Paragon

Zeke tapped his foot impatiently while Jon worked towards picking the lock of the Ol’ Dragon’s Tomes. His picks made a clinking sound that was surprisingly loud, or perhaps that was merely Zeke’s perception of the noise since they were trying to keep quiet and get as far as they could without announcing their presence. Zeke found that notion virtually moot since they were going to have to deal with the guardian that Jon had mentioned the previous night. He wasn’t worried; between the four of them, Zeke felt like there wasn’t much that would actually be capable of standing in their way. Kira was a savage fighter and Jon was no amateur by any means, in fact, he was likely more skilled and deadly than any of them. Then, of course, there was Bryan. Whatever this thing was, it might be a chore but it wasn’t going to be a problem.

“Got it.” Jon finally said after what seemed like an hour and slowly pushed open the door. A tiny bell dinged as the door creaked open, loudly announcing their entrance. Jon winced at the sound and Zeke saw him smack his own head in pained forgetfulness. “Well, if anyone’s within earshot they know we’re here then.”

“Doesn’t matter, let’s go.” Zeke said and pushed passed Jon and walked in followed by Kira and Jon with Bryan in the back. As they strode inside they heard footsteps coming from behind the cashier’s counter and turned to face the middle aged man coming out from the back room.

“I’m sorry folks but we’re clo-...” The man’s face was long and drawn out, which was not aided by the slack-jawed expression he was now holding, while staring at the four of them. Zeke locked eyes with the man and saw a look he was not expecting. The man wasn’t horrified or confused, not from the way his eyes moved and traveled all over the four of them. No, this man was analyzing the four of them, he was sizing them up.

“We’re not here to hurt you.” Zeke said, hoping he could disarm whatever situation was about to happen.

“Bullshit, son. You’d better run along before you get yourself hurt.” The man said with a very different tone than he had initially approached them with. His hands curled into clenched fists so tight his knuckles were rapidly becoming white. His eyes changed and Zeke knew something bad was about to happen. His eyes glazed over and looked like they were foggy and full of cataracts.

“Or, you can tell us how to get downstairs before things get unpleasant.” Zeke said with a scowl. His eyes flashed with power, the lights flickered and hissed as he siphoned energy from the circuits around him. He discovered that the building had significantly more power than a bookstore had any right to use, especially one on the outside of town that probably didn’t have many visitors.

“Cute trick, pup, but I’ve got one better.” The man said with a maniacal laugh and then Zeke was roughly flung to the side. He fell into a bookshelf, knocking it over with a grunt of discomfort. Looking up he saw that Bryan had shoved him and Kira out of the way just as something that could only be described as a Silent Hill style nightmare, was coming up out of the floor right where they had been standing.

The creature had certainly been human at one point or another, that much was certain. As it burst from the floor, almost as though it had been springing out from water, Zeke could see the horrific details of the creature. It had no face, not anymore. The creature’s head was one gigantic mouth with pasty, scar-tissue skin and a full row of incisor fangs. Its neck met with a pair of shoulders that had metal surgically grafted to the skin in order to protect the flesh. Three arms grew out of its bird-chested torso, two on the left and one on the right. The arms were muscled and well exercised by the looks of them, but they too seemed to be grafted onto the body considering how disproportionate they were. Each finger looked more like a raptor’s talon from a Jurassic Park movie. More metal grafting covered the thing’s body and Zeke even noticed that its skin was almost scaly. In fact, the more he looked at it the more its skin seemed to resemble a hide as opposed to human flesh. The thing landed between Bryan and Jon and swiped at both of them with astounding speed. Jon rolled to his side. Bryan lunged backwards.

The creature hissed and dove towards Jon, perhaps recognizing him from their earlier bout. Shrill cries echoed from the beast’s throat as it used all three of its arms to swipe at Jon and gore him. Jon nimbly dodged each swipe but the ravenous monster showed no remorse or need for respite as it continued its blitz, knocking over books and bookshelves trying to get at its prey. Lunging forward, it attempted to tackle Jon to the floor, but he ducked under it and used his hands to throw it into the wall. The creature flew a good three feet and then disappeared into the wall. There was no collision, no crash or shriek of pain. The monster came into contact with the wall and simply went into it like water in a sponge.

Zeke brought himself up onto his feet and quickly helped Kira up. The four companions twisted in circles trying to find where the monster would spawn from, and Zeke noticed that the man who’d approached them earlier had also disappeared without a trace.

“Jon...” Zeke said.

“What?” said Jon, panting slightly.

“What is that thing?” Zeke asked while continuing to scan this way and that trying to find the damn thing before it attacked again.

“I told you it was weird.”

“That goes way beyond weird, Jon!” Kira spat, “that thing looks like it crawled out of some kind of video game. Even for a Super, that thing is fucked up.”

“I don’t think it’s a Super...” Zeke whispered and continued searching. They had their backs to each other now and tried to keep a minimal amount of space between them. Then Zeke felt something wet slap his shoulder. “I really don’t want to look up...” He said and then slowly craned his neck upwards to see exactly what he’d feared. The monster’s upper body was poking out of the ceiling and drooling on him. Despite having no eyes Zeke got the distinct impression it was staring at him and he did not like it one bit.

The creature hissed and dove down at Zeke who slid away from the spot it would land and raised his left hand with his palm facing the ceiling. As his hand lifted up a stalagmite of thick, misty ice ripped out from the wooden floor and skewered the creature. It fell, mouth first, so the spike had gone up through its mouth and into the stomach, poking out of the beast’s back. The thing let out a spasm and twitched, then went completely limp.

