First Sin: The Runaway Experiment (Pt. 4)

--- Mercer ---

The figure seemed to struggle against their bindings as the electricity of the machines slowly built up before shooting into the figure. The lightning’s thunder barely muffling the figure’s screams.

“Yeah, I get why the girl wants me to get you out of here.” He grimaced before looking the machinery over for some kind of off switch. (Though knowing Asylum’s MO, they probably have everything rigged to some office with cameras watching this place, rather than a manual switch.)

Deciding that the girl was probably better off if he just broke the damn thing rather than finding this thing’s monitoring room, he took a step closer to the machinery only to freeze as some kind of shadow began to spasm from the figure.

(Oh, that can’t be good…)

The shadow struggled for several seconds before finally ripping itself away from its source and falling to the ground on all four.

Knowing his luck with this kind of thing he slowly reached for his gun.

The shadow’s face shot up to him revealing a feminine face with long floating hair and solid black pits for eyes before disappearing from existence and reappearing halfway to him.

“Listen, I'm here to save the girl.” He told the thing, forcing himself not to draw his gun. “You can get out of my way or get dead.”

He knew threatening the thing probably wasn’t a smart idea but he also knew that Malcontent -of which he had little doubt the girl on the wall was- tended to have a different set of values than most people.

The shadow just stared at him for a moment, before another wave of electricity hit the girl on the wall and it began to growl at him as more shadows began to spasm from her form.

A bullet pierced the shadow’s head before it could attack him.

“Shame.” He sighed, taking in the dissolving shadows, its newly formed counterparts, the girl on the wall, and all of the machinery he had to deal with to free her.

Rolling his shoulders, he cracked his neck to each side before glaring at the shadows.

“I guess, we’re doing this, huh?”

The shadows snarled at him before letting loose a hateful scream.

--- Scarlet ---

“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” She spat at the man in gray, the shadows surrounding him doing nothing to intimidate her given what the person she was here to save could do with them.

“You killed these men.” A gruff voice said as the man’s solid white eyes stared at her.

“So what?” She scoffed, knowing that these men had done far worse to people far more innocent than them or her.

“You can stop and come peacefully, or I will be forced to make you.” The man warned her, his tone so different from the one that had helped her get this far.

“Make me stop?” She laughed, still feeling the Malice burning in her veins. “I’m not stopping until everyone of these fuckers is dead.”

The man stared at her for a moment, not saying anything and with his face covered by a mask she had no idea what he was thinking again so very unlike the other man. “I don’t doubt that men carrying this kind of gear in this city are causing trouble, but we don’t need to kill them.”

“No, you don’t have to kill them.” She disagreed, knowing after the last couple of weeks that even free of the hell beneath her feet she wouldn’t be free of the nightmares until (every last one of them is dead.)

“You’re a Malcontent.” The man noted, completely missing her point. “There are alternatives to having to kill to survive.”

She wouldn’t lie, while she didn’t care about having to kill to eat, she knew such a choice would be a godsend for B, making his offer more tempting than he likely knew, (and yet…) “As long as these fuckers live we are always in danger.” She growled, feeling the Malice creep up her throat as her eyes flashed red.

“I see…” The man sighed, seemingly disappointed, the most emotion he’d shown through their entire conversation.

(Dodge!)

If it weren’t for her instincts she wouldn’t have dodged half of the six blades that went flying towards her, and even then half of them still pierced into the flesh of her arm.

“Fuck!” She cursed, the blades’ odd shape preventing her healing factor from pushing them out, and if anything making her body’s attempts to do so hurt her more than the bullets from before had.

Turning towards the source of her pain, she lunged at it, clearing half of the parking lot in a single bound, an enlarged claw ready to cleave the man into bits as she neared.

Only instead of being torn to pieces the man ducked under her swing, while delivering a number of quick punches to her side, the man’s odd gloves making them hurt more than if they were simply flesh and bone.

She tried to backhand him, but instead he used her wrist as leverage to flip over her arm while delivering a steel-toed kick to her face.

Tasting her own blood in her mouth she froze breathing slowly before even slower turning towards the man in front of her.

“I’ll give you one more chance.” He told her. “Come peacefully, or I will make you.”

Her response was a mouth full of flames.

--- Mercer ---

He snapped the neck of what was his seventh or so shadow, before shooting an eighth and really wishing he’d tried convincing the girl to let him go and get a gun, rather than getting stuck with the one he’d stolen earlier.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

(Damn it!) He cursed himself. (I know better than to go on a mission underequipped if I can help it. Especially a siege and rescue mission.)

Just because he could operate on so little did not mean it was the smart or preferred option.

Another shadow teleported behind him before jumping onto his back and clawing at him with cold fingers that somehow pierced his armor without really damaging it despite leaving painful trails in his flesh.

(Fucking magic!)

He grabbed the shadow and threw it over his shoulder at one of the machines while hoping the thing had enough weight to do something other than simply being vaporized. (Which it didn’t.)

All the while, he was forced to listen to the screams of the poor girl attached to the wall as more and more electricity was pumped into her to continue producing this onslaught of shadows. Her (likely) healing factor the only reason she hadn’t lost her voice to her screams.

Some part of him briefly contemplated -hopefully- mercy killing her with his last bullet, knowing exactly what this kind of torture could do to someone’s psyche and that the girl would likely welcome death at this point.

