Destrillians: The Awakening of a New Breed

[Tennyo]

-A year and a half ago-​

“Why...why did you do that?” Emma stammered.

“Do what? This?” asked Dr. Thomas, casually dropping a dead albino mouse on the table in front of her. “Just getting rid of what isn’t needed. The experiments with the mice seem to be having the opposite effect on your growth than what we want.”

“But you don’t have to kill them!” she protested.

“Oh?” He swung the hammer he was holding down onto the table behind the box again. Emma flinched as the sound of hit hitting it’s mark echoed throughout the room. She had felt the tiny life snuffed out upon impact.

At least it was quick…

“Please stop.”

“Did you feel that, 008?”

“Feel what, the mouse die? Is it supposed to mean something that I know you just killed one when I can’t see it? You’re swinging hammer at them! This isn’t exactly rocket science!”

Dr. Thomas lifted the hammer up again, poised to strike. “Two down, how many are left?”

Emma clenched the sides of her desk in desperation. “I told you I don’t know! I’ve never had this power! Please don’t kill them!”

He lifted the hammer higher. “Five seconds..”

“Please don’t! Don’t kill them please!”

“Four…”

“Doctor Thomas please don’t do this!”

“Three…”

Emma jumped to her feet. “Knock it off I said!” The two security guards in the room quickly raised their rifles.

“Two…”

Emma took a step toward him as one of the security guards spoke. “Not another step closer.”

“One…”

Emma lunged and grabbed for the hammer in Dr. Thomas’ arm. She managed to get her hands around the handle, where she managed to stop it mid swing. At the same instant she felt a sharp prick in her left shoulder. Reaching around with her right she managed to yank out the tranquilizer dart that stuck there. She paused for a moment looking at it, then looked up into the face of her scientist, both still holding the hammer and both looking almost perplexed for vastly different reasons. Then the girls’ knees buckled and she was on the floor, fighting to remain in at least a sitting position.

The scientist crouched down in front of her, gently brushing a strand of bright red hair out of her freckled face. “My dear poor child. That was terrible wasn’t it?”

She looked into his face, fighting to keep her blue eyes focused on him. “Please don’t kill them, they’re…”

“The only things in this whole place that you feel are yours? The only connection you have left to your precious Natasha?”

Emma couldn’t come up with a response to what he was saying as she leaned against one of the table legs for support. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep her focus.

Dr. Thomas reached out and cupped her chin with one of his hands. He had picked up one of the still living mice and he held it in the other. “Now 008, I realize how important these mice are to you, but remember what I said about the seeds? You need to earn them. From now on no more faking, okay? I will know when you are and soon you won’t have any mice lift, understand?”

That’s one thing about Doctor Thomas that I will never understand. He could be so cruel, yet in an instant he could turn almost fatherly. It throws me for a loop, but also marks him as someone never to trust.

Before Emma lost consciousness she noticed that the mouse the man was holding was the one that happened to be bigger than all the others. She wondered if he had ever even noticed it’s size, or the implications behind such a seemingly insignificant detail.

It was a long-running experiment to test one of Natasha’s theories. She had me take care of a baby mouse every day. Seems simple enough, but it was hard work and I spent a lot of time recouping in my pod with Disturm. Other living organisms besides plants are just too complicated to manipulate. It grew faster than the others, and slightly bigger, but I wouldn't consider it a success. But maybe Natasha did. That's why she wanted to take me and run away. That's why she told me to never tell anyone about my extra abilities. I never did.

-Now-​

“This way, this way, move move move!” came the stern orders from the commander of the security detail tasked at keeping the survivors the “incident” safe. They ran down hallway after hallway, dodging a few dead bodies as they went, yet somehow managed to to avoid running into anyone living.

Finally they reached the large freight elevator that would take them to basement level one, from which they could exit and find another way out of the basement completely.

Basement level one was swarming with security personnel, all locking down the elevators and setting up posts on the stairwells. The only way to get above ground would be to go through them. None of the elevators when straight up, and the stairs would be hard to get through. All of them felt secure in their setup, yet no one knew if they actually were.

“What did you mean sir?” asked the assistant that had called him Dr. Thomas once they exited the elevator. He whispered so

“What do you mean what did I mean?” his superior asked of him.

“You said you had a theory about Emma? One of Doctor Nedews’ theories?”

“Confidential, need-to-know only. Not even all of the members of the board know, and until I get the answers I desire it will stay that way.”

“Yeah but…”

“Trust me, the less you know right now the better off you will be.”

“Yes sir. But do you think Emma will be safe?”

“So long as she stays in her pod and her room is sealed shut she should be.”

“Do you think she’ll actually stay put? She seemed pretty freaked out.”

Dr. Thomas ran his fingers through his hair. “We can only hope, and pray to whatever sentient being there is if you even go for that kind of crap. But damn, we can’t loose her. We just can’t.

Deep down four floors into the earth Emma lay in her pod, curled in a fetal position and crying. She had just felt the deaths of eight more people. More faint, since they were probably much farther off on the floor, but sickening nonetheless.

She struggled furiously with herself to regain control. She always used to talk to herself when she was upset and alone in the past, and this would be no exception.

“Okay Emma, okay, breathe just breathe just breathe just BREATHE! I gotta learn to deal with this; I can’t just keel over every time something dies!”

She tried desperately to clear her head and control her sobs as she tried sucking all the snot back into her nose.

“Oh man this is so disgusting. SOMEONE LET ME OUT OF HERE!” She banged on her pod with her fists and feet again, but she had no more luck than before.

“Okay, okay, telepathy, try telepathy. Sierra was always the strong one, able to broadcast herself all over, but someone has to hear me, right?"

The young woman then closed her eyes and tried desperately to clear her mind, readying herself to try and send out a plea to anyone close enough to listen. Telepathy had never been one of her strong points, but it had to work at least a teeny tiny bit, didn’t it?

She could sense two other Destrillians within a close range to her room only a hallway or two away. They had to be close enough. Emma focused on them with all her might, and when she felt comfortable with her telepathic connection she began to form the words in her mind that she would send to them.

At least, until she became distracted by something else. A voice echoed through her head.

“HELLO!”

Emma started in her pod, flailing out her arms and legs involuntarily and stubbing one of her toes.

“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!” she screeched inside her pod. It was so odd, and unexpected, and…odd? Odd. Yes, odd.

“That voice…Terra? Was that Terra?” she asked herself. What was Terra doing assaulting her mind like that? Such an odd girl, Emma had always thought. On many occasions she had tried to be nice to her, and a couple of times even tried to strike up a conversation with her in the recreation room. But the girl was strange, no doubt about that.

“Okay, come on Emma, calm yourself, you can do this. You need to do this.”

Once again she cleared her mind and tried to focus on her peers. She concentrated on the two nearest her location since they were more likely to hear what she had to say. The thick walls interfered with her being able to tell who they were exactly, but there was no way they could not be Destrillian.

“Who’s there? Can you hear me? What’s going on? I can’t get out of my pod I need help! Please someone answer me!”

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

Oh, good, they heard me. Hello Sierra, hello Erthys, I hope I’m not bothering you guys. I also think I was talking wrong, so sorry, sorry.​

Not that any of this was actually said, however. She was too scared to let the words come out of her head. Instead, she stumbled to them, nodding at Sierra’s suggestion. She was too tired to object anyways. In fact, she probably shouldn’t have shot herself with that tranquilizer gun, since she was now feeling the effects of a not-entirely awake brain. Questions that she was quite sure were not hers were bouncing about her brain like lazy pool balls.
[FONT=&quot]
“Who’s [/FONT]…[FONT=&quot] Can[/FONT]…[FONT=&quot]..me? What’s[/FONT]…………[FONT=&quot] Please [/FONT]…[FONT=&quot] me!”[/FONT]

That voice sounded familiar. She was sure she heard it before, though it was quiet and distant. Her brain wanted to work even less, the more it was sinking into delirious confusion. It probably started with an ‘e’ or something, everyone’s names started with e’s…

She blinked her eyes lazily, finally noticing that Erthys had offered his hand to her. Nervously, arm shaking like it was going to snap (or cause him to snap), she weakly shook his hand.

Humans feel weird and warm and squishy. But hard, too. Maybe firm is a better word to describe it… Of course there are other things on a person like that.​

She pulled her hand back suddenly, looking at the other Destrillians warily. They were her friends, though that was a very funny and unfamiliar word to her. Like “arrhythmia” or “electrophoresis”. Words were said, though she wasn’t sure when, or where, or how or why. Generally because she could feel the greedy hands of sleep beckoning her brain to rest, blinking and letting her head bob up and down on her shoulders.

Terra decided it best to tell them that she had shot herself in the leg with a tranquilizer gun and she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to stay awake for long. Mumbling the message in her head, hoping that her friends were getting it.

Got shot with tranq gun… very, very tired… help would be nice​

She slumped against the wall, not bothering with her coat. She really wanted to sleep, and the adrenaline that had apparently kept her from falling asleep earlier was almost entirely gone. She closed her eyes and started to apparently doze.

Helping Emma would be nice, I like her. She’s a sweetheart. But I don’t know if we’re friends.​

 

[NoenGaruth]

Beginning database search. Please input your search query:

D-E-S-T-R-I-L-L-I-A-N

Found numerous matches. Please select your choice from the list.

Project Destrillian main archive

ERROR - Requested information is restricted to Science Department personnel and Viola Executives.

O-V-E-R-R-I-D-E 2-7-9

Restriction override engaged - Please Input your override verification:

S-E-T-H V-A-R-G-A-S

Please Input your identification code:

S-N-O-W-B-U-N-N-I-E-S

User recognized - Director Seth Vargas - Access to file granted.

"Well now.....this should prove an interesting read".

Circe grinned as the wealth of information began filling the screen in front of her. Sifting through this should be a piece of cake, although she would have preferred to actually break into the database herself - instead Vargas just gave her his access details to save the trouble, considering they were short on time now that there were element-controlling super humans on the loose in the basement.

"Ok lets see here.....budget reports, project leaders observation logs, experiment time schedules........ah here it is, Test subject records." Circe had a habit of talking to herself while working.

She opened the directory and was greeted with a list of everyone that had been 'recruited' to become Destrillians. The first thing she noticed was a number of grayed out listings - no doubt those were the ones that didn't survive the experiments. Her attention then shifted to the active list of participants, which showed there to be 11 of them, so she opened the first one on the list: 001 - Sierra Alexis Lutraine.

Immediately a bio popped up on the screen accompanied by a recent image of the subject, which showed a fairly young girl with white hair and matching eyes. Circe was surprised by such an unnatural appearance but upon remembering that it was the science department in charge of this such alternations were not surprising. She continued to scan the information on this girl looking for the section that specifies her power and combat abilities.

"Hmmm...so she can control light, doesn't sound that special"

How wrong she was, the following paragraphs documented cases where she had used this power to blind people or remove a room's lighting, and such actions combined with the fact that this one seems to excel at hand to hand combat could prove deadly in a direct confrontation. She wrote down the necessary details about the girl and a note advising use of drones is recommended for this opponent, then went back to the list to check the other listings.

This is worse than even the Director could have predicted. After scanning all the bio's she was shocked at what these Destrillians could actually do, it seems the science department had not been openly sharing this information, and despite it all being documented here the fact they'd been underplaying their test subject's abilities had resulted in those in charge of the other department having little interest and no desire to keep checking up on their development. Of course if they and Director Vargas in particular had know about this then the dangers of them breaking out at any given time would have been more apparent and possibly avoided, unfortunately those arrogant scientist just like to keep things to themselves and keep pushing their luck until it all blows up in their faces - how typical of them.

By now the list she had jotted down on a pad with summaries of each target had gotten pretty big, and nearly all of them had recommendations of using Combat Drones to dispose of them, save for one - 009, who apparently could manipulate metal. Circe was unsure how the drones would fair against this person, the armor is fairly thick but could this girl possibly start taking them apart at the seams and pull out wires or bolt? The drone's main armament is numerous mounted miniguns and secondary grenade or rocket launchers, all of which fired projectiles which were either made of or contained metal, however could the target deflect the amount of bullets the drone could fire? Would there be less resistant to a higher caliber round? So many questions ran through Circe's mind as she attempted to assess every possible way the drones might fail against this girl, Idris Savage, the Gunmetal Glint.

"You seem to be rather obsessed with whatever is on that paper Miss Circe."

The voice had snapped her out of her thoughts, and she turned around to discover the voice was only Dr. Woltar, the chief roboticist of the department. Woltar had been working for Viola longer than she had, and even longer than the Destrillian project had existed, although he didn't really pay much attention to it since it had nothing to do with him.

"Oh I didn't hear you come in Doctor, sorry I've just been really focused on this stuff due to all the chaos going on"

Dr. Woltar raised his eyebrow "Chaos? Don't tell me the LY-9's reactor leaked again..."

"No not this time Doctor, it's the Destrillians, they're broken out and to be blunt basement level 5 has turned into a slaughter house". Her mentioning of the word 'Destrillians' made Woltar sigh and the aforementioned blood bath made him place his palm on his face. "I knew one day that whole thing would turn to disaster, but I was hoping it would be long after I retired".

"Unfortunately the situation is spiraling out of control, and despite the military division's confidence, I seriously doubt they'll be able to stop them and then it'll fall back onto our department to do something about it."

Dr. Woltar looked back up from his palm at her. "I bet the Director is loving this, probably off somewhere now rubbing it in the faces of anyone in Science research who isn't dead already, and I can be sure as anything that at least half on them are now corpses. Those arrogant fools probably refused to leave and tried talking their subjects into giving up, tho if I was any of those poor kids down there I'd have gutted them on the spot."

Circe had to smile at the Doctor's words, he always had a wise perspective on things. She on the other hand had only been thinking of the best course of action to combat the escapee's, and hadn't given much thought to the fact they had good cause for what they were doing.

"Maybe you're right, unfortunately the board isn't going to just let them walk out the door, and frankly we can't either. There's no telling what state of mind those people are in, let alone how they might act in the outside world. For all we know once they get outside they could just continue on their murderous rampages, and I don't think those who contracted Viola into developing the Destrillians would look kindly on such a disaster."

This was the unfortunate truth, and Woltar knew this couldn't be ended peacefully. He then shook his head "I hope I'm wrong, but in my honest opinion the board will just issue an order to stop them by any means necessary, and they'll become yet another casualty of Science."

Circe closed her eyes and coldly said "If that is what it is to be, then they shall all die."

Woltar looked away from her after hearing those words. Circe may have seemed like a nice girl, however she had that streak that Vargas possessed, a hidden layer of coldness and cruelty, and just like the path the Director was traversing down, one day that streak will consume her entirely.

"Well I'll let you get back to your work, no doubt Vargas is going to come bursting in here raving about how some adversary of his just got their heart ripped out or something". And with that he headed for the door.

"Oh ok, goodbye Doctor." Circe called out to him, then looked down at the piece of paper she had been obsessing over. Thinking again about who these target's were, she thought to herself I wonder what it was that the Director was thinking about on the helipad when he trailed off.... could he have been considering coaxing them into joining him....I guess that would also be an acceptable resolution, however if they don't go with that we'll just have to kill them. Yes, that is the only other logical course of action. They can't be released and they won't go back to their containment, so we'll just have to make it as though they never existed...


Destrillians: The awakening of a new breed will be right back after these messages.

Fast Forward >>

We now return to Destrillians on Thelifestream.net


This room was cold, not only in temperature, it also just had this chilling presence to it. The Viola Board room was unnecessarily large and the roof was towering, most likely taking up space on the third floor too. The walls were a dark brown colour and the floor was covered with some kind of expensive crimson coloured carpet. In the middle of the room was a long table which sat numerous Violan officials all along it, and at the very end facing away from the room's back wall with it's massive tinted window, was the President and CEO of the Viola Corporation, a man shrouded in more mystery than all of his subordinates combined.

Vargas sat on the right hand side of the table, only 3 seats down from the President himself, the seats between the two up that end on both sides were taken up by the leaders of Viola's private military.

He was waiting somewhat patiently for the meeting to begin when he noticed someone entering the room and proceeding towards the seating at the table designated to the Science department. This indeed caught Vargas' attention as he was curious to see who had managed to get out of the labs in one piece - Then he recognised the man and without caring where he was expressed his thoughts.

"Dr. Thomas, How nice it is that you managed to escape, I was expecting you to show up in at least 6 pieces, or perhapse your test subject is merely a dud."

Dr. Thomas was not amused by the Director's comments. "Number eight is in fact still in it's containment chamber, and according to the monitors still functioning down there nothing has changed thus far."

Vargas smirked "So she hasn't even escaped yet even tho all the others had no problem? My my that doesn't sound too impressive, perhaps she really is a failure after all".

Thomas was about to rebut him when the President spoke up and interrupted them.

"Alright that's enough you two, now that Dr. Thomas is here we can begin this meeting, please be seated Doctor" Thomas complied with his superior's words and placed himself in the chair nearby, the whole time glaring at Vargas who's eyes were hidden behind those mirrored lenses.

"It would appear that we have a situation on our hands ladies and gentlemen." The President continued "The Destrillians have broken out of their containment's and are running loose in basement 5, with numerous reported casualties. Now what is our current course of action?"

One of the military Generals spoke up "Sir. We have currently secured all stairwells, elevators and maintenance shafts leading into and out of the level, and have also deployed numerous squads of troops into basement 5 to subdue the targets."

"Which I might add have been getting their asses handed to them" Vargas pointed out.

The remark caught the general off guard "Well....we have had some losses, but it'll only be a matter of time before the targets are overwhelmed".

