It's been a while, hasn't it? To mark my return to writing things after a few hectic weeks, I thought I'd continue something that a few people have been asking for. Are you guys ready for more Supernova? I can't wait to hear what you think about this one. Please enjoy!
Containment Failure
Where there was a will there was a way. There was no such thing as defeat so long as one remained defiant against all odds. It was not the place of a savior to surrender when he held the fate of the world on his shoulders. A noble son had once held such words close like religion. Idealistic patter to provide vigour against a harsh world, true, but what if, for once, father dearest, in all of his detestable grandiosity, was right?
Glenberry was in trouble. There was no doubt about that. If something wasn't done about these disgusting alien bastards, countless more honest people would fall victim to their deceptions, becoming yet more pawns in their sinister otherworldly games. Whatever they were here for, whatever they intended to do with the good denizens of the human race... they couldn't be allowed to succeed.
This coastal city... no, this world, needed somebody to fight for it. Celeste, Crull, and the faceless being Drell... all needed to die.
It was the place of a prodigy to deliver such judgement. Endless scores of voices pulsed through the mind, invaded the body. They belonged to so many different individuals, but each one of them was distant now, almost as as though they belonged in different life entirely.
Awaken... we need you.
In a mismatched thump not all that different to a heartbeat, that which was dead returned to life.
"You shall be the flame which leads this family into the future. Remember that, son, for some day the legacy of our grandfather and his father before him will rest squarely on your shoulders."
The rhetoric of a man uncaring of anything but his own tiny, greed-fuelled empire. He'd poured his soul into the disgusting corporate machine, and wanted nothing more than to shovel more capital down his throat. Ironic how at this very instant, he was the first person who came to mind.
"Come on! You're like a brother to me! We're not in the sixties anymore. Do you really think the fact you come from a rich family bothers me? I stick by you because you're loyal. True, I'll admit I ain't great with women... but I'll stand by my friends until the end. You're one of them. I'll always have your back."
The promise of a friend most true. To this day Mike Andrew Winters had never failed in his oath. True, they were two very different people who started in two very different places, but that hadn't stopped them from becoming the strongest of comrades in arms. He was somebody worth protecting no matter the danger.
"Yeaaaaah... I know how you feel about me! You're such a sweetie! I just... need more time to get over another guy I like. Give me that and I promise baby, we'll go out for drinks reeeeal soon. I'll even introduce you to daddy! I bet he'll love you!"
Candace Crush. Not the most intellectual of girls, and one with far too many detrimental hobbies, but with her soft heart and her ditzy personality, she'd most assuredly found a large place in his heart. Another person worth risking it all to look after.
"I'm so glad I found you, Master. You make Momo so happy!"
Last but not least, the forbidden love of his life. A girl literally out of this world, Momo had arrived one day, wandered into his path on a morning walk through Dawnwood Park. She'd since become a beacon of hope, and a bringer of fate. She was the one he'd done all of this for. An innocent life in need of saving.
At long last, the being inside his blood fell silent. In an instant most liberating, free of conflict and pain for the first time in so very long, Markus Johnathan Kane's eyes opened wide. Impaled with an endless slew of wires, breathing equipment clamped over his mouth, he found himself suspendered in warm green liquid, trapped in some kind of cylinder.
Gone were his clothes. No longer were his lungs flattened and broken, the sickening taste of coppery blood burning his tongue. Wherever he was, whatever had happened, Celeste's ship was nowhere in sight, and neither were Mike or that alien fiend, Luvendass.
The first matter to which Mark needed to attend? He to be free from this holding cell of sorts. His head panned downward, eyes snapping toward one of his fists, squeezed tight and vascular. Its veins throbbed an unnatural pinkish hue, adrenaline like no other cascading across his every inch.
This feeling, of purging fire most sublime... it felt homely at this juncture. Good. At least his captors hadn't purged the symbiont from his bloodstream. He'd need it. A single bludgeoning fist against the plastic-like compound was all it took to bring a crack to the tube. Pressure lines spread across its face, expanding outward like the veins of a roadmap, further and further until finally:
"Warning! Internal pressure source detected inside genometric capsule six. Containment failure!"
In a outward shower of shards, Markus flopped on his knees, the tube which had sealed him until now blowing out in a showing of impressive kinetic force. Its liquid of sickening emerald flooding out across the clean stone floor before him. Disengaged from anything but the prospect of escape, he grabbed for the wiring stuck inside of his arms, wrists and torso like fleshy arteries. This was going to hurt.
Three... two... one.
