CHAPTER EIGHT

The Center of It All

The next morning…

The Shack

"I don't really understand how, but it looks like whatever happened last night has mutated your blood stream." Chase concluded. "More specifically, it's enhanced it."

Running numerous clinical tests on Coyote hadn't proved useless upon informing the rest of the team of what had happened the following day. The images of numerous strange microorganisms swimming around in Coyote's blood had severely shocked Marcus when he first saw it, but Chase steadily explained it to help make it better…at least, he thought that would be its effect.

"How exactly does getting raped ENHANCE my blood stream?" Coyote said, very nearly shouting.

"I've got no clue, but it seems that it's made your blood vessels tougher. This basically means that you'll bleed less and maybe even have better resistance to extreme cold."

"But…she raped me! She raped me, and it actually helped me! How in God's endless universe does that work?!"

"I don't know, but hey! If it gave you enhancements, I say use them. By the looks of it, they're going to get more plentiful."

Marcus' ears pricked up the second he heard those words and bit his lip so hard he had to force himself not to draw blood. He stepped forward and looked Chase dead in the eye before speaking.

"Start working on an antidote."

"Huh?"

"Get rid of it."

"But she could become super-Lylatian!"
"No, she could become dead. If Kursed gives you anything, you need to get rid of it whether it's good or bad at first. Start working on an antidote."

Chase sighed.

"Alright. Your loss. In any case, we've got some more pressing matters to talk about."

Anna and Damalgo fiddled around with a few keyboards on either side of the room before a hologram of the entire Lylat System popped up.

"We've managed to confirm exactly what these beacons we've collected are." Anna started. "Like we've known already, they call these creatures from somewhere. We're still not sure where, but Chase…he found out something about these things that's going to surprise probably everyone in this room."

"At this point, nothing should surprise us." Peter sighed.

Chase came forward and fiddled with another keyboard to bring up a hologram of one of the strange creatures they had seen at Sector Y, as well as one of the Space Pirates they had fought a few days ago.

"I ran a test on both of these creatures," he started. "And I've managed to confirm that they both have a very similar genetic code. Normally this would be completely impossible since…well, it would be pretty obvious why it wouldn't be possible. But I decided to search through some old biological tests, and I didn't believe it myself until I checked out what happened to the rest of the units after we took down the bosses, which would be the mech and Ridley. Did any of you notice that they all just shrivelled up and died right after the bosses were taken down?"

"I don't know." Marcus replied cynically. "Was I trying to shake of the shock of riding on a giant space dragon's back and saving Samus from nearly getting killed thanks to my evil surrogate mother?"

"Well, I noticed. This symptom called apoptosis seemed really familiar, and that was when I confirmed what the tests had presented."

Chase sucked in a breath.

"I can't believe it's true, but…these things are Aparoids!"

"Wha…I thought that…Goddamn, doesn't anybody know how to stay dead anymore?! I'm surprised there hasn't been a zombie apocalypse yet!"

I can think of a few people who would be pretty eager for something like that to happen thanks to the pure adrenaline and excitement from it…at the cost of losing the ones they love…life sucks sometimes.

"I'm still researching this so even I have no idea how it's possible," Chase continued. "But…I guess there's no denying the truth."

"Not to mention," Anna spoke up. "Sector Y and Corneria were just the beginning. It seems there's still three more beacons out there. If we let any of them get out of control, these Aparoids are gonna spread all over the galaxy like a fuckin' plague."

The hologram reverted to the map of the Lylat System. Two markers were on Sector Y and Corneria.

"The beacon path seems to be moving in a hook-like pattern. If we were to put this as a 2-D map, it's curving out to the northwest. The third beacon seems to be abiding by the pattern set out by the other two because it stops right here. Right in the middle of the System."

A third marker appeared exactly where Anna had pointed. It lay in the center of the Lylat System on a blue star.

"The third beacon is somewhere near Lylat itself."

"And that's our problem." Damalgo sighed. "I'm sure you all remember how hot Solar was when you guys visited it three years ago. Solar itself is a Class M red giant, so while it may be larger than Lylat, it's nowhere near as hot. Class M stars are usually between 2,600 and 3,800 degrees Kelvin."

