Boogeymen II: Teenage Wasteland Chapter 5: Abomination, a teen titans fanfic

Part 5: Abomination

There are a few simple rules to becoming a successful and productive (relatively speaking) horror film villain.

1) Have a gigantic body count. If you do not have half a dozen films to accumulate said body count, writing a giant body count into the past or hinting at such a thing will do.

2) Be ridiculously hard to kill, either by ignoring injuries or being unaffected by them altogether. Failing that, be a good healer. Or just keep on truckin' despite the fact (See Chucky)

3) Either have great luck in finding tools and instruments that can be used to wreck havoc and devastation on the human body, or have your own set of tools built in. Or both

4) Thrive on killing. A reason can be anything, or not matter at all.

If one meets all these criteria, one can be said to be a successful horror villain.

And if one does meet all those criteria, you would think adding a pair of wings would be overkill…but that's what we had.

He was called the Creeper, an immortal humanoid beast that emerged every 23 years for 23 days to feed. Of course that wouldn't be any help to the Hive members, as a crazy thought occurred to Gizmo amidst the chaotic jumble that spilled into his brain when the scarecrow revealed its unpleasant surprise: the blog entry said that whatever had infected the Tower had even removed the restrictions that bound some villains. Freddy Krueger hadn't needed everyone asleep to wreck havoc, for one…and Gizmo doubted any kind of timing system would work for the Hive here. All there was was the Creeper, who wanted one thing: flesh, both for food and for…

Well, it didn't need any more reason then that as it half jumped and half swooped at Flense.

"HOLY…!"

The immensely powerful hand couldn't quite get at Flense's throat with his tendril apparatus blocking the way, but the Creeper settled for grabbing him anyway, lifting him off his feet as he swooped past the group, lifting Flense up a bit as it raised its other hand…

And then metal tendrils tore across its face, and as a look of annoyed surprise came over the Creeper's face, another tentacle coiled around the hand holding Flense as blades snapped out and 'rubbed' the hand, aka uncoiling and using the motion to rip into the skin and muscle. Flense fell to the ground as the grip was broken, taking a finger with him, as the Creeper briefly lost control of himself and then flipped over to land on his feet, his wings coiling back up as he growled, his piercing eyes clearly unhappy.

"…What are you waiting for SHOOT IT!" Gizmo yelled, and the Hive droves finally snapped out of their fugue and brought up their guns, even as legs extended from Gizmo's backpack and lifted him up, a laser cannon extending from his back as he locked on.

Or at least he tried, as the Creeper clearly wasn't planning on waiting around for them to riddle him, as he leapt up towards the nearest wall, even as bullets and blasts began flying through the air and Flense, in the process of getting up, hurled himself down on the ground with a yelp as the projectiles flew over him. The Creeper hit the wall, twisted, and shoved himself off, using his wings to do an extended jump/glide rather then actual flight, his hand pistoning out and smashing through the glass faceplate of one of the Hive drones, blood exploding from the shattered helmet front as the Creeper's momentum carried the soldier backwards, slamming his head into the wall and crushing it inward. The Creeper yanked his arm out and leapt to the side as the guns swung around and opened fire once more, missing him by a mile as he swooped away: the gym apparently wasn't quite big enough for him to fly, but that didn't mean he lacked enough room to maneuver, oh no.

"AIIIIYYYYYAHHHHHHHH!" Buzz Bomb screamed, putting his hands over his ears: the combination of the caffeine, general stress, and sudden and utter calamitous racket wasn't a good mix for him. He crouched down and then started crawling away, as his brain fought to make sense of it. Monster…coming to life…wanting to kill him…what to do…a bomb! He had to make a bomb! He'd just crawl behind this table and make a bomb and…

His hand came down on something sticky. Blood.

Buzz Bomb looked down at his hand and then looked up and around the overturned table he had just meant to crawl around.

Dead, horrified eyes stared back at him. Maybe once what lay behind the table had been human beings: now they were so severely mutilated and cut up that they were reduced to so much random meat. Buzz Bomb shrieked again and scrambled away, not caring if he exposed himself a while longer: he wasn't hiding behind there.

"Damn!" Rocko cursed as the Creeper swooped around the room again, easily dodging the attacking drones and Gizmo. The thing's speed was immense, even hemmed in in the gym, and Rocko was finding herself too slow to keep up: every time she got close and tried to join the fight the Creeper bounced off and left her behind. Like he'd just done, and as Rocko watched, the Creeper swooped away from another barrage and landed behind a drone that had been cut off from his fellows. He tried to turn, but he was far too slow, as the Creeper's hand pistoned out and ripped right through the drone's chest, pulling the heart through his back in a cluster of gristle and veins as the drone let out a wet, agonized scream. His fellows tracked the noise and aimed once more as the Creeper withdrew his arm, but as they opened fire the Creeper just grabbed the drone he had mutilated and help him up in front of him, the body being ripped apart with bullets for a few seconds before the Creeper hurled the body at the shooters, knocking them all down.

It had been the drone that had managed to trick Betelgeuse away, Rocko noticed. No good deed went unpunished.

A spider leg slammed down where the Creeper had been, the monster dodging it, as Gizmo yelled and cursed, trying to swivel his back cannon into position, opening fire and catching the Creeper on the leg and arm, but the monster only seemed to be annoyed as it leapt at Gizmo. Gizmo squawked and tried to move, but while he kept his body out of the Creeper's clawed hands he couldn't say the same for his spider legs, as the Creeper slammed into one and knocked Gizmo off balance. The Creeper landed, grabbed up another leg…

And then metallic tentacles slashed across his back, interrupting his attack as he whirled around.

"Forget about me, asshole?" Flense snapped, as he recalled his tentacles around him, the tips opening as whirling drill bits emerged. "Big mistake!"

The drill tentacles lanced out.

Almost lazily, the Creeper leapt away and to the side, avoiding Gizmo's spider legs once more, and just as Gizmo was getting back on balance the Creeper, in mid leap, slashed out with his claws and ripped into the leg. The whole mechanism promptly went nuts, Gizmo yelling as he tried to control it, as one leg lashed out and caught Flense broadside, slamming him into the nearest wall, HARD. As Flense fell to the floor, his eyes dazed and confused, Gizmo's spider legs entangled themselves and sent the pint sized genius crashing into the table that had once held snacks, the wooden structure exploding into splinters.

The Creeper gave an odd look to the chaos he had just caused, as if trying to make sense of it.

And then a whip lashed around his left shoulder.

"NOW!" Flay yelled, and three Hive droves opened fire. Shock filled the Creeper's eyes as bullets hit his body, but his recovery was utterly scary in its speed, as he whirled and snapped out an arm. Rocko couldn't see what he did: all her eyes caught was a blur…and the front of a helmeted drone shattering as something sliced through it, another slamming into the shoulder of the second drone and cutting his firing off with a scream, blood gouting up from the wound. That left one shooter, who only had a handgun, and apparently that meant he lacked enough importance for the Creeper to focus on, as he turned and grabbed Flay's whip, planning to yank him right into his claws.

Little knowing that Flay had trained against such maneuvers: when the Creeper yanked, Flay had already started moving to the side and jumping, and instead of being pulled into the Creeper's claws Flay instead did a semi-slopping leaping flip/cartwheel, landing on his feet on the other side of the Creeper.

As he coiled his whip around his hands and pressed a button on the hilt.

A mammoth charge of power, part electrical and part ultrasonic, ran up the whip and converged at the tip…which happened to be wrapped around the Creeper's shoulder.

Which resulted in the surge of power blowing the Creeper's left arm clear off and to bits. The Creeper's eyes went wide, as he staggered a bit due to the alteration in balance, as Flay snapped his whip back to himself, preparing to wrap the whip around the Creeper's neck this time…

Except the Creeper adapted to losing an arm far faster then Flay could have guessed, as he snapped out his other arm and sent a whirling dervish at Flay…

Flay's training to avoid being lashed with his own weapons served him well, but even he couldn't dodge entirely, as the weapon semi-glanced his cheek, ripping it open to the bone even as it knocked Flay down. The weapon impaled into the wall next to Rocko, who finally saw what it was: a throwing star. Except this wasn't any throwing star: the fact that the center was composed of a jawbone carefully compacted into a circular shape from which sharp daggers of bone sprouted made that pretty clear. Had Rocko seen the dead bodies that had so freaked out Buzz Bomb, she would have realized what they had been sliced to ribbons for: materials for weaponry. As if the Creeper wasn't deadly enough.

Well, at least Flay had crippled him…

The lone remaining gunman that Flay had tried to set the Creeper up for ran out of ammo, and he dropped his gun and, in a fit of crazy bravery or just plain lunacy, snapped out a crackling cattle-prod esque taser from his boot and charged at the Creeper, screaming a battle cry…

The Creeper's arm casually snapped out and slammed against his head as he got close, the dull crack of his neck breaking filling the room. As the body collapsed, the Creeper turned to it: apparently its attackers were reloading, seeking cover, or down for the count, which suited it just fine. It needed a second or two, as it planted its foot on the chest of its most recent victim even as it seized the left arm and yanked. The limb came off in a spray of blood and a half ripping half popping noise, and the Creeper placed it up against his own bloody stump. Tendrils of flesh shot out, seizing the limb and bringing it in, and even as the skin color of the hand mottled to the blackish-yellow of the Creeper's body the limb slid in more like a puzzle piece and locked. The Creeper tore the clothing off the arm as he lifted and flexed it, the arm having become his. That was his other goal, after all. Fresh meat, and new parts for his body. And while normally he sought out the best parts, any part would do in an emergency.

No longer crippled, the Creeper turned as he tried to decide who he should carve up next…

And found that while his power may have allowed him to replace lost limbs, they had a downside. Like keeping him in one place long enough for a slow rock golem to get close.

"Hello." Rocko said grimly, and thrust an arm out.

The Creeper dodged, albeit barely, as Rocko whirled with her blow, trying to lure the Creeper into a devastating backhand. But the Creeper dodged that too, and the Rocko tried to find her balance, it struck back, bring back its own arm and clawing Rocko across the face with so much force it staggered her.

For a second, as her head snapped back, her blank white eyes staring into the Creeper's.

"I've had worse." Rocko said, and slammed her arms together in front of her, this time managing to squash the Creeper between them. But it slithered away as she tried to grab its head, its arm snapping out as it hurled the last of its bone stars at Rocko.

They broke on her body.

"That too." Rocko said, following the Creeper as it staggered away, still recovering from the massive impact that Rocko had inflicted upon it. It was near the shattered scarecrow it had hid in at the beginning now, and Rocko saw it dip down and grab something off the floor. Apparently deciding that Rocko needed a bit more then the usual, the Creeper snapped out his arm as sharp blades of metal folded out from the staff it was holding, a switchblade axe if you will. And the Creeper knew how to use it, as it ducked in under Rocko's swipe and slammed the axe as hard as it could into Rocko's chest, biting into the stone.

Half a second of pause.

Rocko's backhand sent the Creeper flying across the room, a smear of blood running down the back of Rocko's fist as she yanked the axe out of her chest and crushed it into scrap with one massive hand.

"Still failing." She declared.

The Creeper's features had been mashed somewhat as it got up, its eyes narrowing as Rocko approached. This was like no creature it had ever tried to hunt before: its body seemed immune to pain, like its own. Also, it appeared to be composed heavily of if not entirely of stone and granite, a substance it could not assimilate.

