Authors note: well here is the third chapter of Origins, I apologise for the amount of time it has taken it and thank you to anyone who has read my story. You may or may not have noticed but I have finally Beta'd the first two chapters, removing spelling mistakes and changed them slightly to make it flow easier. Reviews would be greatly welcomed.
Gemini was awoken by a distant rumbling noise like that from an explosion, outside her cell she could hear alarms going off and the panicked voices of scientists. She stood up in her cell trying to figure out what was going on outside, moments later a second explosion rocked the cell, this time significantly more violent and knocked her from her feet, distantly she could her screaming from outside her cell probably from one of the female scientists.
A series of explosions racked the cell and the sound of angst metal filled the air as a steel girder came crashing through the ceiling of her cell. She dived out of the way of the girder a mere second before it crashed into the space she had previously been occupying, she crouched looking at the broken beam and noticed how close it had came to hitting her. The cell wall underneath the metal girder had collapsed tearing a hole in the metal walls and leaving damaged pipes spewing steam.
Gemini stayed crouched in shock, staring at the hole in the wall where steam was still gushing out of the pipes when a single thought came to her.
Freedom
This was it, this was her chance to escape, to be free and no longer be monitored or experimented on. The opportunity had presented itself and she took it, climbing over the rumble and broken pipes into the corridor outside her cell.
In the corridor chaos reigned supreme, explosions still racked the base and broken bodies littered the corridors. Machinery and computers exploded sending lethal shrapnel flying in all directions and the cries of the injured, dying and terrified echoed down the hallways, Gemini moved around the dead bodies and rumble, the scientists paying no attention to her in their attempt to escape. Thick smoke filled the corridors preventing people from seeing were they where going making people tripped and stumbled over equipment. Gemini herself moved swiftly over the rumble and wreckage with the smoke proving no problem to her eyesight although the fires that burned everywhere were a problem making ghost images appear in her peripheral vision.
So she stood in the middle of the bedlam trying to take in the chaos of the situation, watching almost detachedly as people panicked and screamed, they were all running around like headless chickens. There were a few people who tired to calm everyone down, take control of the situation and get organised in order to start a rescue effort for anyone trapped or injured. They however didn't have much of a chance to get organised before it happened…..
From Gemini's point of view it happened to be a warm patch of air at first that caught her attention, the scientists were unable to spot the sudden unnatural increase in air temperature at that particular patch of air. They remained quite oblivious until it suddenly burst into life, a burning vortex of red it appear to Gemini as although her memories told her that this vortex was the same green portal as she remembered. The scientists all stopped and gazed at the portal, some in awe, others in fear and terror as they recognised the portals. The portal gave a single large cackle and suddenly from Creatures emerged, two legged creatures with two fore limbs and a strange head with multifaceted eyes on it…. These she recognised, her predatory Xen side knew these as lesser creatures than it, slaves to do its bidding… the scientists screamed in terror and fled at the sight of these strange alien creatures.
The fleeing scientists attracted the slaves attention who went straight into attack mode screaming "DIE!" in English as best as they could before they shot burning lighting down the corridor that struck the several of the scientists dead. The remaining scientists fled down the corridor pursued by the majority of the alien slaves. A single slave remained having seemed to have sensed Gemini's presence from were she stood behind it in the rubble, both Gemini and the alien slave didn't move a muscle as they both stopped and stared at one another. Gemini waited to see how the creature would react to a hybrid, its general appearance showed that it was confused and Gemini tensed her muscles in case the slave decided to make a fight of it.
After several moments the slave looked away, running off down the corridor where the sounds of "DIE!" and the cackle of lightning followed by large amounts of gunfire indicated a major fight was going on between the slaves and most likely the security forces. Gemini had gotten the impression from the slave that as long as she left them alone, they would leave her alone which suited her fine, she turned and ran off down the corridor in the opposite direction rather not wanting to get into a fight with the human security personnel. She followed the corridor as it twisted around the complex maze of labs and offices for quite a while not meeting another soul and treading over the shattered glass and metal with her bare feet, unsurprisingly her feet were bleeding quite a bit leaving her acid blood burning into things. The pain was distracting her as she tried to silently creep over the rumble and blood loss would probably start weakening her soon because despite the fact her feet were healing almost instantly, they were getting cut back open with every step she took.
