Existentially Bound: Part 10
Something Wicked...
"Woah. Woah!" Kimura said watching as each chamber was drained from the liquid inside, opening with a hiss."Thorns and brambles! This… This is not good!" Tressa's daggers were already drawn instinctively.
"I thought it was supposed to take them out! Not let them out!" Harid yelled angerly, defensively taking position in front of the women.
"Must have been some kinda internal over-ride to release them when compromised. I don't know this stuff! I told you!" Kimura said, shouldering her rifle, unharnessing two large handguns.
The expected cries never came to the Whisperer's ears. She quickly spun around to discover various Shieras slumping out of their pods groaning. "What… What have you done?"
Dagger eyes darted to the woman. "Not a damn word. This was my call; I'll deal with it."
Tressa silently came to the man's side. "We'll deal with it!"
"Aye. These things look like the Orr undead. I suppose like those, headshots will do it." Kimura said as she took aim at the nearest.
"These 'things' are people," Taliha said as she approached one of the staggering lanky figures. "We won't harm you. Can you understand me? We mean you no-"
The number jerked her head in an otherworldly manner to Taliha and snarled, before it lunged at her, growling, biting and clawing.
"Taliha!" Harid said running to the woman's aid.
Kimura took a step to join Harid in assisting, when Number Twenty-five leaped onto her back. The woman dropped a pistol, nearly lost her balance, taken off-guard. "Bloody hell!" She screamed grabbing onto the malnourished arm wrapped around her neck. With a squeeze, the Number's brittle bones cracked, and Kimura's fingernails went into the waterlogged skin.
"Sssssssssoul…." the creature hissed.
"Not hers!" yelled Tressa as a dagger slammed into the skull of the husk, the impact forcing the sylvari's entire hand into the Number's skull. In a heap of bile and putridness which splattered on impact, all three fell to the floor. For an instant, both seemed to relish in a moment, until Kimura felt the slimy innards of her would be assailant against her back. At her lover's disgusted expression, Tressa leaned forward with a slight giggle and gave her a quick kiss. "Let's have some fun once this is all over."
Harid's rifle butt met the back of Number Twenty-four's head, having much the same effect as Tressa's blade on the other: a significant chunk of the husk's head was lobbed off from the impact, revealing an unhealthy looking brain swimming in a vile tar-like substance, which promptly splattered upon the wall and coated the Whisperer beneath. With a heave, the man flipped the Number off of Taliha, offered his hand to her. She accepted, stood, almost slipping in the mess. Harid wanted to lecture the woman; wanted to tell her how right he had been about the state of these beings. A quick glance to her shocked expression as she brushed brains off her person told the man his efforts would be better elsewhere. "Stay here," he forced through his teeth.
Taliha suddenly heard the incoherent voice from the spirit of the Number Harid had just killed. It disembodied the husk, seemed to be pulled to something further down the hallway. Using her gifts, she began to search for the source.
Kimura fired a shot at another as it approached. This one smiled at her as the shot entered her shoulder. This Shiera, Number Twenty-two, looked as though she were a teen. Gone was the baldness and absent nose the underdeveloped Numbers had; this one had a small amount of hair atop its head, and a more coherent body. Another shot had the last round in her pistol, this one landing short of its mark as both Kimura and Tressa tried to regain their footing.
"Give me…" the husk groaned, reaching long unkept nails and a haunted, eagerly yearning expression.
Finally upright, Tressa spun on her heel, burying the only dagger she had left into the creature's temple. This time, the thickness stopped the sylvari's own hand from caving into it, though the assassin was unable to retrieve the knife as the Number fell to the floor dead. She turned to Kimura with a slight shrug. "These are more developed, for certain. Not sure how much more sophisticated the last will be, but I'm without my blades."
Kimura grinned slyly as she opened a side-pouch which contained two additional pistols, both chrome with red etching along their barrels resembling vines. "Was supposed to be a present, and I know you don't like guns but, you know… evolution, yeah?"Tressa's skin brightened as she took the handguns, standing parallel to Kimura. "Evolution, indeed."
"That all of them?" Harid said coming to stand beside the pair, loading his own rifle. A quick glance around showed five Numbers upon the ground. "No wait, that doesn't add up to Sixteen, does it?"