But no matter: the rest were still quite viable. And this anomaly was clearly slow: it could easily stay away from it until it had what it wanted, and then it would leave the rock being behind: there was plenty more prey out there and it was hungry…

Rocko growled as the Creeper sprang backwards, bounced off a wall, and leapt over Rocko: Rocko made a leaping grab for it but missed as the Creeper swooped back over to the drone it had wounded in the shoulder earlier, the drone screaming and trying to gets his gun up, but not before the Creeper's hand came down, cutting his hair. All the way down to his stomach. Rocko's blank eyes narrowed at the horrific sight: even she had enough humanity left to know an ugly death when she saw one.

And so did Gizmo, from where he was propped behind the table among the ruins of his spider walker as he finished assembling the weapon he had been working on. And he was going to put a stop to it.

Gizmo stood up, the giant laser rifle he had assembled propped against his hip as he turned around and aimed it at the Creeper. Rocko was across the room, Flense was still unconscious, Flay was trying to staunch the bloodflow from his cheek via a tablecloth behind a couch, and Gizmo couldn't see Buzz Bomb or Sabotage. And seeing how the Creeper was distracted by the three lone remaining Hive drones as they futilely tried to kill it, Gizmo figured this was as good a time as any. He'd only get one shot with the power pack he had, but one shot was all he needed: even though he knew the Creeper didn't appear to feel pain or the loss of a limb the way a normal person would, he knew this shot would severely inconvenience even IT…

The Creeper already seemed to be somewhat inconvenienced though, as one of the Hive drones had an auto shotgun and the constant blasts of buckshot were enough to drive off even the Creeper, for a bit: it leapt backwards and then leapt to cling onto a wall. It'd go for a diving approach…

Gizmo began locking on, even as one of the drones with a more traditional machine gun tried to draw his own bead on the Creeper…

And Sabotage remerged from wherever he had been hiding during the whole battle, an absence that was quite intentional. Now that all the pieces of shit had been taken down, he'd step in and show them while he ruled this school, their worlds, and their pathetic little lives, because he was Sabotage, and he was untouchable. (Betelgeuse didn't count! He cheated!)

"Move dipshit." Sabotage growled as he approached the machine gunner. You'd think Sabotage could have just ordered or shoved him out of the way, but then he wouldn't be Sabotage, as he struck out with his talent and made the muscles in the machine gunner's left leg suddenly seize up in an agonizing cramp.

So agonizing the machine gunner completely lost his balance even as his finger squeezed the trigger, and with a scream he fell, spraying bullets across the room in a wild pattern.

A pattern Gizmo suddenly found himself looking right into.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He shrieked as the bullets slammed into the table and wall around him, and in the way the panicked do, Gizmo tried to recoil away even as his finger inadvertently yanked his own trigger.

A concentrated plasma laser blast flew from the barrel and slammed into the wall several feet from the Creeper, and even as it recoiled Gizmo's falling backwards while jerking in surprise dragged the laser up the wall and across the ceiling in a fairly wide zig zag…

And then the energy concentration exploded, blowing up the wall and knocking the Creeper to the ground even as the explosion ran up and across the ceiling, which groaned as its structure was severely damaged and then fell apart completely, the whole roof caving in on the gym.

Everyone would have been crushed to death.

If they didn't have a master geokinetic on their side, as Rocko looked up as the ceiling came down, her eyes glowing, as she assessed the situation and damage within a quarter of a second and realized there was only one option: she couldn't lessen or hold up all the weight, but she could damn sure distribute it more.

She thrust up her arms like she was conducting a symphony.

And the entire mass of collapsing stone and concrete exploded into millions of pebbles, the rocks showering down on the people (and Creeper) in a painful rain, but that was better then a fatal one. Rocko fell to her knees, utterly drained: she wasn't used to such mammoth efforts in such knee jerk times. She'd need a little bit to regain her strength…

And that would apparently be very bad for her allies, as Gizmo pulled himself out from under the small mound of rock nuggets he'd been buried in, coughing and sputtering and trying to blink the dust out of his eyes.

"What the crud…you idiotic snot…" Gizmo coughed, as his eyes cleared.

And settled on the Creeper.

Oh, it wasn't right in Gizmo's face, but that was little comfort to the midget genius. Instead it was looking up.

Up at the now open roof and the considerably greater amount of room it was now afforded.

"…Oh CRUD." Gizmo said.

The wings snapped out once more, the bat-like extensions nearly touching each wall, as the Creeper flew into the air and up past where the roof had been, as it prepared to show the Hive members what it truly meant to say "Death From Above"…

And now an annoying pause.

"Did y'all just hear that?" Billy Numerous said, stopping in his walk as he heard a slight rumble in the distance.

"No, and I wouldn't care if I did." Mammoth said, as he continued shuffling Shimmer along, like she was a toddler instead of a teen possessing her own metahuman talents. Or maybe it was just to keep Progeny away from here, Billy wasn't sure. Though Progeny seemed to be keeping his mind on the task at hand: finding a way out.

Though that was harder then it seemed. Especially since...

The corridor.

Mammoth had been CERTAIN it hadn't looked like that when he had turned the corner. Billy had said nothing in his scouting report. But Mammoth had been looking at Progeny in regards to a comment that had been and had started replying…

And then he became aware that the sound that his boot made when it came down was wrong. The dull, almost unintelligible sound had been replaced by a slight clank, as if he was no longer stepping on solid metal but a…

Grating.

Which, as Mammoth found out as he looked down, was exactly what he was stepping on.

Except there were no grating floors in the Hive base.

Especially not rusty ones that were sticky under his boot, as a pungent iron aroma filled Mammoth's nostrils. Rust…and blood.

And he looked up.

The hallway was gone.

Or rather the normal one. The new one had pointed, jagged gratings everywhere, pointing from the walls and sticking up from the floor. The space beyond the gratings seemed impossibly black, as if light wasn't just lacking but devoured altogether. As Mammoth's jaw dropped open, he could swear he saw flashes of movement beyond the grates, of…something…

There was no doubt what had happened here: whatever had happened to that corridor Gizmo had discovered.

"…What in…blue…blazes…" Billy said, as he stepped from around Mammoth. "This wasn't here before."

"What?" Shimmer said.

Billy couldn't help himself: he was drawn into the corridor…the corridor of dirty glass, stained with unintelligible fluids, splattered on the walls…

A flash of light beyond the walls.

A figure.

Pointing at Billy.

Billy jumped.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Mammoth asked, drawing his sister closer to him.

"Baran! You're hurting me!"

Another flash. Another shadow figure, pointing at Billy.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"What's going on and…ugh, what is this?" Progeny said as he stepped past Mammoth. Looking at the walls. The strange walls of spikes and blood, on which was stretched sections of…something…

Progeny sure wasn't touching one of the sections bare-handed, so he couldn't tell exactly what it was. But even with the gloves, he could have sworn it was…

Skin…

"What's so fascinating? We don't have time to hang around here!" Mammoth yelled.

Progeny jerked back his hand. He could have sworn he felt movement beneath the stretched canvass.

"Don't you see it?" Billy said, pointing.

Another flash. The figure was closer.

"See what?"

"That…thing!"

"Billy you're pointing to an empty grate."

"What?" Billy said, and looked again.

As the face splattered up against the dirty glass, eyes exploding in bloody splats, teeth pressed up, blood running down from the face.

Laughing at Billy.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Billy screamed, staggering back.

"What?" Progeny said, looking behind him.

As the flesh bulged out, a hand trying to push through it, a hand Progeny saw as he turned back around. "HOLY SHIT!"

The hand reached for him, the skin starting to tear, white fluids leaking from it, but Progeny didn't hang around, as he exploded into a swirl of body parts and zapped around Mammoth, reforming and running, Billy on his heels.

"That's it, we're going back!" Mammoth said.

"What? What's going on?" Shimmer asked as Mammoth wheeled his sister around and began pushing her away, Mammoth watching over his shoulder as he went around the corner and all the way through the door, which Mammoth closed and locked behind them.

"We need to find another way out." Mammoth said to the still very shell-shocked Progeny and Billy Numerous. Neither of them disagreed. "Are you ok Selinda?"

"Are you, big bro?" Shimmer replied.

"…Let's go." Mammoth said, as they headed off. None of them complained, even if it meant their escape took longer. If any of them had questions how something like what they had just seen had ended up in their base…well, they'd decided to save them for later.

Another annoying thing was that most of the doors they were coming across now were busted, their panels shot out by some kind of weapon. That didn't much matter though when you had a superstrong teen who could just pry the doors open (though he had to be careful: the doors were designed to resist something like that and if Mammoth didn't do it properly magnets would activate that would 'freeze' the door, and then Mammoth would have to pound it down, something that would be very hard on his hands), and even if Mammoth couldn't open the doors for one reason or another Shimmer could just turn them into salt or something. No need for this door though: it was open. And the lights beyond it weren't working. True to character, Mammoth ordered Billy to send some of his clones to scout ahead. Billy listened: Mammoth did have seniority over him and he wasn't much in the mood to challenge it, what he had seen beforehand aside. After all, Billy wasn't afraid of the dark. Not after what the light had shown him earlier.

"Nothing there." The clones reported, as Billy popped them back into himself. In tight hallways like this, he tried to keep the number of hims to a minimum: all it would take was one bullet bouncing off the walls and they'd ALL be dead.

"All right. You two, watch the rear." Mammoth said, as he led Shimmer through the door.

Progeny began to follow, as he started to say something, but whatever that something might have been was lost to time as the doors suddenly slammed shut behind the brother and sister.

"HEY!" Progeny said, as he ran up to the door and banged on it. "Mammoth! MAMMOTH! BARAN! HEY!"

"HEY! BIG GUY! THE DOOR! THE DOOR!" Billy yelled as well. He figured he might as well: even if the door was soundproofed Mammoth still should have heard it close.

Key word being should have.

Because he hadn't.

Why? You know damn well.

And hence Mammoth unknowingly went on with his sister, unaware he was leaving his teammates behind as he went around a corner. He just thought they were being quiet, and besides he was too busy watching the shadows to make sure that there was nothing in them BUT the shadows.

"HEY! COME BACK YAH VARMINT! NO GOOD SNAKE IN THE GRASS!" Billy yelled, as he and a dozen clones banged on the door. But it didn't budge, and playing with the shot out control panel didn't produce any results either…

And Billy was suddenly aware Progeny wasn't around either. He looked up to see the playboy with the bizarre talent heading down the hallway to the left.

"HEY! WHERE YA GOING?"

"You saw what happened Bill. As far as I'm concerned, that means every man for himself." Progeny said.

Billy thought that over for a second, and decided that even though he was never truly alone, he didn't much cotton to the technical aspect of it in this situation.

"HEY! WAIT FOR ME!" Billy yelled, chasing after Progeny.

Perhaps to our surprise, the cloner actually caught up to him.

And while they say one can be judged by the company one keeps, in situations like this one finds that any company would do.

Indeed, Rhinoceros Beetle thought, he'd gladly pass the time with the Lord, or one of those utter psychopaths like Jack Djinn, as long as it meant he wasn't alone.

Because he was alone, and he utterly, completely loathed the fact, as he turned the corner, the flashlight he had procured before he'd gone off on this little journey waving wildly in one hand as he kept his other fist raised. While he did hope he ran into someone, after what he had seen, just before he realized he was alone, cut off, he had a feeling that he had an equal chance to run into…something besides his teammates. And so he kept his fist raised in the hopes that anything that came his way was something physical, and hence he could and would (try to) beat the living stuffing out of them until they went away or quit bothering him or anything in that vein.

And if it WASN'T physical…well Wilby kept his mind off that by wondering about the other HIVE members, or rather the Elementals to be specific.

