by Adam J. Manley
Disclaimer: The X-Men, Avengers, Defenders, Fantastic Four, and all related characters are Copyright Marvel Characters, Inc. The characters used here, other than use of codenames copyrighted by Marvel Characters, Inc., are original creations, Copyright Adam J. Manley.
Chapter Two: Aftershock
My name is Jacob Isaac Simpson, and I'm not having a very good day.
Today was a very crucial day in the Defenders project. After months of training, Renee, the other Alpha volunteer, and I were going to become super-heroes. We had been strapped onto tables in a small room. The Project's scientists, including my good friend Tim Tucker, injected us with special chemicals. A few minutes later, the room was empty as the radiation treatments began.
Then everything went nuts. Machines were exploding, people were screaming, and I felt a sudden pain in my eyes just before I passed out. When I woke up, everything was dark. That about brings everything up to date.
I feel around, hoping the lights will come back on soon. I still hear screaming and explosions. I feel the heat of a fire near me. But that's not possible! If there were fire, there would be light! If I don't see the fire, then...
"Oh God, I'm blind..."
My words come out as a sob, and the tears well up in my useless eyes. I'm blind! I'm blind. I'm blind...
My name is Renee Audrey Rickson, and I'm having a bad day.
I remember feeling a million different emotions running through me as the radiation treatments began. Joy. Fear. Anxiety. Then one of the scientists started shouting something.
A split-second after that, I felt the ground shake. Machines started to explode, and I heard screaming. I struggled to get up, but I was shackled to the table!
The monitoring window shattered, and I began to hyperventilate. I looked to my left, and saw that Jacob was unconcious. There was broken glass stuck in his face, and his eyes were covered in blood.
Something exploded right next to me, and I was thrown free of the table. I was about to thank God for freeing me, when I realized it: I was on fire! I could feel the excrutiating pain of my entire body burning. I tried to scream, but found that I could not, for the fire was inside me as well. My vocal cords had already burned away. So I fell to the ground, accepting that that I would eventually be burned to death gradually, by this unnaturally slow fire...
My name is Timothy Albert Tucker and I'm having a bad day.
We had just initiated the radiation treatments on Jacob and Renee when the alarm started beeping on my computer terminal. I had set it to keep track of any natural disasters that might endanger the Project. I hadn't honestly expected anything to happen, but I took the precaution anyway.
Quickly, I clicked on the blinking icon on the taskbar. I saw an 8.9 earthquake, with an epicenter in Seattle, heading toward the Project. Then I saw the electromagnetic pulse, with the exact same point of origin and speed as the earthquake.
I had no time to question what was happening. I jumped up from my station, shouting to abort the procedure, but it was too late. The ground began to shake, and machines went haywire. I was still shouting when an explosion threw me across the room. I smashed through the monitoring window, shattering the supposedly unbreakable new glass into hundreds of little peices. I felt myself hit the wall, head first, less than a millisecond before everything went black...
My name is Katrina Elizabeth Tucker, and I'm having a bad day.
I had been invited to see the culmination of my Uncle Tim's work with the Defenders Project: imbuing normal humans with superhuman powers. The last thing I expected was to be caught underneath a pile of rubble. I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself, though.
I was screaming my head off. Everything was exploding. I had just watched my uncle get thrown through what should have been an unbreakable window as if it was tissue paper. Jacob had shards of glass sticking out of his face. Renee was on fire.
I heard other people screaming, both from fear and from pain. I saw small animals running in from another room. Uncle Tim had told me they tested the super-power procedure on animaIs before approving it for Jacob and Renee. I guess the earthquake broke their cages open.
The animals started flooding through the room, panicking, trying to escape. I got knocked over, and then trampled. I was in too much pain to move when I saw part of the wall and cieling crumbling. So I just lay there and screamed as I was buried alive under a ton of rubble.
So here I am, alive and aware of every single broken bone. Every open wound. Every peice of wall or machinery preventing me from moving even the slightest.
"AAAAGH!"
I scream as I feel a sudden, new pain in my neck, just under my jaw. I feel two tiny fangs pull out from my flesh, and eight tiny legs crawl over my face and into a space between the rubble. As it crawl away, I catch a glimpse of the red hourglass on it's abdomen.
"God, I'm going die..."
I start to cry more than I've ever cried before. I know that I'm going to die. If the poison doesn't kill me, and I don't bleed to death, I'll still starve here, trapped under a pile of rubble where nobody will ever find me. I'm going to die, over a matter of days, feeling every ounce of pain...
I am...blind. Blind, but alive. I can't keep sitting here feeling sorry for myself. The others might be suffering from worse wounds.
So I pull the glass out of my face, wincing at the pain. I tear off a piece of my shirt and wrap it around my face as a temporary bandage. I ignore the pain and call out to the darkness.
"Is anybody still concious?"
I hear nothing but the fire close to me, and the occasional sparking up of demolished machinery. The explosions have stopped, and nobody's screaming anymore. I'm not sure if that's a good sign or a bad sign. So I call out again.
"Can anybody hear me?"
I hear somebody cough. Jesus, they're only an inch away from me! Why don't they respond? I can hear them move, so they must be concious.
I move toward the sound. The person moves away quickly. I hear muffled crying. It sounds odd...there's no voice to it. It's just the sound of erratic, forceful breaths. I try to talk to them, maybe get a response.
