Part 6: Loss
Fire, a force of life and death, purifying everything it touches into clean ash.
But there was no life in this fire, wielded by the hand of the walking dead. And perhaps that made all the difference.
For fire needs three things to survive. Oxygen. Heat. And fuel. And in an explosion of pure fire, lacking any concussive or kinetic force, a room that was mostly filled with stone and steel didn't have much in the way of fuel.
It found some though, like the smashed tables and chairs.
And Jinx's dress.
Time slowed down to a crawl for Jinx, as she was suddenly aware of incredible heat, all over her, and she realized she was burning: her arms, her legs, even her hair, and while she felt no pain she knew it was only a matter of seconds before the fire fully seized on her to devour her flesh, and she began to scream…
And the orb slammed into her back, and she was engulfed in choking white dust, and she collapsed to her knees, her violent coughs keeping her from realizing that the heat was gone, her eyes stinging with tears as the dust got into them. Coughing, saltwater running down her face, she wiped at her eyes, her vision blurring.
"You all right?" Said a voice next to her. Nightwalker. She looked at the black clan teen, whose armored outfit was smoking, his glass helmet face smeared with soot. But he looked better she did in her flame-eaten outfit, as she blinked at him.
"…You saved me."
"Yeah."
"You had a fire control orb?"
"Yes?"
"Why?"
"I don't much care for fire." Nightwalker replied, and left it at that. "We have a serious problem."
Indeed, as Jinx remembered what had caused the explosion, as she looked back at the figure across the room. Scorcher had not moved, her arms now limp at her sides, her body hunched and her hair, normally a proud mane of fire, now just a few sputtering flames among red hair stained with burned blood, hanging over her face. Apparently the explosion had stunned her in some way.
"…Oh no. Scorcher."
"Yeah. Scorcher. One of the most powerful members of this place…newly zombified by our late 'friend'." Nightwalker said grimly. "Shit. Why didn't you tell me the Nemesis could do that?"
"I…well…forgot." Jinx said: she had played the games, but not much. Most of her free time was spent working on her spells, or pigging out, and recently pondering certain feelings…
Which she couldn't think of now: terrible danger was in front of her.
"We seem to have some luck: if that had been an actual attack from the Scorcher we knew, we'd be nothing but blackened bones." Nightwalker said, pawing at his belt, even as he lamented how few clips of ammo he had left. "Being turned into…THAT has severely damaged her focus. See how the ground's smoking and melting underneath her? Heat's pouring off her body: she can't keep it reigned in. Poor Julian must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time to catch a blast that actually had some solidity behind it. But we can't help him now, we have to help ourselves." Nightwalker said, arming up his gauntlets with the little he had left. "However, that's another problem, as you might be able to tell by the reactions of our two friends."
Jinx stared for a moment, then glanced over to where she remembered Zippy and Platinum Blonde being. Strangely, what amazed her was that Platinum Blonde's dress still held up enough to keep from exposing her, considering it had been battered, given an acid bath, and then exposed to a fire explosion. Her arms were smoking badly though. And that was just the least of her problems: she looked like someone had hit her in the gut with an aircraft carrier. Jinx spied Zippy at the far end of the room, where she had presumably run to avoid the flames (guess her ankle fixed up quickly), and while the distance prevented accuracy Jinx could tell she looked the same, if not worse.
And she couldn't blame them. Scorcher was just a teacher to her, a fairly nice girl. But she'd been leading the other two women in the room for years. They were virtually family. And now their family was being ripped apart by cruel hands. First Floral, and now Scorcher…and they couldn't even let Scorcher rest in peace.
"Llarenes."
Jinx looked over to Nightwalker.
"I don't know if it's my authority to give orders, but I have somewhat of a plan. Since you are a graduate and I am far from one, I will gladly hear out any plans you have. But I suggest you speak them fast, because she looks like she's just about done standing around." Nightwalker said. Jinx's eyes widened, and she looked back at Scorcher, who had stood up straighter.
One foot left the ground, trailing small drip tendrils of metal, as she started to walk.
"…What's your idea?" Jinx asked.
"Well uh…distract her."
"WHAT?"
"Use your agility! You're not dealing with Danielle any more! You're dealing with a dull-minded puppet master intertwined with misfiring synapses tied into Scorcher's base animal instincts! It can't strategize or plan ahead, just act! Use that!"
"Why me?"
"Because I need to see if our allies are." Nightwalker said, putting emphasis on the last word to indicate he wanted to see if they could actually fight considering the situation, and then leapt up onto an overturned table and away from Jinx. Jinx stared after him, then looked back at Scorcher.
"But…"
Scorcher's eyes flashed, and a blast of fire exploded at her feet and took off across the floor at Jinx, who yelped and cartwheeled to the side. The fire blast kept going until it slammed into the wall, something Jinx knew Scorcher would never do: she could easily turn the blast around and keep it heading after Jinx. Her brain really was scrambled all to hell. So she could follow Nightwalker's plan and distract the undead pyrokinetic.
Or she could do the smart thing and run away.
Why not? She wasn't a hero, who had teams built on friendship and trust and bonds, and who would fight to the death for each other on the strength of those connections. Hell, she wasn't even with Gizmo and Mammoth, and she couldn't stand those guys at times. She was with three strangers, two of whom were former heroes and would have kicked her butt if given a chance if they'd met four months ago, and a masked newcomer who didn't have a name, never showed his face, and kept dropping cryptic comments about his past!
Why hang around and court death?
In the end, Jinx never did find an answer to that question. She just acted.
Scorcher's sole remaining eye, dull and bloodshot, barely seemed able to see, let alone fix on a target, but as Jinx leapt in close, it seemingly did just that, as Scorcher slashed her arm out and fired several fireballs. Earlier, Jinx had lamented that body changes had screwed up her once great agility: now she realized that with the situation as bad as it was, a new body shape didn't really matter all that when it came to saving one's rear, as she managed to dodge the blasts, and then, in a move she had to remind herself to do because she'd gotten into the habit of NOT doing it because it never seemed to work, she fired a hex blast at Scorcher, striking the table next to her and flipping it onto the woman's head.