"Antoinette...where are you when I need you to keep me rational?" Wilby whined to himself. He'd gladly put up with the French teen's bossiness and overwhelming vanity and the way she often treated him as her personal slave, just as long as she was around.

But hey, what good would it do? It was obvious he was losing his mind. Didn't need any company to tell him that, as he slowly stepped through the corridors, hearing whispers from each corner and steps from all around. Yep, he was going mad, cuckoo, bonkers, loonytunes: these events were making him see things that weren't there. Or worse, were there. After what had happened, after seeing those…those….THINGS, he was willing to take a lot on faith.

He turned several times, expecting something to jump out behind him, expecting something to get in close enough to put his armor to use, or show how useless it was, especially if it went for his head. Unlike when he was fully prepared, he only had some of his armor: his helmet was missing, as was his visor, hence he no longer had night vision and hence, the flashlight.

If he actually wanted to see what was coming…

"Wilby."

The voice came from in front of him, but because he had just turned it sounded as if it came from behind him. Which of course nearly gave him a heart attack before he recognized it. All the same, he turned slowly, his eyes widening…and then he looked upon the face of who was there. He let off a mighty sigh and dropped his guard.

"Floral, you shouldn't do that to me." Rhinoceros Beetle said, as he wiped his brow and breathed in heavily before continuing. "You know how surprise tends to combine with my…asthma…"

Now at this point something had caught Wilby, as Floral, or Rose as some knew her, would usually A) First apologize for what she'd done, and B) Commence or recommence running around in a panic, because in a situation like this, that was what Floral did. But she didn't do that, didn't do or say anything, she just stood there.

Wilby stared, as a prickle of deep unease twitched on the back of his neck. Something wasn't right here…

"Help me…" Floral finally said as Wilby straightened up, starting to become alarmed as she walked towards him. Something didn't quite register, something that was setting off his deep-seated animal danger senses, but what was it?

"I'm lost... Help me..." Floral repeated taking another few steps forward…and suddenly Wilby forgot about his deep sense of unease. He was too busy looking down at the blood on her clothing, her own blood. She had been attacked, and was, or at least had, been bleeding. He took a step forward to help.

Clang.

For some reason the sound made him pause again. But why? The floor he was standing on was just metal, normal metal, and he wore giant boots, so why wouldn't it make a clang...

Then it twigged in his mind what was wrong with the picture.

Floral was MAKING NO SOUND when she walked. Every step she took forward produced absolutely no noise, as if she wasn't stepping.

So he shone the flashlight at her feet...

And found out why she wasn't making any stepping sounds.

She wasn't stepping.

Wilby looked up in surprised horror as Floral was suddenly right in front of him as she grabbed him, harshly, and started to shake him. Hard. And considering he was literally ten times her size…

"HELP ME!" She screamed, moaning in pain, shaking him with her amazingly strong hands. Wilby fought, or tried, but with each push he found himself unable to pull away, his amazing strength almost seemingly nullified. It was as if she wasn't shaking his body, but his very soul. He felt as if something was draining his life force away, as if she was removing it to feed an ever-growing hunger…

A hunger he didn't feel too great about being the main course of, as the fight or flight instinct truly kicked in and he redoubled his efforts, struggling with her for a bit before he finally managed to get some leverage and force his way past.

Or at least that had been the plan, as what actually happened made him rethink EVERYTHING.

Because he barged his way THROUGH her.

And when I mean through, I don't mean it like a football player might do. He didn't knock her down, oh no. He actually went through her body.

It felt as if he had just passed through a fog, a mist of warm air. The feeling of being drained, of being preyed on her that she had caused in him, rose in one final, powerful jolt and then stopped almost immediately. Falling down, as he'd expected to go around her, not through her, he landed awkwardly, but he didn't stay that way as he scrambled up, his eyes wide as he fumbled for his flashlight again and spun while on his back, pointing it at Floral.
But she was gone.

Not one bit of her was left.

Nothing.

He swung the flashlight around, hoping to find something, anything…but nothing.

His mind raced at what had happened, and then he thought back to what he had seen at her feet.

Why he had not heard any noise when she walked.

She had no feet.

Simple as that, she was floating in mid air.

He looked down to try and remember exactly HOW such a thing could happen…except something on the ground caught his eye. Two things.

A glowing green rock... and an old camera.

Crawling forward onto his stomach, he lifted it up the rock and looked at it, spinning it around in his hands, and did the same with the camera. It looked familiar, like he'd seen it before. But such a camera was beyond obsolete: you probably would only see it in an old movie. Or in a museum or…or…

Maybe a video game.

His eyes went wide as he realized just what he held.

"The Camera Obscura!" He shouted, almost dropping it in his shock before catching it again in his large, powerful hands. His mind again raced. What was this doing here? Scratch that, how could it even BE here? This wasn't a video game, this was reality! It couldn't be THE camera! It couldn't be…it had to be just an old camera, probably dropped by one of the older members of the hive. Maybe one of the Elementals collected old stuff like this? Maybe it was Brother Blood's hobby?

Or…maybe it was the camera.

He knew it was crazy, but maybe it was. His group had been playing games, horror games. Indeed, Wilby wasn't too interested in the movies as such, though he probably would be called away to hold Platinum Blonde's hand if any of the movies got too scary (and while he did that he would buy some salt to sprinkle on all the places hell had frozen over, such was the likelihood he'd get anywhere close to doing that). So he had played games.

And one of those games was a game known to some as Project Zero, but to Americans as Fatal Frame, or rather Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly.

A game where your only weapon was this camera, to capture…ghosts…

Ghosts who were often tormented, who didn't walk, who fed on the life force of the living…

Scared at the possibilities, but still wanting to know, to be utterly sure, Wilby lifted the camera up to his eye line and stared through…

"HELP ME!"

Floral was in the view finder, screeching and whipping ghost vines around her, rotted and decayed, chunks coming off with each swing. Wilby jumped back, not sure what to do. He was used to physical things, something he could harm, or at least beat into submission (unless they hit him first), but this was out of his league, you couldn't beat up a ghost, as his hands fumbled…
And hit the button, setting the flash off.

Floral staggered back, grabbing at her eyes before letting out an eerie moan and falling to her knees. Not knowing what else to do, Wilby watched through the camera as she faded into nothingness.

…Well, that was the proof HE needed. This was the Camera Obscura, the very same. It had repelled the ghost of Rose, and for a moment he felt... relived, as it meant he wasn't going crazy. He was still sane, or as sane as one could be in such a situation.

Then he realized a certain tragedy. If there was a Floral ghost, then she was dead. The sweet girl was gone, killed…maybe at the hands of whatever had commit those horrors on the Hive drones he'd seen in the hallway. A wave of sadness swept through him…and was followed by panic. If this was indeed the Camera Obscura, then…

Wilby ripped open the back of the camera in realization and pulled out the photograph of Ghost Floral; the camera had managed to develop it straight away, with the ghost energy it had taken. On the film, there was a label.

"Type-90?" He said to himself. Then he remembered; throughout the game there was different film. Type-07, which was the weakest and most plentiful, if he remembered rightly it was infinite ammunition, then there was Type-14, old film, type-75 film which was new film and type-90, which was one of the best. There was also ZERO film, which was stupidly powerful, but it took a long time to reload. He had used the last piece of film in there, and it was Type-90.

He was out of ammo.

While Type-07 was unlimited, the camera had not had it equipped at the time, and hence he didn't have it either, hence he had used the only ammunition he had.

He quickly looked around as he tried to find something, anything that would indicate that there was film nearby, a glint, an off-c, anything.

Nothing.

Standing up, he pocketed the gem from before and the photo, carrying the camera with one hand, closing the back as he walked, flashlight in his free hand.

And he really hoped that whatever he ran into next could, if it wasn't friendly, be beat into submission.

The thought that there was something his gauntlets couldn't handle didn't occur to Nightwalker, as he twisted and twirled an ammo pack in one of his free hands, ready to slam it in and open fire at anything that showed up and even looked at him funny. He hadn't gone through all that just to die at the hands of…well, whatever, but after what he'd just been through he was sure it'd be a step down.

Jinx was hugging herself as she walked on, her eyes both alert, nervous, and pondering. Nightwalker sighed as the expression: it meant all he had said still hadn't gotten through.

"You know Llarenes, you can't always believe everything you see." Nightwalker said.

"But…it ACTED just like…"

"Jinx…this wasn't some one shot person or killing that only a very small group would know about. That was a creature that appeared in a video game that sold tens of thousands of copies. It's not exactly difficult to duplicate."

"Duplicate?"

"Yes. As in, that wasn't the Nemesis, popped out of a video game and come to life and trying to kill us!"

"Then what WAS it?"

"…I don't know! A bioengineered creation by someone who wasn't very original? A robot? A hard light hologram construct? Jinx, any of those are more possible then the…ludicrous notion that it came out of a video game!"

"Why are you alone?" Jinx suddenly asked.

"…What?"

"Why was it just you? Why not anyone else?

"Uh…" Nightwalker muttered. "Well there was a big group, but we uh…had some disagreements and uh…I had to go off by myself and…uh…"

"Methinks the lady doeth protest too much. Out with it Nightwalker: why'd you go off on your own and why do I have the feeling it would greatly undermine your argument?"

"…That doesn't matter! It doesn't! Whatever that thing was back there, it's gone, burned to ash. No need to worry."

"Nightwalker, I was chased down the hallway by some lunatic in a Santa suit with an axe. I think we still…"

A hand clamped over her mouth, cutting her off. Jinx's eyes widened.

"Shhhhhh." Nightwalker whispered. "Noise down the hallway. Can't decipher it. Treat it as an enemy." Nightwalker said, pulling his hand away as he slowly slipped in his ammo clip and added one to his other gauntlet. Jinx nodded and gestured forward, as the two crept up to the corner.

Nightwalker raised a hand, holding up four fingers, and then counted down to three, two…

"HAH!"

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Zippy yelled as she waved her gun around, causing Nightwalker to dive to the ground.

"Ahhh!" Juryrig cursed, before he let out the air in his lungs and gestured to Duke Nukem. "Well hello to you too!"

"Julian!" Jinx said.

"Gee, you think?" Juryrig said as he lowered his own gun.

"Heyguyswhat'sthebigideasneakingaroundthecornerandmakingusthinkyouwereamonsterIdon'tneedtobewastingbulletsonyourdumbasses…" Zippy spilled out, as Nightwalker got to his feet with a sigh.

"Give me THAT." He snapped, swiping the gun from Zippy's hand and clicking the safety back on. "I wouldn't recommend this as a weapon, you're more likely to shoot yourself then a target."

"Saysyou!"

"Exactly!"

"Enough. No fighting. Jinx, glad to see you're alive. Nightwalker, what happened, decide the main group wasn't hip enough and strike off on your own?"

"I realize I made an error in judgment in my choice of traveling partners. Let's just leave it at that, all right?" Nightwalker said. "Who are you with and do you have any idea what's going on?"

"Just Antoinette. We were with Wilby but we…lost him." Juryrig said.

"He's dead?"

"No we literally lost him."

"Thehallwayvanished! Justendedinawallthatwasn'therebeforeallgonebyebyeWilby!" Zippy said.

"We're trying to regroup in the cafeteria. We found something there…Seymore. He's dead."

"I'm sorry." Nightwalker replied, though if he was actually sorry with the way his helmet distorted his voice was left up to interpretation.

"Oh that's not the worst. Then we heard something. Something you're not going to believe."

"Rose is dead?" Platinum Blonde said in shock and horror.