“Well...” said Zeke, dusting off his pants and wiping the creature’s saliva off of his shoulder, “that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Zeke immediately regretted his words when the nightmare’s arms came to life and gripped the icy spike that had impaled it and started pulling itself off of it. It landed on the floor in front of Zeke and breathed heavily; in and out with heavy exhales and deep inhales and Zeke would’ve testified to the fact that he could feel the thing’s rage and hatred. Blood dripped onto the floor from its back and mouth but otherwise it seemed completely unharmed.

“Uh Zeke...” Jon said from the other side of the ice spike.

“Y’know... I’m getting really tired of things not staying down for the count.” Zeke said as he charged his right hand full of lightning. His eyes glowed with power while the lights flickered. Spidery legs of electricity danced around Zeke’s right arm and hand and the creature did something especially disturbing in response. It laughed.

“It’s laughing... why is that so damn creepy?” Kira said as the thing just continued to cackle, though it sounded like it was coming from the throat of an 80 year old cigarette smoker. Before another word was spoken the thing dropped into the floor. A second later its arms came up through the floor like the ground was made of water and grabbed Zeke by his legs, pulling them out from under him and causing him to topple onto his back. He landed with a solid thud and the creature immediately jumped out from inside the floor and aimed itself for him. Its teeth snapped as it landed on top him, pinning his arms down with all three arms. It was trying to eat him.

Zeke rolled his head to avoid getting it bitten off and managed to free his right hand. He grabbed the creature by the metal on its neck and emptied his power into it with a howl. The creature shrieked and started to spasm violently on top of him. Though it barely registered the fact that its entire nervous system had just been fried and the skin covering its body was now turning black with burn marks, it continued its toothy assault on him.

The creature suddenly flew off of him as Bryan’s shin came into view. He’d taken a running start and punted the creature away from his friend. Again the beast disappeared into the wall.

“Why isn’t this thing dying? Or at the very least getting knocked out...” said Zeke as he resumed his previous position in their circle to ensure they didn’t get jumped from behind.

“Maybe it’s already dead?” Kira said with a mixture of sarcasm and hope in her tone. But her words gave Zeke an idea. Zeke thought back to when they’d first come in and the man who’d approached them from the back of the store. ‘Cute trick, pup, but I’ve got one better.’ He’d said just before the creature had attacked them.

“When it comes back I need you three to keep it occupied.” Zeke whispered while darting his eyes from side to side.

“No problem,” said Jon, with his usual tone of disdain, “and where will you be?”

“With the puppeteer.”

“The what?” said Kira just before the creature burst through the wall, shrieking and drooling as it came, towards them.

“Whatever, go!” Jon yelled and drew a glock .45 from the holster on his right hip and started emptying the magazine at the approaching beast. Kira let out a shrill, primal war cry and stepped to her left when the marionette-creature, unfettered by Jon’s bullets, bulldozed towards them. She lashed at the creature with her fiery fingers, creating long claw marks of seared flesh along its belly.

Zeke took no time to see how effective it had been. Instead, he poured energy beneath his body and flew straight towards the door the clerk had originally come out of. Zeke kicked open the door and found the clerk standing with his eyes closed and seemed to be focusing very intently. The man seemed to take no notice of Zeke’s entrance, he had been right. Somehow, this man was psychically controlling the creature.

“Thank God I was right, cause I had no backup plan.” Zeke said loudly, prompting the clerk to open his eyes wide. Before the man could say, or more importantly do, anything Zeke poured his will and brought up what he liked to call a glacier tomb. A small mountain made solely of ice encompassed the clerk and froze him solid within it. Zeke had experimented with this before and had found that the ice would melt after a few hours and, luckily, whatever was inside it had virtually gone into a hyperbolic stasis.

In short, they were comatose as long as the ice surrounded them. Zeke left the clerk’s office and saw Bryan holding the creature in both of his hands only a few feet away from Jon, who was pressed up against the wall. Kira had apparently been knocked to the side and was pulling herself back to her feet when Zeke strutted out of the back office. The creature had gone completely limp and Zeke wagered it was because the person controlling it was no longer conscious.

“What the hell did you do back there?” Jon asked.

“The clerk was a psycher. Judging by this thing I’m betting he was really good at putting suggestions in the minds of others, if not temporary control. But, because this,” Zeke kicked the creature once Bryan had dropped it, “is apparently dead, like Kira had suggested, he was able to control it much longer than he could a live mind.”

“It would still have to have some kind of brain for him to infiltrate it and control the body’s nerve endings though, wouldn’t he?” Kira asked, rubbing the soreness out of her neck.

“Maybe it is still alive then, it just can’t function.”

“Maybe the brain is non-responsive. The body is fine... well, on the inside at least... maybe, but the brain is damaged so he’s able to just get in and do his thing?” Jon’s suggestion was sound, or at least as sound as something like this could be.

“Doesn’t matter, we need to get to the lower levels quickly. I’m betting there’s cameras all over here attached to whatever security measures they have down there.” Zeke said. The other three merely nodded in response and they set out in search of some kind of hidden room or access shaft. It took them a while but they finally found a secret panel inside of one of the reading rooms on the far wall. Jon immediately went to work with his gadgets while the rest of them waited for him to finish hacking into the building’s system.