Noting a half clothed dead body lying in a door way, Gemini stepped into the room hopefully looking to find clothes and as she looked around it looked like she was in luck, the room appeared to be a changing room for the security guards. She walked over to the lockers and began ripping them apart looking for clothes, after tearing every single locker apart she had come to the conclusion that the majority of the clothes would be fair too large for her considering she was 0nly 4'10". Who hired 4'10" security guards?, Gemini paused and thought about were else she could get clothes from, remembering that the twins, Aya and Naomi had all been wearing some sort of black fatigues, if she could find out where they stored the clothes for her siblings she could take some of the twins since they were the same size.
It stood to reason that the clothes would probably be around the Bio-dome itself as technicians and scientists were unlikely to want to walk half was across the base to get clothes….. hmmm the base…. Gemini still didn't know where she was, knowing her luck it was probably written on the walls but she just couldn't read it. Stretching Gemini decide she would head down to the Bio-dome to get better clothing than just the flimsy medical gown she was wearing and see if her siblings had already escaped. She had already tried to contact her siblings telepathically ever since she had been taken from the bio-dome but all the rock seemed to act like some sort of telepathic damper.
She was so deep in thought she didn't notice anyone come into the room.
"Freeze!" shouted a fearful voice followed by the sound of a rifle being clicked, Gemini froze and then slowly turned around to face him. The security guard looked even more panicked as he took the sight of her in noting the Chitin ridges on her arms and claws then at the room which she had torn apart and the deep claw marks in some of the lockers. That was it for the security guard, he had seen too much freaky shit today and tried to pull the trigger on his rifle. Gemini lunged forward with inhuman speed knocking the gun aside so that the shot missed her, the rifle flying out of the guards hands and landing somewhere in the corner. The force was enough to knock the guard off his feet, letting out a panicked cry he collapsed in a hysterical heap on the floor, eyes wide before scrambling to his feet and running off down the corridor as fast as his feet could carry him.
Gemini scowled as the guard fled before heading into the corner of the room to retrieve the rifle, her scowl darkened as she noticed that he had used his last shot and with a disgusted sigh she threw the rifle away. She stepped back into the hallway, wandering around until she found a section of corridor that seemed familiar, following the corridor around and taking a few turns, she eventually came to an elevator that wasn't working. It was the same elevator which went all the way down to the bio-dome, she forced the elevator doors open and looked down the shaft, it had to be at least a mile drop to the bottom but it was most likely the fastest way down. Sighing she looked around again and decide that her best chance to get down would be to used her razor sharp claws and natural climbing ability, she just didn't trust the ladders or the elevator cable, either of which could break at any moment. No she decided looking at the metal girders in the middle of the elevator shaft, she was going to take a different way down.
Gemini made a leap into the centre of the elevator shaft onto the metal girders that divided to the two separate shafts just catching the end of it with her claws and swung herself up onto it before beginning to and clambered over the metal beams making her way down. Eventually she came to the depth that felt right, some how instinctively knowing which level it was, she climbed around to the door of the elevator and opened the door expecting to see the same devastated corridors. To her surprise the corridors actually looked half-decent if you ignored the equipment and papers all over the floor as people tired to make an escape, this part of the base must have been better build than the rest or were further away from the source of the explosions. She sent out a mental call to the others but none of them responded, she hoped they had survived and were just to far away to answer.