"I'm afraid so." Nightwalker said quietly. And while the tears didn't start falling, it was clear the French metal girl was overwhelmed. Zippy had no such restraint: once she was certain of the truth, she fell on her rear and began to bawl, Juryrig heading over to comfort her.

"We found her…and Danielle." Jinx said.

"Oh god Danielle…she'll lose her mind…" Platinum Blonde said.

"She did." Nightwalker said, once again unloading his gauntlets. Juryrig gave the teen a dirty look.

"Hey man, show some fucking compassion."

"I'll show compassion when all our asses aren't in the same sling that propelled Rose down the river Styx. You said you heard something we're not going to believe, well we have something like that too. It's how we ran into Rose and Danielle. But you go first."

"Yeah yeah, hang on." Juryrig said, as he called a napkin dispenser to Zippy and offered her some. As Zippy blew her nose with a loud snort, Jinx went over to check the body of Seemore, found with a blanket over him. She swiftly found out why, and barely kept the contents of her stomach down.

"About ten seconds after we found THAT…" Juryrig said, indicating Seemore's body. "Antoinette's communicator came on, out of the blue. Scared the hell out of us, especially since…hey! Are you even going to pay attention!" Juryrig yelled, as Nightwalker headed over to the entrance of the cafeteria he and Jinx had entered by and began fiddling with the control pad.

"Trust me, this door is better shut." Nightwalker said, as he pressed the door key and it slid shut and locked. "You were saying?"

"I didn't turn it on. It just turned itself on." Platinum Blonde said.

"Maybe you hit it by mistake."

"Whatever it was, no one was speaking directly into it. All we caught was background chatter. Since we heard Gizmo's voice the clearest we assume it was his communicator. And what he said…well…it definitely gave us pause."

"Oh really? And what was he saying?"

So Juryrig told him.

"……………..Oh forget THIS." Nightwalker said, shoving off the wall he'd been leaning on.

"Yeah, that was pretty much MY reaction, but after I gave it some thought, it started making a queer kind of sense. Especially after Sal here filled in a few blanks. Sal, tell them about how your race with Ezhno ended."

Zippy quickly (literally) laid out what she'd seen: Hermes smashing the computer, the reaction that had engulfed Control Freak, and the destruction that had followed.

"IfwhatGizmosaidistruethenthesituationwasalmostexactlythesameaswhattheTitansexperienced." Zippy finished.

"And so horror films have come to life." Nightwalker said.

"You wanna explain that damn corridor? And how a wall appeared where there wasn't one? Sounds like reality manipulation in the vein of slasher to me."

"Julian, listen to yourself. What makes more sense in our way of life: an over-elaborate plot by some nutbar with a horror film mad-on, or horror films actually coming to life?"

"I'd like to hear your explanation of how a psycho dressed up as Santa DISAPPEARS INTO THIN AIR WHEN HE DIES." Jinx snapped.

"I TOLD you…"

"Wait wait…" Juryrig said. "Did you say psycho dressed up as Santa?"

"Yeah!"

"Axe? Said "Punished" and "Naughty" a lot?"

"…Yeah."

"…Oh my god. Billy Caldwell."

"Who?" Nightwalker asked.

"A slasher from a film called Silent Night, Deadly Night…caused a minor stir when it was released in the early 80's because some people didn't cotton to the idea of Santa being portrayed as a serial killer…" Juryrig said before he trailed off.

"…Not just that." Jinx said.

"What?"

"He was just the warm up Juryrig. Because I think that whatever happened to the Titans has happened to this place too…and it didn't just happen with films this time."

"What do you mean?" Platinum Blonde said.

"…Guys, we ran into Scorcher and Floral because we were being chased. And what was chasing us was…"

A gigantic ringing thud tore through the whole room as a bulge of metal suddenly blossomed out from the door Nightwalker had closed, making everyone jump and in the case of the females scream as Nightwalker whirled around and stared at the door, even as another thud rang through the room and another bulge appeared.

"NO!" Nightwalker yelled, almost cried, as yet another bulge emerged. "NO! IMPOSSIBLE! CAN'T BE!"

"What the hell! What's going on!" Juryrig yelled, as yet another bulge appeared.

"What was chasing us! Scorcher fought it, we thought it was dead! It SHOULD be dead! The…!"

The door exploded off its hinges and fell with a final loud thud, as a giant shadowy figure loomed beyond.

"…Nemesis." Jinx finished.

"Hivvvvvveeee…" The abomination growled as it stalked through the door…stalked, and limped, just a bit. The jacket the Nemesis had worn had been completely burned off, leaving just his pants and boots…and a giant writhing mass of tentacles attached to the creature's shoulders, arms, and chest. Smoke still rose from parts of its body, and most of the exposed skin was hideously burned…burns that were clearly healing up nonetheless.

"…No…no…" Nightwalker said. "Scorcher fought you. The only way you could be here is if…if…"

"HIVVVVEEEEE!" The Nemesis roared.

And with the speed that still could shock and surprise, the Nemesis thrust out an arm and a tentacle lanced out, heading right for Jinx.

Compared to how fast that attack was, to Gizmo the Creeper almost seemed to be flying up at a leisurely pace. Thought that was probably a perception trick, or maybe he'd banged his head when the wild machine gun fire had knocked him down. Yeah, that probably was it: here he was looking at a creature that with enough room could swoop down and take his head off before he knew what hit him, and he was thinking of the parallel between that and the dive bombers of Hitler's Blitzkrieg attack strategy. Maybe all the rubble falling on his head, pebble form or not, had compounded his head injury…

…Wait a second.

Gizmo's errant laser blast had destroyed the roof.

And that had come from attempting to shoot a creature that had emerged from a horror film.

In such a way that, if Gizmo recalled correctly, tied into a thunderstorm.

A thunderstorm like the one that, as far as Gizmo could tell, was still raging around the makeshift Hive base.

And there was no more roof.

SO WHERE WAS ALL THE RAIN?

And the Creeper answered that question for him, as it pumped its wings one last time just before it swooped down…

And slammed into something.

HARD.

The only cue that something was there was the brief flash and outline of a white with a hint of green seethrough barrier, a flash that quickly vanished as the Creeper tumbled back down, his wings seemingly unable to slow his descent. He hit the ground hard.

"…Ah crud." Gizmo said, as he realized what had happened. He blinked a few times to finish clearing his head and stood up, digging under the debris for his laser cannon. In its current state it would be useless to him: he had to disassemble it some so it could fire.

"What happened?" Asked one of the remaining Hive drones.

"Did we win?" Flay said, poking his head out from behind the couch, blood still trickling from his face.

"I dunno about winning, but I know what he crashed into, bloody crud." Gizmo said.

"What?"

"Our base is in lockdown, a state it entered when it senses an intruder…these things, we assume. The purpose of lockdown is to make sure the intruder can't escape, the theory being we can easily handle them once they're cornered, ha ha ha ha ha." Gizmo semi-laughed in a bitter tone. "But the system we have here isn't perfect. Somehow another part of the defenses has activated, a part that's not a part of the lockdown process. It's for defending the base from outside attack."

"What is it?" Flay asked.

"Gee, you couldn't tell by the lack of rain? A force field dingus! One that covers the whole base. If you look closely you might be able to see the rain bouncing off it. The problem is the field is a dome shape, covering the whole building. Which means even if we find an exit, we can't GET OUT."

"So how do we turn off the force field?" Another drone asked.

"We need to find the computer. Problem is I just built the damn thing: Blood was the one who actually installed it. I have no idea where it is: only Blood would, and possibly Billy. But the only way for us to get out is to turn it off or for it to run out of power. And considering how I build things, even temporary things, with nothing strenuous being inflicted on the outside of the shield it'll take all night for it to shut down on its own. Crud! I wish I knew just what turned the damn thing on!" Gizmo said, as he finished disassembling his gun and began reassembling it into a weaker form, albeit one that could actually shoot.

"Well what turns it on?" Flay asked.

"An outside attack on the base! But I don't know what it could have read as that!"

Gizmo would never know it had been Scorcher's outburst upon finding Floral, and at the moment something else had caught his attention, as one of the drones had walked up to the Creeper's body.

"Hey! Careful Burke!" Gizmo said, knowing this particular drone's name for some reason, probably his decent memory.

"Right right." Burke said, his gun carefully aimed at the Creeper's crumpled body. He nudged it with his foot, then kicked it a few times. No reaction or movement.

"…I think it broke its neck." Burke reported.

"Oh wouldn't that be our luck." Gizmo said, as he finished assembling his gun, looking down to snap the last part into place.

And looking up to see, much to his horror, that Burke had turned his back on the Creeper. His eyes widened.

"BURKE!"

"What?"

The Creeper's hand exploded through Burke's stomach, clutching a handful of guts. Burke screamed as he looked down, and then the Creeper yanked backwards, pulling a fistful of gore from the hole in the man's as he stood up.

"Crud!" Gizmo cursed (and if you complain he's overusing the word, let's see how original YOU are in a crisis), as he brought the gun and began firing.

He got two shots off before the body slammed into him, thrown one handed by the Creeper, smashing Gizmo's small frame backwards where he banged his head on the wall (all those musings about head injuries seemed to have prophetic), his gun scattering away on the floor as the Creeper licked a finger as if gauging the blood and then turned to a new target: the last two Hive drones. They opened fire, of course, but the Creeper didn't seem much bothered as it poised to leap…

And then a whip lashed around his waist.

"Baby, light my fire." Flay commented, and pressed a button on the handle again. Fire exploded down the whip length and erupted around the Creeper's waist. The lack of noise would seem to indicate that this didn't bother the Creeper much, though his facial expressions said otherwise as he tried to get the whip off, the flame spreading up his body. Getting nowhere, The Creeper took a different tact, as he grabbed the whip and yanked his body as hard as he could. This time, Flay couldn't properly control the momentum, as the Creeper pulled him off his feet and hurled him around and across the room, right into the firing Hive drones, knocking them all down.

Rocko's eyes narrowed as the Creeper approached the stunned trio. Damn it, she was still too weak, and even if she could move she couldn't cross the distance needed in time to stop the Creeper from…

A stone slammed into the Creeper's head.

"Hey gruesome."

The Creeper turned to look at Sabotage, who was standing nearby, casually tossing a stone up and down in his hand. From across the room, Rocko wondered where he had come from: he seemed to keep slipping in and out from lines of sight as if his power was invisibility rather then probability manipulation. Of course, deep down she knew: Sabotage was keeping back until he saw a chance to step in and claim all the glory for himself. Bloody asshole.

"Enough screwing around with the pussies. Time to fight a real man." Sabotage said, as he assumed a basic combat stance.

The Creeper apparently didn't have a problem with someone wanting to be its next victim, as it turned and headed for Sabotage. Or rather, it turned and walked a few steps before it suddenly bounded at Sabotage.

That didn't help it, as it suddenly veered to the side, allowing Sabotage to dodge it as it crashed into a wall. Rocko knew Sabotage had used his power to cause some kind of muscle cramp or twitch that had severely altered the Creeper's momentum. And that was the least Sabotage could do, as the Creeper pulled himself from the wall and turned, looking quite aggravated.

