No. No objections. After two months of silence, I'm going to put the old girl down with the dignity it deserves. We've tried resurrection once, but with this amount of baggage, it's just not going to work. If any of you object to having your character controlled, I'm sorry.
By golly. It's been a month since I wrote those words. It's been one hell of a ride, and this is the final post, ever, in Prototypes.
Flames and Lightning tore through the crowd of mutilated people, burning them to a crisp. It hit the mound of rubble behind them, and exploded with massive strength. The dozens of malformed creatures who had been trying to dig themselves out were torn to pieces, or otherwise buried again. A shower of pieces of rock, glass, metal and, worst of all, gore showered the Prototypes. Reese received a package of intestines hitting him square in the face.
"God-DAMN-it, this stuff's nasty!" He said, after clearing his face from most of the gore. He shook himself, trying to get all of it off him. A blast of heat moved past him , and all that had landed on Sarah turned into ashes. His scowl deepened when he saw that none of the other Prototypes had been hit. With a friendly laugh and clap on the shoulder, Sparrow said:
"We've got a bit more experience with flying body parts, mate." He glanced at Samuel's back while he said that. He was looking over the ruins of New York. Then he tipped his head, and stood completely still. After near half a minute, he abruptly turned and quickly made his way to Rosa, who was flinching at keeping the barrier up. He quietly asked her a question. She tipped her head in the same way, and after a few seconds nodded vigorously.
"Thought so." Samuel said. "The entire crater is filled with those creatures, but nothing else. They're not the cause of this, but the result."
"There is however something interesting here. First, there's a trail of radiation moving out of the city, crossing the Hudson and through Jersey, inlands. A vehicle can't cross the rivers now, the bridges are destroyed, and--"
Rosa chimed in.
"And a normal human would drop dead, or turn into that," she gestured a the remains of the malformed creatures, "so it's a bit odd."
"And second, this radiation seems alive. It moves with purpose."
"How the is that possible, Sam?" Sparrow said.
"I don't know. But I have ideas. So as much as I enjoy squatting in a radiating hole."
Sarah muttered something. All Samuel could catch was Your freaking idea.
"I say we follow that trail..."
Two arguments, three litres of Coke and one sick stop later...
Near two hours later, an agitated Sparrow was getting directions from an equal-agitated Rosa inside their minivan with no air conditioning. Reese, still covered in red stains, wore his scowl that seemed to be permanent. Sarah looked just tired. They had all returned into the van, and drove on Rosa's feelings on the trail.
Samuel thought he could have done it, but Rosa was more sensitive for energy, where he was for matter.
Suddenly she cried out 'there! There it is!' which made everyone in the van start. They stopped rather abruptly. She kept pointing at a brick house not far from the road, across from a cluster of abandoned-looking buildings. Even from this distance, the gore spread over the front of the house, and stretching quite a distance from the front door across the lawn, was clearly visible. A circle around the house had nothing on it but withered grass. Samuel laughed humourously.
"I think it's this place, yeah."
Sarah shivered. "It's so cold here."
He frowned.
"What's going on Samuel?" Sparrow asked as he put an arm around Sarah. She looked up at him, appreciatively.
"More Prototypes. Inside.." Samuel said, sounding almost defeated. The group's attention quickly snapped to the house. Nothing moved. Sparrow sighed, and removed his arm.
"Right. I hate to be the voice of reason here, but I'm kinda sick of this all. We're going in there, kill these guys - no matter the cost - and get out of here, okay? We don't need another Doc and Razi."
"What do you mean, no matter the cost?" Reese asked.
"What I mean is that there's no running today. Those people inside just nuked NYC, and they're the product of that which we've tried to stop. So, we're going to stop them. Even if it means we go with them, we're going to stop them. Agreed?"
A beat of silence reverberated through the air. Then everyone agreed.
"But we don't need to blindly assault them..."
Moments later...
They were all pouring over the plans Kolja conjured up for them. They all seemed to agree rather easy, and their meeting was rudely interrupted by loud knocking on the door. Sander frowned. He had removed the door from its hinges just now.
"Can I answer it?", he asked. Kolja waved his hand, as if to give him permission. Sander grinned. He just wanted dibs, not permissions. He walked through the gore-decorated hallway, and stood in the open doorway. A man and woman stood a few meters from the door, on the now shriveled lawn. The man's arm was entirely black.
"Well, this is unexpected to say the least." He said.