“Oh yeah, hah, they’ve got security alright.” Jon chuckled while tinkering with the tablet in his hands. “We’re gonna have some resistance when we get down there, so you folks had better nut up.”

“Ahem!” Kira cleared her throat as loudly as she could while beaming at Jon.

“Yes, you too Kira. Let’em drop already.” Jon replied with a snicker.

“Something you wanna tell me, love?” Zeke said with an innocent smile.

“Oh don’t you dare get in on this.” She hissed. Jon and Zeke both laughed, and even Bryan let out what they assumed to be a throaty chuckle. When Jon had finished, he stood up and pressed a tab on his tablet which caused the wall to open up to a small elevator. The elevator was cylindrical and all chrome; shiny and reflective they could all see themselves standing before it.

The doors dinged and opened up to allow them access. Inside there was just enough room for the four of them to squeeze in without too much discomfort and Kira took this opportunity to hug her fiance and hold him before all the chaos and violence ensued. There was only one button labeled “Facility Manticore” over it. Jon tapped the button and the doors closed. All four of them could feel the portable room sinking down into the earth.

The elevator went down a long way. At least five minutes had passed before the sinking feeling finally left them and the elevator came to a sudden stop that likely shook the room. When the doors opened they were all surprised to see that no force had gathered outside of the door for their arrival. Instead, they saw a long white hallway with white walls and a white ceiling with white fluorescent lights.

“I thought you said there would be things we’d need to hit, Jon?” Kira said, lowering her arms from the readied stance she’d taken up just before the doors opened.

“I thought there would be... an alarm was definitely sounded and there seemed to be a lot of motion down here.” Jon’s tone was as confused as the rest of them felt. Bryan shifted uneasily as they walked out into the white hallway. Once outside the elevator they noticed the hallway was lined on both sides with large windows and doors. The hallway looked to be quite the walk, even from where they stood.

This place was huge.

Zeke approached the first window on his left. His eyes widened in horror. The room was decorated in blood. The walls, the floor, even the ceiling was caked in thick layers of gore and intestines. Hung up on chains by hooks embedded in their flesh were more creatures like the one upstairs, yet each was unique in some way. One had a massive spine attempting to poke out of the thing’s flesh with horns on its head. Another had seven eyes and a lizard-like snout with fangs to rival a shark’s. Each looked just as nightmarish and terrifying as the next and Zeke found he could not tear his gaze away from a single one of them.

“Uuh... Zeke...” He heard Jon’s voice behind him. His trance and Zeke tore his face away from the spectacle to look behind him. Jon was looking inside of the room directly across from the one Zeke was inspecting and sure enough it carried more of the same freakish abominations.

“What the hell is this place?” Zeke said rhetorically. The four of them walked down the hallway peering into every room despite the fact that each one held the same gruesome inhabitants with their own unique aberrations. At the end of the hall the path split right and left with small signs over each hallway.

The right sign held the words “Experiment Rooms” while the left sign said “Office.” The extreme difference between the two paths left Zeke feeling irritated. Of course, any lab would have offices but it still seemed so business-like. It seemed out of place when he thought of all the abominations in the hallway behind him, not to mention the one upstairs.

“Maybe we should split up?” Jon suggested, staring down each corridor for a good minute.

“I think I heard someone say that in a movie once. It never ends well in situations like this.” Zeke said with his eyes glued to the hallway labeled “Experiment Rooms.”

“Fair enough, which way then?”

“I want to see where these things come from.” Zeke said. Without another word he strode down the hallway that held most of his curiosity.

Phalanx had said that if he wanted to help he should travel to the bookstore above this laboratory. He said Zeke would find trouble here. At this moment, Zeke was somewhat glad that Phalanx had been cryptic and hesitant to give up any concrete answers. In reality, Zeke probably wouldn’t have believed the old Paragon had he not seen what he saw now with his own eyes.

The hallway he stood in was similar to the first: white from floor to ceiling with several different rooms that could be viewed through large mirrors that displayed every crevice of the room. In these rooms, however, were surgical tables and the kinds of things that go along with them. Surgeons dressed in scrubs, white gowns, masks and gloves holding utensils of every kind while working on a patient. The difference between what he saw and a hospital, was that these surgeons were operating on patients who were fully conscious. Zeke saw serums being injected, doors with project numbers identifying them like “Project Drake” and “Project Wyvern.”

In some rooms Zeke watched surgeons operating on the mutations from the previous hallway. Grafting metal plating onto their skin, injecting something into their bloodstream and one was even getting its arm replaced by a large steel spear that would act as its weapon.

“What the fuck...” Zeke whispered as they walked through the hallway, unnoticed by the surgeons operating inside each room.

“What the fuck is right...” Kira echoed. Screams could be heard from several of the rooms as the “patients” were being operated on and dissected. Then they came to a room that made them all stop in their tracks and turn clammy. Even Zeke’s skin lost a shade of its normal blue.

“Room 43A, Hold-Room” was what the door was titled. Inside, chained up next to resonating orb that hummed a sound exactly like that of a Nullifier, were Supers. Zeke knew they were Supers because of the agonizing groaning sound they made while under the affects of the Nullifier next to them. Kira, Jon and Bryan all winced once they were able to here the sound but otherwise seemed unaffected by the device since they were separated by a wall of glass. The room was likely kept fortified to prevent any kind of break in or out so sound likely didn’t travel through it too well. Still, Jon was starting to look sick and Kira stumbled slightly from a sudden spell of vertigo that told Zeke it was still affecting them slightly even without ruining their powers.

