Chapter 37: Heal

Warning Tags: Intense moments

Back outside of the forest, Via stares in concentration as she adds one more stitch to Amity's stab wounds, cleaning up some leftover blood that escaped out of the wounds. After the last stitch is in place, Via places the thread and needle down and places two white bandages over the stitching to prevent bacteria from getting into the healing wounds. Via stands back up as she takes a relieved breath before saying "Done". She looks at Amity, who is biting the life out of the stick in her mouth from the agonizing pain of the needle going through her wound. She takes the stitch out of her mouth, Amity opens up her eyes as she glances up at the medic.

"Is-is it over?", Amity asked hesitantly.

Via replies to her "It's alright, Amity. It's done. Your wounds will heal up in no time. Just try not to make sudden or sharp turns with your body in the meantime".

"Alright. Thanks, Via. I don't know what I would have done without you", Amity praised before pulling the apprentice into a hug. Though Via is surprised by this, she doesn't reject the gesture and returns it to the teen. After a few moments, they separate and Via helps Amity to her feet, Inker is both happy and relieved to see his childhood friend back on her feet and not inching closer to death now. He approaches her as she stands up from the rock, Amity changes her gaze over to the humanoid squid.

She says to the squid "Thank you, Inker. I'm so glad I brought you with me from the lake. I wouldn't be stand here if it wasn't for you".

Inker blushes slightly as he rubs the back of his head before saying "Well, I would do anything for you, Amity. I care about you". Amity smiles and approaches the hybrid, bringing him into a hug. Inker blushes even harder, glancing up at Via. The medic just gives the hybrid a warm smile while she collects her supplies. Inker looks at the teen before giving back the favor, wrapping his arms around her.

However, a few feet away from them, just flying above them is Sky. The general arrives at the end of the forest, looking towards the ground to see where his daughter is. When he spots her, he is relieved to see her back on the feet, but is shocked when he sees her embracing Inker. Though Sky didn't want to admit that he liked the hybrid, he would protect his daughter from anyone or anything that he considered a threat. Unfortunately, Inker fell under one of those categories. With his amulet glowing and the Darkness Essence brighten up its dark color, Sky teleports out of the air in a heartbeat.

Back on the ground, Amity and Inker eventually move away from their embrace. They stare at each other for a moment, time and everything around them seem to slow down. But right at the last moment before Inker could say something to Amity...

"What the Nether do you think you're doing?!", a voice exclaimed, scaring Amity and Inker and makes them jerk away from each other. Amity looks over and sees her father standing side by side with her and Inker. Amity smiles sheepishly while Inker is slightly peeved from the unnecessary interruption. Adam glares at the squid hybrid before walking forward and stands a few feet away from Via.

"Via, I thank you with all my heart for helping my daughter. She wouldn't be standing if it wasn't for you", Sky said with sincerity. Via, however, isn't convinced by the general's honest tone of voice. She just scoffs as she throws her backpack over her shoulder.

"Don't thank me. Thank the one who rushed her across the forest just to get to me. You know, I expected you would risk everything to come and save your daughter, but I guess you were too busy fighting someone who got infected with the Taint to pay a little more attention to your daughter", Via answered coldly. Adam is stunned by the ex-recruit's response to him, but he bites his lower lip about the part of someone getting Tainted and him ordering Inker to go and find the ex-recruits to help Amity. Even he knew that it was bad on his part.

Via sees the general's stiff form and states out "Just as I thought. If you get hurt, don't expect to get help from me". The medic turn and walks back to join Alix, Sierra, and Aver standing a few feet away from the general.

Via stops in front of her friends for a moment before turning around and gives Amity at sadden look. "Be safe, Amity", Via replied to her. The young teen can only nod back in response to the apprentice. Hesitantly, Via turns herself back to face her friends. Sierra gives the signal for everyone to follow her before walking away. Alix helps Aver along the way, who is only half-conscious at the moment after the experience back at the Tainted lake. Via follows close behind, not looking back but at the same time, wanting to so that she can see Amity one last time.

