Torrn Asunder

[Arkcher]

[Okaaaaayy.

I got sick of waiting for everyone to vote in that poll asking if I should post this or not, and Im too excited about it to not post it so Here goes! =D]

 

[As you've gathered from previous stories, Nothing that I write is necessarily children-oriented. It gets a little shady here and there, but we have moderators to make sure it doesnt get too far.]

 

[Anyway, This one wont be much different. But I feel that this one has one of the better storylines' that I've come up with. I dont except it will be really long, but its leaning more toward quality over quantity, so to speak.

Anyway.

The introduction was rewritten some three times before I decided I'll just use this one. Just remember to pay attention to the introduction 'cause it will have some strong effects in the later part of the story.]

 

[And, for those of you unregistered units who feel like you might get away with copying this and posting it somewhere else for me, Just let it be known that its kind of illegal. This, and the rest of the content of this very topic, Is copyrighted. now bugger off. ;D ]

 

[without further ado, Torrn Asunder. ... yes, its spelled with two R's.]

 

May 15th, 1979

 

Jared Mills, a college biological science professor, found himself doing just what he had done on that same day for years past.

 

He sat in his poorly lit office, with high stacks of papers, essays and students' finals reports, looking back at the days when he was a student not unlike these, but somewhere in his past, something went wrong.

 

Jared saw himself doing great things, a scientist to change the world forever. Now, he finds himself getting young students past the point where he failed.

 

One little slip...

 

Jared shook his head, and regained focus on his work.

 

'Sacréde, Amanda'

One of his more favored students had a well written final. It described some possible ways to engineer how a human grows, certain aspects that could be altered...

Humans to learn faster and more efficiently...

Humans to grow stronger and healthier...

 

Intrigued, Jared adjusted his eyeglasses and re-read her proposition.

Sure, it looks good. It could very well be done. Something was missing, though.

 

It pointed out aspects that Mills had never considered before. This... was remarkable.

 

He marked the papers to check back with them later, after he had read others.

 

The only other one that was notable was the final of Samuel Torrn.

It mentioned the papers that his 'beloved' Amanda had entered, and further described every missing facet from her work.

 

Without hesitation, Both were graded A+.

 

After reading through the other student' finals, he excitedly re-read both Amanda and Samuel's entries. His memory once more turned back to the very day when he made his final. This proposed almost the exact same project as Jared's, just... better.

---

 

26 years later...

June 11th, 2005

"Alright then, Seth. It was good meeting you..."

 

The rather large in stature Nathan Torrn stood up to shake hands with one of his not-too-distant relatives, whom he had never heard of previous to this day when his family introduced Nathan and his two sisters, Kerrigan and Heather.

 

"Oh, no, the pleasure is all mine. I couldn't keep myself from helping you guys out with this."

 

"Really, though, this... means a lot to us."

 

Amanda Torrn stood up likewise, in thanks to her brother-in-law who quite generously loaned large sums of money to fund their projects.

 

"We will let you know how it all goes down..."

 

Samuel thanked Seth accordingly, as the family made their way out to the car and they drove back home, quite pleased with the multi-thousand dollar donation they had just received.

 

"So... we're doing what, again, with this money?"

 

"Well, as Im sure you remember being told before, You guys are certainly unique, especially to the rest of the world. You were successfully genetically engineered to what you are today. Nathan has high muscle build, endurance, adrenaline and aggression, Kerrigan has an unusually flawless body structure and cosmetic condition, and you, Heather, learn faster and have a high immune system. We're going to try patenting this, to better the human race altogether, but to do that we needed a bit more funding from Seth."

 

"... Cool."

 

As the Torrn family's home came into sight, the dark of the night shadowed some few silhouetted figures barely visible about the house.

 

"... What's going on?"

 

Kerrigan commented to herself, watching as these figures either ran away in different directions, or hid themselves.

 

Nathan made a fairly snide and profane remark about some of the local high school kids, but these looked too mature to be students...

 

They cautiously pulled in to the driveway, and Nathan and Samuel got out to investigate.

They found nothing out of the ordinary, and no sign of any hiding people. Deciding it being a harmless prank, they went inside.

 

---

 

All went well for the next week. Additional research and paperwork was done, until it was all finally complete. The only thing left to do was take it to the authorities...

 

"Nathaaaan. You take too long."

 

Heather called in to the closed bathroom door, impatiently awaiting Nathan’s exit.

 

"Ah'm bfushin muh peef!"

 

“… B-fushing your peef shouldn’t take 45 minutes.”

 

“ –Pchfff- … I know. I’ll be out in just a second.”

 

A few moments later, Nathan opened the door and walked out. He walked down the hallway and turned in to his room, glancing behind him at the open door to Kerrigan’s room. She was casually sprawled about her bed, reading a book. Nathan shook his head at his two sisters’ little situations.

Kerrigan, having a nigh flawless body, couldn’t keep any of the guys in her school away. She didn’t need anyone at home to buy her anything, if ever she wanted something, Any male at school was more than willing to buy her something. She used such to her advantage, but at the same time, she really didn’t do well in regards to education.

 

On the other hand, Heather, the youngest in the family, learned inhumanly fast, straight A’s, was considered a nerd beyond belief, but certainly did not have a physique to come anywhere near her sister.

 

The two really wanted to be in the others’ position, as such, no small amount of contention ensued.

 

Nathan glanced at the alarm clock by his bed. It read 12:23 AM, which made him glad this was a weekend night. He did have quite a day, and was ready to sleep.

 

As he changed clothes and got ready to rest, he… just felt something bothering him. Not physically, it was just a feeling that something was wrong, something… isn’t right.

 

He ignored this and tried to get to sleep, but truly felt as if he was forgetting something.

 

Annoyed by this, he got up, and walked out, down the hall and downstairs.

 

“Hey, Nathan.”

 

Samuel, Nathan’s father, was restless, too. He was parked in front of the TV, with a very tired look on his face, but looked rather energetic.

 

“Hey. … Whats going on?”

 

“Nothing of interest. About all that I can find is this guy on TV and how his wife has some unheard of disease, she cant hardly move. Its not any form of paralysis, not cancer, not… anything medics have seen before.”

 

“Just watch, You’re going to be able to watch on these same news channels and see the world change before your eyes because of these nice little… test… genetic things you did a long time ago.”

 

“I cant wait. … I cant sleep, either. I’m too excited. I’ve been wanting to see this done for like 26 years.”

 

“Way back when…”

 

Nathan smirked.

 

“Anyway. I haven’t slept for some time, and I’m really tired, but cant figure out why I really don’t feel comfortable going to sleep.”

 

Samuel looked up at Nathan for a moment.

 

“I feel the same way.”

 

Nathan watched the TV for a few seconds longer, before growing bored with it, and finding this to be a case of insomnia that.. he had never felt before.

 

He turned around, and started to walk away, but mid-stride, his heart jumped…

The shatter of broken glass sounded through the whole house, followed by blaring sirens of their security system.

 

[Oh noes! Teh robbburzes?1?/111/lawl?]

 

[yeah. Well. Now I need to write some more of it.]

[Arkcher]

[some more!]

 

---

 

Samuel immediately jumped up in response to this.

 

“Nathan, Get upstairs!”

 

Samuel shouted out, ran around the couch and grabbed the nearest phone. He picked it up to find a blatant lack of dialtone.

 

“What the... They cut our phone lines?!”

 

The sirens were brought to a sudden stop while some odd five gunshots sounded throughout the house, eradicating the security control panel.

 

“Oh, They do NOT!”

 

Nathan turned and darted toward where the gunshots came from.

 

“Nathan, No!”

 

Samuel called out, chasing after his son. If these intruders weren’t armed, Nathan could undoubtably take them all down, but the several rounds of ammunition emptied in to their house already, kind of concerned him.

 

Nathan ran down a hallway, half-way through, he came to a stop to see four men rather large in stature, not unlike Nathan, pouring out from around the corner. Three carrying handguns, and one with a sawed shotgun.

 

[its not uncommon to saw off part of the barrel of a shotgun, which makes it look stupid, but increases its bullet spray ratio to VERY dangerous levels. Like, one shot takes out nigh everything in front of you as opposed to a fifteen-degree radius.]

 

If Nathan hadn’t changed his clothes, he would have at least had a pocketknife on him, if not more.

He looked at his surroundings to find himself in a not-very-wide hallway, the lone target to four firearms.

 

He turned around,

“Dad! Get out of here!”

 

Just after he had finished calling this out, A loud gunblast sounded and a searing pain rippled through his body as one bullet hit him in the right shoulder- Another, penetrating the back of his knee.

Letting out a cry of defeat, he collapsed to the ground.

 

Cringing in pain, he pushed himself up with his left arm, and watched the men who could put any bouncer to shame careen down the hallway, and turn to the side in pursuit of Samuel.

 

Nathan opened his mouth to let out a call of warning to everyone else, but the moment he vocalized, he coughed up rather large quantities of blood.

Looking away in disgust, he looked back up to see his dad come running back down the hall to him.

 

“Nathan! Are you alright?!”

 

“No. What are you doing here? What about mom?”

 

Nathan weakly responded.

 

“They don’t know their way around the house, they shouldn’t find them…”

 

Despite how true it was that they lived in a fairly big house, it wasn’t hard to find out that the bedrooms were upstairs. Especially with Kerrigan’s stereo playing like that.

 

“There you are!”

 

Samuel jumped, and turned around to see two of the intruders holding him at gunpoint.

He raised both of his hands above his head,

 

“Hold your fire. What do you want with us?”

 

A long pause.

 

“We need you… out of our way.”

 

An onslaught of bullets deafeningly made their way toward Samuel’s defenseless body, leaving him on the ground, motionless.

 

“Nooo!”

 

Nathan cried out, and once more struggled to get himself back on his feet. He got to a kneeling position before falling back down again- He couldn’t stand up…

 

Nathan laid there on the ground, helpless to hear the further gunshots and screams of his sisters.

 

…

Why is this happening?

 

---

 

One week later…

 

Nathan unwillingly walked out to their driveway, aside their large two-story house, containing his two sisters, the only family he had left. His blue pickup truck awaited him, as he started it up, and slowly drove off.

 

 

One week later…

 

Nathan unwillingly walked out to their driveway, aside their large two-story house, containing his two sisters, the only family he had left. His blue pickup truck awaited him, as he started it up, and slowly drove off.

 

He new his way around the city of Orgonth, and drove in a slower fashion than he normally would. He felt very overwhelmed by all this, his parents were just killed and their life work was pirated. Fortunately, He was the only one of the kids to get attacked, and his two sisters were unharmed.

 

He was instructed by the investigating police force to sign up for social security support, being old enough to keep the house his parents once owned, and taking responsibility for his two sisters, but in no position to take the finances all at once.

 

Nathan drove his truck into the parking lot of the small office building, stopped the car, and sighed. He just sat there, for maybe ten solid minutes before getting out to go inside.

 

He pulled out the papers given to him by the police for financial support, and briefly looked them over. It was too much for him to really care about what they said.

 

He walked inside, to find a majority of the building being used by old retired couples. Nathan sighed again, as the traditional ‘old people’ smell came to him. He sat down and waited for those from the desk to call on him. Next to him was, apparently, the only other person there under 70 years of age.

 

“… Hey.”

 

Nathan responded with a slight wave, not making eye contact.

 

“… How are you?”

 

“I’ve certainly been better.”

 

“Hmm, doesn’t sound good. Might I ask what you’re here for?”

 

“You may have heard of this incident in the news by now, but I’m Nathan Torrn, firstborn of the two scientists who were killed last week. The local police guys told me to come over here, so here I am.”

 

“Wow. I had heard about that, actually… Sorry about that.”

 

Nathan nodded.

 

“Alex White.”

 

The stranger stuck his hand out to shake.

 

“Nathan. Good meeting you.”

 

Nathan shook his hand.

 

“So what are you here for, Alex?”

 

He sighed as well.

 

“I’m a small-time athlete, and don’t make a lot of money. My wife got a wicked combination of medical issues, it’ll cost me my soul to pay off those medical bills, I cant take care of it myself… so here I am.”

 

Nathan thought to himself how his condition was notably worse than Alex’s, but decided against saying that, despite how bitter he was about it.

An awkward silence followed Alex’ explanation. It was evident that Nathan didn’t know what to say.

 

“… well… I realize you have it a bit worse than I, and… probably worse than a lot of other people here…”

 

Alex commented, looking around at the multitude of older folks, some of which looked too old to continue breathing.

 

“and with that in mind, I feel obligated to do something for you. Is… there anything I can do to help you out?”

 

Nathan looked over at Alex.

 

“… yeah. Could you follow me back to my place after this?”

 

Alex nodded. Nathan saw this as an opportunity to have someone to… well, make a friend, which would be really good in a time like this.

 

---

 

After the two had finished their respective tasks at the social security offices, they met back out in the parking lot. Nathan looked around,

 

“Which car is yours?”

 

“I walked.”

 

“… Nice. Well, this here’s mine…”

 

Nathan set his hand on the back of his truck.

 

“It’s a ridiculous car, The only known issue I’ve had with it is that it needs gasoline to run. Its like, incapable of breaking.”

 

Nathan smirked, thinking back on various memories.

 

“well, Let me give you a ride. Come on.”

 

Nathan motioned to the passengers’ side of the car, and Alex got in. Nathan started it up, and they drove out onto the streets.

 

“Well, now I can get paid to do nothing. My two sisters and I are all getting checks every month for like 36 months.”

 

“Sisters, now?”

 

“Don’t think about that. … oh wait, you’re married. Yes, I have two sisters.”

 

“Protective, much?”

 

“well, that’s… my responsibility, more so now than ever before.”

 

“I see.”

 

They continued down the roads, rather silent. They both had rather pressing matters on their minds.

 

“so… dare I ask what it is you… wanted me to do?”

 

“Oh, I forgot about that. … alright, I wont lie to you, I… just… need someone to talk to every once in a while. Im sure my sisters could use such support as well. Assuredly, we’d help you and your wife out as much as we can to return the favor…”

 

“Ah, say no more. I can do that. I, too, could use a friend as you do.”

 

“Wonderful.”

 

The Torrn residence came into view, Nathan sighed.

 

“Here it is…”

 

“Wow, nice place…”

 

“yeah… Although, I couldn’t have accomplished a life quite like my parents did, I wouldn’t have made a living like this if I tried…”

 

[tbc omg.]

[Arkcher]

[and now some more of it. =D]

 

Three years later…

 

“Heather, when did Kerrigan leave?”

 

Nathan asked of his youngest sister, having not seen the elder of the two for a long time.

 

“I don’t know, but its been a lot longer than the length of any movie, which she allegedly went to go to with a few friends.”

 

Nathan sighed again with frustration,

 

“I just love it how she goes everywhere without my knowing or approval. Do you know who she’s with?”

 

Heather shook her head, not breaking eye contact with a Calculus textbook she was studying intently, which seemed odd for an eleven-year-old to do.

 

Nathan pulled out his cell phone and called Kerrigan, and cursed when but she didn’t pick up.

 

“Stop cursing. Her phone is up in her room.”

 

Nathan looked down at Heather. He was about to ask how she knows all this, but decided against it, she always had a nonsensical explanation, somehow involving their parents’ works. Nathan decided against being reminded of such things.

 

“Alright. Keep the doors locked, I have my cell, give me a call if anything goes wrong. I’m going out to look for her.”

 

“Good luck with that, Nathan.”

 

“…’Something else I should know?”

 

“Im not sure if it has any relevance to this, but she did mention she wanted a few hours alone, and she was sick of you watching her so obsessively, and she doesn’t like you controlling her life.”

 

“… alright. I’ve got my cell, keep out of trouble. Don’t burn the house down.”

 

“I’ll try.”

 

---

 

Kerrigan slowly stepped along the sidewalk, staying in the illuminated light beams as long as possible. She looked around, rather concerned about how she had wandered into unfamiliar parts of town. She reached in her pocket, expecting to feel her cell phone, but found nothing.

 

“great…”

 

She stopped, looked around, and focused on where she came from. Maybe if she turned back and went back where she came, she’d get back into… civilization instead of this poorly lit alleyway complex.

 

She followed this idea and turned around, striding back to where she came in. this way looked even less familiar, which is odd seeing how she was here not two minutes ago. She began breathing harder and faster, really… quite scared now. She had no means of contacting Nathan, who had always been there to protect her before.

 

“He doesn’t know where I am…. I don’t have my cell… I have no idea where I am…”

 

She quietly spoke to herself, stopped to look around once more, bewildered. Determined, she walked in a random direction.

 

“Heh heh… looks like another one’s wandered in…”

 

A gruff voice sounded from behind Kerrigan. Surprised, she turned around, but saw no one. She continued walking, staring straight ahead, striding hurriedly. She heard more snide comments from what could only be a street gang.

In the darkness, Kerrigans eyes could only see so far. She found herself before a large brick wall, with graffiti all over, but small imprints of bloodstain here and there.

Not stopping, Kerrigan turned left and strode off.

 

“Wrong way.”

 

She found herself face to face with a rather tall thug, inches away from running into each other. Kerrigan let out a quiet shriek, turned around and ran the other direction.

 

“Too late now, you cant get out.”

 

Another voice from the shadows sounded in front of her. Again, she turned around and ran, tears forming in her eyes. She found herself surrounded, pressing herself against the brick wall, she looked at the approaching people, all grinning maliciously.

 

“Ah!”

 

Kerrigan grunted, taking a kick to the side, causing her to fall over.

 

“You yuppie retards should know better than to come down here…”

 

“Now you know why.”

 

Kerrigan was speechless, and defenseless. Another sharp pain in her side, she was kicked to the ground again.

 

“Lets get this over with.”

 

A rather short member of the group jumped over in front of Kerrigan.

 

“Hello…”

 

He greeted her tauntingly.

 

“I don’t approve of what you’re doing…”

 

Another voice sounded from behind the group, drawing their attention away from Kerrigan. A rather tall, muscular figure stood a short distance away, looking very displeased.

 

“Oh, great, we’ve got another uptown guy to fade out. Get him!”

 

Two stayed near Kerrigan, and the rest ran over toward Nathan Torrn, who promptly cracked his knuckles and strode forward to meet the gang in hand-to-hand combat.

 

Nathan ducked off to the side, rose back up and knocked the offending gangster down, stepped back to avoid a punch, and swung his foot up in the air to kick them in the head.

 

“No, you… Don’t take him on one at a time, all of you get him at once!”

 

The remaining gangsters spread out, and surrounded Nathan. He reached down in his pocket and pulled out a long sheath-knife.

 

“You want to take it like that, huh…?”

 

Nathan muttered under his breath, and brandished the knife in his hand, and watched his opponents shuffle around him closely. They saw he had a knife, but didn’t seem phased by this.

 

“Come on. Hit me with your best shot.”

 

Nathan called to them tauntingly. He continued watching them closely, and saw his opportunity to strike. He ducked down to narrowly miss a flying fist, thrusted his knife upward and made a deep cut, and kicked his leg out to his left, tripping another gangster.

He then stood up and rammed his elbow into another oncoming opponent, forcing them back a few feet.

 

He tossed his knife up in the air and grabbed it in the other hand; He didn’t want to make any attacks that would seriously injure, let alone kill any of these people. He turned around to face one more gangster, and effectively feinted with his knife, put two punches in, and jumped up to kick them down.

 

Nathan looked at the two remaining members standing around Kerrigan. He threateningly pointed his knife at them,

 

“Are you going to give her to me peaceably, or will I have to take you two down as well?”

 

One of the two smirked, presumably the leader of this group. He pulled out a handgun from behind his back, and pointed it at Nathan, ready to fire.

 

“… oh, god.”

 

Nathan’s eyes widened, but he kept a firm grip on his blade. He couldn’t afford to let himself or Kerrigan come to any harm. He knew all too well how bad bullet wounds hurt, and despite how he could quickly recover, he didn’t want to go through it again.