Squeezing down hard, he ripped them free one by one, a convulsion of agony grabbing him tight. His lifeblood sprayed forth, a slew of desperate, pained shouting muffled by the mouthpiece. He had to push on... even if it killed him. He'd faced worse! He'd fought worse!
Ignoring the white grain which overtook his sight, and showing even less regard for the warning, chaotic thunder of his heartbeat, Mark tore the last of invasive machinery away. The symbiont which shared his conscious, screamed out as well, and with a thud, he fell limp, unable for the moment to lift himself from the stone floor.
Red lights flared to life across the expanse of the room as the strange breathing mask came free of his mouth. Srens kicked up from nothingness. They served as a wakeup of sorts, a reminder to engage with reality and check his surroundings. This building, it looked like some kind of industrial warehouse, with dozens upon dozens of tubes identical to his own lined up in rows. Standing at last, the stab of cold against his soaking skin giving clarity, Mark took in his first unaided breath, lungs tingling as he did so. It felt so nice inhale without obstruction.
Such a thought brought dull pain to the front of his head, his last memory before awakening here returning to the forefront. Crull's guttural laugh spilt through his sanity, those crooked teeth of his turning upward into pointed, glassy smile. If anything, when Mark returned to the here and now it provided all the encouragement he needed to take those first few steps. His legs ached, each sluggish inch bringing him closer and closer to the pod opposite.
He fell against it, a trail of red having formed behind. Faint, weak, he coughed, his palms stained a dirty and inhuman reddish-green.
"What did they... do to me?"
No sooner than he asked that very question, did a shiver race across his back. The unsightly, gaping wounds across his arms and chest swelled into squishy masses, sealing themselves shut before his very eyes. Bubbling over and disolving into nothing, they healed over as though good new! The pain cooled, giving way to truest bewilderment instead.
"Get up, Mark," he told himself, again focused on his intent to escape. Whatever terrible things had happened to him in here, it could wait. If he didn't get out now, he'd no doubt be subjected to even more unspeakable procedures. Dragging himself upright, reinvigorated, Mark gathered himself.
Eyes fixated, he looked upon the unfortunate prisoner within the capsule he'd so ungracefully fallen against. A petite young lady with deep red hair and a slender body. She bobbed up and down helplessly, her legs hugged against her chest in the fragility of the fetal position. Her skin, whiter than porcelain even through the strange fluid of the capsule, was covered in cuts, marks and scars. A horrible purple bruise swelled around her eye, as well.
"A victim of abuse at the behest of these otherworldly scum, I'll wager."
The name etched upon her container? Audrey Belrose. It sounded familar indeed. This girl... Mark had seen her before. He was sure of it, but where? She was one of Mike's several girlfriend's, was she not? Yes! In fact, he'd seen them walking around town, bold and unashamed, arm in arm, many times before. There was only one thing for it. Just as Winters had gone out of his way to protect Momo, he'd return the favour in kind.
"Is there some way can get her out of there?"
A tiny console buzzed to life off to the side, its screen pulsing strong and white amidst the red of sirens that washed the room.
"Please enter a valid access code. Lockdown in progress. Security breach detected."
There was no time for that!
Furthermore, there was no telling what kind of hellish discourse would descend upon him the longer he waited here. Giving a roll of the eyes, squeezing his hand into a ball for a second time, Mark scoffied in defiance. "I've not the time for your mindless twoddle. Hmph. Crude, but this will have to do."
His fist careened through the air, connecting with the tube, smashing straight through. The green liquid spilled out in a violent gush, the glass fracturing and exploding outward much like before. Mark snarled, sent sliding back by the force, a chunk of jagged compound zipping past his head like a knife. A close call.
"Damn it all," he growled, hands trembling. "Alright Markus. Keep it together."
In and out he breathed, again on the verge of losing himself. Somehow, in a manner beyond comprehension, his outstretched senses felt everything in the room. He'd not realized it before. Perhaps it was the urgency of escape, but he most certainly took note of it now. Melodies filled his ears from inside the tubes. Thud... thud. Heartbeats. Too many to count. They fought with desperation, each intent on drowning the others out in a frenzied hive-mind cry for help.
Closer and closer they came. Louder and louder.
There was another sensation closing in, too. It wasn't organic, akin more to the snapping of an electrical current. It wasn't the other humans. They were overpowering in such perfect unision, but they were scared... frantic.
Metal footsteps clomped from the left and right. Markus stood on guard, ready to assertain the situation. Whatever it was, it was close, too close for comfort.
"Cease and desist, Terran. If you refuse to cooperate we will have have no choice but to deal with you ourselves."
