From One Reality to Another, By DemonSpawn
Email me at: demons@usa.net
From One Reality to Another
Welcome, fanfic readers. This is a rewrite of my first few versions
of this story. By my count, this is draft number three. I was appalled at the
errors in the first draft, and the second one just didn’t satisfy me. Anyway, I
would like to thank Christi Smith Hayden and Ryan Stout for unknowingly
providing some of the inspiration. The rest of the credit goes to me. (Hey, I
wrote it. I deserve almost all of the credit. But I’m willing to share some of
it. *Grin*)
Legal Stuff: As I’m sure you’re aware, the gargoyles belong to and
are the exclusive property of Buena Vista Television and/or Disney. Any
characters that do not appear in the television show are my characters and
are created solely by me. They are also copyrighted as such. Since all the
characters I create all have some aspect of my twisted personality, I am very
protective of them. If you want to use them, however, just ask. Chances are
I won’t mind. Any resemblance to characters already created is purely
coincidental. I am using characters without people’s permission. (Only
Disney’s. The rest of you can stop worrying about me using your characters
without your permission.) This story is non-profit, so I am not making any
money off of it. (If I was, chances are I wouldn’t be forced to work at
McDonald’s.)
MATURE THEMES WARNING: This story contains profanity,
graphic descriptions of violence, romantic innuendoes, and possible nudity
and/or sexual situations. I severely doubt that there are amounts of the last
two items, because there weren’t any in the first two drafts, but you never
know. The first two drafts did have quite a bit of violence, so mature
readers only, please.
Author’s note: Due to some confusion, the Predator in this story is
NOT the “The Predator” from the movies. Sorry if this disappoints
anybody. I apologize in advance for any confusion this might have caused.
And by the way, this story is not for the easily confused, as the amount and
deviousness of the plot twists might screw up some of your heads.
If you have any questions, ideas, pointers, comments, or feel that
you have to point out flaws that I have failed to correct, please don’t hesitate
to email me at: demons@usa.net
This story takes place during the “World Tour” sequence of
episodes, presumably after “Future Tense”, “Eye of the Storm”, and possibly
a few others. I’m not really sure on that point, however, since I don’t really
care when it happened, just as long as it takes place during the “World
Tour”, and after the episodes mentioned above.
I hope you enjoy this story. I know I had fun writing it.
-DemonSpawn
From One Reality to Another
Prologue
John brandished the screwdriver in front of him, preparing to
accomplish the task he had set out to do, no matter the cost. He circled his
enemy, observing it carefully. It wouldn’t do to go into a blind rage and
destroy his only chance of success. He first had to plan his moves carefully.
He slowly walked up, and viciously attacked his opponent with the
screwdriver. He strained against its front panel. The screw must not be
aligned correctly, and wouldn’t go in as a result.
His opponent was a large metal circle around eight feet in diameter,
made of some blue-steeled titanium alloy. Bare wires snaked around and
through it like some type of mutated ivy, and a large clump of wires led from
the base of it to a small generator which looked bizarre, mainly because it
was designed to generate a certain current, and not power a television or
some other worthless gesture.
No, its main purpose was to open a portal between worlds. It had
taken him years to design, build, and test. And all that was stopping it from
working was the fact that one single piece of metal wouldn’t go in properly.
He screamed in pure frustration and threw the screwdriver down in
front of him. It clattered tonelessly on the cement floor of his basement.
He looked behind him and shuddered, thinking of what would
happen if his parents found him now. He was pretty sure that they would
find out what had happened to a large chunk of their cash in a few minutes,
which gave him slightly less than that.
“It…won’t…go…in!” He spat out through gritted teeth, slamming
his forehead on the gate with each word.
He stumbled backwards as he found out that his actions had just
given him a monster headache.
“Remind me to *never* do that again,” he told himself, then picked
up the screwdriver.
He attempted to get the screw to go in one more time, and actually
succeeded, an interesting development, considering he was seeing doubles of
everything.
He shook his head to clear it, then went over to the generator and
flipped several switches in rapid succession. The only response he got was a
few red lights and a tired whirring sound.
“Damn it!” He shouted. Given his luck, of course something like
this would happen. It was bound to. He *lived* Murphy’s Law.
He kicked the base of the generator, and interestingly enough, it
sputtered to life. He smiled wryly, then pushed several more buttons on the
generator.
The air in the center of the gate rippled, then a tearing sound was
heard as the portal opened. The basement door burst open, and his parents
ran through.
“John! NO!” They screamed.
He smiled at them, then held up a block of a substance which
looked like white clay. A wire was sticking out of it.
“This is for all the shit you’ve given me in the past,” he said. He
pulled out a lighter with a grinning death’s head on it and flicked the roller.
He lit the fuse, which came to life with a sizzling sound and a flurry of
sparks. “This fuse is a fifteen second fuse. You have about ten seconds
before the plastic explosives are detonated.” He dropped it on the ground.
“As for me, I’m out of here.”
He ran towards the portal and jumped into the vertical pool of
turquoise light. His parents gaped as he disappeared.
The last thought he had before he went through was whether the
world he went to had air or not.
* * *
It was power, plain and simple. The Warp existed for only two
reasons: to ferry dimensional travelers to other realities, and to provide the
creatures that lived there with an inexhaustible source of magical power.
The creatures that lived there were all evil. Occasionally one would go to a
reality, however, these realities were incredibly random, so not many went.
The Fay that lived there were all evil. Such was the definition of The Warp.
To take the dreams and minds of people, and turn their most twisted fears
into reality, at least in The Warp. The popular image of Satan lived here,
along with the supposed denizens of Hell. The Fay that lived here were
created by only two things: the dark, repressed sides of inter-dimensional
travelers, or created from the nightmares of any person that happened to be
having one.
And such travelers were rare, even in the almost immortal lifetime
of a Fay. Which is why the creatures of darkness crowded around the
consciousness of the traveler that appeared.
They began bickering about who would get to turn the dark side of
the mortal into their slave, when the unexpected happened.
The consciousness of the mortal split into two different parts, the
dark side, and the light (or reasonably light) side. The light side continued
on unhindered, while the dark side absorbed some of the magic from the
realm. It pulsated and grew as the dark creatures watched. Finally an aura
exploded into life around it, the true nature of the dark side. Only it wasn’t
an aura of darkness, it was an aura of life. Somehow the dark side had
brought itself to life without the “friendly assistance” of the creatures.
It absorbed power until it was practically a god. An then it
appeared in a flash of flame and black smoke.
It was a giant demon, with enough hideousness in its appearance to
shrivel the eyes and melt the skin off of bones. It had two giant legs, each of
which ended in three toes, and all had foot-long razor sharp curving talons
which were barbed on the inside. The entire demon was black, and the torso
was a mass of rippling muscle, from which six arms protruded. Four fingers
and a thumb were all covered with some type of scaly armor, and the claws
that decorated the tip of each digit could be retracted into the hand. Giant
black bat wings were attached to its back, the joint of which sported a giant
curving blade.
The most hideous aspect of it was the head. Bone-white ram horns
curved out from the sides of the creature’s head, and the gaping maw was
filled with ridiculously large sized teeth that put its claws to shame. It had
six eyes, which were lidless, but were instead covered with a reddish fluid
that looked remarkably similar to blood. A red haze emanated from them.
It roared, a sound halfway between ear-splitting and skull-
fracturing. “I am Chaos, Lord of all that is evil. You will wait for my call,
and then together we shall reap the products of the human darkness.”
Satan stood up, in a sense. “I am the ruler here. You will submit
to me.”
Chaos looked at him. “You are no longer the ruler. I am now your
god. You are my second in command.” He looked at Satan, and his eyes
began to glow a brighter red.
Satan’s jaw fell open. He gulped. This thing was emanating power
and evil beyond even his expectations. This thing could kill him with a
change of his whim. “Of course, my Lord. I serve nobody but you.”
Chaos smiled. “Good. Keep them in line until I call for you.”
He drifted towards his other half, using his power to create an
island on the surface of the water, complete with stereotypical primitive
villagers.
He used his new power to slightly alter the destination of the
dimensional portal from its previous location to the new island. Then he was
gone, disappearing to the reality with his light half.
* * *
John’s senses vanished as he entered the portal, to be replaced with
pain. Lots and lots of pain. More pain than he could handle. He tried to
scream, but found he couldn’t. It felt suddenly as if his lungs were
imploding, and he tried to scream again, but he didn’t even *have* any
lungs.
He felt something push against his awareness, something that
psychically felt soft, warm, and soothing. He fought against it, then it
stopped trying to get in.
He felt the darkness he constantly strove to keep locked away
inside him expand, and partially separate from him. He could still sense what
the other him could sense, however.
Its outlook on this region between worlds was fuzzy, as if it wasn’t
comprehending what it was sensing. Then he felt the heady rush of pure
power, and the image became more clear. He was surrounded by creatures,
but they seemed to be scared of him.
Then he felt a whisper of power pass, and then his two sides
recombined so that he wasn’t sensing two images anymore.
The place between the worlds faded, replaced by reality. He landed
hard, but the ground was soft. He was on a beach.
Then he recalled that he had heard a second person land at the same
exact time he did. He tried to look over in the direction he had heard the
sound come from, but then he felt something soothing wash over his
consciousness.
So tired…He tried to clear his head, but the sleepiness came back
even stronger. Have to stay awake…Need to see…A flash and then a red
symbol appeared in front of him. What had he just been thinking? He
relaxed and mentally leaned into the feeling, letting the feeling absorb into
him. His head hit the sand, and he was soon fast asleep.
Chaos looked down at John. The result of coming through the
portal in his ‘god form’ was incredibly draining, as he needed immense
amounts of magic to keep him in that form. Thus less than a nanosecond
after he had come through, he had reverted to his ‘natural form’, which
looked exactly like John, only with ebony skin, red eyes, pointed ears, and
white hair.
And since he had kept his ‘god form’ as long as he could, he had
used up virtually all his magic. Which was why putting John to sleep was
such a task. Combine his magical weakness with John’s ability to stay on
task, and you had a severely draining situation on your hands.
“Just like me,” Chaos said fondly. “Then again, we should be
exactly alike. I’m his dark half.”
Even though Chaos was John’s dark side, he still had feelings, some
of which could be considered redeeming qualities. For example, he had
honor. He could love. And he loved his ‘brother’, even though he was
supposed to hate him. He was, after all, all of a person’s repressed urges
brought to life.
He extended his awareness, looking for the underground laboratory
he had added to the island. It was an essential part of his plan.
Then his extended awareness picked up something unexpected.
There were several gargoyles and a human landing on the island on some
sort of skiff. How was that possible. Nobody should have known that the
island was here except for him! So how had they gotten here? Then he
remembered that not only were they part of a television show, they went
around solving problems while they were on this skiff.
“So, they want to solve the problem of me? So be it.” And then he
thought of the perfect way to incorporate them into his plan, as well as gain
some magical power in the process.
He smiled victoriously, relishing the deviousness of it, and yet the
simplicity of it. “Oh, I am so good, and yet so bad. I am awesome.”
He kneeled beside his brother. “So long, brother. Don’t worry, we
will meet again real soon. And I have big plans.” He fondly tousled John’s
hair, then got up and walked away.
One
Elisa stretched luxuriously, then walked a short distance away from
the water to get a better vantage point as to their position.
Angela looked around, taking in the richness of the tropical island.
“I wonder where Avalon has sent us this time,” she commented.
Elisa looked at her, a wry smile crossing her face. “I don’t know,
but I wish Avalon would send us to places like this more often. I need a
vacation. And this little trip has been anything but.”
Angela took a deep breath, savoring the natural scents. “This place
reminds me of Avalon.”
Goliath looked around warily as he dragged the skiff further onto
the beach. “We have been sent here for a reason. I suggest we be careful
until we found out what that reason is.”
Bronx sniffed the air, then growled and cautiously ran down the
beach, keeping close to the ground.
Elisa sighed. “I’d say we just got our first clue.” She reflexively
pulled out her gun and cautiously ran after Bronx.
Angela and Goliath followed, not wanting to be left behind.
They stopped short as they saw Elisa kneel next to someone. She
motioned them over as she put away her gun, and they walked closer.
It was a boy of about eighteen or nineteen, with short brown hair
and a pair of glasses that nicely complimented his rather handsome
appearance.
“He seems to be okay, just unconscious. But here’s the weird
thing. His tracks seem as if he just appeared out of thin air. There’s another
set of tracks that started next to his, and then they get next to him and go
off. Both seem to have appeared from nowhere.”
Goliath pondered this for a moment. “Perhaps we were sent to find
out these things.”
Elisa motioned them into the woods as the boy groaned.
He slowly sat up, opened his eyes, and ran towards the water,
falling on his hands and knees. Elisa start to get up and go towards him, but
stopped as he started to heave.
He got up shakily, spitting repeatedly to get the horrible taste out of
his mouth.
“Goddamn,” he said. “Remind me to never do that again.”
“Are you okay?” Elisa asked.
He whirled around at the sound of her voice. She thought he
looked slightly green, but couldn’t tell because of the dark.
He lifted an eyebrow. “Ummm…What’s your name?”
She paused, unsure of how to respond to this direct question,
considering she had asked him how he felt.
He used the pause to rephrase his question. “Is your name Elisa?”
This set her back even more. How did he know her name?
Her jaw worked. “How did you know my name?”
He started to speak, then caught himself and avoided the question
entirely. “Where are your friends?”
Goliath stepped out from behind a large clump of vegetation.
Angela and Bronx followed suit.
The boy smiled smugly. “I was right.” He looked at them as they
gathered into a group, Goliath slightly in front of Elisa, to protect her if
necessary.
He boldly walked up to Elisa and extended his hand. “Hi. I’m
John.”
She took his hand and shook it briskly. “I’m Elisa. This is Goliath,
Angela, and Bronx.