 

The three stood motionless for a moment, until Nathan threw himself to the ground off to the side; A gunshot sounded, the bullet hitting the ground near Nathan, who threw his knife at this gunner, who reflexively dropped his firearm and tried to sidestep, but didn’t move fast enough; the knife pierced the palm of his hand, pinning it to the wall behind him.

Nathan sprinted over to them, knocked the bystander aside, and punched the gunner in the head, probably harder than necessary, knocking him out. Rather than collapsing to the ground, he was dangling by the knife stabbed through his hand. Nathan kicked the last gangster, making his point to stay down.

 

“Are you alright, Kerri?”

 

Nathan reached his hand down to help his sister up. She took it, and weakly got to her feet.

 

“Yeah… I am, now…”

 

“Theres a reason why Im trying to keep you protected. I don’t want you to do anything like this again.”

 

“I’m sorry, Nathan, I…”

 

Nathan walked his sister out of the alleyways, and back toward safer parts of the town.

 

“I didn’t mean for this to happen, I just… wanted some time alone.”

 

“This isn’t the place to go for that kind of thing. Tell me if you’re going to leave the house.”

 

Nathan spoke quite firmly, and Kerrigan thought to herself about how This is exactly why she doesn’t much care for how Nathan handled things.

 

[And yeah, back up there in the beginning, Three Years Later would imply that this is like, 2008 or so.]

[Arkcher]

[so I just wrote some more.

and cant figure out whats gonna happen next, so an update might not come for a while. ... or... I dont know when another one will come, rather.]

 

[like. dont know how to get from here to what I plan to happen next.]

 

[yeah.]

 

The already high tension in the air seemed to get even more awkward back in their house. Kerrigan avoided Nathan as much as she could, hoping that after a week or two he might forget about that incident a few nights ago.

 

He sighed, turned her stereo back on and sat on her bed again. She spent endless hours in that position, She studied… really hard to do well in school, and what bothered her the most about this was that her sister, Heather, hardly had to put any effort in to it. Straight A’s, she could finish homework at blinding speeds, leaving Kerrigan to try and figure it out herself.

Just an issue with self esteem, in regard to asking ones little sister who is six years younger than you for help, seemed horribly wrong. If ever she just couldn’t do something in her studies, She used to turn to her father, but… He couldn’t help anymore.

 

She shook her head, clearing her mind, and tried focusing on her work. She was just on the verge of being a grade behind, and with her popularity level, she couldn’t afford to let that happen.

 

She glanced up out her window to see the postal truck turn the corner, toward their house.

 

“Heather! Mail’s here.”

 

She half-heartedly called out. They were due for a social security check, which she and her sister always looked forward to getting.

 

One step ahead of her sister, Heather was already hurrying down the hallway.

 

A few moments later, she came back inside, looking disappointed and confused.

 

“Whats this?”

 

Nathan asked, inquiring of the package that Heather brought in.

 

“I don’t know. Its for you, but… I don’t think you ordered anything, did you?”

 

“… well, no. Did we get some checks?”

 

“Doesn’t look like it, no. … wait… Whoa, look at this!”

 

She handed the package to Nathan, and pointed out the return address.

 

Samuel Torrn

 

Nathan read it, and his eyes widened.

 

“… what… How could that happen? He…”

 

Nathan held the box in his hands, and looked off to his right, down the hallway where his father was gunned down right next to him. Before the memory became too vivid, he looked back at the package. He moved it from side to side, it was about three pounds, with a pretty uneven weight.

 

Without even looking at the rest of the mail, Heather set it down on a table nearby and watched intently as Nathan opened the box.

 

Frustrated with the packaging, he got out his knife and cut the several layers of tape, reminded about how Amanda, his mother, had always repackaged anything that Samuel sent out. He would always put too much tape and sealant on things like this.

 

Once the box was open, he looked inside and removed some wadded up paper for padding, and it revealed… a handgun.

 

Nathan carefully removed it, and looked it over carefully. It was surprisingly heavy, a dark silver color, and had an off blue tube running along left side of the barrel.

 

“What the… Why did we get a gun?”

 

Heather asked.

 

“How could it be from Dad?”

 

Nathan responded, and set the firearm down and continued looking through the box. He came across a sheet of paper, carelessly folded.

 

When opened, it looked like any casual letter, just at a glance, written in blue pen ink. That was definitely his dads handwriting…

 

You have no idea how hard it has been to get this sent to you.

 

Yes. I am alive. But not well. Those who allegedly killed me were agents hired by an underground company known as Harret. They are after your mothers’ and my work, trying to claim it as their own, and take it to ‘new levels’.

 

Our work has been captured, and they’re trying to disassemble what we’ve done, and they want to recreate it. Ours are not the only projects they’ve taken. This is a biomutagenic laboratory being used to develop serums and chemicals not unlike ours, but for very different purposes. The tight security here has agents with augmented strength, perception, intelligence and ability, due to what has been created at this very lab.

 

This is why it’s a miracle I could get this sent to you. I’ve smuggled in this specialized handgun as well, an uncommon firearm used by security here.

 

Dearest family. I beg of you, you must get me out of here. You need weapons to defend yourselves with, coming in will not be easy. If they discover that you are the only living humans to have our given power, they will do everything in their power to keep you here as they are doing to me. If they can manipulate genes of human DNA… Needless to say, it will change the world, but with these people, it wont be a change for the better.

 

Your father,

Samuel J. Torrn

 

Included were latitudes, longitudes, and locational coordinates for Harret’s headquarters.

 

“Oh… my… god.”

 

Nathan put the paper down, awestruck. His eyes turned to the handgun laying on the table next to the box. He carefully picked it up, and looked it over. It was notably bulky, and had a small blue tube running along the barrel on the left side.

 

“Whats all this, Nathan?”

 

Heather asked, as she walked over. She picked up the papers and looked through them, and carefully read through the letter.

 

“… He’s still alive.”

 

Nathan explained.

 

“How do we know its him?”

 

“No one else has handwriting like that. It has to be him. He didn’t have a proper burial in the funeral, remember? Everyone was pretty evasive about talking about him, I assumed it was just for the sake of not bringing that up around us, but… I guess this Harret place really didn’t want us to know about Dad.”

 

The two continued looking over the papers.

 

What makes this gun different from others is that as opposed to the semi/auto switch found on most handguns, it is always in semi-automatic, and the switch is Traditional/Inimical. This can make the word ‘bulletproof’ have no meaning. It will penetrate just about anything, and uses standard 9MM ammunition.

 

Inimical mode requires something additional; there are custom gunpowder cartridges loaded in the side, in through the small blue tube on the side.

Nathan, You will want to develop some marksmanship with this firearm before coming.

 

A smaller paper expanded on the gun.

 

“… Heather, look up these locational coordinates. It turns out we aren’t orphaned after all.”

 

Nathan looked over the gun once more, and holstered it in his belt. It was surprisingly heavy, but such would be expected for this alleged ‘Inimical’ setting.

[Arkcher]

[here go.]

 

“Wow… so This means your dad is still alive?”

 

“He must be.”

 

Alex looked over the letters sent from Samuel, looking for any sign of counterfeit.

 

“Wow. I wonder what the government social security guys are going to do when he gets back…”

 

“… Nice way to ruin the moment.”

 

Nathan looked over at Alex with a smirk,

 

“Anyway, This really does sound pretty serious. I cant run any risk of my sisters coming along, something might happen to them. But I cant run the risk of going alone, either.”

 

Nathan looked at Alex rather intently, who uncomfortably shifted positions as he sat on a couch across from Nathan.

 

“Well…”

 

“For one, you’ve always been there for us in the past, and we really need your help now. But its more than just that, If we can get my dad back here, I'm willing to bet that he’ll be able to take care of your wife, Elizabeth.”

 

Alex stopped, and thought for a moment.

 

“… Yeah, I’ve… seen how Heather seems impervious to any conditions like that…”

 

“I need someone to go with me, and you’re an athletic runner… guy. Sprinter. Sure, whatever kind of job you have, you’ll be able to outrun-“

 

“Bullets?”

 

[i just hate how when I have story characters try to argue with each other, I take both sides and they never get anywhere. ._.]

 

Alex interrupted Nathan and raised a brow. Nathan sighed. Alex smiled,

 

“Don’t worry. I can either continue living on the verge of poverty trying to keep Elizabeth alive, or take care of it by helping you now.”

 

Nathan smiled,

 

“Thanks, Alex. This really does mean a lot to me.”

 

---

 

Nathan and Alex waved their hands in front of them, coughing, in hoped of clearing up any amount of the very thick cigarette smoke that made it hard to see in this local shooting range.

 

Nathan looked around, and saw what must be a reception desk, and approached it. Alex, certainly not used to such environments, just followed Nathan’s red clothing, as it was almost all that he could see.

 

“wow, You’d think this was… a Bingo hall or something…”

 

A rather gruff, unshaved bald man with a stained wifebeater pulled a cigarette out of his mouth and looked at the approaching young men. This was certainly something that he didn’t see very often.

 

“An’ whutt’re you bo-ehs doin’ in a place lak this?”

 

Nathan coughed,

 

“I need some target practice.”

 

“City folks don’t do that kind of thing.”

 

“It’s a long story. Can you set me up for a pistol course?”

 

The large, overweight man shifted in his seat, and checked for any open ranges for handgun practice.

 

“Yeh, I ‘kin do that. Twenny-five bucks will get’cheh a purtty good course and a good sixty bullets.”

 

“Done.”

 

Nathan picked up the small cardboard box with several bullets in it, and looked in the direction that he was pointed to. All he could see was a blinking neon light advertising for some kind of beer, and thick smoke.

 

“Jus’ go that way, ther’ some signs to get’cha in the right place.”

 

Nathan pulled $25 out of his wallet and handed it over, and set off in the general direction where he was told, holding his breath.

 

Finding a door with a sign ‘Hangun’ next to it, he decided this must be the right place.

 

Upon further searching, Nathan located a shooting range that matched the description given to him. It had five targets that would prop up and collapse, side-by-side in a thirty-feet width. Surprised to see a blatant lack of security, staff or any other… sentient life, Nathan pulled out his gun and looked it over again.

 

Alex stopped to look at a nearby table of people, who looked like they were brothers of the man at the front… desk, if that’s what you’d want to call it.

 

“Here’s Bubba version Two, Three and Four…”

 

Alex called out, noticing that they all looked like they had passed out from alcohol overdose.

 

“Alex, shut up. They might hear you.”

 

Alex grinned and began prodding one playfully.

 

“Oh?”

 

The unconscious man didn’t respond in the least. Alex stopped upon feeling Nathan’s hand grab the collar of his shirt and pull him backwards.

 

“… Do you know anything about guns? ‘cause I don’t…”

 

Nathan asked Alex, inspecting the gun again.

 

“um. This here is a trigger…? And that hole there is where bullets come out!”

 

Nathan looked up at Alex rather sternly.

 

“What? I don’t know jack about this kind of thing!”

 

“You could have just said…”

 

Nathan trailed off mid-sentence, and held the gun out at arms length, and looked down the barrel, to notice that the various protrusions on the barrel, if looked at from the right angle, looked not unlike the scope on a rifle. He aimed at one of the human-shaped targets, and pulled the trigger. It wouldn’t move.

 

“What the…”

 

Nathan lowered the weapon, and looked at it, careful of where the barrel was pointing.

 

“Consider turning the Safety off.”

 

Alex pointed at a switch located just between the trigger and barrel. Nathan flipped it, and resumed.

 

A loud gunblast echoed through the room, and Nathan recoiled and almost dropped the gun from the loud noise.

 

“Smooth move.”

 

“… Lets try that one again.”

 

Nathan remembered that Samuel said it was semi-automatic, as such it didn’t need to be manually reloaded. He raised the gun to eyelevel again, and aimed at the heart of the target in the middle, tensed all muscles in his body, and fired.

It still had some strong kickback, but this time, he was ready for it.

 

Alex squinted and looked down where Nathan had shot, trying to find where he had hit.

 

“um. I guess you hit it?”

 

After several more rounds, Nathan wondered how much ammo he had left.

 

“Alex, how do I check how many more bullets I have?”

 

“Take out the clip.”

 

Nathan glanced up at Alex, confused.

 

“The magazine?”

 

“and how do I do that?”

 

Alex looked at the gun as well, and pointed out a small button on the upper part of the handle.

 

Nathan pushed it, and a clip slid out the end of the butt of the gun.

 

“… Whoa! .. whats this?”

 

Nathan stepped back, as if the clip, containing the bullets, was hostile. Alex laughed quietly,

 

“This is where the bullets come from. You get to reload it periodically.”

 

Nathan picked up the clip and looked at it carefully. There were bullets visible in a small slit in the front of the clip, along with corresponding markings on the side to tell how many bullets there were inside.

 

“Looks like you got eight left.”

 

Alex commented, looked over Nathan’s shoulder, and the clip was reinserted to the firearm.

 

Nathan then flipped the Inimical switch, and some internal mechanism worked and sounded like something in addition to the bullets were loaded. Nathan put his index finger on the trigger, and pulled it.

A deafening gunblast echoed through the room, more than likely sounding through the rest of the building. Startled, Nathan shouted some obscenity and fell backward, the gun landing a few feet behind him.

 

“Whoa! … Are you alright, Nathan?”

 

Alex stepped over to Nathan, and helped him get back on his feet. Nathan brushed himself off, and picked up the gun. The two of them looked down where Nathan had fired, to see that one of the five targets had a huge gaping hole in the center.

 

“… Uuuum… I think we’ve had enough practice for one day…”

 

“Yeah, me too, uh, Lets just… Hey, I have some. … food. At home.”

 

“Food! I love food.”

 

The two hurriedly strode out of the building, coughing and nervously looking around as they exited, and waved to Bubba number One at the front, who seemed oblivious to all that was happening around him.

 

[yeah. I've never seen a shooting range before, but thats roughly what I imagine them to be like.]

[i love food! =D]

[Arkcher]

[Paz' comment makes me happy. =D]

 

[... and made me write some more.

Moral of this story being that if you write comments all the time, I write more.]

 

“Sacréde, Seth, Reporting, sir.”

 

The fairly nervous Seth stood in the executive office, which wasn’t good for his reputation of just getting a job here.

 

“Sacréde, You aren’t quite getting all the aspects of your job done.”

 

His manager, who ever-proudly appeared in his military uniform, informed his subordinate with his back turned.

 

Seth carefully reviewed the past few days’ events, but couldn’t see where he was slacking.

 

“… And what might the missing aspects be, sir?”

 

“You’re head of Harret security. Would you care to tell me why nothing has been done about the information sent over our network?”

 

“… Isnt that the I.T. departments job?”

 

“Not in this case.”

 

‘Of course not..’

 

Seth thought to himself. He didn’t much care about the networking between the computers in the company.

 

“Seth, Over the past week or so, our location has been identified, and mapped over the internet. Head of security, You need to make sure this underground operation is kept underground.”

 

“Yes, sir. I’ll do what I can, Jared.”

 

“That’s not the answer I’m looking for.”

 

Seth rethought his decision in deciding to work for a secret organization.

 

“Consider it done, General.”

 

The shadowy figure nodded, dismissing his subordinate.

 

---

 

“Alright, Alex… What exit was it?”

 

Nathan glanced to his right at Alex, who was uncomfortably riding along with him.

 

“Something like 666B.”

 

“oh, You… got to be kidding me, There’s an exit 666?”

 

“Pff, I don’t know. That’s where it feels like we’re going.”

 

“What exit was it?!”

 

Nathan asked again, rapidly losing patience as he was known for doing. Alex scrambled for the directions that Heather had printed out. He quickly read the papers, growing motion sick from reading in a moving vehicle.

 

“… Exit 164. … See, I was close. I got the middle number right.”

 

“… 164.”

 

“Yeah, 164.”

 

“Dude, we’re coming up to like 176! Why didn’t you tell me earlier? We missed it like, long ago.”

 

Alex honestly just wanted to delay this as long as he could, but muttered something under his breath about Alzheimer’s disease and how he was too old to be doing this.

 

Nathan glanced over at the 23-year-old Alex, and was about to remind him just how not-old he was, but decided it a rather stupid argument and just took the nearest exit to turn around.

 

“oh, I’m… really… not feeling too good.”

 

Annoyed, Nathan looked over at Alex.

 

“Oh, shut up. Do you want to save Elizabeth or not?”

 

Alex remained silent for quite some time as Nathan hunted down the correct exit from the interstate. Once it came into view, he got the directions himself to locate where he was going. There certainly weren’t any signs as to where Harret might be, and… this was pretty far out in the country.

 

“Are you sure we’re not lost?”

 

“Hard to say. You’d think a bioengineering lab wouldn’t be in such a secluded place.”

 

A good ten minutes later, they found some light beams visible above the horizon.

 

“A good chance That’s it.”

 

Nathan sat up straight and picked up speed, heading toward the lights. Over one hill, he found himself faced with a single chain-link barbed-wire fence blocking the road.

 

“Tight security around here, huh?”

 

There were several lights beyond the fence, and some minor activity outside the massive central structure. Nathan stopped his truck, left the engine running and walked over to the fence. There was a gate in it, that looked like it was activated by the nearby security panel.

 

He approached the security panel, and looked it over. There was a retinal scanner and security code entry. Nathan shook his head,

 

“If there was anything I learned from Heather, it was that security like this can be overridden without much effort at all.”

 

He mumbled to himself. He then heard a slight movement behind him, and promptly pulled his Inimical gun out and looked behind him. He scanned the area, and found nothing. Lowering the gun, he stepped toward his car, and looked around again. The only sound was that of the humming fluorescent lighting and the V8 engine running. Alex watched him, confused.

 

Nathan glanced at Alex, and decided he must look stupid doing this, and walked back toward the security panel. Switching his firearm to Inimical mode, he pointed it at the security panel, and pulled the trigger.

 

Sparks flew everywhere, and loud zapping noises sounded as the internal circuitry shorted. After the electronics died, he approached the engine to operate the gate, kicked it rather hard with his fortunately steel-toed boots and eventually knocked most of it off.

 

Alex nervously watched for activity other than Nathan, expecting a short in the security to at least trigger some kind of alarm. He watched as Nathan made use of his abnormal physical strength and pulled the fence-gate off to the side, making a path easily wide enough to drive through.

 

“That’s what I like about you, Nathan… You always know how to make an entrance…”

 

Alex commented, smirking as Nathan got back in the truck to proceed.

 

---

 

“I guess they’re alright…”

 

Kerrigan whispered to her sister, as they continued pressing themselves to the bed of Nathan’s truck. As it started moving again, they hushed each other and proceeded to feel every uneven bump in the road as their bodies were shaken about.

 

Heather tried to shake the feeling that it was a bad idea to come, but couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see at least one of her parents again, despite their disobedience to Nathan, who made himself quite clear that he didn’t want any harm to come to them, and that they were to stay at the house, and Nathan would bring back their father safely.

 

His sisters couldn’t wait that long.

 

[such rebellion. Heathens.]

[Arkcher]

[so To keep you guys' interest, Im still writing out the next part, I shouldnt say Chapter as there arent necessarily chapters in this one. but In the mean time, I'm gonna write out a little description of each of the characters, in hopes that Im conveying the right message and we're like, both imagining the same thing.]

 

Nathan Torrn:

Rather tall, being some odd 6'6 at 23 years old. As mentioned before, was engineered with the attribute of physical strength, stamina and adrenaline. Proudly wears the Inimical gun holstered on his belt, at his back. Its covered by a red jacket that he wears, which also covers a long (maybe 10") sheathed knife. He more often than not is wearing headphones, mostly for show, these headphones go around the back of his head as to not effect his spiked brown hair. but Being somewhat a music fanatic, he has these headphones wirelessly connected to his MP3 player, this network being courtesy of Heather's programming. He keeps his cell phone with him nigh always, in addition to a very small pocketknife. He wears rather baggy, worn denim jeans, a charcoal t-shirt, and two necklaces given to him by friends in the past. Has size 15 Steeltoed boots, which he considers a weapon in themselves.