“These are Supers... this is where they’re taking them!” Zeke shouted and his voice became like a hushed boom of thunder. Jon quickly shushed his friend and looked from side to side, praying nobody had heard him.

“Keep your damn voice down, man. This place is crawling with this things and I’m not feeling a round two anytime soon. Plus, if there’s a Nullifier in there you can damn well bet there’ll be portable ones marching around here too.” Jon hissed seemingly slightly more paranoid than normal, though his points were annoyingly valid.

“We need to get them out of here.” Zeke said.

“Are you daft? Did some of that ice make its way to your brain?” said Jon.

“They need our help! I don’t know what those fuckers are doing to them but these Supers are innocent and they’re being tortured! This is where they’re rounding us up, Jon. We need to obliterate this place from existence!” Again Zeke’s voice mimicked a thunderous boom that echoed through the corridor. Jon plugged his ears for half a second due to the raw sound of Zeke’s voice and an irritated expression crossed his face.

“This isn’t the only one. There’s probably a dozen around the city, are you going to destroy all of them?”

“To stop this? Yes! Why aren’t you on my side on this?” Zeke said. “If the other facilities are committing atrocities like this, we need to put them out business.”

“Oh, they’re not all like this.” Came a voice from down the hall where they had just come from. Zeke turned to see the newcomer who had spoken and nearly dropped his jaw to the floor at what he saw. Standing in front of him was a man in a tattered white lab coat, with a salt-and-pepper goatee and hair parted to the left with thick, shaded goggles. The goggles had multiple lenses that could rotate down for different magnifications. He wore black surgical gloves, iconic to his character, and had a belt that held all his surgical tools that were stained with blood. Sharpened, but never washed. His body seemed crusty, old and decrepit though he stood with perfect posture despite his age.

“Dr. Vivisector?” Zeke gasped in disbelief. Dr. Vivisector was a villain from the old days of capes and cowls, what many Supers referred to as the ‘Golden Age of Supers’ when people with powers had secret identities and people actually liked having Supers help them stop crime and didn’t try to crucify them to the nearest street lamp. He was without a doubt one of the most notorious mass murderers Glacier City had ever encountered. All his victims were killed via surgery: removed organs, blood loss, live brain dissections or cruel experiments that involved attempts to graft weapons to the patient’s nervous system. The books speculated he’d been trying to break into human/Super-cybernetics and create an army of cyborgs he could control, but no one had ever been truly sure of his motives since he’d died, supposedly, in 2001 in a fight against the Rook.

“Good to know my legacy is alive and well.” The doctor said with a sick grin that revealed yellow teeth. Clearly, hygiene was never one of his obsessions.

“Why is it that people who are supposed to be dead, and are recorded as dead, keep popping up?” Zeke said with a blunt edge of frustration in his voice.

“Good question, runt. Why don’t we pick that brain of yours and find out?” The doctor smiled, still contorting his face in a manner that could only be described as creepy.

“Or, we could just-” Jon tried to say but was interrupted by an uncontrollable yawn.

“I say we-” Kira yawned, “why am I suddenly so...” Kira fell to the floor with an audible thump and was immediately snoring. Bryan fell next while Jon and Zeke stumbled and glared at the doctor who was simply smiling at them.

“Jon, what-” yawn, “what did the records say about Doctor Vivisec... sect...”

“Psychic... shit,” was Jon’s last word before he fell over. Zeke was the last one left. He tried to use his senses to find energy to siphon and rejuvenate himself; electricity always seemed to wake him right up, but found the world getting blurry and distorted.

“My, my! Aren’t you the impressively strong-willed one. I’ve noticed that about your type of Super; you’re shockingly resilient to my charms, haha.” Dr. Vivisector said with a maniacal chuckle in his voice. Zeke stumbled once, twice, towards the doctor and swiped at the white blur before him, hoping if he could knock the man out, the psychic assault would stop. It was then he felt what it was like to have an expert telepath root around his brain for more than just a quick glimpse. It felt like a thousand fingers were digging through the crevices of his mind like a filing cabinet trying to look up every detail about his life. Suddenly a memory flashed before his eyes actually replacing his own vision. He saw the Nullifiers he’d attacked several nights ago in an attempt to rescue that woman. The images raced through his head as though it were being fast-forwarded on a television screen until it came across his fight with the Hellion and Phalanx’s entrance. Then he heard the doctor’s sickly voice once again.

“So, you’ve seen our friend! Excellent, I’ll enjoy working on you,” and then there was only blackness.

Zeke’s eyes fluttered rapidly trying to adjust to the intense light being shone on him. A moment later he was conscious and aware of three things: for one, he was strapped to a table and, try as he might, he was not strong enough to break the leather bindings; secondly, he was in a surgical room like the ones he’d seen earlier where Supers and Enns alike were being experimented on; third, he was in a room with a resonator that produced nullifier waves that should be causing him to go mad but weren’t. Turning his head he saw Kira and Jon to his right and Bryan to his left and all four were writhing from the effects of the nullifier.

“Fascinating.” A voice came from behind him. It was the doctor, dressed in surgical gear and still wearing his goggles only now he was placing the surgical tools he normally wore in his belt onto a small rack next to Zeke’s table. Each one was still marred with blood from tip to handle. They were clearly regularly sharpened from the way the blade’s edge seemed to gleam but the rest of each utensil seemed like they’d never been washed since purchase. “You are immune to the nullifier. Oh-ho this changes so many things.” This made no sense, how was the doctor not affected by the nullifier? Was he immune like Zeke was or did he have a way to block it?