He looked at them, running an appraising eye over Angela. A wry
grin plastered itself onto his face. “Of all the worlds, I get sent to this one.”
Goliath’s ears perked up. “The worlds?” He asked.
John sighed. “Yeah. The worlds. On my world, or reality,
actually, I built a dimensional portal. I went through it, and it brought me
here. So I’m from a different version of your world. One where magic
doesn’t exist.” His expression changed to one of eagerness. “Which means
that since I’m here, I can join you on your quest.” He paused, seeing the
confused looks on their faces. “You know, your quest to get home.”
Goliath and Elisa shared a glance. “Exactly how much do you
know about us?” She asked.
He shrugged. “Quite a bit actually.”
Angela spoke up. “If there’s no magic on your world, how do you
know about us?”
John grinned. “Actually, I come from a world where your world is
a TV show.”
Angela paused. “What’s a TV?”
Goliath started to answer, but John interrupted him. “It’s a metal
block that has glass on one side, and the glass shows a moving tapestry of
sorts.”
Goliath grudgingly had to admit that John’s explanation was a
better one than he was going to give.
Angela absorbed this information. “Oh.”
John stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I need a shave. But anyway,
where do you want to begin?”
Goliath raised an eye ridge. “You’re coming with us?”
John stared at him. “Of course. If I came here, the same rule that
applies to you applies to me.” He lifted a hand to his chest, holding the
other in a pose that reminds people of the court swearing in a witness. “Fate
must have sent me here for a reason. I must find out what that reason is.”
He resumed his current position and grinned foolishly. “So where
do you want to begin?”
Elisa took this moment to interject her two cents. “We should
probably find a settlement, or some other town. An island like this should
have loads of tourists on it. We could find out where we are.”
“And,” John added, “you could call Matt. The last time you called
him, at Loch Ness, his answering machine tape was full.” He looked around.
“The tracks that begin from nowhere and move off are a good sign that the
quest has something to do with this.”
Elisa thought out loud. “Since we know you came through the
portal, that explains the first set of tracks. But who made the second?”
“And more importantly,” John amended, “the other tracks actually
begin at all. I would have thought that if someone came through with me,
we would have fused into one person. But the disturbing thought is the fact
that someone came through the portal with me at all. The only people that
could have come through would have been my parents, and they would have
stayed. Unless only one came through, which would mean that the other
would be…”
He caught himself, and hung his head sadly. “I can’t believe I did
that,” he murmured. “It seemed so natural at the time.”
Angela leaned forward. “Did what?”
John looked up, startled, then remembered that he had been talking
out loud. “Uh, nothing. Nothing at all.” He got up, and began following
the tracks. “Let’s go.”
As he walked off, Elisa leaned towards the others conspiratorially.
“He’s lying about something.”
Goliath shook his head. “It was past regrets, nothing more. And if
he regretted it, he won’t do it again, whatever it was.”
They began to follow him as he walked along, following the tracks.
He looked back at them out of his peripheral vision. He smiled
thankfully, having heard the entire conversation. He didn’t want them to not
trust him, not when he probably had to help them.
* * *
Chaos plodded along, tiredly concentrating on putting one foot in
front of the other. Even at night, the air was hot. Actually, the air was cool,
but he was hot from his exertion. He had started walking almost as soon as
he had landed on this island.
“Fuck me in the goat ass,” he swore. Why didn’t he have the sense
to put the village closer to the point of arrival? Then he thought about that
question for a minute, and came up with two reasons. One, he did put it
adequately close enough. He was just so tired from the “landing” that it
seemed farther than it actually was. Two, he was almost a god at the time
that he created the island. His perceptions were completely different from
what they were now.
He stopped. He needed to rest. And he also needed to scout the
village. But how to do both at the same time?
Then he smiled. He was devious, yes, and powerful, sometimes,
but he didn’t have the know-how to do some things. Like create the portal.
That was completely in the realm of John’s abilities. But as a half of John,
he could still tap a portion of John’s resources. Like John’s incredibly
creative mind, which enabled him to build the portal. But right now he
wanted a familiar.
He scanned through several. All were powerful, and were beyond
his ability to create right now. Creating things out of thin air took a shitload
of magic, and he didn’t have that much right now.
He continued to flip through the ideas, and came upon one that
definitely had potential. Required a few adjustments here and there, of
course, but other than that, she was perfect.
He tapped some of his hidden reserves of power, wincing at the
pain. It would be worth it, though. He raised his hands above his head, and
spread his arms wide, lifting his face skyward. His hands began to gleam an
inky red, and the air stirred as his magical energies were put to use.
A flash of light heralded her creation, and she landed lithely,
standing up cautiously on her legs. She flexed her wings experimentally, and
her tail swished through the air expectantly as she flashed her fangs in a feral
smile.
He reflected upon the image he had chosen: a dream woman. She
was perfect, with adjustments designed to suit his rather…eccentric tastes.
She was a cyborg, with a robotic skeleton on the inside, and human, or in
this case gargoyle, flesh on the outside. The best of both worlds. Her
robotic systems were able to operate normally without her organic
counterparts. The result was a gargoyle female that was indistinguishable
from a real female gargoyle in every aspect, save for the strength, speed,
agility, and personality.
She smiled sweetly at him. “Hello, my love.”
He smiled. “Hello, Jessica.”
She leaned in quickly and impulsively kissed him, smiling at her
own boldness.
He grinned at her, revealing slightly pointed ivory teeth. He swept
a hand through his shoulder-length white hair, pondering his next course of
action. He decided that he needed to gain some magic back by resting.
“I have a task for you, my love.”
She looked at him expectantly, ready to do anything for Chaos.
“Yes, my love. What do you desire of me?”
He grinned in spite of himself at her eagerness to help him out.
“There is a primitive village nearby. I need you to scout it out while I gain
some magic. Creating you drained me almost completely.”
“Of course, my love. Anything for you.” She leaned in quickly and
kissed him, then turned to scout the village.
He grabbed her arm and pulled her into his embrace. He kissed her
passionately, then regretfully released her. She smiled, then ran off silently
towards the village, twitching her tail and hips in a provocative manner.
He smiled wryly. Then he laughed. “I’ve created a monster.”
* * *
Chaos, fully rested, paced impatiently as he waited for Jessica to
return from her scouting mission. He looked at the watch he had conjured
up shortly after she left. It had been at least a half an hour since she had left.
Even allowing for the time it took to avoid the villagers, she should have
been back by now. She was an android, for Christ’s sake.
Finally he got tired of waiting, and started off for the village. After
the fist few steps he felt an aura of blood, death, and violence originating
from the direction of the village. He paused, frowning. There shouldn’t be
that aura. It wasn’t supposed to be there.
He paused and extended his awareness. It was definitely the right
aura. But why would it be there? Unless Jessica had started the fun without
him. But he could still get some use from this.
He closed his eyes and drank it in, feeling his magical power triple,
just from the suffering of the villagers. Too bad he didn’t have enough
power to become the Lord of Chaos, which was his preferred form. Then
again, who wouldn’t want to be a god?
He cleared the hill in front of the village. What he saw surprised
him greatly, not because of the actions that were occurring, but because of
the violence of the person doing them. He spread his arms and levitated
himself down to the base of the hill.
Jessica was covered with blood, her halter top and loincloth stiff
from dried blood, while the rest of her, primarily her hair and clothes, were
stained a gory red. She gutted a man with her talons, and released him,
watching him trying to keep his intestines from falling out of his abdomen.
Chaos smiled at the sight, a cold, feral smile which would remind people of
his other form, had they ever seen it.
Jessica saw him walking over and smiled cheerfully. “Hi!” She
called, flipping matted and blood-crusted hair out of her face.
He walked up to her. “What happened?”
She put her foot onto the gutted man’s shoulder and pushed him
face first into the sand. She traced the contour of his spine with her three
foot talons, tearing skin and severing bone. He screamed as she slowly cut
into his spinal cord. The arteries in his neck stretched so taut Chaos
wondered if his head was going to explode. He was disappointed when the
man let out his breath in a deep gurgling sigh and was still.
“A few of the villagers saw me when I was scouting. So I had to
kill them to keep them from alerting the rest of the village,” she explained.
“Besides,” she continued, “I saved some for you.”
Chaos looked on in confusion as she bit into a stunned man’s neck,
blood spurting from the wound and staining the sand beneath her feet.
“Saved some what?”
She didn’t say, her only response in the form of a passionate kiss.
She pushed her tongue into his mouth and gave him the mouthful of blood
she had taken from the man.
He jerked his head back in immediate revulsion, but she held his
mouth to hers, beginning to rub his throat gently until his reflexes betrayed
him, and he had no choice but to swallow.
She let him go, and he jerked his head away from her, spluttering in
disgust and horror at what she had just done. “What the hell did you do that
for?” He asked in shock.
She only looked on expectantly as he paused, licking his lips and
smacking them together thoughtfully.
“Actually,” he amended, “that wasn’t that bad. Quite good, really.”
She smiled knowingly. “Want some more?”
He looked at her, one eyebrow raised. “There aren’t any more
villagers around here.”
She looked at him funny. “You’re evil. We can get more.”
He considered, then smiled devilishly. “I say we kill them all.”
She laughed in glee and ran around the corner towards another
group of villagers. They saw her blood-covered body and ran off,
screaming.
Chaos rounded the corner and saw them running. He shook his
head in amusement. “Tsk, tsk. You boys should know better than to run.
You outnumber us. Then again, we should always run away from what
scares us.”
He snapped his fingers and disappeared, reappearing in front of the
villagers in a cloud of black smoke, which quickly dissipated.
They skidded to a halt, turned around, then froze as they saw
Jessica nonchalantly walk up, blood dripping from her talons.
They turned again, and Chaos lifted a hand towards them. Rings of
blue energy appeared around them, constricting and pinning their arms to
their sides. Thus bound, they fell to the ground. Jessica joined him at his
side.
Chaos began to laugh, his glowing eyes flaring evilly.
* * *
John stopped, and took a kneeling position by the tracks. “Have
any of you come this way?”
Goliath raised an eye ridge. “No. Why?”
John gestured to the ground. “Another set of tracks appeared.” He
peered more closely at them. “Three-toed. Taloned.” He looked up.
“Gargoyle.”
Goliath took a step closer, while Bronx sniffed the second set of
tracks, and began growling softly.
“Whoever came this way just got some help,” John said. “And,” he
paused. He lowered his face to the sand so that his nose was almost
touching it. “They were made by a female.”
Elisa slanted a glance at Goliath. “You thinking what I’m
thinking?”
Goliath slammed a fist into his palm. “Demona!” He snarled.
“Mother?” Angela asked hopefully.
John shot her a warning glance, then looked at Goliath with some
interest. “What makes you so certain that Demona made these tracks.
Personally, I would rule out the possibility, because the tracks carry a slight
magical aftertaste, of sorts.” He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “Anyway, if
these tracks were made by Demona, how would she know that the person
who came through the portal was going to be here? The answer is that she
wouldn’t. But still, we should be careful. This person is obviously a mage
of some type, since they can cast magic. Which means that they could
probably obliterate us on sight.”
* * *
Chaos grinned sadistically as he crushed a man, using the blue
energy rings to constrict around him further, squeezing him until blood
gushed from his mouth in copious amounts.
Jessica looked on, then thought a moment, figuring out a way to
top Chaos’ latest kill. She finally decided, and used her talons to rip a gash
from one of the corners of his hip bone to the opposite shoulder, her talons
cutting just as easily through the bone of his rib cage. His internal organs,
with nothing to hold them in place, spilled out onto the sand.
Chaos smiled satanically as he blasted a hole through a man’s chest
with a force blast, vaporizing flesh and blackening bone.
Jessica looked on with interest, impressed by that last display. “Do
that again,” she prompted. “I love the way you look when you do that.”
Chaos smiled broadly at the unexpected compliment. He closed his
eyes and pulled in more power from the gore essences around him.
When he opened his eyes, they were blazing an unholy crimson.
He held his fists up near his chest as raw energy from the surroundings were
channeled into them. They ignited into an extremely violent red-colored
flame. Eyes burning with an unholy power, Chaos’ face twisted into a
hellish smile as he remembered why he was overdosing on power.
He aimed both fists towards the man and liberated the essence of all
the violence that had happened in the past few minutes, carefully controlling
it towards its target.
The pure violence energy, given an extra boost of power, went
wild. It flared, filling the corridor of limitations that Chaos had given it. It
paused briefly, briefly being a few nanoseconds in its time, and then swarmed
towards the end of the magical corridor, violently destroying anything in its
way. When it reached the end of the magical passageway, the spell ended,
its purpose fulfilled.
The remaining people hadn’t fared well at all, but that was the
general idea. Even Chaos was impressed by the level of bloodshed that pure
magical violence had produced.
Blood was splattered all over the walls. The smoking carcasses of
the dead were burnt and blackened, with only tatters of crispy skin
remaining. The one person that had survived was burnt all over, and had
only survived because the violence had thrown him through the wall,
momentarily forgetting that they couldn’t leave the confinement Chaos had
set for them. Obviously they had learned from that, and hadn’t made the
same mistake on any of the others.
Chaos sighed in pleasure, drinking in the pure auras of bloodshed
and mass slaughter that had formed after releasing the basic nature of
violence. The raw, new power had increased his power tenfold.
Jessica walked up to him and kissed him fiercely, her tail swishing
back and forth agitatedly. “You know,” she whispered in his ear, “that got
me incredibly turned on.”
Chaos looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Really?” He asked, a
sly smile creeping onto his face. “What ever happened to business before
pleasure?”
She began to nuzzle his neck. “How about a little of both?”
“What would you want to do other than killing people?”
She looked down at their clothes, and saw all the dried blood and
gore. “Perhaps we should get cleaned off.”
He rolled his eyes. “Gee, that’s romantic.”