Don't even bother trying to translate that into Celsius or Fahrenheit. Lord knows I can't.

"The main problem is this: Lylat is a Class O star, therefore averaging at a temperature of 33,000 degrees Kelvin on the surface alone. We'd be burning alive before we even made it to a mile above the surface."

Everyone turned to Chase, to which he responded by raising an eyebrow.

"What?"

"This would be the part where you interject and say 'You guys really don't know the extent of my genius' or 'Hey, guys. Let me save your stupid asses'. Y'know, get all smug on us." said Peter.

"Yeah, real cute, Petey."

"Can you come up with a way for us to survive on Lylat or can you not?" asked Marcus.

Chase bit his lip, causing Marcus to worry even more. If it was a technical thing and Chase was getting nervous, then you were in trouble. You were in BIG trouble.

"Well, I do have something in the works. It's sort of like that Thermal Suit thing that we used on Solar a couple years back, except it covers the whole body and cools it with every step…" he started.

"Perfect. We'll put those on and head over right away." Marcus said.

"Whoa, hang on! I'm not done! The problem is that it's still in the prototype stages so the effects are just theoretical. It SHOULD work, but if my guess is correct…and it probably is, it'll only work for an hour or two."

"We don't have any other choice. Let's get to the airway, team. We're heading for the center of the galaxy."

Later…

"Are you sure about this, Chase?" Marcus asked. "These suits are really clunky."

"They're the best option we have. It'll take me at least two days to upgrade them and these things could be at Fichina by then."

"But are you sure this'll work?"

"I copied off the same material as Samus' Varia Suit…except I'm not a Chozo, so it's far from perfect."

Marcus, Coyote, Anna, and Peter were suited up in their own sets of Thermal Armour, each looking significantly different so they could tell each other apart. Marcus looked almost like Iron Man, Coyote slightly resembled a Terminator, Anna had a Tron-like suit, and Peter had the same helmet as a character that would result in Nintendo having lawsuits up the ass if it was ever in one of their games. All four of them were flying their ships down towards the insanely bright star.

"Goddamn, it's so beautiful…" Anna said.

"Beautiful and deadly…hey, what's that?" said Peter.

It seemed that there were several metallic catwalks crisscrossing high above the surface of the star. They seemed to be far enough that they would at least be able to see where they were going, but would still trigger the effects Chase had mentioned.

"We've found a landing area." Marcus announced.

"Okay. I'm sending you guys a timer. If Anne's right, the beacon can't be too far from where your landing. You've got two hours before you need to make your way back to the warp point, otherwise your ass is fried."

"Quite. We're going in."

Upon reaching the set point, the four ejected from the ships that began auto-piloting back to the Great Fox. They landed flawlessly on the catwalk and gazed at their surroundings. Thanks to the intense light-blue light coming up from far below them, their vision of any stars, planets and the like was completely hindered. The metallic catwalks seemed to stretch on for miles without end, and most importantly, it was boiling hot. Even with the heavy suits of armour on, all four of them could feel the heat seeping in and making them sweat.

"Jesus, I can barely breathe in this thing." Anna groaned.

"Try not to dwell on it." Peter said. "It'll only make it worse."

"Too late."

"Alright, guys." Damalgo announced over their communicators. "I can't quite get a good readout of the entire catwalk network but I may have found a good path that should take you straight to the beacon. It should be coming up on your visors right about…now."

The pathway appeared on their visors, as well as the timer Chase had mentioned. It had begun counting down from two hours, and thus the four began marching down the catwalk, listening intently for any sound. They heard none for the first few minutes of walking, and that only made the tension more aggravating. What was also aggravating to Marcus was the thought of his girlfriend being…VIOLATED by his surrogate mother. He didn't care that Coyote was all right. He wanted to find Kursed, grab her neck and wring it until she stopped breathing.

He made sure that Peter and Anna had gone ahead enough that they couldn't hear him, and then turned to Coyote.

"Are you sure you're alright?"

"Mark, I'm fine. Really. You don't need to worry about me."

"You wanna know when I start to worry about people the most? When they tell me not to worry."