It didn't burn to ash, at first anyway, as the table slammed onto her head and shoulders and nearly drove Scorcher down (as well as making her head shift in a highly unpleasant way), before Scorcher let out a snarling scream and the table was blasted off her and thrown several feet away. Jinx dove behind another table and scrambled away on her hands and knees as Scorcher turned another flame burst on it, continuing to burn the arena long after Jinx had escaped, like she was a skipping record that couldn't move forward.
Nightwalker wasn't feeling too confident as he got in close to Platinum Blonde: if anything her look of utter shocked horror had only increased. Nightwalker likened it to walking into a room and seeing your mother pouring bleach down your baby sister's throat: the utter surrealist nature of the deed mixed with the absolute horror that things have gone bad, real real bad, and it will never be the same.
"If you're not going to fight, leave now." Nightwalker said.
"…What?"
"She's dead. We can't change that. All we can do is fight for our own survival. So make up your mind now."
"But…"
"NOW."
"…I can't."
"Then leave."
"No you don't understand, I CAN'T. She generates too much heat. She'll melt me before I can…do…anything…"
Nightwalker's reply was cut off when Scorcher's blast of fire went over Jinx and kept turning, and Nightwalker yelled and dove behind a table, yanking Platinum Blonde with him just in case she was too shocked to do it herself (the fact that he had been able to move her indicated that she probably wasn't). Deciding that Platinum Blonde seemed to know the drill, Nightwalker got up as Jinx distracted Scorcher with another hex blast and bounded over to Zippy.
She looked like a lost cause though, on the verge of her brain shutting down.
"You have to fight." Nightwalker said.
"But…it's Danny…" Zippy replied, and her words chilled Nightwalker: if she was in such shock that she was actually speaking at a normal speed…
"No it's not."
"…She took us in…when the world threw us out…gave us a home, a purpose…a family…why…why has…"
Nightwalker grabbed Zippy by the front of her shirt and yanked her forward.
"SHE'S. DEAD." Nightwalker snarled. "And if you just stand there, you will be as well. Maybe I didn't know her as well as you, but I know that SHE WOULDN'T WANT THAT."
Zippy stared into his blank helmet front, and while Nightwalker wasn't exactly ready to declare her a lost cause, he also had a feeling she was way too rattled to do anything at the moment.
"All right then. R…"
And then with the sudden buzz of an alarm, the lone remaining door that lead out of the room suddenly slammed shut.
"What the…what the hell!" Nightwalker cursed as he ran over to the door, rapidly hammering at the keypad and getting no results. "No! How! You fucking…ARGH!" Nightwalker said, and kicked the door.
A wave of heat washed over his back, even as he heard Jinx scream a warning, and he whirled.
Scorcher was there, approaching fast and heading straight for him, cutting him off.
Nightwalker cursed and opened fire with both gauntlets.
The orbs exploded a foot from Scorcher, shattering into tiny pieces of ash that scattered around the pyrokinetic as she loomed. The gauntlets clicked dry.
"…Damn." Nightwalker said.
The flash of fire lit up Scorcher's entire skull, as she raised one hand, emitting a wordless noise of wrath and agony.
And now another annoying pause.
"You would think, considering that this was a temporary base, that the layout would be simple." Said one of the Hive drones, one of the two survivors of the Creeper attack. When Rocko had been pummeling the Creeper to mush, Flay had decided that the battle was won and he should seek some medical attention for his deep cheek cut. But he had said he was going to get it…so where was everyone?
They hadn't heard him, of course. The essence was now deep within the Hive base, and workings its particular 'charms' to ensure certain things. Like the group that had fought the Creeper being split up. It was also what had assumingly closed the door behind Mammoth and Shimmer and the only exit for Nightwalker and co. Bad enough to have to fight monsters, but against such a malevolent force that wanted outcomes to be as bad as possible, things were looking bleak. Of course, Flay couldn't put those feelings into words: they were only musings in the dark parts of his subconscious.
So the only ones in the medical room were Flay and the two drones, one of who was patching up Flay's cheek with the rudimentary military medicine he had been trained in. The Hive had several doctors, but they also doubled as warriors in a lockdown and hence had run off when the initial alarm had run. Who knew where they were now, or even alive? So Flay was stuck with the drone, who he believed was called Patrick, the other drone looking at the map being Shane. Flay found their real names easier to remember then their code numbers, which is how Blood and the HIVE students usually referred to them.
"You'd think that, but you know Blood. He just can't live and work in a dump, even if it's to build a better base." Patrick replied, as he carefully pulled the medical thread through another part of the wound. Flay winced: odds were this was going to scar. Well, he could live with scarring: he wasn't vain.
"At least it's clearly marked." Shane replied, as he traced over the map with a pencil. The Hive base was pretty much laid out as such: on one end (the right end on the map's case, as that was where Flay and his 'friends' were) were dormitories, which included the medical room Flay was in, then the recreation rooms, which were scattered in among the 'small' storage rooms, which held stuff like the backup food supplies and all the random nick-nacks that the school needed. The school then bled into the massive classroom/training area section, which had a few dozen different rooms and the center of which was the old clock tower which still worked and provided an efficient punishment when Blood wanted someone to clean and oil the gears. It then moved into the other storage area, which had some smaller stuff (Including the current food that would be used by the cafeteria) but was mostly massive rooms dug out of the earth to hold the giant part of the still being build Hive air base: engines, weapon parts, and the like. Some of these rooms were essentially bridges over massive piles of machinery that probably would be dangerous to place in a normal storage area. Past that were the cafeteria and then the other dormitory wing. Scattered around these main areas were smaller rooms that performed special purposes, including Blood's office and personal quarters and the ones holding the computers that monitored the Hive base's defenses. Including the computer that had sent up the shield that kept locked in with the monsters.
Problem was, Flay had no idea where or which one it was, and neither did the two drones. But if they knew where ALL of them were, they could at least save some time searching. Which would hopefully keep them from running into someone or someTHING else.
Well, Flay'd be ready at least. As soon as he was stitched up he was heading for his room and grabbing every last whip he could comfortably carry (which was a lot).
Of course, new problems kept presenting themselves…
"There." Patrick said, snipping off the last bit of thread with scissors. "Not the cleanest job, but they shouldn't tear…hopefully."