 

Alex White:

Not quite as tall or muscular as Nathan, but is a small-time athlete who enjoys running. He has somewhat long off-blonde hair, a black shirt and cargo khaki's. Being able to run pretty fast can get him out of some situations, but where that fails he can make up for in marksmanship. About 26 years old, contrary to what was said a short while ago, Was happily married until his wife, Elizabeth White, had come down with a series of diseases all at once, who is now in the Orgonth Hospital, barely alive, dependant on Alex' constant payments to the medics, who doesnt nearly have enough money to keep her alive, let alone cure her.

 

Amanda Torrn:

Insists on wearing black clothing wherever possible, as she has the stubborn mentality that its the only color that suits her, despite her husbands assuring that she looks wonderful in any color. She has rather long brown hair, and is more often than not found vigorously studying bioengineering and chemistry, which seems to be the only thing to truly capture her interest, making her the perfect match for Samuel.

 

Samuel Torrn:

Has odd tastes in clothing, and oft wears a hunter green t-shirt, suit jacket, and denim jeans. Once envisioned himself proposing a change to the human race with his engineered augmentations, as proven phenomenally successful in Nathan, Kerrigan and Heather. If given to more scientists, they may find ways to improve it, or even combine those attributes. Samuel wore small glasses, which matched his jet-black hair. Meeting Amanda in his senior year in high school, They decided their similarities too strong to ignore, and took their college classes together and were almost inseparable after they both ran a project together, which they completed together and saw in their children.

 

Kerrigan Torrn:

18 years old, She has long, light brown hair with blond highlights in the front. Engineered with an attribute that eliminated any flaws in her outward appearance, and was simply stunning to look at, often to her annoyance. She wore blue and grey clothing, and two white wristbands that once belonged to Amanda, as such, Kerrigan holds them in very high regard. She would often use her appearance to her advantage in getting almost anything she wanted from any classmates at school, much to her family's amusement. Where she exceeds in outward appearance, she knowingly lacks in academic skill.

 

Heather Torrn:

Thirteen years old, she makes up for Kerrigan's... lack of wit. As opposed to her sister, Heather has internal perfection, and rarely to never gets sick, thanks to an inhumanly strong immune system. She could memorize things quite fast, and learned things much faster than anyone would think possible, and is capable of performing most Algebra without much effort. She usually wore light colored clothes, which usually involved the color Red in one way or another. Significantly lacking in external complexion, almost a complete opposite of Kerrigan.

 

Seth Sacréde:

Amanda's older brother, at a good 36 years old. Was pretty well established, made a very high salary and was considered the best person to try to mooch money off of, seeing how he had a lot of it and was easy to persuade. He had off-silver colored hair, and used to be a bodybuilder in his youth, and still has some of that left in him. Seth had recently lost his job in the oil industry, due to a routine mass layoff. He found himself qualified for a much-needed position in a place called Harret...

 

Jared Mills:

A very proud war veteran, now at about age 50. In his youth, he had the same hopes and dreams as one of his college students, Samuel Torrn, and had the same general idea, but lacked the funding and was ultimately turned down, as nobody would invest in his projects. Some ten years ago, had quit his job of being a biology college professor and tried using his skill in real life as opposed to teaching it to 19-year-olds who wouldnt even pay attention to him, and through yet unknown methods, started Harret, which would later grow in to a company known as Dalhood. (oh em gee!) Jared was a war general, and still uses his military attitude toward his subordinates in both university and Harret. Bent on seeing something come out of his childhood dream, he hopes to perfect the bioengineering projects he had once envisioned, and use them to build a small army of supersoldiers to either aid or take over the US Military. While his motives were never very clear, he is bent on using his Military experience and bioengineering skill to the most of his ability, Even if it means taking some lives out to get there. For reasons yet undisclosed, He prefers to be adressed by his first name.

(Five bucks to the first person to figure out why. and You can figure it out from this description, if you're sharp enough.)

 

Bubba #1:

Runs a shooting range. Has a beer gut. Aloof, he doesnt really care about the outside world and continues drinking and shooting his days away.

 

[bubba #1 isnt very important though. I just felt like throwing that in there.]

[i had hoped to put some of these descriptions in to the story, in with the respective character introductions, but didnt get the chance to. so Here they are. Now, im gonna go continue writing the f'real story.]

[Arkcher]

[And then see next update here.]

 

Nathan leaned over and turned off his headlights. He didn’t want to bring any further attention to himself, He had already bypassed the outer security, so this place wouldn’t handle his presence very peaceably.

 

Following the poorly paved road toward what looked to be a parking garage, Nathan slowed down.

 

“Do you think they’d notice if I stopped over there?”

 

“I wouldn’t risk it.”

 

Nathan thought for a short moment, and decided to go offroad, around the small parking area and stay behind the structure, out of sight.

 

“What now, then? We’re gonna go up to the front and say, ‘Hey, We came to take one of your prisoners here and claim back the bioengineering work that you stole from us a few years ago…’”

 

“well, no.”

 

The two got out of the cab of the truck, and walked around the parking garage to look at what must be Harret’s base of operation.

 

“There’s some wide air vents just over there.”

 

A quiet female voice sounded from behind them. Nathan’s heart skipped a beat, and he turned around to see Heather pointing off to the side of the building.

 

“… What are you doing here?!”

 

“What, you thought I was going to pass up an opportunity to see Dad again?”

 

“I told you to stay home, and that I’d make sure he comes back to you.”

 

“yeah. You say a lot of things like that. That’s why we’re here.”

 

“… ‘we’?”

 

Heather turned around and looked at Kerrigan, who was making use of the dark scenery, trying to keep herself hidden.

 

“oh, for…”

 

“Nathan, we’re doing this together. Strength in numbers. We can do this if we stop arguing about it and just go!”

 

Kerrigan spoke up.

 

“Strength in numbers. and Only one of us has a weapon, and we’re going in to a base of operations of an underground organization who wont make themselves known to the government?!”

 

“I can actually help, though.”

 

Heather stepped up,

 

"Look, just there. Those vents are easily big enough to get through."

 

Heather pointed out the vents again. Nathan looked very displeased.

 

"Heather, This is for your own well-being. Stay out here, in the car."

 

"You heard the man, Heather."

 

Kerrigan commented, smirking.

 

“Kerrigan, You stay out here, too.”

 

Both of them walked toward the truck, looking rather put off. Nathan stepped closer to them,

 

“Seriously, I cant risk you guys getting hurt in here. Theres a reason why I wanted you to stay at home, but… I cant stress enough how much I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

 

“And you think we want anything to happen to you? Or Dad?”

 

Nathan pulled his gun out in plain view,

 

“I should be fine. Stay out of sight.”

 

With that, Nathan turned around and motioned for Alex to follow.

 

“… That was unexpected. They usually don’t act that rebellious.”

 

Alex commented.

 

“I know. They really aren’t taking this seriously enough.”

 

Nathan replied, and not another word was spoke until they approached the large building. It was certainly big, but not high. Nathan couldn’t help but wonder what went on inside, other than research. … if anything.

 

Nathan noted that this was certainly a vent, but for air intake or exhaust? It must have been 5x5, it must have quite a lot of rooms to circulate through.

 

Not hesitating to do any damage, Nathan pulled out his knife and pried at the edges of the vent lid. After making a small opening, he pulled the rest of it off by hand, and stepped inside.

 

“Breaking and Entering… We are so dead if we get caught doing this.”

 

Alex thought aloud as he jumped inside as well, following close behind Nathan.

 

---

 

“How stupid are they? They just left the vent lid on the ground!”

 

Kerrigan watched uncomfortably as Nathan and Alex slowly faded out of sight in the darkness. As she looked at their surroundings, she saw a short figure hurrying toward the open vent…

 

“… Heather!”

 

Kerrigan got out of the truck and chased after her sister who was hot on Nathan’s trail.

 

“Heather, You know very well that we could die if we go in there!”

 

Kerrigan whispered loudly, as to not draw attention to herself, but warn Heather, who kept striding along. Kerrigan didn’t have much of a choice, she could either leave her sister going in alone, without any protection, or stay with her.

 

Choosing the latter, they both quietly stepped inside the air vent, careful of how they stepped as to not make any noise in the aluminum plating.

 

[so In short, they went inside. =D]

[Arkcher]

[Things happening! whoo.]

 

Heather and Kerrigan slowly made their way through the duct, careful not to make any noise. The eerie silence was broken by a gradually increasing hum sound, emanating from the inner part of the building. Heather looked over at Kerrigan, knowing what it was.

 

“Get down!!”

 

Heather shouted, and threw herself to the ground, and Kerrigan hesitantly did the same, as an incredible strong gust of wind blew over them, carrying various contaminants and gases as very high speeds, some 60 MPH.

After about twenty seconds, it slowed and dispersed, leaving a faint odor.

 

“Wow, I hope Nathan and Alex are alright…”

 

They took one step forward, before they heard a loud metal banging sound, coming from a distance ahead of them, with an accompanying light to slightly illuminate the duct.

 

“What the..”

 

Kerrigan thought aloud and quietly increased her pace.

 

---

 

Startled, Nathan was hanging out of the duct by his strong arms, due to poor footing he had fallen through the duct that was probably not designed to handle some 250 pounds.

 

Nathan looked around in the room he was dangling in to, careful to keep his grip on the vent above him. There was one researcher in the room, who was looking up at him, confused.

 

“Alex! Get down here!”

 

Nathan looked up and called to Alex, and dropped about five feet to the ground, landing roughly.

 

“What are… who are you?”

 

The researcher was certainly taken by surprise, and quickly put away his work and nervously watched the two newcomers, as one of them pulled out a large handgun.

 

“Cooperate, and we’ll let you live.”

 

The larger of the two threatened, and the researcher complied, putting his hands in the air.

 

“All we need here is to talk to a man here named Samuel. Do you know where he is?”

 

“That’s classified information, I…”

 

Nathan shook his gun, switched it to Inimical mode and then back, for the sake of the mechanical noise it made.

 

The researcher nervously glanced up at one of the walls of the room. Nathan did likewise, to see a recording security camera.

 

Cursing to himself, He pulled out his knife immediately and ran over to the wall, jumped up and took the camera out with a single swipe, not unlike the motion of a machete.

 

The researcher started to run, heading for one of the doors, but the agile Alex caught up with him.

 

“You’re going to tell us where he is, or there… will be complications.”

 

Nathan further expressed his point, now with a large knife and ready handgun.

 

“Even if I told you, he’s heavily guarded. You wont get him out.”

 

A flashing red light illuminated the room, followed by a small siren and intercom announcement that there was a security breach.

 

“Thank you, for not helping us at all. You know, if you cooperated, we wouldn’t have to do this…”

 

Nathan explained, frustrated. He promptly put his knife through the researchers torso, slashed up upward and kicked him to the ground.

 

“Come on, Alex.”

 

Nathan sheathed the bloody knife and strode toward the door that the researcher was originally running to, ignoring the sirens.

 

In the next room, similar lights flashing and sirens sounding. Two or three researchers were found just exiting the room, both going opposite directions.

 

“Well great, now where do we go?”

 

Alex asked, bewildered.

 

Nathan ran over to the nearest table and searched through some of the papers. All they read were biological information, DNA descriptions and the like; something his dad would understand, but not Nathan.

 

Alex did likewise, and dug through some papers. Something caught his eye, however. He scanned through a sheet describing a beta project, marked quite visibly with an approval stamp. It looked to be a proposition to splice human with any other creature, emphasizing the creature ‘Carnefice’.

 

Intrigued, but short on time, Alex wadded up the paper and stuffed it in one of his pockets, and dug through the papers again, but to no avail in regards to Samuel’s location.

 

“Alex, these are just research papers. Samuel will have to be located through a computer or by ourselves. Lets go.”

 

Nathan announced and walked to the other end of the room, trying to decide which door to go through.

 

He opened the door to his right, and stepped through, to see another room with almost the same contents as last- Just a lot of desks, papers, test tubes, and a few Petri dishes on a shelf. Nathan ran through it with Alex following close behind, and he continued making his way further in to Harret, knowing that it wouldn’t be long before security caught up with them.

 

---

 

Heather stepped toward a large, gaping hole in the floor of the duct.

 

“I guess…they went through here?”

 

She and Kerrigan ducked down and looked in to the room. Red lights were flashing all around, a few desks knocked over and papers all over. They particularly noticed a rather bloody person lying on the ground, who didn’t look very lively. Blood had been splattered all over his white lab coat and about the walls, causing the observers to pull their heads back in, gasping.

 

“… Maybe we’ll keep going for now…”

 

They carefully stepped around the hole and walked on, having difficulty seeing in the darkness.

 

 

 

[Onoz! Potentially bad things!]

[Arkcher]

“Oh, Come ON!”

 

Nathan shouted in frustration, finding himself in a network of researching rooms, none of which having any real relevance to anything except work that Samuel had already accomplished.

 

He opened one more door, and stepped inside hurriedly. He stopped mid-step, to see what must be four security guards, looking all too similar to those who had broken in to his house so long ago. He froze in that position, neither reaching for his weapon or raising his hands.

 

“Peaceably submit yourself, and no one will get hurt.”

 

“Yeah, I’d believe that. The very same people who had pirated my parents’ work four years ago, are going to just let me go without any trouble.”

 

Nathan glanced behind him, to see Alex already raising his hands above his head. Nathan rolled his eyes, rapidly threw himself to the ground, avoiding two bullets reflexively fired, pulled out his gun and returned fire to the security guard nearest to him, capable of hitting Nathan from his position.

 

Nathan’s gun then stopped firing suddenly, he must be out of ammunition. Thinking fast, he pulled out his knife, still wet with blood, and looked it over. He looked over at the cowering Alex, and threw his spent gun over to him.

 

“Reload!”

 

Nathan called out over the gunblasts, loudly hitting the desk Nathan was shielded by. It wouldn’t last a lot longer, from these constant impacts. With his knife firmly in grip, Nathan lifted the desk above his head, and moved himself behind another shield, and then threw the large paper-covered desk at one of the remaining security guards, and Nathan ducked behind the new one, in time to grab the reloaded gun that Alex had slid to him.

 

Returning fire once more, Nathan shot at the guards twice each, and then aimed for the light fixtures above their heads.

Not expecting a rain of broken glass, or falling light bulbs, the guards were taken by surprise, and Nathan made use of this moment to put several rounds of ammunition in to his opponents.

 

Once the gunblast noise dispersed, the two stood up, putting away their weapons.

 

“Wow. Security around here is pretty disappointing. They didn’t hit me once and I took out four of them.”

 

“well, Armed security like that is disappointing.”

 

Nathan looked over at Alex, inquiring.

 

“Nathan, We’ve already encountered some of the security. I imagine that was more of the bottom-rung every day soldier. In a biological research lab, do you think they might have anything else?”

 

Nathan thought for a moment.

 

“I found this in one of the desks, I think you should know about it.”

 

Alex pulled out the wadded up paper he had pocketed previously, and handed it to Nathan, as they both read it.

 

“… Why are they merging humans with other creatures? … and What’s a Carnefice?”

 

Nathan thought aloud, not comfortable with the thought of bioweapons present.

 

“Alex, we’re in for more than we thought.”

 

Alex nodded, and walked over toward the idle security guards.

 

“Ah, good. I wouldn’t have thought to salvage equipment from them.”

 

Alex took a handgun, some spare clips, two boxes of ammo, and searched the body for anything else of use. Nathan did likewise with the other units, and ended up taking a pair of gloves from one of them.

 

“Whats that for?”

 

“… Pretty much ‘cause it looks awesome, but hey, they might have means to dust for fingerprints. … or something.”

 

Nathan explained as he put them on.

 

“Alright… Lets keep going.”

 

Alex and Nathan continued through the next door, ready to take back Samuel by whatever means necessary.

 

---

 

Kerrigan reached one hand out in front of her. She felt nothing, just as nothing was visible. She glanced behind her to see a void just as black as in front of her.

 

“… H-Heather?”

 

Kerrigan nervously called out.

 

“Kerrigan?”

 

Heathers voice sounded back, from not three feet away.

 

“I cant see anything out here!”

 

The two stopped walking, to find that they weren’t making much noise at all when they were in motion.

 

“How far do you think we’ve gone in?”

 

Kerrigan asked, slowly moving her hand about where Heather’s voice had come from.

 

“Pretty far. Far enough to lose that light from when Nathan probably fell through.”

 

The two stopped and thought for a moment. Kerrigan felt something under her feet just then, and a loud Metal breaking sound echoed through the duct. A short few seconds later, A blinding light erupted from the lower part of the duct- Kerrigan made another hole in it and fell through, shrieking down the whole way until she landed roughly.

 

“Kerrigan! Are you alright?”

 

Heather leaned down and watched her sister get to her feet and look around.

 

“… Yeah…”

 

Kerrigan jumped and looked off to the side in response to a door opening. She gasped, and hid herself behind a desk. Heather pulled herself up out of sight as well.

 

Dead silence followed for what seemed like at least ten minutes.

Quiet footsteps echoed through the would-be unoccupied room. It sounded like two people.

Kerrigans heart was pounding hardly, her mind racing. Who were they? Were they armed? She already saw some dead person back a ways, This place certainly wasn’t safe.

 

Looking around nervously, her breath quickened.

 

“… Kerrigan?!”

 

She jumped, with a rather audible ‘eep’ and she hit her head on the desk above her. She looked up to see Nathan with a rather disgusted face.

 

“What are you doing in here?!”

 

“Nathan! Wow, I’m glad to… see that its you, instead of..”

 

Kerrigan got to her feet, laughing to herself.

 

Nathan grabbed her arm to get her attention. He repeated himself,

 

“What… are you doing in here?”

 

Sternly, he looked her straight in the eyes.

 

“I… … Heather…”

 

She stammered and looked up at the hole in the ceiling, Nathan did likewise to see Heather’s head peeking around the edge.

 

“What part of ‘stay out here’ don’t you understand?”

 

Nathan demanded.

 

Heather timidly spoke up,

 

“Y.. You had left the vent cover open, and I went to go close it for you, and… then… it was, just… impulse, Nathan. We miss seeing dad, and we want to be there when you find him!”

 

Nathan’s fist clenched tightly, to relieve tension building up inside of him. It didn’t help much.

 

“We don’t have the means to take care of four people. Alex and I are in enough danger as it is. We already know that there are armed security guards, we’ve already had an encounter with them, and Alex had some research papers he got hold of, suggesting that there are mutated bioweapons here. You guys have NO way to protect yourself or fight back.”

 

“But we have you!”

 

“I have to take care of myself. I have to take care of Alex. You will just get in the way, I know for a fact that you guys have never shot a gun in your life before. In combat isn’t a good way to learn.”

 

Nathan turned around, startled, and pointed his ready gun at the loud intercom that had caught his attention.

 

‘Attention- Lower your weapons, intruders. We propose a peaceable negotiation.’

 

Nathan looked around the room, and put away his gun. If they weren’t going to put up a fight, there was no point in trying to kill anyone.

 

‘Stay where you are, we will send our head of security to your location.’

 

“Head of Security? Wouldn’t they be sending some like… non-executive workers to try and negotiate with a confirmed threat?”

 

Alex commented, confused. Complying with their conditions, Nathan waved his hands to his side, to indicate to a security camera that he was not readily armed.

 

He looked up at the vent, to see Heather carefully lowering herself down to the room below.

 

“Heather, No!”

 

Trying to pull herself back up, she struggled a bit, and eventually lost her grip and fell to the ground. Nathan sighed in frustration,

 

“Great. Now they know theres four of us. You had a chance to get back to safety…”

 

Putting his hand on his head, very annoyed, Nathan leaned against a nearby desk, arms crossed, waiting.

 

 

 

[Whoo! Things actually happened. and more things to come.]

[And after this point, I think Im around that writers block I had mentioned before, in not knowing what should happen between the time of arrival at Harret and finding some official doods. so Updates should pick up.]

[Arkcher]

After about ten minutes of awkward silence, A door finally opened in front of them. Nathan stood up, with his hands at his sides now.

 

The person emerging from the doorway looked somewhat familiar, though Nathan couldn’t quite place it.