Vargas crossed him arms and added "No it will only be a matter of time before you run out of men, so far your troops haven't even laid a scratch on them and all those who have engaged your 'targets' have failed to report back in".

The President suspected Vargas was wanting to put forth something so decided he'd hear it "Well then Director Vargas, what do you propose we do?"

A grin appeared on his face and he placed his arms on the table. "Well Mr President, fellow members of the board, I say we cut our losses and simply end this accursed project, this whole thing can be stopped by sending down a few drones and offing the lot of them."

Dr. Thomas couldn't sit back and hear any more of this "Now wait just one moment! Mr President the Destrillian project is the single most important undergoing this company has every had, to end it now would be a monumental loss in time and research. Remember that we still have number eight safely in confinement and that alone is enough to continue progress until suitable replacements for the other subjects can be procured. What Director Vargas is proposing is nothing more than trying to make our problems go away by firing the biggest gun at it when there are clearly other options".

The President thought about this for a moment while the other officials talked amongst themselves, and as he was about to reply his intercom began to beep.

"We're in conference, what is it?"

"Sir, this is the security monitoring station, something's happening at Level 5 and I think you should see this"

"Very well, display it to the board room's main screen" Just as his words finished the massive screen on the east wall of the room lit up, the display was live security camera footage from basement 5, showing a number of guards and a single scientist confronting one of the escaped specimens. "Who is that scientist, and for that matter which Destrillian is that?" The President demanded to know.

Dr. Thomas spoke up and replied "That appears to be Dr. Fringe Sir, and I believe the target is number four..."

"...Fiona" Vargas said under his breath. This one in particular had caught his eye due to her somewhat sadisticly violent ways, he knew whatever was about to transpire was going to be good.

From what they could see on the screen there was come conversing going on between Fringe and 004, unfortunately the camera did not pick up audio so they couldn't hear what was going on, however what happened next required no sound to know what was going on. The entire board sat there in shock as they watched this girl massacre and cremate the squadron of soldiers until it was only her and Dr. Fringe left. The lack of audio still didn't help but from seeing her holding the man by the throat and him shouting at her it was pretty clear she was done with him, which was confirmed as she then proceeded to tear out the doctor's heart. A numbers of board members turned away as they looked like they were going to be sick but Vargas' eyes remained intently glued to the screen with the biggest grin on his face - he was loving every bit of what he was seeing and was in pure awe of this girl and her abilities.

Dr. Thomas on the other hand was completely mortified after seeing one of his colleagues slaughtered in front of his eyes. The silence in the room was broken by the President who had now made his decision.

"I think after what we have all just witnessed that we should proceed with Director Vargas' advice and proceed with combat drones instead, however with concerns to Dr. Thomas' opinion I would request that the drone be used as a means of having the targets surrender rather that just outright annihilating them."

"Of course Mr President, if that is what you wish".

"Well then on that note we'll conclude this meeting, I await word of your progress".

The members began to dispersed, Vargas stood from his chair and glanced over the top of his sunglasses at Dr. Thomas before heading towards the door. However before he could exit a voice called out to him. "Director Vargas, could I have a moment please?" He turned to greet the voice and gave them a big smile. "Well now, what might a man like me do for such a fine young lady such as yourself?"

The person walked towards him, "Only you could be this charming after watching such a display of carnage". General Sophalla stopped in front of him and smiled "In fact some might even say you were enjoying that."

"To see one's opponent be crushed is a great joy to experience, and you can't honestly tell me he didn't have it coming".

"Ah touche, let's take a little walk shall we?" She asked as she motioned to the door.

Vargas opened it and looked back at her "After you madam."

They walked silently down the long corridor for a moment, until Vargas spoke "So what's on your mind?" She turned her head to face him. "You're up to something, I can tell, it's that look about you that you always get when you're scheming."

Sophalla was a fairly nice person, as nice as a General for a heartless corporation's private army could be. She was somewhere around the age of Vargas (it was something she preferred to be a secret) and wore the same style of black tunic uniform as the other generals, only she had a long skirt instead of pants and donned a Berret instead of the standard peak cap. She had long strawberry blonde hair, and kept it in a plait which she draped over the front of her left shoulder. The two had a mutual respect for one another and tended to flirt as an ongoing game.

"Then how about you humor me, what exactly do you think I'm up to?"

"Oh I don't know....maybe it involves some certain escapee's and a certain someone planning on doing something else rather than killing them?"

Vargas stopped dead in his tracks and pushed his sunglasses up his nose "And assuming this certain someone was......what, pray tell would you do about it?"

Sophalla looked at him, then out the window and calmly let out "Not a damn thing."

Vargas stood beside her and gazed out the window aswell "Everything is already set in motion, however the way it plays out from here will depend on their actions when presented with such a proposal, if not we'll proceed with the Boss's orders, and still come out on top, just not as much as I'd have liked."

Sophalla, gazing out the window as if almost in a trance, asked "What do you need me to do?"

Vargas smiled and turned to her. "When the time comes to proceed with our true goal, I'll need your support, Circe is on my side however that won't be enough, not for this".

She turned away from the window to meed his gaze "Understood, you can count on me." Then she walked away, but after a few steps called out "Thanks for that lovely stroll sugar!" and continued on her way.

Now all alone, Vargas thought to himself for a minute, then pulled out his cell phone and dialed.

"Circe, did you find what we were after?............good, then we can proceed, I'll meet you there shortly". He hung up the phone and began walking down the hall, with his footsteps echoing through the empty space.

 

[Teva]

There was blood--copious amounts of sanguinary fluid trickling down the walls--splattered messily like paint. It was stark white against blooming crimson--carmine hues. Eve suppressed the urge to retch right there and then. Continuing to traipse gingerly through the long corridors, Emma kept her hazel-tinted eyes trained upon everything: the walls, decapitated bodies, and the festering flesh of corpses-. All of this was taken in with a decidedly accepting nature as if death was inevitable in this case, which it was.

Towards the end of a particularly long corridor--extremely nondescript complete with white-washed walls, there was a person. A person? Yes, indeed a person--a female to be exact. Eve could only surmise that the fellow Destrillian was younger than her and of a much more delicate build. The girl's name was Idris, Destrillian 009, which was the only thing that Eve could remember of her.

Glancing up at the girl in question, Eve moved quietly as a column of fire scorched the wall and blasted a charred hole through the concrete. Crumbling debris sprinkled over the floor like confetti and ash smeared Eve's fingers as soon as her cool fingers touched the hole experimentally.


"Huh."

Idris muttered in partial confusion with a twinge of fear lacing her voice. That, Eve noted silently, had been the work of a fellow Destrillian.

Deciding to introduce herself, Eve paused to alert the two companions to her presence. When Idris turned her inquisitive gaze upon her, Emma spoke in a calmed leveled tone:

"I'm Eve Daly, Destrillian 010, the Ice Queen herself at your service." Her nature was light-hearted if only to pacify them in their states of distress. Yet it was understandable since they'd all assisted in a massive breakout only moments before. They'd murdered countless people all of whom had probably left being relatives--wives, children, and grand kids . . .

And yet . . .

Who had caused the explosion exactly? Who? Where were they? Why hadn't they shown themselves as of yet? So many ruminations sped through the Ice Destrillian's mind. The sharp pang of her migraine had only intensified with each passing moment and with each flaring light. Eve feared that if she didn't get a shot of Distrum soon then she would pass out from sheer exhaustion.

"Is there anybody out there? I'm out here by my... bedroom, anyone near by?"

There it was, the telepathic voice that strung through Eve's synpases like a recently plucked guitar string. Grasping her head in her hand, Eve directed her gaze to the pulsations that soared through the air.

"…around the corner," Idris muttered.

Eve didn't hesitate to pick up the telepathic signal. She noticed it and lowered her gaze to the wall, following the invisible pathway, and she soon came to another disposed corpse. A soldier, this one was a soldier, and at the end of this hallway, with its flickering lights overhead, was a lanky pallid young man.

Idris was the one who smiled in an off-handed way and introduced herself to the enigmatic young man. Eve was wary of him, possibly because he seemed to have been lurking in the darkest corners for a while now. Anyone who didn't come out and introduce themselves was either a threat, in trouble, or just plain odd to her.


"Good to see you're doing alright so far. Long time no see, Eydin. I've seen you in the recreation room a couple times before. Name's Idris; pleasure's all mine."

This girl was affable, frighteningly so, Eve thought as she took another glimpse at the man that stood before them. It appeared as if he didn't feel up to it to respond so he remained stoic.


"What do you say to a double-team, mm?" Idris prompted and before either of them could respond another telepathic signal--urgent and strong pulsed within their minds simultaneously. Eve let out a barely suppressed groan of irritation as the voice floated within the recesses of her mind, sounding fainter and fainter as the minutes ticked by.


"…others I'm trapped!"

Eve sprung into actions, sprinting down the hallway without a second glance behind her. Someone, whoever they were desperately needed help. She had to save them.

 

[Baldy]

Silence.

It was present, hanging thick in the air for one pregnant moment that felt for all the world as if it stretched on for eons. The absence of sound pressed in as if, on the contrary, it were the loudest sound there was; it was the eye of the storm, just about to pass and plunge everything back into chaos. Idris Savage knew this. She braced herself for when it cracked down on them all again.

The pause itself had only lasted perhaps a second and a half—just as the Destrillian had sensed, things exploded with noise.

“HELLO!”came a voice, sharp like a knife had just been stuck into Idris' head; before she could even unleash the string of expletives she had been about to, the hole in the wall behind her and Eydin exploded again and this time the fire almost hit her – or it certainly felt like it almost hit her. The girl could swear she felt tongues of flame licking her bare skin, but there was no pain… it only tingled, light and warm.

She was just lifting a hand to check if she was burned when a voice – not telepathic, but physical – penetrated her smarting ears. Idris spun around to face the newcomer, knowing subconsciously that the woman – for it had been a woman's voice – was a Destrillian like her.

"I'm Eve Daly, Destrillian 010, the Ice Queen herself at your service," the fellow Destrillian said. She was observing Idris and Eydin with open friendliness, yet her gaze was analyzing. She was almost as short as Idris, a fact that gave the blonde girl a certain amount of pleasure in knowing; Eve's nearly-black hair was swept every which way in the pseudo-solar winds of the fire hole in the wall just behind her. Her skin was darker than that of any other Destrillian Idris had ever seen and it was a matter of great curiosity to her – how could melanin be that plentiful in a body who had been underground for years on end? Idris was about to phrase this question (maybe the woman had been… outside? Surely not,) when yet another voice interrupted.

This one, she'd heard minutes before.
This time, she heard it all.

“Who’s there? Can you hear me? What’s going on? I can’t get out of my pod I need help! Please someone answer me!”

And then Eve was up and away, and before Idris could even make a move the darker Destrillian was gone, gone to the rescue of the voice pleading for freedom. All this action at once was ridiculous in Idris' opinion, and she turned, about to voice this opinion to Eydin when a thought snagged in her mind.

What if this was some sort of trap? Sure, nobody but the Destrillians could communicate telepathically, but what if there were scientists lurking in the shadows, seizing the opportunity to capture whoever went to aid the poor girl trapped in her tube?

"Things happen so damn fast 'round here," Idris muttered, half a smile on her face. She threw over her shoulder to Eydin, "If that double-team idea sounds good to you, then come on – miss Daly could use a bit of help, I do believe."

And with a flash of a grin and a burst of flame from the wall, the Gunmetal Glint was running.

She called upon every possible sense in her body to try and locate the source of the telepathic voice, calling out to the female Destrillian trapped in her cryogenic tube:

"Sweetie? If you can hear me, stay calm, alright? It's me, Idris – Destrillian 009, if you pay attention to that sort've thing. Now listen close, girlie: there's a couple've us heading right to you – you'll be out of there in no time. In the meanwhile, try and project yourself to us so we can find you faster, 'kay?"

And she could feel her message find its destination. With barely a thought to the matter she flung an arm out, grabbed the corner of the wall and swung herself in a hard left down another hallway. The poor dear was somewhere down this hallway, she could feel it. But where?

Concentrate, love, that'll get you somewhere. Idris squinted her pale grey eyes nearly shut, focusing to find the hallway, the offshoot, the door…
"There!" came the cry unbidden from her lips; the Destrillian whipped around another corner, swift as a bolt of lightning, and—

Oh, nice.

—came right into the path of a pile of dead bodies. There had to be half a dozen of them, at least, and there was no way around them. This newly developed situation had taken such a short time to form that Idris hadn't even stopped running, and so she took this to her advantage. When she was moving, obstacles meant nothing. She took a breath and smiled at the block in her path.

And then, a mere foot from the pile of death, she landed her next step in a crouch, springloaded, and then shot up and over the corpses in a tight, perfect aerial, landing with her knees bent to absorb the shock. A light hop to slough off excess momentum and then she was moving forward again.

"Wonder if you can top that, Eydin?" she called out behind her, the smile evident in her voice. The smile grew in self-depreciation as she shook her head, a low, pleasant chuckle escaping her. "Of course he can do better, the boy can fly."

Her fun cut short when she felt herself zoom past the source of distress. Idris wheeled around and strode back to the room she's passed, pressing her forehead to the metal door.
Yes, this was definitely it. But… where was Eve? The young woman's brow furrowed – the other Destrillian should have been here, too. The distress call had been easy to triangulate, so it wasn't as if Eve had simply missed it… had she?

One problem at a time, Idris – that's how you'll do things, she thought to herself, her indigenous smile quirking up again at how ironic it was that even now that she was free, Viola was still causing problems with her kind.

"First things first. This door? It's got to go," lilted the young woman, stroking the door with a finger.

One finger became a palm slammed flat against the door, and with an almighty wrench, a section with the approximate shape and diameter of a hula hoop was slung down the hallway, where it landed with an echoing crash that was practically lost within all the clamour already in creation.

"Pity," said Idris with another quirky smile. "I should try to make more noise." And then she dived clean through the sparking hole in the door, following through with a roll on the ground and ending with another little bounce on the balls of her feet. Her eyes sparkled with a mysterious sort of delight at the acrobatics she was now free to perform at her own volition, not that of some labcoat behind a glass wall.

And then she saw Emma.

…Emma? Why yes, that's her name! Well done, brain, you're so terribly useful that I don't think I could live without you. Another chuckle issued between Idris' pale lips as she walked up to the cryogenic tube and the pretty girl inside. The first thing Idris remembered about Emma, for some reason, was how much Idris wanted the girl's freckles. Oh sure, people spoke about the Gunmetal Glint's freckles and how they were as pale grey as the metal she manipulated, but Emma's! They were vibrant and adorable and were spattered all over her, making her look remarkably like an angel that Michelangelo had flicked red-orange paint at. Idris' face broke into a little, comforting grin.

"Hey, love. How about we get you out of here, hmm?"

 

[Bex]

Screams and cries of pain in the distance acted as accompaniment to Thetis’ despair as she crouched, blank eyed and open mouthed. Not a whimper or whisper was uttered. The memories that seeped into her head like strands of light through cracks in her subconscious - were they Viola’s revenge? Revenge for her weakness, her inefficiency, her failure. As death throes passed, silence reigned supreme once more. Thetis realised she occupied very little space in the world.

“Oh sweetie, you should never squash a bee!”

“But it was going to sting me, mommy, I swear!”​

“But if it stung you, it would die. Why kill something which only ever makes honey for us?”

Thetis had never felt hope before. At least, she couldn’t remember if she had. Within months of arrival at Viola, Thetis lost sight of purpose. No one could say exactly when, but something within the girl had withered and faded away. It was as if hope had simply given up on her, vacating a mere husk of nothing. No identity, no past, no future. Thus the shell was leased out to sad acceptance and the fear, which dug its roots deep into Thetis’ mind. It stayed and spread within her, its calloused tendrils sucking away time, memory and reason. And while it consumed her, she embraced it. She grew accustomed to the paranoia as it withdrew the girl from her world while sustaining her existence and ensuring her survival. It gave her no hopes to lose or dreams to shatter.

Yet within this empty, fearful Thetis remained the hollow from which her memories had been torn. As #006 wallowed in helplessness and self loathing, the empty container her spirit had previously abandoned bred a new emotion as the years of broken humanity trawled on. Hatred, cold and unsparing, fuelled by the desire for revenge fought against the suppression of passion. It acknowledged the loss, the pain, the indignity. Yet not even fury could weed out the seeds of depression which remained firmly anchored in the present. Thus hatred became entombed deep within the very reason for it, filling Thetis with a new uneasiness that further rejected any hope of a future. Therefore as the memories came, so did the uncertainty.

But this was her mother. A reminder of the maternal bond that could never be severed. This memory could not have been implanted, it only served to enforce the emergence of hope. Her mother’s smile, how could she have forgotten? That crack in her lips that betrayed such optimism. Her hug, the squeeze that seemed to love out loud. She had forgotten her mother’s oddly bony yet beautiful hands, treating everything they touched as if it was a small miracle. Most of all her scent. It had a name which Thetis had forgotten, but wit the memories came reminiscence of the soothing, flowery, sweet aroma. It was heart rending yet dreamlike to remember. The warmth and sense of belonging it evoke within the prototype triggered a sense of purpose. The memories that had courted Thetis’ thoughts so fleetingly had made it difficult to decipher where her life had begun or when it came to an end. How could they make her forget her mother? She could remember playing with her hair, her wavy, chocolate brown hair that spilled over her shoulders like a secret.

