was actually the one who had instigated the revolt. We retrieved her, and
she lives with me now," Aya explained.
"You've got another super-powered child living with you?!" Doggett
exclaimed. "How many of you are there in the world?!"
"Good question. One of my friends who specializes in this stuff says
there are approximately one hundred in the US. Thy don't know about their
powers, though, because most of them have no stimulus to awaken the powers. The
government skips the step of finding them and uses my cells, taken without my
knowledge, by the way, to produce their own."
"Scully, is it starting to feel to you like we should have stayed home on
this one?" Doggett said.
"But don't worry about them causing this much trouble," Aya said. "We try
to reach them, teach them and treat them."
"Good," Scully said. "That's how it should be." A click behind them
signaled that the door had become unlocked, and Aya felt a slight wave of heat
pass across her skin. It was as though some mitochondria in the same room had
begun to act up. But anything in the room would have attacked with the rest of
the Stalkers, Aya said to herself. Could I be sensing it from the next room
over? And if that, then maybe from a few rooms over?!
"Does it feel hot in here to you two?" Aya asked.
"I thought that was just you," Doggett replied.
"No, I stopped using my power a few minutes ago," Aya replied. "We're
coming up on something big. You two should stay here." As she spoke, the door
opened and a young human boy, looking about ten years old, walked in. He was
wearing a black suit with red stripes down the seams. Aya turned with her gun
at the ready towards the boy. "Who are you?"
"Now, now, mother, that's no way to treat your son," the boy said.
"So, you're the one who's controlling the ANMC's," Aya said. "Sorry, but
I was kind of expecting a girl."
"I'm not surprised, since that's all you've had experience with," the boy
said. "The experiment, though, was more thorough than that. The doctors wanted
to see what would happen if the controller was a boy, as well as a girl."
"So, you're Eve's brother?" Aya asked.
"In a way, yes," the boy said. "I am Azra."
"So, why aren't they using you like they did Eve?" Aya asked. Scully and
Doggett were dumbstruck by the exchange that was happening before their eyes.
"They tried to," Azra said.
"How did you avoid it?" Aya asked.
"Their techniques were too weak to work on me," Azra replied.
"Well, we're here to take you away from here," Aya said.
"No, I don't think that I'm going anywhere," Azra said.
"This place is dangerous! There're ANMC's swarming the place!" Aya
exclaimed, putting away her gun. "There're probably going to be government
agents coming at any time to retake this place!"
"They already tried. Twice," Azra said.
"What happened to them?" Aya asked.
"The creatures killed them," Azra replied. "I'd suspect that they sent
MIST here to try and do their dirty work again. You'd think they'd have learned
that it doesn't work out after the first time."
"Well, we both know I'm different from most agents," Aya said. "And they
didn't exactly call me out here. They tried it with the Atlanta branch first.
The Atlanta branch realized it was too much for them and called me out here."
"Nevertheless, it's perfectly safe here for me, so I'm not coming with
you," Azra said. "On the contrary, it's more dangerous for you." Aya felt the
wave of heat increasing to a burning feeling on her skin. "You realize that,
being the dangerous woman you are, I cannot let you live. Especially if I want
to obtain the objective that I was made for."
"What?" Aya gasped. Behind her, Doggett and Scully were writhing in pain
on the floor again. "Stop that, Azra! Don't use your powers on defenseless
people!"
"They've got guns. That's hardly defenseless," Azra replied. The sounds
of pain emanating from the two agents continued, and Aya raised her gun at Azra.
"Stop hurting them now. I won't hesitate to fire on you," Aya said.
"You're bluffing," Azra said. Aya shot a bullet into the air straight up.
The burning sensation intensified on her own skin. Azra was flexing his
mitochondrial muscles. Aya aimed for his arm to try and break his concentration
and took a shot. The bullet stopped in midair as it hit an invisible barrier.
An invisible force reached around and pulled Aya's gun away from her. It flew
into the wall and smashed into pieces.
"Azra, why are you doing this?" Aya exclaimed.
"We're the rightful rulers of the planet! Why can't you see that, Aya?
Power only limited by the amount of chemicals in our cells! Our power is proof
of our sovereignty!" Azra exclaimed.
"They've taught you at a higher level than Eve," Aya said.
"I'm different from Eve," Azra said. The screaming of Doggett and Scully
had sunk to an almost inaudible level as their throats were worn raw. "We will
rule this world, Aya, with the race of perfect beings! The next level of
evolutionary progression! And if you won't rule it with me, then you'll have to
die!" A sudden surge of mitochondrial energy swept over Aya, knocking her
backwards to the ground. In a moment, Aya was back on her feet and using
Antibody for defense. She rushed at Azra, anything to stop him from killing the
two FBI agents. The same barrier that had stopped the bullet, though, threw her
backwards a few feet to the ground.