A pair of mechanicals. Tall, bulky in build and complete with red eye visors, flashing with blue and green dots for eyes. Their brawny torsos bore alien symbols, square with jagged outlines. Their most noticable trait, moreover? They both wielded some sort of electrical staff in two hands. Several feet long, with the hilt at its centre. Sparks crackled up the sides of these strangely elegent weapons, a mismatched, musical buzzing eminating from them as they were twirled through the air.
"Forgive me, gentleman... but I've no intention obeying your orders."
Markus raised his hands, slowly making his way to Audrey. She lay slumped on the floor, scrunched into a tiny shivering ball. He kneeled down, checking her neck, relieved beyond all else to find a weak pulse. She was alright.
As the robotics closed, Mark put his arms around Audrey's dainty shoulders. Unlike him, and perhaps thankfully, given the situation, she hadn't been violated with tubes, making it a simple task of picking her up. He held her close, giving the faintest of assuring smiles.
"If you can hear me, Miss Belrose, you're safe. I will escort you to safety unharmed. You have my word."
She was like a dainty doll in his arms, so delicate that he feared he'd break her if she wasn't handled with the utmost care. A far cry from the unladylike curses and insults he'd heard spewing from her mouth those few times they'd met in passing. No matter. She needed protecting above all else.
"Release the test subject," the chrome-finished enforcers spoke in monotone warning, "This is your last cha-"
"Release her?" Mark gave a dry, heartless laugh. "No."
His body felt exceedingly light, in stark contrast to his ugly awakening. He'd not noticed it before, but now, at the height of danger, it had become brutally apparent. In a single breath he took off, his legs darting with speed unfathomable across the room. The symbiont had finally re-joined him in full, no doubt. Perhaps being locked away had given the two of them enough time to meld completely, making the pair of disjointed fragments whole.
Either way, his heartbeat was the same no longer. It had a third, heavy thump to it, a sure sign, if everything he'd seen here tonight weren't enough, that his genetic makeup was very different. "Tell your masters that I will be coming for them soon enough."
Mark smashed his clenched fist through the machine in his path, quietly revelling in its all too human scream. Reaching in deeper, he yanked out its guts, electrical energy erupting across the core of its body until, in a mighty burst of white thermal light, the construct of steel fell to its knees, the lights of its visor going dark. Just to be sure, Mark ripped out its cyberized innards in a handful, tossing them away.
Movement from behind. There was no need to see it. Somehow, Mark felt it, clearer than ever.
"As for you," he sidestepped his second robotic attacker with ease, its actions so sluggish they were almost slow motion. In a display beyond fleet, Markus wrestled the electrical staff from its hands, spearing its cranium clean through before it could so much as move. Oily gray muck spurted out, a jarred metallic howl shredding through the air. "Stay down."
A weighty clunk brought an end to the immediate danger, Mark giving a faint sigh to steady himself, keeping his hold upon Miss Belrose as to not drop her. "Let us depart this place, Miss. Wherever we are."
Finally the crimson lights fell flat, a burden of sorts lifted from Mark's fragile eyesight. Unobscured at last, he tracked the closest source of light. A single open skylight waited just up a rusted staircase, beside one of the roof beams. He set off, up to the second floor, going past a pair of dimmed storage pods along the way. Dead bodies, starved and scrawny, their eyes hollow, white and empty. They floated, in murky red, scrunched in horror, third limbs splitting from their backs, the rest of their limbs mutated and deformed.
More victims of Crull, no doubt.
Mark shook his head, uttering a silent prayer. What would have happened to him and Audrey if he hadn't awoken sooner? Would they have suffered the same morbid fate as these poor monsters?
"I will avenge you," A promise with god as his witness, if indeed, there was a God watching over this corrupt world any longer. "I will avenge all of you."
With Audrey held against him for safety, Mark departed, quick to make an exit. Stepping out into the night, leaving the sight of death behind, he welcomed the fresh air. It was there, tired at last from the stress of exertion, that Mark took pause. He set Audrey down beside the railings, his protective instincts on high alert.
Off in the distance, perhaps a mile or two away, give or take, the lights of Glenberry twinkled like stars.
How long had he been asleep for? What was happening to the lively coastal town at this very moment? He had to find out.
"I am not dead yet, Crull. Whatever you have planned... I'll not allow you to succeed."
To be continued...
So there you have it. Another chapter down. Plenty more to go! Did you enjoy it? Is there anything you'd like to see in future? Feel free to leave some feedback and share your thoughts! As always, keep on supporting Huniepop and Huniecam Studio. I'll see you in the next chapter!
Anybody else getting hyped for Huniepop 2? I know I am!