Disclaimer: Again, I don't own them. I own Erik, but that's it.

Author's Note: Ugh. Worst. Chapter. Ever. Kind of a short chapter, too; sorry. It just wouldn't come out how I wanted it to, no matter how hard I tried. Nearly done… nearly there… One more chapter (plus an epilogue I'm putting up simultaneously.) I apologize if it seems like I'm not putting much effort into these chapters; I've lost my motivation and inspiration for this story, and I don't think I'm going to recover it. But at least I'll have it finished, and everyone will see what I've been leading up to. And I'm going to have one more fic completed soon! I'm excited… After this, I shall focus on "Life's River Shall Rise" and the three-parter that comes after "Out of the Ashes," I think.

METAMORPHOSIS

Chapter Nine

Not With a Bang…

There was no way out. Erik huddled under the desk, trying to make himself very small, as if the shadows could hide him from Aki. His limbs seemed to lock up, his breath froze in his throat and his willed his heart to stop, for it was pounding so loudly he was certain Aki could hear it. She was almost in the room with himHe could hear her clawed feet scraping against the tile outside the door. And then… she stopped.

He felt the razor edge of her thoughts inside his mind, and he mentally flinched away. Go away go awaygoawaygoaway… He couldn't stem the frantic flow of his thoughts; even if he could will his body not to make a sound, surely his thoughts would betray him to her!

His thoughts… That was how she was tracking him, right? Could… could he use that to his advantage? Could she see him or hear him through the door, or was it only his thoughts that she sensed?

If he could control his thoughts, could he fool her? Don't think… don't think about anything. He shut his eyes, willing his mind to empty. I'm not here. I'm nothing. Nothing. There is nothing here. Nothing. Trying to think about nothing made everything run through his mind; it took more effort to think about nothing, to not think at all, than it did to formulate a plan.

It was quiet outside the door. He wouldn't think about that. Something scraped against the handle. He wouldn't think about it. The door slid open with a soft hiss. He wouldn't think about that. His mind was completely, totally blank.

There was a soft sound, the clicking of claws against tile. It took Erik a long moment to realize that the sound was moving away from him. But he didn't let himself feel elated; Aki was still close enough to sense his thoughts. He stayed under the desk for what seemed an eternity, until his body went numb. Even then, he didn't move, didn't dare even let himself think, until he no longer even felt the faintest tingle of Aki's thoughts.

His stiff muscles protested when he lurched into motion; he tripped and fell when he tried to scramble to his feet. At first, he thought that was due to sitting in an uncomfortable position for a prolonged period of time, then he actually looked at his feet. In the time it had taken for Aki to leave, his feet had become long and slender, with the heel well off the ground, like a dog's feet. He was changing so fast… Erik resolved right then that he wasn't going to look in a mirror. He was frightened that something unfamiliar and monstrous would look back at him.

Erik climbed unsteadily to his feet, clinging to the edge of the desk for balance. Balancing on the balls of his feet felt odd, and he hoped it wouldn't slow him down. Still gripping the desk, Erik opened the drawer he'd unlocked, rifling through disks and papers, searching frantically for the key card. No, no, that's not it… C'mon, Douglas, don't tell me you brought it on board the Zeus with you… no… His fingers encountered a slim piece of plastic under a pile of release forms, and he pulled it out. Yes! It was a key card of the highest level of clearance; it should be enough to open the armory.

He paused by the door, closing his eyes and concentrating, searching for any hint of Aki's presence. Nothing; she seemed to have vanished completely. That worried Erik as much as her presence had; now he had no clue where she was. He took a deep breath, then sprinted to the elevator, with all the steadiness of a newborn fawn. If Aki were to pop out of one of the offices lining the hall, she'd have no problem catching him.

XXX

He didn't let himself think as he skittered down the final corridor to the locked armory. Aki may no longer have been a presence in his thoughts, but he could sense Phantoms drifting silently through the building, joining their mistress in her search for him. If one of them detected him, it could alert her instantly. So he concentrated on nothingness.

The lock bleeped as he slid the card through the slot, and Erik winced at how loud it and the hiss of the opening door sounded in the silence. He slipped inside, shutting the door behind him. Motion sensors picked up his entrance, activating the lights. Erik blinked in the sudden brightness, waiting for his eyes to adjust before beginning his search.

The armory was… much, much bigger than he'd expected, and he suppressed a groan. There were racks of Nocturnes, crates of ovo-packs, energy buoys, even massive spare weapons for transport vehicles. None of these would do Erik any good; he needed weapons that struck not at the spirit, but at the physical form. Such weapons had become rare once the Phantom threat had become fully understood. Still, there should be a stockpile of something that he could use; there had been hope that the scientists could find a way to make the Phantoms corporeal and, once that happened, soldiers would be armed to take them out permanently.