Gemini wandered through the corridors until she came to one of the observation rooms that overlooked the Bio-Dome, a massive hole had been torn through the side of the Dome from which her siblings had probably made their escape or at least she hoped. Vaguely reassured that her sibling had escaped even though she wasn't with them, she went to seek out proper clothing, after checking some twenty or thirty different rooms on the floor, some of which were staff rooms, labs or boring storage rooms. She eventually found the same clothing the twins wore, it was some sort of standard military fatigues just made really small and fortunately didn't originally come with a tail hole, which would have been annoying. Stripping herself out of the hospital gown she pulled on the top and trousers, followed by a pair of combat boots, 'There' she thought looking herself over, it was warmer and hid all the chitin on her back although the Chitin ridges on her arms where still visible. Hopefully would prevent most of the scratches and minor injuries, she was actually rather impressed by the fabric as it was near impossible to tear or rip.
Stepping out of the room, Gemini wandered into the main lab were most of the experiments on her were done after poking and prodding the various equipment she decided their was nothing to be learned her since she could read the note on the paper due to her eyesight. She exited the through the other doorway which lead up a group of stairs and then onto a walkway which over looked the bio-domes. The first bio-dome she walked over was the one were she and her siblings had been in, it was still pretty much looking the same except several of the windows had been broken and now there was a some sort of squid-bull-turkey thing walking around the dome. She decided to leave it be and walked to the other side of the walkway and opened the large red door, the sound of gun fire came echo down and curious Gemini wandered down the corridor beyond the doorway.
Gemini heard the panicked cries of a familiar voice followed by what sounds like machine gun fire and took off running down the corridor, the corridor turned into a walkway going over the top of what looked like a warehouse. Looking down Gemini saw Sherry cowering behind a metal crate with a squad of soldiers opening fire on her. Next to Sherry was none other than Dr Matthews who had a pistol in her hand and was shooting back at the soldiers with impressive accuracy, two dead body lay on the floor as a testament to her skill which was more than unusual for a scientist. Gemini watched as Dr Matthews killed another soldier, her bullet managing to penetrate his vest, Dr Matthews was no doubt doing well but a group of soldiers were beginning to flank them using the crates as cover.
Gemini leapt down from the walkway and landed in the middle of the group startling the soldiers, using this to her advantage she slashed her claws across the stomach of the first soldier disembowelling him. She span and kicked the soldier behind her hard in chest, she head a sickening crack as bones shattered and the soldier collapsed to the floor coughing up blood. The remaining soldiers reacted to this Gemini in amongst them and turned their weapons on her, she span into the grasp of one of the soldiers and swung him around as he opened fire. His bullets missed Gemini completely and ended up killing his remaining two team mate, he didn't have much time to lament as Gemini twisted out of his grasp again and slashing her claws across his throat making him go down in a gurgle of blood. Gemini looked at the carnage she had caused for a second checking that everyone was dead or dying before moving through the crates to take on the rest of the soldiers.
Only three soldiers remained in the firefight against Dr Matthews, they were spread out taking cover behind various crates around the room. Gemini moved closer to the nearest one and then pounced knocking him to the ground as she tore through his throat using her teeth killing the soldier, it was messy and bloody but got the job done. She rummaged through the soldiers pockets until she found what she was looking for, pulling the pin of the grenade and rolled it across the floor towards the two remaining soldiers, the cry of warning came out too late and both of the soldiers were blown up.
*Click* "Don't move" Ordered Dr Matthews from her position behind the crate, she wasn't sure what was going on but she wasn't exactly going to trust one of those hybrids after she had witnessed its pure blooded cousins slaughter her fellow scientists.
Gemini gave her an all suffering look, she supposed she didn't exactly look friendly covered in blood after just slaughtering a squad of soldiers then again she really did know what type of welcome she was going to receive from them after she had rescued them.
"Don't!" Cried out a second voice and Sherry came out from were she had been hiding "She's okay, you can point the gun down" Sherry tried to explain, Dr Matthews looked unconvinced and keep her gun trained on Gemini.
"Trust me" Begged Sherry, Dr Matthews looked at Sherry for a long while before warily lowering her gun but she still kept a firm grip on it.
"Thanks" Gemini said to Sherry once she released she wasn't going to be shot, Dr Matthews raised an eyebrow and the gun came straight back up again aimed at Gemini.
