"The Experiment"
Chapter 14
As Sandy and I headed into the Lab, a voice stopped us. "Steppenwolf! Wait!" It was Swiftwind.
"The handlers are evacuating the ranch," the Datonaire said. "I made sure Molly and Lenny made it out okay."
"Molly?!" Sandy looked relieved. Of course, she didn't know that it was Inferno threatening Molly that had started all this.
Swiftwind looked around, to make sure no one was listening. "Crimson and the Zuums are going to make a run for it. They've asked us to come with them. If you want to join us, we'll be waiting in the next town."
"I've got to make sure Frank is all right. But we'll catch up with you."
"I understand." The scaled Tiger smiled at me. "You do what you have to do."
I turned and ran into the Lab, but Sandy stayed behind. I overheard her as she spoke to Swiftwind. "Um... If we don't make it... would you take care of Molly for me?"
"Of course I will."
"And tell her... that I really love her... and I... I'm really glad that she was my friend..."
"You'll make it okay," Swiftwind said, gently. "Then you can tell her yourself."
"Just in case... Tell her what I said."
The inside of the Lab was in shambles, most of it on the verge of collapse. Fire and smoke were everywhere, so my sense of smell was useless. I called out to Frank, hoping for a reply, but heard nothing. As I tried to make my way towards the back of the Lab, the flames grew higher, fueled by the broken support beams, and the hay on the floor. The heat was too much, and I was forced to back away.
Water flowed past my feet. It was tinged with red. I looked to my left, to see the room where the freezing chambers were kept. The windows had been blown out, along with most of the wall, and the freezers were in ruins. The heat had apparently set off the chemicals inside of them, and a couple of them had exploded.
The monsters were all dead, the sudden thaw too much of a shock even for those who survived the explosion. The water and blood that was running across the floor was coming from the freezers. The unlucky monsters were the ones that had been in the freezers that had exploded. There were parts of them everywhere, and the smell of it was making me sick. And then I saw Frank.
"Frank!" Sandy, coming up behind me, had seen Frank's arm, pinned underneath one of the chambers. What she couldn't see was that the rest of him was several feet away, where he'd been blown when the chamber exploded.
"No!" I quickly turned, shoving her out of the room with my shoulder. "You don't want to see this!"
"We have to help him!"
"He's gone, Sandy! There's nothing we can do!"
"No, no!" She tried to force her way past me, her eyes filling with tears. "He's okay! He has to be! We can still save him!"
I grabbed her by the arm. I couldn't speak, since I was holding her arm in my mouth, but I could pull her out of the room. "Let me go!" She wailed. "Please! I've got to see him!"
I kept pulling. She tried to keep fighting, but after a moment she broke down, falling to her knees. She sobbed into her hands, kneeling in the water and the gore.
"I'm sorry, Sandy... He must have been trying to save the monsters in the Freezer. He was killed instantly. There's nothing we could have done."
She continued to sob, quietly. Then she looked up, folding her hands and putting them over her mouth. She stared off in Frank's direction for a moment, not looking for him, just staring. Then she started to turn away. As got to her feet, she spotted something.
At first, I thought that she was getting up to leave the lab, so I just watched her. But then I realized that she was staring at something. By the time I realized what was going on, and tried to figure out what it was she was looking at, she had already walked over and knelt by it. She gingerly reached out, and picked it up.
It was a baby Pixie. In human terms, she looked about five years old, but I knew that she couldn't have been more than a month old. She had dark brown hair, and pale skin, her tiny body bare of fur. Her arms and legs were covered in a tan material that looked like clay. And in the center of her chest was a large green gem.
I swallowed, as there was a lump in my throat. "He... he..."
"No. He didn't lie." Sandy looked down at the lifeless body, cradling it in her arms. "He said that he wouldn't create ANOTHER Pixie/Henger. He didn't say anything about the one that already existed."
I couldn't say anything. "My sister..." She stroked the little Pixie's hair, tenderly. "Created at the same time I was..."
Sandy looked up at me, tears streaming down her face. "My replacement. In case I... In case I... failed... ready to take my place. To... continue the experiment..."
She pressed the baby against her chest, wailing in her grief. "WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO US?!!!"