 

The newcomer briefly extended his hands out, in a mock ‘welcome’ motion, smiling.

 

“And you are?”

 

Nathan asked, suspicious. A lone, supposedly unarmed person approaching some people who have killed before, seemed odd.

 

“Head of security around these parts. As you were previously informed, and we thank you for your cooperation thus far, We would like a negotiation to be made. Quite honestly, We don’t like you killing our researchers.”

 

“and I don’t like you holding my father hostage here!”

 

Nathan snapped back, sneering. The man before them froze, and looked Nathan in the eye, taken by surprise.

 

“Father…”

 

He spoke under his breath, suddenly making a connection as to who these intruders were. At the same time, Nathan stared off in to space, remembering in Samuel’s letter.

 

‘If they discover that you are the only living humans to have our given power, they will do everything in their power to keep you here.’

 

Nathan defiantly stood, trying to hide the fact he had just revealed that he was one of Samuel’s offspring. His sisters, and Alex, both looked at him anxiously, watching for what he’d do next.

 

The alleged head of security nodded, and broke the silence.

 

“Alright. Come this way, if you would.”

 

He turned, and motioned for Samuel’s children to follow him. Nathan did likewise to those behind him, and they made their way around the maze of desks, and in to the room they were led to.

 

For the first time, they saw a room in Harret that wasn’t just desks and futile research papers. This was more of a hallway with containment stasis tanks, with some unidentified creatures suspended in a liquid of sorts. Nathan tried to keep his eyes away from them, rather disgusted.

 

What looked to be the most common creature in these tanks was labeled with small papers, too far away to be effectively read.

 

The creature inside, however, looked to be a humanoid shape, but didn’t look to be bipedal. Its back looked rather hunched over, judging by its clawed appendages and visible teeth, it must be carnivorous. It didn’t have any visible hair or fur, but did have a rather long, barbed tail. Being in a stasis, it wasn’t sentient.

 

The man in front of Nathan quietly laughed to himself, but in a rather understanding way, rather than an expected maniacal fashion.

 

“Should you be wondering, These are what we call Carnefice’s. They’re genetically procreated animals, engineered in this very laboratory.”

 

Nathan looked behind himself, at Alex. They exchanged a very disturbed look.

 

“and A fitting name, for a Carnefice to have. Translated from Italian to English, Carnefice is an Executioner.”

 

After hearing this, the rather sharp claws and bladed tails looked even more vicious. Alex glanced behind him at Heather and Kerrigan, who were holding each other tightly, watching as the said demonic creatures passed them by.

 

Nathan himself gasped and jumped to the side, being startled by a quick movement from inside one of the tanks. The white-haired man before Nathan glanced at his side, and looked at the still-active creature inside.

 

“oh, Those… stupid containment… crew members…”

 

He muttered to himself, approached the tank with a creature that certainly was NOT a Carnefice, but looked equally dangerous. After some buttons were pushed and codes punched in to a nearby control panel, the creatures movement slowed, and its discolored body became inanimate again.

 

“I must apologize, they’re usually all kept in suspension. Although, These particular creatures, ah, I can’t exactly remember their names, I want to say… Imponitore? They were designed to have resistance to such foreign conditions. They aren’t easy to keep down.”

 

Discomforted by this, Nathan continued walking, obviously uneasy by the presence of such creatures.

 

“and… im.. Imponitore… also translates to…?”

 

Nathan spoke up.

 

“Enforcer. They’re quite controlling animals, which, when active and sentient, resemble four-legged arachnids.”

 

Nathan shook his head, ridding the image of such creatures out and about. Glancing behind him, his comrades watched the creatures intently, just as uneasy as Nathan.

 

“and here we are…”

 

The man opened the door at the end of the hall, and walked through. It was a quite large room, with several garage-resembling doors and a very high ceiling. It was about the size of an indoor small stadium.

 

“Alright. Allow me to introduce myself…”

 

The man turned around and bowed. It certainly was discomforting at how formally this person handled the situation.

 

“You… You’re Seth.”

 

Heather spoke up, remembering seeing him. Looking up, he smiled.

 

“Right you are… Heather.”

 

Nathans heart skipped a beat. This was the same person who had funded his parents’ projects, and now he was cooperating with those who were trying to unmake them?

Enraged, Nathan pulled out his gun, took two steps toward his uncle and pointed the barrel at Seth’s forehead.

 

“What’s going on here… Why are you doing this?”

 

Not changing his demeanor or expression in any way, Seth calmly replied,

 

“Peaceable… negotiation, Nathan. Please put your firearm down.”

 

Nathan hesitated, seething. He gave Seth a very threatening look in his eyes, and put the gun down and took a step back. Seth continued,

 

“Now. Understand there will be a bit of compromise. Both parties will win some and lose some.”

 

Nathan watched Seth very closely, mistrusting.

 

“I propose that you cooperatively allow us to draw and recreate the blood in your bodies, you and your father will help us finish the work, And you may all return home, merrily as if none of this had ever happened.”

 

Nathan continued giving a cold stare to Seth.

 

“Before we commit to anything, we need to know a few things, Seth…”

 

Nathan crossed his arms again, and Seth uncomfortably shifted his position.

 

“For once, Why do you need this work? What are you going to do with it, why Is it so important to you, so on…?”

 

“… Well… There’s a time and place for everything, Nathan. In time, you will find out.”

 

In the same way he had before, Nathan pulled out his gun and pointed it at Seth.

 

“No, You’re going to tell me now.”

 

“… very well. Calm yourself, and I will explain…”

 

Nathan took another step back, lowering his gun, but not putting it away. Seth reached in to his business suit pocket, and pulled out a small electronic device, resembling a remote. He pushed a few buttons on it, and turned around.

 

Abruptly, the sound of many electric motors running filled the room, and the large doors began opening. Out of maybe six, eight doors, came a small handful of men, standing in formation. They looked not unlike the security guards that had previously encountered Nathan and Alex.

 

“These are about ten battalions of the Harret Force. Quite simply, we plan to biologically engineer an army of supersoldiers. If we can give them the strength, endurance and aggression that Samuel has discovered, and the resistance and immunity from the same origin, The United States Navy won’t stand a chance.”

 

Nathan watched as the thought of this simple project overtaking an entire nation dawned on him. Samuel had envisioned this kind of thing to change the world for the better, Not to have it dominate the world with supersoldiers.

 

“I thought this was a matter of simple captivity to interrogate, and try and beat him to perfecting the entire human race. But this…”

 

Nathan’s voice shook with a variety of emotions.

 

“I can not let you do this.”

 

“And one man is going to stop it…?”

 

“I don’t see why not. It looks to me like one man started it.”

 

Nathan raised his gun again, Alex stepping up to do likewise. Seth quietly laughed to himself again.

 

“Two pistol gunners…”

 

He turned his head toward the battalions behind him.

 

“… against ten assault rifles?”

 

“Two handguns operated by a genetically perfected human.”

 

Nathan responded. Alex had a double-take at Nathan, wanting to remind him that he was in no way, shape or form enhanced, but didn’t want to blow their cover.

 

Still smiling, Seth watched them in their confusion.

 

“Are you going to cooperate with us, or will we have to take you by force?”

 

“… Whatever happened to… ‘peaceable negotiation’?”

 

Alex asked, really not seeing the odds of winning very likely in this easily foreseeable fight.

 

“Nathan can testify to you that I am not a man of my word. You’ve had your chance.”

 

Seth quickly turned around,

 

“We’ll see how well you fare against a Carnefice.”

 

With the wave of his hand, some of the battalions acknowledged his signal, and ran back out of sight.

 

Certainly not wanting to fight such a creature, Nathan took advantage of the situation- Seth’s back was turned. If he could take out an executive worker here, that would certainly make an impact…

 

He unsheathed his knife, and with his other hand, fired a bullet in to Seth’s neck, ran up to him, stabbed his knife in as far as he could before stepping back and lunging forward, kicking his head, knocking him to the ground.

 

“Alex! Take them out!”

 

Nathan shouted over to Alex, as the unwelcome sound of gunblasts filled the vast room. Stepping off of the idle body of Seth, Nathan returned fire, continuing to jump around, trying to dodge bullets.

 

“Kerrigan! Heather! Get down!”

 

Nathan turned around and yelled over to his sisters, who apparently hadn’t thought to hide themselves in such a situation.

 

Nathan turned around to continue holding them off, raised his gun, aimed…

 

Before he could pull the trigger, he felt a blinding pain surge from his side; The force of a bullet hitting his abdomen caused him to step back, kneeling down… vulnerable.

 

[Onoz!]

[Arkcher]

Nathan looked up. He could see himself kneeling, half way down the hallway in his house.

 

“Dad! Get out of here!”

 

He heard himself shouting over the gunshots, and seeing his father disappear around the corner as another bullet hit him in the shoulder, causing Nathan to collapse to the ground.

 

Nathan slowly faded out of this memory. He was gripping his profusely bleeding side, looking over at his sisters. He can’t let any harm come to them.

 

He looked back at the oncoming forces, and readied his gun. Samuel’s voice echoed through his head, Nathan was engineered to have high muscle build, endurance, adrenaline and aggression…

 

He’ll show these people that the legitimate work is stronger.

 

A furious rage filled his body as he put his gun in to Inimical mode, and despite the surging pain in his side, he ran toward his opponents, trailing blood behind him. He fired once, a deafening gunblast echoed through the room, followed by a painful shriek from one battalion. Nathan aimed, and fired again at a different target, not slowing down for anything, sprinting across the entire room at a surprising speed, effectively evading every fired bullet.

 

Nathan glanced off to one side of the room. There were five or six men standing around one open door, as if guarding something. They had their weapons drawn, but lowered. Nathan slowed down, heart pounding, as he gripped his wound and watched them, occasionally glancing back at Alex.

 

A rather eerie silence loomed over the large room, only broken by Nathan’s loud breathing. Nathan looked over at Seth, who was still lying on the ground, but in a different position than he was left in. And more interesting than that was that he was certainly laying in a puddle of blood, which had very visible traces of an off-yellow substance. Seth appeared to still be breathing.

 

One of the soldiers across the room shouted something behind him to what must be another soldier. Mid-sentence, A loud explosion erupted from that port, creating a dust cloud and making two soldiers lose balance. Nathan stepped back, unsure as to what just happened.

 

The soldiers’ voices rose in a commotion as some of them began running out in the open, and another fell down, as a rather large creature stepped in to sight.

 

“Carnefice…”

 

Nathan spoke to himself, eyes widening.

 

He watched as the rather sharp-looking tail impaled one or two soldiers, as it began slashing its viscious clawed hands about, disemboweling one more battalion that stood too close.

 

In a very short period of time, the Carnefice stopped its rampage, seeing how its victims were killed off already, as it looked about its surroundings. Its luminous eyes froze upon seeing Nathan standing out in the open.

 

“Alex! Get out here, NOW!”

 

Nathan yelled over to Alex, who readied his firearm and darted out toward Nathan, seeing the massive Carnefice already making its way toward them.

 

The two divided and ran around the approaching beast, both shooting upward at it. The confused creature turned from side to side, and finally swiped down at one of the shooting humans, but missed.

 

The gunshots certainly did have some effect, but not enough. They would need more firepower to take it down.

 

Once more, Nathan switched it to Inimical mode, and fired. Nothing happened.

He should have known- Inimical shots are limited. He’s out of capsules to increase the firepower.

 

“Alex!”

 

Nathan waved his hand up in the air to get his attention, and then pointed across the room. Alex waved in acknowledgement, and ran as fast as he could in that direction.

The Carnefice was of equal speed, if not faster. Alex shot over his shoulder, with the Carnefice not ten feet away. Going to drastic measures, Alex lunged off to the side, hitting the ground harshly. Where was Nathan now?

 

Alex got back up and had effectively changed directions, and sprinted in the other direction, to see Nathan close by. Alex continued running, leading the Carnefice out in to the open again. He cant hold it off forever, and he was running out of energy to run. He turned around one more time, shot twice at the creature’s chest, and saw that Nathan had mounted the Carnefice and was riding on its back- He pulled out his knife, and lodged it in the creature’s neck.

 

With a final screeching roar, The Carnefice fell to the ground, writhed, and threw Nathan off of its back. Determined, Nathan got to his feet, Ran back to the flailing creature, jumped up with his handgun ready, shot the Carnefice, pulled out his knife and began slashing at its bare-skinned body, still shooting repeatedly.

 

Alex did likewise, putting in as many shots as he could, before the screaming voice of Nathan caught his attention- He was gripping his arm tightly, and was thrown off once more, with a rather deep cut.

 

Alex replaced the clip inside his gun, ran up to the Carnefice and put several rounds in to its face, silencing the creature, before he searched the room for any further threats, and ran over to Nathan.

 

“Are you alright?!”

 

Nathan was cringing immensely, his left arm covered with blood, staining his clothes. Nathan moved his right hand, which was covered in blood, but also had an off-yellow tint to it. Surprised, he looked at his wound, which also had this contaminant in it. He tried to sit up, but the bullet still placed in his side prevented him from doing so.

 

“Ah… I… really need some medical… … stuff.”

 

Nathan’s voice shook as his mind failed to think of the right words. Heather and Kerrigan rushed to his side as well, as Alex tried to help him get to his feet. Nathan was too heavy to carry out.

 

“Kerrigan, Heather. You walk on ahead and try to find any medical supplies.”

 

Alex instructed as he put Nathan’s arm over his shoulder to try and help him walk.

 

“N-no…”

 

Nathan grunted, still cringing.

 

“… We cant… let them get hurt.”

 

His sisters also aided Nathan in trying to get out of this room, before his wounds got too infected. Heather and Kerrigan exchanged rather regretting looks, now seeing what they got themselves in to.

[Arkcher]

[so I decided that its been far too long since the last update and I should hurry up and get one done else people think that I might have stopped writing it.

so heres. ... an update. I cant figure out what to do next so its the end of the chapter, and that'll be a scene transition. =D]

 

“You stay here with Nathan for a minute..”

 

Alex instructed as he shifted Nathan’s weight on to Heather, while she watched Alex pull out his handgun and disappear behind the door. She and Kerrigan uncomfortably stood there, waiting, trying to support Nathan. They both heard some faint voices on the other side of the door, followed by a number of gunshots, followed by another long silence.

 

The door opened rather rapidly, revealing Alex behind it, who looked rather uncomfortable with what he just did.

 

“Alright, come on. It looks like theres a few medical supplies in here.”

 

Alex motioned for Nathan and his sisters to come in, and they slowly did so. Alex helped them lay him down on a table nearby, as he and Heather rummaged through various papers, medical supplies and the like.

 

“Heather, You… as I recall, learn really fast. I found some papers here about Carnefice attacks.”

 

Alex handed the said papers to Heather, who hesitantly began reading them over. Alex dug out some disinfectants and approached Nathan.

 

“Nathan, just so you’ll know beforehand… This is more than likely going to hurt. … a lot.”

 

“Oh, I don’t… think it could hurt a lot more than it does now- Aah!”

 

Nathan started, but was interrupted by a harsh pain in his shoulder while Alex tried to disinfect his arm’s wound. He was wincing and cringing immensely, but tried to stay as still as he could.

 

“Alex!”

 

Heather called across the room, sounding startled. She was found just staring at one of the papers,

 

“What is it?”

 

She motioned for him to get closer, and as he did so, she pointed out a part of one paper she had found, which described the off-color contaminant found both in the Carnefice, Seth, and Nathan’s wound.

 

It noted that this substance, dubbed Tossina, was a highly infectious toxin (hence its Italian name) that has acidic properties, but works very slowly. If it can corrode through ones immune system, which unpredictably will or wont happen, It can give its victim Carnefice-like behaviors, such as erratic actions, high aggression, and loss of rational thought.

Depending on how much Tossina was involved, higher concentrations may give victim mutations to resemble that of a Carnefice, and smaller concentrations will simply make a very uncomfortable infected wound.

Tossina is secreted in Carnefice claws and teeth, and is produced uncontrollably fast in the body of a Carnefice-Human hybrid, and as such it needs to be expelled somehow. It is often found in saliva and blood, among other bodily fluids. Needless to say, merged specimens were immune to Tossina’s effects.

At the same time, it does have a positive effect of staying in ones body long enough, it causes them to adapt to many different conditions. Most notable is tolerance for pain and endurance, as one can take quite an amount of damage and continue on unaffected, for a time at least.

 

“… well That’s not very good. Heather, look for how to counter the effects, or a good way to get it out.”

 

“It looks like normal disinfectants would work fine…”

 

Heather raised one of the papers indicating that it was already read.

 

“oh. That’s good… especially considering how I already did that.”

 

“Didn’t he get shot earlier, too?”

 

Kerrigan asked, motioning toward the wound in his side.

 

“Oh yeah. … That’s… an issue, too. But How do you remove a bullet?”

 

“Surgery.”

 

Heather idly responded, looking through papers at a slower rate.

 

“… well none of us are necessarily surgeons.”

 

“We have to get it out somehow…”

 

Heather put down her papers and approached Nathan, who was still rather painfully gripping his wounds.

 

“alright. Assault rifle bullets are fired at a high velocity, which means that the bullet may have fragmented upon impact.”

 

“wow, That would. … be bad.”

 

“Regardless, if we can find debridement tools…”

 

“… what?”

 

“Excision.”

 

“… Heather, Some of us don’t study things like this all the time.”

 

Heather sighed in frustration,

 

“We’ll need some antibiotic prophylaxis. Kerrigan, Go look around for any form of Cyprofloxacin. They’re usually pills, but they might be something else here.”

 

“Cy-professional what?”

 

“Cyprofloxacin, its an antibiotic which is usually used for bullet wounds.”

 

Hesitantly, Kerrigan began looking about the room, repeating the word to herself quietly. Alex watched, rather awe-struck at how a thirteen-year-old knew so much about this kind of thing.

 

“After we make an excision, we need a suture or just big bandage.”

 

“That’s it?”

 

“What else is there to do? The Red Cross advocates this method, and look, we’re in a room with a load of medical supplies.”

 

---

 

“Alright, Nathan. This will only hurt once.”

 

He sat up quickly,

 

“What?!”

 

“Oh, get back down.”

 

He hesitantly laid back down, but still watching Heather and she produced a syringe from under the table. Nathan looked away, preferring not to watch.

 

“Alex, come over here…”

 

Heather spoke, but was drowned out by Nathan letting out a rather loud cry of pain, as Heather quickly injected Nathan’s side with something.

 

“Just… carry on conversation with Nathan for a minute.”

 

Alex had barely arrived from across the room before he was directed to the other side of the table, where he knelt down and just talked to Nathan, to get his mind off of Heather who was excising his wound.

 

“sssooo, Nathan. Hows life going for you?”

 

Nathan gave him a fairly amused look.

 

“well, Not so hot right now. I got shot and infected earlier today and now my little sister is injecting me with stuff and diverting my attention away from whatever it is. That can get a little concerning.”

 

“That reminds me, when we looked at your arm a minute ago, it had yellow stuff in the wound…”

 

Heather spoke up, but just thought aloud,

 

“oh, this is so gross…”

 

Alex glanced over at her, as she was making disgusted faces at Nathans side while she tinkered with it, following whatever procedure it was. Alex continued,

 

“Yeah, I saw some of that. On Seth, too.”

 

“Seth! I forgot about him already…”

 

“Alex, go back over in the other room and check for Seth.”

 

Hurriedly, Alex jumped to his feet and strode out the room.

 

He looked about his surroundings to see them not unlike how they were left. There was still a dead Carnefice off to the side. Alex strode over toward the entrance, and knelt down by a rather large puddle of blood with, presumably, Tossina strewn about. He looked off to the side, and saw that the blood and Tossina was trailing off to the side; Seth must have got up and left, or else he was carried away.

 

Alex looked down where the trail lead, thinking of what Nathan had done to Seth not too long ago.

 

Alex’ heart skipped a beat and he lost balance. Seth was standing on the other side of the room, watching Alex.

 

“… You!”

 

He got to his feet and drew his firearm, but remembered his apparent resistance to bullets and stab wounds. He held his gun ready nonetheless.