And that was before Sabotage kicked him in the face. The Creeper stumbled back a step and then swiped at Sabotage. But as he did so, the Creeper stumbled, and Sabotage whirled around the creature and backhanded him on the back of the head. The Creeper crouched down on all fours after the blow, sprang to the side, clamped onto the wall and sprang back at Sabotage, but he went too high (or rather Sabotage made him go too high, as Sabotage half-fell, half rolled onto his back and shoulders, and as the Creeper swooped under him he thrust up his legs into the monster's gut, knocking him to the side and down as Sabotage flipped up to his feet. Quite angry now, the Creeper whirled up and slashed at the teen, but Sabotage dodged away and hit the Creeper several times in the face before ducking and flipping away from another attack. Furious, the Creeper lunged at Sabotage…

Who slipped under the creature's grip, spun around from his back, and yanked twin guns from his belt. He must have gotten them from one of the dead drones.

And he proceeded to empty them into the Creeper's back, the flesh exploding into a mass of gore as the high power bullets ravaged it. The Creeper was driven to the ground from the barrage, as the guns clicked empty. Sabotage looked at them and then tossed them aside.

"Had enough?" He asked.

And Rocko knew she had to get over there. She wasn't fully recharged, but she could manage. But she couldn't have Cord turning this fight into one of his little arrogant power games.

The Creeper began getting up again, a bit slower but still going, despite the utter mess Sabotage had made of its back. Sabotage didn't seem perturbed that the Creeper could keep fighting after being shot so many times. Rather, he looked cruelly delighted.

"Good." Sabotage said, and slammed his heel across the Creeper's face.

And Buzz Bomb popped out from behind the table he had hidden behind. The chaos and the noise and the collapsing roof and his rather rattled state had all contributed to the long time it had taken his brain to get back into 'booming state', but he had finally managed to finish his ordnance. It was essentially a grenade, albeit for one special feature: instead of a time detonator, it had a combination lock on/proximity detonator. Which basically meant once Buzz Bomb threw it, it would seek out the nearest target due to its arc, close in, and then blow.

"Cord!" Buzz Bomb yelled, as Sabotage took advantage of the Creeper's slowed agility and speed due to the bullet wounds and pummeled the creature, dodging the Creeper's return blows as if they were being thrown by a drunk bum. "Hey Cord! Get down! Move!"

Sabotage heard Buzz Bomb, he just ignored him. He was busy showing why everyone should be listening to him. He was King Badass around these parts, and everyone had damn sure better recognize it.

And then he saw Rocko starting her way over to the fight. His eyes narrowed. That wouldn't do. He was trying to steal her thunder: it'd do him no good if the bitch stole it right back…

His distraction almost allowed the Creeper to tear out his throat. Sabotage cartwheeled and flipped away at the last second, his eyes narrowing.

And spying Buzz Bomb, who was looking at him. Apparently having judged Sabotage to be far enough away, Buzz Bomb pulled the pin of his LO/P grenade and began throwing back his arm.

"No, that won't do." Sabotage said, and his eyes seemed to spark.

And a suddenly surge of weakness hit Buzz Bomb's knee.

"Ahhhh!" He yelled, as he fell backwards…even as his arm continued the process of throwing, hurling the grenade.

But due to Buzz Bomb suddenly starting to fall, the arc was screwed up. Instead of going across the room with minimal height, the bomb flew high into the air, going right over the Creeper…

And coming down behind him.

Right towards Rocko, who looked up.

"Not again."

And unfortunately, the bomb couldn't distinguish friend from foe.

The explosion blew Rocko across the entire room, her entire body breaking apart as she was hurled through the air and into the wall, going right through it as her form collapsed entirely (apparently two in close explosions in such a short length of time was too much), even as the shattered wall collapsed on her, burying her in rubble, as Sabotage and the Creeper recoiled from the blast.

"Ahhhh no!" Buzz Bomb said as he, having gotten up, saw what had happened to his errant grenade.

"Ahhhh that's better." Sabotage said, and turned back to the Creeper.

"What…but how…Cord…did you…AHHHHHHH!" Buzz Bomb said as the Creeper started for him. He ducked back down behind the table.

The Creeper's stalk didn't get too far as Sabotage kicked him in the knee.

"Where you going ugly? Your ass whooping's only half done!"

Buzz Bomb peeked over the table as the Creeper went after Sabotage again, but it was futile: Sabotage screwed up his every move and countered with extreme violence with his martial arts skills. Screwing him up like Buzz Bomb had screwed up. Without intending to. Well, if that was the way Cord wanted it. Buzz Bomb turned around as he opened up his abdomen (which had been removed from his backside and was on the floor next to him): if Cord wanted to screw up his explosives, he'd just build a better one. And with his brain finally ordered, he could do it a lot quicker then the first, even if it wouldn't pack as much a punch. But Buzz Bomb could get around that. If there was one thing he knew, it was the manipulation of explosives.

If Sabotage didn't finish off the Creeper first. And from the way he was wailing on him, that seemed like a distinct possibility.

To Jinx, the only distinct possibility was that her cranial cavity would very soon be getting an extra hole she really didn't need.

One can only wonder what saved her from such a fate. Perhaps her bad luck abilities, working subtly to protect her by causing 'bad luck' in the Nemesis' choice of attack. Or maybe just plan old dumb luck.

Because the Nemesis didn't pierce her head. Instead, its tentacle wrapped around her shoulders and upper chest and yanked her off her feet with a scream, carrying her backwards as the Nemesis roared and dangled her in the air.

Then the end of the tendril tried to force its way through her head.

Better late then never, one could suppose.

Fortunately, while the Nemesis had grabbed Jinx, it hadn't done so tightly enough to clamp her arms to her side, and as a result Jinx managed to get her hands up and grab the end before it started its little braindrain. This only slowed it down though: the tentacle was horrifically strong.

"SOME HELP!" Jinx screamed.

"Holy FUCK!" Juryrig cursed, unable to believe what he was seeing. While he'd seemed willing to believe it earlier when he'd been discussing what he overheard from Gizmo, seeing and believing was a whole new ball game, as part of his brain refused to accept that here was the Nemesis, live and in person, and wanting to make them all very very dead…starting with Jinx, as Juryrig snapped out of it, snatching up his machine gun even as he animated Duke Nukem off the ground where he had been 'sitting'…and found he couldn't get a clear shot with Jinx being waved around. "Shit!"

"Whatdowedo?" Zippy yelled.

"Uh, attack! No wait, Jinx! I mean…!" Juryrig yelled.

Nightwalker just acted, as he sprang up onto the nearest table and ran alongside it, diving forward onto his hand and then springing off them into a rolling flip in the air, over the Nemesis as he landed on his back.

"Mgruah?" The Nemesis went, as Nightwalker raised up an arm, a long blade snapping from his gauntlet, his computer reader in his helmet having traced the tentacle back to its source, and Nightwalker took advantage as he slashed down and cut deeply into the appendage. The Nemesis growled/roared, even as the tentacle spasmed and released Jinx, who hit the ground and cartwheeled away, even as Nightwalker tried to do likewise…

The Nemesis had his hands up and on the black clad teen before he knew it, the huge fingers like vises, even as the tentacles clawed at his head and chest.

Who saves the saviors?

The blondes.

"Enfent de chienne!"

Platinum Blonde's laced together hands came swinging down like a pile driver as the metal girl leapt off the nearest table and clubbed the Nemesis across the head. The monster staggered, his grip loosening, and then Nightwalker got one arm free and opened up with his orb gauntlet on the Nemesis' face at point blank range. The Nemesis roared as the dense orbs slammed into and tore up its face, and it released Nightwalker, who didn't land quite at gracefully as Jinx had as he nearly landed on his head. The Nemesis was unable to take advantage though, as Platinum Blonde had just punched him in the chest and driven him back some more, Nightwalker rolling away to avoid being crushed by the creature's massive feet.

"VOUS AVEZ TUE DANNY!" Platinum Blonde screamed, as she slammed another punch into the Nemesis' chest. "Je vais te déchirer en morceaux…!"

The backhand from the Nemesis would have knocked another man's head clear off, and while it didn't do that to Platinum Blonde it still sent her flying across the room. She slammed into the wall on the other side of the room with a dull metallic ring.

"Antoinette! Ohno!" Zippy said.

"All right…" Juryrig said, as he settled on a strategy, putting his machine gun down to focus completely on his innate talent. "This turns…around…"

As twin braces extended from Duke Nukem's back, arms made of several objects including brooms, kitchen utensils, and empty soda cans, which Juryrig had somehow combined into a fully functioning limb withdrew twin hand guns. Big ones, mostly like .50 Magnum Desert Eagles. And Duke Nukem had more then one set of arms, as another withdrew an 'Urban Sniper' shotgun, a shotgun loaded with slugs, not buckshot, designed to kill with severe stopping power. Another arm extended over Duke Nukem's bucket head, holding a Ruger MP9 submachine gun, and yet another holding a HK MP-5N submachine gun. Fingers made of carefully compacted toothpicks and rubber bands snapped off safeties in a series of clicks.

"NOW!"

And Duke Nukem opened fire with all his weapons, the room filled with terrible noise. Bullets began slamming into the Nemesis at a high rate, most of them designed to taken down a charging rhino. The sheer amount of recoil that so many fired weapons must have emitted was bled off by the fact that Duke Nukem's body wasn't human, that it was braced in such a way that would snap a human spine, and the fact that Juryrig was absorbing a fair chunk of it as well, his eyes squeezed shut as he focused, not hearing Zippy screaming next to him with her hands over her ears, just focusing on firing the guns and destroying whatever stood in front of him.

But the Nemesis was not so easily destroyed, even as the bullets slammed into him, purple blood exploding from thirty different wounds, the damaged tentacle Nightwalker had cut being severed completely by the barrage, one slug glancing off the Nemesis's skull and sending bone chips flying into the air, the Nemesis stood and took it.

And he roared.

"HIVVVVVVE!"

The tentacle flew true, bullets slicing into it but not before it slammed into Duke Nukem's chest. The feedback slammed into Juryrig, who grunted and stumbled, his control slipping, the gunfire slacking off…

Nemesis charged forward, taking the last few shots as it swung out its fist and decapitated Duke Nukem's bucket head. Juryrig yelled, stumbling back, and then the Nemesis brought both fists down on the creation, squashing it flat. Juryrig recoiled and then fell to the ground, much to Zippy's horror.

"Julian!"

"Uhhhhhhh…" The black teen groaned, his brain throbbing with pain. That much firepower would have taken down an APC: what was the Nemesis made of if he could take all that and still fight back, even after he'd assumingly fought to the death with Scorcher?

"Hive…" The Nemesis growled, as he stood there for a moment, clenching and unclenching his hands, and as Zippy watched, the wounds stopped bleeding.

And then the Nemesis was coming for them again, as if nothing had happened, ignoring his injuries, unrelenting in the face of hell…

"…Yahhhhhhh!" Zippy yelled as she snatched up Juryrig's discarded machine gun and ran, opening fire as she ran a tight circle around the Nemesis. Her aim was sloppy, but at such close range that didn't matter, as she hit the Nemesis with bullets from all angles, hoping that maybe that way she might hit something vital…

"Grahhhhh!" The Nemesis snarled, and swung back an arm. "HIVE!"

The tendril extended outward as the Nemesis raked his arm along the ground, and Zippy was going too fast to avoid it, as she tripped over it and flew through the air with a yell, landing on a table top and bouncing once before coming to rest near the end. "Owwwwwwwmyankle!"

"Hive!" The Nemesis said, heading for the injured Zippy.

Spots still swirling in his vision, Juryrig pulled himself to his feet, not knowing what to do. He'd thrown everything he could muster at the monster and it had just continued along like nothing had happened at all. How could he possibly…

"Too much…" He mumbled, turning and heading for the nearest door. "Too…much…"

Zippy saw she was being stalked and rolled off the table…and nearly collapsed. Her ankle hurt too much to put weight on it, but she couldn't run on one leg, and she couldn't stand still, so she tried to hop away, all too aware that the creature was closing in…

Until a spray of orbs raked across its chest and face, stopping the Nemesis as it turned to look at what had attacked it.

