Hooray for me! My overall review count has cleared the 100 mark!! Yaaay!!! Anyhoo, a huge thanks goes out to all those who've taken the time to send reviews! You rule! --Lady PhoenixDagger *//.^*
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I will be the Hunter, The noble Dragon.
Wufei eased himself around the corner of another dark hallway and motioned for Heero, the last person in the line, that all was clear. The base was located underground below a false government research lab in the Gobi desert, now abandoned and cold, left only to the devices of Black Hood's mechanised creations and biologically warped "watchdogs". Or so Dulcet had said, tersely murmuring to the five boys as they crept silently as cats from hall to hall, working their way into the centre core of the inner compound. So far, all Wufei had seen were hundreds of doors tacked onto miles of sterile, dim hallway, their monotony broken by the occasional security camera. Nonetheless, he stayed alert.
I shall be as the Dragon, merciless and majestic as I kill. None shall escape the bite of cruel death dealt by my hand.
Walker, Darien, Kari and Ryu –or Serpent Team- were elsewhere, sweeping over the compound and would meet up with Dulcet and the boys –Gryphon Team- at the rendezvous point when the job was completed. Gryphon Team's objectives were simple: get in, destroy the holding room full of clones and then get the hell out of there and the leave the rest to Serpent Team. Simple. Cut and dry. But something still gnawed at Wufei's mind, something dark and elusive that fled when he tried to pin it down and think on it, but still remained, nonetheless. A feeling of foreshadowing, of horror yet to come. Something was about to happen. All hell was about to break loose and he and his comrades were to be stuck in the thick of it. Scowling, Wufei shook his head at his weakness, his loose hair brushing unnaturally at his cheeks.
I am the Solitary Dragon! he reprimanded himself. I will not be cowed by mere speculation!
"Get ready, boys and girls," Dulcet murmured, bringing the line to a halt. His mind still wandering, Wufei walked into Quatre from behind. The Solitary Dragon noted absently that they had come to a huge metal door. Dulcet cracked his knuckles and pulled a length of cord with three plugs on it and a handheld computer from his pockets. "And now for your first lesson in Black Hood hacking." The lynx-man's pointed teeth gleamed like elongated pearls in the dim light as he grinned at them. He poked one plug from his cord into a port by the door, another into the handheld computer and the third into his temple, taking off his glasses and resting them nonchalantly on top of his head. The amber cat's eyes glazed over as he began wrestling with the security codes.
Mildly bored, Wufei let his eyes rove over the door. It was huge and shiny, surrounded with wide yellow signs reading "Warning: Restricted Area", "Authorised Personnel Only" "Clone Holding Area" and the ever reassuring "Trespassers Will Be Shot On Sight".
Wufei smiled grimly and checked his sword in its sheath. This could prove to be quite interesting.
Sidling back, Heero made his way over to stand next to Wufei. The others moved back as well, forming a group well away from Dulcet and the huge metal door.
"Does anyone else feel like this is a bad idea?" Duo murmured, unconsciously fluffing his bangs. Wufei smirked. The false breasts must have been getting to him.
Quatre nodded, his face as pale as the spectre of death. "This place is wrong." His hands were trembling slightly. "It never should have existed. It…it's sick!"
Trowa silently put a comforting arm over his friend's shoulders, daring anyone to say something. Heero pursed his lips, fingering his fake scars. "Let's go over the plan again."
The others nodded, all eyes on Quatre's shaking form.
"First, we get in, fan out and plant the explosives. Then we get out and Dulcet detonates it."
Trowa nodded. "Kaboom. And if there's some sort of resistance?"
"Neutralise it." Neutralise. In other words, kill without mercy.
"Password confirmed. Access granted."
"Come on in, boys and girls." Dulcet grinned. "Don't forget to wipe your feet on the way in!"
Good lord, he's actually enjoying this! The foreshadowing feeling came again to Wufei as he girded himself, checked his weapons and stepped though.
*****
Those eyes…
The first thing Quatre had noticed were the eyes. Deep sapphire blue and glittering emerald green.
Walker's eyes.
Darien's eyes.
Unblinking clones' eyes.
And they were all watching him.
"Quatre," Heero murmured. "Stop staring. We have a mission to complete."