 

“I see you’ve managed to take down one of the Carnefice’s.”

 

Seth spoke clearly across the otherwise empty room. Alex shifted in his stance, keeping his gun up, and unknowingly sidestepping toward where he had just come from, where Nathan and his sisters were.

 

“Let me assure you, however, that Those fortunate enough to survive the process of merging a Carnefice with Human… Will have notably heightened perception, intelligence and skill.”

 

Seth continued, keeping his voice loud enough for Alex to hear, but quiet enough that his allies wouldn’t. He looked down and adjusted something on his arm, though it was hard to tell exactly what he was doing from the distance between the two.

 

“Your end is near. You can’t hide from fate forever.”

 

Seth turned around, and opened the door behind him and proceeded to exit, while Alex absentmindedly shot at Seth before he could leave. It didn’t look like he was hit.

 

Rather intimidated, Alex glanced back at the pool of blood, and at the idle Carnefice, and hurried back in to where Nathan was, no longer with his previous energetic countenance.

 

“… What happened, Alex?”

 

He looked slightly disturbed.

 

“Seth… got up and left.”

 

“What? … Correct me if I’m wrong, but… didn’t I, you know, shoot and stab him a few times?”

 

Alex nodded.

 

“I think he’s merged with a Carnefice.”

 

Heather had stopped and watched them intently.

 

“and As if those Carnefice’s weren’t enough of a problem, there was… that… that other creature they made here, which was like, bigger and scarier than a Carnefice.”

 

“Imponitore, I think it was.”

 

Alex glanced over at Kerrigan as she said this, reminded of when Seth was almost pleasant, and had displayed Carnefice’s and Imponitores.

 

“When Seth, left, he said-“

 

“What? He... You saw him get up and leave?”

 

“And he was talking, too.”

 

Nathan looked rather awestruck. This undoubtedly had his attention off of his wound, but it also had Heather’s.

 

“He told me that when someone is merged with a Carnefice, that they’re a lot… stronger. That It’d have like, human intelligence but Carnefice abilities and such. And Seeing how he has an abundance of Tossina, I’d bet that he’s… partly a Carnefice. Somehow.”

 

Receiving no response, he continued.

 

“He… proceeded to inform me that ‘our end is near’. So I’m thinking that this isn’t going downhill any time soon.”

 

Heather continued on with Nathan, and by the looks of it, she had proceeded to bandage Nathan.

 

[but theres a LIGHT at the end of tha tunnel! its Samuel, and he has a laserpointer, trying to get their attention. or a flashlight, take your pick.]

[Arkcher]

['Kay, so Im gonna make things happen now.]

 

[wheee!]

 

 

 

“It looks like we got you taken care of, Nathan…”

 

Heather stood up and stepped back, satisfied with herself. Nathan sat up, with some visible blood on his side. He showed no signs of discomfort.

 

“… What the… What did you do?”

 

Nathan asked, putting his hand on the bloody wound, and not feeling anything.

 

“I excised the bullet and numbed your wound. After about two hours, it will hurt like nothing else, so I found some painkillers for when that happens.”

 

Heather shook a small capsule of pills, showing it to Nathan, who looked unimpressed. He turned around and stood up with some difficulty.

 

“Well. That’s… better than it was a while back.”

 

Nathan looked around, expecting to find a clock, but to no avail. He decided it best to not know what time it was, and drew his gun, to show that he was ready to go.

 

As they exited the room, Nathan thought to himself about his lack of Inimical capsules. He’d most likely be needing some of those. They continued on, all glancing at each other, expecting something to happen, particularly to Nathan. After opening the door, they proceeded through, noticing how… dark it was. Surely the light must have been just… turned off, but why? There were a few blinking LED’s visible through the darkness, reminding of recording security cameras. … with no light.

 

Alex and Nathan had their weapons ready, leading Heather and Kerrigan inside. The open door behind them didn’t seem to illuminate much of the environment, despite the bright fluorescent lighting.

 

Nathan jumped- He aimed his gun in the direction where a mechanical noise came from, trying to see through the darkness. He stared directly in front of him, but was startled again- The door behind them slammed shut loudly. Kerrigan let out a short squeak, turning around, now breathing heavily. A few solid seconds of complete darkness, before the familiar hum of electric current flowed through the room, causing a number of lights to flicker to life, revealing that they were not alone in this room. There were maybe forty battalions as they had fought before, all in the same, small room, surrounding them and blocking every exit.

 

Hurriedly, Nathan turned around, taking in the scenery, adrenaline pumping. He and Alex revolved around Nathan’s sisters, until Seth caught Nathan’s eye across from them. Nathan held Seth at gunpoint, though he didn’t flinch. He was standing next to a much taller, more massive executive, presumably the manager of Harret.

 

“So good of you to join us, Nathan…”

 

The higher executive spoke, taking the attention. Nathan was about to ask who he was, but he intervened.

 

“I am… Jared Mills, executive of Harret.”

 

Nathan kept his eyes fixed on Jared.

 

“What do you want?”

 

Nathan snapped.

 

“Oh, just… some cooperation.”

 

Nathan thought back to this same conversation with Seth.

 

“We feel that you will oblige, perhaps more willingly after seeing… whats in it for you.”

 

Jared and Seth side-stepped and parted, revealing a rather pitiful sight behind them.

 

A man was kneeling, in rather dirty clothing, unshaven, and looking rather ill. The black-haired man looked up.

 

Samuel.

 

“Dad!”

 

Nathan and his sisters all called out at once, taking a step forward, but Alex put his arm in front of them to keep them in order, still wary of the vast number of battalions surrounding them.

 

“… Nathan..!”

 

Samuel reached out a hand, half-smiling. With arms crossed, Seth and Jared stepped together again, causing Samuel to lose balance and audibly topple over from his kneeling position. He really didn’t sound very healthy. Nathan’s eyes flared, rather displeased.

 

“You can go back with your family, Nathan, if you… lower your weapons…”

 

Jared looked between Nathan and Alex, who unwillingly did so.

 

“We’ll keep your beloved Samuel here for now. What we need from you, is a bit of information. But we needn’t keep you together, We have as much room as we need.”

 

Jared smiled deviously. Nathan looked at him, confused.

 

“We’ll take you separately for interrogation.”

 

As soon as Jared finished speaking, a handful of the battalions approached their target, but taken aback by Nathan’s rather loud bellowing,

 

“NO!”

 

He immediately drew his gun and knife, and slashed and shot in front of him, fending off the battalions. He jumped up and kicked some down, slashed at the surprisingly unguarded necks of his opponents, causing no small amount of blood, as he beat off the oncoming battalions coming at him from all directions, only further enraged by his sisters distressed screaming.

 

Nathan continued his shouts of resistance, among rather profane comments, as he resolved to just blindly slashing about with his knife, now having not enough room to attack with his gun or otherwise.

 

The crowd dispersed around Nathan as a booming loud voice echoed through the room,

 

“Avert him!”

 

Nathan looked around, confused at the sudden stop. He looked up to see a lunging creature, which appeared as half-Carnefice and half-Human end up tackling Nathan to the ground. The bits of torn cloth hanging from its body resembled Seth’s outfit.

 

“No, Nathan!”

 

Alex called out, apparently overcome as well. He knew his sisters didn’t stand a chance either.

 

Seth’s massive arms picked up Nathan with ease by his shoulders, and he looked at the large hands, covered in Tossina, with human blood and flesh visible on it. Seth was able to mutate at will? Regardless, Nathan found himself helpless, being carried off as his allies called out to him. He could only hope for the best for them, and Samuel.

 

---

 

Nathan grunted with pain as he was thrown to the ground in a poorly lit small room.

 

“Take his weapons. You know what else to do.”

 

Seth’s voice announced through the small room, slightly distorted by his Carnefice-like body. Accordingly, Nathan felt himself being searched, as his knife and gun were stripped of him. Whoever was pinning him to the ground got up, allowing Nathan to stand. He looked around, and he was in a fairly dim room with three other people in it, all watching him. A door closed behind them as Seth exited.

 

“So… I see you have an Inimical gun.”

 

One man spoke as he emerged from the shadows, holding Nathan’s gun.

 

“How did you manage to get one of those? Only the high-ranking executives carry something as powerful as this. Its capable of outdoing a .65 Magnum.”

 

Nathan thought for a moment.

 

“eBay.”

 

He shrugged, keeping a straight face.

 

“… Really.”

 

Nathan nodded,

 

“Seriously, I got it in the mail.”

 

Nathan covered a slight laugh with a cough.

 

“We don’t have time for this. What we need from you is some blood samples and a bit of information.”

 

“Good luck getting that.”

 

Nathan snorted. Before Nathan could react, one man had run up to him from the side and rammed his knee in to Nathan’s abdomen, causing him to lean forward and gasp for air.

 

“If you cooperate, we wont have to take you by force.”

 

Nathan raised an eyebrow as he stood back up.

 

“Bring it on, then.”

 

All three men approached him at once, and consecutively threw in a number of punches and kicks, giving Nathan a considerable amount of damage, mainly consisting of bruises. They backed away, expecting a broken down, obedient victim.

 

Nathan panted, and wiped some blood from his mouth.

 

“… My turn!”

 

He made use of his high stamina and strength, and jumped up and kicked one interrogator in the head, easily knocking him out. The remaining two ran over to Nathan from either side of him, and Nathan threw himself to the ground, and tripped one opposing interrogator, stood up and grabbed the other by the head and snapped his neck, and dropped the stunned body. He lifted the tripped person by the neck of his clothing, and punched him in the head, and in a satisfied fashion, left the dimly lit room decorated with the splattered blood.

 

Nathan sighed, just now realizing how much it hurt to have them attacking him prior to his comeback. This, however, was not quite as important as the safety of Alex, Heather or Kerrigan.

 

Nathan forcibly opened the door after a few tries, and he managed to overpower the lock and pry the door down. He emerged in to the room where Samuel was, moments ago. Nobody was there.

 

[o: Someone set up us the bomb!]

[Arkcher]

[Oh yeah,

Nathan got his weapons back while he was still in there. I forgot to point that out.]

[Arkcher]

Nathan turned around, and looked at the room he had just left. He returned back inside and retrieved his gun and knife, and searched his opponents for ammunition or supplies, to no avail. Disappointed, he holstered his gun and exited once more.

 

He carefully silenced his steps as he made his way across the room, listening hard for any noises as to where his family was. Once he reached the far side of the room, he heard Heather’s voice crying out in anguish beyond a nearby door.

 

Nathan pulled out his gun, and blasted the doorknob out of commission, and stepped in, to find a very similar scene as he was in moments before. Heather was cowering against a wall with three other men in the room gathered around her. Unhesitantly, Nathan opened fire and crippled two of them before the last remaining one immediately made for the door, in hopes of exiting. Nathan had pulled out his rather bloodstained knife and made a slash at the refugee’s face, causing him to fall to the ground, gripping the open wound, screaming rather loudly.

 

“Oh, shut up. You weren’t very nice to Samuel, now were you?”

 

Nathan commented with a hard kick, silencing him. By this time, Heather had gotten to her feet and hugged Nathan with tears in her eyes.

 

“We have to find Kerrigan and Alex!”

 

Heather looked up and pointed out, after a short embracing moment. With an agreeing nod, Nathan exited this room as well and back in to where he had come, with Heather following him closely.

 

“I saw Kerrigan being taken off this way… I think…”

 

Heather trailed off, examining the room. It was rather hectic in the room moments before.

 

“I think it was this way!”

 

Heather pointed toward one of the other rooms, next to where Nathan was taken. Unmistakably, Kerrigan was behind this door.

 

Nathan drew his gun again, but Heather stopped him.

 

“Don’t you need to, you know, save ammo?”

 

Nathan glanced down at her, as if this hadn’t occurred to him before.

 

“Give me your knife, I’ll get the door.”

 

Nathan hesitantly gave Heather the large hunting knife, as she quickly pried the door away from the latch swinging it open effortlessly.

 

“Alright, guys, break it up.”

 

Nathan announced, aiming his gun.

 

“I’m the one with the weapon drawn. And Let me tell you something, I’m really getting tired of killing people.”

 

One of Kerrigan’s interrogators quickly reached behind him and pulled out a firearm as well, and Nathan shot at him accordingly, causing him to recoil, just injured.

 

The trio stepped off to the sides of the room obediently, revealing Kerrigan, wide-eyed and looking rather panicky. Not being able to help himself, Nathan strode over to her and knelt down,

 

“Are you alright?”

 

He put his hand on her shoulder to try and comfort her from whatever may have happened. They looked at each other for a moment, before Nathan heard a gun loading in the room. Very close by.

 

“I’m the one with the weapon drawn. And aimed right at your head.”

 

Nathan glanced at Kerrigan, neither of them moving. Nathan sighed, and slowly raised his empty hands above his head, and got to his feet, now with two guns pointed at him.

 

“now We don’t have the authorization to kill any of you, but will if necessary.”

 

The gunman was panting nervously and excitedly, glancing at his colleagues, one cradling his wounded hand.

 

“Alright, what do you want me to do?”

 

Nathan asked, annoyed. The gunman continued his nervous action, clearly unsure of what he wanted Nathan to do. Deciding to keep his cool and maintain intimidation, he wordlessly shook his gun and gestured off to the side, leading Nathan to back in to the corner of the room. He glanced behind him, and saw Heather already there. Kerrigan hadn’t moved.

 

The gunman kept his eyes fixed on Nathan, but after a short few seconds, turned around, startled to hear gunshots from behind him.

 

Nathan looked over as well, and saw Alex standing in the doorway, with his clothes ripped and bloodstained, shooting rather mercilessly at the two remaining interrogators in the room. Nathan made use of the distraction and snapped the gunmans neck while he was facing away. The gunblasts echoed through the small room and was soon replaced by silence. Alex and Nathan finally made eye contact. Alex looked horrible. There were several cuts and scratches on his face and arms, and slits in his clothes that looked like they were from claws of a rather large animal.

 

“Wow, what happened to you?”

 

“Seth.”

 

Alex spoke, between sighs and pants.

 

“I was in the same room as Samuel. I know where he is.”

 

Alex continued, looking uncomfortable.

 

“Alright! Lets go then!”

 

Nathan looked from side to side, and his sisters were next to him. Alex nodded, and turned around to lead them out.

 

[i detect an oncoming conclusion! o: ]

[Arkcher]

[so Im about 98.5% done with this next update, but cant do this last sentance justice. its important, but I cant word it right. D=]

['cause this next one is a short but vital update/event mess.]

 

[...]

[okay, Nevermind. I just thought of it, so here goes.]

 

[Oh, I also feel that I should point out. that This is the very scene that I dreamt of that inspired this story. This was also back before a bit of adjusting, like when the main characters name was Joseph, and he was the middle child and both their parents were still alive, and the kids were the ones being pursued, by like three different groups, one of which being their parents.]

 

 

 

Back in the main room, they looked about their surroundings. Only half of the lights were on this time. Alex and Nathan held their firearms ready, and scanned the room for any other signs of life. The dimly lit portions of the room were visible, but still dim. Nevertheless, an ominous feeling was still present.

 

“Come on, lets go.”

 

Nathan announced, authoritively, motioning for his sisters to follow. They did, but as soon as they took a step, they unmistakably heard something move.

 

They both aimed their guns around carefully, watching for any movement. An echoing scurry reverberated through the room, in a way they couldn’t tell where it came from.

 

“This door. Come on.”

 

Nathan used one hand to reach for the door behind him, the other still pointed around the room.

 

Heather and Kerrigan stepped through the open doorway anxiously, followed by Nathan.

 

“Alex, Come on.”

 

Alex stayed in the other room for a moment, aiming his gun upward. He gave the room one last scan through, and followed Nathan, looking suspicious.

 

Nathan turned around and kept going through the room. It was another relatively large room, resembling a smaller version of their first Carnefice encounter. There weren’t any visible life forms here, either.

Nathans mind couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong. Not the creepiness of these two rooms, something new just came… … Only three sets of footsteps.

 

Nathan turned around, and Alex was standing in the doorway, looking shocked.

 

“… What?”

 

Alex’s shocked expression did not change. He stumbled, but caught himself.

 

“Are you…”

 

Still firmly gripping his gun, Alex suddenly let out a deafening roar of pain, yelling quite loudly and deliriously. Nathan flinched, and was further startled by an exploding spray of thick blood that emerged from Alex- He looked back up, and an enormous barbed limb extended out of Alex’ chest, the color of Tossina.

 

It was a Carnefice’s tail.

 

The bladed tail writhed for a moment, before raising Alex in to the air, shaking him around for a moment, before jerking suddenly, causing Alex’s body to be thrown to the other side of the room, and upon impacting a wall, he fell silent.

 

Nathan looked back at the doorway and saw Seth standing there with a malicious grin, clothes ripped, Tossina visible all over him, and Carnefice-like muscular structure, and tail protruding from his backside.

 

“We cant let you get out alive.”

 

Seth stated in his deepened, distorted voice. Nathan stared at him, an unthinkable rage ever increasing in his body. Seth’s eyes looked over Heather and Kerrigan,

 

“Oh, but this will be fun!”

 

Seth stepped toward them, breathing heavily, but Nathan intervened.

With his gun and knife drawn, he sprinted over toward the beast, and with his own cry of fury, shot several times, slashed with his knife, and halted on the spot, and effectively kicked Seth with surprising force, enough to cause him to stumble back and off to the side.

 

Not relenting, Nathan pursued, repeated his action and quickly had the clawed beast pinned to the wall. Nathan had gripped Seth’s semi-human neck very firmly, as memories with his best friend came to mind. Alex had always been there for him, through good and bad times, just… had stuck with them to the end.

 

A final wave of emotion surged through Nathan, who stepped back with an open hand, tensed all muscles in his body, and literally smashed Seth’s head in to the wall, Nathan feeling the bones break beneath the force. Seth let out some final grunts and coughs, before falling limp and silent, held up by the neck by Nathan.

 

He stood there for a short moment, panting heavily. He had never lost control like that, and wasn’t aware that he was capable of such force. Nathan stepped back, letting go, and saw the crumpled figure of Seth, half-Carnefice, with a broken skull.

 

Disgusted, Nathan looked away, and saw his sisters looking on in awe, as Nathan spotted the bloody imprint on the wall that marked Alex’s location.

 

“Alex..!”

 

Nathan called out as he ran over to him. He had one hand over a gaping hole in his body, breathing slowly.

 

“… Nathan…”

 

Alex panted, with obvious difficuly. Horrified, Nathan looked at the wound, realizing this was far beyond redemption.

 

“No, Alex…”

 

Tears began forming in Nathan’s eyes, memories coming back to him.

 

“Tell… Elizabeth, that I… love her. … Ta.. Take care.. of her… .. for me…”

 

With his last words dedicated to his wife, Alex fell lifeless before Nathan, still with the determined facial expression he had worn following his best friend to the death.

 

[Also, originally, this scene was even more violent. I watered it down some, but it may need more. I'll leave that to Horatio, though. so For those who dare, use your imagination and think of Nathan being sufficiently provoked in to doing more aggressive things.]

[Arkcher]

After a long, difficult moment, Nathan stood up from his kneeling position. Heather and Kerrigan were standing on either side of him. Nathan put his arms around their shoulders, still looking down at Alex. They stood in a moment of silence, still taking in that Alex was… gone.

 

Nathan finally sniffled loudly, shook his head once violently, bringing himself back in to reality.

 

“Come on. We still need to find Dad.”

 

Wordlessly, his sisters followed Nathan as they exited the room, unable to do any further for Alex. They all showed resenting not being able to have any further respect toward Alex. He had given his life for them, and deserved to have a proper… funeral, or something…

 

One more room opened before them, causing Nathan’s eyes to widen.

It was incredibly vast, it resembled a docking station of sorts. Support beams were frequent, but illumination was not plentiful. Nathan squinted, seeing various grated platforms, presumably to load in to a large vehicle…?

 

Nathan heard a quick brushing sound behind him. He vividly remembered what happened last time this happened. He turned around quickly, and… saw nothing but his two sisters.