No.​

Her heart stopped. She felt sick. Her mother had blonde hair. Didn’t she? Thetis forced herself to remember, skipping through everything she had learnt through these flashes of memory. She definitely had blonde hair, she could have sworn. How could she forget? Why would she not know that about her own mother? She needed to pull herself together. What made her so certain about her mother’s hair, though? Maybe this was the work of Viola. And how would she have known any better? That being said, what kind of mother would give their child a life like this? A choked gasp escaped the girl as she recalled the only person she knew with the chocolate brown hair she had previously thought of. Doctor Perkins.

No. No. No. That wasn’t her mother. No way. Thetis knew she wasn’t. Swampy golden eyes roved the concrete floor for answers. Maybe it was just a false memory, made to provoke some kind of motivation. Perhaps she was created after all. If Dr Perkins was her mother, why did she feel a loss coiled and tightened around her insides like a rusted spring? Her mother had an untamed spirit, coupled with a maternal morality. Nothing like Dr. Perkin’s ordered, clinical approach to the prototype. Did her parents stop loving her? They used to, they had to. All parents would. All normal parents. Did all normal parents love? Thetis had felt something like love before, but through a loss. When #012 Ariel Regan was killed by Kerr Nordstrom. Thetis couldn’t tell if it was love or camaraderie, but she remembered what it felt like. As if her porcelain life, fragile, yet still precious, had been chipped. Ariel’s spirited nature was infectious, and with her death, so died Thetis’ only friendship. The girl liked to think that she had that effect on her family. She liked to think that she was loved that way, once.

Bee-killer
Monopoly winner.
Now loved a little less.

Wakey wakey!

Mom… is it time for school already?​

Of course sweetie, breakfast will be ready soon.

I just need a minute to prepare your Distrum.​

​

​

It wasn’t like that, no it definitely wasn’t. It couldn’t be. Thetis rose, tripping over her feet as she began to run. Away from Viola, away from the memories. The hourglass had cracked. She didn’t know what to believe. A low wail escaped her as she darted round the corner, greeted by a pile of bodies and an unbearable heat. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. Thetis didn’t want any memories to be real, even the ones that mattered. Didn’t they all matter? It hurt to think, yet pure agony to remember and question the very essence of what gave one an identity. The girl wanted the truth, but such truth had been warped and distorted through the years.
There was no truth in memory.

Mom, what did the doctor say?

Your physical fitness is top notch. However…​

What? What is it?

There seems to be an issue present in your prefrontal cortex.​

Am not dying, am I?

It responded strangely to the tests that were run. Very strangely indeed.​

What does that mean, mom?

It means we have a lot of work to do on you yet, number six.​

​

​

The past had been packed, sealed and sent away long ago. Thetis sank to her knees and stared with vacant golden eyes. The dust that memory left in its wake had been swept away, revealing the sterile shine of industrial metal and dull, whitewashed walls. Time had stood still for 10 years. But then again, had it ever moved? This was a punishment that Thetis had spent her whole life in, wandering aimlessly and lost through its uniform corridors.

Thetis’ mouth fell agape in horror as she squinted at the figure which loomed over the mountain of corpses. Any colour that the girl retained in her face was robbed by the sight of Fiona. Then #006 saw what she held in her hand. She retched as terror heaved in her stomach and sunk like a millstone.

“What have you done?!”

Thetis’ voice lifted into a wail as she shrunk away from her brutal comrade. Fiona preyed on the weak. The slightest err in judgement, the smallest hesitation in battle and #004 would be there, baited by sadism and the desire to bully. Fear tied a knot in the girl’s stomach, and she endeavoured to maintain contact with those fierce orange eyes. They were oddly illuminated, as if empowered by the senseless violence and destruction. Worst of all, they burnt away the last thread of Thetis’ courage. She couldn’t take it. She couldn’t escape with Fiona, of all people. Prototype #006 scrambled backwards over the rough floor, trembling uncontrollably as she screamed at #004.

“Stay away from me!”

Fiona would kill her. Looking around desperately for another Destrillian as she crawled away, Thetis’ hand slipped and she crashed hopelessly into the hard floor. She lay still, sunk by the millstone. She had no hope of escaping alone. Where were the others when she needed them? Then Thetis remembered. It had been Sierra who had awoken first. The water prototype sat upright, awkwardly shielding her nakedness as she projected her message to #001.

"S-Sierra? Where are you? Fiona will k-k-kill me! Where am I supposed to go? Help me, p-please!"

 

[Alex]

part one

“But are you sure this is a good idea? Did the board really give you the orders to do this?"

“Well I wouldn’t be doing it if I wasn’t under orders would I?”

“Yes but-“

“Yes but nothing. Stop worrying and go do something useful with yourself Lennox, check his vitals”

To his companion’s relief that last rebuke seemed to rob the tired doctor of what little fight he had left in him and he dutifully hurried to check one of the dozen monitors at the far end of the room, each one conveying a seemingly incalculable amount of information about the subject in the room below. He smiled, one step closer to reassurance that this endeavour would be that much easier to pull off with Dr. Lennox’s cooperation.

He turned his attention back to the room below him, staring through the thick transparent window of the observation room to look at his creation sleeping in the room below. Smothered in his cryogenic tube, as unmoving, silent and unerringly constant as the laws of physics he was able to manipulate. For a moment he briefly forgot the disaster and chaos that was tightening its grip around the throat of the facility he had poured the last seven years of his life into and briefly considered whether these observation rooms had been a worthwhile allocation of company money. He felt his clenched fist tighten; life was a lot easier when looking over the finances and making sure the security force got their pay on time was the be all and end all of his responsibilities.

“Everything looks to be in order Sir” Lennox spoke up, nearly tripping over his words. Whilst Lennox was nervous, it was difficult for his superior not to show the same level of worry. This crisis had started out pretty controllable and then within the space of roughly fifteen minutes had escalated far beyond the predictions of even the company’s most skilled analysts.

Where had things gone so badly wrong?

“Good Lennox, keep checking for any anomalies. I want to know if this one’s going to be a risk too”

He touched his earpiece; it was time to check in with the security teams on the floor below. “How are things down there?” very carefully keeping the level of anxiety in his voice in check, it wasn’t going to help anybody’s position if security knew just how worried the higher ups were. Maintaining a decent chain of command was the only way to stop outright chaos from taking over.

“I said how are things going down there?” He never was one for impatience or for panic, but he could tell the tone of his voice was carefully treading on their territory.

There was still no response. Were they all dead?

“Shit” the word buzzed up through his headset riding a wave of static. “Things are shit sir!” whoever it was on the other end of the line, had slightly regained their composure and delivered a marginally more coherent response.

“Who am I talking to? Where’s the commanding officer down there?”

“I don’t know. Probably dead!” The voice shouted back. “This is Caithness sir. Michael Caithness” again he had regained his composure, but only slightly.

It must be hell down there.

“My squad is dead sir” He couldn’t tell over the chaotic background noise coming through the headset but he was quite sure that Caithness was crying. Pathetic. With a sour face he made a mental note to suggest to the Board that the security force needed to be subjected to more thorough psychiatric examinations.

“You have new orders Caithness, I want the security teams to pull back out of there. It’s not safe down there and we’ve had word that a task force has been despatched from the Weapons Division to eliminate them. Do you understand?” He kept his tone cool and professional, everything expected from a man in his position.

The silence was suspiciously long. Was he dead too now? He frowned in genuine exasperation. Once this little disaster was cleaned up he made yet another mental note to make an impassioned plea to the Board of Directors to make sure the next security force they contracted wasn’t so utterly useless.

“Understood, over. Caithness out” the reply burst over the radio in a rushed garble of words. Then the line went dead, or maybe Caithness went dead? It was difficult for him to tell, the security guard had sounded as though he was out of breath and running from whichever particular emissary of Death he had been unfortunate to run into.

“Sir!” Lennox spoke up quickly and loudly. He needn’t have waited till he was off the radio, this was much more important than the lives of what little of the security guards were left downstairs.

“Yes? What’s happened?” with a note of urgency he strode over to the monitor that the doctor had been monitoring. It was the one monitoring brain wave patterns. The nerves were prickling away at the lining of his stomach. This was it.

“His alpha waves sir they’re reading as though he’s awake, and he has been for some time” Lennox sounded genuinely worried now, but given the events of the day his superior couldn’t blame him. There was every chance that #011 was about to wake up and go join in the absolute carnage being unleashed on the rest of the floor. But then again, there was the hope that he wouldn’t. Of all the Destrillians he was maybe only one whose mental conditioning had been most effective.

“At least now we don’t need to wake him up” He responded coolly. Which was definitely a good thing, it wasn’t a prospect he had been particularly looking forward to given his newfound wariness of the Destrillians.

“I’m going to talk to him now then” He turned back away from the monitor to the small desk in the centre of the room, currently buried under a mess of papers and reports detailing every conceivable aspect and change in #011’s biochemistry. Callously brushing a swath of papers from the desk and leaving Doctor Lennox looking as though someone had just slapped him across the face, he found what he was looking for: a small black elevated panel with two simple switches on it and a spindly collapsible microphone, which he quickly elevated.

His stomach lining felt as though it was trying to crawl its way up his throat. Never had he ever felt so close to danger, maybe this promotion hadn’t been a good idea after all.

“Here we go” it was barely above a whisper and was as close to a prayer was he was ever likely to say, he clicked a smart little green button on the panel.

.oOo.​

...For far too long we have been slaves...​

His eyes snapped open.

Something was fundamentally wrong with the world today.

It was meant to be the same every day, it was in the nature of things to stay the same. It was what made the universe what it was, laws and rules, laws and rules that governed how every particle and every atom in existence was to behave. There was no margin for error or room for interpretation, these laws governed everything from the rotation of the sun to the thick gel that currently entombed his body. Without these conventions the universe could not function and neither could he, neither could anything existing in it.

Something today was breaking this principle, the very principle that he applied to every action he was capable of and every thought and memory that he had. After all, what were memories if not the systematic firing of synapses in the brain he recall the specific way stimuli had impacted his senses. His eyes saw the world as constants, of the rules that governed all matter. He remembered his supervisor telling him that that was his gift.

His unease was briefly offset by an unusual warm feeling swelling inside his abdomen, contrasting against the cool gel pressing against his body. He had been given the gift to see the world the way it truly was, devoid of unpredictability, dictated only by certainties and constants. They had told him that he was the only one who could see the world like this, and moreover he was the only one that could enforce this law however he liked. That was their purpose, to give him purpose. To tell him how to use this gift. This was the law that bound his gift, it too followed a rule.

Something today was opposing the rules today, and Kerr felt it the same as a man could feel a blustering wind change direction.

… Pawns in this twisted game of chess…​

What is Sierra’s voice doing chanting nonsense in my head? He hoped that she’d be punished for this, it wasn’t right, she wasn’t meant to be doing it and it was grinding away at him. He gradually became more awake, the warmth was gone from his chest now, it was replaced by anxiety coiling like a spring in his gut.

For that matter, what was a pawn?

Now is our time… to awaken.​

Then he felt it, as surely as one would feel the wind turn into a hurricane.

What were they doing?

His eyes widened in shock, his mouth hung open in a wordless protest. As unaccustomed as he was to picking up on the thoughts of his companions, the force of what he picked up next assaulted his senses with such ferocity that he couldn’t not detect it.

They were all awake. All of them, and they were rebelling, and killing. Killing everything.

#011 recoiled as much as the cryo-tube would allow, never before had he felt such unchained hatred let loose to spill over the facility like a great flood. He was aghast, after everything the scientists here had done for them they were thanking them with all manner of senseless deaths. There were no orders for this, they were not acting under the command of anybody, this much was clear and made him all the more anxious. It as against their nature, they were weapons, tools for the disposal of others. They had never understood it, never known their place.

What they were doing was ruining everything. They can’t just do this! Their power was not their own, they had no right to use it like this. He could feel the anxiety turning to anger in the pit of his stomach, they were taking away everything.

Be more focused you fool. He chastised himself sharply; he had been far too focused on the absurdity of his peers that he had momentarily taken leave of his other senses. From within his confinement he became aware of two men standing through the screen of glass looking down into his chamber.

He should have been paying more attention. He hadn’t been able to tell how long they were there, he should never have left his guard down. Had they been here long? Did they know about this rebellion? He shuddered again, he wanted out, he wanted action, but his movements were kept in check by the viscous fluid around him.

The other Destrillians were causing chaos, this much was apparent to him, but this was all he was able to discern. His psychic powers were nowhere near attuned enough to make out what each of his individual peers was doing. To ebb the surge of frustration he felt with himself he put this down to the fact that there was simply too much frenzied activity to really discern anything accurate, it definitely wasn’t because he couldn’t boast much proficiency with using his telepathic abilities. Definitely not.

He focused on the two watching him, trying to block out the voices of the others. It was difficult to think inside this tube, it didn’t feel natural; he was too confined, and found it difficult to focus.

“#011?”

He wriggled again. It would be so easy just to crush the tube’s doorway and get out. Then he could find the answers himself. What were the others thinking to challenge the way things were?

“#011, can you hear me?”

It would be easy, he conceded. But it wouldn’t be right. Sit tight, sit still; wait for Doctor Lennox to come through the door, followed by the traditional formation of nurses and security guards. It was not his function to free himself from his confinement. The world did not work like that, he was to wait for instruction.

“Open him up. I don’t think he can hear me”

The suction noise of the pod opening up nearly took Kerr by surprise. This wasn’t standard procedure. Usually when they opened him up the room was a flood of contrasting white and black, medical personnel in pristine lab coats and uniformed security guards. But today it was unnaturally empty. Feeling the anxiety manifest as a slight shake in his balance as he stepped out of the pod, briefly he let himself adjust. It was always a marginally disorientating feeling coming out of the imprisonment of the stasis tube, his perception of the world around him took a minute to come into focus. For the briefest of moments his sense of the attraction of matter took a slight time to adjust itself to the real world. He always found this the most difficult, his senses were at their most attuned when in the carefully filtered and controlled environment of the cryo-tube. The outside world was often at great risk to variables and inconsistencies for him to ever be anything less than always on edge.

“#011 Kerr Nordstrom can you hear me?” A clear, patient voice rung through the room, Kerr gazed with his pitch black eyes up through the screen of glass. Was the voice coming from in there? Most Likely. Nothing else makes sense.

Nothing at all made sense about today though. His mind was still trying to wrap itself around the perversion of his world by the chaotic events unfolding at the hands of the other prototypes

“Yes” his voice a low monotone. One of the nurses had once called him unpleasant to talk to because of his voice. He’d only asked one person what ‘unpleasant’ meant afterwards and found that he felt nothing for the criticism.

“#011, this is the voice of Head of Research Stuart Malcolm. I am here with your supervisor Doctor Lennox”

Why have I been let out? He was silent and attentive.

“There has been an incident in the facility. The other Destrillians have gone rogue, my superiors have ordered their termination. Do you understand?”

 

[Alex]

“Yes” there was no feeling behind his words, they were robotic and controlled, completely expressionless to the knowledge that his comrades of the past decade or so that just been sentenced to death.

“You have been given a direct order to terminate them at once before the situation gets truly out of hand. This is a direct order from the Heads of the company #011, all of the Destrillians must be stopped.” Malcolm paused for breath and Kerr noted the distinct uneasiness in his voice. “Are you able to comply with killing your own kind?”

“I have no problems carrying out my orders” Kerr nodded, lumps of viscous gel dripped from his lank hair to squash against the formerly immaculately clean floor.

“I hate it. I’m leaving. You should all come with me.”
“Don’t be foolish. They terminate you for escaping”
“I don’t care anymore. I want to go. You should too!”
“Arrange your own suicide without me, Ariel”​

“No, I didn’t think you would” Kerr could tell that the Head of Research was relieved by that answer. “You were the one who dealt with this problem last time.”

Kerr said nothing, just looked up at the blurred images of the two men in the room above him. He remembered carrying out those orders too, fulfilling his purpose, using his gift as he had been told to.

“When you have fulfilled your mission you are ordered to return to your quarters here. Myself and several members of the Board of Directors will debrief you shortly thereafter.”

Kerr nodded again and a particularly large chunk of gel released itself from his fringe to splatter against the floor with a distinctive plop.

“That is all. Those are your orders” there was a buzz and the sound of the microphone disconnecting and then the room was returned to silence. Leaving Kerr with only his orders.

.oOo.​

Malcolm continued to stare at the lithe young man in the room beneath him, he couldn’t help but wrinkle his nose slightly at the sight of him. Small, pale and skinny, he carried the presence of a corpse, not a weapon of mass destruction. Armed only with those truly awful eyes of his, horrible windows of deepest black, unable to be illuminated even under the harshest of spotlights.

“Of all the Destrillians, why was he the only one who we were able to condition properly” he murmered in a voice just scarcely louder than a whisper.

“Did you say something sir?” Lennox asked nervously from the far side of the room. He had been watching Kerr, as he slowly took a few steps forward to gain some confidence in his balance and then, once satisfied, silently left the room on his deadly mission into the bowels of the facility, like a hunter walking brashly into the face of his raging quarry.

“No. Not a thing. Come on Lennox, let’s go. We’re to head upstairs now to proceed with the evacuation.”

“Sir? Do you think Kerr stands any chance of success?”

Malcolm looked up, for the first time since they had entered the observation room Lennox could tell that he was on the back foot here. He didn’t know the answer.

“It doesn’t matter in the end” he said carelessly, after a long, cautious silence. “Even if he does succeed, the Board will have him killed too, loose ends can’t be left unattended to. He’s dead either way.”