"Thanks." Flay said, as he got off the doctor's table/bed and picked up his long coat. "Now what do we do?"
"You're the H.A.E.Y.P member. Technically we take orders from you." Shane said. Flay blinked.
"Um well…uh……….uh…" Flay stammered.
He was saved from having to make a decision when a loud knock on the door came. Immediately Shane and Patrick had their guns up, Flay's whip swiftly joining them as they aimed at the door.
Which opened.
"A monster wouldn't KNOCK, moron." Flense said as he walked in. Flay relaxed a bit, as a few more Hive drones followed Flense in.
"Well I didn't know that."
"You don't know much Simon."
"Hey! Shove it Oz!"
"Why don't I shove…"
The argument was interrupted as one of the Hive drones that had followed Flense in fired a brief burst into the ceiling.
"Stop it. We don't need to be fighting amongst ourselves." The drone, a female, said. "Now Flense, you said you could tell us what was going on, and I'm tired of waiting. So start."
"Hey, don't…"
"JUST. START." The female snapped, a laser point appearing on Flense's forehead. The teen grumped.
"All right, this is just what I've heard, don't blame me if you don't believe it." Flense said, and narrated what Gizmo had said and what Flense himself had observed, Flay occasionally chiming in.
"And that's the truth, so help us." Flense said, as he snapped out several metal coils and began to examine them.
"…All right." The female said: she was apparently the leader. "Seeing how I lost most of my unit to…SOMETHING, and how messy it was…maybe you're right. This is a very strange world you children inhabit."
"Gee, ya noticed?" Flense said.
"Oz what's your problem?" Flay asked.
"My problem is you guys don't have a bigger problem with this bullshit!"
"You're still having doubts? What just tried to kill you? What killed Leonard?" Flay said. Flense didn't reply.
"I said stop arguing." The female said. "All right, let's accept this then. If horror monsters are coming to life, which ones and how many?"
"I have no idea." Flense groused. "I tried taking a look at what was left of the TV's and videos, but it was all melted together: couldn't make out details. But there had to be at LEAST eight films there. If we count Flay's little encounter with the psycho who killed Seymore, we've only seen three. And that's only if my guess is accurate, which I doubt it is."
"All right then. What's your orders?"
"Why are you asking ME?"
"We have to find Gizmo." Flay said. "He was the one who built the shield that's got us trapped, he's probably the only one who can shut it down. The problem is I have no idea where he is."
"Is his room in this area?" Shane asked, looking at the map.
"No. It's across the school. Of course nothing could be that easy." Flense snarked.
"All right then. We go find Gizmo." The female said.
"Hang on. I want to get some more weapons. Flense, you might want to do the same."
"Hell no, I'm fine."
"Flense this is no time for arrogance. You saw where that got Cord. If you have any more ordnance, I suggest you get it." Flay said.
"All right, all right." Flense said. "Hell we run into any more monsters you can just nag them to death…"
"Is anyone listening? STOP FIGHTING." The female said. "I hate to presume my authority is higher then yours, compared to the way Blood treats us, but this little 'anti-miracle' for lack of a better term has already claimed the lives of most of my squad and who knows how many of yours."
"Seemore, Private Hive, and Sabotage are confirmed. For all we know the rest of them might also be dead." Flense said.
"Let's hope Gizmo isn't." Flay said, heading for the door. "Because he's probably our only way out of this place."
"If there's any way out at all." Flense said. "I know bad things Simon. They don't let go easy."
The Hive drones took point, as Flense and Flay stayed back. Finding nothing, the group started heading down the hall. They quickly reached Flay's room, and he disappeared inside.
"Hurry up! We're sitting ducks out here!" Flense snapped.
Never realizing that while he was speaking, down the hallway that led to another T-junction, a figure had stepped into view, stopping in plain sight, looking down the hall, watching, gauging.
Blood dripped from his weapon.
Flense suddenly felt the skin on the back of his neck prickle up. He whirled…
…Nothing.
Flense stared, then decided he was just paranoid and turned back around.
As the figure walked on, having decided for some reason to leave them alone.
Or maybe something drove him toward…other prey.
Yeah, they didn't let go easy. A similar though had run through Gizmo's head all the way across the base, sneaking in the shadows, using his damaged cloaking device to hide himself when he could, scared out of his mind that something else would emerge and his lone remaining weapon, a spit and bindle wire device if there ever was one, would just provide something for the monster to pick his teeth with when it was done swallowing Gizmo whole.
Mikron O'Jeanus hated feeling that way. Such fear was supposed to have been left back in the middle ages, when people started realizing you couldn't sail off the edge of the world into the mouths of monsters and diseases weren't caused by demons. Intelligence should dispel such fear, at the very least keep it under control, keep it from ruling one's mind.
Of course intelligence also suggested movies did not come to life, that the Creeper was an actor named Jonathon Breck and some stuntmen under heavy makeup, that if you blew half a living being's head off the only thing it did was promptly die. All those had just been proven to be false, and hence the fear had returned. And Gizmo hated it.
But he'd made it. He's crossed the no-mans-land his base had become and made it all the way to his room, which thank god opened with the punched in code.
Gizmo swiftly got to work. Within two minutes he had constructed a sentry cannon from several raw parts lying around and pointed it right at his door. If anything wanted to break through, it would regret it. Then Gizmo had methodically gone through all his gear and equipment as he began to assemble the optimum killing arsenal. Normally Gizmo carried a mixed back of gear, but in this case a jack-of-all-trades would be swiftly sent to the card graveyard, to combine terms from two games. Not now. Gizmo would show them the only thing his shortness provided was easy aim at their kneecaps. And if they didn't have any he'd just aim higher.
Good thing he'd learned to microtize his gear. Let him carry more stuff, as he swiftly fixed his backpack and reworked his systems into a walking arsenal. Clicking the final parts into place, he swung his backpack back on and began filling up his pockets with the needed parts. After pondering for a bit, he grabbed a special remote control he'd had lying around and tucked it into an upper arm pocket. What it controlled might be useful. He left what remained neatly laid out in case he did run into something and needed more ammo or gear later.
Gizmo opened the door from a distance so his sentry cannon would blast anything that might be waiting outside.
