CHAPTER 5.

Avery, the perfect looking bastard that he was, worked me over good for several hours, slowly escalating the level of pain through various methods and techniques. All my fingernails were removed and my body was covered in stinging cuts and lacerations, and I was just coming down from the carefully applied electric torture. Just enough to take me to the edge and no more. I held on for so long, my mind all but fracturing under the pressure.

After six hours and thirty two minutes of slowly escalating torture, I finally broke down, begging him to stop, promising to tell him whatever he wanted, to give him whatever he wanted. My lungs burned from several waterboarding sessions and my fingers were bent at odd angles.

At the back of my mind, I noticed several notifications from the implant informing me of fractures, contusions and general critical health failure, but the overwhelming pain pulsing through my body prevented me from giving it further attention.

"I know right now, you're ready to give me what I want, and you've been ready for a while, but you need to be properly broken to ensure your compliance and honesty". He smiled coldly and said, "knowing the stock you come from, vermin like you cannot be trusted to do the right thing even with your life on the line."

He stuck the blade in his hand deep into a tiny cut free space on my thigh, he dug deep, cutting into tendon and muscle. "Now you will grant me administrator access to the implant and you will do so now."

I was so tired, my body felt broken and everything hurt. I considered telling him to go fuck himself, but my mind was filled with anguish and all I could think about was the pain. Deep down, I knew I was never leaving this room regardless of my answer. This asshole was going to kill me even if I granted him access to the implant. his hatred for my father was too strong and only my death would satisfy him.

I felt a sliver of satisfaction through the pain that filled me. As petty as it sounded, I felt proud of my parents for denying this devil whatever he sought. It seemed I would be joining them soon, but that's alright, my life so far hadn't been a cakewalk and I missed them so much.

He was about to move the blade towards my right eye, when a loud sound reverberated across the room. "BOOM!!!!" He wanted to continue, but it happened again. "BOOOOOM!!!!" and then even louder a third time.

There was a knock on the door and that evil little bitch walked in and for the first time since we met before my kidnapping, I heard her voice and to my surprise it sounded nothing like the alley's damsel in distress.

"Sir, we've been breached, twelve battle magi and at least one aberrant. I think they're here for the target, sir." She delivered her speech with a smooth, but clipped russian accent.

The man frowned and turned to her "An aberrant, it seems the enemy is sparing no effort to acquire the abomination. My praise was premature and your getaway was not as clean as reported." He looked at her, disappointment written clearly in his gaze. "How long till they breach our defenses?" He asked Ivelina, schooling his expression again.

"Based on the strength of our defenses and the enemy's progress so far; ten minutes, but these estimates vary depending on the strength of the aberrant." She said in a brisk military tone

Avery nodded thinking "We need to prevent the enemy from having him. Take him to the vault, I'll prepare the assault drones and I'll contact our benefactors, they need to be apprised of this latest incursion."

His eyes suddenly became unfocused and for a while he stood frozen as if seeing something that was only visible to him. "I have informed the benefactor of the recent incursions of an aberrant into our reality. They have promised to send support soon."

He turned to Ivelina and asked "Have all our troops standby and prepare to engage the enemy?" She straightened in a military pose and made a strange salute, with her fist pressed to her heart. Avery looked down at me and with a frown he said. "The infection spreads and even denizens of our law bound planet reach for means to break the rules." Third rate fucking villain.

He touched a bracelet on his wrist that I hadn't noticed until now and a silvery liquid began to spread all over his body until it covered him entirely and then settled into some kind of armor that covered him from head to toe. He stretched out his hand and an energy blade crackling with energy sprang out of his right hand. My mouth hung open, my various wounds temporarily forgotten.

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"A gift from the benefactors for all my diligence, given only to the worthy. When I find the heart of essence, my reward will make this armor seem like a worthless trinket in comparison."

He smiled and it occurred to me that Avery didn't give two shits about the Veldar or their mandate, only what he could get from them; his head was so far up the Veldar's ass that they could probably taste him. I suspect he was only toeing the party line for the troops``

"These intruders are criminals of the highest order, seeking to pervert reality. But this will not be allowed to stand, not on my watch, I will subdue these irritants and then we shall pick up from where we left off."

