Fusion
Chapter 36
Kel woke with a start. Shining into his eyes was an immensely bright surgical light.
"Ah! Son of a bitch!" he cried out in pain. His eyes darted around the room. "…where am I now?" He groaned.
A loud voice came over an intercom in one of the corners of the room. "You're in a heavy containment unit."
Kel looked around and surveyed the room. It was large, white, and very clean. A window placed high up on one of the walls gazed upon the room like a vacant, condescending eye. A few people, presumably scientist or doctors, peered out of the window, observing Kel's restrained body. As he strained to look through the pane, he was able to make out the shapes of Connor and a few of the others from the group.
He tried to move, only to realize that he was strapped to what appeared to be an operating table of some sort. His steel cuffs refused to accept any limb or body movement of any kind. He struggled with his restraints for a moment before finally giving up.
"Sorry, but you're not going anywhere." The voice over the intercom spoke, "You're strapped down with stainless steel in a lab two hundred meters below the surface. This is the highest form of security we can afford at the moment."
"Let. Me. Out." Kel said menacingly.
Five different scientists entered the room, one of them carrying a large steel suitcase. Kel watched intently as they opened the case, revealing a multitude of syringes and sharp doctor's tools.
Kel's eyes went wide. He always had a strange feeling of uneasiness around needles and syringes. He struggled fiercely and tried to free himself, but to no avail.
One of the scientists began to make his way over to Kel, a full syringe in hand. It appeared to be containing some kind of thick, dark blue liquid.
The scientist was only a few feet away when Kel spoke. "If you enjoy having both of your hands, then I suggest that you keep that needle away from me."
The man hesitated for a moment, unsure of his own safety. He looked at one of the others for reassurance. The man nodded.
"Go ahead. There is literally nothing he can do."
The scientist made the rest of the way over to Kel before finally sticking the needle into his neck and injecting the fluid. Kel screamed out of agony and fury.
"Take your hands off me!" He shrieked. He eyes flared like a bonfire. The liquid, acting like a tranquilizer, put him out immediately. He eyes shut, and his body went limp.
Connor watched attentively from the window above, holding Chelsea close.
"What are they gonna do?" He asked. One of the doctors turned to him.
"Surgery. They're going to operate on him to first find out what's causing the corruption. Then, assuming that they're successful, they will attempt to eradicate the virus. However it will take a while. These procedures are not fast, nor are they simple."
Connor sighed and looked back out the window. Down below, the scientists and doctors prepared to cut Kel's unconscious body open. Suddenly, his left arm jerked. The men all looked at each other, wondering what to think. He was unconscious…right?
Just then, Kel's eyes shot open. They spread as wide as they could before quickly contorting into a frightening glare. His body began glow brilliantly with a turquoise hue, his arms and legs snapping up and ripping the restraints right from the very table they were welded to. He then sat up, tearing the remaining restraints from the table, the doctors and scientists desperately trying to open the security door.
Kel stood up and screamed as he lifted his arms up high, causing every object in the room to levitate into the air. The doctors and scientists all screamed in terror as Kel quickly shot his arms out to the sides, throwing them, and everything else against the walls.
His eyes flared red as he lifted his right arm into the air and shot a bolt of phazon up into the ceiling, creating a large hole in the structure. He squatted down for a split second before propelling himself out of the building on a large stream of phazon.
The doctor behind the glass spoke into the intercom, "We need security and medics down here A.S.A.P."
The group stared in awe of what they had just witnessed.
"Well…they sure as hell pissed him off." Connor said.
"No kidding…" Chelsea replied.
"I can't believe he flew off like that…" Samus spoke, her voice just barely above a whisper. "I thought he was secure…I thought we had him."
"We all did." Dylan replied.
"So…what now?" Jim asked. "For all we know, he could be flying back to get that Spark Rifle thing…and if he does, we're pretty much screwed."
"That's what I'm worried about…" Connor said quietly.
Suddenly, the building began to shake violently. The lights flickered for a moment and the building brought itself back to a standstill just seconds before another tremor shook the facility.
The sound of a loaded gun came from behind them. Everyone spun around, only to see the Chief standing there, assault rifle in hand.
"Dude, what are you doing?" Jim asked.
"Well I, for one, am not going to stand around while the Covenant break through our doors and some crazy corrupted kid goes around melting everything he sees…"
Connor pulled out his DMR. "Neither am I. He's my best friend, and I'm not gonna lose him because some evil bitch stole his heart…"
"Me neither. I'm with you guys." Chelsea said, pulling out her magnum.
"Count me in." Dylan said.
"I'm with you too." Samus said.
"I guess I kind of have to tag along, don't I?" Jim said sarcastically.