"That's it ugly…" Nightwalker said, snapping in a new clip of ammo even as his tracking computer locked on. "Take a good…LONG look."

"Hive!" The Nemesis snarled, heading for Nightwalker.

Who fired true.

The orb slammed into the Nemesis' head and exploded, spraying liquid all over the stapled over eye, liquid that immediately began to hiss and eat into the Nemesis' skull, stopping the monster dead as it roared and clawed at its face.

"Fluoro-antimonic acid motherfucker! How do you like that! 20 quadrillion times the dissolving power of sulfuric acid! It'll eat through anything, INCLUDING YOU!" Nightwalker, and fired off three more shots, splattering more of the extraordinarily powerful corrosive on the Nemesis and making him bellow louder.

"Damn. Wish these things weren't so damn hard to make." Nightwalker cursed as he extracted his empty clip. At least what he had had done the job: the whole right side of the Nemesis' head was starting to melt.

Until it stopped.

"What?"

"Hiveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…" The Nemesis snarled, taking his hands away, even as the acid stopped eating holes in his body.

"Oh you have got to be KIDDING ME!"

"HIVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE!" The Nemesis howled, charging after Nightwalker, hurling any tables and chairs that got of his way to the side as he thrust up an arm. Nightwalker barely dodged as the tentacle sprang out and then slammed down where Nightwalker had just been, cracking the table in half.

"Oh shit." Nightwalker said, and ran for his life, as the Nemesis pursued with unholy vengeance.

A look that was mirrored on the Creeper's face, as he once again tried to rip Sabotage's guts out of his body…only to find, once again, his muscle suddenly cramping, or a limb suddenly buckling, as the blow was avoided and then countered, as Sabotage leapt up and swung around, slamming his heel across the Creeper's head and causing the beast to stumble.

"Shoulda just rolled over and given up, fucker." Sabotage said cockily.

The Creeper leapt straight up in the air and tried a sharp dive, but the wings didn't position right and the Creeper swooped over the rolling Sabotage. Landing on his feet, the Creeper turned into a lunging thrust kick that almost made him fall down. Its eyes blazed with wrath: this shouldn't be possible. No stupid kid could treat it like a plaything. But no matter WHAT it did, something went wrong. This kid clearly had powers much like the rock being, powers the Creeper couldn't seem to get around.

He tried anyway, clawing once more.

He missed, and on top of that his hand got stuck in the ground. Sabotage fired off several punches and then axe kicked the Creeper backwards, as he staggered a few steps and then fell to one knee for a second. It was exerting too much. It needed a new strategy…

"Heh." Sabotage said, grinning cockily this time.

And then he spied the movement behind him. Buzz Bomb was back up, and he clearly had another bomb ready. But that didn't matter now: Sabotage had things in the bag. He'd let him toss the bomb and then finish off the monster.

"Hey Cord! MOVE!" Buzz Bomb yelled, and hurled his new grenade, almost exactly like the first one. Except it was somewhat weaker. And a tad more specific in its target.

Sabotage grinned, and then did a full split, the grenade sailing over his head.

The Creeper's eyes widened, as the arc changed and the grenade swooped in…

And went off in the Creeper's face, blowing the monster backwards. Somehow, he stayed on his feet, as he flew back from the impact and landed, half collapsing and half slouching, as the smoke cleared…

Half the Creeper's head was gone, shattered bone and torn muscle poking from the remains as various liquids ran down The Creeper's shoulder and side. The monster seemed more surprised then anything at this sudden change, its eye darting around as if wondering where its head had gone.

Sabotage slid back up to his feet, still grinning cockily. Well, that pretty much sealed the deal. Now he'd stamp it.

So he charged.

As Gizmo finally finished recovering from his head trauma, wiping blood from his face (not his, Burke's, the poor bastard who turned his back on the Creeper) as he saw Sabotage run across the room and leap, slamming a jump kick into the Creeper's chest and knocking him flat. Sabotage landed, smirked, and thrust up a leg, and then brought it down on the Creeper's chest with a resounding, powerful crack.

Dizziness suddenly washed over Gizmo, and he fell to his hands and knees, even as a certain something that he felt needed to be said danced beyond his reach.

"Well, that was fun, wasn't it?" Sabotage said as he removed his foot from the Creeper's shattered ribcage. "Now you know who's in charge around here."

Sabotage didn't turn around: instead he walked backwards before turning his head to face the remaining drones and Flay, who were still down but looked to be recovering.

"See Simon? You should have listened. I'm the big man around here. So either listen or…" Sabotage trailed off as movement stirred where he'd expected there would be none. He turned around to face the Creeper as it tried to get up…and collapsed on its knees, blood and worse leaking from its chest and the shattered ruin it had called a head.

Gizmo watched this through blurry vision.

"My my, tough one aren't we? Guess I'll have to kick your head clean off." Sabotage said, and headed for the Creeper.

"No…Cord…don't…his body isn't like ours…doesn't function the same way…"

The Creeper's systems seemed to have sustained enough damage to start malfunctioning, as the Creeper jerked and spasmed, his hands actually clawing and cutting into his own flesh, scratching frantically at his body as if he had a killer itch. Its shoulders were surprisingly jointed: the Creeper could reach all around the way to its mutilated back…

"Here's your lesson on the way back to movieland. Stay the fuck out of my yard." Sabotage said, and began raising a leg…

As the Creeper's arm suddenly tensed violently and then plunged deeply into the wound on his back, and then to Gizmo's utter horror the Creeper RIPPED HIS OWN SPINE OUT.

And rammed it right into Sabotage's gut.

"……..crud." Was all Gizmo could say.

Sabotage didn't say anything. He just stopped in mid movement, looking down at the wound, and then, as blood began seeping from his mouth, he began making tiny, whiny little noises. What had happened? He was winning? It wasn't fair…

But the Creeper had never played fair.

And despite half of it missing, the look of the Creeper's face could only be described as satisfaction.

As he yanked the spine up, and up, pulling it through Sabotage's body with strength beyond belief and finally pulling it up through his shoulder in a gigantic spray of gore.

The arrogant teen's carcass collapsed, his innate talent having backfired on him. As long at Sabotage had some idea of what was coming, he could screw it up. But his mind lacked imagination: he never could have seen the Creeper performing such an act of self-mutilation as an offensive move. Never, and hadn't. And hence it spelled his end.

Though it looked like it took whatever the Creeper had left with it, as the monster collapsed by Sabotage's body.

For a few moments anyway.

Then the Creeper's hand lifted itself up, tested itself, and then reached over and grabbed the body, pulling it over to him.

Gizmo heard the wet ripping noises as he tried to overcome his concussion, as he remembered two things. One was just what he had tried to say: the Creeper's body wasn't like a human's. It could survive, even act, in ways no natural life form could. As if ripping its own spine out and using it as a weapon in such an extreme way and being able to do it despite literally having no backbone wasn't a big enough cue. To kill it, you needed more then even what had been done to it.

Not that it wasn't feeling the effects of what had been done, but that tied into the second part: the Creeper used humans to feed and for replacement parts. And it could replace a hell of a lot more then an arm.

And Sabotage's body had plenty of material to work with. After all, a human that could combat the Creeper so effectively was truly strong.

Flay only got to see the tail end of the Creeper's self-surgery, as he was helped up by the Hive drones, who clearly had no words for what was going on. Buzz Bomb was cowering behind the table again, apparently wanting nothing to do with a creature that could have half its head blown off and shrug it off.

The Creeper rose from the torn and mangled mess that had once been Sabotage, his back injuries closing up as his body assimilated the new spine it had 'acquired' from its nemesis…even as it lifted Cord's severed head with one hand, using the other to grab what was left of its own…

Flay had never expected to see a man pull his own head off, let alone half a head. It was a sight he could have done without.

The Creeper tossed the ruined remains aside as he placed Sabotage's head on his stump, the flesh around the neck mottling and then spreading up, as Sabotage's bone structure shifted and mutated. Within seconds, the grim face of the Creeper once again looked forth on his targets, his body fully repaired and good as new.

"…Great." Flay said, as he uncoiled two whips. "Well then, I guess I'll have to get nasty."

And he charged, the energy whips humming as Flay lashed them about, ready to bust out a combo that would carve the Creeper into more pieces.

As a thought occurred to Gizmo. The Creeper absorbed flesh, limbs, organs…could he absorb…

Flay suddenly, violently tripped.

Powers! Oh shit!

Flay's great reflexes saved him from being killed by his own whips, as he turned them off in mid air. It didn't prevent him from falling on his face though. The Creeper cocked his head, as if interested in this turn of events, and then went for Flay…

Gunfire erupted around him, as the two remaining drones apparently refused to admit they were overmatched. The Creeper stopped, and then glared at them…

One of their shoulders twitched and caused a chain reaction between the limb and the gun that caused the fire to go wide. Buzz Bomb shrieked as bullets exploded around him and decided he was through hanging around, as he stood up and took to the air, his wings buzzing. He'd…

Just made himself an even bigger target, as the Creeper looked interested and then snapped out its own wings.

"Oh no." Buzz Bomb said, and ran for it, but the Creeper quickly pursued. Buzz Bomb whirled around and began firing lasers from his gauntlet weapons, but the Creeper didn't even need to use the sabotaging power he'd taken from Cord Rayfory to dodge, as it swooped around the lasers.

"Oh come on come on comeoncomeoncomeoncomeon!" Buzz Bomb yelled as he concentrated fire, but the Creeper dodged it all and flew in. "AIIIIAAAAHHHHHH!"

And then metal tendrils lashed around the Creeper's ankles.

"Remember me asshole?" Flense snarled, as his miniature motors whined loudly due to the strain being placed on them, as Flense, finally back up, changed his position and summoned all the strength and power from his apparatus, pulling the Creeper backwards.

"Argh! Gizmo, what do I do!" Flense yelled. Gizmo stared for a second, and then realized that since Gizmo had both identified the problem that had called the Creeper, as well as the Creeper himself, he would know how to kill it.

Which he did, in a sense.

"Its body needs to be totally destroyed! Chopped to ribbons! Pounded to hamburger! It's the only way!"

"Argh, isn't it ALWAYS that!" Flense snarled, and then summoned one final burst of power and slammed the Creeper on the ground, HARD. Flense immediately leapt into the air, several more tendrils emerging from his battle suit that opened to form drills or studded themselves with blades as Flense slashed them down…

As the Creeper sprang away and was in the air again before any of the tentacles got near him. Flense cursed as he landed and tried to lash the Creeper in the air, but the Creeper easily avoided the attacks. Flense looked to be ready to follow up on something, except he suddenly seemed to get a severe stomach cramp. Severe enough that he couldn't mount much of a defense as the Creeper swooped down, claws slashing. The equipment Flense wore saved his life as the Creeper couldn't hit anything vital, but it still threw Flense through the air, where he hit another wall.

"Now I've got you!" Buzz Bomb said, as he swooped in with another grenade…

The Creeper glanced at Buzz Bomb and his left leg suddenly kicked backwards like some kind of reverse reflex test, kicking the abdomen of his robotic bee suit that also served as his jet engine, throwing it off balance and sending him spiraling past the Creeper and down to the ground, where he collided with Flay as he tried to set up his own attack. The grenade fell to the ground, and Gizmo cursed and threw himself flat as it went off, spraying shrapnel.

Nearby, some wreckage stirred.