Two pods further head hissed open. Some distance away, the Shieras that stepped out seemed to be young women, flushed out and more capably mobile. They came out, only wearily on the first few steps. One glowed a slight blue and white aura while the other had a hazy distortion of redness emanating from her. Both turned in unison to the group, both with bright blowing eyes of their respective hues.
"Oh, this… This can't be good," Kimura said with a gulp.
The pair suddenly rushed the group, much more organized, weaving in and out from one another in a coordinated and strategic dance. Suddenly both screamed a bellow of rage, fury, and destruction, unleashing their inner turmoil upon the heroes. Without command, Kimura, Tressa and Harid simultaneously fired upon them, unloading their bullets to stop the assault at range.
Twenty halted her advance, sliding upon the rough surface of the flooring as though it were a frozen lake, while instantaneously calling forth particles in the air to freeze into a barricade ahead of them to catch the bullets.
The group stopped firing at the spectacularly surprising sight. "Prickly pear! They have elemental powers too?"
Over the icewall came Nineteen, in a blaze of fire and heat, propelling herself into the air. She came down just as quickly as she rose up, slamming into the ground between them, sending a shockwave of flames outward, blasting everyone outwardly. "Give us what you have!" came a tainted, raspy voice as the Number behind the wall immediately lunged at Harid.
"Harid! Look ou-" Tressa's words barely left her lips when the other Number caught her by surprise with an blast of super-heated air. The light sylvari was tossed backward, like a leaf in a gusty of wind, finally smashing and shattering the thick glass of the tank behind her. She promptly dropped haphazardly to the floor.
"Tressa!" Kimura screamed, rushing to her aid.
The icy teen toppled Harid over, his rifle held defensively to hold the woman at bay, her frosty grip immediately sheeting the weapon with ice. A subzero breath hissed from her, "Give it to me!"
"Sorry… Not interested!" Harid grunted, struggling to keep his grip on the rifle. His human hand slipped down the ice covered barrel, but also had the unexpected effect of causing the foe to lose her balance and shift. Taking advantage of the mistake, his metal hand caught her face. "Get… off me!" he shouted, shoving the smaller clone away from him. He stood, looked at his encased weapon, the firing end now a sharp point, held it like a spear. "Stay the hell back!" he warned.
Twenty promptly landed on her feet, slid backward a moment, her eyes locked onto the man, glowing with fury. "I'll take you then!" A cloud of frost enveloped her and launched her into the air. A primal unyielding scream came from the Number, as an ice spike solidified in her hands above her head, intent on piercing her foe. Her rage however, ended abruptly. Harid held the iced rifle up and plunged the shard into Twenty's chest. A wailed as she slid down the weapon of her own making, the last of her frosty breath exhaled, face-to-face with her killer. "Want… to be… whole…"
Nineteen suddenly stopped her advance, the unknown bond of the death of Twenty affecting her… distracting her. Kimura seized the opportunity, already in position protectively over her lover. In her hands, were the custom-made pistols she intended as a gift; in the chamber, a magically enhanced round. "Go to hells, you bitch!" Kimura shouted as she squeezed the trigger. The bullet flew through the air, with a tracer of red plasma, leading straight into Shiera's skull.
The Number's expression was surprise at the perceived thump. She turned her head to Pink Thorn, her eyes smoking with hatred and fire, as if unphased by the shot. She took a step, began to mumble incoherently, then fell to her knees. A small amount of drool found its way down her agape jaw as the light in her eyes faded. Another minute, the bullet's magic worked and her head violently exploded from the inside out, shattering skull, brains and black ink-like substances upon the walls, tanks and Kimura. The de-headed body fell lifelessly forward with a thud.
Kimura let out her breath, uncharacteristically unconcerned with the filth upon her, and spun around to address Tressa. "Love… are you… alright? Can you hear me?"
The Black Rose coughed up some smoke which had been inhaled from her own seared leaf-like flesh. Her ambers blinked, with noticeably less bright than they had been. "Hey flower. Sorry; got a bit banged up there, but… all… branches accounted for," she said attempting a smile. Upon trying to stand, she promptly collapsed. "Though it may be a bit before I can keep going."
"Well, I'm not going anywhere! 'Where we grow, we grow together,' aye?" Kimura echoed the sylvari's previous statement, gave her hand a squeeze.