 

“So… You’re just one big happy family, then, aren’t you?”

 

Nathan turns around again, and sees Jared Mills standing before him. Nathan put one hand behind him and motioned for his sisters to evacuate the scene.

 

“You… Where’s Samuel?”

 

Jared snorted,

 

“Do you really want to know? … He’s beyond that door…”

 

Jared nodded toward one of many doors to the side of the room, then continued.

 

“… but, you’ll need three keys to open it first. For security measures, I’m sure you’d understand…”

 

Nathan eyed Jared suspiciously.

 

“One is in the uppermost platform of this very room… Another is found in the southeastern corner of this room.”

 

“And let me guess, You’ve got the last one.”

 

Jared half-smiled,

 

“You catch on quick, as expected.”

 

Nathan’s heart pumped hard, and he tried to hide it. Jared produced from behind him a rather large assault rifle, not unlike those of his favorable battalions. Nathan’s unsteadily shaking hand reached to his side, and finally met the handle of his knife.

 

“It looks like you’ve really thought this out.”

 

Jared half-nodded, still smirking. Nathan feinted with one hand, let out a loud grunt, and threw his knife at Jared, who reacted by swinging his rifle in the blades path, knocking it aside. Jared looked back, but saw that Nathan was sprinting away. Accordingly, Jared opened fire, and Nathan jumped to avoid the spray of bullets, and upon landing, hid himself behind a support beam linked to the high ceiling, now brandishing his own firearm.

 

Loud footsteps echoed through the warehouse-sized room, soon changing to the sounds of impacted grates. Nathan looked up, and saw Jared sprinting about on the platform above Nathan, who fired three times at Jared through the slits in the metal before quietly slipping away, when a glint of light caught his eye. His knife was laying undamaged on the ground. Nathan picked it up, and watched for any movement on Jared’s part.

 

Seeing no motion, Nathan sprinted away again, now directing his attention toward the whereabouts of his sisters. He scanned the area briefly, and failed to see the bright colors of their clothing, as he turned in front of him as a corner of the room approached. This was where Jared alleged that a key was located…

 

Card key, perhaps? Nathan stopped, and looked around as fast as he could, but found nothing. His heart was still pounding, and he continued running as soon as the sound of bullets echoed through the room once more. Nathan returned fire in the general direction of the flashes of light, occasionally ducking or jumping to avoid getting hit.

 

Eventually, Nathan reached a grated ramp, which lead to some of the upper platforms. Nathan took note of the location, and continued his quiet motion toward the door, which presumably required three keys. It was a wide sliding door, and looked like it just had three large indentions in it, with elaborate protrusions and cavities. They looked to be no more than six inches long, three inches high.

 

Now having a better idea of what he was looking for, Nathan turned around, and looked for his opponent. No movement, no noise. Carefully, Nathan raised his gun in to a ready stance, and stepped out in front of him.

 

Here in the middle of the room, the grated platforms seemed much more like an elaborate multi-leveled maze, rather than elevated ground to dock vehicles. Perhaps this was an empty multi-purpose warehouse…

 

A sudden motion caught Nathans eye as Jared jumped down from one level to another, landing fairly loudly, and then shooting at Nathan who returned fire while sprinting away.

 

Jared suddenly stopped shooting, had audibly landed down on the ground, and stepped in to a beam of light, easily seen. Held at gunpoint by Nathan from the shadows, Jared took off his military decorated jacket, and unbuttoned his shirt, apparently feeling restrained by the clothing. Nathan fired twice at the vulnerable target, hitting him once, but giving away his position.

 

“I… had expected this to be over by now.”

 

Jared announced.

 

“I, Jared Mills, a war general… have found a formidable opponent.”

 

Nathan wordlessly kept to the shadows, and made his way toward the southeastern portion of the room. A tan plastic object, laying on the ground, closely resembling the indention on the door was visible. Nathan pocketed it immediately.

 

“So tell me, Jared. If you’re such a proud war general, Why don’t you call yourself General M-“

 

Nathan caught himself, and thought for a moment. As dire as his situation was, he couldn’t help but smile, laugh.

 

“… General Mills!”

 

After a moment of stifled laughter, Nathan continued.

 

“You, too, are… formidable… General Mills.”

 

Nathan laughed again,

 

“What, did you serve in the military with Captain Crunch?”

 

Jared had apparently seen this coming, and had essentially walked in to this situation. He didn’t react as calmly as he anticipated, however. A growl formed in his throat, as it grew in to a roar of fury, which was soon drowned out by his assault rifle, shot at Nathan, who recoiled and withdrew in to the shadows again, holding a hand over his mouth to keep silent.

[Arkcher]

“Just… don’t… look at him.”

 

Heather spoke, mainly to herself, as she and Kerrigan walked by Alex.

 

“Here… Here on the right. We’ll just go around…?”

 

Kerrigan said, for the sake of saying something, she pointed out a door which presumably led around where Nathan and Jared were.

 

“well, I don’t see many alternatives…”

 

Heather glanced at the decaying remains of Seth. It was hard to tell what species he was when he died…

 

The two opened the remaining door, and found a narrow hallway, well lit, turning shortly after it started. Quietly making their way down the corridor, they glanced to the right, hearing gunshots infrequently sound through the wall, and muffled voices. Hurrying their stride, they came across a set of double-doors at the end.

 

Upon going through, they found a large sliding door, resembling that of a garage on their right. This must be the door that Samuel was alleged to be just beyond…!

 

Heather and Kerrigan both seemed to know this straight away, and hurried once more as the hallway expanded in to another large room.

 

“Seems odd for a laboratory to have to many huge rooms like this…”

 

Heather pointed out, smirking. Kerrigan didn’t respond, keeping her mind set on her father. Making their way through the archway that led to the bigger room, they immediately found themselves surrounded by Harret’s gunmen. It looked like they were laying siege here.

 

The two gasped, looked around, frozen in their place. They slowly stepped backwards, trying to get away unnoticed, but failed. They heard a distant ‘Get them!’ at which point, they turned around and ran as fast as they could.

 

They both lunged and fumbled at the doorway, both trying to open it at once, before being tackled to the ground by four large bodies.

 

---

 

Samuel paced back and forth, kept in a small, dim room. He knew himself to be very heavily guarded, and he kicked at himself for asking of his children to come after him. He should have known that Harret would do this. The first sign of any of them, they would either be subdued or killed on sight.

 

Samuel finally sat down on the floor, the cold room he resided in was empty save himself alone. One doorway stood on the side with multiple guards before it, and just beyond that was, basically, a shooting range. They knew this was the path of Nathan and his sisters, and were using Samuel as bait to take the whole family in, for whatever malicious purpose they had.

 

As he sat, Samuel noticed just how weakened and hungry he was. He couldn’t remember the last time he was permitted to shave, or take a shower. Having little ration for food, he mainly kept his mind on just that.

 

He was so sick of this place. Almost three years, he was kept here, being interrogated ceaselessly to try and get information out of him. Harret wanted his mutagenic formulas, and had attained them after ransacking his home. They wanted to make a revision of it, rather to improve Human flaws and imperfections, they saw a great army in store for them.

 

Samuel gasped, the doorway swung open, bright light flooding in, causing Samuel to shield his eyes with one hand. He heard high voices of protest, which sounded rather familiar, before two figures were forcefully thrown in to that very room with him. Samuel’s eyes adjusted to the light after the door slammed shut again, as two girls, unmistakably his daughters, were sitting up, bewildered and shaken.

 

“Heather! Kerrigan!”

 

His voice called out happily, as they responded by searching the room anxiously.

 

“Dad…?”

 

In the dim light, their bodies finally met, and embraced.

 

“I missed you so much…”

 

Tears formed in Samuel’s eyes, as he hugged his daughters tighter. He loosened his grip, and looked around again.

 

“… Where’s Nathan?”

 

“He’s… back outside, fighting off Jared.”

 

An awestruck expression covered Samuel’s face, as he wordlessly mouthed the word ‘No…’

 

Heather nodded,

 

“He looks like a war kind of guy… I wonder how Nathan will do…”

 

“Jared is indeed skilled with a gun, but… well, He’s the one in charge and responsible for all of this. I don’t recall exactly where he got the funds to make such a place, but He’s… mentally unstable, that’s for sure. He fused himself with an Imponitore…”

 

Kerrigan and Heather gave him a confused look.

 

“Harret has biologically engineered several creatures, they’re most fond of Carnefices and Imponitores. Carnefices were engineered successfully, and reproduce independently and are incredible bio-weapons. Imponitores, however, were given less attention in development, and there were only some odd Five to ever be created, and they are incapable of producing more without further resources. But, Imponitores are more for quality over quantity, so to speak. The few to exist are incredibly powerful.”

 

Heather thought for a moment, her expression slowly changing to one of fear and helplessness. Tears formed in her eyes as well, as she hugged her father again.

 

 

 

[so I like, just thought of this part. like right just now, and think its a bit better than the original idea. I dunno, we'll see how it goes.]

[Arkcher]

‘The uppermost part of this room’ was rather vague, Nathan realizes, as he tries to form a path up to the highest platform. The poor lighting didn’t much help the dark, rusted metal grating he was going through, And the fact that he couldn’t afford to stand still, else he’d be shot down.

 

Nathan turned around, hearing Jared behind him.

 

“Looks like I’ve got you now.”

 

Nathan glanced at his surroundings, and he was in the middle part of the gratings, now cornered in a peninsula-like area. He and Jared both drew their weapons, both having easy targets. Nathan remembered firing at Seth, and how he was apparently bullet-resistant. Jared must be the same, if not more so.

 

Nathan turned his gun to the side just a little, now aiming at his opponents hands. They both fired at once, Nathan throwing his body off to the side, as a bullet punctured his clothing alone. Nathan saw Jared recoil and drop his weapon in a spray of Tossina, not expecting to be shot there, but Jared soon faded out of sight, as Nathan had unintentionally thrown himself off of the high platform he was standing on.

 

Nathan fell for a moment, struggling to see where he was heading. His shoulder finally met a layer of thin, rusted metal, though his weight caused the compromised alloy to give way as he plowed through, making an effort to keep his free hand above him. He grabbed at a reinforcing support beam across the bottom of the grate, and stopped himself from falling any further. He looked up, and seemed to just now remember that he had taken a pair of gloves from one of the gunmen he had encountered early on. Feeling the protruding metal, he knew that if this glove wasn’t on, he would have rather deep cuts from rusted metal by now.

 

Jared leaned over the side of the platform, looking down at Nathan. Frustrated, he walked back to retrieve his gun. Nathan still only had one of three keys to get out of here.

 

The General’s jacket!

 

The idea came to him quite suddenly, as he dropped down on to another platform, and made his way down to the ground level, and grabbed Jared’s well decorated jacket, and dug through its pockets. Rather than finding another key to the door, he found a large pack full of Inimical packets.

 

Nathan hurriedly loaded them in to his gun, and switched the gun from Inimical to Standard, pleased to hear it successfully shift.

 

He finally ran back up several ramps, and made his way to the third level, out of how many, he did not know. Jared was running around above him, apparently for the sake of making noise. Now having a moving, but not resisting target, Nathan loaded Inimical again, as a deafening gunblast echoed through the room, penetrating the damaged alloy and hitting Jared in the leg, causing him to fall down, shouting out his surprise at such an impact. He shot once more, as blood and Tossina rained down on him, causing Nathan to step back in disgust. He then looked about the room, surprised to see a bright red light flashing through the empty room, better illuminating the maze of grates, but accompanying a loudspeaker and siren.

 

“Evacuate sectors C, D, G and H. We have confirmed a Carnefice breakout.”

 

The very second that the intercom stopped, a loud crash boomed through the scenery as some three or four Carnefice’s all poured in to the room, roaring loudly and irrationally attacked their surroundings, breaking down doors and bending the support beams holding up the grated platforms, holding both Nathan and Jared.

 

The grates shook violently, as the two inhabitants grabbed the side rails to steady themselves. The flimsy metal caused the uppermost parts of the tower to fall over.

 

The key…!

 

The platform that Nathan stood on slowly rotated on its side as the Carnefice’s brought it down in a rampage, while Nathan watched a small, tan object fall from the top. It would get smashed, buried, lost… if this room were to collapse on top of it!

 

Nathan pulled out his handgun rapidly, aimed at the ever-descending key, and fired at it to knock it away. A surprisingly powerful blast shot out from Nathan’s firearm; He forgot to switch it off of Inimical mode. Horrified, Nathan watched the shattered pieces of plastic and alloy rain to the ground, the remnants of one of three indispensable keys.

 

Nathan was soon aware of the Carnefices below him, all swiping at his body, slowly being lowered down toward the beasts by the collapsing platforms, as Nathan realized that Alex would not come to his aid this time.

 

[Oh nooooeeees.]

[Arkcher]

[Oh yeah, and In not-very-related news,

I was on Sims 2 and then decided it would be awesome to make sims based off'a these guys. so I have a Nathan, Kerrigan and Heather fambly. And also Samuel and Amanda, but they're less important.]

 

[and I made their haus. so their house is like on the game and you can see how the first one or two updates happened. o:]

 

[so In the more refined version of this story, Its gonna have some of those happenings added in. every other day stuff, 'cause Im not very good at writing those parts, as evidenced in Werewolf 1.]

 

[but yeah, Now.. there... are sims.]

[Arkcher]

[This turned out a lot longer than I thought it would. o: but Update tiemz!11!11]

 

Firmly gripping his gun in his right hand, Nathan grabbed at the side rails, now diagonal to him, and tried pulling himself up. This would stall him for only so long, He needed some sort of diversion. Although, by some chance, This was a diversion in itself.

 

Trying to balance atop the side of the grated platform, he heard loud bangs behind him, and glanced back to see Jared evacuating the collapsing tower of metal, jumping down from one platform to another. Upon landing on the ground, one Carnefice made its way toward him, as he ran for the door, and hurriedly pried one key inside of it. Narrowly avoiding a sharp bladed tail, he dodged out of the Carnefice’s path as it rather impaled the door, creating a large hole.

 

Nathan double checked to make sure his gun was set to Inimical before fending off the Carnefice’s with firepower to exceed most magnum weapons, and as the beasts recoiled back from the high-caliber projectiles, Nathan jumped down to the ground and ran after the escaping General Mills. The enraged Carnefices pursued them, as the two sprinted down the hall, now with little intent on killing each other, rather getting themselves to safety.

 

Nathan kept himself running at full speed, with his gun still in hand. He turned his head around, and saw only a solid wall of Carnefice running after him. He then directed his attention to where he was going, but as he looked ahead, a blindingly bright light was illuminating the dark hallways he sprinted through, as he emerged in to what looked like a much bigger, brighter version of the room they just escaped.

 

Still running, Nathan tried to adjust his eyes upon hearing the nearby Jared call out ‘Open Fire!’ and Nathan looked up at hundreds of Harret’s battalions ready atop the multiple leveled platforms, distinguishable by the bright flashes of gunfire.

 

To Nathan’s astonishment, he wasn’t hit. He kept himself running straight ahead, toward what looked to be a small enclosed area, perhaps an office or smaller storage unit. It had a rather large, thick door on it, however…

 

As it drew closer, Nathan stopped and looked around to see several battalions leaving their positions and engaging the oncoming force of some twenty Carnefices, to either close the space between them or for melee combat, it was hard to tell. Regardless, Jared was nowhere to be seen.

 

An abnormally loud Carnefice roar sounded over the gunfire, as Nathan directed his attention toward a larger than normal Carnefice, careening toward him despite the constant stream of bullets being emptied in to its body from all sides, causing it to trail no small amount of blood and Tossina.

 

After letting out fairly audible curses, Nathan ran off to the side to avoid a fate similar to his best friends’, and ran before hearing the Carnefice smash in to that enclosure he was standing before moments ago. Nathan slowed his pace, turned around and saw that it had easily broken down two walls, including the massive door. The Carnefice didn’t move, but bright blue and red colors caught Nathans eye, causing him to curiously draw closer to the wreckage.

 

“Nathan!”

 

He heard Heather calling out to him from behind some of the wreckage. Nathan’s heart skipped a beat as he finally got close enough to see that Heather was, indeed, in the remnants of the enclosed room. She looked to be pinned to the ground by a portion of the wall that collapsed, which Nathan promptly lifted up and pushed out of the way.

 

“Kerrigan and Dad are in here, too!”

 

“What?!”

 

Heather looked at the rest of the wrecked room and saw Kerrigan pushing herself against one of the remaining walls that stood, to avoid the wreckage. Heather made her way over to her sister, as Nathan began digging through the collapsed walls to look for Samuel.

 

The wall wasn’t much effort to move, fortunately being light and thin, but still sturdy enough to have done some damage. Nathan glanced off to the side and saw a large quantity of idle Carnefices, but even more dead Harret battalions. Nathan’s gloved hands finally met something that wasn’t stone, and must have been some part of Samuel buried under the wall.

 

“Dad! I’m here, Its alright…”

 

Nathan excitedly uncovered Samuel and helped him get to his feet. It was obvious he was rather sore and weakened, but apparent that, despite the chances, he didn’t have any broken bones. The two looked at each other for a moment, before hugging each other rather tightly.

 

“Come on, we have to get out of here.”

 

Nathan called out to his family, and made his way out of the smashed enclosure, and looked around, the fight between battalion and Carnefice was dying down.

 

“We cant stay in here for a lot longer… but Where do we go?”

 

Nathan thought aloud, searching the room for any visible exit. He glanced at Samuel behind him, who was scanning for an exit as well.

 

“Up there!”

 

Heather exclaimed, pointing up at some of the grated platforms that led to a door rather high up.

 

Wordlessly, they all made a run for the nearest ramp, and realized that the door was some three levels up. Not relenting, Nathan led the way, turning his head constantly to strategize how to get up. He resorted to plowing through a line of Harret’s gunmen, knocking several of them down some ten feet to the ground, but making a path for his family to follow. They made their way up one more ramp, before hearing the gunmen and battalions stir and shout, before one finally announced ‘Imponitore!’ as, unmistakably, a creature larger than a Carnefice broke through the hallway entrance.

 

“Go! Go! We have to get out of here!”

 

Samuel shouted over the gunshots, fearfully looking down at the rampaging Imponitore, who was, just as Seth described, bearing a resemblance to a four-legged arachnid, but still having a tail and head similar to a Carnefice. Nathan glanced down at it as well, to see that it was being shot at, but having either reinforced carapace or thick enough skin to stop bullets, as it seemed impervious to the attacks that Harret threw out.

 

Not wanting to stick around to see how it goes, Nathan continued making his way up, ignoring the final cries of defeat from countless ‘supersoldiers’ which lacked the genetic enhancement unique to Nathan alone. At the same time, the gunfire eventually quieted down, the attackers being cut short. Nathan saw the last ramp in sight, occupied by a number of Battalions which Nathan decided not to hinder, they needed as much time as they could get.

 

“Go back! Theres another ramp that way!”

 

Nathan called out, pointing behind his followers as they quickly changed direction, Nathan at the back. Looking down through the grated metal, the Imponitore was making its way toward the grated platforms.

 

“Go! Go!”

 

Nathan shouted out, as they all scrambled up the ramp, before losing balance from the violently shaking platforms. Now on the ground, Nathan saw the Imponitore grabbing at the support beams and prying at them, apparently aware that it would affect its attackers and targets.

 

Now with dangerously little time left, Nathan ran up the sloped metal as fast as he could, saw Samuel hurrying his daughters through the door before a loud screeching sound filled the room, as the support beam was ripped apart from the wall, and being pulled to the ground, the partially rusted grates snapping apart.

 

“Nathan, watch out!”

 

Samuel called out as the metal structure was dividing, and Nathan ran out, and lunged out toward Samuel as the platform he was standing on seconds ago came crashing to the ground quite loudly. Nathan jumped up to his feet and darted through the door with Samuel following close behind.

 

 

 

[now The story could end here, but theres some other things that haven't happened yet. so A few more updates to come. No more than three, I expect. D=]

[Arkcher]

[updaet tiemzz!]