As the ex-recruits depart from the forest and into a plains biome, Sky sighs as he leads his daughter back into the forest, staring half-heartedly at Inker before looking over to his daughter.

"Amity, are you okay?", Sky asked, wanting to be sure that Amity is up and about completely.

"I'm fine, Dad. I wouldn't be standing if it wasn't for Inker. You should be thanking him", Amity complained, noting her father's overprotectiveness of her as he keeps glancing over at the squid hybrid following them a few feet away. Sky sighs as he remembers back when his now Tainted wife stabbed poor Amity and nearly killed her, and he was more protective than ever to keep his daughter safe from anything, even the ones that Amity considered a friend.

"I know, honey", Adam replied back to her. "But I just can't help but judge someone on how they act or look. Just know that when time passes, it changes someone. And then eventually, there will be no one that you can trust".

"What, even you?", Amity questioned back.

"Look, Amity, I really don't want to have this conversation right now. We need to get back to the others and resume our way to Mt. Foreverest", Adam answered back before gently pushing his daughter forward, wanting to get her further away from Inker. Amity, without a reason to argue at the moment, willingly obeys her father's order and continues to walk, glancing slightly over her shoulder to look at Inker. The squid hybrid is miserable that he didn't get the appreciation from Sky for saving his daughter, but is even concerned that Adam is starting to keep him away from his long-time friend. He can only sigh deeply as he follows Sky back to the group.

Meanwhile, in the BadLands, after the incident with Cyber took place, DeadlyVenom decided that he is still in need of construction and analyzing and locked him away in his lab to do further repairs on him. Strapped against a dark-gray wall is Mitch, his normal eye shut while his red optic is completely dark. Heavy chains hold him against the wall, mysterious symbols are marked along the surface of the chains and glow purple, Taint infused into the symbols and corrupting the person tied to the chains.

DeadlyVenom is busy building and designing new weapons and hard-drives to make the android indestructible, powerful, and more obedient when it came to taking orders. After repairing the damages done on him that caused Nero to undergo his secondary transformation, he had found the problem that caused Cyber to go haywire and ATTACK only Nero, and he was more than furious that it had occurred since he knows everything when it comes to robotics and will not tolerant a mistake made on his part.

While looking closely at a piece of hardware, the door to his lab slowly opens up and Nero peeks his head inside, spotting Deadly across the room. The psychotic doctor hears the slight creak of the opening lab door and asks without turning his head "Who is it?"

"It's Nero. Mind if I come in?", Nero questioned, not wanting to interfere with the busy doctor if Deadly didn't want him in his lab.

"Not at all", DeadlyVenom replied, cracking his fingers as he moves away from the piece of technology. Nero enters the room and gazes over at the inactive android on the wall. The corrupted sorcerer approaches the half-robotic man before stopping a few feet from him, not wanting to get caught in a death grip if he suddenly reactivated.

"So...did you figure out why Cyber just attacked me like that?", Nero asked, wanting to see why Cyber lunged at him when his primary order was to obey Nero. DeadlyVenom walks over and stands next to the mage.

"I did. While I was looking through his history and data banks, I found that Mitch was somehow able to override his system's limitation searches and firewalls and gain access to his supposedly deleted memories. Most of them are from childhood while others are from Hunger Games, but the main ones is the events where I brutally tortured him before he became an android. A lot of his memories were pulled out. My main conclusion is that the moment that Mitch was activated, he saw a chance for revenge and lunged at you. Something like this should not have happened", DeadlyVenom explained, glancing down at the floor and shuts his eyes, knowing too well that he was responsible for building Cyber to be the most dangerous and ruthless half man, half machine creation.

Nero looks over at the Tainted doctor and tries to reason with him by saying "Deadly, what happened before wasn't your fault. None of us knew that Mitch was somehow in some way fighting back the Taint".