“Why aren’t you a puddle like the rest of them?” Zeke asked, still struggling against the bonds that held him to the table. He thought maybe he could slowly freeze the bonds, but leather wasn’t likely to become brittle without an intense flash-freeze. The kind which would certainly alert the slice-happy man above him armed with very sharp scalpels. He thought of siphoning power from the lamp above him but that would cause the lights to flicker, which would also alert the doctor and probably cause him to invade Zeke’s mind again. An experience he’d like to never have again, if he was capable of avoiding it.

“Because I can block the sonic frequency, any psychic can with the right training. As if I’d allow myself to be taken down by some toy, hah!” The doctor barked and continued delicately placing the tools on the small table next to Zeke’s head. “Stop fidgeting boy, I’d like you to remain the excellent specimen that you are.” Zeke ground his teeth together in frustration and ceased his fighting for now, choosing to see how much he could draw things out. He needed to keep the doctor talking so that he wouldn’t focus on Zeke’s thoughts and thus see his escape plan.

Doctor Vivisector walked around the table while examining Zeke. He placed his fingers on Zeke’s bare chest and traced the muscles and tattoos that lined his body. Zeke felt violated to say the least, but at least his pants and boots were still on. He wasn’t sure why his shirt had been cut away but at this point there were far more pressing matters to attend. He almost had enough energy siphoned from the room next to them.

“Doc, can you at least get me some breakfast? Wherever did romance go?” said Zeke with a smirk of defiance. The doctor scoffed.

“Humor,” the doctor scoffed, “the last defense of a hopeless man. You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into.”

“Spare me the ‘don’t you know who I am’ monologue, please. I’ve already gotten my eight hours.” said Zeke. The doctor responded with a jab to Zeke’s ribs which hurt a lot more than he’d expected it to given how old and frail the doctor looked.

“Like I said, hopeless.” The doctor continued with his examination and then strut over to the table and picked up his scalpel. “You know, my first kill was with this scalpel.” He said, holding it up to the light. “It was a little girl, 12 years-old. I was trying to remove a cyst from her under-developed ovaries and I accidentally nicked her somewhere I wasn’t supposed to.”

“So what, you’re just misunderstood, is that it?”

“Oh no, quite the opposite. She died on the operating table; I couldn’t stop staring at her body. Lifeless, her eyes glazed over; her blood on my gloved hands and covering my blade. It was... exhilarating!” The doctor’s voice became ecstatic with pleasure. His tone had gone from sinister to joyful in his last words making the experience of listening to his story all the more gruesome. His body even shuddered with pleasure.

Almost enough power, just a little more, Zeke thought to himself.

“Then I killed again, though that was no accident. A man came in for an appendectomy and instead I sliced open his lungs. The surgical aids were confused; they yelled, screamed. They pleaded with me to stop. They had no idea, but I couldn’t stop. I just kept cutting.”

Just a little more, keep talking.

“It’s a unique feeling to cut into a living being. Cadavers are boring, they just sit there. Their bodies don’t react. Nothing happens when you cut a cadaver. You can almost hear the steel slither into the skin sometimes. It’s like music.” The doctor said while placing the scalpel against Zeke’s skin. He wasn’t applying pressure, not yet at least, but Zeke still felt the cool steel piercing the top layer of skin. It was so sharp it didn’t take much to even scratch him. It wouldn’t take much to cut either.

“Can I ask you something, doctor? Before you kill me that is?” Zeke said with a cocked eyebrow.

“I suppose, usually people just plead and scream and beg.”

“Do you like bugs?”

“What?”

Zeke’s right hand exploded open as a large strand of lightning cracked from his palm and ripped through the air with a screech of power. The electrical blast struck the nullifier with such force the metal erupted and sent shrapnel throughout the room. Zeke’s will reached out and focused the leftover voltage and guided it towards Bryan. The shock of the blast was just enough to wake up and severely piss the man off. Bryan roared and powered through the bonds that held him as his body morphed into, what the tabloids called, the Scarlet Scarab.

Bryan’s entire body started to crack and break as his skin split and his bones altered themselves. His body grew until he was standing almost thirteen feet tall. His skeleton tore through his skin and stretched across his body forming a scarlet-red exoskeleton with massive, round shoulders and slated body-armor. His forearms became massive, his fingers connected into three massive claws with rounded chitin over the knuckles and wrists. His back arched up, the spine became a chitinous mantle that came up, around and over his neck, barely allowing his head to poke through with a massive beetle’s horn. The chitin on his back fluttered briefly and became a carapace to guard the large insect wings they housed. The entire transformation had taken barely five seconds. Bryan’s true form became one of the most impressive and awesome things Zeke had ever seen.

Dr. Vivisector cried out and glared into the Scarab’s eyes. A second later his own eyes widened in horror.

“Your mind... I can’t... It’s...” The doctor stuttered as he tried to search the Scarab’s thoughts, tried to control him, but something this feral could not be tamed. The entire inner mind of the Scarab was fury, anger, violence. Nothing in it was sensible or even remotely organized. It was the purity of primal instinct in its most savage form, and the doctor was almost blinded by the sheer power of it. His mouth fell open in awe just as the large, armored hand of the Scarab grabbed him. Zeke heard the crunching of bones just before the doctor’s body was flung into the wall with an incredible amount of force. The doctor’s body slid from the wall to the floor as Zeke finally freed himself of his bindings.