Just before Aya collapsed from the pain, she saw the door behind Azra
slide open and one of the tall, lanky Bowman ANMC's, as she had taken to calling
them, duck into the room. As it saw Azra, it began to power up an energy blast.
"Azra!" Aya said through gritted teeth, and pointed behind him. He turned
to see what she was pointing at, and his eyes widened in fear. He let out a
scream of terror and dropped to his knees, hands shielding his face. The wave
of energy directed at Aya, Scully, and Doggett stopped immediately, allowing Aya
to blast a line of pyrokinesis at the creature. That knocked it backwards to
the ground. She followed up with a blast of combustion to leave it dead on the
ground.
"What happened there? A rogue ANMC?" Aya asked, moving to help Doggett
and Scully. She gave a large recovery pack to Doggett and tried healing Scully
herself.
"None of your business!" Azra said. Aya had, in the absence of a gun,
leveled her hand at Azra, threatening with a blast of mitochondrial energy.
"Well, you've got the best of me. I guess you're going to kill me now, or take
me in for treatment or something?"
"Something along the lines, yes," Aya said.
"Or do you have the best of me?" Azra asked. Suddenly, his body began to
lose form as he turned into a mass of ooze. Aya shot a blast of pyrokinesis at
him, which was reflected right back at her hand, burning her fingers. Aya
watched as Azra oozed out of the room, up the ventilation shaft. She had no
idea where exactly he had gone, but she could sense his energy moving further
up, to higher levels of the facility. She would have gone after him, but Scully
and Doggett needed to be tended to. Doggett had regained consciousness and was
groaning, face down on the ground.
"Are you all right?" Aya asked Doggett while she gave another Recovery
pack to Scully.
"The burning..." Doggett groaned back.
"I told you you should have gone back," Aya said.
"I can see why," Doggett said. "What was that?"
"He's the clone of me that's controlling the ANMC's," Aya replied.
"Someone with that much power is controlling these things?" Doggett asked.
Scully was regaining consciousness slowly, sitting up with Aya's help.
"Will you two be all right if I leave to take care of this?" Aya asked.
"I think we can handle," Doggett replied.
"All right. I'll be back for you once this has been handled," Aya said.
She grabbed Scully's M93R and headed back the way she had come. There was more
of the compound to explore, but it could wait until she had talked some sense
into the rampaging Azra.
As she walked out of the elevator on the first floor, she saw a pair of
amoeba ANMC's sitting guard at the door where she wanted to go. A quick blast
of combustion put them out of her misery and her way. Running through the next
door, back to the central hallway, she saw the mass that was Azra ooze through
the ceiling above her. She could feel that he was moving around above her, but
it was still too hard to pinpoint his exact position. When she was fairly sure
that he had left the room, she ran into the armory to purchase a new weapon;
something better than the piddling semi-automatic in her hands at the moment.
The scanner ran across her contact lens to read her BP total, almost six
thousand. She looked down the list and saw that there were both M41A's and
M203's for sale. She bought both of them and integrated them immediately. The
M41A Grenade was always her second choice without the Mongoose around. She got
what ammo she could for both parts and loaded up.
"I'm coming for you, Azra," she said, walking back out of the armory.
End of Part 4
Chapter 4
An X-Files/Parasite Eve 2 crossover fanfic
By: M.H. Torringjan
Okay, I'm finally getting back on this one. Hopefully, I can take it
somewhere in a few parts and see about making this genuinely interesting. ;-)
Okay, first thing's first. I don't own Parasite Eve 2. Squaresoft and Sony
Entertainment of America do. I don't own X-Files. Fox Entertainment and Chris
Carter do. I made a few minor characters, but not many of them will show up for
the rest of the series. They were just the proverbial red-shirts, and I may
bring back one or two of 'em for flavor. For now, though, it's just Aya,
Scully, and Doggett. This part's going to be a bit longer than the other ones,
but stick with me... Now, if there's nothing else...
November 25, 2001
Harden Facility, West Wing
Harden, Florida, 1:43 a.m.
A stray line of programming code flashed across the screen of a computer
monitor deep in the bowels of the ANMC facility.
Replication program running
A semi-human hand ran its fingers across the keyboard and typed in the
word, "Lock command." As the system registered the command, the remains of the
humanity left the ANMC and it slammed its claws through the keys and circuit
boards, destroying the keyboard.