Quatre nodded. "Okay," he whispered. This whole place of starkness, of anticolour seemed to scream "EVIL!" in Quatre's sensitive empathic mind. Even where he stood, he could all but taste the residues of fear and pain mingled with sick elation. Picking up his charges, Quatre carefully began to lay them, trying to keep such thoughts from entering his mind.
The room was twice as long as it was wide with two long rows of cylindrical rows of slender floor-to-ceiling cylindrical clone tanks, separated by a long aisle marked out in cautionary yellow. Walkers floated upright on one side and Dariens floated facing them on the other. Dulcet was parked in front of a control panel, his brain plugged in, his eyes glazed, monitoring the clones.
A blue-eyed, smooth-skinned Walker watched with almost sterile interest as Quatre attached the explosives to the front of its tank. He remembered what Dulcet had told them before. "They have little to no thought process. They mimic, but they can't understand what it is they do. They watch, but can't truly see. They haven't got any souls."
So I'm merely destroying machines. The clone put its palm against Quatre's over the clear plastic of its holding tank, pantomiming him and staring with empty eyes.
"Don't choke, child," Zach buzzed from Quatre's earpiece. Quatre jumped. He had forgotten that the wizards were watching him back at the Keep. "They aren't capable of feeling pain. Just set the charges and get out of there." The old man's voice was kindly. "You can do it, child."
The Gentle Noble simply swallowed and moved over to another holding tube.
"Hey!" Dulcet called, making everyone else in the room jump. "Are you guys done yet?"
Their spell of silence shattered, the boys stopped gazing at the clones and turned back to the task at hand.
"Almost."
"Serpent Team will arrive at your destination in approximately four minutes," Talon buzzed over the assembled earpiece speakers. "Prepare to detonate in five minutes."
"Roger that." Dulcet plucked the cord from his temple and plugged his glasses back in. "Five minutes to fireworks, kids."
Five minutes. Quatre moved his hand on the clear plastic wall of the holding tank. The clone moved its palm as well, keeping it under Quatre's. Gently, Quatre burrowed into the clone's psyche and noted with a mix of relief and horror that it had none. It's like killing something that's already dead.
Trowa came then, laying a hand on Quatre's shoulder, making him jump. "Come on," the taller boy said, thin tendrils of gel-stiffened hair already beginning to escape his elastic. He brushed them irritably from his eyes. "Serpent Team is outside. We're leaving."
"Yeah." Quatre got up off his knees and suddenly stiffened. "Something's here." He took his hand from the tank wall. The clone didn't move. "It's watching us."
Trowa frowned. "Could it possibly be the clones?"
"Not a chance."
Emerald eyes narrowed. "Tell Dulcet."
Quatre shook his head. "He already knows. I can tell." He pulled the gun from his thigh holster. Trowa did the same. The others already had their own guns out and ready. Years of training had left their mark on the boys and now it spoke to them. "It's coming for us."
"Boys!" Gil shouted then, his voice tinnily loud over the earpiece speakers. "Get away from there!"
It was then that they saw the crack wending its way slowly up the nearest wall. Sounds came in from behind it. Scuffling sounds. Picking sounds.
Pick, pick.
The crack grew. The sounds within quickened in eager anticipation.
Dulcet moaned. "Shiiit," he breathed. "So the rumours were true."
"What rumours?" Duo asked, his voice terse, his gun trained on a spot on the crack in the wall.
The crack slowly became a miniature crevice. Something mildew-grey and moist poked briefly through. Mad slavering was heard within.
"The ones about the products of Black Hood's chemical necromancy." Dulcet said, pulling his own gun.
"Can we not run for it?" Quatre asked. Wufei looked sharply at him, as though the word "run" was a slight to manly honour everywhere.
Dulcet shook his head. "According to the rumour, they can hear a heartbeat from a half mile away. They'll know where we are and will hunt us down when we tire. We need to detonate the bulk of them and then get the hell out of here.
Quatre trained his ability. "Serpent Team is outside the door," he reported.
"Right then, aim for the head." Dulcet pulled the detonator from his pocket, holding it ready. "Flee at my command."
Then the wall exploded and the world went straight to hell, as animated corpses burst through, mildew grey and pus white, moaning and slavering. Stiff legged, they lurched towards the group, eyes rotted away, skin peeling like gruesome rags from shockingly white bone.
Dulcet fired the first shot, exploding the head of an animated corpse, making it drop. Immediately, more shots rang out, dropping the undead left and right. Soon, spent clips littered the floor, but the undead still poured forth from the wall in a seemingly endless stream.