“Easy, buddy,” he said putting his palms directly in front of him in a barring gesture towards the Scarab who was starting to look at him like its next victim. Bringing Bryan was always a bit of a gamble. Sometimes he was able to keep control of his bestial nature and only attack the people he wanted to. There were times, however, when Zeke had to go toe-to-toe with the chitinous colossus and it was never pleasant. “We need to get out of here. Nullifiers are gonna be by here soon when they see what you did to that sick-fuck.” He was staring into the sapphire-blue eyes of the Scarab while inside his mind he prayed fervently that this wasn’t going to end with the two of them fighting.

The Scarab puffed out air and took long exhales; his massive body heaving up and down with every breath. Finally, he let out a low growl and took a step forward. Zeke took a step back. Another step forward. Zeke took another back. The Scarab’s massive left claw reached forward slowly. Zeke readied himself and then relaxed and sighed with relief when the Scarab’s claws tore away Kira’s bindings. Zeke turned around and unfastened Jon’s leather shackles and shook him to try and wake him up.

“Wake up, damnit.” He said. Voices were suddenly heard outside and Zeke turned his head toward the window to see a small security squad looking in at them with widened eyes. They were armed with nullifiers. “Bryan,” Zeke called out and the beast turned his eyes toward him. “I’ll deal with them, I need you to trash this place though. The whole facility; rip out the walls, destroy every room and every machine but try not to hurt the captives. Do you understand me?” Again Zeke prayed that the Scarab was coherent and not just in a good mood.

“Hhhg... Ffffffrreeendzz.” said the Scarab with a throaty gurgling sound. Zeke’s eyes widened in surprise. He’d never heard Bryan talk before when he was transformed, the man barely spoke in his human form. He had simply assumed he wasn’t able to speak when he was like this given that his mannerisms were far more animalistic and primal.

“Right, time to smash, big guy.” Zeke turned and gathered his power. Lights flickered, electricity cackled and hissed around him. His eyes glowed and once again Zeke felt the familiar tingle of raw energy coursing through his veins, electrifying his nervous system and lighting up his body. The room filled with fog quickly and now only Zeke could see the inside of the room. The fog rolled underneath the door and through the cracks and started to envelope the hallway until the guards were turning on their flashlights to try and see through the mist.

“Ready weapons, someone get that door open!” He heard one call. Zeke figured that was the leader and likely the more experienced officer and decided that he would be the very first one to go. When the door opened, Zeke saw two men enter and flash their lights around the room, though it helped them little. He had to disable the guards before the Scarab could mobilize. Even in his gargantuan state, a Nullifier would quickly turn him into chitinous jelly. There was a reason Supers feared the weapons so much, so it was up to him to get rid of these before the facility could be torn apart at the seams.

Zeke’s hands became charged with the two energies he specialized in. His right hand bore all the electric power he could siphon in the short time he’d had while his left misted with frigid air. The two guards who’d entered finally matched their lights to Zeke’s form but both paused at the sight of him. Technically, all they could see was a dark silhouette and two glowing yellow eyes that cracked with electric lines.

“What the f-hyaaak!” The guard on the right became a sculpture of ice within seconds just as the second guard’s finger touched the trigger. He was unable to pull the trigger once Zeke had ripped it from his hands. His right leg shot forward and caught the guard in the chest, driving him into the window with his helmet-clad head cracking the glass from the force of the impact.

Zeke quickly swerved through the door and grabbed the first target he could find by the neck. Zeke wasted little effort in letting out a quick discharge full of volts but low on amperage. The jolt ripped through the guard and sent him into the wall with his body twitching. Zeke closed the door behind him to protect his friends from any sonic blast that they fired at him. The waves would be interrupted and that at least, seemed to prevent power-loss which was all they really needed.

Sure enough he heard a voice yell “FIRE” and a barrage of sonic energy crashed into him. Zeke felt the reverberation of the energy but aside from pushing him back half a step, he was unaffected. He let out a forceful laugh that he hoped made all of them shiver in their boots. His left hand became a solid brick of rime which he quickly used to smash into two guards. The only thing any of them could see was his silhouette and the glowing eyes that moved swiftly around them. Zeke’s instincts took over, the fighter in him resorted to the muscle memory of over two dozen fights as his hands, fists and shins connected with his adversaries. Electric power discharged and sent men flying into the linoleum walls. His hand raised up, creating a glacier-tomb around the last man’s legs and holding him in place for Zeke to spin, leap and slam his right shin into.

Zeke grabbed the man he’d just kicked by the lapels of his flack jacket and pulled him up. His right hand gripped the guard by the neck sending out a light jolt of energy to shock his system.

“Where’s the server for this facility?” Zeke yelled like a roll of thunder.

“Server room, south wing. By the doctor’s office, please let me go. Please don’t kill me.” The man begged.

“Oh I won’t kill you.” Zeke said releasing the man with his left hand. He pressed the index finger of his right hand on the man’s forehead. Ice spread from his finger tip and completed the icy tomb.

The fog slowly rolled away; Zeke’s will reached out and brought in more power to revitalize and rejuvenate him. He opened the door and glimpsed inside, smiling once he saw that Jon and Kira were standing up and rubbing their heads. Jon looked up at the Scarab who was sitting on his butt with a mean look in his blue eyes, patiently waiting for his turn to wreak havoc.

