Chapter 33

Colin

He awoke, but not where he fell asleep. He was in a white room, no one was to bee seen and the curtain was partially obstructing his view. He tried to speak and get up but was stopped by extreme pain. Groaning he fell back into bed a few seconds later and a nurse hurried over to check on him. She checked his vitals and called for a doctor, before closing the curtain around him and the doctor for privacy. The doctor pulled a chair up and sat down next to the bed. "I have some news, make of it what you will. You have over stressed your body to the point of near death, and you were contaminated, we are currently in a decontamination chamber. I don't know what you did, but the sickness you got was severe. It attacked you nervous system and your spinal column… you might never be able to walk again." The doctor said taking his glasses off. "Good news is that the sickness only attacks those of holy inclination. So we can be here without suits, but we are keeping you under for as long as I see fit." He finished. "W..a..t..e..r" Colin choked out. The doctor grabbed the glass of water from the table and handed it to him. He dumped most of it into his mouth, the rest down his surgical gown.

He gave the doctor a look and pointed towards the clothes before swallowing a gigantic gulp of water. The doctor looked slightly annoyed "We tried to remove some shrapnel from your abdomen, lower back, neck, leg, and repair your damaged cybernetics. But your AI partner refused, violently. WE couldn't even give you an IV." He finished Colin closed his eyes and interfaced with Sheila. "What's up? Why didn't you let the doctor do what he needs to do." He asked, no response. He reached out with his mind and prodded Sheila. Nothing. He thought for a moment on what might have done it. Power, no couldn't be, he was plugged into the ship. The virus in his system? Also no, Sheila would be trying to fix him. He pondered for another moment before it dawned upon him. Fortress mode, Sheila was trying to fight the infection and didn't have enough nanites to lock him in armor. But she was devoting all her processing power to solve the issue.

He opened his eyes. "Sheila, deactivate fortress mode and bring all remaining systems back online." There was a pause before his HUD came back online and his cybernetics turned on. "Hello sir, I was unable to immediately stop a foreign infection and locked down. Currently analyzing and tasking all nanites to immune system." She said. "Sounds good, what exactly is the infection?" "Sir, I don't know. It was acting like a normal virus for a short time until it was deemed a threat and I attacked. Then it began rapidly destroying any and all cells near the infection site and has since spread very little. I am containing it with internal shield, but when I tried to remove it. You went into cardiac arrest, it seems to have attached itself to your angelic aura. Normal science doesn't work on the supernatural. So I took the only course of action I deemed acceptable and waited for you to regain consciousness." She finished. "Seems like I need some help, where do I stand on angelic power?" "Currently at 12% and dropping. I recommend immediate medically induced coma or a deep freeze." She responded

"Neither, get Ian over here and we are going to blast this, stuff, out of my system." He said defiantly. "Contacting Ian. Sir I don't recommend this course of action. The infection could spread from you to Ian, and if you don't get all of it on the first go it could grow exponentially." She warned "Then do some math, how much power has it taken from me since it started?" "Sir, 18 percent and climbing." "How long has it been since it started?" "Almost 6 hours, sir." "Compare that power deficiency to both of our angelic power combined, at full strength." "You have an 86 percent success rate." She responded dryly. "Now if we both broke some rules and Ian fueled me to my Golem state again, what are our chances then?" he asked gaining hope. "98 percent success rate, Sir" she responded annoyed.

Just then Ian opened the curtain and sat down next to him. "Sheila told me everything, but how are you feeling?" he asked grabbing Colin's cybernetic hand in his. "Like hell brother, you ready?" he asked expectantly. "Quite so, let's get started" he said picking Colin up and helped him on his feet. Ian looked over Colin's shoulder at the doctor. "You might want to leave, and close the blast shields." He told him and the doctor quickly left. They stood facing each other, one hand on the others chest, and the other on his head. Ian lit up in white fire and extended his wings as he began chanting. Colin closed his eyes and prepared. Ian's chanting began speeding up as the Fire and light grew, then the airlock opened sucking all the air out, but they stood still. Then they began levitating out of the airlock and away from the ship, and slowed down at about 100 yards above the ship.

Ian's chanting was almost unintelligible as he let all of his power course through him. Then he unleashed it into Colin, jumpstarting his power. He let it flow through him, using Ian as a battery to charge him up. He started screaming as the infection started spreading. Ian hesitated but he didn't as he changed into his true form. Growing in size until he was as big as the planet, then he let the power burn through his body. Destroying the infection as it went, but he didn't stop when he thought it was gone. He nodded to Ian and he also changed, growing until he was a Golem, different from Colin, but alike,letting his new reserve of power make Colin burn like a star. They stayed like that for a few moment before Colin felt for the infection and felt none.

Not completely sure he took more power and flared to greater heights and power before letting it go and slowly shrinking down to his normal size. The stayed standing for a moment before reentering the airlock and pressurizing. When air came back Colin opened his eyes and took a deep breath. Looking down at the infection site he saw nothing, only fresh skin. Ian looked just as happy, before stumbling and nearly falling, the power drain had been immense. And it showed. He walked Ian back to the door and Ian was taken by some doctors to another room to rest. He stretched and went to go find his clothes. After a lengthy search he was changed and headed for the bridge. There Maria was nowhere to be found, he assured some of the crewmen that he was indeed fine and made his way to Maria's room.

When he got there the door wasn't locked, he walked in and found her still in uniform sleeping like a log. He walked over and sat down next to her, the motion woke her just enough to recognize him. "Colin!" she screamed tackling him in a massive hug. He returned the hug and they stayed liked that for some time, he could tell she was holding back tears. She just hugged him tighter as he tried to get up. "Don't worry I'm not going anywhere." He said reassuringly, she pulled away and wiped her face. "We have to tell the others, they will want to know you're ok." She said getting up and grabbing his arm. He followed and on their walk to the infirmary she had dried her face. They opened the doors and he was instantly thrown off balance by Ruby. Who had tried tackling him but didn't have the momentum or weight so he staggered backwards a few feet.

"It's so good to see you again, we thought you were dead. How was Hell? Was it scary? How long were you there? Was that really you fighting that giant monster?" came her rapid fire questions. "Uhh, bad, no, 10 ish years, and yes." He said answering her questions after a second pause. Her eyes were wide in shock "I didn't know something could get that big.." she was cut off by Yang giving both of them a massive bear hug. "It's good to see you again." She said smiling brilliantly at him. "Right back at ya." He said as she let go of them after much of Ruby's protest.