 

[Sheva Alomar]

As she motioned to leave the massacre scene, her feet stomped ripples into the gaping puddles of blood that now painted the floor of Basement 5. Sparing a glimpse to the vermillion liquid, Fiona caught her crimson countenance. Where she once wore the appearance of an adult newborn, the prototype now had the look of a wild Amazonian. The orange gel that saturated her hair was now solidified from the intense heat she had emitted. A random array of fierce, seemingly natural and wavy spikes decorated the top of her head as if her scalp were permanently on fire. Blood had splashed and splattered all over her body in such a manner that it almost looked like a strange series of tribal art.

Fiona studied her reflection as if it were a stranger she was staring at. The fire manipulator appeared to delve into a light trance for a moment, flashes of memory assaulting her consciousness.

...

A heavily armed team of impressive soldiers surrounded a gurney as they marched down the halls of the experimental ward. On it laid the dangerous #004 prototype, the Blazing Fury. Unlike her normal behavior, she was resting in a tranquil state and strapped down from head to toe with the strongest of materials. A large IV was attached to the end of the medical carrier, steadily feeding a heavy sedative to the specimen. The scientists and staff at Viola were professionals by this point in transporting the feral test subject from point A to B.

Today was another one of Fiona’s physical training exercises. She, unlike the rest of her kin, was treated to these sorts of trials more so. Almost every other day, the fire Destrillian would be thrown into a large, room of lifeless white walls emitting light from every corner of the space. From the opposite side, countless opponents, or prey as they were referred to by the observation teams, were forced into the room with her. Sometimes they would people, others would be creatures--both natural and synthetic--and the rest normally consisted of an array of weapons and machines that could operate on their own. It was especially excruciating for Fiona on the days that metal men and abominations were her challenge. Of course, the scientists behind the hidden pane of glass didn’t care unless their precious specimen was on the verge of death.

As usual, the guards rolled the gurney into the battle room and began to unbuckle the restraints around the fire prototype. When the last one was removed, so was the IV. After that, all but one unfortunate soul was left to administer a quick shot of adrenaline to Fiona so that she was aware for the day’s event. Brutally the unknown grunt jabbed the syringe into the Destrillian’s neck and sprinted for the door. He nearly tripped just before escaping, but was lucky enough to make it out of the room and into safety right before #004 came to.

With a jolt, Fiona sat right up grabbing the side of her neck and yelling out.

“Asshole!”

Not a moment later she opened her eyes and instantly knew where she was.

“Oh. Words can’t describe how excited I am to be here.”

Her extremely annoyed expression turned to the wall where the one-sided view panel was.

Removing herself from the gurney, she cracked every bone she could and stretched her limbs out.

“Good afternoon, Prototype #000-000-004. Today’s exercise partner should be a nice little surprise for you. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did. Commence the fighting exercise, number 175-4708 Alpha.”

The scientists always made their speeches brief, allowing for maximum time to treat themselves to an entertaining spectacle. Fiona almost never disappointed her sadistic fans, even though she was forced to put on a performance as if a trained elephant in a circus.

“What the hell do you fuckheads have for me that I already haven’t seen?”

Her question was asked under her breath, thinking that it was impossible to shock her any further in this twisted place.

A door space opened and shut within a blink of an eye. One lonely cloaked figure now stood across from the fire Destrillian. It seemed to have no special weapons with it, but it was clear that something was amiss on this day in the battle room. A slender, feminine hand reached out from under the dark robe and took hold of the end of the great hood resting on the top of the mystery person’s head. As the shroud of darkness left the face of the foe before Fiona and the hood was pulled back, her initial reaction was nothing but utter astonishment and confusion, with a hint of awe…

...

Fiona fell out of her daze just then as if falling back into her body. Beads of sweat sparsely trickled down the sides of her face from the experience. Her eyes were widened while her mind was frenzied. What was that? Why had she felt so compelled to remember that instance? When did that moment even happen? It was all too much for the fire manipulator to think about at that time. She couldn’t afford to focus on it now. She had to escape first. Fiona snapped back to the mission at hand.

Before Fiona took another step to leave her fresh batch of corpses to rot, she heard a shrill voice address her.

“What have you done?!”

The fire manipulator turned to face the terrified presence that had now found her. It was the #006 prototype, Thetis. Of the entire kin to have come in physical contact with her, it had to be the frailest of the bunch. Fiona never liked the Destrillian of water. She always saw her as the most pathetic of pack. Many times would make an effort to put her down or go as far as psyching her out and making her upset. While she was meant to be her opposing element, Thetis never really posed any sort of threat to Fiona. The fire prototype locked eyes with the fearful comrade as she shivered and scampered away from her.

“Stay away from me!”

Fiona slowly walked towards the weak prototype in disbelief of her ill fortune.

You have got to be kidding me.

Getting close, she squatted down and stretched her head even closer to Thetis.

“What’s wrong little girl, are you going to wet yourself? Growing a fucking pair! You disgust me.”

With that, she spat to the side of the water prototype and stood back up.

“You ARE going to be useful, or I WILL set your ass on FIRE!”

Fiona’s voiced boomed in the corridor as she slammed the blunt end of her taser spear into the floor. Whether she liked it or not, she and Thetis were stuck together. At least, that is, until they came along the rest of their kin.

 

[NoenGaruth]

Okay maybe I did take a wrong turn after all...

Eve didn't have the slightest idea where she was. After hearing the plea for help from fellow Destrillian Emma she had darted off from the others eager to help out her comrade. However it seems in her haste she had taken a wrong turn and was now having a hard time figuring out her whereabouts. This part of level 5 was the area none of the test subjects were even taken to, as it was where the security station and employee locker rooms were located.

Eve proceeded to walk down the current corridor ahead of her until she spotted a sign above one of the doors that peaked her interest - Security equipment storage. Remembering that she was stark naked and there would no doubt be fierce battles down the road she decided it would be best to acquire some protective clothing, so she walked up to the door and checked to see for some way to open it, then eyed the small console to the left on the wall. From the looks of it this required a code to access, which she did not posses - so instead decided she would try her own code and planted her fist into the console, which shorted out and wet dark. She then shifted back to the door and placed her hands on it, ready to pull with all her might. But as she applied all that pressure to the door instead of it being a battle to open the door literally just slid open, fast enough that Eve lost her balance and fell through the doorway.

As she got back on her feet she examined the open door and from what she could tell the door had been left unlocked due to all the chaos going on. "Oh just great, the one time I get to do a badass break in they leave the damn door unlocked..." she mumbled to herself. Turning back towards the room she had just accessed, a smile grew on her face as she saw all the boxes and shelves of equipment that were now at her disposal, but then her attention was immediately grabbed away when she spotted a bar of chocolate sitting on a nearby desk.

She raced over and clutched the candy bar in her hands, the shiny wrapping just begged her to open it, and who was she to argue with it, so tore open the foil and proceeded to devour the chocolaty goodness, a taste she could barely remember but enjoyed so much. Before entirely consuming the confectionery item, she stopped and paused for a moment, then remembered that Emma was still trapped somewhere and needed her help.

Hmm actually I'll save a little of this for Emma when I find her, hopefully it'll make up for me taking so long. She thought to herself, then broke off a section of the chocolate, wrapped it up in the foil it came in, placed it on the desk, then looked back to the equipment strewn all over the place for things she would need.

First thing caught her eye - clothing. There were a couple of shelves in the corner of the room which contained everything that made up a the Violan security grunt's uniform: Button-up shirts, pants, Kevlar vests, equipment belts, gloves, boots and various accessories. She then spent the next couple of minutes sorting through all the items for ones that would fit her body and soon she was fully geared up and admiring herself in front of a wall mirror, and couldn't help but praise her appearance out loud.

"Damn I look good in this."

Now that she was geared up she quickly began to check through all the other gadgets located in the room. There was a lot of cool things here but she decided to grab only the stuff she needed, a radio to follow any troop movements, a bottle of water which she placed in her outfit's belt where one would normally store a flashlight, and a canister of tear gas as it might prove useful and it seemed this room had no real grenades. Finally she decided to check the metal lockers on the back wall before leaving, and upon opening the first door she knew she had hit jackpot - inside was an array of rifles and handguns placed neatly next to one another in rows, a sight which changed Eve's smile into a big grin.

The rifles looked too big and heavy to be of any use to her, but the handguns would be a nice alternative to having to resort to her abilities all the time, so loaded up a pair and placed one into the holster on her belt and tucked the other into the back of her pants, then also grabbed a couple of ammo clips and slotted them into the belt.

"Oh thank you careless guards for forgetting to do your job and leaving everything unlocked, you all made my task so much easier~" She couldn't resist mocking the non-present staff out loud to herself before pocketing in her vest the remainder of the chocolate bar and heading out the door.

Alright Emma, just hang on, I'm coming to get you out of there! However her train of thought was immediately interrupted by an unusual rumbling sound coming from the far end of the corridor. The sound wasn't anything she could recognize, it defiantly wasn't footsteps so couldn't be soldiers, but after a few seconds the sound was becoming quite clear - it was the sound of multiple treads screeching against the metal floor, and on realizing this Eve's heart immediately sank. Whatever was coming towards her was going to be very bad.

Right away she looked for somewhere to hide but there was nowhere, the doorway to the room she just left was already a good distance behind her and there's no way she would make it back there in time, and all the rest were either closed or also too far away.

Nowhere to run ay? Alright then I'll just have to tackle whatever's coming head on!

How she wished now that she'd tried for that door. Around the corner at the end of the hallway emerged a large, hulking machine that rolled on a set of treads. It's upper body was almost human-like...well more like a human who had taken excessive amounts of steroids and wore massive shoulder pads...and was made of metal....and had miniguns for arms.

Oh c'mon give me a break!

But to add insult to injury another one of these machines stormed around the corner just behind the first and they began moving down the large corridor towards Eve's position, but then they just stopped all of a sudden and she knew why. The lead robot's head or whatever could be considered such was now looking right at her and judging from the many blinking lights and the occasional slight movements it was trying to determine what she was.

"IDENTIFY YOURSELF." the large machine boomed at her, the sound made her flinch from the sheer volume and completely emotionless tone. She didn't know how to respond

"AGAIN. IDENTIFY YOURSELF." The machine demanded.

Eve decided it would be best to answer before she made it mad. "I...I'm with Violan security force, Alpha squad!" She'd read that squad name on one of the soldiers she had killed earlier.

The machine contemplated her answer for a moment. "THIS FLOOR'S SECURITY WAS ISSUED ORDERS TO FALL BACK, THEREFORE YOU ARE NOT MEANT TO BE HERE".

"I know....I was separated from my squad and got lost." She wasn't sure if the machine was buying any of this.

"UNDERSTOOD. PLEASE PRESENT YOUR IDENTIFICATION BADGE FOR VERIFICATION."

Eve then began to panic, she didn't have any ID on her, not that it mattered since it wouldn't resemble her anyway, so now she was just gonna have to try fool the machine.

"Sorry I lost my ID during a firefight, that's why I've been stuck here."

The light on the machine's main optic dimmed slightly, as though it was narrowing it's eye at her.

"STAND BY, PROCEDURE DICTATES THAT I AM TO ESTABLISH CONTACT WITH MY SUPERIOR IN ORDER TO ASCERTAIN YOUR IDENTITY"

Eve waited, tho still thought she was totally screwed, then after a minute a man's voice sounded from the machine. "This is director Vargas, and might I ask who you are my dear?"

"I'm with the Security force for this level Sir!" She replied trying to keep away from the specifics.

"Mmm-hmm I see, and whats your name?" Vargas replied in a suspiciously friendly tone.

"My name....I'm uh..." She was unsure what to say.

"Well come on, don't be shy little miss, these bots won't bite....unless of course you're a Destrillian then there might be some worry there." He chuckled he last part of the sentence as he obviously joking.

"I...well...my...." Eve was having a hard time responding, she was pretty sure this Vargas character would be sitting in front of a computer and any name she gave him would be looked up right away. Then Vargas spoke up again.

"Wait....you're not actually a Destrillian right.....right?" There was pause for a moment then Vargas Sighed. "You are one aren't you..." He stated at her.

Eve knew her cover was blown so just decided to go with it "Yep, you got me, I'm a Destrillian, as pure as they come."

"Is that so....this is rather awkward then. Well, judging from your appearance I would say you are....Eve Rosalind Daly. Ah the Ice queen, well it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Wish I could say the same whoever you are." Eve snapped back.

"Oh my how rude of me, now where are my manners? I should give you the full introduction. Well my name is Seth Vargas, I am the Director of Viola's Weapon's Development Department. And I'm rather embarrassed to say this but my current orders are to either subdue or eliminate any of you that my combat drones happen to come across."

Silence fell across the room, Eve contemplated what this man said to her but really it wasn't surprising, the soldiers before were trying to capture them, now it's just been stepped up to massive death machines.

"So now what happens, Director Vargas?" She asked clinically.

"Well you got a couple of choices young lady, you can either surrender, which would lead you back to a containment chamber, or, you can resist and try to escape, in which my subordinates here will shoot you without hesitation."

"Umm yeah, how bout no to either of those? I'm not going back and I don't plan on dying yet either, so you're just gonna have to deal with it sweetie." Her response was taunting and childlike, she was practically talking Vargas' language now which appealed to him.

"Oooo feisty aren't we? Alright since you insist I'll present you with a third option, one that doesn't involve you being either a scientific slave or a corpse."

"Oh is that so? And what might this third option be Mr. sound only?" Her tone was almost sarcastic sounding since she'd figured out that will get the best response from him.

"You'll see, just follow my mechanical friends here to a location that is more suitable for us to talk, and don't worry about me setting any traps, you being dead or back in the hands of the Science department won't be of benefit to either of us. I hope you make the right decision, ciao". Then the speaker on the drone went dead and the machine itself sprang to life again.

"I HAVE BEEN GIVEN NEW ORDERS, WILL YOU COMPLY WITH US?"

Eve thought for a moment, considering these things could tear her to shreds with bullets in mere seconds even if she used her abilities it seemed that cooperating with this Vargas guy seemed like her best choice, so unfortunately Emma would have to wait for now.

"Alright....I'll comply"

The drone's eye lit to full again as though it was pleased the target was being cooperative.

"THEN PLEASE, THIS WAY".

It turned and motioned it's head towards another corridor it was standing by. Eve hesitantly walked towards the two hulking masses, then the first one proceeded down the walkway, the second was obviously waiting for her to go first so she kept walking by and followed the leader to wherever it would taker her.




"This is just too good Circe!" Vargas exclaimed as he came bursting into the room, making the girl jump out of her chair in fright.

"Umm what is sir?" She asked in complete puzzlement.

"We've got our first one hooked!" He said with a great deal of excitement, Circe was still as puzzled. "You see as luck would have it, one of the drones that was sent down reported finding a stray security guard in level 5 with no ID, and it turns out this guard was actually Destrillian no. 10 - Eve Daly!"

"I see sir, and the President's orders were to either capture or eliminate them correct?"

"Correct you are! However this one wasn't too keen on the idea, so I decided to see how she'd respond to a third option, and fortunate me so far she's going along with it!" Vargas was just short of bouncing off the walls with joy, he couldn't believe his first attempt would go this well.

"And so now what's happening Sir?"

"Now she's being led somewhere we can talk, not face to face of course, but a video link will be suitable, then I just have to win her over and we'll be in business!~" Then he stopped in his joyful demonstration and turned to Circe. "Oh by the way, what's the status of the Nova Project, will they be usable anytime soon?"

"As of the moment Dr. Woltar is still working out a couple of bugs but they will be ready for field testing very soon."

"Good Good, so far we haven't needed them but I expect we will eventually as I doubt all of those kids will be as cooperative as our dear Eve is...." He was then cut off by his phone beeping. "Ah that must be Unit-12 now." He removed the phone from his jacket and answered. "Vargas here..........Good.......... just keep her there for the moment and let her know I'll speak with her shortly." Vargas turned to face Circe again.

"The drones and the girl have reached their destination, time for me to work my magic." Which he ended with by giving Circe a grin then proceeded out of the room to attend to his business.


To be continued...

 

[Tennyo]

The emergency board meeting that had been called to address the deteriorating situation involving the Destrillian test subjects had come to a dramatic conclusion upon witnessing the fire manipulator Fiona take on a group of security guards and win, then ending the whole ordeal with the murder of a scientist. Needless to say pulses were racing when the board members dispersed as a feeling of impending doom seemed to fall over many of them. Even the idea of military action and the assurances of Vargas brought them no comfort. There were still far too many what ifs for their liking.

One individual, however, was upset for a much different reason. A few others outside the room stared as the sound of his angry voice echoed through the halls.

“Can you believe that pompous asshole?” Dr. Jeffery Thomas seethed as he exited the boardroom. “He dare insinuate that 008, MY specimen, is a failure?” If he knew, oh if he only knew. But I’ll show him…”

The older, portly gentlemen walking beside him grimaced at his words. “Dr. Thomas, please. Yes, we all know about Vargas’s… personality flaws, and that he has been in strong opposition of the project from the beginning, but right now he is the least of our concerns.”

Dr. Thomas stopped walking and rolled his eyes. “Oh, right, the complete and utter incompetence of every other staff member involved with the project. How could I forget that? I do apologize, Dempsy.”

“That is not what I meant,” the older man asked, facing the younger scientist. “Now you listen to me. It wasn’t hard to pull the necessary strings to get you assigned to this girl three years ago, what with the incident with Dr. Nedews and all, but keeping this specimen as part of the project all this time has been. Vargas isn’t the only one who views her as a failure.”

