Containing
Duri recoiled from the sight of Wilma's death, unable to cope with his failure. Niko's maiming had been bad enough. Duri had wanted to help the boy, but he'd known that opening a gateway wouldn't have saved him. With the kid's hand trapped by Lamia, there would've been no way to pull Niko through.
But with Wilma… that had been a straight up failure.
Although fear was Duri's path to greater power, it was a very mixed blessing when he wanted to open a gateway. Such physical portals were less about power and more about visualization and mindset, clearly imagining the two locations as adjacent. When Lamia had closed in on the heroic Wilma, Duri tried to open a gateway. But unlike his earlier successes, this gateway could have granted Lamia direct access to him, which was a terrifying prospect. He'd tried anyway, wanting to push through that fear… but he'd failed. Although his power had spiked at the thought of opening a door so close to the enemy, his visualization had faltered. The gateway never stabilized… and Wilma had died right in front of him.
A woman, a Doctor, was dead because Duri had failed to intervene. His cowardice had just cost a life. The determined, steady mind that had uncovered the truth of MD-Δ and enabled the drug's rapid approval and deployment… had just been erased. She'd drawn Lamia toward herself, certainly saving everyone else from the Infirmary… and Duri could have saved her.
But he'd been afraid.
And he couldn't even bring himself to Watch the gruesome aftermath.
Part of Duri wanted to fold up and stop trying. Earlier, the knowledge that an eighteen-year-old soldier had died defending HQ had weighed upon him. Not as badly as it did on poor Niko, but Duri still felt partly responsible. Young Matthias never would have died if the Watchers weren't so hated by a few extremist minorities.
But this…
Exiting his Trance, Duri sat in darkness, hidden in a small, out of the way utility closet near the building's exterior. He realized he was hyperventilating, and soaked in sweat. I'm having… a panic attack… The sensation was exactly as horrible as the descriptions he'd read while in college.
And he deserved to feel this terrible.
But he must not give up.
Yes, he'd failed, and a good woman was dead. But he was still the only person who might be capable of whisking ordinary people away from danger. Niko might still be in a condition to project another Watcher away from Lamia, but only Duri's gateways might save the life of someone without these ultra-rare powers.
He opened a channel to Niko.
Though unable to utter coherent words, Duri subvocalized, trusting Niko's implants to translate. "I'm having a panic attack. I can't afford to. Please… help me get over this."
Though the boy was weary, battered, blind, and maimed, his reply came without the slightest pause. "No problem, portal master. We'll get you back in the fight."
Trusting the streams of data flowing across the top and bottom of his HUD, Captain Martins neared his first destination. Hasina continuously updated everyone's orders, shifting their goals and positioning to avoid engaging Lamia at close range. If she believed that keeping the Watchers safe was no longer possible, she'd issue an all-in assault by every department, and Benicio knew she'd personally join the final wave of such an attack. But for as long as possible, she'd try to keep everyone alive. Benicio knew she'd be punishing herself for the loss of Wilma Taibei, but that woman's choice had saved dozens of lives.
And now Hasina finally had the manpower to get more aggressive. With the exception of one young woman who had yet to awaken from the extreme g-forces of her medical pod, all of the soldiers recalled by those means had now entered the facility. These were generally the best of their squads, with the sense and reactions to be used by their Chief like scalpels.
Lights on his HUD flashed, and the Captain moved.
He leaned around the corner, fired a burst of shots, and was back out of sight in barely a second. A distant, inhuman howl brought considerable satisfaction, and his HUD blinked with new orders. He heard shots from a different intersection, and more howls, and he pushed down concern for his fellow soldiers. For as long as Hasina prioritized every life, close adherence to her orders gave them all a solid chance. And if she ever decided it was time for them to die, that would only prove there was no other way to keep the Watchers safe. If a compassionate genius of Hasina's caliber ordered someone to their death, they could trust it was the right call.
As he sprinted through the empty corridors, heart steady, not yet sweating, he kept his mind focused. Niko was alive, and that would have to be enough for now. He would not let the boy's injuries distract him from the task at hand.
Reaching his new target coordinates two seconds ahead of schedule, Benicio prepared his last magazine of armor-piercing rounds. He'd gone through his entire supply of acid rounds and explosive shells, but he trusted these would still hurt. Lamia had ways of hardening its flesh and bone far beyond their normal durability, especially considering the ultra-low density of its current expanded form. And when it knew where shots would come from, it could generate telekinetic shields.