"But you…"

"But nothing. It's my fault that what happened last night was even possible, and…"

"Mark. You're making it all about you again."

Marcus sighed.

"I'm sorry. It's just that you're taking the fall for something that should only involve me."

"I understand, but look at me. Do I look any different? Do I sound any different? …and more importantly…"

She suddenly embraced him, startling yet comforting him at the same time.

"Do I feel any different?"

"No."

"Then there's nothing to worry about, okay?"

"Oi! What the hell are you two doing over there?" Peter called.

"Hang on, we're coming." Marcus yelled.

"I'll bet you are, mate."

"Wha…oh, for the love of…"

They continued on, and right as Marcus and Coyote caught up to the other two, the tingling sensation in the back of his head kicked into high gear. The problem was that he couldn't see the source of it through the ultraviolet haze.

"Guns ready, guys. Something's out there."

All four of them readied their assault rifles and the staff in Marcus' case and stood in a diamond formation with each person facing in one of four directions. All four of them were gritting their teeth and preparing for the worst, and when the worst didn't seem to come, it only made them more alert. None of them dared to turn away in case an Aparoid would suddenly pop up from under the catwalk and throw them off. The tension began building so heavily that they could hear each other panting from pure anxiousness.

Then an odd feeling came over Marcus: the tingle left his system for a brief moment before returning stronger than before, indicating that the danger was directly behind him. There was no way that could be right, however, because Peter was right behind him.

At that moment, Peter shook his head as if coming out of a dazed state.

"Wha…what are we doing here?" he asked almost mindlessly.

"We're finding the third beacon. What, do you have Alzheimer's or something?" asked Coyote.

"The third beacon…what for?"

"To take down the Aparoids."
"What for?"

"To stop Kursed from taking over the system!"

Peter lowered his gun and turned to them.

"But…why would we want to stop Kursed?"

"Because she's an evil bitch that deserves to die for all she's done." Anna replied impatiently.

"She's not evil. She just goes a little mad sometimes…we all go a little mad sometimes. In fact, if I didn't know any better…I'd say you're the bitch."

"Hey! Are you trying to get smart with me?!"

"Anne, stop it! I think I know what's going on." Marcus said before holding his hand up to Peter's face. "Pete, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Repw iae, iae xyhhxu cfypw."

"Well, that explains it." Coyote muttered before turning on her comm. "Chase, we're bringing Pete back to the pickup point. It looks like he's suffering from heat stroke judging from how he's speaking gibberish."

Marcus looked at her.

"It's not gibberish. It's Cerinian."

"If that's the case, then what did he say?" asked Anna.

"He said 'Fuck you, you little prick.'"

"And thus proving Coyote's point that he's suffering from heat stroke. If he wasn't confused, then he wouldn't be mouthing off to us like this."

"It's not heat stroke. We haven't even been on the planet for twenty minutes. Besides, look through his visor. You can see him sweating."

"So what is this?"

Marcus clenched his teeth and fists.

"It's Kursed. She's driven him to delirium…thus meaning I still agree with getting him back to the pickup point. We need to get him medicated before he does something he'll regret."

Marcus grabbed Peter's arm and prepared to lead him back to the pickup point when he suddenly found himself on his back with a rifle barrel against his skull. Peter was staring at him with a demented look.

"She wants you…why does she want you…"

Anna and Coyote had their guns trained on Peter in almost an instant, neither knowing if they had the guts to gun down their dear friend, but by the looks of it, they had to do something now before he killed Marcus.

Luckily, they didn't have to do a thing, because Marcus brought his knee up into Peter's groin and kicked him backwards. Peter struggled to get back to his feet and started firing madly at his comrades. Marcus responded to this by stepping forward and extending his hand, slowing the bullets to a stop before crushing them by clenching his fist.

"That's enough, Pete." Marcus said in an extremely low tone. "Drop the gun."

"She wants me to do this…she wants me to…"

Marcus tilted his head downwards and furrowed his brow. His eyes began to glow bright violet and when he spoke again, his lips didn't move and his voice seemed to boom throughout the atmosphere.

"Drop. The Damn. Gun."