The rest of him ruthlessly beat that bit of bastardry into the ground before shooting it, pissing on its unmarked grave, and agreeing to never ever allow that kind of thought to form again regardless of what his mom taught him.

(There’s a reason she wanted us as far from her side of the family as physically possible.)

Instead he used his last bullet to kill off the last shadow of the current wave, knowing that he probably had only a few seconds before the machinery made the poor girl spit out more.

(Well, if there’s no off switch, and no breaking the machinery, the only option left is to cut the girl down.) That’d been his original plan before-

More lightning danced along the walls before shooting towards the girl.

-(that.)

Knowing that this was going to hurt -(and really wishing I was wearing the anti-electric armor)- he rushed to the girl as another shadow began to spasm out of her.

He pulled his knife from its sheath and stabbed the blade into one of her restraints, forcing himself to ignore the painful numbness crawling up his arms from where he touched her.

Eventually the restraint gave and the girl’s arm fell free just in time for her shadow to burst out of her.

Shifting his grip he dropped down from the wall and rammed his knife through the shadow’s skull, killing it before it could get up to cause him any problems.

With the thing dead, he shook his hands out to try and get some feeling back in them -something he already knew was pointless- before turning back to the machinery, which thankfully wasn’t electrocuting the girl at the moment.

(Though that humming means we don’t have long.)

Not having to resist the electricity, cutting through the second restraint was even easier than the first taking almost no time at all by comparison.

Unfortunately that was still enough time for the machines to start shooting another wave of lightning at the poor girl.

Hearing her screams start up once more, he didn’t even hesitate to rush into the storm, regardless of the pain or (terrifying) numbness. No part of him willing to let her suffer for even a second longer if he could help it.

The final restraint was wrapped around her legs and waist in such a way that he had to cut through almost four times as much metal to undo the final restraint, more than long enough for the girl to spit out another one of her shadows.

His blade snapped through the last of the metal, and he just barely had enough control over his limbs to make sure the girl fell on top of him rather than onto the cold hard ground.

Taking the impact as well as he could given the circumstances, he rolled the girl off of him as gently as he could before turning to the shadow, ready to (bite through its fucking ankles if that’s what it takes.)

Only instead of attacking him the shadow only stared at him before turning to the girl and rushing back into her in a haze of black smoke.

(Hope that’s a good thing.)

--- Scarlet ---

This was far from the first time she’d gotten the shit kicked out of her.

Back in the labs it was practically a daily occurrence, whether it be from those sadist’s ‘experiments’ or just the guards feeling like beating something stronger than them that couldn’t fight back in restraints.

That said, she had never taken so many hits from something while also physically being incapable of hitting it back (no matter how hard I fucking try!)

The man grabbed her by her hair and slammed a plated knee into her face before kicking off of her shoulder and going far enough to avoid her counter swipe.

Of course the fucker didn’t keep this distance long enough for her to catch her breath, but instead immediately shot her with some kind of wire thing before using it to pull himself closer while also throwing her off balance and leaving her open to the drop kick to the face that sent her tumbling to the ground.

Even with her healing factor, and hardened hide, her entire body was turning into one massive bruise from the one-sided beat down she’d been taking for the last who knows how long.

What’s more, given how she couldn’t touch him, and anytime she went for a corpse he’d double down his beatdown, she wasn’t able to eat anything to help her calm the Malice in her veins. Something that was beginning to make her transformation hurt as her body refused to shift any further, some kind of survival instinct her other-self refused to budge on no matter how much easier this fight would be at a higher Malice Concentrate.

(Refuse to starve…) Her other-self stubbornly told her, knowing that regardless of how badly the man in gray beat her, he wouldn’t kill her.

Growling in frustration, she glared at the man before slowly picking herself off the ground.

“You should stop.” The man told her, tilting his head slightly. “I can see the Malice starting to turn on you.”

“Fuck you.” She spat, before shifting her footing as she raised her claws far more weakly than she liked. “I can do this…” She coughed tasting blood. “All day.”

“No you can’t.” The man told her almost sadly.

--- Mercer ---

Getting the girl out of the compound without getting caught and with her unconscious was no easy feat, but with them already on what he was assuming was an evacuation order of some kind. (Which can’t mean anything good for us.)

Finding a second elevator out had honestly been more a stroke of luck than any search pattern his exhausted mind could come up with. (Which I’m fine with since it got us out of that hell hole.)

After a few minutes the elevator doors opened up to the parking lot, and he picked up the dark haired girl, once more noting just how uncomfortably thin she was.

(I can deal with that later.) He told himself as he stepped out. (For now all I’ve got to do is find the other girl, and get all of us back to one of my safehouses before something else goes-) “Motherfucking bastard!”

(Vigilance is here.) He realized, immediately taking a step back into the shadows before the mask he had so much history with could see him.

Now he knew exactly why the facility below was evacuating. (With him so close to the scene their facility is as good as found at this point. Might as well abandon ship while they can.)

Remembering who else was supposed to be in this parking lot his eyes immediately darted around the scene before landing on the girl who’d dragged him into the entire mess barely standing on her feet after the beat down Vigilance had given her.

(Fuck I need to step into this.) Unfortunately, he was in no physical way capable of picking a fight with the older Mask, something he had no doubt would happen if the man saw his face.

(Got to be smart about this if I don’t want him locking us up.)