Story Notes: Finally! It's been a long time since I last updated this story.
This chapter is rather short because it's actually part two of chapter
8. Chapters 8 and 9 were originally supposed to be just one chapter,
but the first part ended up being too long.
I haven't updated in so long because I've kind of lost my zeal for this
story. It'll take a few more chapters before it starts getting REALLY
good and It's hard to maintain my interest untill then.
To My Readers: I would still like more reviewers for my Digimon fanfiction Digimon Rising. It's good! Don't ignore it! You can access it from my profile page.
Only the silence was deeper than the darkness. In silence one can hear so many things one normally couldn't. Emerald, Ruby, and Sapphire were aware of the sound of their own breathing, like bellows from a great distance. Water dripped from a faucet somewhere in the house. The soft sizzle of leaves blowing could be heard even through the window. A slight creaking was made every time Emerald or one of her siblings moved a muscle. The refrigerator hummed in the background, sometimes making a slight popping noise inaudible to normal human ears.
The three siblings would never pick up on any of these things normally. Silence had a way of heightening the senses, especially the sense of hearing.
Silence was comforting normally. It gave one the opportunity to relax and to reflect. In this case, silence was anything but comforting. Thoughtless mockeries of their old cousins sat outside somewhere ready to make their move. The originals were now dead, a result of the process that created their counterfeits. Silence was anything but comforting at this moment. Maybe the things outside knew it, or maybe they just didn't realize that they'd been discovered.
Emerald yawned deeply. The yawn was fake. In reality she was breathing through her nose, smelling the air to see just how many of those things were outside, and which ones they were. No use. There was the scent of experiments besides the ones accounted for, but it was so stale that nothing could be told from it, aside from the fact that there were more than two of them. Why was this? Surely these things had been hovering around the apartment since nightfall. Even downwind, staying in one spot that long would give away exactly where and who you were.
The air was stuffy and smelled a bit dirty. It was totally stagnant. Sapphire's eyes shifted rapidly about the room looking for the cause of the air's stillness. The windows in the kitchen and living area were closed. Right between the rooms, the sliding glass door in the dining area was also shut tight. There was no way for air to get in or out, at least not in any appreciable amount.
Emerald and Ruby's gaze followed Sapphire's, eventually landing on the sliding glass door.
"I'm going out to get the scent." Emerald whispered, trying as best she could not to let her lips move. "But I'm really just going out for some fresh air."
Emerald extended her lower pairs of tendril several times the length of her body, lifting herself up and forward off the futon with one, and catching herself from falling on the floor with the other. She lowered herself down and walked over to the sliding glass door.
"Did that make any sense to you?" Ruby asked Sapphire.
Sapphire shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head.
With on tendril from her forehead, Emerald unlocked and opened the sliding glass door and stepped out onto the balcony. There was a small, circular coffee table off to the side of the doorway. After lifting herself up onto it, Emerald leaned forward against the railing and propped herself up against it on her forearms. Her eyes here only half open.
This was a terrible risk she was taking. Emerald was putting herself in an unobstructed view of anyone who may have been watching. Any projectile could hit her at that moment and she wouldn't even be able to tell where it came from. But she was willing to bet that the things out there didn't know she knew they were there. They didn't have common sense anyway. They made their decisions based purely on observation, ignoring the obvious pretenses. If Emerald acted unaware of their presence, she was unaware of their presence, despite the fact that she could obviously smell them. And she could smell them, and so could Ruby and Sapphire.
Ruby and Sapphire were right there at the deck with their heads lifted into the air and inhaling deeply. Sapphire could smell them, but Ruby could smell much more.
"Sparky, Kixx, Zap, and Splodyhead." Ruby whispered out. "Just one of each. They've been here less than two days."
Emerald looked down at her siblings at the side of the coffee table. Ruby was staring at her eagerly. Sapphire stood up on his toes and reached his nose as high into the air as he could, gripping the wooden spokes of the deck to steady himself. Her cover was ruined. That kind of behavior was just too suspicious. If those things didn't know the siblings were aware of them before, they probably did now.
Emerald clenched her eyelids fists together and growled under her breath. She tried hard not to yell at them. She was only seconds away from discovering what Ruby had so overtly blurted out herself. And Sapphire, with his enticed sniffing gave visual proof if Ruby's audio wasn't enough. How could the two of them be so damn ignorant? She told them to keep a semblance of ignorance.
Emerald realized at that moment just what happened. She had almost lost her cool, and thus her air of total confidence. She could never allow that to happen. Emerald took one deep breath and forced herself, rather unpleasantly, to relax.
"Get inside and wake up Cobra." She said. "And don't turn on any lights."