More villain dialogue, this motherfucker has been drinking his own kool aid for waaay too long.

I smiled, trying to see through the haze of blood and pain dulling my sight.

"Easy there Captain America, don't forget to pick up your shield on the way out."

He looked at me, clearly angry at my comment and was about to retort when another boom demanded his attention. The evil prick, fully transformed, rushed out of the room.

Ivelina began to remove the restraints, jerking them this way or that without regard for my tortured body. I tried to take advantage and attack her as soon as I was free of restraints, but my body wouldn't cooperate.

"Damn, these evil pieces of shit worked me good", I mumbled to myself as even my bruises had bruises.

Besides, I didn't really think I had any chance against her even at my peak, not with the physical strength she'd displayed so far.

She removed the last strap around my head, checked me for any gaping wounds. Looking me in the eye, she picked up the stapler on the tray and started to pin the open wounds on my body. "MOTHERFUCKER!!!!. FUCK! FUCK! FUCKSHIT!!!!" I let out a barely muffled scream as the pain of being used as a pin cushion lanced through me.

I looked at her with hate in my eyes and imagined myself stapling both her eyes over and over again, madness and rage trying to overtake me. She ignored the eye beams of hate I was projecting at her, and flung me over her back, all 300 pounds and change of me like I was a pillow and began taking me deeper underground.

This time there were stairs involved and each one she took jarred my wounds in new and not even close to exciting ways.

I wondered if they were going to leave me like this without proper treatment. How useful would I be to them if I got infected and died? I wondered.

But then I remembered Link and it occurred to me that I didn't need any limbs to grant Avery access to the implant. I dry heaved on her back; all my stomach content had been worked out of me by that evil dickwad.

My horror was replaced by anger, just thinking of my parents death renewed the rage within me. Motherfucker admitted to offing them because he thinks I'm nothing, not a threat, not an enemy, nothing.

But he's going to get his, I don't know how or when, but when I get out of here, motherfucker's gonna get what's coming to him. I closed my eyes trying to conserve whatever strength I had left for the trials ahead, wondering if this vault was as cold and drafty as my former cell and if there would be any opportunities to escape. Maybe I'll be able to get some sleep and wake up to discover that the last 10 hours or so were an acid induced nightmare.

But we never reached the vault. Ivelina had just reached the bottom of the stairs and not a moment too soon, all that jostling had widened some of my cuts and I was leaking blood all over her. I smiled, knowing it was pretty, but imagining her trying to get all that blood out, then I remembered she was wearing some kind of space age body suit, and that stuff most likely won't hold stains.

"Bitch," I mumbled to myself just as the wall to the left exploded outward.

Ivelina threw me to the ground and I screamed, all my wounds protesting at the harsh treatment, I looked up at her and to my surprise she pulled some kind of device that resembled the grip of a gun, but suddenly unpacked itself into some kind of futuristic/alien hand gun.

I turned with great difficulty to the man sized hole in the wall and was shocked to see a very tall and very pale and blindingly beautiful white woman with midnight black hair and beautiful angular features. Her cheeks were rosy and her lips were a deep blood red. She was a little over six feet tall and she dressed in a long red cape and black body hugging leathers that covered her from head to toe. Her figure was perfect; too perfect.

Everything about her was without imperfections and I instinctively had the impression that she was not human. Her eyes were beyond freaky; her pupils were ruby red, not blood red, but like actual fucking rubies, they even glinted like actual stones.

Was this the aberrant that put the entire place on alert?

She looked like the heaviest thing she'd ever lifted in her life was a smartphone. But then I looked at the broken wall and had to reassess my opinion.

She walked steadily towards us ignoring the space age gun pointed directly at her face. "Human, defiance is futile, hand over the prisoner and I may yet, let you live." She said with a cold and haughty smile plastered on her face. "Or at least make your end quick."

I lost my shit right there and then, also lost a little bit of control on my bladder because when she smiled, I noticed the fanged canines clearly prominent in her mouth.