She looked at his sideways, the corners of her lips beginning to
twist up into a smile. “That’s not what I meant. What I meant,” she
clarified, “was this.” In demonstration, she walked over to the survivor and
lifted him to her eye level. He moaned in pain, and his head lolled on his
shoulders. She quickly sliced open his throat, and tilted his body so that the
blood from his wound flowed down the cleavage of her halter top.
She tossed the body away from her nonchalantly. She spread her
arms invitingly. “Now you can clean me off.”
He grinned and began walking towards her. She smiled coyly and
began to take off her top, letting the straps fall off her shoulders. He swept
her into his arms and pulled it off for her. She laughed and began to take off
his robes.
* * *
John stopped walking suddenly. Goliath and the other were
suddenly on guard, as John suddenly began to look around cautiously.
“What is it?” Angela asked.
John shifted uncomfortably. “Uh, nothing. It’s just that I
feel…really funky, you might say.”
Elisa looked at him warily. “What do you mean?”
John looked at her uncomfortably, then began massaging his
temples. “Hang on a sec.”
He walked a short distance away, put his hands on his knees, and
began breathing in short gasps. “What the hell is going on?” He asked
himself rhetorically, for he was pretty sure he knew the answer as to what he
was feeling. He just didn’t know how it could be happening.
The others backed off as the ground he was looking at lit up a
bright red. John whirled around, eyes glowing, and began to laugh evilly.
He looked around curiously, slightly awed by his new powers. “So,
this is what it feels like to be evil. You guys should try it sometime. It’s a
very…liberating experience.” Balls of flame appeared around his hands. He
aimed them towards Goliath. “I’m going to enjoy toasting your ass,
Goliath.”
“Scatter!” Goliath shouted.
The fireballs shot at Goliath, but he dodged, and the magical flames
melted the sand where he had just been standing, turning it into glass.
Elisa kicked him in the small of the back, and he gasped at the pain.
He recovered quickly, and his eyes brightened to a more intense shade of
red. He turned, pantomiming holding some type of handles, and soon blades
of orange flame appeared in his hands.
He slashed at Elisa with them. She dodged, and threw an uppercut
at him. He pulled his head back as the punch went by, and saw Angela’s fist
coming towards his face.
“Uh, oh.” He said, moments before he heard a crunch. His head
snapped backward, and he fell to the ground in a crumpled heap, blood
streaming from his nose. He was out cold.
Elisa looked at them, confusion showing plainly on her face. “What
just happened? He was feeling funny, and then he just attacks us.”
“His eyes were glowing,” Angela commented thoughtfully.
Goliath looked at John carefully. “He must have been under a spell
of some kind, cast by the person we’re following.”
“Oh, come on, Goliath. If he has magic, he could be the one setting
up this entire thing. We could have been sent here to stop him.” Elisa’s
caution was well advised, given the circumstances.
“Yes,” Goliath agreed. “We should be careful when he wakes up.”
John groaned, and slowly got to his feet. “What happened?” He
asked. “And why do I feel like shit?” He gingerly touched the burning
sensation in his nose, wincing as the pain increased. He looked at the tips of
his fingers: they were covered in blood. “And why the hell is my nose
bleeding?”
Angela shuffled her feet. “I had to hit you,” she said defensively.
“You were attacking us.”
John’s face turned into one of pure confusion. “What the hell are
you talking about? I was standing over there, feeling really weird, and then I
found myself here.”
Elisa put her hands on her hips. “So you don’t remember attacking
us with magical fire.”
John’s temper was shot. Here he was, knocked out because Angela
hit him, and Elisa had the nerve to say he attacked them? With magic?
“Don’t you think I’d remember if my nose had gotten broken? And
how did I suddenly learn how to cast magic spells? Don’t you think of these
things before you accuse someone of something that they didn’t do?”
Goliath walked between them. “You did attack us with magic,
John. You must have been placed under a magic spell by whoever we’re
following. That would account for you memory loss.”
John’s anger was abruptly doused. “I…guess so,” he admitted
grudgingly. Then he remembered his broken nose. “Hang on a sec.”
He turned and brought his hands to his face. He grunted at the
same time a small cracking sound was heard. He turned back around, biting
his lip. His eyes were watering from the pain. His nose was in the right
position, however.
Elisa winced as she heard the crack. “John,” she asked, “didn’t that
hurt?”
His only reply was a string of muffled swears.
Goliath took this moment to speak. “So we must be here to stop
whoever cast the spell on John.”
“So, you finally figured it out, did you? Good for you. I was
beginning to wonder when you would catch on.”
The five of them looked around for the new voice. Bronx lowered
himself closer to the ground, and began to growl, spinning around in an
attempt to see where the voice was coming from.
A cloud of black smoke appeared, and the group turned to face it.
Red eyes began to glow from the midst of it, and then the smoke coalesced
into a humanoid figure. He clearly wasn’t human, however. His pointed
ears gave that fact away.
Chaos continued speaking. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am
Chaos.”
John paled and took a step backward. He had thought he looked
really familiar, but couldn’t place it. “No. You can’t be. It’s impossible.”
Chaos smirked at him. “Really? You think so? Than how come
I’m here?”
Angela’s eyes widened. “You know him?”
Chaos grinned amusedly, eyes glowing with merriment. “You
could say that. He created me.”
Two
Elisa whirled on John. “What?”
John lowered his head. “It’s true. To a point. I did create him.
Sort of.”
“What do you mean by ‘sort of’?” Goliath rumbled.
John and Chaos shared a glance. They both sighed simultaneously.
“Perhaps you better create us some chairs,” John suggested.
Chaos glowered at John as he made the suggestion. “Thank you,
John.” He said acidly. “I wouldn’t have been able to think of that myself.”
He raised his hands, and turquoise light surrounded them for a few
seconds. Smoke appeared, and coalesced into pillow-lined armchairs which
came into existence below each person, then rearranged themselves into a
crude circle as the people fell into them.
John and Chaos were next to each other and were the main point of
the circle, obviously the storytellers of this experience.
John began to speak. “I’m not exactly sure how it started, but I
remember it was because I had way too much stress I needed to get rid of.”
* * *
John paced in his room. His father was an asshole, his mother was
a sexist bitch, and his two sisters were the most annoying siblings a person
could ever have. And the shitty thing was, he didn’t deserve any of it!
“Goddamn!” He swore. In fact, since he had sworn so much in the
past few minutes, that was the only swear that he hadn’t used yet.
He was glad things like a person’s dark side couldn’t actually take
over. Well, there were people with split personalities, but they were just
mental.
His thoughts turned back to his parents. In fact, since he was in
such a bad mood, he might as well swear at the one friend that he couldn’t
really trust. Lousy bastard. Trying to play both sides between enemies that
wouldn’t have been enemies if that bastard wasn’t around.
Suddenly he felt very calm and mellow. A sly grin crept onto his
face. He knew how he would get those bastards. He would cause massive
amounts of chaos in the household, getting someone else in trouble. Yeah.
And they wouldn’t even suspect him.
A small pit of fear bit into his stomach. This was wrong. Why was
he going to do these things? But then he didn’t wonder at all any more.
He opened the door of his room and walked out, going downstairs.
A devious, and yet happy, smile was on his face.
* * *
“That was the first time that Chaos existed,” John said.
“It wasn’t later until I actually became my own personality. John
would rule the body, but I would talk through his mouth, or I would think
thoughts, and he would pick them up. We were the same person, just
different aspects of the collective personality.” Chaos stated this fact, then
leaned back in his chair.
“So why do you hate each other?” Elisa asked.
John frowned at her. “We were about to get to that.”
* * *
“And I don’t want you to ever do that again!” John’s dad finished
screaming at him.
Chaos was so accustomed to using John’s mouth that the comment
he was about to make just slipped out accidentally. “Yeah, like you’ve never
done that in your life, hypocrite.” Chaos was shocked briefly. He had meant
to say it in an interior monologue, so that only John could hear it. But once
he reflected on it, he figured that it was better to get his feelings out in the
open. He wasn’t going to let their father push them around any more.
John’s dad blinked. This was a response he hadn’t expected.
“What was that?”
John was horrified. That was how he felt, but he would never have
said it out loud, as Chaos just did.
Chaos once again, always quick on his feet, took the initiative.
“I didn’t say anything.”
Dad’s face darkened. “Are you lying to me?”
Their face remained motionless. “Of course, you stupid sack of
shit. We’re not taking your crap any more.”
“Oh you’re not, are you?” Dad’s voice had a biting edge to it.
John tried to shut Chaos up, but Chaos continued on. “No. we’re
not. Got a problem with that?”
John’s dad stepped up to him. “If you live in this house, you’re
going to follow my rules.”
“You mean the rules that you don’t follow?”
“I don’t have to follow them. I made them.”
“Practice what you preach.”
“Don’t talk to me like that.”
Their face began to take on a sneer. “Or what? You’ll hit me?”
“I can discipline you in any way I choose. Now get up in your
room, or I’ll drag you up there by the hair.”
John defied Chaos and ran for the stairs. Once safely in his room,
he locked the door and mentally whirled on Chaos. “What the hell did you
do that for?”
Chaos mentally crossed his arms. “I was protecting your interests.”
* * *
John looked grim as he finished speaking. “Things degenerated
from there. My parents overheard us arguing about some thing or another,
and sent us to a psychiatrist. Neither of us talked, however. We were sent
home. But people began making fun of us. After attacking several people,
we built the gateway to come here. We didn’t have any clue we would come
here, though.”
Angela looked confused. “So how did you become two separate
people?”
Chaos crossed his arms. “Magic. Once we arrived here, I absorbed
magic from the surroundings to give myself a body.” Which was close
enough to the truth. It wouldn’t do to have them find out about his other
form quite yet.
Elisa looked at them, a wry smile creeping onto her face. “Let me
get this straight,” she said, barely holding back a smile. She looked at John,
her eyes glimmering with amusement. “Chaos is actually a split personality
of yours?”
Both John and Chaos looked at her simultaneously. “Yeah. So
what?” They echoed, in perfect unison. Which was to be expected. They
were the same person essentially, after all.
“So what do you want?” Angela asked bluntly.
Chaos smiled devilishly. “I want John’s creativity.”
John sighed.
Elisa blinked. “What?”
Chaos continued to smile, his grin widening at how foolish this
statement sounded. “His creativity. I have the power, but not the
knowledge to use it. John has the creativity, but not the power.”
Goliath frowned. “Why do you need creativity? You could kill us
all with a thought.”
John began to explain. “Yeah, he could, but you need an image of
sorts to use the spell. He has some images, but not nearly enough to use his
full powers. He wants us to merge, and become one person again. That
way he would have access to my powers of creativity, and I would have
access to his powers. But he can’t force me to merge with him. He would
have to kidnap you, or something, and say that he would kill you if I didn’t
merge with him. I have some evil in me still, and Chaos is pure evil. If we
rejoined, the resultant person would be evil overall. Which is what you were
probably sent here to prevent. What your exact mission is in relation to that,
though, I have no idea.”
Elisa’s eyebrows furrowed. “So…Why do you want John’s
creativity?”
Chaos tapped a finger against his lips thoughtfully. “Okay. I can
see you’re not getting it. John is, as of right now, one of the most influential
people in the *world* right now. The reason, you ask? Goliath, you
remember when Puck tried to get the Phoenix Gate from you. The dream he
crafted was pretty scary, wasn’t it?”
Goliath nodded briefly.
Chaos continued. “Well, John here has figured out the schematics
for the robots, the cyberspace, etc. etc. In fact, with just the *raw* ideas, by
that I mean possibility or impossibility, someone could take over the world.
All they’d need is a power base, a lot of cash, and a devious mind.” He
breathed on his fist and polished it on his chest. “Someone like Xanatos.
Just think for a moment, and ponder what would happen if Xanatos managed
to get a hold of John. I mean, John has even figured out ways through both
science and sorcery to give someone immortality. Think about that.”
Angela smiled briefly. “So you want to get it rather than have
Xanatos get it.”
Chaos pondered. “Exactly. But what do you expect? I’m evil.”
He stood up. “Okay, kids, story time’s over!”
John rose seconds before Chaos clapped his hands together. The
chairs dissolved into black smoke, which slowly drifted away on the wind.
The chairs’ former occupants were dumped unceremoniously onto the sand
as the chairs disappeared.
“That’s another thing I need some creative inspiration for,” Chaos
grumbled. “I need some new effects for teleportation and stuff. This black
smoke deal is getting old.” He yawned. “But back to business. John, you
know as well as I do that this visit is so cliché that it makes my teeth hurt.
You know, the traditional story of the bad guy visiting the good guy. Unlike
most stories, however, evil will triumph over good. Which probably isn’t a
very good deal for the world as we know it. But hey, I’m evil. What do you
expect me to do when I win?”
Elisa stepped forward, gritting the words out between clenched
teeth. “Over my dead body.”
Chaos smiled humorlessly. “I thought you’d never ask.”
John leapt towards him as fireballs appeared around his fists.
Before he could tackle him, Chaos vanished, leaving John to pass through a
rapidly dissipating cloud of smoke. His deep, evil laughter could be heard
echoing on the wind.
* * *
Chaos coalesced into his form next to Jessica. She turned and
looked at him expectantly.
“Well? What happened?” She asked eagerly.
He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. She
snuggled up to him and put her head on his chest, wrapping her wings
around him in the gargoyle sign of affection.
Chaos smiled, then spoke doing a fair imitation of Xanatos’ voice,
complete with the same exact tone and inflections. “Everything went exactly
as I had planned.”
* * *
John stood in a dissipating cloud of foul-smelling smoke. He began
coughing, swearing in between the coughs.
“That fucking bastard! I’m gonna kick his ass for this.”
Elisa sighed. “Relax, John. He was doing it just to bait you.”
John stopped swearing and thought for a minute. “I guess you’re
right.” He looked around and sighed. “I guess the only way we’ll be able to
catch him is to follow his tracks still.”