"It is my fault, Nero", Deadly replied, raising his head. "I want to be a perfectionist, but mistakes like this will render me useless of getting one small detail right".

"Not to be rude or anything, but I think you're making too big of a deal about this", Nero pointed out, much to Deadly's anger. The doctor confronts the sorcerer face-to-face, his pupils shrinking into a pair of small purple squares.

"It is a big deal, Nero! If I mess up this project again or it attacks someone else other than you, Herobrine will surely have my head!" DeadlyVenom exclaimed in desperation. He begins to pace up and down the room, trying to think of a way to prevent Cyber from getting his memories back and eventually realizing who he is. Nero just watches in worry for the man.

Nero stops Deadly in his tracks with his telekinesis and says "Deadly, you need to calm down. You can make anything that comes to that psychotic mind of yours. You and I both saw how much you crippled Mitch into the state that he is in. Pretty sure that you can do much worse to him. Just put some thought into it and I'm sure something will come to you. Got it?" Deadly lets out a heavy sigh as Nero releases him from the purple force field holding him in place.

"Alright. I'll calm down. I just need some time alone to gather my thoughts", Deadly answered back, rubbing the sides of his head as he feels an unfortunate migraine begin to creep its way into his head. Nero nods as he makes his way towards the lab door. But before leaving, Nero glances over to the doctor and lifts up one of his hands. Conjuring up in his hand is a glass of liquified Taint, to which he levitates over to DeadlyVenom. The doctor grasps the glass, looking up with a confused look on his face.

"Just in case you get thirsty. If you figure something out, send me a message", Nero said before stepping out of the lab. Once the door closes shut, Deadly turns himself around to face the deactivated android still pinned against the wall. The doctor looks down at the glass, feeling a bit parched since he had started working on the subject.

He brings the glass up to his mouth, tilting it and feels the refreshing Taint rush into his mouth. He gulps it down, feeling the parched feeling escape immediately. However, before he can finish the last of the Taint, he feels a sudden and intense pain erupt in his head. So extreme that he loses his grip on the glass and it shatters across the floor. Deadly groans as he stumbles across the room, unsure why he suddenly felt this ping of pain happen the seconds that he ingested the liquified Taint.

Wait a second...

"Well, I-I'll be damned", Deadly muttered out, barely able to manage a grin on his face, figuring out why this is happening as he sees a purplish glow begin to appear on the ends of his fingers. "Nero gave me the right amount of Taint to help me reach my secondary form. Thank you, Nero". The doctor manages to keep himself on his feet as the glow spreads across his arms and eventually, engulfs his entire body to let him reach his secondary form. This goes on for a few seconds before the glow dims down into nothingness, revealing Deadly's second and new form.

His entire appearance has changed him entirely, inside and out. His hair is now spiky and raised up, a pale gray in color as well as his goatee. The tool around his head has changed colors, dark with multiple red colors around it. He now possesses light neon-green eyes with large, dark-blue, cat-like pupils. His clothing is splattered with colors of blue, neon-green, green, and red. Around his neck are several tools and his amulet, which now has a red symbol on it. He has these red symbols on his knees and shoes and a belt holding dozens of syringes filled with Taint. Deadly raises a hand to his head, feeling a different sort of feeling at that moment.

"My knowledge...", he whispered to himself, his voice lowered several tones from the transformation. "It's vast, it's glorious, it's...empowering me to even greater heights!"

The doctor glances over at the table of the inventions that he was already making. He glares down at the items as he slowly walks over to them. "These inventions are nothing compared to what I can prepare. Destroying them would be a waste of time. Making them even more superior would be even better. Yes...this secondary form of mine has let me gain more knowledge and theories that would even leave the brilliant of scientist scratching their heads in wonder. No...those who believe they are smarter than me don't reach the level of I.Q that I now have. I will work on this piece of simple machinery and I will keep working until this half-man machine hybrid is more than just a bucket of bolts and nuts. I will make him the most diabolical, indestructible, and the most catastrophically complex killing machine to exist in the history of the planet!"