She shuddered, fighting to catch her breath. Then she stroked the little Pixie's face again. "She's so beautiful... so beautiful... did I really look like this?"
"You did," I said. My own voice was choked.
"She doesn't look like a freak at all," she said.
"I'm sorry," she said, to the little Pixie. "I wish I could have raised you. I wish I could have known you. I have so much... to tell you. But it's too late now..."
She sniffled. "I'm so sorry. If I hadn't... If I'd gone along with them, if I'd agreed to raise you, you wouldn't have been in that Freezer."
"You can't blame yourself," I said. "You didn't know. Frank didn't tell you. And he was probably trying to get her out when he..."
I cut myself off, realizing how Sandy might take it. But it was already too late. "I guess that's my fault, too..."
"No! You can't say that! Sandy, Frank CHOSE to come in here and try and get the monsters out, just as he would have tried to get YOU out if you were in here. Just as YOU came in here to save HIM! He LOVED you, Sandy, and you know he wouldn't have wanted you to blame yourself for his death!"
"But..."
As I was about to answer her, however, I heard a creak above my head. I looked up to find one of the roof supports about to burn in two. "Sandy! Look out!" I leaped forward, grabbing her by the arm, and flinging her out of the way. As I turned to leap away myself, the heavy beam crashed down on top of me, its weight slamming into my back, and shoving me to the floor.
"STEPPENWOLF!" Sandy ran to me, trying to pull me free. But I was pinned. I couldn't even lift the beam myself. The impact had knocked the wind out of me, and further cracked the ribs that had been damaged by Inferno's punch. I was starting to get dizzy and weak from the pain.
"I'll go get help!" Sandy said, and she stood to run out of the Lab. As she got to the door, however, Curtis entered. "Mr. Curtis!" she yelled, as she saw him. "Steppenwolf is trapped! Help me get him loose!"
She ran back to me, and the large man followed. He was looking at the debris and the remains of the Lab equipment scattered around on the ground. As he came up near me, he saw the body of the baby Pixie/Henger, lying in the water.
"You did this..." he growled, at Sandy.
Sandy looked away from him. "I know I haven't been very helpful, sir," she said, "but I promise..."
But Curtis backhanded her across the face. "You BITCH! I gave you life! And this is how you repay me! You've destroyed my ranch, destroyed my lab! You've destroyed EVERYTHING!!!"
"Please, no!" Sandy fell to her knees in front of him, begging. "I'll do anything you say. I'll never argue with you again, I promise. Just, help me save Steppenwolf! PLEASE!!!"
The big man turned around, grabbing a chair, which he smashed over Sandy's back. She cried out in terror, shielding her head with her arms. "You miserable, ungrateful FREAK! You dare to tell ME what to do? You should be begging me for your LIFE!"
"Leave her alone!" I called, but Curtis wasn't listening to me. I strained to pull myself out from under the beam, but it only dug deeper into my back.
"It wasn't good enough for you, was it?" He struck her as hard as he could with the chair, again and again. One of her wings cracked, and Sandy screamed in pain. "I created you, I gave you food and shelter, but it wasn't good enough for you!"
"Was it the baby Pixie?" He hit her again. Sandy coughed up blood. "Did you burn down my ranch to destroy her? You had to be the only one, didn't you?"
"It... was Inferno..." Sandy said, weakly. "I... didn't..."
"LIAR! I saw you Flame one of the buildings! You selfish bitch! Monster killer! You just had to have your way! You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, and do as you were told!"
Curtis had long since smashed the chair to splinters and was beating Sandy with its leg. Realizing that he had destroyed his weapon, he threw it aside. Then he reached down and picked up a piece of twisted metal from the wreckage of the Freezers. He raised it over his head, like a spear, intending to impale Sandy with it.
And then, it was like a scene from my memory had begun playing itself out. Sandy looked up at him, her face twisted in fury, a look I had only seen once before, in the Arena. And her eyes lit up, with that inhuman green light.
Sandy's hand balled into a fist. There was that flash of green from the back of her hand. She thrust her arm up, into Curtis's stomach, and the Laser Sword erupted from his back. There was the hum of power, the gurgling noise that Curtis made, as his lungs filled with blood.