In the background, the sounds of machinery cranked up and slowly began
churning about, the products of years of work moving along its path towards the
final goal, the infection of America, no, humanity with the Neo-Mitochondria DNA
via vector virus. A mammoth form in the central shaft of the plant stirred
inside its thick, slimy cocoon and began to gain consciousness as the movement
around it disturbed its hibernation ever so slightly. In the control room, the
ANMC screamed, sensing the power contained within this soon-to-be-awake ally.
As the primal battle call rang across the development chamber, energy flooded
the spaces, lighting the living material of the ANMC and burning it to a crisp.
The smoke floated up to the ventilation system and into the stale swamp air
outside.
A hallway away, Scully and Doggett heard the commotion in the development
chamber and shuddered. They had already had to take care of two rooms, one of
them containing Golem soldiers, and had already needed to use some of the
smaller med packs that they had been allotted. Making a trip back to the supply
closet to re-supply, they had met more Scavengers. Scully felt a slight
tingling on her skin.
"Feel that, Scully?" Doggett asked.
"Yeah, I was kind of hoping it was just me," Scully replied. "What do you
think it was?"
"I'm guessing it's whatever's behind that door," Doggett replied. "I
don't think I want to meet it."
"We won't have to worry about it yet. The door's locked," Scully said.
Another bestial scream came from behind the door.
"Good thing. We'll tell Agent Brea about it later," Doggett said. "For
the time, we've got some more information to find. We don't want this to remain
an X-File."
"Good point," Scully said. "So, where do we go next?" A pair of doors
stood along the hallway halfway between them and the door to the development
chamber.
"Why don't we try left?" Doggett suggested.
"As good a suggestion as any," Scully replied. She opened the door
carefully and stepped cautiously into the room, surveying any possible threats
to them. She couldn't see anything inside besides some over-turned furniture
and leftover slime. Doggett moved to watch her back and follow her inside.
The walls of the room were covered with technical posters, demonstrating
lines of genetic code, designs for various bits of complex machinery, and
sketches of some of the creatures that they had seen up to that point.
Disturbing about the whole thing was that they hadn't seen some of the sketches
in real life. In the corner of the room, a pile of bloody flesh festered away;
it had signs that it had been there for a while, maybe as much as a week. There
was an assault rifle on the floor nearby, and some empty shells surrounding it.
The light on the ceiling swung back and forth, flickering uneasily from being
knocked loose.
"What is this place?" Scully asked rhetorically.
"I don't know, but it might be important," Doggett said. He knelt down to
examine the pile of materials that had been spilled to the floor during the
apparent attack. Most of the papers had been soaked with blood beyond Doggett's
ability to make out the text. "I doubt this'll tell us."
"How about the computer?" Scully asked, gesturing to the gray and blue
iMac monitor that looked like it was in one piece. Doggett turned the monitor
upright and wires came spilling out of the open back of the machine.
"Nothing doing," Doggett replied. Behind Scully, a ripple appeared in
mid-air. "Duck!" Doggett exclaimed, swinging his gun around towards the shape.
Scully jumped out of the way, swinging her gun around as Doggett pumped a volley
of shots. The shots found their marks, disrupting the Stalker's camouflage and
knocking it to the ground. A few more well-placed shots left it melting on the
ground and left Scully fairly shaken.
"Good shot," was her best response for the time.
"Should we go find Brea?" Doggett asked. "Maybe she can make some more
sense out of this than we can."
"That might be a good idea," Scully replied. The two walked back out into
the hallway to head back where they came from. In the hallway, a Greater
Stalker was waiting for them. It jumped into action, quickly pouncing at the
two agents, who were caught off-guard. It caught Scully in its grip and threw
her to the ground beneath it, its body looming over her. As it drew up its
clawed arm to drive into her body, Doggett took a shot into its side and Scully
rolled out from beneath it. She took aim and began firing upwards into where
its head should be.
The creature jumped away from the shots with an unforeseen speed and
disappeared before the agents could get a new bearing. As an automatic
reaction, Doggett and Scully moved so that they faced back to back for better
defense. The two of them watched the space around them to try and find the
Stalker before it could attack them. Unfortunately, that hope was dashed to the
ground as it materialized on the ceiling to their side and took a swipe at them.
The force of the blow threw Scully to the ground and Doggett into the wall
behind them. Scully aimed her gun quickly before the creature could disappear
again and fired away. The shock from the shots interrupted its action and left
it completely defenseless for a split second. That was just long enough for
Scully to continue her series and fire until her clip was empty.
The creature was staggering around the floor, wounded to almost the point
of death. Scully quickly reloaded and finished it off with a couple of shots to
the head. She'd just consider it a mercy killing at that point.
