"Come on girl, beat the time. You have nine minutes left and three stages." He spoke from her side.
She pushed her body to the limit, grabbing onto the hanging rope. She climbed to the top and rang the bed. She slid down the slick material and landed on her feet. The tires were nothing, she ran through seventy of them. Finally, she reached the jump ropes.
"Seventy-five, go!" Ace snapped.
Her heart was racing, she picked up the jump rope and started to count. Hearing Ace count by fives. She couldn't breathe, she couldn't think. The world was dimming out around her, the rope slowed up and caught the top of her boot tripping herself.
When she fell, she hit the concrete hard. Ace grew quiet, and she could feel her entire body throb underneath her, screaming and begging for a break. Yet, she still pushed. Mina looked up from the ground, blood ran over her lips from her nose. He gave her a slow nod, "I won't start over. I'll start at half. Come on, get up. You got five minutes."
She pushed herself up, blood dripping to the concrete. Grabbing the jump rope, she continued.
“Seventy…”
“Seventy-five.”
She dropped the rope and went to the final stage. "Move, move, move! Come on, pick up your knees and move your fat ass!" He screamed. He was fierce and kept pushing her. She ran her arm over her nose and dropped from a full sprint down on her stomach. She bellies slid and started to army crawl underneath barbed wire. It was so much harder than she thought. Her wet skin made the dirt and dust turn to mud.
"Two-minute warning!" He was running beside her, and she still had a good amount of ground to cover. She kicked it into high gear, crawling as fast as she could. She kept moving, keeping her eyes on the prize.
A nice hot shower, and dinner.
It was the end of the crawl, and she sprinted the last sixty or so feet. Ace beside her screaming. "Move your fat ass!" She turned to him and slid to the finish line. He was right there next to her side as she did.
She laid there for a moment, breathing as blood covered her lips and chin. Still dripping from her nose. "That…holy…shit…" She breathed hard. He laughed at her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "That…was the hardest physical thing I've ever done in my life…" She lowered her head, spots floating around her vision.
"Good job cadet." Emmett called from the front of the training room. Both Mina and Ace lifted their heads to look in that direction. "You beat my time by…" He looked at his watch, "A minute and three seconds."
Ace held out his hand, and she took it without question. He helped her to her feet, and she swayed for a moment. Emmett paused in front of them. "There is one last test you have to do, and I want to see if you can do it." He lifted his chin. "I need you to go into the far back of the training facility, and Ace, I need you to come with her too."
Mina gave Ace a quick look, and he gave a shake to his head. "Sir, don't you think it's a little early for that? I mean she's only on day three—"
"I give the orders, and I say what our cadets do. I see that she beat my time. Now, I want to see how she does in a high stress situation. Take her to the back." There was a hitch in his voice, and it made Mina straighten her back.
She turned to Ace, "It's okay. I can do it."
Emmett nodded to her, "Go on. I have to speak to Ace alone for a moment. Would you mind?"
Mina made a slight face but walked around them. Wiping at her face again. She took a glance over her shoulder, and saw Emmett speaking to Ace quietly. I wonder what they're talking about…
Chapter Four
Emmett was face to face with Ace for the first time in three days, he squared his shoulders and felt his jaw clench, "We need to talk about Myrna."
Ace's face lost all color, "What's wrong with her? You said it yourself, she beat your time, and she's scoring higher than anyone else in her classes—"
Emmett raised his hand, "No, Wilder, that's not what I want to talk about." He lowered his hand and let out a light breath. "I've been thinking a lot, and I don't want the same thing to happen to Myrna that happened to Agatha. I want to know if something were to happen to you—"
Ace snorted, "Are you getting jealous Captain?"
Emmett had a pause, but he pushed on, "No, Wilder. I just want to know if anything were to happen to you if I have your permission to take care of her. To become her new handler." He crossed his arms, keeping his face empty. "After all, she's our most important player in this game. She's our trump card. And if we lose you, we lose her."
Ace made little to argue, instead his shoulders slumped, and his hardened demeanor dropped, "Promise that you would take care of her? No matter what Emmett? She's special to me." He moved the fake hand, it looked so real that it could've passed as a real hand. But he knew better. The fingers were controlled by his mind, he tells it to move it moves. They even got his skin color down to a T. No one could see the line where the fake skin starts and his flesh ends. "I nearly died once…thanks to my incompetence…just…"
"I promise I'll take care of her." Emmett interjected, "When you lived through as many attacks as I have, death becomes your new best friend. We have lost many brothers and sisters to Alfred and his Company. Lord knows how many more we're going to lose."
He watched Ace's face turn white. "Alfred…he made Nadine and Mina, didn't he?"
"Yes. Alfred and the Company are trying to become gods. They feed on people’s faith to gain their trust." He leaned against the wall, his shoulders sagging slightly, "They believe they can create life, and because of this, they also believe they can destroy it. The whole lot creates fear, and they use that fear to instill a false faith in people. Have anxiety? They have a cure all medication for that. Suicidal thoughts and ideations? Heh, well, they have a legitimate happy pill that will make you crash ten times as hard and make you come crawling back for more." Emmett closed his eyes.
