Almost forgot today, but here it is. I've had a lot of stuff going on and I'm pretty frazzled by this point, so it's a good thing I write ahead.
Four more chapters guys, hope you're ready.
Alright, he would admit, getting sixteen people out of the building, three unable to move well on their own and two sick, was proving to be a more difficult task than Abe had expected. Jordan was consistently noisy despite the brash girl's best efforts, and he had been carrying Alice on and off because, since Damorian was already a very bulky figure, there were times where his body would barely fit by itself, let alone another person with it. It wasn't as if the girl was heavy, but she couldn't not hold of very well because of her harsh cough and he wasn't used to being so top heavy.
It was a frustratingly slow process.
Wrapping one arm around his back to hold the girl on, he jumped up into a higher vent tunnel, very nearly missing because he'd underestimated the amount of force it would take to get them both up there. That simply would not do. He made a mental note to start running with a sandbag in his backpack to prevent this from being an issue again.
Once he was through, however, he set Alice down carefully and turned to start pulling the other's through as well. The two blind ones were brought up first, then followed by the ones carrying them. After that, it was a matter of who got there first. Charlie and Dianne usually would stay until last, locking their fingers to lift up the others faster.
"Stop for a sec." Willow panted. She had yet to complain about carrying Kira around, but she wasn't much bigger than the blind girl and it was beginning to wear her out a bit, especially with as out of shape as her body was from all the confinement. "I just need to catch my breath."
"Yeah, everyone take a breather, drink some water." Abe said. He had to remember that not everyone had the stamina he did, especially not people who had spent most of their time locked in a ten by twelve metal box. "How's Alice?"
Charlie knelt down by the girl. "Her breathing looks like it's evening out a little, but the lass still looks like a ghost. Whatever that little genius girl gave her seems to be working, though, the cough hasn't been too bad."
Abe nodded, though it wasn't like he could do much in the situation, regardless if it was good or bad news. He almost never got hurt, so he hadn't bothered to learn basic first aid like Arrow and Pyra had, and even then, it wouldn't help much, not like Ema's intense knowledge did. As far as he knew, none of the others knew very much about first aid, either, except Timothy, who had learned field dressing in the military.
He mentally did a once over on everyone, checking to see who looked like they were about to pass out and who looked like they would fight an army before someone stuck them back in a box like a caged animal.
The girl Willow seemed to be recovering her strength quickly, but he wasn't sure if it was a front or not. He suspected she would be fine in the long run, though, as he had quickly come to realize the girl was very stubborn. She was currently tying a strip of her shirt she had gotten wet around the blind girl, Kira's, head. She was sweating profusely at this point, and one touch to her skin told him that she was far too warm. He hoped that it was still night on the surface, the early November weather bringing down the temperature considerably. However, once the sun rose, he knew the girl would be in very bad shape.
Jordan and Charlie probably looked the best, closely followed by the woman with the short blond hair and scar on her shoulder(Abe had forgotten her name) and the last woman they'd freed. The four seemed to be the most aggressive in the group as far as temperament went, and they were more than ready to be out. The man with the dark blue hair that had come from the lower sector looked to be in decent shape as well.
Timothy was somewhere in the middle. He didn't exactly look ready for a cage match, but Abe doubted he'd be collapsing on them anytime soon, much the same for Damorian. The older man Joe never seemed quite able to catch his breath and tended to move a little slow, but he did his best to stay with the group and never complained about the pace.
Everyone else, save for the three being carried, looked exhausted, but determined to leave.
Bottles of water were passed back and forth for a few minutes, but the lanky blond quickly pressed them to keep moving. With a group so large, they couldn't stay in one place for too long to keep from being discovered.
"Alright, we're about halfway there." he said. "We have to keep moving, though, if we're not out before the whole place locks down, there isn't any getting out."
"Let me carry her for a bit." the navy haired one said to Willow. "You're going to tire yourself out too fast."
This time she didn't complain, wordlessly transferring the overheating girl to the other man.
The group gathered themselves with little complaint, and they were back on the move.
(*)
"You sure you two are ready?" Rex asked, standing in front of the door that held the EVO with the blue feathers. Kateri and Salem both held ropes, to pin the EVO down so they could take it back without too much struggle, but they had to be careful not to harm it so it wouldn't set Salem off.
"Yes, we're big girls, open the door!" Salem said, her body coiled in a defensive position.
There was a soft hum as his nanites told the door to open, and he immediately jumped back, gauntlets erupting from his arms.
