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#5
MAR 10 |
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“More Than Just Thieves” Part Three
DARK BEAST AND KIMURA
Kimura got a kick of out other’s pain because she could never experience it herself. She understood the concept of impact, but could never truly grasp the idea of pain. Only through seeing others scream and moan could she get a taste of it, but Kimura desired more than a taste…she wanted to dine at an exquisite buffet of it and that was precisely why she had joined the Weapon X Program. Nova provided her with opportunity after opportunity to satisfy her appetite. But one goal would always elude her: never would she be able to experience pain herself. It was a tragedy in the eyes of many because few people deserved to feel pain more than Kimura.
“Can I cut him Doc?” Kimura asked as she held a scalpel to the light.
McCoy smiled at the well-built young woman. He took great pleasure in having company that could enjoy the finer points of pain and suffering like he himself could. There was an art to it and, while Kimura was just an amateur, he had confidence she would be a fine artist in time. “Of course you can administer the cut. Make sure you place it right along the nerve for maximum output.”
Kimura nodded with an eager smile. She turned with that smile to McCoy’s subject, who was another one of Dikithi’s men that he was performing genetic enhancements on. He needed a blood sample for the next stage of the procedure so why not let Kimura get some excitement in the process? There was no harm in that, besides, by the time he was done the subject would remember nothing that was done to him. McCoy truly hated that but it was a command from the Director that it be done. He wished she could see pain in the lovely, vibrant way that he and Kimura viewed it.
The young man trembled under Kimura’s stare; it was maniacal and burned into him. She gleefully dug the scalpel into his elbow and cut to the specifications that McCoy had requested. The boy howled and convulsed in pain, making Kimura feel like she was having sex. She wanted to dig deeper, but she didn’t want to displease the Dark Beast. He had been so kind to her and understood her where others could not, even promised to find a way to help her feel pain one day. The idea of it was nauseatingly exhilarating.
Leaning forward, she whispered in the screaming man’s ear. “You just don’t know how happy you are making me right now. I truly appreciate you indulging in this experience with me.”
“You really have been a gracious subject,” the Dark Beast agreed as he walked over to the young man with a large syringe in hand. It would be the final step in the mutant’s genetic upgrade. “This may sting a little. Don’t be afraid to let me know how it feels.”
Stabbing the syringe into the man’s neck, the Dark Beast laughed as he got the painful result he had expected. He patted a delighted Kimura on the shoulder. “My dear, I think this has the makings of a great partnership. A proverbial Sonny and Cher.”
SAURON AND CASSANDRA NOVA
The life force flowed generously into Sauron and he dropped the man to the ground once he’d had his fill. It had been the twentieth straight person that was fed to him today and he was beginning to wonder why. He didn’t complain because for some time meals had been scarce for him, but the Director hardly ever did anything without a purpose. Giving out freebies wasn’t in her nature.
Sauron looked up from his meal and across to the room to Director Nova. “What purpose is there in my continued feeding?”
She smiled and her face wrinkled up significantly. Age had not been kind to her. “You have always skirted by when it came to feeding, only taking what you need to maintain your current form and to keep from regressing to your Karl Lykos personality.”
Nova had a way of making his existence sound so pathetic. Sauron held back an annoyed caw. “Yes, that is how things have been. So why do you feel the need to give me meal after meal?”
The smile hadn’t left the Director’s face. “Please don’t be short, Sauron, I mean no offense. I simply am seeing your potential. Never before have you had so much energy poured into you, and I think something interesting may result.”
The Savage Lander wasn’t sure if this ‘interesting’ was best for him. “What result?”
“Nothing harmful,” Nova said as she pulled what looked like a black iPad from off of a nearby desk. She began to tap on it and a holographic image of Sauron pulled up with a double helix next to it. “Despite the fact that McCoy handles most of the work, I am actually quite the geneticist myself, Sauron.”
“Playing with my DNA then? And what, pray tell, did you find?”
“Something quite interesting, actually: your X-Gene is transformative based on a certain stimuli, that stimuli being the life energy of mutants. I believe that with enough of this energy, your current state will push itself into something new and deadlier.”