Suddenly the wall a few meters away from them erupted in an explosion of shrapnel, plasma bolts, and what appeared to be phazon. Dark Samus, suit less and covered with blazing phazon, strode menacingly into the room.
She smiled sweetly. "Well if it's too much of a chore, you could just stay here with me…"
"Whoa…" Jim said, slightly in a daze from her beauty.
A large sphere of phazon formed in Dark Samus's hand. Seconds before she unleashed it, it was shot and the sphere erupted, sending her flying back out through the hole.
Wounded, Dark Samus staggered back to her feet, angered by their retaliation.
Connor stepped through the hole and out into the cold, ice wrapped landscape, DMR in hand.
"Hey bitch!" he grinned, "Come get some."
Dark Samus lunged at Connor who, at the last second, struck her on the forehead with the butt end of his rifle. She quickly stood back up and threw a punch at his face. Quickly dodging it, he spun around, drove an uppercut into the underside of her chin and then kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying back. She landed hard on the frigid ice a few meters away. She stood back up and smiled.
"You're quite the fighter aren't you?"
"I learnt it from an old friend…" Connor replied.
Samus and the Chief walked through the gaping hole in the lab's wall. Chelsea, Dylan and Jim followed closely behind.
"Oh good…more company…" Dark Samus said quietly.
Suddenly, her gentle figure lifted, and she left the very ground she stood upon. Surrounded by burning phazon, she rose into the air, eyes flaring and hair flailing in the wind.
"Get back!" Samus shouted.
Almost as if in response to Samus's warning, a large wave of beautiful blue light was unleashed upon them, sending the group flying back towards the lab walls.
Dark Samus then formed a large orb of phazon in her hands and aimed at Dylan, who struggled frantically to get up and out of the way.
Samus leaped to her feet and sprung into the air, tackling Dark Samus mere milliseconds before the bright ball of light was launched. As she fell to the ground with her dark twin, the bright blue spheroid was hurled high into the air and erupted in a gorgeous explosion of blue fire and sparks.
Seeing an opportunity, the Chief bolted for Samus and her evil counterpart.
Samus rolled onto to her back so that Dark Samus was on top of her.
The dark angel smiled evilly. "You make it too easy-" By the time she finished her sentence, the Chief had tackled her from behind and the two of them were flying towards one of the concrete supports. The Chief forced Dark Samus to crash face first into the pillar, causing her to cup her face in agony.
Chelsea, struggling to stand back up, primed her magnum and shot Dark Samus in both her legs. She howled in pain and curled up into a fetal position.
"Ha! Incapacitation, bitch!" Connor shouted triumphantly.
A light layer of phazon formed around Dark Samus's thin body, her wounds beginning to heal ever so slowly.
"Not so fast…" Samus said as she charged up her arm cannon, preparing the final blow.
"Wait!" Connor shouted.
"What?"
"We need her alive…at least for now."
Dark Samus moaned in pain, her body curled up so tightly it almost appeared as though gravity had betrayed her and was forcing her inward.
"Connor, she has powers far beyond our comprehension. She is too dangerous to be left alive."
"Just hear me out for a second, alright? We had Kel in captivity, or at least we thought we did. If he had simply stayed where he was, then by now the plan would have worked exactly as it should have. The whole idea was that we were gonna use him as bait so that Dark Samus would come to his rescue. We were gonna snag her at the last moment and hold both of them in captivity, and hopefully, from that, figure out what's happened to him. But now, he's gone, and the only way that I can think of to get him back over here, is to now use Dark Samus as bait."
Samus stood there and pondered for a moment. "Alright, but under one condition: That there is always at least one person watching her. We can't risk letting her escape."
"Deal."
Dark Samus looked up at Connor pleadingly before the Chief came up and stuck a tranquilizing syringe into her neck. She gasped from the sensation of cold steel penetrating her pale skin and immediately went limp.
"Alright, let's get her inside. She's going to need a lot of restraints." Samus said.
"Wait…where's Jim?" Chelsea asked.
The group scanned the area for a brief moment. Connor spun around and looked back towards a damaged section of the lab's wall. His eyes widened.
"Guys..." He said nervously. The rest of the group turned around, a few of them gasping in horror.
There, impaled on a sharp metal beam jutting out from the damaged wall, was Jim. His body hung loosely like he was some kind of ragdoll, blood dripping down the wall behind him.
"Son of a bitch!" Dylan shouted angrily, "I was just starting to like that guy!"
"How could this have happened?" Chelsea asked quietly.
"This most likely occurred when Dark Samus unleashed that wave of blue light." The Chief answered, "We were simply thrown against the wall…however Jim wasn't so lucky."
"So…we got off easy?" Connor asked hesitantly.
"I guess so." Dylan replied.
Samus came up from behind the group, carrying the unconscious Dark Samus over her armored shoulders.
"Let's get her inside. Time is of the essence."