Peter's demented expression seemed to falter for a moment as his gun trained downward. Merely seconds later, however, he clenched his teeth and raised the gun again.

"Forgetting that I'm just a tad bit tougher than you, Marky?" asked the disembodied voice of Kursed. "Guess I'm a better leader, too."

"You sadistic piece of trash…you nearly get Samus and Falcon killed, you attack Coyote in her sleep, and now you're mind-controlling Peter? Is there no end to how over-the-top you can get?"

"To put it simply, no. It's only just started. Have fun watching your friends burn to death."

Right as she said that, several humanoid-sized Aparoids appeared behind Anna and Coyote, who promptly turned and began firing on them.

"Well, ain't this an inconvenient turn of events." Coyote grumbled.

As Anna and Coyote fended off the approaching Aparoids, Marcus focused his attention on Peter, who began stepping towards him. Faster than his friend could react, Marcus grabbed the gun's magazine and pulled it out before knocking the gun back against Peter's head. He stumbled for one moment before rushing forward and grappling Marcus.

"Pete, listen to me!" Marcus yelled, blocking Peter's attempts to hit his head. "She's using you against your will! You have to resist her!"

"No…why do I have to resist? She…she's here for me…"

"No, she's here to kill you and me!"

"Just you…she wants me to…to get rid of you…go to Hell."

"Alright, that's enough."

Marcus whipped out his staff and used it to block Peter's next attack, resulting in the latter reeling back in pain. Once Marcus had gotten to his feet, he utilized an ability he had managed to develop: he placed one end against Peter's chest, causing several coils of aura to shoot out of it and bind his corrupted friend.

"I'm not gonna fight you, Pete." Marcus said in the sincerest tone he could muster. "I don't care how much you want to do this. It's not happening."

Marcus turned on his communicator before grabbing a gun to assist Anna and Coyote.

"Chase, auto-lock on Peter and beam him back to the Great Fox. He's suffering from delirium and needs immediate rehabilitation."

"On it. Activating emergency repo. ETA is five minutes. Make sure he doesn't get loose 'til we get there."

Marcus dashed at the closest Aparoid and impaled it with his staff before flipping over it and launching it into the azure plasma far below. He followed it up with a clean shot to the next one's chest and back kick to the third one trying to sneak up behind him. Coyote and Anna teamed up on one of them, rushing forward with the arms stretched out to knock it over before Coyote backflipped, activating her Repulsor Gauntlets and sinking the claws into the Aparoid's chest.

"How are these things not burning up?! I'm sensing a little bias from a fourth-dimensional figure here!" she growled.

"You see how their skin is black? They must have somehow evolved so they can adapt to this environment."

"Wait…this things can evolve?! What are they, Pokémon?!"

"Beats me, but I've gotta say it's impressive. I don't think even humans can adjust to their surroundings this quickly."

"Oh, great, you're envious of them. Now I guess you wanna be one, or here's an idea! Why don't you have sex with one, huh?! I bet it'll feel really nice in its..."

"Jesus, O'Donnell, what's gotten into you?!"

Coyote herself wasn't aware that she had been shouting at the top of her lungs until Chase had pointed it out. She couldn't explain it, but she had suddenly become so angry that she could have torn someone's spine out. It felt like her heart had suddenly started beating irregularly fast and that she could feel her veins bulging out of her skin, and now that she had realized what had happened, they were receding.

"Good God...what's happening to me?"

Anna dodged the slashes of the closest Aparoid to her before reeling back.

"Spread 'em!" she mocked before dropping down and punching the creature in the groin.

Much to her surprise, this actually worked. The Aparoid's legs crumpled, and Anna proceeded to put the rest of her epic killing of it into motion.

"Mark! Offensive maneuver 3!"

Anna jumped up with her elbow raised and slammed it down on the Aparoid's exposed neck. This sent it crashing to the ground where Marcus slid under it and impaled it on the spear end of his staff.

"That'll teach him."

"Mark, please say it."

"Huh?"

"You know…it."

"I-T. It."

"No, I mean the thing you promised you would say the next time we killed a baddie together."

Marcus rolled his eyes.

"Okay, fine."

He stood upright with a suave expression.