"We were wondering if you wanted to buy some cookies. We're trying to get our Special Helper badges." Sarah dryly remarked.
"Now, you can't say you would have made a joke like that if we'd never met." Sparrow said aside.
"What? I've always been funny..."
"Yeah, suuure. And I've always been an attractive, suave and witty lady-killer."
"You know, when you're being sarcastic, you're not meant to actually be truthful."
"So, you're saying I'm witty, suave and attractive? Aww, Sarah, I knew you cared but--"
"Hello? Am I invisible or something?" Sander interrupted, getting bored with their bickering.
Samil and Rufus appeared next to him.
"What's going on?" Sander asked.
"The boss said to get your ass out of the doorway." Samil remarked.
"What does that mean?" Rufus asked, looking positively confused.
"First of all, don't call him boss. Secondly, look below." Samil said with a grumpy look on his face.
"Ah.", he replied.
"Yes. Ah, exactly."
"Shouldn't we, you know, kill them?" Sarah said after silencing Sparrow in mid-retort.
"You can try." Sander said, grinning again now.
"Ohh, I like her. She's got spunk."
"I'll give you spunk in a minute." Sparrow called out. Both Sarah and the three in the house were quiet a beat after.
"...oh, God no. Not like that!"
"Oooh, I get it now. He called your face your ass." Rufus said, his face brightening in understanding.
"I'm actually not sure what to do. I mean, it could be a trap." Sander said, his blissful grin now becoming one of confusion.
"How could THIS be a trap? They're standing in a field, insulting us." Samil said,
"I didn't say it was a smart trap."
Kolja marched down the corridor, shouldering Rufus aside.
"Ahh, now this makes a lot more sense." He said.
"Hello! It's a nice day isn't it?" Sarah said, receiving a punishing look from Sparrow
"Please let me kill him. Please." Sander pleaded.
"Go ahead."
"Score!", Sanded laughed.
Sander launched himself off the porch while at the same time attempting to grab the male. In a flash he was firmly rooted to the ground. Sander stopped in mid-air, puzzled. He saw the female ignite, and backed away a bit. This was... odd, to say the least. He quickly dodged a jet of fire, and flung a fistful of solid air at her. The male got in her way, his skin pitch black now. The air hit him without budging.
Feeling a small stab of panic, he turned back to the house.
"Little help, please?", he grinned
Rufus and Samil quickly ran to join the fray, but were soon dodging the obsidian blows and fire coming from the Prototypes. Kolja calmly walked up to them, building up radiation all the while. Soon, however, he hit some kind of border. He leaned forward, examining the wall of... something in front of him.
He was thrown across the field by something hitting him from the side. He slid over the blood-soaked grass, and halted meters further. He carefully examined his suit, and found nothing wrong with it. He got up, and saw a teenage girl standing, hair flaring and eyes and fists glowing. His unmoving mask showed no surprise. His breath stopped for a moment though when a shaft of lightning hit the ground next to him, and a boy about her age appeared next to her, with blue lightning running across his arms and sparking to the ground. The gears in his head were spinning, and soon he connected the dots.
Other subjects... different programs... Harbingers
The Prototypes were getting hammered pretty bad. Samil went all out on them, throwing them here and there with telekinetic forces. Rufus was able to sneak up on them, and phase into this plain again, attacking them with different objects scattered across the battlefield. Sander was hovering a few feet in the air, assaulting them with solid air and sharp objects he conjured out of nowhere, all the whilst laughing in a manic fashion. Kolja could keep Rosa and Reece at bay with bursts of radiation. One had stuck the house, bashing a path right through it.
Suddenly, Sander was stuck out of the air by Samuel, who had thrown himself at him. Sander laughed even louder, and threw Samuel off him. He landed heavily on the ground, a knife clutching in his right hand.
He caught Sarah, who had been thrown away by Salim.
"Run!" He said, pointing with his weapon to the cluster of buildings across the street. All of the Prototypes knew, this was part of the plan. They all escaped their adversaries, and all ran away. The foursome stood a bit dazed, looking at the Prototypes ran into a building.
Half an hour later...
The group stood facing Samuel, his eyes transfixed on doorway. They'd spoken for long enough and the others would be here soon enough. They didn't have time to mess about anymore, it was do or die.
"You sure this'll work?" Reece whispered to Samuel, his voice trembling in fear.
"It has to work." Samuel replied, "And if it doesn't, what difference would it truly make? We can't beat these new ones using brute strength alone."