Glowing orange eyes moved back and forth a few times, a low growl rumbling from inside the cell. Then, one some unknown cue, the growl morphed into a harsh snarl and it leapt forward. Kateri and Salem dove to the side and it's claws dug into the wall behind them, the talons sinking deep enough that it was able to hold its body on the wall.
"Ooh, that's fancy." said Salem, cracking the rope like a whip. "C'mon, Tweety, dazzle me."
The pyro ran forward as the EVO leapt at her again, the tiny auburnette baseball sliding under it's body while flinging the rope around it. Rolling off the ground, she yanked it back, momentarily making it falter in its movement.
Rex jumped in at this point, black and blue metal and plasma springing to life in the form of two large metal...somethings, attached to his arms by cables. One became a smooth blur almost immediately, the force throwing the EVO to one side. It hit the wall, dazed as it hit the floor.
Kateri leapt over Rex's machine, arrow firing from her bow before her feet hit the ground. The charged projectile slammed into it's side, and white electricity flowed over it's body, and then a moment later, the metal wall it was up against. The light flickered out almost immediately.
"Shit, the wall absorbed a lot of the charge." she said, running forward with the rope in her hands. "It won't stay down long."
Salem was by her side in an instant, yanking the rope around it's legs as Kateri bound it's "arms". She winced as one of the talons lightly scraped her arm, slicing through the skin and allowing small beads of blood to bubble through the thin scratch.
Salem stiffened, shaking her head. "Huh, I wonder if it hit the wall too hard." she murmured.
"Why?" Kateri asked, wiping the blood into her pants.
"Weird smell." the tiny arsonist replied. "Not really strong, but we found out that if enough blood pools under the skin, like a blood blister, it can still have some really mild effects, but it's nothing to worry about. Though, I didn't smell it until we were tying it up."
Kateri's blood ran cold as she glanced down at the scratch on her arm, small amounts of blood seeping from the skin again. Is that what Salem was smelling? Was the effect on her nanites getting worse? Would it keep progressing until it set off her friends?
Hate for the bastards at Jessup bubbled up with renewed vigor.
The creature began shifting around on the floor, a deep hissing rumbling it it's throat. "Let's go, it's going to come to soon." Kateri said, stepping back as Rex's Smack Hands formed, the Latino using them to pick the EVO up.
"'Kay, we got one, where do we go?" Salem spoke into her comm. "...alright. You got that, Rex?"
"Yeah, pretty sure that's right by where I threw a table through a wall." he said, unable to contain a grin at Kateri's exasperated look. "Relax, I don't think I broke anything important...probably."
"I'm pretty sure you can't physically be serious for more than a few hours at a time or you'll break something." the archer said.
He shrugged. "I either make a joke out of everything or let it all go to my head. I'd much rather have to put up with people complaining about bad jokes than losing my mind."
Kateri didn't say anything. What could she say? He wasn't wrong, and more than once the EVO teen's smart mouth had managed to uplift her mood, even if only a fraction.
"So, do we just dump it in some science box and let you two do your thing?" Salem asked, hopping around the wreckage easily. "Cool, make our lives easier."
"This is it." Rex said, shoving the door hanging by one hinge aside with his foot. It groaned, but the hinge held at it swing open. Ema and Yiska were already inside, the genius girl standing off to one side with her back to the machine while the older man fiddled with one of the access panels on the side.
"Good, you're here. Put it inside and Yiska and I should be able to do the rest from here." Ema instructed. "We're having to recalibrate it a bit to make it reverse the effects, instead of causing them."
It sort of reminded Kateri of an elevator, only three times as big and in the middle of a room. Rex dropped the, now squirming, EVO by the doors, opening them up and shoving the creature inside before it could get its bearings enough to tear free of the ropes.
"It's in there." the Latino reported, watching the machine. "Do we just go, or...I guess nah."
Lights began to flicker on it before he'd finished talking, bringing a quiet hum with it.
Kateri's eyes popped open, having to hold back a gasp as a painful ringing assaulted her ears, like having a dog whistle amplified by a thousand. Her muscles tensed, but she had no outward reaction besides her fist clenching at her side.
Ema's eyes jumped around the screen, scanning the data as fast as it appeared. "It looks as though it's working-wait, that's too much power." Keys began to click again as she tried to cut back on the energy flow. It if had too much power behind it, the device would overcorrect the nanites and cause them tp become highly unstable.
Given that no one was more than ten feet from the machine, that would be bad. Very bad.