Emerald seemed to both yell and whisper at the same time. Sapphire always listened to that voice. He was never good at handling confrontation. But that was something that would normally make Ruby antagonistic, but even she understood the seriousness of the situation at a fundamental level. They both nodded and dashed into the house on all fours.
Emerald jumped off the table after them.
The doorknob to Cobra Bubble' bedroom creaked and turned. The door opened slowly and stopped at only a quarter of the way open. No light came through. Two small furry heads peaked out from behind the door.
Cobra was still asleep.
The two heads crept further revealing the bodies they carried, one very plain, and the other with four arms, antennae, and spines. Ruby and Sapphire scurried over to the side of Cobra's frameless bed and looked up at him. The bed was made neatly even with him sleeping in it. His body was so flattened and straight he looked like he almost looked like a statue.
Ruby leaned over and put her mouth to Sapphire's ear.
"This guy even sleeps like a plank." She said.
Sapphire just nodded in response.
Cobra's sleep was interrupted by something pressing up against his mouth. There was no fear, planning, or even thought behind what happened next. He instinctively grabbed it and tried to pry it off while digging his nails into its flesh. It was no use. It seemed like the fur-laden arm of a four year old and yet its strength seemed matchless compared to his own.
"Quiet!" something whispered harshly in his ear.
Cobra opened his eyes to see the very dire face of Sapphire staring at him, and the rest of Sapphire standing on his chest on all fours. The hand let go. Cobra glanced up to find Ruby clinging to the wall with five paws while quickly drawing the sixth away from him. She too, was staring right at him.
"What is this?" Cobra asked, surprisingly calmly given the situation.
"We're being watched." Sapphire answered.
"By who?" Cobra asked back.
"Clones!" Ruby said, almost shouting but catching herself at the last moment.
"Of what?"
"Other experiments." Sapphire answered. "They've been following us ever since we got here, I think, now they're about to make their move. We've gotta' leave."
"And what makes you think I'm going to cooperate?"
Sapphire opened his mouth to speak, then paused. He blinked a few times, then closed his mouth and put his hand to his chin.
"When they attack that may be a pretty good motivator."
Ruby, Sapphire and Cobra all turned their head toward the doorway. It was now wide open. Emerald stood in the room overseeing what the scene
Cobra turned his head back to Sapphire and stared. Sapphire stared right back. Sapphire's eyes were wide with anxiety. He gazed deeply into Cobra's eyes as if just to say how serious he was. Cobra was either going to be deeply in relief, or in regret for what he was about to do.
From his only position, Cobra pushed himself up to sitting, pushing Sapphire off of him. He threw off his blanket revealing himself to be wearing no more than green plaid pajama pants and an undershirt. He reached beneath his pillow and pulled something out. Sapphire raised an eyebrow as he saw what it was. Emerald almost gasped, but stopped herself just before.
Cobra unlatched the safety of his pistol and cocked the slide. It was already loaded.
"That's a gun." Emerald whispered.
".45 HK USP expert with a ceramic bore." Cobra replied with a kind of speed that made it seem as if he had planned it in advance.
"Do you always keep a loaded gun under your pillow?" Sapphire asked.
"Yes." Cobra answered.
"Are those bullets armor piercing?" Emerald asked.
"Solid tungsten, nitro propelled."
The door opened to the second hallway leading to the living room. Emerald and Ruby inched their way out. Despite their best efforts, the floor still creaked at their footsteps. Cobra followed them, equally slowly. He nudged the door shut with his foot, making only the lightest clicking sound. Sapphire clung to Cobra. His arms wrapped around Cobra's neck while he barely peaked out from behind his shoulder.
Cobra had both hands on his gun. He held it up, close to his face as he stepped in synch with Emerald and Ruby walking forward into the living room.
"There's nothing here." Cobra whispered.
"Yes there is." Emerald whispered back. "I can smell them."
Ruby walked forward just a bit too casually, sniffing the air and not looking where she was going. She stopped.
"I think they're gone." Ruby said. "The smell's fading.
A blinding yellow flash of light suddenly filled the room as the wall just to the left of the couch exploded from the inside. A crack of thunder was heard, deafening as if from only feet away. An arcing light flew by barely fast enough to register with the eyes, colliding with Ruby and sending her flying toward, and then through the left wall.
Sapphire shrieked and fell off of Cobra onto his back from jumping reflexively.
Cobra unleashed a volley of bullets at the arcing light. By the time he got off the first shot, it was too late, the light was gone.
"What the hell was that!" Cobra yelled at Emerald.
"Zap, experiment six-o-three," Emerald yelled back without turning her head. "or his clone anyway."
The instant Emerald was done shouting, another great bursting sound was sent through the apartment, like a pile of wood being smashed. Emerald yelped and spun around at the sound. Cobra spun around and pointed his gun straight at the door to the apartment. In a flash, a huge bulbous thing swung around, knocking the gun out of Cobra's hand and beneath the couch. Cobra barely had time to clutch his hand when some massive, gray, four armed, neckless mass through its whole body at him, taking him to the ground instantly.