DeadlyVenom tosses his head back and starts laughing wildly, his combination of high intelligence and insanity has pushed him over the edge of some sense of sanity. His laugh echoes throughout the lab, Mitch remains inactive as this happens, the Taint symbols on his chains continue to endlessly pump Taint into the half-mechanical man's systems.

Back in the forest, about several miles away from where Sky is regrouping with the others, an unfortunate soul has fallen victim to the Taint and is slowly padding his way down a path, bleeding from a bite wound on his neck. Storm breathes heavily through his nostrils, his hooves kick up small rocks and bits of dirt. The stallion doesn't know how to feel as a sense of nausea hits him over the head like a hammer. He feels distraught over getting bitten, and at the same time, he feels regret for taking out of the clearing like that without Louise.

He knew that his mistakes will cost him dearly, not only for Louise but him. Storm stumbles a bit, nearly losing his footing from a bout of dizziness that struck him so unexpectedly after the nausea feeling went away. The horse ceases his walking for a moment, trying to gain a bit of balance to his mind as well as his legs. He starts taking deep breaths, hoping that it'll assist him, but they do little affect to cure these uncontrollable feelings running through his head.

"Ugh, what in tarnation is going on with me?! I'm dizzy, I feel like throwin' up. It's like I'm going to the Nether in a hand basket!", Storm thought to himself, shaking his head side to side to rid himself off the dizziness. The stallion straightens himself out after he gains some balance in himself. When he looks over his shoulder for a moment, he does a double-take and spots a nearby pond several feet away from him.

"Maybe some water will refuel me", Storm thought to himself before proceeding to approaching the pond to get a drink. Once the stallion gets to the water source, he slightly spreads his front legs apart and lowers his head before beginning to drink. Unfortunately, the stallion isn't aware that majority of the lakes, rivers, and ponds located across the land of Minecraftia is filled with Taint, and the pond that he is drinking from is full of it. Yet, the darkness of the never-ending night and the clearness of the pond makes it difficult to see just how Tainted the pond is.

After Storm lifts his head back up, he breaths in relief as he begins to feel better...for a moment.

Not a moment later, the results of drinking up the Taint takes its toll on the stallion. Storm groans as every inch of his strong body erupts in pain, not just in his head. He stumbles away from the pond and leans his body against a tree, unable to support himself anymore. But knowing that laying down on his side will crush his internal organs, the equine can only struggle to keep himself up. When Storm looks down at his front hooves, he is shocked to see a purplish glow slowly make its way up his legs.

The stallion backs away, scared and unsure what is happening to him. He neighs in alarm as the glow appears on his back feet and spreads just as fast as the glow on his front legs. Then, out of nowhere, Storm is engulfed by a huge fireball blast.

"AGH!", Storm half-screams, half-neighs out as the purple flames begins to swirl and morph around, absorbing into Storm and bringing him into the corruption process. Unlike humans, animals underwent corruption more faster, even dying as they are being Tainted. Storm, however, isn't weak enough to died, but strong enough to be corrupted. A few more anxious seconds pass before the dark-purple flames eventually died down and disperse. Standing in the middle of the path is a corrupted version of Storm.

A glossy orange coat covers his body, a slick gray mane and tail wave along with the cold gusts of wind, strong legs hold the stallion up with stone-hard hooves. Glaring ahead with only red irises and no pupils...is a fearsome and aggressive horse.

"I...am HellStorm", the stallion growled, no longer possessing a Southern accent and is replaced with a demonic ripple with each word that he speaks. "I will infect the lands that my species runs across with Taint. No humans will ever break me".

HellStorm rears up and lets out a loud neigh that echoes throughout the forest. He falls back on all fours and takes off in a different direction, leaving behind a trail of Taint to add to the infecting forest.