Author's Note: Hey guys many thanks to The Robot Reader and Cas for the reviews! This is Chapter 9!
Eight POV
OK first off let's get something straight. I was dead about 10 minutes ago, not a fun time. I'm carrying what seems to be a... dead Number One, we think. And Five is really, how should I put this, bossy, stubborn, et cetera. The thing is carrying a dead person really takes the fun out of being alive for the first 10 or so minutes of your resurrection; and to be honest, I'm really out of shape since Chicago.
"Hey stop daydreaming" Five says nudging my burning arms.
"Hey, I'm allowed to daydream" I say, putting on my best pouty face. She smirks at my humour and trips me forward a bit, nearly dropping Miss Dead here.
"Really? You had to do that?" I ask questioningly, my hand on hips and one on One, Wow that's a tongue twister, How now Brown Cow, How now Brown Cow...
"How now Brown Cow, How now Brown Cow, How no-"
"What are you doing?" Five asks, confused and a little pissed. I open my mouth to say something but then just don't bother,
"Forget it, probably jetlag from your recent back-to-life thing, or dead-lag, whatever" she says tip toeing towards an open room.
"Is it in there?" I ask pointing towards the green pulsing room, she nods grimly. I remember her saying she was tortured and cloned; something like that. Damn, just an everyday Loric life, without the cloning, wait cloning. Hmmmm something doesn't add up here.
I'm too lost in my thoughts and I don't see to Mog soldiers, Yes soldiers not guards, I tell my stupid conscience, walking out of the green-pulsing-room. Five quickly pulls me and dead-barbie behind the cover of the extending wall. She gives me an annoyed look, kinda like an older sister would, but I quickly mouth a sorry and smirk; at least it earns a grin back... and a punch. Her punches like that don't hurt they're just really annoying.
I give the dead-One to her, wink then teleport. I've never felt so alive; I quickly swipe their blasters from their holsters on their back. Stupid on the left realizes this and is stunned for a second; I teleport between them, punching Stupid-left in the jaw and kneeing Stupid-right in the crotch, Ow, he's probably not gonna have children, then again... I teleport away, just as Stupid-left regains his stance. I then unleash a series of quick hard blows complimented with a teleporting routine I learnt with Reynolds. 'Punch hard, tp, punch-kick, tp, kick-kick, tp' he used to say; I then feel a surge of anger course through me, Reynolds, I'm so sorry... Stupid-left is bending over from a recent knee to the stomach and Stupid-right comes running at me. Stupid. Just plain stupid. I teleport behind him, punching his back, then I disappear and reappear, kicking him with both legs in the chest; he falls flat and I crush his skull with my fist. Ash explodes everywhere, caking my arms Yuck Mog cooties! Ahhh!
Then I realize I forgot a Stupid; I turn around to see Stupid, wait which one is this... oh stuff it, he's holding a blaster about 12 inches from my chest, great he found it, must have been good at hide-and-seek, I never use to win. I disappear before his eyes, he's in shock, that's the way I like 'em, I silently teleport facing his back, and I shape-shift into a large tiger. You can probably guess what happened after. But wiping 'Mog cooties' from my mouth is just, yuck.
Five smiles at me,
"Not bad for someone who was dead 15 minutes ago" she mocks.
"Wait are we keeping track?" I ask, she giggles silently in response, so she can laugh! I think and smile.
I pick up sleeping-beauty, well dead-sleeping-beauty, and walk towards the green-pulsing-room. Inside is well, a green lava lamp thing, God damn it, are the Mogs obsessed with lava lamps?! We have literally seen 7 in every room when we're looking for Five's chest. Five looks at my expression of pure hatred to lava-lamp-thingys and laughs.
"Ok it has to be in here, this is probably the last place I remember seeing them come out of" Five says as she hovers around the room, looking for her chest. I place One on the desk nearby, This must have been someone's office, I read the name opposite the desk, Rexicus Saturnus, Hmmmm interesting name, then again every Mogadorian name is complicated. Old Rexy here must LOVE lava-lamp-glowy-thingys.
"Yes, oh my God, yes, yes, yes, YES!" Five says, her voice rising in pitch and volume. I look at her.