There was nothing.
Gizmo set the cannon to defend his room and only let him in, and then headed out, a modified gun of his own design propped on his shoulder. The Creeper would have been toast within five seconds if he'd had this setup back in the TV room. Now…
Gizmo stopped dead.
There was a body outside his door, a body that had not been there before. It was just a nameless Hive drone, albeit one hacked to pieces. A long blood trail on the ground clearly indicated that it had been dragged there…left there.
For him.
By who? Gizmo didn't know, but the message was clear.
Arm up and prepare all you want. We'll get you in the end anyway.
Gizmo stared a bit more, then snorted.
"Not bloody likely." Gizmo said, as he primed his gun and activated his hoverpack, floating up two feet and zooming quietly along the hallway. His mission was simple: find the computer that turned off the shield, and find anyone alive in the process.
He really wasn't sure, despite all his preparation, if he'd succeed in either.
Elsewhere, Buzz Bomb was doing his own preparation…well maybe preparation was too strong a word. 'Frantically pulling his room apart on the hunt for something' probably worked better.
"Where is it! I know I left it in my room! Didn't I? YES I DID!' Buzz Bomb yelled, as he overturned his bed. "Old chip bag, moldy copy of Kaiju Weekly, the crest of Birdman, the script to this story, AHA!" Buzz Bomb said as he yanked up a small control device. "I have it! Now, Buzz Bomb is in charge he…"
And then Buzz Bomb felt the back of the control device, and his eyes widened as he turned it around.
"WHAT? NO BATTERIES? Aw c'mon, I know I had batteries! Argh!" Buzz Bomb said, as he once again turned his room outside down. But he found no batteries.
"Blast! Well then, Mr. Energizer Bunny, you better pop out soon because I need batteries, and once I have them, then everything's in my hands!" Buzz Bomb cackled, as he headed out of the room. Let this be a lesson that caffeine overdose plus horror monsters coming to life aren't the healthiest things for one's sanity.
A short pause.
Buzz Bomb walked back in, restocked his explosives, and left again.
Add memory to that too.
"Say, Actuary…" Billy Numerous said, nearly making Progeny jump out of his skin. Which considering his power, was probably something he could feasibly do.
"ARCTURO."
"Whatever. Damn fancy-pants name."
"What?"
"Shouldn't we be out by now?"
"We WOULD be, if we didn't have to keep making detours with all those damn closed doors and their shattered keypads. We might be going in circles." Progeny said. Their quest for escape had brought them nothing but more dead bodies and several wrecked rooms, the bodies slaughtered in several gruesome ways. That was the main reason they kept moving: better then standing still and seeing what had found the bodies back before they had BEEN bodies.
"So what do we do?"
"Keep going I guess."
Silence, as Billy sent another clone to peek around the corner. Nothing.
"…Say Arthur…" Billy suddenly said again, once again startling the Spanish teen.
"ARCTURO."
"Whatever!"
"Yeah?"
"You know, I was always meaning to ask you something."
"What?"
"You seem to have a lot of luck with the fillies. How do you do it?"
Progeny had to strongly resist the urge to roll his eyes. Trapped in the base, stalked by god knew what that had already spilled blood and probably wasn't sated, and the hillbil…no wait, that wasn't PC anymore, the SON OF THE SOIL was asking him for sex ed. Go figure.
"…Well um…hmmmm. Well first, do you have any experience?"
"Uhhhhhhhhh…" Billy said, scratching the back of his head.
"Forget it. I've decided I don't want to know." Progeny said, not caring if Billy's awkward noise meant he was a virgin, or that he followed the stereotype and 'kept it in the family', or if he used his clones to and Progeny was going to abandon that line of thought altogether thank you very much.
"Women seem on the surface to be a very complicated creature Billy, but most of the complexity in fact, up here." Progeny said, pointing to his head, even if he wondered if any of his advice would register with Billy. After all, the viewpoint on women was different everywhere, and Progeny wasn't claiming his was any better then Billy's, but his got him a lot of tail, so forgive him if he gave it more weight. "Basically Billy, you need to consider her needs as well. If you can learn that, it's easy."
"HER needs?"
"Well uh yeah."
"I don't really know why that should be important. I'm the man here after all!" Billy said. Progeny groaned inward.
"That's not a good attitude Billy…"
"Says you! Men have a place, women have a place! That's not a crime, that's the way things are! We can't make babies, they do! There are certain re-spon-sa-bilities of that!" Billy said. "I mean, the women here in the Hive don't act proper at all!"
Which is why I've notched most of them on my bedpost while you're stuck with your own company, in more then one way. Progeny thought. Billy continued to rant, even as he started to multiply: seemed to be a side effect of his powers."I mean look at that thur Scorcher! Sure she's strong, but she's let it go to her head! She thinks SHE should be the man! Well darn good job missy: it got your fiancé killed! I really don't care what all this new flabjabbet feminist stuff says, what women were doing worked for hundreds of years, it always did work, they need to understand that it does work, and…!"
"Quiet."
"Oh no, no one cuts Billy off! What, you think they're right? What are you, a fag who's trying to compensate…"
"QUIET BILLY." Progeny snapped. "I HEAR SOMETHING."
And those proved to be the magic words to shut Billy up, as his clones ceased his rantings…
And allowed the new silence to swiftly be filled with a new sound.
It sounded like a growl, except it was too quick and too…rusty to belong to an animal. No it wasn't a growl it was…
A sound that chilled Billy and Progeny to their bones as the 'growl' morphed into another sound, a sound they recognized and yet did not. It was too loud, too grating, too FEROCIOUS to match the normal sound they had heard…because the normal tool didn't, couldn't, deliver such a sound.
And they looked. And they saw.
"HOLY CHRIST EATING A CATFISH!" Billy yelled.
"Run." Progeny replied.
"On that we agree. YAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Billy screamed as the two fled down the hall. Pursuit did not take long, that horrific noise following them like it was a monster onto itself.
"Quick! Split off some clones and distract it!"
"What? You think I'm staying behind to face THAT?"
"I thought only your main body could be killed, that your copies just fade away!"