The Kixx clone wrapped two arms around Cobra's one in opposite directions, rendering him unable to move. As the Kixx clone started to drag Cobra screaming across the floor, four long green vines wrapped themselves around the clone's four wrists, pulling outward as hard as they could.
Cobra was immediately released and pushed him up to stand. He clutched at his arm, which hung limply in front of him, while looking at the clone. It tried to struggle, pulling its arms inward, but the strength of Emerald's tendrils was too great for it to overcome.
"Who sent you!" Cobra shouted at the clone.
The clone stopped struggling and looked up at Cobra. It smiled and breathed deeply, closing its eyes. The clone ignited, its whole body burst into flames. Emerald unwrapped her tendrils from its wrists and let it fall face first to the ground and burn to ashes.
"Scouts?" Emerald whispered to herself. "They're just scouts?"
"What does that mean?" Cobra asked.
"No time to explain, there's still more of them out there."
Three flashes of light were seen in the distance. Less than a second later, three globs of glowing red goop flew through the sliding glass door, melting their way through it rather than shattering the glass. The balls hit the table, smashing it into charred bits, The range, reducing that to a melted hole in the wall, and one grazed by Emerald's ear, singing the tip.
Emerald yelped, clutching her ear with one hand, she propelled herself through the air on her tendrils in front of the couch. Cobra dived forward landing in front of the couch jest ahead of Emerald, who tensed and gnarred at the flying body so close to her.
More red globs flew through the sliding glass door, leaving blackened holes in the floor and walls on impact.
"Which one is that?" Cobra yelled over the sound of the firing.
"Six nineteen!" Emerald yelled back. "Splodyhead!"
Cobra eyed beneath the couch as the kitchen and dining area continued to be bombarded by plasma fire. There was nothing there.
"My gun!" Cobra yelled. "What happened to my gun?"
A shot and shattering glass was heard, causing both Cobra to recoil in shock. Cobra and Emerald lifted up their heads to look over the couch. Sapphire was standing up on the couch using the backboard for cover while he fired Cobra's gun out the window toward SplodyHead balanced atop a distant street light.
"Sapphire what are you doing!" Emerald and Cobra shouted out at the same time.
Sapphire paid no attention to their screams and continued shooting, while the plasma globs changed their course toward the living room, melting through the same window Sapphire shot through and blowing up tables and appliances, and blowing holes through the walls.
"You're drawing his fire right toward us!" Emerald screamed.
"There's only one bullet left make it count!" Cobra screamed as well.
Sapphire took the suggestion. He ducked behind the backboard until the firing from outside died down and then jumped back up with Cobra's pistol poised at the distant lamp post. Sapphire took several seconds to aim, standing perfectly still while globs of plama flew all around him, and pulled the trigger.
The bullet flew through the air and flew right into the muzzle of the clone, which flew off the lamp post and exploded into flames in mid air.
Cobra and Emerald stood up and both gave Sapphire menacing looks. Sapphire sat down on the couch breathing hard. When he opened his eyes he saw the two figures glaring at him. His ears drooped down and he swallowed. He held the gun out in front of him.
"Here's your gun." He whimpered with a weak grin.
Cobra swiped the pistol from Sapphire's hand and threw it hard on the floor.
"How many more are there?" Cobra barked out.
"One." Sapphire answered. "Not including Zap."
"Hey!" Emerald spoke out, turning her head every which way. "Where's ruby?"
The blinding yellow flash and deafenting crack of thunder returned as the backboard of the couch erupted forward, sending Sapphire headfirst into the adjacent wall. Sapphire body stuck itself inside the wall with only its legs hanging out the other end. The arcing ray of light flew through the living room with a bright red blur wrapped around its tail end. It made a sharp upward turn and crashed though the roof, sending bits of wood, sheetrock, and lots of dust falling down on top of Cobra, Emerald, and Sapphire, now pressed flat against the floor.
"Ruby!" Emerald Screamed.
"Water!" Sapphire shouted.
"What?" Cobra shouted back.
"Zap can transform into a hypersonic, organic tube encased in a four hundred megawatt laser."
"What?" Cobra shouted again.
The bedroom door shattered and the arcing ray of light few straight forward through the hallway, through the living room, and through the wall between the couch and sliding glass door. More debris was sent falling onto the bodies flattened against the floor.
"The laser maintains its shape by circling around Zap." Sapphire continued. "Water will cause it to refract inward!"
"The emergency sprinkler system!" Cobra yelled out.