“Zeke, where the hell are we?” Kira said while still rubbing her head.

“We almost became experiments, I’ll tell you later. Right now we have work to do.” Zeke said with his arms crossed. “Jon, there’s a server room in the south wing, down the hallway marked ‘Offices.’ We need to get you there so you can try and get as much information about this place and any other establishments like it around the city. Meanwhile, Bryan is going to make a mess of the surgical wing and free any supers he finds.”

“Simple enough, security?” Jon asked, standing on his feet and stretching his sore muscles.

“I think I just took out the bulk of them. Any others we find will need to be dealt with quickly before they can fire off a null-wave.”

“Naturally. Right then, let’s get to it.” Jon said and trotted out the door with Kira swiftly behind him, her fingers ablaze with fiery talons. Zeke turned around and looked up at Bryan, who had just sat up and was balancing himself on his armored knuckles.

“Be careful big guy.” Zeke said and then lifted off the ground and flew after Jon and Kira.

Behind him Zeke could hear the unmistakable roar of the Scarlet Scarab followed immediately by the sound of linoleum and wood cracking and splintering from impact. Zeke chose not to look back and instead sped forward, banking his body to the left and zipping down the Offices hallway to find the server room. Luckily, it was not all that hard to find.

Jon and Kira were fast behind him and together they entered the server room. Jon removed his gadgets from the pack he kept slung over his body and found a port to plug into. Zeke and Kira kept their eyes on the door, awaiting any unwanted guests. The room wasn’t very big, having a maximum capacity of only fifteen people. The floors, walls and ceiling formed a perfect circle of square panels painted a very deep onyx-grey. Zeke tapped his feet against the floor making an unusually loud clacking sound, likely due to the room’s acoustics.

“E.T.A. Jon?” Zeke asked. He very badly wanted to get out of this place and get home. Have something to eat. Sleep. Enjoy the company of his stunning fiancee, Kira. Anything but be in this hellish place one more second.

“This isn’t exactly easy, you know. There’s a lot of shit here.” Jon said with a slightly cantankerous tone.

“Just get it all if you can, we can look over it later.” Kira snapped. Zeke had the feeling she was thinking the same thing as him. Get out, get out now.

“Hostile work environment,” said Jon, as his fingers danced around his keyboard. Crashing sounds could be heard outside from the Scarab’s carnage. Shouts and whoops of cheering rang through the halls which Zeke guessed to be the freed captives. He was grateful some of them were still alive.

“There’s an incinerate protocol attached, we might have to book it out of here faster than we might like.” Said Jon.

“Whats an incinerate protocol?” Asked Kira.

“Basically, if someone tries to access this system without proper authorization, the facility starts a timer. When that timer runs out, the whole place goes up in flame. Given how far we are underground, I’d say not a soul is going to notice it either.”

“Can you avoid triggering it?” Zeke said with urgency and pleading in his tone.

“Oh it’s already been triggered, we have about 5 minutes.”

“And you’re just NOW telling us?”

“Didn’t want you to freak.”

“Consider me freaked, asshole. We need to get out of here now!”

“Almost done.”

“Jon, for God’s sake-”

“Almost done, damnit. Keep your pants on. By the way, what happened to your shirt?”

“I think the doctor cut it off just before he tried to make me a science project, would you fucking hurry?”

“Done.” Jon slipped his tablet and cords into his bag and, without another word, bolted through the door. Zeke and Kira followed suit quickly and the three of them ran faster than ever. Once they’d reached the fork in the road Zeke turned, allowing Kira and Jon to go ahead of him, and called out to Bryan who was still tearing through the place.

“Bryan!” He yelled sharply. The beast poked it’s head out of a massive hole in the wall and sauntered into the hallway. “The place is gonna blow, we need to leave now!” The Scarab took no extra time in its endeavors and started to barrel towards Zeke with all haste. Zeke turned again and flew down the hallway towards the elevator that had brought them down.

“We’re not gonna make it to the top in time, it took five minutes just to get down here.” Jon said while standing amidst almost a dozen men and women who were dressed in hospital gowns.

“Then we need to go without it.” Zeke said.

“Meaning?”

“Bryan! Rip it out!” Zeke yelled and then sidestepped. The beast roared and hurdled towards the elevator. Everyone followed Zeke’s motions and hugged the wall to stay out of the way. Scarab plunged his massive claws through the wall and grabbed the elevator in both hands, ripping it through the wall and chucking it down the corridor that led to the other wings. Now, stretching all the way to the top where the bookstore waited for them was a nice, wide shaft.

“Incineration in 5… 4…” a monotonous voice sounded through the linoleum hallways.

“Kira!” Zeke hollered but when he craned his neck to look behind him she was always standing between them and the hallway.

“I got this, get everyone out of here!” She yelled while cracking her knuckles.

“2… 1…” The voice was immediately drowned out by the sound of concussive blasts tearing through the foundations. The air lit itself on fire and slithered through the hallways with blinding speed. Zeke shielded himself with his hands as the fire sped down towards them only to find himself unharmed. Kira’s hands were both stretched out before her with her palms open. Her feet slid slightly on the floors but she found her ground and stood it without budging another inch. Her hair lit up like embers and even though he could not see them Zeke knew her eyes glowed like hot coals.

“Everyone on the bug,” Zeke yelled.