He kneeled down to find the tracks once more. “They go this way.
Let’s go.”
Three
They walked in silence for a few minutes. John rounded the top of
a hill and stopped short, his mouth hanging open and his eyes almost
popping out of their sockets. The rest of them rounded the top a few
moments later.
Elisa gasped, Angela stared on in horror, Goliath’s face twisted into
a snarl of mixed rage and sadness, and John’s eyes almost began to glow as a
burning hatred for Chaos welled up inside him.
Before them lay a village. Bodies were everywhere, and at least
half of the huts were burned and smoking. Most of the villagers’ chests had
exploded or were ripped open, and blood was smeared all over the walls of
the houses. The bodies that were mutilated beyond recognition were bloated
and stinking from the humidity, and a stench even more revolting then
rotting flesh hung in the air. The buzzing of massive numbers of flies could
be heard even from this distance.
Elisa, a hardened police woman, used to seeing violence, turned
and retched noisily on the side of the hill. John swayed slightly, his face
slowly turning a rather interesting shade of olive green.
“I feel like Elisa looks,” he remarked to Goliath, who made no
comment.
They walked down into the village, carefully avoiding the bodies,
which were covered with flies.
John’s face was grim as he surveyed the carnage, and his stomach
was threatening to refund his last meal.
Angela managed to find her voice. “Why would someone do this?”
John swallowed, trying to get the nasty taste out of his mouth. “A
better question is, why would Chaos do this?”
“Do you really have to ask?” Chaos stepped out of the doorways
of one of the huts. “So, you’ve finally caught up to me. The question is,
now what are you going to do?”
Both Goliath’s and John’s answers were identical: “Make you pay
for what you’ve done.”
Chaos looked thoughtful for a moment. “No, I don’t think so.”
John sneered at him. “Really? Why not? We outnumber you five
to one. They defeated me when you possessed me. So there’s no way you
can win.”
Chaos looked genuinely surprised. “When I possessed you? What
are you talking about?”
John rolled his eyes. “Like you don’t know. A few minutes before
you visited us, they say I attacked them. They only way I would have
attacked them is if I was possessed by you.”
Chaos laughed. “Before I visited you, I was…busy. You must
have turned evil through the link we share.”
John gaped. This was a possibility he hadn’t considered. “Link?”
Chaos sighed. “Yes, link. It’s sort of like the one Demona and
Macbeth share, only we aren’t immortal, and we don’t feel each other’s pain.
Only we can sense what the other is doing and thinking, if we concentrate
hard enough. You must have turned evil because of the orgasmic feedback
through the link.”
John nodded. “I was feeling like I was…” He paused, and looked
at Angela, who was listening to him intently. “Ahem. Like I was feeling
kind of funky.”
Elisa stared at the two of them. “The feedback? With who?” She
turned and looked at one of the charred bodies. “I think I’m going to be
sick.”
Chaos blew air through his lips in exasperation. “You can’t
possibly think I…That’s sick. Even *I* wouldn’t sink that low. But if you
really want to know who it was with, ask her.”
Goliath frowned. “Ask who?”
A new voice, clearly feminine, with a soothing musical lilt to it,
spoke up from the shadows behind the group. “Ask me.”
Goliath and the rest turned to see a figure walk out of the shadows.
John stared at her, trying to figure out who she was. He was sure he had
seen her before.
Chaos grinned at the expression on John’s face. “Meet…Jessica.
Look familiar, John? She should. She was originally Amanda, your dream
woman. But I changed her name, form, and personality. She’s now just as
sadistic as me, possibly even more so.”
John turned his gaze back to Chaos as Jessica walked up to her love
and kissed him affectionately on the cheek. “Still,” he stated, “even with two
people, you’re still outnumbered. There’s still no way you can win.”
Chaos looked at him slyly. “I beg to differ.”
John crossed his arms. “Really? Why?”
Chaos let the corners of his mouth turn upward. It wouldn’t do any
good if he burst out laughing now. “I have the home field advantage.”
John looked at him confusedly. “Which means?”
Chaos shrugged. ‘The dawn is here,” he said simply.
Goliath, Angela, and Bronx turned to stone as the sun peeked over
the horizon, freezing them in their positions. All had worried expressions on
their faces. Jessica merely grinned, as Elisa gaped at her. For she didn’t turn
to stone like the others, but stayed as she was. A living, breathing, gargoyle
that wasn’t stone.
Elisa gaped. “But…You’re not stone!” She said. “It’s dawn, and
you’re still a gargoyle!”
Jessica glanced at her sideways. “You’re only half right.”
John nodded his head. “I was right. You’re a cyborg. Half
gargoyle, half super-advanced robot. Amanda was the same way, only she
was half human.”
Jessica merely smiled at him, but Chaos put a finger on his nose,
pointing the other hand at John. “And he guesses correctly! What do we
have for him today, Chuck?”
An announcer’s voice came out of nowhere, with the same
annoying game show host tone in his voice. “Well, Chaos, for our lucky
winner, he wins a trip to Chaos’ underground complex, where he will be
turned into a warrior capable of mass destruction. He will also win the focus
of a mind control spell, effectively making him Chaos’ slave.”
Elisa had paled, reminded of her brother’s incident with Dr.
Sevarius. She wasn’t going to let that happen to a friend, or anybody.
Nobody deserved that fate. Especially with Chaos controlling them.
The announcer’s voice continued, oblivious to the goings-on
around him. “And for the runner-up, we have a consolation prize. She will
be captured and used as bait for the gargoyle leader, who will walk into a
trap to save her. None of them will leave alive, as Chaos will order John to
destroy them.”
Elisa began to draw her gun, even if it was useless, since it was out
of bullets. She hoped it would be a good enough bluff.
She didn’t get a chance to fully remove it from the holster.
Something rammed into her at full force, knocking her flat on her back. The
gun flew out of her hands, flying in a graceful arc to land about ten feet
behind her. She looked up to see what had rammed into her, and came face
to face with Jessica’s snarling visage. Her eyes blazing crimson, she growled
at Elisa, who quickly stopped struggling.
“Never,” Jessica said, snarling between words, “threaten my love in
any way. If you do, I will rip out your throat with my teeth and spit the
blood in your face before you die. Have I made myself clear?”
Elisa gritted her teeth. “Crystal.”
Chaos laughed jovially. “I just love a woman that knows how to
kick the shit out of anybody threatening her interests.”
John looked on, carefully restraining himself from grabbing a hold
of Chaos’ neck and strangling him.
Chaos, both the wiseass and peacemaker in one, tried to calm them
down. “Ladies, ladies, ladies. As much as I like women fighting over me,”
he smiled charmingly at Jessica as she glared at him, “there’s no need to
fight. We already know who the victor would be.”
Chaos turned to John. “John, join with me. Your personality, my
looks. My power, your charm. Your creativity. Think about it. Together
we could make a great team. The world could be yours. All the women you
want. All the power you want, at your command. Freedom to do whatever
you want. Nobody will be able to stop you.”
John’s eyes narrowed. “Why should I betray my friends to join
you?”
“It will be for the greater good of all.” Chaos began spouting a
spiel that a used car salesman would kill for.
“Think of it John. You and me, working together. Best buds to
the end. There will be no crime, there will only be order. And peace.
People will be happy with no threats hanging over their heads. If people
commit crimes, they are immediately dealt with by one of the security robots
that are on every street corner. The world will be at peace for the first time.
The people will love us. We will be hailed as the champions who ushered in
a new age. People will erect statues of us in every town square. We will be
world famous. People will love us. People will worship us. People will
want to be like us.”
Elisa could see that John was considering Chaos’ offer. She had to
attack Chaos’ speech while getting John to stop considering.
“Your order,” she stated.
Chaos looked at her, his face not betraying any sign of emotion,
save for one: pure and total seriousness. “Yes. My order. Would that be
so bad? And, we’ll have John’s conscience to guide us. He won’t have to
do anything he won’t want to.”
Elisa continued her verbal attack. “But if he merges with you, he’ll
turn evil, so he will want to do the things that he ordinarily wouldn’t.”
Chaos shrugged. “So what’s your point?”
John’s face turned into a frown. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to
refuse.”
Chaos raised a fist surrounded by blue flames. “And I’m afraid I’m
going to have to insist,” he stated, his tone implying neither alternative nor
escape. He looked at Jessica and gestured towards Elisa with his free hand.
“Kill her.”
Jessica’s mood lightened considerably with this statement.
“Anything for you, my love.” She bent her head down towards Elisa’s face,
gnashing her fangs together. They made a sound not unlike the sound of a
knife being sharpened. The blood drained from Elisa’s face.
Elisa began to protest this statement, when Jessica kissed her
passionately on the lips. She pushed her tongue into Elisa’s mouth, and
Elisa fought back the wave of complete revulsion that was threatening to
overwhelm her.
Jessica parted and licked her lips. “Something to remember me
by,” she said, batting her eyelashes coyly.
Elisa gaped at Jessica, then did the only thing she could think of:
she spit in Jessica’s face.
Jessica wiped the offending substance off her face with the back of
her hand. Her eyes blazed red as her mouth turned into a snarl. She began
to move her mouth towards Elisa’s neck, mouth open to reveal razor-sharp
ivory fangs. Then she grunted as John kneed her in the stomach, flipping her
off Elisa with a sense of practiced timing.
Chaos’ amused and interested expression turned to one of anger as
John rammed his knee directly into Jessica’s abdomen. Even though Jessica
was a cyborg, and that there was no chance that that blow had hurt her in
any way, this was his woman that John had hit. He couldn’t let that happen,
even for his ‘brother’. His eyes, which ordinarily glowed a blood red, flared
into a brighter version of blood red. Now his eyes glowed fresh blood red.
He aimed carefully and punched at the back of John’s head. He
didn’t want to kill him, just knock him out and use him for his evil purposes.
John somehow dodged the blow that was coming and grabbed
Chaos’ arm as it went by. Chaos’ eyes widened in surprise as John flipped
him over his shoulder and onto his back.
He saw John looking down on him, and then John jumped straight
up, bringing his feet back to his rear-end and putting Chaos’ head on the
receiving end of the knee-drop.
John never got a chance to complete the maneuver. He was
stopped a couple inches from Chaos’ face as Jessica rammed into him at
about a hundred miles an hour. He had time to utter a surprised
*whoomph* as she knocked the wind out of him and hurled him into a wall.
He hit it an instant after Chaos transmuted it to concrete. He hit the wall
with a sickening *thump* and slithered to the ground, leaving a trail of blood
and a spiderweb of cracks where his head had smacked into the hard surface.
Chaos stood up, rubbing his back, and stared at Elisa. She
suddenly felt very small in the face of the seething rage that was in his eyes.
He sighed and motioned to Jessica. “Bring her along,” he said
tiredly. “Alive and unharmed. We should use her as an insurance policy.”
He stroked his chin thoughtfully. “I wonder how Goliath will feel
when he finds out that his dearest Elisa is gone?”
* * *
John groaned as he slowly became conscious, the sound echoing in
his ears. His eyelids felt like they were super glued to his eyeballs.
He raised his hand and gingerly rubbed the back of his head, feeling
the dried blood left by the gashes he had gotten. His arm was moving rather
stiffly, he sleepily observed.
Then he figured out that the reason his arm was moving so
awkwardly was because there were about a billion assorted wires and tubes
coming out from under the skin. Which was the exact same time that his
eyes snapped fully open, and his mind cleared suddenly.
And with the realization came the pain. But it was nothing like the
pain that he had felt when he had come here, to this reality. That had sucked
incredibly, which was the understatement of the day.
He took a moment to observe his surroundings. He was wearing
only his boxer shorts, in a glass tube which was about three feet in diameter.
An air mask was strapped to his face with thick leather straps, which bit
painfully into the sides of his face. He could deal with this pain as well,
however.
He tried to see through the tube, but could only make out blurry
shapes. Then he realized what the problem was: the glass was some type of
fogged glass. And it looked like it wasn’t even glass, but was instead some
sort of fiberglass.
A thick liquid rose from the slots in the floor grate. It was warm
and soothing, and the muscles in his feet relaxed as it touched them. He
stumbled to regain his balance as his feet collapsed from underneath him.
Soon the liquid rose to his neck, and his breathing became erratic as
his body reflexively panicked. But then his body figured out that he was
breathing air, and relaxed. A sedative of some type was pumped into his air
supply, making a nasty taste appear in his mouth.
He smacked his mouth together as the revolting taste grew
stronger. It tasted like really cheap coffee. And he hated really cheap
coffee. His stomach began to roil as his awareness faded into a pleasant
dreamlike haze.
Dimly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a bright red liquid flow
down one of the tubes that connected to his arm. He was confused, but then
realized what was happening as his arm began to burn.
He tried to clench his teeth together, trying to ignore the pain, but
found that the muscle relaxants had made his muscles completely slack. He
couldn’t move at all. He could barely breath, let alone clench his teeth
together.
The burning sensation began to spread rapidly all throughout his
body. He couldn’t even do anything, either. He had to sit here and take it.
But then he saw a robotic arm extend towards him from the ceiling
of the tube. He noticed a needle on the end of it. Slowly it got into position,
aiming directly towards a spot on his lower back.
This is really going to hurt, he thought dully.
The end of the needle jabbed into his lower back, slowly
penetrating his spinal column. Finally it went through, and his body was
wracked with spasms as the needle pierced his spinal cord. Then he couldn’t
move any more.
A second needle came down, aiming towards the back of his neck.
As it penetrated, he felt a blissful peace overcome him, and he relaxed
further.
His emotions began to go out of whack. First anger, then hate,
self-pity, despair, loneliness, suicidal urges, and then a moment of clarity.
He realized that Chaos was manipulating his emotions.
This realization did nothing to stem his feelings as he felt an intense
wave of hatred for Elisa wash over him. She had to be rescued by him,
when Jessica attacked her. That was so unfair. Why did he have to rescue
people? A bloodlust overcame him, and he wanted nothing more than to rip
out Elisa’s heart with his bare hands.