"There's a large problem, a huge weak point in their system. Its people like us. The survivors of their attacks. They know we are coming, and it's why I was hoping at least one of their…'humans' remained." Snapping his eyes open, he stared into Ace's eyes. "Do you know why they were created? Nadine and Myrna?"
Ace rubbed the back of his head, "I read in a file, that they were made as a clean-up project just in case a spill or something like Crusa happened."
"That's half right." Emmett narrowed his eyes, "Yes, they were created to clean up the Company's mess if something went wrong, but they were also a scam to help those who can't get pregnant. Nadine and Myrna were born through a fake womb. We have one of the fake wombs in our hands now as we speak. Our scientists are testing it; before the bombs fell, we grabbed it and transferred it back here…along with Nadine's corpse."
Ace swallowed, "You have—"
"Her sister here? Yes. We took her as well, so we can find out what went wrong in her DNA. That way if something happens to Myrna, we can take her down without her getting too far in the transformation. She has decomposed much quicker than we had thought, so we have her in liquid nitrogen." He lowered his arms to his sides, "Come, I want to show you and Myrna the Womb. I think it's only right for her to know where she came from."
"What about the Dark Room?" Ace questioned.
A small smirk crossed Emmett's lips, "That’s before the Womb. Come. Myrna is waiting for us out in the hall."
◆◆◆
She rocked on her feet; her stomach was growing tight with knots. Ace and Emmett had been talking for a good long while. Her nose had already healed, and she had cleaned the blood off her arm and upper lip. One point for being a monster, I guess. She watched the training door open; Mina was taken back by how both of them looked. Ace had a darkness in his eyes, and a shadow casted over his face that worried her. There even seemed to be new creases in his face that weren't there before.
Emmett's jaw was tight, and she could tell he was clenching his teeth. Something happened between the two of them, something changed. Her mind was going through various situations—
"Come on Mina,
I'll take you to the Dark Room. It's your final test. Are you ready?" Ace placed his hand on her back, guiding her down the hall.
She glanced over her shoulder, "What about Captain Normandy?"
"I'll be there shortly. After all, I have to set some things up." Emmett took a left instead of following them.
Mina was about to ask what was on Ace's mind, but he already jumped the gun and started talking to her. "They have Nadine here…well, her corpse. They're testing on her to see what went wrong."
Her blood ran cold, and she swallowed hard. "What?"
"They have Nadine here. She's on ice right now, they want to make sure you don't end up the same way as she did. So, they're running tests on her body."
She paused in her step, "And they didn't ask me? Isn't there some right I have over Nadine's body?" Surprise, and horror struck her deep to her core.
Ace shook his head, "Unfortunately, because you both are…er…not really…" He stumbled over his words.
Mina stopped following him to cross her arms. She leaned on her hip, with her eyebrow cocked. "Because I'm not really, real?"
Irritation entered Ace's voice, "Look Myrna, I don't know how to word it. But yes, because you were man made, along with your sister, there is no law stopping them from taking her body and testing on it. I'm sorry but that's the truth."
She uncrossed her arms, defeat crossing her face. "I know…it's not your fault. I'm not a real human anyway. So, human laws don't work on me." She brushed past him, "Just take me to this damn room so I can get this shit over with. I'm tired, and I want to take a hot shower and rest for the rest of the night."
"…unfortunately, that's not going to happen. There's one last thing Captain Normandy wants to show you before you retire for the night." Ace spoke from behind her.
She groaned in frustration, "Fine…I have no choice."
"No. You don't Mina, we all don't have a choice anymore."
◆◆◆
The 'Dark Room' was a large metal door with a key card reader. There were no handles on the outside. The metal was old, rusted over and looked like an entrance to a bunker of some sort—
"When you go in, you'll only have your wit and." He pulled Vinny's revolver out of its holster and handed it to her. "Your weapon."
Her eyes darkened, as she reached forward and took it. "What is this Ace?"
He reached over and swiped the gold-colored card, "I wish you luck Mina." He took a quick look over his shoulder and leaned into her ear. "Bastet."
Her eyes switched, becoming cat-like. Her nails grew into sharp points, and she took a step back from him. Mina's body was filled with electricity as she stood straight, her hand gripping tight around the butt of the gun. "Sir." She waited for his next command.
His back straightened, "Finish your final test, and survive."
Mina turned from Ace and walked through the door. She could hear the metal doors coming to a close behind her. She was shrouded in darkness—she could see perfectly within the inky blackness—she relaxed her shoulders.
The walls were covered in splotches of red and copper. By the smell, she could identify it as old blood. The walls were painted a disgusting yellow, and curved left and right. Her instincts were pinging, telling her to go right.
She did.
The gun was light in her hands, and she kept it at hip level while holding it with both hands. Her eyes bounced from wall to wall, there were old fluorescent lights on the top of the walls, and some lining the floor.
Her boots made little to no noise as she walked on the balls of her feet, the tiles underneath her were once white, and were now almost black with blood.