... and Sandy's voice, as quiet as death. "You... will... never... torture... anyone... ever... again..."
She seemed to spit the last word. "MONSTER!"
The humming sound switched off, and Curtis fell over, off of Sandy's upraised fist. There was a long silence, and then she jumped to her feet, putting both hands over her mouth. "Oh, no! What have I done?!!!"
"What you had to do." She turned to look back at me. "Sandy, you've got to get out of here! The building could collapse at any time!"
She ran back to me. "No! I've got to save you!"
"Forget me. Sandy, you've got to get out, while you still can."
Sandy wasn't listening. She grabbed onto the roof beam, and pulled up on it. It didn't budge, of course. She strained as hard as she could, but there was no way she was strong enough to move the beam.
"Sandy, I'm... I'm pretty badly hurt. Inferno smashed a couple of my ribs, and this board kind of finished the job. I... I don't know how much longer I've got." I struggled for breath. "You've got to get out while you still can."
"NO, NO!!!" Sandy pulled harder. "I can't leave you. I CAN'T LOSE YOU!!!" I heard a screaming, whining noise. It was coming from Sandy's arms. To my astonishment, the roof beam moved. Sandy grimaced in pain, and smoke was starting to come from one of her arms, but she was moving it.
I scrabbled to get a grip on the floor. "Steppenwolf, hurry!" Sandy hissed. "It hurts! I don't know... if I can take it!"
"I've got it!" I pulled myself out from under the beam. Sandy dropped it, suddenly, just barely missing my tail. She collapsed to her knees, breathing hard. Her arm was hanging limp by her side, and she held it with her other hand.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" I said. As I started to leave the Lab, however, I stopped. I picked up the scrap of metal that Curtis had tried to stab Sandy with, and shoved it through the wound she had made with her Laser Sword.
Sandy and I ran out of the Lab, but once outside, she collapsed on the grass. "Oh, Steppenwolf," she muttered. "What have I done? What have I become?"
"You did what you had to do," I told her again. I looked up as more of the Lab collapsed. "He'll be buried under that. Even if the fire doesn't destroy his body, that piece of metal will make it look like he was caught in the explosion, like Frank. No one will know."
"I'll know..." Sandy said.
"And so will I." I nudged her face. "And we'll get through it together."
Sandy wandered through the shop, checking the different barrels of fresh foods as she passed. "We should get some Tablets," she commented.
"Tablets?"
"I'm not giving up my lifespan just because we aren't on Curtis's ranch any more. We monsters have short enough lives as it is."
I made a face. "I don't know how you can stand the taste."
She shrugged. "My Henger half seems to like them. And with a Mango or something for flavor, they aren't too bad." She had stopped at a barrel of Mangos, and stuck a handful of them into the bags I wore across my back.
"I guess so."
Sandy grinned at me, then reached down and poked me in the side. "You've been eating too much meat as it is, Steppenwolf. You're getting a gut."
"I'm a Tiger." I smiled back. "I eat meat."
"Then we'll get some meat, too."
We finished our shopping, and went to the counter. Sandy paid for our food. Between the two of us, we were doing pretty well for ourselves. Moving town to town, fighting in Arenas along the way, we had managed to build up a respectable amount of gold.
"Where is your trainer?" The shopkeeper asked, as he was weighing the Tablets. He was just making small talk, but it was a question we got asked a lot.
"We don't have a trainer," Sandy answered.
"Oh. Wild monsters, then." He eyed her warily, but not unkindly.
"Not really," I said. "We had a trainer, a good one. His name was Blayyde." I looked up at Sandy, and she gave me a sad smile. "But he's dead now."
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that."
"We think he may have relatives, on the FIMBA continent. That's where we're going. Or maybe we'll meet up with some of his other monsters going the same way."
"That's a long trip," the man said. "Good luck to you."
"Thanks." Sandy took her change.
"I hope everything turns out all right," the shopkeeper said. "It's always terrible when a trainer leaves his monsters with no one to take care of them."
"He didn't leave us with no one," Sandy said. She smiled at me, ruffled my mane. "He left us each other."