But the lethal monstrosity faced humanity's best…
He popped out, and in a tenth of a second he noted small holes punching into the metal floor and adjusted his aim. A storm of rounds struck a distant wall… and the monster shrieked in pain and rage. Excellent… my shots went all the way through…
For the briefest instant, Benicio felt something vaguely like g-forces trying to snatch at him, but it quickly faded as he shot off on his new course. So it tried to grab me with telekinesis… but didn't have time for a good grip at such a distance. Just as important, Lamia's telekinesis failed the second it lost sight of me. He quickly shared these findings with Hasina, even as he pounded toward his next destination at a speed that could have won him an Olympic gold. A soldier reported getting his rifle yanked away, but so far it seemed their quick harassment fire taxed Lamia's ability to react. Hopefully it's draining for it to heal from gauss rounds. We can't keep up such tactics forever.
His orders changed, requiring him to ascend two levels. Lamia must have torn through the ceiling, and Hasina predicted another such maneuver soon. Humanity's greatest Commander coordinated the best of the best, with Benicio as her ultimate weapon.
He wished Private Anderson could have seen this.
Renya Baldwin let out a sigh of relief when the report reached her screen. Julien Thompson's team had finished isolating and containing the last of the Theragen gas. None of the soldiers in the affected areas had breaches in their armor, and the rescue teams had been helped to avoid exposure. An attack with the potential to spread through the base and kill hundreds had been contained with no deaths. "Thank you, Mr. Thompson. Your people do good work."
"We have two sealed rooms and three containment chambers filled with the gas," Julien pointed out. "Do we neutralize it immediately… or do we try something more risky?"
On any other day, Renya would have shuddered at the thought of storing Theragen gas, and she'd have ordered its immediate destruction via sulfuric acid mist. But Lamia raged through the facility. Soldiers were starting to take potshots at great range, confusing and redirecting Lamia, but they'd been too late to save Doctor Taibei. Renya hadn't worked with her on any projects prior to 21's disappearance, but she'd already earned her respect. Wilma's loss would be deeply felt… provided they didn't lose hundreds more lives in the coming hour.
Against a threat so unique, trying to "play it safe" would surely fall short. As it stood, conventional tactics, even orchestrated by a genius of Hasina's caliber, might not be enough to prevent great loss of life. And if even one more Watcher died because Renya wasn't willing to take some risks…
"You're right, Mr. Thompson. I'll start sending you plans and conditions as soon as my people have the details worked out. If this goes poorly, it'll be up to your mobile teams to prevent the gas from spreading to unprotected personnel."
If Lamia's altered biology is still able to reproduce and vent the gas everywhere it goes, such containment could be very difficult… But since that would also mean the gas might actually kill Lamia, it's a risk we need to take.
Peng-24's head pounded from a low-level migraine, and he feared what might happen if it got much worse. He felt like he'd already hit the limit of how much pain he could meaningfully use to empower his abilities, and much more might kick him out of his Trance. And this would be a particularly bad time for that. It looked like Anya might be the key to a very risky plan being cooked up by the eggheads in the Science Division and Chemical Processing. Peng did not want to be useless if they all went through with it.
His mind raced alongside Fawzia's, scouting ahead a bit, trying to get a better feel for which soldiers would strike next, from where, and with how much risk. He was not going to ruin his Trance–and his ability to protect Anya–just to help a soldier, but if a nudge here or there managed to save a life, that was one more fighter able to protect him.
At least, that's the motive he was willing to admit to himself…
It looked like the next intersection would be the site of a particularly bold ambush. Three soldiers, including the Captain, were set up to pour fire into Lamia. Peng wasn't sure how they all intended to avoid retaliation, for they weren't very close to cover. Hasina had thus far avoided having troops retreat into small side rooms with no other exit, as they'd have no hope of survival if Lamia spared a couple seconds to go in after them.
Benicio struck first. At extreme range, he sent a spray of shots into Lamia. Growing more angry, the thing was getting quicker to react. Only a few shots hit home before the rest started glancing off an invisible wall. Most of the flowing thing's earlier wounds had already healed, and Peng could only hope this ate up a lot of whatever energy sustained it. Seeing gaping holes seal up so quickly was not encouraging, though it was slower to repair the mass of bony spines that filled its interior.
Unexpectedly, the Captain didn't retreat. He stood his ground, dropping to one knee, continuing to fire. At about forty meters, Lamia struck out telekinetically. Benicio managed to keep his grip on his rifle, and he must not have been close enough yet to be lifted fully into the air, but he fell forward and was dragged across the floor towards Lamia. Peng was on the verge of striking out with his own power, since losing his mightiest defender would not do good things for his odds of personal survival. But the spike of fear elicited by that train of thought briefly disrupted his focus, and his first attempt to push Benicio away from Lamia failed.