"Crud." Gizmo said as he got up…and realized that the Creeper's attention had turned to him. "CRUD!"

Gizmo opened fire with his weakened cannon, but it only seemed to annoy the Creeper, as he swooped in and clawed…

A hologram, as Gizmo suddenly became a bunch of Gizmos and began running around and doing as much confusing stuff as possible. It worked, as the Creeper went after the holograms and allowed Gizmo the time to run over to his wrecked spider walker, remove the backpack from it, pull out one segment and insert another, and slip it on before the holograms all disappeared. The Creeper found himself about fifteen feet away from the real Gizmo, as wings snapped out from his backpack and Gizmo flew into the air, slipping his goggles down as his systems came online. If he was the only one who could get it done, then he'd do it…

The Creeper went after him, as Gizmo flew backwards and fired much like Buzz Bomb had. Except Gizmo was much better at firing and shooting, and he had a lock on system to boot.

It still only bothered the Creeper, and it was a lot faster then it looked. Gizmo yelped and dodged away, an inch away from being eviscerated, and as the Creeper whirled and resumed chase at high speed Gizmo abandoned the shooting strategy and just focused on staying alive, frantically trying to keep one step, or one hand, away from the Creeper, who apparently had seen something he liked about Gizmo and was determined to extract it.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh crudddddddddddd!" Gizmo yelled as he zipped and zapped around the gym, going up and down through the roof hole, careful not to crash into the shield but the Creeper was careful also, and he just couldn't lose him…

As Flense stepped out on the floor, wiping blood from his nose. He'd had it. He'd carve that damn Creeper into a million pieces, as he sprang out several tendrils and prepared to go into the air…

As a massive hand thudded on his shoulder. Flense nearly had a heart attack.

"That's already proven not to work." Rocko said. Though she'd put herself back together, the semi-art of her previous form was gone, replaced by crude 'stitches' and scars where Rocko had reassembled herself. Despite the apparent damage though, Rocko didn't seem crippled in any way. Quite the opposite.

"DAMN IT!" Gizmo screamed as he buzzed overhead.

"I'm not leaving him to die!" Flense yelled, pointing.

"Why Oz, I didn't know you gave a damn." Rocko replied.

"Uh, um…look we may need him for something! Just…what do you want!"

"You wouldn't be able to do it anyway. Even if you got him down again, those wings will just get him into the air quicker then you can get down to business." Rocko said.

"Well then Miss Genius, what do YOU suggest?"

"How much can that damn gear of yours lift?"

Gizmo managed to make a little distance by doing a fancy loop and spin, but his jet pack was beginning to run out of power, and the Creeper was tireless, the Creeper was ageless, the Creeper would not stop until it had what it wanted, and it was so close, it could almost taste it…

Gizmo flew on…

And then saw something amazing: a flying Rocko.

Or rather a rising Rocko, hurled by Flense's tendrils, flying up into the air, but Gizmo was already leaving her behind…

And the Creeper was getting reacquainted with her, as Rocko flew up in front of him. The Creeper's eyes widened, and then narrowed as a brief spark of power flashed in them, a stolen talent brought to bear to clear the way…

Only to find out the hard way the limits of the talent: it only worked on organics and anything that was linked to organic functions.

And Rocko was neither.

But the Creeper was fast as hell. He could just go around Rocko…

Not quite.

Rocko exploded, her body of stone suddenly shattering into a hundred pieces, the stones whirling out in a cutting, slashing, destructive field of rock, far too wide to dodge, far too big to avoid, and far too potent to go through without serious effects.

The Creeper flew right into it.

The wounds inflicted were mostly superficial cuts with a few deeper ones. Unfortunately, some of those cuts were on his wing membranes.

The flight design ruined by holes, The Creeper crashed and burned, slamming down into the ground, hard.

And without its wings, it couldn't make a quick getaway, as Rocko reformed from the field she had made, gravity taking over.

The Creeper turned over, trying to push itself up…

And Rocko came crashing down on him, feet first, squashing him underfoot and pinning him to the ground. Blood sprayed up from her impact.

And that was just the beginning, as Rocko brought her arms up and brought them down furiously on the Creeper's upper half, and again, and again.

The Creeper tried one final claw attack.

Rocko grabbed his arm, yanked it off in a spray of gore, and began beating him with the moist end. She did that for about fifteen seconds before she crushed the limb in her hands and returned to her fists. Ribs broke so violently they nearly snapped into the air like rubber bands, organs quickly becoming indistinguishable from each other as the heavy hands of stone crushed them under and into each other. The Creeper's neck twitched, and Rocko's right fist came down on its head so hard the brains squirted across the room like they'd been shot from a toothpaste tube

Flense could only stare in horror as Rocko continued methodically smashing the Creeper into nothing, her rock form becoming covered and then dripping with blood. He glanced to his side, seeing Buzz Bomb staring with pretty much the same expression.

"…I need to go to my room. Restock on…ammo." Buzz Bomb said, and fled.

Rocko didn't notice. She just kept pounding, and pounding, as if she was trying to mash the Creeper's essence right into the floor. Bones were crushed to a gooey, blood slick paste, muscles reduced to so much hamburger.

And Flense realized he was alone. Everyone else had fled the room.

Or so it seemed.

Quite frankly if they had fled, Flense couldn't blame them.

"Rocko…Rocko!" Flense yelled.

Rocko just continued her pounding.

"…Gonna go to the nearest washroom…wash up…be right back…don't go anywhere…" Flense said, sounding stunned, as he turned and left the room.

Rocko finally stopped pounding about twenty-five seconds later. There was no more Creeper. Rocko always made sure she did the job well. She stood up, blood and gore running down her body in rivulets.

"…Well, that's that." Rocko said.

It was then she realized she was alone. She stared at the empty room for a bit, then shrugged and started to walk. She'd tried to guide them. If they wanted to run off on their own, that was their choice. She just needed to find the other Elementals and get the hell out of this madhouse.

Everyone else…

Rocko stopped by what had once been Sabotage. Her eyes showed no sympathy.

"…Pitiful man." Rocko said, and left the room.

Much to Flense's surprise when he returned several seconds later. Had Rocko not heard him?

Of course she hadn't.

That was the way the rules worked.

At least Flense's threat had been thoroughly obliterated. The one chasing Nightwalker was no less indestructible and mad beyond belief, smashing everything in its path to get its hands on the teen, occasionally shooting a tentacle out to try and grab him as well, though Nightwalker demonstrated eyes on the back of his head by dodging them. But he was rapidly running out of leg room. In fact in about four seconds he was about to hit the wall.

And the Nemesis was right on his tail, oh so fast despite its size…

"HIVE!"

But Nightwalker had too much experience in being obstinate to even consider giving up.

And he didn't, as he leapt onto the final table and continued going as his dead sprint, timing the pumping of his arms to snatch new clips of ammo out of his belt and snap them into his gauntlets, as he reached the end of the table…

As the Nemesis grabbed it and flipped it to the side.

The table overturned under Nightwalker's feet, but that didn't matter because he was in the air, leaping at the wall at a precise angle…

His feet brushed up against it, as Nightwalker used the previous half-second before gravity kicked in to run, just a bit, farther up the wall.

And then he kicked off, hurling himself backwards in a high angle flip, flying over the Nemesis' head as it looked up to follow him, raised an arm to grab him…

Marble orbs slammed into its face, Nightwalker firing in mid flip and firing well, the projectiles aggravating its still healing acid injuries and interrupting its attempted grab, as Nightwalker landed on the ground behind the Nemesis, lost his balance, and fell, rolling away as the Nemesis growled from the latest sting the insects had delivered. But it was already turning around, even as Nightwalker scrambled to his feet, trying to get some distance.

"Hivvvveeeee!" The Nemesis roared, already closing in, so horrifically fast, swinging out a hand…

That a metal hand intercepted, stopping the punch with one of its own, and stopping it dead, a low wet crack sounding from the limb. The Nemesis roared.

"Forget me? Pitié." Platinum Blonde said, and shoved the Nemesis backwards, much to its great shock. Nightwalker decided any port in a storm would do and made tracks across the room.

And nearly ran into Juryrig, who was walking slowly across the room, using tables and chairs to keep himself steady. Oddly, he didn't seem focused on the battle. His eyes seemed far away.

"Julian! If you have a plan, we could use it now!" Nightwalker said.

"…Huh?" Juryrig replied.

"Plan of action! I don't really want this to turn into a battle of attrition, we'll lose!"

"…Too much…" Juryrig whispered, as he walked past Nightwalker.

"Hey! Aren't you deputy leader or something? Lead!"

"Can't…not with…too much…" Juryrig said, as his pace picked up, and Nightwalker realized he was heading for the nearest door. Leaving.

Strangely, Nightwalker didn't try to stop him. He figured there was no point.

A tentacle went for Platinum Blonde, but she slapped it aside and slammed her fist forward, punching right through the Nemesis' stomach. It roared as purple blood sprayed out, soaking the metal teen: normally she would have been utterly disgusted but at the moment she was too angry to give a damn. She yanked her fist out, dodged under the Nemesis' overhead clothesline blow, and kicked him in one of his knees, earning another dull crack.

"Hey Julian! What are you doing!" Jinx yelled, suddenly beside Nightwalker. She was about to go after him when Nightwalker grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Forget it. Too much training and not enough experience. He's cracked under the pressure. He's useless to us." Nightwalker said.

"What? Then who's going to…"

The Nemesis roared as its hand shot forward, grabbing Platinum Blonde around the head before she could react, lifting her up and slamming her into the floor so hard the room shook, and then pitching her across the wrecked cafeteria where she smashed into the debris of two tables.

"Well you're a graduate, didn't YOU take leadership courses?" Nightwalker said as the Nemesis turned its attention back to them.

"Um, uh…we always…were more follow the leader types."

The Nemesis started for them.

"Better adapt fast." The would-be vigilante said as he inserted another ammo pack (good thing he'd stocked up when he'd fetched another helmet from his room).

"I…" Jinx said, her eyes darting around, trying to think of what she could do…and then her eyes settled on the ceiling.

"Hey! Think you can blow a chunk of that out?" Jinx said.

"Maybe not, but no sense arguing!" Nightwalker replied as he snapped up his arm and fired a spray of shots, punching through the old, soft concrete and rock, weakening a section.

"HIVE!" The Nemesis bellowed, charging.

And Jinx reached up as her eyes glowed pink. Pink energy flashed on the section, and then it broke off. In a very specific way, the stone cracking apart to form a crude point as the stone dipped downward, a makeshift stalactite, plummeting to earth.

And landing on the Nemesis.

The impact nearly drove the giant creature to its knees, the huge stone dagger piercing deep into the Nemesis' body at the shoulder, blood exploding up in massive geysers.

"Hivvvvveeee…" The Nemesis murmured, as it seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

"…Huh. That wasn't so hard." Jinx said.

The Nemesis tensed up.

"You just HAD to talk didn't you?" Nightwalker replied.

"HIIIVVVVVVEEEEE!" The Nemesis roared, standing back up as it lifted its lone working arm, the tentacles wrapping around the stalactite and yanking it free, more purple blood fountaining up so hard it nearly hit the ceiling. The Nemesis dropped the rock and began flexing its injured arm, as the blood flow slowly cut off and stopped.

"This is RIDICULOUS! It just recovers from whatever we throw at it! What killed it in the game?" Nightwalker asked.

"A nuke." Jinx replied.

"…Wish I hadn't asked. Where's Zippy?"

"She hurt her ankle. She's taking cover behind a table and trying to fix it."