He was so worked up, in fact, that he didn’t even notice that his
skin was tearing. His face sloughed off of his skull as the acidity of the
nutrient bath slowly increased. It was a miracle his eyes didn’t burn out of
their sockets.
He passed out before his heart began to swell.
* * *
Chaos stood before the computer terminal. He was lucky he had
had the foresight to build this underground lab. He had used his magic to
make a computer that knew virtually everything about DNA. That was one
shortcut about magic he liked. It did what you wanted it to, even if you
didn’t know how to do it yourself.
Jessica walked up behind him and wrapped her arms around him.
“What are you doing, my love?” She asked.
He smiled as she began to nuzzle his neck. “I’m trying to decide
which form I should give my brother.”
She looked up. “I hope you’re choosing a form that’s suitable for
someone related to you.”
“Oh, it is. It is.” He reassured her. “The form is very powerful.”
He punched a few buttons, and a three-dimensional holographic
image appeared in the air before the two of them. It began to rotate slowly,
showing them all of its sides.
Chaos gestured grandly to the image. “This,” he said, “is the form I
have chosen for John. As you can see the skin is a mottled purple. Purely
aesthetic reasons. The form is a cross between a gargoyle and a human, with
three-toed feet, and clawed hands. The only difference is that the hands have
five fingers, and the feet are aligned flat, like a human’s. As you can see, the
face is no thing of beauty, which is why he’s going to wear a helmet that
covers his entire head. Also, the silver scale mail armor he’s wearing is
designed specifically for his new form. Silver arm and leg bands for
increased punching and kicking strength. So…what do you think?”
Jessica pursed her lips thoughtfully. Before she could speak,
however, the computer terminal beeped. Chaos looked over at a screen
which was displaying statistics.
“What is it?” Jessica asked.
Chaos’ lips peeled back form his teeth in a feral grin. “John’s just
woken up.” He punched a few buttons on the computer. “I’ve just initiated
the mutation process. I wonder how John will react when his skin begins to
the very fabric of his body begins to tear apart.”
Jessica smiled in a ferocious grin mirroring Chaos’ own. “I can’t
wait to find out.”
Chaos offered her his arm, and she hooked hers around it.
Together they walked over to the mutation tubes, and stopped in front of the
one John was in. Liquid filled the tube, and then the mutagen was
administered. Needles punctured his spine in two places, and then his eyes
narrowed and his hands became fists. He appeared to be so worked up that
he didn’t even scream as his face came off. The rest of his skin slowly
followed suit, and then his head nodded forward. He had passed out.
Chaos disengaged himself from Jessica and sat down in a chair.
“Please don’t interrupt me until I reawaken,” he said.
She looked at him confusedly. “What are you doing?”
Chaos grinned as his eyes closed. “Visiting our stone friends during
their sleep.”
Jessica looked at him in confusion, then an evil smile attached itself
to her face, as she realized what he was doing.
* * *
Angela walked through a field of sweet-smelling flowers. She
looked around in confusion, wondering where she was. Then she saw the
princess, and knew she was on Avalon. The magus walked up to her, and
she looked at him, puzzled. Wasn’t he dead? No, he couldn’t be. He was
here, after all. But still…she saw him…What had she just been thinking? It
was so hard to remember…She stopped trying to think and let herself bask
in the warm glow of affection that everyone was giving off. Everyone was
there-Elisa, Goliath, Gabriel, the princess, the magus, and the rest of her
clan.
They all began to run through the field, laughing joyously. She
reached down to pick one of the flowers, and it wilted as she touched it. But
it wasn’t dead. It turned black and grew thorns as big around as one of her
talons. She jumped back as it lunged at her, thorns quivering in expectation.
She stared at it in utter confusion. Had she turned it bad?
She didn’t know. But then it loosed a volley of its pollen into the
air. The surrounding flowers shriveled and turned black, growing thorns that
rivaled the thorns of the first. They lunged at her, stopped only by their
roots. But then they proceeded to belch out pollen, and even more flowers
went bad. Thorny vines rose from the ground, swaying like a snake.
She looked at the rest of her companions. They continued to frolic,
unaware of the evil flowers. She tried to cry out, but the vines launched
themselves at her, wrapping around her. When she tried to speak, a razor
sharp thorn was lanced into her side. Soon she was bleeding from a dozen
wounds.
A vine rose from the midst of evil flowers, which was rapidly
spreading, and began swaying. The magus ran within ten feet of it, and it
whipped out, and wrapped itself around him. Dozens of thorns extended
from the insides of the vine, piercing into the magus. He opened his mouth
to speak, but only blood came out. As he died, he only gazed at Angela with
an accusing stare. She tried to scream out, but anther thorn jabbed into her,
forcing her to cover her scream with a grunt of pain.
The others realized what was happening, and ran towards the
magus, determined to save him. Several of the gargoyles gave her accusing
stares, some asked her why she wasn’t helping to save the magus.
They ran right into more of the vines, and were cut down just as
fast as the magus. In a flash of anger, she broke free of the constriction,
tearing it apart in her blind rage. Then she realized what had happened, and
began to cry.
She stopped as she heard a snapping and popping sound. She
looked up, and saw she was surrounded by flames. They moved towards her
in an ever-shrinking circle, until she could reach out and touch them.
Someone laughed, a deep, evil sound. She screamed in pain and
despair as the flames lit her skin on fire.
* * *
Goliath flew above the city on his nightly patrols, carrying Elisa in
his arms. It was unusually quiet tonight, with no mutants, cyborgs, or
sadistic human-hating gargoyles in sight. He allowed himself one of his
rarely occurring smiles as Elisa snuggled closer to him.
His eyes shot open as she kissed him, impulsively at first, but then
slowly and more softly. He returned her kiss hungrily, finally acknowledging
his love for her. He found himself landing on her rooftop. Regretfully they
parted, and they walked into her apartment, holding hands.
To their surprise, they found Elisa’s entire family and Goliath’s clan
waiting for them. They both stood stunned as both groups merged to swarm
around the two, offering their congratulations to the new couple.
Goliath found himself grinning broadly as everyone left. Elisa
pushed him down onto the couch.
“Let me go slip into something a little more comfortable,” she said.
Goliath just stared at her in total and utter confusion. She laughed
and walked into the bedroom with an impish grin plastered onto her face,
leaving Goliath to sit and wonder in confusion as to the hidden meaning of
the phrase.
Elisa answered his question by walking out through the bedroom
door wearing only a violet gossamer nightgown that left nothing to the
imagination.
Goliath’s jaw dropped, and he found himself staring at her lithe
body.
Goliath mouth worked. “Uh…Are you sure we should be doing
this?”
The corners of her mouth turned up slightly, in an amused smile
that existed primarily because of Goliath’s expression. “Of course. We’ve
earned it.”
She reached around behind her, to undo the clasp on the
nightgown, but instead brought out a paring knife, and swiped it at his eye.
He reared his head back and caught her arm. Then she sliced
another knife across his face with her free hand.
He roared in pain and threw her away from him. She rolled and
landed on her feet, using the momentum to dive towards him. He dodged,
then froze as the sun came over the horizon. The only thing was, he could
still see.
Elisa’s smile became vicious, and she went back into the bedroom,
emerging some time later in a midnight blue military uniform. She carried a
sledgehammer with her. She pumped the second grip, smiling devilishly as
the head sparked and began to pulse with electricity.
She raised the hammer over her head, the sadistic smile never once
leaving her face. He found himself looking into her eyes, hoping for some
sign that this was a cruel joke, but he didn’t see anything like that.
Instead he saw a tiny flame in each eye. Then she swung the
hammer in a descending arc towards his face.
* * *
Sunset came, and both Goliath and Angela woke screaming, instead
of their usual customary roars.
Goliath immediately broke out in a cold sweat, and Angela was
very pale and shaky.
Goliath tried to regain his famous composure and failed. He sank
to his knees, and began shaking violently.
Angela bit her lip. A single tear began to trace its way down her
cheek. It was soon followed by others.
“What’s the matter? Did we have a bad dream?” A leering voice
came out of the shadows.
All three gargoyles began to growl at Chaos. Both Angela’s and
Goliath’s moments of weakness were instantly converted into anger.
“Why did you do that?” Angela asked.
Chaos chuckled. “Do I need a reason? I’m evil by nature. You
asking me why I’m evil is like me asking you why gargoyles protect.”
“Where are John and Elisa?” Goliath growled.
Chaos grinned cryptically. “Don’t worry, you’ll see them soon
enough.”
Goliath advanced on him, eyes glowing white. “What did you do to
them?”
Chaos looked shocked. “What and spoil the surprise? Come, now.
You should know better. I’m not going to let you do things the easy way.
If I do, you won’t learn anything. I’ve actually come here to bring you a
message, as well as to see what effect my dream tampering did. If you want
to see Elisa alive and John whole, follow the trail of blood. It leads to me.
There a tunnel will rise from the ground. Elisa and John are inside, but it’s
up to you to find them. Good luck. You’ll need it.”
He crossed his arms and disappeared in a puff of smoke, laughing
diabolically.
Goliath’s face turned grim. “Let’s go. Bronx, lead the way.”
Angela turned to Goliath as Bronx walked in front of them and
began sniffing the ground. “This has to be a trap.”
Goliath nodded. “Agreed. But we have to save Elisa and John.
We should be cautious.”
Bronx began barking as he ran off, following the trail of dried blood
that snaked across the sands. Goliath and Angela followed after him.
The trail of blood ended abruptly. Bronx stopped as well, and
began sniffing around in circles, trying to pick up the trail.
“What do we do now?” Angela asked.
Goliath crossed his arms. “A tunnel is supposed to rise out of the
ground. It looks like Chaos lied to us.”
Chaos spoke up from behind them. “I wouldn’t lie to you. Well,
actually, I might, but I wouldn’t now.”
They turned to see Chaos staring at them. He grinned. “Ah, yes.
The tunnel that you need to get through. Watch and learn.”
He walked forward, and stopped at where the trail of blood ended.
He extended an arm, the palm facing downward. His hand began to glow
white, and then the glow faded. The ground began to shake, and Goliath
and Angela fought to keep their balance. Chaos extended another hand in
the same fashion. It began to glow as well, and light began to surround him.
The tunnel slowly rose from amidst the sand.
Chaos stopped glowing and gestured for them to go inside.
Angela raised an eye ridge. “Did you need to do all that?”
Chaos grinned foolishly. “No, it was all for special effects. And the
tunnel could have rose faster as well, but it looks cooler if it rises slowly.”
He gestured for them to go inside once more. “Enter. Your friends are
somewhere inside.” He disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
The three gargoyles entered the passageway. The ground shook
once more, and the tunnel entrance slowly descended into the ground,
making the end of the passageway a metal wall. Their eyes began to glow,
providing them with am meager amount of light. It was enough to dimly
illuminate the passageway, however. With a series of clicks, lights went on
all along the corridor, illuminating Elisa a few feet down the hall.
Goliath went over to her and kneeled beside her. Both her face and
hair were covered with dried blood. She stirred as Goliath gently touched
her shoulder.
Groaning, she looked up at him with sleep-gummed eyes.
“Goliath…?”
“Are you all right?” He asked her tenderly.
She smiled weakly at him. “Nothing some rest won’t fix.” She
stood up and stretched, cracking her back. “Where’s John?”
Angela’s eye ridges furrowed. “We thought he was with you.”
Elisa shook her head. “No, Chaos…Oh my god! Chaos has him!
He’s going to do the same thing to him that Sevarius did to my brother! We
have to stop him!”
She started to run down the corridor. Goliath, Angela, and Bronx
quickly followed.
Angela bent her head towards Goliath. “What happened to her
brother?”
Goliath looked sad. “One of our enemies turned him into a mutant
gargoyle. Elisa was…very upset.”
Angela felt a brief pang of sorrow for Elisa. “Oh.”
Goliath caught up to Elisa. “Perhaps I should lead, Elisa. You’ll
be more safe in the back, especially since you’re in no condition to fight.”
She stopped and hung her head. “You’re right. But I just keep
thinking of my brother, and what happened to him. I don’t want anyone to
have to go through what he went through.”
Goliath nodded. “I understand. You’ll be more safe in the back,
though.”
She smiled. “Thanks, Goliath. You’re always there when I need
you.”
Goliath smiled briefly at her in return. Elisa went to the rear, to
follow the rest of them. The group advanced slowly into the interior of the
underground complex.
Elisa had been slowly lagging behind them ever since she went to
the rear. She stumbled briefly, then hunched over in pain without making a
sound.
“Don’t want to…” She ground out from between clenched teeth.
“But…I…must!”
Her eyes briefly glowed a scarlet color, and she smiled sadistically.
She walked over to the wall and pushed a hidden button on the wall. A
hatch slid open quietly, and Elisa removed the laser rifle that was hidden
inside. Grinning sadistically, she aimed the rifle at his back, right at the place
where his wings attached.
Bronx paused. He lifted his head and began to sniff.
Elisa’s eyes flared, and she began to picture Goliath’s death, his
chest exploding in a shower of bone and crimson gore. And then she’d kill
that bitch Angela. And then their little dog, too.
Bronx turned, saw her with the gun, and crouched, growling
menacingly.
Elisa cursed mentally and pulled the trigger.
She was too late. Goliath had turned at Bronx’s growl, and had
seen her with the laser rifle. A narrow lance of red light speared out from
the weapon and shot towards Goliath, who dodged. The laser burnt a black
mark into the wall of the corridor, and then acrid stench of ozone filled the
air.
