Chapter 10: New Power

Rick grabbed Jamie's blood-soaked arm and carefully dragged him out of the spreading puddle. Copious amounts of blood was sucking up both their bodies. Jamie stood up, looking at Rick, then back at the school, which was pooling enough blood on the ground around it to fill up a swimming pool or two. "This is disgusting." He shook off a bit of the lining of a monsters stomach off his arm, clearly repulsed. "I can't wait to take a shower."

Rick shrugged, he was actually used to it, but listening to Jamie complain brought back memories. He almost fondly recalled prying open a fleshy wall that was blocking the way to a Meat Factory he had been in early on. Even now he could remember the exact revulsion he felt when slime and blood fell out of the hole in the wall, completely soaking his legs and shoes. The smell was intolerable and he had to swallow a bit of his own throw-up at the time. "Gah!" He was broken from his reminiscing by something causing him to jerk forwards, he hunched over, holding his head as it felt like his brain froze solid.

Jamie jumped backwards a few feet and looked around, then at Rick. "What was that?"

The Terror Mask let out an interested chuckle. "Who knew?"

The right half of Rick's face twitched involuntarily as he held his head and straightened up. "What?"

The Mask just shrugged while Rick felt his brain cool off. "It doesn't matter."

"Ghh," Rick bent down to one knee rubbing his massive fingers into his skull. "If it doesn't matter, then tell me anyway."

The Terror Mask paused and shook their head. "Nah,"

Jamie was having his own conversation, whispering quietly to the Nightmare Mask, unlike Rick, who seemed to have no problem asking questions out loud. "Dammit... I get it." He muttered and looked up at Rick, his sad expression was covered by the mask.

"You prick," Rick told the mask. He stood up and shivered, the affects of whatever he had felt was already wearing off. Clearly Jamie hadn't sensed it as strongly as Rick had.

Jamie turned around and Rick watched him dash up to the body of the creature he had just slain. He hopped up, on top of the head and jumped on top of the beasts shoulder. "Rick, I'm sorry, I like you. You're a good friend, but I suggest that if you want to stop the Nightmare Mask from releasing this Abomination monster..." Jamie raised his claws and sunk them into the flesh of the corpse. "that you kill me."

The Nightmare Mask took over his body in an instant, causing his body to double in size, the short boney spikes poked out of his spine and his flesh bursting open to reveal flaming patches of red energy on both sides of his back, his fore-arms, his legs and the lower left half of his chest. She surrounded his head and with a burst of light, the body she had her claws imbedded in glowed. It moved, pushing itself to its feet. She jumped off the body and landed on the blood-soaked ground. She jumped back into the building, obviously she had business inside. The corpse looked at them, it took a step forwards and the organs that hung from its stomach detached completely, the innards dropped to the ground in a pile.

"Don't worry Rick, it may be dead, but it can't fight if it's got no arms and legs." The Mask said poignantly.

He nodded in response, clearly ready to kill this corpse. The body raised a clawed hand and slashed at them, Rick jumped forwards, landing on the creature's wrist and gripping on tight. The body raised its wrist that was holding Rick and tried to shake him off. Rick gripped more tightly, he could feel the flesh already starting to tear under his fingers. His head span slightly from the movement. He jerked as it flailed its arm around and he was forced to let go, his mind felt like it had been frozen again. He flew into the school building and dented the wall inwards on impact. He fell out, twitching slightly and crashing to the ground. "I can't move." Rick muttered while trying to get his twitching body to cooperate. He felt so stiff and his vision was blurring a bit. It was like he wasn't wearing his glasses, and while he wasn't, the mask did correct his vision enough that he didn't need them while he was wearing it.

"Relax, it'll be over in a few seconds." The mask turned white hot and took over, forcing Rick to his feet. Each time the mask moved his muscles, it felt from his perspective like it was moving lead.

He had the usual changes made to him and the mask ran forwards and rammed into the body's leg. It toppled over and he grabbed the ankle, pulling the creature towards him several feet. He moved in and Rick felt a sharp pain in his head while the mask moved their stiff body, he raised their arms up and used the extendable blades to chop down at the leg, he dismembered it with ease. The corpse still moved, swiping at him with its right arm. The Terror Mask was smacked several meters to the side, crashing to the ground and rolling till he finally slid to a halt in the bloody puddles surrounding the school grounds. He forced Rick to his feet, who's head was spinning, his brain still felt like it had been frozen. "Come on kid, I need you to focus."