"Shh, what, what happened?" I ask curiously stepping away from drop-dead-gorgeous; I'm having a lot of fun coming up with names.
"I found it, I found it Eight" she's now jumping with excitement; and surprisingly hugs me.
"it has everything in it" she says as the chest lock clicks and falls to the ground. She pulls out a black sleeve... Oh no, no, no, I back slowly away from her, my eyes fixed on the black sleeve; it's fabric a void of nothingness, reminds me of what I lost that day.
Five looks up from her chest at me confused,
"What is it?" she asks, still confused about my reaction to her sleeve
"N-nothing, it's all good" I say, my hands now have climbed their way up to a defensive stance, and my right hand touching my chest, where I was stabbed... I feel my heart rate increase underneath my hand.
"No seriously, what's wrong?" she asks, her voice now concerned her eyebrows wrinkle in confusion.
"No, no nothing's wrong" I say in my joking voice, trying to change the vibe. I hate this vibe.
"Eight, I know your lying, tell me now" she says, crossing her arms.
"How'd you know, is that another one of your Legacies?" I ask jokingly. She serious now, and my grin drops.
"OK, um, that was the weapon that Fiv-, I mean the clone Five killed me with" I finish uneasy, lowering my point from the sleeve.
"You mean Cody? He used this to kill you?" she says it like she had already known about it, but looks concerned anyway.
"Um, yeah" I say not meeting her gaze. It's a sensitive topic, but I'm trying my hardest to push through it.
To my surprise someone hugs me; I'm about to scream thinking its drop-dead-gorgeous hugging me, but it's not. It's Five.
"I'm sorry" she whispers as she pulls back. I know she feels responsible for the whole death and cloning thing. I grin at her, the same jester grin I always give. She faintly smiles back – she's probably still feeling guilty.
"Anyway we should probably go now" I mention, picking up "One" from the desk. Five nods. She packs everything back inside her chest, a stick thing, a rubber ball, a shiny ball and a book; leaving her black sleeve on. She gives me a sympathetic look as I eye the sleeve, I grin to her gaze, visually assuring her that I'm OK. But truth is I'm not, it'll take some time to get past it.
"OK I think I know the way out, but it's not accurate, can you teleport us out?" she asks
"Sorry, no can do, I have to see where I'm going in order to teleport" I say glumly. She floats next to me, her chest underneath her left arm, and her right wearing the deadly sleeve. We give one last look to each other, and then we sprint out.
Five/Emily POV
I still feel guilty and responsible for the mess we're in; the cloning, death, torture, capture, I could go on forever but that'll just make me look bad – really bad.
Ya know what the bad thing is, besides well, everything; is that the way out of the Mog prison we're in, isn't exactly 'fresh' in my head. I've remembered Mogs coming in through these tunnels, so they might have an exit somewhere up ahead.
I'm with Eight; he's a nice guy, funny and 'brotherly' annoying sometimes – kinda makes me wonder if I had a brother on Lorien. One or whoever this Loric-chick is, is safely on his back. I offered holding her with Telekinesis, but he denied. As I said; nice guy.
The tunnel becomes a little brighter at the end. We've run about 2 miles through this tunnel in complete darkness. Eight goes on about some Marina chick, and about how her Legacy allows her to see in the dark, she's apparently Number Seven; I can tell he likes her, A LOT; I smirk at the image of Eight being a romantic.
We stop at the end of the tunnel to reveal a forest like setting; a meadow opens up to our left and a valley stoops down to our right. the only thing separating us from freedom is a flimsy looking fence. I punch it, instantly my hand is stopped by an invisible wall that materializes a second later.
"Sh*t, force field" Eight says. Still holding the dead Loric chick.
"Can you teleport to the other side?" I ask him. He puts down the girl, and tries. He teleports, leaving displaced air around him, then reappears a second later sprawled onto the floor, and coughing. I run to him and help him up.
"It's *cough* more of an energy *cough* field, I can't teleport into *cough* it" he finishes. Damn it. I look to my right and see a keypad full of numbers and 10 symbols. I start trying to decode it. Eight stands next to me, scratching his head thinking of a plan.