Loud, pained shrieks could be heard from inside the device and there were several thumps coupled with violent scratching. If Kateri had to guess, she would say the EVO would be in immense pain if her own experiences were anything to go by, if not more so because the machine was actually capable of breaking the connection long enough to switch the frequency.
The scratching was soon replaced by a banging that was nearly rhythmic, no one particularly wanting to imagining what exactly the creature inside was doing to cause it.
Kateri heard a sharp whisper to the side, and she glanced over to see Ema doing...something, her expression a strange, watered down cross of worried and panicked.
"Ema, what's-"
The archer never finished her question, the machine powering down before he could.
"Damnit, the default power was too high." Ema moved over to the machine, pressing a few buttons to prompt the door to open. Steam billowed out of the chamber, creating a thin fog throughout the room. "There's a chance it could have worked, but if it over changed the nanites-"
The girl was cut of by her own uncharacteristic, startled squeal as something from the inside of the machine collapsed on top of her.
"Sideffects!" Salem yelled, rushing forward. She grabbed onto whatever had tackled Ema and slammed it against the machine. "Stay away from-huh?"
Pinned against the metal in Salem grip was a girl with olive skin and a long shock of white hair. She didn't seem very coherent, either, rather limp in the auburnette's hold.
Ema sat up from the floor, rubbing her forehead where the other's own head had crashed into it. "I must admit, that was unexpected."
"So it worked?" Rex asked, stepping closer as well. Salem was no longer roughly holding the person to the side of the machine, though she did still have to support her to keep her standing.
"I think, although Elsa here's a little out of it." Salem said.
Yiska grabbed a rolling chair and pushed it over to them, Salem dumping the girl into it as carefully as she could. She stirred a bit at the movement, a soft moan escaping her lips as her eyes lazily flicked open.
"Uh, I don't think that's normal." Rex said. Though the girl looked completely human, they now saw that her irises were still the vibrant, glowing orange color.
"It isn't." Ema said, glancing over her body.
"Wh...hnnh, where 'm I?" she slurred after a moment, shrinking a bit once she realized her was surrounded.
Ema didn't answer the girl, tipping her head back and holding open one of her eyes, flashing a light into them. The iris reflected it back, but her pupil shrunk to a tiny black pinprick.
"Ah, hey, that's bright!" she hissed, pulling back and swatting weakly at the genius.
"Interesting." she murmured. "It reflects back light like mine and Pyra's, but the pupil itself is still sensitive to light. I wonder how this would affect how she saw in the dark."
Then, the girl let out a shrill scream, arms wrapping around her torso as she eyes squeezed shut. Salem clamped down onto Ema's arm and yanked her back behind her, Rex doing the same with Kateri. Yiska was still standing by the controls, but quickly moved to join the group.
"I-ah, everything hurts!" the white haired girl shrieked, her eyes, popping back open to reveal they were solid orange again.
"What's going on?" Salem shouted, her gun aimed at the girl, but Ema reached past her and wrapped her hand around the barrel. "Sideeffects!"
"I think her nanites are rejecting the change!" Ema replied. "Don't shoot at her, there's no telling what it could do to us!"
Her skin began to ripple and tiny feathers began to rise from her skin, falling off as new ones grew. She fell to her knees, hands digging into the ground as the ends of her fingers shifted to sharp claws, the floor parting under them like butter.
"I-I don't understand what's happening!" Yiska said, his eyes wide with fear as he watched the girl writhe and scream.
"Maybe I do." Rex said, stepping forward as his right arm became a long whip. He moved toward the girl, not attacking her just yet, but ready if she did first.
The claws receded into her hands for a moment and she reached back and started grabbing at the disk on the back of her neck. Now that it was visible to the rest of the group, they could see that the tiny device was flashing through a few sequences, the lights bright red.
She opened her mouth and let loose another scream, but this time it was much closer to the screech from her EVO form.
Rex reached forward with the hand that wasn't coated in metal and grabbed her arm, eyes narrowing in concentration as blue lines began to spread over her body.
She began to thrash even more, her arms and legs morphing back over up to her elbows and knees as he mouth began to slowly elongate. The whip wrapped around her body as he attempted to keep her pinned.
Rex grunted as his nanites fought for control over hers, and the fact he was having to physically hold her was not helping. A moment later, however, Salem and Kateri were on either side of him, trying to help keep her down.
Salem had grabbed one of the ropes out of the chamber from where they had fallen when she morphed back into a human, taking it and wrapping it around her legs while avoiding the claws that wildly swung back and forth.
