Here's the fourth chapter for SB :'3 Things get BEEFY AND RAWR from here out! >:D
In such a desperate time as this, the tunnels seemed to be never ending. Every time Zethus turned a corner he truly believed led back to Mithra, it seemed as if the tunnels expanded in all directions, mocking him in spite of his desperation. Upon learning how Damali's case of Digitarox was enhanced, the fifty-three hours she once had were now down to twelve, and now she only had three hours left. Zethus knew he would reach Mithra before the disease would take her, but that wasn't his main concern. Digitarox dealt irreversible damage to the host over time before ultimately taking their life. He feared the damage it would deal to her body, and seeing as how this was an enhanced virus, the side effects could be even more vicious.
How could he have let this happen? He should've known better then to drag other's into his escape. He swore under his breath as he cursed himself for his stupidity. If he would've just stayed clear of Hobbit Hole, this wouldn't be happening. Damali didn't deserve to suffer like this, not in this manner. That was when he decided, after Damali recovered from Digitarox he would leave her in Mithra. He knew she would be safe there, it was her home after all. She'd be better off if he left. Besides, she didn't even like him to begin with.
But as he these thoughts ran through his mind, a piercing pain overwhelmed Zethus' entire body. Shocked from the sudden rush of pain, he feel to his knees and clutched his chest, gasping for air. Veins in his arms and hands became clearly visible under the skin and took on a sickly blue coloration as the pain elevated. The sound of his heart pounded in his head and his vision became blurred. Random and incoherent whispers whirled through his mind, all his thoughts about Damali, Rezzio, his escape and the antidote, all of them struck him with overbearing pain when they crossed his mind. He desperately searched his mind for some thought that eased his pain, all while forcing himself to stay conscious. But the more he struggled with this unnatural pain, the harder it became to focus on his own thoughts, as it seemed foreign thoughts and ideas were being forced into his mind. But as these new emotions flooded his mind, only one thought, which stood out more as an order then anything else, eased his pain and clearly registered to him.
Kill everything. Show no mercy.
To anyone.
A devious grin spread across Rezzio's face as he watched the confusion on the streets below. After finally losing his dimwitted underlings in an alley, he slipped off to the other side of the streets and hid on the roof of a building overlooking the southern section of the Wrathgate street. He was waiting patiently for the commotion to die down and for the other's to give up their search and head back inside. When the roads were clear, he would be able to head for the Hobbit Hole safely. But then the fact that his true mission still remained unfinished crept into the back of his mind. Vin was still alive, he was still getting away with what he did four years prior. Rezzio's hands tightened into fists as these thoughts ran through his mind, how he hated that man with every fiber of his being. And the best part of it all, Vin had absolutely no idea. In fact, Vin had taken somewhat of a father-figure role over Rezzio and treated him so. But no matter how positively Rezzio responded to Vin's fatherly treatment, it made his insides twist in the most uncomfortable manner as he suppressed his rage and hatred towards that man. Rezzio had the perfect spot for waiting to take Vin down, as the Left Hand of Wrath, Vin would've never suspected him for a minute. Especially with his ridiculous idea that Rezzio was like his son. But even with this strategic position, Rezzio had to put his own ambitions on hold to help Zethus, who looked like he was in a tighter spot then Rezzio. As a Runner, Zethus was in a very bad spot, runners from Nazca did not get far and everyone around them were included in the killing spree. It was a sport and a way of life for the Nazca mercs to hunt their own kind, seeing as how they were forbidden to kill one another unless they were flagged as Bounties. Rezzio knew that Zethus would need all the help he could get if he intended on escaping.
He rose to his feet as the last of the mercs fled the streets, now was his chance to head for the Hole. But he had to clasp his hand over his mouth to keep from shouting as the sight before him startled him. A man clad in all black stood beside him, staring over the edge of the building at the streets below.
"How long have you been standin' there?!" Rezzio spat viciously, his heart pounding in his head as it fought to regulate it's pace. But the man only turned and gave Rezzio a malicious grin, the brilliant green of his eyes seemed to glow in the dark, despite how most of his face was obscured by the darkness.
"You'd better hurry," The polite overtone of his voice was layered with the thick sense of malice and hatred as he spoke. "Shark's are usually induced into a feeding frenzy when exposed to blood." He turned back towards the street, his grin growing more maniacal with each passing second.
"What could you possibly be talkin' about?" Rezzio said as he folded his arms, casting the man a bored glare. There was no way blood would send Zethus into a killing spree, he wasn't the kind of person who would even be subject to something like that in the first place. The man tossed a small vial to Rezzio, which he snatched out of the air when it came near him. A thick, transparent substance filled the inside of the vial and tiny specs of black pushed their way through the goo.