"They're still a part of me! I'm not subjecting myself to that! Why don't you try it Mr. Fall To Pieces!"
"Forget it, just keep running!"
"He's catching up!"
"I didn't need to know that!"
And the desperate chase continued.
"Where IS everyone Baran?" Shimmer said from her position next to her brother.
"I don't know Selinda. I wish I did." Mammoth said, as he peeked around a corner and found nothing. "I don't know why Arcturo and Billy would just take off, and I don't know what's happening here. All I know is we have to get out."
"But we should have found an exit by now, or at least some of our classmates? Where is everybody? What's going on?" Selinda semi-whined. It didn't bother Mammoth: her sister was still new to this. She hadn't been properly hardened like him. And this wasn't the way to do it. Whatever was going on, he'd protect her from it.
Though he really wished he knew what IT was. By now there should have been some indication. If this was a hero attack, these were damn cruel and vicious heroes, which ruled out the Titans. And if it were a rival villain cell there surely would have been some sign of that too: villains loved to gloat when they succeeded. He knew from personal experience. And if this was some kind of elaborate test thought up by Blood, there would have been a message from him. But there was nothing, a silence so unnerving part of Mammoth wished he could actually run into something so at least he'd know what he was up against. Unless it was whatever was making those damn hell corridors. He didn't want to meet that.
He'd tried his communicator several times, but gotten nothing but static. Even the fact he hadn't found any more dead bodies wasn't comforting. He needed to KNOW…
"Baran what's that?"
"What's what?"
"That noise."
Mammoth arched an eyebrow.
"Listen. Sounds like a kind of low whistle…"
"…Hmmmmmmm." Mammoth said, now furrowing his brow. He could hear something, though he though it sounded more like a hum then a whistle…
And then it flew around the corner up ahead.
Mammoth's eyes widened, mostly in surprise.
"Baran? What's that?" Shimmer asked.
She got her answer, as the object finished turning and zapped right for Shimmer, heading for her face.
"AHHHHHHHHHH-!"
"Aha! T-junction!" Progeny yelled as the two of them turned the corner (there seemed to be a lot of those in this school). "You go one way I'll go another! He can't chase both of us!"
"I don't know! How do I know you're not leaving me in the lurch?"
"You don't! Neither do I! We leave it to chance! Now GO!" Progeny yelled as they approached the junction.
Pop quiz readers! Tell me what happens next!
If you said that the two of them successfully split up and ran down each junction, then hang your head in shame because you clearly don't understand the mechanics of drama.
If you said that the two of them crashed into each other due to neglectfully not telling the other which way they planned to go, take a bow, you're learning.
"Consarn it you idjit!" Billy yelled under Progeny. "GET OFF!"
"Getting! AHHHHH!" Progeny yelled as he scrambled up and nearly fell back down in shock at how fast his foe was approaching. "How can he move so fast?"
"I DON'T KNOW NOR CARE!" Billy yelled as he ran down the right junction. Progeny whirled and took the left.
Their pursuer stopped, looked each way, and then took off down the left after Progeny.
"Oh sure, go after the guy with the idea!" Progeny cursed, running like hell, his breath coming in short gasps. He really should have done more cardiovascular training…
He rounded the corner.
Closed door. Dead end.
Quite literally, as he approached…
"-HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…!" Shimmer screamed, as the object lanced at her head.
Mammoth swatted it into the wall, shattering it into pieces. He might usually be considered slow, but such things didn't matter when it came to his sister.
"Are you all right Selinda?"
"What was that!"
"I don't know." Baran said, looking at the wreckage. There was clearly something organic…
Pain suddenly ran up his hand, and he winced as he looked at his palm, which now had a small but deep cut. He'd thought he'd seen something bladed on the flying thing, and clearly they were sharp. REAL sharp: you couldn't cut Baran Flinders with any old knife…
"Baran, you're hurt…"
"Just a scratch Selinda. I'll be…"
His eyes widened. More of that whistling hum. More of them. Possibly a lot more.
"RUN!" Mammoth yelled, as he grabbed his sister and shoved her ahead of him. Shimmer may have been inexperienced, but she knew when to not question her brother, as she rabbited back down the hallway, Baran shoving her along. They ran back through the nearest doors, even as more of the same predatory flying THINGS came around the corner, slowing down to turn as Mammoth hit the close button.
It didn't close.
A word on surprises if I may: they're not common. Well that's three words, but I bet you were surprised.
"Baran!" Selinda said.
"Shit!" Mammoth cursed. He'd seen how fast those things moved: he'd saved his sister from god knows what fate with a good dollop of luck. If they turned and ran now, they'd give chase and catch up, and he couldn't swat them ALL out of the air…
So if the door wouldn't close, HE'D close it, as he reached out, grabbed either side, and began yanking.
Unfortunately, his big wide frame made a perfect target, as the objects finished correcting themselves and zoomed down the hallway.
Mammoth had two blessings. One was his giant body filled the door and blocked Shimmer. The second was he was considerably taller then the average human.
Hence the objects slammed into his chest, stomach, and legs, knives piercing in, Mammoth letting out a low roar of anger and pain as they stuck him, even as he continued to crush the doors closed.
A high whirring noise filled the air.
Agonizing pain suddenly blossomed in Mammoth's chest, as the objects were…he couldn't tell, but it hurt, it hurt like hell, and worse one had adjusted itself, had lined up it's frontal blades with his face, swooping in, preparing to dig into his forehead.
Mammoth closed the broken doors on it, squashing it between them.
He didn't have time to congratulate himself, as he staggered back, yanking at the ones on him, blood spurting from wounds as he pulled the orbs off and crushed them. Drills, they were DRILLING him, boring into his flesh and muscle…or at least trying, as Mammoth torn them all off and destroyed them, even as Shimmer screamed.
Mammoth got them all before he collapsed, breathing heavily, blood running down his body.
"Baran!" Shimmer said, running to her brother's side.
"It's…nothing…" Mammoth grunted from between closed teeth. He was lying, the wounds were small but they were deep, and they might have gotten an artery, he was certainly bleeding enough.
"Baran, move your arms!" Shimmer said, as she thrust out her hands. Baran blinked as a light glow suffused his sister's hands and then his chest…
And then the wounds had stopped bleeding, covered with a thick crust of dried blood. Didn't help with the pain, but at least Baran was no longer leaking like a sieve.