Kateri had latched onto Rex's machine and was perched on top of the coil that was pinning its arms. Toxic orange eyes glared at her at she, no, it, began to snap at her with teeth that were getting sharper by the second.
Jerking back, she moved so she was behind the creature, wrapping her legs firmly around it's neck and holding its jaws to her chest with one arm while using the other to keep from letting the teeth get to her face.
A moment later, her own body erupted in a familiar pain.
Her teeth ground together and she glanced down to see the lines creeping up her own body as well. Rex's nanites must have detected her own reprogrammed ones as well and was trying to switched them back too.
The Latino also seemed to realize it, his eyes locking with hers as he took in the pain she was trying to keep from showing.
"I can't make it stop." he said as quietly as he could manage. "As long as you're touching it, it's gonna attack both."
"Then do it!" she said, her body jerking as it threw it's head again.
"But-"
"Do it."
The burning intensified as Rex pushed harder and the shrieks of the EVO grew louder. Feathers were going everywhere as they continued to fall, very little of the girl left as the EVO took over. Salem skidded back several feet as it managed to get in a solid kick. The pyro's head hit one of the desks, and she was still for a moment as the hit dazed her. Three long scratches in her arm dripped blood.
Rex's eyes widened a bit in panic at the sight of the blood. "Wait, is she-"
"It's fine." Kateri ground out. "They don't affect each other for some reason, not important right now."
He watched in his peripheral vision as the blond girl raced to the auburnette's side and began trying to staunch the bleeding, but otherwise seemed fine.
Suddenly, the EVO threw its weight back and with nothing keeping its feet from moving, there was much more force behind the motion than either of them had been expecting. Kateri's back slammed into the metal frame of the door, and Rex heard a sharp cracking noise where her head smacked the metal. She let out a short involuntary yelp, her limbs going limp as she slid down the side.
"Kateri!" Rex shouted, but his attention couldn't be on her long now that the EVO's jaws were free. Grinding his teeth together, he forced as much power behind his nanites as he could, and the EVO made a noise that was almost like a scream instead of a roar.
Then, he felt a subtle click and it went limp.
Rex's machine folded away as he panted, watching the EVO for any signs that it would get up, but it remained still. He then dropped to his knees by where the crumpled archer lay, her body partially upright from where she rested against the machine. "Kateri! Kateri, can you hear me?!"
Her mouth twitched and her eyebrows furrowed at his shouts. "...mmhm, don't yell." She slowly sat up, Rex's arm behind her back to keep her stable. One hand moved to lightly rub the back of her head, feeling a large bump that throbbed. "Goddamn, I'm gonna feel that in the morning. Don't think it's bleeding, though." She sent a sharp glare at the EVO. "Diigis kiiya'sizini…"
"Excuse me?" Yiska raised an eyebrow at the girl, but she didn't acknowledge him.
Rex looked over to where Ema and Salem were, the pyro also sitting up, though she seemed more coherent than the Native American girl did. "Is she alright?"
"Yeah, I think so." Ema replied. "She'll need stitches later, but I can keep the bleeding down for a little while."
"The blood doesn't affect you?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"No. I have a few theories as to why, because it should. My best guess it that it's the same mutation that I have, just a better version of it, which is why we don't affect one another." She glanced over at him. "Besides, if she did, it would have when she came back from blowing off steam at the first motel. Her knuckles were bleeding then."
Thinking back, he did remember that, when she returned, Salem's knuckles had been skinned and he'd thought nothing of it.
Kateri spoke next. "That's good, because the last thing we need are you two going on a rampage this far down-"
Her speech cut off when the disk on the back of the motionless EVO's neck began to beep, and a moment later, Kateri noticed its skin beginning to ripple. A second later, it clicked what was happening, and her eyes widened. Jumping to her feet, she yanked free from Rex's grasp and sprinted over to where the two were, moving much faster than she would normally be able to because of the adrenaline. "Get out, now!"
The archer grabbed Salem's arm, hauling the tiny girl to her feet and half carrying her to the door while Ema was a step behind. She almost threw the auburnette out the door, giving the blond a firm shove out as well before smacking her hand on the keypad. The door slid closed and she spun around, eyes trained on the EVO.
Rex, also standing at this point, gave her a confused, borderline look. "Kateri, what-"
He didn't need to finish when the EVO's skin burst, throwing dark blood all over everything and everyone in the room.
Aw, you guys thought you were gonna get to see them go nuts, didn't you. Sorry to disappoint.
Because that would be awfully disastrous, now wouldn't it?
Please drop a review and tell me what you think! See you all on Thursday!