Angela whipped her tail at Elisa’s legs, but Elisa had anticipated
this. She jumped over the tail and hit Angela in the face with the butt of the
rifle. Angela cried out in pain as her nose broke, heralded by the wet crack
of splintering bone. Splatters of blood exploded against her face as the rifle
hit, and she slowly toppled backwards, landing on the floor in a crumpled
heap. Goliath’s eyes glowed, and he roared in anger and surprise, as the
unfolding events began to remind him of his dream. He lifted Elisa bodily off
the floor and slammed her against the wall, pinning her arms to her sides.
The rifle dropped to the ground as she lost feeling in most of her body.
Angela stepped on the discarded rifle, which had been forgotten in the
impact against the wall. It broke with a satisfying crunching sound.
Goliath’s face mirrored concern. “Elisa, why are you doing this?”
He asked, confusion and a trace of fear creeping into his voice. Her only
response was to struggle harder.
Elisa’s face lit up with a solution to her problem, and she wasted no
time kicking him in the crotch. He let her go and fell to his knees, clutching
himself in unbearable agony. He tried to say something, but the only thing
that came out was an incredibly high-pitched squeak.
Angela suddenly rammed into her from behind, and she found
herself hurtling towards the wall. She hit it at full velocity, barely keeping
consciousness. In return, she gave Angela a reverse kick to the skull. As
Angela went down, Elisa went over to Goliath and grabbed onto the back of
his neck with both hands. She pulled his head towards her suddenly and
lifted her knee so that his mouth hit it. He fell to the ground, blood
streaming from his mouth.
But she had forgotten about Bronx. He jumped at her, hitting her
in the back, and slamming her to the ground. He landed on top of her and
hesitated. She used the hesitation to slam her right arm into the side of his
head in a modified karate chop. He reeled, but stayed on. Apparently
making a decision, he bit into the side of her face. She screamed in pain as
Bronx pulled his head back ripping off her face with a sickening tearing
sound. Blood spurted freely from the wound, and both Goliath and Angela
pushed Bronx off of Elisa in horror.
Elisa grinned at Goliath through the blood, and Goliath recoiled as
light reflected off of the revealed chrome skull underneath.
Angela realized it first. “It’s not Elisa. It’s a robot!”
The Elisa robot quickly got up. “What a surprise,” she sneered.
Goliath allowed his rage to overwhelm him, and his eyes flared
white. Angela’s began to glow a bright crimson, and both began to attack
the robot without any reservation, now that they knew it wasn’t Elisa
attacking them.
The Elisa robot didn’t stand a chance against three enraged
gargoyles. Goliath punched through the robot’s chest with his first blow.
He relaxed his arm, and let the robot slide off onto the floor. “Let’s
find the real Elisa.”
A chuckle was heard from behind them. “They just don’t make
them like they used to, do they?”
Goliath snarled at him. “Why do you keep doing this?”
Chaos threw his hands up in the air. “Why do you keep asking me
that? Okay, this is the last time I’m going to say it.” He began to talk
slowly, as one might talk to a lower life form, or as one might talk to a child.
“I am evil. Got it? I get kicks off of jerking people around. I am sadistic. I
like to hurt people. I think it’s fun.” He raised his head suddenly, as if
hearing something. “Well, it’s been fun. Have a nice life.” He faded out.
Goliath looked at the body of the robot. “The real Elisa must be
around here somewhere.” He looked down the corridor, at the maze of
doors and hallways. “I just hope we find her before Chaos kills her.”
* * *
Chaos reappeared next to the computers. He began to laugh at the
entire episode involving the Elisa robot. That one encounter had given him
so much power that it was staggering.
Jessica looked up from putting John’s armor onto him. “What’s so
funny?”
Chaos laughed. “What just happened with the Elisa robot,” he said
in explanation.
“Ah.” She finished locking his armor into place. “You should
probably cast the mind control spell now, while he’s unconscious. That way
he’ll have virtually no resistance to the spell.”
Chaos pondered for a moment. “You’re right. Besides, I have
more than enough power to keep the most powerful version of mind control
spells on him.” He closed his eyes and concentrated, focusing his power.
He released the spell, and observed it in astral space. He saw a web wrap
around John’s head, with a leash attached to it. The leash floated into
Chaos’ grasp, and he felt the essence of command fall into place.
Jessica looked at him as he opened his eyes. She made a face.
“The torn skin from the mutation process almost clogged the fluid
exchangers. I had no idea the process would be that gory.” She faked a
shudder, trying to hide her delight. Finally she couldn’t help herself, and
burst out laughing. “I wish I had brought some popcorn.”
* * *
Goliath found Elisa in a prison cell. She was hanging from the wall,
suspended from shackles that were clamped onto her wrists and ankles.
Goliath growled when he saw this, and ripped the door from its hinges while
trying to get in. He quickly broke the shackles, and set her gently on the
floor.
“Elisa, are you all right?”
Elisa weakly opened one eye to look at him. “Goliath? Where are
we?”
Angela walked up and kneeled beside her. “We’re in Chaos’
underground complex.”
Elisa bolted upright as soon as she heard those words. “John! We
have to stop Chaos from doing to him what Sevarius did to my brother!”
Goliath and Angela shared a glance. The similarity between the
Elisa robot’s sentences and her sentences had put them on guard.
She grabbed his arm as he got up. “Goliath, what is it? What ’s
wrong?” She asked, a concerned look on her face.
He shook his head and helped her up. “It’s nothing. He looked
down the passageway. Let’s go find John.”
Elisa set off down the passageway, a determined stride in her step.
Goliath found he had to walk a little faster than usual to keep up with her.
Angela and Bronx followed at the rear. Elisa looked at Goliath as he began
to walk next to her, then flashed a smile at him.
A laser beam shot between them, scoring a black mark into the
floor. All four spun to face this new threat. They were surprised to see
Elisa standing behind them, laser rifle in hand.
The laser holding Elisa leveled the rifle at the other Elisa. “Goliath,
get away from her.”
The Elisa standing next to Goliath crossed her arms. “You’re
going to act better than that if you want to convince Goliath that you’re the
real one.”
The gun toting Elisa’s eyes narrowed. “If I was the fake one,
wouldn’t I try to destroy you?”
The one near Goliath shook her head. “No, because then they’d no
that you weren’t the real one.”
Bronx looked back and forth in complete bewilderment. Goliath
was having trouble as well.
“Which one’s real?” Angela asked.
The gun holding one looked at her briefly. “I’m the real one.”
The Elisa next to Goliath shook her head. “No, I’m the real one.”
Her eyes lit up in realization as she though of something. “Where’d you get
that gun?”
The Elisa holding the gun shifted her grip on the weapon. “I found
it lying in the hall.”
The Elisa standing next to Goliath suddenly threw herself at the
other Elisa, and both grappled on the floor for the gun. Goliath kicked it
away from the two of them. He then picked up both by the jacket collars.
“You’re both coming along until we can figure out which one of
you is the real Elisa.” Goliath said.
One of the two crossed her arms over her chest. “And then what?
Destroy the other one? And what if you don’t figure it out? We’ll have to
fight Chaos and another person as well.”
Angela put her hand on his arm. “She’s right. We’ll have to figure
it out now.”
The Elisa that didn’t have her arms crossed abruptly lashed out at
Goliath, kicking him in the stomach. He dropped them both in surprise. The
fake Elisa went for the other one, and soon the two were locked in combat
once more.
Angela sighed as the two came to a stop several feet from each
other, looking at each other warily. “Now which one’s real?”
Goliath frowned. “And how will we know which one to grab if we
don’t figure it out soon?”
One Elisa’s eyes lit up in realization. “You have to get us both.
That’s the only way you’ll know you got the fake one.”
Angela lashed out at the other one, knowing that the Elisa that had
just spoken was the real one. The Elisa she hit flew back into the wall and
hit it with a thud, falling unconscious, or at least pretending to.
The Elisa that was left standing rubbed the shackle marks off of her
wrists. “That’s that. Now we can set out to do what we were supposed to
do.” She walked over to the unconscious Elisa and pulled out a knife.
Goliath’s eyes widened. “What are you doing?”
Elisa looked at him in confusion. “What does it look like? I’m
solving our problems.” She raised the knife, and her eyes glowed briefly red
for a second. Goliath, seeing this, lashed out at her. The knife flew out of
her hand and clattered to the floor.
She reached out and quickly grabbed the knife, turning on Goliath
with an inhuman speed. Goliath quickly punched through her chest. She
toppled to the floor, her robotic insides sparking and sizzling.
The unconscious Elisa groaned and sat up. She looked accusingly
at Angela. “Why’d you have to hit me so hard?”
Angela stared at the floor meekly. “I’m sorry. I thought you were
the fake one.”
Elisa grinned tiredly. “It’s okay. I forgive you. You had to do
what was necessary. Remind me never to mess with a robot that can think a
billion times faster than me.”
She got up and picked up the laser, beginning to walk down the
hall alongside Goliath, filling them in on what had happened after they had
turned to stone.
Soon they came to a large chamber, which contained several large
glass tubes. As they entered, steel doors slammed shut behind them, closing
off their escape route. Not like they could get out with the tunnel closed
anyway. The lights brightened slightly, leaving the chamber covered with
shadows. The room lightened enough so that they could see an expected
occupant: Chaos.
He sat in the center of the room, shadows covering his face. The
only part of his face that could be seen were his eyes, glowing eerily in the
shadows. He leaned forward, so that they could see the leer his face held.
His eyes gave the impression that he had accounted for every possible
contingency. Then again, knowing Chaos’ devious ways, that assumption
probably wasn’t too far off the mark.
His smile slowly turned cruel. “Welcome, Goliath. What can I do
for you?”
Goliath boldly strode forward. “We are looking for John. Release
him to us.”
Chaos settled back into his armchair, back into the folds of
darkness. They could barely see the Cheshire Cat grin he had on his face.
“What makes you think he wants to leave this place?”
Goliath frowned. “Enough of your games, Chaos. Let John go or
we will be forced to take him.”
“John? Who’s John? Oh, yes. I remember him now.” He leaned
forward once more, directly looking into Elisa’s eyes. “He was the person I
mutated, just like Sevarius did to your brother.”
Elisa flinched as if struck. Her eyes grew hard. “You’ve done it
already?”
Chaos smiled proudly. “Yeah. All by my little own lonesome. And
I even cast a mind control spell on him. A pity you weren’t here to watch
his change. His changing was a more…interesting process than the one
these gargoyle go through. And his new form is so much better than his old
one.”
Angela snarled at Chaos. “Change him back.”
Chaos smiled condescendingly at her. “I’m afraid that’s not going
to occur. Not because I can’t, because I can. It’s because I won’t. His new
form is so much more powerful than his old one.”
Angela snarled and leaped at Chaos. He simply sat there, looking
not at all scared of her. She found out why as something rammed into her
from the side. She flew in a graceful twenty-foot arc and slammed into the
wall.
Chaos grin grew wider. “So, what do you think of his new form?
It’s so much more…powerful than his old one. Don’t you think?”
Angela looked up, slightly dazed. Her vision snapped into focus
suddenly, giving her an eyeful of her assailant. He was about as tall as she
was, muscular, with mottled purple skin and silver armor. He had a silver
helmet, wore silver scale mail, and had silver arm and leg bands. He stood in
a fighting stance, obviously prepared to defend Chaos in any way possible.
She began to get up, and he backed off a little.
She looked at the figure in front of her. “John?” She ventured.
But it clearly wasn’t him, anymore.
“His name’s not John anymore. It’s Predator. A fitting description,
I think.” Chaos smiled cruelly. “Attack.”
He swung a fist at her face, and she barely had time to blink as her
head impacted with the wall, leaving blood and a few hairs in the spiderweb
pattern of cracks. Angela slithered to the floor, unconscious.
Goliath screamed in rage as he saw his daughter fall to the ground.
He jumped at Predator, who didn’t even turn as Goliath rammed into him.
Predator didn’t budge as the full weight of the massive gargoyle
slammed into him. He calmly turned and grabbed Goliath’s fist as a punch
flew towards his face. He then whipped Goliath’s arm around and released
it, and Goliath found himself flying away from Predator. He landed on his
feet and swayed violently as he tried to regain his balance.
Predator didn’t give him the chance. He ran up at a speed that
made Elisa’s vision blur, and kicked Goliath in the face. He didn’t let the
blow push Goliath away, however. Since his feet were flat versions of
gargoyle feet, he could use the claw on the heel as a sort of “opposable
thumb”. He grabbed Goliath’s face with his claws, and Goliath howled in
pain as the claws dug into the sides of his face.
Predator then pivoted, and brought his foot down, forcing Goliath
to fall with it. Goliath’s head slammed into the floor with a crack of metal.
Predator had no idea gargoyle skulls were that hard. Not that it mattered.
He released his grip and Goliath looked up at him briefly, then
rolled as Predator’s fist sank into the floor where Goliath’s head had just
been. Predator’s arm was lodged up to the elbow in the floor from the force
of the blow. He tried to pull his arm out, but it was stuck fast, and wouldn’t
budge. He looked up as his hyped-up senses picked up movement in front of
him. He was just in time to see Goliath swing a fist at his face.
The force of the blow hurled him backwards, but his arm was still
lodged in the floor, leaving him with only one option for movement: moving
forward. He moved right into another of Goliath’s punches, and this time
his arm came free, sprawling him out on the floor. Goliath took a step
forward, and Predator put his hands on the floor, pushing himself up so that
both of his feet connected with Goliath’s face. Goliath went down as both
feet connected solidly with his jaw.
Predator got up from the floor slowly. Those last two punches had
hurt him more badly than he had first thought. He looked around, and
spotted Bronx, who was running at him at top speed. Bronx jumped, and
Predator sidestepped, hit Bronx between the shoulder blades with the stiff
side of his hand. Bronx whimpered once, and was still.
He slow turned his head to face Elisa. She aimed the laser rifle at
his chest. “Not another step or I fill you with holes.”