"Great, down to us then." Nightwalker said as the Nemesis finished its self-repair and started heading for the two again.

"Not quite." Jinx said, seeing something from her angle Nightwalker didn't.

Platinum Blonde leapt onto the Nemesis' back, not saying anything, just yelling incoherently as she slammed her fist repeatedly into the creature's head. The Nemesis stopped once more, grabbing for Platinum Blonde, finally getting her in a tentacle and yanking her off his back, slamming her into the ground and forcing Nightwalker and Jinx to dive for cover. The tentacle coiled around and rammed into Platinum Blonde's shoulder, trying to drill its way through the metal covering in hopes the organs were more prone to damage. Nightwalker didn't know if it was working, but Platinum Blonde suddenly starting to scream in pain indicated that it probably was. As blood began to leak from her shoulder, the tentacle probed even harder…and then Platinum Blonde got a good grip on it, rolled up to her knees, and yanked with all her might, pulling the Nemesis forward and right into her leaping, cracking punch, shattering several of the creature's teeth and actually knocking it off its feet, the tentacle tearing out of its body as it flew away. Platinum Blonde threw it on the ground and stomped on it, and then with a yell of rage and disgust she charged in, slamming into the rising creature with her shoulder and pummeling it with fists of steel.

Until the creature swung out an arm and something sprayed from it, splattering on Platinum Blonde's face and chest. She recoiled, screaming, as smoke rose from her, and that gave the Nemesis all the time it needed to smash her with a tentacle and send her flying through the kitchen doors, breaking them off its hinges. A yowl came from within, and a second later Mittens ran out, apparently deciding that while it could snack through all the racket going on outside it couldn't do so when the outside so rudely intruded on his world. Mittens ran in the direction he was going until he saw the Nemesis, at which he turned away and headed in the exact opposite direction, fleeing the room unnoticed by anyone: Nightwalker and Jinx were too focused on their monstrous foe and vice versa.

"Damn. Acid." Nightwalker said.

"Hey! You can't shoot acid until your final form! That's cheating!" Jinx yelled.

"Hive!" The Nemesis growled, heading for them.

"All right Jinx, you know the game. How do we kill him?"

"Got a rail cannon?"

"No."

"Then I'm at a loss."

"Great."

"We could try cutting off his head."

"By that you mean just remove it by any means necessary, right?"

"Right." Jinx said, as her hands glowed pink. "Hey ugly! Try and keep up!"

"Actually, don't." Nightwalker said, and the two went into a gymnastics display that would have made some Olympic gold medallists go green with envy, leaping and flipping around as they fired repeatedly at the Nemesis. All they did was piss it off again.

"Well bugger." Nightwalker said as the Nemesis roared, and lashed out with its tentacles.

Zippy peaked up from behind the table she was hiding behind, giving her ankle one final squeeze as she found she could put weight on it again. Of course, that didn't mean she could run…

Nightwalker backflipped over a punch and fired several shots into the Nemesis' head: too concentrated, as the eruption of blood splattered all over the teen. Though he said nothing, the slight noise he made indicated he was clearly disgusted as hell. Not for long though, as the Nemesis was on the attack again like nothing had happened. Nightwalker tried to dodge another tentacle whip as he fired once more…and his luck ran out as he was caught broadside, hurled through the air and flying into Zippy. That seemed to be happening a lot.

"Shit!" Jinx cursed as she flipped backwards, firing her hexes, but they weren't doing anything and the Nemesis was after her…

And then it's tentacle struck her, albeit not as fiercely as it had Nightwalker, but enough to throw her backwards anyway. She hit the ground and slid several feet…

And stooped at a pair of feet. Three pairs, to be precise.

And they weren't human. They were composed of chair legs and steel bands, and Jinx looked up to see the legs flowing into a large but sparse body of sorts that only had one purpose: tightly gripping a giant circle of glass like it was a giant eye.

It took Jinx a second to place it: The laser lense. Once planned to be placed in a giant energy cannon, now brought here.

Juryrig stepped out from behind his creation, no longer looking rattled and afraid, but calm and in control.

"Sorry. Had to go fetch something." Juryrig said. "I tend to zone out in deep thought. I have to work on that."

"HIVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEE!" The Nemesis bellowed, charging at the two. Juryrig didn't blink.

"Ahhhhh!" Jinx said, scrambling to her feet. "It's too close!"

"Yes. A position change is needed." Juryrig said, and gestured. The laser lense walker ran to the side, while Juryrig ran the other way, Jinx with him. The Nemesis pursued, despite Jinx's tossing of hex blasts.

"I might have miscalculated." Juryrig said, looking worried now, as the Nemesis closed in.

And then they were suddenly across the room, away from the Nemesis.

"Better late then never." Zippy said as she put them down. Nightwalker hopped down next to the group.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Might still be too late!" Jinx yelled as the Nemesis didn't slow down a step, rapidly chewing up the distance once again.

And then a metal figure flew through the air and slammed her interlocked hands down on the back of the Nemesis' head, knocking him forward and onto the ground.

"You ruined my dress, tu bâtard!" Platinum Blonde yelled as she stomped on the creature's head. The Nemesis swiped at her, but she scurried out of the way.

"You might want to stand to the side." Juryrig said, as he gestured with an outstretched arm, and what looked like a caterpillar creature scrambled across the room and to Juryrig. As it got closer, Jinx realized it was made completely of flashlights.

Which leapt through the air, blurring as they reassembled themselves, and landed in Juryrig's hand, a crude base formed with a few wood pieces allowing him to hold onto the massed flashlights like a gun. Jinx's eyes widened. The laser lense operated by taking light and focusing it so it grew more concentrated and destructive, like a magnifying glass on steroids, but that was under controlled conditions and short bursts. This was neither.

"Julian! That much light will burn a hole through the whole damn base!"

"As long as it burns a hole through that damn Nemesis I can live with that…!" Juryrig said as he lifted the flashlight gun up…and found the Nemesis back up and charging.

"HIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

A foot slammed into the creature's knee, loudly dislocating it. Platinum Blonde didn't hang around: she immediately turned and ran for it, as Juryrig's eyes narrowed.

All the flashlights turned on in a rapid staccato of clicks.

"Let there be light." Juryrig said, and aimed the beam at the laser lense.

"Hivvvvveeeee…" The Nemesis snarled as it got up, as a low hum built in the air, as the specially designed glass seized the light and began a complicated series of refractions and alterations, rapidly multiplying its power, a glow shining in the center.

"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

A glow that erupted outward, filling the whole room with blinding brilliance, everyone covering their eyes and turning away, even as the beam struck the Nemesis, transfixed him in place, and ripped his final bellow from his throat as the superconcentrated laser burned the flesh from his bones and the bones to nothingness, his silhouette vanishing under the all consuming gaze.

The blast flew on and burned through several walls behind the Nemesis before the laser lense finally cracked, not designed to handle such light. The gigantic beam faded and then disappeared entirely as Juryrig turned off his flashlight gun.

"Well, at least it'll be Blood who kills me for breaking that." Juryrig said, as he tossed the flashlight gun aside and wandered off, clearly a bit dazed from the brilliance.

"Julian? Where are you?" Jinx said, trying to blink past the whiteness that had consumed her whole vision.

Platinum Blonde popped up from where she had dove and made her way to where the Nemesis had been. All that remained was a smoking pair of feet and lower legs, everything else blasted to nothingness.

"Heh. Talk about dying with your boots on." Platinum Blonde said, as she kicked at the legs.

"There's something left?" Jinx said as her sight began to clear.

"Just a bit of the lower part." Nightwalker said.

"It's not moving, is it?" Jinx asked.

"No. Why?" Platinum Blonde asked.

"Something about the game. The Nemesis was created not by complete biological development from scratch but partially by injecting a parasite into a prepared host base…"

And a hideous worm like creature suddenly appeared on Platinum Blonde's shoulder, tiny tendrils seizing onto the wound there as it sought entrance, as she screamed in surprise…

A gunshot rang through the room as the parasite was blown off Platinum Blonde's shoulder. The shock was so great Platinum Blonde lost strength in her legs and sat down.

Juryrig didn't say anything to here, as he moved past the sitting teen, the smoking magnum he had retrieved from the body of Duke Nukem held steady, aimed at the squirming, mewling parasite on the ground.

"Just…"

BLAM!

"Fucking…"

BLAM!

"Die!"

BLAM BLAM BLAM!

The parasite jerked once more and then was still, melting into a small pool of disgusting liquid.

"…And here I was thinking you were running away earlier." Nightwalker said, as Juryrig lowered the gun.

"I was trying to remember where everything I needed was, because nothing we were doing was working." Juryrig said. "Too much power. But I knew something with more. But as I said, I tend to zone out when I'm concentrating."

"Whatyouthinkitseasytogetaheadgraduatetitle?" Zippy asked.

"I never did." Nightwalker replied.

"Hey!"

"The legs are vanishing." Platinum Blonde said where she was still sitting.

"What?" Juryrig said, stopping his walk.

Platinum Blonde pointed to where the remains of the Nemesis were fading away, disappearing within seconds.

"…The same thing happened when I killed that Billy Snowman. His body just vanished." Jinx said.

"Where did it go?" Platinum Blonde asked.

"Why are you asking me?"

"Of course, my mistake."

"Stop it." Juryrig said, as he headed back over to the remains of Duke Nukem and began hunting through it for another weapon. "Now let's assess what kind of situation we're dealing with here. What we appear to be dealing with are a bunch of monsters from fiction coming after us to make us fucking dead. And I don't want to hear…" Juryrig yanked the Urban Sniper shotgun from the remains. "That horror monsters can't come to life…" He retrieved a box of ammo. "Because I sure as hell didn't believe that horror monsters could come to life, and what we have just experienced is clearly a case of horror monsters coming to fucking life!" He slammed in one shell and then another. "Does anyone have any suggestions due to our accepting of this fact?"

"I say we just get out of here, find whoever we can and make like a tree." Platinum Blonde said, getting up.

"Iconcur."

"Works for me." Nightwalker said.

"Good. Now guys, I know that what just happened was stressful to say the least, but we have to keep our guard up. We have no idea what's around the corner. So keep your eyes peeled, and expect anything…"

Except the thing that actually happened, as a gigantic wave of heat suddenly washed over the room. Everyone recoiled.

"What was…that…" Nightwalker said as he looked at Juryrig.

The teen stood there, looking like someone had hit him over the head with a frying pan. He blinked once.

"…No…"

And then he fell forward onto his face.

Everyone gasped in horror as they saw his back, utterly roasted to a crisp, his exposed spine burnt black as coal. He was dead.

And someone was standing behind him, hunched over, one arm out, hair over her face, waves of heat coming off of her.

"………………..Danny?" Zippy said.

Scorcher stumbled forward, the ground melting under her feet, Juryrig's body beginning to smoke from the sheer heat coming off of her.

"…Scorcher? You survived? Are you…?" Nightwalker said, before he caught a look at Jinx's horrified face. As she remembered one final detail about the Nemesis.

"Noooooo…" She whispered.

Scorcher looked up. What had once been a pretty face was now a ruin, a giant hole in the upper right side of her skull, her eye crushed, blood painted down her face and side. She was, like Juryrig, dead.

Except she was still walking around. The Nemesis had turned her into a zombie.

"…Danny." Platinum Blonde said.

Zombie Scorcher shrieked in some terrible, unknowing pain.

And then the whole room exploded.

And someplace else entirely.

"AUUUUUUUUUUUGAHHHHHHHHHH!"

"I told you not to bet three month's wages Miss Styles."