He shrank back to normal, Rick felt his knee's give and he held his head, dizzy. "What is happening to me?" He got to his feet, his limbs were still pretty stiff.

"You're going from Tainted to Infused, that's what's happening. The vibe we got in the cab the other day was YOU. All that Necro was fermenting in your body and by luck of the draw, you put me on just as it was reaching it's apex. The extra Necro bath you've been getting pushed your soul to the edge. It's either die or Infuse and I'm not letting you die just yet, so you Infused."

Rick shivered involuntarily as the corpse pulled itself towards him. He felt a rush through his body suddenly, his glowing yellow eyes flashed and he ran forwards. DAMN! It felt good. Like an adrenaline rush times a million. The creature swung its arm at him and he caught the blow. He slid back only from the absence of traction on the bloody ground. He yanked the beast several feet forwards till the shoulder was facing him. He grabbed the arm and put his foot on the creature's shoulder, this rush turned to ecstasy as he pulled, his muscles actually swelling for a few seconds and with the ease of parting his own hair, he ripped the arm off with a loud crunching sound. He was bathed in blood, the corpses light died off and Rick's body deflated to a normal behemoth. He stood, hyperventilating at the rush. "YEAAH!" He shouted and actually fell over, this rush continuing to pulsate through every nerve in his body. "Let's do that again."

"Well, I can see you're enjoying yourself." The mask commented. "But don't think this will last forever. You're gonna have to learn to control this if we want to kill that bitch and her pet human." Rick relaxed, it suddenly sounded panicked as his eyelids started to droop as he felt a sudden exhaustion wash over him. The rush ended in an instant and he lay his head back, his eyes fluttering open as he fought to stay awake. "But it's imperative that you do not fall asleep, you're going to be exhausted after using up the only power you had. If you fall asleep, it'll take hours to recover, by the time you wake up, who knows how much progress that woman will have made." Rick started to fade in and out, the masks voice echoed in his mind and became more indistinct. The Mask let out a soft and short laugh. "I've never owned an Infused Soul before." Rick closed his eyes, he couldn't even understand the mask. It paused as it realized Rick was falling asleep. "RICK! I just said NOT to fall asleep! RICK!" Its shouts turned to soft echoes and finally dissipated into nothingness, Rick was already fast asleep. The Terror Mask sat there, vibrating a bit and fuming. "I fucking hate you."

There was echoes and the clicking sound of camera's. "Haven't ever seen anything like this thing." The voice sounded like a man in his late twenties to early thirties.

"Can you identify anything about it?" This was a deeper voice, also male.

An exasperated sigh came in response. "How many times do I have to say this? I'm a FORENSICS expert. You want me to find out if O.J killed his wife using D.N.A evidence, fingerprints and blood spatter analysis? That I can do! But I can't identify a giant humanoid monster that no one has ever SEEN before! Call a biologist you fuck-head!" Whoever this was sounded very annoyed. "Now get me my kit, Dick!"

Something registered in Rick's mind at the words. "Don't call me Dick." He muttered softly. "I hate that." He felt pretty tired. He also felt pretty cold, he could even feel something cold and wet sliding up his chest.

"Rick! FINALLY! You have to get up, there are people everywhere. All the noise that we made when this place died and killing the monster attracted a shit ton of police and investigators." It paused as Rick stirred slightly, not fully awake.

"This thing is waking up, get me a tranq!" The voice said. "With muscles these size, I don't want to find out if it's friendly or not."

"Oh yeah, and also there's a giant monster flying around. The Abomination shed a piece of flesh that turned into a bird and flew away. It's probably eating people as we speak." The mask sounded fairly annoyed as Rick shook his head. A light glowed over his left eye and he actually rolled onto his stomach, setting his head down as best he could. "Fucking human..."

"Whoa!" The voice let out a nervous laugh. "I don't think it will be hard to keep this thing asleep, it doesn't seem to want to wake up."

"Just shut up and have your gun ready if we can't tranq it." A nervous female spoke this time.

"Rick! WAKE UP!" The mask paused as it grasped for something that would make Rick get up. "I have... uuhhh." The mask hesitated for a few seconds. "CHEESECAKE! I have cheesecake for you boy." The mask whistled like it was talking to a dog. "Come on Ricky boy! Come on! Ricky want some cheesecake?"

That actually seemed to work to some extent, Rick peered an eye open, his vision was blurry but quickly focused on the blades of grass around him, illuminated by the light of the moon. "Cheesecake?" He muttered.