Suddenly I hear shouting down the end of the tunnel. I look at Eight, he now has transformed into a lion with a snake as a tail. I telekinetically place my chest and the Loric chick in the corner behind Eight and me.
I look at Eight, he growls in unity towards my anticipation to kill every Mog we see. It's show time...
Eight POV
The anticipation is killing me, ironic right? I've transformed into a large lion, and with an added feature of a snake tail. I love shape-shifting.
Emily or Five, whatever you call her has her sleeve's blade fully extended out and her skin has turned a bluish tinge, the skin itself looks very solid and geometrical. The colour changes slightly, similar to a kaleidoscope. I'm ready to pound some Mog.
The first wave is about 100 meters away before they come into view from the darkness. Emily and I start throwing them off using Telekinesis, easy pickings I mentally joke. The wave is finished in no time, I'm still in my lion-snake form and Five is still blue.
The second wave is much faster, they know we're here now; and what do ya know, they brought Kraul. Oh great!
I charge or run, or whatever a lion-snake creature does, forward. My speed increases with every pounce and push off the ground, my snake tail hisses wildly in eagerness for blood. It's just really creepy that, that can happen. I look back to see Five guarding her chest and pretty girl, good plan I think.
I pounce off the ground into the nearby Mogadorians. Their shocked at first but then draw fire, but I'm too quick. I slash and bite my way through the advancing Mogs, changing form from lion-snake thingy, to dragon to rhino. I'm getting much better at changing quickly and holding my form. Ash fogs the ground creating a mist like air, displacing every time I stomp or kill another Mog. Then I hear a roar...
I finish off 3 Krauls and teleport back to Five; she's covered in ash just like me, her blue skin freckled with ash. I change back to my normal appearance and look to where the roar came from. It's not a Piken, a Kraul or even any of the beasts that John told me about in the Mog base. This is a humanoid figure, coming through the ash-filled mist, its silhouette flickers in the uneven lighting...
It comes into view, it's, it's, it's a...dude?
A man emerges from the ash; he's well built, like a brute or tank from a video game. He has a visor covering his eyes, nose and mouth; while his body is grey, with pulsing black veins. A white and red tunic is his pants; they have Mogadorian symbols on it, each seem to pulse with his veins. So not creepy I think sarcastically. I look closer at him and see a green imprint below his eye, Subject 8, what a coincidence!
Another brute, I decided to call them, emerges from the ash cloud, Subject 5, OK that's no coincidence.
They both charge, they're faster than I expected, I look towards Five, she grins and nods.
We charge.
Five/Emily POV
The brute-things, Eight likes to call them, have almost covered the half-way distance between us. I fly a moderate and powerful speed. Eight runs and keeps up with me, changing into a centaur version of him, with a crimson-brownish horse. My Zythardic skin is hard to concentrate with, but that's the price you pay for the ability to be indestructible. I fly ahead towards Subject 5, he's angry, very angry... I clash with him; probably dislocating his left arm and denting the visor covering his face. I see Eight out of the corner of my eye jump onto Subject 8 and change into a green gorilla.
I'm about to punch the brute, and then out of nowhere he punches me with his dislocated left arm. I fly into the tunnel wall, leaving a dent in its smooth surface. There is no damage to me due to the Zythardic crystal, but I can't keep concentrating with this douche punching me like that.
The brutes have a slow healing factor, which gives me my speed advantage, I flex my Hidden Blade, and the blade pops out, scrapping the ground as I duck underneath the brute's deathly swing. I fly upwards, directly to his face, shoving my blade into his chin and through his head, he slaps me away. The Zythardic is now taking most of my strength to concentrate, I decide to not use it, my skin returns to normal as I throw it in the direction of my chest. I get up and see Eight battling his brute fiercely changing from a bear to a lion, very quickly then teleporting behind him and slashing the skin and muscle clean off.
He teleports to me, then teleports me; my world instantly slips from underneath me, as I arrive at the end of the tunnel with my chest, the Zythardic and the dead chick. I slip Zythardic into my chest and look at Eight.
"They have a Healing Factor" he says breathing heavily, he has a few nasty looking cuts and bruises, but otherwise alright.