"GO!!!" Dulcet screamed and the boys turned and sprinted from the room, Dulcet bringing up the rear, shooting over his shoulder. They sped past Serpent Team who joined them in their frenzied run, Walker springing easily along on all fours like some great mountain cat. Cursing the name of Black Hood, Dulcet detonated the charges, sending a globe of hellish flame licking at their backs. Keening shrills came from the undead trapped in the room, but still more came, charred, flaming and virtually skinless bodies emerging as demons from the inferno.
"Make for the way we came in!" Ryu shouted, his voice made thick from the smoke. "Once we're out, we can set off the rest of this place!"
Ah, so that's what they've been doing, Quatre though fleetingly as miles of hallway flashed relentlessly by and behind them the undead still staggered on.
Abruptly, Walker skidded to a stop, his clawed feet digging thin furrows into the cement floor, a strange look in his tawny eyes. The animated corpses were far off , but only for a scant moment.
"She's here." His voice was cracked with something. Fear, perhaps?
Darien actually blanched. "No," he said, backing away. "She can't be. Not here."
"Who?" demanded Duo.
"Our mother,"
"What, Mrs. Broman?"
"No, dipshit," Darien said witheringly. Fear or no, he apparently wasn't in the mood to tolerate stupidity. "Our biological mother. The Succubus Project. We can feel her presence in the building."
Shit. That means Black Hood knew we were coming here. Kari spat, narrowing her ghostly white eyes. The whole thing was a hoax.
Behind them, the sound of dogged pursuit grew steadily louder.
"We need to get out of here," Ryu said coldly. "If we see the Succubus Project, then we have no choice but to just run faster. By no means are we able to fight her."
The twins nodded in unison, their faces still pale, and again they began to run. The others followed them, all of them furiously praying not to meet the Succubus Project that had left the Broman brothers so terrified.
Their prayers were left unanswered.
She came as they rounded a corner towards a foyer a mere thirty feet from the exit, reeking of rotted meat and stinking of blood. She stood fully eleven feet tall, stripped of all skin do that only wet, glistening, putrid sinew showed. Bony spinal projections like huge skeleton fingers jutted from her back, opening and closing convulsively. With a deafening roar, she bared wrist-thick, jagged teeth oozing with lines of thick saliva. Its claws, each a foot long or more rent the air as her spinal projections convulsed again, sending her long, grotesque parodies of female breasts shuddering. Her bulk was massive and it took up the whole foyer, closing off the only exit route. Even the undead refused to go any further with this beast in the way.
With terrifying speed, the Succubus Project sprang, scattering the group. Shots were fired and easily shrugged off as the beast lurched forward, its piggish eyes intent on fresh kill. Walker and Darien leapt on her, metal claws rending and screaming over bone, but were effortlessly shaken off. Ryu leapt next, but thick teeth sank deep into his shoulder, stopped only by bone that could not break and he was flung into the wall, his head making a sickening noise as he connected.
Swinging its mighty arm, the Succubus Project knocked the ex-pilots from their feet, scattering them like dolls. Kari, now the only one left standing, tried to see the Succubus Project to attack, but the monster flung about so much errant heat residue that it made it impossible to see the beast herself. All Kari saw was a seemingly empty room draped fully over in bright sheets of discarded body heat and nothing more. Snarling, the monster leapt, her arms held out wide to receive its new prey. Helpless and blind, Kari had not choice but to stand and accept her fate.
A primal scream cut through the air then, and Kari found herself knocked violently to the floor, her sunglasses knocking themselves from her head. The monster roared once in triumph and Kari heard it bound away, more roars ringing though the halls.
Kari blinked, adjusting her eyes as the source of heat departed and the room slowly cooled, dissolving the sheets of heat that had blinded her. The others collected themselves and those who could were already healing themselves. She scanned the foyer, watching the bodies before her, bright smudges of heat and adrenaline move before her. Quickly she counted them, assigning names to the familiar body shapes. Her heart sunk. Of the ten people who had gone into the raid, one of them, Chang Wufei, was gone.
**Looking up at last line**
A cliffhanger. Well, well, I had no idea I was such a cruel authoress. Well, if you send me reviews, I just might post the next chapter sooner! ;p
Ja ne, minna-san!
--L.P.D. *//.^*
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