"Those little devils are infamous for inducing these blood frenzies, in both sharks and humans." He cast a side glance to Rezzio, who was visibly shaken by these words. If what this man was saying applied to Zethus in any way, it would mean trouble for just about everyone he'd come in contact with.
"That's right..I can see the fear plain as day written on your face." He grinned devilishly as he read Rezzio's emotions. "You know this will be fun, don't you?" But Rezzio didn't answer, instead he turned and made his way down the building and took off at full speed towards the Hobbit Hole grating. But the black-clad man just stood there laughing, laughing at the bloodshed to come. How he loved it so.
But Rezzio most certainly did not. He know that if Zethus experienced a nanite induced frenzy, he could go for days without stopping. He would kill everything and everyone that was unfortunate enough to cross his path, no matter how tired or weak he became, he wouldn't stop until his body literally fell apart. Rezzio had to stop him before he reached Mithra, but he must've been there by now. He might've already killed the girl and all the refugees. But Rezzio kept running, he knew that even if Mithra had been wiped out, he had to stop Zethus no matter what. Aside from the fact that Zethus would mindlessly kill anyone he could get his hands on, Rezzio knew that when, or even if Zethus recovered from the frenzy, this would weigh heavily on his heart, he'd never forgive himself for what he did, even if it wasn't his fault.
After wrestling to fit down the grating, which was a tad bit to small for his muscular body, Rezzio was finally in the tunnels. How long had it been since the last time he came here? A few years maybe, but he didn't have time to look for landmarks and street signs, he just ran as fast as he could through the tunnels. He knew he most likely would not catch Zethus in time, but he had to try. Even though Zethus was insanely fast on his feet, Rezzio was no slouch either, still slower then Zethus, but fast enough to at least keep up with him. He just hoped it was enough to catch him this time.
Just up ahead the next corner, the sounds of panicked refugees echoed through the caves, confirming everything. Calling upon speed Rezzio never imagined he had, he sprinted out of the caves and into the center of Mithra. But it was too late.
Several of the refugees had already crossed Zethus and paid dearly. Even refugees Rezzio recognized as former members of Wrathgate had fallen to Zethus. He was half relieved and half disturbed to see Zethus standing before a teenage boy. The boy's spiky hair was a darker shade of silver, almost a pale gray, and his bright blue eyes were full of determination as he held his ground against Zethus. Fresh cuts and bruises decorated the boy's arms and face, clearly he had been doing exceptionally well holding his own against Zethus. But Zethus looked as if he were in worse shape then the kid, his bright green eyes took on a darker sick green coloration and the random sections of his face and arms were covered in sick displays of blue and purple and his expression was far different from his default expression of oblivious happiness. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days and his mouth was curled into a sickening grin as he waved his shark-blade through the air.
"I knew you would be trouble! I can't believe this girl trusted you!" The boy shouted, clearly shaken by the current events. Armed only with a survival knife, the boy looked ready to take several more gashed before he would even think of faltering. He wasn't about to step down.
"I would offer you your life if you would step aside," Zethus' voice was heavy with malice and maybe even a sense of insanity, he seemed to be enjoying himself. "But what fun would that be?"
Without warning he lunged himself towards the boy, blade first, but the boy expertly dodged the oncoming attack and shoved his fist in between Zethus' ribs. Shocked from the sudden blow, he clutched his side as he stumbled to the side and caught his footing. Rezzio was surprised to see the kid avoid his attack like that, no one was capable of avoiding Zethus when he was set on killing them, he must've been weakened by the nanites. But Zethus cast the boy a mocking grin as he swung for him again, seemingly fully recovered from the blow. But the boy hadn't recovered from his counterattack, and Zethus' oncoming attack could not be blocked or avoided. As the shark-blade came near the boy's chest, a strong, darker toned arm appeared in the knife's projected path.
Rezzio gritted his teeth as he fought back the pain and grabbed a hold of Zethus' arm and slowly began bending it backwards. He glared at Zethus as he cackled maniacally and effortlessly wriggled free from his grasp, the jagged blade ripping flesh and muscle as it retracted from Rezzio's arm. Without giving him time to react, Zethus swung for Rezzio with amazing speed, much faster then that he attacked the boy with. But then Rezzio realized it, Zethus was only toying with that boy. Now the gloves had come off and Zethus wasn't afraid to kill Rezzio, even if it was he best friend.