He found them near the back. He bypassed the Sonnets, the pistols used by officers. He needed something that could pierce Phantom armor, preferably something that exploded on impact. Erik went further back and there, against the wall, were several locked metal-and-plastic cages with racks of guns just visible through the clear plastic. Erik slid the keycard through the slot of the first, examining the weapons and ammo inside. Nope, too light. He went to the next cage, then smiled in satisfaction. No wonder they'd locked these away; the guns in this locker were rocket launchers. If these had fallen into the wrong hands, they could cause major damage. Or so those old video games had led him to believe.

Rocket launchers hadn't been extensively produced since the 2030's; that New York had six of them was astonishing. They were stored in a vacuum; there had been a whoosh of air when Erik had opened the cabinet that pulled at his clothes and hair. It was the only way to safely store the thirty-year-old weapons.

There wasn't much ammo that he could find, only four of the heavy rockets. These will definitely cleave through a Phantom's carapace. Erik couldn't contain a grin; despite the dire situation, there was something satisfying about being able to blow something up. And the fact that he'd be saving the world while he was at it was just an added bonus.

The gun wasn't heavy; by the 30's, weapons had considerably slimmed down. It wasn't until the need to fit ovo-packs to the weapons that guns as bulky as Nocturnes had begun to be produced. Erik slung the weapon's strap over his shoulder, then shoved the four rockets into a duffle bag he'd found on another shelf. He closed the cabinet, which locked automatically. There was another rush of air as the door sealed and the air was pushed out.

Erik sat on a nearby bench, examining the weapon carefully. Guns hadn't changed much through the decades, fortunately; trigger, safety, and scope were all in the same place and worked the same way. Loading the weapon was more awkward; Erik's military training had given him experience with Sonnets, but sliding a clip into the butt of a pistol was nothing like inserting the massive rocket. And it was a slow process, especially with fingers that didn't bend how they were supposed to. He was going to have to catch Aki and her mate by surprise, killing one then pray that he had enough time to load and take a shot at the second. Aki… I need to kill her, first. I don't think her mate has her abilities. I hope…

Now that he was used to his new stride, he was surprised to find that he moved much faster than he had before. When one ran, they naturally put most of their weight on the balls of their feet anyway; the only difference between that and this was that he couldn't rest his heels on the floor.

On the way out, he grabbed a Nocturne and ovo-pack – he couldn't risk running into any of the incorporeal Phantoms and having them report to Aki. Having the gun in hand made him feel more secure somehow; he hadn't held a Nocturne since San Francisco. Even after he'd long exhausted the weapon's ovo-pack, he'd still clung to it for comfort.

Erik began to retrace his path to the city's core. The weapons weighed him down, but not as much as they could have – another aspect of his change manifesting in a useful way. But with the good came the bad; the Phantoms in the building sense his presence and called out to him as they would another of their kind, and when he failed to answer, the Phantoms would investigate. He was fortunate that only the humanoid Phantoms had come thus far, if one of the huge Metas came, he'd have no chance of silencing it before it could alert Aki.

He feared the message may have gotten out to her anyway, when he couldn't destroy a group of them fast enough. The Phantoms seemed to be traveling in packs of three or four – no, more like squads on a search pattern. They were becoming more organized now, more efficient. The randomness of their attacks had always worked against them whenever they'd assaulted a city; if Phantoms worked as a united front, all the tactics the USMF had developed over the years of fighting would be worthless.

He had to end this now. He broke into a run, his legs covering the distance with astonishing speed. The ovo-pack went dead, and he tossed the Nocturne aside and took the rocket launcher in hand. Almost there… he double checked to make certain the rocket he'd loaded earlier was loaded correctly.

He planned to avoid the entrance to barrier control center; it was the obvious way in, and likely guarded. He planned to skirt around it and take another way in…

Then it stepped around the corner. A hideous amalgamation of human flesh and limb with asymmetrical proportions and bronze Phantom armor filled the hall ahead of him, and Erik skittered to a halt. The creature that had once been Captain Gray Edwards roared in rage, lashing out a mixture of solid and incorporeal tentacles that sprouted from its wrist, and Erik tried to dodge them all. One fleshy limb made contact, raising a line of blood on his temple and momentarily stunning him. Blood dripped into his left eye, blinding him. He blinked to clear it away, just in time to see another tentacle whipping down towards him. Erik sprang backwards, hands fumbling to bring up the rocket launcher. He had to make this shot count; he wouldn't get a second chance… he pulled the trigger and fired.

The rocket hit the creature in its heart. There was a burst of light as it detonated, searing the image into Erik's retinas. Erik blinked rapidly to clear the spots, and as the world slowly came back into focus, he almost cheered. Where the creature had been standing moments before, there were now only smoking chunks of meat and armor. So you can die, you sons of bitches, he thought with satisfaction. One down, one to go.

A scream of anguish tore through his mind, and Erik doubled over in agony. Aki… The strength of her pain was staggering; her previous incursions into his mind were nothing compared to this! Erik instinctively covered his ears, although it would do no good at fending off a voice from within his mind. But the cries were so overwhelming… he couldn't think clearly…

Blood trickled from his ears, as if something had burst inside of him.

To Be Continued…