“I’ll go make sure we have an exit.” Jon said and then nimbly leapt into the elevator shaft and bounded from wall to wall making his ascent. Meanwhile, Bryan’s thirteen foot body now held all but one of the surviving refugees. Each person clung to a part of the Scarab’s armor for dear life.

“Get them out, Bryan.” Zeke said, pointing towards the gigantic hole the Scarab had put into the wall. “We’ll see you topside in a few.” Zeke turned to the two who remained; Kira and a petite brunette who looked barely older than 17. The young girl shivered with fear, her eyes glued to the blaze being held at bay by Kira’s will. Kira was sweating and grunting while trying to keep her will focused on the fire. Despite her ability to manipulate the blaze there was a force behind it that was building due to all the explosions deep within the facility that made her job that much more difficult. She was close to breaking, and Zeke knew it. Kira knew it.

“Are they gone?” Kira asked when she felt Zeke’s cool arm slide around her waist.

“It’s just the three of us.” Zeke whispered into her ear. “Ready?” He asked.

“Zeke, I lo-“

“Tell me topside.” Zeke shouted and then tightened his grip around her waist while at the same time grabbing the young brunette by her waist. Dumping all his power into his ability to fly, Zeke’s body whipped through the hole in the wall and up the shaft with the speed of lightning itself. He roared with thunder as he poured energy beneath him, launching his body towards another large hole he guessed the Scarab had made. The heat was building; he could feel the fire against his toes.

Intermission

“It’s time for your channel 6 news and the top story of the day, everyone’s talking about Vladimir Dracovic’s press conference where he announced he has a cure for Supers! We managed to get an interview with Mr. Dracovic and Dr. James Tudd, take a look.” Diane says with her journalist smile that disappears as soon as the cameras are off her. Her fake smiles sicken the entire camera crew. The video switches to a dark room, the same one John interviewed Dr. Tudd in the first time. The room has three chairs now. One has John Hamden, channel 6 reporter; the second with Vladimir Dracovic who sports a maroon suit with a white and black tie. In the third seat sits Dr. James Tudd, the so-called “expert” on Supers wearing beige corduroy pants and a blue sweater.

“So, Mr. Dracovic, you came out recently, just the other day in fact, and said you’ve found a cure for Supers? Explain that, if you would.” Says John who thumps his pen against his foot anxiously.

“That’s right. We have.” Vladimir says calmly with a pleased grin on his face.

“How is it your company has done this?” Dr. Tudd interjects, “Draco Industries is known solely for weapons manufacturing. Namely, the Nullifier weapon which has been crucial in our war against criminal Supers.”

“The Nullifier was actually developed to test whether or not powers can be suppressed. It ended up being a thousand times more effective than we could’ve hoped. It doesn’t just suppress the powers, it completely removes the person’s ability to even tap into any part of their gift.” Vladimir’s face is contorted into a smile so wide you’d think it was his birthday.

“So, it was simply a means to an end?” John Hamden asks as he leans forward.

“Exactly. We’ve developed a treatment of gene therapy that will remove the person’s ability completely without any negative side-effects.”

“Everything has side effects,” Dr. Tudd says with a roll of his eyes. “No therapy or drug in existence can be given without some kind of side-effect.”

“Until now. In fact, we have a bit of a surprise that we will announce, live, tomorrow.” Vladimir says with his fingers interlocked.

“Yes, you’ve called for another press conference, I plan to be there!” John exclaims. “Mind giving us a sneak peak of what it’s going to be about?”

“Do either of you remember the case of Collin Eckert?” Vladimir asks, he is still grinning like a Grinch.

“Well I should say I do,” says Dr. Tudd, “he was one of my patients before he ran off.”

“Well we’ve cured him.”

“Bull<bleep!>” Dr. Tudd and John both exclaim at once in disbelief.

“It’s true. We found him two years ago, still in the midst of his psychotic breakdown.”

“For those who don’t know,” John says, turning his eyes to the camera, “Collin Eckert was 13 years old when it was discovered he was a Super, though many would say the boy was cursed. His body was in a constant state of alertness due to an infinite adrenaline flow. The boy ran out of the city after a severe breakdown he had during one of Dr. Tudd’s sessions with him. Admittedly, I think we’d all go a little nuts if we’d gone six years without any sleep. I can only imagine how much worse he must be now! He must be in his twenties!”

“26 to be exact,” Vladimir says, “he’s actually doing much better and has been catching up on his sleep these past few weeks.”

“I’ll believe it when I see it.” Says Dr. Tudd, “during our last session the kid had a complete mental breakdown and attacked me!”

“What happened?” Asks John.

“We were talking about his family and he just suddenly starts crying and screaming. I pressed the button for security but he lifted me straight off the ground and threw me THROUGH the WALL! I crashed into and broke the table in the next room and was in the hospital for weeks!”

“My goodness, that’s awful! Was strength a part of his powers?” John asks while vigorously writing on his paper.

“No, it’s just that there’s so much adrenaline constantly running through him. He’s so much faster and stronger than you can imagine. Imagine your fight-or-flight reflex always being on; your heart always racing like you were just about to fight for your life, the way your senses get heightened and your body goes into auto-pilot when your adrenaline flow rushes. That’s Collin twenty-four-seven!” Dr. Tudd rubs his neck and ribs as if remembering the injuries he sustained. “I’d love for there to be a cure for these monsters but there just isn’t. Not yet.”

“Come see for yourself tomorrow then, doctor. You’ll get to see Collin completely calm, and happy, with your own eyes.”