The Virus
Disclaimer: See Chapter Seven
Chapter Eleven: In Custody
A/N: Derp, I totally forgot I had this chapter ready to go...for the past few months. I've been very busy. This chapter has been up for those said months on another website, so forgive me for not putting this up earlier! This is more of just a filler, and I havent gotten to work on the one after this. Like at all. So I hope you guys will enjoy this and the rest of the fic for a while! ^^;
Lily
That voice...it couldn't be...
Wake up, Lily
Daemon?!
"Hey, what do you think you're doing? Stay away from it!" a voice shouted out. Who was he talking to?
"Don't you understand?!" chick-chack "I said, stay awa-grack!" The voice was cut off and replaced with several choking and gasping sounds, slowly fading away until-
"Black, that's enough, stand down." Another voice, more seasoned and gravelly, ordered whoever was choking the other man. It seemed as though this Black...wait, Black...Daemon's last name was Black...it couldn't be him, could it?
I cracked open my eyes and was nearly blinded by the overhead lights and moaned in discomfort and I shut my eyes. Something then covered the lights and I opened my eyes again, to look up into a gunmetal-grey visor, accompanied by a black helmet. I sighed in disappointment. So this was Black. Nothing more than a codename.
As I opened my eyes further, I could see that this Black was clad in full body armour, all black with some red highlights. His chestpiece seemed slightly larger than necessary, and I wondered why. He waved a gloved hand over my head, as though to confirm I was awake. I groaned in response, and tried to bat the hand away, but was met with slight resistance as a silvery glimmer appeared where I touched. A shield. Human technology has certainly advanced by leaps and bounds...well, their military technology, at any rate.
Black seemed satisfied and withdrew to look at someone else in the room. He nodded and walked away, but I didn't hear a door open, so I assumed he was still in the room. An older gentleman, wearing a dress uniform next appeared in my view, but his stare was anything but friendly. He wanted answers, and he would do anything to get them.
"Now, Lily, was it? Your friends have told me the exact same thing; that they saw a message from me in a nearby military bunker, to come here and get the cure for the infection. However, I instructed every bunker to detonate exactly forty-eight hours from receiving that message. It has been well over seventy-two hours since I sent that message. How are all of you still alive?"
I tried to remember...I was still groggy from the tranquilizer...my egg! Where was my egg?! I shot up from my prone position on the bed and saw that the room had a few guards, and they all had their guns pointed at me. Before I could react, Black seemed to slide over with a carbine, with his back to me - as though protecting me. Strange.
"Everyone, stand down, that is an order! We don't need a gunfight right now, do you understand me?"
Black seemed to ignore the command, as though waiting for the guards to stand down first. They did, and Black shouldered his weapon, still keeping an eye on them.
'M-my egg...w-where's my egg...?' I asked timidly.
Before the older gentleman could answer, Black surprised me yet again, by moving off to my right and producing my egg in a soft blanket, unharmed, from a nearby basket. He held it out to me, slowly, tenderly, as though he didn't want to break it - or risk my wrath if he did. I took my egg back, still wrapped up in its blanket and cuddled it lovingly and sighing in content. The General, as I remember now, glared at Black, and he shrugged, as though not caring what the General thought about his actions.
"Anyways, where were we? Ah, yes, you were about to -"
'Yes, we did survive for three days in that bunker,' I quickly replied. 'I don't know why or how it didn't blow up in that time, but it didn't, and me and my friends are still alive...with one exception...m-my ma-trainer...he was killed protecting us...not from the infected, b-but from my own murderous father...'
Black stiffened during my story, but I pushed that aside for now, more intent on explaining our survival.
'During our stay, we tried to re-activate the bunker's defensive grid, and stumbled upon your message. By that time, it was close to forty-eight hours old, and we tried to run away from the impending doom. But, we were attacked and couldn't escape. As I've said earlier, I don't know how or why the bunker didn't explode, but we were lucky it didn't.
'For the next two days, we prepared to go to the location provided in your message - during that time, I reunited with my father, found out I had an egg and had my trainer and father killed,' I finished, hugging my egg close and feeling it wiggle slightly in response.
"Well, that is more or less what everyone else told us...seems like their stories check out. Black, release them all."
Black approached and held out a hand to me, as though to help me out of the bed. I reluctantly accepted his offer, finding myself weaker on my feet than I expected. He adjusted his hold on me, gently holding my waist - such a surprise for one wearing a full suit of armour. I half expected to be crushed by his grip, but he kept on taking his time, being ever-so-gentle with my fragile body and egg.
The first room we entered had John, under guard by multiple dark-clothed guards.
"Lily! Are you ok? And who is this guy?" he asked, nearly jumping out of his seat, but the multiple click-clacks of weapons cocking kept him in his seat. Black simply waved a hand, and the guards stood down, lowering their weapons and exiting the room. John really did jump up out of his seat this time to embrace me, relieving Black of holding me up. He seemed to sag slightly as I was removed from his grip, but I paid little attention to it.
'Yes, John, I'm fine. They didn't harm me or my egg, thanks to him,' I replied, pointing at Black, who immediately straightened up, as though happy and proud of his actions.
"Who is he, anyways?" John asked.