 

"I'm afraid I can't let you do this, Nathan."

 

He stopped, and saw Jared standing in the middle of the wide room they stood in now, completely empty save themselves alone. Jared had removed his shirt completely, and in this light, it was clear that he was quite muscular.

 

"If you and Samuel escape here, then Harret is meaningless. One, or Both, no, All... of you must stay here."

 

As he spoke, Jared glanced to the side, and when Nathan did accordingly, he saw Kerrigan and Heather standing a safe distance away.

 

"And what, you're going to try to keep us here?"

 

Nathan snorted back, but Samuel gave Nathan a rather serious look.

 

"Well, thats the intention..."

 

Samuel looked down at his assault rifle, as if it had become plastic and useless. He sighed, and threw the gun to the side of the room, the magazine sliding out from the impact. Confused, Nathan looked back at Jared, and glanced back at Samuel, who looked rather alert and uncomfortable.

 

A somewhat quiet moan came from Jared, who cringed slightly, but he gradually grew in to a generic shout, his muscles tensed. Nathan stepped back upon seeing Jared’s limbs considerably increase in size, the flesh at his arms splitting and opening at points, revealing Tossina and blood, but lengthened while claws appeared at his fingertips. He lost balance, but caught himself as what looked to be two additional limbs burst out of his side, and lower in to four legs, and in little time at all, the distorted mutated body of an Imponitore stood where Jared once was, towering over Nathan, standing in a pool of human blood and Tossina, with segments of Jared’s clothing hanging off of the Imponitore.

 

Nathan drew his handgun, and listened to the reassuring, almost comforting sound of its elaborate mechanical intern shift as it loaded a bullet and Inimical capsule. With his knife in the other hand, Nathan stood ready.

 

Jared almost seemed as if he were waiting for Nathan to do this, as not until after he did so would Jared let out a loud roar and charge heavily toward Nathan, now with agile, bladed limbs. Nathan took two steps toward the Imponitore, and lunged forward and landed between its legs, aimed straight up at the underside of the beast, and put two shots in before scurrying out, the Imponitore thrashing about its immediate vicinity.

 

Nathan skidded to a halt, and turned around and found himself just as they were a few moments ago. Nathan breathed in, and ran towards his opponent, with his knife raised. Gripping it firmly, he jumped up in the air and brought the blade down, but as soon as he had done so, the Imponitore had lithely thrown one limb in Nathan’s path, the sudden impact causing him to be cast off to the side and crash in to the ground, still with both armaments in hand. Not relenting, Nathan got to his feet and noticed how the wind had been knocked out of his lungs, and he struggled to breathe. He moved one hand toward his chest and aimed his gun with the other, and shot four rounds before he ran off to the side, breathing very loudly. Jared made his way toward Nathan’s previous position, standing tall, looking unharmed.

 

With more agility than one would think possible for a creature of such mass, the Imponitore stepped toward Nathan and thrust one bladed limb at Nathan, who promptly lunged out of the way, barely enough to avoid impalement. Not soon enough to avoid damage, as the blade cut through Nathan’s clothing, tearing through his jeans and making a cut at his shin.

 

Nathan landed with a loud grunt, as he rolled in to a kneeling position, gripping his wound. He looked up and aimed with his gun, in time to see the joint of one of the massive limbs swing in his direction, causing him to topple over once more, now more vulnerable.

 

He looked up at the Imponitore, now identifying what hit him. It was the especially thick-carapaced knee, or large joint of one of four limbs, has a tough exterior, but from the angle Nathan laid at, he could see several veins and not as much protection on the underside.

 

Drawing his attention to his vulnerable position, he rolled his body out of the way of the bladed side of Jared’s limbs, and with his knife in hand, ignored the pain in his right leg and ran underneath Jared once more, and jumped up and grabbed at the upper part of the massive appendage, intending to lodge his knife in the vulnerable backside, but looked up at the top part of the Imponitore…

 

Standing atop the large, sharp four limbs was strangely, but surely, the upper part of Jared’s human torso grown in, one side of it overgrown and flowing with Tossina, almost solidifying it in to biomatter. The intricate growth covered parts of his head as well, as he led out a loud roar and his large clawed human hands swiped down and knocked Nathan off, leaving a trail of blood in the air as he descended.

 

The blood splattered to the ground, trailing from Nathan’s left shoulder, up his neck and across his face. He got to his feet once more, cringing immensely, now realizing he wouldn’t last a lot longer in this battle. He had few oppurtunities to actually inflict damage, and even less opportunities presented themselves now. Nathan raised his gun one more time, now taking care to aim at the underside of the furthest limb that supported Jared’s mutilated body, as he pulled the trigger, and when the loud gunblast faded, the Imponitore’s roar accompanied by Jared’s screaming echoed through the hall, as he collapsed down on one side.

 

They both were reaching their end, and with this sudden turn of events, it was hard to see who would claim victory.

 

[stupid Wupid Imponitores. >( always... confusing everyone, and adding suspense to everything.]

[Arkcher]

[i got a little carried away... and made a 4-page update.]

 

Seeing a chance to attack, Nathan ran toward Jared and climbed up the trembling limbs, struggling to support the Imponitore despite the absence of one limb. Nathan aimed one last Inimical shot at Jared’s remaining body, the crosshairs pinpointing where Jared’s heart would be. He pulled the trigger, and for the first time saw the gory effects of an Inimical shot on a human-like body, now exposing Tossina-covered organs.

 

Abhorring, Nathan tried stepping back, but stumbled and fell backward, falling to the ground loudly, weakly struggling to move away. Jared continued roaring behind him, and miraculously, both he and Nathan got to their feet once more, clearly unable to do so for much longer.

 

“Nathan! Get down!”

 

Nathan looked behind himself, and saw Samuel standing in the middle of the room with Jared’s assault rifle in his arms. He fired three bullets, before the harsh recoil from the blasts knocked the gun out of Samuel’s hands uncontrollably.

 

Nathan began making his way to the side of the room, to clear the space between Jared and Samuel, who frantically picked up the firearm and reloaded it. The Imponitore was limping on three legs, obviously as fast as it could. Now knowing what to expect, Samuel pulled the trigger back again, taking each blow to his shoulder, as Jared’s body shook violently, some bullets proceeding to plow right through parts of his body. Dazed, Jared stood, having sustained heavy fire, but was mounted once more by Nathan, with his shining, bloodstained knife in hand. This was it.

 

Nathan slammed his knife in to Jared’s back, puncturing through about half of his massive body, while Nathan pulled the knife up, causing it to slice a huge gash through the Imponitore. Nathan pulled the blade out, shaken by the Tossina that seemed to pour from Jared’s body, as he collapsed to the ground, quite idle.

 

Nathan stepped off of the foul creature, exhausted.

 

“Nathan, Are you alright?”

 

Samuel called out as he ran over to his son, and helped him stand up. Nathan panted,

 

“Yeah… A little… tired…”

 

He gasped out between breaths, as he was soon accompanied by his two sisters as well. They helped him over toward one of the walls, where he sat himself down.

 

“You did good.”

 

Samuel told him, smiling. Despite the pain in his shoulder and leg, he felt happier than he had for three years, having been told this.

 

Smiling back, he reached out and hugged Samuel, his heart still pounding from his battle a short few moments ago. He was just tired from the sudden change of activity, his wounds were certainly painful but not fatal. Ignoring them, Nathan got to his feet once more after a few moments passed. He looked for an exit, aside from where they had entered. His eyes met two doors, one looked like it was leading to simply a closet, and the other must have been a way out.

 

Heather and Kerrigan eagerly walked over toward the larger of two doors, but Nathan hesitated. Something was different. His eyes went to Jared’s idle body, as he approached it cautiously.

 

“No…”

 

Samuel spoke under his breath as Nathan did so, still sounding rather disturbed. Nathan saw a trail of blood leading between the Imponitore and the alleged utility closet. Near its door, was the writhing body of Jared, still partly mutilated, detached from the Imponitore remains.

 

The legless torso was bleeding profusely from mortal wounds, but threw one clawed hand up at the doorknob and hurried in.

 

“Nathan, Go.”

 

Samuel instructed and readied the assault rifle once more and strode energetically toward the open door. Nathan stepped aside, not having the strength to fight back, and absentmindedly watched.

 

“If I can’t have this project succeed… Nobody will!”

 

Jared’s half Imponitore voice echoed through the room, followed by a gasp from Samuel. He then stepped backward, and stumbled, looking rather taken aback, and turned to Nathan, revealing a large syringe embedded in his lower neck. Samuel collapsed under his weight, idle, with a glazed look in his eyes already.

 

Just as lithe and disgusting as before, Jared crawled out in to the open, gradually slowing down. He was thrown back by the force of an Inimical shot, fired on sight by Nathan who proceeded to overkill with his knife and gun.

 

With no further signs of life, Jared’s remains were quite obliterated. With a new wave of energy running through his body, Nathan ran over to Samuel, and tried checking him for life. His pulse was dangerously low, but still there nonetheless.

 

“Heather! Get over here!”

 

She and Kerrigan complied, uneased by what just happened.

 

“Look at this syringe… What do we do?”

 

“Take it out!”

 

Heather did so, and inspected it.

 

“… NaCN, Ketamine… Novocaine…”

 

A horrified look came over her face, as she read the contents of the syringe. The chemicals inside were primarily Potassium Cyanide, one of the fasted and most fatal poisons available, and Ketamine and Novocaine would cause, most likely, permanent damage to the victims nervous system, provided it survived.

 

“We have to get him to a hospital! NOW!”

 

Heather called out, as Nathan promptly picked up the near lifeless Samuel and ran out the door, muscles aching all over his body, with his sisters running at equal speed behind him.

 

Nathan kicked the door open, and as soon as it swung out to hit the hallway wall, red flashes of light and an all-too-familiar siren blared out, with an automated voice in the background announced unauthorized entry in the sector, ‘Code D, Pursue at all risk’. Not wanting to wait to see how security may respond to the past few events, Nathan continued careening down the hallway, hearing doors behind him burst open as he passed, followed by the protesting voices of several… people, Nathan didn’t care to check if they were security, battalion, or civilian.

 

Nathan rammed down one more door, and ran in to what must be a break room, seeing several scientists abandoning vended foodstuff and coffee, in a frenzy about the room. Wildly, Nathan looked at the rooms walls, and found two more doors, One of which with a large green ‘Exit’ sign over it.

 

“OUT OF THE WAY!”

 

Nathan bellowed as he kicked over the table in the middle of the room, still carrying Samuel. As soon as he reached the exit, gunshots sounded behind him. Not wasting any time, he ran through the doorway, and tossed Samuel up on to his right shoulder, using his left hand to fire several shots from his pistol back in to the doorway as it closed. He wasn’t left handed, and accordingly hit none of his targets, and used the closed door to delay his opponents as he ran down one last hallway, with windows in the double doors at the end, to reveal a dark night sky.

 

With his sisters following close behind, Nathan kicked open the last door, the air pressure difference sending a wave of wind down the hallway. Nathan ran outside, and readjusted Samuel on his shoulder as he ran out, realizing how heavy his father was and how tired he was himself. He searched the area for any signs of his car, and had forgotten where he parked. Kerrigan was running off to the right, for what reasons Nathan didn’t know, but ultimately decided to follow. They made their way toward a parking garage, which he had hidden behind so many hours ago.

 

The rapid firing assault rifles sounded behind him, hearing a bullet move by his head, narrowly missing it. He turned to look behind him, and shot a few rounds before hearing Heather cry out in pain, who was gripping her chest, and falling to the ground, bleeding.

 

“Kerri!”

 

Nathan called out to get her attention as he continued shooting back at Harret. Kerrigan ran back and quickly picked up and carried her sister back, soon accompanied by Nathan.

 

Harret was on to their plan, however. Nathan’s heard skipped a beat when he heard several engines rev up and start, as a number of what must be Harret’s original assault tank rolled over the terrain towards the fleeing Torrns.

 

Nathan didn’t stop himself in time and lightly impacted the side of his truck as he approached, and reached for the door, but had locked the car. He loudly cursed, and dug through his pockets for the keys, having difficulty keeping Samuel aloft.

 

“Nathan! Here!”

 

Kerrigan called out, and waved her set of keys in the air for Nathan to see, and then tossed them to him. He thought to himself about how he had, once again, tried to handle a problem himself without accepting any help from his family, but pushed the thought to the back of his head, deciding to deal with it later, and grabbed the airborne keys, and unlocked the car as fast as he could, the gunfire growing louder. He finally opened the door, and carefully and quickly placed Samuel in the back seat inside the cab, as Nathan rammed the keys in to the ignition and started the car.

 

“No, Nathan, Wait!”

 

Kerrigan had only just opened the door and was trying to maneuver the struggling Heather inside. Nathan reached out and grabbed Heather harshly by the shoulder, pulled her inside and rushed Kerrigan to get inside. As soon as she stepped in, Nathan let off of the brakes and floored the accelerator, the tires squealing under the sudden change of activity, leaving marks in the little pavement that surrounded the small garage.

 

As they pulled out in to the open, everyone inside loudly screamed as the windows of the doors shattered, and more bullet holes appeared in the windshield and backside, followed by more rounds puncturing the side of the car, Without daring to stop, Nathan turned around, turning sharply to get out of the line of fire, and made his way to the torn down outer gate, and proceeded to speed along the poorly paved road, the headlights of several vehicles visible in the rearview mirrors.

 

Nathan cursed again, and focused on avoiding various potholes and cracks in the road, careening now at some 65 MPH along the back-country roads, trying to outrun the numberless amount of units chasing him down.

 

[OMGSEVERE CLIFFHANGER TIEMZ]

[Horatio]

[i got a little carried away... and made a 4-page update.]

 

[OMGSEVERE CLIFFHANGER TIEMZ]

[ I would love a 40 page update!

 

Cliffhanger... that is an understatement!!!!!!!!

*hangs on for dear life until the next chapter arrives* ]

[Arkcher]

Heather was breathing heavily, with her hands covering her side. Nathan glanced down at her, and noticed blood on her hands and tears in her eyes as she tried to keep herself silent, despite a bullet had run through her body completely. Kerrigan was worriedly looking between Heather and Samuel, unsure of what to do, but feeling obligated to take action.

 

Her concentration was broken by the vehicle making a sudden sharp turn, at a high speed. She grabbed at the door to maintain balance, feeling the truck run on two wheels for a split second. Nathan accelerated once more, seeing the highway ahead, and several signs along the road appear.

 

Not yielding to oncoming traffic, Nathan pulled out in to the highway entrance, now pushing 90 MPH as he searched for any other cars along the road. Accordingly, he maneuvered around them, and glanced at the rearview mirrors to see no sign of Harret’s pursuit. It must be that Nathan had run out in to civilization, and they couldn’t afford to be discovered. Regardless, His father and sister desperately needed medical attention, and he continued speeding down the road.

 

In little time, he saw the indescribably unwelcome… flashing blue and red lights, a patrolling police unit trying to pull him over. Nathan kept going, indecisive of what to do. After a few seconds, he made his way to the right lanes, and slowed down rapidly, and once he slowed to 10 MPH, he put on his parking brakes and jumped out of the car before it stopped. He sprinted the few steps needed to approach the police unit, as its door opened.

 

“Officer, This is NOT the time, I need medical assistance immediately!”

 

This was evident by the gashes along his face and bloodstained clothes, despite he wasn’t referring to himself. The shocked officer hesitated.

 

“Do you know how to get to the nearest hospital?”

 

Nathan nodded and didn’t wait for a response before getting back in his car, and taking off, and soon had a speeding police car on either side and in front of him, to clear a path. [i doubt this would happen in real life, but it happens right here.]

 

The police units dispersed as the appropriate highway exit approached, signifying the town of Orgonth’s approach.

 

In little time, he came to the hospital, which was located not far from the highway. Not caring to park properly, he skidded to a halt, didn’t even stop the car before reaching back and picking up Samuel once more.

 

“Come on, Kerri! Get Heather!”

 

He called out before stepping out, kicking the door closed and pushing the emergency room doors open with his wounded shoulder, cringing and leaving smears of blood on the glass each time. He emerged in to a small waiting room of sorts with a now shocked looking secretary behind a desk, to which he called out to as he approached,

 

“Potassium Cyanide poisoning, Bullet wounds and infectious cuts!”

 

Not explaining any details, his own appearance and the sight of Samuel’s idle body caused the secretary to stand up, shocked.

 

---

 

Kerrigan sat out in a waiting room she had passed through before, after a few hours had passed. They immediately took Samuel in, but any of the medics didn’t look too sure if he would survive, not only were there chemicals dripping out of his neck, but he was grossly unshaven, weak and unhealthy from Harret’s harsh treatment. How would they explain what happened? They’d have to uncover Harret, when they find the Tossina infection in Nathan, and find Samuel in a condition that resembled that of anorexia.

 

Kerrigan sighed, and turned her thought toward Heather. A bullet has gone right through her. Its bad enough to have one hit you in the first place, but now she has a hole in her body. Nathan… was literally exhausted, had several wounds from fighting a Carnefice, Tossina infection, and those from Jared… None of Nathan’s ailments were necessarily life-threatening, but that of Heather and Samuel certainly were.

 

Kerrigan gasped and turned around, hearing a door open. Nathan emerged, accompanied by a nurse who led him over toward Kerrigan. Nathan was half-smiling, but had several bandages covering his neck and face, and some visible under his cut and slashed clothing.

 

“Your brother here is quite healthy, and you should expect a fast recovery in no more than two weeks.”

 

“What about Heather? Or Samuel?”

 

The nurse shook her head.

 

“Not so good. Heather has a ruptured pancreas, and will need some in-depth surgery to take care of it. Samuel has a dangerously high amount of Cyanide, which, in any volume, is usually fatal, but for about ten minutes after the initial… injection, in this case, then he’d just appear unconscious, but is sentient. Its been more than ten minutes, so its not looking good.”

 

Nathan wasn’t smiling anymore, but with his sister, looking up at the nurse who explained the dire situation.

 

“As we get closer, we’ll be able to determine if they’ll live.”

 

[And unless I get another grand divine inspiration to continue, the next update will be the last one. o: ]

[Arkcher]

[Potential conclusion time!]

 

[uh, nevermind.

I have the last bit of story made, and thought of about four different directions it could be taken for a conclusion. As such, I'll post multiple endings, and you guys decide which is best.]

 

[but I'll wait a short while until I have more possible endings. should have it up tonight or tomorrow.]

[Horatio]

[Potential conclusion time!]

 

[uh, nevermind.

I have the last bit of story made, and thought of about four different directions it could be taken for a conclusion. As such, I'll post multiple endings, and you guys decide which is best.]

 

[but I'll wait a short while until I have more possible endings. should have it up tonight or tomorrow.]

[ *holds breath in anticipation* ]

[Arkcher]

[i've got a total of four, two finished, two in progress. I'll post the two finished endings and put up the next two, uh, whenever they finish.]

 

 

 

After another long hour, the same nurse came back, looking uneased.

 

“Heather’s surgery is going well. Its not something terribly difficult to repair, and she will make a safe recovery…”

 

Nathan looked up, hopefully.

 

“And Samuel?”

 

The nurse shook her head,

 

“… I’m sorry, Nathan…”

 

---

 

[From this point, I’ve thought up a number of things that could happen. 'Alternate endings' will start from this point, and you choose which one you think is most awesome. Some of them will be set-ups for… omgSEQUELS]

 

Nathan sat in the front room of his house once more, next to Heather, who was fondly reading a book on the couch beside him. She recovered, but as a result of damaged organs, she had digestive problems and until they stabilized, she could only eat certain specialized foods.

 

Kerrigan was most likely upstairs in her room, where she spent most of her time. For the past week, she’s been particularly emotional and unhappy, now realizing just how fast a life could end, be taken away, or forever changed. Nathan could only hope she didn’t decide to ‘live every day like it was your last’, as he almost expected her to, and become irresponsible as such.