"Please, I...I can't see. You've got to talk to me, tell me where you are and stop moving away."
I hear some sort of tapping. They seem to be tapping the floor with a piece of metal. It takes me about a minute to recognize that it's morse code.
"Morse code, eh? Alright, just slow down a bit, I can't think very easily."
The tapping slows, and I start to translate in my head: R-E-N-E-E.
"Renee? Why won't you speak?"
C-A-N-T.
"What do you mean you can't? What happened?"
F-I-R-E.
"Yeah, what about the fire?"
V-O-C-A-L. C-O-R-D-S.
"Your vocal cords got burned?"
Y-E-S.
"My God, Renee! How burned are you?"
I feel a hand touch mine. It's Renee. She's covered in blood, and feels like she's practically made of burns, but she can obviously walk. She embraces me, and we hug for a few minutes. I stroke her head, now lacking all but a few stubs of hair, to comfort her. She continues to cry, until suddenly she gasps, and starts urgently pulling me away from a new sound.
Jacob and I had been hugging when I saw it. Rising from under some dust and rubble was a gigantic, green monster! It's eyes were three different shades of red: light reddish-pink for the whites of it's eyes, bright red irises, and blood red pupils. Its dark green hair was tangled and shaggy, with a few of the long strands draping across it's hidious face. It bared it's simian fangs, and began to lumber forward.
I drag Jacob away from the creature as I watch it. Its arms are almost the same length as it's body, and it walks on its knuckes as an ape does. It lumbers forward, through the gap in the wall that used to be the monitoring window. It makes grunting sounds as it swats piles of rubble out of its way like so much dirty laundry.
"What is it, Renee? What's wrong?"
I almost forgot Jacob can't see, so he doesn't know about the giant creature. I take the piece of metal I found earlier and tap out a morse code on the wall.
G-I-A-N-T. M-O-N-S-T-E-R.
"Monster? Renee, this is no time for joking. Just tell me what's..."
Jacob is inturrupted by an earsplitting noise. The creature has begun to beat it's chest. It continues beating it's chest as it opens it's mouth at lets loose a roar that makes my heart stop cold.
"Renee, we've got to get out of here. Do you see any other survivors?"
C-A-N-T. T-E-L-L. W-H-O. I-S. A-L-I-V-E.
"Damn. Well, anybody in particular you wanna save before that thing decides human flesh would make a nice treat?"
T-I-M-S. N-E-I-C-E.
"Oh my God, I forgot about her. Poor kid's probably scared outta her mind, if she's still alive. You're right, though. This could be considered a professional hazard for us, but Katrina's just a kid. If anybody should be saved, it's her."
Suddenly, the creature looks at us. It looks like it's nodding its head. It's almost as if it agrees with what Jacob said. I tap out a new message to Jacob.
C-R-E-A-T-U-R-E. N-O-D-D-I-N-G. M-A-Y. W-A-N-T. T-O. S-A-V-E. G-I-R-L.
"Jesus, I think...could that...could that thing be Tim?"
Oh, God. I hadn't thought of that. Tim had been right where the monster was. Could the radiation have caused him to mutate into that thing?
Y-E-S.
"This is a very bad day."
Y-E-S.
Well, maybe I won't die of poison, bleeding, or starvation. It sounds like there's something very big and very angry out there. If I'm lucky it'll find me and kill me quick.
What's that? I hear talking now...talking, tapping, and grunting? The tapping...that's morse code! I wish I knew more...I can hear my name being mentioned. Then I hear somebody call out to me.
"Katrina! This is Jacob! If you can talk, do it now! We're going to get you out of here!"
I start to laugh. Just a minute ago, I was sure I was going to die.
"I'm here!" I shout. "Under a pile of rubble! Please hurry! I'm bleeding, I have broken bones, and one of your test animals bit me!"
"Test animal?" Jacob calls, now closer. "Which one?"
"It was a black widow!"
"Oh, God. We've gotta get you to a hospital. Broken bones, bleeding, and a bite from a super-powered spider...Jesus, girl, I'm surprised you're still alive, let alone concious!"
I hear the sound of an ape grunting as the rubble was lifted suddenly off me. I feel a surge of pain as the pressure is removed from my body.
I look at my saviors. The entire upper half of Jacob's face is covered by a makeshift bandage. There is a woman, who I assume is Renee, burned from head to toe and wearing one of the lab coats that had been hanging on the wall before the 'quake. And finally, there's this big, green...thing! I open my mouth to scream, but Renee starts shaking her head and making hand motions, trying to tell me not to.
Renee taps a message out to Jacob, who smiles a little in response. The creature grunts a little, and starts to make sad sounds as it gently strokes my hair.
"I imagine you're a bit confused, Katrina," says Jacob. "But the creature in front of you is your uncle."
I'm to shocked to speak. I look at the green, ape-like hulk in front of me. It suddenly gives me the same goofy smile Uncle Tim always gives me to make me feel better. I take one look at that creature with my uncle's smile, and pass out.
Mi nam is Timm Tukur. I sav mi nees. Nees saf now. Timm do good jobe. Jakub saay so. Armee peepol tac mi, Jakub, Cutreenuh, Runay to hospeetul. Allll betur now. Jakub saay we cumplan to Projekt Deefinderss toomorowe.