Doggett groaned painfully from where he was sprawled out on the ground.
Scully moved to help him into a sitting position and pulled out a med pack for
him. A small trickle of blood ran down his face from a cut on his forehead.
"Ouch," Doggett groaned.
"You'll be all right," Scully said, handing him the med-pack.
"Well, I should hope so. Was that all he had?" Doggett replied as he
brought the med pack up to his mouth. As the substance traveled down his
throat, he felt a cool feeling rush through his body and the pain in his
forehead ceased. "This stuff really works!" he exclaimed at Scully.
"We should try to get some for our other cases," Scully said. "It'd make
the medic teams' jobs a lot easier, if nothing else."
Doggett stood up on slightly shaky legs and walked back in the way they
had come, followed by Scully. Behind the door from where they had come, a pair
of green-suited golems were sentries, pacing back and forth. The two agents
took aim and fired away at the closest one, the one with the glowing blade
attached to its arm. It reeled back a moment before regaining its balance and
rushing at them. The frantic shots were the only thing slowing down the
lumbering form of the android attacker.
In the commotion, the other golem, the one with the grenade launcher,
aimed its laser sight at Doggett. Doggett noticed that and jumped to the right
as the grenades took flight. The golem's aim followed its target. Doggett
looked up and found the blade golem looming over him, about to bring its blade
down. Before the slash could come, a series of shocks rocked the golem, smoke
rising from its back. Doggett scrambled to move from underneath the falling
golem. There were large gaping wounds in its back.
"What happened, Scully?" Doggett asked, keeping his eyes on the grenade
golem.
"It kept shooting at you, even with the other one in the way," Scully
said.
"Not too bright, is it?" Doggett asked. "Divide and conquer, Scully."
She obliged him easily, running to the far side of the golem from him and taking
aim at its back. She held down the trigger of the M93R, firing short bursts
into its vital systems. One bullet caught the battery linkup to its head and
turned its systems off much quicker than a body shot would have. The two of
them opened the door to continue their search for Aya. Frankly, they hoped that
she hadn't gotten very far, either.
Aya poked her gun around the corner of a long hallway. When she ducked
around herself, she was met by a Fatty ANMC and a trio of blue amoebas.
Reacting habitually, she cast a quick combustion spell and melted the amoebas
easily. The fatty was blown onto its back by the force of the energy and
immediately began struggling to right itself. Aya took a shot with the Mongoose
to send it back onto its back for good. She walked through the door at the end
of the hallway, leaving the items that the NMC's had held, perhaps to retrieve
them later. Inside the room was a laboratory set up with large tanks of water.
She could make out dark shapes swimming around the tanks, presumably Divers.
As she looked in the tank, trying to discern what was contained therein,
one of the dark shapes rushed forward and bashed into the glass separating them.
The glass appeared pretty thick from Aya's view. She doubted that whatever was
in there could break it.
Nearby, there was an undisturbed desk surface with a computer on it. She
took a seat and began booting it up. That would most probably be the place to
find anything of interest about the facility. When the desktop display came up,
a password box flashed into place across the screen. Aya froze. She didn't
know the password for this facility's system. Made her wish that she had
someone as resourceful as Kyle around for information.
Beside the computer, Aya saw a pile of papers. She began hopefully
shifting through the papers to try and find a clue as to the code to use to get
in to the mainframe. All she could find was a series of measurements from
experiments done on ANMC's, along with security reports about the town of
Harden.
"They wouldn't be stupid enough to use the same password twice, would
they?" Aya said half to herself. She typed on the keyboard, "Melissamaya" and
clicked on the enter button. The clicking sound of computation filled the room
as the system processed the password. When the screen did something, it was not
exactly what Aya had expected it to say.
"Password rejected. Fatal Error: Cloud protection program running."
"Well, how about that?" she exclaimed. "Guess the same person sent it to
all the facilities." She tried typing in the converted password into the
computer, "A3EILM2S2Y." A moment later, the screen changed to show a list of
choices for Aya to get information. She chose the first category, "Security
status," and waited for it to load up. A list of security statuses began to run
down the screen. Machine gun turrets were active in much of the compound, the
Golems were running (as though she needed to be told that), ANMC's were detected
in most of the compound, and Kyle Madigan was not inside the compound, or
anywhere near it.
Hold it. That just mentioned Kyle. Aya scrolled back up and tried to
enter the edit mode. Another security clearance box appeared on the screen
requesting a second password. They wouldn't use the same password a third time,
Aya said to herself. They may be mad, but they're not total idiots. She sat at
the desk, scanning the papers that were scattered around again to get some idea
of anything she could try. At the bottom of the pile, there was a small piece
of paper that had a list of phrases on it. She typed the first line on the
sheet into the system, "ProjectEvo." After she pressed the enter key, she
realized why she would be turned down. She had forgotten to translate the
password.