But then a hatch opened in the floor, and the Captain smirked before falling down to the lower level. The hatch slammed back shut, and a moment later, the infuriated Lamia reached the intersection.
Soldiers far down the cross corridor opened fire from both directions.
Ooooh… good plan Hasina…
The soldiers fired at just enough of an angle for missed shots not to pose a friendly fire risk, and Lamia was large enough for many shots to hit. Lamia didn't erect invisible shields on both sides, hopefully implying that such defenses required more energy than it could spare. Instead, it picked a target and surged toward him.
A blast door fell into position, and Peng quickly checked the other side. Sure enough, Hasina didn't trust the door to actually stop Lamia. It simply blocked its sight and telekinesis. An overhead hatch opened, an emergency ladder dropped down, and the soldier ascended. Had Lamia kept up the pursuit, it wouldn't have breached the blast door until after the hatch had closed.
But Lamia didn't bother pursuing him. The moment it lost line of sight to its first target, the hideous thing concentrated serrated bone to the front of its pulsing form and tore through the floor.
Again fearing for his most capable protector, Peng dropped his perspective through the floor to follow. He was relieved when Benicio was nowhere in sight: Hasina had known Lamia might descend to a lower level, and the Captain must have already had a new destination locked in.
But the sensation of being Watched crashed upon Peng like a tsunami. A hateful mind clutched at him, trying to drag his body to this place, and it took everything he had to break away and end his Trance.
He lay on the gurney, panting, sweating, with his head pounding, trying to piece together what had just happened. The soldier pushing him down the corridors changed course in response to some new order or other, but Peng barely noticed.
Lamia… it knew I'd follow, and it exploited my impatience. Rather than move my perspective to the hole in the floor, I moved straight down through the floor. Lamia saw me before I saw it, and it was ready and waiting to hit me with everything it had…
Fear began to set in, as he realized just how close he'd come to being abducted like Klaus. Clearly, it was easier to snap a Watcher's body to their mind's location when the distance was short. That had been far more dangerous than Lamia's attempts to drag him all the way to Elpis. Peng took a moment to alert Hasina and the other Watchers to the danger, and for a moment he just lay there, stunned, letting the soldier push him along.
Then, in a rush, all that fear turned into rage. That thing, that disgusting freak, had already killed the only person Peng fully trusted, and now it'd come within a hair's breadth of abducting him. It would've tortured him like Charlotte, trying to make him return it to Elpis. And since he couldn't…
The shame from his earlier terror stoked the fires of his rage into an inferno, and he wanted nothing more than to hurt the abomination. Back when the enemy seemed to be just a little girl, Peng had wanted to see her dead for what she'd done to Klaus. Now, he knew she was bound to a horror from another reality, and it had the potential to kill everyone in HQ. They weren't all people he knew. On a bad day, he'd gleefully cuss them out for holding him prisoner. But today… they were risking themselves to defend him, and this added one more layer to his motives for hurting Lamia.
Then Hasina commed that Lamia had just shifted levels and directions multiple times, throwing her off with random maneuvers. Now, it was headed toward an open area with sixty archivists, and there weren't any soldiers in position to intervene in time.
Peng eagerly stepped in.
He entered his Trance with the certainty and power of cold fury. Lamia charged down the corridor, leaving holes and gouges in the steel floor, moving faster than any man could run.
But not faster than Peng's mind could move.
He shot his perspective through multiple rooms diagonal to Lamia's course, reached another hallway, and oriented toward the final intersection Lamia would cross before reaching the archivists.
Rage surging, Peng could barely contain himself, resenting even the slightest delay…
Then Lamia shot into view.
In the split second before it would have cleared the intersection, Peng struck. His telekinetic push smashed into his target, hurling it down the cross corridor. Needle teeth ripped free and were left in the floor, and the disgusting thing rebounded off opposite walls multiple times before grinding to a stop.
What… what just happened?