Sarah and Sparrow both stood holding each other, their faces touching. It was obvious they'd both been crying. Sarah had her free hand on top of Rosa's head, stroking her hair in a methodical fashion. Reece walked over to Sparrow, both of them coming together for a brief moment to hug.
"For everything we've done, this doesn't seem like the heroic ending we deserve." Rosa warbled through her tears, "We deserve better. People deserve to know what we sacrificed to keep them safe."
"We know." Sarah replied, "Isn't that enough? What good has the world been to us before? Do we want their pity when they've shown us nothing but disgust before?"
"I don't think we should say anything more. Words aren't going to help much, anymore." Sparrow murmured, "Just get it over with Samuel."
Samuel exchanged a nodding of heads with Sparrow. He motioned for them all to sit down, before taking a deep breath. He traced their patterns. Strings all tangled up; with one betraying that they were Prototypes. He seized hold of each one, merging them together in his mind. It would need to be as painless as possible, because these people were his friends. They'd taken him in, accepted them. He owed them more than they could ever give him.
Samuel heard gasps of what he presumed were pain. He didn't look. He might lose his will when witnessing their deaths. After he sensed he was all alone, he joined their pattern with his own. For a moment, he felt nothing. Then slight impressions; A sensation on his shoulders, and one tense one on his hand. He smiled. Sparrow wasn?t the type to hug, more a manly handshake.
After several minutes, he felt the change within himself. He took one look at his friends, their bodies slumped around him. He felt powerful enough to bend the world apart. Pain presented itself, but he pushed it away. Time to end it. He thought. Once and for all.
Outside...
"..wherever you are!" Rufus said with a high-pitched voice. Sander facepalmed.
"Don't tell me you just said that."
"What? Wasn't that what I was supposed to be doing?"
Sander opened his mouth to reply, but Samil indicated something; a man walking out of a three-story building; The one with the knife.
"There you are!" Sander said, picking himself up and floating nearer. "I owe you another--"
The man began to run. His face was set in pure anger. A barbaric yell resonated through the air before he struck through the solid air barrier Sander had hastily thrown his way. A look of pure terror flashed across his face before he was disintegrated.
Rufus stood still, paralyzed with fear. Samuel's attention quickly snapped to him, and Rufus phased into his other dimension. He tried to make his way to safety, but felt something tug on him. This had never happened before. Then he was flung out of his plane and into the air. He heard the rushing of fire before he as well became ash.
Kolja looked at the happenings from a distance. Quickly, he shifted his own form, as to avoid detection from the raging Prototype below. Salim saw his comrades get destroyed and steadied himself for the figure that was now sprinting through the street, right towards him. At the end, he seemingly gave up; Smart man, that one. Samuel hit him right in the sternum, feeling the bones in his back shatter into dust and sending him flying across the streets, swiftly followed by a blanket of red mist.
He heard the furious roar that accompanied the death, and felt something he hadn't felt in a long time; fear. A small twinge in his insides, but it was unnerving. He blinked and searched the streets again. Where in the hell did he go?
He froze when he felt something on his shoulder. Die he heard someone whisper before all of his senses were attacked with pure pain and after that nothing more...
Hours later
Samuel sat amidst rubble. He mindlessly created sparks, flicked it between hands and into the air, watching them vanish. It was done. Every single connection to this project was gone. He smiled slightly when he remembered that promise he'd made in that British apartment; A small-time hit man killing people for petty cash. When he started his search, he'd promised Sarah and Sparrow to put a stop to this project.
And he had, but at an unimaginable cost. With a sigh, he got up. Everything was finished. He looked over his shoulder at the small depression he'd made in the ground, as a memento to the ones that had sacrificed themselves for an ungrateful world. There was only one thing left to do.
Entering the building in which the other Prototypes had sacrificed themselves; he made his way toward the room in which the bodies of his friends lied. He stared at them for a few seconds. They deserved a proper burial. They deserved more than a proper burial. They deserved so much more.
"Sarah... Sarah... are you there Sarah?" a voice moaned, "Please Sarah. Please. Help me. I feel so much pain."
Samuel bent down next to Reese, his body shivering in pain.
"Shh." Samuel said, placing a hand on Reese's head, "Shh, Reese. Don't worry."
"Sarah? Is that you?"
"Don't worry, Reese. I'll make it stop hurting. For both of us.", Samuel murmured, his voice heavy with anger. Sparks ran up his arm.
"Thank you Sarah."
Everything will be finished...
Fin