Sauron wasn’t quite sure if he liked the sound of that. His personality submerged Karl Lykos’s so what if a new form submerged him? Having read his thought, Nova said, “Don’t worry. If such a thing was to occur that is why I am here.”
It was an assurance that Sauron would buy for now and, in truth, he really had little choice. Not a single member of Weapon X had the abilities necessary to take on Cassandra Nova in combat. Sauron had seen the woman at work and she was truly one of a kind. If someone got the drop on her, they needed to immediately go play the lottery. Or say a prayer to whatever higher being they could for being so lucky.
“So how many more of these…whatevers do you have for me?”
Nova looked down at the bodies littered around Sauron with disgust. “They are failed experiments of McCoy. After this, they’ll be heading to the Cybernetics Program and there are thirty more. I think that should be enough to create a breakthrough. According to this room’s scans of you, your energy levels are off the chart.”
A part of Sauron wanted to tell Nova to stop the feedings, but he had never felt such a complete feeling, had never before been so full and it felt so damn good. More was what he wanted and he knew that there was no stopping this hunger. Not a chance in hell.
Turning off the iPad, Nova gave that same creepy smile. “Shall I bring in more?”
He didn’t want to break down, but the feeling was too strong. For the first time in his existence, his hunger was being fed. Nova had promised him such when he joined Weapon X, but never did he imagine it being like this. Never.
Salivating like a crack fiend, Sauron put his hands over his eyes and fell to his knees. “Yes, I need more, give me more.”
One by one the men marched in like zombie into the hands of Sauron. They did not struggle and they did not scream. Something about this annoyed Sauron in the back of his mind, the part of him that had always loved the thrill of the hunt and the sweat of pure fear. Nova was making this too easy for him as she snatched up the mind of each individual and took away any ounce of free will they had. In a way, it was what she had done to every member of Weapon X.
It wasn’t until he reached the fifteenth victim that a breakthrough occurred. As the purple-skinned boy dropped to the ground, Sauron felt a surge of pain crawl up his stomach. The pain was mixed in with pleasure just as intense and Sauron didn’t know whether to scream or laugh. Falling to the ground, he cawed and pulled his wings in tightly. “What is happening to me?”
Nova walked over to the man and put a hand on his head. “A new transformation. I knew it! My analysis of you was correct.”
Muscles bulged and ripped inside Sauron as his wings sucked back from under his arms and began to protrude out of his back. Once-green skin morphed into gray and not a single moment of this transformation was pleasant for Sauron. “Make…it….stop!”
“My dear child, nothing great comes without great struggle. The pain shall soon subside and you shall stand forth a new man!”
The wings popped out of Sauron’s back and expanded to nearly twice what his normal width was. Tiny black barbs began to poke out all along them and some of them were dripping some type of white liquid. Nova could not wait to analyze it to see what mysteries it bore. Soon, all of the barbs were dripping with the liquid and Nova watched as some of the drops hit the floor; each one hissed and sizzled.
His eyes went completely black as large purple veins protruded along his arms and legs. Long, rock-rending black claws burst forth from each of his fingers causing Sauron to cry out in animalistic pain. He pulled his hands into himself as his tail elongated to nearly three times its original length.
Taking long, deep breaths Sauron passed out on the floor. Excited to the point of near giddiness, Nova lifted up a beaker and a metal tube from the table behind her. Bending down, she slid some of the white liquid into the glass beaker. It hissed against the glass, but the beaker seemed to be holding up for now.
“McCoy!"
She could sense Dark Beast wincing from a few rooms down. “Ahh Director, what a pleasure to be graced by your thoughts."
“Send Agent X and some men to retrieve Sauron. I have something for you to inspect."
“So I take it your experiment went all hunkey doorey?"
Nova rolled her eyes at the man’s incessant childishness. “Yes, it went much better than expected. I was able to produce a new transformation in him."
“My stars and garters! I had an idea, but never did I think it could be accomplished."
“Well it has been. Now do as I ask!"
She looked down at Sauron’s still form. “There is so much we are going to do with you.”