"I'll clear a path so we can get you out of here, Planty," Harid said accepting Kimura's rifle. "I know this is hard for you, but try not to further injure yourself," he said with a glance at Tressa as he goaded her to invoke a healthy response.
"Well, you try not to," Tressa said coughing, "get your other arm blown off. I'd have to call you a golem-fleshling or something at that point."
The man flashed a grin to his friend. "Oh yeah, she'll be fine. See? She's already making fun of me. Me, however, I'm going to need assistance." He turned, looking in the direction the Whisperer had been performing her magic. To his chagrin, she was gone; a quick glance further down the hallway found her near the last two tanks. "Taliha, what the hell are you-"
"Their souls lead here," she cryptically said.
Harid had already joined her, scanning the area. Two tanks stood vacant, both having opened at the same time the other's had. The same ink-like black 'blood' trailed from the tank marked Seventeen around the corner. "Maybe we only have to fight one more then," he said taking position in front of the woman. "What can you tell me?" the question came from the corner of his mouth.
"I can hear them… They are much more coherent now. The spirits from the others; they are now one. But they are still only half of the whole. Much like our Shiera."
The man looked at the other empty tank. "Eighteen is now as strong as the Sixteen your group fought? Terrific. We're down two fighters and-"
Startlingly, the body of Seventeen flew from the connecting hall, landed directly in front of Harid and the Whisperer. Her mangled corpse had been in a brutal fight for survival with claw marks and cuts throughout. Her white body had been beaten, bruised and swollen from her fully matured physique. She was missing an eye, skin upon a breast had been ripped away, and both legs seemed to have been rendered inert. She choked, coughing up the bile tar as she pushed herself over, began crawling away from her assailant. One eye peered upward at the heroes above - her would-be saviors. "Hel- p… m-me," came a gargled cry of desperation.
The shock of the sight hit both hard, neither capable of moving in the moment. Then… it didn't even matter.
From above, Shiera Number Eighteen flew, a knee landing squarely on Seventeen's midsection, bringing with her a sharpened piece of a metal. Her other fist buried itself into her victim's shoulder, smoking and searing with an explosion of ink-like blood. Eighteen looked up only briefly before a slight grin came to her face as she plunder the metal into the fallen Number's skull. An abrupt cry of ecstasy sounded from the woman as Seventeen's soul fragment entered into her, began combining itself with the others. In an orgasmic moan, Eighteen's body sparkled with energy flowing around her person, lifting her off the carcass and slightly into the air.
"Oh shit!" Harid said shaking his head back from the brutality and stammeringly brilliant display of the soul being consumed. The rifle was brought to his cheek and the man aimed for the woman's head, and pulled the trigger.
Without warning, a red blur whooshed past Harid and Taliha, knocked them both to the ground, and a bellowing scream reverberated in the hallway when it crashed into Eighteen. The Number was knocked back away from her victory as the energy continued to pulsate above the now frail corpse, draining it. The assailant floated, suspended where Eighteen had been, now pulling the energies into herself. It was Sixteen Omega, the Shiera they had rescued-Taliha's charge.
"What… What's going on?" Harid said, clamoring to his rifle.
Taliha watched the display. "She's absorbing the fragment; regaining a piece of herself!"
"That's mine!" screamed Eighteen darting toward Shiera.
The energies finished their spectacular display, pulled into Shiera's being. Her skin glistened and smoked as the transference completed and she was released from the invisible hold. She landed on her knees crouched by the body of her clone, examining it with eyes of obsidian. To her, the aura that surrounded most beings had been a soft white and faded glow around the corpse upon her approach. Now the mangled flesh was red along with everything else, while her own body shone a brilliance she'd never before seen. Looking up at the rampaging Eighteen, however, show the exact same brilliance, albeit dimmer.
"Give it to me!" Eighteen wailed, magically launching herself forward, trails of black smoke in her wake.
Shiera could barely stand before the women toppled over, face to face with one another.
"No! You give me what is mine!" Shiera said to the clone as she landed a fist upon her jaw. Upon impact, the fist exploded with energy, sent Eighteen flying off, slamming into the wall behind them. She promptly got to her feet, clenching her fists at the monstrosity, now clearly understanding exactly what the Number was. "She is me…"
Tahlia put her hand on Sixteen's shoulder. "She shares what you have, but she is not you. She is her own… entity. Can you not relinquish this to her?"