Predator slowly tensed several muscles in his body, and Elisa
tightened her grip on the gun. He jumped towards her with incredible speed,
and Elisa pulled the trigger. The shot went through his chest, and he paused
briefly, looking at the hole with curiosity. He shrugged and continued
forward. She pulled the trigger again, sending the beam through the right
side of his chest, right through his heart. He looked down at the second
hole, which was rapidly spewing out blood. Elisa’s mouth fell open as he
began to continue forward once again. His second heart was still working.
Elisa shot him again, and his entire chest cavity exploded, having virtually
nothing left to shoot. Predator sank to his knees, massive gouts of blood
being vented from slots that had appeared in the sides of his helmet. He
slowly toppled to the floor, and was still. Blood pooled beneath him, and
slowly began to spread out from the body. The remaining life escaped him
with a liquid sigh.
Elisa looked up to the sound of clapping. Chaos and Jessica stood
there, giving her a standing ovation. She aimed her gun at Chaos’ chest, and
took a position between the unconscious forms of Goliath and Angela.
Chaos smiled warmly at her. She decided she’d rather have him
hate her.
“Good show, Detective. But did you actually think I’d let you kill
my counterpart? I do still require his creativity, after all.”
Elisa blinked in surprise. “You mean that wasn’t him? Then where
is he?”
Chaos gestured towards the wall, where a panel slid open. A figure
was silhouetted in shadows, just inside the newly opened doorway. The
figure walked forward, into the dim light. It was another Predator. “as you
can see, the one you just killed and the one you see here are identical. This,
however, is the actual John. As you can see, I did mutate him. The one you
killed is a clone of the mutated John. However, the only difference between
the two of them is the armor. The real Predator’s armor is better.” He
grinned. “Now. The *real* Predator. Attack.”
Elisa brought up her gun, but Predator lunged at her, and she held it
up to block his attack. The gun shattered, splintering into several fragments.
Elisa fell backwards in surprise. Predator’s head turned, the metallic silver
helmet flexing along with the motion of his heck. Elisa found herself looking
into the black gaps in the helmet that served as eyeholes. Predator gazed
back calmly, terrifyingly. He took a step towards her, and she knew she was
going to die.
Muscles tensed in his legs as he crouched, preparing to leap
towards her. With speed that was almost impossible to follow, he lunged.
His flight path, however, was altered by a perfectly-timed uppercut, courtesy
of Goliath. There was a shrieking of metal, and the front of Predator’s
helmet dented inwards. Predator careened away from Goliath’s punch, and
hit a startled Chaos, who promptly feel over the back of his chair, and
knocked over Jessica while trying to maintain his balance.
Predator stood up slowly, and shook his head, as if trying to clear
it. He stared at Chaos for a moment, then looked at himself, taking in the
skin, claws, arms, the whole works. His head shot up and he stared at Chaos
for another moment.
“Look what you did to me!” He screamed, and hurled himself at
Chaos, who had just stood up.
Chaos saw Predator charging at him, and blanched. He raised his
hands and fired off a quick force blast. Predator was knocked back slightly,
but kept up the pace, coming forward at an impossible speed. He threw a
punch at Chaos. Chaos dodged, but the blow glanced off of his shoulder,
and he was knocked to the floor. Jessica had disappeared, meanwhile.
Chaos, from his position on the floor, could see everything clearly.
He uttered a snarl of rage and lifted both hands above his head,
concentrating his power. His eyes flared a demonic red, and flames
surrounded him.
Predator dove to one side as Chaos let the spell loose, an it tore
forward on an impact course with Predator. But Predator wasn’t there
anymore. He had ran around behind Chaos after diving to one side.
Chaos lost control of the spell as Predator hit him between the
shoulder blades. The essence of violence surged forward, unrestrained. It
tore into the wall and destroyed an entire portion of the wall.
Chaos’ eyes got wide. “Shit! The generators! You stupid
douchebag! Now we’re all going to die!”
An explosion ripped open the rest of the wall, showering flames and
bits of shrapnel throughout the room. Everyone was thrown to the floor as
the ground began to shake violently. A deep groaning was heard, the sound
of tortured metal bending. The ceiling began to sway unsteadily.
Predator roared in rage and charged Chaos again. The two began
to fight as the flames got worse.
“John! Let’s get out of here! The ceiling’s about to collapse!”
Goliath strained to be heard over the chain of explosions that were currently
occurring.
Predator looked at him in understanding. He ran over to a console,
and typed furiously on a keyboard. A different shaking was heard, and
Goliath realized that the tunnel had opened, and the steel doors that blocked
it were opening as well.
Predator looked at him. “Go! Get the hell out of here! I’ll hold
back Chaos!” He looked at Chaos. “If I have to die, I’m taking you with
me!” He punched Chaos right in the mouth.
Chaos swore loudly. Blood began to drip from his mouth. “Shit.”
He looked up. “Well, Predator, if you kill me we’ll both die anyway.”
“I thought you said we weren’t affected like that!”
Chaos shrugged. “Not for pain. But we’re still the same person,
essentially.”
Goliath looked at Predator. “John! Come on! We have to go right
now!”
Predator bowed his head sadly. He walked over to Angela and
picked her up. He solemnly walked over and handed her to Goliath. Bronx
and Elisa had already gone. “Goliath, I can’t go with you. I have to make
sure Chaos doesn’t get out.” A steel girder smashed through the ceiling and
landed next to Predator. The shaking got worse.
Goliath nodded solemnly. “I’m sorry it turned out this way.”
Predator smiled wryly behind his mask. “Yeah. Me too. I run
from problems at home and encounter problems here. But that’s life. Do
me a favor. Take care of Angela for me.”
Goliath nodded slowly. “I will.”
“Now go, before the whole place comes down.”
Chaos tapped Predator on the shoulder as Goliath turned. “I
allowed you your time to make your peace. Are you ready to die?”
Predator looked at him. “What makes you think I’ll die?”
Chaos smiled. “Good point.” The ceiling cracked, and the
contents of the ground above them began to sift through the cracks. “By the
way. I lied about the death thing, between us, I mean.”
“Why?”
“I had to do it once before I die.”
Predator charged Chaos. “If I’m going out, I’m going out
fighting.”
* * *
Goliath gently laid Angela on the sand near the mouth of the tunnel.
There was a suddenly a huge explosion, and the ground shook as the
complex collapsed. A huge crater slowly appeared in the ground where the
complex had once been, and a giant dust cloud rose into the air from the
force of the blast. A complete silence covered the land as the gritty dust
slowly settled.
Angela woke up coughing. “What happened? Why are we out
here? And where’s John?”
Goliath hung his head, and Elisa’s face fell. “John…never came
out. He regained control of himself at the end. He sacrificed himself by
fighting Chaos so that we could get out before the complex collapsed.”
Angela gasped in shock.
One of the rocks one the crater’s slope lost its grip abruptly. It
rolled down the slope, clattering noisily. Everyone looked over at the
unexpected noise. A pile of rock shifted slowly, and a bloody hand clawed
its way to the surface. The blood obscured what color it was, so that they
couldn’t tell who it belonged to. The pile of rock shifted more, and a figure
rose from the hole. It was John. And he was back in his normal form. And
he was alive. Covered with gashes, grit, and blood, but otherwise alive.
He stood up, and the popping of his spine could be heard clearly,
even from this distance. He coughed violently and spat bloody sand,
brushing some sand from his eyes and hair.
“Fucking shit,” he swore. “That hurt like a bitch.”
He stumbled over to them, eyes glazed. He rubbed them as he
began coughing again, a dry, hacking cough. He spat blood and looked at
them, blinking dazedly.
Elisa blinked. “What happened? How did you get back to your
normal form? How did you even survive? There must have been tons of
rock that fell down there.”
John winced and rubbed his cuts, hoping the bleeding would get
most of the sand out of them. “Well…”
* * *
The lights shorted out abruptly. Predator didn’t need that much
light to see, however. The glowing of Chaos eyes combined with his own
ability to see in almost pitch blackness illuminated Chaos fairly easily.
Flames from the plasma generators leaped up around the two combatants.
Jessica was nowhere to be seen, having disappeared before the fighting even
started. It wasn’t like her to ditch Chaos and leave him to fend for himself.
Unless Chaos had told her to leave, and was planning on teleporting
magically out of here. And since he was going to die anyway, he figured
that he should take Chaos with him. Or at least become a major pain in the
ass.
The room rocked violently as another plasma generator exploded,
showering the room in green flames. The almost 200,000 degree heat
melted several supports, and the room began to slowly collapse in on itself.
Chaos had to shout to be heard over the noise of the explosions.
“Predator! Join with me and we can get out of this alive!”
Predator shook his head and struggled to stay standing as the room
rocked even more. “Hell no! The last thing this reality needs is someone
like you! And I’m not even supposed to be here! So that will take care of
another loose end for Fate!”
“If you stay, you’ll be killed too. What will your friends think of
that? What will *Angela* think of that?”
This set Predator back a moment. Finally he came to the right
decision. “I don’t care if I die just as long as you go with me! The others
are safe! That’s all that matters!”
Chaos fired a force blast at Predator, who was hit full in the chest
and flew backwards, colliding with the wall. His superior armor was better
than the other Predator’s armor, enabling him to survive both the blast and
the impact with the wall. Chaos charged him, both eyes and fists glowing an
unholy red. Predator extended his arm and pushed off the wall, using the
momentum to clothesline Chaos. Chaos fell onto the ground, his eyes
glazing over, due to the fact that he was slightly stunned. Predator brought
his fist back, preparing to end Chaos’ life by crushing his skull.
The floor buckled, and Predator saw his life flash before his eyes.
All the hate, rage, and guilt that had built up in him since his dark side had
emerged was suddenly gone. Those feelings meant nothing in that instant,
and he realized a simple truth that permeated him to the very center of his
being: he didn’t want to die.
He kneeled next to Chaos and began shaking him, trying to un-stun
him. “Chaos!” He shouted. “We can merge just as long as it takes so that
we don’t get killed by the complex collapsing!”
Chaos’ eyes had un-glazed. He got up off the floor. “I knew you’d
see it my way,” he said tiredly.
Predator calmed himself and closed his eyes. He felt their minds
begin to overlap, and knew they were merging. And that’s when his head
exploded in pain. He fell to his knees, grabbing the sides of his head in
agony, as Chaos ripped himself out of the partially completed merge.
He smiled evilly. “Thanks for letting me copy your creativity,
Predator. It will serve me well after I leave you here to die.”
Predator snarled through the pain. “You miserable bastard! You
were playing me all along, pretending to have the same sense of honor that I
did!”
Chaos’ eyes flared briefly, carrying with them the promise of painful
vengeance and slow death. “Hey, when you’re right, you’re right. But what
do you expect? I’m evil! And I like to be. But I can’t have you stay in this
form and possibly survive.”
Chaos snapped his fingers, and Predator reverted into John. He
grinned sadistically and teleported away in a cloud of foul smoke.
He looked around hurriedly. He didn’t have much time. He made
out the mouth of the tunnel and headed for it. The floor was shaking so
badly that he could barely move, he tripped on a piece of rubble and twisted
his ankle.
“Shit!” He swore, then began to crawl furiously for the hole. His
hopes ended as a slab of rock fell in front of the tunnel mouth. He crawled
over to it and got up on top of it, hoping for more rubble to fall, so that he
could crawl up to the surface. No such luck, for him. A steel girder fell and
rammed into his side, knocking him to the ground and forcing the air out of
his lungs in a rush. He sucked in some air and curled up into a fetal position
as debris began to fall around him. A laugh came from behind him, and he
knew Chaos was enjoying his torture. There was no way he could get to the
surface now. The rubble piled up. Desperately he longed for the pain to
stop. His wish was answered as a falling piece of rubble drove a rock into
the back of his head.
He woke up some time later. He didn’t know how long he had
been out, but he suspected it couldn’t be too long, since he could still
breathe. He looked around. He was surrounded by a bunch of debris,
sealing him in a tiny rock cell. He struggled to move some of it, and was
surprised when his hand got to the surface. He pushed more of it out of the
way, and crawled through the hole that he had made, into the cool night air.
How had he gotten so close to the surface? And if Chaos had done
it, why had he done it? John dismissed it, figuring it to be just a part of
Chaos sadistic pleasure-gaining schemes.
* * *
“After that, I saw you guys. I don’t suppose you want me to
continue?”
Elisa pursed her lips thoughtfully. “So, why would Chaos save
your life? I mean, he has your creativity. What more could he want?”
John shrugged. “I have no idea. He probably wants to toy with
you guys some more. Because if you knew I was dead, you probably would
have left. And then Chaos wouldn’t have been able to track you, without
getting lost in The Warp.”
Angela frowned. “What’s The Warp?”
John shrugged. He seemed to be doing that a lot recently. “I don’t
know. All I know is Chaos brought himself to life there.” He looked at
Goliath, who was nodding in understanding. “So…what are you guys going
to do now?”
Elisa shifted her positions. “We should ask you the same thing.
Now that the complex has been destroyed, what are you going to do?”
John tapped his finger against his lips thoughtfully. “I don’t know.
If I had some creativity, I would be able to think of something.”
Angela jumped into the conversation. “You could come with us.
I’m sure Elisa could help you once we got back to this…Manhattan of hers.”
John shook his head and grinned wryly. “Thanks for the offer, but I
think I’ll find the second lab.”
Elisa shot a sideways glance at him. “The second lab?”
John nodded. “Yeah. There’s another complex filled with spare
parts and stuff. Chaos created it in case of an emergency. I think I’ll go
there and see if I can rebuild the gate. I can use the instruments in there to
determine the frequency of reality I’m from. Then I can go home.” He
looked at the horizon and closed his eyes. He exhaled slowly and opened
them again. “You might want to get going. The sun’s going to come up in a
few hours.”
Goliath nodded. “If you change your mind and ever visit
Manhattan, look up my clan.” He extended his hand.