“Yes, she can be difficult, but you know just as well as I do that it’s all a façade. You saw what she did in the woods three years ago, and you’ve read Dr. Nedews’s transcripts. You know the theories; you know what she’s capable of.”

“Yes, I have, but you see…”

“And you know of the reputation she had even before she joined the project.”

“Yes, but none of that matters to the rest of the board! 008 hasn’t been showing the signs of improvement that the Board desires. What use is it to make plants grow and flowers bloom? That’s all they’ve seen, and trust me, those are not useful abilities for war!”

The scientist ran his fingers through his hair with a sigh. He had no retort for his friend’s comment. The older board member had hit the nail on the head. This upset Dr. Thomas, but he quelled his anger and listened on.

“If that girl wasn’t as skilled as she is in hand-to-hand combat she probably would have been kicked from the program a long time ago.”

“She finally admitted it, earlier today,” Dr. Thomas began in an almost desperate tone, “You should have seen her. I’ve never seen her frightened like that before. She begged me to let her out and take her with me. She said she could feel people dieing. She felt every single death.”

Board member Carlton Dempsy watched his younger friend with a keen interest, trying to gauge what the man was thinking. “I…see,” was all he managed to say.

His face abruptly facing the older man and his eyes looking almost hopeful, Dr. Thomas replied, “Do you really? This means that ll of our theories are correct! They have to be!”

With a sigh Dempsy placed a hand on the other man’s shoulder, adopting a softer, almost sympathetic tone. “Jeffery my lad, I’m going to give you a piece of advice. Please don’t take this the wrong way. But you… you need to stop being so desperate for proof. The other board members and even some of the other scientists, view you as a complete wash out. Sure, fine, yes, we know she can sense death now. But this isn’t the concrete proof you need to convince everyone of your and Dr. Nedews’s theories. Which, I have to say, such theories are all thanks to the work of Natasha anyway.

“What I’m trying to say here is that you are far too ambitious for one with so little proof. What you need to do now is be quiet, lie low, and only speak when spoken you. And cross your fingers that the girl stays in her pod. If she gets out, she’ll be treated as a threat and killed; you know this. Maybe if you would have garnered as much acclaim for her as, say, 001, they’d be willing to spare her no matter what.”

The scientist perked up with curiosity at this last comment. “Wasn’t 001 the first to escape?”

“I do believe so. You’re point?”

“If this is all her doing the board members still wouldn’t kill her?”

Mr. Dempsy laughed. “Kill her? Sierra is their biggest and most promising investment. Why would they want to kill her? No mark my words they’ll risk everything to control her again.”

“I see. Yes, that makes sense.” Dr. Thomas began to walk now, slowly yet with almost a sense of mirth that he did not posses before.

“What does that mean?” the older man asked, raising his eyebrows.

Dr. Thomas did not turn around to reveal the smirk he had upon his face. The smirk of someone with a plan. “You know, Carlton, I do believe it is time we paid our dear friend Dr. Nedews a visit.”

----​

Emma lay in her tube, trying desperately to keep her mind clear. She needed to be able to communicate with the other Destrillians, not only to lead them to her but also to find out exactly what was going on.

But what was this? A life force, moving closer very quickly. Someone was sprinting in her direction. She concentrated on it, and yes, it was a fellow Destrillian. As the person grew closer she was able to make out different traits of her unique energy. This was Eve, it had to be! Emma had always liked her, and enjoyed chatting with her whenever they had their free hour at the same time in the recreation room.

Almost to add to her elation Emma could sense another person sprinting down the hall a little ways behind Eve. Had the others formed a rescue party? There was a third individual over in that general area, wasn’t there? Emma concentrated hard, but could no longer sense anyone.

“How odd, I could have sworn someone was there,” she said to herself as she pressed her face to the glass of her pod.

The redhead was quickly shaken out of her puzzlement by a somewhat unfortunate turn of events. Eve had taken a sudden turn down another hallway, and was running away from Emma’s room. She must have forgotten the way. This area of the basement was a bit out of the way. Emma had to pass everyone else’s rooms to get to the testing, training, and recreation areas but no one ever had to pass her room. That paired with the ever constant escorts it wasn’t unimaginable to believe that someone might not know exactly where her room was.

Eve? Eve stop you’re going the wrong way!

Emma tried to call out with her mind, but she wasn’t sure if Eve would be receptive in her state of motion. That and Emma realized she hadn’t been concentrating as hard as what was required. She would have closed her eyes to try again, but it was at that moment she realized that the other person coming up behind Eve was almost at the door. Emma knew know that it was Idris, the one who could control metal. Emma had never had much time in the recreation room with her. An hour here, an hour there, most of their time in passing with one exiting as the other entered, but she seemed nice enough. Idris was also the only one to ever tell Emma that her freckles were beautiful.

Idris was now outside the door and Emma could hear faint sounds coming from the metal of that stood between them. Tiny little cracks and groans as if it was being torn in two, until suddenly a perfectly circular piece was yanked out to reveal the hallway outside. Emma could hear the newly made disc clatter loudly as it was thrown to the side. Wires stuck out of the exposed insides of the door in odd angles, a few of them sparking with fading electricity.

The girl on the other side passed through the hole in a graceful dive, landing with a role onto the floor then quickly rising to her feet in one fluid motion.

“Idris!” Emma exclaimed, the entirety of her face being taken over by her wide smile.

Oh sweet freedom here I come!

Idris gave a slight chuckle when her eyes fell upon the girl trapped in the tube. She made her way forward and when she reached the glass and metal prison gave a small, comforting grin.

"Hey, love. How about we get you out of here, hmm?" she asked.

“You read my mind,” Emma replied with a smile.

It was not a minute later when, in a chorus of grinding metal and ripping wires, the door of the pod was torn off, and Emma was free. The red haired girl quickly clambered out as fast as she could, stretching out her arms and legs widely in her new found freedom.

“Thank you so much, Idris. I thought I was going to be trapped forever!”

Idris responded in kind, after which Emma remembered Eve.

“Oh, Eve! She took a wrong turn on her way here. We should probably go and try to find her.” And then Emma grimaced, mentally kicking her self for not thinking over what to say. Her fellow Destrillians did not know the full extent of her powers either, and she wasn’t sure whether or not she should say anything just yet.

“She, uh, was communicating to me telepathically,” Emma said, trying to cover her blunder.

A few more stretches later and Emma was ready to leave the room. The two girls made their way to the door and climbed out. But Emma still had a lot of questions, which she asked as the two of them made their way.

“Was there anyone else in the hallway with you earlier?” she asked, enquiring about the extra life she sensed. She then quickly added, “It’s nothing, really, just wondering where all the others are, and exactly what is going on. Are we really all making an escape?”

The two Destrillians jumped through the hole and began jogging down the hallway, Emma leading them in the direction she believed Eve had gone while Idris gave a brief run down of what she knew of the current events.

 

[Hisako]

Erthys smiled the same tiny smile he had for most things as he shook the limp fish that recieved his handshake. Appearances were deceptive - the wreck that was the Destrillian in front of him seemed so much more damaged than any of the wreckage around them.

The limp fish was withdrawn almost as quickly as the handshake lasted, accompanied by a cautious stare. Erthys raised an eyebrow -


... shot with tranq gun… nice

Nice, indeed. He shook his head in half-amusement, and turned towards Sierra. "The Recreation Room... funny." He looked upwards, deep in thought. "We never actually had very much sort of real recreation... but then, no-one in the world really does, do they? Everyone's too wrapped up in their... seriousness to have any sort of recreation..."

Erthys thought back to earlier years. Everything that happened before the time the Violan scientists took him away was a hazy blur. The only defining details on his transfer to the Viola facilities...
There were stun batons, surprisingly very little resistance. I wonder what I can find from this labyrinth of memories of mine? Better days? Worse days? Recreation or just depression?

Erthys began to try and focus on the thought, shrugging off the prickling feeling at the base of his skull, and suddenly a single shred of true memory was unlocked to him -

The guards broke in through the doors, kicking it down in a display of unwarranted urgency. They all knew what and who was inside, and that they weren't going anywhere fast.

The father my father? stood, towering yet staggering as if like a building with uncollapsible foundations - on the verge of collapse, fists clenched in precise drunkenness, finding and missing their marks on the boy in front of him.

The child me? was a mess. There were bruises everywhere, but mostly clumped together on the forearms where blows were blocked, and all over the face, the sides and the chest where the blows were not blocked.

Every swing brought either a miss or a meaty thud, and there were no cries, no whimpers or shrieks aside from the occasional grunt between the father and son exchanging blows to the diaphragm.

There was no emotion displayed aside from the grief and hatred exuded from the drunk man lashing out at his boy. Not when he began to drink, not when he began to abuse Erthys, and not when the guards threw him off his son and pummelled him until his flailing stopped.

As for the boy himself, back still pressed to the dining room wall, he still managed to break the visor (and nose) of one guard, kick another in the crotch and break another arm before collapsing in a defeated heap in the arms of a Violan scientist, glassy-eyed and faint-pulsed, memory fading into darkness soon after.

Snap. Out. Of. It.
Erthys frowned, a facial expression he rarely used. He shook his head, making a mental note to analyse it later when he was away from trouble, cataloguing it for now. Wait. What was I - oh yes. Recreation Room. Irony. Yes.
He was about to elaborate on his cryptic babble, when more mind-talk echoed through his head, this time from no-one around him.

“Who’s there... hear me? What’s going on? ... my pod I need help! Please...

Accompanied by a little sting at the back of the head, Erthys chuckled. "More lost lambs, Sierra my dear. Should we go and find them, or should we wait for other shepherds to find them?"
He was cut short by what sounded like Terra slumping onto the floor. Erthys turned around, and sure enough, the gentle snores of a disturbed mind drifted from her comatose body.

"Sometimes, it's not the shepherds that lead the lamb." Erthys brushed a clump of errant hairs away from Terra's face, and found her slightly heavy for her size, although still pretty much a featherweight in his arms as he picked her up from the ground. "In fact, I would say right now the lambs are leading the shepherds. It's this universe that makes fun of us all, making the meek and the weak the brave and strong." Again, the tiny stilted smile of Zen magnitudes.

 

[Channy]

The President of Viola reclined in his chair after the conclusion of his meeting. He reached for the remote to the already illuminated screen and rapped at a few buttons, splitting it into 10 sections, with two horizontal lines of five. Each subdivided screen was a window, peering over the shoulders of the escaped Destrillians.

Thunder and Light had met, albeit in a risqué situation, before they were confronted with Destrillian 003, Terra of the Earth. The three conversed strategically before Terra situated herself against a far wall and collapsed, leaving the other two stunned. The camera phased out just as the two of them began to approach their fallen comrade.

Fiona had torched her own Doctors face and ripped his organs from his body like a heartbreaker. Thetis remained on the floor at the end of her corridor, only seconds away from Fiona. But now they engaged in confrontation. Fiona seemed to lecture Thetis, scolding her as if her own mother. Ronin was still a fair distance away from his comrades. If Viola guards could single out Ronin before he reached the others, perhaps they could still contain him. It was a stretch, but it was one they would have to at least attempt.

On the far west side of Viola, Emma was still contained in her cryogenic tube. Crying out into the void like a kitten in the rain before her saviors finally came for her, The Gunmetal Glint, and the Ice Queen. However one of them was missing.

The Violan President slicked a finger over another button and shifted a new screen on. It featured Eve as she strode off down several new corridors, recently shut off from the rest of the pack. Face to face with Vargas, Eve was the first of her kind to meet with the original Director of the Weapons Development Division. As he witnessed their face off, The President knew it would be their first and last meeting.

Somewhere down the same west side of the B5 floor, Eydin, had deserted his group before Eve had. He had taken off after her to ensure her safety and in the end, separated himself even further away from her. Following white hall after white hall had taken him down into the northern parts of the Basement. Cries for attention and calls to his kind wouldn’t reach them from here. He would be the perfect target for the new squad of soldiers.

The President clicked down on a pad, dispatching his voice over the intercom to his subordinates. “Deploy the new round of Soldiers. Give them the new equipment to ready themselves against Destrillian 007, he’s finally alone. Don’t shoot to kill, contain the beast.” Relinquishing his commands, he leaned back into his chair before an afterthought occurred. “Tell them that should any single person contain the Destrillian, his position will be immediately promoted.”

With the promise of a promotion on the horizon, the President believed in his minions to do their best and succeed in containing the Destrillian. He slid forward his memo pad and began to doodle against the slip. Scribbling very cave mannish stick figures, he etched the future of the Wind Destrillian, shot down by an entire armada of other stick figure soldiers. “Pew pew. Two down. Nine more to go.”

--​

Soldiers flooded the northside corridors down into Subsection C. Eydin continued to walk the halls of endless white like one of Emma’s mice in a maze. Except in the Birdseye view of the President, this mouse was only getting further and further away from the others. “Run little rodent, run as fast as you can.” The voice of the President could be heard over the intercom all throughout the basement floor, startling many Destrillians for it would be the first time they heard the father of their experiments voice in years. But who could he be referring to?

--​

Sierra’s own curiosity was no different. She hesitated for a moment as the foreign voice sounded above her, almost omniscient with its very presence. She checked to Erthys... Had he heard it too? Or was she going mad?

“We should move on to the Recreation Room. I think we can meet them there.” Reiterating her motives, Sierra pressed onward. Her thoughts however, cut short when Terra passed out behind her figure. Before she had any time to react, Erthys had already gathered up Terra’s frame and carried her still covered body in his arms. As she watched his tentative nature towards the care of her well being, Sierra felt something knick at the back of her mind. An inward pain on the only untouched organ of her body. Could it be… jealousy?

Her pace, slow; leisurely, and yet cautious. Around the bend, there lay empty halls one after another, mesmerizing corridors that when left alone one would easily lose themselves in the unconvincing warren.

However Sierra was no fool. She’d been confined to these halls for years, and she had grown to know each path and where it lead as if it were her home. Home, although not her word of choice, was what it was. She knew the path from which she and Erthys were meant to walk to the Recreation Room and she followed it without hesitation. Turning corners which lead her into another bleak hall, she checked occasionally for Erthys, ensuring that he was indeed still behind her and that she hadn’t lost him. Although she was sure he knew the way as well, nobody knew the halls like she did.

Bringing her hand to her right temple she sent out a following message, a conclusion to her awakening to check if her brethren had awakened and of their whereabouts.

“Fiona…” Fiona was closest to her corridors, save for Erthys and Terra who she had already met with, and had a greater chance of reaching her through mind than the others. “Fiona, have you reached the others?” The callback had told her that Fiona had.

"S-Sierra? Where are you? Fiona will k-k-kill me! Where am I supposed to go? Help me, p-please!" Thetis cried out to her, and doing the best that she could to coax her, Sierra sent a message back to her.

”Thetis… You must calm yourself… Don’t let Fiona push you around. Don’t be afraid to stand your ground.” She only hoped it would be enough.

She knew Fiona’s persona well, and often feared her for it. But laced with that fear came great admiration. Nobody could hold their own like Fiona did. Maybe years of experimentation did something to the girl that made her snap, or maybe she was just a sociopath from birth, but Sierra knew that if you cross Fiona, you cross death itself.

With that in mind, she chose her words carefully. Not wanting to use any sort of demanding tone, nor any words that could put her in a position of crossing Fiona for no reason. “I want you to go to the Recreation Room. We can meet everyone together there, and plan our next move out. Tell the others if you can reach them please.” Please. There was a word she had forgotten to use in these hallowed halls; but with Fiona, manners had a better chance of working with her if you stood on the same level as she.

She dropped the mental connection and waited for a reply before turning another corner and standing in yet another empty hall. The difference that stood between this hall and the next was the solid steel door at the far end. With a metal plate soldered into its face, distinguishable to those who could read.

“Recreational Area
Hours: 0600 – 1200
1400 – 1800
Destrillians prohibited without security.”​

With still no sign of the others, Sierra pressed her back to the door and unconsciously rubbed her blood stained hands against her still bare arms. Adjacent to the door on the left was a keypad, complete with palm reading, card slot and lock input. To use their palms would set off the alarms within their sector, signaling their location to the rest of security, and bringing forth possible death if left outnumbered. She knew not the code, nor would any Destrillian, having not been trusted with such information. Her eyes shifted to Erthys, sketching a glance that asked if he had picked up a cardkey or had one on his person.

 

[Baldy]

Men and women of great importance were exiting the board room in a slow trickle of twos and threes. They were speaking in hushed voices, as had Director Seth Vargas and General Sophalla as they disappeared down a corridor, or else ranting to their companions like the good doctor Jeffery Thomas. Still other scientists had failed to show up entirely—one prime example had been Dr. Finley Fringe, who had put his heart into his experiment and had, in return, had it taken from him literally. All throughout the corridors of the Viola facility's second floor, one could hear the plans and theories bouncing off the walls like so many super-powered rubber balls. People were buzzing with intellectual activity.

Amongst them all, a tall, chestnut-haired man leaned with careful casualness against the doorway to the board room and listened with varying levels of interest to the many conversations being had around him. His eyes, a striking sort of tan-based hazel, roved across the faces of his colleagues from behind a pair of horn-rimmed glasses. The gold of his wedding ring gleamed dimly in the ambient light as he brought a hand up to rest his chin upon.

Doctor Cedric Rosenfeld was many things at the moment.

For starters, he shared the same shocked dismay that the other members of the Destrillian project felt at their subjects running rampant; who would have guessed the experiments had it in them to break free? Sure, it had been considered previously, but purely as one of the worst-case scenarios that companies such as Viola made preparations for but never expected to actually happen. Dr. Rosenfeld also had to cringe in disappointment of the horrific performance of the personnel assigned to stop this very circumstance—but then again, the Destrillians were made to be just about unstoppable.