"Yes! I have cheesecake. That's it." The mask started coaxing Rick as he closed his right hand, considering getting up, but still fairly groggy.

"Did that thing just talk?" The young male asked.

"I think it said "Cheesecake". The female voice said. "Who knew? The Hulk likes cheesecake."

There was nervous laughter from the male. "That's ridiculous. This isn't the fucking Hulk. I don't even know what this is."

Rick slowly pushed himself to his feet, he shook his head and looked around. In the dark he could see quite a few people. There was at least five police cars and around and while there was at least a dozen people here, there was also two people standing right next to him. Most people had stopped to look at him, but one was looking at Rick and focusing in with his photographer's camera. He took a firm snapshot of Rick and lowered his camera, looking amazed. Another one hadn't even noticed Rick and was still looking at the dead body of the "baby" Jamie had killed. "Good boy!" The mask coaxed Rick like he was talking to a pet and then changed tone immediately. "Now GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"

Rick was still a little sleepy, but he still broke into a run, barreling past two officers that had frozen in place. He rammed through them like they were dolls. Nobody seemed to try to stop him, he quickly made it to the edge of the school grounds and into the dense set of trees on the outskirts of the grounds. He kept running, trying to piece together what had happened before he had lost consciousness. "I don't remember how I fell asleep."

"It was you using up the only ounce of Necro Energy you had at your disposal to kill that dead body. You used it up and since you used it up AS SOON AS YOU GOT IT" The mask sounded very annoyed. "you fell asleep. Kind of like a sugar rush, only faster."

Rick strained his memory to recall what the mask was talking about, dashing through tree's. A flash occurred and he remembered. He skidded to a halt, suddenly feeling rage towards the mask. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

The mask seemed taken aback at Rick's abrupt response. "What? It's what happens sometimes."

Rick clenched his fists, he was actually a little scared. "What have you turned me into?"

The mask seemed annoyed already. "Relax Rick, Infused souls are just the next level after Tainted. Once you're contaminated, depending on the level of contamination, you simmer for a while. Once that simmer finishes, you're primed for becoming one with the contamination. A little more juice and POW! You gain abilities that usually you would never have as a human... or you die."

Rick paused as he looked back at where he had come from and kept running. "So am I still human?"

"Technically yes, species is all in the body." The mask sounded like it was avoiding saying the whole truth. It paused and shrugged. "But your abilities seemed to coexist well with my own. I'm guessing your abilities will be purely symbiotic. No me, no using your powers."

Rick felt a squirming in his stomach of unease. He didn't like that answer. "So I'm like... you?"

The mask had that same tone of avoidance as it spoke. "Kind of... not really... but kind of. You're still more you then you are me. More like your Infusion has based itself around me because I'm the source of the contamination and I opted for keeping you alive instead of letting this run its natural course, which probably would have killed you." He didn't sound too concerned. "Probably, could have survived on your own, not really my concern anymore."

Rick grimaced under the mask and moaned in annoyance. "You had better not have fucked up my kid too!"

The mask remained silent and then whistled with a sense of false innocence. "I'm sure it'll be fine." It muttered to itself something that Rick couldn't actually hear clearly. But Rick could swear he heard the word "psychic" in his head. He fumed, wanting to tear the mask off and use any few extra seconds he'd have with the Terror Mask's power to smash it to pieces. He'd likely not succeed, but the thought was there. He grit his teeth, at the moment there was nothing he could do about this.

"So what kind of power does this mean I have?" Rick could remember a huge rush he had just before he passed out, but most of it seemed to blur together, making it hard to remember exact details.

"You amplified my powers a bit. Went a little berserk for about five seconds. I'm guessing your powers have become a magnifying glass for mine." He paused. "I'm gonna help you figure out how to use em'. It may come in handy if I need an extra boost while I'm controlling your body. I've been using this stuff my whole life. I'll have you using this stuff like you use your cell phone in no time." He sounded very sure of himself.

Rick sighed, still sprinting. He actually jumped as he reached a barbed wire fence. "So which way to we go to get to Jamie?" He felt his legs move and slide to a stop, he almost fell over from the sudden change.

The Terror Mask sniffed the air, he pointed Rick's head in the correct direction. "They went on foot. The next place must be close enough that porting was not needed." Rick started running in the correct direction. "Let's just hope she hasn't cleared it out already."