MR. X AND LADY DEATHSTRIKE
Mr. X tumbled out of the way of Deathstrike’s right arm and kicked her in the back of her knee, sending her to the ground. Yuriko rolled with the attack and was immediately back into a crouched battle stance. Mr. X stood to his feet and smiled as he sheathed his swords behind his back.
“You almost caught me that time, Oyama.”
Standing to her feet, Yuriko put her arms at her side and bowed. “One day you shall not be so quick, X.”
He winked at her. “If it makes you feel any better, you and Gorgon are really the only ones I ever have any fun with.”
“I do not need pity, X; I am more than capable of accepting defeat. You are looking at a warrior, not some woman needing to be coddled.”
Mr. X held up his hands defensively. “I was just joking, Deathstrike. No need to try and cut my head off. Just a little bit of competitive fun.”
Yuriko smirked. “Fun is a concept better left for those who have time to indulge in it. We have serious business ahead of us.”
X wished the woman would loosen up, but he knew that was probably as likely as getting Mt. Everest to move. “So when are leaving out?”
“Next couple of days. I want to make sure everyone is together mentally and physically.”
“Well, you don’t have to worry about me,” Mr. X said as he flexed his chest muscles. “I am more than ready.”
Yuriko agreed with that because despite his showboating, Mr. X was one of the most capable combatants that Weapon X had. He was possessed with battle skills that would give the world’s greatest fighters pause and his limited telepathy allowed him to predict an opponent’s every move. Then there was the rumor he was receiving genetic upgrades courtesy of the Dark Beast. All in all, he could be considered a deadly package.
“It’s not you I’m worried about. It’s the fresh meat,” Yuriko said as she began to pace around the circular training room.
“Well, everybody has to get their first mission in sometime. Besides, if they fuck up I’ll chop their heads off myself.”
Giving the man a deadly serious glare, she said, “Then you’ll find your brains oozing out your ear courtesy of the Director. She’s put a lot of stock into Dikithi and his group of mutant outcasts. I think she sees some potential in them.”
“And I’m guessing you don’t?” Mr. X asked, ignoring the promise of Nova hurting him…she knew how valuable he was. The Director wouldn’t dare put him beneath some dirty ass African refugee mutant.
“Not one iota. They are inexperienced buffoons and not even McCoy’s best work can change that. I loathe the idea of them being assigned to me.”
X shrugged. “It could be worse. We could have Nova’s little princess with us.”
Yuriko’s nose furled up. “The wench would be as likely to shoot us in the back as she would the enemy, but at least Domino has experience. This Lasker and Maniac are truly untested and stand a good chance of getting us killed.”
“Sounds like my kind of party then.”
GENECIDE AND WYRE
Genecide slipped on her shirt and hopped off of the surgical bed she had been sitting on the past ten minutes. Standing in front of her was a large man who had to be at least eight feet tall with tendrils hung from all across his torso in a strange fashion that made Genecide not want to look at him directly in the eye. With her abilities, she was able to see the genetic composition of them; they were composed of some sort of bio-metal that required him to consume large amounts of nutrients for his body to keep healthy.
“How you feeling, Marlene?” the man asked. He had a wide, teenage boy grin across his face. The woman had had a nice rack and it was more than his pleasure to get a look at it.
Genecide wasn’t comfortable being called by her first name. “I’m fine. Please just call me Genecide.”
“Suit yourself. So are you ready to get to work?”
She shook her head. Too much had happened too fast and she still wasn’t sure what was going on. “Where is he? Why did he examine me?”
“To see how valuable you were. The fact you’re not in pieces says you are.”
For much of her life, Genecide had been use to being in charge and in control. This total feeling of helplessness wasn’t her. “Who is he? Who are you?”
“His name was Sinister. And I’m Wyre.”
Genecide nodded slowly as she looked around the large laboratory. “Ok, Wyre, so what work are we talking about here? I have a strong feeling it has something to do with my mutation.”
“It has everything to do with your mutation. As of right now, consider yourself a member of the Marauders.”
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To Be Continued...
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