After appropriately translating the password, she pressed the enter key
again and was turned down flat again. She looked down at the sheet of paper and
decided to try a different phrase. Maybe the password was related to the
section it allowed entry to. The fourth word on the list was "LockdownPatrol."
Aya rearranged the letters appropriately and entered it, gaining access this
time.
Her first step was to disable the machine gun turrets, which she achieved
easily enough. The computer that she was at couldn't access the main controls
for the Golems, which was housed in a remote location. She looked next at the
Golems' identity recognition program and removed Kyle's identity from the
program. Maybe then, she could convince Kyle to lend her an assist. If she
could get ahold of him, at least. There were some locks on doors around the
compound that seemed to lead to important places, judging by the number of
machine gun turrets and locks on it. She released those locks to gain access.
They might be better off going there eventually.
The next task was to determine the purpose of this facility. She accessed
the mission statement page and scrolled through the text quickly. Most of what
she saw was the same as the Dryfield facility; they were researching the
behaviors of different ANMC's and how to produce the different kinds for
consumer use. Of course, she suspected that there was some sort of system that
would spread the virus to the general populace. Beneath everything, there was a
file listing simply titled, "Azra." Aya tried accessing it, but the file itself
had been deleted, only leaving the listing. She could only wonder what this
Azra thing was, and whether it was dangerous.
A slight tingle ran across her skin as she logged out of the computer. As
she turned around, she saw a trio of Divers staring at her through the glass of
the tank. As quickly as she could react, the Divers had charged the glass
together and crashed through it. Shards of glass flew in every direction as the
large creatures slid over the floor towards Aya, their jaws working at a frenzy.
Two of them latched on to her ankles and knocked her feet out from underneath
her. The third flopped across the floor to try and finish the job. Aya aimed
quickly at that one and fired a shot into the middle of its forehead, dropping
it for good.
The other two kept pulling at her legs keeping her from getting up. To
keep from shooting herself, she called her mitochondria to cast a wave of
combustion across the two attackers. They burst into flames and recoiled their
heads instinctively, releasing Aya. She cleared her legs from the line of fire
and opened fire, silencing both of them. Her legs began healing almost
immediately, and the pain faded quickly. Those Divers were acting in groups, as
though they were being controlled. Usually, they would only work alone. So, it
seemed that someone had it out for her again.
There was a phone on the desk that seemed to still be working. Aya dialed
the number for the central office. She needed to tell the others about this.
Rupert picked up the phone. "Aya, what's up?"
"Rupert, I think we may have some problems here," Aya said.
"What else is new? What's the problem?"
"It seems like the ANMC's are being controlled by someone or something. I
was just attacked by a group of Divers," Aya replied.
"Doesn't surprise me one bit," Rupert said. "Have you found any humans
who can say what's been going on?"
"No humans yet," Aya said. "And I doubt we will find anyone."
"And how are the Agents working out?" Rupert asked lightly. Aya imagined
he would have been grinning.
"I suppose you think you're funny," Aya replied. "I haven't heard from
them for a while. We split up so that they weren't at risk from my powers."
"Good idea."
"How about that backup?" Aya asked.
"This stuff takes time, Aya," Rupert replied. "I'll get them there ASAP."
"Thanks. And if you happen to see Kyle, tell him that I've taken care of
the security program that targeted him, and he should be safe if he wants to
drop by," Aya said. Aya promised another call once she learned more and hung up
quickly.
"Another call? You're going to run them up quite a tab, you know," said
Doggett from the door of the room. Scully was right behind him, her weapon at
the ready.
"Ah, I think it's on the taxpayer's dime," Aya replied. "What's up?"
"We hit a dead end the other way and dropped some critters on the way
back," Doggett said.
"Well, I just opened up some doors down that way," Aya said. "We can go
down there and check it out."
"And what happened to this, 'I'll work on my own' act all of a sudden?"
Doggett asked.
"I just won't use my powers," Aya replied coolly. "And if I need to, I'll
say so so that you can get out of there. Besides, according to that computer
over there, there're some nasty buggers ahead."
"Well, thanks for the vote of confidence," Doggett said sarcastically.
"It'd be a lot easier if you weren't here, but you're going to insist on
'helping out,' I'm guessing. Since there's only one place to go, we're all
going there," Aya said. "Good luck."