John smiled. “Count on it.” He gripped Goliath’s forearm in the
traditional warrior’s handshake. One corner of his mouth twisted in an angle
that Angela found familiar, yet she couldn’t place it. John slapped Goliath’s
shoulder in a friendly gesture. “Take care of yourself.” He looked at Angela
and winked. “You too.”
They turned and walked towards the beach. John walked them
until they were out of sight, then released the laughter that had been
threatening to overwhelm him. He grabbed his sides in maniacal laughter as
he fell to his knees, tears streaming from his face.
Finally the laughter subsided. He wiped the tears from his eyes and
stood up. He took a step forward and craned his neck to see if he could see
them. As he did so, shadows crossed his face, and the tiny red embers in his
pupils became clearly visible. He grinned cruelly and let the illusion of John
drop, resuming his natural features: ebony skin, shoulder length white hair,
and glowing red eyes.
Chaos walked over to the crater where the complex had just been.
He stopped at the edge and held his hand over the vast hole. He waved his
palm, and the sight, smell, and even touch illusions vanished, leaving the
ground untouched. He smiled triumphantly. They couldn’t even figure out
that the story he had told them as John was pure bullshit. In fact, they didn’t
even know that the fight scene between John and him was a carefully crafted
scene. Of course, Predator didn’t know that. Then again, neither did
anyone but Jessica and him. As of right now, John (or Predator, as he was
currently in that form) was still under his control.
He walked down into the tunnel and came face-to-face with Jessica.
She smiled sweetly. “Did everything go according to plan, my
love?”
He grinned in response, a triumphant, and yet feral, grin. “Of
course, my dear. If you hadn’t given me the idea in the first place, I might
not have thought of it.” His grin turned into a snarl, and his eyes burned
brighter. “And I still don’t have the creativity I need. Or the schematics for
any robots, master computers, or anything else of the sort. And all because
that bastard John didn’t merge with me during the fake collapsing of the
roof, like I planned for him to. Instead, he thought that it was better if he
got rid of my evil. Not that I blame him. If I was him I wouldn’t like me
either.” He paused, and the snarl turned into a viscous grin. “He didn’t
think I was so evil after I recast the mind control spell on him.”
Jessica raised an eye ridge. “So…What exactly did happen? I left
like you wanted me to, which was before the fighting started. And why
can’t you just tell Predator to merge with you? He is under your control.”
Chaos sighed. “The decision to merge has to be of his own free
will, or it won’t work. As for what actually happened…”
* * *
Goliath ran up the tunnel, carrying Angela’s unconscious form with
him. Predator watched him go, knowing very well that there was a big
chance he wasn’t going to see either of them again. Jessica had left before
the fighting started, as if she knew it was going to happen. Smoke billowed
from the hole in the wall, and green plasma began to flow out of it, looking
like a bright green cloud.
Even from twenty feet away, Predator could still feel the intense
heat. He swore and backed away. Chaos did the same.
Chaos looked at him. “You know, I was somewhat lying about the
link.”
Predator glanced at him sharply. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that we don’t feel each other’s pain, but we will both die if
one of us dies. The reason being that we’re still connected, somehow.”
The plasma began to flow towards them faster, and Chaos
magically erected a force bubble around them to shield them from the heat of
the plasma.
“Fuck you, Predator! If you hadn’t hit me, none of this would have
happened!”
“Fuck me? If you hadn’t brought yourself to life, none of this
would have happened!”
“Listen. My magic’s eventually going to run out. I don’t want to
die. And I think you don’t want to die.”
Predator looked at him. “So?”
Chaos concentrated. Even with his magic shield surrounding the
two of them, heat was still getting through. He recast the spell of mind
control on Predator, and Predator slumped, unconscious. Chaos then froze
the area magically, and magically resealed the rift in the wall.
He looked at the unconscious form of Predator. “Well, so long. I
have to convince them that I’m you. We’re going to have some fun when
you wake up.”
* * *
Both he and Jessica walked into the lab, which was clear of the
illusionary rubble. He looked at Predator.
“So, Predator, what should we do today?” Predator gave no
response. Chaos laughed. “That’s right. I forgot. I have to tell you what
to think. Silly me.”
Predator growled. “Actually, you’re not the only one who can
deceive people.”
Chaos paused, his mouth hanging open in an almost comical
expression of pure confusion. Then his good mood turned into a bad one.
“You fuckface! You tricked me!”
Predator laughed, a bitter, cynical laugh. His voice came out in a
taunting tone. “Fuckface? Is that the best you can do? Well, with no
creativity to use, I guess it’ll have to be.”
Chaos’ lip curled up into a snarl, and he lunged at Predator.
Predator grabbed him and hefted him over his shoulder, throwing him
gracefully into the far wall. Jessica’s eyes blazed crimson, and she took a
step towards Predator.
She stopped as a laser beam dug a burn mark into the tile right in
front of her. She looked in the direction the laser had come from and saw
Elisa, holding a laser rifle and standing in front of three very pissed off
gargoyles. “Starting the party without us?” She asked sweetly.
Jessica looked at Elisa with pure contempt. “How long have you
been standing there? And where’d you get the laser?”
Elisa paused. “I got the laser the same place where I got the other
laser. In a closet that had the words ‘laser storage’ on the door. As for how
long we’ve been standing here, we’ve been standing here long enough to
find out exactly what was a lie.”
Jessica snarled and jumped at Elisa, who calmly shot three holes in
her chest cavity with the laser. She went down, the life fading from her eyes.
Chaos got up shakily. “You *bitch*! You’ll pay for that!” He
looked at Bronx with hatred. “And your little Toto, too!” From the color of
his eyes, everyone could tell he was really pissed off. Predator slowly
backed away from him.
Angela leaned towards Elisa. “Who’s Toto?”
Elisa shook her head. “I’ll explain later.”
Chaos grinned sadistically. “If there’s a later,” he amended.
He lowered his palms towards the four, and orb of black smoke
gathered around his hands. Suddenly the inky blackness shot at them.
A sheet of silver scale mail spun between them and the blast. It
took the brunt of the blast, and spun off into a corner, exploding with a
deafening noise. A beam no thicker than a pin had missed the scale mail,
however, and it impacted with Elisa’s laser rifle. It began to sound off
several beeps, which increased in speed and intensity.
“It’s overloading!” Predator shouted. “Get rid of it!”
Elisa couldn’t think. So she did the only thing she could think of,
who was the focus of her attention at that particular moment. She threw it a
Predator.
He caught it and looked at her quizzically. “What the Hell are you
giving it to me for?” And then he threw it at Chaos.
“What?” He sputtered. “No!”
It exploded with a burst of red light. The force wave hit the four of
them before the blast did, and they were hurled into the tunnel and out of the
complex. Explosion after explosion was heard, and a roaring sound was
rising above the rest of the noise. Curious, they looked down the tunnel and
all they saw was an expanding wall of crimson flame.
They looked on in horror as the flame subsided, and an acrid smoke
billowed from the tunnel.
Elisa swallowed painfully. Her lungs felt like they were burning.
She coughed so violently she had to sit down. “I don’t think anyone could
have survived that blast,” she uttered hoarsely.
A rumbling sound began to emanate from the ground above the
complex, and a burst of light pierced through the ground, rapidly expanding
into a circle of light.
A figure flew from it, screaming in wordless agony. The hole
closed after the figure’s passage, and the figure slowly floated down, to
hover a few feet above the surface of the ground.
She began to walk toward it, stopping a few feet from it. It gazed
at her calmly, expectantly.
“Predator?” she ventured.
It continued to look at her silently. Then she realized that the
figure had black mottled skin, not the normal purple coloration. A small pit
of fear began to gnaw at her stomach as she took in the rest of the figure.
The armor was Predator’s, but it was a metallic black, rather than silver.
Even the helmet was different, with only the front of it. The back had been
replaced by a shock of shoulder-length white hair.
“Predator? Is that you?” She asked.
The figure raised an arm towards her. “Predator is dead,” the
figure intoned. Wisps of blue energy began to flow around the fist the figure
had made. “As is Chaos. Now…” The energy condensed into a black
cloud, with the blue bolts running through it. “…There is only Dark
Predator!”
The ball of dark matter shot towards Angela, who stood rooted the
spot in sudden fear. She didn’t understand why she was afraid, or even if
she was afraid. Time slowed down, and she saw the dark matter slowly
flying towards her. Suddenly a figure encroached on her peripheral vision,
tackling her to one side and completely avoiding the attack by mere
millimeters. It exploded behind them, vaporizing the sand.
She looked at her savior, and stared into the robotic eye sockets of
Jessica. Angela recoiled as she saw that Jessica looked like the walking
skeleton of someone who was burnt to death.
“I thought you were dead,” Angela finally stated.
Jessica gave a good impression of a shrug. “Reserve power supply.
But I only saved your life because I need your help to separate them. I have
no idea why they’re both not dead.”
Dark Predator laughed amusedly. “Because neither of them wanted
to die. And since it takes a few weeks for them to fully separate, they
merged together, both of them wanting to survive.”
“Predator!” Angela shouted. “If you still exist, listen to me! You
can’t stay merged with Chaos! Think of the people you’ll hurt!”
“Dark Predator does not care about people. They are destroying
the world. They deserve to die.”
“Well, you’re going to destroy the world as we know it if you
continue. Neither of them want to be together. So separate, now!” Jessica
said.
Dark Predator paused, considering the logic of this statement.
Even though he was evil, he was still the combination of both. He had both
their looks, both their strengths, and both of their types of logic. And
neither would lie to themselves. Dark Predator had to concede that this was
a true point.
Dark Predator sighed. “You’re right. I will separate. And I will
wait for you both.” Nobody was sure whether he was talking to Predator
and Chaos or Angela and Jessica. A black rift appeared down the middle of
Dark Predator, and the two halves exploded outward, forming into Predator
and Chaos.
Chaos rose slowly, feeling aches all throughout his body. He
looked at Predator, eyes wide with wonder. “So, this is what it’s like to
have your sense of creativity. I say sense, because I didn’t get the same level
as yours. Oh, well. Anyway, you can be sure that we’ll meet again. If I
were you, and I am, I would count on it.” He looked over at Jessica.
Snapping his fingers, he magically restored her to her former self. “And, I
also have to eliminate the competition.” He snapped his fingers again, and
Predator reverted back to John, quickly and painlessly. “It was the least I
could do,” Chaos said in explanation. “And I still have a debt to pay off to
you. See ya!” Chaos and Jessica disappeared in a burst of flame.
Elisa looked at John. “So, what are you going to do now?”
John pursed his lips, considering. “I really don’t know. I guess I’ll
go back to the lab and see if I can get home. I remember the lab wasn’t that
badly damaged from the blast.”
Goliath held out his hand. “If you ever come to Manhattan, look us
up.”
John grinned and clasped Goliath’s arm. He smiled wryly. “If I
stay, you can count on it.” He looked down the beach. “I think I’ll see you
off, as well.”
Bronx took the lead, and Goliath and Elisa followed. John and
Angela began talking quietly. She explained everything that had happened.
“So,” John began, “how’d you know that Chaos wasn’t me? When
he was impersonating me, I mean.”
“He gave it away with the subtle clues in his speech.”
He looked at her quizzically. “How?”
She explained. “Like when he talked about The Warp.”
He raised an eyebrow. “What’s The Warp?”
“I don’t know. But he sounded like it was very important. And
then he talked about how he had let you go. And if he had lied about saving
your life, why would he keep you alive? I mean, he supposedly already had
your creativity.”
John frowned. “I don’t know. I’ll be sure to ask him when I see
him next. And why would he say those things, which were obviously false?
It’s like he had this entire thing planned out, and everything went exactly
along with the plan.”
He realized they had reached the skiff. “Well,” he said. “I guess
this is goodbye.”
She looked at Elisa and Goliath, who were animatedly engaged in
their own conversation. Bronx was in the bow of the skiff, looking out
expectantly over the water. “I guess it is.”
“I know we’ve only known each other for a few nights, and most of
the time I haven’t been myself, literally, but for some reason I feel close to
you.” John looked at her, eyes probing her face.
She hesitated. She felt that same way, strangely enough, but she
hadn’t ever felt like this before. So she didn’t know how to deal with it.
She wondered if it was love, or deep friendship. Or perhaps it was
something else entirely.
“I feel the same way.” Her quiet response startled both her and
him.
He nodded, absorbing this latest bit of information. He looked at
her face, and a sly smile crept onto his face. His eyes glinted mischievously,
and she wondered what he was thinking of.
He grabbed her around the waist and swung her around so that she
was lying in his arms.
He smiled at her warmly. “I *will* see you again,” he said. “I
promise.” His eyes were full of promise and hope.
He lowered his lips to hers, and she almost reflexively pushed her
lips against his. They kissed for a few seconds, and then parted, almost
regretfully. Then he stood her back up, and they stared into each other’s
eyes for a few moments.
“Goodbye.” He said.
She smiled sadly. “Goodbye. And don’t forget your promise.”
Then she turned and walked into the skiff. Goliath took his
accustomed position, and then began poling the skiff into the gathering mist.
Angela looked at John, and saw him looking into her eyes.
He continued to stare out at the water, even after the mist had
cleared. The sun slowly rose above the horizon, and he watched it with
dulled interest. He sighed, turned, and slowly walked back to the lab.
He didn’t notice the wisps of black smoke that were following him,
slowly circulating around a spot a foot or two in diameter. Red glowing slits
shaped like eyes appeared briefly, then faded, along with the rest of the
cloud. Evil laughter drifted on the wind.
The End
So, what’d you think? Questions? Comments? Ideas? Praises?
Any corrections you want to point out? If so, email me at: demons@usa.net
Feedback will be greatly appreciated.
And don’t forget to look for “A Twist of Fate”, which is the story
that occurs after this one. Predator returns, and as usual, Chaos meddles.
Predator is, of course, more powerful. When he goes berserk, the gargoyles
have to team up with an unexpected ally in order to stop him.
-DemonSpawn, June 19, 1997
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