I awoke the next day after barely sleeping. I felt that I was being followed, like something or someone was breathing down my neck, waiting for me to slip up. That thought made me paranoid, and I was constantly alert as I walked into Bryyo's Cliffside, my eyes flicking in all directions.
"Is something bothering you, Rundas? Your nervous system is out of control." Aurora Unit 242 asked thoughtfully, Adult Gragnols fluttering by without taking heed to me.
I jumped at a grinding noise coming from above on a large spiraling mechanical system. "I'm just a little cautious is all. Nothing you need to worry about." I responded, forcing myself to pry my gaze off of the mechanism and to the surrounding area.
"Are you sure? This is not like you to be so frightened at meager circumstances. Like those Reptilicus Hunters for example."
My eyes widened. "Reptilicus?" I spluttered, snapping my head in the direction of the two giant lizard-like beings that were leaping towards me. "Hunters?!"
The Reptilicus stood about ten meters away, hissing and spitting as they studied me. I held my hands up, creating ice that I was ready to shoot at any moment.
One of them leaped into the air, throwing a boomerang that emitted electricity. I jumped back, firing ice at it furiously, my frozen beams hitting my attacker square on the chest, flinging it backward and onto a wall where it squirmed inside the casing. Eventually, it stopped moving.
The other one did the same thing, jumping and attempting to strike me with its own weapon. I ducked as it whizzed past my head.
I thrust my left arm forward, a long, sharp icicle impaling the Reptilicus in the stomach and pinning it to the wall opposite the other Hunter. The Reptilicus that had been stabbed was clutching the ice with both hands and was kicking its feet, sucking in for air that it couldn't get. I marveled at how it was still breathing.
I approached it, raising my right hand and covering the Reptilicus in thick ice that froze it to the wall. The creature was dead instantly.
A joyous sensation came over me, like it was good to kill. Happiness built up in my chest, and I felt like I could do anything. I turned away from the Reptilicus Hunters, sprinting down the hallway and jumping off the ledge of Bryyo Cliffside.
Wind roared past me, cool and refreshing. I started laughing hysterically again, manipulating ice onto the bottoms of my feet that enabled me to soar through the air and regain the altitude that I lost falling.
"I know what would make this more exhilarating!" I said enthusiastically to no one in particular, smiling broadly as I flew over Bryyo Cliffside and one of the Thorn Jungles. I engaged the Phazon Enhancement Device. "Hyper Mode!" The pinch, rush of air, and coldness I never felt, yet my vision still warped, for something soft brushed my back. I was suddenly unaware of my body moving, and I stopped using my ice. I was sent spiraling down into the Jungle, landing mysteriously softly on the ground.
I shook my head as my surroundings and body came back into my perspective and control, my mind racing. I stood up and shuffled around, wondering how this happened. A shadowed shape caught my eye.
It looked like some sort of bird, but I knew it wasn't. The entity was mostly black, with dark blue on the edges of the many long, thin, finger-like wisps of darkness that fanned out of its smokey black body. An oval head was in between two pure black shoulder looking smudges. The head had a three pronged slit that glowed light blue.
I stared at the ghostly thing, completely bewildered. I had never encountered something so strange and sinister looking, it frightened me a little.
It hovered silently in the air a few feet above my head, and several yards away. I tried scanning it, but my PED Suit's technology was being jammed by some sort of negative energy wave. I didn't know what to do, so I formed ice around my hands and stood my ground.
The being swooped downward, only a hushed blow of air signifying that it had moved. I stiffened, the mysterious creature only an arm distanced away from me.
It drifted backward at a faster speed that when it swooped, and when I took a step back, its made a groaning noise. I felt suddenly sick and weak.
The life form rushed forward... into my body. I choked, stumbling on my feet and falling to the ground. I was gasping, my vision darkening as a wave of cold engulfed my anatomy.
I lay on the dirt, writhing and uttering squelching noises as I grabbed at my chest. The internal pain was horrible. What was I going to do to stop it?
"Rundas?" A distant voice cried.
I stopped wriggling.
"Rundas! I'm losing you! Rundas! Don't leave! Rund-" The communication line was terminated.
I lay on the ground, suffering, a creature of terrible power rapidly possessing my body, my own body rapidly corrupting my mind.
The world spun, eventually dimming to black.