Above all else, though, the Doctor couldn't help but smile faintly at the sense of humour his own Destrillian prototype possessed. She was the very reason he had been present for this emergency meeting; up until mere hours ago, Dr. Rosenfeld had been at home, enjoying a well-earned holiday with his wife and daughter. His cell phone had rung, with the programmed ring that meant, this is business, this is a serious situation, pick up the phone now or suffer the consequences. Lo, when the scientist had answered, the only sound he had heard was that of a door swishing shut amidst distant but familiar siren wails.

The Gunmetal Glint had never really lost her idea of a bad joke, after all.

Naturally, Dr. Rosenfeld had called Viola right back and had received frantic word that the Destrillians were somehow escaping their confines and waging war on every man sent down to apprehend them. The results were quickly approaching catastrophic, and he was required to return to the facility ASAP, which he had.

And now, at this very moment, Director Vargas' combat drones were being sent into the abyss of Basement Level 5 to force the experiments to surrender on pain of death. At this very moment, his own #009 could be facing down one, two, ten drones. The thought almost brought another smile to his face.

Dr. Rosenfeld was strictly on the fence as far as this situation went. Of course, he had been absolutely furious that the Destrillian project had been allowed to get out of hand like this, but the more time passed, the more the man became less enraged and more simply interested in the outcome of these events. It was slowly turning into a strategy game of deadly consequence, which suited the Doctor just fine. He had always enjoyed the sense of danger that came with such testy experiments anyway.

For the second time that day, his work cell rang – he answered on the second ring and listened intently to the communications officer on the other side.

"Dr. Rosenfeld, sir, there's a transmission coming through from… are you sure this isn't some sort of trick?" said the woman, covering the mouthpiece of her headset for the second half and yet not quite accomplishing her task of blocking out her voice. There was a brief pause, and then the woman returned to the phone. "There's a transmission coming from… from Basement Level 5, sir."

"Is that so?" This would definitely raise a few eyebrows if the conversation continued in the open; Dr. Rosenfeld pushed himself away from the wall and strode off to his office, where he could issue orders much more effectively. "And why am I the only one who seems to be graced with this information?"

"Well, um…" the pause on the other side tipped the Doctor off as to exactly how sceptical the communications officer was about her next statement. "The soldier who's broadcasting, he…well I personally think he's delusional from shock, but—"
"Kindly spare me your opinions and tell me what he said," Dr. Rosenfeld said, glancing quizzically at his phone for a moment. What could a soldier possibly say to warrant a phone call to a leading scientist such as himself?

"His name is Aaron Morrow, sir, and he swears that he's only alive because Destrillian Prototype 009 allowed him his life."

"Huh… well that's very interesting news. Patch him through to me."

So, #009 had better tricks up her sleeve than dialing her scientist's number and leaving the receiver hanging.

Idris knew how to play.

***

​

The world was slowly reconfiguring itself in front of the eyes of one Aaron Morrow. He'd fallen unconscious for a short while but the moment he opened his eyes again, the current events came rushing back and the only thing that had kept him from bolting right then and there was the lack of fluid mobility. Instead, he forced himself with only moderate difficulty to sit up against the wall, scanning his surroundings for any signs of change.
As far as he could see, nobody had passed through this corridor since Destrillian 009 had. He remembered her words well enough:
"You're in absolutely no condition to do anything but sit there and pretend like you're dead so the others don't see you and do to you what I didn't. So take my advice and pretend your life was taken in order to keep it, got it?"

And then she'd been gone and he'd been out for the count. But he was alive! He'd crossed a Destrillian and lived to tell the tale—for now. The Gunmetal Glint's parting speech made it perfectly clear that not everybody else was as—kind? Forgiving?—as she. A large part of Aaron wanted him to do exactly as the girl had said and wait there, playing dead, until somebody came to get him.
But the soldier in him flat-out refused.

It was not only his duty to find and capture the Destrillian – it had been the last order his leader had ever given him, and for that, he needed to at least attempt to honour the order. As if it were a dying wish. In addition, the longer he stayed where it was dangerous, the more of a chance he had at getting killed.
The Destrillian said you'd be fine if you pretended to have been killed.
Yes, but perhaps the girl had forgotten that it was much more difficult for humans – even human soldiers – to slow their breathing and heart rate to a level that might pass for death. Especially when that great and terrible fear spread through them, the special kind of fear only ever instilled by these scientifically engineered monsters.

His mind was made up. He had to move. And so Aaron Morrow slowly got to his feet and, one hand against the wall for support, began to move down the corridor. He didn't look down at the bodies he was stepping over.

He had barely turned the corner into the next hallway when a door flew open and a hand grabbed him by the arm and pulled him inside. The young soldier was startled half to death but at the same time he had not felt the instinctive jolt of dread that he would have if it had been a Destrillian who had touched him. No, this was a human being, and the only humans who went down this far were scientists and…

"A nurse?" the words slipped out of his mouth unnoticed by their owner, too distracted he was by the appearance of somebody he could possibly trust. She was pale in the fluorescent light of the equipment closet she had shut them in, and her strawberry blonde hair had come mostly undone from the bun she'd been keeping it in. Now it hung lank and bloodstained. Her watery blue eyes regarded him fearfully.

"How are you still alive?" she asked, her voice hushed to just above a whisper. Aaron debated for a moment on whether or not to tell this woman the truth, but then decided the truth was what everybody needed right now.
"My squadron ran into a Destrillian. She…killed the rest of the men, but she let me live. I don't know why," he added on when he saw the incredulous face the nurse wore.

"Let you live, she did…?" she repeated, and then her eyes widened. She looked up at Aaron and he realized that the expression on her face had not been one of incredulity but of shocked recognition.
She breathed in. "It was Idris, wasn't it? Destrillian Prototype #009, The Gunmetal Glint." The way she said this gave Aaron a sneaking suspicion that she knew this Destrillian on more than a need-to-know basis. Before he could ask, she answered his question for him.
"I was one of the nurses assigned to her; I was in the room when s-she…broke free." The woman's hands clutched at her dirtied labcoat. "She allowed me to escape as well!"

Aaron blinked. The Destrillian had said something about not liking to kill…
"I don't know what they told you but I don't particularly fancy killing sprees."

"She's…Idris, was it?" the soldier inquired, receiving a nod from the nurse. "She's letting people go—but why would she do that? She may not fancy killing sprees but nobody can deny she's already slaughtered a good handful of soldiers…why did she let us go?"

"I don't know," the nurse said, shaking her head. There was an apprehensive gleam in her eyes—or perhaps that was just the fluorescent light flickering. "I don't know, but we have to try to get out of here. We have to try to escape, or else we'll die down here…" The woman's voice cracked; she seemed about to cry. The soldier's gentlemanly upbringing kicked in and—fully aware that he was covered in blood, and not the least bit concerned about it—Aaron wrapped an arm around her quietly shaking shoulders in comfort.

"There's one thing we can try. Hold on," he told her in an undertone. He reached for the communications device strapped to his belt and flicked it on. "Broadcasting from Basement level Five. This is Aaron Morrow, the last remaining soldier of the squadron sent to take out Destrillian #009 – requesting some sort of assistance." He repeated the message twice more before the communications officer found his signal and was able to transmit back to them.

"There are combat drones being deployed into Basement Level Five as we speak, Morrow. When one of them draws near, step into its line of sight and identify yourself – it will bring you up to safety." The woman on the other end was clearly hoping the drones would be deployed faster for she sounded worried for the two.

A tug on his arm and a meaningful glance from the strawberry-blonde nurse prompted the young soldier to continue with another message. "Also, there is a female nurse with me. She…"
"Cynthia. Cynthia Schmidt," the nurse supplied with a small, helpful smile.
"Her name is Cynthia Schmidt and she was assigned to Destrillian Prototype #009. I'd like to speak with the head scientist of this project," he continued, barely believing he was asking for such a thing. The communications officer seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"Dr. Cedric Rosenfeld is the head of Destrillian 009's development, but he's busy at the moment."
"Then get me through to him as soon as he isn't busy!" the soldier said, with a slightly harsher tone than he intended to use. He softened his voice and added on, "it's of vital importance that we speak with him. You must understand, it was his prototype that spared us our lives—the Gunmetal Glint!"

A moment of silence. Then…
"Very well," came the communications officer's voice. "I'll call his private line as soon as the meeting is over and if he clears you, you'll be able to speak with him. Understood?"
"Perfectly."

Not too long after, a new voice crackled in over the communications device.
"So what's this I hear about my Idris leaving you two alive?"

***

​

"Thank you so much, Idris! I thought I was going to be trapped in there forever!"

Idris Savage smiled at the grateful little Destrillian at her side. "Any time you need it, sweetheart. Just a question, but how come you couldn't get out on your own?"
Then she remembered – Emma's abilities had to do with plants. Nature. There was none of that down here.

"Never mind," she said airily, smoothly going over her own mistake and instead sweeping one hand at the still-sparking hole in the door. "Après vous, cherie."

Emma looked about to go through the hole but them stopped, her eyes widening as she gasped a tiny gasp. "Oh, Eve! She took a wrong turn on her way here. We should probably go and try to find her!”
Idris peered at her after a moment, one eyebrow arched. Emma quickly finished with, "She, uh, was communicating to me telepathically." Idris didn't believe this one bit, but she made the decision to leave it lie for the moment. Emma was already skittery and Idris was sure that if she stared at the red-haired girl with that look that said Yes, I know you're lying, Emma would be frightened.
If the girlie wants to keep her secrets, she can do so for as long as she can – the truth always comes out eventually.

And so all the smaller Destrillian did was flick her wrist at the exit again, another smile on her face. Emma stretched a few times and them clambered out into the hall; Idris dived through the thing herself and rolled back up onto her feet. As they began their walk to find Eve, Emma hesitated for just a moment, and then began to talk—to ask questions. Lots of them.

"Was there anyone else in the hallway with you earlier? …It’s nothing, really, just wondering where all the others are, and exactly what is going on. Are we really all making an escape?" Idris looked up at her fellow Destrillian; her pale lips parted to respond and then she stopped, frowning. Eydin had been with her, true… but he was gone now. And so was Eve. Where had they run off to? Although Eve was one of the newest Destrillians and therefore could be forgiven for making a wrong turn, Eydin had been here longer than Idris, so he couldn't have gotten lost—could he?

"Well, yes, Eve ran into Eydin and I before she gallivanted off to save you. Eydin's Destrillian 007 – the Wayward Gale," she added for Emma's benefit, in case her memory needed jogging. "He was following me for a while but I guess I lost him at some point. That answers your first question. As for the second one…"
She grinned at Destrillian Prototype 008, the Secret Garden, and winked. "I suppose we are escaping, yeah."

"As far as I know, Sierra's leading the rebellion," the girl began while walking side-by-side with Emma to find Eve. "She's the one who started all this, anyway. Supposedly we're all getting out together and then… I'm not sure. To be honest with you, sweetie, I don't know what we're doing or how we're going to go about doing it. But still," she paused and breathed in deeply, "it sure is nice being at least a little bit free, isn't it?"

At Emma's response, she smiled again and off they went.

As they walked, Idris became increasingly more aware of the base of her skull only just beginning to prick with uncomfortable pressure. She scoffed internally – for now it was tolerable, if annoying, but Idris would have to be careful how and when she used her powers or else that prick would turn into a full-blown headache and especially with Emma around, Idris wanted to remain the genial girl she was so well known for. Especially because Emma was one of the few who had no idea Idris was well known for anything – the two had almost never spoken. They didn't know each other and the blonde-haired Destrillian wanted to make the same kind of impression on the girl as she had with every other Destrillian she'd met before: a perpetually comfortable, knowledgeable girl with a saucy tongue and a comforting smile. It was what they all needed right now, in the face of their adversaries.

She was about to open her mouth and strike up a light-hearted conversation when she heard Emma make another barely audible gasp. She turned to face where the girl was looking and lo and behold, a hundred meters down the hall there was the Destrillian they were both looking for – flanked by two giant robotic somethings. So dwarfed by the hunks of moving metal was the girl that Idris wouldn't have been able to tell it was Eve if not for the telltale nudge in the back of her mind that there was another Destrillian there.

Eve must have felt the two of them as well, for the next moment a voice rang in Idris' head, cood and clear as ice:
"I'm glad Emma's free – don't attack these, they're just bringing me to see some Director man. I'd tell you to come too, if it hadn't been so hard for me to avoid getting killed by these things. Leave me be – if you run across any more of these drones, get the heck outta there. They don't look easy to take down. I'll see you all in just a bit!"

Idris looked over her shoulder to check if Emma had heard Eve's message as well; Emma's face confirmed that she had. Together, the two Destrillian girls waited stock-still as the two machines trundled down the hallway and then turned a corner and whisked their kin out of sight. Idris stared at the last spot she'd seen Eve for a minute longer, and then remembered what the big picture of finding Eve had been—escaping. She turned to Emma.

"Let's leave her. She can handle herself for now – if we don't hear anything from her for a while we'll send a message to check on her. Right now we need to try and find—!"

"…ierra? Where are you? Fiona…-k-kill me! Where…to go? Help me, p-please!" came another message, which from the beginning of it sounded as if it were meant for Sierra. It was far away enough to be fuzzy and a little garbled, but Idris had caught the gist of it, and the sender as well – that timid, stuttering voice belonged to Thetis, the Raging Charybdis. The water-controlling Destrillian had apparently found another of her kind.
Destrillian Prototype 004, Fiona Myrwind. The Blazing Fury.
Not a good combination.

"…Hey, Emmalove? How about we try and find Thetis—and perhaps manage to save her from a fiery grave while we're at it, hmm?" she said to the redheaded girl, trying and only barely succeeding in making the last part sound like a joke. Truthfully, Idris was a little concerned with Thetis' immediate future; Fiona Myrwind was well known like Idris was, but for an entirely different reason. Fiona was absolutely notorious for her bad temper and violent tendencies.

Emma agreed to trying to locate Thetis and Fiona, and so the two turned around, trying to pinpoint the direction they were supposed to go. It was difficult work, as Thetis was far away and her message had only provided enough information to tell them she wasn't in the direction they had been going to get Eve. Emma seemed to be having a much easier time of it than Idris was having, and so the shorter Destrillian gave up trying herself and waited to spring into action whenever Emma found the way. Just as the first note of Emma's voice slipped from her lips another voice boomed throughout the hallways – not the way the Destrillians did it. This voice came from the intercom situated all through the basement levels:
“Run little rodent, run as fast as you can.”

The voice was one she had never heard before, and yet it triggered feelings in her that ripped a low growl from her throat. Whoever that voice belonged to, Idris Savage knew she hated them. As much as the Gunmetal Glint could hate a person, anyway.

Quickly, she remembered herself and looked over her shoulder to make sure Emma hadn't been too startled by either the voice or Idris' fear-striking, guttural response to it. The girl seemed fine enough, and Idris was proverbially poked in the head with the sharp stick of realization that this was another Destrillian she was with, not just some helpless girl.
She can hold her own well enough; stop walking on eggshells around her!
Time passed without any success. Idris and Emma peered down many hallways but none of them contained who they were looking for. Then, while craning her head around one particularly bloodstained corner, Idris heard…no, not heard so much as felt Sierra again. The two were much too far away to communicate properly – so far away that Idris couldn't even hear her voice. But the meaning still carried through clearly, and Idris' thoughts switched to her mental image of the door to the Recreation Room. That was where they were all going to meet. That was where they had to go.

"Hey, Emma—" Idris began, but just then there was a jolt in the pit of her stomach that swept her entire body. The shock of a great impact… but not anything actually physical. It was the shock that accompanied the instinctive feeling of dread within her.

Something was terribly wrong.

 

[NoenGaruth]

Corridor after corridor passed her by as she followed the towering machines through the poorly lit maze that was basement 5, the only sound that could be heard was the grinding of treads against the metal floor, because after all, such a sound made it impossible to hear anything else. However something else suddenly pressed on Eve's mind, something familiar, a memory she couldn't quite grasp onto, but the feeling from this memory was clear in her mind, it was of something calming and pure, a place perhaps....no it was a person, someone important to her.

Suddenly Eve was completely surrounded by this feeling, and it seemed as though now she was worlds away from the dark halls she had been traversing. Images began to fade in and out around her, colours that seemed warm and full of bliss, fragmented pieces of long forgotten memories waved by like leaves in the wind. Then she noticed something else, a figure of a person standing amongst what appeared to be massive oak trees turned red from the autumn months, and the sun shining brightly making everything seems as though it was glowing. The person had their back facing to Eve, she couldn't see their face but she could see it was a woman, with long flowing hair which blew about in the wind. She tried to reach out and call to the woman, but no matter how loud she yelled the woman could not hear her and just continued to stand there silently, almost as though she was waiting for something....

Who's there? The thought in her head interrupted the daydream and pulled her back into reality. She could feel the presence of her own kind nearby, and without alerting the drones she scanned around momentarily before noticing two figures standing at the end of a long hallway. She knew they didn't recognize her appearance in the uniform with her hair done up in a ponytail, but since she could sense who they were, it was a safe bet they could also. From what she could see the first girl was Idris and the other was....Emma? So it seems someone managed to help her out which was a relief know, but now she had other things to worry about and didn't need to get her comrades caught up in this situation she'd found herself in.