Another three-way turn, she could either go forward, left, or right. She paused in the center, letting her senses take control. Mina closed her eyes; the halls came in around her—
A sliding noise to her right.
She went left.
Dropping to a crouch she walked as silently as possible, the sliding paused as a harsh sniffing noise came next, a hiss soon followed. Whatever it is, has my scent. She kept moving forward, the soft sliding noise came closer.
Nails on tile…scratching, a body being dragged almost. There was a dent in the wall, it dipped. She went along the dip and was in a small cubby where—what she assumed; telephones used to be—Mina slowed her breathing to the point it was almost non-existent.
The slithering, sliding sound came so close she could smell—
-smell decay.
Her nose flared and her body kicked into action. Her muscles remembering things that she had never learned before. She almost dropped the gun and relied on her body, the other part of her brain settled back in and her eyes hyper focused on the opening before her.
A long neck turned around the corner, an elongated face with a smile spread across it's leather like skin. Its teeth pointed and sharpened, though the mouth was closed the teeth laid evenly between each one. Its gums caked in black mold; the creature was so thin that she could see each bone poking out.
The body came next, it reminded her of a centipede. Bone like legs lined a dark brown bug-like body. There were hundreds, if not a thousand little feet tapping along the tiled floor. As the face completely turned to Mina, it was almost like she was looking into a mirror.
◆◆◆
Emmett panned the camera over the Dark Room, it was the last test to see if Myrna had it in her to survive or not. Ace, a human, succeeded. So, Myrna should be able to do it without a problem. It was a secret he and a few other CEOs of Scarlet Corp knew, this was an old Company building, and lab.
And where Myrna is, was where they kept their creation.
Emmett found the old file, and it was deemed another failure. But it was a powerful monster, he had seen it tear apart and eat those who couldn't pass it. The creature was blind and relied on its other senses—which were heightened considerably—
Its long body slithered through the catacomb like lab, scratching at the walls and floors, he followed it till he switched to another camera. He saw Myrna, she was crouched, hidden in a little cubby where they had payphones.
Her eyes had a strange glow to them—
Ace activated her.
Myrna moved, she dropped down and brought her boot up catching the face right underneath the chin. The sheer force of the impact cracked the long teeth, and some even broke off. Though there was no sound, he watched the creature rear up, and roar. He could feel the vibrations of it rumble through the concrete. Some of its spiked feet came down, cracking the tiles. Myrna had her legs tucked underneath her as she rolled from underneath the long body.
Her eyes took on a deep yellow glow within the darkness, her own mouth opened in a long hiss as she used all her momentum to jump. Her arm wrapped around the neck, as she swung herself up, onto the back of its neck. She wrapped her legs tightly around its neck.
There was—
Something in her hand—
A sudden bright flash nearly knocked the night vision camera completely out. The creature was thrashing and managed to sling Myrna off. She caught herself easily, bouncing off her hand and back to her feet. The gun was raised, as she popped three more rounds off.
The creature roared again, raising the top of its body up and trusted forward. Myrna moved, just not fast enough, and one of the sharp feet struck her upper thigh.
There was no pain on her face, but Emmett saw the fresh blood stain her civvies. The monster was in a rage. The smell of fresh meat enticed it—
Emmett was on the edge of his chair, about to call off the training when Myrna surprised him again. She dropped her revolver and got on her hands and feet. She had arched her back and made a face like she was hissing. Her own teeth grew long and sharp, the damage to her body quickly healed as she took off in such a speed he had never seen before—
She latched on the creature’s neck, digging her own teeth and sharp nails into the soft flesh underneath the chin. For the first time in years, Emmett was stunned into silence.
Bla
ck splashed on the floor, on the walls, on her.
There was a prickle of fear in his chest as he watched her tear into the monster. It had no arms so it couldn't reach up and pull her off. Myrna didn't eat the rancid flesh, but she took new mouthfuls each time she went back down till she found—
◆◆◆
What she was looking for.
Mina's hearing was better than anything, and she could hear the monster’s artery. It thrummed, beat, and ran wild at her attacks. Her claws dug deep into its fleshy underbelly. Though the smaller feet dug into her own skin she kept burying her face into the throat.
Her teeth struck bone.
The monster kept wavering, slamming its own body against the walls trying to get her off. And the very taste of its blood drove her to keep going. Though it was in pain, and in fear she had no control over what she was doing.
She was bigger than the monster.
She was bigger than Alfred.
The company.
Yellow Cat was in control.
The creature slung itself against the wall again, its movements slowing down at each thrust. When Mina pulled her face away from the throat, she slammed her fist into the wound and found the thrumming heart. The organ was much larger than a humans.
Tear it out! Come on! Tear it out and feast on it! You're starving…
On impulse she dug her claws deep into the meat and yanked with all her might. The heart came out in a slurping noise, still beating in the palm of her hand. She put the organ in her mouth and jumped off the body. She landed on all fours, her sharp teeth puncturing the meat. The fresh blood spilled down her throat, her veins throbbed, and her parched throat was quenched, and her muscles sang at the new found strength from the death of her enemy.
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