"Selinda?"
"…I didn't think I could actually do that." Shimmer said, staring at her handiwork.
"What did you do?"
"I meddled a bit with the iron content and pallets in your blood…it was a very small change so I think it may stick unlike my usual transmutations." Shimmer said. "But I don't know if that's true. We need to get you medical attention."
"Sounds good to me." Mammoth said, slowly getting to his feet.
"Can you walk?"
"Takes more then a few oversized bees to put your brother down." Mammoth said, as he flexed his legs.
And turned as a gigantic shadow loomed over him.
"GUH!" Mammoth yelled, drawing back his fist.
"AHHHHHHHHH!" Rhinoceros Beetle yelled, staggering back and nearly falling down. "It's me Mammoth!"
"Wilby?" Shimmer said.
"Wilby! What gives! You normally make as much noise as a small freight train when you move, how the hell did you sneak up on me?" Mammoth growled, lowering his fist. He didn't like he'd been snuck up on.
"This situation has taught me how to tiptoe. What's going on? Are you all right? Where is everyone?"
"I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. Feel free to mix these answers up in any order you'd like." Mammoth said.
"You don't know anything either?" Shimmer asked.
"I know something's seriously wrong with this place. And not just because of the murders. I found…"
Movement darted behind Wilby.
"AHHHHHH!" Wilby screamed, lifting up his foot and stomping at the motion. He missed, thankfully.
"Mrroooeeew!" Mittens said, and hissed.
"Mittens!" Shimmer said. "Kitty! What are you doing here?"
Apparently Mittens wasn't in the mood to answer questions as he turned and ran down the hallway.
"Mittens! Come back!" Shimmer said, chasing after her cat.
"Um, hello? Selinda? Remember me? Your brother? Who just got several holes drilled in him? Who you said needed medical attention? Who you are ignoring anyway to chase after your cat, god dammit." Mammoth said, as he lowered his arm. "Women."
"Maybe she felt I could be entrusted with helping you?" Wilby suggested.
"Oh I feel so comforted." Mammoth said, as he started off after Shimmer.
"What but…hey! I didn't show you what I found!"
"Unless it's a map showing a magic way out of here or a naked picture of Halle Berry, I'm not much interested."
"Mammoth! This could be important…!"
On the other end of the door, a lone figure watched as about twenty floating orbs sliced and drilled at the doors, trying to break through and continue the chase.
The figure apparently decided he didn't care for it though, as he turned and slowly began walking away. Immediately, the orbs pulled away from the doors and followed, obedient little servants.
And from preparations and near-escapes from doom we once again return to seemingly certain doom, as Scorcher's head lit up with fire as she prepared to do god knew what to Nightwalker. Who figured while his outfit may have shrugged off a general flame eruption, it wouldn't prove so effective against a concentrated flame burst. And he'd used up his only anti-fire clip on Jinx, emptying the whole thing into her to ensure she survived. Figures: no good deed goes unpunished.
Zippy knew that too. Remembered how Scorcher's attempt to use her family to do right had all been thrown back in her face, costing her her fiancé H-Duo, then her moral code as she agreed to work for Blood in exchange for info on how H-Duo could possibly be brought back, to her 'daughter' Floral, and now this, this cruel mockery of life, turned on her friends, her students, her family, all love and kindness gone, only a horrific malice fueled by a growing, ghastly hunger.
Tears ran down Zippy's eyes.
"I'm sorry…Danny…"
And she ran, and attacked, blitzing her former friend and leader with blows, hammering on her, and as Nightwalker suddenly saw Scorcher doing the jerky dance of the rapidly struck he used it, as he turned, ran up the wall, and shoved off it to fly over Scorcher, hit the ground, roll to his feet, and run away as Scorcher…
Let out a snarling hiss, and fire exploded all around her, throwing Zippy away. Nightwalker repaid the favor by catching her, even as he cursed who had been needed to save him. Zippy was too close to Scorcher, unable to deliver what was needed: a final blow. Indeed, all she'd done was batter Scorcher's body some, as she turned, a thin stream of fluid running down her face and turning to steam almost immediately…
"Owwwwwwwwwwww…" Zippy said, looking at her blistered and angry red hands. The burns were pretty bad: Zippy'd only had one shot at taking Scorcher down. And she had, all reasons and gratitude aside, failed.
"Get to cover." Nightwalker said, and Zippy staggered off as Jinx joined Nightwalker's side.
"I don't suppose I could just tell you to shoot her." Jinx said.
"Normal ammo's worthless, explosive's redundant, and even if I had any acid left it's flammable and hence also redundant. And I don't have any more anti-fire ones."
"What about Zippy?"
"She badly burned her hands. And I doubt Scorcher will let her get close again. And Platinum Blonde's the same problem: she gets too close, Scorcher melts her. And she's a lot slower then Zippy. Not like she seems to be in any mental state to help us." Nightwalker said, looking over at the edge of the room where Platinum Blonde huddled, watching in horror.
"Great. So what do we do?"
"I'd suggest running…"
Nightwalker's suggestion was cut off as a giant fireball flew through the air at the two of them, forcing them to dodge to the side, and as Nightwalker rolled up he saw Scorcher walking back in front of the way she'd come in, cutting them off and hence fulfilling what he was about to say: I doubt she'll let us leave.
"What do we do?"
"I don't suppose you could hex her in a way that would cause her head to explode."
"I could if you could give me nearly three hours to prepare."
"Well this is just peachy keen ain't it?" Nightwalker said, and then he and Jinx cartwheeled and backflipped away from a brief flame barrage.
"Those attacks are getting more proficient." Nightwalker commented.
"Damn. I think the transformation is just about complete. She's going from a dull minded animal lashing out at what her damaged brain sees as a threat to a predator seeking food." Jinx said.
"Food?"
Scorcher appeared to crack her neck, and then her mouth opened as she shrieked/roared at the pair of them.
"Us. VERY well done."
A stream of fire nearly engulfed the two despite their dodging efforts, Nightwalker sliding along the ground as he tried to think of a plan…
Then he eyes spied something.