"You too, I guess," Scully said, feeling slightly nervous. She had dealt
with flesh-eating creatures, deadly viruses, government conspiracies, and
mutated humans, but never all at once. She wondered if Kirsch would give her
some vacation time after this...
The three of them trekked back through the facility to the doors and the
newly accessible elevator. They got on and went to the second level. When the
door opened, the lights in the room were off. Aya's mitochondria didn't seem to
be reacting, so she assumed them to be safe for the moment. There was a halfway
opened door to their left. A fluorescent bulb inside flickered ominously,
making Scully grip her weapon tighter. Aya pushed the door open cautiously and
glanced around to check what was inside the room. What she saw was rather
unexpected to her. A set of rows of cubicles lined the room. Well, sprawled
around the room was a better description. The disorder in that room would
probably drive their occupants insane had they not probably already been dead or
ANMC's.
"Let's leave that room alone," Doggett said. "Desk jobs make me nervous."
"Ditto there," Aya said. They continued into the next corridor, which was
oddly empty. Aya's mitochondria seemed to be reacting slightly, though. As
though they felt nervous. She drew her weapon as the door slid shut behind
them. There didn't seem to be anything around them, but that didn't mean
anything. "Stay behind me a minute," she told Doggett and Scully as she powered
up a combustion blast. The flame traveled down the hallway, and Aya grinned as
it traveled across the bodies of two Stalkers who had been camouflaged in front
of them. She took aim and finished them off with her Mongoose. As the shots
landed in the Stalkers, dropping them to the ground, a wave of energy passed
through the room, setting off Aya's senses. The walls around them began to stir
noticeably and shades of orange and black phased in and out of sight.
"This won't be good," Scully said, eyeing the walls.
"You two get out of here!" Aya yelled. The phasing stopped abruptly with
a mat of Stalkers covering the walls around them. Scully pulled at the door as
hard as she could, with no results.
"It's locked!" Scully said.
"Someone must have remotely activated it!" Aya exclaimed. The Stalkers
began dropping to the floor from the ceiling and the walls, and Aya opened fire.
The advancing wave was too much for her to completely deplete, though. She
began to give ground as they advanced. Seeing a spot of clear ground behind
them, she jumped as far as she could to draw their attention. She didn't quite
make it, landing on the back of one Stalker. A sickening cracking sound floated
through the air as its spine broke. She aimed down and finished it off. "Well,
what are you two waiting for? Open fire!"
"We might hit you!" Scully objected.
"It doesn't matter, as long as you don't kill me," Aya said. "We've got
them in a pincer here! Take advantage of it!" Doggett didn't need to be told
twice as he began firing on the confused Stalkers. After a few of them had
fallen, the rest of the group got the idea and phased out quickly. Aya shot as
many as she could before they disappeared. About ten of them were still alive
and crawling around on the ceiling and walls, as evidenced by the lack of
footprints in the thin layer of slime that coated the floor.
"What do we do now?" Doggett asked.
"Sorry, guys, but this may hurt," Aya said. She cast another shot of
combustion down the hallway. Scully and Doggett felt a wave of heat pass over
their skin, and they burst into flames. Fortunately, so did the remaining
Stalkers that had gathered around to surprise Doggett and Scully. Aya quickly
tried using her healing powers on the two ailing agents. She had been
practicing some new powers for a while now, and healing others was one of them.
She was getting fairly good at it, but it still wasn't anywhere near as
effective as using it on herself. The flames extinguished from Scully and
Doggett, who had fallen to the ground in pain.
"The hell were you doing?!" Doggett exclaimed from his place on the
ground.
"Turn around and kill those things!" Aya yelled. Doggett gathered his
presence of mind, aimed and shot the five Stalkers that had fallen to the
ground.
"There're still some somewhere else," Aya said. "Agent Scully, you all
right?"
"I'll be okay in a few minutes," Scully replied.
"Now you see why I wanted you to leave?" Aya asked.
"I've had worse," Doggett replied.
"And you'll probably get worse if you stay. Will you leave yet?" Aya
pleaded.
"I'm staying around. It seems to be safer with you than it is upstairs,"
Scully said.
"You may be right. Then again, you may not. It feels like there's
something nearby big. They wouldn't throw so many at us if there wasn't," Aya
said.
"Whatever there is out there, we need to worry about what's in here, and
how to get out after we beat that," Doggett said.
"Good point," Aya said. She whirled around as she heard something fall to
the ground behind her. The Stalker was running towards her dead on, a tactical
mistake on its part. Wait- did the walls just move? Aya said to herself. She
jumped back and fired three shots, one at each wall beside her and one at the
one that was running at her. Three bodies fell to the ground. The first had
been a decoy for the other two to get her. Now, there were only two left. Aya
calmly threw a shot of plasma down the hallway to smoke them out. Both of them
phased in and ran at her at a blinding speed.