"So you can talk… hmmm Johnson was right" She mused while keeping the gun levelled at Gemini. Dr Matthews seemed to think long and hard whether or not to trust but in the end decided that they would need all the help they could get if they were to escape from this hell hole alive.
"Okay, I give you a chance but mess up and I swear I'll shoot you" She said finally lowering her gun.
Gemini didn't bother even replying to that and asked the question "What happened?"
"I'm not entirely sure" Answered Dr Matthews truthfully "I was down here with Sherry, running a series of test and then all hell broke lose. From what I could gather on the intercom before it went dead, something went horribly wrong in the anomalous materials department and now these guys showed up." She said kicking the dead body of one of the soldiers.
"We need to get out of her" Sherry said suddenly sounding nervous, she had been nervously looking around the room for the past few minutes, their was something in the air that made everyone's hairs stand on end. That gut instinct when you know something is going to happen and Gemini had decided she'd rather not find out what.
"I agree" Said Dr Matthews "How did you get down here?, last I remember you were in a genetic containment room on the 12 floor"
"Down the elevator shaft but trust me you don't want to go that way" Gemini replied "It would be impossible for you to climb up"
Dr Matthews nodded thoughtfully "There is an access tunnel down which is used to deliver large cargo's down here, it goes straight to the surface into the warehouses above ground"
"What are you doing down here?" Sherry asked curiously "I would have thought you would have tried to escape rather than come deeper into the facility."
"I came back to try and find my siblings" Answered Gemini distracted, it was beginning to get to her being out of contract with them for so long.
"Siblings?" Squeaked Sherry surprised their was more than one of them
"Oh yeah, they make quite the happy family" Commented Dr Matthews sarcastically
Gemini just frowned and picked up the soldiers machines guns, passing one to both Dr Matthews and Sherry
"You'll need these" She said, putting hers on her back using the strap. Dr Matthews bent down and rummaged for something in the soldiers packs before pulling something out.
"Clips" Dr Matthews explained, storing them in the pockets of her lab coat.
"Lead on" Gemini said gesturing for Dr Matthews to take the lead, Dr Matthews was a little dubious about having her back to what she had previously had thought to be an unintelligent bio-weapon but had little other choice. The main doors had shorted out so they had to go down the corridor until they came to a stairwell, they went down two floor using the stairwell until Dr Matthews stopped in front of a door.
Trying the handle Dr Matthews cursed "Shit, its locked" she tried to force the door using her body weight but it wouldn't budge, she stood back and tried to think. Sherry stepped forward and gave the door handle a solid yank ripping the door handle and a chunk of the door right off, while sherry didn't quite have tyrant strength yet she was still pretty strong.
Looking impressed Gemini stepped past the two and into the tunnel beyond,, it was a large tunnel made of concrete judging by the heat signature and had a road running through the middle of it, the road was separated by large blast doors every 100 meters or so. There were small maintenance doors to the side of the blast doors where a person could go through without having to open the large blast doors. Dr Matthews and Sherry came through after her, the tunnel was completely empty besides from them.
"Well, I suppose we've just got to follow this passage up to the surface right?" Asked Sherry looking around.
"Yeah… I don't like this, something feels wrong" Muttered Dr Matthews, Gemini had a similar sense of foreboding.
With perfect timing an awesome roar echoed throughout the tunnels, it sounded like it came from behind the blast door behind them. They turned and stared at the large blast door behind them as the ground began to shake.
"The Hell" Asked Dr Matthews while backing away from the blast door with a sinking feeling in her stomach along with Sherry and Gemini.
The blast door exploded outwards and a huge 30ft creature came crashing through, it roared again deafening them and practically shaking the tunnel before turning its attention towards them. It growled dangerously and advanced on the three people before it absolutely dwarfing them with its sheer size. Its head just brushed the top of the ceiling as it began slowly advancing towards them the ground shaking beneath them with every step it took.
"RUN!" Screamed Sherry before she took off for the door next to the other blast door.
Dr Matthews and Gemini both decided that running was a valid plan and ran like hell after her, the giant monster hot on their tails.