"I'm glad Emma's free – don't attack these, they're just bringing me to see some Director man. I'd tell you to come too, if it hadn't been so hard for me to avoid getting killed by these things. Leave me be – if you run across any more of these drones, get the heck outta there. They don't look easy to take down. I'll see you all in just a bit!"

She hoped they would indeed heed her words and not follow, but also stay out of trouble, course the latter was impossible considering everything that's going on, Well hopefully they'll at least be able to stay alive until I've worked out something with this Vargas person.

Then a sound echoed through the hallways, a surprise considering the noise of the drone's screeching treads. “Run little rodent, run as fast as you can.”

"Huh what was that?" Eve asked out loud. Even tho she wasn't asking anyone in particular a booming mechanical voice responded to her from the lead drone "ANALYSIS DETERMINE THAT THE VOICE BELONGS TO THAT OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE VIOLA CORPORATION"

The President? Why would such a person be making announcements at a time like this, and who for that matter were those words directed at? But none of that mattered now, she had arrived at her destination.

This room was very large and unfamiliar to Eve, from the looks of it she appeared to be in a storage room. It had lots of racks containing various machinery and supplies, along with all sorts of junk strewn around the place. The room itself was cylindrical in shape, with a tall ceiling and what appeared to be a few windows around the walls which must see into the many corridors that pass by it. The next thing that grabbed her attention was the large clearing in the center of the room, which above it was a equally large hole in the ceiling which went up for gods know how long, her assumption judging from the girders and cables coming down from the void that it was some kind of large freight elevator (most likely how the drones got down here).

The drones suddenly came to a halt. "WAIT HERE PLEASE, THE DIRECTOR WILL CONTACT YOU SHORTLY." then both of the machines went completely silent.

"Umm sure, I guess" Eve replied to machine, not that it was really necessary. She was wondering what this Vargas character was planning and what he wanted her to do, sure he seemed nice enough, but then again those types can often be very dangerous as they're usually throwing up a veil to mask their true objective, so she'd have to exercise a lot of caution with this guy. But hey, at least he doesn't seem full on homicidal like Fiona, so that's kinda a plus I guess.

Mentioning a fellow destrillian then made her think about her comrades who were still wandering the corridors Hold on just a little longer guys, If I can work something out with this man then hopefully I can get him to help you all too.. She then thought to herself for a moment if it might be possible for them all to achieve freedom without spilling anymore blood, even tho she'd prefer to impale and gouge all those worthless scientist one by one for what they did to her and all the others, but perhaps that might still be an option on the table assuming Vargas has no love for those people either....

"Ah good, you're here, then let's begin shall we?" The voice echoed through the room.

"Where are you this time? Talking out of the stomach of a toaster?" Eve wasn't going to show any fear, she knew she'd have to keep confident if she's to get Vargas' help.

"Turn around and see for yourself" The voice replied. Eve turned to see a large monitor which had previously been hidden in the shadows, which now was lit up and the image of a middle aged man wearing mirrored sunglasses was facing her, but she wouldn't be intimidated by the reflective shields that masked his eyes.

"So you're Director Vargas....you look older than you sound." Placing her hands on her hips as she spoke to the monitor.

"Charmed I'm sure, anyway I don't want to keep you waiting so let's just get on with this".

"I'm all ears sweetie" moving her arms up to be folded across her chest.

Vargas adjusted his tie "As you well know, my bosses aren't exactly keen on letting you all walk out of here, in fact they'd prefer you go back to your holding cells where you'd rot for all eternity. However I on the other hand don't think that's very fair to you poor kids since you didn't even sign up for this in the first place."

"And so what are you asking here? I seriously doubt you're just going to let us walk out of here either."

Vargas smiled ad pushed his sunglasses up his nose. "Straight to the point, I like that. Well you see, what I'm asking if for your help. You won't need to worry about any of those awful scientist or other Violan personnel hurting you anymore, why, I can simply make them go away, and all I'll ask for in return is your voluntary cooperation in furthering research to better the future of this planet."

"I don't think you'll be doing anymore research into anything, Director." A voice echoed from the other side of the room.

Both Vargas and Eve were caught by surprise and were looking for where the voice was coming from. Then out of the shadows emerged a man in a black tunic uniform and matching field cap.

"General Roland." Vargas spat out of his mouth "You're only lucky I'm not here in person otherwise I'd have picked up you foul odor long ago".

Roland scoffed at Vargas "Your words won't save you this time Seth, I know exactly what you, Sophalla and that little whelp of yours Circe have been up to, and now that I've even caught you bargaining with one these worthless creatures I've got everything I need to take you down, hell, I bet your fate will end up worse than what I have planned for this little scamp you've been talking to here."

Vargas for once was actually angered, Roland had put him in a tough situation. "What do you mean Roland? The president gave you orders to detain them as a priority."

Roland smiled "Oh you're right there Director, however he did say if they resisted we were authorized to use deadly force, and let's just say that on my report I'll state that she did, because who'll be the wiser, the military is monitoring what's going on down there and that's me!" He made the effort to point to himself as he said that just to make himself loud and clear.

Eve was completely confused as to what was going on, all she knew is that the man across the room had every intention to kill her and it looked like Vargas was screwed as well.

"You're one to talk Roland, actually I'll make sure you don't talk ever again" Vargas snapped at his adversary, then the two drones next to Eve sprang to life and aimed their guns at the General, to which he laughed.

"That's the problem with you Vargas, you lack the ability to deal with situations under pressure so just attempt to resolve it by throwing weapons at everything, however I came prepared".

Just as he finished his words a large burst of energy came shooting from the darkness and struck one of the drones, tearing it to pieces. The other drone attempted to return fire but a second burst quickly reduced the machine to a smoldering heap. Then Roland snapped his fingers and all the lights in the room blinked on, revealing to Eve that she was surrounded by soldiers and military drones.

"Well this talk has been fun but now I'm going to have my own fun with this nice girl here, so if you don't mind Seth I'm gonna need some privacy here"

Vargas's face was burning with rage. "Gods damn you Rola-" He was cut off when Roland spot the monitor with his sidearm.

"Well now that he's gone, it's just you, me and my friends......so it's time to erase your miserable existence you crime against nature!"

Eve stood silent, with her head down. Nobody could help her now, not Vargas, not her comrades, no one.

But she was a destrillian, and these military dogs were nothing, so she wasn't about to just stand there and die.

"You talk big....." Eve spoke tauntingly as she slowly raised her head to face the man in the black uniform. "...but can you back up those words, asshole?"

Roland was not amused by her defiance "Why you little bitc-" but was then cut off right away by another of the girl's taunt's.

"Oh no I've gone and pissed off Captain Crunch! What ever shall I do?" Sarcastically throwing her hands onto her head in a sign of distress.

"Enough of this meaningless banter, time to die freak!" Roland aimed up his sidearm and fired a couple of shots at Eve, who easily dodged them.

"Oh you wanna play that game do ya buster?" So she pulled out the pistols from her holster and pants then holding them akimbo style pointed the weapons at Roland. "Let's see how fast you can move then shall we?" And fired off a single shot that barely missed the side of the man's head, causing him to break his overconfident stance.

"Soldiers! Destroy her!" He barked at his subordinates. They all then cocked their rifles and aimed them at Eve, who found this move unsurprising. "So it's the flunkies first then? Alright come and get me!"

As Eve's attention was focused on her new targets, Roland ducked behind some shelves to shield himself from the upcoming firefight, then shouted "OPEN FIRE!" to which the troops proceeded to fire barges of bullets in Eve's direction, forcing her to find her own cover.

Dammit, looks like these guys are going to pose more of a challenge than the usual security force...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

"Why that no good, sneaky little bastard! How dare he threaten me, ME!" Vargas ranted as he stormed into the room, Circe jumped out of her chair and faced her boss to see what was wrong.

He then clenched his fist, lowered his head and added "That man has overstepped his boundaries for the last time, I will not tolerate such behavior from such and inferior being". Then he paused for a moment, raised his head back up and continued.

"But no matter, the fool has no idea what he's dealing with down there, and I'm quite confident that either our ice-manipulating little friend down there will dispatch him, or if she falls her comrades will quickly swoop in seeking revenge, course either way it eliminates most of our problem".

"Most sir?" Circe inquired to the now calm and collected man.

Vargas pushed his sunglasses up his nose and replied "Correct, for you see my dear, knowing Roland I bet he'd be expecting me to try eliminate him to cover my actions up so would have his evidence in the hands of his subordinates, unfortunately for them Sophalla and her elite guard are on the way to make sure they don't tell anyone either, so it looks like Roland's big plan just turned out to be a big waste of time~".

"Seems the General didn't have the advantage he thought he did after all" Circe added.

Vargas then smiled at her remark "Actually he did have the advantage, in fact he had a MAJOR one, the man knew that I'm not exactly that great at dealing with complex situations under pressure, to which I usually have yourself present to overcome that weakness, but his biggest mistake was by not apprehending me right away which thus gave me time to think and respond....so now I'm the one holding all the right cards."

"And now all you have to hope for is that girl getting rid of him for you...but....are you sure that she can beat him?" Obvious doubt was in her words.

"Oh Circe, Circe...I would be quite surprised if she doesn't utterly annihilate him. Sure there's the likelihood of her perishing in the process, which would be a shame but there's plenty more of them to work with down there, tho I'm quite confident in her abilities."

"Very well then, however aren't you in the least bit concerned that the President might be catching onto us by now?"

Vargas scoffed at very notion, making it clear that wasn't even the slighted concern to him. "Ha! Considering the Level 5 storage room has no cameras of any kind, currently he has nothing to suspect except random bits and pieces which amount to nothing, the most he could have witnessed was my conversing with that girl via the drones, and even then I bet he'd think of it as nothing more than me attempted to lead her into a trap." Then he looked over at Circe and added "And besides, even if he finds out what we're up to it will be too late..."


------------------------------------------------------------------------


Damn it, I'm running out of bullets and I've hit one....no...wait yes one soldier...and it doesn't look like he's stopped fighting either. Then she heard a click, followed by another. And now I'm out of bullets, just great, I was hoping I could do more damage than this with the guns before resorting to my abilities since there doesn't seem to be much moisture in here for me to work with, man I should really have trained better at using firearms.

The soldiers began to regroup and move forward now that the target seemed to be no longer shooting at them, the military drones on the other hand stayed where they were located close by to where Rolland was currently concealing himself.

"Alright men move forward and sweep the area" Shouted the Squad leader to his troops "But remember to keep your distance, just because she's out of ammo doesn't mean she's still not dangerous!"

"You got that right buster! I'm just dying to meet you all up close and personal~" echoed a female voice from the other side of the room. The soldiers all froze for a moment and scanned the area for where the voice was coming from.

Roland then shouted out to the troops "Don't let her scare you, we have the upper hand here and will not be intimidated by a little girl, now find her before she tries anything!"

"TOO LATE!" Eve shouted back, and suddenly a small canister went flying up into the air and landed right in the middle of the soldiers. "TEAR GAS! MASKS ON! MASKS ON!" The squad leaded exclaimed at the sight on the object. Then the canister started emitting a grey gas which quickly filled the area, reducing visibility.

Well that went pretty well....oh wait I don't have a mask....shit. Oh well looks like I'll have to borrow one. Then Eve stood up and darted towards the growing cloud of gas. As she entered it her eyes began to itch, so she knew she'd have to act quick, which was necessary also since there was a soldier right in her sights, sadly for the man he was not facing her. Eve quickly withdrew the bottle of water from her belt and unscrewed the cap, then conjured a sharp crystal of Ice from the bottle and charged at her prey. The trooper turned around just in time to see a girl running at him then there was an impact in the middle of his neck, a cold one at that, then a second later he dropped to the floor dead. Eve pulled off the corpse's gas mask and placed it on her own face before proceeding on.

The Squad leader was starting to lose confidence in their so called "advantage" as now a number of his men had failed to report in, it seemed like this girl was picking them off in the shroud that was the tear gas, then a thought occurred to him, and placed his hand on his radio. "Command this is Delta-1, are we able to vent this room or something, I've already lost a few of my men to this psycho running around in the mist"

"One moment Delta-1, bringing up the specifications of your current location.....ok let's see here........and.....did that do anything?" Replied the voice on the radio. Seconds later there was a large humming sound and the air began to clear up. "Yes that did it command, should have just done this in the first place". Then he looked around for any nearby soldiers to they could regroup, however when he turned around to look further he was greeted by a grinning face.

"Too slow..."

The next thing the Squad leader knew he was falling to the floor, grasping his chest which had a shard of ice lodged in it, then all he could see was black.


"Grrr what is taking them so long? It's much too quiet" Roland said to himself as he stood on the other side of the room waiting for something to happen, then got impatient and yelled out. "Enough of this, if you all just tread around quietly she'll take you all out, fall back and report in at once!" Then he heard a number of the words "Yes Sir" being called back followed by the sound of multiple footsteps, and a moment later seven soldiers came storming out from the rows of storage shelves and junk. "That's it? Seven of you are left? What were you doing in there having a picnic, I barely heard any shots fired!" Roland said at the few remaining subordinates he had left. "Sorry sir, she just got the jump on us in all that gas". One of the men replied.

"Alright I'm not taking anymore chances, got on the radio and have command send down the LY-9. In the meantime the drones will move in and attack". Roland had clearly wanted this girl dead as quick as possible so was going all out. "So you wanna play then child? Have it your way..."

Eve waited in silence as she heard the remaining troops falling back, maybe they were giving up, or maybe things were just about to get worse. A familiar sound came to her ears as she could hear treads screeching against metal. Yep it's about to get a lot worse.

Peering around the corner of her current piece of cover, Eve observed the machines that rolled towards her location. These drones were smaller than the pair that had escorted her here, however they seemed faster, and there were more of them, which was going to make things very difficult. And to add yet another problem to her already growing list, the water bottle was empty so she'd have to find another source if she intended to keep on fighting. Searching around what was nearby she looked for an alternative, and then found something that looked promising - A number of barrels of what appeared to be petroleum or something, guess it would have to do. Unscrewing the cap on one of the large drums she placed her hand over the opening to withdraw a shard, however this was proving to be much more taxing on her mind due to petrol having a much lower freezing point. After giving a bit more concentration she was able to crystallize the liquid into a solid form, course the down side was her head was starting to hurt from this but she had no other choice.

Alright let's do this.

Eve grabbed the opened barrel and toppled it over, then rolled it in the direction of the drones, so there would be a good supply of the substance as she made her way to attack then machines. Then she followed suit, and with forming a large shard from the spilled liquid, she hurled the frozen black spear at the closest drone, which didn't destroy the machine but did throw it off guard and was unable to respond quick enough that even was able to summon a second shard and hurl it right into the center of the drone's body, causing it to spark and cease functioning. The other 3 drones immediately turned and faced Eve, pointing their mounted guns at her. She responded by picking up a handful of petrol and tossing it at the robots, which formed into numerous small shards, not enough to damage the machines but did phase them long enough for her to make a run for it, but still one of them managed to score a hit. A bullet hit her in her left arm, causing her to cry out in pain and stumble behind some cover.

AHH dammit that was my arm! There's no way I'm gonna be able to get near those other 3 without them shredding me to bits, I need to think of another way to get to them. Unfortunately for her, while she was fighting the drones and getting shot, she had failed to notice the movement coming from the elevator shaft, but then she saw the elevator platform descending from the dark void, and there was something on it, something very big.

Oh come on now, just give me a damn break! The item which just arrived in basement 5 was simply put a tank on steroids, dwarfing all the combat drone types she had come in contact with, with some pretty intimidating assortment of guns and cannons mounted on it. Eve almost couldn't help but feel flattered that they were going to all this trouble just to kill her. Then she smiled for a moment and thought to herself You know, for once I actually wish Fiona was here, but hey, if I die now at least I can rest assured that eventually these guys will cross her.

"HA! You're number is up destrillian! We have you out manned and outgunned. Surrender and I'll promise you a quick death." Roland called out, standing on top of the LY-9, his overconfident stance regained. This little fool would be dead soon enough, Vargas and Sophalla's treachery would be exposed, and he would be rewarded by the President for all his work, maybe if he offed a few more of the freaks roaming this level he might even get promoted to head of the entire Violan armed forces. Things were certainly looking up for him, except his delusions of grandeur were abruptly interrupted by a loud "Go fuck yourself!" Causing him to snap back into the moment.

"Very well then, you shall taste the full fury of what the army has to offer" He climbed into the tank's commander position. "Prepare to fire on my mark".

"Ok that wasn't very smart but totally worth it" Eve spoke to herself, then began to run like hell away from her current position since if her understanding of how tanks worked was correct, there would be a large boom very shortly - and there was. All she could do now was keep ahead of the explosions, which was going to be hard since here came the other military drones.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"This is a mistake, I have no idea what you're talking about!" The young officer pleaded as a pair of masked soldiers held him kneeling on the ground. General Sophalla approached him and knelt down to his level, and while constantly keeping a somewhat cheerful mood, replied "Now why is it that I don't believe you? Roland gave you something didn't he? And if that said something were to get out I'd be in very big trouble, and we don't want that now do we?" The fact that she said all this with a friendly smile was just downright disturbing to the officer.