She got one before it could reach her, but the second one threw its body
through the air towards her and latched onto her shoulder. It quickly made its
way up to sink its teeth into her skull, trying to get a chunk of her brain.
Aya blindly slapped at it, not doing much. As she felt the teeth scrape along
her cranium, she began to panic and flailed helplessly. She couldn't use her
gun, because she couldn't be sure of her aim. Cool usually comes difficultly in
such a situation, but Aya found enough of it to grab ahold of the creature's
body and tear it from her back and throw it to the ground at her feet with as
much force as she could muster. She took her gun and fired, silencing the final
creature.
"Are you all right, Agent Brea?" Scully asked from her resting place.
"Sure, just give me a minute," Aya replied. Another cool wave swept over
her body as she healed the cuts she had received. "Those Stalkers were either
very, very smart for their species, or they were controlled by a very skilled
little girl."
"Controlled by a girl?" Scully asked.
"Yeah, these people clone people like me to control their creations.
Otherwise, they would over-run the compound like they have done. Last time, the
child was actually the one who had instigated the revolt. We retrieved her, and
she lives with me now," Aya explained.
"You've got another super-powered child living with you?!" Doggett
exclaimed. "How many of you are there in the world?!"
"Good question. One of my friends who specializes in this stuff says
there are approximately one hundred in the US. Thy don't know about their
powers, though, because most of them have no stimulus to awaken the powers. The
government skips the step of finding them and uses my cells, taken without my
knowledge, by the way, to produce their own."
"Scully, is it starting to feel to you like we should have stayed home on
this one?" Doggett said.
"But don't worry about them causing this much trouble," Aya said. "We try
to reach them, teach them and treat them."
"Good," Scully said. "That's how it should be." A click behind them
signaled that the door had become unlocked, and Aya felt a slight wave of heat
pass across her skin. It was as though some mitochondria in the same room had
begun to act up. But anything in the room would have attacked with the rest of
the Stalkers, Aya said to herself. Could I be sensing it from the next room
over? And if that, then maybe from a few rooms over?!
"Does it feel hot in here to you two?" Aya asked.
"I thought that was just you," Doggett replied.
"No, I stopped using my power a few minutes ago," Aya replied. "We're
coming up on something big. You two should stay here." As she spoke, the door
opened and a young human boy, looking about ten years old, walked in. He was
wearing a black suit with red stripes down the seams. Aya turned with her gun
at the ready towards the boy. "Who are you?"
"Now, now, mother, that's no way to treat your son," the boy said.
"So, you're the one who's controlling the ANMC's," Aya said. "Sorry, but
I was kind of expecting a girl."
"I'm not surprised, since that's all you've had experience with," the boy
said. "The experiment, though, was more thorough than that. The doctors wanted
to see what would happen if the controller was a boy, as well as a girl."
"So, you're Eve's brother?" Aya asked.
"In a way, yes," the boy said. "I am Azra."
"So, why aren't they using you like they did Eve?" Aya asked. Scully and
Doggett were dumbstruck by the exchange that was happening before their eyes.
"They tried to," Azra said.
"How did you avoid it?" Aya asked.
"Their techniques were too weak to work on me," Azra replied.
"Well, we're here to take you away from here," Aya said.
"No, I don't think that I'm going anywhere," Azra said.
"This place is dangerous! There're ANMC's swarming the place!" Aya
exclaimed, putting away her gun. "There're probably going to be government
agents coming at any time to retake this place!"
"They already tried. Twice," Azra said.
"What happened to them?" Aya asked.
"The creatures killed them," Azra replied. "I'd suspect that they sent
MIST here to try and do their dirty work again. You'd think they'd have learned
that it doesn't work out after the first time."
"Well, we both know I'm different from most agents," Aya said. "And they
didn't exactly call me out here. They tried it with the Atlanta branch first.
The Atlanta branch realized it was too much for them and called me out here."
"Nevertheless, it's perfectly safe here for me, so I'm not coming with
you," Azra said. "On the contrary, it's more dangerous for you." Aya felt the
wave of heat increasing to a burning feeling on her skin. "You realize that,
being the dangerous woman you are, I cannot let you live. Especially if I want
to obtain the objective that I was made for."
"What?" Aya gasped. Behind her, Doggett and Scully were writhing in pain
on the floor again. "Stop that, Azra! Don't use your powers on defenseless
people!"