"Jinx! Distract her again!" He yelled.
"WHAT? Why do I always get the shit-YOW!" Jinx yelled as she nearly lost her lower half to a flame blast. Well she wasn't going to dance around Scorcher this time, oh no. She was known as Jinx, and it was time she reminded Scorcher of it.
A furious barrage of hex blasts flew from her hands, striking Scorcher and everything around her. Jinx wasn't sure what this would do exactly, but her power was bad luck, and she needed some to befall this creature!
And it worked, as everything around Scorcher (mostly wrecked and burning tables) exploded into a thick cloud of dust and smoke, completely obscuring Scorcher from view. Jinx backflipped once more and clenched her fist: that should do…
A horrific blast of flame flew from the smoke. Jinx's eyes widened as she tried to dodge…
Too late.
The fire clipped her side, and her dress burst into flames again as she fell, frantically pounding at it, trying to smother the fire before it could find a grip. She succeeded, somewhat, as she managed to beat the fire out…only to find an intense wave of dizziness hitting her. She'd banged her head on the way down and hadn't even been aware of it due to her need to extinguish herself…
Scorcher's shadow appeared from the smoke, and then the genuine article appeared, stalking Jinx, who looked at the pyrokinetic with blurred eyes and then tried to get away, crawling, but she was too dazed, too dizzy, as Scorcher approached her, holding out a hand…
And then a concentrated jet of water hit the undead girl, sending her staggering back.
Nightwalker grunted in satisfaction as he re-aimed the hose he had retrieved from the wall, from the glass case that also include a fire extinguisher and axe, a hose Nightwalker had remembered he'd always wanted to use as a child but now had to, as he re-aimed and fired at Scorcher, trying to cool her off.
This time though, Scorcher was expecting him.
The water exploded into steam a foot from her, as Scorcher glared at him, a vile wrath dancing in her lone remaining eye, heat shimmering around her. Nightwalker grit his teeth, and not knowing if or how he could turn up the water pressure, he just held it on her, as the steam cloud expanded, obscuring the room.
"…That won't work." Platinum Blonde said. She'd stood aside, not knowing what to do, but she knew that standing aside would not spare her. Everyone else was trying to fight: Nightwalker, Jinx, even poor Zippy, whose burnt hands couldn't even begin to match the clear pain in her heart. If Juryrig hadn't been so cruelly struck down, Platinum Blonde was sure he'd be fighting too.
But she couldn't fight. She wouldn't stand a chance. Of all the Elementals, she had always been the only one without distance attacks. But now…
Nightwalker wasn't letting up, but his persistence meant nothing. Within seconds it would all fall apart.
Platinum Blonde lowered her head, grief weighing down on her, for everything…
And she saw it.
And she knew what she could do.
What she had to do.
And then suddenly the water stream exploded into fire, seemingly defying science, as the jet erupted into a fiery stream back at Nightwalker, whose eyes went as wide as saucers. Maybe an observer could have noted that water was, in the end, just hydrogen and oxygen, both very flammable, and a true master of fire knew how to make fire, at ALL times…
Nightwalker threw down the hose and dove for cover.
Too late, as the fire stream reached the hose and traveled into the packed roll behind Nightwalker before it exploded, throwing him through the air. He landed on his hands and flipped to his feet…
And then another explosion erupted in front of him, blasting him backwards, throwing him through the shattered kitchen doors and into a giant pile of pots and pans.
With her irritant gone, and her hunger growing, Scorcher turned her attention back to Jinx, who was still dazed and trying to crawl away…
Platinum Blonde approached it. While the flashlights had been melted by Scorcher's original fire outburst, the laser lense remained, lying on the floor. It couldn't shoot anyway, not after it had cracked. But Platinum Blonde didn't need it to shoot.
She would handle it.
Yet it didn't feel like her hands lifting it up, didn't feel like her mind concocting her plan.
In that she was almost glad.
Scorcher approached Jinx, as Zippy watched, not knowing what to do, wondering if she should run in and try and help, or if that would just doom her and Jinx, and Jinx was only aware of the heat, and Scorcher was only aware of her crystallizing and growing need to FEED…
"DANIELLE!"
The name still seemed to echo in the virus-manipulated brain, as Scorcher paused, even as Nightwalker ran out of the kitchen to save Jinx…and stopped short.
As Platinum Blonde swung the laser lense up into the air, coiling her arms back even as she squeezed her eyes shut.
"Oh god, pardonnez-moi."
And she hurled the laser lense through the air.
Scorcher shot flame at it, but the whirling giant disc was too flat, the flame spilling over each side, blackening the glass but not slowing it down as it spun through the air.
CHOR-KLRUKCH!
The lense hit the wall on the other end of the room and shattered, blood splattered on its surface.
As Scorcher's body, split in half, fell to the ground in a final gouting spray of blood. It splattered on Nightwalker, who recoiled in horror and made a noise almost like a whimper.
And then…silence.
And then, as if in one final taunt, the doors that had denied Nightwalker slid open.
Nightwalker stared at the scene for a moment, and then reached up and wiped the blood from his helmet, even as Jinx scrambled away from the sliced lengthwise body, as blood pooled around it.
"…Damn." Nightwalker said, walking over to the shattered wreck that had moments ago held a fire hose, using the water spraying from the pipes behind it to wash the blood off. He caught a glimpse of Zippy, standing there, not moving, looking but not there. Broken. "Damn." Nightwalker said to himself again. Absent-mindedly, he reached into his belt and procured a roll of bandages, bandages he tossed to Zippy, who saw the movement and caught them, looked at them, and then began wrapping them around her hands. But the move was clearly one on autopilot, all sense lost behind Zippy's eyes. She would probably look at her hands later and wonder where the bandages had come from.
Platinum Blonde, slowly, part of her feeling like she was floating, walked up the fallen body, the still twitching legs, the now completely fireless hair caked with blood, Scorcher lying face down like she had finally given up on everything.
"…Oh god." Jinx said to Nightwalker, as he walked over while he wiped water from his helmet. "Why?"
"Because." Nightwalker replied, and left it at that.
Platinum Blonde leaned down and smoothed Scorcher's hair, trying to give what dignity she could back to the wreck.