The blade sank it's jagged fangs into Rezzio's shoulder just before he could dodge completely. His legs briefly went limp as the blade tore through his arm, but as he went down he grabbed a handful of Zethus' platinum hair and pulled him down with him, using the momentum in his advantage as he slammed the side of his face into the gravel streets. But suddenly a warm sensation spread out over his chest and he could feel his strength fading. He passed his hand over his chest, only to find the shark-blade embedded deep in his chest, blood flowed down the front of his torso from the wound.
He crumpled onto the ground and clutched his chest, gasping for air and swearing under his breath as Zethus rose to his feet. The whole left side of his face was covered in newly acquired cuts that bled a profuse mix of blood and dirt, but despite that, he kept his maniacal smile as he ripped the blade from Rezzio's chest.
"Ha hah..I expected you to be more of a challenge..How disappointing." But the smile faded from his face as the roar of a bullet tore through the caves and spot of blood erupted from his stomach. He passed his hand over the blood and smiled as he looked up at his would-be assassin.
Damali was barely able to stand as she had to lean on the doorpost of the inn for support, but in her hand she held an unusually shaped pistol in her hand, aimed right for Zethus. He only smiled and stepped over Rezzio, who was barely even able to breath anymore. He stroked the blade of his knife with his finger as he came closer to Damali, but suddenly another gunshot roared through the streets as a second and a third bullet tore through Zethus' chest and shoulder. He cried out in pain and fell to his knees, clutching his shoulder. Damali caught his eye as the sickly green pigmentation faded away, leaving only his bright green eyes and the sick coloration on his face and arms vanished. The expression on his face was a mixture of exhaustion and fear as he quickly registered what Damali had done to him.
"W-Why...?" Was all he could get out before his whole body went limp.
Damali dropped the pistol and sank down next to him, rolling him on to his back. But she was stopped by Apollo, who pulled her hands away from Zethus.
"No! Don't help this monster, let him die!" He cried as he pulled Damali to her feet and away from Zethus. But she broke away from his grasp and knelt down between Zethus and the black haired man who tried to stop him. The man's brilliant yellow eyes followed Damali's every move as she sat down next to him, his breathing was slow and shallow and his eyes were half-open. He was slipping fast.
"Apollo, take the bullets out for me, I have to help him." She said in a weak-toned voice as she took off her hooded jacket. Apollo cast Zethus a glare of disgust, but finally set to work removing the bullets. He was surprised to see that they were lodged just below the skin, they hadn't gone far enough to cause too much damage, if that was so then why did he pass out?
"What's the deal? They're not even an inch into his skin?" He dropped the three bullets onto the gravel and looked over at Damali. She had placed her jacket over the man's chest and was applying pressure to stop the bleeding.
"They sent an electric current through his entire body, it disrupted the.." Her voice trailed off as the black haired man held up a small vial, it was full of nanites. "Those..! Where did you get them?!" But before he could answer, his eyes rolled back and his whole body went limp. Damali felt along his hand to feel his pulse, it was slow and weak, but it was strong enough.
"Help me take them inside. Zethus will be okay, but this one will need lots of care." She struggled to her feet and planted her hands on the walls for support as Apollo carried the two of them inside. The scene before her was devastating, refugees who wanted nothing more then a safe haven were killed in their safe haven, the surviving refugees would never accept Zethus here now. What would he do now?
This was too much, way too much. Apollo was not comfortable with the situation at hand at all, this was way to much for him to handle on his own. He stood with his back to the wall as he watch Damali work her magic. Even though she was extremely weak, the effects of the antidote were slowly coming into play. Before she went inside the inn, Damali had found a small syringe full of a pale pink liquid which Apollo recognized as the antidote for her sickness. Instead of resting and allowing the antidote to take full effect, Damali set to work taking care of Zethus and the other man, who's stab wounds were still bleeding. Apollo couldn't understand her, why was she taking care of Zethus? Zethus had tried to kill him and managed to kill most of the refugees in Mithra. In Apollo's opinion, he didn't deserve to live. But Damali insisted, so he had to go along with it.
"Apollo, do you still have the bullets?" He was surprised at her question, but he fished around in his pocket and produced the bullets. They were quite short for a bullet and the mouth at the point was almost as wide at the bullet itself, this was most likely what stopped them from going so deep in his skin.
"What are these anyways? They're definitely not meant for killing." Apollo poked and prodded at the bullets in her hand, a slight spark jumped from the bullets to his hands.
"Whoa!" Damali giggled and held up one of the bullets, pointing to a blue line that went down the side of the bullet.
"These are seeder bullets. When fired, they open up before they reach the target, keeping it from going so deep in the skin. It was meant to subdue walizard's that were effected with nanite probes."