Shiera turned to the Whisperer, watching the teal aura which was unique to her, as well as the additional spirits floating around her, speaking with unheard voices. "I… felt compelled to come here. As I feel… compelled to take my being from her."
Eighteen roused, her dark eyes locked on Shiera. She stood, began to channel power into her own fists, which began to glow a bright red, smoke billowing from the energy. "You have what's mine!" she screamed hysterically, rushing the group.
Sixteen turned from the Whisperer, her brow furrowed as her own energies poured identically into her own fists, supercharging them. She leaped from Tahlia's hold, hell-bent on ending the Number. "You ARE what's mine!"
Two fists met each other, forming a shockwave which exploded in a violent flash of plasma. Had Tahlia not projected a mystical shield and Harid had not protected himself with his mechanical arm, their flesh would have been disintegrated. The wave of energy blast flew past, slamming into the walls and flooring, suddenly igniting the conduits beneath. The facility began to rumble as a chain reaction quickly traced its way up through the red-lines of energy between hexagonal patterns of the floor, up the walls, through the hallways and into the main power generators. Systematically, systems sparked and began to fizzle, creating an ominous rumble and crackling of unseen systems.
Sixteen and Eighteen simultaneously landed, unblinking eyes of blackness locked on each other, oblivious to those around or the structure's integrity.
Harid and Tahlia paused a moment, both looking at each other in a momentary surprise to be alive. Then the man looked beyond the fighting Numbers. "Rose? Pink! Where are-"
"Aye. We're here," Kimura said standing behind them, in her arms was the weak Black Rose.
"But how- You know what? Nevermind. We gotta get out of here though, before they fry us!" Harid said gesturing down the adjacent hallway. "That's our exit; it's gotta be. Anywhere's better than being here with this kind of power; we're collateral damage here!"
Both women shook their head, but a look to Taliha confirmed the woman was on a different path of thought. She stood behind the shield, inching her way closer to the confrontation. "Shiera! Come; we've got to go! I can help you!"
"You can have her corpse!" Eighteen shouted in a rage, again launching an attack, but her advance was halted by mystical chains of bright teal, spiritually grounding her.
Shiera clenched fists smoke, ready to enact the Number's words upon herself! However, a step forward was all she could take. Quickly looking down revealed the same ghostly chains upon herself, locking her in place. Her head immediately darted to Tahlia, who continued holding both women at bay.
She looked over her shoulder slightly. "A little help?"
Several explosions could be heard in the tunnels they had traveled and the floor vibrated with tremors. Despite it, Harid made his way quickly to Shiera. He hoisted the woman over his shoulder as the chains wrapped around her struggling person tightly. "I'm sorry, but if you two continue, you'll bring this whole place down and kill us all, if you haven't already!" His mind immediately flashed to Paige at his own words, but he pushed through the thought and brought a wiggling and grunting Sixteen back to the party.
Tressa and Kimura were already well on their way, the movement impediment causing them to act earlier than the rest.Taliha watched Harid pass, then twisted her chains upon Eighteen, dropping the woman to the ground. "Get out of here if you can, and you can live a life you otherwise could not."
"What life is it? I am not… me!" spat Eighteen.
Taliha sighed, turned and joined her group, hastily assisting and warning Harid that the chains on their foe wouldn't last long without her concentration. A doorway ahead opened to reveal an area outside the facility, a large hill which lead to the wooded area above. The group retreated up away from the entranceway, before all felt as though they could relax a moment. Harid sat Shiera a bit harshly on the ground; the woman had been worming and babbling about 'being whole' the entire way. After a quick glance around to ensure their safety, Harid focused his attention to the facility, clearly worried about his daughter.
Another loud explosion came from the labs within, the land above it blowing outwardly some way away from the group. It set off another chain of explosions which was followed by the moaning of metal being bent at the weight of the rock resting upon it.
"P-Paige?" the man's normally strong voice was a whisper.
In an answer which shocked him, the facility collapsed, exploding and groaning and falling into itself, the land above crushing all within the tunnel.
"NO!" he yelled, running toward the dust cloud cascading toward them. In an instant, he was blown from his feet, the force of the earth clapping the entrance shut as it caved into the structure, with a loud, reverberating boom.
And with it... cracked the man's heart…
[To Be Continued...]