"P-please ma'am, I'm just a mere lieutenant to General Roland, perhaps you should try asking one of my superiors." He attempted to get her to threaten someone else, however she just continued to smile and replied "Oh but I already have, but they wouldn't cooperate so now they're all dead. I certainly hope we won't have to do the same with you." The officer suddenly turned white with fear, if she had killed all those above him serving under Roland, she wouldn't think twice about offing him if he didn't give her what she wanted. "Alright...alright, the tape is over there in the bottom draw" he told her motioning to a nearby desk. "But it won't do you any good, the General has the original on his person and you'll never get to him"

Sophalla let out a laugh at his words and replied "Oh that's already being taken care of, we just had to secure any copies he might have made to cover himself should we attempt to recover the one he has." And with removing the tape from the draw added "Sadly, I'm afraid now that I have what I wanted there's no more use for you, so if you would please gentlemen I'd very much appreciate it!" Her cheerful way of saying such cold things tended to scare even her own soldiers.

"No wait hey I cooperated with you! Please don't-" The young man was silenced by a single bullet to the head, then the soldiers followed Sophalla out the door.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


"What's wrong with this tin can, why haven't we been able to hit her!?" Roland demanded at the tank's crew "Why is it that one of our most advanced pieces of weaponry can't even take out a single person?"

"Sorry sir, it seems she keeps evading our shots" The gunner responded without even looking up from his targeting equipment since he knew the general would get mad if he stopped firing.

"Well then just keep shooting, I don't care if we level this whole area to waste I want that monster dead and I want it to happen NOW!"

Another military drone fell to the ground in pieces and the bombardment of frozen petroleum shards pierced it thin armor, Eve was really doing damage despite the fact that things were constantly exploding around her. This battle was dragging on far too long and it was starting to really take it's toll as her head was really hurting now. There was simply too many, too many drones, too many soldiers thanks to reinforcements, and she just couldn't keep up for much longer. Not only was her head killing her, her body had taken a hell of a beating, there were cuts and bruises all over, not to mention her arm that had been shot earlier was still thriving with unbearable pain.

I....I just can't....even for me...this is too much

Another explosion went off just a few meters away as a shell from the massive tank impacted against a row of storage shelves, causing shrapnel to fly in all directions. A shard of twisted metal hit Eve in her right shoulder.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Her cry of pain echoed through the room, then she dropped to her knees as she clutched her wounded shoulder. Was this the final blow? Was this the end for her? Would she now simply fall onto her stomach and slip away? Eve tried so hard to keep herself together but it was impossible, even for her, and so she began to cry. She no longer knew what to do and was all on her own.

"Idirs? Emma? Help me please, someone....anyone, please, I don't want it to end here! I just want to go home! PLEASE! SIERRA! ERTHYS! EVEN FIONA! SOMEONE PLEASE I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!"

Then there was nothing but silence, the guns has stopped firing as the soldiers determined if they had got her. Roland starred at the monitor in front of him, believing he was now victorious. "Alright men, I think we got her. Move in and confirm the kill." The soldiers only got a couple of meters before they stopped dead in their tracks, because something was moving amongst the rubble.

Eve stood up tall again. Something was different, her pain had gone away and her head had stopped hurting, then her body began to glow with a soft blue haze and it hit her, a sudden feeling of great strength which flowed throughout her entire body.

No, this is not the end. I will not die here. My life has been a living hell all these years I've spent down in this gods forsaken pit of despair, and I will not fade away without giving these Violan flunkies the fight of their life.

Then she looked up at the confused soldiers and shouted "IF I HAVE TO DIE, I'M TAKING YOU BASTARDS WITH ME!" And as her words finished she summoned up the pools of spilled petrol into massive blocks of ice, then with a great forward force of her arms she sent the massive blocks shattering into hundreds of deadly shards which soared at deadly speeds in all directions. The remaining military drones sparked and exploded as the shards pierced vital system, the soldiers stood no chance, and were quickly torn to shreds by the hailstorm of frozen spikes. Even the LY-9 took light damage, and the main cannon was unable to fire anymore due to breaches in it's support lines.

"Im..poss..ible....how can this even happen?!" Roland was in shock, his apparent victory had turned into a complete disaster, and worst of all the target still lived, which made his blood boil with fury and hatred. "ALL FORWARD MACHINE GUNS, FIRE! AND DON'T STOP UNTIL THERE'S NOTHING LEFT OF THAT LITTLE WHORE!"

The tank's remaining guns fixed onto Eve, who just smirked at the move. "I don't think so". Then raised her arm and a wall of the dark liquid formed in front of her, which was so thick the hailstorm of bullets barely made a dent in it. Roland and the tank crew were speechless, her power was unlike anything they'd seen before, then it clicked in Roland's head - Derinium. He'd read about the theories in various reports but never believed these freaks could actually attain such power. Then he slammed his fist down on the console and shouted to the gunners. "Get the main cannon back online this instant". The gunners looked around at him one replied "But sir the main cannon has been damaged, if we fired it again the whole thing might be torn off".

"I don't care, all we need is one shot, do it!" Barked Roland without any regard for their words. The tank's main gun moved once again and focused onto Eve's position, and a massive shell was fired at her icy barrier. The shot however was too much for the damaged cannon's mounting and it fell to pieces, causing the cannon to topple from the tank onto the ground.

"That must have gotten her this time! It just had to!" His eyes were glued to the monitor desperately searching for some kind of sign that she was dead. What he saw then was the last thing he wanted to, the shape of a single figure standing there, it's right arm held out above it's head. Rolland was puzzled at what this girl was doing now, then his jaw dropped as he saw what the figure had hovering above it.

Eve was really pissed now, this General guy just didn't know when to quit, and so she was going to make him. With all of her strength she began to draw up all the remaining petrol in the room to her, then raised her right arm and it began to spiral up and formed into a giant spear like shard above her. Finally she threw her arm forward and the massive shard went hurtling towards the tank and skewered right through it, and the machine went silent.

Eve stood there for a moment breathing heavily, then turned away and eyed the doorway that had been blasted open from a stray shell earlier, until she heard a voice from behind her.

"You accursed, horrible, fucking bitch. How dare you humiliate me like that...HOW DARE YOU!" Roland stood on top of the broken machine, the commander's seat in the tank was high enough that he had escaped being hit when the shard pierced the LY-9. Eve turned to face him and he raised up his sidearm then fired "DIE YOU ABOMINATION! DIE! DIE! DIE!" He shouted at his enemy as he unloaded the entire clip at her. Eve's Kevlar vest absorbed most of the shots but a few impacted her body. However she refused to fall. "Just die already!" He continued to shout, and as he reached for another clip from his belt to reload Eve shouted back at the enraged man.

"YOU FIRST" Then she charged at Roland, jumped onto the tank, and on her way up broke off a piece of the giant shard lodged in the machine, and as she leapt at the man, rearranged the ice in her hand into a shape similar to a sickle, and with on quick slash sent it right through the General's neck, tearing his throat right open. Roland's face was in total horror, what had just happened was simply incomprehensible to him, he was meant to be victorious and this girl was meant to be dead. Instead it was the other way around and he had lost, so as blood began pouring out of his mouth he fell backwards onto the roof of the massive machine and he was gone.

Eve gazed at the lifeless corpse of her enemy and was glad to see him dead, no person like that deserved life so he can go burn in hell. She then climbed down off the lifeless vehicle and began walking towards the exit, little did she know a screen inside the vehicle was still functioning and it was warning that the LY-9's reactor had breached and was going into the red. Steam began to rise from tank but Eve ignored it and kept walking. Shortly after the vehicle began to spark and buzz, but she just kept walking.

Eve has just reached the doorway, and as she was about to step through it there was a bright light coming from the center of the room, then a deafening explosion in the form of a giant ball of white energy as the LY-9's reactor exploded. Before Eve could even react several pieces of metal had impaled her and knocked the girl off her feet. Lying on the ground she spat blood out of her mouth as she could feel the effects of the Derinium wearing off and all the pain and migraines came rushing back, only a thousand times worse than before. Still she wasn't dead just yet, so dragged herself back to her feet and despite all the pain she was in, continued to walk down the hallway leading from the destroyed room, not really with any particular purpose, just walking....walking.

The couple of meters she had walked down the hall seemed like an eternity, she knew she wouldn't get very far but for some reason was driven to keep going anyway. Her vision was getting very blurry, so much that she didn't notice the two figures standing just ahead of her, only when one called out her name did she muster up the energy to raise her head and try to see who was there, but just at that moment her body began to shut down, and she fell to her knees, then as she fell forward, she felt someone catch her before she hit the ground. She couldn't tell who's arms she was in but finally she felt safe to know she was in the company of her kind. Eve then raised up one of her hands and touched the person's face.

"Emma?....Is that you?" The presence of the person holding her felt like Emma's, and the other figure next to her must have been Idris then. She thought she could hear Emma's voice but was unable to make out the words.

"I...I'm sorry I wasn't there to break you out..." Then reached her hand into the vest's pocket and withdrew the half chocolate bar wrapped in foil. "But I hope this can make up for it, I know it's not much but I thought you might like it".

She felt Emma's hand take her gift, then she turned her head towards Idris and smiled. "Hey Idris, I don't know of how much use this will be, but the man I was meeting with was called Vargas I think....we were in the middle of discussing a deal when some army jackoff showed up and started blasting the place apart....but don't worry I got him good...." Her words were beginning to get weaker and it took more effort to talk but she kept going. "...I know my number is almost up......so before I go......just promise me......promise me you'll both get out of here alive.....and you'll find whatever it is you lost long ago......do what I am no longer able to".

Tears were drizzling from her eyes as she spoke those words, then she started to become very cold, even for her, and so she put her arms around Emma and held on tight. As she began to slip away she once again saw the image she had earlier, the sunny field with trees and the woman standing amongst them, only now the woman began to turn around, and Eve saw the face of a beautiful woman smiling at her, reaching out her arms waiting to embrace her.

With her last ounce of strength, Eve smiled, and whispered "Mother...I'm finally home."

 

[Alessa Gillespie]

If she had ever been asleep previously in her current memory, she would have recognized what was happening now as a ‘dream’. Since she had not, she assumed that the way she was aimlessly floating meant that she had died. Screams bubbled from her throat, but came out as squeaks and whimpers, and no one but herself could hear them. She was alone.

oh god help me am i dead now please save me​

savemesavemesavemesaveme​

don’t let me die!​

Some outside force told her mind that now was not the time for panic. She twisted around in the oppressive air as much as it would allow her, finally turning and facing another person. Terra wanted to tell her “Hello!” and “Please help me!” but no words came from her mouth, simply pathetic grunts and mewlings. The woman gracefully floated towards her, looking content and unbroken. Her skin was lovely, though it had small blemishes and imperfections. Perhaps that was what was so beautiful about it: she was clearly never forced into any mold or made to be the best. She was simply herself.

Something in Terra’s heart told her she knew this girl, though the name would not come to her mouth. The other girl recognized her as well, touching the dead

(?)​

girl’s brown

(???)​

hair and smiling. The voice of the other girl, soft and rich, came out from her grinning lips, “You poor dear.”

The sound of it shocked Terra, so used to distinctive voices of thousands of different tones and pitches, this voice unburdened by such an individual sound. It simply existed, now and forever, as this woman’s voice, warm and content. It made Terra’s heart flutter in glee and anxiety, like the aftermath of a first kiss. The happy woman reached out and touched her, warmth spreading up and down her body like a campfire. The Destrillian’s heart beat faster, scared to be touched, but reveling in it. Like a mother, she seemed to cradle the girl with earth’s power, making her pulse slow with happiness and a feeling of being safe. Her wonderful voice began to spill from her lips again and she told the girl in her arms, “You don’t belong here quite yet, Terra.”

The Makeshift Golem suddenly stared at the other girl who had been so kind to her previously. Did she do something wrong? She liked this woman, what had she done so wrong to get her banished from here already? The dark-skinned woman laughed and stroked Terra’s thin hair, “I like you, and we’ll meet again. I promise.” She pressed her lips to her friend’s forehead, nearly making the inexplicably brown haired girl’s heart leap out of her chest. She made a small groan, flailing her arms in an attempt to hug her new friend. The woman gave a hearty laugh and kissed her forehead, her cheeks, her lips, her very soul several times, the other girl whimpering in glee. Finally managing to hold onto the other girl, hoping to never let go, she was pushed away by a pair of strong arms.

“N-no!”​

The words tumbled from Terra’s mouth, sounding too distinct and too horrible to even reach the ears of the other girl. She began to cry, wanting to be with her friend forever, to ignore everything else, and to love this other person forever. “It’s time for you to go,” She told her friend gently, waving a hand goodbye, “But I promise we will meet again.”

Terra felt like crying, felt like she was losing the only person who ever liked and accepted her, even though she couldn’t remember her name. The tears fell from her eyes, sucked into the gravitation that her only friend managed to hold in this world. She felt something tug at her navel, pulling her toward her life and away from this lovely one. Before she left this girl alone without her, she blurted out the only thing that came to mind.

“I-I love you!”​

Once the words had left her mouth, she was already gone. She was Elsewhere now, in somewhere shallower in her mind. She was sure she knew the name of this girl she had met, she was certain it was Eve. But that didn’t make any sense because that girl had looked so different from her and so much happier than she tended to look. Was that truly her? Terra allowed herself to simply float in her mind and stop giving a damn, though she desperately wanted to meet the girl again.

And according to the other girl, perhaps someday she would.

 

[Hisako]

The bonds that Erthys had with the other Destrillians up until recently were not based on any deep personal connection, as he wanted, but on a scale ranging between telepathic messaging to any sort of general emotion. It was something most of them developed, and Erthys had always wanted to put it to good use, trying to make something personal out of it, whether or not Fiona was violent that day, or Sierra refused to focus, or Terra was... just not with them on that particular hour. He thought of it as tiny threads he could cling onto, long, thin pieces of yarn that were all that held the group together as they functioned as Violan pets.

And as the Destrillians scattered themselves all over the complex as uncaged beasts, Erthys realised that the threads they all held onto were more important than ever. The one thing I'll regret - never trying harder to keep us together. Such fragile connections for fragile people. His thoughts wandered to the lost sleeping woman-child in his arms and the de-facto leader of their escaping party right next to him.

His thoughts were interrupted by the first wave of telepathically sent panic. There were ripples of nervousness in every single one of them, but the first wave of panic came from far off, a wave of emotion that swamped Erthys' mind. He recognised the voice.
Eve's casting off of emotions everywhere was like a flood; rage, fear, anger, hope, determination, peace, tranquility -
And then, suddenly, the supernova of emotions and power subsided into nothing.

Erthys stopped dead in his tracks, as his grip on his fragile threads almost slipped. One had snapped, where there had once been an enraged, passionate soul was now emptiness, a dark void of nothing. There was still panic, but as Erthys mentally fumbled around for the missing link, he realised that the panic was his own.

There was no personal connection, but it was still like a punch to the gut.

Erthys' own conditioning fought the urge to howl, to scream and wail like a wounded animal into the empty spaces of his mind, still fumbling for a connection in the vain hope that Eve was still somewhere out there. We all knew, we all knew it would be like this, we knew we would lose someone, we'd lose a brother, a sister, a Destrillian, friend, someone we knew would get themselves killed, to break under the fire, to -

He had never known Eve that personally, sparring on occasion and attempting to strike some sort of real conversation, but he was blocked by whatever pacification they were on, whether it was the Distrum or the conditioning. He felt stupid for feeling so much for the others, for feeling like he'd failed in something. Yet more things he would kick himself for later on.

***

Rosin sat in one of the large plush leather chairs outside the board meeting room, absently still rubbing the area where Erthys had electrocuted her. She had listened to the entire meeting in silence, having submitted her statement on the incident earlier and being technically exempt from having to attend, she decided to spectate anyway in a pointless gesture of work committment after she had been given the okay by a Violan doctor.

She knew that Erthys had been merely incapacitating any foe he had met, but she knew his non-lethal methods of avoiding the enemy would have to change once the company met them with greater force. She worried not about now, but later when Erthys would be forced to be more unpredictable.

Partially because he would be more than capable of causing destruction and wreaking havoc, but also partially because even after nine years of conditioning and monitoring, Erthys would be the Destrillian most likely to randomly conjure up potential from absolutely nowhere and cause a lot of damage before he learnt to control it.

The Director had acknowledged her concerns, but as Rosin sat there pondering, she wasn't so sure he knew or correctly estimated the sort of danger the combined forces of Light, Earth and Lightning could pose.
She did not move from the chair for a while, lost deep in thought.

***

When Erthys came to, he found that he couldn't see and that everything was completely blurred. His own panic, while not exhibited outwardly, peaked and then disappeared as he let go of the broken thread and wiped the wet fog from his eyes and the rivulets on his face with the shoulder of Terra's stolen coat.

He smiled inwardly when he saw Sierra's reaction to what seemed to be Erthys muzzling Terra's shoulder. Putting the snoring Earth Destrillian down onto the floor nearby, he straightened to walk to Sierra, gently clasping her shoulders again, this time feeling every single chilled goosebump, cold like ice.

"We're all born without our fleece. Don't you think it's funny? We're all so vulnerable, so naked without it." He swore to himself never to forget the feeling, the feeling of disconnection, never to forget so that he would remember to keep her safe, keep everyone he cared for safe, from the trigger-happy fiends in Viola's ranks.
He would make a start now.

He took off his 'borrowed' shirt, sparking discharge from static, and slipped it over Sierra's more slender frame. He noted to himself that he probably should not have buttoned it up, as the stitching connecting the shoulders to the arms were ripped over Erthys' more built physique. "We all need to stick together for security, right? Feels that much - better..."
He flicked away some of Sierra's hair that was stuck to the static electricity of the collar, tracing an electrified line with the back of his hand down the neckline of the shirt, down further past her collarbone until she flinched, just the slightest.

He paused, and pulled out a keycard he'd only just noticed sticking out from the breast pocket, and smiled once more despite the interruption of his interlude.