 

Nathan, however, was quite well. His upper-left arm was slightly bulkier than he remembered it, the skin bearing an off-yellow tint, which he could only assume was Tossina. It has apparently given him a minor infection, which was uncomfortable at times, but would occasionally manifest itself in sudden spurts of energy and strength, causing his adrenaline to pump hard and give him rather violent ideas, which he suppressed where possible.

 

As much as he didn’t like it, the truth remained. Both of his parents had died, despite his tremendous efforts to save his father; A meaningless effort that cost Nathan his best friend, Alex White.

 

He glanced down at Heather, only happy that she was able to survive. The fact that all of them escaped Harret, despite the inevitable casualties, was nothing short of a miracle.

 

[The above is the beginning for the following potential endings. Just read from this point in the following conclusions. Alternatively, You could use your own madd imagination skillz and think up your own ending. Then it wont be disappointing. =D]

 

---

 

Nathan stood up, restless. It was early evening, the sun nearing its routine end, to disappear over the horizon. Nathan stared outside for a short moment, not sure if the past events would have any effect on it. Part of him wanted it to, part of him didn’t.

 

He sighed, and walked across the hall in to another room, glancing to the side as he passed where was the last time he and Samuel were in this house together. He usually avoided going this direction, but went nonetheless. He came to the end of one hall, and looked to his left in the open door of the master bedroom. His parents’ room was neat and organized, with a thin coat of dust visible on its contents. Nathan sighed again and turned to the right, sat down and turned on the present TV, and watched news for a few minutes, before they finally announced something to grab his attention.

 

“The biggest hit to Orgonth yet was the Torrn family, and their various incidents. Not three and a half years ago, did their house get broken in to and ransacked of Samuel and Amanda’s bioengineered work, to be taken to a recently discovered lab named Harret. Authorities arrived at Harret after receiving direction from Nathan Torrn, only to find the place overrun by hundreds, thousands of small creatures…”

 

“What…?”

 

Nathan leaned forward, very interested. He turned up the volume,

 

“… which are believed to be one of many bioengineered creatures created from scratch by the potentially great scientists at Harret. These small creatures, no larger than a middle-aged house cat, are literally out of control, and seem bent on the destruction of Harret labs, constantly beating and scratching down the walls, but with little progress. We go live to the scene…”

 

The image changed from the news anchor behind a desk to a reporter, looking flustered, with the partially demolished Harret in the background.

 

“Carrot seems to be-“

 

“Its Harret, Victoria.”

 

“… Harret… looks to be in the process of being taken down by these strange creatures, wild and rampant, and for purposes unknown. Animal control agents have arrived at the scene, and one of them approached the creatures, only to be fatally attacked and mutilated by the clawed creatures, in a violent frenzy.”

 

Nathans heart skipped a beat- He thought Harret was finished…!

 

 

 

[One possible ending. Leads to another story idea that I had, but didnt plan to use it in this setting, but Harret was the kind of place to start it.]

 

[This is another possible ending, which I wasnt too fond of, but thought it could lead to an interesting... spin-off, i guess. Again, it picks up at the same point as the last one.]

 

 

 

Nathan stood up, restless. He began walking out of the room, but changed direction upon hearing the phone ring. Answering, He was surprised to hear from the hospital once more.

 

“We haven’t heard from Alex White for some time, and you were the first person to come to mind, we’ve heard you two were pretty close…”

 

“Uh, Yeah… Alex…”

 

Nathan thought for a moment.

 

“... I haven’t heard from him for a while, either.”

 

He continued, not sure if he should have said it that way.

 

"Hmm... Well, Alex would routinely come and check on Elizabeth, who would like some company. Would you care to come see her in Alex' place?"

 

Nathan thought for a moment. As his last, dying request, Alex wanted Nathan to take care of her.

 

"... Alright, I'll be over shortly."

 

Nathan hung up, thinking of Elizabeth's dire condition. Nathan had no means of helping...

 

---

 

Nathan stepped through the doorway as directed by the various nurses. Before him was a familiar, sickly sight, Elizabeth, frail and weak, was lightly sleeping.

 

"There is no hope for you..."

 

Nathan spoke clearly, his left arm pulsating. Elizabeth awoke, looking startled.

 

"No redemption. It is better for you to have died."

 

Nathan spoke without thinking, Elizabeth looking frightened, her mind just registering who it was speaking.

 

"On the verge of inert, vegetative state. You are meaningless."

 

Nathan couldn’t believe he was saying this. He respected Elizabeth's endurance and perseverance. With his sudden change of heart, Elizabeth uncomfortably shifted in her bed, seeing a large knife drawn.

 

"This... is the only progress you can get. This is the only way you can be helped."

 

Elizabeth's small eyes widened, and tried to call out for help, but her quiet, deadened voice limited how far her voice traveled, which was literally cut short by a slashing motion of Nathan's blade.

 

He stepped back, taking a deep breath, the scent of blood growing stronger. Nathan looked down at the half-open neck of his best friends' wife. He stared for a moment, and concluded that against all reason and morality he knew, he felt no remorse, regret... pity...

 

Realizing that Harret eliminated his view on the sanctity of life, Nathan opened the window of the room, letting in a rush of warm air. Nathan jumped through the opening, and sprinted away, now with an intent life of crime. With Harret gone, he felt that nothing would stop him...

 

 

 

[mmhmm.

And while copying this to the board, I realized that this carries a recurring theme from a lot of my stories. in almost all of them, they involve a man killing a woman, regardless of relationship or their intention. I want to make it clear that I mean nothing by this, and its just fictional characters, and I'm fully against such an action in real life. These stories are not real life.]

 

[Moving away from that, I leave you with these, and more yet to come, conclusions for Torrn Asunder. Though one update will be one that doesnt lead to a sequel. I honestly dont know if I'll follow through with the plan for a second one, so... they're just different possible endings. I couldn't pick just one.]

 

[Oh, and if you feel so inclined, use your own madd imagination skillz to think up your own ending. If you think of it, you wont be disappointed with it. ;D ]

[Horatio]

[mmhmm.

And while copying this to the board, I realized that this carries a recurring theme from a lot of my stories. in almost all of them, they involve a man killing a woman, regardless of relationship or their intention. I want to make it clear that I mean nothing by this, and its just fictional characters, and I'm fully against such an action in real life. These stories are not real life.]

 

[Moving away from that, I leave you with these, and more yet to come, conclusions for Torrn Asunder. Though one update will be one that doesnt lead to a sequel. I honestly dont know if I'll follow through with the plan for a second one, so... they're just different possible endings. I couldn't pick just one.]

 

[Oh, and if you feel so inclined, use your own madd imagination skillz to think up your own ending. If you think of it, you wont be disappointed with it. ;D ]

[i had not noticed the recurring theme. Now that you point it out, I do not see any meaning in this, just the story line. I do have one question, your mother and sisters are still alive, aren't they? ]

[Arkcher]

[mmhmm.

And while copying this to the board, I realized that this carries a recurring theme from a lot of my stories. in almost all of them, they involve a man killing a woman, regardless of relationship or their intention. I want to make it clear that I mean nothing by this, and its just fictional characters, and I'm fully against such an action in real life. These stories are not real life.]

 

[Moving away from that, I leave you with these, and more yet to come, conclusions for Torrn Asunder. Though one update will be one that doesnt lead to a sequel. I honestly dont know if I'll follow through with the plan for a second one, so... they're just different possible endings. I couldn't pick just one.]

 

[Oh, and if you feel so inclined, use your own madd imagination skillz to think up your own ending. If you think of it, you wont be disappointed with it. ;D ]

[i had not noticed the recurring theme. Now that you point it out, I do not see any meaning in this, just the story line. I do have one question, your mother and sisters are still alive, aren't they? ]

[Yeah, my immediate family here is all fine and dandy.

I dont know where I may have gotten the idea to write that kind of thing in the stories, it just happened without me realizing it until then.]

[Horatio]

[mmhmm.

And while copying this to the board, I realized that this carries a recurring theme from a lot of my stories. in almost all of them, they involve a man killing a woman, regardless of relationship or their intention. I want to make it clear that I mean nothing by this, and its just fictional characters, and I'm fully against such an action in real life. These stories are not real life.]

 

[Moving away from that, I leave you with these, and more yet to come, conclusions for Torrn Asunder. Though one update will be one that doesnt lead to a sequel. I honestly dont know if I'll follow through with the plan for a second one, so... they're just different possible endings. I couldn't pick just one.]

 

[Oh, and if you feel so inclined, use your own madd imagination skillz to think up your own ending. If you think of it, you wont be disappointed with it. ;D ]

[i had not noticed the recurring theme. Now that you point it out, I do not see any meaning in this, just the story line. I do have one question, your mother and sisters are still alive, aren't they? ]

[Yeah, my immediate family here is all fine and dandy.

I dont know where I may have gotten the idea to write that kind of thing in the stories, it just happened without me realizing it until then.]

[ Ssssshhhhh. I don't think anyone else noticed. I didn't.

Your stories are just great even though you are killing off the female side of the species. ]

[Arkcher]

[ Ssssshhhhh. I don't think anyone else noticed. I didn't.

Your stories are just great even though you are killing off the female side of the species. ]

Thanks. =D

I do appreciate it.

Im writing some other endings right now, but see a good outcome in about all of them. D= and cant decide which to be official.]

[Horatio]

[ Ssssshhhhh. I don't think anyone else noticed. I didn't.

Your stories are just great even though you are killing off the female side of the species. ]

Thanks. =D

I do appreciate it.

Im writing some other endings right now, but see a good outcome in about all of them. D= and cant decide which to be official.]

[ I can always make an ending poll for you. ]

[Arkcher]

[ Ssssshhhhh. I don't think anyone else noticed. I didn't.

Your stories are just great even though you are killing off the female side of the species. ]

Thanks. =D

I do appreciate it.

Im writing some other endings right now, but see a good outcome in about all of them. D= and cant decide which to be official.]

[ I can always make an ending poll for you. ]

[nah, I dont think that'll be necessary. Thanks anyway.]

[- Kat -]

[My ending involves a RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE with G-Millz and Samuel DJing and everybody else twirling glowsticks. WHIKKI-WHIKKI

 

Naw, I kid. Great story, Arkcher-face. <3]

[Cheesus]

[My ending involves a RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE with G-Millz and Samuel DJing and everybody else twirling glowsticks. WHIKKI-WHIKKI

 

Naw, I kid. Great story, Arkcher-face. <3]

 

[that was completely random. And hilarious. I applaud your awesometicity. <5]

[And so far, I like the first ending better. ]

[Arkcher]

[My ending involves a RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAVE with G-Millz and Samuel DJing and everybody else twirling glowsticks. WHIKKI-WHIKKI

 

Naw, I kid. Great story, Arkcher-face. <3]

 

[that was completely random. And hilarious. I applaud your awesometicity. <5]

[And so far, I like the first ending better. ]

Wooh.

 

I have two other endings in mind, one of which isnt a setup for a sequel and everything ends relatively happy, but I cant think of how to word it. D= I've been trying at it for like a week and im not getting anything.

[Arkcher]

After another long hour, the same nurse came back, looking uneased.

 

“Heather’s surgery is going well. Its not something terribly difficult to repair, and she will make a safe recovery…”

 

Nathan looked up, hopefully.

 

“And Samuel?”

 

The nurse shook her head,

 

“… I’m sorry, Nathan…”

 

---

 

Nathan sat in the front room of his house once more, next to Heather, who was fondly reading a book on the couch beside him. She recovered, but as a result of damaged organs, she had digestive problems and until they stabilized, she could only eat certain specialized foods.

 

Kerrigan was most likely upstairs in her room, where she spent most of her time. For the past week, she’s been particularly emotional and unhappy, now realizing just how fast a life could end, be taken away, or forever changed. Nathan could only hope she didn’t decide to ‘live every day like it was your last’, as he almost expected her to, and become irresponsible as such.

 

Nathan, however, was quite well. His upper-left arm was slightly bulkier than he remembered it, the skin bearing an off-yellow tint, which he could only assume was Tossina. It has apparently given him a minor infection, which was uncomfortable at times, but would occasionally manifest itself in sudden spurts of energy and strength, causing his adrenaline to pump hard and give him rather violent ideas, which he suppressed where possible.

 

As much as he didn’t like it, the truth remained. Both of his parents had died, despite his tremendous efforts to save his father; A meaningless effort that cost Nathan his best friend, Alex White.

 

He glanced down at Heather, only happy that she was able to survive. The fact that all of them escaped Harret, despite the inevitable casualties, was nothing short of a miracle.

 

---

 

As per the attack from Seth which took Alex out, Nathan and Heather had worked together to analyze Elizabeth White’s condition. It was a unique condition with new diseases, or at least new to them. Not being a huge hospital, Orgonth’s medics weren’t capable of performing a sufficient analysis, only performing just enough to prolong Elizabeth’s life.

 

After the said analysis of the medical condition, Heather reported it to the medical staff who, in this light, found that they were using the wrong sorts of medication to treat her.

 

To everyones surprise, the thirteen-year-old girl saved Elizabeth’s life, having studied the matter with her parents and doing so to great extents.

 

Elizabeth and Alex were only married for just over two years, and accordingly didn’t have a great abundance of belongings or possessions. Elizabeth was in the process of moving away, of course after profusely thanking the Torrn’s for their assistance, but she couldn’t bear the memory of this place, having met and married Alex here.

 

Heather, quite proud of herself, further studied the medicinal science field, already knowing enough to have received a professional education. Her sister, Kerrigan, hadn’t changed much, and her Heather’s excellence wasnt much helping.

 

Nathan had been offered a position by Orgonth’s law-enforcement, offering a better pay than the social security support he and his sisters had been receiving. Though rather than patrolling the streets and giving parking tickets, He spent a lot of time exploring the back alleyways of Orgonth, and the service roads about highways. Occasionally he would be called back to town to deal with a particular nuisance or any chases that needed sufficient assistance.

 

Standing tall as a local hero to the town, he provided a safe environment for his remaining family.

[i felt bad for not having a relatively happy ending so I threw this one together.

=D]

 

[Also: I have another storyline in development which has the kind of environment to fit these characters and scenarios. so Its pretty likely there'll be a sequel.

wooh.]

[- Kat -]

Awwww. It's all happy-like.

 

I bet the citizens on Orgonth make a song about Nathan now.

[Arkcher]

Awwww. It's all happy-like.

 

I bet the citizens on Orgonth make a song about Nathan now.

Mmhmm. They all stand around a freakishly huge christmas tree holding hands and sing some demented variation of Coombaya. ... or however you spell that.

[Arkcher]

Yeah so, A thought came to mind the other day, and will need to be explained sometime.

 

Nathan and Alex are of very close age.

Nathan is pretty awesome.

Alex is pretty awesome, soo.

 

Alex is married and had his own house.

Nathan still lives with his parents, and there was no mention of him ever having romantic interest in anyone.

 

so In the less-abridged, more-refined version of this, I either need a good explanation for that, or adjust Nathans age to not-that-old.

Unless you guys can think of a good reason why the 24-year-old still lives at home.

My 23-year-old brother even has his own place by now.

 

ideas, anyone? ?

[Horatio]

Yeah so, A thought came to mind the other day, and will need to be explained sometime.

 

Nathan and Alex are of very close age.

Nathan is pretty awesome.

Alex is pretty awesome, soo.

 

Alex is married and had his own house.

Nathan still lives with his parents, and there was no mention of him ever having romantic interest in anyone.

 

so In the less-abridged, more-refined version of this, I either need a good explanation for that, or adjust Nathans age to not-that-old.

Unless you guys can think of a good reason why the 24-year-old still lives at home.

My 23-year-old brother even has his own place by now.

 

ideas, anyone? ?

Lots of kids come back home and live with their parents well into their thirties. Think about this, nice house, room, mother makes dinner, laundry might be done for you, plus it is a whole lot less expensive than living on your own. So, if they wanted to buy a car, they could live at home, pay their parents a set amount towards expenses, pay their car payment, insurance and gas, etc. and still have money let over to save. If you rent, you need first, last and security (each a month's rent), plus you need deposits on electric, gas, water, phone, before you even get them installed, (and I have not mentioned cable/internet) then come the monthly bills. These all add up to a good sum of money. If you are not making too much, then almost all of your paycheck goes towards your living accommodations. This has not even accounted for a car, insurance, gas, etc., plus food and something to spend. Living on your own is nice, but does take a bit of money. It's okay that Nathan lives at home. Besides, when you get tired of this story line, his parents can always kick him out.

[Arkcher]

Yeah so, A thought came to mind the other day, and will need to be explained sometime.

 

Nathan and Alex are of very close age.

Nathan is pretty awesome.

Alex is pretty awesome, soo.

 

Alex is married and had his own house.

Nathan still lives with his parents, and there was no mention of him ever having romantic interest in anyone.

 

so In the less-abridged, more-refined version of this, I either need a good explanation for that, or adjust Nathans age to not-that-old.

Unless you guys can think of a good reason why the 24-year-old still lives at home.

My 23-year-old brother even has his own place by now.

 

ideas, anyone? ?

Lots of kids come back home and live with their parents well into their thirties. Think about this, nice house, room, mother makes dinner, laundry might be done for you, plus it is a whole lot less expensive than living on your own. So, if they wanted to buy a car, they could live at home, pay their parents a set amount towards expenses, pay their car payment, insurance and gas, etc. and still have money let over to save. If you rent, you need first, last and security (each a month's rent), plus you need deposits on electric, gas, water, phone, before you even get them installed, (and I have not mentioned cable/internet) then come the monthly bills. These all add up to a good sum of money. If you are not making too much, then almost all of your paycheck goes towards your living accommodations. This has not even accounted for a car, insurance, gas, etc., plus food and something to spend. Living on your own is nice, but does take a bit of money. It's okay that Nathan lives at home. Besides, when you get tired of this story line, his parents can always kick him out.

well.

Further thought in to the matter reminded me that at the time of Harret's raid and such, Nathan was 25 or so. Which was 3 years after his parents kicked the bucket, so he was 22 or so.

 

so.

22-year-old.

living with his parents.

[Arkcher]

Im currently making a more refined version of this here story...

 

with like, longer dialogue and also greater detail.

and less censorship.

 

The less abridged version, pretty much.

It will entail a cooler intro, and the facets mentioned.

 

Theres one thing I'll need a second opinion on.

 

The original idea for the story, there was a similar last showdown kind of scene.

I didnt quite do it that way though, so i'll try describing what I had imagined.

 

In this version, After they pwnt Jared, he used a last blow to try and kill off Samuel and ultimately succeeded, and he ended up dying in the hospital.

 

The original idea was that they would find Samuel moments before said showdown, and Jared was keeping Samuel hostage there with him or something.

And because Jared is relatively sadistic, After taunting and talking to Nathan for a minute, he injected Samuel with that mess of chemical and such, but not as much.

It was enough to mess with his nervous system but use a different poison than Cyanide, so it acted a lot slower and more painfully. Nathan got very angry and goes and pwns Jared, and the male equivalent of Heather finished him off by some means i didnt think of yet. They all ran over to the delirious Samuel, who by that time was beyond redemption. He and Nathan talked for a while, Nathan insisting that he can get Samuel to a hospital, take care of him and everything would be great. Samuel insists that too much time has passed, and if Nathan tried that, Samuel would just kick the bucket in the car and everyone would be sad.

So, getting his attention once more, Samuel convinced Nathan to relieve him of the long discomforting demise, and kill him painlessly right there.

 

And, after a little scene more depressing than Alex dying, Nathan had to kill his dad by himself, after losing Alex and almost dying just to get there. So they have a happy little family moment and such, then kill Samuel, then Nathan is emo and that last chase scene comes.

And maybe they end up giving Alex and Samuel proper funeral kind of ceremonies, in the ending.

 

 

 

That, or leave it how it is, which turned out better than I thought it would.

 

Whaddyou guys think?

I cant decide. D:

[Horatio]

That, or leave it how it is, which turned out better than I thought it would.

 

Whaddyou guys think?

I cant decide. D:

I can't decide either. One thing I do know, is whichever way you have it end, it will be fantastic!!!

Sorry that I am of no help.