"She'll be waiting for you on the other side." Platinum Blonde said quietly. "I'm sure of it. Au revoir pour maintenant, cher ami."
And Scorcher's hand snapped up and grabbed Platinum Blonde's wrist.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Platinum Blonde screamed, her semi-composed understanding shattering even as her wrist burned, as Scorcher's head reared up, blood gushing from its mouth, snarling like a rabid dog, as Platinum Blonde jerked violently backwards and fell on her rear, trying to scrabble away, as Scorcher crawled after her, more blood pouring from her mouth, teeth flashing, needing to feed, to FEED…
She lunged out and grabbed Platinum Blonde's ankle, and the French girl screamed once more and tried to free herself, but Scorcher had a death grip this time and she wasn't letting go, even as Platinum Blonde scrambled back some more and everyone else stood in utter shock at this final sacrilege, as Scorcher tried to pull herself up Platinum Blonde's body and rip her throat out.
Something brushed Platinum Blonde's hand as she was tried to flee, something that somehow her attention even in her blind panic, and she turned to look…
Juryrig's shotgun. Undamaged from the blast.
Scorcher lunched up, snarling…
Platinum Blonde snatched up the gun and aimed.
"Oh Danny…!"
BLAM!
Scorcher's body fell again, her head utterly obliterated, her curse finally lifted.
Platinum Blonde just stared, the gun still out, her face and body speckled with blood and worse.
And then she pulled the trigger again. It produced nothing but a dry clicking sound, but that didn't stop her from pulling it again, and again, and again, like she could do nothing else, like it had become her whole world…
And then Nightwalker knelt down, pulling the gun from her hand.
"Let's go." He said, as he dropped it on the ground.
"…Quoi?" Platinum Blonde whispered.
"Let's go. It's done. Let's leave."
"…But…but…" Platinum Blonde said as she turned herself to look back at what was left her friend, her leader, her…sister…
Nightwalker yanked her head back to look at him.
"Danielle Foster is dead. This THING…was just a puppet of what's invaded the place. You can't turn back time to change it, and you can't sit around to mourn it because that's what it wants. IT WANTS US. So we need to GO."
"But Danny…she saved us all…"
"And now we have to save ourselves. So get up and MOVE, or your blood can join hers." Nightwalker said.
Platinum Blonde stared, and then the shock and horror left her face.
Unfortunately for Nightwalker, what replaced it was rage.
What amazed Jinx was that Nightwalker's helmet didn't shatter when Platinum Blonde slapped him and hurled him across the room, where he bounced a few times and then came to a rest near her.
"YOU HEARTLESS FUCK." Platinum Blonde snarled as she got up. "Do you have any idea what she meant to us? What you do…when you act…like she was some mere…human?"
"We're all human on the inside." Nightwalker said, holding the side of his face as he got up. "I want to live. So should you. Hence we need to go."
"Oh you're only partly right. We need to go. Except there's no U in we." Platinum Blonde said, and turned. "Sal, let's go. These bastards are on their own."
"W-What? Antoinette, what are you talking about?" Jinx said. Having already taken several furious steps, Platinum Blonde whirled around.
"You heard me! You want me to think this is all brotherhood, after the way HE spoke to me? Forget it! I'm not a person, deserving of sympathy! I'm a shield he can use to soak up damage!"
"In times of crisis, we are often broken down to our base aspects." Nightwalker calmly replied.
"Yeah. I saw that. You are apparently the same as those who did this, monstre." Platinum Blonde spat. "So fuck you. You're on your own. And Llarenes, you can stay with him if you don't realize this."
"But…!"
"Antoinette, stop being so damn self-indulgent and dramatic." Nightwalker said, as he started for her.
"STOP RIGHT THERE OR I'LL KILL YOU MYSELF, YOU PRICK!" Platinum Blonde screamed. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO USE MY NAME! OR HERS! Danielle had more brilliance in the tip of her pinky then you will ever have in a hundred years of trying! She came here to try and thwart death, and all it did was bring death to her and the one she cared for most! Well, no more! Zippy, get over here."
"I think she's still in a bit of shock." Nightwalker replied.
"SHUT UP! I'll drag her if I have to…"
"Antoinette…" Nightwalker said, stepping towards her again.
"I SAID STOP!"
"You have to…"
"BE QUIET! STOP TALKING! I'VE HAD ENOUGH! You're on your own! I carve my own path now! I hope once I'm out of here the devil reaches up here and drags this fucking place down to hell personally…!"
"Antoinette…!"
"I TOLD YOU TO SHUT UP! AND I MEAN IT! You're just a man, weak, pathetic, and fragile! I am Antoinette Albertine, Platinum Blonde, harder then steel, fiercer then death herself, and I DENY YOU. You are but a man, and I am invincible…!"
The blade slashed out and chopped off Platinum Blonde's head before she could say another word.
Blood splattered on Nightwalker, who was reaching out with one hand.
Everyone in the room froze.
"…No." Nightwalker said.
Gouting blood, Platinum Blonde's body collapsed, revealing the figure behind her, the figure Nightwalker had only briefly seen, that he had tried to warn her about, but she was just too angry and it had sealed her doom…
And all theirs, for she had not been lying for the most part. She nearly was invincible. Unbelievable strength would have been needed to cut off her head with a bladed weapon.
But the massive form stepping over her body had all that, and more, a direct line to hell.
It was a good thing Jinx had used the bathroom before this whole thing had started. Otherwise she probably would have pissed herself.
"…No!" Nightwalker said, even as he clawed at his helmet face. "Not again! NOT AGAIN!"
His form was all too recognizable, but it wasn't the same. Instead of ragged clothing over rotted, necrotized flesh, he seemed to be clothed in some kind of firm dark green plastic, completely covering his body…except where there was metal.
His left leg was completely metal, as was his right arm and side of his chest, pinkish red flesh well protected under thick armor. And instead of the usual white plastic, the hockey mask was pure titanium steel, out from which blazing red eyes peered.
Jason Voorhees.
New and improved, from Jason X.
Uberjason.
"Oh god…" Jinx whimpered. "Why'd they have to get the crappy sequel?"
Ch ch ch ah ah ah…