For a moment, Peng hoped that he might just have achieved unstoppable power… Then, depressing reality sank in. But it came with a useful realization. Duri and the Science Division had guessed correctly, and it upheld Charlotte's final testimony. Despite its tremendous size, Lamia retained the mass of little Elsa Yarr. It couldn't manifest matter from nothing. Rather, it had stretched her, twisted her, spread her thin. Since nothing about the hideous thing even vaguely resembled a human, it might have completely rearranged her tissues, retaining only the individual cells. With such low density, it must be holding itself together via whatever specialized telekinesis let Elsa's pencils pierce bone. So, despite its size, strength, extreme killing power, and unnatural durability, it still weighs very little. My new powers might not be genuinely epic… but against something so light, I can–
A wave of weariness struck him, the pounding of his head intensified, and he found himself back in the gurney, quivering from the strain.
"28 ready," Anya announced, heart rate elevated from excitement more than fear.
"And 22 signals readiness as well," Hasina said. "If Lamia even approaches the extreme limit of her earlier telekinesis, Duri has orders to get you out, and Niko's on standby. I will not risk you."
"Understood." Anya wished Hasina would tolerate just a bit more risk. This was their best chance to inflict more harm than Lamia could heal.
Anya dropped, ready for a crouching start. Usually, she did this only to gain enough speed for a series of flips or to launch herself to a high bar. But today, it would be for a pure, dead sprint. The only reason she was being allowed to do this instead of a soldier was the backup plan: Niko didn't dare try projecting Lamia anywhere, but he could still relocate Anya if this went badly…
Hasina's order came firm and clear. "Execute!"
Launching herself from her starting position, Anya refused to look back. She heard distant scraping, and a shriek of recognition, but this was expected. After minutes of frantic searching, and suffering from multiple harrying attacks, Lamia saw another Watcher in the flesh. Anya pounded toward the distant chamber, and for the moment Lamia was five times farther away than any of its previous telekinetic pulls. Hasina had predicted the enemy could increase its speed considerably when it finally saw a Watcher, and had factored this into her calculations. Even so…
No! Don't think like that! Don't worry, or doubt, or second guess either yourself or the others! Today's the first time in years that your physical ability really matters. And if this works, we might end the threat with no one else having to die for you!
She shot toward her goal, her form perfect, bursting with physical power. As she ran, she nudged her mind gently into the early stages of the Watcher Trance, and she felt mental power waiting for her. She gave her body over to muscle memory, like a plane on autopilot. Then, with great care, she tapped into that surging mental strength… and now she saw herself as she ran. She Watched her own technique, the strength of her every movement, the explosive force that drove her toward her destination. She felt free to let her perspective fall further behind, taunting the enemy.
From footage of Lamia speaking to Charlotte on Elpis, it seemed Lamia genuinely didn't understand what a Watcher really was. The monster thought they somehow flew about, spectral and immaterial, unless they chose to physically manifest–or until Lamia forced this upon them. Therefore, this sight must badly confuse the enemy. Even as Lamia pursued, closing the gap to Anya's body, a "spectral copy" of Anya would have appeared far closer to it. The handle tore off a nearby door, suggesting that Lamia had attempted to employ telekinesis on Anya's projected mind. Oh yeah… it's rattled. It never wasted such efforts on us before, but instinctively tried to grip us mentally…
Distantly, she heard Hasina's voice from her comm implant. "It's working. Lamia hasn't gotten fully sidetracked, but it has slowed. You're on course for the plan… don't let up!"
The enemy closed the distance, but Anya still was well outside its range. She was nearly to the chamber. She shot her mind ahead, and looked to the right. Out of Lamia's line of sight, the floor now shimmered as Duri opened a gateway. Her disappearance only needed to confuse Lamia long enough for the gate to close…
A sudden, sharp pain in her thigh might have caused her to stumble, but with her mind elsewhere, her muscles continued on autopilot. She spun her perspective around… and saw a needle-thin length of bone protruding from the front of her leg…
Her mind snapped back into her body, and she saw that three more needle teeth had embedded in the far wall of the chamber. But she'd once completed a very advanced routine despite breaking a rib in the opening aerial cartwheel. She wouldn't give up for a little stick like this…
Then the shock of the impact set in, and pain washed over her. Though very thin, and extremely light, the tooth had been launched with the speed and power of a gauss round. She saw with her own eyes that such a shot could pierce metal. Her form faltered, the muscles surrounding the puncture began to quiver, and a wave of dizziness washed over her.
But I would have won every gold this year, had I been allowed to stay in my chosen career…
Setting her jaw, letting out a defiant shout, Anya thrust out her right hand as she shot through the doorway. Getting a grip on the frame, she pivoted around to noisily crash into the wall.