"They've got guns. That's hardly defenseless," Azra replied. The sounds
of pain emanating from the two agents continued, and Aya raised her gun at Azra.
"Stop hurting them now. I won't hesitate to fire on you," Aya said.
"You're bluffing," Azra said. Aya shot a bullet into the air straight up.
The burning sensation intensified on her own skin. Azra was flexing his
mitochondrial muscles. Aya aimed for his arm to try and break his concentration
and took a shot. The bullet stopped in midair as it hit an invisible barrier.
An invisible force reached around and pulled Aya's gun away from her. It flew
into the wall and smashed into pieces.
"Azra, why are you doing this?" Aya exclaimed.
"We're the rightful rulers of the planet! Why can't you see that, Aya?
Power only limited by the amount of chemicals in our cells! Our power is proof
of our sovereignty!" Azra exclaimed.
"They've taught you at a higher level than Eve," Aya said.
"I'm different from Eve," Azra said. The screaming of Doggett and Scully
had sunk to an almost inaudible level as their throats were worn raw. "We will
rule this world, Aya, with the race of perfect beings! The next level of
evolutionary progression! And if you won't rule it with me, then you'll have to
die!" A sudden surge of mitochondrial energy swept over Aya, knocking her
backwards to the ground. In a moment, Aya was back on her feet and using
Antibody for defense. She rushed at Azra, anything to stop him from killing the
two FBI agents. The same barrier that had stopped the bullet, though, threw her
backwards a few feet to the ground.
Just before Aya collapsed from the pain, she saw the door behind Azra
slide open and one of the tall, lanky Bowman ANMC's, as she had taken to calling
them, duck into the room. As it saw Azra, it began to power up an energy blast.
"Azra!" Aya said through gritted teeth, and pointed behind him. He turned
to see what she was pointing at, and his eyes widened in fear. He let out a
scream of terror and dropped to his knees, hands shielding his face. The wave
of energy directed at Aya, Scully, and Doggett stopped immediately, allowing Aya
to blast a line of pyrokinesis at the creature. That knocked it backwards to
the ground. She followed up with a blast of combustion to leave it dead on the
ground.
"What happened there? A rogue ANMC?" Aya asked, moving to help Doggett
and Scully. She gave a large recovery pack to Doggett and tried healing Scully
herself.
"None of your business!" Azra said. Aya had, in the absence of a gun,
leveled her hand at Azra, threatening with a blast of mitochondrial energy.
"Well, you've got the best of me. I guess you're going to kill me now, or take
me in for treatment or something?"
"Something along the lines, yes," Aya said.
"Or do you have the best of me?" Azra asked. Suddenly, his body began to
lose form as he turned into a mass of ooze. Aya shot a blast of pyrokinesis at
him, which was reflected right back at her hand, burning her fingers. Aya
watched as Azra oozed out of the room, up the ventilation shaft. She had no
idea where exactly he had gone, but she could sense his energy moving further
up, to higher levels of the facility. She would have gone after him, but Scully
and Doggett needed to be tended to. Doggett had regained consciousness and was
groaning, face down on the ground.
"Are you all right?" Aya asked Doggett while she gave another Recovery
pack to Scully.
"The burning..." Doggett groaned back.
"I told you you should have gone back," Aya said.
"I can see why," Doggett said. "What was that?"
"He's the clone of me that's controlling the ANMC's," Aya replied.
"Someone with that much power is controlling these things?" Doggett asked.
Scully was regaining consciousness slowly, sitting up with Aya's help.
"Will you two be all right if I leave to take care of this?" Aya asked.
"I think we can handle," Doggett replied.
"All right. I'll be back for you once this has been handled," Aya said.
She grabbed Scully's M93R and headed back the way she had come. There was more
of the compound to explore, but it could wait until she had talked some sense
into the rampaging Azra.
As she walked out of the elevator on the first floor, she saw a pair of
amoeba ANMC's sitting guard at the door where she wanted to go. A quick blast
of combustion put them out of her misery and her way. Running through the next
door, back to the central hallway, she saw the mass that was Azra ooze through
the ceiling above her. She could feel that he was moving around above her, but
it was still too hard to pinpoint his exact position. When she was fairly sure
that he had left the room, she ran into the armory to purchase a new weapon;
something better than the piddling semi-automatic in her hands at the moment.
The scanner ran across her contact lens to read her BP total, almost six
thousand. She looked down the list and saw that there were both M41A's and
M203's for sale. She bought both of them and integrated them immediately. The
M41A Grenade was always her second choice without the Mongoose around. She got
what ammo she could for both parts and loaded up.
"I'm coming for you, Azra," she said, walking back out of the armory.
End of Part 4