"Yeah figured; must be biologically engineered using vat-born subjects" I say, he looks at me surprised and grins.
"So how do you kill a guy with a healing factor power?" I ask him. I stare at the 2 brutes slowly lumbering towards us grunting with each step as they heal, slowly...
"We cut their God damn head off" he says, grinning at my smirk of eagerness. I look confused at him for a second then ask,
"How are you going to cut your brute's off?" I ask, as the brutes slowly start regaining their lost skin and muscle. Eight looks at me for a moment then, his right arm slowly becomes a sharp pointed blade, the end of it shining a tint of green; the blade extends out from his elbow, still allowing him movement. I raise an eyebrow surprised.
"I would have preferred Wolverine claws, but that's good as well" I say teasingly, he grins and then teleports.
I flex and my blade shoots out, as I take a fast flight towards the brute. I shout as I stab it in the heart, or whatever it has and punch its face, in the process ripping off its visor. A hissing of a gas fills my ears and the brute, howls in agony, and begins to cough a lot. I kick it twice in the gut, before I plunge my blade straight into the brute neck, dragging it across to its shoulders.
It is now cleanly decapitated and I'm quite happy with my effort; I'm about to mentally start I conversation with myself, then I realize Eight is still fighting.
Eight POV
This brute doesn't like me trying to chop its head off. I guess no one would really like you for that.
I dig my blade-arm deeply into its knee, it growls in pain, wow that's actually the first time it's made a noise! I quickly step onto its bleeding knee, snap the bone; a push off the brutes chest, back flipping in the process; as my view comes into balance again, I turn around and swipe, chopping off its left hand. I look over at Emily; she's done battling her brute.
"The visor, pull off the visor!" she screams at me. I nod in agreement, and teleport out of a crushing handless blow. He hits the empty ground, I teleport to his neck digging my blade-arm deeply into his body, cutting through, what I think is a collar bone, that's just nasty.
With my free hand I rip off the visor, and I'm immediately greeted by a hissing of gas, I finish the brute quickly with one swipe of my blade-arm.
The head falls to the ground and his body becomes ash...
I walk over to Emily; she covered in ash and blood, some of hers and some of the brutes. Ash cakes her blond-brown hair, making it appear dark than usual.
"Soooo" I start, instantly making it awkward for both of us. She face palms at my casual pose.
"We need to get out of here now" she says looking towards the energy field.
"We need a code first" I say walking to my decapitated brute, I lift up his head, and hear Emily gag at the disgusting sight of blood, ash and well, brute. There's a piece of silver stuck into the brutes neck that grabs my attention, I pull it out. It reveals a bunch of numbers, I grin at my discovery. Emily goes to her brute and does the same, hers shows a symbol; more like a Loric symbol.
I teleport us back to the chest and dead Loric chick, I'm losing names to call her, and look at the keypad. I punch in the numbers on my piece of silver, 1-2-3-8-4, a green light blinks above the numbers.
It's weird, those numbers, 1, 2, 3, 8, and 4; for the Garde there's no connection; Numbers One, Two and Three are dead, Fours not dead and I'm back alive.
Emily steps towards the keypad and presses the tenth symbol, I scan through the rest and instantly find my symbol, wait what? My symbol is there?! I'm about to say something, but am interrupted by the static sound from the energy field, it flickers for a few moments then disappears.
I smile widely and look at Emily, she smiles as well, she picks up her chest, and I the so called Number One. I feel the soft breeze from the forest; it showers my body with chills, it's about 4:00 in the afternoon, I step out on to wet grass.
We're free, Hell yeah!
Author's Note: hey guys this was a long chapter – luck you! Thanks again to The Robot Reader and Cas for the support; I hope you enjoyed the chapter, I am going to make a decision on who's dying next chapter – but it won't be mentioned, (maybe hinted). Please tell me a name for Five/Emily's resurrection Legacy (that's not Necrokinesis) – please! There will be a new Legacy revealed between the next two chapters. J
Thanks again, and tell me if you want any exclusive POVs – the default ones are:
- Eight's
- Five/Emily's
- Marina's
- John/Four's
- Ella's
Well then, I hope you enjoyed!
Paragon 8