"'Ellos, Annie." he said in a fake French accent.

You know the author is part of the Bro Army when…

"Let's hurry up and find that beacon guys." Coyote instructed "We don't have much time left."

She wasn't lying. Marcus could feel the beads of sweat on his forehead begin to grow even more intense, and he was beginning to feel heat exhaustion as he started to pant heavily.

"Okay, everybody, let's head for the…what?"

As Marcus looked at his radar to check to the position of the beacon, he could see that it was quickly coming towards them.

"Uh…maybe a bit of a stretch but HIT THE DECK!"

Marcus, Anna and Coyote dropped just as something massive jumped over them and landed on all fours. As they stood, the creature roared at them.

"Speaking of Pokémon!" Coyote shouted.

The three prepared to charge it full force, but Marcus heard a shout from behind almost instantly. As he turned, he saw Peter charging towards him.

"You won't get away, you son of a bitch!"
"How the hell did he…"

He had no time to react before Peter plowed into him and knocked him to the ground. Marcus kicked him off and got to his feet.

"Alright, that's enough. Looks like I'm gonna have to beat some sense back into you, Pete. It's gonna hurt me more than it's gonna hurt you."

While Anna and Coyote focused on the large Aparoid, Marcus occupied himself with Peter, who chose that moment to throw a roundhouse kick at his head. Marcus blocked it and retaliated with a few well-placed punches to Peter's forehead and an elbow to the chest. As soon as he recovered, Peter strafed around Marcus' next few attacks before grabbing him from behind and suplexing him.

While Coyote distracted the giant Aparoid, Anna strafed around it and looked for any sort of weak point. As she searched, however, a tentacle seemed to erupt from the creature's back and grab onto her before dangling over the drop to the hot plasma far below.

"You're not killing my cousin, shithead!" Coyote growled.

As the creature released the screaming Anna, Coyote jumped across the large gap between the catwalks and caught her cousin before landing on the way across.

"How…how did you do that?!"

"I jumped. People tend to be able to jump."
"Yes, but not fifteen feet across a boiling lake of lava!"

"Plasma."
"What's the difference?!"

Neither of them noticed these changes as the Great Fox began orbiting overhead.

"We're within range, but we need Pete to stay still for at least five seconds!" Chase said through the comm.

"A little hard to do considering he wants to break my neck here!" Marcus replied as he ducked under another punch and followed it up with a nut shot.

Marcus turned just as the giant Aparoid was starting to approach him, but before it could attack, Anna and Coyote got it from behind with Coyote jumping in front and shooting it back with a blast from the Repulsor Gauntlets. Peter meanwhile had recovered from the nut shot right as Marcus turned around. The two attempted roundhouse kicks at the same time which just resulted in their legs clashing in mid-air, forcing them to push hard against one another in order to try and gain the upper hand.

When Anna joined Coyote to take down the Aparoid again, the beast slashed at the two of them and had managed to knock Anna back a few feet. Coyote had finally gotten fed up. She could feel her blood pressure steadily growing stronger before she roared out in anger…and I don't mean she went "You son of a bitch!" or "That tears it, motherfucker!" I mean she roared like a demonic reptile, scaring not only Anna but Marcus as well. Coyote herself didn't care how she felt or how she had sounded just now. She simply wanted to kill this creature as violently as she possibly could.

When it moved again, she strafed backwards to allow its hand to slam into the ground. Next, she grabbed Marcus' staff (which had skittered over to her after Peter had knocked it out of its owner's hands) and stabbed through the hand to pin the beast to the ground. Following this, she ran up its arm to its torso and stabbed her gauntlets' blades into the Aparoid's eyes, blinding it before she stabbed one pair of claws through the back of its head and raised it to expose its neck. Finally, she rammed the second pair of claws into the exposed neck and kept slicing through until the creature's head came free of its body, which now collapsed having nothing attached to tell it what to do. Coyote slashed at the air to relieve her gauntlets of the head's weight before finally falling to her knees and panting heavily.

"What…what the fuck did I just do?"

Marcus was completely stunned as he had watched play out, but he still had the delirious Peter to worry about…or at least, he did until he got a clean shot to his head. At that moment, the young Dengar shook his head and once again acted as though he were coming out of a dazed state.