'I heard the General say that he was Black...I thought it was Daemon for a few minutes until I saw the helmet...'
John hugged me gently. "I know, Lily...you miss him a lot."
'Black was told to release all of us, John. We're free,' I told him.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" he asked, looking at Black. "You'll lead us to them, right?"
Black nodded, as silent as ever, and walked out the door, looking behind his shoulder as though confirming we were following.
After a few hours of gathering up everyone else and trading stories, we decided to sit down in the mess hall to grab a bite to eat. All the people in there avoided us - except for Black. He stood silent guard as we ate, slightly creeping me out, but I knew he would never harm any of us. Call it instinct, call it a gut feeling, but he just had that caring attitude surrounding him.
We were all discussing what to do now, as we weren't expecting this many people inside the base, when a dark-clad soldier approached us.
"I want to get one thing straight with you guys. Even though the General set you all free, we're still watching you. Don't try anything funny, or else."
"Right to the point, huh?" Seth growled. "You fucking douchebags."
"What was that?" the soldier snapped, a hand on the holster of his sidearm. "Care to repeat yourself, mutt?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Black stiffen up, his hands slowly closing into fists. I wondered which side he would take if a fight broke out.
"I said," Seth snarled, getting up, "You - fucking - douchebags. Got a problem with it, punk?"
"Seth! Calm down, please!" Elaine said, trying to pull Seth back.
"You damn right I do!" the soldier shouted, whipping up his sidearm. But before he could even pull the trigger, a black blur moved around him and we all heard a loud snap just before the soldier started to scream in pain. His arm had been broken, and I had a very good idea of who did it.
"You'd better get that looked at," a scratchy, distorted voice called out. We all looked around before realizing that Black had said it. He was masking his voice, I knew. But why?
"You! You did this?! I'll get you back for it!" The soldier shouted.
"I'd like to see you try," Black replied smugly, leaning against the wall, not a care in the world.
The soldier lunged at Black; his remaining fist cocked back to strike, but in a flash, Black had grabbed the arm, pulled it towards him and shoved his knee into the soldier's gut. The soldier could only attempt to gasp for air for a few seconds before Black withdrew, only to lash out with his boot, sending the soldier flying to the opposite wall...minus the arm that Black was holding.
I could only imagine Black smirking as he tossed the limb over his shoulder and approached the downed soldier, his own handgun pointed at the soldier. The handgun definitely seemed familiar to me - it looked like a large caliber weapon, slightly dusty and grimy, as though Black hadn't cleaned the exterior of the gun for a while. It definitely worked, however, as Black calmly put two rounds into the soldier's chest as everyone in the mess hall watched, shocked.
"Anyone else got a problem with this group?" Black asked, his altered voice amplified to echo around the room.
Everyone else quickly looked at each other before shaking their heads quickly and hurrying off to their respective tables. Black then returned to us and leaned against the wall again, silent as ever, not even addressing us about the event.
"What...was that?" Arch asked, dumbfounded.
'I think...Black just sided himself with us,' I replied.
For the next few days, we regained our strength, not being bothered by anyone else in the base, Black making doubly sure by standing near us. I could feel my egg shaking every now and again, me getting a warm, happy feeling every time it did.
But one morning, I noticed Black wasn't with us at breakfast. Normally he would be standing close, guarding us. I thought he might've been re-assigned somewhere else, until I went looking for him.
I asked for directions to his quarters, and when I approached his room, I noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Tiptoeing closer, I edged the door open, and nearly gasped in surprise.
He was sitting on his bed, facing away from the door, wearing a black skin-tight suit, his armour hanging on a reinforced mannequin, his hands holding the helmet.
He was human, all right. But he had one defining feature on his body that made me doubt it for a fraction of a second.
He had a red crystal gem protruding from his back - very similar to either a Gallade's or Gardevoir's gem.
I wondered how that managed to get in his body, before I pushed the door in further, making it creak. Black stiffened and donned his helmet before whipping around to face me, heavy-caliber pistol pointed at me.
"Get out," he rasped, his voice distorted by his helmet's microphone settings. I stood in shock from seeing his chest - the gem protruded from it as well, slightly off-center, I now noticed.
"Get OUT!" he nearly shouted, the gem glowing for a fraction of a second as a microburst of Psychic energy caused me to stumble backwards. I backed off, and the door slammed shut with another microburst of his limited power.
I stood there for a few minutes, still in shock. How had Black gotten a crystal gem from my species? And how was it integrated into his body? I kept pondering those questions, and the possible answers to them for a good, long while until Black's door opened and he stood in front of me, fully armoured.
"I'm sorry I wasn't at breakfast with you," he said, sagging his shoulders. "How long were you standing there?" he asked.
'Long enough to see why you wear a larger chestpiece compared to other soldiers in the complex,' I replied. 'Just who are you?' I countered.
"A close friend. A very close friend, Lily."
Continued in Chapter Twelve...
A/N: Who is Black? Is he who Lily really thinks he is, or just another nameless merc for the army? More to come in the next chapters...
And again, I'm terribly sorry for not putting this up sooner, as well that it's so short. But Writer's Block is a horrid thing...
- Chief