Emerald turned her head sideways and glanced up at the ceiling. There was one sprinkler head sticking out. A charred and smoldering piece of wood lay on the floor where the dining table used to be. Emerald reached a tendril across the room, wrapped it around the piece of wood, and lifted it up into the air. She shoved the smoldering wood into a sprinkler head. A second later, alarms went off and water poured through sprinkler heads throughout the apartment. It soaked through the fur of Emerald and Sapphire, and through the clothes of Cobra, giving an unpleasant cold and runny sinuses.
"Now we wait!" Emerald yelled.
A few seconds later, the arcing ray of light crashed in through the ceiling. As soon as it was inside the living room, the entire apartment was engulfed in an incredible white light, and then a torturous screeching like metal sawing through metal.
When the light and the noise faded away, Ruby was on her back, on the floor and nearly unconscious. Her arms lay out to her sides and her tongue hung out her gaping mouth. Ruby's paws and chest were blackened by the burns of clinging to Zap.
"Ruby!" Emerald shouted.
Emerald ran up to ruby and lifted her up in her tendrils to a semi sitting position, looking deeply, and worriedly into her face.
"Sparky's still out there." Sapphire said.
"Not for long." Cobra replied.
Cobra was standing up, looking out the window behind the couch. Emerald and Sapphire climbed atop the couch backboard to see.
The dull gray Sparky was standing motionless on the roof of a distant house. It stared at the figures in the window of the wrecked apartment. They stared right back.
The sprinkler stopped pouring out water and alarm sounded off. The quiet was erie now compared to the previous clamor. Dripping water was the only sound now. There was so much of it that all the subtler sounds were masked.
Sapphire snorted from his runny nose induced by the cold water.
The gray Sparky stared out from the distance only a few seconds longer before glowing and then flying outward, westward and away from Kokaua.
"Now he knows we're here." Sapphire whispered to herself.
"Who does?" Cobra asked ominously.
Emerald lifted her head up from the barely conscious face of Ruby toward Cobra. Cobra turned around to look at Emerald. Cobra began walking toward Emerald, standing as tall as he could with his fists clenched and his lips pursed.
"I can't tell you." Emerald said, shaking her head. "Everything depends on that. The whole world depends on that."
Cobra stood above Emerald, huddling over Ruby and staring back up at him, and folded his arms.
"If I tell you what they are, that may destroy everything both you and I know." Emerald Pleaded.
"I that case." Cobra answered, water dripping from his chin and elbows. "I'll have to tell the Federation that they came here because of you. And I doubt very much that they'll have any mercy for you after hearing that report."
"No!" Emerald begged, shaking her head. "You'll damn the whole world! The whole Federation!"
"Then tell me what they were and where they came from."
"Tell him." Sapphire said from across the room. "By now I've calculated our odds of success as better if he did know than if he didn't."
"How much?" Emerald asked.
"Everything." Sapphire answered.
Emerald sighed and looked back down at Ruby, groaning, delirious, and mumbling something totally incoherent.
"Those were clones of experiments two two one, six-o-one, six-o-three, and six one nine." Emerald said softly. "They came here to scout out any possible obstacles to their master's efforts. They burned themselves to avoid capture."
"And just who is their master?" Cobra asked.
Emerald took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"Dr. Hamsterviel." She answered.
"Impossible." Cobra replied. "Someone in prison can't have those kinds of resources."
"Not now he doesn't." Emerald answered. "But in twenty years, he'll have."
"In twenty years?"
"Among Jumba's inventions was a way to travel through time. Hamsterviel used Jumba's formulas to build a time machine of his own, which he used to go back and kill experiment six two four."
"Angel?"
Emerald nodded her head.
"Why her." Cobra asked.
"Because he escaped once before. It was indirectly because of Angel that he was recaptured and his hostile takeover of the federation stopped.
"He needed to come back, twenty years into the past to kill Angel so that he wouldn't have anyone to stop him. To that effect… after capturing as many experiments as possible to be put through his cloning process, he wiped out every living thing on Earth.
"Jumba sent us back to stop him. That's why the Jumba now doesn't recognize us. In this time we haven't even been born yet."
"You mean designed." Cobra replied.
Emerald's heart skipped a beat. What did she just mutter out?
"Yes!" Emerald snapped right back. "Designed! I meant designed.
"This is a farfetched story." Cobra said. "If Jumba says its probable, then I'll believe you, but until then…"
"What about the Federation?" Sapphire shouted out.
"I'll leave a note for my comrades telling them not to get themselves or the Federation involved."
"Are you sure they'll listen to it?" Emerald asked.
Cobra looked around the apartment. What wasn't burned or broken was soaking wet. All the windows were shattered. All the appliances were in pieces scattered about. Spent bullet casing littered the floor along with debris from the roof now barely able to hold itself up.
"Yes." Cobra answered. "They'll listen."