"Eh? Probes?" Apollo gave her a confused look as he examined the bullet closely.
"Yeah, my brother, Lukasz, is a genius. Ever since he was a boy he would make these crazy inventions that were actually very helpful to our daily lives down here. He created the probes to control the walizards, we would use them as sentries. But occasionally they'd go crazy and the seeder bullets would bring them down." Apollo glanced over at Zethus who was still fast asleep, he was sprawled across the bed like a child, his arms were wrapped around the pillow as if he were hugging someone tightly, a tendril of drool rolled down his chin as he snored loudly.
"Well it looks like he's doing better." Damali rolled her eyes and threw a rag at him, which he ignored completely as it landed on his face, the only reaction (if you could call it that) was a loud grunt as he rolled over into a position that looked quite uncomfortable.
"I just wonder how he ended up with nanite probes..It looks like these were remotely accessed."
"How can you tell?" Apollo glanced down at the bullets once more, but nothing abnormal stood out, save for their small size.
"The probes release a certain type of gas that feeds the host the thoughts and ideas of whoever is manipulating the probes. This gas effects pigmentation of the skin, veins and eyes, but it changes depending on how long the probes have been in his body." She held up the small vial of probes for Apollo to see. "The longer they are in a body, the harder it is to activate them on contact. After several weeks they must be activated remotely."
"Yeah I figured, but how can you tell?"
"The pigmentation effect is drastically increased after it's been remotely accessed. Instead of just effecting the eye color, it effects the veins and skin."
"I see. Who do you think could've done it?" But Damali shrugged and tucked the vial into her pocket. But she did indeed know who activated it, only one person could activate the probes remotely. Lukasz, her brother. But why would he do that? Why would he release probes in Zethus' body? She shook her head, it couldn't have been Lukasz, he has no reason to do something like this. But then she realized that as long as the probes were in his body, they would regenerate and prep themselves for activation after a twenty-four hour recharge. This could cause problems in the future for Zethus, because not only did it allow the user full control of his body, but they knew where he was. At all times.
She was finally torn from her thoughts as the black haired man stirred from his sleep.
He slowly opened his yellow eyes and looked around the room cautiously, until he saw Zethus asleep on a cot in the corner of the room. He shifted his head towards the girl who stood against the wall near the door. Her bright pink hair caught him off guard, he'd never seen such an unusual hair color such as that. Her deep blue eyes stood out under her bright hair, she was kinda cute, even for an underground street urchin. Rezzio smiled as he thought about it, no wonder Zethus was so determined to get the antidote for her.
"Hey, how are you feeling?" The girl asked him in a gentle voice. He nodded and motioned to Zethus in the corner.
"How's he doin'? You nailed him several times before he went down."
"Oh, he'll be just fine," She crossed the room and sat on the edge of Zethus' bed and slapped him with a pillow, but he only flinched and kicked his blankets off the cot as he rolled over, oblivious to the sudden blow from the pillow. "The only thing that will cause him problems will be his left shoulder, the slug went pretty deep." Rezzio's eyes focused on Zethus' shoulder, it was kind of hard to see as he vision was still blurred, but he could clearly see the bloodied bandage wrapped around his shoulder's. The whole left side of his face was covered in bandages and stitches held the skin above his eyebrows together.
"He just needs some rest, that's all." The girl pointed at Rezzio and gave him a stern look. "And so do you!" Rezzio rolled his eyes and pulled the blankets over his face.
"You're Damali, right?" He asked from under the blanket.
"Yep, that's me."
"I know your brother." Damali looked over at him with a surprised look on her face as he pulled the blanket off his head. "He's not a bad kid, actually." He knew after seeing that look on her face he had to lie. She wouldn't do very well knowing it was her brother who created the sickness she almost died from, it was better this way.
"That's good, I'm happy to hear he's doing well. I was worried about him." She stood up and headed towards the door. "Oh, I didn't get your name.."
Rezzio yawned and folded his arms behind his head as she turned out the light. "Rezzio Galfrin, Former Left Hand of Wrath." She nodded in response and left him to get some rest, the use of his title didn't seem to phase her any. Either she didn't care or she was going to kill him later.
Rezzio didn't really care at the moment, he just wanted to get some sleep. He looked over at Zethus, who was still sleeping in the most unusual position Rezzio had ever seen anyone sleep in. Even after taking three bullets to the chest, Zethus was still as air-headed as ever, even in his sleep. Rezzio giggled slightly and closed his eyes. He hoped that by tomorrow he'd be able to get up and move around, how he hated being bedridden.