"What the hell just…God, my bloody head."

"Pete? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, mate, but…oh, God, my head!"

He began screaming at the top of his lungs and clutching at his head. Listening in on his thoughts, Marcus could hear nothing but shrill screeches echoing in Peter's ears. Kursed was torturing him.

"Somebody make it stop! Make it stop!" Peter screamed before clutching at the base of his helmet.

"PETE, NO!"

Too late. The moment Peter released the latches on his helmet, the intense heat came rushing in and nestled on his face. His screams became even worse as he fell on the ground writhing in agony, and Marcus was quick to rush forward and slam the latches back down before it could get any worse. The worst part of it, however, was that the suits were very bulky and left a lot of free space between the person wearing it and its britches, so as bad as his face looked now, Marcus knew the rest of his body was just as bad.

"Oh, God…Chase! Emergency repo now! Pete's down! Third-degree burns!"

"Jesus Christ…okay! Grab the beacon and let's go!"

Coyote seized the glowing sphere while Marcus and Anna heaved Peter up off the ground, and once the beam of light rained down from the mothership and enveloped them, they were inside and heading back to Corneria as fast as they could.

Back on safe ground…

"This is horrible." Marcus said angrily. "The people I've come to know and care about are getting hurt, and it's all because of me."

That was all he could think as Peter was rushed away inside the ambulance that had been called to the airway the moment the Great Fox touched down. He would be hospitalized for likely a few weeks, but the damage done to his skin was permanent. He wasn't going to look the same when he finally did recover. Chase, Damalgo and Coyote had all gone home, utterly scarred by what had happened. Coyote in particular.

Anna came silently forward with the orb and offered it to Marcus, who simply looked at it furiously for a moment. After a few seconds of silence, he sighed and pressed his hand to it. Again he was seeing a vision, this one even more horrific than the one he had seen before. It was what had happened to Coyote the previous night. He winced and nearly groaned in terror at everything the vision showed, from Coyote's awful screams to Kursed's expressions of pleasure to just seeing what she was doing. Then he heard the voice.

"There's more where that came from."

Marcus clenched his teeth and punched the closest inanimate object (a brick wall that buckled the moment he hit it), letting out a shout of anger as he did so. Anna laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Mark…we can get through this. She can't take us all on, can she?"

Marcus sighed and looked at her in the most distressed way she had ever seen.

"She'll do more than that…she make you cry out for your mother for the first time in years."

"But there's no way she can be all that powerful."

"I don't know if she is or not, and I don't care…but one thing is certain…I'm gonna make her suffer just like we are if it's the last thing I do."

For those of you who were scarred for life by what happened in the last chapter...sorry, but hey! It did its job! I still feel the need to assure you guys that I am not some sick BDSM freak who ogles women menacingly in his spare time...seriously. I've read Fifty Shades of Grey. It ain't a lot of fun.

I've decided to hold off on Darkstalkers for a while since 1: I don't feel enough motivation to work on it, 2: this is the more popular story so people care more about it, and 3: it's more fun to work on anyway. I'm not sure when Darkstalkers is gonna get going again, but it won't be for a while.

There's also something I'd like anybody who enjoys this story to do for me. I've got a poll on my profile that is pretty much asking you which story you want me to do next. If you guys could check that out and maybe put a vote on it, I'd be really grateful. Whoring aside, I'll see you guys later.

Special thanks to tylerjeraldr for the Aparoid idea. You kick ass, man! ;)

SOUNDTRACK SO FAR

Krystal's nightmare- "Parabola" by Mer (Originally by Tool)

Marcus versus Coyote (friendly)- "Name of the Game" by the Crystal Method

F-Zero race- "F-Zero Medley" by Entertainment System

Space pirate attack- Space pirate theme from Metroid Prime

Ridley- Ridley's theme from Metroid: Other M

Falcon takes down Ridley- "The Meaning of truth" by Hiro-X

The date- Ilia's theme from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Coyote versus the shadows- "The Beautiful People" by Marilyn Manson

The star Lylat- Magmoor Caverns theme from Metroid Prime