Lamia surged with elation at the sound. This Watcher was special, but she'd overreached. She was physically superior to any woman it had ever seen, and even the majority of men. More unsettling, she had used some sort of illusory power to fake the immaterial state that made her kind so frustrating to catch. But she wasn't very bright. That little display had been confusing… but only briefly. Her real body was clearly visible, proving the phantom was a fake.
Launching those few teeth had been a risk. A hit to the spine or a vital organ could have been deadly, but she couldn't be allowed to escape. This Watcher's heavy musculature and physical resilience would allow her to survive far more invasive torture than had been safe with the earlier woman. Surely, it would be able to break this one…
Entering the small chamber, Lamia twisted and lunged… and struck solid wall. The Watcher was gone…
For just a moment, Lamia doubted itself. Had the "physical" body been the illusion? Had that spectral image of the young woman been real after all? Lamia had never succeeded in creating visible imagery, managing only the reverse, making itself undetectable. In addition to their strange, immaterial flight, did these Watchers have more powers Lamia had never managed to achieve? That little blind boy had vanished in an instant, suggesting his ability to create gateways was far superior to Lamia's own. What if Klaus had been the weakest of the—
The door slammed shut… and multiple overhead hatches dropped open. Orange gas dumped into the room. At its touch, the ancient Lamia instantly knew this compound must be dealt with swiftly. It tore through the floor and crashed through a sidewall to escape, but then vents all along the ceiling expelled a different gas, almost invisible except for the faintest yellow tint. Despite the tremendously enhanced durability of its amorphous flesh, this latest gas burned… but it was still the lesser danger. The orange gas behind it quickly broke down when exposed to the acid mist. The enemy knew full well that the orange gas was the more dangerous, and the yellow mist was meant to prevent its spread...
Rolling in place to coat itself in the acid, Lamia then crashed through three more walls and returned to top speed. The orange gas on its surface was neutralized… but it sensed that much had already been absorbed.
It had been more than a decade since the last attempt had been made to kill Elsa with a chemical agent. Back then, Lamia had responded by closing off the girl's lungs, gating away, and shedding all of Elsa's skin, earning agonized shrieks from its pathetic host. Replacing the lost tissue had required the girl to actually eat for the first time in two years, and to drink for the first time in months.
In its current huge, low-density form, this technique would need to be heavily modified. The altered cells of its restructured body were far apart, bound by thin strands of enhanced connective proteins. Without its ability to toughen its host body far beyond natural durability, simply moving around in this form would've torn it apart. Now, the gas moving through its body was difficult to contain. It flowed through it with ease, and Lamia sensed the gas was somehow increasing in mass. Even as Lamia surged through the facility, turning randomly to evade pursuit, it focused its perceptions inward. What a diabolical substance… Though not biological in nature, it can still reproduce itself by leaching resources from Elsa's cells…
Deciding on the most effective course of action, and noting that the gas was slightly heavier than air, the ancient entity acted decisively. It dumped thousands of needle teeth from the many mouths covering its surface, along with the majority of the larger bladed bony structures. It then tore a particularly wide hole in the floor and extruded the remaining bone blades to suspend itself directly above that gap. It compressed itself down into a painfully dense state, less than a third the volume of little Elsa, wringing itself out like a mop. The orange gas flowing between its cells spilled forth, drifting down to the level below. It then expanded again, forcing all of its infected cells to the surface. It disgorged a flowing stream of liquifying tissue down to the lower level, ridding itself of the last of the dangerous substance. It then flowed back toward the piled needle teeth and bone blades, drawing them all back into itself.
That was dangerous. Enough tissue had to be shed that Elsa would be weak and frail when it rebuilt her body. Its huge, bloated, shifting form was supremely deadly and mobile, but it didn't have the internal mechanisms to share nutrients between cells. Oxygen was absorbed directly from the air that filtered through it, but this form could not be maintained indefinitely. Eventually, it would need to reconstitute Elsa before cells started dying off by the billions.
It felt itself growing weary. Enhancing the durability of this form required relatively little energy, but healing wounds, creating shields, and attempting telekinetic pulls cost it dearly. It must capture a Watcher, soon, and it would savage them mercilessly until they returned it home. It would then take vengeance on those the Watchers wanted so much to protect. The Doctor's compound sheltered thousands of Unwanted. It would select the hundred youngest, one at a time, and maim them in the presence of their families before hauling them to the place of feeding. It suspected the Doctor had ways of observing that sacred site, so it would take its time with the hundred specially chosen victims.
And if the Watchers ever tried to take it from Elpis again, and were foolish enough to make physical contact… it would strive to make their deaths take days.